Luck of Heroes: Twilight

[kkhohoho]

While the big threat was slowly being uncovered, Ed still couldn't neglect his patrol.  However, this particular patrol proved to be rather out of the ordinary.  It was an unusual night. Bob couldn't find a single crime going on, let alone a single person.  There was mist all around, and Bob couldn't help but feel he was being watched.  He looked forward, to the sides, and finally behind, but saw nothing.  As he prepared to speed up and go home, he heard someone say "Hello, Mr.Bob."

Bob turned around and saw a well dressed man with black sunglasses on.  He looked like Mr.Smith from the Matrix, and was smiling a sinister smile. "I've never seen you before." said Bob.

"No, I guess you haven't," replied the man, "but I've seen you.  My name is Norway, and I've been watching you rather successfully despite your...unusual talents."

"Really?" said Bob as though he were speaking a sentence.  "Well, if you've been watching me all this time, you must want something from me."

"Not exactly.  You see, I want you, Mr.Bob."

"Me? What for, exactly?"

"I'd simply like to establish some business between us."

"And what is this 'business'?"

"No need to worry.  Simply agree to help me occasionally, and you will be greatly rewarded.  What do you say?"  His smile never broke though the whole little chat, and it didn't break.

Hmmm...I wonder what exactly he would reward me with.  If it's money, I'd probably pass.  I'm doing okay now, but if I ever get very desperate, Wanton could give me what I need.  Still, this man looks like he'd be part of some organization with not so good intents.  If I did his work, I might be able to learn more.

Bob pointed a finger towards 'Mr.Smith'.  "Look here, Norway.  Listen up. I do one little request of yours.  If I'm fine with the task once I've done it, I'll do another one, and so on and so forth.  But if I do a mission and I don't like it when I'm done, I'm gone.  Keep in mind that I'll only be an acquaintance.  I do the job, and you reward me.  That's how it's gonna' go down, for as long as I do this, if I do this."

Norway's smile finally broke into a frown, but soon curled up into that sinister smile.  "Very well.  Now that we've agreed, let's shake hands, as a way of establishing our agreement."  Bob's hand connected with Norway's.  While the hands were still in place, Norway's smile turned into a frown again, and his tone of voice deepened. "You will find that we take very good care of our friends, but refusing to help us would be very unwise." Bob suddenly felt a quick pain in his hand and pulled it away.  There was a very fine scratch in the palm.  Bob looked up while saying "Hey, what gives-", but the man was gone.  Bob looked at his palm again.  He wondered what Norway meant.

You will find that we take very good care of our friends, but refusing to help us would be very unwise.  Bob was thinking about that particular line on his bed.  He was lying down with his palm raised, looking at the scratch.  What could he have meant? ...I wonder if I should tell the others about this. Bob thought about it for a bit, before coming to a conclusion.  No.  That man be linked to whatever enemy we're facing, and if I told them, there's the possibility that the enemy will find out, and I could no longer investigate that Norway person.  I'll just have to see what's in store for me.  Bob turned off his lamp, and went to sleep, hoping that everything would turn out all right.  But hopes can be sorely misleading.

*RIIIIINNNNG!!! RIIIIINNNNG!!!* The phone then started ringing...

[Lord Elcorion]

A few days after his otherwordly mishap, Danny is at UNLV for an armored combat demo. As he finishes up, he bids his friends goodbye and begins to make his way towards the visitor parking. As he loads his gear into his black van, he notices a pair of scruffy looking guys jumping a female student that he recognizes as a spectator of the demo earlier. Before he can react to move to her assistance, the men drag her into a van and take off.

"Crud.. the cops'll never catch them in time, I better follow them."

Jumping into his van, he cranks the tempermental motor over, relieved that it starts with little fuss, taking off in the direction the other van went. As he weaved through traffic, he noticed that the van ahead of him had a ham radio antenea on top, that stood out much higher than the other vehicles around it.

"Good.. at least I can keep track of that.. idiots didn't think to pull down their equipment."

Useing the anttenea as a reference, Danny tracked the van to an old warehouse in the northern industrial section of town.

"What in the world are they doing here? I better investigate."

Parking the van away from the warehouse, getting out and taking his fighting stick, pulling his dragon mask on as he moves to get a better look at the warehouse, invoking his Ritual of the Third Eye, hopeing to conceal himself from the men as he climbs up to a skylight, looking into the warehouse.

