(D20 Modern) CORELINE: FIREWALLS: EPISODE 1 (IC)

marcoasalazarm · Mar 10, 2010

"They call it the 'Three Stooges Syndrome'. Some term some idiot coined from 'The Simpsons'.

The Syndrome is easy to explain as this: the world is plagued with conspiracies.

Out there, there are ancient conspiracies, new conspiracies, organized conspiracies, chaotic conspiracies.

Conspiracies that cover lots of branches of Mankind's structure, and conspiracies that just plainly effing stupid.

Conspiracies from beyond the stars, or ruled by your granny (or your granny's *pet*).

That want to rule the world or destroy it. That want to use this world as the first step to rule the galaxy, or the multiverse. That want this world (ALL worlds) turned into a smorgasboard or that want us just observed.

In between, people who want to be left alone, and will do anything to stay that way-and in doing so get beaten up by (or beat up) the conspiracies.

All of these people are out there, stepping on each other's toes, killing each other for space, stabbing each other in the back. It is this senseless cycle that creates a state of detente-all conspiracies have power, that is much certain-but none of them are as powerful as they truly want to be.

If several of these conspiracies vanish for good, if they are not replaced or controlled, the power vaccum will make the rest of them barge in-and if the world out there is already bad enough... just imagine what will happen next.

It will make the Vanishing look like a damn Sunday square dance.

We are Firewall. We are one of the conspiracies out there. Our job: to keep the balance. Any way we must.

Because it must be maintained. There is just no other option."

"Firewall: The barrier between that which may be infected and that which must be protected."-Motto.

It has been several years since the Vanishing.

It has been 6 years since the Vanishing has occured. It is a regular Friday afternoon in the city of Seattle, Washington. The news advise the regular stuff: weather conditions are cloudy with a chance for light rain (and little chance of it being acidic). Nothing interesing has happened yet-just a few car crashes, muggings and a minor shootout.

The top story so far is a new development in bio-mechanics created by Diggers Technologies, some kind of new vehicle that uses bio-mech and some amount of Magitek on it.

The location: One of the many automated buses that constantly circle the city. The heroes have come here, one at the time, prompted by notes left by Firewall at the usual drop sites. The notes say nothing else-just to come to the bus for further briefing.

Firewall, like all other conspiracies, is very prompt in its secrecy.

(OOC: Describe your characters and what they are doing).

Herobizkit · Mar 14, 2010

Seth sat upon his designer couch, his booted feet atop his marble coffee table. The Seattle afternoon skyline could be seen from his penthouse condo, which made him feel like a deity overlooking his domain. He sighed as he watched the evening news on his 52-inch flat screen TV. Digger Technologies and its Magitek creations was just more weirdness on top of the already bizarre world in which he now lived. Strange though it was, it was certainly better than his home plane of Stygia. More profitable, too.

Seth changed the channel to MTV, and then got up to wander to the kitchen for an afternoon snack. While he didn’t need to eat, he enjoyed the frivolity of savoring the charred flesh of animals. He rummaged through the fridge and took out a bucket of KFC. He shoved the cold meat through the chains which covered the lower half of his face. He snickered at the TV, shaking his head at the drama of human teenage life. Seth wondered how humanity could have possibly progressed so far if teenagers could not deal with their simple and inane social issues.

Once the bucket was empty, he tossed it aside and went back to the fridge for a nice, cold beer. He cracked the top and guzzled the entire bottle. He slammed the empty bottle onto the countertop and it shattered. That, too, made him snicker.

He wasted away the afternoon doing some light surfing on the Internet, perusing various car and truck sites for machine parts. With his infernal knowledge, he could easily re-build a car motor – it was a hobby of his. The penthouse floor was littered with various scraps of metal atop a dirty drop cloth which was surrounded by all sorts of tools haphazardly lining the walls.

Seth received a text on his PDA, indicating that Firewall had dropped a message for him. While Firewall was not as organized as the Air Force, its S.O.P. was much less stringent, allowing for more creative ways to deal with the ongoing chaos in the city streets. Collateral damage was par for the course, and Seth was compensated well even if things didn’t go entirely as planned.

Seth traded one world of conflict for another; Seth felt that the conflict on Earth could be won, and that someday he would rule this city.

For now, Seth took the elevator to the garage and fired up his bright yellow Hummer. He then proceeded to the drop site and retrieved the note which revealed the route of the automated bus. He parked the Hummer in an underground lot, took the parking chit, and then waited for the Firewall bus to arrive.

Voda Vosa · Mar 15, 2010

The night had fall over seatle. Nocturnal people came to life as the sun went down. Prostitutes, gigoloes, drugs, music, alcohol, gambling. And errands. Errands to run.
Vicente Garibaldi, a stout and sour man, wearing black coat, hat and a white scarf walked down the street, hands in his pockets.
The Bermicheli family owned his boss a quite big sum of money. But that was not what Vicente was thinking about.
In his mind, the message from Firewall was read once and once again.
He knocked the door of the Bermicheli family. A small door opened and a man peeked from it. Hs eyes went wide, and he closed the little door quickly. But not so quickly.
Vicente had his Tommy gun already in his hands, and he pulled the trigger, making holes in the door and the man behind it. He was no there to collect money. He was there to erase evidence of his own existence.
Two tugs come firing their guns, but Vicente duck and shot a rush of bullets, putting a bullet in each tugs' head.
The gangster kept shooting people dead as he walked through the mansion.
Flipping a coin on his left hand, he walked into the boss's room. The elder man was shaking behind his desk. Vicente flipped his coin and smirked.
"You know Alfredo, don't think this is something personal, it does not depend on my boss, he'll share your destiny soon enough. You just happen to know too much about me. Arrivederchi amichi." he said, before filling the man's body with bullets.

