THE QUANTUM CATS- FACEOFF IN LAS VEGAS [Jackie and SFX have been shjopping for equipment, preparing to take on their first mission as the Quantum Cats....unaware that their hunters, including the teleporting metahuman Dom, have already caught up to them, and captured Stephy.] GM-- You complete most of your shopping for the day. The metals, of course, need to be delivered, and you don't have a delivery address set up yet, but since there's plenty of construction in Vegas, you figure you'll be able to get most of what you need. For some of the rarer elements, like titanium and molybdenum (sp?), you'll need to go farther afield. "What're you gonna with all that crap, anyways, make some kinda super battlesuit?" SFX asks. Back at the MGM, you wait at the restaurant for Steven or Stephy or some variation thereof to show up. But s/he doesn't. "Told you," SFX says disgustedly. "Screwin' the lawyer, I bet." Jackie - The hair prickles at the back of her neck, "Kid, we have people on our tail, we know that. Now Stephy's late and no sign of George. Call me a wee bit paranoid, but I don't like it. I want to set up Spike and get some peace of mind. Let's check the RV." Upon approaching the RV, she will sense the interior to make sure all is within; Spike, the gold, etc. She will disengage the interior lock and start gathering all the chains and pipes she bought before the Rv turned into the Flintstone mobile. GM The RV seems to be undisturbed. "I still say she's just boffin' the damn lawyer," says SFX. "Why don't you give her another call?" He snickers. Jackie - She rubs her old scar above her eye, "I really think we should move this gold somewhere. Leavin it here for some second rater Snatch and Grab artist really don't make me feel very good. I mean cash is cash, right?" Jackie starts to form the gold into bars and ingots of a pound each. Rolling her head around to relieve the tension from a too short amount of sleep and being out in the daylight, worse than a wet cat. Totally out of her element. *The dreams were bad again, long time since they hit me, long time. The syringe pumped into my arm, hurtin so bad and bleedin. The cool wash of warm heroin floatin me out over somewhere else. Head smashin against a wall and he...punchin and kickin me. Then it got worse* Jackie clenches her fist and the gold melts like wax, she frowns and blinks her eyes. Blinking away the moisture. She starts over again to form the bricks. Her mind glides over Spike for a moment, knowing he's ready. Stopping for a moment, she stoppers the sink and turns the water on. As it fills she starts to form another Spike from the gathered metal from the debris of chains and pipes. GM "You OK?" SFX asks. Then, "So, uh, what're we gonna do about himher-whatever?" Jackie - She nods to SFX and turns back to the sink. Willing an arm sized length of metal to break away from the second Spike and moving it in her hand. She thinks of a syringe, albeit a long one, almost like a large squirt gun. Placing it within the water, she wills a wall of metal to draw back within the tube, drawing in water. Forming a small hand grip, she whips around and wills a wall of metal outward, pushing at the water through the small hole at the end. The stream of water fluxes as she tries to widen and tighten the hole. She blinks at SFX, and softly mutters, "wish I went to school and learned something." Condensing the metal tube into a close approximation of a camera, she nods to SFX, "Let's try him again." She tries to dial both the hotel room and Stephen's number, as she does so, she makes the second Spike into a blanket of metal and covers the gold ingots. GM No answer from your room. When you call Steven's cellular phone, a deep male voice unlike Steven's normal one says "Hello?" Jackie - She stifles an accusation, it is a strange voice, but that isn't odd. nothing is odd with Stephen. "Hey buckwheat, we bought the guns, you get the drugs?" She looks at SFX and gets his attention, though he's probably listening ina anyways. GM "Very amusing, Miss Carlysle." The voice is a little familiar. "George and Stephy would like to talk to you...but I'm afraid they can't right now. I have a score to settle with you, and especially with that little schwarzen. You can come looking for us, or wait for us to come for you...it really doesn't matter to me." Jackie - She stifles a curse, after all the dodging and running, THEY still know who she is and where to find her. Worst of all her name. "Yeah, you right. Yep, you sure stepped into it this time pally. You might be cute and all whoever you are, but you don't know everythin. Think about that when we get Quasar to come fry your shorts." She hangs up and looks at SFX, "Yeah not the brightest thin, but I got the foggiest who these jerks are. I say we play dirty now, real dirty. We get our hands messy though Kid and I don't like that. A blood thirsty wolf is one thin, but these thin's are worse than that." "We goin to need fightin or runnin money, first we unload this cash and dig in. I say we see the Mob." GM "I'll 'schwartzen' him," SFX growls. He sticks his hands in his pockets, as if afraid he'll unleash a sonic blast if he doesn't. "They musta got George, since they know your name. How they track us? I guess Fruit Loops does kinda leave a trail..." He looks at you oddly when you mention the Mob. "The MOB? Girl, we still got about a hundred pounds a' gold, what we need the Mob for? To dump the gold, OK, maybe they's the fastest way. But don't you think maybe whoever's after us might be CONNECTED to organized crime? I wouldn't be surprised if they got Mob connections themselves. But maybe I'm just imaginin' some big conspiracy." GM "Originally, I thought they were some kinda fringe anti-meta group," SFX says. "Now, I dunno. They got aces workin' for them...maybe they really are some kinda conspiracy, like in the Wild Cards books. I dunno for what, though. I think Nazis is a little far out...that one dude may be German, but I still don't buy a bonafide Fourth Reich plot to bring back Hitler's brain or some crap like that. Who knows, but they definitely got the resources to track a couple of fugitives. It ain't like Captain Crazy don't leave a trail, with weirded out people and asphalt turned ta jello in his wake, but they still found us awfully fast, didn't they?" He agrees with the rest of your plan, and begins getting things in order in the back of the RV. Jackie - Jackie nods to SFX, "I think you are imaginin a bit, they can't be connected to everythin can they? 'Sides, the Mob is my kind of people. I think they would be able to get us some stuff faster than we could. I need some metals, some good ones. Steel is good, but I can get better, what's the point of the cash if I can't buy the good things in life? The Werewolf was bad enough, all I can do is assume these are the Nazis, maybe/maybe not connected to Napes'. I really don't recognize the voice, but the German they keep kickin round sounds like I heard it. We goin to take these guys on we do it right. First order of the George, but Stephen we warned and they snatched him good. We need to fight on our ground with our rules. This is what I want to do, dump the gold in a bunch of bank boxes, twenty pounds a bank, grab the keys. Next, see the greaseball in charge of this town and grease his palm, wheel and deal. Maybe if they are greedy enough we can get them on the Nazis. Maybe we get ourselves a wrecking yard out of the Teamsters, that would be my element. Tell me again who you think these guys are and what happened when I was out unconscious." Jackie listens to SFX, and if he agrees she will start the RV and start driving to banks dumping gold, with it hidden within a steel cover frame of steel in the form of a briefcase. Dialing the hotel front desk, "Hello, I've been called away for some business, but have left my briefcase and clothes in the suite. Please clear teh room and have my baggage ready at the desk please. I shall be checkin...g out. If there are any of my guests in the room, please inform them they will have to stay under their own arrangements. Thank you." Jackie - 'Umm Kid, you take me way to serious sometimes. I don't think they are real Nazis, but good enough to describe them. I like easy labels. I got an idea or two how to maybe get a bit of heat off our tail. A good enough story for whoever buys the gold to get on THEIR tail, maybe harass them a bit. We don't have much time, we want to piss them off enough to come after us. But we want to be ready for them without our pants down like last time. That Nazi gets his hands on us we are hamburger aren't we? We have to take him out quick or maim him. He tore through the metal I had like tissue paper, but I have a few ideas bout that. I want to get our cover story for the fence taken care of before our last drop." Jackie reforms the big metal squirt-gun she made for a test into a block of metal. Taking all her change from her pockets, beer caps, keys and the metalware she starts to form molds. Placing the item within the metal and having it's form imprinted within, then making a small hole and slip the former item out. She then snakes gold into the mold and then removes the steel mold from the new gold mundane item. When she has a decent number of gold coins, eating ware, bottle caps, keys, she will drop off the last drop of gold in the bank. She will change into a new business outfit and slip on her sunglasses. Driving the RV, she will locate a decent looking club or restaurant letting her instincts about such things guide her as it will. SFX in tow. (If a place is found) She will speak to the bartender and slip a new gold dime and a few fifties to find someone to pay respects to in town. GM "The Desert Jewel", an expensive club with a little too much glitz to really be classy, seems like a good place to start climbing the ladder of power in Las Vegas. One of the bartenders, after you introduce him to Mr. Franklin and his identical twins, is able to speak a word to a handsome-looking man who wears too much cologne. That man nods and confers with you at a back table, accepts your tokens of esteem, and makes an appointment for you to meet someone else at this club, later in the evening. You pick up SFX, whom you had to leave at the Denny's across the street, since the Desert Jewel actually checks ID. Consequently, he's sulking a bit. Back in the RV, you have just enough time to start it up, when SFX lets out a startled squawk. A movement in the rear view mirror puts you on guard instantly. As you jerk around in your seat, you see the tall, blonde guy from Louisiana, swatting SFX with a casual backhand. The slap knocks the kid into the wall, hard. His skull hits the side of the RV and he bounces back and crumples to the carpet. The tall man tosses some kind of container in your direction. Jackie - After the meet, Jackie feels more at ease. Things might pick up for once. These guys have no idea who they are screwing with! She frowns at SFX and half jokes, "They actually serve you there? WE travel in style don't we?" She grins to SFX. Back in the RV, she looks around at the mess, vowing to get rid of the hunk of junk soon. When she sees things again carried out in front of her, again beyond her control. Adrenaline barely has time to cycle through her body as she sees SFX get bounced like a rag doll. The container is thrown at her. She screams in frustration and pure rage, "NOOOO!" She pushes her mind and Spike leaps at her and the container, she will try to have Spike envelop the container within his body. In the same move she will try to thrust her arm at the blonde's face animating all the silver jewelry down his throat. Or any metal close enough to do the trick. If the metal crawls down his throat she will push for all she's worth and think of a big sharp chicken bone piercing sideways out of his throat. *If he hurt the Kid...