WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

[Mark Rand]

This will actually happen several months before my campaign starts.

 

President Bush (Dubya) was getting ready to address a joint session of Congress. The Congress, minus the designated survivors, the Cabinet, minus the designated survivor, Secretary of Education James Collingsworth, the Supreme Court, a majority of the people running for the Presidency, and federal department heads, were all there. As Dubya began to speak, a nuclear bomb, located one block beyond the security area, detonated. D.C. was gone.

 

Collingsworth and his wife were in Texas, visiting the circus their married daughter worked at. The others were at Camp David. Their daughter's act was about to start when a military officer in the communications truck informed the ringmaster of the situation.

 

He made the announcement, then had everyone rise for Taps. Collingsworth was then sworn in. He then departed in the new Marine One for the military field that the new Air Force One. From there, he flew to Denver, to rebuild the federal government.

 

WWYCD?

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

Soubarb: is (by default) a street-level vigilante in Houston, TX. It's unlikely that there would be anything she could do about it, short of search the web to see if she could find evidence of the perpetrators and/or funny business involving the new president. Given that this is a national security issue, there will be people far more capable at that job than herself on it immediately.

 

Sylph: Contact Coach, the AI at the UNTIL-provided base for the New Pantheon, and see if there is anything she can do to help the survivors of the attack. Her healing powers are likely to be needed, and indeed put to the test.

[Hermit]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

Doctor Sanguine-Go back in time via a powerful spell before it occurred, and prevent it. Perhaps he would bring one of the Omega 6 along.

[Clonus]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

Riptide: Help with damage control, put together a benefit concert for the victims, offer his services as a superhero to the new President...and secretly try to figure out who the new President is working for. Hm...come to think of he does have a time machine stashed away even though he was reluctant to use it. He might try to reverse it.

 

The Wizard of Oz Incorporated: Offers to sell the Canadian government a network of active scanners that will insure that nobody can bring fissionable material into Ottawa without being noticed. After that, move on to offering to sell the same technology to many different governments.

[Mark Rand]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

President Collingsworth was a well-respected Maryland educator before being selected as Secretary of Education. He played the trombone in high school and college and is a Conservative Jew. His wife, Ann, is an eye surgeon and was on the faculty of the George Washington University Medical School until D.C. (within the rivers) became nonexistent.

 

Lieutenant Commander Gail Peters (USN) is the current military aide that carries the Nuclear Football for President Collingsworth. On the ride to Air Force One, he handed her a copy of the speech Bush was going to give and told her to read it on the flight to Denver.

 

In truth, they didn't go to Denver. They were forced, by weather, to land at the United States Air Force Academy. Security there is tight, and that's putting it mildly.

[Drhoz]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

Hmm. Truman/Zero would be mostly useless, given he's a mentalist and coward.

 

Vitus, whilst annoyed that he's now been roped in to yet another disaster, and a merely political one at that, would probably spend the next few months using his recently rediscovered divine magics to heal the horribly burnt & hideously scarred, and restoring the vision of those who had their eyeballs burnt out by the flash.

(altho the drama that would ensue by having an alien cleric with a particularly unpopular symbol as his holy shorthand would be entertaining)

 

And then, to work off his frustration, he'ld probably spend a few hours each night disintigrating looters.

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

Well, first thing is to point out to the GM how highly unlikely it is that the Designated Survivors would use the State of the Union Address as an opportunity for a family vacation. Most likely they would already be together, with a Federal Judge, in an undisclosed secure location, watching the speech on TV.

 

All characters: Get to DC ASAP to assist in search, rescue and recovery. Cheeta and Dolphin are already radiation proof, Iron Will can shift enough life support out of his pool, Snow Leopard and Millennium will have to count on their regen and healing touch, respectively, to protect them.

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

Soubarb: is (by default) a street-level vigilante in Houston' date=' TX. It's unlikely that there would be anything she could do about it, short of search the web to see if she could find evidence of the perpetrators and/or funny business involving the new president. Given that this is a national security issue, there will be people far more capable at that job than herself on it immediately.[/quote']

 

Hmm. Truman/Zero would be mostly useless' date=' given he's a mentalist and coward.[/quote']

While it would be hoped that Americans would pull together at this time like they did after 9/11, it cannot be overlooked that this is the type of situation that sometimes brings out riots and looters. Street level heroes may want to patrol with this in mind?

 

Also let me point out for the comspiracy theorist, in the situation described more than 80% of the casualities are going to be Black.

[Mark Rand]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

Well, first thing is to point out to the GM how highly unlikely it is that the Designated Survivors would use the State of the Union Address as an opportunity for a family vacation. Most likely they would already be together, with a Federal Judge, in an undisclosed secure location, watching the speech on TV.

