RUBY CITY DEFENDERS! Issue #1 - Requiem for a hero...

Lightning Bullet took a squint. He knew his Micro vision didn't compare too well against an actual microscope but it was better than nothing.

It was a jug made of coloured glass. Ultra Vision wouldn't work unless it was dark but close up to the jug he saw... something. Something in the glass. It seemed to be a trick of the light but it wasn't static according to what Micro vision he could summon and when he emitted a low power flash through the jug it seemed to ... glow?

OOC int 5 + 2D Scientist (analysis) + Roll(4d12)+0: 10,6,12,6,+0 Total:12 DOUBLE plus Roll(2d12)+0: 1,8,+0 Total:21 (better off without the double, sometimes that's how it goes...) (26) vs
OV6 + Roll(2d12)+0: 2,11,+0 Total:13 (19)
+4 (to 7 will) vs Rv6 - Sharp eye 2 (RV4)=3 RAPs

1) The coloured glass is unlike other kinds of coloured glass which usually requires a powdered metal of some kind to colour it from clear to another colour. Under ultraviolet light the glass seems to glow, though a lab would be required to fully test it.
2-3) There is a certain kind of coloured glass in green or yellow that seems to glow because it uses uranium in its make up, and a geiger counter may identify this as that kind of glass. The term 'Vaseline Glass' was given to these kinds of glass and some contained up to 25% uranium. This jug, and the boxes and boxes of the other vases, jugs, beakers and cups etc were probably all of the same kind of glass.

Lightning Bullet leaned back. The jug was radioactive, then, even if only in a small way!

"Leapin' Lizards! This thing is radioactive. They are smuggling out uranium."

"This sounds like a job for... the police. Or the FBI. We got evidence and we got location. Let's bury this thing in the dirt and I'll go call that detective. He'll know what to do. In the meantime, can you keep an eye on these creeps? Here's a walky-talky. Its range may not be the best, but at least when I return I can radio you. Unless you have any better ideas."

Captain Conduit starts digging a hole in the dirt to bury the vase in. "Are you able to shrink the vase, so we don't need a big hole? I also thought maybe I'll zap a 'C' in one of these trees, so we know where to look when it's time to come back for it."

"Police wouldn't work here since we are outside the city limits. It would have to be the sheriff and they may be on the take. FBI's a good choice but by the time they get into action, get enough evidence for a search warrant, all the evidence could be gone."

"I can only shrink myself so big hole. I suggest you go find a payphone while I stay here and watch. Give the FBI what we have seen but we are going to have to bust this crew on our own since the wheels of justice are not that fast. So after you call, come on back and we will take them down ourselves."

Captain Conduit leaves the little hero with the radioactive tableware and flies up to take a mental note of where he needs to come back to and what direction he might be able to find a pay phone. If there isn't any obvious direction he should head, he flies back toward his car. His wheels are at least between himself and the city. Fred also checks to make sure he has enough change on him to make a few calls.

Captain Conduit, still checks the area for where a phone might be. Based on the late hour and lack of evidence, O'Maley's Bar is the number Fred plans to call. If nothing else, that cop will be happy to know his two vigilante visitors have left town...for the moment.

Lightning Bullet clambers to the top of the rocks to keep an eye on the mansion in the desert.


ooc: If you've the original Star Trek with their outdoor scenes of Kirk and Co. clambering around rocks and stuff, that's southern California for you away from the cities.

Captain Conduit finds a payphone in a layby with a cafe nearby. He calls O' Malleys bar and asks for Conway.

"Who should I say is callin?" asks the Bartender

"Mind yer own damn business." CC replies

"Pfft. Whatever, punk. CONWAY! Some asshole wants a word." the bartender says as he drops the receiver with a loud CLACK! on the bar.

"Conway here. Who's this? If it's a lawyer from my ex wife, I ain't got no money an' if you call me again I'm gonna hunt ya down and shoot ya. It's your dime. Shoot." growls the surly cop.

=========

Lightning Bullet sees the compound from afar and notes that the big man is crouching about, looking in the dust near where the crates were.

