The Adventure

The Shield Maiden is flustered by the reporter's aggressiveness. "Um... I think we're going to stay here for a bit... Protect Small Town from the big bads." She shrugs, a bit out of her league.

Rebound

Celestine

Feb 27, 2025 5:57 am

With Erin Blount suddenly bursting onto the scene with her traditional show-stopping verve, Rebound shifted slightly towards the back of the group. It didn't seem right to step into the spotlight when he'd missed the party after all ... and it gave him a second to try and tie up a loose end. Reaching into one of the pockets of his jacket, he produced a small blue disc with an angular "R" painted on one side, squeezing the edge between thumb and forefinger. While his eyes were pointed towards the camera, he shifting his weight a bit to put his body between the hand with the disc as he pulled it out of his pocket, closing his eyes behind the unmoving golden lenses of his mask.

Rebound was sure that at his full strength, Ragnar would be we outside of his range, but he was hurt, uncertain of his destination, and most importantly in the air. Even mystical forces had to generate kinetic force to push him through the air, and just by virtue of his weight, he was generating a lot more than the wind around him, meaning he was a bright, wobbling light against a black field to Rebound's kinetic senses. Of course, a steady flight path would've made the shot earlier, but Rebound was pretty sure that between the cape and the breast plate, Ragnar wouldn't feel the tracer hit him, so he didn't have to be too subtle.

So, when Rebound snapped his fingers to flick the tracer through the air, there was a sharp crack like the tip of a whip breaking the sound barrier, a tiny flickering disc cutting its path through the air on an intercept course with a demigod. He wasn't going to follow the big guy too closely, but if his night turned into more than a boisterous bar crawl to rally his injured spirits, it'd be good to know exactly where the cavalry was needed.

"Ms. Blount, may I call you Erin?" Rebound started, assuming his little display would draw eyes to him, "I assure you, Heroes go where we are needed. The good people of Small Town have nothing to fear." he offered, seeing Small Fry and Shield Maiden stumble under her barrage fo questions.

"Unfortunately, this foul foe is need of real medical attention, as is his former hostage." he made a conciliatory bow of his head, "If you could furnish us with a card, I think an interview can be arranged, one where all these details can be properly aired out. For the moment though, I think it best we make our flashiest departures...?" he let that final statement drift off into a question as he glanced back at the rest of the heroic quartet. It was, after all, their show, but he was getting pretty strong "unprepared" vibes from them.

OOC:

Incidentally, as a Bouncing Kinetic Hero, would it be fair to assume I know a place where we can drop off Dr. Raines that he won't immediately Science his way out of?

Rolls

Kinetic Bouncing Hero to stick a Tracer on Ragnar From Long Range - (4d6)

(3131) = 8

Feb 27, 2025 9:51 pm

The tracer sails through the air, directly towards Ragnar, even though the demi-god is a good distance away.

But then the raging beer-lover veers off course, down into some woods so he can work off some aggression by whacking a few trees. You all hear a faint peal of thunder, rather than a raging storm; Ragnar is still weakened, after all. In fact, this brief exertion is extremely taxing to him; panting, he takes to the air again, regretting his pit-stop.

The flung tracer ends up in a swampy area and fizzles out.

OOC:

Rebound doesn't lose dice, as this was a target number roll.

Meghana Windstrider

Feb 27, 2025 10:11 pm

As for Raines's imprisonment, Meghana has something to say about that....

"There is no facility nearby that I'd trust to hold this villain. I recommend taking him to Tartarus Island."

You all have heard of Tartarus, though your specific knowledge depends on your backstory. It's a high-tech prison for superhumans that sits on an island off the coast of Metro City. Human rights activists question its legendary harshness, but few villains escape.

"I'm not in need of medical attention, newcomer, though I appreciate the concern. Raines here is the one who needs aid...though if he doesn't get it immediately, I won't shed a tear."

"I can transport Raines to Tarturus myself. The journey is long, but my strength recovers by the minute, while Raines remains harmless. I can cloak us in stormclouds, to hide us from interested parties. And while I feel nothing but spite for this man, I promise you that I won't harm him further...nor will I let anyone else harm him."

"What the prison has in store for him, however, is beyond my purview."

"After that task is complete, I can return here and grant your boon...perhaps by mid-day tomorrow? I should have sufficient power by then."

