IST San Angelo

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

Question: Didn't you describe Gen. Hammond's new job in a previous topic as

Head of Homeworld Security?

 

Major Tom

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

Question: Didn't you describe Gen. Hammond's new job in a previous topic as

Head of Homeworld Security?

 

Major Tom

Probably. Head of Homeworld Security and Head of Home Planet Security mean the same thing. He's in charge of keeping the whole planet safe from threats from outer space.

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

Once C.J.'s press conference ended, the various networks trotted out their experts and the discussion of the days events began. At IST San Angelo, the large monitor was shut off and April and Christine headed for the combat simulation chamber. Voltron went with them, hoping they'd let her use her armor's abilities in some of the tests.

"No problem," Christine said. "I want to test April's stealth skills. Then, if there's time, you can join us in the training."

"Good," Voltron said, pulling her suit's mask over her head. "I want to see how well I do in the dark against both of you."

"Then, I assume, this will be scored as a normal training session?" asked the trainer that they'd met outside the room.

"Yeah," Voltron said. "I need to know how will I can use my suit."

"How many weapons have you used?" April asked.

"Six," Voltron replied. "The electrosaber, the blazing sword, the eye beams, the electroforce cross, the solar stars, and I started using the blazing bow yesterday. I need archery lessons."

"Wasn't Voltron composed of five lions?" Christine asked.

"Yeah," April replied. "Do you think she can split into five lions?"

"It's possible." Turning to the novice heroine, Christine asked, "What do you think?"

"I'll try it." After a moment, she said, she said, "I just got an `Unable to do such function in this mode' message from my armor. Does this mean I'm no good and have to go back to being Boulder, Colorado artist Allison Harris?"

"Not necessarily," April replied. "Can you convert to a single lion?"

"I'll try it," Voltron said. A moment later,she yelped, "It's working."

"Once you're ready, switch to five lions," Christine said. "Chances are, you'll be controling the other four by remote."

"Ready," Voltron said. Suddenly there were five lions. "It works!"

"Yeah, now you'll just have to reverse the process to look human again," April said.

"I know."

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

At 7:45, after training and dinner, April, Midori, and Christine returned to the Control Room. "We're ready," April said.

"Good," Sir John said. "A quick news recap. The First Lady is with the President. Due to elevated blood pressure, Holly sat the early performance. However, she has been given permission to be part of the evening show."

"The blood pressure increase could've been due to stress," Midori said.

"Noted," Sir John said. "Mr. Kinsey is now in the El Paso County Jail."

"Good," April said. Turning to Warder, she asked, "Ready?"

"All set," Warder replied. "I'll cast my spell in that dead-end hall on the fifth floor."

"Fine," Sir John said. "Proceed when ready."

They went downstairs and walked to the hallway where the spell would be cast and Warder cast it. The portal appeared.

"Ready?" Christine asked.

"Yes. You?" April asked.

"Yes," Christine replied. "Let's go." They did.

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

When April and Christine returned, they were asked to report to the conference room. As they did, they caught sight of Midori, in her usual white scrubs, and Sandi, another nurse, in a white uniform.

"I thought you wore only scrubs, Sandi," Christine said.

"White uniforms are coming back into style," she said. "Hospitals in a number of states are now requiring them. According to the San Angelo Times, the Kelley Hospitals, the St. Mary's Hospitals, and the University Medical Center all require their nurses to wear white uniforms now and the St. Mary's Hospitals are considering bringing the cap back."

"Intreging," Midori said as they entered the Conference Room.

"The gate took us to a bus on West 145 Street, near the part of New York City's Riverview Park between West 139th Street and West 147th," Christine said. Besides the park, which included ball fields, a carousel, a cafe, a cultural center, a waterfroont amphiter, an indoor skating rink, an indoor athletics center, an aquatics center, a track and a maintainance building, we found a high school, a church, a bridal shop that also sold evening gowns, an apartment building, with a pool, and something called an Infirno."

"Besides our bus, there were two others," April said. "One was an airport bus and the other was a regular bus. There were gloved stewardesses in the airport bus, which places it, on our timeline, in the 1960s, and the women in the second regular bus, including the driver, wore the same kind of head covering Islamic women do."

"You're kidding," Sir John said.

"I'm not," April said. "Most of the women were veiled. A few also had the veil's screens over their eyes. Accordoing to the textbook I found, the same people that captured Jerusalem captured Rome and Vatican City."

[Kirby]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

Just an update: My wife did get me "The Dragon's Gate" for Christmas and I have already finished reading it.

