2015.03.23 - The Mad Lab of Hyde

After the incident in the church Stormwatch was supposed to do a focused effort to hunt down and eradicate Intergang and capture the mysterious Mr. Desad, a crime lord that obviously has super-human powers of some kind. Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. Usual anti-gangster tactics do not work with Intergang. In fact, nothing seems to work with Intergang. Some MGH distributors have been caught, but they picked up the drugs from messengers, every time in a different place and different person, after receiving messages by social media that are coded in ways only the receiver understands them. Even Void’s hacking is useless when the messages seem designed to trigger post-hypnotic commands.

But old fashioned detective work slowly yielded results. Trailing for endless hours one of the pushers, until they get a messenger with the drug, then the messenger until they get to the pickup place, tracing and tracking vehicles used, asking witnesses and paying bribes. And finally some patterns became apparent.

So the members of Stormwatch have a few places to check out. And they have been doing that in the past few days. They split in pairs and go poke around New York condemn buildings, ruined factories and, in this case, long abandoned subway tunnels. Croyd and Lunair were told to checkout some maintenance subway tunnels, and definitely they have been used recently. Also, the maps they have are all wrong, but Void warned them they probably would. Apparently there was some secret military project under Manhattan after WWII and a lot of underground construction is uncharted.

Croyd was tiny. Because he could be tiny. It was neat. In fact, if Lunair would let him, he would make her Tiny too. He got such a neat suite of powers this time around, it was almost like the universe was rewarding him for being heroic and stuff, as compared to setting him up to be a horrific disease carrying freak (shhhhh...forshadowing!). He looked at the train and counted the trains as they went by. "So....it's...a train. And...there are...swingy flicker light bulbs. And darkness. Can I have another Bazooka?"

Lunair is glad to help as she can. She will don her armor, wearing winter clothing over it and looking like the world's most dangerous seal cub ever. Lunair will let Croyd turn them tiny. Although, it honestly feels kinda weird. "Totally." She'll give him a bazooka. And huh. All these tunnels. "I suspect our maps are a lot of wrong. I brought us a couple of lanterns and flashlights, but once those are gone, we'll have to use gun mounted lights. I guess they ran trains through here... hmmm..." Peer left, peer right. "We should probably go deeper?" That's what she said.

Being tiny is pretty cool, although one has to dodge rats that are T-rex sized and cockroaches that look larger than horses. Also, tiny legs make moving a few yards feel like a mile, so it is not very practical, unless they manage to tame a flying ant. But Ant-Man is not around to give them lessons about it.

Now, this looks like a subway station where no subway station should be, and there are noises ahead, and light too. In fact, there seems to be some thugs with shotguns right around the corner. Looks like they found something. The bad news is they are maybe thirty yards underground. At least that is what the Halophones GPS says. Pretty much under sewer levels.

Croyd readies his Bazooka. "Alright, let's go take on some bad guys that might not even be there!" He's all set to shrink the bad guys. He should have like set up a ...lifts off into the air and then embiggens Lunair so she can catch up. "I can shrink you when we get close. Say...can you make those sentry guns from Alien 2? We could totally set up here.....in case they run away...I mean...with like...non lethal ammo, because we're totally non lethal and everything." Not really.

Lunair watches him ready his bazooka. "Sure thing," Lunair replies. She follows along easily enough. "I think so. And er. Non-lethal, huh." Rubber bullets shouldn't be hard, but sentry guns are doable. Still, she has to stifle a soft laugh at that. Lunair keeps her light enough that she can see, unless told otherwise.

The guard thugs seem extremely bored, but surprisingly, they are not smoking and talking about baseball or women. One could say they are moderately watchful. See, they are proud graduates of Taskmaster school for minions. So perhaps a notch over pound scum level in the karma wheel. At least half a notch.

"Uh, did you hear somethin'?" Mutters one of them, peering in the general direction of the unlikely pair of heroes with bazookas. "Pass me the flashlight, willya... didn't sound like a rat." Now he is lifting the shotgun.

Croyd runs right up to the guy with the flash light and grows giant (well...normal) for a second and attempts to punch him in the face. If he succeeds, even a little bit, the guy is shrunk for 24 hours. Let's see how HE likes giant rats and roaches.

