The Exemplars #1, Moving Day

[EclecticGuru]

The Exemplars #1, Moving Day

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The Cover notes that is The Exemplars Issue Number 1, and the title is "Moving Day". The cover picture is the Exemplars HQ entrance, a vault-like door leading in from a newly paved road. The door has scorch marks on it and is off its hinge, ajar. There's a big colorful party banner hanging over the oversized entrance, it is torn, and burning slightly.

It says, "WELCOME TO YOUR HQ, HEROES!"

Page 1 has a big panel showing a gleaming city of glass and steel, piercing above the clouds, overlooking a bay with a rebuilt and more modern "golden gate" bridge. A boxed subtitle reveals that this is, in fact "Bay City".

A narration box continues through panels that reveal more of the city. From one of the airship stations, to the monorail, to a gleaming elevated walkway.
[
The next page has a big panel, showing the city in the background, and a rural road winding its way through some orchards and vineyards. Another panel shows a side road, with a sign saying "Private Road", the private road leads into the coastal mountains. Another panel shows that road, winding up the mountain side toward a particularly steep slope. You can see Bay City gleaming on the coast from here, the perfect vantage point.

A narration box reveals: "Just outside Bay City, a new, state of the art, underground fortress has been constructed."

The next page has a panel showing a sign on that road that reads:



WARNING

Paranormal Danger Zone

Proceed At Your Own Risk

Posted by order of UNIT

Another big panel reveals a scene similar to the cover, but we can see a parking area with a couple of contractor vehicles. There are some plastic tarps hanging around, and a big oversized rented steel dumpster for debris and refuse right outside the entrance. The welcome sign is up. Finishing touches on the HQ are obviously not quite done, but the structure and all its features are available.

(Backstory/Set-Up in Spoiler)

Fate Accompli has invited each of the heroes to join the team. It is a new team, and you would all be the founding members. Wormhole had the building constructed, using his personal funds, as a donation to the effort.

Wormhole and Fate Accompli would already be on site (you guys can determine where in the HQ you are).

The other team members would be arriving in the course of this issue (go ahead and write your own arrival). They each have security cards to get past the security -- they're not necessary right now, however, because the system is off in most areas due to the final construction work taking place.

The idea is that Wormhole and Fate are giving you a tour, answering any questions regarding the team, and everyone gets a chance to socialize briefly before the action starts.

Wormhole gets a bonus Hero Point at the start of this issue, thanks to my GM Fiat of disabling the security on the HQ.

[SuperCracker]

A blue box at the top of the panel reads: *Continued from Aegis: the Invincible #1.

A delivery man in a white and red uniform his holding a manilla envelope out to a young man with brown hair dressed in a pair of gym shorts. He appears to have just gotten out of the shower due to his wet brown hair and the towel hung behind his neck, “Yo,” he says to the delivery man.

“Delivery from some operation called The Exemplars,” the delivery man announces. Then, after a moment, “Hey, aren’t you that Aegis guy I saw on the news?”

“Yeah. That’s me,” Tim McAllister answers, opening the envelope up. On the last panel of the page he looks up at the delivery man and asks “Yo, what are the Exemplars?”

The next time we see Aegis, he’s dressed in a black and white Bay City Raiders jersey and another pair of worn-down jeans. Yes, there are bullet-holes in both. He is seen running and leaping through Bay City, able to move very fast through the city with his natural locomotion. A shot has him crossing the bridge on the walk-way, excusing himself as he passes people.

And then he’s there, standing in front of an unfinished base of some sort. From the letter, he has a better idea of what is going on. He’s excited, it’s written all over his face. Someone is asking him—HIM – to join a team of super-heroes; with a base, and costumes. Mutant-kind needs more open super-heroes. He had high hopes.

“Uh… where is everyone?”

[EdroGrimshell]

Jessica Shiryou, aka Data, flies through the air on what looks like a skateboard with no wheels, in reality an nanite construct, looking for the location of this organization she had heard about, and had been accepted into, surprisingly enough.

She is a tall young woman with grey-blonde hair, grey-green eyes, and pale skin dressed in only a tank top, a pair of denim shorts (short shorts at that), and a pair of tabi socks. She's carrying a black and red case holding her laptop and is smoking a cigarette as she flies.

She eventually comes to the lot that leads to the entrance of the base. The board dissolves into a silvery white cloud which disperses quickly, the nanite construct turning back to it's individual nanites.


“Uh… where is everyone?”

She turns to the speaker and sighs, "And here i was hoping to be the first one to arrive," she says, mostly to herself, her voice indicates boredom, not quite monotone but fairly close. "Name's Jessica, just call me Jess," she says offhandedly, not bothering to use her hero name.

She pulls a soda from her laptop case as she saunters over to the entrance to the base, a slight sway in her hips, and shows her pass before entering. She looks back "you coming?"

She activates her X-ray vision, which causes her eyes to turn black, and looks through the base to see if she can find anyone and will immediately head to the room she sees people in.

Will change to a comic format if someone helps me with it.

[Starsign]

Daryl had no clue how the letter got to him, because of how he'd like to keep hidden at home, but he understood why, so the invitation to the Exemplars was an extraordinary one. With his adopted daughter Lana wanting him to join, he had no reason not to. After locking the place, Scavenger went off to the location, a tired and asleep Lana in his arms. He wore his dark blue, traditional baggy pants and a black cloth t-shirt.

The trip took the night, but at least it was peaceful. Daryl took the safe routes, to be sure not to come under attack on his way there, not with Lana with him. By morning the place was on the horizon and Lana had just woken up. The two walked the rest of the way there, to the entrance where Daryl had stopped, realizing his... looks might not make others comfortable. The two stealthy entered as Daryl got Lana to hide in a bush in case of the possible consequence of a fight breaking out. After that he got out of the shade to see the newcomers there, notably the one in a shot up jersey and jeans. The zombie was almost like a twig to him. He kept silence as he looked up to the titan. He had the curiosity to challenge him, but not here, not if he was another hero invited to the Exemplars as well...

Would like help putting it into comic format please. And yes the person referred to as the titan here is Aegis, so go ahead and respond to that SC :smalltongue:

[DaedalusMkV]

As the three heroes walk towards the fortified entrance, a man walks out to greet them. Wormhole is dressed in camoflaged fatigues in a blur of blues, blacks and greys and wears a pair of tonfas on his belt, though all of his other, more martial equipment is in the armoury downstairs. He wears a pair of expensive mirrored designer sunglasses that completely hide his eyes, and looks upon the newcomers with a smile. Oddly, he doesn't seem to have come from the hallway that leads further into the base, but rather from a dark corner obscured by the door. He calls out in a firm, warm voice as he approaches and makes to shake each person's hand in turn, "Welcome to the new home of the Exemplars, everyone. I hope the ongoing construction work isn't too distracting; you know how contractors can be. You must be Aegis, Data and Scavenger, right? My name's Richard, or Wormhole when someone's listening. Fate's told me good things about you all. Please come on inside, I've got refreshments waiting in the dining room. Second door on the left, though you can stow any equipment in the lockers in the alcove on the right, just down the hall, if you want. I'll head back in and tell Fate you've arrived." His greeting finished, Wormhole turns away and takes a single step, the space in front of him blurring for a short moment... And suddenly he isn't there.

Edro, there are no guards, though normally you'd need to go through some pretty hefty security procedures to get through the big vault door in the first place it's been unlocked for your arrival. You might want to correct that little detail.

No comic format from me either; I really wouldn't know where to start, and I prefer a more... Animated style anyways. :smallwink:

[EclecticGuru]

She activates her X-ray vision . . . .

There are a handful of construction workers in various parts of the building, but no large gatherings of people yet.

[EdroGrimshell]

I should probably suggest lead lining the walls, or just do it myself later, Jessica thinks as she looks around, she walks to the room that Wormhole had said to go to and knocks before openning the soda she had pulled out earlier and taking a drink.

[SuperCracker]

Well, the first person he encountered was the bored-sounding girl named “Jess.” He looked over towards her, his hands in his pockets as he was still trying to figure this whole thing out. “Yeah… My name’s Tim.. or Aegis. Whichever.” He was here in his superhero capacity, but someone did introduce herself by her real name, so he felt obliged to do the same.

Before he could follow the girl into the unfinished building, he turns his head and sees a guy who was somewhat rotted. He stepped back a bit and raised his fist up in prime punching position. He was slightly freaked out!

“Gyot D*yum! What the hell happened to you?!”

He stayed in punching position for a few seconds, half-way expecting this guy to try and take a bite out of him. But the situation was defused by the appearance of Wormhole, who seemed to know who this guy was—Scavenger. Aegis let his hand drop after a moment, taking a quick breath. Let’s be honest, he’s jumpy from demons already.

“Uh… sorry ‘bout that,” he apologized to Scavenger first, giving him a sheepish look before turning his attention to Wormhole. “Uh.. yeah. Thanks. Hey before ya go—“ the guy vanished. Aegis blinked for a moment.

“Alright… reckon I’m in the right place.”

He started to head inside the unfinished base, following the instructions to get to the refreshments. He was hoping for a cold beer, honestly.

[Starsign]

Daryl had worries of this ending badly, but Wormhole's appearance had settled things down. Once Aegis had apologized, the zombie responded, "This wouldn't have been the first time someone tried smashing me over my appearance. No harm is done." He called Lana over as he gestured her into the building, which she followed behind Daryl and Aegis. The zombie asked Aegis, "Have you seen a zombie in real life before?" The others noticed Daryl didn't seem to mind him being a zombie. "You can punch me out in a training room later on." Right at this time he wanted to speak with Wormhole again about the name "Scavenger".

Daedalus, I'm going with the idea that Daryl gets his name from Fate or Wormhole, so hope we can work that into the plot :smallredface:

[bladesmith]

The scene pans down a hallway, emerging into an open room with a ceiling high enough to accommodate even Aegis' height comfortably. In the middle of the room sits a round table with a variety of snack items on it, while coolers underneath hold liquid refreshments. Other then that and a few chairs, the space is mostly bare, with a fine layer of construction dust settled onto the concrete floor, swirling about lazily under the flourescent lights. Leaning casually against the table is a figure of medium height, his black coat almost perfectly concealing the hat that lay on the surface behind him. This could only be Fate Accompli, one of the most recognized heroes of Fayt Metrocity. His mouth formed a small smile as the rest of the team began filtering in, and he opened his hands in a welcoming gesture.

"Excellent timing, everyone! It seems like everyone else has started introductions, though, so I will add my own. I am Fate Accompli, though you can call me Fate. Or Ethan. Take your pick. Come on in, grab something to eat or drink, and make yourselves at home. Apologies for the mess, as you can see, we haven't quite put the finishing touches on the place."

[EdroGrimshell]

"A pleasure," Jessica says, giving a subtle bow of the head. "Would you mind me lining the base with a few materials to block out X-ray vision? I noticed you didn't do so when i was looking around." She's blunt about it, but not overly so. She pulls another soda, a blue and black can of blue raspberry soda, and sips from it quietly, her other soda already gone. She keeps the cigarette but uses a small cloud of nanites to turn the smoke into air so as not to offend anyone with the smell.

[SuperCracker]

(Aegis stands 6’2, he’s not an amazingly huge person.)

Aegis frowned a little it at what the zombie said. Tim felt kind of bad for getting ready to punch his head off over what he looked like. Mutants have the same kind of prejudice – particularly those who cannot hide their mutations. He verbally apologized, “I’m sorry, man. I ain’t seen no zombie before. Kinda thought they were just in the movies. Then again, I did fight a d*** demon last night. So, guess there’s a lot I don’t know about. Name’s Tim McAllister. Pleasure to meet ya.”

He smiled a friendly smile and continued into the open room. His brown eyes looked about the room. It seemed pretty bare for a super-team’s base. His eyes eventually found the man standing there. Oh, Tim recognized this guy. His face lit up a little bit now that he was in the same room as one of the big shots. He returned the greeting.

“Aw hell, mess ain’t no problem. You oughtta see my place,” he said as he started walking around the room, just taking it all in. “I’m Aegis, or Tim… but you probably already know that. It’s nice to meet ya, Ethan.”

He stopped in front of Fate and thrust out a hand for a good old fashioned handshake.

“Thanks for invitin’ me to the team. Ain’t sure why ya picked me out ‘a all the other heroes in the world… but I ain’t complainin’.”

[Starsign]

Daryl smiled a bit at Aegis's response. "It's alright, as I said before. I don't mind getting prejudice over my form really. I'm Daryl." The zombie entered the room where he gestures Lana to the refreshments. He himself had no need of it. Daryl walked over to Fate and nodded rather than handshake. "I must say I'd like to ask the same thing Aegis did. I didn't think most teams would ask for a zombie like me on the team." He had a bit of a smile on his face. "Might I ask why Wormhole had given me the name 'Scavenger'? Will that be my superhero name? ...Not that I could have come up with a better one..."

[EclecticGuru]

In the background, power tools can be heard, putting in the final console panels and cabinets and what not.

Edit:
Lana takes advantage of the refreshments while the heroes chat amongst themselves. She lingers close enough to listen in though, curiously.

[DaedalusMkV]

Wormhole lounges in one of the chairs around the table with a cup of coffee in his hand, waiting for Fate Accompli to make his introduction. When Jess addresses him, he replies, "X-ray vision, you say? This whole place is inside a Faraday cage, and I'm pretty sure... Right. I'll see what I can do." He pulls a notepad and pen from one of his pockets and flips nine or ten pages in, then writes 'X-ray protection' on one of the cramped pages. He shrugs, "The list is already pretty long. My architect isn't really used to designing for superheroes. We'll get all the kinks out eventually, if we work together." He takes a sip of coffee, then seems shocked at Scavenger's question. "Wait, you mean you weren't already called that? I was sure that someone told be you were using that name. Was that you, Fate?"

[Starsign]

"It's no big deal really," Scavenger began to reply. "I have no problems with this name, and the invitation had my real name on it to so it got to the right person." The zombie's expression showed that he didn't seem to mind.

[SuperCracker]

Tim scoped out the refreshments, looking for an ice cold beer. While he was over there he noticed the little girl wandering about. He gave her a big smile and knelt down to her level. “Hey there, li’l darlin’. I’m Tim. What’s your name?”

He’d wait to get it from her, or for her to shy off, depending on what kind of kid she was. Then he would return to where the other four were speaking. He looked at Wormhole, who mentioned his architect.

“Man, ya’ll must got some serious scratch to be puttin’ this together. How ‘bout we start talkin’ about what ya’ll want out of this team?”

[DaedalusMkV]

Wormhole grins at Aegis. "'Serious scratch'? I guess you could say that. Certainly enough that I can afford to make charitable donations like this without bankrupting myself, though I'll admit that this place isn't cheap by any standard. As to what we're looking to do with this group, I'll let Fate explain. This whole thing was his idea."

[bladesmith]

Ethan returns Aegis' handshake firmly, and Daryl's nod with one of his own.

