WWYCD: The Return of Power Fist

[SKJAM!]

Re: WWYCD: The Return of Power Fist

 

Soulbarb is going to want to know just how Power Fist tracked her down before she does anything else. She's not really in a position to be able to help him anyway, seeing as she can't really leave her home town. Best she can do is give him some advice. She's pragmatic enough to know that you can never get rid of all the scum, but you can certainly try to keep a lid on things so they don't get out of hand.

 

"Well, here we have the usual mess of gangs and so far I haven't had too much trouble with them. I think it helps if you keep tabs on the leadership of each of them and make sure they're led by guys who know that the most successful parasites are the ones that don't kill their hosts, ya know? One of them gets too rough on the people in his turf, I'd bust in on the head guy, pick him up and drop him off with the cops, kind of a surgical strike, ok? That usually forces them to lay low and reorganize for a bit, and keep a lower profile next time. The smart gang leaders tend not to gamble with their own personal power, and keep the lid on. In your case, part of the problem is that you let the Upright Brotherhood get so powerful to begin with, only another really powerful gang could possibly take them on. That makes it harder for you to deal with the problem now that the Rats are getting too big for their britches. Still, if you can sneak in and arrange to pick up their leadership without having to fight the whole gang at once, things might disorganize enough that the Upright Brotherhood and other gangs can stake some claims, which will break the problem up into more manageable chunks. Where you go from there is up to you, but if you let the Upright Brotherhood take the whole pie again you're risking someone like the Rats making a move on the whole shooting match at once again.

 

Now, if the local cops are all corrupt, you might want to think about calling PRIMUS in. I dunno about your area but around here they seem to be pretty good at making sure the guys I take off the street stay off the street. One thing I can tell you that if you start popping guys left right and center, then you're gonna get labelled as a mass murderer pretty quick, and you won't be able to get any help from the feds -- instead they'll be tracking you down, and that will make it a lot harder to clean up your town, not easier. You might be able to get away with killing one guy, or a few, but anyone who kills and keeps on killing eventually gets caught. So, while I can appreciate you want revenge for sending your girlfriend into hiding, personally I think the whole killing angle is only going to hurt your efforts."

 

Basically she'll try and persuade him to moderate his efforts not by telling him that it's wrong, but by telling him it's impractical.

 

 

He was passing through town and caught her in action, or some such.

 

Surprisingly enough, Soulbarb has a better chance of getting Power Fist to moderate his actions than most of the other folks, by virtue of a more viable argument.

 

However: "PRIMUS? They never showed an interest before, why should I trust them now? The Feds were useless to me, which is one of the big reasons I switched tactics."

 

Indeed, characters with Federal contacts will quickly learn there's an unofficial but strong policy against investigating anything going on in Cesspool City. Agents who look too closely are warned off, and if they don't back off, bad things happen to their careers. (Naturally, player character agents will have more backbone.)

[SKJAM!]

Re: WWYCD: The Return of Power Fist

 

Actually I don't think they do' date=' they just send notification to the last know address. But Iron Will has been practicing with clairvoyance a lot lately, he will be willing to look for them.[/quote']

 

"Darn. I was hoping you could trick the Feds into actually doing something. If I believed they were actually prepared to clean up Cesspool City's government, I wouldn't have to kill as many people."

[SKJAM!]

Re: WWYCD: The Return of Power Fist

 

Starguard -- "Do you say the same things to people who live in your city? Or to the police? Or to' date=' well, [i']anyone[/i]? You're caring so much that you're hurting yourself and everybody else. Please, stop before you finish becoming a supervillain."

 

Dr. Pain -- "Say what? OK, Power Trip. It's on."

 

Baron von Darien -- *a dry snapping sound, as of a human neck breaking... and not the Baron's*

 

... yes, he really did just kill the person he was talking to. It's been known to happen occasionally.

 

Actually Power Fist only said that to Anthem. From his perspective, she's taken the attitude that cleaning up the mess in Cesspool City is less important than preventing him from killing people. And in the short term, stopping Power Fist will make things worse in some ways. While he may be a deluded thug, the civilians of Cesspool City see him as the only person who's actually doing anything about the crime problem. Taking Power Fist off the street will cause a massive drop in their morale.

[Chuckg]

Re: WWYCD: The Return of Power Fist

 

> Actually Power Fist only said that to Anthem. From his perspective,

> she's taken the attitude that cleaning up the mess in Cesspool City is

> less important than preventing him from killing people.

 

I got the impression that from his perspective, /anybody/ who responded with a 'hey, you're doing it wrong, methinks' would get the same response.

 

Granted, the Baron doesn't *care* about him killing people... I mean, this is Baron von Darien we're talking about here. The reason *he'd* snap Power Fist's neck is a) he threatened the Baron and, more importantly the Baron thinks that he's talking to an idiot who would do far less harm dead than he would by being allowed to leave. The other two are taking him down (non-lethally, of course) for more gentle motives.

