MadGremlin

[ QUOTE ]
He sent telepathically to all of them:
Can anyone here layout a massive area of damage this one at a time thing on the little clocks isnt working....

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The brief chatter in his mind allowed Sting to stab a spine into the arm holding him breaking the grip. He fell to the ground, the world spinning around him.

“Massive, no – constant, yes.” Sting, still on his hands and knees, rolled into the middle of the room and pushed. “You might want to stand back!”

Spines burst from his body hitting everything around him. Then every few seconds a smaller burst shot out, further damaging anything that was still standing.

But Bombard didn’t want any part of that. A massive fist connected with the floor as Sting dodged to the side, narrowly missing the hurt bug-man.

Sting climbed to his feet, still emitting spines, as the large clock loomed over him.

“This is gonna hurt…”

As Rough Justice was launched across the room Bombard’s focus changed to Sting.

“C’mon you big, ugly trash can, bring it on.”

A large metal hand flashed out and grabbed a hold of Sting. Sting responded by smashing the arm as hard as he could, but the joint would not give.

“Sonofa…” was all he got out before the electricity flowed from the clock’s hand into his body. Bombard maintained the hold as Sting shook from the charge running through him.

((OOC: Actually, since Ion left I have been assuming the FF as no longer functioning – however I believe that the explanation that it is only partially functioning is reasonable for the time being. This would allow the clocks as well as some of the new folks to gain entry.))

[ QUOTE ]
Can you all hear me? I am connecting our minds... we will be aware of each others actions and designs and hopefully we can use this to coordinate our assault, strike true and deeply.

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All of a sudden the chaos of combat seemed clearer to Sting. He could almost sense when RJ was going to strike or when to get out of the way of a shot coming in.

As RJ hit it from one side, Sting hit it from the other. As Sting hit it low, someone else hit it high, and it toppled to the ground.

Sting nodded. “Hey, this works for me!” and then leapt at the big clock again.

The number of pieces still on the robot was starting to be outnumbered by those scattered on the floor.

“I said that the NEXT piece of CRAP that came in HERE was going to get is butt kicked!” Sting said punctuating it with strikes to the clock.

Sting finally made his way down the stairs to see all of the chaos.

“Ok, more clocks I get, but who of these others are with us or against us?”

He leapt into the middle of the fray and sent a burst of spines into everything nearby. Then he hurled a handful of spines into the large clock, the poison eating away at inner workings.

“Ok Eric, welcome to the nut house. Might want to stay clear of this mess.” He indicated his head. “Not very nice stuff in there.”

“Clock parts? They are downstairs in the motor pool. RJ called some people he knew to see if they could help. I went and shook down a guy I know – probably won’t hear back for a day or two but he’ll come through. No idea if he’ll find anything though.”

Two men – one in a lab coat and one in a dark suit – walked up to the street corner where not long ago the ‘hero’ named Poison Sting had beaten on some Council agents.

The one in the lab coat used a scanner to check the area, and then scraped a few pieces of chitin and broken spines into a few vials. Meanwhile his counterpart in the dark suit kept a lookout.

Their task completed the man in the dark suit spoke into a small radio. Soon a van drove up, they got in, and it sped away.
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[ QUOTE ]
Eric smiled through the Force Field.
"You must be Newton's Apple. I've read about you and your groups efforts here in the Row." Pulling out his Paragon Supers registration ID he held it up so that the man could see it. My name is Eric Massey or Eidolon, whichever's easier. I was hoping I could talk to someone in charge. I think I've been sent here to die so I'd like to get it out of the way as soon as possible.

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As Sting came leaping toward the 26th he saw the man standing in front, looking through the now active force field. Sting wondered how long the thing would last now that Ion was not around to maintain it.

He landed in time to hear the last bit that Eric/Eidolon said. “You wanna die? Jeez man, there are a lot better place to do that than this dump.” Sting saw the hero ID. “Ah, you came to join us not kill us? How nice. Here I think if you are in contact with me then you can pass through the force field.”

