Recapping our last session (this past Saturday) in the continuing saga of 'The New Age of Champions', Omni (Major NPC in charge of the UN sponsored superteam Project: UNITY) visits the heroes to get a sense of how they are doing. Everyone is really tired, low to without power (Endurance in HERO System speak) and well aware that the recently defeated villains (escapees from the setting's Super-Max security prison) were on their way to a meeting with whoever staged their premature release.
Omni spends quite a bit of time talking to The Power, the only one on the team who took any real physical damage. This turned into a heated debate over what the heck he was thinking, which turned into a heated debate between the Players and I when Marcus (the Power's Player) tried to turn it all around to make it look like the rest of us, especially one other PC, were grandstanding and showing off instead of rescuing him once they realized he was in trouble.
Now, he was mistaken but that is not what really got me and the others a bit miffed. It was that, simply put, if you make a dopey move, man up and say "Damn that was crazy. What a dopey move. Sorry gang." We all do stupid things in games. Own it and move on.
As it started to waste serious game time I eventually let the two players directly involved in the discussion, Marcus and Dave, work it out amongest themselves and, I am happy to say, they did. Meanwhile, Lee/Arcane and Ray/Professor N, refocused on a subplot/background issue that's been going on through the last few sessions. A dimensional disturbance that moves from plane to plane and parallel Earth to parallel Earth.
Professor N is something of a Reed Richards type character specializing in Dimensions and Quantum Reality Physics or some-such other odd super-science area of expertise.
Arcane is...well...hard to explain. It's my friend Lee's character and Lee sometimes (usually) over-thinks and over-explains his ideas, resulting in said ideas being harder to understand. The basics are that Arcane can control Electromagnetic Energy and Manipulate Weak and Strong Nuclear Forces. He can use these abilities to control energy, warp space, sense things through the Earth's magnetic field and a number of other tricks. He can also communicate* (sort of telepathically) with alternate Earth versions of himself who form a team to prevent evil Arcanes from forming or from travelling to a world where they can do serious damage. It's actually a very cool idea but one that comes with a lot of baggage and added elements that you have to sift through to reach this very cool concept.
If I sound like between the lines I am venting a little frustration I apologize, not just to my readership but to my players as well. The campaign is going great but sometimes we hit little snags that turn into bigger-than-they-need-to-be snags. Originally I had two or three players trying to tell a good story. Now I have five guys who, while telling a good story, sometimes like to push or one-up each other. That's fine and it makes for an exciting game but don't let it take over the session. Dig? Righteous.
So where was I? Oh yeah...
Anyway, with the help of dimensional sciences specialist NPC 'The Legionnaire', the PCs are able to better track the anomaly they'd been watching and soon discovered a second similar one. It appeared the two were on a collision course with the expected fallout placing the new anomaly on a path toward our dimension. And by fallout, anomaly and path I mean that a large and muscular, plane travelling humanoid entity was about to pierce the dimension barriers and crash at Mach 2 into a school in Arkansas.
Now Ray, normally content to be a less active, background or at least support character, really took charge in this scenario. He went from Prof. Reed Richards to Capt. Crisis Management in the blink of an eye. It was awesome. He called the right characters into play in the right positions, figured out exactly when and where the entity would fall and where he himself needed to be to be of maximum use and effectiveness.
As it turned out, the entity did not come into our dimension alone. A number of strange, salmon-pink, glowing imp-like creatures where attached to him or flying in pursuit, trying to drag him back into the infinite multiversal ether. Neat huh?
To be continued...
AD
Barking Alien
*I originally wrote that Arcane can 'control' alternate Earth versions of himself. That is not the case. He can communicate with them to gain advice and insight into situations that may have transpired already on their worlds. He knows that there may be differences in the events, participants and key details on these parallel Earths.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Where The Wild Things Go
Sad to report the passing of one of my favorite creative influences and a true artistic 'modern master'.
Maurice Sendak (1928-2012).
"And he sailed off through night and day
and in and out of weeks
and almost over a year
to where the wild things are."
AD
Barking Alien
Maurice Sendak (1928-2012).
"And he sailed off through night and day
and in and out of weeks
and almost over a year
to where the wild things are."
