Campaign History

Issue 1 - Trial of the Century
As a prelude to the events, each of the PCs received a summons to Jury Duty (in their secret identity). Radiance is a Police Detective in his secret identity so I had him as the arresting officer for Doctor Light when Power Girl dropped him off, however the player in question had some homework and couldn't make the game this week.

MORNING NEWS CAST:

“This is Snapper Carr reporting from the WNN news desk. Today is Wednesday May 3rd, 2011. On your way to work today you can expect lovely clear skies with a high of 65 degees with your low dropping down to the low 50’s

Our top stories today include:

• The Justice League has been spotted in international waters off the coast of Norway fighting a large black creature that has emerged from the depths of the ocean. Described by a witness from a nearby Greenpeace boat as a “living oil slick” The beast seems to be holding its own against the Earth’s mightiest heroes. We here at WNN wish the league the best of luck. Go get em’ guys.

• Reverend Jeffrey of the Church of the True Savior held a sermon today on Central Park’s great lawn. His fiery speech promoted a return to classic church beliefs and condemned the belief in false idols, warning the audience against such false symbols and the powers behind them.

• Today marks the first day in the trial of Arthur Light, a super criminal known as Doctor Light. Doctor Light was last seen two months ago when he was defeated by Powergirl in a battle on Staten Island. The villain had been a large for almost a year after his escape from Striker’s island and is a known associate of the Injustice Gang and several other villain groups that have faced the Justice League in the past. Today he will be facing a variety of charges including escaping prison, murder, and armed robbery. Regardless of the outcome of today’s trial, the nefarious villain will be returned to Striker’s Island to face the remainder of the 50 year sentence he was serving before his escape.

ARRIVING AT THE COURTHOUSE

Future, in his secret identity is an up and coming actor. So the press that was there to cover the trial of Doctor Light paid attention to the movie star that had suddenly appeared. Mercury, I should note, is Future's bodyguard in his Secet ID, so he was there as well, doing his job to keep the small crowd at bay as they entered the courthouse.

Mimic and Daedelus came into the courthouse through a side entrance and proceeded without incident to the Jury lounge. There they met a few of their fellow potential Jurors, and waited patiently. Eventually they were picked for a jury and found that they were (suprise suprise) on the Jury for Doctor Light's trial.

THE SHORTEST TRIAL EVER: As the PCs waited in the Jury box, Doctor Light was led in wearing power dampning cuffs and his prison issued orange jumpsuit by two men in high tech armor (I used the pic from the M&M Lockdown prison guards). The bailiff called for everyone to rise as the Judge entered, just as he told everyone to sit, a loud explosion rocked the building and various alarms began to ring.

Moments later one of the guards flew through the door and was followed by members of the Fearsome Five (and the PCs got a Hero point for being in their Secret ID). Through various means all the members of the group, except Mimic, ducked out with the fleeing crowd.

Future and Mercury hit the mens room and quickly changed to their Hero Uniforms. Daedelus was looking for a place to activate his power armor, but found that the Men's Room door was jammed shut (from being held closed by Mercury.) So he hit the ladies room in time to see the red flash of Falcona (who had been on the jury as well) summoning her wings and costume. She gave him a dirty look and soared over his head and back to the courtroom.

Meanwhile the Fearsome Five finished with the guards and approached Doctor Light. Mercury soared into the Room with Future and attempted to snatch the powerless Doctor Light but he hit Jinx's Luck field which caused him to miss and crash though the wall and out in the parking lot.

What ensued was a rather odd fight, with powers constantly being countered much confusion. Finally Gizmo, the Fearsome Five's Tech guy, summoned their stealthed Aircraft. Doctor Light and Gizmo did a double Dazzle (Sound and vision) and they boarded the ship and attempted to make their escape. The PCs gathered together and under the power of Future's green ring.

Issue 2 - A Natural Distraction
NOTE: This game was shorter than my usual sessions due to a last minute change in my work scedule. Once again Jason/Raidiance was unable to make it to the game.

