X-Champions Issues
Issue #43 - Chasing the Dragon
As the damage to the Laughton Agency is
surveyed, it appears over 2 million dollars in damage has been done; no doubt
this will take a chunk out of Laughton's pocket (again) as given all the
problems the property is basically uninsured (any premiums are too expensive
given the high risk as demonstrated by prior attacks).
Laughton, contacted, discusses and they
all agree to meet up in Paris where the HQ of Schlumberger, apparently linked
per the material they examined, resides. He doesn't feel like
dealing with being teleported and that feeling and insists on driving up.
He studies the routes, crams French on tape on the way, and travels the most
efficient route, screening police channels to avoid arrest, at well over 100
miles per hour.
Meanwhile the Justice Squad travels the
easy way. Suzanne, the most fluent in French, does the talking as they
navigate Paris. They arrive at the Schlumberger building and Suzanne
indicates, translating from other members' input as needed, that they need to
talk with an authority. She works her knowledge of bureaucracy, basic law,
and their position as the Justice Squad to convince the receptionist, confused
and surprised by this visit, to get someone. As they wait, she brings them
coffee.
The CEO, conveniently in town, comes to
them and introduces himself as Monsieur Jacques Travaille, who speaks decent
English. He is willing to help them as they go to a conference room and
the Justice Squad explains the situation regarding the metal they
discovered. To bolster presence and impact, Suzanne has 20 pages of legal
documents she arranged before their trip, all intended to indicate a culpability
on Schlumberger's part if necessary to persuade them - fortunately it isn't
necessary though Travaille notes the papers. He doesn't know anything
about the situation, but explains he can get someone in logistics to help
them. Sihn and he discuss some possible manufacturing opportunities where
Schlumberger could strike a deal with Sihn-tek; Travaille is impressed with
Sihn-tek and interested. Being in a French office, Sammy, with his acute
senses, enjoys the smell of perfume and (to humans, in most cases) masked body
odor. As they talk, Spectrum's mind link extends to Laughton who stays up
to date in his madcap drive to Paris. The Justice Squad then waits as
Travaille leaves and arranges assistance for them; for their comfort, a personal
attendant takes care of any needs (including getting food for
Sammy).
Soon a younger woman, introduced as
Candace, and an older man, the head of logistics, introduced as Henri, visit
with them. She works on a computer to find the information they
need. The metal is identified against a part number with SIhn's assistance
regarding the composition, but there's no record of any particularly suspicious
sales or theft, but records of sales to Halliburton and several smaller
companies are noted, all in the last five days, the approximate time of the
metal's production. Aside from Halliburton, four of the companies are in
the EU and two are in the US; of these they note two of the EU companies and one
of the US companies, along with Halliburton, had connections to Dr. Magnus, as
they look for connections that might in turn be linked to the robot after them
(Magnus being under suspicion as one of the few who could have built it).
By the time this is done, Laughton is just one hour outside the city.
And soon they all hook up, discussing
the situation face to face and making plans for the night. Spectrum and
Sammy are interested to stay in Paris, along with Laughton, while Sihn
disappears and reappears back at his home to spend the afternoon and evening
with his family. Sammy checks out French dumpsters. Spectrum has
been thoughtful enough to make multiple accommodations across many hotels for
Laughton, knowing he'll stay in none of them.
Sammy moves through the city but finds
it's too cold for him. He soon moves into a karaoke bar, looking to
entertain. Little does he know the Justice Squad and then he upon their
going their separate ways have been followed...
Laughton breaks into Schlumberger,
moving in his secretive, virtually invisible monopole form. He is a bit
surprised to detect a pattern motion detector as he checks things out in one
area, and suppresses that. He gets to a computer and finds that in reality
a good bit of the same metal they explored later is missing from a Schlumberger
plant in Marseilles.
As that happens, Sammy is entertaining
in the karaoke bar, getting along famously, when suddenly all the patrons turn
and look at the back of the room - the famous French superhero Liberty has
walked in! He walks through the crowd, politely deferring autographs and
salutations, intent on business as he approaches a surprised Sammy. Sammy
vaguely recognizes him from newspaper and web accounts and gives him a kiss on
each cheek, thinking that appropriate. Liberty takes Sammy to the back
room and asks in reasonable but slightly broken English if he can get a hold of
the rest of the Justice Squad.
Spectrum has only been asleep an hour
and misses the call which goes out from Sammy via the Justice Squad base to her
cell phone. She then gets a call from Gere-luce and is confused for a few
moments before fully coming to. Laughton then gets a mental shout from her
as she gets into action, as he can't receive any communications while otherwise
in Schlumberger. It takes Laughton a few minutes to disengage and around
15 minutes later, driving his Batra, he gets to "Le Go-Go Club," the
overtly tourist-driven club Sammy is in. Spectrum takes a shower, mentally
asking Sammy to get her some coffee for her arrival, which he eagerly
does. Nexus also shows up quickly, teleporting over. They are
also joined by a man in a suit by the name of "Rossi".
