HF RPG 2.0
hf 2.0
IC: Saracen Rune - Hero Pod.
In the midst of FTL flight, with stars and planets and solar systems flickering past him as momentary motes of light, the hero known as Saracen Rune pondered for the first time just how small and insignificant he was in the grand scheme of things. All of the effort he put into fighting and defeating and capturing villains, and nothing ever seemed to change. Win or lose, he got no recognition for his efforts, and there was always some new evil ready to step in and fill the void.
He realised now, that even if everything he'd once known and loved came to an end this very minute, it wouldn't have the slightest impact on the infinite expanse of the universe as a whole.
There would still be good, and there would still be evil, and there would still be those trapped in between.
Life would go on, with or without him.
IC: Alex Drift and Gabriel Bliss - Makuhero City
As Drift and Bliss made their way slowly but steadily back to the Factory, they began to notice the unusual amount of smoke rising from their home. They glanced at one another and broke into a run, eventually clearing the streets and coming into view of the lake with the mighty Hero Factory at its center. Most of one of the walls was completely demolished and a small ship had plowed a huge hole in part of the outlying complex. "Man... we sure missed a lot..."
"On the bright side," said Bliss, pointing to a gaping hole in the ground floor, "We'll be able to get your ship out now!"
IC: Cobra Shard - Hero Factory
Still holding the hardlight sword he'd gotten from the wounded Omega Hero, Shard decided it was time to try his hand at piloting. He'd just zip up into the sky and make scrap out of that evil ship. But where to find a worthy vehicle...
Aha! He'd seen a rather nice looking combat speeder down in the basement when he'd rescued that pilot! Shard took off towards the lower levels of the Factory.
IC: Marrow - Freefall
Marrow was actually quite enjoying how ridiculously long it was taking to hit the ground.
OOC: Am I waiting on an Adam West response before they land or is he basically just dead by this point?
IC: Jason Ferro- Magic Crystal Room
"Yeah! You know, whenever we get the chance, we really should come back here and explore that weird underground city. There was something... off... about that place."
As he and Flood reached the bottom of the shaft, Ferro set down the turbine before starting to climb the ladder back up to the surface.
OOC: Just a quick addition to my earlier OOC.In the first post of the game, it is written:Missions:
Periodically, I will be bringing you, the players, assignments from Mission Control. If you are a Hero, you may choose to join the Mission, and if you complete the mission you will receive a reward. If you are a villain, you may feel free to oppose the mission in any way that you see fit, and if you successfully oppose the mission you will receive a reward. Unlike in the typical Hero Factory storyline, villains do have a chance of achieving your objectives.
This seems to quite heavily imply that both hero and villains PCs are supposed to have equal opportunity to accomplish their goals. In two out of the three missions we've had thus far in the game, one of those villainous goals has been to destroy hero factory - and that's an ambition many PC villains seem to possess regardless of it being a mission objective or not.
But according to this new announcement, the game will end if hero factory is destroyed. That makes it exceedingly difficult for any of us to play committed, compelling villains if it means the game is over and ruined for everyone if the bad guys win even once.
The way I see it, there's plenty of ways the game could feasibly continue even if the factory went kaboom, and if you're really set on the game ending in the event of the factory's destruction, I feel like that's information we should've been given long before now.
OOC: Alright, I will have to retract my stupid OOC. It is plainly obvious that I have goofed up here.
OOC: Alright, I will have to retract my stupid OOC. It is plainly obvious that I have goofed up here.
OOC: Gosh darn it Fishers those were the most tense 30 hours of this RPG. I had a last ditch plan and everything. >:v
But thank you for taking it off. We were all just worried about the RPG ending! I think we were handling it well, though, so there wouldn't have been much chance of that anyway.
OOC: The collective sighs of relief from the playerbase were so loud I could hear them from the bottom of the world.
OOC: Nvm
OOC: *Passes out*
OOC: Looks like I missed a bunch of stuff while I took care of some IRL things
Nato, would it be fine if the Kestrel picked up Rune's Hero Pod?
OOC: What colour is Gorn's blade, PyroLizard? I'm just a bit curious.
OOC: Red, purely for color scheme reasons.
OOC: Captor's post is made in case the ship's shields are on. Only consider it happening if the shields on Traferous' ship are active. If not, this post should be considered nulled.
