St Ambrose School for the Extraordinary: Settling In

[Dodgeson]

On the outskirts of Jubilee City, where the busy city begins to give way to the greenery of the countryside lies the St Ambrose School for the Extraordinary. Up the path, through the gates and passed the eerie gargoyles that seem to be looking at you wherever you go, is a grand building that wouldn't look out of place at most universities. Over its front hangs a large hangs a large welcome banner.

In front of the building stands the crowd of incoming students, most look entirely normal though there are enough oddities in the crowd to reveal the schools true nature, from odd skin tones and usual hair colours to hulking werebeasts and snake tails.

((Okay! Here we go, your tour of the ground will start shortly!))

[metakirb]

A white scaled Dragon boy slowly walks through the gates, stretching his arms behind his back, spreading his scaled wings a little.

Well, I guess this is the right place.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin stood kinda near the back of the group. To outward appearances, he seemed rather...bored. Just staring ahead, not talking, barely moving. Just a random face in the crowd.

In fact, he was looking around eagerly, moving his camera angle all about to get a look at all the people (especially the more obviously superhuman ones), and as much of the grounds as he could. At the same time, he was bringing up menus of all the things his parents had told him about the school.

There weren't too many teenagers who got excited about high school. But when it was literally a school for superheroes? Yeah, that changed matters significantly.

[jamieth]

Megan looked around curiously. Among her classmates-to-be, there apparently was a dragon. And a robot. And, as far as she knew, they could easily turn out to be among the least exotic people there - normal humans were a minority of the student body at St Ambrose. Well, that just made things more exciting, and "exciting" was the main reason Megan was there in the first place. I wonder that the teachers are like, she thought, And, for that matter, what exactly do they teach here... well, besides the usual stuff, I mean. She was certainly looking forward to the gym class, at least.

[jolinaxas]

Lena stared at the large building in wonder - just one building of many, when most of her small-town high school could probably fit on one floor. Inevitably, she ended up gawking at the less "baseline" humans and other oddities, wondering how many of them would be her classmates.

Still, this was a high school, there had to be some kind of orientation effort...

[ripleycat]

This place is astonishing. How much is just for show? Are all American schools so wealthy, or is this one special? Why should we be given more just because of these things we can do? That isn't the way things were done back...

...Is that a dragon?

Awesome.

The answer to the seldom-asked question "Can robots experience culture shock?" was apparently a resounding yes. Zoya watched the crowd with an excitement barely hidden by her metal frame. There were so many of them! So many different shapes and sizes and colors! Who were they, where did they all come from? What could they do? She couldn't wait to find out.

[Dodgeson]

That's 2 dragons :smallcool:

@Metakirb
Meta's charge nods, her smaller wings fluttering excitedly behind her as she wide-eyed takes in everything around her.

"Look at all these people, we're going to learn so much here."

@Kevin
As you pan your view round to take in the crowd and grounds a particular sight catches your eye towards the back. Two boys standing either side of a girl, laughing as she jumps for her bag, somehow suspended in the air just out of her reach. What makes it even stranger is that despite the noise and the girl's obvious distress, no one appears to have noticed.

@Lena
Your gawking does not go unnoticed, gaining you the attention of a hunched figure, he glares out at you from under his hood.

"What are you looking at?"

@Zoya
A gust of wind whips up around the metal girl, abruptly coming to a stop in front of her in the form of a blonde haired boy holding a small paper bag out of which he continually pulls sweets.

"Wow! A real live robot!"

@Megan
As the gymnast looks around a young girl, no older than 12 approaches her. She smooths out her Hello Kitty shirt and taps Megan on the shoulder to try and gain her attention.

"Megan Dawson?"

[metakirb]

Just remember we're here for a reason.

He smirks a little.

Although I have to admit I'm looking forwards to finding someone who'll last longer than a few seconds in a fight.

[jamieth]

Megan turned around quickly, "Yes?" Seeing the kid, she nodded, "Yeah, that's me -are you one of my fans?" she smiled, showing that the last one wasn't really serious, "But really, how do you know me? And, to make things fair, what's your name?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin zoomed in on the scene. Well that's not nice, he thought. He quickly panned around, looking for a teacher, but trying to pick one out in this crowd...

Oh, whatever.

In a sudden move, the young boy leaped clear over the crowd, front-flipping as he did so to come down hands first above the boys, attempting to snatch the bag with one hand and using the other to hand-spring in mid-air to rebound back down off to the side with a Double Jump. If it worked, he'd just hand the bag back over to the girl on landing, giving the two boys a kinda of wan, "Seriously?" look.

Interestingly enough, if it did work, anyone nearby would distinctly hear the Mario "1-UP" sound when he grabbed the bag and bounced away.

Not sure if any/all of these are necessary, use any that apply:

Attack check to grab the bag: [roll0]
Strength check to wrest it away: [roll1]
Acrobatics check to look cool: Routine Check [18]

Just to note, the 1-UP sound has nothing to do with his Extra Lives (which are full anyway). If anything, it has to do with the more common meaning of one-up :smalltongue:.

[jolinaxas]

"Oh, I, ummm, well..."

Lena shifted awkwardly, attempting to buy time to come up with something less stupid than what she was about to say. It didn't work.

"Just kind of looking around, seeing what's up with all the new students - I was having trouble seeing you because of that hood and, well, anyway I'm sorry if I was staring..."

[ripleycat]

A long-forgotten bit of programming kicks in as Zoya snaps to attention and gives the boy a crisp salute. "Rodina-class android AN-8 Mark I at your service, comrade!" That earns some very odd looks from the crowd around her.

Awkwardly, she lowers her hand and smiles best she can. "But... you can can call me Zoya. That is my real name, the one those who built me gave me. You- you're a speedster, yes? That's amazing! What is it... like to go so fast?" The boy's entrance obviously made an impression.

[Dodgeson]

@Metakirb
Serra turns her attention away from her surrounds and moves in front of Meta, a look of concern on her face. "No! We're not here to pick fights, we have to set a good example."

@Megan
The blonde girl smiles back at her "People call me Emily." She stands up on her tiptoes, reaching up behind Megan's ear and producing a clipboard. "And I'm gonna be giving you the tour, just got to find a few other people first."

@Kevin
The girl quickly backs behind Kevin her two tormenters looking at him in shock as a shadow rears up the wall behind them.

"You said no one could see us!"

"I said they'd ignore us!"

"Whatever!"

This internal tussle resolved they turn their attention back to the boy that so rudely interrupted their fun.

"What do you think you're doing kid?"

@Lena
The boy snaps back at her, clearly getting more aggravated with each passing second "You better be! We're not your personal freakshow!"

@Zoya
The boy stifles a chuckle as Zoya's programming reasserts itself, after all it'd be rude. Giving her a reassuring smile he excitedly launches in to his answer "Being the fastest kid in Jubilee is great! I can be anywhere in flash, even ran over water once. What about you? What's your thing?"

[metakirb]

Yeah yeah, We have to lower ourselves to human standards.

He rolls his eyes.

Relax, I'm not going to just go around picking fights with random people. I'm sure there're plently of people willing to spar.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Giving her her bag back. You?" Kevin responded, simply, but just a bit snarkily. He didn't really seem to be paying much attention to them, though, his gaze having drifted past them some (he was actually zoomed in on their faces, not that anyone could tell).

[jamieth]

"Nice trick!" Megan gave the girl a thumbs-up, then, "A tour? Does that mean you're my senior here? Wow, you must be really smart!"
My troper sense practically screams that Emily's actually a teacher, but I don't think Megan is as genre savvy as myself :-)

[jolinaxas]

"I-I never said you were... ugh, forget it."

She sighed and started to walk away, trying to keep her eyes straight forward.

[ripleycat]

"You can run on water? Like one of those new hovercraft ships!" Zoya tended to think in terms of hardware, no matter how dated the comparison might be these days.

"My... thing? Oh, you mean superpowers! Nothing as impressive as yours. I don't think of them as superpowers. I was built with them, I have never known anything else. It would be strange for a person to boast about walking, or seeing things, yes? That's what it feels like to me."

"I didn't answer the question, did I? I can fly, and I'm stronger than most humans. Tougher too, humans aren't made of steel. And... there is this." With a hydraulic hiss and the ratcheting of gears, Zoya's arm transforms through several forms, showing off the weapons built into her chassis.

[Dodgeson]

@Meta
Serra wags her finger to admonish her bodyguard.
"Don't talk about them like that, come on this is important, we're ambassadors."

@Megan/Lena
Emily nods in confirmation to Megan's question about her identity. "I'm not smart, you've got to be a real brainiac round here to be smart." With that the small girl turns and begins marching confidently through the crowd looking for the next person on the list, cupping her hands and yelling "Lena?! Lena Hassler?!"

@Kevin
With such a clear view of their faces Kevin'll easily be able to tell they aren't happy with his intervention. "Making sure the newbies know their place. If you know what's good for you you're gonna get lost "

@Zoya
The boy tries not to stare as the soviet robot cycles through her weapons, tries and fails. She's like a Transformer with an accent!"That. Is. Awesome!"

[metakirb]

We're here to see if they've changed at all since they drove the elders out into the desert all those years ago. You'll have to excuse me my lack of optimism for them.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"All right, all right, I'll leave you alone," Kevin said, appearing to capitulate. "...As soon as you agree to stop picking on other kids. It's not very heroic, you know."

[jolinaxas]

Lena looked up when she heard her name.

"Hey. I take it you're with the school? This whole thing's kind of a mess at the moment."

[jamieth]

"Well, maybe compared to super-geniuses and the like..." Megan says unsurely, "Still much smarter than me, in any case."
As the next person joins their group, she extends her hand, "Hi, yes, I'm Megan, and that's Emily, she's going to show us around." Then, she adds, covering her mouth with her hand, as if trying to conceal her words from Emily - except that she makes no slightest effort at actually concealing them, "She doesn't admit being that smart - could you please tell her that being in High School in that age is pretty impressive, no matter what?"

[jolinaxas]

"Huh? Well, yeah - if she's a sophomore, she's here, like, three years early? I'm Lena, by the way."

She poked a hand out of her hoodie sleeve and offered it.

[ripleycat]

If Zoya could blush, she would have. "You're too kind. I still don't think I am anything special. Not like you." She monitors the restless crowd around them for a moment. "You said you were from Jubilee City. Is this how things... normally work here? It's so disorganized! You think this is some kind of test?"

[Dodgeson]

@Meta
Serra sighs, her optimism wilting under his bad mood. "Fine, be that way. Just don't be surprised if you don't make any friends with that attitude."

@Kevin
"Yeah, whatever." The two bullies move to leave and melt back in to the crowd, clearly they're not going to find any more fun here.

@Zoya
The boy's eyes go wide at Zoya's question, his mind racing at literally a hundred miles an hour. "A test?! Can they do that without telling us? OhmanwhatifIfailwhatiftheykickmeoutwhatarewegonnad oZoya?!" His form begins to blur at the edge slightly as he gets more frantic.

@Lena/Megan
Their guide doesn't stop moving as the two girls start to get aquainted "A mess? Someone didn't barf napalm on to the lawn again did they?"

[metakirb]

Make all the friends you want. Just be careful, okay?

He sighs and his mood seems to soften a little as her enthusiasm fades.

I'm just a little on edge, alright? I don't like all these new things and places at once.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin gave just a hint of a smile as the two walked off. "You okay?" he asked the girl, turning...well, turning his camera angle to face her. His body was still facing the opposite direction. He was still far from having the hang of his new view of the world.

[jolinaxas]

"No - I'd see it from a mile away. Is that specific issue a common one?"

She scanned the surrounding area, looking for hot spots, but finds nothing - at least nothing out of the ordinary. Pretty sure that one kid's supposed to be on fire all the time?

[ripleycat]

I was not trained or programmed for this! As the boy starts panicking, Zoya does too, nothing in her databanks providing suitable data for "freaked out speedster who looks like they might disintegrate."

Empty reassurance and misdirection, on the other hand? The subject of soviet propaganda just might know something about that.

"That was a joke, comrade, an attempt to lighten the mood! I don't think they're really testing us, and besides, there's no way you would fail. Hey, you never told me your name. Can you tell me that? Please don't explode?"

Smooth as silk, our girl.

[Dodgeson]

@Lena/Megan/Meta
"Nah, not anymore, turned out to just be nerves. Guy's got a handle on his powers now. Be careful though, we get a few hair-triggers every year. Anyway just got to pick up a few more people before we can start the tour" Emily ticks off Lena's name on her checklist before marching through the crowd and over to a large albino boy. "Um...Meta...something? That's got to be a translation error..."

@Zoya
The speedster ceases to blur around the edges, quickly distracted by Zoya's new question "Oh right I'm being super rude! I'm Jake, people call call me Fidget."

@Kevin
The girl nods a little uncertainly, clutching her bag to her as she moves round to face him. "Yeah...thanks for helping me..."

[metakirb]

That's me. And no, that's my name. Is it a human thing to try and "Translate" names now?

He turns to face Emily, except he can't see her without looking down and doesn't actually realise she's there.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Sure thing!" Kevin said, waiting a moment, then adding, "Well, bye!" He wasn't really the most sociable of kids. He started walking again, once more panning his camera about to take in as much of the gathering as he could.

Weird. No quest reward. Eh...no, that makes sense. That seemed more like a cut scene than an actual mission. Hopefully it triggered the next event, or something... Yikes...what if I have to go around and talk to all the NPCs for clues. That'll take forever. I don't suppose there's a strategy guide for high school, huh?

Quirking his head to the side, he pulled up some menus. Mmm...nope, no strategy guide.

[jamieth]

"Translate? No, I guess not..." noticing the winged boy looking above Emily's head, Megan stepped behind the young girl's back and raised her hand, attracting his attention, then pointed downward, "though I sometimes think it's a shame... Some Chinese girls I know could totally use their real names as heroic ones, just by translating them into English... that is, if they ever wanted to become heroes, I mean! Eh, what is your name? I'm Megan, and that's Lena and Emily..."

[ripleycat]

"Nice to meet you, Jake." Zoya is relieved as her new friend stops freaking out. "Fidget? I... like it. It fits well, I think. Wait, you have a nickname and powers, are you already a superhero?" It's the robot girl's turn to become breathlessly (well, figuratively, anyway) excited.

[Dodgeson]

@Lena/Megan/Meta
Emily floats upwards, hovering in the air when she's eye to eye with the young dragon. "I'm just sayin' it probably sounds a lot better where your from, nothing to worry about, lots of kids take other names here. Anyway we're here to collect you for your tour of the grounds."

@Zoya
"Not like a real one or anything I just stopped a couple of robberies after I got my powers. It's no big deal or anything." Jake tilts his head as an unfamiliar voice shouts his name over the crowd "That's my cue. They must finally be getting this show on the road! Do you know where you're supposed to be?"

@Kevin
As he moves through the throng of normal and not so normal students the crowd begins to disperse, splitting in to smaller groups with a member of staff or senior student at the helm. Curiously many of the groups seem to be led by the same person, not several groups following one man but several seemingly identical people in the same garish rainbow coat leading separate groups. Though none of them appear to be calling his name.

A hero point for anyone who can correctly guess which word I had to change because of the word filter :smalltongue:

[metakirb]

And what about Serra?

After posing his question to Emily, he moves slightly to the side to see past her to Megan and Lena.

I'm Metakirb. Meta will do fine though.

[jolinaxas]

"Hey, I'm Lena. Nice to meet you."

She made a quick wave and then looked elsewhere - she didn't want to be accused of staring again...

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin's first thought really was that it was strange that they had put so much effort into all the individual student sprites, only to leave the teachers without so much as a palette swap.

Then he remembered he wasn't actually playing a video game. He wondered for a moment if all the duplicates were real or not. His dad had a spell that could create illusory doubles...

[jamieth]

"You really like surprising people, don't you", Megan chuckles as Emily suddenly demonstrates a gift of levitation, then turns to the winged boy, "Meta? Well, I think it really fits you, so don't worry. Serra, is that the name of your..." she stops, unsure what word to use - sister? Friend? companion? - and settles at just gesturing towards the winged girl.

[ripleycat]

"No, not yet." That itself was something new and a little unnerving for the robot. Zoya had always had handlers and scientists and superior officers telling her exactly what to do and how, when and where to do it. Freedom, even in the form of milling around for a bit while waiting for someone to call her name, was a rare commodity. She wasn't sure what to do with it yet.

"Have fun! And I hope I will see you around, yes?" Zoya adds as brightly as her voice synthesizer will allow.

[Dodgeson]

@Zoya
As soon as the word no leaves Zoya's lips her new friend vanishes in a rush of air dashing and weaving through the crowd. Grabbing student lists from the assembled teachers as fast as he can muster, knocking more than a few of them over in the process. In a flash he's back in front of her out of breath "You're over there, guy with the dragon wings."

@Lena/Megan/Meta
"She's got to go AH!" A sudden gust of wind sends Emily spinning towards the ground, her clip board balanced on her head "She's got to see the Morrison Building, she'll be in Lily's group." Dusting herself off and assuming her place back in the air "Oh man, we are so behind schedule!" with a flick of her wrist a glowing revolving orange arrow appears above them with the words 'Kevin Matthews' emblazoned on one side and 'Zoya' on the other.

[metakirb]

Excuse me? You're aware I'm supposed to be her bodyguard, Right? You expect us to just split up almost immediately?

Showing off his dislike of humans, he proceeds to not bother rewording that nicely in answer to Megan.

[Quellian-dyrae]

The second he noticed the glowing arrow, a little menu item popped up in the corner of Kevin's vision. New Objective: Join Group.

A quick hop carried him over. "I'm Kevin Matthews," he said.

Join Group - Objective Complete.

Well. That was easy.

[jamieth]

"Hi", Megan waved the boy with a smile, "Hey, I think I saw you just now - was that you grabbing that bag?" she took a step aside and illustrated her words by mimicking Kevin's handspring, "Looked pretty cool, and I know a thing or two about this stuff, trust me - what was it you bounced off from, by the way - some kind of force field?" A moment later, remembering the etiquette, she added hastily, "Oh, by the way, I'm Megan, and that's Emily - she's our guide, and don't be fooled, she's much more than meets the eyes - and there's Lena... don't know much about her... and Meta. A-and, it seems we're only waiting for one more person, and then we can finally have this party started!" Megan wasn't that talkative usually, but right now she was somewhat high from excitement.

[ripleycat]

One gets the faintest impression of gears catching and the slightest hint of ozone as Zoya tries to track her friend's path. "...Oh. Thank you, Jake. You weren't joking, you really are the fastest person in the city!"

To make things even simpler, a big orange arrow with her name on it appears next to the white-scaled dragon boy. With a final wave to Fidget, Zoya makes her way through the crowd toward her assigned group. "Greetings, comrades! I'm Zoya... the one on the arrow. It's a pleasure to meet you all!" Another snap to attention and crisp salute.

...I should get that modified. I am no longer a soldier. Maybe a nice wave instead?

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin responded to Megan with a smile...although he wasn't quite facing her. "Thanks! And nah, not a forcefield. I just double-jumped. And nice to meet you all too."

And then, for no reason that most people could tell, a sudden rising fanfare played from the air itself, lasting only a second or two, but repeating five times in quick succession

Of course, most people couldn't see the dialog boxes popping up at the top of Kevin's "screen".

Megan has joined the Party.

Emily has joined the Party.

Lena has joined the Party.

Meta has joined the Party.

Zoya has joined the Party.

"Ooh, cool!" Kevin said, wasting no time pulling up menus to check out the stats, gear, and abilities of the people who in his mind were now his new teammates. Only to find them pretty much blank, save for what few things he had so far observed or been told.

"Wow. Lame..."

[Dodgeson]

Emily dismissively waves off Meta's question "She'll be fine, nothing's gonna happen to her on the tour." Turning away from him she snaps to attention and returns Zoya's salute before doing a quick head count "Gang's all here! So, any questions before we get moving?"

[metakirb]

She better be completely unharmed.

Meta glares at Emily.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin just stood silently, with nothing to ask.

[jolinaxas]

"I'm all set, for now."

[jamieth]

Oh, sure, Megan had questions - dozens of them, in fact; it's just none of them were the sort of questions you ask while being late for something that might very well answer most of them. "Let's go, then!" she exclaimed excitedly, then peeked at Meta and his... charge? Why would someone studying here need a bodyguard? Ok, that question could wait too, if fact.

