Log:Christmas in July, Scene 3

Christmas in July 2014/07/24 	 Ellbeth Q 	 Timewarp Enforcer Detective Carpenter Terrayne Coldsnap New Wave

3

Here, several miles north and west of Colonial Bay and beyond the green belt of Green Acres, are situated the heavy industries considered too polluting, be it of air, water or noise, for the city itself. For all that they'd be considered fairly clean by Twentieth-Century standards. Chain link fences or, often, more severe measures surround the grounds of each business. In the daytime the car parks which surround each factory complex are full; at night some businesses are quiet while others continue with eerie lights and sounds.

A broad road designed for heavy vehicles leads to Route 9, and freight lines of the railroad branch throughout the industrial park, facilitating shipment of raw materials and finished goods. The Main Street MagLev line begins here at a central car park.

Ellbeth arrives by chauffeured car, Harry driving the beloved Silver Ghost Rolls Royce classic.

Detective Carpenter is waiting next to his wheeled car, leaning against it. He can't afford a hovercar on his salary as a public servant, sadly. There's another police car nearby, but it's a local sheriff's vehicle from the Harper's Creek area.

Timewarp left the number of her Timewarp PDA with Detective Carpenter, precisely so she could be contacted. She arrives on foot, having walked the length of the Main St maglev line (kids, don't do this at home), and arrives, as always, on time.

Detective Carpenter is a clean shaven young man with a crewcut, making him look like he might be ex-military. He's relatively muscular for a police officer, with the requisite tie and long trenchcoat.

Enforcer arrives in a cloud of smoke near the appointed meeting area. He had to hop atop the maglev to get himself all the way out here, but leapt off at the Harper Creek stop and made his way over.

Quinn arrives through the expediency of his armor, dropping down out of the sky and landing with a loud 'clank'.

Carpenter makes a point of greeting each hero by shaking their hand. "Thanks for showing up." He motions to the industrial park. "I mentioned I was going to check up on a lead on our Masters of Disaster. They were spotted here in the industrial park. I figured that before I walked in to look around, I should call you folks in."

Timewarp nods. "You want me to look around?"

Timewarp says, "Oh - I'm Timewarp, if you didn't recognize me in the new costume!"

Ellbeth shakes the detective's hand, "A wise decision, Detective. I can scry out their suspected location if you wish, and determine if they are here or not."

Timewarp, when she's not a barely-perceptible blur, is an attractive young woman barely over 5 foot in height, with shortish brown hair worn swept straight back from her mask.

Her costume is a classic skintight suit with half mask, in shades of magenta. Over this she wears boots, which come to a high point at the front, and a waist-length jacket, both in midnight blue with lighter blue trim. The jacket has numerous zippered pockets and the emblem of a blue rose on a white background on the left breast. Typically she has the jacket done up only at the bottom, though this varies.

[To Ellbeth] Timewarp says, "Oh, you can do that too? I'm Timewarp by the way."

The sheriff, a plump balding man in his 50s, saya, "What the detective here means to say is...he wanted to go in on his own, and I talked 'im into callin' for backup."

"And I can sit here and drink coffee while they do that," Quinn says.

Timewarp grins to Q. "I can drink coffee while I do that too."

[To Timewarp] Ellbeth says, "Yes I can. A pleasure to meet you. I'm Ellbeth Wryd."

The detective chuckles quietly. "I think the scrying idea is better than looking around directly." He looks to Ellbeth, "If you would, miss? I believe they're in one of those two buildings over there." He points to them. He then raises a brow, "Dr. Wyrd? I pictured you as...somewhat older, if you don't mind me saying so."

Timewarp look a bit absent, like she's trying to place Ellbeth's name.

Enforcer glances at Quinn's suggestion of coffee, then looks to the others. Surveillance seems covered, so he lets the others get to it, standing by solemnly.

Timewarp says, "If you can do it magically I guess that's better than my looking around, however fast I do it - I guess I could set off alarms or something."

Ellbeth chuckles, "I am older, Detective. Magic..." Looking to Timewarp, "Would you like to check out the building on the left while I scray the building on the right?"

Carpenter nods to Timewarp, "There's the issue of warrants. The courts and superpowers don't mesh well sometimes."

