Emerald says, "But Raymond and the bomber both have a very good point that they seem to be agreed on. We should be handing him over to the police. As of now, the city still doesn't really know we have the mastermind."

Shelly squeaks! "Right! I feel stupid... let's get him to the cops then!"

Eli says, "I'mma check if this monitor has any memory on the way there."

Antoinette goes to hug Raymond. "Love is never a waste."

The Hellions roll their eyes. "Man... what makes mage-bot think there's something going on beyond what the guy is claiming?"

Angel comes through on the supergroup com. "I took a peak. There were claims for a superstructure project that the politicians of Paragon weren't willing to give the cash for. But as for the conspiracy theories on whether they proceeded to use the same invention for military means? That will probably take digging that involves some of us using superpowers."

"You're not the only one who thinks that, Alloy," Raymond agrees, "On both points.  Ends don't justify the means.  And the whole situation felt suspicious to me from the start."

He doesn't avoid Antoinette's hug and just frowns, holding his tongue rather than argue with her.  He nods to Angel.  "Let's start plan...  Hmm..."

He gives a suspicious glare to the villain.  "You're so convinced of your claims, here's your chance to put your money where your mouth is.  Where will we find evidence to prove your claims?"

  "Vanguard might have picked that sort of thing up, but then they have a habit of paying their bills.  Mostly I'm just getting too used to problems being more complicated than they have any right to be.  I suppose we can all Blame nemesis for that one."

Blaming nemesis was also a nemesis plot, we swear.

Emerald says, "Not everything is a Nemesis plot." Well now we know which load-screen Emmy subscribes to. "But they certainly make everyone paranoid, like you said."

At Raymond's request, the computer monitor looks hopeful. "You mean it? Alright! All my work, though not the originals, can be found at the following location:" he proceeds to give coordinates. But he warns that getting in is the trick since it's deep in yet another cave full of traps and dangerous machines.

Eli says, "... Well since we have the coordinates, I can calibrate one of our telepads to take us directly there. It'll take me about 5 minutes."

Emerald says, "Do it. The less danger we put our teams through over this, the better. Besides... the only urgent thing is if there are any bombs left."

Raichel looks at the monitor. "ARE there any bombs left?"

The monitor says, "...yes."

It's then the group hears Angel over the SG radio with a bunch of chaos in the background, "Help... hurt bad... mediport field disrupted..."

Eli fumbles with his SG radio, nearly dropping it. Emerald uses her radio, "WHERE, Angel?"

"Peh...peragrin..." Angel's voice responds, sounding even weaker.

Raichel was crouched and ready when Angel was starting to answer. Even as Raichel charges off to the PI telepad, Emerald starts following and says, "Alloy, you're in charge of the bomber and finding his stuff! Bamzor, come with Raymond, Raichel and I to Paragin!"

Shelly looks at Alloy. "I'll take care of the Hellions."

Eli goes to work on the telepad that leads to Pocket D. He figures if there's one place he can temporarily cut the SG from, it's PD since most of the SG has a VIP pass that allows them to teleport straight there anyway.

Raymond's skin is crawling with lightning and there's a miniature sonic boom when his afterburner kicks in on his race to the telepad.

"Hang in there, Angel.  We're on our way.  Sending a team invite."

Assuming she accepts the invitation, he locks on to her location and blazes toward her, activating his super speed stealth to avoid any unwanted attention on the way.

  "Thanks Shelly, you're a much better host than me anyways."  That said, he patiently (well, as much as you can in this sort of situation) waits for Eli to finish his task.  "How many bombs, and is there anything of note that would make safely defusing them more troublesome?" Alloy doesn't have much practice with that whole 'Sonic Cage' trick.  Even if he did, it would only work on one bomb at a time.

  Bamzor meanwhile, mostly follows Raymond's example in hurrying through the Telepad process and high speed flight.

Angel Rescue Team:

Angel accepts the team invite from Raymond and so, Raichel prompts Raymond to invite her, Emerald, and Bamzor as the the team streaks across the island. Emerald keeps up with the others because of teleporting, materializing next to them sometimes ahead and sometimes right at the same spot, only to vanish again.

