CHAPTER ONE: NEW YORK CITY
Vanguard Vault was
destroyed, incinerated by controlled demolitions, but the Empire State Building
remained standing. With the top four floors
completely demolished, its new zenith burned like a funeral pyre, creating a
sickening, black shroud across Manhattan.
Vanguard hovered
80 stories above New York City, near the ravaged Empire State Building. Above
them raged the World Storm. Below them, a city rioted.
Sentinel used his
energy sense to scan the collapse of Vanguard Vault for survivors. There were none.
Sentinel recognized the energy signatures of Shelley Harper, Doc Rocket, Sgt. Stone,
Agent Drake, Nathan Lamb, Larry Manetti, Archimedes, and Oracle.
All were dead.
Slingshot looked
at his leader. "Sentinel, how are you? How long can you keep us
afloat?"
Sentinel didn’t
respond, but seemed alert and aware. Then Sentinel collapsed downward onto his
knees as if he couldn’t support his own weight as all the color drained from
his face.
Sentinel and
Menagerie barely crash-landed the energy sphere that held Vanguard onto a
nearby safe rooftop, dozens of stories below.
Sentinel had the
sphere release the team; as it happened the construct shook like it could fall
apart at any moment and Kirk was doing all he could to keep it together to keep
them safe. At that point on the rooftop
Kirk’s head hung downward and his body convulsed. They got the idea he would have vomited had
there been food in his stomach to release.
Tears welled up in his face which now began turning beet red as he
spoke.
“They’re gone.
They’re all gone. We’ve lost them
all. I can feel it.”
And he cried her name in an undertone as tears fell down his
cheeks, “Shelley. My Shell; my love; my life.”
Then he stood up and looked upward and screamed back in rage
at the darkened heavens above him, “SHELLEY!”
And took off like a rocket towards the building. Back into the debris.
He zeroed in right to her body by what remained of her
energy signature. Nothing around him
kept him from her as his energies responded to his feelings as opposed to his
thoughts to clear the path to her; his energy flowed to his wishes, sort of
like seeing an image out of the corner of your eye – knowing it is there but
barely perceptible to where you are at.
He found her and cradled her body and kissed her head. Their link severed. A piece of him gone. Her energy signature was like a degraded photocopy
of a photocopy of a photocopy worsening with what made her having been lost to
the greatest enemy, death. Then his
hands moved towards that second faint energy signature within her. He memorized every nuisance of his child that
he could. To hold that memory as part of
himself; as he would her. And he wept
over them.
“No. No. No no-no-nonono;
he kept repeating and he rocked her body back and forth.
And he thought to himself how useless he was now. How truly powerless he was and how he needed
to be more. To be better. To do more.
As he did this, his power reacted to his emotions: resummoning
what energies he could and focusing on his body. His physically battered and worn body. His permanently scarred never to be whole
again psyche and his energies shown around him anew. The skies thundered back
as if mocking him.
And with his energies renewed a composure came over
him. A sense of calm. He closed her eyes with his hand and tenderly
touched her cheek and kissed her lips one last time and whispered, ‘my love,’
and stood up amidst the wreckage.
His energies flowed from him and he felt and retrieved the
forms of his lost friends. His murdered,
sacrificed family. In all directions at
once his energy moved and they came to him.
He didn’t know what he was going to do with them, but he damn well
wasn’t leaving them in this. Here.
His construct formed a darkened layered construct holding
the lifeless bodies of the heart of Vanguard and Chess that were taken from
them in the explosion.
It would seem that Kirk’s life as he knew it truly was
over. Everything he had built since that
first rooftop meeting years ago.
Everyone that meant something to him, that was the core of the family he
built were gone. And a part of his life
that he never dreamed he would have and share, was ripped from him before it
truly had a chance to even begin. And he decided.
Meanwhile, back on the safe rooftop, Dr. Monster gently woke up Clone.
Slingshot
couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing. All dead? Nathan... damn it.
He looked at Sentinel and thought about Shelley and their child. Stone, Doc
Rocket, Oracle… why did she die without reverting things?
There was this little voice inside him that kept praying for
the safety of his wife and child. How were they doing? Could they return? Were
they stuck in the Digital Zone?
