To Foundation and Back

Another session of Mutants and Masterminds...

Legion rarely leaves the penthouse. So far as he is concerned, even the food is restocked as if by magic (really it is Piper doing it invisibly).

There's one thing he needs though. He needs his booze.

So as he's walking in an alleyway, here hears someone crying out in pain.

Two men are beating a homeless man while a third video tapes it. Legion asks what they're doing. The man with the video camera turns around and says "Yeah, we paid him 100 bucks".

The homeless man grunts and yells that it is a lie. It was supposed to be a won on one fight.

Legion thinks they're done. Okay. They ask Legion if he wants a hundred bucks too.

Sure, why not. More booze money.

They say Legion has to bring one of them down, but also the fight should last five minutes.

They clumsily charge Legion, who just stands there and takes the punches for a whole five minutes before punching one, knocking him down.

The two men still standing are surprised, not just because Legion seemed to ignore them completely, but that he manage to take out their friend so easily. They throw the money at Legion and then drag their friend off.

The homeless man is still laying on the ground, so Legion picks him up and takes him to the hospital. As he picks him up though, he recognizes him as an old war buddy.

Piper is working at the coffee shop. It's around noon, and quite busy with business people.

One man is quite loudly complaining about chosen, specifically about recent events in Alaska. While there was no specific evidence it was caused by a chosen, it's common belief.

He's not happy when he sees Piper. "You hired a chosen here!?"

Piper tells him to sit down and enjoy his coffee.

He grumbles. "I bet you ain't even registered."

She gives him an earful and suggests that she might have to call the cops. He says she'll get what's coming and leaves.

His friends tip well.

Piper is getting ready to head home. She wants to get home before dark.

A large whooshing explosion comes from outside, and there are screams. Piper yells for someone to call 911 and goes outside to check it out.

A car has been smashed to pieces, and people are fleeing the area. Piper investigates the car, and finds a woman inside, trapped by her seatbelt, who is beginning to panic.

Piper tells her it is going to be okay, grabs a hold of her, and teleports the both of them a little bit away.

The woman seems grateful, and tries to stand shakily, but Piper tells her she should stay sitting.

There's another explosion, and whistling noises. Piper looks around, and can see nothing past the high rise buildings.

Omar has sent for the rest of us, and we all make our way to Piper.

The explosions haven't stopped, and this one is across the street from Piper's coffee shop.

I manage to catch a falling person with my door. He has some glass on his face, and I bring him over to Piper where people have started grouping up. I put my door shield up to protect the group of people.

Piper puts a spell on the area to see if anyone is invisible, but doesn't find anyone.

Someone yells that it is Shockwave that is attacking, so Aaron tries to call him out. Instead he gets a bird man, who Aaron goes to fight instead. It seems to be some sort of monstrous werebird, with a wicked curved beak, and wicked claws, wicked green eyes, and wicked black feathers. It's monstrous.

Legion spots a cowled figured with weird jewelry. It looks like an old woman, and she has emerged from the location of one of the explosions. Ah yes, the old gypsy in the shockwave trick. She seems disgruntled, so Piper tries to calm her, but has little apparent effect.

Several explosions rock against my shield, with increasing frequency.

The old woman approaches, and several people collapse around her, and seem to struggle feebly to rise. "They all fall," she says, and she looks at Piper, who just tried to unleash a spell of some sort at her.

She walks over to Piper, and Piper struggles to stay standing.

No, the bird is not the word.

Legion walks up to her, saying "Good Night", and throws a fist at her.

His fist goes through her.

Piper throws a mystic firebolt at the woman, and it actually connects. She falls to the ground, unconscious. Legion becomes incorporeal and picks the woman up.

Aaron knocks the werebird unconscious, and falls to the ground with it.

People dodge under my the radius of my door's shield, but then the explosions suddenly stop.

Emergency vehicles start arriving, so Iput down my shield, my work here done. I tell a police officer that Piper would know more than I would. He says the PIRC will be here soon. Oh, well then it's best if we got going.

As I leave, I feel as if something weird passed by, like a thin veil.

The group of people who I just left are no longer happy and alive. Now they are not happy, and not alive, as if their throats had been slit.

That's...unfortunate...

Piper stays behind to deal with the PIRC.

A helicopter lands, and a man in a battlesuit stylized as plate armor, with an emblem of a key, a torch, and a lightning bolt on the breast.

Piper talks with him for a bit, and he says that he thinks it is the Phantom. It was previously thought that the Phantom was a solo act, so this seems a bit strange.

He does something with his hands and the gypsy woman, who he calls "Wicca", becomes substantial.

One other thing. He suggests Piper register. She responds saying he should do it, since he knows where she lives and everything about her anyway.

He says some someone will be by.

