Defenders of Liberty, Volume 2 Redux now available

[prankster_dragon]

Liberty is a Mutants and Masterminds campaign I started running tonight. My players and I had alot of fun, so I thought I'd give this actual play thing another try.

Liberty is also the name of the setting, a fictional city in north-west California (nice and out-of-the-way location since everyone involved in the game is British). The city is the equivalent of Metropolis in the DC universe or New York in the Marvel 616 universe in that it is center of much superpowered activity. Partial details were posted in the Settings forum, a search should find them.

I have 2 PCs

Jared Sanchez aka Defender. Jared is the third member of his family to fight crime under the name of Defender (his father and grandfather both acted under this moniker). Jared's father died from wounds sustained his (yet unnamed) nemesis, his death was covered up as a botched burglary by Jared's Grandfather. However, Jared found an almost complete battlesuit that his father and grandfather had been working on, and after a 6 month absense Defender re-appeared. Jared is also only 15 years old, one of 3 secrets he has to keep. His grandfather reluctantly provides technical support. He attends North Edge High School

Michael Mourn aka The Eye of Osiris (or The Eye more commonly). An archeologist from the 1930s who was granted powers by Osiris, The Eye stands for truth and the revealing of lies. Following a recent resurrection and loss of some power, he is laying low in Liberty. Michael Mourn is to be taking over as history teacher at North Edge High School.

Prominent NPCs this week include

The Vampire - supernatural protector of Liberty. Oddly can go out during the day.
Gadgeteer - Science & gadget-mad associate of The Eye
Jared's grandfather (so far unnamed)
Wraith - violent vigilante in Liberty
Rampage & Warp - Pair of new, powerful but fairly incompitent supervillains
Gargoyle - Battlesuit using jewel theif.


Saturday

Saturday in early summer. School hasn't quite finished for vacation, but its soon. Slipstream, noted superhero and protecter of Liberty City, annouces his retirement for health reasons. The day passes quietly.

Sunday

Gargoyle sees fit to take advantage of Liberty's apparent vulnerability and goes on a crime spree. Upon hearing of this, Jared and Michael go into action. Jared races into town on his dirtbike and discreetly downs his battlesuit in a guyver-like fashion (it unfolds from a small unit and surrounds him).

The Eye, meanwhile, has taken a subterrainean route to the scene, and attempts to surprise Gargoyle only to be floored by the villain's first punch. Jared, as Defender, arrives moments later, attempting to trip the airborne theif. After some attempts at using force to subdue him, Jared uses his wrist-mounted ropelauncher to snare Gargoyle and his battlesuit-enhanced strength to smash him into a lorry. To prevent further damage to the area, Defender and The Eye team up to fully ensnare Gargoyle to prevent his escape as the Vampire and the police arrive on the scene.

Defender, the Eye and the Vampire exchange contact deals (spare phones and commlinks patched to the cellphone network are employed to preserve privacy).

After the fight, The Eye hides in the ground (using his power of permeability) to observe Defender changing out of his armour, to find out why his former ally didn't recognise him. After some investigation he concludes that Jared must have taken over after his father (The Eye's ally) died.

Jared has been invited to an illegal rave. He tries using his battlesuit's stealth abilities to sneak out (sadly this only covers visual, so he sneaks out invisibly but noisily, damaging the doorframe as he leaves carrying his dirtbike). The rave is broken up by police, with Jared managing to avoid being caught).

The rave is also the launch party for a new drug, Ambrosia, which allegedly gives users temporary superpowers.

Monday

Jared has a new history teacher, Mr. Mourn.

Afterschool, Jared has to explain where he went the previous night. He claims to have been attempting to break up an illegal rave, but went to wrong location (and so gets away with going to rave by getting in trouble for not doing a good enough job as a hero).

The Eye meanwhile gets a call from the Vampire, asking if he knows anything about the rave that wasn't on the news. He doesn't, so the Vampire asks Defender, who reveals he "acquired" a mobile phone with footage of the rave. Upon inspection the three agree that it clearly displays metahuman activity although they can't be sure it is the drug causing it. The Eye and Defender resolves to find a sample for analysis while the Vampire persues other leads.

They get a sample by intimidating a local gang, threatening to hand them over to Wraith (who is wanted for several murders, this being what separates her from most heroes). The Eye uses astral projection to give the sample to Gadgeteer for analysis.

Tuesday

Still waiting for information about Ambrosia, The Eye and Defender end up responding to reports of another bank robbery. They arrive to find a super-sized Quarterback-meets-Warhammer Chaos Warrior hauling loot around. They attempt to intervene. However, Defender finds himself on a nearby rooftop having been teleported by the powerhouse's partner-in-crime. She never properly introduces herself, but identifies her associate as Rampage.

The two are overcome and forced to flee, leaving the loot (and lots of property damage) behind.

Wednesday

Jared realises that "The Pest" (as he refers to Warp) is in fact Sarah Jenkins from his woodwork class. Also, she's rather attractive.

Gadgeteer comes to Liberty with bad news, Ambrosia does give users temporary powers if taken in oral form. If taken in other forms it could give permanant powers to a user, though it could also go catastrophically wrong, causing massive and quickly terminal side-effects.

Trying to find a source, they check out several buildings in Northern Reach, an area home to several pharmecutical companies. Sneaking into one, they are approached by Wraith, who warns them to be careful but also helps them gain access to delivery and stock records, where they discover that the company received a shipment of one of the ingredients of Ambrosia under the name of a common antibacterial. The Eye "phones a friend" in San Francisco to try and find out more about the source.

Thursday

The Eye's associate in SF gives him the information that was found during the night. The company is owned by a Mister Chronos, of whom no further information can be found. Also, another shipment is due on Saturday.

Saturday

With arrangements made to track the shipment and hopefully find the source of the Ambrosia, Michael head to the Sanchez household and reveals both his own identity and that he knows of Jared being Defender. He excuses Jared's poor homework record for his class, but does mention he'll be grading Jared as a hero.

They track the shipment to an "abandoned" tunnel through the mountains, a project never completed due to lack of funds. It turns out a hologram conceals a secret base under the mountain. Exploring, they end up facing Rampage and Warp. Defender addresses Warp, saying "Hi Sarah", leaving her confused as Rampage attempts to attack him. The Eye blasts Warp to no appreciable effect as Defender and Rampage grapple each other. Defender starts to overpower Rampage as Warp teleports herself and The Eye out of room. Again, The Eye's mystic blasts are ineffective against Warp, but the hero proves too strong willed to be affected by her mental powers.

The issue ends as Rampage breaks free of the grapple, ready to renew his onslaught against Defender.

Cool moments

The Eye's signiture "sink into the ground" method of leaving leaves everyone impressed.

Jared tries to use a battlesuit to sneak out, forgetting how noisy it can be.

Jared gets away with neglecting his responisibilties (by going to a rave) by getting in trouble for neglecting his responsibilities (claiming not to have found the rave)

"Up, up and...F*** it" - Defender, too tired to really talk to the police.

"Thanks, Rook, consider your debt repaid." - The Eye inserts my character from a different setting into the game. (well, I thought it was cool).

"You're grading my heroics?"