IC: Captor
Location: Traferous' ship
The moment Captor saw the cannons on the factory firing again, he knew what to do. He leapt at the controls of the shield disruptors and activated them, disabling the ship's shields to allow the full force of the cannons to hit the ship.
OOC: I wonder if Fishers is simply tired of hosting the RPG, and wants to end the game as quickly as possible.
OOC: There's plenty of easier, better ways for her to do that than giving us 24 hours to accomplish an impossible objective, then not give us any GM posts at all during those 24 hours.
IC: Captor
Location: Traferous' ship
The moment Captor saw the cannons on the factory firing again, he knew what to do. He leapt at the controls of the shield disruptors and activated them, disabling the ship's shields to allow the full force of the cannons to hit the ship.
IC: Mr Vyle - Traferous' Ship.
Spotting the dog creature's movements, he whirled towards it, drawing his sidearm. His first shot was aimed at the shield disruptor's control panel, intended to disable the weapon and bring the shields back online, while the second was aimed at the treacherous mechanical creature itself.
OOC: Both of these posts are nulled, as the shield on Traferous ship is down at this point in time.
IC: The Scalpel - Behind the Kestral
Silke was still following the rogue hero's ship at a safe distance.
OOC: I don't really see a way for my characters to join the battle right now without metagaming. Shade is waiting for repairs and his ship is out following orders. It wouldn't make sense for the two of them to suddenly have a change of heart/plan and go do something else.
OOC: First of all, it's K-e-s-t-r-e-l
that goes to you too fishers, that's an "e" at the end
SECOND though, how exactly are you following the Kestrel in the first place? It's made two different jumps at faster than light speeds, and while I could kinda buy tracking the Kestrel in its first jump (since it didn't jump very far away), the second has taken it much farther out into space, and predicting where exactly it'd end up should be next to impossible.
OOC: I'm, uh, just gonna keep on chooglin' with Quark Qrew I guess?
IC: Quark Qrew - Quark Qruiser
Quark took a cycle of air. With the image of a destroyed Hero Factory still at the forefront of her and no doubt everyone else's minds, she wasn't quite in the mood for telling a story, but no doubt getting their mind off the task at hand would be the best course of action.
"I was going to share a tale from off-planet, but I feel I know one that is much more entertaining. This was in the Hero Factory, many, many years ago. Shortly after Wolfe had been broken up with by his girlfriend of the time, one of the robots working in the Hero Factory Hotline call centre."
IC Wolfe - Quark Qruiser:
The veteran's core skipped a pulse when he realized what incident Quark was talking about. He could see it now: the evening he had tried to call back the lovely Diane Sparks...
He sunk deeper into his seat and wished he were on the other side of the galaxy, knowing full well that he couldn't say a peep in protest. No, he deserved this little trip down Regret Lane.
OOC: That means that Gorn's pretty darn compatible with Sith philosophies... I wonder if Gorn and Var could be allies?
IC: The Scalpel - Behind the Kestral
Silke was still following the rogue hero's ship at a safe distance.
OOC: I don't really see a way for my characters to join the battle right now without metagaming. Shade is waiting for repairs and his ship is out following orders. It wouldn't make sense for the two of them to suddenly have a change of heart/plan and go do something else.
OOC: First of all, it's K-e-s-t-r-e-l
that goes to you too fishers, that's an "e" at the end
SECOND though, how exactly are you following the Kestrel in the first place? It's made two different jumps at faster than light speeds, and while I could kinda buy tracking the Kestrel in its first jump (since it didn't jump very far away), the second has taken it much farther out into space, and predicting where exactly it'd end up should be next to impossible.
OOC: I'm terribly sorry about that.
IC: The Scalpel: Trail Lost
After the Kestrel made its very unpredictable jump to light speed, Silke began heading back towards home.
IC: Isaac Rider - OMG
Rider fell to the ground from his seat due to the impact. The roof of the medbay had been completely blown off...
IC: Agent Epsilon - ???
Epsilon's smile widened as the factory was almost destroyed.
"Our time is coming friend. Once he leaves, we'll grab him."