* GM Spike opens gaping metal jaws wide, and chomps down on the container, which makes a hissing sound as it's compressed. The tall man takes a step back as your jewelry writhes and extends towards his face, then *blink!* he's standing... behind you. An elbow jabs you in the back, sending you plummeting breathlessly forward, into the carpet. You try to rise, but you're surrounded by smoke, pungent smoke that forces its way into your mouth and nose and ears and eyes, even while you try to hold your breath. Your mucous membranes burn, your eyes water and itch (there goes another pair of contact lenses), and you gasp, choke...and feel the stuff down your windpipe, in your lungs, about a hundred times worse than your first cigarette. GM-to Stephy: Your nose is sore, you have the most terrible taste in your mouth, and your head hurts...plus you can't see. As sensation slowly returns to you, you realize that you're lying on your back in a closed space which allows no light. As if being confined in a coffin-like compartment wasn't bad enough, ropes bind your wrists tightly behind your back, and are digging into your ankles. The thrumming of a motor reverberates around you, and you feel vibrations and occasional slight bumps which suggest you're in a moving vehicle. Stephy: "Gack... ... ugh..." **Oh s***!**, she says to herself as she remembers and realizes what happened. **And the worst thing is, I didn't even get to f... Whoa. Chill girl. That's like what got you here, you know? Damn... and he would just have to be *gorgeous* too.** She sighed. Ok. Live and learn. At least she *was* alive. Which surprised her a little until she remembered they were trying to kidnap her when she ran into them. Then she remembered to be scared. Sweat broke, heart pounded... It was so loud she couldn't believe they didn't hear... **Oh f***! Chill, girl, chill. If they hear...** She kind of doubted they would have just trussed her like this, even in a box, if they expected her to wake up. So she damn well better be quiet. Real quiet. And angry. And getting angrier. Which was way better than scared (though truth be known most of it *was* really fright). **Well, I am NOT going to be kidnapped! Not by *him*! If he's too bogus to know what he could have had...** Stephy smiles to herself as she momentarily contemplates using Dom for a *long* series of experiments with her power. Which isn't getting her out of this **GAWD DAMNED BOX! Chill girl. Think!** Though she'd rather just *do* something, she tried to think it through. They'd kidnapped her. They have George. Maybe they're taking her to where he is? In which case, shouldn't she lay low until they get there? Oh, right, and let them use whatever they have *there*? She flashes on the invisible disk drive. But that wouldn't help her if she was in this box when they got there. And where was there anyway? And who was taking her? What she need was more information. What she need *first* was to get rid of these damned ropes. Which was going to be on real trick, using her power without shooting up a flare. **Oh damn!** Maybe she should just go for broke? But, then how would she ever find George? But, if it was *Dom* or another Ace... Would she even get a second chance? All this thinking was just making her head hurt more. She wasn't much for contemplation anyway. **Oh hell. Just try it, girl. If it blows up, you can always just freak out and hope it does them as bad as you...** She tried the absolute best she could to calm herself, taking deep breaths, holding them, letting them out slowly, telling herself *it's going to gnarly, its going to be gnarly**, until she felt she simply had to try something, and then concentrated on turning the ropes into air. And she pressed her against the box and tries to hear whatever there is to hear... You hear a crackling sound, and the ropes loosen around your wrists, then they no longer bind you. They've been replaced with something squishy and wet, though. You're now lying in a puddle of something slimy. Pressing your ear to the box doesn't prove helpful; you just hear the thrumming of the engine, louder. Stephy: **Coolness. It worked...**, she thought as she felt the ropes give way without unnecessary pyrotechnics. And then she felt *what* they'd turned into. "Eeehyu..", she started outloud automatically, then squelled it to silence. **uck! Ga-ross!** Wonderful. She's locked in a coffin, feels like s***, probably looks worse, kidnapped and headed god-knows-where, and NOW she had to lie in whatever this s*** is?! She almost lost it. Almost. The only thing that kept her from doing so was the memory of what had happened when she'd lost it in the restaruant with Dom. She tries to control herself, convince herself its not slime but... whipped cream! Yeah, that's it! Like with George. **Poor Georgie...** Once she thinks she can try without blowing it she concetrates on making herself invisible but no other changes in her (like with the disk drive). After whatever happens (because how should she know if she's succeeded there being no light?) she puts her fingers to the side of the box and concentrates on turning a 1 inch circle of the wood on the side into air. She tries to control the splash. GM Your first attempt, to turn yourself invisible, makes you feel tingly all over, but as expected, you can't gauge your success until you get some light. Pressing your fingers against the lid of your prison, you concentrate again... Light floods over you, causing you to blink, as plastic (not wood) dissolves into a cloud of mist. Unfortunately, it's considerably more than a one-inch diameter hole. The entire lid goes up in a moist "whoosh!" of expanding gas. You seem to be in some sort of enclosed bay, perhaps the back of a truck, or the cargo section of a small plane? Someone nearby, a man, makes a starled exclamation, as mist swirls around the small space. (You heard him, but can't yet see him, and you're still quite disoriented.) Stephy: Ok, she didn't expect to be able to tell if the invisible worked or not. But she was really depressed when the whole top blew off the box. It only served to remind her how little control she might have and how futile all of this could be if she got just one catastrophic misfire. She coughed and tried to get her bearings, even as she tried to move away from the box and towards the sound of the exclamation. If she was invisible she probably would have had to try this anyway. If she wasn't, then she definitely had to do it now, while the mist still hopefully obscured vision. Either way, she had to hurry. Of course, she wasn't thinking it through like that. She just heard the noise, knew she wasn't alone and tried as best she could to move towards it. If she had really thought about it, she'd probably decide that a better course would be try and make herself look like Dom, claim to have teleported in and make like she was shocked that the box was empty. But, she was too disoriented and just plain scared to think about that right now. [If she touches a person...] Jason only better, and on no changes in herself. She'll control the splash if she can, but frankly she's scared enough that that's doubtful. ke in the RV extending the area of effect -part3- GM As you spin around uncertainly, towards the noise, you see a big man (though not as big as Dom) in a black turtleneck and jeans...holding a very nasty looking rifle. He's as shocked to see you as you are to see him, but panic keeps you going. And as you reach out one hand towards him, you get a worse shock...as does he, and it may be your bizarre appearance that saves you from being ventilated, as he seems momentarily too stunned to point his rifle at you. You turned yourself invisible, in a manner of speaking; veins and arteries and pinkish white bone is clearly visible beneath your soft, TRANSPARENT flesh! If you weren't facing certain death in about two seconds, it would be enough to make you freak. As for the man in front of you, he turns pale, curses in some language you don't understand, and almost drops his weapon in his haste to back away from you. Stephy: "EEEEeee-yuk!," she screams automatically on seeing her lack of skin. [Which ought to make the guy drop his drawers, no? ] She doesn't have time stop and think about it. The guy is backpedaling and there's that GUN! She got to do *something*. Get rid of the gun, zap the guy... something! **Something FAST!... ast...** She flashes on the last time a gun was pointed at her- well, Steven really: the hotel and the Mob guy. **GAS!** She backpedals and ducks, concentrating on turning the air around the guy into *super*fast acting knock-out gas, while she holds her breath. And then another memory surfaces. Steven again. In the desert. Spike exploding. Scales. She isn't going to take the chance its automatic. She tries for the bullet proofing Steven had, concentrating *hard*. [And no, if she's that panic'd I doubt she thought of preventing changes in herself (thought that might be becoming automatic, no?) or controlling the slpash. Hope this ain't an airplane.] GM Concentrating on gas...the air swirls around the gunman, turning into a colorful swirl, like one of those multilayered bottles full of colored sands...then against the wall behind him explodes a shower of tiny red and blue and green and yellow and orange particles- they zoom around the compartment for a moment, as if carried by a stream of air, and rain down everywhere. M&Ms and jelly beans, or some kind of candy, is what they look like. The man with the rifle is distracted for a moment. "Shto..?" Then he snaps the rifle up in your direction. He doesn't lose it to panic as readily as you might have hoped, and the only thing you can think of is bullet-proofing... Your flesh becomes harder, the transparency disappearing, to be replaced with glittering...chrome! Your skin is as shiny as the exhaust pipe of a brand new motorcycle...and about as flexible. You find yourself almost unable to move, as the man pulls the trigger. The gun makes a brief "BRRRAPP!" noise, and bullets slam into you. One glances bruisingly off your metallic thigh, but another makes a nasty and painful dent. Then you feel a burning pain in your side...sparks fly and...something else, a glistening greenish fluid like...oil? Chrome may be about right...an outer layer of protection, which saved your life, but it won't stand up to a directed burst of automatic weapons fire. You're hurt, maybe badly, and if he fires again, you doubt your all- too-thin metallic skin will save you. He releases his weapon with one hand and frantically bangs on the wall behind him, where a small wooden door you didn't notice before is hinged at about eye level. Stephy: The gas didn't work. And now she can barely more and she FELT that and it hurts! and WHATISTHAT*GREEN*COMINGOUTOFHER! and he's still got the gun and now he's trying to get reinforcements and even thought one hand's of the gun, if she tries to rush him it'll almost certainly not be quick enough... Stephy does the only sensible thing, in the circumstances. She