Variant Earth 13 E Mail Game Archive Number 24

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: A Beginning... (Charlie Chicanery)
Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2001 00:53:21 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

Aha!  Following the magma stream downstream, you eventually find that it
stops abruptly.  Looking down, once your eyes adjust to the stingingly
bright orange light emitted by the molten rock, you see it draining into
a hole at the bottom of the shaft it's cut into the rock.

There's enough clearance for you to get through without wrecking your
underwear, even.

As the syrupy, red-hot rock flows downward, you see it eventually stops
falling a good hundred or so feet below, and continues on through the
spaces between crystals in this, an even larger geode-like chamber.  Of
course, you find that crystals and magma aren't all that's in here.

You see, cut into the far side of the spherical, crystal-lined chamber,
some sort of portal.  It's a circular door, one that looks like that,
once you open it, it rolls on its frame to the side, allowing egress
into the chamber within.

Unfortunately, it's complemented by what appear to be two powerful beam
weapons, one situated on each side of the door.  Also, you note that
they're trained on your position, having followed you since you entered
this chamber from above in the first place.

That's when you hear the voice.  "Get out of here!  This is my house,
not yours!  I'll kill you and feed you to the Bin'tri if I have to, you
lousy muckymuck!"  Sounds like a human - a mad old coot, at that.
Almost makes you wonder what he's doing here.

And why the sensor the E.S.E. gave you says the bizarre fluid you need
is just a couple dozen yards on the other side of that door...

!

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: A Beginning... (Charlie Chicanery)
Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2001 14:09:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: Charlie Chicanery <charlie_chicanery@yahoo.com>

> !

'EY!'

i'm yelling at the door, assuming there's some sort of
microphone there to match the speaker that's blaring
at me.

'You!  Got what i nee-eed!'

While whoever the old man is is distracted by my
Biz-Markie stylings, i rush the door, ducking and
weaving thru the crystal growths, hoping to not get
lasered as i move on the guns.

The plan is to cut the guns up enough that they can't
shishkebob me.  Don't want to be lunch for a Bin'tri,
whatever that is.  Though i guess i can guess that a
Bin'tri is one of them tentacle things that tried to
eat me there awhile back.  i'll have to track that
thing down on my way out, i think.

No, i know.

But i digress.

Rolls:  47, 02, 19 (accursed dice)

Subject: Re: [v13] Chrysler Building Assault Redux
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 08:32:06 -0400
From: scott.greengold@ey.com

OCC: (( Psst )) You forgot an update to everyone's (well, at least my)
favorite ninja-esque bada$$......

Subject: Re: [v13] Chrysler Building Assault Redux
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 12:48:00 +0000
From: "Rebound ." <v13Rebound@hotmail.com>

>Ken gives you the thumbs up, Ari, and then (once he lets Jinx disembark
>off his back) shakes your hand, Rebound. "Yeah. I still have a couple
>of things to deal with, but it seems the guy who came back to earth with
>me - a real bad apple - has been taken care of. Lots."*

"Well Ken, it's good to have you back. No helmet, huh?  Well, I guess trying
to keep your identity secret's been blown out the window already."

>After he listens to you (and Masque) getting him up to date, he then
>frowns. "Well heck, let's go get 'em! We can tear this place apart if
>we have to - but we aren't letting this thing get away with eating our
>friends!" He then stops, and adds "Or just kidnapping 'em."

"Damn straight!"

>"Either way, you're all right... we need to beat feet. I don't think
>the cops will cause us any real problems, as long as we take care of the
>problem before they find us. And, they can't find us if we're not at
>ground zero of this mess, y'know..."

Rebound pauses a moment, looks at the big hole in the wall, and seems to get
an idea...

"Hey Masque, you seem to think our friends are somewhere towards the top,
right?  well, why not start at the top and work our way down.  I'm sure the
authorities are working their way up from the bottom, so if there are any
bad guys trying to escape, they will either have to find some secret escape
route, or get flushed right into us."

Looking around at the group, Rebound tries to figure out who would be the
best climbers of the group.

"Hey Ari, you got any climbing gear in that backpack of yours?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Chrysler Building Assault Redux
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 08:38:48 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

scott.greengold@ey.com wrote:

> OCC: (( Psst )) You forgot an update to everyone's (well, at least
> my) favorite ninja-esque bada$$......

Er, um... oh yeah... crap!

Here ya go...

                                   ***

The techie guy before you and Och seems on the verge of panic, what with
his equipment being threatened so.

"Um... ah... cage?!"

The man looks around the room madly, scanning for what you can only
guess was the cage you and your dwarven friend just escaped from.
Either he's fibbing fibbing fibbing, or he honestly can't see the
thing.  When Och helps by pointing, he laughs nervously.

"Heh... your cage was in the uh, nuclear reactor, huh?"

He's talking in that tone that suggests that he believes you and your
pal are quite mad, but isn't about to mock you, oh no.

But you know that YOU don't see any nuclear reactor.

In his efforts to not lose his stuff, he tries to answer your other
questions, though.  "I don't know how you got in the reactor, friend.
But I've been here every day for the last six years.  I work here, in
this S.D.I. installation.  Keep the particle beam up and running."

"In case we need to do a quick strike in this hemisphere."

And, though he really looks like he doesn't want to answer your other
questions, he continues.  "And... we're in the Chrysler building, as I'm
sure you know.  But... but I'm sorry, but I really don't know where your
sword is, pal.  I haven't seen it.  Honest!"

After the blast, he looks as confused as yourself.

"Dunno... terrorist attack?"

!?

Subject: Re: [v13] Chrysler Building Assault Redux
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 10:18:15 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari pulls a scarf and some goggles from her backpack.  "Wanna hide your 
face?"  She offers the admittedly-crude disguise to Ken.  He'd look 
oh-so-cute with huge tank-driver goggles and a little Aunt Jemima-esque 
headscarf...

Subject: Re: [v13] Chrysler Building Assault Redux
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 15:08:38 +0000
From: "Rebound ." <v13Rebound@hotmail.com>

(OCC:  Hey, anyone else out there...or am I missing posts again?)

Subject: Re: [v13] Chrysler Building Assault Redux
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 13:49:10 -0500
From: cclayjr2@juno.com

Just waiting to join in again.

Subject: Re: [v13] Chrysler Building Assault Redux
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 16:49:15 -0400
From: scott.greengold@ey.com

>> "Heh... your cage was in the uh, nuclear reactor, huh?"
>> He's talking in that tone that suggests that he believes you and your
>> pal are quite mad, but isn't about to mock you, oh no.

>> But you know that YOU don't see any nuclear reactor.

"What are you *talking* about.  That is no nuclear reactor" CB says.  He
turns to look at the 20' high cage he recently
escaped from, partly to make sure he is not going crazy, partly to prove
that the techie is.

>> In his efforts to not lose his stuff, he tries to answer your other
>> questions, though.  "I don't know how you got in the reactor, friend.
>> But I've been here every day for the last six years.  I work here, in
>> this S.D.I. installation.  Keep the particle beam up and running."

>> "In case we need to do a quick strike in this hemisphere."

"You know what, I changed my mind. I don't care what you are doing here.  I
have other things to worry about right now. You say been here every day for
6 years? Good. How do we get out of here without
the entire world knowing about it?  Think carefully."

>> And, though he really looks like he doesn't want to answer your other
>> questions, he continues.  "And... we're in the Chrysler building, as I'm
>> sure you know.  But... but I'm sorry, but I really don't know where your
>> sword is, pal.  I haven't seen it.  Honest!"

CB looks at Och and sighs.  "What floor are we on? What kind of military
presence iskept here?"

>> After the blast, he looks as confused as yourself.

>> "Dunno... terrorist attack?"

"How many people are outside that door?" CB says to the tech, pointing to
the exit.

<< tech response space >>

He turns back to Och and says "Got any ideas on a distraction? I think it is
time for us to have a look around. Or get the hell out!"

Subject: [v13] Re: Chrysler Building Assault Redux
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 21:11:11 -0000
From: "Denny McX" <firebomb@technohol.com>

'Rebound' wrote:

> (OCC:  Hey, anyone else out there...or am I missing posts again?)

cclayjr2@juno.com

> Just waiting to join in again.

Huh... I was just waiting for y'all to decide what you wanted to
do... and I haven't heard from three of you yet =)

I think Bil, Chris, and Nate haven't sent anything in yet (unless
Yahoo et those or something).

Or something...

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Chrysler Building Assault Redux
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 00:38:15 +0000
From: "Charlie Clay Jr." <cclayjr@hotmail.com>

Ready to feast on dragon???

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Chrysler Building Assault Redux
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 20:00:40 -0500
From: "Albedo" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx just listens to all of the suggestions and shrugs saying, "Right, I'm
just following your guys' lead in this one since you have a better handle on
what's going on. Point me at whatever needs to get dead."

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Chrysler Building Assault Redux
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 13:20:27 +0000
From: "Rebound ." <v13Rebound@hotmail.com>

> Point me at whatever needs to get dead."

Seeing the indecision all around him, Rebound decides that doing SOMETHING
is better than standing around waiting to be caught flat-footed.  He takes
the rope that Ari produced from her backpack (assuming she was able to) and
ties it around his waist.

"OK, I'm going to climb up to the top of the building and tie this rope off
on something.  The rest of you can follow while I sneak a peek in through a
few windows and see if we can cut down on our search time."

Unless there are objections, Rebound heads out through the nice convenient
hole in the wall and begins to climb up the side of the building leaving
mildly sticky hand and foot holds behind.  Once (if) he does get to the top,
he'll tie the rope securely around something (the spire if he can manage
it), and then begin to scout for the missing duo by peeking through windows.

(Rolls: climbimg: 96, tying: 98, searching: 51, anything else: 70, 11, 45 -
Wow do my dice love me today!)

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Chrysler Building Assault Redux
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 09:52:29 -0500
From: cclayjr2@juno.com

"Well since two heads are better than one.  I am going to try the far
side of the building and the basement."  Stone Cold says as he moves
through the walls using his speed to search over the other side of the
building.  (Searching: 78, 41, 69)

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Chrysler Building Assault Redux
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 19:30:25 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

Masque risks a glance back at the departing Rebound and then at the Ghostly Stone cold and simply shrugs his shoulders. Turning to the way Rebound went he conjures a horse and hops on and Follows Rebound.
        
"A bit windy up here wouldn't you say."

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 19:58:30 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

> You don't like these guys already.

Muttering to himself, and carefully taking aim at Cyclonus.
"I already don't like these guys."

> Even if you lost your transport for them there captured Sweeps.

"Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!" Eyeballing the still angry Mobeius he quickly steps
towards the Other Robots.

"Don't mind her." He says with a smile, "She's harmless."

He steps towards one of the hapless bystanders and smiles.
"I suggest you start helping out the injured, I'll call the police. None of
us are going to hurt you, i just have business to attend to."
Gunslinger calls the police and tells them that there has a been a huge
wreck on the interstate and gives them the location or mile marker or
whatever.

Thinking a bit about how the hell he is going to get his ..cargo...to L.A.
he grunts and growls and whatever else an angry Belacosarin does. He paces a
bit too.

Reaching a decision,
"Alright Guys..and ermm...gals. I need your help. I need to get these," he
gestures to the mishappen trailer, "to a city here on Earth. Not much
further, barring any large angry transforming robots, though. Is there
anything at all you can do to help me and my friend here? See, I need to use
the parts they have to make my vehicle back to it's old form. This planet
does not seem to have the technologies I need and I am stuck in this
dimension for a while I think."

Waiting for a response but tapping his foot impatiently he adds,
"Might wanna hurry up though. The Earth feds are gonna be here soon and
realize it ain't just a wreck when they see you guys."

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: Chrysler Building Assault Redux
Date: Sat, 01 Sep 2001 14:33:43 +0000
From: "Rebound ." <v13Rebound@hotmail.com>

>   "A bit windy up here wouldn't you say."

Rebound slaps his forehead in the classic Homer Sipmpson "Doh" manner and
says, "Well, how wonderful.  I guess that's why I don't like making all the
decisions around here.  How's about getting a horse for everyone else, so we
can spread out and scout this place.  Unless, that is, you can find the
dragon first."

Subject: Re: [v13] Tropical Isle Assault (or something)
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001 11:10:40 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

><O.O.C. Sorry fer the late replies ppl, I was outta town for a few days and
>denny posted before i...sheesh>.

<OOC: Same here...except that everybody posted before I did....well
except for Ronin but he doesn't count does he? But aside from that it's the
same excuse for me as for Acers.....with the following changes:

Had major teeth ripped out of my head and was out of action for almost a
week. Had family plans that crept up on me and put me out of town for three
days after that. And then I had work always getting in the way of my perfectly good cold.

So apologies all.>

Slowly turning to look towards Masque, "I'm still debating that
decision's worthiness."

Subject: Re: [v13] Tropical Isle Assault (or something)
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001 18:03:16 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

Masque frowns and then steps out onto the beach gives Magus a sympathetic
look...

"You know, I don't blame you. I too was misplaced. As a child at that. There
were times I wish I could just leave all the buffoonery. The Bearded lady
and the Boneless women never got along. Always arguing with each other and
then there was the sloth man. I was always picked to be his partner for the
three-legged races. Oooo how I hated that. But I saw the light, that in the
end I would be free to do what I wished and I am doing so now."
Masque sniffles.
*sniffle*
"Sorry, Sorry, I must have something in my throat... ahem... yeah... anyhow
buck up big guy. Who knows maybe we can find a way to get you home huh?
After all it is a long swim back to the mainland...or any mainland for that
matter."

He points out to the sea.
He rummages around in his robes and produces a butterscotch.
"Here ya go, it'll make you feel better."

Subject: Re: [v13] Tropical Isle Assault (or something)
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001 19:17:48 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

>Masque frowns and then steps out onto the beach gives Magus a sympathetic
>look..

Catching that emotive expression from Masque as he steps back onto the
sands causes Magus' to inwardly do the equivalent of rolling his eyes.

>"You know, I don't blame you. I too was misplaced. As a child at that.
> There were times I wish I could just leave all the buffoonery. The Bearded 
> lady and the Boneless women never got along. Always arguing with each other 
> and then there was the sloth man. I was always picked to be his partner for 
> the three-legged races. Oooo how I hated that. But I saw the light, that in 
> the end I would be free to do what I wished and I am doing so now."

