Icons Issue 1 : Withdrawal Symptoms

Banjo

Banjo wrote: »

They're walking back and forth dragging hold-alls. With a test of your co-ordination vs their awareness you could try to drop onto a face, sure.
Porcumorph [d6+4] vs face [d6+2]

To shoot, it's your co-ordination vs their co-ordination. Roll d6+4 vs d6, and Pick a number between 1 and 4 so I can see what their co-ord is and add it on.

Porcumorph successfully dodged the attack. What next

She disengages from the Loomies face and scuttles across the floor. Quillface pulls at the quills embedded in his face from whence his name comes. From the next room come sounds of Plasma Squirrel attempting to diffuse the situation with paradoxically benign threats of murder. A woman dressed in a flame-embossed leather jacket and gasmask enters the atrium from the Vault room.
"Quillface, what happened to your face!"
I guess I was wrong, that was really his name all along and karma really is a bitch! It's the Lou Gehrig's Disease thing all over again!

Focus is on the man, you may act with relative impunity for now. There's a door through to the vault. There's the door back to the security station but that is jammed half open. There's a closed door marked Safety Deposit.
In the middle of the room is a reception desk with a computer terminal and phone on it.

Necro

Banjo wrote: »

Porcumorph successfully dodged the attack. What next

She disengages from the Loomies face and scuttles across the floor. Quillface pulls at the quills embedded in his face from whence his name comes. From the next room come sounds of Plasma Squirrel attempting to diffuse the situation with paradoxically benign threats of murder. A woman dressed in a flame-embossed leather jacket and gasmask enters the atrium from the Vault room.
"Quillface, what happened to your face!"
I guess I was wrong, that was really his name all along and karma really is a bitch! It's the Lou Gehrig's Disease thing all over again!

Focus is on the man, you may act with relative impunity for now. There's a door through to the vault. There's the door back to the security station but that is jammed half open. There's a closed door marked Safety Deposit.
In the middle of the room is a reception desk with a computer terminal and phone on it.

Squiraporq makes for the vault, scuttling along as fast as her little legs can carry her.

sKeith

Banjo wrote: »

Don't you Mauler me, sKeith! I invented Maulering! And not on purpose!

In her new Soup-logoed stab vest, Shelly is able to slip through the cordon effortlessly.

"This is Fabio Castell standing in for Allie Tramway, Live from 1st National, downtown Sovereign. Back to you in the studio.... We clear? Ok Brian - set up over there, we'll interview the yokel for the 6pm slot. Excuse me sir! Fabio Castell, Channel 3 news - can tell us what you saw?"
"Well, I was just here eatin' mah beef nuggets with mah wife - say hello hunny!"
"Well Hi!"
"and this van drove straight on in, n' smoke pours out and then this kid - sexy young dude, he was, turn a fellas head soon as look at him - he just runs up n ' he turns into smoke too"
"mmm hmmm? Smoke?" Fabio makes the cut-throat gesture at Brian "yeah, someone's been smoking something - Brian find me a real interview. Thank you sir, that's great"
"m'I gonna be on TV? You want a beef nugget? Ooof!"
He drops his nuggets as Shelly pushes through
"'Scuse me officer, didn't see yuh there!"

Shelly has crossed the street and is now on the far side of the group of onlookers. Beyond lies freedom... anonymity.... obscurity... streets I haven't drawn yet... a C-Loop train station...

Shelly looks around for a fast food resturant or street truck, the sight of the nuggets has wet her appetite.

Banjo

Pter wrote: »

Plas looks at the Loomie pointing the candlestick at him and roars

'WAAAAIIITTTT.'

He then pauses for effect before continuing....

'Ok friends. We seem to be stuck in a bit of a stand off. You have numbers on me, so i probably cant take you all out. But i can probably take 3 of you down. I can definitely take 2 of you down. For good.

So who wants to be one of the people that dies?

Which one of you wants to go first?

