RUBY CITY DEFENDERS! Issue #2 - Caught between a Hammer, a Sickle... and a hard case!

OOC Apologies for the delay guys. Should be better today. NOT going up into the loft to board it out (because I can't move after yesterdays' contortions) should help...Also on night shifts. Body clock is all over the place...

LIGHTNING BULLET

Stepping back into the stairwell the diminutive hero hears shouting and looks down. Hmmm. Cops not too far away now, only a couple floors in some cases.

Lightning Bullet waited for the first goon to come into sight. The smoke cleared and... there he was. What the...?

Resembling Lon Chaney from 'The Wolfman' the mobster coughed his way out of the smoke and moved down the stairs four at a time. The superhero waited until he was rounding the stairs coming down then... Zap!

OOC
Flash 8 + 2d12+0 3,8+0 = 11 (19) vs
OV6 - Blindside (half surprised) 2 + Range 2 - Telescopic Vision 2 + 2d12+0 4,10+0 = 14 (18)
Success +1
EV8 +1 (9) vs RV6 (Dex)=3 RAPs.
Wolfman Goon is on Dex 3/6 for 3 Phases.

With a cry of "Rarrrrgh!" (appropriately) the mobster blinked and waved his hand ineffectually in front of his face. "I'll get you!" he roared, then he pulled up the Tommy Gun and let loose!

OOC
Dex 3 + Weaponry 1D + 3d12+0 2,11,6+0 = 17 (20) vs
OV10 + 2D Acrobatics + Range 2 + 4d12+0 1,4,2,12+0 = 16 (28)
Missed

RATATATATATATATATATAT!

Bullets sprayed everywhere - into the walls, stairs, ceiling - everywhere except for at Lightning Bullet who easily avoided the blast!

There were shouts of alarms and "get down!" and "We got a shooter!" and "get these people outta here!" from down the stairwell.

OOC Wolfman is partially blinded. You can hear more of his buddies coming down the stairs but they are obscured by smoke. The cops a couple of floors down can't see much but will start firing back at some point with LB in the middle!

CAPTAIN CONDUIT

Captain Conduit tries to take the speedster down! With the villain trying to connect the phone - doubtless to call his red buddies - the hero flies above and behind him, taking careful aim...

OOC Speedster knows something is up but not what. Yet. Blindside it is.
Lightning 8 + 2d12+0 1,4+0 = 5 (eek!) (13) vs
OV10 - Blindside 2 - in a metal phone booth 2 + range 3 + (not able to dodge with acrobatics, partial surprise) 2d12+0
2,7+0 = 9 (not much better) (18)
Missed!

The heroes' blast goes astray and the speedster zips into action!

Instantly he's across the street and looks about (OOC using Superspeed for Perception)

OOC
AV10 + 2d12+0 2,5+0 = 7 (17) vs
OV6 + up (not obvious) 2 + 2d12+0 8,5+0 = 13 (21)
Failed!

Amazingly the Russian doesn't look up and Captain Conduit knows he might get another crack at this BUT... and it's a big one. This guy is fast. Like, lightning fast and his reactions as well as his speed mean that he can be somewhere else when the shot is fired!

Captain Conduit watches as he zips about, a blur and trailing dust in his wake. He looks around corners, behind dumpsters, in doorways... everywhere but up.

Fly up and give him a shock and then fly back down into the corridor.

LIGHTNING BULLET

The diminutive hero flew up towards the partially blinded/dazzled mobster and reached towards him.

"I'll get you!" he roared. "Just... where ... WHERE ARE YOU! I'LL GET YOU!" he roared.

LB simply floated up to him and reached for his chest.

OOC AV7 + 2d12+0 5,8+0 = 13 (20) vs
OV3 + 2d12+0 1,10+0 = 11 (14) Success +3
EV9 + 3 (EV12) vs RV6=6 RAPs. The Mobster is DOWN and OUT!

Swooping back down Lightning Bullet hears shouts from up and below as he exits into the corridor.

People are panicking now and Lightning Bullet needs to use his near superhuman strength to prevent from being shoved about!

Heading to the room where Randy was he sees the petrified family in the room with Randy.

"Hey!" says the veteran. "What's going on out..."

RATATATATTA!

"SCREAMS!"

"POW!" "POW!"

RATATATATATATAT!