Scott lifted the cultist at eye level. His form seemed to
bulk up, grow more menacing. With a low, slow and rumbling voice, Scott said,
"You think me a Minion of Nyarlhotep. So you know what I'm capable of
doing."
He took a moment to let that sink in. His tentacles
involuntarily spasmed, tightening the man further.
"I need to make it to the summoning. Where is it? Tell
me now or I'll make you suffer like only one of my kind can."
The cultist’s hood flew back from the rough treatment,
revealing the cultist’s face. It was the
face of Scott’s only brother, Todd! A face filled with fear and hate.
Scott could not believe his eyes. His anger at the
devastation, at the loss of life, all this because of some misplaced idealism. "You.
You did this? You're behind this Cthulhu summoning! Why?" He grew large
and threatening.
Todd said, “You insufferable
idiot! Even now, you don’t question your origins? How do you think you became a minion of
Nyarlhotep? Father, mother and I have faithfully served the Mythos, awaiting
this moment all our lives, as have our grandparents and their parents before
them! The Great Convergence has finally come. The threshold is about to be torn
asunder. Our parents sacrificed their first born, and I my only brother, to
this glorious cause. To this one event. Do you think threats of physical pain
can stop me now?”
Sentinel returned
to the rooftop he had left Vanguard moments earlier. With him, on the black
slab construct were the broken bodies of Vanguard’s dead loved ones.
As he descended to land he began to recite looking at his
remaining teammates, “Doc. Sarge. Drake. Nathan. Manetti.
Oracle.” Looking to Menagerie
with a face of disbelief and nodding his head, “Archimedes”. And then he walked over to Hal and said
putting a hand on his should and shaking his head, “Shelly”. And he shook his head no again looking
downward saying, “My Shelley.” And he
looked upward again into Hal’s eyes and said, “My son Hal, my son”.
Sentinel took a deep breath and then spoke in an emotionless
calmness. It was frightening and alarming. “I don’t accept this. I reject this. And I cannot think about this. And neither can you.”
“This is going to be undone.
Whether it is an Oracle wake-up call or some other sort of miracle, we
are going to find a way. This will not
stand. And that is the final word.”
Dr. Monster
grieved for his old friend and colleague, Oracle.
Symbiote blinked
hard. Upon surveying the devastation, and realizing just how much--and who--has
been lost, Hal grew very cold, even as the effects of the Fly’s power left him.
[OOC: Symbiote is no longer Fatigued]
He turned towards the cultist, Scott's brother (if that is
who he is). "Let me try,
Slingshot," he said, pulling a small pen knife out of his tool belt.
He looked the cultist in the eye for a few seconds, and then
began to speak, very slowly and deliberately.
"I am, among other things, a medical doctor," he said. "A very good one. A very smart one. I have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of
how the human body works. I know, among
other things, exactly every pressure point in your body. I know what parts of your body are the most
receptive to pain.”
He cocked his head and looked at the cultist coolly. "For example, did you know that with the
exception of the genitals, the hands have more nerve endings than any other
part of the body?"
Hal then stabbed the pen knife into the top of the cultist's
hand.
"I don't care what your bosses have said they would do
to you, idiot," Hal said, grabbing the handle and using the Accelerator
power to vibrate the knife at super speed, sending waves of agony through the
man. "I guarantee, we can make it
worse. WHERE. IS.
THE. SUMMONING?"
Todd grit his
teeth against the pain, “You haven’t done this before, have you? But at least
you realize the truth of the matter: Might makes right. And none are mightier
than Great Cthulhu. Cthulhu Fthagn!” Todd yelled in nihilistic joy.
Sentinel scanned
Todd’s mind and found he had mental defenses against telepathy! Sentinel
couldn’t read his thoughts.
Avatar was still.
He had no immediate reaction, merely
taking in the destruction and death and rolling it around in his mind. Someone will pay the ultimate price for this,
of that he was certain, but rash actions will not result in the desired
outcome. Revenge is a dish best served
cold.
He will let his active powers fade away and will wearily
take a seat, thoughtfully examining Excalibur.