Magus stares at the mage in what could be construed as interest considering his rather alien features.

>Masque sniffles. *sniffle*

*Gods,* the draconic warrior-mage thinks to himself.

>"Sorry, Sorry, I must have something in my throat....ahem.,...yeah..anyhow
>buck up big guy. Who knows maybe we can find a way to get you home huh?
>After all it is a long swim back to the mainland...or any mainland for that
>matter."

    "I don't need to swim," Magus replies flatly.

>He points out to the sea.
>He rummages around in his robes and produces a butterscotch.
>"Here ya go, it'll make you feel better."

    He glances at the offered treat.

    Then glances at Masque.

    And back to the treat.

    "My thanks," he replies politely as he takes it from Masque's hand.

Subject: Re: [v13] Tropical Isle Assault (or something)
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001 19:27:40 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

>     "I don't need to swim," Magus replies flatly.

Masque raises an eyebrow, "Or walk if you wish."

>     "My thanks," he replies politely as he takes it from Masque's hand.

"See, all better. Now what say you come back with me and we can figger out
this Dragon business, it's beginning to grate under my skin, that
cold-blooded.....ermm....that thing I mean."

Subject: Re: [v13] Tropical Isle Assault (or something)
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001 20:19:40 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

>Masque raises an eyebrow,
>"Or walk if you wish."

    "Or stay even," Magus states rhetorically.

>"See, all better. Now what say you come back with me and we can figger out
>this Dragon business, it's beginning to grate under my skin, that
>cold-blooded.....ermm....that thing I mean."

    "I will accompany you. But only because I feel obligated to do so," he
replies flatly as he glances back towards the mystical doorway, "But once
we're done I believe I will take my leave of you and your compatriots."

    Almost absently and after-the-fact he adds, "I must find help for my
world."

Subject: Re: [v13] Tropical Isle Assault (or something)
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001 19:40:50 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

>     "I will accompany you. But only because I feel obligated to do so," he
> replies flatly as he glances back towards the mystical doorway, "But once
> we're done I believe I will take my leave of you and your compatriots."

"Fair enough, I can live with that. I would have felt horrible just leaving
you here on this island with nary a chocolate in sight. But they do have
coconuts, a redeeming fact if I ever saw one."

>     Almost absently and after-the-fact he adds, "I must find help for my
> world."

As Magus passes (assuming he is going through), Masque raises yet another
eyebrow.
"You and me both brother."

<are we caught up yet?>

Subject: Re: [v13] Tropical Isle Assault (or something)
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001 20:34:41 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

>"Fair enough, I can live with that. I would have felt horrible just leaving
>you here on this island with nary a chocolate in sight. But they do have
>coconuts, a redeeming fact if I ever saw one."

    "I prefer gems and metals for sustenance more than children's treats,"
Magus adds casually although with a detachedness in his tone.

>As Magus passes (assuming he is going through), Masque raises yet another
>eyebrow. "You and me both brother."

    "Your world seems in fair shape," Magus retorts as Masque disappears.

    For a moment afterwards he stares out alone towards the horizon. Pulling
back his arm he begins to toss the candy towards the waves but stops short
and slides it instead into his belt pouch after glancing down at it.

    Pulling the large bastard swords from their respective sheaths Magus
steps through the portal.

    <are we caught up yet?>

    <It seems like you are at least....I've got to go through the previous
posts from everyone else and see if I need to reply.>

Subject: Re: [v13] Tropical Isle Assault (or something)
Date: Sat, 01 Sep 2001 21:55:23 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

Ken looks at you and grins, Rebound.  "Yeah, glad to be back on my
feet...!"  He looked about to say something about his lack of disguise,
but then Ari interjects.  Ken takes the goggles, but not the scarf.  "I
think these'll do, Ari - the scarf would just be silly."

Ken then puts the goggles on, having the lenses sit over his eyebrows
pilot-style.  "To tell you the truth, after everything I've been through
lately, I don't really care any more if anybody figures out all the
stuff I can do.  I mean, it doesn't seem important."

"Comparatively speaking, anyway.  Besides, I'm gonna be taking off here
in a bit, so the point's kind of moot - I'll tell you 'bout it later.
But the goggles, they're pretty cool, so I'll hang onto 'em.  Unless I
look like a total geek with 'em on..."

That's when the lot of you split up some, with Stone Cold phasing into
the walls and descending into the basement of the structure, and Rebound
heading up with the gear that Ari (eventually) managed to fish out of
her magical super ultra mega surprise bag.

Some of the items she pulled out when trying for climbing gear were
rather amusing, though.  One was a grappling hook gun with what looked
like a rubbery, translucent hand as the hook (made out of that stuff
those slimy, wall-crawley octopi are built from).

It didn't look too sturdy, though, so as she kept pulling items out;
once you got through all the useless ham sammiches, marital aids, and of
course, that copy of the Necronomicon (abridged), you wound up with some
rope.  Good deal, eh?

So Stone Cold, you slink into the walls and race downward to the bottom
floor.  Once you get there, you see a literal bevy of official types
swarming around in the lobby, in the basement, and even outside.  Cops,
Feds, etc... but you recognize one of the people in charge here.

It's that Colonel Hawk guy, who you ran into when those robots attacked
the D.A.A. headquarters way back when (well, it was only a couple days
ago, but still).  He's here with a small group of folks you don't
recognize, one of which is wearing a jet pack - and takes off with it.

You see nothing suspicious in the dank lower depths of the Chrysler
building, though.  Your inspection of every solid surface you can find
only turns up a surprisingly large population of albino rats in the
place - no dragons or Och or Crimebuster to speak of.

Meanwhile, outside the building proper, you start to climb up to the
top, Rebound.  It takes you quite a while, but you finally get up
towards the landmark, triangular, pyramid-like cap of the building.
Just a couple feet from an open window, you hear Masque behind you.

Once you have that little conversation with the wizard, you wait for a
response from him, but you notice that his horse don't look too good; in
fact, it's gone downright translucent.  You can see eldritch,
otherworldly organs working inside the thing.

It then vanishes with a rather sad 'poit' sound, and Masque leaves your
area.  FAST.  In a vertical manner of speaking, that is.

                                   ***

Meanwhile again, Crimebuster, your hostage talks.  Lots.

(Nope, didn't forget'cha this time)

"Well hey man, I'm sure you know about the small army of guys beneath
this floor, they're the Army intelligence folks that man this
installation and the cover facility the level or so below.  It's most of
the 'top' floor of the building, really."

"Except for that 'Extensive Enterprises' office across the hall."  He
pauses to catch his breath, and then continues.  "But the only other way
out would be through the window here, or if you climb through the pipes
of the bathroom over there."

The techie points to the door you heard voices issuing forth from.

"It's been out of order as long as I've worked here, and they left it
that way 'cause none of the Army's plumbers have got a high enough
security clearance ... heh."  He looks even more nervous, since Och's
still holding his jiblets, even after he spilled the beans.

After hearing your comments, Och looks nonplussed.  "We're not leaving
without your sword.  My axe may be gone, but I know your blade is at
LEAST as important to you as my axe is to me.  We find it or nothing -
and I'm inclined to believe that door may be where it's at."

Before you can respond to Och's response to you, you hear a loud,
familiar scream just outside the window - and it's getting less loud
every second...

!

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Sat, 01 Sep 2001 22:08:25 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

"Harmless... that's what they said about asbestos, buddy..."

Moebius seems not in the mood...

The two, rusty looking heaps of robot look at you, look at each other,
and then look at you again.  That's when they both make a fist with one
hand, and lay it in the flat palm of their other hand.  Then they start
playing rock scissors paper!

They do this until the male one wins, then the female one says "Which
one were you?"  They then both shrug, and then the female says "That was
your plan, 'Get her'?"  You don't know what that's supposed to mean, but
then she proclaims "I'll be help the little bellicose out."

They then rock scissors paper again, and the contest of wills (as it
were) seems to come out in your favor.  "We help you!"  After he
proclaims this, you watch as the guy-bot starts to tear apart various
wrecked cars in the immediate area.

The other one walks up to you and kneels at this point.  "Wreck-Gar's a
master of making something from spare parts - that's why he leads us
Junkions... isn't he just dreamy?"  You hear Moebius retch to this, and
she stalks off, likely to kill something small and helpless.

You see the apparent Wreck-Gar build something resembling a big engine
out of what looks like a dozen of regular car engines, one that he can
even sit in.  "I am the Egg-Man!  Koo Koo Ke Choo!", he proclaims upon
sitting in said throne.

His counterpart then jumps on back of the truck, possibly crushing some
of a sweep in the process, and screams "Lord of the Infernal Engine!"
Wreck-Gar then starts up his impossible contraption, and you hear a mad
cacophony of revving coming from the truck/engines/chariots.

"Where to, bub?"

Looks like he's expecting directions, or just to follow.

The question is, do you collect Moebius before you do???

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: A Beginning... (Charlie Chicanery)
Date: Sat, 01 Sep 2001 22:13:45 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

You dodge the fist laser with ease, Charlie, but the second one strikes
you dead in the leg, causing you to stumble to the ground.  The laser,
combined with the multiple lacerations from these volcanic crystals that
you just suffered again, cause you Incredible damage.

You're not feeling too good all of a sudden.  However, you are in a
position to deal with the cannons that just injured you so, and you
slice the two of them up into itsy bitsy little teeny weeny laser gun
components.  That'll teach them.

But that leaves you at the door, which doesn't seem to want to open.
Assuming you take your power staff to the door, you can eventually cut
your way in, though by the time you do so you find yourself being
covered by a greasy old man - human, apparently - who has a gun.

It's a big gun.  It's bigger than him, in fact.

?

Subject: [v13] A Beginning... (McAlister)
Date: Sat, 01 Sep 2001 22:28:37 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

 (well, that works until you come up with a super name, if you do... )

You just got back from your latest exploit, namely the climbing of Mount
Everest - without climbing gear - when your psionic instructor, yogi
Marcus Samuelson, summoned you to his Manhattan school.  Entering the
place, you walk past the 'mundane' students and into his office.

You find him waiting there, smoking a long pipe and wearing a fez.
You've never seen him wear a fez before, but then, you never saw him
packed for a trip, either.  "Welcome, Geoffrey, I'm glad you made it
here so soon.  I just wanted to let you know I'm leaving for a bit."

"I have a few... obligations to take care of in Morocco."  You know all
about his 'obligations', though they've never drawn him away from his
school - or his students - in the past.  It all has to do with that
secret room in the school, the one with that curious floor pattern.

The one the Mindwatch people use to come and go when they need help from
your instructor.

You never held any truck with the group's creed, and your instructor
never forced you to join them.  He believes in their goal of helping
those with power like yourself against the mundanes when necessary, but
you don't; it's not like they could ever hurt you anyway.

Regardless, it doesn't look like he's leaving you in charge for the time
being.  "I'll be closing the school temporarily, which sort of leaves
you with nobody to mentor you for the next couple of weeks.  As such, I
have... a special lesson for you."

"I want you to walk across this land.  I want you to meet the people
whom you share this nation, this world with.  You may travel by any
conveyance you wish, but I wish you to spend one month... just traveling
in America.  Do you understand?"

?

Subject: Re: [v13] Tropical Isle Assault (or something)
Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2001 11:45:43 +0000
From: "Rebound ." <v13Rebound@hotmail.com>

>It then vanishes with a rather sad 'poit' sound, and Masque leaves your
>area.  FAST.  In a vertical manner of speaking, that is.

Seeing the mage in trouble, Rebound will do his best to snare poor Masque
before he falls, tossing strands with one hand, and hanging on with the other.

(Rolls: Catching a falling star: 56+25 karma, Hanging on to a dream: 67+25
karma)

(OCC: I am in the process of moving and will be without access for a week or
two.  Just drag me along and throw me at things if I stop responding)

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (McAlister)
Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2001 12:16:22 +0000
From: "Geoffrey McAlister" <v13mcalister@hotmail.com>

>The one the Mindwatch people use to come and go when they need help from
>your instructor.

"Not those Mindwatch plebe's again?  Are you not more than a little bit
tired of jumping at their incessant whining?"

>"I want you to walk across this land.  I want you to meet the people
>whom you share this nation, this world with.  You may travel by any
>conveyance you wish, but I wish you to spend one month... just traveling
>in America.  Do you understand?"

"I do not 'share' this nation with them, and how is this going to help me?
I have already read about as many of the insects in the Journal as I care
to.  Go out an meet them?  Surely this must be some manner of elaborate
ruse.  Yes, Yogi, you have fabricated quite the enjoyable little game here
for my edification.  Very good.  Right good indeed."

Geoffrey slowly begins to realize that his Yogi is serious.

"You ARE serious, are you not?  Very well, I will embark upon this journey
of discovery you have set before me, however mundane it is.  Good luck in
your own journey and do inform me of your return."

Geoffrey will then head out of the school ignoring the mundanes as he exits.
He will nod at the valet to bring his Lotus around thinking how angry his
Yogi was when he insisted on valet parking.  Ah, that was in the time
before...before everything changed.  Ignoring the valet, Geoffrey would get
into his Lotus and head home to pack.

Upon ariving home, he would have several suits packed and placed in the
trunk of his Lotus and begin his journey westward...Perhaps he'll stop in
the Ponono's to start...

Subject: Re: [v13] Tropical Isle Assault (or something)
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2001 14:45:37 -0500
From: cclayjr2@juno.com

Stone Cold makes note to ask Ari for some communicators, something small
to fit into the ear.  He made a note of the white rats???  Then went up
to talk to Commander Hawk then changed his mind.  'Nope rather not, don't
really know the good guy/bad guy angle just yet'  He thought and dove
into the building to try to catch up with the others.  'There has gotta
be some cool stuff in here we can take and use once we actually form a
good team.'  He thought as he raced for the others.

Subject: Re: [v13] Tropical Isle Assault (or something)
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2001 16:05:39 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: v13@yahoogroups.com
To: <v13@yahoogroups.com>

>It then vanishes with a rather sad 'poit' sound, and Masque leaves your
>area.  FAST.  In a vertical manner of speaking, that is.