Randy gasps "Man! I thought I left all this behind in the war!"

Sounds like the Police had encountered the first of the mobsters!

"Yeah, that's what's going on," Lightning Bullet replies glumly. "I need to get this family out of here and to the space spot we set up for them. Then I need to get back out and help the cops take down the crooks."

He moves over to the window to see if he can spot the truck from this room. If he can, he is going to have Randy translate that he needs to get them out of the room by flight one by one. If he can't see it, he may have to go back into the stairway and try to help out the cops take down the crooks.

Admin wrote:LIGHTNING BULLET

The diminutive hero flew up towards the partially blinded/dazzled mobster and reached towards him.

"I'll get you!" he roared. "Just... where ... WHERE ARE YOU! I'LL GET YOU!" he roared.

LB simply floated up to him and reached for his chest.

OOC AV7 + 2d12+0 5,8+0 = 13 (20) vs
OV3 + 2d12+0 1,10+0 = 11 (14) Success +3
EV9 + 3 (EV12) vs RV6=6 RAPs. The Mobster is DOWN and OUT!

Swooping back down Lightning Bullet hears shouts from up and below as he exits into the corridor.

People are panicking now and Lightning Bullet needs to use his near superhuman strength to prevent from being shoved about!

Heading to the room where Randy was he sees the petrified family in the room with Randy.

"Hey!" says the veteran. "What's going on out..."

RATATATATTA!

"SCREAMS!"

"POW!" "POW!"

RATATATATATATAT!

Randy gasps "Man! I thought I left all this behind in the war!"

Sounds like the Police had encountered the first of the mobsters!

Captain Conduit didn't come here to fight Russian racers. The plan was to get the German nerd's family and get out. To that end he flies back to their rental vehicle, thinking they should be ready to go by now. He delayed that commie long enough...he hopes.

Dice Action: Stealth?
Move Action: Flying stealthfully back to the truck or van or whatever it was he rented.

CAPTAIN CONDUIT

The electrical hero knew that getting tied up in some fist fight with a Russian super would screw up their mission. To that end he flew up, up, up and over to where the rented truck was.

Unfortunately the street was swarming with cops and more were turning up, rushing into the hotel! Conway was nowhere to be seen and... CC saw a dark spot on a rooftop and flew down to where DarkRaven was.

The hero was crouched low peering over the low wall of the roof into the street below. He was pretty focused until he glanced around and nearly jumped out his skin at Captain Conduit swooping down!

"You're alright!" he breathed. "Lightning Bullet is still caught up in there! It's like a war zone in there. Thanks again for the save. Bullets have a hard time against my skin... for a while. After that?" he shook his head.

"Conway had to go into the building. Looked like orders. The Rental van is down there and..."

Just then Captain Conduit looked across the gap between buildings and saw curtains pulled aside with no one seemingly opening them. Then he sees a masked face at the window!

LIGHTNING BULLET

Moving to the window LB has to hover to see through it and pulls the curtains aside. The street below was crawling with cops rushing into the building and cordoning the streets off. The Rental truck was there but no Conway. Well this was going from bad to... then he saw a black suited arm waving from a distant, opposite building. Darkraven. Beside him, Captain Conduit.

OOC The cops in the street are securing the roads and rushing into the building whilst people pour out. You'll stick out like sore thumbs in your costumes though and with the way the cops are with 'capes' chances are they'll shout a lot and someone will shoot first before waiting for an answer!

ooc: Honestly, I'm absolutely stuck here. I have no idea how to get out of this. If I cannot figure out how to get Captain Conduit and DarkRaven up to this room without being seen, I can't figure any way to get these folks away from the crooks and the cops. Right now, unless I can come up with some other idea, my only seeable option is to leave the women in this room with the only guy who speaks German and go back to the stairway and help the cops take down the crooks coming down the stairs.
How about some kind of Int roll to see if I can figure out something else?

"No one would have shot at you if you took the fire escape out the window. Why did you decide to run through the room full of those animals instead of moving in the opposite direction of them?" Captain Conduit says to NightRaven. "Anyway, it looks like shorty is trapped, but he can probably slip out through a vent or something. Is the family in the van and ready to go? There is some super-fast Russian trying to make a phone call. We gotta go, go, go! Can you teleport us to the van?"

