The new Vanguard! Silas Issue #1

Homework sucked.

The young American sighed, glancing from the tv and towards the mountain of reference books from which he was to research tonights' homework. The problem with having a measured, verified genius IQ was that he was continually tested. Universities checked on his progress, corporations sent offers of sponsorships in return for consideration when he left education. His mother and father wanted the best for him, and in his case that meant putting him in a position strong enough where he could make his own choices rather than have them made for him.

He glanced around the room.

The place was glowing as the energy forms of monks hunched over glowing desks worked hard to transform his thoughts into words for the 10,000 page essay he'd left till the last minute. They never moaned, shied from work or went on strike. He chuckled as one glanced up, put on a scowl and got back to work, aware that his rampant imagination could play tricks even on himself.

With a glance back at the tv he turned back to a textbook, intent on devouring more that his monks could transform into text on the pages. Then he looked back at the screen.

Breaking news... An airplane was circling London, low on fuel, having apparently been hijacked? Fighter jets had been scrambled, people were being warned to stay indoors, more as we get this...

The flight was from the middle east, a large A380... if that came down...

A spokesperson for the Police came on "All we know is that the plane has less than 1 hour of fuel left and that we are negotiating with the people on board who have taken control of the plane. We have no idea as yet how security on board has been compromised, but a number of demands have been made. We can't tell you any more at this time."

Doubtless other superheroes had scrambled into action... right? He looked outside. Night time, the plane would be just another light in the sky over London. If it fell out of the sky, or were aimed, the devastation could be...

His monks fizzled out of existence, even 'Scowler' who dropped his quill before vanishing in exasperation. People were going to die. This was it. The minor street robberies and that thing with the local jewellers were small time. This was big time. 10,000 feet up. Time running out. A plane full of frightened passengers. Some crazy on board making demands. Lives at risk. No one else... he figured... dealing with it.

A job for...

"Silas! you ARE doing your homework aren't you?" shouted Mom from downstairs.

Silas reached out a hand and snagged the piece of paper falling from the ceiling. His last energy monk had been stuck upside down on the ceiling for lack of room. He really should be more careful with that, if his parents were to find out about his energy powers they would certainly connect the dots between him and.. well him, he really needed a name for his 'extra curricular's..

"Silas! you ARE doing your homework aren't you?"

"No mom, I'm playing X-box! It's not like I have an essay due tomorrow?!"

Silas grinned, then thought that perhaps that might have been a bit much so he stuck his head out of his door to look down the stairs.

"Really though, I'll be done tonight. It's going well. I'm pretty much just down to editing. Keeping all the ideas coherent. I think I'm going to step out for a walk though. Let my brain cool down, get some of that nature time you keep telling me I need. See if it'll help." He pulled his wallet out and tossed it onto his bed, then thinking better of it shoots a glowing hand out to tuck it under his pillow. Hardly a great disguise but it would beat someone casually poking their head into his room.

Scooting down the stairs he stops to give his mom a kiss on the cheek.

"Love you, see you in a bit. Don't give dad to hard of a time!" With that he slipped out the door, pulling his shoes on once outside. A quick walk down the street and around the corner into an alley gave him some cover. The glowing belt he conjured gave him even more, causing him to fade from view completely. Next was a giant spring board used to launch himself into the air and quickly replaced by a gliding harness.. Now to find his way to the airport..

((OOC: Righto, there's a couple 'rounds' worth in there. Main things of note though:

Force Manipulation 9APs to create a 1 AP body, 8 AP Invisibility belt.

Then using my other FM power to throw myself into the air and then make a harness with Gliding 5 and Body 1.. As far as locating where I need to go goes.. I'll add a visor to the glider to give it a HUD, tap into the local 3G/cellphone data network and get me some google maps going to find my way to the Airport. Then we'll add some propulsion to the glider and start heading that way. Say at 8 or 9 APs, what ever is subsonic. ))

OOC If I totted up the Creativity points right, you just scrape in at 21, the highest column. If so the invisibility belt isn't a problem. The other stuff is positively mundane in comparison.

