Angel is good as new health-wise, but has been still mentally recuperating. She could have died and many did die. She has yet to leave the supergroup base, where she has apparently taken up residence. Determined to help despite her fears, Angel has been doing any and all supergroup related activity that can be done INSIDE the supergroup, such as cooking, cleaning, looking for what needs repair, checking for salvage whenever someone needs it, and keeping a hand on the pulse of the outside world's problems, especially her specialty; politics.

It's still relegated to Alloy to take care of upkeep bills since that requires being outside of the base and Angel literally can't bring herself to leave.

Emerald recruited Lucky to help with the "make Angel feel better" task, but has since asked for adult volunteers to help out because Angel needs a peer or two.

Meanwhile, Alexis contacts the supergroup. "Hi... hate to say it, but I sense a possible large threat on the horizon. Meet with me in the base."

Needless to say, Angel is first in the meeting room, having little else to do anyway.

(OOC: Figure out which alts will want to hang out with Angel and which will eventually head out to deal with Alexis' concerns after the meeting.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:43, Sat 18 Aug 2012.

Spending time with Angel is a welcome break from practicing his new liquid shadow powers with Purple Cool-Aid Man for Lucky.  All the purring and fluffay kitten snuggles Angel could possibly want are hers for the taking.  Not to mention Lucky's endless flattery.  Mittens, Kitau, and Raymond are generally too busy punching evil in the face to be of much use to be of much use to Angel beyond saying "Thanks for the food" or whatnot.

Raymond and Lucky show up for the meeting.  Mits on the other hand...  "Up to my eyeballs in baddies.  I'll be listening on the SG channel."

Kitau: "Ditto."

  Sometimes, moral support comes from the familiar.  Something familiar in Angel's case? GUNS.  As such, Gadget Gun has been sticking around the base of late to make sure she didn't slack off there between mundane tasks.  Just because he was totally a better shot^* than Angel didn't make her any less worthy of his support... Same went for the time she punched his helmet 180 degrees.

  "I don't suppose you have any suspicions on what Alexis is worried about Angel?"

---

  Alloy get's the message, "Well, that's never a good thing to hear.  But it's always better to hear it ahead of time.  I'll be right there."  Direct shortcut to the Redemption base is go!  Alloy ends up in the Meeting room readily enough.

_{* If you count Targeting Drones, it being much more easy to snipe long distance targets with a rifle than a handgun, and other Aim Assist means.}

Angel answers Gadget Gun with, "Probably something to do with nature? Maybe someone's trying to destroy a nature preserve." As for who's a better shot? There HAS to be a way to actually test that some day...*

The meeting convenes and is also broadcast via the supergroup channel so other members can listen in.

Alexis explains the situation, "As some of you know, I've been doing a lot of research on Hammidon. What *exactly* does it want, why, are there peaceful means, so on. In the process, Hammidon has contacted me telepathically a number of times now, trying to influence me to come to its side. In one of these communications, I got a clue that Hammidon is planning to do a big push soon. Since its initial attack, Hammidon has mostly been on the defensive, but apparently it was gathering power in the time it has been relatively quiet. So why call a meeting? Why not just say; hey guys, Hammidon is making a push, let's get a bunch of heroes and make it go back to square one? Or for that matter, why not just tell City Council about it? Because Hammidon's new forces are much bigger than you might think. Knowing Hammidon would do ANYTHING to attain its goals, I thought "what would I do if I wanted something done that badly?" and the answer is simple: Recruit people you would normally be fighting. Make it beneficial to them. That's what Hammidon has done. Parts of its invasion involve Crey, Freakshow, the Circle of Thorns, and now I find out, Longbow. All these factions are convinced they are taking measures for the good of their respective causes, but all of them are helping Hammidon. Sadly, this is all from things I pieced together and no hard evidence. And without clear evidence, we can't bring it to the authorities. But we don't have time for that. The anxiety I felt from Hammidon felt like the push could be any week now. Whatever he's up to, he's just waiting for his latest fooled subjects to complete their ends of the plan. SO... we as a supergroup have to take all those plans out before they do whatever it is Hammidon has been impatiently waiting for."

Shelly raises a hand, "Do we at least know where these operations are occuring?"

Alexis says, "Yes." to those at the meeting, Alexis looks very uncomfortable. "I can show all of you the way on a map."

A holographic display of the city is brought up. All of the spots are outside of the protective fields and deep in forests and vegitation.

