That's That... Or Is It?

So with sessions 12 and 13 done, the Zenith Universe is rebooted.

What does this mean exactly?  It means that I have run a darn fun story arc that taught me a lot and in the end cleared up a lot of what I need to do (and not to do) with the Zenith Universe.

With the reboot, a new campaign is forming that will focus less on global occurrences and grand conspiracies, and more on local city level heroing, with occasional forays into the larger scene.

Another big change that will be happening will be the advancement of the timeline from 1964 to 2010, with appropriate changes of course.

This was an overwhelming choice from the players, and I agree.  The reason being that unless we were focusing on say the Cold War aspects of 1984 it didn't really play a big part of things, except making references to era related setting things (Regan as president, etc).

Stay tuned as more information about the new timeline/setting starts to arrive.  I have worked up a broad strokes narrative timeline and hope to make a more point based one off of that.

Also plan to start doing articles called "The Encyclopedia of the Zenith Universe" where I can put in interesting characters, items, events, etc...

All this while continuing to develop roster books (first one is in layouts now!) and the seemingly never ending work on the Zenith Comics rpg!

Cheers!

John's Notes - The Sentinels - Session 13 - AKA Zenith Comics Giant Sized Special!

 With John away on a cruise for this session, Anthony was kind enough to step in and take notes.  Here they are;

Session 13:
The players:
Tick Tock - Robin
Max Plastic - Mike
Kenji/Galvanos/Galvana (but mostly Kenji) - Renzo
Doc Tesla - Pat
Monolith - Anthony

Game opens with Max Plastic dreaming, during his dream he feels a weird disturbance which wakes him up. He gets up and walks out of the door to his room and finds himself in a sci-fi corridor. He turns around and the door he just left is now a sliding sci-fi door. While wondering what is going on, he gets attacked by a charging knight on a horse. Max wraps himself around the knight’s lance and flips him off his horse. He spins around only to find horse and knight gone. He spots a wall sign indicating the command deck and rushes over there only to find Guardsman there on monitor duty. Max’s confusion clearly apparent, Guardsman decides to call on Doc Tesla to check on Max.  Tesla is as confused as Max since the last thing he remembers is teleporting the mansion to Arizona. While Max and Tesla leave to go to the med bay Guardsman continues to track Zero-G, now a villain who has recently destroyed an island off South America killing millions.  Confusion is clearly king here.

Monolith and Galvana (Kenji controlling Eve’s robot body) head through the door to check out the structural damage to the mansion from the teleport. They find themselves now in the Amazon jungle.  Kenji also finds that Galvana is now the Galvanos robot. Before they can try and make sense of what’s going on, a T. Rex storms out of the jungle attacking both heroes. The dinosaur grabs Galvanos in its mouth and slams him into Monolith knocking him out. As Galvanos fights the T. Rex his communicator bleeps but he keeps his mind on the fight. Finally the super seizure eyes can come into play and he zaps the T.Rex... along with half the jungle and maybe the Amazon version of Tarzan to boot.

With the T. Rex down, Galvanos takes the call and freaks out when Guardsman is on the other line, not knowing what to do, he hangs up on Guardsman and wakes Monolith up. This time Monolith answers the call and both he and Galvanos get teleported where they find themselves onboard the orbiting satellite of the Guardians. There they encounter Sparrowhawk and Gyro who are heading out to hunt Zero-G back on the Earth.

Making their way to the command deck, they meet Guardsman (heroic this time) who suggests they get a check up in the med bay first and then to go interrogate their prisoner… Tick Tock.

In the med bay, Max and Tesla access the computer banks and bring themselves up to speed with the changes. They find out that Zero-G joined up with the Odd Squad and together they killed the island of San Bonito. When Zero-G turned his attention to the Guardians satellite, Monolith, Max Plastic, Doc Tesla and Galvanos helped the Guardians which allowed them to join the team. At this point Monolith and Kenji join the others and compare notes. They all decide to head down to the prisoner level and see if Tick Tock also knows if things are wrong.

When they arrive not only do they find Tick Tock knows things are different, but so does Brainflex. Brainflex believes there is something which caused an alternate timeline and that we need to join forces to find out what it is and undo it. The team decides to talk to Guardsman about this and leave Tick Tock in his cell in order not to provoke a fight. The team also decides to leave Brainflex where he is since working with him never works out for the heroes.

While Monolith and Kenji go to talk to Guardsman, Tesla and Max go to the lab to find out why they remember the old timeline. When they get there they find Doctor Destiny fooling around with Tick Tock’s pocket watch, which they find out is the source of Tick Tock’s powers. Destiny mentions that the watch seems broken and is firing off bursts of temporal energy. Destiny is called away which leaves the heroes there to grab the watch, which they find out is behind a force field.

On the command deck Monolith and Kenji find Guardsman with Lady America and before they explain what’s going on, a call comes in that there are pirates in the commissary. Guardsman runs off to fight them leaving Lady America who also remembers the old timeline. As they try to think of the next step to take, Major Victory walks in and kisses his girlfriend Lady A, which wouldn’t be creepy if the heroes didn’t know he died in WW2. When the Major finds out about pirates, he also runs off to fight them. Lady A realizes that if Major Victory is alive, then her dead sidekick Spangle might be alive as well. She then runs off leaving Monolith and Kenji alone and with nothing done.

Kenji asks if this change might not be so bad and Monolith explains that time is falling apart based on the weird things happening randomly. Alerts sound across the board as the main screens light up in the command deck giving Monolith and Kenji dozens of views of Zero-G destroying Moscow. Putting even more pressure to try and correct the timeline.

Before anyone can do anything else. Guardsman calls on all available heroes to meet at the teleport pads to try and take down Zero-G. Kenji offers to stay onboard and get Tick Tock’s watch back to him while Monolith goes down to help contain Zero-G. Tesla decides to also stay onboard and Max Plastic offers to help stop Zero-G as well. As Max and Monolith teleport down into a war zone, Tesla and Kenji try and get their hands on the watch with Tick Tock’s help. They finally get the watch just in time to get caught by Captain Adventure the Time Ranger.

Back on earth, Monolith gets blindsided by Lady A who doesn’t want time fixed because Spangle is alive. When Max tries to stop her, she ties him up into a knot easily.

On the satellite, Captain Adventure explains that the rangers were trying to catch up to Tick Tock in order to explain how to use the watch, not to take it away from him. Tick Tock needs to go to the end of time in order to unwind the watch and release the stored time locked in it. Before they do that, Kenji teleports all those who know about the time change back to the satellite. Not knowing that Lady A is anti-time fix, she jumps Tick Tock who pushes the time eraser button. The entire group starts falling through a time tunnel and land on an asteroid… Before we can react, Lady A de-clocks Tick Tock and Tesla tries to solve the situation the way he solves everything… with blasts of electricity. 

Amazingly enough, Lady A is faster than lightning, (literally) and she starts the time fall again. Landing at the beginning of time, Lady A breaks down since she can’t save Spangle. Relinquishing the watch to Kenji and Monolith she closes up.

Kenji and Monolith pop open the watch to see if they can do something with it to get them going the other way. Inside the watch there is a double helix of energy which shows that the watch is alive and leaving the science nerds puzzled. Lady A demands that when everything is figured out we need to save Spangle, the team logics her back down from that request. As the team tries to figure out what to do, Tick Tock goes with his gut and touches the source of power of the watch which is connected to the Heart of Time.

