Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Broccli_Head" data-source="post: 1130612" data-attributes="member: 105">issue#9, part IVDr Lu’s Apothecary Shop The bell at the door rang as someone entered his shop. Instinctively, Dr. Lu, his hands full of replanting soil, responded in Cantonese. When he received no reply he repeated in English.“Be right there. Be patient.”A Hispanic-accented voice spoke, “Thank you, James. I do not understand when you prattle in your native tongue.”A shadow seemed to fall on the whole shop. Dr. Lu dropped his trowel and it fell in slow motion to clatter on the floor.  The apothecary looked up and gasped. “Nestor, what are you doing here?”The olive-skinned man attempted to smile genuinely.  Unfortunately his smile could not help but have a hint of disdain. “Did not think that you would remember, old friend,” there was a sense of menace in his voice. However, the twisted smile did not abate. “I am no longer your friend. You are different. Not for the good.”“Come now. I was hoping to ask a favor.  No need to be afraid, although it is probably healthy. All of us are here now.”Nestor smiled to show teeth and his eyes widened as he stepped forward. Dr. Lu shook. How could he have not seen, not predicted, not felt Their coming? “Please, anything. Just give me the chance to leave.” In the back of his mind, he felt he heard Jae Sun say Coward!He wanted to run away but could not. He settled for crying. “That’s better. I am glad you see your place old man, and remember that once we were friends.  Very well then, tell me what you know about this Legion Extreme….”**The Slipstream-created waterspout sped south along the coast of Massachusetts.  Behind it flew the rest of Legion Extreme: Cosmic Knight, Darkfire, Somnus, and on the Primus XJ-57 hovercycle, Dragonfist and The Warwolf.  By Slipstream’s side Riptide swam in her water form.  In air with the team was Stalwart, the FBI’s powered armor guy. “According to Rip’, we’re almost there, dudes!” called Slipstream over their private radio frequency. Earlier that day, the Legion had convened after Slipstream had healed Riptide and escorted her to the S.U.B. She had told Jae Sun and the rest that D.E.M.O.N. had created her and she felt that she owed them. The local Morbane had gathered her together with a supervillian named Zephyr, the mercenary Blowtorch, and Temblor of the Crowns of Krim and dubbed them the Elemental Evils. Indeed, EE had stolen the Star of Karnak fighting off GRAB with Temblor badly hurting the “Pervert” Cheshire Cat.  Then Temblor betrayed them, not showing up with the Star when they arrived to deliver it to D.E.M.O.N. at their nearby Demonhame.  The Morbane had not been pleased. “I guess they felt that Blowtorch was the easiest to control,” she had said. “He got all crazy and started shooting us with his flamethrower while the rest of them including some of those hell hounds attacked us. They hit Angela hard and I remember her telling me to flee. I ran and swam as fast as I could to find B-, I mean Slipstream.” Vaguely, she had recalled where the Demonhame had been located and now, since all other leads led to dead ends, they were on their way to raid the place. Tension had crept over Legion Extreme the night before when the severe, near fatal shellacking of Cosmic Knight had played over the local news and SNN.  Fortunately, the ReGen tanks had just been installed at the base and Cosmic Knight had been able to recover overnight and then locate a back up helmet. There were still dents he had to hammer out on the body, but the powered armor was still operational. The inter-squad animosity grew stronger as Somnus had related running into Dr. Lu leaving town. Most of the other team members blamed Somnus.  Leaving Jae Sun back at the base, Legion Extreme were ready to take out some of their frustrations on some D.E.M.O.N.s. **“They are very overconfident,” growled the Warwolf peering through a set of binoculars. Only two D.E.M.O.N agents patrolled the perimeter of the four building compound that looked like a small farm. Strangely, across from the main house was a bell tower.  Legion Extreme with Riptide and Stalwart waited at the top of a tree-covered hill overlooking their target.  Warwolf stroked his chin attempting to devise a strategy. But, before he could give orders for his perfect plan, Nightmare, Darkfire’s other form manifested, whinnied and took to the sky, disappearing as she went. Warwolf motioned for Cosmic Knight to quickly follow. His powered armor went into stealth mode, becoming invisible to sight. Stalwart did the same, bounding through the trees, towards the tower.  The Warwolf glared at Slipstream who was pacing back and forth rapidly complaining about the inactivity.“Can you not be patient for once?” he told the speedster. A fireball exploded in the sky.  