So after the last sessions adventures in The Liminal Zones, the group had a meeting with employer Elizabeth Patricia Kyono, and she tells them that the grateful McAllister twins have invited both her and Justice Incorporated to Grandpa Manx's 86th birthday party they are throwing for him the following Saturday night. Knowing the twins a bit as both genius quantum scientists AND party girls, she says that the party is likely to be as much about them as it will be about Grandfather Manx.
(for more info my cat hybrids in the game in my last post and the one before that)
And so it is. Not just many members of the higher science community, but also many McAllister Scientific employees both old and young, and a certain amount of B and C level celebrities who have gravitated to the charismatic and energetic McAllister sisters.
The Bottoms is the southernmost area of New America City, and is a district of low-income neighborhoods, in large part made up of a diverse ethnic population originally started by refugees after WW3 from places like The Caribbean and parts of South America. The Twins Maxine and Tabitha's house is part of a strand of wealthy lake front properties that you often get in otherwise poor areas. And such was the cat sister's pad.
Arriving with Kyono via stretch limo, the group headed in, and in the main hall Manx and his granddaughters were on the dance floor cutting a rug. Old man Manx still had some hip in his hop and was doing all sorts of 80's and 90's moves (the Robot, Roger Rabbit, etc).
The grand hall had a stage for live band and DJ, but also in the room were a couple of vintage teleporter pods. As a matter of fact, family heirlooms. They were the very groundbreaking experimental pods Manx's parents invented in the 70's, and the self-same ones that young Manx god stuck in as a kid and got spliced with his pet cat.
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| Be afraid. Be very afraid. |
In the main room the twins had their father, Manx jr., video call from a big view screen on the wall, wishing his dad a happy Bday. Manx jr. went into biology like his late grandmother, bucking the quantum science the rest specialized in. He was doing research in The Savage Land, and was sort of me planting a seed to eventually get the group to go there when I think of a good way to do it.
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The party was raging inside and out back in the pool area. But for those in the house Manx sr. had the music turned down and declared he is going to do a little experiment as a party trick. He explained the pods where his hybrid form was created as a kid, and he showed an old device that he said his parents copied his bio data when he was 21 years old in the course of their attempts to figure out how to separate the cat DNA from his human form. Though as 21 years old he had gotten used to who he was and did not let them continue their quest to "cure" him. But tonight he would use that info from his much younger self for a little experiment.
At this point a man who had yelled a few things out during the video call with Manx jr. spoke up again. His name is Boris Brutorz, a Russian biochemist and former colleague of Manx jr. As a matter of fact, Boris and Manx jr. worked together to cure Boris of an affliction. The Russian scientist was complaining about how the quantum scientists in the McAllister family were dangerously playing god with their ongoing experiments, and that only his old friend Manx jr. was doing the right thing by engaging in bio science. Manx sr. bluntly asked how he got into his party, and that he was one to talk, having gotten in legal trouble in the past with chemically doping himself and others in his work of the past, and actually causing a real danger, which we will become clear in a moment, dear reader. But Manx said that since his son Manx jr. not only helped cure him of a dangerous affliction years ago, but that he also helped him with related legal issues so should shut the hell up and let everybody enjoy the party.
Note: this guy is an old NPC of mine from Champions games of yore. In a way he was my Bruce Banner, and my incredible Hulk.
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| Biochemist Boris Brutorz |
So old man Manx went into the pod, had assistants activate it, and teleported from one 75 years old pod to the other.
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| He was the first human to ever be teleported, and here he was doing it again all these decades later |
Manx came out of the misty antique pod chamber, and as planned he had used the data his parents stored of him in the 80's, and he was reassembled in that form. A 21-year-old cat human hybrid.
The twins Maxine and Tabitha were angry and appalled that he was going to use the ancient tech (updated with some modern addon's of course), especially since their personal research was trying to get portal technology viable rather than the breaking down and transmitting bio matter. Now they were just flabbergasted.
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| "Sis, we've seen old pics of gramps, but they don't do justice to how foxy he was.." |
The whole crowd were amazed, and many not yet really understanding what happened. Were they being punked?
Boris Brutorz was mad upset with all this, and though it was thought his old affliction was cured, it came back with a roar. He turned into his own raging alter ego, "The Brute".
Again, he was my Hulk for my games many years ago. And if the image looks familiar, yeah, back in the day I imagined him looking like Hanover Fiste from the 1980 Heavy Metal film.
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| "Don't worry, I got an angle" |
First the enraged creature smashed one of the pods, while yelling and cursing in Russian. Manx cried out. These pods were precious to him. The characters jumped right in to fight Brute, with Igneous growing to his 24-foot size and knocking the raging monster across the room, out through the plate glass windows, and out to the crowded pool area where the party was still raging.
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| As a Southern Californian who grew up near Malibu I have been to a bunch of pool parties like this in my life. |
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| The others came as they were, but Amber did up a version of Seraph with a sexy party dress special for the session. Yowsa! |
Out at the pool, they managed to take down Brute after taking some lumps themselves. Brute was Rank 5 compared to them being Rank 3. But he was not exactly Hulk level power. But formidable to give them a really good fight, which is the stage of the campaign we are in now.
But something else was going on in the house. The teleporter pods were sparking and misting, especially the big cable that connected them. The characters came in to check, and there in the haze was an odd site. A glowy eyed and pitch-black apparent clone of young Manx.
The creature was confused, then bared fangs and popped claws as the crowd grew to gawk at him. Everybody was sort of perplexed as to what happened except for Paladin who started giving Manx shit for doing such an experiment in public, and what danger the creature might be. Manx explained that extra bio matter is included in the teleporter system to account for any dangerous glitches that could occur in a teleporting form, and that the damaged pods has caused a full copy, albeit different looking, of Manx.
The creature ran off into the lake and swamps area, and though the party gave chase he got away. A fleet of police cars surrounded the neighborhood, as Science Police showed up and questioned Manx and the twins. Even his granddaughters were raising eyebrows at the de-aged Manx for what he did. But he was still in the glow of being a young man again.
We had to end there. But ramifications of all this will surely appear in upcoming sessions. I mean, of course they will heh heh.
Cheers
