Wearing the Cape: ADAAB

All DSA Agents Are Bastards, you see. Here's last time.

Our heroes are in Cooley's Gulch, Texas, teaching DeCarlo Stone how to control his powers. They wake up in the morning and Magnus pulls various foodstuffs out of his hat (Levee doesn't eat the hat-eggs; she's particular about knowing what animal her food comes from). That done, they get to work teaching DeCarlo to focus on pulling particular things out of his hat. 

Styx channels the ghost of a preschool teacher and sets up some Engaging Stations to help DeCarlo with focus and visualizations, and Magnus actually teaches the lesson. A couple of hours later, they think DeCarlo has it! They head into the nearest town (which isn't really "near") and get some pizza. They leave Wing Diesel back at the Gulch, just to avoid having to pack him into the trailer.

DeMarcus asks Levee what the next step is. She says that they'll need to practice for a while, but then they'll go back to New Orleans and reveal DeCarlo to the world. If he's visible and famous, it'll be harder for the DSA to disappear him (or "recruit" him, which is functionally the same thing). That's a gamble, yeah, but it's about the only play that have. It also becomes irrelevant very quickly.

As they're eating their pizza, they notice the counter girl answer the phone, go pale, and run out the back. The heroes turn, and see four figures approaching the restaurant, and a bunch of armed dudes in uniforms spreading out through town. 

Toby and Levee go out to meet them - they recognize the one in the lead, wearing a slick, white, plastic-y costume - Wireless. The three people flanking him, though, they don't recognize. One is a cowboy wearing chaps, four six-guns, and holding a length of rope (Toby whimpers a little in spite of himself). One is a normal-looking man, maybe even a little on the shrimpy side, but as he approaches he gestures to the ground around him and pulls up thousands of little rocks, forming a huge shell around him. The third is a woman in a white bodysuit with blue spiral patterns, including a blue spiral instead of a face. "Hypnotist," mutters Magnus.

Wireless informs them that he has warrants for all of them from the DSA, but he's really only interested in DeMarcus and DeCarlo Stone. Levee asks to see the warrant and he taps his wrist and sends it to her. She's seen warrants like this before; it's not a "you're charged with a crime" so much as "we're bringing you in because we think you're dangerous and/or useful."

Toby pulls out his phone and starts livestreaming, and both he and Levee remind Wireless that DeCarlo is a child. Wireless, fed up, nods to Spiral, and the spiral on her face starts to spin. Levee, Toby all feel their minds slow down, but they manage to shake it off. Wireless taps his wrist again, shutting down the internet in the area and creating a Dead Zone, and Magnus comes out and joins them. He tosses a peace symbol from his hat to create a Zone of Peace, hoping to prevent violence. Levee calls water from a hydrant and covers the windows of the pizza joint, creating Opaque Water to shield Styx while she gets the Stones out the back.

(It occurred to us, at this point, that they were Styx and Stones. You're welcome.)

Styx runs out the back and breaks into a pizza delivery truck. The DSA goons start surrounding it, pointing guns and shouting. The rock-covered guy, Diamond, steps in and lifts a fist to swing on Magnus, but apparently can't get past the Zone of Peace and lowers it. 

Toby yells at Wireless, trying to shame him and the other DSA, but Wireless isn't having. Toby also mentally calls to Wing Diesel. The cowboy, Wrangler, turns and Watches the Skies - he's apparently there for the dragon.

But then things get a little more intense. DeCarlo, looking out of the car window at the men pointing guns at him and his father, cries out "this isn't fair". Styx feels his power activate, and the streets of this town crack and split, creating Fissures. Wireless walks over to the truck and activates some kind of force field under it, making it Unstable. Meanwhile, Spiral stares(?) at Magnus, tries to shut his mind down, and Diamond calls up more rocks and holds Levee, Toby, and Magnus from the waist down.

Magnus reaches into his hat and pulls out a rune that cancels powers and pushes through the rocks, pressing the rune to Spiral. It shuts down her powers and she sits down, heavily, rocking back and forth. Wing Diesel appears and lands on the roof, and Wrangler tosses his rope around the dragon's neck. 

But at this point, Styx channels the teacher again and gets DeCarlo to focus. "Think about your bedroom," she says. "Focus on that, and then take us there." (She doesn't know it, but she's playing right into DeCarlo's Getting the Hang of This stunt.) DeCarlo opens a portal into what looks like his room, and he, his father, and Styx tumble through it. The portal closes after them.

Back in Texas, Wireless realizes they've gone and waves his hand. "They're gone! Pack it up!" Diamond helps Spiral up, the goons fall back to their trucks, and Toby looks at Wrangler and says "call me?" Wrangler tips his hat and shows his wedding ring. "You're about five years too late, pardner." 

With the threat over, the three heroes convene. They ask Magnus where DeCarlo went, but Magnus doesn't know - one thing Magnus can't do reliably is get back to any particular universe, and tracking someone through the multiverse is really beyond his capability. "So they're...gone?" Toby asks. Magnus says that they might be somewhere better, but Levee isn't looking forward to telling DeCarlo's grandmother.

Meanwhile, Styx, DeCarlo, and DeMarcus fall into a bedroom. It looks a lot like DeCarlo's, but the room isn't wrong - the window's on the wrong wall. They go out into the apartment, and again, it's similar, but not the same (but is fortunately empty). They go out onto the streets of New Orleans, and everything looks very much like the world they know. Styx talks to a ghost, and he confirms it's New Orleans, and it's 2024. So how, then, is this universe different? The three of them start walking down the street, exploring this new world.

Toby and Levee start heading back to Cooley's Gulch to pack up. Magnus decides he's had about enough of this world, and steps into the multiversal membrane. He once again flies space-time, looking through infinite planes...and then feels something grab him. "That's new."

He sees a woman's face, a woman with glowing red eyes, but doesn't have time to figure it out before he breaks into a new universe. A bright blue sky, a familiar skyline...and once again, he's in the middle of the damn air. He folds his arms and plummets ("just once I'd like to appear on a roof or something"), but from behind him he hears "Whoa! I got you!" and someone catches him.

The person who catches him seems to be swinging on a rope. He's wearing a blue hoodie, red sweats, a red hood, and goggles. "Where'd you come from?"