The news that night covers the attack, but it also mentions that Jackdaw has escaped.

I carve an angry swan.

Gemma sent word that Shockwave has been located, via Posix's intelligence gathering.

It seems that Shockwave has smuggled himself into Foundation, along with several others. Yes, we will take this on.

Gustav is waiting for us with the Jet with some papers.

Foundation looks like a large city, which seem strange considering it is supposed to have only a few hundred inhabitants.

The want to see our papers, and the lady looking at them welcomes us to Foundation. Her voice has a strange almost sing song quality to it.

We can't help but notice the refugee camps outside as we enter the city. The woman tells us that Sierra Leone has had issues with refugees, so the city has been providing supplies for them.

The city gates are enormous and they open before us. Beyond it lies a grand street, with a smattering of people on it.

We're led to the sheriff's office. Apparently the main street is called "Hope", and on the way, one of the skyscrapers collapses neatly into the ground. We're told that Tower, the man who built this city, is probably just bored of that building. It happens a lot, and of course, no one is in the building when he does that.

After a long elevator ride, we reach the sheriff's office. The interior looks futuristic, with someone typing on a flat glassy table.

We suppose it's the marshal, Ronald, since he is dressed in a leather duster, jeans and boots. His hat is on the hat rack nearby.

He doesn't look like he belongs really, except for his strange ray gun on his waist.

He greets us, and says he got a message from the Heralds of Peace that we'd be arriving. This place is no refuge for criminals, even if they are chosen, so retrieving him will be no problem, so far as Foundation's laws are concerned.

Of course, it's not clear how he entered the city, and there's been a recent problem with the criminal element. The best place to check first is probably a bar called "The Tower of Babel". It's called that because the bartender has some sort of power that bestows universal translation.

He'd appreciate it if we didn't make a mess, and we can either extradite them, or bring them to him, and he'll take care of them.

The Tower of Babel looks like a circular castle tower, although the cool neon signs look a bit out of place on it.

We can hear what sounds like a party from within, and as we enter, and the crowd of foreign voices suddenly become understandable to us.

The room is full of a variety of chosen. One man has a halo hovering over his head, and another looks like a weird lizard man. The barkeep is young man serving drinks, and a few people to turn to look at us as we enter.

One man which looks like a "South American bro" and sweaty hands gestures towards us in an inviting manner.

We're with the "Dove" people.

He knows the Heralds of Peace, and thinks they are good folk. Anyway, here most everyone knows everyone, and he gestures towards another man, who he explains is called Wally.

We go over to Wally, who Piper introduces herself to. His eyes were closed, tand he opens them, and seems a little surprised.

Piper explains that we were told that he could help, and we are looking for newcomers.

Yes, he knows who we are looking for. He's heard Jackdaw and his friends are in town. His ability to hear through walls and he has heard their names muttered. We should look in "T150", which is an unoccupied skyscraper.

We go to the T150 tower, which is a very strange looking indeed, as if sculpted by a postmodern abstract artist.

Piper makes herself invisible. Aaron makes himself more visible, by taking his shirt off.

The building is dark inside, and we go to the top.

There is two people on the roof, one is a woman, and the other is a big guy who looks like he's been living in a shack.

And there is apparently one other, which only Piper can see, a scrawny kid. Piper goes after him.

The big man turns into a bird, and attacks Legion, but Aaron gets on his back and starts choking him. Jackdaw is unable Aaron's chokehold, making him an easy target for Legion's attacks, and soon Aaron and Legion knock him out cold.

I knock the woman, also known as Shockwave, out in a single blow.

Piper and the kid, Phantom, play a game of cat and mouse, and the kid makes a break for it, going down the elevator.

Piper yells that he went down, and I break my way into the elevator shaft, and stop the elevator. Piper takes Aaron and teleports into elevator car, and casts light of truth, revealing Phantom.

Legion arrives in the car as well, and starts to grow very large and very heavy.

Aaron doesn't appreciate Legion's size, since it's preventing him to reaching the now revealed Phantom.

The kid teleports out of there, and the elevator falls. I stop it, and the elevator jolts to a stop.

Aaron flies out of the elevator shaft and surveys the area. He spots the kid across the street, and yells out as he gives chase.

I set the elevator on the roof, and take my shield to fly over to help Aaron. Aaron grabs the kid and start choking him, and I hit the kid's snotty little face with my shield, and Piper knocks him out cold.

We turn the trio over to the local Foundation authorities, who use some strange looking handcuffs on them. Besides Ronald, one of the others is our South American friend from the bar. We're told the cuffs will temporarily nullify their powers until they take the prisoners to the cage. Piper signs for the transfer of custody.

After our ride back to America, we find our bank accounts have been compensated for our efforts.