Moments ago...

As Venom hurls more innocent bystanders to safety, still maintaining his tethered grip on the Carnage-Copter, he's repeatedly struck by the bullets from the chopper overhead. Brock grits his teeth and bears it, only focusing on getting the civilians around him out of harm's way. The awesome power of the symbiote growth-hormone makes him hardly notice the stream of bullets hitting him in the back. If that light spring rain is the best thing Kasady can throw at him, snapping his neck is going to be even simpler than Venom realized!

From his Total 11 / Effect d12 reaction (Msg #438), Venom takes d12 of Physical Stress from Shriek's extraordinary success.

Overhead, Spider-Woman finds herself in Shriek's crosshairs as she glides around the chopper. The cannons rotate in her direction, firing a volley of bullets that she spins and dives to evade. A few rounds tear through her gossamer wings, sending her to the ground far more suddenly and uncomfortably than she would like. She rolls to minimize the impact, and though she won't be taking to the skies again any time soon, the important thing is she's unharmed.

From her 11 Total / Effect d10 reaction (Msg #439), Spider-Woman takes d12 Physical (or Emotional for 1 PP, as discussed) Stress from Shriek's extraordinary success. She gains 1 PP for shutting down her Flight d6 power trait.

Meanwhile...


"Wait!" cries Dagger as the recovered Doppelganger gets to his feet and rejoins the battle against the helicopter. "I'm going in with you!"

The heroine springs after Moon Knight, disappearing into Cloak's portal along with the both of them...

Not far away...


"It's Moon Knight's ride!" shouts Luke Cage from nearby. Then, looking around, he adds: "Hey, speakin' o' him, where'd he go?" Though he cranes his head around, he's too busy shielding others from gunfire to go and look for him.

Perched on the helicopter, Daredevil's senses work in unison as he probes along the metal panels and into the underlying machinery for any sign of a weak point...

Doom Pool reaction to Daredevil's attempt to create "Carnage-Copter Weak-Point" Asset (13 Total, d10 Effect).

2d12 from the Doom Pool

22:07, Today: The Watcher rolled 12,4 using 1d12,1d12 ((12,4)). Doom Pool reaction to Daredevil attempting to create Carnage-Copter Weak-Point Asset.

Total: 16
Effect d4
Opportunities: 0

The Doom Pool wins this time.

Although Daredevil finds the flaw he's seeking, it's much more than he even bargained for. He can count six people on board the chopper: Carnage, Shriek, Spider-Man, Tigra, and two other women. The newcomers' identities aren't what concerns him now, though. What concerns him is the repetitive tick-tick-ticking thrumming in his ears and in the tips of his fingers, telling him everything he needs to know by the time his ally Luke sees what he's doing and thinks to ask:

"Yo, DD! Find a way to take that thing out?"

What he and none of the others down on the field presently seem to realize is that this helicopter is maybe seconds from exploding...!

Next: the reaction to Moon Knight's attack on Carnage.

Mayhem slowly shifts herself between the murderous symbiote and Spider-Man, splaying her own razor-taloned arms wide. Not again, Benji... she silently vowed.

"Silly symbiote, this isn't your chance. Without their human hosts, I've consumed your children by the hundreds. Come, let Auntie M introduce you."

Carnage reacts to Moon Knight's attempt to stab him and save Tigra (Total 26 / Effect d10).

Buddy d8
Murderous d8
Superhuman Reflexes d10
Combat Expert d8
"Trapped Tigra" d10 Scene Complication
2d12 from the Doom Pool

19:45, Fri 18 Dec: Carnage rolled 2,3,7,5,5,10,8 using 1d8,1d8,1d10,1d8,1d12,1d12,1d10.  Carnage reacting to Moon Knight's attempt to stab him (and rescue Tigra).

Total: 18
Effect: d12
Opportunities: 0

Moon Knight wins, with his extraordinary success stepping up his effect die to d12. Carnage takes d12 of Physical Trauma.

The Timer created by Moon Knight's activation of the "Self-Destruct Codes" Limit in Msg #407 also steps up past d12, adding 2d12 to the Doom Pool and ending the current scene.

As Shriek sobs in a corner, clutching the side of her face that "Carnage" struck, the symbiote in control of Kasady's body regards both her and Mayhem with cold indifference. April can feel its telepathic "feelers" brushing up against the edge of her own consciousness, attempting to size her up.

"You are not of this universe," it says to Parker's daughter with a touch of curiosity. "And you don't belong here. You shall be removed."

Before the alien creature can make good on its threat, the flashing red monitors at the pilot's end of the craft buzz louder than ever.

"FINAL COUNTDOWN INITIATED!" speaks a monotone, computerized voice. "FIVE..."

Then there is a burst of darkforce energy from behind Kasady. In a blur of motion, Moon Knight, Cloak, and Dagger teleport inside the cabin. Marc takes one look at the situation before him, raises a strange-looking knife, and sinks it right into the monster's chest.

"FOUR..."

"Carnage" screeches in pain, the symbiote smoldering from where the blade pierced Kasady. The villain drops to his knees as Marc wraps a symbiote-covered arm around Tigra and prepares to leap from the chopper!

"Oh no you don't," snarls Shriek, taking aim at both symbiote-clad heroes with a sonic blast. She knows she only needs to stun them for an instant, long enough for them to get caught in the deadly explosion!

"THREE...

"NO!" cries Dagger. She leaps in between her friends and the attack, struck dead-on by the sonic bolt. A violent, crackling energy consumes the heroine's small form as she drops to the floor, unmoving.

"TWO..."

"Tandy!" shouts Ty, moving to grab her. "I've got the rest of them," he nods to Moon Knight. "GO!"

"ONE..."

As Moon Knight and Tigra make their way safely to the ground, rippling darkforce consumes the remaining heroes in the aircraft. They fall into a cold, endless void as Tyrone's power shifts them through inter-dimensional space. When Spider-Man, Mayhem, and Domino re-emerge, they step out onto the field of Yankee Stadium. Across the field, the Carnage-Copter is engulfed in a massive fireball of an explosion as Moon Knight's self-destruct codes do their work.

When the last of the burning wreckage hits the ground, they can see other heroes like Daredevil, Venom, and Spider-Woman protecting the nearby innocents. Thankfully, no one seems to have been hurt. There is no sign of their enemies, or of Cloak and Dagger, anywhere.

More coming.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:54, Mon 21 Dec 2020.

Moon Knight sets Tigra down, allowing her a moment to recover.

"Tandy..." breathes a voice from nearby.

Anyone turning to look for the voice can spot Cloak materializing from a pool of shadows near Spider-Man, Domino, and Mayhem. The young man is on his knees, gazing at his outstretched hands. He turns his head, searching the field frantically for any sign of his companion, but she is nowhere to be found. Only the smoldering helicopter wreckage at the other end of the field remains. But as the heroes on that end of the field- Daredevil, Venom, and Spider-Woman- search the debris, it's clear there's no sign of any survivors. Even Carnage and Shriek seem to have disappeared.

"I-I went right through her," Ty says softly, a stutter entering his voice. He turns to look up at Marc with despair in his silvery eyes.

"She didn't make it out...!"

Dialogue/non-dice actions welcome as we continue toward the next scene.

"Sonuva—!" This entire night had been an unmitigated clusterfuck from the moment he'd gotten himself involved. Now Dagger might be dead, and she was practically the only person he'd liked so far.

He set Tigra down and ran towards the wreckage. He'd find Dagger, or he'd bring back a body.

Spider-Woman felt relief at the possibility of Carnage & Shriek dying with the helicopter. They’d caused far too much misery in far too short a time. The world already has enough monsters, she thought, as she finished her search of the wreckage. “There’s nobody in that mess.”

Better to turn her attention to the living. Spider-Woman rushed across the stadium field when she saw Tigra. She knelt beside her old friend. “How are you doing, Tigra? That was a brutal ordeal...!”

Mayhem cast a sidelong glance at Spider-Man. She knew-- or she felt she knew, at least-- that he'd never approve of what she was about to say or do, but it needed to be done.