According to team tracking, Angel is over at Portal Corp, and when they get there, the place is a wreck. LOTS of bodies, though most of them belong to Rikti. Many a scientist lies dead among the ruins, but the bunch find Angel looking not long for this world, currently in human form, laying at the controls to the Portal that leads to Firebase Zulu. Looks like the portal is a different color than normal.

There are still some Rikti there, looks like some are at Angel's body, trying to mess with the controls. Others are at the portal itself, some examining, others just standing by.


Bomb Defuser Team:

The monitor answers Alloy. "There is one bomb in every section of the city. And when defusing them, just don't cut the black wires."

While still staring at the portal and trying to concentrate, Eli asks, "What happens if you cut the black wires?"

The monitor answers Eli, "Premature detonation."

Eli ohs. Then smiles. "Got it, Alloy! We now have a portal that leads directly to this guy's evidence. Does the place include where you put the bombs?"

The monitor answers Eli, "Yes."

Eli says, "Then I know where we're going first..."

Meanwhile, Shelly is escorting the Hellions to the Atlas beacon. She looks over to Alloy and Eli. "Don't trust him. Be careful when you go to this place he gave you coordinates to; It could be a trap."
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:24, Thu 19 July 2012.

Raymond of course invites the rest of the group to the official team to help facilitate them finding Angel with him.  He slams into the ground among the Rikti then taunts them!  "I AM YOUR OPPONENT!"

He then slams the end of his titan weapon down on the ground in front of him, creating a powerful shock-wave aimed at knocking down the Rikti at the controls!

"I'll draw their attention away from Angel," he coms the team, "Someone get her some greens!"

  Bamzor takes in the view, and has other thoughts on the matter.  "Right, unless doing so would make it stuck in the 'on' position, please back away from the console.  The Shadow Shard is just lame and none of us want to have to deal with that today do we?"

...  Wait, they keep a TUNNEL portal that has Firebase Zulu as one of it's destinations in freaking Atlas Park these days.  Then again, they also keep the time portal to the Doomed Future ruled by Lord Recluse in City hall so... Yeah.

---

  Alloy sighs, "That's the problem with obvious traps Shelly.  Even when they are obvious, you still go through with it anyways."

Angel Rescue Team:

Emerald and Raichel land, Raichel immediately going to hand Angel some greens as asked. Emerald notices a few Rikti trying to aim their attention at Raichel. Eyes narrowed, Emerald says something in the Rikti language that seems to REALLY tick them off and they turn to face her with malice. She then twirls energy in her hands and slams it into the ground, shooting kinetic energy outward to all the Rikti and knocking them on their butts.

Meanwhile, the ones noticing Raymond start immediately crowding him. Emerald then teleports over to Raymond. She goes to his backside to face her back to his. "I got your back, Raymond! Let's teach these Rikti how we throw down!"

Angel seems to have enough wherewithal to take the greens given to her and peeks her eyes open. "Thanks for coming..." she manages in a weak tone, pulling out a gun. Raichel puts a hand on Angel's and says, "Let the others handle it. You fire those big boys and the Rikti will just come back at you."

The Rikti are not push-overs, however, and while Raymond, Bamzor and Emerald seem to almost act like the Rikti are barely scratching them, it seems just as hard to bring one of the Rikti down. Then an important looking Rikti starts casually walking towards the group. In a deep robotic voice, the commander speaks up, "These are some of the more powerful heroes. We have what we need. Retreat."

The Rikti all seem to heed his command and start teleporting away, as if being beamed up. The commander throws his hands to either side and creates a large repultion field that, should any of the heroes try getting close, will push them away. "Well fought, heroes. Farewell." he teleports and a timer is heard over the building's intercom: "Self-destruct sequence initiated. T minus 5 minutes."

Timothius calls on the Supergroup channel. "Invite me!" and he can be seen entering the room.


Bomb Defuser Team:

Shelly answers Alloy, "True enough. Just be careful is all..."

Eli gives a thumbs-up with a bright smile, "Force Field technology combined with his sounds? I think we'll be alright. Thanks, Shelly!"

When the two arrive at the destination, it looks a lot like one of the Praetorian psion prisons. Eli immediately begins putting forcefields on Alloy. And since he's expecting a surprise attack or trap, he also puts up a personal force field once he has the large force field active.

