The NEW Vanguard! The HAUNT Issue #4

Since I don't really know that much about London, guess flooding a part of the old sewer lines might be a "bad idea" let's go with the almost as bad idea of the flamethrower.

Haunt grabbed the pipe and capped it with a white cork style stopper as he waited, waited, waited....

It seemed to last an age, but was in fact only seconds when the robots appeared, mindless automatons determined to do their masters bidding! And indeed it was their master who spoke through his minions. "YOU WILL PAY FOR THWARTING ME!" he screamed through all of the bots at once. "ONCE YOUR POWERS ARE REMOVED YOU SHALL SUFFER THE INDIGNITY OF..."

Haunt unstopped the pipe and pointed it at the robots. Gas flooded the chamber, and somewhere a stray spark ignited it...

"A THOUSAND YEARS OF TORMENT CONDENSED INTO EXQUISITE HOURS AS YOUR BODY IS TORTURED BEYOND RECOGN...."


KABBBBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!


Haunt launched himself backwards, but was caught up in the edge of the powerful explosion. He bounced from a wall, pinged from a ceiling and crashed into water, the air above him lit orange and gold, fire and fury diluted by seeing it from the murky depths of a sewer drain....

Moments later he sat up, unhurt for the most part thanks to his tough hide and the fact that the explosion had occurred away from him and he'd only caught the edge. Striding up to the hole in the base wall he saw many of the steel framed walls and supports had come down, smoke and fire filled the corridors, and of the robots there was only signs of what they had been - a leg here, shattered torso there.

An ominous creaking of metal and groaning sound could be heard, and gas burned from the pipe end still. An under city fire could be bad news if it got out of control, but it would take time to contain. Haunt could only assume the escapees got out but would need to check to make sure. That would take time. Also the madman behind all the abductions of superhumans would surely cut his losses and make a run for it. Could Haunt afford to let him escape?

actions: crimp the pipe closed to stop the flames from pouring out of it. Head back to the base and see what I can find, what clues I can discover, shifting and stretching as needed to get in there.

Clamping the pipe closed cut off the supply of gas and reduced the risk of further explosions.

Haunt oozed and coiled his way through twisted metal and hanging wreckage as it became clear the based was catastrophically damaged. However, Haunt discovered a more disturbing fact.

Moving through the base he discovered that the place had been wired to explode. A 'parting gift' from a villain who would ensure that his secrets would not be discovered! That meant Haunts time was limited. Somewhere in the base Exitium would be making his escape! When he was clear, those charges, hidden or otherwise, would be ignited! haunt had a serious choice to make.

He could try to find and stop Exitium, get out of here, or attempt to sift through the base and find the explosives. He recalled the gas Exitium had mentioned, Chlyrodine gas. Damn the man! He was beaten, his base critically damaged, his plans foiled!

Haunt looked about. Sparking machines, dripping water from the ceiling, twisted support spars and crumbling bricks with groaning metal would have made the going difficult for anyone else. Haunt might still salvage something from this but ran the risk of being trapped in this tomb is Exitium pressed his big red button!

ooc: Really really wish I had some kind of electronics or demolition skills around now.




Not sure if all the prisoners had escaped, not sure where the base was other than somewhere under the Thames and not sure how much time he had left, the Haunt had only one option he felt open to him - try and stop the base's destruction by either explosion or poison gas!

If he was a mad supervillain, he would set up his death device to explode by radio signal, timer and hard wired so a push of a button somewhere else would set it off. Radio control was dangerous, he knew that much, since someone else could send a signal at that frequency and set it off accidentally, so it would only be turned on shortly before the planned "BOOM!". The other two methods were more reliable but could be easier intercepted if one knew where to look.

Se calling upon his deductive reasoning, the Haunt began to think and look where the devices might be and how to prevent them from going off.

Haunts reasoning was sound. A signal sent bouncing around underground would be blocked and interfered with.

Unfortunately the wires in this place were thick bundled pipes of fibre optic cables. Tricky to guess which one controlled the explosions... Haunt gathered such a cable in a hand after having moved heavy metal framework aside. It led north/south into the complex and Haunt wondered whether severing it would cause more problems than it solved...

But ... if he figured right, the South direction would lead deeper into the complex, and presumably through the maze of corridors to the room that the mad genius had held him captive in! Did he have enough time to follow it to it's conclusion, before this whole place was thoroughly destroyed?

If only he could contact his friend, Dr Praetorius! The genius would give sound advice on how to deal with gadgets, and was possibly the only man Haunt knew who might have a chance of matching Exitiums' towering intellect!

Haunt could break the cable, follow it to it's origin (or go the other way and get out of here before everything went boom!) or find some way to contact his friend, who would probably be in his lab cooking up some new gadget that wouldn't work, be tossed aside, but would need only a detail or two sorting out to make it revolutionary and world changing!

With a time limit facing him, the Haunt takes a gamble and decides to stretch through the piping holding the fiber optic cables to their beginning and hope the bomb or gas or whatever is at that end.

He would have to talk to Dr. P sometime soon about getting some kind of communicator so he could call him up when he was in a situation like this. Something that could get a signal through rock or even out to the Moon.

With time running out Haunt knew he ran the risk of being buried under tons of rock, metal, and water.

LIke some kind of weird 'white worm' he slithered through holes anything bigger, even a mouse, would struggled through. It wasn't fast progress and he was painfully aware that Exitium must have near finished his escape plan by now. For a man with an ego his size, he figured that such a reversal of fortune - his base compromised, captives freed, the choice of whether to stay or leave taken away from him...

Well, that must be unthinkable for the man who 'would be king'!

Haunt emerged into the large control room after following the route of cables. The place was a mess, the integrity of the place having taken a battering after vital structural supports had been destroyed. Androids were moving from server to server, gathering hard drives and similar items. There were four of them, a fifth having been flattened by a huge chunk of masonry that had fallen from the ceiling.

They would take these vital items to wherever Exitium was waiting, or had escaped too.

Then they'd blow this place!

Wondering if maybe he could make a quick sneak attack or two, inching his arms up the side of the wall and up to the ceiling to cause more rocks to drop on the androids, the Haunt looked to see if he could do so without collapsing the whole room. Those hard drives would give him a number of clues he could follow up to learn more of the mad doctor and his plans.

If not, he would have to try to attack the four androids and hope he could take them down without losing his powers to any energy draining attacks. Perhaps he could grab a power line and electrocute them while staying hidden?


actions: HP to observe best possible attack options and make sure he wouldn't bring the roof down on them all. Drop ceiling on one to make it look like an accident instead of attack. Or use power lines to electrocute them and keep hidden. Or attack some other way - hiding and using his stretching powers to attack would be good too.

Haunt considered his options...

HERO POINTS: (after use) 58

Wondering where he could strike to bring down some of the roof on the Androids, Haunt looked at the potential spots at which to strike...

OOC 2HP on AV and EV, Roll(2d10)+0: 8,7,+0 Total:15 SUCCESS

There! By pulling a section of metal framework to one side Haunt figured a shower of Victorian Brickwork would come down. Problem was it might damage the hard drives, but there was a chance his genius friend or that annoying mental giant in the diminutive frame, Wandafar. Between them, he might be able to cause enough confusion, take out two of the androids, grab hard drives and get out of here. If just one of those Androids blasted him with the infernal power sapping rays... well, he'd be a sitting duck, and probably get caught up in the blast that would wipe this place out!

OOC Do you want to go for it? Adding any hp? In theory you could attack the ceiling AND the other Androids. That would take a really good roll, HP and crossing your fingers, but achieve all of Haunts aims. Or he could go for the safer option, pull the framework and make a grab for the hard drives. Then what? Push his luck and find Exitium or get the hard drives out and analyse them, seeking to finish what he started here another day. As he well knows, those beams pack a mean punch when they sap Haunts great strength and powers...

Hmmmm ... don't think the rolls will go my way if I try over-reaching. Let's go for the ceiling and the hard drives. Still have to make sure that there is no gas or explosion before I leave too. Grab them, get out of the area, stash the hard drives and go back to the remaining androids and see what my options are at that time. And I will spend HP for my actions.

The Haunt

Stretching out to grasp hold of the framework holding up the ancient Victorian brickwork he took firm grip, then pulled!