Sting put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “Nice %&#$ing suit dude. Kinda pricy if you are just going to die.” He said as they passed through the shield.

“That’s Newton, he’s in charge until the Boss gets back. I’m Poison Sting, or just Sting, and I am unpleasant so don’t screw with me. That’s Rough Justice, he is even more of a bada$$ than I am. The rest we have pretty much lost to boredom or attrition.” Sting said as he introduced everyone.

“So who sent you and why are in such a hurry to die?” Sting asked in a nonchalant manner.

[ QUOTE ]
“Anyone in the Two-Six? Coolant? Brian? Sting? RJ? Elisa?”

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Sting activated his radio. “Heya Newton! I’m on a little fact-finding mission here. I’ll be back in no time and we can have a little pow-wow on what to do next. RJ called some friends – well maybe acquaintances would be a better word – that might be able to help with our problem. I don’t suppose anyone has heard from Abrahms or the boss?”

Sting signed off and continued on his way.

Sting saw them standing on the street corner – the one standing on the box was spouting Council propaganda. There were three Council soldiers; the talker looked like a slightly higher rank, maybe an officer.

Sting saw the lackey he was looking for though. A little weasel named Harold Meinholz, he had dealt with before when he needed some information.

He landed and threw a handful of spines into the man closest, then stepped up and sent a burst of spines out into all of them.

Before they could react, he had dropped his initial target with a swipe, and only the Lieutenant and Harold remained. Harold hesitated, recognizing the bug man, but the Lieutenant instantly went into a combat stance and threw a sharp kick at Sting. It connected, and hurt, but Sting started in on him with jabs, swipes, and thrusts of his spines.

Harold slowly stepped back and watched the two combatants. Soon it was clear that the poison from Sting’s spines was slowing the Lieutenant down and that the outcome was inevitable. Harold pulled the pistol out of his holster – it was styled to look like an old German WWII Luger.

Just as the Lieutenant fell Harold fired. The bullet hit Sting squarely in the chest. The hollow-point bullet flattened against the chitin, only cracking a bit of it off.

“Oh Harry boy, you know that hollow-points don’t penetrate this stuff. What are you doing using those loads? Expecting soft targets in the City of Heroes?” Sting shook his head.

Harry’s eyes got wide and he fired twice more before Sting got to him, but he was panicked now and both missed.

A quick swipe to cut the arm with the gun and it clattered to the ground. Then Sting dragged him into an alleyway, knocked him over, and sat on his chest.

“Well Harry, that was no way to greet an old friend now was it?” Sting smiled as he cut buttons and decorations off of the Council uniform with his spines. “Hmm, looks like your primary responsibilities are still recruiting and computers.” Sting said as he pointed to the duty patches.

“So what say you do a little digging for me in that wonderful Council database? You know, like back in the old days after I saved your sister from that gang of Outcasts.”

Harry was obviously scared, but tried to reason with the psychotic bug-man. “But you said we were even! You said I didn’t have to do anything else for you!”

Sting bent down and put his face right next to Harry’s. “I changed my mind.” He sat back up. “So I want you to use the Council database to dig up anything you can on odd clockwork behavior – specifically using an electrical field to teleport people away. And I want you to find out about any reports of big lizard-like creatures that spit green goop, living in the sewers. Got it?”

“You know I only have the most basic access. I won’t be able to search for that stuff.” Harry whined.

“Harry, you are a bright boy. You are a computer genius – you can dig deeper than your normal access. After all, it would break your mom’s heart to hear that you had joined that nasty Council! Oh, and your mom has a bad heart already doesn’t she. I don’t have to take the boat out Strigga and tell her about your chosen profession, do I?”

Harry stuttered. “Ah, um, I…you wouldn’t, would you?”

“It is all up to you Harry. Here’s a phone number that I can be reached at. It is the 26th precinct in King’s Row so you might want to be careful when you call there so your Council buddies don’t get wise to it.”

