TheTemplar

Re: Making Memorable Mooks! Shaft = Repped. Great stuff.

The Defenders Season V: Evolution Issue 7 "The End of Time" Cast Fantastic-Man - You should really know all this by now. Rampant Lion III - Seriously. Nighthawk - If you don't know who these people are... La Espijisma - ...go back and read previous posts. Tomorrow Boy - Or not. Warforge - Your call. ____________________ Act I: It was late summer - barely a month after the massive hurricane, the raid on The Swamp, and the destruction of the Tennyson Device. Things had been relatively calm as the hotter days of summer wore on. No major crime waves or superhuman criminal incidents to speak of. Talks of "The Superhuman menace" on Capitol Hill continued to spark controversy and strong feelings on both sides, as the topic of spending came to the forefront. Opponents to the government sanctioned superteams pointed out how much was spent on them each year both from tax dollars as well as property damage resulting from metabrawls, as superhero supporters rebutted with how much worse property damage could theoretically be without them. But through it all, a major victory occurred. After months of sharing confined spaces with the staff at Stronghold, The Defenders new state-of-the-art superbase, The Citadel, was finally completed. The sprawling 5-story white marble building set snugly in the heart of downtown Paragon City. Great, white columns and arches adorned the building's facade, overlooking the lush green lawn surrounding the circular drive leading out to the street access. Silver Avenger Cromwell was on hand to give The Defenders a tour through their new facility. The glass-shrouded entryway with 3-story vaulted ceiling was the first item at which to marvel, and a large floor-covering depicting the team's logo stretched across the room. A pair of PRIMUS agents stood guard on either side of the room and across the team emblem from the main doors stood a large reception desk. The rest of the main floor consisted of the Monitor Room, the Briefing Room, a large multi-purpose room to be used for potential social events, a set of restrooms, and elevator and stairwell access to the upper and lower floors. Down the main hall, dubbed the Hall of Champions, statues of each current and former member of The Defenders lined either side of the hallway (except Crucible, cause well, when you betray the team, you don't get a statue.) Garage access was also available here. The combination Garage/Hangar held half a dozen PRIMUS ground vehicles, the pair of VIPER waterjets recovered from the last mission, and FOUR (yes... FOUR) D-Jets. Lydia, the cybercop/ team mechanic from the future, was already hard at work inspecting each of the vehicles to ensure they were in proper working order. The second floor up housed temporary quarters for the PRIMUS staffers at The Citadel to use during their shifts, as well as all necessary ameneties including their own work-out and recreational areas. The third floor sported the personal suites for each member of The Defenders, as well as a few vacant ones for potential future teammates or for special guests, as well as a large rec room. Sub-Basement one held the team's medical bay, teleportation chamber, and primary computer room, in addition to Tomorrow Boy's lab, Nighthawk's crime lab, and Warforge's.. well.. forge. And below that on the lowest level of the facility were the training room, holographic combat simulation (HOCOS... as in hocos-pocos) room, and prisoner detention facility, capable of detaining a dozen high-powered supercriminals until they could be transported to Stronghold. The bases defenses (controlled from the Monitor Room) included a state-of-the-art sensor array and force-field generator, capable of creating fields both around and inside the base to seal off certain areas if necessary. The teleportation chamber had secured relay points staged all around the city at key locations selected by the team, allowing them to quickly access all parts of Paragon City, with or without the D-Jet. The new D-Jets had been fitted with VTOL systems, allowing them to taxi out to the launch pad and take off without need for a runway. All in all, the team was very pleased with their new surroundings. ____________________ Act II: Tomorrow Boy sat in his new lab (which, technically, was his old lab, as the Questionite-plated laboratory had been one of the few parts of the Defenders' old base, Headless Cross, to survive the explosion that destroyed their former HQ) rifling through the notes he had acquired from the VIPER nest known as The Swamp. The notes had been written by the late scientist/roboticist Dr. Tennyson, who was killed by the nest leader Snakebite during his escape from The Swamp. Based on Tennyson's findings, Tomorrow Boy had finally realized how to recreate the advanced technology from the future used in his robotic companion, NRD-7, using currently existing materials. He had been working feverishly since the team had settled into The Citadel, pausing only for monitor duty and patrols, but his perserverance was paying off. He had already reconstructed NRD-7's AI code, and had almost completed repairs to the robot's head. The rest of the team was worried about his reclusive tendencies, but he assured them it was for a good cause - a science project - and that he was nearly done. It was a stormy, late August day when he finally brought NRD-7's robotic brain back online. After being without his robotic friend for so long, he couldn't wait to introduce him to the rest of the Defenders, who were all downstairs. He waited as the BIOS messages scrolled past, knowing that he might be minutes away from finally being able to answer the questions that had plagued him ever since his arrival in the present day. What great threat had Fantastic-Man sent him back to stop? Surely NRD-7 would remember.. assuming his memory banks hadn't been damaged. As Tomorrow Boy wondered about what he was about to learn, an unfamilar message scrolled up the screen. Tomorrow Boy had build NRD-7 himself, and even though the events immediately leading up to and during his journey through time were lost to him, he specifically remembered every line of code used to create the robot's AI brain, but nonetheless, there it was.. Something he had never written.. nor even knew the meaning of. ...Running C:/VengeanceIsMine.exe The building shook as thunder rattled the walls. At first glance, it appeared as though a sudden, violent summer storm had blown in, but the ringing of the Temporal Distortion monitors that Tomorrow Boy had himself installed in the base's security system quickly revealed otherwise. A massive Time-Space rift had formed over the lawn in front of The Citadel. The Defenders rushed outside, to see an all-too familiar crimson armor-plated figure descending from dark, stormy portal. "Rejoice, Defenders!" yelled Time Master has he descended toward them, stopping to hover above them with his arms raised in victory. A sadistic smile crossed his grotesquely misshapen head and face, no longer covered by the helmet that he had once worn that was lost when Nighthawk used an EMP to try to interrupt his last escape through Time-Space - the same event that had inadvertantly resulted in his disfiguration. The last time The Defenders had seen him. "A great error in the ever-flowing river of Time has been undone! That which was to be that once was not now IS once more! And so shall it be your DOOM!" The portal exploded with energy as another form began to materialize through it - a dark outline of a humanoid figure larger than a normal man would be, descending through the Continuum toward them... an shadowy figure none of them had ever seen before... except Tomorrow Boy. He remembered everything. ___________________ Act III: It was the 31st century. The Galactic Defenders' forces had been bunkered in the Mars Citadel for days with no sign of reinforcements. The legions of robotic shocktroopers marched up and down the ravaged streets of New Paragon, as a colossal head floated above the war-torn city. A robotic head. "It's no good," said Tigress. "We're totally pinned down, sitting ducks waiting for Mechanon to slaughter." "We've got maybe a week's worth of supplies left.. and then that's it," Mr. Mysterious confirmed from the nearby galley. "That's it man!" cried Retro. "Forget about it! Game over, man!" "Nothing's over.." growled a gruff voice from the hallway as Fantastic-Man stepped into the room, his black, capeless suit barely visible in the darkened room. His hair, now salt-and-pepper colored, was slightly out of place, the only indication that the Earth's Greatest Hero had been in a fight. He tossed a few pieces of scrap metal and broken robot parts down on the ground. "That's about all that was left that seemed fit to use. See what you can do with it, TB." Tomorrow Boy stood from the dark corner that he had been sitting in, his faithful robotic counterpart NRD-7 rolling along behind him. "Think just once you could manage to NOT smash a positronic mainframe?" he asked. "Sure.. as soon as I find one that isn't trying to irradiate me," Fantastic-Man replied, without so much as an edge of humor in his voice. Couldn't blame him for being humorless. The Galactic Defenders, the most well-known and respected superhero team in the galaxy had been all but destroyed. Of the once seemingly unlimited number of superheroes who bore the Defender name, only Fantastic-Man and a handful of Junior Defender League members had survived the onslaught of the machines, and their master - the cold, calculating Mechanon. The resistance had been ill-equipped to fight off Mechanon and his forces. Entire planets had been destroyed by the evil robot and his armies. No one knew where he had even come from, or why he was so intent on wiping out all life in the galaxy. And now, that the last defense of mankind rested on the shoulders of a beaten, grizzled and hopeless Fantastic-Man and a small band of scarcely-trained, superpowered teenagers, it seemed like mankinds last hours were upon them. "It doesn't have to end.. not like this..." a new voice flitted through the air as a beaming bright cube appeared in the middle of the room. The Junior Defenders scrambled in fear as Fantastic-Man assumed a fighting stance. The cube shimmered and disappeared, leaving behind an old man with a misshapen, disfigured head and red plated body armor. "Time Master.." Fantastic-Man growled, preparing to attack. "Stay your wrath, hero.." Time Master replied non-chalantly. "I come for our mutual benefit.... for All Mankind's." Time Master outlined his plan carefully to Fantastic-Man who, despite his mistrust of the one-time archvillain, admitted that they had few options left. Someone had to be sent back in time to prevent Mechanon from coming to Earth.. to warn the Fantastic-Man and the Defenders of the past about the future awaiting them while they could still stop it. Time-Master himself could not, for The Defenders would likely not believe him... not when they could not see for themselves the devastation wrought in Mechanon's wake. Fantastic-Man could not go, as he already existed at that exact point in the space-time continuum, and a duplicate presence could destabilize the fabric of the very multiverse itself. Out of all the Junior Defenders gathered there, only one possessed the resourcefulness, intellect, and adaptability to adjust to 21st century Earth. Fantastic-Man decided that Tomorrow Boy would be sent back in time to warn The Defenders. "Here..." said Time Master as he handed a small datadisc to Tomorrow Boy. "It contains the necessary quantum coordinates and instructions for your robotic counterpart to create a Telemachus Cube. Once you have delivered your message, your construct can return the two of you back here to your time." Tomorrow Boy nodded and installed the disc's contents onto NRD-7's operating system. Time Master began opening a Telemachus Cube to the past just as the roof of the Citadel was torn away. Mr. Mysterious screamed in agony as he was cut down by a barrage of blaster fire. "GO!" yelled Fantastic-Man as he took off into the air, soaring toward the free-floating figure of Mechanon himself. The world that he knew swirled around him as the Telemachus Cube collapsed and Tomorrow Boy and NRD-7 found themselves tumbling backwards through the timestream. "I hope this works.." muttered Tomorrow Boy as he turned toward NRD-7 as they hurtled toward the past. "Organic Lifeform Detected," NRD-7 replied in the cold, monotone voice of Mechanon. "Organics must be terminated." He reached toward Tomorrow Boy's throat with his cold, metal hands. "NO!" screamed Tomorrow Boy as he reflexively blasted NRD-7 with his psychokinesis. The resulting shockwave was amplified by the timestream as the concussive force of TB's blast rippled up and down the space-time continuum, forcefully ejecting both TB and the charred, shattered remains of NRD-7 from the timestream and into the year 2004... "...It was you!" Tomorrow Boy screamed at Time Master as the shadowy being in the portal over The Citadel drew closer and closer. "You input Mechanon's AI programming into NRD-7!" He fired a blast of psychokinetic energy at the time-travelling arch-villain. "Correction, boy.." Time Master stated calmly as he turned slightly, allowing the blast to pass by him harmlessly. "YOU input Mechanon's AI programming into NRD-7. I merely supplied you with it. You have NO idea the trouble I went through to acquire that, by the way." He added with a wry grin as Fantastic-Man launched off the ground and soared toward Time Master fists first while Rampant Lion unleashed a volley of arrows at him. Time Master effortlessly moved around the incoming attacks, as each sailed past him. "Please... I have personally watched this battle hundreds of times. I know every move you will make before you can even think to make it. Every time.. the outcome is the same. You do not fight me... you fight inevitability itself." Nighthawk whipped a pair of electrified hawk-discs through the air, which Time Master deflected with a casual wave of his hand. "I have you to thank for his..." he hissed, gesturing to his disfigured face. "Please... allow me to return the favor." The Dark Defender screamed in agony as he felt his very strength and life being drained from him. He collapsed forward on the ground and stared into a rain puddle on the ground. Beneath his cowl, he could see that his face had fallen, wrinkled and spotted. He appeared to have aged at least fifty years in the last seconds.. maybe more.. and the pains of his weakening body confirmed it. "WHY?!" Tomorrow Boy demanded as he fired blast after ineffectual blast at Time Master. "Isn't it obvious?" Sneered Time Master as the world around Tomorrow Boy seemed to be slowing gradually down, and the silver-plated feet of Mechanon began to break through the portal above them. "Revenge. This world took my beloved wife away from me. The Defenders took my beloved wife away from me!" For La Espijisma, Rampant Lion, Warforge, and Fantastic-Man, they too felt themselves slowing down. Fantastic-Man forced himself off the ground for one last, desperate flight toward Time Master. "In all my travels..." Time Master continued as he slowed time more and more around the remaining Defenders, "... despite the great depths of my powers, I was never able to have my revenge.. to see you punished for what you did to me! But then... then Mechanon attacked! And Mechanon.. was victorious. All the Defenders of the future were killed... all but Fantastic-Man. Only the Fantastic-Man of the future was powerful enough to stop Mechanon in the attack on the Mars Citadel... but THIS is HARDLY the Fantastic-Man of the future! This Fantastic-Man.. and ALL of you Defenders.. are weak pathetic mewlings... ill-prepared for a power of Mechanon's magnitude! And so I decided to send him back into the past.. a past where no being on Earth would be powerful enough to stop him, and you Defenders.. and ALL of your precious Earth.. would BURN!" "But something went wrong.." Tomorrow Boy struggled to speak as his own muscles would not respond and Fantastic-Man strained with all his strength to maintain his collision course with Time Master as time itself stopped around him. "NRD-7 didn't make it to the past.. he was destroyed in the Timestream." "..An unforeseen occurrence, yes.." Time Master replied. "Equally unforeseen was that Mechanon himself exists only in a Time Loop. Mechanon existed in the future because he existed in the past. He existed in the past because I sent you here with him. But when You destroyed NRD-7 in the timestream, the Mechanon in the future ceased to be as well. No matter where or when I searched, I could not find him." The gleaming silver legs of Mechanon had emerged from the portal. "You.. completely erased him from existence. So.. I was forced to leave clues for a Dr. Marcus Tennyson... breakthroughs in Robotic Engineering light-years ahead of his time, allowing him to discover the secrets that your persistently inquisitive mind would need in order to reconstruct your robot here.. in the present. Once you brought NRD-7 back to life, MY program containing Mechanon's Artificial Intelligence ran itself, returning Mechanon to existence in the future.. where I was waiting! And now... NOW.. the Mechanon of a thousand years from now arrives!" Fantastic-Man came to a complete stop, his fist inches away from Time-Master's face. Despite his incredible strength, he could not move. "At LAST you will SUFFER for my SUFFERING! AT LAST I SHALL HAVE MY REVENGE!!!" "You know.." a feeble, elderly voice came from behind Time Master as he swirled around enraged. Nighthawk stood, three EMP-discs in hand, "..for as much as you know about time... you never seem to know when to shut up." With all the strength he could manage, Nighthawk punched Time Master with his handful of EMP discs activated. The air exploded with energy as the Electromagnetic energy once again shorted out Time Master's powers. Fantastic-Man immediately regained the full force of his velocity as he slammed his fist into Time Master's jaw, sending the archvillain reeling through the air. "Unexpected... resourceful..." Time Master leered as he pulled himself up to his knees. "But ultimately... for naught." He pointed up toward the sky, where Mechanon hovered, having completed his emergence from the closing portal. "As I said...I have seen this fight hundreds of times.. and each time.. the outcome is the same." "Multiple Organic Lifeforms Detected..." the monotone voice of Mechanon echoed over the raging storm above. "Threat assessment completed. Commencing Termination, Starting With Highest Threat Organic." He levelled his silver-plated arms at Time Master and unleashed a blast of unimagineable power. Time Master was immediately vaporized. ____________________ The Defenders stood, staring at eachother in stunned silence and at the blackened, smoldering crater on the ground where seconds ago one of their most powerful enemies had stood.. now completely and utterly gone. Mechanon, however, would wait for no man. "Threat Analysis Completed. Fantastic-Man, Leader of the Defenders. Capabilities.. Superstrength... Flight..." Mechanon fired as the Defenders dove away from Fantastic-Man, who quickly shifted his mass into a desolidified state, allowing the blast to pass harmlessly through him and erupt on the ground beneath. "...and Mass Manipulation," Mechanon concluded as the time-space portal over his head continued to collapse. The Defenders continued to dodge blast after blast, knowing that one wrong step could result in any of their immediate deaths when Tomorrow Boy had an idea. He activated his Blitz device and teleported himself back into The Citadel. "We may only have one shot at this.." Warforge yelled across the battlefield at Fantastic-Man as he pointed up at Mechanon, and the nearly-closed portal above him. Tomorrow Boy sprinted through the door of his lab and stood in front of the table where NRD-7's head was still sitting there where he had been working on it, beside the monitor that displayed the scrolling text lines of the insidious code that Time Master had embedded in TB's faithful robotic companion. "Ok.... NOW!" Yelled Fantastic-Man as he braced himself. Warforge charged toward FM, who caught the Titanium Titan mid-stride and launched him up into the air, hurling him toward Mechanon with all his strength. Mechanon, who had been preparing another blast to fire at Fantastic-Man, one capable of damaging him even in his desolidified state, quickly shifted targets and powered up to fire at Warforge. "Sorry pal..." Tomorrow-Boy mourned as he unleashed a powerful psychokinetic blast at the worktable, completely destroying the computer, the program, and shattering NRD-7's head into shrapnel. Warforge's Battlearm transformed into a gigantic metal hammer, which he swung like a boxer firing an uppercut, cutting a mighty swath through the air and delivering a crushing blow to Mechanon's Jaw just as Mechanon blasted Warforge with a staggeringly powerful energy bolt, both seemingly in synchronization with the collapse of the Time Space portal. A blinding flash scorched the sky, forcing all on the ground to look away. When Fantastic-Man looked back up, he saw a metallic figure crashing toward the earth, trailing thick smoke behind him.. a metallic figure with a Hammer for a hand. He bolted through the air and caught Warforge, setting him down on the ground. There was no sign of Mechanon. "Hit him pretty hard.. and the portal was still open last I remember.." Warforge explained as more and more of his functions returned to him. "I think I knocked him back in before it closed." "Which means he could be anywhere... or anywhen for that matter.." said Rampant Lion. "We'll be ready." Nighthawk said, once again his normal age. _________________________ GM NOTES: This one was a LOT of fun. Mechanon is one of my favorite CU villains, so to finally introduce him into the Defenders Universe was a big thrill for me. And, as the players realized shortly after this battle, just because they've seen when/how Time Master finally dies, doesn't mean they've seen the last of him. Silly Time-travellers and their non-linear existences! All in all, I think they were just relieved that their new base didn't get blown up in their first adventure since building it. >.>

Re: X-Men: The Next Generation campaign on Hero Central This sounds pretty cool! Still have any openings in this campaign, Milkman?

