After their battle with Mechanon and Ogre, Rampart and Troyus spent the afternoon helping with the clean-up. While thus engaged they were approached by Apex (aka Xander Lamberton III), a hero who was drawn to the melee after Ogre rampaged through the neighborhood where he served as a social worker. Although tending to the injured caused Apex to miss the battle, Rampart and Troyus were impressed by his willingness to help with the aftermath, so they invited him to the meeting scheduled for later that night.
Meanwhile, Sparrow Hawk and Nightshift went to investigate the facility that Ogre burst out from of earlier that morning. They found the area cordoned off by UNTIL agents, who were in the process of coordinating with Glass Industries representatives as well as the NYPD. Nightshift teleported to the agents and engaged UNTIL’s Sergeant-Major Evelyn Knight in conversation. She explained that UNTIL arrived at the site to find a squad of VIPER agents making their way into the facility. Predictably, VIPER refused to surrender to UNTIL and a firefight broke out. Mechanon arrived on the scene in the midst of the battle, strafing the area with high powered explosives before diving into the underground facilities. By the time the UNTIL agents regained their footing, Mechanon was gone from the scene, taking some unidentified machinery with it. Using the confusion to their advantage, the VIPER agents also escaped.
Slipping past the UNTIL agents while they conversed with Nightshift, Sparrow Hawk made her way into the debris. She found the remnants of some medical technology, but her big discovery was the badly injured and unconscious form of Crusader, one of NYC veteran superheroes, pinned under a heavy iron beam. She called for help and, together with Nightshift and Sergeant-Major Knight, managed to get the battered hero to safety. Leaving him in the capable hands of UNTIL’s medics, Nightshift and Sparrow Hawk left the scene to compare notes.
That evening the heroes met in Central Park to discuss their next move. After becoming acquainted with Apex, they all agreed to accept Major Martinez’s invitation for a more extensive debriefing. Arriving at UNTIL HQ, they found the Major ready to receive them. Martinez explained that Ogre was still sedated and being held on the premises until arrangements could be made to safely transfer him to the proper authorities. He also explained that Mechanon was a Glass Industries creation gone rogue. Apparently, the robot had insinuated itself into the company’s computer network and had appropriated an abandoned laboratory to conduct some sort of genetic experimentation. A genetic scan of Ogre identified the brute as Jack Stevens, a Glass Industries employee that disappeared a week earlier. Present at the meeting despite several broken bones, Crusader shared that he was investigating Stevens’ disappearance when he stumbled upon Mechanon’s laboratory. Upon entering the lab, the room immediately sealed and began to fill with knock-out gas. Crusader managed to damage one of the computer consoles before passing out. He offered this last bit of information with a sense of guilt, given the possibility that his actions might have caused a systems malfunction that led to Jack Steven's transformation into Ogre.
Martinez then shifted the conversation towards his concerns over VIPER’s quick response to the incident, guessing that “the snakes” were either directly involved in what happened at Glass Industries, or that they had simply stepped up their activity in NYC to the point where they could mobilize as quickly as the city’s first responders. Finally, Martinez shared his more immediate concerns. The Mechanon that the heroes fought was version 2.0 of the robot, which was in the final phases of construction at Glass Industries at the time of Ogre’s rampage. Months earlier, version 1.0 had been given to the East Coast’s premiere superhero team, the Boston, Massachusetts based Minutemen, as a guardian for their HQ. According to Project Mechanon’s lead engineer, James Harmon IV, the Minutemen had recently reported some erratic behavior on the part of Mechanon 1.0, but nothing that would have indicated such extreme behavior. Nevertheless, the Minutemen had not been seen for almost two weeks. Although such absences occasionally occurred when the Minutemen were off on mission, Martinez suspected the worst. Unfortunately, his hands were tied. Always strained, the relationship between UNTIL and the U.S. Government had become more problematic recently. The newly inaugurated Reagan administration was threatening to prevent UNTIL from operating on U.S. soil, turning over matters of super-powered villainy and terrorism to American organizations like SAT and PRIMUS. Because UNTIL HQ was based out of the UN Building, Martinez could still get away with operating in NYC with few restrictions, but sending squads of agents to investigate the Minutemen’s public HQ in Boston, Massachusetts was out of the question. Hearing this, the heroes volunteered to go in UNTIL’s stead. Martinez provided them a lift in an unmarked UNTIL hover-transport piloted by Sergeant-Major Henry Wadsworth, and off they went.
