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Whiteout!
A League One solo play
Several adventures call for a group of heroes and aren't easily adjusted to solo heroes. Because I didn't have to get other players together, I decided to create a team: League One, a mid-tier team that gets called up to sub in for the top-tier Guardian Society while the Guardian Society is off-planet. I did three adventures with them, and they were cool, but I never figured out how to incorporate the story parts of the characters. I would probably have to create a separate adventure, because it's not like an adventure really spells out things like "Palimpsest is the ghost of a girl that Menagerie murdered by accident, so she's haunting him, but she's fallen in love with him." Tough to squeeze in.
I have updated the adventure’s characters to the Assembled Edition. This was done before Ad Infinitum released an Assembled version of Whiteout! — if there are discrepancies in the converted write-ups, it is because we did the updating differently.
Sharp-eyed readers will notice that I did animal shape-shifting wrong. I discovered that later and fixed it, but I have left the old, wrong way where it occurs.
A brief cast list
Full write-ups for the League One characters come after the adventure. One hopes you can get the characters from the write-up, but here’s an attempt at pithy caption-style descriptions of the characters.
- Penultimate (Rae Summers) — second-best in the world…but from an alternate dimension!
- Doc Golem (Jacob Meyrink) — The Doc who can rock!
- Menagerie (Charlie Davenport) — Shape-shifter to any animal, but it’s gonna be purple! (Sucks at disguise)
- Palimpsest (Andi Noll) — Ghost of a girl who possesses the living; only Menagerie can see her.
- Skyblaze (Deanna Sult) — The mysterious beauty with something to make up for!
Chapter 1: A winter wonderland
“Doc, move those power lines. With luck, they haven’t tried to get out of the car.” She was called Penultimate, but no one doubted that she was the leader. She had on a parka and straddled a snowmobile; a parka for Dr. Golem (when in human form) was in the pannier.
“Sure. Electricity can’t hurt me.” In his stone form, Dr. Golem grabbed two thick power cables and moved them, wading through the chest-deep snow.
“Menagerie, get down and see how the people are.”
Menagerie changed from an arctic fox into an arctic hare and burrowed down into the snow.
“Skyblaze, we might need some heat here.”
“No time,” she called over the communicator. “I’ve got a skidding car to stop. He’s skidding uphill, if you can— Oh. Pen, we’ve got a situation. Pileup, at least a dozen cars and a jackknifed tractor trailer.” Substitute heard the sounds of effort. “Well, that crash averted,” said Skyblaze.
Penultimate nodded to herself, though no one could see in her parka. Come on, Men—
The blue rabbit head popped up. “Man, woman, child there, unconscious. Car’s running, and they’ve got the flushed colour doc said was carbon monoxide.”
“Shut off the car and let in some air,” said Penultimate. “Doc can’t help if they’re electrocuted. He’s got two more wires to move.” The rabbit disappeared again. She gunned the snowmobile to life and headed to the car. Her MD was rusty but she could do something while Doc was busy.
As she was headed over, her communicator crackled again. “Pen, it’s a situation with guns. Police transport, ambulance, and standoff. I have been spotted and have to stand down.”
Well, side effect of leaving a glowing contrail , thought Penultimate. She said, “Menagerie? Is your friend nearby?”
“Sure. She just hasn’t had anyone to ride.”
“Hostage situation. Might be her thing.”
“I’m sure she heard.”
#
Skyblaze was already bored of holding her hands in the air but these guys were panicky and desperate. There were three of them and eight obvious hostages, including two guards. Given the number of cars, at least five people were hiding or trapped in their cars, and the truck driver was almost certainly trapped in the truck.
“It’s okay, we’re not doing anything,” she said. Geez, what idiots. They don’t have enough separation. One grenade… Of course, that would take out the hostages, too. [1]
The man swung his stolen gun over to point at one of the other two thugs.
“Zack,” said the third thug, “What are you doing? That’s Irv.”
“It must be a mental trick,” said Irv, the one Zack was aiming at. “Zack, you know I’ll shoot this guy.” ‘Zack’ surreptitiously kicked the woman he had been aiming at, and she stumbled away into the blizzard. Zack held the pose for another moment and then said, “What the hell—?” [2]
Now Irv swung his pistol at Zack. “Clearly you’ve gone nuts. I should shoot you now.” As he moved his pistol, ‘Irv’ bumped his hostage, sending him flat into the snow.
The third one pointed his pistol at Skyblace. “You’re doing this somehow!”
“Not me, man. I’m standing here like you told me. You got a hostage, so I’m not going to move.”
“Well, I’m going to give up,” said ‘Irv’ and he tossed his gun off into the snowy darkness. There was a thump as it hit a car somewhere.
“Are you crazy?” said the third thug.
“They got some kind of mind-control or something,” said Zack. [3]
“You’re right,” said the third bandit. “I must have been nuts to think I could escape.” He turned to leave.
Zack shot him as he was throwing his gun away. Skyblaze took the moment to blast him. [4]
“Thanks,” said Skyblaze.
One of the hostages said, “This is more fun than saving stranded drivers.”
“But they need our help,” replied Skyblaze.
“Um…’our’?” said the hostage.
“Talking about the group,” said Skyblaze. Why does he leave in the middle of conversations?
Doc was letting Penultimate do chest compressions on the man who had collapsed. “Heart attack,” explained Menagerie. “Restarting his heart.”
That often doesn’t work, thought Skyblaze. She had been a paramedic BT (before transformation). Still, Penultimate’s form was flawless.
Doctor Golem said to the air, “Palimpsest, if you’re there, wrestle his soul back into his body!”
The man’s wife said, “It’s still there, guys.”
“Broke...his ribs,” grunted Penultimate.
“Then you’re doing it right. I’d pulverize him. I’ve never practised CPR in this form.”
“He’s breathing,” announced Menagerie, still as an Arctic hare. “And his heart is beating. I can hear it.”