"Oh boy.. this is more serious than I thought.. better call in some help."

As he slipped away from the skylight, he hoped that he and his friends would be able to take out the twenty odd men he had counted in the warehouse, hopeing that there weren't any big surprises waiting inside. He pulled his cellphone, and dialed his four allies up, leaving the same message for each,

"Guys, we got trouble in Vegas.. I'm not sure how, but you need to get here quick. Something big is going down and I need a hand. Try useing the doors in our 'meeting room,' I think you can use my door to get to the theatre here, and I can tell you where to go from there."

In the meantime, Danny will return to the skylight, pushing the mystic sences granted by the Ritual of the Third Eye out into the warehouse, trying to glean information from the surface thoughts of the men below.

[bredon7777]

David woke up, but kept his eyes closed. I'm going to open them on three, and everything is going to be different.  I'll be back in my village with my family, and all this will have been  a very long, very bad dream

He spoke the words out loud, but before he could get to three, he was interrupted by a voice coming from the television in the common room; "That trick never works!"

Overcome by both sadness and laughter, resigned to another day, David opened his eyes and swept the room, and sighed.  Everything's the same .

Then his eyes lit upon the small wrapped package and accompanying green scroll on the nightstand, and the night's memories came crashing back.  The meeting in the room out of space.  His fellow heroes.  The escape from the library.

No. Everything's different.

Nervous with anticipation, and a touch of fear (They got in my room. They got in my ROOM.) he crossed the small room to the nightstand and picked up both package and scroll.

Forcing himself to breathe to calm his fear, if not his trembling fingers, he unwrapped both scroll and package.

The package was wrapped in what appeared to be Dollar Store birthday paper, he noted with amusement; and it contained a small cell phone, nondescript and remarkably utilitarian in it's simpleness.  He noticed, without surprise, that his compatriots phone numbers had already been programmed into it.

The scroll was in the same careful hand as the last one.  It read: 

Dear Immortal:

It has come to my attention that you do not have a private means of communication.  Given the nature of your work with the others, it is inadvisable for them to leave messages for you in a public manner.  Please accept this gift. As cell phones go, I am assured that it is remarkably "weak," which I take to mean that it is a rather basic model. None-the-less it is entirely secure, and well, free.  Feel free to use it for your personal use as well as "business" use.  I do ask for the sake of my checking account that you limit the number of inter-dimensional calls.  The surcharges are quite outrageous.

Sincerely,

A friend

David put the cell phone down, blinking back a few tears that accompanied the sudden rush of gratitude.  He had friends again.  He had a purpose again.  It had been so long since he felt those feelings that he was hardly even aware of how much he had missed them.

Sliding both phone and scroll into a dresser drawer, he went to take a shower.

_____________________________________________________________________________________
Voices in an alley

"Masks on?"

"Check"
"Check".

"Car ready?"

"Check".

"Idling on the corner, license plates switched."

"Weapons ready?"

"Check"

"Check"

"All right.  The bank opens in 5, and we go in in 6, before any customers can come in and get hurt.  In, out, away in under 10 minutes is the goal.  Right?"

"Check"

*gurgling noise*

Loud sigh. "Ok, we go in in 8 minutes, as soon as newbie here gets his nerve back."

*Squelching noise*  "And try not to step in the vomit"

Voices fade.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

David was walking downtown, on his way to his favorite café for breakfast, when he saw the three men with masks and guns come out of an alley, and cross the street to the nearby bank.

"I think those folks may be going to make a withdrawal."  He winced; Note to self- work on appropriate hero banter.

He headed for the alley they came from, and quickly changed into his costume, stashing his satchel  behind a dumpster.

Sprinting back across the street, he caught the door just before it could close behind the three men, catching it in time to hear the last of their commands to the terrified cashiers inside.

"------ and lie down on the floor.  Do what we say and nobody gets hurt."

David slipped in behind the men, and tapped the speaker on the shoulder. "Oh, I'm not sure about that."

When the startled thug turned around, David accompanied his words with a punch that snapped the mans head back, and sent him crashing into a table, causing a shower of blank deposit slips.

Before the other two could react, David had dropped to the floor and swept their legs out from under them, causing their guns to clatter noisily to the ground.

