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The last Quickstep adventure. Next comes League One.
Gangbusters!
A Quickstep solo play
I have updated the adventure’s characters to the Assembled Edition. Should it become necessary to use Donovan Marietta, I will use Bystander stats with Fair (4) Willpower and Power[MetaGloves] specialties.
Quickstep (“Suzanne Poole”)
Origin: Transformed
Great (6) Prowess Good (5) Coordination Good (5) Strength Good (5) Intellect Fair (4) Awareness Fair (4) Willpower
Stamina 9 Determination 4
Specialties: Investigation, Performance [Dance], Power [Super-Speed]
Powers:
-
Amazing (8) Super-Speed
- Extra: Defensive
<Qualities:
- Curious with an eye for detail
- Not fast enough
- Speedy
Note that I have changed her Qualities. An epithet like “Speedy” has more broad utility for stunting powers. The other two Qualities are now combined into one.
Chapter 1: Metahuman Mayhem in Midtown!
Suzanne was comparing ballistics reports when her phone buzzed. She checked it surreptitiously (Kendrick hated people using their phones for non-work stuff). Police bulletin, forwarded from her other phone:
On 27th and Main, officers requesting immediate backup. Robbery at the 1st National Bank, has turned into a hostage situation. Meta-powered suspects. Two officers down. Approximately 18 hostages in the bank. Any meta-human resources in the area are requested for support!
So far as she knew, she was the only “out” super in the area. She’d have to ask the Colonel about it. In the meantime, she had to get away.
Too bad her scanning project was done. Power outage? No, she didn’t want to cause problems for the others. But her computer could have a problem; she’d never done that before. She saved everything, then shut it down and opened it up. She cut up an elastic and placed the sliver in one of the ribbon connectors so it looked like it was closed but the connectors didn’t touch. Then she closed it up and took it to the IT guy.
“Mike?” she said. “I was rebooting it and it never started again. Can you take a look at it?”
“Maybe it’s the power cable.” He plugged it in, but it didn’t start.
“I can’t look at it this afternoon, but I can look at it first thing Monday morning.” It was Friday.
“Appreciate it.” Before Monday, she’d sneak in and remove the elastic.
She grabbed an armful of papers and left a note on her desk. It was painful walking at a normal speed until she was out of sight.
In two seconds she back at her apartment; in six she was on her way to the bank. In eighteen, she had found the officer in charge, a Detective Rawlins, an African-American man in his forties.
Rawlins popped a Tic-Tac and tucked it in his cheek. He said, “Quickstep. Good. I’d rather you than the other fella.”
Suzanne-as-Quickstep raised her eyebrows. Other fella?
“We thought this was just a standard bank job by some gang-bangers. Turns out the perps have meta-powers.” She could see officers lying behind the shelter of their squad car, but surrounded by nothing but clear space.
“Our situation. When the first squad car showed up, they caught a fireball from inside the bank. Those two officers are wounded—they’re hunkered behind their car over there and need help. Any rescue team we send catches flame and ice attacks.”
Behind her, an ambulance pulled up.
“SWAT has the area secured and the perps apparently aren’t powerful enough to bounce bullets off their chest, so they’ve barricaded themselves inside and have taken the bank customers and employees as hostages.
“They’re refusing calls from our negotiator—and the SWAT boys are itching to charge. It’s protocol to give them this, but with hostages, if they go in, there’ll be a blood-bath.”
“How badly do the officers look hurt? I can move them too fast to be seen but that might hurt them. I don’t want the cure to be worse than the disease.”
“We don’t know. Burns certainly but they were mobile enough to get to the side of the car.”
“Then let me handle inside the bank. If I handle them, you can get the officers easily enough.”
He nodded, and made a hand gesture to someone else. A man in combat gear duckwalked over, careful to stay out of the line of fire from the bank.
“Quickstep, this is our SWAT leader, Lieutenant Andrew Miles. Here’s the deal, Lieutenant. I’m giving her five minutes to see if she can resolve the situation.” Rawlins looked over at Quickstep to see if the time was adequate. Mindful of the injured officers, Quickstep nodded. “This is before you and your men move in.”
“Rawlins, why the heck are you sending in this grand-standing civilian freak when I’ve got my team in place and ready to rock? This is insane! This is a police operation. My boys and I will handle this.”