"Good to finally meet you guys in person. I've heard a lot about you two, and I can see that you guys are cut out for great things. Which is really what I wanted to talk to you guys about." Fate took a step back, holding up his hands to get everyone's attention. "So, I'm going to get right to the point. I wanted to create this team, the Exemplars, to be the shining example to inspire other heroes. I wanted to show people that being the good guys is its own reward, and that we can help people without any motive other then to try and make the world a better place to live on, and be able to sustain that attitude over the long run. I chose you guys to come here because I think you can achieve that.
Fate picked up a grape tomato and popped it into his mouth.
"That is the short version, anyways. The long version, where we actually decide how exactly to do that, may take a little while. However, the goal here is to make an attempt at something very few people have experienced: altruism."

Bleh. Probably regret the writing in this in the morning, but it should work for now. Also, sorry SC. Forgot that he wasn't some hulking bruiser type. :smalltongue:

[EclecticGuru]

(Mechanics Stuff for Aegis in Spoiler)
Aegis is trying to charm a little girl. Lana is a little afraid of what's going on here, and also jealous that these people are taking attention away from her. That starts her off as "indifferent" toward Aegis.

Also, if any of you are superstitious and don't want me to make dice rolls for you, please let me know now. It saves time for me to roll instead of telling you to roll, but if that ruins the fun for the game, I don't mind slowing it down so you can make your own dice rolls.


(Aegis' roll and Lana's reaction in following post.)

(Edit: I messed up the roll syntax, so I need to try again in the next post!)

[EclecticGuru]

[roll0] : Aegis rolls diplomacy

A 26 is enough to raise her from indifferent to helpful.


Lana warms up brightly to Aegis, and develops a little bit of a puppy-love style crush on him.

[Starsign]

Scavenger listens into on Fate's reasoning for the team. "This is very ambitious," he commented. "I don't know how you got everything ready for this, but it does sound like a wonderful idea. I certainly will help." The zombie gives a smile before looking down to Lana. "Aegis, I think she likes you," He wished he could chuckle, but his voice thanks to his zombie form makes his laughter come out much more creepy than funny.

[EclecticGuru]

Lana looks up at Daryl. "Stop it!" She blushes. Then after a moment, she adds, "Can I make your costumes?"

[Starsign]

"If you can, that would be great," Scavenger replies happily. He turns to Fate, "I'd love to see what designs she comes up with... But I hope you have sturdy material for it. I'd rather not have it torn up all the time." He was actually embarrassed to wear a costume, though he didn't want to show it. He had preferred just casual clothing, but it probably didn't matter to him either way.

[SuperCracker]

Tim had good enough control of his super-strength not to crush Ethan’s hand when they shook. Fate said that he was cut out for great things. Aegis shook his head in kind of an “aw shucks” moment. And then Fate got to the point. A shining example to inspire other heroes? Tim listened carefully, and he nodded. A light was shining in his eyes at the vision he was presented with.

“…Bein’ good just for bein’ good. Ain’t that what this whole thing’s supposed to be about? Hell, you ain’t gotta tell me nothin’ else. I’m in. But uh… I do wanna tell ya’ll that I’m a mutant, and I ain’t gone be shy about it in public. Might get ya’ll to catch some flak, but people oughtta be seein’ mutant heroes.”

As for the little girl, when Daryl said that she likes Aegis, he chuckled. He reached over and gave Lana a pat on the head.

“Well I like you too li’l darlin’. I ain’t got no costume, so if ya wanna do that… go right ahead. Just make sure it’s somethin’ that won’t end up like my jersey.”

He grinned a bit, thinking it would be fun for the kid to do something like that.

In the mean time, he looked around to see who else would be in for this team. Would everyone here accept?

[EdroGrimshell]

Jess taps a finger a few times before her cigarette disintegrates all at once then recondenses into a piece of silvery-blue metal, "I like the idea," she says now holding the metal cylinder, "I'm interested, If you are not adverse to it i can help with the security systems and programming, it's sorta my thing."

She then turns to Lana, "If you can design them i can make sure they don't get ruined," she says with a smile, "don't want your hard work to go to waste right?" she turns to the rest of the room, "I can change the material to suit our specific powers and keep them from being destroyed by most powers we're likely to encounter. I can do the same for the base if you'd like, Fate, Wormhole."

[Starsign]

Daryl, sitting down on a chair not exactly moving around much, continued chatting with Tim. "I never understood the hate mutants like you got. You look and act just like them, why should they prejudice against you." He had a look down at himself now. "For me, it's justified. I'm no longer human, abomination would be a much more accurate name for me in fact, considering I'm practically a defiance against nature for what I am." He turned back to Tim, "I'm expecting about as much, if not more hate from the populace for me rather than you. I hardly mind it though, so you don't need to go defending me on my behalf."

He then turned to Jess. "I'll just be needing something durable. I prefer being on the front lines so I expect to get pummeled a lot." He then looked down to his adopted daughter. "I can't wait to see what you have designed." He had a small, but obvious smile of happiness on his face.

[DaedalusMkV]

Richard seems to approve of Jess' idea. "Excellent! Costumes really aren't my forte... I've always preferred practical over style when it comes to combat, though I won't refuse any improvements you might have for my gear or this facility. Frankly, it's going to be a bit of a project to get it to where we want it, so we'll all have to chip in a little bit before it's finished." He listen's unhappily through Daryl's self-loathing speech. "Sorry, friend, but I don't see it. It doesn't matter what you look like on the surface. Some of the most monstrous people I know are quite attractive, and I've met my share of mutants who'll go out of their way to help even when people point and stare at them, so looks don't mean much in my book. Anyone who's willing to risk their life to help someone else is as human as they come, as far as I'm concerned."

[Starsign]

Daryl turns to Wormhole, "I wish the world had such an idealistic view. But that's why Fate created this right? The populace can have a tendency to judge by looks or powers over their feelings, which is why I said that before. And that's what we're going to change, right?" He leaned back on his chair. "And in case you thought I was brooding on my powers, I hardly mind my form or looks. In fact I actually love it's benefits. It's why I've been helping people with a strong will in my unbeating heart."

[EclecticGuru]

(A split scene in the spoiler. This scene does not take place in the HQ, or even in the present. It is a flashback to simply add narrative continuity to what is about to happen. None of the PCs are aware of the events described here, yet. If you don't want to know OOC information about your enemies, then don't look at the spoiler! If you don't have a problem keeping your OOC knowledge and IC knowledge separate, then feel free to read on!)

The Shop didn't like to use computers -- they preferred good old fashioned ink on paper. There were just too many paranormals and heroes out there who were handy with computers that they couldn't trust the information to remain secure. That's why the file, an actual physical file in a plain folder, had to be read, memorized, and then destroyed.

Agent X, that wasn't his real codename, it was just how he thought of himself when he was doing Shop work. The file was titled "The Exemplars." The orders came from up high. These Exemplars seemed like they had their hearts in the right place, but for how long? The kind of power they commanded couldn't be trusted in the hands of those not vetted to use it responsibly.

Someone high up wanted this done quietly, and probably didn't want to know the details of how it was done -- that's why they called in Agent X. Agent X was a fixer, and he wouldn't stop until this problem was fixed.

In a series of secret meetings across the globe, a team was selected -- hired guns each and every one of them -- perfect for plausible deniability. They were given dossiers on each of the targets, and the resources to make the necessary preparations.

Today, moving day, the mercenaries had infiltrated the contractors working on the base. They had waited for the team to arrive -- if they were to carry out their mission, they would have only one chance, and would need to sweep up the entire team at once.

It was a bold mission, but they had prepared well for it. It was almost time to strike.

[EclecticGuru]

(If the small talk is done, I will spring the action scene on you later tonight.)

[EclecticGuru]

A group of five jumpsuited contractors enter the meeting room. One of the contractors, an older man with a neatly groomed beard, is driving a forklift with a big reinforced plastic case. The female contractor is riding on the side of the forklift, wearing an elaborate leather tool belt and harness. A big and muscular contractor is carrying a crate behind the forklift. A man with glasses is holding a clipboard, walking behind the forklift as well. Finally, a man with an eyepatch is walking in front, wheeling a cart.

"Sorry, you won't even notice us here," says Eyepatch. They fan out a bit and get to work. The forklift lowers the crate to the ground, and Leather opens it up, while Four-Eyes moves up to join her side, both of them removing some equipment and tools from inside it. Tiny removes some equipment from his crate. Beard remains on the forklift.

They are a team of elite mercenaries, sent to make your day miserable. The lowest among them has a bluff score of +4, and we'll consider them taking a 10, so you will need a Sense Motive roll of 14 or higher to notice they're about to attack you.

Sense Motive rolls
Fate -- [roll0]
Wormhole -- [roll1]
Aegis -- [roll2]
Scavenger -- [roll3]
Data -- [roll4]

Fate also has danger sense, for what its worth. His notice roll is [roll5] against a DC of 15 to sense danger.

[EclecticGuru]

# SURPRISE ROUND #

Fate, Wormhole, and Scavenger act in the surprise round with Beard, Leather, Four-Eyes, Tiny, and Eyepatch.

Wormhole and Scavenger can both tell these guys are up to no good, but aren't sure exactly what is going on or why they are being hostile.

Fate instantly sees these guys aren't contractors, he's fought plenty of mercenaries like them in the past -- guns for hire, with too much firepower and to little morality.

Wormhole, Scavenger, Aegis, and Data are all sitting at the table. Fate and Lana are standing next to it. The forklift is about 30 feet away, and the mercenaries are all within 15 feet of the forklift, spread out a bit. The room is large, at 50x50 with a high ceiling (about 25 feet high). The HQ structure is extremely solid (toughness +15).

I'm going to roll initiative for everyone, but only Fate, Wormhole, Scavenger, and the Mercenaries get to act in the surprise round. I'm also going to make one initiative roll for the Mercenaries at their average Initiative bonus (+2), in order to streamline things.

In the surprise round, everyone can only take either a standard or move action, not both.

Initiative

Fate -- [roll0]
Wormhole -- [roll1]
Aegis -- [roll2]
Scavenger -- [roll3]
Data -- [roll4]

Mercenaries -- [roll5]

Edit:

Fate, Wormhole, and Scavenger all may act before the mercenaries. Since you're all on the same side, it doesn't matter what order you act between yourselves, so post your actions in whatever order you like.

Remember that you can take a move, or standard action (not both) in the surprise round.

Also note:

You can stand up from sitting as part of a move action (you can stand and move in the same move action).

[DaedalusMkV]

Wormhole jumps up from his seat and says, "I don't remember hiring you, and I've got a construction halt on all day for this part of the base. What are you doing in here?" He draws his tonfas from his belt and holds them against his forearms, adopting a defensive stance as he waits for a response to his interrogation.


Standing up and readying my Tonfas as a Move action, which concludes my turn. Since Richard isn't wearing his Vest or equipped with most of his gear, at this point his Toughness is reduced by three from the amount listed on his sheet and he has no access to his Shotgun or Grenades.

On the other hand, we have a perfectly nice set of brand new jail cells just waiting for these guys to be Wormholed into. Oh yes.

[Starsign]

Scavenger turns to the new group, a look of worry over his face. He got up, eyes still on the mercenaries, as he walks over to Lana and whispers to her, "I have a bad feeling. Hide, quickly!" The zombie then got into a readying combat stance.

That's my move action.

[bladesmith]

Fate stopped just as he was going to respond to Aegis and the rest when a tiny whisper in his mind asked him to pay better attention to the contractors behind him. Taking a glance over his shoulder, Fate sized up the situation quickly.

As a result, he was terribly disappointed. Wow, were they even trying? Seriously, what was it with mercenaries these days? They had managed to get into the base without anyone noticing, presumably bringing crates of weapons in with them, but now that they were actually going to pull off the hit, they were as obvious as a bunch of green recruits. And that made Ethan a little angry. It was obnoxious enough that they would dare to try and take down his team on the first day, but that they thought that they could be blatant about it was just the bitter icing on a big cake of annoyance. Turning on his heel, he held up a hand to Aegis and Data to indicate that he would reply to them in a moment. As he spoke to the "contractors", his voice came out calmly, but dripping with quiet disdain.

"I'm sorry, but we have already noticed you here. Your subtlety and class are to be commended, though." Sarcasm came easily as he centered his weight and readied for action. "I'll give you a chance though. Leave the weapons in their crates and tell the nice superheroes who hired you, and you can walk out of here."

Hah. Of course I roll a 19 and 20 on the times when I don't even need to roll.:smalltongue:
Either way, ready action to charge the first mercenary to make a hostile move. Since I don't really have access to anything but my coat, it'll be an unarmed strike. Also, activate invisibility on the way over, just to try and get a little extra element of surprise.
Attack: [roll0]{Charge +2, Power attack -2}, damage 21
Defense drops to 18 if I charge.

[EclecticGuru]

Beard, who is driving the forklift, attempts to run Fate over with it. Fate, seeing that this is a hostile action, attempts to take Beard out first. Fate will have to jump over the front of the forklift in order to reach Beard. The forklift is 8 feet high. If he fails to make that distance, he will, by default, be possibly run over. He gets a "running" start, his strength bonus is +2, so he can jump 3 feet high normally. He can increase that height an additional (Acrobatics roll [roll0] minus 15) feet.

Edit:

Fate charges the forklift, but fails to get a good grip to vault over it. He will possibly be knocked over and smooshed! He does however, activate his invisibility as he leaps into the air, making it hard to see his temporary lack of grace -- or maybe Beard is just that talented a combat driver.

[EclecticGuru]

Beard attempts to make a vehicular Slam attempt on Fate. Fate has a -2 defense for his charge attempt, giving him a defense total of 18.

Beard attempts to hit. [roll0] versus Defense 18.
If successful, the Forklift will do +10 damage.

Fate manages to push off the front of the forklift, doing some cool backflip or spinning move to deflect the force. The forklift demolishes the table, but somehow leaves everyone sitting around the table untouched.

[EclecticGuru]

Leather and Four-Eyes jointly activate the high-tech device in their crate. It sends out an invisible pulse of disruptive alien energy.

(Information Dump in Spoiler!)

It is a Nullification Field. It requires 2 people to use a standard action each to activate it in one round, or one person to use a standard action in each of two rounds to activate it. Once on, it lasts continuously, and attempts to counter any/all Mutation powers used within a 40 foot radius, which covers the entire room. The power is invisible (Subtle) unless you possess a 'radio' based super-sense, such as radar or radio hearing (normal radio equipment will not detect it, though a geiger counter will), so you won't know that this device is doing anything. Every time you use an instant power (or every round on Leather/Four-Eyes' turn for permanent/sustained/concentration/continuous powers), you must roll a Will Save or Power Rank roll at a DC of 18. If you fail, your power is nullified. Powers that are nullified/countered cannot be turned on or used again for as long as you remain within the device's radius, or until it is shut off or destroyed.

If you have a +10 or more bonus in Notice *and*
either +8 or more bonus in knowledge (technology) or +10 or more bonus in knowledge (current events)
then you can notice that the device is similar to a Ytarian gene-suppressor, which they used during the Y2K-Invasion a decade ago, to help fight Earth's paranormals.

