[Heromux[ The Salara Incident

The Salara Incident
Flashback of Yankee Conneticut and Flashforward to Kilroy.
Location:	Salara Island, the South Pacific and New York City
Date:	May 1, 1951 and April 3rd 2015
Emitter:	Kilroy Capital Conneticut
Players:
NPCs:	Yankee Conneticut
Groups:
Tone:	Gritty
Rating:	Public

May 1, 1951. Yankee Connecticut, AKA the Economy, was at his wits end. So far, between pulling every connection he could, along with his wife, Rosie the Riveter, they had managed to stall the bombing of Salara Island near Bikini Atoll six times. But each time, the Army grew more and more determined to bomb there.
"I'm sorry Economy, I know most don't know how much good you did during the war but-"
"Look, I know a lot of people can say this General, but if it hadn't been for me the-"
The General raised his hand and nodded, "Look. This is a Senator Sneasel thing. There are certain other senators, people on the HUAC committee with certain lists...and they're both looking at the Minority position...Sneasel is on the Armed Services Committee. And besides, we have to one up the commies. Surely YOU can understand that!"
"I understand the communist threat more than you can imagine, but there are people on that island, sentient people."
"We've checked the island five times. No one there."
"They're Magic."
"Yeah I get that but I need hard proof."
"You have, literally, the entire earth to choose from, WHY does it have to be this Island?"
"I'm sorry Economy, that's just the way it is."

April 3 2015 Offices Near UN
"And so you see Mr. Kilroy..." the leader of the Genoshan Liberation Front,"For a modest investment of $20 million, you can fund our attempt to-"
"Defeat the Imperator with conventional weaponry...on a flying island? Even ignoring the tactical absurdities of your ideas, I am morally opposed to funding a civil war in a foreign nation. I was never a citizen of Genosha and-"
"You served on the Cabinet!"
"And I regret that. Genosha had and has a lot of potential, but it has caused me a world of hurt and so long as Genosha has that....Mad Man...in charge of it, I'll have nothing to do with it."
"But, the conditions in the camps! They are desperate."
"I hardly believe the British are going to let anyone starve."
"No, they get by. Barely, but the schools are a joke, and no one has any work. Can't you just-"
Kilroy held up his hand and sighed. "Look. I know about the conditions in those camps. I'll help, but only non violent aid. Lobbying to help get you some place better. School supplies. Some comforts. NOTHING military?"
Eclor shrugged and leaned back, smiling. "We'll take what we can get Mr. Conneticut, thank you very much."

May 2, 1951. Flying into the nuclear blast zone was, of course, insane but he he could not leave Rosey the Riveter in there alone. Rosey Conneticut. He'd never get used to that, as he smiled,knowing the bastards wouldn't dare det-
The scarlet blast was unbelievable. If he hadn't been knocked into the water, hundreds of feet down he would have died in the immediate shock. He blacked out.
No one could tell you what radiation poisoning was like. It was just...illness. An illness beyond imagining, toxic reordering at a genetic level. He couldn't think. Couldn't breathe. He kept throwing up, but managed to cling to a piece of bamboo that had been cleared from the main blast. He could sense Rosey's coin, and slowly magiced the wood toward it, but he wasn't sure how long it would be before the radiation poison had killed him.
There was a shelter! She had finished it. Coughing, he trundled out of the water, falling down a couple of times, and saw the door. It was, of course, insane, to try and open the door with the radiation poison here, but the Spirit People would be able to shield themselves from it, and he was screwed any way. Turning the wheel lock to the door, he stepped inside to the light.
Instantly, he felt the poison cleared from his body. She'd done it! They were alive.
"Where....where is Rosey?"
The silence of the Elders spoke volumes.
Yankee Conneticut was done with the United States Government. Forever.

Kilroy walked away from Central Park, he was deep in thought. He had promised Jack he would follow the money and find out who was behind this. They had no idea who they were dealing with. Just then, people pointed as they looked up and a pair of giant sentinels approached. Kilroy was about to attack but he was in his civilian guise. Still, he could probably short them out with a well placed Penny. He considered it several moments when one of them said, "Kilroy Capital Conneticut. Known Genoshan Citizen and Sympathizer. Wanted."
"Excuse me? I'm not a known citizen of Genosha. I have no criminal record and you have no right to-"
There was a stun beam and suddenly Kilroy was knocked out cold and stuffed up in their little metal gunny sack. People shrugged, and went their merry way.

July 1, 1951. "Yes Ambassador. I'm quite sure I want to renounce my citizenship. Aside from some...questionable practices the IRS is starting to engage in with expatriots, I find the behavior of the US army at-"
"That information is classified and you have been asked not to speak of it."
Yankee leaned forward and signed the document, "I'm not a US Citizen any more and I'll damn well do as I like. And mark my words, you'll come to regret what you did to my wife! Watch for it!"

[Heromux] Typoid Croyd: Reasonable Arguments!

yphoid Croyd: Reasonable Arguments!
Kiden makes a good point.
Location:	Soho containment zone.
Date:	2015.04.01
Emitter:	Croyd Crenson
Players:	Croyd Crenson, Cir-El, Nate Grey, Kiden Nixon
NPCs:	Stimpy the Earth Golem, Sentinels
Groups:	Stormwatch
Tone:	Heroic, Comedic
Rating:	Public

The city is looking much better these days. The walls aren't bleeding. Fewer and fewer are getting infected. There are giant evi...human friendly robots patrolling the skies to nab the baddies. A cure has been developed! A cheer moves like a shockwave through the exhausted federal and international workers in the worst disease outbreak in decades, possibly a century. The cure won't hit everyone but it will affect most. A massive plan of airships with disperance, and mass produced vaccine guns is all planned. All is well.
Until Croyd wakes up that is. It's a potion thing, you see, a last fit after he had gone to sleep, eyes blood red and completely fruit loops, he grows to his full size and has a giant earth golem pound the side of the police van the jar was kept in until it is made a hole. Croyd means to go to ground, some place secret, some place safe.
And he would have gone, peacefully.
Until the giant robots began to hover in the sky and say loud things through their megaphones. Croyd returned fire with plasma blasts which bounced off the robots that were prepared for it.
Cir-El has been keeping an ear poised towards STAR labs, not only did she leave Croyd there, but they are working on a new costume for her. So when she hears the sounds of combat and sirens and alarms, she is off like a shot. Literaly since she is faster than a speeding bullet. She arrives to se a gaping hole in the building, sentinels in the skies, and Croyd and a large rocky figure trying to leave...
Kiden was drawn to the area by your everyday FREAKIN' HUGE EARTH GOLEM. Okay, so maybe not so everyday, but despite being out of the loop entirely. That was one thing she couldn't miss, it just felt far too real for her to be tripping, and she cautiously approaches the vicinity for a better look, peeking across the wall of an alley way. She doesn't think jump into action, so much as where's my popcorn.
It was Nate who told the SRD Croyd was the cause of the outbreak and gave them a description. He hated to do it, but the Sleeper was infecting hundreds and crazy due to the MGH, and Stormwatch failed to capture him.
If he had known about the Sentinels, he would have kept quiet. Last time Sentinels were deployed, they murdered several mutants, including a couple children. The X-Men destroyed them, but clearly the plans ended in the hands of the US military. It is not going to end well.
The last few days Nate, as Scion, has been helping with the contention tasks, using his telepathy to knock out the new metals that couldn't control their powers, and other support tasks. But now the Sentinels seem to be attacking someone, he flies to the fight at high speed.
The Robots scan Nate, Cir-El and Kiden and bzzt, "Criminal Record. Negative." They seem to REALLY REALLY wanna do something to Nate though but aren't. Yet. "Back away mutant Scion. Back away mutant Kiden Nixon. Back away alien....quasi Kryptonian. The criminal Croyd Crenson is to be taken for trial. Interference will be a federal offense and marked with hostile retaliation. This is your only warning."
The Earth Golem tosses a giant BLOB of dirt at one of the sentinels who dodges out of the way with relative ease. "I Got ya warrants right here Robo Cobs!" Croyd laughs insanely.
Cir-El is not certain whatto make of the Sentinels really, in her prior encounter SHIELD considered them annoying, but seemed to accept their presence. She sould probably stop the golem or any one of the giant robots without much trouble, but should she? She decides that her place in this, for now, is to minimize collateral damage and casualties. She notes the other two identified by the robots, but neither is familiar to her. She backs away about a half a kilometer and waits, she expects to have to intervene soon enough.
Kiden hasn't an inkling who here is the good guy, and who is the bad, either way...giant robot or giant golem, both are very well equipped for Kiden smooshing. That is why she cleverly doesn't approach, who said you can't make smart choices in life if you drop out of high school!
Nate growls, "Back off your..." and then Croyd shows he is still crazy stupid. He catches the blob of dirt telekinetically. "Croyd, stop already. Where the hell have you been?" The blob of dirt gets dumped on top of the head of one of the robots. "Are you taking speed already? It is too early."
No one attacks the robots. They seem...shocked. Well. That's all good them. They look at each other and say, "Do not touch the target." Because you know, saying obvious things like that is something they do. Stun beams are shot in a prismatic ball of purple nastiness, with the earth golem (totally unaffected) roaring and shielding Croyd from a lot of it but still knocking him slightly senseless. Plasma blasts quickly return and...one of the robots is scorched a little.
Croyd looks at Nate, "It's the Martians! They're comin ta GET US!" He REALLY looks out of it, like if Croyd's insanity were a 3 on a scale of the Mwahahahahaometer, Croyd is now dialed up to a full 9, just short of Darkseid.
One of the sentinels goes, "Error. Error. Sensors."
The lead sentinel says, "Use Radar. Sentinel Beta Leader requesting instructions regarding Mutant interference. Understood." For now, they are ignoring Nate.
Cir-El says helpfully (shouting though probably not heard), "I thought you had concluded it was the Joker who was behind it all." Ok, so perhaps it was not THAT helpful. Still, so far things are not out of control. The Damage this far seems mostly limited to the stone giant, the robots, and possibly Croyd.
Nate stares to Croyd gone maniac. This time he is looking straight into his mind, because he doesn't want to lose his psychic signature until the man is sleeping this off. "Green Martians or Red Martians, Croyd?" He adds with a smirk. "Nevermind. Lets get out of here, so Void can find you a nice desert island in the middle of nowhere to spend a few days surfing or something." He hovers closer to Croyd, trying to catch him in his telekinesis while the Sentinels are asking for instructions.
At this point Kiden is starting to surmise that Croyd is a powered being that just so happens to be on drugs, technically, she gets that way sometimes. But at least she's responsible, Croyd seems entirely out of his mind. Kiden decides she might be able to calm things down, and walks out of her hiding spot in the alley, waving at Croyd, "yo! Tripping Man Dude Person...you think you might want to calm down before you hurt someone? I think it'll be highly appreciated!"
That never works right? I mean, seriously? Reasoning with the crazed out villain. But Croyd blinks and nods, "Wow. You know....when you put it that way, you're right. I could have really hurt someone this way." He looks at the Earth Giant and says,"Hey dude. It's cool. Why don't you like...go be at peace with the earth or something."
The Giant gives a giant thumbs up and begins to merge into the ground.
He smiles at Nate, "Well, that's an awesome idea...have Void take me to ...I dunno...Tahiti or so-"
GLOM. Croyd is engulfed in a holding pod which is semi opaque and strapped to the sentinel's back.
"Thank you for your cooperation citizens."
Well, that went fairly well. Croyd is placed back in containment, hopefully until he is no longer contagious. It is unfortunate that he will likely be in jail quite a while beyond that. In the meantime, Cir-El has some quick repairs to make to the Building so that it does not collapse...
What the hell? Nate's left eye glows with power as he prepares to blast the Sentinel to scrap metal. They put Croyd in a pod just as he was calming and now... wait a minute, he is in insulated pod thing.
Nate smirks unpleasantly to the Sentinels. "Thank you for your cooperation, rustbucket. Tahiti is it, buddy." He grabs the pod and pulls, up, flying away rather quickly.
Kiden blinks in surprise at what happens next, she was fully prepared to knock Croyd out while he was all confused by her. But to have him actually listen to her and chill? She looks stunned for a moment, then gestures a "that's what I do every tuesday" kind of pose, before muttering to herself, "guess a Young Ally saves the day...the awesomeness of me."

