Mutants & Masterminds CASCADE (Formely FLASHPOINT).
Below are the news items Alan sent out following the first game...
News
July 4th – 2017 (Tuesday)
By the end of the day it is estimated that four aircraft crashed while landing in the United States alone. Another at LAX rolled into the terminal building while taxiing.
Uncounted car accidents, many of them fatal. Police are asking that if your vehicle can move and is in a motorway, please move it to the side of the road, regardless of its condition. Emergency vehicles need access.
Officials say that emergency lines are being flooded, and ask that people only use 911 or call emergency services if the circumstances are life threatening. Please refrain from attempting to reach hospitals unless a life is in danger.
The death toll is completely uncertain at this time, access to all of those in danger is practically nonexistent.
Travel of all sorts has been terminated. No flights, no public transportation, no personal vehicles of any sort, other than emergency personnel, until further notice.
Reports of what actually happened are mixed and confused. Everyone claims to have seen a blinding light of some sort, but no cameras picked up that light. Scientists that could be reached are not offering any explanations.
International news is about the same.
July 5th – 2017 (Wednesday)
Much the same as before, except with some videos of what happened being shown on the news.
Hand-held camera footage of the 747 that crashed into a residential area near LAX. Homes no longer burn, but dozens are damaged or destroyed. The aircraft is in pieces all over the area. Rough estimates from the police say that there were 312 people on the plane, none appear to have survived. At least a dozen more were killed on the ground.
Secondary footage is briefly shown of another aircraft smashed into the terminal at LAX, no deaths appear to have been caused.
Helicopter footage from above many cities in California show roads snarled with vehicles of all sorts. Several are still smoldering. Fires can be seen racing out from a few of these locations.
Several rural locations also caught fire, though shockingly only a few business locations appear to be burning. Putting out fires is the primary task of nearly every emergency service. Experienced volunteers have been asked to contact officials.
Phone camera video: Someone, possibly male, screaming as he stands up. This is clearly right after the flash. He then bursts out in flame and screams even louder. The footage cuts short and the reported says that they cut it there because it was far too graphic. This took place in the Disneyland restaurant Blue Bayou.
Phone camera video: Also clearly right after the flash. The camera doesn’t initially focus on the event, panning about as people recover from the flash. Then you see a woman, apparently homeless, approached by a good samaritan offering to help her up. She backs away and bumps into a wall. The fear is clear in her posture. The citizen stops, but the woman continues to panic. Then she suddenly puts her hands on the sidewalk and begins to dig directly through the cement. In moments she is gone. The person holding the camera rushes over to where she was and points her camera down the hole. It goes off into darkness, the dirt falling in slowly after it.
The person that submitted this video was filmed for an interview. She said she was shocked by what she saw and claims to have heard sobbing from the hole as she stood over it.
July 6th – 2017 (Thursday)
Stories continue as they have before. Looting is happening, but not as much as might be expected, police say. They encourage people to keep in mind that everyone has been harmed by this event and to help each other where they can.
Several people are claiming that this must be some sort of terrorist thing. Few believe it, though Television programs seem like to have people on that say that it was.
Bernie Wolfe, a six year old boy who apparently now defies gravity becomes the subject of a lot of TV. He is cute and amused by his own powers. His mother can’t afford the care he now needs, but a Go Fund Me campaign has been started by some anonymous donor.
July 7th – 2017 (Friday)
The tragedy and suffering seems unabated. Fires, at least in California, are starting to get under control, except for a few in remote areas that may have to be allowed to burn.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, out of sight for a few days, appears on the news. He now seems to have two heads, both capable of speech and apparently independent thought. He is open about the fact that he has been changed and urges people to help those that have suffered in some way from this event.
Pundits respond to this, in part, by wondering why we haven’t heard from President Trump since the incident.
News now seems to focus on the people that have been affected.
A suicide in L.A., name withheld. Leaves a note:
Everything has changed, everyone has become new, everyone but me. I am tired of being alone.
A report of one of the few grocery stores that remain open. A robbery was perpetrated by a man with bat wings. “He pulled gun on me and took everything in our registers, even had two bags of groceries. Then… he pulled off his sweater and just… he just flew away!”
A woman reported that a ghost attacked her in her bedroom.
Neil DeGrass Tyson shows up on the Today Show. He frankly states that nobody knows what happened or why. He does emphasis, when asked, that he does not believe this was done by terrorists. He doesn’t see how it could have been man-made at all.
He is the one that starts calling it Pulse Day, which the media picks up and that ends up being what it is called.