“May I?” Quickstep said. “You probably can handle this. But I can get into the bank (Do you have floor plans?) and with luck I can shut all of them down in five minutes.”
“With luck!” Miles said sarcastically.
“Without luck, you’ll be rescuing me, too.” She didn’t think this at all, but she figured the first step in changing his mind was agreeing with him about something.
“We don’t need your help,” Miles said.
“Rawlins has accepted my offer of help. Why not take it? Then you look even better if you have to save me.” She figured he’d take the bait but he’d give her something less than five minutes. “Detective Rawlins, if you’ll grant me the five minutes?”
“Sure. We don’t have a floor plan but one of our men banks there. Big open area, tellers halfway back. The back left is where the vault is; the back right has the manager’s office and bathroom. Along the right side are some smaller offices for loans and such. There are steps going down to the mechanical room, cleaning closet, and lunch room.”
“So I’ll enter in the back right.” [1]
The wall was slow going and when she got through, there were seven people sitting, on chairs, the floor, and the desk. None of them had guns.
She found a clear spot — fortunately, people moved away from her vibrating fuzzy figure — and brought herself back to solidity.
“Shh! I’ve only got a minute. Everyone okay? Situation?”
“We’re fine,” said an older woman. “They even take some of us to the bathroom. That’s where Kelley is right now. She’s eight months pregnant and she’s got to pee like every half hour.”
“How many criminals?”
“Nine,” said the same woman. “Six have some kind of gloves that shoot flame or ice—“
“Or electricity,” one man added.
“They wrecked Howard’s phone,” she explained to Quickstep.
“It was my new iPhone.” He seemed more despondent than angry.
“But one is escorting Kelley right now?”
“Sure.” [2]
The door started to open in. Quickstep zipped behind the door, let Kelley waddle in, and grabbed the crook’s wrist. [3]
It was the work of a moment to knock him out. [4]
She surged into the hall and saw the two gangsters there. [5]
Both went down quickly; she caught them and set them down quietly. Mindful of the injured officers, she decided to next tackle the three by the front door. [6]
They fell almost instantly. However, the noise of knocking them out brought attention from the other three. [7]
One went down under a barrage of pummeling but that left the other two. [8]
They tried, but she managed to avoid both ice and fire and kept pummeling them. The one with ice took longer — she slipped for a moment on the icy ground so her connection wasn’t solid — but then the second one and third one fell.
It had been less than forty seconds.
The tear gas grenade went through the glass front door and bounced twice on the floor. She caught it and threw it outside before it started spewing gas; she didn’t want the tear gas affecting the hostages. She ran back to the hostages.
“Stay in here. The SWAT team is coming early and they’ll shoot anything that moves.”
“But the crooks—?” asked the woman.
“I got them all, but the SWAT team has something to prove. So stay low and stay safe.”
The first SWAT team member was almost to the stairs. She held up her hands and said, “All clear!”
A bullet hit the ground behind her. From the angle, she figured it was probably a SWAT sniper. Dork. I’m not one of the crooks. That’s the point of the costume.
She tapped one of them on the helmet as she went by. “Hostages in the back. Have fun cuffing and arresting, bunny-boo.”
Probably shouldn’t have said that, but apparently they dislike me anyway.
She stopped at Rawlins. “Got them.”
“City’s formed a Superhuman Task force, now that there are two of you.”
“I keep hearing that there are two of us.”
“James Wyatt. He’s the asshole in charge. He’s got a shitty little office in the Annex.”
“You kiss your mother with that mouth?”
“It is such a shitty little office.”
She couldn’t resist smiling. He gave her the office number.
Wyatt was sitting at his desk wearing an Army Surplus gas mask. He saw her leaning against the door, looking quizzically at him. He took off the mask and explained, “Previous tenant smoked like a brush fire. Can’t get the smell out of anything.” He looked like a dark-haired Mark Twain. He stood up and shook her hand. “James Wyatt. Good to meet you.”
“You head the Task Force.”
“I am the Task Force, unfortunately.”
“Who’s this other guy?”
“Calls himself the Atomic Roach. I have no idea what that means, but he’s beaten up a couple of thugs and left a note. Anyway, why I wanted to see you was these meta-powered gangsters, someone sold them those gauntlets.”
“I didn’t think they came up with them alone.”