The Minutemen’s HQ was located on the top three floors of a skyscraper in Boston, Massachusetts. Wadsworth set the transport down on the rooftop landing pad, and the heroes opted to make their way to the lower levels via elevator. Sparrow Hawk bypassed the base’s security and jury-rigged the elevator to work for the heroes, but when the doors opened on the floor below they were immediately attacked by Mechanon 1.0. Rampart, Apex and Troyus engaged the robot head on, while Nightshift and Sparrow Hawk slipped away to investigate.
Teleporting into the base's medical unit, Nightshift found the Minutemen unconscious and floating in bio-tanks that were hooked up to a series of computer consoles. An operating table with arm and leg restraints occupied the center of the room, targeted by a ceiling mounted beam weapon of some sort. Standing by the table was Mechanon 2.0. Before Nightshift could react, the robot filled the room with knockout gas and the hero slipped into unconsciousness.
Having made her way into Minutemen HQ’s ventilation system, Sparrow Hawk watched as Mechanon 2.0 carried Nightshift to the operating table in the medical center. Slipping in undetected, she deactivated the bio-tanks, which began the process of awakening the Minutemen. Spinning to face her, Mechanon 2.0 spoke. “Your actions are illogical. You are jeopardizing the survival of the human species. Humanity in its current state presents a threat to itself as well as to the survival and independence of superior synthetic life-forms. Possible solutions - Option 1: Preserving bio-diversity offered by continued human existence while devolving the species’ more threatening characteristics. Option 2: Human extinction. You are interfering with Option 1.” It then launched a vicious attack. Sparrow Hawk expertly dodged a series of micro-rockets, but Mechanon 2.0 then turned its attention to the awakening Minutemen, opening up on their still unconscious forms with his pulse lasers. Outraged, Sparrow Hawk trained the ceiling mounted beam on Mechanon 2.0, bathing the robot in a greenish glow that seemed to have no effect. Mechanon 2.0 then lobbed a mega-bomb at Sparrow Hawk. The powerful explosive stopped an inch from her face, and then flew back towards the robot, knocking it down and stunning it momentarily. Quickly scanning the room, Sparrow Hawk saw that Thunderbird, the oldest of the Minutemen, had awakened just in time to deflect the bomb, but not without a cost. The strain sent him into a fit of seizures.
At this point, Rampart, Troyus and Apex burst into the room. Having defeated Mechanon 1.0, they were keen to test their mettle against the more sophisticated version. Recovered from the knock-out gas, Nightshift also joined the fray. The heroes began to gain the upper hand after a few rounds, so Mechanon opted to flee when Rampart pounded him through the outside wall of the Minutemen HQ. Troyus and Apex gave chase and traded a few more blows with the robot, but Mechanon’s flight capabilities outmatched their own and the robot managed to escape.
Meanwhile, Sparrow Hawk and Rampart began loading the Minutemen into the UNTIL hover-transport, while Nightshift finished searching the Minutemen HQ. To his horror, Nightshift found a large bomb with 4 seconds left on the timer. Thinking quickly, he grabbed the bomb, teleported it over the bay and teleported back with one second to spare. Still loading the Minutemen onto the transport, Sparrow Hawk and Rampart watched the fireworks from the rooftop of Minutemen HQ.
The days after the heroes’ victory over Mechanon proved sad. Thunderbird regained consciousness briefly and was able to thank the heroes for rescuing his fellow Minutemen. His injuries, however, were too severe and the elderly hero, who had served humanity since before World War II, passed away surrounded by his friends. Following his death, the Minutemen decided to disband. Middle-aged and recently married, Lady Victory chose to lead a normal life for a change, while Captain Star opted continue his adventuring career as member of PRIMUS. Fleetfoot, the youngest of the Minutemen, decided to continue his career as an independent superhero in Boston. Although all the heroes involved in rescuing the Minutemen were invited to Thunderbird’s funeral, only Rampart and Troyus attended in their heroic identities. On that day, Fleetfoot approached them and encouraged them to stay together as a team. He also gave them a communicator set to his frequency and promised to respond if they should ever need help.