AD
Barking Alien
Monday, May 7, 2012
An Abundance of Heroes
In my last post I was talking about the lack of NPC superbeings in the setting of my current Champions campaign and how, for me, this is the exception and not the rule.
Usually my Superhero campaign worlds are practically overflowing with heroes and villains (or at least there's a lot of them).
I seem to be in the minority with this approach to Supers world building as evidenced by some of the responses to said post. It seems a more popular way to go about things, based solely on the responses I've seen, is to make the PC heroes either the only game in town, the only game at all/first game in town or the only ones who fight evil in their chosen venue (they are the Mutant team or the Street Justice team or the Space Team, etc.).
That my worlds are pretty much chock full of superhero NPCs would seem to complicate things and maybe, potentially, steal the PCs' thunder. The focus is always on the PCs I assure you, though the reason for that focus isn't always obvious.
The primary thinking behind having our Supers game universes full of heroes is, quite simply, it reflects modern comics. Both Marvel and DC (at least Pre-New 52) seem to have as many Supers per square mile as New York City has Starbucks. In an attempt to create a sense of continuity and a more unified setting, these heroes team up, join teams and generally guest star in each others book far more than ever. Certainly this trend has resulted in more year long events and crossovers then I recall seeing as a kid. This is the type of Superhero universe my players and I have become accustomed to.
The question is then, "How do you have a game setting chock full of costumed crimefighters and still have the PCs matter or stand out?".
A great question. Here are some possible answers that have worked for me...
New Jack City
The players are the newest heroes in town. Their specific niche is that the old guard is getting old and trying to assemble and train the new breed of young supers to take over for them so they can retire/move on to other projects.
Perhaps a well known psychic or sorcery based hero has foreseen the future and knows that these new heroes will be destined for greatness. This is very effective in Champions and M&M. While the PCs gain XP and become more effective and powerful, the established heroes seem to remain the same. A great in-game excuse for why the PCs improve while in most comic books superheroes don't really seem to get more powerful over time.
Filling Out The Ranks
Possibly viewed as a variant of the above, this next approach is evident in my current Champions game and my previous M&M campaign 'Dynamos Unlimited'. Here, it is assumed that while there may be superheroes more famous and powerful then the PCs at the beginning of the game, they are few and far between.
For example, as I have noted before, New York, the metahuman mecca of most Superhero Comic Book universes, has only about 1 dozen heroes in my Champions setting. New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and Wyoming share about 5-7 heroes. The state of Georgia has three or four. Only California, Illinois and New York have a decent number of heroes, with the LA Based Protectors featuring about 5 members, two or three of which are of significant power. Arkansas has one hero but he's really powerful.
The international scene is similar with the majority of European heroes living in England, Italy and Germany. Even then, Britian has about 7-9 heroes, three of which are very powerful, while the rest have 5 medium to low powered supers at best.
The resulting effect on the setting is that each individual hero feels more important. Sure, Superman may exist in your world but he lives in London and is busy fighting Fomorians when Dr. Madness attacks a small New England town in the USA looking for a lost book of Cthulhu-esque power. Now let's see, where are our heavy hitters? Hmmm...Ms. Mystical is still on the injured list, Capt. Freebird is helping Rebel Star in the South, we need Freeway (the Captain's niece) to stay at the base on monitor duty since she's the fastest and can get to a new problem in no time. That just leaves...the PCs! Good luck gang!
The Right Tool For The Job
Another variant on the above idea is to create the setting's NPC heroes after you build the PCs. So, if no one made an Ice Guy or a Telepath, the Player Characters can easily come into a world whose main team has Snowman and Mind Maiden. You feel me? There are already a number of established heroes but none of them have the PC heroes power sets. This may also may the PCs in high depend. The various Super teams could want the PCs to join them to cover areas they feel they are deficient in.
The Powers That Be
In most Supers games, the PCs start out at a medium power level roughly equivalent to the 80's-90's X-Men or the Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans. However, many games also allow the players to customize their campaign power level by playing starting characters who are slightly more or less powerful then those made by the default character creation rules.