Wyatt lifted two banker boxes off the guest chair. “If you want to take a load off.” He waited a moment. She didn’t sit, so he sat down in his chair and steepled his hands. “We’ve got a hot lead from one of our gang informants. The Nocenti family mob is trying to solidify their hold on the East Side by bringing a couple of smaller gangs under their organization.”
“The mob?”
“You thought it was just an east coast thing? No, we have the mob, too, and the Mexican gangs, Jamaican gangs, Russian gangs, and— Anyway.” He shrugged, fiddled with the strap on his gas mask before continuing.
“The Nocentis are trying to broker a peace treaty that will set turf boundaries, thus reducing violence—“ She raised her eyebrows. “— and increasing profits for everyone. That’s where the super-science gauntlets come in. To sweeten the pot, the Nocenti Family are throwing in gauntlets that will effectively transform these two street gangs from pretty criminals to super-powered threats.”
“So the gloves today?”
“Looks to be a direct result of those low-level scumbags getting their hands on some super-science firepower. You can bet next time, the bad guys will be smarter in how they use this new gear. We can’t afford to have this deal go through and have more of that hitting the streets.
“We have an informant in the Nocenti family. He got a tip off about the meeting at the last minute. We’re going to bust it.”
“You keep the weapons off the streets and maybe arrest the leaders of the gangs?”
“Oh, and Joe Nocenti, the mob lieutenant who’s brokering the deal. With luck, we also get a lead on the source of these high-tech weapons to the Nocentis.”
Quickstep nodded. “But the Nocenti family has access to super-science. They’re going to have meta-powered aid.”
“That’s why we need you to be the door-kicker on this raid. Our SWAT teams and anti-gang units will be there to back you up but we’ll need you to neutralize the worst of the supers, if possible, before we’re in play. Our informant will be at the meeting. He’ll be wearing a wire, so you can hear everything that happens in the meeting.”
“I can do help. Time and place.”
He told her, then leaned forward. “Just to make this annoying, the Feds want a piece of this one, too. Apparently the Nocenti mob is of particular interest to them. An FBI squad should be joining you at the warehouse.”
“Well, I got into this job because I looove meeting new people.”
“On the other hand, I love humanity but I can’t stand people.”
“This job? It’s punishment for you, right? Doesn’t look like you have staff or resources. What did you do? Who did you tick off?”
He looked around and stretched, pointing at a fire sprinkler. She looked at it. [9]
“It’s not a problem, it’s an opportunity.” He grinned. “Someday, when we know each other better, I’ll tell you.”
#
It had only been half an hour, so she went back to her home and the ballistic reports she had there. Kittrick had not called, thank goodness.
Alone and unnoticed, she could process all of the ballistic reports in half an hour. The only downside was that her friend Cadence called to invite her out and she had to take a rain check. [10]
Chapter 2: The Meeting
“”How long now?” she asked Wyatt, in the listening van near the warehouse. Police officers were stationed in parking lots up and down the block. Behind the warehouse were some long black cars which Quickstep had carefully avoided during her reconnaissance.
“A minute less than the last time you asked. They are the Feds and are not beholden to us peons. They’ll get here when they get here.”
Lieutenant Miles entered the listening van to talk to Wyatt. He gave Quickstep a poisonous look but spoke to Wyatt instead.
“We should start. They’re all there.”
“We need to wait for the fibbies.”
“If we wait for the FBI, we’ll miss it all.”
“Sir?” said the officer at the radio. He flipped a switch, and suddenly everyone heard a deep voice. Wyatt whispered, “Joe Nocenti.”
“This partnership can be mutually beneficial. We can all profit. There's no need for us to squabble over crumbs when we can take the whole pie.”
Someone else said peevishly, “If they'd respect our turf we wouldn't have to fight.”
The operator said, “Miller, head of the Bunsen Burners.”
Nocenti again: “This is bigger than turf. We can rule this town.”
Someone else, with a tenor voice: “Enough talking — let's get down to business.”
Then the conversation was interrupted by a loud crash, like a wall being smashed. A loud voice proclaimed,“It's the end of the road, evil-doers. You can't hide in the dark from justice! You can't hide from the Atomic Roach!”
Then staccato bursts of automatic gunfire and confusion.
“I’m going in,” said Quickstep.