Tick Tock is brought to a timeless place where he meets the anthropomorphic personification of time the Time Master. They switch places (willingly) and he meets the team. He explains that he is in fact Tick Tock after exposure to the Heart of Time and that he needs the team to help Tick Tock stop the Time Rangers who have locked up time from doing what it needs to do. The Time Master explains he has been fighting the Rangers for a while and cannot attack them directly, so he used an avatar of himself to try and free time. He warns the team that if Tick Tock finds out he is not real, he will cease to exist. He switches place with Tick Tock who now knows how to unwind the watch and drags everyone to the end of time across the span of all history. The trip is so mentally dangerous that it drives Tesla sane.  Lady A tries to take command and is shot through the head by Captain Adventure who has gone TIME MAD! This leads Tesla to solve the problem using high amounts of electricity… it really can solve everything.

Approaching the Time Ranger base, the team tries to think of a way to sneak in. Monolith decides to handle the gate guards by shooting up to 60 feet and charging while shrinking back down at a gradual rate which really confuses the guards since it looks like someone running in place until he hits them, knocking both out. Max slips through cracks and gets the rest of the team in by opening the gates. Inside Tick Tock uses the watch as a compass to hunt the Heart of Time. 

Before the team can get too far in, alarms start sounding and encourages them to get the lead out. Running down a corridor of time windows, the team is assaulted by Rangers. Max bowls a few through a window, Monolith uses another window to scoop away a few more and Kenji strafes a few using weapons in his cool hover/assault wheelchair. Tick Tock decides not enough people were shooting at him so he decides to get their attention again. Once again running past time windows, Tock spots the moment he pick pocketed his own future self and got the watch. In the weirdest moment, he leaps into the window. He then ends up stealing
the watch from his younger self who is stealing it from his oldest self. The universe finding this too weird spits him back out the window.With more and more Rangers converging on the heroes, Monolith brings down the ceiling on the corridor behind them to give them a chance to get to the Heart of Time. Unfortunately he can’t get out of the way in time and gets crushed along with the Rangers. Pleading with the others not to worry, they can fix the deaths later. Meanwhile Tesla sees a window to the moment just before Westinghouse betrays the original Tesla and he flies through and kills Westinghouse. Nikola Tesla, horrified, uses his Tesla coil to absorb Doc Tesla trapping him as electrical current. Down to 3 heroes, they rush to a set of stairs with another small group of Rangers in pursuit. The stairs act like a mobius strip and everyone gets stuck on them. Tick Tock negotiates them easily leaving everyone else stuck. Max stretches himself out for Kenji to get through, the remaining Rangers decide to pepper Max with shots since he’s now a massive target. Max goes down in a hail of gunfire leaving Kenji and Tick Tock remaining.

Tick Tock finds himself at the Heart of Time, sealed behind a crystal cage. He tosses his watch shattering the cage and approaches the Heart. He hears a voice and turns around to see the Time Marshal, leader of the Rangers, pointing a gun at him. He is about to reveal that Tick Tock is an avatar of the Time Master when Kenji zooms from the stairwell ramming the Marshal and sending both of them into a wall where they blow up. Tick Tock responds to this with “How did you not see this coming?”. He turns to the Heart of Time, taking a breath and then rams his hand into it.

Fade to white.

John's Notes - The Sentinels - Session 12 - Part 2

Sentinels - Issue 12 pt. 2 - July 31, 2010 – ZCP System

Robin – Tick Tock

Renzo – Kenji/Galvanos

Anthony – Monolith

Pat – Doc Tesla

John – Bronco

So a fray is imminent and the tension is palpable.

Everyone waits for Monolith's move. Gal has called for backup. Guardsman has eluded that backup for him is en route...

The heroes go first, Champion leading the 6 on 1. Guardsman does well, resisting Tock's slow down trick and he takes down Monolith in one shot. Then he uses Monolith as a swing stick.

The fray continues in earnest. Guardsman tries to make a run and get away from the dogpile, when suddenly there's a dump truck in his way – courtesy of Tick Tock.

Guardsman run head on into the truck. Tock honks the horn. What an odd edition to the fray.

Guardsman goes to blow the gas tank. Champion interrupts and shakes Tock out of the truck.

The Guardsman-pile reforms and the fray continues. Doc Tesla arrives, somewhat confused by the enormity of the fray, but happy his arrival brings a brief detente and time for the start of a conversation.

Champ suggests Tesla should zark the water Guardsman is standing in. He obliges. Guardsman is still kicking.

10 Metal Militia men burst on the scene. Tesla talks to Tesla and gives him a suggestion. Doc Tesla lets loose a giant EMP. [Anthony out of game to Pat, pondering the implications of the emp: Fuck Astro Boy – kill HALO!!"]

Kenji survives the EMP, Galvanos does not, nor do the 10 Militiamen. Bronco coup-de-graces Guardsman and a moment of calm descends.

Champion grabs Kenji and runs for it. Eve calls Tesla, the only one with a working communicator. He teleports out as four new squads of goons teleport in to help Guardsman.

Tock pauses things and goes around grabbing grenades and ammo from the new goons. In paused time a new Time Ranger arrives. Tock pops a pin on a grenade. 'Are you insane?' he asks Tock. Tock drops the grenade, smiles, then runs back to real time.

New dude gets fragged back to real time. Lady A recognises him as Captain Adventure. She goes to investigate.

Monolith, recently back up, gets knocked down again. Goons strafe Tock. Lady A takes a rare opportunity to interpose the shots. In doing so she saves Tock and Cap Adventure. And gets tagged by some flying lady coming into the fray.

Bronco squares off against Guardsman, who tries logic on the big Native. Bronco lets him leave to fight on better terms another time. Guardsman orders retreat as more villains flood the field. Monolith keeps fighting with another giant sizer named Rampart.

Tesla returns with reinforcements of our own – Masonic Knight, Renard Roux, Galvanna (under Kenji's control), The Angel and Little Dove.

Then Lord Sovereign bursts in and takes down Guardsman (whut?) interrupting his sounding of retreat. The Angel takes control of Lord Sov's mind and has him sound retreat instead.

Tock is amazed by the fisticuff punishment Iron Lady and Lady A are dishing back and forth on each other. 

Seems personal. He interrupts their party and sees that Iron Lady is a perfect match to Lady A. Great. More clones.

Tock pauses time again. More Time Rangers coming. Grabs a taser and zaps everyone in the pond, including himself.

Tock gets back up promptly, just as Lord Sov is breaking his mind control. He sticks with the retreat and the villains bail en mass from the fray. Bronco goes looking for Guardsman – who was last slammed into the bushes. Finds him and calls Monolith over.

Tock brings a nullifier, Tesla modifies it to hold Guardsman. Tick finds a letter from Cap Adventure.

Reinforcements depart as friends and the team heads back to base. Amazingly Renard didn't get killed this time.

As we're discussing what to do with Guardsman, we have to go interrupt Champion whaling on the old hero. 

Champ steps out and we talk.

Guardsman tries to talk his way out. Bronco prompts him to lay it all on the line and explain the whole deal. He does.

He used to run information and such between Doc Titan in America and Doc Fear in Nazi Germany. They're brothers, playing both sides for their own and they've created lots of supers on both sides. A while ago Guardsman and Ubermann got to talking about the futility of the fight and carved up the world as personal empires. And he seems to be evil and deranged. Megalomaniacs...

He continues to explain all the evil shit they've done. Explains the cloning and mental imprinting. He explains the Lady A cloning thing. And how he, Ubermann and Sovietsky Soyuz are in cahoots and all his plans are well entrenched and impossible to stop now.

