WWYCD: Back to the Streets

[McCoy]

Also' date=' I notice that the preponderance of WWYCDs recently have been global-level threats, or at least national-level threats. What about all our poor street-level characters, languishing for something they can actually have a hope of tackling? [/quote']

Fine. Your character is in the less desireable part of town; on patrol, running an errand in civilian ID, neglected to take that left turn at Albuquerque, whatever. You see a Black male tween dressed in a tee shirt, baggy pants and brand new cross trainers running. He is being chased by two White male adults in police uniforms, with weapons drawn (anyone who has worked with the police knows they do not ususally run with pistols in hand, shoot fleeing suspects, or fire on juvies except in self defense). The tween scrambles up a fire escape. A couple shots are fired. The White men follow more slowly, one slips and falls, landing on his head with a sickening thump. Your character catches up with them as the White man has the Black tween cornered. No matter what your character's relationship with the police, officialy sanctioned hero or on the most wanted list, he turns and growls "Police business! Get the f*** outta here!" As he says this something makes his gun hand twist around, and his pistol fires, sending one bullet through his brain, killing him instantly.

 

The tween will introduce himself as William Calvin, and tell you he he is having the worst, and best, week of his life. He claims that eight days ago he was a quadroplegic. Since then three different alien species have shown up at Earth, and he has reverse-engineered technology from all three. But then a Super Hero group, yes, heroes, cured him of the disease that had crippled him from birth, then destroyed his gadget pool when they caught him spying on him. They didn't get his alien tech files, they were in a secure, remote but web accessable location, he calls it the Pandora file. But now someone wants the Pandora file to stay lost. "I don't know if those wer real cops, rogue cops, or fake cops. I need internet access, the more bandwith the better, and a safe location and time to rebuild the modules for my gadget pool." If they ask who would want to supress the Pandora file, he says "Anyone with a heavy investment in the status quo. There's things in that file that will change everything. Non-poluting energy generation, antigravity, a vaccine for Natural Causes, three working FTL drives, that seem to work on at least two different theories, plus about a dozen things that I made schematics of that I have no idea what they do, they just looked important."

 

If your character has telepathy or any other way of judging his veracity, he believes what he's saying. If not, you might notice that you have two rapidly cooling bodies in police uniforms, and hear no sirenes or see any other sign of back-up arriving. Real or not (and equiptment and ID looks real), they were definitely not following procudure.

 

WWYCD?

 

[edit] Without his gadget pool, Will has a 33 INT, 23 EGO, 10 STR TK, and no other unusual abilities.

[SatinKitty]

Re: WWYCD: Back to the Streets

 

MINDFLAIR: First would thoroughly probe the boy to see if he was insane, as may be the case since he was quadripoligic (spell ?) for so long and has had so many big stressful shocks, including gaining superpowers. If so, and if the Police were mind-controlled, she'd assume some Villain simply didn't want another Hero in town and hospitalize the boy, taking him on as a patient if possible. What he said was in that file says probable Paranoid Scizophrenia to her.

If the kid is on the level, and there really is a big conspiracy going on, she'd be out of her depth, as her team broke up long ago. She would consult the local Superhero team and work with them to solve the problem. Would they even believe her ?

[Badger]

Re: WWYCD: Back to the Streets

 

Well Badger would be a bit distrustful but go along with it cautiously. He is part-alien so it could be certainly believable to him. Hope the policemen werent the real deal though. He wouldnt want to get in trouble with the law again for something like this. Probably wouldnt trust the teammates more prone to be do-gooders, as "they would probably just cause more trouble". So his team would be kept out of the loop unless in extreme circumstance. He would definitely need to see the files for himself.

[Marketeer]

Re: WWYCD: Back to the Streets

 

Blackberry doesn't think humanity is ready for immortality.

 

On the other hand, the rest of these gadgets seem like good ideas, although releasing them irresponsibly could lead to lots of problems.

 

She'd go along with this young lad for now at least, and try to figure out why the hero group destroyed his gadget pool...

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD: Back to the Streets

 

Blackberry doesn't think humanity is ready for immortality.

 

On the other hand, the rest of these gadgets seem like good ideas, although releasing them irresponsibly could lead to lots of problems.

 

She'd go along with this young lad for now at least, and try to figure out why the hero group destroyed his gadget pool...

See the thread http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37467 He was trying to remotely turn off the device ramping up the Benevolent Seven's powers.

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD: Back to the Streets

 

I guess what would happen here would depend on whether the events of the last several WWYCDs are known to have actually happened, as implied by Will's statements about aliens having shown up and having been cured by the Benevolent Seven (which would certainly make the news, and would make just about any character's campaign world a vastly different place) or whether this whole thing is supposed to be a giant conspiracy theory plot.

