Dramatis Personae
Amar Gupta aka The Iron Sikh (played by Christian): Brick. Taxi Driver. Ass-Kicker. Sikh. Tagline: “Being a man of faith means to live it.”Amie-Belle T. W. Lee aka Whisper (Played by Curtis): Cold War era super-soldier/spy that got put in the Freezer, because she got poisoned. After getting thawed out and cured she tried to back to work, and was given an “adjustment period”. Uncle Sam called 2 years later, with work… because once you’re in, you’re in for life. Tagline: “In and out without a whisper.”- Beauregard K. “Bo” Ratnam aka Wirerat (Played by Brice): Technopath, inventor, and hacker. He specializes in co-opting enemy systems and tech assets. Tagline: “Nice tech – I’ll borrow that.”
- Rafe Hanlon aka Nyx (played by Chris D.): An umbrakinetic petty thief still on work release several years later, on his way to becoming a true agent and hero. Tagline: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
- Vincenzo L. dePrezzo aka Threshold (Played by Rory): Doctor, Mathematician, and Scientist (yes, capitals) and Spatial Manipulator. Threshold can bend space like a pretzel, teleport, obliterate things, and has extraordinary senses. He’d rather be in a research lab than fight. Better known for his work with Doctors Without Borders, the United Nations, and disaster relief than famous battles. Tagline: “I can be there in a snap!”
- Derrick K. Ratnam aka Legerdemain (NPC Ally): Spin doctor and media liaison for Project VANGUARD. Twin to Bo. Tagline: “Well, actually that’s not how it happened…”
- Layla A. de Blackburn aka Nox (NPC): CIA-trained child assassin all grown up to be Daddy’s Little Monster. Maybe a little mad. Argues with her shadow often. Tagline: “No, we shouldn’t do that…should we?”
- Stainless Steel Rat aka “Sir” (NPC Ally): Bo’s best friend and assistant. A sentient drone in the shape of a stylized shiny metal rat mindlinked to Bo. Specialties are rapid repair construction and modifications. Imagine if K-9 and R2D2 made a baby and it looks a bit like a rodent. Tagline: “Repairs and upgrades in progress.”
Previously . . .
With Whisper and SSR following M0le_Tr0ll to his base, Threshold goes out on patrol with his teacher, Wan Shi Tong. A general warning has been sent out to the off-shift recruits as well just in case something weird starts going on. While on patrol, there’s no real crimes that have been going on, at least until something happens that causes Wan Shi Tong to erect a shield of force in front of them to shield him from a bakery that has exploded just a couple yards in front of them.
Getting Baked
Threshold
Apollo Bakery
Monday, May 4th, 2020, 1700 hours (EST)
135-36 39th Ave, Queens, NY 11354
Slightly stunned, Threshold looks into the bakery seeing several people that have been stunned and hurt with one of the employees coughing and slightly on fire. Threshold moves to start rescuing people from the blaze, going into the backroom when a spot on the wall catches his notice as it’s fresh plaster. Probing it causes it to explode suddenly, warping away just as soon hundreds of ball bearings fly his direction.
Wan, meanwhile, is just looking around staring as though he’s looking to see what is going on. Thankfully, the secondary blast didn’t kill anyone, though there are more injuries which Threshold goes to rescue as Wan informs him that there’s people there that are injured and need help. He pulls people out and starts treating them. The wounds on the people aren’t as bad as it seems, and Threshold isn’t sure why that is. As he continues to move people outside, the emergency services show up, all of them. Threshold continues to look around and scan, using his chemical detector he’s pretty sure that the explosive used was the same that exploded into August’s apartment and neither Wan or Threshold were able to detect anything or anyone that triggered it.
The first responders are rather concerned about there being additional secondary bombs around them after it’s explained that he set off one. Threshold offers to start scanning around for additional explosives within 200 yards and doesn’t detect anything else that may be untoward or explosive. He patches himself up and keeps on patrolling while Wan Shi Tong stays behind as he wants to investigate something.