Call 1-800-GET-TASK today! Nevertheless, red shirts or not, they do pose the problem of being between them and a target. While Croyd is going to dispense of minion #1, Lunair is left with Guy With Shotgun. And while she has no problem wasting the guy, she figures she'll respect Nate's wish to generally be non-lethal. It's time for the pixie dust gun. It's gold, sparkly dust. A cloud of it. How embarrassing... but it should work, unless he's got a gas mask on.

The thugs were more or less prepared, but not for a surprise size change. Thug one, becomes ant-sized, and although he bravely shots Croyd repeatedly in the shin, the micro-shotgun does nothing useful. He really should save the ammo for the cockroaches.

Thug two eyes go wide as Croyd seemingly disintegrates his partner with a touch. “OH SHIiiii...nnny...” the ‘pixie dust’ makes him recoil, then black out in two seconds. Thunk. Unfortunately, there were not just two of them, a bit further the lightened hallway, a third thug shows up and yells. “Intrudeeeeers,” then fires his shotgun, aiming in Lunair’s general direction. Another man further inside is also yelling ‘alarm’ and ‘help’.

Croyd runs towards the third guy and will punch shrink him if he can. Point in fact, Croyd is enjoying this power way too much and wants to make the whole circus horror show for Rats. He is running forward when eh should be Plasma Bolting.

Okay, she is so tempted to use something explosive, but that's just gonna bring the whole place down. Lunair grunts, bolting forward and trying to zig zag out of the way of shotgun shot. Her armor, fortunately, protects her from the grazing wound.

Thinking quickly, she pulls a plasma rifle out of nowhere and fires back at shotgun man, trying to follow up with a snapshot at the next target. "Hey, we have to stop them before they call the whole base in-"

The thug recoils from Croyd, since it looked as if thug one was disintegrated when Croyd touched him. He dives out of the way and behind an old desk for cover, then rises to shot Croyd on the face... just in time to take Luna’s plasma shot on his chest. The thug goes down with a pained gurgle, very much dead.

The way is clear, momentarily, but there is a lot of noise and yells coming from the hallway, just a few yards ahead there is a large chamber, some kind of underground nightmarish factory. Harsh lights hanging from a ceiling about fifteen feet tall reveal a chemical lab mixed with medieval dungeon. A dozen obviously deformed men and women hang from wires and restrains from the walls as blood and green, luminescent substances are injected on them and then extracted. Two dozen tired-looking workers, also spotting deformities of strange kinds, look around, scared, for some place to hide among the rusty cylinders of chemical nonsense. But half a dozen armed thugs are taking positions to shoot at the heroes.

Croyd sky walks an inch above the floor and punches the desk in frustration, shrinking it. He rushes at two of them hiding behind a lab bench and punches the lab bench, shrinking it, trying to go for the guards. "You bastards! These are people....you've been transforming them horribly and painfully against their will..." oh the irony of that statement....given what Croyd is going to be doing....

To be fair, Lunair can't blame them for their theory. Although, it does make this a bit of a pain. She wants to just blow it all up, but there's a lot of useful evidence and - who knows how guilty the workers are? Were they enslaved? Addicts? Who knows? There's a bit of sympathy and sadness for the poor saps being hung and restrained. "Ugh." What a load of awful in general. Nevertheless, she is going to have to take some sort of cover. Maybe the old desk and dead man. She reserves her words, deciding to instead take pot shots at the guards in turn with the plasma rifle.

Getting closer to the guards, which are hiding among chemical vats, weird equipment and computers, is going to get Croyd shot repeatedly. Although when Lunair opens fire with a plasma rifle, she draws considerable attention from the thuggery. Most of the cover the thugs can get is cut through by the plasma shots as if it was soft cheese. So the carnage is considerable, but also the response fire the young woman is receiving.

Croyd gets shot a lot. You know...for all his adaptation, Croyd is STILL not bullet proof? You'd think he'd learn that, but he is sent six ways to sunday when he could be doing as much damage as Lunair. But since he keeps regenerating after each time, his own sense of mortality is...frayed. He does manage to shrink a lot of the equipment though, tiny and doll like. "OW!"

