Mutants and Masterminds: Bounces Blog (2)

                Bounce here with another update! I know it has been a couple weeks. Really sorry about that but... well, when you leave a district unattended for a week criminals tend to creep back in. Nothing I can't handle though. In fact, I even picked up a little of Ronin's slack. Apparently SOMEONE doesn't think a jewelry store stick up with some cut rate villain is worth his time.

                So here's what happened. I was patrolling the streets like I always do. I had already tossed a couple of thugs on the police station steps when I get a call from one of my contacts. Willie had heard a bunch of screaming from Keklier Jewelry on the corner of Gauze and Clement. Now, for those of you keeping track at home, that is about four blocks into Ronin's territory. I figured that sword swinging maniac would have it under control, but Willie was worried, so I headed over.

                I get there and what do I find? Some guy in a polka-dot pair of pajamas with a machete is in the store throwing colors at people. That's right. This guy replicated the technology of one of the Dark Knights most mentally handicapped villains. So I wrap him up good and tight, disarm him and knock him out.  Simple work.

                Once Mister Globe (he was shouting in the third person the whole fight) was safely behind bars I gave Willie a call back to thank him for the tip. That's when he told me that he had spotted Ronin in the area during the attack. He said from what he could tell Ronin looked in for a sec, then just left.

                So at this point I figured Puppetress or Willslaver must be in the area, doing something to Ronin's head. That happened in an issue of Hex where Hex has to save Magnet Master from a mind controlling robot that made him indifferent to almost everything and, arrogant as he is, I wasn't going to let some whack job control one of my friends.

                So, I head over to Ronin's place. I apparently got there before he got back from patrol. I asked him what was going on; if he had seen what was happening at the jewelry store. It turns out that he had and that he had decided that kind of crime to be "police worthy" and not worth his time. When I asked about what he would have done if the maniac had USED that machete he responded with "It was one wannabe villain with a blade. The police would have sorted it out. He was probably looking to be stopped by a super just to make the news."

                Now, I know there are whack jobs out there who do that. I am not ignorant. I have read that entire story arc about Viper and how she had to start being more stealthy about bringing criminals in. Some people just want a moment in the spotlight.

                I guess I am just old school. I can't just let a madman kill some guy just shopping for a ring for his wife. So Ronin and I had some words. I threatened to have Dragon come up and talk to him about how to protect a city. It turns out Ronin doesn't believe that I am working with Dragon or that I was involved in bringing down Morpheus. He says that the videos of that day were too grainy and was probably Rubberband or Stretch or maybe even the Gland. Says could have been almost anyone, regardless of the color of the costume. I left at that point.

                I am many things, readers. Devilishly good looking, stretchy, well read; but a liar I am not. I learned that from my books. Superheroes only lie to villains, and then only if it serves a purpose. Sometimes they lie about their identities, but they do not lie about something without a reason, and I have no reason to lie about my new team.

                That's the next update, actually. As we speak I am in Jeff's jet en route to our next mission. Arcus has some big bad that he wants to deal with. I won't go into detail on that just yet, but soon, my friends. I have a feeling that this is gonna get ugly fast.

                We got called back to LA today for group training. This time I drove. I needed to get the Bounce mobile out and about. That and I was kind of hoping Jeff might be able to hook me up with some modifications. I arrived at about 11:30 in the morning today and we shot straight into training with Dragon leading. We were going to start warm ups with a game of dodge ball, a little team building before actually working out with powers. The idea was that I would be the ball and the others divided up into teams. Looking back, I think had someone thrown me at Jeff I might have done some damage, but what happened next was even worse than figuring out what the consequences of THAT might have been.

                We were dividing into teams (or trying to. Arcus was being difficult. I don't think that surprises me anymore.) when Dan comes out into the control room. Without warning he throws up some barriers in the training room, and announces that he wants us to go into a free for all to train instead.

                I have seen the comics where heroes go into a danger room. I know that is part of the job, but we weren't fighting holograms or robots. We were being pitted against each other. That shouldn't happen. We should be fighting together not against ourselves. That and Jeff is kind of useless in a fist fight, so my first reaction was to try to cover him until this craziness stopped.