"Listen Randy, I need to see what I can do to help those cops being fired upon by the crooks plus all those innocent folks who went down the stairs might be in the line of fire too. I'm going to ask you to do your duty one last time. Come over to the window. You see that dark van? We need to get these women and children to that van without the cops and the crooks knowing. Got some friends around here that could then drive them to safety," Lightning Bullet says to the ex-GI.

"When things calm down, I would ask you to take these folks out of the hotel and to that van. Make them understand that they need to get inside and wait quietly for my friends to show up and drive them to safety. If they can't or won't do that, let them know that the wife will never see her husband again and the kids will grow up without their dad. That's not a threat. Understand me. I'm trying to get them to safety and rejoin him but if they foul this up, they're the ones who looking at their family being broken up. Nothing I will be able to do about it if that happens."

"I can give you a C-Note for your troubles, if you will help me out. what do you say?"


ooc:
C-Note aka Century Note aka $100. Ton of money for back then. LB can dip into the bathroom, instachange back into his regular ID, pull the money out of his wallet, instachange back into LB and come back out with the normal size bills, probably not an actual C-Note as they would be hard to change back then, so 5 $20 instead.

Median Income of Persons in the United States: 1955
NOVEMBER 1956
REPORT NUMBER P60-23
Income of Persons in the United States: 1955
The average income of men reached a new record level in 1955, according to estimates released today by the Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce. The average (median) income of men was $3,400 in 1955, a gain of about $160 over the previous year. Increased wage rates together with greater regularity of employment in 1955 largely accounted ror this substantial rise.

Among women, the average (median) income in 1955 was $1,100, about the same as it had been in the preceding three years.

If Randy is willing to help out, then LB will head back to the stairway to help protect the cops and the innocent folks who were running down the stairs to get away from the fire they believe is happening above them. If he is not willing, gonna hold and see why.

DARKRAVEN and CAPTAIN CONDUIT

"Well... I uh... yeah. I'm new to this." the dark clad vigilante admitted.

"My c... predecessor was doing ok but I guess he kind of overestimated his powers. I'm not bulletproof but... yeah, ok, I could have done stuff better." he said, somewhat downcast. "Still learning, not sure if I want to do this."

"I don't know where the family is. Maybe Lightning Bullet got them out? We need to find out and help him. That building looks crazy."

The pair looked at the hotel. Smoke poured from the top windows, people boiled out of the bottom as Police tried to go in.

Now a Russian Speedster zooming about and making calls to his buddies?

"That Russian sounds like trouble." rasped DarkRaven. "We need to get this van going with the family before his buddies show up."

"First things first." he said, with a gentle hand on Captain Conduits shoulder. *pop*

The pair appeared on top of the van. The roof bowed in slightly and both crouched down. Thankfully no one was looking up. They hopped down, looked inside.

No Conway.

No Lightning Bullet.

No family.

LIGHTNING BULLET and RANDY the EX GI

OOC Sounds like a strange name for a sidekick.

"Hunnerd bucks?" considers the former soldier. "Money is tight, fer sure. Tell ya what. Get em outta here, hundred. To the van? Anudder hunnerd. I gotta feeling I'm gonna have ta up n move somewhere else fer a while an' could do with the money. If that's good wid you..."

He fished in his pocket, came out with a bunch of keys.

"Du musst mit mir kommen, wenn du leben willst. Keine Fragen, kein Herumspielen. Komm jetzt." he growled at the family.

OOC translation "You need to come with me if you want to live. No questions, no messin around. Come now."

He grabbed his coat, moved to the door and opened it a crack. Wafting smoke away he shook his head. "Dis is nuts. Right, there is a service elevator down the corridor an' it works on separate power to the normal elevators. We'll get out da back an' across the road. Come on." he growls at the family.

With fearful eyes looking at Lightning Bullet the family - even the terrified old woman - start to move to the door.

"Two hundred yeah? I've a feelin' I'm gonna need it." drawled the ex gi with a sigh. "Oh, if this place sets on fire, make sure the, uh, suitcases under my bed don't go up. Liquor ain't great when it burns."

Lightning Bullet suspected the former GI was using the service elevator to come and go freely at the back and help himself to stores meant for the hotel, which he'd then sell on to pay for the rent at this place.