She didn't know these other heroes, but she could guess where they would stand. As she helped Moon Knight search for Dagger's body... she spoke in a voice she desperately hoped that neither Benji nor Reilly could overhear. "Hey, Cloak Guy. Keep your eyes peeled. As hard as Carnage was to put down, it's even harder to make him stay down. We have to finish this."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:44, Wed 23 Dec 2020.

Domino growled.
Every ... single ... time ... that she got within arms reach of her primary target, where she could deliver the killing blow that would earn her the bounty ... something snatched him away (or her away from him).

This was becoming frustrating.

As the gathered Heroes (curse their interference) occupied themselves with the Tigeress, or the burning remnants of the chopper, Domino slunk back into the shadows.

There, she pulled out Deadpool's little device again.  Toggling though a few settings, she sighed.
Time to begin the hunt again.

With her gun re-loaded and readied, she activated the device ... and vanished.

When Domino reappears, she's standing several meters from her previous location and Carnage is still nowhere in sight. Of all the times for her teleporter to go on the fritz, is it really going to do that now?

There's got to be some explanation for why her tech isn't working right. For the moment, she inspects the teleporter and tries to ignore the clamor of the heroes around her.

"Where he's going, he'll wish he was dead." Moon knight didn't look up from his task as he spoke. He didn't know who this new woman was, or what she was doing there, but she seemed to be on the right side of things. He could put her in the 'Safe' category for the moment and not worry about trying to kill each other.

He eventually stopped digging, though. There was no sign of a body — any body — in the wreckage, and the fires were making his symbiote antsy.

"I think the Predator took them," he said, louder so that Cloak (the real Cloak Guy) could hear.

In reply to Moon Knight (msg # 450):

"I'm fine, Jess, thanks," Greer nods to Spider-Woman. She looks to her other rescuer, Moon Knight. "Just like old times, huh?" Wobbling slightly on her feet, Tigra rubs the lump on her head from where she'd knocked it against the inner wall of the helicopter. How lucky it's the only wound she was left with after her encounter with Carnage. Greer extends the Wand of Watoomb toward her friends and allows its power to wash over their forms. Shimmering magic pools around their wounds, bidding them to heal over instantly. With a nod to both of them, Tigra teleports herself around the field, tending to the many wounded civilians and heroes alike.

All heroes' Physical Stress resets to zero.

As Greer stops by Cloak, her ears prick up at Moon Knight's words.

"Please tell me he didn't just say 'the Predator,'" she murmurs. "Like, 'ancient-chaos-demon, dwells-in-the-darkforce-dimension, collects-souls-for-fun' Predator? Oh, this is gonna be a long night, isn't it?"

When Cloak doesn't respond, the sorceress follows his gaze toward the destroyed chopper. She cups a hand to her mouth as she seems to realize what has happened to Dagger.

"Oh," she says. "Oh, no..."

When Daredevil gets to his feet, he's too busy searching for anyone missing to brush himself off. Dagger being gone is the most immediate concern, but Carnage and Shriek going AWOL is disconcerting. The sudden absence of the bad guys is rarely a sign of danger disappearing; even a corpse would't indicate they're absolutely in the clear. But the villains being gone isn't the most pressing issue, with everyone much more concerned about Dagger. DD had only meet her a handful of times, and might not have even had a conversation with her. If he didn't remember her heartbeat, maybe her perfume and shampoo could track her, or even those distinctive, pungent teenage hormones.

Daredevil takes note of the assembled heroes and reaches out his radar sense for anything moving beyond them. The noise of the heroes' chatter is distracting, but at least they're gathered around him clumped enough to subtract from any other movement i the vicinity.

With his attention clearly elsewhere, Daredevil speaks out. "Anyone want to catch us up on what's been going on?" he asks. "Apparently we're not the only ones lucky enough to be part of so much excitement tonight."

Domino wasn't so sure that the tech was faulty.  Besides, it was always best to err on the side of caution.

Slipping the Teleporter into one of her many cargo pockets, she instead pulled out the Tracking Device for the bug she'd planted on Carnage and let it advise her.
With gun in hand, and senses pumped, she followed it to wherever that symbiotic-creep had landed after the explosion.



