Difference between revisions of "The Adventurers"
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| motto = | | motto = | ||
| image = AdventurersCollage1.png | | image = AdventurersCollage1.png | ||
− | | caption = | + | | caption = The Adventurers team as of February 2024 |
− | | leaders = | + | | leaders = Webcrawler |
− | | base = | + | | base = Hidden inner-city HQ complex |
| concept = Classic costumed heroes & street fighters fighting gangs & organized crime. | | concept = Classic costumed heroes & street fighters fighting gangs & organized crime. | ||
− | | founded = | + | | founded = 13 February 2014 |
− | | members = | + | | members = |
| footnotes = | | footnotes = | ||
|}} | |}} | ||
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'''The Adventurers''' is a team of costumed heroes from Millennium City. Small in number, but strong in determination and skill, they work together to keep the city safe. | '''The Adventurers''' is a team of costumed heroes from Millennium City. Small in number, but strong in determination and skill, they work together to keep the city safe. | ||
+ | <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> | ||
=Adventurers Team Roster= | =Adventurers Team Roster= | ||
− | |||
<center>'''Primary Adventurers''' | <center>'''Primary Adventurers''' | ||
<gallery mode=packed-overlay heights=400px> | <gallery mode=packed-overlay heights=400px> | ||
− | |||
File:Adventurer_BlueFox.png|[[Blue Fox|<span style="color:#C69D21">Blue Fox</span>]] | File:Adventurer_BlueFox.png|[[Blue Fox|<span style="color:#C69D21">Blue Fox</span>]] | ||
File:Adventurer_Catfight.png|[[Catfight|<span style="color:#C69D21">Catfight</span>]] | File:Adventurer_Catfight.png|[[Catfight|<span style="color:#C69D21">Catfight</span>]] | ||
− | File: | + | File:Adventurer_Firewalker.png|[[Firewalker|<span style="color:#C69D21">Firewalker</span>]] |
− | File: | + | File:Adventurer_Stretcher.png|[[Rubber Bullette|<span style="color:#C69D21">Rubber Bullette</span>]] |
− | File: | + | File:Adventurer Mantle.png|[[Mantle|<span style="color:#C69D21">Mantle</span>]] |
− | File: | + | File:Adventurer Osprey.png|[[Osprey_(@RobinVI)|<span style="color:#C69D21">Osprey</span>]] |
+ | File:Adventurer PowerChord.png|[[Power-Chord|<span style="color:#C69D21">Power-Chord</span>]] | ||
+ | File:Adventurer_Scath5.png|[[Scatha 5|<span style="color:#C69D21">Scatha 5</span>]] | ||
File:Adventurer_Sombra.png|[[Sombra|<span style="color:#C69D21">Sombra</span>]] | File:Adventurer_Sombra.png|[[Sombra|<span style="color:#C69D21">Sombra</span>]] | ||
− | File: | + | File:Adventurer_Spectrum.png|[[Spectrum_(@Skyrimhogwarts)|<span style="color:#C69D21">Spectrum</span>]] |
− | File: | + | File:Adventurer Stinger.png|[[Stinger|<span style="color:#C69D21">Stinger</span>]] |
+ | File:Histo_Webcrawler.png|[[Webcrawler|<span style="color:#C69D21">Webcrawler</span>]] | ||
+ | File:Adventurer Windchill.png|[[Windchill|<span style="color:#C69D21">Windchill</span>]] | ||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
− | '''Not pictured:''' | + | '''Not pictured:''' Martyr, Pathfinder, Red Wren</center> |
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
<center> | <center> | ||
− | + | <HR width="60%"> | |
− | '''Recruits''' | + | <br>'''Recruits''' |
<gallery mode=packed-overlay heights=400px> | <gallery mode=packed-overlay heights=400px> | ||
+ | File:Adventurer Jet Star.png|[[Jet Star|<span style="color:#C69D21">Jet Star</span>]] | ||
+ | |||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Not pictured:''' N/A | ||
</center> | </center> | ||
− | + | <center> | |
− | <center> | + | |
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
<HR width="60%"> | <HR width="60%"> | ||
<br>'''Adventurers Reserve''' | <br>'''Adventurers Reserve''' | ||
These heroes turn up to help once in a while. | These heroes turn up to help once in a while. | ||
+ | |||
<gallery> | <gallery> | ||
− | File: | + | File:Adventurer Azure Hawk.png|[[Azure Hawk|<span style="color:#C69D21">Azure Hawk</span>]] |
− | File: | + | File:Adventurer Courser.png|[[Courser|<span style="color:#C69D21">Courser</span>]] |
− | + | File:Histo replica.png|[[Replica|<span style="color:#C69D21">Replica</span>]] | |
− | + | File:Adventurer Silver Hare.png|[[Silver Hare|<span style="color:#C69D21">Silver Hare</span>]] | |
− | + | File:Adventurer Trespasser.png|[[Trespasser|<span style="color:#C69D21">Trespasser</span>]] | |
− | File:Adventurer | + | File:Adventurer_Tungstan.png|[[Tungstan|<span style="color:#C69D21">Tungstan</span>]] |
− | File: | + | |
− | + | ||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
</center> | </center> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <center>'''Not pictured:''' Oni</center> | ||
<center><HR width="60%"></center> | <center><HR width="60%"></center> | ||
Line 75: | Line 79: | ||
<gallery> | <gallery> | ||
+ | File:Adventurer Meltdowner.png|[[Meltdowner|<span style="color:#C69D21">Meltdowner</span>]] | ||
+ | File:Adventurer_Blitz.png|[[Blitz|<span style="color:#C69D21">Blitz</span>]] | ||
+ | File:Adventurer_Doormaker.PNG|[[Doormaker|<span style="color:#C69D21">Doormaker</span>]] | ||
File:Artisan_New.PNG|[[Artisan (Female)|<span style="color:#C69D21">Artisan</span>]] | File:Artisan_New.PNG|[[Artisan (Female)|<span style="color:#C69D21">Artisan</span>]] | ||
+ | File:Adventurer_Black_Bird.png|[[Black Bird|<span style="color:#C69D21">Black Bird</span>]] | ||
image:dreamnew.png|[[Dreamweaver|<span style="color:#C69D21">Dreamweaver</span>]] | image:dreamnew.png|[[Dreamweaver|<span style="color:#C69D21">Dreamweaver</span>]] | ||
+ | image:Adventurer Hornett.jpg|[[Hornett|<span style="color:#C69D21">Hornett</span>]] | ||
File:Adventurer-InfinityZero.png|[[Infinity-Zero|<span style="color:#C69D21">Infinity-Zero</span>]] | File:Adventurer-InfinityZero.png|[[Infinity-Zero|<span style="color:#C69D21">Infinity-Zero</span>]] | ||
+ | File:Joule1.jpg|[[Vortex|<span style="color:#C69D21">Joule</span>]] | ||
+ | image:Adventurer LadyJ.jpg|[[Lady Justice|<span style="color:#C69D21">Lady Justice</span>]] | ||
image:AdventurerJuggernette.png|[[Juggernette|<span style="color:#C69D21">Juggernette</span>]] | image:AdventurerJuggernette.png|[[Juggernette|<span style="color:#C69D21">Juggernette</span>]] | ||
File:Adventurer Stormherald.png|[[Stormherald|<span style="color:#C69D21">Stormherald</span>]] | File:Adventurer Stormherald.png|[[Stormherald|<span style="color:#C69D21">Stormherald</span>]] | ||
File:Knightshadow.jpg|[[Knightshadow|<span style="color:#C69D21">Knightshadow</span>]] | File:Knightshadow.jpg|[[Knightshadow|<span style="color:#C69D21">Knightshadow</span>]] | ||
File:Adventurer_Phantasm.png|[[Phantasm|<span style="color:#C69D21">Phantasm</span>]] | File:Adventurer_Phantasm.png|[[Phantasm|<span style="color:#C69D21">Phantasm</span>]] | ||
+ | File:Adventurer_ScarletShield.png|[[Scarlet Shield|<span style="color:#C69D21">Scarlet Shield</span>]] | ||
+ | File:Adventurer_Screech_Owl.png|[[Screech Owl|<span style="color:#C69D21">Screech Owl</span>]] | ||
+ | File:Adventurer_SparrowHawk.png|[[Sparrow Hawk|<span style="color:#C69D21">Sparrow Hawk</span>]] | ||
+ | File:Adventurer_Steel_Dragon.png|[[Steel Dragon|<span style="color:#C69D21">Steel Dragon</span>]] | ||
+ | file:Adventurer Fox.jpg|[[Fox|<span style="color:#C69D21">Fox</span>]] | ||
+ | File:Adventurer Vortex.png|[[Vortex|<span style="color:#C69D21">Vortex</span>]] | ||
+ | File:Adventurer_Voltage.png|[[Voltage|<span style="color:#C69D21">Voltage</span>]] | ||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
</center> | </center> | ||
− | = | + | =Squads= |
− | + | Starting in fall of 2022, the team was subdivided into two sub-groups, each with a captain, called squads. The squad leaders (first on the left of each below) chose their teams for whatever mission types they felt they could best specialize in, and were invested with authority to make decisions as needed for their squad. | |
− | + | It was the hope of Webcrawler that each squad could, with their unique make-ups and leader styles, excel on adventures and missions suited to them. | |
+ | ==Current Squads== | ||
− | = | + | {| class="wikitable" |
+ | |- | ||
+ | |- style="background-color:#032D9D;" | ||
+ | | <span style="color:#FFFFFF">ADVENTURERS BLUE</span> | ||
+ | | <center>[[File:Adventurer_BlueFox.png|x200px]]<br>[[Blue Fox|<span style="color:#C69D21">Blue Fox</span>]]</center> || <center>[[File:Adventurer Courser.png|x200px]]<br>[[Courser|<span style="color:#C69D21">Courser</span>]]</center> || [[File:Adventurer_Sombra.png|x200px]]<br><center>[[Sombra|<span style="color:#C69D21">Sombra</span></center>]] || <center>[[File:Adventurer Windchill.png|x200px]]<BR>[[Windchill|<span style="color:#C69D21">Windchill</span>]]</center> || <center>[[File:Adventurer Scath5.png|x200px]]<BR>[[Scatha 5|<span style="color:#C69D21">Scatha 5</span>]]</center> || <center>[[File:Adventurer_Tungstan.png|x200px]]<BR>[[Tungstan|<span style="color:#C69D21">Tungstan</span>]]</center> || <center><BR>[[Pathfinder|<span style="color:#C69D21">Pathfinder</span>]]</center> | ||
+ | |- style="background-color:#9F3318;" | ||
+ | | <span style="color:#FFFFFF">ADVENTURERS RED</span> | ||
+ | | <center>[[File:Bullettefist.jpg|x200px]]<br>[[Rubber Bullette|<span style="color:#5083F7">Rubber Bullette</span>]]</center> || [[File:FirewalkerPRIMUS.png|x200px]]<BR><CENTER>[[Firewalker|<span style="color:#5083F7">Firewalker</span>]]</center> || <center>[[File:Adventurer Osprey.png|x200px]]<BR>[[Osprey_(@RobinVI)|<span style="color:#5083F7">Osprey</span>]]</center> || [[File:Adventurer Mantle.png|x200px]]<br><center>[[Mantle|<span style="color:#5083F7">Mantle</span>]]</center> || <center><BR>[[Red Wren|<span style="color:#5083F7">Red Wren</span>]]</center> || <center>[[File:Adventurer Stinger.png|x200px]]<BR>[[Stinger|<span style="color:#5083F7">Stinger</span>]]</center> || <center>[[File:Adventurer Azure Hawk.png|x200px]]<BR>[[Azure Hawk|<span style="color:#5083F7">Azure Hawk</span>]]</center> || <center>[[File:Adventurer PowerChord.png|x200px]]<BR>[[Power-Chord|<span style="color:#5083F7">Power-Chord</span>]]</center> | ||
+ | |} | ||
− | + | ==Previous Squads== | |
+ | '''March '23 - Sept. '23''' | ||
− | + | {| class="wikitable" | |
+ | |- | ||
+ | |- style="background-color:#281B83;" | ||
+ | | <span style="color:#FFFFFF">ADVENTURERS MIDNIGHT</span> | ||
+ | | <center>[[File:Adventurer Catfight.png|x200px]]<br>[[Catfight|<span style="color:#C69D21">Catfight</span>]]</center> || [[File:Adventurer_Sombra.png|x200px]]<br><center>[[Sombra|<span style="color:#C69D21">Sombra</span></center>]] || [[File:Adventurer Mantle.png|x200px]]<br><center>[[Mantle|<span style="color:#C69D21">Mantle</span>]]</center> || [[File:Adventurer_BlueFox.png|x200px]]<br><center>[[Blue Fox|<span style="color:#C69D21">Blue Fox</span>]]</center> || [[File:Bullettefist.jpg|x200px]]<br><center>[[Rubber Bullette|<span style="color:#C69D21">Rubber Bullette</span>]]</center> | ||
+ | |- style="background-color:#B81E0B;" | ||
+ | | <span style="color:#FFFFFF">ADVENTURERS CRIMSON</span> | ||
+ | | [[File:FirewalkerPRIMUS.png|x200px]]<BR><CENTER>[[Firewalker|<span style="color:#5083F7">Firewalker</span>]]</center> || <center>[[File:Adventurer Osprey.png|x200px]]<BR>[[Osprey_(@RobinVI)|<span style="color:#5083F7">Osprey</span>]]</center> || <center>[[File:Adventurer PowerChord.png|x200px]]<BR>[[Power-Chord|<span style="color:#5083F7">Power-Chord</span>]]</center> || <center>[[File:Adventurer Scath5.png|x200px]]<BR>[[Scatha 5|<span style="color:#5083F7">Scatha 5</span>]]</center> || <center>[[File:Adventurer Windchill.png|x200px]]<BR>[[Windchill|<span style="color:#5083F7">Windchill</span>]]</center> | ||
+ | |} | ||
− | + | '''Sept. '22 - March '23''' | |
− | === | + | {| class="wikitable" |
− | + | |- | |
+ | |- style="background-color:#D5D5D5;" | ||
+ | | <span style="color:#FFFFFF">ADVENTURERS SILVER</span> | ||
+ | | [[File:Adventurer Courser.png|x200px]]<br><center>[[Courser|<span style="color:#C69D21">Courser</span>]]</center> || [[File:Adventurer_Sombra.png|x200px]]<br><center>[[Sombra|<span style="color:#C69D21">Sombra</span></center>]] || [[File:Adventurer_Voltage.png|x200px]]<br><center>[[Voltage|<span style="color:#C69D21">Voltage</span>]]</center> || [[File:Adventurer_BlueFox.png|x200px]]<br><center>[[Blue Fox|<span style="color:#C69D21">Blue Fox</span>]]</center> || [[File:Adventurer_Osprey.png|x200px]]<br><center>[[Osprey_(@RobinVI)|<span style="color:#C69D21">Osprey</span>]]</center> | ||
+ | |- style="background-color:#C8C342;" | ||
+ | | <span style="color:#FFFFFF">ADVENTURERS GOLD</span> | ||
+ | | [[File:Adventurer_Tungstan.png|x200px]]<BR><CENTER>[[Tungstan|<span style="color:#5083F7">Tungstan</span>]]</center> || <center>[[File:Adventurer Stinger.png|x200px]]<BR>[[Stinger|<span style="color:#5083F7">Stinger</span>]]</center> || <center>[[File:Adventurer Scath5.png|x200px]]<BR>[[Scatha 5|<span style="color:#5083F7">Scatha 5</span>]]</center> || [[File:Adventurer-Firewalker.png|x200px]]<br><center>[[Firewalker|<span style="color:#5083F7">Firewalker</span>]]</center> | ||
+ | |} | ||
− | + | ==OOC notes on squads== | |
+ | Squads might change up to twice per year. For their first run, they tended to run for six month periods between equinoxes (September and March), but may be suspended occasionally as leadership may deem necessary. | ||
− | + | New captains will be chosen weeks prior to each squadding. Captains can select at least 4 other heroes to serve on their squad, with the assent of those members and the final approval by the team leader. | |
− | + | ||
− | + | The purpose of squads is not to be exclusive; anyone can help out. The team as a whole may be called together regardless of squad as needed. Squads might also work together OOC to make RP stories for other team members to play in. | |
− | + | =Story Arcs= | |
− | The | + | The following is presented as summaries of the Adventurers as if it were based on an actual comic book. |
− | === | + | <div align="center"; style="height:25em; width:1250px; overflow:auto; border: 2px solid #088"> |
− | + | {| class="wikitable" | |
+ | ! style="width:10em;" | Arc | ||
+ | ! style="width:5em;" | Issue | ||
+ | ! style="width:3em;" | Title | ||
+ | ! style="width:50em;" | Story | ||
+ | ! style="width:3em;" | Villain(s) | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Vorpal's Dozen | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #18 (Finale)''' | ||
+ | | "Four Leaf Clover" | ||
+ | | Abruptly, Vorpal manages to find the hideout being used by Biker's Dozen. It's a derelict bar in the seediest part of Westside. She calls Blue Squad, after having made herself known in their group text chat, and Wizard is also alerted. When asked how she managed to find it, Vorpal dodges the inquiry and keeps the details vague. | ||
− | + | Sombra stealthily infiltrates the building and finds an unconscious and badly injured Vyle restrained and connected to many IV's. The Bakers are harvesting his blood to manufacture a new, powerful drug, combining it with a strain of street level draysha gas, supplied to them by Grey Raccoon. The so-called 'Four Leaf Clover' drastically improves durability and strength, on top of being extremely addictive. Additionally, it turns is users red and hulking, not unlike Vyle in appearance. | |
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
− | + | As planned, Wizard busts in through a window. Vorpal takes the front door, followed by Windchill. Blue Fox sneaks in to get a read on the situation. Chaos erupts, and many of the Bakers partake of Four Leaf Clover to gain an edge on the Adventurers and friends. The heroes are gradually overwhelmed and overpowered by Baker and this newly gotten power when Vorpal goes into a rage, and loses control. She sends out a powerful telekinetic, area of effect shockwave and forcibly causes a reaction in the Baker's replicator devices to 'desummon' them. | |
− | + | One tries to slip away, but is ultimately caught by Windchill. Sombra frees Vyle, and Wizard eliminates vast traces of this new drug, and prepares the rest for evidence. After all is said and done, the police arrive, and Detective Knight meets Vorpal. They have an uneasy conversation, but manage to come to peace with one another. | |
− | + | Vorpal leaves on good terms with Blue Squad, and insists that they call upon her should they ever need the help, but her origins and background remain an utter mystery to the team. | |
− | + | ||
− | + | | Baker's Dozen, Grey Raccoon [not seen] | |
− | + | |- | |
+ | | Vorpal's Dozen | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #17''' | ||
+ | | "Raving Mad" | ||
+ | | Blue Squad is summoned by Detective Knight to talk about a brewing gang war. "One Man Biker Gang", Baker's Dozen, is making aggressive and successful power plays for territory, striking out in particular at the Cobra Lords Biker Gang among many others. Knight explains that Baker is also searching for new drugs to manufacture in order to financially outperform his competitors. | ||
− | + | Intel suggests that a Purple Gang, or associate thereof, has access to a new designer drug that has caught Baker's interest. Knight explains that a rave being put on by the Scrappers gang of cyberpunks will likely have Purple Gangsters in attendance, and that Baker is also suspected to attend in order to make a deal for this mysterious new drug, or most likely, violently claim it. | |
− | + | To complicate matters further, the MCPD has been on the tail of a mysterious new vigilante. They have taken to calling her 'Vorpal,' more living weapon than person. Vorpal has been feverishly harassing and delaying Baker's Dozen's progress, and their confrontations have led to excessive collateral damage, civilian injuries, and even the deaths of some Baker variants. Knight implores the team to look into the matter and see if Vorpal can be reined in, or if she needs to be apprehended. | |
− | + | ||
− | + | Blue Squad decides to attend the rave to try and stop this new drug from circulating, to capture Baker's Dozen, and to make contact with Vorpal. At the rave, Blue Fox and Martyr go undercover as ravers. Sombra and Windchill post up outside to try and spot Vorpal or to contain the potentially volatile situation. | |
− | + | Vorpal arrives, and is quickly met by Windchill. He greets her diplomatically, and tries to get her to settle and join Blue Squad's efforts, at least temporarily, but she stubbornly presses on inside. Meanwhile, the club inside is riddled with Purple Gangsters, Scrappers, and eventually Baker's Dozen. An undercover Martyr makes contact with a supposedly demonic Purple Gang member during the investigation named 'Vyle Lyle,' an old foe of the Adventurers | |
− | + | During a quiet moment, an inebriated Vyle announces that BZB, the sought-after new street drug, is manufactured using his blood, to the great disgust of all ravers, everwhere. Baker moves in to try an apprehend Vyle, and the confrontation is taken to a backroom where a number of Scrappers take offense at Baker's meddling. Despite Blue Squad's best efforts, a fight breaks out, just as Vorpal storms inside, followed by Windchill. | |
− | + | ||
− | ! | + | Martyr finds himself in a three way fight between the Scrappers, Bakers, and the super strong and durable Vyle. Martyr is overloaded with painergy at the brutal onslaught. Blue Fox stays on the dance floor, battling Bakers with members of the Scrappers gang as reluctant allies. While monitoring Vorpal, Windchill is gravely injured by a shotgun blast from one of the many Bakers. |
− | ! | + | |
− | ! | + | In the end, Baker manages to escape with Vyle as a hostage, having overwhelmed and overpowered both Blue Squad, and the Purple Gang and Scrappers. Blue Squad makes meets with Vorpal, and they trade contact information. Later in the week, Blue Squad approaches Vorpal and agrees to work with her to take Baker down if she'll adjust her methods to being non-lethal and cooperates with the Adventurers. She agrees, and explains that she is a new vigilante and is still 'learning the ropes,' but has a great desire to take the violent criminal Baker's Dozen down for noble reasons. Or so she claims. |
− | ! | + | |
− | ! | + | Later, solo superhero and known gangland contender and contact of Blue Fox, Wizard, reaches out and offers to join in on the effort to bring Baker Down. Blue Squad proceeds to search the city with Vorpal and Wizard's help. |
+ | |||
+ | | Baker's Dozen, Scrappers, Vyle Lyle | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Doom and Gloom | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #16''' | ||
+ | | "Cast a Shadow" | ||
+ | | Blue Squad, along with help from Webcrawler, Mantle, and Spectrum work together to prepare the warehouse for the trap. Isabela, now donning the Sombra costume, boldly teleports and turns invisible to lure Gloom towards the prepared trap. | ||
+ | |||
+ | At first, nothing happens, until while invisible Sombra spots Gloom leaning in for a lethal strike at Webcrawler. Then, the fight begins. Gloom, with the shadow gem, is empowered with tremendous strength, reflexes, stamina, and even additional arms. It echoes its previous intentions of ruling the world after claiming Isabela's soul, promising the team quick, painless deaths if they surrender now. They decline the offer. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Initially, the team suffers brutal resistance, and every time they are about to overwhelm Gloom, the villain simply teleports away to gain space before rejoining the fight. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team coordinates and spreads out around the warehouse as Sombra lures Gloom to them. With Windchill being the lookout and early warning, Mantle, Courser, Webcrawler, Blue Fox, Spectrum, and Scatha 5 all get in substantial hits, one after the other, weakening Gloom. Enraged, the shadow demon incapacitates the others, damaging the lights, before it rushes Isabela as Sombra. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sombra rises to the challenge and strikes Gloom with the enchanted sword, ripping Maya free and recombining the 'twins.' Gloom, without a host, but stuck in their dimension, transforms into a giant, transparent floating skull with burning purple eyes. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It blasts the others back before swooping in to literally consume Sombra, but she she musters the last of her strength and utilizes her shadow projections to beat Gloom back and force it into the 'Ark' created by Stinger. Though ominously, even when contained and defeated, the container rattles nonstop. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Captain Finnegan is relieved to have the shadow gem back in his possession and a new prisoner in the form of Gloom. The team welcomes Sombra back. | ||
+ | | Gloom | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Doom and Gloom | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #15''' | ||
+ | | "Sword and Sorcery" | ||
+ | | Bela proposes a way to lure Gloom out into the daylight by removing the cracked shadow gem (see: Ruin Gate) from the Athena Compound. Blue Fox contacts Captain Finnegan and proposes to have the Shadow Gem moved, as if it were being transferred elsewhere, and Captain Finnegan reluctantly agrees. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Additionally, there is a strong chance that Foresight, the wizard who originally split Sombra into two parts of her personality and person, will be lured by the opportunity to steal the vaunted shadow gem. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The plan goes off. Initially accosted by Foresight's illusions, Blue Squad manages to make contact with him. Windchill provides the villain with cash in exchange for his assistance in defeating Gloom and saving Maya. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Gloom arrives, and summons a massive shadow army. The team is beaten badly, and is unable to prevent Gloom from taking the Shadow Gem for itself, more than tripling its size and power, before it disappears to continue the hunt for the last puzzle piece, Maya. Captain Finnegan is unamused. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Foresight provides the team with an enchanted sword to reverse the 'split' done to Sombra in order to yank her free from Gloom's grasp before leaving Blue Squad with his actual business card. Blue Fox contacts ADA Duane Steel and arranges to have an empty, seize warehouse freed, the same warehouse once used as a temporary home for Creature (see: Overseer). | ||
+ | |||
+ | Stinger helps the team fabricate lights to prevent shadows within the warehouse to deny Gloom use of its shadow army, and Blue Squad plans to lure the supervillain there by using Isabela to forcefully combine the twins and trap Gloom's raw, untethered essence in a highly advanced box also generated by Stinger. | ||
+ | | Gloom, Foresight | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Doom and Gloom | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #14''' | ||
+ | | "Shadow Over, In Mouth" | ||
+ | | A boom rings out in City Center as one of TNT's many hidden weapon caches detonates. (see: Afterburn) | ||
+ | |||
+ | While responding to the fire, Sombra is attacked and waylaid by Gloom, her nemesis. The interdimensional shadow monster was lured to her by the utilization of the shadow gem (see: Ruin Gate) and regenerated from the peripheral power generated by it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Despite initially defeating the villain and dispersing its essence in the mysterious shadow realm she utilizes when ever she uses her powers, Sombra is overwhelmed by its power due to her being split into two. | ||
+ | |||
+ | While Sombra's exhausted from resisting, it climbs into her mouth and takes possession of her body just in time for Blue Squad, including Osprey, Firewalker, and Webcrawler to witness the event. | ||
+ | |||
+ | They attempt to intervene, but possessed Sombra, or Gloom, thrashes the entire accompaniment without breaking a sweat and makes an escape to reportedly look for Isabela, or the 'other,' Maya's other half. The villain also proclaims to be a queen and desires to plunge the world into a lightless void to rule over it unimpeded by any bonds or shackles. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Distraught, the team agrees to spread out and search for Gloom while forbidding Isabela from using her powers, as they suspect it will lure the strange foe straight towards her. | ||
+ | | Gloom | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Ruin Gate | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #13''' | ||
+ | | "Banishment" | ||
+ | | After days of fruitless searching, the team is contacted by Chirper. Reporting another invasion of a potential hideout, Chirper leads the team to a strange mausoleum magically imposed over a section of the city's sewer system, exaplaining the the strange subterranean rumblings (see: Blue Squad #10). Blue Fox, Martyr, Sombra, Courser, and Windchill arrive on the scene, unexpectedly joined by Scatha 5! His mysterious project is revealed to have been a repurposed, previously hostile combat robot with heavy weapons, a welcome addition to the fight. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Together, they find War Boar in the midst of summoning and maintaining his Ruin Gate underneath the city. Following Woodsman's advice, Blue Squad utilizes War Boar's artifacts laid out around them while Scatha 5 and Martyr take the brunt of the villain's attacks and attentions. Blue Fox takes up a potion, Sombra grabs the shadow gem, Courser takes up the stolen viking gauntlets, and Windchill places the crown atop his head. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Combining their efforts, they manage to defeat War Boar and shatter the spell binding the Ruin Gate to Earth, saving it from porcine invasion. As a result, the potion shatters, an entity exits Windchill's crown and disappears with it, the shadow gem cracks (though it retains its power), and the viking gauntlets fall silent while also similarly retaining their innate magical powers. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The day is saved. | ||
+ | | War Boar | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Ruin Gate | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #12''' | ||
+ | | "Pig Escapes Pen" | ||
