The Portal to Somewhere

[OldSchoolGamer]

I've had this idea kicking around in the back of my mind for quite some time, and figure I may as well allow it to see the light of day before it knocks a hole in my skull.  First, some basics:

This game would start out in the modern era.  No system.  Characters can be from any walk of life, male or female, with one key twist: right now, they are on the run from the police.  That would tend to make, but not require, the characters to have at least somewhat of an evil personality or "alignment," if you will.  However, the system does make mistakes, innocent people get framed for bad things...nevertheless, I picture the party being predominantly evil.

As you and your comrades are running, you hear the sirens getting closer.  You see a gap in a fence, surge through it, and find yourself in a backyard.  There's a window open in a two-story house beyond.  Tires squeal behind you, and voices sound out in the night air.  "They went that way!  See that hole!  Get the dogs!"

You come through the window, sliding in.  And, inside the room, you see something you've never seen before, at least in real life.

This room is in a basement--a half-finished basement.  The room is well-lit, and it looks like a laboratory.  Is some kind of laboratory, you realize, as you look around at wiring and about ten computers and LCD screens, giving readouts and numbers and graphs and whatnot.  Sitting on a stool is a blonde-haired woman in a lab coat, holding a high-end PDA, making some calculations.  But that is not what holds your attention.

Against one wall, in what appears to be a natural cave, is a shimmering light.  No, not a light.  The surface of a pool of water, somehow suspended on its side, rippling as if a slight breeze is blowing across it.

"Who the hell are you," the woman asks.  Outside, you hear the sound of dogs barking, getting closer...

Please reply with characters and concepts.  It stands to reason that you know your fellow characters as partners in crime...though perhaps you kidnapped someone along the way.

[Bishrook aka Fate sisters]

A portal to other timesm planets or dimensions I imagine.
Some detail in what the other places might be would be useful.
For example second story man with safe cracking abilities and the ability to evade-hack electronic protections systems would be rather unskilled in high fantasy situation,
I am thinking of a thief of that description. A female, petit and agile(she get to the second story through windows sometimes)
She didn't disable the camera before they got a shot of her face. Security called the police and they arrived and are now chasing her.

[OldSchoolGamer]

The portal won't lead to any futuristic sci-fi world. If anything, it would lead to an alternate Earth, or maybe a low-fantasy world roughly analogous to Greyhawk.  That's my thoughts at this time, anyway.

[The Great Triangle]

Any chances of it leading to truly strange alternate universes, like one where humans are replaced with soda machines or where the moon is actually a giant space battleship aiming its cannons at the earth?

[OldSchoolGamer]

Any chances of it leading to truly strange alternate universes, like one where humans are replaced with soda machines or where the moon is actually a giant space battleship aiming its cannons at the earth?

Hmm...no.  I'd really rather keep this one within the realm of hard near-future or alternate history/sci-fi or standard fantasy.  Nothing like Sailor Moon, superheroes, anime, or trying to save Japan from killer robots leftover from World War XVII.

[OldSchoolGamer]

So, any other takers?

[Athem]

Did you get my PM?