You dont even need to move. Just stay where you are and raise your hand. You can be the first to fall. No loot. No glory. Just death.

Who will it be?'

Plas really hopes his play for time comes off.

Menorah pushes past his men.
"I'm the best I am at what I do, bub. Which is lighting a lot of candles at once. Or making dark rooms brighter. But I'll tell you what I'm not good at - Negotiating!"
"That's right! He overpays for car insurance!"
"Shut up, Doug's brother!" Menorah barks, then returns his attention to Plasma Squirrel. "I don't know who you are punk. I mean you're wearing so much off-the shelf gear, you could be anyone. So listen to me, Wrangler-man - we're leaving, and you can either get out of the way, or the whey gets into you!"
A voice pipes up behind him
"Sir, that only works if you know Tallowman is ethnically Kurdish, and even then it's pretty tenuous..."
"Like I said - I don't negotiate good. So what's it gonna be, Hatless? The Easy way? Or the greasy way?"
Tallowman pounds one waxy fist into another waxy paw for emphasis.

Baggly

OOC: To Rolz! Its mind foraging time.

Banjo

Necrominus wrote: »

Squiraporq makes for the vault, scuttling along as fast as her little legs can carry her.

In her diminutive form she goes unnoticed. The Loomies continue pushing into the other room.

OOC : Oops forgot to post this while beating Pter up in Rolz!

Banjo

Pter wrote: »

OOC: To Rolz! Its mind foraging time.

Plasma Squirrel fixes Menorah with the Plasma Stare, foraging in the thicket of his mind for an off switch and flicking it with a spectral paw. He feel's Menorah's lights go out and withdraws. Menorah's eyes roll back to show the whites, but keep on rolling through a full 360 degrees - because Comics! - the pupils recentering. He grins while behind him 3 pistol shots run out.

Plas's squirrel-sense kicks in, his body instinctively ducking, bending and contorting out of the paths of the bullets. Candlesticks rain down - he dodges two then grabs the 3rd and rams it straight back into it's owner's face.

Menorah darts forward, his claws bared and clearly just as functional as they are decorative, stabbing at the Acornic Icon. Try as he might, Plas cannot parry such blows, and he reels back towards the wall, rolling over the security desk as a volley of gauntlet blasts reduce it to ashes.

The Tallowman bellows, launching himself as flowing waxy mass at the drayborn daredevil, but he hasn't reckoned on this nibbling notable's prodigious strength - Plas burst through and regains his feet. His eyes meet those of a pistolero - the rage of ten thousand put-out squirrels claws through the ill-fated firearmsman's brain, and he drops down dead.

Beyond the stuck door, Squiramorph hears the fracas and girds her porculoins, launching quill after quill into the back of Sister Blista's head. The fiery femme cries out, flames licking from her gauntleted fists but missing the prickly permutator. Hearing her ward cry out in pain, Squiramorph darts for the door heedlessly, bolts of flame hissing on the floor behind her as she dashes. She squeezes through the doorway in time to see the candelabra'd cad assaulting her chipmunkian charge, pinning him by the neck to the wall with his savage sconces. Plasma Squirrel falls unconcious. Menorah struggles to remove his fist from the wall.

In a rage, Squiramorph focuses on the nearest gauntlet - it's complicated mass of relays and servos a trifle to her awesome skills. It's owner can only look in dismay as his arm raises itself taking aim at the back of Menorah's head. The loomie tries to pull his arm away, to drop the glove but he can't. He cries out a warning just as it fires - Menorah turns, exposing Plasma Squirrel's face....

Pausing for Fourier and Nebelwerfer to catch up. And to fry up some beef nuggets for Shelly.

Banjo

Nebelwerfer wrote: »

"Thats a good boy!" Randy says as he lays his hand on the door.

He points his finger at the door and whispers:

"Now here... Listen...

LISTEN... Ok... Nobody comes through, NOBODY... But me that is... AND make sure to have a little fun ok buddy?".

He gives the door a smile and a wink.

