AlertForce History 2001-2002

9/2/01: Three new Team members from an alternate future?:

During the AlertForce reunion game, PAL was sent via Jack's time vortex to an alternate future in the year 2006. In that future, no super powers existed before 2005, when an accidental explosion in Cuba caused a worldwide shockwave, creating massive mutations and beginning the manifestation of super powers in a segment of the population (mutants). While there, PAL was befriended by Major Maximum (Maximum Bob) a member of that world's first super-team, called Freedom Force. Together, they fought and defeated the Plasmagician, and PAL was able to complete his mission, bringing the alien artifact and the Plasmagician back to AlertForce's timeline. However, when the time vortex opened for PAL's return, Major Maximum was accidentally pulled through the vortex into AlertForce's timeframe as well. Even further, almost two days later, two other Freedom Force members (Shylock and Razor X) who were sent to investigate the disappearance of Maximum, were also accidentally pulled into the vortex and sent to AlertForce's timeframe.

9/7/01: Hollywood Comes Calling:

JOURNALS:

Major Maximum

Iron Knight

Chronicle:

Several days after the end of the VIPER adventure (see 2001 reunion campaign writeup for details) AlertForce learned that two of Major Maximum's colleagues (Razor X and Shylock) were also sucked into this dimension. They had materialized inside VIPER HQ (now deserted) from a continuing time rift resulting from the prior adventure. They contacted Major Maximum over their Freedom Force communicators, and were eventually retrieved by AlertForce and taken to the mansion.

Spexx was later sent back in to VIPER HQ to investigate the temporo-spatial anomoly. He found nothing, but when leaving the base, was attacked by two security policemen from his own far future (past) who were sent here or pulled here for reasons unknown. At any rate, Spexx could not explain their presence. The two security men escaped the encounter in their hover car.

Later that day, Loup received a call from a hollywood agent named Sheila Heym, and later entered into an agreement for representation with her. He eventually signed an agreement to appear in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode. The shoot went off without a hitch, except for one incident where Loup went berserk when he detected an actor taking drugs in his trailer.

Iron Knight then began conducting an investigation into Major Maximum, Razor X and Shylock's background. Some testing revealed that they were not only from the future, but also from another dimension. This makes returning them virtually impossible. IK also detected the mutant antibodies in their bloodstreams, and worked out a formula to help them resist the illness that had plagued them since their mutations.

Major Maximum was put to the test in a danger room fight against Spexx for AlertForce membership. After an interesting fight in a burnt out city scenario, Max proved victorious over Spexx.

AlertForce was later called upon to investigate an attack on a freighter at sea by a man clad in a blue metal power suit. Upon reaching the vessel, they discovered that the man had already gone, but were able to get some vital clues, including security videotapes of the attack. The team was also able to stop the crippled vessel from plowing into land, by the use of Iron Knight's car as a tug, Spexx's timely intervention in the engine room, and a boost from Loup Garou's jumping attack on the ship itself, which did help push it away from land, but which also punctured the hull in several places where Loup's body passed completely through the hull.

After the attack, Iron Knight and Spexx were interviewed by reporter Linda Ross, who the team learned has now started a "Super Beat" report in the newspaper and on TV.

Later, the team learned of an attack at a bank by a man in a green powersuit. Iron Knight sent Max and Spexx to check it out. The two were able to thwart the robbery and save a number of hostages, but did not apprehend the attacker. Further investigation revealed that he had been after a small piece of electronic equipment in one of the safe deposit boxes. Strangely enough, AlertForce managed to work cooperatively with the police on the major points of investigation and learned that the equipment was in a box owned by Yukio Fujiro (also known as Typhoon of the Destroyers). Further investigation revealed that Fujiro had been working on a super laser lens project at UCLA. AlertForce reasoned that the attacks were somehow related to this.

The following day, AlertForce learned of yet another attack, this time on the offices of Microsoft in Redmond, Washington by a man in a red powersuit. Loup Garou, Iron Knight and Major Maximum arrived just in time to see a buring office building. Max saved several trapped workers, while Loup and Iron Knight went to the basement level in time to catch the interloper red-handed (so to speak). A short battle ensued, during which the red armor clad attacker was knocked out by Loup. Iron Knight pulled the thief's helmet off, which caused a huge explosion that knocked IK and Loup far back down the hallway and destroyed the computer room, and most of the evidence of what the thief was doing.

New NPC's introduced during this adventure:

Linda Ross: a reporter for the LA Times and KBC-TV. She interviewed Iron Knight and Spexx after the team's battle on board the freighter, and the team soon learned that she is starting a "Supers Beat" for the Times and her station. Nightly superhero reports are now a common occurrance. What is abundantly clear is that Ross will stilt the stories for whatever angle she wishes to exploit at that moment.

Captain Luther Blaine, LAPD: Captain Blaine is the first police officer in many years who has established a working relationship with AlertForce. During initial contact, he suggested that the team work with the police instead of against them. He proved during this adventure to be a good information source, and Loup Garou and Spexx both attempted to cement the relationship by providing him with a number of leads AlertForce found. Iron Knight did infiltrate police HQ and steal their file at one point, but Spexx salvaged the relationship by returning the file the next morning.

Sheila Heym: a hollywood agent who represents offbeat or non-mainstream performers. She approached Loup Garou and got him a guest starring role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Despite Loup's episode of berserker behavior when he spotted one of the extras using drugs, the appearance was a success, and Heym is now Loup Garou's permanent agent.

CHIP: AlertForce learned through one of Linda Ross's "SuperBeat" reports that there is a new hero in town called CHIP. He specializes in apprehending and stopping traffic violators, and patrols the Los Angeles Highway system with superspeed.

9/14/01: Disco Indigo:

JOURNALS:

Major Maximum

Chronicle:

After the capture of the Red armored villain at Microsoft, the team was thoroughly tired out. Iron Knight and Loup brought the villain back and placed him in the danger room for temporary detention and told everyone to get some rest and they would start the investigation fresh in the morning.

Unfortunately, very early the next morning, Spexx was awakened by some small malfunctions in his cyborg parts, which he believed were being caused remotely by the future police agents pursuing him. He was able to triangulate on the signal and discovered they were monitoring him clandestinely from the estate just east of AlertForce Mansion, on a hill overlooking the AlertForce Mansion grounds. He immediately sprang into action and ran to attack the officers. PAL caught wind that battle was imminent and joined him in the attack. After a short altercation in which the Officers lifted off the roof of the neighboring estate in their hover car and blasted Spexx with their laser cannon, PAL managed to enter the vehicle and incapacitate the driver. Unfortunately, the passenger was able to activate the car's warp function, and the officers escaped capture by AlertForce.

PAL (and later Iron Knight) released the owners of the estate, who had been tied up and held hostage while the officers had been surveilling Spexx for several hours. Shortly after AlertForce departed, reporter Linda Ross appeared on the scene and interviewed the startled homeowners, named Brian and Alexandra Wentworth.

Iron Knight then interrogated the Red armor villain captured at Microsoft. He revealed that he had been approached by an unknown person, a "Doctor" somebody, who paid him a large sum of cash to perform a job. This Doctor met him at an abandoned warehouse, gave him the red armor suit, instructed him on how to use it, then instructed him to go to Microsoft's HQ, break in, go to a certain computer bank, then simply point the helmet's eyepiece at the screen while it downloaded some information. He seemed to know nothing more. Iron Knight then turned him over to the police and gave them the information he learned.

PAL was later contacted by Linda Ross, asking for an exclusive interview inside AlertForce's secret HQ. PAL declined this offer.

AlertForce was then notified by Captain Blaine that the Police evidence locker room had been infiltrated, as expected, and that the box taken from the bank safety deposit box (and containing and optical/electronic component) had been stolen, along with Iron Knight's tracker. The team analyzed the security tape, which showed nothing visibly but the lights going out and the box disappearing. Computer enhancement of the tape by HAL revealed a man rezzing into the locker area, dressed in an indigo armor suit, who appeared in the darkness, tore the door off the evidence locker, and made off with the box.

While Iron Knight attempted to boost the signal from his tracking device to locate where the box and indigo clad man had gone, the team received yet another message from Linda Ross, offering information on the "Spectrum Gang" as well as another unnamed villain who had recently attacked the FBI Building, in exchange for an exclusive interview from inside AlertForce HQ.

Iron Knight was finally able to obtain a signal from the tracking device, and the team learned that the indigo man had taken the stolen box to a downtown nightclub called "Indigo." The team decided to investigate.

After a brief scuffle with the door bouncer, AlertForce made its disco debut, at club Indigo. Spexx and PAL were hits on the dance floor, while Major Bob "vogued" his way into the hearts of many of the club's patrons as well. Iron Knight eschewed the dance floor, but did sign lots of autographs. Waterlord seemed to put off the crowd somewhat, with some squishy antics of his own. After a brief period in party mode, Iron Knight directed Spexx to get back to work and locate the tracker. He eventually regained concentration and located the tracker, which had been discarded in the men's restroom. Spexx was able to find a security tape from a camera in the area, and downloaded the camera's view for the last several days, for later analysis.

During the investigation at Indigo, Major Maximum noticed a dog running through the club, causing quite a commotion. He later saw it turn into a man, then back again. After bringing this to the team's attention, they all saw the dog turn back into a man, who identified himself as a superhero, and asked about joining AlertForce.

The team learned that this newcomer called himself "Charlie Critter" (or Captain Critter), and had recently been the subject of Alien experiments, resulting in his gaining strange abilities to transform into and control animals. Realizing that with the departure of Thermo (and possibly Jack) the team could use some strengthening, Iron Knight (acting leader in Loup's absence) invited the new hero back to HQ for testing and possible induction. One tough danger room battle (involving a column of water and eight ninjas, just for old times' sake) and AlertForce had its newest member -- Captain Critter. He related to AlertForce that he had recently arrived in Los Angeles, and had on his first day here witnessed a man clad all in black leather and a mask attacking the FBI building. CC said he followed the man, and then attacked him, after the man had incapacitated a number of agents. The man was able to escape, by jumping out a window from the eighth story, and swinging on some kind of string along the buildings down the street. No one in AlertForce was familiar with this villain.

Iron Knight then attempted to get some information from reporter Linda Ross, by taking her up on her offer in exchange for an interview. Unwilling to bring her to HQ, however, he attempted to trick her by taking her to a hotel room. She was unimpressed, and stormed out, threatening to publish unfavorable stories about AlertForce. Iron Knight reported her to Captain Blaine, and suggested she was withholding information about criminals.

Waterlord was later contacted by Greenpeace, and asked to help them stop illegal whaling in the Pacific. He did not accept their offer, but took their number.

Finally, AlertForce learned of yet another attack by a man in colored armor, this time at a small specialty metals factory. Upon arriving on the scene, PAL was able to reach the villain first. He came upon the orange armor clad villain in a research lab, amid several vats of what appeared to be molten metal, existing at or near room temperature. PAL was able to approach without being seen, split into two, and simply push the villain down a flight of stairs. The rest of AlertForce then arrived and joined the fray. After several attacks, the orange villain was knocked into one of the vats, and Maximum Bob and Captain Critter (in the form of a snake) dove in after him to subdue him. The immobilized him, but as he attempted to hit the warp control on his armor, Iron Knight was able to jump in and disable the armor to prevent his escape.

AlertForce has finally captured one of the suits of armor intact, and next week's adventure should show what their investigation yields!

9/21/01: Spexx Stands Alone:

JOURNALS:

Chronicle:

After knocking out the orange armor villain, AlertForce conducted an in-depth investigation about the armor (this time before removing it). They discovered that it was sending and receiving broadband transmissions from a satellite. PAL and Iron Knight flew up into space and investigated the satellite, which they found was totally unmarked, and was packed with explosives. After tracking the signals to another satellite, PAL destroyed the first. The second was identical, and PAL destroyed it as well (knocking out about 40% of the cel phone service in southern California in the process). Iron Knight later learned that the two satellites had been placed in the locations of some old cel phone satellites, so as not to be noticed. Unfortunately, during the investigation, a short transmission burst had gone in to Orangman, and he rezzed out, teleporting away. PAL speculated that there is some main controller in charge of all the armored men, giving them remote imput and commands.

The nightly "SuperBeat" report by Linda Ross that evening was less than favorable to AlertForce. She offered speculation that AlertForce was involved in the cel phone service interruption, questioning whether Alertforce was protecting the public, or doing more harm than good.

The following morning, HAL reported that someone was snooping around AlertForce grounds. High powered cameras on the mansion revealed that a man in jeans and a denim jacket, with a ballcap and sunglasses was huddled in a wooded area at the edge of the property looking at the mansion through binoculars. Iron Knight simply used the p.a. system to broadcast a message that the intruder was seen, and that the authorities had been called. The man promptly left. It was decided not to pursue him, lest the secrecy of AlertForce mansion would be compromised.

Iron Knight also purchased a Hum-V car for Major Bob. This was unexpected, and led to a major crush (pardon the pun) that Bob now has on Iron Knight.

That evening Maximum Bob decided to go "clubbing" back to the Indigo club from the last adventure. When he arrived, he was treated like a celebrity, given free drinks, and asked to join the manager at his table. The club owner, Doug Butabi, asked Max to return as often as he could, and to bring other AlertForce members there. He reported that the club's attendance had soared after it was learned that superheroes come there. Cameras were again present at the club, and Max appeared the next evening in a short clip on Entertainment Tonight about superheroes relaxing.

The next day, Captain Blaine of the LAPD contacted AlertForce, and reported that the police (along with C.H.I.P., the LAPD's resident traffic superhero) were patrolling a ten mile section of highway 9, because a yellow armor-clad man had attacked three tractor trailer trucks earlier that morning. He asked AlertForce to assist. Iron Knight, PAL, Spexx, and Max arrived shortly and began patrolling the area.

Max was the first to spot the villain, when his Hum-V was stopped by a traffic accident involving a jacknifed tractor trailer in the road. C.H.I.P. had appeared on the scene first, and was attacking a yellow armored man. Max was about to join the attack, when the yellow armored man created a bright flash of light, rendering Max momentarily blind. C.H.I.P. was then knocked out by Yellowman. The rest of AlertForce arrived shortly, and after a brief battle (in which everyone got in a lick or two) the Yellowman was knocked out. When his armor started beeping Iron Knight realized it was going to explode again, and he hit the teleport control on the armor, sending the man several miles up into the hills, where he exploded with terrible force, killing the man inside and destroying the armor. Thanks to AlertForce's timely intervention, no one else was killed by the blast, and even the truck driver was saved with minor injuries.

After the battle, Linda Ross appeared on the scene, and interviewed C.H.I.P., who modestly gave the credit for the victory to AlertForce. Linda attempted to interview AlertForce, with little success. After the cameras were packed away, she again asked Iron Knight for an exclusive interview at AlertForce mansion, and although he declined, he shamed her into giving the information she had about the SPECTRUM gang. She told Iron Knight that her sources told her that a former NASA scientist named Charles Spektrom was behind the gang. He had been working on new satellite technology involving large optical systems, when the government had cut funding to his project. He apparently had always been a bit unstable, but the discontinuance of his program had pushed him over the edge. She had no other information.

Incidentally, PAL gave Ms. Ross a copy of his PAL and the Protectors screensaver to distribute. Apparently, PAL has studied AlertForce history, and is attempting to take a page from Dreadnought's book, to pre-empt the team's image by creating the impression that he is the team leader. Time will tell if this scheme works or not. In addition, for some inexplicable reason, Spexx also gave Ms. Ross a set of nude pictures of himself. Time will also tell if this results in criminal charges.

Later that day, after the team returned to the mansion to digest some of the information it had been given, Major Maximum learned through a TV report that several gay men in Florida were murdered by a serial killer, who writes "Vengance is Mine" in blood at the crime scene. Time will further tell if Max takes any action against the murderer.

PAL and Max then travelled to England, to fulfill PAL's dream of owning a Harrier jet. He was able to sign a contract with a British Aerospace company to obtain a Harrier, albeit without weaponry. In a futile attempt to gain US government approval for purchasing weapons systems, PAL attempted to infiltrate the White House to talk to the President, only to find it is protected by a very strong energy field preventing his entrance. PAL was forced to settle for a weaponless Harrier. Where he will land it at AlertForce mansion is another issue entirely.

AlertForce was then again summoned by Captain Blaine, who indicated that he had been asked to contact AlertForce by the FBI, to help deal with an attack by a man clad in Violet armor at US Space Command in Colorado. Unfortunately, Captian Critter and Loup were MIA, Iron Knight was taking a "family day" and did not have a communicator with him, and PAL and Max were still in England, leaving Spexx as the only AlertForce member able to respond.

Nevertheless, respond he did, and when he arrived he was quickly deputized as an FBI agent to deal with the intruder. When he flew inside the complex, he found a man clad in violet armor attempting to gain entry into the main computer banks. Spexx attacked, but was quickly outnumbered when Violetman was joined by Orangeman, Greenman, Blueman and Indigoman, who teleported in behind. To his credit, Spexx never flinched, and even though not the most powerful AlertForce member, he bravely stood his ground against five opponents. He managed to take out Violetman (who had shown his power was magnetic control) before being knocked out by team attacks from the other four.

Sadly, just as Spexx was incapacitated, PAL arrived on the scene. He had used herculean efforts after hearing the call for help, and had teleported all the way across the Atlantic Ocean -- two miles at a time. He continued the attack, this time with four on one odds, and managed to de-res into Orangeman's armor before the villains teleported away. When they did so, PAL was teleported along with them.

Where he went and what he will face when he arrives there are topics for the next AlertForce adventure!

9/28/01: Subplots:

(Waterlord and Spexx in attendance)

Chronicle:

In a brief hiatus in the main storyline (due to schedule conflicts) this evening consisted only of Waterlord and Spexx doing subplots.

Waterlord decided to capture the elusive giant squid on film for the first time in history. He swam to Australia, and obtained (with some financial help from Spexx) a high pressure underwater camera. He then sought out the deepest parts of the ocean, and eventually located a giant squid, which promptly attacked him. Although it almost ate him for lunch, Waterlord was able to elude the creature and capture some great footage of the beast. In the process of his undersea adventure, Waterlord also managed to save a swimmer from a great white shark.

Spexx spent his time in the lab, working on a teleportation gun gadget. After a call to his banker (Iron Knight) he came up with the finances to create the weapon.

9/30/01 Subplot from Iron Knight:

----- Original Message -----

IK's subplots: I would like to find out what ever happened to Chambers. We need someone to look after the mansion these people are slobs and the 2 guys in the infirmary need the sheets changed. Also I didn't fund the making of a teleport gun if spexs did that he paid for it himself. I employed him to work on an underwater and deep space suit attachments for IK's suit. If he works on other things he is paying for it himself.

I am going to analyze the information I down loaded from vipers computer I never got a chance to do that after we left that base. Also I am going to replace the 2 satellites that Pal destroyed with 2 of my own I will still have them handle cell phone calls this should fix the cell phone problems Pal created and also give us a couple satellites for our own use.

RESPONSE FROM GM:--------

HAL reports that the last known address for Chambers was a retirement home in Florida. He gives you the address if you want to go visit.

As for VIPER's computer information, you find that most of it was corrupted somehow. You do find the plans for that VIPER headquarters you fought them in and some references to someone called "agent X." You don't know who that is, but it sounds like they thought it was important. Surprisingly, you find some references to something about infiltrating Knight Industries, and industrial espionage. Nothing specific on those plans, though.

As for the satellites, you will need to create them as gadgets. They will need radio communications with enough AP's to reach from orbit (at least 20 miles) to earth. They will also need sealed systems of at least 10 ap to be useful.

10/1/01: Crash!! Another new Member!

Chronicle:

This adventure began with the incorporation of a new team member, Grizella. Grizella is from the alternate dimension where Max, Razor and Shylock are from, and was sent here to retrieve them. She appeared one day in AlertForce's infirmary, where Rex and Shylock are currently convalescing. AlertForce was in the middle of a conflict, so Griz got little in the way of introduction.

As you may recall, at the time of our last adventure, PAL had phased inside the armor of OrangeMan of the Spectrum gang, and had been teleported away with OrangeMan, IndigoMan, GreenMan and BlueMan when they left the scene of the Colorado Space Command Base (where Spexx and PAL fought them during the 9/21/00 adventure. PAL found himself on board a large dirigible craft, several miles above the Colorado countryside, locked in an airlock with the Spectrum armor team. Eventually, the occupants of the Armor teleported away themselves, leaving PAL alone with the roomful of armor. He managed to destroy the Blue armor, but tripped some kind of alarm in the process. He then was forced to vacate the premises, and headed for the bridge of the vessel.

Meanwhile, Loup got wind from HAL of the battle, and shortly (after a quick run through the western hills to Colorado) arrived on the scene. At the same time, Max was winging his way from England in PAL's newly purchased Harrier jet. Loup used his jumping powers to get up to the vehicle in flight, but had some real difficulty both landing on the vehicle, and staying there once he did. The airship was coated with an almost liquid feeling metal which was quite slippery. On the second attempt, Loup slipped off again, and was inexplicably slammed into by the Harrier jet driven by Max, who had just arrived. He was actually attempting (unsuccessfully) to catch Loup out of the air. The result, however, sent Loup flying for miles and miles before he landed in a field. Third time was the charm, however, and Loup eventually found his way into the ship.

About this time, some small aircraft fighters flew out of the hangar section in the rear of the airship, and began attacking the Harrier with laser blasters. Max was having none of this, though, and promptly flew the Harrier into the hanger and landed inside.

PAL had made his way to the bridge, and after a few unsuccessful attempts to breach the force field, finally slid through into the control room. There he saw Dr. Spectro himself for the first time, in control of the vessel. PAL decided to take matters into his own hands, and while invisible, pushed the controls until the vessel went into a dive, then blasted the controls.

Loup, sensing disaster, abandoned ship the way he came, and dropped to earth like a furry, flying stone with his jump powers. PAL called for Max to fly under the airship, which he did, but not after blasting a few guards in the hangar level, then flying dramatically out in the Harrier just before the doors slammed shut. Fearing the worst, PAL alerted the Air Force, and called in an airstrike on the vessel.

PAL fought an epic battle on the bridge. After the crew cleared out, along with Dr. Spectro, the Spectrum armor crew reappeared, four strong, and attacked the bridge in a random firing pattern of energy weapons. The ship's computers had analyzed the attack and they were aware of an invisible intruder. PAL astutely phased back into OrangeMan's armor, and when detected there, tried to blast the helmet from inside. What he did not know was that the ship had encased him and the armor inside a strong force field, which magnified the blast back into the small space. His pride hurt more than his body, PAL quickly de-split, and deactivated the copy of himself inside the force field and headed to auxiliary control, where Dr. Spectro had fled to.

Just about the time that PAL was apprehending the good Doctor, the Air Force arrived on the scene with two fighters and proceeded to blast the airship out of the sky. PAL escaped, thanks to an assist from Max, who picked up PAL and the unconscious Dr. Spectro, and gave them an escorted ride to the nearest Air Force base, where Spectro was taken into custody. The airship crashed to earth on the side of a Colorado mountain some miles away, with an explosion the likes of which few have ever seen. It is unknown how many of the SPECTRUM cronies and guards escaped using the teleport devices on the vessel before it crashed. It is believed that of the armored team, only IndigoMan and GreenMan escaped the crash. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

During the Harrier Jet ride back to Los Angeles, PAL contacted Linda Ross' Superbeat hotline, and gave a radio interview in which he answered a number of sensitive questions ranging from whether he is the new team leader, to whether Loup is retiring from the Team to pursue acting full time.

While all this was going on, Iron Knight finally returned from his family picnic to AlertForce mansion. There he was made aware of the battle, and the newcomer from another dimension (Grizella). He quickly christened her "Kitty Kat" and invited her to stay for the time being. They did not have much time for pleasantries, however, because Iron Knight shortly received word from Captain Blain of the LAPD, that he had received a special request from the US Border guard in New Mexico for a request for AlertForce to assist against a superpowered villain attacking the border with digging abilities to assist illegal immigrants crossing into the USA. Iron Knight, Loup and possible new team member Grizella responded to investigate.

When they arrived, they made contact with the Border Agent in charge, who gave them little in the way of information, other than the fact that there had been a number of recent attacks on the Border Patrol, each followed by hundreds of illegals crossing through tunnels dug under fences and protective barriers.

AlertForce stated for the evening to await an attack. Indeed, at around 3am one came, and AlertForce, in the person of Iron Knight, Loup and Griz, responded quickly. The villain had attacked a border patrol and illegal immigrants were streaming through a makeshift tunnel. Iron Knight and Loup quickly put a stop to that, which prompted an attack by the digging villain. The battle was relatively short and sweet, and ended with Loup knocking the villain for a loup, but on the Mexican side of the border. A small international incident followed, with Loup and Iron Knight (mostly Loup) arguing with the mexican police over jurisdiction and apprehension rights in the villain. Meanwhile the US Border Patrol came and took the villain (whom AlertForce later learned was called "Hombre Peligroso" by the Mexicans he helped) into custody.