“There’s a bunch of EMTs over in the pile-up,” said Skyblaze. “They’ll have stuff to help.”
“We need to get this man to a hospital,” said Dr. Golem.
“Sky?” asked Penultimate. “Can you fly him and EMTs in the ambulance? Snowmobile’s faster but no room.”
Skyblaze nodded. “Them and his family. Doc too.”
“I’d like to,” Doc Golem said.
Penultimate shook her head. “We need you here, doc. Ambulance staff know their jobs. Sky, get him there, then come back,” Penultimate said. “Go.” She looked at the others. “Still people trapped! While the Guardian Society is off-planet, we’re up! Let’s go, team!”
Chapter 2: A winter’s tale
Skyblaze took a cup of hospital coffee from the attendant. The ER was mostly empty: people couldn’t get to the hospital. The TV was tuned to the weather channel. She took a minute to warm her hands with the paper cup and the (frankly terrible) coffee.
The woman on screen (Heidi Summers, the screen said) was saying, “...stalled over the region and will continue to cause blizzard-like conditions for the next thirty-six to seventy-two hours.” The image changed to a satellite map of the larger area. Similar weather patterns were hovering over other urban centers, but in between it seemed fine. “As you can see, cities all over the country are affected regardless of latitude.” Then there were a series of shots with the names of countries superimposed: England. Russia. France. Korea. The meteorologist said, “These storms are not natural and can only be the product of some maniac.”
Skyblaze left the coffee behind.
#
There was still cleanup but no emergencies, so Skyblaze went directly to the studios of the weather channel. It was late and the doors were locked; she accidentally opened them. The security guard had a pistol pointed at her.
She carefully stepped inside. “Skyblaze. Maybe you’ve heard of me?”
The guard shook his head. His hands were shaking, too. Skyblaze didn’t want him to shoot; if he took out one of the glass windows, the place would get a lot colder.
“The badge,” came the sound in her ear. Penultimate of course.
“I have a badge,” she said. “I’m going to put it on the floor and kick it over to you. You can look at it then.”
The guard didn’t take his eyes or gun off her as he groped for the badge.
Really, guy? I could take you out from here. But whatever.
Eventually, he brought Heidi Summers out. Summers, fortunately, knew who Skyblaze was.
“It’s okay, Chester. We’ll go to my desk.”
Her desk was actually a cubicle. Heidi snagged a neighbouring chair and pulled it over for Skyblaze. Then she opened a desk drawer and pulled out a pack of nicotine gum. “I’m trying to quit, but the world isn’t making it easy.”
“I used to smoke,” said Skyblaze.
Summers looked at her, unsure whether it was a joke.
“Then I got super powers. Haven’t needed to, since.”
Heidi laughed uncertainly. “I don’t think that’ll work for me.”
She pulled up a series of satellite images to show Skyblaze. “I don’t know what you saw on the TV, but the blizzards came from nowhere but not all at once. First Chicago, then Minneapolis.” Then Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Seattle, Vancouver, and then, five hours later, Anchorage.” From then on, they spread to any urban center of more than five hundred thousand, and a few smaller.
“Can you send that to my phone?” Summers nodded. “Is it magic?” Skyblaze hated magic; magic had made her what she was.
“Maybe. Or maybe it’s technology. Last year I interviewed this professor who thought she could reverse global warming with technology conceptually similar to this.”
“Could she?”
“At this scale? Maybe. Depends on how seriously she affects the planet’s albedo.” She pulled out her phone. “Her name was Chaudhry. Ritu Chaudhry. She was visiting the local university. I heard she was angling for a position there, but I don’t know if she got it.”
#
Over the communicator, Penultimate asked her to meet them at the office of the NOAA. Despite the time, all the lights were on. The guard let her in a back door; there were press in the lobby. Another guard took her to a conference room.
“Skyblaze,” said Penultimate. “Kurt Briscoe, Skyblaze. Repeat what you just said, about weather control.”
Briscoe, a compact man in his late fifties, pushed his wire-rimmed glasses up. “There are two possible sources of weather control: technology and supers.” He held up a hand. “I went through it already with the blue one. I count magic as supers.”
“Well, it could be technology. Clarke’s third law,” said Dr. Golem.
“Still. It’s partly declassified now so I can say I was involved in a project for weather control, under the auspices of NASA. Our chief scientist on the project thought she could duplicate some weather controller powers. The Russians have Grom, we had Tempest. Turns out Grom is a lot more powerful than Tempest, may he rest in peace. Project fell apart when the chief scientist got into trouble.”
“Blackmail?” asked Penultimate.
“No, she was a loon. Misappropriation of government resources. She was accused of taking stuff home to use in one of her own projects.”
“Anyone beside me hear ‘Supervillain in the making’ in that?” asked Menagerie.
“Can you tell us who the chief scientist was?”
“That might still be classified. I’ll check.”
Skyblaze handed over her phone. “This is a doppler track of the arrival of the blizzards across the northern hemisphere.”
He lifted his glasses to look at it. “Where’d you get that? We haven’t released one.”
“Weather channel,” she said.
He looked at her with new respect. “Given the times, it’s a flight path. Pretty common one, Chicago to Seattle to Alaska. Probably didn’t stop anywhere except Seattle.” He wrote down a name and a phone number. “I know a guy with the FAA, Bryan Johnson. We were supposed to play basketball tonight, but something came up.” Briscoe grinned wryly. “He can help you find out what planes, if any, made that trip before the storms.”
#
Johnson agreed to check out the planes for them; one of Penultimate’s connections agreed to check Chaudhry’s house because it was too far to travel. They waited in the conference room. Johnson called back in only five minutes. “Only one plane made the trip this morning. Owned by Upton Aeronautics, and probably heading to their facility in Alaska.” [5]
“Huh,” she said. “Upton is a conundrum. They got banned from submitting for government contracts when the item they were proposing showed helping a supervillain.” She moved something on the screen. “Someone named Buran, who is, hello, a weather controller.” Another check. “I can’t figure out where their money is coming from, though. They have no customers and yet they’re expanding. They just hired a dozen engineers.”
