X-Champions Issues
Issue #28 - Head Will Roll
While the Justice Squad puzzles on what
to do in their stand-off against Kingpin, back in Detroit their acquaintance
Dice gets a mysterious phone call from a whispering voice indicating that the
Justice Squad is in trouble, along with Kingpin's address in Oklahoma.
Dice fortunately has a wide open plane ticket he still hasn't used and a late
night flight gets him there before long. He rents a nice car and quickly
arrives. As he approaches he sees the Black Buick and realizes he's found
them.
Hasty greetings are exchanged.
Sihn, holding the strange suppression device to defeat the strength-sapping
power of Kingpin's base, hands Dice a $5 bill as a "reward" when Dice
explains he came out because they're in danger. Dice notes Jonas the
Wonder Dog and remarks, "Hmmm, he reminds me of a poodle." Jonas
the Wonder Dog pees a little on his leg but mostly misses.
Unexpectedly they see Steely Danelle
drop. It appears now she is the victim of Kingpin's mental blasts, perhaps
a sign of his concern over an unknown adversary. The team checks Spectrum
and finds her now able to be revived, and soon she is up and back with the team.
Sammy heads in to test the suppression
device and finds it seems to work. The team heads in, following a long
underground corridor exposed by the two villains who just attacked them.
As the corridor leads down they find the cold numbing, making it difficult to
concentrate. Sammy and the Troll are particularly affected by the cold,
sapping their powers. Neumann (unaffected naturally) releases a hot fog of
steam and they all stick close to the robot, easing their situation
somewhat. Neumann also lights the way through the dark corridor.
The team finds a heavy door. Sammy
turns into his gelatinous state and seeps under the door - triggering a massive
blast of ice-like energy, very nearly killing him as parts of his strange body
break and crack. Neumann quickly uses his vaccuum-like ability and sucks
Sammy out from danger. The Troll rips off his hand and blood seems to
"crawl" rather than drop from him, covering Sammy and infiltrating
him, healing him enough that his metabolism returns to normal and
recovers. Spectrum uses her telekinetic skills to blast through the door
from a distance as Dice watches their back. They test the area and find it
takes a few efforts to stop the repeating booby-trap. As they walk through
the blast area they see little chips of Sammy littering the floor in a ghastly
reminder of the graveness of their situation.
Suddenly lights go on around the walls
of the corridor as a vast stiletto board begins a countdown. The voice of
the Kingpin reverberates through the halls as he laughs ominously, relishing the
situation. He proclaims, "Well, I was going to wait until later but
I'll start the countdown now. You have 20 minutes to rescue your
friend." The Troll bellows back, "I thought you had
Laughton?". The Kingpin merely laughs. The board continues its
countdown.
Another door is encountered as they
proceed around a corner. Spectrum tosses an empty scotch bottle at it and
this time a sticky substance subsumes it. Dice considers returning to
Detroit and starts the trip but realizes the trip back could be more dangerous
if Kingpin is watching. On his return he determines by studying the door
that the trap will go off four times before quitting. The Troll tells the
Justice Squad not to look and plays some strange tune on a suddenly-produced
violin and a "Dimensional Shambler" appears. This brutish beast
breaks the door but does get stuck. Spectrum finishes the job, pulling the
hinges off. Another minute has passed - Laughton, and perhaps the team,
has 19 minutes left. Neumann resolves to write a poem for the noble
Shambler.
They find a flight of stairs going down
and they cautiously continue. Sammy slides down the rail and does not
touch the steps. Dice, beginning to recognize the trap system, leads the
way. They enter a large room, a sort of massive casual control center, but
with no remaining equipment. The room is round, and the base is apparently
a sort of massive silo that burrows straight into the ground. Some
items look charred, as if victim to a scorched earth policy. They find an
office. As Dice expresses caution Neumann sticks a mirror in and is hit by
an incinerating blast. He drops but wakes up a few seconds later.