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Yeah, gettin there... I've got 3.5 issues left to chronicle, which as near as I can estimate is about 7 sessions (2 1-parters, 1 4-parter, and 1/2 of a 2-parter) so I still have some typing ahead of me, but these are at least a little fresher in my memory.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" completed! The Defenders Will Return in... Season V, Issue 7: The End of Time

The Defenders Season V: Evolution Issue #6 "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" (Pt. 1) Cast: Fantastic-Man - Team Leader, Flying Brick w/ Mass manipulation powers. Currently on a solo mission, whereabouts unknown to the team... or the rest of the world for that matter Rampant Lion III - Interim Team Leader, Fencer/ Archer from a long line of superheroism Nighthawk - Team Detective, Martial Artist/ Gadgeteer who doesn't play by the rules La Espijisma - Team Doctor, Metamorph with Power Mimicry who keeps to herself and doesn't say much but when she does, it's usually important. Warforge - Team Scapegoat, Golem Brick with an arm that can transform into a variety of weapons, recently dubbed "Man of the People" but always "Just a Metal Man." Tomorrow Boy - Team Scientist, teenage supergenius Gadgeteer from the future who fights bad guys and still has time to get virtually ignored by the girl of his dreams Wonder-Boy - Not actually on the team per se, but helping out in the absence of his former mentor, Fantastic-Man. His songs have the power... to move you. ____________________ Act I: "Nothing showing up on scanners..." La Espijisma shouted above the roar of the storm raging outside the D-Jet. "They've got to be down there somewhere," Nighthawk replied as he fought hard with the D-Jet controls to keep the ship upright in the raging winds of the Category 7 Hurricane that had mysteriously formed directly over the Florida Everglades and was still continuing to expand outward and grow in strength despite no longer being over open water. "Infrared's negative too, Nights," Tomorrow Boy called over from his station. "Anything, Warforge?" "Nope.." the titanium titan, capable of seeing through any type of darkness effect, magical or otherwise, replied from the forward windshield. "Just a little bit further and we'll punch through to the eye," Nighthawk informed them all as a particularly vicious gust rocked the ship. "Ah, we'll be ok. We don't need both wings to fly anyway, do we?" Rampant Lion quipped dryly. The D-Jet broke through the interior wall of the raging storm into the eerie calm of the eye. "Well.. that's a relief," sighed Wonder-Boy. Alarms rang out as if in reply. "Brace yourselves.. taking evasive action!" Nighthawk warned as he narrowly dodged a pair of surface-to-air missiles. "I'd say this is the place, but I still don't see anything!" Warforge shouted. "They must have some sort of cloaking shield over their base. Can we do a bio scan?" "It's the EVERGLADES!" Tomorrow Boy replied. "Do you have any idea how many lifeforms are down there?" "Wait a minute..." Nighthawk pondered as he avoided yet another incoming attack. "Do the bioscan!" "Ok.. my whole screen's lit up like a Christmas tree.. now what?" "Look for the big hole in the middle. Their cloaking shield should keep any lifeforms under it invisible too." "Son of a ..." Tomorrow Boy smacked himself on the forehead for once again being out-thought by the Dark Defender. "There it is. 3 kilometers southeast, heading 245." Nighthawk took the D-Jet into a steep dive to avoid another barrage of missile fire from the unseen VIPER nest below, levelling out mere meters from the dense treeline, and taking the craft down for as good a landing as the conditions would allow. The Defenders scrambled off the D-Jet and took cover behind a large copse of old cypress trees as the smoking trail of one final missle arched up into the sky, turned back toward the earth, and slammed into The Defenders' reliable old aircraft, destroying it completely. The Defenders mucked through the swamp toward the location where Tomorrow Boy had found the cloaking field, and upon passing through it, discovered a sprawling concrete structure with a thick, high wall fortifying it. They worked their way around the wall until they found a large, sealed iron gate. No sooner had they found it than the gate began opening, and a pair of 4-man all-terrain transport vehicles each loaded with fully-armed VIPER SCS agents rumbled through the gate and out into the marsh toward the remains of the D-Jet. The Defenders rushed in behind the vehicles through the open gate, entering the VIPER nest. ____________________ Act II: Half a world away, Fantastic-Man plunged down through the clouds toward The Ivory Tower - VIPER's Ivory Coast nest in Western Africa. The moonless night would afford him at least some degree of undetection as he approached the huge fortress. Once he was within visual range of the tower, he desolidified and dove into the ground, emerging in a storage room somewhere in one of the sub-basements underneath the Nest. Once inside, he floated through the walls of the massive complex, looking for any sign of where Oculon might be. Soon, his friend's murderer would be found. Soon, he would have revenge. The clanging of the base's internal alarms shook Fantastic-Man's attention back from thoughts of vengeance. He ducked into an unlit alcove as a fully armed SCS squad rushed toward him, and a computerized voice shouted "Intruder alert!" throughout the base. "Damn.. I must've tripped something on my way through..." thought Fantastic-Man as the agents dashed past him. But their hurried conversation as they loaded their weapons shed new light on the situation. "Where are they?" One asked. "At least two at the front gate," another replied, "And an aircraft." "An aircraft..." thought Fantastic-Man as he shadowed the agent team out the main entrance. They rushed out into the courtyard where a hundred-foot tall Gargantua held a Python hovertank in each hand, and was crushing defensive bunkers under his enormous boots while Cateran pummelled wave after wave of footsoldiers charging toward them. The NextForce jet streaked across the sky, pursued by a squadron of flying robotic VIPER drones. A pair of Superhuman Combat Specialists were sneaking up behind Cateran with fully-charged stun sticks, about to catch her completely unaware. They were so focused on her that they never saw Fantastic-Man float up through the ground behind them. He grabbed both agents and knocked their heads together, leaving them rather unconcious. Startled by their muffled "mmphs" Cateran wheeled around, sword drawn. "YOU!" she yelled, stopping her thick blade a hair's breadth away from Fantastic-Man's chest. "What are you doing here?" "Little help!?" Shouted Gargantua as the big man was pelted by stinging laser fire courtesy of another wave of ground forces. "I was going to ask you the same question," Fantastic-Man replied as he and Cateran charged into the group of agents assaulting Gargantua, pulling their fire off of him, allowing him to resume his siege on the base's heavier defenses. "VIPER took Stormfront yesterday but we don't know where he's being held. This was the last known Nest on our list that we hadn't cracked yet. If he's not here, we're hoping to at least find a lead," she replied as she introduced an agent's jaw to her fist. "Your turn." "I'm looking for Oculon." Fantastic-Man answered as he landed a punch of his own, sending a heavily armored VIPER agent sprawling end over end through the air. "Sounds like we might be able to help eachother out." Cateran tapped her earpiece comm, "Brainchild - get Menagerie and Lodestone to the roof. We've got backup." "Copy that.." the crackling voice replied as the NextJet swerved toward the roof of the tower. "Get up there," Cateran said to Fantastic-Man, "Brainchild's got the layout of this place, and Menagerie and Lodestone will help you find what you're looking for." "Thanks.." replied Fantastic-Man, more than a little taken aback by the unexpected assistance. He lifted off and rocketed to the top of the tower just as the NextJet was blasting away again, towing more drones along behind it. One of the drones froze in mid-air, as if grabbed by an unseen hand, groaned sickly, and then crushed in upon itself under the pressing strength of Lodestone's ferrokenisis, while another fell toward the earth trailing smoke behind it after being gashed, torn and ripped apart by a giant eagle that landed majestically next to Lodestone before morphing back into Menagerie. "Well, I can just pass through," said Fantastic-Man, looking at the floor beneath them, "but how will you get in?" Lodestone closed his eyes, and reached out his hand toward the roof, and clenched his fist. Straining with all his might, he managed to rip a hole in the roof large enough for the three of them to enter through. The trio of superheroes made their way through the halls of the base, directed over their comms by Brainchild from the NextJet. They soon found a large computer room. Most nodes directly connected to the Serpentine Network had been shutdown as part of VIPER's standard safety protocol, but some local access machines were still operational. It didn't take long for Menagerie to locate Oculon. He was at the Ivory Tower, and was staying in one of the luxury suite barracks on the fourteenth floor. After thanking NextForce for their assistance and wishing them luck in finding their captured comrade, Fantastic-Man took off for Oculon's room. Fantastic-Man entered the darkened room to find Oculon still asleep in what appeared to be a sensory-depravation bed. An apparatus covered his eyes and ears, keeping him completely unaware of what happened around him while he slept. "So this is it... " thought Fantastic-Man. "All my searching over the last few weeks.. I finally found you you son of a bitch.. and now you're gonna pay." He reached toward Oculon's throat. "NO!" the voice screamed inside Fantastic-Man's head. The familiar voice of Kyle. Fantastic-Man blinked in surprise, and looked around the room nervously. His eyes fell on the mirror in front of him where he thought he saw a faintly shimmering figure, that spoke to him once more. "You can't do it, Frank." "I have to do it," Fantastic-Man replied, as a single tear rolled down his cheek. "If you do that.. if you kill Oculon, you'll become just like him.. just like all of them. Just like me." "But I ... you... I failed you. I couldn't save you." Fantastic-Man fell to his knees next to Oculon's bed, staring up at the image of Kyle. "Yes.. yes you did." Kyle replied smiling. "You saved me.. and now I'm here to return the favor. You saved me.. you've saved the world countless times.. but now you have to save yourself. Don't do this. You ARE the world's greatest hero. YOU ARE FANTASTIC-MAN!" Fantastic-Man staggered to his feet. "Thank you.. Kyle. I'll never forget. Never," he said as the image shimmered one last time and then faded out of sight. The door suddenly burst open as Menagerie and Lodestone rushed into the room. They saw Fantastic-Man standing over Oculon (still asleep,) his cheeks wet with tears. "You ok, F-Bomb?" Asked Menagerie, looking curiously at the strange scene. "Thought I heard you talking to someone." "No.. it's fine," he replied as he casually picked up a post-it pad from the nightstand, sketched his own emblem on it, wrote "see you around" on it and stuck it to Oculon's forehead. "What'd you find?" "They've got Stormfront at The Swamp in Florida, but it's bad. They've created a hurricane that's getting more and more powerful.. it'll wipe out Orlando and Tampa within the next ten hours, and its not losing strength." Lodestone replied. "Brainchild.. how fast can you get us to Florida?" Fantastic-Man shouted through Lodestone's comm. "Ten hours at max speed.. but I've been kicking around a few ideas for a recalibration of the primary thrusters.. might be able to shave off an hour or two," NextForce's resident genius replied. "Get on it then," said Fantastic-Man. "We'll be right out." "I'm sorry..." Brainchild said back over the comm, "..did he just say we?" ____________________ Act III: The Defenders crept through the halls of VIPER's everglades nest, The Swamp, after successfully sneaking in through an open garage bay. Their room-to-room sweep uncovered barracks, training facilities, and even some labs where Tomorrow Boy picked up some fascinating notes. "These schematics are amazing.." he muttered while leafing through the files. "I have to stop underestimating these twenty-first century scientists. Look at this one," he pointed a particular equation out to a particularly disinterested Warforge. "I'm pretty sure that's the piece I've been missing to finish re-constructing NRD-7 (GM Note: NRD-7 is TB's robot from the future who was destroyed en route on their trip to the present. TB has run into difficulty reconstructing him because some of the materials that he needs to finish the job simply don't exist yet.) using currently existing technology!" "Yeah.. that's great kid," Warforge replied. "Who wrote all this anyway?" "Not sure.. the folder isn't labelled." TB answered. "No.. but the lab is," Nighthawk interrupted, pointing to the nameplate on the cluttered desk. "Dr. Tennyson," TB read as his mind raced to remember where he had heard that name before. "Hey wait a minute.. isn't he that roboticist that used to work for y..." he stopped himself milliseconds short of revealing Nighthawk's secret identity to Wonderboy and Rampant Lion. "...Omnitech?" Through his mask, Nighthawk's eyes narrowed, confirming that TB's near slip didn't go undetected by the Dark Defender before he nodded to confirm that TB remembered correctly. "His work was brilliant, but his morals were anything but shining," Nighthawk replied. "From what I've learned, he had several run-ins with the corporate ethics board prior to his termination, after which he fell off the grid completely. Now we know why." TB, meanwhile, had become enthralled with the large schematic sketched on one of the mammoth whiteboards lining the walls of the room. "What does that do?" La Espijisma asked. "Well.. this part here looks like it would channel something.. power maybe.. with enough force to propel it into the upper atmosphere. I ... I think this might actually be a weather control device.. but I don't see anything that would be a strong enough power source," TB replied as he inspected every last inch of the sketch. Satisfied that they would find little more in the way of useable knowledge in the lab, The Defenders continued on until they found a large double-door leading into the central atrium of The Swamp. Inside, they found what they had been looking for. Large monitor panels lined the far wall, all the way to the ceiling, and all were monitoring the raging hurricane outside - some with live video feed, others with technical views displaying wind strength and other statistical data. Directly under the monitors was the device they had seen in the schematic on Dr. Tennyson's wall, with Stormfront braced in the center of it. A strange helmet sat on his head with wires and cabling connecting it to the machine, while his hands and feet were securely held in a Vitruvian-Man pose by powered shackles, and a few other nodes attached to his chest, apparently to monitor his vital signs. "Well if it ain't about the dang time the Defendersssss sshowed up," hissed the man standing on the dais in front of the Tennyson Device. His thick, southern drawl rang through in sharp contrast to the elongated s's made by his unnaturally fork-shaped tongue. His sinister yellow eyes with thin, slit-like pupils exuded malice, and his skin appeared scaly. He wore the yellow and green of a VIPER officer, but with what appeared to be a white jacket over the top, like that of an admiral or other high-ranking officer. "Welcome... to the Ssswamp!" The Nest Leader, Snakebite, was flanked on both sides by VIPER agents and Dragon Branch members. On his left stood Boa Constrictor and Sidewinder, and to his right were Draconis and the mysterious Delusion. Sidewinder struck first, unloading a barrage of blasts from his gauntlet launcher, which Tomorrow Boy dove to avoid while Warforge withstood them, absorbing the energy into his metallic body, bolstering his strength. Nighthawk, meanwhile, launched a grappel line to the ceiling and swung toward Delusion, who promptly shimmered briefly before splitting into five identical copies of himself! Nighthawk's swinging kick passed harmlessly through one, causing the illusionary duplicate to shimmer and disappear. As Snakebite shouted out commands to the VIPER agents surrounding the command center, La Espijisma dashed to within striking distance of Draconis. She avoided the bolt from his blaster gun, and lunged to grab his wrist, transforming herself into a carbon copy of the supervillain, along with his telekinetic powers. Rampant Lion fired arrow after arrow at Boa Constrictor, keeping the super-strong snakeman at a safe distance from himself. Warforge, having been barely phased by Sidewinder's previous attack, began moving steadily across the large command center toward the Tennyson Device. "Bring him down!" Snakebite ordered, as the VIPER commandos surrounding him focused all their firepower on the Titanium Titan. Warforge staggered momentarily, then pressed forward. Nighthawk had whittled away all the Delusion duplicates but two. He studied them intently for a moment before the answer dawned on him. He activated the ultrasonic perceptor built into his cowl, determined which of the two Delusions had a heartbeat, and hurled an electrified disc at him. The attack struck true, sending the real Delusion to the floor with a shocking jolt. "Not bad," Delusion muttered as he pulled himself up to a crouch. "But you can't hit what you can't see..." With a wicked sneer, the VIPER villain pressed a button on his belt and vanished completely. "Funny..." Nighthawk mused as he reached for his own belt, produced a blackout bomb, and hurled it to the ground, encasing the area around him in absolute darkness. "..neither can you." The rest of the fight wasn't going nearly as well for the Defenders. Even though La Espijisma had managed to hurl Draconis around the room using her version of his telekinesis, Tomorrow Boy and Rampant Lion had been downed by the combined attacks of Sidewinder and Boa Constrictor. Warforge knew that he wouldn't be able to endure the full salvo of the VIPER agents much longer, either, and Wonder-Boy had been caught completely off guard by the lab-coated man in his late forties who had hid himself as soon as The Defenders entered the room. Dr. Tennyson had blasted the young superhero out of the sky with a powerful shot from the large, prototype energy weapon he held. Nighthawk slowed his senses, focusing inward, one by one drowning out all the sounds of the battle raging around him. Through the meditation techniques learned by only the most dedicated students of the martial arts, he eliminated all distractions around him, focusing in on the one sound he wanted to hear... the sound only perceptible by use of the ultrasonic perceptor of his cowl. The faint "lub-dub" noise coming from behind him. With laser precision, his twin billy clubs lashed out, each striking Delusion hard. The invisible villain appeared in mid-air as he tumbled head over heels from the attack, hit the ground and slid into the wall, unmoving. As the darkness around him cleared, Nighthawk turned to face any other assailants in the room, only to find that the rest of The Defenders had been downed, and all the VIPER forces assembled (aside from Draconis and Delusion, both of whom were down themselves) were coming to bear upon him. The Nest shook violently as explosions rocked it from the outside. The VIPER forces moving in on Nighthawk had to dive out of the way of falling debris as the ceiling collapsed in around them and daylight burst in through the gaping opening in the roof of their building. "FAAAAANTASTIC!!" the rallying cry of The Defender's leader rang through the air. As the smoke and rubble cleared, Fantastic-Man could be seen hovering at the yawning opening above the command center with NextForce's aircraft hovering behind him. Boa Constrictor and Sidewinder struggled to their feet, only to find themselves on the business end of the mighty fists of the Earth's Greatest Hero as Fantastic-Man levelled them with powerful flying punches. Seizing the advantage provided by the massive distraction that Fantastic-Man's entry had provided him, Nighthawk hurled an EMP disc at Dr. Tennyson, which lodged firmly in the barrel of the energy weapon he was feebly trying to aim at Fantastic-Man, shorting it out completely. The remaining VIPER agents cast aside their weapons and fled toward the exit. "Well.. Lookssss like it'ss time for me to sssshuffle on down the road, boysss..." Snakebite hissed. "Y'all take care now.. y'hear?" He smiled sadistically and operated the controls of his dais. At once his dais began descending into the floor as the Tennyson Device went into overdrive. Stormfront howled in pain as electricity arced over his body and sparks shot out of the machine. The hurricane-force winds outside magnified tremendously, ripping the NextJet out of it's holding pattern. "Wait for me, Snakebite!" shrieked Tennyson as he leaped onto the dais seconds before it descended completely through the floor and a thick metal plate sealed the escape shaft. Nighthawk sprinted for the device controls as Fantastic-Man rocketed through the air toward the NextJet. As Nighthawk worked frantically to shut down the machine, Fantastic-Man grabbed onto the fuselage of the aircraft and brought it safely to the ground. Warforge, meanwhile, staggered to his feet. "Warforge!" Nighthawk yelled. "Cut him out of there." Warforge nodded groggily and stomped toward Stormfront, his weapon hand transforming into an enormous, heavy battle-axe as he moved. 4 mighty swings later, Stormfront was freed, and the raging storms outside began to dissipate. The Tennyson Device, however, continued to spark. "It's gonna blow!" Nighthawk yelled as he jumped back away from it, shielding himself with his cape. Warforge threw Stormfront to the ground, then dove over the top of him to protect him from the coming blast. KABOOOOOM!!! Fantastic-Man, meanwhile, had desolidly passed through the sealed escape tunnel and was soaring down the elevator shaft. Ahead, he heard what sounded like the faint rumbling of a small engine. Suddenly, he was startled by a loud pop. He poured on as much speed as he could muster and landed at the bottom of the long shaft, standing on the dais where Snakebite and Tennyson had been. He discovered that he was standing on what appeared to be a small pier under the Nest, with a dark underground canal leading away from the base. A pair of one-man waterjets were docked at the pier, and there was space for a third. Strangest of all however, lying dead on the pier with a single bullet-hole in his head, was Dr. Tennyson. The muffled roar of the missing waterjet grew fainter as it echoed back down the walls of the canal as Snakebite sped away from The Swamp. Fantastic-Man prepared to soar after him when from above he heard a colossal explosion. Realizing his friends could be in danger, he rocketed back up the escape shaft and burst through the heavy steel hatch at the top. The Command Center was a smoldering ruin, but thankfully none of the Defenders had been harmed during the explosion of the Tennyson Device. Nighthawk's cape was singed and Warforge was blackened and scorched from both the explosion and the barrage of energy attacks he had taken, but was still functional. NextForce, meanwhile, had entered the base and were helping the other Defenders and Stormfront get back on their feet. "You've been busy..." quipped Nighthawk to Fantastic-Man as he looked around at the last cavalry he had ever expected. Within the hour, PRIMUS agents were on site, detaining the remaining VIPER forces which included Draconis, Boa Constrictor and Sidewinder (Delusion had apparently vanished in the fray and slipped off undetected.) The Tennyson Device was almost completely vaporized in the explosion, but the PRIMUS recovery teams set to work on scouring the base, collecting anything and everything they could find for further processing and analysis. The raging storm had spent itself out completely once the device was no longer feeding it Stormfront's sustaining energy. The Defenders and NextForce stood facing eachother for some time. Finally, Stormfront hobbled out toward Fantastic-Man and extended his hand. Fantastic-Man reached out and shook Stormfronts hand firmly, and then NextForce boarded the NextJet and prepared to take off for Paragon City. "You're sure you don't need a lift?" Stormfront asked The Defenders as he boarded, as the D-Jet had been destroyed by VIPER's air defenses earlier. "No, thanks.." Fantastic-Man replied as his friends and teammates surrounded him. "We've got some catching up to do." ____________________ GM NOTES: This arc worked out MUCH better than I had originally intended. As mentioned previously, when Fantastic-Man left the team to seek revenge after the death of his former sidekick, it really threw a curveball at me. But, these are the things that keep the game exciting for me (and hopefully for them too) as I firmly believe they have to act as their characters would, and it's my job to respond accordingly in ways to allow them to do so. That said, the dramatic return of Fantastic-Man and the truce (albeit unsteady at best) with NextForce made for a nice end-point on the first half of the season, and capped off what ended up being one of the more enjoyable story arcs I've run in this campaign, and I had expected neither of them a few weeks prior.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! The Defenders Season V: Evolution Issue #6 "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" (Pt. 1) Cast: Fantastic-Man - Team Leader, Flying Brick w/ Mass manipulation powers. Currently on a solo mission, whereabouts unknown to the team... or the rest of the world for that matter Rampant Lion III - Interim Team Leader, Fencer/ Archer from a long line of superheroism Nighthawk - Team Detective, Martial Artist/ Gadgeteer who doesn't play by the rules La Espijisma - Team Doctor, Metamorph with Power Mimicry who keeps to herself and doesn't say much but when she does, it's usually important. Warforge - Team Scapegoat, Golem Brick with an arm that can transform into a variety of weapons, recently dubbed "Man of the People" but always "Just a Metal Man." Tomorrow Boy - Team Scientist, teenage supergenius Gadgeteer from the future who fights bad guys and still has time to get virtually ignored by the girl of his dreams Wonder-Boy - Not actually on the team per se, but helping out in the absence of his former mentor, Fantastic-Man. His songs have the power... to move you. ____________________ Act I: The phone continued to ring and ring at The Defenders temporary office at Stronghold. The team didn't realize how much they had come to depend on Noelle Peterson, their former secretary (and former girlfriend of former Defender Tornado!) who had recently quit. "No no.. it's quite alright. I'll get it," quipped Rampant Lion sarcastically as he got up from the makeshift monitor station to answer the telephone. "I'm sure the city can monitor itself for a few minutes without descending into utter madness. Defenders. Rampant Lion here." "Oh.. oh I see" the voice on the other end of the phone began. "Well my name is Adam Barnes, and I'm the director of an exciting new reality TV series called "Capes!" ever heard of it?" "Well, actually, on the whole I tend to find American television to be a trifle lac.." Rampant Lion replied. "Doesn't matter if you've seen it really," Barnes interrupted. "We're only in a few markets anyway.. small time stuff. But we just signed a major network deal and we REALLY want to run our first network show on the Earth's Greatest Superteam, The Defenders! Basically, our camera crews would shadow you for a couple of days, getting footage that would then be put into our 60-minute long show. We'll cover any action that comes your way and give the public a look at what superheroes are like behind the scenes! It's a GREAT PR opportunity for you guys! Whaddaya say?" "Well.. it DOES sound intriguing.." the spotlight-loving superhero replied. "Great, well, let me talk to Fantastic-Man and I'll get all the details ironed out." Rampant Lion stammered, "I.. err.. I'm sorry.. what's that now?" "Oh, well, I just need to talk to Fantastic-Man to get all the logistics ironed out, since he's the team leader and all. Is he available?" Barnes asked. "Well... no, actually." Rampant Lion replied hesitantly. "Oh.. ok, well when can I try him back?" "Well.. he's actually.. umm.. missing, but I'm filling in and more than..." "What do you mean missing?! He's frickin' Fantastic-Man! How does he go missing?!" Barnes asked agitatedly. "Well.. he's on a special mission... of sorts. Sorry I can't really go into too much detail," Rampant Lion chose not to mention that he didn't know any details to go into. "I see.. well.. that does change things.." Barnes said disappointedly. "No Fantastic-Man.. hmm.. Tell you what.. let's backburner this for the time being. Don't call us.. we'll call you." *click* ____________________ Act II: Later that week, Warforge, Wonder-Boy and Tomorrow Boy sat in front of the television in the Stronghold Rec room, flipping channels as Rampant Lion walked in. A show's opening prelude caught their attention. "Tonight on the network television premiere of Capes, we go deep inside the daily lives of the world's hottest new superteam... NextForce!" File footage of NextForce's most recent assault on a secret VIPER nest in Paragon City was shown. "These ain't your grandpa's superheroes. NextForce is taking a tough stance against the criminals and terrorists that make our world an unsafe place!" The scene cut to an interview with team leader, Stormfront. "Well, you know Betty, we're not in this for glory or accolades. We just saw a job that wasn't being done and decided to pitch in." "But how did you even become a team? You all seem so different," the show's host, Betty Browning, asked Stormfront. "Well Betty, as you know, fighting crime isn't cheap, and since we didn't exactly have a lot of cushy celebrity endorsements to fund ourselves, we were actually formed by an anonymous financial benefactor who was tired of seeing the world in trouble day after day, and hand picked each one of us for this team." "A mysterious benefactor? Sounds exciting! Don't suppose you can give us a clue as to who that is, eh?" Betty asked with a wink. Stormfront laughed, "No, no.. It's best that their identity remains safely anonymous. Can't say I blame them myself, especially after what happened at Omnitech when some villains found out that Jack Kirby had been supporting another superteam. We wouldn't want to see an innocent civilian come to that kind of harm because of us." "Fair enough, so tell me about your team.. and your powers! Where did you get them?" Betty asked. "Well, coincidentally, everyone on the team is what's called a mut.." Rampant Lion furiously turned off the television. "That's enough! The nerve of them! They snub their nose at us because Fantastic-Man isn't around and then invite NextForce on to assail us with backhanded insults? The gall of some people!" "Well.. get ready for worse news then.." La Espijisma said as she entered the room, holding an opened letter. "This just came priority mail... NextForce wants us to come over for dinner, to bury the hatchet." "Oh no..." Tomorrow Boy gasped with dread. "I know.. it'll be SO boring," Wonder-Boy replied, apparently inviting himself right along with The Defenders. "Sitting around for hours talking shop.." "No.. not that.." Tomorrow Boy cut him off. "Someone's gonna have to tell Nighthawk." ____________________ Act III: The Defenders (sans Nighthawk who had "graciously" declined the invitation) arrived at The NexTower, which used to be the base of the now-disbanded Atom Family but had been purchased by NextForce for use as their new headquarters, the following evening for their peace-talks dinner with their rival superteam. Stormfront and Cateran met them at the front door and led them into the base, past the empty receptionists desk. "We gave our assistants the night off," Stormfront explained. "How generous of you..." Tomorrow Boy replied with more than a hint of suspicion. Cateran fell in step with Rampant Lion and the two spoke in hushed whispers throughout Stormfront's guided tour. Finally, they all arrived in the large, lavish banquet hall, where the rest of NextForce awaited them. A costumed man that The Defenders had not seen in their previous encounters with NextForce stalked toward them, bearing down intently on Tomorrow Boy. "You!" He shouted, almost angrily. "Your blitz device! How did you account for the quantum de-stabilization on the transverse coupling modulator?" "Brainchild.. please!" Stormfront stopped him. "These are our guests." "Well.." Tomorrow Boy began, a bit stunned that anyone else would understand the complex nature of his teleportation device. "You have to reverse the.." "No, not here.. my lab. Let's go." Brainchild grabbed Tomorrow Boy by the wrist and dragged him down the hall toward his lab. "When Nerds Collide.." quipped Wonder-Boy. After mingling with eachother for a short time, most of NextForce welcoming The Defenders warmly - the only notable exceptions being Gargantua and Menagerie, the two teams sat down at the dinner table, as Lodestone carried out all the serving trays from the kitchen. The meal consisted of sumptuous prime rib and a myriad of delicious looking side dishes. Stormfront tapped his glass with his knife to get everyone's attention and stood, raising his glass. "A toast.." he proclaimed. "To new beginnings." "To New Beginnings!" everyone intoned, raising their own glasses in turn. "You see.." he continued. "Not only do I view tonight as a new beginning in our partnership with you, but this is in and of itself a new beginning for all of us. Prior to the forming of NextForce, each and every one of us was living a life of crime. Degenerates going nowhere with no purpose, using our powers to sate our own pointless greed. But we were fortunate in that we were given a second chance... a new begin.." The explosions that rocked NexTower interrupted Stormfront's soliloquy, and the roar of a hoverjet engine deafened them. "It's VIPER!" Gargantua shouted above the din, as laser blasts from the hover transport shattered the windows of the banquet hall, blasting furniture, lavish appointments, and scorching the walls. The heroes dove for cover in an attempt to regroup after the surprise attack, but Menagerie and Lodestone had been seconds too slow, and were cut down by laser fire. The others managed to find shelter and took pot shots at the assault craft whenever they saw an opening. Then the barrage of firepower stopped, and they all looked up in time to see a VIPER strike team enter through the gaping hole that had been blown in the side of the building. A team of Superhuman Combat Specialists, accompanied by Dragon Branch members Freon, Halfjack, Boa Constrictor and Sidewinder... and led by Draconis. "The fangs of the serpent strike fast and show no mercy!" Draconis shouted, raising his fist in victory. "We shall win the day!" As three of the Superhuman Combat Specialists laid suppression fire down on Stormfront and Brainchild, the rest of VIPER began their attack on the combined forces of The Defenders and NextForce, with the Assault Vehicle still hovering outside blasting a superhero whenever an opening presented itself. Most dangerous of all, however, was Sidewinder, gashing in and out of the room, leaving a badly beaten superhero on the ground after each trip. On one such run, he knocked out Cateran and La Espijisma, ,and then retreated to the safety of the roof of the assault vehicle hovering outside. "Gotta do something about that bloke!" Rampant Lion shouted as he dodged an icy blast from Freon. "I'm on it.." a raspy voice replied over the team communicator, as Nighthawk swung up over the back of the hovercraft, delivering a double-booted kick to Sidewinder's back. "You gonna regret that, amigo.." the supervillain hissed as he pulled himself back up and turned to face the Dark Defender. As the two battled hand-to-hand on the roof of the hovercraft roughly 30 stories off the ground, things inside continued to worsen. Stormfront and Brainchild weren't going to hold out much longer. Rampant Lion had his hands full with Freon's relentless assault, Warforge and Gargantua were back to back against Halfjack and Boa Constrictor, as Wonder-Boy was being whipped around the room like a rag doll courtesy of Draconis's telekinesis. The assault hovercraft fired a blast into the ceiling on top of Warforge and Gargantua, burying them in an avalance of building materials. "TB! Take that thing down!" Rampant Lion directed. "On it.. Nights! Hold on to something!" Tomorrow Boy shouted as he grabbed the hovercraft with his telekinesis. As he strained with all his might, the hovercraft began to turn up on its side. As Nighthawk braced himself to leap, Sidewinder looked around frantically for a foothold, but there was none to be found. Both flightless men slid off the top of the craft, and began plummeting toward the pavement 30 stories beneath them. "Insolent Cur! Not my chariot!" shouted an enraged Draconis as he tossed Wonder-Boy aside and grabbed the hovercraft with his own telekinetic powers, struggling against Tomorrow Boy to turn it back upright. "Freon! Get Sidewinder!" Freon turned away from Rampant Lion, and dove out the window, gliding along on a slide of solid ice. He caught Sidewinder in mid fall and the two returned to the Hovercraft to try to help the pilot shake the ship out of Tomorrow Boy's grasp. "There's an easier way..." mumbled the half-human, half-robot monstrosity known as Halfjack, as he levelled the teenage supergenius with an overpowering punch, knocking him flat against the wall. Tomorrow Boy slid unceremoniously to the floor, landing in an unconcious heap. Boa Constrictor, meanwhile, had grabbed onto Rampant Lion and was crushing the air out of his lungs when the defensive front of Stormfront and Brainchild finally broke down. Brainchild fell over after being blasted by laser fire from the Superhuman Combat Specialists, leaving Stormfront and Rampant Lion as the only men left standing in the fight. As conciousness faded from Rampant Lion, he heard Draconis direct the others.. "Careful with that one. We need him unblemished..." and then all went quiet. Rampant Lion awoke sometime later, with Nighthawk crouched over him waving foul-smelling salts under his nose. Warforge and Gargantua were dusty and desheveled looking, but otherwise no worse for wear, and the same was true for Cateran, La Espijisma, Wonder-Boy and Brainchild. Tomorrow Boy, Lodestone, and Menagerie, however, were in need of serious medical attention. The VIPER forces had withdrawn... ..and had taken Stormfront with them. ____________________ Epilogue Warforge had been covering Tomorrow Boy's monitor duty shifts as the teenage supergenius was getting back on his feet again the week following the VIPER attack. He had been looking for any signs of VIPER's next move, but aside from a few unrelated burglaries, there didn't appear to be any sign of crimes happening. "What's that there.." Nighthawk said, pointing at one of the view screens. "Oh.. Florida's getting hit by a pretty big hurricane." "That's impossible.." Nighthawk replied. "Umm.. actually, Florida sees quite a few hurricanes each year. Surprised you didn't know that.." Warforge replied. "Yes.." Nighthawk growled. "But none of them form over land." The two continued to stare at the storm pattern, centered right over the state.. and continuing to grow. _______________ GM Notes One thing I feel I should mention here in these stories - the Fantastic Man parts aren't ACTUALLY happening in real time with what's going on in the story. He was in Saudi Arabia roughly the same time when these events were happening, not when the Defenders were wrapping up against Teleios. Those are just the sessions when his player and I discussed what was going on. Sorry if that gets a little confusing, but it'll all get a lot clearer in the very near future.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! The Defenders will return in... A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

Planet of the Ape The Defenders Season V: "Evolution" Issue 5 (pt. 3) Cast Wonderboy: Fantastic-Man's former sidekick; Member of the Stronghold Security Force, has the power... to move you Nighthawk: Mega-bajillionare playboy; super-detective; Martial Artist/ Gadgeteer La Espijisma: Team Doctor; Infiltration specialist; Metamorph with the ability to mimic Superpowers of others Warforge: Mystical construct created in Vulcan’s Forge to battle evil; Brick w/ multi-weapon Arm Tomorrow Boy: Teenage uber-genius from the future with telekinetic powers; Gadgeteer Rampant Lion III: Legacy hero with a taste for adventure and the spotlight; Martial Artist/ Weapon Master ____________________ Act I: "Look out!" Elasti-Gibbon shrieked as he launched a super-stretchy arm up around a nearby burnt-out light pole, pulling himself up to safely as the horns of the raging triceratops barely missed him. Undeterred, the creature pounded on toward Nighthawk. The Dark Defender jumped over the beast whose momentum carried him head first into the concrete wall of the train station. Nighthawk hurled a tranquilizer dart at the triceratops as he catapulted through the air before landing in a crouched position on the other side of the street. Unphased by the dart, the Triceratops wheeled around and began to charge again. "GERONIMO!!" yelled Elasti-Gibbon as he dropped down from his perch and wrapped his streched-out hands around the eyes of the dinosaur. Blinded, the triceratops roared in anger and veered wildly off-course, smashing into the side of a nearby abandoned storage building, and rampaging on as Nighthawk continued to pelt it with tranquilizers. "Gibbon!" he yelled out as he swung over the streets above the rampaging triceratops. "Triceratops should have a weak spot on the back of its neck.. just beneath that armored fin. Catch!" He tossed a tranquilizer dart to Elasti-Gibbon. "Gotcha boss! You can count on..." Elasti-Gibbon replied as the Triceratops bucked violently, hurling the metamorphic monkey off its back. He hit the sidewalk with a thud. "...mmmee?" Confused at the world swirling around him, Elasti-Gibbon looked down to discover that in the course of his less-than-smooth landing, he had jabbed himself with Nighthawk's tranquilizer. "Slllleeepy now.." he mumbled as he fell over onto the sidewalk fast asleep. "Perfect.." thought Nighthawk as he dropped down in front of the triceratops to avert its charge away from the defenseless ape. He waved his cape into the wind like a bullfighter, hoping the movement would draw the attention of the dinosaur, and fortunately it did. The beast swerved away from Elasti-Gibbon and charged at Nighthawk with all its fury, its massive horns snagging and tearing huge holes in the Dark Defender's armored cloak. Nighthawk ran, hoping to draw the Triceratops further away from the sleeping Elasti-Gibbon but soon found himself cornered in a narrow alley. The triceratops closed in fast, blocking off the only way into or out of the alleyway, and then after a brief pause, perhaps to allow Nighthawk to fully realize how trapped he was, began one last charge. Nighthawk hurled himself straight up, kicking out his legs, and bracing himself between the two walls of the alleyway as the triceratops passed beneath him. Then dropped himself down onto its back, and pulled the remaining four tranquilizer darts from his belt. With two darts in each hand, he jabbed them into the soft spot underneath the dinosaur's bony armored plate. The triceratops let out a pathetic, confused roar, stumbled a bit, and then crashed to the ground, completely out-cold. With Elasti-Gibbon safely sleeping off the effects of the tranquilizer and the Paragon City MARS units on their way (with a very large crane truck) to deal with the Triceratops (which none of them actually believed they'd find there anyway, but it's Nighthawk, so what can ya do?) Nighthawk radioed the Defenders to tell them what had happened. "We're actually on our way to you.." Tomorrow-Boy replied as he flew the D-Jet with the rest of the team on board over the Paragon City skyline. "You won't believe what just happened..." Nighthawk began. "You got attacked by a dinosaur?" Warforge shouted from the rear of the jet. Nighthawk was too stunned to even ask how Warforge knew before the deafening screech blasted through his earpiece to answer for him. Back on the D-Jet, Warforge and Rampant Lion fought mightily to keep the enormous pterodactyl that had attacked them at bay. It raked and tore at the hull with its massive talons, and clamped down toward the Defenders with its huge, fang-filled beak. As Tomorrow-Boy and La Espijisma struggled to keep the D-Jet in the air, the other two Defenders blasted away at the beast with energy arrows and fireballs. Rampant Lions arrows struck true, but often bounced harmlessly away from the creature's thick hide, and Warforge's fireblasts often sailed wide, missing the huge creature entirely. Finally, the pterodactyl clamped its powerful jaws down on the wing of the aircraft and began to bite down. If it severed the wing, the Defenders knew they were in serious trouble. But that's when they heard singing. A strong melodious voice filled the air. With a resurgent sense of confidence and determination, Warforge opened up another volley of fire attacks against the creature, this time hitting it squarely in the chest. The creature plummeted to the streets below, and lay motionless. The relieved Defenders readily welcomed Wonder Boy on board, who's powerful song had given Warforge the ability to hit the (really really big) dinosaur and end the threat it posed. ____________________ Act 2 With Elasti-Gibbon snoring loudly on the couch in the corner, the remaining Defenders gathered in their cramped temporary meeting room at Stronghold to try to go over what they had managed to learn. "Guys.. take a look at this." Tomorrow-Boy cut in as he patched his computer into the large display screen in the room. "Back in the late 70's and early 80's, this Austrian scientist, Jakob Stroessen, was making all sorts of strides in the areas of.." "Genetic manipulation and reproduction." La Espijisma interjected. "I'm familiar with a lot of his writings. The entire scientific community shunned him back then. His experiments were anything but ethical, and what he proposed sounded too much like Playing God for anyone those days. He was the first to believe that stem cells could be the key to unlocking genetic cures for some of the worst disesases on the planet. If he'd been around today, he might be regarded as one of the most brilliant geneticists of all time... but he died sometime before the White Event, didn't he." "Yeah," Tomorrow Boy replied. "His body was found in 1983, but check THIS out! According to CIA files, in 1984, one year prior to the White Event, the U.S.S.R. was believed to be in talks with someone named Teleios, who was allegedly offering to bolster their military forces with a few battalions of Stroessen's clones!" "Teleios?" Rampant Lion asked, unfamiliar with the name. "It's Greek," Nighthawk and Warforge replied at the same time, then stared at eachother briefly before Nighthawk continued. "Directly translated.. it means "Perfection." "Ok.. so this guy who clearly has some narcissistic tendencies tried to sell an army to a government that no longer exists over twenty years ago that he apparently made using some even longer-dead nerd's notes." Said Wonder Boy. "What does this have to do with what's going on now?" "Ummmm....perhaps the only known photo of the man believed to be this Teleios can help straighten that up," replied Tomorrow Boy as he accessed the photo from the CIA data records and put it on the screen. It showed a well-dressed man who appeared to be in his early to mid-30's getting into a car. A very familiar, blonde haired, blue-eyed man. "Freaky..." Wonder Boy whispered. "But why now? That photograph is from 1984 according to the file. Why no word from this guy for 23 years?" asked Warforge. "Because apparently, " said Nighthawk, "He didn't work alone." He took Tommorow Boy's computer and zoomed into the interior of the car to show everyone else what he had seen. Sitting in the back seat of the car, waiting for Teleios to get in, was Dr. Simian. "Ok.... so crazy clone-myself guy and the mental monkey join forces..." Tomorrow Boy began trying to spell out the timeline, "then Simian disappears in the White Event, when he gets tossed into Elasti-Gibbon's dimension, and Teleios goes deeeeeep underground. Why?" "Must've needed Simian for whatever he had planned, and without the two of them, he had to go back to formula," answered Nighthawk. "Like.. a plan to clone the President of the United States." "So then what did he need Simian for?" asked Warforge. "Not sure... yet," Nighthawk replied "but I think first we need to figure out why he's in Paragon City. All his clones showing up at once can't be a coincidence..not to mention the dinosaurs. If Stroessen was as good a geneticist as you claim, and this guy's got access to all his notes and can mass produce copies of himself, it's not too far fetched to assume he could replicate anything if given its DNA... whether they're extinct or not. Both Dinosaurs attacked us near the East Bottoms.. and it'd be difficult to move them around undetected if he were too far from there..." Nighthawk pulled up the property records for the area. "Interesting... this block of abandoned slums here was purchased over a year ago by a Jake LeStoie." "You know who he is or something?" asked La Espijisma. "No..." Nighthawk replied. "I just know LeStoie rearranged spells Teleios." ____________________ Act III: The D-Jet hovered over the roof of LeStoie's run-down, abandoned tenement building, as Wonder Boy, Tomorrow Boy, La Espiisma, Warforge, and Rampant Lion all dropped down to the roof of the dilapidated structure. "Isn't going in through the roof Nighthawk's MO?" asked Tomorrow Boy. "Where'd he go anyway?" "Believe it or not, he said he was going in through the front door." Rampant Lion shrugged. "You know him... always doin his own thing." Warforge managed to convince the rusty-hinged roof access door to open and the five snuck down into the surprisingly well-maintained stairwell. At the bottom, they discovered another door with a much more high-tech code access lock on it, but Tomorrow Boy hacked it with ease, and they entered the top floor of the building. The top floor was a lavishly appointed living quarters. The floor was covered with exotic rugs, and carpets from all over the world. Exquisite tapestries and works of art hung on all the walls. There was a large conservatory with a massive Boesendoerfer piano in the middle of the room, and an enormous recreation room complete with billiard table, leather sofa, divan and recliners, a roaring fireplace. Chopin was being piped all throughout the luxury suite through surround sound speakers. The master bedroom featured an enormous, satin-sheeted, king sized bed with a jacuzzi next to it large enough to comfortably fit ten people. The decadent interior mocked the building's slummish exterior in every imaginable way. Meanwhile, at ground level, Nighthawk crept in through the front door to find what had once been the apartment building's main foyer. Everything was covered in dust, mildew, dust, dirt and dust. Rats and probably worse scurred this way and that in the darkness. Clearly this area hadn't been used in quite some time. After discovering that the elevator no longer worked, Nighthawk found his way to the stairs and began working his way up. On the second floor, he found a dozen abandoned dwellings. Some still had a few furnishings, but most were completely empty, likely picked over by poor vagabond scavengers over the years. The rooms along the exterior walls held little of interest, but the rooms along the interior of the building were a completely different story. Each of them was lined with enough C4 explosive to completely collapse the entire building. Further careful examination confirmed that the explosives were lined with anti-tamper wiring, and disarming one would surely set off the remaining charges, destroying the supports of the building causing it to collapse. As the Defenders bid the luxurious but otherwise empty suite a fond farewell, they made their way down to the fifth floor, where they found a large training facility. Weight rooms, shooting ranges, showers, a locker room, barracks, a mess hall.. everything you'd need to house, feed and train a small army was here. Hanging in the lockers, they found uniforms just like the ones that the clone agents that first attacked them had been wearing. But still no sign of the clones, Teleios or Dr. Simian themselves. The third floor yielded much the same results for Nighthawk. More abandoned apartments and more concealed C4 charges. Whoever had set this up was apparently very serious about covering their escape should the need ever arise. As Nighthawk returned to the stairs to make his way up to floor 4, he discovered a locked door atop the stairs. His lockpicks proved to be little use against the sealed door, and he was nearly ready to make his way out to the roof to rejoin the others... As the Defenders reached the fourth floor, La Espijisma heard something scratching on the other side of the wall at the bottom of the stairs. Warforge wasted no time in smashing through the concrete wall, splintering the wooden door on the other side and showering Nighthawk with sawdust and splinters. Once each explained to the other what they had found, they proceeded to explore the fourth floor. The fourth floor, they quickly discovered, was completely devoted to being one gigantic laboratory. Desks, computers, and data servers lined the walls while tables lined with test tubes and bunsen burners filled the middle. Chalkboards covered in chemical formulae and genome mappings along with various other mathematic and scientific theorums were everywhere. At the far end of the massive lab, stood a large, heavy looking double-door with biometric security measures in place. As the team approached the doors however, which as near as they could tell actually led into the old warehouse that had been adjacent to the abandoned apartment building, the doors slid open with a hiss. "I was beginning to think you were too slow to piece it together..." said Dr. Simian, who sat on his hoverchair in the middle of a high-ceilinged chamber. The walls of this chamber were lined with fluid-filled tanks, each containing yet more half-created clones of Teleios. At the far end stood three MUCH larger tanks, the two smaller of which were empty, and the even larger third was filled with fluid, but darkened on the inside making it impossible to see what it contained, and in the center was a single tank containing a nearly-finished clone of President Bush. Flanking Dr. Simian and surrounding the room were armed clone agents, and near the largest of the tanks at the far end, stood Teleios himself. Dr. Simian continued, "...but it looks like you filthy pinkskins managed to figure it out after all." "So you replace the president with a clone.. then what?" Rampant Lion asked as he casually unshouldered his bow. "The real president can't keep his government under control.. what makes you think your clone will do any better?" Dr. Simian roared with laughter. "Arrogant, heroic FOOL! You talk so smart yet understand so little! Key figures, such as the president will be replaced... and the rest will be controlled by ME! BEHOLD!" As Dr. Simian locked eyes with Tomorrow Boy, the teenage supergeniuses eyes glossed over. "Protect me from harm, my servant!" the villainous gorilla bellowed. In slavish obedience, Tomorrow Boy placed his own protective force field around Dr. Simian. "Good.. GOOD! Now KILLTHEM!" The agents readied their weapons and prepared to attack. The fight was fast and furious. As a clone agent fell, it seemed like there were always two to take his place, and under the control of Dr. Simian, Tomorrow Boy was forced to use his own gadgets and powers against his teammates. Finally, Tomorrow Boy was able to resist Dr. Simian's mind controlling powers and fought back, turning the tide in the Defenders favor. Soon only 3 clones remained, leaving Dr. Simian and Teleios outnumbered. "So be it.. I've waited over twenty years to see this plan come to fruition.. what's a few more months?" mused Dr. Simian with an evil grin. "Enact Plan B!" And with that, he blasted out a huge hole in the side of the wall with his telekenetic abilities, and rocketed off into the night sky. Teleios, meanwhile, mashed a large red button next to the third large tank. Alarms began to sound inside the facility, and as the tank drained of fluid, it became obvious that whatever had been inside had been lowered to the street level down a large elevator shaft. Teleios and the three remaining clone agents fell to the ground, unmoving. "What the.." Warforge began as La Espijisma ran to check Teleios. "Forget it.." said Nighthawk, remembering the other clones falling simultaneously as well. "They're all dead." He also remembered the bottom floors of the building lined with c4. "And so are we if we don't get out of here! MOVE!" "You're sure you can't disarm it?" asked Rampant Lion as Tomorrow Boy and Wonder Boy carried those unable to fly back up to the D-Jet. "Umm.. I don't think he'd have time," La Espijisma said with a tremor in her voice as she pointed toward the Downtown Paragon City skyline. "Look.." An enormous Tyranosaurus Rex, apparently the contents of the third tank, had been released and was stomping through the slums on its way to the heavily-populated downtown area. "Right then.." said Rampant Lion grimly. "Too bad.. really wanted to see about moving into that place." Once on board the D-Jet, The Defenders took off to intercept the T-Rex, as behind them, the facility exploded in a 300-foot-tall pillar of flame before collapsing on itself, utterly destroying everything inside. With Warforge smashing the T-Rex's toes with his massive Hammerhand , and the other Defenders blasting away at it, they managed to bring down the genetically engineered dinosaur before it was able to cause too much damage, and returned home to rest, heal, file reports, and all the other little things that go along with saving the world. ____________________ Epilogue The VIPER uniform barely fit over Fantastic-Man's frame. Why couldn't he have found an agent more his size in town before taking his uniform and stowing himself on board a VIPER convoy headed back out to their local nest, The Sandbox? But, if it got him one step closer to finding Oculon, then it was worth it. Once inside the Nest, Fantastic-Man soon discovered why the Green Man had sent him here. The Sandbox was responsible for monitoring, tracking, and deploying all agent assignments, including members of Dragon Branch. With a little patience, Fantastic-Man managed to locate an isolated Serpentine terminal and located the Dragon Branch assignment list. After a quick perusal that revealed Draconis, Sidewinder, and Diamondback to be stationed at The Swamp, Ripper's whereabouts to be Unknown, and Viperia's location to be highly classified, Fantastic Man finally discovered Oculon, stationed at the Ivory Tower, a heavily fortified nest on the Ivory Coast in west Africa, along with Freon and Halfjack. "Seriously?" he wondered. "Why do they have to be a Global terrorist organization? What's wrong with a Local terrorist organization?" Despite further mental grumbling, Fantastic-Man was soon soaring toward the Ivory Coast. ____________________ GM Notes: Sorry - this was just long enough ago that I'm sketchy on the combat details. I don't remember how everything played out, I just remember the good guys won and TB got to be MC'ed. I do remember being impressed with how well the team handled the change in tactics for not having Fantastic-Man around in this and the next fights, which as you'll see, get much tougher. I do specifically remember Warforge's dice conspiring against him. Poor dude couldn't hit the huge Pterodactyl to save his life.. and the other players were far from merciful about it as I recall. Then again, things are usually pretty far from merciful around the Defenders table. We give eachother a pretty hard time, but it's all in good fun. We press on!

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! It's so nice to have fans. Really! It is! No but seriously I apologize for the lack of postage. It's been a crazy year in Templarville, and one I'll be glad to see done and gone in a couple of weeks here. I foresee a great many posts in the days to come... might even be able to get caught up, but I'm not one for foolish optimism.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Well, Ideally we play every other Saturday. But, personal scheduling conflicts have abounded of late on both sides of the GM table, so we haven't been as faithful as we had been in the past. I'm hoping to get a game together for this Saturday night, but nothing concrete as of yet. But, don't worry.. even if we didn't, I'm still about 7 or 8 session behind on the log here, so I'm certainly not suffering from any shortage of material to post here. Heh. No, the problem is finding the time during the day to sit down and translate the sessions into a narrative text format. But, I'll keep pluggin away at it as my schedule allows.

Re: Who Is... Your Favorite Villain? I'll 2nd the vote for BH as my personal favorite (can't believe all these posts and only 2 mentions of the CU's most maniacal Clown!) I also really dig Teleios, as Hermit said, as a behind the scenes kind of guy. But, from a pure combat perspective, I'd have to give that nod to Eurostar. Team tactics, efficiency, and a bag full of dirty tricks to boot. They run like a well oiled machine... and The Defenders absolutely HATE them. I don't have the heart to tell them how much worse it would be w/ 4th Ed. Eurostar featuring Bora and The Whip... well.. ok, Bora.