Guardsman really really thinks his militaristic fascism plan is the right one. The debate goes back and forth, but Guardsman is firm. And nuts.

Doc Tesla wants to use the Citadel's resources to build his Teslanauts. Who's more nuts now?

Monolith wants to use Guardsman as bait. We convene a team meeting to discuss. Doc Tesla stays behind and has a conversation/debate with himself.

At the team meeting we decide to go public and explain the whole shebang to the media and the people. The doorbell rings at our public HQ. Bronco heads to see who's visiting now.

Guardsman tries to manipulate the madman in the lab. Seems to be gaining ground.

It's Van Jove at the door – who everyone in the world has forgotten is Brain Flexx. He joins in on the team meeting a re-informs us of his identity and all the other information we've been made to forget. And in five minutes Lord Sov will be at their location.

He's offering himself to help us in our impending fray. We discuss cloning and spitball other ideas.

Down in the lab Doc Tesla precision teleports Guardsman's locator out. Flexx compels Guardsman to talk.  Then he makes up all forget again, including Guardsman's world domination plan. Guardsman demands to be taken to the world court in The Hague. Tesla, Flexx and Guardsman 'port out.

They arrive, and there's Trauma waiting for them. She freaks Tesla out. Smilidon also walks in. They're waiting for Guardsman, but they'll let Doc Tesla live.They give him a message that Brain Flexx says thanks. Tesla breaks the fear and tries to bail with Guardsman. Trixie and Smilidon both tag Tesla on the way out, but Tesla does make it back to the base with Guardsman. Bleeding heavily.

Bronco goes running for Little Dove. Tock freezes time and Monolith helps stop the bleeding. He sees the whole of the Citadel approaching the island. Monolith declares he's gonna fight. The team follows as Dove heals Tesla back to full. Tesla immediately starts having a conversation with himself.

Tesla calls back in the reinforcements and anyone else who can come. The team goes out to hold the line.

Meanwhile, Doc Tesla gets it into his head that he can teleport the whole island elsewhere, or at least the house. Doc Titan calls in, Tesla cuts the conversation short by frying the transmitter.

Doc Tesla then telports the entire base to the Arizona desert.

Lady A for no reason in particular, punches Bronco in the face while she has a blank expression. Not knowing what's going on, Bronco returns the favour, knocking her out.

Detente is reached, however confusingly.

Though all but Telsa had forgotten the Brain Flexx stuff, the recorders in the lab picked up the whole conversation explaining everything. The team is brought back up to speed, again.

-END OF SESSION-

You ever have one of those games?

Your plans go out the window.

You tip your hat too soon.

Your carefully constructed campaign is revealed and it was no where as cool as you thought it would be.

These are the things that happened to me last night.

After an exhausting 2 hour combat (which was quite the kick butt fight btw) I found myself going against my instinct and revealing too much and making it go too fast.

Now as this is issue 12 - Part Two, it could be said that after five months of playing I was just a bit burned out.  Or it could be that the night was tiring, we were all exhausted after the fight, and that lead to me making some really dumb moves.

Both of these are valid reasons, but in the end I have only myself to blame.

Let me explain.

I have been running a fairly tight campaign thus far, and I have all sorts of ideas of things I want to do with the characters and the story being told.  I have plots, conspiracies and even awesome fights planned.  I have put a lot of work into this and thinking it through, the Zenith Universe is not random.

The thing is that I wanted this to be a Bronze Age campaign and, as one player put it, the big reveal and craziness of last night made it into a Modern Age as written by Mark Millar.  Now I don't mind Mark Millar comics as a general rule, it isn't very Bronze Age.  In fact it is too much and too crazy and, for lack of a better word, wrong.

The campaign certainly was doing just fine, but as I went along my reach started to exceed my grasp and I got caught up in all the crazy fun and conspiracy metaplot and less on the heroes fighting crime and doing their thing.

As another player said, referring to an old campaign, it went to the moon.

That's like saying it jumped the shark.

This has always been a problem I have as a storyteller.  I put a lot of work into my campaigns and that is good and bad.  It is good because there is always something happening and it bad because there is always something happening.

The first rule of campaigning, that I seemed to forget, is that this is about the players and their interactions with the world, not the world and its interaction with the players.  The latter is just a bad idea from the word go as it will make the players feel like passengers and not drivers.

Fortunately I have a group of players who are very understanding and tolerant.  They accept my foibles and my missteps, trusting that I can either make it better or fix it.  That's a lot of trust and something I hope to live up to with this current campaign.

So yeah, just needed to get that off my chest.

Thanks for reading.

John's Notes - The Sentinels - Session 11

Session Notes - Sentinels (New System) - July 3, 2010 - Session 11

Anthony - Monolith
Mike - Max Plastic
Robin - Tick Tock
Renzo - Kenji/Galvanos
Pat - Doc Tesla
John - Bronco

So here we are on the field of battle at the White House - what's left of it.

0G is dead. Lord Sovereign/Guardsman, too.

Lasseter King arrives. He's upset at us again. The Veep wants to put us all in jail.

He likes the 'We've got the strength to stand up to more clones' thing as an angle to keep us free.

"If you mention cloning again; I will eat you. I will grow to a larger size and actually eat you." Monolith to Doc Tesla

Elsewhere the recently released Tick Tock is watching the heroes on tv. Sees this Max Plastic dude he used to hang with. Decides to go to Washington to join in with the exciting world of heroics. Steals a car, slows time and is almost instantly (to everyone else's perspective) in DC. He strolls into the secure area where the heroes are awaiting their fate. Then resumes time. The Sentinels are more than a little surprised by a Mad Hatter-looking dude with a clock cane coming in.

He's recognized by Monolith and Doc Tesla. Doc Tesla knows what his powers can do, also knows he's out of jail from good behaviour.

He can't reverse time, sorry Mr. President. Monolith is the only one really troubled by Tick Tock's appearance.

Lady A comes in. Hilarity ensues. He wants to join the team. Then Champion (Garrison) and Galvanos arrive.

Doc Tesla 'ports us all to the not-so-secret HQ.

We search for Kenji, find him on the floor of the control room in bad shape. He seems catatonic. Max wakes him up, Garrison kicks everyone out. He tries to make Kenji feel good about killing Uberman. Kenji still feels bad about it. Garrison goes on a mini-rant about Uberman's atrocities to try and bring Kenji around.

Garrison gives him a talking to about the reality of life and death with a giant sword. Kenji kicks Garrison out. Garrison points out the choice Kenji needs to make about being on board with the deal or getting off now. He then leaves and instructs the team not to disturb Kenji until he's ready.

Meanwhile in the bar with Tick Tock and Monolith...

"Oh, you're the urrrrrr (a la Frankenstein) Monolith!" says Tock in a brilliant realization of having a drink with a fellow ex-criminal.

The rest of the team coalesces. Monolith grills him on the source of his powers. Bronco moots the point and interrogation by sponsoring Tock for membership. Doc Tesla wants to kidnap Tick Tock for study. Nicolai agrees in Doc Tesla's head. Tock leaves the team to discuss matters. He liberates a hotel room for the night, planning to be back at the HQ the next day at noon.

And then Marbles, the retarded rock guy is there. And he's upset. Little Princess asks Marbles to put Tock down. They've broken out of jail. And they're putting the old gang back together specifically to kill Max Plastic.

