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This is the first scene or chapter Victory RPG’s Sewer Kings, being interleaved with their Flying Solo. Art and story are copyright by Victory RPG.
- House Rule: Prone people are +2 to hit hand-to-hand, absent cover.
Fundraiser
Down the street from the bank, The Reach got the situation from the officer on the scene. It wasn’t even dark at this point in the summer: all of the businesses in this part of town were closed but hadn’t been closed long. “The explosion happened after most of the employees had gone home,” said the officer who talked to The Reach. “We figure that was when the wall went up.” The wall was debris at both ends of the alley beside the bank, piled about twenty feet high. The wall was made of cars, garbage cans, a dumpster, parts of a billboard…[1] The Reach noted that all were ferro-magnetic. Magnetic guy.
The bank was flanked by the alley (and a brownstone with a dry cleaners on the ground floor). The other side of the bank was a parking area for the bank and the restaurant on the far side.
Dust and smoke hovered over the alley so thick that someone on the roof of the bank or the dry cleaners’ building probably couldn’t see through it.
“Other end of the alley is also blocked. We’re, uh, we’re waiting for a SWAT team. To make sure it’s okay. But if you want to go in, well, you’re welcome to it.”
“Alley beside the bank blocked off; doesn’t take a genius to know that’s how they got in, and how they’re getting stuff out.”
“Wouldn’t know that, sir; we’re waiting for the SWAT team.”
A news van parked in front of the blockade that the police had set up.
“If I can suggest, officer, maybe you want to deal with the reporters.” The officer nodded and looked relieved. He headed down the street. “Flip-Flop, go and look. Don’t engage yet.”
“Yessir.” She flew up and peeked over the top of the wall, staying hidden. She held up four fingers and made the hand-sign for “normal.” Then she made the hand-sign for one, and for “super.”
Succubus looked in the front of the bank, a big tinted plate glass window. She couldn’t see the vault itself, but there was movement inside.
“At least four normals inside,” she said quietly to The Reach. “From the debris inside, they used some kind of explosive device to gain entrance.”
“They’ve got at least one magnetist in there,” said The Reach. “Money’s bulky, so it makes sense they’ve got lots of normals to carry it; paper isn't not magnetic. Succubus, you go into the bank and engage as you see fit. Flip-Flop, close their exit path. You and I will start from the outside and work in.”
Succubus nodded and jumped into the shadow beneath an awning, only to reappear in a dark corner inside the bank. Flip-Flop wiggled her fingers and the manhole cover slid into place. The Reach stepped over the barrier and to the minions who were suddenly looking at the manhole cover.
The Reach stretched his arm to punch all four of them.[2]
Metal debris flew from the tops of the walls and formed a tunnel over the path between the hole in the wall and the manhole. A man who was wearing a fusion of debris strode forward and said, “The Reach! Did you bring your sidekicks?”
Flip-Flop bristled.
Inside the bank, Succubus heard one of the gang members: “Demo? Scrap’s covered over the path to the hole.”
A woman, presumably Demo, stepped from the vault into view; she was caressing a grenade. “That means that opposition has appeared. Yum. Line stuff up, pass it along this tunnel. After you go, we’ll cover your exit.” She had a strong Boston accent, but educated.
Succubus popped into existence behind her. “I think you’ll be busy,” she said, and reached for Demo,[3] hitting her in just the right place to take maximum energy.
The thugs ran, and one shouted, “The manhole cover! It’s on and it’s stuck!”
Outside, Flip-Flop couldn’t see the manhole cover anymore, but she could keep it shut. She shot to the far side of the walking junk heap. “We are not sidekicks.” She saw The Reach’s expression. (The Reach had been a sidekick.) “Not that there would be anything wrong if we were.”[4] The junk-heap-guy moved an arm’s length off the ground, gripped tightly by Flip-Flop’s telekinesis.
“I’m Scrap Iron, and I’m nobody’s sidekick. See if you can follow me.” He shot into the air, and Flip-Flip said, “Oop,” and shot after him, tethered by his magnetic grip on her red blood cells.[5]
The Reach shook his head and[6] oozed through the tunnel of debris.
Inside, Demo pulled the pin on the grenade. She smiled happily; her suit would protect her from the worst of it, but Succubus had no suit…[7] There was a muffled crump as the grenade went off and pieces tore into Succubus’ middle; Demo’s own costume protected her. She expected Succubus to pull back, but Succubus didn’t:[8] Instead, Succubus grabbed Demo again, and there were multiple pinging sounds as Succubus healed and shrapnel was pushed out of her body to hit the ground.
Demo broke free. “That’s impossible! You can’t be—” She fired a rocket at Succubus,[9] but Succubus dodged and the rocket went through the plate glass window at the front of the building, finally hitting a light standard across the street.
