Back Issue Bin - Arc 3

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AMERICA'S MOST WANTED | Arc 3[edit]

"America's Most Wanted" cover image -- LARGE

In this story arc the Survivors of Flight 283 will encounter something both terrifying and amazing. America fosters heroes in the form of celebrity, with abilities far beyond mortal man some will use their abilities for fortune and fame. Others will find the power uncontrollable and at the same time ultimately controlling... The courts of man try several Survivors for crimes and slights against humanity, while the world looks inward at America's newfound "arsenal" asking when will the boot drop. These "Godlike" will become America's Most Wanted in more ways than one.

issue # 11:3[edit]

  • "America's Most Wanted" , September 8th, 2005.
    • RECAP: The scene opens on the majestic steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Just two weeks ago the Survivors agreed to regroup and meet here in the nation's capitol. Here on the steps of white Mandy Smith has the "right to remain silent...". NTAC a new division of the FBI used to monitor the survivors of Flight 283 secured the area and fellow Survivor Agent Marks is to bring the murderer in. In a series of instantanious events most of the people in the area find themselves unconcious from a sonic blast from Beth Manly. In seconds someone pulls a trigger and sniper shots surround the Godlike. In the hail Jack Bennett-Kennedy is hit, taken down hard. The news media swarm the scene before police arrive and a country watches, not fully knowing what unfolds before their eyes. Making their way from the scene the Survivors learn Marks is not the absolute traitor he appeared to be and Jack through a miracle watches his body have life forced back into it. But it is Arthur that discovers his true horror... The food to restore his energy ceases to work, and he finds his body slowly disappearing! Saved from his horror only by the vast intellect of the Godlike, he realizes that his duplicate selves must originate from somewhere - that somewhere is in his future... his "YET". Because those events... while they are in his personal future, they have Yet to be.


  • Game Called: September 15th, 2005, Cancelled - Dede's got pinkeye, ick!


issue # 12:3[edit]

  • "Play the Game" , September 22th, 2005.
    • RECAP: It's a difficult time. Jack, their friend and fellow Survivor has just been shot - he lies in critical state at Johns Hopkins Medical Trauma Center. The Godlike twist and turn around the events the flood them; the press, the Vice President, Jack's father, and much more. Vivian secures the paper trail as the group refocuses. The press conference goes relatively smooth, with a few tough questions on the campus quad at JH - implications are made against the Bush/Cheney administration and the world wonders if what will become of the Godlike. So much violence, so much power. And as the night stretches thin Ted Kennedy watches another family member slipping through his fingers. The night passes with a brief wordless respite, some of the Godlike continue their pained pace while others reflect on what good they have in their lives. For, on the morn at Beth's dismay Mandy Smith is turned over to NTAC to be moved to Georgia for trial. At the arraignment it is blindingly obvious who the Judge voted for in the last presidential election, as every point is brought down on the prosecution's side. And in a cavalry-like manner an "old friend" arrives at the Defence table... Milos.

issue # 12.5:2[edit]

  • "Arthur's Yet: Dreams & Alternate Times" , September 2005.
    • RECAP: The following could be interpretted as a dream, as an alternate reality, or a timeline yet to be played out... Arthur Redford is now by nature an impossibility to continuity. His past and present selves may make up a variety of stories in time.


issue # 13:3[edit]

  • "Courts of Public Opinions, part I" , September 29th, 2005.
    • RECAP: Brian objects so strenuously at the clearly biased behavior of the judge in Mandy's trial that Brian is held in contempt and removed from the courtroom; Vivian soon comes to bail him out. However, Mandy is now "alone" with Milos and his offer of assistance. Defiant, Mandy turns him down. "I'll give you this one for free," Milos says, and the judge soon changes his mind on Mandy's bail. The group later discovers that the cases against both Mandy and Thomas Reagan have been dropped.
      With that drama over, everyone tries to get back to what now passes for their normal lives. As burn-victim Carrie Sellars' condition worsens, though, Arthur asks Mandy to see if she can do something to aid the struggling girl. In the burn ward at the John Hopkins Medical Center, Mandy's attempts result in disaster and Carrie dies. Jack, nearby astrally, sees an energy signature leaving the body and, thinking that this is Carrie's soul, forces it back in, to hopefully grant her continued life. Life she has, but she's now an animalistic creature, ruled by instinct and.
      Carrie tries to escape the hospital, violently, and Mandy and Arthur give chase and try to stop her. Though Carrie takes Arthur down by stabbing a spear-shaped hand through his gut, Mandy manages to take Carrie out with her fire powers, though she destroys a parked police car in the process.
      Brian, summoned by an earlier phone call from Mandy, arrives on the scene as Arthur's being carried back into the hospital for treatment and, realizing the danger should Carrie awaken, scoops her into his arms and leaps into orbit. Astral Jack follows with him.
      Mandy uses her powers to contain the blaze around the police car, to the delight of the nearby crowd (one of whom walks off with a car door that Mandy's burned her signature into), and her heroic action is caught on tape. When the local fire fighters arrive, Mandy makes a very good impression and they agree to take her away from the scene before too many questions are asked.
      Brian and Astral Jack take the feral Carrie far away from the hands of man so they can discuss what to do with her in peace and so that there's less risk of her escaping and harming anyone. Death's Valley seems the ideal spot and, once there, Brian attempts to use his powers to contact any lingering bit of Carrie's mind still inside her. He finds none, but does see 283 spectral forms, those of all of the godlike, and realizes that their powers are all, in some way, connected.