*Somehow reminded if a comic I read once where DC and Marvel crossed over into each others' universes, so Hawkeye and Green Arrow immediately started competing.

Lucky mews and reaches to give Alexis a comforting hug.  "I should go to one of these places.  With my illusions, it's safest for me because the badguys never even know I'm there."

Except when they shout out his name in rage anyway when they punch their lieutenant in the face.

Raymond eye-twitches.  "I've never been comfortable with allowing children into dangerous situations like these even WITH them plugged into the medevac system.  But in a case like this, one stray grenade will mean one very dead kitten."

Lucky ducks his head and ears, mewing plaintively.

"Uh... can I just point out that I can't see this map and that the conversation is starting to not make sense?" Mittens asks, "Am I to assume that the locations are outside the range of the medevac, then?  I could always send wolves and lions in after the badguys.  That's totally moral, right?  I mean, it's not like I can't summon new ones if they get blown to bits."

Raymond facepalms.  Kitau makes not comment.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:54, Mon 27 Aug 2012.

  "The only one on that list that surprises me is Longbow.  As for the Medivac system..."  It's easy not to pointedly look over at Angel thanks to helmet head, "Best not to rely on it too much, but it should work without another case of extreme circumstances."  It can bring you out from an alternate future where the Medivac system doesn't even exist.  But few things are completely resistant to Plot Induced Failure.

---

  "I think I have more practice fighting the worse Hammidon forces in Praetoria than the local one these days.  But that doesn't mean it isn't dangerous, especially if it intends to take some personal action soon.  I hope the Rikti don't try to harness his power when he shows up again, at least he was easy to take out that time though... So that might actually be a mixed blessing, who knows."

OOC: Turns out the one Lady Grey Taskforce I was in was a Speed Run, so it was all a Blur.  But I do remember how there was the whole "Rikti are trying to harness Hammidon.  Beat them all up (and Weakened Hammidon) and get Temp Power That May Or May Not Do Anything, to aid in the finale Honoree fight.

I think it's more of a Plot Tag than an actual power, "Enables your powers to affect transdimensional entities", so I guess plot wise it was "You need to yoink Hammidon Mojo to have the firepower boost to harm Incarnate Honoree.

Emerald comes up on the supergroup channel, "You assume correctly, Mittens, that this is outside the normal sphere of medivac influence. This is becoming a disturbingly common danger for our supergroup."

Eli comments, "Along the lines of what Raymond said, I don't like the idea of ANYONE winding up dead. Raymond, I'm sure you'd be more upset if your sis wound up dead than if Lucky did and Raichel isn't a kid. It's easy enough for any of us to say we're willing to sacrifice ourselves, but the problem is in sacrificing each other. I suggest sending out some non-sentient robots. They can't "die" and we can always repair or rebuild them. But more importantly, with spy bots, we can see what we're up against."

Alexis says, "Alloy is right that the medivac *should* work. But he's also right that we shouldn't bank our lives on that. With the recent attack on the medivac, there is no garuntee how well it works outside the city borders. I like the idea of sending probes to see what kind of team we would need, or if our whole supergroup put together couldn't handle this."

Shelly says, "Hammidon can manipulate Longbow. But Hammidon isn't the only one who can pull strings. Angel and I can be working with the politicians..."

Angel is quiet, though anyone looking at her can see her fists clenching and her expression hardening.

Raichel says, "Scout first. Always a good plan when putting safety first. Even with a time crunch, I think we can afford a day of scouting."

Alexis says, "Yes. But let's make it only a day if we can help it. The urgency was very... unsettling."

---

*eyes the date of Alloy's post* The day before the announcement. That reminds me... I was going to offer we could invite people from CoX to RPOL to play here as a haven. Lots of RPers on CoX. But more importantly, people we thought were cool that we otherwise won't stay in touch with. Just a thought.

"We should consider recruiting outside help too," Raymond suggests, "You have a good reputation, Alexis, and I'm sure that the members of this supergroup aren't alone in trusting you.  I'll be working on finding powerful heroes willing to risk confrontation with villains outside the influence of the medivac should it come to that."

  Gadget Gun comments, "I could probably rig up some rikti drones for that, faster with some help.  A little more complicated than what has been done with them, but possible."  After all, the original tutorial had the police department turn some Rikti drones into target practice dummies.