As he walked away from the burning building, Firewall's message reads again in his mind. He needed to do the job quickly, and get to the parking at the time when the bus arrived.

He walked into his house. He almost grew up here, so no one see it coming when he started killing people. The magazine had run dry, and he kept shooting with his revolver.
The boss run out in a car before he did the job. He cursed under his breath, it was already too late to purse the fat man.
Again, the flames from the building lighted up his silhouette as he walked away. This time he walked away to a better life. Or so he thought.
A stranger was already at the parking. He remained silent, at the distance. Waiting.

marcoasalazarm · Mar 19, 2010

It took a few minutes, but eventually the bus arrived. They both entered it, as well as several other passengers.

The bus advanced for a short while, passing several stops, and then it changes.

It is something immediate-like skipping over a frame of film. One moment, the two agents are on the bus, and the next they are sitting on a train.

This train car looks like any other train car in North America-except that it is fully empty aside from them and one other person, and it is night-time outside where it was daytime a second ago.

The person is a petite woman with brown hair, big blue eyes and an attire that is just sci-fi-esque: blue spandex and a brown coat.

"We are the barrier between that which may be infected and that which must be protected.", she sayd, identifying herself as an agent of Firewall.

Voda Vosa · Mar 19, 2010

"Very well bambina, cut all tha mystisism crap capishe? I'm but a simple man, I want a new life and a porpoise, not sci-fi nonsense. So you better speak clear to me eh?" says the gangster, having left his tact in the bus.

Herobizkit · Mar 21, 2010

Seth looked sideways at the gangster, wondering if he had just stepped onto the set of the Sopranos. He appeared non-plussed by the location shift; he did, of course, travel through a Stargate.

After the gangster spoke, Seth debated whether or not that the gangster had been on the planet for more than a few minutes, or if he even knew what a television was.

Turning to the woman, Seth nodded and gestured for her to continue.

marcoasalazarm · Mar 22, 2010

The girl gives Vicente a look and then she says:

"Well, sure. Appologies for the theatrics. But oftentimes they are necessary.

Let us start, then: Vincente Garibaldi, meet Seth... 'Hondo', was it? You two are to be the team for this assignment.

Mr. Garibaldi is one of our contacts on the... less savory side of society. Mr. Hondo's one of our contacts at the U.S. Military.", she adds as an explanation to eeach other.

Voda Vosa · Mar 22, 2010

"A pleasure to meet you." adds Vicente with a nod towards Seth.

Herobizkit · Mar 23, 2010

Seth paused a few beats and looked Vicente up and down before giving him a cursory nod. "This should prove... challenging," Seth intoned, his voice sounding raspy. He then slowly rose and extended a hand in greeting, which seemed to produce a soft jangling sound.

marcoasalazarm · Mar 27, 2010

"Okay, so everybody is here. Let's get started.", the girl says.

Part of the wall shimmers for a moment and then the group sees that they can now behold what seems to be camera footage from another train station. The footage's labels show it as being taken in Miami about a week ago.

As they see, a train arrives to the station and stops,letting its passengers out. One of them abruptly shudders and keels over, and the rest of the crowd reacts, making a hole and some people trying to offer assistance. One of them gets over the fallen man, apparently checking his pulse.

This person gets his head vaporized as the fallen man abruptly unleashes some kind of laser vision. The fallen man also starts to convulse, and every time one of his limbs hits the ground, a hole appears on the sidewalk. As the group sees, the convulsions become harder (and the station starts to tremble), and the laser vision, completely uncontrolled, melts everything it touches (as a matter of fact, the group sees that the man tries to close his eyes... and the eyelids get vaporized).

This goes on for about three minutes, the station looking like a battleground and the man shaking himself into dismembering... and then he explodes, and the footage ends right when the blast hits the camera.

"This was obtained by one of our operatives, as well as the man's autopsy... well, what they could get from his remains.", She says. "The DNA screening obtained some tpe of retro-viral genetic augmentation, of the type you could find in most high-class clinics, if you could afford them, of course.

The augmentation was unstable. Typically, gene-mod mutations are supposed to kick in slowly, through a week to a month, depending on the severity of it. This one apparently kicked in, full force, without the rest of him being ready. We still don't know if the explosion was part of the mutation or added to try to erase evidence."

She gives a moment to let it sink and then She says:

"This guy was not the first. There's been several simiar cases all over the East Coast, all the way to Canada. Our intel was able to find a pattern... and we're sure that whoever's behind this will try to unleash one of these mutations on the city. Your job will be to find out who's making these flawed modifications and stop them.

Questions?"