Since the vote is currently close, I would like to point out that we can immediately make use of the "Guarantee 1 Power" bonus since it costs us nothing, but "Raise Potency by 1" costs $2K per use and we don't have the money for it right now so our next metahuman this turn won't benefit from the increased potency tolerance.
Warning: this mission will be a little dark. Nothing extreme, but we've been mostly silly up until now. Adding trigger warnings if you're concerned.
Descriptions of gore, violence, extremely passing reference to violence against children.
[X] Ask Dr. Ibis to help raise candidates' tolerances.
Horizon, City of Levithan's Rest – Worker's Mitt – November 17, 2067
You find that the severity of the situation in the Worker's Mitt was vastly understated.
DC 8.
Stat Check: HIT 7. Justice Unlimited has a collective HIT of 15.
You rolled: 1.
1 + 4 = 5. Failure!
Lady Leizi takes one injury level! Superficial Injury!
Black Swan takes one injury level! Superficial Injury!
That much became apparent the second you stepped foot into the downtown area of the Worker's Mitt. Those new to Horizon might think it odd to refer to a section of a neighborhood as "downtown" but, in a city as disparate as Horizon, it was perfectly natural.
The Worker's Mitt was something of a "blue collar" borough in Horizon; mostly residential with its citizens commuting to work in other parts of Horizon. However, it did have a commercial section with a handful of skyscrapers and office buildings, which is where the trouble began.
Flocks of birds with plumage the color of spilled ink and ruby-red, glowing eyes filled the sky. They were so numerous—the groupings so thick—that you initially mistook them for storm clouds. Their bodies block out the sun and the endless din of their screams made it nearly impossible to think, let alone communicate.
And they were angry. After you and Black Swan passed some invisible threshold, they attacked with beaks and talons as sharp as knives. They screamed bloody murder and swarmed your location, scratching, biting, pecking.
However, furious as they were, they paled in comparison to the might of your lightning. They died in droves; you killed dozens, maybe even a hundred of the odds shadow-creatures. Upon death, they evaporated into a cloud of dust and drifted away in the wind.
But there was no end to them. Eventually, you grew tired, sloppy. You took a nasty gash to the forehead and your arms were bloody messes of scratches and cuts. You eventually had to take cover to prevent being overwhelmed.
Black Swan fared better. As light banishes shadow, her beams of energy melted the avian abominations. For a moment she was making a sizable dent in their numbers, but then larger, more powerful creatures came. Six-eyed crows the size of cars with rows and rows of dagger-like teeth arrived, who could survive Black Swan's blasts long enough to take a swing at her. Eventually, the sheer volume began to wear her construct-body down.
You knit your brow in confusion for a moment before you realized what was wrong. Black Swan had more than enough power to destroy all of these creatures and more. But this battle wasn't in an abandoned stretch of land—it was inside the city proper. Black Swan was heeding the first thing you drilled into her head: not unleash her full power if she could not be absolutelycertain of what she would hit.
And so she was limited to short, low-energy blasts that were not enough to defeat the threat in front of you.
There was something about the way the birds attacked, the frenzy with which they threw themselves to their destruction . . .
DC 10.
Stat Check: OPERATIONS 5. Justice Unlimited has a collective OPERATIONS of 9.
You rolled: 1.
1 + 2 = 3. Failure!
You can't tell. The din is too low, the throng too thick. You click your tongue in annoyance and speak into your screen.
"Black Swan, pull out."
"B-but I can get them! I can!" she protests.
"This isn't effective. We're trying to melt a glacier with a matchstick. We need to pull out and reassess."
"B-but!"
"That is an order Black Swan. Sometimes discretion is the greater part of valor. And even if you can endure these attacks all day without injury, I cannot."
". . . yes, ma'am. I'm sorry."
You hear the same frustration in Black Swan's voice that you feel. You give voice to your shared feelings and tell her, "This is not over."
* * *
"Your mission parameters were somewhat lacking. The infestation downtown is more serious than a 'minor incursion.'"
Your voice is even and controlled even as you attempt to use your mind to set the man on the display on fire.
"Something like this should be no problem for Justice Unlimited," he sneers in a French accent, "Ah, but this isn't really Justice Unlimited anymore, is it?"
Lucien Toussaint had been the Borough Chief of the Worker's Mitt for nearly the entire tenure of Justice Unlimited's contract. He was thin like a scarecrow, never wearing less than a three-piece suit. He was a well-meaning, dependable man whom everyone, including yourself, respected.
