Crucible #56 - "The Times They Are A Changing!"

[GM Mad]

Crucible #56 - "The Times They Are A Changing!’”


It is the afternoon of July 4th, 1986. This is a day that you’ve all lived through before, but this time it’s turning out to be vastly different than before. Those of you who gained powers from tomorrow’s White Event already have them. Some of your pasts have been altered, while others are seemingly unchanged. Whatever is going on, it is clear that events will unfold differently this time.

The time travelers have made their way to the Starr Building in Downtown San Diego. This is the main office for Vigilant Incorporated, a security providing service. It is owned and operated by one Gloria Starr, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Goldstar, minus the golden skin and glowing sparkles. Your talk with Ms. Starr continues.

Lily nods. "Yes, though in our previous lives, he ditched me as soon as he found out I was pregnant, so that may explain some of why I'm having trouble adjusting to this."

“That’s what Rose said,” Gloria states sympathically. “As time goes by, your memories of the years you’ve spent with Anton, and having a second daughter Blossom will replace memories of them not being there the first time around.”

Ms. Starr answers her question about Edgar and the VI computer. Again, it mostly goes over her head. "So you either programmed it based on your knowledge of Edgar, or brought back the necessary logic bits to incorporate into this computer system. Either way, it's not really Edgar."

“It’s not the genuine Edgar,” Gloria states. “No more than I’m the genuine Goldstar. The computer is sentient and does learn. Its personality is patterned after Edgar’s so it will seem very familiar. He just does not possess corporeal form. In more secured areas he can take on a holographic form.”

"Okay, so I wasn't superhuman in this timeline until this morning, and my family knows nothing about this change yet. I'll have to keep that in mind."

“That is correct.”

Salesman. That makes sense. "So he doesn't know anything about the larger intentions for the firm, at least in terms of supporting us? Are there other employees who do know about that, and how do you plan to implement that function in an organic way that won't upset the company as a whole? I imagine that suddenly announcing that you're here to act as a base of operations or support group for this superhero team might come as something of a shock to your employees."

“Apart from Edgar and myself, no one is aware of you. Balancing the two shouldn’t be too hard to handle. The base of operations that I spoke of earlier is not here in the Starr Building. In fact, it’s about a mile off shore. If asked, I’ll deny any connections to the Vigilant.”

[GM Mad]

"Manipulation of our pasts?" Blackout asks. "I'm not sure I like the sound of that," he says as he faces where he heard Ms. Starr speaking from. "I'm sure best intentions were meant, and all that, but messing with our pasts is quite a bold step. I understand some of us had no powers before this event and changes had to be made, but changing what we remember and what used to be history for some of us without our consent is a lot to ask us to stomach."

“Not everyone was manipulated with,” Gloria explains. “So little was known about you and knowing your desire to not have your blindness treated, nothing was done to alter your past. Indeed, that goes for most of you. Lily here was the really big test, but everything that was done was done for a reason.”

“We had to make sure that the past could be altered. Little steps before big steps. We had also had to study what effects the changes made had upon the timeline. Would the changes simply be absorbed into the timeline or would it set something catastrophic into motion? These were all things that had to be taken into consideration.”

“I am happy to report that time, for the most part is very malleable. It can be changed without catastrophe, but it is also very fragile at the same time. I know, that sounds like a contradiction but its not.”

“Time is made up of moments. Each moment has a specific weight to it. Simply put, some moments are more important than others. Whether to choose the apartment on the right or the one on the left is one such moment, but doesn’t have a lot of weight to it. Whether someone lives or dies has a great deal of weight to it. When a change is made, time adjusts to it to insure as smooth of change as possible.”

“As you might of guessed, the White Event was a very pivotal moment in this timeline. It affected thousands of lives and altered the course of history. It is possible to make small changes to the past to alter the future. Tomorrow we’re going to find out what happens when a really big event is tampered with.”

“As I mentioned earlier, time is also very fragile. Time travelers only get one chance to alter the past. A second attempt by the same time travelers would threaten to break the space-time continuum. That would be catastrophic. Simply put, we’ve got one shot at this.”

Lily does a double take. "Two?! How does that work, exactly? Were there always two of Goldstar here and we only met one, or did one somehow arrive more recently without alerting the Saurians?"

Now it’s Gloria’s turn to be a bit confused. “I thought she explained this all to you in the future? The first Goldstar was the one who went back into the past with Frostbite and Blackout. She was caught up in the destruction of the Doomsday Asteroid and sent hurtling off into space. Once she recovered and returned, it was already past this point in the present. Once she was powerful enough to time travel on her own, she attempted to go back into the past again to stop all of this. But the Saurian Temporal Mines blasted her out of the time stream. Forcing her to again live through this portion of history and trying to avoid her other self.”

[GM Mad]

"Ms. Starr, I do hope you are right about the 'no catastrophic events' part of your summation. But if you have any way of contacting the future versions of Edgar and Rose and Goldstar please employ it to firmly request no further activity regarding time alterations. Changes have occurred already that do not jibe with my memories and I don't like the ground shifting under me. We are here in the field, as it were and should be allowed to complete the mission without long distance interference. I am, in fact , not sure how they can still exist if we succeed in our mission. Their continued existence implies that we fail. Do you have an explanation for this?"

“There is a way to contact them, but I can’t right now. We’ve been in a communication blackout for the last year. Furthermore any time alterations were all done before this. They have done nothing to influence anything during the last year. This is all necessary to prevent the Saurians from noticing our activities.”

“In quantum mechanics it is believed that for every choice we make, or moment in our earlier discussion, the other possible outcomes do occur in alternate universes. The future isn’t that much different. The future is simply a possibility and not written in stone. The most likely future, the Prime Future, is the one where the Saurians become dominate. It’s not the only possible future. There are numerous others. Some more pleasant than others.”

“By stopping the White Event, the current Prime Future will be reduced in stature to only a possible future. A new Prime Future will take its place. Once that is accomplished, our friends plan to destroy that potential future to ensure that it never ever comes to pass.”

“But until such a change is made, the current future will continue to exist. Thus the future Goldstar, Rose, and Edgar will continue to exist until things are changed. It’s all cause and effect. No change has yet been made, so the future remains unaltered.”

[GM Mad]

Unexpectedly, an alarm sounds! A few beats later Edgar’s voice cuts in. “I’m registering a large Temporal Event! Something from the future is materializing over downtown San Diego!”

“What is it?” Gloria can’t help but wonder out loud. You can’t help but look out the window, but nothing appears amiss.

“It is a cloaked Saurian Warship”, Edgar reports. “This is a new event, not something that we’ve recorded before. The timeline is being altered.”

“It looks like they’re tampering with history too,” Gloria notes. “This changes things considerably. History will not unfold as it did before! We need to get out of here just in case they can detect us. Edgar, emergency evacuation! Now!”


A glow comes over the room and it forces you to close your eyes. (Except Blackout of course.) When you open them again, you’re in a very different place. It appears to be a high tech control room of some type. There is a central circular control table. On the table is a holographic representation of Downtown San Diego. Hovering over the city, unseen to the populace below is a mile long warship.

Looking around, you realize that Edgar is here too. It looks like Edgar, but is translucent. It’s only a hologram.

The roof of the chamber is just as shocking. The circular room rises overhead in a dome shape to a single point. The whole ceiling is clear like glass and it appears that you are underwater! The water is clear, but somewhat dark. Brighter light can be coming from the distant surface.

The only exit from this place seems to be an elevator door on one side of the chamber.

“I believe that we remain beyond their ability to detect”, Edgar states. “I’m detecting no activity from the warship as of yet. They are just continuing to hover.”

A glow comes over Gloria and her form changes right before your eyes. Her skin takes on the customary golden color of Goldstar and the glowing sparkles are there, but they are not as intense. Her outfit, however, is different. Gloria’s is one-piece white and red jump suit. The red portions make it seem as if she’s wearing long gloves, high boots, and a red belt.

“You can call me Stargirl”, Gloria says. “History was just altered before our very eyes. All bets are now off. This is uncharted territory. We can act as we see fit. We no longer have an accurate roadmap to what originally transpired. We’re really on our own now.”

[GM Mad]

GM Notes:

I’ve had several requests for them, so here are your updated XP’s! The following list includes both newly rewarded XP’s and unspent pts from before.

Blackout – 21
Eldrich – 19
Flux – 15
Menagerie – 17
Tesla – 15
Tilt – 16

Backlash & Frostbites player has already spent his points.

You may also rearrange some of our disadvantages given your changing circumstances. This is optional of course. But feel free to tinker a bit given the nature of the current storyline.