I seem to remember that we are just narratively doing stuff for now, right?
If rolls are needed, please let me know

Once clear of the flaming wreckage, Mayhem reveals her human face again. "I could use a recap, too. I've been... out of town for awhile and Carnage is the only part of this that makes any sense."

Venom thoroughly searches the debris pulling out anyone still trapped in said debris, "NO body. Unless we hold his heart in our hands he could still be alive." He growls and uses his webbing to begin climbing the stadium trying to see where Carnage fled to.

"Don't worry about Carnage," Moon Knight tried assuring the others. "He's been taken into the Darkforce Dimension by the Predator, to be tortured forever. A fitting punishment if ever there was one.

"The problem is, the Predator has also taken Dagger."

"Killer ball games, hijacked helicopters, deals with demons..." sighs Tigra, rubbing her temples. "Apparently a lot has happened tonight. The new girl's right-- we need to talk about all of this."

"No," replies Cloak, bluntly. "The time for talk is over. If Dagger and those... scum... were in the darkforce dimension, I'd sense it."

Greer shrugs. "Right. Usually a spell like that requires a magical incantation of some kind. If that demon-- not that I'm condoning this-- wanted you to send him Kasady's soul, well, you'd need someone like me to recite it first."

"I'm not worried about that anymore," says Ty, his expression darkening. "Shriek's blast... Tandy... It's like it ripped apart her very atoms. Dagger is gone. And those murderers..."

He shakes his head, and when he speaks again, his voice takes on a guttural, menacing tone.

"Well, it's not the Predator they need to fear."

As Tigra looks around at the assembly of heroes and vigilantes, their stark differences can be seen even in the dim light of the nearby fires. Some, like Daredevil, barely seem to think of their own well-being as they tend to their allies. Others, like the mercenary Domino, seem single-mindedly focused on tracking their enemies. Eventually, Tigra's gaze settles on Spider-Man. In the thrall of his black symbiote-suit, even the heroic web-slinger seems unusually... aloof.

"Spidey... oh, to hell with it... Peter," Greer says. "You've got more history with Kasady than any of us. What the hell is he after? What's the point of all this... chaos?"

After a moment of hesitation, she adds the question she's been too nervous to ask:

"And what's gonna happen when we... y'know... catch him?"

Peter? Dad? April morphed back into her alien form in instant, a halo of black tentacles snapping around her head in agitation. It doesn't make sense. Dad retired years ago. It's not him. It can't be.

Save the world first. Personal problems later.

"Tigra, is it? My name is-- April, my name is April, and it's a long story but I have been fighting Carnage for decades. If there's a bigger picture than this, it's not Kasady's... all of this chaos, destruction, and murder is the only purpose he cares about."

She took a deep, cleansing breath to calm herself and transformed back into her human form, an elderly-- positively ancient-- woman with tousled white hair. Sorry, Dad. "When we catch Cletus Kasady, and his symbiote, we have to kill them both and we have to make sure they're dead, and we have to make sure there's nothing left of either that can ever come back to life.

"When I was young, I made a terrible mistake, and then I made a lot of terrible mistakes, and then I watched that monster devour the entire planet, the entire human race, and it was all my fault." She sighed, long and bitter, and concluded "I will not allow that to happen again."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:16, Mon 04 Jan 2021.

“Sounds like a whole next level of Rachel Summers drama.” Jessica realized she may have stepped into it. “Sorry. Time travel and alternate universes intruding on mine makes me a little cagey.”

"When we catch Carnage," Moon Knight said, taking out an ornate scroll and holding it out to Tigra, "Greer is going to read this spell and consign Kasaday to Hell. Forever."

"Well, given our... history... together, it kinda rankles me that you're still giving me orders," says Greer, reluctantly taking the scroll from Moon Knight. "But I do owe you a favor for saving my life, and as the Sorcerer Supreme, I like the idea of using magic to seal Kasady away... assuming this demon holds up his end of your bargain."

Her expression grows thoughtful as she considers Mayhem's words next, nodding gravely. "Yes, 'out of town' is one way of putting it, isn't it, April? I've peered into other timelines before. It sounds like in yours, that scumbag got everything he ever wanted. Worldwide chaos, global destruction, maximum carnage. I couldn't allow the same to happen here."