[To Ellbeth] Timewarp says, "Huh, looks like you have to do all the work, sorry."

Ellbeth nods.

Carpenter smiles. "This is the equivalent of 'looking in a window' as far as the court is concerned. At least...that's what I've been told. Depends on the judge."

Ellbeth closes her eyes and starting with the building on the right she scrys the interior, checking for underground areas as well if she doesn't see the villains at first.

Timewarp nevertheless has a look round the outside of the area - including through any windows - meantime.

At roughly six and a half feet tall Q wears a battle suit of advanced design. Sleek and aerodynamic his armor is a highly polished black with a silver faceplate. Twin eye slits glow with a bright blue light within the highly reflective faceplate giving the armor at least minimal facial characteristics when the faceplate is not retracted.

The armor is in the basic design of a classical hardsuit as opposed to being designed of a flexible material though its articulation seems to allow for excellent mobility. Centered in the middle of the chest is what seems to be almost a circular window which gives view to an eerie sight, the Q-Drive. Energy swirls within the Q-Drive in patterns that cause the eyes to hurt if you stare at them for too long and seems to brighten and dim like some sort of pulse. Surrounding the Q-Drive is a broken circle which glows with a bright blue light and contains the emitters for the shockwave blast and thunderclap charge as well as the holographic projector and spotlight. Feeding outward from the ring are lines which clearly carry energy throughout the suit, energizing the various systems and glowing with the same blue light.

Small circular emitters sit on the back of each gauntlet containing the circuitry for the neural blast systems. The gauntlets themselves are slightly oversized with a slight bubble shape along their backs and snap open at a mental command to reveal the smartwave missiles inside. Larger emitters sit in the palms of each gauntlet housing the emitters for the force bolts, utility lasers, and his often used quantum bolts.

Ellbeth's fusion of racial backgrounds has created a youthful exotic beauty that tends to draw the eyes of most males and a fair number of females. She's slim, graceful and athletic, with a model's physique. Her eyes are emerald green behind semi-mirrored sunglasses with a devil-may-care glint of mischief in them. Yet there's also a impression of determination in her posture. That whatever she starts she'll be determined to finish.

Ellbeth's long snow-white hair is brushed back to hang free and unbound down her back. She wears a shimmering full length hooded mid-grey damask robe hemmed with dark sable fur, belted at the waist with a white slash and open at the neck, a classic Guns and Roses tee-shirt partly visible beneath it. The hood is thrown back. A long polished oaken staff inscribed with arcane runes is held in her left hand and a ultra modern micro computer resides in a bulging pocket at her waist.

Enforcer stands at only 5' 7" with an athletic build one only gets from daily training. He wears a black mask with white lenses that conceals his identity, and black layered hair that sweeps across the eyes. There's a small radio earpiece and microphone visible attached to his right ear.

He's dressed in a black skin-tight body suit with charcoal gray high tech armor padding with dark red accents, and armor-plated combat boots. Hard plates protect the vitals, as well as the shins, shoulders, and neck. His black gloves come up to his mid-forearms, also covered in armored plates on the forearms and hands. It's light and flexible enough to not impede movement. There's a black utility belt around his waist that has a series of compartments and gadgets hooked onto it. An assassin's blade is slung on his left hip, and a 6" slim metal cylinder is slung on his right. A black cape with a dark red inside lining drapes over his shoulders, with an attached hood worn down unless he's actively being stealthy. With a press of a hidden button on the collar, the hood and cape can retract or deploy.

Here, several miles north and west of Colonial Bay and beyond the green belt of Green Acres, are situated the heavy industries considered too polluting, be it of air, water or noise, for the city itself. For all that they'd be considered fairly clean by Twentieth-Century standards. Chain link fences or, often, more servere measures surround the grounds of each business. In the daytime the car parks which surround each factory complex are full; at night some businesses are quiet while others continue with eerie lights and sounds.

A broad road designed for heavy vehicles leads to Route 9, and freight lines of the railroad branch throughout the industrial park, facilitating shipment of raw materials and finished goods. The Main Street MagLev line begins here at a central car park.

One of the two buildings looks currently like it's not in use. There's grass growing through cracks in the parking lot. The walls look old and slightly crumbling. Inside...are the Masters of Disaster. They seem to be sitting around, chatting. Primarily about the new reality show 'Capes', but also about the upcoming presidential election. There's a television on, pulling electricity from a local generator from the sound of it.

