Freedom League: West Coast (IC)

[XLS]

This is the IC thread for the on-going "Freedom League: West Coast" game. In keeping with comic book tradition, each adventure represents a single issue of our make-believe Freedom League: West Coast comic book. Instead, of cluttering the boards with new threads for each new adventure, they will all continue in a single thread. To allow for people to quickly access particular adventures, links are presented below.

Freedom League: West Coast #1 "Time for Apocalypse!"

The team comes together for its first mission when they try to stop an art heist in Angel Bay's prestigious Darlington Center art museum. The team managed to best the villains-- really the time-traveling art thief Remlok and two of his alternates from different time streams-- and then returned to base for a debriefing. During the team meeting, a new threat emerged: the Atomic Brain. The Brain threatened to destroy the earth by raining down nuclear missiles across the planet. With no way to stop the missiles from firing, the team turned to its only alternative: use Remlok's time-traveling suit to travel back in time and stop the Atomic Brain himself. Remlok brought the heroes to the Atomic Brain's base (and then promptly escaped) and battled him while Radar Doc tried to find the control room to the missiles. With guile (and a little luck), the team managed to defeat the Atomic Brain, and Radar Doc stopped the missiles and the world was saved...

Freedom League: West Coast #2 "My Friend, My Enemy?"
Freedom League: West Coast #3 "What Lurks Below"
Freedom League: West Coast #4 "Darkness Rising"
Freedom League: West Coast #5 "Massacre!"

After an adventure is completed, a summary will be given, as well.

FREEDOM LEAGUE: WEST COAST #1 "Time for Apocalypse!"
Congratulations! After an arduous series of interviews, try-outs, and background checks, you've finally been accepted to one of the Freedom League's newest "expansion" teams, the Freedom League: West Coast.

Once you received word of your selection, you were given time to address any personal matters that needed addressing. For some, that meant celebrating with friends or family over your new position. For others, it meant simply re-arranging work schedules and maintaining plausible cover stories to prepare for your move into a new role as a member of one of the country's greatest super teams.

The new team headquarters are located in "The Aerie"-- a upper section of the Guardian Plaza building, located along the so-called Hillshire Corridor-- a long section of office skyscrapers and apartment high-rises located along the western portion of one of Angel Bay's major east-west streets, Hillshire Boulevard. (Assume that you have more or less the same sorts of things provided in Freedom Hall, detailed on p. 112 of the 2e Freedom City book. The only difference is that instead of your HQ being its own free-standing building, you occupy the top four stories of a large, 30 story building. Likewise, assume that PCs have access to "Sky Bikes" and a new "Pegasus Space-Plane" similarly detailed in the Freedom City book. Finally, assume that you all have some sort of FC: West Coast communicators that allow you to interact with one another with a range that covers most of the planet.)

You spend a lot of time in orientation, leaning about policies and procedures, training to deal with certain threats, and so on. You meet various important officials, including Mayor Manuel Rubio, Barry Beckman, the chief of the ABPD, as well as other business and civic leaders. And of course, you also have numerous opportunities to meet (if you haven't already) and work with actual Freedom League members, including Johnny Rocket, The Raven, Lady Liberty, and others. As the senior statesmen of the League's Flagship team, you spend considerable time with Captain Thunder. You find him to be a stern-- if fair-- leader, and it's no surprise that the League has had success with him largely running the show.

It's now been a few months. You're still getting used to everything-- including your new teammates-- but so far, so good. There have been a few minor encounters-- including a particularly harrowing few days protecting the President from the assassin-droid A.X.I.S during a short fund-raising trip through the city (he ended up being blasted into the ocean; it's unclear if the robot survived, but if the files you've read on the robot are any indication, it wouldn't be wise to bet against it)-- but overall, you've managed to settle into your new roles quite nicely.

For quick reference, here is a link to the OOC thread, as well as a link to a page that has a link to your PCs.