Wormhole has no non-instant mutant powers, however if he uses his power, the device will, as a reaction, attempt to counter it.

Aegis has several ongoing mutant powers.
The device attempts to nullify his Absorption. He rolls [roll0] Will vs. DC 18 to resist.
The device attempts to nullify his Impervious Toughness. He rolls [roll1] Will vs DC 18 to resist.
The device attempts to nullify his Speed. He rolls [roll2] Will vs. DC 18 to resist.
Leaping is an instant power, so it won't be able to nullify it until Aegis tries to use it.
The device attempts to nullify his Immovable. He rolls [roll3] Will vs DC 18 to resist.
The device attempts to nullify his Super Strength. He rolls [roll4] Will vs DC 18 to resist.
The device attempts to nullify his Immunity (critical hits). He rolls [roll5] Will vs DC 18 to resist.
The device attempts to nullify his Enhanced Ability (strength). He rolls [roll6] Will vs DC 18 to resist.

Data's super-senses and mutant intelligence may be nullified.
The device attempts to nullify her Super-Senses. She rolls [roll7] Will vs DC 18 to resist.
The device attempts to nullify her Enhanced Ability (intelligence). She rolls [roll8] Power Rank roll vs DC 18 to resist

Edit:
If you have a power that is nullified, you may use Extraordinary Effort to attempt to attempt to turn it back on or use it, becoming fatigued, but gaining a retry on one Will or Power rank roll.

[SuperCracker]

--Crunch--

Just got home, will make a more detailed post in a second. But noooo cannot let them sap my strength. Hero point!

[roll0] +10 = 24.

[EclecticGuru]

The equipment Tiny removed from his crate is a baseball bat. He charges Data while she's flatfooted still. Instead of trying to bash her skull in , he instead carefully aims the bat for a nerve cluster near her solar plexus, a surprisingly deft and well-trained maneuver for someone who seems like an oversized hairy goon.

(attack in spoiler)

This is a Stunning Attack.

Tiny rolls [roll0] to hit versus a 18 Defense (she has uncanny dodge due to her aikido mastery).
If he hits, Data will need to succeed with her [roll1] Fortitude save at DC 18 to avoid the effects of the blow.

Edit: Because of the hero-point counter below, the bat is turned to water, and instead of being dazed, Data is instead just dampened.

Edit:

Tiny's bat is about to hit her hard when a swarm intercepts it and turns it into water, causing it to simply splash her hard. It doesn't knock the wind out of her, but the impact is jarring nonetheless. Tiny is now unarmed.

[EdroGrimshell]

Spending a hero point to try and turn the bat to water before it hits me.
Power Check: [roll0] vs. DC 18

[EclecticGuru]

Eyepatch quick-draws a sleek organic-steel looking carbine from under a tarp cover his cart. He uses the cart for cover from the heroes as he blasts the weapon at Scavenger.

(Attack in Spoiler)

The weapon is a Ytarian energy blaster utilized by the Ytarians that they found was exceptionally useful in battling ghosts, spirits and the undead during the Y2K-Invasion.

Knowledge (technology) or Knowledge (tactics) bonus of +8 or more, or Knowledge (current events) bonus of +12 or more will let you recognize the weapon type.

On the "stun" setting, it is a Stun 6 attack that has the Affects Insubstantial, and Dimensional (Astral Plane) feats, as well as the Alternate Save (Will) extra.

Eyepatch rolls [roll0] to hit versus a Defense of 15.

If he hits, Scavenger rolls Will [roll1] versus DC 16 to avoid the stunning effects.

Scavenger is dazed. Each round, at the start of Eyepatch's turn, he gets another Will save (at +1 for each round that passes) to snap out of the daze.

So concludes the Surprise Round.

In normal rounds: Fate, Data, Scavenger, and Wormhole may act in whatever order you like. Then the mercenaries go.

Then Aegis, Fate, Data, Scavenger, and Wormhole (aka ALL OF YOU) may act in whatever order you like. Then the mercenaries. Etc.

[EdroGrimshell]

Data, after using her transmutation ability, jumps back from the big guy that had just attacked her and proceeds to comand her nanites to reshape the forklift into steel cable and tie up the bearded merc several times to keep him from escaping, "You know, I find you annoying," she says to the merc she tied up and the bigger one before simply standing ready, prepared to use her nanites to create a wall or other obstruction to keep herself or her allies from injury.

[DaedalusMkV]

Wormhole watches the chaos go past, and seems rather shocked that none of the mercenaries are trying to attack him. "Hmm. Well, luckily for you my jail cells are finished and waiting for you. Enjoy your trip!" He attempts to activate his Spacial Control to 'push' Four-eyes through a spacial anomoly, directly to the empty (and locked) cells below, unaware of the Nullification Field in effect. Unfortunately, nothing happens, not even the slightest ripple in the fabric of space. "Huh. Well, looks like we'll have to do this the old fashioned way!" He starts towards Eyepatch, tonfas held at the ready.


Power check to overcome the Field: [roll0]
Attack Roll to hit him with the 'push': [roll1]

If both rolls succeed, Four-Eyes will need to make a DC20 Reflex save or be immediately trasported to jail, without collecting $200.

Edro: Do you not have to make an Attack Roll and/or allow some sort of save for your Transform effects? The book definitely requires both, even if you have the Ranged Extra.

Edit: Yup, that's definitely a 1 on my Power Check. No big deal, this makes for just as good of a story. These guys get to find out that even without his Powers and the majority of his Equipment, Wormhole is still... Well, something approximating a threat, anyhow.

[bladesmith]

The invisible Fate slipped aside as the forklift rode by him, pieces of him blurring through the solid steel of the machine as it went by.

That didn't work out as well as it did in my head.

Fate tried to evaluate the situation quickly. After all, he was used to being the one getting the jump on the bad guys. It was then that he recognized the Ytarian gene supressor. Excellent. The gun didn't look particularly earthy either. Which meant that the bunch of hired guns got upgraded to extremely well equipped hired guns in his evaluation. It pointed to a certain measure of competance. Or a certain measure of over-paidness. Better to assume competance, and wonder if they were anyone he knew. So, the big goon as supposed to go after the nerd, the shooter would stay back and give cover fire. The driver would wreak havoc with the silly forklift, and the combatant and the nerd would keep the machine running. So, take down the two by the machine(or the machine itself), get the team running full power, kick some butt, get some new snacks, and be back in business. Fate liked this plan.He didn't like the thought of trying to eliminate two goons without his gun, or most of his equipment. Note to self: always expect the attack. Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean that no one is out to get you. Right.

Sidling invisibly up to the crate, Ethan took a moment to try and size up the alien tech, then reached in and began messing everything up.

Rolling Gather information with Well-Informed to see if I can get an idea of who these guys are. After all, how many mercs can get their hands on Ytarian tech?
Gather Info: [roll0]
And now the all important Disable Device check to try and muck up the gene suppressor for a while.
Disable Device: [roll1]

[bladesmith]

Using my hero point to reroll Disable Device, from the above post.
[roll0]
Edit: Make that a 31, since I rolled a 10.

[EclecticGuru]

(Response to Data's action)

Data is doing a tricky shot. The Defense of the Forklift is 9, but aiming for specific parts will raise the difficulty by +2 to try to hit the part to try to ensnare him, and another +2 for trying to hit the engine as well. That makes it Defense 13.

Data rolls [roll0] vs. Defense 13.

If she hits, Beard gets a Reflex save, since he's driving the Forklift.
He rolls [roll1] vs. DC 20

Should she hit, and he fail the Reflex save, the forklift is automatically disabled as vital parts are turned into cables. Beard will also automatically count as being entangled, but he can lose that condition as a full round action.

Data's nanites spew toward the Forklift, swarming like a cloud. Beard turns sharply, and zig zags the damned thing, shaking off the nanites before they could wreak too much havoc, though the forklift now has some weird cables dangling around it where it didn't before.


(Response to Wormhole's action)
Since Wormhole's only power has been disabled, I'll give you a hero point if you continue on with the fight without using exceptional effort to try to use your power again. Your choice!

(Response to Fate's action)
You succeed! You can try to finish the sabotage next round.

If you succeed again next round, you may immediately disable the device, or set it up to break down at some point in the future, or you can change the "frequency" setting so it doesn't work, but seems like its still on and working.

[Starsign]

Scavenger, pulsed by the strange blaster, find himself momentarily unable to act. Completely out of it at the time and a sitting duck for the most part.

Will save: [roll0]

If I get out of Dazed, I'll use my Claws (Strike and Paralyze) on Leather

Attack roll: [roll1]
DC 22 Toughness AND DC 17 Fortitude if hit

EDIT: Ugh! And such a good attack roll too. :smallfurious: Can't do anything, I'm still dazed, I can't even make a good post.

[EclecticGuru]

(response to Scavenger)

You're dazed for another round, unfortunately.
That means all you can do for your next action is make another saving throw and hope to make it so you're not dazed for yet *another* round after this one.

Lana runs for one of the exits of the room. None of the mercenaries make a move to stop her or discourage her. In fact, they seem happy to see her leave the scene.

The Forklift is still functional (since Beard made his saving throw, he preempted the transformation before it could be complete) but we can see the effects of the nanites in the cables dangling around the forklift and the missing bits of its external panels. Beard swerves the thing around, tires squealing and smoking, filling the room with that very unpleasant burned "rubber" smell.

He aims it for Data and tries to run her over before she can direct her nanites at him again to finish the job.

He is doing a Slam attack, and he's using All-Out Attack on her, shifting 5 points away from his defense to give him a +5 to hit.

He rolls [roll0] versus a defense of 18.

If he hits, she rolls [roll1] toughness against a DC of 25 to avoid any damage.

CRUNCH! She is solidly hit, one fork to either side of her, and she is lifted up off the ground, carried across the room and the forklift crushes her against the far wall.

(She is bruised, stunned until right before Beard's action next round, and she might be damaged by more knockback damage, which will be resolved in the next post!)

[EclecticGuru]

(Knockback Mechanics in Spoiler)

The Forklift does +7 knockback to Spoiler, which sends her 100 feet, but the wall is in the way, so she only goes about 25 feet and hits the wall.

Data rolls [roll0] Toughness against a DC of 22 to avoid any further damage.
The wall rolls [roll1] Toughness against a DC of 22 to avoid being damaged.
The forklift rolls [roll2] Toughness against a DC of 20 to avoid damage from its own Slam attack.

(Data is bruised again for a total of Bruised (x2) and suffers -2 to toughness tests. The wall is unharmed. The forklift is Damaged and suffers -1 to toughness tests.)

[EclecticGuru]

Four-Eyes quick draws a carbine from within the same crate that holds the neutralizer field when he somehow spots the invisible Fate. None of the other mercenaries can seem to see Fate, but Four-Eyes must have some sort of trick or device that enables him to do so. Four-Eyes stumbles back a bit, and fires the rifle at Fate. There's a slight whine of an energy discharge as the rifle fires, it is apparently firing some sort of high-tech modified round.

(Mechanics in Spoiler)

The rounds do +6 damage, and have the Penetrating extra -- Knowledge (tactics) total bonus of +8, or knowledge (technology) total bonus of +10 would reveal that the rounds were an experimental russian design, used to penetrate hard-armor targets, such as Ytarian power armored shock troops.

Being shot at is distracted, and makes disabling the device difficult. Fate must roll [roll0] Concentration vs. DC 10 or lose his progress so far.

He rolls [roll1] to hit against defense 20.
If Fate is hit, Fate rolls [roll2] toughness against DC 21 to avoid being injured.
Also, if Fate is hit, Fate must succeed again with a [roll3] Concentration check against DC 16, or lose his progress with disabling the device.

Fate is as cool as a cucumber, and smoothly manages to avoid getting shot.

[EclecticGuru]

The Neutralizer is still functioning, subtly disrupting the mutant abilities of everyone in the room, as Leather lines up her shot on Aegis! She hopes the device has done its job, because this guy needs to go down.

Aegis:
The device attempts to nullify his Absorption. He rolls 1d20+10p Will vs. DC 18 to resist.
The device attempts to nullify his Impervious Toughness. He rolls [roll0] Will vs DC 18 to resist.
Leaping is an instant power, so it won't be able to nullify it until Aegis tries to use it.
The device attempts to nullify his Immunity (critical hits). He rolls [roll1] Will vs DC 18 to resist.
The device attempts to nullify his Enhanced Ability (strength). He rolls [roll2] Will vs DC 18 to resist.

I think everyone else's powers are already nullified.

Leather lines up the shot. Her weapon and rounds are the same as Four-Eyes'.

She rolls [roll3] against Aegis' flatfooted defense of 10.
If she hits, Aegis will need to roll toughness, but I don't know if his absorption power is up or not, so we'll find out now, and roll his toughness in the next post if necessary.

[EclecticGuru]

(Stupid typo)
[roll0] Will versus DC 18 for Absorption.

Leather's round flashes brightly as it hits Aegis, but seems to have no effect on him. She's pretty sure she knows why, and is very disappointed in that stupid neutralizer.

"Sorry, handsome. Can't blame me for trying, can you?"

[EclecticGuru]

Tiny kick-flips a mangled chair from the ground into his hand, and looks for someone to hit with it (Data, who was his preferred target is now against the far wall.) He sees Aegis right there and shrugs. Where super-tech guns might fail, perhaps Tiny will succeed. He winds up like a massive spring and then swings like he's trying to get a distance record.

All-out attack shifts 5 points of Defense to Attack. Power attack shifts 5 points of attack to damage.

He rolls [roll0] versus Aegis' flat-footed defense 10.
If he hits, Aegis absorbs 6 of the damage, and then rolls Toughness [roll1] versus a DC of 22 to avoid damage.
If he hits, the chair also must roll its Toughness [roll2] against a DC of 18 to avoid breaking.

The attack is a solid one, and though the force of the blow is largely absorbed, Aegis actually FEELS it. He is bruised and takes a -1 to toughness rolls. The chair, of course, is shattered against Aegis' resistant noggin.

[SuperCracker]

Aegis has, for lack of a better term, been slow as a snail during all of this. Shots are flying, forklifts are smashing would-be team-mates into walls, devices were deployed… and he hadn’t even stood up just yet! His eyes widened during the flurry of activity, and during his almost painfully slow stand up from the table, he could feel that his muscles weren’t as strong as before. He wasn’t sure to what extent his powers were being drained or what was causing it, but it didn’t matter. You step to Aegis, powers or not, and you better be ready for a whoopin’.

So when he finally got up to his feet, Leather was shooting at him… BAM BAM! A panel shows Aegis standing there, with a flattened bullet sticking in his Raiders jersey. He grins wildly.

“Actually, darlin’, I can. Ya’ll done f***** up, now.”

Aegis could have gone for Leather, but he hates to hit a lady… so Four-Eyes was going to be the one getting got.. first, anyway! Aegis charges him, throwing all defense away in an effort to punch him and take him out of the fight!

--Crunch—

Charging! Also applying Power-Attack 3 and All-Out Attack 5. Overall +4 attack, +3 damage, -7 defense (Defense 11).

