csyphrett

I have seen a lot of reviews of the Eternals but only new Rockstars took time to mention that when the Eternals killed the Celestial destroying the Earth, they put a mountain of granite forty miles high in the middle of the Indian Ocean changing the mass of the planet and weather patterns for miles around, and having the thing stick out into space and disrupt the magnetosphere around the planet. CES

Let me go over what I have. The setting is Cleveland, Ohio. It's up on the Great Lakes which is the stomping grounds of the Great Lake Avengers. Mr. Immortal was their founder and team leader at one point. His main power is to come back to life whenever he is killed. It's possible that events in Cleveland would have drawn his attention. Mister E was a detective that investigated minor monsters and Scooby scams with his secretary and his assistant. He claimed that he could see the good and bad in people even though he was blind. No real name given. No other powers shown. For some reason, Neal Gaimon gave him time travel and future sight so he could kill Tim Hunter at the end of the universe, but I am going back to the original low key monster hunter. The Femme Fatale is retired super criminal turned adventurer Modesty Blaise. While she doesn't commit planned crimes like she used to, she does mix it up against other criminals and organizations with the help of her assistant Willie Garvin. Basically she was Red Reddington before there was ever a Blacklist. I picked the Creeper as my brawler since DC has decided that Jack Ryder can't hold a job because they made him a split personality. Essentially he is the Kolchak of the DCU, moving from job to job, city to city because he ticks people off, and then they declared that every time he becomes the Creeper, he is high on drugs so he has no control over what he is doing. So working in Cleveland is just the newest thing for Ryder. I don't know why I picked Usagi Tsukino, Sailor Moon except that she was a reincarnation of a moon princess from a moon kingdom and punishes monsters in the name of the Moon. Vacationing in Cleveland might be because of a warning being sent out to her advisors. The Big Bad is the Kingpin. His position as the ruler of the New York underworld means that he has probably dealt with Modesty Blaise and the Creeper at some point. It gives him the wherewithal to hire Captain Boomerang and move him from Central City, Kansas to Ohio. And he has been revealed to be using the Tracksuit Mafia as his lower level gangsters to get things done. So what's in Cleveland that could attract his attention and cause a slew of random strangers to team up against him? I am stating as part of the draft that Fisk has heard of the Pillars of New York under Manhattan. The story is that the island is held up by columns deep below the city and if anything should happen to them, the island will sink into the ocean and rivers. Maybe Fisk has actually seen these columns, or come across proof when Graviton lifted New York into the air. I think my missing piece is that Fisk has heard about a similar thing in Cleveland and has decided to see if he can blackmail the city over it. I think my last piece is going to be the Cleveland Hellmouth from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That's a long winded thing there. I still need a title. I always have problems with the titles. Maybe Great Lakes Sailor Scouts will do. CES

From my friend's description of what was going on, Waller sent them in without telling them about Starro and tried to kill Team 2 when they were succeeding. Essentially it's like M killing Bond by remote control when he doesn't flee the scene in the opening minutes of Tomorrow Never Dies. CES

Hit me. CES

I didn't see the second Squad movie. A friend told me about it and team 1's deaths. I was like you know Mongal is invulnerable and Javelin is basically a Green Arrow with spears. He was like I didn't know that, but it goes with the fact that one of the Squad could call the enemy and let them know what was happening from inside the prison CES

I am taking the Creeper as my brawler. CES

Always one, sometimes two, Bro CES

My cannon fodder is the Tracksuit Mafia, Bro CES

They did a Sable when i was a kid. It wasn't anything like the comic except the SI CES

Ghostbusters CES

My macguffin is the the Pillars of New York. CES

I am going to pick Sailor Moon but I am not sure if she is low key enough CES

I need a big bad my heroes can take on without getting smeared, and that Captain Boomerang would work for without major problems. I am going to pick Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, as my big bad. CES

I guess that's better than what the other Mrs. Spector got. CES man strangles boyfriend over Overwatch CES

It was Columbo night again and we watched Columbo take on twin brothers played by Martin Landau and a deaf chess master. CES