She circled the building once, realized that the Atomic Roach had broken through the wall but nearly a storey up. [11]
She went up the wall and through. This was some kind of meeting room where walls had been put up but no ceiling. She could see that there were three gauntlet-armed gangsters at the front door and three at the back door. The meeting room was crowded: Atomic Roach had just gotten to his feet but he’d obviously been shot. She assumed the nicely dressed guy was Nocenti; there were clearly two gang members in colours sitting at the table. There was some other civilian protecting a crate on the table from two others, presumably assistants each for the gang leaders. Nocenti had two assistants with sub machine guns. She didn’t know the make of the guns, but recognized that they had a bull pup design. [12]
There was a box of gauntlets on the table. [13]
Nocenti said to his men, “Take’em,” and stepped to the door.
Marietti slammed closed the lid on the box.
She wasn’t sure the gang members had even noticed her yet; the gangsters opened fire again, while the gang members drew pistols. [14]
The Roach fired some kind of blast against Nocenti, who did not seem fazed. “I know I’m a gatecrasher—er, wall-crasher—but don’t leave the party on my account!”
Of course he’d have his own super-science stuff! [15]
She knocked out all of the thugs, though Marietta was still holding on and she Nocenti didn’t seem affected. He was wearing some kind of armor or exoskeleton under that suit.
Nocenti shook his head in a rage, fired a shot off at Quickstep, and strode out of the room. [16]
She dimly heard, “We’re leaving, boys.” [17]
The SWAT officers were about to enter the building when she dashed back in and found the Atomic Roach embroiled with nine guards, all with super-science gauntlets. [18] [19]
After Quickstep knocked them all out, she said to Atomic Roach, “You okay? You’ve been shot!”
“Oh, it’s just a flesh, blood, and bone wound. Ow!”
“We had something planned,” she told him.
“Like you included me, not.”
“That is such eighties slang. How old are you?”
“I hang around old people. Like you.”
“Do you have some kind of healing or do we need to get you medical aid?”
“You there! Give up!” shouted the police officer who had just gotten into the building. Quickstep ignored him.
“No, I think the bullets went right through.”
“Get this person medical attention,” she told the officer. “Preferred pronoun?”
“‘Hero’,” said Atomic Roach.
“We’ll use ‘them’ if you’re not going to be serious,” Quickstep said.
“‘He’ will do. Ow ow ow!”
“Life lesson: don’t move that way.”
Rawlins came in. “You okay?”
“Been better. Nocenti’s gear packs a serious punch.”
“We know where they’re headed. Probably once there they’ll blow town. Nocenti will have to eat crow in front of his father; he hates that. Unless we catch him first.”
“Give me the address.”
“Club Ice. You know it?”
“Heard of it.”
Atomic Roach pushed an EMT aside. “You’re not going without me!”
She bit back a snarky reply and instead asked the EMT, “Is he okay?”
The woman—her badge said R. Martinez— shook her head. “I can’t tell. Probably.”
“I’ll carry you,” Quickstep told Atomic Roach.
“It will be bad for my manly image!”
“I’ll leave you behind.”
The EMT snickered.
“...but I’ll survive.”
“On my back,” said Quickstep.
Chapter 3: Showdown
Quickstep stopped behind the nightclub, by the kitchen entrance. The black cars were there, unattended.
“Crap,” whispered Quickstep. “That means they have some other way of getting out of town. Otherwise they’d leave the engine running.”
Atomic Roach started to move. Quickstep put a hand on his shoulder. “Do you hear something?”
“No.”
“It’s a nightclub. We should be hearing music.” That’s where Cadence wanted to go. Did she go anyway? [20]
“Murder victims?”
“I was thinking hostages but murder victims if we don’t manage this right.”
“Oh boy!” he said. She whacked him on the shoulder. “That’s terrible. But it’s my first time averting mass murder.”
#
Atomic Roach made the back entrance to the kitchen go away in a brilliant flash of light; Quickstep did a quick recon of the kitchen: there were four guards. [21] [22]
She didn’t manage to knock anyone out, and was annoyed at herself. They returned fire with fire. [23]
Atomic Roach blasted [24] one unconscious.
Quickstep [25] hit the next two.
...and knocked them out. She went through the swinging doors to the main floor of the kitchen: surprise was key here, because she didn’t want anyone firing on the—
There was no crowd.
Where are the people? [26]
There was not even any surprise: Three gauntleted goons waited at the front entrance to the dance area. I guess Roach and I were kind of loud.