[roll0] for DC 28 toughness save and improved grab.

Grapple (minus super-strength): [roll1] – And if I get him, I’ll choose to damage him. DC 25

Possible Take-Down attack as well.

[roll2] for DC 28 toughness against Leather if there are no male targets within reach.
Grapple: [roll3] – and will go with a pin.

[EclecticGuru]

Eyepatch swings his sleek energy weapon to point at Wormhole, switching its setting with his thumb and firing it at him.

On "disable" setting the weapon is Blast 6, with Extra-Dimensional (Astral), Affects Desolid, and Incurable feats.

Eyepatch rolls [roll0] to hit versus a Defense of 22.

If he hits, Wormhole rolls Toughness [roll1] versus DC 21 to avoid being hurt.

The blast hits Wormhole in the gut, lifting him up off the ground, knocking him down on his butt, and leaving him gasping for air. A bit of blood can be seen in the corner of his mouth.

Wormhole is staggered (can only take one move or one standard action per turn), and is stunned. He also is knocked back 10 feet and is prone.

(That's it for them, you all get another round, in whatever order you desire.)

[Starsign]

Will save: [roll0]

If I get out of Dazed, I'll use my Claws (Strike and Paralyze) on Leather

Attack roll: [roll1]
DC 22 Toughness AND DC 17 Fortitude if hit

Nevermind, I'll have to make my actions next round. :smallsigh:

[EclecticGuru]

Response to Aegis' Action

Four-Eyes rolls Toughness [roll0] versus DC 28.
And he's grappled and damaged more.
Four-Eyes rolls Toughness [roll1] versus DC 25.

Aegis runs up to Four-Eyes, walloping him into a massive headlock. Four-Eyes looks like he's not done with this fight yet!

(Four-Eyes is Bruised , Staggered and Stunned until the start of Aegis' next turn)

Response to Scavenger

You'll be undazed at the start of Eyepatch's next turn.

[SuperCracker]

If he gets bruised by the first damage, his next toughness save would be -1, causing him to be staggered.

[EclecticGuru]

(Yo dawg, I heard you like overpowered in your overpowered combo, so I put some overpowered in your combo so you can do damage twice in your round! You're right! So he's staggered. I have edited appropriately.)

[bladesmith]

This is not going as well as it should be.

The nerd with the glasses took a weaksauce potshot at him, but Ethan kept at the silly machine. Even if the guy had been a threat(his glasses probably had some sort of IR thing), Aegis seemed to have him well in hand. In hand. Ha. More like in armpit. Without his equipment, he wasn't nearly as much help in a straight fight as some of the others might be. So, while he couldn't go get his stuff, he could give his teammates back their powers. However much he wanted to kick the crap out of beardy bloke and eyepatch dude for beating up on people that he had invited here. No time to go for a complex solution, he just had to shut it down. Then he could get back to dispensing justice on some ex-spooks.

"C'mon fingers, don't fail me now."

Disable Device to shut down the machine...
[roll0]
EDIT:
With a small smile to himself, Ethan looked up from the alien gene suppressor... Thing. Check one problem off his list. Now to round up the backstreet boys. First, there was the guy driving a forklift over Data. That was not to be encouraged. And Fate knew just the guy to do some serious discouraging. Keeping his voice even to try and keep Wannabe Pirate from hearing him, he gave his suggestions to the guys.

"Scavenger,if you would please take that guy off of Aegis' hands, I need him to crash a forklift."

[EclecticGuru]

The machine that was nullifying your mutant powers has been disabled. Your powers return immediately.

[EclecticGuru]

Lana exits the room safely.

Leaving Data propped against the wall, the Beard quickly squeals the tires of the forklift in reverse and then guns it forward again, trying to smash Data through the wall this time!

He is doing another Slam attack against Data -- because he has to back up before slamming, he doesn't build up as much speed this time. The stun wears out right before he gets to go, so she has her dodge bonus still.

He uses All-Out Attack to gain +5 to hit and -5 to defense.

He rolls [roll0] to hit versus a defense of 12.

If he hits, Data rolls [roll1] toughness against a DC of 23 to avoid any damage.

Edit: I totally put the wrong numbers in, but I'll keep the dice rolls. He should have had +5 to hit, for 17, and she should have had an 18 defense, so he misses.

When the forklift hits the wall, everyone thinks that Data has been crushed. Little do they know, she managed to duck down and slide around the side, just in time to avoid being hit. When the dust clears, they can see her standing there, brushing herself off.

[EclecticGuru]

Four-Eyes doesn't know what hit him. He moans a bit, but that's all he can manage as he tries to recover his wits about him.

Leather shoots at Aegis again, but again it has no effect. She doesn't know that the device has been disabled by Fate, so she was obviously hoping his invulnerability powers would have been canceled.

Tiny looks for someone to hit. Data "ran off", Aegis actually did run off, and Fate is still invisible. He sees Scavenger trying to shake off the final effects of the energy weapon, and he sees Wormhole on his butt not too far away. Being ever the pragmatist, Tiny decides to try to finish off Wormhole. He grabs a piece of the table and charges his ass over to Wormhole to try to take him out of the fight. He leaps up into the air and comes down with that chunk of table like a professional wrestler in a pay-per-view special.

He does an All-Out Attack gaining +5 to hit and -5 defense. He charges, which gives him +2 to hit and -2 defense. And he does a Power Attack which gives him +5 damage and -5 to hit. He gains +4 to hit a prone target which he can actually benefit from since you're 4 power levels above him.

He rolls [roll0] versus a defense of 13.
If he hits, Wormhole rolls [roll1] versus DC 28 to avoid being damaged.

WHACK-THUD!

Edit:

The sound of the impact echoes around the room. The chunk of table shatters to bits of plastic, metal and veneer, and Wormhole doesn't move. Tiny already starts looking for someone else to hit.

[SuperCracker]

Aegis grins at Four-Eyes and then drops him down on the ground like a sack of potatoes. He looks over to where Fayt is calling the shots and gives him a quick nod. “You got it, boss.”

Aegis saw Tiny wrecking Wormhole, but if Tim was going to be a part of this team, he was going to try and follow the lead of the more experienced superhero. Besides… he gets to wreck a forklift. Aegis dropped down into a three-point stance.

“Blue 42… set… HIKE!”

He then charged towards the forklift, keeping low like he used to do during football. The best way to knock something over was to hit it low and push up. He came up on the side of the Forklift and slammed his hands into it in an upward thrust, moving to fling the thing over, driver and all.

--Crunch—

Okay… charge, +2 attack, -2 defense. This is a grapple attempt, with a “throw” if I succeed, I guess.

Attack: [roll0]
Grapple Check: [roll1] (Super-Strength back and boosted gives me an effective strength of 65).

[EclecticGuru]

"Oh come on. How about you aim for me for a change!"

"Roger that."

Eyepatch turns slightly, swinging the weapon from Wormhole back to Scavenger and flipping the setting back to stun. He fires.


[roll0] to hit versus Defense 15.
If he hits, Scavenger rolls [roll1] Will vs. DC 16 to avoid the effects of the weapon.


The energy hits Scavenger, but the arcane powers that animate him manage to somehow throw off the effects, leaving him unstunned!

"That's an unfortunate turn of events." Eyepatch notes.

(Response to Aegis's action)
Normally to throw something you need to use a move action after establishing the grapple, but in this case, since you're just flipping it and not going for distance, I'm fine with it.

You succeed!

Beard is prone, and has cover from the truck.

On his turn, he will need to spend 1 move action to crawl out from under the truck, and then another move action to stand up if he wishes to stand.

The forklift is flipped over, and Beard is stuck underneath it.

[DaedalusMkV]

Had you given me time to post instead of resolving everything while I was at work, I would have used a Hero Point to reroll that Toughness save against the Energy Weapon attack. Two combat rounds ago. If you don't mind? Yes, I realize that this completely changes a lot of actions, but seriously, I rolled a 5 and got taken out of the fight. That's not going to be allowed to stand.
[roll0] vs DC 21, adding 10 if the roll is below 11.

Edit: As you can see, that's a 22. Wormhole is uninjured by the energy gun, and can act normally two times before getting back to the Initiative order. How do you want to resolve this?

[EclecticGuru]

Alright. You can spend a hero point as you described. But I'll GM Fiat that you decided without your powers you might be best in faking your own incapacitation (you gain a Hero Point back for the douchebag fiat, so now you're back to where you started). In return, you can act on your normal initiative this round, with surprise (they get no dodge bonus against your attacks) and if you want to use extraordinary effort this round you can gain an extra standard action and spend a hero point to immediately nullify the resultant fatigue.

To sum up:

You spent one hero point, and gained one hero point.
You were faking your own defeat.
You have surprise on them now (no dodge bonus for them).
You can make up for the lost action by using extraordinary effort, while taking advantage of your surprise.


This avoids rewinding time and I think its pretty fair.

(All of you all can go now)

[bladesmith]

Satisfied with his work on the suppressor, Fate creeps away to do more unseen good. Aegis seemed to have the forklift well in hand, Four-eyes was pretty much useless, and Scavenger could mix it up with the best of them, as far as the reports went, so he wasn't worried about Leather or Tiny. Which left the Pirate Captain for him. Silently, he snuck up behind Shooty McBlindside and raised his hand to bring a karate chop down on a pressure point in his neck, hopefully bringing him down with one shot. Probably not, but still, worth a shot. As he struck, he phased back into sight.

"Boo."

Sneaking up behind Eyepatch, using stealth to be vewy, vewy quiet(we're hunting wabbits!).
Stealth: [roll0]
And Attack! Power Attack for 2.
Attack: [roll1], Damage +6 (2 Str, 2 Sneak attack, 2 power attack)

[EclecticGuru]

(Resolution of Fate's attack)
Eyepatch is BLINDSIDED (hahahaha!)
He has flatfooted defense 13, so he is hit by Fate.
He rolls [roll0] toughness vs DC 21

Thwack! "What the?" Eyepatch turns to face his attacker, the infamous Fate Accompli! "Ah there you are, I was wondering when you'd join us again."

(He is bruised.)

[DaedalusMkV]

Pleased that his gambit worked, Wormhole instinctively attempts to warp himself through space... And succeeds, somewhat to his own shock. Someone must have shut down whatever machine was stopping his powers from working in the first place. No longer on the ground, Wormhole appears directly behind Tiny, in retaliation for the attempt to crush his skull earlier, immediately making a pair of devestating strikes with his Tonfas against the unaware mercenary.


That's acceptable. I was simply a bit flabbergasted that you managed to go through two combat rounds in less than 12 hours. Using Spacial Control to pop up right behind the enemy, which thanks to my Change Direction Power Feat allows me to, effectively, stand up from Prone as part of the Teleportation action.

With my other Standard action I'll deliver a nice smack to the head. Since he's flatfooted and at -5 Defense from his All-out Attack and -2 from Charging, he should be very easy to hit, so I'll Power Attack for the full 5.

Attack roll: [roll0]
If that hits his Flatfooted Defense-7 he'll take Damage at a +9 Bonus, for a base DC of 24.

No need to use the Extra Effort and what-have-you. I'll save that second Hero Point (and possibly third, if that whole "Gain a Hero Point for continuing to fight despite not having your Powers and Equipment" still stands) for when it really counts. Like rerolling a junk Save on a lucky hit against you.

Edit: you must be joking! Still, that should be an easy hit unless this guy was a ludicrous Defense-tank, which seems pretty unlikely. Still, I do believe that I have yet to roll above an 8 for any actual roll that really happened. Wow.

[EdroGrimshell]

Data arranges her nanites into a sphere about the size of her head and takes but a moment to aim and calls out, "Hey one eye," before firing the sphere off at very high speeds towards the eyepatch-wearing merc, hopefully taking him out of the fight.

Attack: [roll0]
If sucessful the Toughness DC is 25.

[EclecticGuru]

(Response to Daedalus' action)

Tiny is EASILY hit, even with Daedalus' low roll.

Tiny rolls [roll0] against DC 24 to avoid being injured.

Tiny is bludgeoned from behind by the surprise attack by Daedalus, who was apparently just playing possum until he could teleport again! Tiny turns and growls.

(Tiny is bruised)

[EclecticGuru]

(Response to Data's action)

Patch is hit again. He isn't flatfooted against this attack though.
He rolls [roll0] toughness against DC 25 to avoid damage.


THUD! He gets hit in the chest and lifted up and back against the far wall, crashing into it.

(Patch is bruised (x2) and stunned and knocked back. Resolving knockback in the next post.)

[Starsign]

Scavenger finally snaps out of his dazed condition as he makes throws his claws at Leather in an aggressive fury. "Enough. Of your. Aggravating blasters!" His line broke into multiple short sentences as he slashes at Leather.

Useing my Claws (Strike and Paralyze) on Leather

Attack roll: [roll0]
DC 22 Toughness AND DC 17 Fortitude if hit. Autofire in effect

[EclecticGuru]

Eyepatch hits the wall. Knockback damage is +7.

He rolls [roll0] versus DC 22 to avoid further damage.
The wall rolls [roll1] versus DC 22 to avoid being damaged.


Eyepatch hits the wall hard enough to knock a Mercenary shaped hole in it. He doesn't crawl back out of it. Apparently he's done with this fight.

(Patch is unconscious)

[EclecticGuru]

(Response to Scavenger's Attack)

Leather is hit brutally by the claws.

She rolls [roll0] Toughness versus DC 23 to avoid damage.
She rolls [roll1] Fortitude versus DC 18 to avoid paralysis.


Scavenger's claws flash over Leather at lightning speed, and the mercenary sinks to the ground, unconscious.

(Leather is unconscious)

[EclecticGuru]

Beard crawls out from under the flipped forklift and stands up.

Four-Eyes stands up, revealing a Dead Man's switch from his jacket pocket. He presses the plunger down. "Let's all take a moment here and figure out what's best for everyone, shall we? No one else needs to get hurt. You win ... but you're not going to stop us from leaving."

Tiny falls in next to Four-Eyes, and tries to look like a tough guy, which isn't a stretch at all for him.

(They're done, your turn)

[SuperCracker]

Aegis gets ready to throw a punch at Beard... putting everyone in true stand-off mode. He narrowed his eyes at Four-Eyes with his dead man's trigger. Aegis has seen enough movies to figure out what it is.

"Oh yeah? Is that so, punk? Hey... ya'll others move outta this room. If he wants to blow 'imself up... I'm glad to stick in here with 'im, and I bet my zombie boy can do it too.."

--Crunch--

Going to roll intimidate!

[roll0]

[EdroGrimshell]

Data raises an eyebrow and sets her nanites to making a clip on the button to keep it down even if he pulls his finger off it, making it useless.

I have the precise power feat so i should be allowed to do that by making wedges to keep the button pressed and a layer of strong but barely noticeable material wrapped around it to keep it pressed as well

[Starsign]

Scavenger's eyes focused on the switch... Including the wedges that make it useless. "Go ahead and blow me up then. Not even a god could bring me down!" The zombie dashed at the guy incredibly fast and brought down his claws again.

