Issue 5

From AngilleWiki

August 8, 2010 Sunday

We drive, drive, drive.

August 9, 2010 Monday

Around 5am, during Sammy's drive and O'Malley and Andrea's argument over Waffle House vs Carrow's, a phone rings in the car. We let it go to VM so Raf can check the messages. Sammy drives on. The messages:

• Older female - "I know who you are. I would like to talk to you someplace. I will give you a call back in two minutes."
• nothing else interesting

Two minutes pass, the phone rings, and Raf picks up with his best guess at Distortion's German accent. The woman on the other end (in perfect German) requests that he speaks English.

• "Who is this?"
• "You can refer to me as Bea. I'd like to arrange a meeting - I have information that might be of use to you."
• bit of a pause as the party conferences
• "When you pass a sign, tell me what city's 20 miles ahead of you."
• "Columbia, MO"
• "If you'd like, we could meet at the IHOP at exit 28. I will see you there. Non-smoking."
• "How will we know it's you?"
• "I'll be the one in a gray suit with a cane."
• click

During the conversation, Raf establishes that he can't get past the encryption on Bea's cell phone. What could this mean? In any event, we make it to the IHOP uneventfully and get seated at one of those big round booths, right next to the emergency exit. Two minutes later, a woman matching Bea's description strolls right past the "Please wait to be seated" sign, and makes a beeline to our table.

"Good morning, I'm Bea. May I sit?" Andrea shakes her hand, and nothing interesting happens. The waitress comes and takes orders. Sammy orders latkes and milk, no meat. O'Malley gets a haystack, with a side of Pepto. Andrea gets two eggs, two sausages, cottage cheese, coffee black. Bea gets... just coffee. Raf follows suit.

• After the waitress leaves, Bea starts with, "First off, I know who you are and I believe you didn't do it."
• Sammy: "Didn't do... what?"
• Bea: laughs "First I want to know what you know, and I'll fill you in the details on what I know."
• O'Malley: "We did not steal this car."
• some talk about the explosion, drive to Rochester, etc
• Bea stops the conversation just before the waitress comes, then asks to continue after she leaves.
• Raf tries to search through Bea's powers, but only finds that she's limping only because her foot is... "turned off". As far as he can tell, most of Bea is in fact human, but he can't tell more than the foot.
• "... and then you called us."
• Bea pauses thoughtfully (and thirstily as the food arrives) before continuing. "So, where are you headed now? What's next in your plan?"
• O'Malley: "Uh, what is next on our plan guys?"
• Andrea: "Mexico or the Southwest is a decent place to disappear for a while."
• Bea looks at everyone. "Would you like to do more than run away?"
• Raf: "What are you suggesting, Bea?"
• Bea: "At any rate, I would think you'd be more interested in catching whoever did this."
• Raf: "Catch whoever did what, Bea? What are you saying we didn't do?"
• Bea: "I believe you've done nothing more than you've told me. The rest of the world believes you have something to do with recent political events."
• Sammy: "Well, I for one don't want what we didn't do hanging over our heads."
• Bea smiles. "I think I know the organization that might be responsible for what's going on. The people I work for have been trying to keep tabs on this group for a while. We believe it's being led by five people, and actually I would be interested in you looking someone up in Kansas City—"
• Raf: "What is this organization you work for?"
• Bea: "We don't have a real name for ourselves yet. After the Blood Wraith incident, a bunch of concerned citizens, more of the wealthy individuals, were interested in putting together groups of heroes to avoid individual failings."
• Andrea: "So... You want to band us in groups, so we can be labeled as working together and can be caught as such?"
• Bea: "These groups work within the law, and are to be used to bring down larger groups of the lawless superhumans. For example..."
• Sammy: "So you're responsible for insert group here!?"
• Bea: "Not me personally."
• Raf: "Ok. Who do you want us to look up in Kansas City?"
• O'Malley: "Do you have medical, dental, vision?"
• Bea: "In a sense. Yes."
• Raf: "Are replacement parts, like yours, part of the bargain?"
• Bea: "In very rare situations they might be required, but I seriously doubt you'll need anything like my foot."
• O'Malley: "Ya never know, we tend towards clumsy."
• Bea: "In any rate, I have a contact named Edward Hastings in Kansas City, who you might want to look up."
• Andrea: "How would that benefit us?"
• Bea: "He has some information on a person named Reflection that I believe bears looking into on the group that caused the recent troubles."
• Andrea: "And this helps us clear our names how?"
• Bea: "If we find out who's behind this and what's going on, that will make it much easier to clear your names."
• Sammy: "I'm game. He's your contact? You have his information?"
• She hands him a calling card, then glances out the window. "It looks like there may be some local color coming in."
• O'Malley: "Define local color. Fruits or thugs?"