Finally, AlertForce also received a message from the mayor of Mid-City, the home of its original base. The contact resulted in a meeting (which inexplicably took place on the top floor of a local Holiday Inn AlertForce has rented out and is for some reason calling its HQ). The Mid-City officials were offering AlertForce a deal to move back to Mid-City. They offered to completely rebuild the team's old HQ from the ground (and underground) up, including the danger room. AlertForce members Loup, Iron Knight, and PAL thanked them for their offer, and told them they would take the matter up with the team and get back to the Mayor.

Here ended this evening's adventures.

10/5//01: Yet another new base :

Chronicle:

This evening's adventure started out on a good note. Iron Knight created a satellite and placed it in space, in the exact spot as one of the SPECTRUM satellites destroyed several weeks ago by AlertForce.

Next, Spexx, after being revived in a military hospital after his battle with the SPECTRUM gang at the Colorado HQ of the US Space Command, got a visit from the commanding General there. That General gave him a job as the first ever agent/enforcement officer in the employ of US Space Command. This action was taken under an obscure government regulation, and gives Spexx the status of a Federal Marshall. He is now officially "Agent Zero" of the US Space Command.

Maximum Bob then traveled to Miami to investigate a string of murders of Gay men. He started asking questions in the local night clubs in which the victims had been found, and learned about the m.o. of the serial killer. Apparently, he went to these clubs, and was able to "pick up" the victims, who were not known as promiscuous, and take them to isolated locations where they were brutally stabbed and beaten to death. In each crime (of which there have been eight in the last three months) the murderer wrote the word "Vengance" in blood at the crime scene. Max then teamed up with a local detective, to form a plan to catch the murderer.

Spexx then bought himself a nice black suit, and set about investigating a new supervillain who is apparently attacking drug dealers in LA and replacing them with others directly from South America. He found a corner where some drug dealers were, walked up to them, and asked them for "zombies." He then demanded "Crack!" When they ran away, he followed, eventually finding their crack house. After a brief battle with the six drug dealers there, Spexx was confronted (and webbed) by the mysterious supervillain who dresses all in black, a long black coat, and has red eyes. The villain escaped, and so did Spexx (eventually) from the webs. Spexx zapped all of the thugs to the hospital with his new teleportation gun.

Iron Knight finally decided to do a detailed investigation on the sickness infecting Razor X and Shylock, who had been seriously ill since their arrival in this dimension. Iron Knight discovered that they are not, in fact, suffering from only the mutation sickness that originally effected Major Max, but also from a kind of "dimension illness" brought about by their bodies' inability to adjust to the new dimension in which they find themselves. Iron Knight was able to devise a treatment, involving several days in a dimensional "decompression chamber," and also got a good article out of it for publication in both scientific and medical journals.

Iron Knight also got a call from an old AlertForce member, Knight Watchman (now working as a detective in LA) who informed him that the couple living in the mansion up the road from AlertForce HQ had attempted to hire him to investigate AlertForce mansion. He did not take the job, but knows that another detective did. Iron Knight asked Knight Watchman to find out who the other detective was who took the job, and KW said he would try.

PAL then purchased yet another AlertForce base. He made contact with the local congressman, made a sizeable donation, and obtained the list of cold war era government missile silos which had been decommissioned in the southwest. After several unsuccessful attempts to purchase one from current owners (including Marx Corporation) PAL was eventually able to purchase one several hundred miles away from LA, in the desert in Nevada. He quickly installed some computer systems in the place, and dubbed it a new HQ. He then promptly showed the base to Spexx, and the two of them invited Linda Ross (the reporter from "Superbeat" fame) to see the HQ and do an exclusive interview.

However, when Linda agreed to meet Spexx at police HQ, instead of taking her to the hq by conventional means, Spexx decided to walk up to Linda, point his new teleportation gun (a new gadget he created) at her, and "blast her" to the new base.

This apparent disintegration of a popular reporter was captured on tape by Linda's cameraman Ted, and Spexx was promptly arrested. He was later released when Linda called to report what actually had occurred. She graciously declined to press charges.

However, while she was at the Nevada "base" she spoke to PAL, who attempted to convince her that this was and had been AlertForce's base. She did not believe him, and got quite angry with PAL, and with AlertForce in general, before leaving the "base" in a snit.

Later that day, PAL returned to LA and fought some thugs by impersonating a handicapped person. He successfully jailed two would-be thieves. That evening, he did another impersonation, this time at Club Indigo, where he impersonated Linda Ross, and made a scene in the club, ranting about AlertForce, and eventually tearing off her blouse in front of all the patrons there. The purpose of this action by PAL was not completely clear, but he did begin many rumors, innuendos, and potential scandals for reporter Linda Ross.

Finally, Iron Knight met with CHIP, LA's traffic control superhero, and offered him a spot in AlertForce. CHIP asked for some time to think about it.

10/12//01: Take me out to the Ballgame!

Chronicle:

The first occurrance of note during this evening's adventure was the fact that CHiP, of the LAPD, accepted Iron Knight's offer of membership in AlertForce. He agreed to act as the liaison between LAPD and AlertForce, and to man the public "headquarters" of AlertForce, located on the top floor of a Holiday Inn near LAX Airport. Also included in the deal with LAPD was Officer Robert Spinelli, to act as communications officer of the new HQ (read as phone answering duties).

AlertForce could not really celebrate the addition of a new member, however, because shortly after his agreement to join, the Mansion base came under attack, by the two future cops who have been seeking Spexx for the last few weeks. They somehow located the undersea tunnel leading to AlertForce mansion's underground complex, and were detected by HAL's intruder alarms. PAL and Loup Garou responded to the attack. Much to Loup's chagrin, the two FutureCops had somehow learned of his weakness for Beladonna and Wolvesbane, and had weapons which shot syringes of the liquified chemical forms of those substances into Loup's body. Loup promptly reverted to human form and stayed that way for the remainder of the battle. PAL and the human James Greywolf were able to prevent the interlopers from gaining entrance to the AlertForce complex, (not without the flooding of the undersea tunnel, though).

Iron Knight appeared on the scene just in time to rescue the all-too-human James Greywolf from drowning. When the bubbles cleared, the two FutureCops were making an escape in their hovercar, flying as fast as possible away from the scene. PAL and Iron Knight pursued and captured the two attackers, along with their hovercar. The two FutureCops are now being held and analyzed in AlertForce's Danger Room, along with their car. Iron Knight was able to learn that the two men themselves have little knowledge, but are part of a collective intelligence of cyborg type beings from the future. The computer within the hovercar had most of the knowledge and was coordinating their actions for the most part. Iron Knight hooked up a special computer to analyze the car, fearing that if he hooked it up to HAL bad consequences could result.

The team was also surprised to learn later that evening that the KBC TV "Superbeat" report with Linda Ross had been indefinitely cancelled.

AlertForce was then asked to travel to Mid-City to help fight against a supervillain calling himself the "Enforcer." The villain had apparently barged into the offices of the owner of Mid-City's Major League Baseball team, the Mid-City Mavericks, and demanded three million dollars to refrain from attacking the stadium during one of the team's games. When the owner refused, Enforcer blew up two of the team's practice facilities to show he meant business. The owner of the Mavericks and Mid-City's Mayor made a special plea for AlertForce to come to Mid-City and try to protect the stadium and the fans during the first game of the playoffs, against the LA Dodgers. The team agreed, and Loup Garou, Iron Knight, CHiP, and PAL came to the team's former home to help. Loup did some quick investigation work at the scenes of the prior explosions, and deduced that this villain had the ability to create bomb/explosions at very high power levels.

AlertForce was given a special luxury box from which to view the game, and while Loup, Iron Knight and CHiP scanned the crowd from the box, PAL patrolled the stadium looking for anything unusual.

Late in the seventh inning, when a relief pitcher was brought in to pitch for the Mavericks, PAL noticed something strange about his warmup pitches. He immediately went invisible, and teleported to the field to investigate. Just as the pitcher was winding up to throw the first pitch to the new batter, PAL noticed an energy buildup in his glove. PAL interposed himself between the pitcher and batter with a forcefield. When the pitcher threw an energy ball/bomb, PAL was ready, and deflected the bomb up into the air, where it detonated with extraordinary force just about fifty feet above home plate. Although no one in the crowd was seriously harmed, several hundred fans in the first few rows were singed, and panic took over the whole stadium.

Loup and Iron Knight sprang into action. Iron Knight threw a force field around the pitcher, who was now being confronted by four different PAL's (after his split) only one of which was visible -- and wearing a Dodger uniform! CHiP was assigned the duty of clearing the other players from the field, which he did in seconds.

In short order, Enforcer was trapped inside a force field with Loup, Iron Knight, and PAL. Although he morphed into an exact duplicate of PAL, Dodger uniform and all, and exhibited some very skillful martial arts moves, he eventually fell to a well placed foot to the head by the Louper.

The remainder of the ballgame was cancelled, but several AlertForce members were interviewed by the local and national media. Loup also gave PAL a long (and private) talking to for not immediately alerting his teammates when he noticed that the pitcher was an imposter.

The following morning, HAL informed Loup and Iron Knight that he had spotted, in the background of some television coverage from Denver Colorado, the two SPECTRUM operatives GreenMan and IndigoMan being helped out of a building and into an unmarked van. Iron Knight traced the power signature on their armor to the sub basement of an office building in downtown LA. The team went to investigate, and found a secret lab affiliated with STAR LABS. Iron Knight successfully used some of Nick Brundle's knowledge of STAR LABS security codes to get the team into the lab, and arrange a meeting with the director, Dr. Mohammed Barbon. Reluctantly, Dr. Barbon showed AlertForce the lab where they were attempting to extricate the unfortunate occupants of the GreenMan and IndigoMan armor. Apparently, most of the armor functions had been controlled remotely by the computers which had been destroyed in the crash of the SPECTRUM heli-base, and the poor footsoldiers had been unable even to free themselves from the armor in the week and a half since the battle over Colorado in which SPECTRUM was defeated.

Iron Knight assisted the STAR LABS scientists, and the two henchmen were successfully released from the armor prisons.

AlertForce then arranged a press conference at their new "public" headquarters in LA, and announced the membership of CHIP. A number of questions were fielded from the press, including one suggesting that Linda Ross has disappeared (which was news to AlertForce).

Finally, when the team returned to the Mansion, HAL alerted Loup and Iron Knight that in cataloguing the results of Iron Knight's bio scans of the four new team members from the alternate timeline/dimension, he had noticed some startling similarities between the DNA scans of Grizella (aka Kitty Kat) and some of the scans he already had on file. He reported that Grizella's DNA signature is a 99.000 percent match with the bio scans of Jack of All Trades and the supervillain Catburgler. He surmised that in the alternate dimension where Grizella comes from, she was actually the daughter of the counterparts in that dimension of Jack and the Catburgler. The implications of this revelation were not immediately apparent.

Tune in next time.....

10/16//01: Waterlord subplot.

Message from Waterlord to GM 10/16/01:

"HAL, give me everything you can find on Aquaman, Namor, Atlantis, undersea sentient races, etc. Search every resourse you can access, and some you can't: scientific, academic, government, JLA. Speaking of JLA, get me the names and whereabouts of Aquaman and Namor's superpowered and non-superpowered associates, and their whereabouts, and anything else you can tell me about them. Where is Atlantis, anyway? If you don't know, then give me your ten best estimates. Also, I want the best undersea electronic maps you have. Download them to my communicator. I'll get extra memory if need be.

"Razor X, take a look at this one-of-a-kind footage of the elusive giant squid. How much do you think this is worth? Who would be interested in buying/licensing pictures and/or film footage for documentaries and research? How'd you like to form a partnership?"

Reply from GM 10/16/01:

Waterlord...

Below is a map of the earth containing markings for the most likely locations for Atlantis. I have cross-referenced all available information and databases, including several little known ancient texts. I alsodownloaded onto your communicator the most detailed sea floor maps available.

Histories (careful, to merge the Marvel and DC universes, I have had to take a few liberties with character histories...):

As for King Namor, his history is well known. He is half human, half Atlantean. He has been at various times considered a hero and a villain by the surface world. He has been known since the 1930's, and has not appeared to age during that time. It is currently believed that he has withdrawn to Atlantis, and rules there as its king. He has not been seen or reported on the surface for at least three years. His known associates over the years include the Avengers, Captain America, Rick Jones, Namorita (neice), the Fantastic Four, and Iron Fist.

Aquaman has also been well known on the surface world. He is also an Atlantean, but a full blooded one. He is part of a family which is the chief rival to Namor's bloodline for the throne. Aquaman has feuded and battled for Namor for the rule of Atlantis for years. He has also spent much time on the surface, and was for a long time affiliated with the Justice League of America (now defunct). Aquaman has not been seen for at least three years on the surface. His closest known associates include Aqualad (son), and any of the former JLA members.

By way of background, in your reality the JLA was never a very high profile group. It existed for a number of years in the 70's and 80's and mainly fought international villains and offworld threats. It was never covered well in the press, and it never became well known (outside law enforcement or superhero circles). Its members included Superman, WonderWoman, Green Lantern, Aquaman and several others. Unlike the Avengers, the JLA was never affiliated with the government, and got no funding from the government either. It did at one time have a loose affiliation with the UN (after it formed a branch group called "World Justice League" in the 80's, but it never got much publicity when it existed and is believed now to be permanently disbanded.

The Avengers, on the other hand, are possibly the only hero group in the USA more famous than AlertForce. The Avengers are affiliated with the defense department, reporting to a secret operative directly connected with the joint chiefs of staff. They are funded out of the defense budget. Avengers members have full law enforcement and arrest privileges, hold the status of federal marshalls and officers of NATO command, and all hold security clearance. They are theoretically still operating, although no one has heard much from them save rumors for over five years. From the 60's to the mid-90's however, the Avengers were the top dog of superhero groups in America.

Razor X is intrigued by your videotape, and tells you that in his reality it would make you famous. However, in this reality he is completely without contacts in the media or world of wildlife photography. He would love to partner with you to start an enterprise, but he has no connections to help. Remember, he is outside his own dimension here. He could assist with his animal husbandry skills in predicting locations for rare species, helping with techniques to get close and photograph them, etc...

WATERLORD REPLY 10/17/01

Hal, get me a list of scheduled conferences (for the next year) concerning undersea wildlife research, and list them in order of prestige. Also, brief me on other ocean-related issues from the scientific community, industry, and military. I want to know who is doing what. Highlight those areas that are considered problematic, like pollution, and illegal activities.

RazorX, I think a partnership is a fine idea. Perhaps we should go to a few conferences, show a few photos of what we're doing, hand out some cards, and see what develops. There's no reason we have to restrict ourselves to wildlife, though that could keep us busy. We could also collect data, and make photographs, from hard-to-get-to places, like especially deep sections of the ocean. I smell a documentary in the works! Are you any good at editing digital movies? All we need to do is script, shoot, edit, and distribute and advertise. Perhaps a "straight to DVD" documentary?

Meanwhile: I'll start looking for Atlantis in the Pacific Ocean and working eastward. I'll ask Iron Knight if he has any way of getting me back to the base fast, in case of emergency. I don't like teleportation, but I'll use it if I have to. A fast automated vehicle would be better.

Waterlord, over and out. -end of transmission-

GM REPLY 10/17/01:

From HAL:

Waterlord:

The only major conference in the next year for ocean issues is the National Oceanographic Institute's annual meeting and conference on February 5-8 at the San Diego Oceanographic Institute. The director of the program is Dr. Sarah Travis of San Diego State University. She is the chair of the Department of Oceanographic studies there.

The current agenda for the conference includes the following issues, which are generally the "hot" topics in Oceanographic studies these days:

1. Study of life forms of the deep ocean, living in the hot vents around volcanic plumes under the sea

2. Protection of endangered species such as whales

3. Further study of shark behavior and public education to prevent sharks becoming endangered

4. Oil spill prevention, containment, and cleanup

5. Detailed studies of ocean currents and their effect on global weather patterns

6. Study of the arctic ice flows

7. Studies of sealife mutation rates in comparison to rates of mutation in mammal life.

From Razor X:

Sure, I'm skilled in all forms of photography, still and moving, film and digital. Get me the right equipment, and I can get you the images you want. We might consider rigging some kind of remote control camera system. You can get the camera to the subject, and I could remotely set the exposure, do the fine focus, correct for light levels, snap the shots, then edit and do the post production. Forget straight to DVD. Before we even think of that, we have to build a reputation in the scientific community. To do that there are a couple of ways... Present at recognized conferences where scientists will be, publish articles, or maybe get airtime for a documentary on TV. Nova, Discovery Channel, that sort of thing. Since my contacts are bust here, we should put together a portfolio, and then we can try to get some things published in National Geographic or similar magazines, to start building the rep. It will be a slow process, but we have the skills.

From the GM

As for the search for Atlantis, we will have to do that one in person. I figure each game, you can pick an 'X' on the map, and go there. We can do a little five or ten minute scenario of what you find.

See you friday.

10/19//01: Loup on a Rampage

Chronicle:

This week marked the return of Spexx from his government training program certifying him as Agent 001 of the US Space Command. On learning that the future cops had attacked again, he began a frantic search for them with the intent to kill. A few humorous scuffles with Razor X led to little progress, and Iron Knight and PAL eventually had to convince Spexx not to murder the two prisoners.

The three then set about figuring out the control system on the futuristic hover car captured from the two future police officers who attacked AlertForce Mansion during the last adventure. They were partially successful. They managed to oust the computer consciousness/intelligence in the on-board computer, but now have to figure out how to re-program the whole control system for the vehicle. Spexx continues to work on that project.

Maximum Bob finally concluded his subplot dealing with the villain who had been killing gay men in Miami. Working with the Miami P.D., Bob acted as human bait in an attempt to draw the killer out. Bob was dressed using psychological profiling of the killer and victims, and the plan worked to perfection. Bob was approached by a suspicious man in one of the bars he was staking out, but after a short conversation the man left. Bob (and the Police backup watching him) thought this was just another dead lead, when Bob suddenly walked out of the bar (against his own will) and down a nearby alley. He was under mind control, and could do nothing to stop heading into the darkest part of the alley, where the killer was waiting. The killer did not suspect that Bob was a superhero, though, and although he could not stop himself from walking into the trap, he did manage to activate his powers and turn into titanium. When the killer sprang and stabbed with his knife, he got a rude surprise. In moments, the police were running up the alley, and the killer made a break for it. Released from the mind control, Maximum Bob made short work of the villain. He was soon safe and sedated in Miami Police custody, which completed Maximum Bob's first solo adventure, and marked a job well done.

Meanwhile, back in LA, Iron Knight told Grizella the strange coincidence that her parents in this realm were Jack of All Trades and Catburgler. She did not take the news well, and ran to her room saying "I don't want to talk about it."

CHiP (AlertForce's newest member) was settling in at his new digs: the official, public, AlertForce "headquarters" above the Holiday Inn near the LAX Airport. He soon got a call from his superiors at LAPD, asking him to investigate two murders. The first involved the apparent assassination of three drug dealer bosses in their limo. The strange part was that they were killed by three perfect gunshots, which went through the body of the limo and into each man's head. The trajectory analysis revealed that the shots came from over 2000 yards away. The bullets were a custom designed armor piercing round that had never before been seen.

The second murder involved an Assistant District Attorney, who was shot in his own shower. Tests revealed that the killing bullett in this case came through the outer wall and two inner walls of the man's apartment, and was fired from over 1000 yards distant.

CHiP, Loup Garou, Waterlord and Grizabella visited the crime scenes, and learned that the assassin had lain in wait at both scenes for a number of hours, waiting for his victims. The Killer was about 6'4" tall, and appeared to shoot left handed. Loup was able to get a good scent from the scene, and was able eventually to compare the scent with known villains, to reach the conclusion that the killer was in fact the supervillain known as "The Stinger." The Stinger is a world class marksman, and hires himself out to the highest bidder.

Further investigation revealed that the connection between the two sets of murder victims seems to be drug-related. The three drug dealers were some of the bosses of the group of drug dealers being pushed out of LA by the new South American drug cartel which has lately been infiltrating. Further, the murdered DA was building a case and about to indict several of the new Columbian drug dealers who have hit the streets lately. AlertForce put together the theory that this new Columbian drug cartel, which apparently calls themselves ORO del Mundo, has hired both Arachne and the Stinger to do some of the dirty work in attempting to replace the old drug distribution network. The set about finding the local headquarters of this new drug cartel.

CHiP, Griz, and Iron Knight decided to visit one of the "old" drug dealers in jail, to find out what he knew about this new gang and their leaders or hideout. After the prison riot caused by Griz (an attractive 17 year old woman in a leather catsuit walking around a Federal Prison can have that effect), the three AlertForce members interviewed Hector Jones, one of the former bosses of the Drug trade in LA, who was serving a forty year sentence. After some persuasion on several levels (persuasion by CHiP, intimidation by Iron Knight, and seduction by Griz) the poor bloke spilled the beans. He revealed that the HQ of the new columbian gang was a crack house on 14th street. Griz, CHiP and Iron Knight headed there to investigate.

At about this time, PAL had a bright idea on how to find the new drug cartel (and trash it) and goaded Loup Garou with some well timed taunts about finding and eliminating drugs, which sent Loup into a guilt-ridden, psychological rage, bent on destruction of all things narcotic. Sniffing for the largest local source of narcotics he could find, Loup began speeding towards (ironically enough) the very same crack house on 14th street where Iron Knight, Griz and CHiP were just arriving in their investigation.

Loup was causing sonic booms with his running along the way, and did not even stop before bursting through the door. CHiP quickly moved to help the numerous people hurt by falling glass caused by Loup's running, while the rest of the team followed Loup's berserk lead into the crack house.

The numerous occupants of the house scattered quickly, some firing uzi's behind them. After a short battle, Iron Knight and PAL (several PAL's in fact) had chased a number of the dealers, including the two bosses of this local operation) down into a secret passage into the sewers, CHiP and Waterlord had subdued three carloads who attempted to escape on the road, Max and done some nifty flying in the Harrier to pin down eight or nine would-be escapees in the back yard with the downdraft from the Harrier's jet exhaust. Loup was busy in the basement trashing the drug lab (and starting a fire) and Razor X was busy making sure a strung out crack hoe who happened to be in the house at the time was thoroughly apprehended. Loup eventually had to be pulled from the burning lab by Grizella's telekenesis power. He was still quite berserk, and about to go up in flames as well.

While in the sewers, PAL and Iron Knight were attacked by Arachne. At the same time, just as he was being placed in the street by Griz, Loup was shot in the back of the head by an armor piercing bullet. Loup's head has 28 ap of hardness, however, and he barely felt the impact.

Waterlord saw the shot, however, and immediately sprang into action, found the shooter (using his handy-dandy AlertForce communicator to zoom in on the area where the shot came from), and pummelled him into unconsciousness.

Loup continued his tirade, and threw a carload of drug dealers into the house, on top of Razor X (who survived only because of his magnetic powers) and threw another car at one final escaping drug dealer (who was saved by CHiP's efforts at first aid.

In the sewers, however, PAL surrounded Arachne, and began blasting at the ceiling to bring debris down on the villain. Max saw the blasts, and joined in blasting the area from above with the Harrier's lasers. The result was a massive cave in, in which PAL, Iron Knight, and Arachne were all trapped. As it turns out, only moments before the cave in, Spexx had also appeared on the scene, and Iron Knight's timely intervention prevented Spexx from being squished flat by the cave in.

After the cave in, Grizella was able to pluck arachne from the rubble and hold him in the air, immobile (despite Loup's best efforts) long enough for the team to incapacitate him, which was no mean feat in light of Arachne's incredible toughness and skin armor.

This brought the battle to an end, along with this night's adventures.

Two other tidbits...

During this adventure, AlertForce learned that Linda Ross has turned chicken shit into chicken salad, and has overcome her embarrassing episode at a Los Angeles nightclub into a new level of celebrity and influence. Tearing off her clothes on the dance floor led to an offer to pose in Playboy magazine, which she did. She quickly became the "bad girl" celebrity of the moment, and parleyed her brief status into a job with ABC national news, as their Superhero Correspondent. Back in LA, her former assistant Teddy is attempting to continue KBC-TV and LA Times reports on the Superbeat.

In addition, Waterlord and Razor X agreed to man AlertForce's prospective Mid-City Headquarters, assuming details of that arrangement can be worked out with the city government.

10/20/01: Iron Knight Subplot

I am going to the Mid-city Mayor with his proposal. Rebuild the Mid-city base we will send 2 of our current team members to man, lead and train a 2nd branch of Alert force.

I am also going to visit the United Nations. I will present the idea of Alert Force being the Global Protectors of all nations from super human threats. I will ask for volunteers to be host nations for HQ's.

If all goes well I will run ad's in all the major newspapers seeking super heros. I will leave the number for our Holiday Inn HQ to give Spamoni something to do.

GM REPLY:

The Mayor of Mid-City accepts your proposal, but with only two members coming to be permanently based there, the deal will only be for the base. No TV show, no police status, or other perks. He also insists that AlertForce either guarantee to reimburse for property damage or purchase insurance to cover against it. If you agree, construction will begin almost immediately on the Headquarters -- on the exact lot where the old AlertForce mansion stood.

You attempt to arrange a visit with the United Nations, and they refer you to a liaison officer named Jean Galloway. She agrees to meet with you at the offices of the U.N. in New York City. The meeting will take place during our next adventure. Remind me to roleplay it out.