The belated appearance of Magus into the empty albeit well lit room,
thanks to a rather large hole in the side of the building, goes unnoticed
thanks to the fact that everyone has begun their ascents, descents, and all
other types of scents. With nothing else apparent he walks towards the
opening blasted into the stone wall of the skyscraper just in time to see
the sudden disappearance of Masque's spectral mare

>Seeing the mage in trouble, Rebound will do his best to snare poor Masque
>before he falls, tossing strands with one hand, and hanging on with the
>other.

Digging sharp talons into the edge of the building's recently created
exit the tall, armored form of Magus leans far out over the street below in
an attempt to catch the falling mage himself.

Subject: Re: [v13] Tropical Isle Assault (or something)
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2001 18:02:52 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

> (snip Ari treasure hunt)

Most of the items wind up shoved into Ari's OTHER bag.  She will, no doubt,
offer the sammiches to her teammates.  I mean, it's been a while since they
ate, you know, and there's no Chinese takeout place for miles...  She keeps
the sticky-hand gun on her, tho.  Mainly because it's neat looking.  She
will probably spend a few minutes shooting it at things in the room, trying to
snag pencils off of desks and the like.

Subject: Re: [v13] Tropical Isle Assault (or something)
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2001 22:05:18 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

> It then vanishes with a rather sad 'poit' sound, and Masque leaves your
> area.  FAST.  In a vertical manner of speaking, that is.

Masque looks down, then up, then down again then directly at the camera and
if he had a little sign to hold up it would say
'Eep!'

"OhshitohshitohshitOhshitOhsitOhshit.........."

(you get the point).

Masque seems to be flapping his arms like they are wings and little sparks
of Magick's seem to be coming off of them but he can't quite do it. Not at
near terminal velocity.

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2001 22:27:34 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

> "Where to, bub?"

Gunslinger stares at them for a moment and collects his thoughts.
"Umm...alright then. Not sure what to make of you... creatures... yet aside
from the fact that discretion is not an option on the rest of the trip. But
I Thank you anyways."

Once again he walks towards the car only to find Mobeius not there.
"Damn that woman!"

Finally seeing her (if he does at all) in the scrub, he yells,
"Hey Mobieus, get yer rear in gear. We're headin' out. I don't think these
guys are gonna wait long and we sure dont want the feds here when we are."

> Looks like he's expecting directions, or just to follow.

Jumping in the car , he waits for Mobieus. When she gets in he leads the
caravan, that is until something else happens.

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2001 21:08:36 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

You finally manage to coax Moebius into your car, Gunslinger, though the
effort makes you feel somewhat dirty; perhaps like an old man offering
candy to a child from the window of his old, beat up Buick.  But you
pull it off, and finally hit the road again.

As Willy Nelson would say.

('course, head here ( http://hometown.aol.com/howgregg/index.htm ) for a
quick sample of that torture... )

The drive is surprisingly uneventful; of course, the fact that you have
a rather extensive escort of bikers who seem dressed quite like
modern-day Vykings, complete with the occasional bronze war hammer
and/or winged helm.

You spotted this lot - or what was left of them - shortly after you and
the two Junkions began driving westward; apparently, they'd been
traveling with your new robot friends, and got in the way of their fight
with those two purple space-bot things.

They seem to hold Wreck-gar and his gal pal in very, very high regard.

When they saw you driving by, they collected themselves as best as they
could, and began to follow / escort you to ... wherever.  In fact,
nothing untoward happened between there and Los Angeles, where you
couldn't help but be on the receiving end of quite a few odd stares.

You do comprise a rather strange procession, after all.  Regardless, no
police or random super villains or
space-heroes-stuck-in-ice-falling-at-terminal-velocity interrupt your
progress, and you eventually make it to the address you got in Miami.

The address of the super-techie you need.  The place doesn't look like a
sleek, chrome-plated haven for stuff that you expected; the sign on the
door simply states "Dick's Car Jobs".  Before Moebius can comment on
that, though, the Junkions start making noise.

"Well fleshly little fellows, 's time we head back... back to the
FUTURE!"  With that, Wreck-gar whips out some sort of remote control
looking device, and upon triggering it, you see a rectangular doorway
open up - one that seems to lead to the mother of all junkyards.

Wreck-Gar then transforms his broken-looking frame into something
resembling the ideal 'road warrior' motorcycle, and revs up.
Immediately thereafter, his gal pal leaps on and rides him through the
door in space-time.  He's then followed by several of those bikers.

"Wait for us!" and "Don't leave us here!" gets said a lot.

When the doorway closes, half the bikers are left here on earth, and
they eventually disperse, though some of them shed a tear or two first.
Or just drink a whole lot of Jack Daniels.  Regardless, they leave you
and Moebius alone at the entrance to Dick's.

Sans Junkions.*

So now what?!

* So you're asking what the hell that was all about, them transformers
and other weirdnesses?   Well, that was all just something I cooked up
for Keith's reporter-type character, you know, the one who was with us
for like three weeks?

By the time he was gone, though, that left me with two time-traveling
transformers, who showed up in present day earth on a sort of religious
trek to experience the 'signal' in it's true state - thanks to a time
machine they located on their planet.

I sort of pulled that from transformers #43, where there was a 'mystery
canister' that them weird techno-organic Quintesson thingies wanted, a
device that had terrible power but wasn't identified... at least, as far
as I know - that may've been based on a cartoon or somesuch.

Anyway, I had these robots running around in the world, and no one to
bother 'em with, so I had them just sort of... appear at semi-random,
like the Dreadnoks seem to, until they ran afoul of that A.S.9 character
and got all angry and stuff.

By then, though, they'd picked up a considerable following of the
Warriors of Thor, strange bikers with a Norse theme that always seemed
to be up to no good in my Real Life (TM) v13 game while it lasted...
d'oh.  Ah well.

As far as the two Decepticon troublemakers, I got the idear for THEM
from an issue of the UK Transformer comic that tried to explain how they
show'd up in the Headmasters limited series before they were even
created in das movie...

Something about how a time warp or somesuch thrust them into the
'present', and they just went along with the flow, I guess.  There was
this nifty keen site that had 'em all available as these big image
downloads or something, but I can't find it anymore.

Anyway, THEY showed up trying to get ahold of the Junkions' device so
they could get back to their rightful time (which was the same as the
Junkions' time, you see).  That didn't work, though, as you c'n see, so
now everybody's gone back to where they're supposed to be.

Well, except for one dread menace, but I'm not gonna give THAT away - it
does have to do somewhat with those drone dingii in the back of
someone's oddly rigged Mack truck, though.  But that's a different tale
of terror - in more ways'n one ... mu hu heh heh heh.

That was just so's you know I didn't JUST pull all that out of my ass.

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (McAlister)
Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2001 21:38:06 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

Geoffrey McAlister wrote:

> "Not those Mindwatch plebe's again?  Are you not more than a little
> bit tired of jumping at their incessant whining?"

"Eh.  Consider it a hobby, if you wish."

> Upon ariving home, he would have several suits packed and placed in
> the trunk of his Lotus and begin his journey westward...Perhaps he'll
> stop in the Ponono's to start...

Once you get home, you do indeed get several of your best suits ready
for travel, and after donning yet another one - fresh for driving
purposes, at least - you hit the road.  Despite your misgivings about
your 'mission' or 'quest' or whatever, you drive west.

You get the impression that 'driving' wasn't part of your instructor's
agenda, but then he didn't SAY to walk; even if that would be more of
his style, in a sort of David Carradine way, he wasn't explicit about
such things.  And since he didn't SAY to...

You drove.

Despite the fact that you have to keep dealing with these plebian types
and their incompetent driving styles, you find the whole thing somewhat
relaxing; after all, you only have to deal with avoiding people's
vehicles, and not the people themselves.

And they're not trying to TALK at you either.  You know the type; those
jerks who love to just blather on and belabor the obvious as if the fact
that you're in the same city is some sort of excuse for them to vent at
you... damn the pathetic, unwashed fools.

Anyway, you make it to Pennsylvania before you need to refuel your
vehicle, and after pulling into the full-service lane (naturally), you
step out of the car to get some fresh air, stretch, and so forth.
Something seems amiss, though.

It's not the station attendant, though.  Though he's awfully greasy
(real grease, not human-generated grime, mind), he's quite reverent
concerning your rather beautiful vehicle, and treats it with the utmost
care and caution.

No, you can't help but feel that there's something... wrong in the air.
And, once you start to think about it, you notice a decidedly bad taste
in your mouth, though you can't put your finger on it.  Nothing jumps
out at you, of course, but there's that sense of foreboding...

?

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: A Beginning... (Charlie Chicanery)
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 11:20:45 -0700 (PDT)
From: Charlie Chicanery <charlie_chicanery@yahoo.com>

> It's a big gun.  It's bigger than him, in fact.

Not feeling too guud, huh?  Nice.

Since i'm feeling cruddy, i just give the old man the
big hairy eyeball.  "Hey, i tried to knock first...
but the doorbell bit me.  And the guard dog cut me.
And the grass shot me.  Or something."

"Now, you gonna drop the man-cannon there or do I
get... angry?"

"You wouldn't like me when I'm angry..."

(and another Hulkamaniac goes to Heaven...)

Subject: Re: [v13] Tropical Isle Assault (or something)
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 08:46:27 -0400
From: scott.greengold@ey.com

> Before you can respond to Och's response to you, you hear a loud,
> familiar scream just outside the window - and it's getting less loud
> every second...

"What the hell is going on here?  All right Och, let the jewels go.  Lets find out who/what is on the other side of that door. I am in the mood to kick someone's ass anyway.

With that, CB heads toward the door and listens at it, trying to determine about how many people there are on the other side.  Once determined, he opens the door and proceeds to kick aforementioned ass.

OCC: I work in NYC, and I saw the second plane hit the tower.  I am *not* in
a good mood.

OCC: Rolls: 48,89,86, 38, 72

Subject: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 20:22:50 -0000
From: "Denny McX" <firebomb@technohol.com>

You fling a line of your built in, sticky goo at Masque, Rebound, and
manage to snag the plummeting wizard, though he's got a lot of speed
on him by the time you do; he just keeps stretching it tighter and
tighter as he falls.  He is slowing down, though, enough that someone
below is able to grab him.

You nab Masque as he falls, Magus, thanks to what would appear to be
one of Rebound's sticky strands of goo having slowed him down like a
bungie cord.  Of course, he's still moving so fast that you almost
lose your anchor on the Chrysler building itself, and follow him
downward.

Your hold holds, though, and though his eyes are bugging out of his
head in a fashion that suggests the grip you have on his robes gave
him the mother of all wedgies, you get the impression that he'll be
fine.  Eventually.  Not that you wanted him to breed in the first
place.

Meanwhile, after Ken accepts a sammich from you, Emar, you find
yourself testing out the weird grappling gun in the abandoned, soggy
telemarketing facility.  The thing's kind of neat, really, in that it
actually grabs items you shoot it at, despite the lack of moving
parts, and does so with a wet slapping sound.

Of course, the staplers, pencils, and the like that you nab all have
a faint smell of dish soap to them, but the gun seems effective.

As you and Jinx cool your heels in the midst of the sprinkler system
going off, and the whole Masque episode, Stone Cold re-emerges from
the wall ghost-like.

I s'pose the question for you all is what comes next?

                                ***

Meanwhile again, you leave the techie-guy alone, Crimebuster, and he
just watches you and Och slowly back off from him.  Once you've made
it about fifty feet, he grabs his bits in relief, though he doesn't
take his eyes off you.  Or move.  He just... watches you two.

As you reach the indicated door, you do in fact hear several voices
inside - sounds like quite a LOT of people - at least eight - on the
other side of the door; defunct bathroom indeed.  You then hear a
female voice sounding quite angry, one that then says 'aah'.

You then hear a metallic clang - you know the sound of that metal.

The female voice then says 'Excellent - let us return to our lair at
once...'

You and Och then hear the sound of feet shuffling away from you, and
before you know it, you hear naught but silence.  Opening the door -
it's not locked - you see your sword laying on the ground, discarded
as though it were base trash, and covered in blood.  Copious amounts
of blood.

The floor's thick with it, as though a lot of people were bleeding -
or just one REAL BIG person was bleeding.

Looking around, you see that this was indeed a bathroom, but the
ceiling has been knocked out of it, and there's a further door,
marked 'utility closet' on the opposite side of the place...

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 17:01:27 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari nods to Stone Cold.  "Find anything?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 17:36:00 -0500
From: "Albedo" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx makes note that Masque is in no immediate danger and goes back to
watching this floor for any enemies, keeping an eye out for rear assaults.

She just stands quietly, watching her surroundings and trying not to get
distracted by her teammates.

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 21:40:28 -0500
From: cclayjr2@juno.com

"Only if you call Commander Hawk, nothing???  He is outside other than
that, squat on the giant Komodo."  Stone Cold replies as he looks around
for some sort of plan.  "What's Next???"

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 09:52:33 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

"Who's that?"  She scrunches her nose.  "Our best bet is to find the rest of our people in the building, and then find the rest
of our people... wherever the hell they are." 

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 16:37:22 +0000
From: "Charlie Clay Jr." <cclayjr@hotmail.com>

"Some type of GI Joe bigwig.  Let's go find the others just in case we are
not supposed to be found by this Hawk we can sky up."  Stone said moving
back toward the top where the others were.

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 16:36:19 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari obviously does not know the Real American Hero.  "OOokay.  Yes, let's go
find the others."

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 19:11:03 -0500
From: cclayjr2@juno.com

He heads up stairs to catch up with the others.  "Come on Ari.  Time ta slap some scale!"

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 13:11:37 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

> Eventually.  Not that you wanted him to breed in the first place.

"Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou." Masque seems to be very
thankful. So thankful in fact that he hugs Magus and quickly steps back.
"Ahem..yeah...thanks. Yer the greatest."
Leaning very carefully out the hole in the wall, he risks a glance upward
and shoots a thumbs-up to Rebound.
"I guess the horse wasn't such a good idear."

Quickly retreating to the stairwell, he stops.
"What say we just take the stairs huh?"

He starts up the stairs without any hesitation.

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 20:48:29 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

> Of course, he's still moving so fast that you almostlose your anchor on the 
> Chrysler building itself, and follow him downward.

    As a spine-tingling screeching sound akin to fingernails on a chalkboard
fill the room Magus digs in deeper into the concrete wall that prevents the
two mages from plummeting to their deaths.