Thirty more seconds have passed, 18:30 remains.
Spectrum reaches out to understand what
is going on, risking her mind against Kingpin's powers. She finds there
are several other people in the base but she cannot get a finer fix before
feeling Kingpin's mental feedback preparing to strike. Another 30 seconds
pass in the meantime.
The team continues their search.
Dice is positive the way to continue is straight down. As they go
downstairs they find a large cube in the middle of the round room. A
cursory examination shows that each wall of these cubes is booby-trapped.
They wonder if Laughton might be in one of the cubes, but Dice seems sure
otherwise. Sammy helps as he heightens his sense of smell to see if he can
find Laughton. There's no sign of him on the floor. They then
continue down the stairs, feeling all the evidence points to the very
bottom. They also discuss where the source of cold could be coming from as
it seems to be no more dense in any one area. With 16 minutes remaining,
they find a floor inhabited by a number of apparent super-villains in the employ
of Kingpin. From around a corner they can tell little except that the
villains lay in wait, seeing a few but clearly not all of them.
Again, the Troll resorts to his strange
powers to call up beings from beyond. As time and space seems to bend,
Neumann's cold mechanical joints squeak very loudly, adding menace to the
air. This time something called a Dark Young appears, a horrid strangely
amorphous creature with tentacles all about it. Dice gasps and falls back
slightly. The Dark Young receives a mental command from the Troll
and blindly rushes into the room with the
villains at the command of the Troll. Heedlessly the villains fire at it
as Neumann stretches his head out and narrates the action like a mechanistic
sports commentator.
Neumann reports as Dead Guy, apparently
having escaped from his acidic
grave above, steps into the fray with the
Vacuulator (the master driver of a strange super-vacuum) and Screw Man (strange
mutant how is master of screws) against the Dark Young. The Dark Young is
quickly stunned but in the melee the Vacuulator shoots past the Dark Young and
into Dead Guy, his super-vacuum sucking Dead Guy half into it and the
sharp-bladed beater bar slicing into him. Dead Guy is momentarily
dazed. Shortly the Justice Squad springs into the room, taking advantage
of the confusion, Dice holding back, ready to get help.
Sammy jumps in and attacks the
Vacuulator as does Neumann. The acid from Sammy and steam from Neumann
form a mighty one-two blow that causes the liquid-vulnerable Vacculator's
machine to sputter and spark, forcing electrical feedback through the
Vacuulator's body and dropping him. As the Troll enters Screw Man
fires a volley of screws that rip through his flesh and hold him against a
nearby wall, both hurting and entangling him. As Spectrum enters and
mentally blasts Screw Man, hurting him but not stopping him, a strange villain
Drill, his body partially made of drills
on his head and hands, throws himself into her. He pierces her, hurting
her but not badly as her force of will moves his drill so it only nicks her, and
in his rush moves so hard he drills into the Troll behind her, embedding himself
into the wall. Meanwhile Sammy hears a voice whispering in his ear; an
invisible villain called Home Despot is working his strange powers as his voice
mesmerizes Sammy and entrances him into working on an imaginary device to house
him in warmth and win the battle. Sammy walks a few yards from the fray
and works on his project.
As Neumann comes under attack from Dead
Guy and starts to succumb, things look grim. Back in the stairwell, a
strange voice, the same one Dice heard on the phone short hours before, hisses
in his ear and hands him a large rifle seemingly out of thin air. Dice
uncertainly makes his way towards the battle.
Just
then Kingpin comes out from hiding and laughs at the Troll and Spectrum.
He declares, "These employees may not be the best, but they work cheap - in
fact they work for the privilege of killing you! You see, they're all
friends to Hammerhead, part of his team,
the Tool Team!" Kingpin calls Spectrum a "bitch" as his
anger surfaces. From his trademark walking cane he fires a large blast of
cutting blades that dig into Spectrum, the Troll, and even the stuck
Drill. The Drill is mortally wounded, Spectrum is hurt and knocked out,
and the Troll's body spits flesh and blood all over though his strange form
congeals back quickly.