Timewarp returns to report to the coffee-drinkers - though they won't even have got their coffee yet. :P

Terrayne is seated on a broken couch, his eyes on the television. Coldsnap and Torch are playing a card game of some sort, though glancing over at the TV every so often. New Wave is busy dealing with her PDA.

Ellbeth notes the presence of the villains but checks out the other building as well before opeing her eyes, "I observe four people in the disused looking building, detective." She gives short descriptions of the villains.

Timewarp says, "Looks like we could take them by surprise!"

Detective Carpenter nods. "That's who we're looking for. Let me make a quick call to make sure we have a 'go ahead'." He walks off to the side to make a call.

Quinn looks at the building, looking for any windows or other points of relatively easy access. "Why don't I open up on them with a Thunderclap charge before we all go rushing in?" he asks the gathered heroes.

Timewarp says, "What does that do?"

Enforcer glances at Quinn curiously. "If they're clustered together, it may make for a quick surprise takedown."

Bright light, big bang," Quinn says. "It tends to blind and deafen people for a short amount of time and make them easier targets."

Timewarp says, "Ok, sounds good!"

Carpenter comes back over, having finished with his call. "We're good to go." He pulls his pistol and checks it. "Keep in mind, they're wanted for a bank robbery. And I'd like to question them about what they stole and for whom."

[To Q] Timewarp says, "So you take the lead and we'll wait for the bang and rush in."

Ellbeth says, "I would suggest if we get the go-ahead from the detective, that we approach using the other building as cover to a point at which I can open a gate directly into the room they are in. Anthony, you unlease your Thunderclap, and then the rest of you rush in?""

Quinn turns on his thermographics as he examines the building so he can pinpoint where the bad guys are before he charges in himself. "Sounds like a plan," he says to Ellbeth.

Timewarp says, "Not immediately, I have to wait till the sound wave has passed!"

Ellbeth checks out sightlines.

Enforcer nods along with Quinn and Anthony's strategy. He unhooks a cylinder from a holster on his belt and with a quiet click, it extends to a full-length staff.

Quinn frowns a bit as he looks at the building. "Are you sure they are all in there?" he asks. "I'm only registering 3 of them. One cold and two normal, so I would guess Hot Flash isn't there."

Ellbeth says, "Right. Anyone good at spotting and dealing with alarms and traps? If so, maybe you might like to go first?"

Timewarp says, "He was when I looked! Um - mostly I just go so fast they mostly don't notice me."

Ellbeth says, "I'll take another look, Anthony."

Ellbeth closes her eyes and scrys the building again.

Enforcer shrugs a little at Ellbeth's question. "I'm good at avoiding triggering them. Haven't really had to disarm alarm systems for others to get by." But he makes a note to learn more than the basics he already understands about alarm systems. He can't be much of a team player if others can't follow where he goes.

Ellbeth still has her eyes closed as she reports, "I see four in there. In a large area outside the office space of the factory. Anthony, are you still missing one on your scan?" She ceases scrying so she can hear any answer.

Timewarp says, "Let's get a move on before the TV show ends!"

Anthony nods. "Still missing the rock guy," he says. "Maybe he just happens to be room temperature."

The detective and sheriff are with you, but behind the rest of you for the time being.

The factory is mostly open. Whoever owned it previously has cleared all the machinery out. It's almost like a warehouse now, with a few conveyor belts scattered about for unknown reasons lost to time. The only furniture are some simple chairs and tables...and the television and couch.

As Quinn gets ready for the portal to be opened so he can dive through it he tells everyone else, "Stay back a bit. The radius of this is around 15 meters or so. I'm not sure how close the gate will open.

Ellbeth close her eyes and casts the spell, opening a portal to the factory floor. The portal shimmers into view.

Enforcer nods and steps back a bit, shifting his stance as he gets ready to charge after Quinn's opening salvo.

As soon as the portal opens Quinn dives through it, boot jets roaring. The large emitter in the center of his chest glows brightly for a moment before unleashing a lance of brilliant light that explodes in sound and fury.