Tock calms Little Princess down as they sit down for a tea party. Apparently Marble is immune to the power nuillifiers. Tock calls the base with Monolith's borrowed comlink. Conveniently Max is on the monitors. Tock fills him in. Then he's spotted by Mr. Bearkins, Princess' animated teddy-bear companion. Tock boots him down a laundry chute. Marbles tags Tock hard into the wall. Tock runs for it and gets away.

Time doesn't seem to work for him, as he slows down he spots a sniper from his rogue's gallery taking a bead on him.

Tock bails on stopped time and runs like hell. Then Marble catches up. The team, meanwhile is homing in on the comlink.

Doc Tesla gets Marbles' attention. He charges. Bronco takes the freight train hit. As the full bore fray begins, Doc Tesla is much distracted by Mr. Bearkins flinging itself on Doc Tesla's face. Doc Tesla in surprise and disgust fries the stuffed companion. Little Princess screams. Marbles is distracted from hitting Bronco for a moment. Bronco lays a massive hit in, causing Marble to bawl.

Tock finds Princess hiding and hits her with a rolling dumpster. She sends it right back at Tock. Marbles misses Bronco as Doc Tesla fries Little Princess. She is lifted off the ground by the zarking and lands unceremoniously in the now-ubiquitous dumpster. Bronco catches Marble in a sleeper hold and puts him down.

Belle Isle sends a retrieval team. Doc Tesla informs them of the nullifier issue with Marbles. He explains a new way to adjust the gear, which is spectacular and well received by the retrieval team.

Doc Tesla and Monolith convince Tick Tock to come back to the base.

Monolith to Max Plastic: "Keep an eye on Tesla..."

Max Plastic back to Monolith: "Keep an eye on Tick..."

Back at the base...

Lady A's back. She makes fun of us for fighting the Odd Squad. She then has a private meeting with Monolith and quits the team, again. This time for good, again. They discuss the exciting field of cloning. Lady A shuts that door hard before any real discussion can be had.

In the lab Tock refuses to use his power. Doc Tesla finally relents.

Monolith tries to console Kenji, who replies: "Thanks, Monolith, but the only person I can talk to is dead..."

Ouch.

Kenji then reveals he killed Uberman. He calls it a day and leaves Monolith to ponder that.

Cut to Belle Isle... As Marbles and Little Princess are being lead through the halls they head past a door marked Brain Flex. Van Jove is intrigued by hearing Max Plastic's name. He calls the guard over, mutters a control word and expedites his own release by casually walking out the front door...

-END OF ISSUE-

John's Notes - The Sentinels - Session 9

With John absent from the session, Renzo steps in as the special guest writer :)

=-=-=-=-=-=

Session Notes for the 22nd 0f May 2010

Players:

Mike: Max Plastic

Anthony: Monolith

Pat: Dr. Tesla

Robin: Zero G

Renzo: Galvanos?/Kenji

John: Bronco(in absentia)

At the mansion, Monolith wakes startled from a bad dream involving this alleged 3rd subbasement.

Monolith decides it's time to get some answers, so of course he goes straight to 13 year old Kenji.

Monolith asks Kenji about Eve, they get into a frank conversation about Kenji's new AI, as frank as possible considering Kenji is keeping some truth's about Eve to himself(Sterling's little creation who conveniently is duping Stirling himself).

As Monolith and Kenji stroll through the base debating Eve, they happen upon the Lab where Dr. Tesla is having a spirited debate with Tesla himself(another wacko joins the team) a conversation about the 3rd subbasement ensues and how we can take a look without having to tear things apart, Dr. Tesla insists we can make an MRI 10 years before it's time, things don't work out perfectly Dr. T kicks them out. We'll get back to T&T a little later.

Meanwhile outside drunk superman (forgot his name) is BBQing what he lovingly refers to as bourbon squirls. (old family recipe)when Zero G and Max happen upon him and luckily there is enough squirl to be had by all.

Lady A shows up, she asks for help transporting SKULLSMASHER to Belle Isle, Zero G kindly offers his assistance, she explains the whole team will be needed for this of course.

Back at science central Kenji introduces Monolith to Eve they hit it off(Monolith seems concerned).There conversation is interrupted by a call from Doc Titan explaining that whatever it is  that we are doing is causing severe electrical interference with the city and he'll be coming to the mansion within minutes. A few minutes later he shows up, Monolith meets him outside and explains, Doc Titan loves the MRI idea (nerds assemble) Doc and Kenji go Downstairs.

Monolith ever vigilant in his role as second in command debriefs Zero G about Eve and the 2 Tesla's, Zero G seems to be quite relaxed about it all, almost distant. Zero G tells Monolith about this evenings SKULLSMASHER mission and Monolith leaves to join the brain trust downstairs.

Success!!!! thanks to Kenji's apparent genius and everyone else's help of course the MRI is completed in record time. Doc Titan is impressed by Kenji's genius and somewhat perplexed. Which leads to Monolith feeling the need to voice his concerns about Eve to yet someone else and a conversation ensues with Doc Titan.

Time for our meeting with Eagle to help transport SKULLSMASHER, we meet LadyA on the outskirts of the city.

An energy pulse from space shatters the containment unit with SKULLSMAHER in it.

Most of the team gets hit by debris except Gal and Zero G. Dr. T, Max and Monolith go flying off the bridge Zero G stops them from hitting the water.

Before SKULLSMASHER can do anything Dr. T fires off a powerful blast as he realizes SKULLSMASHER is immune to electrical attacks and he laughs it off.

Gal comes in for a double rocket-fist fly-by to no avail.

While SKULLSMASHER is busy laughing at us, LadyA comes in with a masterful pounding giving Monolith an opening to step on SKULLSMASHER, he takes it like a man.

Meanwhile ZeroG goes out to help EAGLE agents in need.

Monolith goes to step on SKULLSMASHER again when he let's loose with an energy blast and gives Monolith a toasty foot shot. SKULLSMASHER now seems annoyed (oh shit!)

Max comes in with a tube toss with the debris from SS's containment tube, ZeroG adds weight to the attack intensifying the hit and they take SS out. Yay! Oops we were wrong...

SS chucks a truck at ZeroG, Gal interposes and goes flying into the river.

Dr. T decides to track were the signal came from and tracks it back to a satellite in space.

Monolith keeps chucking stuff at SS, SS goes from being annoyed to being mad. Thanks Monolith.

Gal decides we haven't pissed SS off enough so he pulls out his energy sword and takes out part of the bridge, surrounding cars and trucks but has no effect on SS. When will this end?

Dr. T'S electrical attacks having no effect he decides to charge into him instead(mad man) IT WORKS!!  SS is out. The resulting impact collapses the bridge Max heroically strings himself up acting as the girders for the bridge, ZeroG realizes this and lightens the load for Max, SS is already backup by this point.

Monolith and SS go at it mano-mano/ Monolith is out, his poor nuts.

ZeroG and Gal go at SS together, SS throws Monolith at them. WTF!!!

Gal moves out of the way, ZeroG gets hit giving Gal a clear shot at SS who is under the water and can't be seen, Gal fires blind and hits. Everyone else is up and ready to fight, we need to take SS DOWN NOW!!!!!

Max creates a vortex under the water clearing a path for the rest of us to see SS. Why does SS have a smile on his face?

ZeroG weakens SS in hopes of wrapping this up, SS has other plans and ground pounds the river bed causing a tsunami to emanate from him out (there are millions of people in Capitol City).

Gal closes the distance and super seizure eyes SS, ZeroG with a wave of his arms stops the tsunami and collapses it back onto SS and takes him out. Yay!!!