panics and lets her powers go crazy, like in the RV extending the area of effect to include the man, the truck, whatever, having enough presence of mind only to try and keep her head together and hopefully unchanged. She doesn't have time to care about the rest right now. If it saves her, she'll have time to pick up the pieces later. She doesn't even have the presence of mind to wonder what a wooden door would be doing on a truck. [ok, soits probably a boat ] GM Just as Stephy begins to panic, she feels an even weirder and more disturbing sensation than any of the changes she's inflicted on herself; her metallic skin is beginning to animate of its own accord! Worse, it seems to be trying to separate from her. It twitches and ripples along her surface, as if her skin had suddenly become a living alien presence. At first it's only profoundly disturbing, then it becomes painful. That's when Stephy totally loses it. There are no flashy pyrotechnics this time, no psychadelic effects, no talking trees or reality turning inside out. Instead, Stephy, Jackie, SFX, George, Ivan Petronovich, Dima Karkov, and Harold Denning are all blasted into atoms and scattered about the Nevada highway, along with the truck they were riding in. The Quantum Cat's damaged (but now repaired) RV brakes, hard, following them and witnessing the spectacle. Everyone inside the truck experiences the oddest phenomenon, full awareness of their own consciousness, and brief merging with every other passenger in the cloud of atomic particles that was all of them, a brief exchange of thoughts and memories- 'thavetheguts... Joy and tragedy, sadism and mere humanity, innocence and evil...and when the seven individuals begin coalescing out of thin air, their bodies reforming and collapsing onto the sand, soon warmed by their clothing, which reforms around them also, it's hard to separate what they just experienced from their own memories. Like a piece of each person has been indelibly etched in the mind of every other. But even as you all ponder this, the alien thoughts and memories fade, like a dream right after you wake up, until some bare facts remain, memories of a memory, but nothing immediate and personal, not like the first-hand experience of six other peoples' lives that you briefly shared. A trace of emotions (lust*agony*fear*excitement*vengefulness*confusion*regret) and you can't be sure whose are whose... Perhaps talking trees or inverted reality would have been preferable. Groans and painful attempts to inhale signify that everyone is in about the same state of shock. You all hear the RV shuddering to a halt, the door flying open, then suddenly, too suddenly, Dom's voice, only a few feet away; "Mein Gott! Vas..What the HELL was-" Then an impact that shakes the earth, as the truck too coalesces out of thin air, all its component atoms gathering together, becoming a truck again...ten feet off the ground. Gravity grabbing hold of it, it drops straight down, with a crash. Incidentally, just to add to your confusion, you're Steven again. Physically and mentally. He's wearing Steven's old clothes. Steven: He tried to get to his hands and knees. Shaking his head to clear it. Confusion and shock battling with fear and the need to do *something... what he couldn't quite remember under the assault of *others* in his head. *Woooooo...*, is all he can think as the memories fade to the back of his mind. Seems he'd chosen an apt name: Chaos. He only hoped it gave him a leg up in handling it over the goons... Shame the memories were fading so quickly, really, it might have helped figure out who was enemy and who potential allies. Now he was reduced to eyes and ears. Well... maybe that wasn't so bad. He looked around slowly. There was Jackie. And SFX. And George. And the... RV? Which meant these others... were enemy. So where did the innocence come from? No time to wonder about that now. Hr had to get over to Jackie, SFX and George. Get away from... Then everything came crashing back to his awareness. **Everything.** "Oh my go...," he croaked. He was, and there was, and they, almost, and then the gas and the box and the gun and... He heard a voice. He *knew* that voice. Wiping his head up and around to see... **Dom. Oh s**... Huh? Wha...?** A shadow and then a CRASH!! **!!!** The truck? No time. No time to wonder. About anything. There was Dom. And the goons. And Jackie, SFX and George... "Jackie! SFX! George! Look out!", he ties to yell. **Dom.. son of a... Ke-riist! How to fight a teleporter?** And god only knew what the others could do. **Hit him fast. Hit him hard. He was going to RAPE me...!** He tried to stumble towards Jackie and SFX as he wracked his brain- or what was left of it- for an idea, any idea. The only thing he could think of was gas. Surround Dom with it. **NO! Turn the ground, all the ground around him into... FOG! Thick fog.** He might not be able to stop Dom, but if he couldn't see them, maybe he could buy them sometime. As he stumbled towards Jackie and SFX, he paused to put a hand to the ground and concentrated hard on no changes to himself and a deep, thick fog risinginstantly, or as quickly as possible over as much area as he could manage. Jackie - As the world again goes crazy, a stray thought comes clear...*Should have known it was him* Laughter follows. The images come fast and hard, her life again gets scattered around for others to prod and gawk at. But strangely, she absorbs what little can be absorbed and she really sees that everyone's life is just as F***** up as hers. She always knew that, but this really brings it home. Even more, that she can keep going, against evil such as this, greed greater than her own, twisted ambition, she can keep going. But first.... Reality slams back and the RV crashes down, Jackie gets bounced Jackie (cont.) Reality slams back and the RV crashes down, Jackie gets bounced and the shock of the experience keeps her fuzzy. Then she can here Stephen and she sees her friends. She also sees the Nazi and his goons. As she stands she interposes herself as much as she can between her friends, but not spending more than a second on this. She mutters under her breath, "Get down," hoping SFX will hear it. As she stands she raises her hand to her side, locates Spike's twisted frozen form and directs him towards Dom. A feral grimace turns her face and she looks him in the face, squeezing her hands she throws a spiked hammer within Spike's throat at the speed of light and sets off the remaining 5 shot gun shell GM Steven wobbles and rises to his knees, placing his hand on the ground and imagining fog, a thick cloud of it, rising from the sand. Instead, electricity crackles along the ground, little blue sparks arcing over the sand and desert scrub grass, a hissing, popping lightshow that startles him (and everyone else), but doesn't generate enough voltage to actually shock anyone. In the night air, a patch of ground radiating about 10 feet around Steven glows brightly for a moment. Dom is stepping towards him, with an angry expression. "Who-" He stops and looks at Jackie as she stands, and Jackie becomes aware that more people are coming from their RV, then summons Spike. Spike is still in the RV, though, not in line of sight and not pointed in the right direction, for all Jackie knows. She has only time enough to try to bring him towards her, at least facing where she wants, and then a five- fold shotgun blast blows all the windows out of the RV, and someone screams in pain. It isn't Dom though. Dom blinks out of sight, then instantly appears ten feet closer, in front of Jackie. He seizes her by the shirt-front and lifts her off the ground with one hand, as if she was weightless. "I should just snap your neck," he growls. "You are all more trouble than you're worth." He turns his head to look at Steven, while shaking Jackie vigorously enough to rattle her teeth. He has her raised in the air, as if to hurl her at him. Steven: He'd cry, or maybe laugh, if he stopped to think about it. What a time to find out one of the limits to his power. He kneeled, shaky, trying to think quicker than he ever had before. Dom was going to kill Jackie if he doesn't do *something*... So what *could* he do? He can change himself. Fat lot of good that'll do. He can change stuff near him- maybe. Dom's more than 10 feet away though. And on top of it, god alone knew what would really happen. And Dom's going to clobber Jackie, and Steven with her apparently. Quantum physics and ManyWorlds didn't seem to offer much of a solution to that. Not anything that came to mind that would work from here anyway. What he really needed was a big anti-teleport gun, or a gas gun or SOMETHING! What he had was only himself... **Oh, hell...** Maybe he could at least buy Jackie some time. He decided to do the only thing he could think of that might- might- help and concentrates of changing his body to Stephy's- but leave his mind Steven- while he yells at Dom, "Hey, lover! Look what you almost f****d, you queer!", and a moment later yells, "Jackie! Use the truck! Metal!" Too bad he couldn't just make himsefl irresistable to the clod. With any luck, maybe he'd at least get Dom mad enough to charge him. If he did-- well, the s/o/b'd find out just what rape was like if Steven had anything to say about it. If that didn't work... well, there was always wolfing out... Jackie - Rage tears through her and a flash of shame at failing again. *S***! I bet I hit George or the Kid. F***** B******!* Her head lolls around and all she can do is hear Stephen and his shouts about the truck. *Damn sheet metal ain't goin to do zip* Eyeing one of the spider moneys she thinks about that movie with the insect things that grab onto a guys face and plops an egg in them. Or whatever it is. The thoughts take form and the spider monkey capers off the kitchenette bound for his head with hooks ready for the inside of his throat. She sets her jaw and stares Dom in the face, a cold stare that will drive a monkey to his tonsils. GM I think I must have given a poor description of the scene, though. The Quantum Cats' RV was following the truck in which you were all confined (which got "disintegrated" and then reformed by Chaos's power, and fell from 10 feet up.) The RV is now parked at the side of the highway, the truck is sitting in the sand, off-road, and you all are a short distance away, off the side of the road also. Spike and the spider monkey are still inside the RV; Jackie can sense them with her metal sense, but they are not in line of sight.] * * * * * The monkey, some yards away, twitches and begins to answer Jackie's mental summons, but with no real intelligence of its own, maneuvering it out of the RV requires more concentration than Jackie can muster at the moment. Dom snarls at Steven's taunt. "I'll f*** you all right, you pathetic little-" A snarl, so ferocious and inhuman it freezes your blood, echoes over the desert, paralyzing everyone. Movement in the corner of your eye...everyone turns, some a split- second sooner than others, to see a large black shadow rushing out of the darkness on the other side of the road. A dark-haired man with a gleaming black submachine gun is purposefully striding towards the spot where all the others are scattered about in confrontation. He turns, sensing the creature behind him, then it's on him. It moves through him, literally, fangs and claws flashing, a black and white blur instantly streaked with red. The armed man doesn't have time to scream, there's just a fountain of blood and then limbs and guts are spraying across the asphalt, and a big black shadow with a maw that looks like the Holland Tunnel lined with teeth is still coming, straight at Dom and Jackie and Steven at locomotive speed. Jackie - Jackie squints at the dark blur and groans inwardly. *Ah have to be cursed, really I do* She swings her elbow as hard as she can into Dom's nose and will moves as fast as she can to the interior of the RV. If concentration allows reforming Spike from the metal mess he's most likely become with the last stunt. *I hit the Kid, I know I did. Where are you SFX!?