July 8th – 2017 (Saturday)
DeGrass Tyson’s denial of the event being created by man and the lack of any scientific explanation has started a whole bunch of conversations about aliens being the cause. Of course it also heralds the end times for many religious groups. The rapture is mentioned, though my many estimations this makes most of the world sinners.
There is a two-hour long special on Discovery hosted by various semi-famous scientists and personalities that tries to tie things together. Mostly they talk about the experiences they have gathered that were captured on film, many of them from their own camera crews. Not much is discovered except:
Animals do not seem to have been affected by The Pulse at all
Everyone in the world seems to have collapsed or blacked out for anywhere from 5 to 20 seconds. They posit several theories about what may have caused the differences, but come only to negative conclusions. Age doesn’t appear to make a difference, neither did location.
Then they cover the oddities. They talk about Macron and others that have undergone obvious physical changes, though few would talk with them directly, they mostly show footage
They do interview one elderly woman, identified only as Amanda, who now looks a lot like a cat. She has orange and black fur and whiskers. She seems happy enough with the changes. She loves cats
One of their own employees was affected in a non-visual way. They blur the person’s features and have them demonstrate. The blurry figure starts to hum and slowly a cloud forms over the blurry head. Sparks of lightning flash about in it. After about 10 seconds the person stumbles and the cloud immediately vanishes. They explain that the effort exhausted the person. It is also interesting to note that this all happened in the lobby of an office building.
They then talk about the dreams that many seem to have had. They could find no correlation between the dreams and any changes that happened to the person.
They go on to make requests of viewers. They have created a web site and ask that people post their own stories about what happened that day.
July 9th – 2017 (Sunday)
There is more coverage of the tragic events, but mostly this day seems to be about ceremonies for the lost. Many suggest that it is too early for such a thing, especially when it is so unclear what the death toll is and that there are still lives to be saved.
There are a few news bits with interviews with people asked how they feel about not being able to fly home. Most of the answers are along the lines of “I’d love to be home with my family, but right now I’m not sure I want to fly. I just wouldn’t feel safe.
Agent Walters admitted that there is a greater than 0% chance that someone in the government asked for that news story to be made.
Trump returns to the limelight. He appears at a ceremony held at the Whitehouse to mourn our losses. He speaks only briefly, clearly reading from a prompter. He talks about unity and helping each other it this time of crisis.
Week 2 (July 10 – 15)
More stories of people having been affected.
On the 11th roads are once again open for traffic, though people are expected to keep on the lookout for emergency vehicles. Air traffic and public transportation are still down in most cities. People are still encouraged to remain home if their work or travel is not critical for cities to function. Helicopter footage shows freeways with one lane open in each direction. Cars can be seen to have been shoved over embankments were no harm to anything other than the car would be done.
Wes Stalling takes a poke a the Discover web site and realizes that that it has been used for telling stories, but also by those desperately looking for lost family. Unlike the site he created, people are far less concerned with telling a story than the are about finding lost loved ones.
It is possible to get useful data out off the site. Someone with tech or data skills can start pulling data and making comparisons.
Nobody can be found to have self-reported any strange powers, but some have mentioned neighbors doing unusual things, frequently it is clear that these are people that the posters do not like.
On the 14th Trump begins tweeting again. He starts by questioning who might have done this Pulse thing to us. Throughout the week his tweets get stranger and he blames several unnamed sources, claiming that his white house will bring justice.
The facility was minimally prepared. The goal was to obtain blood and saliva samples from the “unusuals” for testing in an attempt to understand what, if any, physical changes may have occurred to them on Pulse Day. The two agents were assisted by civilian nurse Janet Avers.
All attendees were gathered. The first to be examined was Mr. Harvey. The exam was uneventful.
The second was Emily Houston. Emily apparently became agitated by the examination and was stuck to her chair by “moist strings like spider silk”. Samples were obtained, and Miss Houston was returned to the lobby. As described by Agent Utah, the presence of the girl in the lobby clearly agitated most of those waiting, and their agitation caused Emily to exude more of the silk and become more attached to her chair.
At the recommendation of Agent Utah, several of the “unusuals” were brought into the examination area. There was hope that being with others would reduce their apprehension. Miss Bolton, Mr. Watson, Mr. Stallings, and Mr. Grimes were brought together into the examination area.
Miss Bolton volunteered to be examined next. However, when nurse Avers attempted to draw blood she was unable to do so due to the harmful nature of Miss Boltons blue skin. The nurse then directed Miss Bolton to on how to draw her own blood and take her own saliva swab. However, when directed to take the stress test and apply the electrodes, Miss Bolton became violent. She was heard to exclaim “This is not my fault! It’s not my fault. I don’t deserve this.” She struck the nurse, knocking Miss Avers to the floor unconscious.