The heroic historian knew that Excalibur was the legendary
sword of King Arthur, sometimes attributed with magical powers or associated
with the rightful sovereignty of Great Britain. In some accounts Excalibur and
the Sword in the Stone (the proof of Arthur's lineage) are said to be the same
weapon, but in most versions they are considered separate.
Excalibur was given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake
sometime after he began to reign. When Excalibur was first drawn, in the first
battle testing Arthur's sovereignty, its blade blinded his enemies. Excalibur's
scabbard was said to have powers of its own. Loss of blood from injuries, for
example, would not kill the bearer. In some tellings, wounds received by one
wearing the scabbard did not bleed at all. The scabbard was stolen by Morgan le
Fay in revenge for the death of her beloved Accolon and thrown into a lake,
never to be found again.
Avatar said, "My friends, I urge caution in our next
actions. Our foe will take advantage of
any weakness."
As Menagerie found
out what has happened to his spirit guide, his closest friend (poor snowball),
and all his other friends, he turned cold. He stayed in Terrordactyl form and
watched the cultist, thought-sending to him, "You will not welcome your
master. I will eat you first."
If Todd heard Menagerie’s telepathic words, he gave no
indication.
Menagerie rested and waited for the others in Vanguard to
finish with the cultist first. He considered the events that lead to this and
reviewed all that had died and were lost. Menagerie attempted to keep his rage
to a low boil. There will be vengeance for this atrocity but it will be
deliberate and measured. "Sentinel,
were you able to locate Mystic?"
Sentinel was
calmer. More normal. “Mystic’s body was
nowhere to be found. No trace of
him. I haven’t trusted him from day one
and even the past we rubbed each other the wrong way. Quite convenient that despite him gating us
back he was nowhere to be found and escaped the explosion.”
Lightning Strike said,
“SKULL set the demolitions.”
Strike had lost everything long before this. He would not
sit still and wonder about all he had lost.
“Time is short and we will all be losing all we know in a
matter of days. War is Hell! Vanguard needs to understand that we are in a
war!”
SHAKOW! Strike
dematerialized and headed to his nearest safe house to research everything he
could find out about SKULL so Vanguard could react asap.
Vanguard knew
that SKULL was a worldwide subversive terrorist organization dedicated to
global domination. It is the most extensive, powerful, and dangerous such
organization in history. They are steeped in mysticism and have access to rare
technology and considerable wealth. Their legions are fanatically loyal. No
SKULL agent has ever been captured alive. Vanguard first encountered SKULL when
Vanguard first formed [ Issue 2! ].
They last encountered them yesterday, in 1943.
Vanguard prepared
to torture their prisoner again in search of answers, further heightening the
weird sense of déjà vu the burning skyscraper gave them about Vanguard Omega.
Vanguard saw Shelley’s broken form and remembered that she quit Vanguard when
she learned that Vanguard Omega was their future selves.
“My friends… if I may have… a word.”
Dr. Monster picked up a girder that had fallen to this
rooftop from the Empire State Building and bent it around Todd’s hands to cuff
him behind his back and weigh him down.
He wasn’t going anywhere.
Away from Todd, Dr. Monster softly said to Vanguard, “My
friends… I am… sorry… for your loss…
“…How… did you know… the location… of Excalibur?”
Vanguard told him of the Janus Chair, which had just been
completely lost in the destruction of Vanguard Vault.
Dr. Monster said “…Could the Chair… be… remade?”
ROOOOOOAAR!!! American fighter jets hurtled by in formation to
get a visual on the Empire State Building.
It was just after 1pm in New York City. Less than two days and 11 hours until the End
of the World.
CHAPTER TWO: THE KREMLIN
Clone passed through the steaming hole in the impregnable
vault door. Mystic was gone. There were cases that had been shattered, and
their contents emptied, all under the silence of his spell.
Clone saw an alarm inside the vault was blinking. Were it not for Mystic’s spell of silence, it
would be blaring.
Then suddenly Clone felt psychic pain like a knife in his
heart. He knew that somewhere a Clone had just died!
Clone suddenly grabbed the sides of his head violently and
screamed out in pain. A moment later the Replicating Russian fell unconscious
to the floor beneath his feet.