Experienced Points Earned: 2
Meanwhile, Sparrow Hawk and Nightshift went to investigate the facility that Ogre burst out from of earlier that morning. They found the area cordoned off by UNTIL agents, who were in the process of coordinating with Glass Industries representatives as well as the NYPD. Nightshift teleported to the agents and engaged UNTIL’s Sergeant-Major Evelyn Knight in conversation. She explained that UNTIL arrived at the site to find a squad of VIPER agents making their way into the facility. Predictably, VIPER refused to surrender to UNTIL and a firefight broke out. Mechanon arrived on the scene in the midst of the battle, strafing the area with high powered explosives before diving into the underground facilities. By the time the UNTIL agents regained their footing, Mechanon was gone from the scene, taking some unidentified machinery with it. Using the confusion to their advantage, the VIPER agents also escaped.
Slipping past the UNTIL agents while they conversed with Nightshift, Sparrow Hawk made her way into the debris. She found the remnants of some medical technology, but her big discovery was the badly injured and unconscious form of Crusader, one of NYC veteran superheroes, pinned under a heavy iron beam. She called for help and, together with Nightshift and Sergeant-Major Knight, managed to get the battered hero to safety. Leaving him in the capable hands of UNTIL’s medics, Nightshift and Sparrow Hawk left the scene to compare notes.
That evening the heroes met in Central Park to discuss their next move. After becoming acquainted with Apex, they all agreed to accept Major Martinez’s invitation for a more extensive debriefing. Arriving at UNTIL HQ, they found the Major ready to receive them. Martinez explained that Ogre was still sedated and being held on the premises until arrangements could be made to safely transfer him to the proper authorities. He also explained that Mechanon was a Glass Industries creation gone rogue. Apparently, the robot had insinuated itself into the company’s computer network and had appropriated an abandoned laboratory to conduct some sort of genetic experimentation. A genetic scan of Ogre identified the brute as Jack Stevens, a Glass Industries employee that disappeared a week earlier. Present at the meeting despite several broken bones, Crusader shared that he was investigating Stevens’ disappearance when he stumbled upon Mechanon’s laboratory. Upon entering the lab, the room immediately sealed and began to fill with knock-out gas. Crusader managed to damage one of the computer consoles before passing out. He offered this last bit of information with a sense of guilt, given the possibility that his actions might have caused a systems malfunction that led to Jack Steven's transformation into Ogre.
Martinez then shifted the conversation towards his concerns over VIPER’s quick response to the incident, guessing that “the snakes” were either directly involved in what happened at Glass Industries, or that they had simply stepped up their activity in NYC to the point where they could mobilize as quickly as the city’s first responders. Finally, Martinez shared his more immediate concerns. The Mechanon that the heroes fought was version 2.0 of the robot, which was in the final phases of construction at Glass Industries at the time of Ogre’s rampage. Months earlier, version 1.0 had been given to the East Coast’s premiere superhero team, the Boston, Massachusetts based Minutemen, as a guardian for their HQ. According to Project Mechanon’s lead engineer, James Harmon IV, the Minutemen had recently reported some erratic behavior on the part of Mechanon 1.0, but nothing that would have indicated such extreme behavior. Nevertheless, the Minutemen had not been seen for almost two weeks. Although such absences occasionally occurred when the Minutemen were off on mission, Martinez suspected the worst. Unfortunately, his hands were tied. Always strained, the relationship between UNTIL and the U.S. Government had become more problematic recently. The newly inaugurated Reagan administration was threatening to prevent UNTIL from operating on U.S. soil, turning over matters of super-powered villainy and terrorism to American organizations like SAT and PRIMUS. Because UNTIL HQ was based out of the UN Building, Martinez could still get away with operating in NYC with few restrictions, but sending squads of agents to investigate the Minutemen’s public HQ in Boston, Massachusetts was out of the question. Hearing this, the heroes volunteered to go in UNTIL’s stead. Martinez provided them a lift in an unmarked UNTIL hover-transport piloted by Sergeant-Major Henry Wadsworth, and off they went.