The game opened with the PCs in pursuit of the airship holding Doctor Light and the Fearsome Five as it rose off the street and took off south over the city. As they followed Future, the Green Lantern, looked down and spotted a rather large wave hitting the south coast of the island, smashing warfs and going further inland than it was supposed to. The heroes faced the classic dilemma; Give chase to the bad guys or render aid to the helpless in need.

Future made a call to the JLA Watchtower (he had an emergency frequency from Jon Stewart, his mentor) and got ahold of Mr. Terrific, who was on monitoring duty. Mr. Terrific said that there were already several league reservists in the area, but no one of the power level of the PCs (Huntress, Nightwing, and the Question were mentioned). Future asked what they should do. Mr Terrific said he would take over the tracking of the Five's airship from the Watchtower while the new heroes helped the citizens below.

For the next 45 minutes or so (of in game time) the PCs dedicated them selves to rescue efforts. Future created a giant green Stay Puff Marshmellow man to help pull people from the water and act as a tide break to allow the to get away from the strong currents. Mercury lifted people, cars, and a city bus out of the water. Daedelus created a large sort of net to capture debris at the edge of the city as the water resceded, and then headed to the power station to make sure that the mainlines to the area were shut off due to the many fires caused by partially submerged electronics and power lines. Mathias, the Mimic, copied Mercuries powers and helped pull people from the waters as well. Falcona found a yacht that had partially pieced the second story of a building. Using her magical sword, she chopped the back end of the boat off and rescued the family inside.

After the waters finally receded down to about ankle level, the PCS were able to see the extent of the damage. While not completely catastrophic (like in the movie "The Day After Tomorow") the street level of Manhattan up to Central Park suffered heavy damage and many sites were flooded. It was obvious (to Daedelus, who explained it to the others) that this was no natural wave, as a natural wave would have come up much shorter and done far less damage. Some one or something nefarious was behind it.

As the finished rescuing the last of the people in need and began helping with the more dangerous aspects of clean up, Daedelus and Future (via his ring) began picking up radio transmisions from police stating that looting had begun at various places in the city. The new team split up and headed out to deal with the disasters.

Fifth Avenue: On Fifth Ave Future, Falcona and Mathias were waved down by a police officer who was, at the moment, forced to deal with a Hostage situation. Several goons armed with pistols had ambushed the wealthy patrons of a small, fancy hotel, as they attempted to evacuate after the flood. They've been stripped of the valuables and were now being held in hotel's small restaurant. As the PCs appoached, Future's ring alerted him to the fact that several of the men were armed with uknown tech as well, and had just activated it.

Using his ring Future phased himself and Mathias through one of the walls above the hostages and Built a barrier between the hostages and the criminals. Falcona teleported into the room and took down one of the crooks and disarmed the other. Future then knocked a hole in the wall and allowed the hostages to escape. The melee was short, the Three heroes proved to be too much for even the amped up thugs in their fancy armor. Two managed to escape, but the other four were taken down with relative ease. A few minutes after capture the thugs power armor seemed to digitize and dissapear into a harnes they wore under their jackets (I borrowed the idea from the first issue of WildC.A.T.S and the GI Joe Rise of Cobra movie). Future was tempted to keep the strange techonology for study, however the police insisted he turned it over for evidence.

Park Avenue: Daedelus responded to the reports of trouble here and found that a section of the street had fallen in causing a subway car to crash. The area was slowly filling with water from both the sewer (yuck) and the flood waters from street level. There were several people stuck in the muck, as well as wounded people on the train. Mathias used his Nanites to fix the broken sewage pipes (rather than plug them and cause other damage) and then created steps for the people who werent' wounded to escape. He then came in closer to make sure the wounded were stable enough until the paramedics arrived. A lucky role allowed him to find a man and a little girl who were stuck underneith one of the train cars. When everyone was safe he went back to join the others.

Wall Street: As Mercury flew over the damaged street he noted that most of the banks had engaged their emergency lockdown protocols and, while the public areas of the buildings were damaged, the structures were intact. However on of the banks doors were standing open, or rathe wedged open by ice! Investigating he entered the lobby and found that most of the security guards and the bank manager had been incased in blocks of ice. Freeing them with his heat vision he continued into the vault area and encountered the nefarioius Captain Cold in the process of stuffing millions in negotiable bairer bonds into a duffel bag. A rather short fight ensued, Captain Cold was knocked against the wall, he attempted to freeze Mercury, who busted out of the thin shell of ice and snatch Captain Cold's cold blaster out of his hand, after which the Captain wisely surrendered. Captain Cold was taken into custody and the bank personnel were treated for exposure to extreme cold.