OOC Int 5 + Roll(2d12)+0: 2,9,+0 Total:11 (16) vs
OV4 - Sharp Eye 2 + range 6 - Telescopic Vision 3 + Roll(2d12)+0: 1,7,+0 Total:8 (13)
+2 (to 5EV) vs RV4=1 RAP

1) It's hard to tell from this range but something about the way the building is sat on the hillside looks odd. Maybe it was built on metal stilts and boxed off underneath before soil and rocks plus vegetation were grown up around it to create a lower area or storage place.

He was big, but no dummy. The big man stood, looking out into the fading light and marched back to the mansion, barking orders to men who staggered with crates around the back of the big house whilst armed guards kept watch. The place was built on a hillside and very large but Lightning Bullet wondered if he were seeing the tip of the iceberg with the place. Something... the vegetation, rockery, arrangement of the dirt on the hill as it sloped away from the house suggested it had been added afterwards.

"Kind of reminds me of my place," Lightning Bullet muttered to himself as he continued to watch. "Hope Captain Conduit gets back soon. Need to see if I can sneak in there with him as my back-up."

"Your woman divorced you? I'm shocked. But not as shocked as you were earlier today. And you may got no money but your tip was on the money. Some bulletproof thug is smuggling in uranium and driving it to a place outta town. Thought I'd be nice and give you a tip for a change in case you don't want me and the shrimp to take all the credit for this bust."

Fred hopes he's talking the cop's language and gaining respect while giving some insults as well as he can take them.

Actions: Persuasion to get Conway's help.

OOC Charisma/Persuasion UNSKILLED use... This will be hard.

AV4 + Roll(2d12)+0: 3,9,+0 Total:12 (16) vs
OV3 + Unskilled use 4 - Modifier for chatting 2 + Roll(2d12)+0: 12,1,+0 Total:13 (18) Failed

"Yeah? Talkin' in riddles normally get you somewhere punk? I need more'n that." he snarled and put the phone down.

Captain Conduit moved the phone from his ear and looked at it. He'd been hung up on.

==========

Lightning Bullet kept an out in the darkness for Captain Conduit to return.

He also kept watching the crates being unloaded and a few minutes later, the job was done with the drivers being paid and putting stuff away in the truck prior to driving off.

The big man stood, looking about in the darkness as he smoked a cigarette. Then he turned with purpose and headed into the house.

Lightning Bullet was in a bit of a quandry, did he stay where he was and wait for Captain Conduit to come back or did he go off and try to get close to the house and see if he could hear or see something that would help? The darkness would help hide him and his powers would allow him to see well in the dark and maybe just maybe he could get some more clues.

After thinking it over, he dropped back down to where they had buried the pitcher and made an arrow with rocks pointing to the house. Then next to it, he scratched into the dirt the current time and "trying to see or overhear them".

He then flew over to the house, listening and looking near any windows.

Captain Conduit shrugs. He tried. Now he calls the FBI to leave them a tip. This time he'll put his acting talents to work and pretend to be a neighbor who heard a gunshot and then saw a group of ruffians unloading a truckload of glowing vases. He says he thinks they might be radioactive and he's worried that the radiation will lower his property values and cause him to have children with three eyes.

Action: Acting this time to leave the FBI a tip they'll want to follow up on.

Leaving the tip to a bored sounding operator on the other end of the phone and giving a false name/address, Captain Conduit figures he's tried his best.

He had a choice now, to head back home and get some shut eye because... work in the morning... Then again Lightning Bullet was back there and something was most definitely going on in that big house on the hill!

=========

Lightning Bullet etched in as best he could details of what he'd done and what he was about to do.

The Truck that had delivered the glass was leaving, this time without an escort. He could follow that but it might be a dead end.

The big man at the compound, plus goons with guns of course, were things to consider...

OOC Just giving a chance for the pair of you to go in together or you can go it alone. Or go home for the night or follow the truck, whatever you fancy!

Gonna snoop here and ignore the truck and hope Captain Conduit shows up.

