Operation: Shaboom

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Shaboom.jpeg

Outside, it was 1959, and this was a factory boom town. The local sports hero was dating the head cheerleader, the community center had just hosted the 'dance of the decade', if talk was to be believed, and somewhere, someone was probably making a fresh apple pie.

X-Force goes to investigate a missing journalist in New Mexico, and find themselves in a race against time. Literally.


Cast

Marie-Ange Colbert, Doug Ramsey, Mark Sheppard, Wanda Maximoff, Remy LeBeau, Illyana Rasputin, Sofia Mantega-Barret, Amanda Sefton


Timing

January 7-10


Plot Summary

Upon receiving word a contact of his, a journalist, had gone missing, Doug raised concerns. Further investigation of the town the journalist had been interested in, Adensville, New Mexico, revealed some off anomalies - a factory that made obsolete parts for ten years had only recently gone under, the town itself had been removed from the power grid, no-one answered calls, and so on. A group was assembled and headed for the town, but on the outskirts, something extremely strange happened - the rental cars switched to Oldsmobiles, clothing changed to 1950s styles, laptops became notebooks and slide rules... After ascertaining the effect was only for a certain distance and setting up a base in an old barn, the group made their way into town, using the cover identities they found themselves gifted with.

Adenville appeared to be an ordinary town - if it was 1959. But things didn't quite ring true. There was no crime, no death of anyone younger than 70, the local football team were champions, but never played anywhere but home... Following a number of possible leads, the group met up under the cover of a potluck lunch, and discovered there was another problem - there were moments where they slipped entirely into their cover identities, losing their memories of their true lives. It was only when Amanda lost all memory of her life, becoming the local library assistant and daughter of the garage owner and his wife for real, that they realised they were on limited time. Worse still, the effect was spreading. Sofia managed to put them on the right track, profiling the town as someone's vision of a perfect life, and they began searching for someone who would have remained in the town after high school, working in the factory.

One by one, they lost their true selves. Doug became the college letterman, dating Illyana, a cheerleader. Mark was the town's pride and joy, an emcee and dance host. Sofia was a housewife, stepmother to Illyana, as was Wanda. And finally, Remy became the insurance salesman he posed as, having an affair with Wanda (as Mrs. Ana Simons). Only Marie-Ange was left. Using the list of names they'd managed to compile, she got lucky as her own hold on herself was growing tenuous. The 'culprit' was an old man, dying of brain cancer, who happened to be a reality warper. Having subconsciously suppressed his powers all his life, the cancer was allowing his hold to slip, thus creating an image of the perfect world of his youth.

Realising that the only way to reverse the effect was to end the old man's life, Marie-Ange smothered him with a pillow.


Related Links

None.


External Links

Operation: Shaboom

x_snowvalley posts


Trivia and Meta

Trivia

Upon returning to New York, Remy forbade any mention of the words '1959' in his hearing and any discussion of his part in the operation, under threat of violence.

None of the participants remembered what they had done after slipping into their 1959 personas.

Meta

Plotrunner: Frito

The plot was a birthday gift to Frito from Dex.

The name comes from the song of the same name, originally performed by the Four Freshman.

Ben DeRoy was socked by Dex and the name is an anagram.

A series of icons were made especially for the plot:

Shaboom Wanda.jpeg Shaboom Doug.jpeg Shaboom Marie-Ange.jpeg Shaboom Remy.jpeg Shaboom Amanda.jpeg Shaboom Mark.jpeg Shaboom Sofia.png