The Vanguard - Issue #0 (November 2034)

[Keehnelf]

The Professor nods sagely as Kevin speaks, his shining eyes never leaving the young man's face or even blinking. The longer he continues to try and speak, the more it seems like the Professor is leaning into--no, looming over--him, casting a longer and longer shadow while remaining lit in sharp relief himself.

Finally, as Kevin's will to speak peters out a bit, the Professor smiles once more, mutters a few words under his breath as he whirls around, sending his cape flying out in all directions, and kneels to touch Mr. Copenhaver on the forehead with the back of his hand. "It's never too late to do something," he says, looking back up at Kevin once more, "as long as your will is strong. Will you help me help your friend?" He extends his left hand once again, this time inviting Kevin to take it.

[keal]

Kevin returned the Professor's gaze as he tried to also keep his eyes open and unblinking as long as possible before they began to tear up and sting a little. One could get lost in a powerful gaze like that.

Swallowing the massive lump that has developed in his throat, Kevin reaches out with as must confidence as he can muster to take the Professor's hand. "I'll do whatever I have to to make sure he survives," he murmurs. "Always."

[Keehnelf]

As soon as Kevin takes the Professor's hand, the light of the alley begins to fade rapidly. Everything becomes dim and blurry, the Professor's outline indistinct, and Kevin swears he can hear the faint sound of flapping wings before everything fades into comfortable darkness, like a long and peaceful sleep.

But when the light returns, only a brief moment has passed, and Kevin finds himself in front of the emergency room entrance of Mercy General with his wounded friend in his arms. The Professor was nowhere in sight. A nearby orderly catches sight of the bloody pair, one unconscious and the other merely stunned, and the emergency teams rush into action.

A few hours later, when Kevin is finally ready to head home for some much needed sleep and Moster Copenhaven is in stable condition, he pulls up his hood once again and pushes his hands deep into his pockets to discover a business card with a Battery Park address. On the back side is a hand written note, just a few words, but enough to warm his heart just a little against the night's chill: "Everyone needs friends. Yours, P.T."

/scene!

[Keehnelf]

Scene Three: Unlikely Partners

Flash forward six months. Maddy Pressley has worked her contacts hard to make contact with members of the Vanguard in search of someone Marco can be seen working alongside that might improve his image. In the meantime, he's been spending his crime-fighting time in the Bronx and on the lower East Side to increase his street cred a bit.

Finally, Maddy's efforts pay off with a direct referral to Professor Tiberius's office, where the young hero and his manager are encouraged to make contact with another fledgling hero named Threshold, also primarily working in the Lower East Side, with whom Professor Tiberius has been working on and off over the summer and fall.

A few days later, the unlikely pair meet at Cafe Express, a chain coffee shop right off Central Park, across the street from Northern National Bank...

---

I'll be running this scene straight into scene four with a brief segue way when the timing seems right--this will give the pair a chance to introduce themselves to each other before trouble brews.

[Mister-Kent]

Marco slips into the cafe as quietly as possible, his Heatseeker uniform hidden under a tan peacoat. His unruly brown hair is stuffed under a black baseball cap, the visor pulled down low, touching the chunky non-prescription glasses he's wearing. Possibly looking more conspicuous by trying to be inconspicuous, Marco finds his way to a table. He sits, peeking up from under his hat periodically for the other Gifted he's about to meet...

[keal]

Kevin watched from the mouth of an alley across the street from the cafe as a unique character entered the establishment and took a seat at a table alongside one of the panel windows. "An overly large coat, a hat, and big sunglasses," he snickered, shaking his head slowly. "This is going to be interesting."

He thought, momentarily, about hopping but decided against it. Instead, he kept his steps measured but light as he waited for traffic to thin enough for him to cross the street. His body felt bulky as he moved, but that was because beneath his already-layered outfit of a pair of jeans, a long-sleeved tee-shirt, a short-sleeved tee-shirt over the top of that, *and* his hoodie above them all, he was also wearing his costume. Just in case, he told himself.

It had been exciting to receive contact from the Professor that some other hero wanted to meet, but now that he was actually headed *to* the meeting, his stomach was in knots. He extended a hand from the safety of his pockets long enough to pull on the curved brass handle of the cafe's door and entered. Even though he knew exactly where he needed to go, he pretended for a moment to be any other twenty-something coming in to a cafe on any afternoon seeking any cup of coffee. After a cursory glance around the entire establishment, he was fairly certain that nothing was out of place - well, except for the other superhero sitting in an oversized coat at a table against the wall.

