Thunder King

Thomas Morgan Voltage

He accessed his laptop remotely, and began to type; 1) Access and locate more information on advanced technology, especially superhuman applications thereof. Self-educate more, rely less on in-field research. 2) Begin a physical training regiment and/or augment suit to grant enhanced strength, seek hand-to-hand training, possibly from King of Suits. 3) Research and learn tactics and how to apply them to a live, superhuman battlefield. With resolve in his heart, he sighed. "Might as well get started tomorrow...push-ups at 6 AM." He rolled over and turned on his alarm clock. Today was not a good day. A friend nearly got killed, and he had been quite hurt himself. He would make tomorrow better, he was sure of it.

And King of Suits, good guy. Skilled, smart, tactically sound. Thomas resolved to get in contact with him again. The two of them did make a good team. It was also time to stop being a scrawny kid. He loathed having an entire tactical option unavailable. He would need to do some training, bulk up a bit, get stronger. Maybe modify his costume to strengthen his body a bit, maybe give it some more strength. Lastly, but certainly not least., he realized that he needed to study tactics, real world tactics. He would have to study how to approach battles better. There was no excuse for blindly charging in with only the slimmest of plans. True, he could not have protected Andrew better with the information he had, but better information could have helped.

But, he thought, he needed to be better. He wanted to be stronger, so that he could be better at all of this. If he had known more about Dr. Green walking in, or if he had known how to shut down the robot. If he had known a thousand things, he might have been able to make a difference. So he set about making a plan for himself. He would ensure, first and foremost, that he would know more about these things in the future. He must not rely on his powers again for knowledge. He must research, look things up. That involved hours of study, even for his advanced mind. No, he could not tolerate such an occurrence again. No one else would ever suffer as Andrew did, so long as he was aware, and could do anything to stop it.

"Andrew brought it on himself." He said, quietly. He was still sobbing. Knowing that it wasn't his fault that his friend had been so horribly injured did not stop the pain. Knowing that his friend had risked his own safety in a stupid move did not stop the tears. "I cannot give this up..." Thomas said, sternly to himself. "If I hadn't have stopped it, the machine would still have been a failure. Andrew wouldn't have been badly injured, he would have been killed. I had no other choice. There's a lot of bad things out there. I can't let them happen simply because I'm mad at myself."

January 29th, 8:30 PM Voltage calmly stepped into his bedroom, and peeled his mask off. He collapsed next to his door. One of his closest friends, Andrew, was now horribly mangled. He blamed himself. He could have stopped the machine faster, could have run in there faster, could have... He closed his eyes and lowered his head, sobbing quietly. He never imagined that becoming a hero would lead to such pain, such tragedy. He never imagined in his life that it would cause such misery. "No..." He said, out loud. "It wasn't my fault..." He sighed. He was right. Andrew had trusted a crazy scientist. Andrew had hopped into the untested machine. Andrew had voluntarily jumped into the situation in his greed for personal power. He, Thomas James Morgan, had done everything he could have done. The situation was rigged from the start. With the same knowledge, the same opportunity, the same chance, he would have done the exact same thing. His mind worked through the data over a million times, and he came to the exact same conclusion.

