Day 16:

 

Morning: Healing Work

It was depressing how the parade of the injured and crippled never seemed to end. I’d been in Shington for years, I’d made myself available as often as I could during that time.

It scarcely seemed to make a difference. They came just as they always had, cradling splintered limbs and nursing the endless aches and pains to which the flesh is heir.

I saw them one by one, pulled their injuries and illnesses out of actuality and into whatever place my gift dropped it. They left healed, eyes downcast and mouths filled with thanks they could not utter.

At least there were few suffering from serious illnesses nowadays. Few plagues could finish their victims in the window between my availabilities. In their place were more of the beaten and broken.

Every time I was tempted to doubt KEM’s credo, I had only to remember my healing sessions. These were not, by and large, the victims of the Ultra’s sadism. Not the survivors of Ultra tortures or explicit beatings.

Those rarely survived long enough to seek healing.

These, instead, were the incidentals. The slave casually thrashed, the Garden girls, the boy who was just a bit too slow in coming back from an errand. The Ultras forgot about them the second they hit the ground.

I told myself that I would never forget about them, but they came in an unstoppable tide, and as far as memories went, I was only human.

Still, I did my best.

 

Afternoon: Invite Erupter to Posse

“It would be my honor,” she said, and that was that.

I spent more time hiking out to meet her, figuring out where on her patrol she’d be, than I did in persuading her. She was, sincerely, thrilled and honored to throw her life away for the chance to entertain Her.

I’d endured the company of Subtracter, my smile didn’t slip now.

“And who are the others in the Posse?” she asked. “Will they be joining me on my morning patrols?”

I smiled at the thought of Replayer’s likely response to that.

“You are doing a great job,” I told her, “I don’t think you need any more help. Nobody’s got past you so far, right?”

She beamed at me and nodded vigorously.

“Caught a few last night,” she said. “They told me where some more were. You want to come along for the fun part?”

I demurred.

“Warlord responsibilities, you know how it is.” I said, despite being fairly confident that she did not, in fact, know how it was.

“I understand,” she said. “I’ll make myself available for Her service every afternoon until our blessed mission.”

I undertook a wan smile.

“See that you do,” I told her, laying it on a little thick, “Force may rule the world, but we are the means by which this ancient truth is made manifest. We are Her Force.”

She smiled broadly, eyes shining with zealous patriotism.

“As the Warlord commands!” she barked.

I could get used to that, I thought.

 

Evening: Debrief Owner/Replayer

“Limiter is nothing,” sneered Replayer, at our usual evening meet up.

“Oh yeah?” I asked.

“I got with some of the Dolls,” she said, referencing the Ultra Gang, “And they thought she was pretty much a bitch, just a rainmaker, you know?”

“A rainmaker?” I asked.

I’d heard the concept before, but it seemed a bit too sophisticated for Replayer’s vocabulary.

“An Ultra who says they control the weather, right? But they don’t. So every day they come up with a reason why the weather is what it is.”

“Oh,” I said, “So like a fake.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Limiter seems to be really shady about what her gift can do, to the point that they joke that she doesn’t really have it, because it always seems to not apply.”

“Did you get those excuses?” I asked, dreading the negative answer. If she hadn’t, then I wasn’t sure exactly what I’d gained from her day. She was supposed to get more details about Limiter’s gift, not pass along someone else’s opinions about it.

“Yeah,” she said. “So, ok, the way it works is that she can pick a group of people, which can be however big or vague. Like, ‘all redheads’, or ‘everyone in that building’, or whatever, right?”

“Sure,” I said.

“Then she picks a thing that she doesn’t want them to do. Like, ‘punch anyone’, or ‘stand on one foot’, you see?”

“Sure,” I repeated.

“Then when they try to do that, they find that they can’t, they just stand there.”

That…woah. That sounded unbelievably strong.

“So what’s the catch?” I asked.

“It doesn’t work on any Ultra Toughness at all,” she said, “So no one important. And also her gift builds up strength, so to get a strong effect she has to go without using it for a while.”

“A ‘strong effect’?” I asked.

“Every time someone who is affected gets stopped from doing something, it eats up a bit of the effect, until it breaks.”

Owner gave a short whistle.

“So it is better the fewer targets there are, and the longer she waits to do anything, and also it doesn’t work on tough Ultras,” I listed.

“So she says,” said Replayer, “Lot of excuses for why she can’t stun the right people at the right time, you ask me.”

I could see why this was on the Union’s list.

“Alright,” I said, “Thanks for getting that info. I’m getting a better picture of her.”

Replayer made a fart sound, and I inclined my head in seeming assent.

“Owner?” I asked.

“Three new members,” she said.

I massaged my forehead.

“How many times am I going to have to teach these idiots to listen to you?” I groused. “Can they just, like, not learn that?”

“They did!” she exclaimed, hands rising in a mollifying gesture, “Everyone did what I told them. It was fine.”

“If it was fine,” I grated, “We wouldn’t have just three new members.”

“They did their best,” she insisted. “It’s just that people are used to the Warlord and her Posse doing the recruiting. Ultras are not as persuaded by just other Ultras as they are by main important people.”

“I’m with the Warlord,” butted in Replayer. “Want me to teach the Warband a lesson? They just need to try harder.”

I murmured something noncommittal, already planning out tomorrow.