"Stay still, till it matters, ok buddy?!" He scratches the door around the handle

"Thats a good boy...".

He looks onto the gangsters.

"You wouldnt hurt an old man, would you? I am old, feeble and unarmed, please dont hurt me...". he explains to the goons as he lays his hands on the back of his head, with his knees bending in slightly so to appear non-threatening.

The Loomies look from one to the other. One shrugs, the other nods. Yes. Yes they would hurt an old, feeble and unarmed man. Stands to reason it's probably easier than hitting someone young, strong with razor sharp candlesticks in their fists who's angry at them for not following orders. Loomie 1 steps back with an "after you" flourish, allowing his comrade Loomie 2 to step up to bat. He takes a couple of practice swings and walks forward whereupon the double doors slam closed, catching his skull between them.

Look, it's a comic book world, just scoop the goo back in, attach a bike pump to his head to blow it back into shape, I'm sure he'll be fine. Won't he?

Loomie 1s slack jawed face swings from the doors to the stairs down, and the screams and curses, the ring of steel on stone, firearm discharges and gauntlet bolts. Back and forth, hypnotically, weighing up the two parcels of misery. Then he remembers - the roof! They found a helicopter on the roof! He drops his candlestick and bounds up the stairs.

Fourier

Indigo, seeing another with powers is present on the scene, solidifies and shouts quickly at Mr. Heffernan

"Hey you! We have to go after them, leave the straggler..."

He runs down the stairs after the main Loomie group.

Banjo

Indy charges down the stairs then stops suddenly, arriving in a reception chamber full of Loomies - most still alive and well - being accosted by a small rodent while one of their number throttles an unconscious, casually dressed, hooded gentleman. One of the Loomies starts raising a shaking tech-gauntleted arm to aim at his colleague and shouts out at him.

Ooc : if you want to nick-of-time deus-ex-fourier save Plasma Squirrel's face, roll d6+willpower, target 8, for a combine effort assist!
Otherwise you get a free pop at a pistoleer or Gauntleteer due to surprise

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

Ooc : if you want to nick-of-time deus-ex-fourier save Plasma Squirrel's face, roll d6+willpower, target 8, for a combine effort assist!
Otherwise you get a free pop at a pistoleer or Gauntleteer due to surprise

OOC: Helping Plasma Squirrel, 13

Nebelwerfer

Fourier wrote: »

Indigo, seeing another with powers is present on the scene, solidifies and shouts quickly at Mr. Heffernan

"Hey you! We have to go after them, leave the straggler..."

He runs down the stairs after the main Loomie group.

Randy sees a gaseous form solidify before him, into a sexy young dude, before commanding him to abandon his pet door.

"Silent, deadly and good looking?" Randy is surprised, and a little starstruck, by yet another 'golden boy' running around town for the betterment of mankind.

Randy then recalls a joke...

"What do you call "fart" in German?"


"Farfrompoopfin!"

Although all of this happened internally for him; he lets loose a belt of laughter before shuffling, as fast as old men shuffle can, after the sexy man.

Banjo

With Indy's telekinesis to help hold the errant arm steady, Squirramorph's shot is true, blasting into the back of Menorah's big melon head. He rather seems to enjoy it, but the impact does shake him loose, allowing Plasma Squirrel to slump to the floor.

ooc : at this point Plas could make a miraculous recovery by spending a DP but pters not around. Just letting you know it's a possibility, within reason.

Menorah and his men round on Indy.
"Another one? Do the maths, pretty boy! 2...4..5..7...10! 10 of us..."
"12!" Shouts a feminine voice from the other room
"12 of us. 13 if you count the - hey what is that, a ground hog?"
"Looks like a porcupine"
"Why did we bring a porcupine?"
"It's not with us!" Shouts quillface, lodged in the stuck door. "Shoot the little prick!"
"Ok 12 of us, 2 of you if you team up with the punk rat. You're still gonna end up like the blue jean bandit over there. Go back upstairs and forget you were here. And take your vermin with you!"