As per usual, let's have you all describe a Friday evening in Angel Bay. As you are probably aware, the city is a Los Angeles analog, so if you want to describe particulars for detail, just search typical Los Angeles stuff and you'll probably be OK. In my (unfinished) settings thread, you'll see lots of information. I'm constantly (trying to) update it. My riffs on LA should be clear to those with some familiarity of the city: Angel Bay's Genoa Beach is LA's Venice Beach; Santa Ynez is my analog to the real Santa Monica; Southern Sierra University is USC, and so on. Note also that a lot of the non-official Freedomverse villains I'll be using in this setting will be pulled from the old META-4 setting (2e write-ups can be found in the Crooks! book, but some villains detailed in the original M&M 1e book were never updated). Thus, if you want to add details about a recent run-in will a villain (esp. for plot-hook purposes), most of it is fair game. (Two villains are off limits, though: Remlock and the big guy.)

If you care about flavor-- or want to add something to the setting-- go for it. If it's not your thing, you can be generic.

You can also have a bit of RP fun, if you want. If you are hanging out in the control room with another PC and want to have some dialog about whatever, then great.

Anyhow, once everyone checks in with their Friday description and whatnot, I'll continue...

[badpenny]

The Black Blade

Lance was having dinner with Ramona Lopez, a local TV reporter at Super Antojitos Mexican restaurant in Aztectown. Ramona was a lovely young woman with a thick ponytail and soft brown eyes. Lance had noticed her at the scene of a crime that he had intervened in as the Black Blade. He was immediately taken with her--not only her beauty, but her confidence.

Ramona forked a mouthful of her carnitas tostada and when she looked up at Lance, he was smiling. "Don't think you will have me so easily with a smile and a dive-y dinner, Mister Williams."

But Lance wasn't smiling at Ramona's charms. He was smiling because he was witnessing a mugging and knew that the Fates would not allow him to enjoy a meal and a woman's company without interruption. "Will you excuse me a moment? I have to..." he nodded toward the restroom. It was Ramona's turn to smile. Handsome man, pleasant manners...where would the night take them?

Lance stood and calmly walked down the corridor toward the kitchen and restrooms. He abruptly exited from a side door and made his way toward the alley. Of course he would now have to cross the street in front of the restaurant he'd just exited, but Ramona was facing the interior and unless she had reason to turn around, she would not see him pass the front of the establishment.

Lance knew he didn't have time to retrieve his blade from the trunk of his car, nor did he think he needed it. He was wearing a casual black suit with no neck tie. The suit had been tailored to allowed for his particular style of movement--if the need arose--and it always did. He crossed the street and headed directly into the alley where he'd seen the mugger take his victim.

A flash of steel in the sole streetlight that illuminated the alley and Lance was upon the man before the blade struck home. Lance had the man's wrist in a painful lock and forced the knife to the asphalt. "Go. Now," he told the victim and the man did as he was ordered.

The mugger winced in pain as Lance maintained the wrist lock. "What am I going to do with you?" Lance asked rhetorically. He bent down to retrieve the knife and made the mugger go along with him. "You're interfering with my dinner plans." He held the knife up under the mugger's nose. "Mugger dies from self-inflicted knife wound. That's a headline that would bring a smile to a face or two."

"No, no," was all the mugger could get out.

"What am I going to do with you? You were going to kill that man...for what? His wallet? Kill him. I don't want to take the time to lecture to you. If I did have the time I would scare you straight and every time you even looked at a weapon, you'd piss yourself. But all I have time for now is violence--something you are already accustomed to. I'll have to content myself with the fact that you won't be killing anyone tonight.

"Now. With your other hand remove your wallet." At first the mugger shook his head, but he could see Lance's grim expression and knew there was nothing in that look to save him from what he guessed was coming. The mugger handed it over and as Lance imparted more pressure to the man's wrist, Lance flipped open the wallet and noted the man's name. "I know who you are now." With a sudden twist of the man's wrist, Lance flipped the man to the hard pavement. There was a snap as the man's arm broke and a scream that was cut short when Lance punched the man unconscious.

Lance stood, smoothed his suit, checked for witnesses and walked calmly back to the restaurant. As he walked across the street, he saw that Ramona was just sitting back down. He headed to the side door, re-entered the restaurant and took his seat opposite her. Lance resumed eating his carne asada burrito with knife and fork (as it was mojado--or wet--style).

Ramona studied him: he had beautiful dark skin, close cropped hair and a goatee. His eyes were penetrating and she was sure missed nothing. He had the presence of a tiger, though he tried to down play it. She wasn't exactly sure what she had just seen across the street, but she would investigate that tomorrow. Tonight would no doubt be something more romantic....

