The Newstone Knights! (IC....obviously)

[Malfunctioned]

Your short excursion into the bustling night-life of Beijing is cut short by the ringing coming from your Comm units. An old yet somewhat artificial voice speaks out when you answer.


"Good evening Knights. This is MERLIN. I have discovered something that may be of interest to you in downtown Newstone. I believe it may be a code 11, Metahuman Assualt. I will be waiting for your arrival."

[Volthawk]

"Alright, look's like it's back to work. Wei, if you could do your thing, please?"

David walks over to the Scorpion, disguised as a sports car, and gets in, flipping a few switches, beginning the startup process.

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi munches on his chicken burger.

[jiriku]

"Oh darn. And I wanted a Happy Meal Toy. Hold on to your burgers, team."

The surroundings blur, and the heavy pull of gravity is gone. A jolly Buddha carved of solid jade looks down upon a cylindrical room opulently furnished as a 12th-century Chinese palace. Hints of advanced technology are disguised by lacquer, mahogany and gold leaf. Home.


"Merlin, magnify and give us the bird's eye view while the team is gearing up. Main screen, please."

[Malfunctioned]

"Some form of localised video distortion device is stopping a maximum magnification but I can gain a slightly lower resolution picture."

The immense main screen lights up with the image of a network of alleyways and avenues and centres on a large open area, possibly a storage point for vans and trucks, though it appears to be empty save for several figures that can be identified as wielding firearms and wearing what appears to be body armour. Shadows cover most of alleys blocking it out from view. Upon closer inspection the armed men seem to be searching for something in the alley.
"They are located in between Fenchurch and Brixton Streets. Do you wish for me to prepare the main teleporter Ma'am?"

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi stares at the screen. The parts of his brain not dulled by booze and pot begin to formulate a plan.

"Anything valuable in the area?" He takes another bite of his burger.

Begin use of Master Plan feat. Will spend as long formulating a plan as Malfunctioned deems necessary or until interrupted by allies.

[roll0]

Edit: Or not.

[Volthawk]

"So, er, what makes them 'meta', then? They just look like well-equipped goons from here."

[Malfunctioned]

"Nothing exceptional Mr Nanzi, though I can assure you that I do not believe anyone would appreciate having their buildings destroyed.
I did not mean them Mr Freeman. I had detected some bursts of an unknown form of energy and I have also recorded the following."


The image on the main screen changes, it shows the same scene but around 10 minutes earlier. The armed men are shown holding a man dressed in dark clothing at gunpoint. The guns go off and the scene is illuminated briefly by the muzzle flash. Almost instantly the man seemingly disappears from view.

"That, Mr Freeman, is the metahuman."

[Volthawk]

"Hmm....he could have teleportation. Either he went before the shots were fired, or he has protection against the bullets, then he ported out. Or he could just have just cloaked afterwards."

[TigerHunter]

"So... there was a teleporter in the area previously, but opposed to the goons who are currently present."

Nanzi disappears briefly and reappears with the blaster rifle he took off of one of Dr. Dractarus' minions during some fighting in the sewers. "Okay. Let's go solve this little problem."

[Hiffic]

"Just keep in mind that we still don't know who's at fault here guys."
Iron Mike strokes his mustache. He catches a glance at the already armed-for-bear Nanzi and the extremely menacing Scorpion.
"I guess we could pound them until we find out."

[jiriku]

"Stellar. Now remember, Nanzi, those thugs know more about our mystery teleporter than we do. We need to know what they know, and dead men spill no secrets. Dong le ma?

"Don't bother with the teleporter, Merlin. We'll walk."

There is a blinding flash and rush of awesome, unthinkable speed.


Teleport the group to the space between Fenchurch and Brixton, depositing them on the roofs of the buildings on either side of the thug-containing alley (avoiding any roofs that are steeply slanted or difficult to balance on). I will be airborne about 30 feet above the Knights and directly over the thugs. Play a prank on Nanzi and teleport his half-eaten chicken sandwich down with us.

Initiative[roll0]

Edit: OMG. I guess we know who's going last. I'm glad to have Uncanny Dodge now.

[TigerHunter]

[roll0]

Do we get a surprise round? Also, how high up are we?

Nanzi shoves the last of his burger into his mouth and, somewhat disappointedly, clicks the rifle to the "Stun" setting.

[Hiffic]

"It's time to CLOBBER!"
My bad...roll is below.

[Hiffic]

(ooc eff my keyboard)

[Hiffic]

"Lets hope this works"
Nope. My initiative is 0 because this dice roller refuses to cooperate and I dont wanna spam the thread

[smuchmuch]

A moment earlier

...Wich is why I believe there is somme true in the old observation that most of those that would define themselves as "superheroes" do not engage in such activity, assuming they weren't dragged into it by social or legal obligation in the first place, not so much out of a self imposed moral obligation to uphold the the moral values associated commonly associated than a compulsion to fill an internal void. The ...

The pen ,already clumsily holded between oversized index and thumb, rip across the paper as the holder is suprprised by a sudden ringing. Helen spend a few second contemplating the offending cossing out as the noise keep echoing in the warehouse she crudely reconverted into a home*, before she grabs the communicator and answers.
"What is it ?"

I swear, they better have a good reason to call...


"Good evening Knights. This is MERLIN. ..."

"Oh." That calms her down. Merlin you listen to, his calls are usualy important or at least job related. After a quick getting up to speed with the events, Neoante nods and moves to the center of the room.
"Fenchurch and Brixton St you say ? Be there shortly"

With a clap, she joins her hands and concentrate for a whort while and suddenly, the floor opens and swallow her.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Exactly how much time it takes her to get here is up to you, Malfunctioned. She doesn't teleport but she has a +3 speed bonus when moving into the ground (wich brings her a to a 40 feet per round I believe.)

Somme time later.

The street's pavement suddenly seems to distort and rise into a big humanoid statue. Quickly details and colors start to fills it as it start to move, turning it into a huge woman, with black curly hair and green eyes, wearing somme old grey pajamas ( she was sitting in her bed when writting and rushed out to get here). With a crack of her knuckles, she takes a look at the situation around.


Initiative [roll0]

*She wasn't with the others. She doesn't like New Camelot and spends as little time as she can here. Officialy her reason is that somme of her powers comming from earth, it's beter if she keep close from it. Unoficialy she's slightly scarred of great heights, even if she refuses to admit it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am currently, and for the whole week, far from home, my computer and books and my only acess to internet is through a paying establishement.
i'lls till be able to post but somewhat slower and not often until Tuesday the 17.

[Demons_eye]

As Dan looks around trying to sum up his foes he is every annoyed. He had to call in Cindy to watch for him while he was gone and he was also reading a good book. It had just come out and, by the luck of god, no one was bothering him at work.

He pulls out some paper, holding it, and mutters as it forms into a bug. This bug seems to come to life and fly into his backpack where his book was. It starts to read the book for him transferring the knowledge viva Telepathic message.

Content with being able to read his book on the job Dan summons one of his paper limbs to get ready to fight.




init [roll0]

[Volthawk]

David clicks on his commlink.

"Scorp's up and ready to go."

He then settles into a comfortable position, quickly running an eye over the various read-outs, checking if the suit's working properly. Then he focuses on the sensors, checking for any unexpected threats.



[roll0]

[Volthawk]

Reroll:



[roll0] (I have Darkvision, Radio and Blindsight senses)

[Malfunctioned]

The flash of the teleportation lights up the alleyways for a brief moments. However that brief moment was all that was needed for the six armed men to spot you.

"Multiple other targets spotted. Likely M-Class, none of them match the descriptions given. Open fire men!"

@Scorpion You can detect something vaugly human shaped except it seems to be pressed tightly against one of the walls.

(No peeking guys.)
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]
[roll6]

[Volthawk]

Over the commlink, David quickly says "We've got an extra person. Humanoid, pressed against the walls."

[jiriku]

(I may be pretty busy tonight and tomorrow, so I'm posting my action early. Apply it when my turn comes in the initiative count.)


"Hey! What's with the gorram shooting?"

Wei twitches her nose in annoyance, darts into position and casts Golden Dawn of Morning. A brilliant nova of light fills the alleyway, blinding her foes as it soothes her allies.

Dazzle (Fort DC 22 negates) and Heal (+11) with 55' radius centered on me. I will move prior to casting in order to catch the maximum number of opponents in the burst. I'll exclude all team members from the Dazzle, as well as the stranger, if I can identify him. I'll exclude all six opponents from the Heal.

[smuchmuch]

Open fire men

Oh it's going to be that way. Still, gotta let them a chance.

"I am NeoAnte from the Newstone knights." Helen does her best not to smirk as she pronounce, these worlds. 'Knights','New Camelot'. Really, this whole theme sound so pompous. and slighly infantile to be honnest.
Instead her face is like stone, has she go on impassible. "I will not repeat this. Drop your weapons and surender."

She walk closer to the thugs and stomps one foot on the ground. There's nothing overblown about the gesture, no apparent effort in it lioke a simple tap. Yet there is a slight crack in the pavement under the sheer force and a rumble vibrate through the alley.
"Now"



Groundstrike.
Stength bonus of 9. (+10 super strength apply too.). So it's 90 feet, 27 5 meters radius. (100feet, 30 meter if superstrength apllies). should be more than enough.

Strength check

Intimidate check 1d20+9[/roll]
arg I hate typos: Intimidate check: 24 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9114343&postcount=96)

[Malfunctioned]

The armed men seem to not have anticipated this kind of attack, as if their normal targets were nowhere near as combat-capable. They seem to be shaken up even before the movement of the earth hits them.

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]

The sheer force of the quake sends them all to the floor, knocking them prone.

[Malfunctioned]

The man nearest the eastern wall of the area stands up and quickly lets off a shot from his rifle, aiming it towards NeoAnte.

[roll0]

The shot goes wild into the wall, sending flecks of brick onto the floor and sparks shooting off the metal pipes.

[Volthawk]

"Let's see...Claws? Not in range. Tail? Single target. Flamer? Perfect."

The Scorpion fires its Flamer, more a barrage of small flaming bolts than an actual flamethrower, at the enemy squad.



Attack: [roll0]

Damage DC: 20

[Hiffic]

Iron Mike tightly grasps the nearest air conditioning unit and rips it away from its bolts. Closing one eye and sticking his tongue out, he takes careful aim at the nearest goon and heaves the a/c unit...but only lightly.

Range Attack Roll [roll0] in below post
Damage = 12

[Hiffic]

I freaking posted another post 59 sec before the above one and it messed up the whole damn roll
Range attack roll [roll0]

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi drops prone at the edge of the roof. He takes aim at the single standing goon and pulls the trigger.

Using Accurate Attack for a +5 on my attack roll.
[roll0]
Edit: Damage bonus is +8

[Demons_eye]

Dan takes his time listening to his book as everyone begins the counter attack. He lifts his right hand as paper starts to fly out of his sleeve and aims it at one of the rude people.