> (snip your masque rescue)

    Luckily, at least one would normally suppose as much, he's successful in
maintaining a tenuous grip upon the building.

    Oh yeah...and Masque too.

> (snip masque ramble)

    Magus leans out beside Masque to glance downwards. With a slight whisper
he adds, "Hug me again and next time I push."

>Quickly retreating to the stairwell, he stops.
>"What say we just take the stairs huh?"

>He starts up the stairs without any hesitation.

Following momentarily behind him Magus assaults the staircase two at a time until he, and his two dual blades drawn and ready, proceed just ahead of Masque.

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 19:26:04 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

"Ummmm.....Thanks for the help."

Turning towards Mobeius eh shrugs his shoulders.
"I guess the only thing left to do is the obvious."
With that he walks up to the door and knocks.

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (McAlister)
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 14:43:23 +0000
From: "Geoffrey McAlister" <v13mcalister@hotmail.com>

> Nothing jumps out at you, of course, but there's that sense of foreboding...

(Sorry for the delay - had quite the case of access nonexistence)

Pausing slightly to mentally iron out his suit, Geoffrey subtly erects a
close-knit force field around himself as he heads inside the station for
something to clear the taste out of his mouth. (No need to let any of these
heathens get their dirty hands on his person). He instinctively pauses before
the door waiting for the doorman (my god, could he be any slower) to open it
for him.  After several seconds pause, Geoffrey remembers where he is and
mentally opens the door himself, far too disgusted to touch such a thing.

Once inside, he take a quick inventory of the available beverages, sadly
noting that this so called service station does very little in terms of
actual service.  He would proceed to search for a bottle of Perrier, huffing
with disgust upon noting the mundane selection before him.  Glacially slow,
he would then resign himself to a lesser bottle of water, using his mind to
open the case, retrieve the bottle, and wipe the dirty moisture from it.

Finally remembering that he actually had to pay for the fuel and refreshment
(as pathetic as it may be), he would produce his Amex Black card and place
it on the counter, mentally wiping his hand clean immediately after any
incidental contact with the filthy counter.  He would sign the credit slip
with one of his Mont Blanc's and proceed to wipe clean anything that had
been touched including the receipt, his card, and the pen.

Nearly shivering with disgust, he would exit the establishment and return
the "fresh" air outside.  As an afterthought, he would TRY to speak with
the gas attendant on his way out.  It is his task after all.

Trying to be as mundane as possible, "Good day, young fellow.  Intriguing
presence permeating the ether, wouldn't you say?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 14:51:17 +0000
From: "Rebound ." <v13Rebound@hotmail.com>

>Leaning very carefully out the hole in the wall, he risks a glance upward
>and shoots a thumbs-up to Rebound.

Rebound responds with a thumps-up of his own and continues securing the rope
to the spire and lowering it back down to the hole to allow the others to
climb up, passing it through his hands to add a bit of stickiness to the
line.

>"I guess the horse wasn't such a good idear."

>Quickly retreating to the stairwell, he stops.
>"What say we just take the stairs huh?"

>He starts up the stairs without any hesitation.

Rebound patiently waits for the others to begin climbing up...

Subject: Re: [v13] Re: A Beginning... (Charlie Chicanery)
Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 19:28:05 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

The old man gives you a withering stare right back, Charlie, and keeps

on doing it until he blinks about a minute later.  Finally, he drops the
gun - at least, quits pointing it at you - and shrugs.  "Ah well, guess
I haven't had comp'ny in awhile."

"So pull up a chair, Mister Banner, and we can talk about what brings
you to these parts.  I'll have to put up a spare door in the meanwhile,
though, so no wandering alien scum come in to eat'cha.  They have the
bad habit of doing that, you know.  Oh yes."

"Darn rude, the aliens that live here."

As you pull up a chair, a sort of weird bag of gel that seems to mold to
your bodily features as you sit in it, a remarkably comfortable device
you note, the old man indeed lays a force field projector at the base of
the former door, and activates it toot sweet.

Sure enough, about twenty seconds later, you hear the field give off an
electrical discharge as something strikes it.  You try to get up and
have a look, but this damnably comfortable chair is incredibly difficult
to get out of, since it keeps molding to your new position.

Eventually you manage it though, and looking outside the door, you see
another one of those betentacled monstrosities, beating on the thing
with its tentacles, smacking it as hard as it can manage, until the
shocks wear it down enough that it has to shamble away.

"Oooorgh," sayeth it.

"Hah... you dirty thing!  Boy, they don't make aliens like they used to,
oh no.  These buggers are just a bunch of mamby pamby pussy boys, if'n
you ask me.  I remember back in the day, back when aliens used to
actually MEAN something.  Now it's all tentacles, teeth, and acid."

"Feh."

The old man stops grumbling long enough to pull together two rather
large rum 'n cokes, complete with ice, and hands you one.  As you settle
back into the universe's most comfortable chair, you find that the drink
is quite good, actually, not at all what you expected.

Considering just how far you are from earth - and coca cola, for that
matter.

"So, sonny boy, what brings you here to this misbegotten corner of the
universe?  What c'n I do fer yer?"

?

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 19:53:27 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

You knock on the door, Gunslinger.

Nobody answers, though.

So you knock again, Gunslinger.

Again, nobody answers.

So you knock a little harder, Gunslinger.

And the door opens all by itself.

So, you and Moebius walk in, since that's something the both of you are
wont to do, whether or not the door had actually opened up, and you hear
heavy metal music issuing forth from behind the counter, back in the
garage where all the actual work is done here at Dick's.

You see three rather classy cars, quite expensive looking thanks to all
their gold hubcaps and bumpers and grills and hood ornaments and
what-have-you.  One of them is doing that hydraulic jumpy-thing, bobbing
up and down off the ground like it were epileptic.

The second is literally in about two hundred pieces, though all the
parts are laid out in a meticulous pattern, one suggesting that
something very... intimate to the inner workings of the entire car, say
the wiring, was being replaced.  Or something.

The third seems mostly complete, save for the oil leaking out from
beneath it, though you can see that somebody is actually working on this
one, for you spy two thin legs sticking out from beneath it.  Of course,
that makes you wonder.

Since you don't see anybody working on - or in - the car that's bouncing
there.

After about thirty seconds, you hear him say, in a thick accent "Eh
shit."  The oil stops after that.  He then wheels out on his little
under-car-work cart, and sees you two aliens before him.  He then stands
up, though it's hard to tell for sure, since he's kinda short.

Barely taller than Moebius, actually.

He then looks at the two of you, and says "Yeah?"

?

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (McAlister)
Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 20:07:51 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

> (Sorry for the delay - had quite the case of access nonexistence)

S'aright... was just in time for me to fall to various plagues of almost
Biblical proportions... augh.  Anyway...

                                  ***

"The ether?"

The gas-man has that befuddled look for a few seconds, as though he were
trying to contemplate the liquid, at which point he caught up to what
you meant.  "Ah yeah.  Well, we get that 'round here, at least we have
most of this summer.  Something weid goin' down by the lake."

"Supposedly just some sort of industrial spill, but I think it's some
kind of X-file stuff.  People keep winding up dead down there, all
dissolved and stuff.  It's enough to make a guy nervous.  Forget sharks
- there's something WORSE down at the lake."

"Much worse."

The man then shivers and walks back into the station - unless you have
any other questions of him...

?

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Charlie Chicanery)
Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 18:18:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: Charlie Chicanery <charlie_chicanery@yahoo.com>

> "What c'n I do fer yer?"

Mister Banner... huh.

"Well, i was sent here to collect a sample of some
sort of liquid with cross-time properties, something
my bosses were interested in studying.  The sensor
they gave me says that it's right here."

i check that again to make sure i'm not nuts.

i also look around the room to see just where the
stuff might be.  And where the air is coming from,
since it was all sulphur gas or something outside.

hmm

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Charlie Chicanery)
Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 21:48:48 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

  (heck, i'm so swarthy I answered this'un twice in one day.  ooh...)

In double checking your ESE scanner, you see that you're not crazy.

In fact, the stuff seems to be down but one hallway in this corrugated,
seemingly pre-fab facility.  That's also where the air seems to be
coming from.  Looking that-a-way, you find that there's a cross of two
different hallways down that way.

The one running perpendicular to the one leading from your current room
being much, much better lit - and less run-down looking.  As though this
were a rather large facility.  Or perhaps you're just in the butt-end of
some sort of subterranean base or somesuch.

"Ah, the lubricant for my trans-temporal drive, eh?  Well, I gots plenty
where that comes from - you need one can or two?"  Before you can reply
to that, he runs off down the hallway, makes a quick turn to the left,
and rummages around for a bit.

"Aha!"

The old man then runs back towards you, sporting two 'cans' (seemingly
made of glass, or perhaps transparent metal) of a colorless gel.  "I've
had tons of this stuff laying around for quite awhile, yer know, ever
since I materialized the ship in this godforsaken planet."

"Stupid unmarked, uncharted rogue planet and it's goddamn tentacle
aliens..."  The old man continues on a tirade for quite awhile, which
your mind reflexively translates into 'rassm frassm' to keep you sane.
All his references to transtemporal drives just hurts your brain.

He then hands you the cans.

What now?

Subject: RE: [v13] A Beginning... (McAlister)
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 08:40:55 -0400
From: "Lohse, Doug" <DLohse@banknorth.com>

> "The ether?"

"Yes, my good man, the ether.  The ethereal existence that surrounds all
sentience and life alike."

> (snip dread terrible tale)

"Intriguing...mayhap I shall endeavor to investigate this heretofore
unexplained phenomena.  Thank you for your assistance with the petrol and
all that.  Would you be a gentleman and direct me towards this menacing body
of water?"

> The man then shivers and walks back into the station - unless you have any 
> other questions of him...

Geoffrey would saunter back to his car full of excitement, but refusing to shed a shred of dignity in his haste.  He would proceed on to the mysterious lake to investigate...

Subject: Re: [v13] repost (just in case)
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2001 13:41:48 -0500
From: cclayjr2@juno.com

Stone Cold move with Ari as they moved to catch up with the others.

Subject: Re: [v13] repost (just in case)
Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 09:14:05 -0400
From: scott.greengold@ey.com

>> Looking around, you see that this was indeed a bathroom, but the
>> ceiling has been knocked out of it, and there's a further door,
>> marked 'utility closet' on the opposite side of the place...

As Crimebuster goes to gather up his sword, he whispers:
"See if there are any exits other than this 'closet'.  And try to avoid
stepping in the blood if possible." Crimebuster takes his own advice about avoiding the blood while he is in this room.

When he gets to his sword, Crimebuster gets even more visibly upset.  The thought that someone else had used *HIS SWORD* , and actually spilled blood with it,  is almost enough to push him over the edge.  He picks up his sword and quickly cleans as much blood as he can off, especially at the area where the pommel meets blade.  As he wipes the blood off, he calms himself down a bit.

Barring Och's finding any secret doors, Crimebuster turns his attention back to Och and says "Lets go."  He then heads toward the utility closet, listening  at the door before barging through

Subject: RE: [v13] repost (just in case)
Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 08:42:11 -0400
From: "Lohse, Doug" <DLohse@banknorth.com>
Reply-To: v13@yahoogroups.com
To: "'v13@yahoogroups.com'" <v13@yahoogroups.com>

(Since I can't find my last post in my box, here we go again...)

                                 ***

Seeing that the mage is secure, Rebound would continue to tie the rope
around the spire and lower it back down for his companions to climb up,
passing it through his hands to add a little tackiness to it and make it
easier to climb up.  Once done, he would crawl around on the wall/roof,
peering into windows to see what was what.

Subject: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2001 00:20:19 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

    (assuming we all haven't gotten lost in the last week or so...)

You string Ari's length of rope up and around the spire of the Chrysler
building, Rebound, and wait patiently for the others to follow your lead
up the side of the building.  And you wait.  And you wait some more.
Finally, Ken flies out of the smoking hole below.

Meeting you up top, he just shrugs when you look at him.  "After Mister
Wizard fell down, I guess everybody decided that the stairs were a
better bet.  I suppose that means it's just you and me here - just like
old times, eh?"

Barring any reply to that, you start to walk around the building's
stylish, pyramid like spire, and eventually find an open window, oddly.
Peering inside, you see what appears to be a very large nuclear reactor
in the top of the tower!

At least, that's what all the signs around it say.  You also spy some
sort of large, high tech cannon-looking device there, loaded down with
warning labels and such, something about a 'particle beam emitter'.
Puts you in a mind of Star Wars (and not the movies, mind).

This place has spookshow central written all over it.

You can't explain the apparent techie guy there, holding his groin with
a look of relief on his face; doesn't quite fit the profile of
ultra-secret government happenings.  That, of course, would be because
you see Och and Crimebuster - they must've kicked this guy hard.

You spy them walking into what looks like a restroom of sorts, one with
signs indicating that it is out of order...

                                   ***

You and Och enter the out of order restroom, Crimebuster, and you do
manage to successfully recover your blade.  As you clean it off some,
you find that this doesn't seem to be people-blood, as far as you can
tell - it resembles that which you spilled before coming here.

When you rammed your blade into that giant reptile's head.

Anyway, about a minute later, Och comes back to your position,
tip-toe-ing around all the spilt blood.  "Sorry, man, I didn't see any
other way out.  Unless there's some sort of secret levers on the thrones
or urinals that open special doors, anyway."

"That last door seems to be it - though it looks like it leads right out
of the building, from where it's at.  Hmm..."

As the two of you approach the door to the 'mysterious' closet, you
don't hear anything until you put your head up against the door.  When
you do, you can hear faint footfalls, as if a great distance away.  It
almost sounds like they're falling on stone, though.

The really weird thing, though, is that the door is COLD... not just air
conditioning cold, but freezer cold - if not worse...

                                   ***

Meanwhile, the rest of you make your way up the stairs towards the top
floor, though you do have quite a bit of a hassle getting around the
blasted metal on the very next floor, where all those grenades were
detonated by Rebound; you all should remember THAT blast.

Running up as fast as you can, you ascend to the top in a couple
minutes, though the effort winds the majority of you despite the fact
that most of you (sans Masque) are in relatively good physical shape.
Once you collect yourselves, you enter the last stair-accessible floor.