Invisible and soaring through the air (OOC just as well to use his mobile phone - the gadget rules don't do existing technology too well. See the 'fork' example for proof...) he followed the GPS and headed towards the airspace around Heathrow airport, where the plane circled far above.

Switching to a jet pack, he considered that radar might not pick him up... or it might. No way to tell unless he tried it, unless he wanted to create a form of 'stealth' jet. He considered something that would disperse his molecules slightly, so as to let sound waves slip through them, but there was no obvious physical derivation.

'Wouldn't want things too easy' he thought to himself.

The night sky was fairly clear, and a a number of bright flashing dots could be seen two miles above. One in particular appeared to be circling. Gotta be that one! He was about to consider how to get up there, be it jet pack or stealth plane, when he heard supersonic booms in the far distance. Those jets, coming to intercept? He might only have minutes!

((He didn't bring his mobile, could ID him. Same reason he left his wallet home. Still, using the 'Radio Communication' power should work just fine as a basis for accessing cell networks, and then applying some aps of 'Int' for the computing, and some kind of image projection power for the HUD. All of which are pretty reasonably inside of the ability of someone who can make an invisibility belt. ))

If the job was easy, anybody could do it. Besides the potential to be discovered was what the costume was for. With that thought tickling the back of his mind Silas made the momentary effort to manifest his costume, Black trimmed in dark blue, with a mask in the same shade of blue. Nothing fancy today, it wasn't the right mood to be bursting onto the scene in a simulation of ScissorMan's classic anime look again.. Not that anyone could see him at the moment.

Altering his course, the teen hero pulls up behind the circling jet and closes in above it. It took some precision maneuvering to lower himself down on top of the airliner, from there though it only took a moment to secure himself with some specially fashioned gloves and boots. It was time to get a read on what was going on with this plane.

Moving cautiously, using his new accessories to adhere to the side of the 747 Silas positioned himself to look in through one of the windows..

---

[/hr]

((Alrighty, lets ditch the flight setup and go for Body 1 Cling 3 (I think that should be enough to hold on, if it'll take more though I'll use as much as needed) gloves/boots. Then we'll move around to get some kind of vantage point on the inside. If permissible I'd love to fashion some kind of listening device as well so I can hear what's going on. Technically that's a mental power, but it's pretty simple and there's lots of examples of that kind of thing that he could have studied the construction of. If that's not alright.. let's think. Right!

Option 2, ditch the invisibility belt and move the whole cling set up onto my 9AP Force Manipulation power, then make a shrinking harness to apply 14 Aps of shrinking (after moving next to one of the hatches) and we'll see if I can't climb in there at half the size of 'a tiny insect' ))

OOC I can't imagine even a tiny insect getting into a pressurized cabin. The whistling of air escaping would alert people for starters. Ok with the stethoscope (listening) but the wind noise at 10,000 feet would mean (at best) you hear snippets. Joined is probably a better bet than cling but that's a mystical power, so off limits, so high APs of Cling to counteract the 9APs of flight would be in order. Probably better off matching speed with aircraft and 'tethering' himself with a clilng suction pad and rope whilst he listens.

SILAS
This was noisy! Aside from the roar of the engines and the howling wind, Silas' earphones tried their best to cancel out the other background noises of the plain (internal hydraulics etc) as he settled to get a listen. It was muffled at best, so he adjust position to settle it on a window. Still not great, and he hoped no one look out.

"...going to do...?"

"...to die..."

"...will save us..."

Hmmmm. That didn't reveal much. A quick glance in then...

That was all it needed. A nearby passenger looked sick, with pale and sweaty skin. A staggering flight attendant looked the same, before throwing up in the aisle.

This was a plane full of sick people? Silas' mind raced. They were running out of fuel, a virus - or something - was on board, and someone was forcing the plane NOT to land? A terrorist? Maybe, but maybe it was something else.

Just then the plane bucked, wobbled a bit. Silas was thrown off the hull and tumbled through the sky! He caught up moments later, but the plane had dropped more than 1000 feet! Turbulence or ... or running out of fuel?

Silas tumbled through the air, invisible and flailing around for a moment before he managed to right himself and resume flying. He didn't like the change in altitude. As things went on he was quickly realizing he didn't like much about this whole thing at all. He knew that a 747's maximum takeoff weight ranged from 350 tons up to nearly 500 depending on the model, though the vehicles themselves didn't weigh that much. It would be tough, but he could - probably - manage to lower it down to the airport. The trouble was whatever was inside. If there was some kind of disease inside of the plane then he couldn't risk it getting to ground and spreading. For that matter he didn't even know if there was anyone on the plane forcing it to stay airborne yet. All he knew was what the news had told him, which more often that not was sensationalized for ratings..

He needed to get inside. Or at least to see inside if there was anyone specifically holding the plane hostage. Flying back up he positions himself adjacent to one of the windows, and checks inside, moving up along the row to see if anyone looked.. well he wasn't sure. Some how he doubted this would be a case of a man in a turban with a bomb strapped to his chest.

---

[/hr]

((Right. A bit more intel is needed. If I can't make anything out specifically from scanning the jets windows, then I'll have Silas go do the same with the cockpit, if need be he'll 'land' and tap out a Morse code message to the pilot. Morse is clumsy but he can't exactly have a chit-chat with them either. I'm looking for the status of any hostiles on the plane, I'm less concerned with the outbreak then with the idea of someone breaking out the guns if I bring the plane down manually.

Force Manipulation 1 9/9 APs used for invisibility belt (Body 1, Invisibility 8 )
Force Manipulation 2 9/15 APs used for thruster packs (Body 1, Flight 8 )

Silas struggled along the planes hull as he realised it was travelling faster than he was. The sheer size of the thing told him an a380 was substantially larger than a 747...

With the wind tearing at him he struggled to lift his head high enough to look up. Inside the cockpit the crew looked sweaty and fearful... and the door looked to have been mangled, smashed inwards! A swarthy man, probably middle eastern, was stood behind the captain and co pilot. Other crew members were on the floor. He, like the others, looked pale and sweaty. Possibly infected like everyone else? It seemed he was a super judging by the state of the door and having overpowered the cabin cew. With a hand resting on the back of the chairsof the pilots it seemed he was in control of the plane.

Silas glanced back. RAF fighter jets, a pair of them, were racing through the sky and would be in missile range in moments!

There was something else.... something fast, approaching from below. He couldn't make out details in the dark, but it *might* be another siper thrown into the mix! Would that be friend...or foe?

This was decidedly the biggest job he'd tackled so far. It was stretching Silas's creativity and problem solving to it's limits, pushing even the multifaceted nature of his powers further then he had ever done outside of a controlled environment, and yet despite all that, despite the lives in the balance and the thousands of feet between him and the ground, despite it all, he couldn't remember having more fun in his life.

Still, Silas knew this was a serious issue and that timing was getting tight. Positioning himself above the cockpit he stretched a band of force out around the plane and then molded it up around his legs. He wouldn't be falling off any time soon. Next he formed a drill press with an added rubber seal at the base of the bit and set to work.

"Night night Ackmed."

---

Ok, First up do some maneuvering.

Auto 1: Flight to get above the plane.
Auto 2: Force Manipulation to make a harness that will hold me in place. A big band around the belly of the jet, and clamps over Silas's feet and legs to support things. Body 9 should do it. So much for being invisible.
Dice: Using as a third Auto Action. Losing my flight set up to create a drill with 'Digging' 14 and 1 AP dedicated to.. I have no idea what the power would be but it's dedicated to maintaining the seal of the interior.