[roll0]
Damage 10

[Malfunctioned]

The Scorpions flamer fire razes the area *just* above the soldiers heads, they look up momentarily but are unharmed. Two more of them jump to their feet and unleash bursts of fire in the direction of the Scorpion
[roll0]
[roll1]
(Both are DC 20)
Nanzi's shot hits the first guard square in the neck, he struggles for a moment and seems to try and stop the bleeding with his hands, unsuccessful, he falls to the ground dead, blood spreading out around him.

Another soldier stands up and hurries up against the wall, he pulls out a small round object from his belt and throws it with great force at Nanzi .
[roll2]
(DC 20 if you're within 10 feet of Nanzi, reduced by 1 for each 10 feet further until 50ft.)


The rest shall be done shortly.

[TigerHunter]

"Gǒuzǎizi."

[roll0]
[roll1]

[jiriku]

Reflex save [roll0]
Toughness save [roll1]
Distance from Nanzi: about 25 feet
Relevant defenses:

Evasion
Immunity to physical damage

[Demons_eye]

I got Evasion rank 2 so if that matters.

[roll0] Reflex

[roll1] Toughness

[Volthawk]

Reflex save [roll[1d20+1[/roll]
Toughness save [roll0]

Also, Impervious to anything lower than +5 damage bonus

[Volthawk]

Redoing Reflex.

[roll0]

[Hiffic]

Reflex (1d20+4)
Toughness (1d20+11)
Working Roll below

[Hiffic]

Reflex [roll0]
Toughness [roll1]

[Malfunctioned]

The explosion of the grenade coats most of in dust but the blast wasn't strong enough to harm any of you.

Dan's paper streams towards the men, the edges of the paper supernaturally sharp.
[roll0]
The paper cuts through the man as if he was butter.

Two more soldiers climb to their feet, they look to each other and one of them pulls out a small radio.
"This is Delta-5, situation is critical, men down, requesting immediate pick-up."
There is an indistinct sound coming from the other end but you're too far away to properly identify it. As soon as he finishes he drops the radio and both of them pull out their guns, the first pointing at Nanzi whilst the second aims at NeoAnte.
[roll1]
[roll2]
(That's a DC 20 Toughness save Nanzi)

Wei's golden glow fills the alley for a short time.
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]
[roll6]
[roll7]
The light seems to blind the armed men.

Iron Mike hefts the air conditioning unit at the soldiers but they manage to just dive out of the way. The unit crashes into the wall behind them and small chunks of brick start to rain down.

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi yanks a piece of shrapnel out of his head, cursing in various languages. Then the muzzle flash illuminates the alley below as the bullets come flying in his direction...
[roll0]

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi catches a glancing shot, but is otherwise unharmed. He is, however, pissed.
"Mike! Fastball at the dupek who threw that grenade!"

Nanzi returns fire, aiming at the soldier who shot him.

[roll0]
Damage bonus: +8

[smuchmuch]

NeoAnte runs to the soldiers and punch the first she commes over.
She doesn't go too hard, these guys haven't done anything to really annoy her yet (except existing that is) and she'd rather rry to keep one alive, even if just for questioning.


Mellee attack [roll0]

Normaly that be a mighty strike (10), penetrating (4)
but as I said she's pulling her punch here to keep it non lethal, so descending to a strike (7).

[jiriku]

"Well, it looks like this situation is well in hand. Let's see if I can find our mysterious friend..."

Wei casts Sky in the Morning, Sun in the East. Her body blazes with the light of the sun, transforming her into a radiant figure of light and illuminating the alley and its environs with a brilliant glare. Then the Golden Lady goes a-hunting.

Light Generation. I'll scale the power down considerably to affect just the local area (say, 500' in every direction), but within that space, we have brilliant, clear light. Then I'll look around and try to spot the fellow that these thugs were hunting. Notice check [roll0]. Move action if necessary to fly around and buzz the area while I'm hunting for him. I fly fast enough to view everything in a 1-block radius from all possible directions, including the insides of buildings. That should be enough to at least entitle me to a Notice check, provided he's not using some kind of stealth power that defeats Notice checks.

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi also draws his sword.

[Hiffic]

After seeing his intended target escape terrible air conditioner damage Iron Mike bellows out his one liner.
"Sure you goons don't want to cool off but maybe you wanna try our KEBAB!"

He grabs Nanzi by the seat of his pants and throws the immortal sword-first at the nearest enemy.

Attack roll [roll0]
Damage: 12+ Nanzi's sword dmg

Iron Mike winces. "Uhhhh. Oops."

[Volthawk]

"Delta-5? Sounds like we've got a bigger problem than just these mooks. An organisation."

As he speaks over the commlink, David brings up the single-shot tail beam, firing it as the soldier with the radio, setting it to non-lethal power.



Attack: Next post

Toughness DC: 20

Doing nonlethal damage

[Volthawk]

Attack: [roll0]

[Demons_eye]

"Can we keep damage to the surroundings to a minimum? Can't be good superheros if we harm more then we help." Dan says as he runs into melee. A paper sword forms in his hand as he charges at one of the gun toting fools. He rams him in the head with the hilt trying to not deal permanent damage.




[roll0] Attack
10 Damage DC 20
Non Lethal

[jiriku]

"Delta-5? Sounds like we've got a bigger problem than just these mooks. An organisation."


"If this is all they've got, I'm not too worried. But why are armed paramilitaries gunning down civilians in an alleyway?"

[Volthawk]

"If this is all they've got, I'm not too worried. But why are armed paramilitaries gunning down civilians in an alleyway?"

"Who says our third party here is civilian? Could be a meta."

[jiriku]

"Who says our third party here is civilian? Could be a meta."

"Most metas are civilians. In the PRC, being a meta is cause enough to for the Communist Party to imprison you, and in the UK a mob will probably just kill you... but here?"

[Volthawk]

"Most metas are civilians. In the PRC, being a meta is cause enough to for the Communist Party to imprison you, and in the UK a mob will probably just kill you... but here?"

"Just saying. We don't know their motives yet. And some people here do hate metas."

[Malfunctioned]

Nanzi's bullet hits one more soldier in the chest, he hits the floor in seconds, collapsing on top the mook that took Dan's sword hilt the head. Nanzi soon joins them on the pile as Mike's throw goes amiss. However, David's shot doesn't, the stun blast hits the thug in the shoulder, sending him slamming into a dumpster, the sound echo's throughout the alleyways. As the last standing member of the group feels around blindly he reaches the wall, and turns he back to it. He holds his gun out blindly fires in front of him, the shots going wild. A long shadowy blade reaches out from the wall and silently slashes through the man's armoured vest and his stomach. The man drops to the floor and the blade recedes back into the wall.

[jiriku]

"Aha! Found you!"

Xiaojing Wei darts through the wall where she saw the shadowy blade emerge and recede.


"Hello, citizen. It appears you live in interesting times. Are you injured?" (Assuming she finds someone there)

[Demons_eye]

Dan starts to unfold a large piece of paper from his pocket with strange symbols on it. It starts out as a piece that could fit in anyone's hand but then spreads to the size that could cover an entire desk. Dan lays it out on the man that just got hit. A glow apears over the paper as the words start to cover the mans wounds healing him. "No dieing today. Your dance with lady death is another time."



Using Magic to Heal the claw wound person first any anyone else that needs it from lethal damage. Knocked out is fine dieing it not. Then I am going to create a cage of paper with the Create object power to stop them from leaving.

[TigerHunter]

[roll0]

"Chto za huy, huesos! Nice toss!"

[TigerHunter]

Mike said damage was 12, so I think I took no damage there... if I did, I automatically succeed on my recovery check, which is a once-per-round free action.

Just in case, acrobatics check to reduce fall damage (DC 5, subtract the amount by which I beat the DC from the fall in feet)
[roll0]

And check to stand up as a free action (DC 20)
[roll1]

Nanzi hits the ground and rolls, centuries of experience with falls guiding his movement. His shoulder pops itself back into place as he silently curses the invention of concrete. Seeing all of the armed men lying disabled on the ground, he crouches down behind the two men he fell on and aims his rifle at the area the clawed hand came from. He clicks the rifle's power setting up to lethal. Can't be too careful with other superfreaks.

Readied action to shoot anything that comes out of the wall at the first sign of hostile action. And do two bodies stacked on top of each other count as partial cover?

[jiriku]

Hearing the joint-twisting crunch as the Polish immortal hits the ground, Wei pokes her head back through the wall.


"Nanzi, quit lying around on the job. This is serious business!"

LOL @ your natural 1 to stand up. Let's hope you don't have to make any rolls to tie your shoelaces.

[TigerHunter]

"Sek si, Wei."

It was to stand up as a free action! And I still got a 7! M&M doesn't use critical failures!

[jiriku]

"Sexy? This is hardly the time for flirting!"

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi raises his middle finger, and sticks his tongue out just for good measure.

[jiriku]

Wei utters an offended harumph and withdraws her head back through the wall.

[Hiffic]

Iron Mike laughs at Wei's and Nanzi's banter. He readies himself jump down and join the others.
"Honest guys. I'm usually better than this."

[jiriku]

Mike can't be sure because her voice is muffled by the wall and her Mandarin accent, but Wei's response might be something like

"The way you throw, the only people safe from you are our opponents!"

[smuchmuch]

NeoAnte clear her throat quite loudly, lmike someone who would lmike to remind politely but firmly other people there's a situation they should be focussing here rather than acting like preschoolers.

She turns her gaze to the wall where the sword camme from, trying to make oput at least the shape of the invisible meta human"You there. Comme out now please. we know you are here and we want to talk."


Just asking, is Jallorn playing ?

[Jallorn]

Don't worry, I'll show up soon enough.

[Demons_eye]

"Ya we kind of took out the people trying to take you out. If we wanted to take you out we would have let them try to take you out so it would be more easy to take you out ourselves." Dan says trying to follow his own logic. He thinks about what he just said and adds "More simply put, we are the good guys and we want to help. If you are hurt I can heal you."

[Malfunctioned]

A voice sounds out from the wall, or at least very close to it.

"You insinuate that there are only two sides in this conflict. No, if you think you're the good guys, then you don't want to know who I am. And you certainly shouldn't have attacked those agents."

[Volthawk]

"They shot first. Self-defence. We tried to resolve it without a shot being fired, but it didn't work, so we fought. Besides, I don't care how many sides to the conflict there is. I just want to do my job, and GTFO."

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi stands up and begins looking for an entrance to the building. He motions Iron Mike down from the roof to follow him, and signals NeoAnte to go underground.

"Good, bad, whatever. Usually aren't any good guys or bad guys, just people killing each other over something or other. Which suits me just fine," he says, to no one in particular.

Since combat appears to have ceased for the moment...