As far as your ad in the newspapers, you need to tell me the exact text of your ad and in which newspapers it will be run.

IRON KNIGHT REPLY:

2 current members to train the team we will have at least 5 or 6 total. No TV fine. want Police status and city must provide insurance or no deal. Great I will meet with Jean Galloway. Before I meet with her I will fly to washington DC and request a meeting with the president, and speaker of the house separately. I will inform the prs. of my plan and try to get him on board. I will ask the speaker to appear before Congress and pitch the idea to them.

GM REPLY:

The Mayor of Mid-City caves on your demands, and agrees to your proposal. The city will construct the HQ, you will have police deputy status and arrest powers (but you will therefore also have to follow police procedures or the criminals you arrest will be able to get off on technicalities), and the city budget will cover the insurance. Construction on the new AlertForce HQ will begin immediately. He invites you and any of the other team members to a groundbreaking ceremony next week.

The President cannot agree to meet with you. You get through to one of his advisors who tells you it is nothing against you or AlertForce, but super powered vigilantes are very controversial, and the President feels he might be politically harmed by having such a meeting. He would be willing to send some of his senior staff to meet with you and discuss your plans, but fears he likely will not politically be able to support an official government sanction for AlertForce. They suggest that there might be a possibility of a less public affiliation, whereby AlertForce would form a relationship with the Secret Service, CIA, or FBI, and could serve without all the publicity. They are playing with a few ideas, and would definitely like to meet with you.

The Speaker of the House is just the opposite. He is a "tough on crime" right wing republican, and would love to meet with you or any other members of AlertForce. He cannot arrange an address before congress, but is thinking of scheduling Senate hearings on superpowered villains, and various AlertForce members would be called as witnesses before those sessions. He invites you to DC to meet with him and his staff to discuss it.

IRON KNIGHT REPLY:

Mid-City sounds good. I will suggest to the mayor however that we only deputize one alert force member who has training in police procidure (Water Lord) and the others after they pass some sort of training program. I will attend whatever groundbreaking ceremony he has planed and invite X and Water to go with me. I will also ask Linda Ross to attend.

If she still wants one I will give her an interview. With me only at her studio no base.

Be Glad to meet with the Presidents Staff. Love to meet the Speaker as well.

I will be taking full page ads in every major newspaper in every major city. ie Pittsburgh Press, Philadelipia paper, ect plus USA today.

Here is the ad:

GM REPLY:

The deal is done with Mid-City. Groundbreaking will be next week, and any present and/or former AlertForce members are invited. Linda Ross' office informs you (she has a staff now, with ABC) that she will be there, and would like to do an interview with you at the ABC studios in Mid-City in conjunction with her story on the groundbreaking ceremonies for AlertForce HQ.

HAL puts the ads in the newspapers for you. He suggests that you stagger them, going city by city, instead of all at once, just to avoid the logistical nightmare of having so many responses in so many places. Since the new HQ is in Mid-City, he starts with the ads there. After several days, you get hundreds of responses. HAL takes the information and narrows the search down to four possible candidates. They are the four best out of all the responses. Many, many of the responses turned out to be hoaxes, or mental patients. The four who at least appear to be real are called "Lazarus," "The Driver," "Stiletto" and "Fiddler." He has arranged for them to meet with you before the groundbreaking ceremonies at Mid-City next week. You can put them through any type of interview or testing procedure that you wish.

He asks whether you should be running any of this by Loup Garou.

You also get a phone call from Thermo. He tells you he thinks this is a big mistake. He speaks from personal experience, and reminds you of the fate of the last "recruits" AlertForce took on -- particularly the mutants called Justice and Bulb, who are now dead. He says he just has a bad feeling about this expansion.

IRON KNIGHT REPLY:

Great on Mid-City. I will send invits to all past and present AF members.

My Thanks to Hal. I did have Spinelli in mind for handling the apps but I'm sure hal did a much better job. As far as Loup, he is the LA team leader and can barely keep that together. He is as informed as he needs to be.

I inform Thermo that they were kids. These are adults no different then any AF member past or present. What would you have us do sit by and let evil take over the world?

GM REPLY:

From Thermo: Hey, I'm retired. You guys are the team now. Do whatever you think is necessary.

And Spinelli has his hands very full fielding calls from citizens and from the Police at the LA Headquarters. CHiP has him very, very busy. If you happen to be keeping an eye on CHiP, he makes about five arrests a day in cooperation with the LAPD. The detectives call him in when they have an investigation completed and are making the "collar." His superspeed and energy blast make him an ideal backup person on arrests. He also spends at least two hours a day patrolling the highways making traffic stops. Spinelli handles all the paperwork on his arrests. CHiP only calls in AlertForce if it is something having to do with super powered villains. He is handling all the normal stuff himself. The man is a workaholic.

On Friday evening, we will roleplay out the Groundbreaking ceremony, the interview, and your meetings with the AlertForce applicants, the President's staff, and the Speaker of the House.

IRON KNIGHT REPLY:

I see in the arcive that Johnny is in LA and considers himself a reserve AF member I am going to ask him to come to mid-city.

GM REPLY:

Johnny is happy to hear from you (although he does not know you very well). He would be happy to come, if you can front him plane fare. He is going to medical school and is a struggling student. He considers Dreadnought and the original AlertForce team (Loup, Thermo, Jack, Dreadnought) to be his family.

10/26/01: ZOMBIES!!

Attendees: Bryan , Rob , Ellen , Shawn , Chad (GM)

Chronicle:

This adventure marked the return of Shylock to the gaming table. Welcome back, Shawn!

The evening commenced with Iron Knight attending a series of meetings he had arranged with government officials, to further his plans to found branch units of AlertForce all over the world. He first met with Jean Galloway, UN representative, at an office in Washington, DC. The result of the meeting is that AlertForce may soon be annexed to the United Nations Tribunal on International Law (UNTIL) to act as special agents. Galloway is arranging for Iron Knight and other AlertForce members to tour UNTIL facilities worldwide, and discussing installation of dedicated communications lines and other equipment to facilitate the communications lines between UNTIL and AlertForce. Under the proposed arrangement, UNTIL agents, intelligence and facilities would be at the disposal of AlertForce, and AlertForce would be subject to responding to calls from UNTIL on behalf of UN member nations.

Iron Knight then met with Sam Seeborn, a member of President Josiah Bartlett's senior staff. This meeting did not go nearly as well as the meeting with Galloway. Iron Knight was a bit irked that the president had not come out in favor of AlertForce's expansion, and made some negative references. Seeborn pulled out a dossier containing a recitation of all of AlertForce's prior misdeeds, and suggested that AlertForce might be the problem, and not the solution. The meeting ended in a very chilly fashion.

Iron Knight's final meeting was with Senator Lott, the Senate Minority leader. Lott indicated that he is fully behind the ideas AlertForce has been advancing (if not behind AlertForce itself), and indicated that there will shortly be commenced Senate hearings on paranormal and superpowered crime in America. He indicated that several AlertForce members will be called to testify.

While Iron Knight was rubbing elbows with the elite of the government, Spexx was getting into trouble at the American Heritage museum, by trying to reactivate the UNIVAC computer on display there. Meanwhile, Shylock was getting drunk with some cops at a local bar, and became confused as to where he was (thinking for some reason he was in New York instead of DC). Maximum Bob fed the pigeons at a park, and the activities of Razor X during this period have yet to be accounted for.

Nevertheless, the team reassembled the following morning at Mid-City, in time for the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the new AlertForce Headquarters there, on the exact site where original AlertForce HQ stood way back in 79. Before the ceremony, Iron Knight gave an exclusive interview to ABC reporter Linda Ross (with her new mobile studio and staff of assistants) during which he announced AlertForce's plans for worldwide expansion and recruiting, and also announced that the new Mid-City branch of AlertForce would be led by Waterlord with Razor X assisting.

Following the interview, the ceremony got underway, and included speeches from the Mayor, Police Chief, Iron Knight, and even some former AlertForce members who showed up for the occasion (Knight Watchman and Brainwave).

Just after the ceremony, however, a large tremor was felt, and screams were heard coming from the construction site (although the ceremony was the official groundbreaking for the new HQ, construction has actually been going on for several months, and the foundations of the original HQ building (including the shell of the old danger room) had already been excavated. AlertForce immediately went to investigate, and rescued two construction workers who were dangling from some frayed ropes, far down into a hole which had collapsed from the foundation site. Reports were that ten to twelve other construction workers had fallen down the hole which opened when the tremor hit.

Iron Knight, Spexx, Maximum Bob and Shylock descended into the chasm to rescue the workers, while Brainwave, Knight Watchman and Razor X stayed topside to maintain crowd control and deal with the chaos there resulting from the heavy tremor.

The main team found that the chasm was several hundred feet deep. When they reached the bottom, they saw crushed construction equipment, but no sign of either the workers or bodies. There were tracks leading off into one of several cave-like openings off of the rock chamber. Quickly checking their scanners, Xray vision, and other sensing powers, AlertForce soon realized that magnetic and crystalline formations in the rock strata around them prevented Xray vision, teleportation, or any other EM radiation beams from accurately travelling through the rock. Spexx recalled from old AlertForce data tapes that the team's original mentor, Paul Feldon, who constructed the original base, had selected this area for construction specifically because the unique characteristics of the rock strata below provided complete natural defenses against intrusion or infiltration from below.

The team followed the tracks the old fashioned way... on foot. After a long trek down a dark, winding passageway through the rock walls, AlertForce came into a cavern which was darker and colder than the rest. They were startled and frightened to find two people there -- not normal people, but apparently rotting corpses come to life. The team scattered in the face of a powerful aura of fear emanating from the two individuals. Max and Iron Knight were shortly able to overcome the effects, however (and Shylock was strangely unaffected). While attacking AlertForce, the zombies began muttering "Dreadnought.... where is our little boy? Dreadnought.. Must kill Dreadnought..." Spexx was quite effected by the appearance of these "zombies" and found himself fleeing back to the surface as fast as his omni arm could take him. Once he regained the surface, he recovered is composure and headed back down to join his teammates, but not before turning his omni arm into a bullhorn and warning the assembled crowd of the attack of "ZOMBIES!!!!!!"

Once they overcame the fear, AlertForce made short work of the dreadful creatures, whose forms quickly melted away, dissolving into thin air after they were incapacitated. Iron Knight realized that the two pitiful creatures were somehow the spirits of the parents of Brainwave (also known as Johnny) who were killed during one of AlertForce's early battles, as a result of the actions of Dreadnought.

The tracks of the construction workers led out of the chamber, along the passage which continued to descend into the bowels of the earth. Spexx was the first to follow the path, and was promptly slammed from behind when he entered the next chamber, by a surprise attack from a black-clad man. The rest of the team quickly came to his aid, and found themselves confronting a zombie of AlertForce's old enemy the Catburgler. As he attacked again and again, he was muttering "Jack.... Must Kill Jack..... Give me Jack.... " Although this zombie knocked Spexx and Maximum Bob around pretty good, with teamwork, the combined forces of Iron Knight, Max, Spexx and Shylock eventually overcame him as well, and he likewise evaporated and dissolved after he was thwarted.

The trail continued, as did the confrontations with zombies of people killed in AlertForce's past. The next chamber contained the poor remnants of the woman killed in the bank robbery in Pittsburgh as a result of Iron Knight's botched rescue attempt. Aside from making Iron Knight into a blubbering fool for several minutes while he relived the experience, this zombie was quickly dispatched by the team.

The following room contained a second appearance of the Catburgler zombie, which not only confused, but also almost knocked out Major Bob. The end result was again, however, the incapacitation of the undead creature, and AlertForce moving on.

Finally, after these multiple battles, the team seemed to reach an end to the passages, and found another cave in site. When they reached this site, the ground again began to quake, and the floor beneath AlertForce collapsed. The team descended into a huge chamber, almost 300 feet across. At the other end of this chamber, they could see a small stone altar, and three men standing there. Two of the men immediately bolted out a passage leading away, while the third (a yellow-clad zombie wearing a shattered helmet with a red "V" on it, stood his ground to defend their escape). Iron Knight attempted to blow by to follow the runners, but the zombie surprisingly repelled him with a powerful force field. Shylock managed to penetrate the field, and bolted by the zombie to pursue the two men who had escaped. Spexx and Max followed suit, leaving Iron Knight to face the zombie (who was muttering " Ice Avenger.... Where is Ice Avenger.... Must kill him...."). After a fierce battle, during which he realized he was facing the zombie of Vibron, Iron Knight was able to use his energy blast to incapacitate the creature.

Meanwhile, Spexx blew through the two men running to escape, knocking down the one who was wearing a long black robe. The other, however, activated some kind of jet powers, and flew quickly up a vertical passage headed toward the surface (with Shylock and Max in hot pursuit). Spexx stayed behind, and quickly dispatched the black-robed man into unconsciousness.

The one being pursued up the passage made it to the surface, and landed right on the grandstand where the ceremony had occurred just a few minutes earlier. He grabbed one of the microphones and yelled "If AlertForce returns, then so will JIM JETT!!!!" But before he could do much to make good on that statement, he was slammed from behind by the titanium fist of Maximum Bob, and sent flying into Linda Ross' portable studio. He was quickly knocked out, and Major Bob and Shylock got the credit for AlertForce's first "save" of the new Mid-City era.

After the dust cleared, AlertForce was able to learn that the black-robed man was called "the Undertaker" and although he was not much of a fighter, he did have the ability to summon the spirits of the dead and give them corporeal form for short periods. He had apparently been hired or coerced by the bitter Jim Jett to bring back the spirits of people killed by Alert Force in the past, in the botched attempt to prevent the return of AlertForce to Mid-City.

Finally, after the press had gone, and the cleanup had begun. AlertForce met briefly with four rookie superheroes who have been selected by HAL as the most able applicants for the Mid-City branch. These were "Driver" (a golfer with a flying golf cart and a bagful of trick clubs and balls), "the Fiddler" (a concert violinist with mystical strings that create devastating sonic beams), "Stiletto" (a woman who has world class hand to hand abilities) and "Lazarus" (who can survive almost any attack). The team seemed impressed with the abilities of these four, although none had any previous superhero experience. Iron Knight and the others are giving serious consideration to the request for membership by these four potential heroes.

News reports on the day following these events were split half and half between those which praised AlertForce for saving the city from zombies and supervillains, and those which blamed the return of AlertForce for causing the attack in the first place.

11/1/01: Waterlord Subplot:

Chronicle:

Message from Waterlord:

OK, just a quick note before tomorrow's game. Before we left the crime scene from the adventure two weeks ago, I wanted to search for clues regarding the sniper. Other circumstances permitting, I want to find him again and bring him to justice. After all, I had him knocked out, and let him slip away.

That aside, the new base sounds great. Is it the exact same thing as before? If not, what are the new plans? Who are these four new candidates (I know as much as was included with your last email). Anything else I should know?

I'm going to start studying the laws of various countries regarding the ocean. General interest mostly, but I'll pay particular attention to vessels at sea and international treaties on dumping and fishing.

I think a quick trip to one of the potential sites of atlantis will be in order. See you tomorrow.

Reply from GM:

As for the sniper, whose name was Stinger, if you recall, you find nothing. The man is apparently a pro, and very good at what he does. He left no trace after he disappeared.

As for the base, it is being built exactly as the old base in Mid-City was. Same floor plan. Same layout. Same everything. The four applicants showed off a little for Iron Knight last week. They are as follows:

Fiddler: a man in his late forties. Small, almost frail looking. Does not appear to have any physical or fighting abilities. He possesses a magic violin with which he can cause sonic blasts, shockwaves, and other effects. Will need to be protected in battle to be effective.

Driver: Tall, athletic, good looking. About in his mid-20's. The ultimate "rich boy" with too much leisure time on his hands. He has a golf bag full of trick balls, clubs, etc... He uses trick golf balls like Green Arrow used to use trick arrows. He does appear to have some fighting skills hand to hand, and he uses what he calls "golf jitsu" in a strange type of martial arts which uses golf clubs as hand to hand weapons.

Lazarus: About 35 or so. Long dark hair and a beard. Tall and thin. Also appears to have few, if any, fighting skills. Very, very handsome in a strange, almost hypnotic way. Very deep voice. Melodic, in fact. Has very powerful regeneration abilities. Also has a hybrid type of charisma which I have dubbed "provocation" which is the ability to cause someone attacking a group to select him as the target. His primary strategy will be to draw the fire of the largest enemies (even getting knocked out if necessary) giving the other teammates time to attack unmolested for a round or two.

Stiletto: An african american woman in her late 20's. A world class martial artist, with acrobatics, and stealth skills. She does not speak much.

These, together with you and Razor X, comprise what I have termed "AlertForce East Coast".

As far as international treaties and the law of the sea, you generally learn that by international law, a country controls the coastal waters up to twelve miles off its coast. Up to fifty miles is considered a "buffer" zone, into which other countries cannot come to fish, make war, drill oil, etc. Outside fifty miles is open territory, owned by no one. There are many UN and international treaties governing restrictions on pollution, fishing, etc. in open sea. These also apply in territorial waters, but some countries have even stricter laws. You are now an expert in this field.

See you tomorrow!

11/2/01: The Hive
Attendees: Bryan , Rob , Greg , Chad (GM)

Chronicle:

This evening's adventures began with Iron Knight visiting the UNTIL secret base in London, England. Jean Galloway, Director of UNTIL (the United Nations Tribunal on International Law) solidified the arrangements for AlertForce to be associated as special agents with UNTIL. She showed Iron Knight the layout of the secret London base, which consisted of a huge underground complex housing several hundred agents, vehicles, weapons, living quarters, training areas, and much more. She explained that UNTIL is ready when called upon to handle both covert and public missions, often donning the uniforms and gear of member nations' military forces. UNTIL is in such a high state of readiness that it can often respond when called upon, faster than some nations' own military or police forces. Iron Knight made further plans to tour the UNTIL facilities in Cairo, Moscow, and Sydney, Australia. AlertForce will also be installing some teleporter devices in these locations, along with computer interfaces to allow the exchange of information.

Meanwhile, Waterlord continued pursuing his subplot to find mythical Atlantis. He zeroed in on one possible location (albeit a longshot) -- a location in one of the eepest parts of the Pacific Ocean. After several hours of searching, he found a cave on the ocean floor.

He went down to investigate, and found at the bottom a smooth, metallic surface with a vaguely rounded shape, covering the floor of the cave. He searched, and found what appeared to be a hatch. Using dispersal, he managed to wriggle through the seams on the hatch and gain entry into the strange space. He entered an airtight space, with smooth metallic surfaces.

He found he was in a hallway, and he followed it. At its end he found a huge chamber, half submerged in water. In this chamber were thousands upon thousands of six-foot long, egg-shaped objects, lined up in rows. He listened to one, and heard some vaguely organic sounds. He entered the submerged portion of the chamber to investigate further, and found a vertical passageway leading downward from the bottom of the chamber. He again followed it.

Several hundred yards down, he found that the passage bottomed out, and had five or six passageways leading out in different directions. Reaching out with his sonar, he sensed waves of movement coming towards him. Shortly, he was approached and attacked by two eight foot tall insect-like creatures who were âflyingâ through the water. They spat acid at him, and attacked with their formidable claws, but Waterlord managed to repel them with waves of water, and escape the battle.

Meanwhile, back in Mid-City, Razor X was exploring the underground tunnels discovered during last weekâs adventure (see âZombiesâ above). He stumbled upon a new cave in, which revealed a small chamber containing a three-foot long egg-shaped metallic device, with what appeared to be some sort of readout on top. Unable to figure out what the device was, he attempted to call Waterlord (the leader of the soon-to-be East Coast branch of AlertForce). Being unable to reach Waterlord, he called Iron Knight and Spexx to investigate.

Iron Knight cut his tour of UNTIL facilities short, and joined Spexx and Razor X in Mid-City. They investigated the device, but no one could figure out what the thing was. Suddenly, after Razor X commented that the device smelled funny, Iron Knight had a stroke of intuition, and realized that the device was some sort of computer readout, created by creatures who interact with the environment using olfactory senses instead of sight. The device was, in effect, a chemical computer terminal, emitting smells instead of light signals for the interface. Iron Knight quickly fashioned a gadget to translate the signals into a visual mode, and AlertForce learned that the readout was showing a map of the Earth, with a number of locations marked with black indicators, and one marked with a pulsating red indicator â a location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean!

Iron Knight immediately asked HAL to find Waterlord, and learned that Waterlord had disappeared several hours ago. His last known position was precisely at the location marked with a pulsating red indicator on the strange device Razor X had found.

Dramatic music and another segue back to Waterlordâ¦

Waterlord encountered three more of the insect aliens, but ditched his costume and managed to evade them by melding with the water around him. He tried to follow them, but soon realized that he would become hopelessly lost if he continued doing so in the twisting, branching passages. He decided he was in a bit over his head (no pun intended) and should get back and alert the team.

Just about this time, Iron Knight decided that the team should try to find and rescue Waterlord from whatever fate had befallen him. Spexx teleported Iron Knight, Razor X and himself to the exact coordinates where Waterlord had last been detected by HAL, which also happened to be the location indicated on the strange computer.

The team descended into the water of the deep Pacific just as Waterlord was squeezing back out of the egg-shaped object, and heading up. Waterlordâs communicator was waterlogged and inoperative, but after a brief bout of confusion in which Waterlord almost drowned the three AlertForce teammates in a powerful vortex, the team managed to make contact.

They quickly teleported to LA to compare notes and find out what had happened. Waterlord related his discoveries to his teammates, and they told him about the computer they discovered. A quick description of the insects, together with a quick trip through the history database revealed that these creatures were aliens, and had, in fact, invaded earth in 1979, and had created hives in a number of locations on Earth (all of which were among the locations marked with indicators on the strange chemical computer). AlertForce had, in its early days at Mid-City, battled and (it believed) eradicated this alien invasion force. Apparently, one or more hives had gone undiscovered and lain dormant until now.

Iron Knight immediately assigned Spexx to create a device which could allow AlertForce to understand and communicate with the aliens, using their chemical/olfactory language. The rest of the team dug through the history archives, trying to discover how AlertForce had defeated the Aliens back in 79. They learned that Knight Watchman had infiltrated one of the hives and gathered samples of the creaturesâ biological material, allowing the teamâs mentor at that time, Dr. Feldon, to create a spray that repelled the insects. Using this spray, AlertForce defeated the alien invasion and had (it believed) destroyed all of the hives. However, try as they might, no one could locate the formula for the spray anywhere in the computer files or archives.

Spexx spent several hours creating a set of goggles which allowed the wearer to sense and comprehend the chemical language of the aliens, and even to attempt to communicate. With this device, the team returned to the cave site in the Pacific Ocean.

When they reached the metallic surface of what they now believed was a vessel, Razor X managed to magnetically open the hatch and allow the team to enter. They again followed the passage down to the egg chamber only to find that all of the thousands of eggs had been removed. Just after this discovery, they were viciously attacked by twelve warrior drone insects, at the waterâs edge in the egg chamber.

The aliens proved very tough. In the initial round of battle one spat acid on Spexx, which drove him back up the hallway and nearly killed him. Iron Knight was forced to give ground and extend his force field around his teammates to protect them from the vicious onslaught of the tough and powerful aliens. Razor X, clearly in over his abilities, went totally defensive, and was forced to dodge blow after blow in defense of his very life. Waterlord fared somewhat better, and was able to create a water diversion, which split two of the aliens away from the main group, and began to turn the tide of battle.

Seeing the desperation of the situation, Iron Knight turned his armor settings to maximum, and beyond, pushing his armor to its maximum limits to save himself and his teammates. As his armor hummed and pulsated with more energy than it had ever generated before, he blasted alien after alien to smithereens with his now-ultra-powerful blasters. Waterlord rallied to assist in the attack, as did Razor X (with the help of a steel ball Waterlord has taken to carrying and hurling at enemies), and the three were able, finally, to defeat all but one of the insects, and even to capture the last remaining insect for study.

How will AlertForce deal with this new (old) threat to the world? Find out next Friday night!!!

11/6/01: Jack of All Trades Subplot:

11/9/01: AlertForce makes a stand

Attendees: Bryan , Rob , Greg , Ellen , John Hromada, Chad (GM)

Chronicle:

This eveningâs adventure saw the continuation of AlertForceâs battle against the Alien hives.

While Iron Knight analyzed the alien taken captive at the end of the last adventure, Waterlord decided to return to the hive site in the Pacific and do a little recon. Spexx, meanwhile, finally resolved the plotline involving the cyber cops from the future, by taking them in the trunk of a car to a local emergency room and dumping them on the curb there.

Waterlord found that the entire hive complex in the Pacific site had been vacated by the Alien insects. He mapped the complex, and found one long passage heading out underground toward the east, and one heading out towards the west. He followed the easterly passage, which went on for thousands of miles.

Meanwhile, after several failed attempts, Iron Knight was finally able to synthesize a batch of the insect-repellent spray which had been created by Dr. Feldon during the first conflict with these Aliens back in 1979.

Waterlord eventually reached another hive complex at the end of the long passage, and came up to the surface only to find he had traveled all the way to the complex under Dallas, Texas. He called Iron Knight (collect, via a pay phone) and asked him to come to Texas and meet him there.