My Femme Fatale is Modesty Blaise CES

main course CES

I want to keep things low key so I am going with Mister E before the Books of Magic turned him into a villain. CES

Had a couple of dreams, but the one I remember was people finding out there Samoan neighbors were having a barbeque with people. NCIS was involved for some reason CES

I had a big reply to your post LB where I stated that numbers would cause problems and everything but I closed the thread before I could submit it like an idiot. The short version is basically the more mutants around like Magneto, the more the government will want to do things. 500 mutants just doesn't matter when the percentage has always been minor monster with powers at the bottom and the most numerous, and people like the X-men and their enemies have been the least numerous. I think civil unrest would end with rights extended to mutants, and things would move toward a Federation type society based on mutant tech and space exploration. Basically an uplift would occur. But I could also see it going the other way where the government/maybe all governments just cracked down on every mutant in sight which would cause a lot of destruction before things ended one way or the other. CES

I think Clonus is right about this. I'm not much of a comicbook reader these days, but JLAvengers had a crowd attack the Flash because he was trying to help a monstrous mutant that had just activated (I don't know if that's the right word but I'm going with it) and the Avengers are taken aback with the way the JLA and various DC heroes and teams are regarded as celebrities and bright lights especially with the Flash Museum. CES

Dr Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective 4- Strangehold and Burly looked the work area over as they walked through to the private office set aside for the manager of the section, Ed Dorsey. He stood at the door and waited for them to cross the distance. The doctor judged he was thin enough, but too tall. They were looking for someone shorter in height. Some of the people working at their design tables might fit the bill, but they were all sitting down and it was hard to say how tall they were. He doubted he could ask them all to stand up so he could measure them against a door frame. They had to rule out everyone they could while they were there. Then they could work on the ones that fit the body type of the killer. Then trying to figure out a way to trap the killer would have to be done. Strangehold let Burly ask Dorsey the normal questions. He didn’t have a lot himself. He was more concerned checking for ectoplasm in the air. Free floating ectoplasm could be from anything. He could narrow it down to something specific to tie to someone. Strands of the stuff around someone in particular was a good indicator that person was his murderer. That wasn’t that great an indicator if the culprit had learned to hide his energy gathering from others. All it would take was internal storage with the body covering the esoteric material with his own life. Burly asked to see the victim’s desk. Maybe there was something there they could use. Dorsey agreed to the search. He had nothing against Crenshaw, and the boss wanted him to help out. The dead man’s desk was covered with pictures of clubs. Some had men with musical instruments. Strangehold ran his hand through the air in front of the photos. Nothing leaped out at him. Burly took notes about the desk as he sat in the dead man’s chair. He made sure to copy any names he found in the small rolodex on a file cabinet. “Some of these clubs have closed,” said Burly. “Bought out, or closed down by the city.” “This could be where he was spending his time at night,” said Strangehold. “I wonder how good a musician he was. I didn’t see an instrument in his apartment.” “Why was he keeping it away from his neighbors?,” said Burly. “Would they care that he was a musician? Would that even be a problem?” “We could be looking for some kind of rival at one of these clubs,” said Strangehold. “He could have been ruining some other player just by playing.” “And they rip the guy to pieces?,” said Burly. “It depends on how they started powering their ectoplasm to make their disguise,” said Strangehold. “We might be looking for someone who uses these masks for different things like playing music, or athletics, or even medicine like myself.” “So instead of a werewolf, we might be looking for a Lon Chaney?,” said Burly. “I don’t think I like that at all.” “It will make things more difficult,” admitted the doctor. “I need to check