As Mayhem dropped from the Falcon, the air began rushing towards her, swirling in chaotic waves as it cloaked her in it's protective embrace. She hovered in the air to survey the scene below them, watching as Dynamo dropped to confront the lone villain.

Dynamo stopped just in front of the gray-man, hovering about 3 feet off the ground. "By order of the New York Police Department, put the weapon down and surrender. Now."

The atomic hero had no real belief that this man would surrender; but he hoped to buy his team another few seconds to get those injured away from the combat.

"Oh, cut the crap," The blank man answered impatiently, looking around while talking to try and see all of them. "I ain't here to get arrested and I ain't got all day. But at least I think you're all here now."

He stopped looking about and looked directly at Dynamo, leveling his gun. "Let's dance."

A ready smile crossed Dynamo's face. He had faced Hitler, Tojo and even Stalin (after they were no longer allies), he could face this jerk. "Do your worst, villain."

Something ain't right here, Chance thought, eyes narrowing.

As Mayhem watched the exchange, she summoned a passing breeze, twisting it with a flare of her hands before throwing it at the incorporeal villain. The twisting tendrils pulled at the loose debris in the area as it turned into a funnel cloud and enshrouded the lunatic in swirling fury of wind. The blank man swayed hard and crouched to steady himself as the swirling winds buffeted him.

"Dose two are good, but I've got to check dis guy," Flashfire said to Frostburn as he carefully rolled the elderly unconscious man over onto his back. He pulled the man's shirt open roughly, popping several buttons, to expose the man's chest to which he leaned down to listen.

This villain wasn't making sense. They didn't seem to be stopping him from committing a crime; he just seemed to be destroying the place to get their attention. Was it to distract them from something else? A ruse of some kind. Sometimes Elastic Man really didn't understand these people.

Elastic Man watched as the mysterious man brought his gun down pointing it roughly in the direction of Dynamo. That gun looked dangerous. Elastic Man glanced at Dynamo but the main man seemed to be waiting for the villain to react. Waiting that weapon to be fired didn't seem like a good idea to Elastic Man.

"Hey spooky! You shouldn't point that thing at people!" Elastic Man called out. And, with a sudden twang, he stretched out his flexible right arm (still with a mace-like end where his hand should be) at the gun, trying to knock it out of the villain's hands. His elongated appendage struck true, knocking the blank man's gun to the side. Whether it was a sense that the gun and the man were part of the same whole or something else, he couldn't be sure. The weapon never left the man.

Chance shook her head in suspicion and took a half-step back, away from their combined target, eyes narrowing. Unable to put her finger on what was bothering her about this set up -- Set up! That's what it feels like! -- she pixellated out of the scene, reappearing in a crouch just in front of the C-store (bodega). While her physical eyes remained fixed on the battle before her, her Probability Sight roamed outward, starting with the buildings nearest them, looking for cameras, video equipment, or whoever was watching the spectacle with the calm disinterest that might indicate culpability.

Across the street, through the flames of the ruined city bus and the heat-addled air shimmering around it, through the street-facing, shattered windows, Chance spotted a young man's torso sticking up above a dumped-over desk in the Chase branch tucked into the apartment tower's first floor. He had sandy blond hair and was holding a metallic device, maybe a camera, directing it towards the confrontation in the middle of the street.

"Oof...this is different," the blank man said as he steadied himself in his personal wind trap.> "Try this one, babe."

He raised his weapon and it fired with a pneumatic-sounding >phwoomp<. A capsule-shaped grenade arced quickly upwards towards Mayhem and struck her dead on.

BWA-HOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!

The explosion was devoid of fire but the air in the vicinity blurred harshly with a concussive wave of sound that shattered glass and windows within a dozen meters. Cracks shot across Frostbite's ice wall but it held, protecting those behind it from the blast wave. The echo from it reverberated throughout the steep canyons of the city.

The echo also reverberated in Mayhem's head as she tumbled through the air away from the explosion. The force from the blast sent her flying ass-over-elbow away from the intersection and hurtled her towads the apartment tower to the north. Just in time, she managed to check her flight and avoid impacting the building's concrete facade. Aside from the sound still ringing in her ears, she couldn't hear a damn thing and her ribs felt like she'd been kicked by an angry mule. "Son of a fucking bitch!"

The waves of force from the close-proximity blast drove Dynamo off his feet despite his great strength and rolled him a couple of meters. If not for his prodigious might, he might have ended up across the intersection. The ringing, and nothing else, persisted in his ears, too.

Elastic Man was surprised at the force wave that struck him and sent him sprawling. The technology to produce concussion waves of focused sound was not unheard of to him, but he hadn't realized such a breatkthrough had been made here.

The blank man flew backwards from his own explosion like a rag doll. He landed a baker's dozen meters away and slid another six or seven across the pavement to a stop at the sidewalk on the intersections far corner.

"Whoo-hoo! Yeah!" The blank man cheered his own move enthusiastically from where he decorated the street. "Shit, man, let's do that again!"

Frostbite glanced at Flashfire. He moved and spoke so fast, she still had trouble understanding him through the accent. Still, it was obvious he was checking the injured men.

"If you need any help, let me know. I know a little about first aid." She didn't want to draw the villain's fire her way until the civilians were clear, so she waited. If he shot this way, Rachel was ready to protect them.

"...not breathing..." Flashfire didn't respond to Frostbite but was mumbling out loud. He began administering CPR.

"C'mon..."

Breathe...pump...pump...pump...listen

"C'mon dammit..."

Breathe...pump...pump...pump...listen...

"Fuck! Breathe you stubborn sonovabitch. We should have a fuckin' oxygen tank or something."