As the heroes regrouped they were called by Mr. Terrific. It seems the Mayor had contacted the Justice League for help, but sincethe League was busy, Mr. Terrific asked the PCs to help. Needing answers, the PCs decided to go see what the Mayor had to say.

Mayor Albert Santino met with the PCs in his office. The somber man stood at his window with his back to the PCs for most of the conversation. He was very glad to see the PCs, though he would have prefered some one more experienced. It seemed that the Tidal Wave was in fact man made as Daedelus had suspected, and whats more, he had proof in the form of a ransom note left by the being claiming respopnsiblity.

Mr. Mayor

''This morning you were treated to the first test of a little experiment. The small wave which swept into New York can and will be followed by one or more larger tidal waves, which will make this morning’s washing look like a mere pond ripple. To prevent this, you will pay me the equivalent of $1 billion in diamonds by 9 p.m. tonight. I know, and you know, that you can get your hands on the diamonds, do not try to play for time. I can and will do exactly as I say. Unless you pay, New York will be inundated – wiped from the map. Further instructions will be issued closer to the delivery time. Good faith on your part will be rewarded with the life of your city and the location of the wave machine. Failure to deliver my price will earn you annhilation.''The mayor then turned to face the PCs, looking much older than when he took office months earlier.

“I cannot allow this ransom to be paid.” He says, leaning against his desk. “If it is, the city is certain to go bankrupt; the chaos you’ve seen out there today will be nothing compared to what will happen when all city services stop. “

“There is a chance that this is a hoax, or that this villain will not carry through with his threat. The Chief of Police feels as do I, that even if the ransom is paid, this villan might activate the machine anyway. Or continue to use the threat to extort greater and greater penalties from us. It is also our strong belief that whoever is behind this is somehow linked to the break out of Doctor Light this morning.”

“Therefore, I’m asking you to save the city. We will make a false payoff and I want you to deliver it. I want this despicable creature, and you are the only ones who can bring him in. I need not tell you what may happen if he gets a fake ransom and gets away as well. At 9pm I will need you to bait a trap and catch this unknown fiend for me.”

As the PCs began to strategize the Mayor's aid came in and stated that another member of their "team" had a arrived. While the PCs looked at each other with confusion, a provocatively dressed woman in a cloak entered the room. She stated that her name was Madame Mystique and that she had seen that their plan would fail and New York would be destroyed if they didn't act immediatly. She claimed to know where the person responsible was located and what they need to do to defeat him. Needless to say the PCs we suspicious.

Mathias was skeptical, but he sensed that she did in fact have precognition, and mimiced the power, immediately seeing the same vision of a massive wave, higher than the statue of liberty, crashing into the city and killing almost everyone on the island. This wave seemed to eminate from a collapsing oil rig off the coast. Shocked, he relayed the vision to the rest of the group, confirming what Madame Mystique had said.

Armed with this new information, Future created an aircraft with his ring and transported everyone to the old oil rig. As they approached Future switched the aircraft to a submarine and they submerged. As they did they found out the reason that the oil rig was abandoned in the 50's, and why it would soon collapse. The rig had been built on a small, but fragile faultine. The drilling had distablized the sea bed a bit, and the vibrations from whatever machine was causing the wave was causing further damage. To the point where it would soon give way, causing the rig to collapse into the ocean.

Rising up between the legs of the rigging, the group found a hatch opening and two heavily armed goons waving them in. Wary of a trap, they proceeded, and learned that Madame Mystique had sensed the two and used her Mind Control powers on them. Once the group was inside, she commanded them to fall asleep, which they did happily. The heroes were able to continue on the old control room unimpeded.