[roll0]

Assuming that succeeds:

Finding the entrance, Nanzi pulls a pair of night-vision goggles out of his trenchcoat and dons them, flipping on the IR illuminator. He slowly (and quietly) turns the knob to see if the door is locked. If it is, he pulls out his lock release gun and discharges it into the lock. He throws the door open and aims his rifle inside.

[roll1] (factors in the -4 from the goggles, which give me darkvision)

Readied action to shoot anything that moves.

[jiriku]

Already inside the building, Wei looks around, having expected to find the stranger. Since he's (apparently) nowhere to be seen, she addresses the wall instead.


"Alright, you'd prefer to remain anonymous. Fair enough; many metas do. But since you apparently know who these guys are, and they're sure to be upset at us now, would you help a girl out and tell us what you know about them?"

[Hiffic]

"And if you're gonna lecture us about morality you might as well do it to our faces. Like a man and/or(?) woman!"

IM leaps down from the roof to join the others.

[Demons_eye]

"Most things can be boiled down to two categories. But if you are not on the good or evil team what team are you on? And I swear to five gods if you say 'mine' I will give you such a paper cut...." Dan says as he walks towards the wall but keeping his distance. His hands are up in a manor of surrender.


Dan is going to search his mind for what government or faction hire/train these types of guys (The ones shooting at us.

[roll0] for any knowledge skill

[Volthawk]

"Heh. Life isn't a pile of books, Dan. It can't be that well organised."

David takes the Scorpion down to the alleyway and gets out, leaving it on. He then walks into the warehouse.

[smuchmuch]

"Really Dan ? reducing every moral situation to a simple manichean dilema ?" Ckearly from her voice, slightly curious but with a hint of scepticism, That's a bold assertion to make. Not without it's merits, true, but still somewhat surprisngly naive*. But right now is sadly not the moment for philosophy. Mr Shadowy Mc Mysterious (tm) is still lurking around.

I get the impression we won't get too much from that person. The person in front of them is very proably a cold blooded killer and it does let somme creden,ce to what he just said earlier. Yet there's something a little strange here. I'm pretty sure (s)he killed that soldier so he wouldn't talk to us. (S)he could probably have try to sneak out on us without even bothering to answer.. So why did (s)he ? or isn't just playing dumb ?
Is it a warning or s (s)he stalling ? A risk to take. The only way they'll get info (no mater how biased it may be in the circumstances) is to keep it talking.

"The soldier attacked, we defended" She shrugs. She'd rather if they weren't all dead but since they attacked with deadly energy weapon first, that won't stop her from sleeping tonight. "And I think I would apreciate to know who you are, all moral consideration aside. At least the courtesy of a pseudonym if not a name."

For now, Neaoante is either still in the alley or in the building , near Dan and near where the voice camme from anyway (OOc: I'm a little confused as to where that is, reading the posts above), if there's any indication the stranger has moved, then she'll drop into the building underground as indicated by Nanzi. If the shadow tries to attack dan she'll try to intercept the attack.

Does the shadow's voice allows us to get a guess it it's sex ?

*In her opinion at least.

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi remains by the door, tracking Dan with his peripheral vision, waiting for any sign of movement.

[Malfunctioned]

You can tell from the voice that it is not inside the building. The voice is male, it is smooth and clear, well enunciated but a touch gravelly at the same time. It speaks again.

"It would be a fool who endeavors to explain something to someone who refuses to understand. Suffice to say, nothing is as simple as you think. Now if you're smart, you'll run back to that secret satellite of yours and wait for your next orders."


Dan A few factions spring to mind but none match the actual soldiers.

[Volthawk]

"Lemme think about that....no."

[jiriku]

"Huh. We put ourselves in danger to protect you and then you make a jackass out of yourself. Well stranger, enjoy your alley. And do stay out of trouble. You were defending yourself against these men so we've no quarrel with you now, but as you say, we're the good guys and you're not. Cause trouble in Newstone, and we'll cross paths again on less friendly terms.

"Team, I'm going to haul off the dead and the unconscious. Let's plan to be out of here in sixy seconds. No sense waiting around until that backup they called for arrives. As far as I'm concerned, this guyang can fend for himself."

Change of plans. See my later posts.

[Volthawk]

"...guyang?"

[jiriku]

"...it means 'motherless goat.'"

[smuchmuch]

"Secret satelite ?"

Just to be usre, just how public is our team ?

Is new Camelott and Merlin supposed to be secrets (or at least not public enough thet you wouldn't eb able to know without teaking the time to so somme research about the team) or was he just being sarcastic ?
because it hat's the case he just said too much and clearly not enough.

[TigerHunter]

"Send me up too, Wei. I'll get started on interrogation." Nanzi licks his lips.

[jiriku]

"Easily done. Although I think they're all unconscious right now."

Additional action on round 2 of my previous sequence: Standard action to generate a second duplicate.

Additional action on round 3: move action to command the second sister to transport Nanzi to the station. Sister takes a full-round action to do so, then accompanies Nanzi to assist him/prevent him from slaughtering the prisoners before they talk.

Change of plans.

[Hiffic]

"NO! No way no how! Nobody says 'screw you' to the Knights and gets away with it! You can go blow yourself!"

Iron takes an immeasurably long inhale and the expansion of his chest almost breaks his shirt seams. Immediately he exhales in the general direction of the mysterious voice.

Super Breath with a 120x120 ft area at the far end of its cone. DC 22...for everybody it seems. Oh yeah it's a trip attack so take the appropriate save.

[TigerHunter]

Everyone? Or is the entrance off to the side enough that I'm outside the cone?
[roll0]
Nanzi grins. "On second thought, maybe I'll stay..."

[jiriku]

Reflex save [roll0]
Trip check [roll1]
Relevant modifiers

Evasion
Insubstantial (energy) (I think this makes me immune to tripping, but I'm not sure)
This changes things a bit, so I'll adjust my declared actions.

Next turn: Move action to move to an elevated position above the alley. Standard action to summon two duplicates.

Much better things have come along.

[Hiffic]

Everyone? Or is the entrance off to the side enough that I'm outside the cone?
[roll0]
Nanzi grins. "On second thought, maybe I'll stay..."
Uh dunno that might be up to Mal

[smuchmuch]

NoeAnte turns too see mike taking a big breath, the telltale sign he's going to use the move she personaly nicknamed the 'big bad wolf sigh'. Despite the fact there at least three friendlies in the way.
He's not going to...


Strentgh to resist trip [roll0]

Helen manage with somme dificulty to stand against the' sudden rush of wind and facepalms
"He did."

[Demons_eye]

Dan knows whats going and and does not fight it. Thinking 'This is going to hurt' as he falls to the grounds smacking into the ground. After a minute Dan gets up and brushing himself off. "Warning next time?"

[Volthawk]

".... oh ****."


I am inside the building, so that may change things.

[roll0]

[Hiffic]

Come back!

[Volthawk]

Nanzi, David and Dan all get blown to the ground by Mike's breath. The others all manage to stay standing. However, you see an aircraft high up, hovering over you. It isn't doing anything, just hovering.

[jiriku]

"Oh well, so much for getting out before the reinforcements arrive."

Xiaojing Wei flies up to the hovering aircraft and into the cockpit, seeing that it has no cockpit, flies through the aircraft's skin into its interior.

That was a move action. Before I complete my turn, what do I see once I'm inside the cockpit aircraft?

[Volthawk]

Flying up, you don't see a cockpit. The front of the aircraft has no windows, and you can't see any way of people getting in it.

[jiriku]

Edited my action to accomodate your description. My intent is to use my move action to enter their aircraft and see who or what is inside. Also, approximately how large is this aircraft? Are we talking Predator drone, F/A 18 Hornet, or Boeing jetliner? Does it have visible features like bomb bays, missile racks, nose cannons, cargo bay doors, etc?

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi quickly ascends back to his feet and aims his weapon skyward, annoyed at having a second potential threat appear.

"Whoever the freaky-deaky is better piss off before I decide to see how high I have to set this thing before it'll shoot through that wall he's hiding in!"

[Volthawk]

Inside the aircraft are large boxes, made out of some metal or other. There doesn't seem to be a way of opening them.

[jiriku]

Her curiousity piqued, Wei flies inside one of the boxes and casts Sky in the Morning, Sun in the East (a.k.a. the flashlight spell).

What do I see?
Also, regardless of what I find, this ends my turn.

[Demons_eye]

"Must you always blow things up? I mean that one time you even burned my first edition of Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours" Dan says as he stands up also. He forms knives out of paper and readies his aim as if he planed to throw them. "Though I must admit I am getting mad too."

[Hiffic]

Iron Mike cups his hands around his mouth,"Wei! What do you see up there?!"

[Volthawk]

Wei momentarily sees a metallic humanoid figure, but then the aircraft moves away, now hovering over the warehouse.

[jiriku]

We (unnecessarily) cups her hands and shouts back at Mike,


"Robots!"

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi pouts. "Well that's no fun."

[Hiffic]

"Nanzi's right! This ain't fun but at least robots won't count as casualties. First sign of trouble and that craft is meeting the nearest building in a mid-air collision. Or uh...how high can you jump Neo?"

[smuchmuch]

"Pretty high" say Helen while looking at the airplane up above. "But definitively not enough here. Sorry"

Two rank in leap means she could jump 5 time her normal distance, but unless the plane is really at low altitude, I assume it's not enough.

And, thank you Volthawk for Dming.

[jiriku]

A tense moment passes, and nothing happens. Wei shrugs.


"Well, let's see if we can take care of our business before we get further involved with our guests."

Wei suits actions to words.

Assuming we're no longer moving round-by-round, but can act more or less undisturbed, Wei will perform the following actions. If the robot ship performs any unusual actions, I may cancel any remaining queued-up actions in order to react to that.

Round 1:

Move action to move down into the alley.
Standard action to cast Daughters of the Golden Lady, conjuring two sisters.
Round 2:

Move action to command the first sister to fly up to an observation level and cast Jest of the Sun Goddess, creating an illusion of the Scorpion firing some sort of energy projectile in our midst, which will burst into a bubble of opaque, incandescent, crackling force completely covering the alley, the Knights, and the fallen Delta-5 toughs. This should conceal our actions from visual detection and make enough noise to hide the sound of conversation within, although it won't hide us from more exotic senses.
Viewers get no save against the illusion until they interact with it. Once they interact with it, a DC 17 Will Save will allow them to perceive it as illusory. However, even if they can tell it's an illusion, it's still opaque and loud, and should serve its purpose of hiding what we're doing. Unfortunately, we won't know what's going on outside the bubble either, but c'est la vie. My sister who cast the illusion is observing the aircraft and can report any change in the situation through our mental link.
Move action to command the second sister to cast Swift Dragon Wing, teleporting our fallen foes, along with their gear and any signs of battle such as shell casings, catridges, hurled air conditioner units, etc. Essentially, I'm looking to sanitize the alley and eliminate, as much as possible, all clues as to what happened here.
The living losers will be teleported stark naked into a Toughness 30, PL-10 nullification cell on board New Shangri-La. Their gear and the battle detritus, including all of the dead, will be teleported into a second such cell.
Round 3:

Move action to relay to the Knights a report of whatever my first sister is observing regarding the aircraft.
Move action to command my sister aboard New Shangri-La to talk to Merlin and command him to scan the prisoners, the corpses and their gear for bombs, locator devices, GPS devices, or anything else that would be undesirable to have aboard the station. The nullification cell should prevent such devices from broadcasting, but Wei takes concealing the station very seriously and won't take any chances.