The side of Belle Isle opens up and there is the brightest flash of light, a super from the golden age called Atomicles is standing there waiting for Dr.T to teleport SS to Belle Isle. The doors close.

ZeroG goes up to LEO following Dr.T's find as he gets close to the satellite he sees a black rook on the side of the satellite just before it blows up.

The next morning back at the mansion Major King comes to visit. He is going to debrief us on classified information about an organization called the Citadel.

We find out about a man named Lord Sovereign and the Citadel’s agenda to change the world order, also there apparent association with the Metal Militia. We are asked to forget about Atomicles.

Major King leaves w decide it s time to test our MRI, low and behold Monolith is not insane. There is what seems to be a 3rd subbasement...........

The End

John's Notes - The Sentinels - Session 8

Session Notes: Sentinels (BASH) - Session 8 - May 8/10

Anthony - Monolith
Mike - Max Plastic
Robin - 0G
Renzo - Kenji/Gal
Pat - Doc Tesla
John - Bronco

The trial of the century begins. A special tribunal lead by the Supreme Court Chief Justice has been called by the President. Very tight lid on the case. 0G has been having issues getting a lawyer to defend someone on trial for high treason and attempted assassination of the President. Then a lawyer arrives at his digs in the Belle Isle isolation block. His name is Jack Kane, and he feels everyone is entitled to a defense. But he thinks 0G's case sucks. He suggests 0G pleads guilty and throws himself on the mercy of the court. 0G concurs and asks to see Monolith before the trial. Really? The convicted criminal on the team? OK.

Monolith arrives to have the probably no-so-private conversation. 0G's not optimistic, but doesn't mention his intention to plead guilty.

Meanwhile the government wants Gal's hardware and recordings from the event in DC. Kenji and Eve discuss. They create a mock hard drive to fool the Man. Kenji hands over the fake.

The trial begins. 0G pleads guilty. Lady A calls Monolith to inform him. Monolith freaks. Kenji suggests we take Garth Stirling up on his offer of a lawyer. A team meeting is called. Still no Angel. Lady A strolls in and announces she's been fired. A group called Strikeforce USA has been assigned presidential detail, superseding the Secret Service.

Garrison suggests we go bust him out. Kenji objects. Just in time to help out Tori calls a press conference to quit up and join up with Garth. Very nice of her. Then Stirling himself hacks his way through Kenji's firewall and interrupts our meeting. He offers help and security information about 0G's impending transfer to Strikeforce USA's secret location. Lady A points out this is a loophole and we should break him out now.  Monolith wants to go. Kenji's down with whatever Lady A suggests we do. Max still thinks UFO is the key to this mess and exonerating 0G, negating the whole break-him-out-of-jail thing.

So Max and Bronco are going to stay behind while Kenji breaks into NATO's satellites, the rest are headed to Belle Isle.

Meanwhile, in 0G's cell... The guard bringing dinner zones out and Van Jove cones to have another chat with 0G. He berates him for pleading guilty and reminds him of his (Van Jove) intention to kill The Angel in a really painful way before he hunkers down to help 0G escape but walking him out the front door, using the guard as a cover. 0G disables the nullifiers, puts them on and they head off.

Just as they're ready to head out, in comes Strikeforce USA from one direction, and the Blue Jay from the other. 0G wrecks the landing pad, preventing either side from having access. Strikeforce USA members come in flying and a fray breaks out. Some flying spangler zaps 0G with an energy bolt. Some bug guy named Rushmore enters the fray as well, and Monolith joins in on the fun. Strikeforce USA kicks much ass, aided by the impression that they're in the right. It's Americana, Rushmore and American Eagle. They fly their shuttle at ours. Both crash into each other. The shuttle on shuttle action breaks both vehicles entirely. Steel Patriot escapes their shuttle and Lady A escapes ours as they crash. 3rd shuttle destroyed by the Sentinels in as many issues.

0G tries to tell Lady A about Van Jove. Nothing comes out.

Steel Patriot strafes the area. The fray continues, makes the news. Kenji spots the story and informs Bronco and Max before going back to his hacking.

Monolith and Lady A finally triumph with 0G's help as, meanwhile, Kenji has successfully broken into NATO.

He tracks the irregular radiation to Arizona. He radios the team. 0G drags the lot to the HQ, with Steel Patriot in pursuit. Garrison comes out to meet the Strikeforcer and annihilates the Patriot's armour.

Kenji grabs up his portable unit and mentions Eve out loud in front of Bronco.

They plan to head to Arizona. 0G rather surprisingly gravity shifts the entire team to Arizona.

So Doc Tesla... Out in the desert, stealing stuff from airplane graveyards. And conducting experiments. He spots a big spike on his meters. He suits up and heads out to see the Sentinels appear in his backyard electrical field spot. 0G puts up a shield and Lady A makes nice with the strangely dressed desert man. Fields and shields are shut down and a full conversation begins. Spikes are identified as coming from around that Native Reservation over there. Bronco gets tired of waiting for more than five seconds and takes off. Lady A, Max and 0G follow, Little Dove in the lead flying. She catches up, but veers to the res to check on people who are reportedly sick. The team catches up further upriver, just as the Earth itself is trying to attack Bronco.  They enter the fray and radio Monolith about this new development. Doc Tesla offers to get Monolith there. Then teleports him, bringing on a 'What the Hell...?!' from Monolith upon arrival.

Bronco breaks free as Gal's coming in hot. His Geiger counter's going crazy. Plants are attacking, too. 0G tries to fight the plants, finds the roots go deep, and deduces the villains must be underground. Bronco, hearing mentioned they might be underground, solves the questioning by groundpounding the shit out of the local terrain. He causes a full-scale cave in.

0G catches Bronco before he falls in with the avalanche of landscape. Max, spotting an opportunity, Flattens the newly revealed Flora in one shot. Monolith stomps Obelisk. Doc Tesla kazarks Uranium. Hard.

Uranium declares his newly found desire to kill Doc Tesla. For that declaration, he earns another kazark. Just as hard. Third time's the charm when backed up by Galvanos jumping in with his giant sword to fell Uranium with a massive hit. 0G locks them all in a forcefield and detente is reached. EAGLE is called.

The lot of us head back to DC. As we land 0G hears Van Jove say in his (0G's) head that we owe him. Once we touch down UFO spontaneously and gregariously confesses their crimes.

Being now all squared with the law, we head back to HQ, with Doc Tesla in tow. Garrison's bar-b-qing when we get back. Introductions are made all around. And he's drunk.

After dinner 0G hears, then astrally sees Van Jove. Walter reminds him that real threats are coming, and he should start getting really ready...

-END OF SESSION-

John's Notes - The Sentinels - Session 6

Session Notes - Sentinels Session 6 - April 10th, 2010

Renzo - Kenji/Galvanos
Robin - 0G
Mike - Max Plastic
Anthony - Monolith
John - Bronco

So about Prince Zorin, Sword of the Valek Empire...

0G has been at NASA for three weeks, tracking the arrival of Valek's pod. He tries with his powers to stop it, fails and passes out. Wakes up, radios in, and heads to Cap City to see where it's landed in town.

The rest of the team, meanwhile, has piled into the Blue Jay. The Angel is strangely absent.

Radio tells us Vanguard is already on scene, getting their asses handed to them. Gal gets launched in first. Zorin takes the hit without moving out of the way, and swipes a glancing blow at Gal as he goes by.