She goes on: "Of course, the Cat Person part of me just wants to rip Kasady apart. Even though the police officer in me says we should bring him in alive to face justice."

The blackish symbiote she wears fans around her neck, clearly impatient with the lull in the action. "Then again, my symbiote agrees with the Cat part, and wants to eat his kidneys. But the superhero part of me knows that would be wrong..."

As the very multifaceted heroine continues her spiel, she casts a glance around at the remaining heroes who haven't chimed in. "How about you, Spider-Woman? Daredevil? Anyone else wanna give their vote? That slimy red bastard and his girlfriend killed one of our own. Are we really just gonna send them back to "three hots and a cot" at Ravencroft Institute?"

Noticing Domino and Venom already at work scouting the stadium for Carnage with the devotion of bloodhounds, she shrugs. "Pretty sure we know where those two stand already..."

Spider-Man sits on the ground, still catching his breath. The feeling in his legs is starting to return.

"Tandy. I'm...I'm so sorry. Cloak, I'm so sorry. If only I had been a little faster."

As he stands, he looks to Mayhem.

"April, is it? So in your time, Carnage has taken over the world?"

Spidey's voice is quiet and tired.

"Carnage. He's a killer. He's killed so many even before the Symbiote, and he'll keep killing as long as he's able."

Spider-Man looks around at the heroes standing with him.

"Some of you have killed before, too. I'm also to blame for several deaths. Some were accidents. Some...I could've done more to prevent. Some I didn't see any other way around at the time. All of them I've regretted. There's nights I can't sleep, and all I can see are the faces of those that have died on my watch. Heroes. Villains. Loved ones. I guess in our line of work, it's inevitable."

"We may have lost one of our own tonight. There's some people in my life...if they were ever taken from me...if any of my enemies ever hurt them...I don't know if I'd be able to stop myself from returning the favor."

"I wouldn't blame any of you. If you did it. If you killed Carnage. If he's not already dead, anyway. Just like I wouldn't blame the families of one of his countless victims. But I can't. I can't do it. Not right now. We've got to be heroes. For those of us here that don't have blood on our hands yet, I don't want any of you to have to cross that line. If we can seal him away, we should do it."

"Not exactly. When I was young, I was confused and angry and I kept lashing out at the world. My sister tried to help me... but I was jealous and I was stupid... and..." Her hair darkens and her skin smooths; tears drip down her cheeks.

"I lost everything. And I tried to tell myself that taking it out on scumbags made me a hero, until the government sent my enemies to stop me. And then they sent my friends, and I killed them, too.

"And when they had nobody left to send, the military took the Carnage symbiote and made an invincible army of bio-preds that murdered and tortured the entire human race."

She's been aging as the story progresses, like she's reliving the decades in fast forward. "By the Seventies, it was just me and John Storm's boy-- bio-preds had a taste for Atlanteans, too-- and a couple of the Avengers defending the last handful of actual human beings left on Earth."



April addresses the entire group and says, "There is something my sister used to say to me-- something she needed me to understand, but I wasn't ready. 'With great power, there must also come great responsibility.' It was the last thing I said to Dr. Lang before she sent me back.

"If we have the power to stop Carnage, for good, then we're responsible for doing so. And we're responsible for every single innocent person he murders if we don't use our power to stop him by any means necessary.

"That said, does anyone else think that sealing him in Hell forever is going to put a stop to him more effectively than killing him and eating his body?"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:44, Tue 05 Jan 2021.

“You don’t have to take orders from him, Greer,” Spider-Woman said with a pointed glare at Moon Knight. She resented the way he treated her old friend, and didn’t care if he knew it. The question about Carnage brought Jessica back to the reason they were all there. “Well, at least three or four of us here know that no prison can hold Carnage.”

Spider-Woman sighed. “It’s a question we’ve all struggled with in this line of work. Well, most of us have wrestled with it, anyway. Like my web-slinging friend, I’m doing this to save lives. I’ve fought people who made mistakes because they were misunderstood outcasts or mentally ill. Carnage is neither. Pardon the cliche, but Carnage is a mad dog that needs to be put down.”