Avengers: Warlord of Baluur #2 (of 3)

Bubbles nimbly bounces from roof top to roof top in hopes of catching the falling victims in time. When he reaches the falling victims, he will encase them in a physical Bubble and say "Fear not friends, Bubbles is here." and safely pilot them to the ground below.

falling victims? You mean Rad?

Pulsar fires at the escaping pod, waiting for what seems like an eternity before his blasts actually reach it. If there was any doubt as to whether the pod was in range or not, it is disbursed by the violent jerk that Pulsar sees the pod undergo, although it is not enough to drive it towards the ocean. The pods path seems almost purposeful. It may actually be looking for something…
The escape pod descends into lower Manhattan and becomes obscured from Pulsar’s view. After a few zig-zags across the area attempting to locate the pod, Nick Fury’s face appears on the BRAVE module’s monitor.
”We’ve been tracking the escape pod,” he says. ”It landed as a construction site in lower Manhattan. I’m relaying the exact coordinates to your ship’s computer.”
”Hold everything! We’ve just intercepted a transmission between the pod and the mother ship. Blastaar was in the pod. He has found something called the ‘Cosmic Control Rod’. You’d better get to Blastaar fast, before he escapes!”

CUT SCENE #1

Down in the city…

Bubbles tosses a force bubble at the stranded construction workers, which shoots right past them. The men scream and begin to fall from the beam…
As Bubbles begins to react, an explosion overhead draws his attention. ”ANOTHER shooting star?” he muses. What he sees however is something quite different. Two small, flying craft are racing across the sky. The furthest one fires upon the closer one, hits it, and sends it tumbling into the city. In fact, it’s flying right towards Bubbles. As if he didn’t have other things to worry about right now…

CUT SCENE #2

Minutes earlier…

Rad is unable to stop the spiraling BRAVE module from entering Earth’s atmosphere at the wrong angle. The communication system and control panel begin to malfunction as the heat begins to increase exponentially. Warning lights and alarms go off in to cramped compartment. Rad can see pieces breaking off as he tumbles towards the planet…this may be it…
Suddenly, all is clam. There is a bright white light in front of him and Rad sees a female form with long flowing hair stepping towards him…
Is it…an angel?
The form reaches up and turns off an overhead light. ”Lucky for you Nick asked me to man the teleporter after Maelstrom’s little stunt, flyboy. Welcome back to the SHEILD satellite”, Agent 13 says. ”You can bet Nick’s not conna be happy about what you guys did to the BRAVE.”

CUT SCENE #3

Maelstrom dances around in space, gleeful that his plan worked perfectly. EnergyStar sits in her BRAVE module unable to move, but out of danger. However, she is starting to get bored. She tries to flag down Maelstrom who hasn’t noticed her predicament yet. Nick Fury’s face appears on the BARVE’s monitor. ”Looks like yer stuck in its tractor beam, kid. Don’t worry, I have an idea…” (See PM)

Bubbles gasps in disgust. Briefly looks at his hands, gives them a shake or 2 and trys to bubble the falling workers again . begins to mutter "Dont fail me now" "I will save you!!!" he shouts as he trys again.

Throwing a second force bubble towards the falling workers, he catches them as they pass by the fifth or sixth floor on their way down. They continue to fall, escased in a shimmering bubble, until they hit the first bubble which now lays in the middle of the street below, blocking traffic. People are looking up at the falling workers and the brightly-clad source of the bubbles above them.

The bubbled workers hit the bubble on the ground and both bubbles dematerialize with a loud "POP!" (that's a total of TWO pops for those of you counting). The workers fall to the ground from a short distance after the bubbles burst, landing on their feet. They look up and wave. Several camera flashes go off. Hopefully they have telephoto lenses.

Now that that situation has been taken care of...
AARRGGHH!!!
The small flying vehicle Bubbles saw get shot earlier startles him by zooming right past him and into the structure of the building frame he is standing on. You hear it crash with a resounding * B O O M * a short distance away as you feel the steel frame of the building quake.

Maelstrom suddenly notices Energystar's predicament and gets a crestfallen look on his face. Touching his 'com-badge' like they did in that star-trek thingy he says, Energystar, you out there? Maelstrom comin' at ya, over. No wait. Not over. Are you alright? Would you like me to .... ummm ... beam over? Over. Rodger that. Over."

He is still a little shaky from the whole death thing, but he's starting to really loosen up and get into this communications business.

"I'm fine. Nick has an idea that I am going to try. Why don't you beam in so when I break free we can be together when we fly to Earth."

Will spend Karma to get the desired result.

Dice Roll: 1d100
d100 Results: 37

Beorn agrees and soon he appears with a pop! in her cabin. As the modules are made for one, it is close quarters and it is a strange sight seeing a man-shaped mirror blushing as it tries to get out of Energystar's lap and find a place to stand.

"Ooops. Sorry."

EnergyStar is laying upside down in the pilot’s seat, busily yanking handfuls of wires out from underneath the control panel, when Maelstrom call comes in. She pulls out her commincard to respond.

EnergyStar puts the card away and looks back and forth at the two wires she’s holding: a red one in her left hand and a green one in her right hand. She shrugs, puts the two together, causing a slight spark, and then realigns herself in her seat as Beorn materializes onboard.
”Hold on”, she tells him as she reaches for the module’s controls. She grabs an pulls on the ship’s control stick which causes it to violently lurch forward, breaking the pull of the enemy ship’s tractor beam. The BRAVE module is now free and heading towards Earth.
Nick Fury appears on the BRAVE module’s monitor. He relays to you pretty much the same information he relayed to Pulsar back in panel 23 and gives you the coordinates to head for.
Was that Rad standing behind him…?

Current Karma totals:
EnergyStar: 389
Maelstrom: 433
Pulsar: 345
Radical Warrior: 378
Bubbles: 100
In addition, Bubbles will likely find his multi-color self on the cover of tomorrow's Daily Bugle, resulting in +2 to Popularity...unless he does something to terribly counteract that in the next 12 hours of game time...

NEXT ISSUE: THE LIVING BOMBBURST!