"Another universe," answers Magnus. 

"You a superhero or something?"

"I try." They swing up to a building and land. "You on a field trip, kid?"

"I'm not a kid!" He pulls himself up to his full height. "I'm Spider-Man."

"OK." Magnus looks around, annoyed, and still wondering what brought him here.

"You're just lucky I was in Queens today," says Spider-Man. Magnus pulls an umbrella out of his hat and jumps off the building, floating to the ground. "Whoa! Wait, that is not how physics works!"

"Not here," answers Magnus. "So is this what you do, swing around and catch people?"

"Yeah, I guess. I mean I'm not really up for Avengers-level threats."

"Avengers? God, that's dumb. What are they avenging?"

Spider-Man pauses. "You know, I'm not sure. Aliens invaded a few years back. I was just a kid. But they stopped that invasion, maybe that's what they were avenging." Sirens sound in the distance. "Oh, I should check that out. See you around!"

Magnus lands. "Yeah."

Next time: Into Earth 10763! 

Wearing the Cape: Cooley's Gulch

Into the exciting world of superheroics once again! Here's last time. (Brief session because one of our players was abducted by aliens mid-session. Not really, but that's more exciting than what actually happened.)

The heroes load up Wing Diesel into the back of Junior's trailer (he fits nicely, even if it seems like he should be too big) and drive out to Texas. Levee has a friend out there - one Waylon Crowe - who bought a ghost town intending to turn it into a tourist attraction. It didn't work out so well (like a lot of Waylon's get-rich-quick schemes), and now it's just kind of collected dust and lizards, but it'll make a nice training camp.

They pull in and Waylon shows them around. There's no power, but there's a generator, no running water, but plenty of bottled water, and there's a Piggly Wiggly a few miles up the road. He asks how long they're likely to be here and what they're doing, and then gets in his truck and heads off.

The heroes set up and get to work. The way they figure it, they have four broad lessons for DeCarlo: teaching him to conquer his fear, explaining the multiverse, teaching him to focus and visualize, and teaching him to pull what he wants out of his portals. 

They start with teaching him to overcome and control his fear, figuring that's the first and principle danger of his powers. Levee gets some construction paper and markers and starts working with some art therapy, and it goes OK, but the town is Eerily Quiet and there's a lull in conversation and a scary gust of wind just as he's drawing something, and it gets him anxious. Styx talks him down before he summons anything by accident, and they take a little break and reconnoiter. 

They have DeMarcus hang close, and Toby has Wing Diesel provide some Dragon Support, while Levee grabs some water from the water tower and shapes it into things that DeCarlo describes, moving from "scary" to "silly". It takes a while, but he manages to get his fears under control and come up with some strategies for working through it.

Next, Magnus tries to explain the multiverse. Levee advises him to think about how baby Magnus came to understand it, but Magnus thinks that's not a great idea - he left his own universe by accident and couldn't find his way back for years. (It put me in mind of The Time Traveler's Wife, actually.) Anyway, Magnus grabs some sheets of paper of similar, but not identical, color, and points out how they're all the same shape and thickness, but they gradually shift in color until one is completely different from another. It takes a while, but DeCarlo gets it.

By this point, DeCarlo is Tired and Distracted, so everyone takes a break and runs around to get the wiggles out. They have a camp-out in the afternoon; Magnus pulls a bunch of stuff from his hat to make an Awesome Campsite, and that evening they start working on helping him visualize. 

Magnus asks if he's got a favorite book; DeCarlo names Where the Wild Things Are. Magnus says that he's actually met Max, he's a good kid, and DeCarlo is a little struck to realize that the characters in a book might be real in some other reality. He, Magnus, and Styx work with his visualization skills and eventually manage to pull Max' wolf suit out of nowhere.

By this point, it's late. DeCarlo still has work to do, but he's making progress. We'll see what tomorrow brings! 

Wearing the Cape: Training Day

Last night, some super-hijinks! Here's last time.

Our heroes have spirited DeCarlo Stone away from the authorities, but they know they need to get him trained to the point that he can control his powers and soon - publicity is likely to be his only defense against getting disappeared. They head outside of town and call in a favor from Aaron "Swamp Rat" Bledsoe, Jr. He moves his trailer deeper into the swamp and near the water, Levee creates some water-barriers both for safety and obscuring purposes, and they get to work.

Magnus has DeCarlo reach into his hat (rather, he produces a smaller hat for DeCarlo to practice with) and tells him about focusing and paying attention, but also talks about a giant potato chip he once pulled out and DeCarlo creates a never-ending avalanche of bags of chips. Magnus puts the mini-hat (now pouring chips) back into his hat ("Fluffles can deal with that"), and Levee helps DeCarlo focus and keep his mind on what he's doing. DeCarlo pulls a Kit-Kat out of the hat, and everyone applauds him.

Meanwhile, Styx calls up a couple of ghosts to walk the area and watch out for cops, and Wing Diesel takes to the skies and circles. They notice that a small crowd his gathering around the area, apparently attracted by Levee's water walls (they don't know what's happening, but they know their hometown hero is involved!). 

Magnus gets to wondering if DeCarlo needs a receptacle to pull something the way he does, and indeed, if DeCarlo is actually conjuring things from the multiverse or if he's actually creating them. He tells DeCarlo to focus on the area behind the trailer and call up another Magnus. That, apparently, confuses DeCarlo, because he conjures something, but it ain't Magnus.

The thing that steps around the corner is close to 10 feet tall and is apparently made of a mass of swirling, glowing ribbons adorned with glowing runes. It shoves the trailer out of the way like a cardboard box (Swamp Rat, his son Emil, and DeCarlo's dad are all sitting on top of it and get scattered, but are unhurt) and makes for DeCarlo. Wing Diesel lands in front of it and body-checks it back. Its ribbons wrap around the dragon and carry intense heat, but that doesn't bother Wing.

Levee moves one of the walls between Wing and the monster and shoves it back into the water. Styx slips over to DeCarlo and helps him breathe, allowing him to focus enough to open a portal and the monster falls in. Swamp Rat dives into the water to look around (his hands get webbed and his eyes get nictitating membrane first, of course), and he verifies the thing is gone.