[Dodgeson]

"Great, lets get started then!" The girl floats slightly higher, leaving her standing at their head height, confident everyone can see her she gestures to the large building behind them "This is Kirby Hall, it's one of the largest buildings on campus and it holds all the administration facilities and most of the teaching rooms for the boring subjects, Introduction to Heroism and Costume Design are pretty cool though. Normally that's where we'd start the tour but everyone is going to be in there right now so we'll just keep moving."

Emily turns and begins walking across the air quickly passing the first building and coming to a stop beside a statue of a man with close cropped hair in a simple robe "Sorry about stopping here but it's on the itinerary, this is a statue of St Ambrose he's like the patron saint of learning and bees and stuff. It was donated to us by Paragon, he's been a big supporter since the school was founded after the War."

Moving on from the statue, which looks eerily like Christopher Eccleston (seriously Wikipedia St Ambrose), their guide keeps her patter going checking her clip board every few seconds to make sure she doesn't miss anything. "This is the quad, on the left is the guy dorms and the girls are on the right. You're allowed in either as long as you stay in the ground floor and it isn't past curfew. Way at the back over there is the Morrison building, you wont need to worry about that though. It's for the magic types only and if you're not one of them it's almost impossible to find the door. The woods behind that aren't out of bounds but the staff don't recommend it." She stops for a second, flipping the page on her clipboard and squinting. "Oh and any student caught tampering, trading or supplying subversive literature to the Racoons will be dealt with harshly."

Here's a little bit of background information now that I've started name dropping, this is the sort of stuff that'd be common knowledge to your average person.

Paragon: Earth's white winged protector and one of its mightiest heroes. He appeared slightly after the start of World War 2 clad in shining armour and bearing a flaming sword, quickly tipping the conflict in to the Allies favour until the German's found a way to bar superpower individuals from the theaters of war. His powers include flight, super strength and seeming invulnerability.

[metakirb]

Meta follows along, looking vaguely disinterested through the whole thing. It probably also becomes apparent he has no idea who paragon is, since he doesn't react at all at his mention.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin followed along, listening attentively. He frowned some in disappointment when she mentioned the door to the Morrison building. His father had spent most of his time at the school there. There had been...stories. He had hoped to get a chance to see it. Oh well, maybe he'd be able to find wait raccoons what?

[ripleycat]

Zoya makes careful note of Paragon's influence. The mighty hero was one of the reasons for her creation, exhibit A in a perceived "Superhero gap" between the USSR and the West. Despite that, the man himself was seen fondly, mostly because of his work during WWII.

"The... raccoons?" Zoya sounds as perplexed as a robot can. "Are you speaking about the small mammals?"

[jolinaxas]

The tour was going as expected, until the part about the raccoons..

"Wait, the raccoons are smart enough to be propagandized to?"

[Dodgeson]

Emily nods to her charges, marching through air towards the building she had indicated as the girls dormitory "Yeah, we've got enough magic-types and mad scientists that something was bound to happen eventually. Apparently they've got some kind of weird tribal thing going on out there."

Through the door of the building is a large waiting area, the most noticeable feature of which is a large set of stairs leading to a higher floor. "Now that we've done the boring stuff now it's time to show you the tunnels!" A door slides open and Emily floats back to the ground, yelling out "Thank you!" to seemingly no one in particular as she gets in to the lift. "Everybody in."

[metakirb]

Meta walks in and leans against the back wall of the lift.

[jamieth]

Megan slips inside the lift, "What, like, underground tunnels? Are they... part of the campus, too?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin blinked. A dungeon mission already? Hmmm...

He tentatively raised his hand as he followed into the lift. "Rats, or slimes?" he asked.

Hey, it was a reasonable question...

[jamieth]

Well, there was only so much video girl references Megan could hear without replying. "What are you talking about?" she asked, pretending to be completely stupefied, then, seconds later, added, "I mean, with that many heroes-in-training around, everything that could be there would be killed on spawn, no?" she chucked

[Quellian-dyrae]

Apparently, Kevin took her words at face value, not recognizing the humor in them. "Hmm...that does make sense. Unless...unless each group gets their own mission instance!" his eyes went wide, and there was a bit of panic in his voice. He hadn't expected this, but in retrospect, he realized he really should have. Of course real life would play out as a giant MMO!

Although didn't that mean he should be able to see everyone's names floating above their heads...?

[jolinaxas]

Lena cautiously edged into the lift.

"There had better not be either rats or slime! Is there a specific reason we're taking the so-called "tunnels?"

[metakirb]

Rats and Slimes? Sounds a little weak. And what the heck's a "Mission instance"?

Growing up in a desert tends to leave one without video games, leaving Meta with no idea what Kevin's on about.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Yeah, the first couple levels usually are," he said.

"It's a...um...you know...the, uh, the place where the mission happens," he stammered, not really knowing how to explain it.

[ripleycat]

"What are the tunnels for? Shelter in case of missile attack?" Zoya asks as she joins the others in the lift. It creaks a little ominously, she's heavier than she looks.

She listens to Kevin's explanations, trying (and failing) to follow along. "Rats showed up all the time in our old bunkers, but why would we have to fight them? They have traps for that, yes?"

[Dodgeson]

Once everyone's piled in to the lift the doors slide shut "Student tunnels please." The muffled sound of machinery starts up as the lift begins to descend in to the bowels of the school. Then the chatter starts, it's good that they're getting along but she can't understand a word of it, still no matter. "All the other buildings on campus have a lift down to the tunnels, it's where we keep the Workshops for the braniacs, the gymnasium and one more thing but the last one's a surprise."

