Shawn had just left the 'workshop' he and Lorenzo were using to do modifications on the Diesel suit.  Shawn had spent some time working the bugs out of the retractable 'police-like' warning lights and siren installed in the suit's shoulders.. he'd also included a backup warning chime.. as part of a joke he wondered if Lorenzo would ever discover... should he ever have the Diesel Suit walk backwards! 

That brought a smile to his face under his mask as he flew home over the sweltering night heat of the City sprawl.  Of course the installed fire-extinguisers and rescue equipment in the compartments in the suit's thighs and forearms still needed to be properly tested.. and Shawn was not even sure Lorenzo would keep them and not remove them for other gadgets of his design but  it was a chance to get a good look at the suit's inner workings.

The young metahuman's mind was focused on design ideas for upgrading his own gear as he made his way home.. he almost missed the police report on his recently installed headset police scanner.

"{Sigh}... another rave of hooligans... Sarah had better NOT be involved this time!  Can't understand why she gets involved with people like that!  What's the attraction...?"

Though in fact his younger teenaged sister of late had been ...strangely well-behaved. No trouble at school with the dean of discipline, her grades were up {a shock in and of itself}... and no obvious boy-drama... Shawn wondered about that.  Had his 'wild-child' rebellious little sister..actually grown up?  She STILL kept avoiding his attempts to pin her down in conversation about her powers... she was always a schemer.. but her usually attempts at manipulation were always before so easy to see through... but of late.. she had 'seemed' different.  She was very good at deflecting his inquiries about her metapowers... though he knew they both were changed by that tragic night in the junkyard with the experimental boost drugs forced on them... and of course.. the lightning.

Thunderbolt pushed those questions aside and paused in flight wrapped in supportive magnetic fields tuning in to listen to any supplemental reports from the officer...

At the officers report of the numbers and the thrown bottles Shawn grimaced... "I'm really not in the mood tonight.. but I guess I ought to get over there and keep that cop from getting trashed by drugged out drunken fools.  30 to 35 miscreants could get ugly fast... seeing as the badge is calling for back up..."

Thunderbolt considered himself a conscientious street vigilante.. he usually left the 'Boys in Blue' to do their job.. handling normal crime and law enforcement~ his dad having once been a highly respected... {and not on the take} police detective!  Shawn had a healthy respect for the police.. and made it a point only to stick his nose in when things happened that they were not capable of dealing with.. usually metahuman crimes.  But the odds seemed stacked against the officer on scene.

Changing his direction Thunderbolt tore across the cityscape his cloak fluttering on a magnetic breeze, '...no rest for the weary...'

Officer McDonald, while a seasoned officer, was also no fool. He quickly assessed the situation, and determining that it was not only growing out of hand, it was far more than he could handle alone. Putting his car into reverse, he slowly began to back down the road he arrived on, when He saw the first of them, a Booster.

He knew the signs, as he's seen them before. The pulsating muscles, the perspiration, and the the look of shear rage and anger on their faces, and he new he was in trouble.

"23 to Dispatch...23 to Dispatch! Advise MCU I have a Booster on scene!:

"23, repeat your last."

"Dispatch, be advised, I have a Booster on scene!"

"10-4 unit 23, Booster on scene"

A loud squelching noise erupts from the radio

BEEEEEPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!

"Dispatch to all units, Dispatch to all units clear the air and standby.  Booster on scene at 23rd and Lincoln. Unit on scene requesting assistance from all available units, as well as MCU and ESU, any units responding please advise"

For Det. Nathan Jones it'd been a long day. and he was hoping to get to unwind, have a cold beer, and enjoy the NBA game on his new TV (it was the EC Warriors versus the Miami Heat), and he'd made a friendly wager with one of his coworkers (if the Warriors lost, he'd have to wash his buddy's car every weekend for the next month).

Just as he was just sitting down to watch the first half of the game, his phone began to vibrate. Taking a sip of his beer, he glanced down at the screen "Booster spotted, the boss wants us in, as it could get nasty. Get here ASAP." And with that, he knew his chances of a quiet evening at home were done.

TO BE CONTINUED

Flying toward the situation in progress, Achilles relayed what was transporting to Skyhawk through their uplink.
"This is looking pretty rough. We need to get this Booster stopped before anyone gets hurt."
Calling over the team radio, Skyhawk says. "Thunderbolt,let's see if we can contain this before this gets really bad."

Thunderbolt - moved in ... just as the police car reversed direction... Into the Booster... instead of continuing away from danger, the officer for some reason ran head long into it...!