While all this was going on, PAL and Major Maximum followed a strange television report of a large, super powered, belligerent white rabbit attacking livestock and people in rural Greenland. The took the Harrier to investigate, and after accidentally sucking a few of the local sheep into the vortex behind the aircraft, eventually located the region where the rabbit had been sighted. PAL debarked from the plane, chameleoned into a Plasmagician lookalike (AlertForce had concluded that the white rabbit was actually âFightoâ the sidekick/pet of the Plasmagician, who had fought PAL and Maximum in Greenland (albeit in another dimension) way back in the original reunion game). Fighto soon came speeding out of the wilderness, and was quickly subdued by PAL and Max, through a combination of energy blasts and air blasts from the Harrierâs jets, aimed downward. PAL and Max crammed the rabbit into the Harrierâs second seat, and somehow managed to fly the plane, rabbit and all, back to LA, where Fighto quickly landed in jail.

Iron Knight, after meeting Waterlord, quickly tasked Waterlord and PAL with doing a quick worldwide survey to map out the connections between the hive complexes located on the maps, and also to attempt to locate where the aliens had retreated to. At PALâs suggestion, the two mappers traveled back to the Pacific location, since PAL had a suspicion that there might be an area that was missed in the initial survey. Iron Knight returned to LA to work with Spexx in refining and testing the chemical spray.

Iron Knight and Spexx soon learned that the spray was effective in repelling, if not harming, the aliens. After this quick test, Iron Knight dispatched the alien being held in the Danger Room into nothingness, with a few quick blasts of his energy bolts.

Waterlord and Spexx arrived back at the Pacific hive site, and investigated the top side of the egg-shaped vessel which initially housed the alien eggs. Through some persistence and insight, the two managed to locate at the top of the vessel what appeared to be a control room. The computers and controls were rotting away, and would not yield any usable information, but from the configuration of the seats, the investigators deduced that the aliens who built this ship were not the same as those who were infesting the tunnels and attacking AlertForce. The logical conclusion was that the aliens who came here in the vessel had either intentionally or unwittingly brought with them the alien insect infestation.

Back in LA, AlertForce was summoned by Jean Galloway, director of UNTIL (United Nations Tribunal on International Law). It was reported that a group of the alien insects had emerged from underground caverns beneath a city in India, had killed over 40 people in a brutal raid in a slum area, and had taken 17 people back into the lair/hive beneath the city. Iron Knight, Maximum Bob, Razor X, and Spexx (armed with a spray canister of the alien repellent) piled in Iron Knightâs flying mustang and headed for India. PAL and Waterlord were also alerted to the attack, and set off down the western underground passage, presuming it would also lead them to the India hive complex.

Upon arriving at the scene, Iron Knight and the rest of his team were shown by UNTIL agents at the site (disguised as Indian military) the location of the tunnel mouth where the aliens had emanated from. The team quickly jumped down the hole and began descending into a long vertical shaft.

About 500 feet down, the team spotted a large group of aliens in the chamber below. Five aliens immediately began flying up to attack the team.

Spexx deployed a fog of the insect repellent around the team, and after some quick blasts by Iron Knight, two of the aliens were disintegrated. The remainder gave way in the face of the strong-smelling repellent fog.

Just as Iron Knight and his team landed on the chamber floor to face the entire group of 13 alien warriors, PAL and Waterlord emerged from the underground tunnels at precisely the same location. A short but brutal melee ensued, in which several of the aliens were killed, but no AlertForce casualties were registered, due in large part to teamwork and Iron Knightâs force field around all team members.

Iron Knight quickly dispatched Spexx, Maximum and Razor X to take the repellent spray and find the humans taken prisoner by the aliens. Iron Knight, Waterlord and PAL then proceeded to slowly but surely take down the rest of the alien warriors, almost one by one, until they were victorious in the battle.

Spexx soon located the human hostages, in a large egg chamber and nest area. The captives were all coated with a hard, shell-like chitin material, presumably secreted from some type of queen or female alien. The humans were still alive, but firmly encased in this material. Spexx quickly short-circuited any attempts to figure out the situation, and instead elected to teleport the victims, himself, Razor and Max, and almost the whole nest itself, back to the surface, to a spot in the middle of the UNTIL staging area.

Having saved the innocent civilians, Spexx then engaged in a memorable, if one sided, tactical discussion with the UNTIL force leader on the scene. The exchange went something like thisâ¦

UNTIL Leader: âWhat is the tactical situation down there?â

Spexx: âWe are winning.â

UNTIL Leader: âYes, but do you need any of our troops to come in and assist? What is the tactical situation?â

Spexx (louder this time): âWe are winning!â

UNTIL Leader: âI understand that, you idiot!! Iâm trying to determine what the SPECIFIC tactical situation is before I send my men in there!!!!!â

Spexx (turning his omni-arm into a bullhorn and putting it six inches from the manâs ear): âWe are winning!!!!!!!!!!!!!â

The frustrated UNTIL commander walked away, switching the com channel on his communicator, and began berating AlertForce to his superiors.

Meanwhile, down in the tunnel, Iron Knight, PAL and Waterlord began hearing a loud buzzing, and quickly realized that a large number of aliens were approaching, seemingly from all directions. The sound kept getting louder and louder, until the ground in the tunnels and even on the surface began vibrating with force.

Fearing the worst, Iron Knight quickly jammed two omni-gadgets onto the blasters of his armor, bypassing all power inhibitors, to effectively double the output of the blasters. Waterlord merged with the water some 30 feel below the chamber, and sent water walls into all of the passage openings to stop the anticipated onslaught. PAL split into four copies, and pulled out some omni-gadgets of his own, turning them into mental blasters to attack the incoming aliens.

By this time, the sound was deafening and the walls were beginning to crack and crumble. PAL blasted three of the passage openings to collapse them, but when the incoming aliens burst on the scene, even this could not stop them. The onslaught was monstrous in force, with hordes of aliens pouring in through each entrance. The situation seemed grim.

Iron Knight and PAL did not flinch, though, and stood their ground against the thundering horde of alien warriors. Iron Knight pushed his blasters beyond the melting point, blasting 41 ap lasers at 20 aliens a battle round, slicing through the alien ranks like butter. The chambers rocked and began crumbling under the force. PAL used precise bursts of his mind blasters to clean up whatever aliens managed to slip past Iron Knights blaster bursts.

For round after round the two heroes feverishly held back the alien horde, until the chamber was covered in alien blood and corpses. Alien after alien fell into the tunnel shaft, down onto where Waterlord was watching with concern as his teammates held the field.

When the dust finally cleared, the alien rush ceased, and Iron Knight and PAL were still holding the passage, protecting the city above from the invasion which would have killed thousands upon thousands of innocent people.

And this is where we concluded our adventure for the evening. The team returned to LA, exhausted and triumphant, where Iron Knight had to have help chiseling the melted and charred remains of his armorâs glove/blasters from his badly burned hands.

Has this epic battle defeated the entire alien horde? Only further study will reveal this answer.

No game next week, but we resume the storyline on the following week!

11/10/01: Iron Knight Subplot:

Chronicle:

Message from Iron Knight:

I am hiring the best PR firm I can find. I will give them the following
objectives:

1. promote Iron Knight's Image

2. Spin any Alert Force mishaps

3. promote the name of Alert Force.

I want them to work closely with Linda Ross making sure she gets all the
big news first.

REPLY FROM GM:

You have hired the Public Relations firm of Dinsmore & Grimes. They have offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, London and Tokyo. The lead publicist in charge of the AlertForce account will be Albert Girard. Hhe is in his mid-thirties, devastatingly handsome, well spoken, and driven. His first memo to you is as follows:

Iron Knight:

Thank you so much for deciding on Dinsmore & Grimes for your public relations needs. We will strive to serve you and AlertForce in a professional and mutually rewarding manner. To that end, after reviewing the last six months' worth of press clippings for AlertForce and you, I suggest the following steps be taken:

1. Let me arrange an exclusive interview for Linda Ross from inside AlertForce Headquarters. I am imagining a Barbara Walters Special where you walk around and talk, show her the highlights, etc. I suggest that someone other than you do the interview, since (no offense) your armor is not exactly a warm and fuzzy face for the public to relate to. I suggest that James Greywolf, Major Maximum, or one of the human members do the interview (as opposed to Loup in wolf form or Waterlord). I want to humanize AlertForce.

2. We next start local ad campaigns in each City where Alertforce is present. For now, LA and Mid-city, but also Pittsburgh where you are based. Things like working with the local United Way or red cross, hospital visits, charity functions, etc. Go back to take a page from your old Teammate Dreadnought's book. Why did the entire city love the guy? Because he was out there on the streets every day, meeting and greeting, kissing babies, posing for pictures with kids in the burn unit. The man was a machine. AlertForce should think about this like they are perpetually running for office.

3. For you in particular: Consider ditching the notion of a secret identity. There is no better PR than some stories about you and your family (do you have one), wife, etc. If you are single, even better. We get some shots of you in People, US or some other magazines dating starlets, models, etc. Great PR.

Anyway, those are just a few off the cuff thoughts. We will want to meet with each team member (particulary the new ones in Mid City) to set up our files, get a full portfolio of still and action photos, plan press releases, etc. Please call my assistant, Randy, to set up times for us to visit with you and your team. I look forward to a long and fruitful relationship.

Sincerely,

Albert Girard

IRON KNIGHT REPLY 12/6/01:

Albert,

Thank you for your letter and your ideas. I would like to see more of a focus
on Iron Knight in your plans. Your work with Alert Force is limited to spinning
idiotic stunts into positive press. This is something that will keep you very
busy trust me.

I would like you to work on an Iron Knight prime time expose where we would tell
the history of one of americas greatest hero's and conclude by reviling my
identity on live TV.

If that is a hit we will follow up with a prime time interview of the man behind
the mask and tour of alert forces newest HQ mid city.

I like your idea of ad campaign and would like to see some art work. I think you
are right about LA mid city and Pittsburgh.

If you tell me what kind of info you are looking for on the rest of the team I
will see that you receive it. I am not in favor of allowing meetings at this
time.

Thanks
Iron Knight

Chad,

I the name I am using is Clinton Knight. I will use my High level clearance to
create a new identity thru witness protection for Alan Brooks as Clinton
Knight. I will create a history for Alan Brooks from birth. Witness protection
should stop anyone from finding the name Alan Brooks but if the get thru that
they will find a complete history and think mystery solved.

Clinton is a very good looking man. He works for Knight Industries.

GM REPLY 12/6/01:

ok. You have the Clinton Knight and Alan Brooks identities all set up. That was no problem. I assume your intent is to unmask yourself as Clinton Knight, and have a secret identity within a secret identity, so to speak. Nice idea.

Albert calls you and says thanks for the input. He is working on getting one of the networks interested in a prime time special about Iron Knight. Linda Ross is interested, but she only has a segment on a news show, and does not yet have the clout to get a whole hour in prime time. He is working on it. As for the ad campaigns, he says his art department is working on it, but it will be a couple weeks before he has some prototypes for you to look at. He would really like at least to briefly meet the other members if he is going to be doing ads about them. He tells you he can't really do spin control for the team if he doesn't know the abilities of the players. And he doesn't mean super powers. He needs to assess their strengths and weaknesses in dealing with the public, the press, etc. He needs to know which of them it is safe to let go in front of cameras and which he needs to bury behind the scenes. He feels he can only do this by speaking with them.

Anyway, he has to run and gets off the phone pretty quickly. You are to let him know your thoughts on the meetings and he will get back to you about the special and the artwork.

-Chad

11/23/01: The 80's Gang Strikes:

attendees: John Hromada, Maria , John , Rob , Greg , Bryan , Paul , Chad (GM)

Chronicle:

This eveningâs game began with Grizella receiving a mysterious letter, asking her to meet someone at a warehouse at midnight. The letter had been placed in Grizellaâs room at AlertForce Mansion West Coast, and was signed with a catâs paw symbol. Grizella accepted the invitation, and found the Catburgler waiting for her. Catburgler asked Griz to leave AlertForce and join her. She vowed that Griz did not belong with âhimâ and that her true place was with her mother. Griz was upset and confused, but told Catburgler that she would think about it.

The next morning, Iron Knight discovered that his base in Pittsburgh had been infiltrated, through a secret underground passage he was unaware of. He isolated what the intruder had done, and found that the intruder had learned of the location and layout of all current AlertForce bases, including East Coast and West Coast, as well as all of the current members. The intruder apparently looked for a long time at information regarding Grizella. Iron Knight concluded that the intruder was likely the Catburgler, because her father had for many years battled the original owners of his HQ (the Guardians) and could have had information about the secret entrance. After sealing off the passage, he summoned Grizella and interrogated her as to whether she had had any contact with the Catburgler. Although she initially denied it, Iron Knight did a full interrogation, and eventually got her to admit the incident reported above. Iron Knight instructed her to immediately summon help if she is approached again.

Later that day, Spexx got an emergency call from his boss (General McDonald of U.S. Space Command). He informed Spexx that VIPER agents had taken control of the space station Freedom, and were holding two astronauts and four cosmonauts hostage. Their demands were the payment of 40 billion dollars to VIPER. Spexx was assigned to deal with the situation.

He donned a spacesuit, and teleported himself into space near the station. He then teleported into the last of six modules forming the main body of the station, and immediately heard voices over the comlink telling him that if he entered the next module, one of the hostages would be killed. He also observed that C4 Plastic explosives had been packed around all the hatches. He quickly teleported back to Earth to form a new strategy. He called Iron Knight for some strategy input (which resulted in a hilarious communication in which Spexx asked for advice to help a hypothetical âFriendâ who lost control of a space station). He then teleported back up to the station, and jumped inside the VIPER space vessel (a small airplane-like vessel which had docked with the station at the command module), and started to close the hatch. The VIPER agent in charge immediately issued an order for one of the hostages to be killed, and Spexx leapt into action.

He teleported inside the module, where two VIPER agents and all six hostages were. He acted first, and teleported the two astronauts, and the one cosmonaut who was about to be shot, back to Earth and safety. One of the VIPER terrorists then shot Spexx with his blaster, at point blank range, knocking him back into a bulkhead and tearing up his space suit pretty good, but NOT putting him out. Spexx shook it off, and teleported the remaining three cosmonauts to safety. He then quickly teleported back into the VIPER ship, and detached from the space station â stranding the VIPER agents on board.

During the battle, however, the VIPER commander had triggered an explosion which blew the hatch on the farthest module, disconnecting it from the space station and sending it spinning away. Spexx tried to master the controls of the VIPER craft, and called in some backup, in the form of Iron Knight, who was taking a nice relaxing shower. While the call was going on, the VIPER commander ordered the hatch on the second module blown, as well, leaving two of the six space station sections floating free in space.

Iron Knight came quickly to the scene, and set about recovering the two modules. He was able to reconnect them with some spot-welding (although more repairs would be needed later to fix the hatches), and was also able to assist Spexx in subduing the VIPER terrorists. The end result was that the hostages and the space station were both saved by Spexx (with a little help from Iron Knight).

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Loup Garou returned to AlertForce mansion after a two month movie shoot in Europe. He learned of all the crises over the last several weeks, and wondered why he had not received any calls over his communicator. After a little investigation, he learned that someone had placed a dampening field around his communicator while he was in Europe, blocking all incoming transmissions. He deduced that someone from the movie production company had not wanted him leaving before completion of the shoot. He vowed to have a very stern chat with his agent over the issue.

A short time later, ChiP got a call from Captain Blaine of LAPD, asking him to have AlertForce investigate a strange occurrence at Club Indigo. The evening before at midnight, there had been a flash of light, and everything in the club had been instantly changed to a 1980âs motif â the patronsâ clothing, the music, the dÃ©cor, the entire music library â everything. The phenomenon could not be explained. ChiP, Grizella, and Loup Garou went to the scene to investigate. They turned up a number of leads, but came up with no suspects.

The following afternoon, the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago was attacked and robbed. The bank guards were left bound and gagged, and wearing t-shirts that said âMy Bank was Robbed by the 80âs Gang and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.â Again, Loup, ChiP and Grizella went to investigate. This time, the found some more concrete evidence, specifically some security tapes which revealed that during the instantaneous âflashâ on most of the security cameras, actually about 16 minutes of time had transpired. During this time, the taped showed a large-apelike creature, two men with antennas on their heads, and a fourth man with a blue and gold costume carrying money out of the bank. Grizella then probed the minds of one of the guards who had been there, and again found 16 minutes of missing time in the manâs subconscious. In addition to the four men shown on the security tapes, she also observed two others â one in a green costume with headphones on, and a final one in a brown and white costume with a â20â written on his chest. She also observed that the man in blue and gold seemed to be the leader, and had referred to the others as âDK,â âAM and FM,â âWalkmanâ and âVic.â AlertForce then began an intense investigation of all possible leads on the â80âs Gang,â hoping to catch them before they struck again.

During this investigation, ChiP suddenly remembered that about six months ago, he had received an email from someone named âBetaMaxâ asking him to join a new group of superheroes called âThe Eighty-Eights.â He immediately pulled up the e-mail on his old police computer, and got the email address (which was through AOL). AlertForce, in cooperation with the FBI, sought to get a warrant to have AOL disclose the user information. The following morning, Iron Knight, ChiP, Loup Garou, and Grizella went to New York to serve the writ on AOL and obtain the information.

At about 11:30 a.m., the team got word that another attack had taken place, this time at the New York Stock Exchange. The team immediately rushed to the scene. While Iron Knight went in to survey what had happened, Loup picked up the scent of the 80âs gang and zoomed off after them, with Grizella and ChiP in tow.

Loup overtook the Gang on the highway about fifteen miles outside of New York City. They were in a van going at high speeds. Loup approached, but the sound of his approach tipped off the folks in the van, and they were able to get defensive before the attack came. BetaMax set off his âtime stopâ power, freezing Loup, Grizella, ChiP, and everything else in an 8ap range from the van. Loup and ChiP were able to break out of the effects 32 seconds later, to find that they were surrounded â Loup by the huge paws of an ape, and ChiP by six copies of Vic-20. ChiP was quickly incapacitated by blows from six angry Vicâs, and Loup was squeezed within an inch of his life by a now-huge ape (although through sheer force of will and massive expenditure of hero points, Loup did not go unconscious). Several rounds later, ChiP was able to shake off the blanket of sleep, and arose to find the rest of the 80âs gang gone, but Loup still being squashed by a huge ape.

ChiP cleared his head for a moment, then blasted the ape with his powerblast. He actually managed to knock the ape back a few steps, then with a second blast sent the ape tumbling down a hill. Loup was freed from his grasp by the impact. The ape regained his feet, and let out a gorilla shout so loud, and so fierce, that both Loup and ChiP were thrown back with fear for a short time. Although Loup shortly regained his faculties, the time was long enough for the ape to make an escape. Loup immediately began his sniffing routine to track the villains.

Waterlord suddenly arrived on the scene, just as the timestop effect was dissipating. He joined Loup in the search for the villains, while ChiP and Grizella secured the van and saw that no accidents occurred as the traffic suddenly started moving again.

Waterlord and Loup were able to track the Gang down through a tunnel they had dug, underground for several miles, into the New York subway system. The continued following the trail into the basement of a hi-rise, up the stairs to the roof, and right to the helipad where the Gang had made good its escape â for now. Waterlord, however, did find a clue on the helipad, when he spotted a newspaper clipping mentioning AlertForceâs new Mid-City base, and commenting on the fact that this base formerly housed AlertForce there in the early 1980âs. Warerlord immediately called that base, and warned them of an attack. Unfortunately, RazorX, Lazarus, Driver and Stiletto were all out getting Pizza, leaving Fiddler alone to mind the store. Waterlord flew to Mid-City forthwith and gave the team a stern talking to and some lessons in defensive strategy.

Meanwhile, Iron Knight was working with the FBI and SEC to assess and repair the damage done at the NYSE. They discovered that someone had entered thousands, if not millions, of transactions into the NYSE computers, designed to topple the Dow Jones average and bring interest rates and the US Economy down to the levels where they were in the 1980âs. The Stock Exchange was immediately shut down, and Iron Knight worked with authorities to attempt to repair the damage. The attack cost the government millions upon millions of dollars, but the economy was eventually shielded from the worst of the damage.

PAL then joined the adventure, and AlertForce stepped up the pace of its investigation. Using the formidable detective skills of the entire team, including PAL, Loup, WaterLord, Iron Knight and ChiP, AlertForce followed a trail of tenuous clues to an apartment in New York, a post office in Pittsburgh, and another apartment in Pittsburgh. PAL attempted to draw out the gang, by scheduling a Men At Work concert, but the team eventually followed the trail to a rural area in Eighty-Four, Pennsylvania, where the secret base of the 80âs gang was located.

AlertForce attacked the base en masse, with PAL teleporting in first and incapacitating BetaMax with four energy blasts. The rest of AlertForce then bashed down the steel door of the underground bunker/complex, and a massive battle was joined. Although the 80âs gang put up a good fight, which included Walkman blinding both PAL and Loup, and Vic-20 dodging for a long, long time, AlertForce eventually worked cooperatively to wear down the Gang, knocking them out of the battle one by one, until only the ape (who had been identified as being named âDonkey Kongâ) still stood. Seeing that he was vastly outnumbered and had no chance for escape, DK wisely surrendered.

Thus, the 80âs gang was brought to justice by the combined and cooperative efforts of AlertForce.

11/25/01: Shylock Subplot:

Chronicle:

Message from Shylock:

For a subplot, I am going to look-up Tony Bagadonuts and see if I can't work my way back into "the family".

I am not sure how you want to work this over email...let me know.

Thanks,

Shylock

GM REPLY:

Ok, you hit the streets and take a few days to make some connections in the underworld in LA. You find out who the big mob bosses are in LA, and they are Tony Bagadonuts and Anthony Stellaconti, Jr. Their groups are at war at the present time. You make some progress in making connections in the Bagadonuts crime family, and are actually able to set up a meeting with Mr. Bagadonuts himself.

You go into the meeting, and Bagadonuts tells you he would like to have you as part of the family, but to prove your loyalty, you have to do a job for him. He tells you he wants you to act as an "enforcer" for them. For example, if some small business in town does not want to pay their protection money, he can call you in to trash their building and start a fire. Or if someone does not pay back a loan, he can send you out to rough them up, break a few fingers, etc. He understands that you are some kind of superhero or something, and he promises that he will never ask you to kill anyone. In exchange, the resources of the Bagadonuts crime family would be at your disposal if you needed help. You could call on them for leads or information on criminal activity in town (other than stuff the Bagadonuts family is doing of course), "muscle" to help with some operation you are running, etc. In essence, you would be able to take back your high level connection in the mob underworld. But to get it, you have to agree to be their "enforcer."

What is your response?

REPLY FROM SHYLOCK:

First: How does this alternate dimension effect my preexisting relationships and past as a "collection agent" for organized crime?

GM REPLY:

Your pre-existing relationships are gone. Until a few months ago, there was no super powered being called Shylock here. There may have been a person here with your DNA (a dimensional counterpart, so to speak) but he was not in an explosion in Cuba, and has no superpowers. No one who you knew in the old dimension knows you here. You have no connections here, no friends, no family.

REPLY FROM SHYLOCK:

I am not a hit man...I am a collections agent. I have no problem spilling a couple of apple carts if that is what it takes to get the money that is owed to the family.

GM REPLY:

Good. Good. He sends you out on a couple of missions to prove your loyalty and ability -- nothing too serious-- shaking down a couple of small businesses for protection money, leaning on a couple folks who owe money to his loan sharks. Tell me this, however. When you go out on doing these little missions he has for you, how will you be dressed? Your Shylock costume you use in AlertForce, normal clothing, or some other costume?

REPLY FROM SHYLOCK:

The attire is definitely not my Alert Force getup. I am thinking black suit with a gray shirt, one or two too many gold chains, a pinky ring and nice fat ring...and I always throw on a classic-styled hat. Per the routine, I put my Alert Force costume in a locker at the bus station.

I want to make sure I sent the Bagadonuts family a nice Christmas card with my best wishes for the New Year.

GM REPLY:

Way Groovy outfit. You should be set with the Bagadonuts family. You can now keep the high level connection with the Mob you originally had, and take 20 hero points as well for the subplot. Anything else you wish to do?

11/25/01: Spexx Subplot:

Chronicle:

General McDonald of U.S. Space Command assigned Spexx to select a group of 20 U.S. Servicepeople to form a secret commando unit under the control of Space Command. Spexx is to design a training program which would allow the team to respond to hostage, invasion, combat, salvage, or other missions in Earth orbit or in space. He has been given a budget to design them combat gear, including battle suits, weaponry, and tools. The team will be stationed ad Space Command HQ in Colorado, and will be at the ready with a small shuttle on stand by for any contingencies. Spexx will be the leader of this team.

11/30/01: High Tech Lynching:

attendees: John Hromada, Maria , Bryan , Ellen , Chad (GM)

Chronicle:

In this weekâs adventure, Major Maximum entered into an employment agreement with the Lockheed/Martin Aircraft company. He has become their chief test pilot as well as a spokesmodel and endorser. He now wears a tasteful Lockheed logo on his uniform sleeve. The contract also allows him the use of Lockheed aircraft when he needs them.