---

  Alloy shrugs, "Any help would be good, but over time almost everyone we have ever worked with at some point is part of our group.  Plenty of other Heroes and otherwise who could be up for it if we find them though."

And if this story were translated to game mechanics, this is a story arch, so contacting a coalition or simply saying on Broadcast "Hammi Masterplan" soon to be shortened to HMP would likely muster some help.

Things get under way and Alexis is seen heading straight for the portals. Eli intercepts her, talks to her, and then Alexis teleports out. Eli looks slightly bewildered, but shrugs and heads upstairs to the second level of the portal room.

Angel can be seen looking a little upset while chatting with Shelly, who seems to be trying to convince Angel of something. Probably trying to convince her to exit the base at all, seeing as the two are at the portal to Atlas and Angel is hesitant to step onto the telepad.

Raichel heads over to GG. "If you need some Rikti Drones in decent working order, you could ask the police. If not, however, I could always help you round up a few in the war zone. Speaking of... suppose Vanguard's a little too busy to help us out on this one? After all... on one hand, no Earth to defend if they back away from halting Rikti advances. On the other hand, no Earth to defend if we don't stop this Hammidon plan cold."

A nearby Tread says, "Can't hurt to ask... right?"

Meanwhile, Emerald heads over to Alloy. "Alloy... join me in my study. I think you and I could be of more use to the supergroup if we do a little research in some ancient texts. See, I think I might have a clue or two in my books on Hammidon, why it didn't decimate ancient civilizations, and maybe there could be some magics you and I can work on together to help with stopping it this time." She looks around to make sure others aren't listening. "And if Hammidon's plan is a success, that doesn't mean it's truly the end. We need to be prepared for that angle as well."

---

Attempts by the community to rescue CoX involve 3 major things. 1) The fan server "GREGS". 2) The petition (Most people know it's a stab in the dark, but worth stabbing anyway to show just how many people support it). 3) The City of Heroes Community website (I'm at work, so I forget the name of the place, but the people of the CoX forums are putting together a website meant to tie all CoX goers together into one spot, preparing for 1 and 2 not working out).

Personal attempts:
-Download Paragon Wiki (Being done)
-Create CoX comic at long last (I'll wanna know if John or Koo want their characters in it or not and if so, whether they mind me writing what their characters would do)
-Download all the videotmaps.
-Screenshot key places in CoX. Basically what I'm looking for here is having frames of reference such that I could draw any spot in the entire game, at LEAST roughly if not detailed, to where if someone took my drawings from in comic and remade the game, the dimensions of the given places would at least be relatively accurate. So screens of each corner, looking in towards the center of a given map.

"Lemme know when it's time to bust some baddies," Mittens says, "Whatever powerset you need, just ask."

Kitau, unsurprisingly, says nothing.

Raymond nods to the points mad and strokes his chin in thought.  "We have a member or two in our SG with connections to Longbow, right?  Maybe they could infiltrate and investigate that angle."

He then approaches Angel and waits for a break in the conversation.  "I'm reconsidering my volunteering to gather outside help.  On second thought it would make more sense to have someone with better people skills take charge of that.  Angel for example."

  "I think the safest bet for why Hamidon never devastated ancient civilization, is because Hamidon's full name is Hamidon Pasalima, a recent Scientist who turned himself into that.  Even the self made demi-god of Ecoterrorism stoops to kidnaping old girlfriends to mutate into breeders.  Hammidon is just another petty being who wants to twist the world into their own image, but one who grabbed the power to make that a valid threat."

  Backstory and philosophical commentary out of the way, Alloy continues "Though this does not mean we may not find something useful in your research.  Giving up just because one detail isn't accurate is dumb.  I don't suppose you know offand magic to upscale small medical and scientific procedures to the appropriate hamidon scale?  I mean, punching his darn mitochondria to death individually is a thing.  In the past defeating an embodiment of infection has been done by brute forcing the results of such things onto Hammidon itself."  Fittingly enough, Radiation Infection being one of the most popular powers to do it.   Nevermind that Lore Wise, the reason Praetorian Hammidon is so strong is 'They used Nukes on him', it's not like Comics lore is consistent.

---

  Gadget Gun nods, "Asking them first would be best, it would mean ready modified, or at the very least intact drones to work with.  Collecting drones without them exploding can be tricky.  Vanguard has enough to deal with, but you might be able to ask Lady Gray for information.  She seems to have a habit of knowing things she either shouldn't know, or people have no clue how she CAN know."