Once you get there, you see the remnants of what would appear to be a
spectacular gunfight between two marketing firms, one that seems to have
been labeled 'Extensive Enterprises', the other one having no
identifiable sign (not anymore, at least).

The trick is that there's a bevy of bodies in the EE offices that have
annoyingly familiar blue combat uniforms - just like those Cobra fellows
you all fought on level 25 (and underground at the beginning of the
day).  The other office is swarming with CIA goons.

Or NSA.  Or something.  Guys in matte black suits with guns.

Naturally, seeing you all here doesn't make them any happier (especially
after they just fought off a group of Cobra guys who seem to have been
working across the hall from them)!  So... where to from here, guys?

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (McAlister)
Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2001 00:31:31 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

Before he leaves your company, the gas man directs you to simply go west
two miles down the highway, then turn left, then go about a quarter mile
and you'll find it - though the "Federal Gub'Ment" put a bunch of
barricades in the road so folks won't go swimming.

If the warning of some sort of ecological disaster weren't enough.

So you leave the station, not hurrying in the slightest to do so, and
drive on down the proffered directions until you reach the lake.  When
you get there, you reach the end of the pavement only to find that the
place has been fenced off with police tape and random barricades.

Not that such things are an issue for a person of your talent.

Once you bypass such pedestrian impediments, you make your way to the
shore of the lake - you're not even sure of the name of this particular
body of water, as if it mattered - and find several fish skeletons
washed up on the beach.

The bones are a gleaming white, not at all faded or containing any
remnant flesh.

You do spy several sets of footprints in the sand, however.  They seem
to be issuing forth from the lake, and then going back in after entering
the nearby treeline.  You don't smell any horrid chemicals, though, not
that this would necessarily mean the beach is ok.

?

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 09:52:21 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari looks around.  "Yanno, I doubt these government types are really gonna dig having us freelance adventurer types around.  Maybe we should try something else.  I mean, what floor are we on?  Maybe there's stuff on the roof."

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 09:07:34 -0500
From: cclayjr2@juno.com

"I don't know?  But if we are gonna leave that might just be the best way
to go."  Stone Cold said as they moved about the floors looking for the
others.

Subject: RE: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 12:52:53 -0400
From: "Lohse, Doug" <DLohse@banknorth.com>

> I suppose that means it's just you and me here - just like old times, eh?"

"You know it buddy!  You don't know how good it is to see you back in action again.  What ever happened to you?  After that craziness with Ahom and the cosmic key, we all seemed to get zapped all over creation.  Where'd you wind up?"

> (snip chamber description)

> This place has spookshow central written all over it.

"Ken, this place is a kosher as a ham sandwich.  I think it's time to take a
closer look at this operation."

> (snip nuclear reactor / nut-grabbin' techie description / Och + CB cameo)

"Hey guys!  Where're ya going?"

Rebound will climb in through the window, hoping to catch the two before
they disappear.

Subject: RE: [v13] A Beginning... (McAlister)
Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 16:27:09 -0400
From: "Lohse, Doug" <DLohse@banknorth.com>

> (snip beach description)

Geoffrey mentally picks up a skeleton and turns it over, examining it
closely for any signs of what caused its demise.  He pauses in his thoughts,
tossing aside the bones as he notices something new.

> (snip second beach description)

Erecting a mental forcefield, Geoffrey smiles to himself as he scrutinizes
the footprints to determine what kind of shoes (if any) produced them and if
it is in fact the same set of footprints going back and forth.  With a
chuckle, he heads after the footprints.  "Monster from the lake, indeed."
As he approaches the treeline, he pauses once again and makes sure that his
hair is perfectly in place and his suit is still pressed razor-sharp.  With
the slightest thought, he wipes the beach mud from his shoes and proceeds to
follow the footprints into the treeline.

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 23:42:46 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

> Once you collect yourselves, you enter the last stair-accessible floor.

Masque collapses in a wheezing heap of tattered and burnt fabric.

Managing a faint speaking voice he says:
"You know when I said last one there's a rotten egg, I didn't mean I wanted
to be the rotten egg."

He staggers up clutching his chest.
"Maybe a bit smelly, but never that sulfurous smell of a rotten egg. I
remember once when I was in the breakfast line at camp and we had this
sideshow attraction...His name was Edward Eggass. Well he was in line in
front of me and then there was this smell and he said it was me who smelled
and they all laughed and i pointed at the eggs. I think they were rotten."

> The trick is that there's a bevy of bodies in the EE offices that have
> annoyingly familiar blue combat uniforms - just like those Cobra fellows
> you all fought on level 25 (and underground at the beginning of the
> day).  The other office is swarming with CIA goons.

Almost oblivious to the whole situation while he reminisces he comes to the
real world. Looking at the slew of bodies and slewer of very serious
looking black jackets he comes to a conclusion.  "Oh."

He brandishes the gecko at the jackets.
"You guy's seen something like this around...only bigger..with wings...not
very happy...oh yeah and breath from hell?"

He then throws up his shield...just in case.

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2001 00:31:16 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

> And the door opens all by itself.

"Hmmm....."
He steps aside and motions to Moebius,
"Ladies first."

> He then looks at the two of you, and says "Yeah?"

Gunslinger stands stock-still, taking in the surroundings and takes a long hard look at the creature in front of him.  "Let me just cut to the chase. I need your help. I am a Bounty Hunter. From outer space."

He allows a moment for the man to make any inane sarcastic comments that typically follow that statement and any laughter on the part of Moebius.

"I got some rather interesting tech out there that I need to incorporate into my vehicle. i need to make it space worthy. I want it to Fly for starters but I still want it to look like and Earther vehicle. Namely the one I am driving right now. I do not need the power plants they carry. I have one that is perfect. I want anything salvageable inc'ed into my car. If they possess a forcefield then I want that. I want it all. I have been trying to fix my vehicle for a long time now and since i got stuck on this Earth. I have been hard-pressed to find anything higher in tech than a Cell phone here."

He brandishes his cell phone and takes a breath.

"These things are space-faring. I need their navigation systems and star charts. These things have weapons. I need their weapons systems, tracking and targeting systems. These things are giant computers. I want their computing systems and power. These things are intelligent. I DO NOT want their AI. They are not nice. I do not need transport with an attitude. I have enough to go around."

He pulls out a flask and takes a swig. Offering it to Moebius, he continues.
"I think that you get what I want. Any questions?"

(Theoretical response)

"I have heard that you are the best and that is why I sought you out. My deal to you is that you can have anything that is left out there after you are done with my car. There is about 3 of those things out there and I think that is more than enough for the both of us. These things are not from this planet and definitely from higher in the tech tree than most things I have seen. And I have seen a lot. I believe that this is more than adequate payment."

Eyeballing Moebius, he snatches his flask back and offers a drink to the little man.

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2001 19:38:56 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

>Once you collect yourselves, you enter the last stair-accessible floor.

    Magus pauses just ahead of everyone else.

>Masque collapses in a wheezing heap of tattered and burnt fabric.

As the thud of Masque frame hitting the ground faintly echoes through the stairwell Magus takes a moment to breath a few deep calming breaths himself.

>Managing a faint speaking voice he says:
>"You know when I said last one there's a rotten egg, I didn't mean I wanted
>to be the rotten egg."

Glancing heavenwards Magus holds his tongue despite realizing the dribbling story about to explode from within Masque.

>He staggers up clutching his chest.
>"Maybe a bit smelly, but never that sulfurous smell of a rotten egg. I
>remember once when I was in the breakfast line at camp and we had this
>sideshow attraction...His name was Edward Eggass. Well he was in line in
>front of me and then there was this smell and he said it was me who smelled
>and they all laughed and i pointed at the eggs. I think they were rotten."

    "Cease your prattling," Magus glances back to Masque before adding a
quiet and quite surprising, "...please."

>Almost oblivious to the whole situation while he reminisces he comes to the
>real world. Looking at the the slew of bodies and slewer of very serious
>looking black jackets he comes to a conclusion.
>"Oh."

    "Oh indeed," Magus adds somberly.

>He brandishes the gecko at the jackets.
>"You guy's seen something like this around...only bigger..with wings...not
>very happy...oh yeah and breath from hell?"

    "By Io," Magus rubs at his chin in frustrated exaggeration.

>Naturally, seeing you all here doesn't make them any happier (especially
>after they just fought off a group of Cobra guys who seem to have been
>working across the hall from them)!  So... where to from here, guys?

    Seeing as how Magus doesn't know a NSA agent or whatever they may any
better than he knows what a computer is actually he almost begins to enter
the room himself.

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001 10:34:54 -0500
From: cclayjr2@juno.com

>Once you collect yourselves, you enter the last stair-accessible floor.

"Does anyone know where dis damned beast is?"  Stone Cold said coming up
to the others.

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 08:16:41 -0400
From: scott.greengold@ey.com

>> The really weird thing, though, is that the door is COLD... not just air
>> conditioning cold, but freezer cold - if not worse...

"This does not seem right.  The door would have to lead outside.  I would guess that this is a portal to....somewhere, and I am not talkin' over the rainbow!."  Crimebuster says, sheathing his mostly reptillian-bloodless blade.

"Well, we ain't gettin any younger waitin, you ready?" He says to Och.
Barring any disagreement, CB opens the door.

>> "Hey guys!  Where're ya going?"

>> Rebound will climb in through the window, hoping to catch the two before
>> they disappear.

Assuming he hears Rebound, CB gives pause to let his teammate catch up. "You got here just in time." He says, as Rebound gets there. "There is a portal here.  Are Masque and Magus with you? I would like to have them take a look at it before we go getting turned inside out by some transporter malfunction or something!"

Subject: RE: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 10:08:41 -0400
From: "Lohse, Doug" <DLohse@banknorth.com>

"Portal?  What are you talking about?  Everyone's here in one spot or
another.  They were supposed to follow me up the rope to the roof, but,
well, Masque had an argument with gravity and lost.  Don't worry, though,
Magus caught him.  I think they're trying to find some other way up here.
Of course, they don't seem to quite know where here is..."

Rebound takes a closer look around the room to try and get more of a handle
on what is going on, fails miserably and decides to just talk some more.

(gesturing at the 'portal') "Well, if you think that is some sort of magic
portal, I'd say stay as far away from it as possible.  Masque's magic seems
to be falling apart more the closer he gets to here.  Then again, Magus may
have wrung his neck by now, but that's another story.  Now, if only we could
get in touch with everyone else...any idea how to get everyone's attention
and let them know where we are?  I could always blow something up, but there
are police and federal agents all over the place by now."

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 21:04:32 -0500
From: "Albedo" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx would frown at the sight of a bunch of spooks, but reaching into one of the many pouches adorning her costume, she'd pull out a D.A.A. badge, brandishing it.

"Right! We're fellow...well, I'm a fellow American. These people here and I
are looking to offer whatever assistance we can in apprehending any terrorists or paranormal entities," she'd explain, gesturing to the rest o' the "team."

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 22:52:28 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

Ken shrugs as you ask him where he's been, Rebound.  "Long story.  Got
blipped out into the middle of freakin' nowhere with Reaper.  We finally
got a ride back here, but got nailed by some uber-psychic type guy on
his way home, and he thought we'd be a fun distraction."

"I made it back, and took the guy out with Jinx' help, but I lost Reaper
in the process.  Heck, I don't know if he's even alive still..."

                                  ***

At a slightly higher elevation, you get no opposition from Och,
Crimebuster, so you open the door only to spy what would appear to be a
sort of hallway, chiseled out of a bluish-white ice, that seems to lead
well into the space outside the building proper.

"Hmm...," says Och.

                                  ***

After you make your way inside the top of the Chrysler Building,
Rebound, you yell to Crimebuster and Och, and the duo indeed hear you,
coming back out of that broken down restroom as soon as they do so.
There's something wrong with this picture, though.

They don't seem to be quite as nervous as you and Ken are about the fact
that there's a big nuclear reactor in the room...

                                  ***

At a slightly lower elevation, the rest of you collect yourselves at the
top of the stairwell only to find those government types (CIA, NSA, or
whatever) don't in fact think that your presence is a good thing.  Some
of them are putting clips in their pistols, etc...

They react particularly poorly to Masque, who's looking quite singed and
mad, and brandishing an impossibly large Gecko at them - one with a fez
on.  This has the bizarre effect of causing them to brandish their
weapons at you - they don't know who the heck y'all are, after all.

"Freeze, damnit," exclaims one of the ubiquitous black-suited folk.

Of course, Jinx then utilizes a surprisingly sensible tone of voice, and
manages to make the Federales think about what they're doing.  They stop
and look about the group of you, pausing quite a bit at Stone Cold (most
of 'em haven't seen any rock-men, you see).

One of them then shouts into the innards of the 'office space'.  "Hey,
Joe!  Something goofy's going on here!"  Soon enough, a man walks out of
the back, wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and some sort of electronics tool
belt.  He's tall, has graying hair, and has a full beard.

For reference.

"Goofy, eh?"  The apparent Joe looks the lot of you up and down, and
smiles.  "Heh.  I've rarely seen more rag tag super heroes in my time.
No wonder these guys almost tried to perforate you lot."  He walks up to
you and introduces himself.

"Hi.  You can call me Joe."

Not QUITE the reaction y'all expected, I'm sure...

?

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 23:07:29 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

Moebius laughs, as you expected, once you proclaim your occupation.

"Thought you were a time traveling, dimension hopping, bad mo'fo bounty
hunter from outer space.  Get a demotion?"

The short Latino fellow then looks the two of you up and down, not at
all spooked that by the fact that, by earth standards, the two of your
are rather freakish in appearance.  "Eh," he says.  "Outer space, eh
meng?"  He doesn't bat an eye.

The man listens to your rant about what you've got and what you want,
and then obliges with your theoretical response space.  "Eh."  He even
shrugs.  Not quite a no, but then definitely not a yes.  You get the
impression he doesn't quite believe you.

After you finish your deal makings, the man declines to have a drink
after you and Moebius have your respective swigs, and asks to see these
spacecraft of yours.  Once you show him the things, he changes his
attitude considerable.

"Whoa there!"  He leaps up onto your bizarre truck and checks out the
engine work.  "Wow, I never seen anybody rig up a bunch of regular
engines like that.  It shouldn't work, but I guess you drove it here,
meng."  He looks a bit more, then exclaims.  "Whoa."

