Dramatis Personae

• 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 . . .

The group has increased further with the hiring of Chainjacket, Bubbles, Impulse, Rudy (AKA Gimmick), Grant (AKA Fridge Boy), and Five Stars. Threshold’s teacher, Wan Shi Tong, has come in to join the crew and is sticking around the sleeping area. Another person has shown up as well, a teenaged girl introducing herself as June is looking for a one Rafe Hanlon. This being the middle of the day, Nyx is sleeping peacefully in one of the small rooms on the second floor when Threshold knocks on the door and Nox answers and is told that there’s someone looking for Nyx. Nyx is rather put out by the fact that he’s got to get up and grabs the covers from the bed on the way out much to Nox’s dissatisfaction but with the back half of the building covered with tarps and the Bricklayer’s rebuilding efforts is going to be another couple weeks out.

New Team, Who Dis

Nyx, Threshold, Wirerat, and Whisper
Old FDNY Engine 299/Ladder 152 Building aka New Base
Monday, May 4th, 2020, 0800 hours (EST) 
61-20 Utopia Pkwy, Fresh Meadows, NY 11365

June asks if they can speak with him privately, looking around before pulling out a device that kills the cameras. But as it’s not the cameras she needs to worry about, he invites her into the restroom which is the closest private area without surveillance tech. She introduces herself and explains that her father had disappeared several days ago with no contact, something extremely weird for him and that she was told to find Nyx if anything ever happened to him as he already saved her father’s life before at a riot in Riker’s. Taking a few seconds to puzzle it over when the name of the August is mentioned.

August O’Neill, one of the few guards that Nyx rescued by helping lock down a cell block with his powers, Nyx identifies her as Junebug, or at least as her nickname that her father gave her. She explains that she goes to the Meraki School for Academic Institutes where she lives at the dorms and was going to stop by her father’s place but wanted to grab Nyx first. Nyx just makes sure to ask if the police are doing anything and she tells him that she didn’t think the police would do any good, she says she wouldn’t be able to actually pay him, but she’s willing to work for them and claims that she’s good at tech as she shows Nyx the sphere that knocked out the cameras early, calling it a White-Out, Knock-Out Sphere which Nyx just looks at blurrily. Shaking his head, he tells her to give him a moment while he puts on some pants.

While she waits, she tells Wirerat that his camera setup is rather crap. He’s not very insulted, saying that he doesn’t need top of the line, he just needs the cameras there, to which she deduces that he’s a technopath, she hasn’t gotten a good feeling about them since school where the one she knew was just a creep. Wirerat isn’t too impressed by that, but it’s not wrong. Speaking with Threshold, who notes that she was on the list for interviews later. He’s not doing a real interview now, but asks what she can do. She explains that she’s a savant, working with nullification technology, demonstrating it at Threshold’s behest. Pulling out a glove and attaching it to a device at her hip, she points it at Threshold whose powers shut down completely, and his mouth goes very dry which she explains as being a side effect she hasn’t solved yet.

She explains that she researched her father’s powers, a nullifier at Riker’s Island. That she wanted to follow her own life instead of being pushed into a similar life like her father where he was pressganged into working at Riker’s. Threshold is suitably impressed at least, she says that she’s still working out the kinks and she’s not too accurate yet, but she’d rather have the glove than a gun as the latter can be taken away.

Whisper, on her lunch break, is cooking in the firehouse kitchen, singing away while Nyx puts on some pants. Nox is rather indignant about possibly changing her name, claiming that she’s earned that name through thousands of bloody lives, Nyx’s retort is that Klingon promotion is no way to earn a hero name to which she starts cursing at Nyx in Klingon, much to his confusion and Whisper’s amusement, and grabs the covers from Nyx and burrows into them.

Meanwhile, June has charmed The SSR and has therefore come out clean on her report. Wirerat has SSR display a picture of Legerdemain and says that he’ll pay her to kick him the next time she sees him, which she agrees to for $500 cash. Wirerat agrees immediately and June walks over and kicks him in the shins much to Legerdemain’s confusion.

On the way out of the firehouse, Nyx steps through the kitchen, grabbing a tamale from what Whisper is cooking for free food and an ice cube from the freezer.  Heading downstairs and tells June that he’s ready to go. As soon as he’s outside of firehouse he takes the ice cube and shifts it from his hand into the darkness of the blankets that Nox is currently wrapped up in only to hear a blood curdling scream of outrage, both in real life and in his head, and he tells June to start running, preferably faster with SSR in tow.

After a bit, Threshold’s mouth stops being dry while Whisper has to go back on patrol with Chainjacket who brought her a cappuccino for Whisper. Chainjacket complains that most of what she cooked is just full of carbs, making sure to save Wirerat a portion to bring down to him, letting her through the airlock. She drops off the food and some sunflower seeds for the squirrels that he’s trying to domesticate before taking the dirty dishes as Wirerat and Legerdemain argue about their past and him selling Wirerat out to the government. Whisper is more amazed by the fact that Legerdemain washes Wirerat’s clothing and smacks him and calls him a schlemiel for not washing the clothing in the soap that Wirerat prefers as he’s sick and he’s their important technical support. Whisper is quite indignant and decides to wash Wirerat’s clothing herself.

