Issue #5, Vol. 2 (April 14th, 2007)
God Damn Dirty Apes!
CAST: Thok (Mark) Vector (Terry) Geoff Gardner (Alan) B4 (Jeff).......... Early shift Couch Potato (Joe).......... Late shift
MONKEYSHINES On the heels of last game's fight with ALPHA, the creation of Dr. Tewelleker, the team are contacted by Dr. T. Here's a little timeline of events in the backstory... Dr. Tewelleker's scientific curiosity overcomes him when he's brought a sample by Rift to examine for markers for "mutation" or "superpowers". It appears to have DNA markers relevant to "Temporal Powers". As Rift is a time traveler, Dr. T decides to compare it against samples of Rift's DNA that he can find around the base. During his search he finds all kinds of DNA with markers. He knows what some should do and some he has no idea about as yet. He makes contact with other "fringe scientists", some of who hang around university bulletin boards and online forums. Two of these are: Dr. Bond, the Sea Life Project scientist who is experimenting on fish, somewhat callously. Dr. Le Coeur, the Zoologist who is trying to "evolve" animals. Le Coeur has experience in cloning (mostly sheep), and has suggestions on how to create a specemin into whom Dr. T can implant the genes. Both scientists are of the opinion that Dr. T. is wasting his time with heroism when he should be raising an army of heroes. The team brings "The Doctor", the psychic who claims he is possessed by someone or something. Dr. T. now has the DNA of the greatest psychic in the known world at his disposal. He grows the individual in his lab. He brings him books when he discovers he's craving information, keeps him totally occupied that way. But his psychic power is growing. He can hear more of people's thoughts every day. ALPHA has the wireless version of Audra Blue's Cyberkinesis. He can reach out and intercept all of the messages sent electronically into and out of the base, including the warning from Dr. Bond. He misunderstands this as a message to destroy his projects (Alpha himself). He confronts Dr. T. who flees the base for his safety and to get help. Problem is, he finds the base has gone into lockdown because Alpha has left the lab; Dr. T. can't get in. Dr. T. calls PRIMUS and notifies them, then backs off. He knows he's going to be blamed for this, and quite obviously he knows he's done something wrong, but he has difficulty understanding what to do next. Dr. T goes to Aquan Industries, the company who funds Sea Life Project, as they may have further notes on Dr. Bond's experiments AND they may have clues to the location of Henri Le Coeur. When he arrives, he discovers gunshots, and sees blood on a window on the inside. No one is going in or out. And so he radios the base, lets them know something is happening, and then remains on scene, knowing that he may be arrested and waits. The team show up and discover that the facility has been infiltrated by... Semi-intelligent monkeys in clothes, carrying weapons (Shotguns, Pistols, Flare guns, Concussion grenades). There are lots of civilians in the way. The team moves to grab them. The Steambots take out the doorways in order to get through. Wanting to do just as much destruction, B4 blasts a hole in the opposing wall and goes through. Vector clubs a few monkeys, Steambots grapple a few, Thok works the mental mojo, and a young woman appears. She's dressed as a pirate, with a wooden leg and a hook. In pirate-speak she instructs her monkeys to defend her. B4 scans the radio frequencies and discovers that she's in communication with a frenchman. The team takes down the girl (aka KoKo) and most of the monkeys, but when Koko recovers, she turns invisible and tries to escape. B4 manages to track her close enough for general directions, and the team pursues her into the basement where they become reacquainted with Nereid (the woman from Project Sea Life who escaped) and her one lone escapee helper, the Inviso-Shark. She is in a sub and B4's tricorder tells you there are two lifeforms on that craft. Vector leaps across, desolidifies, and lands inside the cockpit next to Nereid. Thok teleports through the window and lands inside. Now 3 people are in a very small space in the cockpit. Vector grabs Nereid and in turn she sucks his END out, leaving him so that he injures himself nearly any time he tries to maintain his grip, due to the STUN damage you take for exerting yourself when you get below 0 END. Thok manages to stop and reverse the ship so if surfaces. KoKo can't seem to shoot anyone with her ray, which is too bad... It was a "De Evolution ray", and if it did enough BODY it would evolve people back to a primal version of themselves. Not sure what that would do to B4? Turn him into a toaster? GG scalds Koko with steam power and B4 jumps into the water to rescue her. He's bitten for his troubles (to little damage). He tosses her onto land and is hauled ashore by GG. Thok detects that Nereid is using telepathy. The shark rams the weak spot on the sub and lets in water and with the water available, she can exercise her powers. Wisely, Vector gets out of that cramped space so he can recover some END. Thok gets out to safety. Nereid leaps out of the opening and is scalded by GG, but she manages to swim away with her last 4 STUN and her inviso-shark pet. Thok investigates Koko's mind and discovers that they are there to procure a sub and take it out to rendezvous with Jormungander, which