…But Still Frozen
Nyx and Wirerat
Old FDNY Engine 299/Ladder 152 Building aka New Base
Monday, May 4th, 2020, 1800 hours (EST)
61-20 Utopia Pkwy, Fresh Meadows, NY 11365
Back at base, Wirerat keeps hunting down M0les until something else attracts his attention. He investigates for any intrusion into his network. There’s definitely something fishy with his system but he isn’t able to figure out what’s fishy about it. He starts the shutdown routines to see what does shut down like it should. Something is in his memory core shredding his files, almost as fast as the equipment allows it to be shred. He calls Nyx downstairs saying that he’s going to do something stupid and severs connections before overloading the system with random data. On his way downstairs, he hears some very familiar screams from a broom closet, a quick ping reveals the M0les on the ground and then Wirerat screams as his brain explodes again.
Nyx prioritizes getting some aid to Wirerat’s bleeding face, applying pressure with gauze while apprising Threshold who immediately warps in and stops Nyx from suffocating Wirerat and gets the unconscious Wirerat to a hospital for another surgery but not before being alerted that the M0les were seizing in the closet. Nyx, afterwards, investigates the M0les in the closet with a pair of tongs so he can stop them swallowing their tongues in a seizure whereupon he finds them already rapidly decaying, even poking one of them with the tongs only for flesh to slough off. Calling in Fridge Boy, he manages to freeze the remains so they stop decomposing, creating the first stable ice in his career. Satisfied that he’s solved one problem, he pokes it again with tongs only for it to fall apart into pieces. Sighing, he hands Fridge Boy the tongs and goes to grab some ziplocs.
At the hospital, Threshold is working with Medevac to heal up Wirerat, commenting that Threshold doesn’t have to keep bringing in his friends if he wanted to see her. Getting Wirerat healed up quickly and on the road to recovery, Medevac does have to go shortly after as another explosion rocks Flushing. Threshold pulls Wirerat into the lab at Wirerat’s insistence that he needs to talk to MIA. Once into the lab, he sticks a microphone and webcam into a box marked experimental and tries to speak only for random computer code to cover the screen like MIA is screaming. He asks Threshold to leave for a moment though Threshold really is suspicious and demands to know what is going on. Wirerat explains that it was a surveillance system he programed that may be on the verge of sentience and all he can tell is that MIA wants to kill the person that hurt Wirerat again. Threshold asks MIA if it understands him and tells it to make sure that Wirerat doesn’t use his technopath abilities to communicate with it which it agrees.
Threshold comes by to look at the bodies where he notices that everything, including the bones, are slowly turning to goo despite Fridge Boy keeping them cold. Wirerat tells Legerdemain to watch the screens while he tracks down M0le since he was shredding all of Wirerat’s files. He also looks through MIA’s code and there’s lines there that he doesn’t remember writing, almost like they just appeared spontaneously. He’s pretty sure that it’s MIA writing or rewriting its own code which he’s alright with and somewhat confirms Wirerat’s opinion that it’s alive.
Aftermath
Nyx starts comes downstairs when he feels something cold in his pants, he prays that it’s just normal ice and shakes it down his leg praying that it’s not a piece of M0le. Rejoicing that it isn’t, he goes down to the lab and asks why people’s brains were popping only for Wirerat to introduce Nyx to MIA. Nyx just assumes that Wirerat has some brain damage and is calling himself MIA while the computer is just his journal. He gets told that M0le was acting as some kind of conduit. Finally Nyx asks how they actually know that the guy was M0le, if anyone had ever met him or anyhow and how they actually knew it was him when all they had was government reports and a really embarrassing home video that none of the group wanted to watch. He also then asks where Whisper and SSR were, looking over to see their monitor showing them underground before it’s covered with an explosion. Wirerat immediately senses that SSR is somewhat disabled from the explosion and immediately alerts Threshold who tries to warp there to only end up outside the HQ. Frustrated, he grabs the available people and says they’re heading out manually.
After Action Report (GM)
This one really flew by, the players knew exactly what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it. A good middling episode, not a lot got done, but it kept the action moving in a believable way and next episode should be a lot of fun.
Other Notes
Bonus Report from Rory.
Soundtrack
“Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg