Meteor City Heroes

[blaster219]

Jacob Chance is a brilliant scientist and engineer with an intuitive grasp of esoteric scientific theories and advanced technologies. His last experiment went drastically wrong when a momentary power surge caused a burst of unknown energy to escape containment. Jacob’s three teenage sons, Chris, William and Jonathon, along with Chris’ friend Jane, were exposed to the energy which had an unexpected effect on their bodies.

Now, not only do Chris, Jane, William and Jonathon have to cope with the everyday pressures of being teenagers, but now they have superpowers to worry about as well while Jacob struggles to understand what caused the accident and what to do about the city’s newest metahuman superheroes.

Website: - http://sites.google.com/site/meteorcityheroes/home

[blaster219]

Issue 1.01 - A Normal Day...

"All units in the vicinity of Impact Point, 2-11 in progress at East Cost Finance on West 23rd. Shots Fired."

With that, our heroes charged into action. William was the first on the scene, charging in through the front doors. In the blink of eye, he took in the terrified hostages being menaced by 4 men armed with SMGs and body armour spread about the room. A fifth man, armed with an assault rifle and possessing a solid mass of muscles on his frame, stood in the centre of the room. Finally, standing by the open vault, the door a mass of rusted and corroded metal, was the time-controlling supercriminal, Chronos who yelled "Take them out, fools!"

Faster than a blur, William sped across the room, disarming three of the SMG wielding robbers before they had a chance to react. The fourth robber did have time to react, bringing up his SMG and spraying a burst of bullets at William, apparently unconcerned about the masked hero’s possible age. Luckily for William, super speed has its advantages and nimble dodges between the bullets.

One by one, the rest of the team arrive. Jane teleports in with a traditional bamf, materialising admits the hostages and teleporting one to safety. Jacob flies in through the bank’s front door, and heads straight for the hostages. With a quick re-modulation, he reverses the projection area of his Personal Force Field and creates a solid energy barrier between the hostages and the gunman. Jonathon uses the force field to cover the rescue the rest of the hostages by phasing out part of the wall and allowing the hostages to escape.

Chris was the last to arrive. Entering the bank through the vent shafts, he pooled up behind Chronos and returned to human form. The supervillain turned and glared at Chris. "You!" He yelled, pointing at Chris. "Again? This won’t be like last time!" Chris, of course, was mystified since they had never met Chronos before.

The three disarmed warriors quickly drew serrated combat knives and, on the orders of the one armed with an assault rifle, attacked Jacob with military precision. Despite this, Jacob was able to nimbly dodge around all but one of the knives. One knife was aimed right at Jacob’s head, his HUDs automatic threat-detection having been overwhelmed by the attacks as well as a spray of bullets from the man who looked like he was in charge of the (mostly) knife wielding robbers. Chris saw the knife heading straight for his father and, from across the room, stretched out a hand to pluck it from the air.

William grabbed the strap from one of the SMGs and wrapped it around the still armed robber shooting at him, tangling him up. On the other side of the bank, Chronos levelled his blaster at Chris again. But at the last second, he flipped a switch and instead held it above his head like a torch and knelt down. With its wide-field mode activated, charged chronitons flooded the room at chest height. His accomplices, warned by a shout from Chronos, knelt down. William’s superhuman reflexes allowed him to duck under the wave of chronitons. Jacob and Chris weren’t as lucky as the wave struck them dead on, partially shifting them to a slower timestream. Chris was doubly unlucky as the chronitons resonated with the residual charge from Chronos' earlier attack.

Jacob fired his blaster gauntlets at the robbers while William used his super speed to attack, knocking one of the robbers out. Chris managed to batter Chronos. The villain had now had enough. Rotating a dial on his blaster, he fired a stream of temporal energy at the wall. The plaster and concrete rippled and crumbled as the wall suddenly aged several thousand years, blasting a hole in the exterior wall.

The man hosing Jacob with assault rifle fire, spotted Chronos kicking Chris aside and fleeing through the hole. “Boss is bugging out, we are romeo tango bravo.” He lead the charge out the door, the others following behind. As Chronos fled, the pointed his blaster back through the wall and fired. The charged chroniton’s flooded into the buildings steel structure, aging it drastically. The building started to creak and rumble ominously.

Outside, Jonathon confronted the gunman, grabbing the man’s assault rifle and phasing it out of his grip. He tried to smack the gunman with the butt of the rifle but the gun man jumped back and pulled his knife and threw it at Jonathon. The knife tomahawked through the air. Jonathon, showing off, turned around with the intent of allowing the knife to pass through him and catch it. He was almost off and his timing, he phased out in time but almost phased back in with the knife still inside him.

By now, the police had arrived on the scene and a crowd of onlookers had formed. Overhead, a news copter circled.

William, Chris and their father decided now would be an extremely good time to vacate the collapsing building. Chronos and his henchmen had already fled; Chronos running down the street in a heightened timestream, the henchmen to an SUV. Chris, Jacob and William, who was carrying the unconscious henchmen, went for the SUV. Jane teleported off after Chronos and Jonathon catapulted himself in pursuit of the villain too.

Between the pair of them, Jonathan and Jane incapacitated Chronos while the rest of their team dealt with the henchmen.

Finally, PARA arrived and apprehended the henchman. In the confusion however, Chronos vanished.

[blaster219]

First Session Thoughts

Distinctions

From the second round onwards we used a recent "Errata" that allowed you to use one Character Distinction and one Scene Distinction in a dice pool as one is used positively and the other negatively. At first this seemed like a good idea, it meant that the Scene Distinctions came into play more. However, it had the side effect of increasing the amount of PP the players were earning each round without increasing the number of opportunities to the same degree.

I think from next session onwards, we'll be dropping this rules change.

Doom Pool

I need a cheat sheet specifically for Doom Pool expenditure. Mainly for:

• What you can spend DP dice on
• When you can spent them
• Whether you need to match die size or not

Initiative

A couple of times, I lost track of who had acted and who hadn't acted yet in an Action Round. I've made an Initiative Tracker to help prevent this in future sessions.

Providing a Challenge

Because of the amount on non-opportunity PP coming the PCs way, I felt overwhelmed by the PCs and unable to provide an effective challenge. I've always felt that it's not a GMs job to let the players win, or prevent them from winning. But to give them the opportunity to win. During the first session, it felt that the PCs were walking over their opposition. The Mercenary Goons were one thing, but the main villain of the scene seemed a pushover too. I'm going to have to look at how I stat-up Action Scenes.

Plot

Since the function of the first session was mainly to teach the rules, I'm not that worried about the Plot. My big headache comes in the next session where we're supposed to "flashback" to the day the PCs get their powers. That's going to be ... difficult to plot. One thing I did change during the session was with Chronos. I decided to imply that Chronos had met the PCs before and they'd foiled one of his schemes, yet as far as the PCs are concerned this is the first time that they've crossed paths. The implication being that Chronos is encountering them in a non-linear order from the point of view of the PCs timestream.

[blaster219]

Issue 1.02 - Origins

"Breaking News, reports are coming in of a disturbance at Bayview Academy. MCPD are apparently on the scene and eyewitnesses report smoke and gunfire coming from the school grounds. Channel 35 will continue to bring news on this breaking story as the situation unfolds."

