Log:LINAC Unleashed
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| LINAC Unleashed | |
|---|---|
| Emitter | Clank |
| Players | Cricket, Eldritch, Nullpoint, Protostar |
| NPCs | Agent Simon Shirota |
| Place | Westville outskirts |
| Time (IC) | 8PM, May 13, 2013 |
| Time (OOC) | 7-11 PM, May 13, 2008 |
(Note: Agent Shirota is now a PC, but at the time of this scene was an NPC. The emitter found him too fun to just put back on the shelf, and apped him.)
+- Industrial Park ----------------------------------------------------------+
Out past Westville, where the land is (comparatively) cheap but the travel times are reasonable, lie a large number of industrial parks, the business equivalents of suburbs. This is one such park, full of prefab warehouses with some office space built into them, spaced evenly across several acres of land with puny recently-planted trees failing to make up for the clearcutting done to make room for the buildings.
It is evening, and the area is largely dark...suspiciously dark, with overhead lights unlit and all of the windows dark. Some of these businesses run 24/7 since they're not about customer service, so that's definitely odd....
+- Players ------------------------------------------------------------------+
Cricket Eldritch Nullpoint Protostar
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+- Short Descriptions -------------------------------------------------------+
Cricket (1m): A short and slender woman in a form-fitting 'green insect' outfit. Eldritch (1m): A nightmarish violet humanoid sporting tentacles and claws. Nullpoint (42s): Black and silver spandexed woman with top knot, and N at her waist. Protostar (0s): Glowing man with a black starry-filled body.
+------------------------------------------------------------- End: +glance -+
Moments ago, the lights all went out at an industrial park near the interstate, attracting the attention of a number of metahumans who were in the area for various reasons. There are intermittent flashes of light from within the park, but no clear sign of what the problem is. Nullpoint, Cricket and Eldritch are approaching what seems to be the center of the problem, however....
Nullpoint is hard to see, given most her costume is black. She approaches cautiously, her powers slide into defensive mode as she moves to get a bit closer and see if she can figure out what is going on exactly. She senses a few others and will wait to talk to them till she can find out a bit more.
Of course, way up there, Protostar is streaking over the city. He's not in orbit, and not really close to it, but he does enjoy flying.... albeit mostly in straight lines. Looking down at the cityscape as he's headed roughly home, he mutters aloud to himself, "Please please please don't crash this time..." and then there's lights, lights, lights, dark, light... *pause* Dark? He alters the leading gravity well and starts arcing about. Good thing he doesn't have some fiery trail or bright lights. He's just a lime green clad guy in the sky.
Note: Protostar changed +desc, but not &shortdesc, hence the mismatch
with the +glance earlier.
Cricket just happened to be bounding along the outskirts of town... when she noticed lights all go out. Her next leap, taller and longer than the previous ones, takes her closer to that area, and the one after that takes her closer to the strange flashes of light. She lands in some of the landscaping and starts crepping forward through the darkness, using whatever cover and concealment she can find along the way -- and she's being very sneaky about it all, without even once bumping into anything; clearly the darkness doesn't hamper her at all. As she gets closer, she drops to a low, low crouch among some bushes, eying the one person she's seen in the area -- Eldritch.
A strange keening, heterodyning sound can be heard. At first it seems like it might be the wind, but the wind rarely sounds so much like a theremin as this does. Still, the sound is faint for now.
Nullpoint blinks and feels the other and recognizes Protostar, more by sight than anything else. She cocks her head to the side to see if she can get close enough to the source or not.
Cricket moves quietly away from where she's hiding, to the side of the nearest building -- and then just smoothly crawls up the side of it, still doing her best at stealth, of course. Once up there, she all but lays flat, although she's still on all fours at the same time, and moves up to the edge of the building, where she can get a better view of the area.
Nullpoint knows there are other metahumans around, her senses are going off like crazy but exactly where is the problem. She does move around a bit, is that someone on top of a building? She moves trying to get close enough, "Hello," she calls out when she feels she is closer.
