RaynnVerse: The Revolution IC

[Raynn]

El Peregino & Professor Minotaur

Life Sciences:

Professor Minotaur becomes aware of the degenerative condition inherent in himself, his brother and his half-sister.
He also becomes aware of the time he has left. . . roughly 6 months. . .
He notices that while the genetic material he acquired from the Alpha Centurion is functionally identical to the Centurion it contains strands of Junk DNA that if activated could cause some form of mutation.
He runs these against as many genetic samples as he has access too . . . and on a guess includes one from his highschool lab days, his lab partner Faith Winters . . . The tests indicate that Faith's DNA includes this Junk DNA also. Implying that Clark and Robert are, however distantly, related to Faith in some way, genetically.
Robert simply possesses more of Tauros genetic mutations. The alleles of the gene sequence of these mutations passed on to Robert are recessive in Clark, likely more to do with luck as anything else. Evidently the Tauros mutations are more prone to be recessive to the Centurion's mutations or normal human genetic material.
The tests indicate Clark must have at least some of Tauros' less evident and internal mutations. He likely can digest grass and has an enhanced sense of smell.
Unless the Junk DNA is activated it is unlikely Robert or Clark will mutate considerably or develop any abilities their parents did not possess. It is likely Robert and Clark have not yet reached the age where their immortality would kick in naturally, from either parent, and they likely never will due to their degenerative cloning condition.
Clark shares more of the added junk DNA with Faith than Robert does.


The pair are alone together in the lab as the weight of Robert's discoveries finally sink in to the pair. It is late, past midnight . . .


The Centurion II & Rycon

Clark replies to Ashley's request with a grin and a nod


"I guess I'm not out of the game yet . . . Evil Doer. I Am The Golden Guardian of Good, The Centurion, And In The Name of The Law I Order You To Step Away From The Stolen Goods And Submit Yourself To Justice, Or I, And Rycon, Lady of Thunder, Will Force You To Do So Speedster!"

Suddenly the creature is standing, grinning


"A Hero? Finally, the Gamesss Can Begin!"

He disappears again and he's standing on the roof of the building behind you


"You Think I'm Jussst A Ssspeedsster Boy! I'm Every Sssshape And Sssssizzze, I'm . . . "

He taps the circular symbol on his chest and there is a burst of green light. . .

Then suddenly towering over the pair of heroes is a FIVE HUNDRED FOOT TALL FIGURE!


http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb57525/ben10/images/c/c6/Way_Big_Full_Body_Pic.png

The Creature finishes with a booming roar


"WAY BIG!"

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope


"I know...Camelot and everything, but I thought that they were extinct or something! Does the world seriously need more fire-breathing, flying reptiles? No offense, Lenny."

"None taken."

"Alright, I'm gonna try and bring that guy down here so we can stomp him!" Len says, and begins transforming.

Len gets HUGE. Full Sauropod. With teeth. And Thagomizer. And flame breath.

Len rears up on his legs and roars. Long neck reaching up to the dragon and jaws chomping down!

Bring it.

Big dino party! Growth 14, Strike (mighty, extended reach 2)

I don't know if I can reach him from where I am? How high is he? I've got 25 ft reach, or my 30 ft fire breath. If I can attack I will, let me know Raynn!

Edit: gonna attack anyway! Roll is posted in OOC.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

If Rycon had her combat coat loose right now, it would have fallen off like a rock as she looks up to see the utterly massive being that is definitely NOT supposed to be in reality. Her mouth is as open as it can be and her eyes completely wide in surprise. Now she remembers who this guy is from. It's amazing however how he's a villain here... Or even how he GOT here. Jill would go insane with joy if she learns about this. Without turning her head away from the massive being, Rycon speaks into her watch in a completely disbelieved and deadpan manner, "...Whoever is listening, do yourself a favor and don't look out the window."

She lowers her arms for a moment and looks at Centurion II. Her tone returns to what it naturally is after the initial shock of the supervillain. "You think this will end up being a sequel to that one movie Jake showed us or would having a tool from a children's show deny that?" Seeing herself as the star heroine in a giant monster film would be very embarrassing for Rycon, though memorable.

Rycon conjurers her electric blade in her hand, showing a "ready to kick ass?" look. "I'll take this cartoon character from down here, you go up and strike him from above." With that, Ashley decides to fool around with the villain's electrical signals in his mind. Provided it works, Way Big should hear her voice from behind him, speaking rather rude German insults while the real Rycon moves to the shadows, away from sight while the villain is distracted.

Move-By Action to take the Standard Action first; using Ashley's illusion power (affects visual senses and hearing) DC 17 Will (perception range) and Subtle 2. :smallbiggrin:

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Jake grins at Faith’s crack. “Magic, Faith. They get them with magic.” Normally, that line is reserved as a joke; but here, it’s a likely hypothesis. Faith pulls her throwing daggers, Len does something more impressive and transforms into a ferocious Sauropod.

Jake decides he’s going to take a lighter touch with this one. He flies towards the dragon, spiraling around Len’s long neck until he passes the dragon. With a flash, he draws Excalibur and lets loose its blinding light on the dragon.

He follows up by pausing and leaning in, speaking to the Black Dragon.

“Cease your attack and tell me why you are here.”

Even though he’s speaking in a normal tone, there is great power in those words for any creature who would understand their meaning.

Free action to draw Excalibur. Triggered light goes off. Two reflex saves for the Black Dragon; DC 20 to half, then DC 20/15 to avoid blindness.

Then! He uses King’s Command on the dragon. Contested power check vs. will save; I may hero point if I totally flub it: [roll0] -- NOPE! Hero point: new result is 28

[Raynn]

Dragon's Toughness Save VS. DC 36: [roll0]
Dragon's Opposed Grapple Check VS. DC 34: [roll1]
Dragon's Reflex Save To Half: [roll2]
Dragon's Reflex Save VS. Blindness: [roll3]
Dragon's Will Save VS. King's Command DC 28: [roll4]

Dragon is Stunned + Blind + Mind Controlled.



The King, Sauros, Hope & Faith

The Dragon forces Len off of itself after taking a painful blow to its stomach letting out a puff of dark smoke as it is winded.

The Dragon abruptly comes to a stop in its relentless attacks and seems confused in its blindness and in response to the King's command he merely points towards where he hears the King and growls, seemingly unable to speak English, or possibly any language beyond roars.


The Centurion II & Rycon

The Centurion leaps into the air as the creature appears to merely ignore Rycon


"YOU PICKED THE WRONG NIGHT ULTRAMAN WANT TO BE!"

With that Clark collides fist first with the giant's chest, who is forced to take a colossal step back but little more in reply WAY BIG brings one of his gargantuan fists down on the Centurion!


"GAME'S Over FOR YOU CENTUR- I- KNOCK OFF!"

The creature takes a swing several city streets wide and slams into a hopefully mostly empty office building beside where the Centurion had landed


"ASH! Be Careful! If This Thing Lands A Hit On Either One Of Us We're Goners!"

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Even with words lightly spoken, the authority of the King is so palpable as to subjugate even his enemies. If Jake had the inclination to use it often, he would be a tyrant unmatched. It’s a good thing he uses such power sparingly.

“So you came to attack me? I guess that’s not unexpected. Did Morgana send you? And are you here of your own free will?”

He hopes to find a route to end this peacefully. Given what he knows about D&D and Black Dragons, he figures that’s a long shot. But he’ll try anyway, at least while the creature is under his sway.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Rycon watches as the giant villain ignores Ashley and takes an incredibly large swing at Centurion II. The effortlessly destroyed building however easily backs up what Rycon's old classmate says. Not getting hit is easy enough, aside from the huge shockwave that erupts from each direct hit. The bigger problem is property damage; a quick end to this fight will keep any more damage minimal for everyone.

Rycon nods to Centurion II from below as she makes her move. Considering Way Big did not seem to notice her illusion, that probably didn't work. Instead Ashley makes a run up to the villain, takes a short hop, jumps down on her hands and flips off to jump on Way Big's foot. She quickly thinks over her plan. Right, I'm on the foot. Now to strike away until this guy submits... Perhaps I should be the distraction. At the very least I can dodge and buildings won't be toppled. Ashley sighs as she realizes she's making her plan up as she goes. With her electric baselard, Ashley brings it up and stabs it down on Way Big's foot. No fancy moves, just a straight up attack. The electrical current cruises through the villain's body so long as her blade stays stabbed in.

Not that Ashley is expecting to make this the finisher. "I think I'm gonna need a bigger blade," she mumbles quietly.

Acrobatics to jump on Way Big's leg: [roll0]

Strike attack: [roll1] DC 27 + Autofire Toughness.

[Raynn]

Toughness Save: [roll0] vs. DC 30

Way Big is Bruised + Stunned


The Centurion II & Rycon

As Rycon's lightning courses through Way Big's supersized nervous system he screams out in agony allowing the Centurion time to attack slamming again into his chest but not breaking through Way Big's impossibly thick hide.


"Rycon Do Whatever You Just Did Again, Quick! We Need To Keep This Guy On The Ropes!"


The King, Sauros, Hope & Faith

To the first question the dragon nods and to the last two he shakes his head.


"Shouldn't we knock it out while he's under Jake's sway?"

Hope asks to the group.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Jake holds a hand out towards Hope, to calm her, and the group, down. “I see. You were forced to come here. I’m sorry that happened to you, but it does present us with an opportunity. If it is mental influence that brought you here, then I have broken or will break it. If whoever sent you is extorting you, I can help there as well. And if it’s as simple as something you need, then you now have a chance to have a kinder benefactor.”

He offered a smile to the beast. Such creatures are rarely treated with any kindness.

“Either way, it’s my desire that we be friends, not enemies. Answer me truthfully,” as if the Dragon had a choice right now, “is that a thing which is possible?”

[Phase]

Diego Torres

As Robert stares at the results, Diego feels exceptionally awkward. It's, err, not exactly often that one finds one is dying, and he doesn't really know what to say. His talons sit silently on a nearby bench, allowing Diego to do more precision work, and sterile too.

"That's, uh..." Diego finds himself fidgeting with lab equipment. "Jesus, jefe, I don't know what to say." He ponders taking off his helmet. It's been weighing heavily on his head all day, and it tends to get in the way of more heartfelt connection, but he decides against it. He absentmindedly wipes down the workbench with ethanol. It had been an odd day and, above all, awkward. He looks back up at Robert, plopping down onto a stool. "That's, well, that..." He pauses.

"How long do you have...?"

[Raynn]

The King, Sauros, Hope & Faith

The Dragon lunges forward and stops only a few inches in front of the group. Then, almost restraining it self but not quite, shakes it head before letting out an enraged puff of dark smoke.


"Am I the only one who thinks we, and by that I mean the super people, should still be hitting it?"

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

He shook his head at that response. Too bad. He makes a subtle motion with his hand towards the creature. Len would get it, and Faith is sharp enough to pick up. It’s time to lay into the creature. Jake’s just not saying it out loud. ((Would blatantly break the control)).

Have at it!

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Rycon looks up and smiles as she sees the electrical current agonize the villain mercilessly. By the looks of it she definitely is helping out here. She quickly calls out to Centurion II in response. "I know! How about trying something else than smashing into this nonsensically large cartoon?!" She removes her blade and moves up to Way Big's stem of his leg and stabs there, bringing the blade down the stem and near to the end of his foot to leave a noticeable electrical scar on his foot. She mumbles in a deadpan tone to herself again, "Man I'd hate to have Len here; him and this guy would trash the whole city without trying." She keeps up the jestful words to help her relax rather than think on how she's against someone who could squash her or Clark flat.

Power Attack +3/-3: [roll0] DC 30 + Autofire.

[Raynn]

Toughness Roll VS. DC 34: [roll0]


Rycon & The Centurion II

Suddenly Rycon lights up the 500 ft. giant like a Christmas tree to the astonishment of the Centurion. The symbol on Way Big's chest glows red as he falls, about to crush Rycon and the Centurion, and then in a flesh of red light Way Big is replaced by what appears to be a small boy who is rapidly falling towards the earth.


"I've Got This."

And with that Clark shoots into the air with a grin, catching the figure without a second chance and returning to the ground below, landing a foot or so in front of Rycon with ease.

Cradled in Clark's arms is what appears to be an eight year old boy but the boy is in fact much older, older even than Rycon. A psychopath inventor who enjoys battling worthy heroes of games of life and death for fun. His real name is Desmond Lattem but he goes by Toy Boy. Strapped to his wrist is a real life version of the Omnitrix (http://www.officialpsds.com/images/thumbs/ben10-omnitrix-psd57119.png). Such a device would normally be presumed to be beyond even Toy Boy's genius . . . how odd . . .


"You know who this guy is Rycon?"

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

The first thing Rycon thinks of is how painful being crushed will be. Next thing is how painful landing will be for the young boy who originally was Way Big. As Centurion II catches the boy and brings him down to Rycon, it doesn't take her long to recognize who the "young boy" is. She sighs and speaks in a annoyed tone. "Unfortunately yes, I do know him. He's Toy Boy, a rather old person in the appearance of a young child. He's the one that brought the Toon Gang to life. Judging by this... Omnitrix, it's likely he could have brought more here than we thought."

Rycon quickly snatches the Omnitrix and eyes it over in cautious curiosity. She would love to know how the device works; however she wants to take no chances in the case the Omnitrix falls into the hands of someone else. "Centurion, think I should destroy this device or should I study it first?" She asks in such a calm manner that it can come off surprising at how she can be willing to destroy such a device with a straight face.

[Raynn]

Rycon & The Centurion II

Rycon is unable, as is the Centurion, to remove the Omnitrix from Toy Boy's arm by force.


"Can we risk destroying it without studying it? I know I'm not one of the Geniuses but even I know anything that can make matter appear and disappear unless it's magic has to be able to turn large amounts of energy to mass and back. It must have a pretty impressive power source we may not want to blow up . . . Maybe. . . Beacon texted me that Rob just moved into a Lab over at the Albright institute. I'm sure Rob would let us check it out there. . . Maybe help us. . ."

Ash gets the feeling Clark is worried Robert genuinely doesn't want him around.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Rycon finds herself a little worried as she notices the Omnitrix can't be removed. It's going to take a hell of a reinforced area to keep this kid sealed. "Hmm... Well at the very least we'll want to find a way to keep it shut down for a time. I doubt Toy Boy will be in one place for long if he's gonna have the device stuck on him." She handcuffs Toy Boy, for all good it will do, and then turns on her watch. "Rycon here, we've successfully stopped and captured the villain Toy Boy at Freedom Plaza. He got his powers from the... Omnitrix." Her tone deepens in embarrassment and she plants her free hand in her face as she mentions the cartoon device. "We can't remove it so we need a code Sigma prison ward to keep him sealed in until we can learn what we can from Mr. Lattem."

As Rycon waits for a response, she notices Centurion II's worried face. "Clark..." Her voice softens as she says his name. "...I know it's hard, but we need to tell Robert. I don't think he can live a life of ignorance over what is happening to him and he would probably find out on his own anyway." She thinks back to her Claremont days. "...I know his disappearance back then was sudden; he never made any mention about it to you. But I'm sure he hasn't forgotten about you and how much he cares for his brother."

Ashley brings one of her hands out to Clark's shoulder, rubbing it gently. A sorrowful smile radiates over her face. "...If you can't do it for Robert, then please do it for me."

[Raynn]

Rycon & The Centurion

Clark lets Toy Boy go and puts his hand to Ashley's


"Anything for you Ash . . ."

He looks back over the destruction caused by the fight and Toy Boy's crime spree, and lets out a slight laugh


"Kind of not how I expected a date with you to go . . ."

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley smiles and nods as Clark puts his hand to her's. She has to admit she is asking a lot for Clark; she's asking more for a dying man than he deserves. Yet she keeps feeling it's best for him this way. She should probably ease off a little after tonight; she didn't want to think of herself as dictating the rest of Clark's life.

After a pause of peaceful silence, Ashley goes down to pick up Toy Boy. "First let's get this psycho to a place where he won't go on a rampage," she says as she has a little difficulty carrying the old child. "Then we'll head to Robert... And thanks. Property damage aside, this was a fun diversion from everything that happened these last two days." She couldn't help but make her smile a little more genuine now.

[Raynn]

Rycon & The Centurion II

The pair depart into the night after leaving the Toy Boy with S.T.A.R. squad of the F.C.P.D. for now.

It doesn't take them long to reach the Albright institute with Clark's speed, he messaged ahead so the door was left open for them. . . and they step inside Robert's temporary lab just as Diego finishes talking . . .

Ashley and Clark see Robert looming over some equipment and Diego looking forlorn. Clark's voice catches in his throat as Ashley stands beside him.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

By the time Ashley and Clark enter Robert's lab, she suddenly understands why Clark was hesitant earlier. How do you explain to someone that they are dying? Clark managed to tell her, though it was a very emotional experience. Ashley isn't a natural speaker like Jake or either of Taurus' sons are. There really isn't any easy way she can explain it, if there's a way at all... She looks at Diego for a moment; his awkward face contrasting his more confident one last night. Did something happen here? Did they learn...?

Eventually Ashley decided she had to speak up. Yet there is only one thing she can say; one thing that she can say in a weak tone. "Robert, we're arrived." In her own mind, she is still asking the same question to herself, over and over and over again.

How will I explain this to Robert?

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Len saw Jake's signal, and agreed that diplomacy had failed. It was time for action. Regrettably, as it would have been awesome to have a dragon buddy.

Len's gigantic legs propel his 20+ ton body toward the dragon, casting a shadow over the rest of his team below. He bellows a loud roar as he rears up again, crashing down with a tremendous stomp on his scaly foe.

same as last time, all out/pow +5/-5, if hit initiate grapple.

[roll0] DC 36 toughness
[roll1]

[Raynn]

Toughness Save vs. DC 36: [roll0]
Opposed Grapple Check: [roll1]
Stunned + Blind + Bruised + Staggered


The King, Sauros, Hope & Faith

The Dragon is barely able to force Len off of itself but not before Sauros beats the creature repeatedly, obviously overpowering the much larger dragon, finishing the barrage of blows with a stomp to the dragon's abdomen that winds it again and forces out a puff of dark smoke from his lungs.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Jake says nothing, but brings Excalibur down on the dragon with all the force he can muster. If it won't voluntarily cease its attack, then force was the only alternative.

The holy blade ignites with a blazing light as it arcs down into the black scales of the blinded opponent.

Okay. First off, since the first time interval has passed (1 round), we make a new opposed roll for Mind-Control.

Power Check: [roll0]

Jake is issuing no commands, so he's not using an action. The standing command to cease the attack is still ongoing if successful.

Dragon gets a fortitude save DC 20 to recover from blindness.

Also, full all-out/power attack on the Dragon.

Attack: [roll1] - DC 30 no-save damage if successful.

[ChronicLunacy]

Faith Winters

From her elevated position, Faith leapt out into the air. She performed a triple aerial twist to orient herself and look awesome while doing it, then held out her arms and legs like a flying squirrel to increase her wind resistance and slow herself a fraction. Then she pulled off another flip and sent a series of silvery missiles streaming from each her hands right before she landed on the mythical monster's back. The throwing daggers buried themselves in the back of the dragon's neck, just behind its armored head at the weak point where its spine was vulnerable.

Acrobatics: [roll0]
Blast 10 (Autofire): [roll1]

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

That dragon sure could take a beating. Len was surprised with the amount of damage it was taking that it could still toss his bulk off. If he could just pin it down.

Len pivots on his monstrous dino feet, and whips his tail around at the dragon, bringing it to bear like a huge whip.

CRACK

His tail whips faster than the speed of sound, creating a miniature sonic boom as he lashes the dragon before quickly spinning back and trying to squish him down again.

same as last time, all out power attack +5/-5 :smallbiggrin:

[roll0] DC 36 toughness
if hit, go for grapple
[roll1]

[Raynn]

Mind Control Will Save: [roll0] Vs. DC 19
Blindness Fortitude Save: [roll1] Vs. DC 20
Toughness Save (Excalibur): [roll2] Vs. DC 30
Toughness Save (Autofire): [roll3] Vs. DC 28
Toughness Save (Tail Whip): [roll4] Vs. DC 36
Grapple Check: [roll5] Vs. DC 41


The King, Sauros, Hope & Faith

The Dragon recovers from the mind control and blindness in time to endure Faith's barrage and to barely take a scratch from even Excalibur.

Sadly for the dragon puffing Dark Smoke he was not so lucky with Len's tail whip. There's an echoing crack and thud as Sauros' tail slams into the dragon's head and a moment later Len is holding the dragon's limp form in his hands.

Hope is the first to speak


"Bad . . . Ass . . ."

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

With a thunderous boom, Leonard Cope fells the Black Dragon. Jake hovers in the air with a grin on his lips looking at Len. At first, there are no words. Sir Sauros performed exactly as expected. Together, they were unstoppable. Jake gave his best friend a thumbs up.

“Alright, let’s call in the mages. I’m sure they can find a way to imprison this creature. Perhaps in a bottle.” He saw it in an extremely terrible movie once.

He floats down towards the ground, landing with a light touch. He sheaths his sword and makes a quick communication to the fire department, telling them it’s safe to move in and put out the flames.

Once finished, he glances to everyone assembled. “You know, this happens every time we go somewhere together.”

[Raynn]

Jake looks over to Hope who gives him a confused look then kneels down to pick something up. Still kneeling she raises it up so Jake could see it. She is holding a round, spherical except for a thin cylinder sticking out of the sphere for a neck, glass bottle. It is lying in the rubble near where the dragon appeared. It is labelled "Dark Smoke".


"You mean like this . . . ?"

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Jake’s brown eyes look at Hope. Then at the vial. He is expressionless for a moment. His brain is attempting to search for just the right words to convey this nuance of emotion. A synapse fires. He has it.

“You’re f****** kidding me.”

He walks over to her and looks at the bottle. Dark Smoke.

“So our enemies have a lousy sense of humor.”

Someone must have uncorked this thing. Did they get far yet?

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Len stood a moment, triumphant over his foe. He loved fighting things that could get as big as he was.

And he was training his powers to get even bigger.

He gave Jake a weird dinosaur thumbs up in return before shifting back down to human form. "Maybe we should just hang out at the villain's HQs, then this can happen at their place."

Then Len see's hope hold up a bottle. A dragon from a bottle. This was some Harry Potter type s***.

"I guess we should bring that to Merlin. Gotta be magic right?"

[Raynn]

Hope hands the bottle to Jake


"I don't get it . . . We . . . I mean you saw this movie. It was terrible. Dark Smoke is FICTIONAL. Will we have to deal with deadites soon too?!"

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Hope’s words triggered a thought in Jake’s head. It is fictional. It isn’t real. Or it shouldn’t be. And Hope, she looks just like someone who could alter reality. She might actually have that power herself. Couple that with her and Jake’s shared memories… and it’s entirely possible that she accidentally summoned “Dark Smoke.”

He takes the vial from Hope. He makes eye contact for a moment. He’s not willing to jump to conclusions, not yet.

“You’re right. Someone created this dragon. Pulled it right out of that film. I’m not sure who yet.”

He doesn’t let on about his suspicions. It would be best to consult with Merlin first, and keep this from those who might overreact.

He grins at Hope, “As cool as fighting the Deadites might be, we don’t need innocent people getting liquefied in pits. Come on. Let’s get back to the castle. I think he singed my tie.”

[ChronicLunacy]

Faith Winters

After Len smoked the dragon, Faith climbed off of where she had been perched behind its bony neck ridge. She clambered over to Len and over his big head before walking nimbly down his back and off of his tail with a little hop before he turned back into a human. "Well...that was...weird." she smiled. "There's never a dull day with the King and his court, is there?" she winked. "But then again, that's the second time someone's tried to kill all of us in nearly as many days. This is starting to scream 'big villain scheme' to me and it doesn't take my finely tuned secret agent senses to figure that out."

[kpenguin]

Robert Asterion

He... was dying. There was no way around it. Oh, the construction of his genetics was fascinating, simply fascinating. Taurus, or whichever of Taurus's underlings, had made him and Clark deserved a Nobel prize for them. It was elaborate and intricate. Fascinating.

But... there was no way around it. he was dying. He didn't have long. Measured in months...

He puts his hand on the Peregrine's shoulder. He knew as well as Robert what the data implied. Brave face, Robert. "It's late, your caretaker is probably worried sick about you. Go home, Peregrine. I'll finish up here."

Attaboy, Robert. Don't talk about it. Just send him home.

Ashley and Clark arrive at the door. He turns to face them and catches Clark in the eye. Oh my scrolls and mazes. How was he going to tell them? How..

He walks up. "Evening, Ashley. Clark. We were just finishing up. Um, Clark, if I might have a word? In private?"

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace


Faith Winters
"There's never a dull day with the King and his court, is there?" she winked. "But then again, that's the second time someone's tried to kill all of us in nearly as many days. This is starting to scream 'big villain scheme' to me and it doesn't take my finely tuned secret agent senses to figure that out."

"More true than you know," he says with a chuckle. "I'm not certain whether this is connected to the Supreme or not. It seems a little haphazard for someone who nearly wiped us out last night."

He looked at Faith. "Still, with the Supreme out to get us, perhaps we should arrange for a more permanent AEGIS liaison position." He gives his old friend a grin. "At least until the trouble is over."

In unspoken words... let's get the band back together.

[Raynn]

The King, Sauros, Hope & Faith


http://0.tqn.com/d/travelwithkids/1/0/G/x/1/Harry-Potter-Forbidden-Journey-office.jpg

Later, in Merlin's Chambers . . .

Merlin sits in his chair, tired and weary, having most definitely seen better days. Last night on top of assisting in the restoration of Camelot has greatly drained the once great Merlin, who in his youth had been the Sorcerer Magnus for a time. Jake is aware that one day soon Merlin may indeed move on to Avalon to meet his old friend Arthur.

He looks up as the group enters and with a strained smile says


"How may I be of service your grace?"


***

Professor Minotaur, Rycon, El Peregino & The Centurion II

Clark gives Ashley a wary before nodding in agreement to Robert and following him out into a large office a few doors down that is currently empty, leaving Ashley alone with El Peregino.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Jake smiles at his one-time camp counselor and walks in with the others. Jake comes to stand beside the great wizard’s desk. “You don’t have to call me that in private, Merle,” Jake still uses the name he grew accustomed to using. “I know you’re tired from last night. We all are. But something very unusual just happened.”

