Skycrane and Psiren arrived safely on the rooftop of WatchTower and were greeted by a concerned INDIGO and the team Paramedic, Robert. Nothing could be done about Skycrane’s smouldering flesh and Robert quipped that it might “clear up in a day or so”. With them, of course, was a bundle wrapped in a red fore blanket which was revealed to be Stephanie Butler, a marketing Exec from Manhattan. She claimed to have been snatched from the street by this red blanket and that left INDIGO looking puzzled at Skycrane. Psiren, at this point, was still unconscious and could add no testimony. Stephanie Butler was detained under the Dangerous Superhuman Felons Act for 24 hours of observation.
Meanwhile, across town, Balance and Yellowfist were flitting over the rooftops and touched down on a busy backstreet. While attracting a lot of attention, they slipped over to the building they were interested in and noticed that the padlock was missing. Entering the warehouse they found boxes, racks of more boxes and a lift shaft leading down…they investigate the lift and Yellowfirst takes a liking to a mini-forklift and starts to wonde rout loud about whether he should have large heavy, forklift-sized , bladed weapons. Forklift in one hand and superpowered priest in the other, Yellowfist starts to descend the lift shaft into darkness.
Meanwhile across town Skycrane and INDIGO set off for the building, eager to provide backup to their companions. They arrive in a split second due to the T-Jump capabilities of INDIGO’s AMP suit and quickly start to descend into the darkness after Yellowfist and Balance.
At the bottom of the shaft, they find and start to explore the tunnel with a special shield composed of steel, made from the very air by Balance’s unearthly abilities. Along that tunnel they find a passage, smooth surfaced, made by man’s hand which leads them deeper into the ground. INDIGO scouting ahead finds that the tunnel opens into a roughly hewn chamber and inside are four superhumans and nearly thirty of these rag-tag denizens of the darkness.
Yellowfist and Skycrane enter quickly and begin to subdue the superhumans who they identify as Sewer, Killerwatt, Gridlock and Asphalt. These superhumans are subdued easily but the denizens start to attack and only stopped by the quick judgement of Balance who steps in and burns them with his searing, invisible Penance Blessing. The team then set about securing the supervillains. Gridlock was slain by the denizens and Sewer escaped by they have KillerWatt and Asphalt in custody. Not a bad innings!
Once this is done, the team start to investigate the remaining roughly carved tunnels. There’s something else out there, an oppressive psychic presence, but try as they might, they cannot track it down…
The scene ends with the team returning to WatchTower with much to think about and some new captives. They’ll have to put them somewhere….
[Above is a true and accurate recollection of everything that you remember.]
Psiren woke on the 28th of October with the biggest headache. Her dreams were filled with nightmares of vampires and a dark shadow falling over the city. Over the last eight hours she had worked harder than she had ever worked and had the blood-soaked hankerchief to prove it, she and Menshikov both.
Would it be enough or would the terrors resurface? In dreams?
To: AMP Field Testing
Cc: Office of the CEO; WatchTower NYC Activity Log
Subject: Indigo Status Report – 10/27/2000
I decided to add an independent air source to the suit, and got partway through a set of jury-rigged modifications (design attached) this morning when I was interrupted by one of the call center staff regarding the ongoing field missions.
I finished off what I was doing as quickly as possible, put the suit on and t-jumped to the WatchTower roof. Skycrane was incoming, holding an unconscious Psiren and levitating a red bundle. Although I didn’t notice it at the time, Skycrane was also badly burned.
My first thought was for Psiren’s health, so I t-jumped to the paramedic’s office, got him to grab his kit and t-jumped with him back to the roof. Although this was the first t-jump in the field involving carrying another person, I felt that the risk was low given that I had jumped to that location several times already.
See the WatchTower log for full details of what happened regarding Skycrane’s return with the red bundle.
