csyphrett

They had Dare and Devil but I don't remember who the combinations were. The best combination was Dr Strangefate who became the villain of one of the follow up series. CES

Desert Storms 6 1987 Ren opened his eyes to a voice asking if he was all right, and sand rubbing everywhere. He should have stayed home. He could be eating flapjacks with Corona and Bond instead of being trapped wherever he was at the moment. He was in a cylinder of light. Signs had been engraved in a platform under him and in the ceiling above him. He touched the transparent wall with the sleeve of his coat. Smoke rolled off the cuff as he watched it. “If you try to jump through the cage wall, you will be burned badly,” said the voice again. Ren examined the rest of the room he was trapped in. His cylinder stood in a triangle facing two other cylinders. An old man dressed in the style of ancient China and a man dressed in what the detective thought of as butler tuxedo took up one of the cylinders. The old man was bald, wrinkled beyond belief, and calm about being trapped. His servant stood at parade rest behind him, as impassive as any butler born. Ren wasn’t sure the butler was human. The other cylinder held a woman with dark hair and green eyes. She wore a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals. A rune covered the back of her hand. “How do you do?,” asked Ren. He looked down and didn’t see his bag. He looked around the room and spotted it on the floor next to his cell. “Caught by the storm?,” asked the woman. “Yes,” said Ren. “My friend and I were looking at the cloud when it expanded. I think I took a hit. My name is Ren.” “I’m Al-a-Din,” said the old man. He gestured at his servant. “This is Hakim.” “I’m Rachel Rosenbaum,” said the woman. “The cells prevent the use of magic.” “That is unfortunate,” said Ren. He checked the pockets of his coat. He smiled when he felt his tool kit in his jacket. “Is that why we’re in these magical cells?” “We think the person who put us in these is draining our ability to cast magic to do whatever he is doing,” said Rachel. “He’s in control of a giant sandstorm,” said Ren. He pulled out his tool kit. “We were examining it when it caught me. My friend was not taken, so he might be working on a way to get here and do something to stop the cloud.” “Is he a magician?,” asked Rachel. “No,” said Ren. He smiled. “He’s an adventurer.” “What good is that going to do us?,” said Rachel. “He will act as a distraction while I think of a way to get us out of here,” said Ren. “I would love to see that,” said Rachel. She threw up her hands. “How will you get us out of here?,” asked Al-a-Din. He leaned forward as much as he could to watch Ren work. “I plan to open my cylinder, and then yours,” said Ren. He looked through his tool kit until he found a pair of pliers. “Then we shall look around to see what we can do about the man behind the giant cloud.” He dug at the material in the floor of his holding tank. He found a loose stone and worried it until it popped loose. He placed the stone out of the way. He needed to pull a few more before he could make the burning light wall fail. He worked on the stones as carefully as he could. The last thing he needed was to trigger an alarm. Any capable mage would see what he was doing at a glance. Then reinforcement would happen and his chance would be gone. He frowned at the way the floor tried to grow over his attempt to fracture it. He pulled out a rod from his tool kit. He yanked one of the stones from the sign. He sank the rod into the floor to keep it from closing the wound he had made. “That’s interesting,” said Ren. He took out two more of the rods. He would have enchanted them, but his reserve of magical energy had been eaten by his cell. “What’s interesting?,” asked the old man. “The enchantment on the bottom of our tanks heals when we do things to them,” said Ren. He pulled another piece of stone out of the way. He drove a rod down inside of the wound. “I wonder how much I have to destroy before the wall cuts off.” “Perhaps as much as half,” said Hakim. “The wall is fading. You should perhaps hurry. I don’t think we’ll be alone long. The storm king will want to question you about your capabilities soon enough.” “I don’t think what I have will be that useful to him,” said Ren. He extracted one more piece of the floor and saw the beams stop above the bottom of the cylinder. “I was taught things to help me solve mysteries.” “Anything is useful in more than one way,” said the old man. “There are two exits that I have seen. One is behind you. The other is to your right. I don’t know if either leads outside.” Ren put away his tool kit and covered his head as he rolled through the gap in his cell. He stood up. That worked better than he thought it would. He looked around for a switch to turn off the other cylinders. “You might want to leave,” said the old man. “That will cause some trouble for the enemy.” “Let me think of a way to cut your cylinders off first,” said Ren. He picked up his bag and draped it over his shoulder. “If I can get you three out of those things, that will cut the cloud off. Marty will have an easier time breaching this place to help us.” “All of this was formed from a magic command of the sand,” said Rachel. “You would need something to punch through both of the caps.” “I don’t really have anything that can do that,” said Ren. “I do have a pocket knife that I can pass one of you so you can work on freeing yourselves while I look around.” “Give it to Al-a-Din,” said Rachel. “Hakim is more powerful than I am in the right circumstances.” Ren took out his tool kit and picked out the pliers, a chisel, and a small hammer. He pushed them through the wall of the cell. The metal smoked as the magical laser wall ate at them. Hakim waved his hand over the metal to cool the tools off. “I’m going to look around and see if there is a way to let Marty in,” said Ren. “I will come back and get you people out of this.” “Take your time,” said Rachel. “We’ll be able to free ourselves soon enough,” said the old man. He waved Ren away as Hakim dug into the bottom of their cell. He shoved the rocks out on the floor with his