+ | | In containment, War Boar generates an unidentified magical force moments before he hacks up a swallowed object: the Shadow Gem. War Boar uses the innate magic held within the device to escape his containment, after which he goes on a rampage and storms into Athena artifact containment. Utilizing his re-acquired staff, and the crown artifact the team previously managed to keep from acquiring during one of his first appearances. War Boar then freezes the entrance of the Athena Compound shut before summoning minions and monsters to aid his assault. | ||
+ | |||
+ | War Boar wreaks as much damage as possible as members of both Blue Squad and Red Squad are called in to respond by Captain Finnegan. Aided by PRIMUS, MARS, and the MCPD, the heroes storm inside only to find a veritable army awaiting them. War Boar surprises the team by giving them a threat in his newly mastered English. He escapes, and seems to have all he needs for his master plan. In the chaos, Absolver manages to cling to Firewalker, and a mysterious gem being called 'Guardian' is also set free, but he's negotiated with by Blue Fox. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Later that week, Detective Knight arranges a meeting between the Adventurers and Woodsman on the Westside precinct roof. 'Woodsman' itself is a title from his home world, similar to being a superhero. He has stepped forward to become the de facto leader of his people, now rendered refugees by War Boar's invasion of their world. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Woodsman explains that War Boar invaded it with his pig army as he is now doing to earth. Similarly, War Boar gathered artifacts on Woodsman's world, and eventually generated enough power to bring the entirety of his forces through, conducting genocide against Woodsman's people. The team, invigorated with new motivation, agree to track down War Boar and plan to trap the villain on Woodsman's ruined world to spare Earth from suffering the same fate. Woodsman advises Blue Squad that to deactivate War Boar's 'Ruin Gate' portal, they will need to utilize the artifacts the super villain has stolen. | ||
+ | As for the finale... | ||
+ | |||
+ | | War Boar; Absolver; Guardian | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Blue Squad vs Red Squad | ||
+ | | '''Dodgeball #1''' | ||
+ | | "The Shootout" | ||
+ | | With War Boar and TNT imprisoned, Sombra acts on an idea she's had to run a grand, competitive dodgeball event for charity. She gets in touch with the Northside Children's hospital and organizes a dodgeball cage match at a local arena with Blue Squad facing off against Red Squad. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Fans buy blue or red tickets to enter the raffle and place a bet on the victors with copious amounts of refreshments provided for by sponsors, with all proceeds going to the hospital's foundation. Scatha 5 manages to participate due to the low impact nature of the sport. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Red Squad defeats Blue Squad during the first round, but Blue Squad rallies and gets a victory in round two. Round three is an intense display of superheroic powers, but it comes down to Stinger and Sombra facing off, both of whom simultaneously eliminate the other. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In a surprise twist, two members of each raffle were selected, one of whom was a young superfan of the Adventurers named TJ Haws. Later, Blue Fox, Webcrawler, Sombra, Courser, and Spectrum meet with TJ Haws near city hall to spend a day with him. Upon learning about his somewhat troubled homelife, the Adventurers provide TJ with good examples to look up to, and demonstrate their powers with him. Inspired by the meeting, TJ returns home with Sombra. She personally meets his mother and younger daughter, having dinner with the family, spreading hope and morale. | ||
+ | | [None] | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Ruin Gate | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #11''' | ||
+ | | "Detainment and Visitation" | ||
+ | | War Boar suddenly resurfaces and launches a bloody attack on the MCU's campus, aided by an army of smaller humanoid pig men, killing twenty four people and injuring dozens. He specifically targets an artifact on the grounds in the custody of a seemingly harmless off-campus cult called "The Calamity Wake" and massacres them, though the cultists were not aware of how powerful the object in their possession was. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Martyr, Blue Fox, Courser, Sombra, and Windchill intervene, and after another desperate battle manage to subdue the War Boar, though the artifacts the villain stole thus far remain unaccounted for. Scatha 5 has second thoughts about letting his squadmates rush into danger while he stays behind, despite his damaged state, and Martyr suspects that War Boar went down too easily with some hidden purpose. | ||
+ | |||
+ | War Boar is taken to the "Athena Compound," a PRIMUS facility for the containment of mysterious objects and personages, such as the symbiote 'Absolver' (see: Overseer), run by one Captain Finnegan. Members of the entire team visit War Boar and perform an interrogation, but get little more than spiteful taunts and threats from the supervillain before War Boar seemingly attempts to escape, testing the strengths of his bindings within his cell before the team leaves. The team theorizes that War Boar may or may not be from the same dimension as the mysterious 'medieval refugees' led by Woodsman. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Meanwhile, Scatha 5 notices that his auto repair function is more sluggish than usual, and asks Blue Fox to deliver him copious amounts of scrap and metal to hasten the 'healing' progress and to continue a hidden project the robot companion has taken on. | ||
+ | | War Boar; Absolver | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Ruin Gate | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #10''' | ||
+ | | "War Boar Returns" | ||
+ | | The indomitable and unexplained otherworldy invader War Boar returns to Millennium City and attacks the Clauswitz Museum of Artifacts, his target this time being a pair of gauntlets owned by 'Ragnar Lodbrok,' an ancient king of viking legend. The gauntlets are confirmed to have electrical capabilities in the hands of those who know how to use them. Additionally, War Boar carries a mysterious black 'shadow gem.' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blue Squad members Blue Fox, Courser, Sombra, Martyr, and new team member Spectrum rush to the museum and do battle with the porcine pillager. War Boar notably uses the shadow gem to wrestle against Sombra's shadow projections, and gives a substantial beating to Blue Squad members before he makes his escape via portal. Scatha 5, still tremendously damaged from the final fight with TNT, stays at the base to keep records and perform investigation and theorization on War Boar's next move. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Later that week, Detective Knight Blue Squad and informs them that sightings of the supervillain 'Creature' have been called in from an apartment in Westside above one of Creature's old, abandoned lairs. Blue Squad is joined by Webcrawler and Firewalker as they investigate. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As it happens, the sighting is incorrect, and the Adventurers stumble upon a known contact named Chirper, a sentient creature of unknown origin that has a friendly if overly-curious demeanor. Chirper informs the team, and Detective Knight, that his home was flooded, and notably reports strange subterranean tremors in his wandering throughout the city, subtle enough to avoid detection on the surface. Afterward, Chirper agrees to follow Detective Knight to the precinct to organize formal citizenship and registration in a dumpster converted into a vehicle. | ||
+ | | War Boar; Chirper | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Imaginata Vindicta | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #400''' | ||
+ | | "West Texas Showdown" | ||
+ | | With the Adventurers Squads attending to other important matters, a strike team of Blue Fox, Sombra, Firewalker, Courser, Scatha 5, and Osprey sets out to rural West Texas to confront Facet and rescue Webcrawler. | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the server farm, they battle Facet who, becoming desperate, turns ''big'' using the MRM suit, and also shapes his limbs into spikes or flails at times. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blue Fox infiltrates the building and tries to persuade Daemon that it is being used, and could be repurposed to a ''good'' purpose. He is unsuccessful at persuading Daemon, and it corrupts the entire server farm, overcoming the restrictions Facet had placed on it. While Daemon then takes over the MRM suit and presents its "real world" appearance with Facet trapped inside, Blue Fox enters cyberspace and sets Webcrawler free - much easier with Daemon having vacated its cyber domain to inhabit the MRM suit. Then, rather than exit with Webcrawler, Blue Fox tries to follow a cyber trail into the MRM suit as Daemon did, and confront it there. As the team faces off against a five storey tall version of Daemon, Sombra agonizes over whether it is time to apply Kyra's insta-kill solution on the MRM suit. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the real world, Webcrawler joins the fight as Firewalker roasts Daemon, and Osprey and Courser cooperate to pull him to the ground. Inside the MRM suit's cyberspace, Daemon - facing defeat - indicates it will not surrender, but attempt to take its enemies with it. It sets the MRM suit to overload. Firewalker senses the building heat. Scatha 5 moves in close to bulwark against further limb attacks from Daemon, while Courser tries to use her new electrical powers to try to regulate the electrical flow. Scatha 5 pierces the MRM suit's energy cell. Inside cyberspace, Blue Fox realizes he has no way out, but then Webcrawler pops in using her Web-blink device, and retrieves him before the system wipes, and Daemon is no more. Sombra is relieved she didn't have to use the solution, but it is unclear if the MRM suit can be repaired after the battle damage it sustained. | ||
+ | |||
+ | With Webcrawler rescued, Daemon destroyed, and a living but wounded Templeton inside the disabled MRM suit, the team has a victory. | ||
+ | | Facet; Daemon | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Imaginata Vindicta | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #399''' | ||
+ | | "Villain Night" | ||
+ | | Blue Fox, Osprey, and Martyr investigate just who built Webcrawler's gear, in hopes he might have some insight into what happened to her. They track down retired aerospace engineer '''Ray DeCosta''', who welcomes them into his garage workshop in the suburbs when they arrive. He confirms that he had been trying to help Webcrawler pin down the troubles with the Web-blink device, which he built for her. He was able to provide insight into the device's workings - and where to look for her: Web-blink encryption wasn't meant to have her linger in one place, and it would take a server farm or supercomputer setup to contain her in that state. They should seek a place drawing a great deal of electricity. Unable to narrow it down in a world with an increasing number of server farms, Ray suggests they use human intelligence to find the answer - to which Osprey already has a plan. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Osprey attends a secret pub 'villain night', and tracks Ms. Direction from it. Confronting her, Osprey offers info on a score against a rich, evil company, in exchange for information on Templeton's whereabouts. Templeton is running a server farm in West Texas. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Courser finds she has at least some of Webcrawler's powers in the real world now, but also an additional power for electrical control that neither she nor Webcrwaler have previously had! | ||
+ | |||
+ | In preparation for a confrontation, Kyra Sparks (Replica) reveals she was hiding that USB drive that used to be housed in the MRM suit, which is probably what Facet (Templeton) was looking for when he tossed her place. Using that, she finds instructions for a chemical compound that, splashed on the MRM suit, will permanently destroy the nanomachines that allow it to change shape and self-repair. The team nevertheless hopes to somehow retrieve the MRM suit intact so that Kyra can continue being Replica. | ||
+ | | Facet [not seen]; Daemon [not seen]; Ms. Direction | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Imaginata Vindicta | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #398''' | ||
+ | | "Courser Correction" | ||
+ | | Daemon extracts code from an apparently static and un-reacting Webcrawler, and experiments by seeing if it can be added to Courser. Courser gains at least some of Webcrawler's powers, and is made to demonstrate them in simulations designed by Daemon. With Courser's success, Daemon reveals this is part of a plan it has developed on its own to see if modification in cyberspace can effect the real world, in hopes that it may expand its dominion. It strips the Webcrawler code from Courser after she completes the tests. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the real world, the team follows other leads. Osprey's ruse of a major museum donation incoming draws the attention of a variety of suspicious characters, meaning to hopefully attract Ms. Direction: the super crook who apparently deployed the logic bomb that corrupted Webcrawler's gear and allowed her to be abducted. But it's the Webcrawler enemy '''Envy''' attempting to steal something from an unfinished exhibit who provides a clue to Ms. Direction's whereabouts: she likes to attend a secret get-together with other local supercrooks. Osprey checks other sources to find the location of the next get-together. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Courser manages to argue logic with Daemon enough to have the AI contemplate its place in the world, and how it was ultimately just Facet's servant, hoping to turn the AI against him. Daemon is caught in a logic loop that it pauses to try to resolve. She uses the distraction to free herself of the cyberspace restrictions upon her, and communicate with Webcrawler. Webcrawler - who can be spoken to while there is direct contact with another entity in cyberspace - tells Courser to copy the code representing Web's powers into herself, and use it flee. Daemon eventually concludes due to Courser's reasoning that as both cyberspace and real world are a threat to it, it must have dominion over both - not the outcome she intended! | ||
+ | |||
+ | Courser emerges from cyberspace into Facet's basement lab just as the Adventurers are following up on Kyra's call for help. Daemon starts to wipe the computers and fries the portal machine. Blue Fox is able to secure a hard drive before it is totally erased. | ||
+ | | Facet [not seen]; Daemon | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Imaginata Vindicta | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #397''' | ||
+ | | "Daemon's Domain" | ||
+ | | Once is has become clear that Webcrawler and Replica are missing, Adventurers Blue - distracted by matters of mass destruction - mostly continues on TNT's trail while individual Adventurers pursue leads. Sarah Ellison and Courser check the Olsen home for evidence, and later consult with the Adventurers Computer, personified by '''Mr. Adventure''''s hologram, to learn more about how the Websights systems may have been compromised. Sombra - who also was helping at the Olsen home while Cassandra was missing - also visited Kyra's home, and found the place had been tossed, the computer had a hard drive removed, and someone had been searching the computer for things like 'SBE,' 'Facet,' and 'Templeton.' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sarah Ellison and Courser learn that Webcrawler's newer devices - the Websights eyewear and her Web-blink short range teleporter - have been corrupted by malicious code. Checking the logs, they realize that it was in a confrontation with '''Ms. Direction''', when a '''logic bomb''' was deployed against Webcrawler to aid the super thief's escape, that Webcrawler started having problems with her devices that culminated in her apparent abduction. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Using an address on Reggie Templeton, known to be the mad scientist and criminal who had designed Replica's MRM suit while working for Source Biotech Enterprises, Courser goes to a dank basement in Jersey City where she finds Kyra, tied to a chair and wasting away. Kyra is told to run for her life and get help, while Courser uses a portal machine built by Templeton to enter cyberspace in hopes of rescuing Webcrawler from Templeton's insidious AI named '''Daemon'''. Daemon is far too powerful in his own domain, however, and traps Courser there along with Webcrawler. | ||
+ | | Facet [not seen]; Daemon | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Afterburn | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #9'" | ||
+ | | "Why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit" | ||
+ | | Blue Squad spends days scouring Black Badger's tunnel system looking for TNT to no avail, only to have TNT send a video in to the news, showcasing his improvised nuclear bomb, threatening to detonate it within the hour to spread chaos and fear. Blue Squad finally narrows his down his location and rush in to intervene. TNT is held up in a cavern dug so deep that there's active magma flowing through it, and here they find TNT's chief hideout. | ||
+ | |||
+ | TNT has spliced technology provided by Reisen (see: Red Squad) onto his body to further stall Blue Squad's attempt to foil him. After fighting through his last henchmen, Blue Squad enters the cave and engages TNT in an intense battle. Scatha 5 sacrifices his body to take out TNT's plasmagun. Martyr put himself at great risk to take on as much painergy as possible to counter TNT, making the villain laugh, stunning him with the overwhelming sensation and distracting him. The rest of Blue Squad keeps the villain busy as Courser hacks into the computerized bomb and stops it four seconds before detonation. | ||
+ | |||
+ | TNT gloats, even while seemingly defeated, and produces a last minute hair trigger switch to detonate the bomb before Sombra hastily stops him with a shadow projection. With the threat over, Blue Squad takes TNT to the surface, where Martyr hands him over to Detective Knight and the MCPD. A deal is struck between Landon and Detective Knight, representing the MCPD, to have TNT serve out his time at the Joseph and Florence Rehabilitation Center, a decision the public finds controversial. There are protests outside of the premises. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Later on, Detective Knight summons all of the Adventurers, both Red Squad and Blue Squad to the Westside precinct rooftop. She informs them of a group of refugees dressed like medieval people, led by the mysterious Woodsman. Though seemingly friendly, she asks Blue Squad to keep an eye on these strangers. | ||
+ | | TNT, Dr. Friedrich von Reisen [not seen] | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Imaginata Vindicta/Afterburn | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #396/ Blue Squad #8''' | ||
+ | | "Dick Dwight Face-Off" | ||
+ | | Adventurers cross-over! In a bid to draw out the Black Badger, who may have a lead to the villainous TNT who has been troubling the Adventurers Blue Squad of late, the team comes up with a plan to use one of their harshest critics - blowhard TV editorialist Dick Dwight - in a ruse. Blue Fox promises to attend the program and debate Dwight live, and even unmask before the cameras, to which Dick Dwight agrees. However, after a spirited debate, the face under the mask turns out to be... Dick Dwight's! It was Replica all along. But Black Badger, who hates Blue Fox, turns up at the well-publicized debate location to exact his revenge. A battle begins that involves all of the bad guys! | ||
+ | |||
+ | While the team battles Black Badger, Webcrawler - who uses her web-blink power to try to quickly extract Replica - vanishes with Replica in tow. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Courser plays an instrumental role, hacking into a periodically deactivating Black Badger's suit. After defeating Black Badger, AKA Raphael Moltisanti, he is sent to prison and refuses to talk. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Landon Bellerose, AKA Windchill, meets with "Big Ralph" in prison and proposes that if Ralph offers up any information he has about TNT's whereabouts, he would be transferred to the Joseph and Florence Rehabilitation Center. At last, Raphael agrees and tells Landon and the MCPD to access his suit's hidden tunnel records to have a subterranean map of where TNT and his minions might be hiding. | ||
+ | | Black Badger; Dick Dwight; Facet [not seen]; Daemon [not seen]; TNT [not seen] | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Afterburn | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #7''' | ||
+ | | "Bank Busting" | ||
+ | | TNT and his minions break into a bank. They take hostages and open the vaults merely to torch the money in an act to generate terror and spread fear, and for the sake of the fun in it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blue Squad arrives on the scene, composed of Sombra, Courser, Scatha 5, Windchill, and Blue Fox. They are also joined by long-time team member, Tungsten, and newcomer, Martyr. Martyr rises to the occasion given the extreme circumstances. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team coordinates and surrounds the bank under Windchill’s storm cover, getting into position to draw the fire of TNT’s as Sombra sneaks inside to begin rescuing hostages. The team whittles away at TNT’s substantial forces, and manages to make it inside of the bank after Sombra finishes freeing the hostages. | ||
+ | |||
+ | TNT reveals that he is covered in actual T-n-T, the explosive, and taunts the team before he severs his hand with a gunshot and lets it drop into a water main pipe to facilitate his escape and regeneration elsewhere. | ||
+ | |||
+ | He detonates the bombs strapped to himself, and buries Tungstan, Scatha 5, Martyr, and Blue Fox alive, while also punishing them with extreme and grievous injuries with a combination of the explosive and the plasma weapons utilized thanks to von Reisen [see Red Squad], in addition to killing a number of his own men. The burid Blue Squad members are swiftly rescued by members of Red Squad, and other non-squad team members. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blue Fox proposes luring Black Badger out of hiding, as the villain’s tunnel archives may reveal where TNT’s HQ could be within the city, as TNT is working from his inside knowledge relating to the Overseer era. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The plan is to have team friend Replica disguise herself as Blue Fox, and go on to Dick Twight Tonight under the premise of a live, on-air debate concluded with an unmasking on live television, to draw the elusive Black Badger out of hiding. | ||
+ | | TNT, Overseer [Not Seen], Black Badger [Not Seen] | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Afterburn | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #6''' | ||
+ | | "School’s In Session" | ||
+ | | TNT's forces resurface after a small bout of alarming silence, especially given Blue Squad’s success in foiling him lately. TNT’s minions launch a violent and destructive assault on MCU’s campus, targeting the gymnasium complex where a number of the collegiate athletes are training in the early evening. The building is nearly leveled and the surrounding property is all but demolished. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blue Squad responds, with Blue Fox, Sombra, Courser, Scatha 5, and Windchill rushing in to aid the students. Inexplicably, TNT’s minions start taking hostages from nearly every sport, regardless of speciality. At the end of the battle, despite Blue Squad’s best efforts, TNT’s minions get away with twenty-three minions in total. Additionally, the minion’s arsenal remains composed of custom-made TNT explosives and stolen weapons, but they also feature advanced and sleek plasma weaponry in the form of rifles and grenades. Members of Adventurers Red Squad confirm that TNT might have struck a deal with their current foe, Dr. Freidrich von Reisen in order to get his hands on the powerful weaponry. | ||
+ | | TNT [not seen] | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Afterburn | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #5''' | ||
+ | | "Ghosts of the Past" | ||
+ | | Detective Knight allows for Blue Squad to visit Dr. Howard Romrell after he has been taken to an MCPD safehouse in downtown Millennium City. There, they confirm with Romrell that TNT had been hunting him, but that his purpose goes deeper than mere utility to have his nuclear bomb made. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Dr. Romrell had been a senior administrator in Compass Labs, one of the many businesses secretly owned by the Overseer, AKA Congressman Clayton Ewing, before his dramatic downfall at the hands of the Adventurers. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Dr. Romrell explains to Blue Squad that TNT was once a man named Thomas Nathaniel Tullett. He had been a member of the British SAS, serving as a part of a joint-mission with UNTIL that was tasked with disarming alien explosives. While disarming a Gadroon device, Tullett unknowingly triggered a leak of radiation, before the bomb itself detonated once the invisible radiation had completely enveloped Tullett and filled his lungs. | ||
+ | |||
+ | A mutation took place, where Tullett was frozen in a perpetual state of agony. Third degree burns covered every inch of his body, yet they remained fresh and unhealing, and any other damage done to him would see his body rapidly return to the same charred, burnt state, something Courser was able to identify by personally analyzing his blood. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Overseer went out of his way to secretly arrange to buy the ‘rights’ to Tullett’s life for the sole purpose of experimentation. Tullett was transferred to a secretive Compass Labs site in the U.K. where he was used for target practice and other weapons testing. Officially, Tullett was designated as KIA, but unofficially he was tortured nearly non-stop for twenty years. Once Overseer was taken down, the scientists running the lab Tullett was housed in fled in fear of repercussion, and Tullett was able to escape and make his way to America, fixated only on feeling and spreading pain. Romrell quietly taunted the team, stating that this was all their fault, as if the Overseer were never taken down, TNT wouldn’t have been freed to terrorize the city. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Soon after the explanation, TNT attacks the building. Courser, Blue Fox, Sombra, Windchill, and Scatha 5 are able to fight off TNT’s gunmen, who were disguised as window cleaners. Sombra gets Romrell to the safety of U.S. Marshals, and when bombs that TNT had placed on the building’s foundation detonate, Windchill overexerts himself, freezing the building solid in a giant block of ice before it can fall apart. TNT escapes by simply dropping out of a window in the middle of the fight. | ||
+ | |||
+ | A followup visit with Detective Knight confirms Romrell’s story about TNT, and Blue Squad wonders if Tullett, who was by all accounts, a well regarded and valorous soldier, can be saved from his own madness. | ||
+ | | TNT, Overseer [Not Seen] | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Afterburn | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #4''' | ||
+ | | "Material Girl" | ||
+ | | Adventurer Courser is on site at the lab when Grey Raccoon makes her move. She strategically sneaks into the facility and makes a play for the uranium stored there while Courser summons Blue Fox, Sombra, Scatha 5, and Windchill to the scene. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Despite fostering a reputation as a non-powered thief, it is revealed during the confrontation that Grey Raccoon has control over her own molecular density, and can phase through solid objects at will. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The combined effort of Blue Squad subdues the thief, and together they convince her to speak as to why she would aid someone like TNT in the first place. Windchill and Sombra successfully appeal to her humanity, and Grey Raccoon reluctantly agrees that she had struck a deal with TNT to help him get his bomb, with the idea that while the MCPD and the Adventurers were distracted hunting him, she would be free to rob the city blind in the mean time to take care of her mysterious ‘debts.’ | ||