Saturday, 14 April 2012, 9:35 PM

It's a quiet night in for the Chance family, along with Chris' friend Jane (16) who is staying over the weekend due to family issues. The younger boys, William (15) and Jonathon (14), are watching TV and playing video games, anything in an attempt to avoid doing their homework. Chris (17) is in the kitchen, trying to rustle up dinner, their dad having forgotten to do it.

And as for Jacob, he's downstairs in the basement lab analysing an artefact sent to him by Overwatch who have called on Jacob's expertise with esotech. The artefact was a seemingly solid metal object the size of a child's lunch box. There were no visible seams and the metal was a compound previously unknown to science. In an effort to see what was inside the object, Jacob cobbled together a Quantum Resonance Imager and trained the scanning beam on the artefact.

Upstairs, Jonathon was prancing around in front of the Xbox, annoying everyone including Jane who was trying to concentrate on her homework.

The computers in the lab started displayed alerts and warnings as red lights began to flash and an alert tone started to sound. The artefact was giving off increasing amounts of exotic radiation and the levels were rapidly becoming dangerous. Jacob tried to bring up the containment fields but made a crucial mistake and left the top of the test chamber unprotected. The radiation reached critical levels and with a blue flash, the artefact released a massive burst of energy.

In the house above, the lights flickered and sparks erupted from all the electrical equipment as the fuses blew. At the same time, a blue flash swept through the house and the air become charged with static electricity.

When their vision finally cleared, things had taken an alarming turn. Jane, who had been downstairs just a second before, now found herself standing in an upstairs bedroom, still holding her social studies textbook. Furthermore, she couldn't see herself in the bedroom mirror. Jonathon was sitting on the floor. He had been sitting on the couch but was now sitting in the couch. William, realising they needed a responsible adult, ran in to the kitchen to find Chris. As he ran, he ripped a furrow in the carpet with his speed. His run came to an unexpected end when he slipped on a gloopy puddle of slime. Chris was nowhere to be seen.

By this point, Jacob had rushed upstairs to check on the kids. It didn't take a genius to work out what had happened and he felt suitably responsible. Jane came downstairs, surprising everyone with her invisibility. With some effort, both Jonathon and Jane managed to bring their powers under control. All that was left was to find Chris.

It was William who found him as he slipped again on the slime puddle, a puddle that had followed him in from the kitchen, a puddle that had Chris' face. Jacob theorises that exposure to the exotic energy has altered Chris' molecular structure to a quasi-fluidic state. With brief appliance of science (and a human shaped jelly-mold), Chris is returned to normal.

Chris was understandably a little irked at his father, (rightly) blaming him for whatever had just happened. As tempers rose, Jane suggested that they go out for pizza while Jacob tried to fix the electrics in an attempt to defuse the situation.

Persuaded by his friend, Chris agreed to take them to a nearby pizza place. During the walk over, William wanted to go find a bunch a muggers and try out their new superpowers. Jonathon agreed. Chris was having none of it, worried that his brothers would get themselves killed in amateur heroics. They pointed out there was very little that he could do stop them now that they had superpowers. As an example, Jonathon phased through a fence into a back garden, surprising a man with his barbeque. In the first or probably many examples of Great Power bringing Great Irresponsibility, the 14-year-old managed to palm a bottle of beer before Jane and Chris could retrieve him.

After pizza William, eager to let rip with his powers, challenged a Jane to a race home. Teleporter vs Super Speedster; the results were as expected.

Monday, 16 April 2012, 8:45 AM

Arriving at Bayview Academy on monday morning, a pact had been made to avoid using their powers whilst at school. This agreement didn't even last until first period. While Jonathon was at his locker, a jock barged his way down the corridor, hitting Jonathon with his bag as he passed. Jonathon, ever the prankster, decided that a small application of his powers wouldn't hurt.

He reached over and phased his hand into the jock's bag, intending on stealing something in revenge. However, despite all the practice he'd had on sunday, he still wasn't in complete control of his powers. As he started to pull his hand out of the bag, theobject he was holding didn't phase out completely and snagged on the bag's material. The jock, still walking away, felt someone tug sharply on his bag and started to turn. Jonathon quickly released the item and darted away but not before the jock caught sight of his face as he ducked around a corner.

Morning classes passed uneventfully and it wasn't until lunch that the jock finally caught up with the prankster. He and a bunch of his buddies cornered Jonathon in the cafeteria. Despite overwhelming temptation, Jonathon resisted using his powers in front of a half of the school. However, he wasn't going to have to face down the bullies alone. Both Jane and William came to his aid.

Monday, 16 April 2012, 1:00 PM

The sound of a phone ringing upstairs disturbed Jacob's work in the basement on analysing the effects of Saturday's accident. At first, he was irritated that no one was answering it but then he remembered that it was monday and his kids would be at school; he'd have to answer it himself.

It was the school principal who wanted to have a word in person about an incident at school involving his two youngest sons. Automatically assuming the worst, Jacob jumped in the car and headed to the school. He brought along a scanner calibrated to detect the use of superpowers along with a briefcase that contained ... stuff.

William and Jonathon were waiting for him in Principal Sanders' office. His scanner revealed that someone had been using superpowers in the vicinity but the readings were minute. His fears that his children had used their powers openly and had been spotted turned out to be false; he'd been called in over nothing more than a food fight in the cafeteria.

However, as he sat there listening to the Principal, his scanner started beeping. Metahuman readings were increasing, rapidly increasing. At the same time, police sirens could be heard approaching. The Principal's office overlooked the front of the school grounds and Jacob, William and Jonathon say a black van drive through the school gates and screech to a halt in the car park.

Four figures jumped out of the van. The boys recognised them as Crossfire, Disharmony, Psipher and Rampage; members of the supervillain group, The Children of Kronos. Crossfire, levelled a powerful looking energy weapon at the police squad cars barrelling in through the school gates while his partners entered the school. He opened fire and a bolt of energy engulfed the cars, destroying them utterly.

Inside Psipher, a powerful psychic, turned her psionic abilities on the students milling around in the corridors near the main entrance and who had been attracted by the commotion outside. She quickly dominated them and began using them to subdue other students and consolidate control of the school. By the time police reinforcements arrived, the school was locked down and virtually the entire student body was under the control of Psipher. That is except for three brothers, a friend of the family, and their father.

Jacob had managed to shepherd the kids to a secure location but soon realised the predicament they were in. Armed supervillains had taken control of Bayview Academy and were using the students as cannon fodder and human shields. He revealed that his briefcase contained prototype gadgets including a blaster, force field generator and flight belt. Although he intended to use it to protect the kids, the kids seemed eager to take the fight to the supervillains. It took some convincing but he eventually agreed and together, they ventured out into halls.

The criminals were holed up in the school gym, and after dealing with a few roving mobs of psionically dominated students, they were ready to storm in ... hero style.

Watcher's Comments

The player's aren't activating any of the Opportunities that I'm rolling and I think it's because they're unsure exactly what they can do with them. I should probably take some time to explain it in simple and straight forward terms what they can use Watcher Opportunities for.