What can only be described as a violent battle followed. Agents Utah and Walters, with the assistance of Mr. Stallings and Mr. Grimes, managed to tie Miss Boltons arms, causing her to flee, but not before Agent Utah was dealt a blow to the head.
It was also noted that Mr. Greenwood entered the testing area along with Mr. Harvey. Seeing the struggle, Mr. Greenwood also became violent, apparently in defense of Miss Bolton. However, Mr. Harvey was able to calm Mr. Greenwood with his unusual ability.
Unfortunately at that point many of the others in the waiting room had left in their vehicles. Agent Walters deemed it best to end the examinations and the others were driven home.
July 14th, 2017
After conversations with Mr. Harvey, Mr. Stallings, and Mr. Grimes, Agent Walters has decided to ask these unusuals to assist in contacting others. It is clear that the F.B.I. does not have an acceptable protocol for this situation, and those affected by The Pulse in unusual ways are clearly defensive with members of law enforcement. It is believed by Agents Walters and Utah that other unusuals may be able to convince them to come in, or at least to give blood and saliva without coming to the facility. It is also hoped that we can establish some rapport with suspected unusuals through others of the same kind and allow us to a chance to prevent violence and control public perception of events.July 23 (Sunday)
Trump, having continued claiming to be close to punishing those responsible, starts insisting that people affected by the Pulse should go to hospitals and be checked out, for their own sake.
July 24 (Monday)
A bank in Los Angeles is broken into. Video from inside the vault shows a hole in one of the walls. The wall seems to have been melted away. Loose cash was taken, boxes and heavy cash safes were left. Estimated that the thief got away with $150,000.
Baseball officials announce that they will be restarting their season, though somewhat shortened. They say that they, nor the country, will be forced to stop doing what they love by whatever force caused such devastation. The season will begin again on Friday (July 28).
July 26 (Wednesday)
A second bank in the greater Los Angeles area is broken into. This is a small bank. Its doors were torn open, ripped from its hinges. Escape was made before police could respond. Video footage shows a tall, thin man fully covered in dirty clothing, face covered by what must be a stocking. He rips the front door of with relative ease, then proceed to the vault door. He strikes the hinges several times with metal objects pulled from the bank, clearly damaging them. He then pulls on the door for over 30 seconds, occasionally pausing for a new grip. He clearly manages to damage the door but does not open it. He gives up and walks out.
July 28 (Friday)
Excitement over the return of baseball turns to controversy near the end of the Blue Jays – Yankees game, a close one until July 7, something very unusual happens. Pitcher Luis Severino comes on to close out the game and does so in spectacular fashion. One twice does a bat manage to touch one of his pitches, and one is a pop up behind the home plate and the other is a squirrely grounder to the mound. Replays show that Severino’s pitches have an amazing movement on them, and when hit they react very strangely. Experts think that something unusual is going on, and an investigation is said to be active.
July 29 (Saturday)
Once again a bank is broken into in the greater L.A. area, the third. There is no footage from the actual robbery. Footage from news crews shows that an outer wall has been destroyed. The vault itself has had its hinges melted, slag on the ground around it, and the bars that lock the door in have been both melted and sheared off. Official are looking for the two previous bank robbers assuming that they are working together. They say that the security offices were completely destroyed which is why no footage is available at this time. It is estimated that more than half a million dollars was taken.
July 30 (Sunday)
Nothing is found to be wrong with any of the balls used in Friday night’s Yankees game, but one reporter for ESPN talks to one of the backup catchers who claims that Severino has some sort of strange power, that his pitches… vibrate. He claims that the team is covering it up and wants answers. This begins a debate over the use of “powers” in sports that may never end.
July 31 (Monday)
The MLB announces that it has talked with the various owners and player representative and has concluded that use of any sort of unusual powers is grounds to be expelled from the game and, depending on the severity of the situation, may result in suspension. If a team is considered to have encouraged or allowed such use of “powers” that team may face penalties.
Obviously players, including Severino, protest, but it seems clear that the league will not change its mind, and no other players come out to defend Severino or claim to have any powers.
An attempt was made to break into a fourth bank in Los Angeles. Another major bank. The police have two suspects in custody. Film of the area taken by news crews after the arrest near that bank shows holes burned onto buildings and roads. A block of the city is blocked to traffic for several days.