He grabbed them, his hands moving almost of their own volition and metal parts began to quickly rain upon the floor.

He was almost as astonished by his knowledge of  how to disassemble weapons as he was by the deep, almost angry feeling of revulsion that came over him.  Where did I learn to take them apart so fast? And why do I hate them so much?.

He was so engrossed  in wonder that he almost didn't hear the thug behind him.  He sensed, rather than heard, a presence and shifted fractionally to his right, so when the hairy fist whistled by his ear he was in a position to grab it and heave, sending the thug flying through the air onto the bodies of his compatriots.

This seemed to shatter the nerves of the third crook. Bellowing expletives, he got up, turned and ran.

"Go get him, Immortal!"

David spared a shocked look around; the cashiers were pouring out from behind their cages along with a rather elderly security guard with an angry bruise on his forehead..  "We'll take care of these two, youngster. Don't let the third one get away!"

David waved to the crowd and sprinted to the door, exiting in time to see a Chevy Impala pull away from the curb, a familiar masked figure at the wheel.

He leapt to the top of a parked car, and from there directly onto the roof of the getaway car as it drove by.  This further frightened the already alarmed thief, and he began to speed up, swerving and turning in an ultimately futile attempt to dislodge David from the roof.

David gripped with one hand, focused, and plunged the other down through the flimsy material of the car roof.  He repeated this, then shifted his focus and began to slowly, methodically, widen the gap he had created, reducing the driver into near incoherence.

They had traveled quite a ways, into a collection of nearly deserted warehouses that marked the border of the undesirable point of town.  David was still hanging on, reaching through the gap in the car roof to try and disable the third thief, but he was having no success.

The thief clicked his seatbelt on, and muttering "This will shake you off," gunned the accelerator towards the closed double doors of a warehouse.

David grinned and braced for the impact.

____________________________________________________________________________________
Voices in a dark room redux:

"Sir."

"I was told you have something to report."

"Yes sir.  We've been keeping an eye on the Immortal, as you asked, and something strange happened on Sunday."

An impatient noise. "Go on."

"Well, he went into the men's room at the Youngstown Library.  When he hadn't come out after fifteen minutes, our operative went in there, and he was gone."

"So he went out a window."

"No sir, no windows.  But that's not all.  We kept an eye on the building, just in case- and about an hour after closing time he got out through the skylight and left."

"So he disappeared from a room he couldn't have disappeared from only to reappear later?"

"It would seem that way, sir."

This seems to strike the first voice as funny, and he laughs a wheezing laugh that turns in to a harsh, rattling cough.  "Continue surveillance."

"Yes sir."

Deep breath. Raspy chuckle. "It would appear you can teach an old dog new tricks after all."

Voices fade.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

The car plowed through the flimsy wooden door at about 60 miles per hour.  David kept his head down as chunks of wood flew by.  The thief inside the car threw his hands up in front of his face, and David saw his chance.

He shimmied his upper half though the gap he created and yanked the wheel hard, aiming for a large concrete column in the center of the warehouse.,  At the last second before impact, he pushed off the steering wheel hard and back-flipped out of the car, landing behind it as it crumpled around the concrete.

The thief  got his head slammed into the steering wheel fairly hard, even with the seat belt, and sank into unconsciousness with a low moan.

A wail of sirens told David that their little joyride had not gone unnoticed.  Looking around for a vantage point to observe the arrival of the police, David noticed a peculiar mark painted on the wall.

That looks like the mark I was told about.  He didn't have to bend down very far before catching the bright, coppery scent.  And in blood as well.

So I'm in a warehouse in the bad part of town with an unconscious crook; the police are on their way, and there's the mark of an ancient god, painted in blood on the wall.  What else can happen?

Slowly, ominously, his phone began to ring.

[Uncle Yuan]

Bob, you answer the phone to a rather breathless, and whispering, Dracon.

[Lord Elcorion]

"Bob.. I got trouble here in Vegas. I tailed a pair of kidnappers out to a warehouse, and when I peeked in, I saw a straight up freak convention.. I'm not sure what's going on, but it looks bad, and I'm worried about the girl down there.. I count probably 50 men, and they all look pretty mean. I'm worried this might be some sort of ritual waiting to get underway.. get to the meeting room and see if you can use my door, you should end up in the front lobby of a dollar cinema. Once your there, call me back and I'll give you directions to my location. I'm gonna call the others in as well, we're gonna need the whole team for this, I think."