“Have some of our baked Alaska!” said one of the goons, and fire and ice shot out at her. [27]
She picked the ice one first. [28]
She slipped on some of the ice surrounding him, so her first punch missed, the second barely connected, and the third one was solid. He still went down; thank goodness for her new augmented physique.
She turned to the one beside her, with fire. [29]
He slumped to the floor like a rag doll.
She turned to the third and fourth goons. “You want to do this, or do you want to tell me what happened to the people?”
An armoured figure strode out of the darkness. “He will not, because I do not allow it.”
“Who are you?”
“I...am Khan! And you...will die!”
So this is who supplies the high-tech weapons! she thought. She assumed it would be a better grade than what the goons had. [30] [31] [32]
He hasn’t managed to hit me yet but I can’t even hurt him through that armor! [33]
She thought, I can put more power behind it but that will leave me open! No choice; I’ll have to hit them both. The thug went flying, and she felt something in the armor crack. She wasn’t quite fast enough to get out of Khan’s way, and the colors of his blast played over her. [34]
She managed to hit him again, but he got a solid blast of tau radiation that made her groan. [35]
The hostages! she thought instead. It would be good to finish off armor guy, but the hostages were more important.
“Found the basement. You okay?”
“Extra armored guy packed a punch,” she said. “Extra armored guy. He probably won’t come up from behind.” [36]
“You can go over them if I take care of the gunmen?”
“Sure.”
“Then I will.” [37]
The guests were crowded into the wine cellar, about sixty people crammed into the small space that smelled of intermingled colognes, sweat, fear, and wine. Quickstep surged into the room and saw two men with guns. She hit each of the guards and they fell like stringless marionettes.
“Stop right there!” shouted a man. He had a hostage.
Cadence!
He had her by the throat, revolver pointed to her temple. Her hair was up and Quickstep could see the dent that the barrel had left from being pressed against her head.
Too crowded to windmill her arms and create a vacuum around the thug, making him fall unconscious.
Could Quickstep move across that space fast enough? If it were empty, sure, but with people in it she’d have to move across the ceiling and that would mean a startup time.
Or she could run through people but she had never made someone else intangible before; maybe the attempt would kill Cadence.
Or generate enough static electricity to jump to the gun, though his finger might twitch before he jerked his hand away.
All these thoughts went through her mind in a nanosecond. Superspeed was great for ruling ideas out, but not for coming up with them. Unless—
Ah. That would do it. Though she’d have to be, well, fast. [38]
Sorry, Cadence; this will be traumatic for you. [39]
She had grabbed a knife upstairs, and she played with the heft for a moment. She had dated a knife thrower once and spent an afternoon drinking tequila and learning to throw knives. There was just enough room, but she had to goad him into firing and throw it at just the right second. She was pretty sure she could do it.
She was gambling Cadence’s life on it.
“Really? I don’t think you could do it. I think you’re relying on me stopping you so you don’t get murder one on your rap sheet.”
“I’ll do it. There’s plenty of other hostages here. I can kill one!”
“You won’t do it.”
Time slowed down for her and she saw the hammer of the revolver move back. That was what she was waiting for, and faster than the eye could follow, she threw the knife. [40]
The blade of the butter knife slid between the hammer and the revolver and instead of the bang that the crook was expecting, there was a tinny clack. [41]
Cadence fainted, but Quickstep was gone by then.
There was a narrow tunnel with wooden stairs. The tunnel was old, maybe Prohibition days, with electric lights and visible wire strung along the ceiling.
The tunnel let out to a long low room, and a door like a submarine door was set in one wall. It was open, and Mariotti was in the process of putting on long rubber boots.
Nocenti already had his on, and a gas mask of some kind. As she came in, he was leaving through the port.
Full speed: she rushes into Marietta. He seemed to be unconscious. [42]
Nocenti heard the noise and turned and fired at her. [43]
The pain was incredible, and she still tingled as the glow of the blast faded. She hoped that Atomic Roach would get there soon, because she didn’t know if she could take a second one of those. [44]
She moved with feet that felt like they had lead weights, and went up to fetch and grab the Atomic Roach.
“He’s….taking me apart,” she gasped. “Need your help.”