The team also received subpoenas to appear before the U.S. Senate Law Enforcement Subcommitteeâs Congressional hearings on paranormal and superpowered crime and crime fighting. Iron Knight was the first to appear, and spent the better part of the first day of hearings going back and forth between softball questions from Senator Albertus P. Jones of Missouri and a brutal grilling form Senator Lucious R. Bratt from New York.

Late in the day, while questioning was still going on, Iron Knight got a call from Jean Galloway of UNTIL, asking for AlertForceâs assistance in investigating another Alien attack â this time at the South Pole scientific research station in Antartica. Iron Knight excused himself from the hearings, sent out the call for his team, and Grizella, PAL, Major Maximum and Razor X all arrived about the same time at the South Pole.

The found that 55 scientists and personnel at the station had been attacked and killed by aliens. Security tapes revealed that six aliens had attacked. These aliens, although similar to the ones previously fought by Iron Knight and AlertForce several weeks ago, are more humanoid looking, and appear to be able to turn invisible. AlertForce was unable to track the creatures once they had left the research base. PAL also found a crucial clue â on one of the security tapes the âqueenâ alien could be seen accessing the baseâs computers and looking up information on AlertForce and the upcoming senate hearings. AlertForce was quite puzzled by this, and concluded that the aliens were either evolving or that some of the aliens not heretofore seen had much greater intelligence than the others.

Acting on information gained last game, Iron Knight and PAL decided to make an attempt to reach the underground lair the aliens had retreated to, deep within the molten core of the earth. They were able to locate the lair, containing thousands of eggs, hundreds of the standard aliens, and eight to ten newly evolved âhumanoidâ aliens, including one which seemed to be the queen/leader. PAL and Iron Knight videotaped the lair, and PAL was able to create a âmental grenadeâ from two omni-gadgets, which took out almost 30 of the aliens. However, the extreme heat of the earthâs molten core forced PAL and Iron Knight to retreat from the scene before a battle could be waged.

Iron Knight instructed Major Maximum to alert Congressman Jones of the crisis. Max took the subtle approach, and landed a harrier jet on the Congressmanâs lawn at 4am. Although the Congressman was none too happy about that, Max did manage to communicate the message.

When the hearings began again the next morning, security was very tight. Iron Knight showed the committee the video taken the day before, and indicated that he believed the aliens were going to attack the hearings. The hearings were immediately postponed and the building evacuated. On his way out of the building, Senator Bratt was seen giving interviews suggesting that AlertForce had staged the whole affair.

In the chaos while the building was being evacuated, Grizella was snatched by the Catburgler and dragged away before anyone realized what was happening. While Iron Knight and Major Max patrolled the capitol complex looking for the anticipated alien attack, PAL and Razor X tracked Grizella up a few blocks and into a shopping mall.

Grizella was seriously considering joining her âmother,â but slowed things down enough for PAL and Razor X to catch up. When they did (at a food court), Catburgler let Grizella go and made good her escape (but not before Razor X chased her into a victoriaâs secret dressing room).

While Iron Knight was checking the sub-basements under the Capitol building, the anticipated alien attack came. What followed was a battle in the boiler room of the Capitol building between AlertForce and six of the newly-evolved aliens, including the queen, which showcased Iron Knight withstanding massive acid attacks from the aliens, some fancy telekinesis work from Grizella, an incredible flying steel kick from Max, and some nice shooting from PAL. When the dust cleared, the five âsoldierâ aliens lay in pieces in the Capitol basement, but the queen had made good yet another escape from AlertForceâs clutches.

The senate hearings were scheduled again for the following morning.

12/07/01: Kidnapping:

attendees: John Hromada, Maria , Bryan , Ellen , Rob , Chad (GM)

Chronicle:

This weekâs adventure saw the final act of the recent alien saga.

It all began with Iron Knight finishing his testimony before the senate hearings on paranormal activity. This was followed by testimony from Major Maximum, which was highlighted by a very funny moment when Maximum checked his pants for stains after one of the senators asked if he had perjured himself.

Immediately after Maximumâs testimony concluded, AlertForce alarms began going off all over the world. The aliens had left their underground lair and were attacking large cities all over the world. Iron Knight quickly assessed the situation, and dispatched Spexx and Grizella to Los Angeles, told PAL and Maximum to stay and protect Washington D.C., contacted the team in Mid-City and gave them instructions, learned that the Avengers were protecting New York and Chicago, and headed himself to Dallas.

Spexx and Grizella exhibited good teamwork with ChiP in Los Angeles, and defeated the aliens attacking there. Likewise with PAL and Maximum in D.C. (although an errant energy blast from PAL nearly killed a nearby police officer). Iron Knight handled the threat in Dallas, and the new team in Mid-City, after being chased into their headquarters, eventually found a way to kill the aliens attacking there, as well.

After fighting the aliens, Iron Knight then got an emergency call from his wife in Pittsburgh, indicating that his home had been attacked, his wife slashed, and his daughter kidnapped by aliens. After investigating the scene (during which Spexx found a vital clue with his new detective flashlight gadget), Iron Knight headed for where he believed the queen had gone with his child â the spaceship at the bottom of the Pacific where Waterlord had originally discovered the aliens.

He used every hero point and gadget at his disposal to tear his way into the ship and head for the control room. The team eventually joined him thanks to a Spexx teleport.

The queen was indeed on the bridge, and showed the team a video image of Iron Knigthâs daughter being held in some sort of egg/cocoon. She said that if they broke through to the bridge, the daughter would be killed. This didnât sit too well with Iron Knight, who began bashing the door in.

Gas suddenly began spraying into the room, and the team protected themselves, but Grizella had no mask. Spexx teleported her back to AlertForce Mansion in L.A.

When she arrived, she was promptly knocked out by the Catburgler, who had once again thwarted AlertForce security and gained entrance. HAL sent a distress call, and Spexx teleported back to help her. He was also promptly knocked out by the world class martial artist that is the Catburgler. After another distress call from HAL, PAL appeared on the scene, only to find the unconscious Spexx and a very warm trail out into the woods. He followed, and using telescopic vision, managed to get the jump, and surprise, on the Catburgler, who was slowed by carrying the unconscious Grizella over her shoulder. A quick split, invisible teleport and barrage of energy blasts later, and Catburgler lay unconscious on the forest floor.

Grizella, who had revived in the interim, thought PAL was trying to kill Catburgler and started carrying her away with telekinesis. PAL, using his usual subtle charm, blasted them both into an unconscious heap. He took Catburgler to jail and then finally saw to the injured Spexx.

Meanwhile on the Pacific ocean floor, Iron Knight and Maximum were the only ones left facing the alien queen. Making little progress with negotiation, Iron Knight proceeded to bash the door in, and the two teammates stormed the bridge in force. With all his stats doubled, and fifteen omni-gadgets pumping his powers to ridiculous levels, Iron Knight blasted the alien queen into and beyond oblivion, until she was little more than a little acid blotch and a small puff of smoke. Maximum stood there looking a little chagrined that he had nothing to do.

The two then tracked down and rescued Iron Knightâs daughter, bringing that unpleasant chapter to a resounding close.

The next morning, PAL appeared before the senate hearings for his testimony. To the surprise of all, when asked whether AlertForce had committed any crimes, PAL recited a laundry list of crimes, ranging from parking violations to FAA violations, to tax evasion and underage drinking. Although he was attempting to make a point about minor crimes in the service of saving the world, some of the other team members were quite miffed upon hearing the testimony.

For reasons unknown, the Senate adjourned the hearings after PALâs testimony, indicating that they did not want to interfere with a Justice Department investigation that had been commenced based upon some of the testimony.

12/15/01: FAMILY TIES!

attendees: Chad (Razor X) - John (PAL) - Paul (Loup) - Ellen (Max) - Bryan (GM)

This week's game began with a short thwarting of a bank robbery by Razor X. Nothing too difficult, just two thugs with guns. Razor X made short work of them (although a civilian was almost hit by a stray gunshot).

The next bit was quite distressing. Iron Knight revealed to Maximum Bob and Razor X that they were dying. Apparently, their genetic structure was slowly breaking down, and had been since their arrival in this reality. Iron Knight predicted that shortly both (as well as Grizella and Shylock) would degenerate into a blue goo. The only way to prevent the degeneration would be to find a pure DNA sample from a genetic twin or very close family member, to allow Iron Knight to synthesize an antidote drug to prevent further cellular breakdown. Although the team immediately set out searching for genetic matches for Maximum and Razor, neither Grizella nor Shylock could be located.

Loup and Maximum Bob set about finding his roots, and eventually learned that in this reality, there does exist a counterpart Robert Maximum, who happens to be a naval aviator, a pilot, and is stationed in Guam. Maximum's father is a physician, and is also a navy officer, stationed at a naval hospital in florida. Loup stepped out in front of a car in an attempt to gain entry into the navy hospital, to no avail. Eventually, he bluffed his way onto the base and somehow ended up in a golf game with Maximum's father. Although he played a good round of golf, he failed to obtain a DNA sample. Meanwhile, Major Maximum learned that his counterpart has sued both Major Maximum and Lockheed Martin, for appropriation of his face and image. Major Maximum eventually arranged a meeting with his counterpart under the guise of attempting to settle the lawsuit, and was able to obtain a DNA sample by subpoena in the lawsuit itself.

While this was going on. Razor X went to florida himself, to check the house where he grew up in the alternate reality. After finding no sign of his parents, Razor X set about checking everyone in the country named Razor (his real name is Rex Razor) to find relatives or genetic matches. Although much hilarity ensued, in which Razor X tried numerous approaches in his door to door search, with results varying from doors slamming in his face to romantic encounters, Razor X came up with little usable information. Incidentally Razor X captured the AlertForce record for most double - ones rolled in a single game, with three sets rolled this evening.

Undaunted, Razor X solicited PAL to assist in his desperate search. Eventually, the two learned that Razor X's counterpart in this reality was named Neal Razor, and was a scientist working for MARX Corporation on some sort of magnetic research. He had faked his own death over ten years ago in an explosion, and was now running the Ogden, Utah office of MARX under the name Emerson.

Razor X used his oft-overlooked stealth abilities, and miraculously was able to reach the file room in the Ogden Utah MARX office undetected. PAL zapped himself in, and between the two of them, they were able to come up with an address for Emerson, as well as finding an entire file on AlertForce which had apparently been purchased recently from the Catburgler, which included each team member's powers and complete bio, plans of all the bases, and other sensitive information. PAL replaced all the information with false information, and both team members escaped, apparently undetected. Razor even managed to sneak out a complete copy of the MARX file on the SF robot series designs.

Razor X then took the direct approach, and knocked on the door of Mr. Emerson to ask for a DNA sample. This was not met with cooperation, and Razor X soon found himself blown back out of the house, through the porch wall, and several hundred feet back into the perimeter brick wall, as well. Using the little-utilized "blocking" rules, Razor managed to stay conscious long enough for his teammates to arrive, surround his evil doppleganger, and put him out (with hits being scored by PAL, Loup, and Max). Razor X got his DNA sample, and even remembered to find the security system and blank all the recording media with his magnetic powers to erase evidence of the battle, allowing AlertForce to escape the encounter scot free.

The next adventure will no doubt consist of an all points search for Grizella and Shylock, to save their life before time runs out.

1/5/02: PAYING A VISIT TO THE KINGPIN

attendees: Chad (Razor X) - John (PAL) - Rob (Spexx) - Ellen (Max) - Maria (Grizella) - Bryan (GM)

This game began with some behind the scenes maneuvering by Grizella. She undertook some secret efforts to contact her âmotherâ (the Catburgler), which led her on a merry chase to the fish warehouse, and then eventually to New York City.

Meanwhile, Spexx, PAL and RazorX had noticed that Shylock had gone missing, and set about finding him, too. PAL did some logical work with HAL, zeroing in on the place where his communicator had last been monitored, while Spexx and RazorX followed up on a lead Spexx found in Shylockâs room, which led to the GOGO Club, a local exotic dance establishment. Although they got sidetracked several times while there, the final result was that RazorX found a clue by eavesdropping on some mobsters and swiping a cel phone, while Spexx ended up getting into a minor altercation with the proprietors of the joint.

The cel phone clue pointed to New York, but just to be thorough, PAL and Spexx, using info from HAL and Spexxâs analytical smell mask, began tracking Shylock. The investigation finally yielded another clue â a plane ticket, and some fancy talking by Spexx revealed that Shylock had gone to New York the evening before.

At this same time, Major Maximum was resolving his family problems, by settling the lawsuit against himself and Lockheed Martin filed by his dimensional counterpart. The terms of the settlement are the subject of a confidentiality agreement, but Major Bob feels confident he can now get on with his new life unimpeded.

When all the investigations and the dust cleared, Spexx, PAL, RazorX, and Maximum all ended up in front of the same swanky apartment building in New York City. It seemed that all paths led there in the search for Shylock. But in a bizarre twist of fate, just as they were going to make an entrance and find their teammate, a cab pulled up and out stepped Grizella. Although her search for her mother had inexplicably led to precisely the same building, she covered nicely by announcing as she got out of the cab that she thought the others could use a hand so she showed up.

Incapable of conventional teamwork, each teammate set about finding his own way in and pursuing his own plan. Spexx shot a grappling hook and began climbing up to the penthouse, Grizella walked up and was let in by the doorman, Maximum turned to air and floated after Spexx, PAL split and changed into the Catburgler and Shylock, and was also let in, and finally, RazorX took the direct approach, knocked out the doorman, and flew up the stairwell.

The events of the next few minutes were somewhat confused, and will be described differently from the different perspectives of the various people involved, but apparently, Shylock had been tracking down his own counterpart in this dimension to secure a DNA sample to cure his disease (see the chronicle of the last adventure for an explanation). His search had led him here to New York, to the penthouse headquarters of one Mr. Fisk, also known as the Kingpin. Shylockâs counterpart was apparently a lieutenant in the Kingpinâs organized crime syndicate.

Grizella arrived at the penthouse first, was let in, and ushered into an anteroom where she was asked to wait. Spexx and Maximum then arrived on the balcony, where they were confronted by the Cheshire Cat (Catburglerâs henchman and would be boyfriend). Maximum appeared behind him and cold cocked him most riteously, giving Spexx time to pull himself up onto the balcony without attack. The battle ended up bursting into the penthouse apartment, where Kingpin and what appeared to by Shylock were standing.

At this moment, RazorX was coming up the stairwell, and was knocked for a loop by the well placed boot of the Catburgler, who had been waiting in ambush. Initially intimidated, RazorX put out a distress call over his communicator. Regaining his composure, however, he pulled together a nice metal shield from the stairwell railing, and was able to keep the Catburgler at bay and even push her back (before a well placed blow by the newly arrived PAL put her into sweet unconsciousness).

Meanwhile, up in the penthouse, a battle was raging between Spexx, Maximum, Cheshire Cat, the fake Shylock, and the Kingpin (while Grizella patiently waited in the next room, despite the sounds of crashing glass and metal). Max managed to hold Cheshire Cat at bay by a (pardon the pun) cat and mouse game of ânow Iâm air, now Iâm not,â while Spexx blasted the fake Shylock with his teleporter gun. However, Kingpin grappled Spexx, and nearly crushed the life out of him in the process.

At this moment, PAL and RazorX arrived via a teleport and a nice metal torpedo burrowing through the walls.

Spexx, feeling consciousness slipping away, teleported both himself and Kingpin into the next room, where the battle quickly followed. He then zapped the unconscious form of the real Shylock (which was in the room where the battle spilled to) to an emergency room at a hospital in LA. Out of options, he then threw his teleporter to PAL, who quickly aimed and zapped both the surprised Kingpin and Spexx to the same emergency room. Kingpin saw his chance to get out of the situation, and put Spexx on a gurney, called for a doctor, and walked out.

J ack in New York, Cheshire Cat then proceeded to fight RazorX, Grizella (who had emerged from the waiting room), PAL and Maximum to a standstill with his incredible quickness. PAL then zapped him with the teleporter, sending him to that poor emergency room, which was quickly getting crowded.

Seeing the flaw in their plan, PAL quickly zapped Maximum, Grizella, RazorX and himself there as well. The battle was raging on with no end in sight, when Maximum pulled out an omni gadget and created a glue gun to neutralize the quickness of Cheshire Cat. Using the little-known flailing attack (yup, itâs in the rules folksâ¦) Maximum was able to hit and immobilize the speedy Cheshire Cat, allowing PAL and RazorX to put him out of everyoneâs misery.

With this caper ended the saga of the DNA wars. Maximum, RazorX, Grizella and Shylock were all able to obtain correct genetic materials to arrest their diseases, and all were feeling fine after the treatments administered by the suddenly leader-like Iron Knight.

Stay tuned for more adventures, same time next week!

1/11/02: ANIMAL ADVENTURES

attendees: Chad (Razor X) - John (PAL) - Rob (Spexx) - Ellen (Max) - Maria (Grizella) - Paul (Loup) - Margeaux(elf warrior maiden) - Bryan (GM)

This eveningâs adventures were highlighted by great feats of animal taming!

The night began with Razor X noticing a large humanoid robot streaking across the atlantic right at Mid-City. Further investigation revealed that it was a Marx SF style robot â just like the old days! After summoning his teammates, Razor was able to meet it some distance out to sea and immobilize it with his magnetic control. The rest of the team (in the form of Maximum, Spexx, PAL and Loup) arrived in short order and a melee of gigantic proportions ensued. Max put a healthy dent in the robotâs head, while loup took a flying leap from shore that went awry, landing loup in the drink. While PAL blasted the robot, Spexx teleported large quantities of water inside him. Razor X held the beast still for his teammates to attack. Eventually, the team was able to blast the robot into a defunct state, which shortly thereafter brought about the normal reaction from SF robots, a huge explosion (which caused a minor tidal wave).

The clear highlight of the battle, however, was when Loup, with no way to leap out of the water to rejoin the battle, spotted a passing shark, hopped up onto its back, and used that as a jumping point to leap onto the robotâs shoulder and back into the fray.

When the dust (or droplets) had cleared, AlertForce had managed to save Mid-City from any significant damage, and to save its new Headquarters from nearly certain destruction.

Meanwhile, back in LA, ChiP was investigating the strange disappearance of three patrons at the LA Museum. A group of museum patrons were on a tour and were looking at an antique mirror, when the mirror glowed and three people disappeared. The police had locked down the museum and were investigating (with ChiPâs assistance) when the rest of the waterlogged AlertForce team (including Loup Garou, Iron Knight, Razor X, Maximum Bob, Spexx, PAL, and Grizella).

Investigations soon revealed that someoneâs antique bracelet, coupled with some ancient incantations which were spoken by the tourgide had somehow triggered some kind of magical force in the mirror. A short search by PAL soon yielded the bracelet, and the team prepared to âenterâ the mirror to rescue the three missing people. It was decided that Iron Knight would stay behind with the bracelet, and attempt to activate the mirror/portal as an escape route in an hour, and then at hourly intervals thereafter. One of PALâs split personas would also stay behind.

Sure enough, the team was able to reactivate the mirror/portal, and the rescuers slipped through the glowing mirror, into a medieval type world. They were in a vast plain near the edge and some mountains, with a great stone city in the distance.

Upon arrival, PAL soon realized that he was out of contact with his primary computer banks, and as such had to rely on his mobile image generators, giving him only an hour of âlife.â Seldom, if ever, have we seen PAL so task-oriented.

While Loup and Spexx argued over which way the scent and tracks led, some teammates soon sensed that there was an unseen observer stalking the team. Several failed attempts and one successful attempt later, the invisible assailant was identified and exposed as a strange but beautiful elven female, complete with pointed ears, invisibility cloak, and bow and arrows. After deciding that Razor X was a wizard, she spilled her tale. She claimed that she had somehow been magically transported here, and that on her arrival, she had, indeed, seen three strangers dressed in outfits that marked them as not being from this world. They were quickly apprehended by some kind of military guards in red outfits, and taken to the city, where they were taken into a tower.

At the moment she finished speaking, three other elves appeared and drew their swords. The first elf quickly disappeared beneath her cloak, and some fast talking (and wizard impersonation by Razor X) calmed the situation down, and the three newcomers announced they were hunting an elf maiden/warrior who was very dangerous. AlertForce did not give away her secret, and the three hunters went on their way.

Finding the wizard charade somewhat effective, the team maintained that as cover, and approached the city in search of the three missing earth people. They were met at the gates by questioning guards, and some more fast talking by Razor X (with the assistance of some chameleon tricks from PAL) gained the team entry into the city without the necessity of force. Razor X (masquerading as a powerful mage) was taken to the lord of the city under heavy guard, while the rest of the team was taken to a local bar and allowed to wait.

Razor X had a brief interview with the cityâs chief wizard, and barely managed to maintain the faÃ§ade of his cover story. He claimed to be a wizard from far away, in search of the three innocent and lost travelers. The city master appeared to be skeptical about the story, and suggested that he might ransom the detainees, but allowed Razor X and his entourage to have quarters for the evening while he mulled it over.

While Razor X was with the city master, one copy of PAL and Spexx (contrary to Loupâs express and repeated orders) were scouting the city and down into some dungeons to find the captives). They eventually did, but not before triggering every alarm in the place.

At that same time, back in the quarters, the other copy of PAL was learning about the elf warrior maiden who was traveling with the team. She had suffered some injury and was slightly disabled, and PALâs computer heart resolved to care for and assist the innocent and unfortunate girl. Razor X then arrived back, and while he explained what had happened with the chief wizard, Loup suddenly noticed the scent of the three elf hunters, climbing the walls outside seeking entry into the chamber. Some quick thinking and uncharacteristic cooperation by Razor X and Major Maximum quickly ended the threat. Maximum turned to iron, and Razor X used him as a battering ram with magnetic control, to dislodge the climbing elves, sending them plummeting to the ground several stories below. Battered and unconscious, their gear quickly found its way into the greedy mitts of a suddenly D&D-like Major Maximum.

PAL and Spexx soon located the captives in the deepest part of the dungeon, and some quick teleporting by Spexx landed the team right in the midst of a heavy rescue effort. While there, the team was confronted by two wizards and at least five guards. The fracas which ensued saw the elf maiden feigning a faint (to PALâs great chagrin), Loup, Spexx and the other version of PAL doing some excellent knockout work on guards and wizards, Razor X making short work of the bars imprisoning the captives, and Major Maximum again resorting to his now-trademark glue gun solution, immobilizing all remaining wizards and guards, along with several of his teammates, and effectively ending the combat.

After teleporting all the captives back to the jump point (and realizing that Iron Knight would be opening the portal again in about two minutes, the team attempted a quick escape, but not before the townâs chief badass wizard arrived, and started opening up his industrial strength can of whoopass. The team managed to teleport away, but still had an agonizingly long two minutes to wait before the portal would open.

A few seconds later, sure enough, the chief wizard appeared on the horizon, riding a huge and ancient dragon. Both seemed intent on putting AlertForce out of its misery.

Its back to the proverbial wall, AlertForce sprung into action. PAL started attacking the dragon with his energy blasts, to no avail. Loup launched an attack on the dragonâs head, which only made him angrier. The strange elf maiden suddenly showed her true colors, grabbing one of the bows Max took from her pursuers, and drilling an arrow straight and true, striking deep into the flesh of the wizardâs arm.

Seizing that moment, Razor X used magnetic control to jerk the harness and saddle off the great beast, sending the wizard into a freefall toward the ground. Razor X then jumped right onto the back of the great dragon, and using his own metal bars/harness as a bit (and his little-known and less used skill of animal handling) managed for a few moments to control and ride the great behemoth of a dragon.

When the wizard reached the ground and struggled to get up and get his act together, Grizella (finally, after two weeks of sitting in waiting rooms and sleeping) pounced. She grabbed the arrow shaft sticking out of the wizardâs arm, yanked it out with all her might, and stabbed him in the heart with it. This put an end to the man very quickly.

Meanwhile, at just about that moment, the portal opened. The team clamored through the hole, with Razor X leaping from the back of the dragon straight through, just before the whole area was singed by the dragonâs fiery breath.

With that narrow rescue and escape, the eveningâs adventures ended.

Same bat time, same bat channel next week for more exciting adventures!

1/18/02: THE HUNT FOR RED ALERTFORCE

attendees: Chad (Razor X) - Rob (Spexx) - Ellen (Max) - Greg(Waterlord) - Shawn (Shilock) - Bryan (GM)

This eveningâs adventure began with Waterlord renewing his search for Atlantis. Checking out another of his possible locations (see Waterlordâs subplot chronicle, in the updated AlertForce Archive), he found the site of what appeared to have been a great undersea battle. He found rusted suits of armor bearing some kind of âAâ within a strange crest, along with weapons and other debris littering the sea floor. But before he could fully investigate the strange find, he got an alarm from HAL concerning a ship sinking in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. He (followed shortly by Razor X) immediately rushed to the scene.

Waterlord arrived first, to find that the ship was a large cargo vessel, and was almost gone beneath the waves. He found that there was a six foot gaping hole just below what was the normal waterline of the vessel. Using his power of water control, Waterlord soon had the ship back on the surface, and the water pumping out through the hole. Upon his arrival, Razor X helped the shipâs crew move a metal sheet over the hole to effect repairs.