She waits for your response....

Erin Blount

Feb 27, 2025 10:17 pm

Erin frowns, and drums her fingers on her microphone impatiently.

"I want more, dammit! But I know you superhuman types have your secret identities, and always like to bail when the fighting's over...and let others clean up your messes...."

Still, she gives each of you her card. It's crammed with text: a home phone number, her personal number, her work number, her personal fax number, various numbers for BOOM Channel 10...and it lists her occupation as "Trailblazing Reporter and Truth Seeker."

"Contact me...and soon. I want exclusive interviews with all of you."

She doesn't leave, instead waiting around to see if anything else happens....

Feb 27, 2025 11:35 pm

A barely visible spark appears a few feet overhead.

Small Fry gladly takes the card, but then realizes that she carrying anything limits the use of her power.

So she holds the card with her left hand, and her right index lights on fire. She uses her fiery finger to etch her own phone number on the back of the card, and signs it "Lily."

"I’d love a one-on-one with you," she says flirtatiously, though without any expectation that it could possibly go anywhere. She then turns to Meghana. "I’m not worried about him."

Small Fry then hesitates. A part of her wants to be more helpful. But another part of her thinks it best to let Meghana handle it. She needs to be better acquainted with her teammates, old and new.

"Haha! I mean, you obviously have this arrest under control! Thank you, Meghana." She would give her Jimmy Z’s address, but not in front of the Channel 10 camera! She can probably detect Shield Maiden’s shield or cat.

OOC:

I’m fine with letting Meghana take Raines.

The Shield Maiden

Dmbrainiac

Feb 28, 2025 11:42 am

"Yes. Fare thee well, fellow Valkyrie," the Shield Maiden declares in her bold, valkyrie voice.

Rocketeer

Eltesla

Feb 28, 2025 1:41 pm

OOC:

I'm fine with it as well!

Upon mention of OmniCorp's superhero team, Rocketeer clenches her fist. Though Erin didn't say the name, Rocketeer's mind supplied it automatically. The Omni-Men. She's not keen to remember the past, nor does she have anything good to say about OmniCorp, so she flashes Rebound a tired but grateful smile when he smoothly placates Erin Blount with the promise of interviews at a later date. She takes Erin's card and tucks it away in her armor. She doesn't really plan to deliver on the interview, but she can't exactly throw the card away in this situation.

Tartarus Island. She's helped put away a number of villains in that hellhole while she was still with the Omni-Men under her old identity. She's hardly the sympathetic type when it comes to criminals, but in spite of that, she found her first time touring the prison to be rather disturbing. She hadn't even seen the lowest levels, which were reserved for the worst villains the country had to offer, many of them requiring specially tailored containment measures.

However, considering Raines' crimes and likelihood of escaping from normal prisons, she agrees to Meghana's proposed course of action. "We leave him in your hands then. He might even learn a little humility in there."

Seeing that Blount is lingering like a pest, Rocketeer figures it's time to make her exit. She wants to start on her repairs sooner rather than later. "I've gotta jet. Got a long night ahead of me. Just send up another rainbow and I'll be there tomorrow." Her damaged jets cough and sputter to life. She takes off into an unsteady flight, but she manages to right herself. Her droids trail behind her as she disappears into the horizon.

OOC:

About the droids, what will happen with them? Do I keep them, or will they revert to their base programming at some point? Or simply stop functioning?

Feb 28, 2025 7:23 pm

Small Fry says agreeably, "A rainbow tomorrow. Then we got a secret meeting…"

She faces the camera.

"…that everyone watching channel 10 knows about. And they know about my ‘gay bat-signal.’ Oh, but we can fly, so as long as we meet in the sky instead of Starbucks…" Guilty look at the camera. "…or a different place whose name I didn’t blurt on the local news station, we can still call the meeting by rainbow."

Now she flutters up to the mic with confidence.

"Watch the skies, folks at home!"

Small Fry blazes a rainbow trail toward the ceiling, which she subatomically passes through!

OOC:

If petting that friendly dog on her way home can help her recover her emotion-based dice, she’ll do that. She’ll deal with Shrinker dice at home, probably…

Feb 28, 2025 9:33 pm

OOC:

Rocketeer: You can keep the droids. You'll have to RP maintaining them occasionally. And since they're not originally your design, strange and fun things may happen in the future....