[Phantom Archer]

The rave is also the launch party for a new drug, Ambrosia, which allegedly gives users temporary superpowers.

Holy crap!
I just ran this exact scenario last night, with one of my players at the rave where a drug gave temporary superpowers....of course it went much, much different for her....

[Kakashi64]

This sounds like a fun series. I like how you used NPC heroes to help the plot along, but left the important decisions and action to the players. Looking forward to seeing more!

[prankster_dragon]

The rave is also the launch party for a new drug, Ambrosia, which allegedly gives users temporary superpowers.

Holy crap!
I just ran this exact scenario last night, with one of my players at the rave where a drug gave temporary superpowers....of course it went much, much different for her....

Well, it went much differently for some of the NPCs as well (one of whom will show up in the next issue)

This sounds like a fun series. I like how you used NPC heroes to help the plot along, but left the important decisions and action to the players. Looking forward to seeing more!

Something I've learnt is that even if the world doesn't revolve around the PCs, the game does, so always make sure they're doing important stuff.

And I'm glad others have enjoyed this

[prankster_dragon]

Issue #2

Starring:

Jared Sanchez, The Defender
Michael Mourn, The Eye

also starring:

Gadgeteer
and The Vampire


Saturday

Picking up where the previous issue ended, Defender and The Eye are facing off Rampage and Warp in the villain's base of operations. Ramapge punches Defender through a wall into an adjacent cavern while Warp and The Eye come to an impasse, each unable to stop the other. Warp teleports away to assist Rampage, allowing The Eye to sneak into the room using his invisibility and ability to permeate solid objects. While Defender picks himself up off the ground The Eye reduces the light in the room to barely more than a match. They use the dark to sucker-punch Rampage, who is teleported out by Warp.

Exploring, they find several labs and workshops before finding the stairs down to the next level. At the bottom of the stairs are several robots fashioned after ancient greek soldiers. Defender shhots the arm off one and goes to pick it up, ignoring the blows from the robots' swords as they harmlessly glance his armour. The Eye struggles slightly more as the robots prove surprisingly resiliant to his efforts. Ultimately, the robots are defeated and the heroes take a moment to rest.

Once again using his invisibility and permeability, The Eye sneaks into the command room of the base as the apparent masterminds leaves instructions for his minions: Rampage is to accompany him, Talos is to take care of the heroes, and Warp is dismissed as a failed experiment. She teleports out just before the mastermind teleports himself and Rampage out of the base.

Knowing that Talos is coming for them, Defender and Eye quickly prepare an ambush that results in Talos being blasted into the far wall, trashing the computer and temporarily being entangled rubble. Talos doesn't even bother to get up to blast Defender as The Eye uses his Bonds of Horus to try and snare the robot, to limited success. Talos gets up, only to be blasted again by Defender, apparently shutting down. Defender makes sure that Talos is a robot before shutting it down completely, frying most of its circuitry.

They decide they like the base.

As Defender heads home to get some sleep, The Eye heads to North Edge to try and find Wraith, which he does by shining a giant "W" into the sky. Wraith shows up, unimpressed, after half an hour, and they discuss making an arrangement.

Sunday

The Eye gets a phonecall from Gadgeteer. Someone has been projecting his symbol onto Liberty Tower for the past half hour. The Eye teloports there to find Vincent Magnusson waiting for him. Magnusson takes him to Liberty Hospital where they meet Rei Miyamoto, a young woman who last week was perfectly normal and now has developed scales over a large portion of her body as well as a taloned hand. It is explained that Rei went to same rave Jared did, and was invited to join a group heading to get more Ambrosia. After that her memory goes blank until a couple of days ago, when she was found in her current state. The Eye calls in Gadgeteer (as medicine is one of her fields of expertise) before calling up Jared (who had just woken up) to go an investigate the dealer Rei named.

After taking a slight detour and playing tricks on the security at a closed nightclub the dealer is known to frequent, they head to a garage on the edge of Oceanside and the Docklands. The Eye's attempts to show off aren't appreciated, and the Eye is caught offguard when it turns out the dealer has powers of his own. The dealer explains that got ripped off with a batch that had no effect. As The Eye and Defender leave, he complains that at least Wraith is straight forward to deal with.

Jared returns to socialising and homework.

Monday

On Monday morning North Edge High announces one more dance for the year, this Saturday. Jared reveals that he's actually trying to do well with his homework.

At lunch Jared is accosted by a group of Jocks who take offense at his Mexican heritage. His smart alec retorts get him punched, but the Jock in question only injures his own hand, further enraging. As things look like they're about to escalate, the Jock looks dazed for a moment before leading his pack away. Jared is approached by Sarah Jenkins (aka Warp) and asked if he wants to go to the dance with her.

Tuesday

Gargoyle is tried for his little crime spree, and gets away with 2 weeks of jail (1 of which is already served).

Wednesday

Wednesday is a normal day until lunchtime, when Gadgeteer phones the group to inform them that the supervillain Shockwave is attacking the city. Michael helps Jared sneak out of school so that The Eye and Defender can assist in stopping Shockwave. It appears to take seconds, but Shockwave breaks free and silences the area, rendering The Eye's magic unusable.

The 4 heroes struggle to gain any advantage over Shockwave, who has a forcefield that renders their attacks useless. Defender takes advantage of the silence to pick up a lorry and sneak up on Shockwave, who is only warned of this attack when the Vampire starts to back away. Jared drops the lorry on Shockwave, who loses control of his sonic powers, returning sound to the area.

As Shockwave tries to free himself from the wreckage of the truck cab, Gadgeteer gets a lucky shot that goes straight through Shockwave's forcefield, causing him to stagger around heavily dazed and stunned. The Eye takes advantage, blasting Shockwave at point blank range, sending him flying and rendering him unconcious.

As Defender and the Eye ensure Shockwave goes nowhere, engines roar overhead as the Falcon, the transport/mobile HQ of NATO's official superteam The Guardains, lands in the street. Paragon, the team's leader, offers his congratulations on a job well done. The Eye takes them to the still-being-repaired base. The two teams socialise for the afternoon (although with some tension: Gadgeteer is angry with Paragon for comandeering her jet, and The Vampire reveals he had some kind of falling out with the norweigan magician Shadowlight). One member of the Guardians, Matrix, elects to head to San Fransisco to see an old friend instead of returning to Europe immediately.

Jared eventually gets home and is confronted by his grandfather. During the conversation he mentions going to the dance with Sarah. His grandfather realises something more is going on, but isn't quite sure what. Jared realises his Grandfather has realised something.

Thursday

Gadgeteer makes a breakthrough in her investigations. She's managed to recover some files from the trashed computer system and has made a worrying discovery.

The labs were used to create new metahumans. The liquid form of the drug Ambrosia causes the user's genetic structure to break down and re-structure itself. Whoever created the drug also found ways to "aim" the restructuring, so that they have a limited control over what powers are manifested. They had 10 test subjects, 6 were deemed successful, including Rampage. Rei Miyamoto did not have strong enough abilities to be classed as a success. Warp had no powers that caused damage directly, and was classed as a failure because of it. The two others suffered catastrophic genetic breakdown. Gadgeteer couldn't find out what happened to their remains.