I also need to explain how Mobs work and how Stress and Complications affect a Mob's Team dice. A few times, one player in particular tried to apply a Complication to the entire Mob instead of targeting individual mob dice. As far as I'm aware, each die in a Mob's Team affiliation is considered a separate target that unless you spend PP or have an SFX like Area Effect, you must target individually.

[Duck Call Lass]

First Session Thoughts

Distinctions

From the second round onwards we used a recent "Errata" that allowed you to use one Character Distinction and one Scene Distinction in a dice pool as one is used positively and the other negatively. At first this seemed like a good idea, it meant that the Scene Distinctions came into play more. However, it had the side effect of increasing the amount of PP the players were earning each round without increasing the number of opportunities to the same degree.

FWIW, I dropped that rule too.

[blaster219]

Issue 1.03 - Origins, Part 2

"MCPD have confirmed that they are currently engaged in an armed siege at Bayview Academy where four individuals belonging to the criminal group 'Children of Kronos' are holding an unknown number of of students hostage. There is no word as yet of any demands or whether PARA will be dispatched to deal with the situation. Channel 35 will continue to bring news on this breaking story as the situation unfolds."

Monday, 16 April 2012, 1:15 PM

Jane was the first one to enter the school gym. She quickly noticed that Psipher and Rampage were standing in the centre of the basketball court while Crossfire and Disharmony were on the bleachers. The gym itself was crowded with glassy eyed students sitting vacantly on the floor. Each of the four criminals was attended by their own group mind controlled students, under a much greater level of psionic domination and capable of following orders.

Assessing the situation, Jane teleported to the center of the room and began to rapidly teleport around Rampage in order to distract the hulking brute. At the same time, Jonathon attempted to grab Disharmony from beneath the bleachers and phase him through. However, the sonic-based supervillain spotted Jonathon's attempt and jumped back, aiming a sonic blast down. The full-power blast tore through the bleachers and the concrete floor below, blowing a hole into the basement. Jonathon barely managed to get out of the way of the blast, falling through the concrete and into the basement.

At this point, Psipher realised there were still undominated minds in the school. Although she could see Jane, she took no chances and cast her net wide, enforcing her will on everyone within the school grounds who was not one of her allies. However, by spreading her power out so widely, she lessened the force of her mental domination. Jacob, Jane, William and Jonathon were able to fight it and eventually shrug it off.

Jacob flew in through the door and began to shoot his blaster gauntlets at Psipher. Acting on the theory that by taking her out, the mind controlled students would be freed. His blasts hit, although they didn't incapacitate her. From across the gym, Crossfire saw Jacob enter and blast his teammate. He returned fire on her behalf with his neutron disrupter. The energy beam struck Jacob's forcefield and caused interference with his systems. The interference was soon accounted for and Jacob began to make adjustments to his field in preparation of the next assault.

Meanwhile, the mind controlled students were not idle. On the orders of Disharmony, the cheerleader squad jumped down into the basement after Jonathon. Like an army of demented vampire slayers, the subjected the poor boy to a fusilade of kicks. He was so shocked by the assault he forgot to phase out in order to avoid their attacks, resulting in a serious pummelling. It was a mistake he soon rectified as he fought back. Another group of students dropped makeshift grenades down the hole, juryrigged in the school's science labs. More students tried to take down Jane but she deftly avoided them with a combination of acrobatics and teleportation.

William was ironically the last to join the fight, speeding in and attacking Rampage, hoping to further distract him from the fight. Leading him out of the gym and onto the school grounds. Psipher, still shielded from the mobs, focused her telekinesis on the roof of the gym which began to creak ominously. The concentration this required left her distracted and vulnerable. A fact that WIlliam took advantage of when he returned from causing the confused and disorientated to surrender to the police, took a heavy dodge ball and threw it at Psipher, using his own momentum to increase the power of the throw. The ball struck Psipher in the head, knocking her out.

Crossfire continued his assault, firing his disruptor again at Jacob. This time, he was ready for him. His modulated forcefield absorbed the incoming energy beam, focused it, and redirected it back at Crossfire who took it square in the chest. However, the remodulated forcefield overloaded Jacob's hardware and caused a complete system failure. The mob of mind controlled students took advantage of this and dogpiled the armoured man. Incensed, Crossfire fired at Jacob, blasting his way through the mob of students until William super-speed punched him out.

Disharmony saw the writing on the wall and focused his sonic blasts down, burrowing his way through the floor. He passed the basement where Jonathon tried to stop him only to be pulled back and pounced on by the cheerleaders. This proved to be too much for the boy and he was unable to prevent Disharmony from escaping.

With all the supervillains down or escaped, Jacob went looking for his youngest son and found him sitting dazed and surrounded by a number of semi-conscious cheerleaders. Pulling him to his feet, he helped him back to the gym where the sound of approaching helicopters could be heard. Realising that the arrival of PARA was imminent, our heroes decided to sit down in the gym and pretend to be just another hostage slowly coming around from the mind control.

Monday, 16 April 2012, 1:35 PM

Inside Jacob's basement lab, the featureless metal surface of the artefact was suddenly not so featureless. Glowing characters and symbols, unrecognisable in form and meaning, swept across it surface. After a seconds , an arc of energy lanced out of the artefact, connecting with a nearby computer terminal. The terminal's screen flickered into life as it connected to the internet, websites and databases flashing across the screen faster than the graphics card could keep up.

The arc disconnected and a holographic display screen appeared above the artefact.

Recruitment unit 178 connecting to planetary computer network
Language lexicon updated for > Earth > Human > English
Establishing BattleNet .... Locating Test Subjects .... Five (5) found
Subject 1 > Integration Successful, 0% rejection, Neural imprint non functional
Subject 2 > Integration Successful, 0% rejection, Neural imprint non functional
Subject 3 > Integration Successful, 0% rejection, Neural imprint non functional
Subject 4 > Integration Successful, 0% rejection, Neural imprint non functional
Subject 5 > Integration Successful, 0% rejection, Neural imprint complete, awaiting orders
Download enhancement specifications .... download complete
Connecting to subspace relay Sigma 4 .... connected
Uploading to Tel'Var High Command .... complete
Reverting to standby mode

The holographic window vanished and the glowing characters on the artefact faded from view. Within a few seconds, the artefact appeared to be nothing more than an inert lump of metal.

Monday, 16 April 2012, 1:35 PM
(Local Time Tuesday, 17 April 2012, 3:35 AM)

The room was dark, sunrise was still three hours away, and a cool breeze was drifting in from the coast and down into the valley where it rustled through the cycad trees around the sleeping township.

Sprawled on the bed, fast asleep with the blanket thrown back, was a teenage aborigine boy. As he slept, the skin became crisscrossed with circuit like lines stretching up to his shoulder and neck. At the junctions, a series of crystalline nodules formed; softly glowing yellow.

The nodules began to blink; the speed of the blinking increasing by the second, as did the brightness. The flashing was soon joined by a repeating crystalline note sounding from the nodules. After a minute of this, the flashing ceased along with the note. There is a pause, then yellow energy crackles up out of the nodules, arcing between them.

The boy awoke with a yelp. "Awight, quit it, I'm up!" He reaches over to a desk by his bad and flicks on the screen of his phone. "Strewth, it's half three in the morning. Whaddya wake me up for." The nodules blink rapidly in a complex sequence. "Okay, I take it a Tel'Varen signal in America is a big thing right?" There is more rapid blinking. "Two questions, what the hell's a Tel'Varen and why should I care about them from 15'000 km away ... Oh, that is bad."