Her phone rang. She put it on speaker. “Yo. Pen. It’s Hunch.”
“We’re among friends. You’re on speaker.”
“Chaudhry is gone, probably not by choice. A lot of old bills, going back almost four months, tucked behind the door. Several past due notices. I found a broken window—I did not make one—but that let me teleport in. All the food in the fridge has gone bad. Her office is laughable and someone removed the computer, but there’s a lab in the basement with its own clean room. There were some paper plans there for changes to a satellite.” [6]
“A satellite?”
“Probably. I can send you a photo, but I don’t know how well it will photograph.”
Briscoe walked in at that point. Penultimate switched the phone from speaker to her earbuds.
“I got permission to tell you her name. Dr. Ritu Chaudhry.”
Menagerie said to the air, “Yeah, you said so.”
Briscoe looked at him. Penultimate said, “The project was to create machines to control the weather. What was her private project, the one she was taking equipment for?”
Briscoe said, “Her plan to combat global warming. Weather control satellites. Insanity.”
Skyblaze said, “Not so insane. We’ve got blizzards over the whole northern hemisphere.”
“Satellites?” asked Penultimate. “That’s beyond FAA. NASA, I think.”
“Simon Balcemeda is the guy you want. Head of the Earth Observatory.”
“He’ll know about this stuff?”’
“He’s the guy I’m consulting with.” He gave Penultimate the number.
“Wait,” said Dr. Golem, “Pen, you said Chaudhry was kidnapped.”
“Or,” said Skyblaze, “she wants us to think she was.”
“Clearly Upton is in this,” said Penultimate. “What about this Buran?”
Briscoe said, “Chaudhry blamed the failure of Operation Teapot on the fact that Tempest’s powers weren’t strong. Buran is a weather controller in Grom’s category or better.”
“And we assume all of them are involved.”
Skyblaze said, “What was this thing that Upton was trying to sell?”
“Space craft as a manned suit.”
“Powered armor? I hate powered armor guys,” said Menagerie.
Penultimate ticked them off her fingers. “So probably Buran, some kind of flying powered armor, and we think maybe Chaudhry has given herself powers.”
“So who’s in charge?” asked Skyblaze. “Makes a difference when we figure out what the plans are.”
Penultimate said, “Buran has been involved in weather blackmail schemes before. She’s probably the tactical leader.”
Skyblaze added, “Satellites. How do they launch satellites?”
“Power armor?” said Menagerie.
“Maybe. Upton maybe.”
“Based on this flight plan, the Upton Alaska facility should be our next stop.”
“Great. How do we get there in the blizzard?”
Penultimate smiled. “The Guardian Society jet, of course.”
“You have keys?”
“But the blizzard has grounded all aircraft!”
“We’re going where the blizzard isn’t.”
Chapter 3: Going to Alaska
“When I grow up, I want to be a member of the Guardian Society,” said Doctor Golem, stretching comfortably in his seat. He was in human form.
The phone rang. He flipped on the screens so everyone could see. Pen was piloting, of course. “We’ve got about forty satellites of unknown origin in the last few months. I’ll text you orbital info. Based on the visuals we’ve gotten, they look like a modified version of a communications satellite by Aerospace Satellite Corporation.”
“Anything else?”
“I’m either not cleared to know it or not cleared to tell it.” He rubbed his nose. “I’ll say this, though: Talk to the Missile Warning Center. They keep track of this stuff too, and they might be cleared to know it and say it.”
“Thanks.”
“Missile Warning Center?” said Menagerie. “That’s for like, intercontinental missiles and stuff. Yeah. I know. Science was never your strong suit.”
“We’ll split up the calls. Skyblaze, you take the Missile Warning Center. Doc, rock up and call the Aerospace Satellite Corporation. I’ve planned us a flight path that avoids all cities. Nice craft: we could go on to Korea if we needed to. In an hour, I’ll put it on autopilot and we’ll pool our results.”
Skyblaze went first. “Military has monitored over three dozen satellite launches from near the Arctic Circle. They look like an ASC design, which means they’re nuclear powered. That means no one can risk destroying them. Destroy them and radioactive waste rains down, and that puts you in violation of a treaty. Then everyone goes ballistic missile on you.”
“You got the coordinates of the launches?”
“Nope. Clouds or fog obscured every launch. By ‘every’ I mean over thirty-six, no exceptions.”
“That is the usual meaning of ‘every,’” said Doc Golem.
“Weather controller,” said Skyblaze.
“Not a surprise,” said Penultimate. “Anything else?” Skyblaze shook her head. “Okay. Doc?”
“Well, we were offered money by ASC,” he started.
“Sweet!” said Menagerie.
“Turns out someone’s been stealing their satellites before launch. The stock price has tanked and we don’t know who has stolen over three dozen of their satellites.”
“Dun-dun-dun-dah!” said Menagerie.
“The numbers are suggestive,” said the doctor. “ASC offered us money if we could stop this.”
“You know, if anything had a tracking device on it, I would bet a satellite does.”
Doc Golem nodded. “But the tracking device only works once the satellite is orbiting, so ASC knows that all forty of the satellites are theirs but not how they got there.”
“Like you bought the dress and corsage for prom but someone else takes’em there and back?” asked Skyblaze.
“That’s really a disturbing image, Skyblaze, and it has me wondering about your adolescence. But functionally correct.”
Menagerie said, “What’s important is, did ASC offer a lot of money?”
“I turned down the money.” Menagerie pouted. “But there’s a set of satellites being shipped right now to Khazakstan. Odds are that they’ll get stolen. With the Guardian Society off-planet, all the heroes who would do this kind of guard work are busy picking up slack.”
