GenCon 1990

My Champions Event

I had a three issue (session) storyline involving the Enforcers, a superhero team of my creation, and an insidious plot by Mechanon to rebuild himself into a new and deadlier form, then attempt his most audacious plot yet: the total conversion of all organic life on the planet into a biomechanical form, under his control!

These are the Enforcers: there are more characters than the maximum number allowed for the sessions to allow the players to have a better choice for the session.

  • Blackwolf — half-alien martial artist
  • Crystal — human scientist bonded with an alien silicon crystal symbiont
  • Cyclotron — energy manipulation powers
  • Nightshade
  • Psyber — biomechanical telepathy
  • Shadow — ninja with living shadow, can mêlée attack at range
  • The Stellar Knight — NASA sponsored powered armor suit
  • Telestar — spacy telepath
  • Vector — test pilot and telekinetic

The event started with the hero group (the Enforcers) receiving instruction from the première superhero group in the country, the Power Squad. On the last day, however, the entire Power Squad disappeared. In addition, the director of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant had arrived, asking for assistance from the leader of the Power Squad in determining why there was a mysterious power drain during startup of the plant.

Cyclotron had the power to sense electromagnetic fields, so the Enforcers were allowed to investigate in place of the Power Squad. They had to do it secretly, because a large crowd (with national media coverage) were outside the gate, protesting the startup of the reactor. The power drain was traced to an underground chamber, filled with banks of computer equipment and a large steel sphere. Before anyone could try to disconnect or destroy any of the equipment, the sphere opened and a featureless silver humanoid stepped out and announced that the heroes were privileged to witness the birth of the new Mechanon!

You can imagine what happened then. The heroes attacked Mechanon, who dodged his attackers by having its body flow out of the way, and attacked by changing his shape to create weapons. Weapons that had an uncanny knack for attacking the heroes at their weakest points.

It was an even fight until a mechanical voice announced from the back “Mechanical mockery! Face the power of the true Mechanon!” Yes, there were two Mechanons, and the heroes let them fight it out, but it was not a close fight, and the silver humanoid Mechanon beat the mechanical robot Mechanon and drained its memory banks. Then it said “The Power Squad! Yes! They will make the perfect test subjects for my next experiments.” Whereupon it transformed into a rocket and blasted out of the chamber, leaving the defeated Mechanon counting down to self destruct and the heroes with the job of stopping it.

(Mechanon has manufacturing facilities around the world that rebuild it whenever it is defeated. In this situation, two of the facilities were ordered to begin rebuilding and there was a communications breakdown so both were completely unaware of the other.)

End of session one.

Session Two

Session two started then, with the players looking at possible destruction for themselves and Seabrook Nuclear Plant. Vector telekinetically threw the defeated Mechanon into the steel sphere and held it shut, aided by the Stellar Knight. The sphere, built to hold the energies of the formation of Mechanon, was capable of holding the energies released by its destruction. The heroes then climbed out of the chamber to find a confused mob in terror outside the fence and plant security running around everywhere. (Having an unidentified missile rocket up from in front of the containment dome was not very good for public relations for the plant.)

The flying form of Mechanon was tracked on radar until it disappeared in central Michigan. After U.N.T.I.L. had been called on the scene, the team flew off in pursuit of Mechanon.

The trail led to a large forested area outside of Lansing. Blackwolf and Shadow went in to search, finding observation devices (cameras, pressure plates, etc), and, in the center, a large disguised elevator that allowed the team access to the underground base. Scanning telepathically, Psyber and Telestar found out that there were two Mechanons (or was it three? Something about one of the mind traces seemed to somehow doubled) in one area of the base, and very faint mental signatures in another. The team decided to avoid fighting Mechanon again, and investigated the faint signatures, in hopes of finding the Power Squad.

Sure enough, they found eight tubes, each holding one of the Power Squad in suspended animation, with no external controls except for an electronic interface designed for Mechanon’s use. Taking a chance, the team opened Guardian’s tube, he being suspected of being the healthiest and certainly the most intelligent member of the Power Squad. Some hasty Paramedic rolls got him breathing again, just in time to have Mechanon surprise everyone from the rear of the chamber. Another battle occurred, although Mechanon, still feeling the effects of his just completed battle with the other Mechanon,
quickly left. As he left, he destroyed the control console for the suspended animation tubes, sending the rest of the Power Squad into severe shock. Everyone ignored Mechanon and rushed to save the Power Squad. Fortunately this area was set up as a medical lab, so the other Power Squad members were rescued. Mechanon, however, had disappeared.

End of session two.

Session Three

Session three started with a recap of the previous events as team FBI contact Max Williams (read Bill Maxwell) explained the events happening off camera (informing other hero teams around the country, putting the Air Force on alert, etc.) and everyone waited for Mechanon to make the next move. Which it did hours later, by invading a nearby chemical refinery with a small army of robots and taking the workers hostage. The team, being the closest and the most familiar with the new Mechanon, was called upon to stop Mechanon at whatever plot he was hatching.

The plant was guarded by several robots. The heroes had to infiltrate the plant, rescue the hostages, and stop Mechanon. Simple, eh? The heroes split up into teams; one team flying in through the ceiling, another infiltrating in the side, and a third attacking through the front door.

The infiltration team of Nightshade and Shadow found the hostages in the company cafeteria guarded by three robots. Outside the cafeteria were two figures: one of a man, entirely all of metal (including the clothing), the second of a woman, also of metal but wearing normal clothing. Both had looks of extreme pain and horror on their faces. These were the first results of Mechanon’s experiments. The two defeated the robots and rescued the hostages.

The flying team of Cyclotron and Vector flew through the plant until they found Mechanon working at a large steel vat, preparing his transforming fluid. Actually, it was an illusion, because Mechanon was expecting them. The two got into a fight with Mechanon; during the fight Cyclotron was immersed into the transforming fluid and collapsed in shock and pain, but did live. The fight occupied Mechanon long enough for the others to reach the scene.

The frontal assault team of Crystal, Psyber, the Stellar Knight, and Telestar finally reached the scene of the battle, and managed to withstand Mechanon’s attacks for several phases, long enough for Vector to finally throw Mechanon into the vat. The transforming fluid inside immediately began attacking Mechanon, dissolving it into molten metal dripping off crystalline bones. However, he was powered by the same kind of fusion plant that detonated at the beginning of the second session. While the other fled, the Stellar Knight heroically threw himself into the vat and held his shield over the fusion plant, which detonated, destroying everything within several yards, including the Stellar Knight. (It was totally in character and I loved/hated it.) Mechanon was defeated!

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