History continues to be changed and you’ve been teleported to the real Vigilant base, about a mile off the San Diego coast.


Now what?

[Blackout]

Blackout & Frostbites player has already spent his points.

I'm guessing you mean Backlash & Frostbite's player? Maybe?

[GM Mad]

Blackout & Frostbites player has already spent his points.

I'm guessing you mean Backlash & Frostbite's player? Maybe?

D'OH!

[Bruce]

Flux

Ms. Starr gives an explanation worthy of his brother; completely factual, detailed, and mostly incomprehensible. Dave is about to reply to it but the alarm cuts off any comments he might make.

Gloria throws another curve ball with the evacuation order that results in physical teleportation to an underwater base.

And I was wondering what she meant by a facility in the bay. Guess this is it. I'm sure it's nice and all. . . but I'm going to miss the castle....

The Edgar voice declares the Saurian warship to be cloaked and hovering over downtown San Diego doing nothing, just yet.

A glow comes over Gloria and her form changes right before your eyes. Her skin takes on the customary golden color of Goldstar and the glowing sparkles are there, but they are not as intense. Her outfit, however, is different. Gloria’s is one-piece white and red jump suit. The red portions make it seem as if she’s wearing long gloves, high boots, and a red belt.

“You can call me Stargirl”, Gloria says. “History was just altered before our very eyes. All bets are now off. This is uncharted territory. We can act as we see fit. We no longer have an accurate roadmap to what originally transpired. We’re really on our own now.”

"How are we fixed for sensors in here? Got any way of seeing through that ship? I want a count of personnel inside if possible. What weapon capacities? Shielding? "

Dave turns to face the new Stargirl and shifts into his Flux form.

"That teleport you just pulled, can it be done from any point to any point? Like from here to the inside of that ship? Not that that I'm asking for one right now. I'm highly suspicious of this. This could easily be a drawout of some type. Both to test for any ability to detect them or even signs of alertness on our parts."

"They must be suspicious too, or tripped over something we did, elsewise this would not be happening."

A mile long warship. Cloaked from view. Waiting for us to make a move. And if we do, they prevent it and secure their own existence. Nothing like long odds to make a fellow's day.

[Goldstar]

Stargirl:

Edgar sounds an alarm, alerting us that something is appearing over San Diego from the future! Just in case we’ve been detected, Gloria has Edgar teleport everyone to the sea base. After all, there are still civilians in the Starr Building who could be injured or killed in an attack.

Once at the base, Edgar provides a holographic display of Downtown San Diego, complete with the position of the Saurian warship. Gloria transforms into Stargirl.

"How are we fixed for sensors in here? Got any way of seeing through that ship? I want a count of personnel inside if possible. What weapon capacities? Shielding? "

“The scanners may be able to penetrate their hull.” Stargirl answers. “Typical that class of vessel carries around two thousand crew men, has enough weapons to destroy a planet, and it shields can hold off any present day weapons. Edgar can call up a schematic if you wish.”

Dave turns to face the new Stargirl and shifts into his Flux form.

"That teleport you just pulled, can it be done from any point to any point? Like from here to the inside of that ship? Not that that I'm asking for one right now. I'm highly suspicious of this. This could easily be a draw out of some type. Both to test for any ability to detect them or even signs of alertness on our parts."

“No, we can’t teleport from point to point. As I explained before, I can only use technology that current exists on Earth. Right now, teleportation between fixed points is possible, so we can do that. That reminds me of something.”

Stargirl opens a drawer and pulls a small box from it. Inside the box are several miniature headsets and several smaller circular devices. The headsets have a part that is placed into the ear and a small microphone that is adjustable.

“These will allow communication between each other and the base. They can also be used as a fixed teleportation point. Meaning, that you can call up Edgar and he can teleport you to the base for instance.”

The headsets are handed out to everyone. The smaller circular devices are explained next.

“These are teleport beacons. They will provide a fixed teleport arrival point once in place. The headsets will allow teleportation here to the base. The beacons will allow you to return from where you came from.”

"They must be suspicious too, or tripped over something we did, else wise this would not be happening."

“I think you’re right, Flux. This could be an attempt to draw us out into the opening. The base is shielded against all know types of scans. We are as invisible to them as they are to us. However, the matter remains. What do we do now?”

[Tilt-A-Whirl]

Tilt-A-Whirl:

All these grown ups seem to want to do is talk. Tilt only hopes she doesn't get that way when she gets older. High school is so boring with all the talking going on there, she can't imagine doing that when you didn't have to!

Suddenly Tilt finds herself teleported somewhere new. Looking around, she sees everyone else here as well. Neat! She immediately begins exploring. It doesn't take her long and soon she's back with the others.

“These will allow communication between each other and the base. They can also be used as a fixed teleportation point. Meaning, that you can call up Edgar and he can teleport you to the base for instance.”

The headsets are handed out to everyone. The smaller circular devices are explained next.

“These are teleport beacons. They will provide a fixed teleport arrival point once in place. The headsets will allow teleportation here to the base. The beacons will allow you to return from where you came from.”

Tilt smiles as she is handed the headset. She's seen something like this before, but not so small! It fits snuggly in her ear. Tilt doesn't catch all of the description of the beacons because she's busy making popping sounds into the mic to see if anyone else can hear her.

[Menagerie]

Menagerie:

“That’s what Rose said,” Gloria states sympathically. “As time goes by, your memories of the years you’ve spent with Anton, and having a second daughter Blossom will replace memories of them not being there the first time around.”

"If I lose my memories of the old timeline, that would include forgetting how I got my powers, since it happened there and not here. In truth, I'm not thrilled with the prospect of losing some of my memories. I may have to take steps to make sure that I don't lose everything - perhaps writing it down or making recordings or something..."

Gloria's explanation does help Lily to understand better the status of the Edgar here. Not the same, and not a physical entity, but an AI with his personality.

Gloria also answers her other questions regarding her family and the company. Should they survive this current crisis, Lily will probably explain the situation to Anton, at the least. She'll decide about the kids later.

The discussion of time and time travel becomes a bit much for Lily to follow once again. Lily just isn't scientifically-minded, and this is a bit too deep for her.

Now it’s Gloria’s turn to be a bit confused. “I thought she explained this all to you in the future? The first Goldstar was the one who went back into the past with Frostbite and Blackout. She was caught up in the destruction of the Doomsday Asteroid and sent hurtling off into space. Once she recovered and returned, it was already past this point in the present. Once she was powerful enough to time travel on her own, she attempted to go back into the past again to stop all of this. But the Saurian Temporal Mines blasted her out of the time stream. Forcing her to again live through this portion of history and trying to avoid her other self.”

"She may have," Lily admits, "but she did a lot of bouncing around in the time stream and I wasn't able to follow it all."

It seems that all of the manipulations were done some time ago, and the past is the past, as they say. Still, Flux appears very concerned about this issue, and perhaps rightfully so. At least they can count on there not being more changes made by Goldstar and Edgar.

Not surprisingly, thinking about Goldy and Edgar leads to thinking about Rose, which brings a feeling of loss to Lily. Even though Rose is here, it is in some ways a different Rose than she left behind.

Suddenly, the alarms blare, followed by Edgar announcing the arrival of a Saurian warship over the city. Gloria requests an evacuation, and a bright glow fills the room.

Once her eyes clear, Lily finds that they have been transported to a different location. Looking up, she sees the glass dome and notes that they must be underwater! "This must be the base you mentioned before. Are we under San Diego Bay? How close are we to where the Edgar castle was?"

Not surprisingly, Tilt races off to explore.

Looking around, Lily spots the map table and holographic Edgar. "Hi Edgar," she says. "Nice to see you again - in a sense, at least." She can see the image of the warship suspended over downtown. Edgar had said something about it being cloaked; Lily can only conclude that means that it is effectively invisible.

She also spots the elevator. "Uhm, where does that elevator go? And how do we exit this place. A base that's tough to get out of would seem to be of limited usefulness."

There is a smaller glow for a moment as Gloria transforms herself into a startling approximation of Goldstar. If it weren't for the costume, it would be hard to tell them apart.

"One question. How do we know this didn't happen before? Would we actually know if a cloaked Saurian warship was hovering over the city in our old timeline?

"Also, do we have any idea how much change we are looking at? Will the space ship still appear at Horton's Plaza tomorrow? How about the summon event in the middle of the mall? Will they happen at all, or perhaps on a different timeline such as today rather than tomorrow?"

Flux asks lots of strategy-type questions, and Stargirl does her best to respond. She then hands out headsets and teleport beacons to everyone with some explanation of what they can do.