Looks like everyone is ready to vamoose. I'd recommend you take the equivalent of a long rest, which will restore all your cliches. Either you'll go back to Jimmy Z's, or rest/repair somewhere on your own. Then I'll move the day forward to June 4. Yes, all these adventures thus far have occurred on June 3, just one in-game day!

If you still have unfinished business, RP it. But eventually I'll have to skip ahead.

Once you've rested, the team will meet up again, and Meghana (and Ragnar?) should show up.

Rocketeer

Eltesla

Mar 1, 2025 1:12 am

OOC:

Alright, nice.

Rocketeer returns to an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Small Town where she's formed a base over the last few months. It hadn't seen activity for years, which made it the perfect spot to live and tinker in peace. Once she makes sure she hasn't been followed, her armor unlocks with a hiss and opens up, allowing her to step out. After donning her favorite lab coat and a welding mask, she works on her damaged power armor. Thankfully, she has a deal with Sal Amato, so she has plenty of secondhand material to work with from the junkyard. He receives money, she gets her pick of the lot.

After finishing her repairs and running diagnostics to make sure there's no issues, she sits down with the power core she grabbed from Lightning Strike and examines it for a while, thinking of how she could integrate it into her armor.

In the middle of her thorough analysis, her droids start to pester her, beeping insistently. "I'll run some maintenance on you guys in a while. But first, I need to unlock the secrets of this fascinating little device!" The droids seem to be satisfied, so they float off to some other part of the factory.

She works late into the night before she finally decides to rest.

OOC:

Rolling to understand the core if I can

Rolls

Mad Rocket Scientist - (4d6)

(3445) = 16

Mar 1, 2025 2:41 am

Small Fry is back in the neighborhood where she found that friendly dog, Jefferson. She remains fairy-sized since the dog never did try to eat her like that.

"I have to admit, I always thought myself a cat-person. But a cat would definitely try to claw the flesh off of me." If no one is around to see her grow to her full size, she does just that so she can pet the dog for a while…

Once she’s at peace with everything that happened after the battle, she waits for the dog to sleep before she chooses a place to rest: inside the molecular structure of a hair follicle!

At subatomic size, it doesn’t matter what solid she embeds herself in. It’s the same electron stars whizzing about nuclei planets. Small Fry is like a little star at this size—a creature of pure energy.

She lived most of her life in this form…

Around dawn the next morning, Small Fry becomes a flea-sized spark. She flies up off the dog’s back and checks her surroundings…

OOC:

SF is trying to find out if Jefferson has a home.

Mar 1, 2025 3:26 am

As a wise person once said, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Rocketeer probably gets an "engineering high" from examining the power core, as she realizes that its "basic" design masks countless hours of number-crunching, draftsmanship, and painstaking assembly.

For all of Raines's despotism, the man could design tech....

The core is an all-purpose battery; Rocketeer only has to create "adapters" to funnel different forms of energy into it. It would work well as a power source for her armor...but does she want to use it as a primary or auxiliary source?

Or will she create a standalone item, able to be used by her and her teammates? If she does consider them her teammates....

As for the safety of this: she's examined the core at the microscopic level, and is certain there are no Raines tricks hidden within its design. It's almost as if Raines was so confident in his eventual victory that he neglected certain security measures....

OOC:

Primary power source -- you get Adaptive Power Modulation: the core allows Rocketeer to operate her armor more efficiently! If using Mad Rocket Scientist (the cliche that, in my opinion, best correlates with your armor), you get +1 to all rolls.

Auxiliary power source -- you get Last Stand: the extra energy from the core allows Rocketeer one final surge! If Mad Rocket Scientist gets reduced to zero dice in combat, you immediately get a special bonus attack instead of falling. You roll 3d6 for this attack (no pumps), and then get KOed, win or lose.

Standalone item -- you get Surge Bomb: toss the core at an enemy and watch them get engulfed in destructive energy! This is a 3d6 roll, can be used to attack or defend. The bomb has two charges, then must be recharged. (Most likely done during a long rest.) Rocketeer will carry the bomb, but anyone can use it at any time.

Choose one option only.

The team is supposedly meeting up around mid-day on June 4, so you have time to create whatever you choose, if you skimp on your sleep.