                It was about that time that I was deafened by a sonic boom (had no idea that's what it was at the time) as Silver Bullet started running around the room at full speed.  You've never seen something move until you see the blur that is Bullet. I didn't have time to appreciate it though as Thingamabob started firing. See, your favorite stretch guy doesn't like guns very much, especially the ones that fire lasers. I can't reflect light or heat, so they tend to be a problem. Luckily he didn't seem to be shooting at me.

                While I was about to start heading to cover Jeff, two things happened at once. First, I saw that Avatar had had the same idea and was covering our techie. That was a welcome sight as the next thing I registered was Arcus flicking his wrist and Bullet running himself into an invisible wall. I know that I was deaf at that point, but I swear I heard the crack of bone as he hit hard and rebounded about forty feet before skidding to a halt. My attention shifted to him and I stepped over every obstacle, grabbing my now unconscious friend by the belt to drag him to a corner and act as a large wall should any fire come our way. I have never been so torn between wanting to fight and wanting to follow the code. I kept asking myself "What would Guardian do?" and "How would Grinder handle this?" and "The Pale Horse would have a solution."

                Luckily I didn't have to make a choice because as I was about to go try to disarm Thingamabob, Dragon called off the fight. He obviously wasn't very happy with what Dan had done and called off training for the rest of the day. I took Bullet to the infirmary and everyone followed.  He was up and healthy again in just a few minutes luckily. I had feared the worst, thought he had broken his neck or something.

                At that point I WANT to tell you what happened, but I don't wanna give away somebody else's secret secret identity. Let's just say that I had a religious experience and now we're kind of on a mission from God. Not the guy calling himself "The Black God" in Chicago. Actual God. No one else seemed to be as blown away by this as I was though.

                So, to wrap things up, we are on a mission now. Headed off to fight one of Arcus villains. We have decided on a pretty big move though! Something right out of the pages of a Project comic: We are going to build a central headquarters. Think something like what the Light Brigade or The Guild have, but not on the scale of Crater's "Nexus Point." (I don't think I want to try dimension crossing.  Brainstorm tried to explain it to me while we were working on a project for the apartment, but it sounds way too dangerous.)

                So keep an eye out on the news for us! I am going to pitch ideas for a team name when this is all over.  Maybe if any of you are looking for a comic book deal we can work something out! I am working with Dragon now so you KNOW there will be good material!

Gotta Bounce!

(I am trying this catch phrase thing. What do you think?)

Shadowrun: Garretts Blog

Alright, so for those of you just getting your subscriptions in, I had to hire in a new team recently. The last one, Harveys Gambit, kinda bit the dust during the last run. The plane that slammed into the Aztechnologies building in the Rotten Apple? My guys were the ones with the flaming 'chutes diving outta the wreckage. They were a buncha idiots, but I figured they'd have more sense than that. But, then again, they finished the run and, what a charitable bunch, left their fixer with the full payout. Real thoughtful of 'em.

So this new outfit, they call themselves Smokin' Minors, run by my buddy Beast, right? So they've been doing a bunch of minor runs, deliveries mostly, for me for a while. They've been hungry for something a little more big time. I think it's the smell of big money for something they'd be out doing regardless. I dunno. Point is, Beast is a bloodthirsty little fucker, and the whole team's pretty reliable, so when Mister Johnson came calling with a body request I knew just who to call in as a new team.

The job was real easy. Some contractor for an Aztechnology firm (I keep getting under their skin. Slimy corp anyway.) apparently got under Mr. J's skin, and Mr. J wanted the guys meat suit brought back to them. So, happy to deliver, yours truly called up the Minors (who the hell came up with this name? Geez.). Had to remind them several times that actually smoking minors tends to be in bad taste for most teams, but they seemed to get it figured out pretty quick.