these clubs. If I can identify the murderer, maybe we can construct a trap for him.” “What are you doing at Allan’s desk?,” asked a woman coming down the aisle with a cup of coffee in her hand. “I’m Sergeant Burly from the police department,” said the detective. “Mister Crenshaw had an accident and we’re trying to determine what happened. Can I have your name?” “I’m Lisa Raye,” said the woman. She put the cup down on a nearby desk before she dropped it. “I’m a storyboarder here at the printer. I draw cartoons to show the advertisers what a commercial would look like if we did one. I also do graphic art for signs and things.” “Television ads?,” asked Burly. “I know it seems confusing but the company does all kinds of ads for everything,” said Raye. “We do ads for television, the radio, newspapers, magazine inserts, anything that comes our way. There is a small studio for the television and radio stuff a few blocks over.” “Did Mister Crenshaw work on any of those?,” asked Burly. “He played music for some of the radio ads,” said Raye. “He is a trumpeter.” “Have you known Mister Crenshaw long?,” asked Burly. He leaned against the desk. “Just the two years he’s worked here,” said Raye. “He’s a good draftsman, and great at coming up with ideas to match what Mister Dorsey asks for as far as the customer wants.” “His neighbors said he was never home,” said Strangehold. “Did he talk to you about that?” “He liked playing at some of the clubs,” said Raye. “He said he was just good enough to sit in on a jam session, but not good enough to start his own band.” “We’re still at the start of our investigation and don’t really know much about Mister Crenshaw,” said Burly. “Is there any club he sat in regularly? We’ll need to talk to the people there to see if they know anything.” “I don’t understand,” said Raye. “I thought this was an accident.” “Right now, we don’t know what happened, why it happened, or if Mister Crenshaw had any life outside of this building,” said Burly. “We don’t know what he was doing before he was hurt, or if anyone saw him get hurt in the first place. So we have to dig into his personal stuff a little to see if there was anything untoward going on.” “Allan can’t tell you what happened?,” asked Raye. “No, he can’t,” said Burly. “Until he can, we have to act like he never will be able to tell us and look around. And if he can tell us at a later date, that will make it easier because we’ll have looked in that direction already.” “I see,” said Raye. “He liked playing at the Note and Robin’s Nest.” She pointed at cards for the clubs on Crenshaw’s desk. “He was supposed to go to the Note’s next open mike night,” said Raye. “I heard him talking to himself about what song he should play.” “Is there anyone else we can talk to for more information?,” asked Burly. “Allan didn’t talk to other people that much,” said Raye. “He told me he found it hard to talk about himself. The only reason I know about the music is Mister Dorsey asked for volunteers for the radio ad, and he jumped at the chance.” “And he was good enough to keep doing that?,” asked Strangehold. “I think so,” said Raye. “I never got to go over myself. I wanted to, but I had deadlines with my own work. I did go to the Note one night and watched him play. He sounded better than the others that were trying out.” “Thank you for your help,” said Burly. “If I need to talk to you again, I can call you here?” “I have a card,” said Raye. “The company gave us a stack of them instead of a raise last year.” She went to her desk and opened the top drawer. She pulled out a deck of cards in a box. She took one of the cards out and handed it to Burly before putting the box back in the drawer. “Thanks again,” said Burly. He put the card in his coat pocket. “What are you going to do now?,” asked Raye. “We’re going to go down and talk to the people at these clubs and see if they know anything about Mister Crenshaw,” said Burly. “When you have nothing, anything is good.” “It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Raye,” said Strangehold. “Thank you for your time.” “I don’t remember your name,” said Raye. She frowned at the doctor in his Edwardian clothes. “Doctor Dale Strangehold,” said the doctor. “But I think we have taken enough of your time. We have more work to do before we can put things to rest.” Strangehold and Burly left for the door. The detective made notes in his notebook. He made sure to tell Dorsey to keep the victim’s desk like it was in case they had to return for something else. And he had put a paperclip in the crack of the