Issue 02
Stealing Shade
Intro
We open at a normal day at the HAUS in the lunchroom. Our crew, bar Kara are all sitting at a table together finishing lunch.
Coach Bombay, the Ice Hockey Coach approaches, on the way Regula (super)overhears her talking to Phillipa about inviting 'her' back on the team due to one of the other girls being injured, and asks to speak to Jen.
Jen grabs her food and goes for a walk with the Coach. She explains that there are some big games coming up and she was hoping that Jen could reign herself in and help the team to victory. Jen accepts the offer, and the continue to discuss returning to practice.
Dr Donnelly grabs LLoyd and gives him a disappointed telling off for his recent skipping of class. He tells him if he can stay on his best behaviour he can come play with the new Tesla Coil that the department is testing.
The school bell rings in a particular alert the group are familiar with - everyone starts to head towards the shelters for some sort of nearby super incident. The group decides to skip out and see what's going on, narrowly avoiding attention from teachers as they go to the back of the bike shed. On their phones they see an alert from Halycon City News anchor Chet Mannington that powered villains have taken hostages at the First Halcyon Bank. In the footage that plays of the villains entering the bank Danny recognises the face of Shade, Gareth her nemesis.
Jen is initially hesitant of heading to the scene due to the potential risk to hostages, but Regula convinces her that this is something they can handle. The team changes into costume, Pandora is by far the most flamboyant, and Danny transforms into a tall blonde woman.
The Robbery
The team sneaks onto the roof of the bank with a combination of illusions, teleportation and cosmic magic to disable the news cameras. Chet is shocked by his earpiece and lets out a scream.
Claymore does some scouting on the rooftops and the team find The Troll and Carlo The Assassin keeping the hostages at bay. The Troll is seemingly livestreaming his crime on Instagram.
Pandora enters dramatically through the roof, making a super hero landing to intimidate the Troll. Flare tries to distract Carlo with an illusion of the handsome superhero Aphrodite, but he drops a smoke grenade and disappears into cover. Claymore crashes through the skylight and tackles the Troll, taking his phone. Taking advantage of the distraction, Nihil reaches out with her gravitic powers and slowly starts to send the hostages out through the skylight one by one.
As the team has entered the bank they notice that The Solution has seemingly disappeared from the roof without explanation. As Carlo advances on the vulnerable Nihil, Pandora steps into protect her. She moves in on Carlo and wrenches his bow from his grasp, but he flips away and wounds her with a toe stiletto. Claymore continues pounding on The Troll and sends him reeling. Nihil reaches out to comfort Pandora.
Flare heads down to the vault, hoping to encounter Shade, Nihil lights the way for her. She spots Shade with a safety deposit box, arguing with the seeming leader of the crew Satin. Shade puts up his nasty trick of a maze of mirrors to catch Flare in. Flare recognises the trick, and provokes Shade by using his real name, his illusion drops and she strikes, but she errs on the way in and Shade grabs her attempting to drain her. Flare fights back and starts to drain him back. Shade pushes back and overpowers her, and gives her a dismissive kiss on the forehead. Danny realises he's too powerful and sprints away shrouding herself in illusions.
Meanwhile back in the bank floor Carlo takes another shot at a clearly angry Pandora with a pistol crossbow, she hurls a massive wooden desk at him, which shatters, catching him a glancing blow and sends him reeling. With a flashbang explosion Carlo leaves the scene with some clearly broken ribs and a jab about having the original Pandora's poster on his wall.
With her foot on a crying The Troll's chest Claymore signs off on the instagram feed with 'Don't forget to like and subscribe!' and Pandora blasts the phone.
Aftermath
Danny is gone. Lloyd disappeared. Claymore tries to interrogate the Troll, but doesn't get anything useful from him - he's seemingly a gig minion.
Shade and Satin have also disappeared from the vault in mysterious circumstances taking the deposit box. Nihil notes down the number of the box.
In the aftermath Agent Nightingale of AEGIS is outside, and has some forms for the team to fill in, but the team, led by an angry Regula skip out.