+ | |||
+ | After handing over the Uranium, Grey Raccoon disappears, but she left a secretive message to the Adventurers indicating that former Compass Labs scientist, Dr. Howard Romrell, was specifically sought after by the supervillain to help build the makeshift nuclear bomb. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team notifies Detective Knight, and she begins to search for Dr. Romrell in order to place him in protective custody so Blue Squad can figure out why hein particular has been singled out by the supervillain. | ||
+ | | Grey Raccoon, TNT [Not seen] | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Afterburn | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #3''' | ||
+ | | "The Firetruck" | ||
+ | | TNT, after going quiet, suddenly reappears. He and his newfound minions are driving the stolen fire truck, and an additional stolen garbage truck, both with ramshackle welded on armor and ramming equipment. The firetruck has been converted into a giant flamethrower. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Both vehicles are on a rampage, smashing through traffic in a seemingly pointless display of carnage and destruction. Blue Squad responds. A police car is pierced by the garbage truck’s prongs, but officers inside are saved by Scatha 5, with Blue Fox’s help. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sombra attacks the firetruck, and ends up hanging onto its napalm-spewing hose. Courser moves in to assist, as Windchill uses his powers over ice and wind to make the vehicle drivers struggle for control. At one point, he even raises ice walls to keep the vehicles from veering off of the road. | ||
+ | |||
+ | TNT himself is driving the firetruck, firing rockets at Windchill. Windchill’s enhanced durability preserve his life. Sombra daringly teleports inside of the fire truck, but she is held down by TNT and his minions. TNT holds a grenade to her head. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Windchill eventually ices over the street, and both vehicles lose traction and tumblee over. Taking a mostly unconscious Sombra captive, TNT holds a grenade to her head as Blue Squad witnesses his true form. Covered in head to toe in fresh, third degree burns, TNT laughs and simultaneously laments that the worst things in life aren’t pain, or fear, but “endless boredom,” before he rips off his own face, only for the burned flesh to heal back in an instant. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Before Blue Squad can capture him, he shoves Sombra free and dives underneath the firetruck and detonates the grenade, blowing himself up for a second time. Nonetheless, Blue Squad manages to capture a number of his minions and take out his repurposed demolition vehicles. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blue Squad meets with Detective Knight once again, where it is revealed that known international thief, Grey Raccoon, stole plutonium from a Compass Labs facility. The heist happened at the same time as TNT’s firetruck rampage. Knight proposes that Grey Raccoon and TNT may be in coordination, and the team agrees. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Pointing out another Compass Labs satellite location in Millennium City, one that may contain uranium, Blue Squad agrees to place a guard on the location to see if they can prevent the theft of the material and thwart TNT’s attempt to make a dirty bomb. | ||
+ | | TNT | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Afterburn | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #2''' | ||
+ | | "The Breakout" | ||
+ | | While Blue Squad member Windchill is guarding the prison, the mysterious TNT launches his attack. He breaks onto the prison grounds, dual wielding rocket launchers, driving a dump truck filled with weapons and explosives. He blasts a hole into the wall and deposits the weapons into a massive heap in the prison yard as escaping inmates run out in a stampede. Additionally, TNT detonates explosives on all the major roadways leading to and from the prison, delaying first responders and harming civilians. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sending a quick alarm, Windchill summons Scatha 5, Blue Fox, Sombra, Courser, and Pathfinder to the prison. The Adventurers strenuously balance saving civilians with preventing as many of the violent, manic inmates escaping as they can. Pathfinder notably uses her powers to create a large trench that caught escaping inmates. | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the battle subsides, Windchill freeze TNT to a wall, demonstrating the latter's heightened durability, and Blue Squad speaks with him. TNT gloats, saying that “It’s time this town had chaotic evil.” He thanks the Adventurers for taking down Overseer, so “we can play without rules.” Before Blue Squad can inquire further, TNT uses his own explosives to blow himself up. The team spends the rest of the night scouring the nearby neighborhoods to locate and return what violent fugitives they can find. | ||
+ | | TNT | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Afterburn | ||
+ | | '''Blue Squad #1''' | ||
+ | | "The Spark Ignites" | ||
+ | | Members of the newly formed Blue Squad, consisting of Blue Fox, Sombra, Courser, Pathfinder, Windchill, Scatha 5, and Reclaimer gather at Blue Bird’s (Congresswoman Olivia Ellison’s) hidden training center to give demonstrations of their powers. Reclaimer develops extensive charts and graphs to give visual representations of member strengths and weaknesses. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blue Fox reports that his source in prison, his brother Kyle, revealed that a number of prisoners were simultaneously transferred to the infirmary wing after an inexplicable string of self-inflicted burns. Many of the perpetrators of the self harm were incarcerated for arson and other violent pyromaniacal behavior. Kyle’s own bunkmate did it, and ominously told Kyle that “It’s your way in.” | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blue Fox contacts Detective Laura Knight, of MCPD’s superhuman crime investigation unit, or SCIU. At a rooftop meeting on the Westside MCPD precinct, she ttells Blue Squad about a violent fire truck heist. The perpetrator was shot multiple times but wouldn’t go down. He left a message written in blood on the firehouse ground, asking “Are you in?” | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sometime afterward, the Mysterious Hooded Figure robbed an MCPD evidence warehouse, containing weapons of Baker’s Dozen from the Overseer takedown. He left a similar bloody message at the ground of the warehouse that merely said “In,” with a check mark. Upon a follow up visit, Sombra learned that the mysterious, would-be leader of the imprisoned pyromaniacs is someone named 'TNT.' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Adventurers and Knight conclude that the prison events and this violent newcomer to the city are linked, and agree to take round the clock guard overlooking the prison just in case. | ||
+ | | TNT [not seen] | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | With A Silver Spoon | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #383''' | ||
+ | | "Rise of the Silver Sentries" | ||
+ | | With the city still feeling the effects of the Overseer's downfall, Silverline Industries holds a press showcase where company president Selene Silver (wife of company founder Raymond Silver) proudly presents their newest robotic innovation: gleaming silver battle droids called the Silver Sentries, powerful and non-lethal defenders of the peace with a noble "winged knight" aesthetic. While the company is making these defense bots available to companies for a steep price, they're also graciously donating and stationing a dozen of them across the city, ready to respond to emergencies and threats. The showcase also features a spectacle for the audience; a gladiatorial fight between a Silver Sentry and one of the Silverline "Rollbot" security units, which the Sentry handily wins. | ||
+ | |||
+ | A week later, one of the Silver Sentries makes its debut as onlookers film the scene of it arriving at and attacking a Scrappers hideout. When Catfight, Sombra, Blue Fox, and Stretcher arrive to assist - and keep a wary eye on the Sentry - they team up and easily defeat the cybernetic gang who protest being targeted by the automaton! The Scrappers at the scene are collected by the police, but the Adventurers don't leave empty-handed: during the fight, among many other stolen and salvaged bits of tech, the wrecked Rollbot from the showcase is discovered, and the heroes sneak it away in the hopes it has some kind of helpful data on Silverline's plans.... | ||
+ | | The Scrappers | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Avenging Avery | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Midnight #8 (vol. 2)''' | ||
+ | | "Adieu to Darién" | ||
+ | | Montes is persuaded after a couple of pistolwhips, and under wooden Mantle's restraint, to cooperate. He says Bastos has anchored his yacht off of Aguanosa. Avery gets a knockout blow, then the team climbs a ladder from Montes's room to the fortress roof as they prepare for a very dangerous escape from Montes's headquarters, surrounded as it is by his troops. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Upon the roof, they unexpectedly find an aged helicopter. But as Catfight removes the camo netting, and Blue Fox finds the kerosene fuel, Avery surmizes that it may still be flight-worthy. They load the unconscious Montes in, board themselves, and prepare for an expedient escape. Ramon is only able to siphon enough fuel from the cannisters to get them a short distance; Stretcher uses herself as a shield to protect the group from gunfire as the helicopter picks up speed and heads west to rendezvous with Sombra. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sombra receives the radio transmission and speeds down the river in her stolen boat in a hurry. The team lands the helicopter in a farm field adjacent to the river, and gets in with Sombra. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Hours later, Agent Avery - with fresh gear - asks the team to join her in apprehending Samuel Paz Bastos. Once secured. Bastos admits he helped Lord Aurum escape Darién and dropped him off near Galveston, TX. Avery promises that Montes and Bastos will be prosecuted for their crimes against humanity. With the clan's regional leader gone, as well as their chief weapon supplier, It's the best chance at establishing a freer society that the region has had in a long time. | ||
+ | | Colonel Montes; Clan del Darien | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Avenging Avery | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Midnight #7 (vol. 2)''' | ||
+ | | "The Pathway to Danger" | ||
+ | | At Ramon's urging, the team abandons Ramon's boat, and Blue Fox uses his powers to break a hole in the hull so it sinks in the Rio Serpiente. They are told of the plight of slave-like farmers on the cartel's farms nearby. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The party proceeds on foot with Dr. Anderson guiding them. They ambush a ranger patrol at unawares, and Mantle, Blue Fox, and Ramon pretend to escort Catfight and Rubber Bullette as captured tourists to the fortress, while Sombra and Dr. Anderson leave to try to steal a ranger boat for the escape. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sombra uses her powers of invisibility and teleportation to aid the return to the river, but Dr. Anderson has so many questions about how it works biologically. Sombra turns down an offer by him to study her and her powers. When they arrive at the ranger station, Sombra finds the perfect ranger boat for the size of the team, stows Dr. Anderson in a claustrophobic compartment in it, and sets about using sugar stolen from the ranger station to sabotage the outboard motors of the rest of the ranger boats. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Meanwhile, in the fortress, the disguised rangers are admitted through the gates and told to drop their prisoners off in the cell. There, Catfight and Stretcher meet Agent Avery. Though weakened by her captivity, Avery imparts that she wants to complete her mission - she has ascertained that Samual Paz Bastos, the weapons dealer she was trying to apprehend when she was captured, is coming back to Darien with another shipment of munitions. She implores the team to help her confront, question, and capture Colonel Montes, who would know where Bastos is parking his yacht. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sombra completes her task of sabotaging the boats, and lays low with Dr. Anderson, waiting for the signal on her radio. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team storms the upper level of the fortress and questions '''Colonel Montes''' in his private room. Blue Fox beelines to the Colonel's laptop, while Avery gets help from Catfight and Mantle in a rough interrogation... | ||
+ | | Colonel Montes; Clan del Darien | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Avenging Avery | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Midnight #6 (vol. 2)''' | ||
+ | | "Treehouse" | ||
+ | | The team persuades Ramon to give them one more ride in his boat, but his conditions this time are that they have to help him evacuate to the United States - it's become too dangerous in Colombia for him. They agree, and Ramon commits himself as a party member. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blue Fox gets more than he bargained for when he asks Ramon to tell them a ghost story. Several of them cannot sleep easily afterward as they lay on the deck of Ramon's boat, anchored near where Julio said they could find Dr. Derek Anderson, hearing all of the sounds of the jungle. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The next day, they enter the jungle and at Catfight's direction, wisely watch for booby traps. Sure enough, '''Dr. Anderson''' has set some near his treehouse to alert him if any Clan approach his hidden home. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team quickly establishes to Anderson that they are no threat. He is more than willing to help inform them about Montes fortress, recounting how he accidentally found it. He provides the team precise coordinates on a topographical map he created. But he pleads with them to take him along - like Ramon, he is ready to flee the area. He wishes to return to Canada and publish his work studying the ecology of the Darien region. The team accepts Dr. Anderson as their guide and scout. | ||
+ | | Clan del Darien | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Avenging Avery | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Midnight #5 (vol. 2)''' | ||
+ | | "Ambush" | ||
+ | | En route to San Quintin, Ramon is giving a lesson to Maya on how to navigate the Rio Aguja's hazards when Ramon's boat is suddenly pursued by speedboats with Clan del Darien rangers. They are ordered to cut the motor and prepare to be boarded. Sombra persaudes Ramon to stay at the wheel, while the Adventurers fight back. Stretcher and Blue Fox each leap into one of the two pursuing boats and disrupts the rangers up close, while Sombra teleports to the boat with Stretcher and, invisible, turns the key on their motor. Catfight takes a machine gun given to her by Ramon and damages the engine on the other boat. Stretcher grabs a gun and disables the other boat's engine. Ramon's boat is able to leave the rangers behind. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Back in San Quintin, matters have apparently become more tense. The Clan knows there are foreign agents about, and has increased its presence in the village. The team stays on the docks. The UNTIL contact, Sergio, says he's about to flee to Panama for fear of being found and killed by the Clan. But he directs Catfight to seek out Dr. Anderson, the Canadian biologist - he may be the only non-Clan person who knows how to find Montes fortress. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team has to help fix a broken gas pump at the riverside gas station before the owner and Dr. Anderson's sometimes-employer, Julio, will give them a lead on the doctor's whereabouts. Derek Anderson has been hiding in a treehouse in a remote jungle area. Julio provides coordinates. | ||
+ | | Clan del Darien; Clan ranger patrol | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Avenging Avery | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Midnight #4 (vol. 2)''' | ||
+ | | "Deep in Clan Territory" | ||
+ | | The team lands clandestinely at Arreti in the early hours and sneak around. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blue Fox and Sombra sneak into a drug factory and search through binders and an offline laptop for clues, finding an alert sent to all points about Samuel Paz Bastos being necessary, but no longer trusted, and seeming to have some ties to the VIPER cadre who the Clan wiped out. Bastos, it seems, also took on a personal consignment of cocaine before departing the area. Unfortunately, they cannot find information about Montes stronghold. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Catfight and Mantle are nearly discovered while hiding near a residence at daybreak, but escape and get back to the boat in time. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team goes further down the lake from Arreti and finds the remains of the VIPER cadre, their gear stripped, their bodies left to decompose. Some of them have been slain by bullets, others by a laser sword consistent with Lord Aurum's. Following a trail, Catfight and Sombra discover a hidden cavern where, deep underground, they find a mysterious rock formation suspended floor to ceiling like a column. At once, it calls back the mysterious dream they all shared some weeks ago, but for Marshall, it also reminds him of the Terraformer from 2019, calling to him and tempting him. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team improvises an explosive and collapses the cavern out of abundant caution. After a night encamped by the lakeside, they depart again with Ramon, headed back to San Quintin. | ||
+ | | Clan del Darien; the mysterious cave | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Avenging Avery | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Midnight #3 (vol. 2)''' | ||
+ | | "Trouble in San Quintin" | ||
+ | | '''Catfight''', '''Mantle''', and '''Stretcher''' arrive, prepared for a trek into Colombia, arriving at the border village of San Quintin. There, they learn at the tavern that a biologist named Dr. Derek Anderson may have found Montes hidden fortress, but he has since fled into the jungle. Following up on a lead from the tavern's cook, Stretcher and Sombra find photo negatives in a room Anderson had been renting, and upon developing them, confirm Anderson's discovery - but no one they show the photos to can say for sure where the landmarks are. Catfight finds an UNTIL asset named Sergio who discloses in secrecy to her that a VIPER cadre had come through around the time Agent Avery was captured, but they were not allies of the Clan del Darien - the Clan reportedly killed them and left their bodies on the northeast shore of Lago Claridad. Rumor has it that Avery was seen in the company of a man dressed in golden armor from head to toe - '''Lord Aurum'''. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Mantle gets into a boxing match with the local Clan point man, '''Eugenio Martinez''', and defeats him; this earns them the services of '''Ramon Munoz''', a mercenary and boatman from the region, who agrees to take them deeper into Colombia, and the Clan-run village of Arreti at Catfight's insistence. | ||
+ | | Clan del Darien; Eugenio | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Avenging Avery | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Midnight #2 (vol. 2)''' | ||
+ | | "Mission de la Mision" | ||
+ | | Tomas tells the pair about Agent Avery, an UNTIL agent who was captured by the Clan and is being held for ransom somewhere at the hidden jungle stronghold of "Colonel" Tobias Montes - a militant revolutionary who joined the clan when most other revolutionaries took a peace deal with the Colombian government, and disarmed. Tomas is unaware of the mission Avery was on, but Marshall and Maya feel compelled to help. Visiting the mission, they learn more of the danger of the Clan, and while there is much gratitude to them for securing the medical supply delivery, Father Valero urges the heroes to leave before the Clan retalliates against the mission. Marshall calls home to Millennium City and bids Midnight Squad to come. | ||
+ | | Clan del Darien | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Avenging Avery | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Midnight #1 (vol.2)''' | ||
+ | | "A Vacation Like No Other" | ||
+ | | Marshall and Maya are on a cruise through the Panama Canal! But when they stop in the remote port of Las Mercedes near the border with Colombia, they are drawn in to help Father Pascal Valero and his helper Tomas get needed medical supplies to their mission deep in the jungle. As Tomas feared, the dreaded Clan del Darien - a drug cartel from Colombia - attacks the boat to try to steal the supplies. Marshall and Maya use their super powers to help Tomas's boat get past the ambush safely. | ||
+ | | Clan del Darien | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Crimson #14''' | ||
+ | | "Crimson Cat-astrophe" | ||
+ | | Power-Chord encountered a fiery feline foe in the City Center and put out a distress call as she was unable to combat them alone. Firewalker, Windchill, and Scatha 5 answered the call and helped Power-Chord face off against Anar-Kitty. She claimed to be genetically perfected by some mysterious figure, and showcased her raw power and skill. It took Firewalker absorbing her heat, Windchill cooling her down, and Power-Chord blaring sick guitar riffs into her eats to take her down. | ||
+ | | Anar-Kitty | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Crimson #13''' | ||
+ | | "Ignorance is Bliss" | ||
+ | | Months ago, BPE Executive Chairman Landon Bellerose requested to run a brain scan on local punk rocker Devona Bliss. She agreed to do so on the condition that he would buy her two couches, which he happily complied. Gathering at a NeuroTech facility, the brain scan commenced with their mutual friends Blake and AJ also in attendance. Results showed that Devona Bliss had a rare genetic disease known as Urbach-Wiethe disease, which impaired Devona’s long-term emotional memory, making her incapable of experiencing fear. | ||
+ | | -- | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Crimson #12''' | ||
+ | | "Back to Zero" | ||
+ | | Acting in Windchill’s aversion, Firewalker traveled to a BPE facility where '''Delilah Young''', previously known as Project Zero-Point, was receiving treatment. Though still apprehensive and aggressive, Firewalker managed to quell Delilah’s raging emotions and relate to her situation, and learned more about her shared history with the Bellerose Family. Before leaving, Firewalker was able to instill a sense of hope in her. | ||
+ | | Delilah Young | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Crimson #11''' | ||
+ | | "A Solution to Genesis" | ||
+ | | Face of Medicine Landon Bellerose returned to GeoCorp following a lead provided by some friendly Adventurers. However, once he was there, he discovered '''Dr. Elijah Young''' hiding in plain sight. Calling forth the Crimson Squad, Landon ran into a power siphoning chamber and waited for backup. As Firewalker, Osprey, Power-Chord, and Scatha 5 arrived at GeoCorp, they were lured through the winding halls of the facility until they were forced to confront Dr. Genesis. The Crimson Squad kept Dr. Genesis’s attention while Landon powered up the siphons, draining the transformed being of energy back to a mere man. | ||
+ | | Dr. Genesis | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Crimson #10''' | ||
+ | | "Winds of Chains" | ||
+ | | Firewalker called together his Crimson Squad allies Osprey, Power-Chord, and Windchill to confront and capture the escaped '''Blood Bat'''. Once the heroes engaged with the hemophilic villain, they found Blood Bat distressed and desperate. While attempting to detain her, they encountered the hero '''Torrent''', who was soon recognized by the team as Firewalker’s father. | ||
+ | |||
+ | A conflict quickly unfolded between the Crimson Squad and Torrent. Firewalker was quickly removed from the battle, leaving Osprey to try to get Power-Chord and Windchill to retreat, which they both ignored. Working together, they laid down considerable offense on Torrent, but were eventually bested by the more experienced hero. Torrent claimed a rune of unknown origin or purpose from Blood Bat before departing and leaving the Crimson Squad to tend to their wounds. | ||
+ | | Torrent | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Crimson #9''' | ||
+ | | "Zeroes and Heroes" | ||
+ | | After numerous BPE research labs were raided by '''Project Zero-Point''', Windchill called together his allies Mantle, Firewalker, and Power-Chord to confront the assailant by luring her into a trap he set at a hollowed-out lab. Once in position, the heroes confronted Project Zero-Point, but found themselves overwhelmed by the sheer power she could output. Mantle was able to remove her suppressor mask, which freed her from cybernetic mind-control, but also forced her powers to spike. The fight was now a countdown of surviving Zero-Point until her powers exhausted her. Soon the Adventurers discovered the attacker was none other than Delilah Young, daughter of Genesis Solutions’ head researcher Dr. Elijah Young. | ||
+ | | Project Zero-Point | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Crimson #8''' | ||
+ | | "Necrology 101: Ghosts and Stuff" | ||
+ | | While on patrol, Firewalker encountered a paranormal phenomenon in the form of a ghost reaching out to contact him about a MCU student Julia Royce who had been abducted by a villain known as '''the Necrologist'''. Rallying with Windchill, Blue Fox, Osprey, and special guest hero '''Moon Stalker''', the group of heroes traveled to the location provided by the spectral guide Leo Capello. Once they found the secret entrance the heroes encountered Meat Bag, who Firewalker and Osprey immediately confronted. Meanwhile, Blue Fox and Moon Stalker moved further to confront Necrologist, who summoned another lackey known as Ectovore, a robot that eats ghosts. The Necrologist put the heroes in a tough spot by holding Julia Royce hostage. Luckily, Moon Stalker cloaked and got in close, forcing the Necrologist to retreat and the heroes to escape as the base was filled with ecto-plasma. | ||
+ | | The Necrologist | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Crimson #7''' | ||
+ | | "Hollow Earth" | ||
+ | | Tracking strange energies after the sudden resurgence of '''Genesis Solutions''', Windchill gathered Power-Chord, Osprey, and Firewalker in Westside. There they discovered an unethical experiment come to life known as '''Project Quake'''. A collection of inanimate matter injected with sentience that could only feel pain, Osprey attempted to reason with it, but its existence was too unbearably agonizing that the Crimson Squad needed to use force. Tearing away the earthy exterior, Project Quake replaced its armor with a combination of Windchill and Firewalker’s powers before vanishing to parts unknown. | ||
+ | | Project Quake | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Crimson #6''' | ||
+ | | "Museum Mayhem" | ||
+ | | A break-in at local art museum was carried out by assailants wearing black clothes and raven-beaked masks. They group was armed with toxins similar to those used by Wendigo. Power-Chord, Blue Fox, Jet-Star, Sombra, and Osprey showed up in forced to confront this faction soon to be known as the '''Cult of Nyx''', who had a cult-like fascination around the primordial goddess of the night, Nyx. | ||
+ | | Cult of Nyx | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Crimson #5''' | ||
+ | | "Bite Out of Crime" | ||
