X-Champions Issues

Issue #7 - The Lost Tribe

Our heroes have gotten some much-needed rest and awake to a new Tuesday, eager to tackle the remnants of the Purple Hat gang.  Well, most - Sihn has discovered that having worked through the night and having gotten little rest Sunday night, he's remarkably alert and wide awake.  In fact, other than being rather hungry, he feels fine.  He considers his metabolism must be manifesting some new abilities and makes a mental note to study this more, but for now he's occupied with the disappearance of his mentor Professor Xavier.  

Well, The Captain has also not had the best rest either - he awakes deep in the soft ground of a swampy area of Belle Isle, wondering what happened to him.  The last thing he can remember is seeing Lisa Walters, meeting her elsewhere on the island, and then being hit with some sort of gas or vapor that caused him to black out.  Examining himself, he notes some large injection marks in his arm and some bruising with a sore area on the left cheek of his rump.  He quickly calls Hamlet back at the office and explains what's happened and heads in.  

Hamlet contacts Lisa Walters, who indicates she knows nothing about such a meeting.  As Hamlet asks questions, Aela, having just come back from depositing the tracking devices with "Buick" Rogers, interrupts, clicking the speaker on and firing more questions at the puzzled reporter.  She checks her cell call listing and in fact it shows her number called The Captain's the previous evening; as far as she can tell she's been hacked as her phone never left her sight.  She asks how The Captain is and Hamlet tells her he's still missing.   Hamlet asks her to stop calling them the Duct Tape Squad, so she asks what they should be called.  As the team has kicked around names already, Hamlet responds with the most favored one to date - the Justice Squad.  They agree to keep in touch via less susceptible channels.

Suzanne Palmer, the mentalist super heroine from last issue, comes into the office to discuss the Purple Hat situation with Hamlet Laughton.  They agree that while the police must be told it's up to the heroes to go after Jakob, the most dangerous of the bunch.  

The Captain (Marty Davis) is back at about the same time and after checking himself in a mirror, discovers "The King" is tattooed on one of his rear cheeks!  His cries of anguish reverberate through the thin walls of the office.  

Palmer, with Marty's permission, reads his mind to see what she can find; there's nothing other than blackness for the last few hours.  Eliot Sihn examines Marty in an attempt to determine what might have been done to him (aside of course from being tattooed).  As he does so Laughton decides to not lose any time and hits the streets to see what he can find out about "The King" and local tattoo parlors.  Before doing so, Laughton cautions Velma that ANY communication to the office regarding the King must be brought to his attention directly and not to Sammy's, since even though Sammy is Elvis (as far as Velma believes, anyway), references to the King are not to Elvis in this case.  She listens attentively and, after getting further clarification from Laughton (she'd still prefer to go to Sammy first), she in return cautions Laughton to be very careful about revealing Sammy's true identity.  He assures her that "Mum's the word" and mentally winces as he leaves.

Sihn determines that a series of chemicals were introduced into The Captain and a fairly complex series of tests were done on him, though nothing was apparently done to harm him.  He does find traces of a highly unusual element, something unidentifiable.  The tattoo turns out to be a branding of some sort, with some ink burnt in.  Sihn quickly removes the tattoo and also moves to heal The Captain quickly with his new drug tailored to the team members' physiology.  Davis feels great!  Meanwhile, Laughton uncovers that the King is simply another monicker for the Kingpin (though nothing proves this) and of course the Kingpin is widely suspected of being Wilson Fisk, the crime boss of both New York and Miami and thus de facto the east coast drug trade.  Word has it that Kingpin wants to expand his empire to the midwest and is targeting Detroit.  This ties together the money that the King gave to the Purple Hat gang, though it's unclear as to exactly why.  