On the approach to the control room, Mercury heard the sounds of two men arguing, then a strange power signature. Stealthily approaching they found a man in green tights entering information into a large cylindrical device. As they watched a screen on the far wall came on and they saw the face of a white ape like creature with a huge brain. It wanted to know why "The Wizard" had not paid him for the crystal yet. The Wizard assured him that his money would soon be in had. The creature stated that it had better, or he would send some one rather nasty along to collect. Future used his ring to determine who the big white ape was, and discovered it was named the Ultra Humanite, a super intelligent powerhouse.

Not wanting to give him any more time, the heroes attacked. Overwhelmed, the Weather Wizard was quickly rendered harmless by the heroes. With that out of the way they examined the machine. Mathias mimiced the Weather Wizards knowledge and determined that the machine was drawing power from a Kryptonian Sun Crystal, and once removed the machine went inert.

They removed the crystal, and Daedelus took possession of it, much to Mercury's chagrin. They then took Weather Wizard back to shore. Afraid that the abandoned oil platform would collapse and cause ecological damage to the area, Future pulled it from it's moorings and dragged it into space, launching it into the sun.

The Weather Wizard joined Captain Cold in a paddy wagon, and the heroes could hear them complaining that there shouldn't have been heroes in New York city. Captain Cold suggested that next time they should loot a little town in the middle of nowhere, like Smallville.

The Mayor publicly thanked the new heroes and many of the local news stations showed the various actions of the heroes. Most praised them, and even the neigh sayers had to admit that the new guys did good. In a related note, the whole that Daedelus helped the people out of revealed an ancient 16th century vessel that was buried deep beneith the street.

Future stated that they would probably have to work together again soon. There was still the Fearsome Five and Doctor Light to deal with. Madame Mystique responded by stating that they would, she had seen it.

DM NOTES: All and all a good session. Again it was a little short due to the fact that my work schedule managed to mess up my game planning, and we had a late start.

Some loose ends the PCs can look into later:

- The power suits that the goons were wearing. Who made them? Who gave them to some street level goons? - The Sun Crystal, where did the Ultra humanite get it? - The Fearsome Five and Dr Light. Something tells me they'll be back. - The second man in the Control room with Weather Wizard, who was he? - Something tells me that 16th century ship will be more than a historical artifact.

Issue 3: Foundations
DM NOTE: Last night’s game went by better than I thought it would. We brought in the last of the planned 5 players (we may have two more join at a later time. Story wise, they did get as far as I thought, but they did surprise me.

This session opened on Friday May 5, 2011. Future and Mercury, in their secret identities, were at Future’s Uptown Manhattan Loft relaxing when Future got a call from his agent Mac. Mac told him that he had just gained him a part in a hit sequel that is going to be made and they were looking for him to play one of the four leads. When Future asked he chuckled and played the theme song to Ghostbusters! It seems that the producers had picked him along with several other up and coming stars to play the next generation of Ghostbusters that would be trained by the original four and then handed the mantle, possibly to make more films at a future date if this one does well. He was told that he would meet with the Producer and co-star Harold Ramis the next week.

Future was contacted by John Stewart; he told him that he had found him a trainer. The trainer in question would meet him on the roof of a tenement building in Harlem. When he arrived he was surprised to meet the former JSA member Wild Cat waiting for him. Wild Cat told him they would kill two birds with one stone. The building they were standing on was a known drug den, so the two of them would clean it out. However, the trick was that Future was only allowed to use his ring to defend his life from other weapons (guns, knives, etc) he would have to rely on his fists and his wits. The two went through the building rather fast and Future did his best to show that not only could he defend himself, he could do it with style. He used several wrestling style dropkicks and other moves, which Wildcat told him to avoid in the future saying: “That fancy crap will get you killed.” When it was all said and done, Wildcat gave him a B+ for his efforts, Future joshed him and tried to get him up to an A- but Wildcat stood firm. The two parted ways with Wildcat telling Future that he would contact him again soon for a sparring match. Future stated that something told him that it wouldn’t go as smoothly as this session had.