 

All characters: Get to DC ASAP to assist in search, rescue and recovery. Cheeta and Dolphin are already radiation proof, Iron Will can shift enough life support out of his pool, Snow Leopard and Millennium will have to count on their regen and healing touch, respectively, to protect them.

 

This wasn't The State of the Union Address. That happened in late January or early February, while the circus was in winter quarters. This time, Dubya was going to announce the existence of Stargate Command. Collingsworth knew about it because he read the speech on the plane when he flew to Texas, where the circus was. Commander Peters read the speech on Air Force One.

 

As far as D.C. goes, the crater covers the entire area between the rivers and the area beyond that, but within the Beltway, was flattened by the Mach Wave.

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

While it would be hoped that Americans would pull together at this time like they did after 9/11' date=' it cannot be overlooked that this is the type of situation that sometimes brings out riots and looters. Street level heroes may want to patrol with this in mind?[/quote']

A good thought; however, Soulbarb doesn't do the 'patrol' thing per se. What she does is rely on a relatively extensive contact list and on her internet-savvy for keeping her ear to the ground for signs of trouble, and then investigate specific problems detective-style. She's reluctant to show her face in hero ID without a specific goal in mind, since said face is more likely to cause panic than to quell it if she gets too much of the wrong sorts of publicity.

 

That said, she certainly would be keeping an ear out for trouble during troubled times.

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

As far as D.C. goes' date=' the crater covers the entire area between the rivers and the area beyond that, but within the Beltway, was flattened by the Mach Wave.[/quote']

There is going to be a "fringe area" where there could conceiveably be people trapped, injured, but still alive who can be kept alive finding them and getting them to medical attention. However far from Ground Zero that is, that's where Cheeta, Iron Will, and Snow Leopard are working. Millennium will be quartering the beltway area, using mind search to try to detect any survivors in underground shelters. Still a lot of cold war era bomb shelters in the area, someone may be lucky enough to have been in one when the bomb went off. Dolphin will follow, ready to dig if Millennium finds anything.

 

Like the rescue/recovery dogs in 911, they may ultimately find nothing, but it will not be through lack of trying.

[Theron]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

Troubadour would do a little dance, make a little love, and get down tonight.

 

Then he'd run for Senate on the platform of "A Troubled Man For Troubled Times."

[hfergus]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

Oh crud! Olorin has the ability to go back in time and fix it, but is always relutant to do so. He'd probably "go medieval" - since he is a medieval mage (and a Celt at that). It would be "payback time" to whoever is responsible. There would be more than one smoldering crater once he is done- and those would be the clean deaths. Killing innocents (although there are some that say anyone in DC is not an innocent:rolleyes:) would infuriate him. It would be hard for anyone to reason with him. Even if he went back in time his way to stop it would be to forcefully, bloodly and with fury deal with (Kill, and painfully at that) everyone in the process up to and including the top planner.

 

Volt would try to help with the chaos and try to find who "who done it". If an individual, put him away. If a nation, he'd agitate for war and invovle himself in it.

[SKJAM!]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

Mask of Justice: Given he's a Golden Age character, anything involving a nuclear explosion before 1945 already involves time travel, and thus he'll be able to undo it using the villain's own time machine, which will conveniently run out of fuel just as the Mask returns to his restored present. The machine will be confiscated and "studied by top men", never to be heard from again.

 

Calculus: He didn't much like President Nixon, but no one pulls this on America. No one. Calculus will use his supreme intellect and contacts to discover the responsible parties, and notify the proper authorities of his findings.

 

Rock Bottom: Is from Baltimore, not that far away, and is mostly resistant to radiation due to being made of living stone. He and the rest of his team will be down there posthaste, and Rock will be actively assisting the rescue effort as close to the epicenter as is at all survivable. He'll leave it up to detective-types to figure out who's responsible.

 

Kira Midori: Will be appalled, remembering Atomic War I from her history books. As a police officer with psychic powers, will be most useful on the investigative side, once she recovers from the effect of all those people dying at once, though she might spend some time helping find survivors with her telepathy.

 

Talion: Well, it's a pity about President Thurmond and all those other people, but Talion suffers from a bit of disaster fatigue. He'll just pitch in wherever the government (what's left of it) suggests. No doubt the crazy person who did this will claim responsibility soon.

[tkdguy]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

I actually did that scenario in my campaign; Bush senior was still the President. What happened was that the USA was split into several nations, with California becoming a country by itself. The PCs simply continued defending San Francisco, which was their home turf after all. We were using another system that didn't include superpowers, so the PCs would be considered powerful heroes but not superheroes.

