Game Summary: New Blood- Issue 5

New Blood

Issue 5

More New Blood

Veronica and Caroline sit on a bench talking. Veronica tells Caroline that the police will be coming soon. Caroline says that the police are jerks and will probably blame her for all of this.

Outside the Huntress has Morko let her out of the SUV. Morko actually has an appointment for his day job and goes off to take care of that. The Bronze Umbrella pulls up on his bronze motorcycle, but has no idea what is going on. Don Manuel recovers from the fear effect and goes to talk to the SWAT commander. Given that the police are not supposed to be consorting with heroes and that Don is not exactly in tune with the mindset of American law enforcement, the SWAT commander ignores him.

Whale-Watcher finally comes around from her coma and looks at the abandoned, devastated mall. She starts walking out to talk to the police when tear gas grenades fly over her head.

Whale-Watcher rushes forward trying to warn off the police. They see someone running out of the mall after the tear gas goes in, and so open fire with tasers. Veronica, most of her body being able to taste things, does not react well to the tear gas and flees to the upper levels. Caroline starts cussing out the police.

Being made of sterner stuff than most people, Whale-Watcher shrugs off the tasers and walks out amongst the cops. They level their guns at her when suddenly everyone near the mall entrance starts chocking as if hit by powerful tear gas. Whale-Watcher stays up long enough to leave the area but the rest of the police are now convinced that she is the rogue super. A very horrible confrontation is avoided when the cops finally recognize her.

“That’s Whale-Watcher, she talked about water conservation at my kid’s school.”

[A good heart roll had the police recognize her.]

Don flies into the mall as an eagle, but is having some trouble with the gas. He spots Veronica on the upper level, lands, and becomes a motorcycle. As the gas doesn’t bother the motorcycle in the slightest the octopus rides the motorcycle out of the mall. They go to the fountain outside the mall so that Veronica can wash off the gas.

Meanwhile, Whale-Watcher tries to convince the police that violence against Caroline will not work. The Bronze Umbrella listens in and gets some idea of what has occurred.

Caroline comes walking out of the building. Thanks to Whale-Watcher, the police do not try and shoot her but rather use nets. As happened with the Trouser Weasel this fails ending up with many police officers trapped in nets.

All of the heroes try to talk to the cops and negotiate with Caroline in order to avoid disaster. The Bronze Umbrella conducts some experiments and finds out that intent to scare, annoy, or harm Caroline seems to be the trigger. The Huntress stresses that Caroline is basically a time bomb given how her powers work. She can’t be allowed to run around loose. Veronica suggests that the researchers that raised her might be able to help Caroline adjust to her new life. While this will get them in trouble with the mayor, the cops don’t have a better plan so Caroline is sent off to the research center.

Meanwhile, the Weasel has gotten a pair of pants and a shop vacuum and connected the pants to a pair in the mall. Using the vacuum he sucks most of the tear gas out of the mall. The Dung Beetle wakes up, sore in muscles he didn’t even know he had, and coughing from the gas. He staggers out of the mall and is met by the EMT’s and his wife, who insists that he go to the hospital.

Having discovered the three coma patients, the heroes want to figure out how this happened, and it all seems to point to Dr. Pandora Case. Whale-Watcher doesn’t want anything to do with breaking into Case’s house so she goes to talk to Haily Jones at the psychiatric lockup. The rest of the heroes go to Case’s house.

They break into the garage and talk to Pandora’s car. It has no useful information.

The Bronze Umbrella goes and talks to the neighbors. It being Harbor City they are not immediately freaked out by costumed heroes trying to talk to them. Besides, he has a winning smile. He finds out that Pandora left with an Italian looking man in some car that the neighbor didn’t recognize.

Obsessed with security, the security system refuses to tell Don the password, so the Weasel uses his petty criminal knowledge and circumvents the system. The Weasel performs and pants reading, ending up putting Dr. Case’s pants in the washing machine and reading them like tea leaves. The answer is “Unravel the thread like spaghetti.” Reading tea leaves is notoriously symbolic. However, combined with the Italian looking guy this points pretty firmly to little Italy, and probably the Italian mob.

Whale-Watcher and Jones talk for awhile about the city’s 50 year plan to deal with global warming and then discuss Dr. Case. Jones spent a few weeks with Dr. Case for physical therapy and while Jones doesn’t remember any unusual tests she doesn’t know what the usual tests for a recovered coma patient would be. She does mention that Dr. Case seemed nice and professional and that the doctor had a sister, Patricia.

Back at the house, the other heroes find pictures of Dr. Case with another woman and Dr. Case’s address book. Being an octopus, Veronica hadn’t thought to look for such things when she broke in before. They get Pandora’s mother’s number from the book and the Bronze Umbrella gives her a call and asks about Pandora. He doesn’t find out anything useful, but with some strange man calling and asking about Pandora, her mom calls Dr. Case. A phone rings behind the sofa. The Weasel answers the phone and pretends to be Pandora with a cold. He finds out that Dr. Case was onto something big.

[This was a good roll and some hilarious role-playing by Rolfe.]

The phone tells Don that it was thrown behind the couch by a large, hairy hand. This pretty much confirms that Dr. Case has been kidnapped.

Meanwhile, Veronica and the Huntress go to Whale-Watcher’s place to be filled in on what she has found out. The two decide to go and search Patricia Case’s apartment. They don’t find anything, but do break the door. They do find that her mail is probably pilling up, so she may have been kidnapped as well.

The Weasel takes what the heroes know and logs onto henchman.net. He finds that things are still pretty much the same in little Italy, four mob families and a street gang. He suggests that the gang may be desperate for fire power and that they should start there.

Everyone except Whale-Watcher heads to the gang’s bar hangout. From her time as an engineer for the city, Whale-Watcher knows someone in construction with mob contacts and makes a dinner appointment with them in little Italy.