GM January 31st, 2012, 6:00 PM Dr. Green looked around nervously as he shuffled through the halls of the hospital. He wasn't sure how the boy would react. He watched as a nurse stepped past the door to the boy's private hospital room. Dr. Green swallowed and bolted towards the door, opening it slowly. Andrew Hall lay in bed, in poor condition. He wore a patch over a missing and ruined eye, and his entire left arm was just gone, a bandaged stump in it's place. "Look at you, Andrew..." Dr. Green said, walking towards him. "Look what they did to you. They wouldn't listen." Andrew's rage subsided and he seemed to be thinking things over. "Your arm, gone, your left eye, gone. I hear your lungs are ruined to less than fifty percent capacity." Andrew would have growled, shouted, or screamed, but he could not. The pain medicine numbed virtually everything. Still, he found himself agreeing with Dr. Green. Yes, they ruined his life, they took away his powers. "I know it seems early, but I know someone." Dr. Green said, laying a small business card beside Andrew. "An expert in cybernetics. They can give you what those, those so called 'heroes' denied you. They can give you power. You'll be stronger and faster. That's what you want, isn't it, Andrew? I can cover the cost of the cybernetic implants with my leftover grants. Those fiends destroyed my one remaining chance to prove that my research had merit. I want to see them crushed, do you?" Andrew, very slowly and painfully, managed a slow nod. "Good." Dr. Green said. "Now, hide that card, and as soon as you get a chance, give the number a call. We'll get you your arm, and your eye back, and oh so much more. That machine would have worked, Andrew. After all, why do you think it took that lightning-shooting idiot so many shots to take me down?" He chuckled. "If you want to return to your empty life, with your disfigured face, missing arm and ruined lungs, you're welcome to it. But if you want vengeance against those who wronged you, well...the number is on the card." With that, Dr. Green left, leaving Andrew with his thoughts. The young man reached down, delicately, with burned fingers, and picked up the card. The rage in his eyes now replaced with a sinister gleam.

"I mostly patrol wherever I find trouble...flying and all. We'll probably meet up again sometime...". With that, Voltage turned around and flew away, his head swimming with thoughts. He supposed that he would spend a long time questioning his actions, but he ultimately realized that there was nothing else he could have done. With what they knew or had, this was the best result they could have got. It still wasn't quite good enough.

"Angry, hurt, at himself, at us. I don't know. I hope he'll be okay, though. He's got a long recovery ahead of him." Voltage sighed and pulled himself to his feet. "We stopped a small disaster from turning into a big one." He sighed and shook his head. "I've been running calculations in my head, over and over. I've ran it through my mind a thousand times. Even if the power had gone through it correctly, it would have killed him. We didn't stop him from getting hurt, but we did save his life. I just wish I could have done better."

"The paramedics said that, despite everything, he should live. He'll need surgery, and they may not be able to save his arm, but yeah...". He sighed. "Well, we won, didn't we?" He leaned against the wall. "I didn't expect this. I mean, if we won, why do I feel so bad?"

Voltage sighed and teleported away from the machine and outside. He dropped behind a nearby container and covered his ears. A second passed, two seconds, three... A few moments later, he heard a massive explosion fill the air. He poked his head out and gazed at the building. It was still standing. He immediately accessed the internet and posted a request for help. Police, fire, ambulance, everyone. He raced inside. Voltage cautiously stepped into the room, afraid of what he would see. He insisted on seeing it, on seeing what happened. Regardless of the situation, he was at least partially responsible. All in all, the machine was mostly intact. There were a few spotty, small fires here and there, but that's all. Inside, however, lay Andrew, badly burned. "No..." he mumbled, running towards the machine. He looked down at the grisly scene below. "I tried, man, I tried to save you, to stop it...". He dropped to his knees, consumed by grief and rage. Then, he heard the sound of breathing. It was faint, but still strong. Andrew was still alive, barely, but still alive. He heard the sound of sirens, and immediately began to scream. "IN HERE!!!", he roared, at the top of his lungs. There's a badly wounded and burned young man in here, but he's still alive! We're in here!!". He fell back and sat beside the machine, he closed his eyes to stifle the tears. Despite everything that happened. The attack, the argument, the explosion. Despite everything, Andrew was alive. "Hey!" Someone shouted, running into the room. "We have people here!"

GM The sparks, however, did not stop. They grew in intensity. The power to the entire warehouse began browning out. "The short..." The doctor said, standing up. "There is a flaw in the wiring, right there!" He yelled, pointing to one of the now-exposed wires. "The formula is too volatile. We have to get out of here!" He turned to the two heroes. "You don't understand, if the chemicals in that machine catch fire, the entire warehouse is going to explode! Do either of you think you can survive that? I know I can't!" He said. "Combat Droid, activate, flee!" The mechanized warrior stood up instantly and grabbed the Doctor up in his arms, running as fast as it could.