Attacking the guy with the dead man switch with claws (Strike and Paralyze)
Attack: [roll0] DC 22 Toughness, DC 17 Fortitude

[EdroGrimshell]

Power Roll to Disable Device: [roll0]

[DaedalusMkV]

Wormhole chucles for a moment at the threat. "Oh come on. You aren't nearly crazy enough to actually use that thing." He looks at Beard. "Well, off with you." With a melodramatic wave of his hand, he turns the floor underneath the man into a hole leading directly to the holding cells in the lower levels.


Attack Roll: [roll0]

If it hits, he'll need to make a DC20 Reflex save or be immediately transported to the dungeons. Insert monopoly joke here.

Edit: A 2!? Again!? :smallfurious: That brings my average die roll down to a measly 3. Yes, that's right, 3. Over 5 dice rolls. :smallfurious:

...I'm spending a Hero Point to reroll that. I'm not missing an opportunity to actually be cool by damned well being incapable of rolling anything ever.

[DaedalusMkV]

Rerolling that Attack roll. This is probably an automatic success, but who knows?

[roll0]

Same deal as last time, add 10 to the roll if it's not already above 10.

Edit: Arbitrary bonuses make that a 27 to hit. Dice roller, why hath thou forsaken me to the point where the only rolls I can succeed are the ones where I'm guaranteed success or use limited resources to completely negate your randomness?

[bladesmith]

Fate Accompli raised a single, slightly incredulous eyebrow at the bespectacled hitman. Seriously? It seemed like every villain used the deadman's switch thing to escape nowadays. He could count at least a half-dozen places where it had been attempted on him. Ethan was pretty sure he could blame Hollywood for the rash of pre-planted emergency explosives. The crummy part was that they were fairly effective if planned well. Usually(hopefully) the planning didn't involve someone who could make things with her mind. A telekinetic would probably make the plan fairly ineffective generally, too, but he didn't have one of those at his disposal. Maybe if the Exemplars start expanding... However, those were thoughts for another time. Filed a little lower then explaining a thing or two about jumping into a situation before you knew what was going on. One thing at a time. Smiling a little at those left standing, particularly Four-Eyes, he made his counter offer.

"Well, I was never really planning on stopping you from leaving. In fact, my preference would be that you leave under your own power, with minimal restraint, as free people. After all, the only pain you've caused to our knowledge is to us, which can be forgiven. On the other hand, I would like to know why a squad of ex-CIA hitmen has decided to crash our house-warming party. So, we cease the fighting, we talk for a bit, then decide how you are leaving."

Aw, what the heck. We'll try the Diplomacy thing. Not that I think it will work at the moment.
[roll0]

[EclecticGuru]

Any attempt at diplomacy by Fate is overshadowed by Scavenger's terrible claws and fangs as he rips into Four-Eyes.

"Get it off me, get it off me!" He drops the deadman's switch and raises his arms up in defense. Thankfully, the switch was disabled.


Four-Eyes rolls [roll0] against DC 24 to avoid being injured.
Four-Eyes rolls [roll1] against DC 19 to avoid the Paralyze effects.

Beard rolls [roll2] against DC 20 to avoid being teleported.

Fate's diplomacy fails.


Four-Eyes is clawed up severely, passing out from the shock and pain.

For a moment it looks like Beard is about to fall through the warp in space, but he somehow manages to dive out, rolling back to his feet in a single smooth motion.

Tiny gives Beard a somewhat ironic smile, and an up-nod, glancing to the door.

Beard frowns but then returns the nod right before he dashes for the door.

Tiny follows Beard to the door, and then turns around to block it -- sacrificing his own chance for escape for Beard it would seem.

"Who wants some of this?"

(You can all go again, if you want)

[SuperCracker]

“I do, b****!”

Aegis said with a wild grin on his face before charging at Tiny, giving it all he’s got in one ferocious punch (a Falcon Punch, if you will). While he’s still trying to bust Tiny up, his main goal is to catch him in a grapple and put him down on the ground.


--Crunch--

Charge + All-Out Attack 5 = +7 attackk, -7 defense. Power Attack for 3.

[roll0] DC: 28 damage.
Grapple: [roll1] Trying to Pin.

[EdroGrimshell]

Data uses her X-ray vision to follow Beard's movements and slams her hands onto the wall, forcing it to form a lattice-work set of bars on the opposite side of the wall, trapping the man before he could get far, hopefully anyway.

Power Roll just in case
[roll0]

And if i have to use Extra Effort for this i'll gladly do so

[Starsign]

Wasting no time, Scavenger takes off after Beard as Tiny is held down. The zombie climbs on the wall and through the upper part of the door to reach the other side, of which he then follows on foot.

Using Move All-Out to catch up to Beard. Wall-Crawling and Slithering for my Super-Movement. Also have Speed 1 so I should catch up quickly.

[EclecticGuru]

Tiny rolls [roll0] Toughness versus DC 28.
He cannot roll high enough to avoid being pinned.


Tiny goes down in a heap, slapped so hard he falls unconscious, and then shoved down by his throat and pinned against the bottom half of the door frame for good measure.

Nanites form bars in the hallway, blocking the escape route.

Scavenger catches up to Beard.

[Starsign]

Scavenger wastes no time, immediately he catches up to Beard. "I want you to take your best shot at me. You must have something like an RPG, right?" The zombie tried taunting the lone mercenary.

Using my teeth on Beard (Strike and Stun)
Attack roll: [roll0]
DC 22 Toughness save and DC 17 Will save

EDIT: Ugh, spending hero point below, which will happen next turn

[Starsign]

Using a hero point to get a better Attack roll: [roll0] Okay that's 22 total. This will be for next round.

[bladesmith]

Fate set palm to forehead for a moment as he walked across the wrecked room. Concrete chunks mingled with crushed soda cans and uneaten snacks, littered with a fine layer of wrecked furniture. It was probably for the best that he and Wormhole had not yet sprung for a decent dining room set. Picking through the wreckage, he reaches down to retrieve his hat with a grunt of satisfaction. With a few quick motions, the beaten leather chapeau was dusted off and back on his head. Now ready to face down whatever chaos was coming anew. And, almost as an afterthought, he grabbed the deadman's switch and held the button down. Just in case.

"Are you guys quite done yet?"

[EdroGrimshell]

"Just two more, the guy with the beard is cornered by Scavenger and Aegis has the big guy pinned, all e need to do is get them in cells," Data says giving a loose report, "And you won't have to worry to much about repairs, i can take care of that in a few minutes."

[DaedalusMkV]

Wormhole shoots an amused look to Fate. "Running? Why on earth would they ever think that would work? Unless they've got a spaceship waiting out there, they're just prolonging the inevitable. Speaking of, be right back." The space in front of him bends and shimmers for a moment, and he reappears right beside Beard. "Hello again. You wrecked my table with a forklift." He strikes hard with his tonfas, trying for power over accuracy.


Fun Fact: Wormhole's move-action 'short' teleports have the same effective velocity as a helicopter. His Full-action, 'long' teleports, if used to travel to a target within his line-of-sight rather than a place he knows well, are faster than anything that has ever moved inside of our atmosphere with the exception of a handful of asteroids coming in from space. He's not exaggerating when he says that the only way for the mercs to outrun him is to escape in a space ship. Anyways...

Move Action to Teleport beside Beard and a Standard to hit him. Using Power Attack to take a full -5 on Attack for +5 to Damage.

Attack: [roll0]

If I hit, the base Save DC is 23.

Edit: A semi-reasonable-ish roll! Huzzah!

[EclecticGuru]

Beard rolls [roll0] versus DC 23 to avoid being injured by Wormhole.



Power is good, and Wormhole hits Beard with the skill and power of one of the world's finest martial artists. Beard is bruised and stunned, and also the hit is solid enough to knock him 25 feet, which smashes him into the bars created by Data.

[EclecticGuru]

Beard rolls [roll0] versus DC 20 to avoid being injured by the knockback
The bars roll [roll1] versus DC 20 to avoid being damaged by the knockback.

Beard hits the bars hard enough to bend a couple. They are damaged, and he is bruised (x2) now, he also falls to the ground, prone.

You all can go again ... I'm not going to execute Scavenger's attack unless Starsign verifies he wants to carry through with it, as it might be seen as a dishonorable move to hit someone weaker than you while they're down -- and I don't want to assume he'll do it .... However, if you do want to carry through with your attack, you can just roll his Toughness save for me. His Toughness bonus against your attack will be +3 while he's stunned, and it goes back up to +4 when Wormhole goes, unless he's stunned again.

[EdroGrimshell]

Data sighs lightly and walks over to the big guy and transforms part of the floor into shackles to hold him, no chains, just a couple strait bars of metal with trianglular braces to keep them from breaking. "I'll fix the damages once they're all in cells, i'll just need some materials to work with first."

[SuperCracker]

Aegis lets go of Tiny considering he's unconscious and now shackled. He then stands up and brushes some dirt off of his shoulder. A grin was firmly planted on his face.

"I think ya'll got this. I'm just gone take a seat and watch."

To add insult to injury, Tim then sat down on top of the huge, downed mercenary and just kept grinning.

[Starsign]

Scavenger, seeing that Beard was stunned right now, goes for a different approach. Instead of threshing through his skin, the zombie instead pokes him lightly with his claws, letting the mercenary be affected by the numbing touch of the claws rather than the injuring force of them, though it might cause a small wound or two. "This might not work, be ready to pin him if needed."

I'm going for a Stun effect. Weakening my Strike so it can't harm him. It's a DC 21 Will save (thanks to autofire), which I'll roll:
[roll0]

[EclecticGuru]

(Since your attacks are linked, you actually have to hit him with the strike, but you can lower the damage bonus down to +0, which would go back up to +4 from autofire)

Beard rolls [roll0] Toughness versus DC 19.

He is stunned, prone, dazed, bruised (x3).

(Since he's dazed, once everyone finishes this turn (Fate and Wormhole have to go this round still), you can all take another action. Please wait, however, until both Fate and Wormhole go before doing so)

[DaedalusMkV]

Now that his opponent is incapable of effectively fighting back or running, Wormhole turns his spacial warping back to the task of putting him behind bars, once again trying to drop him through a hole directly to the cells. "No need, friend. Now, let's see..."
Using my Teleport Attack again to try to teleport Beard to the holding cells.

Attack: [roll0]

Once again, if it hits he can roll a DC20 Reflex save to avoid it. Somehow, I guess, since he can't really move to avoid it or anything like that? :smallconfused:

[bladesmith]

Alright then. Perhaps it was time to get this situation under control. They did have things to do, as much fun as this was.

"Wormhole, if you could place them in seperate cells, that would be preferable. Data, would you mind checking those in here for cyanide capsules in their mouths, I would also like it if none of them expired prematurely. I am going find Lana, and if someone could get the workers together to make sure that none of them are hurt, that would ease my mind. Good work everyone. Try to keep them all alive until I get back. We're going to have to have a talk with these guys." Fate phases out of sight, and when next you hear his voice, its on the other side of the bars. "Also,I am fairly certain these guys are ex-CIA. Please be careful."

With that, the quiet sound of footsteps made their way out, Ethan's figure slowly solidifying as he made his way to the door.

[EdroGrimshell]

Data nods before Fayt phases out and then searches the mercs, for anything that might be used to A) Help escape, B) Kill themselves, or C) Communicate with someone else.

[EclecticGuru]

Wormhole captures the last of the enemies, and then they are all locked up in the holding cells, minus any equipment they might have to help them escape. They brought no suicide pills.

Of course, the Exemplars can't keep them locked up forever, now, can they?

[DaedalusMkV]

As soon as the mercenaries are properly disposed of, Wormhole brushes himself off and returns his tonfas to their loops on his belt. "Hmm. I'll have to give them marks for trying; they seemed like they actually knew what they were doing." He looks around, surveying the damage for a moment. "You said you can repair all this, Jessica? There's probably still a few workers hanging around downstairs who can show you to the building materials, if you don't mind? Me, I think it's time to lock the front door, maybe make a few phone calls and see if I can't figure out who hired these guys. I'll meet you all down in the holding facility in 20 minutes, if you still want to try and interrogate these guys." With that he quickly blinks away, setting off to both reactivate the base's security and get into contact with a few of his friends in business, politics and law enforcement.


Do I still get that Hero Point with the fight conditions changing like they did, or no?

Anyways, first I'll shut the main door and reimplement the base's security systems, just in case anyone wants to try for round 2, then Take 20 on a Gather Information check to try to identify both who these mercenaries are and who might have hired them, making mentions of things like the captured alien weaponry. With Contacts, it takes 20 minutes to Take 20 on Gather Information. Finally, I'll pop by the armoury and collect my equipment before meeting up with everyone again.

Gather Information result: 34

[SuperCracker]

"Hell, I'll go watch 'em," Aegis says as everyone is disposed of. He starts heading down to the holding cells, just in case one of them happens to be some amazing locksmith or something. Besides, he was pretty pissed off about this whole thing. Having words with them was rather called for, at the moment.

"Good job, ya'll. Wish I could 'a seen the look on his face when he ran into that wall."

And so, Aegis heads down to play guard for a bit.

[Starsign]

Scavenger brushes himself off as he looks around. He asks everyone, "Any other personnel missing?" He goes off to find Lana and anyone else if they we're hiding.

Using my super-senses (Darkvision, Infravision, Scent, and Magical Awareness) to pick up anyone who is not a PC

[EdroGrimshell]

Jess lights another cigarette and then gets to work on repairing what she can, including the forklift, and goes to find the workers when she runs out of materials so she can finish the job.

[bladesmith]

Walking down the hallway, Ethan made an effort to make his footsteps louder then his normal walk, and whistling. As he neared the surface, he called out,
"It's Ethan, Lana. The bad guys are taken care of, and you can come back down if you want."

Still, as he began to exit the building, he turned invisible, and peeked out carefully. He hated secondary ambushes, and wasn't about to be caught with his pants down again today.

Notice check: [roll0]

[EclecticGuru]

All the bad guys are locked up, disarmed, not poisoned, and don't seem to be master lockpicking their way out of the security holding cells.

Lana has been recovered, though she's shaken and not talking to anyone about the experience.

"I just want to go home."

The construction workers are all rounded up and they are all fine -- oblivious to the fighting other than the mess and the noise.

Repairs are underway.

You have to decide what you're going to do with your prisoners.

[Starsign]

Scavenger carries the shaken Lana, holding her tightly in his scrawny arms. He asks Fate, "How much is the security set up here?" His tone was a mixture of slight anger and annoyance. "I had hoped that this place would be suitable for Lana and me to stay in, but I see that, at least for now, this is no place for her to stay." He wasn't too happy with what happened today. "I'm not sure if home is best for her either, seeing how someone already knows about us. Is there a better place for her?"

[bladesmith]

"There are a lot of security measures that either haven't been built yet, or haven't been activated on account of having workers walking all over the place."

Fate keeps his facial expression cool, but his voice betrays that he is nearly as frustrated with the current situation as Daryl is.