Breathe...pump...pump...pump...listen...

Rachel hadn't reacted fast enough to stop the man from shooting Mayhem, and that bothered her. She knew she was only human, but she wanted to be able to help. Time to go on the offensive. She concentrated and formed an ice slide bringing herself out from behind her wall and towards the villain. As she landed, her hands came up and a blast of pure cold shot towards him. She tried to think of something witty to say, but couldn't come up with anything, so she stayed quiet.

Considering the range, Frostbite’s shot was a good one. If the blank man had been standing or even just not so prone as he was following his tumble, she’d have nailed him. Instead the ice blast went just high, close enough to frost the outside of his blank form. A mailbox on the corner caught the blast instead and iced over quickly.

Mayhem was none to pleased and the ringing in her ears was distracting as hell. She reached out with her hand and sent her personal hell storm that had been plaguing the villain chasing after him. But this time when it reached him, the tendrils snaked around him and his gun and tried to lift him into the air.

Probably due to the distance or her aching ribs, the whirlwind swept just behind the blank man and snared the frozen blue mailbox instead. Bits of cracked concrete mixed with ice chips flew as it popped loose from where it was bolted into the sidewalk and soared into the sky.

"Hey! Messin' with the mail is a federal offense, babe!" The blank man needled her with a laugh - not that she could hear him...

GM: Results of Phase 1 & 2: Flashfire discovers the elderly victim has gone into arrest and is attempting his Paramedics skill to stabilize him. Both phases were fails on the skill rolls. Frostbite missed her attack roll (just missed, though). Mayhem rolled a critical fail on her attack roll and has destroyed federal property (oops).

Breathe...pump...pump...pump...listen.

"Ah bah fanucculo!" Flashfire pounded once on the old man's chest....twice...three times. He listened, but there was no signs of resuscitation. He pounded again...and again...

The old man's body jerked, twisted, and gasped for air. His hands feebly reached for answers and found only a catastrophically relieved hero at his side.

From her position on the corner, Chance shook her head. The kid with the camera was obviously looking for something to sell the news services (or post on his blog -- nowadays, you never knew), he wasn't one of the ones she was looking for. First priority had to be to take out the perp -- and he wasn't looking like he was willing to be taken out easily.

Don't take a deductive genius to guess that everyone in that blast radius is deaf as a post, she thought. Still, two weeks o' trainin' -- here's hoping it's worth something. Praying Dynamo's years of experience would bring him back into the fight quickly, Chance P-jumped over to Spooky, still sprawled on the pavement.

"Just your luck -- wrong place, wrong time, Spooky." With that, she reached toward him, searching internally for that location that was about 90 feet up in the air. Preferably the one with Dynamo racing toward it, arms outstretched. Also, hopefully, the one that left that damn cannon of his on the ground. "Let's see if we can find you someplace more painful."

One second the blank man was looking up at Chance and the next he was looking into the tenth floor windows of the building on the opposite corner. Before he could figure out what the hell was happening he was falling, weapon and all.

Dynamo's eyes narrowed and he tensed himself before throwing himself skyward. Green contrails of energy falling behind him, he turned himself into a human rocket racing at the Blank Man. He struck a sound blow as he passed, knocking the blank man even higher upwards along his flight trajectory.

Rachel gave out a happy cheer as the villain was first teleported into the air, then hit by Dynamo. She winced a little at the thought of the pain of the impact, but reminded herself of the injuries to the people around, and steeled herself to do her job. Of course she could barely see the blank man any more, so freezing him was unlikely. Instead she waited, watching him fall, until he hit the ground. Then she summoned up ice around him, trying to trap him in it's bonds.

Elastic Man pulled his flattened body of the street like a thick pancake and shook his head to clear the fogginess. Amazed at the power of the man's sonic grenade, Elastic Man could only watch as his teammates rallied, somehow teleporting him far above the ground and then hitting him with an almighty punch as the villain dropped to the ground.

By now this Blank Man (or whoever he was) was too far away from Elastic Man for him to hit or grab. He'd have to move closer. In the meantime, he'd point out the obvious - assuming the rest of the Knights could hear him after the boom.

"I could not remove his weapon. It is like the device is a part of him", Elastic Man called out over the buzzing in his ears as he ran over to where the villain would land.

GM: Results of Phase 3: Flashfire succeeds on his Paramedics skill roll and stabilizes the victim. Chance makes both power activation rolls and her attack roll on the blank man. He is 15" above his positon on the map right now, will be 10" high at the end of segment 4, and will impact the ground at the end of segment five. He still has his weapon. Dynamo makes his attack roll. He is now 21" above the ground at his updated position on the map. None of the feedback damage from the move-by penetrates his defenses. The blank man is now 24" above his updated position on the map. Frostbite has a held action that can be used anytime prior to segment 6.

"I'll be right back," Flashfire said as he gently lifted the ld man's body off the pavement. Then, in a blur of color, he was gone.

Mayhem watched as the man fell down, she couldn't tell how badly he was hurt, or even if he was hurt at all. She had several bad experiences in her past that included not knowing when the bad guy had, had enough, and just now she was concerned about that. She flew back towards her teammates, watching the situation closely, ready to fire if the man went for his weapon again.

GM: Results of Phase 4: the blank man is 19" high and falling. Flashfire executes a full NCM move to Bellevue Hospital. Mayhem executes a half move and holds an action.

Chance whooped aloud at Dynamo's blow, but noticed Spooky was still flailing around after it. She glanced around, saw Rachel standing not too far off, and laughed in excitement as the probabilities swarmed around them both. "Hey Frostbite! Want an instant lift up to the action?"

