Scrap Pile '95

We were joking around about a dark future for the Scrap Pile, kind of like the 1990's comics, and came up with this revamped team:

• Copper - Magi has seen too many of his friends die. So he's going back in time with big guns and is now known as Copper (pipes pulled from your house).
• Bazooka Shark - Land Shark with a big rocket strapped to his back and carrying twin uzis
• Rayve - Disco, now with a bomber jacket over his costume, and a mullet
• Revenge - Torpedo, now extra-angry about the destruction of Atlantis and with mini-missile launchers on his big steel shoulder pads

Oh, What a Night

Featuring: Disco, Land Shark, Magi, Torpedo

The heroes were somewhat awkwardly introduced to Disco, a flamboyant hero whose rainbow aura could be both dazzling and mesmerizing. As it turned out, Captain Scrappy had sent him to join the team. Or something. Doesn't matter – he's in.

Before heading out to Ocelot Bay, the team decided to investigate that "Wentworth's" lead from the end of last session. First, they went incognito just to check it out. Well, sort of incognito. Torpedo wore a robe with only a green speedo underneath. Magi's powers came from his cool-looking but bulky equipment, so he just used an overcoat to cover it up. Disco wore the same sparkly costume but removed his cape and mask. Land Shark was probably the least conspicuous in a sweater with fins and a shark-mouth hood.

Wentworth's consisted of a consignment shop, which was open regular hours, and an auction house, which was open sporadically for auctions. There were two guards watching the door from the shop to the auction hall and one standing at the front door going outside from the shop. Torpedo headed for the two guards in the back and distracted them by pestering them with odd, possibly Atlantean, behavior. Land Shark talked to the shop clerk while Disco approached the front door guard. Magi kept an eye on the group as a whole in case of trouble. 

Disco's mark was the most productive. He got the unusually buff guard to check out something outside, then dazzled him with his emotion-controlling lightshow, scoring not only information, but a date. The information he got wasn't quite enough, though, so they decided to check out the regular auction that night. Magi and Torpedo noticed a few people who weren't bidding, so Torpedo sidled up to one of them and pretended to also be waiting for the "real" auction. A few sly misdirections later, the group had enough information to show up at the right time and get into the black market auction.

Torpedo put on a nice suit for the event, but refused to wear shoes. He did attempt to paint fake ones over his feet with shoe polish. Just back from his date with the guard, Disco was wearing civilian clothes - really tight civilian clothes. Magi, of course, had little choice but to stick with his overcoat, and Land Shark didn't see anything wrong with his hoodie. At the auction, they sat through several odd supervillain-y items, including a mummy previously owned by mob boss and dabbler in mystical mad science, Joe Cassanelli. Several known supervillains were there, including Firetemple, an employee of the infamous Lizard Moll who nevertheless often worked with Citrus Shocker and Captain Scrappy.

The auction was being conducted by what appeared to be Plague Dog, but a quick call to headquarters confirmed that their prisoner from the island was still in jail. There was no way to be certain which, if either of these two was the real Plague Dog.

Disco decided to look for a back office and headed that way under the guise of looking for a restroom. Almost immediately, he came back, reporting that he had found nothing interesting. Actually, a villain called Putty had duplicated his appearance and slipped past him while he was in the office. The real Disco dug around and found some useful information in the office before he was attacked by a humanoid mass of carbon slurry called Tar Pit. Disco yelled for help and the others were off to join him, Magi first by way of his newly named "Magi Meteor" maneuver.

Somewhat farther back in line, Land Shark found himself suddenly under attack from behind by Putty. After an initial attempt to pummel him into unconsciousness with her stretchy fists, she said, "try your own power on for size" and conjured up a gigantic earthen cobra, the size of which surprised not only the terrified auction-goers, but Putty herself. Land Shark heroically stood his ground, took control of the cobra, and turned it on its creator, who barely jumped clear as it arced through the ceiling and back down into the auction house seats.