He produced the vial labeled “Dark Smoke” from his pocket.

“A fictional dragon just became very real at the local shopping mall. This was pulled directly from a very stupid movie.” He hands the vial over.

“I need to know where this came from.” He pauses for a moment. He’s hesitant to bring this up. “Merle, you’ve met Hope, yes?” He gently pulls on her hand to bring her forth. “I need to know if she has any superhuman abilities. Do you think you could find out for me, old friend?”

[Phase]

Diego Torres

Diego frowns a bit, but nods, understanding. His own woes from the day seem somewhat petty in relation to this load. "Si, jefe..." He looks about to say something else, but instead just shoves his talons into his backpack, slings it over his shoulder, and turns to head out. He gets only a few steps before he spots Clark and Ashley and freezes. His frown deepens as he glances between the three older parties.

He moves to go grab some of his notebooks on a nearby bench as Robert leaves with Clark.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Though she wanted to find something else to say, Ashley is utterly silent as Clark and Robert head down the hall. All she could do is turn to Peregrine and notice his face. It's almost like there was something that had shocked him; Robert looked similar when Ashley and Clark came to the room. And... In a lab, does that mean...?

Ashley cringes as she softly asks Diego, "...He already knows? Doesn't he?"

[Phase]

Diego Torres

Diego picks up his notes and puts them in the bag next to his talons. "Knows about..." He glances down the hall after Clark and Robert, and looks up sadly at Ashley. "Si. I guess Centurion Jr. there does too?" he gestures a thumb after the other two as he leans against a bench.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley pauses at Diego's words as she slowly looks towards the hallway. "...Yes. He told me about it." She shudders, still very uncomfortable with this whole disaster. "We wanted to tell Robert, to tell him that... They have six months." She pauses again, trying to have some sort of composure as she tries to speak more indignantly. "I want to make these last six months count for both of them. If this is all the time they have left, I'm going to make it the best six months they'll experience."

She looks weakly toward Diego. She could barely muster a frail smile. "Would... You agree?"

[Phase]

Diego Torres

Diego adjusts his helmet, and puts his hands up. He's been embroiled in a bit too much drama for one day, especially given it was now actually Saturday. He hopes his brother fell asleep right after his shift. "Look, Sparky." He starts, squeezing past her into the halllway. "I got wrapped up in this to, what, learn some science and maybe beat down a big league culo or two?" He begins backing down a hallway in the opposite direction of Robert and Clark. "I didn't sign up to be the shoulder for crying of a dude I met yesterday..." He backs up a few more paces into the darkened hallway. "Lo siento..." He turns and jogs down and around the corner.

A few minutes later he re-appears sheepishly, glancing up at Ashley as he passes by again to reach the elevators. "No, ah, no exit down that way..." He stands, exceptionally awkwardly, waiting for the elevator.

[kpenguin]

Two Brothers

Robert and Clark step out into the hallway, standing next to the glass, overlooking the city. They both look out over the city for a moment. Robert can barely look Clark in the eye. How was he going to tell him...

Brave face.

He turns, pain in his eyes, and says.. "Clark, there's some..."

"...thing I need to tell you" Clark says at the same time.

The two blink. Robert opens his mouth to say what he had to say, but... not yet...

"Oh, go ahead, Clark"
"No, you first. I'm... this can wait"

Tell him? No, he couldn't. Not yet. Too painful it.

"I'm sure what you have to say is important..."
"It is, but... bro, I..."

What could he even say? Here Robert was, the great orator, and he was stalling for words.

"Is this about Ashley?"
"What?! No! I, well."

Right, get him to talk about Ashley. More time. Keep stalling

]"Well, you spent the night with her. Look, we broke up years ago, its not a"
"No, its not that, I..."
"Then..."

Just say it, Robert. Tell him. He deserves to know.

"We're dying"

The two just look at each other for a moment. And then...

"Hahahahahhahahahahahahha" *snort*

Laughter. Tears. All that pain and doubt released as emotion as the two embrace. When they seperate, Robert takes Clark by the shoulder.

"You knew?
"Yeah. They ran blood analysis on me a while ago... you did it on yourself tonight, huh?
"Yeah... oh my scrolls and garters, you knew! That makes this so much..."

The weight of it all comes back.

"easier"

There's a silence as they look back out at the city again.

"So, six months is what you got too?
"Yeah. I just. I spent a lot of time trying to deal with it. Are you going to be okay, bro?[
"Yeah. Just. Oh my god.

He looks up at the ceiling. "There's so much, you know? So much I put off, so much I thought I could wait for, thinking I could wait... thinking I had time
"Yeah, I know what you mean.
"But at the same time... we don't lead safe lives do we, Clark? We could fall to any number of things any day. While we're out there.
"At least this way, we know what's coming

They look out over the city again.
It's a beautiful city, isn't it?
"Yeah. I'm glad you're back, bro. No phone, no e-mail, not even a post card. I missed you.
"I missed you too. At least, whatever fate has in store for us, we face it together. You talked to Anna?
"No, can't reach her. She has more time than us though.

Long quiet.

"This Supreme thing. And this whole Prometheus thing. We're going to beat it, aren't we?
"Of course, Robert. That's what we do. What we're born to do."
"Think we have time?
"Six months? When have we ever needed that much to save the world?

They smile at each other.

[Raynn]

And So Closes Another Chapter In Our Tale . . .


In A Cell In The Freedom City Police Department . . .

A figure is suspended by the legs and arms in a small steel cell. Most would mistake the man for a child but he is in fact quite old despite his appearance. Strapped permanently to his wrist is one of the most powerful weapons in the city at this moment, the Omnitrix. Sadly for Toy Boy he has been specifically bound and suspended so his hands can't reach the device leaving it less useful than a wrist watch . . .

He looks up in the darkness of his cell and a man in a featureless white mask, a similarly white three piece suit and white gloves steps out of the shadow. Toy Boy suddenly looks hopeful and fearful at the same time.


"Understudy! Thank god! Get me out of these things! I need . . ."

The figure in white raises his index finger to lips and Toy Boy's voice catches in his throat


"I didn't steal the Realizer Ray from Freedom Hall for you to waste it's power with childish crime sprees."


"I know, but I was just testing it out and this girl . . . she had lightning powers and . . . "

The Understudy silences him again


"Ashley Culdis, Codename Rycon, graduated with honours from Claremont Academy.

We Have Met.

Omnitrix; Code 10, Password 000 - Release - 0"

As Understudy finishes the Omnitrix pops off Toy Boy's wrist and falls to the floor of the cell. Toy Boy looks at Understudy with his mouth agape


"H. . . How . . . ?"

Understudy seems to smirk underneath his full face mask


"A google search and a guess."

Toy Boy seems terrified now


"But . . But I've still got the Realizer Ray! You need me! YOU NEED ME!"

The Understudy looks back at Toy Boy and the smirk can be heard in his tone


"You really think I didn't make anything myself before I gave you that gun little boy. What I'm going to do soon, over 10 minutes, will make what happened in Camelot last night look like a walk in the park. And The Claremont Knights? Or The Knights? Or whatever they call themselves now, well, they've seen nothing yet."

With that he drops a butterfly knife from down his sleeve, grabs it and in one long one handed swing slashes Toy Boy's throat like paper. He flicks the butterfly knife in a spin, closes it again and puts it in his pocket before picking the Omnitrix off the floor as Toy Boy coughs and splutters his way to oblivion.

The Understudy puts it onto his wrist and it wraps around it and the dial glows blue as it says "-//Omnitrix Rebooting//-"

A minute or so later a smaller more streamlined version of the Omnitrix rests on the Understudy's wrist, white like his suit except for the black and green dial face. He glances at the watch as he walks out of the door he hacked his way into, with a grin saying


"This Is Where The Fun Begins."

- The End of The Revolution Issue #2 -

Will post the beginning of the next issue a.s.a.p. :smallsmile:

1 PP for this Issue.

[Raynn]

The Raynn-Verse:

'Some Dreams Never Die'

The Revolution Issue #3

"Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos," - FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

The Dreaming . . .

Rycon stands in full costume, except one she had only just thought up, at the end of a platform clutching the sides of a console. Before her is a sphere of portals. Within the sphere is an area of space surrounding a dwarf star . . . somehow Rycon knows that the the portals are large on the other side than this one so they cover vast tracts of space on the other side, making the sun appear to only fill most of the cavernous room they are in, rather than appearing bigger than Earth as it actually is.

Someone . . . A girl dressed like a pilot with a rocket strapped to her back shouts over to Ashley from the doorway as thuds can be heard outside the massive titanium doors

"Blitz! They're coming! Shut it down or soon we're going to be the LATE last heroes of the Earth!"

Ashley is barely able to speak

"...I can't . . ."

Emily shouts back as she checks her ray gun

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T?!"

"There's a password, nine letters . . . I can't shut it down . . . I can't stop him . . ."

As the metal door Air Ace is guarding buckles open Ashley bolts upright in her bed, waking, alone in her apartment, with a cold sweat . . .


***

Camelot, Merlin's Chamber. . .

It takes a day for Merlin to prepare the proper incantations and rites in his weakened state to investigate the nature of Hope and when he is ready he invites the quartet of Sauros, The King, Faith and Hope to attend the ritual.

When they enter the chamber they find Merlin in deep meditation but as you all approach he motions for Hope to seat herself in a arcane circle he has prepared. When she is also seated Merlin asks the rest of the group


"Before I begin do you have any specific quarries about her nature, or any information, that might make my examination easier or more accurate?"


***

The Rooftops of Freedom City . . .

El Peregino lands softly on the rooftop of the Eastern Seaboard Bank overlooking the city before him. The high rising towers and the lowly apartment blocks, the gleaming glass cathedrals and the dirty worn old concrete. He looks out over Freedom City and sees it all as one astounding horizon. Then as usual that serenity is broken by a scream.

Down an alley nearby that El Peregino quickly stands on the rooftop overlooking a quartet of men stand between a large rock covered monster and a girl cowering behind the group away from the monster. The men have each grabbed things from nearby, pieces of debris and pipes from the alley as make shift weapons, seemingly to protect the girl. One man approaches with his pipe held like a sword and the creature swings out at him, and the man is only barely able to jump back out of the way with his life. The creature's form is covered in a cracked thick hide of concrete that give it a bulky and fearsome form, standing at about 9 foot tall.

What do you do?


***

Tremont Hotel, Fourth Floor, Room 13B . . .

With a grunt Robert Asterion awakes from a slumber plagued by images of broken planets and a great cavernous white room. He brushes the crumbs from his chest and sits upright on the floor of his hotel room. He had six months to live . . . A half eaten deli sandwich sits on a counter nearby. The room is as disheveled as the Minotaur staying in it. Robert wondered if today could be any worse than yesterday.

Rolls for Robert in next post.

[Raynn]

Attack roll: [roll0]
DC 27 Toughness Save for Professor Minotaur on a hit.
Hero Point to Robert.

[Phase]

Diego Torres

The Peregrine, your friendly neighborhood falcon, peers down at the struggle below. He smirks, finally back in his element, and pushes his helmet forward before stepping off the bank and plummeting a few feet. He freefalls for a moment before pulling up, grabbing a tin can from the alley, and flying upwards to hover behind the monster.

He flings the tin-can creatureward, it bouncing off the rocky coat. He whistles to get its attention more fully before speaking. "Not to butt in, esse, but I don't think you were invited to this particular party, aye?" He crosses his arms and floats. "Understandable given the whole..." He gestures broadly at his own head. "Face situation you got going on."

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

"Gaaah!"

With a painful shout and rushed breathing, Ashley wakes up in her apartment room. First were the past two days, now this. Sitting upright, Ashley takes a few moments to calm down and once physically able to speak, she frustratingly mutters quietly, "This is going to take much, much longer than a week..." She tries to go over what she had just witnessed. It could have been a dream of foreshadowing or an exaggeration of her theories and fears... No, it had to have been a dream. That other female, Ashley had never seen her before and yet she talked like she knew Ashley. She can remember the girl calling her "Blitz" and Ashley was in that costume she had thought up of. The dream had to be some sort of foreshadow.

And then there was the portals and the dwarf star. She knows who can make portals in space, but the dwarf star didn't make much sense. By her own theory, Ashley assumes that what she saw was a sort of Armageddon close to completion... She couldn't figure it out and she doubts that anyone else has time to speculate with her. The stress of the situation and finger pointing of all the vague details has been driving her nuts. It's been hard for Ashley to think clearly since Clark told her that he was dying. She was going to need to take something off her mind for now.

Ashley turns on the news as she gets dressed and afterwards decides to make a phone call. She is in need of hearing a friendly voice and all of her friends are either in Camelot or somewhere that she didn't know. She dials the number of her cousin, Danielle. Ever since she moved out, married, and had a child, Ashley has not heard much of her. Now would be a good time to catch up.

[Raynn]

<- Diego Torres, Yes, THAT Diego Torres ->

The creature stumbles back a few steps as El Peregino appears, backed into a corner against the back wall of the alley. One of the quartet shout out "Come on man, that mutey is going to KILL SOMEBODY!"

Just as the young man speaks the creature takes a swing at El Peregino letting out a low rumbling roar


"Rrrraaagh"

Attack Roll: [roll0]
El Peregino is not flat footed.


***


~ THE Ashley Culdis ~

Ashley tires Danielle's home phone but doesn't get through, finally she tries Danielle's mobile and she picks up. Ashley can hear the sound of quite a lot of people in the background, including Danielle's crying three month old


"Ashley? Is that you? How have you been, I haven't heard from you in ages?"


~ Robert Asterion The 1st~

The force of the gun shot shatters the glass pane of the window and forces Robert to the ground, smacking into the side of his bed. His supernatural physiology protects him from harm as he groans away the pain in his side. The deli sandwich did not fare so well, being showered and embedded with shards of glass.

[Phase]

The one and only Diego Torres

Peregrine grins, looking down at the shouting civilian. "Hey now, esse, I don't appreciate that kind of negativity." He flies over the creature, sticking his tongue out as it swings ineffectually at the hero. "Hmm, yes, raaaragh, very profound." He nods sagely, moving past the creature to hover above the civvies.

He glances down at them and whispers hurriedly. "I'll try to keep his attention, you folks get out of here. Rapido, comprende?" He gestures for them to run as he moves closer to the monster. "And tell me, cabron!" He shouts, bringing attention fully to him. "When I make fun of you brief asides, how does that make you feel?"

Rolling Bluff to use my newly purchased Distract feat to daze this big guy.
[roll0]

[Raynn]

Resistance Roll: [roll0] vs. DC 24


~ Mr. D. Torres ~

The Creature lets out another roar at Diego's comments rather than attacking giving Diego time to act.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

It hadn’t been Jake’s idea to invite Len and Faith here. No offense against them, but he wasn’t sure how many people he wanted to see whatever was about to be revealed. Jake gently nods to Hope when she is shown where to sit. He then kneels down at the circle. Merlin asks a question Jake doesn’t want to answer.

But he does.

“First, all of you in this room are sworn to secrecy. Anything that happens in this room cannot be told to the outside world. For her sake and for the well being of the world.”

He looks from Faith, to Len, to Merlin… and to Hope. He takes a deep breath and begins to answer.

“First, she shares all of my memories until two days ago. It’s also true that she might be related to Faith’s biological mother, who was altered by a being named Omega. Dr. Dire fears there may still be a connection. Hope possibly possesses great power.”

He repeats himself. “And if she does, no one can know of it. For her safety.” Which obviously means a lot to him.

[Phase]

El Torres Magnifico

Diego keeps yammering at the monster as the civilians look on. He glances down at them, rolls his eyes, and activates his talons. "Some days you just can't get rid of some innocent bystanders." He flies at top speed past the monster, throwing a solid blow to his head as he passes over.

"So what's up, tiny? What brings you do this fine alley on a day such as today?"

Rolling to smack him upside the head, Power Attack for +3/-3, DC 25 Tough save if it hits.
[roll0]

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

The constant attempt at calling Danielle at home began to drive Ashley crazy at the ringing made from trying to connect. Thankfully trying the mobile number works as Ashley can hear her cousin's voice. Ashley's tone is full of relief. "It's great to hear from you again Danielle." While Ashley has had a habit of calling Danielle "Sis" despite not really being sisters, the habit was dropped as soon as graduation came. The two barely have seen each other since. "I've been doing well at Olympus Technologies. Didn't you read the news a couple months back about their top engineer?"

Ashley sits on her bed as she tries to relax while chatting with Danielle. "Where are you right now? Is there some sort of party over there? I was wondering if I could meet you today."

[Raynn]

Toughness Save: [roll0] vs. DC 25


Diego Torres

The blow connects with the creature's head and it stumbles backwards stunned, it lets out a roar in frustration again.


***

Ashley Culdis

Suddenly Danielle's voice turns from happy to depressed and embarrassed


"Ugh. . . No, I'm in a homeless shelter . . ."

her voice trails off.


***

Jake, Faith & Len

Merlin merely nods his head in reply and begins chanting


"Reveal.

What is, What was, What might yet be.

Release.

What is, What was, What might yet be.

Embrace.

What is, What was, What might yet be.

Show to us, Spirits of the earthly plane, in all your wisdom,

What is, What was, What might yet be."

For a second nothing happens and Hope looks up with a grin


"I guess it's back to the drawing board guys, seems I'm norm . . ."

She stops looking down at her hands. They glow and crackle with the same red and black lightning like energy as the sphere once did. Slowly she floats upwards, almost like a balloon. Her grin broadens.


"Wow! Look Jake! Look! I have powers too! I can be a super hero too!"

She tumbles in a spin in the air


"Hmmm. . . Hope's a lame hero name. I'll be Luck lass! Or The Princess! Or Saurian Girl! Okay that last one doesn't quite fit but . . ."

Hope stops as Merlin awakens from his trance with a terrified luck upon his face


"STOP THIS! CEASE USING YOUR POWERS THIS INSTANT YOU FOUL CREATURE!"

Hope looks bewildered and hurt and Jake is about to reprimand Merlin for his choice of words and tone when Hope replies


"I . . . I can't . . . I don't understand . . . "

Merlin cuts Hope off as her hands begin to glow even more brightly


"STOP IT! STOP IT NOW! BEFORE YOU KILL US ALL! BEFORE YOU KILL U. . ."


*BOOOOOOOOOOM*

Jake coughs up blood as he pushes himself up from the rubble. He looks up into the skyline and sees the smoking rubble of the castle and the large chunk of it that is missing. The Wizard's tower. He looks nearby where the Merle's personal pantry should have been on the ground floor and sees Merle's broken body on a mound of broken bricks.

He looks left and sees Len, having landed in some wooden debris that might have once been the tower's made doorway and Faith on a scorched patch of the lawn nearby. Each of the Trio look like they're on Death's door.

At the center of where the tower stood a few moments ago, sits a crying girl who's eyes are now pits of black and red energy. Her clothes for the most apart are burned away or torn and every few moments a arch of the same black and crimson energy lashes out of her uncontrollably to vaporize some large part of the nearby rubble. She seems unharmed. She glances sideways to the dead form of Merle, only a few feet from where she kneels and looks up in the direction of Jake and through a sob says over the crackle flames and distant shouts


"Jake . . . Please . . . Put me down . . ."

As she looks up Jake can see an Omega symbol glowing in that same energy and smoking away on her chest . . .

Forgot to say, Faith, Len & Jake are disabled and all receive a Hero Point.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

"What?"

Ashley is in utter shock.

"What?!"

Her voice grows in anger as she goes over Danielle's last line.

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!"

Ashley could not be anything other than astoundingly upset. The last thing she needs is to hear that what family she has in America is in disarray. She tries to sound encouraging to her cousin as she says, "Danielle, tell me where you are. I'm going to come get you and your baby and we'll take you to Aunt Marcia. She's been rather lonely without either of us home. Or I can even contact King Jake of Camelot. I'm sure there's a better place to stay for you and your baby there."

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Even with all the magic in the world, nothing could have shielded him from that blast, not entirely. He loses consciousness for a moment. Inside his head, a voice tells him to “Get up. Get up. Get up.” Consciousness returns to him as he hacks up blood. He’s badly damaged. He knows it. One arm holds him up while the other cradles his ribs. They’re broken.

His eyes travel to Merle… gone. Len and Faith are hurt just as badly as he is. The castle is damaged, and Hope… she’s…

With a grunt, Jake forces himself to his feet. Each movement is filled with pain. He shouldn’t be able to stand right now, but he digs deep. He labors to breath as he looks over the destruction.

She asks him to put her down.

“Hope. Shut up.” He snaps in response to her plea.

He draws Excalibur, gripping it tightly. He takes a steadying breath, then forces it to pulse with light. It’s painful, but necessary.

Last Stand to become fatigued and ignore wound penalties enough to be able to use healing on myself. Rolled in the ooc. Full heal.

The warm light of the blade floods over him. Bones set, wounds knit.

Once he’s standing well enough, he repeats the process for Faith and Len... Merle’s too far gone.

Then, he approaches Faith, risking a shock from that wild energy. “I’m not going to hurt you, Hope. What’s happening is not something you did willingly. I need you to fight this. Take that power and force it down. Be strong.” He looks her in the eyes as he speaks.

Please fight it… don’t make me have to…

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Len watched as Hope crackled with power and rose in the air, apparently under her own control. Then Merlin started yelling. Something was wrong. Something was really wr-

Len was blasted back into the reinforced door by the force of the explosion. He felt the wood crack and splinter against his body as he was driven into it. The metal banding bend from the impact. His breath was forced out of him and everything went black.

He opened his eyes, he wasn't sure how much later it was. Everything was blurry.

"Almost...came to see you, Night..." he mumbled, still not completely lucid. He coughed and felt a sharp pain in his chest. It hurt to breathe. "Aghhhh...." he groaned. He thought he heard Jake and Hope talking.

Then he felt the familiar feeling of Excalibur's light. His ribs knitting themselves back together. He takes a few breaths, and pushes himself up into a sitting position. Looking around he sees the devastation. He sees Merle.

"Jake..." he says, not finding the words. He struggles up to his feet and stumbles to stand next to his friend. He puts a cautious eye on Hope, but lets Jake do his thing.

[Phase]

Diego Torres

"What's that?" Diego trills, cupping a talon to his ear. "I can't quite make out what you're trying to say over the ringing in your ears, cabron." He speeds headwards, aiming a punch right between the eyes. "Let's see if we can't clear your head a bit, ey jefe?"

Going full Power Attack this time, +5/-5 for a DC 27 save.
[roll0]

[Raynn]

Toughness Roll: [roll0] vs. DC 27


Diego Torres

The creature flies back from the force of the blow and the concrete skin sloughs off in large chunks to reveal a teenage girl, about Diego's age, as if she had been moving with a shell of concrete, probably couldn't even speak. A Post Human. Diego felt a twinch of quilt as he looked down at the bruised young girl's unconscious form . . . then he noticed that all the bruises were in locations he'd never touched . . . and she was cut too, but he'd never broken her concrete hide. In her human form the girl just looked like she'd been on the wrong end of a pretty bad beating . . .

The cogs in Diego's head began to turn as he turned around at the four men and the young woman behind him who were now cheering for him


"See that's what I'm talkin' about! Human heroes standin' up for us folks against these mutie pieces of trash! Girl thinks she can walk around in public, on our streets, when she's a freakin' monster! Yo, dude, I don't know who you are yet, but you're the greatest hero in the city in my books! 'Cept Prometheus o' course! Boy you should check him out, team up or some s***! You gave that girl what was comin' to her! He'd love you Man!"


***


Ashley Culdis

Danielle seems on the verge of tears when she speaks


"There was a fire . . . Rupert didn't . . . Some people found out I was a Post Human, they . . . we were asleep . . . he died because of me . . ."

Ashley listens as her cousin cries for a minute, quietly, before Danielle says


"St. Lucious' shelter for the homeless, the corner of Hunter & 40th Avenue . . ."


***


Faith, Hope, Jake & Sauros

Hope looks up as tears begin to steam away from her flesh


"I . . . I can't . . . I don't want to kill you Jake . . . or Faith . . . or Len . . ."

She clutches her chest in pain as another arch of energy lashes out and leaves a massive gouge in the wall of a nearby armory


"Aaagh! Jake. Len. Faith. Ugh. I'm . . . a weapon . . . or a monster . . . or worse . . . or him . . ."

She looks up and for a brief moment her eyes turn back to normal and the symbol on her chest turns from a shifting shape of energy to a solid crimson symbol before a moment later turning back to a crackle of energy along with her eyes.


"Please . . . Jake . . . Faith, Len, they don't have it in them, to do what you can do but you do, you know what has to be done, one innocent life isn't worth all those lives my life might cost . . . please . . . kill me . . . save them . . . "

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Len comes to him and calls his name. Jake looks back at him and gently holds a hand for Len to wait where he is. What Jake’s about to do is monumentally dangerous, but it’s never really stopped him before. He begins to approach her. Whiplashes of immense energy and force come close to him. He twists his body to the side, hissing as the proximity even burns his flesh.

Yet he keeps approaching.

“Hope, I don’t ever let math dictate who lives and who dies. You, of all people, should know me better than that.”

In moments he’s standing in front of her, in the zone of danger. He sheaths Excalibur. There’s no reason to use it now.

“I want you to remember something. Do you remember when I found out I was Mordred in a past life? I thought that it made me a monster. For months, I doubted myself, and believed that something evil lived inside of me.” He looks at her eyes, as they waver back and forth from how they normally are to the pits of energy. “Do you remember how that turned out? I faced my inner demons. Mordred was evil… and he’s also dead. I get to choose who I want to be. I choose to be Jake Wallace.”

He reaches out to her.

“You can choose to be Hope. We can find a way. Fight it.”

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley is shaken from what she hears from Danielle. Danielle's husband was killed in a fire, and the house went with him... He died because of Danielle, but why? "They" found out Danielle is a metahuman? Ashley had a small feeling she knew, but she'd need to hear from Danielle first... And possibly fast. "I'll be on my way, 10 minutes tops."

Deciding not to put on her costume, Ashley makes sure every window and door is locked before teleporting out of her apartment and to the nearest place to St. Lucious' shelter. Should only be a short walk from there, though an agonizing one. Ashley knew homeless shelters are not pretty and Danielle is in for a life of hell until she gets bailed out by her cousin.

[kpenguin]

Robert Asterion

Robert, having been rather rudely awakened by a bullet, quickly rolls out of his bed, using it as cover as he looks up at his sandwich.

Covered with broken glass. Probably salvageable.

Well, darn.

Robert rolls out of bed (move action) and keeps prone. He uses his Standard action for total defense.

Against ranged attacks he has cover (+4 defense), is prone (+4 defense), and is using total defense (+4 defense), for a total of 31 defense. Should he roll initiative?

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Len frowns, but abides by Jake's wishes and stays where he is. "Be careful." he says, and watches the situation intently, body keyed in on a dinosaur transformation. If Hope goes supernova, Len was ready to get Jake out of there.

[ChronicLunacy]

Faith Winters

Faith groaned and turned over, no worse for wear after Excalibur's intervention but groggy and disoriented. "Anyone get the number of that hurricane...?" she mumbled as she pulled herself into a sitting position against a ruined cabinet. She was starting to think that hanging around Jake may not be the safest post to have been assigned...

[Raynn]

Faith, Hope, Jake & Len

Hope rises to her feet as her energy waves shatter more nearby masonry, she glances towards the far off edge of the island and then back to Jake, then something truly odd occurs . . .

Hope seems almost to gasp for breath for a moment before freezing in place as the symbol on her chest becomes a solid crimson again and her skin turns white to match her hair and her eyes return to normal, then she flickers back to her normal fleshed energy emitting form. A voice, cold and unfeeling, whispers out of the symbol on her chest


"Energy Containment Field Nullified; Destructive Interference detected; Unable To Track Source; Omega Under Attack; Jake Wallace, Faith Winters, Len Cope, in Imminent Danger. Counter to Wishes of Omega. Omega desires course of action to protect Len Cope, Faith Winters, Jake Wallace . . .

Space. Interim Solution Only.

Jake Faith Len. Omega requires assistance.

Please Advise.

Containment Unit Re-entering Stand-by Mode.

Re-initializing Omega Consciousness."

Hope suddenly falls back on her knees and catches herself, as the energy waves begin erupting once again


"Wha. . . wha . . . what happened? Where did I go?"


***


Ashley Culdis

As Ashley enters the Homeless Shelter she quickly finds Danielle at the back of a large hall like room with only a large rucksack of belongings and her daughter in a stroller beside her.

She looks haggard, like she's barely slept or eaten in days . . .

As Ashley approaches she looks embarrassed


"Hey Ashley . . ."


***

You go he goes should be fine, at least for now.


Robert Asterion

With Robert so well protected the attacker doesn't even bother with another shot and instead seems to cease firing, possibly to move towards the hotel.

Then Robert begins to hear rhythmic thuds from beneath his window . . .

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

His expression belies his shock and confusion at the sudden transformation and the robotic voice. Then came what he’d feared. She is Omega. Hope is Omega. Yet… her hopes aren’t to destroy them all. She wants to keep them safe. He wasn’t giving up.

Jake comes closer to her just in time for the energy waves to begin wrecking the area. He draws Excalibur and holds it out, opening a portal. On the other side is nothing but sand dunes.

“I don’t know what happened, but that’s not what’s important right now. We need to go somewhere where there are no people. The Sahara. Go through the portal, Hope. I’m coming through with you.”

He looked back at the other two. He’s risking death here, but they don’t have to.

“You guys can stay or go, it’s your choice.”

Back to Hope.

“Once we’re through, we’ll keep trying to figure this out. Just trust me, okay? I'm not going to leave you.”

[Phase]

Diego Torres

Diego lands next to the girl, rubbing the back of his neck. "Ay caramba..." He leans down next to her and checks to make sure he didn't hurt her too badly. "Come on, chicka. Let's get you someplace safe." He struggles, but even Diego is able to lift her small frame. He cradles her in his arms and approaches the civilians.

"When someone tells you to get gone, you get got, cabrones." He takes to the sky, weighed down heavily by the girl. "The name's Peregrine." He says, sternly. "Look it up, you'll know I don't take kindly to minority oppression." He narrows his eyes under his helmet. "Now move along."

He flies as fast as is safe for the girl towards the nearest hospital and lands on the roof, lying her down gently and kneeling by her side.

[kpenguin]

Robert Asterion

Robert hears the approach of... something. It wouldn't be long now until they got into his room. And there would be a brawl.

He crawls over to the hotel phone and pulls it down, pressing the buttons quickly to get to the lobby's front desk.

"Excuse me, sir or madam. This is room 13B, fourth floor. There was a gunshot through my window and I am inclined to believe that further violence is imminent, possibly of a superhuman manner. If you would please contact the proper authorities and evacuate the building, I would be much obliged and inclined toward writing favorable review of your facility. Thank you"

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley walks into the shelter in a brown tank-top and blue jeans, wearing sunglasses just in case. Last thing she wants is to attract attention by entering as a superhero. Looking at Danielle however breaks Ashley's heart on the inside. Ashley has no idea how long Danielle has been here but it is way too long. "Oh, Danielle..." Her voice is full of remorse and sorrow. Very little has gone Ashley's way since two days ago and it really is just getting worse. She goes to touch Danielle's shoulder, undoubtedly dirty. "Hold on, I'll make a call and then we'll get out of this nightmare."

Ashley heads just outside of the shelter and takes out her cell phone. She calls Jake, knowing he'd accept someone into Camelot... Except no one answers, not even a message is left. It's not just Jake either; Len and Faith's cells both do not respond. "What the hell...?" Looks like Camelot is out of the question.

Ashley sighs and heads back inside the shelter to speak with Danielle and her baby. "Alright, let's get you two out." So long as there are no complications, Ashley takes Danielle and her baby back to Ashley's apartment. They have to go the normal way, by walking and by taxi; the baby probably isn't ready to be teleported and some of Ashley's powers just don't work right with Danielle.

[Raynn]

Jake Wallace

Alone in the Sahara Jake tries to dodge the arches of energy as he tries to withstand Hope's broken screams for mercy.

Then she is gone. Where she was a moment before now appears empty, save for a slight dip in the sand like the bottom of a sphere, and the desert is silent and safe. He notices something in a reflection in the glass Hope's energy had formed from the glass, when he turns he sees a man who he used to call Vice Principal.

Isiah Washington.

As usual, before Jake can speak Isiah opens his mouth


"It's okay, Hope's safe, at least in regard that she won't hurt anyone, and she's still right there. She's surrounded by a portal sphere that is releasing her energy to an M Class planet a few stars away, so long as she doesn't move she'll stay right where you left her. Before you ask, she was releasing more Power Negative than we've seen since the Terminus Invasion. You're lucky I'm all that showed up. Jake. Please explain to me why she is safe on Earth, please give me a reason not to help her with what she was screaming about when I got here,"

Isiah sits in the sand looking exhausted, puts his hand into a portal and pulls out a beer throwing it in Jake's direction before taking one out of the portal for himself and closing it


"Dire gave me a brief respite off Operations. All the time I need, because of this being related to Omega and you being one of my former students.

If you want I can exile her. I know a reality where sentient life never developed, it's like Eden except for bus sized felines.

I mean with the Cullie Act I'd technically have to deport her in a week or so anyway unless she got citizenship, which I'm pretty sure she couldn't get in time apart from the obvious ridiculous option.

Jake . . . what do you want to do?"


***

Faith & Len

The remaining pair begin to hear a ringing in the rubble, a cell phone maybe? Something Merlin didn't own.


***


Ashley Culdis

As Ashley enters the apartment Sarah disappears from Danielle's hands zips through a nearby light switch and clings to the room light. As Danielle runs to the sofa to catch her she almost breaks down in tears. Ashley didn't even know Sarah was a mutate. Ashley knows that mutates powers unlike mutants lack an X-gene and will have powers similar to their ancestors, it also means there powers can activate very early or very late in life.

Clinging to Sarah for dear life and shying away from anything remotely electrical Danielle says


"Sorry about being a burden, you don't even have room for both of us in such a small place."

Sarah just giggles over her mothers worried tone and smiles as she reaches in Ashley's direction.


***

Attack Roll: [roll0] DC 25 Toughness Save on a hit for Robert.
Now Robert's turn.


Robert Asterion

As Robert hangs up on a stunned receptionist he sees his enemy, or at least one of them, finally climb into the room.

A roughly 7 foot tall, muscle bound, raggedly dressed blue skinned troll. It's beady red eyes fixate on Robert and expecting merely a grunt he in fact says to Robert


"One apologizes for our future altercation and the inevitable physical harm that will come to your form good bovine sir but one's employer is most adamant about his desires to see your fine self in an injured state.

No hard feelings of course. Merely business, which of course, is the monster business for the both of us, and business is obviously quite prosperous at the moment.

Oh, where are my manners, I am Bartholomew the Troll, and gentleman of course. Anyway . . ."

He shifts his weight in a combat stance


"'Tis The Clobbering Hour!"

He leaps forward to deliver a knuckle sandwich to Robert's jaw.


***

2 Hero Points to Diego.


Diego Torres

It doesn't take long for the doctors to find El Peregino on the roof and get the girl to the ER. The doctors don't even comment on him being a super hero as they rush the girl away, being the one city in the world where they've been used to it for decades, and even allow Diego to follow them inside so long as he stayed in the waiting room.

The news he receives is not what he wants to hear.

While the doctor doesn't say she is in a coma, he may as well have, babbling on about how the next few days are critical, etcetera. The Doctor doesn't mention what injuries are responsible for the girl's condition but from the way he speaks Diego gets the impression that this isn't a first for the mutants of Freedom City. People like those thugs Diego encountered have been doing stuff like this to innocent people for some time . . . or at least that's the impression he gets from the doctor. The doctor implies there's no reason to stick around, she won't be out of surgery for some time.

What do you do?

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

He could handle the destruction, even her cries for death. But her sudden disappearance took him aback. His nostrils flare, his breathing speeds. Where is she? Has she lost so much control? He turns, looking for her when he sees Isiah Washington. His eyes narrow, a reflex.

Still, he listens, as calmly as he can right now… that is, up until Isiah threatens to kill her.

“Simple morality, Isiah. What’s happening to her right now is not her choice. The situation may be complicated, but until there is no other choice I will try and help her, not harm her.”

His anger subsides when Isiah… well… tosses him a cold one. He exhales softly and moves to sit down beside his old Vice Principal. That simple gesture went a long way.

“Sorry for the outburst… but, this situation is very complicated.”

He opens the can and takes a sip. In this moment of relative calm, it’s all he can do to keep that lump in his throat down. Merle is dead.

“I don’t want you to exile her. And she bypasses the Cullie Act because I declare her a citizen of Camelot.” He takes another drink. “I want to help her. It’s possible that she’s Omega, or something from the Terminus. But she’s also a girl. A nice one, actually. When her power activated, she was excited to come with me and Len on superhero adventures... until this, that is.”

He shakes his head.

“Like I told her. She’s no more Omega than I am Mordred. If I deserve to go on, so does she.”

He looks over to Isiah. He shouldn’t be saying this.

“And… I like her. I sure can pick ‘em, huh? So... help me find a way to control or seal away whatever this is."

[Raynn]

Jake Wallace

Isiah sighs, and sips his cold one before speaking again


"I already did.

I'm the one jamming her containment field."

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Hope is Omega? And she wants to protect us? Len thinks, his face showing clearly his bewilderment.

Len was about to follow Jake through the portal. He would never leave his best friend to face death alone. However before he could step through, he see's Isaiah take control of the situation, and on his side, he hears a ringing from the rubble. Merle did not own a cell phone. "You hear that? Or are my ears still ringing from the explosion?" he says to Faith.

Len tries to signal Jake through the portal, if its even still open. "There's something weird here, I'll catch up in a sec!"

Len turns to begin sifting through the rubble for the source of the sound.

if you need a search roll, here it is! [roll0]

[Raynn]

Len Cope & Faith Winters

Len finds his cell phone, pretty beat up, with a few missed calls from Ashley Culdis.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley halts the moment she steps into her apartment room as she sees Danielle's child rocket off to the nearest electrical object. Ashley makes sure to lock her apartment door before taking a seat on the sofa. She still looks remorseful as she sees her cousin break down in tears. "Danielle, don't think that way," Ashley responds in trying to encourage her cousin. "It's not a proper apartment for two but I don't really need to sleep anyway. The bed is yours while I find a more suitable place for you and Sarah to stay in. Besides, you and Marcia accommodated me when I came to Freedom City; it's only natural as family that I can do the same for you and Sarah." Ashley looks at the baby. Three months old and already her powers have manifested? It's just utterly insane how early it has happened.

Ashley picks up a cookbook from her bookshelf and begins to read through the various recipes that she can make with what she has in her fridge. She tries to sound more optimistic now. "So anything you and Sarah are hungry for?" Ashley remembers a few German dishes from one of the restaurants she went to a while ago. It's not exactly the first time she has made one but she can't really call herself a master chef. Ashley would do anything for her cousin, especially after she got Danielle involved with the entire MetaTime crisis.

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Len's face screws up with concern when he sees the missed calls from Ashley. It looked like Jake had things reasonably under control. Might as well see what was up, and let Ash know the situation at Camelot.

He dials Ash's number. "Hey Ash, it's Len. We have a situation here at Camelot. How you doing?"

[Raynn]

Ashley Culdis

Danielle merely shrugs as she starts shuffling through her rucksack supplies, likely looking for things for the bath Sarah so desperately needs.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

“I don’t even really know what that means. What I do know is that this,” he gestures to the empty space where she technically is, “is not a long-term option.”

Len calls out to him through the still-open portal. Jake nods to him, letting Len do as he sees fit.

“Isiah, I need a way to get her out of this bubble without her blowing up her surroundings. And then later… later we should discuss the Ultimate Nullifier.”

[kpenguin]

Robert Asterion

A touch, a touch I do confess

Robert spits out blood as he turns his head back at his assailant, battered from the blow.

"Of course, of course good sir. I understand. I have but one regret."

The mighty minotaur slides his elbow swiftly into the troll's chest, the blue skinned attacker staggering back, stunned from the attack.

"I won't get to finish my word-a-day calendar. Pity that. What's today's word...?

The minotaur throws a punch into the troll's left side, advancing.

"Ah, yes, defenestrate. From the latin de, down, and fenestra, window.

Another two punches, right in the ribs as the troll is further pushed back and Robert keeps stepping forward.

"Defenestrate. Verb. To throw something

Robert grabs the troll by the shoulder and pushes him down as his knee comes up. The troll is at the edge of the room now, as Robert advances on it.

"Or someone"

A big brown hand grabs the troll's right arm.

"Out a window"

He clenches hard and then swings Bartholomew around in a hammertoss, the troll flying out the window.

Robert peers down out the window before turning and heading for the door.

"Oh, wait. defenestrate was next Saturday's word. Today's word is sagacity. Oops.

[Phase]

Diego Torres

Diego paces as he waits. He wishes he could fly, but hospitals tend to frown on that sort of thing. Even so, he can't just sit still as he waits for the doctor's word. And he really can't just sit still after he receives it. He paces back, then forth, then back, and then he nods, rubs his neck, and runs out the nearest open window, to gasps from the other waiters.

He knows it's not his fault. He knows it. He wouldn't have understood the girl, and he couldn't risk a misunderstanding. He knows all too well what can happen to the average human body at the hands of a post-human. He knows it's not his fault...

He lands on a skyscraper, fists clenched. He still blames himself. All sources say it's their fault, but he blames himself. He leans against an air conditioner. He's supposed to be the friendly neighborhood falcon, the defender of the defenseless. And yet he's been blind to the more modern prejudice, he's failed them.

"RrrrrraaaAAAAAAAAAGHH" He lashes out at the air conditioner with his talons, tearing it to metallic ribbons. Then he kicks it. "Gah! Ouch ouch ouch!" He hops on one foot, grabbing the other in pain. He limps over to the edge of the building and sits down, legs hanging limply in mid-air. He sighs and gets his helmet to dial a friend.

"Hey, Harold? It's Diego. I'm gonna have to- yeah, I'm cancelling again. No it's not- no, it shouldn't be expected, I'm sorry. Yeah could you let Dina know? Thanks amigo..." He hangs up, sighs again, and stands on the corner of the building, a determined look plastered across his face. He brings up any files he has access to on Prometheus.

Well-Informed roll on Prometheus
[roll0]

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley nods in silence to Danielle as she picks out a particular dish that she fondly remembers as a child, Schweinshaxe served with boiled potatoes. It's a dish Ashley has only made once before but she has the ham and will to give it a try on her own. Ashley's focus however is taken away from the book by her cell phone going off. Finally someone answers. "Good to finally hear from you Len," she speaks over her cell in a tone that is a mix of frustration and relief. "I really don't want to hear that Camelot is in trouble again. Right now it needs to be un-troubled. My cousin Danielle and her baby is homeless and I want to register her as a citizen of Camelot. Where is Jake anyway? I tried calling him on his cell and I got dead silence."

Whatever is going on there, Ashley did not want another complication in her life. Danielle is safe in her apartment for now but Ashley does not want her to stay for too long. If what Ashley believes is true, then being at this apartment may be as bad an idea as it is staying at the homeless shelter.

[Raynn]

Jake Wallace

Isiah replies


"I set up the Lighthouse Satellite to emit the signal that nullifies Omega's containment field whenever it detected such high levels of the Power Negative.

Jake Dire told you about the past universe right? Ever hear how Omega died last time? Infinite iterations of the Big Bang, overlapping, burning him up.

If she's Omega I don't even know how but I can tell you there is only way she's him, and that if she has his memories. Meaning after whatever you did to activate her, if I shut down that signal it is very likely she will receive billions of years of Omega's memories and revert into some new form to contain that power and knowledge. Harlequin and Winter II are gone Jake, Earth can be defeated again, and even if we beat him, how many of your friends will she kill before that happens?

Do you really think two and a half days swooning over you will cure the greatest despot in the multiverse?

Anyway, we both know you're not leaving American airspace, and similar legislation will be adopted by the E.U. and most of Asia by the end of the month. You want the band back together now, which means you'll be in Freedom City for a while.

You'd need to let her become Omega, and Marry her, and stop her from killing everyone you know, to stop her from being deported or dead.

Jake. I will let it be your choice, but any deaths she causes will be on your hands not mine. Accept that before you make your decision."


***


Robert Asterion

As Robert makes his way down through the Hotel he's met by worried, and sometimes terrified looks, before finally making his way out to the street where the Troll gentleman has landed in a crater.

Standing nearby atop an abandoned car is a teenager, about the Peregrine's age, wearing a bandoleer of potions in glass vials, and covered in different blades and firearms like some sort of trained assassin.

He draws a compact bow, extends it and readies an arrow that looks explosive, aimed at Robert's heart. He wears a utilitarian black and scarlet outfit.


"Hello Robert Asterion, Monster, my name is Arthur Strong, and I want you to send Mordred a message."

***

Diego Torres


Prometheus is the leader of the group Humanity First.
He is widely regarded to be a normal, but extremely charismatic, human.
He is considered by some to be a great humanitarian leader and by others to be a regressive bigot.
While his actual identity is unknown and he takes great pains to avoid the law he does make occassional surprise appearances in public.
He is believed to have a secret compound within the city.
Certain criminal elements may know the location of this base or a rally he may be due to appear at.

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

"Well sorry to disappoint but we are extremely troubled here. There's been an incident." Len says, not sure how much he should say over the phone. He takes a breath an continues. "As for your cousin, you know any of your family is welcome in Camelot. Bring her up and we will find a place for her."

"Oh, and Jake is currently dealing with the fallout from the S***storm that just happened."

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

“Dire told me everything. But neither she, nor you have experience with what’s happening right now. She has my memories. And even while she was in the throes of whatever this was, her intent was to keep me and our friends safe from harm. I am not going to assume she’s going to kill us all, and pass judgment before I have to.”

He looks Isiah in the eye. “In a past life I was a betrayer. I murdered King Arthur. But that man is dead. So is Omega. We have to give her the chance to make her own choices.”

But Isiah was right. Legally, Jake was going to have problems with the Cullie Act. And apparently, Isiah wasn’t willing to accept his declaration from a moment ago.

“So… death or marriage?” Those are the options? He exhales quietly.

Sip.

The things he does…

“I’ll accept the fallout of whatever I do. I’m always prepared to.”

Sip.

“I want you to isolate us in an extra-dimensional space… then shut down the signal. If it goes wrong, I’ll deal with it.”

Guess this is the ultimate shotgun wedding, huh?

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley rubs her forehead as Len responds to her on how bad it is in Camelot. By this point she is getting very frustrated. "Fine, fine. Look, how long will it take for you to get here? I'm going to make something for Danielle so it would help if you can meet me here in two hours time." With that, Ashley hangs up and begins focusing on making dinner... Well lunch technically. She would call Clark later to let him know about the state of events. But now is the time to make a meal.

And some time later, it's finished. The ham is a little overcooked but otherwise it's a much better-looking meal than the last time Ashley made Schweinshaxe. "Alright, ready!" She calls out to Danielle as Ashley takes a seat with her serving ready.

[Raynn]

Jake Wallace

Isiah nods


"I hope you know what you're doing Jake. Good luck my friend."

There is a flash of light and suddenly Jake is standing alone in a field that seems to stretch on for miles in every direction. Nearby he sees her.

Her skin is as white as her hair, but her eyes have returned to normal and the symbol on her chest and her lips have turned a deep crimson. She uses the remnants of her clothes to cover herself and Jake gets a flash back to the first time he met her.

She doesn't scream, and nothing suddenly explodes. In fact aside from her change in appearance she seems exactly the same


"Jake . . . ? Why amn't I exploding?"

Jake grins.

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

"I'll try to be there in 2 hours. Might be a little longer depending on whats going on up here. If I can't make it, I'll send someone to get you." he says, tone in his voice clearly not appreciative of Ashley's frustration considering what just occurred. With that he says his goodbyes and hangs up.

He spends some time coordinating the Camelot knights in cleanup and security duty, and arranges for Merle's body to be respectfully extracted from the ruins. He informs one of the knights that he will be heading off Camelot to pick up Ashley and to tell Jake when he returns if he is not back himself. He motions to Faith that she can either stay or come along.

-later-

Len flies himself down to Ashley's apartment, landing in front and shifting from a nimble speedy flying Pterosaur to his human form. He buzzes the intercom. "Ash, it's Len, buzz me in." he says.

[Raynn]

Disclaimer:

"In the Raynnverse, a wild world of living cartoons, soft spoken Minotaurs and awkward German engineers the laws of the real world tend to be more lax or interpreted differently.

Typically this refers to the laws of physics, but in some cases can in fact have legal implications.

Like the reinterpretations of the laws of physics any "Comic book view" of legal systems or laws is intended simply to enhance the story and so forgive any mild discrepancy from actual world laws. Keep in mind most of you would have been arrested for assault etc for your vigilante ways by now if you operated in a realistic legal system. :smalltongue:

-Raynn Out

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

He looks down at the grass. Where exactly is this field? Sometimes Isiah’s powers were baffling and staggering simultaneously. “Signals and uh… containment fields and stuff? I really don’t understand how it works.”

He folds his arms, his expression heavy with thought.

“We need to have a chat.” He reaches a hand up to scritch his chin. “Isiah says that it’s likely you’ll download memories. Maybe that’s already happened, I don’t know. All I can do is stay in this bubble with you until I figure out… well, if you’re still you.”

He shook his head.

“And don’t even get into what happens if we leave this bubble. That’s a whole new can of worms. Maybe bells... maybe missiles."

[Phase]

Diego Torres

Diego stands on the corner of the building, feet together, then takes a swan dive off, free-falling for a good twenty stories before pulling up. He flies a bit to burn some energy, ducking between buildings and pulling off dangerous stunts. Eventually he maintains a cruising speed of 60 miles per hour above the tops of the skyscrapers. It's not enough, he needs to do something.

"Let's see if we can't send a little message..." He fiddles with some settings on his helmet, re-routing his radio to broadcast over a wide area. He smirks. "Vamanos." He speeds across the city, making sure his signal spreads to ever corner as he speaks it.

"Bienvendidos, damas y cabelleros! I'm El Peregrino, and I'll be your host this afternoon! Please standby for your regularly scheduled pop mierda and various dubsteps." He dips down low, flying between traffic, before pulling back up into the sky. "This is a message to that senor about town, the man on everyone's lips, Prometheus!" He lands on top of a building and crosses his arms, pausing for a moment of dramatic effect. "How's tricks, esse?" He jumps off, back to flying. "I know you're quite busy, with your anti-post-human bigotry and all taking up your time, but I just ran into some huge fans of yours, and they suggested a good old fashioned team-up!" He grimaces at the suggestion, but pushes forward. "And I gotta say, esse, it intrigued me. See, I'm a young up and comer like yourself, and I've heard a lot of things about you. Where you sit for a nice drink, what your favorite color is, the people you've allegedly murdered, et cetera." Whoops, dodge the pigeons dodge the pigeons.

"Point is, hearing is hearing, but seeing is believing. How about a simple meeting? Just a chat between strangers, to get to know one another a lil better. How's tonight at, oh, let's say sundown? Liberty Park, Heroes' Knoll?" He lands on another building, crossing his arms, grimace on his face. "I promise I'm 100% pure-blood human, hombre." He flies to a different part of the city and repeats until he feels the message is properly sent.

Using a Hero Point in conjunction with Extra Effort to slap the Area Extra on my Radio Comm so that literally everyone in the city within earshot of a radio has heard what he has to say.

[ChronicLunacy]

Faith Winters

"I'll meet you when you get back, Len. I need to keep a finger on this Hope situation or I'll probably get fired..." Faith shrugged in response to Len's offer to come with. Then once he was gone she started sending a report in to her superiors with her earpiece as she picked her way through the debris. She tried to find wherever the old man, Merlin, had fallen. She wanted to see if he was really dead or just heavily injured and in need of medical attention.

She also needed to be there when Jake, Hope, and Isaiah came back.