After he satisfies his curiosity with the truck, the guy then makes his
way to the trailer, where he spies the three alien robot shapechangers.
"Well, I don't know where you heard about Juice, but you came to the
right place, meng.  I'll take your deal, oh yeah."

That's when Moebius has to pipe in, the worry wart that she is.  "Wasn't
there FOUR of these things when we got here?"

!

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (McAlister)
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 23:17:56 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

You inspect the skeleton of the former fish, Geoffrey, and find that it
has significant evidence of being eaten by something.  The teeth marks
on all the bones are rather obvious.  The trick is that there's
absolutely NO meat on the thing whatsoever.

If some sort of animal - or even a person - had et the former fish,
there should be something left on it.

You then inspect the footprints, and find something even more curious.
They seem to resemble the footprints that a barefoot person would leave,
if he or she had, say, webbed feet.  Or perhaps very, very small diving
flippers on.  Odd, that.

After you straighten yourself out and enter the woods, though, things
get even more bizarre.  That, of course, would be because you find
yourself immediately under attack!  You hear screams akin to "Aieeee!"
and "Arrrrrh!" and multiple folks assault you!

The trick, though, is that you can't SEE them...

!?

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 07:14:32 -0500
From: cclayjr2@juno.com

"Ok JOE.  Who are you?"  Stone Cold is looking around at this craziness
for the first time and is scared not at the situation but that he is
involved in the lunacy and would hate to have to explain it to someone.
Even more to make them believe.

Subject: RE: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 08:47:32 -0400
From: "Lohse, Doug" <DLohse@banknorth.com>

> "I made it back, and took the guy out with Jinx' help, but I lost Reaper
> in the process.  Heck, I don't know if he's even alive still..."

"I've been in more than my share of places you could call nowhere, always a
bitch getting back home.  Well, maybe we can get back out there and look for
Reaper after we get everyone back together again.  Hey, isn't that
Crimebuster and Och?"

                                  ***

> There's something wrong with this picture, though.

"I heard of the ladies sharing a rest room, but if you two want to be alone
in there..."

They don't seem to be quite as nervous as you and Ken are about the fact
that there's a big nuclear reactor in the room...

Subject: RE: [v13] A Beginning... (McAlister)
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 09:05:15 -0400
From: "Lohse, Doug" <DLohse@banknorth.com>

> If some sort of animal - or even a person - had et the former fish, there 
> should be something left on it.

"Some manner of extraordinary digestive juice perhaps." Geoffrey remarks as
he continues to follow the footprints.

> (snip investigative process)

"This grows yet more curious as the clues progress.  Meatless chewed bones
still intact, some bipedal creature with webbed feet, indeed, this could be
rather entertaining."  He presses on...

> (snip assault)

"Excellent.  The time has arrived for some enjoyable exertion at last."

> The trick, though, is that you can't SEE them...

"Hiding yourselves, eh?  Most innovative and stimulating.  I believe shall
not soon tire of this encounter."

Standing securely ensconced in his force field, Geoffrey brings to bear yet
another talent, forming an intricate web of psionic energy around himself to
entrap his hidden assailants.  Should he prove successful, he would
proclaim:

"It would now be prudent for you to surrender to your betters.  Cease and
desist your aggressive activities lest I feel the need to truly exert
myself.  And be a lot of good sports and show yourselves."

Rolls: Psi Web: 62, Force Field: 47, any others: 72, 62, 15, 39

Subject: RE: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 09:23:09 -0400
From: scott.greengold@ey.com

"That grating voice... could only be... Rebound.  Glad to see you too. "

>> "Hmm...," says Och.

Standing warily, examining the hallway to nowhere, CB says:
" Where is everyone else? I don't want to give them too big a head
start...."

Subject: RE: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 09:49:56 -0400
From: "Lohse, Doug" <DLohse@banknorth.com>

> Standing warily, examining the hallway to nowhere, CB says: " Where is 
> everyone else? I don't want to give them too big a head start...."

"First of all, which 'them' are we talking about?  The twins?  The dragon?
The other leader-type?  Or is there someone else thrown into the mix here?
Second, the rest of the group was supposed to follow me up here, but
obviously, they didn't.  I can only assume they tried a different path to
get here, especially since Masque's magical horse winked out of existence on
him."

Looking around the room, Rebound points towards the nuclear reactor.
"Aren't you the least bit nervous that there's a nuclear reactor at the top
of the Chrysler building?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 18:21:25 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari runs a hand through her hair, and then waves.  "Hi, Joe.  What's doin'
up here?"  She grins.

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 20:37:48 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

> "Thought you were a time traveling, dimension hopping, bad mo'fo bounty
> hunter from outer space.  Get a demotion?"

"Well if somebodies house wouldn't have been in my way, I could have
Dimension hopped my way out of that weird ass world yer from."
he then grabs his crotch and says;
"I got yer demotion right 'ere babe."

> He looks a bit more, then exclaims.  "Whoa."

Gunslinger actually cracks a smile;
"If you look at the thing, I didn't drive it here. A bit large for a being
my size wouldn't ya think. I had help."

> I'll take your deal, oh yeah."

"Right On! Now let's get this show...."
He turns to Moebius as she interrupts him and smacks his forehead.

> That's when Moebius has to pipe in, the worry wart that she is.  "Wasn't
> there FOUR of these things when we got here?"

"I knew there was something wrong...dammit dammit dammit!"
Shrugging his shoulders he turns back to Juice.  "I suppose we'll have to make do with three huh? When do you think we can do this?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 20:54:33 -0500
From: "Albedo" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx would nod to this Joe guy as he obviously represents some sort of
leadership for the spooks.

"Right. We may be disorganized and without identifying uniforms, but we can
get the job done. What do you need help with?"

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 01:37:38 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

> "Freeze, damnit," exclaims one of the ubiquitious black-suited folk.

"Eep!" Masque drops to the floor.

> "Hi.  You can call me Joe."

Masque manages a peek through his arms and when he gathers that he isn't in
any danger, he get's up.

"Hi Joe..no time to talk... there's a Dragon here and She's got our friend's.
Which way is up?"

Masque starts heading for wherever he thinks the stairs are.

Subject: Re: [v13] Movin' on Up...
Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 20:48:37 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

"This does not bode well," Magus whispers in a barely audible tone.

>"Freeze, damnit," exclaims one of the ubiquitious black-suited folk.

>"Eep!" Masque drops to the floor.

Glancing downwards at the floor-hugging mage Masque can't help but think that might be the most tactically sound maneuver he's ever accomplished.

> (snip Jinx speak)

Still standing back a bit from everyone Magus is partially impressed by their nonplussed reaction to his presence.

>"Hi.  You can call me Joe."

> (snip joe / jinx / stone cold speak)

Stepping forward Magus nods his head slightly at the human that seems to
be in charge, "Greetings, Joe."

> (snip masque speak / doings)

"By Io," Magus mutters, "I'm tempted to feed him to her when we find her..." even as he begins walking to catch to up with Masque.

Subject: Re: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 02:49:07 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

Ken looks at you after you offer to help him find Reaper, Rebound, as
though he had something to say.  "Well, let's worry about that after we
take care of business here, eh?"  He doesn't say anything else, but you
get the impression that something else's on his mind.

Later, after your reunion with Crimebuster and Och, you talk back and
forth about various things until you say something that seems to confuse
Och some, Rebound.  Crimebuster likely has the same look on his face,
but it's Och that says it first.

"What reactor?  Why does everybody think there's a reactor here?!"

                                 ***

"Meanwhile, behind the facade of an innocent looking bookstore..."

                                 ***

Joe just looks at you and frowns, Stone Cold.  "Like I said, you can
call me Joe."  You get the impression that that's all you're going to
get out of the man - at least, not without bamboo chutes under his
fingernails, etc...  And even then, you're not too sure he'd talk.

He has that look, despite his conviviality.

The apparent Joe then looks at the rest of you, and listens to all of
your greetings and whatnot with aplomb.  He then tries to respond to all
y'all in turn, though he looks like he's running what he's trying to say
through the 'top secret' filter.

Looking at you, Ari, Joe says "Well, as you can see - since our cover's
somewhat blown at this time, this is something of a military operation
here.  Can't exactly tell you much, of course, but I can say forget
about that anti-missile stuff you see on the T.V."

"We got that covered right here."

Looking at you, Jinx, Joe says "Hm.  Honestly speaking, ma'am, I'm not
really in need of help here - these guys can handle all the cleanup of
the carnage here.  My job's making sure the installation upstairs is
working properly, not dealing with dead bodies."

"Much less the oodles of abandoned Cobra gear across the hall.  Hrm."

Looking at you, Magus, Joe gives you the once over, as though he were
trying to determine whether or not he'd met you before.  He has that
'you look darn familiar' look in his eye, but doesn't say anything to
that effect.  "Greetings to you too, sir."

Looking at you as you pull yourself up off the floor, Masque, Joe says
"A dragon?"  He then gets that unsure look that suggests he doesn't
believe you at first - then it looks like something clicks into place in
his mind.  "Hm... I wonder..."

Before he can do anything else, though, you wander off looking for a
means of vertical egress, only to be followed by Magus.  This makes the
gun-toting black-suited folk rather nervous, despite the fact that Joe
there called them off.

You're a singed old man who may as well have a big, sequined hat that
says 'WIZZARD' on it, and Magus is a large, sword-wielding, reptilian
guy who (despite the fact that Joe didn't bat an eye looking at him) is
making everybody else here rather nervous.

Some pull guns again.

Joe calls them off.  Again.

"Hey!  Do you really think that's a good idea?  Do you think these guys
are gonna like you shooting at their friends?  And do you REALLY think
those guns are gonna do any good against this guys's glowing energy
shield, or this guys' big ROCKY body?!  Settle down!"

He then motions with his head to follow him.  "Better hurry before the
natives blow their tops..."

Joe then leads you through a series of cubicles to a door marked
'Custodial Services', and goes through.  This kind of reminds you of the
weird arsenal that those Cobra goons had downstairs, for there's a large
array of U.S. Army small arms, Kevlar vests, and such here.

Beyond this is a stairwell that leads up two floors, one seemingly full
of dense foam and the other full of computers and such.  "Okay, you
guys, I'm only helping you out because I'm trusting you not to tell
anybody about what you're about to see up here, okay?"

"Since you're heroes and all, I assume you'll trust me on this one..."

Assuming nobody insists on squealing, he takes you up another flight of
stairs, this one opening up to a very large chamber, the apparent roof
of the Chrysler building.  You see, in the center of the room, a very
large nuclear reactor.  Off to one side, you spy some sort of ray gun.

It's pointing out the side of the pyramid-like building cap - at least,
it would be if there weren't a closed window in front of it.  Looking
around in greater detail, you see that there's one techie looking fellow
holding his groin as though somebody'd stepped on it.

And you hear slightly familiar voices hereabouts.

Something that those of you who are mystically aware notice, though, is
that the sheer negation of magical energies that was taking place the
further up you climbed towards the peak of this building is now gone
altogether.  Furthermore, there's a big source of magic here.

Right where that reactor's sitting...

Now that he's got you here, though, Joe looks around as though nothing's
amiss - save for the technician.  "So, where's this... dragon you speak
of, sir?  Everything looks normal to me..."  Good question, though.
Y'all see no dragon here.

?

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 02:55:36 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

Moebius laughs as you grapple your genitalia.  "Where?  I don't see
anything... must've got lost with your nose..."

Meanwhile, in response to your first comment, Juice laughs.  "Ah, yeh.
I guess you got a point there, ah?  That is a big chair there."  In
response to your third comment, he smiles.  I can get on that right
away.  Just gimme your keys, meng."

Of course, Moebius is still being a worry wart.  "No, I don't think you
get it, Gunslinger.  There were four of these things.  On your truck.
When we got here.  Two minutes ago.  You want for me to connect the dots
for you on this one?"

!

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (McAlister)
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 03:07:29 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

You feel three separate punches land upon your force field before you
cast your psi-web upon the flora-filled area around you, though none of
them manage to penetrate enough to do any damage - they don't even
ruffle your suit, thank goodness.

When you throw your telekinetic tendrils out to contain your assailants,
you seem to capture all three of them, and thus make your proclamation
of success.  This only seems to make them angry, though.  One of them
yells something, but it just sounds like warbling.

If structured warbling.

You then take the opportunity to get a better look at these would-be
foes of yours, and find that they're not truly invisible, so much as...
transparent.  You can make out vague humanoid impressions in the small
amount of light given off by your psi-web reflecting off of them.

Before you can investigate that further, though, one of them starts
warbling again, and he suddenly pops out of your psi-web as though he
were a wet bar of soap squeezed in your fist; he flies straight up into
the air about twenty feet - and then stays there!

He warbles yet again, and then you can understand what he (?) is
saying.  "Foolish human!  You interfere with us at your peril!  The
Prophet has told us what you will ultimately do to our world, and we
will not accept this fate!  Prepare to DIE!"

Now what?

Subject: RE: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 09:00:31 -0400
From: "Lohse, Doug" <DLohse@banknorth.com>

> "What reactor?  Why does everybody think there's a reactor here?!"

Rebound points with the utmost incredulity..."THAT REACTOR!  What're you
blind?"

Subject: RE: [v13] A Beginning... (McAlister)
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 09:35:32 -0400
From: "Lohse, Doug" <DLohse@banknorth.com>

> (snip Atlantean wizard warbling)

"One would conjecture from your agitation, that despite your incomprehensible mode of communication, you are acknowledging the futility of your situation."

> (snip description of Atlanteans)

Now that would be quite the profitable circus act...

> (snip Atlantean wizard spell casting)

"My word!  Now, that has never happened before.  I'm sure Yogi Samuelsen
will be most interested in an accounting of this encounter."

> (snip further Atlantean wizard warbling)

"Foolish human?  Surely, you do not know to whom you are addressing such an inane expletive.  I flatly refuse your counter-offer of death, and would submit that you reconsider my original offer to accept your surrender. Despite your superior numbers, you are clearly outmatched with ability and determination.  As for this prophet of yours, I have no desire to get mixed up in some religious cult and end of the world predictions.  If you do not take this opportunity to be reasonable, I will be forced to trounce you. The time for choosing has come for you, my friend, shall it be words orblows?"

Geoffrey holds his action (telekinetic slam into the ground if a hostile response) waiting for a response...

