Epic M&M: Issue 3 (IC)

[Calinon]

"Cosmo, as soon as your brother is secured, please fetch some towels and blankets -- keep Jun Po and Vince lying down, elevate their feet with the towels, and keep them warm with the blankets until medical staff arrive; we need to prevent shoooo."

Everyone in the room sees you zone out as your last words trail off when you kneel down next to Vincent.

A test for you today, Directive 12," the voice says from the shadows. You are in a plexiglass holding cell. Before you is Captain Majors, suspended again from the ceiling. Besider her is Directive 9. He looks exactly like you. In his hand is a long knife.

"Proceed, 9." He hesitates. "Proceed, 9, or you can be the subject for the test." He looks ready to defy the voice, but finally takes his knife, delivering long cuts down her sides and arms. "Her eye," the voice commands. Though Majors has been silent througout, barely registering in her eyes the cut, she screams as her eye is carved out. "Well done, 9. You may leave."

As he exits, your cell opens. "Directive 12, today you are given a choice. You may heal her wounds, rendering her forever unable to see, or attempt to regrow her eye. It is the power we've been giving you injections to awaken. While painful and debilitating, her wounds will heal in time. Her eye, will not. Leave her in pain but with her vision, or half-blind and free of pain. In a minute it will be too late and you'll only be able to heal her wounds. Your choice."

You know she'll regenerate. She always has when they didn't permit you to heal her. You tentatively touch her face, and feel your natural healing abilities trigger. You fight them back, focussing on her eye. You feel something within and see an orb start to grow. She screams and you have to hold her head still to continue. The orb is nearly fully grown. It's exhausting. You lose control and it grows so rapidly it bursts. She screams again, breaking your concentration fully. Your healing powers fail you when you try to heal her wounds and ease her pain.

"Failure. Disappointing. Schedule more drug treatments. We will try again. She has another eye."

"...ck."

You blink your eyes. You feel a new power awakening under your healing powers. You remember the feeling from your dream and know you can either use that power and try to regrow his wing, or heal, but not both. You have a bad feeling time is very limited, and you might lose your healing powers right after you try to regrow it.

Cosmo is already returning with the towels both Mendez and X12 requested. "I can stop her bleeding; concentrate on Vincent," Mendez says.

Grandmother told me to locate you guys and to tell you to get to the war room like yesterday, something about an attack on the freeway and the NYPD needs help fast. Time to play hero again.

"Crikey!" Rebound exclaims. "Lemme grab my rocket belt!" he says, heading for a locker before bounding across the yard after Michelle.

Anna sighs. "It doesn't look like you get a suit of armor before we go." She suddenly seems to remember something. "I know!" she exclaims, rooting through a drawer and pulling out a wide metallic belt with strange round devices on the side. "Yeah, this'll work," she says, grabbing some tools. "You push me to the war room and I'll work on this quick," she says.

I may not be able to instantly give you armor, but a force field belt... that I can provide for the time being.

"Next time someone comes at you with a frying pan, duck." She hurries off toward the war room.

"Next time you want me dead, do it yourself. It'd hurt less," he mumbles, using the wall to help himself get up before slowly following behind.

 

[Dalamar]

"I actually considered building a robot, but then I thought that my own protection is more important than that. And as nice it would be teaching everything I know to others as eager to learn as I am, I have to doubt my teaching capabilities. In my experience, knowing something is not the equivalent of being able to teach said thing."
Johan moves behind Anna to take a better look at the screen.
"I am sorry if I sound intruding, but how is it possible that your own armor is protected by a password you can't decipher?"

Edit - Since I'm all out of the timeframe, I don't know if we'll be interrupted before Johan has a chance to do that.

 

[Mordane76]

"Understood, commander -- I have had plenty of time to think about the experiments; I think I know why it failed before," X12 says, looking at Mendez.

Turning to Loki, X12 says firmly, "Hold him firmly, Directive 9." Assessing Vince, X12 says flatly, "The pain will be excruciating, but it will pass. Hold still and remain as calm as possible throughout the process."

OOC: Let's see if I can do this. I will use the talent, and not my regular Healing power.

 

[buzzard]

"Well Dara sounds like her butter is back on the noddle, so that good. Hey wait up!" John exclaims as he chases after Raisa towards the War Room.

buzzard

 

[Velmont]

Here my chnace to finish the trip without hearing all his babbling.