So, I was gonna go check progress, swing by Beasts place see if they were underway yet, when I hear gunshots from an alleyway and see one of beasts dogs come bounding out. So, deciding maybe I didnt want any part of that action, I made myself scarce and just watched. Know what I saw next? fucking ghost tree, looked like something outta a fantasy sim, comes outta a wall and heads down the alley that the dog came out of. Now, I know a spirit when I see one, and I knew their shaman had to be at the reigns, but I also didn't wanna be there when the thing has had enough. So I waited and, a few minutes later, it comes back carrying some dude, probably some homeless bastard if I had to guess, into the building. At this point I had to know what was going on, so I went ahead and took some liberties with one of the cameras inside the building in time to see the Shaman (he goes by Spirit, I think) telling the ghost to drain the poor sap into an oil barrel. You heard that right. He told his fucking ghost to drain someone into a barrel. Yeah. Maybe I didn't stress that this team is brutal enough.

So after draining the barrel into a couple gallon containers (they just left the body lying on the ground. I have no idea what they plan to do with that little souvenir), they loaded the van with blood and headed out. I went ahead and stayed connected to the node I had so I could keep an eye on 'em.  took a bit of doing too, but I was determined to figure out what the fuck they were going to do with a couple gallons of blood.

They pulled up to the house of the target. Poor sap wasn't even home and you can't even imagine the ways these fuckers were talking about pulling this thing off. Spirit seemed to be the only one wanting to discuss the option of NOT killing the guys kids. Eventually they settle on waiting to get the guy until he got home. So they had to figure out how to get that information. So the Technomancer, a guy calling himself Lightbringer (silly asshole likes it spelled with numbers. Maybe once I know him a little better.) decides to bring down the cameras in the house and then just ask the daughter himself. He then proceeds to bring the whole security system offline before it could even send up the alarm signal. So then he walks up to the door, little girl answers and spills all the information he needs. real charming for a runner. Though I suppose this team needed a face, may as well be the pretty boy with the built in commlink.

So things are going great, relatively speaking. Little girl gets back inside, Lightbrite gets back in the van and they wait. Just before the poor sap gets home they pile out and go god knows where. Spirit summons up another of those fucking ghosts, this one a giant, ugly dog and leaves it in the van with Beasts toys. So here I am, about to disconnect because I figured they must have gone into the house to wait, when the van kicks into reverse and the doors open. Next thing I know they have the guy in the back of the van, the ghost snaps his neck as soon as it gets its jaws around him, and they are speeding off.

What I figure happened is they threw the van into reverse, caught the guy at the knees so he'd fall forward into the van, and then silenced him quick. Aside from witnesses it was a pretty clean job. Everybody got paid, everybody lived, and Mister Johnson was made happy.

I still don't know what the point of the gallons of blood is. Probably some stupid hocus pocus reason. All I know is I am glad I'm the one giving the jobs, not on the receiving end yet.

So, those of you in the know will know how to reach me. If you wanna hire the Minors, they're between jobs right now. maybe I'll give ya a good price. 

Mutants and Masterminds: Bounces Blog

                Bounce coming to you live from Apartment 13! I know it's been a while since I posted on this thing, but it's been a busy year since the battle with Dominator went down. Crime in my area has been up by about 20 percent.  Also, apparently my old account got deleted somehow.

                But that's not what your favorite Superhero follower of superheroes has been up to this week! Some of you have probably already seen the news covering part of it!

                It all started Saturday night while I was putting the brakes on some thugs in the area. Stopping a robbery, small time stuff, when I took a break to grab a few burgers at McDonalds (you know those things are up to $1.90 each now??)when I happen to take a look at my receipt and, low and behold, it's not a receipt at all. Someone had made the place print a message instead, Just like Jose Rose got in issue #208! It read something like "Bounce, I have a proposition for you. Please come to [CAN'T PUT THE ADDRESS ONLINE] by Monday at 4 pm." Can you believe that? It's my first professional masked vigilante mystery mission!  So I did the only reasonable thing and contacted the others in the area (who STILL don't want to be mentioned in these things, no idea why.) and let them know I would be going out of town. An hour later my gear was packed and I had bought my plane ticket.