issue # 14:3[edit]

  • "Courts of Public Opinions, part II" , October 6th, 2005.
    • RECAP: Brian and Jack stand in Death's Valley, trying to figure out what to do about Carrie - she clearly no longer has a human mind. Jack theorizes that she's animated only by her godlike energy and is motivated to find a new, living, host for that energy. The possibilities of this are chilling, but Jack is able to use his powers to keep Carrie in check, so it seems the two have plenty of time to figure out what to do; at least until the Navy scrambles fighter jets.
      Unwilling to be spied on, and worried about military aggression, Brian makes the leap to low earth orbit and one brave/foolish pilot follows him up. When the pilot's plane shuts down due to the lack of atmosphere, it's only the quick responses of Brian and Jack that save him from a frigid and airless death. Brian takes pilot and plane safely back to Annapolis, to the cheers and adulations of the Navy, but accidentally leaves Jack and Carrie hanging in a bubble somewhere over the Midwest.
      Mandy sees Brian's triumphant landing on the news and, torqued at being over-shadowed on her own rescue last issue, she breaks her TV.
      16 hours have passed by the time Brian finds Jack again, with Jack spending that time trying to "train" Carrie's animalistic intelligence to no success. Jack does notice something, though: both Brian and Carrie have been implanted with microscopic tracking chips in their tail bones. By this time foreign agents have, somehow, managed to pick up on Brian's activity - speculation from Al Quaeda is that the US is launching nukes - so Brian and Jack agree to cut their airial conference short and consult with the rest of the group.
           It's become apparent, at this point, that the NTAC is spying on us pretty much all the time. We do our best to baffle them, but we're being more careful of what we say over the phone. We hold a meeting of the core group, Vivian and Matt in the Hopewell Foundation office to discuss what to do about the chips implanted in our spines. We agree that they should be removed and, as a test, we decide to use the living body of Carrie Sellars to see how well it works. Matt objects, citing the inhumanity of that action, and though he accidentally insults the others in the group, Brian agrees that he's right. Jack volunteers to be the guinea pig, instead.
      Genzyme sets up a surgery theater for us within a day and, with the assistance of Brian's ability to link minds and Mandy's microscopic vision, Jack's soon on the operating table. That's when the world shifts...


issue # 15:3[edit]

  • "Future Tense" , October 13th, 2005.
    • RECAP: With poison gas seeping under the door of a shitty apartment, Arthur explains to all and sundry that they're 50 years in the future, and things have gone to shit. Plans to head home right away are curtailed by Arthur's not knowing how to do that, by Jack's data-self getting "hacked" from an unknown agent (soon revealed to be Jack's future self) and a cadre of soldiers trooping up the stairs.
      Even as Mandy uses air currents to push the gas out of the apartment (and, in the process, gets it all over herself), Brian creates a force field around the group, hoping that it'll be strong enough to keep the soldiers out and buy the gang some time to think. Unfortunately, the soldiers are armed with Promethium bullets, which cut through Brian's force field and Mandy's armored hide like the proverbial hot knife through butter, and Mandy goes down.
      Until Arthur sacrifices a bit of himself to rewind time and save her. The situation goes from bad to worse when the soldiers activate the contingency Brian heard radio chatter about and the "contingency" turns out to be another godlike, who crashes through the outer wall of the apartment and straight through Brian's fore field. In a panic, Brian uses his powers to drop the whole group down four stories and into the sewers, the godlike hot on their trail. At this point, though, Mandy and Arthur are both in a bad state from the gas.
      The godlike turns out to be Maggie Young, kidnapped years before, trained and conditioned, and kept in cryo-sleep. Arthur attacks with a special knife, going for a kill-shot. Terrified of her titanic strength, revolted at what the government's done to her and desperate to keep his friends alive, Brian picks up a gun loaded (he thinks) with Promethium bullets and puts one through the center of Maggie's skull. It's only then that an older Alex Young shows up to lead out heroes to safety.
      Back at Jack's Contingency headquarters, Brian is in a broken state and Arthur's not too much better. Mandy gives Brian motivation enough to get up with a short, fierce speech, but only then do we realize the clip of Promethium bullets is missing, hear the click of a gun and realize that Alex has it pointed straight for Brian's skull. "Kryptonite, Superman," he says as the issue ends.