[Volthawk]

As the sister flies up, she notices that the bottom of the aircraft is opened. Nothing comes in or out, though. A second later, it closes.

[jiriku]

"Hatch opened for a moment on the aircraft. Didn't see anything. Could be something invisible, or a gas of some kind. Or maybe our invisible guest can fly, and was hopping into his ride home. What do you want to do, knights?"

[Demons_eye]

"Get into it?" Dan suggest as runs outside and bends to one knee and starts to chant unknown words. Paper starts to fly around him, slow at first, until touching them might mean worse then a paper cut. They start to form a thin bridge about one foot wide. It goes for a few hundred feet out or until it reaches the craft, "Anyone get up that or do I need to make it bigger?"



Going to use create object to create a, if I did my math right which I doubt, 250 foot long bridge.

[smuchmuch]

"Bigger would probably be appreciated but..." Neoante look at the brige with very little confidence A filmsy paper catwakl doesn't seem like such a hotidea to board a high up target that could start moving at any moment. "... can't Wei just teleport us inside ?."

[jiriku]

"Easily done!" say all three copies of Wei in an eerie triple choir.

[smuchmuch]

"Oh good."
Sometime, she creeps me out.

Helen lowers her voice a bit "And I guess David can follow us witht the scorpion in case we ned backup. Someone want to stay on guard here in case invisible mistery man make a reaparance ?"

[Hiffic]

"I'll stay down here in case our mystery friend starts talking again. If you guys need back up call on the comm link! But not too loudly..." Iron Mike vanishes from view.

He's turned on his Concealment power and will stand around waiting for any surprises/

[Volthawk]

The voice returns.

Did you say robots? We should all leave, now. You don't know what you're dealing with.

[smuchmuch]

"Well. now we know he's still here" NeoAnte is getting a tad annoyed. "Here's a bright idea. Why don't you TELL US !?"

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi growls with annoyance at the voice. He's already annoyed with this stranger, and his apparent inability to be forthright isn't helping. "Send us up, Wei. If Mr. Pessimism here wants to make a run for it, I'm not stopping him."

[Volthawk]

"Because if I did, then whatever life you might have would be forfeit to the organization."

[jiriku]

Wei snorts in disgust.


"Pompous self-important meatbag."

The group teleports, with a sound that is definitely not "bamf" (as that would be copyright infringement).

[smuchmuch]

Arg.
After a quick glance around, NeoAnte decide to work out her rising frustration by tearing one one of the big metal crates.

Strength check [roll0], taking a ten if possible/necessary

[Hiffic]

"Uhhhh. I don't know if you should do that?

[smuchmuch]

"I'm SICK of WAITING to have any idea of WHAT'S GOING ON !!" say hellen, while still pulling the lid.
"besides If there's anything dangerous in this crate I'd rather have it jump at us NOW, rather that when we have our back turned.",

[Volthawk]

Wei:

Outside the aircraft, the real you sees a greyish humanoid appears below you, in the alley, emitting a red light, which then. It then gets rushed at by a humanoid shadow, with red glowing eyes. You see it turn around, the red light fading away.


NeoAnte rips part of the crate open, revealing a grey0skinned humanoid, with implants all around it's body. It doesn't move for a second, before looking over at NeoAnte and reaching a hand slowly towards him.

[jiriku]

Wei (duplicate 1, on the aircraft):

"O, niezhe zhen shi gue kaile de jinzan, you just started vandalizing space aliens, NeoAnte! They haven't attacked us!"

Wei hesitates, considering the bits and pieces of languages she knows that are theorized to be of interstellar origin. She settles on Coptic, the language of ancient Egypt.


"So sorry, my friend has a short temper, very sorry. Can we talk, please?"
If the alien shows no sign of understanding, she'll repeat the question in English, then rotate through several modern languages as quickly as she can.

Although her words are polite and her left hand is held out in an open gesture of peace, she floats up to a height where she has a clear line of fire at the creature, and her right hand is lifted to gain its attention, a golden glow gathering there in clear warning.

Free action to speak and gesture. Hopefully I can get across the idea that while we're obviously dangerous and unstable people (sigh), we're open to non-violent solutions to this situation.

Move action to get a clean line of fire to the alien.

Standard action to Cover the alien with Solar Flare. If it takes hostile action towards NeoAnte, the Cover action is triggered and I'll blast it (and probably blow out the side of the ship as well). Solar Flare is reposted here for your convenience.

Solar Flare [Light, Magic]
Blast 14 (Penetrating 3) in a line, up to 25' wide and 700' long. Toughness DC 29, Reflex DC 24 for half damage. Extra Knockback 2 (total Knockback 16)

If it's impossible to cast Solar Flare without hitting my allies, let me know and I'll ready a different action instead.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (original, above the alley):

"Hey you down there, do you need any help?"
The Golden Lady is unsure whether she's offering to help the red-eyed shadow figure or the alien. :smallbiggrin:


---------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (duplicate 2, aboard New Shangri-La):

"Hmm, Merlin, looks like we're aboard an alien spacecraft. Could you be a dear and inform NORAD? Feel free to give them the coordinates of the ship."

[TigerHunter]

"Jesus. What the hell?"

[smuchmuch]

before looking over at NeoAnte and reaching a hand slowly towards him.

Helen wonders at wich point she had a suprise sex change operation before turning her atention to somùething more productive to the storry, aka the thing in the box.
"Alien, shmalien. That plane lookled build by human hands to me. It's more lke somme kind of .. cyborg ?"
Not really sure what to do next, she let the unidentified humanoid thing act but gets ready to punch if he gets agressive
"Er Hi ? can you understand me ?"

[Hiffic]

Iron Mike begins to nervously bite his nails at the cyborg's ill-chosen grabbing destination.

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi begins searching the craft for other rooms, particularly access to the control room.

[roll0]

[Volthawk]

Aboard the ship, Nanzi finds no other areas of the ship. The cyborg stops reaching forwards, and emits a loud screeching sound, which is echoed from within the crates. The cyborg puts it's arms by it's sides, and some kind of armour plating forms around it, just as you feel the aircraft start to tip sideways, and a emotionless voice intones "Carrier disrupted. Crash destruction initiated. 6 seconds until landing"...

--------

From her aerial position, Wei sees the shadow figure strike out again at the cyborg below, making it stagger backwards, trying to regain focus. However, she hears a strange screeching sound from above, and sees the aircraft above start to tilt downwards.

[smuchmuch]

"... Er.. Oops. Sorry ?." Helen looks pretty embarassed as she absentmindely punches the now agressive cyborg away from her. Usualy, she's not the one who start disasters.

"So hum teleportation out of here ? Or, better..." she looks at her communicator "Merlin ? The plane we're in is going to crash, can you get a lock on it and teleport away from the city ? And preferably closer to the ground to minimize impact."


Punch the cyborg (Strike 10 (1 rank + mighty (9 force bonus), tougness 24 to resist), there's probably somme associated knockback since it's a 9 force bonus but i'm not sure.)

Attack roll [roll0]

[jiriku]

"Merlin needs a digitizer in order to transport. Maybe I can do it..."

Will check the rules on using extra effort/hero points with minions when I get home in a few hours.

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi, having learned long ago to leave yourself with at least two ways out, immediately turns the energy rifle to full power and begins cutting a hole in the ceiling, leaving the others to work out the logistics of teleportation.

+8 damage bonus. I probably won't be able to get anywhere before the ship hits the ground, though.

[Hiffic]

"Let's make sure to take this guy with us at least"
Iron Mike hurries and tries to grab the newly armored humanoid.

Uhh...just in case we need to grapple the thing:
Attack/grab attempt = [roll0]
Grapple Check if successful = 33 (7+12+10+4)

[Demons_eye]

"Well this even is turning out to be every bad." Dan said as he pulls out a book and starts to read something. "Damn.... The book I brought was about escaping and exploding underwater base. I am out of ideas."

[jiriku]

Wei (aboard the alien ship):

"Kao! I've never transported anything this BIG before...here goes...MIGHTY DRAGON WING!"

The Golden Lady throws her arms out as a radiant brillance pours from her body and envelops all of you. There is a mighty wrenching sensation and a terrible, nauseating rush.

An awful, agonizing moment later, the brilliance fades and the metal superstructure of the ship shrieks as if under terrible strain. Amid a rush of wind and dust, the ship grinds into the earth, arcs of heat lightning and a brief rainbow-colored aurora playing across the deck. The noises of the city are suddenly absent, and a shocked silence ensues, broken only by the squawking of a lone (and very confused) pigeon that inadvertently came along for the ride.

Wei rubs at her forehead and looks around, momentarily confused.


"Hey! It worked!"

Full-round action to cast Mighty Dragon Wing and teleport the entire ship and all its contents about 5 miles out of town and place it gently on the ground in an empty field somewhere out of sight of the main highways and away from civilians.

My radius for Mighty Dragon Wing is 250 feet, so I'm teleporting (indiscriminately) everything in a globe 500 feet across, which is larger than the largest aircraft in the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225). It should be enough.

I affect everyone in the ship, but this is not a Teleport Attack, so the cyborgs are free to decline the teleport. However, if they don't come along for the ride, it's raining aliens back in Newstone City. :smallcool:

Everyone who comes along is disoriented and loses their dodge bonus for one round.

If minions can use Extra Effort (I'm not sure if Extra Effort is only for heroes), then Wei (duplicate 1) will use Extra Effort to produce the power stunt. Otherwise I'll spend my hero point to allow her to cast the spell.

MIGHTY DRAGON WING (Teleport Power Stunt)
Base Power: Teleport 10
Power Feats: Change Velocity, Area Progression 3
Extras: Accurate, Affects Others, Area
Flaws: Long-Range, Medium (Light)
34 points (20 + 4 + 30 - 20)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (above the alley):


"Hey, sorry fella, but I gotta run."

Wei concentrates for a moment, then releases a brilliant glowing star from her hands, which grows and resolves itself into another of her "sisters".


"Hey, keep an eye on this guy, okay sis?"

With that, Wei darts away, moving faster than the eye could hope to follow.

Standard action to create a third duplicate. Move action to fly after the party. Probably won't catch up to them until next turn.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (in New Shangri-La's detention unit):


"Ooops! We're on the move. Update coordinates please, Merlin."