"Thanks guy, but I will stop here. Keep the money" he gives 100 box and get out of the cab. He starts to run in direction of the smoke. When he will see a policeman who restrict the area (I suppose that the first job they do), he will come close to them and say:

"Hi, I am Kevin York, member of EPIC. I was near when you made the call, so I arrived first, can you lead me to the officer responsible of this site please."

OOC: Using his fame, and if a policewoman is there, he will target her and use his charming appearance to convince her better...

 

[Mule]

Turning to Loki, X12 says firmly, "Hold him firmly, Directive 9."

About to question X12's "Directive 9" comments, the look in X's eyes tell Randall that now is not the time. He quietly obeys X12's instructions, putting his weight on Vince to hold him still.

 

[Calinon]

Johan moves behind Anna to take a better look at the screen.
"I am sorry if I sound intruding, but how is it possible that your own armor is protected by a password you can't decipher?"

Set your computations... for time travel... ~James T. Kirk

"Because Sanchez keeps my plans under lock and key so I don't um... well, so I don't add P32 Space Discombobulators to it when she isn't looking. I haven't been able to figure out her encryption process yet," Anna says. "But I want to run some simulations to see if my suit can handle this beauty. Wanna go at it?"

You are just considering this when Michelle shows up, rebound bounds off and Anna starts working on adjusting the force field belt as she asks you to push her to the War Room.

And now... back to the future!

"Understood, commander -- I have had plenty of time to think about the experiments; I think I know why it failed before," X12 says, looking at Mendez.

Turning to Loki, X12 says firmly, "Hold him firmly, Directive 9." Assessing Vince, X12 says flatly, "The pain will be excruciating, but it will pass. Hold still and remain as calm as possible throughout the process."

"Commander?" Mendez looks at X12 like he's lost his mind. "Screw it. Cosmo, help hold him down," Mendez says, still tending to Jun Po. "Randall, I could use your help here with Jun Po. I don't think you could hold Vince down if he gets violent with his thrashing. Sanjay, I could use gauze and some tape, son."

Cosmo gets off Jackal and hurries over. "Right. I make a better Directive 9 anyway," he says, coming over and kneeling down next to Vince, taking over from Randall. He puts a knee on Vince's back and presses down on Vince's shoulders with his hands. The hold is quite successful at immobilizing you. "Might want to close your eyes for this, goat boy," he says, rather quietly with some actual sympathy, focussing on his task, muscle's tensed for the anticipated thrashing. "So much blood," he adds in a hushed voice.

X12 puts his hand on Vince's wound. His hands glow dark red and Vincent feels a pull at his back muscles, then a tearing and expansion and more tearing. Then it starts to get painful. On his back a bulge of muscles forms in the wound. It stays there for a few moments, pulsing and squirting blood and other fluids, then X12 seems to lose focus. He appears paniced. You hear him say, "I... can't remember how... how do I control this?" He closes his eyes and starts to focus, his features quickly becoming haggard and worn.

Vince screams suddenly as X12's hands suddenly pulse blue light that blasts into Vince's body so violently that it comes out his mouth and eyes. He thrashes so violently it throws Cosmo off, but the energy itself pins him to the ground.

"He's killing him! Get off him!" Cosmo shouts.

He's moving as if to pull you off when a long bone suddenly shoots up out of Vince's back, curving slightly. Bone's sprout off it forming the boney outline of a wing. Sinew and muscle nets between the bones, forming a strong bond, and leathery skin forms over it. It's like a one minute anatomy lesson on wings. As the skin seals over, Vince's blood starts flowing through new veins, returning to health. He groans weakly and doesn't move, though he's conscious.

Sanjay and Loki notice Vince's wings, both of them, are now solid, where before they had small holes scattered among them. The bone structure seems vaguely different too; you can tell by comparing them to the one still on the floor.

X12 topples over, landing on his back, cracking his head solidly on the floor. He looks like hell as he goes limp, passing out.

Jun Po lets out a sigh of relief, collapsing against Mendez, unconscious.

Vincent
You are utterly and completely exhausted and have just experienced more pain than you ever want to go through again. You can't help but be amazed at the result, and if while the regrowing your wing was horrid, you'd know you'd go through it a thousand times rather than have another body part pulled off. Cosmo seems to have twinged your back somewhat, or maybe it was the regrowth process, because there is a dull ache in your lower spine, right where his knee was. You have a like pain between your wings.