DeMarcus picks up his son and comforts him, and one of the ghosts approaches Styx and warns of encroaching cops ("blue lights"). She tells everyone else, and DeMarcus and DeCarlo jump on Wing Diesel and fly the heck away. 

Levee drops her walls, and the heroes see one cop car turn and start driving back towards the city, while another keeps approaching. Sgt. Guidry gets out and asks about DeCarlo, and of course the heroes don't tell him anything. He tells them, though, that they're under satellite surveillance, and that their big problem now is Wireless. He's looking for DeCarlo in an attempt to make his bones with the Department of Superhuman Affairs, and while Guidry isn't interested in screwing up DeCarlo's life, he knows that the powers-that-be are very nervous about the lad. The thinking amongst people who study this kind of thing is that you can't create something from nothing, and that summoning things from other universes isn't something that really happens, and now there's two breakthroughs that can do it with in a week. 

The others point out that DeCarlo needs to be trained - the last thing anyone wants to do is put him in a position where he's scared all the time, like, say, being arrested. Guidry agrees, but there's only so much he can do, and at the end of the day, if there really is a threat to the city, he has to address it. He leaves, and the heroes consider their options.

They need to get DeCarlo away, and further away than just an exburb of New Orleans. Levee ruefully suggests Texas (she's never left New Orleans; Toby asks if she'll lose her powers or something). Swamp Rat offers his trailer as transport for Wing Diesel; if they can hide the dragon, the government won't be able to track them as easily. Toby asks if that's going to be too be an inconvenience for Aaron and his kid, but he says that he's got plenty of family they can stay with. "Besides," he says, "whatever else I am, I'm a dad first." 

Swamp Rat gets some cousins to clear his stuff out of the dented trailer, and Toby calls DeMarcus and has him head for DeCarlo's school. Magnus pulls a point-to-point teleporter device from his hat, and DeMarcus brings DeCarlo into the school, and then teleports him back to the trailer. They do the same thing with Wing, get everyone into Styx's truck, get the truck hitched to the trailer, and start heading west. 

Levee makes some calls to arrange a place to hide out and train. Hopefully, they can get DeCarlo's powers under control enough that they can present him to New Orleans before Wireless figures out where they are. 

Wearing the Cape: DeCarlo is Afraid

Once again, we venture into the Big Easy, where things for our superhero protagonists are rarely easy! (Though they're often big.)

Last time, they rescued a bunch of kids from a shadowy other-realm, to which they (the kids) had been spirited by some wonk in a fur cape, but they didn't get any info out of the dude before Magnus blew his head off with explosives. While taking some spa time to help Styx recenter, Levee, Toby, and Styx herself discuss Magnus. 

They decide they do need to talk to him, largely because whatever the morality of just killing a dude might be, the BCRA might hold them responsible for what he's doing, and he hasn't been terribly careful or considerate about his actions. Also, they're concerned that his endless dimension-skipping is making him numb, and perhaps he should stay in this reality a while and reconnect?

So the next day, they all four meet up at a restaurant and get some oysters and drinks. Levee arranges a VIP Room (Wing Diesel waits out on the patio, forlornly looking in the window). They talk with Magnus about what happened in the shipyard and why it might be a problem for them, and offer friendship and a place to belong.

Magnus isn't initially interested; he's been through so many different realities and seen so many different versions of people, and has been in the liminal places between realities where everything happens at once. That much death and tragedy is numbing for anyone, and Magnus doesn't really see the point in staying here (or anywhere). Toby points out that through all of that, there must have been good moments, too, and focusing on the tragedy is shortchanging everything else. Plus, they are real and their lives matter to them, and Magnus is making those lives difficult. 

Magnus says he was planning to move on soon anyway, and the others try and convince him to stay, not because they need him to, necessarily, but because he's headed for a bad end if he can't find a way to connect to others. He says that what he's really after is novelty, and that's what leads him into superhero-ish situations. Things get a little tense for a bit - Levee notes that if he can't keep himself from violence and he's not willing to try and meet them halfway, maybe it's better if he does leave. 

Magnus notes that he was expecting a lecture, but he thought it would be about the morality of killing, not this (Levee notes that no one is going to shed any tears over whatever that thing in the warehouse was). Magnus walks out and vanishes...and finds himself up above the city in a gale force wind. He realizes that he's gone through a multiversal gate of some kind, along with the storm, and isn't sure exactly how that happened.

Meanwhile, at the restaurant, the heroes' phones sound an alert and the lights flicker. They go outside and see floodwaters rising, the sky black, Driving Rain, and Flying Debris. This storm isn't quite a hurricane, but it's getting there. 

Over the next couple of hours, the heroes mitigate damage. Magnus pulls out a device to zap debris away before it can do too much damage. Levee sends the rain out the lake, improving conditions, and Wing Diesel takes to the skies to become a Rescue Dragon. Styx pushes against the waters to help people get to safety. A building collapses, a helicopter crashes, and the heroes are there to put out fires and make sure people don't get swept away.

And then Levee focuses all of the power she has, and pulls every bit of moisture out of the clouds, sends it to Lake Pontchartrain, and dumps it. And then she collapses, exhausted, but also enlightened. The waters told her where the storm came from.

Once she gets on her feet, she informs the others, and then make their way into the southern part of the city, to an apartment building, heavily damaged by the storm. Amidst the residents (now outside being tended to by rescue workers because in this universe the government is actually kind of functional), they see a Black family - a young boy of about 6, a man in his 30s (probably the boy's dad), and a woman in her 60s (probably his grandmother). Magnus immediately realizes, upon laying eyes on the boy, that he is a Magnus-type breakthrough...which isn't supposed to be a thing. Magnus just came up with that classification when he learned how supers were categorized here.

The heroes approach the family and introduce themselves (rather, they introduce Styx and Magnus, since the family obviously knows Levee and Wing Diesel). The man (DeMarcus Stone), his son (DeCarlo), and his mom (Jacqueline) all live here in the building, and when this storm blew up out of nowhere, their place was damaged a bit. 