Watcher's Comments

This session was one big action scene. Really nothing more than the conclusion of last weeks plot. Because the session really only consisted of this single scene, I padded out the opposition to include a number of distinct mobs (Cheerleaders, Geeks, Wrestling Team, Football Team). Interestingly, these mobs were almost completely ignored by the PCs and the only damage they sustained in the fight was from "friendly fire" (intentional in Crossfire's case)

Jonathon took d12 stress in practically the first round of the scene. And only because he (and everyone else) forgot that he could spend a PP to ignore physical stress from physical attacks (in this case, the acrobatic kicks from the cheerleaders). In the end, he was taken down at the end of the fight not be physical stress, but by Emotional Stress and left with d4 Emotional Trauma. Obviously, being beaten up by a bunch of incredibly attractive girls had a significant effect on the 14 year old.

[blaster219]

Issue 1.04 - Meetings, Part 1

"And finally, after dramatically ending the Bayvew Academy Siege and foiling the attempted robbery of the Impact Point branch of East Coast Finance last month by Chronos, everyone is asking just who is Meteor City's newest team of superheroes. MCPD Chief of Police Emma Reyes, whose son was one of the hostages at last months siege of Bayview Academy, has cautiously welcomed these new heroes but has expressed concern at eye witness reports suggesting that these heroes may be minors. PARA has declined to comment on the issue. The question still remains, who are these apparently young heroes and how did they get their powers? This is Wanda Lopes for Channel 35 News."

Ridge Gap, West Meteor City
Wednesday, 2 May 2012, 7:37 PM

Not long before sunset, a lone boy is walking through the roughest part of Meteor City, looking for trouble. William, taking the whole superhero thing seriously, is "on patrol". He hears the sound on an altercation from a nearby alleyway and rushes over to investigate. As he approaches the dark and rubbish strewn alley, a man is thrown down the length of it, crashing into a dumpster and slumping into unconsciousness.

William creeps down the length of the alley to where it ends at the back door of a sleazy nightclub. He sees a figure in a tattered hooded top and combat pants, wearing a high tech respirator and face mask, fighting two men. The figure, shorter than the two men by at least a foot, is wielding a wooden sword against the two grown men who are armed with guns; one carrying a micro uzi, the other a desert eagle.

He does the math; guns versus wooden sword, 2 vs 1, bad guy's carry guns. Therefore, the sword guy is a the good guy. William jumps in the the side of the hooded sword wielder, who he reckons is probably about the same age as him. Using his super-speed he attempts to disarm the man carrying the SMG, just like he did at the bank robbery last week. However, this time it didn't work; the uzi man managing a lucky sidestep. He attempted to counter William's disarm attempt with a spray of 9mm rounds. William nimbly twisted and turned, dodging the bullets.

The hooded ninja grunted as the pistol guy unloaded several rounds into his chest but that didn't slow him down. He jumped forward and struck the man in the chest with his sword. Seeing his partner double over, uzi guy tried spray both teens with automatic gunfire but missed both of them. William unleashed a superspeed fusilade of blows on uzi guy and hooded ninja followed up with a freerunning butterfly kick to the face.

With the fight over, William realised that the hooded ninja was the vigilante the media had dubbed "Ghost". As Ghost bound the men's hands with plasticuffs that suspiciously looked like heavy duty cable ties from a hardware store, William gushed, asking question after question. Ghost didn't seem that impressed, telling him "Go home kid," and "this isn't a game." Furthermore, despite being muffled by the mask, Ghost's voice sounded as young as William's. Undeterred William asked him whether he had any superpowers. Ghost responded by saying that he had "several enhancements" but William pressed him for details and a demonstration. After a little hesitation and much persuasion, Ghost whipped his wooden sword towards William's neck. William, predictably, used his superspeed to dodge out of the way. However, as he moved, Ghost pulled a handgun from his hoody and pointed at where William's head would be when he finished dodging.

After making his point, Ghost returned to securing the drug dealers and summoning the police. He seemed very reluctant to be engaged in conversation. Even when William expressed disappointment when Ghost pocketed the cash from the dealer's wallet; Ghost simply said, "A guy's gotta eat."

342 Clarksburg Park Road, Bayview
Wednesday, 2 May 2012, 7:37 PM

Jane was in her bedroom finishing her homework before dinner when her mother knocked on her door. She wanted to remind Jane put on something nice since her mother's had invited her boyfriend to dinner to introduce him to her daughter. Jane just grunted in response.

18 Cyprus Drive, Bayview
Wednesday, 2 May 2012, 7:48 PM

Jacob opened the front door and walked into the house. As soon as he was inside, he heard the beeping of the security alarm. The LCD panel by the front door reported that there was an intruder in the basement lab. Wasting no time, Jacob flicked a switch on his briefcase and it unfolded to reveal his gauntlets, flightsuit, helmet and force field belt. Donning his esotech gear, Jacob hurried down to the basement.

In the basement, a figure wearing what appeared to be a black skintight bodysuit was standing over the artefact. Yellow glowing nodules were scattered over the bodysuit, connected by raised ridges resembling circuitry. When Jacob challenged the figure, he turned around and shot a yellow beam of energy at him. Jacob found himself quickly becoming enveloped in yellow field of constricting energy. He activated his forcefield, causing it to flare out and dissipate the energy field.

Jacob tried to contain the intruder with a force field of his own but the field was dissipated by a burst of yellow energy. Frustrated by Jacob's attacks, and his inability to contain or slow down the armoured man, the figure shot a beam that spread out and formed a solid wall of energy across the lab, separating Jacob from the figure and the artefact. This gave the figure just enough time to turn back to the artefact and scan it before Jacob found a way around the energy wall. As Jacob neutralised the wall, the figure blasted a hole in the ceiling and took flight, Jacob close behind.

In the air above Bayview, Jacob chased the figure, harrying him with blaster fire. Eventually, the figure gave up trying to flee and turned back to Jacob, finally willing to answer his questions. In an Australian accent, the figure introduced himself as Ion Fist and that he had been tracking down a Tel'Varen energy signature that had led him to the artefact.

As they floated, Ion Fist explained that the Tel'Var Imperium was an expansionist alien empire in the Perseus arm of the galaxy, although they were expanding into the Orion-Cygnus arm as well, and that the artefact had the rather benign-sounding name of "Recruitment Device". Of course, this worried Jacob he began to ask, hypothetically speaking, what would happen if someone was exposed to a burst of energy from the device.

Iron Fist told Jacob that the artefact was used by the Imperium to transform members of the native population of a targeted planet into brainwashed shock troopers. Apparently, it was the standard tactic they used when they wanted to forcibly annex a world into the Imperium. By using the local population to subdue their own defences, it saved the Imperium from expending their own resources. As Ion Fist spoke, he would often pause and look down at his right arm as the yellow nodules flickered.

Jonathan, who had been, out at friends was on his way home when he spotted his father floating in the air talking to an unknown glowing figure. Curious, he became invisible and flew up to see what was going on. Ion Fist seemed to be able to detect Jonathon as shot a gloopy yellow glob of liquid energy at Jonathon as the boy floated up alongside them. The energy stuck to Jonathon's invisible form, rendering him visible.