Lunair frowns. She's getting attention, but at least Croyd can advance a little, right? "Are you alright? Find cover!" She offers to Croyd. Lunair will at least try to remind him that he could and should find cover. She will have to move to new cover, scampering as she's knocked away by enemy fire for a moment. She's going to be more bruised than a grape at a wine stomp. Ugh. Nevertheless, she's going to do her best to advance, take cover, shoot.

Thugs die to plasma, but more come from deeper underground to replace them, so Lunair is not progressing as much as she should. Meanwhile Croyd has shrunk some equipment, which is not of great use and does not help him finding cover. Several shots hit very close and one of them hits a large container of greenish liquid that burst all over him. It smells funny. It is also MGH in liquid form mixed with some very nasty chemicals of alien origin.

So many thugs! But where is the genius evil chemist of this hellish lab? Right there. “What the hell is going on?! Intruders? I will break them myself!”

He is huge and looks mean as hell. Like half-gorilla half-human. Definitely a meta-human and of the brutish kind.

Croyd shrieks in pain as the chemicals do...awfully interesting things to his DNA. He shrieks in pain and shrinks. Then he finally begins shooting plasma bolts at the thungs with Lunair, becoming a much harder target to hit as he leaks tiny tiny blood all over the floor.

Poor Croyd. Lunair is more than a little concerned as he's in pain and also - that's a chemical burn! "Let me know if you need a ride-" But still, Lunair is worried. She's not making as much progress as she should. "Should we get out of here?" She asks her tiny associate. Although, that option may swiftly... not be an option on hearing the voice of whomever is coming. She's got to at least retrieve Croyd and try to build a decent cover.

The thugs stop firing when the huge man barrels in. Mr. Hyde said he would do it himself and they have learned contradicting him is a terrible idea, usually fatal. And he is getting larger and more violent every day, so the thugs are pretty much terrified.

The problem with getting tiny is that the otherwise powerful plasma blasts the Sleeper has in this incarnation also become tiny. And not as effective. But hey, Mr. Hyde misses him, and goes straight for Lunair, taking a couple shoots on his chest that make him roar with rage. "DIEEEE!"

Croyd flies right up behind him and then suddenly gets all large right next to his head. His wounds have been healed and his bloodshot eyes have a crazy look to them. "Ooooooooooh yeah, like me some MGH. I can see why you are sellin this stuff its great, slap me some skin there brother..." and attempts to slam Mr. Hyde on the back of the neck, shrinking him...but doing a full sized plasma blast at the same time...just in case.

Lunair wouldn't contradict the guy if he were her boss, either. She blinks. Oh shit. And then Croyd is getting high, so high (wasn't there a song about that...?). That's not good. "Be careful!" She calls to Croyd. That cannot be a good thing to be ingesting. She's seen what it's done to people. At least, a few of them.

Although, she's going to have to start backing off, away and generally keep moving and shooting.

Mr. Hyde tries to catch Lunair, but he seems unused to his body. Trying to get at the woman, he slams with one of the pillars, cracking it, and then topples a huge table full of chemicals. Looks like Croyd is not the only one high in MGH. “Come here, gnat!” He screams.

Although Hyde accidentally avoid Croyd’s touch, the Sleeper’s blasts hit from behind, and he roars in pain, his ultra-hard skin blistered and burnt at the drug-enhanced plasma, the thick green coat almost atomized with the impact. But the villain doesn’t fail, he turns back and tries to back-hand Croyd into oblivion.

Croyd gets slammed back like a ping pong ball and boumces off the wall. He would habe been out of it if not for the mgh bit as it was he was stunned. Screw this! He created two earth golems that rose from the floor to slam this guy while the birdies sang and flitted about his head.

"I am not a gnat!" Lunair protests, and - she's got to - well, Croyd is sort of the firepower now. Lunair doesn't want to rile up Hyde further, and she's not sure this place can handle more pillars getting knocked around and stuff.

While Hyde tries to back-hand Croyd, Lunair is going to start trying to help portal the other mutants down and out or in the general direction of away. Those who can walk get the way pointed out. Those who cannot, she'll keep near her. She'll have to portal them along.

Croyd has now the attention of Mr. Hyde, definitely. The huge villain walks towards him, growling, with every intention of tearing him apart. But then the floor cracks and two earth humanoids try to grab him. Hyde grunts, dragging them a couple steps before deciding they are too much of a hindrance. He grabs one and smashes it against the floor, then the other, lifting it over his head and tossing it to Croyd.