While Hamlet is out, Velma discovers a brief paragraph attributed to the King on the fax machine.  She immediately brings it to Sammy's attention as Hamlet isn't around (though when challenged it's apparent this is an afterthought of an excuse).  Sammy calls Hamlet on the phone; the note is a brief warning indicating that the King can see them and what they do and only asks that they stay out of his way.  It further notes that "Your enemies are my enemies" and he will help them in return for their staying out of his way and perhaps doing a favor in the future.  Sammy is excited that the team may have another ally.  Most disturbing, the note is not an actual fax, it's a copy run through the fax machine, thus someone was in the building that morning during working hours.  As clients come in and out, it's not so unusual an unknown person would come in and out.  Hamlet asks Sammy to sit tight until he can get back and fingerprint it but Sammy wants to help, so, while he's been forbidden to do it himself, he seeks out Caruthers.  Caruthers sighs and begrudgingly helps him, disturbed by this new threat.  He asks Sammy to get him some coffee; Sammy is delighted to find the treasure trove of coffee supplies, something he'd previously overlooked.  When Caruther gets his coffee it's less than half-full and extremely strong.  He mentally curses the day these mutants became involved in the Blue Moon enterprise.

Sihn reaches out to Stark Industries and academia to determine what the strange element in Davis' blood is.  After a short time, an SI executive returns his call and indicates that the element is classified and to turn in any and all research to date and terminate his own work on this.  Of course this only serves to further intrigue Sihn.

Nothing comes of checking the fingerprints on the fax machine.  It's clear at least that Fisk (or someone posing as Fisk) is watching them and has rather extraordinary abilities in doing so, for what purposes though it's unknown.  The team decides to concentrate on the task at hand, finding Jakob's cell and closing down the Purple Hat gang.  

They head off to the location of Jakob's group in the salt mines below the city as determined from Levi's memories and find a hidden door as expected.  The Captain punches a hole through it and, after a couple heroes peer through it, the Mermaid impulsively enters as her husband the Troll objects, turning to water as she goes through the hole and begins examining the dark lair.  All she had seen in the room as far as water presences went was a large collection of water at the other end; it turns out to be a stocked freezer.  She opens the door and turns on the lights.  It appears the gang vacated a short time before.  The freezer was mostly full, though, and included several human organs, most crudely torn from bodies.  They were labeled.  Sihn and Laughton examine the remains, determining these were almost all ripped from dead bodies, all people killed brutally beforehand.  Some organs probably were removed as space remains near the other organs.  A supply room that looked to have held weapons is mostly empty, a few items left behind.  

As the heroes leave they note an unusual number of foot imprints on the salt mine floor.  As Laughton begins to track them, Sammy turns into a bloodhound and, now possessing a sensitive tracking scent, follows the trail.  His nose turns in quite handy as the trail leads above ground to the paved sidewalks.  The team makes quite a spectacle as it follows Sammy down the street, attracting the attention of the few folks they pass through a sparsely populated primarily warehousing section of the city.  A friendly gentleman approaches them, recognizing a few of the crew, and attempts to immediately befriend them.  Laughton indicates they're taking part in a film of some sort and points to a window where a camera is supposed to be.  The man asks if he can tag along and they let him.  Palmer is aloof, which only invites the man who calls himself Frederick to try harder to get her attention.  She identifies herself as "Jeannine" when he asks.  

The scent is strong as they approach what looks to be an abandoned warehouse, and Sammy can tell people have been coming and going here.  A small crowd of people across the street are looking on, residents of a decrepit apartment building, one of the few residences in the area.  As the group pauses and Sammy barks excitedly, shots ring out from the doorway of the warehouse just as Frederick is advised to leave.  The Captain and the Troll, thinking quickly, dive in front of the group to take the brunt of the blast, sparing the less protected members.  Sammy, the Mermaid, Suzanne Palmer, and Laughton (with one of the gang's captured guns) return fire with their powers.  Palmer makes one of the gangsters drops his gun by reaching into his mind and controlling him.  The Mermaid fires a blast of high pressured water.  Sammy bounds in, growling and baring his teeth as he dives into one of the gangsters and knocks him out.  The Captain commands the gang to stand down and they are momentarily confused and freeze.  