[smuchmuch]

"Well that was unpleasant." grunts NeoAnte as she steady herself from the turbulance and take a look around for the cyborgs. "Anyone hurt ?"'

[Hiffic]

"Not over here. We've only been almost-killed twice so far, seems like an easy day."
Iron Mike lifts the armored cyborg over his head
"Merlin? Can you analyze....everything?"

[Demons_eye]

"I am fine" Dan says. Today was very annoying and he was about two seconds from going back to his house and finishing his book.

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi blinks, surprised to suddenly find himself on solid ground.

[Volthawk]

As Wei's teleportation fades, you notice that the aircraft is not with you. However, the cyborg is, still in it's steel cocoon. Merlin doesn't instantly respond, but then says "It appears to be mostly biological, but without he mechanical parts fully integrated within it's body. It's DNA isn't stable, and is constantly changing. The machine parts are similar. One device that I've identified is a DNA scanner in the hand."


Wei

Alright, I'll just say you knew some random field especially well, then. But in future, I will enforce that rule, 'kay? Also, have that Hero Point back.

Alley Duplicate:

You see two things. One, the aircraft drops downwards, before stopping instantly and flying straight up to it's original position. Two, the cyborg down there blends into the scenery, unable to be seen.

Shangri-La Duplicate:

Merlin simply responds with a "Done."

[jiriku]

Wei (in the field):


"I...missed the ship. That shouldn't be possible. Unless...the ship is alive?

"Oh, and the ship didn't crash. It righted itself after we left. And one of the aliens is in the alley fighting Mr. Shadow. Oops, it just vanished. Did it just copy his stealth power? I hate to admit it, but that smartass may have been right. We may be stumbling into something very big.

"Umm, guys, if they can copy powers, it's probably not a good idea to let them touch you with those DNA scanner thingies. If this guy comes out of his shell, can someone take that scanner away from him?"

Montague:

"Can you use that paper inventy thing that you do to make sure he's not carrying any locating devices stronger than what Merlin can nullify? We might want to take him prisoner, but I don't want him giving away our location if we do."

Volthawk:
With the Accurate extra applied to my Teleport, I do not need to know exactly where I'm going in order to get there. A vague idea of the destination is sufficient. If you ask how that works, exactly, my mental image is that Wei is not actually teleporting from place to place, she's simply flying there at the speed of light (which is why her teleport has the Medium (light) flaw. Essentially, the teleport power represents her run speed. Moving at 186,000 miles per second, she can fly all over the place looking for her exact destination in only a few nanoseconds.



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (original):

Completes the process of flying out to the group.




-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Weis in other places:

All will observe and report.

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi turns his rifle onto the creature. "We could just dump it into the sun. Better safe than sorry."

[smuchmuch]

"Oh, this keep getting better and better." Helen mumbles moodily while searching around for a heavy object she could lift off and drop on the cyborg's head at the first sign of it getting out of its (his ? doesnt look like a she at first glance) cocoon
"If that... thing copied my powers we may want to get it way from the ground. Not sure if they can all be copied given their origin, but better safe than sorry, as he said"

[jiriku]

"Maybe you could stuff him in that refrigerator box thingy and then bend the sides closed?"

Wei offers helpfully.

[TigerHunter]

"Y'know what's really far from the ground? The sun!"

[jiriku]

"Not helping!"

Wei says in a singsong voice.

[TigerHunter]

"Evidently not, though I do try," Nanzi sighs, keeping his rifle trained on the creature.

[jiriku]

"So, do we want to take this guy back home and question our prisoners, or go back to the strange ship?"

[Demons_eye]

"Home, shower, book, integration, lunch, then save the town?" Dan offers summing more paper out of his pack. He starts to piece together strange symbols on the paper but seems a little stumped.



Wei/anyone else

I am currently without all of my books until Sunday. Without said books I do not know how to use his Artificer feat. If you can give me the gist I can do it but otherwise I can't make a paper locating device scanner.

[jiriku]

Wei (in the field, original and duplicate, speaking in stereo):


"Ok then. We're off to see the wizard!"

In a flash of light, the team finds itself aboard New Shangri-La, in the detention module. The armor-encased cyborg sits in a containment field, while several unconscious, naked Delta-5 toughs fill another, and the third is occupied with a mound of weaponry, clothing, dead bodies, spent shells, street refuse, and a shattered air conditioning unit.

A second Xiaojing Wei appears in the tight space, but one of them quickly step into the other and vanishes.


"So, Merlin, what have we got?"

Full-round action to port the team and the (apparently unresisting) cyborg into the detention module as described. Drop the cyborg's gear in the cell with the other gear.

If the cyborg goes along for the ride, then Wei (original) will also port up right behind the team. If he resists and stays in the field, she remains there to mind him while we decide what to do.

Assuming things work as described, I'll wind up with the original Wei and two of my three active duplicates all in the base. I'll therefore dismiss one of those duplicates.


---------------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (above the alley):

Continues to observe and report.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (in the New Shangri-La control room):

Does nothing

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi shoots a glare at the cyborg behind the containment field before turning his attention to the prisoners. The wickedest smile crosses his face as he sets his rifle down on a table and draws his knife.

Are the prisoners conscious?

[smuchmuch]

"Home, shower, book, integration, lunch, then save the town?"

"As much as I would apreciate a shower and the comfort of my bed about now, we may want to change the order of that.
We should keep an eye on the situation until that carrier thing fly away at least. Besides imagine the things start rampaging or abducting kittens or somme sh*t like that and we aren't here to prevent it... " she wves her hand. there are so many things that could go wrong that it's just would take to many time to enumerate them all "People are going to be pretty pissed about it and we can saygoodbye to that federal grant. Somme of us are already on thin ice...."
Helen let her sentence hanging in the air, those concerned know who they are (herself included).

"Until further devellopement, and since we have no idea who they are and what they want, I propose we spilt in two teams and take shifts. One team down here to keep an eye on the carrier and ready to step in imediatly if something ugly happens and the other up here, interogating" she shoots a vaguely disgusted sideway glance at Nanzi; it looks like the little man is going to enjoy himself waaaay to much. "...or getting somme rest or whatever. Wei can do the liason."

[Hiffic]

"Whatever happened to that mysterious invisible shadow guy though?"

[jiriku]

Wei grins impishly.


"I'm already down there. Actually, I never left. I've been watching the ship and our condescending stranger this whole time. The ship hasn't moved. Right before we teleported out to the field, another of these cyborgs came out and started searching the alley. The stranger attacked it, but it cloaked itself somehow after he wounded it. I can't see either of them right now, but hey, it's only been about a thirty seconds.

"Does anyone want a ride down there? You can keep me company. It's a little lonely being down there by myself."

Nanzi:
I'm pretty sure they're not. Normally it takes, what, 1 minute to even make a recovery check? And we only knocked them out like 3-4 rounds ago.

[TigerHunter]

"I'll go, Wei. I can't work any of my magic until these clowns wake up." Nanzi violently drives the knife into the table, where it stands stark upright. A little something to get them in the right mindset when they come to. "Just give me a second..." Nanzi disappears into his quarters and returns with his old RPG-7.

[Demons_eye]

"Here take a book with you so I can get down there to your exact spot if I need too. Otherwise I think I'll be part of team 'stay here until something happens'. Take..... Ah Tuck Everlasting. I bet Nanzi can relate to it a bit. Maybe." Dan says as he starts to head for the fridge. This was not a save the reality as we know it mission so Dan did not think he needed to take this that seriously.

[TigerHunter]

"Uh. Thanks." Nanzi stares at the book for a few seconds before slipping it into his trenchcoat.

[Hiffic]

"You guys have fun, Dan and I will watch over the cells."
Iron Mike shakes his finger pointedly at the air conditioner unit and glares.
"I'm watchin you, you mother******"

[smuchmuch]

"I'll go down at first, then." Helen looks around. "Anyone knows where David is ? Hasn't seen him in a while."

[Volthawk]

The cyborg becomes active again, it's armoured cocoon now gone. It shakily rises to its feet, and looks around, before speaking a single word. "...Where?"

[jiriku]

Wei (original aboard New Shangri-La):


"You're in Disney World, kiddo," Wei comments ironically. "This is the Wizard of Oz ride."

Wishing to talk to Merlin privately without the prisoner overhearing, she floats off in the direction of the command module. Once away, she begins querying the ship's computer.


"Merlin, can you run an analysis of that ship's hull and tell me what it's made of? I couldn't teleport it -- maybe the ship itself is a cyborg entity just like our prisoner, or maybe it's made of something weird that resists magic. Can you narrow it down a little for me?"


-------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (duplicate aboard New Shangri-La):

A moment later, Wei's sister floats into the cell block from the command module.


"Anybody who wants to come with, raise your hand, please. Alright, here we go."

In a brilliant flash, they're gone. A moment later, her sister reappears. She addresses the cyborg.


"So, fella. What's your name?"

I've left it vague whether she ported Nanzi down or not, since with the cyborg conscious I'm not sure whether Nanzi would prefer to question him or go planetside.


-------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (duplicate above the alley in Newstone):


"Hi guys. Hi sis."

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi shoots the cyborg a glare, but raises his hand anyway. The others can handle it, and whatever's going on in that alley is probably far more fun.

Upon finding himself dirtside, he immediately turns his weapon skyward and fires at the ship. Not seeing any other immediate threats, Nanzi begins loading another grenade as he watches the pretty explosion.

Full-round action to reload.

[roll=1d20+13[/roll]

+10 damage bonus to the ship and rank 10 Area Attack if I hit. DC 20 reflex save for anyone within 10 feet of the ship, DC and damage bonus decrease by 1 every 10 feet out to 100 feet. If the ship is less than 100 feet above us... [roll0]

[TigerHunter]

Let's try that first roll again. Maybe using the proper formatting will help.

[roll0]

[smuchmuch]

"What the hell do you think you are doing ?!"
Helen grabs Nanzi arm as he's reloading. it's a pretty brutal grip, she doesn't look to happy.
"We're supposed to keep an eye ont his thing, not shoot it out of the sky over a heavily populated aera !"

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi smirks. NeoAnte doesn't scare him. "It's called a pre-emptive strike, rockhead."

[jiriku]

Wei shrugs.


"Honestly, these guys make me nervous. If they were gonna be friendly, they've had plenty of time to say so before now. When a weird hovering spacecraft full of inhuman cyborgs appears above Newstone in response to a distress signal from a group of heavily armed trigger-happy killers, somehow I think there's trouble ahead. Maybe we'd best test their defenses.

Wei appears puzzled for a moment.


"Did I just agree with Nanzi that it was a good idea to blow something up? What's this world coming to?"


Uttering a world-weary sigh, Wei flickers up into a position about a hundred yards distance from the ship, in line with at least two of the strange modules that appear to provide the ship's propulsion, then holds out her arm.