IC: Dane Hellsend - Medbay
As Dane made his way to the medbay, he had a bad feeling. That bad feeling was replaced by panic as he felt a shudder, and Hero Factory began to collapse, prompting him to run for the medbay, making it just in time to survive the entire blast. He fell to the ground, and began to pant.
OOC: Nato, would it be fine if the Kestrel picked up Rune's Hero Pod?
OOC: I'm not entirely sure that I understand - is it even possible to pick up something that's traveling faster than light?
GM NPC BLACK PHANTOM
"There should be a building in the near the center of the city..." Black Phantom said, looking out the window. He then paused. "Except there isn't. Someone blew up that building. Interesting. I think we should just land near there, and I'll go get your money. It shouldn't take very long."
IC: Silvia Raine - Wolf Pup.
"Very well," she agreed, bringing the ship down onto a rooftop landing pad near the destroyed building
GM IC DR. LIE
"Don't go in there," he said to Crowley, referring to the hangar bay where the dropships were stored. "Traferous, we have to turn the ship around or we risk losing the entire hangar."
IC: Crowley - Traferous' Ship.
He paused, uncertain how to proceed... and then the ship itself broke apart and began to plummet. He pressed himself up against the nearest solid surface, digging in his claws for stability... and clung on for dear life...
OOC: More ICs later, once I figure out how to process all of this.
OOC: Oh, don't worry about my plan. It kinda relied on there being one big bomb.
For those interested: the plan was that, with his big goofy head out the window and looking up, Gyro would see the bomb falling. He would scramble out the window and call to Scarlet, and the two of them would fly up and try and catch the bomb. Since it's presumably big enough to utterly destroy Hero Factory, they'd find they could slow the descent, but not completely stop it. Or, they could stop it but no one particularly wanted it near the ground. Or they could carefully land, it all depended on the type of bomb.
Render's experienced with bomb defusing, so he'd take it from there. If they couldn't touch down with it, Plume could take Render up and they'd do the coolest midair bomb defusing ever. Since there's no bomb worries anymore, there's no call for this plan. Yet.
But, I did make a promise to some people, that I'd do one of two things depending on what happened with the bomb. If it blew up Hero Factory, I'd make a long dramatic post with my returning and surviving Heroes being miserable and angry and grief-stricken. Very sad. Not a metaphorical dry eye at the wreckage.
If everything was relatively fine and happy, then I'd have a certain interaction take place. But what with the recent development, it doesn't sound like this would be the time for it, but I've got an idea for a workaround. I said I'd do it, after all.
~
IC: Ken Render - Elevator
Hustled into the elevator, he felt his tanks shift as they dropped into the depths of Hero Factory.
~
IC: Timothy Gyro - Med Bay
"JEEZ!" He pushed himself back inside and instinctively grabbed the two rookies beside him, hunching over and extending his blades as an attempt at providing cover. Zib's warning blared, but they were too far away to get to the basement in time, Gyro knew, and then they felt the impact.
The impact was loud and hard, but the room remained largely intact. He glanced around and released the rookies. "Uh, sorry. But I think we gotta move."
He glanced to Rider. "Can we move Nimius?"
~
OOC: Will do a Quark post in a sec.
IC: Isaac Rider - We need to get out of here
"Yeah, he's pretty much good to go." Rider got up, brushing himself off. Claws floated nervously next to him. "Do you think you could carry him?" Isaac asked.
OOC: 
IC Helen - Hero Factory:
After a moment's hesitation, Helen pelted for the elevator that her colleagues were clambering into and jumped on just in time. But once she was aboard, the shock kicked in, and all she could do was stand there in stunned silence as she tried to process what had just happened.
IC Jet - Hero Factory:
Having made the unfortunate decision to head back downstairs, Jet was thrown to the edge of the Call Center area as the building shook with that final blow. He glanced up, panic-stricken, and could only stare in horror as the upper floors came down...
IC: Quark Qrew - Quark Qruiser
"I was with two other Heroes- Stormer and Plume- discussing something or other, I hardly remember. Then, we heard the public announcement system crackle to life above us. We thought it might have been Zib and were ready to leave for Mission Control, but to our immense surprise, it was Daren, sounding very upset."