Lightning Bullet moved into the corridor and looked about. Cops below. Animal empowered mobsters above and the two sides closing in with civilians trapped in the middle. Which direction would he go?

OOC The family with Randy leading are heading to the service elevator.

Lightning Bullet will first make sure that the service elevator isn't being used by the crook so the group can get on safely. If the crooks are using the service elevator, then he will have to fight them there. If the cops are using it, he will hide and let Randy deal with getting everyone on it and downstairs.

If it is clear, then he will head back over to the door to the stairway and listen, trying to determine what to do next. Bust in and go up to flash the crooks and hopefully not the cops? Slip in among the cops and go up? Depends on how close each group is to the stairway door by then.

This was why Captain Conduit tried to give Lightning Bullet a walkie talking. So they'd know what was up with each-other.

"Let's try and distract these trigger-happy cops and robbers for LB and the krauts to get over here already. I imagine a flying sphere of darkness aught to be weird enough and we should be safe inside it as long as they don't get real lucky. I'll fly you up overhead and you surround us in a large area of blackness. Don't worry, I can see in the dark...kind of."

If Darkraven agrees with the plan, Fed grabs him and flies up ready to dodge around in the sky under cover of a sphere of darkness emanated by Darkraven.

LIGHTNING BULLET

The service elevator was locked and unused it seems. How Randy got a key, what he used it for... well, that was his business.

Ushering the family into the elevator Randy scowled. "Hey, try not ta set th' whole place on fire, right? I mean, everything I have is tied up in that room I got."

With that he slid the door over and the elevator started to go down.

Lightning Bullet looked up and down the stairwell.

The cops were close now. Real close. He could hear them shouting to residents to leave the building and they were doing a room by room check. In moments they'd be on this floor.

Looking up, Lightning Bullet couldn't easily see through the smoke but when he could he saw ... well, very hairy looking gangsters settling on the stairs and peering through the hand rail gaps for signs of a target. With them and the cops being all twitchy, Lightning Bullet was in serious danger of being caught in the middle, or mistaken for a bad guy by the cops!

He could go out through the window of Randys' apartment, find some place to lie low or try to get involved and help the cops out, though in this city right now? Chances were he'd end up full of holes!

CAPTAIN CONDUIT and DARKRAVEN

With a nod DarkRaven acknowledged Captain Conduits' plan. "Against the night sky chances are no one will see us. Let's get over there and help the little guy out." he said.

The pair flew up...

The sniper was no longer on the rooftop of the hotel. He'd packed up and gone, no doubt hearing the sounds of combat from below. Smoke poured from the top floor and small fires burned. The fire department sirens joined those of the cops now and this was going from tricky to messy!

"Which floor?" asked DarkRaven as he hung from Captain Conduits grip. "If we enter at the wrong one, we may get shot at by gangsters... or trigger happy cops. My ears are still ringing, and my chest is smarting, from the last time!"

"We're not going in. We're just going to make sure Lightning Bullet gets out." Captain Conduit lands them both on the roof. While they are under the cover of darkness, Fred can see the lot from the building to the van. He then shoots lightning at an empty spot in the middle of the lot and waits for the bullets. Maybe his name should have been Lightning Bullet instead.

Anyway, hopefully this distraction is what the little guy needs to get out of this hotel already. And if he was sleeping on the job, the thunder aught to have woken his little ass up.

"Going up the stairway to handle the crooks might be suicide," Lightning Bullet muttered to himself. "So let's try going outside through a window and back up 2 floors and enter a room and then the stairway behind and above them."

actions: Go back to Randy's room, open a window, fly out and up two floors. Enter an empty room, exit it to the hallway and then head for the stairs to try and take the crooks from behind and by surprise. The Flash goes off first to blind them and then see about lightning touch.

Admin wrote:LIGHTNING BULLET

The service elevator was locked and unused it seems. How Randy got a key, what he used it for... well, that was his business.

Ushering the family into the elevator Randy scowled. "Hey, try not ta set th' whole place on fire, right? I mean, everything I have is tied up in that room I got."

With that he slid the door over and the elevator started to go down.

Lightning Bullet looked up and down the stairwell.

The cops were close now. Real close. He could hear them shouting to residents to leave the building and they were doing a room by room check. In moments they'd be on this floor.