[Game:] 15m half move through the portal. 7d6 sight and hearing flash, 16m explosion.

There's a series of shouts from the villains...even from the one wearing sunglasses. The only one who doesn't seem to be affected is Terrayne, who says, "Uh? What that?" He turns to see Q.

Timewarp waits till the sound of the flash bang has gone off, then, in accelerated time, walks through the portal, looks around, and decides to target Torch. Picking up one of the chairs, she lines up her aim and hits him as hard as she can over the head, figuring that it'll take that to hurt a meta.Then she retreats to the corner of the factory to rest.

Torch wasn't completely surprised by the attack, as the flash had gone off just before it. But he's sent sprawling by the strike, landing on the floor against the wall.

Enforcer waits until after the thunderclap charge goes off, then sprints forward towards the portal and disappears in a cloud of smoke, only to reappear off to the side of the clustered villains in another cloud. His left hand swings out in an arc from beneath his cape towards the group, and four small black pellets go flying with precise aim at each target.

Timewarp is satisfied by how she knocked the villain over - even if she fears that wasn't a very hard hit. . o O (I'll try the other way next time.)

Torch falls unconscious in the cloud of smoke. Cold Snap starts to cough, the water vapor freezing slightly. Both Terrayne and New Wave don't appear to be phased by the smoke, though New Wave still can't see.

Timewarp grins as she sees Torch not getting back up, though she's a bit concerned that Terrayne and New Wave seem fine. Still, the rock person looks just too tough for her, so it's New Wave she goes for, this time with an "air punch" - and again she retreats to the corner.

New Wave gets lifted up and slammed against the far wall, and she falls to the ground.

New Wave shakes her head and stands back up. She raises her hands and a pipe bursts in the floor, causing a cascade of water to turn into a literal wall of water between her and the rest of the room.

Enforcer spins his staff with his right hand before catching it in a solid grip and leaping at Coldsnap. He spins around in the air to build momentum, swinging the staff down hard at the villain just as he lands, then swings the staff back to try and strike again in a flurry of movement.

Coldsnap tumbles backward, rolling to her feet after getting hit three times while blinded. Enforcer's staff has a glint of frost on the end of it now.

Coldsnap raises her arms and the entire area starts to fill with a biting cold. New Wave's water wall shows hints of ice forming on the outer edge of it.

Enforcer shivers, exhaling a small cloud of air as his suit frosts up. He grits his teeth to stop them from chattering.

Timewarp shivers and is shocked when something actually *hits* her.

With his optical systems temporarily blinded Quinn can't entirely see what is going on. Still, things are looking pretty good for his side as Torch goes down, New Wave goes flying, and Coldsnap gets smacked around. Suddenly things turn south as Coldsnap fills the room with freezing air. While it doesn't affect him Enforcer and Timewarp don't seem so lucky. He redirects the energy from the Thunderclap systems into the armor's neural blasts and cuts loose at Coldsnap, the emitters on the backs of his gauntlets glowing brightly before unleashing a blast of cyan light.

And with that...Coldsnap slumps to the floor, unconscious. Two villains down so far.

[NPC]Terrayne growls...an earthy deep growl, like the sound of a landslide. He raises a hand toward Q and his 'arm' extends outward in a shifting of earth and rock...

Well, he was pretty sure it was going to hurt when he turned his attention from Terradyne to Coldsnap and he clearly was right. The wave of rock slams into Quinn, knocking him sprawling across the warehouse. "OW! Owowow!" he complains as he bounces along the floor.

Ellbeth steps through the portal and lets it fade from existence. Targetting Terrayne she reaches out mentally and seeks for that tiny part of his brain that is the visual cortex... and tries to shut it down.

Terrayne seems to actually be affected by Ellbeth's spell. He growls again...a low sound this time. His 'feet' spread to double their width and the ground shakes slightly.

Timewarp shivers and rubs herself to warn herself up - she can't focus enough to bend time much yet, but at least she's no longer a sitting duck.

New Wave just remains where she is...maintaining her partially frozen water barrier.

Enforcer presses a button and his staff collapses down to six inches as he frowns at New Wave's barrier, calculating something. He vanishes in a cloud of smoke and reappears just behind New Wave within her barrier without a sound of his approach, the frost on his suit becoming wet. He pulls back his arm and aims a palm strike for the back of New Wave's head.