Lux, in is secret identity, is a Detective Third-grade assigned to the Homicide Division of the Manhattan South Division of the NYPD. He and his partner, Detective Second-grade Alexandra (Alex) Parker was called to the scene of a rather ghastly scene. A young man in a superhero costume was found in an overturned trash truck, his chest showing a cauterized wound that appeared to have been made by a flaming sword or similar instrument. (While in the normal world this would have seemed out of the ordinary, in the DCU it was just another day on the job.) The Coroner stated that the young man had been dead since the night before, and from the debris surrounding him he was killed and dumped in a dumpster behind Doo Wa’s a Chinese food restaurant on the trucks route. The pair left the site for the CSI guys and headed to the restaurant to look for further clues. Just as the pulled up to the restaurant they heard an alarm sound at the Star Labs building across the street.

Varient spent the morning with his brother. His brother, having heard of his adventure at the courthouse, stated that he would need a costume and a name if he were to continue fighting crime. This was partially self serving, as he didn’t want an angry super villain knocking down his door. He presented Mathias with a box containing a costume complete with a bandanna style mask and a protective leather jacket. He also suggested that he take up a moniker and suggested the name Variant, which Mathias seemed to like. The pair then headed to Star Labs. Mathias’s brother was going to make a presentation and hopefully get a grant to study something called “Boom Tube” Technology.

Daedelus began his day by setting up some meetings with various lawyers and organization to lay the groundwork for the floating city project that he is developing. In the hopes to avoid any interference from the US or other nations, he set up deals with corporations in Norway, China and the US to manufacture various parts and handle various logistics.

Around this time Madame Mystique contacted Future and Mercury stating that “The Five” had reemerged, and that they were breaking into Star Labs as they spoke. She said that they should get the other heroes together and take them down. The two heroes agreed. She told them that she and Falcona were in route, and would meet them there shortly.

SHOWDOWN AT STAR LABS

The Fearsome Five arrived at Star Labs and proceeded through the front doors taking out the two guards and causing the receptionist to faint in her chair. From there they proceeded to the high security checkpoint, which Gizmo bypassed with ease. From there, Gizmo, Psimon and Jinx proceeded down to the lower level of the vault while Mammoth and Glimmer rounded up the scientists and support personnel into a small area where they could be controlled.

While this was going on, Variant managed to excuse himself from the meeting upstairs and slipped down the elevator. Using his ability to detect superpowers, he located the Fearsome Five and quickly duplicated Jinx’s luck powers and some of Psimon’s mental ability. Sneaking closer he uses Jinx’s powers against her and her allies.

Responding to the Alarm, Detective Parker slipped into the front door and took cover behind the receptionist’s desk without Mammoth or Shimmer seeing her. Lux took the moment of distraction to change to his hero guise then turn invisible. He flew inside behind Parker, and then moved to a strategic position, unaware that other superheroes were also in route.

Around the time that Gizmo, Psimon, and Jinx emerged from the lower vault into the security area, the heroes struck.

The battle was much shorter this time, partly due to the fact that Falcona scored a critical on Jinx in the first round taking her and her bad luck power out of the fight in the first round. This coupled with Variant using Jinx’s powers against the rest of the Fearsome Five stacked the deck heavily against the villains in this second encounter. Mammoth and Shimmer found themselves mind controlled by Variant and Madame Mystique. Madame Mystique used Shimmer to turn Mammoth to stone temporarily then put Shimmer to sleep. When Mammoth emerged from his stone state, he was also put to sleep by Variant. Psion was blasted by Falcona and was out of the fight. Finally Gizmo, who was holding a strange power cell in his hands, fought against both Future and Daedelus. Just as things were looking bad for him a strange young man armed with razor sharp claws appeared beside him and grabbed him, turning him intangible. Fortunately both heroes were prepared, Future blasted Gizmo twice, and then used his power ring to yank the power cell out of Gizmo and the stranger’s grasp and place it in Mercury’s care. Unsure what the stranger was capable of; Mercury removed the cell from danger by flying far away with it. With Gizmo down from Future's second blast, Future then tried to net the newcomer with his ring.

Irritated at the loss of his objective (the power cell) the stranger teleported away again, leaving the characters with no clue as to who he was. Future called Mercury back and the heroes regrouped. Lux had used the time to fly out a side exit and resume his civilian identity, coming in behind his partner.

Future asked “What happened to that glowing guy that helped us.”