Hearing the strange sound over the headsets, Lily notes Tilt making noises with her mouth. "Please stop, Tilt. We can hear you."

She then looks back at Gloria and Edgar. "Could they then teleport one of us to meet another in a different location, assuming we both had the beacons with us and active?"
___________________________________________________________
Looks like the Goldstar picture needs to be recolored for Stargirl.

[Blackout]

Blackout:

“Not everyone was manipulated with,” Gloria explains. “So little was known about you and knowing your desire to not have your blindness treated, nothing was done to alter your past. Indeed, that goes for most of you. Lily here was the really big test, but everything that was done was done for a reason.”

"Again on the whim of Lily's daughter, then a grown woman, at the end of time," Blackout snaps, then quickly re-composes himself. "I thought Edgar had the ability to cure my blindness there, in the future, not re-write things in my past. I'm glad I didn't sign on with that then. The bulk of my powers came as a result of my blindness. It was the catalyst that forced me to make a decision. If I never was blind, I probably never would have been a hero. I guess to you though, losing an ally would have been an acceptable price as long as your 'experiment' was a success."

“Time is made up of moments. Each moment has a specific weight to it. Simply put, some moments are more important than others. Whether to choose the apartment on the right or the one on the left is one such moment, but doesn’t have a lot of weight to it. Whether someone lives or dies has a great deal of weight to it. When a change is made, time adjusts to it to insure as smooth of change as possible.”

"It's not so much whether or not time can adjust to the change," Blackout replies as level as he can maintain his voice, "but that someone deliberately changed another's decision. Maybe there was a very good reason to not take that apartment, or maybe someone else important was destined to move in there and now that possible future is gone."

“That’s what Rose said,” Gloria states sympathically. “As time goes by, your memories of the years you’ve spent with Anton, and having a second daughter Blossom will replace memories of them not being there the first time around.”

"If I lose my memories of the old timeline, that would include forgetting how I got my powers, since it happened there and not here. In truth, I'm not thrilled with the prospect of losing some of my memories. I may have to take steps to make sure that I don't lose everything - perhaps writing it down or making recordings or something..."

"I know, it's not my place Lily, and I'm sorry, but.." Blackout says as he spins back to face Ms. Starr. "So not only does Lily have to adjust to her own conflicting feelings about what she originally felt for Anton and now what she's supposed to feel for him, but she'll lose her original memories eventually?" Blackout opens his mouth to say more, but he's obviously so stunned and the pompousness portrayed here, he's speechless.

Blackout figures out where Flux is and walks up to him. "I'll help you and everyone see this crisis through to its end, but after that, I don't think I'll be sticking around."

If Blackout was going to say anything else, it's interrupted by an alarm sounding. Instantly they are teleported to a base, apparently underwater from what the others are saying. Some sort of warship is hovering, cloaked, over San Diego. It looks like there was too much manipulation of time after all.

Information is being gathered about the warship and apparently now all bets are off as far as the timeline is concerned. Blackout begins to remove his clothes, revealling the familiar costume underneath. He folds his cane up, removing the non-essential pieces, and slides his throwing and grappling rod into the "holster" built into his costume. Lastly he takes off the thick sunglasses and puts his mask on.

By the time he's finished with that, Blackout is handed a headset and beacon. As he puts it on, he can also hear a strange popping noise, but Lily has identified it and taken care of the issue.

Blackout listens to whether or not this is an attempt to draw us out. Blackout is also curious to hear the answers to the questions Lily just posed, as well as hearing what Flux thinks the best option for us is.

[Tesla]

Tesla:

A glow comes over the room and it forces you to close your eyes. (Except Blackout of course.) When you open them again, you’re in a very different place. It appears to be a high tech control room of some type. There is a central circular control table. On the table is a holographic representation of Downtown San Diego. Hovering over the city, unseen to the populace below is a mile long warship.

Tesla looks around at their new surroundings. There were definitely preperations made for this day. Looking at the holographic image and seeing the warship, Tesla says, "Looks like they're pretty serious."

There doesn't seem to be any concern of being detected quite yet. Tesla sees first Gloria, then Flux and Blackout changing into their costumes. Tesla slides off her shades and the electricity seems to flash brighter than before from her eyes. Within a moment, she is in her costume, which isn't much different than some of street clothes. "Might have to look into getting something designed," Tesla says to herself.

Flux and Menagerie both ask a battery of questions, and Tesla is curious to hear those answers. Telsa takes the headset and beacon while she asks, "Is there any way we can get to them without being detected? If we're only safe from detection here then our options are really limited and that warship may just be planning on sitting tight to make sure the event happens."

[Bruce]

Eldrich Arcane

Once again the world becomes a place unknown. The High One is not here, only a strange copy. Goldstar is temporally duplicated but also not here. The Lady Serena is not here, and if all goes as planned-never will be. The daughter of Goldstar , who is not a daughter, tries to explain it all but it is mostly incomprehensible to Eldrich.

Worse, it appears that they have continued to make changes in the causality to test the effects of tampering with time. Unwise to to the point of foolhardy, that. Even with most of his memory gone, Eldrich can remember the stories of temporal experiments gone wrong.

The sudden announcement of danger by the voice of the High One provokes the immediate responses of escape vis a Great Step effect and the visual display of an enemy war craft from the future that should not exist.

A glow comes over Gloria and her form changes right before your eyes. Her skin takes on the customary golden color of Goldstar and the glowing sparkles are there, but they are not as intense. Her outfit, however, is different. Gloria’s is one-piece white and red jump suit. The red portions make it seem as if she’s wearing long gloves, high boots, and a red belt.

“You can call me Stargirl”, Gloria says. “History was just altered before our very eyes. All bets are now off. This is uncharted territory. We can act as we see fit. We no longer have an accurate roadmap to what originally transpired. We’re really on our own now.”

And so already the folly of temporal adjustments is revealed. The blind one is angry for the shaper's sake. The shaper does not know what to make of the changes in her life. The giant is annoyed and I am fearful. So too must the enemy be. Elsewise why appear now?

Questions follow and Eldrich does his best to keep up.

I hope for the best, but I fear the worst. May Klono the Kind, watch other these brave souls...

"I believe I can answer one question, Shaper. The mages and demons will still act to cast their summoning ritual. Whatever else has changed, the mystic forces and alignments remain. They will wish to accomplish their goal the same as before."

[Bruce]

Flux

"Here's the goal: remove that ship from over San Diego without crashing it, blowing it up, or having it report anything out of the ordinary. To that end we are going to use the same opp we just did, er, will do, on the Time station. I need undetectable entry for all of us, location of control centers,and methods of using same. After we secure the ship we have to move it. We can send it into the Sun or punt it into a Black Hole. I don't care which but it must be irretrievably lost. We can't let it stay and we can't let it report."

"So.. scimatics.... control centers.....piloting....jamming...let's hear what we've got and can do."

We get inside past the big guns, that puts them safely behind us. They won't fire on the city-too big a change, risk thier existence. So long as it stays invisible, doesn't crash or explode we're good.

[Frostbite]

Frostbite

“Not everyone was manipulated with,” Gloria explains. “So little was known about you and knowing your desire to not have your blindness treated, nothing was done to alter your past. Indeed, that goes for most of you. Lily here was the really big test, but everything that was done was done for a reason.”

"Could this not be how the timeline was changed? Could the Saurians have seen this?” he asks curiously…”After all With Goldstar and Rose fighting them for so long would it be possible to know of their origins.” he asks thoughtfully.

An Alarm sounds and a bright light ensues forcing Cyrus to close his eyes. When he opens them he looks about noticing the different surrounding, he looks around Wide eyed. He would never get used to such technology but he still was intrigued by it!

Seeing the others change before his eyes Frosty concentrates on the cold, his features turning slowly blue then icing over, within a blink of an eye he is his Icy self once again

“The scanners may be able to penetrate their hull.” Stargirl answers. “Typical that class of vessel carries around two thousand crew men, has enough weapons to destroy a planet, and it shields can hold off any present day weapons. Edgar can call up a schematic if you wish.”

‘What of there power source, Any chance of taking it out?” he asks curiously as Stargirl hands out communication headsets, he cant help but wonder…. Will they hold up to the cold.

“If the ritual does continue, as they plan… then perhaps it would be wise to have,” looking around to the others. “some of us as the sacrifices.” before I got my powers I saw red steel pounding at some sort of force field, He dint make a dent in it, If we are inside it then perhaps we can spoil them from the inside, and to an extent not worry of the Warship…..”

"If we do aquire the Warship...we could just crash it into the sea." he adds thoughfully to the discussion, "Or would it merely fade from sight..."