Re: WWYCD: So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish... Every Character I have: Put out an APB on Foxbat, as clearly he has some ridiculous new dolphin-based scheme in mind - oh, and bring Ray Finkle in for questioning as well. Laces out, Dan. Laces out.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Update completed.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Planet of the Ape The Defenders Season V: "Evolution" Issue 5 (pt. 2) Cast Wonderboy: Fantastic-Man's former sidekick; Member of the Stronghold Security Force, has the power... to move you Nighthawk: Mega-bajillionare playboy; super-detective; Martial Artist/ Gadgeteer La Espijisma: Team Doctor; Infiltration specialist; Metamorph with the ability to mimic Superpowers of others Warforge: Mystical construct created in Vulcan’s Forge to battle evil; Brick w/ multi-weapon Arm Tomorrow Boy: Teenage uber-genius from the future with telekinetic powers; Gadgeteer Rampant Lion III: Legacy hero with a taste for adventure and the spotlight; Martial Artist/ Weapon Master ____________________ Act I: Fantastic-Man landed in front of the old, dilapidated waterfront storehouse that had been the secret entrance to the Paragon City VIPER nest that NextForce had recently raided. He shifted his molecular mass to a desolidified state and floated through the ground, into the remains of the nest hidden under the old building. The walls were still scorched with blast marks, and there was still some debris scattered around, but the darkened base was clearly no longer operable. Finding any clues leading to Oculon's whereabouts here would be difficult. He reached the main computer control room and tried to power up the mainframe. To his surprise, it came online. Apparently the PRIMUS techs hadn't yet figured out the logistics on how to remove the massive computer system in the short amount of time since the Nest had been raided. As the master computer finished its boot-up cycles, a password prompt appeared before Fantastic-Man. Warily, he attempted an entry. A stabbing pain rocketed up and down his spine, followed by a white-hot burning and the shocking jolt of electricity throughout his body, and then everything went black. When he woke up, Fantastic-Man found himself in the center of a peaceful garden. Beautiful roses and other flowers of every color bloomed in immaculate rows around him. A rich, thick carpet of perfectly manicured grass grew between the rows of flowers and a hedge wall surrounded him, seperating the garden from the rich, verdant rolling hills beyond. "Come.. and sit," an unfamiliar voice commanded him. Fantastic-Man rose slowly to his feet and looked around. In a small, white gazebo on the far end of the garden, Fantastic-Man saw a man sitting in a fine cushioned chair, with a spotless sterling silver serving tray on the small table next to him, and an identical large empty chair on the other side. Fantastic-Man walked over to the strange man and sat down. The man wore fine, green robes that appeared to be made of satin, and a long, flowing silky green robe was draped over his shoulders. He appeared to be middle-aged, and carried a very refined, high-class demeanor. He reached out and offered a silver cup full of warm, steaming hot tea to Fantastic-Man. After Nighthawk's warning about accepting hot tea from strangers (see Seas. IV), Fantastic-Man politely declined. "Why are you here?" the man asked. "Well.. I'd answer that if I knew where "here" was," a still rather confused Fantastic-Man replied. "Where am I? How did I get here? Who are you?" The man simply smiled, "This is my place. You were brought here because you were seeking something yes? Information? Someone perhaps?" Fantastic-Man was still clearly unnerved by all of this, including the man's omission of his own identity, his vagueness regarding their location, and his apparent insight into what Fantastic-Man had been doing in the VIPER nest. "Yes... Oculon. I'm looking for Oculon." The man's smile faded and his face became hard and rigid. "Oculon is a powerful man... with many powerful men underneath him. And you wish to seek him alone?" "I have to." Fantastic-Man replied. "Curious.." the green man said, "...But.. intriguing nonetheless. Very well. Your path begins in the sands of Arabia." The corner of his mouth twisted up into an almost mocking smile, "Good luck... Hero." The garden and gazebo and green man faded away to a blinding white light that forced Fantastic-Man to close his eyes. When he reopened them, he was lying on the floor of the abandoned PRIMUS nest. He was unharmed, aside from the lingering stinging pain in his back. The computer was shut off, but on a nearby printer, he found a page with a single line printout. Coordinates. Though he questioned whether or not the mysterious green man was intent on helping him, or if he was walking head first into a trap, it was the only lead he had. After sticking a note on the wall, Fantastic-Man left, soaring up into the night sky over Paragon City, heading East. _______________ Act II: "How's it goin down there?" Warforge's voice crackled over the intercom in the barely rebuild Stronghold Med Bay. "DNA scans almost complete," La Espijisma replied as she ran tests on the clone body brought back from the attack in downtown Paragon City. "There's a wierd strand in the helix that shouldn't be there. The code in it is definitely artificial... could have something to do with the cloning process. I'll keep working on it and let you know once I know more." "Translation: "Stop buggin me, Kid, so I can work?" TB asked sarcastically. The lack of reply answered his question. Warforge and Rampant Lion, meanwhile, had responded to a break-in report at Paragon Mercy Hospital. When they arrived, they headed to the hospital security office to begin their investigation. "Shouldn't we have sent Nighthawk to do this?" Warforge asked. "Nonesense.." Rampant Lion replied. "We can handle this just fine ourselves... and with less brooding." The duo quickly discovered that they could, in fact, NOT conduct their investigation. The security guards, while confirming that one of the secured lab storage areas had been compromised, informed them that everything else related to the break, including what was taken, had been classified. "But we're The Freakin' Defenders!" Warforge protested. "Sorry, sir," the security guard replied, "But I'm under orders from waaay above my pay grade here." "Who gave the order?" Rampant Lion asked. "He did." The guard pointed through the security window to a group of black-suited men wearing sunglasses and earpieces. A tall, athletic looking agent with slick, black hair was giving instructions to the other agents who then quickly dispersed as the lead agent headed toward the security office. "SSA Denton. Pleasure to meet you, Warforge, Rampant Lion," the senior agent introduced himself. "You're Secret Service?" Warforge asked. Denton nodded in reply. "What happened here? Is there anything we can do to help?" Rampant Lion asked. "We've got the situation well under control," Denton replied. "It's imperative to national security that we keep this case close to the vest... and unfortunately that means leaving you out of it." While Agent Denton was talking to Rampant Lion, Warforge noticed something on the replay of the security camera footage that the guards were pouring over. A deliveryman had walked past the front desk without dropping anything off, or signing in, or any of the usual things a deliveryman would do, and headed right on into the halls of the hospital - a deliveryman with blonde hair and blue eyes that looked exactly like the cloned agents that had attacked The Defenders previously. "Well, we'll get out of your hair then.." Warforge interrupted Denton, grabbed Rampant Lion by the arm, and rushed him out of the security room. "Good luck.. you know where to find us if you need us." Once back on board the D-Jet and headed back to Stronghold, Warforge explained what he had seen to Rampant Lion, Tomorrow-Boy, and to La Espijisma, who was still in the med lab going over the results of the genetic tests she had run on one of the recovered clone agent bodies. "I know a few people at Paragon Mercy," La Espijisma said, hoping to utilize some of the contacts that she had as Dr. Marianna Gutierrez at the hospital to find out what was kept there and what had been taken. "Whatever it is... your secret service seemed awfully keen on keeping us away from it," the Englishman Rampant Lion interjected. "Bet they couldn't keep Nighthawk away from it..." Tomorrow Boy said, "It's getting pretty late.. where IS he, anyway?" ____________________ Act III: The sleek, black car known as The Talon roared down the empty streets of Paragon City's waterfront. A crumpled piece of paper lay on the passenger seat that read: Seriously . . . Seriously Dude, I’m begging at this point. One more step following me ensures my death . . . One more step following me ensures your death. Losing me weakens The Defenders. Losing you destroys The Defenders. Paragon City falls if The Defenders fall. Don’t hang that hat on your conscious. -Frank Behind the wheel, a frustrated Nighthawk was running out of leads as to where to find Fantastic-Man. He had found similar letters all along the trail that Fantastic-Man had left... a trail that ran cold at the recently raided VIPER nest. "...What?!" Nights replied sharply to the beeping Defenders' communicator inside his car that had been going off at regular intervals throughout the day as the team tried to contact him. "Finally!" Tomorrow Boy's voice crackled through the speaker. "Where have you been anyway?" Nighthawk didn't reply... not that Tomorrow Boy really expected him to. "We've got a problem... We've sighted another clone at the scene of a break-in at Paragon Mercy, and mum's the word from the blokes at Secret Service as to what was taken. We could use a hand on this, if you're free," said Rampant Lion, with more than a bit of sarcasm thrown in to the last comment. "I'll see what I can find out," Nighthawk replied as he made an abrupt turn toward the slums of the East Bottoms. "Alone?" Warforge asked. "That's how I..." Nighthawk began before being interrupted by a muffled voice from the glove compartment. "I got his back, don't sweat it, sweetheart." Nighthawk opened the glove compartment door to find Elasti-Gibbon had stuffed himself inside. The metamorphic monkey squeezed out and into the passenger seat. "Thanks! Wow was it getting hot in there!" "No way." Nighthawk protested. "Not happening." "Oh come on.. he's already there," said Tomorrow Boy, trying with all his might to suppress the laughter boiling up inside him. "Alright.." Nighthawk relented, turning toward Elasti-Gibbon, "..but try to be inconspicuous." Elasti-Gibbon looked thoughtful for a moment, then morphed his costume to resemble a miniature version of Nighthawk - albeit with a curly tail protruding from the back side. "You got it, chief." The two arrived at Nights' destination - the subway station in the East Bottoms. One of the Dark Defenders' underworld contacts was known to hang out in the dimly lit, rarely patrolled station. As Nighthawk and Elasti-Gibbon looked around though, they found the station to be empty tonight. As they exited the station and headed back toward The Talon, the ground shook violently, and then again. The shakes became harder, and closer together. Nighthawk turned and looked down the street... ...to see an enraged triceratops bearing down upon them. ____________________ Epilogue La Espijisma let the phone receiver fall to the desk as she sprinted out of the med lab and dashed down the hall to the comm room where the other Defenders were meeting. She burst through the door, much to their surprise. "The lab vault that was broken into is used to store the blood of the President of the United States." ____________________ GM Notes Not a high action session, necessarily. No combat. Lots of good drama, though. Some great RP & interaction between the heroes going on right now. And, I think the burning question for ALL the players (except Mole) at this point was "Where's Fantastic-Man!?" Since all of his adventures were done PBEM, PBIM, or GM Sidebar, everybody else was completely in the dark about what was up w/ F-Bomb the whole time he was awol. They also are up against a new villain in this arc - though CU veterans have likely already guessed who it is.

Re: Villain: makes hero's powers go out-of-control Offhand, Major Transform to add Xd6 of Unluck or Activation Rolls to certain powers or however you want to symbolize the loss of control would probably be the simplest (albeit a bit cheesy - "Transform" can become something of an overused catch-all if not careful) solution. Honestly, if this is for an NPC, I wouldn't stress TOO much over the "hows" of how to build it, I would just want to make sure I knew ahead of time how I wanted it to affect each player character, flesh out the sfx (is it a ray? a mental thing?), and run with it. I think as long as you have a loose definition of the mechanics of the power, and know how the PC's can either avoid, resist, or otherwise not be affected by it (and, conversely, what it will do to them if affected) you should be fine.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Sorry for the delay in getting part 2 of this one out - busy week. Trying to prep for this year's fantasy football draft while getting ready for this week's Defender's session (big one, too) so no time to continue log updates. Hopefully on Friday I'll be able to get around to it.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Planet of the Ape The Defenders Season V: "Evolution" Issue 5 (pt. 1) Cast Wonderboy: Fantastic-Man's former sidekick; Member of the Stronghold Security Force, has the power... to move you Nighthawk: Mega-bajillionare playboy; super-detective; Martial Artist/ Gadgeteer La Espijisma: Team Doctor; Infiltration specialist; Metamorph with the ability to mimic Superpowers of others Warforge: Mystical construct created in Vulcan’s Forge to battle evil; Brick w/ multi-weapon Arm Tomorrow Boy: Teenage uber-genius from the future with telekinetic powers; Gadgeteer Rampant Lion III: Legacy hero with a taste for adventure and the spotlight; Martial Artist/ Weapon Master _______________ Act 1:"Toniiiiight on Capes... They're young.. they're tough... they're reshaping the face of the superhero world. These aren't your grandpa's superheroes. This is NextForce! We go behind the masks of the hottest new superteam on the planet! We get up close and personal with the team as they fight crime THEIR way! But first.. the shocking secret that keeps this band of loose cannons together..." Stormfront appeared on the television screen, sitting in a studio speaking with the host of Capes, Vernon Mills. "Oh, crap.. not this smacktard.." muttered Warforge as he reached for the remote control. "Well, Vernon," Stromfront began, "The six of us do come from as varied and far flung backgrounds as you could imagine. But, we do all share one common, underlying trait. The source of our superpowers. We're all mutants. Each of us gained our powers through our genes, and the mutation of our own DNA. No radiation accidents... no alien encounters. Just.. nature, taking it's course. Our benefactor specifically selected us for this team for that reason." "And who is this mysterious benefactor?" Vernon asked. "Well.. if I told you that, they wouldn't be mysterious now, would they?" Stormfront replied with a chuckle. "No, but seriously, Vernon, due to the understandable security risks associated with being the financial backbone of a superhero team, we guard the anonymity of our benefactor very closely. Especially after what happened to Jack Kirby." Warforge clicked off the television. He certainly didn't care to hear Stormfront's opinions on the Eurostar incident at Omnitech Headquarters. After everything that had happened in the two weeks following Eurostar's attack, the Metal Man definitely wasn't in the mood. Before they had even landed after extracting Fiacho from a VIPER nest, VIPER launched an all out assault on the metahuman superprison Stronghold, killing 2 superheroes and several PRIMUS agents, as well as injuring dozens more, including Cromwell, The Defender's long-time friend and PRIMUS liaison. None of the supervillains who had escaped during the chaos of the attack had been recovered. Security recording review revealed that three goals of the operation were to rescue captured Dragon Branch members Ripper, Freon and Diamondback, assassinate Despite for failing to control the Jormungandr situation and to kill Heinous if he betrayed VIPER, and finally to assassinate Kyle, the VIPER cyborg formally known as Heinous, who before that was one of Fantastic-Man's proteges, before he could reveal too many of VIPER's secrets to PRIMUS or The Defenders. The Defenders had been taking a bath in the media. "The Stronghold Debacle," as the attack became dubbed, put the Earth's premiere superteam in the crosshairs of the anti-metahuman movement on Capitol Hill, and the movement was gaining momentum. The Defenders' failure to prevent the escape of the prisoners and the loss of life of so many good men fueled the fires of the likes of Senator Albert Haganstone of PA, whose son Jeffrey, it was discovered, was killed by the extremist supervillain Holocaust, and his ally, Sen. Phillip Glassman of WY, who were pushing for federal sanctions against superhumans on both sides of the law, declaring them a menace to all life on Earth. The voices that cried out in support of The Defenders and other superteams, led by Sen. Arthur Bolton of NY, seemed to be growing quieter and quieter against the oppressive wave of anti-superhero sentiments. Still others, including a vocal minority in the general public, criticized The Defenders for being "too soft" on villains, rather than following NextForce's violent, zero-tolerance stance on criminals. As if all of this wasn't depressing enough, shortly after the attack on Stronghold, Fantastic-Man, the leader of The Defenders since their inception, had vanished, leaving only a note that read, "Don't try to find me, Don't try to stop me." You didn't have to be Nighthawk to deduce that FM was out for revenge against Oculon for the murder of one of his former sidekicks, but the sudden departure of the team's leader left them in an extra sticky bind, especially in light of all the stuff circling in the national media. The decision on an interim team leader had been about as smooth as sandpaper. Based on team seniority, the obvious choice had been the only original member of the team remaining... "No way.." Nighthawk had said. "Besides.. check your records. I never signed your little charter." Cromwell had nixed the member with the next-most longevity, Tomorrow-Boy, citing that the sixteen year-old wasn't even a legal member of the team, let alone in capacity of the emotional maturity needed to lead one... and all of that from the hospital bed at L'Institut Thoth where Cromwell was recovering from the attack of Stronghold. It was decided unanimously that, although Warforge had taken on a sort of "man of the people" persona of late, he still couldn't carry out the duties of a front man for a superteam. La Espijisma had graciously declined, expressing no interest in leading the team, even if only in the short term. Leaving the newest member of the team.. Rampant Lion. The British superheroic archer and swordsman relished his role as the face of the team, filling in at all of Fantastic-Man's public appearances, handling his weekly press conference. For being the new guy, he did hold himself well and did a surprisingly effective job deflecting questions about the whereabouts of the Earth's Greatest Superhero. The only near-fumble had come when the producers of Capes contacted the team's new publicist, Alicia Bellows, about doing an episode based on The Defenders. It nearly slipped that Fantastic-Man was MIA before Rampant Lion smoothed over the conversation like a veteran PR man. Apparently, the show had decided to feature The Defenders' rivals, NextForce, instead. "Maybe it's a good thing Fantastic-Man isn't around after all..." mused Warforge as he got up from his reinforced chair to go check on the Monitor station, imagining how Fantastic-Man would've reacted to Stormfront and his band of mutant buddies getting their own TV feature. He didn't even reach the monitor room before the alarms began to sound. He rushed into the monitor station to see what had happened only to discover a large temporal anamoly had formed over Paragon Park. He slapped the alarm beacon to notify the rest of the team and raced for the D-Jet. The interdimensional vortex, as Tomorrow Boy had confirmed it was, was still open and swirling when Warforge, Tomorrow Boy, La Espijisma, and Rampant Lion arrived at Paragon Park. A crowd of onlookers had gathered, keeping a respectful (or maybe fearful) distance from the portal. A few people were lying on the ground not far from the rift. As La Espijisma rushed to them to make sure they were ok, a hand shot out of the portal with a long arm attached to it. It grabbed onto a nearby tree. The Defenders looked from one to the other, deciding whether or not they should attack, as the portal began to weaken and collapse upon itself. A second hand with an identical long arm latched onto another tree as the vortex continued to shrink. As the ever-weakening vortex blinked out of existence, a small, furry form shot out, his elongated arms acting like a slingshot, propelling him through the air, landing in a heap on the soft grass. The Defenders rushed over to where the creature lay, but only Tomorrow Boy recognized him. "Holy sprockets... it's Elasti-Gibbon!" ____________________ Act II: As Elasti-Gibbon soaked in the tissue-regeneration tank in Stronghold's newly repaired med bay, Tomorrow Boy told the others the story of The Defenders' adventure in the Ape universe, when the team had been sent there by a benevolent cosmic entity known as The Norn to prevent the evil supervillain Dr. Simian (a super-intelligent, super-maniacal, gorilla who ironically enough came from our world but was shunted into the Ape dimension by the White Event) from setting off an energy bomb capable of destroying the multiple universes for which the Ape dimension acted as a multi-dimensional hub. Assuming anyone of The Defenders understood TB's lengthy and technical explanation, they obviously had a lot of questions for Elasti-Gibbon, a member of the parallel superteam, The Defenders, in the Ape universe. After some time floating in the healing fluids, Elasti-Gibbon finally came to. Nighthawk had shown up by now as well, and was rather concerned over the superheroic simian's sudden appearance. "Dr. Simian..." Elasti-Gibbon began, ".. wanted to get back here. He's always wanted to get back here. Always been his goal. Forced open the gateway. He.. uhh.. how'd that go? Oh right.. Reclaimated the energon spignajure from when you guys left the last time." "You mean.. he replicated