As Emily finishes talking the door slides open in to a long well lit tunnel, she floats out and begins to lead her group through the schools olympic quality gym and a workshop that seems to be more like something out of a sci-fi movie than anything else. "Pretty neat, huh?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Well, you'd think so, but it never seems to turn ou-" Kevin began, speaking with an air of authority, until the lift doors open and they arrived in a clean, well-lit, well-equipped basement. The "dungeon" music that had started playing in his head did a literal record-scratch skip as it changed to "home base" music.

"O-Or...not," he mumbled.

[metakirb]

Meta seems to perk up a little at the sight of the gym.

Looks like somewhere I can pass my time.

[jamieth]

"W-wow!" Megan sprinted towards the monkey bars set in the middle of what looked like an obstacle course and climbed on top of it in an instant. She walked along the apparatus on her hands, then stopped on the second to last bar and waved to the rest of the group, doing a one-handed handstand, "I love this place already!"

[ripleycat]

Zoya tilts her neck at a humanly-impossible angle and waves back at Megan. "This is extraordinary! How can a high school afford all of this, even a high school for superheroes?" She jets over and begins looking through the workshop like a starving man at a buffet. She had 60 years of technological advancement to catch up on, and this was supertech to boot.

[jolinaxas]

Lena looked around at all the equipment - while not a serious athlete, everything appeared to be normal to her, which was kind of strange...

"Umm... I know this is probably a bit of a stretch, for an underground facility, but is there something like this for flight as well? I could still use a lot of practice. At everything, really, but I doubt anyone in the pool would want me to freeze it."

[Dodgeson]

Emily manages to contain her awe at Megan's feat of acrobatics enough to hurry after Zoya as she rushes in to the workshop to make sure that she doesn't accidentally break anything in her enthusiasm, a worry that proves to be completely unfounded as the robot-girl flits between the workstations without incident. This being the case she vanishes with a pop and reappears by Lena "Oh yeah, that's the best bit." Waiting for everyone to have their fill of the gymnasium and the workshop, Emily heads back in to the corridor from whence they came, moving towards a door that seems far more heavy-duty than any they've encountered so far. "After the tour each groups supposed to do this 'get to know you' thing and you're supposed to introduce yourself and talk about like your favourite movie and stuff but because I beat Kaiju at rock-paper-scissors I got us first dibs on the Crucible instead, and some pizza!"

The door slides open as they approach revealing a room full of screens and other techno-wizardry, a single other adjoining door, and yes my friends pizza.

[jamieth]

"Oh, nice!" Megan smiles, "That's sure an improvement over my last school's menu - I mean", she adds, already, taking a bite, "Coach Ling always threatened to... eh... do something bad, I think, don't speak Chinese that well... to anyone caught munching on these 'unhealthy snacks'. Of course, we were rather good at hiding..."
Finishing a trip down memory lane, she snaps back to present, "Wait, a crucible... it's something like a test, right? Like, there's a room with all kinds of obstacles and challenges... right? In that case..." with a slice of pizza still in her mouth, Megan starts unbuttoning her shirt. Both it and the knee-length skirt got put away, revealing a tank top and bicycle shorts worn underneath; then, she pulls off her sneakers and socks and fixes a small yo-yo-like device on her waist right at the same time as she swallows the last bit of pizza, "I'm ready!"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Yay food, Kevin thought with a slight grin, going to the table to take a couple slices of pizza. He panned his camera around to get a good look at all the screens.

He gave a sage nod as Megan started preparing for a challenge. He was pretty comfortable with his power-granted "controls", but playing out the tutorial probably wouldn't hurt. He ate quickly.

[metakirb]

Challenge, huh? This oughta be good.

He smiles, rolling a shoulder and completely blanking the pizza. Still not really having a taste for "Human foods" and preferring to hunt himself a meal.

[jolinaxas]

Lena sighed, and put down the slice of pizza she'd taken upon entering the room.

"So, I take it this won't be a written test?"

A sound like static lightly emanated from her as the moisture in the air around her froze, and her breath became clearly visible.


Activating Absolute Zero Field (Force Field) and Superfluidity (Flight)

[jamieth]

"I sure hope not", Megan replies to Lena's obviously rhetoric question, starding doing stretches. Several seconds later she suddenly stops mid-exersize, bent backwards nearly in healf, and asks, looking around the others, "I wonder, though - am I the only onwe here who can't fly? Or, at least, double-jump... however that works?"

[ripleycat]

Zoya watches the rest eat with a bit of awkward envy. She didn't need to, of course, but humans spent a great deal of time and effort on food, and she just didn't get it, like explaining music to the deaf of color to the blind.

The prospect of being tested in something called the Crucible, on the other hand? Yeah, that got her attention. She'd been the subject of countless tests, to the point where her day was almost incomplete without some hardware tweak or some officer coming by to watch her run through the obstacle course. With much clanking and whirring, she gives herself a checkover. "Yes, I can fly. Megan, I could carry you, if you would like?"

[jamieth]

"Ah, thanks, but no", Megan straightens up and turns toward the group, "either it can be beaten without flying, in which case I certainly won't settle for shortcuts, or, if it's impossible... it would be even more fun trying it anyway, no?"