Clone awoke to the blare of sirens. The armed Soviet soldiers
filled the chamber. Doctor X was still unconscious. Soldiers stood in the smoking
hole in the vault door.
One soldier levelled his autorifle at Clone and barked in
Russian: “What did you do to Doctor X?! And where are the artifacts of
power?!!”
Clone gently placed his hand over his face, shook his head
back and forth for a moment, and then looked up at the soldier with a look of
bewilderment and confusion. The Dazed Duplicator spoke to soldier in his native
tongue, "I don't understand . . . artifacts of power? Doctor X?" As
Clone spoke the name of his long time enemy a look of concern and fear suddenly
gripped his face. "Doctor X?!?" he said as he turned his head and
stared down at the unconscious Soviet Super-Mind lying on the floor beside him.
His head then snapped back around towards the soldier and he exclaimed, "
. . . but I don't understand. What am I doing here?!? What is going on?!?"
The soldiers’ leader gave orders to his men in Russian: “Chekov,
call a medic for Comrade Doctor!
“You three, bring Comrade Collective to a high security
cell! If he multiplies, or tries anything, kill him!”
Three soldiers will take Clone to be locked up in the Soviet
extranormal gulag that lay beneath Red Square.
OOC:
Actions, everyone?
Jon: Please see private email to follow. Thanks
Current Conditions:
Avatar: Hit Points: 21, Power Points: 18, Manifestation: none
Clone: Hit Points: 6/6/0, Bodies: 1/1/0, Power Points:
58/65/0, Hit Point Pool: 23 (Stats: NYC/Russia/NYC)
Lightning Strike: Hit Points: 33, Power Points: 37
Menagerie: Hit Points: 24, Power Points: 48, Form:
Terrordactyl
Sentinel: Hit Points: 7, Power Points: 29, Creation Points: 58,
Shields: 58%
Slingshot: Hit Points: 41, Power Points: 89,
Invulnerability: 8, Fire damage that can’t be regenerated: 38
Symbiote: Hit Points: 18, Power Points: 67, Charges: 13,
Activated: Accelerator
--------------------------------------------------
Menagerie:
Awesome issue, Jeff!
IC: Menagerie will turn into the form of a man.
Turning toward Dr. Monster, "I am not sure if we can
build another chair or not. I will assist as best as I can."
OOC: more later, Menagerie will contribute 1 luck point to
build another chair.
Tom
--------------------------------------------------
Lightning Strike:
OOC:
Hi,
Quick question. I
know we used the Janus chair to find the location of the artifacts but I
remember we saw the location of all of them and then we chose which one to go
for. Is there any chance that data was
stored anywhere? Even though everything
was blown up, would it be possible for Strike to recover the info?
Oops, that's two question!
Thanks,
Tony
--------------------------------------------------
Menagerie:
OOC: The information is stored In Menagerie's and Sentinel’s
heads.
Menagerie would be glad to meditate and perform yoga with
Strike in an attempt to recover suppressed memories.
Tom
--------------------------------------------------
Lightning Strike:
OOC: I trust Menagerie over Sentinel's empty head! :-P
--------------------------------------------------
GM:
OOC: Hi,
Vanguard now possess only Excalibur, from Broceliande.
Menagerie and Sentinel know the exact locations of the
remaining artifacts (but not what the artifacts are):
-The Nevada desert
-Moscow (This is assumed to be the Spear of Destiny, in
possession of the Soviet Super Soldiers)
-Northern California
-China
Vanguard don't know where the following artifacts are:
-The Splinter of the True Cross, from Black Bat's penthouse
vault.
-The Sacrificial Dagger of the Maya, from the Crimson
Coven's U-Stor locker.
-The Stone Idol of Cthulhu, from the Ruins of Remorse in the
Lost Lands.
-The Ring of Eon, from the Liberty League in the
mid-Atlantic circa 1943.
Best,
Jeff
--------------------------------------------------
Sentinel:
OOC:
(Strike) “Time is short and we will all be losing all we
know in a matter of days. War is Hell! Vanguard needs to understand that we are
in a war!”
Vanguard saw Shelley’s broken form and remembered that she
quit Vanguard when she learned that Vanguard Omega was their future selves.