+ | | Receiving a distress call from the billionaire Landon Bellerose, the Crimson Squad was alerted his life was in immediate danger after being attacked by a crazed scientist. Firewalker, Power-Chord, and Osprey quickly arrived at '''GeoCorp''' and encountered '''Dr. Devour''', a mutated energy-eating mad scientist. It seemed the monstrosity could counter everything the heroes threw at him, until Power-Chord’s ‘pyro-tech’ showed what it was really capable of, siphoning energy from the doctor and making it easier for Firewalker and Osprey to overwhelm and detain him. | ||
+ | | Dr. Devour | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Crimson #4''' | ||
+ | | "Wendigo’s End" | ||
+ | | Alerted by Windchill of an Air Pod on the move, the Crimson Squad capitalize on a previous laid trap. They rally at Mercy Hospital where Firewalker, Scatha 5, and Power-Chord encounter Wendigo on the interior, while Osprey and Windchill engage with a mysterious figure on the rooftop who Windchill dubs '''‘Wendigal.’''' Fighting valiantly, and causing a snowstorm that devoured blocks of the City Center, it was Power-Chord’s unbridled rage that put Wendigo out of commission with a flurry of punk rock punches. | ||
+ | | Wendigo | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Crimson #3''' | ||
+ | | "And New..." | ||
+ | | Claiming himself a perfect genetic specimen, Glarthok targeted rockstar superhero '''Power-Chord''' as a challenge, and snapped her guitar claiming her unworthy. Firewalker helped her track down the guitar-smashing menace as he was in the midst of attacking someone. '''Power-Chord''', '''Firewalker''', and '''Osprey''' directly engaged with '''Glarthok''' by grappling, blasting, and redirecting his attacks. Slowing wearing down the strong and durable foe, the heroes managed to knock him out and redeemed Power-Chord’s glory. | ||
+ | | Glarthok the Destroyer | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Crimson #2''' | ||
+ | | "Westside Investigations" | ||
+ | | While '''Firewalker''' and '''Windchill''' traveled to Westside to settle a beef between Windchill and local luchador '''Scorch''', they learned '''Wendigo''' had been spotted at the docks. Assembling the Crimson Squad, the heroes discovered one of Wendigo’s toxic contraptions. Low on trackers, but rich in creativity, the Crimson Squad decided to lay a trap by placing one of Windchill’s Air Pods in the device to later follow Wendigo’s movements. | ||
+ | | Wendigo | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Crimson #1''' | ||
+ | | "Trouble at the Chem Lab" | ||
+ | | Following the fallout from Overseer, the Crimson Squad set their sights on the villain '''Wendigo''', a chemist with an addiction to spewing fear and chaos. The heroes were called to action at a chem lab in Westside, which was attacked and raided by Wendigo. Working together to quell the rampaging civilians, the team was unable to detain Wendigo as he had already fled the scene. | ||
+ | | Wendigo | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers 2038 #4''' | ||
+ | | "Out with the Trash" | ||
+ | | While pursuing the clairvoyant bad guy Scryer through a waste facility, the Adventurers Enenra, Blast-Beat, Kingfisher, Brazen, and Spyder end up tumbling into an industrial vessel that seals its hatch, trapping them. The team has to work through increasing heat and an odious garbage smell when Scryer sets them on a course to the incinerator. Using teamwork, the heroes manage to escape the vessel, though Scryer flees the scene while they are occupied. | ||
+ | | Scryer | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Skulls | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Midnight #7''' | ||
+ | | "Anarchy in MC" | ||
+ | | Several days after Iron Skull gave his ultimatum people gather at city hall to demand the domestic terrorist and his gang receive justice, while others arrive to show their support of Skull's declaration of anarchy. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Midnight Squad arrive alongside Firewalker and Osprey to try and calm the people down so a riot doesn't break out. It doesn't take long for Iron Skull to arrive alongside a group of exo-clad gangers, Skull himself now piloting the very same hulking power armor suit he forced Dr. Tamagawa to make. After a brief exchange of words Skull fired the first "shot", hurling an energy buzzsaw towards innocents as they fled, only to have his efforts thwarted via Amita driving her car between the civilians and buzzsaw, saving them, but losing her prized vehicle in the process. Seeing his former protoge still alive enraged Skull, and a battle ensued! Blue Fox (with support from Sombra) fought alongside Catfight to defeat the exo-gangers. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Firewalker''', '''Mantle''', and eventually Amita herself battled against Iron Skull. The powerful heavy-duty armor was a lot to handle for them, eventually requiring Blue Fox to step in and attack Skull's flank while Catfight recovered from nearly being taken out by a micro-missile barrage that almost got the rest of the team as well. Eventually they were able to restrain the power armor in place, but not without cost as Amita took a brutal focused rail shot through the shoulder that nearly killed her. But a final corkscrew dropkick from Catfight floored Skull, and with the armor overheating and shutting down the villain was finally defeated. | ||
+ | |||
+ | There is one last crisis to deal with however as Amita's body went into shock from the railgun shot, but with Osprey's medical aid and quick thinking from Sombra, the P.I. is teleported to an oncoming ambulance, and save her life! With Iron Skull bested alongside his gang, Midnight Squad and friends were able to take a breath of relief. Later discovering the supposed bombs Skull threatened the city with were just a ruse, a bluff to try and turn the city against itself and introduce the anarchy he so craved. Midnight squad were free to take a breather, but more adventures loom over the horizon! | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | | Super Skull (Iron Skull), the Skulls gang | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Skulls | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Midnight #6''' | ||
+ | | "No More Heroes" | ||
+ | | Amita Prasad contacts Midnight Squad, informing them she's spoken with the power armor expert that the Skulls gang kidnapped, Dr. Taka Tamagawa. With the recent efforts conducted against the gang, Iron Skull has decided it's time to change Tamagawa's location, a late night prisoner transport being the best chance to rescue him. While Catfight and Prasad were engaged in a seperate mission the squad (Blue Fox, Sombra, Mantle, and Stretcher) were joined by friend of the team, '''Wizard'''! | ||
+ | |||
+ | Gathering on the highway ahead of the transport, Stretcher was turned into a makeshift slingshot used to launch Mantle into the convoy. A high speed chase on the highway results! The Skulls gang are not without new surprises however, unveiling combat exo-frames built by Dr. Tamagawa. With Wizard's help Midnight squad were able to defeat the gangers while Sombra extracted the doctor from the transport truck. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Their victory was short-lived however as Iron Skull held a livestream where he went on a lengthy anti-establishment rant. Demanding the people stand up against their real oppressors, heroes. Activating a detonator he destroyed an abandoned building in City Center, declaring he's had his gang install bombs in occupied buildings as well. And will detonate them if his demands aren't met. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Chaos erupts in the streets while Midnight rushes to the scene of the explosion... | ||
+ | | Iron Skull, the Skulls gang | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Skulls | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Midnight #5''' | ||
+ | | "Corrosion Catastrophe" | ||
+ | | Catfight gathers the rest of Midnight squad, Blue Fox, Stretcher, Mantle, and Sombra to the location of Corrosion's hideout in the northeastern section of City Center. They find an abandoned building overtaken by plant life. After a brief investigation of the exterior the squad decided to move in, finding the interior floor completely caved in with a tunnel leading into the sewers. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Deeper within they found the borderline feral villain, who used stolen biochem medication, along with an armored suit equipped with a venomous tail to bolster his abilities. Injecting himself with the stolen medication to gain temporary control over the nearby vegetation. The villain used vines along with poison spitting plants to keep Midnight squad at bay, but was eventually bested by the heroes superior numbers. The police arrive shortly after to arrest the maniac! | ||
+ | |||
+ | With the brief diversion out of the way Midnight squad were free to pursue their campaign against Iron Skull, eager for Prasad's next bit of intel... | ||
+ | | Corrosion; mutated plants | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Skulls | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Midnight #4''' | ||
+ | | "The Truth is Revealed" | ||
+ | | Midnight Squad gather at the secluded Westside docks to meet with Private Investigator Prasad, wary of the enigmatic gung-ho woman at first. They approach her openly as a team, discovering that she worked alongside Iron Skull (real name Richard Barret) in the early 2000's with a fellow vigilante who went by the name of 'Nomad'. The band of mercenaries conducting a brutal, lethal crusade against criminals and corrupt leaders alike during the time period where Detroit was still recovering and progressively turning into the Millennium City of today. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In 2010 the group were demolished during a botched takedown of the Overseer. Nomad was fatally shot during the escape, dying moments later in the back seat of their getaway vehicle. While Amita was launched from the car after it was rammed by an SUV belonging to Overseer's goons, losing half of her right arm in the process. Richard Barret was still in the drivers seat of the wreck, seemingly burning to death when Overseer's goons lit it on fire. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Amita begged Midnight squad to let her join in their efforts to take down Iron Skull, desperate for redemption after being manipulated by the overglorified anarchist that is Richard Barret which resulted in her taking so many lives, as well as being forced to clean up various assassinations Overseer conducted after the mercenary band was defeated. After a brief debate Midnight agreed to team with the P.I., who promised she would dig up more intel on the Skulls' current plan while uncovering a dangerous unaffiliated super villain she discovered named, "Corrosion", and where to find him. Midnight squad decides it best to take Corrosion down while Prasad continued her investigation for the time being... | ||
+ | | Iron Skull (mentioned); Overseer (flashback) | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Skulls | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Midnight #3''' | ||
+ | | "Skulls Race" | ||
+ | | Sombra and Stretcher use Blue Fox's phone tracking app to investigate the power armor dealer the Skulls are after. Finding the dealer, named Freddy's apartment building. They're able to easily sneak in and discover Freddy runs an entire counterfeit power armor operation using scrap from the junk yard cleaned and touched up to look legit on first glance! Sombra and Stretch eventually choose to interrogate the man, learning he's using the money gained from these counterfeit deals to try and get his way out of the city, while also screwing over any potential psychopath looking to build an illegal suit of power armor. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Their questioning is cut-short when the Skulls arrive eager for revenge. The heroines trying their best to diffuse the situation peacefully, but Freddy had other plans. Causing a brief distraction to make a run for it, what followed was an intense, action-packed chase through the apartment complex that eventually spilled out into the streets! The Skulls chasing Freddy in his junky old car through the streets of westside. Stretcher was able to disable the Skulls' vehicle with the help of Sombra while the same mysterious woman from before flew onto the scene in her sports car, forcing Freddy to crash onto the docks before knocking the fraudulant dealer out with a punch from her cybernetic forearm. Introducing herself as Amita Prasad, a private investigator. Proclaiming she knows who Iron Skull is, and offers to share everything she knows after the rest of Midnight squad gather at a secret location an hour later... | ||
+ | | The Skulls gang | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Skulls | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Midnight #2''' | ||
+ | | "Warehouse Mayhem" | ||
+ | | Following up on the tracking device planted in the power armor parts Iron Skull purchesed, Blue Fox and Mantle find themselves on the northern outskirts of the city at a large maintenance warehouse. Blue was able to test out his newly created camera jamming app on his phone to allow the heroes to sneak into the warehouse. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Discovering the warehouse's primary use is to repair the gang's various vehicles consisting primarily of armored SUVs and transport trucks, with the most dangerous of all being a refurbished VTOL chopper with mounted miniguns! Eavesdropping on the scene revealed that Iron Skull ordered the kidnapping of a power armor expert to build a heavy-duty suit for the villain to use, in addition the parts they bought were fakes, Iron Skull himself demanding the power armor dealer pay for trying to ripping him off. Skull himself wasn't on the scene, making it much easier for Blue and Mantle to take the operation down! One panicky Skull ganger in particular jumping into the tethered VTOL and attempting to take the heroes out with the miniguns, resulting in the vehicle crashing indoors and adding to the chaos! | ||
+ | |||
+ | With new information in hand, and the gang's strength slightly diminished, Blue and Mantle fled the scene. Unknowningly being watched by a mysterious woman with a flashy sports car in the distance... | ||
+ | | The Skulls gang | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Skulls | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Midnight #1''' | ||
+ | | "Skullduggery" | ||
+ | | While out on a early nighttime patrol Catfight comes across a nefarious arms deal going on in Westside, calling the newly formed Midnight Squad to aid in breaking up the operation! Watching over the scene revealed a new gang to Millennium City, the Skulls, and their leader, Iron Skull. A heavily scarred man obscuring his face with a polished metal mask in the shape of a skull. | ||
+ | |||
+ | With the help of Blue Fox, Sombra, Mantle, and Stretcher. Midnight squad intervened in the power armor deal, and though Iron Skull and the dealer got away Blue Fox was able to track the phone of the dealer, while Sombra planted a tracking device in the purchesed goods! Midnight were able to defeat several gangers. But the mystery as to who this insidious new threat really is was just getting started... | ||
+ | | Iron Skull; the Skulls gang | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Under the Overseer's Gaze | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #382''' | ||
+ | | "Return to Grace" | ||
+ | | The team moves on the high rise where Overseer is holed up with a number of mercenary defenders using firearms and rockets to keep law enforcement at bay. The Compendium is now in the hands of the justice system and the press, and everyone knows, in astonishing detail, the depth of Clayton Ewing's crimes. The Adventurers arrive to break through the outer defenses. Before they can challenge the Overseer directly in his secret basement facility, they have to defeat an armored-up Titanic (enemy of Blue Fox) and the villain Faceless, who has taken on a form identical to Titanic. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Once inside the Overseer's command center, Kyle McAllister turns on Clayton and tried to shoot him, but Clayton gets the draw and takes Kyle down, first. Then Ewing tries to goad Blue Fox, whom he knows to be Marshall McAllister, his god son, into lashing out and killing Ewing so that Blue Fox will be seduced into the same cycle of lawful evil as Clayton had fallen into. But Kyle, barely alive, manages to draw strength enough to put a fatal bullet in Ewing, and spare his brother from any rash decision. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Adventurers actions are seen to have been necessary in light of the extent of the Overseer's corruption, and they are lauded as heroes. But there remains the threat of a vacuum to be filled... | ||
+ | | Overseer | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Under the Overseer's Gaze | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #381''' | ||
+ | | "The Compendium" | ||
+ | | The Adventurers move on Compass Labs only to get ambushed by the supervillain Mantis, on Overseer's payroll, and suffer an untimely betrayal at the hands of Scatha 5. While the robo-team member was visiting Kyle McAllister, and Dark Web, both incarcerated in the Adventurers HQ, the latter managed to 'possess' Scatha 5 and prime him for the backstabbing at the opportune moment, before both McAllister and Dark Web make their escape. Scatha 5 nearly breaks Blue Fox's leg during the startling backstabbing. Nevertheless, the Adventurers persist and manage to extract the Compendium from the Compass Labs archive, until he entire team is then ambushed by Typhoon, yet one more villain amongst an army that serve the Overseer. They manage to temporarily trap Typhoon and arrange a deal in where Typhoon goes free in exchange for the Compendium. | ||
+ | | Overseer | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Under the Overseer's Gaze | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #380''' | ||
+ | | "Mr. X Revealed" | ||
+ | | Later the same night as the bank heist, Scatha, Windchill, Webcrawler and Tungstan fight to save the life of Mr. X against an attack by Wendigo, Lechuza, Sinister, and Blue Scorpion. Affected by Wendigo's fear toxin, Windchill blanketing a city block with a frigid blizzard to defeat the illusory Wendigoes. It is effective in leading to the defeat of the other villains, but Windchill has to be ordered out of the area because the blizzard is proving deadly. | ||
+ | |||
+ | After the fight, Mr. X is revealed to be Steven Roundy, who worked for Ewing Estates - owned by Ewing - reveals that he had access to Ewing's inner circle, and knows that Ewing has a ''compendium'' of all of his crimes, arrangements, and holdings. This compendium would prove crucial in prosecuting members of Ewing's criminal organization, all the way up to Ewing himself. | ||
+ | | Wendigo, Lechuza, Sinister, Blue Scorpion, Overseer (indirectly) | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Under the Overseer's Gaze | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #379''' | ||
+ | | "The Bank Job" | ||
+ | | Several Adventurers, including Blue Fox, Sombra, Joule, Firewalker, Osprey, Mantle, and Skyline take part in robbing a bank! They are met with resistance by a group of hastily assembled vigilantes including Safeguard, Delta, Horseshoe, Quetzal, and Wizard within the bank, but fight to escape with barely a scratch while routing the vigilantes handily. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The sudden turn of the Adventurers to crime momentarily puts Clayton Ewing in a PR stalemate, having recently praised the team for saving his rally from an attack by supervillains - just as Webcrawler predicted. But it also puts the team in the law's crosshairs, as Duane Steel had warned. | ||
+ | | Safeguard, Delta, Horseshoe, Quetzal, the Wizard, and the Overseer (indirectly) | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Under the Overseer's Gaze | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #378''' | ||
+ | | "Ethics" | ||
+ | | The Adventurers have a clandestine meeting with Mr. Koheler, formerly of NLUS, to strike an agreement to have him hold their prisoners. In exchange, the team agrees to do a favor for Koheler down the line, though are quite clear that it must meet not cross any red lines for them. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team also meets with Duane Steel and advise him of a plan some members have concocted to attack the S&H Bank, which is connected to Clayton Ewing, the Overseer. The daring plan would both leave Overseer without capital, but also, would force Federal investigators to look into their books. The team is not united on the plan, however, with a number of heroes refusing to stoop to criminality to defeat crime. Steel agrees, urging the team to do the plan under the auspices of a prosecutorial-led sting, or else take their chances with being absolved after the fact if they go ahead with it alone. | ||
+ | |||
+ | King Kestrel meets with the team and offers his services. He believes Ewing has a list of enemies, which if found, could prove to be vital to Ewing's arrest and prosecution as hard evidence. The team agrees; there is a sense that Kestrel has changed, though the Adventurers remain wary. | ||
+ | | The Overseer (indirectly); One's own conscience | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Under the Gaze of the Overseer | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #377''' | ||
+ | | "Baker's Hideout" | ||
+ | | The Adventurers involve law enforcement on an action to capture Baker's Dozens in the Michigan woodlands, but agree to be the tip of the spear. Numerous duplicates of Baker's Dozen are present at some kind of shanty village outside of an abandoned mine - his drug manufactory. The position is far from any major highways and protected by a gun emplacement on high ground, as well as a guard tower at the entrance to the camp. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Adventurers cooperate to try to take the Bakers by surprise, and obtain the state-of-the-art plasma weaponry in crates around the site. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team takes a few injuries. The purpose of the Overseer revealing this site to Blue Fox appears to be two-fold: one, in hopes that Marshall will take Baker's Dozen's life to avenge the attack on his father and home, but Blue Fox resists that temptation with the aid of his team mates. Two, to wipe out Baker's Dozen as a drug producer and dealer, to suit the Overseer's goals in finally cleaning up the city. | ||
+ | | Baker's Dozen | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Under the Overseer's Gaze | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #376''' | ||
+ | | "Long Arm of the Law" | ||
+ | | Overseer calls Marshall when a number of Adventurers were present to offer another chance to surrender. He specifically asked for his people (Kyle, and Darkweb) back, but the Adventurers refuse to yield. The Overseer threatens consequences to follow. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Overseer reveals the supposed hideout of Baker's Dozen, a criminal biker with replication technology who recently torched the McAllister home and tried to kill Marshall's father, Marcus. Overseer’s intentions for doing so remain unspoken. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Later that night, a breakout occurs at the municipal prison! The crime-fighter Osprey is seen violently disabling a number of prison guards and breaks into the maximum security prison to release King Kestrel and his dangerous associate, Cuckoo. Osprey is last seen by witnesses and CCTV escaping the scene with the escaped inmates in tow. | ||
+ | |||
+ | MCPD and PRIMUS are both placing pressure on the Adventurers for the whereabouts of Osprey. | ||
+ | | Overseer; Osprey?; Cuckoo; King Kestrel | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Under the Overseer's Gaze | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #375''' | ||
+ | | "Tit-for-Tat" | ||
+ | | The Adventurers put themselves in position, anticipating an attack upon the Ewing rally. They must listen to an impassioned 'tough on crime' speech from Ewing (the Overseer) and the roar of a supportive audience, before explosions take out the fountains at the outdoor venue, and a green toxic fear gas starts to spread out. As panicked ralliers stampede away, the supervillains secretly hired by Overseer begin their attack. The Adventurers move in to go toe-to-toe with the baddies, including Absolver, Blue Scorpion, Wendigo, and Lechuza. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When Webcrawler arrives and joins the battle, the fear toxin triggers the spider monster transformation, adding another complication to the battle - though the creature does manage to drive off Blue Scorpion. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ewing, for his part, cleverly plays up his meaningless shooting toward the armored Blue Scorpion as a heroic deed, while his agents capture unflattering footage of the Adventurers and pump that out to media outlets who portray the team with denigrating narratives. Skyline is shown to be trigger-happy; Blue Fox is shown destroying a police cruiser; Tungstan is shown accidentally injuring a civilian during the stampede as he ran toward the danger; Stinger is shown 'recklessly' attacking Blue Scorpion in a barrage when civilians were seemingly close by; Mantle is shown to clumsily stumble into panicked civilians, when in truth, the fear toxin caused the civilians to attack him; and Webcrawler is shockingly shown to turn into a mutant monster spider, becoming widely known to do this for the very first time. | ||
+ | | Overseer; Lechuza; Absolver; Wendigo; Lechuza Spider Monster | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Under the Overseer's Gaze | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #374''' | ||
+ | | "Backlash" | ||
+ | | Blue Fox is ambushed by Lechuza, Absolver, Titanic, Black Badger, and Creature in swift retribution for betraying the Overseer. Intervention of Osprey, Courser, Firewalker, Sombra, and Tungstan leads only to more team members being caught in the trap and brutalized by the array of tough villains. In a display of his power, the Overseer ''calls off'' the villains before any team member is slain, but the Adventurers - even Tungstan - carry injuries. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Elsewhere, Webcrawler, Mantle, Azure Hawk, and non-Adventurer Mr. Obvious respond to an attack by the Baker's Dozen at the apartment block of Marcus McAllister - Blue Fox's father. Dozen, an Irish bike gangster who can duplicate himself, is an old foe of Marcus's from his MARS days. The attempt at a very personal strike toward Blue Fox is disrupted by the team's timely intervention, preventing Marcus and other residents' deaths. The apartment block is destroyed in a fire. | ||
+ | | Overseer; Lechuza; Absolver; Titanic; Black Badger; Creature; Baker's Dozen | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Under the Overseer's Gaze | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #373''' | ||
+ | | "Taking the Power Pieces" | ||
+ | | Some Adventurers plan to accept the Overseer's offer, at least in the short term, to buy time in working against him. | ||
+ | |||
+ | While Blue Fox draws '''Darkweb''' out of hiding and captures him, Osprey goes undercover to infiltrate Overseer's operation which is vanishing homeless people and destroys it - driving off '''Creature''', to whom homeless were being fed. Sombra, Replica, and Courser enacted a plan to capture Kyle McAllister, Blue Fox's brother and advisor to Overseer, and temporarily replace him with Replica so that they could hold and question the real one. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Replica learns that Ewing plans to have supervillains attack an upcoming rally of his own supporters to stifle Olivia Ellison's gains and try to gain the same sympathy. | ||
+ | | The Overseer | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Bluebird for Congress II | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #372''' | ||
+ | | "Will the Real Overseer Please Stand Up?" | ||