The WatchTower received a call from Yellowfist’s cellphone, saying where he and Balance were and what they were about to do. Skycrane agreed to t-jump with me, and we did a triple-hop: holding cell -> WatchTower roof -> World Trade Center -> warehouse. I was able to queue up the jumps I had done before, which allowed me to focus on the calculation to jump to the warehouse – another simple jump of about 6km.
We entered the warehouse and met up with the other two team members. Given the nature of the previous encounter, I felt it wise to engage the stealth capabilities of the AMP suit. Yellowfist reported that in addition to normal sight, he couldn’t see me with his night-sight goggles.
Under the stealth cover, I was able to locate a subterranean chamber in which a pitched battle was occurring between four of the exotics we had been recently warned about over the wire, and 2-3 dozen “zombies”. I was able to then inform the rest of the team, and Skycrane and Yellowfist were able to subdue the villains, with Balance’s aid.
We returned to the WatchTower with two of the exotics in custody. The one we presume to be Sewer escaped, and there was no sign of the exotic named Smog.
Suit Statistics:
* Distances jumped: several < 100m, 1204m, 6029m * Total elapsed time: 4h 22m * Power used: 3.9% Problems/bugs: I found four anomolous log entries, showing a pair of jumps to somewhere in Australia and back again. Not sure how this happened - this is the first time we've had an obvious software glitch. Hopefully Kerri can trace the bug. Power drainage was higher than expected. This may be due to the extra weight that was carried when jumping, or could be explained by the stealth unit needing more power than anticipated. I will run some tests on its power drain this evening.
Skycrane’s log…
Oct 27th
12:10 – just after leaving Liberty Island, it seems Yellowfist tossed our fire-blanket-wrapped Oogie at me and I subconsiously caught it. Ah well. Indigo brought the paramedic up to meet Psiren and me on the roof. We left Psiren unconscious at the med-bay and placed the Thing within the holding cells, where unwrapped she now appeared as a normal human.
12:30 – Talking to the prisoner, she gave her name as Stephanie Butler and claimed to have been picked up about half an hour ago in lower Manhatten. Indigo felt it was best at this point to get the WatchTower legal team involved, Jack White sent down Ms Menshikov and we left to rejoin Balance and Yellowfist at the far end of the tunnel.
12:32 – Wow, T-Jumping is a bit odd but damn it’s fast.
12:45 – We’ve all met up again at the base of a liftshaft. Yellowfist has a cunning plan, involving Balance to make a shield/snowplough for pushing down the tunnel. We forgot torches, but our new quartermaster Indigo literally popped off to find some.
A little distance in and there’s a side tunnel, and screaming… Indigo forges ahead to see whats up but when he reports Oogies (now “Zombie Mutant Vampires” or just Zombies) and our hunted superhumans engaged in a large fight, Yellowfist and I feel the need to charge in. Before the perps know what’s happening, I’ve knocked out lightning-girl against the roof (Killer Watt) and Yellowfist has pummelled big-stone-guy (Asphalt) into dust.
There’s a guy running around really fast – guess he’s Gridlock, but he was caught by a group of Zombies and hauled to the ground. A gloomphing mass of water (Sewer) hurtles at Yellowfist. Oh, that’s gotta taste bad… but I hoist Sewer up and hold her in mid air; but then the Zombies start to move again. Sewer slips away, and Balance stepped in to blend their molecules with the surrounding environment.
Asphalt started reforming, which is a really neat trick – but I able to hoist him up, whilst Yellowfist carried the still-unconscious KillerWatt. No idea where Sewer went, or if Smog was here at all.
13:10 – We’ve checked out the various tunnels; they all lead to a sewer connection and/or a manhole cover; this seems to be a lair of sorts. WatchTower is far more comfortable. Far more worrying is the oppressive feeling of Something nearby, but we can’t find any physical embodiment or source. However, we need to hand Asphalt and Killer Watt into custody. Hurrah!
Oct 28th
07:10 – Had to rewrite my log, as I’d incinerated yesterdays page. I’m not sure why a typo annoyed me enough to rip it out and fry it – but then I’ve never been nearly fried to a crisp either. That probably got to me.
