Return From Space!
The team returned from space, after Talos magnetically froze
up Cyber Burglaire’s jaw, over three days after leaving…and returned to their
base to find someone was inside. Socks prepared to pounce, before realizing that
he recognized the scent of human freedom fighter Tula Michaels! The team
relaxed until she walked out of the kitchen eating potato chips, which
infuriated Talos. Mindstorm had to telekinetically hold him back.
Socks bragged that he blew up a satellite, which made Tula
jealous. Word had been spreading that resistance was growing world wide, with
the V’Sori losing their grip on Africa thanks to a surge of magic powered by
primal spirits. Tula mentioned that she had been in South America, busting an
old Nazi lab that had V’Sori connections. Seems V’Sori agents had been working
with the Nazis all that time. The Buster Squad 5 were glad to be home…when
their commlinks flared to life and Dr. Destruction told them that the V’Sori
had been hard to work on trying to salvage something off the coast of Newfoundland.
The team, plus Tula, loaded into their ship and headed to Newfoundland.
As they arrived, Kale had the ship hover in place over a
salvage ship, which had an old submarine on it. Socks recognized it as being a
US submarine from 1944, though he didn’t know WHY he knew that. It still had
large chunks of ice covering it. Talos and Socks dropped to the salvage ship
below and Mindstorm flew Tula to the deck. The team missed the Fins lurking on
the upper deck of the ship, and two more emerged. A slimy V’Sori voice told the
team that they wouldn’t disrupt THIS salvage like they did the last, and D’Bloc
emerged from the submarine…flanked by World War II legends 4-Star and Lucky,
presumed dead since 1944! The two men had a faraway look on their faces and D’Bloc
ordered his men to attack!
Mindstorm, who was already summoning a storm before he left
their ship, dropped a bolt of lightning on D’Bloc, frying him where he stood!
(I made multiple Soak rolls and D’Bloc never came close to surviving.) 4-Star
and Lucky seemed to shake off the Mind Control, but still looked confused as to
what was going on. Mindstorm said they would explain later!
Kale teleported to the deck as Talos grabbed Socks and
jumped to the upper deck to fight the Fins up there, Socks and one Fin trading
blows while Talos shrugged off attacks from the other. Tula was shot by another
Fin, and Socks wisely made it a point to yell out “Die, you Nazi bastards!”
while chanting “USA! USA! USA!” This caused 4-Star and Lucky to pause and
consider the situation before attacking, and Lucky charged one of the Fins and
dropped him with a superpowered punch. 4-Star fired his Shooting Stars at
another, dropping that Fin. Socks and Talos finished off their fins as a new
figure tried to escape the submarine!
Mindstorm saw the escaping figure and told Kale to stop him,
which he did with a well-placed palm blaster. The figure, Japanese super spy
Shugenja, summoned an illusory attack that startled Kale momentarily. Lucky
tried to attack Shugenja, ending the fight that began on the sub back in 1944,
but Shugenja dodged him. Talos also attacked and failed, while Kale managed to
wrap up Shugenja in inky darkness.
Mindstorm read Kale carefully and saw that he was about to
kill the super spy, and ordered Kale to back off. Mindstorm then began to tell
4-Star and Lucky what had happened over the time they had been frozen…that it
was now 2005. That Japan and the United States eventually became allies…until
the V’Sori crushed both nations. Talos explained the fall of the Japanese
empire to Shugenja, draining the fight from the patriot. Tula explained that
OMEGA was the only resistance left…and the three frozen legends put aside their
fight to leave this boat with the Buster Squad 5.
Arriving at a rendezvous point with Dr. Destruction, he
seemed pleased that The Buster Squad had provided him with “two and a half”
legends (which Lucky objected to). He led the men to his own ship and they
departed, leaving the team to their own devices.
NOTES: We took a mission break here. Socks took Improved
Frenzy as his advance, finally putting him on even par with the Fins,
attack-wise. The mission is designed to have a fight with 4-Star and Lucky, but
Mindstorm got a high card and rolled well, wiping out D’Bloc and putting an end
to the mind control before it became a problem. I was going to have them attack
everyone out of fear and confusion, but Socks made it a point to call out the
Fins as Nazis and scream “USA! USA! USA!” so I gave him the point for effort.
Then we carried on…
Tula asked Socks if he would maybe want to get some
disguises and go to a movie and he said yes! Talos said he would shrink down
and go with them, to Socks’ dismay. Another goofy argument erupted between
Socks and Kale (happens once a mission or so) and Kale finally crossed the
rubicon and actually mind controlled Socks and forced him to leave the
headquarters and go to the movies.
Talos was stunned. Mindstorm said he had it coming.
Red flags also went off, at least with the players, because
the last time an NPC female took a PC out on the town, Belladonna betrayed
Mindstorm.
As the others left, Kale solemnly told Mindstorm that he was
scared. He says that, with all due respect, he was never like the others…he was
a kind and peaceful Atlantean until everyone he loved was killed before him in
a V’Sori attack, and he gave over his soul to Leviathan for the promise of
power…and revenge. He knows that he won’t survive this war…and he knows that
his soul is damned. And now, it frightens him. Kale goes on to say that he is
slipping. Socks is a killing machine, but he is literally what the V’Sori made
him to be. Kale has access to all this power, but is moving towards the
quickest and most lethal solution to any problem. He’s moving from not caring
if people die…to becoming their executioner. He says that as the team has
gotten better…he has only gotten worse.