                The trip was boring but I arrived in California at like noon (their time), grabbed a bite to eat, and headed to the address. Very upscale part of town. Think REALLY upscale. Every house has a HUGE yard, a couple of pools, gardens, the works. This place even has a gate like at the college. Way more fancy than anyplace I have even been to.

                And standing there, apparently waiting, was KID DRAGON. The Kid Dragon, standing outside the same house I was headed for. Not ashamed to say that I had a bit of a fit for a second and could barely speak as I shook hands with a hero from my top 5 list. And it turned out that he had gotten a similar message himself and was waiting for the appointment as well.

                That's right. I got the same hero summons as Kid Dragon. Not to gloat, but you can choke on that, Ronin.

                A moment later this guy blurs up to us. The Silver Bullet he calls himself. Came right up and introduced himself.  The guys fast as hell. Like, apparently ran there from where ever he came from across country on foot.

                Remember that meteor that fell a while back? The one that turned out to be some alien transformer thing? The one that only spoke gibberish? He's going by Thingamabob now. Still hasn't figured out English though. I never did learn HTML  like I said I would to understand that thing. He pulls up and got a freaking EMAIL summoning him. I know he said something but at this point I just understand "true" and "false". anything more complex than that is lost on me. Aliens are weird.

                Next comes this guy in sunglasses so dark I thought he was blind. He called himself Rex and at THAT point I had no idea who he was. Had only heard rumors of him in a few places. Guy can command stone. Those sunglasses? Six pounds of compressed sand.

                And then the Avatar comes up. just walks up plain as day. Okay, sure, his powers aren't obvious, so he can do that. But at this point I was just about ready to tear open my backpack and demand autographs from everyone. I can't even express how excited I was at this point. I kept thinking about how no matter how this thing turned out, Turning point or trap, I was going to go down in the history books.

                Finally, a guy carrying a surfboard walks up and says he got the same message. I was surprised by this guy. Total stoner type. Long hair, swim trunks, surfboard, backpack and flip flops. He didn't fit in but he seemed to know Silver Bullet, so I figured he had to be legit. Calls himself Jeff and he understands Thingamabob perfectly.

                So we had an impressive group. And then there's me standing there like "Yeah... I'm the human rubber band. The living super ball."

                Then, before I could embarrass myself, a butler (yeah. A butler. I didn't know they were a real thing anymore.) comes out and invites us inside. He leads us into a parlor with a whole lunch spread and waiters serving us. The works. Real upscale. More classy than I was dressed for. I didn't feel too out of place though because nobody really looked dressed for it.

                And then a guy in a wheelchair comes out. I almost didn't recognize him. Another hero from my top 5. One of the greatest in the whole world and I was in the same room as him. I can't tell you his name though. He has reasons that he can't be public about it. Believe me when I say you would all be incredibly jealous. I mean, number one super hero to meet and here he was. I tore open my pack and am ashamed to say I couldn't control myself. Asked him for his autograph before he could even talk. When he said no I just about died, but then Kid Dragon VOLUNTEERED to sign it. So I got that! Whole trip was worth every penny.

                The guy in the chair, we will call him Dan Gauthier or Dan, tells us that he has summoned us there because he wants us to become a team of supers to replace him. Passing the torch. I was speechless. See, I know the scum of New York know me. I have beaten the tar out of enough of them that I like to think I'm the monster under their beds.

                Dan knowing me? No way. Not likely. Dan wanting me in a group to replace him? I'm in some dream machine and someone is toying with me.  But it's real. The real deal is sitting here saying we have three days to decide, as if we needed it. He insisted we take it though. Big decisions shouldn't be taken lightly and all that. So we did what anyone in LA with time to burn and a team to get to know would do: We went to the beach.

                When we got back we were going to just veg out, do nothing. Jeff was going to smoke a little and play a video game or something, I was going to read a little, get my back stories fresh in my mind, when KD decided that we should all go out and patrol. So, obviously, we did. For a few hours.