The Eye and Defender take this information to the Mayor, who reveals he knows about the base and is taking steps to ensure that they can continue to use it. The Mayor promises to pass the information to the relevant authorities.

The Eye then goes to see Wraith, again attempting to use the "Wraith Signal". She responds with an "Eye Symbol" and hands him a comm-link with the warning "I'm not on-call." He shares the information about Ambrosia with her. She says she'll look into it, and heads off.

And the issue ends there.

Highlights:

The almost techno-phobic Eye reveals he has shares in Microsoft.

Jared agress to go on a date with a supervillain.

The Guardians show up and impress...no one.

The worst dicerolling in the world ends the Big Fight Scene before it really starts (Thank heaven for Hero Points).

The Eye invents the Wraith-signal. Wraith retaliates with the Eye-Signal.

[blaster219]

Jared agress to go on a date with a supervillain.

Hey, she's not that much of a villain. She's really more of a pest what with the teleporting and everything.

Besides, she's cute and its not as if I asked her

[prankster_dragon]

Out this week, Liberty #3

Starring Jared Sanchez, Defender
and Michael Mourn, The Eye

Also starring

Tamara Poe, The Gadgeteer
The Vampire

Friday

After finally getting some rest, and a rather mundane day is school, it's the night of the Dance. Michael has to be there early as he is chaperoning the dance with some of the other faculty members. Jared has agreed to meet Sarah there. Impressively, the ammount of alcohol found in the possession of the students is a record low. Jared has managed to sneak in his rope/snare launcher that he uses to "spiderman" his way around town.

The dance goes quite well for an hour, when the Masked Bandito, joke of the supervillain community, appears waving around what could very well be a toy gun sprayed black. He attempts to trade insults with the student body, but mostly just makes a fool of himself before grabbing a necklace and running off into the school. Michael sneaks away and follows him through the walls as Jared does some freerunning down the corridor to catch up. Sarah trips on the stairs, allowing Jared to discreetly snare the Bandito. Michael steps through the wall to ensure that the Bandito goes nowhere, despite Jared sitting on him. They phone the police, Jared almost lets slip that he knows Sarah has superpowers (and possibly in turn who he is), the police arrive and the party continues.

Unhappily for some, as Jared's best friend Casey spends most of the evening as a wallflower moping that the boy she loves is dancing with someone else.

Hearing a scream from the direction of the toilets, Jared and Michael run into the corridor leading there only to find it unnaturally dark. Michael attempts to shed light on the situation but finds his powers are being blocked. Another scream, this time from the dance hall. Michael costumes up and teleports in while Jared runs.

The dance hall is also dark, and several shadow creatures are lurking with intent. Others have captured several students, including Casey. Jared attempts to overlight the hall with the lighting rig by switching on all the lights, but it has no effect.

As he does The Eye finds himself talking to a vampire, who is able to block his attacks. Jared races to free Casey but fails to do so in time, and the vampire and its minions sink into the shadows and disappear.

Everyone is sent home. Jared realises that Sarah is nowhere to be found. He heads home and suits up.

The Eye tries to contact The Vampire, but gets no answer. Gadgeteer has had no luck either. The Eye teleports to the Sanchez household to collect Defender, and they try to track various magics around the city. All they find is a ghost.

Gadgeteer isn't getting anywhere trying to track down Vampire's commlink.

They try a different approach. Knowing that a council of mystics govern the creation of new vampires as a result of the last Vampire War they attempt to track down on the council.

They end up in a cave in New Mexico, where they are greeted by the ghost of a Native American. The ghost explains that they are dealing with Malignance, one of the generals of the last Vampire War, and that while he is an expert in covering his magical footsteps he is somewhat stuck in the past.

Back in Liberty, The Eye asks Gadgeteer to try and track down Malignance using the city's CCTV network. He then goes to his place of power within the Bastion to prepare a mystical ritual.

Defender takes the opportunity to go back to North Edge and beat up some streetpunks. In doing so he finds Rei Miyamoto, recently released from hospital. He makes sure she gets home safely. Heading back to the Bastion he encounters Wraith, who says she'd help if she could but vampires aren't her area of expertise. She also tells him to stay out of her territory.

Gadgeteer has some luck and is able to track down an alley Malignance has entered several times but not exited. Going into the sewers they find a hidden base, a chained-up and blood starved Vampire, and a trap that mostly just bounces off Defender's armour.

The Eye carries Vampire to safety while Defender vents some more frustration on a pack of shadowbeasts that attack him. The Eye returns just in time for them to enter the master chamber...

...which contains 6 sarcophagi, 2 shadowbeasts and Malignance. The Eye uses his Form of Bast, leaping at Malignance, who dodges and retaliates with powerful punch of his own, sending The Eye to the other side of the room with the impact and almost knocking him out. Defender blasts Malignance, knocking him into the wall behind. The Eye attempts to blast Malignance, but his attempt is countered. Malignance directs his rage at Defender but proves to have terrible aim. Defender hits him again, and Malignance falls unconcious.

Each sarcophagus proves to contain one of the missing people, including Casey. The Eye takes them to hospital while Defender stakes Malignance.

At the Bastion, The Vampire beheads Malignance's body. The Eye sends the head into another dimension while Defender buries the body in the foundations of a new bridge.

Sunday

With everyone released from hospital Casey, Jared and their friends have a beach party.

Monday

The team meets up for their weekly meeting. Jared, however, is suffering from eating something that didn't agree with him and throws up inside his suit. Forced to remove it save his life, it is revealed to Gadgeteer and Vampire that he is in fact only a high school student.

Once recovered, Defender and The Eye go patrolling in North Edge. They find a gang working in a chopshop. The Eye easily deals with the gang while Defender attempts to deal with one member who just sits and watches. Dodging Defender's attack, he reveals himself as Masquerade and that he had been doing some undecover investigation. He walks off as the heroes retire for the night.

Fun Stuff

Jared has to deal with the worst supervillain in the world: The Masked Bandito.

The Eye: "You've got to be the worst superhero I've ever heard of."
Bandito: "But you have heard of me!"
The Eye: "Only because you announced who you were."

Everyone notices that Defender is having a bad night.

Defender and The Vampire argue about who's had the worst night.

"He kidnapped my best friend!"
"He tried to kill me!"
"You're already dead!"
"That's not the point!"

Defender implies an attraction to Gadgeteer in order to disgust The Eye.

The Eye phones another ex-girlfriend for help.
It is revealed that Gadgeteer and The Eye used to be a couple.

The Eye takes a mysterious phone call.

[prankster_dragon]

Issue #4: Shaken and Stirred.

Starring our usual suspects.

Saturday

It's the first day of the summer vacation. The Eye, now living in the Bastion, is meditating.

Jared is enjoying a day at the beach with his friends when he hears sirens. Someone has blown the doors of a security van and hi-jacked it. The police are giving chase. Jared discretely sneaks away to change into his battlesuit while the Eye is alerted to events by the TV set up in his magical chamber.

The Eye teleports into the van while Defender uses his rope-launcher to hook onto a news chopper and swings onto the roof of the van. As he steadies himeself, everything starts to shake even more.