Rachel giggled at Chance. The first time they had tried this, she had nearly broken her leg when she miss timed the slide. She felt a little more ready now.

"Sure, hopefully this time I'll get the timing right." When she appeared near the man, she had already extended her hands. With concentration, she fired a blast of pure cold at him.

The frost wave washed over the blank man's form, which instantly developed a coating of whiteness as the moisture in the surrounding air froze on contact with his flash-frozen form. Her target didn't appear fazed, however, as much as she could tell without being able to see a facial expression or any visible signs of damage in the nothingness that was her opponent.

Dynamo swooped down to catch the falling man before he hit the ground, holding his weapon so that it pointed up. He'd hoped that they had taken the fight out of the man; but it was certainly too soon to tell.

"Surrender!" He commanded the Blank Man.

The blank man, catching up with being knocked around, blasted, and finaly caught in mid air, turned his empty countenance on Dynamo and laughed. It was the laugh of a man who knew something the other didn't. It was the laugh of a man who had nothing to lose.

"Surrender? HAAA-hahhahhahahaaa!" Something about Dynamo's grip was changing as the man laughed at him. He was quickly growing somehow slippery, but not wet, and getting more slippery by the half-moment.

"You don't get it yet, do you?" The blank man asked rhetorically. "I can do this all day long, big man. Can you?"

Even as the question was asked, Dynamo began to feel a tingling intensify to a burning everywhere he was touching the blank man. For a man as tough as Dynamo was, the unfamiliar sense of pain was surprisingly sharp. Where there was contact between him and his captive, his costume was warping, distorting, and deteriorating.

GM: Results of Phase 5: The blank man will be 9" high and falling. Chance makes her activation roll and ports a half move. Chance makes her activation roll and her to-hit roll on the target hex and ports Frostbite to the same altitude as the blank man but two hexes away. Frostbite makes her attack roll and blasts the blank man. Dynamo executes a flying half move towards the blank man and makes his attack roll. The blank man is grabbed and no longer falling. Dynamo takes 1 BODY as described above.

**Flashfire to team, I'm droppin' the old man off at Bellevue and will be back in a bada-bing...**

Mayhem closed a bit more distance towards Dynamo and the Villain.

Elastic Man continued to head towards where the Blank Man and Dynamo were tussling. He was still a little far away so Elastic Man stretched his legs a little and stepped over to near where Frostbite was. As he stretched/ran, he activated his comms signal and keyed in a message back to base.

"Elastic Man to Daniel Lee", he said into the comms. "Or whoever is back at the Pier. Does the Knights' history or database - or perhaps the authorities - have any information on a gray, blank superhuman? Subject has an indistinct form, gray and featureless and seems to be wielding a gun that is unable to be removed from his person. Subject also appears to be nearly immune to normal damage. Has he been encountered before?"

Lee's voice echoed across the team's comms. **Checking now, stand by.**

Getting close to Frostbite, Elastic Man switched from his comms and shouted up to Dynamo.

"Throw him this way, Dynamo! It's time to bat 'er up!"

Elastic Man stood there and swung his mace-like hands - which now resembled a large baseball bat - getting ready for the pitch.

Falling, Rachel concentrated again. This time an ice slide appeared under her, turning her fall into a slide. She turned herself around, landing a short distance from the blank man and saw Dynamo had him. She didn't want to risk hitting the big man, so she kept a bead on the blank man and waited for an opening. She intended to tie the villain up in ice, holding him still.

Chance held her breath and watched Frostbite, not taking her eyes off her young teammate until she was sure the girl had a safe slide down to the ground.

GM: results of Segment 6: Frostbite makes her DEX roll to start a slide while falling. Mayhem, Elastic Man, and Frostbite all have held actions.

**...bada-boom!** A streak of color ended in Flashfire as he reappeared at the northern end of the intersection.

GM: results of Segment 7: Flashfire completes a full move.

In a blink, Flashfire was standing next to Chance and slightly underneath Mayhem. With a somewhat forlorn look he looked across the intersection at Dynamo holding the blank man and asked, "Yo, whadid I miss da whole ting hea?

Mayhem floated back down to the ground, braced and ready to throw wind blast at the Villain, when and if she got a clear shot.

"Nah," Chance said, watching Dynamo light up like a little kid playing sandlot ball. "That was just the seventh inning stretch, honey. Now the real game starts. **Hey Dynamo -- we gotta get this guy away from civilians and property he can damage. Playin' ball right her on 6th and 23rd prob'ly ain't a real good idea.**"

'Pain, how odd.' Dynamo thought. It was rare that anything ever hurt him. 'What was this guy doing to him?' He was - for a moment - distracted by the pain. Then he saw Elastic Man below him. Dynamo hurled the Blank Man like a human baseball toward his teammate.

"Hit this!" He shouted as he did; despite the pain, he seemed to be having a good time.

Elastic Man pulled his bat-like forearms back, tensing and ready to swing as the Blank Man came his way. "Okay, Dynamo!" he answered back.

The blank man was served up like a fastball on a downward trajectory from Dynamo's position high in the air. It was faster, perhaps, than the flexible Knight's ability to judge. But Elastic Man managed to make contact just in time with one of his giant mace-like appendages.

"Ooof!" The blank man grunted with the crushing impact and spun sideways into the air, then fell the few meters to land in a heap on the ground a short distance away.

He sat up, one hand running over his chest which bore the brunt of the impact. While his expression couldn't be read, something in the way the blank man moved suggested surprise, or disbelief.

"Huh-huhhuhehehehehe!" The blank man's laughter seemed slightly deranged, almost manic. "Nice hit," he told Elastic Man. "Now suck this!"