 

Day 17

13 days until next battle

 

Ultra rolodex: (#/#/# is Ultra strength/speed/toughness)

Tracker – Running buddy, 1/0/1, Creates tracks, and can move things on them

Shower – Adder’s protégé, 1*/0/1*, gains strength and durability from witnesses

Echoer – Singer I am a fan of, 1/1/1, can duplicate any action that she sees

Bubbler – Operates Ultra clinic 0/0/?, traps things in bubbles that heal and move them

Sucker — Ultra entertainer, ?/?/?, pulls objects/people towards her at incredible rate

Gunner — 0/0/1, she shoots tracking Ultra Blasts at roughly Ultra Strength One

Chiller — 1/0/1, can freeze any object she touches, leaving them brittle and easily broken

Cutter — 1/1/1, she is a brutal front line combatant

Swimmer — 1/0/1, she can ‘swim’ through solid surfaces

Burner — 0/0/1, she can summon Ultra fire from anywhere that she can see

Maxxer — 0/0/0, she can augment the gifts of other Ultras, pushing their gifts

Puncher — 1/0/1, her strength and speed both go up when she repeats her movements

Maker- Friend, and protégé of Snitcher, 0/0/1, can summon the spirit of things

Clawer – Ultra fighter 2/0/1, melee combatant, deadly hooks for hands

Stopper – partner of Clawer, 0/0/0, steals form’s velocity by looking at them

Sticker – Did dentistry for her brother, 0/0/2, Creates slime, can choose its stickiness

Grower – 0/*0/1, an outside Ultra I sponsored into the Lair, has a bullet blend from me, can rapidly increase the size and mass of objects

Joker — 0/2/0, a woman who can change what other people/herself look like

Stormer – 0/0/*, a woman who controls weather, does so for Regime big shots

Stomper – 2/0/1, can blast herself along with explosive stomps, problems with authority

Sworder – 1/0/1, Replayer’s flunky

Singer – 0/0/0, Buffs listeners with 1 in Ultra strength/tough/speed

 

Union List

Vower – 0/0/?, a woman who can enforce oathkeeping

Caller – 0/0/0, a woman who can grant and use telepathic communication

Nailer – ?/?/?, a woman who can merge objects and people into composites

Hater – X/0/X, a woman whose effectiveness depends on how much her enemy is hated, and by how many people

Resister – */0/1* Grows steadily more effective vs. each opponent

Finisher – 0/0/0 Can rapidly kill wounded foes in her line of sight

Limiter – ?/?/? Makes ‘rules’, or ‘shields’, that restrict her enemies, unlimited range, limited by being ‘used up’ by target’s attempts to take the banned action

Murderer – 0/0/1, Death Touch

 

Assets: (physical)

1 truck

1 sedan

Owner’s Shington Store

Packer House

Fog Machines

Lasers (diverse)

 

Posse: (4 slots, 3 filled)

Owner (trusted friend, housemate, gift hard to describe) 0/0/1

Replayer — 1/2/0, she can ‘step back in time’ to undo damage that she takes

Erupter – 0/0/2, a woman who retaliates against attacks on herself

 

Warband:

16 Veteran Ultras, 16 Rookie (that is, haven’t worked with me before) Ultras

Hexxer, Peeler, Guager, Soarer are notably less evil than the rest.

Driver, Defender and Infecter possess interesting capabilities.

 

Blender AP: 9/10 (4 – 1 +6 -3 +2 +1)

Actions cost 3, return 2 on success 0 on failure unless otherwise specified, Blender gains 1 AP every morning

 

Available Actions:

 

Union Kill List tree, if you feel any indication to play along with their proposal (note that KEM/Resistance missions tie in well with these matters)

Get basic info on 4 Ultras (indicate names, this is a gossip based approach unless you specify otherwise)

Get detailed info on 1 Ultra (indicate name, this is a ‘track them down and speak with them’ based approach unless you specify otherwise)

Kill an Ultra from the list (indicate target name and your basic method, may cause rebellion or discontent in any Posse or Warband assets you use, may not, use your best judgement and be clever)

Send Union a Message (indicate text of message, this is actually a Resistance action, but I’ve placed it here for ease of use)

 

Posse Recruitment tree

Meet more Ultras (describe method, adds d6 to contacts)

Get to know specific Ultra better (describe method transitions Ultra to potential Posse member)

Invite Ultra to Posse (must have got to know target first, if accepted, Ultra joins Posse)

 

Warband tree

Get more Ultras (describe method, adds Ultras to warband of quality/quantity dependent on method)

Train warband (describe method, makes QM kinder to Blender in combat sections re: her troops actions and numbers)

Task warband (describe, needs Posse member or Blender to lead them, sets warband to a task)

 

VIP tree (Used for Regime Luminaries)

Visit VIP (explain, explain Blender’s motives and methods) (only returns 1 AP on success)

 

Contacts tree: (Blender currently believes morning is safer from Snitcher)

Get info from contacts (specify KEM or Resistance, method if different from usual dead drop)

Request mission from contacts (ask KEM or Resistance for action) (This can go in either direction, asking them to do something from you, or asking if they need you to do anything for them.)

 

Relax tree: (Actions which, on balance, regain AP)

Lay still: Cost 0, auto succeed, returns 2

Relaxation activities, Cost 0, returns 3 on success, 1 on failure

Healing work, Cost 1, returns 6 on success, Snitcher hazard

Blisser session, auto succeed, returns 4 per timeslot, cannot be ended until Blender is back at 10

 

Miscellaneous action: (Anything not covered above, scavenging, info gathering in person, etc, describe what Blender is going for)

 

Player Input:

Blender Morning Action

Blender Afternoon Action

Owner will take either a morning or afternoon action at Blender’s direction.

Replayer will take either a morning or afternoon action at Blender’s direction.

Erupter will take either an afternoon action at Blender’s direction.