[Game Thread] Chapter 1: New Beginnings

[Malkavianmilkball]

Panacea Emilia nods as she listens to them formulate a plan. She snickers at Ian's human weapon statement. As they finish she strokes her chin, putting it all together in her head. "Alright so as I see it here are what should be our goals. First is locate the ship. Next we need to get them out. To do that we need tools. Katana said the hatch was jammed, otherwise they could have swam with her to shore. We are also going to need a boat of some kind, warm blankets, and somewhere to take them after we rescue them." She counts on her fingers as she lists off the points. "To that end I agree that Alysa should fly ahead and perform an aerial search pattern to find the boat." Emilia fishes in her backpack and produces a pair of binoculars and offers them to Julian. "I don't know how your teleportation works, but I think you're right that you'd make a great scout. I'd like you to try and find a hardware store or somewhere where we can find the tools to get the team out of the boat, unless one of you has some kind of power they think might be able to use to get them out." Emilia goes to the ute and takes some cans of food and puts them in her backpack. "Despite the heat, they are going to be cold, tired and hungry. We are going to need someway to keep in contact too. Julian keep an eye out for an electronics store too, we could use hand held radios or walkie talkies as the Americans call them. Alysa look for a boat we can borrow to reach them and get them back to shore." She turns to Ian "We will trace Katana's path on the ground. If you want you can sneak behind me like a spy and I can be bait to see if we can draw out the abductors on our way. We can follow up on anything Julian finds for us. We can meet up on the beach and go from there. Does that sound good to everyone? Suggestions? Questions? Snarky comments? If everything is good then I should go put on my costume? Outfit? Its my makeshift super suit for when I go out to do amateur heroics." Emilia takes her backpack and heads to a nearby ruined building and five minutes later comes out in a white leotard, brown go go boots, a long blue scarf, and a white and blue face mask that looks like it was made from clay. "Now you may wonder why I carry about a super hero costume. Well the answer is this is what I wear when I rescue and heal others when I have more notice than "Holy crap there's a girl in the road!". I wear it because I can heal people, but I can't heal everyone. It puts a strain on my body and eventually I can't do more until I recover. If it was openly known I could heal people, everyone would come to me for healing, and eventually I would be used up, but there would always be more people begging for me to help them." She paces back and forth, working herself up. "And that's not even assuming some rich millionaire didn't kidnap me and use me as their personal physician. Or the military, I'm sure they'd love someone who could immediately heal their troops. Put an exploding collar around me neck and-" She stops herself and takes a deep breath. "So the long and short of it is everyone could use healing, but I'm only one person."

[RedMoney]

Julian Barone "Cool costume, but uhm, about your plans for myself, that's not going to be possible. On a nice clear day, I can cover about half a mile in a single jump, which... well, sadly I need to be able to see where I am going, so I can probably jog a bit faster in this rain than I could teleport. We don't have that kind of time, I'd imagine. Also, it's exhausting to cross long distances, I've recently discovered. Also, I... don't have any Australian money. Also... strong chance I get lost. I have no real bearing on where we are or where I am going. If I had a half a day, clear weather, and some Outback Coins or whatever they use here, then sure. Luckily I have... yet another power, I can manipulate light energy in a lot of interesting ways. It's sort of the core of my teleporting and invisibility, actually. I do think I can get through the door without a crowbar, since uh, I can also make a laser beam to just cut through the lock, or at least weaken it enough that we can potentially break through with force and such. The ship itself will also likely have tools on board we can utilize. Even if all we can do is crack the door open, I can then teleport inside and out. As for long distant communications, with this weather it might be hard but I can also send up a signal flare of various colors to indicate different things. Oh! Also, I have this It looks used and haphazardly refolded, but in decent condition.inflatable raft!" Julian looks over Emilia's costume a long moment, seeming pensive and contemplative about the suit, tapping a finger against the side of his temple. "Me becoming a costumed hero was always... a weird rift between me and my dad, but I certainly understand the importance of it. I'll just conceal myself for now, and we'll have to revisit the whole costume thing later. I certainly want something that is... actually body armor and maybe some slick looking goggles that will block out high intensity light so I don't accidently blind myself. Hard to find a welding mask that doesn't make me look like a serial killer though. Speaking of identities, do you all have some kind of codenames we can use? I've contemplated using one for awhile actually, and will go with Mirage." And with that, Julian fades from the normal visible spectrum, his attire and possessions concealed along with him. The faintest outline of rain cascading around a human sized area is all that suggests he is still around.