The blank man's weapon leveled again. ***FWOOOOOSSSSHHHHH** A wide, powerful lance of thick yellow-hot flame erupted out of the barrel and shot towards Frostbite and Elastic Man.

"Madonn'!" Flashfire moved faster than the searing flames. The ball of fire leading the infernal blast rolled slowly towards his teammates from his hyper perspective. He made a snap decision as he raced their way and bent his path closer to Frostbite. As he passed he reached out and grabbed her by the arm and the waist, dragging her out of the blast's path before she realized what was happening.

A jet of ignited, flammable liquid was not what Elastic Man was expecting in return. He'd hoped his hit on the Blank Man would at least stun the man, but even that didn't seem to go his way. Still, thankfully it was flames and not ice. The heat would melt him but he'd recover eventually. Even so, it would be better if he wasn't in the area when the flames hit.

Rachel screamed as she saw fire coming at her. Panic seized her and she instinctually threw her hands up, putting all the ice she could between her and the fire. Then something grabbed her and pulled at her. She struggled for a moment, then realized it was Flashfire and he was saving her. "Thanks," she said, still frightened. Suddenly this wasn't so much fun any more. Afraid he would turn his fire on her next. She watched Blank Man closely, ready to move if he did.

With natural instincts honed by years of working in a team something like this one, Chance grasped a probability and launched herself into the air as if diving toward Elastic Man. Once in the air she pixellated out that spot and reappeared right next to her teammate, arms outstretched, tackling him and allowing her momentum to carry them both out of the very literal line of fire -- hopefully before either of them got hurt.

Elastic Man was just about ready to spring out of the way when, to the side of him, the world seemed to blur and reduce in details. Something... changed. And then something hit him! Not something, he realized, but someone, tackling him literally out of the line of fire. The mass of ice that had suddenly appeared between him and the wide blast of flame lasted no more than half a second against the infernal onslaught, but that was enough time to save both he and Chance from more than seared, smoking boots.

"Always did like knockin' a guy off his feet," Chance quipped, rolling free of the rubbery man. "Especially literally."

She refocused on the battle, frowning abruptly. This was getting out of hand -- she tried to reach the team's leader again. **Dynamo, we've got to take this guy down or get him clear of the city before he does anymore damage!**

GM: results of Segment 8: Elastic Man makes his to-hit roll. Knockback was minimal. The blank man fires a one-hex line AoE flamethrower attack. Flashfire makes his DEX-vs-DEX roll against the blank man and his to-hit and performs a grab-by on Frostbite. Frostbite maxes her DEX-vs-DEX roll against the blank man, makes her to-hit roll on the target area, and gets her ice wall up in time. Chance just misses her DEX-vs-DEX roll against the blank man, but GM ruling is that the ice wall plus one successful die of luck buys her the 1-pip difference on the SPD chart. Chance makes her power activation roll, her to-hit roll on the TP location, and her to-hit roll on Elastic Man and performs a diving grab-by on him. Chance and Elastic Man are prone. Mayhem still has a held half-phase. GM Note: Excellent teamwork!

Still holding the youngest Knight, Flashfire sped to a point at the blank man's back. Frostfire's insides felt uncomfortably left behind as they covered the distance in less than a second.

The speedster released his teammate and said, "Okay, Frosty, put 'em on ice!"

Elastic Man blew out a deep sigh of relief.

"Thank you for the assistance", he said to Chance and then quickly turned his gaze towards the Blank Man, worried that their foe might turn and fire again.

However, he could just about make out Flashfire carrying Frostbite zoomed around the back of the Blank Man. The frosty, feisty female looked scared and angry all in one and ready to blast the enemy where he stood. Distracting the Blank Man would ensure he was surprised and that Frostbite wasn't attacked.

"Hey Spooky! You missed!", Elastic Man shouted, still on the ground. He stood up. As he did, one of his club-like arms changed and reformed into a Y-like shape.

"Are you blind or something?", Elastic continued to call out, trying to draw the man's attention his way. "No? Then maybe I can help".

His arm then shot forward hoping to hit the Blank Man in the face. He wasn't entirely sure whether this Blank Man had eyes or whether they were covered, but it was more a distraction than anything else.

The blank man turned just in time to get poked in the face. His head whipped back from the force of the blow and he shook his head to try and clear it.

Frostbite was nauseaus, disoriented and scared. She tried to hold it together, not wanting to let her friends down. The thought of that horrible fire exploding over her terrified her and adrenaline flooded her system. "Take this you...jerk!!!!" she yelled as she threw everything she had into her attack. Solid chunks of ice exploded out of her and flew towards the blank man.

The blank man used her shout as a warning and braced himself, crossing his arms in front of him and getting low. The icy shards struck him all over, pummeling him mercilessly, but he neither moved nor showed signs of pain.

GM: Results of Segment 9: Flashfire performs a half-move to the blank man's rear and releases Frostbite at their new location. Elastic Man makes his to-hit roll. Frostbite pushes her EB and makes her to-hit roll, but gets no knockback (a combination of bad dice and active resistance by the target).

The blank man loosened up as the ice stopped coming, and considering that the damage being dished out was likely enough to make Dynamo cringe, it made his response all the more chilling.

He laughed. "Ah-hahah-hahhahaHHAHHAAAA!" Fists clenched and raised in defiance, he shouted, "Yes! Come! Hit me with everything you got! Show me what the big bad New York Knights are capable of! You can't--"

The blank man was abruptly cut off by a blur that in one moment took him by an arm and sent him flying full of momentum across the entire intersection towards the wrecked, burning bus. He smashed into the front corner and dissapeared behind crumpled metal and broken glass into the bus's interior.