So, start the players slightly more powerful then usual. These guys and gals aren't up and coming superheroes, these are The Avengers and the Justice League. The PCs begin the game as the currently recognized "World's Greatest Super Team". Just be sure to adjust accordingly to maintain the campaign (if long term campaigning is indeed your goal). Slightly less XP per session may prove helpful. Much bigger threats then normal are a must.
These are just a few ideas I have on the subject but I think you get the general objective. Creating a gaming universe that feels like a comic book universe can be tricky but it's not really what I would call hard and it's far from impossible to have your cake and eat it too.
More Super Stuff Coming Up, Up and Away!
AD
Barking Alien
Usually my Superhero campaign worlds are practically overflowing with heroes and villains (or at least there's a lot of them).
I seem to be in the minority with this approach to Supers world building as evidenced by some of the responses to said post. It seems a more popular way to go about things, based solely on the responses I've seen, is to make the PC heroes either the only game in town, the only game at all/first game in town or the only ones who fight evil in their chosen venue (they are the Mutant team or the Street Justice team or the Space Team, etc.).
That my worlds are pretty much chock full of superhero NPCs would seem to complicate things and maybe, potentially, steal the PCs' thunder. The focus is always on the PCs I assure you, though the reason for that focus isn't always obvious.
The primary thinking behind having our Supers game universes full of heroes is, quite simply, it reflects modern comics. Both Marvel and DC (at least Pre-New 52) seem to have as many Supers per square mile as New York City has Starbucks. In an attempt to create a sense of continuity and a more unified setting, these heroes team up, join teams and generally guest star in each others book far more than ever. Certainly this trend has resulted in more year long events and crossovers then I recall seeing as a kid. This is the type of Superhero universe my players and I have become accustomed to.
The question is then, "How do you have a game setting chock full of costumed crimefighters and still have the PCs matter or stand out?".
A great question. Here are some possible answers that have worked for me...
New Jack City
The players are the newest heroes in town. Their specific niche is that the old guard is getting old and trying to assemble and train the new breed of young supers to take over for them so they can retire/move on to other projects.
Perhaps a well known psychic or sorcery based hero has foreseen the future and knows that these new heroes will be destined for greatness. This is very effective in Champions and M&M. While the PCs gain XP and become more effective and powerful, the established heroes seem to remain the same. A great in-game excuse for why the PCs improve while in most comic books superheroes don't really seem to get more powerful over time.
Filling Out The Ranks
Possibly viewed as a variant of the above, this next approach is evident in my current Champions game and my previous M&M campaign 'Dynamos Unlimited'. Here, it is assumed that while there may be superheroes more famous and powerful then the PCs at the beginning of the game, they are few and far between.
For example, as I have noted before, New York, the metahuman mecca of most Superhero Comic Book universes, has only about 1 dozen heroes in my Champions setting. New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and Wyoming share about 5-7 heroes. The state of Georgia has three or four. Only California, Illinois and New York have a decent number of heroes, with the LA Based Protectors featuring about 5 members, two or three of which are of significant power. Arkansas has one hero but he's really powerful.
The international scene is similar with the majority of European heroes living in England, Italy and Germany. Even then, Britian has about 7-9 heroes, three of which are very powerful, while the rest have 5 medium to low powered supers at best.
The resulting effect on the setting is that each individual hero feels more important. Sure, Superman may exist in your world but he lives in London and is busy fighting Fomorians when Dr. Madness attacks a small New England town in the USA looking for a lost book of Cthulhu-esque power. Now let's see, where are our heavy hitters? Hmmm...Ms. Mystical is still on the injured list, Capt. Freebird is helping Rebel Star in the South, we need Freeway (the Captain's niece) to stay at the base on monitor duty since she's the fastest and can get to a new problem in no time. That just leaves...the PCs! Good luck gang!
The Right Tool For The Job
Another variant on the above idea is to create the setting's NPC heroes after you build the PCs. So, if no one made an Ice Guy or a Telepath, the Player Characters can easily come into a world whose main team has Snowman and Mind Maiden. You feel me? There are already a number of established heroes but none of them have the PC heroes power sets. This may also may the PCs in high depend. The various Super teams could want the PCs to join them to cover areas they feel they are deficient in.