[kenseido]

Night Fox

Janet checks her pager as she looks out over the East Bay docks. Not only had Callie created a whole idenity for her, she had even gotten Janet a "job," relief bartender at a local bar called 'Dougies' in Old Town. They would call her two or three nights a week to work a half shift. They never called her on weekends though, but still she carried it. The "real" bartenders all worked weekends since those were the nights with the best tips. It's not like she needs the money for anything, but Callie insisted having a job was an important part of having an identity.
As Janet looks at the docks, she couldn't help but wonder if Li International was the reason Callie sent her here. With all the crime on the docks, it was reasonable to assume the biggest shipping company is connected. There just hasn't been any proof. But there would be, and Night Fox would find it.

The team is another matter. She told them pretty early that she is an android. First supervillian battle where she gets injured would have given it away, so she figured to go ahead and tell them. They took it pretty well, for the most part. Radar Doc seemed most interested. While her mysterious self repair circuitry would be able to deal with a lot of damage, it couldn't hurt to have someone familiar with her systems so she let him take baseline scans.

Still in the time here in Angel Bay, Night Fox has already managed to add a villian to her Rogues Gallery, Black Diamond. She was tracking back some high tech weapons to Nash Teletronics. He did seem interested in fighting, but he was breaking in, so she ran him off. There next encounter almost finished her. Black Diamond was hijaacking a shipment of Nash computer components, when she moved in to stop them. That's when Otaku struck. He disabled her with a modulated EMP deisgned specifically to take out her systems. As she lay there helpless, Otaku went on about how "Daddy has come to take back his baby." For some reason, Black Diamond swooped in and rescued her leaving her on the roof of the League's HQ. Doc put in a hi-pass filter on her main processor junction, promissing that Otaku's pulse wouldn't take her out again. She encountered Black Diamond twice more after that, though they almost looked like tests. He didn't appear to be after anything, just to see if she could oversome some obstacles he set up in advance.

Then suddenly she gets snapped out of her self reflection. The van arrives to pick up the boxes that were removed from the shipping container before being checked by customs. While she wasn't likely to move up the food chain, but at least this shipment wouldn't make it on the street.

[Gilliam]

STUNNER


As Alison waited in line she reflected on the last couple of months. It had been a roller coaster ride firstly telling her Mum that she was leaving for Angel Bay as she was hoping to get into the arts programme at Santa Ynez College and then telling Gran the truth that she was joining the new West Coast Freedom League. Both Mum and Gran had been so pleased for her that it was a lot harder leaving than she had expected but it was the Freedom League.

Her new teammates were very professional and appear to have forgotten her small faux pas when she first tried to explain her powers, fortunately it was straight into training and cramming with barely a pause for breath. Although the Aerie did have living quarters Alison wanted to try living on her own and had found a small place in Santa Ynez not too far away from the Second Street Promenade.

As the line moved slowly forward Alison thought to herself that there is no turning back now. After arriving in Angel City she had attended a number of dance studios until she had found one that had just the right vibe. While it was great exercise practicing solo routines she did miss dancing with a partner so had placed a notice on the bulletin board earlier today. Now she could only wait and see and hope that the mix of latin and ballroom would weed out any beginners.

“Excuse me Miss but how do you want to pay for that?” a bored voice startled Alison out of her daydream, handing over the cash Alison tried not to wince at the price of the bottle of Merlot as she normally was a big fan of SpirtCo’s “Nickel Sale” but Santos had invited her to a small dinner party tonight and as he had been such a sweetie showing her around the city she was not going to turn up with a cheap bottle of wine.

Leaving the store Alison paused for a moment to get her bearings then set off, it was not too far to Santos place and it was a lovely evening. Suddenly Alison heard a woman screaming a little further up the road, walking faster she could see a woman banging on the door of a SUV parked on the side of the road and that other pedestrians were just walking pass her. As Alison got closer she could see that there was a baby crying in the back seat of the SUV and in between sobs her Mother was saying “My baby, … my baby I locked my keys in, can someone please help”. “It’s alright,” Alison said “Here let me try” and reaching for the door “yip it was definitely locked”. Turing to the Mother Alison suggested that she stand next to the window by the baby so that the baby could see her and maybe calm each other down. “Okay I will need to be careful here” Alison thought as with one hand she continued to pull on the door handle while she placed her other hand near to the door lock. “Gently does it” as she poured a small amount of vibration energy into the car door “I don’t want to turn it into tissue paper” after about 20 seconds there was a small tearing sound and the door opened.