  He looks over to the skittish Angel and Shelly.  "Though, as petty as it might be in such circumstances. I think I have other things to take care of right now, that at the very least could result in an overall improvement of our odds."

OOC: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Ginger_Yates#Story_Arc   So little actual backstory lore details to find though so far.  Its just, "Who they were, used science and dark magic (and maybe Incarnate power, somehow) to become Endgame Content, turned old girlfriend into monster. (After you rescue her like, 6 different times.  GM if we're supposed to fail for PLOT reasons, just tell us after the second time we derail you.)"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:00, Sun 09 Sept 2012.

Alexis smiles at Raymond and says, "Actually, Liberty is an honorary member of Longbow. And you were saying about how the children in our Supergroup shouldn't be doing the more dangerous stuff... I think her infiltrating Longbow is a safe bet. Worst I suspect happening to her would be them putting her in a holding cell temporarily." she gets on the SG channel again. "Hey Liberty, if you're still in the base, or close by, come on over to the portal room and meet up with me."

Liberty, one of the SG's child members, (and one of its toughest) hovers over to Raymond and Alexis. "You called?"

Alexis nods. "Raymond here was hoping you could use your connections with Longbow to find out more about that angle. What project are they working on that they believe is helping, but in the end could potentially serve Hammidon's purposes? Whatever you can find would be great."

Liberty gives a military style salute, complete with full body posture. Then smiles. "You bet. I'll give you updates as they come." she flies off.

The break in conversation Raymond was looking for happens and when he speaks out about Angel, the gunbunny (though currently in human mode) blushes. "Shelly was just trying to persuade me to go with her to talk with politicians..."

Shelly says, "But nothing says we can't go hang with other heroes before or even after."

Angel squirms.

Shally looks at Gadget Gun and says, "Not petty at all. All help is great, Gadget." Just watch out for Dr Claw.

Shelly then looks back at Angel. "Come on, Angel. I'll be with you."

Angel says, "It's not like I don't want to go. It's just... difficult to overcome my own feelings. This fear is frustrating. I don't like be parylized or imprisoning myself. But the fact I'm not going outside alone helps a lot..."

She steps over to the telepad and looks towards Raymond, Gadget Gun and Alexis, waving. Shelly steps onto the telepad with Angel and the two teleport.

Meanwhile, Timothius comments on SG, "You're useful for more than just smashing things, Mittens."

Raichel comments on SG as well, "Yeah, but Mitts also has a bit of interesting luck when it comes to finding clues on random missions. Mittens, maybe you could focus on any leads in your radios and tips concerning the factions Alexis listed." Freakshow: More yay than skulls because they come back to life to give you more XP! Only real thing to watch out for is their end drain (which is ironically nothing compared to Sappers) and especially the Super Stunner. Crey; Their most annoying thing being the "I'm invincible now and you must wait for it to wear off" mode. CoT, of course, are just generally annoying with their minus accuracy and narrow passageways of Orenbega. Longbow, well, Liberty is dealing with them from a different direction thankfully.

Raichel heads off with Gadget towards the Rikti War Zone in order to get to asking Vanguard about possible drone loans.

Emerald headshakes at Alloy. "Sorry, I don't know... I don't think I have such magics. Not yet anyway. But maybe there are clues in the study." She heads off with Alloy to the arcane study of the base.

---

As a reminder to myself, I *DID* make a moogle character once (I think that was Mocha Moogle, and then later showed herself again via Squiggly Squid). This could be the VERY moogle who uses moogle magic to help Mittens change jobs (In FFXI, you had to go to your moghouse moogle or a local job-changing moogle in order to change your job/class/powerset.)

As a side-note on factions: Longbow are more OUCH than annoying to me. Because the big danger with them is -defense and AoE, you just need purples, oranges and greens. CoT making me miss half my attacks is ironically more annoying. XD It took sitting here thinking about it to figure out "Why is it I'm happy when I'm doing a longbow mission and 'eh' when doing a CoT mission?"

Carnies are probably the most annoying faction to me. It's like Crey's invincibility literally being applied through half of every fight as long as there are leuts or bosses involved. Freaks have become my fave faction to fight, even more than skulls, because skulls don't pop back up to give you more XP. And if you are paying attention, you can avoid the Super Stunner's most annoying ability; his rez power.