Cricket's startled by someone speaking to her all of a sudden, when she /thought/ she was being sneaky! POING!! The bug-girl leaps away all of a sudden, crossing through the air without a care for stealth, now, to land in a crouch on another rooftop nearly a the length of a football field away. She lands facing the way she came, also, and her head darts about as if she's trying to spot who it was that surprised her -- while also looking completely ready to jump away, again.
Nullpoint stands in plain sight now on the other rooftop, black spandex with yellow N on the chest. She shrugs, "Sorry." she calls out and then moves to look around a little.
Eldritch, a creature only vaguely mistakable for human, and even then only in the worst of lighting, is itself creeping into the industrial park, using its limbs to pull itself from building to building. For one reason or another, it doesn't seem to notice any eyes on it as it stalks through the shadows. After a short spell it pulls itself up to the top of the nearest building with its clawed forelimbs, then rights itself to its full height against the backdrop of the night sky as it turns its head to and fro.
That keening noise suddenly gets significantly louder, and is accompanied by a flaring of electrical arcs from a nearby structure! The warehouse collapses as some THING bursts upward through the roof before settling back down to nearly ground level!
Wreathed in electrical arcs, it's got the outline of a slim hourglass tipped on its side, but no real hourglass comes to such a tiny waist...it's as if there's two curved cones touching at a single point.
(To those with the relevant senses: it's putting out a lot of
power, but no genetic or mystic signature. It glows brightly in
ultravision, and the heterodyning sound extends into the far
ultrasonic now that it's no longer muffled by walls.)
Initiative Listing:
Cricket ..... 28 (+12)
Eldritch .... 27 (+10)
Nullpoint ... 23 (+15)
Heterodyne .. 14 ( +2)
Protostar ... 11 ( +6)
The bug-girl sees a big beastie-thing burst out of a building. She figures that hasta be a bad guy, so she leaps up and out towards it, landing a powerful kick against its side, actually denting it where her foot connected. Of course, this is when she finds out about its hull being electrically-charged! Stiffening, arms flailing incontrollably for a bit, Cricket then collapses to the ground, still twitching.
Meanwhile, the purple demonoid rises up to peer intently at the electrified metallic monstrosity that has just emerged from one of the warehouses nearby. Holding its right arm out, palm open, it suddenly emits a 'shlurping' sound as a pair of tentacles slide out of its clawed hand, latching onto a piece of debris from the warehouse. Then, with the same sound, its body is yanked powerfully forward to the end of the tendrils, and it crouches behind some debris whilst trying to get a closer look at the thing.
Nullpoint gets into position and flips into action getting close enough to throw a punch and managing to connect against the creature though it doesn't seem to do much. Likewise the electrical discharge seems to run up her and disipate into nothing, leaving her standing there alright.
While it doesn't seem particularly affected by Nullpoint's attack, it seems to have just enough intelligence to recognize the difference between an opponent who is still standing and one who isn't. The creature hovers back away from Nullpoint just enough to point one end at her, and unleashes a beam of ravening energy that lights up the night with harsh glare! However, its aim doesn't seem to be very good, and there's merely a hole about a meter across through the building behind Nullpoint.
Zooming overhead in that broad arc, Protostar stops trying so hard. He inclines his head and mutters, "Shields up Mr. Sulu.." as his body stops looking green and orange, but becomes black and starry filled. Coming down towards the ground, he stops about a hundred feet closer than he wanted to be, which is almost directly overhead, and he points down at the beastie while muttering, "Where's the power switch.... oh hell, let's try this...." then he shouts, "I"M SORRY IF ANY ALARM CLOCKS OR CELLPHONES BLOW UP!" just before releasing a pulse of EM energy downwards, the stellar and nuclear phenomena creating a field of power disruption... which the big baddie seems to be shielded against.
You paged Protostar with 'As near as you can tell, it's a particle
accelerator. Specifically a van de Graaf linear particle accelerator.
Not really high energy...it's no Batavia or Brookhaven. But enough for
a lot of jobs. However, those generally don't pinch down to what looks
to be a singularity in the middle! And since it's floating rather than
sinking to the center of the earth, you're thinking it's a quantum
singularity, not a gravitational one. A quantum knot, if you will.'