"Ah, shaddup," Flashfire offered from where he had released the hyper-speed throw.

"Fuck me." Mayhem growled in irritation as the man was thrown yet again across her line of vision. "Could you just stand still for a minute?."

Her tone was conversational as she approached the burning bus, the wind swirling around her ready to protect her from any incoming attacks. The blank man wasn't to be seen. The fires burning in and around the bus flickered in fierce anger and the black smoke of rubber, foam, and vinyl swirled like a dervish released from a bottle as the mistress of the winds approached. He apparently hadn't come out the other side and was buried in the burning wreck, best she could tell.

"Where the hell..." Mayhem strained to see through the smoke. "I can't find him!"

She needed to be closer. A willing probability suggested itself almost immediately, possibly accompanied by Elastic Man. "I'm headin' in closer. You want a lift?" Chance asked, extending a gloved hand to Elastic Man.

"A lift...?" Elastic Man looked confused for a moment and then continued. "I... oh, yes. I see. Yes".

He reached out and held onto Chance's offered hand. A moment later he found himself with her in the middle of the intersection, almost a couple dozen meters closer to the burning bus.

From her position in front of the bus, Mayhem noticed it shift suddenly, just a bit. It then rocked twice back and forth and then twice again as if someone inside was thrashing about.

"Okay," she heard from somewhere inside the burning heap. "Now I'm pissed off."

A frown turned down the corners of Chance's mouth. "Hey E-Man, watch my back here a minute, Ah wanna try somethin'." With that, she dropped his rubbery hand and concentrated, hating to drop her guard when so much was happening but willing to risk it if it would give them an edge. She looked around, suddenly seeing probabilities all around her manifest in spectral form, everything from the total disintegration of the planet by rogue nanobots to a placidly calm New York intersection with no fight in it at all. She looked past those and into those closer to the now -- or better yet, just a few seconds from now, focusing on the burning bus, looking for the most likely probability of where, and how, Spooky would emerge from it.

As the probabilities sharpened into focus the blurred overlays of multiple imagry in her mind one image remained. Spooky wouldn't be exiting the bus wreckage so much as eliminating it. Chance saw an explosion, a huge one, rip apart the front half of the crumpled bus. It sent flaming debris flying in all directions and did a number on the hovering, exposed form of Mayhem.

"...holy mother of... Open team channel! **Mayhem! Get back! He's going to explode the bus!!**

Dynamo watched for the Gray Man, but he couldn't see inside the burning bus. Chance's alert caught his full attention. He saw Mayhem ... would she get out in time? Still the bus couldn't blow up here in the middle of everyone. He moved leaving a streak of green energy behind; landing just beside the bus and grabbed it, readying himself to fly/throw it up into the air. "Frost! Chill this place now!" He shouted, hoping the young woman's powers of cold would help slow down any potential explosion.

"Mayhem! Jump now!" He shouted into the burning bus, hoping she would have time before it went critical.

GM: results of Segment 10: Flashfire performs a full move grab-by and throw on the prone blank man, using his momentum enhancement power. He makes his to-hit roll. Mayhem makes a half-move towards the bus wreckage and searches for the blank man. Chance makes her activation roll and TPs herself and Elastic Man an 11" half move. Chance makes her activation roll and has her precognitive vision. Dynamo makes his to-hit roll and executes a grab-by on the flaming bus. He takes no damage from the flames, and is on the ground at the bus's location.

"...ah...fuck...me." Mayhem immediately took note of Chance's warning and dove for cover, to try and avoid the impeding explosion. She leapt-flew ten meters straight backwards, swirling winds tossing her out of danger as quickly as she could manage to coax them.

"The people!" With blurring speed, Flashfire ran to the two unconscious people on the pavement near the bus. He went to the woman, first, and hefted her into a fireman's carry over his shoulders.

GM: results of Segment 11: Mayhem aborts her phase 12 action to make a 5" dive for cover maneuver straight back from the bus using her flight. She makes her DEX roll and is now in her target hex, still flying, but technically "prone" for game mechanics terms until her DEX on segment 12. Flashfire makes a half move to the unconscious people by the bus and then grabs one.

A streaking Flashfire bolted from his spot near the bus towards the bodega across the street. It was like an odd agility drill in field sports. He stopped on a dime, unceremoniously dumping the unconscious woman's body behind the small sidewalk store before darting back to his original spot by the bus. It was done so fast that the woman bounced on the sidewalk once before stopping with a disoriented groan.

"One more," he said under his breath as he bent down to grab the last injured New Yorker. "Be fast...be fast..."

"Go Flashfire, go..." Chance murmured body held tense in waiting. She considered jumping to the last victim but knew her teammate was faster -- much, much faster. Each of the rest of the team looked safe enough at the moment, so she trained her faculties on the bus, watching for the very fractional instant Spooky emerged from it, knowing that villain's luck had just run out and ready to do her part to help him know it, too.

Dynamo watched as Mayhem threw herself clear of the bus. He gave the inside of the bus one last look: the Blank Man was trapped inside.

"My God man!" Dynamo shouted, "Think of the people, the destruction! Let me help you out of there." Dynamo moved toward the villain while stretching out his hand, hoping that he would respond. There was no way to get this bus safely away from everyone -- their only hope was that the villain would do the right thing; or that Frostbite would freeze the flames and reduce the force of the explosion.

Oh he really didn't just say that... Chance admired Dynamo's honest heart but the man was a relic from a bygone age. The probabilities were just getting worse from this point; without pausing to reconsider, Chance activated her Personal P-jump, pixellating out from her spot beside Elastic Man and reappearing beside their opponent.