Meanwhile, Alloy, I would like a solid front, back, and side view screenshot of each of your main alts. Alloy, Bamzor, Gadget Gun, and any others you'd like to see in the comic sooner than later.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:36, Wed 12 Sept 2012.

"Be careful, Liberty," Raymond warned before she flew off.

He waves bye to Angel and thanks her and Shelly before they leave.  Without much better to do, he follows Rai and Gadget Gun to the RWZ.

"Thanks for the praise!" Mits answers her sibs, "And the practical advice!  Will do!"

She teams up with Kitau and gets cracking.

  Gadget Gun wears his purple and grey Vanguard armor for the occasion, "Somehow, while I could requisition several Vanguard HVAS, I'm expecting it to be more involved to get drones."

---

  "Well, I'm sure you could figure out something even without help.  My arcane specialty isn't quite as much help as one might think, considering Hammidon doesn't actually have any control over rocks or crystals.  But I could track down the sort of lab equipment he used in his original ritual.  Magic can do all sorts of crazy things to all sorts of things, but at least it would help narrow down things a little to work out what Shamanistic rituals interact with Lab equipment to infuse genetically engineered bacteria with sentience."  Why is it that the first step of so many ecoterrosist sorts in 'Protect nature at any cost!' was to twist nature to their own needs?  Did they have an irony quota to meet?

OOC:  The Circle can be... spectacularly incompetent at times.  http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Bad_Penny
This message was last edited by the player at 03:29, Tue 23 Oct 2012.

Vanguard:

Rai, Ray and GG arrive at VG. LOL XD

At Vanguard, Raichel explains the situation to Borea. Borea folds her arms. "Vanguard is aware of the situation. Unfortunately, Longbow isn't listening to our warnings. Well... MOST of Longbow anyway. I've gotten a few anonymous responses from people who are obviously members of Longbow by the way they talk and what they say, that seem to indicate they are taking Vanguard's warning seriously."

Raichel says, "I guess you can't have an entire organization think exactly the same way about everything. That's not to mention the times I've had to arrest members of Longbow... Well now that you know that Redemption knows, what can the supergroup do to help stop Hammidon's latest scheme?"

Borea looks at GG. "It sounds to me that what you are currently doing is helping. So keep it up and let Vanguard do our part. We are up to our ears in aliens, sure, but TWO can play Hammidon's recruitment game. If you're here to borrow Vanguard equipment, the regs are exactly the same as always."

"Hmm," Raymond ponders, rubbing his chin, "Vanguard frequently comes into contact with supers from the Rogue Isles...  Have any of them been warned of this plot?  It grates against my instincts even considering the possibility of tipping off Arachnos and their ilk, but Alexis made ti clear that this could very well be the greatest and most immediate threat the world faces today."

    Gadget Gun nods,  "Most of Longbow seems to be in a position of proper intentions complicated by their military structure.  Gausian works very hard keep that from effecting Vanguard operations." Those rogue Vanguard Sword agents HURT.  No wonder Malta and Artemis stays on the opposite side of the Warzone from the Vanguard base, Vanguard's Serious Business section must scare them.

  ...Oh right,  "Considering the Rikti are Vanguards primary concern, any leads regarding those particularly verbose Rikti who were tampering with the Shadow Shard portal I sent you a report on?  This Hammidon situation is going to be taking up most of our attention, but it doesn't hurt to check."  Not to mention the fact those Rikti were why Angel was so bent out of shape.  Gee, coincidence there was a recent spike in GG's Vanguard Merits?  Even if GG suspected those might not have been actual Rikti.

  Either way, Drones be bought soon enough.

---

Alloy Stuff later when Emmy says somethin.  Forgot I hadn't posted this.

Borea answers Raymond first, "Arachnos has not been informed yet. The higher-ups are still debating on who to inform and who not to. But whatever is decided, try not to worry about it. Any decision made by Vanguard will be thoroughly thought out."

She then looks at GG. "Your supergroup was on the scene. You probably know as much as Vanguard for the moment; The Rikti were there to steal the force field technology that was developed by that bomber villain. As to where they are and whether they have implemented that technology? No leads."

Raymond nods.  "Thanks.  For what it's worth, they probably already know.  At least... the worst of them do.  If something comes up we can help with, you know how to contact us."

He leans the hand truck back and starts wheeling the drone toward the base portal.  "To the tech lab over the portals, I presume?