Detecting Tel'Varen energy on Jonathon, Ion Fist seemed ready to attack until Jacob talked him down. Realising that they were kind of conspicuous floating in midair, they decided to relocate back to the house. As they did so, they were joined by William who was back from patrol.

Once they were behind closed doors, Ion Fist deactivated his costume revealing him to be a fifteen-year-old aboriginal boy. He reintroduced himself as Joey and Jacob asked him about his powers. He explained how a close encounter had left him with an alien device merged with with his right arm. A device that Joey seemed to have conversations with and had a mind of its own. When Joey accused it of being like "Clippy" it gave him an electric shock.

Jacob and the boys grilled Joey for as much information as the Australian's gauntlet could give them. They learnt that the energy (whose name couldn't be pronounced by humans) didn't transform people by altering their genetic codes. As best as Joey could explain, the artefact worked on the quantum level, rewriting the quantum signature (or something) so that for all intents and purposes it was like they always had powers. Yeah, Joey didn't get what the gauntlet was talking about either.

Joey also announced that when he had scanned the artefact, the gauntlet had downloaded its database. Although most of it was encrypted, the gauntlet had managed to decode the message that it had picked up last month. The fact that the message referred to five subjects, and not four was disturbing. Someone other than Jane and the Chance brothers had been modified by the artefact.

Upon learning that Overwatch might be paying a visit, Joey decided to leave. Not wanting to experience quarantine again.

Watcher's Comments

This session overran significantly. The discussion with Joey seemed to go on and on, much longer than I thought it would. Not that this was a problem, but it did mean I had to cut the final scene of the episode, possibly saving it for next week.

The two fights in this episode were mainly intended to introduce some more NPC heroes to the PCs. One of which may be a source of information, one of which is just there for flavour. For now.

Ghost was based in no small part on a character I played in M&M campaign last year. After that game, he became part of an extended meta-setting that I'd been working on for a couple of years incorporating a number of superhero character concepts and setting tropes from a variety of games I've played in or wanted to run. Meteor City is the first time that I've actually run a game using this setting.

Ion Fist is based on an ICONS character that was part of this meta-setting. He's inspired more than a little on Ben 10 and Green Lantern (which is no surprise because his gauntlet is based on the ICONS supplement Ion Guard). Joey is a character I've never actually played but is one of the character concepts I've always wanted to try.

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Issue 1.05 - Meetings, Part 2

"Breaking news, Channel 35 has learned that Fire crews and Hazmat teams are responding to major fire at the Azari Tech facility in Jefferson and police have cordoned a two block radius around the incident. The I95 has also been temporarily closed between exits 215 and 216 for the time being; diversions are in place."

18 Cyprus Drive, Bayview
Thursday, 3 May 2012, 7:15 AM

Early thursday morning, a knock on the front door interrupted breakfast preparations. Chris, giving up on trying to makes his brother's eat something more nutritious than sugar-coated cardboard, answered the door. A man in a UPS uniform stood at the door, he was hear to pick up a package. Assuming that it was for his father, he called down to the lab.

Jacob came upstairs carrying an apparently weightless container; inside was the Tel'Varen device. He handed the package over to the man who didn't seem that surprised by its unusual construction and appearance. After he closed the door Chris asked Jacob if he had asked to see the man's ID, or whether he had just handed over an alien artefact to complete stranger. Jacob hadn't asked but was sure everything was above board.

Chris wasn't satisfied by Jacob's assurances. He ran out to the UPS van, altering his form so he could cling to the vehicle as it drove off. Chris flowed through the gaps around the rear door and pooled in one of the dark corners at the back of the van. The back of the van was not what you would expect from the a UPS delivery truck. Instead of boxes and packages, it was more like the inside of a high-tech surveillance van used by an intelligence service. There was a man at a console, reading a magazine; on his belt was an ID card.

Unseen, Chris crept up to the man's side and studied the ID card. The card had the UN Overwatch logo on it and as far as Chris could tell, it was genuine. Satisfied, he returned to the house.

With breakfast over, Jacob retreated back to the lab while the boys prepared to set off to school. Their preparations were interrupted when Jane teleported into the kitchen. She switched on the TV and changed the channel to a local news station. A major fire had broken out at a major science lab in the north of the city, people were trapped and reports stated that the building's fire suppression system had failed. Furthermore, safety fears had prompted the police to close the nearby I95 and evacuate a two block radius around the fire. Jane suggested they should go an help. Despite the fact that they would probably be late for school (or maybe because of that), they all agreed. Chris went downstairs and informed his father of their intentions but he didn't seem to be paying much attention, wishing him a good day at school.

Azari Tech, Jefferson, North Meteor City
Thursday, 3 May 2012, 7:30 AM

Wearing their makeshift costumes that were growing ever more elaborate and less "unfinished looking", Jane teleported everyone to the Azari Tech facility. Ignoring the police cordon, the fire crews and the hazmat teams, they rushed towards the burning building. They each started trying to rescue the trapped civilians. Between the flames, smoke and heat, it was hard going and they made little headway locating and rescuing people.

18 Cyprus Drive, Bayview
Thursday, 3 May 2012, 7:35 AM

Back at home, Jacob went upstairs to get some coffee and found his kids school bags on the counter. Looking around he saw the news on the TV about the fire and caught footage of Jane and his boys running towards the fire. Realising what his kids were up to, Jacob dropped what he was doing and ran downstairs.

Azari Tech, Jefferson, North Meteor City
Thursday, 3 May 2012, 7:30 AM

The fire was worsening, endangering the structural stability of the building. Whilst Chris and Jane continued working to rescue the trapped civilians, William and Jonathon tried to fight the fire.

William found the controls for the fire suppression system and started to try and get it working. The system appeared to have been sabotaged but he and Jonathon managed to trigger the suppressors into manually releasing the gas used to extinguish fires. It started to work, fires in the periphery began to die down.

Up on the 7th floor, near one of the chemical labs, Jane was evacuating a group of trapped scientists when an explosion ripped through the lab. The force of the blast blew Jane and the scientists out the windows and into the air. Thinking quickly, Jane teleported between all the falling scientists, returning them safely to the ground.

As she stood aside to let paramedics treat the scientists, a sonic boom from overhead heralded the arrival of Jacob. He flew straight through the hole in the side of the building, heading towards the core of the fire. Before setting off, he had grabbed an experimental fire extinguisher that he'd been tinkering with in his lab. Standing in front of the inferno, Jacob enveloped the fire in a forcefield to contain it. Then he deployed the extinguisher. Within a few seconds, the core of the fire was extinguished, the rest of the flames followed a few minutes later.

With the fire out and the civilians all rescued, Jacob tried to have a stern word with his kids when they got back to the house but this idea was foiled as William ran off to school and Jane teleported herself and Chris away.

When Jacob got back from dropping off Jonathon at school, he went downstairs to the lab to continue working on a way to block anyone from detecting Tel'Varen energy signatures in the kids. Before he could get started his HUD, sitting on a worktable, picked up an encrypted communication signal. It was on a frequency used by Overwatch and Jacob's equipment decrypted it automatically. An undercover Overwatch convoy carrying a "sensitive package" to a private airstrip was being ambushed on the outskirts of the city. The transmission was cut off mid sentence. Jacob wasted no time in donning his equipment and setting off.

