Recap:
November
21, 2018 Wednesday
7:30PM
(NY Time) 6:30 PM (KS Time)
From
what Kismet knows of time travel from the Time Masters what Marsha
claims is impossible. She decides that she will reach out to the Time
Masters for explanation and confirmation.
She
gets in contact with the rest of the team (via Mind Link) and tell
them what is going on. She asks if they might be able to get to
Topeka to help defend the family if the villains do, in fact, attack.
Resume
Tale:
7:30PM
(NY Time) 6:30 PM (KS Time)
7:30
PM (NY) The group is trying decide how best to get to Topeka to
reinforce the Cizko family. They decide to have Network ferry them to
a hotel as close as possible to the Cizko estate through cyberspace.
In
case this attack on the Cizko family is some kind of elaborate ruse
to get the base empty Paladin hires a transport
service to continually move the items around until told to return
them to the base. He packages and secures the items so they will be
anonymous.
Cherry
is provided a room at the hotel so she will be safe in case the base
is attacked. They make the same offer to Preston but he would prefer
to stay at the base and prepare the feast for the team. Revenant
leaves Preston his 'mind-link' crystal that way if there are problems
on the home front Preston can call for help!
Kismet
calls Bonnie Baxter of the Time Masters (actually it is Bonnie Hunter
since she married Rip but the GM has not updated his database). The
call goes to voice mail so Kismet leaves a message to call her back.
Within a few minutes Bonnie is on the phone.
Kismet
tells Bonnie about the upcoming attack by PSI, telling her that the
warning came from her cousin who came from the future to warn her.
Bonnie knows nothing of PSI and finds it hard to believe that Marsha
can break the first law of time. [Law 1: You can't coexist with a
pastward version of yourself (called the Law of Identity). Law 2: You
can not change a pastward event that causes you to come into the past
to change it (called the law of Causation).]
Bonnie
promises to consult Jeff Smith and Antonia Saleese for their
opinions. She will call back when she knows more.
After
getting off the phone with Bonnie Kismet (whom her father calls
Kaitlynn, her given name) grabs her father so they can talk on the
rear deck. He promises that he is not working on Project Ironside but
his company Technology Research is continuing the development.
William resents Armburster Technologies for pretty much cornering the
market with their Turtle Armor. He dreams of Ironside replacing the
Turtle Armor armor that is used to secure Stronghold.
William
spends some time ranting about the rivalry between Technology
Research and Armbruster Technologies but still manages to convince
his daughter that he is not violating his parole agreement with the
Justice Department.
Kaitlynn tells her dad that she has serious contacts in many fields
of technology and they might be able to help him in this quest to
perfect the Ironside Armor. She intends to talk to Network and
Revenant about them helping her dad but has not gotten around to it.
[GM
Reminder: Technology Research is not doing well. The company is not
failing but it is in trouble. They need a couple wins to reverse the
downward trend in the company value.]
Kismet
tells her dad that she is more interested in results than methods.
She also takes this opportunity to tell William that his brother
Edgar might not be as freed from his powers as everyone thinks. Over
Halloween he was possessed by a ghost, during the possession his
powers were restored.
William
is concerned by this. Edgar's tumor gave him powers but also twisted
his personality making him villainous. If his powers return he might
turn evil again.
The
rest of the Brigade (and Cherry) ride the internet to get to the
hotel. Revenant complicates matters slightly by wanting to bring his
motorcycle through cyber-space.
The
rooms they were able to get were 20 miles from the manor. They were
clean and comfortable. The group was lucky to get them because of the
shortage of rooms that coincide with the Thanksgiving holiday.
William
will suggest that if the heroes want to blend in so they can surprise
PSI he can provide them with white shirts, black slacks, and black
dress shoes. Dressed like that they will appear to be members of the
household staff.
Big
Tuna has his own clothes that equate to the staff uniforms. He will
dress accordingly but none of the other heroes opt to.
Revenant
calls his mom. He tells her that something work related came up so he
will be a couple hours late for dinner. Mom is slightly annoyed but
agrees to push dinner back three hours to accommodate her son.
