The Ultrahumans! Issue #4 starring Miss Victory and Lionheart "The long road back"

"Empty. They are gone." said the most powerful superhero on Earth, Silver Sentinel.

Thunder Woman, co leader of the Ultrahumans, the most powerful superhero team on Earth crouched, pulling a finger through a stain on the floor. She pulled a face and took a sniff. "Not quite empty."

Eyes looked up to where a robotic team was administering aid to the President of the United States of America. She'd been affected by brief exposure to vacuum when a hole had blown through the side of the Ultrahumans satellite base which had been overrun by villains escaped from the Ultramax security prison in the desert.

They'd known that Atomic Champion had failed, Silver Sentinel had returned and gathered a powerful force of heroes to storm the Satellite and left, though not without a final statement which might have said "You win this round, and here's your President back. What's left of her. This isn't over though. Not by a long shot."

"Will she survive?" asked Poseidonis, powerful water based hero who wore a kind of space suit that was filled with water to provide him strength and prevent from suffering in an 'air breather environment'.

Mentat held a hand towards the prone President. "Lack of Oxygen is the problem. We have processes that can help with the healing she will need to recover from hard vacuum. Brain damage is something we cannot overcome. At the moment she is in a controlled coma. What happens when she comes out of that..." he turned to the rest of the Ultrahumans in the trashed living area on this level of the satellite. ALL of the levels were trashed. What the villains couldn't steal they broke. What they couldn't break they destroyed around it. Such a tactic led to a pipe rupturing which blew a hole in the space base and caused the vacuum exposure. What automated systems were still up and running sealed the breach and the villains departed - probably by teleporting - but left their captive behind.

There were geniuses amongst the villains, some of the smartest people anywhere, not just on the planet below. They'd known what they were doing.

Thunder Woman turned to address the team. "Silver Sentinel still needs to recover fully. Our job is clear. We need to restore order and faith in our ability to protect the Country and the World. We need to rebuild, pitch in, restore the public trust."

"We need a better strategy." said Silver Sentinel. "You diverted many of our 'big hitters' to rescuing me, including yourself." he said to Thunder Woman. "Without our newest recruits..." he turned to look at Lionheart and Thunder Woman "things would be very different now. I might even be dead."

"No one knew that Atomic Champion was a traitor." said a hologram that flickered into life a few feet away. The dark clad form of the heroine 'Cascade' formed up. "He'd been a member in good standing for a long time. That means any of us could be a traitor and we wouldn't know until it was too late."

"That kind of talk sows division." said Thunder Woman. "Stow it. We should..."

"What? Forget it happened, carry on with the 'happy super club' and hope no one else goes 'off piste' again?" spat Cascade, the female heroine turning her black blank featured mask towards her leader. "I might not be up there with you 'gods' in power but I don't need to be able to lift buildings or divert Tsunamis to know that there needs to be checks and balances. Tests. Another breach like this could end the Ultrahumans. How do you think that looks to the rest of us when one of you 'Core' members, who are so far above the rest of us in power and ability decides to become a villain? Atomic Champion may have failed, but it will be a long time before the Ultras recover from this."

"Cascade! Enough of that! I won't..."

Thunder Woman trailed off as Cascade vanished in the middle of Thunder Womans' statement.

With a sigh she shook her head. Poseidonis offered "Maybe her transmission was cut off. Things have been flaky..." though he didn't sound convincing.

Silver Sentinel, still holding the wound in his side, stood from where he sat and walked over to Miss Victory and Lionheart. "You've done me and the Ultrahumans a great service. Not only that, the USA and the World, because if we fall, the villains have little in their way of opposition. I'm not just counting we of the 'Core' group, the leaders as such, but I mean the Ultrahuman regional teams all over the USA and those around the world. We know ADVENT is posing as a friend to downtrodden Governments and we know they have been messing with the timeline. We have people on that and there are independents dealing with that. Some of our Magical experts have been investigating something new, something big. Thunder Woman says we've lost contact with them..."

"Some of them do vanish for weeks at a time, it's not unusual." said Mentat.

"Be that as it may our friends and allies in the UK are having some problems too. The UKChampions suffered a breach in security with one of their own, Stonelord. They reached out to another group I've heard good things about, the Vanguard." Silver Sentinel said, with a glance at Lionheart. "Friends of yours I believe? I think they will turn things around but if need be we may be able to send help. First..."

"First we get our own house in order." said Thunder Woman, completing her lovers sentence. "Everyone in this room and the other Core members will get a region to administer. You will be required to train, pitch in, set up and rebuild. Being one of the 'Core' doesn't mean sitting about whilst waiting for a world shaking disaster only we can sort out." she looked at everyone. "The people who look to us for leadership and guidance - the rank and file Ultrahumans of all power levels - have seen one of our own turn rogue. Many will be considering going their own way or quitting entirely. The country needs them, the World needs them. We are at our most vulnerable now and more than ever we need to be an example." She turned to Lionheart and Miss Victory. "I know you may feel either new to all this or at least this environment. We know so little about you, and you us, and this will feel like plunging into the deep end again, but you've proven you can step up."

"And then some!" said Poseidonis, banging on a table in salute. The table buckled and the hero sheepishly tried to straighten the thick metal.

Thunder Woman looked back to Lionheart and Miss Victory. "We need to get things back up and running, be vigilant, be ready. The Villains are out there. The Ultramax is being strengthened and those in it have been segregated into power levels."

"We may need to find another place to imprison them. Supermans' Phantom Zone for instance..." offered Mentat.

"Which is an extradimensional gulag." replied Silver Sentinel. "In the absence of anything else, trying to rehabilitate them is our best option."

Poseidonis rolled his eyes but stayed quiet.

"Are you ready to become leaders in your own right?" Thunder Woman asked Miss V and Lionheart...

Admin wrote:

"Are you ready to become leaders in your own right?" Thunder Woman asked Miss V and Lionheart...

OOC: Great to be jumping on to a new episode here.

Lionheart nodded, the irony that a close member of the inner circle of the Ultrahumans was in fact a traitor and Miss Victory and himself being new kids on the block being entrusted in this way, didn't escape him. But it was an indication of just how bad things where that the usual checks and balances were stood down for such a time as this.

Having no idea what they'd face, but knowing that a great deal of problems threatened the very world let alone the people that were so integral to it.

"I am not sure what we'll face but we would value the chance to work with you to help put what is wrong right. But in the future, when the dust is settled, it is clear that if Atomic Champion could be turned to see no way out save this one, then he lost sight of hope. And was willing in the name of expediency to do terrible things he'd never considered before. Something must have been terribly wrong and I wonder why no one spotted it? Why there wasn't - time to talk, get to hand out share a beer. Somehow Nexus and his crew got under his skin, exploited his doubts and in effect turned him against us. That might be something worth looking at in the future. How does a good guy go bad, and if we're really interested in reforming some of there reprobates, how can we turn some of those on the path they're on from it? We saw that not all those who were in the ultramax prison ought to have been there in the first place. Something to think about for later."

His points made, especially for the poor souls who lost their lives whilst helping him and Miss Victory try to stop Nexus and his cohorts break out, was still a big issue for Lionheart. If this was going to be different going forward there was no point ignoring the glaringly obvious problems of the past.

Sj

Sj

"Don't forget," Miss Victory puts in, "we do not rule this world. We are its symbols of Freedom, Justice and Liberty! We work with the system, not rule it or overrule it. We do not decide where the criminals go, the Governments do. We can just offer suggestions and support. And I met too many now dead people at the Ultra Max Prison who shouldn't have been there. They might still be alive and upright citizens if they had had proper legal and emotional support".

"Perhaps the connected amongst us could reach out to various law groups, individual lawyers and legal support groups and help back them to get people placed in proper prisons based on the actual crimes, not fear of their powers. I met young person whose powers manifested all of a sudden, without warning, and while trying to control them and find help, they killed folks inadvertently because their powers were out of control. That wasn't premeditated murder, most likely could have been called involuntary manslaughter and they could have been put in a lesser facility where they could have gotten help to control their powers. Instead, they were dropped in Ultra Max with the hard core villains and died there. And that wasn't the only one."

"Things need to be fixed, but we aren't the ones who decide that. We just encourage folks to help the governments to fix all these problems. We can offer solutions, a helping hand, but must always remember, it is a Helping Hand, not a directive from above."

She looks around to see if her words got through. She knows she isn't the brilliant speaker Lionheart is but it was from her heart.

"I am quite willing to go and help with rescuing trapped citizens, provide medical aid and removing rubble so reconstruction can begin. To be a visible force to remind criminals that looting and pillaging is NOT acceptable and that they will face Justice if they try."

"But we must also try to convince the people and the Governments that we have been invaded and the aliens were behind helping the villains to run wild. The Advent must be seen as an enemy and they must be fought. The US must understand this or our world may be lost. But we cannot go and invade other countries if the US won't declare war on the Advent. We can only protect what we can and hope and sound the alarm that our Freedom is soon to be lost if we, the World, do not do something."

Thunder Woman and Silver Sentinel listened to their newest 'Core' members.

Heroes in their own right they had earned the right to represent the best of the best, the Ultrahumans. indeed their efforts had stopped Atomic Champion, saved Silver Sentinel and pretty much saved the country and to an extent the world.

"There is much to think about." said Silver Sentinel. "For all our power we are ordinary humans..."

Poseidonis, an Alien, coughed.

Silver Sentinel smiled and offered a hand in apology before continuing "Ordinary beings elevated to a task and purpose that would have us seen as Gods by ordinary people. We are not gods, not even close. We make mistakes. Atomic Champion has 'fallen' and we must look at the reasons why. Can he atone, turn back to the light? Possibly, hopefully. Maybe."

"He must pay for what he's done." stated Thunder Woman, arms crossed.

"And he will." said Silver Sentinel. "Our friends here have suggested the path we need to take and that is what we will do. Nexus and his allies are still out there, though they are too smart to remain in the same place and too divided to accept leadership for long. With the thwarting of the plan and the Ultrahumans restoring control - we hope - they will go to ground, lie low and plan."

"Not all of them will plan." said Mentat. "Many have no patience. They will rise to take advantage of the chaos, to sew destruction and dissension where they can and..."

"And we will be there." said Silver Sentinel. "One of us, all of us, no matter. Together we can stop any threat to our world! Advent have ... wormed their way into the hearts and minds of many of the countries of this world and we must investigate, shine a light and reveal their true intentions." he looked at Miss Victory with those chrome silver eyes. "I think you are right. They ARE the enemy. Smiling on one hand whilst committing who knows what atrocities behind closed doors, in hidden bunkers. There is something else."

Eyes turned to the Ultrahuman leader. "The Aliens have been tampering with time. I have felt it but they have found some way to shield or hide most of their attempts. At any point they may find some way to ... erase... any of us. Imagine the accident that gave you your powers never occurring. Simply assassinating us as children is an option but we know from past adventures that doesn't always work. The accident may affect someone else. In another timeline our genders were reversed, if you recall?"

Thunder Woman smiled, shaking her head. "Indeed. Odd to meet yourself as a man. Or you, Sentinel, as a woman."

"What now then?" asked Mentat.

"Return to Earth. Rest, recover, then go to work." said Silver Sentinel.

OOC in effect 'take the rest of the day off'. What do Superheroes do in their spare time/civilian lives? Miss V has a husband to reconnect with, Lionheart has... friends? After that, you will plunge head first into restoring law and order in America... which has come under ADVENTs spotlight!

"Yes, there is a lot of damage that we can help clear and people trapped that need rescue," Miss Victory puts in. "Maybe we can rest after a couple of days. But now ... saving more lives is what we need to do. We need to be out there, visible, to bring hope to people."

DavidMcMahon wrote:"Yes, there is a lot of damage that we can help clear and people trapped that need rescue," Miss Victory puts in.  "Maybe we can rest after a couple of days.  But now ... saving more lives is what we need to do.  We need to be out there, visible, to bring hope to people."

OOC: Since Lionheart doesn't yet have much in the way of friends here yet and taking time out to try and relax whilst many brave men and women are trying to put life back together for so many people, seems a bit unheroic, so Lionheart will join Miss V in helping restore, rescue and try to redeem the Ultrahuman's name among the good folk of America.

Sj

I'm kind of flashing on the Man of Steel movie where Superman kisses Lois whiles amongst the destruction of Metropolis. Also flashing to 9/11 added to that and how many people died while he was kissing her as they were crushed by the collapsing buildings. So yeah, save folks NOW then go get a bath and a nice time with hubby later.

Steeple_jackuk wrote:

DavidMcMahon wrote:"Yes, there is a lot of damage that we can help clear and people trapped that need rescue," Miss Victory puts in.  "Maybe we can rest after a couple of days.  But now ... saving more lives is what we need to do.  We need to be out there, visible, to bring hope to people."

OOC: Since Lionheart doesn't yet have much in the way of friends here yet and taking time out to try and relax whilst many brave men and women are trying to put life back together for so many people, seems a bit unheroic, so Lionheart will join Miss V in helping restore, rescue and try to redeem the Ultrahuman's name among the good folk of America.

Sj

"I agree." said Silver Sentinel. "Rest later."

"But..." said Thunder Woman "Let US do the heavy lifting! You... you three have been going non stop since..."

Silver Sentinel raised a hand to quieten his partner and co leader. "I appreciate your concern but unless we all, as Miss Victory says, make ourselves visible and let the people of not just America but the world know that we are back and no one - not even an army of the most powerful villains on Earth, can stop us from doing what's right!"

And that... was that!

=========

"Reporting live from the scene where the dam has been threatening to burst and urgent evacuation is still underway. Only moments ago the Ultrahumans - or some of them at least - showed up and started making urgent repairs. The sheer weight of the water and the concrete structure is beyond calculation and yet against all odds it is being held up whilst repairs are being made. This.... this is incredible! In all my years of reporting I've never witnessed such..."

=========

"...and the Fire Chief explained how her crew had to pull back from the heat, such was its ferocity..."

The scene switched to a soot faced woman who looked exhausted but defiant. "I was thinking 'we need a miracle'. The pipeline was in serious danger of going up and taking the refinery with it. If that had happened... anyway, someone shouted and pointed, and we looked up. My father, bless his soul, told tales of the Justice League of America back in his day. Well, we have the Ultrahumans and they waded in, quelling the flames and shutting off that valve. If they hadn't... well... all I can say is God Bless the Ultras and God Bless Americ..."

=========

"....where the San Andreas fault has been detected to give of quakes on the richter scale of... wait! Look! Up in the sky! It's the ULTRAHUMANS!"

=========

"I couldn't believe it. We were dead fer sure. I mean, my whole life, ya know what they say? Flashin' in front o my eyes? No way was we gettin' off that train. There was a crash, so loud... then darkness, dust, screaming... it went onto its side and my stomach... oh man... the train started to fall from the Viaduct I guess and people were thrown about then... it just stopped fallin' so fast, and then stopped in th' air. I knew it was in th' air cause the trees wasn't that far below. Then the train started to go back up again and someone was pointin' out th' window an' sayin' it was th' Ultras... an I don't mind sayin' I cried. I cried, cause I get ta go home an' see my family again..."

=========

"...where a Tornado was 'out spun' according to eye witnesses. A colourful figure was seen in the middle spinning the opposite way and apparently dispersed the fearsome twister to the amazement of..."

=========

Miss Victory slowed.

Grimacing at her feet where the soles of her boots had worn so thin... Her husband would have to come up with something even more of a 'miracle material'. He's be vexed as usual then throw himself into it and she wouldn't see him for days before he'd stumble from his lab and declare a vial of goop to be 'the answer!'

The forest fire was contained in this part of the woods. Wiping her mouth she looked about. Holiday homes emptied of people, fire break formed by felling trees in its path...

She thought to check her phone but there was no signal. With a sigh she turned and figured where the next blaze was breaking out.

Then she saw it, in the distance. A glowing dot in the sky, zipping about, hovering, too random to be natural... and flames shot down from it in a funnel to engulf the trees!

OOC Miss Victory is in a national park where some miscreant is starting fires. Why, she doesn't know, but the Ultrahumans have dashed here there and everywhere to help out. They appear to be in several places at once in some cases!

=========

Lionheart grunted.

It was pitch black underground here and he was relying from the light on his smartphone hooked onto his belt of all things. He hoped the incredible heat wouldn't cause it to go on the fritz otherwise he'd be in total darkness. Despite his myriad powers he had nothing to help him see!

Mount Rainer in Washington State hadn't been said to be active.

Someone should have told the volcano that.

Problem was, this was the THIRD such Volcano that was said to be 'suddenly active'.

Having flown to the scene where smoke and ash were pumping out then plunging into the rock base, digging by spinning like a top at super speed the hero had hoped to find the vein of lava under intense pressure and somehow cap it off.

Unfortunately capping one off had set half a dozen smaller and more violent veins to force their way up to smash through the magma and erupt!

OOC Lionheart needs to figure out - somehow - how to stop a volcano erupting! Also why are so many 'going off' right now???

Not sure if it was a manned vehicle or not, Miss Victory took a leap towards the craft. If she was lucky, she would land on it. If not, she would at least get close enough to get an idea if it was manned or not and then she could decide if she wanted to use her kinetic mind bolt on it.



=========

Miss Victory slowed.

Grimacing at her feet where the soles of her boots had worn so thin... Her husband would have to come up with something even more of a 'miracle material'. He's be vexed as usual then throw himself into it and she wouldn't see him for days before he'd stumble from his lab and declare a vial of goop to be 'the answer!'

The forest fire was contained in this part of the woods. Wiping her mouth she looked about. Holiday homes emptied of people, fire break formed by felling trees in its path...

She thought to check her phone but there was no signal. With a sigh she turned and figured where the next blaze was breaking out.

Then she saw it, in the distance. A glowing dot in the sky, zipping about, hovering, too random to be natural... and flames shot down from it in a funnel to engulf the trees!

OOC Miss Victory is in a national park where some miscreant is starting fires. Why, she doesn't know, but the Ultrahumans have dashed here there and everywhere to help out. They appear to be in several places at once in some cases!

Admin wrote:

Lionheart grunted.

OOC Lionheart needs to figure out - somehow - how to stop a volcano erupting! Also why are so many 'going off' right now???

OOC: Since I have such a high IQ I can assume Lionheart is far more able than I to figure out how to tap the flow in such a way that releases the pressure so that the whole thing doesn't go off. Whether that is digging down so that it flows out rather than up, or whether its going super fast as to 'freeze' the crust such as to force it deeper underground. All the while I am looking for signs of those who are clearly tampering with the volcano and artificially creating this pressure build up. That being the case there must be some evidence and to that end I will have my super senses turned up to 10 to try and focus in on what might be happening. I will also seek to go from down on the ground to high up so that between the near and far I can get some idea of what might be going on from micro and macro perspectives. I will also use my Detective skills to see if I can't elicit some evidence to point me in the right direction re what is going on here. And finally at some point I need some dark vision or ultra vision or something ;-)

Lionheart was an geological expert but with his unusually super sensitive senses, his mind skills and intelligence he figured he'd be able to figure out what was going on if not stop the worst of it happening before it got out of hand. At least that is what he told himself, but he would have to see, its not like he had experience taming a volcano before.

SJ

Miss Victory took a speedy running jump and leapt at the glowing dot in the sky...

Getting closer, she zoomed in with her super vision... and saw it wasn't a craft at all, it was something... someone else!



The heat coming off this guy was staggering! It felt like a wave hundreds of yards out in every direction and small random fires would flare up in the sky as the heat got too much.

Hotter than any desert, hotter than a furnace. As hot as the sun? It was bright as well. Perhaps too bright to look at directly...

Miss Victory angled her body in mid air to adjust her leap. Whilst she had to 'aim' when setting off on a leap she had enough skill, practice and raw agility to tumble in the air and adjust her flight to land in a different place.

Where she landed was the middle of a forest fire! It was an inferno, the trees torched and blasted and the ground covered in ash. The heat! Shielding her eyes from the intense glare she glanced down at her feet again and saw smoke rising from the soles of her boots. They were burning whilst she was stood on the ground! With fire and smoke all about she knew this guy would need taking down... and fast!

Then she heard it.

"Help!" it went, a distant cry fighting with the roar of too many fires to count! "Somebody! Please!"

The bright flare in the sky started to fly off at speed, but swooped low and where he (?) did trees caught fire just from being in that blazing hot corona!

OOC Lionheart is indeed super smart, able to boost that genius intelligence to off any scale levels too!

It should be cheap enough to add Ultra Vision (see in very low light like a dog, owl and so on) or Thermal Vision (see infra red heat sources though not great when 'whited out' from fires and the like). Another option would be a form of sonar. The rationale could be he uses his telekinesis to send out a 'pulse' to get a mental image of everything around him when it rebounds. I'll check but I should think you have enough points to buy the base cost of the power and add it to your power reserve so you can use points from that... but... senses are super cheap anyway (powers and skills have a 'Factor Cost' with the senses coming in usually at 1 or 2. Powers that allow you to manipulate time or sorcery or the like which allows you to do anything come in at 10, for example. The higher the Factor cost, the more you pay in Hero Points for the power, plus the 'Base Cost' for effectively buying the power at Zero. Senses have a low base cost too).

I'll take a look and when the situation calls for it hopefully you'll have a power you can use...

Boosting Intelligence from 10 to 20 (10 pts) and Will from 7 to 12 (5 pts).

GO FOR BROKE +4/-6 Int 20 + 2d12+0 9,7+0 = 16 (36) vs
OV12 + 4 GFB + 2d12+0 12,3+0 = 15 (31)
+3 EV (from 12 to 15) vs RV12 - 6 GFB (RV6)=9 RAPs

Whilst Lionheart is smart enough to figure out pretty much anything he isn't trained in most sciences. I guess the future cops figured that science is best left to Scientists even though the PSI Corps were a form of 'Science Police' (and bully boy fascist law enforcers a' la Judge Dredd, certainly for the PSI Corps of Saladins' type who were paramilitary really).

That said 9 RAPs gives you the following information...