Mar 1, 2025 3:50 am

Jefferson does indeed have a home, as he's inside one of the trailers! He's asleep in a plush doggie bed in the living room, snoring soft doggy-snores.

As the light of dawn seeps into the trailer, Small Fry gets a better look around her. The trailer is clean, but sparsely furnished. She doesn't see any children's toys, or the tell-tale disorganization that comes with raising young'uns...nor does she see signs of any other pets.

In a few moments, there's stirring in the master bedroom. A man and a woman, both wearing nothing but underwear, walk into the kitchen, which is connected to the living room. They both seem young, maybe mid-20s at the most, and reasonably fit.

As they groggily fix breakfast, they mutter to each other about this and that. You're able to determine that the man works at the county landfill, the woman at Division of Social Services.

Jefferson briefly wakes up to glance at his masters, then returns to his dog-dreams.

Rocketeer

Eltesla

Mar 1, 2025 3:56 am

OOC:

I'll choose the primary power source option.

Mar 1, 2025 3:59 am

OOC:

Noted in your character info!

Mar 1, 2025 12:41 pm

Small Fry is happy the dog has a home, but she certainly doesn’t want to spy on a couple. Now fully awake, she becomes small enough that she can no longer perceive the couple’s words, but not so small that she can’t tell a wall from a window. She floats toward the window’s light and subatomically escapes.

Outside, the now-fairly-sized super watches the sunrise. She considers the direction of the sun, and thinks about sending a pleasantly warm beam into the trailer window… but she doesn’t. Even a kindness would disrupt the two. She contemplates visiting them at a decent hour, but not today.

[ +- ] ☀️🌈☀️🌈☀️🌈☀️🌈

Back at Jimmy Z’s, human-sized Small Fry pours herself a teacup of water, stirs some soap into the cup until the surface is covered in foamy bubble, heats it in her hands. She places the cup by her laptop, searches for Eric Brock’s report, and adds the video to a playlist that is otherwise comprised mostly bands with a retro sound like La Luz, Girl Ray and The Orielles.

She then enjoys a teacup bath as she watches the news and a few music videos that she might just listen to without watching. The bubbles will provide privacy, should Victor, Jimmy Z or one of the new heroes walk in.

[ +- ] Playlist after the Erin Blount clip ends

OOC:

TL;DR - SF wants to see herself on TV, if she can find a clip of Erin Blount interviewing the team.

She’s covered by bubble and can magical-girl on a fairy outfit if anyone walks in on her.

Mar 1, 2025 9:05 pm

BOOM Channel 10 has the full interview up on their YouTube page, with only light editing to keep the pacing brisk.

After you all left, Erin stayed, and there's footage of the authorities finally showing up at the facility. Cops and various other official-looking people pore over the area...but most move hesitantly, and have quizzical looks on their faces. Not surprising, since the area isn't exactly a hotbed of superhuman activity.

Erin gets a statement from Sheriff Alvin Highsmith, a white-haired man who looks like he can't wait to retire. He mumbles some thanks, and says he hopes "this unnamed superhero team will work closely with the community to keep everyone safe."

Erin then sums up her reporting: "My impression is that this team is more a motley band of misfits than a well-functioning unit. Will they ever establish rapport, and be an asset to the Small Town region? Time will tell. All of them have promised me exclusive interviews, so I'll deliver more news to you faithful viewers soon!"

"And what about Dr. Elias Raines? Why did he establish his lair here? How could he afford to buy or lease this facility, and then create such impressive tech? And will Tartarus Island really hold him? Many questions...and I'll keep searching for the answers! This is Erin Blount, reporting for BOOM Channel 10!"

This video already has 50k views, which makes it by far BOOM's most-watched clip this week. And since it's YouTube, there are comments:

"DAMN, Erin's fine! King Arthur couldn't pull me out."

"They're ALL smoking. And that one dude doesn't skip calf day."

"Resist temptation, and embrace Christ as your savior! 🙏🙏🙏"

"Always a religion nut here...😡"

"I wonder if they'll fight the REAL corruption going on in this country, or just beat up poor people!"

"Yeah, Raines looked real fuckin poor, ya knuckle-dragging douchebag."

"See you've made your big debut! Talk soon! 💗💙💚- Jet Black."

Mar 1, 2025 10:08 pm