* Steven: "S***!" The stakes just went up. A *whole* bunch. If he didn't do something now, Jackie was toast. Maybe him too, though he'd managed to survive- barely, last time. Still, he didn't want to kill this thing. Heck, he really didn't even want to kill Dom. Turn him into the Mustang's ranch latest bimbo nympho, sure, but not kill him. Not really. He saw it in a flash of insight. He knew if Dom had a chance, he'd throw Jackie at that... Furrball. Could he affect its mind? Emotions? Send it after Dom and keep it from them? No. He couldn't chance that. What they needed was something to make Dom drop Jackie *and* freeze him in his tracks so he couldn't just blip out before Furrball got to him. And then how did *they* keep from being Furrball's desert? What they needed was Paladin. No he didn't know that much about Paladin. But there was someone he knew real well from childhood, someone he used to bring home twice a month or see at the movies or on TV... Superman. Trying his best to ignore Furrball, figuring that putting the munch on Dom will at least slow the thing down and give him a few seconds, Steven visualized and concentrated *hard*as*possible* on changing himself into Superman- complete with the ability to fly- superstrength, heat vision and all that would be nice too- but he'd settle for flying, just so he was *fast* enough to grab Jackie, SFX and George and get them away from Furrball and Dom both. He didn't care if he ended up as Miss June with his feet permanently pointing up to the sky. He just *had* to take the chance. **Come on guys! Help me!,** he said to the voices inside his head. **This is Jackie and SFX. They saved us! Its George, Stephy! Whoever comes up, just remember THEY'RE OUR FRIENDS!** Maybe the only ones he-they, whatever- had left in the world. GM Jackie swings at Dom's face. She connects weakly, and he doesn't even seem to notice, being more concerned with the onrushing creature. He gasps something harsh and gutteral and undoubtedly obscene in German, and disappears. Jackie drops from the point in midair where he held her, as Steven wishes for Superman. Steven's clothes billow around him, then become the familiar shorts, tights and cape with the big green "S". Yellow shorts, red tights, and green "S". Not that getting the colors wrong is a great concern, considering what *could* have happened... He doesn't feel immediately different, though. His muscles don't surge with superhuman power, and he feels no immediate impulse to cast heat-rays from his eyes, not that he's sure how that would feel. He does feel an urge, barely quashed, to lose control of his bodily functions as the horror comes rushing at him. Jackie is mere yards away, probably about to become a bloody speed bump along its trajectory to Steven. "Oh f***," they both hear SFX mutter, stirring in the scattered sand and debris nearby. -part5- Steven: **F***, f***, f***!** He didn't care about strength, or heat vision. What he was trying for was *flying*. What he got was the uniform of a color-blind cartoon. Oh, and Dom got away and now Jackie was about to become Furrball's stake tartar. "Get out of the way, Jackie!," he yelled, as he started running... off to the side, in the opposite direction from where SFX's voice came. "You want me!," he screamed at Furrball. "COME GET ME, MOTHERF*****!" The only time he seemed to be able to do anything but parlor tricks was when he just *completely* lost it. And then he was lucky if he didn't kill those he was trying to help. He'd faced this thing before and... well, not exactly beat it so much as managed a stalemate. And he still bet there was a person in there. So if he could just get the thing to follow him, ignore Jackie, *and* get far enough away he didn't turn her or SFX into Smurfs when the thing finally got him... And when it did, when those jaws opened to bite his head off... well, panicking would be the easiest thing in world. He did that really well. Lately, it seemed to be the only thing he did well. And, after all, it was all he could do to keep from going ape**** right now. Jackie - She starts to get up from the sand, but she decides she really doesn't have much of a chance of avoiding this flash of fur and teeth Tasmanian Devil. Looking up she hears SFX and smiles, speaking softly, "Got any ideas Kid, I'm fresh out. If I can get to that extra car battery...I ain't a heavy hitter." Sitting in a crouch on the sand, Jackie starts to laugh at the monster, ready to put to use all those gymnastics lessons she's misused all those years. She gets ready to make a leap out of the way. GM The monster, claws and teeth and a car-sized mass of fur and muscle, roars and leaps at Jackie. Claws hiss through the air- Jackie can literally hear the air *hissing* as it tries to rip her in half. By inches, she manages to jump aside...desperation gives her strength, and her evasive maneuvers may not put Spider Man to shame, but they kept her alive for an instant longer. The thing, with considerable momentum, keeps going, saliva flying from it's open jaws as it howls in fury at failing to dismember its first target. Steven runs along, cape flapping, as SFX staggers to his feet. SFX joins Steven in yelling obscenities at the creature. "COME AN' GET IT FURBALL, I'LL TURN YOUR FUZZY A** INTO DOGS*** MUSH YOU SMELLY MOTHERF*****!!!" The kid's voice, amplified, echoes across the desert, drowning out all other sounds, and the wolf-creature's head swivels towards him, glowing red eyes narrow, and a jaw lined with inch-long teeth opens and emits a snarl, which can't be heard over SFX's taunts. He holds up two fists. "C'MON F***HEAD S***EATING C***SUCKING D*****BAG BITCH!!!" The creature leaps forward with a scream so furious that it DOES actually sound above SFX's sonic-boosted voice, towards the teenager as Dom and Ms. Smoke suddenly appear behind him. Steven: **Thank god...** is his first reaction when he- running and looking back at the thing, he couldn't NOT look if he tried- saw it miss Jackie. Now if he could only... Then SFX starts in and the Furball stops. And Steven- absolutely insane, but again he can't NOT- digs his heels in and stops. And then the thing howls and goes after *SFX*. "NO!", Steven screams. If he could have got it away from them, then he could have just panicked and chaosed it to indigestion until it went away like last time. But now... He started running towards SFX, screaming (unheard over SFX's booming voice), not sure what he was going to do. Not really thinking about it. And then Dom and Ms. Smoke popped up behind SFX. "JEEZ--- DUCK! DOWN! BEHIND YOU!," he screamed as loud as he could, still not loud enough, and started waving his hands at SFX, up and down and point behind him. If SFX didn't snap to it, he'd never make it in time. And if he did, the only thing he could think of was to try to drop the ground underneath him, but not Dom and Smoke... [which if he can is exactly what he'll do if SFX doesn't get out of the way, and Stevens within 10 feet of him and the thing is still going for, but hasn't got to him. If SFX *does* get out of the way, of course, he'll let Furball collide with Dom and Smoke and, if he gets within 10 feet of them and it looks like SFX is out of the area of effect THEN he'll put everything he had into unleashing his power in a 'controlled' panic, trying for something that'll keep Dom from teleporting. ] And the whole way Steven prayed. Jackie: WHOOSH. She lands on her feet almost like a cat, if things weren't so bad she might even pat herself on the back. *That was a long way from a few walks on a wire into some shmoe's home.* She breaks running for the RV, urged on by SFX's yells. *Brave kid, reminds me of me.* Seeing Dom and the smoke b**** appear behind her two friends pushes her even faster to the RV. *I need my gear. If these guys can't hold on for a few shakes against them we are toast. Bloody toast. As soon as she can, she stuffs a handful of shotgun shells into Spike and locates the car battery. GM SFX hears Steven screaming, drops to his knees as he turns around and sees the two metahumans behind him, and trapped between them and the Thing, does the only thing he can think of- eeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEE !!! EEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEE !!! EEE EE EE !!! EEE EE EE !!! EEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEE !!! EEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEE !!! EEE EE EE !!! EEE EE EE !!! EEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEE !!! An eardrumming-exploding blast of pure sound radiates from him, blowing sand into the air from the crater forming around SFX. Ms. Smoke instantly turns into a cloud of smoke, and Dom clutches his ears and disappears. The creature howls, even its howls being drowned out...but worse, it keeps going, keeps running towards SFX- And Steven, pain turning his vision scarlet red, can no longer concentrate, can no longer plan, can no longer think of anything but cut loose.... Lethal sonic powers unleashed in panic, reality-warping quantum powers unleashed in fear and pain, both pumped out at maximum intensity by individuals pushed past their limits and facing something even worse than their own powers run amok- ohf***ohf***ohf***ohf***ohF***ohF***ohF***OHF***OHF***OHF***OHF*** OHF***!!!!! SFX's voice echoes across the desert, starting out as a mutter then a whisper then an exclaimation then a shout then a scream then a ripple of pure white sound on the wave front of subatomic disassembly ripping silicon and asphalt and soft fleshy chunks of wolfy and SFX and Steven into tiny bits and putting them back together again like a dyslexic child given the parts from a hundred jigsaw puzzles in one box by a cruel practical joker, and things don't fit together quite right do they? And SFX's voice OHF*** OHF*** OHF*** OHF*** OHF*** OHF*** OHF*** OHF*** still echoing and growing in intensity while the air turns blue and purple and licorice and Jackie sees it coming towards her, the most fantastic sight she's ever seen, not ONE color she's never seen before but a hundred, the color of a song and the color of the inside of a blind man's eyelids and the color of the universe an instant before it was created and the RV seems to have taken a vacation from existing as the growing bubble of sonic chaos swallows it but Jackie doesn't mind, her ears are bleeding (probably not blood likely as not its chocolate or Tide liquid bleach or molten silver dripping down her neck) she's looking at the pretty pictures on the surface of the growing improbability bubble *somewhere in there is SFX and Steven and one really really pissed off metahumanwolfthing which is going to tearout all your favorite bodilyorgans and swallow them whole if it can stop bouncing around between Antares and Jupiter first* Now