If they came back.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley decides it's best to stay quiet during "dinner" with Danielle. With her cousin just out of the shelter, Ashley didn't want to bring up the incident that occurred. Perhaps once they get to Camelot, once Danielle is settled in, Ashley can ask her what happened. Just from what Danielle has said before however, Ashley has a pretty good idea on what happened. "...I hope that was a good meal Danielle." She keeps a quiet tone as she watches her cousin. Is Danielle off the police force by this point? Ashley can assume so. She wonders if Faith might be able to spring a job offer in AEGIS for Danielle.

Just then, Ashley can hear Len's voice over the intercom. She opens the door to meet with her former classmate. "Thanks for coming. Sorry about yelling on the phone; life just hasn't been going anyone's way right now." She invites Len in. "Danielle, you remember my old classmate, Len? Guy who transforms into dinosaurs?" Way back at Claremont, Danielle had time to meet with Ashley's friends in the midst of everything that occurred. She may still remember some of them.

From there however, a very familiar voice begins talking over the radio. Ashley's mind is taken away and focused on the radio as she hears Peregrine over him, wanting to talk to Prometheus. Ashley's face is just in utter shock at what she is hearing. Does Peregrine have ANY idea who the leader of Humanity First is? Probably not judging by what he is saying. Ashley is just in complete surprise, she can't even find a word to say. It's pretty obvious to Danielle that Ashley knows who Peregrine, and to a lesser extent, Prometheus, is.

[Raynn]

Anything you want to do before your untimely death at sundown? :smallbiggrin: :smallwink:


Diego Torres


***


Faith Winters

Faith quickly finds Merlin's body and he is indeed as dead as expected. Glancing through the portal she sees that Isiah now sits alone in the Sahara.


***


Jake Wallace

Hope in her new form just kind of shrugs


"Umm. . . I don't feel any different? I don't think I have any new memories . . . Just you, and 2 and a bit days of awkwardness, life or death situations . . ."

she glances down at her hands


"I don't seem to be able to fly anymore, contrary to the snazzy new look,"

she looks back up at Jake worried again


"What happens if we leave?"


***


Ashley & Len

As Len came to the door Sarah reached out and touched Ashley's arm as she pulled away and suddenly she had teleported through Ashley to cling to Ashley's shoulder, scrambling manically not to fall to the ground below.

Taking Sarah Danielle takes a few steps away from Ashley and forces a smile in Len's direction


"Nice to see you again Len."

[kpenguin]

Robert Asterion

"Monster is an energy drink. If you would like to address me by something other than my name, sir will suffice."

He spreads his hands wide. "Now, what message would you like me to send to my friend. I'm sure that any communication can be accomplished without explosive arrows sent in my general direction? Usually messenger shooting occurs after the message is delivered."

[Raynn]

Robert Asterion

Arthur lowers his bow


"Tell him Arthur is coming for the Throne he usurped."

With that he shoots a different trick arrow towards a nearby rooftop and grabs the line it leaves behind and a moment later is pulled away as the line is retracted, leaving Robert alone in the street with the unconscious troll.

[kpenguin]

Robert Asterion

Robert groans and puts his palm to his face. His third day in Freedom. Third day. What a week.

Day One: Get almost murdered by your biological father.
Day Two: Find out that you have terminal clone degneration
Day Three: Have a sandwich ruined.

It just got worse each day. Tomorrow there might be two sandwiches ruined.

Robert sits down on Bartholomew, pinning the blue skinned troll to the ground, and waits for the STAR squad to arrive to cuff him.

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Len had no hard feelings towards Ashley from their phone conversation. "Everyone seems to be having a rough go with things lately, unfortunately. No harm done." he says, flashing his trademark grin.

He then turns to Danielle and returns her greeting. "Nice to see you too Danielle. Ash briefly mentioned your situation over the phone. You and your baby are of course welcome in Camelot. With things the way they are now, you may have to stay in some temporary housing until we can get you squared away with something more permanent though." he says, and watches with interest as Sarah teleports through Ashley onto her shoulder. "I'm sure she'll fit right in." he says, again grinning.

Len's grin slips slightly as he hears El Peregrino's message over the radio, and sighs. "What is that kid doing...he's gonna get himself killed." he says, and looks to Ash. "We need to get to him and stop him before he does something stupid. You with me Ash?" he says, and turns to Danielle. "Danielle, there is a helicopter waiting at the airport to take you up to Camelot. Here's some cab fare." he says, handing Danielle some money. "Also, here is your temporary Camelot visa." he hands her a packet with the necessary documents to allow her and her daughter entry into Camelot. "I'll arrange for someone to meet you at the Camelot welcome center to get you situated when you arrive. Hopefully, this doesn't take too long and I will join you on the chopper ride."

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

If he was to take her at her word, no two billion years of evil downloaded. Perhaps… having his memories taking up that storage space defeated the transfer. But maybe it just delayed it. Frell.

“It’s good you can’t fly. That power is not a good thing. You should try to never use it again. Even if Faith, Len, me, and all our other friends are being ripped to shreds, you should never use it.”

She asks him what happens if they leave. He sits down on the grass. It feels nice. Oddly enough, this is the most peaceful moment he’s had in months. He motions for her to sit down with him.

“So, there’s a strong chance that you are the reincarnation of an extremely powerful entity that nearly wiped out all life everywhere.” He looks up at her. “But you’re also just Hope. And Hope's done nothing wrong so far. I promised to defend you, and as long as you haven’t gone all evil on me, I’m still going to do that.”

“And that’s where it gets complicated.”

“Isiah Washington has us sealed in an extra-dimensional bubble. He currently wants to send you to some distant uninhabited planet forever or convince me to kill you. I’m not prepared to let either of those things happen.”

His eyes are strong as he says this. Honor like steel.

“I made a declaration that you’re a citizen of Camelot. Isiah didn’t buy it. I doubt the U.S. will either, based on his reaction. So, when you step out… it’s likely he’ll try to ‘deport’ you with the Cullie Act. My options for stopping this are limited.”

He holds his hands out, like a scale, “On one hand. I could tell him to frak himself. This would probably spark an international incident. On the other hand, I could try a more,” pause, “legitimate," pause, "form of citizenship. Which, on the other hand… would probably still trigger a conflict if they find out exactly what happened here today.”

He gets to the point.

“Hope,” this is a very difficult position he’s in, and he’s feeling nervous now (for more than just the political reasons, obviously), “You know what a green card marriage is, right?”

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Once she finally has the will to act, Ashley thwaps her hand on her head. "Good idea Len. Frankly our loose cannon Peregrine is in need of a lecture." She goes to grab her Kevlar gear and combat coat as she explains her plan to Len in a serious manner. "Okay, here's what we'll do. We're going to find this fool of a hero in the skies and get him to abandon this meeting. If he doesn't listen... We'll think of something, but I'd rather not resort to violence." She eyes Len cautiously. "Trust me when I say that we don't want to make it look like we're attacking a human."

As she finishes readying herself, Ashley takes a moment to look to Danielle as she softens up a bit. "Hopefully we won't be long but in the case we take longer than planned, do you want me to call a friend that can help escort you to Camelot?" She opens her phone, ready to call Clark if Danielle wishes it.

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

"There won't be any need for violence against Peregrine. Though if Prometheus shows up, we might need to throw a little violence his way." he says. "El Peregrino came to Camelot's aid in its hour of need, there is no way I would hurt him, especially not for pulling such a crazy stunt as this. We just need to make sure we get to him before Prometheus does."

Len waits until Ash is finished with her conversation with Danielle, then shifts into a quick flying Pterosaur and takes to the sky, searching for the young hero.

[Raynn]

Robert Asterion

It doesn't take long for STAR squad to arrive and cart away Bartholomew into the back of a secure van, to where Robert could only guess, Blackgate maybe?

As he settled in to be pestered by questions from law enforcement, sadly he knew lacking F.L.I. membership he didn't get away with a "I'll fill out the paper work later" like more official heroes, and he wasn't the type to leap away into the darkness either.

At least he was lucky that he recognized the girl who approached him in full STAR uniform. She went by the name Mercury and had dated Clark up until Ashley's untimely demise at during their Claremont years. She was essentially indestructible, even by super standards, but lacked any other real abilities. Though she permanently looked like she was made out of adamantium, which seemingly had also halted her aging, she lacked any real enhanced strength to make her a powerhouse.

She smiles at Clark and is about to enter into the typical interview process when El Peregrino challenge blurts out of her radio on her waist before she can get a word out.


"Who the hell is El Peregrino?!"


***


Ashley & Len

Danielle seems oddly apprehensive at Ashley's mention of a friend, and agrees to simply taking a cab to the airport and the helicopter that awaits her. She prepares to leave only after wrapping Sarah in a insulating blanket of rubber.

As soon as Danielle is gone and Rycon and Sauros begin their search in earnest for El Peregrino it doesn't take long to find him flying openly over the city spreading the message. As he pauses on a rooftop near a power station Rycon and Sauros appear behind him, he turns around . . .


***


Diego Torres

El Peregrino turns to see Sauros and Rycon waiting behind him . . .


***


Jake Wallace

Hope's eyes grow wide


"WAIT . . . ! WAIT . . . ! WHAT?!

You find out I'm essentially Space Satan, the anti-christ and super Hitler rolled into one and your first question to me is the most awkward proposal possible?

Oh my god, I can't tell if you're more like Ashley or Jill in this moment.

So my options are Death, living out the lifespan of the universe alone, and potentially powerless in another reality, starting a war between the US and Camelot or Marriage!?"

She collapses to the ground and lies on her back as if emotionally exhausted


"Oh, wouldn't that be hilarious, first question from Okay Magazine, 'how did you meet the King?' well I fell out of the sky in a big golden ball and hijacked his memories and the image of his dream girl so he wouldn't kill me on sight', oh and when they ask if I think I'm qualified to be Queen of Camelot, 'oh of course, I ruled a dimension spanning tyrannical empire for billions of years . . . as a dude', ugh . . . "

she sits up


"AND, to top all that off, you haven't even kissed me yet!"

she sighs and looks at the ground running her hand through her long ivory locks


"Death, War, Suffering or Marriage,"

she looks up half humerus half trying not to cry


"I guess I'd be a monster if I said no, or insane, or both . . ."

She looks out across the field


"If people find out what I am it won't just be villains who attack Camelot, heroes will too, a lot of people died in the Terminus Invasion, the Centurion was just one, they still have families, some of them, and admirers. If you married me you'd have to lie to the world or risk open war, maybe a world war. With the number of super humans in this world it might not be a war the world could survive. If we slipped up . . . millions, maybe billions would die . . .

I can't ask you for this . . ."

She tries to lighten the tone again


"And you still haven't kissed me."

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

She had the reaction he had expected. He shakes his head as she lays out what her options are and calls him out for being so awkward. “Look! I’m acting like a guy stuck in a bad situation. I don’t want something to happen to you, and I sure as hell don’t want to force you into marriage, either.”

He throws up his hands in frustration. Though, he nearly laughs at the imagined interview. Wow, what a story, huh? She tells him that heroes will come to attack him if this gets out. She tells him things he already knows.

She says she can’t ask for this.

“Hope! Dammit. The thing is that you are my dream girl. Plan successful in that regard! More importantly is that as far as I can tell, you are a completely different entity than Omega. Even when you went robot for a minute, you mentioned protecting me and my friends. I, of all frakking people, can’t hold a previous incarnation against you.”

He searches for something eloquent… but he’s not thinking about his words very well right now.

“So I don’t give a sh** who disagrees with me. I gave you my word I'd protect you. MY WORD.”

He breaths in deeply. The next time he speaks, it's softer.

“Point is, you aren’t asking me for this.”

He glances over to her.

“I’m asking you. Marry me.”

“Marry me.”

He kissed her. And although the situation was insane, he meant it.

[Starsign]

Ashley sighs quietly as Danielle declines and takes off by cab. She really wants the best for her cousin with all the turmoil that has happened these years. Ashley sometimes wonder if she herself is the biggest reason Danielle has been suffering. She's brought her cousin in so many situations it can be easy to state Ashley is the main issue. Either way, there isn't much more Ashley can do about her cousin. Right now they have an eagle to catch.

Ashley mounts Len as they fly through the air. Unlike Clark, Ashley hangs onto Len's dinosaur form for dear life as they do their best to follow Peregrine. It's only when the fool lands on the rooftop near a power station that they get a chance to speak to him. The soonest they touch ground, Ashley gets off Len and begins yelling at Diego. "Peregrine, what the hell are you thinking?!" She'd be ready to slap him had she and Len agreed to not go with violence. "Did you not get my meaning when I mentioned MetaSoul was burned to death? There was no proof on who did it, but you are going to get yourself killed meeting Prometheus. You don't even know if he'll be alone!" If she knew Prometheus as the trusting type, she wouldn't be so inclined to stop Peregrine. That however, is not the case.

[Phase]

Diego Torres

Diego turns around and looks taken aback to encounter fellow heroes up here, but it only takes a moment before he breaks out a smile and waves. "Hola, amigos! What brings you to my casa in the sky?" He leans against the power station. He recoils as Ashley lands and goes aggressive.

"Hey, whoa whoa, hey, Sparky. Don't get your bragas in a twist!" He pulls himself up onto the powerstation, sitting crosslegged. He listens to her tirade, frown on his face, eyes hidden behind his helmet. "Maybe I didn't catch your meaning about him killing your friend, Sparky. Are you saying your meaning wasn't 'Hey, this guy is killing metahumans, including one we know, maybe we should stop him.' Because that's the impression I got." He stands, looking down at Ashley.

"I was there, chicka. I saw how much gets done in the big floating land of democratic democracy." He leans down on one knee, still looking down into Ashley's eyes. Anger edges into his voice with each syllable. "But unlike you, I'm also down here. I'm with the people I've sworn to protect, every day." He points to the street below. "And unlike you and the bigshot patrol, Sparky, I can't just stand by while people are getting beaten, broken, and killed." He stands, talons clenched.

"That's not how I operate, cobarde. I'm going to meet Prometheus, and have my say." Diego's harness activates, the hum of the jetpack a backdrop to his admonition. "And don't worry about me, Sparky. I've never met a confrontation I couldn't just fly away from." He floats a few feet into the air. "Adios." He blasts off as fast as possible, the shockwave from the sonic boom rattling the windows of any nearby buildings.

[Raynn]

~ The King in the Light & The Queen in the Dark ~

Jake stumbled back in an instant on reflex. His every vein and artery felt like they were on fire and looking down at his hands he saw Omega's energy running through them beneath his skin, glowing through the flesh.

He fell to his knees as his throat and lungs constricted, looking up at Hope seeing those same eyes and hearing that same voice


"An Insurance Policy, Jake Wallace, First Of His Name, King Of Camelot,"

Jake's back arched in pain and his blood rushed so quickly he thought he would explode


"Should You Fail To Protect Omega, Mordred Will Not,"

Jake looked down at his chest and saw an Omega Symbol burning on his chest, but then, all at once, the pain was gone. He rose to his feet, looking the same head to toe and the empty Hope wrapped her arms around his shoulders as if they had just broken apart from their embrace. Hope's eyes faded back to normal and she seemed to think they had only stopped their kiss. She gave Jake a joyful and coy grin


"Yes!"

She kissed him again passionately, before saying with a smirk


"But I want a ring!"

Jake going to go after Len or do personal damage control or what?

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace
The King in the Light

Stupid! He thought the trick would be whether Hope remained or not. He didn’t think that Hope would be completely unaware of any evil going on! In essence, Omega has a hostage. Try and backstab Omega, Hope gets it… and she, that personality, whatever, is (to him) an innocent victim. This new adversary knows everything about him. It knew he wouldn’t harm her. It knew the way he thinks. And now, it’s got him on a very unwanted leash.

Gritting his teeth through the agonizing pain, and found the strength to speak, growling out.

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

He stands, and before he could unleash his anger, the hostage is in the way. To her, she’s getting married. She has no idea what just happened. And Omega hid it from her… the mark on his chest was already gone.

There’s a split second of hesitation before he returns her smile. He’s excellent at hiding his thoughts. He returns her kiss, embraces her, and nods.

“Then a ring you’ll get. Of course, we should probably tell my folks soon. I don’t think they’d appreciate being left in the dark on this.”

He looks around.

“Isiah, it’s time to go.”

He needs to find Len, and he needs to find a mystic. Quickly. He has a plan to rid himself of Mordred once and for all.

He'll ask about a mystic on his way out, then check in with Faith.

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

"Wait!" Len yells after the departing Peregrine.

"Prometheus isn't the kind of foe you can take on alone!" he finishes, but Peregrine was already speeding away. He sighs and turns to Ashley. "That went well. C'mon." he motions for Ashley to get back on as he shifts back into his Pterosaur form and takes off after the fleeing superhero, hoping to once again catch up to him and talk some reason into Peregrine.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

"Peregrine! ...Damn it." Ashley huffs at the failed attempt of talking sense into Peregrine. He may have had a point but it's not stopping him from being a total idiot. He's completely acting like Red One right now. "The guy really doesn't think we have our own lives to deal with," she says to herself and to Len in a frustrated tone. "...Alright. We'll go after him. However let's not push the subject here. Worst comes to worst we can try a different plan; there's still time before the meeting." Ashley gets on Len's Pterosaurous back and once again grips on for dear life. Though it is rather rude, she says quietly, "Oh what I wouldn't do for a proper saddle."

[Raynn]

Jake Wallace & Faith Winters

As Jake and Hope exit the portal they arrive near the ruins where they left and suddenly Hope's face drops once again and she seems on the verge of guilty tears. Faith and Isiah stand side by side in front of the portal as emergency crews and knights clear the rubble. Merlin's body has already been taken to the morgue.

What do you do?


***


Diego, Ashley, Len & Robert

In the course of the cat and mouse, or pterodactyl and Peregrine, chase in the skies of the city that Diego, Ashley and Len are involved in they all swoop over a street when they can see Robert discussing something with a metallic skinned STAR police officer as other officers load an unconscious troll into a truck.

What do you do?

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Gears are turning. A plan is hatching even as he emerges from the portal. The only question is who can he trust to do this in secret. But one step at a time. Hope can’t be privy to any information he wishes to keep secret from his true adversary. A game of spy vs. spy has begun. Or perhaps chess is a more fitting analogy. Omega thinks Jake is in checkmate. It’s wrong.

Jake touches Hope’s shoulder. “You there,” he gestures to a pair of knights, “please escort the lady into the main tower. My chambers. Hope, I’ll see you soon.”

He waits until they are gone before he says anything else. By now, he’s decided who it will be. “Isiah, can you locate the man known as Vagrant?” Jake chooses him because he’s not an FLI mainstay, “I wish to meet with him as soon as possible. Thank you for your assistance, everything is under control for the time being.”

He walks out into the rubble. “Faith, come with me. We need to get a hold of Len.” Jake produces his phone, calling the First Knight. Safeguards needed to be set up, and it needed to happen now.

[Raynn]

Len Cope, Ashley Culdis & Diego Torres

Len's cell phone begins to ring with the custom ring tone for Jake, Viva La Vida.


***


Jake Wallace & Faith Winters
Hope gives Jake a goodbye kiss before she is lead away by the knights, in full view of Faith and Isiah. As Jake calls Len Isiah speaks up


"Vagrant's had a busy few days, but I'll do my best to get you in contact with him a.s.a.p.

Anything else you need Jake?"

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Flying after Diego, Ashley manages to notice Robert down below. "Huh? Len, hold off from chasing Peregrine and drop me to Robert." She waits for Len to, hopefully, do so. She doesn't waste much time as she quickly gets off Len so he can continue catching up to the eagle.

Finally on ground, Ashley gets her footing and balance under control before walking up to Robert. Her tone mixes worry with cheerfulness. "Robert, what happened here?" She looks at the blue creature being brought in. "...Were you attacked?" Ashley wonders if SHADOW is still trying to get ahold of Robert, or if he was attacked by Humanity First... But in the case of the latter, why is there another monster there?

A moment later she notices yet another old classmate of hers; Ashley finds herself pleasantly and unbelievably surprised, "...Mercury?!" Ashley remembers how Mercury and Clark dated before Ashley's death at the prom... Many things changed that fateful day. Ashley tries to talk casually and kindly to her old classmate. "So a member of the STAR squad now? That's quite the feat; I'm impressed."

[Raynn]

Ashley Culdis & Robert Asterion

Mercury forces the fakest smile Robert had ever seen as Ashley approaches


"Yeah, It's nice,"

she turns away from Ashley and back to Robert


"Robert, any idea why a TROLL attacked you in broad daylight? I didn't even know you were back in Freedom City. Do you need to head to the hospital? You have any idea who this El Peregrino? Am I going to have to arrest this kid before he gets hurt?"

[ChronicLunacy]

Faith Winters

"Yes, your highness-ness." Faith answered, giving Hope a quick hug then fast-walking until she was even with Jake. She had visibly bitten her lip at the sight of Hope giving him a goodbye kiss, not wanting to squee like a fangirl in the same room where Merlin had just died. Still, it was obvious even to Jake from the way she was fidgeting and looking sidelong at him that she was just dying to hear what was going on between the two of hem.

Still, she'd been doing her job -- keeping AEGIS appraised of the situation. So far she was proud of her superiors for not going completely ape**** and trying to nuke the floating island, but she could tell they were...troubled to say the least.

[Raynn]

Faith Winters

How much has she passed on to her superiors?

[ChronicLunacy]

Just because I want to be a little evil, let's just say everything. Or even if she didn't tell them, they probably have some part of her equipment bugged so they know everything. Can we go with that?

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

“No, Isiah. Nothing at this time.” That you can provide me… the damned machine is missing. “Just get me Vagrant when you get the chance. Thank you.”

Jake shook his hand and looked him in the eye. What was Isiah’s play here, he wondered? Still, he was walking off before long. Faith looked excited, but she had also been speaking to AEGIS when Jake had gone into the portal. She can’t be trusted with what happened. Play it like the excited, newly engaged guy.

He stops when they are away from everyone and turns to Faith. “So, uh... to avoid planetary deportation, Hope and I are,” he pauses, letting the suspense build, “getting married.”

He looked back to the ruined tower.

“It’s not really a time to celebrate, though. Merle, he…”

All the insanity had helped to mask how much his heart was aching. He hoped Len would pick up.

He’s the only one Jake can trust with the truth.

[ChronicLunacy]

Faith Winters

Jake found himself squeezed into a happy, but comforting hug, Faith's arms over the tops of his shoulders. "I'm so happy for you both!" she said, smiling. "I know this is a hard time for you, with...what happened. I'm not even going to pretend I know everything that's going on, but let's try to focus on the good things." she said. "As Hope's only potential biological family, I call maid of honor. Or at least bridesmaid. I'm going to help her with her dress, make sure she doesn't dress the rest of us girls like road flares, and I'm throwing her a bachelorette party. And as king husband-to-be, you're not invited." she ruffled his hair like an older sister, even though they were probably the same age.

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Len shifted back to his human form as they landed next to Robert, Mercury, and Troll. He was about to continue chasing Peregrine but his phone went off. It was Jake.

He quickly picked it up. "Hey Jake. Peregrine is down here calling out Prometheus, I'm chasing him to get him to cool down so he doesn't get himself killed. I'll put my earbuds in as I fly so I can hear ya." he says, as he straps his phone to himself and puts in his earbuds, shifting back into dinosaur form and taking off again after Peregrine, and able to listen to what Jake is saying.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

He hugged Faith back with his left arm. His right hand still held the phone to his ear. He puts on a smile in response to what she says. “Yeah, we should focus on my impending ball and chain.”

He chuckles at her calling of maid of honor and the bachelorette party, “That’s going to have to be between you and Hope. But I think it’s a safe assumption. And just make sure the stripper doesn’t look quiiiite as good as I do.” He gave a lopsided grin.

Then Len picked up the phone. Peregrine is calling out Prometheus. The conversation is going to have to wait.

“I applaud his courage. Still, if Prometheus could render MetaSoul helpless, he’s going to need help. Or at least a better plan. What’s your location? I can portal myself and Faith over.”

At least this puts Jake and Len in the same vicinity.

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Len does a quick shift on a rooftop and gives Jake his location. "My thoughts exactly. We still don't know exactly what Prometheus is capable of. I don't think a head on fight is the best strategy..."

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

“Alright. I’ll speak with you in a second.” Jake ends the call and turns to Faith. “That kid Peregrine is trying to call out Prometheus and fight him. Len’s going after him to make sure he doesn’t get himself killed. I think I’ll join him.” He draws Excalibur and opens a gateway to the street corner Len referred to. He steps through, and leaves it open long enough for Faith to come with.

A quick glance about reveals that Ashley, Robert, and Mercury are here as well.

“Oh. Len didn’t tell me you were all here as well.”

[ChronicLunacy]

Faith Winters

"The more the merrier." Faith quipped as she followed Jake through the portal. She seemed to shake off a bit after stepping through, like she was trying to rid herself of excess energies that may have clung to her frame as she shifted through reality.

"So what did the kid do now?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Prometheus is bad news. AEGIS has been trying to pin him down for months now." she offered.

[Raynn]

Ashley, Faith, Jake, Len & Robert

As Sauros lands nearby and Jake and Faith appear quickly all of the team from last night, except El Peregrino, are in one place.

Mercury looks up surprised at Jake spontaneous appearance


"Wow, it's like high school all over again. I thought you were too famous to walk upon the earth anymore oh high and mighty Jake Wallace.

Seriously are guys a team now or something? And who's this El Peregrino guy? I don't remember him from Claremont?

You guys aren't seriously going after Prometheus are you?"

Hero Point time:

Jake: Merlin dying.
Jake: The Engagement and the game of lies you now play.
Jake: The Insurance Policy.
Ashley: Dealing with the Danielle situation.
Faith: Following A.E.G.I.S. Protocols, despite what it might cost you.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

“Normally I’d be worried about getting mobbed by the press, but a boy’s life is in danger and I intend to help him.” He grinned and put his hand on Mercury’s shoulder. “Besides, I didn’t have the snazzy beard when I was in high school.”

He gets serious as they talk about the task at hand.

“Peregrine is a young man who helped us recently. And it seems he wants to fight Prometheus. I agree that he should be taken down, but I’d rather it be done with strategy in mind.”

[kpenguin]

Robert Asterion

Robert opens his mouth. And then closes it. Tilts his head, thoughtfully, opens his mouth, and then closes it again.

