Looks somewhat weak, with Tim and Chris not around. The rump group consists of Bruce (Sting Ray), Paul (Darren Stone), Chuck (Archangel) and Ernest.
Sting Ray walks back into his apartment, having just returned from a business trip to Vancouver. He calls Darren Stone's cellphone to ask, "Couldn't one of you have picked me up at the airport? I know you were there, because one of you borrowed my car from long-term parking..." Sting Ray managed to locate his car in the parking lot in front of the condo. It has some suspicious empty baggies in the front seat.
Darren Stone tells him, "We're at the asylum!"
"Do you need me to break you out?"
"No, we're in the woods out back, checking out this car some guy was using to drive to and from the asylum for the last three months."
Sting Ray drives out onto a rutted utility road behind the asylum, following the power lines. He eventually comes across Darren Stone with his motorcycle and Archangel perched on top of a stolen car. "What have you found?"
Archangel chirps up, "It's stolen! And there's a hospital gown in back!" Sting Ray groans and hits his forehead, then searches the car. He finds breath mints! And a crumpled piece of paper. It is an old newspaper article, with a knife-hole. The picture is labeled "Hugh Price." Archangel points out, "He was the Winston Arms guy!"
Darren Stone looks at him blankly and asks, "What? Is that a hotel?"
Archangel replies, "No, you knucklehead. Didn't you pay attention at all last session? They make firearms, cigarettes and fortified wine."
Archangel, utilizing his advanced sense of smell, detects some wrappers for Vietnamese food. He tells the others, "This went bad. Want a sniff?"
The characters head in to the asylum. Darren Stone asks Doctor Ellis, "Are you aware that Samuel Marshall has been regularly escaping from the asylum nightly for months? And that he has stolen a car and been using it to visit the city?"
Doctor Ellis protests, "That's not possible! We have locks! And bed checks!" There is eventually an agreement that the characters may look at some security tapes. The tapes show nothing.
The characters get the doctor to let them into his room.
BTW, he's at large. They just think he only escaped last week.
Archangel chats up Doctor Ellis while staring at her legs. Darren Stone finds some missing screws around the AC air intake. He slides it open. He wouldn't want to go in there, but someone skinny could make it. He generates an earth elemental out of one of the floor tiles (Dr. Ellis: "Hey!") then sends it into the intake. Everyone heads outside to see the elemental sticking its head out of a grate outside the building. Darren Stone sends it back to become part of the floor again, but to keep the face. Floor tile elementals are the best. Dr. Ellis is very impressed with the degree of planning and initiative Samuel Marshall displayed.
More security tapes of the day the twelve inmates walked away. Group therapy session, including Marshall. Therapist wanders off camera, Marshall says something, then everyone stands up at once and starts walking out. Orderly tries to stop them, gets shoved to the side.
Darren Stone mentions, "He was a chemist. Perhaps he slipped them something?"
Dr. Ellis responds, "He had work privileges in the kitchen, but he wouldn't have had any access to chemicals or drugs."
Darren tells the others, "Here's my theory. He's going to mind control the Sons of Freedom and use them to attack his old boss."
Cell phone call from Jimmy, for Darren. Black-clothed guys with submachine guns are shooting up the Southside. Lots of people are hiding in the community center. Darren promises an imminent arrival. Sting Ray, "I summon the Cloud-Chariot of Kulkulmectul! And then I send it away and we drive."
There is a perimeter. Detective Duc Lam is there. A form peeks out from behind a building. The fellow seems to be wearing black pajamas. He rips an AK47 blast into the side of a patrol car. Detective Lam tells the characters, "It's the Thunder Knights, but I don't know what the hell they're doing!" Darren Stone knows that they are a Vietnamese street gang. He knows that they're not known for abundant violence, and don't usually dress up like VC. Detective Lam points out that someone got word to the South Side C's, and some of them are running around with guns as well.
Darren Stone runs at the guy. The guy opens fire at him, but misses. Sting Ray calls up the Sky-Chariot of Kulkulmectul and roars into the sky, descending down onto the tallest building in the area. Archangel takes to the air and flies along the rooftops.
The South Side C's occupy one tall building. The Lincoln Youth Center is at the end of the street. Thunder Knights are all along the other side of the street, and all of them are dressed and equipped as if they were VC. The cherry on the top is a single little old lady in the street.
Sting Ray lands behind a C. "I'm Sting Ray, and we're here to clean all this up. Drop your gun!" The C runs for it.
