X-Champions Issues
Issue #23 - White Vans
The team discusses Jane (Sammy's
girlfriend's) fate. Eliot Sihn is interested in freezing and brain-taping
her while searching for a cure. Laughton brings up a "solution"
involving a sink and a garbage disposal which Sammy pretends not to hear.
Sammy is convinced that Eliot's solution is the only way, and tries to persuade
Jane but she pushes back as she remembers the horror of waking up from the
strange suspended animation state in ABC, and asks how long she has. Eliot
isn't entirely sure, but it's at least weeks if not months. She
compromises, agreeing to be brain-taped but not frozen, depending on how her
health holds up.
About then Jonas Hell shows up, a bit
shakey and clearly detoxifying against his desires. He babbles that he's
found the key to the answer Sihn posed, and also indicates that Sihn owes the
Laughton Agency money for 38 hours of investigative work. No one's quite
sure what he means at first, but he becomes more coherent as he takes swigs from
some fine scotch Suzanne keeps in a tasteful flask on her person. Laughton
takes Hell's notes (though Jonas rips a few pages from it beforehand) and looks
through, having learned Jonas' coded writing. As he reads, Hell indicates
he's researched why there are so many white vans anonymously in use by criminals
they've encountered because of Eliot Sihn's off-handed comment about how
strangely easy it is to apparently get them. Some argument ensues as to
whether that constituted an actual assignment, and Hell slips with some of his
anti-mutant prejudices. Sihn points out that Hell is a mutant (though he
is not), pointing his detector at him and causing it to go off. When Hell
denies it, Sihn says, "You had some of that scotch I gave you before,
right?"
As Hell is distracted by those comments,
Laughton, having read the notes, announces that Hell is onto something.
Back on track, they discuss that Hell has found someone who has links to some
organization that dispenses the vans through an underworld figure named Arne.
A bit more himself from a few hits of
Suzanne's scotch, he pinches Jane's rear end. She's a bit mystified at
this gesture and asks Sammy what it means. He explains it's some sort of
greeting and the correct gesture back is a good hard slap in the face, which she
obliges Hell with.
As they get ready to adjourn, Laughton
points out that there's plenty of "real" work for Jonas and points
over at a 17.5" stack of casework. Hell isn't so eager and points out
there arrangement allows him time to save the world. Sihn points out to
Hell he has an opening for a drug tester, which Jonas actually ponders.
Sihn teases Hell further that before he was a mutant he had no trouble doing
paperwork. This motivates Hell in Laughton's desired direction...
Later the same day renowned genius,
robot manufacturer, hero, and occasional evil mastermind Doc Magnus shows up to
see Newman. He absentmindedly can't remember meeting Dr. Sihn at first,
but eventually recalls their earlier conversations and enjoys chatting. He
seems particularly distracted and rambling as he examines Newman, noting the
lack of anything resembling his own patented responsometer,
which he speculates is a good thing as it causes so much trouble with his own
Metal Men. After reviewing Newman he's unsure who could have made him but
says he believes it was someone working in isolation, and refers Newman onto
another robotics expert Pierre Chirac. He then goes on to ask them about
Laughton's insanity, and in the course of discussion he mentions that he himself
would still be insane were it not for the many pills he's taking. Then he
brings up with Spectrum that he'd really like to work with her, recording her
brainwave transmissions. She looks at her schedule and says she's
interested but has no time soon. Of course, she's lying. On his way
out Magnus runs into Laughton and mentions to him that if Suzanne ever has an
accident and can't move he'd be glad to help.
At Newman's request Laughton and Sihn
have also worked on contacting Red Tornado through their government
agents. Laughton gets a deal to meet Red Tornado in exchange for an
appearance on the Mark and Brian show in Los Angeles, and they make preparations
to fly out.