Highway 528, 10 miles west of Meteor City
Thursday, 3 May 2012, 7:30 AM

It took Jacob just a few minutes to reach the site of the transmission but when he reach it, it was clear that he was too late. The three vehicles in the convoy had been torn apart, ripped to pieces even. Unfortunately, the men and women in the convoy had suffered the same fate. There were no survivors.

Studying the carnage, Jacob recognised the middle vehicle as the same "UPS" van that had collected the Tel'Varen device less than an hour earlier. He searched through the wreckage but found no sign of the artefact.

Sirens could be heard in the distance, and not wanting to be seen at the scene, Jacob took a 3D forensic scan of the ambush site and left the vicinity.

18 Cyprus Drive, Bayview
Thursday, 3 May 2012, 6:45 PM

That evening, things were more than a little tense. Jonathon had ditched school after only one period and Chris took him to task about not just this, but about using his powers responsibly. Unfortunately, no 14 year old likes getting a lecture from their 17 year old brother and Jonathon stormed to his room.

Some time later, while complaining on Facebook, Jonathon was surprised by the appearance of text floating in his field of vision. One after another, William, Jane, and Chris saw the same thing. The messages flashed by as something called a "Battle-Net" established itself between the four of them.

Despite some initial concern that some form of mind control taking place, the quickly discovered that it seemed limited to communication between "squadmates". In this case, a form of private and undetectable text messaging.

Watcher Comments

This session was a lot shorter than normal and this was partly due to my expectations of technological failure. Chris' player moved away after the first session (which explains why his character faded out over the last few sessions) and this week was the first week he was able to attend virtually. Honestly, I was expecting the video chat software to fail a few times so I didn't plan much. Unfortunately for me, it worked flawlessly (with the exception of a few sound issues) so I ran out of plot by after about an hour and a half. So pretty much everything after the ambush was made up on the spot. It did give us the chance the "manifest" the first level the team unlockable Battle-Net Communications

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Issue 1.07 - Home Alone, Part 2

"This is the Emergency Broadcast System, a Civilian Emergency has been declared for central and north Meteor City. Citizens in Midtown and Impact Point are urged to follow Evacuation Routes A and D. The I95 Exit for the National Space Launch Facility north of Jefferson is closed. If you are in an affected area and are unable evacuate, follow signs to the nearest Civil Defence Shelter."

18 Cyprus Drive, Bayview
Saturday, 5 May 2012, 1:30PM

Jonathon's best friend Danny saw him use his intangibility powers during the gas station robbery. He dropped this bombshell as soon as they got back to Jonathan's house. Called in from the kitchen, Chris immediately tried to deal with the situation applying all his persuasive abilities. Unfortunately, Danny was a STUBBORN & REBELLIOUS TEENAGER, just like Chris' younger brothers.

Danny was adamant however the he saw what he saw. Chris tried to convince him that the stress of the situation made him see things that didn't really happen while Jonathon tried to make light of the situation. However, being Jonathon's friend, Danny was used to hijinks and mischief and new when he was being lied too; having done enough of it himself.

The stress of the situation, along with the pressure of the last couple of weeks, got too much and he threw his hands up in exasperation, stating "this is your problem" to Jonathon, and stormed off upstairs. Realising that there was little he could do to convince Danny that he was mistaken, Jonathon decided to change tactics. He admitted that he had powers but by a judicious use of nightmare scenarios involving black vans, basement labs and nazi-esque mad scientists, he managed to convince Danny to keep the fact that Jonathon had superpowers from everyone.

Danny, being his best friend, agreed to keep the secret. He did point out that having superpowers did open up a whole new world of possibilities. For example, there was the big math test next week...

18 Cyprus Drive, Bayview
Sunday, 6 May 2012

The next morning, Jonathon got up early. William was due home from the school field trip that morning and Jonathon wanted to be awake before then. Not to welcome his brother home, but to set up a prank; the classic bucket of water above a door.

Dropped off at the end of the road by the school bus, William arrived home just before his father who had flown back to Meteor City that morning having finished briefing Overwatch representatives on his findings. He stepped out of the taxi just in time to see his middle son take a bucket of water to the head and hear Jonathon's laughter from inside.

At around the same time, Jane teleported into the living room. After exchanging pleasantries with everyone she asked where Chris was. It was at this point that Jonathon realised that there had been no breakfast waiting for him this morning. He went upstairs and checked Chris's room but the bed hadn't been slept in. Concerned that it appeared that Chris had been out all night and had not come home, Jane rang his mobile.

Chris answered after a couple of rings. It turned out he'd spent most of the night up on the crater ridge the dominated the city's skyline doing some deep thinking about the situation and his role in the family. Afterwards, he had come home in the early hours of the morning to pick up his school work and had then gone to the library at MCU to study. Jane teleported to a discrete location nearby and the two of them had a heart to heart talk about the situation. He was feeling put upon and under pressure, Chris was tired of having to be the "responsible adult" of the family and taking care of everyone else. Jane suggested he "take a week off," let his father and his brother's fend for themselves. Either they'll learn to take care of themselves or they'll learn to show some appreciation.

That evening, over dinner, Chris broke the news of his plan. Reaction was muted. This was probably due to the fact that Jacob also took the opportunity to reveal that the Tel'Varen device had been stolen tell them what he had learned about the Tel'Varen Empire and the alien that had brought the device to Earth. He suspected that whoever the fifth subject was, he or she was the one responsible for ambushing the Overwatch convoy and stealing the device. Furthermore, there was a strong possibility that the Subject 5 (as they had taken to calling him/her) knew how to use the device to its full potential.

Jacob felt it was imperative that they track down Subject 5 as soon as possible. He already had a way to track down the unique energy signature left behind when anyone modified by the Tel'Varen device used their powers. Using hand held scanners, William, Jane and Jacob tracked a trail of energy leading away from the ambush site westwards towards Orlando. The lost trail as it approached the city's airport. Not sure what to do about this, Jacob decided to create a network of scanners mounted along the crater rim surrounding Meteor City. With luck, this should alert them to anyone entering the city while using Tel'Varen-sourced powers.

18 Cyprus Drive, Bayview
Thursday, 10 May 2012, 12:30PM

Working hard throughout most of the week, Jacob had finally completed a project that he had been pursuing ever since he discovered what had happened to the kids and the existence of a fifth enhanced subject. Although he already had a way to detect Tel'Varen enhanced individuals, the method would also detect the kids. Overwatch had asked for a way to scan for such individuals but Jacob didn't want to give them the capability to track his kids. After a week of work, he'd finally found a way to prevent such a possibility. He passed the revised specs to Overwatch and the same time, he sent an email to Ion Fist in Australia asking him about the alien that had brought the Tel'Varen devices to Earth.

At around midday, the communications equipment in the lab picked up a flurry of panicked chatter on channels used by police and the emergency services. Something significant was happening in the centre of the city.