Sammy continues his attack on the befuddled gangsters.  Sihn/the Troll begins to work his chemical magic as he introduces his new drugs to the group, healing The Captain and boosting his speed.  The Mermaid continues her assault, soon receiving a power boost from the Troll also.  The Captain's ego inflates as the onlookers, caught by surprise and frozen with fear, look on at the mighty hero.  He rushes in and begins bludgeoning the bad guys.  Laughton cautiously moves into position to continue firing.  Palmer rushes in as well as they appear to be cleaning up this group fairly quickly - and she notes as she looks about that some dozen or more criminals are in the racking and poised to shoot at the heroes as they enter the building.  She quick-wittedly uses her mighty telekinetic abilities to grab the racking and knock it over, throwing several of the terrorists off of it.  Meanwhile the Troll assaults one of the gangsters at the door and asks, "Where is the Slayer?".  On cue the Slayer dives from the collapsing racking and says, "Here I am" as he jumps onto Palmer, stabbing her but not too badly.  

Just then many Purple Hat trained agents open fire from the second set of racking, concentrating on The Captain and the Troll.  Palmer gets out of the line of fire as all she needs to do is simply see her target to affect it.  The Troll attemps to grab Slayer but fails to catch the cagey fighter.  Hamlet/Rodin uses his mysterious power to transform the living into statues and begins the process on Slayer.  Frightened, Slayer throws a deadly dagger at Laughton, and The Captain, having already gotten shot many times, heroically jumps in the way, catching a devastating blow but remains standing.  However, the next hail of fire knocks him out cold as well as tears into the Troll, sending his flesh flying around him.  The bloody Troll looks as good as dead but a trained observer can see his body reforming and blood returning to him.  The Slayer catches a strong spray of water from the Mermaid that sends him flying back near the still-standing set of racking.  Sammy, in the heat of battle, sprays acid at Slayer but realizes it has no effect as he's doused with water.  Another blast of water by the Mermaid sends Slayer back against the racking and knocks him out slightly.  But that racking isn't standing for long as Palmer mentally grabs it and using all her strength uproots it.  Panting, the Troll gets out of the building as Palmer brings the last racking down and waves it madly around, bashing it haphazardly into the criminals.  Through the confusion Rodin catches sight of Slayer coming to and completes his transformation into a dense nigh-unbreakable stone.   Sammy grabs The Captain and jumps up and transforms partially, bearing wings to hold the unconscious hero.  The Mermaid lands a slippery oily water on the ground at the entrance of the warehouse in hopes of keeping the gangsters contained.  The two women hold the gangsters back almost single-handedly as the racking, breaking apart, assaults the bad guys and those near the door who attempt to get out of the way slip and fall on the Mermaid's puddle.  

As The Captain is dropped near the Troll by Sammy, a spray of bullets which narrowly misses Laughton and leaves Palmer relatively unharmed results in an errant bullet hitting a young child who had foolishly wandered out across the street.  Above the fray the heroes can hear the child's mother shrieking from a window above.   Sammy rushes to its aid as does the Troll; while Sammy can do nothing about it effectively, he is moved by the young child's plight.  The Troll uses his skills as a surgeon and does what he can to save the boy's life, just barely doing so as the child is close to death.  Hamlet runs over and, remembering having passed a clinic just down the street, rushes him there.  The Troll brings The Captain back into the battle by using his drugs, as well as boosting his quickness after doing so.  The Mermaid reaches out, concentrating, to sense what people, what water, is in the building.  She discovers another bunch of men crouching in readiness in the offices of the warehouse.  Palmer speedily flies down the street to grab a truck to ram into the building.  The Captain, after commanding the attention of and distracting the gunment, and Sammy hold off the gunmen still standing in the warehouse by rushing in and mopping them up, acting as if they know nothing about the second wave ready to attack the heroes.  The Captain grabs the statue-fied Slayer and bashes some of the gunmen, knocking them out cold.  Sammy sprays his strange acid and painfully takes out some of them.  The Mermaid also fires her volleys of water into the building, knocking out other agents.  As Palmer frees the breaks and mentally guides the truck into the office space of the warehouse, the heroes pile behind it, attacking madly.  The Troll sees Jakob, no bulletproof vest or protection, bare-chested, and rips his own arm off for a dramatic attack on the crazed leader but misses.  Laughton, just returning, fires into the building at one of the guards.  The Captain leaps onto the truck and instructs the remaining agents to stand down.  It has no real effect on these dazed but hardened criminals.  The heroes easily mop up the gang, the Mermaid delivering the coup-de-grace against Jakob, hurting him badly.  