the energy signature?" TB asked. "Whatever, kid.. don't bother me with details. All I know is that Doc Simian was ready to tear a hole in time and space to get here, and that that was going to result in the destruction of our entire homeworld. I don't understand all that technobabble anyway.. not like I'm Iron Monkey. Where is he, anyway?" Elasti-Gibbon asked, referring to his home dimension's version of The Defenders' power-suited gadgeteer tech-junkie. "He's not here," Nighthawk replied. "Just you." "Wha? But.. but that means..." Elasti-Gibbon's big, brown eyes welled up with tears and his lip began to quiver," We... we failed.. they're all.. they're all... " He broke down in tears as Tomorrow Boy and La Espijisma tried to console him. Warforge grabbed Nighthawk's shoulder and led him to the monitor room. "He's not the only one that came through..." the titanium titan said as he replayed the video feed from the Paragon Park surveillance system as the rift was beginning to open. A single figure rocketed out of the vortex, knocking several innocent bystanders down as he sped past them. A frame by frame review showed the figure to be an elated silverback gorilla riding in a high-tech, high-speed hoverchair. "Dr. Simian..." the Dark Defender replied. ____________________ Act III: The sun was setting as Wonderboy soared over the Paragon City skyline. Even patrolling for street thugs and bank robbers seemed just a little more dangerous knowing that Fantastic-Man was nowhere to be found. Without warning, a laser blast scorched through the air in front of the young superhero. Wonderboy scanned the rooftops for the source of the blast and saw a two men armed with laser weapons wearing red and black uniforms on a nearby rooftop. The second was preparing to fire, so Wonderboy did what anyone in his situation would do. He began to sing. The bolt hit him square in the chest, but only stung a little, thanks to the skin-toughness inpiring abilities of Wonderboy's song. The blast from behind, that he wasn't expecting, stung a lot more. Wonderboy swiveled around, only to discover that he was surrounded by identically-dressed, identically armed agents, sniping at him from the rooftops. He hit the emergency distress beacon on his wrist-communicator and then took evasive actions to try to avoid the barrage of blasts being fired at him. Back at Stronghold, The Defenders recieved his distress call. The five of them blasted through the sky in the D-Jet to help out. The battle was fast and furious. The agents were well armed, and had back up down on the street level as more agents poured out of nearby buildings, attacking the heroes. But, after about thirty seconds, the agents all just collapsed, unmoving. A very puzzled team of superheroes approached the still bodies. La Espijisma found no sign of any vitals - no pulse, no breathing. They were all dead. She unmasked one to reveal a caucasian man in his mid thirties, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She also discovered an unusual barcode on the back of his neck. This prompted her to grab another of the nearby fallen agents, she pulled up the back of his mask to reveal another similar barcode, and tufts of blonde hair sticking out from the mask. She pulled it off all the way and turned him over. He was identical to the first agent... as was the third.. and the fourth.. and the fifth. Every agent was an identical copy of eachother. "Dodecatuplets?" Wonderboy posited. "No.." Nighthawk said, rising from the side of one of the fallen. "Clones." TO BE CONTINUED ____________________ GM NOTES: So.. whaddaya do when the player of the leader of the team comes to you and says, "I think Fantastic-Man is gonna go looking for Oculon.. no way he lets him get away with killing Kyle and then getting away. Maybe we can do his search for Oculon in my in-betweens so that it doesn't take up group time." All well and good, good RP, good in-character thought, and a nice plot-hook for ongoing adventures. But the all important question becomes... "What are you going to do in the meantime?" Well, when Mole created Fantastic-Man, he had 2 sidekicks in his backstory. One had turned to evil and was transformed into the cyborg Heinous by VIPER. The other, Wonderboy, had remained true to his superheroic roots. Mole decided to flesh out Wonderboy and the concept was a real kick. Now, bear in mind, Mole's been a brick since 2001. So, I fully expected Wonderboy to be a flying brick in the mold of FM, but maybe not quite as beefy, and without the mass alteration tricks. What we got.. was a superbard. You'll see plenty more of Wonderboy over the next few issues. I think this was a great break for Mole and a fun change of pace for everyone else to try to figure out what to do w/out the 600 point veteran superbrick there to take it on the chin for them. The players (and, conversely their characters) are also getting pretty fed up with the whole public perception, anti-superhero crisis... and they're REALLY hating on NextForce.. hehe.. which is exactly what I wanted.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Update completed.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! The Siege Of Stronghold The Defenders Season V: "Evolution" Issue 4 (pt. 2) Cast Fantastic-Man: Team Leader; World’s Greatest Hero; Brick with Flight and Density Alteration Powers Nighthawk: Mega-bajillionare playboy; super-detective; Martial Artist/ Gadgeteer La Espijisma: Team Doctor; Infiltration specialist; Metamorph with the ability to mimic Superpowers of others Warforge: Mystical construct created in Vulcan’s Forge to battle evil; Brick w/ multi-weapon Arm Tomorrow Boy: Teenage uber-genius from the future with telekinetic powers; Gadgeteer Rampant Lion III: Legacy hero with a taste for adventure and the spotlight; Martial Artist/ Weapon Master (We're down an tech in the office today, so it's been ridiculous. But, I'll get through what I can before the end of the day.) ____________________ Act 1: Fantastic-Man had seen Spartan, pelted with laserbolts, fall from the sky, but almost immediately had his attention grabbed by Viperia as the two continued their battlefield brawl. Fantastic-Man punched hard, only to find out that it was like punching Questionite. Sure, she took a step backward, but a shot of pain travelled up the Earth's Greatest Hero's mighty arm. "What ARE you, anyway!?" He shouted as he shook the numbness away and went desolid as her flying punch passed right through him. "I am Viperia, The Daughter of the Serp.." she replied as she wheeled back around to charge again, only to find the now very solid fist of Fantastic-Man awaiting her. The punch caught her square in the nose and knocked her to the ground, stunned. "Nobody likes wordy titles," Fantastic-Man retorted as once again he shook away the pain in his hand. Tomorrow Boy had turned back to Rampant Lion, trying to help the archer back onto his feet. He had no chance of seeing Sidewinder, now freed from the capturefoam, dashing toward them from behind. He slammed a forearm into Tomorrow Boy, sending both him and Rampant Lion sprawling to the ground. Then, the speedy snake dashed over to Spartan's fallen body, grabbed an object off of his belt, and took off. Fantastic-Man strode over to Viperia as she managed to sit up. "Well..it's been fun, but I have to go stop your.." Fantastic-Man was cutoff as what felt like a dozen daggers drove into his back. He slumped down to the ground, barely aware of his surroundings. Sidewinder had discharged one entire gauntlet's worth of mini missiles at him. He watched as Sidewinder helped Viperia to her feet, said "Here it is," and handed her a small object that she clipped to her belt. He took off in one direction as Viperia floated up into the air and soared toward Stronghold. Then he realized what Sidewinder had given her - one of the Power Protection Modules, the devices that allowed The Defenders and other metahumans on the Stronghold Security Force to retain their superpowers while inside the superprison's power suppression field. With herculean effort, Fantastic-Man pulled himself to his feet, and rocketed through the skies on Viperia's trail. Warforge pulled himself out of the crater he had made in the ground after being unceremoniously tossed over to the inside of the defensive wall by Halfjack. "Why are they here.." the Metal Man thought as he dusted himself off. "What do we have here that would be so important that VIPER would send a full attack battalion after?" And then it hit him... one of the few objects that survived the destruction of Headless Cross. Sitting in one of the security storage areas of Stronghold... was the Headdress of Xoruba. His comm unit having been damaged in the fight with Halfjack, Warforge knew he had to take care of this himself, and charged back into Stronghold as fast as he could. "Ooof.." the muffled cry echoed in the darkness as Nighthawk landed a solid kick to VIPER-X's midsection. The superagent stumbled backward out of the darkness, doubled over defensively, drew his sidearm, and fired a spray of laserbolts into the dark cloud. The darkness disappated, revealing Nighthawk standing threateningly, with only a wisp of smoke floating up from the corner of his cape where one of the bolts had singed him. VIPER-X adjusted his aim, and then suddenly turned his head to the side, as if someone was talking into his ear. "Understood," he said, somewhat disappointedly. He pulled a grenade from his belt and dropped it in between him and Nighthawk. Nighthawk dove for cover as the grenade exploded in a blinding flash of light. As the colors faded from his eyes, he saw VIPER-X streaking off into the sky toward Stronghold, and rushed over to La Espijisma's side to help the fallen superheroine recover. ____________________ Act II: Viperia felt no change as she passed into the Stronghold power suppression field, thanks to the module that Sidewinder had given her. She smashed into the wall at full strength, sundering the stone and crashing through to the other side. She zipped through the halls of the interior of the compound at blinding speed until she reached her destination - the primary Power Suppression Field control. Her firey eyes glowed as she prepared to destroy the primary control unit, until an all-too familiar voice stopped her from behind. "So that's your plan, huh? Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaantastic." She spun around expecting to be face to face with her new nemesis. "Just one thing you didn't count on.." She spun back around as Fantastic-Man floated up through the floor between her and the control console. "...You gotta get through me first." Before Viperia, unquestionably the faster of the two, could react, Fantastic-Man brought both fists to bear in a sideways axehandle chop, smashing them hard against Viperia's side... ...crushing the Power Suppression blocker. For the first time in the many many years of her existence, Viperia felt vulnerability. No strength.. no speed.. no eyebeams.. no flight. She was... weak. "Now..." Fantastic-Man commanded her, "Stand down." Still shocked at the incredibly foreign sensation of powerlessness, Viperia mindlessly complied. Slowly, she sank to her knees, her face a mixture of fear and confusion, as she stared up at Fantastic-Man in awe. Someone had beaten the Daughter of the Serpent. Explosions rocked his chest as the Earth's Greatest Hero stumbled over backwards, sliding across the floor, unconcious. "Much better shot without you in the way, mi hermana..." Sidewinder sneered as he blew the smoke billowing out of his second now emptied wrist-gauntlet away. He strode past her as she slowly rose to her feet, lowered the control to the main power suppression control, shut it off, and broke off the control handle, tossing it away. "I.. I am still weak.." Viperia stammered. Sidewinder strode over to Fantastic-Man's body, removed his power suppression nullifier and tossed it to Viperia. Instantly, her strength returned. "The secondary control array is on the fifth floor. Destroy it. I'll report to Oculon." Sidewinder took off down the hall, back to the makeshift exit point Viperia had made when she crashed into the building, though without his superspeed due to the power compression field, he moved no faster than a good athlete. As he reached the gaping hole in the side of the wall, however, his legs surged with energy and his senses heightened. The battle raging outside seemed to slow down and he knew his superspeed had returned. The power suppression field covering all the prisoners of Stronghold was gone. Warforge reached the storage vaults as the warning alarms that the power suppression field had failed went off. He opened the vault door and breathed (or whatever metal men do) a sigh of relief when he saw the stone serpentine headdress still sitting where it had been placed. "Still.. probably not safe to be left here with that much force coming from the outside," he thought. So Warforge picked up the Headdress of Xoruba... ...and put it on. The world around him instantly darkened until all was pitch black. Next thing Warforge knew he was soaring over a flat, barren desert - sand and dunes streching out as far as he could see. He was flying fast.. maybe even faster than The Tornado! could run. Then, ahead in the distance, he saw the outline of rocky mountains, with a yawning cave on the rock face. As if being controlled by some unseen hand, he dove into the cave, zigging and zagging through the narrow, twisting tunnels, until he plunged head first into a deep crevice. Everything was dark at first, but suddenly, what looked like a great yellow portal opened up in front of him. It streched as far as he could see in either direction as he hung there before it, suspended in mid air. A great black line drifted across the yellow field, stopping right in front of Warforge as a deafening hiss reverberated in his mind. "Whoooo are youuuuu..." a raspy, hissing voice demanded. The enormous yellow portal narrowed, and moved away pivoting around, revealing another, identical one next to it. A great, forked tongue flicked the air in front of him, as Warforge realized the yellow portal with its great black line had been the slitted eye of an enormous snake... a python at least a hundred feet long, curled around the entirety of the large crevice. "Anssssssswer me! Why are you heeeere?!" it demanded again. Warforge found it impossible to speak in the presence of the enormous serpent. "You... do not.. belong... it hissed again as the snake turned its great head away from Warforge. Darkness spiraled all around him asn the snake faded from view. It felt as though his head exploded into a million shards, and then Warforge knew no more. The room was a blur. Fantastic-Man pulled himself up, groggily, attempting to shake the cobwebs out of his head. Finally, he regained enough of his senses to realize where he was. He looked around and saw that the primary Power Suppression Control Console was damaged beyond his ability to repair. He checked for his own suppression nullifier but discovered that though it was missing, he felt his superstrength flowing through him anyway, and knew the power suppression field was down. He reached for his communicator. "Tomorrow Boy!" "Yeah?" TB replied as he Telekenetically shielded Rampant Lion from an incoming barrage of blaster fire from a squadron of VIPER agents. "The power suppression field is down.. I can't fix it. You'd better get in here. I think VIPER's staging a jailbreak." ____________________ Act III: "PRISONER ESCAPE, CELL BLOCK C3. PRISONER ESCAPE, CELL BLOCK C3" the computerized alarm sounded throughout Stronghold asTomorrow Boy zipped through the halls of Stronghold on his hoverdisc. He reached the primary suppression control room just as a scorched, bloodied, and seriously ticked-off looking Fantastic-Man pulled himself out of the doorway. "How long will it take you to fix it?" he asked the teenage supergenius. Tomorrow Boy surveyed the damage. "I don't know.. a minute maybe?" Fantastic-Man nodded. Within a minute, half of Stronghold could be released...if not more. "I'll buy you all the time I can." Tomorrow Boy grimaced at Fantastic-Man's badly beaten appearance as he desolidified and passed through the floor beneath him. "So.. about ten seconds then?" TB asked the empty room. He turned and went to work on trying to repair the damaged command console. "CELL BLOCK COMPROMISE, BLOCK D2. CELL BLOCK COMPROMISE, BLOCK D2." "Oh no.." Fantastic-Man muttered as he passed through the infrastructure of the building. "The hot-sleep unit. Gotta get to the Alpha threat level before VIPER can release them." He turned and sped straight down toward the main lift that made the sub-level detention floors accessible to the main floor on the surface. La Espijisma blinked and looked around, then was slightly startled by the black form hunched over her before she realized it was Nighthawk. She rubbed her head as she pulled herself up and looked around. The VIPER assault team on this side had been held back. The three Python tanks were nothing but smoking wrecks. Innumerable agents lay on the battlefield, and what few remained were being pushed to other fronts by PRIMUS's troops. "It's not over yet.." the Dark Defender grunted as Rampant Lion helped her to her feet. "Lets get inside." Fantastic-Man reached the Sub-Level 5 floor of the Elevator shaft and looked around. Terra King, the most powerful supervillain in Stronghold, and Zorran the Artificier, who had been moved to Sub-Level 5 for his own safety by Fantastic-Man when he came to suspect that the Mac Bashtee might try to kill Zorran, were both still securely imprisoned. Sublevel 3, however, however, had clearly been compromised. Numerous cells were empty, including VIPER supercriminals Diamondback and Freon. Strangely, it appeared as though the imprisoned VIPER officer and Heinous's 2nd in command, Despite, was still in her cell. Fantastic-Man soon discovered why. The supervillainess had been executed in her cell by some sort of blaster weapon - possibly killed by the same people she thought were there to rescue her. Why? Fantastic-Man was given no time to consider this development. "SECURITY BREACH, MEDICAL WING. SECURITY BREACH, MEDICAL WING." With Despite dead, it became all too clear why VIPER would be attacking the Stronghold medical wing. Fantastic-Man rushed upward into the main junction of Stronghold, where the adjoining halls and the main elevator to the detention floors converged. He flew as fast as he could toward the medical bay. "Frank.." a feeble voice from the side of the hall called to him. Amongst the motionless PRIMUS agents - some seemingly torn in two - was Cromwell. The Defenders' long time friend and PRIMUS Liason had a several nasty wounds, including a seriously wounded leg. Fantastic-Man stopped, using a torn shred of his cape to stabilize the arterial wound and to hopefully buy his friend enough time... ..when from ahead in the med bay he heard the blast of an energy weapon being discharged. He rushed in to scene from his worst nightmares. Kyle - his one time protege turned cyborg supervillain by VIPER who had found recently found the path of redemption, and had been cooperating by revealing all he could to Fantastic-Man and PRIMUS about the villainous organization, lay motionless upon his hospital bed, smoke wafting up from the blackened scorchmark on his chest. Fantastic-Man didn't need to look at the EKG readings to know his friend was gone. Nor did he need to look across the room at Oculon, whose eyes still crackled with discharged energy, to know who had murdered him. With Ripper and Diamondback standing behind him, Oculon turned smuggly toward Fantastic-Man. "Well.. two for one.. my lucky day." "Burn in hell, you son of a bitch.." Fantastic-Man replied as he smashed his fists into the walls on either side of him, rending the drywall and crushing the support beams. The room shook, and then rubble and darkness fell upon all four men still in the room. Nighthawk reached the main juncture just in time to see a massive gathering of escaped convicts making a mad dash for the main exit. He reached for a Bolo and released it through the air, entangling Ogre, the slowest of the group, sending the strongman sprawling to the ground. Tomorrow Boy frantically rewired the command console.. The other supervillains rushed out as Ogre flexed, snapping the entangling bolos. He paused a moment, looking at the door, and then back at Nighthawk, before turning toward the Dark Defender. The damaged switch wouldn't fit back on the command console where it had been before... no way to reactivate the suppression field... Fantastic-Man pushed a large amount of debris off of himself. Blood from a barely noticed wound poured from a deep tear across the F emblazoned on his chest. As he staggered to his feet, he saw Ripper, Diamondback, and Oculon all still alive. As he stepped forward, the three Dragon Branch villains shimmered blue, and then began to vanish. "NOOOOOO!" Fantastic-Man screamed as he blasted through the air toward Oculon, but by the time he reached the spot where seconds before there had been Kyle's Murderer, there was naught but empty air. The enraged Ogre charged across the intervening space between himself and Nighthawk, with a crazed look in his eyes. Nighthawk had nowhere to move.. nowhere to hide. Ogre's enormous fist hammered through the air toward the Dark Defender... ...and struck Nighthawk's armored chestplate with no strength behind it. Ogre howled in pain as he withdrew his injured hand, sure he had heard at least one finger break as his strength was sucked away by the restored Power Suppression field. He looked up angrily at Nighthawk as the Dark Defender's twin billy clubs connected on either side of the giant's head. Ogre dropped to the ground in an unconcious heap. As the VIPER Quetzacoatl class heavy gunship rocketed away from the scene, having teleported all remaining Dragon Branch and uninjured agents on board, Rampant Lion and La Espijisma reached the D-Jet with some help from Justice and Liberty. The dead bodies of five VIPER Air Cavalry agents lie on the ground, one without his jet pack... and Fiacho's holding cell was empty. Warforge was discovered lying on the floor of the storage vault, surrounded by the dust and small stone fragments of what had been the Headdress of Xoruba, now destroyed beyond any hope of repair. A thorough review of the prison revealed that aside from Ripper, Diamondback and Freon, Caiman, Cybermind, Pulsar, Tachyon, Thorn, Thunderbolt and, perhaps worst of all, Grond, had all escaped during the confusion of VIPER's attack. Cromwell had survived, thanks entirely to Fantastic-Man, but the price paid in PRIMUS lives was high. ____________________________ End of day here at work, no real time for my usual GM notes. This is the end of this session though, so I'll try to wrap some of my thoughts about it up later. I know what you all really want to read here anyway, hehe, and I'm sure the adventures of the team are the entertaining part!