Striding over, he cleared his throat and said, simply, "Hey," and flopped somewhat heavily into the chair across from him.

[Mister-Kent]

Marco pushes his visor up with his index finger, then removes his glasses. After looking the other young man over, Marco extends his hand. "Hey. I'm Heatseeker," he announces quietly, practically under his breath, then looks subtly around to see if anyone heard him.

"My people told me a bit about you--uh, not to freak you out or anything. They said we could really benefit from working together, and if you've been following the news, you know I'm open to working with others. So...tell me about yourself..."

[keal]

Kevin watched himself being watched. Well, more like studied. It was always an interesting thing to view, especially observing the evolution of a thought on someone else's face. He wondered what the one who introduced himself as Heatseeker was thinking. A Looking-Glass Self, he remembered, vaguely from some Psychology class he had taken. Kevin realized, at that point, that he had been sitting, unmoving, while a hand had been extended in greeting.

"Sorry," he murmured, more than a little embarrassed. "I'm, uh, Threshold." After introducing himself, he immediately put his hand back in its comfortable little cave, his hoodie pocket, and wondered who these "people" were who wanted them to get together. "I don't...," he eventually said, "actually watch much television. It's, erm, a luxury, you know?" In order to punctuate that statement, he smiled faintly and pulled one pocket inside out - the classic revealing of a distinct lack of money. "So, no, I'm sorry - I don't know a whole lot about you. I've been trying to keep track of other heroes, but no one really stops to talk, y'know?" Then, he hastily adds with a grin, "Well... except, like, now."

Glancing around the cafe again, almost as though he expected a camera crew to come in and capture this awkwardly priceless moment, Kevin puffs out his cheeks and thinks of what he wants to share. Finally deciding, he states, "Well, um, I guess I picked the name because I can hop." Wow, that sounds really weird when you actually say it out loud, he thinks. "I mean," he corrects as quickly as he can, "I can open portals and jump through them. Pretty much anywhere I want, but I haven't really tried to go super long distances."

[Mister-Kent]

"So...you never heard of me?" Heatseeker laughs uncomfortably. "I'm honestly not sure how I feel about that, but all the same--my ego will survive." After shaking Threshold's hand, he places his on the table and nervously drums his fingers.

Heatseeker nods attentively the entire time Threshold explains his powers. "Hopping...through portals?" He scratches his chin, bewildered. "Yeah, that's definitely...wow. Anywhere you want?" He's actually never met a teleporter before, but the thought sort of scares him.

"That's some serious power. You've never wanted to register, though?"

[keal]

"Well," Kevin replied, drawing sound of the word out, "I guess it's pretty much anywhere I want. I've used it for short distances, like," he said, twisting in his chair, "from here to behind the counter over there. I've also used it to jump from street level up into my apartment, but that's because I'm really familiar with where I'm going to end up." Scratching his chin with his thumbnail, he hmmed and said, "I suppose I could go anywhere I wanted. I've just gotta have a real clear vision of where that is, you know?"

And then the word was thrown out. Register. It sounded so heavy that it almost fell between them onto the tabletop. It echoed in Kevin's ears.

Kevin had been registered before, many times. Registered as a ward of the state. Registered as an unruly youth. Registered as a victim. Registered as an offender.

"Yeeeeeaahhh," he says finally, pushing back away from the table a bit in order to rock back on the rear two legs of his chair, "I, uh, I don't get along well with that notion, I guess." He wanted to say more, but he didn't know how. Furthermore, this was a perfect stranger, and although they had one obvious thing in common - their powers - he didn't know him from any other person on the street.

And in Kevin's world, people you didn't know often took advantage of you somehow.

Trying to stay positive, he feigns a smile and offers, "But you have, right?" Searching Heatseeker's face, he added, "I mean, that's why you asked, huh?"

[Mister-Kent]

Heatseeker tents his fingers. "I did, in fact. And, not to brag, but it was kinda this huge deal." He pauses, sensing some general concern. "Err, not that it's always like that! I mean, lots of Gifted Individuals are more quiet about it, registering out of the spotlight."