An earthquake hits Liberty. The drivers of the security van lose control and crash straight into a fuel tanker, which ignites. Buildings crumble, parts of the monorail collapse, fires start, cars crash. The Eye teleports the would-be thieves to a safe distance (and the police) before using his astral form to scout the city, directing Defender to the monorail where one carraige is threatening to pull the rest off the track onto the street below. Defender, with the aid of The Vampire, pulls the train back onto the track so the passengers can safely escape.

While shifting rubble Defender spots someone in a black catsuit teleporting in and out of buildings. The Eye, meanwhile notices someone he saw in the 1920s, and who apparently has not aged.

Defender moves onto helping people out of the rubble, using his rope launcher to improvise webbing to hold walls together while he rescues people. The Eye heads to the edge of Downtown and The Hills, the area worst hit, to help with treating the injured. Gadgeteer heads to the southern end of the city to help clear the pile-ups caused by the earthquake.

With the Emergency services responding (and appreciative of the help from the heroes), they move onto damage control. Defender heads back to Oceanside and the beach to deal with looters, finding himself up against members of The Dragons (a super-villain inspired gang). Defender gives them a chance to surrender, but instead one of them throws a fireball at him. Defender takes him out, causing the other two to run for it, one of them fires a pistol at Defender, missing...

...and hitting Casey, who chose exactly the wrong moment to come out of hiding. Defender sees this and gives chase, enraged. He grabs the thug and throws him into the ground.

The Eye appears and heals both Casey and the thug. Casey is taken to hospital while the thug is left on the street.

Feeling that the emergency services have control of things, Jared de-suits and goes to the hospital to find out how Casey while The Eye returns to the Bastion and asks Gadgeteer to find out where the mysteriously unaging girl is staying, which turns out to be Vampire's appartment. He goes to visit while Vampire is busy dealing with the gangs in North Edge with the help of Miss Fantastic (who came up from LA to help with the disaster relief). It turns out "Lucy" as she currently calls herself realised that she'd never been a student and so was "slumming it" for a few years.

The Eye attempts to cook dinner, while Jared goes home to help clean up the mess in his house.

Before retiring for the night, The Eye realises that the seal in his place of power is broken.

Sunday

Sunday morning comes, and a previously gun-weilding thug is found dead with an "O" carved into his chest. Wraith is proposed as an early suspect but it isn't her style (more a cut-the-threat type) and she's been out of town. Gadgeteer wrangles bureaucracy so that she can perform the autopsy, which tells her that the O was carved with either a surgical scalple or an incredibly sharp bladed weapon, and was made in one attempt. There are a few extra cuts and wounds from self defense on the body.

The Eye investigates while Jared gets a phone call from his friend Mike who asks if he wants to go racing on the dunes with their dirtbikes. Jared's response is rather enthusiastic.

The Eye hears a rumour that the Thug's attacker wore a white mask. Coupled with the "O" they suspect a vigilante called Orpheus who operates out of LA. Vampire knows Orpheus and phones him, but Orpheus has been in LA all week and sends links to online newspaper articles as proof.

Jared is invited to another rave by Sarah. The Eye then asks if wants to go searching for whoever killed the thug.

They find someone dressed as Orpheus carrying several swords, stood in the midst of a blooded (and dying) gang. The attacker proves to be a match for the two heroes until The Eye summons a shadowy demon to deal with him. They manage to knock out the attacker and remove his mask, but are stunned by a flash-bang grenade and someone takes the attacker's unconcious body. They find a note signed by a "Miss M".

The Eye retires to the Bastion, shutting himself in with his books.

Jared recovers from the battle and goes to meet Sarah, who's wearing a modified catsuit (with the arms removed). They go to a rave and have fun, until someone shows up and drags Sarah through a portal of dark energy.

Jared realises that he doesn't really have anyone to turn to for help without getting in some sort of trouble.

Interesting Events

Both Defender and The Eye have moments of darkness (Defender almost kills someone in a rage while the Eye summons a demon to defeat their assailant).

Defender is awarded an "Emo" point for agonising about almost killing someone and his friend being put in hospital again. (Really it was a Hero point, but Emo sounded more appropriat at the time).

Jared: "That's an interesting look."
Sarah: "Thanks. I got it a couple of weeks ago."
(More dancing around whether or not they know what each other can do).

Jared realising he's entirely screwed by what happened to Sarah at the rave.

[blaster219]

Jared's Laws of Being a Superhero

1. Thou shalt not date or otherwise attend a social event with persons you care about.
2. Thou shalt date thy enemies so the bad things happen to them and not friends
3. Thou may, if thou wish, dip into the dark side every now and then as long as you feel emo about it later
4. If the situation cannot get any worse, consult Mr Murphy
5. It is not lying if you omit certain things that might get you into trouble.
6. Never van surf during a high speed chase
7. Mother Nature is a Bitch and will harsh you at the most inopportune moment.
8. Just because the 9mm round cannot pierce your armour plating does not mean that it can be safely ignored.
9. If you think things are bad now, just wait till you get home.
10. In the end, the shit WILL hit the fan and you WILL be alone with no one to turn too.
11. Never compare ones life to a Joss Whedon character. JW leads to Firefly. Firefly leads to Fox, Fox leads to Anger, Anger leads to multiple counts of homicide.

[prankster_dragon]

Issue 5: The Low Road

Unfortunately, one of my players couldn't make it to this session, so I just had Blaster219 playing as Jared/Defender. This was the first time I've run an entirely one-on-one session, and it went much better than I thought it would. We'd been given advance notice, so the story didn't feature The Eye (except with his absence)

Saturday

Picking up where the previous issue ended, Jared is still dazed, confused and thinking he's screwed. He goes to get some beer (and we probably get our first major violation of the Comic's Code). He returns to the Bastion to sleep it off. The Eye is still being mysterius and moody in his room, and Gadgeteer is playing an FPS on the base's computer using the World's Best Graphics Card Ever.

Sunday

Jared wakes up and realises he needs to do some research on Shadow Magic. There's no sign of the Eye, however. Google offers no useful results, but the library contains some information: Shadow Magic, while not quite forbidden, is frowned upon and distrusted by most magicians, and practicioners are rare, although Jared realises that they have fought at least 2 users already (The "boss" when they originally attacked the Bastion, and Malignance).

Entering The Eye's room provides no aid, as Jared cannot read the mystical tomes that might contain useful advice. Gadgeteer appears with a mobile phone; she tells Jared that she knows of one practicioner of Shadow Magic, Shadowlight of the Guardians.

Jared phones them, getting a rather confused Coda (a robot made by Leonardo da Vinci), who passess Defender on to Shadowlight, who agrees to meet him at Liberty Memorial Park in 15 minutes. They meet, Jared explains the situation, and they head to the warehouse that was housing the rave. At the warehouse, Shadowlight confirms that shadow magic had been used, and that the only way to track it would be to take the same path through the shadow world. Defender (slightly nervously) agrees...

Defender's mind, being unable to interpret absolute nothingness, interprets the realm as a pitch black environment with no apparent surfaces, although he eventual feels like there is ground under his feet. He is able to sense Shadowlight, who gestures in the direction they need to head. Eventually they reach a cyclopean gateway, which takes them into...