November
22, 2018 Thursday
Thanksgiving
8:00AM
The
Cizko family (or at least a small army of servants) are busily
getting ready for the feast. Big Tuna stands in for a member of the
staff. As a professional security consultant (read as Body Guard) he
checks the house out for weaknesses in security. There is a iron
fence around the property, security cameras at the front gate with
intercom, and that is the extent of the protection.
Paladin
puts himself on foot patrol of the estate grounds. The main drive is
roughly a quarter of a mile long from the gate to the front of the
manor. There are many service roads, more intended for golf-cart than
cars, that grant access to the grounds for the gardeners and
landscapers.
He
also finds a few county roads that surround the great estate that
serve farms, other houses, mail routes, and the like.
Paladin
heads for the kitchen at about noon for a quick sandwich and to warm
up a bit from his vigil.
Revenant
patrols the house and grounds as an invisible specter ready to
respond should the situation call for it.
Network
likewise lays in wait.
Big
Tuna discovers the tower that gives a commanding view of the estate
including the drive from the main gate and the service roads that
crisscross the property. After a brief discussion they put Revenant
at the top of the tower. Kismet gives him a replacement mind-link
bauble since he left his with Preston who is in New York preparing
the teams feast.
Kismet
has descriptions of the PSI operatives that are supposed to attack
later today. Based on these descriptions the team is able to glean
the names of at least a couple of the expected assailants: Brain
Drain and Soul Fire.
She
is still unsure of the accuracy of the prediction she was given she
decides to Mind Scan for Soul Fire. Taking extra time and using extra
effort she reaches out for Soul Fire's mind. She is trying to get his
direction and distance and to be unnoticed by her target. The area
she scans in the greater city of Topeka Kansas.
Soul
Fire instinctively break the contact but the simple fact that she
touched his mind tells her that he is in Topeka. Soul Fire normally
operates in Detroit Michigan.
This
reinforces the prediction.
After
alerting the rest of the team about her success in her search for
Soul Fire she seeks out Uncle Edgar. She finds him at the pool ogling
the female members of the family while eating pancakes.
Taking
a chair beside Edgar she joins him in his voyeuristic activities. She
tells Edgar about the warning from the future. While they are
chatting she gets a call from Bonnie.
Bonnie
tells her that she knows no actual events where a futureward person
coexists with their pastward self but Jeff Smith says it is
theoretically possible. In fact Jeff has been working on a device
called a 'Looper' that you could swallow and allow the temporal
overlap for a limited window of time.
If
Kismet's cousin (Marsha) would be willing to be examined it might
help Jeff with his research in the development of the Looper.
Bonnie
also suggests that Kismet should talk to Marsha about the time
variance. She might be able to get more details about the events that
lead up to the attack.
Kismet
slips into her bikini and heads to the pool where she last saw her
cousins. Uncle Edgar is still there admiring the beauty of the female
form.
Kismet
strikes up a conversation with Marsha and Cindy on the subject of
deja vu. After talking around the subject for a while the twins
invite her to join them in the sauna where they can talk in private.
In
the sauna the twins ditch their wet bikinis so they can dry while
they enjoy the heat therapy. The twins admit they have powers but
they claim they are the most useless powers imaginable.
Marsha
can will herself through time. She can take nothing with her,
traveling nude, and she appears in the same physical location. Marsha
can take one other person with her but the other person also has to
be naked.
She
can travel into the future as well as the past but it requires
constant, if minimal, concentration to remain in the time she does
not belong. If her concentration fails or if she gets too tired she
snaps back to her proper time at the same spot she was in the
alternate time stream.
Taking
another person with her tires her out faster, and going to a time
where she already exists also take greater effort. If she goes
unconscious or gets exhausted to the point that she snaps back to her
native time the person who traveled with her returns also.