drawer in case he wanted to know if someone had searched the desk after their visit. A detective showing up might cause all kinds of reactions. “What do you know about these clubs, Burly?,” asked Strangehold as they left the building. “The Note is still going strong down by the Theaters,” said Burly. He frowned at the memory stirred by the other club. “The Robin’s Nest was where the Caulder murders happened, and it’s been closed since then.” “Gangland shootout?,” asked Strangehold. He had not been called in on that one. It wasn’t strange enough to need his talents according to the police department, and what he read in the papers. “Yeah,” said Burly. “We never caught the guys either. No one wanted to come forward to give statements. The Caulders had a million holes in them from the looks of things. The word was their turf went to Sunny Castione, but someone whacked him too. Things started settling down after that.” “Do you mind if we look at the Nest?,” said Strangehold. “I have time before I have to pick up the kids after school.” “Do you think you can solve the murders?,” asked Burly. “Not after all this time,” said Strangehold. “I’m just interested in why Crenshaw was going there when it has been closed for years.” “Good point,” said Burly. “He might be related to the Caulders somehow. Apparently he didn’t have family, and neither did they, but someone must have brought him into this world.” “There may be a connection with Sunny Castione,” said Strangehold. “We don’t know enough about Crenshaw to put those pieces together yet.” “The only other lead I can see is the professor,” said Burly. “We may have to talk to him eventually, but right now we should look at the Nest, then see if we can dig up anything around the Caulders, or Castione,” said Strangehold. “There may be a connection between them and Crenshaw, or the killer.” “Maybe if he was hanging around the Nest, he dug up something no one wanted dug up,” said Burly. “But it’s a stretch.” “We’re not exactly drowning in clues,” said Strangehold. “We need something to point us in the right direction. If we can explain where Crenshaw was going, it might point to motive for the crime.” “Maybe he saw something at the Nest he wasn’t supposed to,” said Burly. “Maybe he saw a ghost.” “That’s possible,” said Strangehold. “Maybe he saw the person who killed him practicing with his gift.” “I like that as a motive if the guy didn’t want people reporting him,” said Burly. “I like it too,” said Strangehold. “But why practice there other than it’s abandoned? It would be better to practice in a place that allowed for secrecy.” “Maybe he doesn’t have a place like that,” pointed out Burly. “Maybe the Nest is the only place he can practice at all. Protecting that would be enough to kill someone over if things escalated from words to fists.” “All right,” said Strangehold. “That’s a possibility. We just don’t know enough about what is going on.” “So we go down to these clubs and see if anyone knows if Crenshaw had a problem with the other musicians, or patrons,” said Burly. “Then I have to write up what we have so far, and you have to get the kids.” “Sounds like a plan,” said Strangehold. “And I will be home for George Burns,” said Burly. “That’s the best part of all this.” “And I have classes to get ready for in the next two days,” said Strangehold. “We’re going over the heart.” “I will take a rain check on that,” said Burly. “Have fun.” “Teaching is a reward in itself if you have the right students,” said Strangehold. “What about the wrong students?,” asked the sergeant. “You fail them and wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors,” said Strangehold. “I can see that,” said Burly. They got in the car and drove out of the parking lot. Burly aimed for a section of town off the main roads where Downtown congregated. Smaller buildings and houses dotted the landscape. He pulled to the curb in front of a brick building with boarded over windows. A frame for a sign stood empty over the sidewalk. “This is where the Nest used to be,” said Burly. He gestured at the deserted building. “I doubt Crenshaw broke in there every night.” “If you don’t mind, I would like to go in and look around,” said Strangehold. “Sometimes what you see isn’t what’s actually going on.” “Okay,” said Burly. “I don’t think we need a warrant to snoop around.” “Who would we serve such a paper to at this date?,” asked Strangehold. “If we need to seize something, we can check who owns the building then.” “Good point,” said Burly. They got out of the car and approached the former club.

