Vol. 18 White Elephant

Freaky power swaps, identities thrown into chaos, a mysterious shadowy figure. All this and more as Volume 18 asks us: What Makes a Hero?

### Players

Jess Bonini as Alina Mars Mark Zurek as Sohcahtoa James Malloy as Puck Brandon Leon-Gambetta as Windshear Rob Harvey as Frequency

## Summary

***Note: Here there be spoilers. Read at your own risk.***

Start with a montage of Solo Heroing: Puck dissassembles a diamond smuggling ring, Windshear grounds an Alien Lizard, Sohcahtoa rolls over a criminal, Frequency shocks an electronics shop theif, and Arcana spies from a birds eye view.
Cut to misty villain forseeing the heroes, gives a cool what makes a hero speech, then swaps everyone's power.Everyone fails or causes collateral damage to various extents when losing access to their power.Puck falls into the sewer after failing a jump, Windshear quite literally loses his breath and gets beat up ***bad***, Sohcahtoa gets Nova power he's never controlled levitating everything around him, Frequency can't text.
The team slowly converges around Windshear's location, all trying to deal with their changed circumstances. Meanwhile, Town Hall is attacked by Meathead.

Puck continues to snake through town in a drunken search for Jack Chance, while Alina re-unites with The Asset who buzzes her up to speed. The two begin to dig into how to stop the situation.
The fight with Meathead begins in force, with Sohcahtoa using his new psychic powers to disarm him while Windshear and Frequency tag team him with physical violence.
Seeing the fight break out on TV, Alina and The Asset pick up John in the helicopter and rush to the boys aid.
Sohcahtoa headbutts Meathead with a statue, then Windshear weaponizes his grief to paralyze his foe. It's very sad.
As our fledgeling nova takes out the foe, the team attempts to gather through their emotional wreckage.
After some bonding and recollecting, the clouds part, and the mysterious villain taunts the heroes with the gravity of their situation, highlighting the chaos around them.

With a location in mind, they take to the subway. Ramon experiments with his "healing" (Editors Note: Power Negation) powers by causing Puck to shed and "curing" some other people of their powers as he passes.
At the location, they waltz on in past a confused security guard and Ben, powers still intact, lets them up the elevator. They scout through doors and Isaac finds the right room.
Using Ramon's powers to create a pile of shed Snake-Skin, they create a distraction to snake into the room past Bonebreaker.
As Puck terrifies Bonebreaker, Alina sneaks in past the curtain to the Crystal Ball, while Sohcahtoa battles with giving up his new powers.
As Windshear and Puck continue to struggle with Bonebreaker, Frequency creates a distraction. Alina chucks the Crystal ball out of the window, only for Sohcahtoa to stop it from breaking. After an intense confrontation, Sohcahtoa chooses to break the orb himself.
As powers return to the group, they easily apprehend the villains. As the group slowly recovers, Alina tells Sohcahtoa that she can't trust him. At least not right now.

## Characters

* Alina Mars
* Sohcahtoa
* Kidshear
* Puck
* Frequency
* The Fortune Teller
* Bonebreaker
* Mysterious Lizard Alien
* Meathead
* The Asset
* Elias
* Fey

### One Liners:

* "Hey hero brats, bring it on" - Meathead, 43:10 Issue 1
* "It's not our powers that make us heroes, it's making the decision that we're going to do something about it." - Kidshear, 7:16 Issue 2
* "He feels like he is now in a position where he can protect people, better than he ever has before, so he doesn't want to let anyone get hurt." - Sohcahtoa,
* "Hey! Everybody got some sweet new powers. But me!" - Frequency, 37:24 Issue 3
* "Bad news, I've felt better than I've felt all day." - Kidshear, 45:17 Issue 3
* "You have the right to remain crazy." - Alina, 46:40 Issue 3