Penultimate said, “If we go to Anchorage, investigation. Most of the information sources will still be there. If we follow the satellites, we have a chance to get the people involved.” She looked around the table. “In favour of intercept, say aye.” There was a round of ayes. As usual, Menagerie cast his vote and then changed into a chimpanzee. “Aye,” said the chimpanzee. That was their way of letting Palimpsest cast its own vote.
“Only one of us can fly, so we need to be on the cargo plane when materials are stolen, and grab breathing gear; it’s cold and airless in a cargo bay at height.”
ASC was glad to let them on the plane in Anchorage, but it meant the plane had to refuel: a transformed Doc Golem was enough extra weight that they could no longer get to Khazakstan.
“How’d you get around the blizzards?” asked Penultimate of the pilot.
“What blizzards? North of 40?” said the pilot. “We found a clear spot and boom, clear sailing all along. Lucky, huh?”
“Sure is,” said Penultimate.
“How’d you get here?”
“Super powers,” said Penultimate.
“That’s long-term lucky,” said the pilot.
Penultimate just smiled. “Were you the pilot on any of the other hijacked flights?”
The pilot shook his head. “No, but I studied the reports. The cargo bay doors opened; they flew in and took the weight.”
“She must handle like a sack of sand while the cargo bay doors are open.”
“Oh, yeah. So the pilot is busy, they’re losing altitude, she’s going down...and then the plane rights herself, and the pilot can get her up to speed. It’s not until you notice your fuel consumption that you discover you’ve lost four tons of cargo.”
“There’s an indicator about the status of the cargo doors. I’ve never flown one of these, but I’ve done simulators.”
“It never goes on. So they figure it’s an inside job, which is why new staff on board each time. I’m about the last pilot they have who hasn’t been robbed.”
“Thanks. Gonna go secure myself.”
#
She presumed Palimpsest was with them. Everyone had secured themselves with a tether to the cargo netting, except Doc Golem, who was tethered by a steel cable to an interior hasp. Everyone could reach the satellites.
Penultimate said, “Is Palimpsest here?”
“He is.”
“Our primary goal is information, and that probably means keeping one of the thieves. It doesn’t matter if we lose the satellites if we know where they’re taken. When the cargo bay opens, the ride gets rough because this plane drops. Be prepared for that; they’re used to it and we’re not. If we save the satellites, great, but if not, we’re keeping one of those thieves. Got it?”
Everyone nodded.
“Now we wait.”
Most of them were wearing high-altitude gear, and that hindered conversation. Penultimate started wondering what things were like back in her home universe.
Forget it. This is home now.
She checked the others. Doc Golem was reading something on his custom tablet. Menagerie’s mouth was moving but he wasn’t broadcasting; she overrode his mute to discover he was playing “Bad Choices” with Palimpsest, and the words “vomit-soaked” made her mute him again. Skyblaze was dozing.
The cargo bay started to open. Doc Golem stuck his tablet into the bag tied next to him. Skyblaze’s head snapped up.
Two men in powered armor flew in. [7] [8] [9]
Penultimate leapt on the back of one of the armored men and managed to get there. He immediately sagged down but not out of the plane. [10]
Doc Golem tried to loop the near one with the cable but the movement from Penultimate’s additional weight moved him out of range. [11]
Menagerie waited. Skyblaze fired a shot [12] but missed.
The two pilots were surprised, but they knew they had only a minute to get satellites. They were willing to make a single attempt to try to save the mission. Both recognized Skyblaze as the one who flew and therefore could follow them. Both fired on her. [13]
Then the one with Penultimate on his back landed in the plane. [14]
Penultimate quickly inserted some adhesive glop in the output port for the suit sets. That would ground him until the glop was cleaned out or the engine was run at full output and the glop was burned free. Running the engine while falling would be dangerous.
“Pal! Get the other one! Doc, this one can’t fly, take him!”
Doc Golem moved around the open cargo bay and punched the grounded pilot. He was armored, so Doc used his full strength, but the wind in the cargo bay interfered. [15]
Menagerie leapt for the second armored man, who was still aloft, but missed, and only a quick change to a spider-monkey kept him on the tether and in the cargo bay. His breathing mask no longer fitted, and wouldn’t until he became human again.
“Well, hell,” said Skyblaze, though no one could hear her. She took off, got herself under Menagerie (in case), and fired up at the armored man. She missed, because of the wind.
The pilot darted down and out, and the sound of the sonic boom was audible even in the cargo bay.
“Doc! Hold him. I’m going to shut the doors!” Palimpsest barely fought against the wind (marginal success) to get to the cargo bay doors. She only made it to the internal controls, but said over the speaker, “You’ve been hacked. Try to shut the cargo bay doors!”
The doors began to shut. Skyblaze helped Menagerie up, and he transformed back so he could put on his mask.
Doc Golem had his massive stony arms wrapped around the armored man.
With screwdriver whirring, Penultimate began to disassemble the man’s armor.
#
After they got him out of the armor, he was talkative enough. He had no idea about the blizzards and the damage that they caused. They got the location of the base and the launch facility, the number of personnel and the weapons.
Buran was in charge, not Chaudhry: she planned to hold the Northern Hemisphere hostage for several days and then demand a trillion dollar ransom.
There were five villains: Buran; Liberator, who they confirmed was Upton and in an advanced version of their suits; Kavik, who could turn into a giant wolverine; The Alchemist, who could transmute things, and a witch who healed them and called herself Baba Yaga.
“That’s not good,” said Doc Golem. “And they’ll know we know because the other guy escaped.”
“Plus side,” said Menagerie. “Dr. Chaudhry hasn’t turned herself into Blizzo the Obliterator.”
“Wait until the end of the fight, if we’re winning,” said Starblaze sourly. [16]
“Still got your tethers? I’ve asked the pilot to slow down as much as he can. We’re going to lower ourselves by tether. The Guardian jet has autopilot. Skyblaze, we should be slow enough for you to fly, and Doc, you’ll have to transform for the actual transfer.”