Meanwhile, Magi had partially set fire to Tar Pit and Torpedo was getting his fists all gloppy. Disco managed to fly free and dazzle Tar Pit, so everyone got clear while he flailed around. Putty, not liking the odds, declared that she always bounced back and super-leaped out through the open space that used to be the roof. Land Shark encased Tar Pit in a giant urn. Disco and Magi chased after Putty, but, one rocky fist later, Disco was unconscious and plummeting to the ground, and Magi was busy keeping him from going splat. When that was all settled, Putty was gone.

Looking around the crumbling remnants of the auction house, Magi said, "They call us the Scrap Pile because that's all that's left when we're done."

After arguing for a while over the best way to get across Lake Mohawk to Ontario, Torpedo and Disco went ahead under their own power while Magi and Land Shark took the boat they confiscated last time. Scouting out the area, they found a couple of warehouses with a smaller building nearby and a control tower of some sort higher up on the slope. Several uniformed guards patrolled the area, and a couple more of Plague Dog's Mutts were spotted as well.

And that's it for this session. Tune in next week for the exciting… well, it might be the conclusion. We'll see.

If Fish Could Talk

Part III of The Prosperity Problem

Featuring: Land Shark, Magi, Torpedo

Somewhat demoralized and unsure what to do next, the heroes milled around indecisively for a bit. Captain Scrappy was called back to deal with something in Tripod City, but stayed long enough to introduce Torpedo, an Atlantean prince and pet store owner (specializing in salt water aquariums). There was some concern that, without Captain Scrappy, the team would just be a Pile, but eventually they got over it.

Anyway, after a quick background check from Scrappy, they accepted Torpedo into their ranks, Captain Scrappy left, and the team went back to work.

Remembering that Deathbird had flown toward the lake, the team started searching in that direction. Torpedo went for a swim and the others rented a boat. As they searched farther and farther north for anything unusual in Lake Mohawk, Land Shark, frustrated by the tedious and potentially fruitless task, mused that he had never thought he'd find himself wishing for an aquatic teammate with fish telepathy.

Eventually, Torpedo spotted a heavily laden boat heading north and followed it. This led them to an island with a hidden cove, where a bestial humanoid was directing two armored men, who fit the description of the warehouse raiders, in unloading the boat. Once everyone was ready, or maybe a little bit before, the Scrap Pile attacked. Torpedo, living up to his name, shot through the water at full speed and leaped out at the last minute to take a flying punch at the "werewolf." Following his example, Magi burst into flames, bounded across the cove, and cannonballed into one of the armored goons, who blocked him partially with an energy shield and blasted him. Land Shark stayed put for the moment.

Before the beast-man could do anything, Torpedo downed him with another punch. Land Shark squashed one of the goons with an earth fist and Magi, despite his wounds, finished off his own opponent and took his gauntlet. Land Shark was particularly enamored of the glider wings and grabbed a set of those for himself. Magi found he was able to heal himself with the gauntlet, but began to suspect that he was somehow becoming addicted to it.

Ignoring the boxes on the pier, the team moved on down the road and found a wide, deliberately-flattened clearing with a shed at the edge. Land Shark reconnoitered for underground facilities, destroying the shed and pushing up great mounds of earth all through the flat space. Then he tried out his new wings and saw a helicopter approaching from the north. The heroes hid in the trees around the clearing and watched. The helicopter approached, hovered briefly over what used to be its landing pad, then started to climb again.

Land Shark asked if anyone had seen Jaws 2, then pulled down the helicopter with a giant earth hand. Apparently the shark got a helicopter in Jaws 2. Working the battered pilot and co-pilot for information while pretending to be working for the same organization, they discovered that the local person in charge was someone called "Plague Dog," and that this stuff was being stolen for an organization called the Unbeholden. After picking up cargo here, the copter's next destination was "Ocelot Bay" to the north.

Gathering up their captives, the team headed back to Beta City to return the stolen goods. Magi also wanted to visit Nick Veccic in the county prison. Under threat of barbeque and letting everyone in the prison know he had helped super-heroes, Veccic revealed that he had also heard something about a place called Wentworth's from a villain called The Grasshopper, in connection with the technological enhancements he and his cohorts had been given. He suspected that the only reason Grasshopper would have done this could be that the store was crooked somehow.