Standing up to its full height, Eldritch raises an arm, holding it out toward the electrical contraption. In a deep, multitonal voice, it turns its head in the direction of Nullpoint and booms loudly, but simply, "Shoot it." Its head then snaps back as it aims the hole in its right palm toward the electrically-charged contraption.
Nullpoint hears the yell and moves to go in a bit closer, and puts all her power behind a strike. Her hands seem to glow with a black aura as she hits the thing with a powerful strike, seeming to stagger it. She gets zapped in the proccess but doesn't look too worse for wear, just some places her costume is ruined as she is zapped.
As Nullpoint's attack strikes the contraption, a tightgrouping of tendrils flies out from Eldritch's extended palm, flailing at the thing. However, the strike manages to knock it just out of the intended reach of the violet tendrils, and they snap uselessly at the air like so many whips before retracting back into their socket.
The metal monstrosity seems to have had something important at the location where Nullpoint struck, and that something is no longer in working order. The keening sound is starting to wobble up and down the scale, and it seems incapable for the moment of focusing that devastating energy lance on anything. What little ability to evade attacks it might have had is currently inoperative.
Hovering just above the mechanical monstrosity, Protostar crinches as he sees the flailing attacks and then the keening sound hits his ears and he stops cringing defensively. "Okay, I gotta melt this thing down... now.." he mutters aloud. He tenses up his muscles, legs going straight and fists lifting almost like he was doing a curling exercise with free weights... "NNnnnnggghhh!!!" is about all he can say now, as he starts to glow and glow brightly. Anything or anyone close to him might have a flash suntan and then he releases all of this energy in a stream of ionized stellar plasma towards the device.
The construct keens loudly and starts to...crumple. It's as if it can no longer keep any part of itself outside of the singularity at its core, having taken too much structural damage to hold its metaphorical head above water. It starts to collapse in on itself, until the only thing left is a balefully pulsing point of light.
But the noise doesn't stop. If anything, it seems to be getting more intense....
<Init> Clank clears the initiative list.
Releasing that plasma, Protostar wilts a bit. That took a lot of effort. "Oh Poop!" he exclaims loudly. Yes, he said 'Oh Poop'. "This thing's about to irradiate the area. Get people out! I'll try to burn off the radiation!" He then tries to land.... creating a small crater as he impacts the ground again, "God I hate landing." he mutters.
Cricket, KO'd right off, just lays there. At least she's not twitching, anymore.
Nullpoint cocks her head to the side and grabs the unconscious one and then starts to make a run for it.
The keening and pulsing increases in frequency and volume as Nullpoint races away with the unconscious Cricket....
Note: Breakdown in communication here, Eldritch was supposed to grab
the other two and run before the explosion, but he never got paged
saying Nullpoint was letting him.
With a final wail that could wake the dead (and might rouse the hyper-sensitive Cricket), the singularity comes undone! A torrent of hard radiation spews forth, with enough being absorbed by Protostar that none of the fleeing heroes suffer any ill effects!
Protostar shakes his head as he yells, and goes for a mega-gravitic increase for the radioative partciles, just in case, leaping through the air since he can't fly while doing supergrab... and he lands on the singularity just as it explodes, "Gaaaahhhh!" he cries, his voice almost girlish as he cries out in pain. Yes, the hero screams like a schoolgirl. There's instinctive heroism in the guy, but if he'd paused to think about it, he'd have likely run for -his- life too.
As the point of light starts to grow and Protostar calls out his warning, Eldritch turns toward the unconscious Cricket and sees that she's already been grabbed, and the pair are running away. Then its eyes flicker back to the device just in time to see the detonation, and the purple demonoid barely manages to roll into the 'blind spot' of the blast created by Protostar. Snapping an arm forward like an elastic band, it grabs onto Nullpoint with a clawed hand, then snaps the other one forward to grab onto a light pole (hopefully) clear of the blast radius. Then it's flying through the air with the two females in tow until it comes to a stop underneath the pole, where it dumps the pair unceremoniously.
Cricket flops down where she's put... probably a good thing she was unconcscious while being grabbed up by clawed tentacles! Ew!
Nullpoint cocks her head to the side and lands. She looks at the other and only let it happen since the one attacked the thing too.