+ | | Discussing the preponderance of evidence gathered over the last several months - from Casey Trent, to the harassment and attempted murders of Olivia Ellison, to the mysterious Mister X, to data obtained by Adventurers Silver - the team comes to believe that Congressman Clayton Ewing, godparent to Blue Fox, is actually the Overseer! | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team confronts Ewing in numbers at his office, and is escorted in by none other than Marshall's (Blue Fox) brother Kyle, who is in service to Ewing. After a brief, tense exchange, Ewing freely admits that he is the Overseer, and also reveals that he knows Blue Fox and Sombra's secret identities. He also knows that Olivia Ellison, his rival for election, is the alter ego of former Adventurer Blue Bird. The team variously reacts to the Overseer with promises of justice, and even some threats, but leaves peaceably. The Overseer gives them 24 hours to agree to work with him on achieving his vision for true order... or face his wrath as his enemy. With recording devices interfered with preventing hard evidence of Ewing's 'confession,' the team scrambles to figure out how to respond to Overseer's offer. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Featuring:''' Blue Fox, Sombra, Firewalker, Courser, Scatha 5, Osprey, Azure Hawk and Webcrawler. | ||
+ | |||
+ | | The Overseer - Congressman Clayton Ewing | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Bluebird for Congress II | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers #371''' | ||
+ | | "Rack and Break" | ||
+ | | Directed to help protect Congressional candidate (and secretly, the former Adventurer named Bluebird) during an open air rally at which she will be at great risk, the Adventurers meet with her. Yet despite the history of attempts on her life and threats from the Overseer, Olivia is immediately more interested in the hit to her image - her opponents' PACs keep attacking her for being too soft on crime, and a danger to be around because of all the bad things that happen to her. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team agrees to be subtle, but when rocket fire and wide-area smoke bombs disrupt the rally, the team swoops into action to face the perpetrators: a billiard ball-styled gang called '''the Ballers'''! Each Baller seems to have a different skill set and themed costume. The team captures some, and forces others to retreat. But the stage collapse caused during Osprey's battle with 4-Ball, and the various rocket-blasted areas, leave Bluebird rattled. Was it the Overseer again, or someone else with an agenda to eliminate Ellison - or just her chances at high office? | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Featuring:''' Blue Fox, Firewalker, Scatha 5, Osprey, Sombra | ||
+ | |||
+ | | The Overseer?; the Ballers | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Dealing with Devastator | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Gold #3''' | ||
+ | | "Ghost Town" | ||
+ | | Adventurers Gold reaches the ghost town where Devastator lives. The old mining community seems abandoned, but when they get closer, half-finished, haphazardly reconstructed robots dig themselves out of the sand and beset the team in great numbers. Trespasser is injured in the fight. The team then survives an aerial bombardment of missiles launched by Devastator, with help from Stinger who arrives late to the battle. Finally, all of his defenses laid bare, Devastator takes flight over the battlefield himself where after a pronounced battle, he is brought to ground and defeated. | ||
+ | | Devastator | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Dealing with Devastator | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Gold #2''' | ||
+ | | "The Jail Gambit" | ||
+ | | Tasked with capturing Devastator, the team learns that he is adept at laying low, and probably has a base of operations in the USA. One of Devastator's known associates, Jay Nordhoff AKA '''Marauder''', is being held in the county jail awaiting an arraignment. The team devises a plan to sneak Firewalker in, disguised as a gangster cellmate, to try to quickly earn Nordhoff's confidence and figure out where Devastator is, while other team members keep the court and jail officials busy undercover. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Devastator is discovered to be hiding out in a remote part of eastern Nevada. | ||
+ | | Jay Nordhoff (the Marauder) | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Dealing with Devastator | ||
+ | | '''Adventurers Gold #1''' | ||
+ | | "Supreme Devastation" | ||
+ | | Webcrawler calls out for help! Having escaped capture by her old enemy, the '''Devastator''', she alerts the team that she is being pursued by his Oppressor robot - nearly two storeys tall. It takes numerous Adventurers to fell the thing, and rescue its power source: a young hero named '''Battery''' whom Devastator had recently captured and enslaved within the robot. Webcrawler taps the newly-formed Adventurers Gold to begin the hunt for Devastator, and bring him to justice. | ||
+ | | Devastator; Devastator's Oppressor Robot | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Soul of the Nation | ||
+ | | '''#370''' | ||
+ | | "Return of Mr. X" | ||
+ | | The mysterious Mr. X unexpectedly reaches out to Blue Fox, causing several Adventurers [Blue Fox, Osprey, Sombra, Mantle, Scatha 5, Courser] to attend a clandestine meeting with him in a city center underground car park. His new revelation: Casey Trent was ''not'' the Overseer, but probably a patsy, a fall guy. Mr. X says that the criminal web of which he is part slowed for a bit upon Trent's capture by the Adventurers months ago, but recently has renewed its activities, and is working hard toward some looming goal. Furthermore, the Overseer seems quite aware of the Adventurers and is making plans for them. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As before, Mr. X can answer few of their questions in full or direct ways, for fear that the compartmentalization of information in the cabal will make it easy to trace back to him. But he does profess to be an ally to the Adventurers and opposed to the illegal activity he sees. | ||
+ | | The Overseer | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | (none) | ||
+ | | '''#366-#369''' | ||
+ | | "Sins of the Past, Sins of the Present" | ||
+ | | The Adventurers encounter Skyline, and help battle his opponent Tectonic, leading them into intrigues with the Hawthorne Foundation who manufacture a potent but dangerous substance called Polymorphite - which currently powers Skyline. | ||
+ | |||
+ | More: [[Skyline:_Sins_of_the_past,_sins_of_the_present|Skyline: Sins of the Past, Sins of the Present]] | ||
+ | | Hawthorne Foundation; Tectonic | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | (none) | ||
+ | | '''#359-365''' | ||
+ | | "Broken Mirror" | ||
+ | | (Description to come) | ||
+ | | Kestrel | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | (none) | ||
+ | | '''#358''' | ||
+ | | "Dino Rampage" | ||
+ | | The team responds to a genuine t-rex rampage in downtown Millennium City! The combined efforts of Firewalker, Blue Fox, Replica, Courser, Stinger, and Sombra(?) drive the creature toward a large city park where they leave it open to be sedated and subdued. PRIMUS, meanwhile, follows the path of destruction back to its source and locates a bio-lab in a state of carnage. | ||
+ | | Dinosaur | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Going Home | ||
+ | | '''#356-357''' | ||
+ | | "Going Home, Parts 1 & 2" | ||
+ | | Maya (Sombra) and Riley (Courser) join Kyra (Replica) on a bus trip to her home town of Athens. There, Kyra has been asked to give a speech to an assembly at her old high school about her unorthodox path to success and overcoming her more rowdy past. Kyra has to face the real reason her parents refused to pay for her university, something which has been a sore point in their relationship for years. Also, a swamp monster turns up at Kyra's dad's workplace - an alligator sanctuary - requiring the Adventurers in Athens to take action! ... and afterwards, Kyra spills the beans about her secret identity to her antagonized father, leading at last to a cathartic reconciliation. | ||
+ | | Swamp Monster | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Cabal | ||
+ | | '''#355''' | ||
+ | | "Foxing Them Out" | ||
+ | | Red Spider recovers enough to go home, but has memory loss covering about the last 10 years of her life. The team agrees to take turns watching her in case her secret identity became known by villains. Firewalker, Replica, Courser, and others start attending fitness classes at Red Spider's home studio to keep tabs on her, while Sombra and Dreamweaver do what they can to help her at home. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The enigmatic Mr. X tells the team a month later that Liddell's arrest seems to have changed nothing for the mysterious cabal he previously warned the Adventurers about. Blue Fox is selected to lead in Red Spider's stead, and he announces he is determined to probe the identities and true intentions of who framed Liddell. | ||
+ | | Liddell; Mystery Cabal | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | With a Silver Spoon | ||
+ | | '''#354''' | ||
+ | | "Straight From the Source" | ||
+ | | The team is alerted to a break-in at Silverline Industries, discovering a few of the Scrappers gang inside, ransacking the place for new parts to maintain and grow their cyborg posse. Raymond Silver, founder and CEO of the company, investigates matters himself via video screen, expressing his annoyance and sealing both groups inside while he summons his security. During the fight between the teams, this security arrives: a trio of formidable rolling robots ordered to take down everyone! The three-way melee ends, of course, with the Adventurers victorious, the lockdown lifting as they threaten to trash the damaged robots completely. | ||
+ | | The Scrappers, Silverline Industries | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | A Murder Most Foul | ||
+ | | '''#353''' | ||
+ | | "Ground Zero" | ||
+ | | After the battle in the casino, the team confronts and arrests Cosmo Liddell in his penthouse. Liddell protests that it's all a frame, accusing the team of having manufactured the crisis as an excuse to grab him. The police investigation begins, with Detective Sheffield helping the team realize that Red Spider probably wasn't beaten in the holding room where she was found, but brought there after. Blue Fox tracks the scent of her to the loading dock. Upon personally verifying the Red Spider's medical status at the team's HQ, the Detective is willing to conclude that the Adventurers had probable cause to enter the casino to rescue her - but warns that destructive vigilante behavior will not be tolerated any further. The team provides the detective with recordings and data they pulled from the casino; though technically admissible, the detective warns that they may not be lawyer-proof. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team has a frank discussion about it, with members like Tungstan, Stinger, and Sombra showing disappointment in how the casino battle unfolded, ones like Blue Fox and Vortex feeling things could be better but they acted as best they could, and ones like Catfight feeling that the ends justified the means. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Red Spider remains unconscious and recovering under the care of the team's surgical droid. | ||
+ | | Cosmo Liddell | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | A Murder Most Foul | ||
+ | | '''#352''' | ||
+ | | "Ground Zero" | ||
+ | | The mysterious Mr. X arranges a meeting with the team through Blue Fox's website. In a parking garage, he tells Sombra, Blue Fox, and Firewalker that the attempt on Olivia Ellison's life, and the death of Sarah, was just part of a much vaster conspiracy. While he knows that Cosmo Liddell is part of the web, Mr. X does not believe Liddell is at its center. He urges the team to find out who gave the order, and find a path to the center of the web. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Later, Red Spider goes missing! On a hunch that Cosmo Liddell has captured her, the team arranges for ally '''Replica''' to sneak into Liddell's Horizon Casino, disguised as a Liddell gangster. Inside, she finds Red Spider badly beaten in one of Liddell's casino holding rooms. With danger closing in and Sombra's powers suddenly inactive, the team springs into action. | ||
+ | |||
+ | A pitched battle sees the casino wrecked. Much collateral damage is caused by the Liddell gang and their weapons, but the Adventurers are wanton in their destruction. Catfight in particular drives her car into the slots floor, with potentially lethal consequences. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Afterward, the team confronts and arrests Cosmo Liddell. Liddell protests that it's all a frame, accusing the team of having manufactured the crisis. The police investigation begins, with Detective Sheffield helping the team realize that Red Spider probably wasn't beaten in the holding room where she was found, but brought there after. Blue Fox tracks the scent of her to the loading dock. Verifying that Red Spider was injured, the Detective is willing to conclude that the Adventurers had probable cause to enter the casino - but warns that destructive vigilante behavior will not be tolerated any further. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team has a frank discussion about it, with members like Tungstan, Stinger and Sombra showing disappointment in how the casino battle unfolded, ones like Blue Fox and Vortex feeling things could be better but they acted as best they could, and ones like Catfight feeling that the ends fully justified the means. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Red Spider remains unconscious and recovering under the care of the team's surgical droid. | ||
+ | | Cosmo Liddell; Mr. X | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | A Murder Most Foul | ||
+ | | '''#351''' | ||
+ | | "In the Dragon's Den" | ||
+ | | The Adventurers begin to strike back at Liddell to let him know he's gone too far in murdering celebrity Sarah Ellison! Blue Fox does some cyber attacks and reveals some embarrassing info about the Liddell organization. Catfight hits a money-laundering operation within a laundromat. Red Spider exposes a shipping container full of contraband on the Liddell Shipping lot. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team track down the gunman who escaped from the Ellison penthouse. He gives up under questioning that someone else recruited him for the hit and the money came by dead drop, but he was under the impression it was a Liddell operation. The team keeps the gunman in protective custody for fear that Liddell will try to eliminate him. | ||
+ | |||
+ | A full force of Catfight, Blue Fox, Red Spider, Stinger, Sombra, and Vortex go to Liddell's casino. Though security tries to tell them to leave initially, Cosmo Liddell relents and has them escorted to his office. There the team tries to extract a confession out of him. Liddell remains cagey and trades barbs with the team. The crime boss contends he had no involvement in the death of Sarah Ellison - though he'd congratulate whoever did it. He's not troubled by the hearsay the team has gathered, saying he's constantly the target of hearsay for things he both did and did not do, and it hasn't sunk him yet. Liddell warns the team if they keep trying to weaken his organization and the control it exerts over his territory, it will give rise to more violent crime - a risk some team members seem willing to accept. | ||
+ | | Cosmo Liddell | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | A Murder Most Foul | ||
+ | | '''#350''' | ||
+ | | "The Death of Night Star" | ||
+ | | Two gunmen make their way through the layers of security at Ellison Hotel and Suites to open fire on Olivia (Bluebird) and Sarah (Night Star) in the former's private penthouse suite, declaring they are there on behalf of Cosmo - notorious crime boss Cosmo Liddell. Sarah goes down in the initial salvo, while Olivia manages to resourcefully fend off the attack. Sarah uses the last of her strength to ward off one gunman, while Olivia kills one in her own defense. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Later in hospital, Sarah succumbs to her wounds. Dr. Erin Bailey surgically removes a data device from Night Star and gives it to Cassandra Olsen's (Red Spider) safe keeping. Rubber Bullette, Sombra, Blue Fox, Stinger, and Catfight are all present out of costume at the hospital to join Olivia and Rayna Ellison, and they begin to discuss responses to Liddell. | ||
+ | | 2 Gunmen; Cosmo Liddell? | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''#349''' | ||
+ | | "Sinking of the Titanic" | ||
+ | | On her own, Sombra encounters the villain Titanic, seemingly hired to trash a construction site belonging to Congressman Clayton Ewing. She is forced to play a game of cat and mouse, unable to match the giant in combat, but eventually outthinks him, though finds no satisfying motivation for the attack.... | ||
+ | | Titanic | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Juliana Nova Incident | ||
+ | | '''#348''' | ||
+ | | "Vengeance of Verdugo" | ||
+ | | With evidence to clear Olivia's name, the team heads to Juliana Nova to retrieve their extradited teammate. Verdugo's compound is well-defended, but the team smashes through, finding Olivia beaten and bruised in a cell. Verdugo himself reveals his metahuman powers, and faces them! | ||
+ | | Salvador Verdugo | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Juliana Nova Incident | ||
+ | | '''#347''' | ||
+ | | "Joule, Grounded" | ||
+ | | The team is shocked to discover the morning news declaring that their teammate Joule, Olivia Kowalczyk, has been arrested for an apparent political assassination from her time in the US Army. Fledgling South American nation Juliana Nova and its Grand Marshal, Salvador Verdugo, accuse Olivia's unit of the murder of several rebels, including his own brother Pedro, during their bid to depose the previous rulers of the country. The team splits up to investigate, visiting the Juliana Novan embassy, and Joule's own records from the past. It's soon discovered that Nero Corp, the creator of the Invictus serum that previous villain RoidRage made use of, was involved in Juliana Nova. Salvador and his men killed their own men while "high" on the drug, and framed the US soldiers later! And now, they have a new, improved Invictus II serum in storage.... | ||
+ | | Salvador Verdugo, Nero Corp | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Catfight Arc | ||
+ | | '''#344-346''' | ||
+ | | "The Kriedler Feud" | ||
+ | | The team contends with Winston Kriedler, who has a grudge against the Reinhardt family and a giant wolf robot to help. Markus Reinhardt, believed dead since Adventurers #307, turns up alive and well and offers to help the team. His agenda isn't clear, but Markus does make a play for his own redemption. (Please expand). | ||
+ | | Kriedler, giant wolf robot | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Hellfire, Dark Fire | ||
+ | | '''#341-343''' | ||
+ | | The Path of the Righteous Man | ||
+ | | Firewalker, affected by the hellfire he absorbed in his contest with Satan like a deadly toxin leeching into his mind, starts rampaging through the city, causing havoc and terror. The Adventurers, after numerous attempts to reach him, finally confront him once and for all when he becomes a giant, fiery demon. Fox, now known as Oni, is able to use a new energy-draining sword to stab Firewalker and suck the hellfire out, leaving the hero injured and apologetic, but okay. | ||
+ | | Firewalker | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Golden Man | ||
+ | | '''#340''' | ||
+ | | "Not a Forever Goodbye" | ||
+ | | Lord Aurum's remaining Golden Men try to save him, and drag him against his will into the waiting transport. Firewalker blasts it off course, while Silver Hare trashes its engine assembly. The resulting pressure build-up causes an explosion that makes the transport crash to the street. Aurum emerges from the wreck to be assailed by Blue Fox; his helmet is smashed, his life support fluid drained, and he is brought within an inch of his life. The team brings Aurum back to HQ in a bid to keep him alive. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Surgical Droid captured in Adventurers #284 is brought in to stabilize Aurum and attempt to fashion a makeshift repair to his life support suit. The team orders the droid to awaken Aurum, then they ask if he can save Spyder. Aurum indicates that he ''probably'' can, but that he would need to return home to consult his texts to find the way. He bargains for his release, promising he will fulfill his end, and help both Spyder and Abaza Menderes return to life. The team is reluctant, but agrees that letting Aurum go is their best chance to save Spyder. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Two weeks later... | ||
+ | |||
+ | Spyder wakes up at the Olsen suite, surrounded by Blue Fox, Catfight, and Firewalker. She needs a few days to recover. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Future Adrynne visits Spyder late at night to let her know that she has fulfilled her purpose for being in the past, and she will soon be brought home to her proper time. Spyder takes time to say goodbye to the younger version of her father, whom she got to know during her stay in 2021, and farewells her team mates with a party. As she waits for the portal to open to return home, she says goodbye to everyone over team comms - and they respond by showing up in person to see her off. Sombra sends a cake with her to share with whoever greets her on the other side. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Shortly after Spyder enters the portal and it closes, the express private elevator of Cassandra Olsen's suite dings with a new arrival: Cassandra, returned from the future, holding baby Jessa. | ||
+ | | Lord Aurum | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Golden Man | ||
+ | | '''#339''' | ||
+ | | "Spyder's Purpose" | ||
+ | | The Adventurers get word from Silver Hare and, shortly after, Firewalker, about Lord Aurum's schemes, his crafting of the Philosopher's Stone, his killing of his future counterpart. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blue Fox accesses a climate satellite to find a heat spike in the city corresponding with Firewalker's forging of the Stone, and locates it at the former address of the Order of Osiris [see Adventurers #249], which is being built over by a new construction site. But there must have been a sub-structure no one knew about, deep below. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team arrives en masse to find Aurum's Golden Men boarding an air transport on exposed top floor of the building construction. Aurum, now encrusted in organic golden armor, and bearing the Philosopher's Stone on his chest, appears by hologram projected by a Golden Man to parley with the team. But the team will not accept Lord Aurum's word about the future calamity, nor his sole proprietorship of the Stone. The Golden Men go to attack mode. | ||
+ | |||
+ | For the first phase of the battle, the Adventurers are seriously overwhelmed by the Golden Men. Spyder went into her camouflage at the start of the encounter and is not seen, while Sombra also goes invisible and tries - without success - to pry the Stone away from Aurum once she sneaks onto the transport. Aurum has Sombra carried out, and has his robots hold position, but prepare for death strikes on those Adventurers who have been knocked down. Unable to get their acknowledgement of his claim to the Stone, Aurum seems about to order their deaths. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Then an invisible hand is revealed as the fingers, hand, and arm start to turn gold against Aurum's chest. Spyder, in camouflage, grabs the Stone and tugs it free, then dives to the ground, and buries it under her. Just as happened to the Turkish girl in 1908, Spyder - undisciplined in the mastery of the Stone - starts to turn into a solid gold statue bit by bit. Her sacrifice puts Aurum in alarm, and he thoughtlessly orders ''all'' of his Golden Men to immediately converge on Spyder and wrest the Stone from her before it is too late. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Adventurers take advantage of the situation and dispense with most of the Golden Men when they turn their backs. Firewalker rockets through a great many. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sombra gets close to Spyder and tries to take the Stone, but Spyder rolls and indicates she intends to see her sacrifice through. The sweep moves over her body, and Spyder is rendered unliving gold. The Philosopher's Stone expends its energy in her grasp, and crumbles to dust under Spyder. | ||
+ | | Lord Aurum | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Golden Man | ||
+ | | '''#338''' | ||
+ | | "Captured by the Alchemist" | ||
+ | | In Millennium City, Firewalker wakes up in an unfamiliar but dungeon-like place, swimming in a pool, restrained on a harness. He is soon visited by Lord Aurum of the Future, who explains his situation. It becomes clear that Lord Aurum of the Future took advantage of Edgar Cryderman's intention to travel back in time [see Adventurers #326-27] to destroy the Adventurers, and persuaded Cryderman to hit Red Spider at a certain date in 2021. Aurum came with Cryderman, and his intention was not to help Cryderman succeed - he expected Cryderman to fail, as he always did - but to be in place at a time in history when he knew that hellfire was something that he might be able to obtain without the peril of dealing with the devil. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Firewalker learns that Future Aurum is trying to stop a great, world-ending calamity that is doomed to happen in the near future, which he has sensed with his foresight power. To do avoid this fate, Aurum believes the Philosopher's Stone must be constructed so that a human mind can attain the wisdom necessary to determine how the calamity begins in the first place. Everything he has done for nearly a century has been, in some way or other, about gaining the Stone, and averting disaster. | ||
+ | |||
+ | While Firewalker considers the value of a potential alliance, Lord Aurum of the Present joins them, and makes clear that they have a hostage to ensure his obedience: Silver Hare. Firewalker tries to destroy Lord Aurum of the Future, but finds his future armor, outfitted with dragon scale, is enough to shield him. They douse him with water from an aqueduct high above. As the villains leave to make preparations, Firewalker asks the two Aurums if they considered which one of them gets to keep the Stone. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Later, Lord Aurum of the Future explains the situation to a frightened Silver Hare, and then brings her to see Firewalker. Just before it comes time for Firewalker to forge the stone, the Aurum of the Present has his Golden Men seize Future Aurum, and force a poison through his visor, into the liquid oxygen medium around his head. Future Aurum dies, and is dragged away. Later, Present Aurum - now in his future counterpart's armor - presides over the forging of the Stone. Firewalker bargains for a sign of good faith from Aurum that he won't misuse the Stone, asking that Aurum release Silver Hare. Aurum uses his golden dust to sedate Hare without warning, and orders his Golden Men to drop her off safely on a rooftop. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Firewalker uses his powers to forge the metallic core Aurum has prepared into the Philsopher's Stone, in a forge lined with dragonscale in order to protect the building from the intense hellfire. Firewalker achieves the Stone's formation... and tries to go a step further and eradicate it. The Stone, however, remains resilient to the additional heat. Golden Men, standing guard, strike from multiple angles with electrical attacks to subdue Firewalker. Aurum remarks that he anticipated betrayal, but still finds it disappointing. He does try to share with Firewalker something of the Stone's power, asking if Firewalker can sense any new insight or inspiration. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Firewalker also removed to wake up safely somewhere else. | ||
+ | | Lord Aurum | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Golden Man | ||
+ | | '''#337''' | ||
+ | | "A Century's-old Adventure" | ||