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! The Siege Of Stronghold The Defenders Season V: "Evolution" Issue 4 (pt. 2) Cast Fantastic-Man: Team Leader; World’s Greatest Hero; Brick with Flight and Density Alteration Powers Nighthawk: Mega-bajillionare playboy; super-detective; Martial Artist/ Gadgeteer La Espijisma: Team Doctor; Infiltration specialist; Metamorph with the ability to mimic Superpowers of others Warforge: Mystical construct created in Vulcan’s Forge to battle evil; Brick w/ multi-weapon Arm Tomorrow Boy: Teenage uber-genius from the future with telekinetic powers; Gadgeteer Rampant Lion III: Legacy hero with a taste for adventure and the spotlight; Martial Artist/ Weapon Master ____________________ Act 1: Everything was kind of a blur.. or at least it looked like a blur. As La Espijisma opened her eyes, a strange sort of haze enveloped everything. As she struggled to her feet she realized it wasn't just her eyes... the air was filled with a hazy, dusty smoke. Along the wall next to her lay a few PRIMUS agents and Rampant Lion. The British superhero was regaining his bearings as well, and they realized what had happened. They had been mere feet away from the point of the thick wall that VIPER had destroyed. More heavily armed PRIMUS agents were pouring to the gap to shore up the defense there, but VIPER was pressing in hard. She spotted a VIPER medical team rushing toward a fallen figure on the ground, and recognized her as the woman that had nearly thrown the D-Jet out of the sky, but La Espijisma didn't see any sign of Fantastic-Man anywhere near her. She spotted the familiar crimson cape on the other side of the field of battle, as a groggy and obviously slightly shaken Fantastic-Man pulled himself to his feet. Similarly, the VIPER woman had risen and had brushed away the med team, apparently unharmed. The two combatants wheeled around, each furiously seeking out the other. And then their eyes met, and they stalked toward eachother as the battle raged on around them. La Espijisma didn't have time to watch the confrontation of these two titans continue, though, as a new hail of fire began raining down on them from above - VIPER's Air squadrons had arrived. Nearly half a dozen wings of Air Cavalry units swarmed down toward Stronghold, each peppering the battlefield with laser bolts. "Let's take 'em down!" The command caused La Espijisma to turn around, where she saw Spartan, the powersuit wearing superhero who had been made Chief of Security at Stronghold, rocketing up into the air to meet the soaring VIPER agents along with Wonderboy, Fantastic-Man's one-time sidekick, who also worked with PRIMUS as part of the metahuman security force at the super prison. The two scattered the approaching Air Cavalry agents as another of Stronghold's Metahuman Security force, the battlesuited superhero Spectro, propelled himself up onto the wall with his Thruster Boots. He laid down wave after wave of cover fire at the flying VIPER agents as Spartan and Wonderboy began bringing them down, one by one. The VIPER 6-Team that had been firing plasma mortars from the rear of the formation began packing up their equipment. "We're out of ammo, sir," an agent reported to his squad leader. "Right then.. stow the gear in the back of the nearest Python, get your firearms, and get up to the front.. there's not much more we can do from bac.." The squad leader was interrupted by a thick, black cloud that engulfed them from out of nowhere. He felt two hard shots to his midsection, and then collapsed to the ground, and even the blackness faded to blackness. Seconds later, the darkness disappated, leaving Nighthawk standing in the middle of a circle of 6 KO'ed VIPER agents. The Dark Defender didn't have to look far for his next fight, however, as a squadron of Air Cavalry was swooping down toward him, led by a VIPER agent wearing a blue and white uniform, instead of the standard green and yellow, and instead of the normal VIPER helmet, his had a stylized "X" over the faceplate. He landed in front of Nighthawk and waved the remaining 5 agents on, they circled around and took off back in the direction of Stronghold. VIPER-X holstered his weapons and assumed a crouching martial stance. "Heard you've had a busy day..." he taunted Nighthawk. "Maybe..." the Dark Defender responded. "But I'm still full of surprises." Another darkness pellet hit the ground, surrounding the two men in a pitch black cloud as their battle began. ____________________ Act II:Rampant Lion and Tomorrow Boy held position as best they could on top of the wall near the large blasted gap, holding back the VIPER forces with Telekenetic Blasts and Exploding Energy arrows. La Espijisma, meanwhile, had morphed into Warforge, and together with the real Warforge, the Twin Titanium Titans crashed through the front row of VIPER agents, aiming to take down the Python assault tanks still battering the defensive structures around Stronghold with volley after volley of explosive energy. Warforge (The real one) bounded onto the front of one of the Python tanks, crumpling the front end under the Metal Man's incredible weight, only to be shot back off of it by a powerful blast from the hideous cyborg, Halfjack. La Espijisma, meanwhile, had landed several powerful hits on the side of one of tanks, disabling its hover engines, when she was lifted violently up into the air by an unseen force. "Huzzah! The first catch of the day!" Draconis bellowed as he lifted the superheroine (still shaped like a large, metal man) into the air with his telekenetic powers. As his fist clenched, La Espijisma felt the telekenetic bubble squeezing in all around her, the pressure intensifying to the point where she couldn't even expand her lungs to draw air. She hung there in the air, paralyzed and suffocating, like some great anaconda had wrapped itself around her and was crushing her to death... and then the world faded to black. After losing conciousness she reverted back into her normal appearance. "Good night, sweet princess..." chuckled Draconis as he released his hold, allowing her to topple to the ground in a heap. "The field of battle is ours, Commander. My victorious soldiers have cleared the way for your arrival." As Warforge and Halfjacked slugged it out midfield, Nighthawk and VIPER-X engaged eachother in an acrobatic martial throwdown surrounded by total darkness, and Fantastic-Man and Viperia pummeled eachother with hits that would level large buildings, Rampant Lion and Tomorrow Boy, together with Spectro, were doing a pretty good job of keeping the swarms of VIPER agents from breaking through the gap in the defensive wall that VIPER had created. That is, until Sidewinder and Boa Constrictor got up on top of the wall with them. Sidewinder ran up the side of the wall, launching a mini missile from his gauntlet at the space between the teenage supergenius and the battlesuited Spectro. Spectro's suit shielded him from the worst of the blast, but the force of it sent Tomorrow Boy carreening over the front side of the wall, to a boneshattering stop on the ground below... or so it would've been if he hadn't got his hoverdisc underneath him just in the nick of time. Rampant Lion, meanwhile soon found himself hard pressed back against a corner by the hulking Boa Constrictor. He shouldered his bow and reached for his rapier, but found himself caught in the embrace of the reptilian strongman's corded muscular arms, squeezing the life out of him. Tomorrow Boy got up on his feet, awaiting the next wave of VIPER agents to try to make for the gap, only to see a huge shadow spreading over the battle. He looked up as the enormous Quetzacoatl-class Heavy Transport Gunship moved into position, blocking out the sun for all those underneath it. Seconds later, six figures shimmered into existence ahead of him. Five he recognized as heavily armored Superhuman Combat Specialists. The sixth was a man in a blue and yellow uniform, with firey glowing light-blue eyes, crackling with energy. One of the agents raised a weapon to fire at TB, but the man stopped him. "As you wish, Commander Oculon," the agent replied as he shouldered his weapon. Oculon spoke in a cold, steely voice, "Step aside, boy..." ____________________ Act III: "I'll not give you a second chance, Kid.. Move aside," Oculon threatened Tomorrow Boy in the same cold, measured voice. "Ummmm.... Lemme get back to you on that," TB replied, looking for some way out of the situation. "Your way, then," Oculon resigned. Powerful blue bolts of energy burst from his eyes, but Tomorrow Boy was ready for it. He opened the portal to access his reflective energy barrier just in time, shielding himself in a transparent field. Oculons eyebeams slammed hard on the surface of the shield, but failed to break through, and before the VIPER commander could react, the force beams were travelling back... toward him. Oculon caught his own eyebeams square in the chest, sending him reeling through the air, landing dazed in a heap on the ground. "Little Help?!" Tomorrow Boy called out as he struggled mightily to maintain his energy shield against he ensuing barrage of firepower from the five remaining agents. But, with Spectro fending off the superfast Sidewinder and Rampant Lion tied up (quite literally) with Boa Constrictor, there didn't seem to be a cavalry on the horizon for The Defenders resident supergenius. That is, until the third and only operational Python Hovertank began to rise up off the ground... higher than it's hover jets would normally carry it. It hurtled through the air on its side, coming to crash top-down on top of the VIPER agents blasting away at Tomorrow Boy. TB looked up to see who had saved him to see a familar blonde bombshell in a red, white and blue flagsuit floating in mid-air. "Liberty?!" To confirm that it was in-fact the retired Defender beauty-brick, her fiancee, the Powersuited Patriot known as Justice flew up and over Liberty, aiming his gauntlet blaster at Sidewinder who was hammering Spectro with high speed punches. The blast from Justice caught the villainous speedster in mid-run, knocking him from the wall and down to the floor below, completely encasing him in Capturefoam. Rampant Lion, meanwhile, had managed to contort his way out of Boa Constrictor's vicelike grip, and had landed several solid fencing slashes with his rapier. Boa Constrictor lunged at the swashbuckling superhero in a furious rage, only to be blasted out of the sky by a telekenetic burst from Tomorrow Boy. "As bad as it is here," Justice explained, "It's even worse on some of the other sides. We're headed to the West wall to help out. Try to hold here as best you can and we'll try to redirect as many support agents your way as we can." "Hey.. Justice! Liberty! Good to see you again!" Fantastic-Man shouted as he flew past them with Viperia in a headlock, slamming VIPER's ultimate weapon into the side of the upside down Python, only to catch a deadly blast of firey energy from her eyes that sent him flying through the air. Viperia shot up after him and the two continued their brawl until they were swallowed up once more by the melee. Justice, Liberty and Spectro took off to help shore up the defensive efforts on the West Wall as Tomorrow Boy and Rampant Lion looked around for any of the other Defenders, hoping that if they could regroup, they could wrap things up on this side. The charred battlesuited figure crashed down in front of them from the sky so fast that they never saw him coming. They rushed over to the side of the fallen man. Suddenly, Rampant Lion doubled over in pain, and collapsed on the ground. "What is it!?" asked a panicked Tomorrow Boy. "Death.. ..death" Rampant Lion replied hoarsely as he struggled to maintain his conciousness despite the agony rolling through him. Tomorrow Boy turned back to the fallen man in front of them and confirmed what somehow Rampant Lion had already known. Spartan was dead. TO BE CONCLUDED... ____________________ GM NOTES: In all honesty, it was starting to get weighted down at this point. The ENTIRE session was combat... and not several combats broken up with periods of other activity. One big combat that started the previous session, ran all the way through this session, and will continue into the next one. I know I was honestly getting bored with it by the end. I hope the players weren't.. they seemed to be having a good time. I just typically don't like THIS much combat in my sessions. But, it was appropriate for the story, and I think enough twists and turns were built in so as to keep it at least marginally interesting. Ever have one of those sessions that you're just dreading, because you know that if everything goes exactly according to the villains' plans, your heroes (and the players) are going to be SUPER pissed? Heh.. stay tuned.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! The Siege Of Stronghold The Defenders Season V: "Evolution" Issue 4 (pt. 1) Cast Fantastic-Man: Team Leader; World’s Greatest Hero; Brick with Flight and Density Alteration Powers Nighthawk: Mega-bajillionare playboy; super-detective; Martial Artist/ Gadgeteer La Espijisma: Team Doctor; Infiltration specialist; Metamorph with the ability to mimic Superpowers of others Warforge: Mystical construct created in Vulcan’s Forge to battle evil; Brick w/ multi-weapon Arm Tomorrow Boy: Teenage uber-genius from the future with telekinetic powers; Gadgeteer Rampant Lion III: Legacy hero with a taste for adventure and the spotlight; Martial Artist/ Weapon Master ____________________ Act 1: Jack Kirby's sleek, black car merged into the traffic on the highway as he made his way back to palatial Kirby Estate later that afternoon. Following his "rescue" from the maintenance closet on the 60th floor by Paragon City Police, after the Eurostar hostage crisis in his building earlier that day. But, it was over. Feuermacher, Mentalla and Ultrasonique were all in Primus custody, and The Defenders were on their way back from Greenland with Fiacho in hold. Two members of the European superteam were unaccounted for, however. Scorpia had made a frantic and daring escape from the Omnitech Tower, and Durak, who had fallen from the 50th floor of the building and crashed through the street below, was nowhere to be found by the time the Primus teams arrived to pick him up. Considering how far he had fallen, this troubled Nighthawk greatly. Even someone as strong as Durak would have a hard time escaping on their own after a fall like that. The D-Jet was in the skies over Kansas once more, on approach to Paragon City, with a hold full of VIPER agents, one of the world's most feared supervillains neutralized and in a holding cell, and five superheroes, laughing and marvelling at the stories of Nighthawk's heroics and their own decisive victories over VIPER and their newest rivals, NextForce. Cruelly, the mirth of the cabin of the D-Jet was interrupted by the flashing and ringing of the TroubleAlert (tm.) Rampant Lion opened the incoming channel, and immediately a panicked voice came over the comm. "...under attack! I repeat! Stronghold is under attack! All units respond immediately! This is NOT a drill! Repeat! This is NOT a..." The crackle of static erupted over the comm as the signal was lost. Fantastic-Man turned the D-Jet toward Stronghold and fired the thrusters, rocketing through the skies toward their temporary base, and the holding place for some of the world's most dangerous supercriminals. Rampant Lion grabbed his comm unit, "Nighthawk! Stronghold is..." "I heard," the Dark Defender's gravelly voice replied. "I'll be there in five minutes." He engaged his car's own auto-drive system, activated the opacity controls on his window tinting, opened the secret compartment under the back seat, and began changing. ____________________ Act 2: By the time Nighthawk arrived at Stronghold, the battle was already well underway. VIPER had the Superprison completely surrounded. Agents forming a front line firing at Primus's agents lining the walls and watchtowers along the fortress prison. Behind them were rows of Heavy Weapon specialists, aiming their attacks at bringing the outer wall of the prison down, and behind them, the heavy artillery. Four Python-Class Heavy Assault Hovertanks on each side of the pentagonal outer wall, blasting the thick barrier with powerful bursts of energy. Leading the attack from one of the Pythons on the side where Nighthawk was, was a familiar face that Nighthawk had seen in a holographic argument on board VIPER's Jormungandr station and at Eurostar's secret Swiss Chateau headquarters(Sea. IV) - Draconis. "Behold the glory of battle, my brethren! Rejoice in the conflict before you, and do not relent until victory is ours!! Let slip the Serpents of WAR!" Draconis shouted maniacally to the troops around him, trying to inspire them into an almost berserker-like frenzy. With Draconis were a few more familiar faces. Boa Constrictor, Halfjack, and Sidewinder - all members of VIPER's superhuman special forces team, Dragon Branch. The roar of jet engines overhead caught Nighthawk's attention as he looked up to witness the arrival of the D-Jet. "Glorious!" Proclaimed Draconis. "Worthy opponents arrive at last! RELEASE HER!!" The back hatch of one of the Python tanks opened up, and a team of Superhuman Combat Specialists poured out, and behind them, was a woman. From where Nighthawk was, she appeared to be maybe in her early twenties, with dark skin, long, flowing black hair, and beautiful features. She floated up into the air, flying directly into the flight path of the D-Jet. "Who the..." Tomorrow Boy turned toward Fantastic-Man, who only shrugged in confusion and maintained his flight path directly toward the mysterious woman. She stopped, hovering in mid-air, far above the smoke and thunder of the battle below, her hair and cape being whipped by the wind as she seemingly stood on empty air. Unmoving. "Whoever she is, if she doesn't move soon, she's about to know what a bug on a windshield feels like," quipped Warforge as the D-Jet rocketed toward the young woman. She held out her hands toward the nose of the approaching aircraft, and grabbed it as it collided with her. Almost immediately, the engines began sputtering as the D-Jet began to lose momentum, then stopped altogether. They sat, hanging in mid-air, motionless, for a few seconds as the young woman held them there by the nose of the craft. Then, she began to spin, like an olympian in the hammer throw. Round and round, faster and faster as the Defenders within tried frantically to brace themselves, still not believing what was happening to them. And then, she let go. The D-Jet spiraled end over end through the air, as The Defenders struggled to fight the G-forces and maintain concsiousness. Fantastic-Man tried repeatedly to restart the engines to try to pull them out of the spin, but they wouldn't ignite. Out of control, the jet finally began to lose altitude, and was going to crash into Stronghold itself. With a sudden roar, and a bonejarring jolt, the engines roared to life. With all his strength, Fantastic-Man tried to pull the D-Jet out of it's spin, but it was no use. "Take over!" He yelled to Tomorrow Boy as he desolidified and passed through the bottom hull and out under the jet. Reshifting his mass to a solid form, he grabbed onto the D-Jet and fought against the momentum of the spin, finally stopping it as his feet came to rest on the roof of Stronghold. "Fly it out away from the fight, and then get back here!" Fantastic-Man instructed Tomorrow Boy. "I need to go introduce myself to the little lady." ____________________ Act III: Fantastic-Man soared at full speed toward the mysterious and deceptively superstrong woman, still floating exactly where she had been, her steely eyes staring directly at the Earth's Greatest Hero. Then, She took off herself, rocketing toward him. Both superstrong metahumans, hurtling themselves directly at eachother on an unavoidable collision course. Several agents in the battle below turned to look upward at the sight as their respective champions sped toward eachother like jousting knights on horseback. The D-Jet hovered over a location far enough away from Stronghold so as not to be in the direct line of fire as Tomorrow Boy prepared his Blitz device and transported himself, Rampant Lion, Warforge, and La Espijisma down to the top of the nearest portion of the wall. Nighthawk watched in rapt attention as Fantastic-Man and the woman rocketed toward eachother... and then collided. The forcewave of the impact started by shattering every pane of glass on the sides of the prison. It carried so far as to knock the agents on top of the wall, including The Defenders, off their feet. And then, like birds shot down from the skies, both Fantastic-Man and the woman plummeted away from eachother down toward the Earth below. Nighthawk's attention was turned from this by another violent explosion. A huge cloud of rubble, smoke and debris flew up from the central section of the defensive barrier around Stronghold. The Pythons had broken through. TO BE CONTINUED....