The Powers That Be
In most Supers games, the PCs start out at a medium power level roughly equivalent to the 80's-90's X-Men or the Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans. However, many games also allow the players to customize their campaign power level by playing starting characters who are slightly more or less powerful then those made by the default character creation rules.
So, start the players slightly more powerful then usual. These guys and gals aren't up and coming superheroes, these are The Avengers and the Justice League. The PCs begin the game as the currently recognized "World's Greatest Super Team". Just be sure to adjust accordingly to maintain the campaign (if long term campaigning is indeed your goal). Slightly less XP per session may prove helpful. Much bigger threats then normal are a must.
These are just a few ideas I have on the subject but I think you get the general objective. Creating a gaming universe that feels like a comic book universe can be tricky but it's not really what I would call hard and it's far from impossible to have your cake and eat it too.
More Super Stuff Coming Up, Up and Away!
AD
Barking Alien
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Superhero Scarcity
Less Is More...Is Less
Usually when I start world building for a Supers game, I get to thinking about the other superheroes in the world other than the PCs. Marvel and DC have hundreds of Superhero characters and so do I, so I want the PCs to meet them. Also, other heroes round out the setting and make it feel like you live in a universe.
Unfortunately this can backfire on me. If the PCs are in big trouble they are going to call for reinforcements. Sure the other heroes could be busy but all of them? Think about the Avengers or the Justice League. Not only do they have a dozen or more active members, they are on pretty good terms with the vast majority of the major and minor heroes of their respective universes. If someone drops an Infinite Crisis or Secret War in their laps you can be pretty darn sure everyone from Animal Man and the Teen Titans to Nova to Fantastic Four are getting a phone call.
So when running my current Champions game, it's been quite an effort on my part not to create lots of NPC heroes. A low number of super powered individuals worldwide and a lack of Superheroes compared to Supervillains (Villains outnumber heroes roughly three to one in this setting) creates a very interesting dynamic that has made this game feel quite different from many of the other superhero campaigns I've run. Each hero is more important. Keeping yourself and every one of your allies alive (since the setting is also a tad more deadly then the standard 4-Color Comic Book milieu) is a priority no matter what else is going on.
In the case of our current situation, what do you do when most of your heavy hitters are out of energy/Endurance, the rest are at half power, every body is pretty fatigued and you just found out the mystery villain who set recent troubles in motion is about to show up at location X. I mean, the look on the players faces was awesome. There was this heroic and self sacrificing need to go forward, to nab that bad guy, knowing full well they don't really have the strength to do so. Fantastic.
***
How do you handle it? Is your Supers universe teeming with heroes or are the players the only game in town? Something inbetween? How does it effect the challenges in the game?
Really curious to see some responses to this.
AD
Barking Alien
Usually when I start world building for a Supers game, I get to thinking about the other superheroes in the world other than the PCs. Marvel and DC have hundreds of Superhero characters and so do I, so I want the PCs to meet them. Also, other heroes round out the setting and make it feel like you live in a universe.
Unfortunately this can backfire on me. If the PCs are in big trouble they are going to call for reinforcements. Sure the other heroes could be busy but all of them? Think about the Avengers or the Justice League. Not only do they have a dozen or more active members, they are on pretty good terms with the vast majority of the major and minor heroes of their respective universes. If someone drops an Infinite Crisis or Secret War in their laps you can be pretty darn sure everyone from Animal Man and the Teen Titans to Nova to Fantastic Four are getting a phone call.
So when running my current Champions game, it's been quite an effort on my part not to create lots of NPC heroes. A low number of super powered individuals worldwide and a lack of Superheroes compared to Supervillains (Villains outnumber heroes roughly three to one in this setting) creates a very interesting dynamic that has made this game feel quite different from many of the other superhero campaigns I've run. Each hero is more important. Keeping yourself and every one of your allies alive (since the setting is also a tad more deadly then the standard 4-Color Comic Book milieu) is a priority no matter what else is going on.
In the case of our current situation, what do you do when most of your heavy hitters are out of energy/Endurance, the rest are at half power, every body is pretty fatigued and you just found out the mystery villain who set recent troubles in motion is about to show up at location X. I mean, the look on the players faces was awesome. There was this heroic and self sacrificing need to go forward, to nab that bad guy, knowing full well they don't really have the strength to do so. Fantastic.
