Stories RPG Crossover: Gigacity Guardians 9 Breakthrough
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Hello! Welcome to Stories Podcast. I'm your host, Amanda Weldon. Today's story is a crossover episode from Stories RPG, our play-at-home, listen-and-learn game that helps people of all ages tell amazing stories together. Tune in for a regular episode of Stories Podcast later this week!

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Hello, and welcome back to Stories RPG. It is time for the final drama clock of Giga City Guardians. Dun dun dun. With me as always are the Guardians themselves. Everybody say hello. I feel like they all know you by now, but why don't y'all just give a quick shout out. Oh, I am Ape Canaveral, the unbreakable chimpanzee, the unshakable...

A to Z. Oh, that's a lot. I'm going to go rough. That's enough from you, Dan. Amanda, say hello to the lovely people. Hello, I'm Jillian Jays. I'm also Firefly and now I'm also a brick, but we don't know what that means yet. Dun, dun, dun. And the other brick, the amazing animus. Who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who

I had to do it. I've been waiting. I'm not mad. I'm not mad. I'm not mad. It's good. Animus, formerly disgruntled office worker, now for the first time throughout this whole ordeal, feeling like a guardian, having something to fight for. Champions of the city, defenders of the peace, heroes of justice.

The Giga City Guardians!

And that is where you are getting ready to fight. You have been making your way through the dark under tunnels, the sewers underneath the city. You're riding atop this strange slime mold brick creature along with... Yeah, Fido, along with Echo Locat, Skitter, the bug-like little dude, and...

were barren riptide who are along for the ride. Um, all of you are looking for the underground layer of ellipsis. And as you go deeper and darker into the tunnels, the only light is fireflies radiance. Um, and at some point echo holds up a, a, a claw puts her hand down on Fido and says, stop. And everyone goes still.

Echo looks upward and makes a little chittering noise. And then her ears kind of swivel. And then she says, above us, there's flat brick wall above you. If you want to touch base with specs, specs has been directing you this, this whole time. Echo's saying there's something up there. Everybody turns and looks at Jillian.

Skinner has climbed up the wall and he goes, oh my God, so cool. Dude, your suit is so cool. Anyway, he climbs up the wall and he's like kind of knocking at it. And he goes, Echo's never wrong about this stuff. Do you want to touch base with your, you're talking to somebody, right? Yeah. Does this person have a name or are we just going to call him the guy? His name is Specs and I'd like to check in with him.

uh specs is this the right spot and are we goes specs and he looks over at echo and he goes dude we know a guy named specs do you know what he goes oh just somebody we play fantasy hunt with online 100 it's the same guy 100 of course yes that's our friend specs echo has gone has gone rock still

And so she kind of turns her head away and like narrows her eyes a little. And he goes, dude, if it's the same guy, Echo's got a huge crush on that guy. Are you the one that he texts all the time? Is it you? Echo is like, is like just like shrinking into herself, like looking absolutely mortified.

Riptide goes, dude, brah, we met the girl you've been texting with. Only like, she's like a cat, but she's also a girl. I mean, I think, do you identify as female? Echo is like just dying, like dying. It's feline, not feline. I don't know. Specs is like, wait, what do you need? I don't,

Hold on. You can ask if their screen name is Echo Low Cat. Yeah, I think probably.

Pretty good bet. Yeah, probably that's the screen name because that's the name of the cat that we're interacting with. So I think it's the same. Skitter goes, dude, dude, ask him if his name is Spextacular. Spex, is your name Spextacular? That's not, you know my name, but okay, yeah, I use that on some gaming sites. Just don't, oh, this is embarrassing. Um, Werebear goes, guys, and he looks up at the ceiling and there's suddenly a rumble and he goes,

I think something knows we're here. And all of a sudden he goes full bear and the roof caves in above you. Welcome to the beginning of your drama clock. So I'm about to start one drama clock and there's going to be a lot of drama because we've gotten up to the epic end of this arc. So there's a lot to be learned and there's a lot to be struggled through.

So in order to help y'all out, I'm going to give you a little bit of a boost. I'm going to give each of you two story points. Now in Stories RPG, story points represent your contribution to the story. If you're at home and you're playing along, all you got to do is in between sessions, write a story, write about the backstory of your character, write about a place you'd like to go, write the backstory of another character, whatever you would like to add to the world.

And then based on that, get a few story points. Two points is enough for a re-roll. So in this case, I'm giving each of you two points. And part of the reason I'm doing that is I want to push you and I want to get the drama right to the edge of our seats. So each of you now has two story points. Write it down.

And you can spend those for a re-roll in a moment of high drama. Now, because I'm giving you story points, that lets me ramp up the drama clock. So for this drama clock, you're going to have one move apiece, three moves total, but you're going to need to get four triumphs. That means at least one of you is going to have to succeed with a six and move that success up with your power to a double triumph.

We could also roll a double six, right? I know that we can't plan on that. Ape ruined my first drama clock by rolling a double six straight out the gate. So yes, yes, you can do that. You can ruin my drama clock again, Ape.

All right. Double sixes. That's the goal. The ceiling begins to crumble and rain around you. Something is making its way out of a hole above your heads. There is a gleam of golden metal in the darkness above. Ape moves to put himself in front of Skitter. He said, look out, kid.

Skinner went up the wall. So when the, when the ceiling starts to crumble, he actually falls, flips, bounces off of Fido and lands back on the sidewall. Um, he turns his head and spits and there's a spray of acid that pokes whatever's coming through the ceiling. And you can see there's a sizzle. The metal starts to corrode. Oh,

I have a thing I'd like to do as things are starting. As soon as we see that shimmer of gold, I want to project a certain emotion, that emotion of,

And invigoration and courage and steadfastness, that kind of thing. Like the will to fight and be prepared. So you're going to amp your... That is the emotion. I want to amp people up. Give me your dice. Let's go. Because you know when you're amped up and you have that adrenaline, you can do more than you typically think you can. Amen. What do you got that's going to help you make this rule? Let's do it up. Okay. So one is my power, is my ability. Mm-hmm.

I'm going to use my drive, wanting to protect the community that I have found and I feel part of. And I want to use this one. So my focus is kind of usually using that eight of the charm bracelet, which more represents my

grounding, my sense of grounding in myself. This is the first time for a while that I am projecting an emotion that I feel within myself that I haven't drawn from, say, the link with Werebear.

And I kind of want to use that because Animus is feeling confident and empowered. Wow. All right. I like it. So you, can you describe what you look like when you do this? Like, is there an aura of energy? The bricks from the ceiling, cause this is an old sewer line are raining down around you. Fido shrinking skitters on the wall. Ape is trying to get in the way where bear just went huge fireflies ready to blast. What do you look like? I take a deep breath inward, close my eyes.

And like that forceful breath out, kind of like when you're doing martial arts and you have your, the way you breathe, adding that strength to a blow. And I'm going to put my hands out to either side of me, almost like bracing.

And as I do that, there is, I'm envisioning an aura that kind of reaches out almost as like glowing tendrils in a way, reaching out and reaching towards each one of my allies here. I feel like it's almost more forceful than tendrils. Like, I feel like it's got to like- Forceful? Okay. Like form around you like a sheet, like you blow it out and it's like the tendrils are like spikes and then they form like a little-

shield above you and everybody kind of looks up and like there's an intensity. I like that. Let's see what you roll here. High rolls of four triumph with the trouble.

Okay, okay, okay, that's fine. Would you like to take it? It's still a triumph, but it still counts with a triumph, right? It does, it absolutely does. Would you like to take it as is? Okay. Or would you like to move it up? I would like to take it as is. Okay, wow, you're saving the reroll and you're saving the power. You're playing the long game. Okay. Okay.

So everyone, you feel this sudden energy from Animus and all of a sudden it's like all the things you were thinking, all the like momentary fears you had, it all drops away and you're like, we're doing this. And all of you feel this energy enter you. Like you were right in the middle of talking about like, oh my gosh, echolocation and specs. Oh my gosh. And it just all blows right out of your head and you're like, it's on. Yeah.

Here's my question. What's the trouble? What happens? What's the problem?

I think I need to know more about like what's coming through. Like, can we, can we know at this point, can we get a little more information? So skitter has spit at a giant, it looks like a giant insectile leg made of a gleaming golden metal that has slammed through the ceiling. There is a massive, what looks like robot climbing its way through the hole and

And rotating, it's got a giant globe of a body. And as you watch, it rotates and a giant reddish eye shines down, bathing all of you in a reddish light. And all of you hear this voice that radiates out clearly from a speaker somewhere on this bot. And it says, Naughty, naughty. You're playing outside the rules. I do like a good contest. Well, enjoy.

The thing starts to, starts whirring and a laser lands out of the eye and into Fido. Oh,

Not Fido. Fido immediately erupts and there's like boiling, bubbling, and it like shrinks away and you feel the footing going down. You don't think he's killed Fido, but he's hurt him, clearly. Oh no, oh no. You don't kick puppies, no. Okay, so that's the trouble. And here's the problem it causes in the fiction. You are just getting ready to blast off

uh, Jillian and Fido shrinks beneath you and you all fall into the sewer water. Skitter's still hanging on the ceiling, but all of you have fallen down into the sewer because Fido is fleeing underneath you. You are now essentially treading water. Where bear has kind of tried to grab onto the side and echo has like, like leaps and grabs a hold and does that cat thing where you like kind of skitter and climb up.

And Skitter's hanging, but the rest of you have fallen in. Riptide has like surged up on a bit of water and he goes, we got to get this thing out the way. All right, Firefly. What's the move? Blast it. Yeah, I have to go up. I want to take everyone with me. Okay. Okay. Blast it and get us after.

Werebear reaches down and kind of grabs you by the cuff and like lifts you up. When he lifts me up, I go, oh, Skinner, all right. Skinner looks over and he goes, oh, buddy. He goes, look after yourself, kid. And he gives you like the thumbs up with one of his four arms. Yeah, he gives a very wet thumbs up, but it's like crooked. He's like, oh, buddy.

So I want to, yeah, I want to blast up into the layer and see if that will work. You want to knock this thing back where it came from. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jillian Jays would get mad. Oh yeah. I'm mad. Okay. There we go. All right. Yeah. So I'm angry and, uh, I want to, they heard blast it. Yeah. That's not fair. Okay. So Fido hurting Fido gets the matchstick temper. You've got your power suit. What's your third die?

You can't stand ellipsis is one of your lines. Yeah, he was. And he also talked down to me at his own risk just now. So I think. Yeah. So either it could be either one of those things. So the either the quirk or the bond that I can't stand ellipsis. All right. OK. Ready? Yes. No.

Nice. Do you want to move that up to a double success? Yes, I do. I think that that would be a good thing to do. Critical. Okay, so that's two triumphs. Describe how this goes, because I think you could even go through the other side of this thing. So I rocket upwards at this golden beast. I can just kind of plow straight through it, and little bits of it go everywhere, but it's a robot, so we don't feel bad about it, because it's going to be fine. They can just rebuild it.

You have erupted through this thing with a shower of parts. It kind of like crumbles behind you and falls apart. And you find yourself bashing through a door. It looks like the airlock from some sort of futuristic science fiction spaceship. And you blow through it.

without a second thought. Now, this thing was easily probably a foot thick, and you leave this absolutely torn open explosion of steel behind you. And the rest of them are all kind of left being like, holy... And Skidder goes...

Dude. And Riptide, who is serving up, he goes, I know, bro. It's always cool the first time you see her do it. You are in the middle of what looks like a massive laboratory. There are golden parts of drones everywhere. There are screens hanging on every wall and the screens flicker to life.

And all of them display three dots. And you hear the voice around you, all around you, surrounding you. And he says, I didn't think you'd come this far. Well, welcome. It's lovely to have guests. Haven't had any in so long. Let me think about how to welcome you. And all of a sudden, all the drones on every side come to life.

All of them seem to be these same spheres, like those tiny golden drones you saw earlier, but each of them seems to sprout different appendages. Some of them have insect-like legs, others seem to have lasers. They all sort of open up and unfold, and you're completely surrounded by a swarm of these things.

You immediately begin ducking and weaving. They begin shooting up above the rest of you down at the tunnel. You're like hearing an absolute explosion of stuff. There's clearly a huge fight going on above your heads. You are currently at three out of four triumphs. Ape, you have a move and you must triumph at this move to make it. What would you like to do?

Werebear can easily chuck you up that tunnel and you can climb up there and try to get into some stuff. That was my first thought. I turned to Werebear and I like put my fist up like a Superman pose. I say, all right, here comes the fastball. Sam goes, bam.

And like winds up and chucks you through the hole. Echo and skitter come climbing up behind you and riptide surges up from a huge column of water. Um, where bear is sort of left as like the anchor he's climbing up behind, but it takes him a little longer. He's strong enough to do it. You get chucked. Um, do you want this to be your move or do you want to wait till you get up there first? No,

No, I think my move is once I'm up there, I'm calling attention. I'm going to be the tank here, standing over Firefly, next to Firefly, just letting these things kind of break themselves against me for a second, taking the lasers, taking the bolts.

Firefly is on the move. Firefly is spinning, whirling, dodging. There are blasts of energy from ports. These things are shooting in every direction. There also seem to be some automated defenses that have come out of the walls. Echo and Skitter come out of the hole and Riptide too, like last of all Riptide.

And each of them is immediately engulfed in this battle. This place is huge. It's easily the size of a football field with a huge dome overhead. And you immediately find yourself swarmed. Uh, skitter is, is spewing acid one way or the other. He's jumping and leaping. Echo seems to be chucking, uh, those metallic claws. A few of these things go down under those, but she also takes a shot in the shoulder. Um,

Riptide surges up and begins firing blasts of water. He seems the least able to handle it because he's not in his element. He's channeling as much of the water up through the tube as he can and using it as kind of a reservoir to slap different bots. But they do seem to be protected against the water. He's taking fire too.

There's like this crackle and specs goes, he's just buying time. He must actually be there. He's trying to slow you down. Somebody's got to figure out where he is and get it before he gets out. All right. So, uh,

Do we see anywhere he could be? Is there any like any doorways or anything? There are a few different doorways. All of them are sealed. It looks like there's one main doorway leading to like, it's, it's off to your right right now there. It's basically like a football stadium sized hanger with all these different devices that were in different states of, of repair and disrepair and building and around the bottom there's,

uh, there are at least three doors, uh, one at one side, one at either end. I'm just going to start with, um, we're just going to yell. Which way did he go to people in general? Okay. You're just like, which way did he go? Uh,

Okay. Yeah. Let's start with that. Echo is like dodging and weaving and kind of like chitters a little, and then like, you know, takes a hit, uh, skitter yells and like tries to leap in front of it. Um, but she, she gets nailed by something, but she spins around and she points at one of the doors and she says, there's someone there. They're running. Okay. So then ape is going to, the move then is triggering. Yeah. King of the urban jungle, a little rash and cocky. And, um,

I think greatest tape there is might be a good one here. Cause I'm going to blast up out of that hole. I'm going to grab one of these flying drones, take on a piece of a, uh, just the shattered floor, some piece of sheet metal as a surfboard on the wake of riptides eruption there. And just try to, you want to holler back to riptide, like get,

get like let him know you need the support i mean super heroics are all about the teamwork let's go yeah yeah i'll give him a quick surfs up and then i'm basically i'm trying to like kite surf here on the water but using this drone for propulsion beautiful okay that's awesome just bombing towards the sealed door and i'm gonna open it mostly with my body but also i'm gonna go surfboard first but you can hit

Hit things with cannonball speed and resistance. You're not going to get crushed. You're tougher than anything. All right, let's go, man. Give me your dice roll. All right, and...

That is a solid six, my friend. That's a success. Yeah. So Ape has never surfed before, but like he's seen videos. He gets it. He rips down this thing. He's flying on his surfboard, holding the drone, bobbing, weaving. He hits a swell. He's hanging 10. Finally gets to the door and just kind of throws himself off the board and hits the door like shoulders first. And I think he blasts through. And what does he see on the other side?

You kind of blast through in like a spray of drone parts and like sewer water. So this, this officially hits the end of this drama clock because this triumph is enough to hit you to four. So you're surfing on this piece of metal and the drone you've got a hold of, you've kind of grabbed it by two appendages and it's rocket, you know, it's struggling against you, but it's, it makes you go so fast that you crash through the door. And within moments you find yourself slamming into the back of a person.

and slam them into a wall. And the water subsides a little, and you can hear the chaos behind you. Some of the drones are getting, they're still operating. But you sort of like pick up the metal, and underneath, there's a kid. How old the kid? What are we talking about, kid? He turns around and he goes, get off me!

And he, like, struggles, and he gets to, he kind of staggers to his feet a little, and he, like, looks wildly around, and then he grabs something out of his pocket. It looks like a little video game controller. Would you like to slap it out of his hand? I think I kick it out of his hands, and I say, you've been rebooted. Yes!

I feel like in order for Ape to do a kick with those little stubby legs, it has to be like plant the two long arms and then do the like swivel kick. Yeah. And then like do a little flip. Yeah. And land again. It's like some capoeira kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah. And he sort of looks at the controller, looks at you, and he goes, cute. And then he sort of dives for the controller, but then he clearly grabs his side, and he's like, and he stops. The rest of you, you

You saw where Ape went and you've all like, you clean up the last of the drones. Jillian, you see it first. It's Jorge. I knew it. I knew it. So the accent was fake. Yeah, it was fake. He looks up and he goes, he does like a slow clap and he goes, congratulations, you win. What a jerk. I...

Yeah, Abe's got to kind of pick him up and like slump him into whatever chair, kind of. So you've managed... This looks like a control room and you can see that there's a ladder, one of those like iron rung ladders. That's where he was headed. You kind of throw him into a chair and he goes, okay, what do you do now? And he smiles real big. What are you doing? Like, why are you doing this? He rolls his eyes and he says, that's what you want to know. And he goes... I mean, I...

Like Abe cracks his knuckles, says, you're about to get a virus, kid. You better answer up. He goes, do whatever you want. I'm supposed to be scared now. I've been scared my whole life. He's like, I'm not afraid of you. Who's he scared? This is wait. Who are you working for? He goes working for he laughs and he starts laughing and he's like, he kind of shakes his head and he goes, of course, that's the way you think.

Cause you know, this couldn't possibly be something I did myself. Could it? Jillian. Ape looks at Animus and says, can you just like, you know, does his mind zap him or something? Do I need to turn like the sprinklers on? Is that, is that what we're doing here? No, the metaphorical, the mind sprinklers. That's some ethical territory Animus has very carefully avoided. I, uh, I've, I've been, I've been careful with that one. Well, Ape would ask, Ape, Ape,

Apes is animus. Can't you just zap him? You know, give any points to his head. Like, Oh, I'm we're standing by. Let's, let's see how these two handle it. Yeah. We're standing by. You didn't sound threatening enough. It's back. Jorge goes, take all the time. You like deadlines ticking. And he shrugs. Um, how long have you known? It wasn't hard to figure out. You're terrible at covering your tracks.

All it takes is anybody with half a brain being able to track Firefly's energy signature. You go straight back to the lighthouse, and then who walks out? Bioscans aren't that hard. Your buddy should have told you that.

All right. Listen, are you working with Tusk or not? Yeah. Like, are you, is that what you're doing? I mean, cause you, cause you're clearly like, I'm sorry if I've offended you by suggesting that you're working for somebody, but like, you're not the only person in on this. So who else is involved? He goes, this is me. All of this. Tusk is an employee of mine.

And he kind of like looks disgusted with the idea that anybody he would work for anyone else. He goes, he's pathetic. I have all the information I need on him. He'll do anything I say. He wants to be mayor. It's easy to control people who are greedy. Okay, big shot. So if you're if you child are trying to claim the credit for all of this, he laughs and he goes, child, he goes, aren't you my baby?

And he smiles really big and he goes, you're welcome, by the way. I changed your life, didn't I? Okay. I hate him. That's disgusting. But it was subversive. And are you not now trying to turn this entire city against the thing, the beings that you have been meddling with?

He sort of shakes his head and he goes, so small minded. And he looks up at Firefly and he goes, you know, I used to look up to you. I used to wish that you would fix my problems for me. Not you, of course. Whoever you were before you inherited that thing you're wearing.

I mean, did you ever have to do any of it on your own? Did you ever have anything that you built yourself or did it all just get given to you? Because nobody gave me anything. He says, all this, I had to find it. I had to take it. And meanwhile, what were you doing? Punching people. He nods and he goes, I learned the hard way. If I want something, I have to make it myself.

It's like a false equivalency morality argument. He goes, sure.

Okay, well then you lost all credibility. You're putting people in danger. I'm tired of this guy. Let's punch a clock and he's going to leap ahead. Probably Werebear grabs him. Yeah, no. Werebear's going to grab him by the neck. Yeah, it's going to stop. Punching somebody who's absolutely vulnerable at the moment. Not a move. No, they're just going to be yelling, you sick giant bugs on my city. You're done. You're done. On innocent people too. He laughs and he goes, innocent? That's rich. We live

We live in one of the nicest cities in the world. You ever looked around? Innocent people. Innocent people who walk around every day and don't do a thing for those who need it most. He goes, look, 10% of the population has powers right now. It's not long until enough of them gain enough power that they can do whatever they want. Me? I'm just making the move I need to to make certain that I'm in control of my own destiny.

And I'm going to fix this city. And you know, sometimes you do need to do hard things in order to fix things. By the way, have you checked? Because I don't think any of those people would have died unless they got broken out. He goes, I can't say anything for their care now.

but they were being cared for perfectly in Tusk Towers, and they would have a better life. They wouldn't have to be brick red in order to have power. I gave them a gift, just like I did you. Yeah, and people are safe in prison, too. Taking people against their will, putting them in painful environments to somehow make it better for their own good?

He just shakes his head and he goes, small picture, small mites. I expect it better from you, Firefly. Yeah, what is the big picture? Because this all sounds very black and white to me right now, but I feel like there's more to it. He says, oh, you want to ask me again to tell you everything? He smiles really big and he goes, I thought I explained it to you last time. And he clicks something next to his neck.

And it's Ellipsis' voice. And he says, I don't know if that works for me, but it seems, well, ridiculous, doesn't it? And he looks up at you and he clicks it again. Like, I don't know. I prize direct communication. I'm just being direct with you. And clearly you want us to figure this out. You want us to know what is going on because you want to be able to say, like, that you did a great job or whatever. So you should just tell us

the plan because there's moving pieces and we don't know who else is going to get hurt because regardless of whether or not you think that you were intending to hurt those people or regardless of whether or not you think that it's your fault that people got hurt, people did get hurt and it's because of plans and actions that you put into place. So we need to stop what is going on. You can either be a part of the solution or you can be a part of the problem and it doesn't sound like you want to be part of the problem.

He looks at you and he goes, that's rich coming from you. People got hurt. He widens his eyes and he goes, you've been to Flipside now, haven't you? Yeah. People get hurt when you make the hard calls, don't they, Jillian? Echo goes, he's stalling. Something else must be happening. He grins and he goes, oh, look, one of you has got it figured out. And he smiles and there's a rumble underneath you.

And all of a sudden you hear sirens going off in the city above. He smiles and he says, so what's it going to be, Guardians? You've got a city. You're going to go protect it? You hear specks in your ears and he goes, oh, uh, guys, uh, I don't want to be like interrupting anything, but something's coming out of the bay. It's huge and it's brick red. And yeah, this is looking real bad.

He looks at Jillian and he goes, tick tock. How do we get up there? What's the fastest way to get up there? You saw the exit. You're not sure if it's going to go straight to daylight, but you definitely figure you can get out that way.

I'm grabbing him by the scruff. I'm dragging him up the ladder with me. I said, let's go. Where bear, where bear like puts out a hand and he says, I think I'd be easier for me. You're kind of trying to drag him. And he's like just slumping and letting you drag. And the problem is you realize either he's going to get really hurt or you're going to get off balance doing this. You're as strong as a chimpanzee, but it's a weird balancing act because mass wise it's odd. I'm not worried about either of those things, but where bear might be. I don't know. Yeah. Where bear barrels him under one arm.

Well, werebear also like, he hasn't said much, but he's been looking at the kid. You know, werebear had a tough upbringing. Um, and you know, he's been never, uh, set bugs on my city. Yeah.

This is true. A lot of choices you can make. I think Werebear and Animas can have a sit down with Jorge when we get up topside. Okay. So you managed to make it up the ladder. Werebear gives the panel a shove and it bursts open. Echo and Skitter look up. Echo says, we can't go topside. Skitter's like,

I want to go do like, you know, the full on guardians thing. There'll be a big monster and a huge fight. And Echo looks at him and goes, we're the monsters to them. And he goes, oh, you're so lame. And he looks up at Ape and he goes, okay, dude, good luck. And you owe me a jacket. Oh, sorry, kid. Hang up the tunnel. See you later, buddy. Jacket!

And like you go up, you're up and you realize you're in what looks like the basement of the school.

Jillian, you feel like you recognize at least the paint color. You never came down into the basement, but you're in a closet and you kind of bundle past some like mops and stuff. You're in, you're in your school. Cool. Then I know how to get out of our school. Um, you do. Yeah. So I can kind of, I can look around and get my bearings. And then I realized we're probably in like the sciencey wing. Um, so we're going to all head out the front door, uh,

So we have to like come up some stairs and go across like the big like foyer thing. And then we're out the front door.

Yeah, I would have loved to have like a montage of Firefly like blasting through full classrooms of students, but it's the weekend. Yeah, it's Sunday. It's Sunday. Maybe you start all the robotics club who like, you know, completely has a fan reaction. But yeah, you guys go barreling out. You burst into the sunshine and you look around and

And you've kind of got rolling hills down to the bay and you can hear the air raid sirens and you see a gleam of gold and a huge mass of red. There is an enormous brick red creature surging out of the bay and destroying the tourist dockside area. You can hear the screams, there's smoke in the air and you recognize that shape. It's Fido.

Um, at this point, uh, specs is like, I'm getting you all jet packs. You're going to have to get to the bay quick.

It's ugly down there. Giga city gold's there. And I, there's some other powered people. Yeah. Okay. We're going. He also says, also, I got, I got messages from, did you guys meet somebody named Skitter? Cause like, I know a guy online called Skitter. Yeah. Anyway, he's telling me there are students there and they know that Fido's not okay. He says they're trying to help save Fido too. You got friends out there is what I'm trying to say, I guess. Okay. That's good.

That's really good. The jet packs come screaming in and you have to do a little bit of a leap and a grab. Uh, where bear kind of drops Jorge and ape. I'm imagining that you like jump on his chest the minute he drops him. No, I like hold up my hands like, Oh, I'll take the kid. And then when we're bear drops him, I pull my hands back.

Well, Jorge just kind of like, I'll go over and help Jorge up. Okay. He winces a little cause he did get hit when you slam through that door as he falls and animus, you offer him a hand and he takes it. Um, and he stands back up and kind of looks at you a little nods. All right. Animus, you got the kid. I got him. All right. And then firefly. We going? Yeah, we're going.

All right. You blast off. You are cruising above the city. There's smoke coming from the bay. You see, as you get closer, Fido has extended massive numbers of pseudopods and he's ripping down. There's this beautiful, like touristy bay area where there's like a

boardwalk and there's like a carnival you can see there is a that giant wheel the ferris wheel is like beginning to topple and you can hear people screaming

You can see that the buildings are crumbling into the streets. You can see that the traffic is all backed up. There are sirens and lights. There's a helicopter. You can't tell whether it's news or police from here, but it seems like there's some, there's a chatter of some small arms fire towards Fido and it doesn't seem to be having any effect except to make him swell more out of the water and become more enraged.

What would everyone like to do? This is your final drama clock. We're going to give you each two moves, but the total number of triumphs needs to be eight. You've got to save the people, save Fido, and it'd be lovely if you could figure out what to do with Jorge. All right. Ape knows I'm not super strong, and I don't have the technology of a Firefly, so I can't do anything about the Ferris wheel. So I'm going to try to land on Fido, and we've got to assume...

I don't know if it's like a thorn in the paw kind of thing or if it's a... I don't know what exactly is going on, but we know he doesn't act like this normally. So I'm going to go to... I'll land on Fido. So what will be... This is an ape grooming move. You're going to groom Fido for the parasite. Oh!

Oh my God. So I want to, I want to like, I think the first move I want to do is kind of taking the jet pack and weaving through the carnage and sticking the landing on to fight up. Okay. So this is your first move is you got to stick the landing. This is definitely, yeah, that's definitely an eight move. You've got a lot of, uh, engine jet propulsion this episode. You're doing a lot of flinging yourself about. I dig it. What do you got? That's going to help you with this man. So can't be harmed. My power. Definitely. Oh, you're going to go back and rash.

And definitely, if someone's going to be hurt, it might as well be me. Yeah, you're landing on Fido, and Fido is definitely not happy right now. I think he's got lashing pseudopods and all kinds of garbage. Yeah, that's a heavy risk here. Okay, so the pseudopods actually, as you're coming in, they're definitely trying to swat you away like a bug. Give me your roll, man.

Ouch. That's a double one and a three. That means complete failure. No. Don't we get a story point? Don't we have a story point? There are story points. You have two story points. Would you like to re-roll? I do. I need to re-roll that. Okay. Give me the re-roll, man. Do it up. Ooh, that's better. That's better. You know what? That's a mixed success. That's a high five. But I think I'll take that. I could use my boost, but I'm going to save that for what comes next.

I think I land, I think I get battered and bruised by these pseudopods. He actually whacks you and the jet pack explodes and you get flung down into Fido and kind of like land in the squishy mass with a wet impact. And you kind of like surge to your feet and start like sniffing around, kind of like hunting for something that doesn't smell like Fido. And Fido has a very distinct smell. So it's easy to notice a non-Fido scent.

I'll mark a hard off for that. I think that's my failure and we'll take the one success on that. And yeah, I land, he's like a, like a pile of GAC or slime that the kids make. And then, um, I'll leave, I'll leave it there. It definitely has that like, like there's a, Oh no. Oh no. Ew.