1) These are not natural occurrences.
2-3) Something is increasing the pressure somewhere to cause all of these unconnected lava tubes under the ground to push through the hard crust and join onto other flows. They in turn build up the pressure and the effect builds massively to push dormant volcanoes without the pressure required to become active to become active, if that makes sense. Think of it as ... a 'nudge'...
4-6) You need to be looking deep, deep underground. Lionheart is pretty much impervious to heat. The sun might be an issue and the Earths core is said to be around 6000 degrees centigrade. In game terms some enterprising sort has figure its a bit hotter than that and the Earths core is 9APs heat. The suns core for comparison is 17APs.
Neither is a problem for Lionheart. He literally won't even break out into a sweat thanks to his forcefield... Who or whatever is causing this build up of pressure won't be bothered by this either you expect.
7+) This is a superhuman or entity driven phenomena. Though machines to do this kind of thing can be invented with super science it would be absolutely massive, have the ability to drive itself to the Earths core and seal the hole behind itself then have to deal with not only heat but the staggering pressure of 3.6 million atmospheres. That sounds like a lot and would crush anything man made. Can't find a table or estimate but Lionheart is so smart (honestly 20 int would make Lex Luthor at only 14 look like a drooling idiot) he knows what he can withstand and it wouldn't mess his hair up let alone present a danger.

With a mind smarter, faster and more capable than any think tank, any computer or algorithm available without applying super science Lionheart 'ran the numbers' so to speak.

He could follow the trail of any of these lava flows simply by flying down one and following it to its source so long as he was going down. With ultra reflexes and a force field capable of withstanding a nuclear detonation there was no chance of him suffering ill effects.... from natural causes. Whatever had caused this was something more powerful, greater in magnitude than your usual mad scientist with a grudge at the surface world.

He looked about. With his super speed he could be in many places in a short time, rescuing people, diverting the flow of lava to make a trench, flying around at super speed to create a tornado to funnel the noxious gas into the upper atmosphere... Something like this would block out the sun for weeks or longer and prevent flight by airlines, create breathing difficulties and coat entire counties in ash, killing trees, plantlife and poisoning streams ...

Or he could head to the source and try to stop it.

No one said the choices of an Ultrahuman would be easy!

Miss Victory was going to give "Fire Guy" a mental blast to see if she could bring him down and prevent further damage but once she heard that cry for help, she put that idea on the backburner to see if she could so those in trouble. Moving through the burning woods, using Running, she went towards where she was hearing the cries.

ooc: Am I correct that her normal body would make her pretty much immune to forest fires or should I put a few points into Body to do so? I will if I need to.

Admin wrote:Miss Victory took a speedy running jump and leapt at the glowing dot in the sky...

Getting closer, she zoomed in with her super vision... and saw it wasn't a craft at all, it was something... someone else!



The heat coming off this guy was staggering! It felt like a wave hundreds of yards out in every direction and small random fires would flare up in the sky as the heat got too much.

Hotter than any desert, hotter than a furnace. As hot as the sun? It was bright as well. Perhaps too bright to look at directly...

Miss Victory angled her body in mid air to adjust her leap. Whilst she had to 'aim' when setting off on a leap she had enough skill, practice and raw agility to tumble in the air and adjust her flight to land in a different place.

Where she landed was the middle of a forest fire! It was an inferno, the trees torched and blasted and the ground covered in ash. The heat! Shielding her eyes from the intense glare she glanced down at her feet again and saw smoke rising from the soles of her boots. They were burning whilst she was stood on the ground! With fire and smoke all about she knew this guy would need taking down... and fast!

Then she heard it.

"Help!" it went, a distant cry fighting with the roar of too many fires to count! "Somebody! Please!"

The bright flare in the sky started to fly off at speed, but swooped low and where he (?) did trees caught fire just from being in that blazing hot corona!

OOC With 7 Body I'd have thought natural fires aren't much of an issue. Ordinary people have Body 2, Athletes body 3 and 'comic book' people have 4+ According to the game Batman has a Body of 6 making him resistant to small arms fire. Hogwash. Probably as a house rule if I were running street level (no, Bats isn't street level I know) I'd say RV against killing combat is zero unless you have Body 7 or more and in that case your Body -6 is the RV (with zero the minimum). If Batman got shot he'd feel it (though his suit might then add a few AP of protection vs knives and weapons and 3-4AP vs small arms fire). Spiderman gets dropped by a single shot with alarming regularity. Last ditch defence would also be much more expensive. Anyway some enterprising type on the WORG website ([url=Writeups.org]Writeups.org[/url]) came up with this chart. It's in Kelvin with the examples but you can see the equivalent in degrees F and C.



With 7 Body (Skin Armour not applicable vs heat) Miss V could almost survive without injury on the surface of the sun! At 5APs (Fresh Lava) Batmans 6 AP body would allow him to walk over it unharmed. Hmmm.

Miss Victory considered attacking the pyromaniac but the cries for help took precedence...

She spun and ran through the forest, shielding her eyes against the smoke and flames before she realised it wasn't doing much to her but her costume was taking a hit!

Patting out flames where they sprung up on her she kept moving and arrived in a clearing where several holiday type chalets were.

All were on fire!

The cars parked near them were burning out and the chalets themselves spewed flames and smoke! Was she too late?

"Help!" someone cried, more feeble than before...

OOC There are four chalets, hard to tell which one it came from but all are at the stage where the roof is about to cave in!

Having no superbreath to blow the fires out or able to summon ice or rain nor any other means of putting them out since Mental Blast, she figured wouldn't affect flames that much so she would have to rely on luck and her running speed. Quickly gauging which chalets would collapse in which order, she ran from into each one looking for people to rescue, grabbing them if she found them and dropping them outside and running back into each building in order of possible collapse.

SMASH!

With fires burning all around - and having to pat fires out on her uniform - Miss Victory peered through the smoke. "Hello! HELLO?" she called out. The place was full of smoke and furniture had caught fire. She turned to leave but... was that ...?

Coughing? Checking all doors she came to the bathroom... where a family of four were shivering in the shower, huddled and drenched! The smoke was dampened here but with the power cut it was freezing cold. Better that than toasted! The frosted glass of the bathroom window had cracked with smoke pouring in from the flames outside.

