Best Raid Schemes of Mutants and Men

Mutants and Masterminds. When we last left off, we had taken out all of Never's lieutenants.

It's dusk. Golem is tied up in the other room. We're in the dining room. Of course we are.

The house shakes, and it's not a minor tremor, but an ear rattling shake that causes the very foundations of the building to tremble. The lights go out, and we hear a shout in the other room.

In the main hall, we find Golem is out cold. There are noises coming from outside. Hogarth says he needs to make sure emergency protocols are activated, and disappears.

Jack McCoy uses Golem as a footrest. Outside, is a lot like when we were in Lux's mind.

The windows shimmer, and Hogarth returns. Apparently a lot of the security systems were wiped out, but the basic protocols still stand. We have attackers. Neilatech armed, Hogarth says.

Jack teleports over the main dining room entrance, and opens the door. The anteroom has been completely obliterated. Outside, he can see forms moving in the dense fog, and a field beyond in the darkness.

The forms turn out to be soldiers, wearing full tactical gear and armed with strangely designed assault rifles.

Jack is shot, and his electrical glow fades.

Michael Schroeder's drone tries to teleport out, but falls out of the sky instead.

Mr. Hogarth leaves again, to see to more defenses.

Michael Schroeder shoots several as they come in, and Shroud uses his telekinetic scream to take out dozens of them. I mind blast a few.

Mr. Hogarth returns and says we may not be able to hold here. If retreat is needed, we will need to take Golem with us.

A black tank emerges out of the fog, and it fires on Michael, knocking him back. The security system starts back up, stopping additional shots from our foes outside.

The defenses fall again, and Michael hacks the tank.

We retreat under cover, and Shroud loses his powers to a grenade. Another tank arrives, this one creating a shield, and Michael hacks it too.

Several soldiers are taken out via Michael's control of the tank, but Michael is the only one still in the open, and he is knocked out cold.

Mr. Hogarth returns, and indicates we should retreat soon. Lux will open an escape route, but it will be open for only a few seconds.

Michael is too heavy, but I manage to drag Golem into cover. Jack notices one of the unconscious soldiers has a symbol of the brigadier general.

More grenades, but we escape into the dining room.

We make it through Lux's portal. This is familiar. This is where the dead go.

The real world feels shimmery, and at the bottom of the stairs are three locked chests, and a semi-transparent Lux. She tilts her head at Mr. Hogarth, and Mr. Hogarth becomes more solid. To this plane.

At the top of the stairs, the blast door explodes and soldiers poor through it. We can feel the air getting warmer, and Mr. Hogarth suggests we escape through the corridor. Lux's powers are activating, her skin turning scarlet. The hellfire Lux involuntarily summons could kill, if we're not gone.

Mr. Hogarth whistles to the crates, and the creates slide after us as we run down the corridor.

The coordinator melts into mist, with a path leading on. Mr. Hogarth tells us to stay close to him, and that we are heading to the Lady of Grace asylum.

Strange figures are moving in the mist and I spy some familiar long lost faces. I chase after them, and lose sight of them. I come across the Brooklyn bridge, but they're not here anymore.

I continue across the bridge, and come back up on the path.

We reach the asylum, and Mr. Hogarth has become pretty faint. The distance from the estate must be taxing him.

Bits of walls and shingles are continually falling off of the asylum, but it does not seem to actually be disintegrating. There are people milling about, and while some look normal, others seem to by hiding stranger forms. Many have tiny silver chains visible around their ankles.

Mr. Hogarth tells us that Lady Liara may be able to help, and suggests we head to the Dutchman's old room. He gives Jack an item that looks like a pen, and tells him to click twice. He gestures towards the three chests, and says they will follow. Our next move should be to rescue Lux.

Colors shimmer in the Dutchman's room, except for in the center of the room where the shadow of the Dutchman seems to prevent any color.

Another portal forms, and the color is replaced with a drab room.

A patient walks outside, waving some papers, and yelling about a conspiracy. The mayor was standing up to them mets and that's why he was killed.

An orderly come tries to calm the patient. It was an accident. The fire chief said so.

We make it outside, and Jack calls Nikolai ‬Yolanavich. Nikolai is sorry to hear of our troubles, and is understanding when Jack tells him how much he wants revenge on our attackers. In fact, Lady Liara is willing to help, and offers us a choice of several properties.

We soon find ourselves in an old retired two storied fire house under Highway 7. Number 287. This part of town is abandoned. As ghostbusters, ... oh wait. There's a lovely fire pole. Needs a dining room table though. Table is life.