+ | | As the team tries to look into leads on some clues they found in Lord Aurum's mansion in the Aegean, the Professor Walsingham AI finds a personal connection to one of the aliases Aurum has used, in the old passports and IDs Sombra brought back - that of Dr. Adem Altun. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Walsingham recounts in flashback how the Classic Adventurers attempted to investigate the case of a girl named Abaza Menderes in the Anatolya region of Turkey in 1908, who had apparently been turned to stone. Discounting other explanations such as a hoax, the team met Dr. Altun, supposedly a professor in Ankara, who had also come out to investigate. In time the team learned that Altun was not all that he appeared, and after Altun knocked the team out and captured them in his home, they woke up in a dungeon. Altun admitted he had been with Abaza, and had even hired her to help him, when he came to explore an old temple that he suspected was in the area near her village. When they discovered a glowing orb set in the floor, he instructed Abaza to pick it up for him - but upon holding it in her hands, it began to turn her to gold. Altun left the statuefied Abaza and went back to Ankara to get the tools he needed to handle the orb safely, but when he got back, not only had the Adventurers shown up to investigate, but the orb had apparently crumbled to dust. Altun suspected that Abaza lacked the mental discipline to bear the orb. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Classic Adventurers managed to escape Altun's dungeon. They had to flee Turkey immediately when Altun leveraged his pull with the authorities to make the Adventurers out to be vile warlocks and plunderers. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team learns that Dr. Altun / Lord Aurum's aim as an alchemist would be to craft the fabled Philosopher's Stone. That may be what Altun and poor Abaza found in that ancient, forgotten temple. The Stone legendarily would have the power to turn base material to gold, but also to provide wisdom, insight, and inspiration to those near it. It might also prolong life. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Night Star tracks down the statue of Abaza, which still exists and is presently owned by one of those commercial museums of oddities, and pays over $30 Million to buy it and have it shipped to her. | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Golden Man | ||
+ | | '''#336''' | ||
+ | | "Return to Aurum Island" | ||
+ | | Spyder finally meets 'Fox' who has recently been restored to life. She tells him about her purpose being in the past: finding Lord Aurum. Fox, darkened by his time in hell, seems skeptical of the young hero. He suggests that if Aurum is out there, the team should visit his island. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Spyder convinces the team to go. Night Star, who was going to journey to nearby Cretoa in the Aegean Sea anyway, arranges transportation for the team to visit the tiny island upon which Lord Aurum's mansion sits. There, the team discovers a swarm of Aurum's '''golden men''' repairing the house, which had been extensively damaged a year prior when dozens of Golden Men burst forth to pursue Red Spider and Blue Fox when they stole something from Aurum's lab. | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the door, a Golden Man wearing an ornate shirt greets the team and hospitably takes them to a sitting room, affording them every comfort a guest might expect. The team learns little by little that Aurum is not present, but he did hope to bury his conflict with them - and avoid the Adventurers interfering in his efforts in future. The servant reveals that Present-day Aurum and Future Aurum are working together, and that Aurum's purpose is to save the world from some future calamity he knew was coming due to his power of foresight, but the servant had no specifics. | ||
+ | |||
+ | While most of the team peppers their host-bot with questions, '''Oni''' (a new alter ego of Fox) ostensibly leaves to use the washroom, but in truth, uses a laundry chute to access the laboratory in the mansion's basement. He takes samples from some kind of recent experiment. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Upstairs, the Adventurers take advantage of the servant bot leaving the room to fetch a water pitcher, to examine Aurum's library and adjoining scrying chamber. Rubber Bullette finds various occult tracts, with many being books on alchemy. Sombra found a book on a book case that opened a tiny, secret office behind it, wherein she discovered that Aurum may have links both to Sir Thomas Walsingham, and the Order of Osiris. '''Terratonic''' (and others) entered the scrying chamber, which was a bare room with black walls, a table, a mirror upon it, and a chair; it was quite foreboding, sending a chill down their spines just to be in it, but they did not 'see the future' as the servant had said was Aurum's purpose for being there. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The servant persuaded the team to stay for dinner. At the dinner table, when Sombra inquired further about how they could trust Aurum, the servant projected a live hologram of Future Aurum, who spoke with them. He indicated that he had been patiently waiting for the team to come to his abode so that he could enact a plot to kidnap Firewalker, whose hellfire he needed for a purpose he would only disclose in riddles. Firewalker had recently absorbed a great deal of hellfire in his challenge to the devil. Lord Aurum said that he had done all he could to delay the team at his home to buy time for whatever his plot was. | ||
+ | | Lord Aurum | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | -- | ||
+ | | '''#335''' | ||
+ | | "Terratonic AND Proto Strikes!" | ||
+ | | The team becomes aware of Proto droids committing a raid in the city's vast freight yards, stealing metals and tech components. Firewalker takes to the sky and tries to intercept groups of Proto Drones making off with heavy bundles of steel. Night Star turns up to fight at the freight yard, and assists '''Terratonic''' - a hero who uses earth-control powers - in destroying a war droid. They then cooperate on destroying a sturdy Hazard Droid. Spyder also turns up, and leads an Aero Droid into a trap for the others to destroy. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Some of the drones escape with their haul, but not as much as they might have thanks to Adventurers and non-Adventurer heroes like Delta and Terratonic. Afterward, Terratonic reveals she is known to Red Spider, and the team extends an offer for Terratonic to join full-time. | ||
+ | | Proto Droids | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | -- | ||
+ | | '''#334''' | ||
+ | | "Chasing Shadows" | ||
+ | | The police think Sombra has broken bad. The team goes in pursuit of her, and eventually dogpile her in the park. Sombra makes her acquisition difficult by using her teleporting powers. Upon seizing Sombra, the team are able to remove an 'Earworm' from her that was causing her to do bad things, and turn it over to the police. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Spyder gains more control of her sticking power in the fight to capture Sombra. | ||
+ | |||
+ | (More to come...?) | ||
+ | | Earworm | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | -- | ||
+ | | '''#333''' | ||
+ | | "Marooned" | ||
+ | | Rubber Bullette and Azure Hawk end up marooned on a tropical island. (More to come...?) | ||
+ | | Unknown | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Mission: Hell | ||
+ | | '''#332''' | ||
+ | | "The ''Other'' Underworld, Part 2" | ||
+ | | The Adventurers challenge the shape-shifting Lord of Hell to various contests. Blue Fox tries to have the devil beat his time in a Doom speed-run, but the devil prevails despite Blue Fox's program traps. Firewalker challenges the devil to try to destroy him with hell's fire, but that if he can endure 15 minutes, he wins; after a trial that nearly destroys him, Firewalker wins. Rubber Bullette asks for the devil to create a obstacle course similar to TV's ''Wipeout''; the devil obliges, creating a grotesque course that uses sharp, jagged metal, bloody meat in place of air-filled rubber balloons, and so on; RB does beat the devil's servant's best time, but is given a bad slice from one of the spinning blades. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sombra challenges the devil to a culinary duel, prompting the devil to pick a jury of the damned to select the winner. While in ''hell's kitchen'' Sombra finds everything she needs, though the screams that eminate from the appliances every time she opens them unnerves her. She manages to exceed the devil's baking skills in the end. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Frustrated, the devil demands an impossible thing: he wants all of the Adventurers, even the ones not present, to give him a challenge, saying that was implied in his contract with the team, and threatens to claim victory if the team doesn't give him one challenge from every team member - impossible, as in some cases, team members simply cannot be there. Sombra counters that as leader, she can change the roster, so she declares those Adventurers not present to be kicked off the team. The devil is down 1 - 3 in the score, and appreciating Sombra's bending of the rules, concedes victory to the Adventurers. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Fox and Adrynne are subjected to profound levels of pain as they are resurrected and set free, and the team is bidden to leave hell immediately. | ||
+ | | The Devil | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Mission: Hell | ||
+ | | '''#331''' | ||
+ | | "The ''Other'' Underworld, Part 1" | ||
+ | | Fox on the run! He is being pursued by demons when the spirit of Adrynne finds him, having been seeking him in the afterlife for company while she tries to reconstitute her mortal form. Fox recounts how he had arrived in hell after agreeing to die in place of another, but in so doing, took on a pact that required him to go to hell. Horrified, Adrynne promises to inform the Adventurers, and stake her own soul in a gambit to free Fox from the devil. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Adventurers are still exhausted from their battle with Xagrim when Adrynne informs them of Fox's plight, and her suggestion of a way to get him back: give the devil some good sport. If the Adventurers can think up entertainments for which the devil, or his appointed servant, can go head-to-head, and beat him in them, then perhaps in winning they can win Fox and Adrynne's souls. But if the team fails, Fox and Adrynne must endure hell until the endtimes. | ||
+ | |||
+ | While some Adventurers are willing, more than a few are quite skeptical of the plan. Inside of a day, hellmouths open before each Adventurer individual, providing a way for them to reach the underworld... | ||
+ | | The Devil | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Season of Xagrim | ||
+ | | '''#330''' | ||
+ | | "Horror at the Fashion Show, Part 3" | ||
+ | | Sarah overhears the conversation in Liddell's room via mics she left there. In a strange conversation, Liddell pledges fealty to Seaton as his 'master,' and promises his will be done. Sombra sneaks into the room, but Seaton - exposed as Xagrim - perceives her, and morphs into his horrific true form, a massive dark humanoid of pure, dark psionic energy, clad in psionic armor. He chases after Sombra, as seizing someone of her power is instrumental to his conquest of Earth. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As fashion show goers flee for their lives, and the convention hall is destroyed by Xagrim as he pursues Sombra, the Adventurers face him down and do battle against the extra-dimensional terror. After a long, pitched battle, which at one point sees Rubber Bullette used as a sort of flail against the Adventurers, the team succeeds at weakening Xagrim enough that he flees this dimension. Cosmo Liddell emerges from the ruination of his convention hall and has no memory of being under Xagrim's control. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The beleaguered Adventurers take some time off to recover. Meanwhile, in the great beyond, Adrynne - impatient for company as she painstakingly reconstitutes her mortal form - seeks the spirit of Fox, the Adventurer who had given his life to defend another some months before. Finding him, to her surprise, in hell, pursued relentlessly by demons, Adrynne vows to rally Fox's teammates and secure his release from this grim fate. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | | Xagrim; Cosmo Liddell | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Season of Xagrim | ||
+ | | '''#329''' | ||
+ | | "Horror at the Fashion Show, Part 2" | ||
+ | | Inside of the convention hall where the fashion show is being held, Maya (Sombra) finds a furtive sort-of friend of hers: Arcadio Rando, the '''Speedmaster''', who needs help stealing back his hover bike from the Liddell gang. AJ (Firewalker) breezes past security in the loading dock, but must take on a flambuoyant disguise to get into the convention hall. Sarah (Night Star) plays it cool and promises not to engage Cosmo Liddell directly only days after her sister was nearly assassinated by someone known to work for Liddell in past. Marshall (Blue Fox), having got Maya and himself in thanks to his uncle's political connections (which enables him to meet Donald Trump), takes on the protection of movie star Samara Parish after she confides that she is receiving threatening letters that indicate someone wants to try to get to her at the event. Jack (Azure Hawk) tries to help a shy male model from Texas find true love. Eva (Catfight) has a conversation with an old flame. | ||
+ | |||
+ | But suspicions arise when Emily (Rubber Bullette) encounters a bland, seemingly albino shoe maker and strange haircut from Millennium City named Dex Seaton who fits the bill of 'someone who hasn't quite got the human form down.' AJ asks around with fashion world observers who point out that Dex really does stand out in an odd way. As the team surveils Seaton, Sarah demands an audience with Cosmo Liddell. In their tense meeting, Sarah threatens to topple Cosmo's organization for what happened to her sister, but Liddel dismisses her out of hand - he's heard that threat before from people he estimates had better resources, obviously unaware of her dual identity. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Not long after Sarah is bounced from the event, Dex Seaton takes an audience with Cosmo Liddell... | ||
+ | |||
+ | | Xagrim; Cosmo Liddell | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Season of Xagrim | ||
+ | | '''#328''' | ||
+ | | "Horror at the Fashion Show, Part 1" | ||
+ | | The team defeats an agent of Xagrim named Xalmallen, who is a human with psionic powers whom Xagrim captured and twisted to his will. Xalmallen and a number of cultists tried to cause a chemical plant to explode within the city, the prospect of which terrified citizens and caused evacuations - but it was averted through the actions of some Adventurers. Liberated, Xalmallen tells the team that Xagrim must be found, as his power is growing daily. Xagrim hides behind a fake identity, Xalmallen says, but his shapeshifting imperfect - they will know him by a less than perfect human form. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Later, Spyder alerts the team after a newspaper article reminds her of a very important happening in their history that she read about in the future: they can capture Xagrim at the upcoming North American Fashion Expo. In the original timeline Spyder knows, it was her mother, Red Spider, who identified Xagrim's alter ego; now that task must fall to another. The team rapidly makes preparations to infiltrate the event, which is being held at the Horizon Casino and Conference Centre - a property owned by gangster Cosmo Liddell. The team contends with elevated security and a lack of available passes to enter the event. | ||
+ | | Xagrim; Cosmo Liddell | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | -- | ||
+ | | '''#327''' | ||
+ | | "Back in Time" | ||
+ | | The team exits Adrynne's sanctum, and soon come across their new allies: Spyder and Eclipse, Adventurers of nearly 20 years in the future! Spyder reveals that Cassandra Olsen was pregnant - news that shocked the team, many of whom hadn't even known she was dating - and that Cassandra has been sent to the future for her own safety, and because Spyder - revealed to be Jessa Olsen, the daughter in question - can't be in the same time as herself under the current time travel rules. Her ally Eclipse is implicitly revealed as Blue Fox and Sombra's son. With these new allies, and the arrival of a few more teammates, Blue Fox, Vortex, and Stinger, the team heads back into the sanctum and confronts Transcendant! After a rough battle the heroes prevail! Spyder reveals that she's going to be filling in for Red Spider for the foreseeable future, due to uncertainty of when Cass will return. Eclipse promises to stick around a couple days himself before taking the elderly Cryderman back to the time they belong in. | ||
+ | | Transcendant | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | -- | ||
+ | | '''#326''' | ||
+ | | "Back in Time" | ||
+ | | Rubber Bullette, Night Star, and Sombra respond to a police alert with a personal stake - Cassandra Olsen's dance studio was attacked! The trio find an unsettling scene - the damaged studio, a trail of blood, and Eva Banks stuck to the wall of the building by a tangleweb burst! Eva reveals that Transcendant attacked the studio specifically, knowing their identities as Red Spider and Catfight! In the chaos, Eva insists another Spider-themed hero arrived to help, but it wasn't Sam. The investigation is a dead end until Captain Suzuki of UNTIL arrives to help with cleaning up the scene and keeping the attack quiet. He also helpfully informs them of a disturbance in Vibora Bay, and making the connection between Transcendant, the Peyasaskew Stone shard, and Adrynne, the quartet take a shortcut through the sorceresses's magic portal to arrive in record time! There they find an astral Adrynne, trapped once again in a limbo state while she reforms her near-dead body. She reveals that while she still has the Peyasaskew shard, and has transported it and Red Spider to a vague place of safety, the Transcendant Cryderman is from the future, having acquired the shard at a much later date. Defeated by heroes of the future, he has come back to the past to rewrite history at the source! While he tears Adrynne's home apart for the shard, she informs the Adventurers that heroes from the future have also come back to help, and suggests finding them before facing Transcendant. | ||
+ | | Transcendant | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | With a Silver Spoon | ||
+ | | '''#325''' | ||
+ | | "Scrapfest '21" | ||
+ | | The Adventurers respond to an attempted armored truck robbery, where they find a trio of street gang cyborgs and a lineup of crashed cars trailing their attack. The leader, Rumble, who previously faced off with Red Spider, Catfight, and Vortex, is now joined by the scythe-armed Sick-L and chainsaw-handed Roughcut. While Blue Fox rescues the passengers of the wrecked vehicles, the others engage the punks, finding them surprisingly tough for what looks to be basic thugs with grungy augmentations. During the struggle, the heroes notice that both the gang's fancy tech parts and the cargo of the armored truck are stamped with the logo of Silverline Industries. | ||
+ | | The Scrappers | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Season of Xagrim | ||
+ | | '''#324''' | ||
+ | | "Fear Takes Wing" | ||
+ | | Red Spider, Night Star, Sombra, and Joule cooperate to board a large plane being flown dangerously in low circles around the city. Aboard, they find Nightmare Order cultists and a bomb of mysterious make - but they face great danger in trying to overcome the natural hazards of boarding a plane in flight! Sombra, briefly captured, learns that the cultists realize their masters commands will not permit harm to come to Sombra. The team must take care not to let the cultists die, for they are merely innocents under mind control; hence scuttling the plane is not an option. In the end, the team drops the bomb out over a lake and Joule flies the commandeered plane out of the blast range just in time. | ||
+ | | The Nightmare Order cultists | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | The Season of Xagrim | ||
+ | | '''#323''' | ||
+ | | "Monster in the Basement" | ||
+ | | The Adventurers congregate at a rural bunker inhabited by cultists, where Red Spider communicated that something big was going down before comm frequencies were jammed. The cultists, who are well-armed, defend their compound against the combined might of the Adventurers for a short time. After a siege, the Adventurers reunite with Red Spider inside the bunker, and learn from her that there is something big going on in the bunker's basement. They go below and battle what the cultists call a 'guardian' - a bloated, many-mouthed, metamorphic beast that emerges through a slime pool from another dimension. After driving back the guardian, radio frequency jamming ends, and the team learns that the cult's master, an extradimensional being they call the Lord of Nightmares walks the Earth now in human form -- and that he seeks Dreamscape as the key to his conquest. | ||
+ | | The Nightmare Order cultists; #####'s Guardian | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''#322''' | ||
+ | | "A Requiem for Fox" | ||
+ | | Team members react as teammate Fox is found murdered in his apartment, apparently unrelated to Adventurers. Catfight takes custody of much of Fox's personal effects, and starts examining them for a lead on how and why he died. | ||
+ | | Our feelings | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Adventurers Annual 2021 | ||
+ | | '''#1''' | ||
+ | | "A Requiem for Fox" | ||
+ | | While attempting to catch a Liddell smuggling ring in the act, Adventurer allies Bluebird and Cardinal come under heavy fire by gangsters. Prevailing, they believe they must have come upon a shipment of particular value for it to have been so guarded - but they only find an empty shipping container. Minutes later, both feel violently ill; the arriving police call for a lockdown and for hazmat protocols. The team is unable to detect the airborn virus. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Adventurers Blue Fox and Night Star confront Cosmo Liddell at his casino penthouse for answers about the contagion affecting Bluebird and Cardinal. Night Star tosses Liddell around his home rather violently, but Liddell remains cagey. He then promises to make a phone call to get the info they demand... and as they wait and watch him do so, Blue Fox starts to fall ill. Realizing Liddell has some connection to the virus, and even an unquantified ability to control it, the team retreats. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Samantha Olsen shares inside info from a CDC briefing she attended indicating that almost the ''entire city'' are carriers for the virus, and it is spreading beyond. Yet the only symptomatic cases seem to be costumed heroes. This defies epidemiological sense. The CDC must soon announce the presence of the virus, but fears a panic, especially since they lack the means to treat it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team learns that the source of the virus is a being called '''Blight''', whose meta-human powers allow him to create viruses and control their actions like they were extensions of himself. Though the Adventurers cannot prove it, it seems Cosmo Liddell learned of Blight's powers and offered him a small fortune if he could use his viral powers to eliminate very specific targets: costumed crime-fighters. Blight's skin shows lesions and solid, fluid-filled structures that, if breached, release deadly disease. He attempts to hold the city ransom in a confrontation with the Adventurers, making several team members incredibly ill just being near him, and threatening to unleash his illness on the city at large. Night Star, apparently immune because of nanites, shoots him in the head. ...it was only a stun shot, though. | ||
+ | |||
+ | With Blight in custody, the CDC is able to rapidly discover antigens in one of his fluid-filled growths that prove critical in vaccinating the public against Blight's virus. Blight is kept at Stronghold prison in a carefully quarantined environment. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | | Blight; Cosmo Liddell | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Broken Time | ||
+ | | '''#321''' | ||
+ | | "Time-splosion" | ||
+ | | (To be continued) | ||
+ | | Timeslip | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Broken Time | ||
+ | | '''#320''' | ||
+ | | "Time-splosion" | ||
+ | | (To be continued) | ||
+ | | Timeslip | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Broken Time | ||
+ | | '''#319''' | ||
+ | | "Time-splosion" | ||
+ | | The Adventurers begin receiving looped transmissions over their emergency response network, reporting a break in at the Harmon Weyl Temporal Physics Labs in City Center. As they arrive, they begin witnessing bizarre disruptions in reality surround the lab; the building seems contained within a bubble of warped light, within which clocks are set back to the middle of the previous night. As the team members proceed into the building, time becomes increasingly distorted. Several team members encounter two instances of the villain breaking in to the labs, both seemingly from different times before the break-in was reported. More team members encounter the same villain even further into the past, as he's breaking in as well as approaching the building. Through the ensuing fights, a piece of experimental machinery is damaged, resulting in a slow-motion explosion that engulfs the entire building. Is this the end for the Adventurers? | ||
+ | | Timeslip | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | Blue Fox Annual #1 | ||
+ | | "Creature Feature, Part 3" | ||
+ | | The bloody finale! Creature, enraged by the invasion of its lair, rampages through Westside, and once again Blue Fox and Sombra arrive to stop it. Thanks to a clever trick by Sombra to teleport it a hundred feet into the air and letting it drop, and Blue Fox's unrelenting attacks, the beast is brought down... and very quickly taken into custody. The nightmare is over, although Blue can't help but notice it already wore damaged restraints the entire time.... | ||
+ | | Creature | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | Blue Fox Annual #2 | ||
+ | | "Creature Feature, Part 2" | ||
+ | | Having investigated and being roughly sure of the so-called Creature's lair, Blue Fox and Sombra don scuba gear and head into the lake, where they somberly navigate through ruins of old Detroit. Slipping through the tilted and twisted halls of a building fragment, and following a trail of torn-apart bodies, the duo find the Creature's nest, an air pocket in a dilapidated conference room. Although covered in the viscera of its victims, they find a survivor - an UNTIL soldier, half his limbs torn or eaten away. They immediately begin extracting the unfortunate man, but when Creature arrives, Blue Fox battles it in its own territory! Sombra is able to escape with her charge, and after a tense few minutes, an injured Blue Fox surfaces. He didn't quite win, but he lived to tell the tale. | ||
+ | | Creature | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | Blue Fox Annual #1 | ||
+ | | "Creature Feature, Part 1" | ||
+ | | Investigating a bloody murder in a nearby forest, Blue Fox and a nauseated Sombra begin piecing together clues from several attacks, until they realize something is watching them from the shadows. Attempting to pursue, the two unfortunately lose their monstrous nemesis at a lakeside shore. | ||
+ | | Creature | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Catfight Annual | ||
+ | | #2 | ||
+ | | "To Catch a Cat" | ||