“It is possible. And I am.” She hit Demo,[10] who fell unconscious. “But you are not.” She looked up to see if any of the thugs were still nearby. “Who’s next?”[11]
Sewer Kings ran for the hole in the wall.
Outside, in the alley, one of the thugs said, “If we run, they got us. We gotta attack!” All of the thugs fired; all of them hit; all of them had their bullets bounce off The Reach’s rubbery body.
High in the air, Flip-Flop was trying to work into Scrap Iron’s mind.[11] She had forgotten about the manhole cover. His mind was right there…
Scrap Iron grunted in pain. “I gotta see to work on stuff. I bet you gotta, too.”[13] Bits of metal detached themselves from his uniform and formed a shield over her eyes, fastened to her head.
She was blind!
The Reach waited for the manhole cover to move. When it did, he punched the lone thug into unconsciousness. No time to worry about the rest, he thought. What can I do for Flip-Flop?
From the hole in the wall, Succubus looked up. She couldn’t even see the two figures because of the dust and smoke. Come down, Flip-Flop, she wished. Get lower. I might be able to help.
Flip-Flop turned her head to check the metal blindfold. It was secure. If they had been touching, she would have tried the mental blast again, but she didn’t actually know where he was.
We're sort of touching, Flip-Flop thought. She still had a telekinetic hold of him; she hadn’t let go. So she squeezed.[14]
No effect.
Dammit. She knew that at any moment something large and metal was going to slam into her; she fought down panic.
Think. All right; she had a telekinetic grip on him and he had a grip on her, and neither of them could move relative to the other. Some part of her brain had to know where he was, and all she had to do was connect that part of her brain to her visual cortex.
That’s all. Simple. …then I’ll invent cold fusion.
Flip-Flop extended her senses to follow the invisible thread between the two of them, trying to remember exactly where he was. She tried not to worry that he was going to hit her with a freight train. If he could lift a freight train.[15]
There he is. She felt giddy and light-headed with excitement, like she couldn’t breathe.[16]
She didn’t usually feel this kind of excitement. Wait… What if it wasn’t excitement…?[17]
That bastard. He must be keeping oxygenated red blood cells from my head.
She used this with her new knowledge of where he was, and twisted his mind.[18]
His grip on her vanished, and the light-headedness did too.
He’s probably unconscious but I’m still blind. How do I go about landing when I can’t see?
Had they gone straight up? Was the alley right below them, or the road? She was pretty sure she could absorb the damage flying straight down, but what was in the way? If she dropped him, what would he hit?
Aha. Nobody said far-seeing has to go very far.[19] She had done the far-seeing thing before, but she could look just outside the mask. She concentrated on the view from just outside the metal barrier; that let her “see” just outside almost as if the barrier weren’t there.
Huh. Could have done that instead of telelocation. Would have been smarter.[20] She flew down to the alley. Then she made sure that Scrap Iron was unconscious, and would stay that way for a while.
“Can someone get this off me?” she asked. The Reach[21] got his fingers in and unhooked the metal pieces. He held it out to her. “Keep it as a trophy.” He let it fall to the ground.
The Reach stretched over the barrier once more and talked to the officer again. “We don’t have a way of dismantling the wall, so make sure your SWAT team brings their tank. The gang members and supers are still there. At least one of them is a magnetist; Succubus tells me the other has the bombs and grenades, so you’ll need an evidence team rated for explosives.”
A new car arrived; a rumpled woman got out; The Reach recognized her as Detective Janice Girard. “Hello, Reach.”
“Detective Girard. How’s your wife?”
Girard smiled. “She’s good. Eight months along, so tired of it. I promised I’d have the next one—we want three. What do we have?”
The officer in the car had got out. “Sewer Kings, ma’am. Saw them through the window.”
“They’ve been ramping up lately,” Girard told The Reach. “Even managed to convince some members of other gangs to switch.”
The Reach said, “They had supers.”
Girard stopped. “How many?”
“Two. We can carry them out, but we didn’t want to disturb the scene.” Girard raised an eyebrow. “We care about your work. Honest.”
“This time,” said Girard easily.
The other officer said, “SWAT team’s nearly here.”
Girard said, “Tell’em we don’t need them. Call the Phreaks instead.” The Phreaks were Parahuman Restraint.
The Reach said, “The Sewer Kings never used supers?”
“Rumors that lately— Ot-nay in front of the ews-nay,” said Girard, and the female reporter — Jessica Auger, The Reach remembered; Flip-Flop didn’t like her — came nearer.
Auger said breathlessly, “Superhero The Reach has dealt with the bank robbers, or has he? We cannot tell because the alley is still blocked off.”
The Reach smiled easily and said, “I’m sure the police can tell you everything; I’m not cleared to tell you anything at all.”
“Does that mean—?”
“The Reach’s presence here is merely a kindness to the force,” said Girard.