Slowly, as if the creature had been consuming all the ambient electrical power, lights start to flicker back on. Those that haven't had their physical connections severed, of course. Several security lights are broken, and the circuitry in buildings too close to the radiation burst has fried. But once the dazzling effect of the explosion fades, there's enough light to see by.
Protostar slumps off the device, his costume visible, and somewhat scorched while he just falls to the ground, "That... hurt..." he mutters as the lights start to come back on. "Lots of... rads.." he mutters, wondering if he's glowing in the dark and then he thinks about trying to find a geiger counter just for fun.
Nullpoint blinks and cocks her head to the side, "Everyone other than the irradiated one alright?" she checks Cricket not that she can tell much.
In a pool of darkness, the building from which the construct came can now be seen more clearly at the fringes of the surviving lights. It seems to be mostly intact around the edges, just the top and the side facing the fight are knocked out.
Eldritch starts to edge back away into the shadows as the light starts to flicker on, slinking back away from the pair. After a moment, it turns its head back toward the origin of the blast.
And finally, Protostar staggers to his feet. "Oh Poop again.... it's gone." He casts his gaze about, trying to find anything that might give a clue to the origins of the device, "I wanted to study how it worked.." he mutters, starting to walk towards that building while rubbing at his chest. Granted, he hasn't thought to raise shields again.
Cricket has disconnected.
A door on a still-standing wall is rattling, as if someone's tryign to get out, but the frame is too warped.
As Cricket rouses and disappears, Eldritch starts to pull himself forward amongst the warehouses in the direction of the one previously housing the device, keeping a lookout for Protostar (or what remains) as it does so, but trying to keep to the shadows at the same time.
Nullpoint moves along hearing the rattling and seeing if she can get the door open or at least off its hinges or something.
"Wh... Who's there?" calls Protostar, kinda sounding hesitant. He reaches for the door with the hand not rubbing his chest where he has a mild radiation burn. That's a first for him. "Someone need help?!" He starts trying to tug on the door, not really thinking about his powers at the moment.
Between the pushing from inside and both Protostar and Nullpoint pulling from outside, the door burst open, and several men in lab coats spill out behind a man in an obviously "I'm With The Government" suit and severe haircut.
Nullpoint blinks and sighs, "Experiment gone wrong?" she asks, "Let me guess, it was a powerplant explosion and none of us was here." she says and shakes her head as she sees the government type person.
"When did the government start experimenting with Quantum Singularities... in populated areas, around civilians and such?" asks Protostar, "Do you know the potential for disaster without proper controls? What methods were you using to try to contain it?.....<technobabble-technobabble>" Yes, he knows more about these things than I do, and would start spouting off more scientific technobabble than I'm capable of typing....
"Radiation levels lower than expected." "My badge went dark! Wait, no, it's just dirty." "Get some anti-rad foam on that man, he's practically glowing!" "Where's the LINAC?" A rush of babble....
While a couple of the scientists rush up to Protostar with something that looks like a fire extinguisher covered in radiation trefoils, Mr. Government smooths down his suitcoat and pulls out a badge. "I'm Agent Simon Shiruta, Department of Energy. I'm prepared to post-facto deputize you all under Safe Streets, but understand that what happened here is Classified." Yes, it even sounds capitalized when he says it. Then he specifically addresses Protostar, "The...event...was an unintended consequence of DoE-approved research into exotic materials. I'm afraid I can't say more than that without assurance of security clearances, which I'm guessing is not possessed by everyone present."
Eldritch, for his part, keeps to the shadows, trying to work his way through to the demolished section of the warehouse without being noticed by the men in suits. He's no longer moving by means of stretching, but simply creeping on all fours now.
From afar, Protostar chuckles, "Any chance I could make another science
roll to basically spout off a theory of how they did what they did that
might scare the government guy into thinking I had advance knowledge or
whatnot?:)
You paged Protostar with 'Try it as a +troll, not a +nroll.'
GAME: Protostar rolls 1d20 + 18: 10 for a total of 28.