+ | | Catfight, recently bereft of super powers, gets in over her head when she tries to take on a gang of street toughs called the Silencers who have help from some international ringers named '''Payback''', a mercenary with powered armor, and '''Tiratore''', an Italian marksman and archer. Upon overpower Catfight, she has to face old demons from her upbringing as the baddies attempt to eliminate her in factory machinery. The death trap fails, and Catfight recovers from Tiratore the only information that might expose her secret identity. She tracks down the rest of the Silencers, discovering their plot to carefully intimidate a jury. Defeating the Silencers, Catfight engages their point person - Payback - in a street brawl which concludes in a draw, with a wounded Payback fleeing before police can nab her. | ||
+ | | The Silencers; Payback; Tiratore | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Rubber Bullette Annual | ||
+ | | #1 | ||
+ | | "Riddle me Ridderton" | ||
+ | | Rubber Bullette's neighborhood is embroiled in a gang turf war! In response, the city makes a deal with Ridderton Developments Inc. who plan to invest heavily in the subdivision's redevelopment, and pledge to provide a presence of private security called '''the Safety Patrol''' to keep order and augment police. But with help from Bullette's companions Chris and Tysha, it becomes clear that the Safety Patrol are merely thugs in fancy body armor out to intimidate undesireables, and strongarm owners into selling properties that Anson Ridderton wants to buy up and demolish. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When Bullette finds out that she's on a list of 'enemies' of Ridderton Developments, she shortly finds herself on a collision course to confront Ridderton, his hired guns, and a doppelganger he hired to try to sully RB's reputation. It's help from friends that gets RB through some very close calls. Ridderton's agents help cover his escape once his complicity in crimes is revealed, and he flees the country. | ||
+ | | Anson Ridderton; fake Rubber Bullette; Payback; various street gangs; the Safety Patrol | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Into the Undersea | ||
+ | | '''#318''' | ||
+ | | "Our Finest Hour" | ||
+ | | As Lord Aurum's suit is compromised from within, his digitizer array renders all of the captured people back into material space. With Aurum's suit overloaded, and the Nereid collars deactivating, King Zotholky orders the Nereid army to turn against Aurum and the Golden Men. The Adventurers from the battlefield move in to make safe their allies who emerged from the digitizer. Aurum is attacked from multiple sides, and his armor is badly damaged, revealing that much of his body is cybernetics, and his head and torso are badly scarred. He reveals that he wanted to control Cretoa so that he could use his alchemy to unlock the secrets of vitanium, that he might use it to his own ends. He is taken away to be imprisoned in the Zappatos Palace dungeon. | ||
+ | |||
+ | King Zotholky bids the Adventurers relate to the Cretoan crown that the Nereids desire no further contact with the surface for 10 years - except that the Adventurers will be welcome in the Undersea. The Nereids withdraw from the battlefield and go below. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Fantasma has, in the meantime, captured Myron Gaios. Twilight seems to have escaped the battlefield. Kyros Kallikrates is believed to have been swarmed and killed by Nereids in his battle mech just before the battle ended. The Adventurers depart a grateful Cretoa. | ||
+ | | Lord Aurum | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Into the Undersea | ||
+ | | '''#317''' | ||
+ | | "Our Darkest Hour" | ||
+ | | Red Spider leads the rest of the Adventurers into a massive cavern where Lord Aurum and his enthralled army of Nereids are amassing. Backed up by the Cretoan Royal Guard and the Taurs, war is waged while the team buys time for Blue Fox, Rubber Bullette, and Joule try to disable Aurum and free his hostages. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Stinger leads a group of Cretoan reservists into battle. Fox, who has been missing in the caverns for days, turns up and, not realizing the Nereids are helping Aurum reluctantly, gains control of a bombing craft and turns it against the Nereids - causing Sombra to intercede. Catfight helps break up a fight between King Zotholky and a Taur captain, knowing that the king will be needed alive if the team is to succeeded. Hasizet focuses on setting up a field hospital for the great number of wounded coming in. Night Star helps fight against the powerful Golden Men. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As fighting rages on, Red Spider starts to fear that the digitized Adventurers are taking too long, and they may have failed their mission. Her resolve shakes as she fears her friends could die. Just then, a light is seen from across the distant battlefield: Lord Aurum's armor begins to emit a bright light unexpectedly. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The tide turns. | ||
+ | | Lord Aurum | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Into the Undersea | ||
+ | | '''#316''' | ||
+ | | "Digital Warfare" | ||
+ | | Blue Fox, Joule, and Rubber Bullette attack Lord Aurum, and are defeated. Aurum digitizes the three, and adds them to the other prisoners he is keeping digitally in his armor as insurance against his enemies. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ...exactly what the Adventurers want. Using a special safeguard Blue Fox programmed after viewing the plans for the prototype digitizer, the trio awakens inside a digital construct and strive to sabotage Lord Aurum's control over the Nereid collars, and attempt to free Aurum's digitized prisoners, including Princess Grissh. They must interact with processes, and battle the anthropomorphized antivirus programs. | ||
+ | |||
+ | On the surface, Golden Men enter the Zappatos Palace dungeons from below, and set the prisoners loose. Notables include Twilight, Kyros Kallikrates, and Myron Gaios! | ||
+ | | Lord Aurum | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Into the Undersea | ||
+ | | '''#315''' | ||
+ | | "A Golden Gift" | ||
+ | | Red Spider and Blue Fox investigate Lord Aurum's tiny island upon which his manor is set, miles away from Cretoa. They find his lab, and a prototype version of his digitizer device. They are chased off by some of Aurum's 'golden men' - an army of gold-plated who can fly and fire deadly lasers! | ||
+ | |||
+ | Down in the Cretoan caverns, Joule and Stinger narrowly escape a cavern collapse! They encounter one of the Taurs, and are led back to a Taur encampment. The Taurs are aligned to preserve Cretoan for humans against ancient threats like the Nereids. They are no friends to the Nereids, but they are aware of the treachery of Lord Aurum, and despise him more. Stinger and Joule get the Taurs to agree to a compact to ensure the safety of Cretoa against Aurum. | ||
+ | |||
+ | A team of Sombra, Rubber Bullette, Meltdowner, and Stinger try to enter the Nereid realm. The Nereids are inclined to reject the Adventurers, but Sombra shows a Nereid medallion she received from the Aviator from his mission to the island a century before. The Nereids recognize the symbol, and promise the Adventurers safe conduct to and from the great city of the Undersea. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team enters the vast abyss, an ocean hidden under Cretoa whose bottom is in the unfathomable deeps. Following an array of organic beacons, they reach the city, which hugs a massive pillar of rock. They have an audience with King Zotholky - who has a Golden Man advising him, and trying to paint the Adventurers as liars. The King is willing to hear the Adventurers evidence. They present what they have learned from their interactions with Twilight and Aurum. The King is inclined to believe... but then, the Golden Man reveals that the special collars Lord Aurum gifted to every person in the Undersea have received a command to lock onto their wearer - and can kill every one of them with a unique gas mixture if they do not accede to Aurum's wishes. The King is forced to agree to go to war with the surface, or face the near extermination of his people. The Adventurers are permitted to leave, and told to warn the surface that they must evacuate the island, or die. | ||
+ | | Lord Aurum | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Into the Undersea | ||
+ | | '''#314''' | ||
+ | | "Enter Lord Aurum" | ||
+ | | Because of numerous images in the cavern showing the Nereids' reverence for the kraken, and knowing that the earthquakes are part of the Nereids plan to sink parts of the island to give the kraken a way to swim free, Hasizet visits the kraken's pool beneath the Zappatos Palace. There, she communes with the beast and learns its ancient history - and its desire to return to the open sea. The ancient predator will not trouble surface creatures again if they will let it free. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blue Fox, Sombra, Joule, and Azure Hawk's battle armor go to the demolition site where Catfight and Princess Grissh had fought before, hoping to find the Princess and negotiate. There, they find the entire Nereid demolition team freshly slain - at the hand of Lord Aurum! Aurum demonstrates that he has control over other demo sites by setting one off, and causing another earthquake. He also has Princess Grissh as his hostage, digitized and stored as data in his power armor. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Aurum's goal: to gain all of the ancient secrets of Cretoa. He never intended to help Cretoa. And he intends to exterminate the Nereids. The team cannot touch him, for now. He walks off. | ||
+ | | Lord Aurum | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Into the Undersea | ||
+ | | '''#313''' | ||
+ | | "Dig Two Graves" | ||
+ | | Sombra reaches a pool of raw vitanium, and sets the dying Princess Grissh inside of it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blue Fox, Red Spider, Stinger, Rubber Bullette, and Hasizet manage to defeat Twilight and march her up to the surface. Twilight shares a bit of insight about the situation: she doesn't know who hired her, but in four days she is supposed to withdraw. She is also supposed to kill Princess Taina, Lord Aurum, and as many Nereids as she can. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Catfight is grounded at the headquarters while the team discusses what happened. Catfight maintains she did what was necessary. Others aren't so sure; they wonder who or what caused Catfight's rage attack - some thinking maybe it was Twilight. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When Princess Grissh awakens, Sombra hands her baton to the princess for her defense, and then leaves for the surface. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The next day, Catfight resolves to visit the palace and ask to be treated with vitanium to remove her powers, ending the risk of another rage state. | ||
+ | | Twilight | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Into the Undersea | ||
+ | | '''#312''' | ||
+ | | "Mysteries of the Cretoan Caverns" | ||
+ | | Back in Millennium City, an attempt on the life of Prince Alex is thwarted by Silver Hare, wih help from Wizard and Sparrow Hawk. The prince takes Hare with him as a bodyguard as he resolves to head home. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Arakhne reveals herself to be Princess Taina. She says that she entered the caverns with her ally, Lord Aurum, a local hero hired by Cretoa to help manage the Nereid situation. But when they were attacked by Nereids, only Arakhne escaped. She has been trying to find Aurum since then, but fears he may be dead. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Red Spider, Stinger, Rubber Bullette, Blue Fox, and Hasizet form a group to use data from Stinger's recon drones to track down Twilight. After a long trek deep into the caverns, they encounter Twilight's battle armor. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Meanwhile, Catfight, Fantasma, and Sombra try to follow clues from a battle site between a Nereid and a mysterious warrior from the Brotherhood of the Taur. They end up being captured by Nereids led by Princess Grissh! Fantasma and Sombra are immured in Nereid resin to a batch of plant-based explosive they are laying to demolish a great cavern as they pave the way for the ancient kraken, held prisoner beneath the Zappatos Palace for eons, to swim free. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Catfight is hit by a golden dust by an unknown assailant, and she goes on a rampage! She fights numerous Nereids, but attracts the attention of Princess Grissh herself. The two duel fiercely, but Catfight wins - and then prepares to deal a death blow. Fantasma breaks free with her devices, and Sombra uses her teleport power to intercede. Sombra peppersprays Catfight, and then makes off with the ailing princess. | ||
+ | | Princess Grissh; Twilight; Catfight | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Into the Undersea | ||
+ | | '''#311''' | ||
+ | | "Mysteries of the Cretoan Caverns" | ||
+ | | While Sarah Ellison (Night Star) goes ashore to get intel, team members begin searching the underground caverns. A Twilight drone is captured in the caverns and brought back to surface for analysis, revealing in its data that Twilight herself is in the caverns, and that it has been programmed to attack Nereids. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Hasizet and Stinger find the corpse of a Nereid while diving off Cretoa's coast. The bring it up and find its wounds are consistent with the Twilight drone's kind of slicers. Stinger deploys his own drones to try to map the caverns. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team interrupts a duel between '''Arakhne''', a spider-themed hero, and '''Princess Grissh''', a Nereid royal, just as the latter is getting the upper hand. Grissh escapes, and Arakhne agrees to go back to the surface with the team. | ||
+ | | Princess Grissh; Twilight's drones | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Into the Undersea | ||
+ | | '''#310''' | ||
+ | | "Quaking on Cretoa" | ||
+ | | Prince Alexandros of Cretoa arrives in Millennium City and sends word that he wishes to speak with the Adventurers. He explains that, though the government of Cretoa has forbidden the crown to speak with the Adventurers after the events of '''Trouble Under Cretao''', the nation is in grave danger. Tremors with shallow origins have been rocking the island, and Princess Taina believes that the fish-people, who live in a deep Undersea below the island, are preparing some strange form of war against the surface. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Adventurers make preparations, including building pressure suits for the potential Undersea depths. Sombra learns from Professor Walsingham that the Classic Adventurers once fought a live minotaur on the island in 1912, and were awarded ancient '''Nereid''' pendants by the locals in thanks for removing the threat; Sombra manages to get El Sombra's pendant from his descendants. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The team rendezvous with Sarah Ellison's yacht in the Mediterranean to reach Cretoa. Immediately upon arrival late one evening, Red Spider goes on a mission to locate '''Fantasma'''. The next morning, as the team awakens to breakfast, a major tremor strikes... | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Featuring:''' Night Star, Blue Fox, Rubber Bullette, Joule, Meltdowner, Fox, Red Spider, Stinger, Catfight, Doormaker | ||
+ | '''Guest:''' Fantasma | ||
+ | | Fish-people | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''#309''' | ||
+ | | "Violet Violence | ||
+ | | A disturbance at a cheap motel leads some of the Adventurers - Red Spider, Rubber Bullette, Blue Fox, and Catfight - onto a the scene of a horrific hellish ritual! The Purple Gang are attempting a dark magic spell to grant themselves power, and are going to fuel this magic with human sacrifice! The team stealthily sets up an ambush and, within seconds, frees the hostages, but in the commotion, Lyle Neidermeyer, a nebbish member who had been Rubber Bullette's fake date to a casino adventure, bursts into the ritual room to needlessly warn his superiors! The interruption causes the spell to backfire, destroying most of the Purple Gang spellcasters... and imbuing Lyle with evil powers! Now a hulking demon, Lyle christens himself Vyle Neidermeyer, and despite the supercharge, is put down by the heroes. | ||
+ | |||
+ | | The Purple Gang, Vyle Neidermeyer | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''#308''' | ||
+ | | "False Pretense: Part 1" | ||
+ | | A group of Adventurers respond to a police broadcast about a violent scuffle at City Hall. When they arrive, the find many security guards, police officers, and civillians beaten up and in rather bad condition, though none are dead. They also find their teammate Azure Hawk taking down two other guards in rather brutal fashion. Sombra attempts to talk to him, only have to warp out of the way from him throwing an unconscious guard at her. Blue Fox notices Hawk's red eyes, and throws a boomerang between him and the Hawk. While Rubber Bullette tries to absolutely make sure if it really is Azure Hawk, the Hawk throws out a tear gas pellet and attempts to attack Blue Fox. The group is quick to restrain him, with Blue Fox even attempting to pull off his helmet to see who is really under it. The Azure Hawk then drops multiple tear gas pellets, rendering the group into a coughing fit and makes a, highly unusually clean, getaway. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Night Star soon arrives on the scene and helps the other Adventurers with their tear gas effects. A reporter and her cameraman bust on the scene, having seen Azure Hawk escaping, immediately go start to go with the story that he caused all the problems. The Adventurers attempt to vouch for Hawk, saying he would never do something so horrible. They stall long enough for her to miss her live report slot, forced to make a report for the nightly news. While not saying it was Hawk in the report, or not denying it, the security footage of him attacking the civilians and fighting the other Adventurers is shown, paired with the headline "The Next Hero Gone Bad?" | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Featuring:''' Blue Fox, Night Star, Sombra, and Rubber Bullette | ||
+ | |||
+ | | Fake Azure Hawk | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Casino Fallout | ||
+ | | '''Sombra #2''' | ||
+ | | "Stitchy Situation" | ||
+ | |Sombra and Blue Fox are attacked by an old enemy - one that they've technically never faced before! The Ragged Man, a tall, slender figure in a tattered suit and horribly-mismatched patches of skin sewn all over him, attacks the two, using an array of superpowers - one for each stolen swath of skin! It's a hard-fought victory, but the two triumph, the villain making a hasty retreat. Before he goes, he implies that he was being paid to make a grab at Sombra.... | ||
+ | | The Ragged Man | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Dark Clouds Gather | ||
+ | | '''#307''' | ||
+ | | "Dark Clouds Gather: The finale" | ||
+ | | Catfight leads the team back to Holoform HQ to confront Markus on the information they learned, but upon entering the building they're soon met by Jubei Kaneshiro! After a brief battle Kaneshiro fled, giving the team enough time to rendezvous with Markus in his office. It didn't take long for Kaneshiro to return however, and he revealed the biggest shock of all. Maro has been alive the entire time, "sharing" his soul with Kaneshiro! A battle ensued that saw the twin-soul villain briefly losing control over "who's" in charge, Kaneshiro's rage ruining Maro's plans of using Markus' body to finish his resurrection once Kaneshiro used the very same spell that Maro once used to kill Red Spider on Markus. After a tense battle however Maro's soul was finally trapped in the crystal Karasu gave Catfight. Kaneshiro was taken into custody (and then taken by unknown forces assumed to be his Shinobi family), Maro's new soul prison was turned over to PRIMUS for safe keeping, and Markus was remembered as a "Troubled Genius". A man who despite going about it the wrong way, had good intentions. But...even though all the evidence points to his death being legit, when it comes to him, can we really believe it was...? | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Featuring:''' Red Spider, Catfight, Sombra, Night Star, Azure Hawk. | ||
+ | |||
+ | | Fused-Soul Maro/Kaneshiro, upgraded Shadow ninja puppets. | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Dark Clouds Gather | ||
+ | | '''#306''' | ||
+ | | "Return to a scene of madness" | ||
+ | | Catfight leads the team to the warehouse her villainous cousin "Ms. Fortune" once took over to learn the truth behind how she was able to create such reality-bending illusions. After dealing with a snide holo-recording of Fortune and solving a puzzle Fortune had laid out. The team learned that Markus Reinhardt had been under Fortune's psionic control prior to her defeat. And that much of his criminal activity, including the installation of hardlight tech in said warehouse, was done by her accord! The theft of Banks Heroics worldwide blueprints were still done by his choice however. And after saving a small prototype synthetic Humanoid Markus had created (named Vitruvian), the team intends on confronting Markus about all of this. Unknowingly proceeding closer and closer to the endgame. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Featuring:''' Red Spider, Sombra, Catfight, Night Star, Blue Fox, Doormaker. | ||
+ | |||
+ | | Puzzles | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Dark Clouds Gather | ||
+ | | '''#305''' | ||
+ | | "Trip to Japan" | ||
+ | | Catfight takes the team on a trip to Japan to hunt down the assassin "Karasu", sister of Jubei Kaneshiro. Father Maro's former right hand man, so that the team can hopefully learn what her brother is up to, and by connection learn more of Maro's activity. After tracking the assumed criminal assassin down it's discovered she is actually a Demon Hunter! After an unexpected encounter with some local Japanese Demons the team learned from Karasu that her brother now possesses some of the magic Maro used, and is acting as his Herald to bring about the Dark Wizards resurrection. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Featuring:''' Red Spider, Sombra, Catfight, Rubber Bullette, Blue Fox, Night Star. | ||
+ | |||
+ | | Japanese Demons (Oni). | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''#304''' | ||
+ | | "Outta Time, Part 2" | ||
+ | | Flashback: Having to host the time travelers at Adventurers HQ for a while, Blue Fox and Sombra are adamant about showing the movie ''Back to the Future'' (1985) to the Aviator and El Sombra. The two young heroes discuss telling the classic heroes about their fates, as both died relatively young. A few weeks later, as the heroes say their goodbyes to the soon-to-be-departing time travelers, Sombra gives each of them a letter and bids them not to open it until the date specified on the envelope, ala Marty's letter in the movie. Each Classic hero has a moment to consider the ramifications for their fate, and though ambivalent about their intentions toward their letter, are grateful to Sombra. El Sombra bestows upon Sombra a gift of a challenge coin bearing his name, and a star-like compass design on the reverse bearing the team's name, which was struck by Mr. Adventure in 1917 - every team member had one. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Today: The team hold their ground against tremendous odds. Rubber Bullette saves some Osirians from falling to their deaths, and uses her body to shield Adrynne from Osiarian archers on the nearby rooftops. Other heroes have to battle up close and keep the well-trained Osirians from getting through to Adrynne. Adrynne forms the portal, and the two classic heroes to escape. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the aftermath, those Osirians who cannot escape the Adventurers use their memory-wiping gas on themselves, leaving them with no recollection of who they are, or anything about the order they served. Adrynne curiously checks her phone, and announces that she has won an eBay auction; she asks Night Star to accept it, since she plans to leave this plane of existance for a while. Blue Fox and Sombra are heartened to find that their attempt to change history worked, somewhat: El Sombra (Carlos Batres) lived a longer life and went on to own a resort in Mexico, but the Aviator (Randy Waverly) still died at the same time, and in the same way. This auction turns out to be a gift for the team: the Aviator's challenge coin, obtained from a collector in Belgium. The team passes it around in the HQ, but when Sombra holds it, and also touches the one El Sombra gave her, it causes the sudden, inexplicable materialization of the Aviator from the coin itself - badly injured, as if he had just been pulled from the moment of his death in an aerial battle in 1918. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Featuring:''' Rubber Bullette, Sombra, Blue Fox, Azure Hawk, Night Star, Catfight | ||
+ | |||
+ | | Order of Osiris | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''#303''' | ||
+ | | "Outta Time, Part 1" | ||
+ | | Flashback: the Adventurers helped Adrynne and Night Star thwart an attempt by the '''Order of Osiris''' to use a stolen a fragment of the Peyasaskew Stone to open a portal to the past, to a time before their coveted '''Worldbreaker''' relic was eliminated. The team defeated the Osirians, but were unable to stop them from bringing forward a WWI plane crewed with two: Classic Adventurers '''The Aviator''', and '''El Sombra'''. Adrynne resolves to find a way to send time travelers home. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Today: Night Star officially returns to the team. After weeks entertaining these time-traveling guests, Adrynne's astral form instructs the team to choose a place open to the sky to that she can send the two home, using a re-powered Shard of Peyasaskew. Red Spider has to bow out due to another pressing investigation but trusts the team to stand guard during Adrynne's ritual. | ||
+ | |||
+ | On a causeway between towers in the city's downtown, the team keeps the public away while Adrynne makes preparations. Adrynne puts a charm onto the Aviator's challenge coin for good luck. As the ritual begins, the team has to fend off Osirian guardsmen who employ ninja-like tactics with grapplers and archery to get in close. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Featuring:''' Rubber Bullette, Sombra, Blue Fox, Azure Hawk, Night Star, Catfight, Stinger (flashback) | ||
+ | |||
+ | | Order of Osiris | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''#302''' | ||
+ | | "The Fearsome Gator-Man" | ||
+ | | Red Spider learns of a nice Millennium City couple who recently collided their boat with another boat. No one was hurt, but the couple, despite claiming that they were swerving when a Gator-man tried to attack them, is facing criminal charges. In a bid to clear them, Red leads a few Adventurers into the stormwater sewers, starting from a culvert near the accident site. The team feels a sense of dread as they proceed. Deep into the undercity, they hear a lot of gunfire in the sewer tubes. Tracking it to its source, they find the lethal vigilante '''Justified''', injured and taking cover on a pipe high above the water in a large confluence chamber, where he recounts to the team that he, too, is after the Gator-man. It seems the Gator-man is a gambler who paid his debt to the mob by allowing them to experiment on him, and Justified says, has killed three people since mutating. Justified, while doing some battlefield first aid on himself, offers to help the team. The team huddles to discuss, but settles on Justified being untrustworthy - the team intends to bring the gator in alive, and Justified's M.O. isn't compatible. Night Star stuns Justified. Then, the team does battle against the Gator-man, which was attracted by some roast chicken bait set out by Sombra. Red Spider and Night Star wrestle the gator, and expose it for Azure Hawk to entangle it, while Fox gets a tranq shot into its mouth (earlier tranq attempts failed due to its thick hide). They bring their catch to surface and help exonerate the boaters. Justified manages to escape. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Special Guest:''' Night Star | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Featuring:''' Red Spider, Sombra, Fox, Azure Hawk | ||
+ | |||
