B-Team: The Nuclear Option

Criminal Activity

An unnatural cold snap has blown into town and, while assisting in the transportation of The Sovereign for his day in court, the various members of the B-team are called away to a situation at the power plant that quickly gets out of hand resulting in a city-wide blackout.

In the midst of an unnatural bout of cold weather that plunges the city into negative degrees Celsius, the members of the B-team have been asked to assist in the transportation of Maximus Reginald Steel, with members of the Century Group concerned that with his influence, his followers may just try to break him out. It seems like a fairly normal job so it's no surprise when Pagan says she's too busy to attend, busy as she is trying to weather-proof her arboretum against the sudden chill.   At three in the afternoon, Rue, Warp, Harmony and Mercy arrive at the Century group holding facility where the Sovereign had been staying pending his court date, and they join up with the convoy, with Mercy flying overhead while the others share Warp's car.   As expected, the convoy is not particularly interesting but, at about the half-way point, Frank gets a call on his phone from the Century group's emergency line. It's Doctor Robert Mawnay AKA Beetlebug, who explains that he and Amelia Abel are pinned down inside the Nichols Nuclear Power Plant by a hostile force that has taken control of the plant's control room.   While several members of the team think it may just be a distraction, the threat is too great not to respond and, upon hearing who the call was from, the convoy's captain gives the team leave to go and help out. Within a few minutes, they're nearing the plant, but a sniper round through the front side wheel causes the car to spin out and crash, with the three heroes within sustaining various degrees of injury.   Immediately leaping into action, Mercy quickly descends upon the sniper teams on the roofs, quickly joined by Rue, using their rocket-jumping ability to close the gap, while Harmony and Warp take on a relatively large ground force defending the main entrance to the complex. Within a few moments, the main bulk of the enemy forces is dealt with and the final man leaps between buildings to attack Rue, screaming "For the Sovereign!" as his battle cry. He's quickly taken down by a relatively small fire blast and Rue's new catchphrase; "Fuck the Sovereign!"   With the external forces incapacitated, the team makes their way inside and, with the help of Agent Abel, Beetlebug and the Century agents, make quick work of the remaining offensive force. Amelia and Robert quickly inform them that several engineers have been taken hostage and are being held in the control room which lies behind a thick bulkhead door which will take a while to cut through. Harmony takes initiative and tries to phase her hand through the door and unlock it from the other side, leading to a concerning moment wherein she gets her arm stuck and needs to be pulled out. Eventually the team decides that the subtle approach won't work and they need to brute force the situation, allowing Warp to simply destroy the door to get through.   Upon gaining entry, the team is greeted by the smiling face of Charlie the Freelance Henchman, who explains to them that, thanks to having faced them several times at this point, he's now able to pick up work as a henchman captain of sorts. Harmony quickly realises that his finger is resting on a button labelled "SCRAM" and, given her experience, knows that it can only be the emergency shutdown switch for the nuclear reactor. She attempts to subtly create some material around the button to stop it from working, but before she gets a chance, Mercy asks Charlie what exactly he's doing there, to which he replies "This." and pushes the button.   With an almighty noise, the nuclear control rods of the reactor are dropped inside and the nuclear reactor is effectively neutralised, the lights in the control room turning red as the backup generator kicks in. Satisfied he's done his job, Charlie goes to leave and is immediately laid out by a combination of Harmony and Mercy. They free the remaining hostages from their bindings and ask how long it'll take to get the power back online. They say that even with them working around the clock, they're looking at around two days, during which Bathala City will be completely without power.   Making a quick assessment of the situation, Agent Abel takes charge, instructing Beetlebug and Harmony to stick around and help with the reactivation while the rest of the heroes make their way back to Vigilant Tower and warn The Vigil of the situation. She meanwhile would make her way back to the Century group and report in, hopefully allowing them to make preparations of their own to aid the city.   The heroes elect to do as she says, but also to make a detour on their way back to check in with the convoy. They leave the same way that they arrived and step out into the cold evening air, looking over at the city now plunged into blackness. It would be a long night.   To be continued...