[Malkavianmilkball]

Panacea "Ooo Mirage, that's a good one. I tend to go by Panacea because I figure the goddess deserves the credit for what I do, or the blame depending on your perspective." She strokes her chin again, a clear habit when she's thinking. "Can you do the laser thing underwater? I don't want to cut a hole in the top of the boat, it would let the air out and it would sink, making it that much harder to save them. Okay, so we have a raft, and a means to get them out. Lets just hope it hasn't already sunk otherwise I hope one of you has sonar powers. Oh! Maybe Alysa can use magic to turn into a fish!" She looks at Alysa expectantly, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

[The Rat Queen]

Anima Alysa Raine Alysa listened as Emilia went into verbal sprint mode, spitting out high-octane plans and chattering better than any of Alysa's sorority sisters. She was impressed and fascinated, but also slightly confused as to what Emilia was getting at. Somehow, it ended with a request to turn someone into a...fish? "Ah, no, terribly sorry," she answered with a bemused smirk. "I suppose when I was in magic class, I fell asleep during the 'Transmute to Fish' bit." Though shapeshifting was actually something she was researching; it didn't really involve aquatic life, though. She accepted the binoculars, but looked at them skeptically. "And I'm afraid I'll have the same problem as Julian," she admitted. "It's raining bloody buckets out here, but I might be able to see the ship if I get high enough." After a second of hesitation, she added, "And...I had given the idea of a name some thought previously. I believe I'd settled on 'Anima', which is an individual's true inner self." Sighing, she added, "No costume yet, I'm afraid. Shall we get moving?"

[Malkavianmilkball]

Panacea "Don't worry, maybe they'll have makeup classes and you can turn into a fish next time." She claps Alysa on the shoulder. "If you makes you feel better I like your hero name, has a nice sound to it." Emilia nods and points in the direction that Katana indicated she came from. "So it sounds like we are hoofing it. How do you feel about playing bait to try to lure out the abductors on our way to the shore?. The boys can trail behind us stealthily to make us a more tempting target."

[RedMoney]

Julian would create a little ball of light to help guide the others and use his compass to try to stay the course along the way through the desolate if wet Outback.

[Anarchy]

The aged IRC volunteer places her hand on Alysa's shoulder and gives a little squeeze, offering thanks for ensuring the vehicle was serviceable. "I'll send help." She nods and then makes sure that Katana is safely buckled in before firing up the ute.

Accumulated puddles of rainwater yield to onrushing ute tires as a cloud of diesel stink washes over you. Grandma Grace expertly coaxing the laden vehicle to getaway driver speeds to make up for lost time.

In a handful of seconds, you are left alone in what remains of a comet-shattered city with only the storm and each other to keep you company.

Guided by Julian's light, map, and compass, you find that the damage gets even worse the further eastward you press, with Those that choose to take to the air find themselves assailed by the storm and nearly zero visibility (20 meters / 65') flying faster than a slow walk.those that are walking find slightly-warm saltwater flooding up to your ankles for the most part, though at times they are immersed up to your knees, the murky and filthy waters with all manner of debris floating in it, making you wonder Lionfish, stingrays, sea and tiger snakes, jellyfish (especially tiny Irukandji), saltwater crocodiles, stonefish, blue-ringed octopi, and all manner of sharks, including the great whitewhat else might be 'neath the waters. Buildings closest to the Coral Sea have received the most severe damage, with those directly adjacent to the waterfront are simply gone, the water displacement from an 8-kilometre-long piece of space ice having thrown moored sea-craft inland by multiple blocks.

No abductors are encountered, possibly due to the horrific weather, which is expected to last for as many as 5 days. Already the rest of the city are preparing for inevitable flooding.

Blankets are easily acquired as the Cairns Central Business District is a tourist mecca, though one has to accept stereotypical Australian-themed content, like koalas, 'roos, and the like. Other items are easily acquired as well, such as freeze-dried food, a crowbar, flashlights, bottled water, battery-powered waterproof hand-held radios, if one was so inclined to We can hand wave the scene where you pay for what you take thing, if that is what you would like to do, as long as what you acquire is reasonably within your Resources (which means Ian can probably get a couple bottles of Dom Pérignon).

Feel free to find enough to make a costume to hide your identity if you wish. Cairns has a thriving costume business for drunken college kids to wear whilst engaging in bacchanalian pursuits (only redoubled during Halloween). I'm sure they have a higher-quality section that would suit any that wished the changing-into-a-hero montage. Note: none of the props are real, so swords are foam or plastic, but the costumes are high quality. engage in some pilfering.