She glanced to Quiver beside her, who was already smiling. "Now, back then, we were able to make personal calls on the consoles so the ones we have built in would be free in case we were needed. Nowadays, they can just override the call. Anyway, Wolfe appeared to have hit the wrong button, and instead of calling his ex-girlfriend, he was paging the entirety of Hero Factory, seemingly not realising he was not talking to an answering machine."
Quiver was shaking in her seat now, restraining her laughter. Quark said, over Thumper's loud guffaws, "I cannot tell you what the best part was. I consider it a tie between him breaking out some lovely poetry he wrote for her, hearing Zib try and explain the situation as he attempted to pull Daren away from the console so he could make a real announcement, or seeing him later that day."
~
IC: Timothy Gyro - Med Bay
"Yeah, sure." Nimius wasn't burning up anymore, so carrying him was easier. "Anyone else in the Med Bay need carrying?"
OOC BONUS ROUND CONT.
OOC: And giving us 24 hours to stop a bomb that we don't even know about being dropped from a ship with impenetrable shields, a near-perfect cloaking system and a gigantic crew of villains - all without metagaming - seems a nearly impossible task. Heck, even if we were metagaming it'd still be ridiculously difficult.
It's not completely impenetrable. I'm surprised that no one has thought of arming a ship with forcefield disruptors before I did. The cloaking system was supposed to make the ship a way for villains to get around, and to somewhat even the score - otherwise they would keep getting stuck/abandoned on planets.
Then again, the way those two ships attacked was very messy in that regard, so yarr.
FTR, I expected this game to have less villain than hero characters, and the fact that I gave every Hero the ability to have a ship quickly built the potential for the Heroes to be very OP post mission #2. The fact that they haven't used it means I need to retool things just a bit. Either that, or I'm not being clear enough about what options are available to the Heroes.
It kind of feels like you want us to lose...
OOC: I wonder if Fishers is simply tired of hosting the RPG, and wants to end the game as quickly as possible.
Nah. Although ending this RPG would make my life easier, I'm no good at that anyway. This RPG has been on the "I'm going to do this" list since 2011 or something, so it's not like I'm just going to be like "Yeah, whatever" and then decide to have a UNIVERSE WIDE IMPLOSION for no reason and stalk off to play ping-pong.
Anyone who has been following me for the past five or so years knows that I never give up on anything; it is my best and worst attribute. I do believe there is a balance between dragging things out for no reason and unnecessarily cutting things short, and will endevor to make a natural and proper ending when the best time comes, and not before.
IC: Isaac Rider - Preparing to move
"Don't think so..." Rider said. "So what's the plan once we get out?"
OOC: They could in theory, but I think that things like Var's hatred of "droids" and Gorn's distrust of the former would prevent an alliance from happening just yet.
IC: Timothy Gyro - Med Bay
"Like Zib said," Gyro shrugged. "Head down to the basement. Regroup. Hopefully there's a way down, else you can hitch a ride with me or Scarlet."
He glanced to the other two. "Are you guys okay to walk? I can fly with two Heroes, might be a bit slow going though. Nimius is heavy."
OOC:
it's not like I'm just going to be like "Yeah, whatever" and then decide to have a UNIVERSE WIDE IMPLOSION for no reason and stalk off to play ping-pong.
Mission 4 confirmed for ping-pong battle to save the universe from imploding.
IC: Night Stalker
"Now you owe me one." Night Stalker said with a grin that could be taken as either humorous or malicious. He had just started walking to the bridge when the whole ship shuddered and a thunderous rending and groaning noise, accompanied by numerous explosions, came from just behind the airlock. Night Stalker took off for the bridge, but had only taken a few steps when another, larger shudder shook the massive warship. Night Stalker stared, mouth agape, as cracks started running across the ceiling, walls, and floor. It was then that the massive ship split in two. Night Stalker found himself right on the edge. He grabbed on to the ledge and looked down. Hero Factory was a smoking wreck, but he was more concerned with keeping himself from becoming one. Looking down at the lake, he made a decision. He jumped.
The lake was rapidly approaching. Night Stalker angled his body towards the shore opposite Hero Factory, trying to land in water deep enough for him to survive while being as close to shore a possible. Even though his internal circuitry was airtight, a long walk under water would not be good for him. When he judged he was as close as he should be, he pointed his hammer downwards and crouched on top of the head and wrapped his arms around the handle.
SPLASH!
