Thunder King

I...already have an idea. It will involve the creation of a long-term nemesis for the team, as well as some other, minor threats that they can fight on a regular basis.

Voltage is going to immediately memorize the license plate and description of the vehicle and fire off an email to the police about a suspect involved in the incident with the flies and Spiderbite, as well as the current location of the vehicle. If the guy tries to get away, Voltage is making arrangements to stop him. Voltage will then blast Sam using extra effort, AND he's going to sacrifice -2 from his attack to throw extra power, making a DC 29 TOU save 25(Normal) + 2 (Extra Effort) + 2 (power attack) got a 20 if Voltage hits, Sam has to make a DC29 TOU save

"There's part of it they just didn't want to get rid of, I suppose. There's a pit in there for reasons I don't know." He said, grateful for Spitfire's impromptu torch. This was an interesting scenario. Why on earth would the build it like this? What purpose would that serve? Voltage anticipated that this situation would get stranger than it already was before long. The others, or at least some of them, appeared capable and trained in the art of stealth. Voltage...wasn't. He didn't even consider the idea of stealth. There was simply no way he could sneak. Which, of course, was why he stayed farther back. That and he wasn't built for hand to hand combat.

I got a 14, no miracle here

GM The first address on the list was, as expected, not all that far away. It was likely the home of another worker at one of the local factories. It was a small house in poor repair. The occupant was obviously not concerned with it's outer appearance. There was no car in the drive way, and no one was home. Three men stood across the street chatting about this and that, apparently oblivious to the potential crime that had occurred to someone in their very neighborhood.

"Gah!" Voltage shouted, dodging out of the way. "Sir, the bad people have been beaten." He said, holding his hands up. "If you come along quietly, we can leave, get you shrunk back to normal, and get the bad guys arrested." "We have charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, and probably some illegal arms dealing and drug trafficking too. This guy's going away for a very long time, probably the rest of his life. You don't have to though! I'm sure you can help the police and get any charges you might have had dropped!" He couldn't afford to be nice forever, if Sam didn't calm down soon, he might have to knock him out and then go capture the scientist and make him shrink him. It was worth a try, though.

Voltage is going to ignore the scientist for now and concentrate on trying to negotiate with Sam. I think I'm going to wait one more round before turning to a less peaceful solution.

"I just heard rumors of bad people up to no good around this place." Crimson Tiger said. "I fought some ninjas a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to know whether or not these guys were connected." She looked at the other two young women, and then shook her head. "OH! I'm sorry, I'm Crimson Tiger, nice to meet both of you!" She said with a polite bow. Neither of these girls looked that much older than her. How many teenage girls were superheroes in this town anyway? She was sure it was rare, but...now? Not so much.

Voltage is going to check to see if he can see anything about the basement on the plans. What can Voltage tell King of Suits anyway?

In order to ensure that the new team can get up and running in a reasonable amount of time, I think it's necessary to plan it all out in advance. Step One: The Meetings In order to do this efficiently, let's establish who needs to meet, and who has already. NOTE: If two characters have already met, please PM me and I'll edit this post to include that. Voltage + King of Suits (DONE!) Voltage + Stormbreaker Voltage + Quintessence Voltage + Crusader Voltage + Ironclad (PLANNED!) King of Suits + Stormbreaker King of Suits + Quintessence King of Suits + Crusader King of Suits + Ironclad Stormbreaker + Quintessence Stormbreaker + Crusader Stormbreaker + Ironclad Quintessence + Crusader Quintessence + Ironclad Crusader + Ironclad Feel free to post proposals for different threads. We can meet two at a time, or three at a time, but probably not more. Establishing the Team: One thread won't work with six members, unless we want to have Vanguard established sometime next winter. I had an idea though; Divide the team into two squads Give each squad their own thread Have both threads deal with the same situation from different angles Establish a third OOC thread for coordinating the two teams Use the Coordination thread and PMs to coordinate the teams From there, we can establish Vanguard in the aftermath of the situation. I already have the idea I want to use for this thread, but it may change depending on how the team develops Ideas? Thoughts? Concerns? Thread proposals?

GM She sighed. "Okay, I can tell you're serious. There have been more disappearances than this, and they seem to be...supernatural? superpowered? In origin. We haven't ruled out a kidnapping because we haven't found one single solitary body. These incidences have occurred in some very public places, to include underneath cameras. One man just vanished after a sudden blur streaked across the camera feed. A big, black shadow came in and took off with him. It couldn't have been moving at human speeds." She handed him a business card. "That's my professional cell, it's used for police business only." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a notebook and jotted a few things down. "This is the list of addresses that the crimes took place at...we think. At least the few we can have actual locations for. If you want to take a look, be my guest, but try not to touch anything at the crime scenes, or we'd have to arrest you for tampering. Understood?"