“Have you ever done this before?” asked Menagerie.
Penultimate didn’t answer but said, “Look smart, people, we don’t have much time!” [17]
“This baby does Mach 12 for a bit,” said Penultimate. “Let’s put her through paces.”
They kept high and did not see the other pilot.
According to the charts, the base was on an island inside the Arctic Circle. The visibility was poor, but that was to their advantage: it meant they could avoid visual detection.
The jet had anti-detection methods, which made Penultimate worry about what the Guardians did with their VTOL jet, but she made sure they had been activated. [18]
They landed on the glacier. Penultimate sighed once they were down, but now they had to make the 50 kilometres into the valley and to the base.
Starblaze said, “Look, I’m sure this thing has a vehicle that’ll crawl down the friggin’ glacier side, but why don’t we just get captured?”
“Pardon?”
“Begging your pardon, but you’re the only one of us who uses gadgets. Palimpsest makes sure that the guy frisking you misses half of them, and we get a ride back in.”
“You sound like you’re taking Palimpsest for granted,” said Menagerie.
“We don’t even see him,” said Starblaze. “Or her. Hard to keep Pal in mind.”
“Wait a minute,” said Penultimate. “Men, can you ask Palimpsest if that’s an acceptable plan? I don’t mind it, but I’d rather be caught elsewhere, not near the plane.”
“Maybe make it look like we got lost and then couldn’t function in the environment,” said Menagerie. “Not my suggestion, but Pal’s.”
“Some of those ice bridges won’t hold my weight,” mused Doc Golem. “Shame if we were to misjudge things.”
“Sure, and maybe I go polar bear to polar bear.” He reacted to something no one else could hear. “Hey, could happen!”
“So how do we get to the base of the glacier?” asked Skyblaze. “To be captured?” [19]
“I’ve got a rock-climbing sled that should do the job,” said Penultimate.
An hour later, they were at the base of the ice, on frozen ground. In the distance was an armoured tracked vehicle, guns trained on them. Doc Golem was alternating between Penultimate and Skyblaze. (They figured that having Penultimate be “injured” was logical, and Skyblaze would explain why no one flew for help.) [20]
The guards covered them carefully, and in her faux coma, Penultimate could only hope that they investigated first and shot later.
They pulled closer, and Penultimate heard, “Injuries and prisoners. We’re bringing them to the brig. They have a doctor, but have medics standing by.”
The radio responded, “Units DaGama and Polo will accompany you.”
She risked a peek; two of the powered armor suits, like the ones they had fought in the plane, were approaching.
The mercenaries left nothing to chance; they did not touch the prisoners, carry the makeshift stretchers, or interact with them at all.
It was another two hours until they made it to the base. Pal was as good as Menagerie’s word: she still had all her gadgets, except her radio. Even Doc Golem stayed human throughout the trip.
They were met by ten suited power armor men, and all but two of them escorted Menagerie and Doc Golem to the brig.
“But my patient—?” said Doc.
“Baba Yaga will help them. Come or they die.”
Then Penultimate was being carried, transferred to a gurney, and wheeled along.
A woman said something in Russian: “Show them to me.”
“Now!” said Penultimate and threw her blanket over the one pushing the gurney as she rolled off. [21]
Both Starblaze and Penultimate saw and fired at Baba Yaga; both shots connected; Starblaze’s shot pushed Baba Yaga against the wall, where she slumped down. [22]
Kavik growled with some...glee? and slashed at Starblaze. [23]
The two armed guards looked at each other. “Stay together, shoot them all,” one said. “Can’t hurt our people.” [24] [25]
Starblaze fired at Kavik, but it seemed to have no effect. [26]
Penultimate moved forward and swept her feet under one armed guard, knocking him down with as much pain as possible; he flew against the wall and fell down onto a bed. [27]
The other guard shot at Penultimate (another Marginal success with same result).
With a roar, Kavik slashed again at Starblaze, who was darting around the room, trying to stay out of reach. [28]
His claws raked along her legs, shredding her pants and mangling the flesh beneath.
The pilots were already on the radio, calling for reinforcements. [29]
Skyblaze thought, “I can’t get space here, and I haven’t got time to whittle him down.” She grabbed a gurney and held it up as an improvised shield. [30]
Penultimate went for the second guard. [31]
She hit him solidly, knocking him against the corridor wall outside the sickbay, and knocking him out.
Kavik roared again, and slashed at Starblaze a second time. His nostrils were wide from the scent of blood. [32]
“She’s just one woman without powers!” said one of the pilots. [33]
Skyblaze said, “Hey, Pen, let’s swap.” She abandoned the two broken pieces of the gurney and swept another gurney against the two pilots. [34]
Penultimate knew that her goal was to be hard to hit in this case, so she … [35]
...threw powder at Kavik to blind him.
The powered armor pilots fired at the immediate threat, Skyblaze. [36]
One grazed her.
She responded by bowling them over with the gurney. [37]
Penultimate spotted a hypodermic loaded with powerful tranquilizer on the shelves and grabbed it. If she could put Kavik to sleep— [38]
She somersaulted over Kavik and, when he turned toward the sound of her landing, jabbed the syringe into his belly.
Or tried to; the needle bent and the syringe shattered against his skin.
He took another slash at her. Suddenly she wished that Doc hadn’t spread some of her own blood on her skin to make her injuries look realistic. [39]
Pen managed to jump back just in time but his claws still connected with her arm; soon the blood would start to drip, and then it wouldn’t matter if he was blinded.
The pilots tried to free themselves from the wreckage of the room without damaging the expensive armor. To distract her, one fired at Starblaze while the other moved wreckage. [40]
Starblaze cursed and tried to widen her blast to hit both of them. [41]
Penultimate saw that Starblaze was having her own difficulties. Well, all I have to do is not get hit. That’s easy, right? [42]
She tossed bandages to Starblaze. “Use these.” [43]
“Hey, Kavik. Don’t animal spirits ever bathe? I mean, real wolverines swim—”
Frustrated by the powder and the taunts, Kavik lashed out. [44]
Equally frustrated, Skyblaze fired on the pilots again. [45] [46]
A purple bee flew into the room, turned into a polar bear and fell on Kavik.