Night Stalker opened his eyes. No warnings were coming up on his HUD, other than the submerged warning, which he turned off. He looked over his hammer, noticing that it was definitely going to need repairs. It was flatter where it hit the water and his footprints were embedded in it. No matter. He had survived. He began walking towards the shore, eager to see Hero Factory fall.
OOC: On another note, I just finished my LDD model of Night Stalker. If you wanna take a look, here's the link.
IC: Isaac Rider - Medbay
"If it comes to that, I've got my own means of transportation." He gestured to Claws.
IC: Crowley - Makuhero City.
Coughing and sputtering, the creature clawed his way to the surface, scaly hide stinging from a number of cuts and burns. Reaching the shore, Crowley hauled himself up out of the water, and scurried away into the shadows of the city.
_________________________________________________________________________
IC: Mr Vyle - Hero Factory.
Steam wafted away from his dripping body as the businessman strode up out of the lake, using a chunk of wreckage as a bridge to walk straight up to the ruins of Hero Factory. His body was blackened and scorched, his mask as impassive as always, with a triumphant smile illuminating his face. In the end, it hadn't taken a united front of villainy to destroy Hero Factory after all - just a disorganised rabble of random attacks that wore the heroes down to the point they could no longer defend themselves.
The victory had clearly costed the villains dearly, but Vyle didn't care. He was standing tall in the ashen ruins of Hero Factory, just as he'd dreamed of doing for decades now.
_________________________________________________________________________
IC: Anamnesis - Makuhero University.
He stared out the window, unsure how to feel. It was strangely harrowing, realising that if he hadn't made his move today, he likely would've been annihilated along with everyone else. Was it merely luck or coincidence, or was fate on his side?
Anamnesis didn't know, and didn't really care. Even with the factory destroyed, there were still other heroes out there for him to try his virus on, once it was complete.
_________________________________________________________________________
IC: Markus Vex - Hero Pod.
"Well... that sucks." He watched as Traferous' ship - and Hero Factory with it - were annihilated. The comms went dead, with the woman he'd been talking to likely dead along with them, "Nice talkin' to you."
_________________________________________________________________________
IC: The Creator & Caretaker - New Dawn.
"It seems my negotiations were for nothing," he lamented, staring down at the aftermath of the unfolding disaster before turning to face his sister, "Any word from Vale or Vicious?"
"Not yet." She replied apologetically, "What will you do now?"
He pondered that for a moment, "For now, wait for them. After that, I've yet to decide."
_________________________________________________________________________
IC: Sir Reginald Buckley - Crash Site.
If crotchety old robot blokes could cry, the broken, battered hero known as Sir Reginald Buckley likely would've collapsed into tears at the sight of Hero Factory - his home for the last eighty-ish years - being destroyed.
As it was, he just sat and stared, unable to believe what he was seeing.
IC: Jason Ferro- Underground tunnel
Reaching the top of the ladder, Ferro pulled himself up onto the surface once again, before anchoring himself to the ground, so as not to be pulled back over the edge by the magnetic field he was about to create. Using said field, the turbine quickly levitated up to Ferro, who set in down next to him to wait for Flood to reach the top. He noticed that communication with the factory seemed to have gone dead, but he shrugged it off, attributing it to his location as opposed to damage to the factory.
IC: Wilhelm Gorn- Ungrounded
Gorn attempted to contact Zib, in order to get an update on the battle he thought was progressing below. Instead, he received nothing. Fearing the worst, he tried to get Jade to contact them instead, to see if it was simply damage to his communication systems.
"Jade, can you contact the factory? My communications seem to have gone dead."
IC: Cobra Shard - Hero Factory
Shard felt the elevator he was riding accelerate as the emergency protocols were activated. "Uh oh,"
Was the Factory really in enough danger that they had to speed up the elevators?! This was more serious than he had thought. Shard punched out when he hit ground floor and took off down the hallway at a run. He had to get to that ship...
IC: Alex Drift and Gabriel Bliss - Outside Hero Factory
"LOOK OUT!" Bliss blasted to the side with his wingpack and slammed into Drift. Hard.
Drift would have yelled loudly if all the wind hadn't been knocked out of his filter. "What the-" The pilot didn't have time to finish as a huge shockwave rolled out from the Hero Factory's upper levels and shrapnel sprayed out in a dangerous fan from the explosion.