With the goons cowering or fleeing, Lunair has little difficulties reaching the mutants at one side of the lab. They seem quite out of it, perhaps drugged, although they twitch and grimace as if in pain. Portaling them near the surface is easy, but chances are they are not going to get to a hospital without help.

Croyd opens up a hole in the earth under Hyde and is simmoning two more before he gets a face full of dirt. This leaves two half formed golems grappling at Hyde. Croyd takes dirt out of hos mouth. Blech!

Lunair is worried about the Sleeper, and is going to keep portaling mutants. "Shoot, I need a van for all of you guys..." Well, she can let Nate know. For now, she's got to get them to the surface at least. She's having to do so and avoid falling dirt or what have you. Her arm is getting a good work out.

The tearing on the ground makes the harsh lights of the lab flicker and most of them go out. Main power is out, but there is an emergency generator. Plaster and debris falls from the ceiling.

Hyde falls down, but jumps out of the hole in a flash. Then a golem grabs his legs and he falls on her face (cracking the floor). "ARRRRGH... I'll tear you apart, worrrrm!" He cries as he picks the golem to pieces, then crawls after Croyd, the second golem clinging from a leg.

Croyd uses geoforce to try and push dirt in the gaping yap of the ugly dude. But he also charges and a short range plasma blast to the face. "Shut yer pie hole!

Oh right! Lunair remembers Void, and calls her for teleportation. Yes, a lot of sick and drugged mutants from the MGH place. Croyd is still fighting, and Lunair is worried.

Hyde protects his face with his right arm, to prevent the dirt go into his eyes and mouth, but then he takes the plasma and his arm is badly burned. "Damn you!" He yells, smashing the ground, and causing... well, it is too much for the old station. The whole place is falling into pieces. Pillars crumble, the ceiling comes down, water bursts from crushed pipelines.

Lunair's halophone states Void's response. ***I am unable to pinpoint you position. Undetermined interferences. Please, move away at least 50 yards*** Good thing Luna has that portal gun herself.

Croyd tries to make as many golems as he can to grab prisoners amd help get them out with Lunair. He keeps making them as long as he can, even ignoring Hyde until tje place collapses.

Lunair hmms. "Okay, got cha." Then she's getting help from Croyd! Lunair will portal gun as many as she can alongside Croyd. "Thanks." She's nothing, if polite. But they really do need to GTFO.

Lunair has not a second to spare to portal the last mutant out before the whole lab gets buried under hundreds of tons of concrete and dirt. Mr. Hyde is still trying to grab Croyd, but soon both are buried by the avalanche of rock and debris. Both are tough enough to survive, but what about Lunair?

Croyd can sense the buried lunlun and begins to direct the earth to gently "spew" her out and up. It would feel like a thousand helping hands letting her 'swim' in the Earth. Sadlyx Croyd cannot BREATH dirt but he can hold his breath a really long time. And he is doing so right now. Hyde is next on his list.

Lunair is armored, and - hurting kind of badly. Maybe even likely knocked out for her trouble. At least everyone's out, right? And she'll let the 'hands' move her out, being likely KO'd.

After a few minutes Croyd manages to pull Lunair and himself back to the tunnel outside the lab. It is dark and the walls are cracked, but still standing. A dozen yards beyond the rescued mutants are spread on the floor, some of them trying to pull themselves to a sitting position, most unconscious or just curled up and moaning.

Fortunately, now they are within Void's reach, so teleportation back to the Halo Towers is possible and quick. Too many people for the medlab, so Void sends the mutants that seem healthier to the Mutant Town clinic.

Croyd shrinks and heads serupticiously to the sewers, these powers are awesome and he means to keep them. Once the last of the mutants and lunair are ported away, he runs off. He needs someone. ..special to stay awake and he knows a guy who knows a guy who jnows a guy.

Lunair will be out for a bit, but she'll let herself get taken in for care. He's likely not going to stick around, so odds are good, Lunair will miss seeing Croyd go. She's a bit concerned about that.

This is Mr. Hyde: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110423043624/marveldatabase/images/7/78/Mr._hyde_Thunderbolts_156.jpg