[Dodgeson]

The screens are currently showing the school crest (which I will totally design at some point) and the school's motto 'Magna vis est, magnum officium intellegitur,'. Not for long though as Emily taps one of the screens causing them all to flash in to life, showing vast lists of names, locations and objectives. Their guide 'pops' between the various screens, highlighting options as she goes. "You guys just head in through the next door, I'll pick you out something fun."

[metakirb]

Meta heads towards the door, tearing a piece of fabric from the arm of his martial arts outfit and fastening it around his hair as a makeshift bandanna, just to keep his hair from his eyes during whatever comes next. While normally he has an actual one for combat it's packed away with his other martial arts outfits, so this'll have to do for now.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin entered the room, an eager smile on his face. He had actually done this sort of thing before, if it wound up being like he expected; when his powers had developed, his dad had helped him learn what they could do with a series of illusions and conjurations. It was fun!

[jolinaxas]

"All right - crossing fingers that whatever this is doesn't have a 'volcano base' level..."

Lena starts hovering towards the door.

[ripleycat]

Zoya follows the group through the door. "A volcano base? Is that something you've dealt with before? It sounds... hot." Eloquence was perhaps a secondary concern for Zoya's programmers.

[jamieth]

"Oh, volcano bases are fine", Megan chuckles, "they usually have these narrow, shaky catwalks and cables above lava... cool stuff. Now, Arctic level would be nasty..." she added, pointing at her outfit.

[Dodgeson]

Through the sliding door is a blank white room, only just big enough to fit the five young heroes in together. Once they're all in the doors slide shut behind them and with a bright flash of light they'll find themselves in downtown Jubilee City on a bright sunny day, all seems well even if there is a distinct lack of people. Almost immediately this lovely scene is shattered as the shrill sound of an alarm rings through the air coming from around the corner.

[metakirb]

Guess that's where we need to be.

Meta spreads his wings and pulls himself a medium distance into the air with one powerful wingbeat before moving round the corner at high speed.

[jolinaxas]

With an odd, jerking motion, Lena goes from hovering to all-out flight, appearing just around the corner, near Meta.

(OOC: still have a standard action for when we see what it is.)

[Quellian-dyrae]

Rare was the gamer who would simply follow the obvious route to the level's goal. To do so was to risk missing out on valuable EXP and power ups. The youth jumped up to the roof of the building, panning his camera around so he could see what was going on around the corner and getting a birds-eye view of the immediate area.

Routine Perception check for 16. Extended, Radius Vision.

[jamieth]

For a moment, Megan considered following Kevin to the roof, and even reached for the Buzzer, but decided the group has the higher ground covered already and ran towards the corner.

[ripleycat]

Protocol V-762: Alarm, ytpe unknown, Environment urban, Reinforcements present.

Determine source of alaaarm, modify procedure accordingly. Use of force authorized if appropriate. Coordnae with allies nearby.

###Vasilly, were you drunk when you wrote these commands, or are you just illiterate? Half of them are worse than this! I want them cleaned up before you even think of submitting them to the AI team! - Lieutenant Kuznetsov

Zoya shakes her head as she finally parses the ancient command and snaps back to reality. Well not reality, really, but you know what I mean. There's a mechanical clang and a loud roar as the jets in her legs come to full power, and she flies up, alighting on the rooftop near Kevin. "Be on your guard, we do not know what kind of alarm this is, or what caused it."

[Dodgeson]

From their vantage points on the roof and on the ground our heroes will see a hulking ogre of a man in what looks like several pinstripe suits sown together. Next to him stands a blonde woman dressed like a Vegas showgirl holding some kind of bulky rifle. Standing in front of them in a rough semi-circle are 10 identically dressed guards wearing similar clothes to their boss.

"What I don't even rate real capes?! They sent kids?! Doll, waste these mooks an' I'll get you the biggest rock you ever seen." The woman nods, leveling her weapon at Lena and the dragon. "Anything for you Boss."

Anyone is welcome to roll INT (Cause none of you have any relevant Expertises:smalltongue:) to try and identify these ne'er-do-wells.

Oh and ROLL INITIATIVE SUCKAS!

[metakirb]

Meta grins and cracks his knuckles.

I've got the big guy.

Roll for intitiative1d20+2 Anyone's welcome to point out why I can't get this to work. :smallannoyed:

Just ignore this post.

[jamieth]

Severely outnumbered, Megan leaps back, almost crushing into the lamppost... or so it may seem. The last moment, she kicks the pole, launching herself upwards into a triple somersault - and in the middle of it, a small buzzing device reaches out from her towards the woman named Doll - no, towards the rifle she holds, the momentum from the girl's spinning granting it extra speed.
Move action: Agile feint against Doll as a routine check, result 23.
Attack: Ranged disarm attempt, using All-out Attack and Power Attack.
Attack at -5: [roll0], vs. Dodge (possibly halved from Feint)
In case of hit, Opposed Check: [roll1] vs. Doll's Strength.
Megan's Dodge/Parry are at -2 'till next round.

[jamieth]

Oh well, Rerolling the Attack with a Hero Point:
[roll0]

[ripleycat]

Actual American gangsters! Zoya had only seen them in her "training" films, propaganda showing everything wrong with the criminal and capitalistic West. These were true villains!