(Rolls: Initiative - 7, Force Field - 41, Psi Web - 97, pending action - 66,
others - 9, 98, 59, 59)

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 10:06:25 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

> Moebius laughs as you grapple your genitalia.  "Where?  I don't see
> anything... must've got lost with your nose..."

Gunslinger kindly flips her off.

> Just gimme your keys, meng."

"Sure thing chief." He tosses the keys to Juice.

> (snip Moebius rant)

Gunslinger still looks non-plussed.
"Fine, I'll be right back. You won't even know I am gone."
He looks at the time and jots something down on a small piece of paper. He then walks around to the side of the building and clicks a few buttons on his watch and Zap! He arrives roughly 3 minutes in the past and sits and watches silently from the side of the building. Taking great care not to fuck up the timeline...again. At the ready to return to his actual time at any moment.

Subject: Re: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 11:39:44 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

> "Since you're heroes and all, I assume you'll trust me on this one..."

Masque scratches his rear.
"Well, I don't think anyone is going to believe me anyways. Even though the
derned thing flew through a good part of New York City......AFTER belching a
rather large fireball, not once but TWICE, into a hospital window! Someone
needs to show these people that what they see is real, not to not really see
things just because they can't possibly exist, I remember this one time I
saw The abdonimal.....no that's not it...the abdominating...no no...the
abnormal....ackk...the thing that lives in tibet. Big hairy creature,
white....can take off their heads and be alright. They grow new ones. He
offered me tea. But Nooooo...no body believed me even after I introduced
them. His name was Steve."

> Assuming nobody insists on squealing, he takes you up another flight of
> stairs, this one opening up to a very large chamber, the apparent roof
> of the Chrysler building.  You see, in the center of the room, a very
> large nuclear reactor.  Off to one side, you spy some sort of ray gun.

"Oh...I see we are not talking about not talking about the Dragon. Now this
here...what you have here is an abomination!"
Masque grins because he got the word right this time.

> (snip magical area description)

Masque erupts in a fountain of Magic. Blinded by the display and deafened by
the sounds anyone who listens would hear him say;
"Woo Woo!"

> Y'all see no dragon here.

"She's here, I can feel her. I'll be right back."
Masque collapses...and then zooms out into the astral. Flying through the
room he searches for anything....magical and out of the ordinary. Magic
sensing at full blast.

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Charlie Chicanery)
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 10:00:28 -0700 (PDT)
From: Charlie Chicanery <charlie_chicanery@yahoo.com>

you said:

> All his references to transtemporal drives just > hurts your brain.

> He then hands you the cans.

> What now?

"Yes!"

After saying that, i double check with the scanner to
make sure that these weird glass cans are really full
of the suff.  Assuming that this mad old guy aint just
pulling on my leg, i thank him.  "Thanks, there."

Keen.  i got me a million bucks, or whatever ese was
paying me for this, just handed to me... groovy.

i'm keeping one of these cans for myself tho, just in
case they need more later.

Or in case i want to play with it sometime, it's not
like they need two of em - and ese never said how much
they wanted of the stuff, right?  Hahahahaha.  Of
course, it's not like i do the dimension hop much, but
you never know when stuff like that might come in
handy for some mad scientist or group bent on
omniversal domination or something.

Hm... makes me wonder what ese wants this junk for -
can't just be happy go lucky research.

i'll have to ask about that when i get back to the
dirtball.

Anyway, i thank the crazy old codger fellow again for
the liquid, and then (assuming there isn't anything i
can do for him) i'll make my way back off of this
wacky planet.

Stupid rogue planet anyway.

I'm keeping an eye out for any of these tentacular
monsters, though.  Still aint too thrilled about
Wendell being all dead and eaten by ugly starfish
things.

Nosiree.

*chucky cheese charlie chicanery chimi changa*

(alliteration aint an ally)

Subject: Re: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 00:32:07 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari beams.  "OCH!  HEY, OCH! "  She's obviously happy to see the dwarf in one piece.  "I thought that winged bitch had
chomped you but good, buddy!"

Subject: RE: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 07:55:10 -0400
From: scott.greengold@ey.com

"I have NO idea what you are talking about.  The only thing I see is the cage that Och and I woke up in after I spiked the dragon."

Subject: RE: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 10:10:36 -0400
From: "Lohse, Doug" <DLohse@banknorth.com>

Rebound walks over and taps the side of the reactor gingerly, wondering what
happened to Crimebuster to alter his perception so drastically.

Subject: Re: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 17:06:34 -0500
From: cclayjr2@juno.com
Reply-To: v13@yahoogroups.com
To: v13@yahoogroups.com

"What?  Ohhhh damn, what the heck is going on, that isn't a real reactor?
 Is it?"  Stone cold was shocked, he was content to be a mutant, but
radioactive would very much decrease his non-existant date life.  "Ok
what is the drill on this, can we like bounce up outta here?"

Subject: Re: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 19:15:56 -0400
From: "Nathan Gecko" <nathangecko@yahoo.com>

> "Greetings to you too, sir."

Magus nods silently to the man thankful once again that the humans of
this realm seem to have no dealings with his race. Mainly for the benefit of
maintaining a rigid facade that belies the curiosity bubbling forth within
himself with surprising ease.

> (snip nervous Fed type stuff)

A slight tinny sound of his sound clicking within his mouth can be heard from Magus by the master of buffoonery, Masque.

> (snip nervous Fed type reactions to Masque)

A faint prickly sensation of magicks infuses Magus just ever so slightly. A rather common event that precedes preparation of most magicks by summoning the energy from the area into oneself. At least on his world at any rate...

>Joe calls them off.  Again.

The swelling of personal energies subside slightly if not completely.

> (snip description of secret arsenal)

Paying no heed to the assorted strange armors and weaponry Magus follows Joe's lead.

> (snip Joe speak)

>"Since you're heroes and all, I assume you'll trust me on this one..."

Magus nods to the man quite quickly, "I have no interest in your secrets here, Joe."

> (snip masque boobery)

    *If I can not discover a silence spell quick enough I will resort to
cutting his tongue out..,* Magus thinks to himself as he listens to Masque
quite calmly and disconcertingly against the pattern established up to this
point in time when subjected to the prattlings of the mage.

> (snip description of the Chrysler Building's apparent secret roof)

Magus simply stares at the seemingly impressive construct. Of course he's staring mainly because of the fact he has absolutely no idea what he's looking at that's so important, but it comes off more as simple awe.

>"Oh...I see we are not talking about not talking about the Dragon. Now this
>here...what you have here is an abomination!"
>Masque grins because he got the word right this time.

*I'll need to find the fingernail clippings of a seventh son of a seventh son born on the winter solstice,* Magus thinks to himself as he begins pondering exactly what will be required for a spell of silence.

>Ari beams.  "OCH!  HEY, OCH! "  She's obviously happy to see the
>dwarf in one piece.  "I thought that winged bitch had chomped you
>but good, buddy!"

Despite bristling under the child's choice of referring to one of the celestial beings of his existence Magus steps forward to face the dwarf within arm's reach. A moment later he produces the large golden ax from behind himself to present it before Och. Nothing really said by him or needed in his opinion Magus steps back towards Masque. Keenly aware of the fount of magickal energies abounding here.

> (snip description of magical area)

> (snip masque speak)

>"Woo Woo!"

Magus resists the urge to violently silence Masque as he absorbs the magicks flowing about the area. Practically bathing in their unseen energies is beyond invigorating to the warrior since arriving on this plane of rather desolate mystical forces.

> "She's here, I can feel her. I'll be right back."

"Aye," Magus mutters as he rests his palm ever so slightly against the reactor's outer protective shell.

>Masque collapses...and then zooms out into the astral. Flying through the
>room he searches for anything....magical and out of the ordinary. Magic
>sensing at full blast.

"He's going to rush into the spirit plane too quickly one day..," Magus says to no one in particular just as he pulls his hand away from the metallic surface of the reactor. Only to draw both blades soon afterwards in preparations for what is to come.

Subject: Re: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 11:36:25 -0500
From: "Albedo" <albedo1@home.com>

Jinx scratches her head as she looks about the reactor chamber.

"OK, so some of us are seeing a dragon's lair while the rest of us are seeing nuclear reactor chamber? Could it be come kind of mass hallucination, holographic technology, psionic intrusion, or a 'mystical illusion' of sorts?"

Subject: Re: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 14:52:41 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

"It's damn weird is what it is."  Ari muses.  "Hey, Masque... Go pee on it
and see what happens."  She grins sillily.  (Is that a word?)

Subject: Re: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 18:07:39 -0500
From: cclayjr2@juno.com

"You guys are sick!?!"  Stone cold smirks as he looks at Masque waiting for him to go.  "I hope not mass hallucination, I am crazy enough as it is."

Subject: Re: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 20:38:44 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

Och looks at you as you hand him his axe, Magus, and then stares at the weapon once it's back in his hand.  He continues to stare for a good minute, then looks back at you.  "Thank you, friend... I thought I had lost this forever..."

As you come to him, Ari, Och grins.  "Well, the beast did 'chomp' me good, I'll give you that."  He then shows you the tattoo-work of holes running up and down his body.  "However, I'm made of sterner stuff than that villainess."  He smiles back at you even more.

That beaming cheer is infectious, you know.

Meanwhile, you bop into the astral plane again, Masque, and can see the shimmering void of the anti-magical aura that seems to surround this
chamber.  Also, you spy that nuclear reactor below, and find that the
thing itself seems to be a gigantic magical construct...

Meanwhile, as if on cue, Jinx makes her observations regarding the
large, humming nuclear reactor before you all, and then Ari and Stone
Cold make their responses to such.  Immediately thereafter, however,
both Rebound and Magus happen to touch the thing.

(and no, they don't both scream "FREAKY FRIDAY!" when it happens)

The thing, though, is that the two of you both never manage to make
contact with the dangerous device.  Rebound, you attempt to knock on the
thing for emphasis, though your hand seems to pass right through the
outer container altogether.

Doesn't look like Crimebuster is going to believe you now.

Also, Magus, you put your hand on the device, and while you hear the
humming issuing forth from the device, you don't feel it when your hand
approaches it.  In fact, your hand seems to sort of phase right into the
large, hulking metal contraption with all those colorful labels.

Suddenly, the two of you don't see the reactor any longer, and only see
a chain suspended from the top of this inverted pyramid, with a cage
hanging at the bottom of its length.  The rest of you, however, still
see a large nuclear reactor (Crimebuster and Och notwithstanding).

?

Subject: Re: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 21:46:55 EDT
From: EmarZero@aol.com

Ari grins, and hugs her diminutive pal.  "Darn right!"

> (snip illusion removal)

Ari blinks.  "What?  What is it?  Is it a dragon nest or some kinda crazy stuff?"

Subject: Re: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 21:16:32 -0500
From: cclayjr2@juno.com

"What the heck?  Is that thing?"  Stone Cold says as he looks at the rest
of the group.

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 23:33:00 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

"Hey, wait a minute...!"

Moebius sounds distraught as you walk around the corner, as if she had a
clue what your temporal shenanigans were about to entail.  To punctuate
her trepidation, you could swear you heard small explosions in the
distance as you pushed the shiny red button on your watch.

And then everything changes.

Well, not really, when you get down to it.  It's still the same
approximate time of day, the same alley, the same trash in the
alleyway.  And, of course, the same you and Moebius watching Wreck-Gar
disappear into a trans-temporal portal to elsewhere.

As the two of you walk into the repair shop, Moebius appears behind you;
at least, you think it's Moebius, because there's this flash of power
behind you, and suddenly a sharp metal object poking you in the back.
Not hard, but just enough that you know it's there.

"You didn't think I'd just let you go and spawn some sort of temporal
duplicate of me, or nullify my consciousness or something, did you?"  It
would seem that Moebius didn't want to get left behind if you change
something drastically.

As if YOU would do THAT.

Before you can argue the point, though, you see one of the four Sweeps
sit upright all of a sudden.  It stretches out it's limbs, as though it
had been sleeping for awhile, then begins to cackle in a decidedly
not-Sweep-sounding voice.

"Mu hu hah hah hah hah hah!  Ignorant fleshlings!  Destroying the Sweep
drone's mind freed this body so that I now have total control of it...
Now I, Starscream, will wreak vengeance on my enemies... and I've got
five years with which to do it!"

With that, the apparent Starscream changes into 'his'* hovercraft mode
and takes off down the street at a truly impressive rate of speed.

Zoom!

After hearing the sniveling, scheming, and surprisingly evil voice of
that robot, Moebius removes the blade from your back.

"Oh boy."

Well...?

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 00:09:00 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

Gunslinger cocks an elbow and stops in mid thrust when he hears Moebius'
voice.  "Christ woman, anything else you can do that I need to know about?!"
Gunslinger puts a finger to his lips,
"Shhh..and take that knife outta my back before you hurt yourself."

> After hearing the sniveling, scheming, and surprisingly evil voice of
> that robot, Moebius removes the blade from your back.

"That's better."
Gunslinger punches a few buttons on his watch.
"I think it's time to go back huh. We can deal with that thing in our own time, so to speak. Better not to Fuck up the timeline or nullify your consciousness or something."

And he presses the shiny red button.

Subject: Re: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 00:17:45 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

> Also, you spy that nuclear reactor below, and find that the
> thing itself seems to be a gigantic magical construct...

"Oooooooooooooooo pretty."
Masque zooms back to his body and sits bolt upright.
"Hey guys, it's right there.......Oh."

> (snip illusion removal)

Eyeballing Rebound and Magus, noticing there querying looks at said reactor,
he waltzes on over next to Magus.

"Whatcha got there Chief?"
Masque kicks in his magic sensing and feels the reactor.
"There's gotta be a door somewhere. Hey Joe, you know this thing is made of
Magic? It's like a lollipop, only better."

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (McAlister)
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 00:17:52 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

"Ignoramus!  We speak not of doomsday prognostications, we speak with
foreknowledge of the future - for the Prophet is from there!  He has
told us how you filthy surface dwellers would destroy our pristine
oceans with your filth and industrial waste."

"We will not be deterred by one simpleton of ascendant power.  Prepare
to feel my wrath!"