He also died as collateral damage in a metahuman brawl a few days after the Movement.
The odious man in front of you was his replacement, Samuel deLeon, and he was decidedly no Lucien Toussaint. His unnaturally smooth face had the characteristic sheen of someone abusing cheap anti-geriatric treatments, and his blonde hair was arranged in a perfectly-groomed coif. He shot you a haughty smile, showing off his too-white teeth, before continuing.
"That's why we had to suspend our contract. No use paying for someone just using the name who can't get the job done. We've been fielding offers from Allied Global Logistics and Dominion Security Concerns, and they've been very competitive. I'm certain Global Justice or Powers will have no issue getting rid of our pest problem."
You hold back a sigh. The fact that he didn't name New Dawn in the list of your possible replacements almost certainly meant those "competitive offers" included bribes.
A corrupt politician. How droll.
"Now, there's also the matter of the former Justice Unlimited's headquarters, the "Apiary". Dreadful name. What were they, bees? Ha!"
"It was named after our departed teammate," you say, breaking your silence.
"A-ah, yes, I think I did know that. Well, irregardless, the land it sits on was granted to Justice Unlimited by my predecessor. But, as we've agreed, since you are not really Justice Unlimited, I'm afraid I will have to withdraw that grant. Which, naturally means any items still on borough property are forfeit—"
"Mr. deLeon?" you interrupt.
"Yes? There's no point in protesting—"
"Oh, you're welcome to whatever you find," you say with a crooked smile, "If you can get past Valiant Silver's defenses, you've more than earned whatever you find."
"O-oh?"
"Quite. But that's not why I interrupted you. I interrupted you to tell you two things."
"And what would those be?"
"First," you say, holding up a finger, "'Irregardless' is a pseudoword. It has the same meaning as 'regardless.'"
You raise another finger.
"Second, your reelection is in two months and eleven days."
He shoots you a wary look. "And what does that have to do with anything?"
"Nothing, darling. It's more a reminder for myself as I speak with your constituents."
"Lady Leizi, is that a threat? Who do—"
His voice cuts off as you end the call and begin to seethe. Very well. He does not wish to be of assistance? You would simply have to find someone who would.
* * *
Walking through the residential section of the Worker's Mitt reminds you of how long it's been since you've last stepped foot here.
A little over two months. A lifetime ago.
You're disturbed at how bothered you are by how different everything looks. There was damage throughout the borough from the riots following the Movement, but much of it was long repaired with clearly visible signs of recent construction. The people—once free and easy—walk with hurried and nervous gazes. But the people still walk, going about their days. Despite the hardship, life has still gone on.
You don't know how you feel about that.
You eye Black Swan flying next to you as you walk down the street. Her visor is opaque, hiding her face except for her mouth. You can see her biting her lip.
"Ah, I forgot. You grew up here, didn't you, Black Swan?"
"Y-yeah," she says as you pass past the boarded up ruins of a coffee shop, "I came back here to move Mom out, but that was so fast I didn't . . ."
"Take a look around?" you venture.
"It's so different now," she says, "Everyone looks so scared."
"They don't know what the future holds. Uncertainty makes everyone uncomfortable."
"Maybe." Black Swan looks down at the ground and drags her feet as she flies forward. "Um, so what are we doing here—?"
"We need information about our bird problem," you explain, "But my contacts in the Worker's Mitt have largely gone to ground. I have one more favor I can call in, but I need to know what to ask for. Such is the frustration in approaching a problem blind."
"You mean, you don't know what you don't know?"
"Pithy. But essentially correct. We need a lead." You stop walking before a large, ornate build with a row of ionic columns in the front.
Black Swan looks at the building. "So we're here to. . . ?"
"Why, darling, to participate in local government," you say as you saunter into borough hall.
* * *
The community meeting is already in full swing by the time you and Black Swan enter. The main hall is packed to the gills with all kinds of residents from the Worker's Mitt, their voices blended together in a cacophony of angry voices.
"My body will be cold and in the ground before we sell ourselves to a corp!"
"Who will protect us?"
"Let's just sign up with Dominion! You think there's anybody left in the city who can take Scarlet Maturity?"
"Heavenly Astrolgian could!"
"She's dead!"
"Aw, dammit!"
"Those birds are still everywhere. Nearly ripped off Ol' Jed's leg."