issue # 16:3[edit]

  • "About the Girl" , October 20th, 2005.
    • RECAP: Mandy and Arthur both try to step between Brian and Alex, try to talk the boy down, but with his sister dead and Brian, who Alex thought happily long-gone from this world, present, there's no dissuading him; Alex seems determined to kill Brian Jaffe.
           "I understand now," says a voice from the clear air. "I think this is what I'm supposed to do." Alex fires the shot and, though Arthur partially deflects the shot, his special knife is shattered in the process an invisible Vivian takes the hit. From there, it's chaos.
      Brian operates to save Vivian's life, Mandy melts down some Promethium to build Jack a "cyber-core" and fix Arthur's knife and Arthur goes to have a talk with his son. The talk doesn't go well, and Alex leaves the compound. Arthur returns to have a talk with Brian about Maggie's death. Brian's broken nose later, Arthur says "if it had been anyone else but you pulling that trigger, I would have killed them."
      Meanwhile, Alex has found the government and, in exchange for his own death, he tells them the secret location of Contingency. With his special hearing, Brian is privy to this conversation and the other side of it holds a very chilling voice indeed.
      In a rush to get ourselves out, we board a train car on a limited track and, though the plan is to have Arthur teleport us to China, when the lights come up again we find ourselves home, only we're all whole; Vivian has no bullet wound, Brian's nose his unharmed and even Jack is back in his body. It's 4 months after we left.


issue # 17:3[edit]

  • "Fathers Know Best" , November 3rd, 2005.
    • RECAP: This is Maggie Young's birthday party. A distinct lack of kids leads to Maggie feeling very alone and isolated, and the adults around her have a pretty tough time relating to her; none of us are good with kids. Seems like we're in for a slightly awkward, but generally okay, afternoon.
      And then Daniel Young comes home. He behaves like an ass from the get-go, calls us all "freaks" behind our backs and, while we're outside avoiding an awkward reunion, Brian sees something that prompts him to charge back in. Arthur beats Brian to the punch (hur hur) and drags Daniel to an isolated car park. Brian and Julie follow (Julie doing so over Brian's objection), carried by Julie's power. Much threatening and posturing follow, and in the end Julie tells Arthur to go away and never return to her house.
      Following threats against Daniel Young from Harold and Jack, Mandy takes the kids out, to allow them to avoid the marital strife for a while, while Brian meets with Joelle over lunch to offer her a job as Executive Director of the Hopewell Foundation. Brian fervently denies being jealous over Joelle's new boyfriend, but perhaps he protests too much. Eventually, after the lunch, Joelle agrees to take the job, but not until the start of the new year.
      Later, and still with a chip on his shoulder, Arthur looks for the Reaper. He ends up having a midnight altercation with Vernon Marks, who was doing the same. After that, Arthur departs to tour the world and Marks goes to visit Jack, to talk about a job. Marks insists that he'd like to work for Jack but that he won't break the law in doing so.


issue # 18:3[edit]

  • "Picking Up The Pieces" , November 10th, 2005.
    • RECAP: Mandy, her brother Mikky and several fire fighters lounge around the house, eating and shooting pool. The game is broken up by the alarm and away they go, with much horse-play and teasing. Despite their antics, and Mikky's disdain for their lack of seriousness, Mandy works with a professional, skilled crew and they respond in textbook fashion. Unfortunately, the call isn't what they thought it was - instead of a fire, it turned out that the building's roof had collapsed due to water-weight from the day's heavy rain. The engine company suffers some initial injuries when the front windows explode from the pressure, but Mandy and Mikky both jump into the building to do their job.
      Unfortunately, between the rain and the broken pipes, there's water everywhere in the building and Mandy soon falls temporary victim to her weakness to that substance. She pushes on regardless, even as Mikky reaches a rescuee on the second floor.
      But her pain alerts Jack, who calls Brian, who hurries over to the site. Brian notes another victim and cajoles a fireman in the street to radio Mikky, who turns back to the rescue. At this point, though, the collapse has made the building unstable and the floor gives way under Mandy. Brian catches her with his power and then extends that power to let the floor take Mikky's weight, so he can safely leave.
           As Brian's lowering Mandy to the ground, however, there's a rumble from within and a terrible noise as the building collapses completely and the boiler explodes. The issue ends on a cliffhanger.
      Also to note for this issue: Even though this happened on 10/9, we know some of the events of 10/11 already. Arthur comes back from "walkabout" a scant half-hour before he's due to race an Indy car in Daytona, Florida. He's lost the tense, half-crazed gleam he usually has in his eye and seems generally much calmer. The U.S. Gov't also agrees to allow a single representative from the Hopewell Foundation meet with Zaida, coincidentally on the same day as Arthur's race.