You paged Protostar with 'Now give me a Wisdom check. ;)'
Protostar pages: what's -that-? I don't do wisdom checks. I'm horribly
unwise and gullible and naive. It's a complication:)
You paged Protostar with 'Try anyway. ;)'
GAME: Protostar rolls 1d20: 1 for a total of 1.
Protostar pages: there ya go!
Nullpoint nods, "I will accept Deputization, and sign what I am assuming you will present a non-disclosure agreement." she shakes her head a bit, seeming to know the procedures for some reason.
"Hey, I've been in space, irradiated by the sun itself... I mean I should be fine, right?" says Protostar as he steps back, raising his force field reflexively, and now twinkling with lots of itty bitty stars within his body. "But when did you start using nucleonic bombardment on CE material? I mean is there any other way to get such a portable singularity as a power source?" Then he pauses and adds, "Granted, Star Trek theorized using them for Romulan Warbirds, but that's beside the point."
The hubbub quiets down, and Agent Shirota narrows his eyes. "That," he says in a tightly controlled voice, "is highly classified. How do you know that there was a sample of Crucible Element involved? Do either of you have an affinity for it?" At least he doesn't seem to notice Eldritch.
Nullpoint sighs a little, "I know nothing, I saw nothing, looked like some kind of explosion." she says simply, but she isn't technically minded anyway.
Protostar shakes his head, "It's just logical. There's only one way you could've achieved the effect you did." He rolls his eyes and even behind his mask and his force field, it's almost visible in his body language and voice, "Come on, anyone should know -that-. Especially with the light nuclei bombardment. Other materials would produce different effects, sometimes explosive, sometimes inert... but CE... that's probably the only thing that'd form a -quantum- singularity." He looks to Nullpoint and asks, "right?" as if she'd know.
Meanwhile Eldritch is creeping its way into the debris of the warehouse, trying to get a good look around at the inside without catching the attention of the rest of the people present. After all, it's one thing looking like a demon, and another thing trying to sneak into a government building, but combining the two likely wouldn't have great results if caught.
Agent Shirota (it's unlikely even his MOTHER thinks of him as Simon...if uptight was a power, Nullpoint's senses would be screaming at her by now) pulls out a slim tablet computer, about halfway between a PDA and a proper tablet in size. "Please sign the screen. Assumed name is acceptable, your signature will be logged and be valid for later identification," he proffers a stylus first to Protostar.
Nullpoint chuckles and just waits.
Protostar wouln't think anything untoward of the government. They're here to protect us, right? He grabs the stylus and puts it to the Tablet before pausing and actually thinking about it. He refrains from using his real and legal signature only barely, before writing in all capital letters: PROTOSTAR. Handing it back, he continues babbling scientifically, "Seriously, how did you solve the power issue with the nuclear containment?" He pauses and then just seems to start walking towards the doorway inside, "Oh wait, you have a chunk of the comet in there, don't you! I need to see that!" It's like he fully expects them to let him in.
One of the scientists is JUST enough of a "geek nature exceeds good sense" type to answer Protostar. "Oh, we only had a sample a few nanograms in size, the stuff is insanely expensive. And it was all inside the LINAC. Where's the LINAC?" he looks a bit sad.
Agent Shirota seems satisfied with Protostar's gradeschool-level signature and hands the mini-tablet over to Nullpoint. "Do note that this is a legally binding statement. You will not reveal anything about the nature of the events tonight. It will be explained as an explosion of a transformer. You will not talk to the press if you can at all avoid it. Do not think that we cannot discover your legal identity should we have a good enough reason."
"My guess is the inverse quantum shielding was somewhere around ninety five to ninety eight percent effective, but that remaining percentage made the signularity eat the thing. It's all collapsed down to a single point in time and space." Protostar just -looks- at the agent and asks, "Why do you need to keep this a secret? It's amazing! You should let me study the effects and see if I can't help you work on a Mark Two."
Nullpoint nods and signs, "Nullpoint." and nods, "I do not doubt it." he says and shakes his head a bit.
Agent Shirota takes the tablet back and tucks it into his coat. "Fortunately, one of our safety precautions involved choosing a location surrounded by warehouses either unoccupied or used only during normal business hours. So there shouldn't be any bystanders near enough to have been injured, but the disaster response crews should arrive soon. I was able to get a call out through the static before the anomaly emitted an EMP that destroyed my phone. Fortunately my computer was still in its shielded pouch at the time."