Dr Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective 3- Strangehold took the kids to an early breakfast at a diner on the way to school. He bundled them out at the school, making sure they were ready to go. Then he drove home and retired to his meditation room at the top of his house. He needed to take a minute to get ready for his day. He reached inside and charged up the ectoplasm he used to keep his longevity. He knew that it would eventually fade to being unuseful and he would start aging again. There was nothing he could do about that. He had to concentrate on helping others in the amount of time he had left. He at least wanted to hang on to see his grandchildren reach adulthood and head out on their own without him. Once he was recharged, he made sure he was presentable. He made himself a cup of coffee as he watched for Sergeant Burly to arrive. He hoped there wasn’t any problems at Crenshaw’s employer. They needed some kind of lead to their killer, and his work might be the only way to get it. His home hadn’t provided any clue. The only fact that helped them eliminate suspects was that he didn’t have visitors. So how had his killer found him. That put something of an onus on the people in the apartment building. Either one of them knew enough to create the ectoplasmic disguise, or they didn’t. Once the visit to the printing service was over, he would have to go back to the apartment building and go over it again with an eye for that detail. The other thing was that Crenshaw never stayed home. Where did he go night after night? If they knew that, that would give them a suspect pool while eliminating other people. Strangehold would have to look into places around the building that catered to the night life. There was a chance that he was driving across town. People did that, but usually with a goal in mind. He had a mental list of what they needed to know. He had no way to find any of that out unless he tried to use ectoplasm to trail Crenshaw around on his nightly wanderings. That would be something if he could do it, but he doubted there would be enough traces in the air to give him a viable picture. Too many people would have already passed through where Crenshaw went and mixed their own traces in. Ectoplasm was good for a lot of things as a manifestation of energy from inside a person’s body. Tracking people across the city was not one of them unless something was added to the mix. Strangehold washed his cup out when he saw the unmarked sedan pull up in front of his house. He walked back through and stepped outside as Burly got out of the car. The sergeant nodded. “I looked this place up on a city map,” said Burly. “It’s out in the sticks.” “The faster we get this done, the better it will be,” said Strangehold. “I still have to pick up the kids after school.” “I called Crenshaw’s bank before coming out here,” said Burly. He got back in the car and waited for Strangehold to get in. “They won’t let me have a thing without a warrant. I’m going to have to get one to see if he was spending money he wasn’t supposed to have.” “I doubt this was a stranger killing,” said Strangehold. “The signs point to someone he knew. So someone at his building, his work, or wherever he went every night has to be the murderer. If we had some kind of motive, we could pinpoint who, but the only motive I can see is personal hate for the victim which seems odd.” “Why odd?,” said Burly. “According to the manager of his building, he was never home,” said Strangehold. “Who did he encounter in there that hated him so much when he never saw anyone? In my experience, neighbor issues are brought about by people rubbing against each other.” “So his coworkers and anybody at his watering hole are his prime suspects,” said Burly. “We’ll find out why when we have enough evidence to point at who,” said Strangehold. “The real problem is will we be able to prove things in a court. I can prove ectoplasm is real, but I can’t make someone cough it up on demand.” “So we need something that will prove conclusive guilt without bringing in the giant disguise bit,” said Burly. “That’s going to be a hard sell for the D.A.” “It’s worse than you think,” said Strangehold. “How can it be worse than what I think?,” asked Burly. “The person we are looking for will be physically unable to do the damage we saw,” said Strangehold. “The defense will want us to prove that the culprit could rip a man apart.” “And that’s going to be impossible to do, isn’t it?,” said Burly. “And dangerous to try,” said Strangehold. “The murderer can create his effect almost instantaneously which could be bad for us if we do uncover his real identity.” Burly didn’t need that spelled out. He had seen enough to know he was being advised to shoot first if he ran into a giant thing, and just take retirement after he explained why he had been afraid of someone smaller than him. The department might cover it up, but he would be done if he spouted off about a giant monster disguise that vanished when the wearer was dead. He drove on in silence. Worrying about retirement meant little if he didn’t live to see it. Burly pulled into the parking lot of the Frakes Printing Company and parked. The building was a gray