Dr. Monster softly said to Vanguard, “My friends… I am…
sorry… for your loss…
“And we are sorry too for your loss Adam. Thank you for bringing clarity to a moment
that was getting away from us.”
He walked towards Strike getting into his personal space and
said sarcastically, “And thank you for reminding us of where things stand. Certainly none of us here have felt personal
loss… none of us realize that we are at war and the stakes here.” And he turned from him and walked away
continuing this time sincerely, “and thank you for reminding me who I am, the
man Shelley felt worthy of her love and her life. I’d seen the possibility of a dark path from
here, but Strike, the man you are reminds me of the man I want to be.” And speaking to all of Vanguard he said, “When
we experience a loss of this magnitude it can easily consume us. It can become
all that we are. I reject that
path. I’m not going to let that happen. This tragedy will not define who I am nor the
man I become.”
Walking towards Excalibur and touching it he said turning to
Adam, “Unless you feel otherwise I think this belongs to you and you should
guard it. The fact that you were ready
to give it up for the greater good speaks measures to your worthiness in my
mind. Vanguard? ” And he waited for his teammates to respond.
“And to your point Adam, perhaps we need to take a step back
and think differently about our situation.
We were concerned with securing all of the artifacts because any could
be used to summon Cthulhu. At this
point, given Mystic’s disappearance, I think the question should be what
happens if all the objects are used together.
And perhaps it’s time to check in with our Russian ‘comrades’ since they
are the only other known players to have an artifact in their possession and they
were in pursuit of others. We’ve lost our gateway to the other artifacts even
if we can locate them. Maybe since we
have Excalibur, Mystic or whoever was using or working with him comes to us.”
ROOOOOOAAR!!! American fighter jets hurtled by in formation
to get a visual on the Empire State Building.
“At this point virtually the only people I trust are on this
roof. Be ready for anything.” Kirk extended his energy senses the scope of
the area to try to ‘read’ all incoming signatures and check for
extranormals. He hit his communicator
and said, “This is Sentinel of Vanguard.
We are in need of assistance. As
we returned from our mission our base exploded due to an act of terrorism by
the enemy organization known as SKULL.
We have taken heavy casualties.
Please report your sitrep and ability to assist.”
Kirk clicked off the audio transmit of the communicator
briefly at that point turned to Vanguard and said as if knowing things were
about to get worse instead of better, “And here it comes…”
And he waited for their reply hoping for the best and
expecting the worst.
Seth
--------------------------------------------------
Symbiote:
Symbiote will step away from torturing the hapless
cultist. For now.
He will look towards the jets flying overhead. Like Sentinel, he's not sure if they're
friend or foe. But he's ready--almost
hoping--for foe at this point. If fired
upon he will run in a circle to kick up dust around the team and then use some
of the inertia to launch rubble at the jets.
If they aren't foes....or once the fight is resolved. Hal will suggest that the team go to his
university lab to begin working on rebuilding the Janus Chair.
Viva Vanugard,
Greg
--------------------------------------------------
Avatar:
Avatar is having a difficult time processing everything that
has happened. He casually takes some
cover to consider options and to rest a little.
--------------------------------------------------
Slingshot:
[ooc: Am I getting that right?: Scott's family sacrificed
Todd's older brother to the cause? I'm assuming that I'm the older brother.]
Slingshot, unceremoniously strips him and searched him. Any
information, cell phone, notebook, GPS coordinates, anything that might be
worthwhile anything in the lining of the cloak/robes.
Scott looks at his brother and shakes his head and starts
laughing, not quite hysterically, but definitely at his brother's expense. His
brother recognizes the laugh having heard it many times during their
childhood."You silly little man. Don't you understand? Don't you know?
This is the third such "great convergence" that Vanguard has faced in
so many years. One was the animal kingdom was taking over. The other was the
technology was taking over, now it's a magical threat to take over the world.. again."Scott
almost yawns, bored."We beat them all, we will beat your little panzy plot
too. Cthulu will keep sleeping."