OOC Using 3hp on acting and effect (which uses his great strength) Haunt now has HP: 52 2d10 → [7,4] = (11) Good enough especially with the HP

With a metal tearing sound, the Androids looked up.. and shields their bodies as best they could with tons of rubble falling in on them!

Sneaking out another arm Haunt grasped the hard drive first from one, then from another android, though he had to tear the hand away with it too! Then he was moving!

Somewhere in the complex a strangled cry came over the tannoy! "Fools! Even my androids are fools! ENOUGH, HERO!" screamed the evil genius...

Then Haunt heard an explosion ring out... then another and another!

As a fireball roared up the tunnel behind him he made his best speed for the exit, knowing that this tunnel turned to another point in the complex, which was probably being blown up as well! With that in mind he dashed for the brick wall in front of him...

OOC 2d10 → [8,10] = (18) Oh, BOOM! he punches through the sewer wall

Haunt crashed through the stone wall of the sewer, into the brown murk of the depths of the Thames! Water threatened to push him back, but the hero forced himself through and out... just as a shock wave span him through the water and darkness!

==========

Dragging himself from the grime and murk of the Thames, Haunt opened up his hands to reveal the bone dry hard drives. Looking back he saw the churning waters of the Thames...

"We owe you our lives!" said one of the drenched heroes Haunt had rescued only minutes before. The exhausted hero turned on the sandy beach to look at them. Dripping wet, the small group looked exhausted and battered by their experience, but were alive. The roaring boiling water of the Thames started to quiet down. He'd smashed a ring that captured superhumans, thwarted an evil genius' plan and with the hard drives possibly got some kind of clue as to where Exitium might next surface! Furthermore he'd rescued several supers who were very grateful, and overall it had been a fine evenings work.

His costume needed a wash mind.

Right, time to find out who these people are and get some contact information from them in case we ever need to get in touch with each other in the future. Guess I will use my buddy the good Doctor as my contact point. Find out if any of them know anymore about our deranged mad scientist [God! I love mad scientists!]. See if anything else needs to be done, and see if there is time to get my "interview" in my regular identity of rising movie star.

OOC Well done. I saw another scenario where the androids zapped Haunt again and it all went south. Instead you made an enemy, Exitium, saved a bunch of supers and lived to fight another day. Bravo!

A tall mud covered figure strode across the gritty sand on the lapping bank of the Thames. She stood as tall as Haunt, strong looking, with powerful limbs and on her muddied face, a determined purpose.

She thrust out a hand to shake Haunts. "I owe you my life. I underestimated the lunatic and his robots, I shall not do so again!" She looked about. "I need to go. I am AMAZON and you may call on me whenever you need to, as friend and ally."

Four others came up. A woman and three men. All were covered in sludge from head to foot. One stepped forward as spokesman. "Is it over? Is he dead?" The others looked at the water, fearful that the androids would rise from the water and start blasting with those debilitating rays. "You can call on me too. Ray. Ray Adams. I'm in the phone book, third one down. I know some of these others. I think we should meet up again, once we've all had time to recover and clean up. What happened here won't happen to others thanks to what you did, but if that nut job escaped, chances are he might try the same again. We need to be ready. We know our enemy, and that's half the battle. The rest is preparation. Resisting those rays is part of it. We need..."

"We need to get home." sighed another of the men, slightly older than the others. "No names, not yet. I spent a long time and a lot of effort making sure my loved ones are safe. I need to make sure they still are, and find out how this sonnuva bitch knew where I worked. Then figure out if I still HAVE a secret identity, and for that matter a job. Our fight made quite a mess. Tomorrow night, the old Battersea Power Station, 10pm. I'll see you... any of you, there. Ok?" he holds out a hand to shake with Haunts.

The others looked exhausted. Haunt, or at least the man under the filthy mask, needed to see if there was anything left of the day to salvage as Rush King.

He turned to look out over the calming waters. The true depth of Exitiums plan would not be known. How far would he have succeeded had his plans of creating the ultimate superhuman form to wear come to fruition? Haunt glanced at the Hard Drives. He had a piece of the puzzle, one the Doctor would be eager to get back. Haunt flexed his fists. Next time he would be ready.

END OF ISSUE 4

OOC Haunt is on 252HP with a 200HP award for what has been an epic adventure in terms of time (months!) Watch this space for episode 5. Oh yes...

Exitium will return...