[Drhoz]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

While it would be hoped that Americans would pull together at this time like they did after 9/11' date=' it cannot be overlooked that this is the type of situation that sometimes brings out riots and looters. Street level heroes may want to patrol with this in mind?[/quote']

 

True, but a major consideration for Zero would be that he has no particular defences against fall-out-based radiation poisoning. For that matter, not many street-level heroes would either.

 

On the other hand, as long as he gets to stay up-wind of the crater, he *could* scan for survivors and mentally co-ordinate the rescue efforts of supers that can survive happilyin the irradiated zone

[TheRavenIs]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

I'll have to give this one some thought, so I'll post later with my C's responces.

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

True' date=' but a major consideration for Zero would be that he has no particular defences against fall-out-based radiation poisoning. For that matter, not many street-level heroes would either.[/quote']

I didn't mean "patrol the rubble that use to be Washington," I ment "patrol New York, Los Angeles, Houston, whatever their home city might be to try to nip any riots/looting in the bud."

[Badger]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

Badger: Hmm, he'd be P!ssed. Not likely to do much to help in seraching for survivors (though he could probably help in the short term). If no one involved with planting the bomb had any energy signatures that were powerful or unusual wouldnt be much help in investigation. Probably help in short term, if any info on the guilty come to him, or the investigation leads to an area of knowledge he can help at, he will get involved in that area. When found he will make sure their deaths are slow and painful (yes, not very heroic, but he is only a still reforming villain). If it is Iran or another rogue nation involved, I could see him taking advantage of the chaos to wage his own little war out in the mid-East or whereever (sometimes thinks before he acts). Which might be motivation for his teamates to keep a bit out of the loop and on a short leash. I could see him thinking that the West is way too soft on terror. And this was their punishment for it. (And it is time for him to show them how to wage war.)

 

 

Frosty Bob- kick @$$, take name, kick @$$ of the names he takes, takes more names, etc. He feels right at home at war. Maybe he wont be held back like he was in Vietnam ("semi-immortal", also fought in Korea, WWII, rumored to have in WWI, though not confirmed and he isnt saying.)

[Drhoz]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

I didn't mean "patrol the rubble that use to be Washington' date='" I ment "patrol New York, Los Angeles, Houston, whatever their home city might be to try to nip any riots/looting in the bud."[/quote']

 

ah, the usual stuff.

[Balabanto]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

It's likely in my game that there would be superheroes who would try to BECOME the government.

 

There would be a lot of problems, battles between heroes who want to kill everyone involved, and heroes who want to bring these people to justice.

 

Quite frankly, though, in my world Nuclear Disarmament is a world reality. It would be hard to do.

 

There are reasons why I had a villain do this, but the most important is plot motivated. It's the same reason I maintain the rarity of aliens.

 

That way, when someone says "I have an atomic bomb," it's scary.

 

When someone pulls off a guy's mask and says "My god...he's an ALIEN" it retains it's classic comic book meaning.

[Powerhouse]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

Hopefully, the Silver Knights were out of town when the explosion happened.

 

That said, the Silver Knights would have been contacted about 30 seconds after the explosion (they are the JLA/Avengers of their world) and be responding to escorting the new President to wherever the heck he needs to be. After loaning who was needed to the Secret Service, the rest would be giving what support they could to clean up.

 

Unfortunately, they're not that great at detective work so they'd have to rely on the FBI/CIA to find out who did it. After that, it would be intresting since the Knights are intended to be a global team but some of their members would certainly agitate to go wherever the intelligence said the threat had originated from, UN be darned.

[Mark Rand]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

Hopefully, the Silver Knights were out of town when the explosion happened.

 

That said, the Silver Knights would have been contacted about 30 seconds after the explosion (they are the JLA/Avengers of their world) and be responding to escorting the new President to wherever the heck he needs to be. After loaning who was needed to the Secret Service, the rest would be giving what support they could to clean up.

 

The Silver Knights would be ordered to the Air Force Academy and asked to assist with keeping the academy secure. The Secret Service would be the ones closest to the President.

 

On the helicopter, using the Football, Collingsworth ordered Defcon 4, then had the military commanders join him so that a new Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a new chairman, could be picked. Upon hearing that the USAF Chief of Staff was at Cheyenne Mountain, he ordered General Hammond and his key officers to come, too.

 

When Hammond arrived, he asked if the blast came from off world.

[Mark Rand]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

I had forgotten to mention this before. The detonation of the bomb would generate an electromagnetic pulse that would fry anything electrical or electronic within, at least, 125 miles of ground zero.

[Drhoz]

Re: WWYCD: Washington, D.C. is no more.

 

I had forgotten to mention this before. The detonation of the bomb would generate an electromagnetic pulse that would fry anything electrical or electronic within' date=' at least, 125 miles of ground zero.[/quote']

 

i thought EMP was a result of high-altitude detonations....

 

*checks* yah, thought so - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse