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

Curl up into a ball like she is trying to protect herself and then swallow the pill. And hope it is the right pill.

Had the prisoner who'd helped her before slipped her one of her Vita Pills or some placebo to raise and cruelly crush her hopes?

As blows rained in on her she started to black out and knew that she had been...

ENERGY surged through her form, activating power at a genetic level that morphed DNA and empowered individual cells with VAST superhuman energy and Miss Victory KNEW her powers were back, albeit just for an hour! Before she blacked out she could empower herself to withstand the blows!

OOC Power Reserve to boost Body to 23 and Skin Armour 6 to 29RV I'm guessing, though if you make yourself that tough hands will start breaking on her skin! Depends on how much of a secret you want to keep this as a Mentalist will zap you as soon as they find out...

ooc:  Skin Armor is not a power that can be increased with the power reserve.  She remains slightly bullet-proof but not better than that with or without her Vita Pill.

Raise Str by 1 to 7, increase Body by 17 to 23, increase Running by 5 to 13.  Grab the girl who helped, and run out of the place.  Hopefully, getting out of Mindshark's view before he can react.  And ... try to use Mind Maiden's borrowed power to increase her mental shields/defense.
No messing around or moving slowly this time, try for the main office where she has a shot at activating the prison's defense protocols. Hopefully, she won't need her Sealed Systems either but it is now active if someone has a gas attack she would normally have to worry about.

Miss Victory boosted her durability (OOC Yeah Skin Armour remains 6, but added to body 23 would have made 29 RV) her strength and her running speed!

Leaping to her feet she glances about, sees the shocked young woman who helped her and whizzes over, scooping her up and racing off down a corridor!

"Get her!" exclaims a voice from behind. "In this place my mind powers need a line of sight - the walls block powers!"

The pair raced through corridors and the girl patted Miss Victory on the arm. "Stop! Stop...I can't breathe!" she yelled. Miss V glanced about and came to a halt to look about. They stood at a crossroads with corridors in four directions and doorways spaced out along each. Cells.

"The control room is like a fortress. When they got in there they butchered the armoured guards and the personnel were rounded up, beaten and tortured for information. None would give them up. I ... I was sickened but when I tried to stop it they questioned my loyalty. Now I'm only good for handing out food and working in the canteen. Sometimes they let me out and... and I couldn't stand what they did to your friend. She resisted them even though they killed her. I... could have done more... should have but..."

Tears rolled down her face and she looked back. "The control room is several levels down but there are bad guys down there. Really bad. If you move fast or teleport or fly they will know. They can't track us when we walk normally. I've seen a speedster try to steal things and this place threw up a forcefield. He spent the next couple of hours in the infirmary with a broken face, but he healed fast. After that they set ground rules."

Great. So they could track and stop her speed and maybe even now cameras were watching them. If they were, they were hidden.

"Do you... do you have friends who can help us? Stop them? Put us back in our cells? There are people in here too dangerous to be wandering around. I'm... I'm one of them." she admitted.

Great. So they could track and stop her speed and maybe even now cameras were watching them. If they were, they were hidden.

"Do you... do you have friends who can help us? Stop them? Put us back in our cells? There are people in here too dangerous to be wandering around. I'm... I'm one of them." she admitted.


"Pretty much on my own," Miss Victory said, putting down the girl and looking around. Nice of them to destroy her costume and put her in prison fatigues, makes her blend in with the others. Well, that was one way of looking at it. "Still waiting on the Ultrahumans to show up and help out. I've been knocked out so many times today I've lost track of how long I've been here. So I guess we work our way down to the control room, looking like any other prisoner here and see if we can get in and set things right. What's your name by the way and your powers? I'm Miss Victory."

"I'm Magma Girl, but call me Alice. Alice Morrison. I never wanted this. Any of it!" she sighed and sagged, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor.

"My powers manifested at home while I was in bed. I... I..." she teared up again, then sucked in a breath to continue. "I set fire to my house and the surrounding area. I didn't want to, but the heat! I couldn't control it! It spread... they couldn't get out... their screams... When the police turned up they started shooting at me, but I was like a person made of living lava by then - their guns did nothing. A local superhero group, the Texan Titans, tried to stop me. They wouldn't listen. I... I burned them. I don't think I killed them but they were badly burned. I ran... flew..."

Wiping tears away and standing she looked at Miss Victory. "A few days later I gave myself up. Pleaded guilty to whatever they levelled at me and they threw me in here to rot. I deserve it. I daren't use my powers! The risk is too great!"

Miss Victory was about to answer when she heard running footsteps from a corridor that was out of sight because of the curvature of the place. Someone was coming! She glanced about. There were cells up and down the corridor - featureless doors made of the same material - Promethium - that made this place impregnable to most ordinary means. By 'ordinary' that meant any weapon ever devised by man and most superhumans ever encountered. ADVENT may have something that could make a dent, but they'd not shown it yet.

"We got to go, now!"

Miss Victory grabs Alice and pulls her to her feet.

"We will do our best to get to the control room and avoid folks as we can."

Trying to figure out which way to go, she heads in that direction.


ooc: remove 5 points from running and put 2 into strength for a 9 and 3 points into Dex. The other points remain.

OOC Miss V current stats as far as I know: Dex 13 (3) Str 9 (3) Body 21 (15)
Running 10 (2)

Miss Victory looked about. This place wasn't a maze, as such, but it did have a central up/down core and from each level branched out cells, maintenance rooms, food and medical supplies and various other rooms vital to maintain this place in lockdown practically indefinitely.

Control rooms would be those on the level she entered by - up as far as she could tell - and the main control room was at the bottom in the middle of the central core. From the sounds of it the villains had taken that places and they were now in the process of learning the various systems that this technological marvel of a place held. Truly, there was a level of technology in play here that the general public would have no knowledge of.

As Miss Victory sped off down the corridor, followed it curving and came to a T junction, she started to get her bearings. She figured as she got further out from the core it would be less likely to come across someone unless they remained in their cell. For that matter, were there others like Magma girl who were reluctant to get involved and might help her?

Just then a blur and rush of wind announced the arrival of another person. He stood twenty feet away.

"Youknowhowlongittakesmetosearchaplacelikethis? Seconds." he laughed. "Ibeentoldtafindyouandbringyouinalivebuttheydidn'tsayconscious.Let'sgolady!"

He offered his fists in a fighter like stance and was about to attack! Miss Victory noted his hands were shaped like a solid claw, but in fact were vibrating at thousands of motions per second to form a solid, very sharp claw!

OOC initiative...Roll(3d12)+0: 7,2,10

Speedbite 27 + 7 (34)
Magma Girl 17 + 2 (19)
Miss Victory 31 + 10 (41)

Miss V is up.

OOC To describe, think of a pencil with levels off like a circular corridor and a side view is kinda like this:



Top level is where Miss V came in.

She's probably on the fourth level or so. The control room is level 9. The branches out from the core spread out and form into a circle around the central core. I'm not good at 3d drawings but I can have a go if it helps. Think of it as a set of wheels (eight levels) with the spokes as corridors set on top of each other. The bulb at the bottom is the control room. Where bad people have gathered. Lots of them.

"So you are not a gallant one that doesn't believe in hitting a lady," Miss Victory huffed. "There has to be at least one gentleman somewhere in this place."

ooc: Shift power points as follows - +7 to Dex to make 17, +7 to Body to make 13, +9 to Str to make 15. Martial Arts dice to attack, Acrobatics dice to defense. HP to attack.

"I really am starting to hate speedsters," she says as she launches her attack. "Victory Punch!"

OOC Splitting Attack/Defence dice to Acrobatics:2 (max) and M Arts 2 (from a max of 4). I'll look at tweaking that when I cost everything again, you know, when I get the spare life I need to write the game from ground up.

Dex 17 (+7) Str 15 (+9) Bod 13 (+7)

Dex 17 + M Arts two + Roll(4d12)+0: 7,9,3,4,+0 Total:16 (33) vs
Ov15 + Acro three + Roll(5d12)+0: 7,11,9,11,7,+0 Total:22 DOUBLE plus Roll(2d12)+0: 12,2,+0 Total:36 (51) Attack MISSED

"Hey!You'refasterthan...Fergetitthere'snowayyouwilldodgeTHIS!"

OOC Dex 15 + Roll(2d12)+0: 1,12,+0 Total:13 (28) vs
OV17 + Acro two + Roll(4d12)+0: 2,11,12,11,+0 Total:22 DOUBLE plus Roll(2d12)+0: 4,3,+0 Total:29 (46) Attack MISSED

"Huh!Damnfastyoumightbebuthowlongcanyakeepitup?"

OOC Pyrotechnics 20 + Roll(2d12)+0: 9,3,+0 Total:12 (32) vs
OV15 + Acro three + Roll(5d12)+0: 9,5,10,5,4,+0 Total:10 DOUBLE plus Roll(2d12)+0: 1,5,+0 Total:16 (31)

Hit +1EV (to 21) vs RV6=15 Damage. SPEEDBITE is DOWN and OUT!

Miss Victory figured she was in for the long haul against this guy - he was as fast as she was and they were evenly... what?

All of a sudden steam started rising off him, and he screamed! Crying out, scratching at himself he got redder and redder... until he keeled over and his hair set on fire!

"No! NO!" screamed the girl with Miss Victory who'd thrust a hand out at the inmate. She ran to the villain and gasped, looking for some way to turn her power off! "I didn't mean... that is I don't ... Don't Die! DON'T DIEEEE!!!" she screamed, collapsing in a fit of tears on her knees.

Miss Victory checked the downed speedsters pulse... there wasn't... wait! There WAS a pulse, but it was racing too fast to count!

"I didn't mean... I don't... I can't control this power!" she wailed.

Miss Victory turned. She heard a LOT of footsteps coming down the corridor out of sight, and heading this way!

Grab Magma Girl and run where she needs to go.

"He's fine," she whispers quietly as she carries her along, "just unconscious. He also probably has some kind of regeneration power so he may be back on his feet in a couple of minutes. You did good. Now be quiet, we have to keep moving. Can't let them stop us or this is all for nothing."

The pair moved down the corridor at speed but not so fast that they would show on what passed for an internal 'radar' of superhuman powers in this place.

Miss Victory had to be smart. They knew about the huge use of superhuman abilities in the corridor just now and were probably tracking her via cctv. Villains being villains and this lot being the worst of the worst was in her favour though. If someone gave an order and didn't have the power or the backing to enforce it, there would be friction. She hoped that was the case right now.

They came to a corridor end and saw another straight corridor to the right. The best way she could figure was that each circular corridor was thinner on the inside till the end where it opened to a central core, and this proved to be the case.

She got to the core, looked up - more levels - down... same. LOTS of orange jumpsuited supers wandering about.

"Those in charge said something about learning the systems and figuring out who was using powers and where. Then they argued for a while. Others were figuring out how to turn off the powers of people on a whole level, a cell, a corridor or individually." said Magma Girl, sniffling.

"That was taking them some time. They tried to torture an officer for the codes but he died before he gave them up. I... couldn't stay. I dropped the food off and got to you as quick as I could. I'm sorry if they hurt you." she explained.

"To get out we need to go up. We ARE going out aren't we? Please... I promise I won't use my powers, they can put me in a normal jail but I don't want to be here when... when Nexus gets his gauntlet..."

Miss Victory started. A couple of years ago a superhuman 'god' battled the Ultrahumans - including Silver Sentinel, Thunder Woman and every other big hitter, to a standstill single handedly. It was all over the news and levelled an oil refinery completely as well as the nearby town with hundreds of casualties and thousands injured. Many of the Ultrahumans were hospitalised and the makeup of this place was beefed up to contain Nexus.

Without his gauntlet it was theorised he was a normal man, and sentenced to the death penalty. That was until some scientist came up with the theory that if you killed him his Gauntlets power would disperse through the world and give EVERYONE powers, and dark intentions, and plunge the world into UTTER chaos!

"So, up... or down?" she asked, hopeful whilst glancing up.

"We need to shut this place down," Miss Victory said firmly. "To run away is to let the people of this country, our world, down. We can't do that if we want to call ourselves good people, so down it is."

actions: Find best way down and try to blend in where possible.

"Oh." said Alice (Magma Girl). "Alright, I suppose..."

She glanced about. There were orange clad prisoners wandering about, seemingly unaware of the fact that a superhero was prowling about, dressed like one of them.

"You DO kinda stand out Miss Victory." she mumbles, referring to the fact that Miss V could easily be a model on a catwalk. Or something else more suited to her voluptuous form.

"We could try the lift, but they can monitor who is going up and down. If they recognise you..." she ponders. "There is an emergency stairwell but the last one I tried was locked up. Maybe they've opened them up since then. There is another option I guess... "

She looked reluctant, and glanced about nervously. "This place is BIG and not everyone follows Mindshark and his cronies. It may be like a bird landing in a crocodiles mouth to pick out the meat and do it a favour, or we may end up as a meal for the the Croc. Best analogy I can come up with. Unfortunately in the wing I was in I had no choice but to hook up with Mindsharks lot for protection. Some haven't aligned themselves to anyone and others prefer to stay in their cells. A bit like me, their powers were used unintentionally. If we could find and persuade them..."

She glanced over the railing and down the circular core that led down into the earth. Somewhere in the darkness was the main control room. Inside were uneasy, probably unwilling allies of every criminal faction determined to find some way to open this place and free everyone, then probably escape themselves in the confusion.

Teleportation, Spirit travel, dimensional shifting... nothing would get them out of this place unless the doors were open. It truly was the ultimate prison, and Miss Victory was a temporary inmate!

"How about we just fall down the core here," Miss Victory asks, looking down, "no flying or anything, just falling, think that will set off the alarms?"

"I think there are safeties in place. We could try it but... some kind of ... field I think would appear to box us in... and we'd be trapped like flies in amber!"

She sighed. "I didn't spend long in the main control room. There were lots of villains in there. I mean, other than me... and there was a whole bunch of arguing and squaring up. Some of those guys would make your toes curl... Anyway, they agreed to get the smarter ones to figure out how to turn on the systems to entrap those who they wanted, but they all hate each other and want to take charge. If one managed it... then everyone will get locked down unless they obey that one guy."

She sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"I guess if you are determined to get down there we have a few options..."
OOC
1) Head down the stairs or try the lifts which are definitely monitored
2) Check every cell. If there are criminals in the cells and not wandering about they may be like Magma Girl and be persuaded to form into a group to stop the master criminals in this place
3) There is a large cafeteria on every level. Those in it may be uninterested in breaking out, helping or getting involved... or they may work for one of the villainous factions and attack Miss V/tip off their boss
4) There may be access panels, back doors, places to hide out or maybe get down level by level. Slower going and you wouldn't want to be trapped there but this place, despite its invulnerability, still needed pipes and conduits to feed every level, ever cell, every system and every room. They'd be in such places. Shellghost, still in 'the system' might be able to help...

OOC: NOT A BIG FAN OF #2, you know, just going up and saying "Hi, I'm a superhero and we want to stop this rampage and reactivate the power dampening fields. Care to help us?" just doesn't seem like a good thing to try. Someone is going to squeal to somebody and everyone in the power struggle will then come after us.

Same thing for #3.

Some combo of #1 & 4 might be best.

"Let's see if we can find an office or someplace with a computer terminal," Miss Victory says after mulling it over. "If we can get in touch with Shellghost, he may be able to helps us through the hidden hallways and maintenance shafts and such. We will keep going down the stairs and look into nearby rooms until we find such a place."

The pair moved through corridors and entered a stairwell that took them down another level.

Peeking through a gap in the door Magma Girl muttered "I've only ever been an inmate of this place so being given free reign just seems... wrong. Some of the megalomaniacs in this place will shut it down and depower everyone except themselves to force them into serving them. We don't have too much time. If one faction gains power over the others... well..."

Sighing she adds "Listen to me, pretending like I know what I'm talking about! I'm not a ... a ... supervillain! I'm someone who got powers she didn't want and the first time I used them I killed my family, and quite rightly I should be in here paying for it!"

Shaking her head she frowned. "I won't feel sorry for myself. If there's one thing I can do before they lock me away again it's help get you out of here. Truth be told I think if an army of you had come in here it would only serve to spur the villains into working together and wouldn't do much good."

Miss Victory saw her chance after a trio of orange suited goons walked past and motioned for Magma Girl to follow. They ducked down a corridor and started pushing doors ajar. Some were still locked. Most were cells with personal effects in. Some were even occupied by sleeping inmates.

They came across three doors of interest. Magma Girl stood at one and hissed "This is one of this levels' med bays. There's a computer in here and medical supplies."

For her part Miss Victory had found what seemed to be an administration office with a number of terminals and another with janitorial supplies and a small terminal presumably for stock control and ordering. She turned to Magma Girl and the pair started as they heard voices chit chatting, laughing and saying rude things about other prisoners coming their way and about to round a corner. From the sounds of it this was a small group, about four or five. Miss V figured she could take a couple maybe three on but Magma Girl seemed very unsure and unwilling to fight. She may run the risk of fighting alone against bad oods and once more being a prisoner!

OOC Ducking into a room, all seem unoccupied but this group may be heading for one. Any preference?

"In here," Miss Victory whispered, pulling Magma Girl into the janitor's closet. "Less chance that they are looking for a mop then drugs or an office."

She left the door open just the slightest crack so she could see who was coming down the hallway.

The pair ducked into a darkened closet/store room and Miss Victory peered through the gap of the door...

A group of four thuggish looking prisoners were laughing and joking with each other whilst snarling and being boisterous. Looking for a fight.

"Think she's down here? I heard she's something special! I reckon we get a little time alone with..."

A tap on Miss Victory's shoulder spared her the details of the morons in the corridor and she turned to Magma Girl... who wasn't even looking at her!

Instead the back of the store room was bathed in an eerie green glow!



"Stay BACK!" the woman hissed. She looked fierce... determined! Frightened...

"I'm not going out there with those... monsters!" she snarled. She raised her hands which started glowing brighter and BRIGHTER! The store room glowed bright green and it was hard to even look at the woman!

"The corridor!" gasped Magma Girl. "They... they'll see us!"

Miss Victory pulls the door closed to help hide the glow.

"Stop it," she hissed, "you will lead those morons right to us with that glow. All that light is going out through the cracks! You might as well put a sign out that says "We are hiding in here!""

"Being frightened doesn't excuse being stupid. Now hold it together until they are gone."

ooc: Charisma if that helps.

OOC Charisma/Persuasion does indeed help.

Miss V infl 8 + four charisma dice + Roll(6d12)+0: 4,1,2,9,12,3,+0 Total:21 (29) vs
Infl 7 + 6 Hostile + Roll(2d12)+0: 2,8,+0 Total:10 (23)

+3 (to 9 Aura) vs Rv6 +6 (12)= FAILED

"No!" hisses the woman. "Get out! you're with them!"

She raised her hand to point at the two women!

"Wait! WAIT!" hissed Magma Girl. "We're hiding like you are!"

OOC Unless it's a mega roll ... Roll(2d12)+0: 8,9,+0 Total:17 (22) vs Roll(2d12)+0: 10,12,+0 Total:22 (35) FAILED. Oh dear.

"You have NO idea of what I am capable!" hissed the glowing green woman. "Get out! Last warning! I don't want to hurt you!"

OOC initiative...Roll(3d12)+0: 5,4,5

Current Miss V 35 + 5 (40) (currently have Miss v as Dex 17 (+7) Str 15 (+9) Bod 13 (+7) )
Magma Girl 17 + (21)
Irradiator 22 + (27)

Miss V is up...

"I didn't want to do this," Miss Victory says sharply but quietly.

She steps forward and tries to punch the woman. Need to try to one punch her enough to daze her - devastating or critical blow? or is there another attack type that would do it? All skills into attack that can be used. Guess I better spend some HP too.

OOC you can 'pull your punch'. That limits the chance of knockback which is the main killer in this game. You only kill someone otherwise if you enter killing combat or the situation warrants it, like being tossed into a volcano or whatever. Will assume you add HP for defence and chuck all four skill dice from M Arts into attack. If you want to daze her you need to 'stun' her, do enough damage so that she can't act even if she absorbs the damage with powers or HP. That would be Crit Blow or Dev Attack. We'll try crit blow.

Dex 17 + Roll(6d12)+0: 12,6,2,9,11,10,+0 Total: 23 (40) vs
Ov8 + Crit Blow 4 + Acrobat 2 dice + Roll(4d12)+0: 4,3,5,2,+0 Total:9 (21)

+6 (to 21) vs RV20 -6 (Crit Blow)=7 Damage

Miss Victory's punch sends the lady flying back into a rack of shelves and stuff comes crashing down on top of the glowing green form!

Magma Girl is aghast! "You've killed her!" she hissed. She starts moving stuff aside to help the woman up when a green hand thrusts up and clamps onto Magma girls head!

OOC Dex 8 + Roll(2d12)+0: 10,12,+0 Total:22 (30) vs
Dex 7 + acrobat 2 dice + Roll(4d12)+0: 5,7,1,2,+0 Total:12 (19)

+5 EV (to 24) vs RV6=18 Damage!

Magma girl, in her 'non magma' form immediately swoons even as the hand only comes near touching her skin! When it does touch she goes down as if poleaxed! The green woman struggles to her feet and snarls at Miss Victory. "Ready for round two? I could EASILY have killed your friend! You go out there and tell your buddies, men, women or anything else that comes through that door and wants to hurt me or..." she started to well up and tries to 'toughen up'. "Just tell them with my powers I'm not an easy target and I won't be bullied or used anymore, is that clear?" She's crying freely now and her hands are trembling, but she seems determined.

Magma Girl, at the green woman's feet, is out like a light...

OOC no need for initiative - Miss V wins with her stats as is.

"Dang it, I'm a superheroine, I don't like hurting someone who isn't hurting anyone else. Read My Lips! WE ARE NOT A PART OF THOSE FOLKS OUT THERE. WE ARE TRYING TO HIDE FROM THEM AND YOU ARE BRINGING THEM HERE IF YOU KEEP THIS UP!"

actions: waits to see what she does, if she won't calm down, try to punch her the same again.