Where the Traffic Leads - Part 1

General Summary

One of the New Champions earliest members, Faust had been following the lead on a human trafficking ring. When a friend’s sibling had gone missing, he set out to find her and had stepped away from the New Champions until he could bring her back to safety. But now he’d received a text message from Adam, another kid from neighborhood who has been taken, pleading for help. Convinced the request is sincere, but almost certain any attempted rescue will be an ambush, Faust called upon the New Champions to help clear the Human Trafficking ring, once-and-for-all.   The team arrived at the location of the coordinates of Adam's phone to find an abandoned carnival, teeming with mercenaries around the perimeter. Wildthing sensed at least 14 heartbeats.   Instead of an attack-first strategy, Faust suggested that he alone walk into the carnival, calmly offering himself as a "trade". After a moment, the mercenaries at the entrance of the carnival agreed, handcuffing Faust and leading him back to the cage where Adam was held. The team inched closer but remained stealthily hidden from view.   Looking to the sky, Wildthing noticed an abnormal amount of large birds flying overhead. But their appearance was betrayed by her ability to sense heartbeats -- and these birds didn't have one. On a second look, she could see that the birds were actually holographic images covering over metallic drones flying all around the carnival.   All the while, Faust was making his way to the back of the carnival where Adam was being held in the cage. After some coarse banter, the leader of the mercenary group fired a spray of hardening-foam at Faust, but narrowly missed...instead, encapsulating one of his own teammates in the entanglement.   With that, Faust burst free of the handcuffs and flew toward the cage, grabbing it and carrying Adam still inside it as fast as he could away from the carnival -- giving the signal to the rest of the team to engage with the mercenaries in combat.   The New Champions quickly sprang into action -- Max blinded the nearest foes, but was hit by another...though their blaster fire was only a minor nuisance to him. From the edge of the woods, Nemesis leapt onto another armored foe, grabbing and holding him tightly. Windwalker teleported onto another from the sky, kicking him to the ground. Wildthing continued to make her way around the forest's edge.   As Faust attempted a flying getaway with Adam in the cage, an audible vibration of sound could be heard as a crazed super-powered foe arrived, releasing a torrent of sonic energy.   The sonic blast was so intense that it disintegrated the cage and the teenager still cowering inside of it. Faust was blown backward through the woods and onto the ground of the carnival, narrowly missing the roller coaster...but the blow was overwhelming. Faust lost consciousness, but Adam lost his life.   From across the carnival, Ghost flew like a shooting star toward the crazed mutant, her fists pummeling him into the pillars of the rollercoaster...which began to falter.   As the surreal moment unfolded, their newest foe became more clear. Surrounded with red swirling waves of sound, a humanoid-like figure was clearly visible. He had dark metal bracers on his arms and metal fused into his neck and face. There was only a grotesquely-marred spot where his left eye should be and in the place of his right eye was a bright blue glowing orb. He wore orange prison pants with the clearly printed words, "Prisoner 241" on the side.   Will Faust recover quickly enough to reengage this new foe? Have the New Champions stumbled into a trap?   Watch the video of the session here:

Rewards Granted

3XP