Calling to the Mother Alison said “You must have loosen it” as the Mother quickly opened the rear door and took her baby out of the baby seat giving him a big hug. “Thank you so much, what can I do for you,” the Mother said to Alison. “It is nothing, you did all the work but you will need to get the lock replaced as I am sure that it is munted” Alison replied as she walked away after just one more last hug and cuddle of the baby.

A little further up the road Alison looked back and could see that the woman now had every man and his dog offering to help her. Smiling to herself Alison continued to walk up the street “now it is left up here and then …”

[FuzzyBoots]

Radar Doc
HP: 3
Status: Normal

It was another typical Friday night, and Radar Doc was spending it much as he had been for years, tinkering.
I definitely cannot complain about the lab setup here. Everything I need and more. Disassembled before him were the remains of an old transistor radio, a plasma TV set sporting a large hole in the screen, and what looked like it could have either been a personal defense device or an exotic sex toy.
Microchips... I thought that it was amazing enough when we moved from vacuum tubes to transistors and yet things like become even tinier and more amazing. The last year had been a source of constant amazement to the man known in his private life as Michael Young as he'd dived deep into 20th century technology in an attempt to catch up — Those who fail to learn from history tend to repeat it, and there are only so many semester credits — and he now felt like he had half a handle on today's tech.
"Still somewhat strange," he mused to himself, "Just how fragile they make these devices. Take telephones, for instance." He gestured absently to an empty corner of the room, "The old handsets from the telephone company have been found as the sole survivor of house fires and still function. Compare that to cell phones which crack and stop working falling five feet onto the pavement. And heaven forfend they get caught in a rainstorm..." Shaking his head, he grabs a small scalpel from the kit and excises a capacitor from the taser device before him. Fortunately, they have me on this team to keep a handle on things. And, of course, not everything is built to fail... look at that Night Fox girl. Heh... wonder what Hunchback would have thought of her. Probably nothing, not big on thinking albeit clever with its hands. The world faded away to nothing but the device before him as a flash of insight hit him. Humming absently a snatch of Ted Weem's Egyptian Ella, Radar Doc's fingers almost flashed as he snapped everything into place until he had a small black case, about the size of a TV remote with a pair of buttons on either end. He depressed the buttons and cheered inwardly as the world went white and stayed that way.
"Note to self, figure out a way to isolate effect from myself and maybe my teammates," he spoke to the empty room as he thumbed the switch to start up his Radar Harness. As his device started its ping cycle, he regained full awareness of the room.
In many ways... this beats seeing. So much more clarity with only a minor loss of all color.

Stuffing the device into his pocket, he headed down to the kitchen, continuing to use his Radar Harness to navigate even as his vision returned.
Some day, I need to decide whether to keep up the workshop and autogyro... much better facilities here, but it is something of a comfort to have your own private space to retreat to. And I worked hard on that autogyro.

OOC: Making use of the Inventor setup with finish up on a Dazzle 8 (Visual, Touch Range, Burst Area) device. I don't have any real plans for it, but it could come in handy.

[Kreuzritter]

Dr Trent Daniels has been cooped up in the lab, grateful for the chance to finally have a real lab to work in, to determine the origins of the blast that's flooded Angel Bay with a wave of monstrous mutants, and, god willing, to find a cure for them. this is why he'd joined the FL West, having finally understood that he can't do it alone.

he's said his hellos, let the others know that much of what they'll be facing may be his fault, trying to not sound as cold and unfeeling as his crystalline exterior suggests.

and now, he realizes his task is even more sysiphean.

"Aerie labs experiment sequence notes, month 3, day 5," he says into a recorder, "control group proves hypothesis . my own ambient daka radiation is affecting the test materials, rendering all experiments since the 'Rapture Event', as the media refers to the accident, useless. as result, I will have to start over, preferably with an assistant to perform the processes required, lest i repeat this debacle all over. end notation."

the so called Doctor Daka then heads to the common room to ponder the situation, maybe contact the ABPD and aegis to gain fresh samples.