...a room that looks to be in the same style as the Bastion. Checking GPS, they discover that they are in fact under the Nazca plains. They find a computer terminal, discover that the password protection is rather inept, and locate where Sarah is being held. They also find a storeroom full of various chemicals and drugs.

Heading out of the storeroom, they find themselves being subjected to ever-increasing noises causing them to lose their focus. Defender spots a blond male in combat fatigues, and tries to blast him, assuming he's reponisble for the noise. Shadowlight follows Defender's lead, but distracted by the noise her aim is off and she hits the wall. Defender blasts the ceiling above the guy, who dodges the rubble but breaks off the noise, throwing a sonic blast at Defender but instead gouging a line in the wall. Defender charges and kicks the guy, who hits the door at the far end of the corridor. Shadowlight recovers and blasts him, knocking him unconcious. Defender and Shadowlight tie and gag the attacker before heading down the fire escape...

...where Rampage is waiting. He throws a filing cabinet at Defender with enough force to leave Defender staggered, then attempts to charge Shadowlight. Shadowlight dodges and Rampage hits the wall. Shadowlight fires a magical blast right into Rampage's head and it's knock-out time for Rampage.

They find Sarah strapped to a board with an IV drip feeding into her arm and wires in her head. Shadowlight mentaly communicates with Sarah and tells Defender to remove the IV, then step back. Defender does so, and Sarah uses her telekinesis to atomise the wires and restraints, safely removing them. She then teleports the three of them, first to mexico, then to Liberty.

Sarah goes home. Defender and Shadowlight return to the Bastion to examine the remains of the seal in The Eye's place of power. Shadowlight gets copies of photographs of the broken pieces, then leaves, promising to get in touch if she finds anything.

Jared eventually goes home, but not before getting a phone call from Casey asking if he wants to go to the cinema. Once home, Jared gets away with sneaking out by deflecting the course of the conversation with his Grandfather. Jared showers, changes and goes out for a burger.

An a non-descript burger stand, Jared encounters Rei (who he has met as Defender, but not out of costume). They start chatting about various aspects of their lives, and what it means to be in a minority. Rei leaves, and Jared takes Bucky (his dog) for a walk, running into Mr. Cooper, who advices him to find a different route for his walk, as there's been gang-related violence most of the day in the direction Jared was heading. Jared eventually takes the hint.

Jared and Casey go see a summer blockbuster involving pirates and squidmen.

At home afterwards, there's a knock at the door. Sarah shows up and talks to Jared. The two do not so much dance around the subject of knowing each other's secrets as make a full blown tango out of it, at least until the point where she simply asks him. Jared does a good job of bluffing his way out of it until he makes one comment too many.

Sarah leaves, unconvinced that he isn't Defender. Jared then has to explain his comment to his grandfather, who is surprisingly understanding but unsurprisingly disappointed. He tells Jared that he has dishes to wash.

Cool stuff

Jared keeps pointing out how much he hates being teleported without warning. When Shadowlight does that, she appologises profusely.

Jared (quietly) "Until I nearly killed someone driving his face into the tarmac."
Sarah and Grandfather "What did you just say?"

Defender's charge - run down the corridor, step off the rubble onto the wall, then kick him in the face. (aka, the combat applications of free-running).

Just about everyone makes a dig at the British, especially at Paragon (British super-soldier and leader of the Guardians).

[prankster_dragon]

Issue 6: Confrontation

Monday

Jared is working on his motorbike, making a few "minor adjustments".

Tuesday

The Eye goes to check his accounts and investment portfolio. They're doing quite well. He sells his stocks in Wolfram and Hart and invests in Wizards of the Coast. After leaving, he picks up presents for the rest of the team.

Jared is spending the day relaxing with his friends. They're eating in Burger King when something flies past. Jared makes excuses and goes to unvestigate. Some in bright pink robes and a cheap halloween mask crashes a goblin glider on Main Street. HEAT (Homeland Emergency Action Taskforce) agents are already on the scene and arrest the Masked Bandito. No one is impressed. Jared goes back to his friends.

In the evening Vampire calls over the comm-link: Rampage is back, and he's brought friends.

Defender races there on his now-disguised-and-flying motorbike, while The Eye teleports to a nearby alley and watches. Vampire is on a nearbyy rooftop.

Rampage's "friends" are Chorus (From last issue, still unnamed in game), a girl in a mask of a screaming face (Psyche, un-named in game) and Cronus. The local HEAT team are unconcious on the ground.

Defender goes for Chorus, trying to snare him. Chorus tries to blast Defender. Neither has good aim, but Defender's improves fastest, eventually snaring Chorus and using his flying bike to leave Chorus hanging from a lamp post.

The Eye attempts to snare Cronus with the Bonds of Horus, but Cronus materialises a sword and cuts the Bonds in two. Rampage charges the Eye, who dodges out of the way and Rampage crashes into a wall.

Vampire jumps from the roof at Psyche, who dodges and attempst to mentally blast Vampire, to no discernable effect.

The Eye starts to insult Cronus' followers, leaving himself open to Rampage blind-siding him, leaving The Eye on the floor. Gadgeteer jumps in with a strange hand-held weapon attached to her arm, but misses and recieves the same treatment. The Eye gets up and, using his Form of Bast, punches Rampage through the wall.

Psyche uses her telekinesis to batter Vampire, who gets up angry, and punches Psyche in the gut, sending her flying across the area. She lands at Cronus' feet.

Gadgeteer blasts Rampage with an energy pistol, knocking him out. The Eye attempts to blast Cronus, but the villain uses his sword to deflect the bolt and aims it at Gadgeteer, who collapses when it hits her. Vampire charges Cronus, stunning him.

Defender returns and engages his stealth mode, sneaking around Cronus and punching him, but Cronus is tough and the punch does no damage.

The Eye blasts Psyche, sending her flying over Cronus and knocking her out.

Cronus hits Vampire with his sword. Vampire hits the ground near The Eye, his chest red with blood. The Eye attempts to heal him and, much to his surprise, succeeds.

Cronus walks over to where The Eye is stood, and teleports away with Rampage. The Eye teleports back to the Bastion.

Chorus breaks free of the snare and challenges the remaining heroes. Defender talks to him, distracting Chorus enough for Vampire to advance and floor the villain. Defender pins him to the ground as the police and the HEAT back-up team arrive.

The heroes return to the Bastion where The Eye has prepared a large meal for them all. Defender finds his present: Oil to keep the joints on his battlesuit smooth. He and Gadgeteer decide it must be The Eye's idea of a joke.

After eating, they realise they need to do something about Cronus and whatever he is doing. They teleport to the Nazca plains, find an entrance to the base there and descend. It is deserted. Defender logs onto the still functioning computer systems but realises that the content has been changed. Gadgeteer starts hacking to try and bypass the shell programme. Defender and Vampire go exploring. Defender finds the break-room.

The Eye prepares an impromptu ritual to find out if the base has been magically altered. It hasn't.

Gadgeteer blurts out a hurried warning over the comm-link as Talos robots attack each member of the team. The Eye makes remarkably short work of his oponent, cutting it in two with the claws of his Form of Bast before racing off to help Gadgeteer. Defender short circuits the one he is facing the kicks in in the head, knocking the head off.

