Onslaught!

[Bobby Drake]

OK. Below are my notes from a previous brainstorming session on this plot.

As I said elsewhere, the original idea was that we would keep some of the details mysterious and let the real identity of the Big Bad be revealed gradually, but after the Fate of Magneto plot I suspect that's basically a bad idea. So, I'm just posting the whole proposed plot arc here.

This is just a proposal, nothing is written in stone.

[Bobby Drake]

The following all takes place "off-camera"; just here to establish background:

• June '06 (just post-Alcatraz):
  Xavier-in-braindead-body starts a treatment protocol to regain his full mental powers.
  He figures this will take about five years or so to do safely.
  He arranges with Moira to do this on Muir Island in secrecy, to send Jake to help out the Xmen with Cerebro, and to pretend he's dead so he doesn't get interrupted by, you know, saving the world and stuff.
  This is fine, because Mags and the Brotherhood are dealt with, so it's not like anybody will need him for a while, right?
  
• July '06 (just post-site-start):
  Magneto gets his powers back; Brotherhood resurfaces.
  Chuck panics, accelerates his mental therapy protocol.
  He tries to stay relatively safe but suffers significant mental strain.
  
• December '06 (just post-Strikeback):
  Chuck panics some more at the Institute being invaded, steps up the process even further.
  Moira tries to talk him out of it, but he's not listening.
  Starts actively going nuts.
  
• March '07 (Mags is killed)
  That's the last straw; it finally pushes him over the edge. He goes outright nuts.
  Decides he has to take over the world, because nobody else can be trusted to run it right.
  Hatches his EVIL PLAN (see below).
  Starts building Brain-Washer/Dryer.
  
• NOW (start of actual arc)
  Finishes building Brain-Washer/Dryer, starts RECRUITING MINIONS (see below).
  

We kick the actual on-camera plot off at the start of the recruiting phase, which continues until Matt goes BOOM! and is assumed dead.

After that, the Recruited are all hanging around the Institute (except for Matt, who is presumed dead), and the others become more and more suspicious.

Eventually this leads to the CLIMACTIC BATTLE (see below) after which Xavier is defeated.

[Bobby Drake]

Xavier's plan is, basically:
Step 1: Recruit a team of minions!
Step 2: ...
Step 3: World domination!

All perfectly logical, see?

Seriously... Xavier's brain isn't working quite right. There really isn't a step 2 worth mentioning.

He decides to re-recruit his students as minions, because finding new minions is too much bother. Of course, his previous students would never go along with this "world domination" schtick, so first he has to "convince" them. Unfortunately, his powers are still unreliable, so he can't just take over everyone outright. So first he builds his Brain Washer/Dryer.

The Brain Washer/Dryer augments his telepathic abilities in special ways, like a special-purpose Cerebro. It's not, strictly speaking, mind control; instead it "corrupts" its victims.
The specific effects vary from target to target (giving PCs freedom to RP their "dark selves" however they like) but at a minimum it makes them loyal to Chuck and willing to follow his orders no matter what.
The gadget itself is a Shiny Hat; it takes about twenty minutes to work. Victim must be unconscious or helpless for that time.

Xavier only goes after people who were Institute-resident as of Alcatraz.
He doesn't go after the "new folk", even when it would be more sensible to (as with Jake), because he's crazy.

[Bobby Drake]

During the recruiting stage, events are roughly as follows:
First Day:
* Xavier goes after Ororo first, because she's the team leader.
He reveals himself to her, because it's the only way he can get her to trust him.
Basically he tells her she has to come meet him and absolutely cannot tell anybody.
Then he takes her out by surprise.
She's good enough to send an emergency signal to the Institute: "being attacked!" before falling.
Shortly thereafter Dark Ororo calls back: "Never mind, under control, all is good."

* Second target (later that same day) is Josh, because he's a telepath and might figure out what's going on.
Ororo lures him into a trap; Xavier isn't mentioned.
They're more careful about the trap this time, but Josh notices there's something weird about Ororo's mind and sends a quiet "something odd is happening" mental distress signal to Warren. Then the trap springs, Josh's signal fades, Warren freaks out, alerts the Institute.
Shortly thereafter Dark Josh calls back as above. Warren is suspicious; Dark Josh takes advantage of Warren's mental weaknesses to "placate" him.
Jorren take the Institute off alert.
Everyone reacts with appropriate suspicion to TWO false alarms in one day, but 'ro and Josh are demonstrably them, so nothing comes of it. Jake telepathically notices something strange is going on with Ororo and Jorren, but doesn't really do anything about it.

* Josh and Ororo go after Hank next (same day), he goes down quickly and mostly off-camera.

Next Day (or a few days later):
* Hank lures Bobby into trap for "off-site neurological tests".
Josh, Hank, and Ororo take him down uneventfully.