She is now helpful and will give you what you need to know. Go ahead and post in the IC

GM The officer raised an eyebrow. "Well, I can't give you the exact details, but your friend is missing. We really have no idea where, and there seems to be a few cases of disappearances like this." She stepped outside and shut the door behind her. "Between you and me, it looks like something one of those villains or something is responsible for. There are a lot of strange things going on with these cases. If you really are a super hero, and if he really is your friend, maybe there's something we can do to help each other." She crossed her arms. "Still, I can't, in good conscience, release any other details about the case."

That was a success, but not a big one. She'll talk to you, but won't offer info voluntarily. You can try again later in the conversation, though.

GM The door opened to reveal, not Jack's wife, but a young woman of approximately thirty-two to thirty five years old. She was not an unattractive woman. She stood at a little over five and a half feet tall, with piercing gray eyes and a strong, confident stance. She sighed, apparently quite used to strange goings on in a city like this. "Who are you?" She asked. "I'm Detective Jeannette Renard, and this home is the home of a potential murder or kidnapping victim. If you know anything about the whereabouts of this man, please, let me know. If you don't, well, this is official police business."

Mali nodded. "I've been training in martial arts since I was a little girl. At first, it was for fun. Then it was for fitness, after that? I started training on my own to become a superhero. I've been training on my own for...four years now? Five? I can't remember. Either way, it's been intense, but, I like it that way." She shrugged. She was sure these guys had done some intense training before. She was also relieved to hear that nobody would judge her based on her lack of powers. It would still be a strange and interesting experience.

OOC for Shadow of the Evening

GM It was now completely dark, even the rich colors of the sunset having faded several minutes before. The stars above were hidden by the well-lit streets below. The chill of the night air was piercing now as night enveloped the city. Luckily, the Penitent had visited Jack's home before, or, at least, had escorted him home one night when the guys decided to make for the bar instead of the diner. He didn't live all that far away. The house was an older one, but still stood well. There were a few spots, here and there, where Jack had intended to do some repairs in the spring.

GM "Well, we tried calling him, but, we got no answer. He's got this condition, a minor one, but sometimes it lays him out for a few days. So we assumed that was the reason. Come to think of it, though, I don't know why he wouldn't answer the phone." Jim shook his head. Suddenly, it was as if a shadow had fallen over the group. Their friend was in danger, something was clearly wrong, very wrong.

GM "Jack, Jack's been absent from work all week." Jim said, sighing. "Don't know why, either. Maybe he's been sick? I hope he gets better soon." The other guys all nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I haven't heard anything either." Bob said, sipping his coffee. "Though there have been rumors about guys getting sick in the other shops." The others looked at him, surprised he'd never brought it up before. Missing workers? That was new to them. "Where did you hear that?" One of them asked. "From Ian, the night shift manager. He said two of his guys didn't come in for the past two days."

I agree, Ari. It's a really cool design, but it doesn't quite fit the non-techy people, like Quintessence, Stormbreaker, or Crusader. I think that, overall, I'd rather go with the other one.

GM April 6th, 9:00 PM Jane's Diner Jane, in this case, was the name of the 65 year old owner of the small diner, sitting a good mile and a half away from a group of factories and industrial facilities. It got good business from the regulars that came in from, or were on their way to, the shops. It sold all manner of comfort foods, from hamburgers to 24 hour breakfast. Every Friday saw the arrival of five guys; Jim, Bob, Jack, Ron and Steve. These five men had been coming to Jane's Diner for about ten years, week in, week out, every Friday night. It wasn't an especially cold evening, not for Freedom City. Still, the lights and warmth of the small diner were a welcome reprieve from the chill.

Crimson Tiger's eyes darted quickly around the area, before she spotted something very odd. Her bike? Here? This couldn't be real, had to be part of the simulation! Simulation or not, she took off running towards her bike, both to make sure she got to it fast, and to make sure the simulation didn't get the simulated bike wrecked in some sort of simulated riot situation. It was odd, how her same protective instinct kicked in, even though this bike wasn't real. It looked like hers, and when she put her hands on the handles it felt like hers. She reached in and, thinking, put her key. She started right up, and Crimson Tiger grinned. She revved the engine, turned the bike around, and headed over to where the other two were. Sitting there, on her beautiful red and black bike, she grinned and knew there was only one thing she could say. "Do either of you need a ride?"

Raveled, Arichamus, Blue Rose, Thunder King Four votes! The team name is Vanguard

Of all the things that could have happened, this was most definitely not one Mali anticipated. Attacking Christmas trees? What in the world? She didn't take the time to think about it, she saw one of it's tentacles heading for the mayor. Instantly, she drew one of her brand new chakram and hurled it at the creature. As soon as she saw that it had struck the beast, she ran and jumped in front of the mayor, drawing a second chakram and waiting for the beast's next action. She was sure it was going after the mayor, and that's something she just wasn't going to let happen.