[Heromux] Typhoid Cryod: Its a Small World

Typhoid Croyd: Its a small world
Captain America and Cir-El save a shrunken lot.
Location:	Soho Quarantine Zone
Date:	2015.03.28
Emitter:	Croyd Crenson
Players:	Croyd Crenson, Obadiah Stane, Captain America, Cir-El
NPCs:	Marlowe the Mentalist, Ant Dude
Groups:	Avengers, Stormwatch
Tone:	Heroic
Rating:	Restricted

The person responsible for this is now well known, and a price of around $2 million has been placed on his head. Still, with his ability to shrink and semi fly, he has been able to remain almost undetected...until he tried to collect it. This led to a minor altercation with several guards and a few heroes.
Unfortunately for most involved it turns out Croyd can shrink OTHER people as well, so about twenty soldiers suddenly found themselves as lifesize green army men. The altercation took place inside of the FEMA and BSA joint command tent. There are a few aces in power nullifiers (specially modified to deal with the new meta type) and several folks talking to each other, but lots of destruction. Many at first assume that Croyd teleported everyone or disintegrated them, until one of the generals says, "My god! That's Jenkins! He's an inch tall!"
And then all hell really breaks loose.
Captain America has been having an absolutely terrible...actually, at this point? An absolutely terrible month. They still haven't dealt with Slade Wilson, also known as Deathstroke. New York appears to be haunted or possessed. Some guy with stolen Stark Tech tried to make off with a bunch of prometheum with the end result that Steve had to decon his shield.
And now he's an inch tall. This is an absolute indignity. After this? He's taking a week off. Or at least a few days. "I need a vacation," he says. "Okay...listen up..." Maybe the army men will listen to him. "We need to form up before anyone steps on us."
Cir-El had been released from STAR labs with a clean bill of health, physically anyway. The Psychiatrist had finally decided she was NOT delusional, just has a major memory problem...in that all her memories are fake, something she already knew.
So, after being released, she had done a little bit of running the rooftops, until her super hearing had alerted her to trouble. She had dropped into the area to find out what was happening, before finding herself reduced to a fraction of her former size.
She tells the others, "Just stick near me, I can keep anyone off long enough."
The men all go, "HUP!"
Why? Because he's CAPTAIN FUCKING AMERICA! HOOAH! They seem much less freaked out by the whole thing.
The larger people begin to clear the area where the shrunken people are. It seems that the weird situation might be calm...
ZAPZAPFLASH! Two of the aces in power nullifiers are suddenly shrunk. "Ifyoueverwannabebigagainprotectmefromtheevildeathwhitemartianzetarays!" Croyd Crenson, in case folks didn't know at this point, is high as a kite and in FULL on paranoid mode PLUS according to some reports on some kind of cursed magic potion that is making it worse.
The Sentinel of Liberty gives the strange meta...another new one...a nod, then turns back to the soldiers. Great. He thinks White Martians are after him. Of course, they did kill the Green Martians with some kind of plague, didn't they. Steve takes a deep breath. "Croyd, take a deep breath. Tell me what's going on." A standard army hand signal goes to the soldiers, to get them to spread out and give Croyd some cover. Maybe, just maybe, he can talk the man down. The alternative is to knock him out.
Cir-El wonders how strong she is exactly. She was trying to work out he math, but it is confused. Perhaps she needs to test it somehow...before she hits the guy that is, better to know how HARD to hit him. She jumps up, and spots a manhole cover what looks like it might be a couples of miles to the left (relative to her current size, it is about the size of a football field). If she has the strength her size should indicate, she should not be able to lift it. Well, she will find out in a few seconds...
"WOWyourecaptainfuckingamericanicetomeetyoudeepbreathok?" He takes a VERY deep breath and...keeps....breathing in. Well. It has...shut him up at least. The other two shrunken Aces, one a giant...small...red ant humanoidman clicks his mandables and seems unhappy but freaked out. He decides he'll take his chances and just runs like hell ...away.
The other guy is a harmless looking small midget but seems naturally so not jokerizingly so, and nods, "Ahem. Gentlemen. I am now protecting Mr. Crenson. Dialog is indeed preferable, but do not manhandlehim."
Cir-El is able to pick up the man hole cover with psychotic ease. And move it as if she were full size.
Croyd keeps breathing in and then in weird inhaley talk says, "The aliens are wildcarding everyone and totally trying to frame me for it.....
Reaching the massive cover, Cir-El grasps the edge and hefts...expecting it to be nearly beyond her. To her surprise. it is nearly weightless. It seems her strength is unaffected. It is a good thing she had been cautious...she could accidentally kill someone. As it is...well the cover might make a decent weapon. She jumps up holding the cover to look around and locate the others.
"White Martians...or somebody else?" The Captain at least still has his shield...it would be embarrassing if he'd ended up trapped under it, 1" tall. Hopefully the still not-shrunk people are keeping their distance. It's probable they can't hear the conversation.
"WellIjustkindaassumeditwasnot KryptoniansandIdontknowany aliensand" he kinda gets light headed for a minute and stumbles around a bit.
The midget looks concerned but doesn't say anything.
The unit of soldiers is hanging tight...for now, though it weren't Cap they'd be REALLY freaking out at this point.
"You...might want to breathe out. Okay. I don't *think* it's White Martians. Did you see the aliens?" This might be really quite important, Steve is thinking. And maybe if he gets answers then he can calm Croyd down enough to de-shrink everyone.
Cir-El lays down the Manhole cover about a foot away from the others, "Martians have the ability to change shapes and turn invisible, they can also read minds and have physical abilities including strength, speed, toughness and the ability to fly. They do, however, have a weakness. Fire causes them to lose their abilities much the same as Kryptonite effects a Kryptonian. If there is a fire nearby, there are no Martians."
Croyd is like....breathing normal now. He says kind of breathing heavy and kind of fast,"WellI didntactually seeany nobut Ithad tobethealiens sinceitcouldnt bemeIamnot avirus buta....er...chemica...OH MY GOD! THEY CAN WHAT? THEY'RE VULNERABLE TO WHAT?!"
Croyd begins shooting plasma blasts at ...everything...not people but if its flamable, he's setting it on fire. Big people panic and begin to try and put it out.
Captain America puts up his shield to protect himself from incoming extinguisher foam. "Stop. Please." He's trying to sound calm, but that panic? It's kind of catching even if your name IS Steve Rogers.
"What in gods name are you doing" A voice calls out over the comms rather suddenly. If people didn't know any better they'd almost think it was Jeff Bridges from how close he sounds but there is a bit of anger in his voice. "Don't go damaging anything you can't afford to replace."
She says, "One fire will be enough, something the size of a campfire will keep a martian back at least hirty or fourty feet. And force them into their true form if they are closer
The people are really trying to listen to Captain America,they really are. They grab a bucket of water and pour it on the randomly running around Croyd....but....that's an awful lot to someone an inch tall. "ARG! I'm DROWNING AND I'M BLIND!" He's air walking at this point and randomly floating around the room running into VIP's, shrinking generals, and top federal officials and secretaries and furniture.
The soldiers are ABOUT to break when the sergeant says to Cap, "What....what'll we do Cap?"
The midget suddenly looks at Cir-El and smiles. Then he keeps running.
Cir-El puts her hands together and bends her legs and hops into the air, "Ho, ho, let's do the kangaroo hop-be-bop..." Captain America flicks his shield after the midget. He's aware of exactly how much force to give...and he's not letting that guy get away to cause any more chaos. "Everyone *stand down*." He's starting to get just a little bit annoyed.
Obadiah Stane finds himself just a few inches away from getting shrunk down to size jumping out of the way as the man he had been talking to seems to have gotten himself shrank right down to size. He's not happy but at the same time he's realized just how little anyone seems to respect his limited authority in this group.
The midget snickers at the dancing Krpytonian and bows. "And with that, I bid you all...Farew-" BAM! The midget is slammed into the wall, stars over his head and little birds circling around.
Some of the VIP's in their panic have removed their face masks....this is not a good thing.
Croyd is not a bad guy, even high as a kite. He tries to calm down a bit. "OK. Iwilltotallybecalmeventhoughwearealldyingandthemartiansarekillingusandturningpeopleintoweirdstuff."