That evening the Justice Squad
concentrates on catching up with Arne. They go to a mutant bar that Hell
indicates Arne hangs out in. Upon arrival they are served by the bartender
known simply as "Eyes" for the 7 eyes on his head. Eyes serves
the Justice Squad drinks, and Laughton notices his glass is dirty, his keen mind
in fact detecting [as he rolled a 3] that his glass hasn't been washed in days
while Sammy's has been washed 3 hours ago and Sihn's over a day. Eyes does
not appreciate Laughton's comments and debates him. As things get heated
Laughton calls Eyes "four eyes - because I wouldn't grace the other eyes
with the compliment." Eyes spits at Laughton, and Troll, always keen
to get samples, catches it before it strikes him (the Troll also would prefer to
keep the dirty glasses). Things escalate into Eyes challenging Laughton to
a fight, so they go out to the alleyway, Eyes leaving the bar to a fellow named
(and resembling) "Snakey".
Sammy, Newman, and Sihn, with most of
the bar, follows them out to the alley for the fight, but Suzanne decides to
stay inside and have a drink. As most of the booths are empty, she looks
to find one, and is called to by a sleazy-looking guy in a plaid sports coat -
it's Arne. He dismisses a person he's with, and calls to Suzanne,
"Hey, baby, come on over here!" Realizing duty calls, she sits
uncomfortably.
Meanwhile,
in the alley, one of Eyes' eyes casts a beam at Laughton, first missing but then
striking him and hurting him. He turns to stone, woozily holding to
consciousness. Eyes becomes enraged and tries various violent tactics,
including gasoline and fire, finally hollering at Rodin, insulting him and
attempting to get him to "fight fair". The Troll tries to reason
with Eyes, explaining that this is how Rodin fights. Meanwhile, Rodin
mentally calls to Spectrum to tip him over onto Eyes, but she ignores him -
after all, it's his fight. The Troll then explains to Eyes that if he
wants to fight fair, he should let Rodin be wielded by someone. Eyes,
betraying his essential ignorance, agrees. He strikes at the Troll with
another eyebeam, cutting into him and causing a chunk of flesh to fall off
and then scamper back onto the Troll. Then the Troll wallops Eyes with
Rodin. But he doesn't pull back enough and he's nearly killed, lying on
the ground with his face partly caved in and bleeding badly. The Troll
does his best to stabilize him and rushes him to the hospital, as he feels
"somewhat responsible". The crowd was a bit disquieted by the
event although most grant that Eyes would get clobbered by someone sooner or
later with his attitude.
Sammy,
Newman, and Laughton head back in and join Suzanne with Arne. Arne becomes
rather anxious as he sees the other supers and wants to leave, but Newman moves
in so he cannot escape. They tell Arne they know what's up and Laughton
interrogates him closely. He feigns ignorance but before it can go further
Snakey comes by and tells them he's closing the bar as the ruckus outside they
fear has aroused neighbors' calls. The mutant underground bar will be
reopened in 10 hours, he explains, but many people are moving out without much
haste. Newman says, "I can help," and his light goes on,
flashing in circles much like a police light, and a siren goes on.
Everyone rushes out. Laughton wants to stay and interrogate Arne with
everyone gone but Snakey is insistent and indicates he's about to blow the place
up inside so as to eliminate any evidenced. The Justice Squad, Arne in tow
despite his better wishes, moves on.
Meanwhile across town the Troll
encounters an emergency room doctor who is quite willing to assume it was an
innocent accident, and soon he is comforted that Eyes will be all right.
Reflecting on his recent trip to Disney World, he muses briefly that he should
have a t-shirt printed and sent to Eyes saying, "I Got KO'd by the Troll
and All I Got Was this Lousy T-Shirt".
They take Arne to their headquarters
(blinded by being stoned by Rodin), where Arne, stammering, tries to talk his
way out of it. He asks for a glass of water, which Laughton obligingly
delivers but "accidentally" spills on Arne's sport coat.
Apologizing profusely, he grabs a can of WD-40 and sprays Arne's
"marvelous" jacket with it, reasoning "WD-40 is especially
designed to displace water, this should fix you up perfect". The Troll shows
up in time to join in, bringing a 3-headed toad with him, which he pets.
