The New Vanguard! Miss Victory issue #2 Fighting for the Flag... AND her life!!!

"I've told the others but I have connections outside and everyone who helps me or just goes quietly to their cells, I will see that they receive some powerful legal aid and see what can be done about either getting them out of here, reduced sentence, pardon or whatever. We need to get MindShark back in control on this floor. That let's us go through the next floor unopposed, which we need to do as one of my comrades is more or less being held hostage while she heals up from nearly dying. She can help us get down to the lowest levels where we need to take control over the equipment and bring everything back online. Besides, I need the pills that are in the room the Russians are holding if I am going to be at my best here on out."


Lionheart hears something outside the door which is ajar. As does Lupus.

Someone was coming. A lot of someones. Doors slamming, shouting, someone was looking for them!

"Looks like we are out of time," she finishes up, "I was hoping we could get everyone healed before fighting again but it doesn't look like that will happen. How do you want to play this Lionheart? The Russians are all variations of Bricks. But some of the folks who probably joined them are mentalist or mages."

DavidMcMahon wrote:"Looks like we are out of time," she finishes up, "I was hoping we could get everyone healed before fighting again but it doesn't look like that will happen.  How do you want to play this Lionheart?  The Russians are all variations of Bricks.  But some of the folks who probably joined them are mentalist or mages."

Lionheart nodded feeling uncomfortable with the role of a leader that seems to fall to him, whether he felt the right choice or not. Briefly, he sketched out an idea, knowing that the others would have to improvise on the fly anyway. "Lupus dodge and weave, keep the mages and mentalists busy, stay out of the hands of any fighters, Possessor see if you can back Lupus up, if Mindshark and I go for the mentalists and or Bricks, hopefully together we can overwhelm their defences and that just leaves everyone else to do what they can as best they can. Not much of a plan, but its like Jazz, just go with the rhythm."

OOC: I suggest we position ourselves to take advantage of the fact the door is narrow and until they've come through only those at the front can get at us. So if Mindshark and I go for blasting the front row, it might impede line of sight and movement for the others behind. And then once in we go for whatever suits. I didn't include Miss V in this as I think she knows where she fits best.

Sj

ooc: I thought about using a doorway to funnel the foes too. Just worried the medbeds could get trashed and it also limited the number of us who could fight at the same time. So Obsidian and Miss Victory will be the second line of defense, looking for an opening to attack or helping to defend a teammate.

Admin wrote:LIONHEART IS NOW ON 227HP and will get a small award from the end of this issue (assuming he survives it! )

I'm running a bit behind as todays work shift was a bit of a pig so an afternoon finish turned out into 2100 finish. yesterday was written off when I got news of a friend passing so I'm a bit behind, sorry chaps. Keep an eye out for updates on this one and I will remind if it's a couple of days (work tomorrow and every day up till Friday so playing catch up somewhat). Cheers, Paul[/i][/color]

OOC: NO worries Paul do what you need to do - best to do this when you can do it properly. Sorry to hear about your friend.

Sj

OOC I cooked up a random character generator on Excel (stats anyway, I need to do some more work to generate powers and skills randomly and it would take a pile o work but I think it's doable). HOWEVER I think it'd be more fun if I threw established characters from DC Heroes 1e - 3e at you. Mostly good guys for the most part and the names have been filed off to hide their involvement!

Lionheart outlined the plan. Stand in the doorway, limit the numbers that could come at them and see how long they lasted!

With Miss Victory and Obsidian as backup and Possessor and Lupus as the third line of defence, Mindshark in his diminished state would not be persuaded to rest.

"If I can stand I can see my targets above your heads when stood on the gurney. Anything I can see, I can blast!" he declared. "If we win this battle... level four can have peace restored to it once more and we can renew negotiations with three and five.

Opening the door fully Lionheart looked out. The corridor was FULL with orange suited prisoners heading their way! In the front were skin headed Russians (both male and female) who were stoking the crowd up.

One of them shouted and pointed at Lionheart... and raced up at superspeed!

OOC Miss Victory is still stuck at her 15 Dex 17 Str 13 Body.

How do you want to power Lionheart up Dave? I would suggest Superspeed is the way to go but... you could do with more oomph in your punches. You can do that by assigning some of your 12 Power Reserve points to strength or by going for crit blow/devastating attacks (depending on how lucky you feel) with 22 Superspeed/Dex. You also have Five dice to split between Attack/Defence or all piled in to attack or defence as you see fit. Just getting this sorted out so that I can churn out a couple of rounds at a time. Bear in mind that by standing in the doorway Lionheart will be clobbered by maybe one or two physical attacks (one close, one at range with a negative modifier to hit as its aimed past the aggressor) and the same maybe with Mental/Mystic attacks. Those HP will be needed to soak up attacks but ...

For 150 HP you can boost Power Reserve from 12 to 13 which is pretty useful in terms of upgrades. That would leave you 77HP to soak up a battering. Food for thought. Once you've had a think let me know and I'll change whatever is required before scooping up your little band and dropping it into the deep end of the shark tank!

Admin wrote:For 150 HP you can boost Power Reserve from 12 to 13 which is pretty useful in terms of upgrades. That would leave you 77HP to soak up a battering. Food for thought. Once you've had a think let me know and I'll change whatever is required before scooping up your little band and dropping it into the deep end of the shark tank! [/i][/color]

OOC: Yes, yes and yes... as you say this seems to be the way to go.  Until they break through and then we see about changing it up.  But speed will give me the edge in dodging blows so in terms of being able to dish out and take the pain.  So up strength and martial arts and go for a 3/2 split with Crict/ devastating attacks etc...

Lionheart spoke to himself out loud as he saw the villains approach, "If I had a mama she'd probably have said they'll be days like these. Well come on, lets get this over with."

Sj

OOC Miss Victory is still stuck at her 15 Dex 17 Str 13 Body.


And her mental powers are burned out for an hour, which I think is about the time her Vita Pill runs out too or close to it.

Admin wrote:OOC Sorry Dave (E) - Lionheart. Do you want to increase the Power Reserve to 13? That would cost 150 and leave 77. Just wanted to be sure as I need to update the character. If not you have Power Reserve 12, do you want to split that and how much? 6 to SuperSpeed 6 to Str? Sorry I just wanted to make sure before we get stuck into this. Hopefully you'll get back to this in the morning and confirm. I saw the yes, yes, yes but wasn't sure if that was to the upgrade and/or the tactics I suggested.

If it's just me being thick, sorry, I've had a LOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG day  

OOC: Yes, that is right, as you suggested so my HP is down to 77 and yes 6/6 sorry I didn't realise I needed to split the numbers. You know me and the rules?

Sj

LIONHEART HP 77 Power Reserve Split 7 Superspeed/7 Str

OOC Lionheart currently has 14 Power Reserve, not 13. The character sheet in the datafiles was an old one and hadn't been updated for a while apparently. My bad. Only thing that really changed is Power Reserve has steadily been going up. Lionheart has 17 Dex (Superspeed) and 20 Str currently.

Instead of rolling initiative and crunching maths I am going purely on initiative order. With 52 that's Lionheart.

He's not the only speedster though! Rather than crunch through mounds of characters I'm going to pluck from pregen stats from DC and Marvel characters. Feel free to take a guess as to who you might be facing. First up, the fastest man alive...

ALL BAD GUYS WILL HAVE A STORE OF 0-10HP

Lionheart stepped into the doorway, feeling that this would be a 'last stand' of sorts. They faced an army of super villains from across the world. Many Russians and a mix of others all having bought into the Russians plan to take this level and start on the others, eventually forming them into a huge super villain army of the most powerful beings on the planet!

Suddenly there was a blur of speed in front of Lionheart. Wait. A blur? To Lionheart? What the...?

It was weird facing someone faster than he was, and not just by a little bit! This guy was F A S T!

He said something but it came out as a buzzing sound, the words were delivered so fast!

Even so, Lionheart was smarter, more experienced and comfortably beat the speedster to the punch!

OOC Skill split 3 Dice Attack/2 Dice Defence. Crit Blow

Lionheart AV 17 + Roll(5d12)+0: 10,2,10,4,12,+0 Total:20 DOUBLE plus Roll(2d12)+0: 11,10,+0 Total:41 (58) vs
OV28 (!) + Crit Blow 4 + Roll(2d12)+0: 8,7,+0 Total:15 (47) +5 (to 25) vs RV6 (ouch. -6RV CB=0)=25 RAPs. Even absorbing the maximum damage (6 for body) the other 19 points comfortably mean that Barry Allen, the Flash, goes down!

THWACK! The speedster flew backwards almost as fast as he'd sped in, pinging off a couple of prisoners on the way out! Ouch. He'd have to watch that. Technically he could have destroyed a Battleship with that punch! He was about to react when...

OOC Hmm too easy. The problem with 1e characters is that they will be crazy powerful (Superman, Wonder Woman etc) or not that great (like the Flash. Someone nearly as quick with skills pummels them as quick it seems. And most of the characters don't seem to have Acrobatics/Martial Artist. So we'll try a different tack.

Mind Blast 15 + Roll(2d12)+0: 4,7,+0 Total:11 (26) vs
OV10 + Roll(2d12)+0: 4,8,+0 Total:12 (22) +3 (to 18) vs RV20 NO DAMAGE.

Lionheart winced as his mental shields felt a sting from a mentalist from the crowd! Then he had to duck as an energy beam lanced from the hand of a female prisoner!

OOC Energy Blast 19 + Roll(2d12)+0: 3,7,+0 Total:10 (29) vs
OV17 + 2D Acro + Roll(4d12)+0: 11,1,6,7,+0 Total:18 (35) Attack Missed

Lionheart ducked, the blast zapping into the door!

Another blast, this of strange green energy, lanced out at Lionheart!

OOC Magic Blast 13 + Roll(2d12)+0: 8,7,+0 Total:15 (28) vs
OV9 + Roll(2d12)+0: 3,7,+0 Total:10 (19) +4 (to 17) vs RV10= 7RAPs SPIRIT damage! Lionheart is on Spirit 3/10! Do you want to absorb any of the damage? Check out the table on the bottom of all of my posts to see the cost in HP.

Suddenly Lionheart buckled and was slammed back into the door! MAGIC had done what energy, mental power and speed could not! Someone shouted something in Russian and the mob crowded forward! More shouts as someone else yelled and tried to organise the attacking mob.

Miss Victory and Obsidian saw Lionheart stand and duck/avoid/dodge the blasts until the last one and knew they were in for a fight! If he stood in the doorway he would be worn down eventually then they would be in here!

"GIVE US MINDSHARK AND SURRENDER YOURSELVES!" shouted an accented voice.

Mindshark, normally unflappable, looked somewhat flustered. "I... " he started.

"GIVE US MINDSHARK AND SURRENDER YOURSELVES!" shouted an accented voice.

Mindshark, normally unflappable, looked somewhat flustered. "I... " he started.


"You forgot to add "And then Die", you Commie Scum," Miss Victory yelled back, "Oppressor of the People!  Running Dog Lackey! Sexist Pig! Sons of Motherless Mothers!  True Servant of the Advent!  Traitor to Humanity! Betrayer of Earth!"

"Saracen pig! Spartan dog! Take this! And this! Roman cow! Russian snake! Spanish fly! Anglo-Saxon Hun!" *

She repeats that in Russian for good measure, while grabbing any nearby office equipment like a stapler or tape holder and throwing it at the crowd of villains. And with her strength, she might actually hurt someone with them.

"If you need to step back for a breather, Lionheart, let me know," she tells the brave hero, standing like Horatius at the bridge.  [yeah I looked that up.  I always thought it was Horatio.]

* - stolen from What's Up, Tiger Lily, a great 60s Woody Allen comedy before he went insane and turned into a pedophile, marrying his own adopted daughter. Yeah, it's the last day of work before the 4th of July holiday and I am in a weird mood.

Admin wrote:LIONHEART HP 77 Power Reserve Split 7 Superspeed/7 Str
[color=#0033cc]
OOC Lionheart currently has 14 Power Reserve, not 13. The character sheet in the datafiles was an old one and hadn't been updated for a while apparently. My bad. Only thing that really changed is Power Reserve has steadily been going up. Lionheart has 17 Dex (Superspeed) and 20 Str currently.

"GIVE US MINDSHARK AND SURRENDER YOURSELVES!" shouted an accented voice.

Mindshark, normally unflappable, looked somewhat flustered. "I... " he started.  

Lionheart waved at Miss V, thankful for her spirit, but he had something of the same as well. Rallied by her brazen courage and boldness he waved them back and said, [i]"Mindshark is not for taking and neither are we.!"

OOC: Ok going to absorb 6 points for 21 HP. I'm tempted to blast that mage with my mental powers to take them down, as that was a nasty attack which I have little defence against. Or else if Mindshark can do it, all the better. Otherwise, I keep trying to dodge and weave for now. Can't take much of this.

Sj

A hulking brute stomped up. With a shaven head, bull neck and somewhat green tinge to his skin, chances were this one would not go down so easily!

OOC Next up, the Incredible Hulk. This would be an EPIC fight if Hulk had a stash of HP to draw on but these are bad guys who have been in jail so will have burned through whatever HP stores they have if any.

Meanwhile Lionheart can pinpoint the source of the magic attacks. A small guy with pointy beard and making odd gestures...

Mind Blast 13 + Roll(2d12)+0: 10,9,+0 Total:19 (32) vs
OV7 + Roll(2d12)+0: 2,11,+0 Total:13 (20) +5 (to 18) vs RV8=10 RAPs. The mage goes DOWN!

Turning his eyes on the mage suddenly an energy lion leaps from Lionheart to appear on the man and maul him, causing him to cry out and collapse!

The brutish Russian snarls and takes a swing at Lionheart!

OOC Who can use all Acrobatics dice to dodge. All points to Superspeed for defence/dex.

AV4 + M Arts 3D + Roll(5d12)+0: 3,11,1,10,12,+0 Total:23 (27) vs
OV24 + 5D Acro + Roll(7d12)+0: 12,8,1,8,12,2,8,+0 Total:24 DOUBLE plus Roll(2d12)+0: 12,4,+0 Total:40 (64) Not only a miss but on the best day of his life Russian Hulk Clone would not be able to hit Lionheart.

With a fist the size of a basketball the hulking brute swings at Lionheart... He didn't need his danger sense to know that the guy was strong but Lionheart was Strong, fast and durable. Plus the brute was so wide he was effectively blocking Lionheart from view from the others!

"Get out of the way you brute! Move aside so we can blast him! Get out of the way!" came the calls.

Mindshark looked up "I can blast that brute for you!" he said, placing fingers to the side of his head...

OOC For the rest (Miss V, Possessor, Obsidian, Lupus and Mindshark) you can see Lionheart, an athletic 6' or so guy in prison orange facing off against a guy who more than fills the doorway in every direction by about two feet. He is mammoth and effectively blocks the room off from the corridor.

Miss Victory will look for things to thrown at the cons, non-vital things like office supplies, and if there are none available, what with trying to be a paperless society and all, then if she can grab the cons Lionheart has taken down, she can drag them into the room behind him and use them to throw at the cons outside - once the Hulk is out of the way.  She can tell Lionheart to duck just before she does it.

Heck, even if she misses who she is aiming for, odds are she will hit someone!  

Otherwise, she will continue to hurl PG rated insults at the Russians translating the insults in both English and Russian.

Admin wrote:Mindshark looked up "I can blast that brute for you!" he said, placing fingers to the side of his head...

OOC For the rest (Miss V, Possessor, Obsidian, Lupus and Mindshark) you can see Lionheart, an athletic 6' or so guy in prison orange facing off against a guy who more than fills the doorway in every direction by about two feet. He is mammoth and effectively blocks the room off from the corridor.

Lionheart laughed, "No need this fella is going to act like a proverbial plug, for the time being, giving me a chance to heal. Besides if we wait long enough his 'friends' will likely get so fed up they'll do it for us. Nah, let's let him get angry and let the others crash upon this rock."

Lionheart then blew a kiss the hulk-like figure and started adding insult to injury. "He hulkums so when you're mommy was bringing you up did the other boys laugh when she had to buy those "big boy beach towels" to make up your nappies. I guess your nappies could have been sold off for weapons to the government. Wow, I'd had to see what cleaning you up when you're old is going to be like. I can see prison food suits you, around your waist, or wait that's not your waist that's your head, oh now I know what the term fat head means - go figure, prison really can correct you."

And so it went on...Lionheart was playing a dangerous game he knew. But by enraging the beast, he kept him from moving out of the range of the others. And more importantly, it forced them to have to deal with him, rather than them waste precious resources having to do it, whilst Lionheart like some nutty jack-in-the-box leapt, slid, danced, twisted and moved like the beast didn't know what.

OOC: I think its fairly obvious where I am going here and for now happy to put dice into dodging whilst I just enrage and annoy the thing. And I hope the others maybe turn on him to stop him or turn him and then he goes after them.

Sj

Lionheart laughed, "No need this fella is going to act like a proverbial plug, for the time being, giving me a chance to heal. Besides if we wait long enough his 'friends' will likely get so fed up they'll do it for us. Nah, let's let him get angry and let the others crash upon this rock."

"ooohhh! Regeneration! I like that," Miss Victory murmured. "Wish I had that. Need to put that one my "one day let's get" list."

OOC No attack on Hulk guy? The tactic is clear and a good one but at some point the bad guys will start attacking the Russian Hulk or try to move him to get at the heroes/prisoners.

The behemoth was getting madder with every passing moment!

He roared something in Russian which Miss Victory recognised "You can't dodge forever!" and 'Pressed the Attack'*

OOC Dex 4 + 3D M Arts + Roll(5d12)+0: 2,2,9,10,6,+0 Total:4 DOUBLE plus Roll(2d12)+0: 8,2,+0 Total:14 (18) vs
OV24 -2 press the attack + Roll(7d12)+0: 9,11,2,10,12,1,10,+0 Total:20 DOUBLE plus Roll(2d12)+0: 6,9,+0 Total:35 (57) Attack Missed

The only way in which Lionheart could be struck I reckon is if a 2-3 is rolled on the dodge roll or any follow up from a double so technically Lionheart is completely invulnerable to attacks from the Hulk.

Lionheart watches as the Russian Behemoth seems to pulse with rage and muscle, and move in slow motion. Moving aside from the blows is no problem for him and he dodges without effort.

Mindshark holds his attack back. "It would be simplicity itself to crush this dolt, but it gets us nowhere. The tide of Russians and their lackeys through that door would eventually overwhelm us. Even now they may be lining up to maximise the number of blasts they can blast at this fellow. Even as fast as he is there may be attacks that even he cannot dodge. So what is the answer?"

Possessor (in the form of a bulky prisoner) turned. "I kind of have a plan. I can jump from body to body and I could jump into this behemoth if I overcome his defences. Then I could clear a space and we could escape..."

Mindshark was troubled by this. "What, and walk away? Sacrifice everything I have set up on this level? If the Russians take over this level will just be the start. They will extend their influence throughout the prison and..."

Lupus spoke up "Yes yes, but we can't fight our way through that lot! Eventually we'd get pounded into the floor and they will imprison or kill us!"

"Do not interrupt me youth." snarled Mindshark. "My patience is not without limits!"

Obsidian stepped forward. "Wolf boy is right. This guy can keep dodging the brute for all time but he's not going to tire and eventually the guys on the other side of the door will zap him out of the way. There has to be a way out of this!"

The conversation took place against the bizarre backdrop of of Lionheart dancing about avoiding blows!

OOC Is Lionheart striking back/zapping with Mind Blast or on the defensive completely? Other than that, what's the plan?
* A combat maneuver which makes it easier to hit a target but also easier to be hit...

"Can you take him over and then just plow everyone down in the hallway with his big body," Miss Victory asks.  "Knocking out most of them as you squeeze them into the end of the hall? Using that pretty much invulnerable walls to do so? Any that get out from under his arms, the rest of us can take down, unconscious, not dead, I add."

Possessor watched the behemoth tirelessly swing at Lionheart. "The goon seems to be so... slow. At best I can provide a distraction. they may zap me with mind and magic attacks which I have no protection against..."

Lupus snarls "Lemme out there! You guys rush away! I'll take down as many as I can!"

Mindshark snarled "They are determined to kill me!" he pauses then says "i can surrender myself if it saves you, though I have no doubt they shall capture or kill all of you."

Essentially the group was trapped. The 'plug' of the Russian behemoth in the doorway was the only thing holding back the tide!

Miss Victory looks to see if Lionheart has any idea since he is the senior hero here.

"Not big on running and not turning anyone over to anyone," she says.

DavidMcMahon wrote:Miss Victory looks to see if Lionheart has any idea since he is the senior hero here.

"Not big on running and not turning anyone over to anyone," she says.

Lionheart held up a hand thinking the behemoth wasn't causing the frustration that he wanted the others to face. So he started shouting beyond the bemouth to them Russians behind, seeking to taunt them into attacking their own. "What is wrong with you Russians? Has someone been slipping in Gin for your Vodka, or perhaps an American Soda? Is that it, you've all become soft whilst in here far from Mother Russian, softened by the Western lifestyle & too embarrassed to admit it. I thought you guys were supposed to be tough, yet you left this excuse for a heavy hitter up here to miss me for hours, whilst you lot sit it out and do nothing. Comrades in arms, yeah right?"

But Lionheart called forward Possosser whilst he shouted over the head of the Behemoth, then more quietly to Possessor he said, "How do you fancy swapping bodies and letting that lunk go for this big fella and trying your hand at having a go at that lot outside. I think with you in front of us, we could use him as a shield to take the fight to them? What do you say? If you're up for it get Mindshark to drop that bod, when you free him so he doesn't distract us."

Sj

Possessor seemed to doubt her/himself (currently in a male body) but shrugged. "The problem is as soon as I drop out of this one chances are it will be hostile! I hope you guys are ready!"

The angry behemoth continued to swing at Lionheart who practically ignored it and taunted from the other side of his huge body. There was a voice shouting out from behind the huge Russian and Miss Victory translated.

"Sergei! Get back! *I* shall deal with those inside and I will behead the one who has opposed you!" translated Miss V.

That didn't sound good. Then...

"Sergei! BACK NOW, DO NOT DEFY ME!" she translated again.

The brute looked down at Lionheart, snarling, then started to step back.

Lupus turned to Lionheart and Miss V, as did Obsidian. "What's the plan? We only have seconds to act!" said the hairy youngster.

OOC Whoever is on the other side of this guy is the leader of the Russians and someone powerful enough to resist Mindshark's power as well as impress their might on these powerful Russians so that he is declared undisputed leader! Therefore he'll be powerful, and you'll need your 'A' game to defeat him!

Admin wrote:OOC Whoever is on the other side of this guy is the leader of the Russians and someone powerful enough to resist Mindshark's power as well as impress their might on these powerful Russians so that he is declared undisputed leader! Therefore he'll be powerful, and you'll need your 'A' game to defeat him!

OOC: Possessor take on Behmouth, Mindshark takedown Possessors current person and as soon as their leader becomes clear, Devastating attack with the 3 die buy to take him down.

Lionheart shouted all the while making it clear with hand gestures what the others were to do.

Sj

Miss Victory to help take on the body Possessor leaves if needed.