feet. Ren decided to take the door to the right. It seemed to lead deeper into the facility. Maybe he could talk their captor down. He thought his chances were poor to do that. He had come to some conclusions with the information he had, and things looked bad at the moment. He was obviously dealing with a magician capable of shaping stone. He had seized a spot in Southern Israel that gave him control of the local area. The captured magicians had been drained to help power his sandstorm. The only question was what was he trying do with his magical storm. Ren had a few ideas and none of them were conducive to a peaceful resolution. And he would have to do something to hold the magician in place until the others were free, or Marty arrived to save the day. And he was sure that Marty would track him down. The Animal had waited ten years, but had finally hunted down the killers of his former family and freed his adopted father. He would try to find Ren, one way or the other. The detective skulked along until he found what looked like a wide open space turned into living quarters. He looked around for another exit in case he had to retreat. He didn’t have a lot of magical power, but he should be able to distract the brain behind this long enough for others to take a hand. How long would he have to hold? He doubted he would be able to do that for long. Still, he had a few tricks that should be useful. “How did you get out of your battery?,” said a voice to Ren’s right. Ren raised an eyebrow at the man confronting him. The man had wrapped himself in a cotton tunic, with sandals and a pharaoh’s wimple. Gold bracelets covered his arms. He held a hooked staff in one hand. “How do you do?,” asked Ren. “My name is Ren. I am here to talk to you about my accommodations. There is a need to improve them if you want me to stay here.” “I’m afraid my plan doesn’t call for your comfort,” said the sand king. “I have been designated by Amenophis to gather as much of the sand to me as I can and hold this position until he orders me to action. You will have to go back to your cell until I receive that word.” “I expect that you will trouble long before Amenophis will be able to order you into action,” said Ren. “You’ve attracted too much attention. The Israelis know you are here and plan to root you out.” “Do you really think that is possible?,” said the sand king. He made a gesture with his staff. “I have control over a wide expanse of the desert. They will not be able to do anything to stop me once I start the cloud moving.” Ren didn’t like that. As long as the cloud was in the desert, it was mostly harmless. People and animals could avoid it, buildings were out of the way, water was confined to oasis that could be dug out after a storm. If the storm was diverted into a metropolis, the toll would be outstanding. Anything living caught on the street would be flayed alive. Anything loose would be turned into dangerous projectiles. Even cars could be thrown around in a high enough wind. “I see you understand the implications,” said the sand king. “And there is nothing anyone can do to stop me.” “I’m willing to try,” said Ren. “Do you really think you can stop me?,” said the sand king. “I don’t think you have any spells that can touch me.” “I have one thing,” said Ren. He raised a hand. Light blasted across the room, blinding his opponent. He fled the room back toward the cell room. That didn’t go as well as I thought it would. He paused in the cell room. He looked around and spotted the other exit. He dashed toward that, waving at the others. He didn’t take the time to explain what was going on. He was sure they would understand as soon as the other man appeared. He just had to buy time so Marty could find him, or the others to escape and shake off the drain. He didn’t know how long that would take and knew his own power was at low ebb. He didn’t have enough to hypnotize a door yet. He found a long tunnel on the other side of the exit door. He ran down its length. If there was a door leading outside, he might be able to do enough to get through the storm. On the other hand, if he didn’t have enough power, this might be his last stand and being thrown outside could flay him alive. At least he wouldn’t have to deal with Corona being angry at him for being trapped like a rat. The sides of the tunnel narrowed. Dust fell to the floor. The roof shook. “I don’t have time to do this,” said the sand king. He advanced down the tunnel from the other end. “You are going to be contained, then I will make sure that you can’t escape again.” “I don’t think so,” said Ren. “I think as long as I am free, I am a stick in the spokes of whatever Amenophis planned. So I think I will remain free to do whatever I want.” “You don’t have the power to do that,” said the sand king. He pointed his staff at Ren. The end of the exit tunnel wrapped around the detective. “Get out of that.” “Give me a second, and I will,” said Ren. He smiled to show his good cheer. “I think I won’t give you that chance,” said the sand king. He gestured with his staff and the hand moved down the wall, dragging Ren with it. He dragged the detective back into the cell room. He paused. His captives glared at him, but they seemed to be hiding something. He gestured the hand to carry his captive to the third space. He ejected the rods and urged the platform to heal completely. “I don’t know what you three think is going to happen, but Amenophis will be here soon,” said the sand king. “Your position will be worse then.” “What makes you think you will still be here?,” asked Rachel. “Your plan is crumbling around you.” “Whatever happens, I will use you to power my creation,” said the sand king. “Not even the Mark will be able to stop the destruction ahead.” “I think you are wrong,” said Ren. He smiled again. “I think you are overestimating what you can do.” “What makes you say that?,” asked the sand king. He looked up. “What is going on up there?” He placed Ren in his cell and fled toward his living quarters. He couldn’t hide his alarm. “What do you think is going on?,” asked Rachel. Ala-a-Din and Hakim stepped out of their cell. “My friend is back to help us out,” said Ren.