Liberty starts out on an apologetic
note, indicating what he's about to tell them he is ashamed of and only just
heard himself. It turns out that Schlumberger contacted the French
government upon the Justice Squad's arrival and both conspired to cover up
information for the time being. The government then assigned someone to
follow them, and Liberty was called in. Rossi steps into explain that the
European Union, indirectly via a plain-sounding agency, the EU Operations and
Logistics Agency, under Rossi's direction, created a super-robot with Magnus'
assistance, but it was not known that Magnus had gone mad (again) at that
point. Somehow he created a robot of some hyper-sophisticated sort that
was programmed not so much to protect man but to destroy mutants! The
robot and project were named "Vision". Vision broke away quickly
from the agency and since has gone rogue; the EU had hoped to recover important
information from Magneto's place but the utter destruction of that precluded
their efforts, heavily putting motive on Vision. The Justice Squad's
inquiry along with other information forced the O&L to admit what had
happened. Rossi confirms what Laughton has already found out (and via the
mind link communicated to the others) regarding the loss of the metal used for
the dragon-robot from Marseilles. And this whole issue is why the French
government had no comment initially on the flight path of that. It was
launched from that area.
Laughton
just reacts by saying of the failure of the EU's program, "What a bummer
for them." Spectrum hits him upside the head. Laughton then
asks who was to blame, and Nexus says that's not important now, that they just
have to fix the problem, to which the detective responds, "That's us,
global maid service." Spectrum again slaps the flippant and put-upon
Laughton. He says, "Hey, stop that!" and she responds, "I
will when you will." As Laughton then teases Spectrum for being
crabby due to a lack of sleep, his hat is suddenly pulled down over his head
(Spectrum's telekinesis at work). He finally gets serious and insists that
they allow him to do research on their computers himself. Rossi
compromises, allowing Laughton to do so only if someone is watching directly
over his shoulder. While he searches, finding they've left nothing out and
there is no more information, he "accidentally" erases several
satellite and security photos of him (even though he's in disguise) and just
says, "Oh, sorry, fumble fingers!" Rossi just scowls.
Liberty gives Spectrum a special ring by
which he can be contacted. Laughton hands Liberty a card, to which Liberty
looks at, and, not recognizing the area code, exclaims, "Nine
hundred? What is zees?" Laughton tells him not to worry but to
listen to the entire voice greeting message if he does call! One must
admit, Laughton does have to find all the ways he can to pay off the building
damage...
Soon they are on their way to Marseilles
for hands-on investigation. They see that Vision worked in a high-tech
metal construction yard, fashioning his own tools as necessary. They look
for clues of where he has been. Spectrum goes into a trans-meditative
mode, recovering her sleep while they examine. Nexus and Laughton find
soil samples from various parts of the world - Vision has been getting
around. They even find salt traces that they match back to the Detroit
salt mines, scary as their own base is down there. Vision has also put in
a cable for high-speed data access and built his own computer interface.
There's an optimized connection to Detroit; Laughton suspects DEXTER's
involvement. Nexus is very interested in the incredibly sophisticated
tools Vision built, looking to see what he can take and what might be good to
patent.
All of a sudden Spectrum is knocked out
as she feels like a million voices are screaming in her head. Nexus also
feels a strange feeling, but nothing so vivid as Spectrum. She is revived
and they turn on the news, but don't see anything. Nexus calls their
government liaison, Terwilliger (it's mid-evening back home). He doesn't
have any news as of the moment but says there are some strange reports coming in
from psychic and supernatural sympathetics. Spectrum calls Willow, who
also felt it. She also calls Dr. Strange who also felt something, and
tells Spectrum he feels something horrible is happening and he is going to study
on what it might be. Laughton, never one to resist a crack, makes a
comment regarding the tired Spectrum, as he says he doesn't sleep like lesser
beings - and he pays, predictably enough, with a splitting headache. Nexus
pulls a crystal ball out of mid-air and begins to survey the world, looking
through very large cities to see if anything is immediately wrong. Other
than a horrible sense of foreboding, nothing is clearly wrong.
Spectrum moves to New York
instantaneously, wanting to check things there and catch up with
Nightshade. As Dr. Strange is back in touch with them, he points Nexus to
Professor X' school/estate from a feeling/hunch he has. Nexus breaks
through their psychic defenses and contacts Professor X. Professor X isn't
aware of anything, and as they talk Nexus explains the entire Vision issue to
him. For ease of communication, Nexus whisks them all to the New School in
Winchester, Massachusetts. As they talk, Professor X begins checking
things out, and shortly realizes Jean Gray, Phoenix, is missing, and so is
Rogue. As Professor X checks out more he uncharacteristically exclaims,
"Goddamn it, traces of magnetism!" There's a noticeable trail of
magnetic residue leading out the southern side of the campus and leading
south.
They discuss what they know. An
hour and a half earlier, Jean was in the command center while Rogue was last
seen studying in her room. They check the rooms, Scott Summers (Jean's
close boyfriend) joining in frantically. They note Jean's diary is missing
as well as a few other things, some personal items of clothing from her
closet. Scott notes "the bastard even stole her clothes", and
then "some of her lingerie's gone!" Scott is obviously in denial
as Laughton notes sardonically, "Yeah, even her suitcase is
'stolen'." No traces of undue magnetism are found in the rooms.