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! The Defenders will return in.... The Siege of Stronghold

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Just One Man The Defenders Season V: "Evolution" Issue 3 (pt. 3) Cast Fantastic-Man: Team Leader; World’s Greatest Hero; Brick with Flight and Density Alteration Powers Nighthawk: Mega-bajillionare playboy; super-detective; Martial Artist/ Gadgeteer La Espijisma: Team Doctor; Infiltration specialist; Metamorph with the ability to mimic Superpowers of others Warforge: Mystical construct created in Vulcan’s Forge to battle evil; Brick w/ multi-weapon Arm Tomorrow Boy: Teenage uber-genius from the future with telekinetic powers; Gadgeteer Rampant Lion III: Legacy hero with a taste for adventure and the spotlight; Martial Artist/ Weapon Master ____________________ Act 1: The elevator doors slid open into the darkened hallways of sublevel 5of VIPER's secret Greenland Nest. The emergency lighting and flashing red alarm lights cast deep shadows all around as The Defenders cautiously stepped out into the hall, leaving the two tied-up scientists on the elevator. They entered the cell block area and discovered a team of VIPER agents busily working in one of the prisoner cells. At the center of the 6-team's cell was a large glass cylinder, filled with a light-blue-greenish fluid, identical to the Tissue Regeneration tanks used in The Defender's med bay at their old base, Headless Cross. And floating suspended in the fluid, with a clear oxygen mask around his face, and numerous IV and vital monitoring nodes attached to his body, was Fiacho. Upon further inspection, The Defenders discovered that all of Fiacho's cybernetic enchancements had been surgically removed, and though the tissue regeneration tank had no doubt kept him from dying, his wounds still looked pretty bad. One of the Scarlet Serpent agents adjusted some controls on the side of the tank, and the fluid drained out the bottom and the tank pivoted to lay horizontal. A loud hiss filled the air as the cylinder depressurized and the top began to slide open. Fiacho was ready to be transported. The Defenders sprang into action, and a firefight with the VIPER team ensued. As Fantastic-Man and Warforge rushed into the cell to engage the agents hand-to-hand, Rampant Lion and La Espijisma (who had morphed into Tomorrow Boy, gaining his telekenetic powers) took cover in the alcoves of the hallway, sniping the 6-Team with blasts and arrows. One of Rampant Lion's focused energy arrows blasted into one of the two Scarlet Serpents, sending the elite agent sprawling backward to the ground as the other found herself going toe-to-toe with the Earth's Greatest Hero. Nighthawk's eyes darted from one side of the room to the other... nothing. He had no more tricks up his sleeve, no more aces in the hole that Scorpia wouldn't see coming. She had him. He raised his hands, palms outward and walked slowly toward her. "There's a good boy.." she purred as he stepped over Ultrasonique's tools "Now come here, luv... I won't bite." She couldn't help but let out a sultry giggle as she bit down a bit on her lower lip. "Unless, you want me to... handsome." The scarlet-haired seductress batted her eyes at Jack, and flashed a knowing smile at him. He was within inches of her now as she closed her eyes and leaned toward him. It seemingly happened in slow motion. With a flash of steel and a "SCHIIINK!" Scorpia's spring-loaded wrist-mounted blades slid out over her right hand and slashed through the air, tearing through the air where Nighthawk's throat had been half a blink before. The Dark Defender meanwhile, with his tightly honed reflexes, bent backward to avoid the attack, and then snapped back forward, feigning a kung-fu style high punch w/ his left hand, while reaching low for the detonation trigger with his right. He grasped the handle of the detonator and slipped his finger over Scorpia's, holding it down firm on the trigger so that she couldn't detonate the device. He ducked her backswing with the deadly wristblades as, in one motion, he hoisted an off-balance Scorpia up off of her feet, and threw the villainess over his shoulder, releasing the detonator as she flew. She tumbled through the air before landing on her feet. After taking half a second to regain her footing, she leered evilly at Nighthawk and held up the detonator... and released the trigger. She squeezed and released the trigger several more times, as nothing happened, and stared at Jack Kirby in a frustrated mingling of amazement and confusion as he winked and held up the power supply he had pulled from the detonator during the last exchange. With a snarl, Scorpia tossed the useless detonator aside and drew one of her poison-tipped Stings from her leg holster. "Alright, Rich boy... let's end this!" ____________________ Act 2: With one Scarlet Serpent down, and the other fighting a losing battle against Fantastic-Man, the remaining 4 Superhuman Combat Specialists of the VIPER 6-team were hard pressed against the 3 remaining Defenders. While Rampant Lion and La Espijisma kept two agents pinned down with cover fire, Warforge delivered an overpowering blow with the Flail form of his multi-weapon hand, flattening the agent against the wall with a gut-wrenching crack and drawing a stern look of disapproval from Fantastic-Man, who was himself taking great care so as not to accidentally turn the agent he was fighting into a fine red mist. After grossly overestimating the effectiveness of the SCS Body Armor, Warforge took much greater care as he knocked the second SCS Agent into unconciousness. No longer enjoying a slight numbers advantage, the battle quickly became a rout for the VIPER agents as all six were KO'ed by The Defenders. La Espijisma checked both Fiacho and the badly injured agent to make sure they were safe to transport, then she and Rampant Lion helped Fiacho out the door and back to the elevator and Fantastic-Man and Warforge carried the other five unconcious and/or wounded VIPER agents back. Scorpia launched the poison tipped blade through the air at Nighthawk and immediately followed it with a slashing lunge at the mega-kabillionaire. He avoided the first attack easily but the razor-sharp wrist blade tore through his shirt and slashed a clean, straight line across his shoulder, drawing a thin trickle of blood. Nighthawk countered with a sweeping leg kick, hoping to take his opponent off her feet, but she recovered her balance, reversing her momentum and flipping away from Jack in a backward summersault, releasing yet another deadly Sting at him as she landed, but Nighthawk was already moving as well, and the stilletto hit nothing but the wall, shattering into tiny pieces. Scorpia's rage boiled over as she angrily scanned the room for any sign of Jack, who had seemingly disappeared. There were plenty of hiding places with all of Ultrasonique's equipment boxes scattered around.. but which one? She drew her final Sting from the holster on her leg and crouched down, the Sting poised in a deadly-looking arch above her head like the tail of a scorpion. With amazing speed, she leapt on top of one of the boxes where she thought Jack was hiding, and prepared to strike down on him with the fatal, poisoned blade. But Nighthawk was faster. He sprang up from behind the box before Scorpia could strike, swinging hard with the steel access panel-cover that Ultrasonique had left lying on the floor after removing it from its place on the wall covering the main switches for the vault door. The thick metal plate crashed down upon the assassin's throwing hand, shattering the fragile Sting. Scorpia backed away as Jack slowly advanced toward her. He backed her toward the starwell, and through the narrow doorway. In enraged and frustrated beyond reason, she screamed "BUT YOU'RE JUST ONE MAN!!" and swiped madly with her wrist blade. Nighthawk easily deflected the incoming blow and angled the blades away from him, causing them to bite deep into the concrete wall. With an enraged scream, Scorpia slashed at him with the other hand, and with the same move as before, Nighthawk deflected this attack into the opposite wall, embedding the other wristblades there. Scorpia pulled with all her might, but the blades were firmly lodged in the walls and could not be pulled out. Her rage subsided and her cool, calm demeanor returned. "Not bad, rich boy.." she cooed as she slipped her hands out of her gloves, freeing her but leaving her bladed gloves behind. "..but don't call me, luv. I'll look you up next time I'm in town." And with that, she turned and sprinted up the stairs. ____________________ Act 3: The Defenders emerged from the depths of the Nest to a scene of chaos and confusion. The remaining VIPER agents were evacuating the base as quickly as they could. "Fantastic-Man!" Tomorrow Boy called out as he rushed over to rejoin the others. "NextForce is gone." "So are we," Fantastic-Man replied as he directed Tomorrow Boy's attention to the groggy Fiacho with a nod of his head. "Let's load up and dust off." Fiacho was safely stowed in the holding cell on board the D-Jet, and the agents and scientists were stowed down in the storage compartments in the cargo hold. Seconds later, the D-Jet was airborne. The flash of the explosive self-destruction of the VIPER nest was still visible, though, as the small island off the coast of Greenland disappeared beneath them as The Defenders passed up through a cloud. "I'm ringing Scorpia now," said Rampant Lion from the Comm station on board the D-Jet, "But she's not answering." Fantastic-Man's response was drowned out by the roar of the D-Jet's twin engines as Fantastic-Man increased speed in hopes of making it back to Paragon City before it was too late. Nighthawk chased Scorpia up flight after flight, all the way to the twentieth floor, until the villainess dashed through the stairwell exit and into the hallway beyond. She picked up a chair and threw it through the window, shattering the glass. She turned and gave Jack a final glance and blew him a kiss as she fell backwards out the window. He reached the spot where she had been just in time to see her swinging via zipline across the street to the roof of the building across from the Omnitech Headquarters. She never looked back as she dashed across the rooftop and vaulted over the other side, disappering over the downtown Paragon City skyline. Jack picked up a nearby phone and began dialing. Out on the street below, the police Commissioner's cell phone rang - the special cell phone that he had found on his desk one morning, that he only ever received calls on from one person. "Nighthawk?" He asked as he answered the phone. "The hostiles are down. You can send in your bomb team to diffuse the explosives. Tell them to watch for infrared tripwires." After giving the locations of each of the downed members of Eurostar, and telling him where to find Durak and that Scorpia had escaped, Nighthawk added, "And you'll find Jack Kirby in the maintenance closet just outside his office on the top floor. Don't forget to let him out." "And where will I find you?" The Commissioner asked. After a few seconds of silence, he checked the screen and saw the call had already been terminated. "Typical.." he mumbled as he began deploying his men into the building. GM Notes Split group stuff is always tricky. I'd like to think this went off pretty well though. I know Ryan (Nighthawk) enjoyed this one a lot, and I hope everyone else did too. I'd also like to tell you all that The Defenders had a nice couple of weeks vacation after this and were able to relax and recoup.. but.. uh... I'm just not that nice of a GM

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! *Casts "Raise Thread"* Folks... I'm not going to lie to you. I've got a MASSIVE amount of updates to do here. We've had quite a few sessions in the intervening time between "Just One Man" and "Return of the Destroyer," the arc that The Defenders find themselves currently in the middle of. My goal is to get through 1 session per day until I'm all caught up. Whether the work order flow here in the office will let me keep up with that pace, who knows. But, the main point is... WEEEEEEE'RE BACK! Just One Man The Defenders Season V: "Evolution" Issue 3 (pt. 2) Cast Fantastic-Man: Team Leader; World’s Greatest Hero; Brick with Flight and Density Alteration Powers Nighthawk: Mega-bajillionare playboy; super-detective; Martial Artist/ Gadgeteer La Espijisma: Team Doctor; Infiltration specialist; Metamorph with the ability to mimic Superpowers of others Warforge: Mystical construct created in Vulcan’s Forge to battle evil; Brick w/ multi-weapon Arm Tomorrow Boy: Teenage uber-genius from the future with telekinetic powers; Gadgeteer Rampant Lion III: Legacy hero with a taste for adventure and the spotlight; Martial Artist/ Weapon Master ____________________ Act 1: A cloud of dust exploded into the air as Durak's superstrong fist obliterated the drywall behind the spot where, only a blink before, Jack Kirby had been. By the time the Soviet Strongman had dislodged his hand from the wall and turned, the surprisingly nimble CEO of Omnitech had rolled back up onto his feet after ducking the punch and was around the corner ahead. Rather than waste time chasing down Kirby from behind, Durak plowed directly through the wall... and the one beyond that.. and the one beyond that.. and each one that blocked his path until he reached the large room where Kirby must've been running... the cafeteria. A glimmer of movement caught his eye as the silvery door into the galley swung shut, and Durak charged off again, smashing through the kitchen wall and through into the hallway beyond, continuing his pursuit of Jack. Meanwhile, back in Greenland, The Defenders were gaining the upper-hand. Rampant Lion had been knocked out, but so had Lodestone and Menagerie, who after turning into an enormous T-Rex had charged herself head first into a wall while trying to pulverize Tomorrow-Boy, who had blink-teleported himself out of the way just in time. Fantastic-Man and Warforge were keeping Gargantua busy, who had grown all the way up to brush the ceiling of the 50-foot tall hangar with the top of his head, while La Espijisma and Cateran circled eachother, dodging the other's incoming attacks. Gargantua made a move to crush Warforge under his enormous boot when Fantastic-Man landed a devastating punch on the giant's jaw. Gargantua toppled over with a thud that shook the entire hangar, getting Stormfront's attention away from his ongoing long-range battle with Tomorrow Boy. "Enough!" the leader of NextForce shouted above the fray. "NextForce.. stand down." In contrast, Jack Kirby (and the Omnitech building) had seen better days. No sooner had Jack made it up a few flights of stairs in the emergency stairwell than Durak shattered through the doorway beneath him. He looked up the space between stairs, saw Kirby looking down at him and leaped. His enormous frame pulverized the concrete stairs above him as he smashed through them as though they were paper mache. Jack scrambled up the stairs as quickly as he could, but Durak kept coming, destroying everything between him and Jack as he leapt from side to side up the stairwell. Exhausted, and faced with the realization that he wasn't going to be able to stay ahead of Durak much longer, Jack crashed through the stairwell exit onto the fiftieth floor of the Omnitech building. "HR offices..." he thought to himself. He ran through the door into the HR Director's office and out onto her private balcony as Durak smashed through the office behind him. In obvious desperation, Kirby backed up to the railing as the enraged super-brick punched through the large, glass wall overlooking the scenic balcony and the Paragon City skyline beyond. "Nowhere to run this time, little man" Durak fumed, as with a berserker shout, he charged at his elusive target. "Who's running?" Nighthawk mused as the corner of his lip twisted up in a tight smile. He dropped to his back, launching his feet into Durak's chest, and then pivoting, catapulting Durak up into the air, and over the railing behind him. Jack pulled himself back up over the railing and caught a view of Durak, arms and legs flailing madly, as he plummeted to the street, 50 stories down, and crashed through the concrete and disappeared into the darkness below. Both The Defenders and NextForce had picked themselves back up and dusted themselves off after their scuffle - the latter clearly miffed at the way they were soundly trounced by the former. Vowing to stay out of eachother's way so that they could complete their respective missions, NextForce headed into the Nest and down the hall to the right, while The Defenders were to head left toward the elevators to reach the sublevels of the compound. Before they headed down to find Fiacho, however, Fantastic-Man instructed Tomorrow Boy to use his stealth device to cloak himself and to follow NextForce and find out why they were there, if possible. The Defenders decided they didn't want to run into what could be an ambush at the hands of VIPER when they reached Fiacho's holding cell on sublevel 5, so they stopped on sublevel 4 while Fantastic-Man got out of the elevator to do a little recon of his own while Warforge, La Espijisma and Rampant Lion secured the area. Fantastic-Man didn't have to go far to find a nearly destroyed lab, with a pair of scientists frantically destroying files, notes, and experiments. He grabbed them both and bound them to eachother by using a piece of metal like a twisty-tie. Most of the information they had been destroying had already been burned, but Fantastic-Man was able to recover an empty folder, labelled "Dr. Ten...", the remainder of the name had been burned away already. The scientists, claiming they were chemical engineers having nothing to do with the experiments of other departments, denied any knowledge of what the name on the folder meant, and Fantastic-Man hauled them back to the elevator with him to the other Defenders. Meanwhile, in another part of the Nest, Tomorrow-Boy watched in shock as NextForce battled past a team of VIPER agents, leaving 3 dead and the others seriously injured. He did notice that Lodestone wasn't pleased with the level of violence that Gargantua and Menagerie clearly enjoyed, as he stopped to tend to the wounded agents to make sure they wouldn't join their comrades in the great beyond. After a couple of these skirmishes, NextForce entered a large data room with computer consoles everywhere. A display above the main terminal read "Serpentine Node Alpha-087G: Offline" blinking in red LED characters, and there were no computer tech personnel in the room. Menagerie sat at a terminal, rapidly searching through datafiles on the hard drive while Gargantua and Cateran moved to guard the entrances. "Did you find it yet?" Stormfront asked as he leaned over Menagerie to view the screen. "Not yet," she replied. As Tomorrow Boy snuck up on the two, another file caught his eye - a document labelled "Operation: Stronghold." "Wait.. here it is." Menagerie announced as she opened another folder, blocking TB's view of the Stronghold file. "If our intel is right, this file has the schematics for the device, but it's encrypted. I can't break it." "Not your job to," Stormfront said as he handed her a small, black disk. "Send it to Brainchild. He'll know what to do." Menagerie slapped the object on the side of the CPU tower and a light on the device blinked red three times, then green. "Done," she said as she hit the "Enter" key. The data on the screen deteriorated as the contents of the hard drive were systematically destroyed, removing any evidence of where the data had been sent. "It's wiped. We're good to go." Tomorrow Boy followed as NextForce battled their way back out to the freezing cold surface of the Nest, boarded their sleek, black hoverjet, and roared off into the sky. Exhausted, disheveled, and more than a little bloodied, Jack Kirby made his way to the elevator shaft on the 50th floor. The elevator itself had been shut off, presumably by Eurostar, leaving him with fifty floors worth of stairs to make it down to the main floor where he could try to save his captured employees, or one other route. He forced the elevator doors open with a crowbar lifted from a maintenance closet, and grabbed one of the elevator cables. Looping it around his leg and feet, he started his controlled descent downward, suspended upside down by the cabling. Inches away from the 10th floor, he saw it - the tell-tale red glimmer of an infrared tripwire projector mounted on the wall of the elevator shaft, and another across from it... and more below them. Each floor from the tenth floor down was triggered: possibly to sound an alarm, but far more likely to set off explosive charges. Nighthawk acrobatically flipped, vaulted, twisted and slid down the elevator cables, deftly avoiding the infrared sensors, past the main floor, which was blocked by the elevator itself. He squeezed between the elevator and the wall, until he was beneath it, and continued on down to the sublevels.. where the vaults were. He emerged from the elevator shaft into the main hallway. As he had assumed from earlier chatter he had picked up from his stolen comm unit, he found Ultrasonique hard at work on breaking into one of his vaults by using a large focused sonic-concussion blaster. Remembering that Ultrasonique was blind, Nighthawk reached for one of the emergency flashbang pellets that he carried on himself at all times, and launched it through the air at Ultrasonique. The grenade exploded with a brilliant flash and, more importantly, a deafening boom. "ARRRRRGH!" Screamed Ultrasonique as he threw his hands up over the ultrasonic sensors on the side of his helmet. He neither saw nor heard the Dark Defender rush upon him, land a quick pair of punches, followed by the lights-out blow to the jaw... and then there was nothing. "Impressive, Mr. Kirby..." a lilting irish brogue flitted from the doorway to the stairs behind him. Jack swiveled to see Scorpia standing there with a remote device in her hand, her finger depressing the trigger. "It's a dead man's switch, Jack..." She said, tauntingly. "I let go of this trigger... and your company pays out a fortune in employee death benefits. You'll be coming along quietly now... won't you?" TO BE CONCLUDED... GM NOTES: As could be predicted, the players absolutely LOVED getting to beat up on the shiny new supergroup on the block.. and loved it even more when they found out just how not-so-shiney NextForce was. And poor Nights. If things don't start looking better for him in part 3, he's going to end up crawling across a room full of broken glass with no shoes on.