The black unicorn neighed in pain. sigh… “No battle plan holds through the first engagement,” lamented the Warwolf. Slipstream Whooped! and ran down the hill to make sure that the outbuildings were clear. Riptide slid down to the base and into a well that lay there. “Converge on the main house!” cried the Warwolf into the radios and he jumped onto the side of Dragonfist’s hovercyle as they sped to follow. Somnus encased in his prismatic orb floated down leisurely. **As soon as the fire had lit up Nightmare, Cosmic Knight had known that it was Blowtorch. Excitedly, since his rival Cavalier from Millenium City had been badly beaten by the master pyromaniac, C. Knight saw his chance to show someone up…well and catch a bad guy to boot.  He flew towards the extreme heat signature that registered on his infrared sensors on the second-highest floor of the bell tower, and switching to visual spied the red and black attire of Blowtorch. He let fly one of his tanglewebs and caught the villain fast. Then the idiot, clearly not in his senses attempted to burn himself out of the entanglements, catching himself on fire as well. Above him he heard a THUMP! A flash of light and yells followed. Encouraged that Stalwart was taking care of some mooks he let loose a volley of plasma blasts at the struggling and burning Blowtorch. The villain was driven across the room and crashed into the stone wall. Blowtorch laughed maniacally and then slumped to ground unconscious. Cosmic Knight, showing off in triumph, crashed through the floor of the the top story and almost received a concussion blast from Stalwart. “DO NOT STARTLE ME AGAIN, CITIZEN. IT COULD BE HARMFUL.”Cosmic Knight shrugged his shoulders and gave a thumbs up as he admired Stalwart’s handiwork. Two D.E.M.O.N agents were caught in the wire nets that the FBI agent had launched. Meanwhile, Slipstream pummeled the two agents outside into unconsciousness. Then he entered one building and moved by three agents, startled at their forge, punching them all into submission in a split second.  Dragonfist had leaped towards through the window of another structure. He came up rolling between two agents and knocked them out cold with a fist to each one’s jaw. It was a picture of beauty as the bad guys fell to the ground in unison, their half-drawn weapons clattering to the ground.  The Warwolf went the other way, into the main building. He smashed through the heavy oak door and was met with sprays of bullets.  Inside stood the Morbane with his evil scepter and several D.E.M.O.N agents with submachine guns. Most of the bullets missed, and the rest being only lead, bounced off the werewolf’s tough, supernatural hide. The Warwolf howled and leaped at the first one. When the rest of the group arrived, it was no contest. The gun-totting agents were blinded or entangled or beaten down in seconds. Nightmare forced the Morbane to cower in fear, while Somnus put him into a deep sleep.  Slipstream heard a feminine yell and took off towards the sound sending more wooden doors splintering in his wake.  Down in the basement, Riptide battled two fiery hounds that guarded a pit with a metal grating. “She’s in there, Slipstream, Hon’!” she cried sending one hound backward with a jet of high pressure water. “First things first, Dudette.”With sonic booms and drowning water, the duo once again put down the flames of the demon dogs sending them back to their infernal domain. In the pit lay a naked and tortured Zephyr, face down with chains holding each limb. She lay unmoving and Slipstream tore open the grating and jumped in to rescue the woman.“Wait! The—“Faces….Slipstream was soon huddled in the corner of the pit afraid of the leering faces that peered down at him from the top edge. He did not know how long they mocked him but soon  a huge wolfman was in the pit with him. Don’t hurt me! Slipstream tried to say, but he was more afraid that the Faces would punish him if he spoke. ** The Warwolf fearing nothing, pulled the first spike that held Zephyr’s arm, then went to the next. He made it to three before he too succumbed and was whimpering like a newborn puppy in the opposite corner. Looking down Cosmic Knight proclaimed holding the helmet of Blowtorch as a trophy in one hand, “I won’t go down!”He got the last limb free and had even been able to scoop Zephyr in his arms before he too could not take Them looking down at him. He began to cry. “ENOUGH!” they heard a booming voice from above.Stalwart fired his gatling gun at the frescoes of faces that lined the pit. They were torn to shreds in short order and in about a minute, Warwolf, Slipstream and then Cosmic Knight leaped from the pit. Zephyr was still out and very cold to the touch. They covered her in blankets. “THE FBI SHOULD BE ON FINAL APPROACH GENTLEMEN, TO CLEAN UP AND GATHER EVIDENCE. PERHAPS YOU SHOULD TAKE THE WOMAN TO A HOSPITAL.”“Even better, Stally! We’re taken her to the S.U.B. She’s got a Bacta-tank with her name written on it. Meet you back!”Slipstream and Somnus headed back towards Boston with Zephyr. Riptide and Nightmare followed. The Warwolf stopped Dragonfist. “Let us stay awhile, Dragonfist. I enjoy a good interrogation.”The Warwolf half snarled, half chuckled and moved towards the nearest villain. End Issue#9</blockquote>

Verification