"Until the point when all security measures are in place, if you want, you can have my apartment..." Ethan digs a set of keys from his pocket. "It isn't much, and it doesn't have more then the normal security measures, but its out of the way. Either that, or I think Wormhole might be able to put you up in his personal HQ, but you would have to ask him. If neither of those is satisfactory, let me know what you need, and I'll set something up."

[EdroGrimshell]

"You could stay with me, my house is big enough and I can set up a panic room easily enough," Jess says, "and it's a nice neighborhood so no one would expect you there. I could even pass Lana off as a niece or other relative. And the fact the entire house is soundproof, fire retardant, and has a few escape tunnels should help a bit."

[Starsign]

"The safer the place, the better," Scavenger responded, sounding calmer now. "I feel that none of us will have a safe place in our homes... But I suppose I'll have to make do." He turns to Data. "When you can, you can show me it, preferably soon." He put on a small smile while holding Lana carefully. "I think it's the best thing for Lana. I will be watching from a distance though, so make sure she's safe there."

[EdroGrimshell]

Jess nods, "When not on the job just call me Jess," she says, "And once everything is cleaned up here we can go take a look. You can come in the house too if you'd like, no need to keep your distance."

[bladesmith]

"Well then, that sounds like a good arrangement. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to try and talk to those nice people that were shooting at us earlier. If you need anything, just ask."

So Fate left Jess and Daryl to their planning. Really, he was just hoping that Scavenger would stay on the team. It wasn't as if their was a long line of mostly altruistic heroes waiting outside his door, after all.
So, in the end, he arrived at Eyepatch's holding cell in a rather exasperated mood. Well, slightly frustrated, at the very least. Then again, the rest of the team had proven their worth, and captured five dangerous criminals. Not bad for a day's work. So Ethan wasn't really all that upset as he pulled up a chair outside the ex-spook's cell, along with anyone that wanted to come with, and waited for him to wake up.

[SuperCracker]

Aegis was already there when Fate arrived. From what everyone had been saying, they had the clean up all under control. So Aegis, being the guy that he is, wanted to look his attackers eye to eye. He had strong words for them when they woke up; and he hoped they would tell him a little story... about who wants to destroy the Exemplars before they even get started.

He glanced over to Fate when he walked in.

"What it is, boss man? I bet you prolly wanna have some words with these fools. And you ain't alone."

He cracked his knuckles, still kind of pissed off from being jumped.

"We never got to the point a' sayin' whether we're in or not, huh? Well, after this s*** here... I'm in. I'm all in."

[bladesmith]

"Yup. Gonna have some nice words with the people that just tried to kill us. Or maim, or capture. Whatever they were after."

Fate sat down in the corridor almost wearily, sizing up Aegis. The kid had guts, power, and his heart in the right place. Hearing him unreservedly sign on with the Exemplars more then overcame any discouragement from having Scavenger and Lana frustrated at him. This thing would work. Ethan would make it so. Fate smiled back up at Tim.

"Awesome. Glad to have you aboard, Tim." Ethan offered his hand to Aegis, though a quick thought passed through that had to be said. "I'd like to ask a favor of you, though. From here on out, we try and consider all the options before resorting to typical superhero violence. Having a good heart isn't always enough to keep you on the good guy side of the line when people are manipulating you. Always look at how your actions affect every single person, and always be ready to consider an alternative to face-punching, because that usually only solves things for a little while. Having unconcious bad guys carted off to jail is not the ideal ending to every battle. If you can try and do that, I think this will work out beautifully.

[SuperCracker]

Tim reached out and took Ethan's hand and gave it a firm shake. He had enough control of his strength not to shatter the team leader’s fingers. His grin faded a bit when Ethan laid down some wisdom on him. He listened thoughtfully and nodded to the far more experienced hero. The next time Tim spoke, it was quieter, a bit less cocky and a bit more thoughtful.

“Uh.. yeah. I’m really more about savin’ lives than I am slingin’ a beat down, but I get it. I’ll try and refrain from hittin’ people until I kinda figure out what’s goin’ on.”

He paused for a moment, and then grinned again.

“But if ya ever do want me to punch somebody… just know that I’m really damn good at it.”

[bladesmith]

"Excellent. The effort is all I'm asking for. Besides, things tend to devolve fast enough that saving lives by punching faces is probably what we'll end up doing anyways."

Ethan's tone got notably lighter now that he had all that business out of the way. Actually, now that he thought about it, when did he get to be the Obi-Wan wise old man guy? Seriously, next thing he knew, he would need to build a lightsaber or something. Either way, they were wasting daylight, and there were people to talk to. Eyepatch had seemed like the leader, so best to talk to him.

"Either way, we're not getting anywhere standing out here." Fate said as he walked over to the proper cell, bracing himself against a surprise attack as he worked the lock open. "Lets see how our guest is doing."

Total defense as I open the door, just in case Eyepatch is going to try something daring.

[EclecticGuru]

(Edit: I need to learn how to read)

Eyepatch approaches the edge of his cell, peering at Fate through the doorway.

"What do I need to give you in order for you to release us? And assuming I can provide it; what can you possibly say or do to make me think you'll keep your end of the bargain after I give you what you want?"

[SuperCracker]

Tim moved up beside Ethan as he started to open up the door. He stood beside him, ready to get in the way of any attacks that might come at him. Eyepatch came up and spoke. Tim narrowed his eyes at him.

“How ‘bout startin’ with who sent ya.”

As for what they could say or do to convince him of their trustworthiness, well, he didn’t have any specific thing to point to. He shook his head.

“First of all, we ain’t got no bargain yet… but I for one don’t go back on my word. And I’m willin’ to wager that boss man here’s the same way.”

[bladesmith]

Good. The man was direct, pointed, and seemed reasonable. This could go well.
Or not. There was that possibility.

"As the man says, it would be interesting to know who would send a squad of ex-CIA spooks to my doorstep would be rather interesting, but given the free-thinking reputation of your team, I give it at least even odds that you sent yourselves. On the other hand, my priorities lie in the why and wherefore of the issue. There are plenty of other superteams with a lot more reasons to have enemies that don't have to deal with a hit squad on their first day. So, why the hit on us? Now, you could try and tell me that you don't know why someone else sent you, but you seem smarter then that. You aren't a simple pawn."

Ethan paused a moment to let all that he had said sink in. Hopefully, that would give Eyepatch something to think about.

"As for assurances of trustworthiness, I am open to suggestions. I strive to live without deceit, as my friend behind me does, but simple words will probably not be enough for you. So, here is my proposal: you tell me who sent your team, and why. When that has been answered to my satisfaction, I turn you and your stolen weapons over to UNIT. I'm sure that one such as yourself can negotiate information on the weapon dealers for leniency. I also provide the clause that if there was a legitimate reason for your attack, and no innocents were harmed in its accomplishment, we can negotiate terms of freedom without government interference. In answer, you may specify what you wish as assurance of our compliance, barring actions myself and my team find overly distasteful. How does that sound to you?"

Hopefully it sounded good enough to the merc, because it was starting to sound like a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo to Fate. Either he'd been hanging out with to many lawyers lately, or this hero team paperwork was beginning to get to him. Ah well. That was probably the way CIA guys liked it. Overcomplicated.

[EclecticGuru]

Eyepatch nods.

"You're sharp, Fate Accompli. You're definitely sharp. I can tell this isn't your first rodeo, that's for sure.

"I can't tell you who hired us, but I can give you some bank transfer codes, and you can try to persuade the Swiss Bank in question to give you information on its clients, if you want. Somehow, I doubt it will be all that easy. There are a lot of powerful people who have an interest in remaining anonymous. But you know that, obviously.

"I can tell you that we weren't hired to kill you. Capture you, hold you, and then release you. I can only assume someone wanted you out of the way, or distracted. And probably only for a short period of time. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if there was a second team with the actual important mission that has already finished its job.

"Sure, its a blow to my ego to pick up a job where we're obviously just the diversion, but they paid so very very well.

"Anything else I can help you with?"

[DaedalusMkV]

Wormhole speaks up from a place in the corner; how he got there and how long he's been standing there is another case entirely. It's disturbingly difficult to keep track of a guy that doesn't feel the need to bother with the entire line between points A and B. He now has his full array of equipment strapped to his military-style combat harness, a shotgun, ammunition and a large array of grenades standing out. "Ahem. Sorry to interrupt. I've set the alarms and locked the doors. We should be nice and secure in here for the time being. No need to worry about their arms dealers, hey? I've already got that locked down, a Russian bunch that raids their leakier munitions warehouses every once in a while. I doubt they'll get into too much trouble with UNIT anyways; their kit was all designed to be non-lethal and we're technically an illegal organization, after all." It's more of an attempt to put the merc at ease than his honest opinion, but it's probably true nonetheless. He turns to Eyepatch. "I'll take those account numbers anyways. I've got some friends in the accounting world that specialize in picking apart shell companies, and it doesn't hurt to check." Once he has the numbers, Wormhole quiets down again. Fate seems to be handling this just fine. I'll let him take the lead here, I think.

[EclecticGuru]

Eyepatch turns over the swiss bank numbers to Wormhole, he's apparently got a very good memory for such things, or maybe he's just BS'ing you.

"So are you going to bring us to UNIT or will they be picking us up here?"

[Starsign]

Scavenger came up to where Eyepatch was being held. Lana was left with Data for the moment. "Where did you get info about us? I notice you tried nothing of lethality on me, most foes prefer to fire on their munitions and explosives." The zombie crossed his arms in waiting for a response. "Who would know about us to hire you and give such info?"

[EclecticGuru]

"Sometimes we work for people who prefer to stay anonymous. And we're fine with that, as long as they pay. And these people paid well. All I know about them is their numbered account. You'll have to take it up with the bank."

[Starsign]

"We're not going to find anything about them that way," Scavenger commented with annoyance. "What info did you receive about us? More specifically, me?" He was both curious and worried of his question.

[EclecticGuru]

"Your name, background, a list of known powers and suspected powers, and suggested weaknesses to exploit. How's Lana doing, anyway?"

[Starsign]

Scavenger turned away from Eyepatch, not wanting to give a direct response to that. "I'm guessing that last one isn't a causal question." He changed the subject again. "What are the powers you know about me, and what is suspected of me?"

[EclecticGuru]

"You're not the first zombie we've fought you know. There was an outbreak before the Y2K in Costa Rosa. We were on the ground there."

[Starsign]

"I think I heard that one in passing some time ago," Scavenger turns back to Eyepatch. "Undead come in many different types, how would those have been different from me?" After getting his answer he then asked, "Your all worried I might cause a zombie plague or something?"

[SuperCracker]

“Yeah.. you go from stoppin’ zombie outbreaks to tryin’ to attack people for no good god**** reason. Ya’ll are real pieces of work, lemme tell ya.”

He folded his arms and just watched. He didn’t have much else to ask, because it seems they weren’t willing to tell a whole lot other than the bank accounts.

[EclecticGuru]

Eyepatch considered Scavenger's question. "I don't know. Should we be worried?"

[Starsign]

Scavenger's eyebrow, or whatever there was of it, raised slightly. "That's a rhetorical question isn't it? You seem to be implying something." The zombie was now considering why exactly these mercenaries were hired. "I have no intentions of spreading a disease that I'd earn nothing from; and even if I did, I'd be sacrificing so much else from myself and everyone." His own eyes locked Eyepatch's.

[EclecticGuru]

"The zombie doth protest too much, methinks."

[Starsign]

Scavenger now thought the mercenary was toying with him. "So I'm not a normal zombie. I'm sentient, care about humans of which I was one, don't need anything to sustain myself, do not like other undead, and does not fall to a few hundred gatling shots." He pretends to dust himself off confidently. "I do presume you read about that incident of that last accomplishment of mine."

Might as well make a Noodle Incident here as a nod to his nigh-invulnerability, go ahead and play along with it Guru :smalltongue:

[bladesmith]

And Fate knew that the merc was toying with Daryl. This was going nowhere fast. Time to get things back on track. Besides, Ethan was pretty sure that he didn't trust the guy. Practically outright flattery, baiting his teammates, giving them just enough information to keep them running in circles while he and his team disappeared from the face of the earth... It was all to planned out and convenient. Fate began carefully analyzing everything Eyepatch had said, looking for the cues that would point out flaws in his story.

"If you two are quite finished... We'll drop you guys off at UNIT, but I don't think we're ready for that quite yet. You see, that seems to be far less then you should actually know. After all, if you were to let your clients remain anonymous, you wouldn't be able to handle it very well when one of them inevitably turns on you. This whole process can be greatly expedited if you were to dig through your brain for anything else that might help us."

Sense Motive on everything said before: [roll0]
Sense Motive for everything said after: [roll1]

[EclecticGuru]

"I sincerely can't help you any more than that, I'm afraid."

(For Fate)
You think he's holding back, a little.

[EclecticGuru]

(I am going to assume this is the end of the interrogation.)

[bladesmith]

"Well then, it seems that this conversation has hit a dead end. I'll be calling UNIT to let them know that we are coming. Alright then, team, a word before we leave?"

Backpedaling slowly, Fate beckons to the other Exemplars as he walks further back up the corridor. Assuming everyone follows him(parting shot at Eyepatch or not), he'll stop well out of earshot of the holding cells.

"Alright then guys, here's the current plan. He's holding something back, but it would take far to long, and require to many unpleasant techniques to make him tell us about it, so UNIT can have him. I'm going to get suited up and call UNIT. Wormhole, can you help me move them to UNIT headquarters? Aegis, Data, Scavenger? I want to know what this might have been a diversion for. So, watch the news for events, and look over the base for bugs. Anything you can think of that someone might want us not looking at for a moment. If you find anything while Wormhole and I are out, call us with the HQ communications system. I think its up and running." Ethan straightens up a little more, running a hand through his hair, which failed to affect the spiky mess of dirty blonde fibers. Any frustration or nervousness hid safely behind a cool, small smile. "Did I miss anything?"

[EdroGrimshell]

"I should be able to interface with any bugs in the system, just give me a minute to spread my nanites out," Jess says, before doing exactly that, a silver sheen in the air that races out along the walls and reporting anything she finds as she goes, taking a brief moment to mark an X wherever she finds a bug or other device used for spying.

[EclecticGuru]

Power check for Data to discover any hidden bugs or whatever.
[roll0]


Data fans out the nanites, but discovers no bugs or other mysterious devices of enigmatic origin.

[EdroGrimshell]

Power Check: [roll0]

[DaedalusMkV]

Wormhole shakes his head. "No can do, Fate. Unfortunately, I need to be able to visualize my destination to do a really precise portal and I've never been to UNIT HQ. I can head over there and have a little chat with them first, then come back and bring these guys over, but it'll take me a little while to get there since I can't take the direct route." He turns around, and looks like he might leave for a moment, then reconsiders. "Unless you want to come with me?"

[Starsign]

"I'll go search around too," Scavenger responded to Fate as he takes another search around for anything that might have been found here. "If we're lucky we'll find something. That's the best I can hope for at least..." The zombie uses his senses to trace anything and everything in the base for what he may find.