“Ooops. I don’t think this animal flies,” said the bear.
“Took you long enough,” panted Penultimate.
“Stopped for a sauna,” explained Menagerie.
The pilot leaving the room faced a giant figure of rock. [47]
Doc Golem reached out with a stony hand and flicked the pilot in the head.
“Good night.” [48]
Starblaze says, “Men holds him still and Doc and I coordinate?”
The bear opened its mouth as if to grin and then grimaced. “He slashed my butt! Ow!” [49]
“You have to hold his arms down,” said Doc helpfully.”If you’re okay, Starblaze, I’ll take him.”
Menagerie got slashed one more time before they had swapped places.
“If you don’t mind?” said a bookish man they hadn’t noticed.
“Oh, right,” said Doc from the floor. “Alchemist, meet Penultimate and Skyblaze.”
“Brian. Brian. It’s Sean. Look, Buran just made this big speech about holding the world hostage. North of forty will be winter for years. Think about that, Brian.”
Menagerie whispered to Penultimate, “Aren’t they adapted for living in the winter?”
In a normal voice so that Kavik could hear her, Penultimate replied, “They’re used to a bit of summer. Plants need time to grow so that the land animals can feed. Oceans cycle. The people will be more dependent on southern foods and supplies, not less.”
Kavik growled. “No! This is for them!”
Penultimate said, “I suspect this will kill them.”
The fur and claws receded, and in Doc Golem’s arms was a young Innu man. “All right. I will help you stop her.”
“Liberator has told his people to leave,” said Alchemist. “That leaves Buran and all her mercenaries.”
“Recruited from the south?” asked Penultimate. “What?” she added to Skyblaze. “It’s the sensible thing to do.”
“Sometimes I think you spend too much time thinking like villains,” said Skyblaze.
Doc Golem let go of the young man and said, “Give me a minute to examine both Menagerie and Skyblaze.” [50]
In the meantime, Penultimate and Alchemist headed to the Alchemist’s lab. “I need to get some items that will help against Buran.”
“We’ll meet up with you,” said Penultimate. Alchemist named a place. Brian/Kavik nodded.
Penultimate came to the meeting place alone. “He wanted to be with his family. I let him.”
“Through these doors,” said Brian, “is a short corridor and then another set of doors to the control room proper, the one that’s used for the rocket launches. So far as I know, the corridor isn’t booby-trapped, but I can’t rule out something like gas through the vents.”
“Most of the place looks off-the-shelf,” said Penultimate.
“These doors are security locked. Steel slides down; I don’t know if she’s done that already. There is a tunnel to the rocket prep building; that has steel doors as well.”
“How thick is the steel?”
“For the control room? Thick. Ten, fifteen centimetres.”
“And if we cut off the power?”
“You can’t. Each building has its own power supply. Some kind of radioactive decay thing, good for a city block.”
“Men? I think this needs a bug recon. Don’t try to take her on yourself.”
“Bee seeing you,” said Menagerie.
Minutes passed. The big steel doors started to slide upward.
“Damn,” said Penultimate. “I said recon, not open it— Move! Move!”
Skyblaze made it through both doors into the control room, but the others were trapped in the corridor when the doors slid down again.
Six staff were manning the consoles and Buran was there in the center. The staff were in cold-weather gear, and the temperature was already below freezing.
“This is my plan, my place! You will not stop it!”
“Sure, biatch,” said Starblaze. She fired once.
Skyblaze rolls 6+2 vs 5+3, for a marginal success 4 Stamina). Buran now at 5 Stamina. [51]
Menagerie charged as a rhino. [52]
Starblaze followed up with a second shot. [53]
“Pal says she’s out,” said Menagerie. “How do the rest of you feel?” he said to the staff.
“We’re good,” said one.
Characters of League One
Penultimate (Rae Summers)
Origin: Trained
Great (6) Prowess Great (6) Coordination Good (5) Strength Good (5) Intellect Good (5) Awareness Good (5) Willpower
Determination 5 Stamina 10
Specialties:: Athletics, Investigation, Leadership, Medicine, Pilot, Science, Technology
Powers:
- Great (6) Gadgets
Qualities:
- From an alternate dimension
- Trained in everything
- Sensitive that she’s second-best
Doc Golem (Jacob Meyrink)
Origin Transformed
Great (6) Prowess Good (5) Coordination Fair (4) Strength Great (6) Intellect Fair (4) Awareness Great (6) Willpower
Determination 4 Stamina 10
Specialties: Medicine Expert (+2), Wrestling (+1)
Powers:
- Amazing (8) Alternate Form Stone
- Fair (4) Regeneration
Qualities:
- We do what we can, and a little bit more
- Doctor, sworn to help, not harm
- Paying a debt
Menagerie (Charlie Davenport)
Origin: Transformed
Great (6) Prowess Great (6) Coordination Fair (4) Strength Fair (4) Intellect Great (4) Awareness Great (6) Willpower
Determination 4 Stamina 10
Specialties: Aerial Combat (+1), Performance (+1), Underwater Combat (+1)
Powers:
- Animal senses: Weak (1) super senses (see ghosts)
- Supreme (10) Transformation (animals)
- Extra: Instant, Limit: Tell
Qualities:
- Public ID
- Insecure showboat
- Sonics! My weakness! (+degree effect)
Palimpsest (Andi Noll)
Origin Transformed
Fair (4) Prowess Fair (4) Coordination Poor (2) Strength Average (3) Intellect Good (5) Awareness Incredible (7) Willpower
Determination 2 Stamina 9
Specialties: —
Powers:
- Ghost:
- Weak (1) Phasing Limit: Constant
- Weak (1) Flight
- Supreme (10) Life Support
- Incredible (7) Possession Limit: Close
Qualities:
- Ghost
- Haunting her murderer
- Any unholy symbol! My weakness!