"supplemental to notes," he says again to the recorder, "fresh samples have more important use. determining effects of long term mutation. cure is useless if I cannot compensate for changes"

[Chris4172]

Champion
HP: 1
Status: Normal

This is just what I needed. It had been a long day at the museum and Cyrus had just left for the day. Now he's sitting in a nearby Quick N' Go watching people go by while eating his double double and wild fries. It had been a long day going through the new items for their upcoming exhibit, Mysteries of the Nile. The organization of the shipment was horrible and it had taken him all day to organize and sort the exhibit. The extra work hadn't been so bad as he had gotten to see many of the artifacts up close, including the magnificient rainments of a Priest of Sobek and the rare mummified crocodile.

Watching the news on the tv his thought drift to the new team he has joined. Cyrus has never worked with a team before so this should be interesting. So far so good. We all seem to have bonded well through the training. Seeing the news cut into the local programming with a story with a live feed of a bank robbery in progress, where several heavily armed criminal are holding off the police during a botched robbery that has resulted in a stand off, he is pulled out of his reverie.

Getting up from his usual booth he waves to the kids behind the counter and he throws his trash out and hurries out the door. Quickly cutting down the alley behind the Quick N' Go he calls on Ra as soon as he is out of sight "By the light of Ra" with those words champion now stands in the alley. Time to go make sure none of those cops get hurt tonight.

[Tinkerbell]

Halogen II
HP: 3
Condition: Unharmed
Status: hero time

It was a late night for Serafina. Her days and nights were starting to get mixed up. Still it was for a good cause. Her day job and her other job. Her other job just happened to be the role of the Light-Bearer. A responsibility she took very seriously. Ever since getting into the Freedom League she has had to work triple time to keep her identities from crashing into each other's schedules. Luckily the League understood this and helped her out what they could. There was times she felt like giving up on being Serafina and becoming Halogen full time. Sure, it would distance her from any type of social contact outside of super people, but her quest for justice burned bright within her soul.

10 o'clock, she thought staring at the clock on the wall. Luckily no one stayed this late at work so she could change into costume without anyone noticing. Her purse held a secret compartment where she kept her mask and suit. It was a simple pull on and mask don. Quicker than a ray of light she's flying out of the building. Time to shed some light on this dark night.

[XLS]

The Black Blade...
The dinner goes well, and the conversation seems effortless. Still, Lance got the sense that some of her questions were, perhaps, too probing. Regardless, they were easy enough to deflect. He began to wonder about how the night was going to turn out when a familiar buzzing sound caught his attention. Ramona heard the sound, too, and reached for her purse. A second later, she pulled out her phone.

"It's not me," she said with a smile.

That meant only one thing-- a fact confirmed when a second buzz went off. This time, Lance could feel his phone's vibration. He glanced at it. A message flashed across:

CODE 16-E. Darlington Center. 143.

It was code, but the message was clear to the Black Blade: Someone was breaking into the Darlington Center-- one of the city's two major art museums. While the Angel Bay Museum of Art was larger and attracted most of the public's attention, the Darlington was more exclusive.

This is just for flavor and will make it into the settings thread later: Dexter Darlington, an upper crust socialite from New York fell in love with Angel Bay when he visited the city in the 40's. He eventually moved there and had a recently-purchased Tuscan Villa moved-- brick-by-brick-- from Florence to the hills overlooking the city. After his death, his trust turned the whole estate into an art museum filled largely with his own impressive collection. The Darlington Center was rarely open to the public, but if often hosted gala events for the city's rich and famous. It also made news when it purchased-- thanks to a large trust Darlington left behind-- new pieces of art; a recent Schiele painting went for almost $40 million at a recent auction, and was no doubt now on prominent display.

Particularly troubling was the indication that the thief in this situation was a "high threat"-- someone deemed to be rather over the heads of the police (to say nothing of the center's security team)...

Night Fox...
Night Fox watched closely as the men loaded the van. She was careful to stay in the shadows and cursed the fact that she couldn't get closer without betraying the fact that she was observing. Perhaps she should move in anyhow. Nothing could be going on at this hour and be above board, could it?

Just then, heard a hailing signal. She checked around in confusion for a few moments before she realized that it was an internal signal-- Radar Doc had installed it. This way, should receive alerts without others hearing. She checked the message on her mobile display:

CODE 16-E. Darlington Center. 143.

