Last night was Marvel, after a bit of a hiatus. Prologue to this Act is here. On we go!
Our heroes (minus Arcanix, who flew off on his own last time, because his player was absent this time) get debriefed by AEGIS and Agent Carlsson. They tell him what happened, and he notes everything and leaves them to do whatever. Inferno zips off and visits his doctor, who's appalled at how dinged up he is, but can't do much for him beyond tell him to take pain killers and rest.
The others stay at the safe house. Juno, a lawyer in her day job, is a little concerned about the extra-legality of all this, but stays quiet. Rift reaches into worlds and pulls out a version of herself that's a people doctor (remember that Rift, in this universe, is a veterinarian) so she can heal up, and then goes looking for a way to detect the weird robots. She winds up with a detector device. Juno, likewise, creates a shield with her bracelet, figuring that if they get attacked again she wants to be ready.
Elsewhere, Inferno, as his alter ego Stephen Lewis, is being driven across the city back to his building. Traffic is gridlocked, and he realizes it's because the power's out. He tries his cell, but that's out, too - the towers are down. He has a phone in his car that works, though (it's, like, "dedicated" or something, he's rich, whatever, comic science), and gets through to the computer security guy he has looking at the data breach. He learns that power is not just out in the city, but in the whole region. Figuring this can't be a coincidence, he leaves the car ("I'll walk, thanks, Charles!"), dips into an alley, and bursts into the sky as Inferno!
He flies back to the safe house, where the other heroes have learned about the outage and have come outside. They confer, and decide to go check the main power plant for the region. Rift opens a gate, and they step through into crisis. One of the buildings has smoke coming from it, there's a sleek, black aircraft hovering overhead, and the security forces are engaging some folks in costumes. One of them is shirtless, wearing orange trousers, and has bees tattooed on one side of his body and fire on the other. Another is dressed in blue, face covered in a mask, and carrying a sword. And then there's a horde of guys dressed in purple and black. No mask, but a disturbing smile, and there are a bunch of him, all identical. A bunch of plant employees are dead, unconscious and covered in welts, or sitting holding their heads laughing. Rift uses her robot detector, and gets a ping - apparently something here is operating on the same frequency.
The heroes spring into action. Rift opens a gate behind the villains, giving the others a tactic advantage. Juno runs for the civilians, pulling a few to safety, but the shirtless guy sees her and points at her, breaks into a run, jumps up and explodes into a massive swarm of bees. Juno tries to toss up a force bubble, but the bees get in and sting her a bunch.
Inferno flies through the rift and blasts the aircraft with fire, but it rolls and the pilot leaps out. He's dressed in black with gold accents, and dives straight at Inferno, fist out. Deciding it would unwise to let him connect, Inferno rolls, and the dude hits the ground with an explosive strike.
Spore tries to end this, and uses his spore-blast on the bees and the multiple guy. Horribly, the bees just nom on the spores with no ill effects, and one of the duplicates seems to absorb the spores, grows moss all over, and collapses. The rest of the duplicates turn and face the heroes, and they all feel euphoria playing at their minds.
Spore, Inferno, and Juno resist it - Juno's in too much pain from the stings, while Spore and Inferno just grit their teeth and power through. Rift, however, takes it full force, sits down, and giggles. She also loses control of her powers, and realty starts to unravel a little. The other heroes have their hands full for a moment while they cope with that, and the villains retreat into the vehicle and flee.
The heroes have suffered their second defeat in a day, and it's clear that this is all much bigger than a data breach. Next time, we'll see what, if anything, Arcanix learned.
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