Gonna search around the base with all my senses (Darkvision, Infravision, Scent, Magical Awareness, as useless as they'll likely all be :smalltongue:) Did I pick up anything?

[EclecticGuru]

Scavenger doesn't find any current threats in the headquarters.

[EclecticGuru]

(Is anyone going to UNIT HQ with Wormhole?)

[EdroGrimshell]

"There are no bugs that i can tell," Jess reports, "Scavenger, how about checking out my place now? With Aegis, Fate, and Wormhole to take care of them there should be little trouble with the mercs."

[bladesmith]

"Actually, I would like to come with you. This could be a good chance to establish a rapport with UNIT, and I probably shouldn't pass that up. Let me grab my stuff."

Fate turned to leave, then stopped and regarded the others. As far as first days went for super teams, this had been a rough one. Assassin teams, CIA kil orders, and stolen alien weaponry. Oh my. Everyone had held up exceptionally well, though, and only reinforced his reasoning for asking them to join. Whether they wanted to or not anymore... Well, that was their choice. On the other hand, he'd been asking a lot of them already. Probably best to remind them that they didn't actually have to listen to him.

"I do want everyone to remember, that you guys aren't actually obligated to do anything. I mean, the cooperation is great, but I'm not the boss here. If you guys want to leave, and think the Exemplars aren't what you want to do, that is perfectly understandable. If you still want in, though, you all have a place here. I've seen the records, and I've seen you work today, and I am confident that if we stick together we will accomplish more good then any super team currently out there. Because we are just that awesome."

He ended with a smile at the others then swept off to retrieve the rest of his equipment.

Sorry about the several days without posts. Longest week EVAR. Shouldn't happen again.

[SuperCracker]

"I'm in it to win it, boss-man. I can come with ya'll or stick around and watch these bozos. It's up to you."

He said, grinning a little bit and folding his arms.

(Sorry, just don't have much for Tim to do right now other than watch the prisoners or something.)

[Starsign]

Scavenger nodded at Fate. "I've got no intentions of leaving. Helping others is what I live for." He seemed pretty confident as he turned to Data. "Let's go before it gets dark then... Unless you think it would be better to do it at night. I'd like Lana to a safe place as soon as possible." He did turn to Fate first. "You think you can do us a favor and figure out where the mercs got our dossiers? And of how accurate they are?" He then turned to Data and began to leave with her.

[EdroGrimshell]

"I can probably find those files on us, you'd be amazed what you can find on the internet, though accuracy varies greatly," Jess replies before creating that same board she had used to get here, only slightly larger, "hop on, and hold on tight," she says with the barest of smiles, "I'll be taking us the edge of the neighborhood so we'll have to walk a bit, about ten to fifteen minutes after we land."

[DaedalusMkV]

While Fate is gone, Wormhole pulls a cell phone out of his pocket and quickly makes a phone call. "Hey, Jim? It's Richard here, how's it going? A boy you said? Great! Well, I've got an account for you to run down when you've got some time, the usual deal." He repeats the information given to him by Beard. "Yeah, and say hi to Miranda for me. You'll have to give me a call when the kid's born. Alright, have yourself a nice day." He hangs up, returning the phone to its place, then announces to anyone still around, "The accountant I mentioned. Nice guy, Jim, just got married six weeks ago. He'll get back to us on that account if he finds anything. In the mean time, I can give you guys a boost back to the city. What's your address?"

Another Gather Information. I don't think the results of this one would come in for a couple of in-game days.

[roll0]

[EdroGrimshell]

"That would actually be a lot easier, though trying to actually disguise our arrival would be a little harder. I live at 19 Park Ave in the residential district, about 5 or 6 minutes from here by my board," Jessica says indicating the nanite construct.

[DaedalusMkV]

Wormhole nods. "Sure. I can get you to Birch Street, so you'll only have a few minutes walking time. Here." He snaps his fingers, and a large, wood-panelled door opens... From a blank, featureless concrete wall. On the other side of the door is pavement and the unmistakable sight of appartment buildings rising up into the air. "Go on through, your destination's an alley so I doubt anyone will be watching, and if they are you're coming out pretty close to a real door. Good luck with your work; we'll see you guys back here soon."

[EdroGrimshell]

Jess gives a nod of thanks and looks to see if Lana and Daryl were following. Before actually going through the door she gained a thoughtful look, "Richard, it may be a good idea for you to stop by later as well, we could use the basement of my house as an emergency base if this one is ever breached, as i said before I use it as a research lab so it's fairly well reinforced and has hidden exits and enterances." She then turns back to the "door" and walks through.

[Starsign]

Daryl follows Data through the "door." He held Lana in his arms carefully. "Take care of yourselves now," he mentions to Wormhole and Aegis as he left with Data.

[EclecticGuru]

(If you guys are ready, there's a scene I'd like to play with the UNIT guys and then that will end the issue and you get XP and what not. Also, while the UNIT stuff is going on, is there anything those of you who aren't involved want me to play out with you all so you're not left out?)

[SuperCracker]

((I can't think of anything. He's staying behind with the prisoners to make sure someone's there to watch them. He might talk to one or two of them, but nothing of any plot substance, so you can skip it if you like.))

[Starsign]

Not much for me unless Erdo has something in mind.

[EdroGrimshell]

Nope, showing the house would be something rather boring to play out. Though i will say this, I'm going to see about getting Lana into a school so that she can make some friends and so she won't be left alone when we have to go hero-ing. It'd also help with the adoptive mother/father role that Jessica and Daryl fill out.

[DaedalusMkV]

Yeah, I'm ready to move on to UNIT. I was really just waiting for Fate to get his gear so we could move out.

Since I can't go directly to UNIT HQ, I'm going to have to do this in leaps and bounds. I'll use my Long Range teleport to go to whichever major city is closest to our destination (I've been to most major cities in North America and Europe for business purposes), then use Long-Ranged Teleports to basically teleport to the horizon every six seconds until we reach our destination. The effective speed of this is somewhere near 10,000 kilometers per hour- damned fast. I can bring Fate along with me by holding his hand while I go, or by making Portals instead of normal teleportation.

Edit: Wow, activity.
Regarding school for Lana, you can consider Richard something akin to the eccentric rich uncle of the configuration. Feel free to go for some sort of fancy private school; he's got the money to pay. Also, despite what this first module may have suggested about the security of our HQ, it's actually nearly impossible to infiltrate for anyone but high-end supervillains and should get even harder to break into as we work together to upgrade it.

[EclecticGuru]

UNIT Headquarters, on Governors Island in New York City.

Towering over the rest of the island is a building that is styled like a post-modern keep, and which watches protectively over the city. Built from steel reinforced concrete and patrolled by UNIT agents and unmanned drones, there is little doubt of the power projected by this organization.

The signs are in English and French, and remind you that UNIT is an international organization, even based out of the United States as it is.

It doesn't take long for Fate and Wormhole to get an audience with one of UNIT's superhero task force liaisons.

"Hello, I'm Agent Hill, I hear you've got a problem with some prisoners?"

Agent Hill's office was obviously not his permanent station, it was generic, with no personal items to mark it as his own. The desk and chairs, like everything else here, were built to military specs, solid, simple, utilitarian. Agent Hill himself is a well-spoken middle aged man in very good shape.

[bladesmith]

"Agent Hill, good to meet you. Ethan Hawke."

Fate extends a hand to the UNIT agent before he sits down. He is now in full Fate Accompli regalia, with a small, close fitting pack over his back, and the Spectral Shotgun by his side. The weapon itself does not look much different from the WWII trench gun that serves as the base, but close examination might reveal the runes that scribe the length of the barrel, action, and worn walnut forend.
Trying to pick his words carefully, Ethan leaned towards Agent Hill, his voice clear and concise.

"Yes, we were hoping that you could take them off our hands. They attacked myself and several of my friends, breaking into a personal facility to do it. While that might not seem UNIT worthy, we believe them to be rogue CIA agents, equipped with stolen Russian anti-super weapons. I think that might be worthy of your attention."

[DaedalusMkV]

Wormhole speaks up, hoping to clarify his comrade's statement. "The weapons were stolen from Russia, but they were definitely captured Ytaran equipment. Jailing criminals really isn't what we want, and we'd much rather that they're handled by the proper authorities. Of course, we'll be happy to turn over the alien weaponry as well." He shrugs. "We can have the lot of them turned over to you in five minutes, no fuss at all."

[EclecticGuru]

"Unfortunately," Agent Hill begins, "It's not going to be as simple as a 5-minute drop-off. We've got a lot of documentation to file, statements need to be made, and so on and so forth."

He takes a sip of water from a little plastic bottle. "If it were up to me, I'd just take custody of them, no questions asked, but there's a bureaucracy in place that is designed to make sure we don't abuse our power."

He adjusts his seat a bit, trying to make it a little more comfortable. "We can streamline the whole process for future events, and even see about collaborating on your security as well as any paranormal threats you get involved in if you'd like. I can open up a file for your team, set up an official liaison relationship where you'll always have someone to advise you and assist in matters of jurisdiction. If you think it would be helpful."

[bladesmith]

Ethan thought that out for a moment before responding. On the one hand, he was wary of trading paperwork with a government organization. It felt counterproductive to the original purpose of the Exemplars: to stay clear of government entanglements, and keep a group of heroes unbiased by political agendas. On the other hand, UNIT was trying to do the same thing(on some level), and inter-agency cooperation would be vital to making the group seem legitimate to the public. That, and he needed UNIT. He wasn't setting up the Exemplars as a puppet authority or anything, and they had no call to play judge. For many of their probable opponents, turning them in to UNIT would achieve a best possible result.

"Alright, then. Bring on the paperwork. I'm sure we can work something out." Fate smiled at Agent Hill, his gaze calm and confident. After all, this could have gone far worse.

[EclecticGuru]

Moving Day Wrap-Up Scene:

Darkness. A single light in the darkness, illuminating a desk. On the desk is a paper note.

"The Exemplars, based out of Bay City, have accepted a formal liaison relationship with UNIT. UNIT will advise, monitor, and assist the Exemplars. Expect future reports from Agent Hill, who has been assigned as their liaison. It has yet to be determined if the Exemplars are a threat to our agenda; however, their willingness to work alongside UNIT indicates a general willingness to maintain the current world order.

"The Exemplars are still on our priority surveillance list, but thanks to their current partnership, we moving them down to threat status yellow."

(And thus ends Issue 1 of exemplars. Everyone gets 1 PP to spend.)

[EclecticGuru]

(Issue #2 starts soon, stay tuned)

[EclecticGuru]

Issue #2

A Whole New World

The cover shows a world map with red flag pins in several strategic points. Also, according to the cover, this is Exemplars #2, A Whole New World

Inside the cover is an advertisement for Iron Cross, a first person shooter set in an alternate historical setting, where the nazis are winning the war thanks to their superior supersoldier program. You're america's last hope, a special team of commandos who must disrupt the nazi supersoldier facility, fight various supersoldier "boss" fights, and eventually battle Mecha-Hitler in the end.

On the first page we see Exemplars HQ, located in the side of a mountain just outside Bay City. In fact, in the big scene setting panel, we can see the skyline of Bay City in the background.

The interior of the underground complex has been finished, complete with slick retina scanning style security systems and blast doors. Our heroes have gathered in what somewhat call the Hall of Justice, but others might just refer to it as a conference room. Dominating the table is a map with some red flags on it. Also on the table are some file folders that are labeled.


Cosa Rosa
Humanitarian Aid Workers Kidnapped
UN Humanitarian Aid workers in a small village in the jungle of Cosa Rosa have been kidnapped by communist rebel forces and are being held for ransom.

Malonesia
Tsunami Recovery and Relief Effort
A Tsunami hit the coast of Malonesia and devastated a densely populated coastal region. Food, water, and medical assistance is crucial, as well as the restoration of roads.

Canada
Oil Pipeline Burst and Environmental Disaster
An oil pipeline in the canadian wilderness has burst, and due to muddy conditions, only air travel has been able to reach the scene. Replacement pipeline is too bulky to be lifted in by the light aircraft available so until the winter freezes the ground, the pipeline is likely to be down, and clean-up operations delayed.

Orbit
Shuttle Rescue
An UNTIL shuttle was hit by a mysterious burst of cosmic radiation and has been out of contact for over an hour. Due to bad weather at the launch facility, there is no known timeline on when a rescue mission can be


The heroes have gathered to decide what their first official team mission will be! Fate called everyone to meet in order to figure everything out as a group!

[EdroGrimshell]

Data looks through the folders with her usual cigarette sticking out of her mouth, "Hm, there's to much to do if we all stick together, and it'd be impractical with all of our different focuses. We'll need to split to put our talents to good use and get these done as fast as possible," she says, not looking up from the folders. Another hum of thought before she continues, "I think i can take the shuttle if Wormhole here can get me there. The hostages require subtlety, stealth, sounds good for you two," she says pointing at Scavenger and Fate, "The oil pipe would require quick transport and heavy muscle so that'd be near perfect for Wormhole and Aegis to take. I'd be able to go there after i finish with the shuttle to clean up the oil. The tsunami relief has no immediate chance of casulties and it'd be better if we're all there for that so we'd meet up there after finishing our respective missions to help clean the place up. Any objections to that arrangement?"

I'm also hoping to use Master Plan to help everyone out in their respective encounters so i'll roll the Int check now and try to get it in the next few posts.
Int Check: [roll0]

[DaedalusMkV]

Richard listens through Data's plan with a smile on his face. Wow, she sure is energetic. After she's done he clears his throat and stands up. "As much as I like the idea of trying to solve all of these problems, I think we need to focus a little bit more. Frankly, I don't think there's much we can do for the tsunami relief. That's a job for aid workers, doctors and volunteers, not superheroes. All we'll do there is get bogged down trying to help a handful of people while jobs that normal people can't do go undone. I'll try to help set up an aid group over in Port Verdant, maybe see if I can't spare one of my ships to bring some supplies over, if that helps your conscience any. The rest, though..." He nods, considering her plan. "I'll agree, getting Fate and Scavenger on the ground in Cosa Rosa is probably our best bet for dealing with the hostage situation, and Aegis and I are probably a good team for dealing with the pipeline break; between us we can trasport the equipment and people needed to fix the problem without needing to rely on air transport." At this point, his smile turns into a frown. "The space shuttle's going to be a much bigger issue, though. I've never been on that particular shuttle, and I'd need to have access to a solid video feed, or a day or two with an extensive set of photographs, to get us inside of it. Since the communication blackout ruins that, the only way I'll be able to get anyone up there is if someone lends me a really big telescope, and that'll only get them to the outside of the shuttle. Hell, I'm not even sure how good an idea that is. I've never tried opening a Door to vacuum, but I doubt it'll be very pleasant for anyone. If anything goes wrong, you could easily wind up missing the shuttle and drifting out into nowhere." He looks around, then asks, "Unless someone has another idea for getting me a really good look inside that shuttle?"

[SuperCracker]

Aegis found himself disagreeing with Wormhole, at least on the idea that they shouldn't try to solve the Tsunami problem.