look what you did, thinks SFX, and Steven even being turned back and forth from Stephy-in-Steven's- body to Steven-in-Stephy's-body and then both in neither body since you can't have a body when reality is like a soup kettle filled with random ingredients you pulled off the pantry shelf and just lit a flame under them until they all melted and poured lots and lots of cooking sherry in so who cares what it tastes like anyways- A hand closes on Jackie's upper arm and suddenly she's jerked away, her arm almost dislocated as a powerful grip yanks her off her feet and sends her flying twenty feet to land in the dirt **chirpchirp** goes reality it's still prettyf***ingstrange around here- and she sees dark boots in front of her face, a hand yanks her head up by the hair and pulls her along as Dom takes three long strides- "Would you please RUN you stupid goose?" he says, and then disappears with a blink. behind her, chaos is still boiling out of solid sound that still echoes from Las Vegas to the Rocky mountains and back, and it's a siren-call of death and life and pure incoherent noise organized in the most precise, incomprehensible horrifically beautiful discordant melody imaginable... Jackie: She just about makes it to the Rv when waves of weird and sound ripple and it blinks...or she does. Wincing she rubs her ears that feel quite wet... she doesn't even want to know with what. She looks on helplessly as her friends do a quantum waltz phasing in and out, like a texas twister of marshmallow fluff turned to '11' on the boom box. Looking on dumbly, she gets grabbed and thrown. Landing partially on her feet, she stumbles and falls. Her hair is pulled and she sees Dom. She's dead. Then he blinks...or she does. *What the hell? That didn't sound like him. Why? get away? Where?* She gets up and walks towards the End of the World, well maybe just hers. Those books on Zen and Chinese mysticism always seemed kind of fun to read, but it was all crap right? Forcing the thoughts from her mind, she tries to think of a cool rippling pond, untouched by any of this. Thinking of the times her Daddy held her when she'd wake up at night crying, because Momma was dead. A feeling of security, of safety, something she's rarely felt in her life. Setting her mind a soft hardness, a stubborness despite the craziness. A straw boring through a oak plank in the heart of a hurricane, she reaches her hand out to the maelstrom. "Stephen, Stephy, Stephenie can you hear me? All you have to do is send the furball away. Calm down, you beat them all before, WE can do it again. But I need you both HERE, in the NOW. Come back." GMBehind her, Jackie hears Dom exclaim "What the HELL are you doing you stupid-" followed by a stream of curses in German. The chaos rolls over Jackie and engulfs her. Surprisingly, this quiets the raging storm of sonic-amplified quantum ripples, though the edges of reality fray, Jackie's skin pleasantly melting off into raspberry filling as her mind detaches itself, briefly spies on a sailboat drifting between Oahu and some other Hawaiian island, then comes back to Vegas. Jackie, SFX, Steven, George, Tatiana, and The Beast are all there. None of you have bodies any more; you're just ideas, conceptual icons expressed to each other inside a temporary warping of the universe into something that makes everything else momentarily irrelevant. It also strips away all pretenses, and all desire to maintain them. I am cowardly, greedy and insecure, says George. I am as loyal as my nature allows- I wish you could expect more from me, but you can't. I am cocky, brilliant, and scared s***less, says Larry, who would never otherwise allow you to call him Larry. I'm in love with you, too, Jackie. The only thing that matters to me is me, says Tatiana. I have nothing against you personally, I'm just being mind-controlled. If I was free, I'd probably ignore you and use my powers to make myself rich. I am Rage and Violence and Insatiable Bloodlust, says the Beast, whose human identity has been devolved even more completely by its double- exposure to Chaos' power. As soon as this ends, I'm going to rip every one of you into small, bloody pieces. Steven: **Never wanted to hurt anybody. Just a chance at love, family, happiness. Not even sure who/what I am anymore. I'll try to help, because... Well, because somebody has to. It probably won't make a difference...** Jackie: I am a bad tempered b****, only because I have to be. The only way to get my way is to survive anything, or think I can, either that or LIFE stomps on you and grinds you under. I don't know what is underneath and that is what scares me the most. GM Winds howling out of limbo whirl around you all, carrying fragments of reality, or other realities, whispers, dreams, sensations- insights so enlightening, sights and sounds so beautiful, or terrifying, or fantastic, that your minds expand, new horizons open in your awareness, a new understanding of the universe is gained- -only to fade, like all dreams, as YOUR reality slowly settles in again. Darkness falls over everything, and the point where the darkness of another dimension warping around you merges with the darkness of the Nevada night sky is impossible to sense. Everyone feels frozen, imbedded in the ground, covered with something that obscures your vision, liked smoked glass. Strangely, you can all breathe through it. A few long, deep breaths leave you pretty sure that you are actually back in HERE and NOW. [Steven is still Steven] Steven: After ascertaining that he indeed seems to be back, he automatically begins to examine whatever is covering him, as he slowly tries to sit up... Groaning... Then remembered... furr... **Oh ke-riist!** As quick (or not) as he can, he looks around him at the others and particularly for wolfie- **please let it be cured!**- what they hey a prayer couldn't hurt, right?- as he tries to stand (well, starting with getting up on his knees... again, anyway) and yell (well, say as loudly as possible anyway) to the others to run. GM You can't stand. Or see, except for dim grey light. You really are encased in this stuff, whatever it is. Steven: **S*... Ok. Calm down. Think. Use your brain for a change.** It was either... a misfire, say dirt that someone got weirded out... Or, a by- product of the chaos-storm. **God that was... like SFX hit the right frequency and it piggy-backed mine...** What else could it be? He almost laughed when he had a sudden image of himself encased in a cocoon. **The big question would be what kind of butter... My luck, I'd end up Ms. Universe. Hell... would that be so bad? What is Stephy anyway? What am I? How many guys have done *that.* Jackie's doesn't know how lucky she is... To actually have someone in love with her. Wish she'd cut herself some slack though... cut them both some slack... She's better than she thinks... than she let's herself think... Kinda makes me sorry I treated her like that ... Poor SFX... He'd have a better chance if he were older or she younger...** He couldn't stand, so what else did he have to do right now but think about what had been revealed... what he had revealed... **Poor George ... He's not so bad... Maybe I should have told him I really was Stephy... I probably didn't help him any... Who is Titiana? Got be Smoke... Mind controlled? I wonder if I could 'cure' that? If we could question her about who.. where? Bet Dom is too... Bet neither of them would really screw with us if we could find out who the controller was... How do you counter that? And when this stuff finally goes... She's going to try and screw us again... Damn... Just like Furry... I wish I could find a way to help... With my luck... things would probably only get worse...** **Oh hell... I'm thinking too much... Need to... I wonder if I'm the only one stuck in this? How do I get out? Actually, I bet *that* I *can* do... Hope it doesn't mess the other's up too much...** **Ok. ok. Calm and easy. Center and visualize... What? This stuff around me... blowing away? Yeah... Like the box. Not exploding... just fading away.** A sudden thought... flash back to the hospital... Ms. Smoke turning to gunk... **Oh god... I hope its not... if it is... Oh, jeez, I can;t just... What if it hurts her? Ok... ok. Think of something else... of... of...** When he feels calmed and centered as much as he thinks he's going to be, he concentrates on the grey stuff around him becoming liquid, flowing away from him enough so he can stand free of it, no changes in himself and control the splash. Jackie: *Always too damn much to deal with at once. Like we, I don't have a full plate to work on, now I have a banquet. Calm down girl, one thin' at a time* She tries to struggle out of the gunk, keeping her awareness narrowed to the furball express, or any other threat. *Not that I can do anythin' about it.* GM ackie struggles in her cocoon, but can't break free. It doesn't seem to be inhibiting her breathing, though. The crystalline cocoon melts off Steven, and he stands, as the bits of glassy substance dissolve into the air like smoke. The entire area is covered with a layer of smoked glass, with several large bulges marking spots where, presumably, others are encased as well. Nearby, the truck, with glassy gunk climbing up to its hubcabs, is glued to the sand. As Steven stands, he hears a teeth-rattling high-pitched buzz (as does Jackie), and a patch of glass nearby explodes into dust. SFX rolls shakily forward into a crouch, looking around like he expects to blast something. Neither has time to do more than notice each other, when yet another bulge explodes outwards, shards of glass flying everywhere. With a roar of fury, the Beast smashes effortlessly out of its own cocoon, rising onto two legs and whirling around, fangs and claws already slashing the air, before it's bloody red gaze fixes on Steven and SFX. Steven: "Oh s***...," he hisses with an air of resignation. Hated he just been through this? "SFX! Jackie!", he yelled as he faced Furball. "Get the hell out of here. Off the glass!" "Hey Furry!," he yelled at Furball. "Let's get this over with." He really hoped he was as invulnerable to this thing as the little theory about his power that he'd guessed at as much as everything else suggested he should be. After all, about the only thing he was sure of, if he was sure of anything, was that his power made him a kind of focus for improbability. Since he could direct that, then he should be able to insure his own survival, no matter how improbable. Whatever caused the misfires, it so far had not, and it didn't make sense that it ever would, be counter-survival. He'd survive as... something. Then he just had to hope it was temporary... "Let's see if I can *evolve* your a** back to human." No matter what it looked like, Steven was not nearly as confident as he was trying to convince himself to be. But that was ok. He'd hoard his panic. If all else failed, it was his ace in the whole. It was a calculated gamble... but wasn't that the whole point of his power? He couldn't lose. He hoped. As he prepared to will with all his might as soon as he could reach out and touch Furball to concentrate on his own survival and Furball becoming fully human, evolving if you will. There had to be a person in there somewhere. If all else failed, he'd throw his panic in and pray. Not that he wasn't praying already. Now if only he could keep it between Furball and him. "Jackie! Use the damn truck's metal in case this doesn't work." GM Jackie concentrates, feels the truck walls ripple and bubble as a vaguely Spike-like shape takes form and begins emerging. Above, the Beast charges, jaws gaping. SFX is still dazed- and between the Beast and Steven. All he can do is turn towards the thing, and let out a sonic blast the likes of which Steven hasn't heard since Baton Rouge, when he just about blew out every window in the mental hospital. This is worse. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEE!!!! The Beast howls, silently in the face of SFX's barrage of amplified sound. Fur and flesh spray bloodily from its face and chest, as the kid's sonic blast flays skin and tissue and explodes cells. But the thing keeps coming, through the red mist exploding around it, mad with rage and pain, and it closes on SFX, with his outstretched hand still focussing hundreds, maybe thousands of decibels on the monster. The Beast swings a massive arm, with streams of blood trailing from ruptured arteries and liquified muscle. SFX's arm flies from his shoulder in a bloody arc. Jackie: She watches helplessly within the cocoon as the Wolf is flayed by sound. Watches as the sonic blasts do nothing to it. Watches as it tears off SFX's arm as easy as tissue. "NOOOOOO!!" Jackie bites her lip and blood flows freely down her mouth, rage boils inside her until she can't contain it anymore. She feels a ripple of cold roll through her body. Shock, Fear? All her attentions, all her rage and pain she forcefeeds into Spike, like feeding a baby with a forklift. She sends Spike at the Beast, her only thoughts are to burrow, tear, render, sunder, maim and eviscerate. GM Steven runs forward, concentrating on Healing. Quantum fields shimmer and distort around him, the air seems to become cleaner and all the blood and smoke disappears right next to him, but SFX tumbles backwards to the ground, blood fountaining from his shoulder, and Steven senses too much resistance, from SFX and the environment, he can't will SFX's arm back onto his body from ten feet away. The thought of sticking his hand IN that shower of blood and gore makes him want to throw up, except the ten foot mountain of fangs and claws and blood towering over him won't let him, and he knows if he panics he *might* take the Beast out, but unless they're all luckier than anyone deserves to be, what are the chances another chaos storm will put SFX back together in survivable form? A half-formed mass of metal slams into the Beast from behind, and it spins around, brings a furred fist down on "Spike", squashing the low- grade steel of which the truck is made and from which Spike was formed, but Spike, not feeling pain or being particularly disturbed at having its form squished, wraps around the thing's fist, and ragged sawteeth form in all directions, trying to tear into the creature. It roars in fury and flings the animated metal in a hundred foot arc across the desert. Little bits of metal that came off are still clinging to it, trying to gouge their way into its skin. The men who were in the RV, forgotten until now, spectators to the madness that just erupted here and then faded, have ringed the area, and open up suddenly, automatic weapons firing, streams of bullets ripping into the monster. More blood flies, but despite enough gore to fill a Freddy Krueger film, the monster still stands, and begins moving towards the nearest gunman...in a trajectory that will bring it within arms' length of Steven, something obviously not unnoticed by the Beast, as one massive clawed hand reaches out for him. Jackie: Jackie rages within, she didn't expect Spike to do much. For something that can rip steel...what could? She will test the strength of the cocoon, to get an idea of it's hardness should she have to put a fist through it. She concentrates on the chain and pipes and the metal contacts of the spare battery in the RV. Stretching the metal out to a rope she will move it out from the RV to the general area of fracas. Then she will connect the rope of metal with a 'Y' to the contacts. Trying to remember what George taught her not to do when jumping a car, she'll do it and see what some juice does to it. If she remembers what the hell she is doing. Her heart sinks at all the blood spraying from what used to be her... friend. This time one of her own isn't going out alone. Steven: Amazing what the mind does sometimes. The world seemed to move to slow-mo as SFXs arm went thud in the ground and SFX crumpled to the ground while Furball kept coming and Steven noticed all these little details even while it seemed that he couldn't move at more than a snails pace... Like the fact that Healing might actually work if he could overcome the urge to just turn and lose whatever he ate last... If he lived and could get there. Like the fact that Jackie must be ok because there was no other way to account for that boulder of metal... Which slowed but didn't stop Furball. Like the fact that the world seemed to have erupted into a sleet of lead. And would these people- obviously this mind controller's- care enough to try not to kill him in their ineffectual zeal... or just wait until after. Like the fact that none of that really mattered cause Furball was deciding the issue... And then suddenly he seemed only to have time to think about ducking under that claw, even while trying to grab Furball's... well, furr if nothing else, and putting all his fear and hope and anger and everything but his panic into Healing Furrball back to human, either re-evolving him or a straight transformation. It was the only way they were going to stop the thing he was pretty sure. It seemed to be like the Hulk: the worst things got, the madder it got, the more unstoppable it became. The only way to stop him was to turn him back to Bruce Banner... And maybe it would work? It was a *kind* of healing after all. If his guesses about Furball were correct. And if his life really had become somekind of bizarre living comic book... Oh, he had time enough for one other thing: to pray. That he didn't just get himself killed here, that it worked *and* still left him time to get to SFX and try to keep him alive, that his heart didn't explode like it sounded like it was going to... and that he had clean underwear when all this was over. GM Jackie can't really see more than hazy images through the layer of crystal covering her. It cracks a little when she punches it; she can break out, though not instantly. The metal begins extending as she commands it, but things are moving too fast- The Beast snarls, its claw flashes with superhuman speed, and Steven goes flying. There's a jolt and a pink and orange flash of light as he tries to induce a quantum change in the Beast, but at some psychic level it snarls and shakes off the attempt, pure rage shrugging off the transformation. Steven is already in shock when he lands, meters away, and it takes a moment to realize that he's been slashed open like bag of beans, blood and gore spewing out. And the healing power he tried to focus on the Beast, that he was hoping to direct at SFX, channels into his own body instead. Flesh stretches across the wound, ruptured organs slide back into the abdominal cavity, and with a considerable amount of pain, the ghastly wound closes. At a price, as Steven feels his entire body- and his mind- changing once again. You get to be a woman again. This time it's Stephy with a "macho- women-with-guns" attitude- basically Stephy, but survival instinct has kicked in, and instead of Squeamishness, she has Bloodlust and Overconfidence. She wants to kick some ass, preferably by using her quantum powers to zap all these assholes into mosquitoes or something. She is not, however, suicidal; she's quite aware that letting the Beast get within arms' length again will probably be her death, as the effort of healing herself was so taxing, she doubts she could do it again this soon. Especially if she wants to do the same for SFX. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a gun to go with the new 'tude. She hasn't forgotten SFX, either. She's as concerned as Steven was for her friends. Priorities, in her mind, would probably be, save SFX, and then figure out a way to waste the Beast. Jackie: Jackie continues to focus on the task at hand, there's not much she can do, maybe she should have stayed in school... *I bet that Sid badass could take him out, Steven has too much the nice guy in him, maybe we all aren't cold blooded killers. A hint or two of doubt in me and my powers seem to act the same, with him that seems enough to put those funky powers into a tailspin.* She watches as a rope of metal slowly, too slowly continues on it's worm's pace. Stephy: She flips her long blond hair back, struggling to her feet again. She looks like Stephy anyway. "Holee jeez...", she starts then her lurches around looking for... finding... Furball heading for the shooters apparently. Good, let them play with him... for now. Now, she had to get to SFX! Staggering up and away from Furball's direction, making a circle away from him to SFX, dodging the bullets if necessary, as fast as possible... When she gets there, she looks at the blood a second, then grimaces and turns to grab the arm lying over... there. Eyes on Furball and the shooters, she drags his arm over to SFX, not sure what she's going to do with it but damned if she's going to let it go to waste. she hoped Furball and these scumbags would have a real good time and keep each other busy until she got SFX fixed up. Then, if she could keep away from Furball... she'd show the a******'s just what happened to peole who f***** with her! The idea of failure was entertained just long enough to dismiss it. She slaps SFX's arm against his side, then looks down to adjust it figuring while it probably won't matter it couldn't help. She takes a moment to just look at SFX, muttering, "Damn, Larry," you could almost swear she was grinning, but that couldn't be right, could it?, "you're too cute to waste." She then bent down to his face and kissed his lips as she concentrated very hard on healing him... and making him look a little closer to Jackie's age probably wouldn't hurt either. [If its posible, I'd guess she's try to at least keep herself from changing in anyway. Not so sure she'd care about the splash affecting others tho.] Jackie continues to focus on the task at hand, there's not much she can do, maybe she should have stayed in school... *I bet that Sid badass could take him out, Steven has too much the nice guy in him, maybe we all aren't cold blooded killers. A hint or two of doubt in me and my powers seem to act the same, with him that seems enough to put those funky powers into a tailspin.* She watches as a rope of metal slowly, too slowly continues on it's worm's pace. GM You pick up the severed arm, which is not neatly sliced off, but ragged and mangled at the torn end. She knows normally she'd be turning green at the sight, and in her head, Steven and Stephanie ARE shuddering, while Chase whimpers in horror. Sid just says *Cool!* though it's partly bravado, as it's clear to all of you that one second is all it will take for the creature to do the same or worse to you. Against SFX's gushing shoulder, as he lies there dying, and Stephy concentrates... SFX's blood suddenly turns green, both what's gushing out of him, and what oozes from the severed arm. But it continues to flow in lethal amounts. And Stephy feels fatigued...even more fatigued than from other failed transformation attempts. *Really pushing all the squeamish buttons* Sid comments. *I guess we can thank God for small favors, that you've turned into SuperBitch at the right time, at least.