i'm interested CES

I was kind of hoping for playtested by the greatest drafter ever, C Syphrett, and his associates, but I guess playtested by the NGD is okay. CES

Did we get credit, Soc? CES

Watched Afterlife again. This was a Ghostbusters to like with the kids dealing with their problems and their mom getting busy. CES

Congrats to you CES

Desert Storms 5 1987- “I don’t think we have anything we can use,” said Hadron. He looked around the forward base. “All I see are screens and computers.” “We can break a couple monitors open for parts,” said Cho. “The main problem is we don’t have any storage if that storm is caused by turbulence.” “We might have a problem,” said Ishmael. He checked the reports coming in from the small radar he had set up to monitor the dust cloud outside his tent headquarters. “The storm is coming our way.” “How fast?,” asked Marty. He had a dragon he could call up, but he doubted he could carry everyone to safety. “A few meters per second,” said Ishmael. “It will hit the tents before we can get the heli into the air.” “Get cover,” said Marty. “Under desks.” He went to the door of the tent. He waved the soldiers inside. He didn’t know how many were out there, but he didn’t want them to be flayed alive in the face of what they were facing. He looked for any stragglers before closing the tent flap and zipping it tight. “The wind is going to hit the tents and try to bury us,” said Marty. He started pushing one of the tables towards the others. “We need a temporary cover to let the sand flow over us without killing us.” “Turn some of the desks up,” said Ishmael. “Use the gear as a brace. We will have to dig in to avoid the brunt.” In a few minutes, the group had built a shelter with desks and tables as shields. The desktops and monitors were placed to block the anticipated wind, but it was a better than even chance they would fly away on impact. A hound appeared to dig into the ground so sand was piled around them while they were in a pit under the tables. The tent flew away, pulling the tent poles with it. Sand blasted their cover. Some of the furniture started to shift to fall on top of them. A small gorilla caught the desks and held them in place the few minutes they needed. The wind retreated from their position. Marty waited at the bottom of the pit for the all clear before he thought about exposing his head. “Is everyone all right?,” asked Ishmael. A chorus told him that most of the group had come through the attack unscathed. He just needed to fight clear of the pit and figure out the next move. And now that he knew something intelligent was behind things, he could use that to get cooperation from the other parts of his government to do some thing about things. Marty got to his feet, shaking off the sand that had covered him. He looked around at the damage of the destroyed base. Everything light hit by the wind had been thrown for yards. The makeshift cover from the furniture had saved their lives. “Where’s Ren?,” he asked. A visual search said his friend was not half-buried with them. “I don’t see him,” said Ishmael. “Could he be buried?” “The wind took him,” said Hadron. He shook the sand out of his hair. “We’re going to have to go in there and get him back.” “Into the storm?,” said the bureaucrat. He looked at the whirling wind at the edge of their camp. “Yeah,” said Hadron. “We need access to your shop, Ishmael. Then we’re going to try to solve your problem.” “The vehicles look down,” said Ishmael. He started out of the pit. “We’re going to need fast transport.” “I got that covered,” said Marty. “What are we doing?” “Harry and I are going to put together lamps so we can cut our way through that cloud,” said Hadron. “Then we’re going to see what’s behind this, and where your friend went.” “You think there is something intelligent behind this?,” asked Ishmael. “I would be surprised if there isn’t,” said Hadron. “We won’t know what’s going on unless we go in and look for ourselves.” “I’m for that,” said Marty. “I don’t want to explain to Corona how I lost her husband.” “So let’s do the plan,” said Hadron. “The first step is to let Milton and Dyson know that we have some kind of thing behind this. Then we get back to the workshop to get some kind of gear together. Then we come back and disperse this.” “All right,” said Marty. “You’re going to have to hang on tight.” “We‘re ready,” said Cho. “Let’s get this over with. I