"Things have really gone downhill since Justice Unlimited disappeared. Not their faults of course—the poor dears."
Black Swan gives you an uncertain look, but you just shoot her a confident smile before deliberately, carefully clearing your throat.
Then, when no one can hear you over all the arguing, you silence the room with a literal thunderclap.
There is a stunned silence as every eye in the room turns to you and Black Swan. You drop your hands to the side as you take advantage of the attention.
"Ladies, Gentleman, and other residents of the Worker's Mitt, I apologize for the delay in response. Justice Unlimited is here to help."
At first there's no response, but then someone says, "Lady Leizi . . . ?"
That breaks the dam.
"You're alive! Well, I'll be damned! You're alive!"
"The southside has been flooded up to 34th Street for weeks, can Uiara . . ."
"Where's Valiant Silver? The electrical grind is in shambles—"
"Did The Red Huntress get my marriage proposal? What did she say . . .? No, wait, don't tell me!"
"The birds are everywhere, please, help us—"
Their comments make your smile falter, but just for a moment. You put your mask firmly back and place and speak again.
"I'm afraid that . . . myself and Black Swan here are all that remains of Justice Unlimited. No one else made it out of the QZ."
Stunned silence. And then:
"Oh . . . god."
"Rest assured that you have not been abandoned, however. We are here to deal with your avian problem. But I need some information first . . ."
Minor Success: DC 5. Moderate Success: DC 10. Major Success: DC 15.
Stat Check: REPUTATION 10. Justice Unlimited has a collective REPUTATION 11.
You rolled: 18.
17 + 0 = 17. Major Success!
At first, everything goes wrong.
"Listen, Lady Leizi," a burly man with a mustache says, "I'm glad you are alive. I truly am. But if it's just you and this Swan person . . . The city's a mess! They say Third Person's is on the loose again."
"What Chester is trying to say," an old, shrunken woman says, "Is that we were meeting here today to discuss voiding our contract with Justice Unlimited and putting another organization on retainer."
"I did not agree to that!" a voice calls out.
"It's inevitable," Chester says, "Look, I remember what things were like before Justice Unlimited. They were real bad. You guys really cleaned this place up and, I'm powerfully grateful, but I don't know if we can trust our safety to two . . . strangers!"
That comment bites deep. You had always known you were not as . . . beloved as your teammates. Yours was the power behind the throne, not the face on the throne. If Uiara or Adamant were here, everyone in this room would be rejoicing. But because it's you they're all wary, lacking confidence and faith.
You can't do what they could.
You may have miscalculated coming here. You look for something, anything to say, when Black Swan says something for you.
"Hey! Screw you Chester! You grew that mustache one year for Halloween and made it your whole personality!"
Chester gasps and clutches his heart.
"And Mrs. Park! Ten years of crowing about how Valiant Silver was from the 'old neighborhood', and now you're the first to turn your back on what she built? Shame on you!"
The old woman narrows her eyes and glares. "I don't know who you are, miss, or why you feel entitled to make personal attacks, but, with respect, you are not from here. You don't understand what this borough has been through."
"What are you talking about?" You see Black Swan hesitate for a fraction of a second before ripping her visor off. "I grew up here!"
Silence again. And then:
"As I live and breathe. . . is that little Mona Merola-Morales?" Mrs. Park's eyes bug out of her head. "What are you wearing, girl?"
Mona looks down, self-consciously.
"It's my costume. I'm, uh, Black Swan!" she says, striking a pose, "I'm the newest member of Justice Unlimited."
"Does your mother know about this?!"
"No, really," Mona whines, "I have powers! Watch!"
Mona flies into the air and begins to radiate light from her body, her eyes glowing white.
"See! I can shoot lasers and stuff! And I'm a black hole? Technically, maybe?"
Chesters twirls both ends of his mustache with both hands—wow, he really does have nothing else going on.
"Mona! You've got powers? How long have you been holding out on us?"
Mona pauses for a second, but you can see her remember her cover story. "Umm, so you know that internship I had with Justice Unlimited? Turns out it was a little more than an internship . . ."
The room crowds Mona as everyone wants a piece of her. To talk to her, to touch her costume, to take a selfie to prove there was still one of their own on Justice Unlimited. Mona handles it with aplomb.
"Your costume is so cool!"
"What does 'technically, maybe' a black hole mean?!"
"Will you marry me? It was love at first sight! The Red who?"