***
How do you handle it? Is your Supers universe teeming with heroes or are the players the only game in town? Something inbetween? How does it effect the challenges in the game?
Really curious to see some responses to this.
AD
Barking Alien
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
No Rest For The Weary
So the situation looks pretty grim for The Power, with no one to blame but himself. Yet it's actually even more dire then it first appears.
Allow me to explain...
When Corey's PC, the hard light armored archer named Ballistix, determines that the train rocketing North East is not only moving at incredible speed but hasn't made any of it's scheduled stops, he suggests the escaped super criminals from the Stronghold prison facility might be on board and using this as getaway plan. Since The Power is on that train and a few of the villains are pretty serious customers, he asks for back up.
Here's the kicker...The last three sessions have occurred over a period of no more than 10-12 hours in game time. During that time the PCs and many major NPCs have battled a number of villains, tried to out hack a genocidal artificial intelligence and have saved the international space station in Earth orbit and the dozen astronauts contained therein. Following that was a 1 to 2 hour break to get food, coffee, etc., a short debriefing meeting and then the personal meetings that resulted in The Power being let go.
So pretty much every hero capable of fighting the escapees is either asleep or is really low on Endurance. Some are also otherwise occupied, like the NPCs Microcosm (who went to NASA Mission Control to drop off the astronauts) and The Ultramarine (who flew back to England with Silver Sun tagging along).
Knowing his options are limited, S.I.M.O.N. (Third-in-command NPC back at the base) requests Silver Sun return to the states and asks Arcane (Lee) and Professor N (Ray) to stop what they're working on and assist.
So heading out to stop the villains and save The Power are...
Arcane - At about 60% Full Capacity
Ballistix - 100% Full Capacity
Professor N - Pretty much Full Capacity
Silver Sun - At about 50% Full Capacity.
Fingers are duly crossed.
***
Ballistix uses a power rarely encountered among superhumans called 'Reason' and decides to flip a manual emergency brake on the train track. Just in case this doesn't work he goes about 100 to 200 yards ahead of the brake and physically damages the track. "No matter what, this train is stopping", he tells me.
Unfortunately, one of the criminals on the train is 'The Grey Ghost', a villain with devices that can make himself, others or objects intangible to varying degrees. Attaching one of his gadgets to the Kinetic/Interial device that is speeding up the train, he is able to make the train pass through the brake stop.
That's when all heck breaks loose.
Silver Sun, whose powers are partially mystical in a weird science/cosmic/technomagic kind of way, is able to hit the ghostly train and rips open the roof of the engine car to get at the bad guys. He also fires superheated blasts at the wheels and track, hoping to melt the train into a stop.
Professor N waits for his moment and then slips onto the train with his 2D form, which makes him resemble a molecule thin sheet of paper. He gets into the front car where three of the villains and the unconscious Power are (the other three villains are searching the train in case The Power wasn't alone). He then returns to normal, grabs the accelerating/phasing machinery attached to the train engine and teleports it and himself away.
The train, now normal although partially fused to the track and the ground due to damage from Silver Sun's heat blasts and it's desolid/suddenly solid nature, finally strikes the part of the rails Ballistix had bent.
Derailing spectacularly, the train and it's occupants go flying. Think Tank ends up spinning through the air like a frisbee. Gigaton activates his force field and survives pretty much unharmed. Grey Ghost 'ghosts' through the wreckage and makes it out OK but frazzled. Mako doesn't do so hot. He ends up a mess, skidding across the ground at high speed. The last member of the group, the super strong Ogre, manages to crawl out and run for it with not much more then bumps and bruises.
Oh wait, there was one more...The Outsider. Originally disguised as a train worker, he attempts to escape by transforming into a crow and flying away. He is tagged by one of Ballistix's light arrows and taken down.
Now a battle ensues with those villains that remain standing...well...actually only Gigaton. Grey Ghost is kissing the ground, happy to be alive and Think Tank seems to either be down for the count or playing possum.