Mia comes out of her daydream of playing with Aunt Lana only to realize se was really doing a silly song and dance. She blushes with embarrassment, "Perhaps you need to explain, Martians turn themselves into things, not other people."
"Slow down. I don't think it's the Martians, but if it's aliens, we have to find them." Before, for example, they drop a second virus bomb somewhere. Maybe. He sounds very thoughtful now. What do they really KNOW about this virus.
Croyd says, "well...they...know....that....it's....mutates...a lot...and it ...seems to spread when I'm there...and it causes changes like what they made of me when the Joker poisoned us all....OH MY GOD! It's THE JOKER! Not MArtians at all. That explains it He's framing me!" He begins to move towards Cap.
Captain America lets out a breath. "Croyd. We'll work this out. But first we need you to put everyone back to normal size. Please."
Croyd is not freaked out by Braniac and touches Cap. ZAPZAPZAP
Cap is full size. He slowly goes around to each of the nearby soldiers who are...amazed...but also restored to full size.
He touches the VIP's who are now moving toward him. But Croyd is twitching...obviously the least little thing will set him off. The paranoia running rampant in his brain. He is nearly to Cir-El.
Cir-El is wondering, what if Croyd is not entirely wrong, what if it was aliens? Aliens who did the same thing to him that Brainiac did to her, turned him into a Plague Carrie? She will not SAY anything yet though, not until everyone is normal size again. This guy tends to overreact. She feels sympathetic with Croyd...
"Everyone. Stay stood down." Because the slightest thing, Cap can tell, is going to set Croyd off again. Cap's very still, almost seeming to be barely breathing.
Croyd continues touching people. He regrows Cir-El, and is quite calm. He's really enjoying this. Cap is a great guy. He can trust cap. But...what if...what if everyone is being crazy because they're being MADE to be calm! The calmness is killing him! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! He flees at rapid speed into the sewers.
Cir-El sympathizes, but she sacrificed herself to save the Earth from the YES! virus, she has to prevent it from being destroyed by this one. She uses her Kryptonian speed, slamming her hands together like a thunderclap, catching him whie he is still small and dense so the overpressure simply knocks him out, not kills him. The containment unit at STAR labs, where she yas yesterday, should be able to hold him until they find a cure...
The woman is pretty potent. Captain America makes a note of that as she moves to catch Croyd. Poor guy...but this *does* have to be stopped.
Poor Croyd. But then again, poor people dying and redying a horrific death of nightmares beyond imagining or being turned into the worst parodies of themselves that their minds can imagine. So...it's all even then. He falls to the ground and tiny Croyd is caught by Cap.
Cir-El says to Cap, "I know EXACTLY how it is to be used by someone to spread a plague, I was just released from a containment unit. I think we should take him there, hopefully they can contain him too."
Captain America nods. "Worth a try, but we need to be careful. This thing is fairly contagious and not uncommonly fatal." Odd how Steve isn't that bothered. Must be trusting that supersoldier immune system.
Cir-El suggests, "We put him in an NBC suit or the like, and if he wakes up, tell him it will keep the martians out?"
"The size he is..." They'll have to put him in a jar or something, Steve thinks.
Cir-El inquires, "I can take him to the lab in something protective, I can get him there is moments, but we need him contained lest he spread the virus on the way. What do we have to use?"
Captain America finds...a jar that once contained snacks. But it's clean. "Put him in here for now, close the lid. It should be enough to get him there safely."
Contained, for a moment...but a moment is all it needs. Cir-El takes the sealed Jar to STAR labs and quickly explains what is needed. The Containment unit she was in may not be perfect for him, but it is proof against virus transmission. She also suggests Dr. Watson be on hand when he awakens, the Psychiatrist might be able to keep him calm.

[Heromux] Typhoid Croyd: Riots!

Typhoid Croyd: Riots!
Heroes move in to stop things. Some are infected.
Location:	Soho Quarantine Zone
Date:	2015.03.27
Emitter:	Croyd Crenson
Players:	Lunair Weir, Danielle Patron, Karla Sofen, Lor-Zod, Greer Nelson
NPCs:	Mack the Knife, Stormcloud, Army Guy/Invader Zim, Dining Room Table, Hunchback of Dame, Big Lady
Groups:	Stormwatch, Justice League, SHIELD, Avengers
Tone:	Gritty
Rating:	Restricted