Next round

Dice: Digging 14 vs.. what ever this plane is made from. Diamond is 15, Steel 12, I'm guessing the plane is Aluminium, which is probably an 11 at best guess (Granite is 10).
Auto 1: Change my Force Manipulation around to have 3 APs dedicated to maintaining the seal, then 12 APs dedicated to the following idea. I want to gas the cockpit and entire cabin with something that will put them to sleep. I expect I will have to either A) add 'Area effect' to something akin to the Paralysis power, or B) Add both AV and EV to the Fog power. Going with A) (paralysis based) and using the rule you used to use about taking on bonuses or limitations (Take the HP cost on the table and find the closest lesser cost on the new factor cost column) then I could produce 10 APs. Going with B) (Fog Based).. interestingly enough I could also produce 10 APs. Regardless of which take you prefer the point will be to put people to Sleep
Auto2: NA

Third Round
Dice: Gas the buggers.

If I can make it through 3 rounds (12 seconds really) without interruptions then I'll add further Auto actions in from there. ))

OOC ok taking each in turn...

A passenger jet has something like Body 12 (probably 13 in this case) but I can't imagine it's resistance value is that high. I expect a bullet will punch through the aluminium so maybe RV6 vs killing attacks. Like a drill. That means a TN of 17 with your Digging 14, a roll of 3 or more will suffice.

Roll(2d10)+0:5,6,+0 Total:11

Whirrr!!!

The noise was enough even over the roar of jets and howl or wind for the crew to look up and see the drill punch through the high roof of the cockpit and withdraw!

Silas quickly formed a supporting 'band' much like the brace 'wing walkers' used for stunt shows on biplanes. He was going nowhere!

Next he conjured up a cannister marked 'zzzzzzzzz' and an energy 'pump' and merrily pumped knockout gas into the cabin - though with the cabin door mangled chances were it would reach at least some of the plane body too.

OOC Ok there is actually a Sleep power in blood of heroes but it's mental, which is a no no for Force Manipulation as it needs to have a physical effect (otherwise you could have 'mind reading gas' and 'continuum control pills' etc). Therefore looking at Area Effect on Paralysis (BC15/FC5+1 for area). I will try to dig up the earlier rule we used for variable effects and mimicking powers but in the meantime take your word for 10APs. I had it at 14APs but may well have it wrong - operating on 1.5 hours of sleep right now and need to hit the sack!

TN for the crew is negligible. Anything more than 2 will do (it's 13, so 3 or more will do it)

Roll(2d10)+0: 8,9,+0 Total:17

Instantly the gas takes effect and the crew slump where they sit/stand! Suddenly the plane goes into a nosedive as the pilot falls forward! Luckily he's restrained by his belt so it's a gentle incline, but still... the London sprawl lies below!

OOC against the 'terrorist'...

Roll(2d10)+0: 2,5,+0 Total:7

TN was 20, so it fell short.

Silas stares at the ground, approaching faster than he'd like! Then he glanced inside... the man was still on his feet, and pulling the pilot out of the way? What...? He pulled back on the controls and levelled the plane out, then looked up to shout something in a tongue foreign to Silas and shake his fist! What in the...?

"HEY!" came a voice from behind, barely audible.



Only feet away a man in a black and red costume flew through the darkness only several metres behind Silas! "You'd better have a great reason for me not to punch your teeth... hold on. Are you a kid?" he shouted. He looked over his shoulder as an RAF jet pulled up behind the airliner. "Great." he muttered, then 'landed' on the plane roof near Silas. "Talk fast kid!" he shouted.

OOC the knockout gas didn't work on the terrorist, who in turn pulled the plane up to stop it from crashing. Now you have a flying man wanting to know who you are and two RAF fighter jets getting into position to... well, maybe blow this thing out of the sky! A choice between several hundred passengers and possibly thousands if a 575 ton missile should drop from the sky... it's a tough one but the needs of the many and all that...

Silas barely had time to register his disappointment at not managing to down the hijacker with the rest of the plane before having to turn his attention away from the flying cigar tube he was standing on.

"You know, if I had a penny every time someone reacted to my age like that - He shakes his head and looks back at the jets. [b/]

"- Anyway, everyone on the plane is sick with something. Looked like shaking, sweating and vomiting. That's all I really got from looking in through the windows. The jet's almost out of fuel, and to top it off I wouldn't be surprised if those air force monkeys were about to shoot these people out of the sky.. I don't suppose you can talk them out of it? I can probably manage the plane.. though we lost a lot of altitude when I gassed the interior. Whoever hijacked this thing has some kind of enhanced immunity to toxins though, or he's just a tough bastard."[/b] Checking around Silas does his best to get a sense of their altitude despite the darkness.

"Look, I've got an idea on how to get this down to the ground. I don't suppose you can hold up oh.. four hundred tons or so? Or at least keep it from falling to the ground right away?"

---

Alrighty, first up.. lets to some persuading! Silas is on 8/7 Infl/Aura and has 3 charisma so he gets 2 free dice. Looking to convince this guy to help out.. preferably to take a lighter stance with me but if all I can get from his is temporary help I'll take it.

I'll make a slight adjustment to my 9 AP brace to extend a cover over the hole I punched in the jet and reallocate my 15 AP Force manipulation into a pistol with the disintegrate power at 14 APs and Body at 1

Second, if my guest will help, I'm going to wait for him to get into position to hold this thing up.. and then fire a disintegration blast into one of the wings of the jet. The aim here is to lighten the load by removing as much of the plane as possible and break it down before it can hit ground. Silas has Weaponry 7 so he gets 4 bonus dice to the attempt.

"You gassed...?" spluttered the man. Shaking his head, he glanced back at the RAF jets. "I might be able to have a word with them, but how do I know YOU'RE on the level kid?"

OOC So Silas tries to persuade him...

Yeoman is suspicious (+2 to OV/RV)

Infl 8 vs Infl 7+2+TN11=20 to beat, so a roll of 12 required to have a chance at breaking his resistance down.

Roll(4d10)+0: 6,8,6,3,+0 I assume you take the DOUBLE rather than the 14...
Roll(2d10)+0: 3,10,+12 Total:25 + Infl 8. 33 Action total less TN 20 means +5 Effect.

Yeoman has 9 Spirit +2 from suspicious, so Aura 7+5=12 - 11 = 1 RAPs.

"Listen Kid, I don't know you and I don't know yet if you are in on this... whatever is going on. Best thing for you to do is stop whatever you're doing and stay put. Let the Pros handle this." he yelled over the wind noise. "And as soon as they turn up, we can sort this out..." he muttered.

Glancing back at the jets, then at Silas, he shouted "We have to get this thing down in one piece. Whatever else you can do, you need to use your powers towards that end. Can you do that? I can... maybe... guide this thing to a slower landing, but..."

He squinted at the cockpit. Silas glanced over. The 'terrorist' was holding a clipboard up against the window with hastily drawn words thanks to the Captains expensive pen. "Can you read Arabic?" the newcomer shouted? Silas squinted, and the man stared at the pair of them, then started scrawling again. "NOT LAND. DANGER!"

The heroes glanced at one another. What was going on?

OOC Silas can still adjust his power to make a destructo gun if needed. He was only partially successful at persuading Yeoman, and will have to keep at it to persuade him further. As I understand it, you need to match or exceed the targets Spirit to change their stance.

"It was just a bit of chloroform vapor, enough to put them to sleep. Better then having to deal with a plane full of panicking, sick people. It also saves them the screaming terror if we can't make this work.. Hang on.. sorry no, My Arabic sucks.. Huh looks like he might be on our side. Lets see.." It only took a moment's thought to make his own glowing clipboard to write back.

Land. Will Quarantine. Safe. He follows this up with an animated image of the plane landing with a little stick figure standing on top of it. Before the plane lands the figure makes a dome around the plane marked with the medical staff that kept people out and the plane inside.

"Lets see if that will work.. We may not have to haul this down ourselves. Still think I'm on the wrong side of this?"

---

((Not sure how the mechanics work on that.. maybe another persuade roll? I'll leave it up to you to decide.))

The man in the cockpit looked through the window at the message Silas gives him.

He shook his head, then started writing, scribbled it out as it was in arabic, and rewrote it in English. He struggled, but was desperate and wrote as quickly as he could.

WEAPON. I WAS WEAPON. LIED. NOW ALL WEAPONS.

He looked around and gestured to the unconscious crew and the back towards the cabin where, doubtless, people snoozed in their chairs.

He added VIRUS.

Yeoman looked at Silas. "This plane can't land. Not here. The risk is too great. Hey, write back... HOW?"

Silas did so and the man flicked over a new sheet and wrote. "TOUCH. AIR. BODY HEAT. MORE?"

"Damn." muttered Yeoman. "All of the people on this plane are carriers, and they don't know it. The plane itself is contaminated. If it's shot down the wreckage will have the virus on it. In a pressurised cabin it can be contained, but out in the open...?"

Suddenly the plane 'hopped' in the air and plummeted another thousand feet! The man scribbled again. "FUEL!"

Silas looks over at Yeoman. "You know somewhere to take this thing? I might be able to carry it.. but you'll have to support the main jet while I knock the wings off. There's too much weight on it as is. I can disintegrate the wings so they won't land on anything and make this things weight manageable. Think you can pull it off?"

---

((again looking to disintegrate the wings. Plan being to zap both wings and then make something to cut them from the body before the disintegration effect hits the main body of the plane. I'll need Yeoman to hold up the plane until I can turn my attention to helping with that. If he's willing.))

"Yeah kid, I can do that. The problem is those jets. Without word from the plane they will get to the stage where they shoot the plane down to stop it from crashing into London. Me an' the authorities don't see eye ta eye much since th' civil war, like." he growled, making himself heard by shouting.

Silas needed to get the wheels of the plane down for Yeoman to grab hold of. Destroying one wing then another would wildly throw the balance of the plane out, and cause it to crash in moments. This super guy needed to be in place, and be able to do what he said he could. The lives of these people depended on Silas and the guy in black and red being able to perform what the people on board would consider to be miracles. He grinned. Right now he should be doing his homework!

That's when the bullets zinged past, screaming so close he could feel the air sucked from behind him!

He looked up and saw the jet that had fired the warning shot maneuver into place to fire another round!

OOC As mentioned, those wheels need dropping. Vehicles one should be enough to figure the controls on an ordinary plane. For a fully trained pilot on a top of the line passenger airliner, skill of 3-4 might be more appropriate, probably not far removed from the guys in the jets behind...

Silas reflexively ducks as the bullets zip past him. Scowling back at the jets he slings his hand around and shoots his 'clip board' toward the jets, expanding into a billboard sized stop sign.

STOP

Plane infected with unknown pathogen, highly contagious, likely to survive explosion.

Working on solution.

Will you assist?

He looks over at the other hero and shrugs. "Best idea I had, with any luck they'll be able to give us some help.

---

Here goes nothing! I think I'll double the 'stop sign' as Force Shield and keep it interposed between the jet and the fighters.. Hopefully I won't need it.

The jet pilot must have been pretty surprised as the fighter veers off and takes a moment to steady itself.

Then it seems to flick a wing down to the left, as does the other one, and both set up a more escorting position.

The threat of a virus being released in London has clearly chilled them into backing off and their superiors think so too. But now what?

"We need to get the wheels down!" shouted the black garbed hero. "by the way, I'm Yeoman. You? Or will 'Kid' do?"

"Soon as I figure it out I'll let you know.." Thinking through the whole situation Silas shifts his billboard into a big thumbs up sign, then back around to his clipboard across the front of the windshield. He taps on the window a couple of times to get the man insides attention then runs through the plan on his clip board. Starting with the jet deploying its landing gear, then Yeoman and himself flying the plane under their power, pulling back to a map of the area with the plane moving away from the dot marked 'London'.

"Lets hope this guy knows how to operate one of these. Man I really need to invest in some kind of radio or something."

OOC in order to figure out the particulars of a specific vehicles controls, I figure an Int/Will check vs a TN of 8/8 (halved if you are trained specifically on that vehicle, to 4/4) will see if you can operate (in this case) the landing gear. For instance I drive trains and they all have the same basic controls (throttle, break, dead mans pedal etc) but where those controls are and the procedure needed to use them varies by different model. The latest class 70 locos in the UK are a pain in the ass, for instance. A case of making something simple into something complicated and rubbish. Probably the same with a short cessna type plane and the latest passenger airline (A380 like this one) with computer screens all over the place.

So, using vehicles our young nameless hero gets +1 Bonus Die

Roll(2d10)+0:  6,8,8+0 Total:16 DOUBLE) +Roll(2d10)+0: 9,8,+0 Total:17

Roll 33 + Int (8) =41 vs TN 11+8 (19). +7 Effect boosting it to 14 vs RV 8 means 6 RAP. Success.

Using his power to illustrate which controls the man in the cabin needed to access the landing gear, Silas crossed his fingers hoping that he knew enough about this thing from magazines and the like to get the job done.

The man in the cab gave a thumbs up and Yeoman flew underneath the plane. It jolted, and started to level. He was there.

Next, Silas turned his disintegration ray at the wings...

OOC Wings will be Body 8 or so I should think (guess), Normally a trick shot to hit a specific part but these things are bugger than a house, so we'll ignore that and do EV vs Body

Roll(2d10)+0:  3,4,+0  Total:7 +14 EV vs 11+Body 8, +3 Effect. EV17 vs Body 8, 9 RAPs ZAP!

The plane shifted dramatically as Yeoman juggled the shift in weight, and Silas imagined the screams of the passengers inside!

OOC Same again, Roll(2d10)+0: 9,10,+0 Total:19 +14 vs TN19. +5 Effect. 19EV vs RV8 = 11 RAPS. ZAP!

Flying underneath the plane, Silas saw Yeoman looking tiny as he held onto one of the landing gear. Where his fingers clamped on they'd sunk into the solid steel. All of a sudden Silas was reminded how much it would hurt by being punched by a superhuman!

"Good job kid!" he shouted. "Now where do I drop this thing? If everyone on board is affected, as well as the interior and luggage, I can only imagine something like a desert as being safe enough to drop it into. Last I checked, none in Britain and..."

He looked past Silas into the darkness. "What was that?" Silas turned but saw only pitch darkness and the lights of the city below. "Thought I saw something... some one... flying up from the city. That's all we need. One of us is going to have to get on the plane and tell the authorities what's going on. I don't know if you can hold this thing up, chances are if it were on the ground I wouldn't be able to. I'm more 'flying' it and holding it level than actually lifting it. Anyway, find somewhere to land and..."

FWOOOSH!

A laser blast passed under the plane only metres from the pair! They looked, but could see nothing...

"I got this! head out to sea. I've got an idea." Pulling up next to he hull Silas focused a moment, latching a control seat, monitors and a series of controls to the opened hatch for the landing gear, a band ran out around the plane and from it extended multiple six foot barrels. Out from all of that ran segments of armored plating, covering he whole aircraft with exception of the landing strut Yeoman was using to fly the plane.

Swinging himself into the control seat Silas thumbed the sytem to life, including one of the switches, bringing the spot lights mounted with each barrel to life!

---

((Alright, lets start with the plasma cannons (Force Blast with a -1 FC limit of having a limited range (-5APs range), and -1 FC limit of having no AV. Puts it on Factor Cost 1. Using your rules for factor cost adjustments 9 APs (Normally costing 36 HP) comes out to 14 APs at FC 1 (32 HP). I'll use the remaining 6 APs to make the floodlights using Flash (FC4 = 24HP) with a -1 adjustment of having no EV and another -1 for no AV (Final FC is 2, with 24 HP found at 9 APs). The result is a bunch of 14 AP effect cannons with a range of 9 APs, and a bunch of flood lights with a range of 9 APs.