"SOLAR FLARE!"
A coruscating lancet of light bursts from her hand and strikes the ship, growing into a massive column of searing energy as wide as a highway and as long as several football fields.


Solar Flare produces a colossal laser beam 25 feet in diameter and 700 feet long, dealing Blast 14 (Penetrating 3, Extra Knockback 2) damage.
Since it's an area attack, I don't roll to hit.
Targets in the area are entitled to a DC 24 Reflex save for half damage (I don't think vehicles get Reflex saves, but I may hit some of the cyborgs inside if I punch through the hull).
Anyone hit needs a DC 29 Toughness save. Impervious Toughness cannot ignore the hit unless it is Impervious rank 18 or higher. A successful Reflex save reduces this to a DC 22 Toughness save that can be blocked by Impervious 11 Toughness.
Anyone stunned (or worse) by the attack suffers Knockback 16, or Knockback 9 if they made the Reflex save.

I'll aim it to line up with at least two of those units that you mentioned as a possible source of propulsion, more if I can. Also, on the theory that the Solar Flare is likely to punch completely through the ship and blast on for another hundred yards out the other side, I'll see if I can't line it up with one or two of the modules on the opposite side as well. Dunno if that will have any special effect.

[TigerHunter]

"I'm as surprised as you are." Nanzi resumes reloading.

[Hiffic]

Iron Mike continues to glare at the prisoners in the containment cells.
"You're in our house now cyborg and you ain't goin nowhere."

[Demons_eye]

Dan heads to the bathing area to refreshing up before coming back. Reading The Clockwork Man he shows up to the cells "I thought you guys were going somewhere?

[jiriku]

Wei (aboard the station):


"I did. I'm back. And there. I mean...you know how it is. How's the book? I miss reading books."

Wei sighs and gives Montigue's ever-present books a longing look.

[smuchmuch]

"I don't" Helen sometime wonders if her teamates are part of a conspiracy to annoy the hell our of her. she take a deep breath

"Wei." helen take a deep breath and start talking slowly. The spook may be pretty empty headed at times but a least you can reason with her. The psycho just won't give a crap, so there's little point.
"I don't care about the thing into the plane ,I'm worried about potential people under.
If you shoot that thing, it crashes uncontrolably and most likely send a rain of fiery sharpnell all around. We are an urban aera with a heavy density of population. Add to this that every grenades Nanzi misses will have to fall back somewhere, courtesy of gravity, and you'll understand I'd like a really good reason before taking the risk of sending a fireball intot he nearest elementary school.
Besides it'll have to comme back from wherever it's from at somme point. If merlin could track it back that would answer somme question"

Or at least that's what she wouls have said if she hadn't been interupted mid speech by the aircraft retalation, making her release Nanzi arm as she brace for the blast.

"Okay, knock yourself out" being shot at wih missiles tend to quiet one's moral objection

[Volthawk]

The cyborg looks around it, before looking back at the sister that pops up, it's face betraying no emotion. "Name?... Michael. What's going on?"

-------------

The ship appears to be unharmed by Nanzi's rocket, still hovering in position once the smoke clears. However, Wei's light blast seems to do some damage, leaving sears among its armour plates. However, you both hear sounds coming from the aircraft, which Nanzi can make out.

Nanzi:

"Unit under attack. No Cy-shift units detected. Sending to Overwatch...sending complete". Use of indiscriminate force: allowed. Firing.


Meanwhile, the pods on the aircraft rotate around to face the alleyway, seeming to change appearance, becoming larger and bulkier. They then fires a barrage of projectiles all over the alleyway and the area around it.


I need Toughness and Reflex saves from Wei, Nanzi and Nightshade.

[smuchmuch]

NeoAnte shield her face with her arms while letting her unaturaly tough body take most of the blast.


Reflex [roll0]
Toughness 22 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9404840&postcount=234)

[jiriku]

Wei in the alley:


"Quing gao!"

Reflex save [roll0]. Evasion.
Toughness save [roll1]. This Wei is a minion, so if she takes any damage, she'll go down for the count.

Edit: Wow, crap rolls. Likely she's out.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wei in the detention block:


"Hi Michael! You've got machiney bits stuck in you. That's pretty neat. Who did that to you?"

[TigerHunter]

"It's a warehouse district. That means no one lives here. Right?" Nanzi stops and listens intently. He opens his mouth to speak, but is interrupted by the sound of the ship firing. "Mother-". What was presumably a long string of multilingual profanity is drowned out by an explosion.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Jallorn]

Nightshade

Ref: [roll0]
Tough: [roll1]

I warned you! Nightshade yells at the other people, You can't blame me for any of the results of your actions!

[jiriku]

Ladies and gentlemen, this combat (and Nightshade's comment) requires theme music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEllLECo4OM).

[Jallorn]

So far, 4:40 seems like a good place for the start of this action, Nightshade yells, then the jet attacks.

In other news, I recently acquired a Bag of Holding in RL, yay. Time Lord technology in my hands, bwahahahahahaha.

[Demons_eye]

"I do" Dan says to Wei "That's why I don't use clones or time travel. I find it troublesome and try to stick to the more basic techniques but I digress. The Clockwork Man is a wonderful tale about a, for a lack of a better word. robot that was built in the late 19 hundreds. His life is simple but enjoyable. Ernst master's daughter falls in love with him, the clockwork man, but is forced to find a man of the marrying type. On a date Ernst was supervising a spurned man disables Ernst and kills the daughter and boyfriend. After going insane with his daughters death Ernst master is put into mental hospital and with his love dead and master away Ernst commits a suicide but not powering himself up."

Ernst wakes from his eternal darkness to find himself in a department store. He does not know the time or place of his incarceration. Nor what has happened since he powered down. Slowly he learns everything he needs and deals with the death of his loved ones by becoming a vigilante. A very good story but short for my taste."


Dan started to walk around while he described the book and finds himself in a circle soon. Breaking the habit he looks around "So what should we do while the others are out? I have some things I wanted to work on. I was tracing down a Fairy ward last night but lost it after I fell asleep."

[jiriku]

--------------------------------------------------
Wei (detention block):


"Oh my. What a depressing story. I'm so glad no one ever read that story to me. I was so sad when Emperor Chongzhen killed himself... I might have done the same. I'm glad I didn't.

"Well, Michael here was about to tell me about how he got his machiney bits, and...oh my.

The Golden Lady's eyes widen and her face colors delicately.

"It appears that Nanzi and my sister are blowing things up. From Nanzi I'd expect it, but that's terribly rash of her. And...my, yes that had predictable results. Perhaps I'd better send another down to look after the team."

Wei concentrates for a moment, then turns to face the cyborg again, giving him her most charming, winning smile.


"I'm so sorry for the interruption. Please continue."

-----------------------------------------------------------
Wei (command module):


"Ah, Merlin, looks like I've got to run. Keep tabs on things, please. And I haven't forgotten that you haven't answered me yet about the gear the prisoners are carrying -- don't try to be lazy and get by without scanning them."

Wei accelerates to the speed of light, her "body" blurring into a loosely held ribbon of photons as she arcs through the station's viewing porthole and down to the Earth's surface, covering 25,000 miles in less time than it takes an eye to blink. She comes to rest inside the warehouse whose roof so recently held the Knights (out of sight of the ship), and looks about at the structural damage dealt to the building by the missile barrage.


"Oh dear."

[Volthawk]

Micheal staggers to his feet, and leans against the edge of the cell. He then starts to talk again, now more fluently, without breaks. "Machine bits? Are you serious? That's...just plain weird."

-------

The barrage stops after a few seconds, leaving large holes in the buildings around the alley, spreading rubble around. The Sister is gone, annihilated by the cannons. Both NeoAnte and Nightshade are left injured by the blast, although Nightshade's reactions and NeoAnte's pure resilience means they aren't that hurt. Nanzi is left unharmed.

[jiriku]

Wei (detention block):

Wei flashes Michael a quizzical look and points at his various cyborg components.


"Yes, you're just chock-full of machiney bits. Can't you see them? Don't you feel them? It's been eight centuries since I had a flesh body, and we didn't have machines back then, but I'm pretty sure I would have felt it if someone had poked me full of machiney bits."

[Volthawk]

"To tell the truth, I'm not really feeling much. Whoever did this also shot me up full of painkillers, I guess."

[TigerHunter]

"Not fair! Direct hit with an RPG should always be a win." Nanzi finishes reloading the launcher and dusts himself off. "Wei, can you... damnit, she's gone." Nanzi slings the RPG onto his back and picks up his rifle before noticing the duplicate on top of the building. "Wei, teleport me inside," he yells. "Maybe there's something we missed the first time."

[smuchmuch]

"It looked entirely automated to me. i'lcomme with you to keep those machines out of your back." NeoAnte gets a bit of missile of sharpnell out her arm, knell and put one hand ont he ground "Wait just a second please"

Regeneration (6) for injured at contact of the ground,
Recovery [roll0]

Helen looks happily at the cuts and burns vanishing from her body "Thank you.
. Ready now."

[jiriku]

Wei (detention block):


"My! You're brave to take it so casually. So you haven't had those things for long? Where are you from, Michael? I travel all over the place -- I bet we even know some of the same places."

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (alleyway):


"Liao tian ye, Nanzi, I leave you alone for 12 nanoseconds and already you're wanting a joyride. Ok, here we go."

The Knights accelerate in a blinding flash and find themselves aboard ship again (Nightshade will have the option to teleport with us).


"Now remember, don't let them touch you with their DNA thingies."

I think the order of action is Nanzi reloads, Helen heals, Wei teleports down, then Nanzi and Helen delay until after Wei, Wei teleports everyone aboard ship, and then they act? Nightshade's got the option to act before me I think or to delay and come along with. Or something like that.

[Hiffic]

"Nice name Michael. But to be blunt, you're looking terrible buddy. Remember anything from before waking up here?"

[TigerHunter]

I'm assuming that we got a surprise round when we landed, which I spent firing the rocket. Then the ship returned fire and I spent my next round reloading the RPG, plus a free action to switch out weapons with Quick Draw. I'll hold off on describing my actions aboard the ship until Volthawk can tell us whether something happened between when I finished reloading and when the second Wei showed up and teleported us. And whether the inside of the ship is any different from when we left it.

[Jallorn]

Nightshade's form begins to morph, reforming and restoring holes, then, spawning two black wings sprout from where his shoulderblades would be. With a few quick flaps, he is headed for the ship.

[roll0]

I can make recovery checks for all conditions each round without rest, and since I can succeed on a roll of 3 or better, I've written my post on the assumption that I succeed.

[Volthawk]

"Mercenary work. We were hired by this group, they said something about us being backup for their normal men. Think they called the men Delta Company or something."

---

Once aboard the ship, the most obvious change is that it is empty. No boxes. No cyborgs. Nothing.