 

Soulbarb's going to be there in her normal ID, since Will probably would have run away from her heroic ID. Her first order of business is to peek at Will's soul and make sure he's not imbalanced; that bit with making the 'cop' shoot himself in the head seemed a bit excessive to her. If he could do that, surely he could find a less lethal way to disable him. If she decides he's basically a decent sort and not feeding her a line of bull, her DNPC is a conspiracy nut of the first order, so Soulbarb would turn to him to get the skinny on who those 'cops' likely were.

 

If all those events from the last few WWYCDs are public knowledge, then it's a safe bet that the government and certain private enterprises are already reverse-engineering the same tech that William did; the government in Soulbarb's world is in general not the hopelessly incompetent / corrupt sort. Getting access to the net and thereby Pandora files is relatively easy, since Soulbarb is fairly tech-savvy herself and has a friend or two who are even more so. Making a number of copies of the data should not be a problem, and from there they can be distributed to a number of government agencies such as PRIMUS, public message boards, and so forth. In this instance the idea of moderating the pace of change won't even occur to her; as far as she's concerned, the stuff is going to get out soon enough anyway, she is just making sure everyone has access to it. Open source all the way! She'll keep a few extra copies lying around in various secure places, just in case.

 

If her peek into Will's soul tells her that he's not quite on the level, and/or if the events he's describing are real conspiracy theory stuff (i.e. no known alien contacts, and she's never heard of the superheroes who are supposed to have cured him) then she's going to be a lot more suspicious that he's just trying to get some mega-virus out there or has some other agenda and that all this supertech he's describing is a load of BS. She'll string him along while trying to check up on his story and figure out what he's really up to -- meanwhile checking with her DNPC about both the cops and about where this Will character comes from. What kind of shadow war has she inadvertently found herself in the middle of?

 

Cerulean doesn't know anything at all about conspiracies (they don't tend to happen where he comes from) or about technology. He'll have to defer to his teammates. He won't be happy about the kid killing the cop by forcing him to shoot himself in the head, though. He'll point out the fact that there are laws against the use of excessive force and take the kid in to the Spire for Dr. Quantum and Gallant to have a chat with. If he turns out to be on the level, the Spire is about the safest place he could be, and there's plenty of technological knowhow and capability there to do whatever the team might think best with the Pandora files.

[dbsousa]

Re: WWYCD: Back to the Streets

 

Golden Eagle "Ok, son. Tell me a little about your discoveries while I radio the police. If there is no warrant for your arrest, My employer is willing to set you up in a lab, if we can agree on terms. Dex Morache has made billions by changing the status quo, and if your claims are true, so will you..."

 

Bouncer"Kid, did you just cap a cop?"

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD: Back to the Streets

 

Bouncer"Kid' date=' did you just cap a cop?"[/quote']

"Maybe. I can't do telepathy or retrocog until I rebuild my gadget modules. I would like to believe that real cops don't shoot at unarmed 13 year olds. But look at how badly I miscalculated on the one I shoved off the fire escape. I though he'd break his legs, not his skull. But the last one, I just took advantage of a moment of distraction to twist his arm so the gun was pointing at him. He pulled the trigger."

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD: Back to the Streets

 

I guess what would happen here would depend on whether the events of the last several WWYCDs are known to have actually happened' date=' as implied by Will's statements about aliens having shown up and having been cured by the Benevolent Seven (which would certainly make the news, and would make just about any character's campaign world a vastly different place) or whether this whole thing is supposed to be a giant conspiracy theory plot.[/quote']

Maybe a disinformation campagine can shove all news of the invasions to the tabloids.

 

But the Benevolent Seven were obvious to every person on the planet. Mindspoke directly to every person on the planet.

[Lethosos]

Re: WWYCD: Back to the Streets

 

Queen of Spades is already suspicious of the Benlovent Seven, so she can sympathize. She'd have called her Armor up once she notices the odd police behavior (someplace out of the way, of course.) Once she shears his story and his explaination of the cops, she might be a bit distrustful. But she'll play along, take note of the dead cops' faces/IDs for later screening, and take him quietly to where he can prove most of his story. (Along with a sharp request to not use his new "abilities" from here on, for now. Ravenswood will be an idea place to send him afterwards, it's far enough from Vibora Bay.) A quick scan of the Pandora Files and the local police registry database, and she'll have a better idea of what to do. Regardless, the Files should be at least proof that something's a little screwy here...

 

If the police IDs are false (basically they were playing cops,) then she'll keep quiet and let the real ones puzzle over the bodies. The kid needed to hide, and it's better this way. Pull the Files out of its hiding place, burn it to a sturdy data device, and wipe all tracks clean. Then give the data device to the kid and make some plans about how to keep the kid safe... Sending him to Ravenswood is a start, but he'll need a clean ID and a good background story to keep others from prying too deep--this would give him some time to prepare and pratice with his abilities in an ideal enviroment.