He has about the same reaction when Ashley arrives.

Then when Len lands.

Then when everyone else pops down.

He shakes his head and goes back to his paperwork. Trolls had a surprising amount of paperwork.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley does not expect Jake and Faith's sudden appearance when they come through the portal. She shrugs her shoulders with an amused look on her face. "Definitely feels like back at the Academy. As for how we ended up all together again... Don't ask. To say the least, it wasn't pretty." Ashley still remembers vividly about the battle of Camelot.

When Jake mentions about Prometheus, Ashley speaks up a little more defiantly than she should to the king. "I don't like the idea of attacking Prometheus. A fight like that will only spark up anti-metahuman activity further. Last thing we want is to give Humanity First a martyr." For a moment Ashley feels that she's borrowing a few of Isiah's lines that he said to Red One back at the Lighthouse. She looks up to the skies to see if she can see the human eagle. "Me and Len have had no luck yet with convincing Peregrine to abandon this meeting and frankly I doubt it's going to work. My idea is that we stay back at a distance where we can see the meeting with binoculars and watch from there. If things get ugly, we jump in; if it's just a chat than we don't need to worry about our friend."

A moment later she notices Robert shying away to his paperwork. Ashley knows how important it can be but it should be easy to excuse it for a small time to save the life of someone he knows. She wonders if her old classmate is intentionally trying to get away from everyone else. "Um... Robert? Are you alright?"

[Raynn]

~Everyone But The Word ~

So are we ready to skip ahead to the meeting now that the gang's all here?

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

“If my choice is between arresting him and potentially making him a martyr or letting him murder and cause mayhem with impunity, martyr it is!” He doesn’t mean to be flippant, but he doesn’t have the time to debate the finer points of his philosophy here.

“On the other hand, a quiet approach would probably be safer for the boy. Hit the rooftops, assess the situation. If the need for a fight comes up, be careful with your powers. No collateral damage.”

He glances to Robert… he knows why the paperwork is so important. Robert had escaped this craziness once. Jake couldn’t ask him to come back to it. Especially now.

“Len, Ashley, Faith… let’s go.”

[ChronicLunacy]

Faith Winters

"We should focus on making sure bird-boy gets out of there alive first and foremost, your highness-ness. That said, if we witness a good reason to take this guy down, AEGIS will back your move. Just be careful. The reason we haven't acted against him is because fanatics are...complicated. Don't let him goad you into making things worse for all of us." Faith advised quietly.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

He nods to Faith. "Right as always. Knowing what he's about, he's likely to show his face only where there's a lot of collateral damage to be had."

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

"Sounds like a good plan to me. Last thing I want to see is this situation get any worse. Stay frosty people." Len says, and gets ready for action.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley nods to the rest of the group in acceptance. "Alright, looks like we're in agreement." She looks at Robert one last time and asks him, "Robert, will you be coming?" Regardless of answer, Ashley takes out her cell phone one last time to call Danielle, letting her know that her younger cousin will be longer than expected and hopes Danielle has a safe journey to Camelot. Once she has made the call, she's as ready as everyone else.

[Raynn]

Ashley, Faith, Len, Jake & Robert

As the others come together to move out Robert remains separate. Ashley makes her call and Danielle makes sure Ashley knows she's fine as Robert gives one last silent look in their direction as the quartet depart without him.

Robert remains behind.


***

Ashley, Faith, Len, Jake & Diego

El Peregrino stands at the center of a forest of dead heroes.

Heroes Knoll has grown larger in recent years. After Event 84 it became a veritable garden of sculpted reminders of lost heroes. The Centurion, Freedom Eagle and many others stare down at the teenager as he waits.

He knows A.E.G.I.S. is monitoring the situation, he knows the F.C.P.D. probably has the park surrounded, but still, he waits.

The others are at the edge of the statuary, looming far enough away not to spook Diego but close enough they can keep an eye on him.

Then he appears.

A man in flowing white robes and a hooded ivory coloured mask approaches and stops a few meters before Diego, within the shadows of the stone champions cast by the dying light of the setting sun.


“El Peregrino.

I am Prometheus.

You wished to speak with me.

Speak.”

What do you do?

[Phase]

Diego Torres

Diego lands in the park with a good deal of time to spare before sundown. He wanders among the dead heroes, every now and then glancing around, wondering if Prometheus is just around the corner. He doesn't see the other heroes watching from the shadows, and he doesn't yet see Prometheus.

After a moment, he walks slowly over to the statue of Freedom Eagle, looming over him, wings spread. He stares up for almost a minute, as though entranced. He frowns and leans forward, resting his head against the monument and staring at the ground. "What am I doing, jefe?" He slides down and sits at the base of the statue. "I mean, I wanna make a difference. I wanna help people, like you would have. People like me. The underdogs." He sighs and stands. "I don't know, I just... I got angry and I did something stupid and I, dios, I probably shouldn't have but, I mean, someone had to do something." He gestures dramatically at nothing in particular, turning to stare again at the statue. He looks out of breath. "People are dying!" He exhales, shakes his head, and leans against Freedom Eagle's statue again, reconsidering this whole fiasco...

Then he appears.

If things weren't so legitimately serious, Diego might have cracked wise about how melodramatic everything was. But he knew how dangerous the man before him likely was. He would hold his tongue for now. “El Peregrino. I am Prometheus. You wished to speak with me. Speak.” Prometheus says. Diego stares at him for a moment. It feels like a year passes by in the empty seconds... until finally...

"How's it hanging, esse?" Diego cracks a grin and chuckles, shaking his head and staring at the grass. "Would you believe, I hadn't really thought this whole thing out so well?" He takes a few steps towards the fellow masked vigilante, smile still on his face. "I just, well-" He flails his arms. "Had a whim!" He chuckles again, rubbing the back of his neck. The chuckle breaks away into a sigh, and the smile drains away. He starts walking around the park.

"There was this, y'know, senorita, a girl. No older than me..." He glaces up at Prometheus. "Cute little thing, not my type of course, but cute. Even with all the cuts and bruises and broken bones." He looks up again at Prometheus, this time longer. "She was nearly beaten to death for being a mutant. Out of her control entirely. Almost killed." He stops near a tree, spending a moment to stare at the wrinkles of the trunk, formed by age and growth. He looks directly at Prometheus.

"Look, I get it, I really do." He says. "Looking out at all the people who are stronger than me, faster than me. Getting beat to hell and back by people who think the incidence of their birth entitles them to a superior position in life. It hurts. It's scary. And looking out today at people like the FLI, it's terrifying to everyone like us who have nothing by birth, who are stranded in our squalor, forever below the people who can move mountains with a thought." He inhales and exhales.

"I really do get it. But it can't go on. Not just because you and the people who follow your example are leading to people getting hurt, but because it's not a fight you can win! The people you are fighting include literal gods, people that can crush you and me and all us normal ants with a thought." His voice raises. "And you can feel free to doom yourself with that ideology, but don't bring it down on others! The people who hear you talk, the people like me, who are afraid of being so tiny and powerless and just want to assert themselves. We don't know what we're getting into when we do this. You do." Diego takes a few steps back.

"There's no way that more people don't die. Mutants killed by humans, humans killed by mutants in response. People will get hurt unless you tell them to stop." Diego looks at all the statues on the hill. "You're a public figure. They can't help but let you tell them what to do."

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

The sun sinks further down into the horizon. There’s still some light out. Too much light to be airborne. Instead, Jake is crouched at the side of a mausoleum, listening and watching quietly. He’s certain that Prometheus is not alone. He also suspects that Prometheus possesses something Jake needs.

“Faith, do we have eyes on the perimeter? There’s no way he showed up by himself.”

Jake respects Peregrino for trying to talk Prometheus down. When Jake himself was first starting out, he tried that with every villain he met. He discovered quickly that many of them simply cannot be reasoned with. Hatred or madness has burrowed too far into their hearts.

These days, he speaks peace but is sure to prepare for war.

[ChronicLunacy]

Faith Winters

"Jakey, I've got a satellite, a thermal scope, night vision, and twenty agents with binoculars watching this. Not to mention my superiors looking over my shoulder..." Faith reported through radio link from where she had her own binoculars, crouched low on a crest of a hill between two grave stones some distance away. "If he makes a move, we'll see it."

Faith will have given everyone an earpiece to keep in touch.

[Raynn]

Faith

Faith, even with her impressive surveillance suite courtesy of A.E.G.I.S. didn't pick up Prometheus' approach till he was at the edge of the clearing, the second figure didn't even appear on sensors till he was already among the statues.


***

~ All but the Uncrowned King of the Labyrinth ~

Prometheus looks over at Diego and seems about to speak when suddenly a man runs out of the forest of sculptures and floors Prometheus with a punch.

The Second Man appears identical to Prometheus . . .


“You Chose The Wrong Man's Face To Steal Impostor, El Peregrino Is Human, Which Makes His Future's Safety My Responsibility. Stand Down, Or Face My Wrath.”

The first Prometheus looks up and his voice implies he is amused by the sudden appearance of another Prometheus


“Heh. I didn't think you'd be able to make it, so I decided to hijack your public appearance so I could surprise the boy. A Death Day gift, I guess I'll just have to go for Plan B instead.”

The first Prometheus appears to reach for his wrist with his other hand and suddenly there is a flash of green light and he is gone and El Peregrino feels like he has just suffered a barrage of blows. He looks down, feeling unharmed aside from a little winded and is horrified to see that his harness has been horrendously ravaged by claw marks, leaving it in tatters. . .

Attack on Peregrine Falcon's Harness: [roll0] vs. Defense 17 Flat-footed (+ 2 for the favorable conditions of the enemy having to hit the large harness).
DC 22 + Autofire 1 DC 32 Toughness Save for the Harness which takes 10 on the save for an automatic result of 17. If the device is disabled or worse it no longer functions. (First Prometheus to appear has some levels of Improved Critical, and rolled a 19 on his reroll).

2 Hero Points to El Peregrino; 1 for the setback, 1 for a reroll which will be in the OoC thread.

El Peregrino's harness is horrifically damaged but he is unharmed.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

At Heroes' Knoll with her binoculars, Rycon waits by a thicket of trees as she watches Diego who is by the many statues of fallen heroes. Both the Terminus Invasion and Event 84 brought the deaths of so many heroes; it's almost sickening for Rycon to believe. She can see Peregrine looking at the statue of Freedom Eagle then falling on the ground. It's clear he acted on emotions earlier rather than logic and now is paying the price for it. Rycon could see Peregrine's mouth moving, like as if he is talking to the statue... When Rycon takes a close look, she can see similarities between Freedom Eagle and Peregrine. Perhaps she is looking at another legacy... A legacy for a hero of course; it's not like the one Rycon is part of.

Then the moment of truth came. Rycon stays still as Prometheus comes and Diego speaks to him. She is tempted to try and sneak up on the two so she can pull Peregrine's ass out of the fire. It isn't until the second one appears that Rycon's eyes flare up. She knows that green light well. Quietly but without hesitation she speaks on her radio. "Jake, Faith, give me the order to move in. Long story but someone has their hands on the Omnitrix." Of course Rycon wouldn't listen either way as she begins to sneak up to where Peregrine and the actual Prometheus are.

Stealth check: [roll0] Everyone may make a Notice check if they want to spot Ashley. :smallwink:

[Raynn]

~ Liberty Park ~

The Prometheus who remains glances towards Diego


“Are You Alright Young Man?”

Then there is a sudden gust and a blue blur races through the clearing.


~ A Freedom Plaza Rooftop ~

Suddenly El Peregrino is being held over the edge of a skyscraper one handed by a creature that looks like this (http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090225141717/ben10/images/d/dd/XLR8_(_Ben_10,000_version).jpg).


"You Wouldn't Recognizzzzze Me. Even In My True Mask . . . But Your Mentor Would. Robert And Hisss Childisssh Alliesss Have Vexed Me For The Lassst Time. Sssoon The 10 Minutesss Will Begin And A City Will Burn.

It Will Be Gloriousss.

But Before That Happensss, I Want To Hurt Them.

I Want Them To Sssuffer.

I Want Assshley Culdisss To Sssscream, Robert Asssterion To Be Broken, Jake Wallace To Kneel In Defeat, Len Cope To Roar Impotently In To The Flames And Faith Winters To Know True Fear.

I Will Bring This City Down Around Their Ears.

But Before All That We Shall See How A Bird Flies With Broken Wings."


~Liberty Park~

Prometheus glances over at Ashley as she approaches and then back to where El Peregrino had been standing a moment before . . .


“It Would Appear Your Young Friend Has Been Taken By A Facsimile Of Myself. Do You Intend To Attack Me?”

Attack Roll: [roll0]
Opposed Grapple Check: [roll1]
Notice Check: [roll2]

Without the enhanced defense of the Harness that is a hit.
Also he can't beat the grapple even on a natural 20.

[Phase]

Diego Torres

Diego felt good about what he said. It was hard to say some of it, but it flet like it needed to come out, and he sighs. Then Prometheus shows up. "Wait, what?" He points at Prometheus, then to the other Prometheus, mouthing wordlessly. "What." He eventually says again.

Then his harness breaks. "Ah! Mierda!" He grabs at it, trying to keep the wires in place to some degree, but he's never been that graceful on land. He jumps, attempting to fly, but the jets just spit out steam. "No no no no no." He jumps again. "Not good not good not good!" A spark flies out of the harness and he recoils. "Are You Alright Young Man?" Prometheus asks. Diego's taken aback slightly, but now's not the time for thoughtful re-evaluation of one's foes.

"Si, yeah, I'm fine..." He says looking down. He looks up at Prometheus. "I'm just-" Zoom. Diego's suddenly somewhere much different, and much less pleasant, given the circumstances.

"Whoa, okay, yeah, woosh, uh..." Diego is glancing back and forth between his captor and the ground looming below him, beckoning like some terribly witty analogous creature that Diego can't think of, due to the distracting scenario of being dangled by his foot over the edge of a building. He extends his arms, palms out, towards alien creature, frantic.

"L-look esse, I don't know what your problem with all of us is, but me in particular. Never met you before. Don't know what these ten minutes are, but-" He glances down. "Oh geeze, okay, alright. Don't look down without knowing you can fly, I'm getting that now." He gulps and looks back up. "Anyway you really, really don't wanna do this, esse, I'm just a kid who runs his mouth sometimes, okay? And, and, and, I mean you'd make such a terrible mess and everything!" He looks back down, staring, eyes wide. "Plus I'm pretty sure we know how birds fly with broken wings: THEY DON'T, SO HEY, NO NEED TO CHECK, SI?"

[Raynn]

Diego Torres

The Creature's visor shoots up and it grins at Diego


"I Know."

with that he casts Diego outwards towards the thousand foot abyss of Freedom Plaza.

If this was a TV episode this would be the closing music as Diego falls at the end of the episode, and for the credits. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhqiR12LKTE)

No One Post Till I Say Please :smallbiggrin:

[Raynn]

One Will Fall, One Will Rise, One Will Reign, One Will Revolt . . .


The Realm of Hades . . .

Tauros has been many things.

He has been a monster, a champion, a warrior, a soldier, a business man, a criminal, a villain, a super villain, a myth, and most recently a father.

He had been so many things that sometimes his many lifetimes all just blended together into one blurred archive of regret.

Tauros now stands at the end of a stone walkway in the pits of one of the many Hells, an old Underworld, one of the oldest that still hold any considerable power.

He has come to meet his maker.

The river Styx, a unending torrent of souls, roars up at him hungrily, but he stands high above their cavernous whirlpool unfazed.

He roars upwards at the darkness


"I Am Tauros, Scion of Queen Pasiphae of Crete and the Cretan Bull formed by Poseidon!

I Would Have Words With Lord Hades!"

There is a blast that knocks Tauros to the rocky floor beneath him and a helmed face of flames suddenly dominates the ceiling of the massive chamber


"TAUROS! WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE OF ME, MY SOLDIER?"

Tauros kneels, brushing himself off


"Protection."

The fiery God booms back


"I HAVE GIVEN YOU GREATER STRENGTH BEFORE NOW, AND YOU HAVE ALWAYS USED IT UNWISELY!"

Tauros stands and shakes his head as he bellows back


"Not Strength, protection, and not for myself."


"OH?"


"I Ask That You Use Your Godly Might To Protect My Children, And Robert's Allies, From What Is Coming. I Ask You Ensure They Remain Forever Mighty. I Ask This Offering Whatever You Desire In Return, My Master."

The Diety of fire seems to ponder the words for a moment before simply asking


"AND WHAT IS COMING?"

Tauros looks up towards his God with a forlorn look and says


"The End Of Wonder."


- The End of The Revolution Issue #3 -

Will post the beginning of the next issue a.s.a.p. :smallsmile:

[Raynn]

The Raynn-Verse:

'Some Dreams Never Die'

The Revolution Issue #4

"When you play the game of thrones you win or you die. There is no middle ground," - Cersei Lannister

Claremont Academy, Special Kindergarten & Elementary School Level Class . . .

Athena Iris danced between view screens in the corner of the room as she rifled away at undergraduate mathematics with a childish glee. At the age of 10 she was making her impressive lineage proud.

A dozen or so other children are scattered through out the room, but Abigail Sword, biologically Athena's daughter but roughly the same age due to Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Whimey Stuff.

Slowly Stephanie Harcourt, the class' teacher approaches Abigail, who sits scribbling with crayons and coloured pencils


"I know it's break time Abbie, but aren't you a little old for crayons, maybe you should go play with the other kids, or your sister,"

The teacher says playfully, but Abigail replies seriously


"I can't, Someone figured out how to enhance Robert's serum and mass produce it. Someone's going to need the anti-agent soon. Anyway, she's not my sister, she's an alternate temporal version of my mom,"

Miss Harcourt looks at the little girl apprehensively


"He'll need this, And I Need To Have It Ready Soon,"

Genuinely worried the teacher asks


"Why?"

With a big cute smile Abbie replies


"'Cause it's a wedding present silly."


***

Freedom City, Freedom Plaza . . .

Diego Torres Falls.

His whole life flashes before his eyes and the words that hound them whisper in his own mind for the first time. He doesn't realize their importance.

'I Just Wish . . .'


***

Liberty Park . . .

The A.E.G.I.S. units and the heroes move in and surround the clearing as Prometheus still stands in its center, he speaks calmly, raising his hands


“Is There A Problem Officers?”

1 PP to Everyone. You may now Post.

[kpenguin]

Bobby Bobs

If only...

As the broken bird falls from the top of a building, a hand crashes through window glass and grabs Diego by the arm.

Earlier...

Robert shakes his head at Ashley as he hands Mercury his paperwork. "No. Sorry."

The Peregrine was promising but... if the kid wanted to go get himself killed, then so be it. Not Robert's business. Not anymore. He only had six months. There were so many things to do... he didn't have time for this, not anymore.

As his friends leave to go once more into the breach, Robert puts his hand on Jake's shoulder. "One last thing, my friend. This morning I was attacked by someone calling himself Arthur Strong. He wanted me to send you a message. He wants your throne."

He walks away, then looks up at the sky.

He remembers what it was like to see Clark fly for the first time. See him join the others at the Lighthouse, ascend to be another god on Olympus. He was one of them too, some might say, but it was different being on the ground. Walking among the people. Fragile lives.

He looks up at the sky. And knows he is needed.

Present

Robert Asterion pulls Peregrine up from his fall, just a couple floors down from where he dropped.

"Got your back, kid"

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

All stealth is blown when Diego vanishes. Jake bursts from his hiding place. “PEREGRINO!” He shouts out. He looks around frantically, and he can’t spot the kid anywhere.

“Find him!” He shouts to anyone who will listen. If the boy dies because of this little sting operation…

However, Prometheus is still here. He’s calm, too calm. Jake looks at him, narrowing his eyes as he takes this situation so lightly.

“We definitely do have a problem. But frankly, I could give a damn about you right now, murderer.”

He does nothing to mask his contempt. This man in front of him is the equivalent of the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. The only difference is that it’s metas vs. non-metas. Jake himself wasn’t even a metahuman! Not really, anyway. He’s a kid from Indiana who just happens to have magical toys. Still, he knows that metahumans are people too.. like Len, Faith, Ashley, Robert. All of them, his closest friends.

“What happened to the kid?”


Earlier

Jake stops as Robert puts his big hand on Jake's shoulder. He turned to face him. Right now (and in the future scene), Jake's clothes are tattered.... like he'd just been blown up. Which he had. And he'd just had a father-figure die. And his girlfriend-turned-fiance shares her existence with Space Satan. And now, the kid is in mortal danger.

In a voice that sounds too tired for Jake, "He can take a number."

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Dammit.

Len watches as the whole situation goes pear shaped. "I'm going after Peregrine." he says over his Faith-provided earpiece. "Keep me updated on Prometheus."

Len transforms into a fast flying Pterosaur and takes off into the air, flying as fast as he can in the direction of the blue blur, scanning for El Peregrino.

[Phase]

The Bird with Clipped Wings

Diego's life flashes before his eyes. He only manages to fall a few stories, but that's all he needs; his life isn't very long. He sees his parents' funeral. The first day of high school (and the subsequent bullying.) He remembers the fear he felt when the police showed up on his doorstep, and the guilt when they said they were there for his brother.

Not all the memories are bad, though. There's the memory of his first flight. His first A+ assignment. His first kiss (oh wait, no, he'd never had one of those.) That time when a giant bull-person pulled him through a window, saving his life.

Wait. Rewind.

Diego lies panting on the floor, just inside the building. He wonders momentarily why he's out of breath, before recalling that he was screaming at the top of his lungs just moments before. Still out of breath, he raises his head to look up at Robert. He stares for a moment, panting, before breaking into a grin.

"I owe you a sandwich you miraculous son of a bitch."

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Sometimes Rycon wishes she is someone like Clark; someone who has the strength and agility to save people during crisis situations like this. Yet she is not, so all she is able to do is look on in horror as Peregrine falls from the building. She can't see where he lands but she hopes the hero didn't hadn't died off immediately upon impact. There is very little she can say as she lacks the words for it right now. Rycon really could only just hope that Len can find Peregrine.

Instead Rycon looks at the real Prometheus. She has many questions she wants to ask and it's not just about what happened with MetaSoul. Asking right now however is a bad time and Jake trying to aggravate Prometheus isn't going to help. "Prometheus we need to discuss about your objective and means later," she says to him in a professional manner. She hides any frustration towards him as best as she can. She makes sure her comm is on as she explains the situation. "Right now we need to focus on this imposter. He's using the Omnitrix, right out of that cartoon show. Me and Clark encountered Toyboy with it last night and I know he has no ability to shapeshift into different disguises. Someone else took it from him while locked up..."

Rycon shrugs her shoulders as she grows annoyed. "And somehow this Omnitrix-happy ******* has known us for a long time now." She sighs before looking at Prometheus once more. "Right now I'd like to call off this meta and human issue and call a truce to deal with your imposter... And find out how long he has been impersonating you. As a member of the FLI I'm hoping you can understand and agree." Rycon wonders just how long the imposter has been playing the role of such. If long enough, the real Prometheus may not have been the one that killed MetaSoul. Only one way to find out though.

[kpenguin]

The Bull With No Name Except Robert and Sometimes Professor Bullman

Robert smiles and reaches down to pull Diego up.

"You don't owe me anything yet. This isn't over. Come on. We need to move."

The minotaur looks around nervously as his mind races to figure out how to escape a speedster.

Rolling Knowledge (Tactics)

[roll0]

[Raynn]

Ashley, Faith & Jake

Prometheus outstretches his hands, to be cuffed, to a nearby A.E.G.I.S. agent and looks over at Ashley as she goes


“I Will Await Your Return, Peacefully. I Am Sure This Is All A Misunderstanding. When You Find The Young Falcon Inform Him He Still Owes Me A Discussion.”

With that Prometheus remains behind, to wait, with a hint of regal nobility.


***

Robert, Diego & Len

Robert knows if he can trap the speedster in an enclosed space he can overpower him, but that would require the speedster to come after him . . . which at least immediately he does not.

Diego and Robert glance about and see terrified office workers scattered about them but no one seems to be harmed. A few of the civilians mutter about how they don't recognize the pair, some wonder aloud if they are in fact super villains. Robert spies a few camera phones recording him.

He glances back towards the hole in the window panes and sees a green Pterosaur floating there. Len. At that the crowd erupts.


"That's Leonard Cope! The First Knight of Camelot! Oh My God, He's Famous! Maybe He's Fighting These Guys!"

The horde take a few steps back and continue to twitter on about hypotheticals. As they do Len's phone begins to ring.


***

Jake, Faith & Ashley

As the trio prepare to move to follow Len Ashley's phone begins to ring.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Rycon nods to Prometheus to his response. "I will let him know that." While waiting on Jake and Faith's actions, Rycon finds her phone ringing. "Damn it, not now," She mumbles frustratingly as she answers it. She knows it's going to be bad; a call during times like this is not a good sign. Trying to calm herself from her clearly shaken look, she speaks into her phone. "...Hello?"

[Raynn]

Ashley, Jake & Faith

Ashley hears a voice whisper four words over the cell phone line, in a voice she recognizes from repressed recollections, except distorted as if through a voice synthesizer


"Welcome To The Thunderdome."

The line cuts out. Ashley stares back at her phone which has somehow been set to show only a timer.

It reads
'00:09:54' and it's counting down.

As she reads this cryptic message she notices she's lost reception, then she looks out at the city and notices street lamps exploding and the lighting through out the city suddenly brightening before dying out all together. It's as if the whole city's power grid just surged and died at once.

Hero Point to Ashley, as her teleportation is more limited in range due the damaged electrical grid.

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Len lands and shifts back into his human form in what remains of the window. "Calm down everyone, these two are heroes! They're with me!" he says, raising his hands in a "settle down" manner, and goes over to stand with Robert and Diego.

"You alright El Peregrino?" he says with a look of concern on his face.

He turns to Robert. "Nice save man, jeez talk about being in the right place at the right time!" and gives the Minotaur a clap on the shoulder. "Is the blue speedster still here?" he asks, at which point he hears his phone ringing. Giving the two a confused look he reaches into his pocket, puts the phone to his ear and answers.

"Hello?"

[Raynn]

Len, Robert & Diego

Len receives the same cryptic message and ticking clock as Ashley as he watches the city go dark a moment later.