Jack goes click click with the pen, and the creates skitter out of a portal, and dissolve, leaving several items behind.

The first crate has a support system for Lux, with lots of chemicals.

The second supplies has vials, notes, an unlockable lockbox, and some strange looking pet food.

The third has an elaborate terrarium, with a familiar smokey lizard inside.

Nikolai catches us up on what happen to Lady Lustracio. Lux. He isn't sure where they have taken her, but they will attempt to move her out of the city. He suggests we should move fast if we want to get her back. She'll be guarded by contingent of soldiers, and the agency has been known to use a rusted out train car that says "Quickrite" on the side.

We ask what Nikolai's relationship with Lady Laira is, and he says he interfaces with the public. His sister owns the brothel.

I ask Nikolai about the mayor, and Nikolai says he was killed in an fire. It was investigated by Inspector O'Connor. I tell him about the gatekeeper, and wonder who would benefit. Nikolai considers this, and says that other than the criminal organizations that would benefit, Charles Deen would most likely be the next mayor.

I head to the train station to try to get some intel.

There's a shack which looks like an office, and a guy sleeping on the couch. I check out the logbook.

There's several trains leaving tomorrow.

Looks like the third train is probably the most likely one. I return and ask Nikolai about Garret Logan though, and he says Garret is still about, but probably not related. Especially since Jess doesn't even remember who he is at first, or if we killed him or not.

Even though the third train is most suspicious (even though no-one believes it's most suspicious except me), we check out each of the trains as they are loaded.

On the first train, we notice two of the WPH cars are shielded, with lots of crates, but none of them are really large enough. An elephant gets on one of the cars, and nearby two people are arguing.

Shroud makes the trains go through a portal into a train trap. For trains. It's just a big loop in the desert on the other side of the planet.

Before the next train arrives, I decide to snoop around Red Events headquarters. I quickly find Megan Black's office, who I know is one of Reese's contacts (who is in turn a member of the Agency).

I don't find much of use, although there is mention of correspondence with a "ZR". Jess points out that Zeke is short for Ezekiel. With a key to the filing cabinet I even find reference to using red events shipping.

As I leave, I notice a missed call on her desk phone. The number is one of the Lustracio Estate phones.

I return, and we search the 9:30 train. It's a lot of "random crud" for the penthouse moving, and Rachel Sharpe has a lot of smooth black boxes.

The 2pm train is already starting to get filled up. Prestwhich has some interesting boxes, including some a wire going into a generator. All of the red event cars have already been filled up.

By 1:45, the last of the cars arrive. Three shielded cars are attached in the middle of the Red Events cars, and two of them say "Quick Rite" on the side. Interestingly, there's also an unusually high number of people at the station, way too many workers.

I get Michael, who goes to join Shroud in the desert. Jack and I hide in the train cars.

Around 2:07 the train finally gets going. Jack unlinks the cars, and Shroud uses portal to separate them from the train.

Roll initiative. We stall.

Michael slows the train down, but as he does, the loudspeaker suddenly springs into life.

"Brigadier General Zeke Reese here. Don't fight us, and we'll let you go. Your lives can go back to normal, and we have no intent to use what we found in the basement. You'll be pardoned for your mutant activities if you just let it go."

Michael speeds the train up, and yells for him to let her go.

Jack punches a hole in one of the cars, and finds 12 soldiers with rifles pointing at him. Reese is inside too, along with Lux laying unconscious inside a glass coffin, which tubes and needles going into her body.

Reese speaks again, saying to stop, the drugs are the only thing keeping her from destroying the entire train.

Jack responds in the way he knows best. He sends electricity through to Reese's minions. Several of them are knocked out.

Reese keeps his cool. "There won't be a country for you if you go through with this!"

Shroud rescues Lux by using a portal. Luckily, he puts her a few hundred miles away.

The soldiers open fire on Jack, and Jack goes flying out of the train. I try to bump him up, and Michael comes in to grab him, but misses. Shroud tries to catch Jack as well, but instead all that happens is the train tracks vanish.

Red event stuff flies everywhere as the train loses its way, and there's twisted metal everywhere.

The sound of screeching metal has finally stopped, and quiet begins to descend, and then the skyline lights up in nuclear fire, and there's a faint wave of heat.

Four people have survived, including Reese, and Michael stubbornly saves them. Sends them to a hospital.

We retrieve Lux, and she seems mostly unharmed. Michael finds his scout drone in one of the crates.

We return to the fire station.