[Jallorn]

What was in here? Nightshade demands of the others, I don't know where it is now, but one of their adapting cyborgs attacked me in the alley, were there more?

[jiriku]

Wei (detention block):


"Just a short-term gig, huh? Pretty weak of your employers to just ditch you out in a field, if you ask me. So...aboard that plane...why were you in a box? That can't have been very nice...I hate tight spaces."

---------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (aboard the strange ship):

Wei shrugs as she looks about the empty cargo bay.


"There were. Guess they decided we were a threat and skipped out. Don't know why they'd do that. Close your eyes."

With a sardonic shrug she flits to the fore of the group and fires another solar flare, aiming through the empty bay into the nose of the ship.

[TigerHunter]

"Boxes. Godgirl here broke one of them open and we found a cyborg inside. He's with the others."

Nanzi begins searching the ship for the damage he did when trying to cut his way out, as well as any secret doors or compartments.

Take 10. If I don't find anything of interest, take 20. I have night vision goggles if there are any dark areas.

[smuchmuch]

"Wait. you said you saw only one more in the streets ?"
Neoante try to get a sneek peek at the mystery man (if it's even a man and not somme crazy mythical creature or a roibot) now that he has left the covers of the shadows of the alley.
"There were what, half a dozens pods ? that spawn a very uncomfortable mistery here."

[Demons_eye]

"Reminds me of story but then again everything does now a days." Dan says as he agrees with Wei. He then turns to the prisoner and says "So who hired your group and why?"

[Hiffic]

"Wei's right Michael. Sounds like your employers just didn't care for you that much. But isn't Delta Company part of the U.S. military?! They would never stoop to something like this, no way hombre!

[smuchmuch]

"Well at any rate... we'd probably better find those things" NoeAnte reach for her communicator. "Merlin, based on the one we have in detention, could you track the cyborgs in the city ?"

[Volthawk]

"A box? What box?"

---

Searching the aircraft, Nanzi notices that there is no visible damage to the aircraft, not even where he used his weapon to cut a hole in the ceiling. Wei's solar flare also doesn't leave a mark on the craft.

[TigerHunter]

"I dunno, just a box," Nanzi says as he finishes his search. "There is absolutely nothing here, not even the damage I did last time." Nanzi pulls out a hip flask. "I believe you're all already familiar with my opinion on what to do with dangerous objects that can't be destroyed by conventional means."

[jiriku]

Wei (detention block):


"Umm, the little refrigerator-sized metal box you were in on the ship. What do you think you were traveling in? Luxury seating in first class? Are you sure you're alright, Michael? You seem to have some major holes in your memory, fella."


------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (Newstone):


"Destroy it using unconventional means? I could nuke it, but you'd all best be well clear before I try that. I'm wondering if this is even the same ship."

Wei scowls at the hull and blasts again.

[TigerHunter]

"Specifically, I meant dropping it into the sun."

[jiriku]

"Ooooooh, that. No can do, mister triggerhappy. I tried to 'port it before and it wouldn't come along for the ride, remember?"

[TigerHunter]

"So... what? The only things you've had trouble teleporting are people. Is this thing alive?"

[jiriku]

"Oooh, mister smarty thinks he knows everything about magic! Well fine, how about I teleport us all 20 feet up then, and see if it works?"

FLASH!

At the next available action, port the party and the ship 20 feet upwards. If it works, I'll be eating crow. :smallbiggrin: If it doesn't, then we'll all suddenly be clinging to the outer hull of the ship.

[Demons_eye]

"Maybe hes not real and all his memorys are fake?" Dan offers "By the way how are the others doing?"

[Volthawk]

This time, the ship does come with you, and the situation is exactly the same, just a little bit higher up in the air.

---

"Hey! I'm real. At least, I think I am. It's just quite a bit of my memory is gone. Up to when we started talking, from....what's the date?"

[TigerHunter]

"So... let's dump this thing into the sun and go get some takeout. I'm in the mood for Chinese."

[smuchmuch]

"Oh, I can't believe i'm saying this". NeoAnte looks as happy as she had been foces to swalllow a handfull of razorblades. "I ...agree. with Nanzi.
Why do I suspect things wont have the decency to be so simple, though
And she adds as if an afterthough. "Chucking into the sun after we got out that is. Thank you very much"

[Hiffic]

"The year is 2013 buddy...it's a Thursday in October. Does that ring a bell?"

[jiriku]

Wei (detention block):


"Hmm, looks like they're in town, except my sister is...leaving Earth orbit and planning to throw herself into the Sun. Now that's odd. My sisters have been quite rash lately. I'd best send a few more to follow up."

Wei suddenly flickers and appears in triplicate, but her duplicates vanish almost as quickly as they appeared.


"So, Michael, we're curious about your employers. They seem to have access to some unusual technology. Can you talk about them, or are you under a nondisclosure agreement? Or do you even remember?"

Create two more sisters. One will fly down to Newstone to serve as a taxi for the team if they need it. Another will go to the control room and chat with Merlin.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (Control room):


"Merlin, what's the status on that ship down in Newstone. Sis says it's different than the one they were in before. Can you confirm?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (Newstone):

A second Wei flits into the ship, then casts Swift Dragon Wing, teleporting the team and herself back down to ground level.


"So, did I hear someone ask for a trip to China?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (aboard the strange ship):


"Alright, let's see where we can go!"

Activate Swift Dragon Wing continuously, traveling 200,000 miles per round, taking the ship with me up, up, and away. Destination: Sol.

[TigerHunter]

"Please and thank you."

[Jallorn]

Nightshade quickly exits the ship, then disappears.

For the GM's eyes only:
No but seriously, just the GM:
Really, everyone else should stop here:
Nightshade is hiding in Nanzi's shadow.

[Volthawk]

"Who were my employers? I don't know. We were approached by a single person, who was a representative. The boss had a talk with him privately, and then we had the job. And as for the time, that means I've been not in control for...about 3 months or so."

---

Merlin replies "It is the same aircraft as earlier. It appears to be able to self-repair very quickly, however."

---

This time, the aircraft stays put as you go teleporting off to the sun.

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi throws up his hands. "I give the hell up!"

[smuchmuch]

"What are you complaining about ? She got rid of it; as you wanted. I doubt it'll survive being thown in to the freaking sun itself."

NeoAnte turns her attention to Nightshade to whom she'd like to ask a few questions.
"Okay w.. Oh hells.[
Or rather the absence of Nightshade who diseapeared again. Helen take a last look at the alley deseperatly loooking for a trace of the man before sighing.
"Why do I suspect the start of a very annoying trend here ?

Rrmpph. Okay with chineese but just give me a ride home and 10 !minutes to put somme decent clothes on first, will ya"
The gods curse cyborgs, self regenerating planes and particulary shadowy mysterious strangers who could at least have the decency to say something when they leave.

[Demons_eye]

Daniel (detention block)

Three months is a long time to be out of commission. Even longer without any memory what soever. Do you, er, need anything? Like oil or a recharge? Dan asks. He seems more interested in this now it was turning out to be a good story. Memory lose was quite popular in the epic tales he read and that meant this might be one.

[Volthawk]

"Hell if I know."

[jiriku]

Wei (detention block):

"Huh. Well, Michael, it sounds like you got more than you bargained for with this job you took. Maybe your whole unit got more than they bargained for. Have you got any family we should notify? Anyone you want us to contact to let them know that you're..umm, cyborgy but alright?"

Free action to dismiss the sister who's flown off into outer space, and the one in the control room.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wei (Newstone):


"Well..what a gorram nuisance. Team, what shall we do? This ship contains no beings, yet appears to teleport only when it wishes to do so. It may be dangerous, but so far it has retaliated only when attacked. It is possible that with concentrated firepower, we may be able to harm it, but I am not convinced we can do so. Shall I attempt a more powerful assault?


"Or...do we just leave it here and go get Chinese food?"

[TigerHunter]

"Leave. Figure something out over crab wonton. I'm buying."

[Hiffic]

To the Knights: "This just sounds all kinds of wrong. Is there any way we can tell if he's lying? Can we clobber him?"

[Demons_eye]

Daniel (detention block):

Let me go look around for a bit I might be able to find something out about similar cases. Yell if you need me" Dan says as he slips out to his study. He starts to read some books as his computer starts up.


Rolling knowledge to find out what he might be, other cases of cyborgs, what he might need, and what companies that higher mercenaries have the money/power to do this.

[roll0] Knowledge all equal.

[jiriku]

"Alright then. Chinese food it is."

The surroundings blur, and a few seconds later the garish nightlife of Beijing surrounds Nanzi, Wei, and NeoAnte, Patrons at a posh noodle bar gazing in astonishment at the trio. Wei's outfit shimmers and melts into a slinky, low-cut black evening gown, while Nanzi's clothes fold into a sharp mandarin-style tuxedo. NeoAnte's outfit merges flickers wildly like a flock of butterflies, eventually resolving into a deep crimson dress decorated with exotic patterns of ribbon, silk, and sequins. Her hair curls and ties itself into an elegant ribboned coif.


"There. I hope this is decent enough for you?"

Wei "walks" forward to an astonished waiter and utters a clipped phrase in Chinese, requesting a table for three.


"So, who the heck could have built that ship? Doctor Roctopolis? The Savage Flair? Maybe TV Teen? Perhaps Cylonicus escaped from prison and took some of his old robots out of mothballs?"

[smuchmuch]

"I would have settled for simple street clothes but thanks all the more." This has got to be the most elegant she's looked in years.

"Wasn't TV teen dead ? Nanzi thew him one of his own walking bomb back, that should be the end of that. Dr Roctopolis was commited to the St Paul asylium for the criminaly insane, and spending half his time on Benzodiazepine; I wouldn't worry too much here.. And Cyclonious.. er maybe ? No idea what he can really do; before my time, I'm afraid.
The name vaguely ringed a bell, she used to take an interest in metahumans even before. (in fact probably much more then than now), but she'd lean later that the information available to the public tended to be pretty unreliable, overblown rumours at beast. It wasn't particulary imporatant anyhow.
"But, I don't know if you noticed, but these kind of guys tend to sign their work one way or another. This just seems somewhat too low profile. Also there were gund and trained soldiers, that looked more like a privatearlmy to me. And the shadow guy mentioned an agency. Don't suppose any of you would have any idea ?"

[TigerHunter]

"Not a clue. New government project? "Agency" makes me think black ops."

[jiriku]

Wei (both in the holding cell and in the Beijing noodle house):

30,000 miles distant from one another, the twin copies of the Golden Lady begin speaking simultaneously, an eerie stereo on opposite sides of the world, if anyone were able to hear both of them at once.


"Hmm, an anti-grav ship capable of self-repair is expensive technology. And rare. I think you're right, NeoAnte, this is well beyond TV Teen (if he is alive) or Doctor Roctopolis. Michael, I need to check on a few things, but I'll be right back. You're safe here, but give a shout if you need anything, ok?"