Darren Stone crashes into the Thunder Knights, slamming one into a wall then charging down the street. The little old lady takes a shot and goes down. Sting Ray tries to zap a few Thunder Knights, gets hit twice and stunned. Archangel is terribly shocked when one Thunder Knight jabbers at him then jumps onto him from a building roof. He turns on an energy field, slams the guy into the wall and drops him to the ground. From what he can gather, the Thunder Knights actually do think that they're fighting against American soldiers in Vietnam. Archangel flies down to attack the Thunder Knights who are running into the Youth Center. He takes one out, but sees two more run inside.
Darren Stone sprints towards the Youth Center, right past the wounded little old lady. He trails footprints of little old lady blood.
Sting Ray flies down to pick up the little old lady so he can take her to the Youth Center. Darren Stone, "Why on earth would you do that? There's still a battle going on there!" Sting Ray ignores Stone's comment: he is too busy getting shot over and over and over again by the neighborhood Thunder Knights. He wafts her over to the Youth Center, melts a hole in a second story window, and flies her to safety.
Archangel flies into the Youth Center and executes an incredibly poorly-aimed attack at one Thunder Knight. He takes one out, then hears more gunfire from farther inside the Youth Center.
Darren Stone notices a gangster trying to enter the Youth Center. He rattles the fellow's skull and sends him to the ground. Then three more Thunder Knights come crashing into him. Finding himself hard-pressed, he traps two of them in an elemental snare.
Archangel flies in to the rec room to see that the plasma TV has been shot to death, and that Wilson Jeffers has beaten the Thunder Knight responsible senseless. Archangel heals himself. Jeffers tells them, "I've got this situation. You go help them other people."
Two gangsters attack Darren Stone with their parangs. One gets close, but Darren evades their attacks. Then he dumps another snare on them.
Archangel finally walks upstairs and heals the old lady. She looks peaked but okay. Archangel looks over at Sting Ray as he inaccurately blazes away at Thunder Knights outside. He comments, "You really should try rolling better. You might hit some people then." One of the Thunder Knights outside takes a few shots at him, but miss. Feeling a bit put out, Sting Ray sends out one more lightning bolt and drops the last un-snared Thunder Knight.
A few cops start cautiously moving down the street, shielded by an armored SUV. This is enough to persuade the remaining South Side C's to clear out. Detective Duc Lam follows along. Wilson Jeffers gets a lot of props for beating up a gangster. Everyone is happy that things worked out as well as they did, except for the gangsters who have heart attacks from the gunchy pills they ate before the fight. One of the survivors gets subjected to the Mesmerizing Sigil.
Detective Lam takes the gangster off downtown while the characters head to the warehouse.
Jeffers, "Can I talk to you a minute? What's going on?"
Stone, "We think a crazed chemist escaped from an asylum and is feeding these guys drugs to make them think they're still fighting in Vietnam. It's really messed up."
Jeffers, "I just want to thank you boys for what you done. I couldn't have protected all them kids myself."
Detective Lam, "Did you say something about Hugh Price? I just got a radio message that he's missing and there was some sort of accident at the Winston Arms headquarters downtown."
Sting Ray's phone rings. He hears a man's voice say, "Okay, Mrs. Feng. Do what we say and nobody gets hurt. Just set the camera up over there."
A moment later, Amy Feng says, "Yes, Mr. Marshal, we'll be ready in a second." Sting Ray proceeds to blow two Hero Points: one to use his electrical powers to track the cell phone signal, and another to let him use the Sky Chariot without having to take full actions. After a few false starts, everyone drifts in the general direction of downtown. Amy Feng proceeds to drop a number of hints about what Marshall is doing. The characters figure out that Marshall and his twelve escaped mental patients there. They have the camera crew, and they're planning on eating their flesh and giving some kind of public address. Characters deduce that they're somewhere near Freedom Tower.
Sting Ray eventually manages to narrow their location to the north side of Freedom Circle. The TV address begins, though the characters aren't watching it. "This is Amy Feng. Samuel Marshall recently escaped from Providence Asylum, and he has some things he'd like to share with the viewing audience." Marshall commences a semi-lengthy rant about governments, corporations and how they're all in bed together, and how people who go fight wars for their corporate overlords are treated like cattle or experimental subjects.
