The Dutchman

Another session of Mutants and Masterminds.

It's Thursday morning. I never could get the hang of Thursdays. Hopefully that doesn't mean the world is going to end today.

Jack McCoy is in the library, reading some books. A large number of them seem to be in braille, and there is also a large newspaper archive for the last 15 years. Jack isn't looking for either of those things, but he does find what he is looking for, some books of languages.

A tall woman shows up at the manor by carriage, wearing in a Sunday brunch dress. Mr. Hogarth shows her to the receiving room. The room is shielded against all sorts of things, so none of us know what is happening inside. Hogarth waits outside, until about fifteen minutes later, when he shows her out.

We meet up in the dining room, and Jack McCoy is wearing is silk pajamas. Mr. Hogarth addresses us.

Apparently Rebecca Campbell's husband has been arrested, on suspicion of connections to a terrorist plot. Mrs. Campbell came to Lux for help, and it is believed that he may be possessed by something with potential electric affinity. According to police, he's working on a salted doomsday device that could cause constant EMPs across the globe, similar to the ones that already occur. The police have not recovered the bomb, and at present, Mr. Campbell is being held at police headquarters. Lux will attempt to work on more background information, but our current directive is to recover him without harming police, who will oppose any attempt to remove him from the station.

Current background information available is that Mr. Campbell was a retired nuclear engineer in his early 60s, but is now working at research at TGR Research.

Shroud creates a sky fortress. Not a real fortress, but a place high in the sky to hold a person, just to make sure we don't trigger a deadman switch.

Michael Schroeder's drone and I head to the police station. I head to where the cells are, and discover that inside the cells, I am rendered visible. There seems to be something here that nullifies powers. The field doesn't cover all the cells though.

There are a number of prisoners here. Mr Campbell is here in one of the center cels, and there are a few random gang members in other cells. The mind blanked kid is here too.

Michael Schroeder makes some thermite in his lab back at Lux's manor, and his drone hacks a terminal in the police station to obscure any activity inside the cells while we rescue Mr. Campbell.

Shroud creates a portal where the field doesn't extend to, and Harry and Jack McCoy step through. Harry rushes to the end of the room, and Jack uses the thermite that Michael made to melt down the door.

The door melts quickly, and suddenly Harry stops what he is doing, his will subverted. The door finishes melting, and Harry attacks Jack.

Harry and Jack fight, and I project a mental blast into the center of the room. Luckily the nullifying field seems to only prevent powers from working from inside the field, and doesn't prevent the mental blast from connecting within it. Harry is stunned and staggered.

Mr. Campbell walks out of his cell while Jack and Harry fight, and opens the door to the station. I rush to the other side to try to head him off, and notice that the field is following him, and has extended to my position.

Michael Schroeder is ready to throw a desk, and is stuck in the field. His armor shuts down, immobilizing him, before Michael's will is also subverted.

Things are getting dicey in the station, so Shroud dismisses his sky fortress, dismisses his portal and recreates it, to try to head off Mr. Campbell using it.

Jack McCoy manages to knock Harry out.

Mr. Campbell walks up to the portal Shroud just created, and the portal winks out, nullified by the field.

In a last ditch effort to stop Mr. Campbell from escaping, Shroud gathers up an immense amount of power, and mind crushes the entire area, knocking everyone out, aside from me and Jack. The nullify field abates, and Shroud creates a portal for the third time. We exited through the portal.

We're on a floating platform in the sky that Shroud created. Shroud saps Mr. Campbell's will, and I probe his mind.

Suddenly I'm in another area. It's a concrete room with a vaulted ceiling, with papers scattered all over the place.

There's a man here, and he asks how I got here. He's Joseph Campbell.

He tells me that the last thing he remembers is that he was talking to a reporter who called himself Mr. Johnson. He was an odd fellow, and they talked in the TGR research parking garage.

I ask him if he knows about the creation of doomsday EMP devices, and he says he has researched the effects of the Shattershot, and could build such a device. It was a project for someone called the Sandman, but that was a while ago.

Outside the room, I hear laughter and carnival. I disengage, and return outside of this poor man's mind.

I relay what I learned from him, and what I saw. Shroud creates a nullify ritual, and I probe his mind again. The effect has been reverted.

Harry Gruerkoven is scribbling on a piece of paper. He writes down "hahahaha 3 hours come and play". I probe his mind, and discover that Harry is locked inside a similar room to Mr. Campbell. This time, the walls are clear, and there is a strange man outside, a man with ears and a top hat and a pirate outfit.

I see Harry shrink in size, and then I am then ejected from Harry's mind. Shroud has turned Harry and Michael Schroeder into stone.

Shroud flies Harry and Michael back to the manor, and turns them back to flesh. I probe their minds and determine that they have returned back to normal.