* Jackie: Frowning, she punches the cocoon, hoping to get a better look at the scene, better to snake a electrified steel cable around it's F****** head! The cold hand around her chest lets go as SFX seems to be ok? At least he'll live for now. *Nobody messes with us anymore, nobody! That F***** furtrain from hell is tomorrow's hamburger and Dom...what is he doin? He can just blink out of here. He still want to take us away to FascistLand?* She will continue to concentrate on the metal cable if she has a better scope of vision. If not she will merely direct it to the floating barbs within the Wolf left from Spike's attack as a reference. GM SFX has one arm- the severed arm still lies next to him. George looks at the scene, and turns pale and looks ready to faint. He stumbles in Stephy's direction, dazed. "Wha-? What the hell? Oh s***..." Stephy sees Jackie struggling in her cocoon, like a baby chick trying to break out of its shell, but a lot meaner-looking. The cable snakes its way towards the Beast, which is dragging itself around by its forepaws, the lower half of its body apparently paralyzed by Dom's blow to its spine. But it still snarls and rages, even as the men in black continue pumping rounds into it. It takes impossible amounts of damage, and still rages, not even seeming to notice as the cable wraps around one leg, or as a cloud of gas rolls across the sand towards it. Dom blinks next to it, bashes a fist into its snout with a bloody cracking sound, then gasps as its claws flash with superhuman speed and rip through his costume and open up his thigh. Drops of blood fall from mid- air suspension as he blinks away again. Stephy: **Oh hell..., he's no better than the others**, she thinks when she sees George's reaction. She swears under her breath and, tryng not to think about it, she grabs SFX's arm and shoves it hand first half down the front of his pants. If he's wearing a belt, she loosens it then retightens it after putting the arm in. She has no idea how long is too long before the doctor's might not be able to reattach it, or eve if they can, but she'd damned if she's not going to give him the chance if she can. "Don't think about it!", she yells to George in her best order giving voice. "Just get him to the RV. Can you do that, George?," turning on a little sex appeal, if it helps, "I'll get Jackie. You get SFX to the RV. Ok?" [Assuming he's still heading towards SFX/got there...] Without waiting for an answer, she gets up quickly from near SFX and runs (as best she can) to Jackie. Falling to her knees besides it, she pounds, pokes, etc., at the glass, trying to help free Jackie. She glances back at SFX and George during this. [If/once Jackie is free... The minute Jackie can hear her, even though/if she'd not yet free, she starts telling her, "He's alive. George is getting him the RV. We HAVE to get out of here! Now! While they're still fighting each other." Jackie: She feels the metal alive in her mind and feels a wash of triumph as it wraps around it's leg. She connects the split 'Y' of the end within the Rv to the battery. *Lights. Camera. Action. Dance you F****** flamin' furball! Do a tapdance off the edge of reality you M***********!* Jackie reaches out to the mishapen crumpled Spike and summons him to her. GM Current flows through the wire, and the Beast screams in added pain. It becomes even more uncontrollably berserk, its movements frantic and spastic, as its hair stands on end, smoke rises from its fur, and the smell of burnt flesh becomes noticeable. As the cloud of gas envelopes it, it jerks hard on the cable, pulling it loose from the truck, ripping out a piece of the battery as well. George looks naseous, but tries to drag SFX as directed. Dom suddenly appears in front of the group, leaning over clutching his bloody leg. "Where are you going?" he snarls. Jackie - She looks on to the thrashing creature, hoping that these are it's death throes. Though she isn't convinced entirely of that. Willing Spike to her, she uses him as a ram to crack the shell open. *There's another battery and a box of shells in that RV, now to get to them* GM [Stephy is next to Jackie, who's emerging from the cocoon, and that metal "dog" of hers is running over, as Dom appears.] Jackie - As Spike moves closer from where he was thrown, she sees her friends approaching. Then Dom materializes in front of them. With what she can seem to remember from that mind meld or whatever it was, they aren't by any means safe. As Spike scampers forth, she forms a four inch metal spike in his head and directs him as fast as she can push him into Dom's good leg, trying to cripple or slow him down. The gunmen, she can handle, but the smoke b****, Steven is the only hope of taking that one out. Seeing SFX in another body with his arm dangling from his belt doesn't convince her any better that they are in serious trouble. She hopes Dom isn't aware of Spike... Stephy: GM Stephy holds her breath, as she tries to grab and walk/help/drag Jackieout of the area with the gas (upwind) as she concentrates on turning the gas in the air into an antidote to the sleep-stuff or, if not possible, just cleaning it out, yelling, "Gas! Don't breath! Come on! Leaving!" She also tries to lead her towards the RV as fast as possible with the intent of the four of them getting the heck out of here if possible. [and assuming she makes her will roll against bloodlust] GM Dom glares at Stephy's insult. "While I am fighting that werewolf- creature that is also trying to kill you, you'll just sneak off, eh?" He lunges towards Stephy with startling speed, then exclaims "Gaa! " as a cloud of pungent gas boils out of the air around him. He staggers, then blinks away, just before Spike can drive his spike through the teleporter's leg. Stephy and Jackie are now breathing fumes, and rapidly getting light- headed. Jackie - Blinking at the gas and the fortune that Tatiana has brought by gassing Dom (?) she climbs out and runs towards the two gunmen. She hopes Steven understands what she's doing and doesn't follow. She will attempt to keep Spike at her heels as she runs, envisioning him on a leash. Stephy: Stephy doesn;t understand why Jackie pushes her away and then runs *at* the gunmen. She stands still for a split second, then bolts for the RV. Whatever Jackie's up to, it's either a good idea or it'll get her shot. Either way they need the RV moving *now!*. She wasn't sure what Dom's range was, but she really didn't want to give him time to recover enough that she had to find out. Her intention was to get to RV, and get it moving- or get Georgie moving it- to meet Jackie near wherever she was headed. They could worry about how they got revenge later, if they made it out of here alive. She had a sick feeling, in the end, that would mean getting ahold of the government. GM With Spike loping unevenly behind her, Jackie charges the two gunmen, who are still pumping rounds into the raging Beast, which continues to roar and spray blood and spittle for yards, even as the cloud of gas continues swirling around it. Its struggles are becoming somewhat weaker, so Tatiana must be having some effect, but the damn thing REALLY isn't going down easily! Stephy circles around the RV, sees a thug with an assault rifle taking cover in front of it, firing at the Beast, and so diverts her path to head around the rear. George is dragging SFX behind him, stopping and lying flat on the ground every time a bullet whizzes too close. A gun goes off to Stephy's right, and a bullet punches a hole in the RV next to her. Running towards her, a tall man with a shaven skull is pointing a pistol at her, and yelling something in a foreign language, but he doesn't seem to be yelling at Stephy. Stephy: **Damn. Must be warning the others... Or...** She plays like she's hurt her ankle or something (hoping this guy hasn't see *too* many movies ), then straightens up, slowly lifting her hands above her head- he's got the gun after all- as she glances behind herself. Of course, this only serves to emphasize the ruined state of her clothes and the voluptuousness of her body. [Assuming no one in back of her...] Her intention is too lull this guy in front of her into letting her get close enough to him that she can fake a stumble, fall onto and wrap her arms around his neck, kiss him if it'll give her the time to make him into her mind-controlled slave or at least protector. Jackie - Making her way around this bloody mess she goes to the window above the kitchenette, pops the metal frame and crawls in (looking to see if anyone is in it first). Next she will go for the box of shotgun shells and stuff a handful of shells inot Spike, who envelops them greedily. She will form all the remaining metal into a canister, like an old fashioned vacuum cleaner. GM Stephy begins limping, and the shaven-headed man continues to brandish his gun at her. "Freeze!" he says. As she stumbles towards him, his grasp becomes tighter on the handweapon. "Don't try something, I know what you are!" He looks over to George, dragging SFX around the corner. Jackie hears this, as she melts the metal off the frame of the kitchenette window on the other side. Jackie - She stops what she's doing with the window and smiles to herself. Reaching out with her metal sense, she locates any guns in immediate area, first checking her own area out. Then she imagines a hand clenching the metal as if it were silly putty deforming it into a new unusable shape. Maybe some porr idiot still has their hand in it? Tough. Stephy: "Oh? What am I?" She stops as his finger tightens on the gun. "Ok, like don't have a cow, you know? You'd think you'd never seen a pretty girl before." She follows his glance to George, then quickly looks back to him. [if he looks sufficiently distracted or if his gun goes silly putty...] Smiling eviling, Stephy quickly closes the distance between her and the man, trowing her arms aroound his neck and holding on, and concentrates on making him her slave. [if that works...] "Give George a hand getting SFX into the RV," she orders, "then get in yourself." Jackie - Sighing, she looks through the window and checks to make sure it looks clear, knowing how many times that has saved her the trouble of being a guest in a hole later rather than sooner. She then will climb in, stuffing shotgun shells into Spike. GM There doesn't appear to be anyone inside the RV. Jackie enters and begins "arming" Spike. Outside, the gunman is distracted by the sudden puttying of his gun, allowing Stephy to close the distance and wrap her arms around him. He starts, and tries to shover her violently away...but the attempt becomes weakened before he can separate himself, and he seems to almost droop in her arms. "Boizhe...moi...beautiful...lady..." he murmurs. On the other side of the RV, the Beast utters a horrendous scream that sends shivers down everyone's spine. Wounded, maybe dying it may be, but it's far from dead. Gunfire continues relentlessly. Jackie - From the remianing metal scraps left from the chains and pipes, she will form a large cannister, like a large diving oxygen tank. A hollow set of "hose" from the main body of it at the top. She will put a small hole at the top next to the hose and try to remember the fan assembly in a vacuum cleaner, as far as she can get it. Stephy: An evil grin lights her face. "Help Georgie get SFX into the RV," she tells him. "Then get in yourself. Now!" She turns and walks briskly to the RV, enters, calling "Jackie? Oh... Jackie? You here?" She should be around, given what happened to the goons gun. "I got us like a p.o.w. Once we're out of here, he'll be able to tell us, you know, *all* about who these bogus clowns are." Only they better get out of here now. While Wolfie is still keeping them busy. Too bad about Wolfie. She would have liked to have been the one who beat him. And then turn on the others... But, she didn't have an unlimited store of energy. And SFX was going to need more help. And, once they pumped this guy... Her oily smile widened. *Then* there'd be planty of time to turn Dom, all of them really, into something small and inoffensive. After she had a little fun with them, of course. GM The Russian thug complies, helping George get SFX into the RV. Immediately behind Stephy, another man jumps in...the sniper who was crouched in front of the RV before. He holds his assault rifle at the ready. "Nobody move!" he growls. Stephy: **Oh hell...