You have a herniated disc and your muscles need mending. You'll be unable to walk without aid and your wings are temporarily useless. You do, however, have whole wings, much better suited to flying. You'll have the option upon healing and training, of dropping a rank in super speed and adding five ranks in flight and the stunt of super flight, if you like.

X12
You teeter and fall over backwards, cracking your head on the tiles. Your vision swims and you can't make out anyone's voice clearly. You are totally and completely drained. Excellent. It seems she won't need another implant. Prepare him for further enhancements. Let us see how far we can push his abilities. You pass out.

You are unconscious, exhausted, uninjured, and have just two hero points remaining (the cost of shifting your powers about and adding a new extra). You have no access to your healing power except for regrowth for an unknown length of time. Your power link has occurred as you laid out in your email more or less. The other major change is this:

Healing +6 (extra: regrowth [extra: increased power, flaw: drain], extra: resurrection, flaw: empathic healing, flaw: others only, flaw: permanent)

Drain: Using regrowth drains your normal healing power. Your base healing rank is doubled when using regrowth (+12) however. You gain one rank in base healing back per 24 hours after using regrowth. You can use regrowth at any time however, which resets the healing drain. This flaw is not removeable (at this time) and does not add to your point totals.
​

Hey wait up!" John exclaims as he chases after Raisa towards the War Room.

For simplicity purposes, all of you arrive in the war room at once. Anna and Johan end up bringing one of the EPIC vehicles to get there quickly.

You all meet up in the hall and head for the War Room, leading Raisa and Carl since they have never been in it before. You open the door and enter. Those that haven't been here before see what the others did in Issue 2; a great hall with computers and tech and tables and gear and many alcoves, even one with your name over it. In the case of Raisa and Carl, they have alcoves, but they aren't lit up.

The main monitor activates as soon as you enter the room. "EPIC! Come in EPIC! This is Sergeant Leslie Ryan, NYPD! Mutants have attacked an armored truck caravan on the I-75! They're too much for us! M-Tac is unavailable! Please, respond!"

In the center of the table, a map of MCNY appears, with a series of flashing lights indicating where on the interstate the police are gathered. You notice a yellow flashing light as well, about a mile and half back; it's labeled as Kevin.

Rebound bounces to his alcove and emerges a few moments later, fully clothed. You have no idea how he did that so fast. A clinking sound indicates Anna is armored. She hands a belt to Johan.

"There you go. Not quite armor, but should do the trick!"

Force field belt +4 [extra: immunity to critical hits and penetrating attack]

Someone better answer the phone All of you have multiple uniforms by the way, so don't worry about the toasted other ones.

Kevin
You are over a mile away. It'll take some time to run there, and you will have to dodge the sudden influx of fleeing people. You see a police car fly through the air into the other side of the freeway and explode in a small mushroom cloud of smoke. You hear gunshots, even from here.

You can do your action when you get close... I'll let you get there faster if you want to spend a hero point... but you'll be alone with no other EPIC folks remotely close. That's the GM ultra secret, ultra subtle, hint of the day.

 

[Velmont]

Kevin
You are over a mile away. It'll take some time to run there, and you will have to dodge the sudden influx of fleeing people. You see a police car fly through the air into the other side of the freeway and explode in a small mushroom cloud of smoke. You hear gunshots, even from here.

You can do your action when you get close... I'll let you get there faster if you want to spend a hero point... but you'll be alone with no other EPIC folks remotely close. That's the GM ultra secret, ultra subtle, hint of the day.

OOC: I said that I want to see the police in charge, no fight the guys, and at the rythm I use my HP in combat, no I won't spend it anyway...

 

[Mimic]

Pointing to their alcoves, Michelle walks up to the main moniter speaking to Raisa and Carl. "You guys should find some outfits in there that will fit."

Michelle will try to figure out how to activate the communication panel.

(ooc: assuming she suceeds)

Sergeant Ryan, this is Michelle of the epic institute, what is your situation? How many mutants are there and how many injured do you have?

 

[buzzard]

John will move to his alcove and begin changing to his uniform. "I'm just glad somebody else took the phone call. "

buzzard