Sting got up and helped Harry up. “Now, to make this look good for you, beat me up a little bit and I will activate my medical recall and go to the hospital. You can tell them that you got the drop on my and sent me packing. You’ll probably get a freaking medal for it. Now come on, hit me.”

Sting stood there, but Harry looked hesitant. “HIT ME!” Sting shouted and Harry punched him in the gut.

It was a sickening sound as several bones in Harry’s hand broke. Sting didn’t even flinch.

“Oh come on, I’ll do it myself. Get out of here!” He kicked Harry in the rump as he ran out of the alley holding his broken hand.

Sting slammed himself into a few walls, and scraped himself up a bit, then activated the hospital recall. Soon he was on his way back to the two-six.

[ QUOTE ]
"I have left messages with the two ladies I was talking about. Hope to hear from them soon."

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Sting took the hint and left the stuff alone. He wandered back up to his room and put the silicone wax on a table, he’d have to give that stuff a try some time.

He thought he might get some rest, but as he lay on the bed the events of the day kept eating at him.

“Giant spitting lizards, clocks that teleport what they hit…something isn’t right here.” He said out loud to himself. Frustrated that he couldn’t do anything and having the feeling that something was not right made rest impossible.

He got up, grabbed his old radio, and wandered back down to the main room. Assuming RJ was still in the basement he shouted down. “I’m going out. I’ve got a radio with me so call if anything comes up.”

Sting leapt away and was soon half way across King’s Row. He stopped on a rooftop to think. He was banned from both Hero Corps and City Hall, so no help there. Synapse usually hung out in Skyway and followed the Clocks pretty closely, but last time Sting had seen him there had been some unpleasant words and if not for the Hero Corps representative there might have been a fight.

No, none of the ‘usual’ contacts would do, but Sting knew a couple ‘sub-standard’ contacts. Soon he was on his way to Steel Canyon to find a ‘recruiter’ he had dealt with in the past.

[ QUOTE ]
Schnikies!

This is a lotta stuff to catch up with. And have ya'll considered a seperate thread for "OOC" comments like this? Could cut down some of the info-glut.

Gimmie some time to read up. And then cut the grass. I do my best plotting away from the computer.

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((OOC: We actually had a huge chunk of our thread cut out...so if it doesn't flow that is the reason. Also 'support threads' seem to drop off the scene too quickly. If you need details or info, or want to set up a scene with a particular other character, PMs are your best bet. If you are coming into the thread new, just read back to get a feel for the thread (not necessarily all of it, but a fair chunk). Welcome!))

"Heh, sure whatever works, I'll give it a shot. Plus it'll give me that shine that will make all the other insect heroes envious."

He took the container of stuff and and took a look at it, then shrugged.

"So anything else worthwhile down here? Like a teleportation tracing device? Maybe we can mount that clock's head like a hood ornament."

Sting started going through the clock parts, he wasn't sure what he was looking for but figured he might find a clue of some kind.

Sting went and got cleaned up, then wandered the building to see if anyone else was still around.

It seemed a bit empty - Sting knew Newton was on his way back, but had stayed to ensure all of the salon people were ok. Coolant was probably locked up in his chamber and most of the others were out or had already fled the two-six after the wild ride through the land of the dead.

Sting finally made it back to the two-six. He was clearly a little worse for wear - the scar from the green goop still evident on his face and eyes, he had burn marks in several places, and other obvious damage on his chitin.

He landed, with the sack of clock parts slung over his shoulder and saw Rough Justice standing outside.

"Heya RJ. We had a small problem at the salon; we lost the boss and Abrahms to this clock. We think he teleported them away, so I brought his remains back. Hopefully we can figure out where they went."

Sting walked slowly into the building. "Oh yeah, and we demolished the salon building completely." He shrugged.

"You know anything about tracing teleportation or maybe have a friend that does?" He dumped his load on the table and sat down.