I'll send it, send it to Firefly. Okay. So Firefly, you and, uh, and Animus and were bear and riptide are all surging through. Riptide has leapt off and lands, uh, like on a wave that rises up to meet him.

and immediately starts slamming wave after wave into the beast. And you can see that he's doing his best to wash him away from the docks. You see that Ferris wheel begin to teeter. It's being rocked by the waves that have been slamming into it because Fido surged out. And Fido has...

essentially begun to destabilize it. You see Tutan and Gyro flickering through. Mira Mira is also on the ground and she's there grabbing people and like teleporting them to safety. Okay. Same as during the Megapete attack. Okay. Can I go over? Can I just hold on to the

Ferris wheel and like balance it so that it's, it can be, it's not teetering anymore and it's not destabilized. Can I go fix it? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. The Ferris wheel is teetering and I want to, I want to fix it. And I'm going to find a big bar from a construction site and bring it over and, and blast weld it with my suit to create some kind of support stability for the Ferris wheel so that it can be fixed and people can get off safely.

Nice. Okay. What do you have? That's going to help you do this amazing job of industrial engineering in the middle of a, a giant battle with a slime mold.

Well, I have the suit. I have, can I use my drive? Which is I lost my father to supervillains. I'll use my power to keep that from happening to anyone else. That is incredibly important in this moment. Yes. And then I will also use my deed, which is I defeated the Scarlet King and saved Giga City. So I did it before and I can do it again.

Ooh, I like, I like the logic. You're like, this is not new. I have done this before. Like, yes, this is what I know. Like a lot of that emotional stuff that you were going through and all this awful PR things, they've been driving you crazy. It's kind of a relief. You're having this moment of like, this is what I know how to do. Yeah. Um, okay. So boom.

That is success, triumph, but with a trouble. Yeah. Do you want to take it or do you want to move it up? I'll take a heart.

Okay. So you, uh, you blast up, you grab this rebar. Um, it is taking all of your energy to like, this is a enormous cause it's incredibly long. Um, and you have to, you, you pick it right up from a construction site and you lean it against the, uh, the Ferris wheel. You can hear the people in the Ferris wheel start to like, they're, they're all like cheering immediately upon seeing you. You can tell that everyone has just felt like, Oh gosh, like,

We're saved. It's Firefly. And you hear somebody shout like, it's I am like everybody cheers. Um, you start welding and as you're welding Fido lashes out and you get slammed and go flying into the water. Um, you've managed to stabilize it, but you've just taken a hit and the, the, uh, the suit, the

Animus, where are you landing? You've got Jorge. Let's go to one of the high rises that's at a safe distance away, but still very much in view of where the action is, kind of like that outer radius of impact zone, basically. Yep.

So we will zoom off there as we are flying. This isn't quite my move yet, but it's in preparation for the move. I want to start passively taking in as far as I can reach the different emotions that I'm feeling around us as we are zipping through the air from the chaos that's on the ground and just start data gathering and preparation for what I'm about to do with Jorge when we get to that skyscraper. Lots of fear, lots of anxiety, a whole lot of anger.

like, yeah, you know, how dare they like that kind of a mood, um, a whole lot of like despair feelings of like,

Why? Why? Like, why is this happening? You know, we just had the Megapete attack. They just attacked Tusk Tower. Like, it's the feeling of being terrified because your city's under siege. You know, there's a clear emotion radiating off the city of really just terror. They're desperate down there. And they're really this is even the people who are not at the bay. This is horrifying. This is gonna, you know, people are gonna move if they can from Giga City. This is pretty bad. Yeah.

Um, so you feeling this is like the end of giga city kind of feeling it's that it's that people are really feeling like, you know, the people who have built their lives here are feeling like they can't keep living here. So I'm going to take all of that in and,

Store it. Gotcha. And Werebear is flying alongside and he kind of like veers a little and you feel from him like he felt you taking that in. And he kind of like steadies himself and he looks over and as you guys land on this building, he drops Jorge and he goes, are you okay? Are you going to be okay? Because I need to get over there. I'm okay. Okay.

I'll explain why you just felt what you felt after this. He like looks at you and this is the nice thing about where bear, he could ask you a bunch of questions. He could try to intellectualize things. That's not how where bear rolls. He just nods and he says, okay,

All right, good luck. And then he dives off the building and blasts off towards Fido and the, uh, and immediately starts, you know, he's, he's uncovering, he's catching rubble. He's doing all the things he's got to do. We're bear style. So he blasts off towards the disaster. All right, you are there. Jorge, uh, is, has sat down. He's leaning against, there's one of those like, uh, air conditioner outs and he's watching everything that's happening in the city below. He, uh, he looks at you and he goes, uh,

So I guess you're just babysitter today, huh? You're not a baby. You are someone who has fought very hard for a very long time to try to make the world what you think it should be. I'm not going to fault you for that. I might take issue with your execution, but we're going to sit here, take a breather, and just let things sink in for a little bit.

He kind of like, he just kind of like folds his arms and looks around and he sort of like pulls out a notebook and he starts writing something while he's watching. And he keeps looking up and looking around and writing. What are you writing? Just want to keep track of exactly what's going on. Helps. Instead of having the conversation, or as we're having the conversation, I suppose, I'm going to, in a way that's similar, but much, much more deliberate, write.

Then what happened with Werebear? I want to try to link with Jorge. Okay. And there are three levels to what I want to do. I love it. Okay. And I want to describe it first and then we can figure out how hopefully to make it work. I want to deliberately have that link. I'm going to sit down, kind of mimic the body posture, very non-threatening, but same level, right? First, I want to say, okay, maybe I can help you take it in.

That first level is helping him not just see what's like be aware of what's going on around him, but allow him to have without overwhelming a taste of what people are feeling and how that is connected to the events that are going on around. That's level one. I want that to sink in. That's level one. And that might be a little intense. So we're going to walk through it right through this, this link.

Level two of that link is connecting his own emotions to what is going on and showing how what's going on right now will most likely resonate to what he's felt in the past and what he's probably feeling currently to close that empathy gap. Level three, I really, really want to emotionally...

We're going to get them right in the emotion. So my drive, protecting and building community, I think he has the same drive, but is executing it in a really misguided way, in a really destructive way. So I want to link the drive. Okay.

Overall, that's what I want to do. Three stages. Similar to Werebear. So, Werebear and I are tight, but in a much more deliberate and focused, intentional way with Jorge. And it's less about sharing yourself. It's more about sharing the city, yeah? Go ahead. Yes. Can I...

ask for something in addition to this i wonder um yes i'm thinking about jorge and i'm thinking about um things about like trauma and stuff like that and i'm thinking about like this what he's writing down in his notebook and everything i mean he's keeping track of everything that's going on i'm sure that some of that is because he's keeping track of his like he's masterminding the plot and everything but he's also um hyper vigilance he's also like he's scared that's a trauma response

Yeah. So he's looking around and he's trying to keep track of everything that's going on. He's also trying to keep in control of everything because- He's disassociating. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if what you could offer to him too is a sense of safety, like a deep felt sense of safety. Because I don't think that he'll be able to take in anything else or feel anything else until he has that sense of groundedness and safety and calm. Yes. And I think that that has to be like a precursor.

That should absolutely be the precursor to level one and linking that sense of safety full circle. Once we get through precursor, you're safe. Here's what people are feeling. Here's what you're feeling. Hammer home community and building and bringing that all together. He can help make a safe community. Um,

I think also like allow yourself to be a part of it too. So that, cause, cause in order for him to have like a sense of what it means to build a community, he also has to have a sense of what it means to have a safe relationship with one person, which we don't really know that he has. And so like, I think allowing yourself to be a safe person for him and, and allowing that kind of, there's like a, it's a building block from there. This might be, this might be two moves.

Absolutely. First, make him safe and then make him see. What lines are you using here? I'm using my drive. Yeah. Protect and build community is definitely here. You're trying to welcome him instead of shove him out, which it seems like nobody's done for him. I'm using...