[kkhohoho]

"Bob.. I got trouble here in Vegas. I tailed a pair of kidnappers out to a warehouse, and when I peeked in, I saw a straight up freak convention.. I'm not sure what's going on, but it looks bad, and I'm worried about the girl down there.. I count probably 50 men, and they all look pretty mean. I'm worried this might be some sort of ritual waiting to get underway.. get to the meeting room and see if you can use my door, you should end up in the front lobby of a dollar cinema. Once your there, call me back and I'll give you directions to my location. I'm gonna call the others in as well, we're gonna need the whole team for this, I think."

Bob was asleep when heard a ring. He sprang out of bed, rushed to the phone, and picked it up.  After hearing the message, he replied with "You call the team. I'll be there." He took the phone away from his ear, but then a question came to his mind, so he brought the phone close once more.  "Where's the warehouse in Vegas? Even with my speed and that room, I'll get there faster if I have a good idea of where the place is."

[Lord Elcorion]

*Dracor rattles off some basic directions from the theatre, then puases a moment* let me try something really quick.. *he takes a moment, composeing a new spell, willing energy into it, before reciting a quick chant* Odin, master of mysteries, you who sacrificed an eye for knowledge, grant to me a boon, that i might send a beacon to my ally, that we might defeat this threat to Midgard. By the power of Thor's Hammer, let this be so. *if succesful, this should hopefully give bob the equivlent of an internal compass that points to Dracor*((subject to GM approval of course)) *after that, Dracor will call the Immotrtal, noting with interest that the number in his phone has been changed*

[bredon7777]

David looked at his new phone, seeing 'Dracor calling' on the lit faceplate, snapped it open and held it to his ear.

"Yes?"

He listened intently for a few minutes, and simply replied "On my way."

He took off at a run for where he had stashed his satchel.  Better leave it in the meeting room.  I definitely do not want to leave it on the streets; the gods only know how long I'll be gone.

Satchel slung over his shoulder, he once again entered the mens room in the library.  Turning around, he faced the door out. Meeting room, meeting room, meeting room

As he entered the paneled meeting room, he let out a small sigh of relief. Until now, I was not actually sure that that would work.

Dropping his satchel in a corner, he faced Dracor's door. Vegas dollar theater, he thought and pushed through; stopping dead in his tracks at the scene that met his eyes.

[kkhohoho]

David looked at his new phone, seeing 'Dracor calling' on the lit faceplate, snapped it open and held it to his ear.

"Yes?"

He listened intently for a few minutes, and simply replied "On my way."

He took of at a run for where he had stashed his satchel.  Better leave it in the meeting room.  I definitely do not want to leave it on the streets; the gods only know how long I'll be gone.

Satchel slung over his shoulder, he once again entered the mens room in the library.  Turning around, he faced the door out. Meeting room, meeting room, meeting room

As he entered the paneled meeting room, he let out a small sigh of relief. Until now, I was not actually sure that that would work.

Dropping his satchel in a corner, he faced Dracor's door. Vegas dollar theater, he thought and pushed through; stopping dead in his tracks at what met his eyes.

As Bob arrived at Dracon's door, he noticed The Immortal going through it. At least I won't be alone. He exited the door, but nothing had prepared him for what he then saw.

[Uncle Yuan]

You both walk through a door and onto a steep staircase carpeted with worn red carpet.  Hovering in the air in front of you is a gigantic, glowing hammer, easily six feet long, although the handle looks oddly short.  As the Immortal steps through the double doors the hammer begins to move down the winding stair, quickly gathering up speed.  It disappears around the corner and you hear a tremendous >CRUNCH<, followed by a yell, a definitely shattering-plate-glass short of crash and a sudden raise in the volume of street noise you can hear inside the theater.  As the hammer streaks away it leaves a stretched out image of itself.  You both tear down the stairs, the image collapsing upon itself in front of you.  You pass through the remains of another set of double doors to the lobby where you see a stunned Chinese man getting shakily to his feet and rather cartoonish hammer-shaped hole through the box office window.  Down the street beyond you see a number of overturned cars, stunned looking pedestrians and the impromptu fountain of a decapitated fire hydrant.  Passing through this swath of destruction is the glowing trail of the hammer.