Bayview Academy
Thursday, 10 May 2012, 12:30PM

Chris was spending his lunch tutoring some of the younger students who needed a little extra help with the lessons. Whilst he was helping an eighth-grader with his algebra, he overheard two boys in the library whispering about something. He recognised the one doing the whispering as Jason Reyes, the 16-year-old son of Meteor City's Police Chief. Jason mentioned how he'd overheard his mum "chewing out some army guy" over some DARPA aerial drones that had been overflying the city the last few days without notifying any of the city authorities. Chris, whilst still on break, realised this was potentially important so he sent a message to his father about it.

In the cafeteria, William was trying to enjoy a quiet moment with Stacy Newman, the girl he had met on the field trip. However, his younger brother seemed to take great pleasure in tormenting him from a few tables over.

And Jane was in the school gym, practicing with the gymnastics team.

At around the same time, the cellphones of the students around began to beep and buzz and ring as breaking news began to spread through the social networks. En masse, the students began to make their way to the school roof where they could get a good view of the city centre across the bay.

Plumes of smoke could be seen rising from specific locations. One in Impact Point, and another in Midtown. Far across the city, on the other side of the crater ridge, another plume could be seen. As the news filtered in over the airwaves, it became clear what was happened. Four machines of unknown construction had risen out of the water and begun to attack targets on the land.

The military was bogged down trying to fight the two machines that launched a combined attack on the National Space Launch Facility and neighbouring Meteor City AFB. The other two were attacking civilian targets in the city centre. Realising the seriousness of the situation, the kids decided to split up, Jane teleporting William and Jonathon to Midtown before she teleported Chris and herself to Impact Point.

Impact Point
Thursday, 10 May 2012, 12:30PM

Jacob was the first on the scene. What could only be described as a giant robot was attacking Federal Plaza. The armoured plating and computer guided weapon systems made fighting the robot tough work and Jacob focused on trying to bring it down by targeting its legs. He was soon joined by Chris and Jane. Chris at first tried to assist his father by forming tentacles and trying to wrap up the robot's legs but the robot countered by blasting at him with bullets and missiles.

Jane tried a different tactic. At first she tried to find a weak spot in the armour, then she tried to find out if there was a space for a pilot inside. When both of these tactics didn't work, she began targeting the robot's sensors in attempt to blind it.

Midtown
Thursday, 10 May 2012, 12:30PM

Meanwhile, at the Millennium Mall, William and Jonathon were fighting their own robot. Most of the civilians inside the mall had been evacuated at this point, but this didn't stop it from attacking the mall.

William, in a rash move, pulled a Legolas and tried to attack it by climbing on top of the robot. Although the robot shook him off, he was able to destabilise it. He compounded the robot's problems by using his super speed to try and confuse the robot's targeting sensors.

Somehow, Jonathon had convinced Jane to bring Danny along and Jonathon made sure his friend had a safe vantage point from which to watch (and film on his mobile). After this, he turned to face the robot. Although a skilled martial artist for his age, kung fu and judo wouldn't help him against a giant robot and his superpowers were not exactly offensive in nature ... unless. He grabbed a chunk of masonry, using his powers to reduce its density and thus its weight, and threw the incorporeal block at one of the robot's legs; releasing his control over the chunk's density as it passed through the leg. Jonathon repeated this again and again as William distracted it.

Unable to hit the superspeedster or the phaser, the robot unleashed a torrent of missiles on Millenium Mall, collapsing its roof. Thankfully, the damaged part had been evacuated and no one was injured. This was the robot's last gasp as the combined efforts of Jonathon and William successfully disabled its legs and then shut it down.

While Jonathon went over to Danny, William set off for Impact Point.

Impact Point
Thursday, 10 May 2012, 12:30PM

With its sensors and targeting systems compromised, the robot was having trouble fighting back. It "chased" Jane into an alleyway but despite hanging off the side of a building, it was unable to target her.

Chris by this point had had enough. He grew to enormous size, becoming as large as a building and proceeded to pummel the robot into submission.

William arrived just in time to see his older brother lay the smackdown on the giant robot.

Watcher Notes

So, Danny at the giant robot fight. During the session it made perfect sense for Jonathon to have him tag along and no one raised an eyebrow over it. However, what we didn't think about at the time was. How had he gotten there? Did Jane teleport him? If she did, how did she do it without revealing that everyone else had powers because at this point, the only person that Danny knew had superpowers was his best friend. These are things which should've been thought about at the time but there you go.

I was also glad that the PCs split up to fight the robots. Although they were tough, if they had focused on one, they would probably have made short work of it.

This also marks the end of Volume 1, with Volume 2 starting next week. I'm basically treating Volumes like Events. At the end of a Volume, any unspent XP is lost (although anything bought with XP remains). Also, XP can be traded between players. I've added that little tidbit because PCs might find themselves with an odd XP or three that would otherwise be lost. By trading them, it encourages people to buy unlockables which in many ways, benefit the entire group. At least, that's the theory.

[blaster219]

Issue 2.01 - A Night on the Town

After the tumultuous events of the previous two months, the Chance household, along with Jane, was starting to get used to the new routine.

Jacob had been busy on a number of projects, both personal and for clients. He had analysed parts of the giant robots that had attacked the city last month and although he'd made progress on reverse-engineering the technology, it had brought him no closer to identifying who might have sent them. No credible claim of responsibility had been received by the authorities so they were in the dark too. Jacob had also found time to create costumes based on the specifications provided by each of the kids.

With graduation fast approaching, Chris had focused on his school work and had been visiting various college campuses around the country. Chris was also getting a little more respect from brothers. They may not always show it, but they now appreciated how much effort he put into taking care of the family.

Jane's mother had gotten a new consulting job that required her to spend the next few months overseas. Since there were only a few weeks to go until the end of the school year, Jane had decided to stay in Meteor City rather than go with her mother or go live with her father in Boston for the summer. Chris had convinced Jacob to let Jane stay in the guest room and once that was sorted everyone was happy.

As for William and Jonathon? After hooking up with Stacy Newman during the school trip, she and Jonathon had been going out for nearly a month now. And William, he'd quietened down at school; Which was always a cause for concern.

18 Cyprus Drive, Bayview
Wednesday, 20 June 2012, 7:56 PM

Downstairs, in his basement lab complex, Jacob was talking via videolink with Doctor Marshall, the scientist he had met in New Atlantis. Over the last couple of weeks, Jacob had worked with Doctor Marshall in perfecting a sensor array to detect Tel'Varen energy signatures that Overwatch planned to install on board one of their Deep Space Security Satellites (or DS3's). Doctor Marshall was currently aboard the Lighthouse, Overwatch's orbiting space station, where he was overseeing the deployment of the satellite and ensuring it functioned properly.

The first results were coming in from the satellite. They were vague and unable to pinpoint exact locations, only general vicinities to within a few miles. Of course, from more than 400 miles up, that was the best they were going to get. The results were still extremely preliminary but Doctor Marshall joked that Jacob might want to put off any vacation plans in the North East of the US for the time being. Hotspots had been detected in Arlington, Langley and central DC. Smaller readings had been picked in Nevada and Montana. They couldn't tell whether this readings were from one very active and mobile individual, or from a small network of Tel'Varen operatives. The only way to be sure was to put boots on the ground with handheld scanners. Something that would be very difficult since Overwatch had no jurisdiction in the US and relations between Overwatch and their US counterparts were cool at best. Jacob agreed this was a worrying development.