August 2 (Wednesday)
Television news begins to report on a social media trend of conversations about “freaks” and what they mean for society. Some interview “experts” about what such a change in humanity might mean and talk about it rather clinically (Discovery). Most, however, talk about the scandals. Groups calling themselves “humanists”, completely ignoring what that term traditionally means, are calling for human rights. They insist that real people aren’t ignored for jobs when faced with freaks and object that they are a real danger to humanity. They also want laws put in place that treat use of freakish abilities in a crime to be considered deadly force.
Reports come out that a couple of other public figures have been affected. Photographs taken at a great distance show what they claim is Matt Cassel (Titans QB) in his home glowing in neon colors. Video experts for ESPN say that they can’t find evidence that the photographs are fake. Someone, said to be Michael Beasley of the New York Nicks, is seen in video footage swimming in a pool. The man has gray skin and looks massive in the chest. When he steps from the pool his face is seen to be strange. Close examination of a freeze frame makes it look like he has a thick gray beard. His fingers seem to be extremely long. It is verified by comparison to archived photographs that the house does belong to Beasley, but the figure certainly does not look like him.
August 5 (Saturday)
Protests start to happen. People without powers are calling for those that have them to be put in check, this has been happening for a little while, but makes big news in response to a young man that literally exploded in a square in France someplace.
Aug 7 (Monday)
Authorities announce that the bomber in France was an old-fashioned suicide bomber, but protesters for the most part don't believe, citing examples of others, including the guy that burned to death in Disneyland on Pulse Day. Also, they show footage of an elderly woman that appeared to melt down into the earth a few hundred feet in a market in Russia, where she seems to have hit a natural gas pocket and exploded most of a city block. Dozens were killed. This is said to have happened one day after the Pulse.
Rumors abound on social media that Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior policy adviser, is an affected. People claim that being near him makes them feel cold. One of his aids is said to have quit after being given frostbite working for Mr. Miller.
In Anaheim at the Garden Walk mall a veritable horde of people become rabid and assault each other in a busy mall. The man-bat is seen ducking into a jewelry store called Madison & Co. Fine Jewelers and making off with a lot of stuff.
Aug 8 (Tuesday)
Rallies for #JokersLivesMatter were held across the country, across the world. Here in the U.S. most of those rallies were met with counter protesters proclaiming that these “freaks” are dangerous and should be locked up. In many places violence broke out. However, across the country there were no reported deaths and few serious injuries.
8/17 (Thurs)
NEWS
New drug on the streets of L.A. that has authorities worried. They have found nearly a dozen people dead of an overdose. This is a designer drug that police cannot classify.
8/23 (Wed)
NEWS
Police report that four homeless people were badly beaten last night in L.A. All remain in intensive care, one is not expected to survive. Witnesses say that people wearing “crying baby” masks and carrying weapons like baseball bats and tire irons were seen in the area that night. No arrest have been made. Citizens are asked to report any such activity immediately and to, obviously, not wear such masks.
NEWS
NEWS
After being held under sedation for more than a month, the two bank robbers arrested for breaking into four local banks have been awakened and there is currently a fierce legal battle over the rights of the accused. Local TV legal advisers expect that their rights were violated and they will be released.
NEWS
NEWS - tangent
Over the last few days news pundits, social media, pretty much everyone across the nation is talking about the two bank robbers. Those that are related to the supremacist groups are justifying the attacks on jokers by saying that the system doesn’t know how to deal with them, or isn’t willing to deal with them. Others are obviously upset that their rights were violated (someone calls H.E.A.L. for comment on this). It seems pretty clear that no matter how the courts rule on this case there will be a high chance of violence.
9/9 (Sat)
NEWS
Attacks on Jokers continue throughout the county. Some reports of similar assaults are starting to show up in suburbs around the country. However, here in Los Angeles five people were found injured and tied up wearing the now infamous crying baby masks, with a note attached that read:
The
ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.
- Martin Luther King jr.
9/18 (Mon)
NEWS
The two suspected bank robbers, Dallas Shain and Zenia Sawtelle, were released when the courts decided that they had been held unlawfully when they were sedated for more than 30 days. Their lawyer says that a lawsuit against the L.A. police department is likely. Outside the courtroom violence erupted between protesters but was quickly put down by police.
9/21 (Thurs)
NEWS
Violence against jokers has increased dramatically. But so has resistance to that violence. Groups of jokers and a few aces have been seen fighting back. A dozen people admitted to hospitals over the last few days appear to have been victims of this violence, both jokers and unaffected. There have been reports of aces helping the jokers, some unreliable reports suggest that the recently released bank robbers are among them.