He knows the voice from one of his most harrowing ride along missions of his Claremont days . . .

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley doesn't begin to freak out until she sees the timer on her phone and the electrical grid dying all at once. "...Oh #!?*&$! PERFECT!" She could almost throw her phone down on the ground and smash it. Her voice is now rushing with worry and quickness. "I hate that psycho." She looks to Jake. "Hate to say this Jake, but our 'imposter' is the guy we 'gleefully' met at the bank five years ago." She shakes her head as she looks at her phone once more.

"Alright, with all these lights out, I'm not getting anywhere but I can try teleporting someone else. One of us needs to reach the Lighthouse and alert Isiah and whoever else is there. Everyone else needs to spread out and search around." Rycon breathes heavily, really not liking all this pressure.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

“If you hurt any of these men and women, I won’t stop coming until you’re defeated. I swear it.” He warns Prometheus before disregarding him for finding Diego. But before he can even lift off, Freedom City is plunged into darkness and Ashley starts freaking out.

His eyes narrow when she mentions him. The Man in White. The Understudy. Was the Understudy working with the Supreme? The pieces of the puzzle were so jumbled together that he couldn’t make sense of it all. Not yet.

“The Lighthouse is easy.” Jake pulls Excalibur and creates a portal directly to the Lighthouse. “Go on through. I’m shutting it behind you. Isiah can bring you back himself. I’m going to get airborne and look for signs of trouble.”

And without further ado, he does just that. The wing symbols on his boots flare up and he rockets upwards into the heavens.

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Len frowns and hangs up the phone. "Looks like the Understudy is back." he says, and then the power goes out. "This...isn't good."

[Phase]

Diego Torres

Diego smiles and brushes himself off. "Fair enough, Tauro." He follows Robert, looking at all bewildered faces. He nods and smiles at the camera phones and civilians, waving with one hand and fidgeting with his harness with the other. "Heyyy, name's Peregrine. Peregrine, senorita. Hi there, El Peregrino. Yes, the hombre from the radio. ElPeregrine.tumblr.com, amigos!" In his personable reverie, he notices Len outside as well. "Oh hey, tauro, Barney's found us!" He nods as Len checks in. "Been better, esse, but coulda been a lot worse. Speedy upstairs may-" Ring ring!

"Oh no, by all means, answer your phone, esse." Diego says, hypocritically, as he checks his text messages in his helmet. Wait there's one from Mark Wadson. Squee. He- Len hangs up the phone.

"Wait, who's Under-" Crack, snap, pop! The power grid surges and dies. "What the..." Diego brings up his browser to check who this Understudy guy is... but of course, the internet's down. Perfect. He looks at Len.

"Just how not good are we talking, esse?"

[Raynn]

Ashley, Faith & Jake

As Jake flies into the air Prometheus merely offers him a nod.

Soon he is soaring over the city.


'00:08:24'

Jake looks around and sees it . . .

The Mona Glenn bridge's metal supports had been wrenched away by some great force and it was left crashing slowly into the river. . .

Farther down the South River the Prama Bridge had been twisted and warped by some impossible force and been forged along with debris into some makeshift dam, forcing the river that rushed towards to divert into the river front and begin to flood the edges of the city. . .

Horrified Jake looked round and saw the Lindroos bridge had been similarly distorted on the Wading River, forcing water towards Wading Way and 10th through 16th avenue . . .

The water had nowhere to go and it kept coming. . .

Mangold Bridge was left similarly in tatters just like Mona Glenn. Someone had cut off every bridge into Freedom City. . . But why? Even though there were no major roads there was a way out of the city by passing through Wharton State Forest . . . They weren't cut off yet, just slowed the hell down.

Where was the plan? Why was he doing this?


***


Ashley Culdis

As Ashley steps through the portal she sees that the entire center of Operations in a buzz of activity as Isiah tries to gather up heroes and distribute them to Freedom City, but even with his powers it will take more than the ten minutes Ash has to redistribute enough heroes to make a difference.

Isiah looks over at her, his eyes giving only a hint of the worry in his heart. . .

Then a blue blur shoots past her through the portal and Isiah's eyes widen in fear, the first time Ashley has ever seen them do that . . .

He roars out but it's too late


"WE'VE BEEN BREACHED! I REPEAT WE'VE BEEN BREACHED! I REPEAT . . ."


'00:08:00'

The whole station shudders as the station's inertial dampeners weaken and it loses geosynchronous orbit . . .

Isiah rights himself as the portal behind Rycon closes


"WHAT THE HELL JUST GOT IN HERE!?"

Technicians and F.L.I. employees rush around the room trying to bring something, anything up on scanners. They fail.

Isiah hurriedly taps away at terminals and holographic displays but each attempt becomes more rushed and worried.


"EVERYONE, ESCAPE PODS, NOW!"

The crew only give him a second glance, then begin to depart so hurriedly Ashley is astounded, soon Isiah is at the center of a horde of fleeing civilians . . .

He doesn't budge. Still trying to save the station.


"We're on a collision course with Freedom City, well Wharton State Park to be specific. I've jettisoned the Infinity Vault so others can pick it up later. I Think I May Be Able To Send You . . . !"

The Station shudders, it wasn't just falling, it was accelerating towards the Earth rapidly, it's thrusters were pushing it downwards.

Isiah picks himself up off the floor


"Whatever is doing this has activated the on board Mark 1 Ultimate Nullifiers. I can't teleport us out and whatever this is is interfering with communications! Ash . . ."

The station shudders and alarms ring, the ship is already within Earth's atmosphere . . .


"The other pods got out in time to escape Earth's gravity, but not yours, I'm sorry. Too late. The pods are meant to wait in space, they can't survive reentry,"

he throws her a black cube


'00:07:24'


"It's a black box, bound in a layer of adamantium. Store yourself in that like you do when you teleport. Get an escape pod and once you're out of range of the station you should be able to jump inside. The Pod should stay intact long enough for you to enter the cube. . ."

Isiah swallows


"I need to stay here and try to reverse the thrusters . . . or else we'll hit with enough speed to wipe out Freedom City . . ."

The powerless Isiah slams his fist on a console.


'00:07:00'

What a difference a minute makes . . .


***

Jake

He puts it together . . . he's only seen snippets of the show . . . read the wiki a bit when he was bored one night . . .

He knows enough. . .

Lodestar could warp the metal in the bridges.

XLR8 is fast enough if he only stayed in other forms for a few seconds.

Upgrade could meld with a power station and take it over, he could even force the whole network to surge from one of those.

The Understudy must be able to change form at will, but eventually he has to time out. He must know that. Eventually the watch will shut down on him for who knows how long.

How long could he last, changing so fast? 10 Minutes?

How much more damage could he do in 10 minutes?

Jake wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to that.

Jake will know the basic abilities of any Alien forms he encounters.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley enters the Lighthouse with only a moment to see it become such a sorry state. She only has barely enough time to reach Isiah before he begins speaking to her about everything that has happened. She is completely astounded that the place was breached, much less heading for a crash course at Freedom City. Then Isiah explains his plan to her which is summed up as "leave me to die as I try to save the city." Evacuating is something Ashley really didn't want to do but it's not like she can do much to help. Her powers were gone here and she's pretty sure it was her fault if the blue blur was any indication. If anything at least she can say whatever she knows... And her confessions. She stands up after being knocked down by the trembling structure, then speaks.

"Isiah...!" Among the noise the Lighthouse is making, Ashley nearly has to scream to hear herself. "Look, this whole thing is caused by a man known as the Understudy. He caused that bank massacre five years ago and now he's rampaging with the Omnitrix if you can believe that." Under the trembling structure, Ashley ends up running into the machine panel while trying to balance herself. "I don't know what his real goal is, but I'm presuming either a mass slaughter or a big !&*#@^% distraction." She manages to come to his side by this point. "I remember him being recorded as human... But he can't simply be such. He managed to look exactly like Prometheus once and I bet he killed MetaSoul in the process. Do you know anything on him?" While speaking Ashley has a look at the controls. Is there anything she can figure out?

A moment later, when she gets a response, Ashley changes subject while using her German language. <I...> She knew what these few minutes left could mean. She has to speak her mind. <Isiah... I know you... And I... We-? She stumbles on her words for just a moment before knowing what to say. Her voice softens greatly. <...We love each other, as much as I care for both Robert and Clark. They're both dying and... you might too at the end of these ten minutes...> Moving carefully, she reaches his arm out to try and hug him. <I'm going to escape as you promised but please know that I'm going to let you know that you died a hero; immortalized through memory by saving millions.> Of what any hero would want is to be known and remembered past their death. <I know being truly immortal; having to watch everyone you know and care die... It's painful, just as it is leaving you. And Robert and Clark will do the same in six months. It'll just leave me alone... But I'm willing to accept that.>

She turns away from the machine one last time to bravely hug Isiah as she closes her eyes for just a moment. <If the four of us were all immortal like you, we wouldn't need to worry about dying or clone degeneration. We wouldn't have to live through such tragedies alone when we have each other. We could all watch the universe in peace like a... A family.> She could vomit at the idea of her, Isiah, Robert, and Clark as some sort of fantastic four of a family in calmer times. But now is the time to speak up and say what would help calm the powerless Lord of Space. Ashley is saying things she'd consider stupidly emotional to even think about. Yet she wants nothing more than to tell it to Isiah if it'll be the last time she sees him. <It'd be something I could ask for. Nothing like a deathless multiverse or depowered multiverse. Just us four...>

[Raynn]

Ashley Culdis

In reply to Ashley's first question


"He used to work for Timelock, or MetaTime or whatever right? Took apart in that whole ordeal? He's very good at pretending to be people but he comes up clean on tests for abilities so I don't know if he's super or just a master of disguise . . ."

The Station shudders again.

Isiah leans forward and kisses Ashley on the lips


<"No one wants to live forever Ashley. Not even me.
Just because I don't want to lose people doesn't mean I want them to endure what I've had to endure.
That's just cruel.
I just wanted a world that wouldn't take people before their time.
I wanted a better world, just like everyone else, for people like you,">

As Ashley finally goes to her escape pod Isiah stands in the center of the room as he regulates all the reverse thrust he can. He glances over at Ashley


<"I just wish . . .

I just wish we had more time . . .">

He nods for her to go and forces a mad grin as he stares at the viewscreen


"Geronimo."

He whispers.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

With a slow yet determined nod Ashley moves to the escape pod. Rested in with the black box and set, she nods slowly to Isiah. <...I wished all four of us had more time. Me, you, Robert, and Clark. I'm glad to have spent the time that we were given however... Farewell.> Once set, she releases the lever to set the escape pod down to Earth. The moment she is out of the station's radius, she teleports inside the cube. Ashley is content with staying there until the undoubtedly rough landing.

There are many things going through her mind at this moment. One thing she doesn't think about, what is inside the black cube she teleported into?

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

"Understudy was the first villain I ever faced. It was while I was in Claremont. I learned that night that being a hero wasn't all fun and games." he said seriously, pausing a moment as the image of the mountain of corpses passed through his head. He quickly shook it out of his mind.

"Anyway, Understudy was smart and manipulative. But he was also working for someone else. I wonder if that's the case here as well. Whatever is going on though, it's going to be big."

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

High above the city, he can see it all. The bridges around the city are destroyed, trapping the inhabitants. Turned into dams that will flood the city and kill those stranded people. While he was horrified by the sight, the chaos of the moment caused his tiredness and sadness to fade. The light inside welled up. The inner strength that had made the lowly Jake Wallace worthy of picking up that sword was taking over.

The hilt of Excalibur began to glow, resonating with that light within.

“The bridges are all destroyed. The metal has been formed into dams, flooding water into Freedom City. AEGIS needs to take them out. There’s a path of evacuation through Wharton Forest, but be wary of a trap. It’s a convenient bottle-neck for whatever he might do.”

The hilt glowed brighter. The light of the sword was now bleeding through the scabbard, a beacon in the night sky, shining out over Freedom City. The lives of hundreds of thousands of people were at stake. Jake remembered what he knows about the characters the Understudy can become. He knows he can’t catch the speedster by typical means. He needs greater assistance.

“…To those who gave me this blade and this crown. Take me where I’m needed. Please.”

The light surged ever brighter, until it collapsed inwards upon itself, and Jake vanished.

Using one of my four hero points to power stunt my Portal power into “Troubleseeker: Rank 15; PF: Change Direction, Change Velocity”. The idea is that I will be teleported to the places where he is attacking, magically intercepting him and trying to hold him back while the clock counts down.

[Raynn]

So that would be Super-Senses 10: Detect 3, Extended 7, Detect Understudy within 10 Million feet - Linked To - Teleport 10: Earth to Moon as a Full Round Action, Change Velocity, Change Direction.

Hero Point to Jake.



~Jake~

The King Slashes the air and he is gone, leaving Earth behind.


***


~Ashley~

Ashley rockets away from the station and into the black box as her pod begins to heat up rapidly around her. Leaving Isiah and the station behind to its fate.


***


~Jake~

Jake lands with a thud in a room covered in a slick nanite skin. . .

Upgrade (http://ben10.wikia.com/wiki/Upgrade).

He guesses he's in some sort of server hub or central computer. The whole room is layered with the nanites that make up Upgrade's form. Either the Understudy is ignoring him or he simply unaware of him merged with whatever computer system this is.

Jake goes to fly . . .

He cannot.

The glow of Excalibur ebbs.

Jake is Jake alone now.

From the nanite later a shape rises, almost like a bulb or a long neck with only a round shape for it's head. It is black with large green circuitry patterns.

A green circle distorts into a large smile.


"-//Hello Jake//We Meet Again!//-"


***


~Robert, Len & Diego~

The Trio begin to see the flooding occurring below as the sun continues to dim.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

No powers? Check. Covered in goo with your mechanical enemy here? Check. Got a plan to escape certain death? No. Going to try and take the Understudy down anyway? Hell yes.

“We meet again,” his enemy says.

“You’re right… possibly for the last time. If you stand in my way, you aren’t making it out of this alive, Understudy. Even without powers, I can hold you in this room long enough for you to go down with me.”

He keeps his eyes focused on the Understudy, while trying to survey the room with his peripheral vision. He doesn’t know computers well, but he knows enough… and he knows Upgrade’s weakness. Electricity. And there’s plenty around.

“Why do this? Why hurt people in this way? Whatever you want to prove, it can be proven in some other way,” he’s delivering a monologue, and he knows it’s all on deaf ears, but that’s not the point. He finally sees it, hanging above himself. A thick conduit, filled with electrical cables no-doubt. “There’s no reason for you and I to be fighting. We’re both clearly nerds of some sort, you of the Cartoon Network variety, it seems. We could just have a beer and—“

Screw it! Jake runs towards one of the banks of computers to his side and jumps up, grabbing a handhold while drawing Excalibur and slashing at the cable, letting gravity take its course and carry that electric cable down to Upgrade.

Hero point to edit scene to produce said electrical conduit. Got 2 Three left! I miscounted somehow.

[Raynn]

Toughness Save: [roll0] vs. DC 35
Under-Grade is Injured + Bruised due to critting his save.


~Jake~

As the electricity rockets through the nanite creature it takes it about as well as could be expected. Its form retracts away from the walls into its basic shape with a sound that is a cross between a scream and a dial up modem.

As he does this a portal forms in mid air, produced by the station, and it appears to open out into a forest. The creatures taps the omnitrix symbol on his chest and it is suddenly XLR8 standing before Jake. It seems to hiss before speeding through the portal as a blue blur.


Jake knows he has only seconds before the portal closes.

Jake still does not have his powers while on the station.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

It worked! Understudy gave up possession of the servers quickly when faced with the electrical surge. Then he flees through a portal that was sure to close very soon. There was nothing more Jake could do here. He called out through his communicator to anyone who would listen.

“I’ve gotten him out of the systems. He ran out through a portal. There’s nothing else I can do here… Good luck.”

Jake, grasping onto one of the servers, reaches for the conduit he’d just cut. He then begins to climb up that conduit like a rope, heading upwards for the portal.

My lame climb skill, because he normally flies! [roll0] – I will hero point if I need to.

[Raynn]

~Jake~

As Jake exits the portal he arrives in Wharton State Park, looming visible overhead was the slowly descending station, flaming across the night sky in its descent.

Before Jake stands the Understudy, in his normal form, and when he speaks the Understudy seems oddly calm


"It was always coming here wasn't it.

You and I, a duel to the death.

Perhaps sometimes it would be Ashley, or Len . . .

But it was always going to be one of you. One of you kids that walked into that bank.

To the death then Jake.

Let's make it a battle they'll write songs about."

At that Understudy activates the Omnitrix.

Jake recognizes the alien form he takes. Clockwork. (http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120221050416/ben10/images/b/b2/Clockwork.png)

Roll Initiative!

Understudy (Clockwork Form): [roll0]


***

~Robert, Len & Diego~

As Robert, Len & Diego loom over Freedom City they see the main street begin to flood as the sun finishes setting. In the darkness the only lights are cars, emergency helicopters and fires.

Then the trio see it . . .


http://www-deadline-com.vimg.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Godzilla_1954_Extras_20110713195929.jpg

Godzilla is attacking. . .

Godzilla, black in white, original version, circa. 1954, is attacking downtown Freedom City!


***

~Ashley~

Ashley stumbles through Wharton state park. Her brain is a little frazzled, she's never had to remain as electricity for so long while teleporting and its done a number on her.

The black cube has landed nearby and looking up at the sky she can see the station high above coming down. Isiah, she can somehow tell, is still inside.

Stumbling through the forest trying to think of someway to get everything back to how nice it was just a few minutes ago she notices a friend sitting on a rock sipping a Starbucks Iced mocha.

Death.


"Hey Ash, Land okay?"

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Waking up in a terrible condition, Ashley does her best to focus as she gets a look at what she missed. Based by the condition of where she is, not too much. Unfortunately seeing the Lighthouse come down from the skies is NOT something she wants to see. For a quick moment she turns on her walkie-talkie to see if any of her friends are on the line. "Jake? Len? Faith? Anyone here?!" She then checks her watch to try and get in contact Clark. She doubts either the walkie-talkie or watch works however considering how thorough the villain's plan is.

Ashley tries to think of what to do as she moves through the park. For a moment, she gets the feeling that she can understand what humans go through regarding metahumans; powerless to help and utterly weak compared to others. Removing those above you doesn't resolve the problem, but Ashley can almost get the feeling why Prometheus began Humanity First.

Right now however is a face Ashley did not expect to see for a LONG while. She notices Death right in front of her only a couple days from when they last met. Why is she hear now? Last time she met, she came to Ashley as sort of a side trip to bring someone's deceased soul back...

Ashley knew why Death is here. Her voice is shallow and depressingly admitting of the situation. "...Someone is about to die. That's why you're here..."

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

A surprisingly thoughtful monologue… from a monster. Jake glances up at the station, speeding towards the Earth. It seems their duel would have a built-in timer. Jake’s brown eyes tear away from the station and gaze upon the Understudy. Such fire burned in his gaze.

“It only had to come to this when you murdered people. They’re never going to write songs about this. Because you’re going to be a footnote.”

Understudy transforms. Clockwork.. Aging, time travel. Okay. Let’s do this.

He hears Ashley come through his comm. "Wharton State Forest, I've got him!"

LOL Initiative (not that it matters =P) [roll0]

[kpenguin]

Two Horns, Two Ears, No Nose Ring

"The Understudy? Damn. Knowing him, that flooding isn't going to be the extent of the-

Then Robert hears a sound (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRYq58QPTk8). The sound of a leather glove being rubbed along the strings of a double bass, amplified by a thousand. He sees it, in the city. In all its black and white glory. Robert stares, his mouth agape at the monster.

"Peregrine. I think I'd like that sandwich now. It's not going to be available later."

[Phase]

Flightless Bird

Diego looks down at his city in peril. He feels the urge to jump out and fly away to the barrio, protect his people... but his wings are clipped, and the primary threat is here. He looks down at the water running into the streets. "We'd probably do best to-" Then he covers his ears as the building shudders with a nuclear roar.

He looks out the window... and there it stands, the size of a skyscraper. Gojira, king of monsters.

"...Ay, dios mio..." Diego takes a few steps back into the office, looks around, and spots a computer on a desk. "Perdoneme!" He yells, pushing past a frightened civilian and grabbing the CPU tower. He rips it open with a talon and begins pulling out wires and circuits, beginning to do a patch job on his harness.

"We can't let that thing just wreak havoc, amigos. We have to do something or the whole city will be en fuego." He rips out a motherboard.

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Len looks out over the city, feeling the footsteps of the legendary beast vibrating through the building. He flinches a bit as God-freaking-zilla lets out his trademark roar. He was also in black and white?

"What the hell is going on? I mean, giant monster - OK I get that - but why is it GODZILLA and why is he in BLACK AND WHITE?" Len says incredulously.

He steels himself and focuses again on the monster. "I guess this one's up to me eh?" Len says, and stands at the broken window. "I wonder if its really just a giant man in a suit?"

[Raynn]

~Ashley~

Death nods


"Everyone dies eventually Ash,"

she glances over in the direction of the city and smiles


"Sorry, there's a woman thanking me over there,"

at Ashley's confused look Death explains


"Her daughter just drowned in front of her. I'm her proof there's something else, somewhere she can see her daughter again. She's thanking me,"

Death looks down at the grass as she leans backwards onto a tree trunk


"More people will die before this is over. This won't even be the worst. More is coming. I wanted to here when it happened,"

she looks up at the falling station


"When he tells you what is coming. When he says goodbye,"

she smiles again over at Ashley


"That's what friends do. They're there for each other."

As Death finishes Ashley gets through to Clark on her communicator watch


"-zzst Ash? Where are you? I'm currently going Mano-a-midget with the Rowdyruff Boys! Never heard of him? Evil Male Powerpuff girls! I S*** You Not! If I don't put these kids down soon they're going to level a city block! And I think I just saw a monochrome Godzilla downtown! What the F*** is going on? Is Quark around again?! Any Chance of an assist? I can't get through to the other F.L.I.ers! Tell Isiah I need back-up! Beacon just told me he, Synapse and Requiem are going toe to toe with some guy named Aku near Claremont! I don't even think that's all! We can't take all of this! We're going to be overwhel----- shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhst------ ugh *cough* Little super powered B*******. Ashley you okay? Get me through to Isiah, he's supposed to Operations Coordinator, why isn't he coordinating!?"


***

~Len, Robert & Diego~

Is Robert going to try to Jury-Rigg a growth potion/gun? :smalltongue:


***

~Jake~

Before Jake can do so much as charge Clockwork is in front of him winding back his fist . . .

Clockwork/Understudy Attack Roll: [roll0] On a Hit DC 25 Reflex Save.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley goes to grab the black box right before Death responds to her. She listens carefully to what Death says. Ashley remembers multiple times how everyone eventually dies; she's come to accept that already. Yet it's still such a horrible thing to think about. Death's mentioning of Isiah only stings Ashley further. "When he tells you what is coming. When he says goodbye." Ashley remembers something; one of the previous Lords of Time, Neo, had done the same thing right before his own death... Neo mentioned something worse was coming right after he had killed Omega so many years ago. Whether he said it was Tyrannus, MetaTime, or someone else, no one knew. Yet... For Ashley, it feels like this is what he mentioned.

Just then, her watch went off as Clark responds. Many names that only sound vaguely familiar come from his words. In distress she responds frantically to Clark. "Clark! Please tell me you are nearby; All the power lines are down, I can only go on foot. I can't get to anyone from the FLI either. I'm... I'm fine. I'm at Wharton State Forest. King Jake Wallace is somewhere here too with the psycho who's causing all this. We need to find him fast. Isiah..." Ashley pauses for a moment. "...Isiah can't help. The Lighthouse is...!" She looks up again and finds herself at a loss for words. She needs to find both Jake and Clark fast... But there's no way she can do it on foot. It's just so hard to imagine how everything went wrong so fast.

What's more difficult to imagine is that it's only going to get worse. This feels like Event 84 happening all over again and Death only says it's going to get worse? Ashley looks at Death with an enraged look and lashes out. "Worse?! How can this get any worse? Take a look around you; we're in the threshold of Hell!"

[Raynn]

~Jake~

Jake rolls to the side, dodging the temporal explosion of the first swing barely.

He thinks he's safe for the moment.

The second swing strikes his abdomen with impossible speed, too fast to dodge the subsequent green energy, the temporal tear, the blinding light. . .


FOR JAKE'S EYES ONLY:

Yep, I mean it this time too:
Jake stumbles back and reaches for his sword and find its in the ash and dirt beneath his feet. His rapid steps kick up dirt and the air is thick with the smell of burning carbon . . .

Jake looks around at his new horizons and is horrified . . .


http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110630091325/apocalypse/images/thumb/d/d3/Apocalypse_london.jpg/1000px-Apocalypse_london.jpg

Then he sees something he does not expect . . .

Himself standing amid the ruins and rubble . . .

At his right is Hope, holding his hand in a fruitless effort to comfort him, to his left is Ava looking equally distraught, and a few feet away stands Len. . .

In front of the trio is a ten year old girl in a scarlet dress that Jake feels he remember seeing somewhere but he can't quite place. The eyes of the group are darting between the two Jakes and the little girl is pointing at the newly arrived Jake


"See! SEE! Just like you saw before! It was always coming here! HE was always coming here!

This is a fixed point in time. It was always going to happen.

It's time you accept it Jake. The lie.

In plain sight all this time.

That you've been running from for so very long!

Arthur wasn't the King of Camelot.

He was the King of ENGLAND.

But you have your ideals, stuck as a hero and not a king, and because of that we were always coming here. You saw a parliament here, a nation you weren't born a native of. You saw no right or reason to claims the lands that were yours to protect by destiny. So we had to come here, to this point. In the ruins of the capital. At the center of a city filled with millions of the dead.

The prophecy told you. The Sword, The Shield, The Queen, The King & The White Lady.

So now you decide.

To be the King as you were called to be, and resurrect this city with the White Lady, or to remain the King of an orphaned island nation, floating between realms, and have millions of souls weigh on your conscience just so you wouldn't have to bloody your hands,"finally she glances over at the younger Jake sent by Clockwork


"You will always come here."

What do you do?