Finally, someone sensible asks, "Hey, wait, was it you who made all that light by the birds earlier?"
"Oh yeah!" Mona says, "I would have gotten them too, but Lady Leizi said I can't use my full power if I don't know what I'm aiming at. Stupid bird-swarms . . ."
"Dang. So you guys really can handle those birds?"
"Naturally," you say, raising an eyebrow, "We're simply trying to do it with a little finesse."
"Yeah! Lady Leizi has been teaching me lots," Mona says.
"Lady Leizi, marry me! I—hrrrgk!"
"Enough of that," Mrs. Park says, hitting the serial proposer, "Now, Lady Leizi, you said you were looking for information?"
Your grin is positively feral. "Just a few questions . . ."
* * *
You leave borough hall with the exact lead you needed and an odd feeling in your chest. Black Swan—Mona—elected to stay behind and continue to reassure everyone, which was just as well. You had no talent for it, and, if Black Swan enjoyed doing it, it made your working relationship all the more fruitful.
No, you think as you walk into a seedy bar, this was much more your speed.
Your contact is already there as you sit down, face buried in a newspaper. He's seated at the end of a table in the corner; you sit at the next nearest table so your back is to him.
The room is quiet except for the sound of jazz music from a sound system and the hum of the ancient ceiling fan.
"Lady Leizi," the man says without taking his face out of the newspaper, "Glad to see you didn't bite the big one in the quarantine."
"You know, if enough people continue to say that, do you think eventually I'll find one I believe?"
He barks out a laugh. "You haven't changed. So what do you need this time?"
"Why, Inspector Du Bois, I can't just be exchanging pleasantries with a friend?"
"Heh. That will be the day."
Inspector Gerome Du Bois was a long-time member of the Worker's Mitt Citizen's Militia. Citizen militias were common in the early days of Horizon, when it was still corporate-dominated. There had been virtually no peacekeeping force outside of corporate security, so enclaves of workers organized their own. In recent times, they had mostly fallen by the wayside as major security companies emerged with specializations in law enforcement. However, the Worker's Mitt clung stubbornly to their anti-corporate pasts and so continued to fund the WMCM.
In your experience, the WMCM had all of the usual corruption of organized law enforcement, but were at least honest about their failings. Inspector Du Bois had been a frequent collaborator of yours in the past, feeding you information when his investigations hit a roadblock in his department.
You decided to get the point. "I'm looking into a problem for an associate. Seems they have an issue with pets."
"Oh?" Du Bois says, "Sounds like that nasty infestation downtown."
"Yes, I do believe it's similar. Only, my associates' problem began in a specific place." You take out your screen and pull up an image before slipping it to Du Bois. "Third North Tower. Have you heard of it? It's supposedly quite the apartment complex."
And also the place where the birds first began to emerge, if what the citizens at borough hall had to say was to be believed.
Minor Success: DC 5. Moderate Success: DC 10. Major Success: DC 15.
Stat Check: ESPIONAGE 4. Lady Lezi has ESPIONAGE 8.
You rolled: 12.
12 + 2 + 2 (Knows About Third North Towers) = 16. Major Success!
Du Bois takes a look at the photograph before sighing and taking out a cigarette.
"If we're going to talk about this, I'm gonna smoke."
"By all means."
He lights up and inhales. He holds for a second before blowing out a lungful of sweet-smelling smoke, "Damn, syth-cigs. They just don't taste the same."
He takes a few more drags before speaking.
"Okay, Third North Towers. I should have known that's where those damn birds came from. That place is cursed."
"How so?"
"It started a few days after Old Screamy moved in the QZ. We got reports about missing persons from that building. Dozens of them. The city was in chaos—worse than it is now—so nobody thought too much about them. Except, here's the weird part: all of those missing persons came back."
You pause. "They all returned?"
"Like nothing ever happened. They all denied anything unusual occurring; just said they got caught up in the chaos in the city. It was suspicious as hell, but, like I said, everywhere was on fire. There were other things to worry about."
"Strange. But I'm not sure how that makes that apartment complex 'cursed'. Unless . . .?"
"Yeah, there's more. The missing persons thing kept up for another two weeks, right up until it got weird enough that the brass decided to investigate. Then, all reports out of Third North stopped."
"People stopped disappearing?"
Du Bois snorts. "People stopped being people. We didn't get any reports out of there; no complaints at all. There was, what, a few thousand people in that building? You have any idea how rare it is to go one night without someone complaining that their neighbor's speakers are too loud? Or having to break up a fight or two? Let alone nothing for weeks? It was unnatural."