He jumped on her back. [45]
The door was in the process of closing. [46]
They forced the door open. [47]
The Atomic Roach’s blast narrowly missed Nocenti, and Quickstep realized that she needed to rush him, too. She slammed into him and he stumbled but did not fall. [48]
Another blast of tau radiation; Nocenti was frantic now. “I just want to….leave!” He hit the Atomic Roach full on, but the Roach said, “Like a tree?” and leapt into the sewer tunnel. [49]
The Atomic Roach scrambled so he was standing upside down, on the top of the sewer tunnel. He thrust his hand forward as he had done for every other blast, but this time nothing happened. After a moment of incredulity, Atomic Roach punched Nocenti hard.
He connected solidly on the man’s hidden armor and nothing happened. [50]
Quickstep tried to rush Nocenti again and again, and failed every time. That fancy skeleton of his makes him too fast! [51]
“Your fancy blast don’t work down here, huh? I’ll remember that!” and he punched the Atomic Roach back, but the Roach dodged out of the way.
“Guess your bark is worse than your strike!” said the Roach. “Bark, like trees. I got a theme going here.” He punched again. [52]
Can’t lay a glove on him!
“This armor’s pretty good. I’ll be ordering more of it soon, because it makes you guys look like chumps!”
Roach decided to poke at Nocenti. “Hey, I heard your daddy bought you that armor. Will he be impressed you had to lock me in a sewer before you decided to take a chance?” [53]
Quickstep saw that he was distracted. “That’s right, Nocenti. You couldn’t even get this far without your daddy’s money, and he thinks you’re a failure.” [54]
Nocenti fired blindly, and the gout of flame shot forward but only marginally hit Quickstep. [55]
“Hey, pay attention to the one that brung ya!” The Atomic Roach punched him again.
Quickstep rushed him and hit him, then rushed him again. [56]
Finally, he fell on the damp line at the bottom of the sewer.
“We should team up more often,” said the Atomic Roach.
“Ha ha ha,” said Quickstep. “No.”
[1] Icons: She stunts Phasing three using a maneuver (she can’t barely fail a maneuver for Phasing 3) and then activates the Quality “Speedy.”
[2] Mythic: Are they due back? Yes.
[3] Icons: The crook is Prowess 3, she’s Prowess 6-2 (for grab) + 2 (roll) so that’s a major success, and she inflicts Strength damage. That happens to knock him out. We’ll count this panel as surprise to the other two.
[4] Icons: Now she’s going to stunt Fast Attack using a Determination Point and the “Not Fast Enough” Quality. DP: 3. Initiatives: Quickstep 8, Gangsters 4, Metapowered Gangsters 5.
[5] Icons: Her attacks are 8 vs 3 and 9 vs 3. Both the normals go down.
[6] Icons: Taking advantage of the element of surprise, she decides to split her Fast Attack into 4 and 4. The difficulty against them is 0, so she’s likely to succeed: she gets 6-1, 6, and 6+1 so all three go down before they can react. However, I’m not nice enough to give surprise against the remaining three.
[7] Icons: Three of them, one of her. Split Fast Attack into 6 and 2. The first two hit but the third one doesn’t (Two moderate attacks and a moderate miss); she adds the +1 to damage and does 6 stamina damage, which knocks the first one out.
[8] Icons: They both fire, They have coordination 2, so even if they roll +5 they can’t hit her defense of 8. So we’ll just skip them. She punches the second one, but rolls sucky and does two marginal hits, so he’s still up. She knocks him out on the second attempt. Then the third one.
[9] Icons: She’s got an eye for detail, so she notices that the fire sprinkler isn’t real. (4+2+2 vs 5; a major success lets her know it’s a bug.)
[10] Icons: This is laying groundwork. I want the option to make Cadence one of the hostages in the third chapter, if we get that far.
[11] Icons: Stunting Surface Movement 3 because she’s afraid that she’s Not Fast Enough, using a Super-Speed maneuver.