Lady A and Max Plastic enter the fray, with little success. The fray goes into full effect with the Sentinels. The heroes have trouble landing solid hits, the villain doesn't do much better. Bronco scores first noticeable hit. Gal takes first damage on the team. 0G moves Gal out of the way from Zorin, just in time to be cleaved in half, he instead is only cleaved _mostly_ in half. Lady A is paralyzed by grief over the loss of a teammate, and mentally shuts down. Zorin takes this chance to run Lady A through with his sword. Max Plastic takes the hit for her and gets knocked out of the way and out.

Bronco pounds, Monolith pounds, 0G drops the pod on the blue skinned mofo. Zorin bursts out of the debris with his sword. Lady A scores a big hit, and Monolith takes Zorin's follow up to Lady A instead of her. Monolith gets dropped. 0G immobilizes Zorin, Bronco takes a free shot. Lady A takes him all the way out with her free shot follow up.

EAGLE arrives, Zorin rises, and relents to superior fighters. 0G directs him to leave. Ok, but he'll kill any one of us whom ever leave this planet. Detente, cleanup, and head back home with Gal's half-busted chassis.

0G tells the team he was at SpaceLab tracking Zorin. A mild team meeting ensues. Lady A continually defers to 0G. Kenji goes to check on the Gal wreck.

Later the night 0G gets a call from Nightstar, the last Guardian. She invites herself over to talk Guardians. She offers the team name to us, then leaves 0G to think about it.

0G finds a drunken Lady A first. Gets her to bed with Bronco's help. Calls Max back to base for a meeting. Max says no, and continues to try to have a life. He goes to the repair bay. He's ignored for a while by Kenji and Monolith, then they talk, and the assembled team goes for ice cream.

Over ice cream 0G lays out the Guardians thing. We'll pass is consensus. 0G calls Nightstar back and decliner the offer.

A couple days pass... Tori flips out about the Guardians thing. 0G retorts with something snotty. She takes him to task for his professionalism.

Comic reader cut to Tori in a hot tub with Garth Sterling drinking champagne.

Cut back to her still giving 0G shit.

Kenji receives an invite to Stirling Tower. Goes to 0G for advice first.

0G gives no meaningful advice, while making it appear to be full of wisdom.

Kenji then crosses paths with a freshly showered Lady A. They establish he's not hitting on her. He solicits her advice. She suggests we go public with our HQ location. Kenji's not down with that. Still no meaningful advice about the whole Stirling thing.

Cut to 0G at a PR tree dedication. Mid-sentence he's attacked by the tree he's dedicating. Then a big stone guy emerges from the ground, kidnaps 0G and retreats with the team leader.

Meanwhile, at Stirling Tower, Kenji is met by Rachel MacPhearson, Garth's assistant. She pushes Kenji's wheelchair into the rain forest office of Garth Stirling, and parks him in front of a massive obsidian desk. She leaves him alone to ponder the surroundings.

Garth arrives. They discuss the impressive desk. He springs the Gal secret thing. Then sows the seeds of dissent in Kenji's mind. Garth monologues about the nature of genius. His in particular, but Kenji's, too. He declares he's fired Vanguard for losing a fight to Zorin. He wants to bankroll the Sentinels. Then he introduces Kenji to Eve, his pet AI. He'll give Eve to Kenji if the Sentinels take the Guardians name and throw in with him.

Meanwhile, Bronco's at the rasslin, and he's met in his dressing room by a girl who calls herself Little Dove. She's had visions of Doom for 0G. Bronco checks in with 0G, fails, and calls Monolith instead. Bronco heads to 0G's last location with Little Dove, to find EAGLE still cleaning up the park mess. He hears of the abduction from a 3 Pips and A Bar ranked EAGLE dude. Bronco informs Monolith, who rallies the team. Kenji bails on Garth on good terms, after having been shown the plans for Galvanna on the way out. Then Garth offers the kid a ride home in his helicopter. Max also cuts his day short to join the team, missing another opportunity to have a part of a normal life. And why didn't Tori know anything about all this...?

Meanwhile 0G wakes up 'elsewhere.' With a green-haired woman in front of him. 0G thinks she should be blonde as his faculties slowly come back to him. It's one of the co-pilots from his shuttle crash who was thought to be dead. Captain Sarah Carpenter is now calling herself Flora. The big rock guy was Lieutenant Jack McMichaels, now he's Obselisk. And they have powers. 0G asks about Col. Richards, the mission commander, he's called Uranium, now. They dialogue. Seems the three of them aren't happy with the results of the power lottery. So they'll turn 0G into a villain. As he begins a protest, Brain Flexx astralls enters the room. He monologues about his ability to do that. Cut back to the park, where we have just heard that 0G is attacking Washington, DC.

The team has rallied at the park. Eve calls up Keni. He zones out a moment. She offers to pilot the shuttle. If she can have the password. After a moment's pause, Kenji gives Garth's computer access to his. He makes her promise to be quiet about the whole giving-away-passwords thing. Eve so promises. They rocket to DC to stop their team leader from killing the nation's leader. And then Eve turns Kenji's Gal perspective into interactive VR, with Kenji's further permission to Garth's computer. We arrive to see 0G fighting Team Justice, and taking them down effectively. Gal is first on the scene, and first back out ofthe scene. 0G tries to take down the Blue Jay, and succeeds handily. Bronco dives out, protecting Little Dove from the crash. Max embubbles Lady A and Monolith in plasticy goodness and bounces through the shattering windshield as they crash. Max is dazed, but all are alive to fight their powerful team leader. Lady A connects with a hit right away, followed up by Bronco ground pounding him further back from the White House. MP gets up and goes looking for a nullifier among all the EAGLE debris. Monolith grows and pounds at 0G, knocking him down. Max gets grass-grappled on his search for nullifiers. 0G gets up from his knockdown and immobilizes the area. A big hand grabs Gal and smashes him big time. Bronco moves in on 0G, gets repelled. Monolith grabs 0G, gets relelled - into Bronco. Goes back for more. Grabs and throws the leader a ways away from the White House. 0G decides to flatten the building. And incoming Starbird alters that plan as she attacks him, then restrains the falling 0G in a cosmic claw. This shift in balance causes Obelisk to abandon his fight with Gal and retreat.

Introductions are made with the russian Starbird. Little Dove identifies her as another aspect of her 0G vision. Eve informs Kenji she's got a file on the Starbird. She seems to be the other half of the accident that gave Gyro his superpowers. She was the Russian MiG pilot he had the incident with. We head back, Lady A stays behind. Starbird is nice enough to use her powers to carry the busted Blue Jay back to base. Eve relays a bunch of info though Gal to the team, but asks Gal not to mention her: "I'm sorry to make you lie to your friends, but they wouldn't understand our friendship..."

We get back. 0G first wakes in a private conversation with Van Jove/Brain Flexx. He talks about the Monolith visit that 0G didn't know about. And the whole killing-The-Angel-Soon thing, too. He, Van Jove, has a plan, and it's a goodie, but 0G can't be allowed to remember this conversation... yet. He snaps his fingers and 0G wakes up for real this time on the couch. He spots Starbird and remembers the Uranium, Flora & Obelisk (UFO) attack but nothing else. His understanding is that Flora used hallucinogenic and suggestive plant pollen to brainwash him. He feels this is reasonable. He also remembers Starbird from the hospital he was at after he survived his shuttle crash and got his powers.

Lady A saunters in in the middle of this revalation and reveals EAGLE is with her, and they want to arrest 0G for the attack. He'll go without a fight.