He shrugs. "But 'out of the spotlight' is not where I belong."

"Look, I know you're apprehensive about this whole team-up business. I could literally feel your anxiety at just hearing the word 'register'--feeling people out is what I do. But you don't need to worry, man. This is going to benefit the both of us..."

[Keehnelf]

Just as Kevin is starting to formulate the question of how this might benefit him, other than by providing him with a surplus of public awkwardness and discomfort, and explosion rattles the front window of the cafe and the cups in front of the duo, just as Heatseeker's Danger Sense begins to blare in his mind like an air raid warning. Small billows of smoke are flowing out of all the ground-floor windows of the bank across the street.

Anxiety is building around the duo, as people from the cafe begin to question what's going on and get nervous about their safety.

[Keehnelf]

Scene 4: The Heist

Somebody's just detonated something inside that bank, and it's a weekday. Obviously, there's money inside, but there are also civilians, and the police are probably a few minutes away at best. What do you do?

[keal]

Kevin grits his teeth, almost biting the tip of his tongue off at the flooding of emotions and thoughts hit his sensitive psyche like a ton of bricks. Audibly, he groans a tad, but it's a little hard to hear over the shouts coming from the other patrons and the bells sounding off from across the street, perfectly clear in the silence after the initial detonations. Pinching the space between his eyes in order to clear his thoughts, he nods knowingly to Heatseeker and shoves back completely from the table, his chair falling to the floor with a clatter. Rushing toward the back as the rest of the patrons are rushing to the front, he begins tugging at his over-clothing and waves an arm in a big arc toward Heatseeker in order to get him to follow.

With the patrons' noses pressed up against the windows in concern, he holds his hand out again, trying to maintain focus, and extends his fingers, opening a Way. It stretches across most of the back wall near the bathrooms just as he pulls his costumed-hood up into place and secures the band around his forehead. Glancing into the Way, he's grateful that he has been inside the bank plenty of times in order to turn pocket change into actual bills. The other side of the portal isn't that far into the establishment - just inside the foyer, actually - but it's enough!

"C'mon!" he says over his shoulder to Heatseeker and steps through...

[Keehnelf]

TN 9 to open a portal that far, 2d6+focus+power level

[keal]

http://www.unseenservant.com/default.as ... mpaign=224

[Keehnelf]

those are test rolls! You need to go to "roll the dice" and select the die icon next to the name of the macro.

[keal]

(posted the updated roll)

[Keehnelf]

Threshold and Heatseeker hop through the portal in the back hall and out into the entryway of the bank. For a moment, Heatseeker is dazed: he's never completely switched directions while traveling a hundred feet instantaneously before.

Immediately, both heroes are overcome in their own way by the presence of civilians here--there are a number of them lying face down on the floor in the lobby. Huge amounts of smoke are obscuring almost everything but the nearest fifteen or twenty feet.

The security grille on the front door is in place, preventing anyone from escaping, and nearby two. Men stand, with their backs turned to the duo, rifles in hand overseeing the civilians. They are wearing gray-green military-style fatigues with pristine white helmets.

They appear to have caught some of the reflected light from the portal because they turn to face the two. "Hey," cries one. "Perimeter breach!" Before the pair attempt to fire.

[Mister-Kent]

Heatseeker winces as his Danger Sense erupts--he bolts up, knocking his chair to the floor. He tosses his hat to the table and immediately slips off his $300 Burberry coat, then tosses it to the table as well. Now fully revealed in his costume, he raises his hands to the diner crowd. "Stay calm, everyone!" he tells them, but can definitely feel an oncoming panic from everyone. He looks over his shoulder out the window, then re-addresses the crowd. "We may be too close to the scene here--does this place have a rear exit? If you can, please--exit that way. If not, stay put and keep back from the window..."

He sees Threshold open a portal, and his jaw drops. When the other hero beckons him to leap in, Heatseeker hesitates, running a hand through his hair nervously. "Ah, yeah...yeah...I'm working up to it!"

Finally, he follows Threshold into the mysterious gateway!

***

Upon reaching the chaotic scene in the bank, Heatseeker takes a moment to get his bearings, but he has little time to acclimate as the thugs open fire! He grabs Threshold and pulls him towards the nearest cover--a counter, a desk, anything sturdy...