Baggly

OOC: How miraculous a recovery?

Baggly

OOC: what am I saying.....spent the DP....get me back in the fight. I've a sexy young dude to thank!

Banjo

Pter wrote: »

OOC: How miraculous a recovery?

Your strength in stamina recovery miraculous.
I mean it's bending the rules a little but no more than I did for Menorah earlier (albeit that was accidental)
You need to spend a DP and tie it to a quality.

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

"Ok 12 of us, 2 of you if you team up with the punk rat. You're still gonna end up like the blue jean bandit over there. Go back upstairs and forget you were here. And take your vermin with you!"

Only now with the porcupine does it make sense. These must be the renowned Plasma Squirrel and his sidekick Squirramorph. He'd read about them in the hero journal, if the rumours were true Squirramorph had once taken out a fifty man strong ex-covert ops team as an aardvark, they never recovered from the horrors its probing snout visited on them. What an honour to be here now!

"Vermin? That's the hero Squirramorph, she's fended off greater foes than you. If these valiant heroes are here I can't lose"

He adopts a fighting pose.

Banjo

"The cerise skies of a Squirrlon twilight, as it gives way to the emerald dawn are a sight to behold, my son. Or were. The skies are grey now. All is grey. But it will not ever be so for it has been pledged to us in Tufty's Troth that one will come; bright of eye and bushy of tail, the Drey's lost kitten, the Achena's annointed, and with them comes the great Grey Harvest that will cleanse our land and bring the colour back to the sky. See! Achena beckons!



But this kernel you must forgo. Your dreymother needs you. Wake, my son.

Wake."

Plasma Squirrel's eyes open. Menorah stands over him, challenging an unseen opponent and threatening a porcupine. Erethizon dorsatum… but they're caviomorphic rodents usually found in coniferous forests or shrublands, what would one be doing in an urban environment like thi…SQUIRAMORPH!

He sits bolt upright, swinging his righteous fist towards Menorah's unprotected nethers, screaming :

Pter wrote:

"You really should take better care of your ACORNS!"

Menorah's globules are no match for the awesome strength of an enraged Plasma Squirrel, fissuring like a well-struck brulée. The glow-fisted gladiator drops to his knees, ashen, as the agony creeps and claws its way from his loins, tearing through every nerve, overloading every axon, it's tight, tormenting caul paralysing him. He collapses in a foetal position.

Seeing her ward recover renews Squiramorph's spirit. Her lagomorphic limbs blur as she scampers across the floor, all the while her iron will wrestles with a Loomie gauntlet, firing it at one of the pistoleers. The effort of forcing the machinery to fight it's operator proves too much though, a momentary lapse in concentration sees her return to her human form.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Indigo Spirit wrestles with the gun-toting gangsters, forcing their point-blank shots wide, but taking a blast of gauntlet fire to the shoulder. Heffernan arrives behind him and lays a hand upon the cauterised wound. Indigo is filled with a strange feeling of… he's not sure. And neither is he. The two Indigo spirits look at each other. There's a brief nod, as they each acknowledge that the other is a sexy young dude, but then it's back to business - there'll be time to explore that brave new world later.

As Plasma Squirrel leaps to his feet, the Tallowman makes a grab for him, locking the drey-born defender's arm. To their left, the door explodes, sending poor Quillface flying across the room, as a blazing bore corkscrews through it. The Tallowman guffaws loudly. Plas tries desperately to forage through the rendered rapscallion's mind, but his psyche is as malleable a muddle as his physical form - the squirrel's vice-like spiritual squeezes find no purchase.

Full disclosure - at this point you probably would have *eventually* won the fight especially with the Fourier Family starting to expand, but these guys are not here to fight you. They're here to get paaaaaaid.
Plas asked to spend another DP here to retcon his way out of the hold, which to be honest he'd need a better explanation for than was offered. And it was getting late. And the Loomies have a timetable to stick to. So….

