Just a little something to tide you guys over until Monday.

So, have any of you guys been peaking in on the game? If so, what do you think of it so far?

Bureau of Special Investigations
Office of Intelligence
Meta-human Division

To: Division Chief of the Crisis Management Unit
Fm: Special Agent Colt Henderson
Subject: The following is a summary of the passive surveillance operations of the current meta-human activities taking place in and around Empire City.

Excerpt from the field report of Agent Woo: A ghost shape continued to form before us. Within seconds we could clearly make out the form of what appeared to first to be a humanoid female. She exclaimed that “ Somehow you five have managed to prevent the return of my beloved, to this mortal plane, but know this, in doing so you have earned the hatred of all those who follow his path, as well as my curse. One of you has been tainted by your actions, and the day will come when you will pay dearly for your interference.” . . .

Conclusion: While it appears these new protectors of Empire City have temporarily averted the trans-dimensional shift on the entity known as the Serpent Lord, the threat is an ongoing concern. The BSI is categorizing them as a possible replacement for the Guardians depending on how that scenario plays out. For now a probationary status is recommended, offering enough financial assistance to see if they have the desire or ability to operate as independent support unit for BSI operations.

Secondary resources have picked up on a number of individuals starting operations against the city’s crime families and ‘black’ corporations we’ve been unable to get hard enough evidence to bring to court yet. One meta, apparently a young mutant, wielding electro-magnetic powers, has been seen a number of places confronting the Leonetti crime family. At the moment, due to his vigilante attitude, he is considered a potential threat to ongoing operations. He is also suspected of having a relationship with the fugitive known as Kali, and recently tried to hack into the entire city’s cell phone grid in an attempt to contact other vigilantes he had recently met, apparently in an attempt to form his own power base named RONIN.

Other parties of interest include a man calling himself “Diesel” who seems to have created an armored suit that he carries in a truck around the city. GENOM seems to be the primary target of observation for the moment. There also seems to be a "Stalker" down by the docks that has kept so low a profile all we know is he operates out of a familiar looking armored suit. We have archives trying to find further data.

Local news reports of the meteor showers and the death of the young co-ed has prompted field officers to ask the “Protectors” not already drawn to the events for assistance. While all of them seem to be heading to the Jonesville and Thomasville area of operations, they so far seem to be responding individually as opposed as a team. Our analyst think this is due to a lack of any one individual desiring to step into a leadership role. Agent Woo recommends letting them discover what works best for them. As they are a non-regular unit, we suggest taking the field operatives advice during the probationary analysis period.

Nice write-up Ranger.

Nice write up summary!  Covered almost everything that anyone could possibly know... without actually being present for the events.  Nice work!

Ranger wrote on Jun 7^th, 2012 at 7:03pm:


One quick correction, it's Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI), not Special Bureau of Investigations.  Either way, thanks again for the wright-ups.

I hope Thunderbolt gets to do ...more Heroic things.  Dom's not really given me the opportunity to get involved with any really heroic deeds of helping the common people of Empire City.  Getting jumped by superpower Thugs outside a bar is fun but I would really have liked to gotten involved with the hunt for Nemesis or face down the forming Avatar of the the Snake god - Set, Sutek or whatever...  THAT'S Heroic stuff!

Punishing bad guys is cool.. but saving innocents is waaaay cooler...

so I assume it's OK to post little bits here to get our characters warmed up?

Ranger wrote on Jun 8^th, 2012 at 10:03am:


Hmm... interesting.  I have to agree with you on that assessment... its not what I actually had in mind but I can see your point clearly.  The lonewolf approach to TB's actions were that way cause there was no 'official' superhero Team anymore in Empire City.. and TB really felt alone and that he had to do it all on his own!  Plus the Protectors have not presented themselves as a obvious team with a headquarters, they have not claimed the Guardian's HQ {which Thunderbolt watches constantly}, they have no hot-line or any other form of contact means to get their assistance or attention.  Hence TB focusing on the heroes he did locate and run across... and planing his own HQ's.  He realizes he can't do it all on his own forever... but he's still willing and courageous enough to stand alone if need be but he would prefer a team to assist him to really make a difference that matters.  His 'Hack the Radio Frequencies of the city' to try to contact the few heroes he found was him desperately trying to form a team of heroes... to give his work perspective and hopefully ... keep him in line!  He knows he has anger issues.  Abused kids are damaged and he knows this... but he still feels someone has to make a stand even someone as broken as he sees himself.  Just doing what he can will only take him so far he needs allies.