Cindy
on the other hand can move in space. She claims to be able to
teleport anywhere! Cindy has traveled pretty much anywhere on Earth
that she wanted to see and has even visited other planets! She
claims to have teleported to Pluto but complained that going there
without so much as a winter coat was a very bad idea.
She
also has to travel nude as does anyone who travels with her. Just
like her sister she can take one person with her as long as both are
naked. Unlike her sister she does not have to expend any effort to
stay at her destination.
[GM
Note: During the game I said Cindy needed to expend effort to stay in
the location she teleported to, but I was mistaken. I double checked
her character sheet and it was not so.]
Until
Big Tuna suggests Revenant taking a vigil on the top of the tower he
was patrolling the house invisibly.
Network
tried to 'mind-scan' for Brain Drain's robot body but was
unsuccessful.
Marsha
decided that since they would be about to change the future she
should go back in time and have the conversation with Kismet that
gave her the warning. She vanished only to reappear an instant later
blushing slightly.
“I
forgot we 'talked' in the sitting room. Streaking from the pool to
the sitting room in a house full of people is … difficult. I'll
wait until I am in the sitting room before projecting backward this
time.”
2:00PM
(KS) 3:00PM (NY)
Paladin
notes (probably with a tip-off from Revenant who is on high guard)
that a convoy of vehicles is coming down the road towards the house:
four vans and six mini-buses.
The
vans peel away from the convoy taking country roads to get in
position around the estate. Getting as close as possible to the four
corners of the property the vans come to a halt.
A
group of twelve men exit two of the mini-buses after they park near
the front gate. These men come to the compound wall well out of view
of the gate cameras and quickly scale it. Once inside they quickly
and stealthfully move to the back of the house.
Revenant
engages 'ghost mode', going invisible, to take a look at the vehicles
surrounding the property. Each of the six mini-buses carried 6 men
and gear, plus a driver. With the advanced team already inside the
wall that puts 30 men near the front gates (6 men fire teams plus a
driver).
Five
of the six mini-buses also carry a super villain. Brain Drain, Soul
Fire and three unidentified Super PSIs.
Revenant
places one of his spiffy new tracers on Brain Drain's mini-bus.
As
for the vans stationed at the four corners of the estate each has
three men in it. A driver and two men to operate a device about the
size of a steamer trunk.
The
Brigade decide not to let the bad guys finish getting into position
and begin their counter-offensive!
Network
uses his power to dismantle one of the vans leaving the trio of
agents sitting in a pile of parts. One of the agents gets on the
radio and broadcasts an alert that they have been discovered, the
operation is compromised, the element of surprise is lost!
Brain
Drain orders a cancellation of Bag of Treats and activates Scorched
Earth.
Paladin
is at the front gate prepared to repel trespassers. Instead he sees
the six mini-buses turn and start driving away. His danger sense
warns him that there is a threat at the house. He runs from the gate,
up the quarter mile driveway, towards the manor.
Kismet
teleports Big Tuna into the midst of the twelve men approaching the
rear of the house. Tuna won't attack from surprise. He bellows an
order for the men to leave! To his surprise the assault team beats a
hasty retreat.
Having
turned the tide of the assault team Kismet prepares to teleport
herself and Tuna back to the house.
Revenant
hops on his motorcycle and starts to shadow them as they retreat
towards town. One of the Super PSIs spot him. The PSI, an obese man
in a purple jumpsuit, puts a mental illusion in Revenant's mind. He
sees the buses pulling away from him and the road remains straight
when in fact it curved causing him to crash.
He
wasn't injured but his motorcycle has 2 body left and is need of
repairs. The bike is still operational but only barely.
The
men from the disabled van flee the wreckage on foot. Network takes
the machine from the cargo area of the van to do an analysis on it.
He and the Brigade want to know what it was meant to do.
The
team regroups at the front of the house, with the Cizko family being
completely unaware of the threat, just in time for a series of
explosions to rock the house. The manor is ablaze in four sections of
the house. Kismet wonders if they were bombs planted earlier or did
the pyrokinetic Soulfire start the fires as PSI retreated?
To
Be Continued