Just
as this happens another villain, one keeping her distance, throws up a force
wall of office cubicles as Dice fires at her. She's Office Despot, the wife of
Home Despot, and she takes the shot just as her cubicles go up.
She's dazed for a moment but quickly comes to her senses and unseen by the
heroes produces a first-aid kit that gets the Vacuulator up and running.
The Dark Young is being put down by Dead Guy and Vacuulator finishes the job,
knocking the strange beast out.
The Troll tears himself from his
predicament, leaping far away from Kingpin and the other villains, and towards
where he sees Rodin unmoving. He calls attention to Kingpin's killing of
the team's friend Drill. Screw Man fires a volley of screws at Kingpin,
holding him only for a moment. The Troll gets one more strike at Kingpin
as he flees, and Dice fires at Kingpin as Kingpin drops the normally-lucky Dice
(actually Dice is still lucky as the glancing blow misses enough not to kill the
"regular guy").
As
Neumann comes to he realizes through his special senses where Home Despot is,
seeing him whispering to Sammy. Though Spectrum is out her subconscious
keeps the vital communication link between the Justice Squad members up, and
Neumann conveys the information to the Troll. The Troll grabs the dead
Drill and using his drill-like head runs into Home Despot - all too
effectively. Home Despot cannot take the massive attack and the goring
kills him instantly. His blood splatters onto Sammy, Spectrum, and the
Troll.
Kingpin escapes as the villainous Tool
Team - particularly Home Despot's now-widow Office Despot - turns its attention
back to the Justice Squad. Office Despot launches an all-out attack
against the Troll but she is quickly dispatched with, being more of a support
member of the group. Sammy, freed from his spell, helps Spectrum come to,
nearly knocking himself out in the effort. Neumann and Sammy then pile on
Screw Man, and the Troll holds off Dead Guy. Vacuulator is dispatched with
by Neumann. Although the Justice Squad is ahead, the fleeing Kingpin has
one last surprise as he cackles and declares they are doomed...
...as the floor falls away and a massive
sucking wind pulls the Justice Squad, Dead Guy, and the Tool Team one floor down
into a small area around which a killing storm of sorts rages. They find
that this bizarre storm is a whipping frenzy that can tear a man apart.
The standing Tool Team members realize their lot is now cast with the Justice
Squad. Even Dead Guy resolves to see how things play out rather than
attack. The Kingpin's voice booms through surrounding loudspeakers,
"See the countdown continuing? Now it says 14:45, that is how long
you have to live. See the large cylinder in front of you? Inside a
nuclear weapon is about to go off. I will have time to flee but you, the
unconscious guards around here, and farmers for miles around will be dead when
the countdown ends. HAHAHAHAHA, have fun!"
The Justice Squad quickly takes stock of
the situation and a plan is born in mere moments. Neumann mentions he has
detailed knowledge of nuclear power. The Troll summons a Servitor, landing
it inside the cylinder through his great magical ability. Spectrum scans
and links onto the beast - hesitantly for she fears what its dark mind will do
to her. But her experience with Buffy and her friends has steeled her mind
enough. She holds on and communicates what the being sees to Neumann, who
instructs it on how to stop the weapon. The Troll then instructs the
thing on how to stop the control panel as he can "see" through
Suzanne.
And with the clock at only 14:15 the
killing storm stops, the cold freeze dissipates rapidly, and the nuclear threat
is no more. The Troll leaps into the cylinder, seizing control of the
facility. He looks through cameras revealing Kingpin's ascent, and now the
Troll's cold laugh booms through the building as he taunts the murderous mob
boss. As the Troll finds no weapon is available in the immediate area,
Dice, Neumann, Sammy, and Spectrum Neumann rush up to stop the Kingpin -
and protect him from the Troll. Just before they arrive, the Troll sees
the Kingpin suddenly stop, as if something is blocking him. Then he sees
the Kingpin apparently hit by some invisible force. When the other Justice
Squad members arrive, it becomes apparent it is the Wrath, as Sammy recognizes
the moldy odor and the Wrath quickly reveals himself.