[Backlash]

Backlash

Tesla looks around at their new surroundings. There were definitely preperations made for this day. Looking at the holographic image and seeing the warship, Tesla says, "Looks like they're pretty serious."

A smile came across his face upon hearing her voice, he muttered “Atlas” as he glanced her way. Seeing the others go into their costumes and alternate personalities so to speak, Backlash straps on his gloves and leaves his shades on. He will put his mask on within a moments notice though when they move out.


(OOPS!! wrong account! )

[GM Mad]

Post Continued:

The Vigilant have been teleported to their new underwater base off the coast of San Diego. This was done in response to a Saurian Warship suddenly appearing over the Downtown area. According to Gloria, this was not something that they had noticed before in their studies of these events.

The group is now in the Command Center of the Vigilant base. It’s located on the top level and the ceiling is clear overhead. The ocean can be seen and fish swim past occasionally.

In a flash of light, Gloria transforms into her Stargirl persona. She superficially looks like Goldstar, but has a completely different costume. Oddly enough, she looks much younger than Gloria. More like a teenager and her blonde hair is in a ponytail.

The discussion continues.

"If I lose my memories of the old timeline, that would include forgetting how I got my powers, since it happened there and not here. In truth, I'm not thrilled with the prospect of losing some of my memories. I may have to take steps to make sure that I don't lose everything - perhaps writing it down or making recordings or something..."

“Of course, I understand,” Stargirl says. “Edgar will record whatever it is you wish to preserve. Our best guess is that your memories will reflect the adjusted timeline, but there is no way we can be sure. It is possible that all of you will remember some of the old timeline or none at all. We have no way of knowing.”

(GM Note: In other words, what your characters choose to remember or not remember is all up to you.)

Once her eyes clear, Lily finds that they have been transported to a different location. Looking up, she sees the glass dome and notes that they must be underwater! "This must be the base you mentioned before. Are we under San Diego Bay? How close are we to where the Edgar castle was?"

“Yes it is,” Stargirl says with a broad smile. “We’ve spent centuries constructing this place in secret. Something like this does not come into being overnight. Actually, we’re out in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of San Diego. We’re several miles from where Edgar first appeared. We moved for three reasons. One is that the Saurians knew Edgar’s location and so would be watching for anything happening there. Secondly, if the White Event does occur, Edgar will appear there again. That would most likely result in the destruction of this base. Lastly, this part of the ocean floor is stable and played no significant roll in history.”

Looking around, Lily spots the map table and holographic Edgar. "Hi Edgar," she says. "Nice to see you again - in a sense, at least."

“Welcome madam,” Edgar responds. “Nice to see you again as well. All of you. I look forward to serving each of you once more.”

She also spots the elevator. "Uhm, where does that elevator go? And how do we exit this place. A base that's tough to get out of would seem to be of limited usefulness."

“I goes down to the lower levels of the base,” Stargirl explains.

As she speaks, Edgar adjusts the hologram on the table to what you assume to be that of the new base. The base gets larger as you go down and there are only two areas near the top. One is this Command Center and the other is labeled as the takeoff/landing pad. The level below the Command Center is listed as personal quarters. The level underneath that are the recreation/training facilities. The fourth level down is science/medical labs along with equipment construction areas. The lowest level is the power plant. The base sits over a geothermal vent and uses Earth’s own heat to power turbines.

“The elevator goes down to the lower levels. Quarters, laboratories, training and medical facilities and the like. Teleportation will be the most likely method of travel to and from the base. However, there are other options. This Command Center and a air vehicle landing pad can be raised to the surface as needed. Thus, one could just fly here either under their own power or in a vehicle. Or you could even swim if you were so inclined.”

[GM Mad]

"One question. How do we know this didn't happen before? Would we actually know if a cloaked Saurian warship was hovering over the city in our old timeline?

“Our acquaintances in the future have fully scanned this time period. For instance, they’ve acquired a great deal more data on the mysterious saucer that was the catalyst to the White Event. We know where it’s at right now. If the timeline is being changed overtly, then I would recommend in taking out the saucer ASAP. It’s what causes the dimensional rip in the first place, the first domino that was knocked over. Prevent it, then regardless of how any of the other events play out, the Saurian future will not come into being. We win.”

"Also, do we have any idea how much change we are looking at? Will the space ship still appear at Horton's Plaza tomorrow? How about the summon event in the middle of the mall? Will they happen at all, or perhaps on a different timeline such as today rather than tomorrow?"

“As far as we know, both will still occur as their origin has nothing to do with the Saurians. As you all know, the demons were attempting to summon an Nether Lord to Earth, while the saucer was a test in creating super powered beings sponsored by Malachite.”

She then looks back at Gloria and Edgar. "Could they then teleport one of us to meet another in a different location, assuming we both had the beacons with us and active?"

“By way of the base, yes,” Edgar answers.

"Again on the whim of Lily's daughter, then a grown woman, at the end of time," Blackout snaps, then quickly re-composes himself. "I thought Edgar had the ability to cure my blindness there, in the future, not re-write things in my past. I'm glad I didn't sign on with that then. The bulk of my powers came as a result of my blindness. It was the catalyst that forced me to make a decision. If I never was blind, I probably never would have been a hero. I guess to you though, losing an ally would have been an acceptable price as long as your 'experiment' was a success."

“Hardly, sir,” Edgar states. “My future-self would have simply regenerated your damaged optical tissue thus restoring your sight. To him it was a very simple procedure that did not require anything as needlessly complex as you suggest.”

"It's not so much whether or not time can adjust to the change," Blackout replies as level as he can maintain his voice, "but that someone deliberately changed another's decision. Maybe there was a very good reason to not take that apartment, or maybe someone else important was destined to move in there and now that possible future is gone."

“There are two possible outcomes to this,” Stargirl says in an even tone. “Either we succeed and the Saurians don’t dominate or humanity does not exist. That is all that matters. Anything else is trivial by comparison. I will do whatever is necessary to make sure humanity survives, including die for it. Focus on the big prize.”

"I know, it's not my place Lily, and I'm sorry, but.." Blackout says as he spins back to face Ms. Starr. "So not only does Lily have to adjust to her own conflicting feelings about what she originally felt for Anton and now what she's supposed to feel for him, but she'll lose her original memories eventually?" Blackout opens his mouth to say more, but he's obviously so stunned and the pompousness portrayed here, he's speechless.

“If you had the power to go back and change something that deeply hurt someone you loved dearly, can you honestly say that you wouldn’t consider doing it? That was the position Rose was in. She wanted her mother to be happy. Why is that so hard for you to grasp? Haven’t you ever loved someone so much that you’d do anything to make them happy?”

Flux and Menagerie both ask a battery of questions, and Tesla is curious to hear those answers. Tesla takes the headset and beacon while she asks, "Is there any way we can get to them without being detected? If we're only safe from detection here then our options are really limited and that warship may just be planning on sitting tight to make sure the event happens."

“There is one way,” Stargirl says after a moment’s thought. “It will require the assistance of someone we were holding back in reserve. Edgar, summon Cosmic Girl please.”

[GM Mad]

"Here's the goal: remove that ship from over San Diego without crashing it, blowing it up, or having it report anything out of the ordinary. To that end we are going to use the same opp we just did, er, will do, on the Time station. I need undetectable entry for all of us, location of control centers, and methods of using same. After we secure the ship we have to move it. We can send it into the Sun or punt it into a Black Hole. I don't care which but it must be irretrievably lost. We can't let it stay and we can't let it report."

"So.. Schematics.... control centers.....piloting....jamming...let's hear what we've got and can do."

“Yes, I see what you’re getting at”, Stargirl says excitedly. “As long as no one sees the ship and it does nothing obvious, then the timeline shouldn’t be altered overtly. The ship would have to be destroyed as quietly and as permanently as possible.”

Edgar changes the holographic display to that of the Saurian warship. It has multiple control centers and built in redundancy much like the Time Station.

“We can’t teleport into the ship as that would be detected and most likely blocked. We’ll have to take a ship out and fly there. Cosmic Girl can cloak us from them and get us into the ship. From there it’ll be up to us.”

"Could this not be how the timeline was changed? Could the Saurians have seen this?” he asks curiously…”After all With Goldstar and Rose fighting them for so long would it be possible to know of their origins.” he asks thoughtfully.

“It is possible,” Stargirl answers. “But even if they did know their origins, they’re not really in a position to do anything about it. After all, the circumstances that gave both of them powers led to the Saurian timeline.”