Some searching soon reveals a computer with all kinds of files and plans on it. Alloy is, of course, techno-savvy enough to find out these are the files they are looking for. Eli is staring in amazement. "This is simple yet brilliant! I feel kinda silly not having thought of this..." he's in geek mode, distracted with the genius of the design.

"Thanks, Emerald," Raymond answers, "I'll have to learn whatever it was you said to them.  Thanks for helping Angel, Raichel.  So Angel...  glad you're ok now...  you know what they were up to?  Don't suppose anyone here knows how to work that control panel and stop the self-destruct?"

He of course invites Timothius when asked.

  Alloy takes a moment to consider some of the quirks of his abilities.  He can't protect people from the damage of Psychic powers...  But he can protect himself and others from all the nasty side effects and has the Bestest Golem Ever.  Buffage is of course shared with the young scientist.

  "You can't think of everything Eli, and now you have thought of it so you can stop feeling silly."

---

  "Okay, that was weird."   Yes it was Bamzo-  "Since when did the non-Traditionalist Rikti treat others with respect?"   Probably not the most crazy thing going on right now, Bamzor.

  "Right, okay.  Good news, I have a potential way to evacuate everyone in the building to saftey through the League system if we can't stop this kaboom.  The bad news, I have to be where it's safe instead of helping evacuate others to do it." That is probably the most sissy usage of Incarnate powers possible, but hey, supposedly Bamzor is Hero alignment so yeah.

OOC: I just did a quick curiosity check.  there are only two Melee protection power sets that have Repel (as opposed to KB) protection.  Stone armor, and SHIELD DEFENSE.  Turns out that while you activate/babysit shield Defense's Mez protection like Super Reflexes,  Shield Defense version is BETTER.

Angel answers Raymond in a weak tone, "I think they were grabbing some experimental technology that was being used on Firebase Zulu... and figured they would try to cut us off from our troops there while they were at it."

Timothius arrives, now that he was able to home in on the others. He lands, wings flapping a few more times while he jogs over to the others. Seeing Angel still low on health, he heals her the rest of the way.

Angel says, "Well you got me curious, Bamzor, but I'll wait and see. Go do your plan, Bamzor. I'll see about finding a scientist who can defuse the bomb."

Raichel asks, "Will you need any help, Bamzor?"

---

When Alloy speaks, Eli shakes it off and says, "Right. So let's pack up and go."

It is, of course, then that a bunch of those psychics we mentioned (seers) come seemingly out of nowhere and begin shooting brainwaves at Alloy and Eli!
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:13, Tue 07 Aug 2012.

"Good work, Angel," Raymond answers, "Hang in there."

He exhales in relief when Timothius shows up and heals her.  "Thanks, Timothius.  Looks like Bamzor's got the evac covered, so I'll be heading to the hospital to look into why the mediport system wasn't working for Angel."

  "The effort involved will be 'Stand between police drones at the ferry and wait for the evac signal'.  So unless you need practice in standing dramatically while nothing happens, it sounds like a one robot job.  Thanks though."  That said, Off the large robot goes.

---

Sudden ambush with little prep time! Oh goodness what do you do oh wait, wait.  We know the answer to this one.  Volcanic Gas.
"Right It's time to run like sissies for the exit.  Probably more seers and assorted where those came from soon enough."

  Alloy refrains from just popping open an Ouroboros gate and shoving Eli through it for sake of dramatic tension.

Angel Rescue Team:

Angel begins searching the scientists with Timothius. Timothius heals the scientists as he comes across them. Finally, one who can operate the primary controls is found. He gets to the computer and gets to work while Angel and Timothius continue searching the others.

Raichel, however, stays by the side of the guy who's operating the computer. "I don't know the first thing from these advanced computers, so you'll have to let me know if things aren't working out."

The scientist says, "Actually... I'm finishing the sending of all the backup data. The self destruct sequence can't be reversed. Those blasted aliens locked it."

Raichel says, "Keep trying. If worse comes to worse, I know Bamzor will have us out of here."

Meanwhile, Emerald looks around and begins tapping away at one of the less advanced terminals. "Times like this, I wish one of our more techy team mates was here." she comments to nobody in particular since Raymond has headed off to the hospital. SPEAKING OF...