Thunderbolt - gasped, "No..wait! Arrrrgh! Good grief save us from 'Rookies!'..."

Flexing his magnetic powers he erected his magnetic shield around him... and 'locking' on to one of his kyogetsu-shoge in his costume duster pockets... when he heard Skyhawk -... over the team comms...suddenly realizing he'd missed paying attention to the other approaching aerial object his magnetic resonance Radar was pinging off.

< "Ah Skyhawk -... good.. a professional!  Yeah let's double team them... move down to the roof of the police cruiser calm Officer McDonald down to get out of here and keep those keen danger senses of your up and running... where there's two boosters there are likely more.  I'm going to gather the two boosters 'together'.. be ready to blast the pair of them with those star bolts of yours when I do IF they get back up... hopefully that will calm their blitzed heads down real quick! Ready?" >

Then in a loud voice he called out "PROTECTORS STRIKE!!", seeking to strike fear into the hearts of any other rioters who know of Empire City's ICONIC Hero Team of Supers...!

Thunderbolt - moved in flying at a height or 35'ft above the rioting Boosters and a single kyogetsu-shoge snaked forth from his left duster pocket on its 80'ft metal cable.. and wrapped around the leg of the Booster who had been hit by the police cruiser's ill-advised run-down and was still prone on the ground behind the cruiser.  Then with a Magnetic force of 650lbs... {hopefully not too much force}; he was bodily swung like a bat into the booster trying to rip the police cruiser door off from a blind-sided swing of the 60'ft long hooked ninja weapon... wielding the surprised booster hood ornament candidate like a fleshy club... !

2 actions: [Action 1# = Manipulate metallic objects & Raise magnetic defense; Movement = Flight 35'ft altitude over scene, and Slightly as needed to get within range with Kyogetsu's 80'ft reach - Kyogetsu 1 {4lbs} + Booster 1# weight {Assume 250lbs} <The knocked prone Booster 1# should make picking him up an easy HtH action to snag his ankle and wield him like a club>;  Action 2# = Strike with Kyogetsu held Booster 1# at Booster 2# HTH {Thunderbolt's bonus to hit: +2 Acc{Personal}, +2 Weapon Acc {Kyogetsu}, +4 all weapons & powers - On HTH chart; Total +8~ approx.}, trying for a blindsided attack on Booster 2#

- Damage: 250lb Booster 1# - Object [+2 Acc, +1d6 Damage]; 650lbs of force = 65" Velocity [+1d8 Damage];
Total = 1d6{WT}+1d8{Velocity}+1d8{HTH Base}+1{DM} [2d8+1d6+1]

Ok.. for one thing Dom never asked for an initiative roll to set up who goes when.  As Thunderbolt was flying in to assess the situation he had plenty of time to take control of the metal weapons he always carries with him and set up his magnetic defense especially when no one was attacking him or combat had started as yet.

Since Dom never called for rolling initiative... thematically it is known that TB usually animates the metal on his person to use in battle usually to subdue his foes rather than shoot lightning everywhere~ which in this case likely could have endangered the police officer as he's sitting inside a big metal conductor.

As for the first Booster who was knocked prone I figured A surprise attack from a foe he did not know was attacking him was a sufficient cause for no defense from an attack.. now Dom should likely roll the booster's detect danger... but I do not know how cognizant a boost crazed junky is when 'riding the boost', just after.. I might add he was hit head on by a speeding police cruiser {shrug}.. he may have a penalty to his INT and thus his danger detection.

This ... is a Kyogetsu-Shoge...


As for using the weapon's accuracy.. Magnetic powers says that you use the hand to hand chart to attack with manipulated objects.  To me that means if you are actually using a weapon~ you also use the weapon's accuracy modifier as well..something TB has done before.  In Either case it doesn't really matter as if the Booster is assumed to be 250 lbs...on the weight chart that is Still the same accuracy to hit with it {+2}.  Improvised weapon I would think only applied to wielding objects in ones own hands that are not meant for use as weapons.  As a magnetic controller.. swinging a weighted object that I have total control over should not be more difficult.. at least as I see it.  That would mean any object I picked up and threw at someone could be considered a improvised weapon.  Up to the GM... but TB has done this same type of attack before.

{Shrug}.. I just went with the flow of action... as opposed to micro-managing every nuiance of the combat system until Dom calls for initiative...  Basically ~ "TB controls a metal object he carries all the time and grabs one foe who is likely not looking at him and doesn't even know he's there and swings him into another foe within reach who is also unaware of his presence and focused on ripping a police car door off its hinges."

I don't think Iron Man wonders if he has enough actions to grab the Ultron-Drone bot in front of him and swing him at the other Ultron-Drone bot in melee with him.