Nullpoint nods, "Anything else?"
Protostar shakes his head, "Oh, that last pulse wasn't the big beastie, that was me trying to shut it down..." he states before he can think better of it. "Oh, wait, did I kill your phone? Poopy. I'm sorry." He gestures to the building, "Could I see your research? Please?!" it's like a ten year old begging Mommy for a candy bar.
The loose-lipped scientist almost offers to show something to Protostar, then Agent Shirota fixes him with a GLARE. The man shuts up audibly.
"You're still working with titanium alloys for containment, aren't you? Have you thought of using a Tungsten alloy?" asks Protostar to the scientist as he reaches for that research... and then pulls his hand back and looks to the Agent, "Look sir, we're not going to make any progress if you keep trying to micromanage like that. Just let us get to the research, okay?" He doesn't even think the guy's trying to keep it secret. He just thinks the agents wants to maintain control.
Nullpoint shakes her head and turns to slip off.
The road from the interstate seems to be bringing a number of emergency response vehicles towards the industrial park.
With the sirens getting closer, Agent Shirota notes, "This would be a good time for you to depart, lest you end up in an...awkward position. The press will likely be following closely, and it would be better for all concerned if you not be spotted."
Nullpoint slips away about that time, fading into the shadows.
You paged Eldritch with 'You notice there wasn't any sort of dedicated
safe room, so they probably didn't expect anything to go boom. But they
must have had time to get behind some of the other machinery, since no
one seems harmed.'
Running just ahead of the emergency vehicles, Clank rolls into the area and heads over to where people are standing around. "Hey! Whut happened here? Need any hands rescuin' trapped people?" he asks.
[GRPComm] Clank says, "Almost forgot to bring myself in. :) Of course,
the original plan would have had more people needing rescuing and
stuff...."
Just shaking his head, Protostar mutters, "Well, you got an email address I can send something to? I'd be happy to give you any thoughts I had on the matter, maybe some generic research data from my own personal studies.." he says towards the lippy scientist. "Oh, the press? I should give them a statement!" he announces, almost seeming proud.
Apparently satisfied with its exploration, Eldritch snaps back into view (if anyone were looking that way) up on top of one of the walls of the warehouse with the caved-in roof and peers around through the moonlight with its crimson eyes before attempting to slink away into the shadows of the Industrial Park.
Agent Shirota steps over to the new arrival. "Yes. I'm with the government, I'm deputizing you under Safe Streets to help with the search and rescue. Please check that building over there," he gestures at a building he moments earlier declared to be empty.
Nullpoint has left.
Clank rummages around inside one of the nearby warehouses for a few minutes.
Agent Shirota frowns to Protostar. "Let me make myself clearer. Leave. Now. Unless I can trust you not to say the wrong thing to the press, which at this time I don't think I *can*."
"I wouldn't say anything wrong." says Protostar, sounding almost hurt. "I'd just tell them how close we are to discovering a truly revolutionary power source, thanks to the efforts of the government and the Crucible Comet." It's as if he believes that -is- the right thing. Damned naive guy. He looks to the scientist again and asks, "email address?"
The scientist says, "Robosaur84 at gmail dot com," before anyone can stifle him, and Agent Shirota just sighs and makes a note to have that address deleted immediately.
Protostar nods enthusiastically, "I'll send you a few of my thoughts on the matter, something about the use of Tungsten, and my own personal research on CE radiation modifying matter." Let's hope the agent lets it exist long enough to get -that-. That said, Protostar looks to the agent and shakes his head, "You need to get with the program. The government is not about keeping secrets from its people. It's a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. You need to learn how things really work." That said, he rockets upward without much in the way of a wake or visible methods.
Agent Shirota simply sighs, mumbles something about amateurs, and goes about directing the newly-arrived emergency personnel....
--End Log--
(Final note: Protostar's technobabble slightly edited, the player misunderstood "light nuclei" to mean "nuclei of light" rather than "nuclei that aren't heavy", and the emitter didn't catch it until after the scene was over. :) )