Coming back she complains about Wirerat’s treatment to Threshold and that he’s not getting good food only for Threshold to push back with the fact that he’s an MD and he’s providing more than better support for the patient and that what he needs is more than just the same as Whisper having to have replace electrolytes.

You Dropped a Bomb On Me

Nyx and then Threshold, Wirerat, and Whisper
O’Neill’s Eagle + West Apartment
Monday, May 4th, 2020, 1200 hours (EST) 
1 Eagle St, Brooklyn, NY 11222

Having taken public transportation to August’s apartment in Brooklyn, with the tamale already eaten and remains stowed in his pocket, they investigate the place, with Nyx able to determine that the lock to the apartment has been picked previously due to scratches left on the lock. June just opens the door with a key before asking Nyx if he heard a penny drop. Apparently, August places a penny on top of the door jamb before he leaves, Nyx tries to reassure her that it’s probably nothing, it he may have been in a hurry. The first thing that June notices is that the photo of her mother is out of place, it’s normally facing the door and now it isn’t, as Nyx appraises the silver frame, deciding that the engraved name would probably knock down the street value.

A quick, scan with his shadar reveals a package hidden a bit deep into a vent, asking for a screwdriver and stepstool, he gets into the vent and grabs the small package and hands it down to June who exclaims that it looks it’s an orichalcum alloy wrapped around it in foil form with his name on it. He explains to June the rules for dibs and making sure to put your name on things when doing so and therefore it’s his. Putting the vent cover back on and wiping his hand on the nearest upholstery, opening the package stuffing the orichalcum foil in his pocket with the rest of his trash. Inside is a pack of playing cards and a note saying not to look for him and to take care of June, they have a quick discussion about the proper use of cursing and the use of the word bullshit. There’s more paperwork labeling him guardian and POA and a few other important documents.

Looking around the rest of the place, in the bedroom, she notes that the picture of her and her mother is gone from the frame right before the wall explodes. Noting a shadow forming on the building a fraction of a second before the impact, Nyx summons up tendrils of shadow to protect himself and her the best that he can. June gets hit in the head though and as Nyx panics he unsuccessfully wraps her head in a sheet in order to bandage her when SSR takes over and Wirerat hits the emergency button alerting the rest of the team.

They immediately move into emergency mode with Wirerat investigating electronics and cameras, Threshold gets a portal up and starts scanning while Whisper heads in investigating things. They can’t find any remains of the explosive that struck, but Threshold is pretty sure that it’s not an explosive that he’s heard of before and the launcher on the other side of the street has self destructed in a pyroclastic explosion upwards leaving no real evidence behind, it seems like it was just set up on the roof one day. Threshold, finding nothing, gets June to a hospital with Nyx saying he’ll be there soon, grabbing the paperwork that August left them and the silver frame containing her mother’s picture. Nox tries to get him into a dark room, only for Nyx to explain that he needs to get to the hospital as he’s apparently June’s legal guardian now.

Whisper, meanwhile, grabs SSR from the exploded room and moves across to the other building to investigate the other explosion. There’s a scent of ozone is present as SSR takes scans of the remains, forming a 3d image. Whisper remembers reading about something like that called Octonitrocubane in a classified report, something that’s supposed to still be in development. They get Legerdemain to check red tape to find where it’s being manufactured while they search for strange things. SSR stops in front of a grey electrical access box, inside is a repeater connection hooked up to a copper wire line. It’s using the old copper lines to transmit data and informs Wirerat of it. He’s a bit more excited that they’re playing copper line games and attempts to passively listen in. Wirerat attempts to tap into the signals directly through SSR while Whisper takes pictures of the site.

Aftermath

Back at the hospital, Threshold is surveying the operation in the OR while Nyx is filling out the paperwork trying to figure out what to actually put down on some of the stuff while the nurse helps him. She comments that he doesn’t look like a parent, but he looks like a good guy (which he comments he’s heard that before) and that he also looks familiar (which he has also heard before). Handing Nyx another form, she says she doesn’t do it normally but it’s a release to allow the nurse to use her abilities on the patients, she demonstrates it on Nyx as his wounds heal and there’s a green glow and the scent of mint. Signing it, she goes into the OR to heal her, commenting that she’s been through a lot of trauma. Nyx does end up having to speak with the police, going with the story that he’s the girl’s legal guardian and they were just getting some stuff from her father’s apartment when the wall exploded.

After Action Report (GM)

This was a good session. Lots of threads starting to show up. Lots of interactions. Lots more the PCs can do. Overall, I enjoyed pulling from Nyx’s background and creating an NPC that might become part of the standard for the team. I didn’t get a chance to do much with the new NPCs and that’s probably going to happen next session because gawd do I love my NPC arrays. Give me all of them. NPCs are how you make a setting feel alive. Yes, they are puppets on strings and paper men but they are also the mouthpiece of the GM and how he can show and tell the world that they’re building.

Other Notes

Bonus Report from Rory.

Soundtrack

“We’re In This Together” by Nine Inch Nails
“You Dropped A Bomb On Me” by the Gap Band