Magnus leans down and asks DeCarlo to pull something out of his hat, if he can, just whatever he's thinking about. DeCarlo (after glancing up at his dad to make sure it's OK), reaches in and pulls out a rabbit (because what else do you pull out of a magician's hat?). Magnus gets a little wide-eyed, and says that yep, that's his assistant Fluffles...but Fluffles was back at the Hat (Magnus' interdimensional lair). The fact that DeCarlo reached in and found him make the little boy a phenomenally powerful being. 

They get to talking a bit more, and DeMarcus mentions that DeCarlo was just talking about hurricanes because hurricane season is coming up, and he was feeling scared about it. Magnus asks if there's been anything else he's been scared of lately, and DeMarcus says that one of his classmates brought a book called Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark to school and read a story about alligators, and after that DeCarlo got real scared about monsters in the water. That was right around the time that the heroes fought the Gator Man. And, his school recently did a "stranger danger" presentation...after which several of his classmates vanished. DeCarlo is, apparently, reaching into the multiverse and finding whatever is scaring him, and then pulling it here. 

Toby pulls the others aside and gives them a quick reality check - they are required by law to inform the authorities about DeCarlo under the Breakthrough Collective Responsibility Act. If they do, what happens to the kid? Will the government disappear him? Try to control his powers? Train him? There are too many variables. Levee has an idea. She suggests unveiling DeCarlo to the world, having him become a hometown celeb like her. Yes, it means putting a lot of pressure on a very young boy, but it'll also mean he'll have enough eyes on him that he can't just disappear.

They bring this up to DeMarcus, and he's not convinced - he knows what that might do to his family. The heroes say they'd need to train DeCarlo anyway, because he has to learn to control this power; it's far too dangerous to let him just figure it out. And then Styx glances down the road and notices police APCs approaching. 

Toby has Wing Diesel take DeMarcus and DeCarlo for a ride, and they flee the scene just as the APCs pull up. Sgt. Guidry gets out, along with another breakthrough in a similar outfit but with a computerized gauntlet on one arm. Guidry asks the characters what they're doing here, and the other guy (Wireless) says that he's been tracking the dimensional anomaly and it led him here.

Magnus tries to convince Wireless that his device isn't calibrated properly or it's just reading him, but Wireless is smarter than that and isn't convinced. Guidry tells Levee that if they're covering for someone, it's going to go badly for her - under the BCRA she needs to come clean. Levee says that obviously if there was an anomaly here, it's not here now, and Wireless gets his machine to work and decides he was just reading Magnus. Guidry is unconvinced, and lets Levee know as much before he leaves (Styx suggests these uniformed dudes go and help some people, since, y'know, there was this storm).

The cops leave, and the heroes are left with a bit of a dilemma. But Magnus, for his part, remembers anew that although we may ultimately be dust, The Multiverse is Vast.  

Wearing the Cape: We Need to Talk About Magnus

What is a "hero," after all? Here's last time.

Our heroes are standing in front of an abandoned warehouse (cue The Tick: "That's a place good always fights evil!"). Styx picks the lock on the door and they enter, and find that the place is empty. There's a little debris here and there, but not even enough to qualify for a Situation Aspect. There are, however, Confusing Shadows and Echoing Sounds..

Wing Diesel crashes through the skylight (adding Broken Glass to the proceedings), while the others try to figure out what's going on. Magnus pulls an interdimensional detector thingie out of his hat that goes "widdly-wee" when it...well, detects something interdimensional. Specifically, there are rifts in reality here, but they're hidden behind something. The shadows in the room seem to move when someone gets close, so Magnus tries to catch on in a device designed for such, but it just oozes away like warm jello through fingers. 

Clearly the shadows are the problem, so Magnus pull out a big ol' flashlight and lights the place up. The moving shadows retreat, and light seems to come in from the skylight where it wasn't before, but now there are a few persistent shadows that just linger there. Magnus ponders what to pull out of his hat next, but Levee is getting impatient (she is a Local Celebrity and there are local kids missing).

Levee calls up water from the pipes and asks it for help finding the kids, asking it to find the water in them in a kind of "like to like" sort of arrangement. The water indicates that they are in a place with no water ("Well, that sounds awful"), beyond those shadows. Levee asks how to get through, the water says that with enough time and pressure, water cuts through anything. She aims the water at a rift and forces it into a water jet, and punches through. Styx follows, attuning herself to the otherworldly gateway in order to get past the barrier.

Toby aims the light at Wing Diesel and makes him Shiny, and then powers through the barrier. Magnus just teleports there, since no one's watching him.

The heroes wind up in a vast, featureless plain. The ground seems to be black glass, the sky is a weird amber color, and there's nothing, no topography, no people, No Point of Reference, just Endless Nothing. Levee forms the water she brought with her into a water-puppy and has it try to seek out the kids, but it collapses after it gets a few feet away from her (and she gathers it up; no way she's leaving it here). Styx listens carefully and hears distant whimpering, and just goes with her gut and follows it, while Wing Diesel takes to the sky and surveys. 

Magnus, meanwhile, is contemplating what to pull from the Hat that might help, and fixates on the laws of reality around here (What Were the Rules Again?). He finally gets annoyed and pulls up a quest-log from some universe that runs by video game logic, selects the "find the missing kids quest," and follows the icon on the map.

The heroes find the children sitting in a circle, swaying, and not responding to attempts to get their attention. Levee spritzes a little water on one of them to help him come out of it, and he does. He explains that he sneaked into his pantry to get a Sno-Ball and the door close behind him and something yanked him in here and made him sit in a circle, but that's all he remembers. 

Magnus wonders if this is a summoning circle of some kind, but the others aren't in the mood to find out. Wing Diesel and Toby engage in a game of duck-duck-goose and eventually get the kids to snap out of it ("Duck...duck...duck...duck...WING DIESEL!"). As they come out of it, the ground cracks, the sky brightens, and they wind up back in the warehouse...but there's a man standing in the middle of the circle.

Is it a man? He's wearing a fur cloak and black boots, but they can't see his face and vision seems to slide off him. He snidely says that he'll be putting the kids back in a minute and prepares to do something magical, but Toby jumps into action and rallies all the kids over to one side of the warehouse to keep them safe. Magnus reaches into his hat and pulls out a mini-sun to produce Blinding Light (and though he doesn't know it, invalidates one of the bad guy's stunts, which requires shadows to work). Styx jumps in and punches the guy in the jaw, and Levee calls up a huge Water Dome to shield the children and Toby.