Next, I'll use my 9 AP Force Manipulation to apply Skin Armor to the plane and my control booth. I gotta leave Yeoman out there to fly this thing though.

Dice action.. we go looking for that bugger with out spot lights and blast him as soon as we see him.. hopefully he inside a half mile. If not I'll have to play around with the specs. I only have 8 Dex to make my attack with, but Weaponry 7 is worth 4 extra dice. 14 EV though.

Also, only one cannon is powered at a time, though their spread out to give 360 degree range of fire.))

OOC Am pretty sure that anything you make has your AV as opposed to its own with Force Manipulation. Need to dig out the rules that were cooked up way back when. Or best bet may be to build using the gadgetry rules using the HP you have in Force Manipulation (less base cost) to build stuff. So AV, EV and Range have +1FC and base cost 5 apiece. That said, there's enough to go with to post, so...

Silas conjured machine after machine, including armour plates on the remainder of the plane, large gatling type guns on swivels and the flotation tanks (OOC effectively gravity decrease. Mere air flotation tanks would barely slow this thing down as it hit the water without wings. It'd be 'ker plunk1' and down she goes...) made it look less like a plane and more like something out of Mad Max!

Yeoman grunted "Without the engines this thing is *unh* a dead weight. At least we don't have to shout so *unh* loud" He turned the plane towards the Thames and speeded up. "I can't steer this thing, only point it!" he yelled as Silas settled into the gunnery chair.

Silas swung the floodlights round, looking... looking... what the heck? Had that laser blast come from nowhere? He looked back at the fighter jets who were escorting the stricken plane. Suddenly one of the peeled off and started heading for... well, nothing that Silas could see.

FEEEEOOOOOOOM!!!

And it's wing was shot through by a laser blast from... well, nowhere! Silas squinted. The afterimage of light suggested something like a man, in armour, lit up momentarily by his own blast. Stealth technology.

The fighter jet was struggling to level off, and immediately turned to limp away from the city, probably towards fields where it could be landed or abandoned without risk to life. That left one fighter jet, a wingless a380, a plane full of infected passengers and the plane itself possibly infected, and two superheroes under attack by someone with stealth technology who could pick them off like sitting ducks!

"Can you see him?" shouted Yeoman.

Silas looked out. He couldn't see his enemy... did that make him helpless? Had the fighter jet been able to see their enemy somehow?

Stealth technology, flight, laser blasts.. probably some kind of powered armor.

Silas grinned.

Powered armor meant sophisticated electronics and computer controlled systems, which in turn implied one glaring weakness. projecting an energy construct out to the fighter he flashed over a quick warning sign.

Gain distance. EMP incoming. Electromagnetic Pulses were somewhat tricky to put together, and took a good bit of focus. A piece at a time he converted the rotating gun turrets into dish shaped emitters. This would fry the jet's electronics, as well as the passenger planes.. and hopefully the stealth system and weapons of whoever was attacking them!

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Righto, I'm going to keep the 9APs of Skin Armor up, and convert my fancy gun/light contraption into a straight up EMP blast. My best take on how to represent that is the lightning power with 'can only effect electronics' and.. I think it's called 'blast radius' It's an advantage from Blood of Heroes that gives any attack power the same style of fading AoE as the bomb power. The key here is that it's not supposed to effect anything other then electronics, and will reach out and touch just about everything.

I'd build this as a total of +1FC, normally only effecting electronics would be a -1 but since it's actually beneficial here that would be offset, and the blast radius is a +1. With 15 APs sunk in (FC3=120) I would end up with 13APs (FC4=112). I'd also argue that it could reasonably use the power aps in this case, but it's also reasonable to apply APs of Int as the AV. Hopefully Heavy Weaponry will apply as well?

Oh, I'll also give Yeoman a heads up before I set off an EMP right on top of him.. just not to much of one in case our friend with the laser has long distance listening abilities.