"I know what will get you going.. I'm your big brother,
after all. I know all your choice tickle spots. You will break." and so
Scott proceeds in tickling him senseless. [OOC: I'm making the call that he was
extremely ticklish in his childhood, while pain wouldn't break him, tickling
would. Either that or something else that he would find have had to suffer at
my "older brother's hand",a particular kind of humiliation that he's
not willing to relive and that Scott is willing to inflict on him to get
answers./OOC]
Slingshot questions Menagerie, "My friend, We have no
items of power aside from the sword. Is there a chance that you can ensure us
that the ones we gathered are still safe?"
Away from Todd, Dr. Monster softly said to Vanguard, “My
friends… I am… sorry… for your
loss…
“…How… did you know… the location… of Excalibur?”
Vanguard told him of the Janus Chair, which had just been
completely lost in the destruction of Vanguard Vault.
Dr. Monster said “…Could the Chair… be… remade?”
I'm sure it can be remade, but it came at great cost,
personal cost, it took time we don't have and it took many of our fallen to get
it done. I'm not sure we could get it done in time. [OOC: can I do an
engineering/electronics/robotics roll to confirm that is still the case, and
would it still take two luck points?]
[OOC:
Actions: I'm holding my actions until there's something good
to do. So if we get attacked, Scott will respond. If we get attached by the
jets, Scott will evade and not respond.
Here are my thoughts: We still don't know what to do next.
we can't move on something until that occurs
Another thoughts - Not sure how stable communications are at
the moment, but if we manage to get Todd's Cell, maybe Lightning or Symbiote
(with lightning's power set) could use it to find where my father is. I'll
assume that he's at the main event.
--------------------------------------------------
GM:
OOC Replies to Slingshot:
Yes. Scott/Slingshot is Todd's only brother, and his older
brother.
It's at least possible that the Janus Chair could be
rebuilt. It would only take one luck point, since you've already built one
before. Likewise it might be possible that Vanguard could handle it. Again,
it's a rebuild not an new invention. If only Slate and Nanite were here to
help.
Best,
Jeff
--------------------------------------------------
Clone:
New York City:
Meanwhile, back on the safe rooftop, Dr. Monster gently woke
up Clone.
Clone awoke; startled and confused, he had no idea where he
was or who was standing over him. His fears immediately subsided when his old
friends came into view, but he was still very confused and disoriented. Clone
slowly made his way to feet and gasped in horror and shock at the landscape
laid out before him. He couldn’t help but think to himself, “What am I doing
here? What is going on? What happened here?”
( OOC: As the members of Vanguard discussed their options .
. . )
Clone stood silently in the background listening to his
friends and trying desperately to make sense of what was going.
( OOC: As the members of Vanguard start to piece together a
plan of action . . . )
Clone stepped forward slowly and said to Sentinel in a
somewhat sheepish tone, “Comrade Sentinel . . . perhaps it is that I am knowing
that I am not knowing of many things. Is it maybe that what we are now needing
to know what it is that I am not knowing? Of this, I am not sure.”
The Kremlin:
Three soldiers will take Clone to be locked up in the Soviet
extranormal gulag that lay beneath Red Square.
Sitting quietly in his cell deep below the parade grounds of
Red Square, Clone tried desperately to make sense of his situation.
"Artifacts of Power? Doctor X? The Kremiln? What is going on?", he
thought to himself. His bewildered thoughts continued, “I feel like I know
whats going on, but I just can’t seem to put all the pieces together. Its as if
I’m seeing shadows of a movie I barely remember seeing. I feel like I should
know these things, yet I can’t seem to make sense of it all.”
Clone than took a moment to look at his surrounding and
thought to himself, “How did I end up in Moscow and how am I going to get out
of this cell? I can only hope that the other members of Vanguard are on their
way and I’ll be out of here soon enough.”
Clone’s thoughts of escape where quickly replaced by his
angst over his recent loss of memory, “Perhaps Sentinel, Slingshot, or Symbiote
could come up with some way of fixing my memory. They’re so smart, I’m sure
between the three of them they could think of something.”
( OOC: Clone will than sit quietly and await whatever it is
that comes next - he's scared and confused )
Talk to you guys soon,
-Kev
--------------------------------------------------
Slingshot:
OOC: GM,
Thanks for the clarification and I'll pass this information
onto the team.
We could use the chair to divine the location of the
ceremony.