Gadgeteer downloads the contents of the computer onto a portable storage device and they return to the Bastion. Vampire brings along the remains of his opponent.

The Eye goes dancing.

Jared gets a call from Sarah. She was going to invite him to a party, but that seems a bad idea after the last two, so she invites him to hang out and have a few drinks. He heads off to Century Park to meet her.

Cool Stuff

Eye: Why are computer voices always female?
Gadgeteer: It was male in that one film.
Defender: Yeah. That One Film.
G: Two, actually.
D: Oh?
G: Hal was male.
D: Hal was gay.
G: That still makes him male.

Jared reveals that teleporting gives him motion sickness. He now carries around a bottle of medicine for it whenever he's around The Eye.

The Eye insults the quality of Cronus' minions. Unfortunately, the heroes' efforts that round were also less than spectacular.

The Eye displays a sense of humour with his choice of presents, including oil for Jared's battlesuit and a clockwork clock for Gadgeteer.

The Masked Bandito shows up as a poor man's green goblin. The pink robes inspire Jared to refer to him as "The Gay Pride Silver Surfer".

The Eye predicts bad things for Japan. He also starts to develop a social life, taking up formal dancing.

[prankster_dragon]

An interesting week as the player of The Eye took over GMing for the first half of the session before running out of plot. Luckily, I had my own plot that was just enough to fill out the remainder of the issue. For the first half I played as The Vampire.

Issue #7: Ghosts

Sunday

The Eye's dancing class is finished for the evening, and he decides to walk back to the Bastion. As he walks past a nearby alley he's blind-sided and dragged away into the dark...

Monday

A sunny Monday morning in Liberty city. Jared misses most of it, finally getting out of bed at 11:30 when his grandfather shouts him out as the dog needs walking.

The Vampire, meanwhile, is sunbathing on the roof of his appartment, alongside Lucy. He hears sirens from a fleet of emergency vehicles and turns around, noticing a rising column on smoke in the distance. Grabbing a jacket, he heads off to help.

Jared also notices the column on smoke, and finds somewhere safe to leave Bucky tied to while he goes to help.

They arrive at the bank, which is surrounded by police cars, fire engines and ambulances. The firefighters are struggling to get the fire under control as Vampire notices someone stood inside the building. Vampire and Defender sneak around the back and use the smoke for cover as they enter the building.

Inside they find The Inquisitor, ranting about the evils of the modern world having burnt someone to death on a cross made of fire. Vampire and Defender attempt to subdue him, double teaming him and sending him flying out into the front of a police car.

As they talk to the police sargeant outside, The Inquisitor gets back up and starts ranting again, fireballing the heroes, who are unharmed. The sarge, however, isn't. Vampire carries him off to a nearby ambulance while Defender blasts a nearby fire hydrant, using the spray to dampen the villain's fiery aura, allowing Vampire to drop-kick him into the pavement.

Gadgeteer calls, telling Vampire that the Inquisitor reputedly cannot be stopped while his foci is intact. Ripping off the Inquisitor's robes, Vampire finds him wearing a small gold cross which he takes and hands to Defender, who crushes it. The Inquisitor's wounds stop healing and he is taken into custody.

Defender uses his super-bike to outrun the news chopper following him, while Vampire goes to buy ice cream for Lucy.

Jared heads home after picking up Bucky, and gets grilled by his grandfather on what took so long.

In the afternoon, they team have the usual weekly meeting, but there's no sign of The Eye. Gadgeteer hasn't been able to reach him by mobile phone or commlink. Also, she found a book that may be useful if Inquisitor shows up again.

Realising they need to find The Eye, they split up. Jared goes to see if he can track down anything outside the dance school while Vampire goes to see a man about a book before heading to inquire about Michael at the dancing school. The Eye was there, and hasn't been seen since. Outside, they find blood and evidence that someone was attacked and dragged off. The use satellite images to track across the town where they find evidence of a super-powered fight and a bum who (after suitable bribing) mentions seeing a fight involving The Eye and someone else, along with a lot of light and noise.

They run out of leads and head back to the Bastion where Gadgeteer has made an interesting discovery - a suppossedly dead minor hero recently performed at a local music venue. Defender and Vampire investigate, finding her and a companion, and track them to a warehouse, where they have prepared an ambush, telling them that The Eye is gone and they should just leave it.

Defender discreetly plants a tracking beacon on the male, which they follow to a summer home just outside of town. They house is deserted but the beacon is coming from downstairs. They find Spotlight and Nightingale (The two who ambushed them earlier) waiting for them, and after some brief and tense exchanges, violence ensues. Nightingale tries to blast Vampire with a burst of sonic energy but loses control, hitting everyone but Vampire, who proceeds to surge and knocks her unconcious. Defender, meanwhile, grabs Spotlight and throws him through the door, before picking up Nightingale and doing the same to her, but not before Spotlight is able to knock out Vampire using a powerful beam of light.

Gadgeteer shows up with a device to help Vampire recover - she'd tried to get in touch but her comm-signal was being jammed.

Stepping through, they find a man of unassuming appearance carrying a flamethrower and a pair of pistols, known as The Doctor (no, not that Doctor, a different one). He steps aside, realising that he really doesn't to go through what his teammates had just been put through. He lets them through into the main chamber...

...where The Eye is suspended in the middle of three concentric rotating rings, and his former associate Paranoia is operating the machine. Paranoia explains that during his resurrection, The Eye was tainted with some of the essence of Set, his patron's nemesis. They built the machine to remove the taint, but it has a chance of killing The Eye. Paranoia also reveals that he didn't see fit to tell anyone, seemingly oblivious to the fact that others might want to help.

The machine works, and The Eye is released, albeit a little confused. The team return to the Bastion, before Vampire leaves as he has "some people I have to talk to." Jared goes home. The Eye retires to his room, and Gadgeteer spends the night playing Doom III on the Bastion's supercomputer.

Tuesday

A letter is published in all the newspapers.

"Tonight, a ghost dies." Miss M.

The Eye contacts Wraith, now back in town, and offers the team's assistance. Wraith declines but suggests he be on the look out for Miss M's associates, who are sure to show up.

The Eye takes Tamara out to a Chineese restaurant, while Jared returns home and Vampire goes back to his appartment to spend time with Lucy.

The day passes uneventful. However, in the evening Gadgeteer gets a call and puts the news on. Saber is back, acting openly and having taken a bank full of hostages and rigged them with explosives. They contact Jared, who races to the scene as The Eye teleports in...

...and finds himself snared in a net, rendering his powers useless. Saber simply waits for the others to show up.

Defender tries to sneak in through the back, using the remote control on his superbike to crash it through the front. Saber notices him come in and casually throws a sharp object at him, which ends up embedded in the wall. Defender pulls it out, notices a flashing light on it, and throws it back at Saber, but it explodes harmlessly in mid air.

Defender goes for the net holding The Eye, damaging it enough to allow The Eye to regain use of his magic. Saber draws his sword and uses it against Defender, taking off the shoulder pad from his battlesuit. The Eye snares Saber with the Bonds of Horus, but Saber escapes and launches a small shaped-charge device at The Eye and Defender, who both dodge it. The Eye uses an improvised spell to pull the explosive belts off the hostages. Defender tries to go for Saber, but misses and Saber retaliates by striking Defender in the chest, creating a tear in the armour and exposing Jared's chest.