"Heh, all of a week and this %#&$ing experiment is probably done. We've done nothing but have half-failed missions and now managed to trash one business and destroy another along with the building it was in. Not to mention that we lost our freaking leader." Sting sighed. "Wonder if I should just jet now or let them put me back in the Zig?"

Sting continued to dig into the ruins of the beauty shop, dodging further collapses as they happened. Finally he managed to get down to the crushed clock prince and pulled the head and remains of the torso out.

"Ok, let's get this crap back to the two-six and see if we can figure something out. This may be out of our league so start thinking about who we can call to help us out."

After wrapping the clock debris in a blanket Sting headed back the 26th.

"Yeah, I'll get on the 'digging out' part as soon as I catch my breath. As for the rebuilding - maybe once there isn't someone trying to kill me."

After a few minutes Sting started in on the remains of the building. It was a mess of broken timbers and salon debris. It would take a while to find the clockwork.

[ QUOTE ]
They reappeared ten feet above the ground, and Newton fell like a sack of potatoes and landed with a dull thud.

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Sting followed suit, too tired to even try to break his fall. He sat up and watched as Newton pulled the lone remaining lady out of the beauty salon before it collapsed on itself.

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Newton looked wearily over at Sting and the silent Elisa. “Do you suppose that took it out?”

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“Ya think?” Sting said, teasingly as he lay back down. “Hey lady, if anyone asks, just tell them that the clockwork dug under the building and the heroes from the 26th arrived just in time to save everyone. Got it?”

Sting reached for his radio and found nothing but burnt pieces. “Newton, see if you can reach someone…anyone on the radio. The boss has to be somewhere, but I also think that Coolant is still back at the station.”

He threw the pieces of his comm. unit down. “Great, now when I need Mr. Know-it-all to fix this thing, he isn’t around.”

[ QUOTE ]
One strand of electrical energy leapt up from the bubble and struck the floating Newton. The green-haired mutant flew back and struck one of the support wooden beams hard, cracking it, and probably cracking a rib or two. The ceiling above them groaned in protest.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sting was exhausted and barely on his feet but somehow kept going. “That doesn’t sound good! Newton, I think maybe it is time to go!” Sting shouted as he jammed a spine into a shoulder joint, destroying its ability to move.

He followed that with a kick to the side of a damaged knee joint and it gave way. Sting stood over the clock prince. “Ok chump, where did you send our friends?!?”

He was rewarded with a right cross from the still good arm of the clock. As he slammed into the wall, dislodging a few more cinder blocks, the ceiling shifted cracks appearing. There was the sound of timbers groaning and cracking as dust and bits of ceiling fell into the mess of car parts, sofa stuffing, and shampoo on the floor. The old building had clearly been strained past the breaking point and was about to come down.

“Hey Newton, I think now would be a good time to be leaving.” Sting said as he saw the prince slowly rise – standing between Sting and the exit where the stairs used to be.

"Knocking things silly I can do!" Sting said as he hurled a batch of spines at the clock. He followed that up by leaping over to the prince as it regained its feet. As he slid toward it, using the slick floor to his advantage, he slammed it in the chest with both hands and sent it tumbling again.

The effort did cause him to lose his footing a bit as well and he had to grab the broken wall to keep his footing.

Good place to start would be the forum specific to your server.
Virtue has been deemed the 'unofficial RP server'.
Pinnacle has a strong RP presence as well. You may want to look into the RP congress. There is another (actually several) posts with links to their site/forums.

Good luck, have fun.

“Answer the damn phone! Oh, that ringing is in my head.” The fuzz started to clear from Sting’s vision as he got up on his hands and knees. He saw a bottle of conditioner broken open in front of him. “Great, now my chitin will be shiny and have body.” He grumbled.

Sting saw the destruction in the tunnel behind them. “Ok so what now assistant boss?” He asked Newton. “Beat the snot out of it and not learn where it sent Mystic and Abrahms, run, or try to make a tin can talk to us? I’m pretty sure that except for a few psychics no one has ever gotten information from a clock before. And I’m pretty sure I can’t take another shot of that guy’s bug zapper.”