cube with a rampart of red with the company name in giant white letters. The only windows were in the front, next to the glass front door. “I hope this guy had some friends,” said Burly. “We could use something beyond what we got right now.” “I hope he had someone who is an obvious enemy so we know who had the most reason to kill him,” said Strangehold. “I doubt he will be wearing a sign,” said Burly. “I’m a murderer. Arrest me.” “We can’t make the policeman’s job easier,” said Strangehold. He led the way to the front door. He hoped he didn’t have to fight a duel in the middle of a crowd of people. Someone was bound to be hurt. “How you doing?,” said Burly to the front lady. He showed her his badge. “Is your boss in? We have some questions about an employee.” “I’ll have to call the office,” said the counter person. “He might be walking the floor.” “Go ahead,” said Burly. “We’ll probably need to talk to someone in Personnel also.” She called up from the desk. She talked to whomever was on the other end for a minute, then nodded to herself. She concluded with I’ll send them right up before hanging up the phone. “Mildred said Mister Frakes is upstairs in his office,” said the counter lady. “She said she would tell him that you were coming up.” “Thank you very much,” said Burly. He smiled, and they walked behind the counter, through the door separating the public area from the work space. The detective followed the signs to a set of concrete and metal stairs leading to a box above the machines and crews on the floor. They spotted a woman behind a desk through a window that ran around the cube. She waved for them to step inside. They did, noticing how much quieter the office was compared to the floor below. “Mister Frakes is waiting for you,” said the secretary. “Go inside.” Burly pushed open the door and they stepped inside an office that had a great view of the floor below and the ceiling. Frakes looked like a pear on legs with half his hair gone, and the rest looking for a life boat. He stood behind his desk. “Hello,” said Burly. “I’m Sergeant Burly. This is Doctor Strangehold. We’re here to talk to you about Allan Crenshaw. We were wondering what you could tell us about him.” “Crenshaw worked in the design office on the other side of the facility,” said Frakes. “I don’t know a lot about him. I don’t really remember any complaints from his supervisor. What is this about?” “Mister Crenshaw was killed at his home,” said Burly. “We’re trying to find out what we can about him. His neighbors appear to have never seen him more than a few minutes at a time.” “Ed Dorsey is the design head,” said Frakes. “He would be Crenshaw’s direct supervisor.” “Can we talk to him?,” said Burly. He made a note in his pad. “Also we would like to look at Crenshaw’s file. We need to know if he had any relatives that need to be called.” “I’ll have Mildred pull it,” said Frakes. He backed the words with a call to his secretary. “How did Crenshaw die?” “We’re still trying to find what the murder weapon was,” said Burly. “You’ve never seen the man?” “Not since I went over his application with him,” said Frakes. “He came from HPU with a degree in design work. His only recommendation was his professor. Dorsey would have called to let me know if there was a problem, or if he was going to fire the guy.” Mildred came in with the file. She handed it off to Frakes before leaving. He handed it to Burly. The detective did a quick scan. He handed it to Strangehold before pulling out his notebook and pen. “You said his only recommendation was his professor’s?,” said Burly. “Do you happen to remember the name?” “It was Coley I think,” said Frakes. “I asked him why he didn’t have anyone else. He said this was his first try at a job in the field. His professor was the only one who would vouch for him.” Strangehold scanned the thin file and frowned at the lack of information there. He and Burly had already uncovered most of this at the crime scene. There wasn’t even a next of kin listed in case something happened to him on the job. “We would like to talk to Mister Dorsey, and see if he can tell us anything,” said Burly. “We might have more questions later. I’m not sure right now since we’re just starting our investigation.” “I’ll be glad to help you any way I can,” said Frakes. “I’ll call down to let Ed know you’re on the way.” “Thanks,” said Burly. Strangehold handed the file back. He discarded Frakes as a suspect just on his appearance. They needed someone slimmer, and shorter. A disguise might be possible, but he was sure he would sense the ectoplasm being urged to settle in place.

That was why I was thinking Wild Card Math because most of the virus victims were Jokers, some were Deuces, and like one percent were Aces, and then however many drew the Black Queen and died. CES

Even as someone who doesn't plan their draft, this kind of threw me. I think I am going with the original Captain Boomerang for my dragon since he always seems to be taking orders from Cold for the Rogues, and whomever gets put in charge of the Suicide Squad. (He used to be a great planner when dealing with the Flash, but when Ostrander put him on the SS, he lost all that and became a backstabbing weasel.) CES