Expanding the DarkR Web: Pico de Orizaba Report

General Summary

Once again aboard the XPlore Plane, members of the New Champions (Wildthing, Nemesis, Ghost, and Daisy) made their way to the highest southern point in North America — Pico de Orizaba — the third of four mountain peaks where Runeforce and Socrates determined their would be optimal secure coverage of their communications across North America.    The team’s reconnaissance revealed that an ancient Mayan pyramid had begun to appear at the peak of the mountain, recently “materializing” exactly where the radio tower was located. Satellite images showed a flickering image of the pyramid, indicating that the pyramid was not yet “corporeal”.   After Fazer (Runeforce’s partner) landed the plane at the base of the mountain, the team discovered four large snake statues located in the desert at corners of the mountain base. Ghost was the first to approach one of the snake statues. As she flew into its proximity, an overwhelming sense of dread overcame her and she become momentarily “stuck” — unable to move. The snake statue’s eyes flashed red. With severe effort, Ghost pushed her way out of the poisonous grasp of the statue and back toward the rest of the group.   Daisy attempted to attack the statue from afar with a beam of astonishing light. Though she broke away at some of the statue’s outer layer, it remained unmoved. But at the same moment, a spire of wind and desert sand appeared as if summoned by the snake statue.   The spire’s tornado winds began thrashing the heroes with sand, cutting and slashing at them. Even more, the sheer amount of wind made it practically impossible for the team to fly. Most of the heroes remained grounded.   Suddenly, the desert spire moved away from the heroes and across the mountain toward another ones of the snake statues. Within moments, a second desert spire appeared and was raging toward the team.   Ghost, using all of her flying speed, flew through the tornado and back through the snake statue’s proximity…somehow managing to connect with the statue at her breakneck speed…and pulverizing the statues into pieces. Even still, the statue had already summoned its desert spire.   Nemesis, Daisy, and Wildthing took a different approach, making their way toward the mountain peak.   However, Ghost continued targeting the snake statues…now traveling across the desert at near supersonic speeds. Ghost aimed herself at another snake statue, but her speed was too great — she flew past the statue, though close enough for it to summon a THIRD desert spire.   Meanwhile, Nemesis took on the “true weight” of her golem form and wrestled with the first of the tornadoes. Thinking quickly, she manipulated the temperature of the air to make it colder than the tornado causing a rainstorm to form. The rain and cold acted like daggers into the desert spire — each drop of rain sizzled on the bands of wind, steam clouds began hissing as the hot wind met with Nemesis’ cold rain.   But the second spire went after Daisy. The full force of the tornado moved through the newest member of the team, ricocheting her backward across the desert and into the ground. With a heavy thud, Daisy fell to the ground unconscious.   The New Champions are locked in a contest with the combined power of three tornadoes. Will they be able to overcome the mysterious forces summoning the desert spires? Will they somehow be able to place the DarkR Web token on the radio tower while the Mayan Pyramid is forming?   The story continues.