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Fast! Clockwork is blindingly fast with his attacks, not because he’s agile, but because he can control time. Jake has to play a game of predictions, but that doesn’t work too well when you only have a split second to learn the enemy’s pattern. The first strike is dodged by a hair’s width, but the second catches him right on.

And he’s gone, if for only a split second. He’s gone.

Super secret.
I totally mean it.
The next moment he’s standing in ashes. It’s a place he’s been before, actually. However, he doesn’t recognize it at first. All the destruction. Then he sees the Old Bailey, and Big Ben. The river is dry and the sun is all but blotted out. What horrors happened here?

Then he sees them. Himself, his wife-to-be, his best friend. The woman… Ava, with the life energy. And a little girl. He looks bewildered.

The girl speaks. As she looks to him, he realizes the speech is not for the future Jake. But for himself, here, now. She expected him to travel here in time and see this.

His eyes narrow at her implications. “What prophecy? What are you saying? Are you saying all of this is my fault? Because I wouldn’t be an INVADER?!”

He looks at himself, at Hope, at Len.

“There has to be another way. I never set out to be a conqueror!”

[Raynn]

~Jake~


Don't

You

Dare!:
The little girl walks towards Jake and motions for the others to remain silent


"Are you even listening?"

she shakes her head as she approaches the younger Jake


"This was always going to happen, no matter what you did. Your conscience precludes you from assuming your birthright until such time as it is a necessity to maintain your personal moral compass.

Merlin didn't want to tell you because he didn't think you were ready for what you had to do.

You had to see this, so you'd know it was coming and so you'd one day know it couldn't be stopped, that you needed to be King.

You can bring these people back, well Ava can, with your help.

All of them.

But only if you keep your oath. To lead and protect the people of this Empire, the oath you inherited from Arthur.

This is day is coming whether you choose to be the conqueror or not. It is and always will be a fixed point in time. What I am telling you is that one day you will have a choice between resurrecting these people and leading this kingdom, or leaving it like . . . this . . ."

she motions to her surroundings


"This isn't the end either. This Kingdom needs you to survive, you and Camelot are its heart. Deep down you know this. . ."

she looks down at the dirt


"Are you ready to go back?"


***


~Ashley~

Clark roars out of the communicator


"-zzzst- WHAT!? Where is He?! I'll get to you as soon as I can! These guys are tougher than they -SHHHHHZTTTTTT -"

The line goes dead


"When you see London you'll agree, Madrid, Washington and Berlin if they happen too.

You have such wonderful things coming Ashley, and such dark moments.

Oh such beautiful moments. . .

I wish I could help you."

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Super secret.
I totally mean it.
He sighs a shuddered breath. They aren’t asking him to become a conqueror. Not asking him to invade England to save it. But what the girl is saying is just as deeply disturbing. No matter what he does, these people will die. It’s only the aftermath he can control. But… he hates that reality.

“Why do they have to die in the first place? What’s so integral that it can’t be changed?”

Jake himself has never had experience with temporal matters. But he does know that fate is a real thing. His own existence proves it. He sets his jaw in frustration, looking out over the ruined London.

“They can come back?” He asks quietly.


"Yes."

He takes in a deep breath. He didn’t want to subvert nations. But if the only way to bring the dead back is to claim this land.

“I’ll do it.” He looks at his future self, fire in his eyes. “You’ll do it.”

He looks back to the girl when she asks if he’s ready to return.

“Am I ready to go back to a forest that’s minutes away from being impacted by a falling space-station, to battle a psychotic Supervillain from my teenage years who can transform into ten different alien creatures from a cartoon, all to try and save the millions of people in Freedom City?”

Pause.

He sheaths Excalibur.

“I was born ready.”

Before he can leave, the Jake of the future calls out to him, employing his powers on his younger self. "Hey Jake. Be fearsome."

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

"Clark? Clark?! Clark?!" No good, the watch goes silent as the line dies out. Almost as if it isn't a coincidence, Death speaks to Ashley right after. Why was she mentioning other cities across the world? "...No..." Ashley is now really in disbelief, practically screaming. "Don't tell me this is a worldwide problem. I don't want to hear that the entire world will crumble like this!" She is almost tempted to cover her ears with her hands. "Please don't... I can't save a world on my own. I'm not Clark, Isiah, or Dr. Dire." Ashley is pretty much ready to drop on the ground and collapse.

She tries using her walkie-talkie. "Jake, I'm at the park; gonna be heading to you." Silence follows. "...Jake?" There's no response. "Jake? Jake, not you too!" Another one of her friends had suddenly disappeared; how many more will she lose in this one day? "Len! Faith! Anyone on this frequency, answer me! I'm at Wharton State Forest; every power line and electrical device is down! I can't get anywhere as is!"

Ashley waits for a response from her walkie-talkie, watch, or from above; whichever comes first. Yet there was something that crossed her mind; her aunt and cousins. Slowly she looks at Death and dearly, coldly, asks, "...Have you seen Danielle, Sarah, or Marcia...?"

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

"You guys want a ride?" Len says to Robert and Diego, as he looks on at Godzilla. "I've gotta go fight the King of All Monsters before he wrecks the city." Len says.

Before he can leap to action, his comm crackles to life. Looks like Ashley is stranded at Wharton State Forest. Makes sense since there's no power for her to teleport through.

"Hey Ash, this is Len. I read you. We have a Godzilla situation over here that I'm about to go deal with. I can swing by and pick you up on the way."

[Raynn]

~Jake~

Stay

Out!:
The little girl steps forward and places her left hand on Jake's shoulder and her palm on his forward and then her eyes glow a bright white


"Home."

There is a flash of light and suddenly Jake reappears in the forest, only a few moments after he left except that now he is glowing with the golden magical energy of the royal voice. Fearsome and burning in the night like the station falling from above.

Standing before him on the other side of the clearing is Understudy, again in a new form . . . SWAMPFIRE (http://ben10.wikia.com/wiki/Swampfire).


http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100525220044/ben10/images/thumb/e/ec/SWAMPFIRE.png/230px-SWAMPFIRE.png


"I'm impressed, not everyone comes back from a trip through time. Where did you end up?"

Roll Initiative again:
Swampfire/Understudy: [roll0]


~Ashley~


"No I haven't seen them Ashley, they're alive. Probably in Camelot where this attack hasn't touched, yet at least."


~Len, Diego & Robert~

Once Diego and Robert give the all clear you can post heading to pick up Ashley. :smallsmile:

[Phase]

The Wings Regrown

Diego fiddles with one last wire when *Bing*, a green light flashes in his helmet. He smirks as Len offers a ride.

"Gracias, esse, but I think I can make it on my own." He runs towards the window and jumps out, arms wide. He freefalls for a moment... then BOOM! He speeds towards Godzilla at Mach 1.

"COME ON DINOSAURIO, LET'S SEE WHAT YOU GOT."

[Raynn]

~Jake~

Swampfire brings his palms together before swinging them apart creating a massive blast of flames that not only engulfs Jake but ignites the surrounding Treeline as well.

Area Attack; Flame Burst (Strike 11: Area (Burst): DC 26 Toughness, DC 21 Reflex save to halve the Toughness DC.


***

~Diego~

Roll Initiative:
Godzilla Initiative: 1d20+1 roll in OoC thread.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Secret still!It’s almost over!Jake’s own power influences his younger self. His eyes widen as realizations dawn upon him. The ghost of Arthur could shatter the Earth with his voice. What great powers could Jake do with his own? Even as the girl begins to touch him, he can feel the light within welling up.

“Thank you… for showing me this.” He whispers to the girl as she sends him back.

The next time he opens his eyes, he’s back, facing the Understudy in yet another guise. This time… Jake burns with the power of the One True King. Brown eyes watch the plant-based alien in front of him. In response to the Understudy’s question, Jake says,

“You’ll never know.”

Swampfire blasts fire all around, reducing this patch of the state Forest to a burning hellscape. But even as that wave of fire rushes over Jake, he stands unharmed.

“Should’ve picked Goku.”

The wings on his boots light up, and Jake charges the Understudy, drawing Excalibur in a flash of blinding light before trying to cut a diagonal gash into the Understudy’s chosen form. Best to hit him hard right out of the gate.

Blinding flash! Two reflex saves: 20 and then 20/15 to not be blinded.

Then a charging, all-out power attack. [roll0] – DC 30 no-save damage on hit.

[Raynn]

Toughness Save: [roll0]
Reflex Save 1: [roll1]
Reflex Save 2: [roll2]

Hero Point to Jake to remove stun. Regeneration removes disabled this turn.


~Jake~

Jake cuts the creature down the middle and for a moment Jake feels . . .

Happy.

Then he sees the creature stitch himself back together. . . vines grow from his detached limbs and reconnect them to his body. . . he puts himself back together. . .

Understudy grins.

He taps the omnitrix on his chest and a moment later he is . . .


GHOSTFREAK! (http://ben10.wikia.com/wiki/Ghostfreak)

http://tannerbraziel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/9_-_Ghostfreak2.jpg

Then he is gone . . .

One moment he is there, the next he is not . . .


***

Attack Roll: [roll3]
DC 35 Toughness Save on a hit.


~Diego~

Godzilla roars as he takes a swing for Godzilla but he swoops out of the way with ease!

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley makes the attempt to relax as she realizes whatever family she has here is still alive; they may even be safe. "...Thank goodness," she says in a frightened, but relieved tone. Though she can't regain her composure, she tries to do her best. "I don't know what I can do, but I'm going to do something while the rest of the city is in such a collapsing state." Hearing Len on her walkie-talkie, Ashley picks up and responds in a more serious manner. "Thanks for picking up Len; I was worried I lost all of you by this point. If you can find me, pick me up. If you can find Jake, help him out. With any luck we'll all be able to take Godzilla together before the... Lighthouse comes down." Ashley really didn't want to mention that.

"...By the way, who the hell is Godzilla?!"

[Raynn]

Jake, Make a DC 23 Will Save.
Hero Point to Jake.


~Jake~

Jake's eyes suddenly glow green. . . then fade . . .

Under-Jake glances at Excalibur drinking it in . . .


“Oh this is going to be very good!"

The Under-Jake swings Excalibur . . . a tear opens in reality . . .

And he steps out into the Oval Office.

The Commander-In-Chief sits up, there is a look of recognition and fear on his face . . .

The portal closes behind Under-Jake. A dozen secret service agents draw pistols on reflex and open fire.

Under-Jake smiles as the bullets ricochet away harmlessly


“Oh that's very, very good!"

Then men pause for only a moment as Under-Jake glances around room and spins slowly on the spot


“I'll Take It!"

The President sits up despite the man before him being obviously near invulnerable


"WHAT!?"

Under-Jake grins an evil grin with Jake's lips


“The Office, the City, The Nation, THE WORLD!"


***

~Ashley~

Think this is just waiting on Len, so naught for me to say. :smalltongue:

[Phase]

Diego Torres

"Ay caramba, big guy!" Diego ducks under the swinging arm of Godzilla. "Not too close, eh? Don't want to hurt the merchandise!" He ducks and weaves around the behemoth. There's not much he can do to hurt the big guy, but he can at least try to distract him...

He ducks into a dive, and scratches at the reptile's tough hide, before ducking away again between his elephantine limbs.

Okay, bear with my math.
+4 from Defensive Strike. Going Defensive Attack for +4 Defense/-4 attack. Going full Power Attack for +5 damage/-5 attack.
Diego's Attack, DC 27: [roll0]

[Raynn]

~Jake~

Jake roars out within Under-Jake and seems to vomit him out his body. He goes to swipe at him but sees, or doesn't see, that he's still invisible. . .

Jake sees the secret service men about to fire again, and hurried foot steps outside the office.

A.E.G.I.S. or some hero could be here any minute.

The President speaks up


"KING WALLACE! I THINK YOU'LL FIND AMERICA WON'T GIVE UP WITHOUT A FIGHT!"

Secret Service Men are trying to drag him out of the room.


***

Toughness Save: [roll0]


~Diego~

Diego's attack doesn't get anywhere near piercing the creature's thick monochrome hide. For the moment it seems to now ignoring El Peregrino and simply causing havoc and destruction as it rampages through the rapidly flooding section of the city.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

He immediately looks around, trying to figure out where the ghostly Understudy had gone. Oh hell, it could be in any one of these people. His options were limited. Then the President shouts at him.

“Whoa whoa whoa! I’m sorry, Mr. President. There’s a supervillain in here who possessed me. He’s still in here. Hope and Change, I love that stuff. I pre-emptively ask your forgiveness, but…”

“CEASE FIGHTING.”

Forceful Speech: Everyone makes a DC 20 will save vs. LOVE. We’re going to ferret him out!

[Raynn]

[roll0]

Hero Point to Jake.


~Jake~

Jake is annoyed when Understudy doesn't make himself known but he's quite happy when he sees how cordial the President and his men now appear . . .

They're looking at something . . .

Jake slowly looks behind himself . . .

There's a television camera . . .

They just saw him. . . Understudy threaten not only the President but the United States . . . Then he brainwashed the President in front of them . . .wait . . .broadcast . . .

Jake swallows . . .

He just brainwashed the vast majority of the united states of America.


:smalleek:

The President stands and walks over to Jake putting his arm around his shoulders with a grin looking at the camera


"Perhaps we can talk about handing over this office afterall! Ha!"

The President is grinning happily. . .

[kpenguin]

Get it, because he's a bull-man

"Peregrine, wait! You can't just-

Robert Asterion sighs and shakes his head. Was even Robert this bullheaded when he was young?

He scans the city and points. "Len get me down there. I think that's a lab, still above water. If I can get the right materials, I might be able to mix something to help us out.

He looks back at the black and white monster rampaging the city. "If you can get Ashley, do so. Our next best bet is pumping electricity into scaly. And with powerlines down everywhere, she won't be able to get into the city easily at all.

He closes his eyes as he waits for Len to drop him off. Closes his eyes and does what he does best. What he was born to do. What his father did for millenia before him.

Robert Asterion began to think.

Rolling Knowledge (Tactics)

[roll0]

[Raynn]

~Robert~

The creature is distracted and walking around in a flooded area. Electrocution would be easy.

Other giant monsters could help keep him from fleeing from the wet zone where he can be easily electrocuted . . .

Keeping him cordoned off should be the focus, the more he moves around the more he spreads his destruction, the farther civilians need to flee to be safe.

His view is limited, and his attention and perception are minimal. Distractions and stealth are both effective options.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Okay. Jake doesn’t have to fight the President and the Secret Service. That’s a good start. Oh, he was going to have to have twenty beer summits to repair this. Then he turned, very slowly… to look at the television screen. It was all he could do not to say something that would be bleeped out by Network Censors.

And the damned Understudy was still hidden!

“No, Mr. President. I would never seek to subvert the will of the American people or the Sovereignty of the American people. However, there is a villain in our midst right at this moment. He can possess anyone. Now, with the understanding that Camelot and the United States are and will always be good friends, let us join together to deal with this threat, and to save Freedom City.”

Blink.

“Cut the feed.”

When the camera is turned off, Jake cancels the emotion control. He braced himself… and just hoped that his speech had been good enough.

"Okay, sorry about that! But to be fair, you were shooting at me. He's still here in this room. He's trying to wreak as much havoc as he can, and I have no means of detecting him. Mr. President, I'm only here to help."

Diplomacy [roll0]

[Raynn]

~Jake~

There's a marked improvement . . . They've stopped shooting.

The President is at his desk and flexes as his hands are pressed against the table, his knuckles turning white as he clutches the wood.


"Get. Out. Now."

The room fills with silence for a moment. The men are aiming guns at Jake again but they're not firing. Outside Jake can hear noises again.

What do you do?

[Phase]

Diego Torres

"Mierda!" Diego zooms around Godzilla, halting in front of him. "Oh no you don't, you great cold-blooded gordito!" He spins to and fro before Godzilla's massive maw, doing his best to keep the monster's attention on him, rather than the city ripe for destruction.

Using Diego's Distract feat to, well, distract Gojira.
[roll0]

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Jake shakes his head. “Sorry, Mr. President. But I’m going nowhere while there’s a creature in the room with the man who could launch nuclear warheads. This man dropped the Lighthouse out of orbit. He won’t hesitate to start World War III. Shoot me if you want, but I intend to stop him and save us all.”

He holds out Excalibur and unleashes a torrent of light through the room. He’s going to ferret out the Understudy, one way or another.

Power stunting. Spending an HP. Acute, accurate, Detect Understudy, extended range 5; Linked Counters Concealment/Obscure/Illusion Vision, extended range 5

[Raynn]

Hero Point to Jake to remove Staggered from Understudy via recovery check.


~Jake~

As the light washes over the oval office suddenly a semi transparent GhostFreak appears waiting up above against the ceiling, waiting


"Jakey Boy! I must admit I'm impressed. Brain-washed hundreds of thousands of good god fearing Americans.

Good thing you're not an Elected official, am I right?"

he slams down on the omnitrix on his chest, the same green light appears. . .


Diamonhead! (http://ben10.wikia.com/wiki/Diamondhead)

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120819162228/ben10/images/b/b0/Diamondhead_oficial_%282%29.png

He drops down to the ground unharmed by the short fall, the President is pulled out of the room in fear. The secret service follow.

Suddenly Diamond-Study's hands become long, massive crystal blades. . .

He charges.

Attack Roll: [roll0] DC 25 Toughness Save on a hit.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

He looks up at the Understudy, baring his teeth. “Shut up and get down here!” Unfortunately, Understudy obliges in a much tougher form than before, bull-rushing Jake. The King takes it well, being pushed back through the Oval Office, but only taking a scratch across the cheek.

Jake’s mind races to find this particular form’s weakness… Sonic attacks. SONIC attacks! Jake’s brown eyes light up. He’d have to apologize to the President for the damage done… but screw it!

“FUUUUUUUS RO DAH!”

A massive wave of sonic force bursts free from his lungs, tearing through the room towards his big opponent.

Using that new HP to power stunt a sonic shout. Line-Area Damage 10. Sonic damage. DC 20 reflex, then DC 20/25 (or more, depending on weakness) damage.

[Raynn]

Reflex Roll: [roll0]
+100% damage and power loss: (Immunity: Half Toughness Damage) vs. Sonic Attacks.

Toughness Save: [roll1] vs. DC 25


~Jake~

Diamond-Study weathers the blast but only barely.

"Ohhhh. . . Very Nice, you keep surprising me King!"

He swings forward, trying to knock Jake back through the window onto the White House Lawn!

Rolls in next post.

[Raynn]

Attack Roll: [roll0]

DC 25 Toughness Save on hit.


~Jake~

[Raynn]

Attack Roll: [roll0] DC 35 Toughness save on a hit.


~Diego~

Godzilla is now following Diego wherever he goes, and takes a swing at him with his massive claws.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace
Current Condition: Injured, Fatigued; HP: 2

“I got surprises for days! A whole bag of trick just like Santie Claus!” Jake grits his teeth and raises Excalibur as the Understudy comes in for the second strike. The diamond claw rakes against the legendary blade, sending sparks flying. The force of the Understudy;s attack carries them both out of the window, smashing out onto the White House Lawn.

"Ah sh**!"

Jake tumbles and comes to stand on his feet. He flies upwards, a good forty feet in the air before delivering another sonic shockwave down onto the Understudy.

“Fus ro DAH!”

The last syllable thunders as the shockwave rips down into the Diamond alien.

Same thing! DC 20 reflex; DC 20/25 toughness.

[Raynn]

Reflex Save: [roll0]
Toughness Save: [roll1] vs. DC 25/35

Hero Pointing off Stun, Hero Point Recovery Check for Disabled, Keeping staggered.

2 Hero Points to Jake.


~Jake~

Shattering, Diamond-Study is blasted across the yard by the shout. He coughs up gems . . .


"*cough* ugh. . . Is that . . . *Cough* all you've got?! *Cough* Cause I've got Way More!"

he presses the Omnitrix one last time . . .


WAY BIG (http://ben10.wikia.com/wiki/Way_Big)!


http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101212180527/ben10/es/images/2/22/Way_Big_Ultimate_alien.png

Standing hundreds of feet tall, looming over Washington D.C. the King is met with his greatest challenge yet!

The final battle with The Understudy!

[Raynn]

Attack Roll: [roll0]
Toughness Save DC 40 on a hit.


~Jake~

Way Big brings his fist down. To one side Jake, less than a fist's breath away the White House.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace
Current Condition: Injured x2; HP: 1

“Is that *cough cough* all you’ve got?!”

“You ain’t seen what I got! What I got is Super Hot FIYYYAH!” This battle’s been so intense that Jake’s trash talking has been pushed up to 11. “No matter what shape you take, I got your number. Should’ve never crawled out from that rock you’ve been under!”

Jake promptly shuts up as Understudy gets bigger… and bigger… and bigger.

“Mom always said I talked too much.”

SMASH!

The big fist drops directly on Jake, who doesn’t even bother to dodge it. There’s nowhere to go, really! Understudy mashes the ground real good and gives it a nice squeeze. But when he retracts his hand, Jake’s still there, crouched down in the middle of the big imprint.

“Got that out of your system?!”

Jake steadies himself and then flies upwards to Way Big, spiraling around the giant as he heads upwards towards the monster’s fin. If he can strike it… at all, he can do this.

Excalibur flashes brightly as he slashes, hoping to hit his mark.

HP to cure fatigue.

Full power attack + all-out; cause he’s going to hit me anyway! [roll0] DC 30 no-save toughness on hit

[Raynn]

~Jake~

As the fist rises Jake sees the front half of the White House in ruins around him.

People are screaming. Cameras are flashing.

The world is watching.

Make it count.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Jake hacks away at the Understudy, and while Excalibur’s legendary edge bites with every blow, it’s slow work to fell this giant. Jake’s breathing heavily. If he fails here, Washington D.C. will meet a fate just like Freedom City. He can’t let it happen. Won’t let it happen.

He dips down for a moment before rising up, slashing as hard as he can before flying high, gaining altitude away from the next counter-attack. He has to harry him, not fight him in a stand-up slug-fest.

New attack! [roll0] DC 30 no-save toughness

[Raynn]

Toughness Save: [roll0]

Understudy is Injured 3 + Bruised 3


~Jake~

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

It wasn't enough.. it wasn't enough. He took a deep breath, and then concentrated. The light of Excalibur flared, until it burned like a miniature sun in the night sky over the White House. Jake gripped the blade with both hands... and then he came soaring back down, roaring with fury.

It was like a falling star, streaking down from the heavens with a mighty blow of that sword. It struck the fin, and continued to carve, dealing a terrible, final blow to the Understudy... Jake finally slew the first monster he'd ever seen.

[roll0] Crit for a DC 35 toughness save before weaknesses.

[Raynn]

~Jake~

He falls.

He shrinks as he tumbles, through the night air and the empty dark.

He lands at Jake's feet.

Around the garden hundreds of paparazzi flicker away with their cameras.


'00:00:01'

The Understudy is dead.


'00:00:00'

In 10 Minutes He Changed The World More Than Most Do In A Lifetime.

Jake glances down at the body at his feet. The Featureless mask, the white clothing stained by blood. An honorable man, he somehow knows, would leave the mask untouched.

He glances down at the Understudy's wrist.

The Omnitrix tumbles off and onto the grass.


http://www.officialpsds.com/images/thumbs/ben10-omnitrix-psd57119.png

The world looks on.

Jake has saved Washington D.C. but the White House is in ruins, he doesn't even know if the President is alive. . .

But he is needed elsewhere.

What do you do?

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

He stands on the ground now. Victorious. Oddly enough, the Understudy had been right. It had been a true duel. One on one, with the exception of gunfire. And it had been a battle that would be told and retold for decades to come… maybe longer.

Jake sheathes Excalibur.

He won’t disturb the body. Truth be told, Jake doesn’t care what the Understudy’s real identity is. Let the rest of the world dissect all that. It all made sense now… what he’d seen. Why he would be needed one day. If one villain could do this...

Silently, Jake walked over to the Omnitrix, and he picked it up. He glanced over to the cameras and the crowd watching.

“I’ll come back to help the wounded. I promise. But first, Freedom City needs my help.”

He draws Excalibur again, to slash the air and open a portal… to the last known location of Robert and Diego.

[Raynn]

~Jake~

As Jake emerges from the portal he sees the city . . . As he left but worse . . . A forest fire has started in Wharton State Park from his fight with Swampfire and at the center of the forest is a massive smoking crater filled with wreckage.

He looks around seeing Diego going toe to toe with a real life black and white Godzilla! The city is even more flooded then before and nearby Len has just dropped Robert off at a lab where Jake can see . . .

Where's Ashley?


***


~Ashley~

At the center of the crater a girl who should be dead stands beside death herself


"It's okay, I protected you from the debris when it crashed landed, you're not dead,"

for a moment Ashley doesn't know what to say then she hears him . . .


"Ash. . .ley . . . ?"

a voice whispers from the wreckage. . .

What do you do?

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

She couldn't remember what happened. A moment she saw Len flying towards her. A moment later everything went dark. She had utterly forgotten how fast the Lighthouse fell and here she stood at the crash site of it. Death stayed in front of her, protecting the young hero from a second cast into the Underworld. "I..." Ashley is at a loss for words again. This is just a train ride of implausible degrees. She weakly manages to say to Death, "Thank-" and then is cut off by the voice below.

Her eyes shot open wide as she hears the all-too-familiar voice from below. Immediately she bends down and starts digging through the wreckage. Her voice now loud and almost rude. "Where are you?! I'm digging you out, just hang in there!" She couldn't even say his name; she didn't want to say the name. She feels to be in complete denial of what she understands what will happen. All she does right now is follow the voice and dig through the wreckage.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Jake surveyed the scene for a moment. Godzilla… the actual Godzilla… was fighting with Diego. Jake glanced around, looking for Len. He knew his friend was out here somewhere. This fight was made for him.

Jake glanced down at the Omnitrix. He contemplated putting it on and fighting Godzilla as Way Big. However, he was too spent from his fight with the Understudy. Tactically, it wouldn’t be the right choice.

He then thought about giving it to Len. Only, that would overwrite Len’s DNA, making it redundant with Len’s transformation powers. But Robert.

Jake saw him and jumped off the roof, free-falling a few stories before flying over to him. Over the comms.

“Understudy is dead. Everyone focus on containing the flood and fighting--- Godzilla!”