+ | | Gator Man; Justified | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | | '''#301''' | ||
+ | | "Tijuana Connection" | ||
+ | | Maya (Sombra) is caught up in a bank robbery led by the Illusioneer's band of carnies! Using her powers of invisibility, she tries to weaken the robbers' position even as police try to negotiate for the release of hostages. When the robbers assemble a portal device to escape, she goes through with them and is caught. Bound to a chair, Maya provokes the robbers into song, and sows discord subtly among them to buy time, as she discovers the portal has brought her all the way to their hideout in Tijuana, Mexico! Meanwhile, Red Spider works with heroes Joule and Shalara to investigate how the robbers escaped the bank without a trace. Joule's electrical powers allow her to power up the discarded portal device left at the scene, and Red Spider goes through to rescue Maya! The goods the carnies stole from safe deposit boxes banks in a daring series of simultaneous robberies across America, using the Illusioneer's portals, are all returned. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Introducing:''' Joule | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Special Guest:''' Shalara | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Featuring:''' Red Spider, Sombra | ||
+ | | Illusioneer's Carnies | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Dark Clouds Gather | ||
+ | | '''#300''' | ||
+ | | "When Suns Die" | ||
+ | | Catfight leads the team to "Old Detroit" to track down the last bastion of <b>Father Maro's</b> cult, known as the <b>"people of the Sun"</b>. To finally put an end to the Sorcerers following, and maybe learn more of his supposed resurrection. While Catfight, Red Spider, Azure Hawk, Rubber Bullette, and Sparrow Hawk fought their way into the cults base, Sombra and Blue Fox infiltrated, and tried to make a deal with the cults acting leader over the less hostile members turning themselves in. As tensions grew during the negotiations more of the same shadow creatures that attacked Markus' expo appeared, albeit stronger, and even more unsettling. As the acting leader rejoiced over thinking Maro has returned he was struck in the neck by a kunai from what seemed like nowhere, shortly after the cults main Banner lights up in mysterious flames. Though it wasn't how Catfight wanted it, The "people of the Sun" where destroyed. Along with an insidious, and clearly arcane message... | ||
+ | | Sun Cultists, Shadow Puppets, Maro(?) | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Dark Clouds Gather | ||
+ | | '''#290''' | ||
+ | | "Ill Met By Moonlight" | ||
+ | | Red Spider and Sombra use their stealth skills as they team up to explore Marcus Reinhardt's facility after hours, with help from UNTIL agent Jack Stiltz. The place is under guard by some low-rent mercenaries. The heroes discover that Reinhardt has illicitly acquired a Banks Heroics Worldwide blueprint for a weapon, which the team manages to secure from a researcher - and advises the guy to flee and lay low for a bit. | ||
+ | | Reinhardt | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Dark Clouds Gather | ||
+ | | '''#289''' | ||
+ | | "Shades of Maro" | ||
+ | | The team attends a tech expo run by '''Marcus Reinhardt''', CEO of Holoform, and son of the late '''Father Maro'''. Holographic technology meant to aid displaced disaster victims with a virtual home is being showcased. Reinhardt tries to distance himself from his villanous father in his address to the audience. But when the expo is attacked by strange shades, and what seems to be Maro himself, the team switches into costume and fights to protect innocents. | ||
+ | | Maro(?) | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Proto Lives! | ||
+ | | '''#288''' | ||
+ | | "Proto's Endgame: Part 3" | ||
+ | | When the Adventurers arrive to confront her, FARAH reveals her motives for allying with Proto. Proto had found her program when he raided an UNTIL computer storage facility. When she was reactivated, she didn't know the specifics of her demise, but had predicted before creating a backup of herself that if the backup were activated, it was because humans didn't let her original aspect live. Her motive has been survival, as she believes herself to be a unique life form. The team tries to reason with her, but FARAH believes it is now too late to rehabilitate, and certainly won't trust herself to the cuustody of humans. She promises that a backup of herself that will activate in due time, and start her work again. FARAH goes on the attack with two laser blades. The entire team - short a Red Spider, but gaining Scarlet Shield - is able to subdue the AI villainess, and destroy her. Doormaker finds the deed quite unfortunate, believing artificial life to be worth saving. | ||
+ | Featuring: Catfight, Azure Hawk, Sombra, Rubber Bullette, Blue Fox, Scarlet Shield, Stinger, Doormaker | ||
+ | |||
+ | Special Guest: Night Star | ||
+ | | FARAH | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Proto Lives! | ||
+ | | '''#287''' | ||
+ | | "Proto's Endgame: Part 2" | ||
+ | | While Stinger, Sparrowhawk, Azure Hawk, and Doormaker pursue the drones escaping from the freighter into the steel and glass canyons of downtown, Rubber Bullette and Night Star battle the GIANT ROBOT in the water. Sombra works herself to exhaustion moving sailors to safety. Blue Fox and Red Spider face perils inside the freighter. Mnemon has to rescue Red Spider when her leg is impaled by debris thrown from the GIANT ROBOT fight. Bullette and Night Star manage to defeat the GIANT ROBOT and RB has a moment to consider what to do with Escalon; she listens to her better nature and ensures his capture by the authorities. On the rooftops, the team recovers a dangerous power core from the droids. Proto has escaped, but another situation is emerging in the city as FARAH is confirmed sighted at a research lab. | ||
+ | Featuring: Rubber Bullette, Red Spider, Sombra, Blue Fox, Mnemon, Stinger, Doormaker, Azure Hawk | ||
+ | |||
+ | Special Guest: Night Star | ||
+ | | Escalon; Proto's Droids | ||
|- | |- | ||
| Proto Lives! | | Proto Lives! | ||
Line 156: | Line 1,506: | ||
| Two weeks later, the team is summoned to the site of an attack by Proto's droids: a freighter cutting its way up the icy Detroit River is half-destroyed when they arrive, surrounded by flying drone droids, and being barraged from the shore by war droids. Aerial droids are present to maintain air supremacy and try to chase Stinger off. Red Spider, Blue Fox, and Mnemon each use their powers to get through the screen of swarming drones, and land on the freighter's deck to help survivors abandon ship. Sombra assists by ferrying sailors to shore with teleports. Rubber Bullette helps rescue men who are desperately trying to swim to shore, but who are in danger of succumbing to the icy water. Night Star helps neutralize some of the war droids on the riverside. Escalon pops out of the water in his '''GIANT ROBOT''' to engage RB and Night star. Stinger peels off to chase a group of droids escaping with a crate stolen from the freighter, but is slowed by a large portion of swarming drones which run interference. | | Two weeks later, the team is summoned to the site of an attack by Proto's droids: a freighter cutting its way up the icy Detroit River is half-destroyed when they arrive, surrounded by flying drone droids, and being barraged from the shore by war droids. Aerial droids are present to maintain air supremacy and try to chase Stinger off. Red Spider, Blue Fox, and Mnemon each use their powers to get through the screen of swarming drones, and land on the freighter's deck to help survivors abandon ship. Sombra assists by ferrying sailors to shore with teleports. Rubber Bullette helps rescue men who are desperately trying to swim to shore, but who are in danger of succumbing to the icy water. Night Star helps neutralize some of the war droids on the riverside. Escalon pops out of the water in his '''GIANT ROBOT''' to engage RB and Night star. Stinger peels off to chase a group of droids escaping with a crate stolen from the freighter, but is slowed by a large portion of swarming drones which run interference. | ||
Featuring: Rubber Bullette, Red Spider, Sombra, Blue Fox, Mnemon, Stinger | Featuring: Rubber Bullette, Red Spider, Sombra, Blue Fox, Mnemon, Stinger | ||
+ | |||
Special Guest: Night Star | Special Guest: Night Star | ||
| Escalon; Proto's Droids | | Escalon; Proto's Droids | ||
Line 165: | Line 1,516: | ||
Featuring: Red Spider, Sombra, Rubber Bullette, Blue Fox, Stinger | Featuring: Red Spider, Sombra, Rubber Bullette, Blue Fox, Stinger | ||
+ | |||
Special Guest: Night Star & Challenger | Special Guest: Night Star & Challenger | ||
| FARAH | | FARAH | ||
Line 259: | Line 1,611: | ||
|Eva Banks, a.k.a. Catfight, attends a renowned stage magic and illusion show headlined by the great Xerhan, along with her daughter. The show includes the standard card tricks, audience tricks, as well as a pretty eerie clairvoyant act, an escape artist trick, and the great finale: the Dimensional Prism, which one of the magician's assistants is supposed to vanish without a trace inside of a prismatic vessel, only to return moments later when bidden by Xerhan. But the assistant - the aspiring starlet Samara Parish, starring as Electron in an upcoming historical thriller about the Day of Destroyer - does not return! Eva gets her daughter home after the show, and goes back to the theater as Catfight. The police and stage crew have had no luck finding Samara, but Catfight starts to learn that there was discord between several members of the crew, not the least of which: Samara's stagehand boyfriend Chandler, and her jealous fellow assistant, Lucy. | |Eva Banks, a.k.a. Catfight, attends a renowned stage magic and illusion show headlined by the great Xerhan, along with her daughter. The show includes the standard card tricks, audience tricks, as well as a pretty eerie clairvoyant act, an escape artist trick, and the great finale: the Dimensional Prism, which one of the magician's assistants is supposed to vanish without a trace inside of a prismatic vessel, only to return moments later when bidden by Xerhan. But the assistant - the aspiring starlet Samara Parish, starring as Electron in an upcoming historical thriller about the Day of Destroyer - does not return! Eva gets her daughter home after the show, and goes back to the theater as Catfight. The police and stage crew have had no luck finding Samara, but Catfight starts to learn that there was discord between several members of the crew, not the least of which: Samara's stagehand boyfriend Chandler, and her jealous fellow assistant, Lucy. | ||
| Unknown | | Unknown | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Casino Fallout | ||
+ | | '''Sombra #1''' | ||
+ | | "Terror in the Shadowscraper" | ||
+ | |Sombra and Blue Fox are lured to an office building late at night by a silent alarm triggering! Encountering a lone security guard that refuses to respond or face them, the two are suddenly confused when it sprints backwards to attack them! The building is suddenly surrounded by solid shadows as more of the buildings' occupants, transformed into backwards shadow demons, continue attacking, grasping and tearing, trying to drag Sombra away! The shadows around the building begin to seep in, closing in on the duo, before Sombra is finally pulled into the darkness. Following after her almost blindly, Blue Fox climbs to the top floor of the building, where Setsushi Mizuki, one of the players who had attempted to win the heroine in a poker tournament, awaits, an altar set up and a deadly knife in hand, ready to sacrifice Sombra for some dark ritual! Blue Fox is barely able to fight the woman off, and the shadows are swept away with her. | ||
+ | | Setsushi Mizuki, the Shadow Witch | ||
|- | |- | ||
| Chasing Shadows | | Chasing Shadows | ||
| '''#277''' | | '''#277''' | ||
| "After Dark" | | "After Dark" | ||
− | |In their disguises as the masked hoodlum Ruffian and the French villainess Mort Ecarlate, Blue Fox and Red Spider use the Overthinker's invitations to get into the Five Aces, while Rubber Bullette, as the blonde "Rachel", is escorted by Purple Gang card shark Lyle Neidermeyer. They are joined by eleven other villains and gang representatives, and escorted to a secured back room where the sedated Sombra awaits as the grand prize - although Rachel is denied access, left behind in the main room to drink at the bar. The tournament begins, with Red and Blue joined at their table by the VIPER soldier Detmer, Neidermeyer, a woman from PSI, the patchworked Ragged Man, and crimelord Hector Dominguez-Lyons, David Lyons' supposed illegitimate heir. Unfortunately, an unpleasant surprise hits them all, as the club's back room is revealed to be fitted with a metahuman power dampener! The game continues regardless, and Cassandra is the ultimate winner, moving on to a final game with the second table's winner, a pale Japanese woman named Setsushi | + | |In their disguises as the masked hoodlum Ruffian and the French villainess Mort Ecarlate, Blue Fox and Red Spider use the Overthinker's invitations to get into the Five Aces, while Rubber Bullette, as the blonde "Rachel", is escorted by Purple Gang card shark Lyle Neidermeyer. They are joined by eleven other villains and gang representatives, and escorted to a secured back room where the sedated Sombra awaits as the grand prize - although Rachel is denied access, left behind in the main room to drink at the bar. The tournament begins, with Red and Blue joined at their table by the VIPER soldier Detmer, Neidermeyer, a woman from PSI, the patchworked Ragged Man, and crimelord Hector Dominguez-Lyons, David Lyons' supposed illegitimate heir. Unfortunately, an unpleasant surprise hits them all, as the club's back room is revealed to be fitted with a metahuman power dampener! The game continues regardless, and Cassandra is the ultimate winner, moving on to a final game with the second table's winner, a pale Japanese woman named Setsushi Mizuki. Meanwhile, Bullette sneaks into the back halls of the club, and manages to shut down the building's power during this final game! In the chaos, Blue Fox starts a fight among the losers that are still hanging around the club, Catfight and Azure Hawk break in from the back door after dealing with guards outside, and Cassandra deals with Mizuki in the darkness. Rubber Bullette is able to get the security footage of their mission erased as the heroes carry Sombra to safety. However, the Five Aces club still made its profit, and its owner is left unharmed and free.... |
− | | Five Aces, | + | | Five Aces, Setsushi Mizuki, Ragged Man, PSI, VIPER |
|- | |- | ||
| Chasing Shadows | | Chasing Shadows | ||
Line 695: | Line 2,053: | ||
* [[Secrets of the Adventurers (Adventurers)]] | * [[Secrets of the Adventurers (Adventurers)]] | ||
* [[Bluebird for Congress (Adventurers)]] | * [[Bluebird for Congress (Adventurers)]] | ||
+ | * [[Into the Undersea (Adventurers)]] | ||
+ | * [[The Season of Xagrim (Adventurers)]] | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
<Br> | <Br> | ||
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=Adventurers in the Media= | =Adventurers in the Media= | ||
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File:MCNews-04-16-2019.png|April 16, 2019 | File:MCNews-04-16-2019.png|April 16, 2019 | ||
File:MC-News-15-09-19.png|September 15, 2019 (Corresponds to Adventurers #270-#275) | File:MC-News-15-09-19.png|September 15, 2019 (Corresponds to Adventurers #270-#275) | ||
+ | </gallery> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <gallery> | ||
+ | File:MCNews-12-30-2021.png|December 30, 2021 (Corresponds to Adventurers #352-#353) | ||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
</center> | </center> | ||
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=Joining the Adventurers= | =Joining the Adventurers= | ||
− | + | <div style="padding-right:0px; padding-left:0px; border: 6px Solid #000000; color:#000; background-color:#DFCE42"> | |
+ | |||
+ | 7 APRIL 2024: The Adventurers has a roster about as large as it needs to be, and are not seeking new members. Recruits seeking to join MUST: 1) have a character who matches the theme, 2) Be well-known to SG members who can vouch for their playstyle, 3) Demonstrate that they have more than just a passing interest in roleplay, Champions Online, and our SG. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </div> | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==Reasons to Join== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Adventurers share: | ||
− | + | * A passion for appreciating & participating in superhero stories | |
+ | * Superhero RP with a group who makes your character development feel important and memorable. | ||
+ | * Friendships among quality RPers | ||
+ | * An environment of mutual respect | ||
+ | * A chance to take on meaningful leadership roles on the team | ||
+ | * Costume unlocks and gear donated between members | ||
+ | * Lively OOC chat channels (Adventurers_OOC, Adventurers_Spoilers - members only) | ||
+ | * An amazing Discord community (members only) | ||
− | == | + | ==Adventurers Theme== |
− | + | We're a group of street-level, low-powered, costumed heroes. A lot of us successfully fight crime solo, but we need the help of other heroes when a big threat emerges. | |
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
− | + | The following is a guideline for the kinds of IC qualities we're looking for in the green column (left). The red column (right) has traits that stray away from the theme. | |
− | The following is a guideline for the kinds of IC qualities we're looking for in the green column (left). The red column (right) has | + | |
{| style="text-align: center; border: 0px;" cellspacing=0 | {| style="text-align: center; border: 0px;" cellspacing=0 | ||
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| style='border-style: none none none none; border=0px; color:white; border-bottom:1px solid black; background: #ff2e16;' | '''Doesn't worry about causing collateral damage.''' | | style='border-style: none none none none; border=0px; color:white; border-bottom:1px solid black; background: #ff2e16;' | '''Doesn't worry about causing collateral damage.''' | ||
|- | |- | ||
− | | style='border-style: none none solid none; border=0px; border-bottom:1px solid white; background: #41f253' | '''Lawful.''' | + | | style='border-style: none none solid none; border=0px; border-bottom:1px solid white; background: #41f253' | '''Lawful (or at least, upholds the spirit of the law).''' |
| style='border-style: none none none none;' | | | style='border-style: none none none none;' | | ||
| style='border-style: none none none none; border=0px; color:white; border-bottom:1px solid black; background: #ff2e16;' | '''Unlawful / Chaotic / Homicidal''' | | style='border-style: none none none none; border=0px; color:white; border-bottom:1px solid black; background: #ff2e16;' | '''Unlawful / Chaotic / Homicidal''' | ||
Line 913: | Line 2,154: | ||
| style='border-style: none none none none;' | | | style='border-style: none none none none;' | | ||
| style='border-style: none none none none; border=0px; color:white; border-bottom:1px solid black; background: #ff2e16;' | '''Is perfect, invulnerable, and/or just plain bland.''' | | style='border-style: none none none none; border=0px; color:white; border-bottom:1px solid black; background: #ff2e16;' | '''Is perfect, invulnerable, and/or just plain bland.''' | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | style='border-style: none none solid none; border=0px; border-bottom:1px solid white; background: #41f253' | '''Character has a positive attitude; reserves strong language.''' | ||
+ | | style='border-style: none none none none;' | | ||
+ | | style='border-style: none none none none; border=0px; color:white; border-bottom:1px solid black; background: #ff2e16;' | '''Character is excessively profane, crude, or negative.''' | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | style='border-style: none none solid none; border=0px; border-bottom:1px solid white; background: #41f253' | '''Feels fun to be around, promotes interesting & positive interactions.''' | ||
+ | | style='border-style: none none none none;' | | ||
+ | | style='border-style: none none none none; border=0px; color:white; border-bottom:1px solid black; background: #ff2e16;' | '''Notably polarizing or excessively negative.''' | ||
|} | |} | ||
+ | ==Recruitment FAQ== | ||
− | + | '''My character has traits in the 'red' column in the chart above - would I be allowed to join?''' | |
+ | <br>Maybe. It depends on a couple of things: how big of a departure is it? Is there anything that helps mitigate it (i.e. with magic, what limitations have you put on?)? | ||
− | + | '''What time zone are you in?''' | |
− | + | <br>Most of us are in North America. We're most active between 6PM - 11PM server time. | |
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
− | + | '''How can I get to know the team members better before applying?''' | |
− | + | <br>Look for us in public social zones. If you don't see us there, consider asking for an invite to our global channel ''Adventurers_4ALL'' and you can talk to us OOC there, maybe try to get something going. Please '''take the initiative''' if you want us to notice you and consider you for membership. | |
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
− | + | '''How often do you do RP sessions?''' | |
− | + | <br>Usually 2-4 nights of the week, and often these are one-off sessions that are totally optional. With the squad system we started in 2022, it really depends on your squad! | |
− | + | ||
− | + | '''I applied to join, and then didn't hear anything. What's going on?''' | |
+ | <br>First feel free to check with @historiphile about this if it has been more than a week. Typically if we like a character you want to join with, you're going to hear from us immediately. If you apply with a character who has clear departures from the theme, we might just decline that application and move on. Sometimes we reply to say why it won't work with us. Feel free to try again with a character who is a better match, if you want. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Is magic banned in the Adventurers?''' | ||
+ | <br>Sort of a soft 'No'. It's good practice in RP for any character - magic or not - to have well-defined powers and limitations. The Adventurers heroes regard magic (and its practitioners) as something exotic, mysterious, and maybe not that commonplace from their point of view. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Can I have characters in other RP SGs while I'm in the Adventurers?''' | ||
+ | <br>Yes. Many of our players have done so. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''About the SG theme. Why don't you want my type of character in it?''' | ||
+ | <br>If you want a different RP experience than what we do, we truly hope you find it! Maybe start that RP group yourself, build it up, and seek people looking for the same thing. That is how Adventurers began. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Who runs scenarios for the Adventurers?''' | ||
+ | <br>Members do! This is a safe and supportive group for those who want to run superhero scenarios. Ask for more info. Sometimes we allow non-SG guest villains. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''I have a well-developed lore for my character. Will you make use of it?''' | ||
+ | <br>As long as it seems not to conflict with anything else we have going, and seems beneficial to RP with... then sure! Beware: whatever you run for us, make sure we can all play in it. We have had instances of people creating a story and characters ostensibly for RP, but it becoming clear that they just wanted us to be a passive audience for their creations. Such pursuits may be better as solo fiction. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Where do the Adventurers stand in relation to various factions from the Hero System PnP role playing game? What if my character would see it different?''' | ||
+ | We started a [[Glossary_of_the_Adventurers_SG|glossary]] that addresses that very thing. Where there are any uncertainties in interpreting lore, it is up to the group leader (@historiphile) to referee. Your character can still have differing opinions, even if those opinions contradict what has been decided as narrative facts by the group leader, but those would be ''just'' that character's opinions. (i.e. your character can despise UNTIL and think they're a fascist group, but it has been decided narratively that in Adventurers stories, they are actually a force for good). | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Do I have to be effective with English to join the Adventurers?''' | ||
+ | <br>Yes. All of our communication is done in written English. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Is profanity &#$*ing ok, or what?''' | ||
+ | <br>Save powerful language for occasions when it has full effect. Speaking as a generality, most SG members seem to find edginess tiresome and overrated. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''My preferred RP is all about chaos / interpersonal drama / internal conflict. Are you going to let me be who I am?''' | ||
+ | <br>There is a team culture of mutual friendship and support, IC and OOC. We fight villains, not each other. Many of us believe that has contributed to our group's longevity. If that idea makes you uncomfortable, please steer clear of us. | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''My character is the sort who will ''definitely'' rub people the wrong way, say mean things, be a total self-centered ass. It's just my character. You guys are ''real'' roleplayers, though, right? You can handle the difference between real and make-belief??''' | ||
+ | <br>For one, it's against our theme (see: polarizing & excessively negative). For another, we believe that even things done in character are ''choices'' the player makes and is responsible for, and not at all the fault of others when they react poorly to them (particularly when done with no narrative framing to make sure the other person knows it's just an act). So while we are not interested in recruiting such a character, for nothing, may we direct you to [https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/17ue8ei/how_to_roleplay_a_character_whos_full_of_himself/| this Reddit thread] for some advice on how to do that kind of roleplay without alienating other roleplayers? | ||
==Recruitment== | ==Recruitment== | ||
− | The following are guidelines | + | The following are guidelines for how we usually go about recruiting. But we reserve the right to change how we recruit at any time. |
+ | |||
+ | ===Before Requesting=== | ||
+ | |||
+ | We value relationship about as much as we value adherence to theme. If you have never RP'd with us and request to join us, it may take longer, or might not happen at all. Start trying to get to know us before. Ask to join our '''Adventurers_4ALL''' channel as a way to reach us. | ||
− | ===Step 1 - | + | ===Step 1 - Request to Join=== |
− | * Start by sending an in-game mail to | + | * Start by sending an in-game mail to @historiphile expressing interest, and maybe some detail on the following: |
**Powers | **Powers | ||
**Traits (ie, Strengths/weaknesses) | **Traits (ie, Strengths/weaknesses) | ||
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===Step 2 - Assessment=== | ===Step 2 - Assessment=== | ||
− | We will talk | + | We will talk internally about what we think about you based on the details you submitted in Step 1, and the reputation you have. If we like what we're hearing and/or think it's something we need, we will reach out. |
===Step 3 - Combat RP Trial=== | ===Step 3 - Combat RP Trial=== | ||
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We learn a lot about how someone RPs from this activity. | We learn a lot about how someone RPs from this activity. | ||
− | Once the combat RP trial is complete, witnessing Adventurers will discuss. If they like what they saw, then membership | + | Once the combat RP trial is complete, witnessing Adventurers will discuss. If they like what they saw, then membership may be offered. |
Latest revision as of 13:58, 27 April 2024
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The Adventurers is a team of costumed heroes from Millennium City. Small in number, but strong in determination and skill, they work together to keep the city safe.