Waterlord and Razor then conducted an investigation as to the cause of the near sinking. They found through interviews with the crew that the ship had been attacked by some kind of sharks, then rammed by a submarine that seemed to take a bite out of the side of the ship. A strange humanoid with tentacles growing from its shoulders then boarded and made off with several of the cargo boxes.

Waterlord immediately set off into the sea to locate this sub, while Razor X continued the investigation, attempting to determine the cargo that was stolen (with little or no luck). During his investigation, some military aircraft appeared on the scene, followed shortly by a full battle fleet complete with an aircraft carrier. As it turns out, the vessel that was attacked was carrying some kind of military cargo. The ship was soon boarded by a military officer with a big cigar in his mouth, whom Razor X immediately recognized as this dimensionâs counterpart of the military leader of his superhero group (the Freedom Force) from the alternate dimension, General Crabass. Razor X had no love for Crabass, and quickly used his magnetic powers to pants the dude.

About this time, Spexx (after some hasty repairs to his suddenly-malfunctioning teleport gun) arrived on the scene with Maximum Bob. The three of them continued the investigation, through various ineffective and semi effective means, until through nothing more than dogged refusal to give up and dumb luck, they learned that the cargo stolen had been shipments of reactor-grade plutonium.

For some reason, Razor X followed Crabass back aboard the aircraft carrier and ended up being politely (not) asked to leave the carrier. Thus thwarted, he attempted to use his shark telepathy to contact the sharks that attacked the other ship. He got an intuitive hunch that they were headed north, and set off in pursuit. Eventually, sensing a large metallic body under the waves, he used his magnetic control to pull the thing to the surface. He was quite surprised to learn suddenly that he had mistakenly raised the Titanic.

Just about this time, several things happened.

First, HAL informed Razor X, Spexx and Maximum Bob that another vessel was under attack to the west of their location. The three set off to investigate. Razor X stopped briefly to deposit the Titanic on the deck of the aircraft carrier before going.

Second, Shilock arrived at the Mid-city base (after buying a really stylish leather coat), and, seeing that he had been abandoned by his teammates, set out in a dinghy to row out to the scene of the investigation. Several superspeed minutes later, he arrived. Finding none of his teammates at the original coordinates, he soon zeroed in on Waterlordâs location.

Second, Waterlord found a suspicious sub zooming away from the scene of the attack. When he got close, it attacked him with a laser beam. He used this as an excuse to board, and suddenly found himself confronted with three crewmembers attacking him with swords and yelling in a strange, foreign tongue. Waterlord quickly subdued the three attackers and surfaced the sub (right under a very surprised Shilock). He did a little checking with HAL and finally determined that the language these three were speaking was Atlantean. Waterlord had finally discovered proof of Atlantis.

Meanwhile, his teammates were confronting an attack of quite another kind. They arrived at the scene of the other vessel to find it drifting, with another submarine somehow clamped onto its side just beneath the waterline. Spexx and Maximum Bob quickly boarded and found themselves confronting several thugs offloading cargo boxes onto the sub, as well as the strange, tentacled humanoid seen in the security tapes from the first attack. Battle was quickly joined. Spexx tried and failed on his first attempt to teleport the tentacled attacker away, while Bob made short work of a couple of the thugs with his new permanent glue gun. The tentacled attacker soon threw a cargo box and Bob, pinning him beneath a heap of twisted metal for a few seconds.

The battle raged chaotically for a short time, with Razor X joining the fray and trying to attack with boxes and Spexx continuing his attempts to teleport the foe away, but he was too fast, smart, and powerful, and resisted. Maximum Bob eventually turned the tide with (of course) his glue gun. He got in a good shot, which slowed down the enemy enough for Razor X to get in a good shot with a metal box, and finally allowed Spexx to latch on with his teleport beam and send the foe away (to the maximum security supervillain prison facility in Louisiana).

Right about this time, Waterlord and Shilock arrived in the Atlantean sub they had captured, with their three prisoners tied up and in tow in the dinghy. Seeing an apparent attack in progress, Waterlord fired on the other sub (the one attached to the cargo ship). His attack was soon aborted when he learned that things were under control, and Razor X quickly repaired the damage to the sub.

After receiving a distress call from the supervillain prison in Louisiana, where they had apparently been surprised by Spexxâs special delivery, Spexx, Maximum Bob, and Shilock teleported there to subdue the tentacled attacker. The three showed some rare teamwork, with coordinated and simultaneous team attacks, and eventually were able to put down the powerful undersea villain and place him in an appropriate restraint.

Back in the atlantic, Razor X and Waterlord were inspecting the submarines, detaching the one from the cargo vessel it had attacked, and again effecting repairs to the damaged ship. Much to everyoneâs surprise, scanners soon revealed the approach of four other submarines. While Razor X used his magnetic control to lift the attack submarine out of the water, turning it into a strange, lumbering aircraft/dirigible, Waterlord soon found himself surrounded by four Atlantean subs surfacing, and confronted by a very angry Atlantean King (also known as that former superfriend, hook-handed, fish talker â Aquaman).

Aquaman quickly demanded the release of Waterlordâs three prisoners (which prompted one of the funnier lines of the evening, when Waterlord, with a genuinely surprised look on his face, remarked âOh! They must have somehow tied themselves up! Here, let me take care of that.â). Aquaman did not seem amused, and using some kind of magic trident, soon had Waterlord wrapped in a stasis field and was carrying him off to Atlantis.

Razor X interrupted a chorus of âchitty chitty sub subâ long enough to take a glance at his communicator and learn that Waterlord had been captured. There was little, however, which he could do but watch and wait.

Waterlord, after several minutes of deep thought, was finally able to slip (or should I say drip) out of captivity, but allowing himself to slowly leak out of a small hole in his rubber costume, while using water control to replace himself with other water, thus creating a water-filled simulacrum, golem or replica of himself which the Atlanteans still had in custody. Waterlord slipped away just before the entourage entered the great domed city of Atlantis, but stuck around just outside the dome and maintained his control and vigil over his doppleganger, which was taken to a holding cell.

Several hours later, the guards returned to the cell and told Waterlordâs inanimate self that an investigation had shown that the Atlanteans had, in fact, fired on him first, and that he was being released. Of course, Waterlord could not respond. Thinking quickly, however, Razor X, who was monitoring through the communicator which was still on the belt of Waterlordâs costume, responded by talking through the communicator. Waterlordâs suit (and communicator) were released by the Atlanteans, thinking all the while that it was the real Waterlord.

This, after a few passes over Mid-City by a strange, submarine shaped airship, ended the nightâs adventures.

1/25/02: The Battle of Britain:

attendees: John (Daedalus), Maria (Grizella), Paul (Loup), Bryan (Earth), Ellen (Major Maximum), Rob (Spexx), Greg (Waterlord),Chad (GM)

**THIS GAME ALSO MARKED THE FIRST GAME USING THE NEW "BLOOD OF HEROES" RULESET FROM PULSAR GAMES!

Chronicle:

This weeks adventure began with the introduction of two new members to the team.

In Pittsburgh, Iron Knight found that his armor was malfunctioning, and then announced his semi-retirement from the team. To replace himself, he recruited Earth, an elemental-style mound of earth with the abilities to control and manipulate dirt.

In LA, ChiP was going after a gang of super skateboarders called the Shredders, when he encountered a local superhero called Daedalus, who made short work of the gang, who were attacking people using flying skateboards. After the teens were safely in custody, ChiP recruited Daedalus into AlertForce. Daedalus has mystical powers, including mystic blast and mystic field. It has been quite a while since AlertForce had a member with magic-based powers.

Back at HQ, while Loup slept of a night of partying with the Hollywood crowd, and Grizella slept in as usual, Major Bob surfed the internet in search of his new obsession: adamantium. He found a textbook on how to make it, and put a bid on it on ebay. We will see next adventure if he gets any closer to obtaining some.

That morning, the team was awakened by some startling news. The media was reporting that Great Britain had inexplicably and without warning attacked France. Apparently British F-16 aircraft had overnight bombed government buildings in Paris, killing hundreds. Britain had then issued a press release that it was withdrawing from the UN, NATO, and the European Union, and was expelling all foreign diplomats immediately.

AlertForce (complete with its two new members, Daedalus and Earth) was soon summoned by Jean Galloway to UN Headquarters in New York, and informed that the UN suspected that Tony Blair (the British Prime Minister), the Queen, and a number of Parliament Ministers were either under mind control or imposters. She told AlertForce that the United States and the European powers had given the UN twelve hours to get to the bottom of the problem, before an all out attack was launched against Britain. This would mean World War III. Galloway informed AlertForce that if they were captured or botched the situation, the UN and UNTIL would disavow all knowledge of them and the mission.

Loup Garou, Maximum Bob, Spexx, Grizella, Daedalus and Earth immediately set out for England to stop the war and get to the bottom of the situation. Their hastily-formed plan was to enforce a no-fly zone over the English Channel, announcing to the world over the media that AlertForce was putting an end to the hostilities.

When the team got close to the Island, it was immediately attacked by several flights of F-16âs. The team made relatively short work of this attack, with Spexx effectively teleporting debris into the planeâs engines, and Major Maximum commandeering several of the aircraft himself and engaging in some serious dogfighting. Unfortunately, Loup (who was performing the miracle of water walkingâ¦ errrâ¦. Running) could do little to assist in the battle lest he sink to the bottom of the ocean. In addition, Grizella took a direct hit from a Sidewinder missile during the encounter, which nearly ended her life. Only some expenditures of hero points, and some quick action by Earth and Spexx saved the young heroineâs skin.

Once the air battle was ended, Loup headed for Paris to get on the news with AlertForceâs interdiction, while the rest of the team (except Daedalus) took up positions in the channel to stop all air traffic. Just at this time, Waterlord also appeared on the scene. He and Earth set out to traverse England and destroy every runway they could find, in support of the air traffic interdiction.

While battle raged over the channel, and runways at airfields all over England were exploding, Loup reached a TV station in Paris, and was able to get on the air to announce AlertForce was ending the hostilities.

Over the Channel, AlertForce was attacked by another 8 fighters, along with an armada of the British Navy. Spexx, Grizella and Major Bob handled the fighters, while Loup attempted to attack the ships. The battle was intense, but ended with the fighters at the bottom of the sea (thanks to Spexx, Max and Griz with some nice teamwork) and so were the ships (thanks to Spexx teleporting large chunks of their hulls away). Spexx later noted that he had been the first aggressive force in history ever to defeat the British Navy.

Meanwhile, just after Loupâs Parisian TV announcement, British Prime Minister Blair appeared on the steps of 10 Downing Street for a little press conference of his own, in which he announced that due to the meddling of US Superhero team AlertForce, Britain was declaring war on the United States.

In the crowd for this press conference, Daedalus (the only team member interested in getting to the bottom of the mystery, instead of fighting a war) zapped Blair and his two bodyguards with a mystic blast, and tried to get in close to investigate Blair.

Earth and Waterlord arrived just at this time, and caused mass havoc on the scene, with tidal waves erupting from nearby fountains and hydrants, and the earth bursting forth beneath the grandstand. In the chaos, Waterlord grabbed Blair and took him out to sea, Earth attempted (quite unsuccessfully) to impersonate Blair), and Daedalus slipped into 10 Downing Street disguised as a British cop.

What followed was about the most pitiful excuse for an investigation which has ever been exhibited. Daedalus managed to stumble onto a few clues, Loup arrived and beat some information out of 10 Downing Street, and Waterlord managed a few witty lines while holding Tony Blair in an oxygen bubble at the bottom of the sea. When the dust cleared, AlertForce had learned that several months ago, Blair had apparently been replaced by an imposter. Shortly before the abduction and replacement, a tiny robot had climbed through the window and taken a DNA sample from the sleeping Blair. The robot had apparently been deposited there by the gardening contractor â World Beautification, Inc. An investigation of that companyâs offices yielded a clue pointing to the Inventor â AlertForceâs old arch-enemy.

Loup Garou spent massive hero points to boost his smell powers, and began tracking the Inventorâs trail over land and sea. All roads led north when the eveningâs adventures came to a close.

The team is intent next time on pursuing the Inventorâs trail wherever it leads, with the exception of Daedalus and Major Maximum, who decided to take a detour to Buckingham Palace and smack the Queen, just for fun.

Tune in next time for more adventures!

2/1/02: The Queen's Knickers:

attendees: John (Daedalus), Maria (Grizella), Bryan (Earth), Ellen (Major Maximum), Rob (Spexx), Greg (Waterlord),Chad (GM)

This weekâs adventure began just where the last session ended â with Loup, Grizella, Earth, Waterlord and Spexx headed north, tracking the Inventorâs trial, and Major Maximum and Daedalus headed to Buckingham Palace to put a whoopin on the fake Queen.

The northward trek was immediately interrupted by a call from Jean Galloway (Director of UNTIL), who informed AlertForce that a squadron of F16 Fighter/Bombers was crossing the Atlantic, headed for New York. Earth, Spexx and Waterlord immediately diverted there. A few short battle rounds later, the F16s were in the drink, thanks to Spexxâs new remote control gadget, which he used to take control of two of the aircraft, Earthâs gravity attacks, and Waterlordâs homage to Maximum Bob, wherein he used spirit travel to gain entry into one of the planes and eject the pilot.

Meanwhile, back in the arctic circle, Loup and Grizella were rushing toward the Inventorâs secret lair, when Loup was attacked by some unseen force, with devastating effect. Loup went tumbling into the sea, and Grizella soon followed. When she recovered her wits, Grizella had to telekinetically fish Loup out of the drink â he was completely incapacitated. Unable to continue the tracking or to effectively assist Loup, Grizella found a passing fishing vessel (Japanese) and took Loup on board, much to the surprise of the crew.

At this same time, in London, Daedalus and Maximum were hiding in some bushes across from Buckingham Palace, which was surrounded by hundreds of soldiers, two machine gun nests, and three tanks. Using his head, Maximum threw a big rock to the other side to create a diversion, and slipped up to the entrance unnoticed, in air form. He then flew up to a vacant second story window and slipped inside. Daedalus incapacitated the crew of one of the tanks with some magic blasts, and jumped atop the tank, creating a diversion to mask Maximumâs entry into the palace. He then zapped the two soldiers manning one of the machine gun nests, and leapt into its relative safety. Inside, Maximum grabbed one of the soldiers patrolling the halls, and took his uniform â a-la the Wizard of Oz. He quickly pounded the two guards outside the Queenâs bedroom and pushed his way inside, to face the âfakeâ Queen (some irony there). He then, for some reason, dragged her out onto the balcony, and held her upside down off the edge by her ankles, yelling âNobody move or the Queen takes a fall!â This created a stalemate with the soldiers outside, and exposed the Queenâs knickers to the worldâs view (for the first time in history).

Spexx, Earth and Waterlord, having disposed of the fighter threat to the USA, heard over their communicators about the commotion in London, and soon (thanks to some zaps from Spexxâs teleporter) appeared on the balcony to render assistance. Eight or nine zapping sounds later, and the team, along with the fake Queen, all found themselves in the New York basement headquarters of UNTIL, where the Queen was deposited into custody with the fake Prime Minister.

The team conducted an interrogation, and learned that this Queen had been mentally programmed since birth to hate France. With the nagging/urging of Jean Galloway, the team then decided it was time to get to the bottom of the problem, and took up the search for the Inventor once more. Teleporting to an airfield in Northern England, AlertForce quickly subdued the forces there and commandeered a C130 transport plane. They were quickly heading north once more.

Meanwhile, in the icy north Atlantic, Grizella traded some strange banter with the Japanese crew of the fishing vessel, then decided it was time to rejoin her team. She soon found her way south, and climbed aboard the C130 with her teammates.

As comfortable as the aircraft was (not) for our heroes, they quickly decided that they could make their way north faster via other means, and soon were standing on an island of rock and mud dredged up by Earth, and hurtling north at high speed (with the exception of Waterlord, who was taking a submarine route just below them).

When they got within 50 miles of the north pole, the team was attacked by three incredibly high speed missiles, which tried to freeze them with ice rays as they passed. Initially daunted by the massive speed of the objects, AlertForce rallied to gain victory, helped in large part once again by Spexxâs remote control device (which crashed two of the missiles) and Grizellaâs telekinetic grab and slow maneuver for the third.

Underwater, Waterlord approached the absolute north pole, and, using spirit travel, headed up through the icecap. He soon discovered a complex of cave openings in the ice just beneath the surface. Peeking inside, he found the bottommost chamber of the Inventorâs secret lair. He rejoined his team on the surface, and (despite seeking the tunnel entrance on the surface) they decided to circumvent whatever defenses were in place, and tunnel down to the bottom chamber.

At this point, near chaos ensued, with Earth transmuting vast quantities of ice to vapor, Spexx teleporting large chunks away, and Waterlord inexplicably creating fog in the area. Amid flying ice, fog, and a hailstorm, the team eventually created a vertical tunnel/shaft down to just outside the lowest chamber of the Inventorâs lair. Inside, they saw through the thin ice two large forms awaiting them.

Suddenly, the ice exploded, and the team was attacked by two seven-foot robots, with zap guns blazing.

The battle which ensued was a tough one for AlertForce. The robots were armed with both teleport rays and shrink rays. After initial good hits by Major Bob, Earth and Grizella, Spexx was teleported 250 miles away to the edge of the arctic circle, Waterlord was teleported away to the bottom of the sea, and Grizella was teleported 250 miles up into space (a hostile environment indeed).

Daedalus, who had decided to slip away and try a more direct approach, had gone down into the main tunnel entrance to the lair, only to find himself blinded by a flash zap from one of the guardian robots stationed there. He was forced to airwalk/stumble back to the surface, and to safety.

Down in the bottom chamber, after the numerous teleportations, and a shrinking of Maximum Bob into âMinimum Bobâ (a nickname coined by Spexx), Earth found himself alone (or at least apparently alone â Minimum Bob was still on the scene and attacking, but with the aspect of a buzzing fly, or a tiny, invisible flying gay man). Earth faced down the robots and dared them to teleport him. When they failed, he grabbed one and started bashing. Maximum had wormed his way inside the other and was slashing away at circuits and wires. Earthâs physical attacks had no effect, so he instead decided to turn the nitrogen inside the robot to explosive hydrogen, which finished off the robot.

Spexx, Waterlord and a rescued-from-orbit Grizella arrived back on the scene just in time to see the explosion of one of the robots, and teleport the other away before it blew up.

The teamâs communicators then cracked with the voice of the Inventor, who told the team that despite the fact that they had thwarted his defenses, he doubted they would be able to rescue the leaders from his diabolical death trap, and was certain they would never capture him. He was correct only on the latter prediction.

The team soon found his devices, which consisted of a vat of acid in which the leaders were trapped in fragile glass tubes in the bottom, and a time accelerator device, in which adolescent versions of the US president, the UN Secretary, and (believe it or not) Madonna were being âaged.â

The vat of acid was a bit of a poser, until Earth used his transmogrify power to change it slowly into harmless water. The soggy but safe British leaders were then fished out and taken back to London, where the whole mess was soon sorted out, world war averted.

Press accounts of the events were somewhat muddled, with AlertForce being alternately branded as saviors and villains, but the main press photo on front pages around the world for the next few days was Major Maximum (dressed as a British soldier) holding the Queen upside down off a balcony, her knickers waving in the wind.

Tune in next time for Robâs debut as AlertForce GM!!

2/8/02: From Lex to Lobo:

attendees: Bryan (Earth), Ellen (Major Maximum), Rob (GM), Chad (Razor X)

This week marked the debut of Rob as GM in the AlertForce campaign.

This weekâs adventure began with Razor X returning from a photo safari to the jungles of Africa. He captured some spiffy wildlife photos, which he managed to sell to a travel magazine. Just as Razor X returned, Spexx decided to take a well-earned vacation, by going on a long cruise of the Carribean. He handed his trusty teleportation gun to Major Bob for safekeeping, and headed for warmer climes.

The team then got invited by the U.S. Council of Governors to an awards ceremony in the city of Metropolis (yes, home of that lame hero, Superman). Awards were being given out by the Council in recognition of civic duty, and AlertForce, with the recent prevention of WWIII, somehow got on the list. Major Maximum, Earth and Razor X got all dressed up in tuxes, and showed up for the gala.

The evening was shaping up nicely, with Major Maximum posing for the fashion mags, Razor X working the room, and Earth beating up a couple of bikers outside who had the poor judgment to litter in his presence. The gala event started uneventfully. It was attended by many superheroes, including Hawkman, who actually spoke to AlertForce, and the main award was to be presented to Superman. The dinner and preliminary awards preceded the presentation of AlertForceâs award, which saw Maximum Bob taking the stage and making an acceptance speech so long Razor X had to physically drag him from the podium.

At this point, things got downright interesting. When the guest of honor (none other than Superman) finally arrived, Razor X was mingling in the crowd, and noticed a man dressed like a wizard, who had been waiting in the wings all evening, reaching into his robes to pull out something. Superman was looking nervously at the guy from the podium, so Razor X leapt for the guy and screamedâ¦.

âGUN!!â

Chaos then broke loose in the room. Razor X tackled the man and wrestled a magic wand out of his grip. Superman seemed stunned, and the rest of the people in the room (yes, including the many superheroes in attendance) dove for the floor.

At this moment, a blonde bimbo-type woman who had arrived on the arm of the Mayor of Metropolis stood up, pulled a big, greasy, nasty looking knife from her dress, aimed it at Superman (still standing at the podium, stunned), and zapped him into unconsciousness. As she jumped toward Supes, with some kind of strange birdcage in hand, Earth and Maximum leapt in and slammed her down hard, knocking her cold before she could get to the Man of Steel. As she dropped, she changed into a dumpy looking, dirty, smelly old man with a belt full of chicken bones and trinkets â who looked like some kind of Voodoo priest. Earth quickly tried to revive Superman, to no avail.

The police quickly secured the area, and took the Wizard whom Razor X nabbed and the Voodoo guy into custody. Superman was quickly transported to a hospital.

At this point, the team effectively split into two branches. Earth and Maximum tried to figure out how to help Superman, while Razor X followed whatever leads he could to find out what had happened and who was behind it.

Razor X interrogated the Mayor, and learned that he had first met the blonde woman on a vacation in Antigua only a few days ago. He also interrogated the Wizard, who said hs name was Dr. H. Spenser Tutmouse, and claimed that he was a member of the âCouncil of Merlinâ (whatever that is) and was actually attempting to help Superman. He further claimed to have dreamed of the attack. He also said that the attackerâs name was Darius Caldera, and that he was not responsible for the attack, because he was possessed at the time. The police released the man, but Razor X did not give back his magic wand.

X then went to Antigua, where he found the blond woman, who had never left the island. He also found that the grubby Voodoo man had also been on the island, and was suspected of murdering a local Voodoo priestess the week before. Razor X surmised that for some reason, the man had killed the Voodoo priestess, had then learned of the liaison between the Mayor of Metropolis and the blonde prostitute, and had gone to Metropolis himself, and impersonated the blonde to get into the awards dinner.

Meanwhile, back in Metropolis, Hawkman arrived at the hospital, where Superman was going downhill fast. Nothing the doctors could do was helping. He told Earth and Maximum that the only hope Superman had was to get him to his Fortress of Solitude in the arctic (again?), where he had some medical devices that could possibly save him. Eager to help the Man of Steel, Maximum used Spexxâs teleport gun, and soon Earth, Maximum, Hawkman and the dying Superman were in the impressive Fortress of Solitude â Supermanâs sanctum sanctorum.

Unfortunately, neither Hawkman nor either of the AlertForce members could read Kryptonian. As such, the machines were useless to them. Remembering Spexxâs comprehend languages goggles, Maximum and Earth soon zapped themselves to where Spexx was â which happened to be a beach in Antigua, where his cruise ship was docked, having a beer with Razor X.

X soon brought them up to speed on his investigation, and after delivering the goggles to Hawkman and leaving him to help Superman if he could, they formed a plan to get some more information about the Voodoo man who attacked the Man of Steel, by infiltrating a local Voodoo ceremony that night. With some suitable special effects thanks to Razor X, Earth arose from the ground and proclaimed himself the Earth spirit. The Voodoo priests were only to happy to cooperate, and told him that the man who attacked Superman had been on the island for several weeks, had made contact with and eventually murdered their local Voodoo priestess, and had stolen a list of magical ingredients and reagents before disappearing.

Hawkman soon called to tell AlertForce that he had figured out a way to revive Superman, but in order to do it he would need to create a medication. The problem was that the medication called for an ingredient called Krypto-minite (a mineral similar to Kryptonite, made from portions of the home planet of Superman). The only known samples of Krypto-minite were in the possession of STAR Labs and Lex Luthor (a prominent Metropolis businessman).

Earth and Maximum approached Luthor, but he declined to give them a sample, claiming that the substance was not FDA approved. Earth immediately telephoned the press, informing them that Luthor had the power to save Superman but refused to do so.

They then attempted to gain entry to the STAR Labs facility where their sample was rumored to be, but found on arrival that a recent explosion had destroyed it. It appeared that Luthor was the only hope.

