The Case of the Hard Light Armors

Here's the newest installment of the Mutants & Masterminds game I am playing in:

Nightwatch Issue #2
December 16, 2007
“The Case of the Hard Light Armors”
Gamemaster: Lowell Francis

Anima, in his secret identity, was being invited to a campout when he heard an alarm sound. Making what has to be one of the best excuses to protect a secret identity ever, Anima said that he had to pick up a prescription for his sister and made his getaway and put on his mask.

Finding that the alarm belonged to a jewelry store, Anima faced off against a pair of thieves, a woman in green armor and a man in steely armor with robotic arms. Anima was unsuccessful trying to reach their minds with his powers, but the attempt was noticed by the female. Grabbing a velvet rope, Anima missed the woman, but the male figure fired his hand like a rocket at the hero, blasting him through the front window of the store, through a car, and into the True Value hardware across the street.

The pair of armored thieves followed Anima out into the street. After Anima shook off the effects of the attack, he grabbed a sledge hammer from the hardware store, promising to bring it back, and rushed out into the street. In seconds, he was flying back into the hardware store after being gang-blasted. This time, the thieves made their escape.

In his secret identity, Metalhead was asked to hire “broads” to sing at a police convention. Some of his bands had mysteriously canceled for New Year’s Eve.

Dr. Necropolis was contacted to investigate a bombing of second floor apartment. leon de la Sombra met him there. Dr. Necropolis noticed that one of the bodies had been crushed and burned. An elderly man, dying, whispered “The infernal machine,” before fading. Dr. Necropolis pried a domino from his hand.

Back at the abandoned movie theater the heroes had chosen as a meeting place, they shared information and split the duties for investigation. Anima began looking into the armored robberies, while Domino researched the thermite used in the explosion. Spectrum started digging into the background of the victim of the explosion.

Later when they reconvened, the heroes admitted that working together made sense, and they agreed to a formal relationship. Thus, Nightwatch was born!

Splitting up again to spread out the investigation, the team started digging. The man in the explosion, Dumas, was said to be a charming man who left home in the morning and came home at night like any ordinary man. The team found that the explosion was directed to do the most damage to his apartment and left nothing intact, not photographs, not books, not even a computer. The team also discovered that someone else had been in the apartment after the police. Then came the bombshell: The man had worked for UNCLE (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement)!

Shortly after the investigation, there was a report of armored villains at a nearby mall. Quickly arriving at the scene, the team discovered that all five reported armored thieves were there, knocking over kiosks and stores. Spectrum, who can fly at 500 miles per hour, arrived first and attacked in all his dazzling glory. He aimed at the female villain in the green armor, but when his blast missed, a mall kiosk exploded. Ochosi arrived to help with the green armored foe, but the steely villain fired his hands at him, narrowly missing. Anima grappled with the green armored villain, but she was able to escape his grasp. Spectrum changed into microwaves and blasted the green one again, this time successfully, and she vanished, leaving behind a small metal object which clattered to the ground.

Sparked by the success, Spectrum unleashed a wide-range microwave pulse, which hampered the other armored thieves’ movements and progress.

A few of the villains tried to take the mall’s Santa Claus and his elves hostage, but Dr. Necropolis and Domino saved them. Hearing a suggestion to hit them with water, Domino pushed the guy in red armor onto the icy skating rink the mall had put up for the holiday season. The armor began to heat and melt the ice, and then Dr. Necropolis threw the gold armor onto the red. Metalhead transformed into an iron anvil and dropped on them both.

Quickly, the rest of the armored villains were disabled, shorting out and leaving small metal projectors behind. Trying to be surreptitious, Domino put up a law-and-order front for anyone watching but tried to pocket one of the projectors before the police arrived.

Later, a mysterious man explained that Dumas had sent him a message regarding THRUSH, an old enemy of UNCLE’s, and that Dumas had discovered information about an auction of old high-tech materials and that there would soon be another auction.

To be continued…