The front door suddenly slams open and three people (we don't recognize) walk in. One is about seven feet tall, completely bald, and is not so much casing the joint as hopped up on something. The next guy looks sunburnt all over his exposed skin - he does seem to be casing the joint. Finally, a well-muscled woman who seems to be directing the tall guy. Andrea notes, "Well, Bea, it seems you've found shit in tricolor. I don't recognize them. Anyone?"

Sunburn jumps up on the bar - "Ok, everybody stay calm! Get your wallets out - you don't want to piss Razor off!"

Andrea has a quick row with Bea about setting us up the bomb, and Sammy disappears from sight. Bea claims to have no idea and is very penitent. Andrea establishes that Bea is not wanted by anyone she's aware of. She suggests the group leave with as many patrons as possible. Raf tries to enter Sunburn's head, but it's too difficult. Sammy's disembodied voice says he can warn everyone. Andrea asks Raf to make the phones ring, the fire alarm, and the fire sprinklers go crazy.

Andrea makes sure Bea can drive and nabs the keys from Sammy, as she pulls the gun from her purse with a napkin. O'Malley suggests waiting to see what the fruits thugs do first, and notes that they don't have visible guns. Andrea only picks up one part of that statement and fires a gun at Sunburn. She hits his leg and he topples off the bar. The woman notices and immediately starts moving towards the party. Sunburn gets back up, hollers "Oi, who did that!?" and ignites his hand.

Razor looks pissed. And mean. But not very sharp, mentally. O'Malley zips towards the woman between the booths and fires a heaven-blast at her over empty booths, knocking her against the bar, but only slightly because of some sort of bluish force field or something.

Sammy zooms around the restaurant telling everyone who has no line-of-sight to get out through the back, ending up right next to Razor. Who then rushes towards O'Malley, revealing big sharp things springing out of the palms of his hand. O'Malley regrets the coffee and wishes for whiskey instead. Raf starts the sprinklers and the alarms. The sprinklers make the woman's electrical-ish force field much more obvious. The patrons who can do so make their way to the exits.

Andrea rushes over to Eel-lady and places her gun against her temple. Momentarily, Sunburn fires a flame-blast at Andrea, totally ignoring the waitress behind the counter. Her shoulder gets burnt, making her hold on the gun a little weaker. O'Malley weighs his options... and then brightens the room quite a bit, but Razor closes his eyes at the right moment. Unbeknownst to anyone who can't see invisible things, Sammy steps up next to Sunburn and prepares a good hit.

Razor goes to deck O'Malley, but again, he's got that bar fight thing going for him. Raf starts rooting around in Eel-lady's head, to find and disable her electrical field, then sips some more of his increasingly watery coffee. Meantime, Bea starts helping people out of the door. Andrea manages to shake off the stun just as Eel-lady tries to hit her - good timing! Sunburn ignites again, throwing a fireball at O'Malley, but he is less than impressed by Sunburn's inability to get past the sprinklers. In turn, Sunburn is not impressed by O'Malley's inability to hit him. However, he's very impressed by Sammy's ability to pop out of nowhere and slam him through the food delivery window. Sammy looks satisfied.

Razor takes a quick look around, but decides to smack O'Malley again. Hard. Ouch. Raf manages to keep Eel-lady's field down, and goes to help Bea scoot the people out. Andrea, taking advantage of Eel-lady's confusion over her power loss, grabs at her hair, then actually fires her gun at the lady and misses. Eel-lady then misses Andrea in turn. Sammy walks into a bar, and misses Razor, who then swings... right through Sammy. Raf continues to weaken Eel-lady, and helps the last couple people leave the building.

• Andrea: "Who do you work for?"
• Eel-lady: "I don't work for nobody?"
• Andrea: "Not a kind old lady with a cane?"
• Eel-lady: "Who!?"
• Andrea: bang

On the floor now, Eel-lady looks very dazed and confused. At this point, O'Malley gets pissed. And big and wraithy. He situates himself next to Razor and reaches out with the Dementor's Touch, which works well. Sammy goes dense on top of the counter, falling a foot through it, then kicks Razor in the face, resulting in a bizarre clang and a staggered Razor. Raf rushes over to the last waitress behind the counter to help her get out. Andrea grabs a jug of maple syrup (because the gun's not working the way she wants) and knocks Eel-lady out, putting her in quite the sticky situation.

O'Malley manages not to suck more life out of Razor, but Sammy goes for broke with a punch this time, clanging the guy twenty feet away in a booth somewhere. After O'Malley calms down, the group grabs the bunch (Electrode and Hellfire are the others) and tucks them in the walk-in freezer. Sammy (the only one strong enough to move Razor) notes that he's got to weigh 500 lbs or so. Everyone is happily alive and outside, as we take off just as the sirens get louder.

And we drive off to Kansas City...