told you things would get bad but I didn’t think it would start this soon.” “Something changed,” said Hadron. “Maybe whatever is behind this sensed Ren and took him because he was a threat.” “He is kind of a magician like Scry,” said Marty. “That might be why he was targeted.” “All right,” said Hadron. “That makes sense. So the cloud either needs magicians to work, or there is a magician inside of it that doesn’t like rivals. That means we have something we can deal with once we’re properly armed. Let’s get started.” Marty raised his hand and a dragon expanded out of the air. It looked down on the group with yellow eyes. A flap of its emerald wings sent sand into the air. “That’s impressive,” said Ishmael. “I’ve been working on Daisy for a while,” said Marty. “Climb aboard.” Ishmael gave orders for the soldiers to leave everything and fall back. No one else needed to be hurt if the cloud decided to rip into them. They could salvage their gear and vehicles later after everything was dealt with by the Lamplighters. “Next stop is Tel Aviv,” said Marty. Daisy lifted him up so he could perch on her head. “You’re going to have to give me directions when we get closer.” “It’s not in the city proper,” said Ishmael. “The ministry didn’t want me to work on my things where something could go wrong and blow down a city block.” “That’s some foresight,” said Cho. He smiled as he clutched his hat to his head. Daisy had allowed him and Hadron to climb on her shoulders. “How are you doing this?” “I don’t know,” said Marty. “I’m going to say practice. I used to only be able to summon small animals, then I worked up to bigger animals, then imaginary animals.” “Could be tapping the turbulence somehow,” said Hadron. “Internal wants, external energy.” “As long as it does what I want it to do,” said Marty. “It doesn’t matter how it works.” “It could kill you,” said Hadron. “That will make my wife very mad,” said Marty. “Let’s go, Daisy. Up, up and away.” The dragon flapped its wings and leaped into the air. Within moments, they were high in the air with the passengers clinging on tight. Marty smiled as he rode on the head of the beast. “This is a lot more exciting than what I usually do,” said Ishmael. “Another day at the office for us,” said Cho. He smiled at the Israeli. “The cloud expanded,” said Hadron. “That’s why it took Ren.” “Corona won’t like that,” said Marty. “I have to start bringing everybody to these things. I didn’t think the cloud would be magic.” “We’ll get him back,” said Hadron. “It’s the only way to shrink the cloud, and that’s what we need to do.” The dragon soared through the sky. Ishmael called ahead to prevent problems. There were some vigilantes operating in Israel, and they were wanted, so cutting through the confusion so they could get to his workshop without having to deal with the Air Force seemed the best way. “Land next to the gray building on the right,” said Ishmael. He pointed at the clear space below. The dragon descended, gliding in a circle to cut speed. It thumped down and folded its wings. Hadron and Cho staggered away from the landing. Ishmael slid down the side of the beast and jogged toward a warehouse across from the gray building he had used as a landmark. “Good job, Daisy,” said Marty. “Hold on because we have to fly back.” The dragon nodded. It settled down in a circle to wait for its passengers to return. Marty climbed down and followed the others to the brick building. Ishmael let them in with a swipe of his identification, and the press of his thumb. “You said you have electronics here?,” asked Hadron. “I have a general collection downstairs,” said Ishmael. “I don’t always know exactly what I might need, so I keep a lot of general parts for building something mission particular.” “All right,” said Hadron. “Let’s get to work, Harry. We might not be able to build full lamps, but we should be able to get some rifles out of this.” “Got you,” said Cho. He pushed his hat back. “Let’s see what we got to play with here.” The two of them searched the shelves, bringing the parts they needed to a work table. It took them minutes to put together a pair of rifles made from calculators, tubing, and wiring. They hooked the rifles to boxes that should work the same as their lamps but they wouldn’t be able to measure things while they were going about their business. Hadron hooked his sensor to the rifle he planned to use so he had an idea of