The Wrath announces he will kill the
Kingpin. Defiantly the Kingpin laughs, stating the Justice Squad will have
to protect him. The Troll insists that the Kingpin face "real"
justice. Dice, Neumann, Sammy, and Spectrum implore Troll to stand down on
the issue. The situation gets to Spectrum and she suddenly leaves, taking
Jonas the Wonder Dog with her. Then an impenetrable darkness surrounds
them. Neumann is suddenly knocked out, the Wrath knowing from observation
that only the robot might see through this fog. And a wet slicing sound is
heard.
The darkness lifts. The Wrath is
gone. On the floor is Kingpin's body - and a few feet away, Kingpin's
head. The Troll smiles, though he feels a twinge of disappointment that he
was not directly involved.
Their problems are not ended. Dead
Guy has been lurking and the death of Kingpin feeds his energy. He insists
he will "dine" on the unconscious Tool Team members. The Justice
Squad, now down to just Dice, Sammy, and the Troll as Neumann and Rodin are too
far out and Suzanne has gone, tries to reason with Dead Guy. They at one
point explain that if Dead Guy goes to prison he will have a field day.
Dead Guy is intrigued but decides that perhaps the prison will be tougher than
he might expect. Only when Troll offers a deal, one-on-one combat, does
Dead Guy decide to not immediately kill. If the Troll wins, Dead Guy
submits but if Dead Guy wins, he may dine on the downed Tool Team.
The Troll and Dead Guy go back into the
circle all stood in moments before and at the Troll's direction the vicious
windstorm restarts, Dice working the controls per the Troll's
instructions. The two titans battle it out. Dice and Sammy prepare
to break their word and step in. Dead Guy has not worked up to his higher
strength, and after several blows back and forth, a barely standing Troll knocks
Dead Guy out.
The Troll calls his federal liaison
Terwilliger. Shortly the authorities arrive. The Troll explains that
the Wrath appeared and did Kingpin in, ready with the tape of what happened -
with the Troll's provocative comments removed. Dice returns his rental
car, vowing to go back to help "people who need it", disgusted with
the way Kingpin died and that the Troll encouraged it.
Back in Detroit, an exhausted Spectrum
gets back in the early morning. Distraught, she contacts Willow, wishing
to speak with her after school. She is holding on to herself just barely,
the shock of not only the terrible battle with Kingpin and the Troll's reaction
haunting her but also her realization that a personality from within has caused
Jonas to live as a dog as she did nothing against the super-intelligence but
emotionally dead plans of Laughton and Sihn. She reflects on the death of
Home Despot, how she's sure the Troll didn't really care about it, and she's
sure that Kingpin is dead. She tosses her bloody clothes into a hamper,
her Sharon self wanting to forget it all. She doesn't even think about
leaving Jonas as she sleeps. The dog wanders through the house, checking
Suzanne's intimate apparel and sniffing around her.
Suzanne awakes grasping back her moment
of clarity. She kicks Jonas out, takes a long shower, and waits to see
Willow. When they hook up, they speak in Willow's dorm room (Suzanne is
afraid to speak in the Scooby Gang's HQ as it is in Sihn's building) as Buffy,
Willow's roommate, goes out on patrol. Suzanne tells Willow about her
problem of being possessed, and of her fears about the influence of the
Necronomicon on Sihn. She explains the events leading up to Jonas'
transformation, explaining her possession by Jenna at the time.
Willow listens and lets Suzanne
speak. The strain on Suzanne is such that it's possible another
personality could seize control - some of them, mainly Rosemary and Jenna, make
an effort. Willow is very nervous and admits she's a little freaked out in that
she thought Suzanne had more answers than someone younger like herself.