 

The players in my campaign have already expressed an interest in being in a Dark Champions style game and this will be pretty much the perfect setting for me. Kudos!

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

"What's this `Inferno'?" Sir John asked.

"A building housing a gateway to a fire dimension," Warder replied. "The bodies are placed on a marked area on the floor of the gateway building. Once the beings that put the body there can't be detected near the body, the floor vanishes and the body falls into the fire." She paused, then added, "It's tradition to strip the body before placing it there."

"Noted," Sir John said. "Was anything happening in any of the buildings when the incident occurred?"

"The high school was having its homecoming," April replied. "Since its mascot was the mustang, everyone but the cheerleaders, nurses and O.V.T. practical nursing students were required to be in Western gear on the day of the game. Golves, masks, and toy weapons were permitted."

"O.V.T.?" Sandi asked.

"The Occupational Vocational Technical, or O.V.T., training program enabled high school students to train in certain career fields while in high school," Midori replied. "I took the O.V.T. practical nursing program in high school, then went to college for my B.S.N. and R.N."

"Oh."

"The school nurses were doing TB testing and, with parental permission, giving out flu shots," April said. "A blood drive was going on in the church basement and a health fair and a belly dancing class were in progress in the community center. Additionally, the ladies in the community center offices were all wearing gloves while they worked."

"Interesting," Kuntala said. "Think they were from a different reality?"

"Possible," Christine replied. "They were all from different cities, none of which was New York. Neither the three busses nor the school crossing guards were from New York."

"We also found a station wagon from a housekeeping service by the apartment building. It didn't have New York plates either."

[RPMiller]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

Just an update: My wife did get me "The Dragon's Gate" for Christmas and I have already finished reading it.

 

The players in my campaign have already expressed an interest in being in a Dark Champions style game and this will be pretty much the perfect setting for me. Kudos!

I'm glad to hear that! Let me know how the game goes.

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

"Begin cremating the bodies, following the tradition Warder uses tomorrow," Sir John said. "For now, get tome sleep."

"Right," April said.

"Understood," Christine said.

As the meeting broke up, Midori said, "I'd like to see the uniforms you found."

"They'll be on display once they've been cleaned," April said. "It might be fun to try some of them on and have someone take photos."

"Yeah, especially if we adopt natural poses," Christine laughed.

"True," April said.

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

Just a quick note.

Tomorrow, December 30th, I'm taking my computer, Athena, to the shop tomorrow for her Christmass present, 128 Megs of RAM. Once that's done, she'll have a total of 192 Megs and I'll be able to use Hero Designer (version 1) to create sheets for my characters. Once I do that, I'll post April (Spirit Cat), Voltron, Warder, and her familiar, Midnight on this forum and Christine on the Dark Champions one.

[RPMiller]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

Just FYI, version 2 of HD works on less RAM and is still getting updated regularly, but since this is now the 31st, and more ram is always good... cool! I look forward to checking out your characters.

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

Just FYI' date=' version 2 of HD works on less RAM and is still getting updated regularly, but since this is now the 31st, and more ram is always good... cool! I look forward to checking out your characters.[/quote']

Thanks.

SAthena needed it anyway. With only 64 megs, she was quite slow, especially since I'm using Windows XP. It actually took her two minutes to complete her boot up. Now, it takes five seconds.

The first character, Voltron, will be posted, hopefully, by the end of next week.

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

The Voltron character sheet has been posted. You can find it at "Character For Review: Voltron".

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

"Kinsey got indited on assault and battery, assault with the intent to commit murder, attempted murder, and attempting to cause harm to the President of the United States," Sir John said as the heroes and some staffers entered theconference room. "He was also remanded to custody and received 120-days in jail for comtempt of court for yelling at the judge."

"Serves him right,' Kuntala said, smoothing out a slight wrinkle in her sari.

"Yes," Sir John said. "Stargate Command is refusing to let either NASA or the State Department talk to the Asguard of the people from Cimmeria without their permission. Oh, The House Judiciary Committee has started hearings into Mr. Kinsey's Impeachment."

"Kinsey has a lot of pull," Christine said. "I'm sure he's been involved in a lot of shady deals. When the Secret Service get his records, the IRS is going to have a field day with them."

"Any word about the status of Statgate Command?" Kuntala asked.

"France tried to bring sanctions against the United States for violating the edicts, but was shot down. Aparently, most of the nations either have, or want to sign the Stargate Treaty."