"I don't suppose you'll tell me an investigation was launched then?"
Du Bois takes another drag and puts out his cigarette. "Hell no. The higher-ups loved it. They've got elections coming up and it made the crime rates go way down."
"Inspector Du Bois," you say, "I've known you for some time. I know you have a curious mind. Someone like you could never let this simply lie."
Du Bois taps on the table before swearing under his breath. "You got me. Okay, I'm gonna send something to your screen. You didn't get it from me. Watch it."
True to his word, you suddenly get a notification. It's a video file. You download it and begin to watch. It takes a second, but you realize it spliced-together surveillance footage of what appears to be various floors and common areas of Third North Towers.
It's . . . hard to watch. Piles of bodies, everywhere. Corpses. Bloodstains on every wall. Men, women, people of all ages. It's an abattoir of humanity, but what's more . . .
"Birds didn't do this," you say. The wounds on the bodies—they're not indicative of animals ripping someone apart. They're clean, uniform, and made by tools. Looking closer, you can see some bodies holding weapons. You realize some of the victims had been stabbed, some had been savagely beaten with blunt instruments, and some . . . some had no marks at all.
Those people died with peaceful expressions on their faces.
"Yeah," Du Bois says, "I don't know what happened, but something made all those people kill each other. The next day, the birds showed up."
He's bouncing his leg furiously, chewing on the butt of his cigarette.
"Captain made me bury it. Said it would be an embarrassment to the department. An "unacceptable loss of faith in the Citizen's Militia" given everything we're dealing with."
"And then the birds."
"And then the birds," he agrees, "We lost our chance to figure out what the hell happened there. Maybe you still can."
You nod. This has been valuable indeed. But still . . .
"Is there any other aid your department can give Justice Unlimited?"
"Like what?" Du Bois grunts.
Minor Success: DC 5. Moderate Success: DC 10. Major Success: DC 15.
Stat Check: OPERATIONS 4. Lady Lezi has OPERATIONS 5.
You rolled: 1.
1 + 0 = 1 Critical Failure!
You're too embarrassed to admit you can't think of anything.
"We can't exactly help you with the birds," Du Bois says, "We still have some of those shield generators from Vailant Silver, but it's not worth my life to take them out of the armory. Especially with her dead. I'm sorry, Lady Leizi."
"It's alright, Inspector. You've done more than enough." With that, you stand up and leave.
* * *
Armed with the knowledge of what you were facing, you were more prepared to attempt to deal with the shadows infesting downtown. Whatever their source was, it lay in Third North Tower. You simply had to get there.
But that presents a problem in of itself. You could ask Black Swan to distract the swarm while you approach. It would make it vastly easier to get to the building and move undetected. Black Swan would not be at risk either—the swarm could not do permanent damage to her core body.
But then you would be without Black Swan for whatever you found inside the building. You have confidence in your own abilities, but you would be lying if it wasn't reassuring having a girl with the power of the stars at your back.
Ultimately you decide . . .
[ ] to investigate the building on your own, while Black Swan distracts the swarm.
(all checks will be done with only Lady Leizi's personal stats. +2 to ESPIONAGE checks.)
[ ] investigate the building with Black Swan at your side.
(all checks will be done with both Lady Leizi and Black Swan's stats. -2 to ESPIONAGE checks. Any HIT check passed by over 5 will require an OPERATIONS check to ensure that Black Swan does not accidentally damage the building)
Both Black Swan and Lady Leizi have one level of injury.
That's awful. Seems like it's making up for the lucksacking involved with getting the most pure-hearted dumbass in the setting a Silver Age Superman level package.
That's awful. Seems like it's making up for the lucksacking involved with getting the most pure-hearted dumbass in the setting a Silver Age Superman level package.
Yeah, and as our first showing as a new group same as the old group too.
I just hope that the Major Success at the community meeting center was enough to ensure at least an advantage towards ripping the balls off of that smarmy political successor.
You brown knit in confusion for a moment before you realized what was wrong. Black Swan had more than enough power to destroy all of these creatures and more.
[X] to investigate the building on your own, while Black Swan distracts the swarm.
Solo mission it is. Our OPERATIONS is our weak point, so requiring all our HIT rolls to pass a OP check is going to mess with us a lot. The +2 to Espionage is going to be really handy.