Mindstorm says that maybe it’s not too late. That they can
find a way to save him from Leviathan. Make a new deal.
As Socks, Tula and Talos leave the movie theatre, there is a
commotion in the streets and the bloodied form of The Patriot, who Buster Squad
5 recruited some time ago, stumbles up to Socks and collapses against him.
Spitting up blood, he tries to explain that his Cell is dead, that Drones did
it…and says something about Supers before Patriot dies in his arms. Socks picks
up a big whiff of fluoride off the body and contacts the rest of the team.
Talos grabs Patriot and leaps back to HQ while Socks and Tula return on foot.
It occurs to Socks
that Patriot wasn’t saying “Drones and Supers”…but that Patriot was saying they
had Super Drones! They examined Patriot’s body and found deep cuts and large
bruising all over his body, with the fluoride being at its heaviest there.
Socks said he could trace Patriot’s trail back to their headquarters and maybe
find the Drones. Tula said she would take care of Patriot as the team headed
out.
Socks picked up the trail…only to have a Super Drone open
fire from a rooftop…and another Super Drone, wielding swords, charge out at
Kale and cut him deeply! Kale crumpled to the ground, dying! (It should be
noted here that Mindstorm’s player was rolling Kale’s Soak rolls and, using
Common Bond, burned through EVERY benny he had trying to save Kale…and failed.)
Talos jumped to the rooftop to take out the Blaster Super
Drone, while Socks shredded the Sword Wielding one. Mindstorm tried to attack
the Blaster Drone with ranged attacks with little luck. As Socks ran to the ladder access to the roof,
a third Super Drone sped out of the darkness and hammered Mindstorm with
multiple blows! As Mindstorm crumpled to the ground, he recognized the former
OMEGA operative Zephyr – now part cyborg and a quite twisted Super Drone –
standing over him! Socks managed to kill the Blaster Super Drone and jumped off
the rooftop, hitting the ground running and charging at Zephyr…
…when the fourth Super Drone arrived, and Bully – fallen teammate
of Socks, Mindstorm and Kale – intercepted Socks with a gore. Socks managed to
roll with the hit and absorb it, but the shock to his system was much worse.
Zephyr grabbed Mindstorm and began to pummel him repeatedly. Socks attacked
Bully and only drove him into a Berserker Rage (which seemed curious that a
Drone could do that), and Talos leapt down to attack Bully…only to get gored
and smashed to pieces.
Seeing the thus far very resilient Talos shattered rattled
the players…but Socks grabbed Bully by the horns and screamed at him.
“You’re still in there! They can’t take Bully away! Nothing
can take Bully away! Not even death!” (Paraphrasing, as my memory is cloudy…but
he did this while playing the Sidekick Adventure Card.)
Socks then turned away from Bully, exposing his back to him,
and went to Zephyr, horribly wounding the Super Drone. Zephyr, who had
momentarily sneered at Mindstorm, seemed to have a glimmer of recognition as
Bully’s shadow fell over him and the hulking minotaur-like Super Drone crushed
the speedy, Shaken Super Drone.
Mindstorm immediately dropped to Kale and began using his
Electrical Control to cauterize the wounds, and try to shock Kale’s system back
into operation. (He played “That One Issue Where…” Adventure card to gain
Healing). To the surprise of everyone, Kale’s body began to respond to the
efforts.
Before the team could process all of this, loud, clanking
footsteps filled the streets and the team looked up to see Dr. Destruction
standing in the streets! A ship began to hover over him and he said “This one
is mine. The next one’s won’t be. GO.”
As the ship’s ramp lowered to the ground, Mindstorm
telekinetically grabbed as much of Talos as he could while carrying Kale in his
arms up the ramp. Bully, at their insistence, grabbed the rest of Talos and he
and Socks ran past Dr. Destruction as a large cannon appeared in his hands and
he opened fire on the Drones and Fins that were beginning to swarm in!
Destruction entered the vessel as the ramp raised and he
dropped the cannon on the floor as he told Socks “You know how to fire a ship’s
guns, correct? Fire at will.”
Mindstorm joined Socks, using lighting bolts to attack their
pursuers as Destruction’s ship flew away from Star City…before plunging into
the ocean.
Mindstorm finally had a chance to face Bully…and he simply
hugged the giant, saying “I’m sorry.”
Destruction informed the team that the time was upon them…they
could take three days rest, no more…because Dr. Aden had come through for them.
OMEGA finally had the key to shutting down the Drones – worldwide – once and
for all.
Notes: A very emotional session. Seeing one of my players
use Common Bond to spend EVERY benny he had, at the beginning of a fight, to
save an NPC is a sight I will not soon forget. My other player’s use of
Sidekick to counteract the Super Drone programming for Bully, I thought, was a
nice touch…you want character development in an RPG? Socks, a mindless killing
machine, used the power of friendship to bring his best friend back. Mindstorm’s
player told me, when Bully appeared, that he wanted to punch me. I call that a
success, folks.
At the end of the session, Mindstorm took Shooting d12. I
figure we only have a couple of sessions left and this campaign will draw to a
close.
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