I don't know if I stated it in any of the other threads but my intention with TB was to show he is indeed a very angry young man and yet he is still trying to be the, admittedly - imperfect, hero.  He currently IS more of a punisher of criminals but I wanted interaction with other Heroes to show him the flaw in that approach... 'a Avenger is not necessarily a hero'... at least - not the Hero he WANTS to be.  I wanted him to realize by interacting with other heroes that he needs to make a choice... 'be a vigilante or step up and be a TRUE HERO...' which is what I WANT him to be.

I thought I had made that clear in some post or PM somewhere perhaps I was mistaken and did not make that clear enough.  lol.

At his core..TB wants to help... purely because his heart motivates him to do so and he feels responsibly he should, with the powers at his command, try to make a difference to help those who cannot help themselves.  He has not realized his true motivation at its heart but its what I wanted to RP him discovering eventually.  Not vengeance but compassion.

YES.. I'd love to start some individual RP posts to interact with other players.  I'm not really interested in a lonewolf character.

Soo.. in that vein I'll start a thread... with TB stopping a disaster - Say a runaway surface subway train car?  Something that is outside his weight capacity to just solve on his own and "Captain" shows up to help?  TB could turn off the runaway motors and engage the breaks but could not easily slow the multi-ton train with his powers alone without sufficient time... time he just does not have  before it crashes when the "Captain" flies in... and Superman-style slows the train head on! Very heroic and a good intro for the "Captain's" powers.

That will open up a dialogue between TB and another hero and be something even the Protector's characters could get in on as the media show up and TB and the "Captain" can talk and help with clean up and rescue...

... what do you say?

The Cougar wrote on Jun 8^th, 2012 at 1:11pm:


Huh!  Looks like I missed that que.. he certainly would have joined the Protectors. 

But what Set guys?  The two drug dealers that went into the bar with their phones tapped or the two middle-eastern guys with guns at the dock?

I must have completely missed that somehow... {darn!}

When the two middle-eastern gun runner bad guys at the dock were carted off with diplomatic immunity - harassing them further without catching them in the act of actually doing something illegal went against Shawn's/TB's "obey the law as best as you can...", mentality.  He does not want to step across the line of concerned citizen justice.

Yes, he is a vigilante, but only because it seems the ECPD cant seem to handle the criminals or stop them from hurting people like him and his sister.  so his recourse was to put on the mask and stop them the only way he figured he could.  Shawn... if he had not gotten superpowers from the drugs and yet survived probably would have become a true Frank Castle  / Punisher - gun wielding street vigilante going after the thugs and mafia wiseguys with his own brand of street justice.  That's just the kind of person Shawn / Thunderbolt is.

Really sorry I  missed that hook completely! Sigh.. this is why I prefer sit-down games. LOL!

That would be cool.. and its not necessary to meta-game it "how much mass could we combined stop... " its immaterial it just an excuse to get us together in a circumstance that would draw everyone's attention to make the encounter possible between the characters.

We are NOT getting any actual experience points for this as a DM sponsored event for being heroic or somesuch.

(Okay guys her's a bit to get me back into the Stalker's head and maybe open up lines of communication with player's both old and new to Dom's world)

Stalker looks at the H.U.D. of the helmet for what must be the 100th time in the last hour. Crouched precariously on a ledge four stories above an empty street. It's 0200 hours and still no sign of any activity at the GENOME sight. The night's a bust. The only thing good tonight was the grapple gun works. 