                Now, keep in mind that this is LA. So after a few hours of patrolling and NO ACTIVITY, we started to worry. A few minutes later Jeff (SEVERAL bowls in, I think) had rigged my goggles with a camera and storage device. See, this is where I am still obviously just sidekick material, because I had never thought to use my powers this way, because what KD and Avatar suggested was genius. They figured that I am stretchy enough to stretch myself into a kind of squirrel suit. I was terrified. Then I realized that the idea, while terrifying, could work and, even if it failed, I would be alright. Worst case scenario I wound my pride.

                There's no delicate way to put this. Kid Dragon, grabbed me, leapt like a thousand feet into the air, and threw me halfway into orbit. I still think I pissed myself, though there was no sign of it when I landed. I reached the peak of the throw, spread out at the sides, and I GLIDED AROUND FOR LIKE TEN MINUTES! That's right. Evil beware, I am aerial now.  The whole time I was up there I was gathering footage, looking for ANYTHING going on. I must have gotten footage of everything in a three mile radius below me, and not a peep.

                So we took it back to Dan. Weirdest thing though, he wasn't concerned. Said that he was aware, but that we shouldn't worry about it. We did worry about it, of course, because... well, no crime in LA is like no crime in the Bronx. It just doesn't happen, and if it does it means someone's planning something huge. I imagine even Thingamabob, whose mind I can't even begin to comprehend, was thinking "what the fuck is this??"

                We started training the next day. I can't really explain where we were to do it, but I TOOK A NAP IN DANS JET! In the cockpit! It looks EXACTLY the way it does in the comics. Jeff even said he could probably figure out a way to get me flying in it. Though at that point I wasn't really that surprised by anything Jeff did. I had seen the man build a set of high signal range communicators out of what I suspect was a television remote some ear buds and a nug of weed.

                Okay. You guys don't care about training, so I won't go into those stories (Avatar got knocked out twice by a simulator.) But I will say that we knew EXACTLY what was coming on Friday and what our role would be in it. On top of that it was going to be my first real mission besides just patrolling, so I was psyched.

                Also during training we got a new member. Apparently showed up late to the game. Some psychic named Arcus. Mind powers are always neat, though he has the whole "Mysterious good guy" thing going for him. Talking to himself and what not. A pretty good guy to have on the team though, I think.

                So the mission started at 7 am Friday when Dragon (he changed his name like two days earlier) got us all out of bed for briefing and planning. Our goal was a guy named Morpheus. He used to be a small time player, minor TK and an anarchy thing going for him, but now he had gotten into bigger things. Bombings and some weird sonic screech thing. So no longer just a chump. We received intel stating he had paid off all the gangs in the area to keep quiet but none of them knew what the guy paying them looked like. Luckily for us, our new guy did some of his mind freak mumbo jumbo and got us a bust of the big bads face. That Arcus guy... I expect someone to pick up a comic deal with him pretty quick.

                We suspected that at the Heroes Memorial reveal Morpheus was going to try to blow up the statues with all of the assembled superheroes feet away. That would have meant about six tons of shrapnel launched like missiles into the likes of Tempest and Jambot and Kinesis and god knows how many other supers and civilians. So the idea was to find him before he even got into the area, all of us watching from roof top and Jeff scanning the crowd with drones. SB was even going building to building, sweeping floor by floor looking for the guy. We were doing good work, but it really was a shame I couldn't be down there for the commemoration ceremony. Beautiful speeches. A thousand autograph opportunities.

                So, first thing we saw was about a half hour in about two dozen thugs separated from the crowd at random and started heading out in the same direction. Really synchronized stuff. So Arcus politely escorted them to a roof top (Psionics! How do those work?) where he and Dragon interrogated them. they were a decoy group apparently. Paid to go to the ceremony and leave promptly at 11:30 pm. It was at that point I suddenly made a connection. All big bad plans in my comics happen at the strike of SOMETHING. The bad guy always pulls off the big surprise on the hour, give some monologue, and then light the fuse.

                I told everybody this. I don't think they realize how dead on I was  but that's okay. I think I need to get a degree in criminal psychology or something.

                Regardless, at noon they started dropping the curtains around the statues. I admit I couldn't look away. So many died last year. Dominator is responsible for the deaths of so many people, it was good to see a memorial for the ones who stopped him.

