Michael watched the EMTs load him into the vehicle to rush him to the hospital. They told which emergency room they were taking him to. They did not offer Michael much hope for recovery of the reporter. Michael had two leads he could follow. One was to try to find the assassins which sent Paul Anderson to the hospital. The second was to investigate the key ring that Paul had given him.
To Bonesnapper the research that got Paul killed was more important than his killers. Bonesnapper found Paul’s car in the parking lot. Inspecting the trunk and glove compartment, the grim artist did not find any of the reporter’s files. He did find Paul’s car insurance card. He drove to the address on the card.
The key ring had a key to the front door on it. Michael quietly let himself in. He confirmed that the house was empty. Checking the living room and office, he surmised that the newspaper reporter lived alone. Paul’s laptop was not in the office nor was any of his files. There were business cards and a calendar on the desk. Michael figured Paul had gone into the newspaper’s offices this morning. He found the address. He knew he would have to drive to Center City tonight before anyone beat him to the files.
Michael checked the bedroom to make sure the notes weren’t hidden there. The only thing that Bonesnapper found out was that Paul had been married at one time. There was a wedding photo of him with WCTV reporter Jessica Anderson. It was taken long before Jessica had become a reporter on TV. On the wall there were framed newspaper articles of both Paul’s and Jessica’s. Next to the dresser was a broken frame against the wall. It had once held the announcement of Jessica’s Pulitzer Prize she had received for her reporting on the Crusaders. The article was old, tattered, and discolored. The way it laid there it was obvious it had been thrown against the wall in anger. It appeared as if it had been left there as proof to the reason their marriage had failed.
Michael decided it was time to leave. He locked the front door behind him. He slowly drove Paul’s car away from the house. He headed to the Paul’s office at the newspaper.
He drove through Center City. If front of him on the left side of the road he saw 3 patrol cars driving in single file. They came toward him.
WHAM! The last patrol car was hit by a garbage truck. Michael saw a motorcycle violently swerve to the left and then to the right barely missing the garbage truck. The bike darted into an alleyway disappearing from sight.
SKKRRECCH! BAM! A car slammed into the garbage truck.
Michael heard the sound of a custom engine revving to its top speed. Looking to his right he saw a vehicle speeding toward him from the upcoming intersection. The artist slammed his brakes and yanked his steering wheel. The car snapped into a sideways skid. The truck sped by him across the intersection toward the oncoming patrol cars.
WHAM! The first patrol car was hit by the ice cream truck.
VROOM! The middle patrol car swerved around the first patrol car’s wreck. It sped away into the night.
Michael was positioned where he can see both accidents from his car.
GM Note:
Bonesnapper has entered the Crusher Crimewave storyline. He will be able to quickly tell in the next issue that the driver of the garbage truck is a Supervillain (Meta). He appears to be strong and the trash around him is moving on its own. He will not be able to tell if the driver of the Ice Cream truck is a Meta he will see the driver remove a syringe from his coin dispenser (a fake one) and inject it into the neck of one of the policeman.
If Bonesnapper decides to leave that is fine but be aware this is one of the few opportunities for all the Street Patrol characters to meet each other.
I am making a rule change. I have been looking at what takes the most time for putting these together. What takes the longest is figuring out what the second action for PCs would be that make sense after everyone’s first set of actions as well as how to split up their movement. Most of the time I have been allowing full movement on both actions especially for powers which use movement as their cost.
The remove this problem, I am not shortening the turn to 10 seconds, so everyone gets one action per turn. This will make playing out the turns easier for figuring the action and how to use the movement correctly. I am introducing a new House rule to compensate for the change.
Dual Attacks: Any character with Agility of 15 or higher can attack twice in one action without it counting as a multiple attack. A Dual Attack has a cost of PR=2. This is represented as punches with both hands, firing power blasts from two sources (hands, eyes, etc) or firing at a more accelerated pace than usual (two arrows from a single bow). Movement cannot be used in-between Dual Attacks so the intended targets have to be in range when the Dual Attack is made. A player will have to state in his turn that he is making a Dual Attack otherwise a Single Attack will be assumed.
I know this really won’t affect Bonesnapper but I wanted to make you aware of the change I am making.
< Due Date: July 27th, Actions, Goal, Reply?>
Michael investigates the key ring further.