‘What of there power source, any chance of taking it out?” he asks curiously as Stargirl hands out communication headsets, he cant help but wonder…. Will they hold up to the cold?

(GM Note: the headset will withstand the cold. Also those close to Frostbite will discover that he doesn't radiate cold like he used too.)

“That would be exceedingly dangerous,” Stargirl cautions. “They use an artificial black hole to power their vessel. Damaging it or destroying it would take out most of the planet. No, our best option is to get it far away from here before destroying it.”

“If the ritual does continue, as they plan… then perhaps it would be wise to have,” looking around to the others. “some of us as the sacrifices.” before I got my powers I saw red steel pounding at some sort of force field, He dint make a dent in it, If we are inside it then perhaps we can spoil them from the inside, and to an extent not worry of the Warship…..”

“As I’m sure it has been mentioned before, the best option for this situation is to simply not let it occur. The longer something like this plays out, the harder it will be to prevent. Trying to stop the ceremony while it is in progress is harder they prevent it from happening in the first place.”

"If we do acquire the Warship...we could just crash it into the sea." he adds thoughtfully to the discussion, "Or would it merely fade from sight..."

“No, letting it sit on the sea bottom is just asking for trouble. I would fly it to the center of the galaxy and let the super massive black hole there devour it. A permanent solution.”


There is another glow in the Command Center as another person is teleported in. You’d have to assume that this is the Cosmic Girl mentioned earlier. The glow fades to reveal another teenage girl. This one is also dressed in a one-piece jumpsuit much like Stargirl, but hers is white and magenta. The girl is of mixed ancestry and her black hair is in a ponytail. She looks very much like the adult version of Rose! (But younger obviously.)

“Hi mom,” Cosmic Girl sheepishly waves to Lily.


Now what?

[Blackout]

Blackout:

“Hardly, sir,” Edgar states. “My future-self would have simply regenerated your damaged optical tissue thus restoring your sight. To him it was a very simple procedure that did not require anything as needlessly complex as you suggest.”

"Fair enough," Blackout replies. He isn't sure why Ms. Starr had to wrap his blindness in with her discussion about them not manipulating his past when there was not going to be the need to go that far, but he lets that issue rest.

“There are two possible outcomes to this,” Stargirl says in an even tone. “Either we succeed and the Saurians don’t dominate or humanity does not exist. That is all that matters. Anything else is trivial by comparison. I will do whatever is necessary to make sure humanity survives, including die for it. Focus on the big prize.”

Blackout nearly laughes when he hears this, but remains calm and collected, "Then you unravel your own argument. Why bother doing something so trivial as change someone's apartment? Does suddenly having a better apartment going to give anyone a greater incentive to win? Does it give any of us an added advantage against our enemy? I hardly think so. I would have rather you said something to the effect of 'we subtley ramped up all your powers so you have a better chance of success" rather than 'hey, you have a new set of keys that might not matter in 48 hours anyway'."

“If you had the power to go back and change something that deeply hurt someone you loved dearly, can you honestly say that you wouldn’t consider doing it? That was the position Rose was in. She wanted her mother to be happy. Why is that so hard for you to grasp? Haven’t you ever loved someone so much that you’d do anything to make them happy?”

Blackout stands in disbelief for a long moment before answering this. "Again you previous agruement defeats this barrage," he replies calmly. "'Focus on the big prize' you said. The big prize isn't Lily's, mine, or anyone else's happiness. However, since you apparently think I'm either dense or never been in love, I'll grant you the benefit of this arguement. Have you ever been in love before, and had that relationship end for whatever reason, and then look back on it when you were older, with more wisdom and time to have healed, only to find out you're actually a better person because the relationship did end?"

Blackout lets that sink in for a moment before continuing, "Did this idea ever cross your mind that maybe because of whatever heartbreak and difficult time Lily endured, that she's who she is today because of it? Now she wakes up with that man back in her life after she's probably had enough time to heal and move on. Maybe there was someone new she might have considered to bring into her life and heart. Instead she's fighting conflicting emotions and memories when she should be focusing on the 'big prize'. The only decision Rose made, despite her grown-up appearance, was one of unthinking and childish wishing, regardless of the benevolence intended."

Sometime after all of this, Blackout tries to focus on the crisis at hand. There seems to be the consensus that we need to remove the warship from the equation, which Blackout agrees. Tesla raises a good point about how we can get there since it seems the telportation option has been eliminated. That's when an "ace in the hole" is revealed.

There is another glow in the Command Center as another person is teleported in. You’d have to assume that this is the Cosmic Girl mentioned earlier. The glow fades to reveal another teenage girl. This one is also dressed in a one-piece jumpsuit much like Stargirl, but hers is white and magenta. The girl is of mixed ancestry and her black hair is in a ponytail. She looks very much like the adult version of Rose! (But younger obviously.)

“Hi mom,” Cosmic Girl sheepishly waves to Lily.

Blackout shakes his head, but doesn't say anything. Let me guess, having two versions of her daughter running around at the same time would make Lily happy too, he thinks. He'll be surprised if Lily doesn't have a complete breakdown at this point. Apparently another decision that somehow wouldn't mess up the timestream. It's no wonder the Saurians are here dressed for a party, Blackout thinks grimly.

[Bruce]

Flux

There is another glow in the Command Center as another person is teleported in. You’d have to assume that this is the Cosmic Girl mentioned earlier. The glow fades to reveal another teenage girl. This one is also dressed in a one-piece jumpsuit much like Stargirl, but hers is white and magenta. The girl is of mixed ancestry and her black hair is in a ponytail. She looks very much like the adult version of Rose! (But younger obviously.)

“Hi mom,” Cosmic Girl sheepishly waves to Lily.

Flux turns slowly to the newly named Stargirl the beginnings of real anger starting to show in his posture.

" 'Hi. . . Mom' she says". 'Hi . . . Mom.' Would you like to explain this to me....right now...why there is a teenage female... resembling the adult Rose.... standing here? Why this copy cloning extra daughters kids-at-risk scenario seems like a good idea to SOMEBODY who should by all rights damned well know BETTER than this??? Right now?? "

And how many more surprises like this are there Ms. Starr? How many copies of kids just waiting in the wings? She and I will be talking after this-at length.

[Menagerie]

Menagerie:

"I know, it's not my place Lily, and I'm sorry, but.." Blackout says as he spins back to face Ms. Starr. "So not only does Lily have to adjust to her own conflicting feelings about what she originally felt for Anton and now what she's supposed to feel for him, but she'll lose her original memories eventually?" Blackout opens his mouth to say more, but he's obviously so stunned and the pompousness portrayed here, he's speechless.

"Don't be angry on my account, Blackout," Lily says. "I can do that for myself, if I feel it's warranted. Frankly, since it doesn't appear to affect you directly, I don't understand your anger at all."

“Of course, I understand,” Stargirl says. “Edgar will record whatever it is you wish to preserve. Our best guess is that your memories will reflect the adjusted timeline, but there is no way we can be sure. It is possible that all of you will remember some of the old timeline or none at all. We have no way of knowing.

Lily nods. It seems they are uncertain of the effects on their memories. When time allows, she will have to spend time with Edgar recording as much as she can.

Stargirl fills them in on the base in response to her questions. It is certainly much more extensive than was apparent at first. Most impressively, they can raise portions of it to the surface when needed! Of course, she could easily take a form that would allow her to swim away from the base.

"Edgar? Can you show me the location of any dive hatches that may be present in the base? That would be the easiest access for my aquatic forms."

"I believe I can answer one question, Shaper. The mages and demons will still act to cast their summoning ritual. Whatever else has changed, the mystic forces and alignments remain. They will wish to accomplish their goal the same as before.

Lily listens to Eldrich's answer. "That makes sense, I suppose. Is there any chance that the alignments might occur at a different time, perhaps earlier or later, or are they immutable?"

“Our acquaintances in the future have fully scanned this time period. For instance, they’ve acquired a great deal more data on the mysterious saucer that was the catalyst to the White Event. We know where it’s at right now. If the timeline is being changed overtly, then I would recommend in taking out the saucer ASAP. It’s what causes the dimensional rip in the first place, the first domino that was knocked over. Prevent it, then regardless of how any of the other events play out, the Saurian future will not come into being. We win.”

Lily pauses, shocked. "You know where the saucer is now?! How far away is it? You're right - hitting it should be a top priority. What about Devilspawn? Do you know her whereabouts as well? If we can get to her before the summoning, the spell would never be cast."

There is quite a bit of discussion of strategy, but that isn't Lily's strong point so she stays out of it. Better to leave it to the experts. The mention of the artificial black hole destroying most of the planet certainly paints a grim picture.