Defender realises that Saber is holding back and toying with them, right before Saber throws an object in the air that fills the room with a sickening gas and starts to run, throwing another object as he leaves. Defender catches it, sees the timer and throws it back...

...the timer hits zero...

...and an EMP pulse hits the room, frying cellphones, comm-links, battlesuits and superbikes. The Eye teleports Defender back to the Bastion before he starts to suffocate, while Vampire shows up to help with the clear up.

The Eye goes after Saber while Jared prepares to try and find Wraith, having realised that Saber was a diversion. Gadgeteer gives him a facsimile of his battlesuit, it doesn't have the equipment but should protect him. He borrows one of Gadgeteer's supercars and heads off to Northern Reach, using Wraith's comm-link signal to track her down...

...The Eye finds Saber, driving off in a van and heading out of town...

...Defender tracks down a heavily injured Wraith, who is just about holding off Miss M's assault as they duel, each using a sword. Both are cut and bleeding, but Wraith is worse off. He uses his snare launcher, which escaped the EMP by being mechanical rather than electronic, to try and hold down Miss M, but she escapes his hold and stabs Wraith through the chest. Defender tries again, getting a better hold and free-running around the scenery to tie her up. She escapes the bonds using her sword, just as Gadgeteer shows up to help out. They manage to overpower Miss M and capture her...

...The Eye uses the Bonds of Horus to crash Saber's van but he has a motorbike prepared and evades a second attempt. The Eye hears him laugh as he pulls to a halt and Cronus appears to teleport him away. The Eye returns to the city, but even his magic cannot restore Wraith.

The team regroup briefly at The Bastion, before separating. Jared goes to
"Emo point" to think, Gadgeteer pulls out every bottle of alcohol she has in storage, Vampire returns to Lucy.

The Eye: "I think...this means war."

Cool Stuff

Jared proves himself a hero by going to the rescue of Wraith even with his battlesuit trashed and most of his abilities gone with it.

Vampire's revenge for being ambushed takes out his assailant in one round of combat.

The Eye proves he's back to his old self by taking his ex-girlfriend out to dinner.

[prankster_dragon]

Issue #8: ...and I feel fine.

The penultimate issue as the gaming group breaks up for christmas, leaving us with with next thursday to finish off the storyline and save civilisation as we know it.

Starring: Everyone (and I mean everyone).

Wednesday

Wraith's death is on all the newspapers come Wednesday morning.

The Eye is making sure to patrol North Side and try and keep crime down in Wraith's absence. Jared is repairing his bike following the battle with Saber.

At the Bastion, Gadgeteer is playing computer games again when something starts to beep. She looks at a different monitor and an excited and elated expression forms on her face.

Thursday

It's Jared's birthday; he turns 16. Sarah shows up just before lunchtime, the rest of his friends afterwards as Jared's grandfather hosts a barbeque to celebrate. It goes great until one of the Jocks from school shows up with his (very small) gang. A fight ensues, during which Jared takes out the lead Jock, Sarah proves that no male should ever make her angry, and the Jocks run off wondering how they were beaten.

Back at the Bastion, The Eye hears a large bang. Going to investigate he sees Rampage holding the scraps of the computer in his hands. There's no sign of Gadgeteer. Rampage throws the computer peices at The Eye before charging, going straight through the wall as The Eye dodges out of the way. Rampage turns, smashing a generator in the process. Alarms go off and The Eye paralyzes Rampage and teleports him to Vampire's custody before attempting to teleport as much stuff as possible out of the Bastion.

The Eye goes to warn the Mayor, and then returns to the Bastion, standing outside to try and contain the explosion within a mystical forcefield...

...everything goes white...

Jared and his friends hear the explosion. Sarah sneaks off and teleports over as Jared contacts Vampire, who's en route to the base as they talk. Jared makes excuses and races off, arriving in time to see The Eye, unconcious, being carried off to an ambulance. He returns to his friends.

The Eye wakes up in a hospital room. Vincent Magnusson, noted philanphropist and feline-looking metahuman, is waiting for him. They briefly talk, and Magnusson mentions that the Mayor is planning on using city money to help restore the Bastion.

The Eye goes back to his new mansion and sets about finding an area of Liberty that needs a protector, since Defender is in North Edge.

Vampire calls for a meeting in the evening, he's called in some favours and Orpheus and Red Arrow (A British green-arrow style archer) have come to town to help out. Orpheus gets an e-mail alert to his mobile, the e-mail points them to a warehouse in town where Gadgeteer had started building a second base. A computer there has information Gadgeteer had recovered from the base in Peru, including the locations of the bases and a list of codenames for the metahumans created by various projects, including Ambrosia.

They begin calling in favours. Pretty much every favour they are owed, in fact. And they build an army, because Cronus has an army and is planning on attacking on Saturday.

They gather and plan. In a quiet moment Vampire gives Jared a present he found in the ruins of the Bastion. It's a plug-in device for his battlesuit's control device, and contains a holographic message from Gadgeteer - she'd been tracking down the base Cronus was using, and found it - underwater in the Pacific Ocean.

Luckily, Shadowlight calls on the Guardians and gets them a super-fast submarine, which they take to Cronus' lair - a mobile underwater city. They sneak in, disable some guards, and search for Gadgeteer, as Vampire gets a reading on her comm-signal, which leads to her equipment but not her.

They find a secret command in the list of destinations on the city's shuttlepod system which leads them to the bottom of the city. Shadowlight scouts the next room, coming back with a warning as the door opens and Chorus attempts to deafen everyone, but is blasted back by Defender and The Eye, but not before Saber is almost ready to kill The Eye. Defender uses his blaster to disintergrate Saber's sword, causing him to run, leaving a small explosive device behind.

After disabling a trapped corridor (which Defender learnt about the hard way) they find Gadgeteer strapped down with needles in the back of her neck pouring sedatives into her. Everything goes dark, and The Eye and Defender find themselves assailed by a powerful creature that blasts them with dark energy.

A struggle ensues, and Defender is rendered paralysed saving Gadgeteer from one of the blasts. Eventually the creature is blasted out of existence and it begins to crumble into shards of darkness.

They rescue Gadgeteer, carefully removing her from her restraints and the apparatus. As they leave Defender disintergrates part of the dome over the city, starting the flooding process. They rush to the submarine and head back to Liberty City.

Cool Stuff

The heroes assemble an army of superheroes.

The Eye petitions Osiris for an audience. Osiris appears, simply says "Yes", then leaves. The Eye responds "So that's where I get it from."

Defender starts to rant about the lack of maps in villain's bases until Shadowlight cuts in.
"There's a map."

Defender: "There's a trap. Why is there a trap? They can't put traps. Who does this guy think he is? A DM?"

Jared and his friends have no problem taking care of the Jocks' attempt to trash his birthday celebrations.

Defender goes through his dad's "Black book" to try and contact the heroes in it.