The President, on learning of the situation, ordered Luthor to turn over the sample. Apparently, the Lexcorp subsidiary that had possession of the substance was working under government contracts, giving the President jurisdiction. AlertForce was contacted and instructed to meet Luthor at Lex Towers (in Metropolis) the following morning, to receive the sample.

Meanwhile, Razor X continued to backtrack on the trail of the man who had attacked Superman. He learned through HAL that several members of a Voodoo type religion in New Mexico had been murdered a few weeks ago. He proceeded there to investigate.

In Metropolis, when Earth and Maximum arrived to meet Luthor and get the sample of Krypto-minite, a terrible, terrible event occurred. As they stood on Lex Plaza, 70 stories above them, a 747 slammed into the side of one of the Towers, raining fire and carnage down onto the street below.

Earth and Maximum (and even Lex Luthor) sprang into action immediately. Earth summoned all his strength to transmute the oxygen around the fire area to another gas, thus smothering the flames. Maximum flew up into the inferno and began teleporting victims to safety. And Luthor jumped in his air car and started flying people to safety, as well.

With the building burning and in danger of collapse, Maximum took a quick trip to New Mexico to fetch Razor X for assistance. He immediately began using his magnetic control to stabilize the Tower, now in danger of falling. Somehow, miraculously, AlertForce and Luthor managed to evacuate the entire tower, preventing any more deaths than those who had perished in the immediate crash and fire (still quite a few).

Sadly, none on the scene were anticipating the second attack. Even as Razor X struggled to stabilize the beams of Tower 1 and Earth and Maximum coordinated with firefighters and other rescue teams, a second plane slammed into Tower 2 right before their eyes!

In a bizarre episode of deja-vu, the team sprang into action once more. Earth again attempted to extinguish the flames while Maximum frantically evacuated people from the tower. Razor X flew out a broken window in Tower 1 and into the crash site in Tower 2, and tried desperately to hold the building together with his magnetic powers. The damage to Tower 2 was much more severe. The building held for a few minutes â barely long enough for Maximum to evacuate all of the workers from the vicinity â and then began a devastating collapse. Razor X, still inside at the time, managed to quickly locate and grab the âblack boxesâ from the aircraft that hit the tower, before escaping in the nick of time through a window as the building went down.

Luthor had managed to save the sample of Krypto-minite, which was immediately teleported to Hawkman at the Fortress of Solitude.

At this point, the adventure went from tragic to downright bizarre. As Earth and Razor X began assisting with the excavation of rubble, Maximum joined Luthor in his aircar to survey the damage and look for other survivors. At this point, a man on a flying motorcycle appeared out of the dust and began attacking Luthorâs aircar. The man had long black crazy hair, all white skin, red eyes, and a bitchinâ leather jacket. For those familiar with the DC universe, this was none other than cosmic adventurer and immortal angry man â LOBO. His purpose in appearing at this moment and attacking Luthor and Maximum was quite beyond the comprehension of AlertForce.

Nevertheless, even exhausted after battle, investigations and carnage on a global scale, AlertForce rose to yet another challenge. Keeping his cool, Maximum leaned out of the aircarâs window and squeezed off a shot from the teleporter gun, sending LOBO on a quick, cold trip to the North Pole (and without his flying motorcycle, to boot).

Afraid of what LOBO might do if left alone at the North Pole, AlertForce reluctantly followed. Three zaps from the teleporter gun, and AlertForce was soon flying south from the north pole, in hot pursuit of LOBOâs tracks. The pursuit soon became a battle, as LOBO had turned back north to attack.

A short but brutal battle ensued, which saw Maximum and Razor X using charge attacks and glue gun blasts to soften and slow the vaunted cosmic warrior down and keep him off balance for a round or two. When Earth arrived moments later, the three used a coordinated team attack to finally bring LOBO down into unconsciousness (but not before he managed to grab the teleporter gun from Maximum, and shatter it into a thousand pieces.

This was where our adventure halted, with our stalwart AlertForce members (Earth, Maximum and Razor X) toting the unconscious but ever-dangerous LOBO south towards civilizationâ¦

Tune in next time for more fun!

2/15/02: Many Questions:

attendees: Bryan (Earth), Ellen (Major Maximum), Rob (GM), Chad (Razor X), Maria (Grizella), John (Daedalus)

This weekâs adventure began just where last weekâs left off: with AlertForce at the site of the Lex Towers disaster, about to turn Lobo over to the authorities.

The team elected to try to interrogate Lobo, and to do so buried him up to his neck in earth, glued him down with Maximumâs glue gun, and then began asking questions. Lobo told the team his attack was only to get possession of the teleport gun. He said he had been hired by a man clad all in black, on the planet Thanagar. This response puzzled AlertForce, and while they scratched their heads, Lobo busted loose, starting yet another melee on the street.

AlertForce quickly put Lobo back into unconsciousness, with Razor X scoring the heavy hit. Annoyed with Loboâs answers and continued presence in the campaign, Grizella telekinetically launched Lobo into outer space in a (likely futile) attempt to get rid of him.

The team then âborrowedâ Lex Luthorâs flying car and headed back to Supermanâs Fortress of Solitude, to check on the big guy and Hawkman. They were pleased to find Superman in good health, and Hawkman still with him. Superman provided little useful information, however, and could shed no light on the reasons for the attack on him. Hawkman, stoic as ever, just pouted and frowned the whole time, clearly disapproving of AlertForce.

While AlertForce visited the Man of Steel, he got a phone call from the President, summoning him (and AlertForce) to the Pentagon for a top level meeting with the Vice President and Secretary of Defense. Although Waterlord was having fun with Krypto, Supermanâs dog, the team pulled themselves away from the wonders of the Fortress of Solitude, and headed with Supes down to DC to meet with the brass.

At the meeting, the Government officials offered AlertForce the chance to be part of an elite US Military Gamma Force for the purpose of attacking terrorist targets in Afghanistan. The commander of the Gamma Force was to be none other than General Crabass (the guy whom Maximum, Grizella, and Razor X knew from their dimension, and whom AlertForce crossed paths with again in this dimension during the battle with Aquaman in December, 2001). The second half of the plan was for Superman to head a team of superpowered homeland defenders. Although AlertForce offered to help fight terrorists, the team politely (or not so politely) declined to be enlisted in the military. The meeting ended tersely with the government giving AlertForce the old âdonât call us â weâll call youâ treatment.

Thus spurned by the Government, AlertForce decided to pay a visit to Darius Caldera (the man who attacked Superman) and keep trying to get to the bottom of the attack. When they arrived, they learned that Caldera had escaped. Much to everyoneâs surprise, Daedalus made a positive impact on the investigation, by gleaning that Caldera had used ritual magic to go into spirit form and walk out of the maximum security cell. The team was unable to track Caldera.

Running out of leads, our heroes then went to New Mexico, to the site where Razor Xâs investigation last week led just before Lex Towers attacks. He had learned that six voodoo priests had been murdered there within a week or so. Although preliminary investigations by AlertForce yielded little information, a fantastic stroke of intuition by WaterLord (perhaps due to his background as a police detective or perhaps due to his roll of 46 on a clue analysis attempt) revealed that the murders had been arranged in a pentangle, the center of which was a location deep in the wilderness outside of town. The team quickly went there, and found a ruined cabin, and traces of the presence of Darius Caldera, who had also apparently been there looking for something within the last week or so. Further searches of the area by WaterLord and Earth revealed a strange mine shaft nearby, with some strange smoke marks in the bottom.

Razor X, through HAL, traced the machine that had made the mine to a company in Hong Kong, and to an individual named Gnesh Chanmugin. Just at that moment, however, AlertForce spotted a very small man hiking through the woods straight towards the mine shaft. They followed him discreetly for a bit, although he seemed somehow to be able to sense at least the presence of Earth. Eventually the team revealed themselves, and after a lengthy conversation, learned that the manâs name was Maxwell Loomis, and he called himself Major Mite. He had, for reasons unknown, also been tracking the same leads AlertForce was, and told them that Darius Caldera was actually a ghost, and that he was after a gem of power to the undead, called Gem of Kushna. He also revealed that the true power behind the attacks was a man named Jonah Jackson, whose base of operations was the village of Nandu Parbat in Northeastern Afghanistan.

AlertForce then contacted the government once more, and again offered their services on a contract basis. Through certain channels, AlertForce was informed that the government of Great Britain was interested in utilizing their services. A few short hours later found AlertForce packing Lexâs flying car (which Razor X had already painted with the AlertForce and British Military logos) into the back of a C130 for the trip to Khabul.

On arrival there, AlertForce was briefed by General Crabass, who informed them that their mission was to guard the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, to stop the egress of escaping Al Kaida fighters.

AlertForce said âno problemâ and quickly set off toward Nandu Parbat, ignoring the mission given by Crabass entirely.

The AlertForce flying car soon came under attack by missiles, which Razor Xâs magnetic powers made short work of.

Shortly thereafter, however, AlertForce found itself under attack by a man hovering in the sky, clad in metal armor, wielding swords, blasters, and metal wristbands. His initial barrage of mystical attacks scattered the team, followed shortly by mental energy blasts of a different color, but also of great magnitude. Quickly regrouping, AlertForce came at the strange attacker (whom they later learned was called âSenseiâ) from several angles, and began inflicting some heavy damage. Grizella used her telekinesis to slow the attacker, and grab one of his swords, while her teammates pummeled him mercilessly. This forced the attacker to regroup himself, and he promptly teleported away to parts unknown.

AlertForce then proceeded onward to Nandu Parbat, which was little more than a ruined village. The only structure standing was a mosque at the north end of town. While the rest of the team investigated the village, Razor X stepped inside, and found a deep, black hole or chasm of some sort near the rear of the building. The blackness appeared to be some sort of dimensional portal. Before he could investigate, he was blasted from behind by a powerful mental blast, which nearly incapacitated him â but not quite. Sensei had been waiting in the shadows.

Razor X, knowing he was overmatched, did what he correctly labeled the âmost unexpected thing.â Using his magnetic powers, he pulled the building down around both himself and Sensei, and at the last second, threw himself into the black chasm to avoid the falling rubble. Sensei was completely buried, although not knocked out.

The ensuing blast from Sensei, to free himself, reverberated for hundreds of yards, and drew the rest of AlertForce. Learning from the past encounter, Major Maximum, Waterlord and Grizella combined powerful attacks to bring Sensei to unconsciousness relatively quickly.

This was where our adventure concluded for the evening, leaving several questions unansweredâ¦. Who is Jonah Jackson? Is he related to J. Jonah Jameson? Is Hawkman really behind all the attacks? Will Major Maximum fall deeply in love with the handsome, yet diminutive Maxwell Loomis? Will Razor X survive his fall into the unknown? Will anyone else in AlertForce care? Will anyone else in AlertForce even realize he is missing?

Tune in next week to find the answers to these and more questionsâ¦

2/23/02: Mind Games:

attendees: Bryan (Earth), Ellen (Major Maximum), Rob (GM), Chad (Razor X)

This weekâs adventure was a brief one, since everyone had had a rough week at work.

The game began with a bit of an anticlimax, when after a week of nail biting, Razor X re-emerged from the chasm beneath the rubble of the Mosque, seemingly unscathed. He told his teammates that the chasm was empty. The team then gathered their wounded (Grizella and Daedalus had been injured in the blast that brought down the mosque), and secured Sensei (the armor-clad attacker) in custody.

After interrogation of Sensei yielded little usable information, the team elected to toss him in the chasm and cover it with tons of rubble, to prevent his ever escaping. Razor X and Earth made short work of the task.

At this point, the team decided to turn back to the mission given by the US and British governments â preventing terrorists from fleeing into Pakistan. A few hours spent patrolling the long border yielded quite a few refugees, and one authentic terrorist attack on AlertForce, which ended predictably, with a group of unconscious terrorists.

While gathering the terrorists, however, AlertForce was stunned to see a bright flash and a mushroom cloud off on the horizon, back at the village of Nandu Parbat. Apparently, some person or group detonated a small nuclear weapon just over the mosque where AlertForce had encountered and defeated the Sensei. Earth raced over to investigate and to attempt to deal with the radiation problem which resulted.

Meanwhile, Razor X spotted a jet plane flying high overhead, and inexplicably, attacked it! He disabled the engine, and then came on the scene and identified the occupants as American military personnel. After briefly talking to them, he then used his magnetic powers to tow the crippled aircraft back to its home base â an aircraft carrier at sea. Sensing something amiss with Razor X, Major Maximum tagged along at a discreet distance.

Sure enough, when he reached the aircraft carrier, Razor X put the plane on the deck, then went to the bridge, where he promptly shorted out the entire ship guidance computer and control system. He then headed toward the rear of the vessel, apparently intent on tearing out the engines. Although the crewâs gunfire and hand to hand attacks did little to slow Razor X, he soon found himself confronted by a very confused and angry Major Maximum.

After several rounds of intense combat, which saw Razor X furiously dodging glue gun attacks from the Major, the battle was functionally ended when the X man exhibited some heretofore-unknown powers, and teleported Maximum to the north pole.

Razor X then began sinking the aircraft carrier very, very quickly. Just as the ship was about to go down, Earth arrived back on the scene and confronted the now-crazed Razor X. Another epic battle ensued, with Earth barely escaping teleportation himself, but rallying in the nick of time. Using his spirit travel abilities, he poked around inside Razor Xâs aura and noted the presence of another being, along with the shackled spirit of Razor X struggling, in vain, to break free. Earth strove with his mystic form to help Razor X shake off the outside possession, and eventually, the two were able to drive the attacker from Razor Xâs mind and spirit, returning his free will.

Earth and Razor X quickly righted the aircraft carrier, and rescued hundreds of sailors from the ocean.

X then explained that when he had gone down into the chasm, he had been transported to some sort of ethereal dimension, and confronted by Jonah Jackson (the villain who AlertForce learned attacked Superman, and who was in possession of some magic gem). Jackson had used mental powers to take possession of Razor Xâs body, and used him to attack the American Aircraft carrier.

With the freeing of Razor Xâs mind from Jacksonâs control, this weekâs adventure was brought to a close. Tune in next time, for the ultimate conclusion of the AlertForce saga: Who attacked the big red cheese?

3/1/02: AlertForceLand:

attendees: Bryan (Earth), Ellen (Major Maximum), Rob (GM), Chad (Razor X), Maria (Grizella), John (Daedalus)

This weekâs adventure brought to a close the saga of the fight against terrorism, as well as Robâs current stint as GM.

The first item on the agenda was a meeting with the top military brass from the British and American forces that had hired AlertForce to fight terrorists. They directed AlertForce to return to Nandu Parbat and investigate the nuclear explosion there. The suspicion was that it was caused by a backpack-sized nuclear weapon, developed during the cold war. Of course, AlertForce had other plans, but they also involved Nandu Parbat, so the team played along.

When they reached Nandu Parbat, AlertForce staked off a circular area with a radius of ten miles, centered on Nandu Parbat, hoisted a team flag, and declared it the new nation of AlertForceLand. The plan was to cut off entry of Jonah Jackson through the dimensional portal at Nandu Parbat, since (as Razor X learned when he was possessed by the fiend) Jackson could not go into any areas other than those which formed parts of the early Persian empire. Since Jackson had been intent on conquering the USA to include it in that realm, the team reasoned that excluding land areas from the Afghan nation would have the reverse effect. Apparently, the plan was successful, since Jackson was never seen again during the adventure.

While Razor X was on the phone with CNN, Linda Ross and the UN, trying to spread the word about AlertForceLand, the others, along with a Russian scientist named Ilia Zeusman, who had happened along, investigated the portal once again. Zeusman reported that he was tracking ten missing backpack nuclear weapons, and suspected that the blast had been caused by one. To confirm this, Zeusman and Daedalus tied ropes around themselves and went through the portal. When inside, they saw the strange ethereal, zero-g environment that had been reported by Razor X. Also there were seven floating metal platforms, on which they found some charred shadows of bodies, along with seven lumps of metal that Zeusman identified as seven of the missing backpack nukes. This left only two unaccounted for.

The team tracked the other two bombs back to Kanduhar, and investigated the docks, assuming that the bombs would be shipped out to America for use by terrorists. After several hoursâ futile search, Daedalus finally hit on a stroke of luck, and noticed some strange entries on the cargo manifest of a ship bound for the USA. A few minutes later, AlertForce was boarding the vessel just 80 miles from New York City, and soon learned that the crew had launched a submarine, containing four holy warriors and one backpack bomb, an hour before.

Some frantic searching ensued, along with comments like âwhereâs Waterlord when you need him?â Soon, however, Grizella was hoisting the submarine up from the depths with her telekinesis, and Earth boarded and (barely) prevented the terrorists from detonating the device. After a brief scuffle with Razor X for control of the bomb, Earth transmuted the radioactive material inside it to inert lead, and AlertForce returned the bomb to the authorities. Razor X, meanwhile, although thwarted in his attempt to toss the bomb into outer space, did grab the terroristsâ experimental submarine, and quietly slipped back to Mid City, adding it to his âfleetâ of submarines docked at a secret slip somewhere near AlertForce HQ there.

With one bomb captured and one still at large, the team returned to Kanduhar and resumed their investigation. This time, it led to a man named Shi Shi, who (under intense questioning) revealed that it had been placed aboard a vessel bound for Baja, Mexico. A quick jaunt there, some additional investigation, and some luck soon found AlertForce zeroing in on a rickety fishing boat cruising toward San Diego, carrying three terrorists and the last backpack bomb. This time, the team made short work of the terrorists, quickly disarmed the bomb, and sunk the unfortunate fishing vessel, all in one battle round.

The day (and countless lives) having been saved, AlertForce finally retired to the good old US of A, to return to their normal (or abnormal) lives.

Tune in next week for the continuing journeys of AlertForce, and the return (albeit brief) of Chad to the GM chair. Three weeks from now, we will turn the GM duties over to rookie John .

3/8/02: Subplot City

attendees: Bryan (Earth), Ellen (Major Maximum), Rob (Spexx), Chad (GM), Greg (Waterlord)

This weekâs adventure consisted of some subplots and a danger room battle. The details are as follows:

Razor X:

Razor X took a short leave of absence to renew his search for the colony of telepathic sharks. He took one of his two submarines, and headed for the bottom of the sea, to begin his search.

Spexx:

Spexx was called by Jean Galloway back to the North Pole, where UNTIL scientists were examining the ice cave lair of the Inventor (from several adventures ago). When he arrived, he assisted them in identifying some of the machines there, including the inventorâs cloning machines, time accelerator, weapons and a large sensor array spread all across the arctic, down into the earthâs mantle and across the ice sheet. In addition, Spexx also learned that UNTIL had found the remains of a number of apparently failed cloning experiments, including the bodies of attempted clones of Thermo, Paraman, and several other AlertForce members. The final surprise came when UNTIL introduced Spexx to a clone of himself, with an apparent age of 3 years old. As his closest âgeneticâ relative, Spexx was given custody of the child, whom he immediately took to AlertForce headquarters in Los Angles, and named âSpoxx.â

Waterlord:

Waterlord returned to the Mid-City HQ, and was soon alerted by the computer there of an intruder in Razor Xâs submarine dock. On investigation, the intruder turned out to be none other than Prince Namor, the Sub Mariner. Waterlord soon confronted him, and learned that Namor had come seeking Waterlordâs help in attacking Atlantis and regaining his position as ruler there. Waterlord refused to help Namor, and Namor left angrily, returning to the sea. Later, Waterlord journeyed to Atlantis, and gained an audience with Aquaman, the present ruler there. He made an attempt to discuss a peaceful solution of the conflict between Aquaman and Namor, to no avail. Each side seemed eager to recruit Waterlord to help them destroy the other, but neither seemed interested at all in any peaceful solutions to the problem. Aquaman claimed the right to rule Atlantis based on a mandate from the people, while Namor claimed the throne by heredity. No solution presented itself, and Waterlord left. He did make note, however, of how the Atlanteans required him to take the shape of fresh, distilled water, when he approached Aquaman.

Waterlord also attempted to reassert himself as team leader over the Mid-City team. Driver and Lazarus were present, and Waterlord put them through a danger room battle, initially against a danger room projection of himself, then later joined the fray himself. He was impressed with the teamwork and ingenuity of the two young members, who used coordinated attacks, covered for each other, had effective communication, and overall worked smoothly and effectively together. Despite some interference from the Fiddler (who arrived back at base in the middle of the fracas), Waterlord survived the combat with pride (and consciousness) intact, and was able to put down Driver and at least subdue Lazarus (although the junior members claimed a moral victory, since despite his best efforts, Waterlord was unable to knock out Lazarus). All in all, Waterlord had to admit he was impressed with the ability and tenacity of his junior teammates.

Maximum Bob:

Major Maximum renewed his quest for a sample of adamantium, based on a tip from his new friend Maxwell Loomis (Major Mite). Loomis told Maximum of the location of a ruined mill in the former Soviet Union where Adamantium was once produced. He suggested that an investigation there might unearth at least a small sample of the metal. Maximum Bob flew there post haste (in the form of air, of course), and began an intensive investigation of the facility (which was almost completely ruined). Despite one run-in with some military guards, Maximum eventually completed his mission, and found a small (2 ounce) sample of the precious substance.

Earth:

Earth decided to pay a visit to âThe Green,â at its most holy and revered center, the small mountaintop sanctuary deep in the jungles of Brazil. There he communed with the plant spirits of the Earth, which complained to him of pollution all over the world, including removal of rain forests, minute leakage from oil platforms at sea, and radiation from Chinese (and other countriesâ) nuclear testing. Earth immediately traveled to China, and located the site of some above-ground nuclear tests. He spent days there cleaning up the radiation traces, then presented himself at Tienaman Square to confront the Chinese government. The tanks rolled out, as well as hundreds of guards, but Earth eventually obtained an audience with the Chinese leader, who accepted Earthâs warning, but complained that Earth was singling out China when many other countries conduct nuclear testing, including India, Pakistan, and even the United States. Earth received a telephone call from President Bartlett during his Chinese odyssey, warning him not to stir up international diplomatic problems. Earth ignored this, of course.

3/11/02: Waterlord subplots

Chad,

OK, subplot update:

1. I want to learn to speak Atlantean, so I'm asking HAL to put together a language instruction program together for me. He can already translate from Atlantean to English, as we saw in a previous adventure.

2. In an effort to actually participate in the life of Alert Force East Coast, I'm going to take up residence at the Mid-city base, and begin to patrol with the other team members - and lead the team (now there's a thought). I'll spend most of my time in Midcity.

3. Periodically, I'm going to travel to Atlantis in spirit-form to observe the life of the city there. In particular, I'm interested in learning about the political inclinations and aspirations of the citizens there - does Aquaman really have a mandate from the people to rule as king? Would they prefer a parlimentary system? Are there Atlanteans who are loyal to Namor? If so what's the ratio? What is Atlantean culture like?

4. I'll attempt to track down the location of the tentacled foes who are waging war on the Atlanteans, as well as Namor's base of operations. In particular, what are the respective numbers and military capabilities of these groups?

5. In Midcity, I'll use my detective skills to put together a picture of the criminal activity that takes place there - especially the organized crime - superpowered and otherwise. Based on my police experience, I'll try todetermine just what it would take to effectively eliminate the organized crime activity in the city. Then I'll write a book (kidding). Organized crime might be an unsolveable problem, but I want to see what the analysis
yields.

That should do for now. Until next time....

Greg

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

Subplot responses:

1. Learning Atlantean will take an intelligence roll against a 15. Your raps of damage if you succeed will determine how well you can speak it. 1 rap will be barely understanding, and speaking only with a thick, broken accent. 2 you can get by a little better, speaking in halting sentences. 3 you will be able to conduct conversations, but will have a noticeable accent and will still have to speak slowly. 4 you will be fluent, but still with an accent, and 5 indistinguishable from a native speaker.

2. You learn that Driver is really the team's heart and soul. He is arrogant, headstrong, but very intelligent in tactics and personal skills. The others all like him, and defer to him completely in battle situations. Lazarus is very quiet, but very protective of his teammates. Fiddler stays very much in the background, and is pretty much a support person. Stiletto is headstrong herself, but loves standing shoulder to shoulder with driver and slugging it out in hand to hand against foes. They defer to you, of course, but it is going to take some time before they develop loyalty to you as they have to Driver. You also pick up on the fact that they really don't know what to make of Razor X either. They think he is powerful, but a bit of a git.

3. Atlantis has a population of about 500,000. Up until about ten years ago or so, they were ruled by a series of benevolent kings, culminating with Namor's father, who died suddenly while Namor was away from Atlantis doing a review of some remote outposts under the arctic circle. Aquaman, who was raised on the surface but returned to Atlantis and founded an underground movement against the line of kings, siezed the opportunity and led a coup against the government. As it turned out, Namor and his entourage were detained on their mission by some cave ins under the icecap, and did not return for several months. During this time, Aquaman formed a quasi-republican form of government, with a dictator (himself) and a senate, which share power (most still rests with the dictator, including all foreign policy decisions). The people generally liked Namor's family, but also liked the idea of a senate system, so the few months before Namor's return allowed the new government to take hold, and when he did return, despite a massive public debate and some violence, Aquaman's faction managed to remain in control. Actually, Namor withdrew from the conflict and directed all of his supporters to cease their activities, when he realized that the situation threatened to tear apart Atlantean society and possible result in utter chaos. The Atlanteans have settled into the new government over the last ten years, and Aquaman has not made many controversial decisions to cause dissent or unrest. There are still a lot of people who would support Namor if push came to shove. It appears that at least 30-40% of the people would support Namor, in fact, which is why Aquaman is desperate to destroy him. Atlantean culture is fiercely independent, and aside from maintaining the domes and providing for security, they HATE any governmental interference with their lives. They are ultra-conservative, and also hate and fear the surface dwellers for the most part. Aquaman does not advertise that he grew up there.