Sting Ray finally manages to narrow the signal to an office building under construction. The television rant moves on towards Hugh Price and Winston Arms, who are apparently behind the worst of it. They're on the 10th floor, in a corner office. Total 18 floors, the part they're in just has the drywall. Above that, things get kinda girdery.
"In just fifteen minutes when the fireworks start at Liberty Park then all those people who say they love freedom will learn! Then Hugh Price will get sprayed over a square mile."
Minion: "What's the plan, Mr. Marshall?"
Darren Stone, "The plan is you go to jail!" Darren and Sting Ray go in through the right, Archangel through the left. Archangel swoops in through a window, sets off a dazzle, and ignores a hail of gunfire. Sting Ray and Darren Stone crash in through the other side and deliver punishing damage to the asylum inmates they face. Amy Feng takes cover behind a desk and yells, "Marshall ran for it!"
Archangel sees one lunatic with a grenade. He shelters Amy Feng and ignores the attack. Two lunatics pull out hypos and pump themselves up on goofballs. Amy Feng yells at Archangel, "He went that way! That way!" Archangel doesn't move. Amy Feng slaps him and emphasizes, "That way!" Archangel points out, "It isn't my initiative yet! I can't act! Go yell at Stone, he's next up!"
Darren Stone and Sting Ray go running around, looking for Marshall. Darren finds an insane person with a grenade in a restroom. He yells, "Banzai!" and explodes. Another insane person runs up behind Sting Ray and jabs him full of chemicals. Sting Ray feels a burning senstation in his shoulder.
Archangel pulls Amy Feng out and drops her in a nearby condo.
Neither Darren Stone nor Sting Ray have any idea where Marshall Simons might be. And Sting Ray has pupils the size of dinner plates. He mesmerizes one lunatic and finds out that Simons is heading to the park. "To the park!" There is a brief delay to eliminate the rest of the lunatics. Sting Ray pulls Stone to the park, Archangel picks up Amy Feng from the dinner party she got dropped into.
It takes the characters less than a minute to get to Liberty Park on the Sky Chariot. The place is full of people, and the Boy Wonderz are on stage finishing their smash hit "Bye Bye Bye"
Fireworks barge on the lake, characters able to see that the firemen supposed to be operating it are all tied up and other people are manning the rockets. One very large rocket, with a human figure tied to one of them. Archangel spots Samuel Marshall in a gas mask, sneaking up onto the stage. The Mayor and various other local personages are standing on the stage.
Fireworks start to go off. The first couple start to detonate above the crowd. A light dampness starts to drift down on the people.
Archangel lands and sprints towards the stage. Sting Ray lands Darren Stone and Amy Feng on the fireworks barge. Darren Stone gets pounded by a hopped-up goon. Sting Ray tries to mesmerize the guy, but he throws off the effect.
Samuel Marshall clubs some official on the stage.
The population in the arena is starting to look chemically befuddled.
Marshall stands up on stage and points at the onrushing Archangel and yells, "Why don't you perforate that communist!" A bunch of mind-controlled cops start shooting at him. Archangel swoops in and tries to grapple him, but Marshall does one of his special-forces maneuvers and evades him.
Darren Stone rushes the guy controlling the fireworks. In response, he sets off two grenade-like fireworks pots. Darren ignores the explosions and runs to rescue Hugh Price. He snaps the ropes.
Sting Ray finally manages to mesmerize the juiced goon and send him off the barge. The other guy squeals and crows, "the big shiny red button!" He sets off the big firework. Hugh Price is still loosely attached to it. Darren Stone tries to tear him free. He manages just in time as the firework sails into the air. Darren notices that the firework is full of all kinds of strange stuff. Sting Ray belts the remaining fireworks crewman.
Archangel watches as Samuel Marshall brandishes his rifle and opens his jacket to display lots and lots of blocks of C4. Archangel thinks about his options, and finally elects to create a cylindrical wall separating him and Marshall from the other folk on the stage.
Then Archangel punches him. As Marshall pumps himself up on goof-balls.
Big firework starts to spray stuff. It is 400 feet in the air. Darren manages a phenomenal shot to entangle it and drop it from the sky.
Marshall sets off his vest. Pipe looks like a big rifle that shoots out Archangel, totally unharmed.
Sting Ray has a dalliance with death after his drug-induced heart attack. Archangel works him through it. Hugh Price thanks the characters and suggests that he'll have to hook them up. National anthem finishes.
And with that, we bid farewell to Mutants & Masterminds...