To which Variant replied “He flew out the backdoor and came back in like that.” He then pointed out Detective Roman Armitage (Lux in his secret identity). It was only through good RP and a decent Persuasion role that he was able to convince his partner that the strange superhero was mistaken (though she’s very suspicious). Poor Lux, first game session, and he already has secret identity problems! Guess that’s comic books for you.

After leaving statements with the two officers, the heroes decided to meet up and discuss the idea of forming a permanent team. They met on the back side of the statue of liberty on the pedestal where they were sure they wouldn’t be disturbed. They discussed their backgrounds and a little about themselves, then swapped ideas on a name for their group. (All this while the DM was busy using the restroom) The decided upon the name “Liberty Prime” taking inspiration from the lady of New York Harbor (and some robot from Fallout 3). They then discussed ideas for a base and a few other things before heading their separate ways.

Just before the broke up, Future received a call from Professor Hamilton of Star Labs relayed through the JLA Watchtower. He told them that the power cell that the Fearsome Five were trying to steal was a new battery that Star Labs had developed using advanced Quantum Technology. This battery was slated for use at their Polar Research Center (PRC) in Antarctica. It wasn’t by coincidence that they had just recently lost contact with the PRC, or that the PRC was in the immediate area where the Watchtower tracked the Fearsome Fives air ship after their first encounter with Liberty Prime.

Professor Hamilton asked the heroes to investigate the area for Star Labs, and of course they agreed. The good Professor offered them any cold weather gear that they would need and would have offered means of travel, but with a green lantern in the group that didn’t seem like it was going to be a problem.

So next session Liberty Prime heads to Antarctica, where they expect to face off against the Ultra-humanite and the mysterious teleporting stranger with the claws.

Issue 4: A Cold Day in Hell
- They travelled to the South pole and found out that the place that the Ultra-Humanite was using as a base was in fact a small section of Superman's former southern Fortress of Solitude. Among the items there was a partially ruined Sun Crystal pedastal (like in the Superman movies) a portal of some sorts, and a holographic database.

- The fight didn't really happen. Mercury nearly splatterd a scientist that was willingling helping the Humanite. Future sent constructes that looked like the Power Puff Girls to attack Humanite (a gorilla with a huge brain, lol) and Thrill Kill teleport behind a third figure that turned out to be none other than Bizarro! Bizarro was taken out of the fight by Falcona, who made phsyical contact with him by kissing him, and teleported them both away (She then calmed him with a couple of spells). Daedelus flew up to the consol and snatched up all the Sun Crystals and transported himself to his own base to hide them. Thrill Kill, seeing that the PCs were going to win, so He Teleported the Humanite away, much to the PCs outrage.

- After the fight the Eradicator showed up and told the PCs what the old fortress was for, and left the ruins in the possession of Mercury. He forced Daedelus to return all the sun crystals, including the one he confiscated from the Weather Wizard. He then told Mercury that the crystals contained a wealth of information on the science and history of Krypton, most of which was gather by a scientist named Ran-El. Ran-El was famed for his research into the phantom zone (after Jor-El discovered it).

- The scientist, after some healing, revealed that he was the one who brought in the Ultra-Humanite in the hopes of cashing in on the discovery of the Fortress ruins. Humanite in turn brought in Bizarro, using his Kryptonian nature to access many of the systems and overrid the security. He also told them that the Humanite sold three of the Sun Crystals. One was sold to the Weather Wizard, one was sold to Doctor Light, and one was sold to an unknown party who was a member of "The Circle" that served "The Queen"

Returning New York the PCs split up and agreed to meet up again later.

- Daedelus did some more work on setting up his floating city. Chartering his boats out of the Martial Islands and working out a deal with the President of that country to employ some of his people for construction and support purposes.

- Future was out and about and gave Variant some books which Varient proceeded to read, right there on the sidewalk where he got them! He was approached by two men in black suits who wanted to speak with him. They stepped into an alleyway and he suddenly woke up in an alley on the other side of town, having lost several hours. Confused he headed home.

- Mercury was hanging out at home and was suprised when a large alien in a green lantern uniform (Killawog) landed on the balcony and walked THROUGH the sliding glass door! He stated that he was looking for future, when Mercury said he would be back soon, Killowog proceeded to raid the fridge, eating just about everything in it.