We report back to Mr. Hogarth in the receiving room, to see what information Lux has about the Sandman or Mr. Campbell's Mr. Johnson. We also provide Mr. Campbell, who Mr. Hogarth says Lux will take care of.

Mr. Hogarth approaches a panel in the receiving room wall, and enters some info into it. A print out comes out, and Mr. Hogarth relays to us that Sandman was a member of the elite group called the Coterie. It came into prominence shortly after the Shattershot as a vigilante group, but fell apart a few years after. It was headed up by the Sandman, Mr. Stiletto, and Lucifer and had 13 members. As an expert on EMPs, Campbell was occasionally consulted on matters.

The Coterie had apprehended a man called "The Dutchman", who had long abandoned his humanity. He was imprisoned at the Lady of Grace's asylum. His powers seemed to work through a victim's breath.

Based on some information that Mr. Campbell had provided, Shroud is able to perform a ritual to locate the device. Surprise surprise, it's at the asylum.

Mr. Hogarth goes back to the panel, and a tiny device that looks like it was made from a bottle cap comes out. Mr. Hogarth tells us that it'll disable the device, but we'll have to wet the device first. He also provides Jack McCoy and Harry Gruerkoven some gear to provide an independent air supply, which should protect them from the Dutchman's powers. Michael Schroeder, Shroud and I don't need this, as Michael's suit can provide oxygen if Michael knows he needs it, Shroud already needs to breathe different air, and I simply can't breathe.

Oh, and there is a John Doe in the morgue matching Mr. Johnson.

We arrive at the asylum via portal. It's a red brick building, and doesn't look like it's been funded in a while.

Shroud disguises himself, and Michael Schroeder summons a combat drone to disable the phone lines.

We enter the building, and notice that the building seems completely abandoned. There's an elevator leading to several levels of basement, so we take it to the bottom floor.

The door opens, revealing a long hallway. There's a guy in a stretcher, but I can't detect his mind. Shroud is able to feel 30-40 people moving around though, so there must be something blocking me. It's a wide variety; some have handcuffs, some have scrubs, some have suits. One of them appears to be the lost Doctor Chambers.

Shroud opens a pin sized portal to a locked room at the end of the hallway, and feels four people in it. At one point it might have been an operation room of some kind. One of the people in the room has fake bunny ears, and there is also a teenager with flame red hair, an older strung out man with black hair, and a young lady with a pixie haircut. Jack McCoy is able to determine that they are all stronger than us in power level, except the pixie hair cut girl, who seems both stronger and weaker?

Shroud expands his portal, and we jump through.

Jack McCoy strikes the room with lightning, knocking the pixie haircut girl out.

The red haired teenager attacks Jack, but Jack shrugs it off and the feedback from Jack's lightning aura nearly knocks him out. Michael strikes the black haired guy, who barely notices the attack, and Shroud knocks the red haired teenager through the wall, making a hole in the dirty behind.

The Dutchman laughs, and the pixie haircut girl gets back up. The black haired man pulses fire, stunned Harry Gruerkoven.

Jack McCoy retaliates with his own pulse, and Shroud knocks the black haired guy down. I possess the black haired guy.

Michael Schroeder knocks the Dutchman over, and Jack makes sure he's down. Harry and Shroud attack the revived pixie haircut girl, with Shroud throwing her through the ground, causing a deep deep hole.

I'm suddenly knocked out of the black hair guy, and try to possess him again, but instead carnival music starts playing in my head. The black hair guy blasts the room, and I start laughing.

Jack slices The Dutchman's head off with his katana, but the carnival music in my head doesn't stop. I try to possess Michael Schroeder, but his will is too strong.

Shroud uses the black haired man to make another hole.

I'm in a glass walled room. The Dutchman is both outside the room and inside the room.

I try to possess him, but fail.

I mentally blast Michael Schroeder.

Inside my room, my mind, I try to possess The Dutchman again. The world inverts on itself, and I'm outside of the room. The Dutchman is sitting inside the room, with his bunny ears sticking out.

I crush the box, The Dutchman screams, and I am back in reality.

The black haired man in the hole was laughing, but he suddenly stops. Across the entire floor, patients fall dead, and I can feel minds again.

With incredible effort, Shroud performs a ritual to resurrect the pixie haired girl, only with Jack's electrical energy assisting him.

Below us still is the bomb. Shroud makes a hole, precisely exposing the bomb. He's exhausted, but it's enough for Jack to jump in and deactivate the bomb.

We grab Doctor Chambers, and The Dutchman's former lackeys. We bring the EMP back to the manor, because we're sure Lux would want it. Mr. Hogarth eyes us.

Jack McCoy calls Natalia, and tells her about strange things on the moon. He also tells her about The Dutchman's lackeys who we dump in the police station. Oh yeah, also you should check out the asylum.

I write a report.