It's chaos. The quarantine has been broken even though most of the victims are still in the Soho area. Federal authorizes have been taxed to the limit and formal calls have been made to the UN, Shield, the JLA and Santa Clause...anyone who can help has been asked to do so. It is now known that Croyd is the only one who is contagious but the spores he leaves can linger for hours...days...maybe even longer.
The BSA (not the Boy Scouts of America, the other guys), the Army, and FEMA and the CDC are all out in force and have quarantined this part of the city. It's not a pretty picture as row after row of tents has been set up for the vast majority of folks who are in writhing agony, a coma of pain and slowly dying.
Another tent, isolated from the rest contains the jokers. Physically twisted folks who have suddenly become nightmares of their own devising, they are often driven insane or into abject misery as the virus brings them to the edge of madness.
Any plague is scary, even in modern times with the means to combat so many ills, or perhaps even because of that, making it all the more frightening when something occurs that can't be easily dealt with. Tigra's out trying to help, despite her own fear. She's hoping that since she's already other than human that she would be immune to any spores, on the off chance she comes across them, or should she find Croyd himself. At the moment, she's helping clean up the aftermath of someone drawing an Ace. The new Ace has already been led away, but there's chaos in his wake, courtesy of his burst of telekinesis. Tigra's working with a recovery crew to get a tractor trailer back up on its wheels, stripes pulled taut over flexing muscles.
Well, as a teammate, Lunair's been looking around for Croyd. Really. She even has a donut on a string tied to a pole. Dangledangle. Lunair has a mask, armor and such on. She's probably just being safe. She's a metahuman, and may or may not be immune. She's not going to start rubbing balloons on Croyd to find out. But she is concerned. Especially in the wake of all that's going on and what happened LAST TIME. "Wait." Maybe she'll try the phone again. One-ring-ing-ing...
Being Kryptonian has some advantages, (alright, many advantages), but one of them being pretty much immune to human disease. So, Zenith has no qualms whatsoever in entering the quarantine zone to help however he can, answering the call for help as soon as he hears it through his JLA comms.
Already having been in this location, Danielle has already started to change. She's grown sharper teeth, her face has gotten a touch more angular, her hair is now solid black and her skin tone has altered some, but most notable she now has tendrils coming out of her spine. They glow, they are light blue energy and they are at least 10-15 meters long each. Right now it looks like there's only about 12 of them, but for those with super senses they should be able to identify many many many many more of them.
This is a more physical representation of her telekinetic sense power, and she's flying about above some apartment complex, doing circles. Keeping an eye out for people, and since it is night time she has started to glow pretty well against the night sky, what with those glowing tendrils. When she spots the people struggling with a tractor trailer, she swoops down and the tendrils lash out against the trailer picking it up rather easily and tilting it back onto its wheels. "What are you doing here?! There's a contagion of something." She seems angry.
Karla drops into the area, literally, the walks from around the tent city in a S.H.I.E.L.D. jumpsuit with a white lab-coat and HEPA mask on obscuring her face. Still the I.D badges mark her as Dr. Karla Sofen, a 5 large is super imposed in light blue behind the basic information. Black gloves peak out, of her sleeves and she carries an old leather style Doctor's Bag in her left hand. Knowing S.H.I.E.L.D., the bag might be old, but the contents, not so much. She seeks around, looking for where to best put herself to use after collecting samples of a few strains.
The arrival of the JLU(A/E/I/O?) and SHIELD, along with TAZE and BRO and many other alphabet agencies greatly GREATLY improves morale. Karla and Zenith are immediately put to work with their powers and talents as they allow, and the arrival of Tigra is greatly appreciated. The tractor trailer is easily moved.
The samples are easily collected, and the researchers are going berserk. The virus changes SO MUCH, that they keep calling super scientists over and over hoping for relief.
Lunair gets an answer,"HELLO!howareyoulunlundontworryiamsafebutyouneedtobecarefulouttherebecausethecontageonistotallyspreadingeverywhereanditsreallyscaryouttherewhitemartianzetadeathraysareturningpeopleintofruitloops."
Huh. He picked up. Lunair seems pretty surprised. There's an owlish blink. She goes quiet, as the little windows wheel in her head turns. Loading, loading, loading... Not much progress on the progress bar. She has to close her eyes a moment. "Hi. I'm okay! How are you? We're worried. You might be contagious! It is really scary. I like fruit loops, but I get what you mean," She remarks.
As for where Lunair is, she's probably not entirely far away from the others, but she's on the phone. As teenagers are wont to do. Dang teenagers on lawns.
Steady, steady...Tigra's trying to ease the truck onto its axles without dropping it so hard that they break, and she's using more care than she really needs to, but then, she's still a little unsteady with her greater strength these days. And that's when the truck gets yanked right from her hands, causing her to stumble when the load is removed, thumping up against the side of the cab. Her tail lashes in irritation, and she looks over at the yelling voice. "That's why I'm here," she points out. "Trying to help out!"
"Great more people are going to get fucked up." Danielle states, her eyes looking at Tigra, "Looks like you -already- got infected, so who cares?" She mentions and is rather aggressive in her tone, and her tendrils off of her back and wiggling around in the air, "I'd suggest leaving. Get your things, pack them up, and go. You can't help anyone here, they're all doomed, doomed. Or not, but it won't be because you moved a tractor." She flippantly says, tossing her hands in the air, and coming finally to rest on the ground from her flight. Looking over to see, even in the dark and distant, "Great. Now there's more people here, far more ... government-y types. I hope they don't come this way." She's all sorts of in a disgruntled mood.
Zenith gives as reassuring smile as he can manage to the emergency team that greets him, and says, "I'll do my best." He then flies up, hovering over the quarantine zone where he can see and hear just about everything going on. Watching for anybody losing control of their new powers... or even losing control in general. Or anybody else who could use a quick save.
This is why SHIELD sent Dr. Sofen, she approaches the Metas with a bit of curiosity. She has the samples she came for, as soon as SHIELD has them to work with, Karla can go back to light work.
The folks near Danielle and Taylor cheer as the truck is cleared though they are...concerned...at the changed Danielle. A few folks back up and....find other parts of the debris to start cleaning. In a general shuffling sweeping....not QUITE running...away.
Zenith spots a young lad phase through the wall and begin randomly cutting through soldiers and aid workers with his hand like it was a knife. He COULD kill dozens but he's so quick and sloppy that all he's doing is wounding many....and just then a man with dark sunglasses and a black trenchcoat says,"Not so fast there baddie!" And sends a concussive blast of force at the kid...who ghosts and is unaffected but it scatters the kids like nine pins.
The battle is easily visible to Karla, though one of the scinetists asks, "Do you have any telepathic abilities? Scion put one to sleep but its the ONLY thing that seems to help with the pain...ansthetic does nothing and they're going slowly mad..."
Croyd answers, "whodoesntlikefruitloops,thoseareawesomeandIamsureIamnotcontageousiusedahomepregnancykitandsometinfoilsoitsallgoodbutdanielleishelpingandhasbeeninfectedwehavetohelphereventhoughtthetentaclesarekindacool
Ooookay. Lunair's expression shifts to one of immense confusion. On one hand, love is love, man. Whether one's significant other has tentacles, huge boobs, claws, whatever, it's love! And that's important. On the other... Croyd is more cootilicious than the entire second grade boy class. So, Lunair is quiet. "They are awesome. And Scion wanted to talk to you. Also, errr... We can help her, too," She promises. "And uuh... you're supposed to use protection. I thought the pregnancy kit was for after?" Chintapchintap. "Dating is confusing, isn't it? But would you be okay with dropping by Scion's place?"
Tigra's tail sweeps back and forth briskly behind her, a sign of her continued irritation, though she tries to keep temper under control. "You gonna sing the Doom Song now?" she asks shortly. "We're all doing what we can here, and if you've got a problem with that, well, I'm sure there's someone else out there that will benefit even more from your expertise and supervision than we will." She also doesn't point out that her appearance isn't from being infected. No reason to get into that.
"Telepathy? What, because I am from SHIELD, I am a telepath?" Karla says as she addresses the man, adding what ever name she gets from his ID. "If you cannot sedate him normally.." She opens the bag and pulls out a Glock. "Show me to him. It won't kill him, likely, but it is a superior tranquilizer." She presses the magazine release and displayed the glowy blue 'ICER' rounds. "Highly potent, designed for metas." She states moves to follow him, at least till she can put a pound in the man, then she wil be back out to resume, maybe fighting.
There's a blur and a gust of wind as Zenith speeds down to place himself between the suited man and the boy with the knife-hand. "Easy now, calm down, both of you. There's no need to hurt anybody, just let people help you. Please, step back and stop hurting people."
One of the army guys looks at Danielle,"Actually if you could move those buses over to block that street it would be kinda awesome...ho...wha...oh my GOD!" POP! Suddenly a small charicature of Invader Zim is standing there. "Doom?! Doom! Doom. Doomdoomdoomdoom. Doooooom!" He puts his hands to his forehead and begins to run around panicked.
The kid just laughs and puts his hand through Zenith, whose kryptonian heritage might stop many but the phased nature of his attack cuts through him like a knife through butter...likely wounding though not too much if he dodges quickly.
The other guy throws up his hands, "It's all cool man."
The ICER round works quite well on one of them who collapses in relief. The other one sadly heals immediately.
Croyd says, "IappreciateitIreallydobuthaveyouheardthenews?SomeonethingsitsmemyfaceiseverywhereIgottahidemangottasleepsoIcanchangebutcantsleepthankstothepotionvoodoomastergavemegreatstuffbutskindamessinwithmyheadknowwhatImeanbutdontyouworryImgonnashrinkandgobackatasewerandeverythingwillbeJUSTfine*RINGRING*Hey Danielle, I've got Lunair on threeway calling, you let her know if you need anything ok?*Hey Danielle,I'vegotLunaironthreewaycalling,youletherknowif youneedanythingok?"
Danielle picks up her phone and listens to Croyd talk about everything being okay and if she needs anything to just tell Lunair. And Danielle, to the rest of the people is suddenly smiling and spinning a finger in her hair, "Alright, okay. I'll do that. You okay? Still where I left you? People are being idiots down here." She waves a hand to the man who is asking about the busses, "Can't you see I'm on the phone!?!" She shouts at him, before sweetly talking back into the phone, "Okay, talk to you later."
"... Yeah, and that's why we need to have you checked out. Scion is really worried," Lunair explains. "Something weird happened in the sewer and -" Lunair looks confused. Sigh. Of course this isn't going to be that easy. "Do you need some like, stuff to go to sleep? I could give her chamomile tea..." This is really not good. "Well, whatever happens, if you're safe ther,e that's good. Hi Danielle! Okay. Noted."
Ooookay. Crazy lady here, Tigra thinks to herself. She's never encountered Danielle before, so as far as she's concerned, the teeth and tentacles are normal. And considering her own appearance, she's not going to judge. Not on appearance. On the other hand, having the tractor-trailer flung into a building, that's something she'll judge on. "Nooo, I'm not the one who's being pissy. I'm the one trying to help people. In my case, it was getting that truck on its wheels so the emergency crews could get it out of here." Calm down, kitten. Don't taunt the crazy lady. "You seem a little stressed." Yeah, Tigra didn't go to school to be a counselor. And then...Zim shows up. "Oh good God," she says. "What next?" And then Danielle gets on the phone, and starts acting like a girl with a crush. Can this get any odder?
Zenith is, luckily, very fast. As soon as he feels the pain, he twists away, only caught enough to be bleeding. He doesn't say anything at the pain. Despite his apparent age, he's used to pain. He no longer tries to talk the boy down, but instead he strikes fast. Not with his fists, which the boy will probably phase through, but with heat vision.
Zim showing up, Tigra talking to her again, and Danielle just hangs up the phone. She shouts, "Jesus christ, seem a little stressed? Got buses I gotta move, people I have to save, and stupid idiots coming into a plague infested area. I'm damn right stressed!" She is flies off, over in the direction of whatever buses were indicated and just starts grabbing them and tossing them, smashing them into the ground, and attempting to get her frustrations out. It takes very little time as she is immensely strong and very fast, less than a minute before she's back, still rambling on, "People, coming in, causing problems..." And she's throwing her hands up in the air as she complains to herself, "And -now- we've got some crazy cartoon character doing weird shit. Uhhhh, I hate my life!" Exasperated, angry, and lots of pent up energy.
One good, one, not so much. "Well, if this will not take him down." She says and sighs. The answer seems simple to Karla, it would be oh so very simple. There are rules though. She places the gun away and puts on a pair of latex gloves over the black ones. The she walks over to the man, "I want you to concentrate, concentrate on the sound of my voice, relax." She adds and pulls out a pen-light. rocking and making certain the other doctor sees it as well, "Focus on the sound of my voice, on the image of a calm field. The grass is green such a deep comforting green." The voice states in the most soothing imaginable tone.

The man that Karla administers to whimpers and becomes unconscious, blessed relief. It appears she is quite effective at reducing the insanity. But there are...literally THOUSANDS..tens of thousands, though some cases are worse than others...
Mack is cocky, but starts to phase out and laughs as he thinks Zenith is going to hit him. He shrieks in rage, surprise and pain as the heat vision sets his knife hand on fire as he sinks through the floor. "I'll get you...and your little dog too!"
"Zim" is lead quietly to the joker tent as he screams Doom as loud as he possibly can. Meanwhile, poor Tigra, confused by it all feels an odd sort of...BURP...and there is a hiccup...and suddenly she is four armed, four boobed and shock white. Instead of a tiger, she looks like a Snow Leopard. And her voice sounds like Helium.
The Wild Card is a cruel mistress.
Erhmahgawd, KITTY. Fortunately, Lunair isn't near enough snow leopard Tigra to run over and give cuddles. "But seriously, Scion might come looking to take you to a quarantine room to chill. We'll keep an eye out for you guys."
The strangeness of all of this, the stress of it, the confusion, and the apparently insanity of Danielle, all of it is giving Tigra a headache. She reaches up to briefly rub her temple, closes her eyes against a sense of...not quite vertigo, not quite dizziness, and then all of a sudden, there's a fair bit -more- of her than there was a moment ago. Eyes wide, she stares down at herself in shock, four arms wide, new bosom hanging free. "What the--" She cuts herself off at the sound of her voice, and starts to facepalm. Unfortunately she tries to do it with two right palms, and they get in each others way. "Fuck me."
And Tigra changes, and Danielle looks, and glares. Then she backs up a step or two, "Shit, I'm going to have to go tell Croyd about this, more rays are striking. Even infecting ALREADY infected." She shakes her head and jumps up into the air, taking her glowing tendrils with her and bolting off in the direction of some apartment complex in the distance.
Zenith flies up into the air as the boy disappears into the ground, though a look of confusion comes to his face. "Little dog?" He looks to the suited man and says, "Maybe he's hallucinating?" Apparently, the young Kryptonian hasn't fully caught up on classic American cinema.
There is a riot in the Joker tent as some of the larger ones begin stealing the food of the others. Now that Tigra is changed, several army officers quietly say, "This way ma'am. We're trying to quaraintine the Joker's. If you're Ok, we can release you in the quarantine zone....thanks for your help and we're sorry...are you...OK?"
Lunair will do her best to get the address where Croyd is, and take note so she can let Scion know. Lunair is likely vulnerable and going to stay away from Cootiesville.
Even if Tigra were inclined to try to stop Danielle, she wouldn't really be able to. Not while dealing with all of her limbs at the moment. Grumbling softly to herself, in a frustratingly high pitched voice, she carefully covers her lower bosom with her lower hands. She starts to snap at the soldier when he addresses her, but manages to control her temper. "I--" she cuts herself off, and tries again, making an effort to deepen her voice that's only partly successful. "I'm okay. For certain values of okay." Her much fluffier, snow leopard tail flicks about as she considers resisting. "Okay, yeah, let's go." So much for being immune to this thing.
Zenith, waiting long enough to be sure the phasing boy isn't going to resurface. Then, hearing the commotion at the joker tent, he flies over there as well, moving right into the tent and trying to place himself in the way of those fighting. "Calm down, please!"
Karla reaches in the bag, then assembles her little tot, a four prop hielo-drone, the bag is attached to the device, and the samples take off for the SHIELD flying carrier, Argus. Then she turns to the 'Jokers' tent. Her form shifts, but not physically, simply changing to a different outfit. For this job though, she chooses one she has not worn for a long time. She tilts her head to the left with a quick jerk to the left. Then, Moonstone goes to work.
As Zenith politely, VERY politely demands that people cease, some stop and look, curious. A few larger ones in the back keep brawling however.
As Tigra enters, every male Joker in the room stops whatever they are doing and just...stares. That still leaves three large female jokers fighting in the back, one is shaped like a tent, the other is a hunch back with arms and legs that are slightly hunched but is eight feet tall, and the other is...a dining room table. It might be female?
As Lunair walks off, she spots a piece of mail Danielle dropped. It has an address on it.
Lunair will let Danielle and Croyd go. "Please stay there. It was good to hear from you both." And there's a pause. She bends to pick the mail up. Yoink.
Tigra would have gotten stares anyway, considering she was already tall and...big. But now, of course, she's got more...stuff, and then there's the striking white fur. "Knock it off!" she calls out in her embarrassing new voice, before stepping forward, ready to lend Zenith a hand. Or two. Ahem.
Zenith doesn't even feel the punches, unlike those whose fists he blocked. Punching a Kryptonian, even a weaker one like Zenith, is like punching a tank. He turns, blinking, as Tigra makes her entrance, surprised more by the sudden peace than her shape. "Thanks," he says when she steps in to help. Then he zips through the crowd to once again place himself between brawlers, trying to push apart the brawling... women? "Stop this!" This time he puts some of his extreme lung power behind the words, so everybody -- even those not nearby, likely -- can hear. Much less polite this time. Of course, he's 14, so his voice isn't entirely intimidating even when it's loud.
FZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT. Off with her head. The din had slowed with Zenith's roar. Many people hurting their fists as they bounced off him but at this point everyone in the room stops. In fact, everyone is REALLY REALLY quiet. Even the soldiers are looking at Moonstone with a combination of awe and....admiration? Disgust? Lust? Whatever it was, the Jokers rapidly got back in a nice orderly line for the food.
Problem solved. For now.