Suzanne says that the whole supers thing is rather new to her still.
Willow's been dealing with the fringe a bit longer. Suzanne just has a bit more
experience outside of the supernatural is all. Willow does her most to make
Spectrum feel at ease, serving up the tea and snacks and ice cream. She shares
her own experience of getting more into magic and making some mistakes of her
own. When things are at ease, Willow at some point picks up the carpet and
reveals a pentagram and asks Suzanne to get in the middle as she lights some
candles. She explains hastily the purpose is solely to keep Suzanne clear
of the spirits in her for a time, to retain clarity, there's no other spells and
nothing that will alter her. Suzanne's pretty trusting of Willow, so she
goes along with her ideas, asking questions to clarify areas.
Inside the circle within the pentagram,
Suzanne feels very clear, calm - mainly like her old self. She notices that her
long-time "other" personality isn't gone but it's not bothering
her. After a time of a break of small talk, Willow tells Suzanne that she
can research her problem and probably find a magical cure. She feels bad for the
other beings though, being sympathetic to their plight given their violently
truncated lives. She wonders if they could serve as sort of consultants to
Suzanne, using her mental powers to experience a little bit of life but more
like acquaintances or friends, beings who live back outside Suzanne's body. But
that still leaves Suzanne and her house open to intrusion. Willow thinks for a
bit and asks if Suzanne will stay put in the circle while she goes out and does
her research and comes back. She asks Suzanne not to mention anything to Giles,
that he's too discouraging about her experimentation sometimes and doesn't
understand that people have to grow up on their own. She says he's probably been
a Watcher too long. Suzanne says that Giles has probably seen to many
people like Sihn go down the wrong path. She understands Willow's sympathy for
the various spirits and would prefer a cure that offers something positive to
the spirits. When Sihn's name comes up, Willow has plenty of questions,
she mentions that Giles indicates he may be most dangerous but seems to have
noble intentions. But it seems to Giles that Sihn is not carefully considering
the consequences of his actions, calling him "sophomoric".
Willow's questions are more around the "what's he like day to day"
area, though she also asks a few questions about what he "really"
does. Suzanne does think Sihn isn't being careful. She thinks he's just going
for the short route to power. She describes the various spells she's seen him do
and just how much time he spends in the lab.
After Willow takes off, Suzanne gets a
little bored and sees if her powers work past the boundary of the
pentagram. She finds they do with just some extra effort. She
just picks up a pencil or book with her telekinesis, and bugs Laughton via
mind-link, since she realizes she took off from the battle and the only contact
was that she dropped Jonas off with Velda. She learns that as she
suspected Kingpin is dead.
It takes a couple hours before Willow
returns with a thin old-looking small book and a small canvass satchel.
She apologizes greatly for the delay, she got caught up in the research, and
then had to pick up a couple things. She unpacks some herbs and a
strange looking noodle-like mass. She asks Suzanne to relax and clear her
mind as much as possible. Willow recites some odd Latin-like words and
begins chanting, her voice turns hoarse and her eyes roll back. Suzanne
can "feel" another presence in the room, then several. A massive
crackle of noise is heard and suddenly she feels a great stabbing pain
throughout her body. She feels like she blacked out as she opens her eyes
and sees Willow bleeding from her wrists and laying back against the wall,
looking delirious. Suzanne rushes over to see if Willow is okay.
Willow comes to quickly and the blood seems to vanish. Suzanne feels
"better" although very tired. Willow seems very weak and doesn't
say much but seems light-hearted, muttering a couple odd witticisms (such as
"How about that blood? Wax on, wax off!") and laughing just a
little. She seems very alien at this moment. Suzanne puts her into a more
comfortable position and worries.
Willow recovers fully after some long 10
or 20 minutes. She seems a little charged up emotionally, like an
adrenaline rush, despite being physically fatigued but otherwise normal.