[12] Icons: Initiatives. Rolled and re-ordered top to bottom. Kamitsu Khan: 10; Atomic Roach: 10; Quickstep 9; Capo: 8; Marietta: 6; Various Thugs: 4
[13] Icons: As an experiment, here’s a table, with attack and defense values for Prowess and Coordination, armor, and damage of most common attack (strength), armor, and stamina
| Name | PRW | CRD | Armor | Attack | Stamina | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kamitsu | 4/4 | 4/4 | 5 | 5(6) | 11 | |
| Atomic Roach | 5/5 | 0 | 10(6) | 10 | ||
| Quickstep | 6/8 | 5/8 | 0 | (5) | 9 | |
| Capo | 6/6 | 7/7 | 6 | 7(6) | 9 | |
| Marietti | 2/2 | 3/3 | 0 | 6(3) | 6 | 6 |
| Metathugs | 3/3 | 2/2 | 0 | 5/(3) | 6 | |
| Thugs | 3/3 | 2/2 | 0 | 4 | (shoot)/(3) | 5 |
[14] Icons: The gangsters miss (2-3, -1, lower than the Roach’s 5), even though they’re combining actions. Roach decides to get Nocenti first. He rolls well (5+4, for 9) for a moderate success against Nocenti.
[15] Icons: Quickstep is going to activate one Quality (“Not fast enough”) to stunt Burst on her strength. DP: 2. Now she’s going to attack everyone but Roach at superspeed. She tags everyone at better-than-marginal, and two major.
[16] Icons: That’s a darned good roll he makes; his 11 beats her defense of 8, so he tags her with a major blast and knocks her into the wall (9 vs 5). We know from Atomic Roach’s entrance that the wall can be broken by a damage 6 attack, so he blows her right through the wall. She, however, spends a Determination point to activate “Curious with an eye for detail” between the blast and the slam, recovers 5 so she’s at 7, goes through the wall for 6, and is at 1. DP: 1
[17] Icons: As the GM, I want there to be a third chapter, so I offer Quickstep a Determination for another recovery if she takes Trouble (loss of a page) which will let the bad guys get away. She takes it, and spends it on an advantage and a recovery.
[18] Mythic: Does this sound like the same fight? Do the stunted powers still hold? Yes.
[19] Icons: So burst on her strength, which affects almost everyone in the room and she doesn’t roll lower than -2, so she hits everyone at moderate or better. All fall down.
[20] Icons: Classic hero trope; I’m going to give Quickstep a Determination Point and make sure that Cadence is there among the hostages. DP: 2
[21] Icons: She’s likely to hit: 6-2 is still more than 3. Moderate success, so one guard is down by 5 stamina. These aren’t minions, and have 6 stamina, so he has 1 Stamina left.
[22] Icons: Duh. Initiative. Atomic Roach: 9 Quickstep: 9 Thugs: 8
[23] Icons: They get 3, 0, and 4 against her defensive score of 8. These are ranged attacks so she doesn’t get to attack back for those massive failures.
[24] Icons: 9 vs 3, and does 10 Stamina.
[25] Icons: She stunts Fast Attack with “Speedy” and a DP. The first attack is to finish off the conscious one, and the next two (at prowess 6 and 2) both connect with the third thug, and since they are combining attacks, get +1. He’s down. DP: 1
[26] Icons: Yup, “Not fast enough” being compelled because she’s going to need determination points when dealing with Nocenti. DP: 2
[27] Icons: Do they hit? They can’t; they are coordination 2 and she’s defense 8, so it isn’t happening.
[28] Icons: Ooof, bad rolls: She gets 2, 3, and 4. One miss, one marginal, one moderate. A marginal hit doesn’t add to damage, so she ends up doing more damage to this no-resistance goon than if she’d had two moderate hits: one of 0 Stamina and one of 5. He’s down.
[29] Icons: Rolls this time are 5, 5, and 1, so two hits, and he’s down.
[30] Icons: Initiative: Roach: 10; Quickstep: 8; Kamitsu: 8; Thugs: 3 Coin toss, and Kamitsu goes first this time. Let’s put up that chart again.
[31] Icons: Kamitsu fires but 5+0 is less than 8; major fail. Quickstep responds with a set of embarrassing misses: 6-4, 6-4, 2+0. We’re not gonna worry about the thug, who fires once for 2-1.
[32] Icons: Quickstep tries again, because she’s got to connect and fail before trying the next thing. Excellent: she hits with a moderate success and her 5 damage doesn’t even penetrate his 6 armor. He misses with his blast (5-2 vs 8).
[33] Icons: Apparently I’ve been doing Maneuvers wrong: they take a panel before you have the Advantage, so this time I’ll use Tactics. I’ll deliberately give up the Defensive extra to stunt a Strike 8. She’ll activate “Speedy” for that. Fortunately, she still has Fast Attack stunted. That’s two hits and one miss, but the metapowered thug is out of it. However, Kamitsu gets to fire, and his coordination is 5, just like hers… He manages a marginal hit, so she’s down 2 Stamina.