[Heromux] Typhoid Croyd: Paranoia

Paranoia!
Croyd calls Danielle to help protect him.
Location:	Soho
Date:	2015.03.26
Emitter:	NA
Players:	Croyd Crenson, Danielle Patron
NPCs:
Groups:	Stormwatch
Tone:	Gritty
Rating:	Public

Croyd is hiding in an empty apartment inside of the Quarantine zone. He's in full out paranoid mode and the quarantine has gotten MUCH worse since many plague victims keep getting out of quarantine zone thanks to the Demon possessing New York. There are now CDC, Special Operations, NATO, BSA, and several strange federal agencies that no one has heard of. Shield and the JLU haven't been called in YET but that's in part due to a bureaucratic reluctance to reward them after taking the America out of the JLA.
Croyd is paranoid, so he calls the one person he feels he can trust. The person hardwired to help him. He gives Danielle the address of the apartment.
There's no issue with picking up the phone, and after a small conversation she's horrified that they are keeping Croyd locked behind so many layers of protection. Thankfully none of them are exactly the srongest things compared to her current powers. She jets off and only makes a quick look around the area before spotting the apartment that Croyd is paraoidly hiding in. That's when she swoops in, crashing through a window without concern, and entering the place. She doesn't know what 'stealth' is really, and right now she's worried for Croyd.
"Croyd, I'm here." She states, coming up closer to him, as she approaches. She's one of the few people who can identify him even in different forms, or cycles. She can smell him, understands him on a much more molecular level, and even his minor psychic presence is felt pretty readily by the woman who's vulnerable to such things. "Should we get you out of here? What's going on? Why's all the hub-bub happening?" She winces a little bit at something, and scratches at the back of her neck, but nothing more.
Croyd smiles at her concern,"They haven't found out it is me yet baby. We're safe." He gives her the code word, just in case,and asks, "Well apparently I'm 'contagious' or some rediculous nonsense, and the source of all this when it is clearly evil martian zeta death rays. How have you been? You look good.
"Clearly." Danielle smirks a bit when Croyd mentions she looks good, "Thanks." She reaches up and scratches at the back of her neck again, "I mean, contagious with what though? I haven't been looking at the news, I broke my tv a few days ago." Commenting with a small shrug, "And why would they think its you? I mean, what the hell do these assholes know anyhow? They'd blame bambi for this shit too if he was around. I'm sure, whatever it is, its waaaaaaaay beyond their understanding. I mean, come on, I flew in here and there wasn't even a single missile coming my way."
Croyd says, "Oh apparently there is this 'wild card virus' going around causing people to either go into a coma or be mutated into some weird thing. But its not me! It's all a conspiracy to get me. Nate seemed to think it was me but he's been affected by the mind rays! And ..wait...do you think Bambi is on it! I've never had venison but I'm willing to!"
"Uhhh, Wild Card Virus." Danielle questions, her regeneration is probably already starting to fight for its life against this thing and she doesn't really notice. There's this dandruff like itching along her spine though and she just shakes her head, letting it go. "No, I don't fucking think Bambi is part of this, jesus christ." She smirks and shakes her head at Croyd, walking closer to him, "You want out of here? Or are we hiding out here or what?" She puts her hands on her hips and starts looking around, "I mean, this isn't so bad a place, pretty cozy. And from the looks of things outside, you're pretty safe here." Shrugging she kicks a rock, which goes so fast that there's only a small rock sized hole that appears suddenly in the wall before the rock flies far far far away.
Croyd is clearly way amped on SOMETHING, in fact there is a faint glow to his eyes slightly red. And he's kind of hulked out more than the albino giant he has. He reeks of MGH and...something...else. "I want to get out of here, sure. I think Soho is dangerous! There is some kind of virus here, and while I would heal the next time I regenerated, I don't want to get it. But...no, I don't need to leave, I just wanted muscle in case the aliens tried to get me.
Smacking one fist into the other, Danielle mentions, "Well, I've got muscles." She offers, then shrugs, "Sort of, really I mean, I've been finding it's just I got brain power. Or whatever, but yeah. I'll stick it out, protect you from the jerks." She scratches at her neck some more and then offers, "I mean, if there's some kind of virus here, is it safe for us to leave now? It isn't like I'll get sick, or you, permanently, I think. So, we should be pretty safe here. But we could go hide out at my place, or we could go talk with Tony Stark, I know he'd probably be able to answer all kinds of shit."
Croyd says-, "Do you think maybe we could do that? I'd love some of that armor though I imagine he gets that all the time, but maybe like a Croyd Mobile. Wouldn't that be cool? A croyd Mobile? I love all that." Croyd is speaking very fast, but for some reason it is entirely comprehensible to Danielle.
Danielle hmmms and shrugs her shoulders a little bit before she closes her eyes some, "Wow. I've got some kind of crazy itching. I think back to my place. I gotta wash off or something, maybe I got some odd dust on me, or some shit? Then we can go and visit Tony, ask about the armor, though I think he'll say no. I've never asked, but I've seen a lot of people ask, and all of them get refused. He builds stuff from time to time for folks though. So, who knows right?" She questions and reaches behind herself, scratching up and down her spine some more, "Come on, just a quick stop off for me to rinse off whatever the hell's gotten on me."
Croyd nods, "Sounds awesome. I can sky walk now so you lead the way and I'll follow...or I can just sit on your back because that's fun and because you're a better flier than me. Why don't I just do that! Up up and away!" He grins insanely.
Danielle's eyes look around and then she goes over to a mirror to look at what amounts to lots of little blue tendrils and she squints at them. "What the fuck?!" She seems a little upset, reaching back to try and grab at them and pull on one or two, but her fingers just sort of move through them, unable to actually grab ahold of them. And she looks back to Croyd, "Rays? I mean, if I'm infected, with this thing, what happens? I mean, won't I regenerate it away?" She doesn't really understand biology, having only a mid-high school education and all. "Shit, can't go to Tony, then, he might get infected."
Croyd says, "Well, they're working on a cure but they've said its hard to find. Personally I think they look kinda nice. They're saying there is only one source on the news but its clearly not me so it must be White Martians or something. And at least you're not a giant duck or anything. Should I go to the store and get you some Aspirin or something?"
Danielle shakes her head and mentions, "No, it just kind of itches, and it's going away. I'm not sure what else is gonna happen. I can sorta feel them wiggling their way out of me. It's like, little worms squirming, that's what is making them itch." She mentions and closes her eyes, then starts scratching at one of her arms a bit, "I'm I'm not sure what's going on."
Croyd says, "Well, I can show you what I do whenever I wake up with a new body, which helps me learn my powers kinda fast...it's pretty organized by now but it'll seem a little silly. But it works. Wanna try?"
Danielle agrees to what Croyd is offering and will spend the next many hours testing out whatever is happening to her. What they'll discover is her telikentic feelers became part of her body, they've emerged, her mentality has regressed a little bit in animalistic nature. She's gotten more reflexive, and more aggressive, but whatever implant Tony had in her arm to keep the drug levels up seems to have malfunctioned as well, and started to be forced out of her system. Meaning either dangerous things in the days to come or perhaps a lack of need of it any longer. They'll just have to see.

[Heromux] Typhoid Croyd: Quarantine!