The Minutemen’s HQ was located on the top three floors of a skyscraper in Boston, Massachusetts. Wadsworth set the transport down on the rooftop landing pad, and the heroes opted to make their way to the lower levels via elevator. Sparrow Hawk bypassed the base’s security and jury-rigged the elevator to work for the heroes, but when the doors opened on the floor below they were immediately attacked by Mechanon 1.0. Rampart, Apex and Troyus engaged the robot head on, while Nightshift and Sparrow Hawk slipped away to investigate.
Teleporting into the base's medical unit, Nightshift found the Minutemen unconscious and floating in bio-tanks that were hooked up to a series of computer consoles. An operating table with arm and leg restraints occupied the center of the room, targeted by a ceiling mounted beam weapon of some sort. Standing by the table was Mechanon 2.0. Before Nightshift could react, the robot filled the room with knockout gas and the hero slipped into unconsciousness.
Having made her way into Minutemen HQ’s ventilation system, Sparrow Hawk watched as Mechanon 2.0 carried Nightshift to the operating table in the medical center. Slipping in undetected, she deactivated the bio-tanks, which began the process of awakening the Minutemen. Spinning to face her, Mechanon 2.0 spoke. “Your actions are illogical. You are jeopardizing the survival of the human species. Humanity in its current state presents a threat to itself as well as to the survival and independence of superior synthetic life-forms. Possible solutions - Option 1: Preserving bio-diversity offered by continued human existence while devolving the species’ more threatening characteristics. Option 2: Human extinction. You are interfering with Option 1.” It then launched a vicious attack. Sparrow Hawk expertly dodged a series of micro-rockets, but Mechanon 2.0 then turned its attention to the awakening Minutemen, opening up on their still unconscious forms with his pulse lasers. Outraged, Sparrow Hawk trained the ceiling mounted beam on Mechanon 2.0, bathing the robot in a greenish glow that seemed to have no effect. Mechanon 2.0 then lobbed a mega-bomb at Sparrow Hawk. The powerful explosive stopped an inch from her face, and then flew back towards the robot, knocking it down and stunning it momentarily. Quickly scanning the room, Sparrow Hawk saw that Thunderbird, the oldest of the Minutemen, had awakened just in time to deflect the bomb, but not without a cost. The strain sent him into a fit of seizures.
At this point, Rampart, Troyus and Apex burst into the room. Having defeated Mechanon 1.0, they were keen to test their mettle against the more sophisticated version. Recovered from the knock-out gas, Nightshift also joined the fray. The heroes began to gain the upper hand after a few rounds, so Mechanon opted to flee when Rampart pounded him through the outside wall of the Minutemen HQ. Troyus and Apex gave chase and traded a few more blows with the robot, but Mechanon’s flight capabilities outmatched their own and the robot managed to escape.
Meanwhile, Sparrow Hawk and Rampart began loading the Minutemen into the UNTIL hover-transport, while Nightshift finished searching the Minutemen HQ. To his horror, Nightshift found a large bomb with 4 seconds left on the timer. Thinking quickly, he grabbed the bomb, teleported it over the bay and teleported back with one second to spare. Still loading the Minutemen onto the transport, Sparrow Hawk and Rampart watched the fireworks from the rooftop of Minutemen HQ.
The days after the heroes’ victory over Mechanon proved sad. Thunderbird regained consciousness briefly and was able to thank the heroes for rescuing his fellow Minutemen. His injuries, however, were too severe and the elderly hero, who had served humanity since before World War II, passed away surrounded by his friends. Following his death, the Minutemen decided to disband. Middle-aged and recently married, Lady Victory chose to lead a normal life for a change, while Captain Star opted continue his adventuring career as member of PRIMUS. Fleetfoot, the youngest of the Minutemen, decided to continue his career as an independent superhero in Boston. Although all the heroes involved in rescuing the Minutemen were invited to Thunderbird’s funeral, only Rampart and Troyus attended in their heroic identities. On that day, Fleetfoot approached them and encouraged them to stay together as a team. He also gave them a communicator set to his frequency and promised to respond if they should ever need help.
Experienced Points Earned: 2
1 comment:
I wish I had been in that game!
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