what spirit needed to be extinguished first. “Don’t try to use these once we’re done,” Hadron told Levram. “Throw them in the ocean, or bury them somewhere you know people won’t dig them up.” “Dangerous?,” asked Levram. “If I said you could lose the city, would that be the best explanation?,” asked Hadron. “I see,” said Ishmael. “And we’re going to be using these?” “Harry and I are going to try to cut a path,” said Hadron. He nodded at his partner. “Marty is going to come in after us to make sure we don’t get killed by whatever is there. If we can get Ren back, that will shrink the cloud. I am sure of that.” “That will make Corona happy,” said Marty. “The source?,” asked Levram. “Either we destroy it, or we find out enough to destroy it on a second try after we can get Milt and Dyson here with better equipment,” said Hadron. “We’re going to have to lance this before it gets big enough to wreck the entire region.” “I will write you a check when this is over,” said Ishmael. “This expertise is what I needed to get things done.” “All right,” said Hadron. “We have to get back to the cloud and see what we can do.” “I have to call Barry and let him know what’s going on,” said Marty. “We have to call Janie so she can get the guys to get ready,” said Harry. “I have two phones we can use,” said Levram. “I mainly use them to request supplies.” “Do you have pictures of the area before the cloud materialized?,” asked Hadron. “I would like to look at those while the guys are leaving their messages.” “I have some I requested from the American intelligence agencies,” said Ishmael. “I asked for them when I saw the radar readings.” Levram retrieved the pictures from a file cabinet on the other side of the room. The murmur of Harry and Morgan talking on the phone drifted to Hadron but he was already thinking about other things. The Lamplighter went over the pictures with a glass from the desk. He frowned at what he saw. He checked each picture, laying them next to each other. He frowned as he straightened. “The guys are getting ready,” said Harry. “It will be hours before they can get here.” “I asked Barry to pick them up,” said Marty. “He was going to need to refuel before he could cross the Atlantic, so I asked him to get your guys too.” “I will tell Airport Security to pass them when they arrive,” said Ishmael. “This is a manmade thing,” said Hadron. “So when we go in, we have to look for Ren, and the guy behind this.” “Are you sure?,” asked Ishmael. “There was a guy almost center of where the cloud would be,” said Hadron. “He didn’t leave according to these photos.” “So he caused this cloud with a power?,” asked Marty. “Or he took advantage of the nearby turbulence to boost himself up,” said Hadron. “Whichever one it is, we’re going to have to take him if he tries to stop us from getting Ren back.” “I better arm myself,” said Ishmael. “Are you sure we can handle this without the others?” “We don’t have to fight it out,” said Hadron. “We just have to complicate his plan enough so he can’t get it done before the others get here. Then we can try for a full push on him and clear him out of wherever he hid in the sandstorm.” “Corona and Barry will be here,” said Marty. “That will increase our firepower.” “I have a feeling that it is essential that we get Ren back before we do anything else,” said Hadron. “If Ren can be used to expand the effect of the cloud, it will eventually reach parts of the country essential to life.” “Which will reduce the greener lands to more desert,” said Ishmael. “At the very least,” said Harry. “We are talking about what happens when a giant belt sander meets human beings without protection.” “Let’s go,” said Marty. “Daisy can get us back. Then we can do what we have to do to stop this.” “And after that, you’re going to have to get rid of this makeshift equipment in such a way it doesn’t hurt anybody when it blows up,” said Hadron. “You have my word,” said Levram. He held up a hand. “Let’s see what we can do,” said Hadron. “At least we’re here ahead of whatever disaster might have resulted if we weren’t here.” Marty led them back to where Daisy waited. The dragon perked up and lifted her upper body, spreading her wings and giving them a testing flap to ready for flight. “We’re going back to where we were so we can stop the cloud,” said Marty. He patted Daisy on the head. The humans climbed aboard so their living aircraft could take flight.