Quarantine!
Nate and Lunair try to find out if Croyd is causing the Wild Card Virus. He is.
Location:	Soho Quarantine Zone
Date:	2015.03.25
Emitter:	Croyd Crenson
Players:	Nate Grey, Lunair Weir
NPCs:
Groups:	Stormwatch
Tone:	Gritty
Rating:	Restricted

The BSA (not the Boy Scouts of America, the other guys), the Army, and FEMA and the CDC are all out in force and have quarantined this part of the city. It's not a pretty picture as row after row of tents has been set up for the vast majority of folks who are in writhing agony, a coma of pain and slowly dying.
Another tent, isolated from the rest contains the jokers. Physically twisted folks who have suddenly become nightmares of their own devising, they are often driven insane or into abject misery as the virus brings them to the edge of madness.
Nate has been looking for Croyd for a couple days without luck, and he was starting to think he had gone to sleep out of schedule. Then he got told about the virus and... yeah, Void confirms it is the Wild Card that got Croyd over a decade ago. Maybe Intergang managed to duplicate it? In any case the Sleeper gotta be involved. He is getting into the quarantine area, forcing everyone to ignore him, looking for information.
Lunair is down for a day or two, but busted rib or not, the world goes on. She'll just make sure to nosh a few painkillers and do her best. She'll follow Nate, if he lets her. Or she'll do her best to wiggle in elsewhere. Croyd was high as a kite with Charlie Sheen tied on last she saw him, and she's worried, too.
The place is just...horrific. This isn't just a virus, its a nightmare. Reading about it is one thing, but seeing it? Each Black Queen is their own personal nightmare, sometimes drowning...repeatedly...out of water, or being set on fire, or collapsing into a nightmare world from which they cannot escape. The screams coming from the tents are horrific and most have to be sedated or isolated.
The joker's are the 'lucky' ones but tell that to the person who is now a squid, or a walrus or a giant talking doll. Many are simply caricatures of human beings like out of a scene from Dick Tracy. But all are horrified.
The humans are wearing full contact suits, no matter what they say in public, not trusting regular face masks and all are afraid. VERY afraid, and there are checkpoints with armed guards every two hundred feet. Their are tanks with mounted machine guns every thousand feet.
Nate's trips into the memories of these people is..horrific, and a lesser telepath would be driven mad even trying a black queen. It is slow going no matter what, and the astral plane here is awash in negative and toxic energy that will last for some time to come even if a 'cure' is found. The mental scars here may be permanent. At first, there is no sign of Croyd but eventually Nate does find shadows of memories of these people seeing a tiny albino freak walking in the air down the street. But there is something wrong with his eyes. They are glowing red, almost malevolent and demonic. Worse, even, than the effects the MGH had on him. There is something more. Something very very bad.
The key here is, finding Croyd will be hard, but supplies of every kind are hard to find here. As yet, none of the cities have come to help relieve the pressure on the civil services, and the city's forces are stretched to the limit as are the federal government.
Nate is, unfortunately, very used to the horrifying and the mad. He grew up in a world where death camps and inhuman experiments were commonplace, so he is better prepared than most telepaths to deal with the pain and nightmares of the victims of the virus. He is mostly reading the minds of the researchers and doctors, though. Looking for the areas where the first victims appeared, as well as reports of unusual events just before the manifestation of the epidemic. "Looks like the only common point is Croyd's presence," he comments to Luna. "Perhaps the MGH made him contagious? Or whatever the MGH had... Void thinks now it was tainted with something alien."
Lunair isn't sure what to make of this. "I think your MGH theories are probably the ones," She remarks. She's unusually quiet, behind her mask. "They were injecting it and reinjecting it into mutants," She remarks quietly. She watches, looking here and there. "Is there a pattern to where he's going?" She considers. What would they use to even bait Croyd?
Upon examining the researchers' minds, Nate can tell that they've learned a few things. It's a nasty SOB, clearly alien in origin, with a self shifting DNA/RNA matrix, it changes EVERY time infection occurs. In fact, in a world without superheroic geniuses and alien tech, a cure would effectively be impossible. He also learns that it doesn't seem to infect from person to person, just lots of spores from one patient zero. They THINK. They are running tests to prove it. Other victims were found near the sewer grate where Croyd first left, and a while bunch in Belle Reeve prison. The first sure looks like Croyd might be their patient Zero.
As Lun asks herself what might be useful as bait, the army officer who thought he didn't need to wear a mask ALL the time, suddenly engulfs in flame and suggests, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" as he keeps burning and healing.
No one else has any suggestions.
Nate winces and then knocks out telepathically the burning man. Not much else he can do unless they find a cure. Turning to Luna he tries to think. "He is high on MGH, maybe he will try to get more. It usually fades in half an hour... uh. Intergang pushers, maybe Mutant Town. And Croyd probably has a list of the pushers we were watching."
Blink. Lunair jerks, startled as the officer bursts into flames. She'll take his suggestion into consideration and keep her mask /on/, thank you. At all times, really. She looks to Nate, and nods. "That makes sense. He mentioned wanting to keep the powers or something. He didn't want to sleep. I guess we should get that list and start following them." She seems uncertain now. Croyd has cooties like whoa. How strange.
The man immediately collapses. Two CDC medics take him to a nearby tent. The fire is horrific, but he is one of the few to find peace among tens of thousands of victims in constant pain.
Croyd's list of pushers is eclectic but highly traceable. None of them would be in Belle Reeve however.
A quick trace by Void is able to winnow out the four most likely candidates based on proximity, frequency of use and potential volume of amphetamine availability.
After checking with Void, Nate has to shakes his head. "No fit, Luna, the vectors are wrong. Do you know if Croyd has friends or some place where he would go?" He is also texting Void, what is this about Belle Reeve?
Well, food, music, entertainment... "We'll probably have to try talking to the dealers. He really didn't want to sleep," Lunair taps her chin. "If he got into MGH, then he's probably in ultra no sleep mode," She points out. "Let's go for speed dealers or drug shops. I have some contacts," More to keep her ear to the ground than drugs. Her experiences with hospitals have left her entirely wary of drugs.
Void's analysis of Croyd's...very...interesting...mind follows, "He's highly suggestible, so if he THOUGHT he was supposed to take MGH and had his mind damaged he'd take it, but if he thought he was still rescuing mutants then he'd actually potentially target MGH dealers or Intergang and protect Mutants. If he's in paranoid mode then his single impetus is not to sleep. He fears it above all else, and the one time I tested him when he was just starting on the speed indicated that he is totally irrational in regards to it."
Lunair's contacts don't turn out well for the first two calls but on the third. "Lunlun! It's been ages! You still working? I've got a guy I wanna make Dubsteb. It'd be hilarious." After listening a moment, he says, "oh. Yeah, the Sleeper. He hits me for speed sometimes, but he wanted 'the good stuff'...what he wanted didn't exist. It was magic. I think he kinda was 'inspired' and went that way but I have no idea who."
Lunair huhs at Nate. "I see," She considers. "Okay," Lunair murmurs. She tries her contacts, and on the third, she beams. "Hey you! It has. I am! And sure, I'll bring a dubstep by," She promises. "And really? That's good to know, thanks. Do you have any idea which direction or neighborhood?" She is thinking. "And I appreciate the help, by the by." She's a gracious contact, if nothing else.
Nate waits while Lunair makes the calls, considering people he knows. But the couple superhuman healers he knew are off his radar, and Xavier is not really a biologist. Although McCoy might know enough. Would Cerebro detect a mutate using MGH? As Luna finishes the third call, Nate looks at her sharply. "Magic? That guy thinks Croyd went looking for a sorcerer or something?"
Lunir looks thoughtful. "Well, magic could refer to something alien or - yeah." Could've been drug slang for all she knows. "It might not shock me if he did, though. They can make some serious drugs, from what I've heard. I remember rumors of this drug in Hell's Kitchen that was killing people made by demons," She rubs her chin. "But it's only a theory, to be honest."
"The one witch I know is not responding to the phone calls either," comments Nate. Limbo has bad coverage. "Alright, I am going to keep trying to find him telepathically. But at this point I think we need to tell the BSA guys Croyd is the human vector and give them his current description. Explain also he got doused with MGH and that has caused the outbreak... damnit, this is going to cause backlash on mutants for sure."
Lunair nods at Nate. "I see. Alright. And um. Well," She looks thoughtful. "I don't think an alien virus counts as mutant, and you can't help a chemical spill... but it seems like our best option. They have a lot more bodies than we do."
"I am going to keep calling Croyd, too," although he spends a few minutes staring at his holophone, trying to remember how to setup auto-calls by running through menus. Hey, it is complicated and he usually uses telepathy, okay? "We gotta check that Belle Reeve thing, too."
Nate is the brains of the outfit, as far as Lunair is concerned. She looks to him, and nods. "Okay. And yeah, that sounds like a plan. I'll help you as much as I can."
He answers after four rings. "Whatwhatwhatwhat? IcantdeliverpizzasthistimefortheloveofallthatisholyandareyoutryingtostareintomybrainIsweartogoohhiNatehowareyoudoingyouwouldbeproudofme," Deeeeeeeep breath,"becauseIgotsomethingthatllletmekeepmypowersonlongersoweshouldtotallytrytocontacteachotherandfindallaintergangerssoicankicktheirassallatoncebythewaydid youreadaboutthatplagueonthenews?ThatsliketotallydepressingandlikewhathappenedtomewhenIwasakidsomeoneshoulddosomethingtohelpthosepeoplemaybeweshouldespeciallynowthatImallpowerfulandeverything
"Er... yeah," Nate expression hints he missed half of what Croyd said. "Listen, buddy. MGH is doing something weird with your powers; you might be the cause of the plague. You need to hole up for a while. Are you still in Manhattan?"
Lunair is quiet, looking just as confused as Nate.
Croyd says, "Whatareyoucrazy?Thatsrediculousbecauseiwasaffectedinachemicalreactionandiamnoteven waitareyousayingiamcontagiousaretheymakingyouworkforthemNateohmygodtheygottoyoumustgettotinfoilnononononononoIamsosorrynatesosorryyouwereoneofthebestofembutIllmakeempayallofemandfindawaytofreeyoufromthemindcontrolraysandyesiamtotallyinManhattenwannagetabiteIknowagreatplaceonHoustonavenuethatservesgreatburgersifyouwant."
"Sheesh, I eat mind-control rays for breakfast," replies Nate. "Look, Void found something weird in the MGH. Not even she understands it, so all kind of weirdness is expected. Even you becoming contagious, which was impossible yesterday. Just stay put, we can get the food for you in half an hour or so."
"Are we going for food...?" Lunair looks confused, likely only getting half the conversation. She glances between Nate and his phone.
Croyd says, "FoodisntasimportantasspeedVoodooMasterspotionmakesmethinkfasterandbesmarterbutitisntreallykeepingmeupsoIneedlotsandlotsofspeedbutokyourerightmorethanyourewrongnatesoIllstayhereforawhileIamat5555thstreetinthefifthfloorthoughyoudontneedtoworryaboutfoodbecausethisguyhasafullystockedfridgewonderwhereheisanyway."
Sounds as if Croyd has started early with the speed. Nate links up with Lunair telepathically so she can hear the latest of Croyd's speech. 5th floor of 555, 5th street? Sounds like a made up address, but they will have to check out. "Leave some food for us, dude. I am going with Luna." << Luna, ask Void to locate his halophone, please >> he tells the young woman telepathically.
Life on fastforward is a bit much for Lunair. Her eyes cross. She nods at Nate, << Okay, >> Unused to thinking back at someone. Lunair will use her own phone to contact Void. "Hello! Would you please locate Croyd's halophone for us, please, Void? I hope things are going okay over there." She's well mannered, if nothing else.
There is a pause, "There is, in fact a 55 55th street. It appears that the ....whatever he is on..." she says with distaste, "might make obsession and compulsion a side effect. If so,this is new behavior but with the Sleeper everything is new. Things are Ok up here...not so good in Soho."
Lunair seems quiety amused. "Yeah, I think that would be a good advertisement." She curls her fingers around Nate's hand. "There's the Nullification or Cancellation Ray," She offers. "It stops drugs. I had to use it before when I accidentally overdid it with the pixie dust," Lunair admits. She seems happy enough with that.
The two of you fly through the air with the greatest of ease, the horrific sound of screams and people being turned into living fish or toilet brushes far behind you. You arrive at the door and upon arrival it is thrown open and Croyd stands there, Mexican Salsa playing in the background. He has set up five card tables with three places each and a fully dealt hand for everyone. There are lots of chips and salsa for everyone. He hugs you both quickly, getting you all nice and germy. "HitherewelcomeIamsogladyoucouldmakeithereNate" he hands him a Tin Foil hat, "thatshouldhelpwiththemindcontrolraysIknowyouthinkyoudontneeditbutyouneverknow."
Nate is going to take a risk and assume he is immune to the Wild Card on grounds of being a mutant and already having an alien virus doing weird things to his nervous system, but he does stand between Croyd and Lunair so he doesn't get all huggy with her. "Nice place. Looks comfy enough to spend a while here." He puts on the tinfoil hat, willing to humor Croyd. "So what are you up to?"
Lunair will keep her distance a little, looking to Croyd. It's a bit uncertain, and she tries not to get a hug. "T-thanks, Croyd. It's good to see you. You're very sweet. And ummm... thanks for thinking of us." She rubs the back of her head. "This looks like a nice place, yeah." Nod. She looks between the two.
Croyd seems genuinely glad to see his friends. Their complete lack of using insane levels of violence on him on sight, is actually a remarkably good idea idea and would likely have saved many many many lives.
If Fate, that cruel force, had not intervened.
Just as Croyd extended a plate of Nachos and Salsa to Nate, saying, "IamsogladyouarewearingthehatyouhavenoideahowrelievedIamto-"
The spores from Croyd that had not infected Luna (and could not infect Nate if they tried with all their microscopic black hearts to the heart death of the universe) slowly wafted through the ventilation shaft and into the next room. This Black Queen was bad....much much worse than any of the others encountered thus far, and a high pitch keening began, slow at first, but rapidly rising.
"Nate..." Void said over the comm, "Get out of there..."
Not quite willing to leave their team mate, Nate tried speaking, but the noise was impossible. The noise continued, and this time with a second telepathic missive, Croyd tried to answer but the sound was unintelligible as his mind was working even faster than his mouth. The noise became louder and louder but before Lunair could take out the Anti Noise Gun....The teleportation was activated and Void stared at them. "I am sorry. But the risk was too high."
She points to the window's shattering in a ten block radius and the first ACTUAL Black Queen death has occurred. It will not be the last.
"No!" Nate glares at Void, "you should have taken him too! And ported us to the artic!" But that is not how it works. As Void's calmly explains, Croyd's MGH-affected powers made too hard to lock on him in the minute or so she had him located. Also, they both are going through anti-viral procedures and some testing to see if she can kill the virus spores. No more looking for Croyd for a few hours.
Oh crap. Lunair can only stare as she listens and just - kind of gapes. Fate really is cruel. She was happy to see Croyd. They helped. "Thank you for thinking of us," She offers to Void. It really is nice of her, but ... She's definitely quietly worried.