The man grits his teeth (maybe) and gathers shadows from everywhere, snuffing out the Light that Magnus created. He then turns his attention to Styx, bringing shadows in from everywhere until she is boxed in (and remember she's Claustrophobic). She staggered back, horrified, nearly Catatonic, but Wing Diesel steps in and, well, steps on the guy, rendering him Grappled.

And then things get a little intense. Magnus, tired of this guy and firmly of the opinion that We Are All Dust, so who cares if any of these people die, reaches into his hat and grabs a handful of gray putty and plants it on the man's face. He steps back and hits a detonator...

The Water Dome shields the kids both from shrapnel and from seeing the worst of this, and Levee whips up a shield in front of herself. Styx dives behind Wing Diesel's leg, and the dragon's chrome armor absorbs the damage. But the mysterious man is now a shadowy smear on the ground. The others turn and stare at Magnus, but there's no time for a conversation now - the building is collapsing. The heroes rush the kids out, and Magnus hurls down a smoke bomb and vanishes. 

Outside, it's not long before the authorities show up. Once again, Levee runs interference for the press, while Wing Diesel guards the kids and provides hugs as necessary until their parents show up. A familiar looking pickup truck arrives and Swamp Rat leaps, frog-like, over the crowds to find Emil, and embraces him.

Sgt. Guidry finds the heroes and warns them that Magnus is rapidly becoming a potential scapegoat and test case for the Breakthrough Collective Responsibility Act, and he might not care about the rules, but this is all going to bounce back on the others if they're not careful. The three of them realize they're going to have to stage an intervention; Magnus is skating the line between hero and anti-hero at best. For the moment, though, they need to tend to Styx' mental trauma, so they take her out shopping and for a spa day, putting her severe consequence into recovery. Levee also buys her some body armor so she doesn't get beat up quite so much. Toby, for his part, is feeling no longer Stuck in the Stacks, but he's still a Nervous Sidekick to Wing Diesel. 

And Magnus lounges on a hammock in the Hat, deciding whether to go back to this universe or move along. 

Wearing the Cape: Enter the Swamp Rat!

Here we are in the Big Easy once again. Last time, recall, the characters got kinda tore up by an alligator-man (well, Styx got the most tore up, Wing Diesel got clawed some, while Magnus and Levee were unhurt).

Styx is getting released from the hospital, still Recovering from Massive Blood Loss and with Multiple Stitches. Levee is picking her up and wheeling her out, while Magnus has been doing tricks for the kiddies. Toby is washing Wing Diesel in the parking lot, trying to buff out the scratches.

As he's doing so, a beat-up, muddy pick-up pulls up. A guy in overalls gets out - barefoot - and looks over at Wing Diesel but doesn't really react too much. He asks Toby if "the magician is in there" with a strong Cajun accent, and Toby says he is, and the man walks off towards the hospital entrance with purpose.

Magnus, Styx, and Levee are coming out the front door, and the man walks up, points at Magnus, and says something that Magnus doesn't quite catch (Cajuns exist in many of the universes he has visited, but he hasn't really spent time around them). But then the man grows a foot and his skin gets scaly, and Magnus assumes that he's the Gator-Man! Magnus pulls a ray-gun out of his hat and warns the man that he's in no mood, but the man lunges at him!

Magnus fires and the bolt scorches the man's overalls, but doesn't do any real damage. He grabs Magnus by the lapels and shakes him, demanding "WHERE MY SON?" Magnus doesn't know what he's talking about, and before he can answer, Levee calls up a wave and shoves both of them away from the entrance of the hospital to the grass berm where there are few people around. Wing Diesel flies in and lands between Magnus and the Cajun, but he ducks under the dragon and makes for Magnus again. Styx runs over and tries to talk the man down, making him Willing to Listen, and Magnus does something uncharacteristic of him and apologizes. 

Levee, at this point, recognizes this dude - his name is Aaron Blesoe, Jr. (most folks just call him Junior), and he's a breakthrough and sometime hero called Swamp Rat. She addresses him by name and he calms down, changing back into human form, and agrees to talk. He explains that last night, he was at home with his son, Emil, and the boy just vanished into a shadow. The only time he'd seen people do that kind of thing was at Mardi Gras when Magnus was doing it (he admits he may have gone a little nuts). 

The heroes ask him to show them where this happened, and they head out to the swamp (Levee drives her own car, thanks). They arrive in the trailer park where he lives and he says that last night, Emil was doing his homework, and then he got up, walked into the corner, and then just leaned and fell in. Junior had been trying to figure it out ever since, but could not track his son - not by scent, sound, or taste of the air (at which point he changes his tongue into a snake's and flickers it). 

Styx looks around for a ghost, and asks the woman if she saw anything. She says she didn't see anything, but heard everything get hollow and echoey, like a big empty garage, maybe. And then she heard a voice whispering, and she couldn't quite tell what it said, but it, um, quickened her. It was a very enticing voice, is the point. Styx returns to the living world and tells the others this, and Magnus opines that if something is stealing children through a dimensional gate, the children might not be on this Earth anymore (Junior asks for clarification and then immediately regrets it).

Levee goes down to the water's edge and dips her hand in it, and asks the brackish water of the swamp for help. The water responds, and she feels herself Pulled back towards the city. They get in her car, and Junior tells them to inform him if there's any development. 

On the way back, they get a call from Sergeant Guidry, who tells them that multiple children around the city have gone missing. The reports are the same - they just vanished into shadowy corners. He asks to speak to Styx, and quietly inquires as to whether these children are still alive. Styx resolves to find out, and lets herself sink into the world of the dead.

In said world, she talks to a spirit and asks if there's been a sudden arrival of a bunch of kids. The ghost says there hasn't, and that's a relief, but as Styx tries to leave, she feels skeletal hands pulling her and a chill spreading over her physical form. She's done this before, but never when she's quite so close to death. Seeing her body getting pale and cold, Levee pulls the car over and turns up the heat, and Wing Diesel lands. Toby pull Styx out of the car and puts her under Wing Diesel's wing, letting his warmth coax her back to life. Styx does indeed find her way back, and Magnus advises not doing that again.

They arrive back in the city, and Levee follows the pull to the shipping docks. Here, the water speaks, but it's drowned out by sounds of machinery, so she only knows that what the water was trying to show her was in this area. While she noodles this, Magnus pulls a golden apple (from here, or maybe here) from his hat and gives it to Styx. She eats it, and feels her wounds knit and her strength return - she's still injured, but not nearly so badly.

Meanwhile, Levee has an idea! She finds an empty bottle, puts a bit of water in it, and spins it, letting the water show her where to go! The water points her down the docks to a warehouse with a big FOR SALE sign on the front. "Abandoned warehouse," she says. "This might be it."

Next time, we'll see if it is, in fact, it! 

Wearing the Cape: Death Roll!

Back in the Big Easy...but this time, the heroes are the beignets! (Kind of.) Here's last time.

It's been a few days since Mardi Gras and the Anguillite invasion. Magnus has been popping up around the city doing tricks and generally getting a feel for this world. Styx does tours at local cemeteries (not for any of the tourist places, just like shows up with a sign that says "GHOST TOUR" and waits for people to gather round and give her money). Levee has been doing readings for kids at bookstores along with Toby (but of course Wing Diesel is the real draw). 

And on this particular afternoon, at an old bookstore near Jackson Square Park, Levee is, in fact, reading a book about a mermaid that lives in the swamp to her fifth group of second graders. Toby is nearby, Wing Diesel is out in the dark gleaming (he's too big to fit inside). Magnus and Styx are in the area, perhaps coincidentally, but really, are there coincidences? 

Suddenly, Wing Diesel hears screaming from the riverfront! He takes off and flies there ("Let's Go, Wing Diesel!"), leaving Toby and the other heroes a block or two away. Styx and Magnus start running, but Levee lingers a bit to comfort the kids and make sure they're safe (she is, after all, a NOLA Girl Through and Through and these are her people).

Wing swoops in and sees a monster! A nine-foot alligator-man, standing near the water, looking hungrily at the people out walking their dogs and so on. It bellows and Wing, not taking chances, breathes out his heated exhaust breath weapon at the creature.

The Gator Man doesn't even break a sweat. It leaps into the air and grabs Wing, digging its claws into his chrome exterior. Wing howls in pain, and a block away, Toby stumbles and clutches his head. Nothing has ever hurt Wing Diesel like this before.

Magnus and Styx arrive on scene and see Wing locked in mortal combat (I reflexively typed that with a "k", jeez) with the Gator Man. Styx gets the people standing around filming to run, thanks very much, while Magnus considers whether this thing will fit in his hat. He closes the distance, and the Gator Man claws up Wing some more. Magnus throws a gravity tether from his hat and yanks both Wing and the Gator Man to the ground, and Wing shoves the Gator Man back and off him.

Levee arrives and calls up a lash of water from the nearby Mississippi River. It wraps around the Gator Man's neck and yanks him backwards. Wing flies back to the nearby parking lot and Toby tries to comfort him, and Magnus runs over and dances for the Gator Man ("Look! Delicious magician! Woo!"). The Gator Man, now Distracted, doesn't notice Styx creeping up behind him.

Styx channels the ghost of a gater wrangler and leaps on the Gator Man's back, trying to tie a scarf around his snoot and prevent him from biting anyone. Levee calls more water out of the Mississippi and surrounds the Gator Man In a Bubble, and Magnus, not really paying attention to the fact that Styx is in there as well (after all, We Are But Dust), pulls a cattle prod-like device from his hat and electrifies the bubble. This hurts the Gator Man, sure, but it also zaps Styx, and the Gator Man attacks, rendering Styx Clawed to Ribbons and giving her Massive Blood Loss. The bubble goes crimson...

Wing swoops in and fishes Styx out, and Levee firms up the bubble by increasing pressure. She then asks the water what this thing is - a breakthrough? Another alien creature like the Anguillites? And the water answers: It is the fear of the creature lurking beneath the surface. Someone reached into that fear and made this thing. It's not and never was human, but it is alive. 

Toby drags Styx out of harm's way and calls for help, while Levee and Magnus debate what to do with this thing (it's pretty much immobilized, as it doesn't have the leverage to break out of the bubble). They could kill it, maybe, but it's really tough, and do they really have the stomach to just pound on it until it dies? Finally they decide to let the authorities handle and it and call Sgt. Guidry. Magnus retrieves a massive syringe from his hat and drugs it, and the cops arrive to take it away. 

Styx is taken to the hospital and stitched up, and Wing settles back to lick his wounds. They all wonder, though, exactly who it was that created this thing...

Wearing the Cape: Eels on Bourbon Street

Monday was our first session of Wearing the Cape! And I know today is Wednesday, I didn't do the write-up yesterday, I was having a bad day, bleah. 

ANYWAY. Our story is set in the Big Easy, the Crescent City, New Orleans! Our characters are:

• Magnus the Magnificent: Our hapless dimensional traveler fell out of a salt mine and wound up...here. Magnus has begun to feel pretty nihilistic; when you know there's literally a universe that encompasses any given possibility, it's hard to care about one particular world. He's beginning to feel that We Are But Dust. In this universe, he's an A-Class Magnus Type; no classification exists for what he can do.
• Levee: Kyria Deveraux is a NOLA Girl Through and Through. Five years ago, during Hurricane Dexter (a Cat-5 hurricane that flooded the city), she experienced her breakthrough and parted the floodwaters. She has since become a Local Celebrity, and can often be found in the city wearing sparkly jewelry made of water. She's an A-Class Aquakinetic Type.
• Styx: Styx has always been something of a Spooky Spy. She got into a coffin on a dare and became trapped, which led to (or exacerbated) Claustrophobia, but it also allowed her breakthrough as an A-Class Mentalist Type. More specifically, Styx can talk to and channel the ghosts around here (and in this city, there are a bunch) to give her information, and even to possess her to grant her skills that she doesn't normally have.
• Wing Diesel/Toby Miles: Toby Miles was reading a book out loud to a bunch of people in a bookstore - Wing Diesel's Road Trip by Garrett Keener. And then Toby experienced a breakthrough (A-Class Verne Type) and manifested Wing Diesel, the big, shiny, chrome dragon from the book! Wing is still around, and so it's not uncommon to hear "Let's Go, Wing Diesel!" when there's trouble in New Orleans. Toby, for their part, is just the Dragon Rider, and just as often is Stuck in the Stacks.  