New Wave had already been hit once, and this is one time too many. She's struck from teh side and slams against her own water wall. She then falls to the ground, unconscious. The wall collapses as well, except for the bits which are now ice.

[NPC]Terrayne seems to shiver slightly as New Wave collapses, like he sensed it in some way. The floor tears up underneath him, and he sinks downward into the earth...the hole filling up behind him.

[GAME] Tunnelling, full move.

Enforcer gets further drenched as the water falls onto and around him. First cold, now cold and wet. He reaches a hand up to grab a fist full of his hood from the top and shifts it back, revealing a wet mop of black hair and a domino mask. . o O (Beach after this. Definitely. Need to defrost.)

Quinn's vision systems clear just in time for him to see the retreat of Terradyne. "Guess that's going to be the one who got away," he says as he clambers to his feet. "Still, unless he wants to call himself the Master of Disaster I think the gang is pretty much done."

Ellbeth nods. "Anthonyh, my portal is also a gate. You can fire your Thunderclap through the portal if you like. No need to go through youself.

Q says, "I was going to go after Terradyne to keep him busy, but with the AOE constunning people I thought her a more important target."

Ellbeth cast's Ellbeth's Summer to warm the area up.

The building creaks as Detective Carpenter finally steps through the portal. "Holy..."

Enforcer holsters his collapsed staff on his belt and wraps his arms around himself, rubbing his arms to try and generate additional heat as Ellbeth casts her spell.

Quinn nods to Ellbeth. "It gave me a better line of fire to go through it," he says, "and I knew all it would do would be knock out my optical systems for a bit and give me a ringing in my ears."

Timewarp says, "I'm guessing no one can follow the rock guy?"

Here, several miles north and west of Colonial Bay and beyond the green belt of Green Acres, are situated the heavy industries considered too polluting, be it of air, water or noise, for the city itself. For all that they'd be considered fairly clean by Twentieth-Century standards. Chain link fences or, often, more servere measures surround the grounds of each business. In the daytime the car parks which surround each factory complex are full; at night some businesses are quiet while others continue with eerie lights and sounds.

A broad road designed for heavy vehicles leads to Route 9, and freight lines of the railroad branch throughout the industrial park, facilitating shipment of raw materials and finished goods. The Main Street MagLev line begins here at a central car park.

Ellbeth says, "Not I, alas."

Q shakes his head. "Not me either," he says, "though if this keeps up I may rip the tunneler unit out of my exploration suit along with the GPR."

Ellbeth goes to Timewarp and Enforcer and offers a tidy-up to dry their clothes, etc.

Timewarp Hms. "I might be able to dig fast enough but I wouldn't know which way he went."

[To Ellbeth] Timewarp says, "Oh, I'm fine thanks - the new costume is pretty good!"

The sheriff comes through as well. "The paddy wagon is on the way." Carpenter looks back at him, "Paddy wagon? Seriously?"

Ellbeth nods to Timewarp, "It's very smart too. You look good in it. I kind of expected a sandglass or something as a emblem though. Why a blue rose?"

Enforcer makes an effort to offer a small, curt smile to Ellbeth. "Thank you." Once his clothes are dry, he flips his hood up again and seems a lot more...well, happier isn't the word. Comfortable. That's the one.

Timewarp says, "Oh, that's the emblem of the team - the Blue Ros! Well, though it's kind of a team of one at the moment. It looks like Aoi's having to go to Japan on business for - I dunno, a long while. And there aren't really any others yet."

Timewarp says, "The idea is to have a team of young heroes, like New Blood, when Lorelei and her crowd were in high school."

Enforcer blinks and suddenly looks to Tali, trying to mask his surprise. The hood helps. . o O (Yushio's leaving...? Why didn't she say anything to me?)

Ellbeth nods, "I wish you every success. New Blood made a good name for themselves. They proved a tyoung team can stand up to villains."

Timewarp says, "I"d invite you - but you said you aren't as young as you look? Maybe you wouldn't want to hang out with a bunch of teens!"

Ellbeth chuckles and slips off her ring of youth for a few moments, reverting to her true age. "I'm old enough to be your grandmother, Timewarp." she says smiling.