The Army

The army assembled by the heroes

The Eye
Defender
Gadgeteer
Vampire

Errant (British, re-incarnated Arthurian Knight, serving as General)
Red Arrow (British equivalent of Green Arrow)
The Riot Squad (London based informal Superteam, Members: Rook, Valiant Lion, Nemesis, Reaper, Circuit, Sunstorm)
The Guardians (NATO's superteam, Members: Paragon, Shadowlight, Coda, The Matador, Matrix, Stalwart, Booster, Bolt)
Excel (Chicago based Superteam)
Orpheus (costumed adventurer)
Masquerade (metamorph crimefighter & mastermind)
Miss Fantastic (protector of SF and LA)
Mr. Tomorrow (Gadget using protector of New York)
Slipstream (retired protector of Liberty, speedster)
4 un-named others (contacted during a montage sequence)

plus the Homeland Emergency Action Taskforce

[blaster219]

Really looking forward to tomorrows session.

Hopefully we'll survive it

[prankster_dragon]

Issue #9..."This is the end, my friend."

The final curtain for this volume of Defenders of Liberty, and it's all action.

Friday

The team return to Liberty city in the early hours of Friday morning.

On the way, Michael has a dream-chat with a powerful Native American shaman (or possibly the spirit of one), who asks if the preparations are complete.

Jared (Defender) returns home to catch up on sleep, while Michael (The Eye) and Tamara (Gadgeteer) return his new tardis-like home. Tamara collapses onto a bed, exhausted, while Michael makes himself breakfast.

Later Jared gets his grandfather to promise to leave the city if things get too bad, before going to spend time with his friends. Michael takes Tamara out for dinner, taking a quick trip to Hong Kong. Vampire spends the night at home with Lucy.

A dramatically-appropriate storm hits Liberty on friday night. (Liberty passes its Toughness Save)

Saturday

Morning comes, and HEAT begins preparations for the defence of the city's hospitals and essential services, since the battle is expected to focus on the city center.

The team meet and and make final preparations in The Eye's mansion.

The Eye briefly takes a trip to somewhere Cairo, heading off an army of Shadowbeasts and some of Cronus' Titans by summoning the Army of Osiris.

Around the world the fight has already started. Mr. Tomorrow fights a spider-creature in New York, the Riot Squad battle a giant robot in London, The Guardians deal with a series of incidents across Europe.

Back in Liberty, The Eye and Defender are on a rooftop in Little Liberty when the building starts to collapse. They manage to land safely, seeing Rampage running through the nearby buildings, causing them to fall apart. As they start to follow Rampage an unknown blur passess them. Defender sets off on his jetbike after the speedster while The Eye follows Rampage.

The Eye teleports directly in front of Rampage, who just keeps running, knocking The Eye to the ground. Before he gets chance to stand he finds himself being subjected to telekinetic attacks from Psyche.

Defender chases after the speedster, managing to overtake him and releasing an oil slick that the speedster easily jumps over and overtakes Defender. Defender jumps off, landing on the speedster and pinning him to the ground as Chorus appears at the end of the street, unleashing a sonic attack that leaves Defender unhurt but deafened. Defender throws the speedster at Chorus, who blasts the unconcious body upwards so it passess over his head.

The Eye blasts Psyche and teleports to Rampage, before Teleporting Rampage into the air, letting the juggernaut fall as he teleports down to Defender as he free-runs into Chorus' face (again). They hear a loud bang, and The Eye goes to investigate while Defender goes to help out Vampire.

Gadgeteer is seen racing down a street on a superbike, being chased by a swarm of airborne shadowbeats.

The Eye finds Rampage standing in the ruins of a car while Psyche hoevers nearby. Psyche holds The Eye in place with telekinesis but Slipstream shows up, racing up a wall and leaping at the Psycher, punching her in mid-air. Freed, The Eye leaps up in the Form of Bast and claws at Psyche, sending her flying up into the air, unconcious.

Defender arrives at Vampire's location, where the undead superhero is tangling with Miss Muder while Saber is making short work of the police. Defender blind-sides the female assassin with a blaster shot, allowing Vamire to deliver a roundhouse kick to her head. She responds by putting a sword through Defender's shoulder, which he quickly pulls out as Vampire kicks Miss Murder into a streetlamp.

The Eye skirmishes with Rampage but neither are able to take out the other. Rampage gets a lucky punch, sending The Eye through several walls, and walks off to collect Psyche. The Eye gets up and teleports the two villains into the nearby desert.

Defender squares off against Saber and the two taunt each other, Defender coming off the better. Saber inflicts a mostly superficial chest wound on Defender before making a b-line for a motorbike, which Defender snares and takes off the road. Saber lands on his feet but is surrounded by a SWAT Team. However, a small brood of bat-like shadowbeasts fly past, heading towards Gallows Hill, where Jared had said he'd meet his friends (in order to keep them safe).

The Eye returns to Liberty, finding Cronus waiting for him, with a swarm of shadowbeasts. The Eye calls on the power of Egypt to banish them. The street starts to shake as it undergoes a localised earthquake. Gadgeteer races around the corner and heads straight into an opening fissure. The Eye jumps in after her, pulling her from the wreckage...

...and she dies in his arms.

The Eye pushes his healing magic as far as it will go, bringing her back, and teleports her to the Shaman's cave in New Mexico so she can recover.

He returns to Liberty, chasing after the earth-meld metahuman who caused the earthquake. Neither is able to truely stop the other within the ground under Liberty, so a furious Eye teleports to the Mareanas Trench, taking his oponent with him.

Defender chases after the four shadowbats, three of which are carrying his friends. HE uses his jetbike to take one out, the shrapnel from the explosion injuring the others, shredding the creature carrying Casey, who falls to the ground. He uses his rope launcher to grab her, and his body to absorb the impact as they hit the ground and he passes out...

...he wakes to air on his face and Casey's lips on his. He coughs and she jumps back, surprised. He promises explanations later, before taking out the other two shadowbats and heading back into town...

...where The Eye and Vampire are dealing with the horde of Shadowbeasts...

...Slipstream calls in, Cronus is on Oceanside Terrace...

...They arrive, and Slipstream is unconcious on the floor.

Gadgeteer returns through a mystical portal, and slaps The Eye.

Cronus blasts the area with a wave of dark energy, narrowly overcoming The Eye's attempts to counter the shadow magic, as Defender and Vampire launch their attacks...

...Sarah freezes Cronus in place with her own telekinesis, the result of his Ambrosia project. "Who's usless now?" She taunts as Vampire and Gadgeteer lay into the villain before Defender blasts Cronus' into a nearby shop...

...The Eye teleporting in afterwards and, as Cronus tries to pick himself up, knocking out the supervillain.

Shadowlight and a HEAT unit show up to take Cronus into custody as he is transported to The Vault.

The Eye returns to his mansion to rest and recover, and provides money to help rebuild the city center.

Jared goes home.

Tamara moves out of the Bastion and into her own appartment.

Vampire goes back to Lucy.

The Mayor helps rebuild the Bastion with City money.

Cool Stuff

The Eye reveals his costume for special occasions: The robes of an ancient Egyptian priest.

Defender ends up getting saved by his best friend.

Defender makes a world-class assassin lose his cool. Twice.

The Eye banishes 53 shadowbeasts in one go.