                This is the part you all probably have seen a thousand times already on YouTube and the news. Morpheus just appeared on top of the statue of Goliath, laughing like as huge a stereotype as you've ever seen, and half the city's thugs show up and start charging the crowd of supers. I still wonder if any of them really thought they stood a chance.

                Things got crazy real fast at that point. Rex raised up this massive stone shell around the statues and Morpheus ended up on top of it. Silver Bullet ran in for a distraction, trying to land a punch but... well, I imagine aiming a punch properly at a thousand miles an hour must be damn tough. Avatar and Dragon were next in. I don't know what they did cause I was doing something that sounded really stupid in my head. In the videos I can tell Morpheus must have gotten in one of his shouts at some point though.

                See, I was kind of emotional over the statues when Morpheus showed up. And then the thought of him smashing them in some kind of massive hand grenade... I wasn't going to let that happen. So I dove off the building, spread out like before, and dive bombed the bastard. Just let myself splash over him on impact. It was at EXACTLY that moment that I realized that I had no idea if I could hold him if he screeched in there while I was holding him. I was more than a little scared of how my organs would react to that little bit of terror, when Silver Bullet streaks by, grabs me by the belt, and starts dragging me, parcel and all, toward the ocean. Now, If I was more clever I might have popped off with some clever catchphrase. But mostly I was focused on holding the bastard in my chest and hoping I wasn't about to get punted into a building to try to knock the guy inside unconscious.

                And suddenly I was, not only in the water, but being dragged deeper. See, Silver Bullet is apparently aquatic too. So we were drowning the guy and hoping he could be resuscitated. Brilliant plan really except, when I released Morpheus to Silver Bullet to finish that process, I remembered I don't have any incredible expanding lungs. So I was left swimming upward, feet spread into paddles as much as possible with no real effect. I think at one point I blacked out. Luckily, Avatar was on the surface and saved the world from wondering what fate had befallen the most elastic man on the planet. Also, I ride a wave about the same way as I do a surf board: end over end, screaming.

                So, Morpheus survived the deep sea, just barely. He was transported to his new prison home the next day, heavily sedated. I think Thingamabob provided the transport. I was a little busy recouping in Dans kitchen.

                So that's it! Issue number one of our adventures! I am really wondering what the next one is going to be, but if anyone wants to buy up the rights for a comic book about me, my PO box is at the bottom of the page! You could get in on the ground floor of an up and coming super team!

                This is Bounce signing off! Keep an eye here for updates! 

Introduction and such!

Blogs are hard when you have to censor out names of companies. It’s also tough to write a blog about specific situations without using the details of those situations.

                So what can I write about here without getting sued by a multinational, billion dollar corporation? What do I do with my life that would make an interesting enough story to write a blog about?

                Fucking games.

                Not literally games about fucking (Not going to link you to an example, but trust me, they exist.) but I have played Dungeon Master/ Storyteller/ God for more games than I care to admit. I play in a game every Sunday and run two separate games on Mondays and Tuesdays.

                Going forward, I will be posting summaries of the events going on in my games. I will have to get permission for the Sunday game to be posted up here as I didn’t write it. For sure though you can look forward to weekly posts of the goings on within my games. It’s gonna go a little something like this:

SUNDAYS

Mutants and Masterminds

                Follow the adventures of Bounce, Silver Bullet, (Kid) Dragon, Thingamabob, Avatar, and Jeff as they try to fill the void left by the defeat of the worlds greatest superhero.

MONDAYS

Shadowrun

                Keep up with the exploits of this shadowrunning team. Smokin’ Minors, a startup team working out of New York, the Rotten Apple. The group is a hodgepodge of metahumans looking to make a Nuyen or two.

TUESDAYS

Eberron

                An elite adventuring group sent to explore a strange, wild land. They haven’t reported back in months. Follow this group of adventurers as they follow in the footsteps of the first in an attempt to bring lost comrades back home. (You may not see any posts in regards to this game as we are running it two hours at a time, not leaving a lot of per week source material.)

So look out next week as the posting begins and the stories unravel!