Perhaps.. I should have been less detailed in my description of TB's actions and just went with a simple flow of action  until Dom called for initiative?

I was CERTAIN that IF I attempted too much in the opening surprise of combat... Dom would let me know.

EDIT:
But... all that said.. in the spirit of fairness and good gamesmanship.. your points and criticism have not fallen on deaf ears! I will be more circumspect in my future action economy!

Thank you for your interest.. and please feel free to give any advice you have on magnetic control as I KNOW you have more experience as a player & GM~ using & ruling on that power! 

Quote:

So to you, would that mean if one had Heightened Expertise in both Kyogetsu-Shoge and Magnetic Powers ... that they would stack while using the Magnetic Powers to manipulate a Kyogetsu-Shoge?

Stacking certain powers (classically Ice Powers and Heightened Speed) are long accepted by most as a power-gaming technique. V&V is much more open to abuse than even point systems (which too are hardly as "balanced" as some would like to advertise). So you are right in the final arbitration being Dom call come "game time".

In the case of FanFiction, I would merely suggest using a Mutants & Masterminds approach. Allow your characters an ability to power up their defenses unless surprised and go with a simple single attack each literary "turn". I wouldn't worry about posting things like "to hit" or "damage" other than through descriptors.

Of most importance in your FanFiction don't allow yourself to turn your character into a MarySue. Unless your character struggles and even fails from time to time your readers will have no ability to empathize with the character. If your character suffers setbacks and even defeats then the victories will mean something the readers. Characters are always more interesting because of their flaws than their special features. Spider-man being the iconic version of that idea.

Merely meant as a friendly suggestion for improving your FanFiction. Rules are Dom's thing.

dsumner wrote on May 19^th, 2015 at 10:33pm:


A young face peers out from behind a dumpster at the yell from the Booster. His bright-blue eyes now showing fear and worry. The police were going to be a safe way out of this mess! Looks like that's not an option now. He clutches his skateboard up to keep the flying glass from hitting his face. If only he could figure out how to do that weird 'get bigger' thing again.  He can't focus on that anyway, too much noise and mayhem going on. 'Man i wish mom hadn't freaked out' he whispers to himself.

Oh, and thanks for showing what the Kyogetsu-Shoge looks like!  I couldn't find it via Google before (perhaps it was misspelled).

Gents, it's going to take me a second to read through all of this and figure out exactly who could do what, but be warned, I may use my prerogative to modify certain events to keep the story moving along and not bog it down with to many details.

Remember, this is supposed to be a fun exercise to allow people to play around a bit and have a little fun, I'm not really trying to get caught up to much in the details until we actually get the game up and running again. To keep things simple, just post a brief overview, in narrative form, of what your character would be doing, and I'll let you know if I'd allow it. Everyone good with that?

Yup.. seems fair to me as well!

Thunderbolt's- ,  call came to Diesel-
over the little team communicators that Machinist- had passed out for ease of coordination...

Thunderbolt- , "Hey.  We ... have a problem.  We meaning me and Skyhawk– "

{Muffled sound of shifting and and loud rock music in the background currently playing, ironically, Incubus' - "Absolution Calling"... interrupted by distinct sound of a burst of static and a thundering crack of a lightning bolt... followed by sounds of rage-filled incoherent yelling...}

"Yeah, we got a riot of Boost-hopped up rave party-goers... more than a dozen ...we're about to get overrun!  We NEED Diesel-Power, NOW!!"

Avatar wrote on Jul 21^st, 2015 at 4:30pm:


OOC: We're ALL waiting for Dsummer to resolve Thunderbolt and Skyhawks actions... or we would include you in the RP Avatar.  It's in Dsummer's hands... he's just been too busy to post anything, sorry.

OOC: So Diesel steps out of a van at the site of the riot. Just want to make sure I read it right before adding to the mess

The sound of the van parking is lost in the chaos. Tad hears none of it. He does however feel a slight shimy in the ground as the Deisel armor strides into the fray. Pulling back behind the dumpster, the youth looks around the other side of the big trash bin. His eyes widen at the sight of the armor walking across the grass. 'Well at least I know he's one of the good guys'. He thinks to himself. "Now how do I get his attention and not the raving lunatics?"

Sounds good. 

Hammer wrote on Jan 8^th, 2016 at 9:23am:


Hey hammer ...you can replace your AVATAR for your account here.. no need to worry about loosing your pic.. I'm not ever going to remove it.. promise!

I'll have to find it.

Been awhile since I used my Avatar's cheat sheet.