The man in black stands up slowly,working kinks out of muscles stiff from sitting in the rain. No signs of the Thunderbolt kid either.  Stalker knows the radio is working, he can hear Craig snoring lightly back at the warehouse.
A sweep of cape and the black form is gone from the scene.

Thunderbolt wrote on Jun 10^th, 2012 at 11:37am:

My bad if I mis-communicated my intent on that. For myself, I don't even have an "official" character yet so it would be a little premature to have him do anything.

For you guys I'm pretty sure Dom would be cool with a thread called. "Poker Night" or simply "Downtime".

In between adventures, like now. Someone host a poker game, couple guys hit the Danger Room, go bowling whatever. In that thread you discuss things that happened in the adventure, ideas you want feedback on, discuss how hot Amber Green was looking in the interview with Jack Frost 

Anything that doesn't have an in game effect would be open to "role-play". So say, saving space shuttles might be too much but assisting Diesel repair his armor after a battle would be cool (in my opinion).

Myself, I plan on starting a journal. Kind of stole the idea off of Oni. Just a log of his ideas about a world where 25 years have passed by, thoughts on what it's like to be an analog man in a digital age. It'll be a tool to hone the character's personality.

just my two cents on non-GM threads

Ah.. I see!  Wow.. how the universe changes on one decision... left or right.

TB attacked cause he was not sure if they were selling boost or not.. he didn't find out they were running guns until AFTER he attacked subdued them and looked into the van proper.

TB is all about letting the Police do jobs they are supposed to do... like petty criminals with guns.  "Boost" trafficking is a whole-nother deal.  The users can spontaneously manifest random mutations something your ordinary cops are not really able to deal with {some kid spraying fire out of his mouth while bullets bounce off his skin is not in the police training manual. }  So those are the cases the actions that TB gets involved with... not that he would not be down with stopping evil cultists from summoning otherworld powers bent on the subjugation of mankind [..."If I were a Deep-One, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug glug, glug glug glug, glug glug, glug, glug, glug...", 'sung to Fiddler on the Roof - If I were a rich man'... LOLS!].

But TB didn't know any of that was going on... he's kind of aggressive and direct in his approach sometimes...

The radio clicked on inside the helmet just as Stalker's feet hit the pavement in the alley. "Glad your awake, on my  way back in."  He turned to look up and down the alley before stepping from the shadow of the building. "Just got a text from  TB. he want's to meet in half hour. From your locale you can just make it if you  double time it." "I Thought you routed the phone through the helmet?"  "I just routed the  voice not text. I can only do so much with bailing wire and chewing gum" Stalker looks at the HUD again checking the time. Mentally going over the city map in his head. He opens a compartment of his belt and takes out  two pills and a small bottle. Caffeine and 2 hour energy. He lifts the face-plate long enough to down the stuff. He'll be crap come noon tomorrow. He locks down the helm and pulls up the hood. Only the rats in the alley hear his boots as he starts out at a jog.


OOC: I will wait to post more till we see if the third in our group answers the call

Davew is taking a break to finish up his masters degree, as well as working full time, but will be back when he can. Until then, I'll be rolling everyone into one large group, so I'll need you guys to work with me on the details, as I give you guys little nudges in certain directions.

Hawk, if you get a minute, shoot me an email, as I need to work out your actions in Thomasville to get this rolling again.

Good.. I'd like to get involved with the full group of heroes.  Oh.. I'm mailing you an updated version of Thunderbolt Dom.
Nothing's changed really just added a few notes.

Also dom... is there anything preventing Thunderbolt for going to guardian's Ilse and talking with the A.I. defense computer?

I'm sure its designed to warn intruders away... Thunderbolt does not want to intrude but actually talk with the AI.   mostly to ask it if it has any information it can provide on the guardians status.  Does it have any protocols to form a New Team of Guardians after a certain point of time and how much self-determination it has to set its own directives?

Thunderbolt only needs to get close enough to the isle to get the AI to send out a defense system to warn him away... at which point TB could approach no closer but then get to talk with the computer...assuming its willing to speak in any depth.