[Heromux] The Mad Lab of Hyde

The Mad Lab of Hyde
Stormwatch members Croyd (the Sleeper) and Lunair (Scarlet Arsenal) find Intergang MGH lab in the tunnels under the Suicide Slum. Unfortunately the lab's head chemist is Mr. Hyde
Location:	Uncharted tunnels under Manhattan
Date:	Mid March 2015
Emitter:	Nate Grey
Players:	Croyd Crenson and Lunair Weir
NPCs:	Mr. Hyde, Intergang thugs, captive Morlocks
Groups:	Stormwatch
Tone:	Gritty, Heroic
Rating:	Public

After the incident in the church Stormwatch was supposed to do a focused effort to hunt down and eradicate Intergang and capture the mysterious Mr. Desad, a crime lord that obviously has super-human powers of some kind. Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. Usual anti-gangster tactics do not work with Intergang. In fact, nothing seems to work with Intergang. Some MGH distributors have been caught, but they picked up the drugs from messengers, every time in a different place and different person, after receiving messages by social media that are coded in ways only the receiver understands them. Even Void’s hacking is useless when the messages seem designed to trigger post-hypnotic commands.
But old fashioned detective work slowly yielded results. Trailing for endless hours one of the pushers, until they get a messenger with the drug, then the messenger until they get to the pickup place, tracing and tracking vehicles used, asking witnesses and paying bribes. And finally some patterns became apparent.
So the members of Stormwatch have a few places to check out. And they have been doing that in the past few days. They split in pairs and go poke around New York condemn buildings, ruined factories and, in this case, long abandoned subway tunnels. Croyd and Lunair were told to checkout some maintenance subway tunnels, and definitely they have been used recently. Also, the maps they have are all wrong, but Void warned them they probably would. Apparently there was some secret military project under Manhattan after WWII and a lot of underground construction is uncharted.

Croyd was tiny. Because he could be tiny. It was neat. In fact, if Lunair would let him, he would make her Tiny too. He got such a neat suite of powers this time around, it was almost like the universe was rewarding him for being heroic and stuff, as compared to setting him up to be a horrific disease carrying freak (shhhhh...forshadowing!). He looked at the train and counted the trains as they went by. "So....it's...a train. And...there are...swingy flicker light bulbs. And darkness. Can I have another Bazooka?"

Lunair is glad to help as she can. She will don her armor, wearing winter clothing over it and looking like the world's most dangerous seal cub ever. Lunair will let Croyd turn them tiny. Although, it honestly feels kinda weird. "Totally." She'll give him a bazooka. And huh. All these tunnels. "I suspect our maps are a lot of wrong. I brought us a couple of lanterns and flashlights, but once those are gone, we'll have to use gun mounted lights. I guess they ran trains through here... hmmm..." Peer left, peer right. "We should probably go deeper?" That's what she said.

Being tiny is pretty cool, although one has to dodge rats that are T-rex sized and cockroaches that look larger than horses. Also, tiny legs make moving a few yards feel like a mile, so it is not very practical, unless they manage to tame a flying ant. But Ant-Man is not around to give them lessons about it.
Now, this looks like a subway station where no subway station should be, and there are noises ahead, and light too. In fact, there seems to be some thugs with shotguns right around the corner. Looks like they found something. The bad news is they are maybe thirty yards underground. At least that is what the Halophones GPS says. Pretty much under sewer levels.

Croyd readies his Bazooka. "Alright, let's go take on some bad guys that might not even be there!" He's all set to shrink the bad guys. He should have like set up a ...lifts off into the air and then embiggens Lunair so she can catch up. "I can shrink you when we get close. Say...can you make those sentry guns from Alien 2? We could totally set up here.....in case they run away...I mean...with like...non lethal ammo, because we're totally non lethal and everything." Not really.

Lunair watches him ready his bazooka. "Sure thing," Lunair replies. She follows along easily enough. "I think so. And er. Non-lethal, huh." Rubber bullets shouldn't be hard, but sentry guns are doable. Still, she has to stifle a soft laugh at that. Lunair keeps her light enough that she can see, unless told otherwise.

The guard thugs seem extremely bored, but surprisingly, they are not smoking and talking about baseball or women. One could say they are moderately watchful. See, they are proud graduates of Taskmaster school for minions. So perhaps a notch over pound scum level in the karma wheel. At least half a notch.
"Uh, did you hear somethin'?" Mutters one of them, peering in the general direction of the unlikely pair of heroes with bazookas. "Pass me the flashlight, willya... didn't sound like a rat." Now he is lifting the shotgun.

Croyd runs right up to the guy with the flash light and grows giant (well...normal) for a second and attempts to punch him in the face. If he succeeds, even a little bit, the guy is shrunk for 24 hours. Let's see how HE likes giant rats and roaches.

Call 1-800-GET-TASK today! Nevertheless, red shirts or not, they do pose the problem of being between them and a target. While Croyd is going to dispense of minion #1, Lunair is left with Guy With Shotgun. And while she has no problem wasting the guy, she figures she'll respect Nate's wish to generally be non-lethal. It's time for the pixie dust gun. It's gold, sparkly dust. A cloud of it. How embarrassing... but it should work, unless he's got a gas mask on.

The thugs were more or less prepared, but not for a surprise size change. Thug one, becomes ant-sized, and although he bravely shots Croyd repeatedly in the shin, the micro-shotgun does nothing useful. He really should save the ammo for the cockroaches.
Thug two eyes go wide as Croyd seemingly disintegrates his partner with a touch. “OH SHIiiii...nnny...” the ‘pixie dust’ makes him recoil, then black out in two seconds. Thunk. Unfortunately, there were not just two of them, a bit further the lightened hallway, a third thug shows up and yells. “Intrudeeeeers,” then fires his shotgun, aiming in Lunair’s general direction. Another man further inside is also yelling ‘alarm’ and ‘help’.

Croyd runs towards the third guy and will punch shrink him if he can. Point in fact, Croyd is enjoying this power way too much and wants to make the whole circus horror show for Rats. He is running forward when eh should be Plasma Bolting.

Okay, she is so tempted to use something explosive, but that's just gonna bring the whole place down. Lunair grunts, bolting forward and trying to zig zag out of the way of shotgun shot. Her armor, fortunately, protects her from the grazing wound.
Thinking quickly, she pulls a plasma rifle out of nowhere and fires back at shotgun man, trying to follow up with a snapshot at the next target. "Hey, we have to stop them before they call the whole base in-"

The thug recoils from Croyd, since it looked as if thug one was disintegrated when Croyd touched him. He dives out of the way and behind an old desk for cover, then rises to shot Croyd on the face... just in time to take Luna’s plasma shot on his chest. The thug goes down with a pained gurgle, very much dead.
The way is clear, momentarily, but there is a lot of noise and yells coming from the hallway, just a few yards ahead there is a large chamber, some kind of underground nightmarish factory. Harsh lights hanging from a ceiling about fifteen feet tall reveal a chemical lab mixed with medieval dungeon. A dozen obviously deformed men and women hang from wires and restrains from the walls as blood and green, luminescent substances are injected on them and then extracted. Two dozen tired-looking workers, also spotting deformities of strange kinds, look around, scared, for some place to hide among the rusty cylinders of chemical nonsense. But half a dozen armed thugs are taking positions to shoot at the heroes.