Your first landmark is reached in short order, as you come across the burned-out husk of what was once a military helicopter, now little more than a melted husk in a vaguely-helicopter shape. No supplies have survived the conflagration, though this is perhaps a blessing as you also cannot identify if there are any bodies that might be contained therein. Something about the scene nags at those that are Please include an Intuition roll versus Excellent Intensity (yellow result require for everyone, save Julian, who needs a green result), due to the storm, to notice signs that this craft has been examined after it fell by someone wearing combat boots as the soot has been disturbed in that pattern, there are spent military flares to be found amongst the rubble, and that the CVFDR (combined cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder) is missing.particularly observant.

The esplanade is little more than displaced pavement covered by seaweed, with broken bits of cars, boats, homes, hotels, et cetera, but it also gives you a vantage point to see the shallow lagoon’s sculptures and Alysa flying above finds that some 200’ off the muddy shoreline are two upside down boats, one matching the description that Katana provided is still intact and moored, and the other, a much larger ship, breaking apart against a rocky shoal with no one aboard.

Cobbling together all the craft scattered the shore offers sufficient oars to get a slightly-leaky 14 person rowboat into the water as long as the group works as a team, they should permit the group to transport a rugby team in one trip. Julian's rowboat offers a different option, since it will be ready much quicker, but will take more trips.

Flying, teleporting, swimming, or rowing to the capsized boat without any troubles, allays some fears as you hear muffled crying from within: Right boat, and at least one of the rugby team remains alive.

Noteworthy are the 3 large bull sharks circling the vessel, a species noted for being both aggressive and highly-territorial.

[Feel free to interact with this scene at any point. +5 CP and +125 Karma to all, Posting is of such high calibre, engagement is excellent, and the energy is so good that everyone may have another thematically-linked power (or a Permanent Power Stunt that costs zero Karma to use) of their choosing at Excellent (16) for free~; please include this in your changelog with the note "Judge's Boon" for my reference]

[RedMoney]

Julian Barone Despite his inexperience at proper superhero work, Julian's Dice Roll: d100 38 sleuth intuition kicked in, and he alerted the others to the helicopter situation. He helps the others procure the radios, stating they could come back for salvaging other stuff after the people were saved. "We need to figure out how to get in that thing without making a mess. I know this might be a stretch but is there any way we could combine our strengths here and lift that whole ship out of the water? Maybe Anima could make a force field around the area, then have... Anonymous Air Guy push the water out and make a big old air bubble inside? Even better if we could raise it up above surface level somehow. Also, I think I see some sharks. I'd hate to have to kill them but it might be the only way to ensure the safety of the people in the boat."

[The Rat Queen]

Anima Alysa Raine Alysa had responded to the offer of her being 'bait' by giving a flat look and casting a spell that lifted her off the ground and into the air. She was almost immediately nearly blown across the island, and struggled against the gusting winds, straining not only to keep aloft but also to try to find her way. How are we going to rescue anybody if we can't see two feet in front of our faces? she wondered desperately, though the rain did occasionally lessen slightly enough for her to get a decent view at her altitude. She Dice Intuition Ex (16): d100 61 spotted the helicopter, a scene that somehow seemed even more depressing than the general ruin surrounding them. As they reached the shore, she called down to the others, "I see the boat, about sixty metres out! There are two of them, but one seems empty." As the others began planning how to either construct a raft or get the lifeboat out there, Anima called down, "I'll go check on the team!" Flying off, she fought against wind gusts and slashing rain, eventually landing upon the overturned craft. She pounded on the hull, and thought she might have heard a response, but the wind and rain, not to mention the crashing waves, were blocking out most sound. "Oh, that does it!" she screamed, standing and tracing a Technically Energy Generation, but just for flavour.pattern of energy in the air. Drawing strange arcane symbols, she furrowed her brow as she worked on the symbols like a puzzle. "Let's see...modify the focus...adjust the channeling...account for aeronomy...carry the one..." Stepping back, she examined what she'd drawn and nodded in satisfaction, "Yes. Yes, that's it!" Dismissing the symbols with a wave of her hand, she carefully began chanting and moving her hands, eventually raising them toward the downpour and finishing her spell with a strong crescendo. A few moments later, the rain Reduce weather effects by EX strength.lessened, providing a touch of relief. Looking around to critique her work, she nodded again, muttering, "That'll do. Oi! Can you hear me down there?"

[Classic Gamer]

Ian had made the mistake of leaving his tactical suit behind at the campsite. So after a little joking about gearing up in costume from the costume shop, he picked a simple balaclava to hide his identity as well as clothing that he jokingly considered close to his tactical suit

As far as a well orchestrated plan to rescue the shipwrecked Rugby team, Ian wasn’t sure if it fell together exactly as they had planned. But he was willing to offer his services in any capacity that would be of assistance. He wasn’t sure if he could air lift an entire boat, but he thought that he could use his air control to help smooth out the process.