[bredon7777]

David sweeps his eyes from left to right over the cartoonish carnage at the movie theater.  Repressing a smile at the hammer shaped hole in the doorway, he turns and notices Bob for the first time, having much the same reaction.

"Dracor mentioned a guide.  Though I do not believe that this is what he meant to happen, perhaps we should follow the trail of destruction."

[Uncle Yuan]

Dracon casts his spell of guidance, little realizing how it will actually take effect.  He then turns to making his third and final call . . .

Dracon waits somewhat nervously while David's phone rings six, seven, eight times.  Apparently he does not have voice mail.  Finally he picks up.

"Yo, Dracon.  What's up?"

He listens to your situation, the replies, "Well, I'm not able to make it right now, but I'll give you some free advice.  Three things.  First, before you go in, know what you want to accomplish, have a plan.  Are you going in to arrest all the bad guys?  Rescue the girl?  Disrupt some world-ending magic ceremony?   Make sure everyone has a job and they know what it is, and stick to the plan.

"Two,  have a fall back point.  If things go pear-shaped or you get separated, you'll need a place to regroup, check and make sure each other is OK and figure out what to do next.

"Three, communicate.  You don't have time to set up complicated field signals right now, but talk it out.  'I got that guy' or 'he's getting away.'  And yes, they'll be able to understand you, but bad communication gets more guys in trouble than broadcasting your plans by a second or two.

"I'm sure you'll be fine.  Give me a buzz when you're finished and we'll meet in the conference room and talk things over."

As he hangs up you become aware of a large commotion - looking across the rooftops you see a intermittant glowing light that seems to be traveling in your direction.  You can't really see the street, but you can see several plumes of smoke, a spewing hydrant and a couple of speeding cops cars converging on the scene.  Within seconds you can make out the shape of a gigantic hammer plowing through Las Vegas, heading towards you.  It seems to be keeping to the streets, but as it enters the block your warehouse is on it takes to the air, making a straight line to you.  You step back from the edge of the roof just as the hammer clips the edge, sending timber and sheet metal flying.

The hammer stops about arm's length from you, hovering in the air.  In the sudden quiet you can hear a soft hum coming from the hammer, sirens in the distance, and starteled exclaimations from the warehouse below.

[Lord Elcorion]

dracor listens to david's advice, taking it to heart. "thanks, i'll try to keep that all in mind." as the conversation ends, he glances up at the commotion, noting the glow and the apparent destruction and cops "what the.." and then the hammer is there.. a hammer that bears a suspicious resemblance to his Thor's Hammer pendant. it takes a moment for him to process the information, before it clicks. "oh hell.. this is my beacon.." looking back at the trail of damage and the cops that are converging. "i'm gonna be in some deep trouble i think."

[kkhohoho]

David sweeps his eyes from left to right over the cartoonish carnage at the movie theater.  Repressing a smile at the hammer shaped hole in the doorway, he turns and notices Bob for the first time, having much the same reaction.

"Dracor mentioned a guide.  Though I do not believe that this is what he meant to happen, perhaps we should follow the trail of destruction."

"Yes, let's." replied Bob with a smile, and they headed off.

[kkhohoho]

As Bob and Immortal followed the newly made path, the hammer continued it's destructive campaign through Las Vegas.  It made little right angle turns often, and while it avoided buildings, it smashed through every car, lamppost, stop sign, and any other object that got in it's way.  Needless to say, the natives were restless, and they were either:

a)panicking and running around the city,
b)claiming the world was at it's end, or...
c)reporting the news to just about any paper and news company they could find.

That's not to say all buildings were safe.  Eventually, our not-so-dynamic duo saw the hammer arriving at a Casino, which was built across an intersection.  Oh, bloody hell.  Don't tell me it's gonna'- The 'Tool of Massive Property Damage' smashed it's way through the casino, mauling every single slot machine in it's way, although the bystanders were then grabbing for any newly scattered coins they could get.  The wrecked casino was now like a zoo, really, with people crawling over each other for loose change.  The hammer continued to turn and smash for a while until it just...stopped.  It's not moving.  Maybe we've arrived at our destination. Immortal seems to just be staring at it though. Perhaps- Without warning, the hammer started off again, this time, faster then before and in a straight line.  When the Hammer stopped again, Bob had reached it first, with Immortal  not far away, but not exactly right behind Bob either.  Bob looked up, and noticed Dracor standing on a rooftop.  There's our boy.