- Mercury was hanging out at home and was suprised when a large alien in a green lantern uniform (Killawog) landed on the balcony and walked THROUGH the sliding glass door! He stated that he was looking for future, when Mercury said he would be back soon, Killowog proceeded to raid the fridge, eating just about everything in it. Mercury called Future and let him know about the visitor. Future eventually made it home and met with Kilowog. The big guy told him that he was summoned to Oa, and he had to leave immediatly. Not really having much of a choice. Before the left, Killowog begrudgingly used his ring to fix the sliding glass door.

- Detective Armitage (Lux) continued the investigation into the death of the young hero, learning that he was a up and coming hero that did a lot of heroics in Queens dealing mainly with muggers and robbers and the like. He was well liked by the locals and the Queens Police department, and wasn't know to have any superpowered enemies. During this investigation he got a call from the CSI division with some news on the Star Labs break in. It seems that that were able to get a single print that they couldn't account for. What was strange was that it was a print for a man sitting in a cell at Arkham Asylum. A man who, by accounts was still in his cell. Curious, he checked out the story on the man, finding that he was a relativly model prisoner, but one who seemed to have the ability to get out of his cell when he wanted to.

Travelling to Arkham he met with the assistant Warden. The Warden stated that the man whom the other prisoners named "Renegade" was brought to the Asylum after assaulting two police officers in a park. Since his arrival he has proven to be a decent enough fellow, even to the point of saving one of the guards from a knifing by another inmate named Victor Zsasz. It's obvious that he has powers, but he's only used them on occasion to get out of his cell to get a cup of coffee from the mess, or to help some one in need. As such they keep him under observation, but don't try to hinder his movements. It's believed that if they could help him regain his memory then he could become a productive member of society once again.

Meeting with "Renegade," Detective Armitage explained why he was there and asked if there was any reason that he should share fingerprints with the man who had helped break into Star Labs. Renegade stated that he had not left the walls of Arkham in the past three months and that he doesn't have any memories beyond waking up on the bench in Gotham Park days before. The Detective asked him if it was true that he had powers and he responded by becoming intangible and stepping through the glass wall between them, then teleporting back. As they talked they heard sounds of a disturbance in a nearby hall and soon alarms were blaring in the Asylum. The guard stated that they should stay where they were why the other guards deal with whatever was going on. However as the guard spoke Armitage heard noise from above and looked up to see a masked face looking down on him through a vent. The face belonged to the Scarecrow, who promptly tossed a small packet at the feet of Armitage and Renegade. the packet exploded, exposing both men to the potent gas created by the villain.

Armitage relived the day that his life changed. He like many others, gained his powers from Lex Luthor's Everyman Project. He and his fellow Everymen were in Metropolis about the celebrate the New Year, and his sister Nightshadow was flying about with some of her friends near the Lex Corp tower. Knowing what was coming he watched in horror as the ball dropped and so did the many flying heroes around him, including his sister. For the second time in his life he watched her fall to her death and was powerless to stop it. What worse, he felt his own power flicker out, allowing gravity to regain its grasp on him. He plunged towards the ground, awakening just before he hit the ground. Recovering from the gas he found that Renegade was gone. Rushing to a nearby security room he discovered that Renegade had found the Scarecrow and, after taking another dose of gas, proceeded to beat the villain into submission with two guard batons, after which he walked where he had spoken to the Detective. Speaking with him again, the Detective learned that while he had experienced his worse fear, Renegade had actually recovered some of his lost memories, remembering two things...

Hanging suspending in a vat of clear fluid in a room full of such containers, and the word Cadmus.

Issue 5: Parrallel Lines
In this issue the team was temporarily seperated.

Future travelled to Oa to meet with the Guardians.

Daedelus had an encounter with the Atlantians.

Lux encountered the killer who had been stalking superhumans.

The team, minus Lux and Future, faced off against a massive living Trash Heap.

In the cliff hanger the PCs responded to an alarm at the Natural history museum and came face to face with Thrax the son of Ares.

More details to come soon!