Ballistix takes a shot at Gigaton and misses. Gigaton takes at shot a Silver Sun who, I forgot to mention, taunted the Big 'G' to come after him. The blast from Gigaton probably would've put a mighty large hurtin' on ol' Silver Sun, had Arcane not used his Strong/Weak Nuclear Forces Manipulation powers to dissipate the attack down to a mere 2D6 Energy Blast. Very sweet.
In the end it was Silver Sun who took out Gigaton in a most satisfying way. Switching to X-Rays and turning invisible, Silver Sun ran up to Grey Ghost while Gigaton was distracted. He grabbed one of Grey Ghost's 'Ghost Bomb' grenades and made the ground around Gigaton intangible, causing Gigaton to fall into the Earth below his feet. Gigaton can fly and so he got himself out, flew over to Grey Ghost and grabbed him, ready to punch him in the face. "What's the big idea you bastard?"
Just as Grey Ghost says it wasn't him, Silver Sun puts his hand up to within an inch of Gigaton's face (Silver Sun is invisible if you recall) and lets the G-man have it with a full force, dump everything he's got into it blast. Threw the guy 65 feet through one of the wrecked train cars. Awesome.
Now at some point in the ruckus The Power woke up but was still down to practically nothing power wise. He tries to push himself, knowing it may knock him out again, to plant a suggestion in Think Tank's mind. He compels Think Tank to try and access the Mechanon AI program zipping around Earth orbit or contact someone who could do this for him (see last post for the, um, 'specifics' of his plan).
Bad news, it works but it's more like Mechanon discovers Think Tank trying to jack his program and he takes over some satellites and beams himself into Think Tank.
Good news, the heroes detect Mechanon's specific carrier wave (neutrinos are the key component) and use a trick of the rapidly tiring Silver Sun to deflect the signal. Mechanon's AI is sent packing back up into space while the heroes, pretty much running on empty at this point, capture all the villains. When a few of them go after the left over guy Ogre, the team uses bluff and intimidation to convince him to surrender. After all, they beat up Gigaton and they aren't even tired (wink, wink - since in truth they're all freakin' exhausted).
The very last thing to happen was The Outsider revealed that he'd been hired to break these guys out and take them to a secret meeting with their new employer. They are scheduled to meet at Think Tank's old base in...holy crap! About 4 hours!
No rest for the weary...
AD
Barking Alien
Allow me to explain...
When Corey's PC, the hard light armored archer named Ballistix, determines that the train rocketing North East is not only moving at incredible speed but hasn't made any of it's scheduled stops, he suggests the escaped super criminals from the Stronghold prison facility might be on board and using this as getaway plan. Since The Power is on that train and a few of the villains are pretty serious customers, he asks for back up.
Here's the kicker...The last three sessions have occurred over a period of no more than 10-12 hours in game time. During that time the PCs and many major NPCs have battled a number of villains, tried to out hack a genocidal artificial intelligence and have saved the international space station in Earth orbit and the dozen astronauts contained therein. Following that was a 1 to 2 hour break to get food, coffee, etc., a short debriefing meeting and then the personal meetings that resulted in The Power being let go.
So pretty much every hero capable of fighting the escapees is either asleep or is really low on Endurance. Some are also otherwise occupied, like the NPCs Microcosm (who went to NASA Mission Control to drop off the astronauts) and The Ultramarine (who flew back to England with Silver Sun tagging along).
Knowing his options are limited, S.I.M.O.N. (Third-in-command NPC back at the base) requests Silver Sun return to the states and asks Arcane (Lee) and Professor N (Ray) to stop what they're working on and assist.
So heading out to stop the villains and save The Power are...
Arcane - At about 60% Full Capacity
Ballistix - 100% Full Capacity
Professor N - Pretty much Full Capacity
Silver Sun - At about 50% Full Capacity.
Fingers are duly crossed.
***
Ballistix uses a power rarely encountered among superhumans called 'Reason' and decides to flip a manual emergency brake on the train track. Just in case this doesn't work he goes about 100 to 200 yards ahead of the brake and physically damages the track. "No matter what, this train is stopping", he tells me.