* Bobby repeats the process for Rogue, calling her with some kind of story or other to come visit.
Rogue does so, but drags John along, because she's tired of him and Bob avoiding each other.
John waits in the lobby while Rogue goes in to see Bob.
Josh, Hank, Bobby and Ororo take Rogue down. (We can do the fight on-camera if we want)
John overhears battle, comes barging in to find unconscious Rogue.
The Minions come up with some bullshit story or another to explain stuff, Hank puts Rogue in the washer-dryer claiming it's an MRI machine, John gets led out of the room while Xavier does his thing.
John doesn't quite buy the story, but figures he's just being kept at the kid's table or something.

* Then other NPCs (Logan, Piotr, Kitty, etc.) if we want, or not if we don't.
Entirely optional; we can do this off-camera or have them be "out of town" altogether.

* Then other PCs, other than Matthew and Toni
(E.g., Danny)

* That night, John, Jake, and Toni are casually chatting over ice-cream or something.
In the course of conversation John tells the whole story, raising all kinds of suspicions.
It becomes clear that the story the Recruited told John was bullshit.
Jake starts discreetly poking around in people's heads and realizes Something Is Very Wrong.

Next Day (or a few days later):

* Next target: Matthew
Basically the same drill as above -- lure to the site, subdue, subvert.
Except, because she's suspicious, Toni comes along and notifies Jake.
Toni refuses to leave when they "treat" Matt, because she's Toni.
So the Recruited decide to take Matt and Toni both at once.
Which turns out to be a mistake, since they're actually pretty tough. (this fight really does need to be on-camera) In the course of the fight, Rogue tries to absorb Matthew's powers and accidentally triggers a nuclear overload. BOOOOOM! The building, which was fortunately in an uninhabited area, turns into a crater. The Recruited, including Matt, just barely manage to escape with the Brain Washer/Dryer.
Toni is KOed by the blast. She either stays behind to be found by the Good Guys, or is dragged along to be subverted off-camera by the Recruited, depending on whether the player wants to do evil!Toni as well as evil!Matt.

That's the end of the recruitment phase.
The non-Recruited conclude from the crater that Matt is dead.

Subsequently, there's an indeterminate period during which the Recruited are increasingly obviously Evil and everyone else is increasingly suspicious, but nothing much actually happens.

[Bobby Drake]

Dark!Josh returns to the Institute after a long day of Evil to find Warren giving private flying lessons to Sam Guthrie, who definitely needs them. The flying lessons themselves are perfectly innocent but Dark!Josh is pissed off and decides a Lesson Must Be Taught to Guthrie for messing with his husband. So a Josh/Sam fight ensues, with Warren essentially dithering around the edges ineffectually going "no, wait, everybody should get along!"

The fight itself is inconclusive for a while: Josh can keep Sam from touching him, but can't actually hurt him as long as he's blasting. So Sam just gets smashed harmlessly into the landscape a lot. (Unconverted PCs can join in the fight if they want, though they won't change the outcome) But Sam eventually gets exhausted and stalls out in mid-air.

Josh TK-grabs him and slams him into the ground. Warren cushions the impact... Sam is mostly unhurt, but poor fragile Warren is a whole lot of broken. Josh does the patented Elmer Fudd "What have I done? I have swain the wabbit!" mind-controlled routine and snaps out of Conversion, at least somewhat. He reveals what he knows to the Institute, which includes the enemy's HQ on Muir Island... by which point some folks begin to suspect they're up against Xavier, or a clone, or something like that.

The Unrecruited charge off to deal. (At this point this is most of the Institute. Also, John might ask the Brotherhood for help, if we want to do that.) A big old fight happens, which we run as a series of smaller fights, as the two teams split up.

Jake, much to his own surprise and everyone else's, defeats Xavier in astral combat (possibly with help from the other telepaths), thereby "breaking the spell."

The End.

(Of course, there will be a lot of conversations and relationship-changes in the aftermath of all that, and Xavier himself will have to be deal with somehow, but the plot itself is over)

[Bobby Drake]

The following folks are on Xavier's List to Recruit. (That doesn't mean they'll actually get Recruited, necessarily... up to the players for PCs. For NPCs, anything goes.)

• PCs: Josh, Bobby, Rogue, Matt, Ororo, Danny, Toni
  
• NPCs: movie canons (Hank, Logan, Kitty, Kurt, Piotr), Jubilee, and anyone new we want to interact with.
  

The following folks aren't on the list (they weren't Institute-resident as of Alcatraz:

• PCs: John, Jake, Tobias, Laurie, Warren, Silas, Chris, Luna
  
• NPCs: Arthur, the FF, Zip, Cannonball, and anyone new we want to interact with.