"Blow the van!" shouts Sista Blista as she grabs two hold-alls and starts spinning, faster and faster. There's a beep and a deep rumble as the whole room shakes.

Something tears violently - Suddenly there are gold bars flying everywhere. The Tallowman melts away, a bar striking Plas on the chin, knocking him cold. The wicked waxwork flows across the floor towards the exit, safe beneath the bullionic burst, his flagitous flow pulling Menorah and a smattering of errant bullion with it. A pistol-waving perp is struck in the head when a bar passes through the now gaseous Indigo twins - he falls on Heffernan, pinning him to the floor. Sista Blista whirls towards the door, a number of Loomie flunkies in tow - 7 in all, dragging 2 bags between them - her aurelian deluge keeping our heroes pinned down. As they pass through the narrow security corridor, she grabs the last one by the belt, mock-kisses his forehead (as best you can in a gas mask) and kicks him backwards - a ring-pull dangles from her finger.
"no no no Noooo!"
The corridor collapses as the Loomie explodes. A feathered orange pimp-hat blows into the security room and drifts to the floor.

Necro

Squiramorph drops to her knees beside the prone Plasma Squirrel, sliding the gold bar that struck him into his hood for 'analytics' later.

'Plas, plas - are you ok? They got away, and we should too before the cops arrive and arrest us!'

She tries to help him up and limps toward the stairs, making for the Squirrelcopter.

Banjo

sKeith wrote: »

Shelly looks around for a fast food resturant or street truck, the sight of the nuggets has wet her appetite.

Well, the Cabbage Patch isn't great for food, there's overpriced sushi, a few noodle bars, but they're mostly lunch places and you won't get served in the rush without a booking. There's the Nuggets place across from the bank that you just left, but that's a real tourist trap - they do those honeymustard nuggets and teryaki nuggets and vegan soy nuggets, that kind of bull**** - if you want the real deal you'll want to go to a cart that serves them with "The Sauce". I mean, it's Sovereign Sauce everywhere else but, like, do you think they call them Brazil Nuts in Brazil? It's just Sauce. You ask for Sauce, you're getting liquidized pickles, garlic and chillies in ketchup and mayonaise.

If you want something a little more upmarket than mechanically reclaimed meat pebbles you'll have to walk cross-isle to Fordstown and the Suschere, but it'll be pricey. You're about a 5 minute walk from Monco and 3rd, there's a decent pizza place there, and just a block up there's a great shawarma joint.

sKeith

Shelly has a craving for a big family sized bucket of fried chicken and a family sized soda drink to wash it down, she wanders off on her new mission.

Banjo

OOC:
First up - for Sister Bliss to make it rain lethal gold bars, I had to stunt off one of her powers. Necro, Nebelwerfer and Fourier get 1 DP for their Trouble. Pter, you don't, because you effectively get your escape from hold (which cost you 1DP) for free. And you get the hat despite not 100% earning it!

Plas getting knocked out is purely for flavour. You can recover whenever you want, there's no stamina damage from it.

Indigo's new power is temporary - it will begin to degrade over 7 turns starting from when I tell you (assuming I remember and don't pull some backdating nonsense!). Until then, enjoy - but don't fall in love!

You mostly foiled the bank robbery, they only got around 10-15% of their haul in the end, all the hostages got out - but SWAT will taking the credit for that - still, not a bad start. There were a couple of fatalities - notably the 2 loomies you guys killed, but also 3 cops were caught in the explosion upstairs. Anyway, well done on Chapter 1.

A few of you picked up knocks in that fight - you heal your strength in stamina every hour.

So.... Chapter 2 : SWAT are closing in, the perps are getting away, and Kusunagi's on Sentenza and 2nd are almost out of makizushi! What do you do, hot shots? What do you do?

Baggly

Plas wakes up and collects the hat.

Nebelwerfer

Randy explores the body of the man now on top of him.

While being pinned down, and trying to not enjoy too much, he is trying to make the best of a bad situation.