Vengeance Is Mine. I Will Repay.
Liberty showed me humility. No power on earth is greater than that of The Lord. My own powers, though miraculous are as nothing to His glory. We were beaten by the creatures of the night, by the spawns of Satan. My faith faltered and we were routed.
Instead I must show faith and humility in my service of His people. I must offer myself wholly to His cause. If that cause is Watchtower, then I must serve them as He would wish.
My order follows St. Dominic, a man who judged. That too is Watchtowers creed to protect innocents and prosecute villainy. That too shall be my light. Without passion, without joy, without fear, I shall judge. I shall weigh up their crimes and I shall judge,
If Liberty showed me humility, the tunnel showed me faith.
The wretches had turned on one another. In some sort of macabre dance we arrived to see the exotics and the tunnel people fighting. Skycrane and Yellowfist both made short work of the exotics. The tunnel people showed they were beyond redemption by attacking us.
I judged them wanting. I found them beyond redemption.
Like Romans 19, “Vengeance is mine. I will repayâ€
For their sins against humanity, for their sins against Watchtower, for their sins against God. I smote them down. I cast them out. I destroyed.
Like a summer storm lifting to reveal a clear blue sky, this act cleared my doubts of the last few days. I have a purpose. I have a duty.
And oddly, I have a craving for raw steak…
From the journals of Father Julian Devon
Jack White spoke with a growling grinding grumble, “I don’t like this. If we can’t trust our own people, then who can we trust?”
Menshikov smiled. “Trust is a two way street. We will need them working together as a team before we can start to expand our plans. If the events of today had been allowed to become common knowledge we would like have lost two major assets.”
“They’re not just assets to me, Nicole” Jack interrupted.
She walked across the office and he could feel sensations in his nerve endings as her aura swept over him. He was immune but…still…there was a feeling of elation and intoxication. She was perfect. Too perfect and he wondered what she would look like, feel like without the benefit of her aura.
“We’re ahead of schedule, Jack, we have most of the B-team in training and Sanction Zero is almost ready. Arclight has really been working hard on developing his accuracy and you’ve seen what Backlash is capable of.”
She paused for a second.
“Psiren will have already started on the emergency mental blocks on Balance and INDIGO as well as strengthening the minds of the others. What happened today will not happen again.” She flashed her lovely almond eyes at him.
Jack nodded, “I never thought that doing the right thing would ever make me so….”
Nicole smiled, revealing perfect teeth, “Regret is for the weak.”
Hello again FistPhiles, a brief (but action packed!) update this time. The case of the underground zombie people continues, and the plot has thickened considerably.
As you know, myself and Balance had decided to investigate the Manhattan end of the Liberty Island tunnel while Skycrane took the unconscious Psiren back to WatchTower for treatment.
Once we located the warehouse and gained entry, we easily found our way down to the tunnel. We were then joined by Skycrane and Indigo – apparently his teleporter can take more than one person. I’d like to try it out but preferably after I know a bit more about it!
Anyway, they found us and of we headed down the tunnel, with me pushing a big steel snow plough type thing kindly created by Balance. The idea was that if we met any of the CHUD (anyone remember that movie?) we’d just barge them out of the way without getting bogged down in a fight with the evil overlord’s minions.
Not surprisingly, things didn’t work out like that.
Unlike last time, the hordes of evil didn’t charge us blindly, and instead we were forced to follow the tunnel down a path which was too narrow for the plough.
Turned out it wasn’t necessary anyhow, as we soon came across the deadites engaged in a major throw-down with some costumed bad guys, presumably KillerWatt, Gridlock Asphalt and Sewer. Skycrane and myself flew into action and it wasn’t long before the evil ones were subdued. Balance took care of the zombie types, and we headed back to WatchTower to interrogate our captives.
So, first fight with Exotics, and we came out on top – not bad for a team that’s been together barely a week!