Cat People Suck

Okay, not really.  Just in our Champions game last night.  (This must be a recap!)

When we left our brave group of intrepid heroes, they were investigating the now-demolished Viridian Industries site.  As they approached, they noticed that the government investigative team was apparently all either unconscious, or worse dead. Team Falcon (that's us, the good guys) called for back-up, which arrived in the form of a few helicopters of troops led by Jeff (or Greg, depending on the retcon) Latimore. 

With the help of the soldiers and medics, triage was established and it was found that all but two of the investigators were in what appeared to be deep comas.  The exceptions were two investigators that had apparently choked to death on their own vomit (bringing to mind Bon Scott, Jimi Hendrix, and John Bonham). 

While the unconscious victims were being cared for by Strobe and Dr. Strasser, Mister Sarcastic decided to investigate the remains of the building to see if he could find any cause for the mysterious affliction.  Agent Latimore in true gung-ho fashion decided to accompany him, having convinced Mister S. of his capability.

As soon as the pair entered the remains of the building, something seemed to happen to Jeff.  He saw walls where there were none, and began to see some mysterious enemy that Mister S could not perceive.  Mister S, thinking that Jeff was under some sort of mental attack, attempted to get him to leave the building.  As they made their way to the exit, Agent L was seemingly attacked by an invisible foe, and rendered unconscious.  Mister Sarcastic picked up Jeff, and took him to safety outside the building where Dr. Strasser and Strobe examined him. 

Stobe accompanied Mister Sarcastic back to the building, where she was similarly affected in seeing and perceiving walls, and could not step through them even when desolidified.  She was then similarly attacked by what she saw as a very large, hairless cat.  She was then carried out by Mr. S.  Strobe seemed to recover within a few minutes, and decided to try to only step partially into the perimeter of the building.  When she did so, she remained able to step back out through the non-existent walls. 

Shortly she saw approaching, not a cat but a hooded figure who pointed at her and launched some form of attack.  At the instant of the attack, the leg that was outside of the building was severed cleanly as though sliced through by the outline of the building.  While she felt no pain, she quickly began to bleed out.  While she (calmly) interrogated her attacker, Mister Sarcastic rushed to her aid and called for Dr. Strassers medical expertise.  Placing the severed limb in the proper position, the seriously wounded S attempted to empathically heal Strobe.  The leg fused into place leaving a scar visible at the junction.  And Mister Sarcastic took a very near fatal amount of damage from his healing power.

The hooded figure explained to Strobe that he was working for he who watches the stars (the Astrologer???) and that his attack on Strobe was to give him leverage to leave.  As he and the cat began to leave, Mister Sarcastic, incensed that one of his team mates could be so harmed with impunity decided to take some measure of revenge and provoke a fight.  He taunted the cat into attacking him, and only then remembered how very close to death that he was.  Before the cat could act, he used his invisibility power to completely disappear.

Meanwhile Stephanie and Dr. Strasser had arrived on the scene.  Stephanie, using her new weapon of choice, the HURT van, readied it to bash the cat who had now grown to approximately twelve feet tall.  Dr. Strasser attempted to impose order and to arrest the hooded figure (who had at some point identified himself as The Dream Catcher). 

The van was less effective than hoped for, and the cat simply peeled it open - prompting Stephanie to leave it's vicinity.  Strobe, having her soul tethered to the Dream Catcher was unsure of what to do.  Mister S, sensing that his invisibility might not last very long, dropped in in order to attempt to slow the kitty into inaction.

Meanwhile, Dr. Strasser had caught up with DC and had used his entropy field to attempt to disable him.  Stephanie, deciding that this was a fight the group should not be in, sent a TASER bolt into Dr. Strasser to break up the fight.  She followed this by another, and yet another, completely incapacitating Herr Doctor. 

Mister Sarcastic, having incapacitated the cat, told the Dream Catcher that he would be allowed to leave if he released Strobe, but otherwise, he was prepared to fight.  The DC, having accomplished his mission, and possibly seeing that the fight might not be worth the effort, released Strobe from his power, and was allowed to leave.

Returning to base, the recovering team found that they had some work cut out for them.  Dr. Strasser and Bob Latimore finally cornered Mister Sarcastic and researched a mechanism to turn his regeneration back on - which then allowed him to heal his near fatal wounds in just a few moments.  Stephanie apparently did some independent research that no one thought worth mentioning.  Strobe returned to her busy schedule of student-scholar, bartender, humanitarian.   And Maximilian Vasquez had a proposal that might allow him to join Team Falcon in a limited way,  but busied himself trying to implement a strategy that Mister Sarcastic had presented to get Agent Randall back into HURT offices on an accelerated schedule.

After Mister Sarcastic was healed, a team meeting was called to address concerns that Dr. Strasser had with how Stephanie had unilaterally decided to handle the situation.  It was decided that Stephanie, Mister Sarcastic and even Dr. Strasser all acted more as independents, and less as team members, and that with the long absence of Field Effect, someone needed to be chosen as Team Leader out in the field.  In a somewhat surprising turn of events, Stephanie was briefly considered, under the assumption that she would only ever obey her own directives.  And then she surprised the team by saying that she would in fact obey orders from whomever was selected as Team Leader.  Eventually Mister Sarcastic was chosen as leader, based on what seemed to be the fact that he had nothing better to do, and would possibly act more judiciously if he was responsible for the safety of others.

Max offered to help the team by establishing a mental communications link, which the team eventually accepted, with the consent of his mother.  It was also established that it might be possible for Max, through the mental link to contribute to team field operations, with the assurance to his mother that he would not actually be allowed into the field.  As the meeting was ending, Agent Randall appeared in HURT offices, apparently ready to resume his duties as administrator for Team Falcon.