There is another glow in the Command Center as another person is teleported in. You’d have to assume that this is the Cosmic Girl mentioned earlier. The glow fades to reveal another teenage girl. This one is also dressed in a one-piece jumpsuit much like Stargirl, but hers is white and magenta. The girl is of mixed ancestry and her black hair is in a ponytail. She looks very much like the adult version of Rose! (But younger obviously.)

“Hi mom,” Cosmic Girl sheepishly waves to Lily.

Lily jerks spasmodically at the sudden revelation. "Y- You- Rose?" Lily's mind is spinning. "Sweetheart, is that you?" Lily holds out her arms, offering a hug to her daughter.

When she say Rose this morning, she was nine years old. Clearly this cannot be the same. Lily looks over at Stargirl and Edgar, then back at Rose. "You must be the other Rose, lost in time..." Lily seems to be struggling with the ramifications of all this.
__________________________________________________________
Mad, any chance of a Sticky thread with a summary timeline of events, including key players? My brain is having a heck of a time keeping track of everything.

[Blackout]

Blackout:

"Don't be angry on my account, Blackout," Lily says. "I can do that for myself, if I feel it's warranted. Frankly, since it doesn't appear to affect you directly, I don't understand your anger at all."

"I am sure you are quite capable, of that I have no doubt," Blackout replies, "but I am arguing for the point that one entity should not arbitrarily change another's past simply because they 'believe' that person would be happier with a different set of circumstances, and then still leave them with their previous memories on top of it. Now if they would have wiped your memory so only this timeline's history remained, I would be arguing a different set of ethics."

"However, I do believe that all of this affects me, and the rest of us, directly as well," Blackout continues. "You look, if you can pardon my use of the expression, like you're a bit overwhelmed by all of this. My concern is that your reaction time and judgement may be off, even by a fraction of a second because of all the thoughts and conflicting memories swimming in your head. If you're off just that hair when we are at the most crucial juncture in all of this, then it might be the cause of our failure. That affects all of us unfortunately, and thus my anger."

"Additionally, when we get through this, all of your options for your life have already been chosen for you," Blackout adds as an after thought. "You didn't make the conscious decision to take him back into your life and re-marry, or make the decision to see other people, or make the decision to see no one ever again. You are now married regardless of what you wanted. That is the other point I think they've missed. What you want. Is it my place to champion that cause for you? Probably not, but that doesn't mean I like it one bit whether it was you, Tesla, Flux, Tilt, Frosty, whoever, it doesn't matter because it's not right."

[Tilt-A-Whirl]

Tilt-A-Whirl:

Hearing the strange sound over the headsets, Lily notes Tilt making noises with her mouth. "Please stop, Tilt. We can hear you."

Lily catches Tilt with her mouth forming an 'O' which she quickly turns into a big smile, trying to look innocent.

She also spots the elevator. "Uhm, where does that elevator go? And how do we exit this place. A base that's tough to get out of would seem to be of limited usefulness."

“I goes down to the lower levels of the base,” Stargirl explains.

oohhhh an elevator! Tilt thinks, and she's off. She misses the hologram tour as she much rather see it for herself. Tilt isn't gone too long sadly, but when she comes back there's someone new!

“Hi mom,” Cosmic Girl sheepishly waves to Lily.

"wowyousurehavealotofsuperpoweredkids!" Tilt exclaims to Lily as she waves at Cosmic Girl.

[GM Mad]

Misc. GM Notes:

Lily jerks spasmodically at the sudden revelation. "Y- You- Rose?" Lily's mind is spinning. "Sweetheart, is that you?" Lily holds out her arms, offering a hug to her daughter.

When she say Rose this morning, she was nine years old. Clearly this cannot be the same. Lily looks over at Stargirl and Edgar, then back at Rose. "You must be the other Rose, lost in time..." Lily seems to be struggling with the ramifications of all this.

Cosmic Girl happily hugs her mother and tries to reassure her. “I’m more like an echo of the adult Rose you met. I can’t exist here for very long. It’s all a bit complicated.”

“Some of my energy exists in both Rose and in Blossom. They are currently unaware of it nor can they make use of that energy. In a crisis, Edgar can call me forth, but I can only exist for an hour before I have to return to the twins. They’re safely back home right now taking a nap.”

Flux turns slowly to the newly named Stargirl the beginnings of real anger starting to show in his posture.

" 'Hi. . . Mom' she says". 'Hi . . . Mom.' Would you like to explain this to me....right now...why there is a teenage female... resembling the adult Rose.... standing here? Why this copy cloning extra daughters kids-at-risk scenario seems like a good idea to SOMEBODY who should by all rights damned well know BETTER than this??? Right now?? "

“Because Goldstar, Rose, and Edgar were afraid that you would fail in your attempt to put things right,” Cosmic Girl says bluntly. “You only had a small taste of what is like to exist in the Saurian time line. They’ve lived there for billions of years. None of you cannot begin to comprehend what you’re up against. Therefore they attempted to render aid, leading to what you see here.”

“Make no mistake, our goal is to eliminate the Saurian future by whatever means necessary. Nothing else matters. You area all welcomed to help in this endeavor. If you’ve got a problem, then leave. You’ll only hold us back.”

“Should we succeed, the most likely outcome is that the timeline will be reshaped once more. Everything that transpires here will probably never have happened anyway, so if anyone’s feelings have been hurt what does it really matter in the grand scheme of things?”


GM Note:

Do not forget that some of the changes that were made, were made by PC’s themselves. Do not assume that there is some grand conspiracy at work here. For instance Flux choose a different apartment this time around. Goldstar, etc, had nothing to do with that. Time has been changed and has been manipulated by multiple parties. I allowed the players to freely makes changes because of it. Apart of the stuff involving Lily, everything else was a players choice.

As per Gordon’s request, there is a Crucible Recap Thread now available.

[Bruce]

Flux / Eldrich


No worries MAD. I doubt anyone forgot that. I'm just playing it from Flux's perspective. Young kids in harms way is not a happy prospect for him. You're doing great work surprising me and I always liked time paradox stories so just keep going. I'm sure it'll all turn out. . . wierd in the end.








****************************************************************
Bruce-Happy player.

[Menagerie]

Menagerie:

Lily listens quietly to Blackout. "That may all be true to one extent or another. Is it right? Probably not, but it is done, and we have other things to focus on right now. To my perspective, it's just as likely that your fury will make you the one to make a mistake, as these changes are to cause me to err. Pointing fingers and making accusations is a waste of time and energy - something we cannot afford right now."

"wowyousurehavealotofsuperpoweredkids!" Tilt exclaims to Lily as she waves at Cosmic Girl.

Tilt had zipped off once again to explore and was back again already. "So it would seem..." Lily replies, bemusedly. "Time travel creates odd circumstances - that's for sure."

Cosmic Girl happily hugs her mother and tries to reassure her. “I’m more like an echo of the adult Rose you met. I can’t exist here for very long. It’s all a bit complicated.”

“Some of my energy exists in both Rose and in Blossom. They are currently unaware of it nor can they make use of that energy. In a crisis, Edgar can call me forth, but I can only exist for an hour before I have to return to the twins. They’re safely back home right now taking a nap.”

Lily scratches her head. "So... you're essentially a super power that the girls have, but are unaware of and have no conscious control over?" She glances over at Edgar. "Is it likely that they will master this ability as they grow older?"

“Should we succeed, the most likely outcome is that the timeline will be reshaped once more. Everything that transpires here will probably never have happened anyway, so if anyone’s feelings have been hurt what does it really matter in the grand scheme of things?”

"So, if we survive, we could well end up in a completely new reality anyway? All of this would be no more than an ephermeral dream, then..."
___________________________________________________________
Thanks for the Recap, Mad!

And in case anyone is wondering, I did actually orchestrate many of the changes in Lily's life, though there have certainly been unexpected ramifications. While I'm not a big fan of time travel stuff, this has been a lot of fun, though.

[GM Mad]

Update:

Blackout nearly laughs when he hears this, but remains calm and collected, "Then you unravel your own argument. Why bother doing something so trivial as change someone's apartment? Does suddenly having a better apartment going to give anyone a greater incentive to win? Does it give any of us an added advantage against our enemy? I hardly think so. I would have rather you said something to the effect of 'we subtly ramped up all your powers so you have a better chance of success" rather than 'hey, you have a new set of keys that might not matter in 48 hours anyway'."

“We had nothing to do with Flux choosing a different apartment,” Stargirl answers. “Flux just recently moved to San Diego and that all happened within the past year when we were just watching and waiting. As I said before many things have changed from your perspective. I never said that we were responsible for all of them. There are many things at work here. Everything we’ve done was with an eye to defeating the enemy.”