He checks the pockets, fanny pack, backpack, coat pocket, satchel or any other container the goon appears to have on him for forms of identification or potential indication where the head huncho's may have escaped off to.

"I feel cheated...." he thinks to himself.

"I could have had that application in the bag, and now THEY get to run off with the cash... I THINK NOT".

Randy is determined to get to the bottom of this.

Banjo

Necrominus wrote: »

Squiramorph drops to her knees beside the prone Plasma Squirrel, sliding the gold bar that struck him into his hood for 'analytics' later.

'Plas, plas - are you ok? They got away, and we should too before the cops arrive and arrest us!'

She tries to help him up and limps toward the stairs, making for the Squirrelcopter.

Heading up the stairs, Squiramorph hears agitated voices barking orders and some pained moans. She climbs just high enough to get an eye-line on the teller area, without revealing her presence. The air is thick with dust, the teller windows are shattered. Several SWAT officers are taking up defensive positions behind the remains of columns, most clustered in an area near the door. The angle does not facilitate you seeing below about shoulder height on the other side of the divide.

The doors have held, but it's only a matter of time before they come through the windows. To get up the stairs to the next floor you'll have to risk being seen.

Banjo

Nebelwerfer wrote: »

Randy explores the body of the man now on top of him.

While being pinned down, and trying to not enjoy too much, he is trying to make the best of a bad situation.

He checks the pockets, fanny pack, backpack, coat pocket, satchel or any other container the goon appears to have on him for forms of identification or potential indication where the head huncho's may have escaped off to.

"I feel cheated...." he thinks to himself.

"I could have had that application in the bag, and now THEY get to run off with the cash... I THINK NOT".

Randy is determined to get to the bottom of this.

The Loomie is not carrying much. He has a pistol and a small vial of what you hope is hair gel. He's wearing a heavy belt - you notice a ring dangling from it.

Banjo

Pter wrote: »

Plas wakes up and collects the hat.

It fits.

OOC : I'm not a monster!

Dusting himself down, and looking supafly, Plasma Squirrel surveys the scene. There are gold bars all over the room. Four Loomie gang members lie unconscious on the floor. He remembers what he did to the mind of one of them - he's likely to slip beyond consciousness soon without assistance.

The eastern exit to the carpark has been replaced by rubble. The doorway south to the vault has been destroyed, tearing out a good chunk of the wall with it, revealing heavy plating laced with circuitry. The stairs up, as taken by Squiramorph, are still open to all.

Sounds of the chaos upstairs from the police armed responders caught in the blast begin to drift down.

Nebelwerfer

Banjo wrote: »

The Loomie is not carrying much. He has a pistol and a small vial of what you hope is hair gel. He's wearing a heavy belt - you notice a ring dangling from it.

Put the small vial in my pocket, undo his belt and remove the ring dangling from it.

Roll the goon off me and onto the floor.

Look for a direction to which I can flee and most likely remain unspotted, or even hitch a ride (ooc: in lets say, a helicopter).

Necro

Banjo wrote: »

Heading up the stairs, Squiramorph hears agitated voices barking orders and some pained moans. She climbs just high enough to get an eye-line on the teller area, without revealing her presence. The air is thick with dust, the teller windows are shattered. Several SWAT officers are taking up defensive positions behind the remains of columns, most clustered in an area near the door. The angle does not facilitate you seeing below about shoulder height on the other side of the divide.

The doors have held, but it's only a matter of time before they come through the windows. To get up the stairs to the next floor you'll have to risk being seen.

OOC: Luckily I have certain powers then eh?

Squiramorph pauses and lightly says the words:

'Form of - a squirrel!'

Once she has transformed she darts up towards the roof as quickly as she can.

Baggly

Plas regards the sexy young dudes and older gentleman.

'Can any of you provide us some cover so we can get to the roof? We have a helicopter waiting for us there....I can offer you a way out of here if you can get us to the roof unseen'