** She freezes. Apparently, Jackie didn't get all the guns nearby. Speaking of Jackie. "Oh, Jackie...," she calls, "perhaps you should come out too before this guy shoots me?" On the other hand..., if this latest goon is within 10 feet... [if he is and Jackie does not respond, or if he doesn't let Stephy call out to her...] She concentrated on sending as much electricity from the ground up and into his gun as possible, without changes to herself of course. With any luck, it would cook him enough to at least knock him out. If not, maybe it would at least make him drop the gun. Jackie - Hearing some commotion outside and a commanding tone from another gun toting idiot, her temper flares from impatience. Scanning the area with her senses again, and if a gun shape appears in her vision, she wraps it around the user's hands like a set of manacles, twisting them a bit for emphasis. She looks over her cannister and wonders if it will do a thing. She makes a quick look around to see what it was she was locked up in just minutes ago, by the Nazis. She takes the shotgun out from the closet and loads it. *Time to pay the piper you F***** Nazis, we ain't leavin' til you are this time. Sick? Tired? Yeah, but you ain't seen nothin'!* Stephy: [If Jackie wraps the gun around the goons hands/wrists (probably he'd call out in surprise at least right?)...] Stephy snaps at George and the 'slave', "Get SFX inside!", then struts to the latest goon with a wicked smile on her face. She's just thought of a wonderfully nasty surprise for Dom. If it works. She wraps her arms around the latest goons neck and concentrates on making him another love slave, with no changes in herself. [If that works...] Saying, "Now, I don't know if we can get that off you... but if this works, you will find Dom, seduce him and kill him... or better yet cut the b*****'s cock off." She then concentrates on physically changing the goon into a copy of the model she was before, closing her eyes to a clear memory of the model's appearance to her mind's eye. (No changes in herself, of course.) If that works (more or less), she sends the transformed goon off to do Dom... Then turns and enters the RV, calling out once they get SFX inside, "Let's get the *hell* out of here while we still can!" GM The second gunman's rifle writhes like something alive, and wraps itself around his wrists. He begins screaming, slams his manacled wrists against the doorway to the RV, and leaps back, out of the vehicle and back onto the ground, before Stephy can grab him. "LET'S GET THE F*** OUT OF HERE!" George screams. Jackie - With her magic cannister, Jackie will concentrate and form a suspended fan within the cannister held by a plate to keep it stable on a pin. She will mentally spin the fan, thinking of her old bike upended with her spinning the wheel by hand. Faster and faster with some baseball cards attached to it. Using the tube running from it, see if it acts like a vacuum and picks up anything. Hearing the screaming man, she loses her train of thought for a moment, but keeps it up. Stephy: She sighs and almost stamps a foot when the second man get away. It had such a *nasty* plan too. **Oh well... Georgie's right.** Ignoring the second man, she moves rapidly to the RV, calling inside as she enters, "Don't shot! Its us. The new guy's with us, like Jason." If they need it, she helps Georgie and the russian with SFX, moving him to the couch. "George, get us out of here, NOW!" Turning to the Russian, she asks quickly, "Will they follow us? How'd you like find us anyway?" GM Jackie's vacuum works, though not as efficiently as she hoped. But the idea has potential. [] The Russian man seems dazed, like Stephanie's victim was-- turning men into love-slaves seems to have an adverse effect on their IQ. [Doesn't it always? ] "Uh...da..." he mutters in Russian, realizes you're not understanding him, and switches to English. "They will track you, very persistently. I am not..how you say...investor. Just soldier. We have much...computers and things. And the ubermen." He leans closer. "Beautiful one, you are making me crazy!" trying to put a hand on your face. <><><><><> Stephy: Smiling, she turns from watching the activities in the RV and outside, to snatch the russian's hand and gently lower it. "How sweet. But not now, honey. First we have to, you know, get away. What's your name, by the way?" "Well, , sweetie, you help us get away, then tell us everything you know about Dom, Titiana and whoever's in charge and mind controlling them, and yourself of course, as well as what this is, like, all about...," a mischevious grin, "and I promise, once things, you know, settle down, I'll give you an experience you'll never forget." To tide him over and keep his charged, and for the heck of it, she leans over and gives him a deep, hard kiss, her tongue diving quickly into his mouth. She glances at SFX, sighs. He'll have to wait too until they're out of here. She then turns to look at Jackie and asks, "You ok, Jackie?" [If George is not driving them away yet...] She turns to George and shouts, "What are you like waiting for, Georgie! Get us *out* of here!" <><><><><> Jackie: She looks at Stephy, George, but tries not to look to hard at SFX. Turning away, she stuffs a handful of shells in her pocket. "We ain't goin' nowhere, not til this S*** is settled. Where are we goin' to hide? Nowhere. Dom is crippled a bit, maybe he took a powder. The Beast might, just might get up after leaving it here to these guys. They got some whacko pullin their strings Stephy. You felt that didn't you? I ain't leavin' until I can say we have one of these F****** bagged. Dom in a plastic baggie, Tatiana in a cannister or that hairy M***** ******'s head on a pole. You think the Kid will be safe in a hospital if you can't fix him? Easy pickin's. WE can take them Stephy, you fix that b****'s mind or gas, we can take her out of the game or finish it off. I'm sick of these a******* takin' what little of this new life away from me." She stops, her voice a bit choked, she closes her eyes a moment, "You might want to put his arm in the fridge." She opens her eyes and you can hear her teeth grind. She checks the shotgun and Spike again. Looking at George, she smiles, "George, you do what you have to do pal." <><><><><> Stephy: "You're right," she replies to Jackie. "," turning to him, "sweety, would you be a doll, get a gun and cover us?" "George, don't you dare go anywhere without us!" Turning back to Jackie. "Ok, what's the plan? Or do we just rush them?" She gave a nasty smile thinking about what she's going to turn these goons into as she headed for the door. <><><><><> Jackie - She nods to Stephy, "Good." She searches through the mess that the RV has become and finds the Flak Vest. She hands it to George. "Put it on George, if thin's look bad for us, you leave and get SFX to a hospital. Any highway signs out here? Maybe we should call for some cops as a distraction? George, see if you can do that while we snip us a pig's ear." She raises an eyebrow at Stephy and looks at the Russian, she then hands him the shotgun. "Tell him to protect you at all costs and he can shoot anythin that comes near me if he has to. You two watch my back for Dom. We are after the Beast, we want it dead. And I want it's head for my new Caddy, when I buy one. Then we get back, quick. Sound good?" <><><><><> Stephy: She gives Jackie a bloodthirsty grin, "Well... how come you get to have all the fun? And why just Wolfie? After all, they're bound to be pretty beat by now... and I want a pony, and a puppy, and maybe a few girl- friends too." <><><><><> Jackie - She arches her eyebrow Stephy, hoping she's kidding. "Just do this, if we run into them then we'll do somethin' about it, ok? The Beast first, we'll see where that leads. Besides, you have to be strong enough to turn SFX back to the way he was. Let's go. <><><><><> Stephy: Jackie's raised brow produces only an evil smiles evil in response from Stephy. Whatever else that might be said about it, ponies and puppies are not likely to be picking up guns and shooting at them. Let the mindf**** try controlling *that*. She nods and follows, trying to keep an eye out for surprises. <><><><><> Jackie - She will do a quick metal scan of the area to pick up any possible gun wielders, etc. She will then step outside looking for the Beast and what else may be lurking. <><><><><> [GM] Jackie senses lots of guns around...a whole lot. George looks almost ready to panic. "Wait a minute...you're going OUT again? Are you crazy!? There's a @^%#! werewolf and goons with machine guns at that teleporting psycho-" he almost sobs. Ignoring him, Jackie steps out of the RV, with Spike at her side, and Stephy at her back. The lovestruck Russian hovers close (VERY close) behind Stephy, holding his heavy black rifle at the ready. "You should not go," he says. "Many weapons, ubers...all ready to kill. This is battlezone." The howls of the Beast have died down at last. The door out of the RV faces towards the road, *away* from the creature, which is on the other side of the vehicle, no doubt bleeding profusely into the desert sands. On either side of the RV, men in black are warily encircling it, taking up positions prone in the sand, or behind the cab of the truck that was ahead of the RV before Stephy ripped it a new reality. Someone calls out "Alexei, shto vdomorot?! Idi seichas!" Stephy's mind-warped bodyguard starts, and shifts uncomfortably. Dom suddenly appears in front of the RV, facing the two metahumans, Tatiana at his side. He leans heavily on one leg, the other glistening dark and wet in the moonlight. His black bodysuit is shredded in numerous places, and he grimaces in pain. Tatiana's form dissolves into mist even as they both materialize. "I...have had...enough," Dom growls. "Surrender, now, or the hell with taking you alive..." He raises his voice. "On the count of three, open fire!" ******************************************************** A = Alexei D = Dom J = Jackie T = Tatiana (turning to mist) S = Stephy X = Heavily-armed goon The Beast (?) -------------------|||||||||||||||||||----------\ \------------ | RV | \Truck \ X |||||||| A ||||| \--X----\ J S X X X Highway D T ----------------------------------------------------------X----------- X