Skyblaze (Deanna Sult)
Origin Transformed
Great (6) Prowess Great (6) Coordination Incredible (7) Strength Fair (4) Intellect Average (3) Awareness Good (5) Willpower
Determination 1 Stamina 12
Specialties: Aerial Combat (+1)
Powers:
- Amazing (8) Blast
- Weak (1) Super-senses [Languages]
- Fair (4) Flight
Qualities:
- Secret ID [Lacey Guard]
- Living a lie
- Making up for the past
Mindgame (Karlos Hunch)
Mindgame shows up as a distant friend who owes them a favour.
Origin Transformed
Fair (4) Prowess Fair (4) Coordination Average (3) Strength Fair (4) Intellect Average (3) Awareness Incredible (7) Willpower
Determination 1 Stamina 10
Specialties: Investigation (+1), Technology (+1)
Powers:
- Amazing (8) Telepathy Extra: Burst
- Extra: Teleportation Limit: Preparation
- Extra: Mental Blast Limit: Tiring
- Extra: Mental Resistance Limit: Temporary
- Weak (2) Gadgets
Qualities:
- Secret ID: Barlow Knight, P.I.
- Distinctive
- Former supervillain
[1] Palimpsest is there, and she’s going to attempt to possess the robber, who is a stock Thug: 7+5 vs 2+3, and he’s possessed.
[2] Palimpsest shifts bodies: 7+6 vs 2+1, freeing the first one but taking control of the second fellow.
[3] But by now, Palimpsest has moved again: 7+3 vs 2+4: still a major success.
[4] Does Skyblaze hit? Well, a 6+5 vs a 2+2 is a massive success. Her bolt is enough to knock him out anyway, so I’ll spend no more time on it.
[5] Nobody has Business, but Penultimate is Trained in everything, and she has Investigation. So she spends an Advantage to get +2. Intellect 5+1+2+5 vs 6+1 for a Massive success. Now she has DP 4
[6] How much did he find? He has Investigation but not a great Intellect: 4+1+5 vs 6+4. I’m going to be kind and say he recognized it as a satellite.
[7] Icons: A bunch of characters act; rather than doing this as a bunch of headers, I will now switch to body text with colour and indentation changed.
[8] Icons: initiative: Penultimate (6+4), Doc Golem (4+6), Menagerie (4+5), Skyblaze (6+2), Columbus pilots (3+3), Palimpsest (4+1)
[9] Icons: Penultimate leaps for one, but the cargo bay open is a whopping -4 to her attack, which she tries to counteract with Athletics. (6-3+6=9 vs 4+1+2=7) She hits anyway, with a moderate success.
[10] Icons: Doc Golem has been thinking about this, and tries to get the other one with his steel cable, looping around it to pull him in. His Coordination is Good, he has no specialties, and there’s that terrible -4: 5-4+5=6 vs 6+1+1=8. Moderate Failure.
[11] Icons: Menagerie has a different plan. He’s going to grab a guy, and turn into a tardigrade. That makes him tiny to see and immune to the conditions. Still, he needs to hit him first. He arranged this with Palimpsest early on that Pal will bring one near to him, he’ll get aboard, and then Pal will switch to the other one. So he waits for Palimpsest.
[12] Icons: Skyblaze has no problems with flying, and her bolts are energy anyway. She lets rip from where she is. For 6+2-4 vs 4+1, a moderate failure.
[13] Icons: Acting together. They are Coordination 4, she’s 6, and she’s not flying. Both miss, so it’s not an issue. And Palimpsest possess one of them (7+5 vs 3+6, and possesses with 7+1 vs 3+4, a moderate success).
[14] Icons Pen uses her “Trained in everything” quality for +2 to this effort. She wants to create the quality “Grounded” to disable this pilot’s Flight. The difficulty in creating this quality is 5 (the standard Technology level of the engineers plus one. She rolls 5+2+1+4 (12) vs 5+4 (9) for a major success; she can activate this twice.
[15] Icons: Doc’s hit is 6+4 vs 4+5, for a moderate hit and 4 Stamina damage.
[16] Icons: Penultimate spends a Determination Point and activates “Trained in everything” to create a retcon: She has summoned the Guardians jet.
[17] Icons: This is a pyramid test, but only one massive success is needed. Everyone rolls Coordination (+Athletics, if they have it) against difficulty 4. Penultimate gets a moderate success; Menagerie gets a moderate success; Doc Golem gets a major success, which completes the pyramid.
[18] Icons: Plucking a number from the air, let’s say it has Incredible (7) abilities to avoid detection (it’s from the equivalent of the Avengers or the JLA). Does the plane get detected? The base’s 6+3 vs the plane’s 7+4, so it’s a moderate success.
[19] Icons: Not something we really care about; Penultimate spends a determination point and uses her Gadgets retcons a vehicle that will move them there and return to the vehicle. Done. Of course, now Penultimate has only 3 DP,
[20] Icons: Penultimate wants to prep, so she wants two Gadgets: a Damage Resistance 2 underwear and a blaster. She makes both Int rolls.
[21] Icons: Starblaze fires at Baba Yaga; Penultimate has been holding back a stun weapon (Blasting 5) for this, and she fires at Baba Yaga as well. She’s dodging, so she gets a +1 and she’s difficulty 7 to hit.
[22] Mythic: Did Baba Yaga’s Precognition warn of this? Yes. So Kavik is there, as insurance. The two of them now have to face two Columbus pilots and Kavik.
