Time Trap

[andyman]

TIME TRAP
Chapter 1:
DOUBLE TIME

As chairman, the Vision calls the meeting to order as you take your seats. The first item on the agenda is the upcoming year's charity work. But before the meeting can get under way, the room grows dim and blurred. In the center of the table smoke begins to form.

[Hoots Rowlet]

"And so does anyone have any proposals for how we raise money to help fight hunger in Africa-" Vision inquired until he saw the smoke. In seconds his computerized brain was scanning through all his previous memories, and read reports trying to see if this was consistent with any prior superhuman or supernatural phenomena.

Reason FEAT roll. ZUBvOu5D1-1001-100

[roxolid]

OOC Apologies for the delay. Had another week which has gone in a blur and with no 'me' time in a manner of speaking. Even now I can only post with some peace and quiet because my son is still asleep upstairs...

Eros of Titan, new to this legendary band of adventurers, shrugged and offered up his thoughts. "I could consult with the leaders of governments of this world and persuade them to help. I can be quite persuasive when the need arises. Alternatively we could petition rich and powerful women for the honour of being my consort for the evening. For a fee of course. I shall ensure that they have a night to... is that smoke normal? Do some of our number prefer to make dramatic entrances?" he asks, raising an eyebrow to the door where he'd come in and wondering if there was another way into Avengers HQ through the table.

[mcr]

Wanda groaned internally at Eros's offer to prostitute himself for their charity when her attention shifted to the smoke building before her.

"Say, uh, Vis, did you forget to oil yourself this morning?"

She held her nose and hacked a few coughs, holding her cape like a fan and swiping it at the smoke in what was doubtless a vain attempt to wave it away.

[crisiscomics]

While her attention was focused on her surroundings (and whether to suggest using the mansion to host a charity event) the room's dimming and smoke billowing across her elbows shakes Monica Rambeau from her deep thought and into patrolwoman mode.

"You smell smoke, but it could also be a smokescreen."

With that, she gets up and scans her view about the room for any threats, like intruders.

Intuition: W98FDABN1-1001-100

[andyman]

OOC: Both Vision and Captain Marvel got White results on their rolls, revealing no additional information.

The smoke clears, and your sight returns to normal. Standing before you is Immortus, the benevolent ruler of Limbo. Behind is a large, complicated machine--his time ship.

Immortus speaks.
“I apologize, Avengers, for this intrusion. Only danger that threatens time itself would cause me to leave Limbo and interfere in the temporal world. A terrible catastrophe has caused the branch of time you inhabit to be cut adrift. Fortunately, I managed to remove you and this mansion to a small pocket of Limbo before disaster struck.”
“A series of coincidences have combined to doom humanity on this time line. Two days from now, a solar flare will trigger a meltdown of all nuclear reactors on Earth. All life on Earth will be destroyed by spreading radiation. Alas, I cannot act directly to prevent it. However, I have located five nodes in time that are crucial to this tragedy. You must travel back in time and alter these five events--or humanity will perish!”

[mcr]

Wanda gasped: "Great Scott! Time Travel!"

She paused, placing her finger to the corner of her lip in thought.

"But how will we get back to the future?"

[Hoots Rowlet]

"I assure you dear, my body requires no lubrication at the moment." He said before facing Immortus. "These are quite serious claims. However given our past encounters, I would like to ask if you have any proof of what you claim before we agree to meddle in the timeline."

[roxolid]

"Sounds like a grand adventure to me!" exclaims Starfox. "The universe at stake, only we few can save it? This is why I joined the Avengers! I'm in!" he chuckles.



"When do we depart?" he asks, excitedly.

[crisiscomics]

Upon hearing the strange man with a purple trash pail on his head declare that the mansion has been cut adrift from time and space, Monica decides to confirm the Vision's suspicions... by zipping off in a beam of light through the mansion corridors.

Her intention is to search for any signs that confirm Immortus' story (what's outside the mansion, whether the phones are working, etc.), and also see if the team's butler Jarvis is alive and well.

Intuition: lvyUS4s61-1001-100

[andyman]

Immortus first answers the Scarlet Witch by giving her a strange headset. "With this."

He then turns to Vision, "Using my machine, I will open a small window in time to show you the first time node." He then turns to Starfox, "Once I have explained you may depart."

Meanwhile, Captain Marvel finds that the Avengers Mansion and a small island of land around it are floating in a sky devoid of stars.

The phones are not working and Jarvis isn't home.

"The first time node is in the late 1960s in New Jersey and involves a young man." Immortus says.

A small portion of the air blurs, then becomes a window to time itself. You watch as a young man approaches a collapsed cave entrance on a hillside. He begins to remove the stones that
block the entrance. Suddenly he stoops, and picks up an object the size of a basketball. The object bathes him in its glow. Dazed, he drops the device, which begins to smoke and melt. Suddenly, time speeds up. In minutes, the young man progresses through college and becomes a leading nuclear physicist. In the middle of a lecture he stops, clutches his head, and falls to the floor. The next scene shows a funeral.

"The scientist's intellect was increased by the alien device." Immortus explains. "He invented a method of cooling atomic reactors, but it had a hidden flaw that helped trigger the meltdown. If the young man can be delayed from reaching the hillside, the alien device will break down before it alters his mind, altering the first of the five time nodes."

"Stop the boy from reaching the cave, put the helmet on his head, and activate it," he says. "It will erase all memory of the event and keep time from being altered in unforeseen ways. It will also signal me so that I can bring you back."

[crisiscomics]

Captain Marvel's frustration builds as the evidence mounts up... but when she finally gazes upon Avengers Mansion cut adrift from its temporal moorings, all her tension escapes in a hushed, horrified "No!"

With that, she returns to the conference/living room through the window.

"He's right. I checked the phones, and circled the building. Or rather, the island. It's... we're... this is all that's left."

[mcr]

Wanda nodded along absently. Stopping one nebbish looking man from entering a cave blocked by rocks hardly seemed like an Avengers level threat, but then again it was highly possible that Immortus was withholding some information to prevent unnecessarily altering the past. There must have been a reason he included in the mission a woman who traded in the chaos of making the improbable a reality.

"If you think we're the right team for the job, consider it done."

Thinking a bit, she asked:

"Is there any danger to the timeline or to us if we were to secure the object ourselves? Vision could just phase through the blockage and grab it if need be, and his snythezoid anatomy would prevent any harmful effects from the device, right hon? Wouldn't want to leave it for someone else to stumble upon?"

[andyman]

When Wanda suggests securing the object, Immortus answers that this would possibly cause disastrous changes in time.

"Starfox seems eager to go. How about you, Vision?"

[Hoots Rowlet]

"If you are indeed telling the truth we are doomed if we don't. However if you are lying, we also have limited ability to escape this void you have trapped us in if we don't comply. Very well Immortus. The Avengers will play along with your plan for now, however you should know by now that it is unwise to use us as mere pawns if you are trying to pull something." Vision says nodding while also giving a warning that the man outside of time had best not be pulling off a trick of some sort.