  • Game Called: November 17, 2005, We still gathered - everyone helped Kevin clean apartment!
  • Game Called: November 24, 2005, Cancelled - Turkey-Day break time.
  • Game Called: December 1, 2005, Cancelled - Cat calls in ill (at last minute!).


issue # 19:3[edit]

  • "What Goes Around..." , December 8th, 2005.
    • RECAP: The issue begins with the Main Cast, Vivian and Matt in The Hopewell Foundation's office, watching a Milos give a press conference about the opening of King Farm, a gated community for what Milos terms "The Godlike;" the speech Milos uses to open the press conference is the "Godlike Convocation" that's opened every issue so far. During questions, Milos offhandedly refers to the Hopewell Foundation as a cult. In response, Brian dictates a press release to Vivian over the phone as he heads off to Hopewell, New Jersey for a meeting with Zaida binte Shouk.
      Meanwhile, Arthur still has a race ahead of him. He arrives in Daytona and meets with Dale Earnhadrt, Jr., the driver of the rival car. He also discovers that a Horse and Cheetah have been added to the race to spice things up. Arthur puts on a good show, mostly by not immediately winning the race. The crowd's first reaction is stunned silence, but they soon explode onto the track, cheering for Arthur. Watching at home, Harold screams himself hoarse while Jack and Mandy watch, bemused.
      As the issue closes, the fighter pilot Brian rescued in issue #14 comes to give Brian a plaque and a helmet as thanks and Julie Young comes into the HF offices in tears; Daniel wants a divorce (and custody of Maggie and Alex) and, worse, he's being represented by Milos.


  • Game Called: December 15, 2005, Kevin needs a break, we hang out and discuss game stuff & BOARD GAME!
  • Game Called: December 22, 2005, BOARD GAME night instead - Jason was out of town. Kevin, Cat & Sammy gather.
  • Game Called: December 29, 2005, Cancelled - Kevin & Jason out of town for Holidays.


issue # 20:3[edit]

  • "Here They Come" , January 5, 2006.
    • RECAP: Last issue Julie Young left the Hopewell group with a tough beat. Daniel was seeking a divorce, but she didn't want it! Concilling Julie the group learned that Daniel was at the house packing the kids to leave, not wishing this to move in that direction Julie begged the group to help. Mandy said yes and with a displacement of air Julie and Mandy teleport to her home just outside DC in Virginia. As the others rush to aid, we learn Daniel is not alone! His "representation" is on-site to aid in this "time of grief"... Milos and his entourage stand between the lone fire fighter and distraught mother. The group arrives soon only to see that Milos is not without resources - with him are: a shorter Italian, a "surfer dood", a fine suited young woman, and an average looking guy. Later they would learn that these Godlike exhibit the abilities to: cast illusions, go intangible, grow more than 20', and the fourth is unknown.
      The show of force was actually a ruse though. It is the illusionist (Gerald) that would prove to be a prankster of the sick/twisted variety. Milos and crew disappear (secretly under illusion) while Arthur, Jack and Brian make attempts to find, track and stop the "kidnappers". Their efforts pay off but seemingly at a price - Alex falls free but in the wake of madness created by Arthur and Brian - Julie is killed!!
      The sick truth comes to be that the illusionist has actually used the death of Julie to stop the Hopewell crew's persuit. (in an unknown effect it is Arthur that actually changes the course of history to allow Julie to survive!)


issue # 20.5:3[edit]

  • "Between the Pages" , January 12, 2006.
    • RECAP: Between the Pages marks a new page to our issues, in which the cast sit and mingle in and out of character discussing topics at hand. The scene is set only hours following the events at Julie Young's home last issue. It is a 3-4 hour discussion of where to proceed... Many resolutions were talked of, the first of which would be to confront Senator Milos Wizowski... and in a bizarre twisting cliffhanger as the discussions heat up, Milos arrives on-site specifically for that talk!


issue # 0[edit]

  • Campaign Summitt Part 3, [January 15, 2006]. Campaign Maintenance. Stat updates.



THE AMERICAN GODS[edit]

The AMERICAN GODS

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