"Interesting,' Kuntala said.

"A quick point," Warder said. "We should start having people move into the gateway world as soon as possible. As long as we're only either exploring it or cremating bodies, the guardians can kick us out of it and assign us another."

"We should remove the bodies from the apartment house first, then have people take up residence in it," April suggested.

"It should be second," Christine said. "Remember, the gate is in the airport bus. We have to clean that out first."

"Right," April said. "I forgot."

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

Suddenly, the telephone rang. Sir John picked it up, spoke for a minute, hung it up and said, "Warder, our gate closed."

"It'll reopen within eight hours," Warder said. "We have to establish residence in the universe," Warder said. "Who is going through?"

"April, Christine, and anyone else that wants to," Sir John replied.

After a quick conversation with her daughters in Japanese, Midori said, "Mariko and I will go. Keiko will go through once she's off duty."

"No problem," Christine said. "Wear black clothes, ladies, and make sure you're wearing gloves and ski masks. April and I are playing cat burglar. Midori, Keiko, Mariko, you're just dressing the part."

"Make sure you have what you need for three days," April said. "We can bring the rest of our luggage through later."

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

Eight hours later, the four women were at the now-active gatewat. April, Christine, and Midori were in black. Mariko was in scrubs. "My shift starts in one hour," she said. "I'll send Keiko through once she gets off duty."

"Fine," Christine said as the gate appeared. "Let's go, ladies." They steped through and ended up standing in a bus shelter.

"Nobody in here with us," April said, turning the light strapped to hermasked head on. Pointing to a ten by fifteen foot lot enclosed by a chain-link fence, she added, "There's the Inferno area."

"Yeah. LEt's check out the road beside it," Christine said.

After going one hundred feet, they came to a sign. "It's an archery range," Midori said.

"Perfect for Voltron," April said. "Let's see what's next."

"A mansion or villa," Midori said. Pointing to the bodies, she added, "It looks like a formal party."

"Yeah," Christine said, spotting the men in tuxedos and the women in evening gowns and long gloves. "It'll take too long for us to clear the place out. Where to next?"

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

"There," Midori replied, pointing her flashlight at a blue-uniformed, white-gloved woman.

"School crossing guard," April stated. She looked at the patch on the woman's sleeve, and read, "City of Pittsburgh."

"What's that beside her?" Christine asked.

As April picked a sheet of paper up, Midori said, "Another one down here."

"Another school guard?" Christine asked.

"Yes," Midori replied. "She's also from Pittsburgh."

"This flyer is from Cleveland," April said. "The local school district is sponsoring its yearly Western festival. Western clothes recomended, all weapons must be non-working, gloves and masks permitted."

They took a quick look around, found nothing of interest, then checked the four lanes of vehicles on the street. The nearside curb lane held nothing of interest. The nearside traffic lane had three busses in it. One from Maryland, one from New York, and one from Illinois. All were from 1963. The New York bus had nothing interesting in it. The Maryland bus was the airport shuttle. Most of the women, including the stewardesses, wore gloves.

"I thought all stewardesses wore white gloves," Christine said.

"Most only wore white gloves for publicity and advertising purposes," April said. "That's why stewardesses in movies almost always wear white gloves. Also, unlike in the movies, they were permitted to unglove once they were on the plane. Most did."

"You sure? Christine asked.

"My mother was a British Caledonian Airlines stewardess when she met father. who was a passanger on one of her flights," April replied. "Until I was six, she let her snooty friends think she was a high scoiety girl."

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

"What happened when she told them?" Christine asked.

"They made fun of her," April replied. "Since I was sitting beside her on the couch in Midori's apartment, I put my right arm around her and told her that I thought she was my heroine."

"Then what?" Christine asked.

"Mom thanked me and gave me some stuff she'd collected while she'd been a stewardess."

"Like what, April?" Christine asked.

"Posters, photographs, postcards, a doll of a stewardess, and some of her old books."

"Don't forget the day she spent in an old uniform," Midori added.

"I remember," April said. "Since I was full of energy, they decided to enroll me in a gymnastics school. As it happened, Midori's sister, Akiko, owned it."

"I was the school's nurse," Midori said. "Like April, my daughters were my sister's students."

"I figured that," Christine said.

"Midori agreed to be my legal guardian. Mother visited while father was being a businessman. The visit after she told her friends about her former career, mom brought one of her uniforms, changed into it and wore it during her visit."

"Did you like it?" Christine asked.