Chris was away again this week. This time he was visiting UCLA and CalTech. His brothers had joked the only way he could go to college any further away was to go the University of Hawaii. With graduation just a few short weeks away, it would soon crunch time for making a decision about where he wanted to go to college.

William was at a "study night" with at Stacy's.

And Jonathon? Well...

Ridge Gap, West Meteor City
Wednesday, 20 June 2012, 7:56 PM

Jonathon was several miles away, in a part of town that he had been specifically forbidden to go to. Eager for some action, he had gone to The Gap to go on patrol, hoping to find some drug dealers or gang members. Ever since finding out about Jonathon's powers, Danny had begged Jonathon to take him along on one of his "patrols." Tonight, Jonathon had relented and he'd brought Danny along.

It didn't take them long to find someone; a pair of gang members loitering suspiciously and who appeared to be dealing drugs named Paco and Travis.

With no preamble and no discussion, and wearing the new "Slider" costume, Jonathon walked up behind the two men, tapped one on the shoulder and punched Travis in the face. The man pulled out a large handgun (Desert Eagle, so more of a hand cannon really) and tried to pistol whip him, yelling at the "stupid punk." Jonathon was too quick for him and evaded his strike and one by Paco who wielded a microuzi.

Over the last month, the "Battle-Net" that established itself between the Chance brothers and Jane and evolved to the point where voice communication was now possible. Jonathon took the opportunity to send a quick message to Jane and William about what was going on but said he didn't need any help.

Jonathon again punched the pistol wielder, this time using his invisibility to disappear and reappear around the man, attacking from multiple sides. This prompted a yell of "He's a super!" from the pistol wielder who decided to take the gloves off by shooting at Jonathon who nimbly dodged the bullet. Paco took a step back and aimed his weapon at Jonathon and as soon as his Jonathon stepped clear of Travis, he unleashed a spray of bullets. With a smirk, Jonathon quickly became incorporeal and the bullets passed straight through him. The smirk quickly disappeared when he heard a pained cry from behind him.

Unknown to Jonathon, Danny had been standing about 10 feet behind him and had been clipped by one of the bullets. Jonathon was struck by the horror of the realisation that by showing off in front of Danny, it was his fault that his best friend had gotten hurt. Paco realised this and deliberately aimed another spray of bullets at Danny. Jonathon jumped in front of the spray and managed to phase the bullets long enough so that they passed harmlessly through the two of them and impact on the wall behind them.

In retaliation, Jonathon decked the guy, knocking him to the floor but this left Danny unprotected; something which Travis took advantage of. He grabbed the boy and shoved his pistol against the boy's head.

With his best friend injured and now a hostage, Jonathon finally admitted that he was in over his head. He sent another message to Jane and William; this time asking for help. William assumed his younger brother was up to his old tricks and ignored him but Jane, either believing him or not wanting to take the chance, said she was on her way.

In the meantime, Jonathon tried to save Danny. Ignoring Travis's threats, Jonathon leapt forward. Before the man could fire, he grabbed Danny and phased them both, his momentum carrying them both through the man and onto the pavement behind.

Jane appeared, took one look at the situation, grabbed both Danny and Jonathon and teleported away.

18 Cyprus Drive, Bayview
Wednesday, 20 June 2012, 8:03 PM

They reappeared in the basement lab. Forewarned by Jane before she had gone to retrieve the boys, Jacob was ready with the medical kit. Glaring at Jonathon, he set about treating Danny's wound; the painkiller leaving the boy in a slightly drugged state while Jacob extracted the bullet and used an experimental dermal regenerator to repair the damaged flesh.

Danny didn't seem to mind having been shot and described the whole sequence of events as "awesome" with a goofy grin. Although this could have been the drugs talking. He was distressed though that Jacob's treatment resulted in no scarring.

After making sure Danny was fine, Jacob turned to Jonathon. He was furious, absolutely furious. Not just because he had been a part of town that he was forbidden to go to, but because he'd got Danny injured. Jonathon was used to getting lectured by Chris, but being on the end of a tongue lashing from his father was a new experience. Jacob was extremely disappointed stating that "the one thing your mother and I learnt is that you don't get normals involved in super battles." This was the first time that Jonathon could remember his father ever mentioning his mother.

After interrogating Jonathon and making sure he had all the details, Jacob grounded his son and when a genius-level mad scientists grounds their son, they do it with force fields.

At this point, William arrived home to see Jonathon go upstairs to his room, followed a few minutes later by his father carrying a portable force field generator. Jane came upstairs from the basement, helping a slightly giddy Danny. She explained what had happened with Danny and Jonathon and that she was going to walk him home.

William watched her leave feeling more than a little guilty now at ignoring his brother's messages earlier. Jacob came downstairs shortly after Jane had left carrying the briefcase that WIlliam knew contained Jacob's battle gear. He decided to follow his father as he made his way towards the part of town that Jonathon and Danny had been patrolling.

Ridge Gap, West Meteor City
Wednesday, 20 June 2012, 8:37 PM

Using the description provided by Jonathon, Jacob managed to find the two gang members that his son had tried to fight sitting on the bonnet of a car a few blocks away from where Danny had been shot. Just like his son, Jacob decided not to waste time and immediately went on the attack. From up in the air, he blasted the car, almost demolishing the vehicle, and landing in the smoking wreckage.

Neither gang member was injured in the attack but Paco was left in shock by the sudden destruction and the appearance of the armoured superhero, wreathed in smoke and flickering flames. Travis was able to recover his senses long enough to draw his pistol let off a few rounds. They impacted on Jacob's force field which was barely able to stop them in time.

William had arrived was watching the scene from the shadows, not wanting to let his father know that he had followed him. To his surprise, he recognised the two gang members. He'd fought them back at the start of May alongside the vigilante Ghost. William thought they had been arrested but they must have got out on bail or something. Although he was initially content to just stand back and watch, seeing the gang member's bullets almost pierce his father's force field spurred him into action. Pushing his super speed as fast as he could, he darted towards the fight and relieved Travis of his weapon, retreating back to the shadows before Jacob could note his presence.

Travis wasn't deterred, he reached down and plucked the uzi out of the still stunned Paco's grip and tried to bring it to bear on Jacob. Jacob smashed it out of the man's hands using an engine part. He grabbed Travis and slammed him against the wall. "You hurt my boy," he hissed, "you hurt his friend." Jacob proceeded to put the fear of God into the man, intimidating him into a gibbering wreck. He left the Travis cowering on the floor, promising to never get involved with crime ever again.

As he watched Jacob fly off, more than a little intimidated by the anger displayed by his father, William was startled by the sound of crunching behind him. He turned to find Ghost hanging one handed from a fire escape while eating an apple, watching the entire scene.

Watcher's Comments

This session almost didn't happen. I had zero plot when I sat down at the table and the first twenty minutes are so where very rocky as I struggled to come up with an idea. I tell I lie, I did have one idea. That it would take place in late June giving some breathing room for metaplot stuff to have progressed between Volume 1 and Volume 2. But that's literally all I had.

Thankfully, things seem to come together though with the plot involving Jonathon and Daniel, as well as the way Jacob's player responded to it.