You get the impression that this fellow has no intention of submitting
to your will.  As such, you grapple the 'man' around the ankle, and slam
him down on the sandy ground - but hard.  The transparent guy doesn't
seem all that fazed by the attack, though.

While you continue to hold his fellows in your psi-web, their apparent
leader or chieftain or warlord or whatever waves his hands at you,
gurgling incoherently all the while.  After he does so, a continuous
stream of water issues forth from the lake and strikes him.

This water whirls around him in an impressive, tornado-like swirl.  He
then points at you, and the water still issuing forth from the lake
(that which isn't maintaining his odd whirlpool) does a once-around
through his watery swirl and then gets fired at you!

Somehow, the man's aim is dead-on, and he pounds you square in the chest
with the water jet, a jet that is apparently moving with truly Amazing
velocity.  This watery assault actually penetrates your force field, and
inflicts (after the field's protection) 10 points of damage.

That's not the worst thing, though... your suit's all wet now...

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 00:31:42 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

You press the shiny, candy-like button on your watch, Gunslinger and
move... approximately one minute into the future.  Ooo.  Of course, a
split second later, Moebius rejoins you in the present... almost as if
she was tracking your temporal movements somehow.

Makes you wonder about that - though she said she IS a chronomage.

You return to the present (as it were) to catch the rest of the report
from that explosion in the distance that you caught wind of when you
first passed into the past.  Moebius flinches at that, and she has that
'you're gonna make us go after it, aren't you' look on her face.

That's when Juice starts your car and drives it into the garage.  Of
course, he's standing outside it, which is the weird thing...

?!

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Charlie Chicanery)
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 00:51:49 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

"Have a good one, youngster!"

The old man seems almost relieved that you're leaving, despite the fact
that he was rather friendly once the two of you quit holding each other
at gunpoint.  You return to the harsh, methane and sulfur atmosphere in
the strange, geode-like cave without, and make your way up.

You don't quite see how that guy's gonna get his ship out of this
universal arm-pit, but he said he could manage it.  So, you reverse your
path and make your way back to the surface without incident - that is,
unless you go out of your way to hunt down that beastie you hate.

Assuming you don't, you return to the cold comfort of space shortly
thereafter, and start to make the long, long journey back to earth -
good thing you fly really, really fast.  It takes about two weeks to get
back home, but you finally make it at long last.

You breathe in the nice, warm air of the earth as you come down
somewhere over Los Angeles.  So, now that you're home, now what?

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Charlie Chicanery)
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 23:07:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: Charlie Chicanery <charlie_chicanery@yahoo.com>

> You breathe in the nice, warm air of the earth as
> you come down somewhere over Los Angeles.  So, now
> that you're home, now what?

Damn.  i'd love to go ahead and take in the surf for
awhile, but i suppose i should take care of business,
and get that jug of time goo to Riley.  Well, one of
them, anyway, since i'm not giving him both at all.  i
figure that i may need that in case they up to no good
or something.

So.

So i fly to my luxurious apartment in manhattan, and i
get rid of the spare jug of goo.

Once i do that, i take a long, long bubble bath.

Then, i fly to ese headquarters (wherever that's at)
and go to see Riley.  Heck, i suppose that i could use
the money they promised me, and once i show them the
alien tentacle i hacked off, i may get a bonus.

if i remembered to pack it, i guess.

So once i get there, is Riley there?  And what does he
have to say for himself?

Subject: [v13] A Change of Pace (or jobs)
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 02:33:17 -0500
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

(well, since I'm still awake...)

After pulling yourself together in an exquisite bubble bath and getting
a complete change of clothes, you fly over to ESE's main building, a
rather large edifice in what practically amounts to its very own
business park in suburban Philadelphia.

You get there at approximately six at night, though Riley is still here
to receive you.  Once the secretary escorts you to the man's office, he
leaves you in the voluminous chamber.  As usual, there's nothing there
but Riley, his gigantic mahogany desk, and Deion.

Deion, of course, being the so-called immortal fellow that's in ESE's
employ.  "So, Charlie, I see that you've been successful where Wendell
Wherever failed.  Or... were you?"  The exceptionally large chamber
causes Riley's words to echo across the room at you.

(theoretical response space)

Riley just looks at you and shrugs.  "Regardless, I'm afriad to say
that, what with the ecomony being what it is, I'm not going to be able
to pay you as much as I'd previously indicated, Charlie.  In fact, I
don't think I'll be paying you at all."

"You see, you have been downsized.  The ESE board has determined that,
unlike your fellows - who have their own spacecraft (which happen to be
much, much faster than you) - you are a less efficient prospector for
that which we need.  Thus, my friend, you are terminated."

"However, the way this was supposed to do down was that, like your pal
Wendell, you weren't supposed to come back.  In fact, you were supposed
to find yourself magically transformed into a Bin'tri lunch, or perhaps
an ersatz birthing chamber.  You know, a grisly end thing."

"We would've just fired you, of course, but I wouldn't like anybody
knowing about the beautiful things that you and your compatriots have
brought us in the past, lest they try to interfere in our plans.  So,
unfortunately, you must die, Charlie Chicanery."

(theoretical response space)

"I assumed that you would take this poorly, so I brought Deion here to
do the job for me.  After all, all you can do is fly really fast and hit
him with that laser staff of yours, while he's in the possession of
dread, godlike powers.  I'm afraid this is goodbye."

"Though at the very least, I can offer you one good maniacal laugh."

"Mu hu HEH heh heh!"

!

Subject: Re: [v13] A Change of Pace (or jobs)
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 00:59:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: Charlie Chicanery <charlie_chicanery@yahoo.com>

> (well, since I'm still awake...)

Hey, me too.  How in the hail?

> "Or... were you?"  The exceptionally large chamber
> causes Riley's words to echo across the room at you.

i just look at Riley with what disgust, i guess, since
he's making veiled insults at my manhood.  Or my
skill, at least.  "Duh, Riley."  i throw him the
single jug of time lubricator jelly or whatever it is.

Then i throw him the scanner.  "Happy, jerk?"

THEN i throw him the alien tentacle thing.  "So that's
five million bucks, plus hazard pay, right?"

> Riley just looks at you and shrugs.  "Regardless,
> I'm afriad to say that, what with the ecomony being
> what it is, I'm not going to be able to pay you as
> much as I'd previously indicated, Charlie.  In fact,

> I don't think I'll be paying you at all."

> "You see, you have been downsized.  The ESE board
> has determined that, unlike your fellows - who have
> their own spacecraft (which happen to be much, much
> faster than you) - you are a less efficient
> prospector for that which we need.  Thus, my friend,

> you are terminated."

"Man, us mutants always get the shaft.  Use us until
you can do what our powers can with tech.  Jerk."

> "However, the way this was supposed to do down was
> that, like your pal Wendell, you weren't supposed to

> come back.  In fact, you were supposed to find
> yourself magically transformed into a Bin'tri lunch,

> or perhaps an ersatz birthing chamber.  You know, a
> grisly end thing."

> "We would've just fired you, of course, but I
> wouldn't like anybody knowing about the beautiful
> things that you and your compatriots have brought us

> in the past, lest they try to interfere in our
> plans.  So, unfortunately, you must die, Charlie
> Chicanery."

"Fuck who?"

That's when i break out the power staff and crank it
on full-bore.  i figure that's good for emphasis or
something.

"If anybody's gonna die here it's definitely not me,
chump.  In fact, i'd say it's gonna be you that dies
if you don't pay me.  And if i don't kill you, i'm
just going to the labor department or something... you
know how much i can suit you for not giving me my last
check?  Oh heck yeah, i'm sure it'd cost a bunch more
than just cutting me that check for ten megabucks."

"Hazard pay, you know.  Well???"

> "I assumed that you would take this poorly, so I
> brought Deion here to do the job for me.  After all,

> all you can do is fly really fast and hit him with
> that laser staff of yours, while he's in the
> possession of dread, godlike powers.  I'm afraid
> this is goodbye."

> "Though at the very least, I can offer you one good
> maniacal laugh."

> "Mu hu HEH heh heh!"

That's about when i put on the determined mutant
grimace.

"You lousy fuck.  Deion couldn't beat me if you tied
me up and savaged me with a plunger handle.  And you,
Deion, you know if he has no problem doing this for me
that he won't mind axing you later if you turn
inconvenient-like... you know it."

i twirl my power staff for effect, as i walk towards
Riley's desk.

I wait for Deion to make a move, then i ambush the
dirty rotten rat bastard with a burst of flight,
hoping to approach him too fast.  i want to take an
arm off.

If he's so immortal, it shouldn't bother him too
much...

Some dices:  61, 72, 01 (damndamn), and maybe 42.
With an initiative of like 8.

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 21:23:45 -0500
From: "Christopher Acers" <cacers@home.com>

Gunslinger turns to her as if nothing happened and just shakes his head.

> You return to the present (as it were) to catch the rest of the report
> from that explosion in the distance that you caught wind of when you
> first passed into the past.  Moebius flinches at that, and she has that
> 'you're gonna make us go after it, aren't you' look on her face.

Gunslinger simply smiles and turns to Juice.
"Hey, here's my cell number give me a call when yer done huh?!"
He tosses a pice of paper with his number on it to Juice.

Watching Juice move the car into the garage in a not so usual manner, he
simply motions to Moebius to follow him.
He kicks his boots on and starts to fly in the direction of the sound. he
then slows down and lets Moebius catch up.
"I'll go slowly if'n ya want."

Subject: Re: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 08:06:35 -0400
From: scott.greengold@ey.com

>> Doesn't look like Crimebuster is going to believe you now.

Crimebuster looks at Rebound and chuckles a little, his face showing a smirk, holding the "I told you so" to himself. "Well, now that we have the mages here, maybe someone can tell me what exactly this cage is?"

Subject: RE: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 09:04:58 -0400
From: "Lohse, Doug" <DLohse@banknorth.com>

Rebound looks from the cage to Magus, to Crimebuster, to the cage, to Magus,
to Crimebuster, to the cage...

"Son of a...I need a freakin' beer."

He finally fixes his gaze on some random point in space.  "OK, so where's
the bloody dragon?"

Subject: RE: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 09:36:40 -0400
From: scott.greengold@ey.com

Crimebuster grins, looks over at Ari and asks "Does that bag of yours come
with a beer or two for our incredulous friend here?"

"As for the bloody dragon, I think the blood is all over the other room over there." he says, pointing toward the room with the portal.  "I really think we should check it out"

Subject: RE: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 09:38:29 -0400
From: "Lohse, Doug" <DLohse@banknorth.com>

Crimebuster grins, looks over at Ari and asks "Does that bag of yours come
with a beer or two for our incredulous friend here?"

"As for the bloody dragon, I think the blood is all over the other room over there." he says, pointing toward the room with the portal.  "I really think we should check it out"

"Um, lead the way.  Hey guys, follow Crimebuster, he thinks he's found the dragon!"

Subject: Re: [v13] To The Top...
Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2001 21:01:46 -0600
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

(quick addendum:  I never actually got this from Nate in my mail, since
Yahoo is retarted, so I'm adding it to the post I just sent... d'oh...)

(I guess disregard the last post for this one or somesuch.  Sorry 'bout that.)

You activate your magic sensing spells, Masque, and indeed see that the
reactor before you is seemingly composed entirely of Thaums.  However,
upon feeling it, you notice that it feels rather insubstantial, in that
your hand has passed right through it!

It's either phased out of this layer of existence or an illusion.

Or something.

Of course, Magus already told you that.

In response to your comments, Magus, Joe simply shrugs.

"If it were ever there."

Joe seems less than thrilled at the prospect of a missing nuclear
reactor - if it's really missing.  "Y'know, that's odd.  The entire time
I've worked here, this thing's been here too.  And I can't honestly say
that I, or anybody under me, has even touched it."

Joe then walks into the reactor.  As though it wasn't there...

Those of you who've attempted to FEEL the reactor can see him still, the
rest cannot.  You can also hear him say "Hey, my Frisbee!"

Soon enough, after Rebound makes his proclamation that you all should
follow Crimebuster, Och returns to the out-of-order restroom there, and
(while avoiding the copious amounts of blood on the ground) peers into
the portal that seems to lead to some icy cold otherwhere.

"Hmm."

Ken sidles up to the man, though in reality he's hovering an inch or two
above the ground in order to not touch any of the eerie blood on the
ground, and looks into the gateway to ... elsewhere.  Elsewhere, that
is, unless there's an iceberg outside of the Chrysler building.

"That's interesting."

He then floats on through.

!

Subject: Re: [v13] A Beginning... (Gunslinger)
Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2001 21:06:27 -0600
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

Moebius indeed catches up to you with her magical flight powers, and
gives you another crusty, evil look.  "Slow... feh."  She then zooms
past you.  It's not like she knows where she's going or anything, but
then it's not too hard to spot the guy you're looking for.

Not too many purple hovercraft clipping buildings as they erratically
soar through the near-surface skies of Los Angeles.

You get closer to the vehicle as it comes to a stop, apparently since it
seems to be having problems remaining aloft.  "Damn that insufferable
fleshling!  He damaged this body's flight capacity all too well... it'll
take hours to fix this myself...!  Argh!!"

?

Subject: Re: [v13] A Change of Pace (or jobs)
Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2001 21:32:01 -0600
From: Firebomb <firebomb@technohol.com>

Your high-speed flight ambush indeed takes Deion off-guard as he makes
his move on you, Charlie, allowing you to get in a good swipe with the
power staff.  You don't quite take an arm off, but you may've rendered
one of them inoperative with your strike.

You seem to have left quite a burn trail down Deion's left arm in your
assault, you see.

"Aaaarg!"

Of course, he may be down, but he's not out.  Deion winds up with his
right arm, and deals you a powerful blow in the diaphram, one that lands
you on the floor (that 01 couldn't have come at a worse time) and knocks
you back a good fifteen feet.

You think you broke a rib, 'cause you took a good FIFTY points of damage
from that one.  It's a good thing you had time to heal during your long
flight home from... wherever you were at out in space, or else you'd be
out cold right now.

And dead a good twenty seconds from now.

As you lay on the ground, Riley has to open his mouth again.

"Charlie, Charlie, Charlie.  Why fight like this?  You know that Deion
is more than capable of killing you in a most effortless fashion.
Resisting my will is only going to accomplish a meager amount of
property damage, when you get down to it."

"Just give up and take it like a man..."

?