Arne offers a deal, $100 "just to cover the damage to the coat", and a
date with Suzanne in return for the info. Trying to be nice, they agree to
$75 period, while Arne develops a sudden migraine. Arne explains that he
arranges things through a woman named Zelda at the petting zoo at the Aquarium
on Belle Isle. He tells them the phrase they need to say to her. But
Laughton's keen senses tell him that Arne's still holding back, and in reaction
the Troll suddenly crushes his 3-headed toad, expressing disappointment at Arne
not giving all the info. Arne becomes more nervous and reveals that
he knows the real boss, a "Mr. Tortoise" who is in fact a real
tortoise at the zoo. Finally, out of anxiety, Arne throws up; Laughton
just assumes Sammy will clean it up, but his diet does not extend thusly - but
one of Gere-luce's robots will properly attend to it. Rodin turns Arne to
stone and they leave him $75, duct-taped to his body.
The next day they go to the zoo
incognito. They find Zelda, with Suzanne's mind-reading help, and the
Troll stresses in his way that they want to see Mr. Tortoise. She guides
them over. Mr. Tortoise is taken aback by their knowledge and consents, as
he has no choice, to discussing the matter with them privately. Newman,
who has been made to look vaguely like a bento cart, at the tortoise's
instructions, picks him up, and per instructions holds the tortoise out so it
can look directly at people. It appears that as he looks at them they
suddenly no longer see him, if he wishes, and let him pass. They leave the
zoo that way and go to a secluded patch of forest nearby. Mr. Tortoise
realizes this is the Justice Squad. They say Newman is Sammy and that
Sammy is "a friend". Then they get down to business, and the
tortoise explains he is in charge of white van rentals, given them rates ($1,000
a day until left anywhere around the city, $5,000 additional if the van is
trashed). The Justice Squad arranges for three vans to be delivered at
hourly intervals and Mr. Tortoise tells them a pick-up point nearby.
They're afraid of this apparently mentally-powerful tortoise, not wanting to
confront him, but Laughton carefully plants a bug on him and they're off.
After picking up the first van, Laughton
follows the guy who drops it off to an entry point to a large, hidden, secured
cave. They drive the vans to different parts of the city and abandon them,
bugging and putting some glow-in-the-dark hidden stickers in each. Later
in the evening each van is picked up by the police as regular abandoned vehicles
(though more quickly it appears) and taken to a station house that holds
them. With some examination through one of Laughton's police contacts they
find that the police sell all the vans to a particular paint, body work, and
resale shop.
They go back to the cave, and
"wander" as if lost into it. Quickly they take control of it and
send the three staff members there away. Not much is to be found in the
small office there, and they decide that though they want to avoid it, they need
to see Mr. Tortoise.
Breaking into the zoo, as it's late,
they find Mr. Tortoise. Confronting him, they find out that he turns human
once every night, at midnight, for an hour. He has found out about their
messing up his operation, and he is equally curious. Sihn is interested in
his plight and offers to help him in return for information. Mr. Tortoise
explains that he is hooked up with the mayor, who covers the operation and
handles the police. Sihn does a few preliminary analyses on the Tortoise,
and between he and Spectrum they realize that the tortoise's powers are not
really mental at all - but they elect not to tell Laughton.
The next morning they storm into the
mayor's office, demanding answers. The mayor seems annoyed, proclaiming
they're not seeing the big picture. He rents out the vans not just to
villains, but also to heroes like Wilting Rose - in fact she's one of his
biggest clients. It turns out this is his way of keeping tabs on the
criminal element, and while the operation is never compromised by giving away
too much, certain pieces of information are given when necessary to prevent
terrorist operations and the like. He points out he's saved the city many
times. To make his point about not seeing the big picture from one's
perspective, he turns on some TV news highlighting a brand new Detroit hero, the
Hood. The Hood is a neighborhood-oriented inner city hero in Detroit,
witnessed by a reporter railing against the likes of Justice Squad, pointing out
they do nothing for his community, and that he drug trade and such goes on and
on. He intends to "take back" the streets with the people.
