![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stevekensonThe Red Menace
The Midnighters narrowly survive the explosion of the upper floor of the Midnight Mansion: with Skyler Hawkins rocketing free and able to rescue an injured Buster Corrigan (who ends up hospitalized due to his player no being on-hand this week). Lilith Gunn, who arrived at the mansion to get her associates’ assistance with the theft of an an ancient African necklace known as the Lion of Dakana, witnesses the explosion.
Max Cain makes arrangements for Mildred and Norman Simms to get out of Freedom City, which has clearly become too dangerous. Then it’s off to Southside Palace for a direct confrontation with Tony Driogano. Unfortunately, the younger mobster isn’t there, but a search of his office turns up two things: the missing Lion of Dakana necklace, minus the large diamond for which it is so famous, and a road-map of Freedom City, marked in a language even Lilith doesn’t know! One place marked on the map is the under-construction Goodman Building in Midtown, soon to be the tallest building in Freedom.
Oliverti, both Drioganos, and a collection of mob goons are on the unfinished uppermost floor of the building. Confronted by the heroes, they explain the truth: they are not human mobsters, but aliens from a distant world, stranded on Earth by a navigational accident and the destruction of their vessel. They used their shape-shifting and telepathic abilities to work their way to the top of the Freedom City underworld and to acquire a gemstone with unique psychic-enhancing properties to allow them to send a telepathic signal to their brethren in deep space, allowing them to come and conquer the Earth!
A fight ensues, with Lilith shooting the daka crystal out of its armature to keep it away from the aliens. Skyler leads one alien (in the form of a flying “blackwing” with death-ray eyes) on a chase through the surrounding buildings before tricking it and leaving it impaled on the building’s radio spire. Max Cain manages to overcome one using a power cable, while Jason and Lilith defeat the third using the crystal to enhance their own psychic abilities, destroying it in mental combat. They gain a momentary insight into the nature of the aliens, called “Grue,” in particular their tendency to keep their victims alive in order to draw upon their memories and life-force for their imitations. Checking the trunks of the cars parked near the Goodman Building, they find the unconscious forms of Marco Oliverti, Anthony and Tony Driogano... and Mildred Simms!
Upon returning the real Mildred home, they learn the Mildred Simms who left the city with “her” father has disappeared without a trace. Clearly, they have not heard the last of the mysterious Grue....
The Midnighters narrowly survive the explosion of the upper floor of the Midnight Mansion: with Skyler Hawkins rocketing free and able to rescue an injured Buster Corrigan (who ends up hospitalized due to his player no being on-hand this week). Lilith Gunn, who arrived at the mansion to get her associates’ assistance with the theft of an an ancient African necklace known as the Lion of Dakana, witnesses the explosion.
Max Cain makes arrangements for Mildred and Norman Simms to get out of Freedom City, which has clearly become too dangerous. Then it’s off to Southside Palace for a direct confrontation with Tony Driogano. Unfortunately, the younger mobster isn’t there, but a search of his office turns up two things: the missing Lion of Dakana necklace, minus the large diamond for which it is so famous, and a road-map of Freedom City, marked in a language even Lilith doesn’t know! One place marked on the map is the under-construction Goodman Building in Midtown, soon to be the tallest building in Freedom.
Oliverti, both Drioganos, and a collection of mob goons are on the unfinished uppermost floor of the building. Confronted by the heroes, they explain the truth: they are not human mobsters, but aliens from a distant world, stranded on Earth by a navigational accident and the destruction of their vessel. They used their shape-shifting and telepathic abilities to work their way to the top of the Freedom City underworld and to acquire a gemstone with unique psychic-enhancing properties to allow them to send a telepathic signal to their brethren in deep space, allowing them to come and conquer the Earth!
A fight ensues, with Lilith shooting the daka crystal out of its armature to keep it away from the aliens. Skyler leads one alien (in the form of a flying “blackwing” with death-ray eyes) on a chase through the surrounding buildings before tricking it and leaving it impaled on the building’s radio spire. Max Cain manages to overcome one using a power cable, while Jason and Lilith defeat the third using the crystal to enhance their own psychic abilities, destroying it in mental combat. They gain a momentary insight into the nature of the aliens, called “Grue,” in particular their tendency to keep their victims alive in order to draw upon their memories and life-force for their imitations. Checking the trunks of the cars parked near the Goodman Building, they find the unconscious forms of Marco Oliverti, Anthony and Tony Driogano... and Mildred Simms!
Upon returning the real Mildred home, they learn the Mildred Simms who left the city with “her” father has disappeared without a trace. Clearly, they have not heard the last of the mysterious Grue....
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-10-23 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-23 06:29 pm (UTC)Genius! :)
no subject
Date: 2008-10-24 12:31 am (UTC)