Croyd sky walks an inch above the floor and punches the desk in frustration, shrinking it. He rushes at two of them hiding behind a lab bench and punches the lab bench, shrinking it, trying to go for the guards. "You bastards! These are people....you've been transforming them horribly and painfully against their will..." oh the irony of that statement....given what Croyd is going to be doing....
To be fair, Lunair can't blame them for their theory. Although, it does make this a bit of a pain. She wants to just blow it all up, but there's a lot of useful evidence and - who knows how guilty the workers are? Were they enslaved? Addicts? Who knows? There's a bit of sympathy and sadness for the poor saps being hung and restrained. "Ugh." What a load of awful in general. Nevertheless, she is going to have to take some sort of cover. Maybe the old desk and dead man. She reserves her words, deciding to instead take pot shots at the guards in turn with the plasma rifle.

Getting closer to the guards, which are hiding among chemical vats, weird equipment and computers, is going to get Croyd shot repeatedly. Although when Lunair opens fire with a plasma rifle, she draws considerable attention from the thuggery. Most of the cover the thugs can get is cut through by the plasma shots as if it was soft cheese. So the carnage is considerable, but also the response fire the young woman is receiving.

Croyd gets shot a lot. You know...for all his adaptation, Croyd is STILL not bullet proof? You'd think he'd learn that, but he is sent six ways to sunday when he could be doing as much damage as Lunair. But since he keeps regenerating after each time, his own sense of mortality is...frayed. He does manage to shrink a lot of the equipment though, tiny and doll like. "OW!"

Lunair frowns. She's getting attention, but at least Croyd can advance a little, right? "Are you alright? Find cover!" She offers to Croyd. Lunair will at least try to remind him that he could and should find cover. She will have to move to new cover, scampering as she's knocked away by enemy fire for a moment. She's going to be more bruised than a grape at a wine stomp. Ugh. Nevertheless, she's going to do her best to advance, take cover, shoot.

Thugs die to plasma, but more come from deeper underground to replace them, so Lunair is not progressing as much as she should. Meanwhile Croyd has shrunk some equipment, which is not of great use and does not help him finding cover. Several shots hit very close and one of them hits a large container of greenish liquid that burst all over him. It smells funny. It is also MGH in liquid form mixed with some very nasty chemicals of alien origin.
So many thugs! But where is the genius evil chemist of this hellish lab? Right there. “What the hell is going on?! Intruders? I will break them myself!”
He is huge and looks mean as hell. Like half-gorilla half-human. Definitely a meta-human and of the brutish kind.

Croyd shrieks in pain as the chemicals do...awfully interesting things to his DNA. He shrieks in pain and shrinks. Then he finally begins shooting plasma bolts at the thungs with Lunair, becoming a much harder target to hit as he leaks tiny tiny blood all over the floor.
Poor Croyd. Lunair is more than a little concerned as he's in pain and also - that's a chemical burn! "Let me know if you need a ride-" But still, Lunair is worried. She's not making as much progress as she should. "Should we get out of here?" She asks her tiny associate. Although, that option may swiftly... not be an option on hearing the voice of whomever is coming. She's got to at least retrieve Croyd and try to build a decent cover.

The thugs stop firing when the huge man barrels in. Mr. Hyde said he would do it himself and they have learned contradicting him is a terrible idea, usually fatal. And he is getting larger and more violent every day, so the thugs are pretty much terrified.
The problem with getting tiny is that the otherwise powerful plasma blasts the Sleeper has in this incarnation also become tiny. And not as effective. But hey, Mr. Hyde misses him, and goes straight for Lunair, taking a couple shoots on his chest that make him roar with rage. "DIEEEE!"

Croyd flies right up behind him and then suddenly gets all large right next to his head. His wounds have been healed and his bloodshot eyes have a crazy look to them. "Ooooooooooh yeah, like me some MGH. I can see why you are sellin this stuff its great, slap me some skin there brother..." and attempts to slam Mr. Hyde on the back of the neck, shrinking him...but doing a full sized plasma blast at the same time...just in case.

Lunair wouldn't contradict the guy if he were her boss, either. She blinks. Oh shit. And then Croyd is getting high, so high (wasn't there a song about that...?). That's not good. "Be careful!" She calls to Croyd. That cannot be a good thing to be ingesting. She's seen what it's done to people. At least, a few of them.
Although, she's going to have to start backing off, away and generally keep moving and shooting.

Mr. Hyde tries to catch Lunair, but he seems unused to his body. Trying to get at the woman, he slams with one of the pillars, cracking it, and then topples a huge table full of chemicals. Looks like Croyd is not the only one high in MGH. “Come here, gnat!” He screams.
Although Hyde accidentally avoid Croyd’s touch, the Sleeper’s blasts hit from behind, and he roars in pain, his ultra-hard skin blistered and burnt at the drug-enhanced plasma, the thick green coat almost atomized with the impact. But the villain doesn’t fail, he turns back and tries to back-hand Croyd into oblivion.

Croyd gets slammed back like a ping pong ball and boumces off the wall. He would habe been out of it if not for the mgh bit as it was he was stunned. Screw this! He created two earth golems that rose from the floor to slam this guy while the birdies sang and flitted about his head.

"I am not a gnat!" Lunair protests, and - she's got to - well, Croyd is sort of the firepower now. Lunair doesn't want to rile up Hyde further, and she's not sure this place can handle more pillars getting knocked around and stuff.
While Hyde tries to back-hand Croyd, Lunair is going to start trying to help portal the other mutants down and out or in the general direction of away. Those who can walk get the way pointed out. Those who cannot, she'll keep near her. She'll have to portal them along.

Croyd has now the attention of Mr. Hyde, definitely. The huge villain walks towards him, growling, with every intention of tearing him apart. But then the floor cracks and two earth humanoids try to grab him. Hyde grunts, dragging them a couple steps before deciding they are too much of a hindrance. He grabs one and smashes it against the floor, then the other, lifting it over his head and tossing it to Croyd.
With the goons cowering or fleeing, Lunair has little difficulties reaching the mutants at one side of the lab. They seem quite out of it, perhaps drugged, although they twitch and grimace as if in pain. Portaling them near the surface is easy, but chances are they are not going to get to a hospital without help.

Croyd opens up a hole in the earth under Hyde and is simmoning two more before he gets a face full of dirt. This leaves two half formed golems grappling at Hyde. Croyd takes dirt out of hos mouth. Blech!

Lunair is worried about the Sleeper, and is going to keep portaling mutants. "Shoot, I need a van for all of you guys..." Well, she can let Nate know. For now, she's got to get them to the surface at least. She's having to do so and avoid falling dirt or what have you. Her arm is getting a good work out.

The tearing on the ground makes the harsh lights of the lab flicker and most of them go out. Main power is out, but there is an emergency generator. Plaster and debris falls from the ceiling.
Hyde falls down, but jumps out of the hole in a flash. Then a golem grabs his legs and he falls on her face (cracking the floor). "ARRRRGH... I'll tear you apart, worrrrm!" He cries as he picks the golem to pieces, then crawls after Croyd, the second golem clinging from a leg.

Croyd uses geoforce to try and push dirt in the gaping yap of the ugly dude. But he also charges and a short range plasma blast to the face. "Shut yer pie hole!

Oh right! Lunair remembers Void, and calls her for teleportation. Yes, a lot of sick and drugged mutants from the MGH place. Croyd is still fighting, and Lunair is worried.

Hyde protects his face with his right arm, to prevent the dirt go into his eyes and mouth, but then he takes the plasma and his arm is badly burned. "Damn you!" He yells, smashing the ground, and causing... well, it is too much for the old station. The whole place is falling into pieces. Pillars crumble, the ceiling comes down, water bursts from crushed pipelines.
Lunair's halophone states Void's response. ***I am unable to pinpoint you position. Undetermined interferences. Please, move away at least 50 yards*** Good thing Luna has that portal gun herself.

Croyd tries to make as many golems as he can to grab prisoners amd help get them out with Lunair. He keeps making them as long as he can, even ignoring Hyde until tje place collapses.

Lunair hmms. "Okay, got cha." Then she's getting help from Croyd! Lunair will portal gun as many as she can alongside Croyd. "Thanks." She's nothing, if polite. But they really do need to GTFO.

Lunair has not a second to spare to portal the last mutant out before the whole lab gets buried under hundreds of tons of concrete and dirt. Mr. Hyde is still trying to grab Croyd, but soon both are buried by the avalanche of rock and debris. Both are tough enough to survive, but what about Lunair?

Croyd can sense the buried lunlun and begins to direct the earth to gently "spew" her out and up. It would feel like a thousand helping hands letting her 'swim' in the Earth. Sadlyx Croyd cannot BREATH dirt but he can hold his breath a really long time. And he is doing so right now. Hyde is next on his list.

Lunair is armored, and - hurting kind of badly. Maybe even likely knocked out for her trouble. At least everyone's out, right? And she'll let the 'hands' move her out, being likely KO'd.

After a few minutes Croyd manages to pull Lunair and himself back to the tunnel outside the lab. It is dark and the walls are cracked, but still standing. A dozen yards beyond the rescued mutants are spread on the floor, some of them trying to pull themselves to a sitting position, most unconscious or just curled up and moaning.
Fortunately, now they are within Void's reach, so teleportation back to the Halo Towers is possible and quick. Too many people for the medlab, so Void sends the mutants that seem healthier to the Mutant Town clinic.

Croyd shrinks and heads serupticiously to the sewers, these powers are awesome and he means to keep them. Once the last of the mutants and lunair are ported away, he runs off. He needs someone. ..special to stay awake and he knows a guy who knows a guy who jnows a guy.

Lunair will be out for a bit, but she'll let herself get taken in for care. He's likely not going to stick around, so odds are good, Lunair will miss seeing Croyd go. She's a bit concerned about that.