Looking up, Lightning Bullet couldn't easily see through the smoke but when he could he saw ... well, very hairy looking gangsters settling on the stairs and peering through the hand rail gaps for signs of a target. With them and the cops being all twitchy, Lightning Bullet was in serious danger of being caught in the middle, or mistaken for a bad guy by the cops!

He could go out through the window of Randys' apartment, find some place to lie low or try to get involved and help the cops out, though in this city right now? Chances were he'd end up full of holes!

LIGHTNING BULLET and CAPTAIN CONDUIT and DARKRAVEN

Lightning Bullet climbed out the window of Randys' room and was about to fly up another couple of floors...

Then he saw a flash of light and a CRACK rang out as a lightning bolt struck a point in the car park of the hotel! He looked down at the site - as did dozens of cops still waiting to get into the hotel - then around. Dark streets, hotel residents gathering in them, being ushered away, bystanders turning up to have a look, a radio reporter on the scene, reeling off all that had happened...

Where was the van?

The van stood out because there was an area of intense darkness on top of it. MUST be DarkRaven and probably Captain Conduit! With those two they'd have a better chance of taking on the mobsters or maybe just get the heck out of there with the family. The longer this dragged on, the greater the chance of this whole building coming down around their ears and killing everyone trapped in it!

Lightning Bullet flew down to the parked van to see if the others were there. He also kept an eye out for Randy and the German family though he figured he got to the ground floor faster than they did.

OOC: I thought I was landing on the abandoned roof of the hotel, but this works. This post is assuming that Captain Conduit sees LB bulleting toward him.

"There he is! I've never been so relieved to see the little squirt. Hey, LB where's the 'Lederhosen' family? If we need to drive to them, I have an idea. Mr. Darkraven can keep this van masked in a cloud of darkness as I drive us over to pick up the Germs. Then we get the heck out of here!"

"I ran into an former GI named Randy who spoke German," Lightning Bullet explains, "he was willing to help out and translated for me. He is bringing the family down the service elevator. I pointed out the van from his room, so he will be heading here with the family shortly. Less noticeable than me trying to lead them out."

"Look, there are a lot of crooks up there and they are heading down the stairs that the cops are coming up. Big problem is that the crooks have Tommy Guns and innocent folks are on those stairs too. And the cops are trigger happy and may shoot at us too. But ... I can't let the cops and those innocent people get hurt because of what we have done. So I plan to go back in and try to level the playing field."

"DarkRaven can get Randy and the Nazi family out of here as planned once they get out here. I'm going to fly back in there, get a floor above the leading crooks and try blinding as many as I can, then stunning them with my lightning touch. Would you be willing to help out, Captain Conduit? Fly up to the floor below where we were and blast the crooks from the rear? Put them in a pincer move?"

"No more splitting up, buddy. Even if Darkraven can handle those krauts on his own, where is he taking them? Only you know where your secret base is. And that's where we have their patriarch, if he hasn't escaped or been broken out yet."

Captain Conduit then swings into the van's driver's seat. "I'll take this thing to the exit. Cover us with darkness and light, so nothing takes out a tire, a cape or a German hostage."

Fred then starts the van to get the family and this Randy person.

Lightning Bullet, Captain Conduit and Darkraven

DarkRaven concentrated, the lines of his full face mask altering with the furrowed brow underneath.

The darkness flows from his hands and seems to stick to the van, changing the colour to a jet black! Up close the van would be visible but at night with the street lights out it would be nigh on impossible to pick out from more than twenty feet or so.

Darkraven rasped "So, plan is to drive round to the back of the hotel and pick up Lightning Bullets' new friend?" He crunched it into gear and drove forwards, looking out the window and u turning the van to head around and back to the hotel rear entrance.

There were cops guiding hotel residents out and keeping sightseers away. A radio reporter described the dramatic events as gunfire rang out on the upper floors of the hotel, audible where the windows had been shattered and causing people to cry out and hurry away.

Lightning Bullet watched those coming from the hotel rear entrance and... there! There, sure enough, Randy and the German family.

Now all that mattered was to get Randy + germans on board!

More gunfire rang out - automatic and single shot as the police fired back! Much screaming and people rushing about as they ran from the hotel and sought cover!

OOC The van has to park a little down the street so someone will have to guide Randy + family to it (otherwise it will be unseen because of the darkness thing!)