She says the spell allowed the spirits to move on comfortably to the next life,
wherever it is, and freed you. After a while she's more relaxed and starts
dozing off even while talking to Suzanne. Suzanne does feel
"normal" as much as ever, her preexisting other presence inside her
head. Willow wakes up for a bit to talk before Suzanne leaves (it's late
in the evening by now); she thinks if they work at it and do some research they
might do something about the other part of Suzanne. She goes on to say she
could teach Suzanne a little more, some things to protect her. Before she
falls back asleep she also says that she thinks that all these mutation powers
are linked to other-wordly powers come to earth. She doesn't have a
specific factual backing for that, just a feeling. In any event she's read
that psionic mutants have a natural link to the supernatural (which is probably
why Suzanne didn't go insane when linking into the Servitor), she'd love to help
Suzanne explore that carefully. Suzanne goes to sleep in a chair at
Willow's, woken up when Buffy comes in.
The next day a mostly-relaxed Justice Squad returns to its normal
pursuits. Laughton nurses his wounds, as he was badly hurt by the Kingpin,
but he gloats that his plan drew to its logical conclusion - the death of the
mobster. Neumann works with Gere-luce on repairs, learning more about his
mechanisms. The Troll spends hours practicing unholy music on piano and
violin. Suzanne spends another evening with Willow, starting to learn more
in earnest about magic. Sammy works out in the base training room with
Jane, assisting her in recovering and learning to defend herself - just in
case...
[Game Mechanics - Points Awarded...
Thoroughly defeating a vastly superior
opponent (arguably not really "vastly superior" by this time, but
lumping in Tool Team and also that this really does close the chapter on Kingpin
(that's right, no comic-book style return on this one!)) - 75 RP Sammy,
Spectrum, Troll, 100 RP for Neumann, 50 RP for Dice, Steely Danelle, 37.5 RP for
Rodin, 5 XP Sammy, Spectrum,
Troll, 10 XP for Neumann, 5 XP for Dice, Steely Danelle, 2.5 XP for Rodin (yeah,
I'm throwing some of the points Steely's and Rodin's way for their help (or
"help" in Rodin's case) in the beginning]
Act of great heroism/publicity - 22.5 RP
Sammy, Spectrum, Troll, 30 RP Neumann, 15 RP Dice, Stelly Danelle, 11.25 RP
Rodin
Thoroughly defeating a marginally
inferior opponent (Dead Guy) - 3.75 RP Sammy, Troll, 5 RP Dice, .25 XP Sammy,
Troll, .5 XP Dice
Losing to a superior opponent (for the
Wrath's intervention against Kingpin - arguably Troll wouldn't really apply but
then again he was cheated of the chance himself) - 3.75 RP Sammy, Spectrum,
Troll, 5 RP Dice, Neumann, .25 XP Sammy, Spectrum, Troll, .5 XP Dice, Neumann
4 hours 3.5 RP Sammy, Spectrum, Troll, 1 XP
Sammy, Spectrum, Troll, 4 RP Dice, 2 XP Dice
3 hours 3 RP Neumann, 1.5 XP Neumann
Totals:
Dice 79 RP, 8 XP
Neumann 138 RP, 12 XP
Rodin 48.75 RP, 2.5 XP
Sammy 108.5 RP, 6.5 XP
Spectrum 108.5 RP, 6.5 XP
Steely Danelle 65 RP, 5 XP
Troll 108.5 RP, 6.5 XP
Totals to Date:
Dice 188.5 RPs, 14.95 XPs
Neumann 344.5 RPs, 49.05 XPs
Rodin 1225.75 RPs, 116.2 XPs
Sammy the Slime 1189.75 RPs, 123.0625 XPs
Spectrum 1092.5 RPs, 107.5 XPs
Steely Danelle 86 RPs, 10.75 XPs
Troll 1233 RPs, 121.75 XPs]