Unfortunately, one of the criminals on the train is 'The Grey Ghost', a villain with devices that can make himself, others or objects intangible to varying degrees. Attaching one of his gadgets to the Kinetic/Interial device that is speeding up the train, he is able to make the train pass through the brake stop.
That's when all heck breaks loose.
Silver Sun, whose powers are partially mystical in a weird science/cosmic/technomagic kind of way, is able to hit the ghostly train and rips open the roof of the engine car to get at the bad guys. He also fires superheated blasts at the wheels and track, hoping to melt the train into a stop.
Professor N waits for his moment and then slips onto the train with his 2D form, which makes him resemble a molecule thin sheet of paper. He gets into the front car where three of the villains and the unconscious Power are (the other three villains are searching the train in case The Power wasn't alone). He then returns to normal, grabs the accelerating/phasing machinery attached to the train engine and teleports it and himself away.
The train, now normal although partially fused to the track and the ground due to damage from Silver Sun's heat blasts and it's desolid/suddenly solid nature, finally strikes the part of the rails Ballistix had bent.
Derailing spectacularly, the train and it's occupants go flying. Think Tank ends up spinning through the air like a frisbee. Gigaton activates his force field and survives pretty much unharmed. Grey Ghost 'ghosts' through the wreckage and makes it out OK but frazzled. Mako doesn't do so hot. He ends up a mess, skidding across the ground at high speed. The last member of the group, the super strong Ogre, manages to crawl out and run for it with not much more then bumps and bruises.
Oh wait, there was one more...The Outsider. Originally disguised as a train worker, he attempts to escape by transforming into a crow and flying away. He is tagged by one of Ballistix's light arrows and taken down.
Now a battle ensues with those villains that remain standing...well...actually only Gigaton. Grey Ghost is kissing the ground, happy to be alive and Think Tank seems to either be down for the count or playing possum.
Ballistix takes a shot at Gigaton and misses. Gigaton takes at shot a Silver Sun who, I forgot to mention, taunted the Big 'G' to come after him. The blast from Gigaton probably would've put a mighty large hurtin' on ol' Silver Sun, had Arcane not used his Strong/Weak Nuclear Forces Manipulation powers to dissipate the attack down to a mere 2D6 Energy Blast. Very sweet.
In the end it was Silver Sun who took out Gigaton in a most satisfying way. Switching to X-Rays and turning invisible, Silver Sun ran up to Grey Ghost while Gigaton was distracted. He grabbed one of Grey Ghost's 'Ghost Bomb' grenades and made the ground around Gigaton intangible, causing Gigaton to fall into the Earth below his feet. Gigaton can fly and so he got himself out, flew over to Grey Ghost and grabbed him, ready to punch him in the face. "What's the big idea you bastard?"
Just as Grey Ghost says it wasn't him, Silver Sun puts his hand up to within an inch of Gigaton's face (Silver Sun is invisible if you recall) and lets the G-man have it with a full force, dump everything he's got into it blast. Threw the guy 65 feet through one of the wrecked train cars. Awesome.
Now at some point in the ruckus The Power woke up but was still down to practically nothing power wise. He tries to push himself, knowing it may knock him out again, to plant a suggestion in Think Tank's mind. He compels Think Tank to try and access the Mechanon AI program zipping around Earth orbit or contact someone who could do this for him (see last post for the, um, 'specifics' of his plan).
Bad news, it works but it's more like Mechanon discovers Think Tank trying to jack his program and he takes over some satellites and beams himself into Think Tank.
Good news, the heroes detect Mechanon's specific carrier wave (neutrinos are the key component) and use a trick of the rapidly tiring Silver Sun to deflect the signal. Mechanon's AI is sent packing back up into space while the heroes, pretty much running on empty at this point, capture all the villains. When a few of them go after the left over guy Ogre, the team uses bluff and intimidation to convince him to surrender. After all, they beat up Gigaton and they aren't even tired (wink, wink - since in truth they're all freakin' exhausted).
The very last thing to happen was The Outsider revealed that he'd been hired to break these guys out and take them to a secret meeting with their new employer. They are scheduled to meet at Think Tank's old base in...holy crap! About 4 hours!
No rest for the weary...
AD
Barking Alien
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