“I have no idea why you are so angry about this. It’s almost like you want the Saurians to win. Would that make you feel better? To not having even existed?”

"Edgar? Can you show me the location of any dive hatches that may be present in the base? That would be the easiest access for my aquatic forms."

Edgar causes the numerous airlocks to show up as a different color on the holographic display. “Each level has emergency airlocks. Level four also has a submarine docking area that you could access.”

Lily listens to Eldrich's answer. "That makes sense, I suppose. Is there any chance that the alignments might occur at a different time, perhaps earlier or later, or are they immutable?"

“From what we’ve been able to research, this is an alignment of forces that happens once in a lifetime," Stargirl interupts. "It’s all mystical mumbo-jumbo to us, but they have to act at that particular time to succeed.”

Lily pauses, shocked. "You know where the saucer is now?! How far away is it? You're right - hitting it should be a top priority. What about Devilspawn? Do you know her whereabouts as well? If we can get to her before the summoning, the spell would never be cast."

Edgar responds by altering the holographic display. First up is a overview of the San Diego area.

“It’s currently in a large warehouse on Harbor Island,” Stargirl explains. “It was constructed there by Malachite. Also a submarine named the Jade Princess docked there a few weeks back.”

(Harbor Island is long, thin strip of land just to the north of where the castle used to be. It can be seen on the San Diego Bay map.)

The holographic display changes to show a real time holographic display of the warehouse. Positions of people in the warehouse are noted, along with the saucer and the sub.

“When it leaves tomorrow, the sub goes underwater sailing east until it reaches the shore. Then it rises up and moves into position.”

“We’ve traced the location of Devilspawn and her cohorts to a mansion at the end of Angell Avenue up in North Claremont.”

Again the display changes, first to a map view and then focusing in on the mansion itself.

(Check out the San Diego map in the city info file. Near the top in the middle is Miramar Naval Air Station. Going in the direction of 7 o’clock you’ll spot a shield indicating Interstate 52. The Mansion is a short distance to the north and west of that location.)

“The estate is registered to a Jason Haller, but we’re not sure if that’s a real person. We believe that most of those beings involved in the ritual are currently there.”

[GM Mad]

oohhhh an elevator! Tilt thinks, and she's off. She misses the hologram tour as she much rather see it for herself. Tilt isn't gone too long sadly, but when she comes back there's someone new!

As the Tilt begins her tour, she sees that the elevator has six buttons on it. There are ones labeled 1 through 4, another labeled basement and another that is mysteriously just plain red.

While exploring the fourth level, Tilt makes a discovery while in the medical section. Someone is there! It’s a woman with slightly above average looks with brown hair and eyes. She’s plainly dressed and wears a white lab coat over her clothes. The woman becomes aware of Tilt’s presence.

“Hello there! I’m Dr. Mary Beth Williams. Are you in need of medical attention?”

“Because Goldstar, Rose, and Edgar were afraid that you would fail in your attempt to put things right,” Cosmic Girl says bluntly. “You only had a small taste of what is like to exist in the Saurian time line. They’ve lived there for billions of years. None of you cannot begin to comprehend what you’re up against. Therefore they attempted to render aid, leading to what you see here.”

“Make no mistake, our goal is to eliminate the Saurian future by whatever means necessary. Nothing else matters. You area all welcomed to help in this endeavor. If you’ve got a problem, then leave. You’ll only hold us back.”

“Should we succeed, the most likely outcome is that the timeline will be reshaped once more. Everything that transpires here will probably never have happened anyway, so if anyone’s feelings have been hurt what does it really matter in the grand scheme of things?”

“We only have one chance to get this right,” Stargirl quietly adds. “We wanted to put the odds into our favor as much as possible since so much is riding on this.”

Lily scratches her head. "So... you're essentially a super power that the girls have, but are unaware of and have no conscious control over?" She glances over at Edgar. "Is it likely that they will master this ability as they grow older?"

“Yes, they will,” Edgar explains. “They’ll slowly can control over it when they are ready to handle it. Until then they will not be able to access the power.”

"So, if we survive, we could well end up in a completely new reality anyway? All of this would be no more than an ephemeral dream, then..."

“We have no way of knowing for sure what the outcome of all of this will be,” Cosmic Girl explains. “The logical outcome is that the world will revert to what it was before all of this happened. Back to what you remembered things to be. Or perhaps it will be more like things are now. Maybe even a hybrid between the two.”

“Most likely I will cease to exist,” Stargirl adds, “since I will have never been born. Rose will be a normal girl without a sister or a father. When weighted against the existence of humanity, it is no sacrifice at all.”


Now what?

[Menagerie]

Menagerie:

Edgar adds markers for the airlocks to the map of the base. While it is too big to memorize quickly, Lily does her best to capture the basic layout of the base and general location of the airlocks and other accessways.

Stargirl seems to affirm what Eldrich had said about the timing of Devilspawn's spell. It is apparently immutible, giving them until tomorrow to deal with that particular problem.

More immediately, Stargirl and this world's Edgar have done their homework well, as they know the locations of both the saucer and Devilspawn! Edgar displays both locations on his map. The saucer is clearly the nearer of the two, but both are reachable.

“Yes, they will,” Edgar explains. “They’ll slowly gain control over it when they are ready to handle it. Until then they will not be able to access the power.”

"That is good," Lily says with a nod. "Still, I don't understand the mechanics of how they even have powers in this timeline, but that kind of scientific area is way beyond my expertise."

Stargirl confirms Lily's hypothesis. The world they find themselves in after this is over could be the old one, or a completely new one. Either way, it would have to be better than this one.

All this discussion brings an idea to mind and Lily turns to Flux. "It occurs to me that we probably don't need to deal with the warship directly. If we can stop the white event from occuring, then the saurians - and thus the warship - will cease to exist. As long as we don't attract attention to ourselves, and they don't take any further action that would reveal their presence, then I think we can safely ignore them. Instead, I believe we should focus directly on stopping the white event. The key here is to keep a low profile, much as we have up until now.

"I see two options. One would be to split the team and send one group against Malachite's saucer and the other after Devilspawn. Alternatively, we could keep the group together and attempt them one at a time. Perhaps start with Malachite's warehouse and move on from there to Mr. Haller's mansion. Of course, Devilspawn is more likely to move before tomorrow than the saucer, so we might want to start there."

[Bruce]

Eldrich Arcane

Lily listens to Eldrich's answer. "That makes sense, I suppose. Is there any chance that the alignments might occur at a different time, perhaps earlier or later, or are they immutable?"

“From what we’ve been able to research, this is an alignment of forces that happens once in a lifetime," Stargirl interrupts. "It’s all mystical mumbo-jumbo to us, but they have to act at that particular time to succeed.”

"I do not know what 'mumbo-jumbo' is Shaper, but the mystic forces cannot be rushed or slowed. Things must proceed at the correct pace for success to be achieved. Prevent the ritual at the appointed time and it will fail."

[Bruce]

Flux

Flux listens to Stargirl's biting reply and takes the time of it to rein in his temper. Several bits of useful info come out of it and the ensuing replies. By the time it all settles so has he. And Edgar has displays of locations for both targets.

All this discussion brings an idea to mind and Lily turns to Flux. "It occurs to me that we probably don't need to deal with the warship directly. If we can stop the white event from occurring, then the saurians - and thus the warship - will cease to exist. As long as we don't attract attention to ourselves, and they don't take any further action that would reveal their presence, then I think we can safely ignore them. Instead, I believe we should focus directly on stopping the white event. The key here is to keep a low profile, much as we have up until now.

"I see two options. One would be to split the team and send one group against Malachite's saucer and the other after Devilspawn. Alternatively, we could keep the group together and attempt them one at a time. Perhaps start with Malachite's warehouse and move on from there to Mr. Haller's mansion. Of course, Devilspawn is more likely to move before tomorrow than the saucer, so we might want to start there."

Now is not the time to say it but I think Lily has got the makings of a fine tactical planner. After the dust and turmoil has settled I'll broach the subject of a second-in-command. See what the others say. My bet is they'll see it too and the only one to argue will be her.

"We'll get that saucer first. Taking it out on the ground and out of sight is near-perfect. We have positions and personnel counts. We can start a work up of entry and attack points. We clean that up and the white event is non-history. Better still, the public will never know what happened."

"Edgar, still waiting on specs on that warship. Can you tell me if they also are keeping any kind of watch on the saucer and Devilspawn's crew? If they are we have to prep for retalitation or interference from the ship. If not then it may become a moot point. We change history and write them out it could pop like a soap bubble."