With the Purple Hat enclave smashed, The Captain and Suzanne Palmer rush to the clinic to see how the child is, Palmer flying the mother there.  The Captain heartily signs autographs and they both comfort the mother, who is appreciative of the heroes saving her boy's life.  They ask her about her family; she has an older boy at home as well.  She points out an article in the paper indicating Steven Hawking's warning that a super-race is going to destroy the world.

Meanwhile the Troll and Sammy work their typical interrogation tactic, Sammy appearing as a gang member being terrorized by the Troll.  It has little effect on their first target, and they move on.  One man weakens more quickly - that is when the Troll pulls off a finger - and wants a "deal", asking to be set free and indicating he didn't shoot any of them.  Laughton's finely tuned mind can determine he's telling the truth and they get the man to talk.  He knows little, but does know "Arnold", who is a friend of Jakob and is likely to know as much as anyone.  They bring Arnold to, and begin terrorizing him.  Hamlet launches into his regular "We can do this the easy way or the hard way"; the Mermaid, having heard this at each interrogation she's witnessed, works to stifle her yawn.  After an ear is ripped off and then a thumb by the eager (and hungry) Troll, he talks.  He tells them what he knows about he remaining cells and says if anyone were to succeed Jakob, it'd be him and otherwise no one.  He collapses in tears as he realizes the gang's days are again over, perhaps this time for the last time.  Meanwhile the one who ratted him out asks Aela (the Mermaid) over, believing her to be a sympathetic sort simply by virtue of being female, and asks her to set him free as per their deal.  She dismisses him and simply indicates they should just kill him.  He's taken aback but begs for release.  So she turns him into a puddle of water - he is, in a sense, free now, as he splashes down to the floor and settles into a depression there.  Arnold is shocked.  

Meanwhile, Davis (The Captain) receives an anonymous call on his cell phone.  A voice, nervous and strange, which turns out to be the Mocker's but at first isn't identified, says to turn over Slayer and they'll turn over the "brainiac" guy.  He says he'll call back.  Davis calls Laughton, who aloud wonders who this brainiac would be.  The Troll chimes in it's probably Professor X, his mentor from the New School, who has just gone missing.  Then Davis gets a call back, the Mocker again, who asks if they'll do the deal.  Figuring they will use Sammy to pose as Slayer, The Captain agrees and asks if the professor is unharmed.  Mocker says "Not yet - uh, right? <more background talkikng> - yes he's okay so far.  Today at 5 we meet - <mumbling in the background> no - hold on - 2 days? - wait, I'll call you back" and abruptly hangs up.  The Captain discusses more with the team and they decide they want to see Professor X conscious.  Davis tells Mocker this when he calls back, of course, in a few moments.  Mocker pauses, more muttering is heard in the background, and he insists that Xavier be unconscious.  The scattered super-villain stutters a bit and adds, "We'll meet in the security office at the upscale shopping center in the Renaissance Center, at the lost and found."  

The interrogation moves on to Jakob, with little expected.  He simply grins through the pain and spits at Aela whom he recognizes as having knocked him out.  She threatens to kill him but "just" begins slowing the flow of blood in him, causing him great distress.  He apologizes, at first without sincerity and then with at least a reasonable attempt at it.  She releases her power and they begin the interrogation in earnest.  Laughton and the others are surprised to find him rather helpful.  Jakob views the remaining cells as weaklings and rattles off their location.  He still boasts that while the supers have won the batle, he and the gang will win the war, that they will be out of prison in a year or ten and will return.  Aela says that won't be possible as they'll be dead.  To make her point, she turns one of the gangsters into a puddle of water.  Jakob acknowledges they're a mighty opponent but holds hope for the future - but obviously less hope than he had!