As 0G is being lead away in cuffs, the issue comes to a close.

-END OF SESSION-

John's Notes - The Sentinels - Session 5

Session Notes - Sentinels Session 5 - March 27, 2010

Pat - The Angel
Renzo - Galvanos/Kenji
Mike - Max Plastic
Anthony - Monolith
John - Bronco

So Bronco and Garrison square off. The fight goes wildly back and forth. Bronco didn't think Garrison was that tough. The fight ends in a draw after an extended stalemate, ultimately leaning on Garrison for the win.

Then Van Jove calls the house. Monolith answers and is invited to chit chat with Brain Flexx.

The Angel wants to go, too. Mono is fine with that. Off to Bell Isle they go, and boy, is Van Jove pissed that The Angel is there. He leaves and Monolith and Van Jove have a sit down. Van Jove goes on for a while about how much he's gonna screw The Angel for the whole punching out Trauma's heart thing. They discuss the recent luck of the Sentinels and the NZG event. Van Jove plants seeds of dissent involving Doc Titan. He then proceeds to talk more shit about The Angel. Then he suggests the NZG might not have been real at all. He then demands to be returned to his cell, as he's done talking. Monolith catches up to the Angel and relays the litany of threats and they rehash vital points of the conversation with Van Jove. The whole anti-matter things is discussed again.

Meanwhile... Max Plastic, on patrol, is grabbed by Il Duce, the super Italian. He literally ties Max up around some poles in the shape of a wrestling ring and uses Max's communicator to contact the team. He calls Bronco out and waits. The team heads downtown. As soon as they arrive a fray beings. Bronco takes Il Duce, the rest go to crowd control and disperse. Monolith gets taken out by Il Duce while doing crowd control. Gal unties Max while Duce's distracted beating up Monolith. Lady A scores with a justified cheap shot. The painfully long fight ends when Galvanos super-seizure eyes' the cocky Italian. Takes half the team out as well. EAGLE is called, we go home.

Lady A, upon arrival, gives Kenji a bunch of shit over homework and such.

So the news media seems pretty cool with us. Tori calls in to let us know about insurance issues. And she wants to access some of Kenji's money to deal with this kind of stuff. We'll think on that. Team discusses. Kenji will giver her some cash, but keep her on a short leash.

Monolith and Lady A have a heart to heart in 0G's office. She doesn't want any leadership responsibility, and reveals a chunk of her origin and her 50 year old ghosts.
Monolith then goes to find Kenji. Mono convinces the kid to wait for 0G to make any firm financial decisions.

Meanwhile, The Angel is on patrol. He meets Katana Dan in an alley. And a woman behind him - Lady Steel. And Night Raven, with all his bad repute, lands in a flourish. The Capitol City Irregulars are offering The Angel a place on their team. He'll give it some thought.

Next morning Max is a guest on Cap City AM tv. It's a bush whacking - they place the 'Sentinels Are A Menace' angle. He tries to hold his own, fails, leaves.

Lady A continues the Kenji slave driving. "Do you want to go to public school...?" Kenji replies in sotto voce: "Might be better than here..." Lady A then continues to rag on Tori, who leaves.

Garrison talks a lot of shit to Max about the heroes he idolizes, and reveals his history, as well.
The doorbell rings. Monolith answers. It's Gyro. He wants to talk to him and Bronco in private. He wants them to join Vanguard. He leaves his card and departs. Bronco and Monolith discuss not spending too much time thinking about the offer.

The Angel sees a bullshit statement in the news that didn't come from us and calls a team meeting. That's followed up by a live statement from Tori, digging us further in the hole.

So how do we un-fuck outselves...? Kenji plays some of the messages flooding in to the HQ. Most are surprisingly favourable, in an anti-heroic kinda way. Tori arrives, smugly proud. She defends her move and leaves the team to discuss.

We chat, and bring her back in. We're happy. Surprised, but happy. She asks us for autonomy or she walks. We agree to keep her, in a display of democratic abstention.

Garrison and Max have another chat after the meeting. He thinks we should turf Tori and go our own way, let being a hero play out properly. He's here to help form and train a team - not publicity.

Max and Lady A have a tete-a-tete of their own. Lady A reiterates her disdain for Tori.
Max continues his tour and meets Monolith in 0G's office. They discuss worries and tendencies and have a nice Hallmark moment.

The brief period of calm is once again shattered by a kaboom. We rally to see what's going on.
A big pod has landed in the city. A blue-skinned dude gets out and starts screaming in an alien language. He hooks up a translator. He kinda challenges the team, kinda. He's Prince Zorin, and he wants to fight.

-END OF SESSION-

John's Notes - The Sentinels - Session 4

Session Notes - Sentinels Session 4 - March 13, 2010

Renzo - Galvanos/Kenji
Mike - Max Plastic
Anthony - Monolith
Pat - The Angel
Robin - Zero-G
John - Masonic Knight/Bronco

So the public is liking the team. Almost as much as they still like Vanguard... Team Justice is still working for the Man, so they're off most of the public's radar.

It's early spring in Capitol City, and 0G is returning to the base after lunch with Tori. Lots of brainstorming and cursing the general policies of those Vanguard pricks.

0G notices the not-quite-rightness of the skies overhead. Reminiscent of the Anti-Matter events of a couple issues ago. As he's admiring the effects, a monster crackling with energy drops down and attacks him. Though 0G takes a hit, a divebombing manoeuver dispatches the monster handily.

0G's radio call to base is interrupted by an Earth-shattering kaboom. Renard and Gal spring into action and the team rallies at the Blue Jay.

So a big anti-matter storm and a huge pillar of energy are centered on Hero's Hill. 0G is first on scene, and sees ground zero is The Guardian's memorial entombment crypt cairn. He lands, puts up a shield, and gets knocked unconscious by a really big fist.

The rest of the team arrives to see the Negative Zombie Guardsman looking dessicated and pissed off. He drops the unconscious 0G and begins a fray with the whole team at once.

NZG gets all ragey after Monolith punches him soundly. Gal sends a fist off into the night. NZG punches Monolith in the face. Monolith gloriously holds his ground.

Then gets punched again, and is out of the fight for a while. The fray continues.

The Angel pokes into NZG's mind only to find no cognitive mind. NZG continues to flatten the team. Then Gal whips out the giant fucking sword and manages to inflict the first actual damage on NZG. NZG retaliates and knocks Gal offline, sword still glowing.

Monolith grows more and loses his mind attacking NZG. NZG returns the favour and goes a little more crazy, too. He continues to pound the team and shrug off most of the damage we're dishing out.

Then Gal comes back online and fuckstabs NZG mightily.NZG keeps coming. Finally the stomping eases off and the heoes turn the tide of battle. Monolith strikes the coup-de-grace and NZG looks like he's going to explode. 0G ties to jettison the bastard. Enough altitude isn't reached and the team takes some additional damage when he goes kablooie.

Fight over. Dust clears. EAGLE shows up just in time to miss everything.

At the base, The Masonic Knight learns he's needed elsewhere and quits the team. Renard Roux also quits as he's been killed too many times recently and is becoming more and more afraid of his beast within.

The Sentinels reconvene and have a team meeting at HQ. 0G and Tori have a private conversation about the future of the team. It is decided they need to recruit "female and ethnic" members, or at least Tori decides this. On Tori's suggestion the team heads out to an Unlimited Power Wrestling match to scout for super powered wrestlers.

She didn't want them all to go, they just do, anyway...