It's Mardi Gras, the World's Biggest Par-tay! The streets are full of Thronging Crowds (I'm not going to mention every single Situation Aspect that comes up, I swear), and the Breakthrough Float is rumbling through the French Quarter! Wing Diesel is sitting up front, tossing beads with his tail and candy with his snoot. (Toby is there, too.) Levee stands on one side, doing amazing water-conjuring displays, while Sgt. Andrew Guidry, a local police officer and Ajax-Type, stands on the back waving. Styx is in the crowd; she was invited, but declined to be on the float.

See, a new law just passed in New Orleans, called the Breakthrough Collective Responsibility Act (informally, the "Super-Krewe" law). It frees breakthroughs from civil liability from damage they might cause while doing super-stuff as long as it's for "the greater good." It also makes breakthroughs responsible for actions that other breakthroughs take - if, as a breakthrough, you see another breakthrough doing crimes and you don't at least report it, you can be convicted of a felony punishable by a big fine and a year in a "suitable penal facility." Needless to say, not everyone is quite in favor of this law, but there hasn't really been a test case yet, so no one's sure how well it's going to hold up. And opinion is divided even amongst the breakthrough community - Levee is in favor, Styx is decidedly not, and Toby really hasn't thought about it (Wing Diesel thinks "rar"). 

As the float slowly moves down the street, reality wibbles a bit, and a man in a tuxedo falls out of a rift in the air and lands on the float! Everyone cheers, figuring it's part of the act, and Magnus, never one to waste an entrance, bows and tosses candy from his hat. He mentions that he's from a different universe (he's never real shy about that), and Toby and Levee pretty much take it in stride. Styx notes this entrance, but then hears the ghosts around her whisper "they're coming." 

"Who?" she asks. "the anguillites"

Styx isn't sure what an "Anguillite" is, but it doesn't sound good. She slips through the crowd to the float and Sgt. Guidry helps her up. She says that she thinks something is about to happen...and sure enough, the crowds start to scream!

Water flows in from the dark corners of the city, not enough to count as flooding, but enough to make everyone's ankles wet. But more important, bands of slimy, four-armed fish-creatures appear as well! Their lower, stunted arms carry what look like guns, and they terrorize the crowds, pointing their guns around and burbling in a weird, alien language. 

Levee wastes no time - she leaps off the float to one of the mobs of Anguillites, scoops up a bunch of water, and flings it as daggers at the creatures! The pack of them falls dead (I was rolling so badly during this game). Styx calls up ghosts and has them box in another mob, and Magnus pulls a grenade out of his hat and flings it into the pack. It destroys the aliens, but also damages the building, and Levee scolds him - "That's a historical building! You can't just throw explosives around!"

Sgt. Guidry leaps off the float and lands in the midst of a third mob, knocking a couple of them down. Wing Diesel snarls at the last mob and shines light off his chrome skin, blinding and scattering them.

Suddenly, another alien - this one much larger and more muscular, and wearing claws on its hands, leaps from the dark and rakes at Levee! She blows it backwards with a jet of water, and Magnus hurls a razor-sharp playing card at its neck. Styx asks for help from the dead, and Frederick, the ghost of an expert pugilist, answers. With Frederick behind her eyes, she runs over and punches the alien lieutenant right in the gills, dropping it.

The remaining aliens in the mob fire their weapons at Sgt. Guidry, gumming him up with foul-smelling slime. The heroes quickly take them out (I honestly don't remember how, but it hardly matters at this point), and Levee washes the slime off Guidry ("ugh, smells like a po' boy left at the bottom of my locker!"). 

Guidry gets a call on his radio - that was just an early wave. There are lots more of these things in the city!

The heroes spring into action! Levee dips her hand into the water and listens to it (The Delta Sings to [Her], y'see). She learns that they are sliding around in the dark, using the water to increase mobility. She pulls all of the water from the shadows back and sends it down the drains, drying them out. Meanwhile, Magnus pulls a bright spotlight from his hat and aims it at Wing Diesel, who flies up into the air and spins, shining a million points of light into the dark corners of the city like some kind of Disco Dragon! The aliens thus exposed, Magnus pulls out a kind of dimensional vacuum and aims it at the body of the lieutenant, using that as a focal point to suck all the aliens back into their home world.

The crisis is averted, and while there are some narrowed eyes at the damage from the fight, the heroes aren't held responsible. The party continues, and Magnus is taken out for beignets. 

Character Creation: Wearing the Cape

WELL. Turns out I'm going to be running a supers game, spanning multiverses (and therefore game systems), using Marvel Superheroes (also known as FASERIP), Marvel Heroic Roleplaying (also known as "Cortex but now it's out of print so I could just as easily use Cortex Prime and MAYBE I WILL, JANICE), Claim the Sky, and Wearing the Cape. Of those four, Wearing the Cape is the only one I haven't made a character for, so here we go!

The Game: Wearing the Cape
The Publisher: Wearing the Cape Productions
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this, but I'm pretty conversant with Fate
Books Required: Just the one

There are a few supers games using the Fate system, including Venture City, which I found a little sparse. This is the one I like best of the ones I've read. The writing is readable and the interstitial fiction is fun, clearly written by someone who knows how to write fiction and knows the four-color genre. 

In the Cape-verse, there was this Event some time ago. Everyone in the world blacked out for three seconds, all electronics went off for a few seconds, and a lot of people died because, well, vehicles stopped or fell from the sky, people fell over in bad places, etc. (One thing I appreciate about this game is that it pays attention to, if not the pure horrific realism of this situation, then the verisimilitude of it - it's the inciting incident for the world, so it's treated with some gravity.) Anyway, during this Event, people also developed superpowers in what's become known as "breakthroughs." Some people became heroes, some became villains, some are more supernatural being than superhero, but there's a lot of room to move.