The Justice Squad finds it to be a good attitude while the mayor reinforces that
the Hood doesn't realize how much the Squad has done for Detroit - just like he
claims they don't realize what he's done for the city and them. But the
Justice Squad points out that the last such white van they're aware of was used
to attempt to capture or possibly kill Sammy, and it led to innocent lives being
endangered. The mayor grants that he owes them something, and promises to
cut them in on salient comings and goings, when relevant. They leave a
card they'd like to see get to the Hood and are off.
Off in fact onto Los Angeles for the
Mark and Brian show and the Red Tornado. The next AM Mark and Brian are
clowning around, intrigued with Sammy's ability to change. They ask him to
grow big breasts and bare them, hooting and hollering on the radio and telling
Stern to eat his heart out. They also make lewd suggestions to
Suzanne. Having enough, she gives them the most vicious headaches they've
ever had. Unfortunately some damage as done as Newman perceives this must
be humor and attempts to learn it. As they suddenly find themselves unable
to conduct their show, the Troll comes on the air and tells Justice Squad
stories as they recover. He regales the West Coast with amusing and
exciting anecdotes, and the ratings go up and more and more people tune
in. His show is quite compelling [a 4 is rolled on oratory]. Mark
and Brian are subdued as they come to.
As they leave the station, as agreed,
the Red Tornado shows up. He meets with Newman privately and speaks in a
somewhat similar monotone, just a bit smoother. Newman expresses that he
believes he has a higher purpose and must find out more about his creator.
As they talk, Red Tornado explains that in contrast to Newman he does feel
emotions, and that the first he felt was remorse as through an accident in his
system he killed his inventor, a man whom he believes was from another planet
and not likely responsible for Newman. Indeed, the two are entirely
unalike in systems, although Red Tornado does also have some sort of
brain. The Red Tornado would like to keep in touch, and wishes
Newman well in his mission.
The Justice Squad leaves Los Angeles,
getting a flight path for the newly-revamped Black Buick out of LAX. Just
as they take off they see a strange sight - the X-Men's ship is on top of one of
the buildings, and Magneto is blasting out through the roof, followed by the
X-Men. They stall and start towards the scene...
[Game Mechanics - Points Awarded...
Winning against an inferior opponent for
the bar scene/aftermath, +.375 RP for Rodin, Sammy, Spectrum, Troll, +.025 XP
for Rodin, Sammy, Spectrum, Troll; +.5 RP for Newman, +.05 XP for Newman
Winning against a marginally inferior
opponent for tracing back the white van rental, working with mayor, +1.875 RP for Rodin, Sammy,
Spectrum, Troll; +.125 XP for Rodin, Sammy, Spectrum, Troll; +2.5 RP for Newman,
+.25 XP for Newman
Act of publicity with Mark and Brian,
+10.5 RPs for Rodin, Sammy, Spectrum, Troll; +14 RP for Newman
Winning against a marginally superior
opponent for working with Mr. Tortoise and his operation (rewards for
establishing the relationship and helping him), +13.125 RPs for Rodin, Sammy,
Spectrum, Troll, +.875 XP for Rodin, Sammy, Spectrum, Troll; +17.5 RP for
Newman, +1.75 XP for Newman
4 hrs Session Play - +3 RPs for Rodin, Sammy,
Spectrum, Troll; +1 XP for Rodin,
Sammy, Spectrum, Troll; +4 RP for Newman, +2 XP for Newman
Totals:
Newman +38.5 RPs, +4.05 XPs
Rodin +28.875 RPs, +2.025 XPs
Sammy +28.875 RPs, +2.025 XPs
Spectrum +28.875 RPs, +2.025 XPs
Troll +28.875 RPs, +2.025 XPs
Totals to Date:
Neumann 132 RPs, 21.05 XPs
Rodin 984.5 RPs, 95.025 XPs
Sammy the Slime 919.25 RPs, 92.8875 XPs
Spectrum 802.125 RPs, 87.2 XPs
Troll 955.25 RPs, 101.575 XPs]