 

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[Malkavianmilkball]

Panacea Emilia had taken the time before departing to visiting the exchange and convert five hundred American dollars to Australian. This came to hand when acquiring the needed items on their way to the ship as she left the money for the items she took behind the counter with a note explaining the procurement of the items. Emilia had little doubt that the money would be found and looted before the owner's return, but it was the principle of the matter. Emilia hopefully offered to get Alysa a witch's hat as well when acquiring disguises. When they arrived at the shore Emilia called on the Emilia had foresight to put the radios in plastic sandwich bags to keep the rain from immediately frying them.radio so Alysa would hear her plan. "Okay so I have an idea how you and Ian can do this together. We tell the people inside the boat to brace themselves. Then you form a force field in the shape of a column under the water with branch at it's base to above the surface and a cover on top. Its kind of shaped like a bong with a lid, don't ask me how I know what those are. Now Ian uses his air powers to force air into the branch to increase the air pressure in the column. It will displace the water as the pressure increases, forcing the column up. We situate the column on one side of the boat so that as the column rises, it lifts one side of the boat until the water in the boat itself causes it to flip right side up." She looks at Ian and Julian's faces to evaluate if she is making sense. "From there you can make a force field shaped like a tube and Ian can start the flow of any water in the bottom of the ship to flow out like we are siphoning gas from a gas tank. From there we can just take the passengers, boat and all back to shore. Julian can use his laser powers to weld any cracks in the hull, and I can offer moral support? I'm not good at much other than healing others. Does that sound like a plan?"

[The Rat Queen]

Anima Alysa Raine Alysa listened on the radio as Emilia laid out her plan, holding her 'witch hat' down with the other hand. It had been ridiculous when Emilia had offered it, almost insulting. But...it was so cute! As grudgingly as Alysa had taken the hat, she'd made sure she kept it firmly tamped down on her head while she flew. The instructions were a bit of a mess, but Alysa got the gist of them. She could imagine what Emilia was talking about, but found a slight problem. "But the ship isn't braced against anything," she called back into the radio. Was she supposed to say 'over'? They always said 'over' in the movies. "If we push the ship upward, it will just slide through the water, or break apart. Why not either find a way to tow it in, or just punch a hole in the hull and get them out?" Belatedly, she added, "Roger, over." Heeheehee...I loved that movie! she giggled to herself. She'd considered maybe trying to go underneath to get them out, but the group probably already tried that and were still trapped. Also, the three triangular fins circling the boat spoiled her taste for swimming.

[Malkavianmilkball]

Panacea Emilia shakes her head even though Alysa can't see her. "We can't cut into the hull because the only thing keeping it from sinking is the air trapped inside... but wait you're right we could tow it in... or better yet sail it in! She jumps up and down as she has another idea. "You can make a sail out of your force fields, and Ian can blow us ashore and then we can cut the hole when we don't have to worry about the boat sinking! Over! Rodger Rodger!"

[RedMoney]

Julian Barone Julian watched the rain start to clear up in awe, luckily invisibly so no one saw his mouth hanging open as he stared at Anima then the sky. he listened to the plan formulating over the radio. "Pushing it towards land is probably the safest bet, especially if we can ditch the sharks. I'll cut the anchor when you are ready to propel it. Anima really helped out with the weather so I can move around much better now." Julian teleports over to nearby the anchor and waits for the others to get set up to push the whole ship inland. Julian will use his lights to create a distracting light orb to lure the sharks away, knowing that his invisibility might not be enough to conceal himself from their other senses. Once the others are in place, Julian will shield his eyes by lowering the light around his face and setting to work using a 126 karma power stunt for a 26 damage intensity laser beamlaser-torch like ray to cut the anchor free. Once finished cutting he will teleport back to shore and be ready to provide support. Julian also calls out loudly to anyone who might be inside the ship, telling them to brace themselves, as they are going to tow the ship towards land.

[Classic Gamer]

“Bravo Tango this is Echo Foxtrot, joining all you well applauded dancers with a little number of my own. Once we finish mission we can meet up at Whiskey Hotel.” Ian added his own brand of humor to the radio chatter. The new set of instructions sounded much easier and with possibly a higher chance of success. Still, the sharks had him concerned.

“Let my future designator be Pressure so as to avoid any confusion. I will gear up the winds as soon as Anima gives me the all clear that force field shields are in place. Also, please help me keep an eye on those eaty fishies. If they make a move, I am gonna slow down the sailing maneuver and try to flip those bad boys for a loop. Roger Dodger over and out.”

They may be a little rough around the edges, but this little team seemed to work well together. They certainly tried hard to make it so. Ian wondered if they might be interested in working together in the future, once all this disaster relief business was well behind them.

 

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