Miss Victory could hear cracking. The heat! It was so intense! Only her superhuman durability allowed her to operate otherwise she'd have keeled over! These poor people!

Taking a step back she kicked through the wall of the bathroom sending splintered logs shattering and outwards! Then she had to lean into the bath and pluck the shivering people one by one to take them out... but to where? All four were unconscious, two adults two children. Smoke inhalation.

She still heard cries from the other chalets! Coughing and pounding with something against wood. Maybe an axe, trying to break through a wall? "Help!" someone gasped, voice hoarse from the heat!

Admin wrote:Or he could head to the source and try to stop it.

No one said the choices of an Ultrahuman would be easy!

OOC: OK I am going to go into the Earth following one of the Lava flows using my danger sense and whatever else I can muster from my resources to detect what might be happening and head in that direction. Playing a character this resilient is something I am not used to, so I tend to be more cautious than perhaps I've a warrant to.

Lionheart ran the figures and knowing his own considerable abilities unlocked since becoming a symbiotic being with his enemy Saladin, he still marveled at the way he could defy all known human parameters. But that didn't mean he was invincible nor that he couldn't get it wrong. Both of which were distinct possibilities if he could first find and stop the source of what was causing these massive eruptions.

Sj

Miss Victory pulled the folks out of the building and then looked around for something to carry them in ... a large sofa, a car, a canoe, anything.

"I'll be right back," she tells the family. "I have to check the other buildings and try to save anyone in there next. Then I will get everyone out of this fire.

She figured if she could find something to carry everyone in, then she could leap and run out of the range of the fire and get them to relative safety while she could then come back to handle the pyromaniac.

Admin wrote:SMASH!

With fires burning all around - and having to pat fires out on her uniform - Miss Victory peered through the smoke. "Hello! HELLO?" she called out. The place was full of smoke and furniture had caught fire. She turned to leave but... was that ...?

Coughing? Checking all doors she came to the bathroom... where a family of four were shivering in the shower, huddled and drenched! The smoke was dampened here but with the power cut it was freezing cold. Better that than toasted! The frosted glass of the bathroom window had cracked with smoke pouring in from the flames outside.

Miss Victory could hear cracking. The heat! It was so intense! Only her superhuman durability allowed her to operate otherwise she'd have keeled over! These poor people!

Taking a step back she kicked through the wall of the bathroom sending splintered logs shattering and outwards! Then she had to lean into the bath and pluck the shivering people one by one to take them out... but to where? All four were unconscious, two adults two children. Smoke inhalation.

She still heard cries from the other chalets! Coughing and pounding with something against wood. Maybe an axe, trying to break through a wall? "Help!" someone gasped, voice hoarse from the heat!

With reflexes fast enough to react, strength 'off the chart' and invulnerability to anything the other side of a forty megaton nuclear weapon, Lionheart was truly 'the Superheroes' superhero'.

At least to a degree. His own doubts, his gaps of knowledge missing about his own limits, held him back. In this case he plunged first a hand into lava - nothing - then the rest of himself as he blasted down, altering his course so as to always be 'flying' against the flow of the lava as it came up!

Despite the incredible pressure of Lava forcing itself up from the bowels of the Earth the hero was undaunted and followed the trail, widening the gap with his sheer power where required and pushing against the torrent of force that pressed against him.

For an age he travelled though at the high speed he could travel at it was only minutes...

Then something changed.

He was in somewhere larger, though still immersed in Lava. With a thought to relieve the pressure he felt about with his hands and encountered solid rock then WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! pounded at the rock...

Something gave somewhere - no surprise given that miles above the ground shook and windows cracked!

Suddenly the lava started to flow in another direction and Lionheart rose...

He looked about, hovering above a sea of Lava in a HUGE cavern! Smoke and blinding heat would have killed an ordinary human but he used the light from the molten rock to light his way. Glancing down he could see white hot lava sliding off his forcefield.

Scanning about he started to fly around, looking for... something. Someone. Anything to suggest why this was happening!

=========

"And so my people, you will RISE! Claim the surface world as your own! Where you stride they will run in fear! Their weapons cannot harm you! Your form is might as rock and too hot to approach! Their skin will melt from their bones and soon you will reign supreme as the Earth is changed from a cess pit of corruption and despair into a new Utopia, free of the greatest plague to ever afflict the planet... MANKIND!" said a voice somewhere in the caverns.

Picking it out with his super hearing Lionheart spun and flew low over the sea of lava. Was it moving or was that just heat causing it to jump and bubble?

It really WAS a sea of Lava - he flew hundreds of yards towards where his incredible hearing had picked up the shouting voice - in English - and had to duck low semi immersed to arrive in another cavern...

This was another 'sea of lava' but of a different kind.

Thousands of humanoid shaped 'Lava Beings' stood listening to what appeared to be a floating 'Living Flame' standing ten feet high and as wide! It hovered in the cavern and words came from it, but there was no visible means of support or how it could exist!

"I say to you now..." said the voice. "Go forth! Follow the streams I push up to the surface! There, wreak havoc on all you see! Render the world a burning wasteland! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

OOC Don't think we've ever done a 'Mole Man' type invasion. Or if we have it's been a while...

Miss Victory struggled to find anything to act as a shield/fire break that wasn't already on fire!

Zipping about with inhuman speed and reflexes she plucked the victims from the houses to place them to a spot where there was no actual fire or at least lesser.

For that she sprinted up to a tree and sank her fingers into it... then hefted!

OOC I figured Miss V is real smart and can improvise thanks to her super abilities...

Str 23 + 2d12+0 11,5+0 = 16 (39) vs
OV12 (body of tree) + 2d12+0 2,4+0 = 6 (18)
+6 (to EV29) vs RV12=17 RAPs. Success.