It's odd that the Gop are bothered by Biden shooting down a spy balloon when they said nothing about Trump letting three of these things fly overhead without doing anything. I guess Maxine Waters was right. CES

This was a sideplot of the last Reacher book. A private prison was harvesting prisoners against their will CES

Without more information it is hard to say why Mrs. Dwumfour was attacked. The obvious things are it was something personal in her private life, it was something to do with her job, a failed carjacking, she was black, she belonged to a church. Ten shots at close range is not something you usually see in an accidental shooting except by people who think they are being shot at by the target. CES

The only thing I saw that I might like is Creature Commandos. I just don't care about the rest of it CES

Steamboy and MIB used these. CES

Watched The Bad Guys as a crew of criminals try to run a con about going straight only to be framed by their mentor. CES

The unit broken up in New York was like this, and the infamous Crash unit in L.A. are the first examples I can think of at the moment. I think there was also a special unit in Chicago that was busted when their black site holding center was revealed CES

If it makes you feel better, some students are threatening to sue Desantis and his government over african american history CES

Jumanji The Next Level shows the dangers of ostriches like you have never seen before. I liked it, but the boy checked put about half way through. CES

Title: Battle for the Pink Panther CES

All I need is my mastermind. I am picking Mr. Wolf from the Bad Guys as the big evil putting his team together to steal the Pink Panther before the Cat's Eye team and the Phantom, and overcome the Black Panther and the White Tiger running security and experiments on the gem at the University of Tokyo. But can even Mr. Wolf's genius and organizational skills take in account the presence of the world's greatest detective, Inspector Clouseau? CES

I have an option and the evil genius for this last day of the draft. I am using my third option for Clouseau's nemesis Charles Lytton/The Phantom. CES

I think I still have two options and the big bad I am picking Inspector Clouseau as security for the Pink Panther as option two.

It has been pointed out that McCarthy has started lying to the public about Swalwell and Schiff, so this isn't a surprise. A surprise would be something like Matt Schlapp being sued for touching another guy's private parts and claiming he is happily married when he gets sued and his wife sticking by him. Now if that happened to McCarthy, that would be the surprise CES

I am going to option the Cat's Eye burglar team CES

I am going to be picking T'challa, the Black Panther, and the second White Tiger as my hero and assistant. CES

Watched the last Columbo with Columbo trying to tie a club owner and his girlfriend to the disappearance of their money man and murder of a tabloid reporter. Julius Carry is here as Columbo's sidekick, and Carmine Gionvanzzi is the victim. One of Tony Soprano's captains serves as a gangster from back east CES