"Yeah," April replied. "Mom actually gave me her uniforms when I graduated high school. If you like, I'll model one for you the next time Midori's in a white uniform."

"I'd like that," Christine said. They then left the airport bus for the next one.

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

They went into the last bus and looked around. "The driver has her hair, ears, and beck covered by a scarf," Midori commented.

"The women here are in Islamic dress," April said. "Some are just like the driver, but most also have face veils, a few even have the screens up over their eyes."

"What?" Christine asked.

"The najib, or face veil, has a screen or screens that can be used to cover the eyes," April replied.

"While in college, April did a report on Islamic garb for a comparitive religions course," Midori explained.

"A Muslim friend lent me some of her clothes," April added. "I found it enlightening."

"Oh," Christine said. "Why do you think Islamic garb is so popular here?"

"I don't know," April replied. "Let's find a text book that can give us some answers." They did. April slipped off her black leather gloves, revealing the blue nitrile ones under them and began to read. As Midori rested her left habd on April's shoulder, Christine noted that the nurse was wearing Isotoner-style driving gloves.

"I have the answer," April said. "The Roman Empire, which helped spread the Catholic Church in our universe, collapsed, due to internal pressures here, soon after a carpenter named Jesus began preaching. Also, Islam is the nation's most popular religion and many Christian and Jewish women wear Islamic garb."

"Interesting," Christine said as April pulled her black gloves on and accidently extended the claws built into her gloves.

"Oops," April said, retracting them.

They checked out the vehicles in the far traffic lane. Four belonged to maid services, each one different. The fifth wasa van with a man and a woman, both in black, inside. "They're cat burglars," Christine said, after examining the bags in the van.

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

Christine's character sheet has been posted for review on the Dark Champions board.

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

"The cars in the curb lane don't have anything special about them," April said. "However, I see, from right to left, a restaraunt, a hiuse, a church, a second house, a community center, a third house and a bar."

"Let's look at the restaraunt." They walked to it, noted the cars parked in the lot, looked inside. "Pompoms," Midori said. "That means cheerleaders."

"Right," Christine said. They went inside. "To be exact, high school cheerleaders."

"The waitresses' uniforms look familiar," April said.

"They're identical to the uniforms I wore while working at a bakery during my senior year in high school," Midori said.

"I thought you were in an O.V.T. practical nurses program," Christine said.

"I was," Midori replied. "I was also a candy striper on weekends and a bakery sales clerk on weekday evenings."

"You were busy," Christine said.

"Yeah," Midori said. "I also got good grades."

"Nice." They checked the first house out. It was a two-story, four-bedroom structure. "Five bodies to cremate," Christine said. "We can strip them in the living room before taking them to the Inferno gate. We'll leave the door open for Keiko, when she comes, and search the other buildings tomorrow."

"No problem," Midori said.

"Works for me," April added.

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

Keiko came through while they were moving the bodies. "Mother, you're working the 3 to 11 pm shift tomorrow," she said.

"I know," Midori said.

"Good. Two ladies from housekeeping are coming through tomorrow morning at 8:30 to help us out."

"Fine," Christine said.

The next morning, after breakfast, Keiko joined April and Christine on their search. The church was the first stop. "It's 1971," Keiko said, holdingup a newspaper. "We're in Michigan."

"Blood drive in the Fellowship Hall," April said, pointing to a sign.

"We'll check this floor out first," Christine said. They found a woman in Western clothes vacuuming the sanctuary and people in clothes suited to that era in the office and daycare area.

Looking downstairs, they found a white-uniformed woman at the check-in desk, and three white-uniformed and capped nurses and a uniformed waitress sitting near a table holding cookies and fruit drinks. "Her uniform's identical to the ones the waitresses at Beth's coffee shop wear," Christine commented.

"Thought I recognised it," April said.

They went upstairs next. The church had a nurse's office. The woman inside, like the ones downstairs, had on a white uniform and cap. According to the board, the church also employed two other nurses. One was a visiting nurse. The other would come on duty, at the church, at 3 pm. A quick check of the custodian's apartment showed that she liked Western clothes and they found choir robes and albs in the robing room.

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

"The choir robes and albs should stay where they are," Christine said as they left for the second house, which was identical in layout to the first and held nothing of interest.

The community center was next. A wellness fair was going on in the meeting room, the pool was in use, and the gymnasium, which had a running track, was occupied by a belly dancing class. "Nurses and student nurses," April said.

"Yeah," Keiko said. "The student nurses were wearing the same uniform mother did when she was going for her B.S.N. degree."