Rather than toss the tree 17 aps of distance away Miss Victory...

The heroine tore up the enormous tree, ripping it from the ground in an explosion of dirt and shattered roots!

With a glance about whilst casually holding dozens of tons she slammed it down onto another tree... which crashed down!

It created a fire break of sorts and the crater the tree had come from was somewhere to huddle for the victims for the time being, free of fire and large enough to accommodate several families!

Moving back and forth the dynamic heroine ignored flames, kicked log walls down and held the roof up in one case to get people out.

Some were unconscious. There was so much smoke and intense heat that there was as much danger outside of the house as in!

Glancing about, shouting for anyone else, Miss Victory made sure. No one left behind, no one still in immediate danger. Now all she had to do was figure out how to move twenty six people - some unconscious - from the middle of a fire zone before they succumbed to fire and heat!

Admin wrote:"I say to you now..." said the voice. "Go forth! Follow the streams I push up to the surface! There, wreak havoc on all you see! Render the world a burning wasteland! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

OOC Don't think we've ever done a 'Mole Man' type invasion. Or if we have it's been a while...

OOC:The Underminer - or Mole Man, great classic trope from FF - this is cool

Lionheart swept down, unsure of what was going on but having heard enough he didn't wait to find out more. Not wanting to lose the advantage he had from the sinister creature directing the malevolent forces below, Lionheart speed up and made to grab the mad man. Hoping to lift up into the air where he could seek to get him to order back the forces under his control.

OOC: Cue the big monsters a la Godzilla, to arise and try and stop me ;-)

Sj

ooc: Not sure how big around these trees are so here are two ideas of what she will do depending of the girth of the trees.

1.
Miss Victory looks around for the vehicles the folks had driven to their cabins. She was going to mush them together and flatten them to make a wide makeshift blade, like a V-shaped snowplow. With that she could make a temporary break in the fire, smashing trees in a mostly straight line that would allow her to then grab folks and then run them to safety, a few at a time, starting with the unconscious folks. She headed in a direction away from the Pyromaniac.

2.
Miss Victory grabs the biggest and widest tree she can find, snapping off the top branches whether they are on fire or not, and then using her hands, digs out the center of the tree. She creates a makeshift canoe and places everyone in it. Then she leaps away from the Pyromaniac in a direction that she hopes will get them close to safety and medical help. The firefighters and Park Rangers should be set up around various spots of the fire, she figures, and hopes to get the folks to them.

All depends on the trees. If we are in California and the redwood forests, the canoe idea works great. Other places in the US, trees might top 40' and be big enough around to dig out the center. Other types of trees would be too skinny and the plowing idea would be her go to idea then.

Admin wrote:Miss Victory struggled to find anything to act as a shield/fire break that wasn't already on fire!

Zipping about with inhuman speed and reflexes she plucked the victims from the houses to place them to a spot where there was no actual fire or at least lesser.

For that she sprinted up to a tree and sank her fingers into it... then hefted!

OOC I figured Miss V is real smart and can improvise thanks to her super abilities...

Str 23 + 2d12+0 11,5+0 = 16 (39) vs
OV12 (body of tree)  + 2d12+0 2,4+0 = 6 (18)
+6 (to EV29) vs RV12=17 RAPs. Success.

Rather than toss the tree 17 aps of distance away Miss Victory...

The heroine tore up the enormous tree, ripping it from the ground in an explosion of dirt and shattered roots!

With a glance about whilst casually holding dozens of tons she slammed it down onto another tree... which crashed down!

It created a fire break of sorts and the crater the tree had come from was somewhere to huddle for the victims for the time being, free of fire and large enough to accommodate several families!

Moving back and forth the dynamic heroine ignored flames, kicked log walls down and held the roof up in one case to get people out.

Some were unconscious. There was so much smoke and intense heat that there was as much danger outside of the house as in!

Glancing about, shouting for anyone else, Miss Victory made sure. No one left behind, no one still in immediate danger. Now all she had to do was figure out how to move twenty six people - some unconscious - from the middle of a fire zone before they succumbed to fire and heat!

LIONHEART

Swooping through the cavern of smoke, fire and glaring light/heat the superhero saw a veritable sea of humanoid forms rising from the lava! Oh boy, each one stood over ten feet high with a body to match and would undoubtedly cause mayhem individually. Together, they would overwhelm pretty much any army and cause untold chaos along the way!

Still, there was more than one way to battle a snake and the easiest was to chop it off at the head!

Flying over the legion of lava forms the hero sought out... ah. There!

A man in a cheap looking off the peg suit, balding and with thick glasses. As out of place as that seemed it was even more astounding to find him hovering over the sea of lava unaffected by the skin melting heat and with hands calmly behind his back! Indeed he seemed to be standing as if on solid ground though super heated air rose up and around him!

As Lionheart swooped in he figured the fellow to be Caucasian, about forty or so and your typical 'devoid of friends and social life' type though he could apply the same to himself! Since arriving from the future he'd been 100% focused on the Vanguard and now the Ultrahumans, with no time to draw breath or ask if he was Lionheart only, or something, someone more!

The man turned, somewhat surprising given the speed Lionheart could fly at but didn't have time to react as Lionheart swooped in and...

Grabbed air.

Had he missed? He turned... and slammed into the lava rock side of the cavern! It didn't hurt of course - the force field that protected him from heat would effectively leave him unharmed if he fell from space.

He'd not laid a hand on the fellow.

Who was now half a dozen fellows, each looking slightly different and with different stances/expressions!

What on earth? Still, given his own powers and the predicaments he faced, he shouldn't be surprised if someone came along that wasn't your typical stand toe to toe and punch until the other drops type!

"And who might you be?" asked one of the men.

Another piped up. "Does it matter? He's some oafish muscle bound clot ..."