Computers and notebooks are checked, nothing is evident in either as to being
unusual. There are no signs of secret doors. Rogue's room is left in
a state suggesting she departed mid-studying, but there is no sign of a
struggle. Laughton believes Vision may be involved, given the close
timing. Nexus speculates the mental scream was Rogue, not Phoenix; he
wonders if Rogue interrupted Jean and someone hit her and took her,
perhaps. They also look for any unusual/foreign fingerprints or glove
smudges, but find nothing unusual. They ask about the relationship between
Jean and Rogue; Rogue visited Jean a lot and they seemed friendly, but nothing
odd or unusual there, either.
Laughton gives Kurt/Nightcrawler a call,
wondering about Magneto's potential involvement. He gets no response, and
gets a hold of Magneto via a special channel. Magneto says he'll check on
the psionic situation as Laughton treads lightly, simply explaining what was
experienced a bit ago. Laughton also brings up there's a robot killing
mutants, and indicates that the Professor X/Magneto feud may have embroiled
Vision. He points out their situation is stirring up a lot of
consternation and strife, making for a good distraction. Laughton tells
Magneto that if he catches a 7' tall robot to call Laughton notes that
Magneto doesn't quite sound himself, he sounds off, but he's unable to discern
more. He prompts Magneto with opportunities to come forth with any sort of
additional info, but none arises. Laughton also mentions he could not get
a hold of Nightcrawler, to which Magneto says he's with him but occupied.
Laughton goes on to ask Erik not to make him look like a fool; Magneto simply
replies, "It'd be hard to make Hamlet Laughton look like a fool."
Nexus and Laughton then argue the merits
of the theory Magneto is involved in Jean's disappearance. Nexus sees it
as perfectly logical; Laughton doesn't think so as he thinks Magneto would go
about things in a different way. Nexus offers if in fact Phoenix was taken
by someone or targeted by someone - such as Vision - that Magneto and
Nightcrawler might be next. Laughton considers that perhaps Vision and ABC
are mixed up in this; Nexus brings up perhaps Vision substituted Magneto and
intends to use Rogue and Phoenix somehow.
Given Vision's potential in the
equation, they check for a nuclear signature in the area but find none.
Laughton hacks into satellite shots and sees an air vehicle flew south, last
tracked over Connecticut heading south. It moved around 600 miles an hour;
there seems no trace it went too much further south as other satellite coverage
further south shows nothing. Air traffic control hacking shows
nothing.
As they study the New School's elaborate
security, they find that the cameras were cut off just prior to the time Phoenix
likely left. And they find that the cables were cut by psionics.
While Professor X can do this, no one is sure if Phoenix can.
As the Imperial Falcon stops by and
offers up help in his grandiose way, Laughton hands him a string with a magnet
on it and suggests he can use this to track Magneto. Imperial Falcon
becomes upset at being messed with.
Professor X retires to his massive
mind-power-enhancing machine, Cerebro, to attempt to break through blind spots
and forcibly locate Jean.
As Nexus and Laughton study more, Nexus
considers if the air car was built by Vision, but doesn't see any specific signs
of such. As they question the students and staff, no one saw anything
except for a steel-like boy who thought he saw something from the corner of his
eye but did not. Examining his mind shows that his mind was altered at
that point and indeed he probably saw Phoenix leaving the campus.
Laughton calls Gold back at Suzanne's
house and indicates he has some good news and some bad news. The good news
is that the EU information links Vision to the destruction of Magneto's place,
probably clearing them. The bad news is that he's out to rid the world of
all mutants...
It's 2 AM as the clock ticks...
[Game Mechanics - Points Awarded...
It's getting out of control but you're
doing your best against THE BIG BAD - +11.25 RP, +.75 XP for Laughton,
Nexus, Sammy, Spectrum
3 hours in character - +2.25 RP, +.75
XP for Laughton, Nexus, Sammy, Spectrum
Totals:
Nexus 13.5 RP, 1.5 XP
Rodin 13.5 RP, 1.5 XP
Sammy 13.5 RP, 1.5XP
Spectrum 13.5 RP, 1.5 XP
Totals to Date:
Dice 188.5 RPs, 14.95 XPs
Laughton 1664.125 RPs, 149.375 XPs (with Rep level, 50 for base, 25 for minion,
50 for reorg (note, did not use for agency or life-saving)
Neumann 468.5 RPs, 63.3 XPs (with Rep level, 50 for base)
Nexus 1858.875 RPs, 162.525 XPs (with Rep level, 50 for base, 25 for
minion, 50 for reorg (note, did not use for agency or life-saving)
Sammy the Slime 1692 RPs, 166.0125 XPs (with Rep level, 50 for base, 25
for minion, 50 for reorg (note, did not use for agency or life-saving)
Spectrum 1611.125 RPs, 151.825 XPs (with Rep level, 50 for base, 25 for
minion, 50 for reorg (note, did not use for agency or life-saving)
Steely Danelle 86 RPs, 10.75 XPs]]