"Well yeah it's a job for aid workers and all that kinda stuff… but if we've got all these other things covered, why can't we help out? I see lots a' folks needin' help, and if all I can do is help lay some concrete or give 'em some canned food, why not?"

Light bulb.

"Canned food drive! Holy s***. We can put out some awareness for this thing, get people more involved with donations and stuff. Ya'll can't argue with me there."

As for which mission he should take on, he agreed with Data. The second the mission summary mentioned something bulky, he figured he was all over that one. And like Fate had said, it was more than Tim just punching bad-guys.

"Me and Wormhole'll be a hell of a team on this one. Besides… I used to do construction."

He gave a good-natured, lopsided grin.

He stayed quiet as to the shuttle… he had no idea how he could help at all with that problem.

[EdroGrimshell]

"I can convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, and i can make a suit for brief times in space if necessary. The other problem though... hm, may be a stretch but i may be able to use my nanites to puild a small shuttle to get me up there, but it'd take at least a day of studying standard shuttle engines and how to downsize them without skimping efficiency. Hm, we could just ask NASA for some of the videos prior to the blackout, we'd need to see those anyway to get a layout and see if anything occured before the black out so we can prepare for anything unusual..." she takes a moment to turn her current cigarette, now down to just the filter, into air then pulls out another and lights it, "...I could always see about hacking into the onboard computer, i'd just need a few hours to build something strong enough to recieve even the minutest signals from the place and amplify, we could get a live feed that way. Though i'd prefer not to hack into government funded technology this may be important. What do you think?" she asks after tossing a few ideas around, mainly just thinking out loud and bouncing ideas off everyone.

[Starsign]

Scavenger quietly thought to himself for a bit before chiming in. "Aegis is right, we're here to help people, no matter what the situation. Me and Aegis will go by ourselves there if we must," he give a small smile at Aegis. "I can take care of the situation at Cosa Rosa fine if Fate will come. Brute force there will only endanger the hostages." He then turns to Data with a worrying look. "The shuttle however seems too dangerous for one human. Data you should hold it off until me and Fate are done with saving the hostages, then we can go to the shuttle together. The radiation and empty space won't hinder me in any way." He spoke in a confident tone.

[bladesmith]

"Used to, Tim?"

Fate inquired quietly, making a note to talk to Aegis later about that. Still, multitasking was pretty easy for Ethan, as he listened to ideas being batted back and forth, and he began flipping through that folder about the shuttle for any information that could prove helpful after that difficulty was mentioned. Things were starting to settle down now, so he chimed in.

"As I see it, right now we can fix the situations in Cosa Rosa and Canada. Scavenger and I can deal with the kidnappers in Cosa Rosa. That shouldn't be hard at all. Wormhole, Aegis, and Data can fix up the oil pipeline quickly, so I suggest you guys go up there. Before you do, though, we should get in contact with NASA and UNIT, and get as much information as we can. If there is a way to get a feed so that teleporting will work, excellent. Otherwise, we'll have to build or borrow a spaceship, find someone with the long-range ESP to do the job that we can trust, or something. That sound acceptable to everyone?"

[SuperCracker]

"That sound acceptable to everyone?" Fate had asked.

Aegis nodded and flashed a grin to Fate.

"Hell yeah. I'm in it to win it. Plus, I'm gonna get to give these new threads a shot. Supposed to stay intact for a bit longer than two seconds like my regular stuff."

He stood up and grinned, offering a fist-bump to Wormhole.

"Let's show 'em what mutants got, right?"

And he went off to get changed into his super-hero outfit… now more than just the red headband (though it's still part of the ensemble).

[EclecticGuru]

(UNTIL=UNIT, got my cheesy U.N. agency acronyms mixed up)

[Starsign]

Scavenger nodded to Fate, "Fine by me. I'll get set and then we'll hurry off." He goes to change into his own costume, how which is also more durable than street clothes. "Data I hope you're right when you say it's a self-regenerating jumpsuit. I'd rather not end up fighting with the lack of clothing because a fire ruined all of it," he mentions to her before leaving. the zombie had stuck with simple clothing before, and it usually never lasted, especially with that once incident involving the over-zealous, Gatling-wielding man.

[EdroGrimshell]

Data goes into a thinking pose, then you can practically see the lightbulb go off, "I have an idea, just give me a few minutes and i can have a ship up and ready. Of course i'll wait until after the oil clean up but i know how to get up to the shuttle now."

[DaedalusMkV]

Wormhole nods. "Well, I suppose it's settled then. Give me a minute to pick up some of my gear and I'll get ready to set us all on our way. Just call me up when you need your ride back, Fate, and I'll do my best to get to you. I can't send anyone directly to their destination, but I should at least be able to get you close to where the kidnappings occurred. Aegis, Data, we'll be starting in Calgary to meet up with the oil company that owns the pipeline, then hopping our way to get the job done. It can be a little bit... Disorienting to keep up with me, but there's no faster way to travel." With that, he teleports himself down to the armoury to pick up his shotgun (just in case) and a small assortment of other gear before returning to the meeting room to meet up with the other Exemplars.

[SuperCracker]

He got dressed in his shiny new superhero outfit. Tight black material that covered his legs down to the ankle, his arms down to the wrist, and stopped at his neckline. Blue lines races down his arms and legs ((similar to Havok in the X-Men)) and a golden shield with blue trim rested in the center of his chest. He tied his tattered headband around his forehead, slapped on some black shoes, and he was ready to roll. He wasn't used to such form-fitting clothing (he normally wears baggier garments when he's out on his own), so he stretched out in it a little bit as he came out to meet Data and Wormhole.

"How's it lookin', ya'll?"

[Starsign]

Scavenger came out shortly after Aegis. He was wearing something much simpler. It was a black jumpsuit made of nanites Data created... At least from what the zombie knows. The jumpsuit had slightly lighter lines more for style than anything. It was notably thin like a tank-top more so than jeans or a sweater, and covered Scavenger completely except for the head, hands, and feet. The jumpsuit really showed how scrawny Scavenger was compared to everyone else, Aegis especially.

The zombie noted his friend's suit. "You certainly don't lack in the "shoot me I am a hero" aspect," he was almost tempted to give off a chuckle. It was good fun though, Aegis was probably preferring to be the one getting shot over one of his friends or a civilian. "This is self-regenerating clothing, right Data?" He wanted to be sure, last thing he wanted was to end up a lack of clothing in the open.

[EdroGrimshell]

Data sighed, "Yes it is, my suit is made of the same stuff, only with a different color. I've been in enough situations where i had holes in my clothing that were rather embarrasing so this was meant to counter that problem."

[EclecticGuru]

NASA and UNIT give you the specs on the shuttle (the non-classified version of the specs anyway) and unfortunately the shuttle and several satellites detected a strange burst of radiation from deep space before everyone lost contact with the shuttle. Ground tracking services show the shuttle is still in orbit, but it has not responded to any attempts to contact it.

Bogena Airport, Cosa Rosa

A portal opens up in the airport bathroom, which was the best that Wormhole could manage.

Scavenger and Fate exit the stall together. The two heroes are in the capital city of Cosa Rosa.

Agent Hill has suggested you check in with the UNIT field office in the city to get any more information. Alternatively, you may approach the Cosa Rosan government directly.

Calgary, Canada

Wormhole's second portal opens up directly in the shadow of the TransCanada Tower, the headquarters of the TransCanada Corporation who are the owners/operators of the pipeline.

The heroes have a google map of the location of the damaged pipeline which is the northern part of Alberta, and could head their "directly", or they could go into TransCanada Tower and try to get more information or coordinate repair efforts therein.

[EdroGrimshell]

Data steps out of the portal and looks around, "so, go straight to the site or talk to the officials?" she asks, her new outfit a simple dark blue suit with lightly glowing blue ciruit markings and a similarly colored helmet that looked like a hybrid between a mortorcycle helmet and those visors used by some heroes. It made her look like a character right out of Tron really.

[Starsign]

Scavenger exits in his jumpsuit with Fate. As washroom wasn't the most... Acceptable of places, but it would have to do. "So," he turns to Fate, "what is our plan? I would more likely terrify the government and the field office if we went together, and you would be better off doing the negotiations. You might have an idea for what I shall do?"

[SuperCracker]

"Man… I don't feel like talkin' to no suits, but maybe they got the replacement parts we need, ya know… Well, the big ones anyway. I know you can make most of the stuff yourself."

He says to Data.

"Though it might be nice to know what they know… in case there's anythin' we missed out on. I don't wanna leave a job half-done, ya know?"

[bladesmith]

"Let's try UNIT first. In a small country, they might be more organized than the Government."

Fate said as he made his way towards the bathroom door. His signature weapon was tucked away in a gun sock that hung over his back, along with his equipment bag. Other then that, and his face being left uncovered, the rest of his uniform was in place. Heh, this first part might be the most interesting. Looking over his shoulder at Daryl, his smiled as he reached for the door handle.

"First, though, we should try to make it through the airport without being mistaken for criminals. How low of a profile do you think you can manage?"

[Starsign]

Scavenger nodded at Fate, "I can do what I can, but you'll more likely do a better job than me. I'll wait for a minute or two then catch up to you. I'd rather not have a panic bring us both down if it comes to that." He stayed beside the door as if waiting for Fate to go.

[bladesmith]

"Eh, no big deal. Just let me check out the situation, and we'll take it from there. Back in a moment."

Fading quickly out of sight, Ethan took a moment to invisibly step through the door and assess the general layout of the airport.

[DaedalusMkV]

"It's their pipeline, and they're the ones with the parts and personnel to fix it. I don't think we can avoid talking with them, Aegis. Still, I'll try to make this fast. I'd like to get working on that space shuttle incident before it's too late." This said, Wormhole walks through the front door of the tower and heads for the receptionist or security guard on duty, nonchalant despite carrying a small arsenal on his person and generally looking more like a paramilitary soldier than a superhero. "Hi. We're superheroes, here to help out with the pipeline leak up north. We'd like to have a quick word with a TransCanada rep about how we can help fix the problem, if you don't mind? If they ask, we're the Exemplars."

Knowledge (Business): What do I know about TransCanada, and what's the best way to deal with them? [roll0]
Diplomacy: Trying to get on this person's good side, and preferably convince them that we're honest and that I'm not a terrorist. [roll1]

[EclecticGuru]

Bogena Airport, Cosa Rosa

Fate takes a look around and sees that, besides the fact that the security guys are carrying assault rifles, and that apparently chickens are allowed in the airport, it is set up much like any airport anywhere. It shouldn't be too hard to get out of there without incident, so long as you don't loiter.

TransCanada Tower, Calgary, Canada


Transcanada is a north american power company, which controls many natural gas and oil pipelines -- most in Alberta, but their control stretches into the United States and Mexico. They also construct and operate power plants, mainly those that run on Natural Gas.

Your diplomacy roll moved them from Indifferent to Friendly.

The heroes are allowed in to a first floor conference room where they meet with a PR rep.

"Hello, I'm Craig Addison, a pleasure to meet you all. Exemplars you say? Well, I'm sure we can come up with something you can do to help, though we'd like to make sure the company comes out looking like it is competent enough to solve its own problems."

[EdroGrimshell]

Data takes the initiative in the conversation this time around, "We can get your men there, clean up the oil that has already spilt, and harden the ground so your men can work. We also have Aegis for some extra muscle. We would let your workers do what they're paid to do, we'd just speed up the process a bit. If you'd like to coordinate the efforts with us we can work together to the best effect while you keep control of the situation. Would this be agreeable?"

[SuperCracker]

The company comes out looking like it's competent enough to solve its own problems. That sounded like "screw around for awhile while it gets worse" rather than let the super-heroes take care of it.

"How 'bout we get that oil to stop leakin' before--." Calm down… you get more flies with honey. "Look. The quicker this thang gets taken care of, the less flak ya'll gone catch over the whole thing. Ya'll get to say 'look at us, we ain't BP' and avoid all the politicians getting' in your business. Know what I'm sayin'? Let's just get rollin'."

That's the kind of talk Aegis thinks corporations like to hear, so he's going with that.

[EdroGrimshell]

"I believe it's more that they don't want people to lose faith in the skill of there own companies and come to rely on heroes such as ourselves for everything, Aegis," Data says, "the fact of the matter is that people rely on heroes for disasters, but if we do everything all the time people will become complacent and start to believe heroes will do anything for them, it's something we want to avoid as much as we want to help. Wouldn't you agree Wormhole, Mr. Addison?" she asks the two others in the room, one because she'd like to get his opinion and the other because it concerns him.

[bladesmith]

Fate casually leaned back through the door, becoming easily visible again. He was still smiling confidently. Apparently he thought everything was going to work out fine.

"Alright, it looks good out there. We should be safe as long as we play it cool. Stick with me, and if anyone asks, tell them who we are, and what we are doing. We're heroes, after all." Though I wish I remembered more of my Spanish classes... Ethan thought as he turned the door handle.

[Starsign]

"Act casual then? Alright," Scavenger replies as he follows right behind Fate. He hoped that no one would freak out at his appearance, or else this would get complicated fast.

[bladesmith]

"Awesome."

And with that, Fate pulled the door open and began walking towards the exit. His stride was loose and casual, his hands stayed in sight at his sides. In sum total, he looked about as unsuspicious as a man in a black hat and trenchcoat could look while making his way about an airport.

[EclecticGuru]

TransCanada Tower, Calgary, Canada

"Yes, I think we can definitely use your help. We'd like to make a statement that you volunteered your assistance and we immediately deployed you to the site to help our ground crew with the clean up and containment efforts. We need to get some heavy equipment to the site. If you think you could easily and safely create a runway for heavy cargo jets .. with the stable tarmac and engineering required, that would be the most useful thing you could do for us right now." Addison rambled.

Bogena Airport, Cosa Rosa

Fate and Scavenger make it out of the airport with little disruption. A young boy recognizes Fate, calling him El Destino, and slows them down by asking for an autograph, but beyond that, it is uneventful.

[EdroGrimshell]

"That is fine, we'll just need a bit of time to set things up then we can get your equipment there so your company can handle the rest," Data says.

[Starsign]

Scavenger relaxes slightly as he exits the airport with Fate. "Well that wasn't so bad," he comments, glad he didn't have to be shot for any reason. "Where to now Fate? I worry about going to the government might cause some panic over my form. UNIT might be a little more comfortable, but..." Scavenger was a little cautious with people being terrified over him being a zombie.

[bladesmith]

Fate pulls out a pen, happily giving the exaggerated signature of "Fate Accompli" to the boy before moving onward. As neat as his fame was, and as useful as it could be, he did have a job to do. That, and Scavenger looked uncomfortable in the open.

"UNIT first, then if we have time, or think it would be helpful, we'll go to the government building. Besides, UNIT deals with superheroes all the time. I highly doubt they are going to fret much over your current look."

Now, where to find UNIT HQ? Pulling the file from his pack, he looks to see if there is a map or something. If not, he'll politely ask the next passerby that speaks english for directions.