On the way out Garrison get's Max's goat. Max takes a swing, and gets punched out for his efforts. He's woken up and they head out to see the rasslin'.

Garrison's interested in checking out a prospect (once that's explained is the purpose of the wrestling field trip). He and The Angel steal a car and head to the arena, too.

The lead in to the main event is a women's championship match, handily won by Amanda Reese. Then the main event is Eric Bluemoon, a tall drink of water with a Native American theme, and The Kenyan Lion, who seems to be a lion beast master. Eric does well, but does the job and the Kenyan Lion retains his title and looks great in the match.

Tori arranges for backstage passes, 0G and Kenji go with. While waiting to see the champ, Kenji gets to meet the lady's champ.

Amanda Reese is quite pissed that Kenji came to see her, revealing her identity as Lady America, and surprising the hell out of Kenji. "Ooh, I gotta tell 0G about this!" He suggests that she join the Sentinels. Lady A doesn't really want to join the team, but is horrified by the environment this child is existing in. She nearly goes ballistic when Kenji explains robot servant jousting.

Meanwhile 0G and Tori have made their way to Bluemoon's area in the lockers and have a brief conversation with the naked Indian.

Tori's more than impressed, 0G offers him an opportunity to join the team, which he'll take them up on. He likes the name Bronco as a codename.

0G, Kenji and Tori leave the arena with Max and head over to WYM to bug the Wiccan, and maybe get some tits for the team.

She categorically denies the request, citing the amount of chaos we generally attract. She feels the team's cumulative blood debts are attracting bad things. Then she kicks them out.

So... team meeting with Bronco. The team seems cool with him, and Tori's doe eyes are fluttering, so he's in. Then an EAGLE shuttle lands on the lawn and Amanda Reese gets out. She wants in, too.

"So Lady America's joining the team, too...?" Monolith

"Amanda Reese is Lady A...?" Bronco.

She's retired from EAGLE, but really really wants to team to stop being jackasses.

Lady A reveals the president is upset at Vanguard, and it's up to us to distinguish ourselves.

Angel takes some flak for recent shenanigans. He dishes some back, but is ultimately aware of his issues. But he still defends his attitude.

Lady A and 0G have a tete-a-tete in 0G's nice new office. They discuss staffing issues. She expresses that the Wiccan is a full of shit side-liner and should be ignored. And she has dirt on everyone. Particularly Tori. They emerge from their meeting, only to have Tori grab 0G and drag him back. Tori doesn't want Lady A on the team. Thinks she's a lesbian. 0G points out the demographic widening of the team. Tori leaves in a huff.

So now Monolith wants an office, too.

The Angle, Monolith, and Bronco head to the boathouse to see Garrison.

A fight is picked and the session comes to an end...

-End of Session-

-J

John's Notes - The Sentinels - Session 3

So my best friend is back in the game after a brief hiatus and he is taking notes like he always does. :)

For those who don't know, I present his notes unedited, typos and all. Feel free to ask questions if you want clarity. Remember this is from a player's perspective, hence he only notes what he thinks is important or what caught his attention.

There are none for session 1 or 2 as he was not there. I will see what I can do about making an "Our Story So Far..." post later.

Enjoy

=-=-=-=-=

Session 3 Notes - Sentinels - Feb. 27

Mike - Max Plastic
Robin - Zero-G
Renzo - Galvanos
Pat - The Angel
John - The Masonic Knight

So as of late the media has been unsympathetic to the exploits of our heroes. One outlet likes us, otherwise...

Capitol City isn't really happy, but they do like Vanguard.

Cut to the Masonic Knight in a big windowless room with a nice oak table. He's directed to go make contact with the Sentinels. They have a public image problem, and Vanguard is almost certainly staging their exploits.

MK flies out to their secret base after checking the security on satellite pictures and rings their doorbell.

It's an exciting household, busted robots and everything. Zero-G answers the door. MK explains he wants to join and a team meeting is assembled. Renard Roux and MK exchange some familiar greetings and a team meeting ensues. Renard vouches for MK on the square, but Angel is apprehensive.

Cut to Max Plastic working a matinee dinner theater show. The rough day on stage is brightened by the appearance of the rather attractive blond Tori Fields. She suggests he cash in on his powers. And she wants to talk to the team about the same. She gives her card and leaves with a flourish. She's an Entertainment Agent/Manager.

Max returns as the team meeting is still going on and brings news of the offer. Renard psychoanalyzes Tori based on her card and boldness. Max confirms he's bang on and the team decides they want to work with her. Tori first destroys her telephone when Zero-G calls, but communication is eventually made.

Plans are made for brunch, and half the team goes out on patrol.

Things were going well until Angel accidentally blew up a tanker truck. Not so good for the press image...

And Renard is going to be on the late night news. He behaves, and now 1 out of 12 citizens like the team, specifically because Renard is a part of it. "1 in 12?" says The Angel; "I'll take it."

Next morning 0G goes to meet Tori for brunch.

She has lots of ideas about the team... Plastic needs more face time, 0G needs a jacket, Gal needs to age-up his voice, Monolith needs to shut up, The Angel, too. Follow the rules, success will ensue.

Three weeks pass. First week highlights: Gal breaks some shit, but 0G spins it well with a cheque and a smile; Max has a great comedy show and hits one out of the park, gets a spot on morning television as a result; 0G gets good ink in the Chronicle. Second week: Angel dramatically burned down a prostitution league, and is getting underground fans; MK saves a busload of teens; Plastic bombs on stage. Third week: Angel gets some good face time on the Dick Walsh Show; A lodge in England gets into some hot water, MK takes some flak over a local connection and not doing well in a presser; Plastic hits the stage again and goes over reall well when he plays the meltdown card; 0G on the other hand, has an unspectacular week; and Renard popularity continues to grow.

Tori gets a team meeting together to discuss the last three weeks, and her media intervention therein.

She wants us to do an opening bit in the upcoming Sylvana Wolfe concert.It would be a great public appearance as everyone except MK has a fan base.

She also wants us to train with a retired Golden-Ager named the Champion - aka Bob Garrison.

We agree, a week passes, the concert arrives. As we hit the stage calamity ensues.

Starts with Gal getting an EMP.

Then the ice wall forms up and a fray begins with Ravage 5.

The heroes certainly get their attention, but Ravage is clearly getting the better of the heroes to start.

The Mexican Non-Union Wolverine does significant damage to multiple members of the team, most to Renard, before 0G introduces him to the harsh mistress - Gravity.

Angel squares off against Trauma and gloriously punches her heart out. This proves to be a turning point.

Brain Flex warps the team's minds and tries to make good an escape. Gal boots back on line and the tide swings back to the players. He opens with shattering Frostbite with a rocket fist. Trixie's shot at Max Plastic is interposed by MK. Gal attacks Brain Flex with his other hand and the retreat is fully halted. Gal, with his hands back, flies through the crowd and super laser sword attacks Brain Flex directly. The villains are subdued, heroes are triumphant, and EAGLE arrives to clean up the aftermath.

Renard, however, is dead from his wounds. As the team is mourning the loss of their teammate, their dead teammate walks into the scene to ask why everyone is so sad. He explains his resurrection is from being a beast lord. MK and the Angel nod knowingly, everyone else seems to get the gist of it.

Tori arrives all oh-my-god-ing and super excited. She wants us to go rest, there will be a big presser in the moring on the steps of City Hall - please everyone be sober; I'm looking at you, Angel...

We get back to the base to find that Bob Garrison has let himself in, and wants to work with us.

-End of Session-