The Wei aboard New Shangri-La flickers into the Librarian's study, before both begin their eerie stereo speech again.


"Merlin, would you hack the Department of Defense aircraft database please and tell me if they have any records of a ship matching this description being built by any nation, corporation, or criminal organization? Also, can we check the World Patent Office and see who's submitted patents for self-repairing mechanicals in the past 10 years? That should be public information. Let's also check news reports -- has Cylonicus or any other supervillains with an interest in advanced technology recently escaped from prison?

"Oh, and keep an eye on Michael please. I'm not sure yet if he's trustworthy.

"Nanzi, would you have them bring some of those red-lacquered chopsticks? I'd like a pair for my collection."

Merlin can Take 10 for a result of 29, or for rolls with no penalty for failure, he'll Take 20 for a result of 39. He does this 50x faster than normal. Merlin's Notice check when watching Michael is at +15.

Oh, and the saving throw DC for the Beijing team to notice that their fancy clothes are illusionary is 17. :smalltongue:

[TigerHunter]

"Yeah, sure. Be right back." Nanzi heads to the front desk and requests an extra set from the maître d'. He accidentally bumps into a few of the patrons in the crowded bar, for which he apologizes profusely.

[jiriku]

Wei watches Nanzi suspiciously. It's not like him to be polite to strangers. :smalltongue:

[Hiffic]

Iron Mike grumbles, "Dinner. Alone. Again." He grumpily shambles off to the gym to workout.

[jiriku]

Wei (in stereo):


"So, ideas? Merlin? Bueller? Anyone?

"Maybe we should try to find and grab that shadow fellow. If Nanzi dangles him out an airlock for a bit, I'm sure he'd talk."

[Demons_eye]

Working on finding something. Not as fast as your computer but I have some books here that have never been scaned onto one. says Dan.

[Hiffic]

[Yelling from across the hall] "MERLIN! Is there any way to track the location of that Mister High and Mighty we met earlier?"

[jiriku]

Wei (in stereo):


"Ah, Mike? Merlin has audio pickups in every room. He can hear you just fine. Oh, and he told me you snore."

[Volthawk]

Although for a while, he finds nothing except stories about science fiction novels or films, digging deeper, Daniel starts to find some interesting things.

There isn't a full story anywhere, just scraps from around the internet, mostly written off as hoaxes, with some parts, and the posters of those parts just vanishing without a trace.

First of all, he finds a written article, detailing 'The massacre of Gross Lutow', discussing the way, a year ago, the entire town's residents were found scattered around, all dead and most mutilated in some way or another. According to the article, one of the residents survived, covered in blood and gore, crazed. He was charged with the crime and locked up in an asylum. However, from the surrounding information, it appears that all information about the incident was taken away by some group or another, and the article only just managed to get out.

Further searching uncovers some strange pictures, not linked with the town, of cyborgs like the ones found today, labelled as 'Evidence aliens exist!', described as being found in the Arctic Circle, in a disused research station. However, all other sources point to the station in question never existing.

He then finds an actual video, footage of Gross Lutow. It starts off as just a video of some teenagers messing around, but then things get weirder. A dead body is found, when then gets up again and ignores the kids, walking off into the darkness. Later, someone stops in the middle of the street, dropping to the floor, before becoming like the cyborgs from earlier, which then sprouts weapons out of nowhere and starts killing people. More cyborgs reveal themselves, and the clip then mostly consists of running, with other mutated creatures appearing. The clip ends with the cameraman stuck in an alleyway, and then grabbed by a mostly humanoid figure with many long spines and tentacles, with 10 insect0-like wings, the teenager mutating as he is held.

The books are mostly worthless, although Daniel does find something that appears similar to the figure at the end in one of them. It's a book on demons, describing it as a demon of chaos and change.
---

Micheal sighs.

"No family. Apart from the company, nobody. Uh, you gonna let me out, or...?"

---

Once the group teleports off, Merlin speaks up.

"The shadowperson is in the aircraft you were in earlier."

[Jallorn]

When the others are gone, Nightshade heads for the safety of the crowds, flying to an alley where he resumes human form to hide in plain sight.

[smuchmuch]

"Merlin" helen sighs as someone who feels no< that she's in the restaurant and all that, that if her dinner is going to be interupted, it better be good. "This information would have been really usefull before we got away. Is he doing anything of particular notice ?"

[Demons_eye]

Dan smile starts at a normal joke level. A smirk that was stuck on his face as he check, and crosscheck sources. This is what he liked to do when not reading books. If he wasn't lazy he might have written a few papers of the things he rediscovered on his free time that might shake the foundation of the world.

The smirk evolved into a grin which turned into a toothy smile. Dan loved when things came together like a jigsaw. You gather some information here, some there, and just a little way off there, and bam you have something to work with. The news of Gross Lutow was worthless by itself but when combined with the footage it made more sense. The smile reached Cheshire Cat level when he cross checked with a book and found similarity with a demon.

Some people liked it when you got answers to questions but Dan didn't. This meant the fun was over. Sure it had to end but getting the name of a weapons manufacturer was not as fun as finding information on a plot so deep. Demons? Robots? Aliens? This was going to be fun!

After relaying all the information he found Dan talks to everyone in general "So what do you guys think? Demons might be a problem, mutation is something to worry about, but what might be the goal? Whats to gain."

[smuchmuch]

"Sounds really serious; but ...wait, just before we get to that, I want to make sure i got one thig straight ..." Neoante blinks a few times; then pinches her ear to check she's awake and what she heard is real.
"An entire town was slaughtered. That make something like hundreds, maybe thousands of victims ? And despite the fact there was actual footage of the attack and it was still pinned on only one guy, no mater how ridculous such an assertion may be, no one seems to have really noticed, panicked or made a big fuss about it ?

.. Even assuming the best cover up ever, Am I the only one who finds this a tad surreal ?"

[Demons_eye]

"You notice the Demon part right? Come on, your heritage comes from the 'unreal'. Is it really that hard to believe that some magic was cast to cover it up? Even if they found the footage would anyone ever believe it?

This happened before that I know of only that town never had an survivors." Dan reply's, the last part more to himself then to the others.

[smuchmuch]

"well yes but..From the top of her head Wei could give you the name of at least three people capable of building themselves an army of cyborgs or robots or whatever. So yes, I think people seeing footage of ..this thingss would find it a more plausible culprit that just one guy. I have met gods and seen incredible things, but weird and slightly screwed up as it may be, there is such a thing as a sense of scale, even concerning the supernatural."
Mind you, even if she's been confronted to a lot of weird things already, NeoAnte is still pretty new at all this. She still use common sense a lot in her jugement. Sometime it's a strength but at others she's just downright dead wrong.
"If we are dealing with a demon capable of killing thousands and blocking everyone from noticing something is wrong by magic, then i'd say we are dealing with a very very very powerfull entity."

She takes a breath
"So, I guess we may want to speak with that survivor ? I doubt he'd be of much help but maybe he noticed something during the attack."

[jiriku]

Wei (both):


"Tama de hundan! In China I sometimes fought demon spirits, but nothing that could butcher an entire town! No wonder this world is falling into darkness, if such things exist and walk the earth. But...why do demons need hoverships and squads of mercenaries?

"We should find this man in the asylum, and visit the research station in the Antarctic as well. Daniel, can you find his name and the name of the asylum, and the location of the research station? If you can find those things, I can get us there."

Wei (in the station) flits back into the detention module.


"We'd like to send you on your way, Michael...but you're under a field right now that's nullifying external influences. If we take you out of here, you may lose control again. If that were to happen, I don't know if we could get you back here. You could lose yourself permanently. I swore an oath to protect the citizens of Newstone. If there's a way to reverse what's happened to you, I intend to find it. Oh, by the way, do you want any Chinese food? You must be hungry by now, and these noodles look delicious."

[TigerHunter]

Nanzi slides back into his seat and tosses Wei her chopsticks. "Antarctica? Does that mean I'm not going to get to enjoy my wonton?"

[jiriku]

The chopsticks fly right through her, bounce off the seat, and rattle across the floor, prompting startled gasps and exclamations from several nearby patrons. Wei sulks and gives Nanzi a pouty look.


"I suppose that depends on whether you keep throwing things at me, you da tuo dabian."

She wrinkles her nose and wiggles her ears, and for a brief moment Nanzi's wonton is crawling with maggots, hundreds of them writhing in the neon glow of the noodle house's lighting before disappearing as the wonton resumes its normal, innocuous wonton-like appearance.

[TigerHunter]

"You could have zapped them away. You're just trying to embarrass me." Nanzi waits patiently until the maggots disappear and resumes eating.

[jiriku]

"I am not!"

Caught, Wei growls in annoyance. She narrows her brow, and the errant chopsticks teleport onto the table, neatly alongside her bowl of noodles.


"So anyhow, why would a demon that can mutate people and wipe out whole towns hire mercenaries?"

[Demons_eye]

Dan starts to read the book about demons more and while typing on the computer with his paper limbs. He still listens to the conversation and suggest "He wants to keep a low profile?"





[roll0] Knowledge for Demon

[roll1] Gather Information on the insane dude.

[smuchmuch]

NeoAnte raise her eyes from her three peoples' portion of duck and gives a sideway glance at the immortal gunslinger and the golden lady bickering. "Let me guess," she muses while trying the task of manipulating chopsticks. It's hard enough if you're not used to, but when you have supersized fingers, it's downright frustrating. "aging works in cycles ? And you have both lived so long that you made a full circle. No ofense, but that's the only explaination I can see for you two acting like five years olds"

"As for the demon.
Maybe he's not the one in charge ? Our mystery shadow man, I'm going to assume there are only two side to this thing for now, us excluded, seemed to refers as "the Agency" as the enemy and they didn't really looked like a cult, more like a black op as Nanzi said. Dan you are our magic expert, is it possible he could just have been conjured and used as a weapon of somme kind ?"

[Demons_eye]

Not even looking up from his book or to stop typing Dan replies in a voice that suggests hes said this before, maybe more times then he liked "Anything is possible in the world of magic and gods. Just some things are more probable then others. Depending on what classification of demon it is, what place of origin, or if its a demon at all could change the likelihood of it being summoned how how it was summoned."

[Hiffic]

Iron Mike appears beside Dan and leans on the back of his chair. "Magic don't sit right with me brother. Sure you and Wei are the resident magicksters and NeoAnte has that mystical origin but guys, can't we just leave this one to the Sorcerers Supreme?"

[jiriku]

Wei (both):

Wei flits back over to Daniel and Mike.


"Weh. Those cardsharks. I wouldn't trust them any further than I could tele-- erm, I wouldn't trust them. You never know what their agenda is, and they always act like they're too smart to let you in on things.

"Gorram it, Merlin! I've been throwing questions at you for five minutes not and not getting answers. Are you defragging your hard drive or something?"