Hospital:
Raymond finds the hospital is in a frenzy. All kinds of injured are being cared for and a lot of equipment is on the fritz. A nurse spots Raymond and approaches him. "...Raymond? I'm glad you're here, but I'm not sure how you can help..."

Bomb Defuser Team:

Eli runs with Alloy, "Thankfully, my force fields have mind shielding technology!" he says as he puts up his dispersion bubble. The duo makes it to the exit without much more drama, thankfully. As soon as Eli and Alloy arrive back in the supergroup base as a result, Eli immediately turns and makes it one-way so that the teleportation won't allow the seers to arrive in the supergroup base. "That was intense, but we need to check on the others right away! They could need our help."

"I came here to find out why Angel's medivac wasn't working," Raymond answers, scanning the chaos, "But healing these people takes priority.  One moment, please, while I contact our healer."

He contacts Timothius by the Supergroup channel.  "Lots of injured people here at the hospital and their machines are on the fritz.  You ready for a port, Timothius?"

He looks at the nurse and asks, "How did all this happen?"

  Now that the large Robot Smashey Hero/Part-Time children's Birthday Party Entertainer is in place, Bamzor makes the best possible use of his time while awaiting the signal.

/e bbelectrovibe

---

  "I'd comment how base portals are already secured against uninvited guests, but with he way things are going lately yes please extra precautions.  Thanks Eli."   He shakes his head at the young super genius's outburst though.  "No Eli, we need to work on what you found.  I trust the rest of them to handle their end of things, but you have to do what the rest of us can't now or we might not have a chance later."

  Alloy doesn't even know what it even IS Eli found, so yeah sending the only one who can reveal the latest plot point gallivanting about sounds like a Bad Plan right now.

Angel Rescue Team:

Timothius responds to Raymond, "Thanks for asking first, Raymond. Those injured people will have to wait just a few more minutes. They, at least, are at a hospital. I've got loads of dying scientists out here at Portal Corp's remains. Did you find out what gives with the medivac?"

Angel glances and notices Raichel is watching the scientist. She sends a supergroup message, "Hey Raichel... take a picture of what the scientist is up to and send it to Eli's email."

Raichel responds on SG, "You got it, Angel." and takes a picture every time the screen becomes different. Then starts sending the pictures to Eli.

The scientist says, "Alright. I'm done. We need to evacuate. I think I managed to lower the explosion to not cause too much harm, but... better safe than sorry."

Raichel says, "Good work. Timothius? You ready yet?"

Timothius heals the last scientist he's able to find and says, "No, but do I even have any time left?"

Raichel says, "Not really."

Timothius says, "Then we best get out of here and save whoever we can save."

Having heard Angel, Emerald also takes screenshots. "Good idea, Angel..." she whispers to herself before packing up, grabbing the data on a USB and going to the others.

The signal is sent to Bamzor.

Hospital:

After Raymond hears Timothius' answer, the nurse says, "The medivac towers are down. NOBODY is being teleported to the hospitals. This sent a lot of heroes into a panic and their powers... started injuring bystanders."

Bomb Defuser Team:

Eli says, "I'm working, I'm working." as he looks through the data. "This has everything. Dates of his discoveries, how to build his invention, the proccess he went through to try getting it mass produced for the city... all of it. He was handing his technology on a silver platter to the city councel. They didn't even HAVE to steal it after he basically gave them his blueprints. Hold on..."

He takes a look at his phone and sees texts from Raichel and Emerald, complete with attached photos. His eyes go wide. "Emerald got the exact same schematics from a console at Portal Corp. And Raichel apparently sent me some kind of self-destruct procedures being tampered with using what looks like Rikti coding..." he spaces out a moment before quickly looking through all the data again. "It's making more sense. Inventor offers technology to councel. Councel turns him down. Councel keeps tech schematics. Portal Corp gets their hands on it somehow and tries to provide the tech for the troops in Firebase Zulu. Rikti find out somehow and invade Portal Corp in a concentrated effort to steal an "experimental technology" that was going to be provided to Firebase Zulu."

"How...?" Raymond cuts himself off and sends a supergroup message.  "The P.I. medivac towers are down.  Also, hero powers are now injuring bystanders.  Use extreme caution.  I'll broadcast to the help channel.  Let me know when you are ready for a port, Timothius."