Immediately she felt the ambient temperature jump to unbearable levels. She had jumped inside what was effectively now a large crematorium. That the blank man, stuck inside twisted metal and burning plastic, seemed unfazed as he manipulated his large weapon in unknown ways spoke volumes about his own ability to withstand the hellish heat. The fire was all around her and the space was too cramped to avoid the flames which lapped across Chance's probability field, hungrily reaching for her flesh. Despite her best efforts she could feel her body begin to scorch and welt from the vicious, remorseless heat. She pointed at Spooky and, heedless of the flames, unleashed a Probability Overload on him, praying to God's own Mother that it would put him down at last.

The blank man reeled from the existential assault. As probability after probability washed over his consciousness - everywhere he might be, everything he might do at that precise moment across all realities - his synapses overloaded and a dazed, helpless moan escaped his hidden mouth. He lay still in his trapped state, slowly moving but seemingly out of it.

Elastic Man turned to Chance beside him. "What is Dynamo doing?" he wondered aloud but then Chance started to pixellate away. "Oh" was all Elastic Man could think of saying regarding this.

Was Dynamo going to lift the bus out of the area, he wondered? Was the blur that looked like Flashfire going to get the remaining civilian out of the way in time? Shouldn't they all be moving away from the bus if it was going to explode?

Elastic Man looked around. He was standing on his own in the middle of the intersection. He looked back at the remaining unpowered human mere metres away from the bus. His body would probably withstand the blast but the human's wouldn't. So he stretched his legs and headed over to the bus. And as he did he saw Frostbite starting to try and create a wall of ice around the burning vehicle.

Things were moving too fast for Rachel. She was confused and disoriented, unsure of where to go and what to do. Nothing she had done seemed to make any difference. She needed to help the team, but her powers just didn't work well with all the heat around the bus. Any ice she summoned would melt as fast as she created it. Plus she didn't want to get any closer to the flames than she had too. Still, she had to do something.

Gritting her teeth, Rachel summoned an ice slide. Despite her fear, she moved closer to the bus and to the fire. She tried not to freeze up, or shiver in terror, as she raised her hands. Ice crystals formed in the air, quickly expanding into a full wall of ice between Flashfire and the injured civilian and the bus. He might get away in time, but she wanted to do what she could to help him.

GM: results of Segment 12: Flashfire makes a full move to the bodega and back, dropping the woman he was carrying at the midpoint. She will take minor non-killing damage. Chane makes the activation rolls for both her TP and her ego attack. She takes 12 STUN after defenses from intense heat/flame exposure. Elastic Man makes his half move and forms a barrier. Frostbite makes her half-move and forms an ice wall 1" high and 12" in length. Everyone gets a post-12 recovery.

Flashfire hefted the unconscious young man up onto his shoulders and then was gone with a clap of air rushing to fill the gap where he'd just been. He placed the man next to the woman he'd dumped behind the bodega and covered them both with his own body, preparing to weather the explosion.

G: Results of Segment 1: Flashfire completes a full move.

Flashfire held his position covering the civilians behind the bodega. Alright...go boom already...

Mayhem was getting winded from the constant movement and anticipation of waiting to see if the bus was going to explode. She took a few moments to breathe and calm herself as she watched for Chance to reemerge.

GM: results of Segment 2: Flashfire takes a recovery, as does Mayhem.

The team's speedster willed his breath to slow, trying to deal with the rampant adrenaline in his already hastened metabolism. Flashfire looked up and around the bodega carefully, wondering if maybe the bus wasn't going to explode after all.

The fires of hell itself couldn't have been any hotter. What she thought had been spectral guppies in her forcefield were now miniature water hoses, spraying down tongues of flame before they could inflict their damage upon her. She only wished there were more of them; the ones present weren't sufficient to protect her from burning.

Chance didn't want to breathe, didn't want to speak, but she had to let the others know. **Explosion averted for now,** she said into the communicator, her voice muffled from the way the air was rushing into the fire around her and being consumed almost as quickly. **Spooky's down for the count, Ah'm bringing him out....**

With that, she knelt to touch the guy and attempted to P-jump them both out of the burning vehicle to the blessedly cooler street outside.... when all probabilities in that moment closed down on her like a slamming door, the immense BOOM! of it echoing off the concrete canyons around them. Chance gasped -- unwisely -- and began to cough, fighting off the edges of panic in her mind. No, don't panic, think. Reach! Probabilities don't vanish forever!

There was little time, her field was losing the battle against the inferno around her. Once again her mind found another probability for she and Spooky, right near Dynamo, and she reached for it, flexing her will with fierce determination to make it happen.

The familiar sensation of fading in and out of locations was a relief. She pixellated into existence and felt the relatively cool clean air immediately.

"Don't fire at him," she gasped, collapsing to her knees and trying not to gag. "Ah think it *coffcoff* just makes *gasp-wheeze* him tougher, somehow *coffhack*"

Elastic Man had been about to hail Chance on the comm link when she appeared next to Dynamo with the Blank Man in tow. So instead, he switched the comms back to Daniel Lee.

**Elastic Man to Mr Lee,** he said, unhurried and disconnected from the fire raging nearby. **We may have subdued the enemy. Do you have any more information on this Blank Man?**

Now knowing that the explosion wasn't going to happen, Elastic Man reformed back from his large protective sheet form into his normal 'human' shape and walked over to Chance and her captive.

"Let me wrap this one up", he quipped and then calmly asked his teammate, "Are you injured, Chance?"