[23] Icons: Starblaze is in the air, now, and so she’s 7 to hit. Kavik rolls 4+4=8 vs 6+1+2=9, and he misses. The pilots see this as their chance to take down superheroes, and the traditionally weakest one of the One League! Yay! They attack without coordinating: One hits (4+6=10 vs 6+1=7), one doesn’t (4+2=6 vs 6+1=7). The one that hits might do slam but doesn’t. It does 5=3 damage, so she’s down to Stamina 7, DP 3.
[24] Icons: The guards are Experts, so they both aim at Penultimate. One misses, one has a Marginal success. Marginal means half damage, and the Damage Resistance soaks the 2 points of damage.
[25] Icons: We should probably figure out what the Initiative is. In order: Starblaze (6+6=12), Penultimate (6+4=10), Guard (4+6=10), Kavik (4+4=8), pilots (4+4=8)
[26] Icons: Major hit, so possible slam: nope. Still, one damage gets through (Kavik now Stamina 12) but Kavik not slammed.
[27] Icons: She kicks one with a Major success and gets another Major success with the slam; he takes two 5 Stamina hits and is out.
[28] Icons: Big for a room but not really capable of staying out of reach, so I’ll give him a -2. He hits anyway (6+5-2=9 vs 7+1=8) and does 7 Stamina (she’s now Stamina 5). No Slam or Stun.
[29] Icons: The pilots fire at Penultimate, but both miss.
[30] Icons: She’s creating the quality “It takes the damage, not me,” which is difficulty 3 and she gets a massive success, so she can use it three times to soak damage from him.
[31] Icons: He’s not a total fool; he’s got his martial arts on defence. She gets 6+5=11 vs 4+2+2=8) for Major success and 9 vs 6 on the slam, so he takes 5 stamina from the kick and hits the wall for an additional 5 stamina; he’s down.
[32] Icons: He gets 6+4 vs her 7+2, but she has that gurney, so he shreds it.
[33] Icons: They fire on her. One gets 4+3 vs 6+4, the other gets 4+1 vs 7+1. Both miss.
[34] Icons: She’s going to use her Coordination for a maneuver to get an advantage, which she will use to stunt Burst and get both of them. She’ll activate the Quality “Making up for the past” and she gets a marginal success, so she has the advantage, she just can’t use it yet.
[35] Icons: This sounds like a diversion. That means creating a Quality. She’s going to spend a Determination Point and try Coordination (6+5) vs his Int (3+1). She’s got three activations of the “Distracted and blinded” quality.
[36] Icons: One misses (4+3 vs 7+6), one manages a marginal success (4+5 vs 7+2), so the Great (5) Blast does 2 stamina. She’s at 3 now, but next turn she’ll have the Burst quality on her strength.
[37] Icons: Good thing she has a high Prowess, too. 6+4 vs 4+5 and 6+4 vs 4+5. Both are moderate successes, so that’s 3 stamina damage for each of them. Bad thing is they have way more than 3 stamina in total, but now they have 6.
[38] Icons: I happen to know that there’s no way a hypodermic needle will penetrate Damage Resistance 7, but she doesn’t. I’m not even going to roll in favour of her finding this out.
[39] Icons: His roll is brilliant: 6+6-2=10 vs her 6+1+3, so he connects but it’s only a marginal success, for damage 3, and her Damage Resistance soaks 2 of that. Whew! She’s Stamina 9, now.
[40] Icons: He misses but not by much: 4+5 vs her 6+1+3, for a moderate failure.
[41] Icons: She wants an advantage for the Extra, which is great, but she also wants an advantage to recover. The first is trivial; she’ll use her determination point and activate the quality “Making up for the past.” The second is tougher, so she uses Tactics, and trades a lost panel after this one for an advantage: She’s going to spend the page getting bandages on, and activity the quality “Living a lie” (indicating she was a paramedic in the past). She hits them (6+6 vs 4+1, 6+5 vs 4+2) but fails at the stun roll and the Slam roll. They’re now at Stamina 4.
[42] Icons: She’s not even going to try to attack; now she’s Defending, so a +2 to all tests.
[43] Icons: Using her Leadership skill, she gives Starblaze the determination point she needs, so Starblaze is now 7 stamina higher: 9 stamina.
[44] Icons: Kavik rolls a 6-2+1=7 vs her 6+1+2=9.
[45] Icons: Thank goodness she has that high Coordination; specialties in aiming would not be amiss. First one is 6+4 vs 4+1 and he falls down; second is 6+2 vs 4+4, for a marginal hit that doesn’t get through the armor.
[46] Mythic: Do the others show up? Yes.
[47] Icons: Doc Golem hits the pilot. Prowess 6+5 vs 4+2. Then he gets a moderate success on the Stun roll. The pilot is out.
[48] Icons: Now we’ve got three additional initiatives to add. Since guards, pilots, and Baba Yaga are all unconscious…. Starblaze (12), Penultimate (10), Menagerie (10), Palimpsest (10), Kavik (8), Doc Golem (7)
[49] Icons: Pal tries to possess him: Willpowers are 6+5 vs 6+5. Marginal, so Kavik is not possessed.
[50] Icons: Trying for two Advantages here with Maneuvers: His Doctor skill (6+2) versus their injuries 9 stamina and 6 stamina); they’re in a sickbay and will take a little time, so I’ll give him another +2. Turns out to be fortunate: 10+2 vs 9+2, and 10+1 vs 6+3. They use the Advantage for Recovery (7 for Skyblaze, 6 for Menagerie) so Men’s at full and Skyblaze is at 10.
[51] Icons: Initiatives: Buran: 5+1, Menagerie: 6+5, Skyblaze: 6+6. Pal: 4+1
[52] Icons: 6+6 vs 3+1: Massive success. We’ll use stats from Icons Menagerie, so the stun attack is 7+2 vs Buran’s 3+5: That stuns Buran for this page. Pal tries to possess Buran and succeeds for the page, but she’s stunned, so big whoop.
[53] Icons: She gets a major success (6+5 vs 5+2), which does 8 damage (she’s out) and knocks her against the wall for 8 Stamina as well.
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