After that, well, we'll see what we see. Can't make plans for the future until the ground is solid under-foot

[Blackout]

Blackout:

“We had nothing to do with Flux choosing a different apartment,” Stargirl answers. “Flux just recently moved to San Diego and that all happened within the past year when we were just watching and waiting. As I said before many things have changed from your perspective. I never said that we were responsible for all of them. There are many things at work here. Everything we’ve done was with an eye to defeating the enemy.”

“I have no idea why you are so angry about this. It’s almost like you want the Saurians to win. Would that make you feel better? To not having even existed?”

"My perspective is unchanged, and I am merely responding to what the others mentioned their changes were," Blackout replies. "You now mention you weren't responsible for all of them, but before you were eager to defend all of them in a single blanket of your involvement."

Pausing for a moment, Blackout adds, "I understand there are many things at work here, and so that was my question as to what importance an apartment played when I think giving us stronger powers would have been the direction to go if you wanted to give us more of an edge than simply the advance knowledge of what we are meant to stop."

"As far as anger, you have yet to see me angry," Blackout states simply. "I am quite insulted however that you would question whether or not I would prefer the Saurians to win. What you continually fail to see is that I care for my teammates. We have been to the past, present and far future together and are standing on the face of possible non-existence. If you can't understand that I would care about my fellow heroes gathered here, then you don't truly understand humans, or heroes, at all."

Lily listens quietly to Blackout. "That may all be true to one extent or another. Is it right? Probably not, but it is done, and we have other things to focus on right now. To my perspective, it's just as likely that your fury will make you the one to make a mistake, as these changes are to cause me to err. Pointing fingers and making accusations is a waste of time and energy - something we cannot afford right now."

Blackout listens as Lily pretty much misses his point and his intentions. Where Ms. Starr was eager to attack Blackout, Lily seems perfectly happy having her life tumbled upside down and inside out. He still isn't sure Lily is happy with it deep down though. However, she's made it clear it isn't his place to do anything about it.

"Again as I said to Ms. Starr, I am nowhere near a level of fury," Blackout explains to Lily. "It is merely that I care about my fellow teammates, and it just so happened you were the one so adversely affected. So much is riding on us at this moment we can not, any of us, afford such distractions. I do agree that our remaining time is better spent however, so let us return our focus to that."

Having let the issues rest finally, Blackout catches up with all of the information at their disposal. However, he can't help but notice Flux is far from pleased with certain aspects going on as well. Cosmic Girl does a poor job of explaining herself as well, but Flux also lets it rest.

However, there is quite a bit of data that is now offered. Blackout can't help but wonder if they tinkered with the past and made a part faulty in the saucer or submarine that would disrupt the event enough. He chooses not to bring it up beyond his thoughts though. It's too late now for anything else to be done by messing with the past.

Lily gives some solid ideas and Flux wants to take out the saucer. Blackout nods his approval to the idea, just waiting to see what Edgar has to offer.


----------------------------------------------------

I hope no one confused my role playing with any real anger. Far from it, this little incident allowed me to really think about how Blackout would respond to the situation and his feelings. I know several characters were altered because of their player's choices but Blackout doesn't know that. Good role playing opportunity there Mad!

[Tesla]

Tesla:

A smile came across his face upon hearing her voice, he muttered “Atlas” as he glanced her way. Seeing the others go into their costumes and alternate personalities so to speak, Backlash straps on his gloves and leaves his shades on. He will put his mask on within a moments notice though when they move out.

Tesla smiles back, with a slight shake of her head, as she figures out what word Backlash mouthed. "You could probably tear that warship in half, couldn't you?" she says lightly.

The verbal assaults between several of us get pretty heated for a bit. Tesla can see how everyone would have different views, but she stays out of it. There is some tension and frustration that needs to be vented obviously. However one thing does become apparent to Tesla and she leans in to Backlash. "I think Blackout cares for a certain one of us a little more than he's letting on," she says cryptically.

Flux decides we are going to move on the saucer. Tesla is definitely pleased to hear that as she believes she be more useful there. "I've been working on my control of electricity," Tesla tells Flux and the others, "and if things go bad I'm confident I can control the submarine or the saucer at a distance if they're using electricity for any of their power needs."

[Tilt-A-Whirl]

Tilt-A-Whirl:

While exploring the fourth level, Tilt makes a discovery while in the medical section. Someone is there! It’s a woman with slightly above average looks with brown hair and eyes. She’s plainly dressed and wears a white lab coat over her clothes. The woman becomes aware of Tilt’s presence.

“Hello there! I’m Dr. Mary Beth Williams. Are you in need of medical attention?”

"ohhithere!" Tilt says as she waves excitedly. "ohnoiminperfecthealthjustlookingaroundatallthenewstuff!" With that mouthful, she's off again.

Tilt had zipped off once again to explore and was back again already. "So it would seem..." Lily replies, bemusedly. "Time travel creates odd circumstances - that's for sure."

Tilt thinks about that for a second. "sowhydid... um... so why did you name all of them Rose?" she asks, catching herself talking to fast again.

There is a holograph picture of a warehouse with little people and a saucer and submarine in there. Tilt watches with fascination. It's much better than the video games she's seen in the arcades.

That seems to be where we're headed next. Tilt can't wait. She knows this is all very important because there is a lot of stern faces and even some arguing before.

[Menagerie]

Menagerie:

"I do not know what 'mumbo-jumbo' is Shaper, but the mystic forces cannot be rushed or slowed. Things must proceed at the correct pace for success to be achieved. Prevent the ritual at the appointed time and it will fail."

"Thank you, Eldrich," Lily says. "And please, call me Lily, or Menagerie. Okay?"

"As far as anger, you have yet to see me angry," Blackout states simply. "I am quite insulted however that you would question whether or not I would prefer the Saurians to win. What you continually fail to see is that I care for my teammates. We have been to the past, present and far future together and are standing on the face of possible non-existence. If you can't understand that I would care about my fellow heroes gathered here, then you don't truly understand humans, or heroes, at all."

"Again as I said to Ms. Starr, I am nowhere near a level of fury," Blackout explains to Lily. "It is merely that I care about my fellow teammates, and it just so happened you were the one so adversely affected. So much is riding on us at this moment we can not, any of us, afford such distractions. I do agree that our remaining time is better spent however, so let us return our focus to that."

Though she doesn't say anything, Lily finds that she has no desire to see that level of anger in Blackout, or anyone else. Rage is an unhealthy and destructive emotion, and one she wants no part of in her life.

"We'll get that saucer first. Taking it out on the ground and out of sight is near-perfect. We have positions and personnel counts. We can start a work up of entry and attack points. We clean that up and the white event is non-history. Better still, the public will never know what happened."

Their leader seems to accept Lily's suggestion, which actually surprises her a little bit. "That all makes sense. Even if we succeed there, we may want to continue on to Haller's mansion. Changing the timeline apparently won't change what Devilspawn is up to, and I doubt what she's up to will be good for anyone - particularly those caught in her summoning circle, as I was. Thus, taking her down preemptively may save us a lot of trouble later."

Flux decides we are going to move on the saucer. Tesla is definitely pleased to hear that as she believes she be more useful there. "I've been working on my control of electricity," Tesla tells Flux and the others, "and if things go bad I'm confident I can control the submarine or the saucer at a distance if they're using electricity for any of their power needs."

Lily turns to the electric woman. "That's incredible, Tesla. You can actually control vehicles from a distance? Amazing."

Tilt thinks about that for a second. "sowhydid... um... so why did you name all of them Rose?" she asks, catching herself talking to fast again.

Tilt's question draws a laugh from Lily. "Well I didn't, really. I only named one child Rose. We just keep meeting instances of her from different points in time and different timelines." Lily thinks for a moment. "As I understand it, Cosmic Girl is not really Rose at all, but rather the embodiment of a power shared by Rose and Blossom in this timeline. I'm not sure it would really be correct to call her Rose or Blossom - just Cosmic Girl."

[Tesla]

Tesla:

Lily turns to the electric woman. "That's incredible, Tesla. You can actually control vehicles from a distance? Amazing."

"I haven't had much of a chance to put it into practice in the field," Tesla admits, "but I am sure that I could make life quite miserable for a pilot of the saucer or the submarine if need be."

"Anything with electricity I can control to a degree, but something with a human pilot, or a sentient robot, will take a lot more work," Tesla explains. "Turning off a computer at a distance is easy, but re-directing the flight of a Minuteman would definitely be a challenge."

[GM Mad]

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