"Thought I recognised it," April said. "Did you notice that all of the women in the office were wearing gloves?"

"Yep," Christine replied. They searched the third house and the bbar and found that there was nothing special about either of them.

By the time they'd returned to the house April, Christine, Keiko, and Midori now called home, two of the embassy housekeepers were also there. "We brought trash bags," one said. "If nothing else, we can use them to carry clothes."

"Hopefully, you'll eventually be able to clear the street of vehicles," the other said.

"Once we clear the lot where the Western festival was, we can remove the people from the vehicles and drive them there," April said. "Of course, I'm assuming the vehicles can be driven."

"We have a lot of work ahead of us," the first housekeeper commented.

"Yeah," the second one said.

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

"April, Midori, we have stuff to pack and bring over here," Christine called out.

"Coming," came April's voice from the stairs.

When they came through the gate, Sir John met them. "Report," he said. Christine did. "Thank you," he said. "Can we communicate through the gate?"

"I don't know," April admitted. "We should try."

"Proceed," Sir John said. They did. The two-way radio system worked through the gate.

"I heard about the world on the other side of the gate," Voltron said as she joined them, still in street clothes. "Did you actually find an archery range?"

"Yeah," Christine replied, grabbing her luggage. "However, we didn't get get a good look at it."

"I'm going with you," Voltron said. "If nothing else, I could pick up a bow and arrows and practice."

"Always helps," April said.

When they came through, they found the street partially-cleared of vehicles. "I moved the cars I could onto the restaraunt, church, and community center parking lots," Keiko said as she joined them. "The housekeepers have the clothing from the bodies. The cleaning equipment and burglar tools are still in the vehicles they were originally in."

"Good work," Christine said. "Turning to Voltron, she added, "Archery range is this way."

As they walked, April asked, "Any interesting news from our world?"

"Yeah," Voltron replied. "Three hours ago, our time, the House Judiciary Committee reported to the full House that Kinsey should be Impeached on all charges. After one hour of debate, he was Impeached. A report has been sent to the Senate, and a trial will be held. President Collingsworth has stated that, if Kinsey is found guilty by the Senate, Senator Gloria Vasquez will be the new Vice President. Did you know that her daughter, Elena, lives nearby, in Sacramento and goes to high school there?"

"She's one of our area's three Slayers," Christine said. "The other two are Ronna West and Fujiko Yamashiro. All three are in the same high school. Ronna's father, John, the school librarian, is their Watcher. His wife, Anne, is the school nurse. Fujiko's mother, Tatsu, owns a dojo and her sister, Rumiko, owns a gymnastics school."

"I did," April said. "They're fellow kunoichi and clan-sisters."

"What's a kunoichi?" Voltron asked as the three women walked around the archery range.

"Japanese term for a female ninja," April replied.

[Mark Rand]

Re: IST San Angelo

 

"Oh," Voltron said. Turning to Christine, she asked, "Do they fight alone?"

"No," Christine replied. "They share their battle with three mother-daughter teams, all of which are at the same high school. Two teams are decended from the ancient Amazons. The daughters, like the Slayers, are students. The mothers are physical education teachers. The last team is two guardian witches. The mother is a high school chemistry teacher, her daughter is a computer expert."

"Nice," Voltron said. "How did you learn this information?"

"Sir John received a fax from Mr. West and had the information copied and everyone on the team and senior staff had one placed in his or her mailbox."

"Then, since I picked my mail up this morning and dropped it in my bag, I should have my copy with me," April said.

"How powerful are these witches?" Voltron asked.

"They're from the Warren family and related to San Francisco's three guardian witches, Pheobe and Piper Halliwell and their half-sister Paige Matthews, who loves lollypops. Perhaps you've heard of them. They're The Charmed Ones."

"Nice," April said. "What kind of weapons do Slayers carry and how do they carry them?"

"Buffy Summers's wiccan friend, created fanny packs that are bigger inside than outside to hold a Slayer's gear. All Slayers and their associates carry them. They're also keyed to open only for the people she works with. Inside it are wooden stakes, vials of holy water, two extra crosses, a crossbow with wooden bolts, a non-magical duplicate of Buffy's scythe, a weapon that can both chop and stake, a sword of the Slayer's choice and what other weapons you want. Fujiko carries Firestorm, a katana that is said to be blessed and was once carried by a Slayer in Japan 300 years ago. Tatsu carries Rainstorm, the katana carried by that Slayer's Watcher."