"Determined to make a name for himself..." said another

"And not realising - until its too later..." said another...

"That he has met his better!" laughed all of the men together!

With that a HUGE (bigger than the others) Lava Man rose from the Lava and swiped at Lionheart!

OOC I'll assume points to Dex!

AV15 + M Arts 2D + 4d12+0 5,7,10,11+0 = 21 (36) vs
OV26 + Acrobatics 5D 7d12+0 11,8,8,6,1,4,6+0 = 16 DOUBLE plus 2d12+0 7,9+0 = 32 (58) Missed. A lot.

Lionheart rolled his eyes. How many times had some would be world beater come along, strung a monologue together and made a mess before being beaten up and dumped in the clink? Too many, and along the way they would cause misery and heartache for others!

He didn't even feel the heat as the arm - in slow motion - drifted by where he'd been floating. Droplets of lava span off and he took the time to individually flick them away.

Sizing up the new 'monstrous' Lava man he figured the thing to be half out of the lava and standing around fifty feet high - this thing would be a monster and over 100 feet tall if it was unleashed on the surface world!

With time returning to its normal flow the words of the multiple fellows in the rumpled brown suit became legible as they sped up...

"...and I will show them all... eh?"

"What?" said another.

"Who dares!" said another, with a fist grasped.

"He's fast." admitted one.

"Too fast to see!"

"He can't hurt us though..."

"And we can most certainly hurt him!"

OOC Magic Blast 12 + 2d12+0 4,12+0 = 16 (28) vs
OV9 + Range 2 + 2d12+0 12,2+0 = 14 (25) Success +2
EV12 +2 (EV14) vs RV10=4 RAPs

LIONHEART DROPS TO SPIRIT 6/10

Lionheart cries out in pain as eldritch energy blasts out from one of the 'Plain Men', striking him even as his body sought to move aside... It was as if... his physical body had moved but his spiritual form, his 'soul', his personality, his 'who he was' had been struck by the beam of green energy!

He'd not encountered magic many times but this WAS magic, and powerful, he could tell!

He noticed something though. The huge lava man had been falling away, great gobbets of lava dropping off it momentarily!

"Concentrate fools!" cried one man. He gestured at the Lava monster. It stopped disintegrating but was smaller now, almost as small as the others.

"Yes! We have the power to defeat anyone, even costumed buffoons such as this!"

"One more blast and he will fall!"

"How did he resist that one? It will kill anyone else we blast... perhaps we can't..."

The Lava man started to disintegrate again and the Lava men in the pool slopped back into the orange sea leaving only a few dozen and not the hundreds remaining.

"CONCENTRATE!" barked one of the identical men in brown suits!

OOC Needless to say Lionheart wins initiative... but can he win a fight where he can't lay a hand on a foe and they can blast him??? Warning! Lionhearts danger sense is going crazy here - no rolls needed! Sorcery is at play and its the most powerful, most versatile power in the game! Hmm, maybe apart from Superspeed. That's way OP

Admin wrote:"CONCENTRATE!" barked one of the identical men in brown suits!

OOC Needless to say Lionheart wins initiative... but can he win a fight where he can't lay a hand on a foe and they can blast him??? Warning! Lionhearts danger sense is going crazy here - no rolls needed! Sorcery is at play and its the most powerful, most versatile power in the game! Hmm, maybe apart from Superspeed. That's way OP

Lionheart sought to bring his shattered senses back together as he faced a foe who could make his own defenses seem trivial in comparison. Magic, the bane of his life, thankfully he'd not faced it often, but once was always too much where that was concerned.

But he had a few tricks remaining, using his incredible senses, whilst straining out all the other input he looked for his foe among the vast cavern hidden in plain sight or off to one side perhaps invisible to normal senses but not his own.

OOC: OK going to use whatever seems best to pick up our foe, Analytic smell, Directional hearing, super hearing, empathy and then attempt a full on mind blast with all my points if need be. I can't let this guy get another shot off like that last one or it will be night night for me!

Sj

MISS VICTORY

Ripping another mature tree from the ground, earth and roots exploding and cracking to make a huge noise, the heroine sped down to the top and easily - like sinking fingers into putty - separates the branches from the main trunk with a sweep of her hand!

Running up and down the length of the tree she strips most of it bare then scoops to tear out the heart of the tree. It's big enough that anyone climbing inside can duck down and be protected.

Without superspeed all of this takes minutes but the families are safe in the hole she made for the time being though a few super fast runs in circles to create a kind of mini tornado to direct smoke away are needed. Hopping high on the spot to find an area free of fire Miss Victory also sees something else. A river and it leads to a lake, albeit distant, with a boat park and facilities no doubt.

Finally, filthy, costume torn in many places and burned in others, the heroine requests everyone climb in and hefts the whole lot onto her shoulder. The kids cry out but soon find they enjoy the ride despite the terror and closeness of the fire. "HOLD ON!" she cries and with her genius level intellect and a solid idea of the distance, the angle required and her own abilities Miss Victory leaps...

... and lands knee deep in the shingle of an unoccupied beach, cushioning the tree against impact with knees bent. Climbing out from under the tree the heroine helps people from the hollowed part. Despite being grimy, soot covered and petrified they are grateful and an elderly gentleman thanks Miss Victory "God bless you ma'am. We owe you our lives!" he declares.

It's a short walk of five to ten minutes for the folks along the lakeside to the boating facilities and Miss Victory leaps over with an unconscious woman in her arms, calling out for medical attention.

Finally she steps back as people rush to help and turns back to the fire.

She could go find more people to rescue, help with the fire containment efforts or go after the cause of the fire itself, a rogue metahuman!

OOC With 23 strength, staggering running speed, leaping and practical invulnerability from conventional flames there's no real need to roll dice here I figure.