As promised, he then broadcasts the situation to the help channel.  "Calling all heroes!  The P.I. medivac towers are down!  Hero powers injuring bystanders!  Use cation when apprehending villains.  Hospital in need of healers, and tech experts needed for repairing towers.  AVOID PORTAL CORP BUILDINGS!  SELF DESTRUCT EXPLOSION EXPECTED ANY MINUTE!"

  Bamzor busts one last dance move, then hits up the Not-Related-To-Local-Systems Incarnate Empowerment. (If the Hospital evac end of things were not bothering to set up a league for him in the first place, not Bamzor's fault).

  At least he's not teleporting a bunch of unsuspecting people in front of a giant Hamidon monster, unlike SOME people.

---

"I wonder if the more shady ends of Vanguard bought the schematics?  But knowing them they would want the guy who made it in the first place, not second hand plans if they had known the source."

OOC: Ironically, Raymond/Chris would never see the emergency message because they never look at the Help Channel.

Angel Rescue Team:

Timothius, Angel, Raichel, Emerald, and all the scientists are then teleported to.... wherever it was Bamzor went. Which, thankfully, is AWAY from Portal Corp. Sure enough, the place goes boom. It looks like the damage WAS minimized... but that the people would not have survived without Bamzor teleporting them all. (Thinking on it a bit, it makes loads of sense for Bamzor to have gone to the hospital so the wounded PortalCorp scientists would be able to be tended to immediately.)

Thankfully, game mechanics are only used when convenient in this RP or the group of allies could not rush to Bamzor and hug him.

-----------
If the group wasn't teleported to the hospital:
Timothius ohs and says, "Ready for that teleport now, Raymond."

Emerald lets go of Bamzor and says in SG, "Soon as you teleport him, teleport me too and I can get to teleporting the scientists."
-----------

Otherwise, Timothius just gets to work on helping out immediately.

Bomb Defuser Team:

Eli says, "Hard to sa-Oh! Found the locations of all the bombs!" he quickly begins altering the telepads to teleport to the exact spots. Takes a minor alteration, really, so it will actually save time. "Let's get the bomb squad in on this quick."

With a quick call to the cops, the team is able to get a hold of the bomb squad who soon come to the SG base in order to head for the bomb locations.

Raymond teleports Timothius and Emerald to the hospital and any other healers who responds to his broadcast.  "Thanks, you two.  I'll help with bringing in the injured scientists and whomever else needs to get here quickly."  Including repairmen for the hospital's equipment.

  "Right, I'll be on standby for if you need someone punched.  A lot."

---

  "If we make a habit of this, we're probably going to need some extra Telepads."  Fortunately, throwing rocks at Maurader's face had been worth a good chunk of prestige.  The main problems would be potential power limitations.

Angel Rescue Team:

Emmy and Tim thank Raymond back for the teleport, and get to work.

With the repair men, the healers, and the people who are on watch to make sure supers don't use their more dangerous powers around civilians, things are being tended to decently.


Bomb Defuser Team:

Eli says, "Don't worry about it. Crisis like these where the entire city's transportation is cut off and bombs are ready to go off at every tram station doesn't happen often."


Wrapping up:

It's now a couple days later. The bombs are diffused, the bomber has been turned in to the police, and the medivac tech is repaired. It's found out that the Rikti were responsible for the temporary disabling of the medivac tech. Security around medivac towers and its other workings has increased. In order to not spread Longbow forces thin, qualified civilians are offered the job with the bonus that anyone with that job has use of the tech (civilians normally don't get teleported to hospitals as per storyline).

The men in black take over investigations concerning the Rikti event, but the Redemption supergroup knows... it doesn't look good. The Rikti have gotten away with the impact-proof superstructure designs of the monitor bomber. Getting rid of Rikti structures that are built or modified based on this new technology is going to prove difficult at best. And much to the shagrin of a good deal of supers (hero OR villain), chances are the Rikti will start with their defense pylons.

There is little to nothing that can be done now. The Rikti likely have thousands of backup copies of the tech in their databanks. However, the bomber who invented the structure is rumored to be inventing a counter to it in order to take some years off his sentence. Which has many a citizen outraged. The guy was responsible for atemped murder on a grand scale.