She knew what that meant. The bust would have to wait...

STUNNER...
Alison continued walking, taking in the sights and sounds of the city. Even though it was dead of winter, the city was sunny and warm. She smelled salt from the ocean, though, and knew that in no time the cold Pacific air would bring temperatures down for the evening.

It was an odd place, Santa Ynez. Near the ocean and dotted throughout were large, elegant hotels, and four star restaurants owned by celebrity chefs. Yet there are also hipster dives that catered to skaters and surfers. She strode off of a main boulevard filled with high end SUVs and foreign sports cars onto a smaller side street. A homeless man sat on a bench and rummaged through some bags he had with him, paying no attention to Alison as she walked by.

Then she heard a sound that stopped her... it sounded like... she couldn't place it. Then, after a few more steps, it came to her. She cursed and pulled out her phone to see what was going on.

CODE 16-E. Darlington Center. 143.

She was only a few blocks from Santos' place. Would this sort of thing require all the team, or just whoever was closest? Or, at least, those who were not about to go to a dinner party? She cursed again...

INSIDE THE AERIE...
Radar Doc plugged away in his lab, musing at the wonders and curiosities of 21st century technology, whole Dr. Daka worked in an adjacent chamber on his own research. They were both so engrossed in their work that the audible sound of voices from the nearby control center failed to get their attention.

"Freedom League, this is dispatch," a voice called. It sounded sort of like someone was speaking into a megaphone from the bottom of a well.

"Freedom League, this is dispatch," it said again. "We have a Code 16-E for the Darlington Center. It's a 143. Repeat, it's a 143. Assistance requested."

Champion...
Champion was still getting used to his new role. At first, he watched the bank robbery on the TV with the attitude of a typical Angel Bay resident-- hopeful that something would be done, but feeling powerless to help. But then he realized: he could help! He almost beamed at the thought. Anxious to engage these thugs, ducked into an alley to "power up." He took a moment to adjust to the changes in his body, but was interrupted by an annoying electronic warning sound that pulsed nearby. He sighed in annoyance before grasping the display viewer. Hadn't they had enough drills already?

His annoyance turned to something else when he saw the message.

CODE 16-E. Darlington Center. 143.

There was a pang of guilt. He was ready to help with the bank robbery, but he was needed elsewhere...

Halogen...
The law office was empty. It was a Friday evening, after all-- rich lawyers had money to burn, and booze and babes to spend it on. Or at least, that's the impression she got from listening to some of the younger fresh-out-of-law-school hot shots in the firm.

She shook her head and forced herself to focus on going over the stack of files in front of her. Just then, she heard a buzzing sound. Was that from the front desk? She wondered. Maybe someone ordered a pizza and the delivery guy is here. Maybe I could convince whoever it was to let me... She paused when the buzzing sounded again, and muttered under her breath when she realized that it was coming from her purse. She took out her phone and read the display:

CODE 16-E. Darlington Center. 143.

Pizza will have to wait, she lamented.

EVERYONE: I've taken some liberties with your PCs attitudes and thoughts to try and flesh things out here. If I've gone too far-- or represented your PC in a way that you don't feel is quite right let me know.

I don't think I'll normally go into such detail in these cases, but everyone set up elaborate scenes and I wanted to take advantage.

Anyhow, you should respond in whatever way you like. The Darlington Center is my Getty Center analog, with some other stuff thrown in. But if you want to have some idea of where this is taking place, imagine that.

As I noted, for PCs who can't fly, there are Freedom League vehicles. Keep in mind, though, that if you're not at base, there are complications about getting to one without revealing too much. (After all, you can't very well have a Sky Bike just sitting out in the parking lot next to your apartment, or out in front of the diner you're eating at.) Anyhow, let me know what you're doing and if needed we can role play certain situations.

Ideally, though, you'll all end up at the Darlington without too much drama!

[Kreuzritter]

"Radar doc," Dr Daka says, "shame as i am to say it, science has to wait, once again, the day needs saving!"

i forget if radar doc has any jetpacks or other movement gadgets, so if need be daka'll carry him via Telekinesis

[badpenny]

The Black Blade

Lance offered a smile to Ramona as he looked pensively at his cell phone. "Ah. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to go." He regarded the cell and the information being relayed to him. "I have a client emergency. I--"

"At this time of night?" Ramona asked.