He landed next to Robert, who was deep in thought.

“Robert, use this. It was what the Understudy was using to transform. There’s a form called ‘Way Big.’ Use that form to fight the lizard. I know you’re tired of this crazy sh**, but you’re the best unarmed fighter around.”

He held out the Omnitrix.

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Len drops Robert off at the lab. "Good luck pal. I'll meet you at the giant rampaging monster in a few." he says, and gives the big minotaur a bro pound before shifting and taking to the skies again.

The giant Pterosaur lands in the park, watching Ashley dig furiously through wreckage. "Ashley, are you alright? What's going on?" he says, before shifting into a large carnosaur form and helping Ashley dig through the rubble, not quite sure what they are looking for.

can I see death or can only Ashley see her?

[Raynn]

~Robert~

If you intend to use the Omnitrix give me an Intelligence Check. :smallsmile:


***

~Ashley & Len~

Len cannot see Death.

As Ashley and Len dig through the rubble Len turns into his human form as something zaps away his power . . . Ashley realizes that at least some of the nullifiers on board survived the crash intact. . .

Then they see him, jagged pieces of metal are embedded in his abdomen, wreckage or shrapnel from some console unit, and his left hand side is maimed in burns. He has moments . . . not long enough to get clear of the nullifiers. Ashley gives a glance in Death direction.

Death nods.

Isiah speaks


"Ash . . . *cough* you . . . you need to listen . . . *cough* ugh. . . Jake's . . . Jake's . . . ugh . . . he's going to take over England . . . he's going to open the door . . . bring back the dead . . . She told me . . . she told me . . . she said this was coming but I didn't listen . . . didn't believe . . . the nullifiers shouldn't affect *cough* me . . . she said he needs too, that he has too, that it's the right thing, but *cough* no one should have that power . . . You . . . You need to stop Jake . . . You have too . . ."

You've got a few seconds to say goodbye to Isiah folks.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

By the time Jake responds over the comm, Ashley has practically devoted herself enough to digging out the debris that she fails to respond to Jake. She is barely aware that her powers just don't work here either. It isn't until Len comes down that she takes notice off the debris for just a moment. "Len! There you are; quick, help me! He's...!"

...

She then saw him. She couldn't believe it, only a few minutes left in his life and she completely expected him to outlive her. "Isiah, please don't tell me-"

He then says his final words. Of anything he could say, this was not what Ashley expects at all. Jake conquering England? "She" told him? Did that refer to Death? What power is Isiah referring to?

...He won't be able to answer her questions however. Ashley knows that he's a deceased man within a couple breaths. When Death spoke to Ashley back at the cafeteria yesterday, with everything Ashley has seen, she outright suspected Isiah masterminding some sort of horrible plot. He definitely planned something but had no time to execute Step 1. Now he's leaving it all up to Ashley to solve a case she couldn't understand in the slightest. If he wasn't dying, she would have snarked something like "You fool. Should've told me sooner." Yet here... She couldn't; she knows that it isn't right. She has to say what she must say here and now.

With conviction in her heart desperately fighting back tears, Ashley responds, "Isiah, I promise to discover what Jake plans... I'm not simply turning my blade on him but... If what you say is true... If what I've seen is true, he will be punished." Ashley still remembers that dream she had. She has no idea how that ties into Jake and England but there has to be a connection somewhere in this world. "I promise to protect the world that... You can't anymore." She forces a weak smile as tears now rush out of her eyes. She bends down and kisses him on the lips for what is the last time.


"I love you Isiah. I wish your soul rests well in the afterlife."

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Len yelps with surprise as he gets zapped by a nullifier and forced back into his human form. He shakes it off and that's when he sees Isiah, all kinds of messed up. It didn't look good. "Oh damn..." he whispers to himself. He knows there's nothing to be done. Len stands by respectfully and lets Ash and Isiah have their last moments.

He lets a few moments pass before going over to Ashley. He leans down and tries to help her to her feet. "I'm sorry Ash." he says simply, and gives her a reassuring hug. "I wish I could do something more but there are things we need to do now. Godzilla is on a rampage and we are needed there."

"C'mon, I'll give you a ride." he says, and pauses. "We'll talk about what Isiah said after we deal with the current disaster. I can assure you now though, Jake isn't planning anything like what Isiah said."

With that he shifts back into his Pteranodon form and waits for Ash to hop on, before heading toward the Godzilla zone.

[Raynn]

~Ashley & Len~

As Ashley and Len rise from Isiah's body and are about to leave, seeing his eyes empty of life Ashley looks towards a path into the forest. Len looks and sees nothing.

Ashley sees Isiah holding Death's hand smiling, unharmed.

She looks towards his body, it's still there, dead.

He looks at Ashley and grins


"I love you too Ashley."

With that Isiah turns and walks away, hand in hand with Death, into the light at the end of the path into the forest.


***


~Ashley & Len~

When the pair return to the city they see Jake floating nearby with Robert and El Peregrino trying to bait Godzilla.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley was on her knees as she watches Death begin to carry Isiah off. She didn't try to beg, barter, or convince Death otherwise; Ashley just did not have that sort of power to do so... And she didn't like the idea of it. An ability to control life and death itself is something she just did not believe to have the responsibility to handle. Ashley hated how powerless she felt this entire day; it all culminated to here. It really did not matter how one looks at it, Ashley will need a day or two before she's in tip-top shape. All she hopes is that Clark is alright...

Ashley doesn't even budge until she can't see Isiah and Death anymore. Once she finally does move, she gets up slowly but does not dawdle as she gets on Len's back. As soon as he mentions about Isiah, Ashley cuts him off immediately. "Len I don't want to hear about it." Her voice is a mix of despair, disappointment, and disinterest. "...Let's just hurry back and take down this 'Godzilla.'" She really has only heard the name once or twice so she's heading into this quite blind.

And did she ever meet a Godzilla that she didn't expect. She loses the disinterest and disappointment as soon as she sets her eyes on the King of Monsters. "THAT's Godzilla?!" She is moreso surprised by the black and white colors than the actual size. She fought Way Big last night who was bigger than this lizard. This shouldn't be a problem... So long as she can focus, something she has not had much ease with as of late. Her emotions are bottled up right now, set to explode if things get any worse before there's time to rest. Len can clearly tell Ashley is not in the best of conditions right now.

[Phase]

The Birds and the Bee-g Lizards

"That's it! Good lizard! Follow the bouncing Latino!" Diego ducks and weaves around Godzilla, doing his best to be annoying, primarily to distract the towering menace from destroying any more, err, city blocks. He loops around and hovers in front of the king of monsters. This is only prolonging the inevitable. If only I had something to... hit... him... with... He smirks, and flies up close, nearly perched on the reptile's snout.

"HEY CHUBBY!" He calls out, adjusting his orientation for quick maneuvers. "WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN? OXYGEN DESTROYER PROVE TOO MUCH FOR YOU?" He braces himself.

Using Improved Trick to Trick Godzilla into attacking, and then redirecting him into himself, as a move action at no penalty. Then using Total Defense to boost my Defense to 30.

Trick roll: [roll0]

[kpenguin]

Mad Cow Scientist

Robert Asterion was deep in thought when Jake landed. He had done all the calculations. he had complete the device. He had plotted the course. And now, he was ready.

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in," he intones, a weak smile on his lips. The Understudy might be dead, but there was so much damage already done and still more to contain. At least Jake would appreciate the quote the movie buff.

He examines the device Jake hands him, pointedly not putting it on quite yet. "This is what Understudy used? I don't trust it, Jake. I barely trust what I just made."

He holds out a syringe and pushes it into Jake's hands. "Get to Len. Tell him to turn into the nastiest rex he can think of and then inject it. It'll make him bigger. Very much bigger. The transformation's only temporary and it will the sudden growth will tax his muscles, but it'll be enough to go toe to toe with that thing out there.

He looks out at the city. "Then get a portal going. We can't afford to have two giants fight in the middle of the city. Not with the flood already wrecking things. Get the biggest portal you can manage and send it to...

The minotaur walks over to a lab computer and points at the screen where the location of a remote volcanic island is open. "There. I've run the numbers. Its far enough away from civilzation that any stray atomic breath isn't going to hurt any bystanders and I've run quick terrain analysis indicating advantages in the landscape for Len over Godzilla."

He puts his hand on Jake's shoulder. "You like hell, my friend. Think you can do all that for me?"

See rolls in the OOC. the syringe is the growth formula. The terrain analysis represents Robert's Master Plan roll. Once Len hits the Island, the Master Plan will activate and give Len the Master Plan bonuses

[Raynn]

Sense Motive: [roll0]
Attack Roll: [roll1]
Toughness Save if Redirected: [roll2]

Godzilla is Bruised + Stunned


~Diego~


El Peregrino Used SWAGGER.

It was Super-effective!

Godzilla is Confused.

Godzilla hurt itself in the confusion.

El Peregrino launches himself from the snout at just the last moment, when Godzilla's lumbering claw doesn't have time to slow down, resulting in Godzilla stunning himself momentarily via punch to the face!

[Phase]

The man of the moment

Diego spins in the air and pumps a fist triumphantly. "Ahahahahaha! Yes! Thank you!" He leans in closer. "No offense! No hard feelings!" He does a loop dee loop, before sticking out his tongue at Godzilla.

"STOP HITTING YOURSELF, ESSE!" He shouts, grinning widely.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Jake grinned at the Godfather reference. Classic gold, Asterion. He gave the big guy a solid pat on the back. He understood why Robert might not want to use the Omnitrix. “I get it. Trust me, that thing’s getting sealed in our vaults after this.”

He was given the syringe. It’s a Captain America serum for Len. MegaLen. MegaRex. GiganTyranus. He’ll figure something out between now and then. The portal was doable too. Jake studied the volcanic island, getting a clear mental picture of the place in his mind.

When Robert asked if he could do all of that, Jake grinned.

“Well, Robert, it’s a tall order,” Jake flashed his teeth a bit at the chance to give a terrible pun, “but I can do it. The portal’s going to take everything I have left. It’ll be up to you guys. Okay. Ready, break.”

He clapped his hands together once, then started to fly up into the air.

"Hey! Did I mention I got engaged a few hours ago?"

He chuckled. What a crazy life.

“Len,” he called over the comms, “Meet me at the Piano Bar on 31st, I have some spinach for you.”

He rocketed off in that direction.

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Spinach huh? Guess I'm a sailor now? Len thinks to himself, changing his course to the Piano Bar on 31st. Hopefully Ashley wouldn't mind the change in course too much. He flapped his wings and hurried to the meeting place.

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

It wasn’t long until Jake was there, standing atop the Piano Bar. He looked beaten up. His clothes were scorched, and he was tired, but he was excited to see what would happen when Len took the serum.

“Hey good buddy!” He called out when Len came near.

“Doctor Minotaur gave me this for you,” he held up the syringe, “It’s supposed to make you be able to grow as big as Godzilla. So let me ask you this… Terrorsaur, or Ultra-Rex?”

He grinned wildly and passed him the syringe.

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

Ashley keeps quiet as Len detours to the Piano Bar. Much of her focus right now is more on Peregrine, who is playing pranks on Death's door with Godzilla. She is going to talk about that with Jake when they meet.

When they reach 31st Piano Bar, Ashley can't help but look at how beat-up Jake is. "Good lord Jake. Please tell me this didn't come from tailoring your own clothing." She starts feeling a little better once she says that. Having some time to think while riding Len probably helped. She can't help but bring up Peregrine a moment later in a more annoyed tone. "By the way, what in the world is Peregrine doing? We save this guy's sorry ass fifteen minutes ago and now he's trying to kill himself with a humongous lizard! Does he even have a brain?!" He points and waves at Godzilla furiously. Ashley is pretty sure damn near everyone trying what Diego is pulling off would get slaughtered by the reptilian's massive claws; this includes ones like Clark and Dire... Wherever those two are.

Ashley then looks at the syringe Jake gives to Len. Her face is the very definition of "this is a terrible idea." "...I thought destruction was what we were trying to avoid." She shakes her head and sighs. She knew Len and Jake always wanted to live the experience of a B-movie giant monster battle and nothing she would say is going to change that. She still isn't in the mood to smile right now but has the willingness to tell them, "Alright, you two want my opinion for a name? Überzard." Terrible name? Possibly, but it beats moping all day when the city is in need of saving.

[Raynn]

~ "You don't understand! I coulda had a life. I coulda been a loser. I could've been nobody, instead of awesome, which is what I am." ~

Think Ashley & Jake are just waiting on Len to inject himself with dangerous untested pharmaceuticals, so nothing to add. :smalltongue:


***


~"Asterion, Robert Asterion."~

As Professor Minotaur begins to clear up the lab he sees a figure approaching who reminds him a lot of Red One (http://iamyourtargetdemographic.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/greenranger.png).

The lone green figure approaches solemnly and slowly towards the lab's window, followed by a dozen odd grey creatures that shamble forward almost like simians (http://www.rovang.org/wiki/putty-patrollers2.jpg).

What do you do?

Well if you want to use the watch at any point make an intelligence check to see if you can figure out the watch enough to turn into the right form. :smallsmile:


***

~"Puny God-zilla."~

Godzilla roars out as he stumbles back as he roars out, confused and stunned momentarily giving El Peregrino time to act.

[SuperMuldoon]

Len Cope

Len grinned as he accepted the syringe from Jake. "I'll have to decide on a name later, all I know is right now the King of All Monsters is about to get beat down by the King of the Dinosaurs!"

"Get that portal ready." he says, and takes one last look over at Godzilla. Len shakes out his arms and jumps around a little to loosen up before the big moment.

"Here we go."

Len jams the syringe home and presses the plunger feeling Robert's concoction surging through his veins. He clenches his teeth as he feels it going to work. His body begins to grow, and at the same time he begins to shift. Len feels the asphalt beneath his feet begin to crack as his weight grows.

When the transformation is complete, where once stood Len now stands the towering behemoth Tyrant Lizard King - Tyrannosaurus Rex.

He looks Godzilla straight on at eye level and bellows out a roar that shakes the surrounding buildings.

Ok, so current form is as follows:
Growth 8, Speed 3, Strike (Mighty, Improved Critical 4, Penetrating 5), Protection 7, Enh. Feat Crushing Pin.
Add on Growth 12 from Robert's serum = total Growth 20

buying fatigue off with HP

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

Jake stood there for a moment, grinning a wide grin as Len transformed. “Awww yeah, buddy. This is going to be epic.”

The King of Camelot then turned towards Godzilla and took off, speeding through the city-scape towards the King of the Monsters. Jake weaved through under-passes, buildings, and light-poles, approaching the monolithic creature. He unsheathed Excalibur as he hit the zone of destruction, the flash alerting the others to his presence there.

The boots flared up as he made it into position, on the far side of Godzilla.

“Alright… here we go.”

He grunted and slashed Excalibur as hard as he possibly could, tearing open the bounds of space in a way his predecessor never could. A massive portal opened up to the volcanic island Robert had discovered. The amount of inner strength it took from Jake was tremendous, so much so that he nearly collapsed on the other side of the gateway.

Portal time! EE to power stunt a giant portal. Portal Teleport 9 (20,000 miles with extended); Progression 5. Booyakasha!

Afterwards, Jake is Exhausted.

[SuperMuldoon]

LEN COPE

With the portal open, Len lowers his head and rushes at Godzilla aiming to push him through and into the prepared battleground for the ultra heavyweight championship of the world.

[roll0]

[roll1]

[Raynn]

~Tyrant Lizard King~

The city of Freedom shakes. Its heroes scattered. Its guardians disoriented and disconnected. Fire and water fill the city. Then the heroes of old gather together once again.

The Knights return.

Sauros grows, and grows, racing forward like the flowing rivers of the city street, then crashing against Godzilla with all his force, force so great that the great boom can be heard at the very edges of the city and will be remembered for decades to come.

The King of All Monsters slams in Godzilla knocking him back too just the other edge of the portal, which seems to have knocked him back to his senses.

His head shoots up, his eyes lock onto Sauros'. The two great titans tense, meeting their equals.

Both know what will come.

It is time for battle.

Godzilla's Opposed Strength Check: [roll0]

[kpenguin]

No Longer a Teenager with Attitude

Right, time to get out of here. There were wounded out there, people who needed medical attention just as much as they needed a lump of muscle between them and Godzilla. Just pack up and-

"Oh. my. scrolls. and. mazes."

Robert's mind races, trying to appraise the approaching assailants. The Green Ranger. That costume. Those mooks. Power Rangers were real, but these looked exactly like the show. And if Red One's stories were true, the real Power Rangers were nothing like Mighty Morphin'

It seemed that Understudy still left a world of imagination to be overcome. Or whoever he was working with. Dreams come to life... he'd need to find out where Jill was.

In any case, Tommy was always the best of the rangers (take that Jason!). Putties probably would be no trouble, but... he needed to finish this fast if he was going to do any good on the ground. If he could get the Sword of Darkness from him, hopefully he could break the spell of evil put on by Rita Repulsa, thus bringing the Green Ranger to the side of good.

Oh gosh. He sounded like Jake.

Robert looks at the Omnitirix. The Understudy did so much damage in just ten minutes with that thing. Let's see how much good could be done in the same time.

The mighty minotaur picks it up and, with a big gulp, puts it on.

Robert's going to use the Omnitirix to try and get a form suited for disarming the Sword of Darkness and destroying it.

[roll0]

[SuperMuldoon]

Tyrant Lizard King

They were through the portal. Len felt at home on the island, his natural instincts taking over. Every footfall felt sure and stable, every movement swift.

The two lock eyes. Len makes the first move, snarling and darting in, jaws wide to unleash the crushing bite force of the apex predator.


all out attack/power attack +5/-5

[roll0] DC 44 toughness

[Raynn]

~ Mister Asterion ~

A Minotaur's hand comes down on the Omnitrix.

There is a blinding flash of green light that gives the power ranger and his minions pause . . . and then a moment later a creature scrambles out of the lab.


http://images.wikia.com/ben10/images/9/98/Jury_Rigg.png

JURY RIGG!

Robert is about a foot and a half tall and filled with the intense compulsion to disassemble things . . . . as he stares intently at the Sword of Darkness in the Power Ranger's hand.


Jury Rigg Stat Modifiers:
Robert loses Bull’s Strength, Animal Senses & Charging Bull.

He Gains:
"I'm TINY," - Shrinking 8: innate, Normal Strength (Note - So Rob still has Strength 32).
"Instantaneous Dis-assembly," - Corrosion 10*: Limited Objects, Devices and constructs (Note - This power is merely another mechanical way of representing Robert-Rigg taking something apart rapidly, rather than just quickness and a skill check, so it does leave parts behind no matter the result).
"Look At Me Go," - Quickness 6: x1,000 Speed; Limited: Breaking & Fixing Things.
"I KNOW THIS!" - Enhanced Skills: +8 to all Craft and Knowledge skills. Limited: In regards fixing and breaking things.
"Ain't Gonna Catch me!" - Enhanced Abilities: +10 to Dexterity, +5 to Reflex. Note - This means Robert-Rigg's Reflex is +13.

Robert roll initiative!


~The Great Lizard Duel of 2022~


*BOOM*

The two titans collide as Godzilla launches himself at Sauros, trying to throw him back throw the portal to crush some part of Freedom City as more and more of the water rushes through onto the island.


*BOOM*

Oh. . . now the volcano is going off too.

It's been a very weird day.


"RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!"

Godzilla yells in Sauros' ear.

What do you do?

[SuperCracker]

Jake Wallace

As the titans collide, they happen to do so directly over Jake’s head. His eyes are wide as he tries to avoid being stomped into nothingness. After a moment, he gets his chance and he flies directly up, lighting on top of Len and grabbing ahold of a scale.

"Alright, buddy! It's time for me to be the Mickey to your Rocky. Hit him hard!"

Providing moral support! Aid another.

[SuperMuldoon]

Big Len Cope

Sauros' attack missed, and he threw off Godzilla's attempt to grab a hold of him. They were back where they started, squaring off.

Len exploded suddenly again, jaws chomping. Power tempered by control this time - he was eager to draw first blood.

All Out Attack +5atk/-5deg [roll0] DC 39 Toughness save

[kpenguin]

Robert Rigg

He's got a power and a force that you've never seen before
He's got the ability to morph and to even up the score

"Well, this is interesting," Robert remarks as he scrambles on all fours around the room, circling around the Green Ranger. If he could break that sword of darkness, he might be able to get the Green Ranger on his side, freeing Robert up to go help elsewhere.

But it was a big if.

He skitters here and there, clambering under and over tables and bouncing off a wall to lunge at the sword.

Break break break break break break break break break break break break break break"

Going to try and SMASH the Sword of Darkness. Attacking his held object, All-Out Attacking for 3. +3 attack/-3 def.

[roll0]

[Raynn]

~ The Vile Thunder Harlot ~

Ashley is alone, leaning back against a store front as water slowly ebbs away. Water is running into the city from the rivers almost as fast as it is rushing out of the portal. Ashley sighs . . . Isiah is dead, Len is fighting Godzilla, Freedom City is half crippled . . .


"SWWWAAAMMMM . . ."

Ashley hears some deep sound echo out of the water


"SWWWAAAMMMMPPPPP . . .

The water rushes forward again and a monster, about 8 foot tall, looms at its peak


"SWWWAAAMMMMPPPPPEEEERRRRTTTT!"


http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/175/f/c/swampert_by_all0412-d54ovnk.jpg

What do you do?

Roll Initiative!
Swampert's Initiative: [roll0]


***

Fort Save: DC 20, auto-fail.
Toughness Save: Take 10, at -6. Fail by 19.
Sword of Darkness is Dying (Destroyed).
Tommy is Stunned this round due to the Sword being destroyed.


~ ROBERT RIGG ~

Robert Rigg leaps forward as the ranger roars out


"Get Away From Me You Glorified Gremlin!"


BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK

After a few seconds of blurred dis-assembly Robert-Rigg drops the scattered pieces of the Sword of Darkness to the ground. The Power Ranger seems confused and seems to scare at the alien before him for a moment before speaking, clearly Tommy's voice.


"What . . . What just happened? Where am I?"

Before Robert Rigg can reply the Putties leap at him, trying to stamp out the creature that just confused their ally!

All the Putties are Charging, Power Attacking (+3/-3) and All-Out Attacking (+5/-5) Robert:
Putty 1: [roll1] DC 24 on a hit.
Putty 2: [roll2] DC 24 on a hit.
Putty 3: [roll3] DC 24 on a hit.
Putty 4: [roll4] DC 24 on a hit.
Putty 5: [roll5] DC 24 on a hit.
Putty 6: [roll6] DC 24 on a hit.


***


~ The Tyrant Lizard King & The King of Camelot ~

Sauros. Right hook. To the face.

Godzilla goes backwards coughing his radioactive blood as he stands on the island, crushing the forest below. Water rushes in, slowing and reversing some of the flooding in Freedom City.

Godzilla, for the moment, is off balance.

What do you do?
Godzilla's Toughness roll: [roll7] vs. DC 39.
Godzilla is Stunned.

[Phase]

In Between a Rex and a Hard Place

Diego, sticking his tongue out at the King of Monsters, hears a thundering series of steps from behind him. He freezes. "Oh snap. I don't think I can dance with two of you, esse." He turns around slowly, sees the two approaching heroes, and grins.

"But don't worry, lizardo." He turns back to Godzilla and crosses his arms. "I think this partner knows the steps better than I do." He shoots straight up just as Len strikes. He flies up and over the dueling behemoths, nodding. That job's done for now, then. Let's see how else he can help. He flies past Jake just before he and the monsters enter the portal. "Treat him well now, you hear! And make sure he takes his nap, he's a tough one to put to sleep!" And with that he rockets up into the air.

Diego taps a dial on the side of his helmet and enhances his vision, scanning the city streets for any other threats, or perhaps for a dam he can help undo...

Rolling Notice. Range Increment of 1000 feet.
[roll0]

[Raynn]

~Diego~

Diego picks up on what appears to be a Green Power Ranger and a little red goblin thing fighting some grey figures that move in a simian fashion. Diego can't tell at this distance which side the green guy is on, or even who are the good guys!

[Starsign]

Ashley Culdis

As both Jake and Len take off to their respective duties, Ashley can't help but find herself lost in despair again. As she knows for awhile now, it helps to have someone to converse with. Being alone like this really hurts the mood moreso than it already is. Yet lazing around like this will solve nothing. The power is completely cut, not a single building has electricity. She needs to do something; there has to be a power station nearby. She can try to get a building up like a hospital. A place like that will be in a dire need of power and Ashley has the electrical capabilities to power it up. She nods to herself after a moment and-


"SWWWAAAMMMM . . ."

Ashley's focus is turned away as she hears a deep echo from the rushing water. She turns her head to see where it came from. Either way it is NOT a good sound.


"SWWWAAAMMMMPPPPP . . .

Ashley slowly walks towards the sound she is hearing until it bursts right out in front of her.


"SWWWAAAMMMMPPPPPEEEERRRRTTTT!"

As Ashley sees the large, bruiser-sized creature, she can't help but give out a yelp in surprise. "What the hell?!" Whatever this giant, aquatic thing is, it doesn't look friendly... Then a glimpse of an idea comes in her head. Didn't she see this thing from somewhere before? The name is just on the tip of her tongue but she can't quite recall... "Wait a minute, that's a Digimon, a digital creature!"

Ashley practically smiles at the odds such a creature came at her. She is glad Jake suckered her into watching that show years ago. It's not only water-based, but something she can hack. All she needs is a moment to gain access to it's processing data and she can reverse engineer it's AI to something less aggressive. How hard can that be?

Rolled 9 on Pop Culture. Raynn says that Ashley thinks it's a Digimon. Guess how well this will go? :smalltongue:

[kpenguin]

Robert Rigg

Hahahaha! Yes! Thank you! Just pull this and break that and tug this and push that and oh that comes away nicely.

The little red gremlin flashes a pointy teeth grin as the sword comes apart. He begins to open his mouth to respond to Tommy when...

*WHIFF!*
*POW!*
*BAM!*

Jury Rigg is kicked, punched, and stomped on by the putties.

"Damn, they seemed weaker on the show...

The gremlin falls over and, in a flash of light, a minotaur lands on the ground with a resound THUD.