I actually had an idea for a character when I was reading through the book, or at least a character backstory (didn't get as far as the actual powers or anything). London got hit pretty badly in the Event for a few reasons, and immediately post-Event any breakthroughs got sent to "Camp Acorn" for detention, assessment, and "training" in how to use their powers. It was pretty totalitarian for a minute, but it kind of evened out afterwards (the setting isn't a Days of Future Past kind of dystopia; people do get sent to Camp Acorn but it really is for assessment and training, and they aren't drafted into service thereafter, though I suspect the recruiters go pretty hard). I want to play a bloke who went to Camp Acorn kinda close to the beginning of all of this and had a bad time of it, and when he got out he beat feet for the USA, having heard that capes could leverage their powers more easily there. Let's call him Soren Simons (you know my feelings on superheroes and their alliterative names).

So! Starting the actual chargen process, as is typical for Fate games, I'm doing Aspects. The High Concept Aspect in Wearing the Cape is replaced by a Power Aspect and a Hero Aspect. The Power Aspect pretty fixed - it tells me the power level (A, B, C, or D) and the "type" of hero we're talking about, which, in turn, gives me permissions later to buy certain stunts. These types exist in-universe; "Atlas-types" are named after Atlas, and they're basically Superman - flight, super strength, invulnerability, heightened senses. This might seem overly narrow, but it's actually dirt simple to make up a new type if you want to (and some of the types are pretty flexible anyway). 

The Hero Aspect, meanwhile, focuses more on the "why" of being a superhero, so I think that's where I'll start for Soren. I think his Hero Aspect is Decent Enough Bloke. It's not that Soren has especially high-minded ideals, but he's a good guy, and if he can help he will. (Now, he'd very much like to be able to get paid into the bargain, but he's not the kinda of bastard that's going to check someone's insurance before helping them - he's not American, after all.) 

Trouble Aspect is pretty standard, and I think I want to tie it back to his time at Camp Acorn. Actually, yeah, let's say he was "Trained" At Camp Acorn, the implication being they might have done something more than just train him, whether or not he can remember it (shit, am I making Bucky?). 

OK, better figure out my Power Aspect. I was initially thinking plant control, but I did a supers character like that some time ago (honestly it's getting a little hard not to repeat myself; I think this makes like 55 supers characters?). Well, let's go with terrakinesis instead. Soren can control earth and rock, which makes him a fucking magnet for collateral damage (for which this game has a pretty robust subsystem). 

I don't have an inkling about power level, but let's say he's B-Class - not top of the heap, but still pretty impressive. That makes his Power Aspect B Class Kinetic-Type. 

And now we get two Background Aspects, and these can be basically anything - ideals, quotes, talents, whatevs. Aspects, y'know. Soren is a Northern England Ex-Pat, and I think that's a pretty relevant bit of his character, so I'll make that an Aspect. I think I'll save the last one until I do some of his other stuff; I don't have a good idea and while I could make something up, I'd rather wait until I firm up his Attributes and Skills and so on. 

Speaking of that, next up we do Character Ratings (which include Attributes and Skills; already we can see this game is a little more granular than Fate usually gets). I get:

But that's got to last me through six Attributes, 13 Skills, and three Resources. Let's look at my Power stuff and see if I've minimums I have to observe. Not really, though Willpower should be high. I'll put my Superb there. Where should the Greats go? I feel like I want Soren to be kinda stacked, so I'll put one of the Greats into the Physique Attribute and one into Presence (he's friendly but can be commanding when he needs to). 

I'll put the Goods into Rapport, Athleticism, and Provoke, the Fairs into Alertness, Discernment, Fight, and Investigate, and the Averages into Academics, Aid, Engineering, Stealth, and Contacts. Everything else gets Mediocre. 

As a B Class, I get 12 Campaign Starting Fate Points (I use these to buy up Power stunts, anything I don't spend becomes Refresh). As a Kinetic-type, I can take Projection stunts as well as the few listed under Kinetic, and there are definitely a few I want.

I want Area Attack (I can hit everyone in an area; seems appropriate for a guy who can make earthquakes). Likewise, I want Hard Hitting; when I succeed with style on a Kinetic Attack, I can reduce my shifts by 1 and gain a Situation Aspect with a free Invoke (this would let me do stuff like do less damage with an attack but give the area something like Unstable Foundation or Jagged Rocks or something). I want to give him Great Control and bump Willpower up; that costs 2 points per +1 bump, so let's put Willpower up to +8, how about (that costs me 6 points, so I've spent 8 of my 12). 

And then I think I want Strong Walls; I get a +2 to Create an Advantage or Defend with walls or barriers. That leaves me 3 points left for Refresh, and I wouldn't want to go lower than that.  

Still got that last Aspect to consider. I kind of want something related to a terrakinetic's propensity for causing collateral damage, so I'll say that Soren tries to have a light touch with his powers. Restraint is Key makes for a good Aspect, I think.

Stress and Consequences! I get one- and two-Stress boxes in physical and mental automatically. Since my Physique is Great, I get 3- and 4-Stress in physical, and since my Willpower is Legendary, I get those plus an extra Mild and Moderate Mental Consequence, too. 

Right, that's all the numbersy stuff. What about the rest?

Soren moved to the US to the great city of Wherever This Game is Set. Let's assume it's somewhere prone to earthquakes, actually, and that a big one hit a few months after he moved there. Soren wasn't able to stop it - he was too afraid of making it worse - but he was able to shift the rubble to help rescue people and prevent further catastrophe. Somewhere along the way people started calling him "Rumble," and he likes it (partially because British slang gives it a different meaning for him). He's not sold on the idea of being a superhero, and he doesn't have a uniform yet - they're expensive! - he just wears his Camp Acorn training jumpsuit with the logos painted over. He also hasn't really bothered with concealing his identity, because he figures the powers-that-be know all about him anyway. 

Rumble is definitely the sort of superhero who wouldn't go out of his way to get into hero-ing, but would get swept up and before you know it his programing kicks in and he's toppling buildings or something. He's also the kind of hero who would really strive to keep himself under control, so when the point in the movie that he gets to let loose arrives there would be a real "oh, shit" kind of moment, and I dig that. Secret Invasion sucked, but I can see Kingsley Ben-Adair playing Rumble.