The Captain and Palmer return at about this time as the Troll discreetly repairs what's left of Arnold (after all, he was hungry).  They all hear sirens approaching (about time - it's been 20 minutes) and take off, with Slayer in the trunk.  The trunk has been modified by Sihn's friend Gere-luce to handle the weight - and equipped of course as per Gere-luce's standard approach with a self-destruct device.  On the way they pass Jonas Hell coming the other way - Hell in Buffy's car.  He waves them down and they stop mid-street.  He tells them he's had a full night and just heard the police scanner, figured it was them.  Laughton asks if he's put in any billable hours this week.  Hell responds it's only Tuesday and of course he's been busy.  Laughton insists he get in two hours that day and mentions he's got at least three case files on his desk.  Hell complains that means it's back up since he just took care of two, then hedges, then asks if he's heard about the Hawking news.  Laughton says he has, then Hell says, "Well, you see, that means he's in on it, he's involved.  I've got to follow up on that!  See you later, I'll let you know what I find."  Laughton shouts at him to handle at least the Rosenfield [?] case, unsure if Hell heard him.

Back at the office, they interrogate Slayer, but just through the mind, using Palmer's mental intrusion.  She finds his first contact with Mocker, in an underground (literally) bar apparently frequented by villainous mutants.  Apparently Slayer visits the Bogeyman and Mocker in a ramshackle shack in the upper peninsula, out in the boonies.  There's strange technology there, unclear if it even works.  Also, they make contact twice a weak via a preappointed time at which Slayer waits at a payphone.  Curious about Slayer's past, Palmer reaches back and finds a childhood racked with abuse of Slayer and by Slayer.  At some point in his teen years he was apparently manipulated biochemically by the same lab folks as created the other Purple Hat mutants.  

During this, via the radio and television the heroes can hear of the crumbling of the Purple Hat gang as the police, per tips from the heroes, find and apprehend the remnants of the gang.  A few shots are fired but the demoralized gang generally gives up and no lives are lost, other than a few Purple Hat suicides.  Lisa Walters stops by and talks to Hamlet, mentioning that sources say The Captain was involved in the scene at the warehouse where Jakob's gang was caught.  Hamlet indicates that it's not true and The Captain is still missing.  She seems puzzled and thanks him, moving on.  

The heroes begin planning on the hostage trade with the Bogeyman's Gang of Five (now four)...

[Game Mechanics - Points Awarded...

Thoroughly defeating a roughly equal opponent - for the whole battle. rescue, and interrogation scene (lumped together - considered roughly equal in terms of bringing in key members alive/saving the child) - +11.25 RPs for all, +.75 XPs for all

Thoroughly defeated by a vastly superior opponent - for The Captain being nabbed and being at the mercy of the Kingpin's surveillance ["vastly superior" should tell you something - I used "thoroughly defeated" because even though the Justice Squad is not vanquished, it fit best as a description to indicate that they've been toyed with (more than what you've seen) and should be now doing a little learning from the experience] - +3.75 RPs for all, +.25 XPs for all [this will be a one-time award even if this continues a bit]

Thoroughly defeating a superior opponent - for quickly unmasking and smashing the Purple Hat terrorists with no loss of civilian life (nice job on that latter part - saving the innocent lives) - +45 RPs for The Captain, Mermaid, Rodin, Sammy, Troll, +3 XPs for The Captain, Mermaid, Rodin, Sammy, Troll, +22.5 RPs for Suzanne Palmer, +1.5 XPs for Suzanne Palmer (awarded half to Palmer since she was in the tail end, though during substantial portions)

Acts of great heroism - bonus for above, for the whole city of Detroit knowing this as well as some national coverage - and attracting the attention of the Kingpin - +22.5 RPs for all 

Session play - +4.5 RPs for all, +1.5 XPs for all

Totals:

The Captain +87 RPs, +5.5 XPs
Suzanne Palmer +64.5 RPs, +4 XPs
Mermaid +87 RPs, +5.5 XPs
Rodin +87 RPs, +5.5 XPs
Sammy the Slime +87 RPs, +5.5 XPs
Troll +87 RPs, +5.5 XPs

Totals to Date:

The Captain 238.5 RPs, 20.925 XPs
Justice (working title) 68.625 RPs, 4.975 XPs
Mermaid 200.625 RPs, 17.7425 XPs
Rodin 238.5 RPs, 20.825 XPs
Sammy the Slime 223.875 RPs, 19.0375 XPs
Troll 238.125 RPs, 22.775 XPs