4. You eventually learn that Namor and his followers are based somewhere in the North sea. He has about 12,000 people living with him, mostly males, and mostly soldiers. These are the people that fled during the coup, and those whose loyalty to Namor's family would not let them remain in Atlantis after the coup. Although the Atlanteans have lots of technology and lots of submarines, etc., Namor's group lives in relatively primitive caves, with weapons consisting mostly of personal armor and melee weapons. They have very few high-tech weapons, and only a very few submarines. It is clear that Namor's group is in no position to attack the forces of Atlantis.

Regarding the tentacled creatures at war with Atlantis, they are called the Squidmen by the Atlanteans (since no one knows what they call themselves), and they arise from the deepest parts of the South Atlantic. Their home is in deep, deep caves beneath the Ocean's floor, the entrances of which even you have been unable to locate. Their numbers are unknown, but they have technology roughly equivalent to the Atlanteans. They usually attack in submarines (although they can breathe water and swim undersea like the Atlanteans), and they also have lasers and other high-tech weapons. There have been a number of skirmishes between them and the Atlanteans, but no decisive battles.

5. As for supervillains in Mid-City, look at the AlertForce archives to find what you can. AlertForce has fought most of the villains in Mid-City, and aside from a few small folks they haven't faced yet, defeated them all. Your young team has yet to fight any major villains, since the main team usually gets called in for big threats. Organized crime does exist in mid-city, and is controlled by the Stellaconti family (a nationwide crime family, with interests from New York to LA, and everywhere in between). The two largest nationwide crime families are the Stellaconti's (strongest in the east) and the Bagadonuts family (strongest on the west coast). The Stellacontis control Mid City, and have a lock on most of the drug trafficking, prostitution, numbers running, etc. They tend to stay low profile, and you don't see a lot of mob executions or violence in mid city. Your team has fought a lot of drug dealers and gangs. There are also a lot of gangs in some areas of the city, some affiliated with organized crime and some not.

-----------

Greg Reply:

Hey! Look at that, I just rolled another "46" to learn Atlantean. What'r the odds, huh? But since you probably won't by that one, we'll take care of it later.

Regarding item #2, I'll continue to go on patrol with the team, and we can do more danger room scenerios with villians past and present. I'll introduce them to some underwater combat scenerios, terrorist and hostage scenerios. Perhaps Ironknight or Spexx can come up with some low-AP water freedom gagets for them. Do any of them have military science?

The next time we play, I'm going to try to lure the squidmen out into the open by parading a mock-up of an Atlantean submarine around the squidmen's vicinity. If and when they approach, I'll turn to spirit-form, and follow them - eventually back to their base (unless something goes horribly wrong, as I expect). Upon finding their lair, I'll scout them out, and learn what I can about their origins (whether they're from this planet or not), capabilities and communications. If they have a have a map of the area around Atlantis with a large sign saying "Big attack tomorrow", I'll be sure to note that.

Have a good game Friday.

Greg

3/15/02: A Brewing War?

Attendees: Chad (GM), Ellen (Major Maximum), Rob (Spexx), Bryan (Earth)

This weekâs adventure began with Earth paying an unannounced visit on the White House. He barged in past security, and was shocked when he soon found himself under attack by the Secret Service. He left his body, and searched via spirit form until he found the Oval Office, in which President Bartlett was having a meeting with some of his staff. Earth appeared and tried to address the president about the pollution problem. He was again taken aback when the Secret Service grabbed the President and started shooting at Earth. A few seconds of gravity manipulation by Earth had the Secret Service agents on the floor and the president hovering in the air, eye to eye with good ole Earthy. This was soon remedied, however, when two new Presidential Shocktroop Guards barged in, and zapped the Prez to his secret safe location with a humongous teleport gun, and zapped Earth into a pile of rubble with an equally humongous energy blaster. Amazingly, the White House apparently has contingency plans for meeting a super powered intruder. Earth never did get to make his point with the prez.

While all this was going on, the other AlertForce members were spread all over, going on with their daily lives. Spexx was in LA bonding with his new son, Razor X continued his undersea quest for telepathic shark tribes, and Major Max spent the day picking out an outfit for clubbing. During Earthâs White House incursion, however, Spexx got an emergency call from the Joint Chiefs of Staff demanding that AlertForce cease and desist its attack on the government. When the dust cleared, Earth was removed from the White House by the Shocktroop Guards, and Spexx was calling for his immediate removal from AlertForce. The vote (taken over communication airwaves) was somewhat garbled, and the result is unclear. Spexx declared Earth removed from AlertForce, but some question remains as to whether an appropriate quorum cast votes.

At any rate, Spexx soon got another call â this one from General Maxwell of Space Command. He instructed Spexx that the Government would drop all charges against AlertForce related to Earthâs activities, if AlertForce would investigate and get to the bottom of a security breach at a National monument.

The next morning found Earth, Spexx and Major Maximum meeting with Lieutenant Sarah Jones of the Park Police, at the Washington Monument in DC. She informed them that the government had been installing a new security system, in the form of a series of field generators that create a dampening field in an area, which completely negates any mutant abilities arising from genetic mutations (i.e. the so-called âX factor). Once the system would be completed and activated, no mutants could use their abilities while in the area. She told them it was a new technology which had recently been invented, and which soon would be available to the public for private use, but which the government was already testing and installing in public buildings. This was to have been the first operational system. Legislation was also being introduced to require the system for sports arenas, all public areas, etc.

She then showed them security tapes of a break in which had occurred the night before. Three intruders (apparently mutants) clad all in black had walked right by oblivious guards, right into the control room, and stolen key components of the system. They also walked right up to various of the repeater/transmitter nodes, and stole or otherwise disabled many key components. The multi-million dollar system had been completely destroyed in a matter of moments.

The guards had been interviewed and mind scanned, and none had seen anything, despite the fact that the intruders had passed right by them. Spexx and the other AlertForce members surmised that mental powers were at work.

Spexx began an intensive investigation. Through the use of some brainpower (just a bit) and his handy-dandy clue analysis flashlight, they soon had gathered a number of clues, including a list of mutant abilities the intruders possessed, footprints and fingerprints, and a complete understanding of how the mutant dampening field works (thanks to Spexxâs interface power). After analysis of all clues, all signs pointed towards a team of mutants who had in the late 1980âs and early 1990âs been active in Seattle, Washington, called âStrike Force.â Strike Force had been composed of three mutants: Brainwave (former AlertForce member âJohnny,â Techno (gadgetry and interface) and Delta (gliding, cling).

Spexx set about contacting former AlertForce members to find the whereabouts of Johnny/Brainwave, and setting up an AlertForce reunion to draw him out of hiding. He spoke to Knight Watchman, Thermo, and some others, and aside from learning that all the âalumniâ seem to be pining for a return of Dreadnought (ânobody parties like the big red guy!â), he got no leads on the whereabouts of Brainwave and his team. He did have a suspicion that Thermo knew, but he dared not blow his cover by asking directly.

Meanwhile, Earth took a more direct approach, and went to Seattle and began asking people on the street about Strike Force. By sheer luck, he learned of the general location of their old HQ (the mountains outside the city), and immediately went there. Through the use of his plant speaking ability, he soon found himself in a large complex of caves that had once been the HQ of Strike Force. A quick communication and a short flight later found Spexx there with him, investigating the abandoned cave.

They searched for quite a while but found nothing of use. Suddenly, however, they looked up and saw a tall African-american man standing in the entrance. It was none other than Brainwave himself.

He calmly addressed the two teammates, and told them they should stay out of this. Never ones to obey orders, the team reacted as usual, with belligerance. As Spexx moved to attack, Brainwave waved his hand and froze Spexx where he stood. Earth tried to convince Brainwave to give himself up, but he refused, saying that there was a war brewing, a master plan was in the works, and that he suspected he would be a martyr anyway. Earth had heard about enough babble, and he attacked as well.

Just as he did, Brainwaveâs two companions (Techno and Delta) sprang out of hiding. Brainwave got the jump on everyone, and a heavy mind blast soon had Earth flying away in spirit form once again, leaving his pile of rubble behind.

Techno then tried to analyze Spexx, by sticking some contact wires in his ears and using his interface power, but Spexxâs defenses were too tough for that.

Nevertheless, this bought Earth enough time to regroup, and seeing that the direct approach had not worked, he approached as a spirit from below, quickly reformed in the rocks of the cave floor, and pulled the whole cave down around Strike Force (while yanking Spexx down to safety. The collapse completely buried Strike Force, and nearly killed all three. Earth was able to save them, but just barely.

A few phone calls later, and Strike Force was being loaded in the back of an FBI van, as prisoners of the US Government. Earth felt a bit disturbed by a remark from one of the agents, when he told Earth âDonât worry. Youâll never hear about any trouble from these three againâ¦â

What does it all mean? Tune in next time to find out!

3/22/02: In-fighting!

Attendees: John (GM), Maria (Grizella), John (PAL), Bryan (Earth), Ellen (Max), Chad (Razor X), Greg (Waterlord)

This weekâs adventure marked the debut of John as GM in the AlertForce campaign.

The evening began with a request by a charity for AlertForce to appear at a benefit performance in Cleveland, Ohio, to help with anti-war and war relief efforts. AlertForce agreed, and PAL (fresh from a lengthy hiatus), Earth, Major Maximum, Grizella, Waterlord and Razor X went to Cleveland to participate. The event was to take place at an auto show/convention center in downtown Cleveland.

Shortly after the show began, however (with a spectacular, almost magical performance by PAL), the rear of the auditorium blew open and a huge, scaly, armored humanoid burst in and taunted that AlertForce should show its true powers, while he blasted the ceiling into a million bits. Some quick thinking by Major Maximum and a blast from his glue gun held the ceiling in place, saving the thousands of guests, while the rest of the team sprang into action, attacking the intruder, who announced that his name was âthe Damper.â In addition to blasting the ceiling, however, he also somehow sucked some of Grizellaâs power away, leaving her in a much weakened state.

The battle that ensued was short, and saw Waterlord squishing into the armored-villainâs body through cracks in the armor, Grizella struggling to hold him in place with her weakened telekinesis, Razor X lassoing him with chains (as well as creating a huge, folding-chair sculpture barrier to protect the crowd, and Earth pulling the villain back with gravity decrease as he was on the verge of escape. In the end, however, before AlertForce could incapacitate the attacker, he disappeared in a bright flash, leaving everyone scratching their heads.

Soon, the police arrived, and in addition to taking over crowd control, they asked AlertForce and Grizella to come down to the station. Apparently, someone dressed as Grizella had broken into a bank at the same time AlertForce was battling the scaly attacker at the convention center. Although she was cleared (since the robber was clearly male), the surveillance tapes yielded valuable clues, and allowed AlertForce to identify the villain, and gain the vital information of his address.

Speeding to the robberâs home, AlertForce soon found additional clues â remnants of green cloth on a sewing machine, and a videotape on the coffee table. The video, shockingly, showed Nick Brundle (the alter ego of AlertForceâs former Iron Knight â a fact which some of the current AlertForce members knew and some did not) hogtied and laid out on a slab, at an unknown location. The camera panned back to show the same man who had badly masqueraded as Grizella (which totally pissed her off, since he had also stolen some of her powers), now dressed in a terrible green costume with toilet plungers on it. He announced that he was called âthe Leech,â and that if AlertForce did not immediately go to a warehouse and follow further instructions when they got there, Brundle would go âkaboom.â

Reluctantly, AlertForce went to the specified location, and found a large empty warehouse. The entered the office section, and another television monitor was there, and it flickered to life. The Leech was on the screen again, and told AlertForce that if they did not split into two teams and fight on camera (Grizella, PAL and Earth against Waterlord, Max and Razor X), Brundle would be killed (âgo Kaboomâ). He revealed that Brundle was being held in a secret chamber, complete with micro-monitors of sound, air pressure, temperature, etc., which would explode if anyone entered the chamber. Waterlord said some menacing things into the camera (something to the effect of âgive it up you loserâ) and the Leech was cowed. Into the frame stepped none other than the Inventor, who told AlertForce to shut up and fight.

The team immediately sprang into action. Well, that is almost true. Some members of the team sprang into action. PAL immediately split, sending one of himself invisibly along the electronic signal being sent to the TV, back to the location where the beam was emanating from. He soon found the secret bunker, where Brundle was held captive among some heavy explosives, and the Inventor, the Leech, and two small black children (whom PAL remembered having seen in the crowd just after the Damper disappeared), were hiding in a shielded room. He bided his time and scouted the area.

Meanwhile, back at the warehouse, AlertForce reluctantly began fighting, as per instructions (some more enthusiastically than others). The team of Grizella, PAL (his remaining selves) and Earth soon made short work of Razor X, knocking him out with a rare display of teamwork. Earth was then knocked out by Waterlord (although he later claimed that he had allowed it to happen), and left the scene to assist PAL in rescuing Brundle from captivity.

While the battle raged back at the Warehouse â and whether it was just for show is debatable â PAL and Earth managed to concoct a clever scheme to disable the explosives. PAL used an omni gadget to make his AlertForce communicator disperse, then placed it near the explosives (dispersed) to give Earth a view, allowing him to use his transmutation power to change the wiring leads into lead, thus rendering the trigger devices useless. PAL then used another omni-gadget as a teleport gun, materialized in the room, and zapped Brundle to safety.

Then, back at the warehouse, where the remaining AlertForce members were putting on a hell of a show, PAL (despite the fact that the battle was won and the captive freed), used yet another omni gadget as a time stop device, crippling his teammates by putting them in a snailâs pace mode. By the time the team disengaged, made it to the Inventorâs bunker, and mounted a challenge of battle, the villains had again disappeared.

As AlertForce stood scratching its collective head, their communicators announced yet another threat â this time at the LA public headquarters. CHiP was making a frantic call for assistance. The base was under attack!

Will the team be able to meet this new threat? Will they just keep fighting each other? Will the Inventor have the last laugh yet again? Tune in next week, for the continuing saga of AlertForce!!!

REBUTTAL FROM MAJOR MAXIMUM:

TO: Alert Force Fan Club
FROM: Major Maximum
RE: "Major" omissions!
DATE: March 25, 2002

After reading the latest recap, a few glaring omissions stood out regarding my participation in the events of 3/22. While the "historian" accurately acknowledged that I used my glue gun to great effect, preventing the ceiling from falling in, saving thousands and galvanizing the rest of the team into action, he completely ignored my other vital contributions to the campaign. For example, I also used the glue gun vs. Damper (while Water Lord was inside of him) and helped neutralize him. Moreover, in the epic battle between the two Alert Force teams, I turned into air and pursued PAL (who had tried to flee my mighty powers by dispersing)and gave him a few bitch slaps for good measure. This is important because it was in reaction to this event that PAL decided to use an omnigadget to create a time stop to use vs. the Alert Force members. It was effective against all members present EXCEPT FOR ME!!!

I'm not sure why the recap writer had trouble recalling these contributions as they were not only effective but hilarious and earned yours truly big hero points. Let me just say this: I'm here, I'm queer, get used to it; let the record be "straight"!

3/29/02: The New Destroyers

Attendees: John (GM), Maria (Grizella), John (PAL), Bryan (Earth), Ellen (Max), Chad (Razor X), Rob(Spexx)

This weekâs odyssey began precisely where last weekâs left off. As Razor X, Grizella and Maximum Bob winged their way back to the LA Headquarters, they watched over their AlertForce video monitor as ChiP was attacked and overwhelmed by a female made of liquid metal, a man made of ice, and a ninja. After dispatching ChiP, the attackers moved towards the computer, but then quickly stopped and left via the same hole they came in, just as the rest of AlertForce arrived. Razor X managed to track them for a short distance, but (as he soon learned from a nearby cop), the ninja had pulled out a teleporter gun and zapped the three attackers to safety.

Meanwhile, back in Pittsburgh, Earth, Spexx and PAL continued checking out clues at the warehouse and hideout of the Inventor there. They did not come up with anything new, but when interviewing the groggy Nick Brundle, they learned that all of the attacking villains of the last two adventures were acting in league with Inventor. Brundle reported that he had been captured by a metal girl, a ninja, and an iceman.

Just at that moment, the team received yet another distress call. This time, HAL was reporting that three nuclear reactors were under attack â one in Phoeniz, Arizona, one in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and one in Colorado. Without any consultation or cooperation (as usual) the team sprang into action). Max and Grizella headed to Phoenix, Earth headed to Albuquerque, and PAL, Rex and Spexx headed to Colorado.

PAL arrived at his destination first, using teleport, and battled for several rounds with the metal girl (whom we learned was called Mercury) and the iceman (whom we learned was called Glacier). The battle went from two on one to four on two when PAL used his split power, but both sides struggled to make any headway. PAL blasted away, but only managed to stun Glacier, while Mercury entrapped several PALâs in a metal net, only to see them teleport away unharmed. She resorted to turning herself into a giant fan in an attempt to blow PAL away. Just then, Rex and Spexx arrived, and while Rex manhandled the metal girl using his magnetic control, PAL, now free of her attack, made short work of Glacier, knocking him out. Spexx then inspected the power plant and shut it down while Rex and PAL battled with Mercury. She didnât like the odds, however, and went into full defensive mode. She first tried to slip away by seeping into the ground, only to have Rex pull her back to the surface with magnetic control. Then, while PAL continued to zap her with energy blasts, she turned into a giant spring and bounded several miles away. PAL followed using teleport and continued to harass her with energy blasts, keeping her in full defensive mode. Rex then pushed his power to Herculean levels, and still managed to pull her back to the original battle scene yet again. Finally, facing PAL (all 4 of him), Spexx and Rex, Mercury was finally pummeled into submission, thanks mainly to PALâs persistent barrage of energy. Unfortunately, in the confusion of the battle against Mercury, AlertForce had not been able to prevent the Inventor from teleporting in, grabbing Glacier, and making good yet another escape. And to add insult to injury, they also learned that Mercury, like Earth and Waterlord, also possesses some kind of spirit travel, such that after her unconsciousness, what had been her had turned into nothing more than a pool of inert mercury.

Meanwhile, in Phoenix, Max and Grizella appeared on the scene at the second nuclear plant and found themselves face to face with a ninja (named Scarab) and Grizellaâs new arch-enemy, the Leech. The battle which ensued saw Grizella dropping a truck on the Leech and Maximum using his glue gun, as well as dancing his ânow Iâm air -- now Iâm adamantium â now Iâm punching youâ dance with Scarab. The battle soon turned into Grizella smiling over the unconscious form of the Leech and Maximum chasing Scarab as he bounded away using some kind of super leap. Things turned suddenly sour when the Inventor appeared and got the jump on everyone, and was able to grab Grizella and zap both her and the Leech away before Maximum could get back to stop it. The scene ended with Maximum standing there alone, wondering where all his playmates went.

Finally, in Albuquerque, Earth soon found himself face to face with his new old pal, the Damper (also known affectionately as âthe Tamponâ). Earth made relatively short work of the big guy, by grappling him, dragging him down 250 miles under the earth, and suffocating him within an inch of his life. The whole thing was a bit anticlimactic, actually.

AlertForce did not have much time to rest on their successes (or quasi-successes). They soon heard their communicators crackle to life once more, this time with the voice of former teammate Jack of All Trades (in a rare cameo appearance). Jack summoned everyone back to the LA HQ. When they arrived, he was sitting in the conference room, and he quickly told them that Inventor had captured Grizella and taken her to a secret base in the Rocky mountains. He explained that Inventor was keeping her captive using a power dampening field similar to the one the government had been installing at the Washington monument (and which AlertForce had investigated several adventures ago). Although Grizella was not technically a âmutant,â since her powers were based on a mutation, it was a simple matter to adjust the technology to effect her. He handed Maximum a small device which he said would counter the dampening field, and then gave the team the coordinates of the Inventorâs hideout, and warned them to watch out for the Scarab. Earth then for some reason handed the Damper over to Jack of all Trades for study and possible experimentation. While the team quarreled over how best to approach the problem, Jack stepped out of the room, and was soon just plain gone.

The team quickly gave each other a quick look over and a collective âhuh?â and decided to never look a gift adventure in the mouth. A few moments later, the whole team was at the base of a mountain in Colorado which housed the secret (or not so secret) base of the Inventor and his new group of henchmen.

On surveying the situation, AlertForce discovered that the secret base was actually a hangar-sized metal cave halfway up the side of a mountain. Recon by Earth revealed that Glacier, Mercury and the Leech were standing near the entrance, while the Inventor, Grizella and Scarab were on a balcony-like catwalk in the rear. They were greeted with the Inventorâs voice booming over a loudspeaker, taunting them with the promise that AlertForce was about to meet its doom at the hands of the âNew Destroyers.â

At this point, things began to happen very quickly. Earth stayed in spirit form, on the catwalk, waiting to strike and grab Grizella out of the Inventorâs clutches. Max blew in as air, brandishing one of his omni-gadgets, in an attempt to put it on Grizella and zap her out of there. Before either could strike and save Griz, however, the Inventor sensed what was happening, and zapped Grizella away himself.

Chaos then eruptedâ¦

Glacier froze over the cave entrance, leaving Spexx and Rex outside wondering what the heck happened. The Leech drained much of Rexâs magnetic control, leaving him dazed and confused. Inside, Earth and Max were fighting hand to hand with the Inventor, Scarab and Mercury, using glue gun, dirt glob, omni-gadget, and anything else they could think of. Soon Spexx and Rex recovered a bit, and used some omni-gadgets of their own to get past the ice. The team then converged on the Inventor, sensing that if the leader was taken out, the rest of the team would fall.

Meanwhile, somewhere nearby, Grizella came to and found she was in a large, dark chamber. She scrambled up a slope and found another chamber, with an opening at the top, and a chopper inside. She climbed in and started pressing buttons.

Back at the battle, the Inventor was back on his heels. Rex, without his magnetic powers, fell back on more direct methods, and balled up his little fist and punched the Inventor in the nose. Amazingly, the Inventor was staggered by the blow, giving Earth the opening he needed, to pound the Inventor into unconsciousness (finally).

As expected, this was the beginning of the end for the New Destroyers. After the Inventor went down, Scarab rallied the remaining troops, and using his teleporter device, zapped them all away, making good on yet another escape. Rex was able to locate Grizella, and the two of them helped themselves to a new chopper, courtesy of the New Destroyers.

When the dust cleared, the Inventor and his New Destroyers had been foiled, defeated, and two had actually been captured. All in all, not a bad dayâs work for AlertForce!

4/19 and 4/26/02: Late reports

With the new baby and a trial all in the same month, the AlertForce updates have been slowed. Here is an abbreviated version of what happened on 4/19 and 4/26:

4/19: Earth received a videotape depicting an autopsy of a mutant called Delta, who had been a member of StrikeForce (whom AlertForce recently apprehended and turned over to agents they believed were from the government). The tape also showed the StrikeForce leader, Brainwave, and the remaining member, Techno, being tortured.

The team investigated and eventually located the secret base where StrikeForce had been taken, and Earth, Spexx, Waterlord and Driver (of the Mid-City team) made an assault on the lair. They battled many guards armed with powerful lasers, but eventually found Brainwave and Techno, and were able to bust them out. Driver was nearly killed several times, and the general consensus was that the âjuniorâ team members from Mid-City should no longer be taken along on major missions. The icing on the cake was when Driver was given a teleport gadget and told to get Brainwave and Techno, both injured and unconscious, out of harms way while the rest of the team fought two large sentinel-like robots. When the dust cleared, AlertForce had defeated the robots, but Driver lay unconscious in an adjoining tunnel, while Brainwave and Techno (who were not really unconscious) escaped. They remain at large.

AlertForce also got some details from the lairâs computer. The organization which killed Delta, and was torturing the two other StrikeForce members, was called the Secret Investigations Bureau, and appears to have some loose ties with the FBI. It is apparently an anti-mutant front organization. The extent of its activities remains unknown.

4/26: AlertForce got an emergency summons to LA, where Damper (of the New Destroyers) was reported as being on a rampage. Earth, PAL, Waterlord, Spexx and Razor X responded to the call.

What ensued was a lengthy, free-for-all between AlertForce and a strangely different Damper, which was eventually joined by Scarab and Glacier (also of the New Destroyers). The battle featured almost as much in-fighting among AlertForce as combat with the villains, and was highlighted by Spexxâs Earth impersonation, a few stinging barbs by Razor X, a few not-so-stinging combat maneuvers by Razor X, and some good combat moves from Waterlord, PAL and Earth.

In the end, the battle accomplished nothing. All of the members of the New Destroyers eventually escaped, and AlertForce was left looking and some serious property damage. The cause or purpose of Damperâs rampage remains unknown.

2001-2002

Friday, March 31, 2006