A huge blade that had been formed from a piece of the outer armor shell ripped through Bliss's shoulder and buried itself in the concrete beyond.
IC: Marrow - ...
Marrow smashed into the ground and let loose a terrifying screeching sound that vaguely resembled laughter. What fun! The Hero's arms and legs had come off! Looked like this meal was being served in bite-sized pieces!
The monster picked up a leg and ripped the foot off with its teeth.
"Om nom nom nom..."
IC: Shade - Leaving The Roofless Med Bay
Shade slowly got up, stretched, and then proceeded to cut a hero-sized hole into the side of the med Bay. This done, he grabbed four hero-mattresses off the nearest beds, positioned them into a stack that he could put his side to as he clung to them, leaned out the "window," and fell.
OOC: This building's probably going to fall from the top straight to the bottom collapsing on itself like a flattened sandwich, and everyone is hiding in the basement where the entire structure is most likely to come to rest. This makes sense.
Edit: Assuming that the building has to collapse at all of course.
IC Jade:
"Look for yourself......" she said, deadpan, gesturing out the viewports.
IC Kat:
"I.....I'm good to go..... Wh-what happened to the factory....."
IC Striker:
He paused suddenly.
"You ever feel like you missed something really important?"
OOC: This building's probably going to fall from the top straight to the bottom collapsing on itself like a flattened sandwich, and everyone is hiding in the basement where the entire structure is most likely to come to rest. This makes sense.
OOC: It's not collapsing, it's exploding from the top down. A more apt comparison would be a bombing raid like the ones in London during WWII where residents hid in subway tunnels and basements.
OOC: Ah, thanks for the clarification. Then again, the town residents in London didn't exactly have trillions of tons (I have no idea how much HF HQ weighs) of infrastructure crashing down on top of their hideaways. 
I'm out of my field of expertise here and will say no more on the subject.
OOC: Before we head out of the medbay: can people head down to the basement without flying? Or are the floors all busted and junk?
IC: Timothy Gyro - Med Bay
Gyro watched the Hero with increasing confusion and alarm as he cut a hole in the wall and calmly jumped out with a bunch of mattresses. He looked out with a frown. "Jeez, if he wanted down, he should've just asked."
Gyro was trying to mentally figure out if the guy would need help- falling from this height with a bunch of mattresses as his only protection from gravity didn't seem altogether safe or healthy- when he was momentarily distracted by Scarlet and her tone.
"Don't worry, Kat," he said with a grin. "It's just a building. We're fine, that's what matters."
OOC: I... don't think mattresses are going to be much help. But hey, maybe he just found their company to be that intolerable. Had to take some risks.
~
IC: Wilbur Flood - With Ferro
He climbed up after Ferro. "This is going so well! I'm sure Zib will be very happy with us when we get back."
~
IC: Orukam Amayika - Mechano's
"Occasionally," he said. "More than you would think."
OOC: I... don't think mattresses are going to be much help. But hey, maybe he just found their company to be that intolerable. Had to take some risks.
OOC: The way I understand it, each bed has to support a giant robot that weighs up to 500lbs (maybe more). Just like a human bed, the frame and the mattress have to be sturdy enough to support a robot while it sleeps, tossing and turning included. While the frame is much of the strength of the bed system, four mattresses formerly of a structure capable of the things previously mentioned could possibly be enough to stop Shade from dying or fatally maiming himself from the large impact.
I found this, it doesn't take the mattresses into account, but I think Shade can make it.
IC Wolfe - Quark Qruiser:
Wolfe performed the slowest, most defeated facepalm in all of history.
IC Flint - Lois, Outside Hero Factory Ruins:
All Flint could do was watch helplessly as his home was ripped apart from the top downward as easily as a house of cards. He could see figures here and there along the edge of the carnage, but the number was frightfully small. The Hero waited until the blast had subsided before angling his ship closer to the smoldering building, then flipped the ship's comm system on. As expected, the main HF grid was gone, so Flint instead tried every private channel he could, shouting, "This is Henry Flint calling any and all survivors: do you read?!"
With any luck, he would be able to locate and assist anyone who was having difficulty escaping the wreckage.