At the Top of Twelve, the Diva and Tom-tom got initiative, and held their actions. Then Gallowglas rushed the stage. As soon as she started moving, the Diva let fly with her AE Cone “sonic stunner” tune, catching half of our heroes (and half the VIPs in the audience) with a big STUN-only hit. That didn’t deter Gallowglas, who proceeded to knock down the Diva. C-4 was stunned. Stick and Psyclist held their actions. Axe Man moved forward on the stage, but maintained the Barrier around the hostages. Hammer moved up and hit the Diva, then Umbra’s Dark Energy blast (indirect, rising from his shadow) hit hammer. Ghost worked on a flanking maneuver. Psyclist let fly a psychic haymaker at the Diva. The crowd ran for their lives (except for the half of the VIP section that was out cold, but Lucy Liu was there to help).

A couple more love taps (from Stick I think, and maybe Gallowglas or Psyclist) allowed the Diva to reach GM’s Discretion first. Then Axe Man used his Flying V’s Whammy Bar effect (8d6 AVAD) on Gallowglas, knocking her into Once Per Turn. Tom-tom clobbered Stick (double knock back!), but Stick nimbly alit on the backs of two folding chairs in the VIP seating area, thanks to an outstanding Acrobatics roll. Tom-tom leapt after him, successfully landing on an adjacent chair seat. He then swung, and Stick dodged, causing him to miss. C-4 was conflicted, caught between doing the safe thing (running) and the honourable one (standing with her team-mates). She chose to fire a flash-bang, blinding Tom-tom. The other villains in range had enough Flash DEF (sight, they all had enough hearing Flash DEF). Lucy Liu had no Flash DEF. Psyclist used Aid on Gallowglas, with a pathetic effect roll that STILL managed to shift Gallowglas up a category (and probably saved the day).

Umbra then used his Shadow Boxing power to clobber Hammer (it wasn’t Umbra’s fist that hurt, it was his fist’s SHADOW that did the damage). The massive hit sent Hammer entirely across the VIP seating area, and into (and through) the back bleachers — unconscious (but still once per phase). Ghost then completed her flanking maneuver, and sucker-punched Umbra while invisible. Axe Man comes over to Umbra, says “we need to bail, there’s too many of them”, and starts looking for Ghost. Umbra gets up, and moves over to the Diva, getting ready to teleport them to safety. Then Ghost comes over and clobbers him. C-4 lights up Umbra and Axe Man with some Willie Pete. This edges Umbra into once-per-turn, saving the day. Axe Man is less than impressed with C-4, and runs over and lets go his Feedback Shriek (AE Cone Explosion, 5d6 AVAD). Stick dives for cover, avoiding the hit, but losing another action. C-4 takes the hit, and drops unconscious. Tom-tom fumbles his “where’s waldo” roll, trying to find Stick while blind. Thinking he has him cold, he swing, misses, and falls on his keister, saving the day as it allows Ghost to run a move-through on him. Still, Tom-tom is as tough as a brick, and still has fight left in him, despite Stick’s END drain damage shield running down Tom-tom’s END. Winding up with negative END during a maneuver caused Tom-tom to take a massive STUN hit, saving the day. But Hammer has now regained consciousness and returned to the fight — smiting Tom-tom mightily while he is down. Gallowglas also wakes up, and returns to the fight. But with only two villains left and 5 heroes still active, and the Willie Pete set to take Umbra (their “sure thing” ticket out if things went pear-shaped) into GM’s Discretion before end-of-turn, it does’t take long to end (not to mention that Stick is juiced-up with extra STR after that hit from Tom-tom).

Still, there is chaos as the crowd flees from the seating area to their cars, and then set off cross-country to the various grid roads around the venue (with utter disregard for the marked lanes, the grasslands or any of the barb-wire fencing). Our final scene is of someone holding their phone in their hand, showing a massive balance in an Etherium wallet. The hand has rather odd fingernails, that look more like a cat’s retractible claws than nails. The phone is slipped into a pocket, and the hand moves to the steering wheel as traffic begins to move again.

——

Our heroes were outmatched by their opponents, and some early critical rolls went in favour of the villains. With a teleporter among the villains it was a big success to prevent them from escaping. 2.5 combat experience each (it wasn’t quite a 3 pointer). +1 non-combat point for C-4, for playing her inner conflicts so well, and “taking one for the team” when WP-ing Axe Man & Umbra. +0.5 combat for Psyclist, who was uncharacteristically effective tonight. Honourable Mentions for Stick (for long suffering stoicism in the face of multiple pre-empted actions), Gallowglas (for persistence, stubbornness and her Battle Cry), Hammer (for drawing far too much fire), and Ghost (for unwittingly perfect timing to prevent the villains from escaping).

The credits roll. Then, there is the post-credits scene:

Fade in to: interior, high-tech cell block. Thick, multi-layered lucite walls enclose each prisoner. The camera pans over the Diva, Axe Man, Tom-tom and Umbra. We see they are all unconscious. They also are shackled, with heavy-duty titanium manacles. The Diva also has a fancy, high-tech gag on her mouth. Two guards are nearby, playing cards while watching the prisoners, looking up every few seconds. The prisoners start to wake up. They test their manacles, and check out their cells. Tom-tom hits the walls and door, to no avail. The cells are tough.

The guards get up and walk past the cells, checking on the prisoners. Then they go back to their game. Umbra teleports, manacles and all, into the next cell, holding Axe Man. Those two then teleport into the next cell, holding Tom-tom. Those three then teleport into the Diva’s cell, and all four vanish. It is all over in 12 seconds. The guards look up, have an “aw shit” moment, and hit the Big Red Button.

Fade to black.

– Tonights gaming session was the big battle royale, between the Quartet (the Diva, Axe Man, Umbra and “Tom-tom” — formerly the Trio, I added Umbra when it looked like we’d have the full team facing them) and our heroes. –