[34] Icons: Now it’s the two of them. She goes first again. She hits only once in three shots, but that means Kamitsu is down by another three. He manages a solid blast (8 vs 4, for a major hit, but no Slam effect)
[35] Icons: First, she uses Speedy and a determination point to Recover. DP: 1 Her hit this time is a major success, and even succeeds at sending him to the next range, which blasts him outside, through the glass front doors.
[36] Icons: We’ve switched to narrative time, so the stunts end. Pity.
[37] Icons: She stunts Strike Burst, with the same disability Trouble as before. I’m going to assume it’s selective; the schtick is that she’s moving fast enough she can punch everyone. As GM I offer her trouble: one of the gumen is on the other side of the crowd, so this attack won’t get that person. As a player, I take it. Now I have two DP and a chance to have some interaction with Cadence. She hits the first guy, massive success, stuns him unconscious; same for the second.
[38] Icons: In game mechanics, this is simple: she’s going to use an advantage to create Trouble for the crook and cause his pistol to jam. Diagetically, how? Well, because I casually said “revolver” up above instead of semi-automatic, I have an idea. But mechanically, it will just be activating a Quality to create an Advantage, and using that to create a panel of disability for the crook.
[39] Icons: Blow a dp on a retcon; yes, she’s fast enough that she could run upstairs and get it, but it seems more superhero-ey to have already grabbed the knife. Activating the “eye for detail” quality.
[40] Icons: Remember, this is all dressing for something that’s already been paid for. I don’t have to roll for it, because it’s just the rationalization for the failure to fire.
[41] Icons: Now she spends a DP, activates “Speedy” and gets surface movement, runs along the wall, and punches the crook: 8 vs 3, a massive success. He’s knocked unconscious and stunned besides.
[42] Icons: A rush for her is 9 stamina, so he’s out.
[43] Icons: Atomic Roach is at 9 stamina, Quickstep at 3, and Cap is at 3. Ooof. He rolls 4,so his attack is 7+4, higher than her 8, a major success. No Slam effect, though.
[44] Icons: She can’t, actually. And she has no determination points. She needs to recover, and she needs a Maneuver or Tactics; so a Maneuver that might help in more ways.
[45] Icons: GM-me is kind, so that gives her an advantage and she can recover. Player-me is grateful.
[46] Icons: Strength vs Strength to open it; I’m going to say that her help gives +1, so it’s 7+4 vs 6+3.
[47] Icons: Atomic Roach goes first in Initiative order. He misses: 5+1 vs 7. Quickstep is going to try to rush him, too. She manages a moderate success, so Nocenti takes 3 Stamina (9-6).
[48] Mythic: Who does Nocenti aim at? Roach. Notcenti hits with a moderate success; Roach spends his one determination to recover.
[49] Icons: And the Atomic Roach discovers that the sewer tunnel is lead-lined; his radiation control doesn’t work here. It’s a limit he paid for, so he gets no determination for it. Instead, he tries to punch! He succeeds! To no avail!
[50] Icons: Quickstep has no DP left and no opportunity to spend a panel recovering. Instad, she’s going to try tactics again: she’s going to trade her Defensive option for Fast Attack, and she’s going to Rush him twice. She needs a 1 or better, and gets -1 each time. The only kindness I’ll give her is that missing a Rush means she’s far down the tunnel.
[51] Mythic: Does he go for Atomic Roach again? (I put him first because (a) alphabetical order and (b) he’s an NPC.) Nocenti does.
[52] Icons: He’s actually using his Prowess to create a distracted quality. His Prowess of 5 plus 0 versus Nocenti’s Prowess of 6 means nothing happens. And Quickstep fails again…
[53] Icons: I call this activating “Hair-trigger temper” for a -2 on actions for the turn. Let’s try willpower vs willpower. 4+0 vs 3+1. Nobody gets a free activation today.
[54] Icons: Finally! A break! One free activation of his Hair-trigger temper and I’m going to use it for -2 when attacked.
[55] Icons: He rolled 7-3, or 4. She takes 3 Stamina.
[56] Icons: Yay! Great rolls: she gets 6+3+2 (for that Trouble) for a massive success, and while that doesn’t knock him out, the stun roll is 9+3 vs 6, and he is knocked out.
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