Sting climbed to his feet, steadying himself on the wall, and deployed his spines. Many of the spines were burnt and blackened at the tips. He saw that the clock prince was still having trouble with the footing, but would soon steady himself and start shooting again.

“Wait a second. You mean you didn’t do that Newton? Then where the hell did he send them? I didn’t know clocks could do that!”

All of a sudden the situation changed from a typical beat down of some bad guys to a possible disaster with two members teleported away to parts unknown!

He toggled his microphone. “Um, we might have a problem here. Abrahms and Mystic got ported away somewhere by a clock Prince and we don’t know where. If someone has some kind of telemetry on our communicators we might want to get it now!”

Sting watched as the Prince eyed him up, trying to line up a good shot. Sting worked to keep some kind of cover as long as he could.

“Newton, you still with me back there?” He called out. “You might want to get out of here – like NOW!”

The Prince fired a bolt of electricity to try to get Sting to move to a clear spot. “Just a little closer you tin can…” Sting whispered. The Prince moved up and aimed his shot. At that moment Sting leapt out, dodging the shot and landing on the clock Prince, wrapping his arms and legs around the metallic monster. He grabbed the arm that seemed to have the electrical blaster housed within and emitted spines and poison as much as he could.

The two wrestled for a few moments, the poison slowly eating away at the shell of the Prince. Suddenly electricity flowed through the exterior of the clock and into Sting. His body convulsed and the communicator popped and fried. After a couple of seconds the shock ended and Sting slumped down – now kneeling on the floor, barely conscious, he still limply held the arm of the clock Prince.

With Mystics assistance the clockwork robots fell quickly. Soon it was only the 'Prince' standing taking a beating.

A little tired and his vision limited, Sting managed to catch the full force of a punch from the Prince that rolled him back to the far side of the room.

"Yeah, that might leave a mark." He weezed.

Sting got to his feet. “Clocks? I hate those damn toys! Where are they?” He tilted his head, trying to see the area a little more clearly.

At that moment the remains of the staircase that Newton had so cleverly used to hold back the clocks was blown apart and the clocks started back toward them.

“Ok then, I’ll take that as the answer!” Sting shouted as he tore into the metallic menaces.

Sting got to the salon, and with his usual grace and tact, marched inside, announcing; "OK, where are the criminals?"

There were sounds of thumps and bumps in the basement, but that is what the comlaint had indicated in the first place. The stylists and customers were still going on with relatively normal business. That is until a tall bug-man marched into the building!

A couple ladies screamed, others cowered behind whatever cover they could find. One lady, her hair still in curlers ran screaming out the front door.

The owner of the shop, from her hiding place behind the front counter, pointed to a back door, then pointed down.

"Gotcha, thanks babe!"

Sting moved into the back room and started down the stairs.
I wonder what Newton meant by 'the first step is a lulu'? Sting wondered for a moment - until he noticed there was no staircase and he was falling toward the floor. He landed with a rather unceremonious 'thud'.

This time I was smart and just copied Red Djinni's recent post:

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...the RP Congress is based out of Pinnacle and has branches now on other servers. Check us out on www.rpcongress.com

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RP Congress is a multi-SG roleplaying group started on Pinnacle. Though I am not personally involved, they seem to be a great group from what I have seen/heard in game and read on their forums.

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"Some help at the beauty shop. I am worried about spill over to the innocents upstairs."

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Sting heard the call for back-up soon after he arrived at the 26th. “Hey RJ, Coolant, you guys hear that? Sounds like there is more butt to kick!” He shouted as he headed out the front door.

He keyed his transmitter. “On my way, ETA…oh I don’t know a minute or two! Save some bad guys for me!”

Sting managed to land badly twice and run into a fire escape while trying to get to the salon – his vision was still not cleared up very well.