Fred decides to head back to where he left "Mighty Mouse" in the woods with a stolen radioactive vase. He wonders if either of them will start displaying vase powers now. Maybe the ability to hold water. That would come in handy right now. Captain Conduit stops to take a quick leak in the woods on his way.

Captain Conduit takes the time to make sure he's not caught short and zips himself up before heading back to where he'd left Lightning Bullet.

He finds the arrow on the floor and the etched time/description of his action then kicks the dust over it.

Less... 'sneaky' than his companion Captain Conduit might be more noticeable unless he figured out some way to approach the house without being seen by one of the guards patrolling about the gate or stood on a flat roof with binoculars in between chatting and smoking.

Lightning Bullet on the other hand few problems getting close because he was smaller and it was getting dark. Up close now to the wall and laying flat on its top he counted three or four guards moving about the grounds. Despite the big man's excitement there seemed little to do for them aside from look alert whilst chatting and smoking.

The real answer to what was going on lay inside the house. The 'vaseline' or 'uranium' glass was in there and whatever was being done with it was in the bowels of the house, or at least in preparation for doing something with it.

OOC it is dark, chances are they won't be looking up but there is a chance that CC will be spotted and LB too if he goes over the wall to the house. If CC is looking for LB then the chances will rise further still... It's dusk, so light is low and the lights from the house windows illuminate the grounds quite well.

Lightning Bullet decided to wait another ten or so minutes for darkness to gather more deeply. His plan was then to fly high and then come straight down over the house in the belief that most people didn't look straight up over their heads. Then try to find a window to listen from.

Captain Conduit sneaks up as close to the complex as he can while still under full cover and tries his walkie-talkie. "Lima Bravo, this is Charlie Charlie. Do you copy? Over."

OOC Would those $1 walkie talkies actually work? I remember buying stuff from magazines and most of it was plastic junk. We'll try...

Lightning Bullet waited then took to the air in the darkness and looked down...

Where he saw Captain Conduit moving closer to the compound using cover and using his toy walkie talkies to mutter into.

With a quick glance at the guards inside of the wall LB moved over to where Captain Conduit was talking into the toy walkie talkie...

OOC: I think that they were good for about 50'. Really need one of those big Army Surplus walkie-talkies to get a mile or more of range. Now that is something to think about for Captain Conduit, get that radio receiving power, forget what it is called.

Admin wrote:OOC Would those $1 walkie talkies actually work? I remember buying stuff from magazines and most of it was plastic junk. We'll try...

Lightning Bullet waited then took to the air in the darkness and looked down...

Where he saw Captain Conduit moving closer to the compound using cover and using his toy walkie talkies to mutter into.

With a quick glance at the guards inside of the wall LB moved over to where Captain Conduit was talking into the toy walkie talkie...

"Hey buddy," Lightning Bullet whispers. "No range on that thing unless you souped it up somehow. Anyway, I am going to try to get to the windows of the place once it gets a bit darker and see if I can see or hear anything from them. How did your phone call go?"

OOC: Fred Aster is in electronics sales. My image was just proof that these types of walkie talkies exist and as a door-to-door or shop-to-shop salesman, Fred would have to demonstrate that the devices work before they were ordered. So I was hoping that with his background as an electronics salesperson that he'd have something that would at least work around a single household location.

Fred makes the 'zip-it' motion to Lightning Bullet and signals for him to follow back into the tree-line. Once they are further out of earshot and eyeshot, Captain Conduit tells LB that he doubts anyone is coming, because the cop is drunk and the emergency operator is an idiot.

"So we are on our own right now," Lightning Bullet responds. "That may work in our favor tonight or not. You wanna stick here and provide me back-up while I go up and try to listen in and hopefully find out what's going on? I'll wait for it to get a bit darker, I can see in the dark by the way, and try flying up high and then straight down to the roof. Best way I can think of to not be observed."

"It's your life, but apparently this radioactive vase thing isn't important enough for a bust. We're looking for who murdered the mask. So let's not get in a spat with a guy who can take a bullet and crush a gun if he's not a murderer. Things can be replaced, but not people. Agreed?"