"Okay, I'll try it." Voltage said, walking to the back of the machine. He looked down at the cable as his brows furrowed. "If I can cause a minor short in the wiring, it should stop it from starting up." "What are you doing?" A voice said, coming from inside the machine. "I want this, stop it!" He cried out. "This machine is built wrong!" Voltage roared to the boy inside. "If I don't stop it, you'll die!" He began firing bolts of electricity at the wiring. "No! Stop!" The boy roared. "All my life, all I've ever wanted was super powers. Now I'm about to get them. You're not going to stop me, you hear? Don't stop it!" Voltage growled. "Don't you get it? I'm trying to save your LIFE". Suddenly, one of the wires sparked and shorted out. Voltage sighed, the machine's power was sufficiently disrupted.

GM "No, it won't..." Doctor Green said. "What flaw? There can't be a flaw. Besides, you can't shut it off, not now. Shut it off now and it will do even worse damage. The circuits take time to work into the process slowly, shut that off and there will be a short, and a short would be bad at this stage."

"Good, now you can shut it off...". Voltage said, his breathing still ragged. "Your machine is flawed. I have the power to access computers with my mind, and I saw your plans. You have a couple of minor flaws, flaws that most people wouldn't even notice. Your calculations were off, it won't give him powers, it will kill him."

GM The Combat Droid took two steps, it's glowing yellow eyes flashing on and off. It brought it's right fist up and swung with a half-effort before the follow through took it off it's feet. it collapsed, crashing to the floor. It was done. "Ha..." Doctor Green said. "I...ugh, I'm done..." He dropped his pistol to the ground and dropped to a sitting position against the wall. "I won't fight anymore..." He said. "The Combat Droid's repair routines will kick in soon, I'll tell it to stand down. You won."

Combat Droid Toughness Save 7

GM The Combat Droid leaped down to strike at King of Suits, ready to end the fight. It's polymer-encased fist balled. As it landed, he brought it's fist down on King of Suits. Unfortunately, for it, King of Suits was ready for the attack and deflected it. The Combat Droid looked up, and even in it's inexpressive face, it was obvious that it was afraid of the retaliation.

Combat Droid jumps down and attempts to attack KoS: 23

Voltage growled. This was seriously becoming irritating. He was running out of time and needed to end the fight, immediately. He began drawing energy from around him, pulling electricity into his body. Little jolts of electricity crackled off of his skin. He knew he was putting more power into this hit than he ever had before. "Yeaaaargghh!" he roared as he forced the energy out of his body with everything he had. A massive silver lightning bolt filled the air. Doctor Green's entire body shook for a moment before he dropped to one knee. Voltage lurched forward and nearly fell on his face, but caught himself. His breath was ragged, his body aching from the effort. Still, the Doctor was in worse shape, even possibly out of the fight completely.

Using Extra Effort, +2 damage -2 attack: 26 Dr. Green Save 17 fails, badly. Dr. Green is now staggered and dazed.

Combat Droid going for a strike on King of Suits: 27

GM Dr. Green gasped in pain, raising his pistol to fire at Voltage. The blast struck Voltage right in the chest, but luckily, his suit was not compromised. Voltage grimaced in pain. It hurt, but he was lucky it didn't hurt worse.

Dr. Green goes for an attack against Voltage: 22 Voltage TOU save: 13 Burning an HP on a reroll, HP remaining: 1 New TOU save: 20

"We don't have time for this!" Voltage roared, preparing an electric blast. He chose to pour more energy into the attack, knowing full well that it would make it less accurate. From what he'd seen, the doctor looked like he could take it. Dr. Green stumbled back slightly, having felt that one more.