it seems is an enormous sub, or so she's been told. She's never seen it. She doesn't know the coordinates because they are programmed into the sub. She also knows that Henri Le Coeur is at Armitage Pharmaceuticals ripping off HXL. FLASHBACK: The heroes were at Armitage in my original run of the campaign. Blackstar Brigade, the former Russian Militia soldiers in powered armor were there trying to rip off HXL, the superhero-producing drug, from Armitage. In that fight, Dr. T drove the team to the building and Orland was kidnapped by the soldiers who recognized him and called him "Rook". The team advised the Armitage folks "Beef up your security". The team call in the new PRIMUS clean up team, a trio of women with metallic wings called The Furies, and they take custody of the defeated bad guys and secure the scene. Well, their beefed up security has the HXL in the basement in a vault. By the time the team extracts the coordinates to meet Jormungander out of the wrecked sub and then makes their way to Armitage, the place is under seige. In the basement vault are more monkeys, only these have superpowers! And they are lead by Dr. Henri Le Coeur. They are: Mr. Wiggle (Stretching Monkey), Oz (Flying Monkey), Sonic Death Monkey (Chimp Singer, Elvis Lover), and Brutus (Brick and Professional Wrestling Aficionado). Couch Potato is in for B4 by now. A fight ensues. The most noteworthy events are: Mr. Wiggle wraps up Couch Potato in his rubbery body entangle, but Tater flies anyway and rams him into Dr. Le Coeur, who is in front a table full of HXL. The chemical spills and the man is transformed! All those monkey gene experiments he'd been experimenting with are finally kicked in! He changes into Kilgore, the apeman! A steambot takes a pretty good clawing from Oz, who does a razor clawed move-through. Steambot gets even by grappling him. The other bot mostly controls Brutus. Vector puts a solid beating on Kilgore/Le Coeur, but the monkey has a Kinetic Absorption power: The more you smack him the more it adds to his STR. His downfall really: My inability to hit anything! Because he also had a big sword of nastiness that puts quite a dent in the vault floor when it misses. Thok drops the same monkey twice. He's the "relief pitcher" of superheroes, showing up for the last out. Eventually all are subdued through a truly solid whoopin' and lots of high damage rolls. The team is contacted by Dr. T again. In my best terrible German accent, he tells them that he found a crate of goods to be delivered to Jormungander. It's a crate of... text books. History books, to be exact. Doesn't make much sense, but the team puzzles over the idea. They look for hidden materials, code, etc. They're just "modern history". Really the last few hundred years. Occasionally one goes back further, but not too far. The sub at A.I. is the same kind as they use at Project Sea Life. So the team 'ports out to PSL and borrows one. They go to the Rendezvous spot and wait. The Battle of Midgard Eventually there is sudden thunder and lightning and poof! A sub appears out of nowhere. It's 80" long (Over 500 ft) and bears a crimson swastika! Someone waves to the team from a high deck and Thok takes the opportunity to Mind Control him and have him call to anyone nearby that the crate is being sent up. A line comes over the side and the team rushes the deck. Up top they find the line is being hauled in by an enormous shiney robot with a decidedly steampunk architecture. He's not a steambot, but he's got similar esthetics to the design. Perhaps and evolution of the design. There is another further down the deck, at attention. There are vintage bombers and fighters on this, the flight deck of the sub. Soon the pad raises that is used to take planes between the above and below deck sections. On the platform are... Grendel, a wiry, over-muscled, speedy individual with enormous claws. Jaegrin, a pretty aryan blonde with a sword, rifle, and pistol. Schreckmacher, a man in a burnt, decidedly ruined uniform with two tanks on his back and a rifle attached there to. Vector positions himself for a move through. The nearby robot tries to chuck one of GG's steambots overboard, but the bot can reel itself back up via stretching. And taking a cue from that robot, a steambot lits and tosses one of the shiney robots overboard. This works better. These are "Magnabots", with some pretty serious clinging ability to remain stuck to the hull, and waterproofing. The team do an excellent job of defeating the Nazis. Couch Potato entangles one guy then knocks him so hard that he flies overboard. When he tries to retrieve the drowning fool, the guy tries to gas him. A gas attempt on Thok is foiled by his Life Support. Other highlights include a leap attempt to take out the levitating Thok, a series of successful abort blocks by Jaegrin of Vector, until she ran out of phases to block with and was walloped by a hit that did 10 BODY (Not everyone can sustain a high speed impact; Even villains.) The last act of the magnabot on board is to self-destruct if captured. He does just this, doing a 5D6K blast that nearly rolls maximum on BODY but only has the 1x STUN multiple. A few segments earlier a red flashing light and a claxon turned on. As everyone climbs fully aboard the sub, it doesn't dive... instead there's a deafening (literally) clap of thunder and the sky is different. And there they are, under a new sky at dawn.