To be honest, he knew only a little about a human's biology and nothing about treating burns. A Qyssian would merely reform its body. Still, asking about a person's health seemed to be the thing that was done in the civilised parts of the Earth.

"...be fine..." she gasped, waving in that vague way that suggested things should just go on. "Just got a lungful of hot smoke..."

As he thought these thoughts and waited for an answer he extended an arm and wrapped it around the prone body of the Blank Man. It continued to extend, engulfing the villain in a thick, bandage-like appendage until only the head and shoulders of the man remained visible.

Elastic Man then looked around.

"Is there a fire hydrant near by?", he pondered out loud. Looking about, he spotted several, one on each corner.

While counting them he noticed something odd about his grip. It was becoming slippery, but not wet. It was the oddest physical sensation and it went from tingly to prickly to surprisingly painful. Elastic Man could feel the parts of his stretched-out body in contact with the blank man begin to ripple and degenerate and dissolve.

Elastic Man jumped back a little, surprised to be hurt. He'd known Dynamo had been affected by this strange villain's form before, but that was when the man was conscious. It appeared the blank one's deadly ability continued even when he was asleep.

Elastic Man pulled his arm back and stated, "Careful. It is painful to hold him".

Dynamo looked down at the gray man. "I was hoping that whatever it is that shrouds him would have been cut off when he went out." He looked over to Elastic Man and saw he was some distress. He turned to Chance, "You didn't think he'd give into the calling of his better angels?"

"I doubt he has any," Chance replied, her throat feeling like she'd swallowed melting plastic. Still, this was Dynamo, so she damped down her natural tendencies to crack wise. "And that ain't why he's here. Ah'd bet my next paycheck on it."

Frostbite watched the Blankman curiously. "I wonder how he does that effect. Some kind of matter destruction field, I suppose. That might be why he seems so resilient to attacks as well." She looked over at Dynamo. "I can ice him up. The effect will probably free him more quickly than usual, but it should hold him for a little bit." She thought for a moment. "Especially if I keep coating him."

"Good idea, Frostb---"

"No!" The blank man sat up instantly, his voice cracking with a sudden panic. "Not long enough!"

He slammed the butt of his big gun into the ground. FFZZZZZZZZZZZ--ZZZZZZZZZ-ZKZZZKKKZKZKKZKKZZKKKKK!!!

From their individual locations, Flashfire and Mayhem watched as their teammates were engulfed in a minature electrical storm. The entire are surrounding the blank man was filled with blue-white lightning that writhed and crackled across the surrounding several meters. Dynamo, Chance, Frostbite, and Elastic Man were struck multiple times, the charges blasting them and leaving scorch marks across their costumes.

Frostbite tried to react as the blank man attacked again, but the paralyzing shocks immobilized her. The pain overwhelmed her for a moment and she twitched and shook with the after effects of the jolt. She forced herself to focus, the team needed her, even if she had proven useless so far.

"Bastard!" Mayhem yelled, her voice a clear sign of her irritability.

GM: results of Segment 3: Flashfire takes another recovery. Chance attempts a half-move TP but fails her activation roll. She then uses her remaining action to try again and is successful. She makes her to-hit roll on her target hex. Elastic Man makes a half-move to Chance, them makes his to-hit roll on the blank man. He takes 1 BODY damage as described. The blank man fires a 1" radius AoE electrical blast at no range. Damage after defenses is as follows: Dynamo 5 STUN, Chance 15 STUN, Frostbite 14 STUN, Elastic Man 15 STUN.

As suddenly as it came the electrical surge vanished, and Flashfire was there a moment later. The blank man vanished in the hero's passing. The streaking blur moved faster than anything anyone had ever seen, too fast for their eyes to follow. The team was left to trace his fading path all the way up the side of the high-rise apartment tower. A flailing blank man shot straight up from the corner of the building's roof, rising high into the sky, silhouetted against a meandering white fluffy cloud above.

**I threw 'em as high up as I could,** came Flashfire's accent-laden voice over the comm. **It'll take him a while to come down, so we's got some time. What the hell are we goin' to do wit-- Hey! What da hell are you doin' heayyYYYYAAAAAARRGGHH!!!**

The urgency and confusion in Flashfire's voice was enough to cause Mayhem concern. She took to the sky, heading for Flashfire's location to see what it was that had him agitated. As she reached the apartment tower's rooftop, Mayhem saw a three-foot high wall running around its edge.

Flashfire wasn't in sight but something else was. There were two men in grey coveralls on the roof. One was busy futzing with some electronic equipment in a large suitcase. A cable ran from it to a small tubular-shaped object mounted on the top of the wall pointing down at the intersection. Behind him was a collapsable dish antenna pointing skyward. He seemed to be in a hurry to close up shop.

The second man was holding a brick-shaped gun pointed towards the roof's corner. His attention was focused on something out of Mayhem's sight behind the low wall on the roof's surface.

**Fuck. We've got company.** Mayhem kept her voice low as she broadcast the news over her comm.

GM: results of Segment 4: Flashfire uses NCM speed and performs his running throw maneuver. He makes his to-hit roll. The blank man is now 54" above street level. Mayhem makes a full NCM move to reach Flashfire's location. She is at roof height but three hexes away from the edge in mid-air.

"My God, man! What did you do? What were you thinking?!?!" He gave a stunned look at Flashfire as the prepared to throw himself into the air to catch the flailing villain.

Chance didn't curse aloud, but what was running in her head would have her mother reaching for a soap bar if any part of it had made it across her tongue. It hurt -- but it wasn't as bad as some things she'd had to endure. She made herself straighten from the defensive crouch in time to call out to Dynamo.