I'm using the experience of a bond. So the bond I'm leveraging here is that I experienced a mental link to where bear. I'm not using the link to where bear, but the fact I've experienced a bond before. And it's also, I don't know if you caught it, where bear and him don't necessarily have that different a past. Maybe there are some twists and turns that led them to different results, but they both had a hard, a hard childhood. And because I have that intimate knowledge of where bear as well,

that can help to create that sense of security and kinship. Yep. There it is. That's good. There it is. I'll take that. You got to boost it too. Get that double. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do the double. Do the double. It's a double, double. We need that double to get it on too. This is good. Yeah. No. So you got four out of eight triumphs. You've made three out of six moves. Do you want to describe physically how you do that? You're sitting there. Do you just reach out to him or do you like actually touch? Like, do you stop him from writing? Do you just like get involved?

I don't stop him from what he's doing, but I want him to be aware to some degree. You need that like kind of mental consent as well. Just as you're doing this,

Just kind of breathe with me. He kind of gives you a sideways look and like almost starts an eye roll. And then you go, just kind of breathe with me. And he looks at you and then all of a sudden he goes, yeah. And like, it's almost like he had the wind knocked out of him for a second. There's the punch.

And then he kind of draws a shuddering breath and he kind of looks at you and it's almost like he's finally seeing you. He's been doing a lot of posing. He's been very guard up. And all of a sudden he just looks at you and he's just a kid.

And he kind of like breathes out a little. And then he just, the pen drops out of his hand and he slumps back against the thing and like puts his hand up and like massages his brow a little bit, kind of shakes his head a bit and then digs around in his pack and pulls out, it looks like a bottle of water.

And he takes a swig and he just kind of offers it to you. I imagine like visually the surroundings kind of like they're still there, but they soften a little bit. It's like focused on that area.

moment there that he's experiencing. Yeah. Well, what happens is as the two of you reach out your hand and there's like a slight touch and then it's almost like everything fades a little bit and you are very crystal clear aware of each other. And he seems like he's a person, not a presentation for the first time since you've met him. Yeah.

Called a lot of things. All right. In that moment, Werebear is currently hauling concrete off of people. He's grabbing pieces of buildings that are falling. And Mira Mira has been dodging in and out and grabbing out the people who he's been saving. And she gives him a nod. Like one of them gives him a nod. Meanwhile, you've noticed an entire crew of super powered kids. Yeah.

are, are helping. Um, a few of them, like one has been skating up the sides of buildings. And then when she gets high enough sticking and like slowing people's descent in the air by holding out a hand, you're not sure how she's doing it.

Another one, you see a flash of light and a piece of concrete that's falling literally splits in half and falls on either side of a group. And there's a girl standing in the middle of it with what looks like a sword made of energy in her hand. Specs in your ears says, those kids are doing good work. Weirdly, Giga City Gold doesn't seem to be hurting much either.

Two-Ton and Gyro seem to be focusing on slamming into Fido, but you definitely see that MiraMira is really focused on saving folks. All right, Ape, you got to move. Animus, you got to move.

and Firefly. You've got to move one move a piece. What do y'all want to do? I want to find the thing. I don't know what it is yet. I'm assuming it's tech because ellipsis is a tech guy. I want to try to find it and then give it the, I want my move to be finding it. It doesn't fireflies move can be saving the day. So how do you have your, like, what do you want to do? You're grooming this guy. What do you got? What do you got for grooming Fido? Fido is trying to slap you off of him.

He tried to slap me off. I feel like he's absorbing me and spitting me out again. It's like, it's a real mess up there, but luckily I am, uh, my power, it cannot be harmed. That's really coming in handy again. Very rash, not super worried about it.

There's a couple moments where Riptide actually surges you back onto Fido after you get flung free. You're just like that flea that won't leave the back of the big dog. That's exactly what's going on. I feel like that's a little King of the Urban Jungle. I'm dipping, I'm diving, I'm swinging from tentacles, I'm...

stick it on there. Like the little, like a little tick, you know, I'll buy it. I see some brachiation happening from tentacles. I can see you flipping and, and flying. You've got king of the urban jungle. You've got, I'm going to do my, my brash and rash here. That's you lean on that heavy. And then my power cannot be harmed. Okay.

Not excellent. Not terrible. A five triumph with a trouble. So I got a five high. What do you think? Should I reroll? What do you think, Firefly? You're the one who's going to have to come in next. Well, how many rerolls do we have left? I have one and Scriv has one. So I'm going to reroll it. Let's reroll it. This is your one roll. Risky, risky, risky. Let's go.

Yes, that's the six. Okay, that was worth the re-roll. Worth the story points. Do you want to move that one up, Abe? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to boost that. So I'm getting knocked about, slapped about. Finally, I'm trying to look and it's not actively working. Most of my energy is going to just staying on this bucking bronco of a giant squid amoeba. But finally, I spot it.

And I'm able to get Firefly's attention. And it's, what does it look like? Like a little piece of tech stuck in there? It's a tiny, it looks like one of those drones. And it's embedded inside of Fido. And it's, you know, deep inside. You spot it and you literally jump off and plunge into Fido. And you have to kind of struggle, swim your way through this jello-like form. And you reach out and you grab that thing and you crush it.

And immediately Fido suddenly goes and like kind of like

A lot of pseudopods, you know, drop. Tutan, who was in the business of being flunked, drops out of the air. And that's the problem. He drops everything and begins to surge backwards into the sea so quickly that there's a tidal wave that's beginning to form behind and surges into the city. All of a sudden, there's a massive second wave of destruction as Fido's like, terrifying.

leads him to be propelled backwards. You, meanwhile, Ape, you find yourself spit out and you literally go flying through the air and land and roll several times and sort of pop up. And there's like a whole bunch of people who've been watching this and there's a cheer that goes up.

up and then all of a sudden it turns to screams as the wave crashes in this isn't a consequential role but I think just king of the urban jungle and can't be hurt I just want a quick I want a quick to die roll to see if I can stick the landing on my feet oh I this isn't for the drama clock this is just for Abe you double triumphed

You can roll to see if you stuck the landing, but you double triumphed. Yes, you stick the landing. You stick the landing. You do like a little flip. You look amazing. Yeah, I do a flip. I hit the ground and then my feet are still kind of like jellied up. And I just do a cool skid, like a...

Oh, nice. Nice. I feel like you also need to like, you know, take out the sunglasses and put them on. Like as the lashes never came off. I don't know what you're talking about. All covered in goo. You're like dripping goo.

slap and then back on the head. All right. All right. But then the tidal wave comes up behind me and I'm not a lot I can do about that. Riptide is surfing on it and he's trying desperately to pull back. You can see him like pulling at the waves. Firefly, you're going to have to do something and do something quick.

Um, you see some of the students who, who like those powered kids, they're darting into the crowd and, and like, really, they've got a whole bunch of people free. A few of them are trying to like hold up. Like there's somebody with what looks like an energy shape. You see Anna Molly, you know her. Oh yeah. Um, she's turned into a massive dinosaur and is trying to like shield, uh,

uh, one set of people. Like she's standing right in front of a group of, of people who are cowering in her shadow. Oh, that's giant purple dinosaur. It's, it's a very interesting site. All her shapes are purple. Okay. So I need to stop this wave from coming in and sweeping everyone off the shore. Um, so I, and I can use the kids as a resource, um,

I can like try to use that, but I have to like... You could holler. You think they might listen. Yeah. They definitely might listen. What stops waves? Is it like a force field or something? Like what do I... Is there... How do I make... You could try to break the energy of the wave so that it doesn't slam. It's the force of the wave that's dangerous. So let's do the redirecting thing where I try to like sweep the wave. I also think that the kids...

are a really good resource and I'm worried that the redirecting won't fully work or that I'll have like a triumph of the trouble or something. And I wonder if I can just call their attention to the fact that this is happening so that they can all kind of, I don't know if a lot of them are shapeshifters like Anamali, if they can kind of like make a bigger barrier to, to protect anything that might overflow.