Lance nodded. "A business consultant's job is never done in a global economy. Our dinner time is their breakfast meeting." He really would have to perfect a cover now that his time was no longer his own.

"Yeah, that's true." It sounded plausible enough to her. "Does this happen often?" First date or not, she liked him and was already thinking about a second date. Well, obviously now, she thought, that he's being called away. But she'd been heading in that direction even before his text. She'd wondered about him taking her to a Mexican dive but he'd promised it was the best food in the city, and he was right. So, points for him.

It was a good thing that they'd driven separately. That had been mostly her own call--safety he presumed. It had worked out because now it made for an easier exit. He still needed to get changed and get to the other side of the city. One of the sky bikes would come in handy, but it's not like they were small enough to fit in his trunk--now that would be an idea!

As Lance stood, Ramona did as well. He offered a kiss to her cheek which made her smile. He exited the restaurant and frowned as he had not firmed up plans for a second date, but the frown quickly lifted--he was quite good at reading people and she was still interested.

He would have to sacrifice some time and drive back to the Aerie for a sky bike. He didn't want to get stuck in traffic, nor could he afford to be seen dressed as the Black Blade in his traceable car. More things to work out.

Lance might be the last to arrive given the circumstances. I'm thinking of long-range teleport as an AP of his dimension walking down the road....

I'll offer up Ramona Lopez as a universal NPC if XLS is so inclined. She can play Vicky Vale to Lance's Batman.

[kenseido]

Night Fox

Next time, Night Fox thinks to herself. Janet sends a silent signal acknowledging the message. Then, she silently gets up and moves as quickly as possible the two blocks away where she stashed the Sky Cycle. Her synthetic muscles and acrobatic programming allow her to cross the distances between buildings with little difficulty. Hopping on the vehicle, she pilots it towards the Darlington Center. Inhuman reflexes allow her to easily fly the vehicle, despite only having rudimentary programming in piloting skills.

[Chris4172]

Champion
Hp: 2
Condition: Normal


Hopefully the cops can take care of themselves. I have to take care of this. With that thought Champion rises in to the air and heads towards the museum keeping an eye out for his team.

[Tinkerbell]

Halogen had already suited up and left the building, but I accept this retcon

Halogen II
HP: 3
Condition: Unharmed
Status: searching

CODE 16-E. Darlington Center. 143.

Halogen frowned at the thought of crooks stealing precious art as she flew towards the building. Two trains-of-thought ran through her mind. Why an art museum? Seriously, in a city of heroes, they still think they can get away with this? which lead to, This is actual League business it can't be just normal criminals. It's robots or Nazis or gorillas. Or robot Nazi gorillas. She stopped flying and winked out of existence only to reappear inside the museum in the lobby. The stern look from under her mask could send chills down a normal man's spine. "Alright, party's over. Time to face justice, she said taking flight again. The museum was huge, but she was diligent in her search, following any noise she could find.

Taking 10 on those Notice and Search checks to get 20

[FuzzyBoots]

Radar Doc
HP: 3
Status: Normal

Radar Doc was busily speculating on what next to try to innovate, his mind awash with visions of antenna arrays and hypermodulation of sound waves, when something started beeping.
Oh. Watch. Must be time to eat. Just where I was heading. He absently pressed a button on the watch to make it stop beeping and kept walking.
Huh... still beeping, guess it isn't the electronic digital wristwatch. He reached down and pressed the button on his new cellular telephone through its holster. The beeping continued. What else could it be? He stopped and rummaged through his pockets, hauling out handfuls of electronic components until finally he found his communicator, which was beeping at him and displaying a message.
"CODE 16-E. Darlington Center. 143," he murmured to himself, "The museum, must be a break-in. Someone dangerous according to the code. Well, then." He checked the fit of his Radar Gun in its holster and started for the Sky Cycle hanger when Dr. Daka ran up to him excitedly.

"Radar doc," Dr Daka says, "shame as i am to say it, science has to wait, once again, the day needs saving!"

"It is a shame," said Radar Doc sympathetically, "But duty, as you say, for us to serve our fellow man with our superior talents. Will you be taking one of the Sky Cycles as well?"