"No! Let him fall," she rasped. "It may knock him out but Ah doubt it'll so much as bruise him. You c'n fly, and Flashfire's in trouble! Let me, Frosty and E-Man see to the Spook, okay? Please!"

Flashfire didn't respond. Daniel Lee did.

**Base to team, there's no record of this guy in our database. NYPD has a M.A.C.E. unit on route to your location. Be advised.**

"Shit." It just escaped, there was nothing she could do except apologize after the fact. "Sorry. **Mayhem! What's goin' on up there?**"

**Men with gizmos and gadgets.** A grin spread over Mayhem's face, despite the heavy situation. ** ...and I'm not talking about the good kind of gizmos.**

Chance's eyes tracked Spooky's fall, trying to gauge where he'd land so she could be right there when he did. There were too many distractions for her eyes, so she closed them and turned inward. All right Spooky. What's the best probability for your landing place...?

In her mind's eye, Chance saw the blank man impact on the street almost in the middle of the intersection, forming a large crater with spidery cracks in the pavement running all over. Then she saw him fall right into the bus wreckage, sending flaming debris in all directions. Then he hit by the bodega. Then in the middle of the intersection again. Then over there. Then there. Again the blank man fell, and again...again. Another time he fell on a burning car. Then another time on the street. Another. Another. Another, another, anotheranotheranotheranothernothernothernothernothernothernothernother...

Blank men fell like rain on the intersection in her head, but it wasn't an even rain. The probabilities began to align, the area of "rain" shrinking, until it fell in only one place - the first place, in the middle of the intersection.

Dynamo jumped into the air and flew to the top of the building. "Flashfire!" He shouted as he flew into the air; worry was on his face as he thought about the young speedster. When he crested the roof's edge, he saw the same two men Mayhem had seen - one breaking down equipment, the other holding a brick-shaped gun pointed in Dynamo's direction, but down at the roof's surface where an unconscious Flashfire lay.

The man with the gun jerked back at Dynamo's sudden appearance in the sky directly in front of him and he shouted an odd warning to the other. "Kumar! Kumar! Kumar!"

The man by the electronics looked up, saw Dynamo, and keyed a quick sequence of buttons on the electronics before him.

GM: Results of Segment 5: Chance's probability sight pinpoints the blank man's landing point. This will be designated on the map as a grey-shaded hex. The blank man's actual location remains the dark grey square. Dynamo makes a full move to a spot 1" higher than the apartment building's roof. The blank man falls 5" and is now 49" above the street.

GM: Segment 6

tag Flashfire

The men, the suitcase, the thingamabob and cables, the sattelite dish, all meant nothing to Mayhem. "Can't be good though." She mused aloud as she summoned the wind to her command and sent it crashing towards them, trying to pull the gun and attention away from whatever it was trained at, and hoping that the gadgetry would be sent hurtling to the streets below.

ooc: Gail Force Blast - 4d6 Cone (9") Area affect EB. OCV 11 (9 + 2SL) DCV 9

"Well kids," Chance quipped, eyes trained on the falling spot of grey high up in the sky. "It's most probable he's gonna pancake right smack in the middle of the intersection. Prob'ly knock him out," she drawled, obviously not too concerned about that, "but definitely causing some damage to the street here. We might oughta' wanna relocate for that part, just in case. Once he's out, we'll wanna get him contained in the plane, since tryin' to hold onto him personally is such a bad idea. Frostbite, could you ice-slide him for us? Ah know Ah don't want to try to hold onto him. He made a mess o' E-Man, here."

"I believe you said...", Elastic Man gasped trying to pull himself together after being hit by the electrical blast, "...that people firing at him would toughen this... 'Spooky'. Could the same... be true regarding hitting him with physical force?"

Elastic Man glanced up at the far away dot falling down from high in the sky.

"If that is so, letting him hit the ground would not be wise". E-Man's shrug sent ripples down his arms. He rubbed his head and turned towards Frostbite.

"I would recommend encasing the villain in ice", he advised. "That would stop him moving and perhaps stop him accessing his weapon".

Elastic stood there, assessing the Blank Man's fall and his comrades around him. [OOC: Taking a full phase to recover some STUN and END]

Frostbite watched the falling dot for a moment, trying to figure out how to do what they asked. "I've never made an ice-slide for someone else before. I'm not sure..." Her voice trailed off as she considered the falling man. She was pretty sure the fall wouldn't kill him, but pretty sure wasn't certain. She definitely couldn't just stand here and let a man die, even a man as unstable as Blank Man was. She had to try.

As the man fell, Rachel readied herself. "The angle is going to be the biggest problem," she muttered. If she made the slide too steep, it wouldn't slow the man enough, if she made it too flat he would hit just as hard as he hit the ground, with the same unpleasant results. The easiest thing would be to just catch him, but she wasn't strong enough and whatever field he was surrounded by would probably hurt her badly. Either way it would have to wait until he was closer to try anything.

Chance chuckled a little. "Well, Ah didn't mean to protect him from the fall -- doubt that'll hurt him much, though Ah hope it knocks him out. Ah just meant for after he's clocked. Ah know Ah don't want to touch him." Belying her cavalier attitude, her eyes didn't leave Spooky's fall -- she watched closely for any slightest sign of change in his status.

ooc: Hold action until Blank Man is about 10" off the ground, then use flight and force walls in some combination, probably with lots of power skill rolls, to try and slide up under him and have him hit the slide at an angle, then spiral down to the ground with her.

GM: Segment 7

tag Flashfire

GM: Segment 8

tag Flashfire

tag Mayhem

tag Chance

tag Dynamo

GM: Segment 9

tag Flashfire

tag Elastic Man

tag Frostbite