Timewarp blinks. "Oh! It's hard to know who to invite though - you know, with secret identities and everything."

Ellbeth says, "Post a note on HeroNet, Timewarp. Set up a meeting of those interested."

Timewarp thinks. o O (Huh, maybe mom's mom. I guess dad's mom isn't even born yet.....)

Timewarp says, "Heronet - what's that?"

Ellbeth grins, "An online forum for heroes. But you may have spotted the flaw in my plan. Young heroes may, like you, not have heard of or be members of HeroNet."

Enforcer looks over to Detective Carpenter as he has an exchange with the sheriff, smirking slightly. He likes the detective for some reason. "I think you have at least enough of the team to question once you get them in custody. You'll let us know what you find out if we're needed for additional assistance?"

Timewarp suggests to the police, "Make sure you don't keep them anywhere someone with rock powers can break them out!"

"Mmmm..Is the sherrif's office actually equipped to contain people like these?" Quinn asks. "Maybe someone from UEMS should come and round them up."

Detective Carpenter nods. "The CBPD is coming out to deal with it. They have hte necessary facilities. The local jail won't do."

The detective adds, "And the UEMS wont' have anything to do with it, if I have my way."

Sure enough, a CBPD van shows up, with appropriate power-dampening binders for hte villains. The villains are taken out to the van for transport back to the city.

Timewarp says, "You know, we should have a plan for next time."

Timewarp says, "I mean, how do we stop someone who can escape through solid rock?"

"Lift them up into the air," Quinn says.

Timewarp says, "Are you strong enough to do that? Cos I guess that should be the plan if so."

Ellbeth nods, agreeing with Anthony.

Q nods. "I could probably manage it for a short time," he says. "Unfortunately I had to turn my attention to Coldsnap when she started freezing the two of you."

Detective Carpenter shrugs a little bit, "It may not be a problem, to be honest. I suspect that New Wave was the brains of the outfit. Without her, he might just become a recluse. I mean, it would be nice to catch him too, but I was much more worried about making sure she ended up behind bars."

Timewarp says, "I dunno. I got the sense he wasn't exactly happy. Maybe he cares for his friends."

Enforcer nods to Quinn. "Thanks for the assist. I really should get this suit insulated."

Timewarp thinks. o O (Maybe I should... but then I'd probably get too hot....)

Carpenter nods to Timewarp, "That's possible, yeah. I'll be sure to alert the folks in charge of holding them about the possibility."

Ellbeth says, "I would say things worked out fairly well for an imprompto group. Timewarp, you mentioned the difficulties of recruiting. Enforcer is young, probably in your target age bracket. You could start by seeing if he would like to join your Blue Rose team."

"He's hardly the first member of a bad guy team to go runner," Quinn says. "The CBPD is pretty use to members showing up trying to bust out their friends."

Timewarp looks at Enforcer: he hadn't struck her as being particularly young. Or indeed anything much but a bit scary, and the name didn't help.

Detective Carpenter then adds, "I'll be questioning the suspects later today or more likely tomorrow. If any of you would like to have a word with them, let me know."

Enforcer sideglances at Timewarp. "Flowers don't really suit me," he says in coarse but relatively polite tones. While the hood conceals most of the upper half of his face, the lower half does look young. Not the squared jaw you'd expect on someone with a name like this.

Ellbeth nods to the detective. "I used to sit in on SGG villain interviews when Random Factor was in charge. Sometimes I could pick up non-verbal cues that were missed by the interviewers. I'd like to sit in if that is allowed."

Carpenter nods, "Of course. You're more than welcome, Dr. Wyrd."

Timewarp says, "It's not like it's about flowers - that's just the emblem because, you know, we're ros! So we call ourselves the Blue Ros and the pups will know what we're about even if the nups are without, yeah?"

"You're...rose? Nups? I'm sorry, I don't follow." Enforcer asks with a lack of comprehension. At least he tries to give that impression, since his friends speak like that a lot. He tilts his head slightly in thought.

Ellbeth says, "It was a pleasure meeting you, Timewarp, and you, Enforcer. I ought to be about my business. However, perhaps you might consider an invitation to join me for dinner on my yacht sometime soon?"

Timewarp thinks. o O (Or maybe he's not so young if he didn't understand that....)