“Exactly,” said The Reach. To Girard, he said, “Good luck,” and stretched over the barrier again.
While he was with the police, Flip-Flop and Succubus had tied people with wire ripped from the building. Flip-Flop had put a blindfold on Scrap Iron. The two women looked expectantly at The Reach.
“The police might share answers later. Or not. Can’t tell with Girard.”
Flip-Flop said, “Or…?”
The Reach stretched a finger over and tickled the upper lip of one of the thugs until the man—boy, really, he thought—woke up.
“Hi,” said The Reach. “You know, bank robbery is a serious thing. You’re guilty.”
“I did see you taking things out of the building,” pointed out Succubus.
The Reach kept talking, urging the young man to give them information. The young man kept looking at the manhole cover and eventually said, “Look, that might have been true for the old Sewer Kings, but we’re different now. New leadership. New vision. People are joining us, every week.”
“You sound like you’re corporate,” said Flip-Flop.
The Reach shot her a look, then said, “You even have supervillains now.”
“Yeah. These two aren’t all of them…you’ll never be able to beat them!”
“They’re that good, are they?”
“Yeah, you’re— You’re tricking me!” The young man set his jaw. “I’m not talking without a lawyer.”
“Don’t sweat it,” said Flip-Flop. “We’re not agents of the state. It’s a legal term.” The thug suddenly fell unconscious again.
The others looked at her. “He wasn’t going to tell us more.”
“Your mental attack hurts,” The Reach pointed out.
“A lot, yeah, but none of it is permanent. Not like hitting them on the head.”
“But it is hitting in the head. We try to keep damage to a minimum.” He sighed. “Disarm the grenade lady and we’ll be gone.”
Flip-Flop said, “Already disarmed. Did you think we don’t listen?”
The Reach grinned. “All right, here's something Mallet used to say, ladies: they let superheroes make police statements later.”
Flip-Flop (Henny Barker)
The Incredible Reach (Jason Crawford)
Succubus (Tara Kleine - Birthright)
Scrap Iron (Larry Albert) (Transformed)
Demo (Suzy Doyle) (Gimmick)
Sewer Kings Gang Member
Game Mechanics
[1] Does he see the commonality? Difficulty 3, 4+0>3. Yup.
[2] Stunting Burst for this, activating “Not My First Rodeo”; to hit is 4+2>3, gets them all.
[3] 5-1>3 to hit, she spends a DP for Improved Effort on the Energy drain roll, activating Must ED to Feed, 5+2+2>5, so that’s a 4 (the limit of her power). Demo at
[4] Telekinetically grabbing Scrap Iron: 6+3>4, so that’s a complete hold.
[5] He grabs her mentally (5+3>4, for a complete hold) and they’re locked relative to one another.
[6] Stunting alternate form fluid from Stretching, using a maneuver (willpower vs stretching rank): 5+4>5, activating “Not his first rodeo”
[7] Given where they are, I didn’t think the attack was in doubt, but I rolled for severity of attack: 5-1<5, so call it moderate damage: 6 stamina; Demo’s suit absorbs 4 of it, so she takes 2; she has 2 left. Succubus takes the full 6.
[8] Succubus strikes again, 5+0>3, so another moderate hit. Damage is 5+4>5, or 4 Stamina again. Succubus now has 4 back, so she’s down 2 to 8 Stamina.
[9] That’s 5-1<5, so a miss.
[10] Succubus hits (5+3>3) and gets maximum energy drainage (5+5>5).
[11] Boy, that sounds like a presence attack. Willpower versus willpower, but she gets a +2 because she's survived a grenade, dodged a rocket, and knocked out a supervillain. They're Willpower 2, and thank goodness: 5+1+2-3>2, a major success. They run.
[12] She also has Mental Blast. Attack is 6+2>5, so she hits for 6 stamina.
[13] He’s going to use his TK to create a “blinded” quality. She’s held in a full grip, so difficulty is 0. 7+0>0, he has her blinded.
[14] I don’t know if this is in the rules, so it costs her an Advantage to do this.
[15] Willpower versus Willpower to stay calm, and using a Maneuver to stunt telelocation: 6+2>5. Okay, she knows where he is: 6+1>4 (6 difficulty -2 for the TK link).
[16] That’s because he stunted Mental Affliction, and inflicted 7 stamina. His stunting gives her a DP.
[17] Does she figure out what he's doing? Intellect roll, difficulty 5:4+2>5, so she does.
[18] She manages a Mental Blast (6+0>5).
[19] She stunts ESP, activating “Mind Over Matter.” She does it with a Willpower maneuver, stunting ESP 4: 6+0>4.
[20] I’m going to give her a DP because that feeds straight into the team Quality about learning.
[21] Technology roll, difficulty 4: 4+1+4>4.
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