You can shout out like, give me cover. I'm going to try to take this wave, you know, shout something to them, try to get them to, I think. And I think that line of you saved the city, that's going to be the line that's going to matter here. Cause when Firefly asks you for help in saving the city, you're going to step up because it's Firefly. Okay. Okay. Have we met them before? No, but you, you only have heard about this a little bit from where bear, um, there's a sanctuary for powered kids, um,

And it's a place where they can be safe and where they can learn to use their powers and they don't have to leave if they don't want to. They can stay as long as they like. But the goal is if they wish to leave, to be ready for the world and safe in the world.

Because it can be difficult if you don't know how to control your powers living a normal life. Werebear talked a little bit about that, but you know, the first time you pull a door off its hinges, it's bad news. In the story, when we did that purple problem short story, Amanda, that's where you sent Molly at the end. Right. Yeah. You sent Molly to Senora Sun's sanctuary, and that's where Anna Molly has been living for the past several years. So, a call out to all of Senora Sun's

students. And I say, brace yourself and make a wall. And I'm sort of gesturing to the wave. And then...

I trust that they hear me and that they're all going to use their individual powers or ways that they kind of make barriers or protect the people that they're around or whatever, but they're all paying attention. They all know what's going on. So they're going to do their, their thing. Where bear amplifies that because where bears they're on the ground too. And he starts hauling up concrete. That girl who was sticking to the side of the building, you see her like put her hands out. The concrete's kind of sticking together. They're all building. They're all working together on this. Okay. Okay.

So they're all doing that, and I'm going to take off in front of the wave and go really, really fast, as fast as I possibly can to get it to redirect out away from the shoreline and just back out to the water. Like a superheated plume of steam behind you. Never open up the engine this fast. This is going to be like sonic boom time. Some windows are going to shatter. Yeah, like my ears are going to pop. Your ears are going to pop? Yeah. Let's do this.

And the lines that I'm using are, I defeated the Scarlet King and saved Giga City in my power. And I only have two because I had lost a heart. So here we go. Ready?

Success with a truffle. Okay. All right. So you tear through and this is like the curl of the wave is arcing over your head and there's this line and you go so fast that the watchers literally, it's like seeing a laser slice the wave and it's like the top of the wave, you watch it and for a moment it hovers there and then it's all sucked with this resounding sonic boom behind you and like Riptide channels it and there's this huge,

huge surge, this thing whips around and back out to sea and crashes on top of you, Jillian. And you are left with one heart remaining.

Plunged beneath the waves. No, no. The suit is beginning to leak, but you're plunged under the waves and the entire of the entire city has just been saved from this tidal wave, but you are down deep. All right. Well, cut to animus. Yeah. Cut to animus. I think it'd be fun narratively to cut to animus there. Okay. Just cause like Jorge might think he killed you. You know what I mean? It's a good time to like, yeah, yeah. Cut to animus as you're plunged into the depths. Okay.

Am I aware of what just happened? Well, you've been, it's chaos. It's hard to see exactly what's going on from here. Yeah. But I'm trying to focus all of my energy on this right now. So Jorge feels comfortable enough with you that he fiddles with something on his wrist and a little holographic screen pops up and it's got multiple video feeds. You realize his golden drones are filming everything.

And you are able to see the zoomed in moments. You see Ape plunging into Fido. You see the kids struggling to build this wall. You see Muramura like grabbing different bodies off the street. You see Tutan and Gyro slamming into Fido repeatedly. You see Jillian tear through the wave and then plunge into the water.

He kind of like hasn't said anything, but he's staring intensely and he's picked his pencil back up and he's writing furiously. You can feel off him that he is trying very hard to focus only on recording the details for analysis later. He doesn't want if he stops any activity, he's going to feel something. Well, it's time to help him feel something. We're moving to the next stage of the link.

This is the final move in the drama clock. This is the big unlock. What do you got?

So I'm actually going to switch the order. Initially, I was going to have him feel the emotions of those around him. I think we need to actually crack into his first. So we are going to let him actually start to feel things himself. And instead of describing it stage by stage, just going from him feeling things, then introducing the others, then establishing that link of he can do something to make all of this better.

He has the ability. He has that knowledge. He can be part of the solution, right? One of those, that's kind of the intent that we're going for here, but he needs to get there himself, not me telling him. Let's start with

Let's see if he can unlock what he's feeling and start feeling something. The way I'm hoping this move will go, if that first unlock, that first opening happens, the rest will flow naturally. But first is I need that crack and then everything else will just flow. All right, let's go. And I'll just say you have a really good eye for all of this, but let's take a closer look.

I've got, it's the same three as before, really. This is like part two of that bigger move. I am pouring all of my energy into this.

Natural six. That's looking pretty darn good. Great up six. I'm keeping that. Beautiful. Beautiful. Oh, a six, five, and a four. Yeah, that'll do me. Okay. He's writing, he's writing, he's writing. It's furious, and he's watching the feeds. And as you find this thing inside, when you wash over him, it's like there's this hard...

inside and it feels like a black hole, like a super dense mass. This weird anchor in the middle of his personality. And it's like everything else is held in place by that single pearl. And you reach out

in your emotional, like, fugue state, and you just touch the pearl. And all of a sudden, it erupts. And all these feelings start swarming out. He was feeling safe before,

You see a whirlwind of images. There's images of living on the street, images of hiding from people who were out to get him behind a dumpster in an alley. There's images of food lines. There's a bit of a flicker of a very vaguely remembered parent. And it's all tinged dark. And then you see the lab.

And you see him finding this place. He was exploring the sewers and you feel this rush of, I can fix things. You also like, you see him climbing to the charts of gamer, uh, different, you know, different games. You see him establish feeling these surges of pride. And in, in this moment, he kind of looks up and he looks around and he feels the fear in the city. And he is, he's crying. Um,

And he kind of breaks and he starts to cry and pretty soon he's sobbing. As I feel him start to break, the way I'm visually imagining this is almost as if like the color kind of fades and it's the two of us, like the representation of the emotional state of that spirit, the anima. And I kind of want to take him by the hand. We're still physically sitting there, but take him by the hand in that state. Say, it's okay. You can work through this. You can do this.

Congratulations, guardians. You've saved the city. No problem. Never in doubt. This is way better than my last job. And yeah, let's say the final moments are so riptide reaches down and like surges fireflies, almost unconscious, uh, armored form, um, after having really sacrificed herself yet again for the city and washes you towards the shore and, uh,

Anna Molly is the one who, in Tyrannosaur form, picks you up gently in her jaws and deposits you on a pile of rubble. The other kids kind of like clear things away, and they're all standing around. Firefly, you kind of like stand up. That was pretty impressive work. Thanks for your help. Who are you? Werebear, who is scruffy and exhausted, he lumbers up and he says...

These are the kids I told you about from Senora's Sons. Y'all are even better at monster wrangling than capture the flag.

He gives a high five to that little kid who was hanging off and he claps the girl who you saw with the energy sword on the shoulder. She looks really embarrassed and kind of shy. The little kid, like that giant purple dinosaur morphs back into a little kid and she runs up and tugs on your arm. You know this kid, Jillian. She goes...

What's gonna happen to Fido though? He didn't mean it. You realize these kids knew all about it. They heard from Skitter and Echo, who they have a connection with.

Um, don't worry, Riptide can ask if there's room at Moreau's reserved for monsters. I'm sure he'll be happy there. You've made some amazing moves and split-second decisions. You're young, but would you be willing to help us out? Not on TV. You'd be Guardians, but operating unofficially. So we could work on things without letting on what we're investigating.