 

> And in the short term, stopping Power Fist will make things worse in

> some ways. While he may be a deluded thug, the civilians of Cesspool

> City see him as the only person who's actually doing anything about

> the crime problem. Taking Power Fist off the street will cause a

> massive drop in their morale.

 

So give the city some new heroes.

 

Seriously, not a dilemna here. Power Fist has gone down the path of the fanatic until he can't see reason anymore, that was made obviously plain by his declaration to Anthem that unless his fellow heroes agreed with *HIS* vision, and did it *HIS* way in *HIS* city, he'd consider them to be enemies as well -- that's what "part of the problem" /means/, after all.

 

At this point, you stop Power Fist, because the immediate drop to the city's morale is nothing compared to the damage he'll do if he's allowed free rein. History tells us that fanatic + vigilante mentality + power + no outside checks = bad ending.

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD: The Return of Power Fist

 

However: "PRIMUS? They never showed an interest before' date=' why should I trust them now? The Feds were useless to me, which is one of the big reasons I switched tactics."[/quote']

Soulbarb (cont'd): "You still don't want to be on the Feds' bad side. Maybe so far they've been looking the other way 'bout the gangs 'cause someone somewhere's been bought off. You think if you start killing people, they'll keep ignoring you too? Probably not; whoever's doing the buying will make sure you're on the list to be taken down, not on the 'we didn't see that' list. Killing a ton of folks is just giving them an excuse to take you down -- no-one likes a serial killer in the neighborhood.

 

And if you're the hope of the people of Cesspool City, do you really think it won't have a negative impact on their morale if you sink to the gangsters' level and start offing people? Word will get around. Probably some of them will start having second thoughts about the support they're throwing your way. You ever need a hand from a cabbie or someone to get you out of trouble in a hurry, you just might find they aren't there for you.

 

You need allies, and you don't think PRIMUS will help, so you're going around looking for people who might be willing to do so, right? You might want to stop and think about the demographics of the people you're talking to here. Most of the people you might ask for help are opposed to killing for one reason or another. And yet here you are, practically insisting on it. You really think you're going to get many people agreeing to help you? You're taking a big risk that someone with a lot more power than you doesn't just decide that you've already gone over the line and shut you down.

 

If you insist on killing, you're both playing into your enemies hands and likely to alienate the very people that could help you. It's that simple. So my advice: don't do that. There are times when killing is the only smart option, but this isn't one of them."

[dbsousa]

Re: WWYCD: The Return of Power Fist

 

 

"Tell me more."

Revenant: "I have reason to believe that Uncle Adolph has infiltrated not only the Criminal gangs in this town, but certain G-Men as well. FDR might not approve of us vigilantes, but once we get involved in the war on Europe, he'll thank us for keeping the streets free of Bundists. It's like I tell those Ratzis, Kill me once, shame on me, Kill me twice..."

[Publius]

Re: WWYCD: The Return of Power Fist

 

The girlfriend is pretty' date=' but looks a bit too much of a hothouse flower for many people's taste.[/quote']No problem, just checking out the local action. And Jack has broad tastes in broads anyway

As for the "why does Power Fist need an ally" question: "I can take any one of (names half a dozen nasty mercenary villains) but if they manage to all be in one place with me....mostly I need someone capable of watching my back while I take care of business."

Not actually the question. More: "Why not simply take over yourself?" in other words, become the head of the syndicate yourself. Probably wouldn't work, but Jack would at least make a token effort to show that the plan would work much better with a steady hand in charge of the "good" syndicate -- especially one capable of keeping the "good" guys in charge in the face of the next crop of Rats. He wouldn't reveal that he has done this in the past before, but he would at least make the effort to show the need.

 

(and nobody commented on the "dingy" line? ... we are talking about mob conflicts here, I thought a good Godfather reference would get some notice)

[DataPacRat]

Re: WWYCD: The Return of Power Fist

 

his plan is to kill off the Rats and reinstall the Upright Brotherhood. He's only interested in an alliance with your character if things are handled "my way."

 

Bunny rolls her eyes. "With an attitude like that, I'll take the highway. But I do dislike when civvies get killed, and your city sounds like it could use some improvement. I've been planning on expanding the Pink Bunny charities from (Campaign City), and Cesspool might just be the place. Once I fund enough methadone clinics and other drug rehabilitation centres to get rid of the demand, and contributing to politicians to Nevada-ize the prostitution and gambling laws instead of the usual prohibition, profits will disappear, the gangs will look elsewhere for their money, and things should start massively improving."

 

(Hey, she arrived on Earth from another planet, and her nanites give her Unaging; she can take the long view...)