[Uncle Yuan]

Dracon, you notice Bob and the Immortal come careening around a corner just a few second after the hammer arrives.  The voices from the warehouse below get louder and groups of armed men begin streaming from the various doors.  The side of the building you are closest to has a regular sized emergency exit and five men wielding handguns run out, then turn and look up towards you.

Bob and Immortal, as you approach you see Dracon standing on the roof of a warehouse with serious hammer damage near by.  Suddenly a door is kicked open and the five men stream out.

[Lord Elcorion]

seeing that my allies have arrived, i'll dismiss the spell, and then seeing the five men burst from the door, i'll invoke the Ritual of Protection, followed by the Ritual of the Unseen Hand, the former to protect myself from the attacks of the men below, the latter to allow me to "glide" from the roof top down to the men, hopeing to come in above and behind them, invoking the Elemental Hex to send streams of lightning through them once i get close, then wadeing in with my fighting stick to smash the (hopefully stunned and confused) men.

[Uncle Yuan]

seeing that my allies have arrived, i'll dismiss the spell, and then seeing the five men burst from the door, i'll invoke the Ritual of Protection, followed by the Ritual of the Unseen Hand, the former to protect myself from the attacks of the men below, the latter to allow me to "glide" from the roof top down to the men, hopeing to come in above and behind them, invoking the Elemental Hex to send streams of lightning through them once i get close, then wadeing in with my fighting stick to smash the (hopefully stunned and confused) men.

You complete the Ritual of Protection, but instead of the nice crisp "snap" of your shields locking into place, you feel a rather desultory, quavering "buzz" as they flicker into being.  A wave of nausea washes over you; with mighty effort you manage to retain both your lunch and your shields.

Taking advantage of your hesitation the five men unload a volley of bullets up at you.  Your weakened shield collapses under the hail of shots.  Pain explodes from several points of your body as you are knocked onto your back.

[Lord Elcorion]

i roll for covor while i try to regain my wits and try to figure out what happened to my spell.. perhaps some disruption from whatever is happening inside? i'll hope that bob and the immortal can cuase a distraction to draw off the guys shooting at me so i can make a more effective counter move.

[kkhohoho]

I shoot out my two arms, with each arm aiming at a different man.  I hope to hit their jaws, which would knock them on the ground while delivering much pain.

[bredon7777]

Seeing that my allies are attacked, I spring toward the nearest gunman, hoping to land a punch by surprise.

[Uncle Yuan]

With all five's attention focused on the roof, you are able to act essentially by surprize.

I shoot out my two arms, with each arm aiming at a different man.  I hope to hit their jaws, which would knock them on the ground while delivering much pain.

You lash out with both limbs.  Your right strikes its target squarely on the jaw, spinning him around and knocking him to the ground.  He's not unconscious, but looks stunned.  The second one misses by a whisker.

Seeing that my allies are attacked, I spring toward the nearest gunman, hoping to land a punch by surprise.

Weaving though Bob's elongated arms, you close on your target and land a solid punch to the face.  Your target yelps in pain and staggers back a couple of steps.

i roll for covor while i try to regain my wits and try to figure out what happened to my spell.. perhaps some disruption from whatever is happening inside? i'll hope that bob and the immortal can cuase a distraction to draw off the guys shooting at me so i can make a more effective counter move.

You're already down on the roof which pretty well blocks you from the gunmen on the ground.
To Dracon:[spoiler]You didn't really get any sense of outside interference to the spell.  Feels more like a flub.[/spoiler]


Next round everyone will have a chance to act

[Lord Elcorion]

i'll look around the roof and see if there are any loose objects here, if so, i will invoke the unseen hand to lift and hurl them at the gunmen below. if not, i settle for useing the unseen hand to attempt to throw the gunmen's aim off, or disarm them, by pulling at their guns.

[bredon7777]

I'm going to try and follow up with a leg-sweep, hopefully cutting the stunned gunman's legs out form under him.

[kkhohoho]

I aim an arm at the man I missed, and my other arm at another thug.