The kid who was hanging off the building has this amazing, excited look on her face and goes, wait, so we'd be Giga City Guardians? Wait, no, no, no, no. Giga City Shadows. No, no, Ghosts!

And she turns around and looks at the rest of the kids. There's a sudden whoop from Anamali. And all the kids kind of like have this like super excited look. And they all turn and they're looking at you. And Anamali goes, heck yeah! And then like the kids all cheer. Yay! You just created a new super team. Cool. Giga City Ghosts. So you now have backup from the shadows. You have the Giga City Ghosts to back your moves. And that's where we're going to cut. We're going to cut.

to a couple of weeks later, uh, ellipsis. I'm going to ask you, um, where is ellipsis? He's told you more about what's been happening and there's more of this is coming out day by day. Um, are you going to protect him? He is a teenage kid. Are you going to protect his identity or are you, uh,

Like, what's the move here? I don't know how you want to do this. I don't know if anyone's capable of dealing with ellipsis except for maybe Senora Sun. Yeah, he's a victim. Does Senora Sun have any level of security? Could they keep him there? Because I think he's going to be dealing with a lot. I think that is the right place for him as long as he can't have a bad night and run off. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Well, so what Senora Sun tells you and you're able to meet with her, she's a, she's magic user. Her sanctuary is actually a sanctuary. When she closes the door, it's in a different dimension. That's a good place. So you can't leave. That's a good place. You can't leave unless, unless you ask to leave and she lets you go. Um, which of course she does cause she's not about like incarcerating, but she understands like helping people in trouble. Plus when he's gone, top of the class. Yeah.

Oh God. That's, that's what Ape would say. So I have, I have some ideas and we'd probably negotiate all of this together, but I know like Animus's request and recommendation here and with the team would be, he needs somewhere safe, but he needs a job. He needs work. So if, if he can be safe and learn, but also be part of the rebuilding so he can see directly what,

and have like get his hands dirty with with that aspect i think that might be good for him wants the little nerd out there with one of those garbage picker sticks in a bag you know community service is a fair punishment plant some flowers or something you know i will say this like you guys are trying to figure out what he did with the spores and what he tells you is

Uh, that he figured out what to do by, by, uh, reverse engineering a lot of what the Scarlet King had done. But he also said, I had to do some research. You should check out the Arctic base. I found a lot there, but I wasn't able to take everything.

So, Jorge is scheduled for trial, but as he's a minor, you manage to make an agreement to have him housed with Senora's son at her sanctuary for the stupendous. And hopefully there, he'll be able to find a little bit of the support and community he needs to start healing.

Jairo, Tutan and Miramira have gone missing. Nobody knows precisely where they are, and there's a lot of public outcry for their ouster. There's also a significant contingent of supporters of Giga City Gold who argue that the bricks are still a menace regardless of the information that Jorge has turned over to the authorities.

Fred Tusk, who's been indicted for fraud, public incitement of violence, an attempt to overthrow a local government, has been publicly smearing both the BRICS and GigaCity Guardians and stoking more fear as his trial nears on the horizon.

internationally, there have been calls for a summit on the rights of powered people and whether there should be legal restraints, a registration system to make certain that powered people can't commit crimes and go anonymous and manage to protect their identity, even as they do wrong.

The survivors of the Megapete attack have mostly returned to their homes, although some still remain missing, as the Guardians now know, beneath the city in Flipside with the bricks. The bricks themselves have retreated and are clearly involved in some sort of private enterprise to either leave the city or dig deeper to escape from the surface dwellers. And finally...

Specs is still considering whether he wants to meet up with Echo. He's attempted a couple of in-person meetings, but neither seems confident enough to go through with it yet. But for the most part, peace has returned to GigaCity.

There are no monster attacks. The citizens, while restless and uncertain, are certain of one thing. No matter what happens, the Guardians have their back. But of course, any good superhero story always ends with a little bit of a hint of what's next, doesn't it? So let me leave you with something. Deep within Flipside, in Sister Rose's study...

where the bud of Giga Gaia hangs pendulously above, spreading its roots and tendrils throughout the city. A tiny light begins beeping. Above, the bud uncurls slightly, and the milky, sightless eyes that once belonged to Scarlet King gaze down, and the lips, green and twisted, curl into a smile.

They're finally here. Oh, this should be delightful. I wonder what they'll do. So as we pull back from Giga City, there's a sense that there's a tomorrow. It's going to be awkward and it's going to be messy, but you're the Giga City Guardians. You'll figure it out. All right, everyone, that's the end of our arc. Congratulations. Yay! Thank you. Woo-hoo! Woo!

Come on.

Okay, final round of shoutouts, y'all. This is where we wrap. So this is our last moment. There's more. You still don't know the origin of the spores. There's mysteries to uncover. I won't say much, but you know, it's weird that Mars is red. Anyway, let's talk about some shoutouts for all of you. And we haven't decided what Jillian's power is either. She's a brick. Oh my gosh, that's what I've been so...

curious about. Okay. Shout outs y'all. Let's, let's talk about, let's do some shout outs and realize there's always a next arc. So what's the, uh, what would everybody like to show? I wanted to start with animus. Can I get a Halloween for that? Yeah. Do it Amanda. Hello.

Ape couldn't have handled Jorge nearly as well. He would have probably just thrown him off the roof. So it's really good that he had somebody who could understand him and kind of get through to him. Yes. And it was really good that it was a grown-up. I think a peer wouldn't have been sufficient. I think that it needed to be like an adult person who could offer that kind of safety that a caregiver has. So I think that that was really important too. Yeah, you still punched him. You just did it emotionally, which is good. Ape's okay with that. Like any good therapy session. Yeah.

I think it was great that you were also somebody he'd wronged and you started, step one was you forgave him. That was part of making it safe. Like that was such a, I mean, if anybody, so Scriv has some background in therapy and this is why like you knew what to do with a wounded kid. Absolutely. Like it's a healthy thing. Learning how to deal with emotions is complicated and that was really great. Oh, thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Well, Animus knew that, you know,

You can't always do a whole lot in a fight, but if you can help someone navigate their fear, then that's always a helpful thing. IRL. Yeah.

If you can help someone feel safe and navigate the fears they're experiencing, you will absolutely make the world a better place, at least for that person. I wanted to give a shout out to Dan for having the most like meaty action sequences with crashing. Intense and the cool scenes. I love the way you describe the,

The landing and the sunglasses, it's just very dynamic. I can very easily visualize how King of the Urban Jungle is swinging through and parkouring off monsters. Oh, thank you so much. Parkour! And I got to shout out Michael. Michael, this is a great arc all the way through. You really did justice to the characters, the setting. It was just a blast to play through.

Never would have been able to do it without all your help. This is, uh, it's always better to tell stories together. I feel like it, it, there are so many places I could get stuck and y'all helped me and kept me unstuck and kept each other amped. Thank you so much for a wonderful story.

Thank you for a wonderful story. This was great. Thank you. All right. And next up we're going to do, uh, we're going to finish up some star sworn. Uh, we've got chapter four of star sworn. They still haven't chased down the astronomer that's coming. And I know that, uh, after that there's,

so many different worlds, so many possibilities. We might do some more writing lessons. And then after that, well, you know, let us know what you want to hear. You want to hear next, just write us in at a hello at stories, rpg.com. Go to stories, rpg.com to get all the free downloads and check it out. You can go to patrion.com slash stories, RPG and get the book.

uh, Giga city ghosts, the companion book to this arc. You can kind of play along with us and, yeah, just check it all out and we'll be back soon with more stories. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for staying with us. We'll see you for the next arc and for some star sworn and, uh, much love. Take care. Bye. Bye.