The robot girl rapidly assesses the threat. A squad of armed thugs, unarmored, arrayed like bodyguards around an enormous brute of a man, and a woman in a very impractical outfit- with an anti-materiel rifle...

Correction, powerful android with multi-projectile weapon aimed at her new friends. Oh, and her. Zoya is too busy staring curiously at the new development to dodge the explosive disk. Her armored body takes the worst of it, but she does come out scorched and sparking in a few places.

Zoya cycles through her own built-in weapons until she reaches the one she's after. The Mikoyan 72-Bis light projector- a focused, military-grade strobe light, designed for disabling enemy pilots and snipers. Perfect.

She steps to the edge of the building and fires a beam right at the moll's eyes. "My turn, comrade."

Attacking Doll with her Strobe Ray (Ranged Affliction, Visual Impaired, Disabled, Unaware). DC 18 Fort save if it hits. [roll0]

Rolled Dodge and Toughness in the OOC. Zoya fails the Dodge and fails the toughness by 5, so she takes a bruise from the moll's attack.

[ripleycat]

Hero point time already! What a good omen! :smallsigh: [roll0]

Edit: +10 on the reroll makes that a 12, total result is 20.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin pulled up his list of known supers and villains, quickly scanning through the profiles to see if he had these two. As he did, he summoned up a swirling ball of fire in his hand, hurling it for the woman...but it was just a bit off-center. It wound up bouncing off the ground, into the wall of the opposite building, and banking back to come at the big guy from behind!

Free Action: Activate Menus for Enhanced Intellect. Kevin is Vulnerable while this power is active.

Intelligence to identify: [roll0].

Standard Action: Shoot at Boss, using Ricochet 2 to bounce the attack from a hopefully unexpected angle. [roll1]. On a hit, Toughness DC 23 vs. Damage.

50% chance of a Power Up appearing if Toughness check fails (11-20 = Power Up): [roll2].

Move Action: Collect Power Up if one appears.

[jolinaxas]

Lena rushed forward from behind the corner to get a better angle, and then concentrated on the large man's frame - lowering the temperature of the air around his bulk until frost began to form.


Move action: Assuming the gap is less than 250 ft, move to about 50 ft. away from the cluster. If it's more, than move the full 250.

Standard Action: Hypothermia Affliction (perception range) on "Boss"
DC 18 Fortitude Check
1st: Impaired and Vulnerable
2nd: Disabled and Defensless

[Dodgeson]

Mockingbird:21
Al's Moll:20
Big Al:17
Zoya:13
The Mooks:12
Frostbite: 11
Platformer: 11
Metakirb: 6

Loving the enthusiasm guys but next time could you hold off on posting until I've posted up an initiative order for everyone? Villains are people too! If things have changed by the time your turn swings round obviously feel free to alter your action.

Taken off guard by Megan's display acrobatics her buzzer finds purchase on the showgirl's weapon though she shows unusual strength for her size and build in pulling it free. As the showgirl pulls back one thing becomes clear, she's not holding a gun at all! The clunky looking weapon is in fact one of her arms!

"Surprise kiddies."

There's a series of mechanical clunks as her weapon cycles through its available ammunition before she launches a small explosive device arcing towards the two young heroes on the roof!


Platformer and Zoya roll DC16 Dodge Check then DC18 Toughness Save if you pass and DC21 if you fail.

"Keep 'em busy!"

The large man turns and moves in to the jewelry store behind them, entrusting the others to be able to hold their own against the 'kids'.

Zoya's up!

[Dodgeson]

The showgirl curses loudly in Russian as Zoya's weapon hits home, throwing up her arms to shield her eyes and blinking rapidly in order to try and clear her vision.


Al's Moll failed her fortitude save by 2 degrees she is now Visually Disabled

Panicking as their boss's girl comes under fire, the criminals standing in front of them open fire with their pistols on the three nearest heroes but fail to have any effect, whether because of hardy draconic skin, impenetrable forcefields or natural athletic talent and agility on the part of their targets.

Despite his retreat in to the jewellery store, the large display windows provide an easy line of sight to the large gangster shoving jewelery in to the pockets of his poorly stitched suit. As the frost begins to form around him he flinches and fumbles momentarily, dropping some ill-gotten rings on the ground but he quickly manages to shake it off and continue looting.

Platformer's up!

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin was engulfed in the explosion, mere feet from the detonation and without even a hint of cover. All he could do was cross his arms up in front of his chest. It didn't even shield his face.

But as far as his powers were concerned, that was a timed block. His life bar didn't even flinch.

Then he'd pull up menus on their opponents, and panning his vision around to get line of sight, bounce his fireball into the building after the boss.

No change in the mechanics of the actions. Rolls were 28 to identify, 27 to hit, 13 for Unreliable power ups. Damage DC is 23 if the attack hits.

[Dodgeson]

The hulking brute currently looting the jewellery store goes by the name of Big Al, a walking talking cliche straight out of a bad gangster movie. Despite his high levels of superhuman strength and endurance his dimwit and small time mentality have always meant he's been little more than hired muscle for villains that were smarter, or even just had more force of personality than him. His lady friend however is a total enigma, it isn't even clear whether she's a cybernetically enhanced human or a full robot.

The fireball ricochets through the open doorway and hits its target dead on, the ganster practically roaring in fustration.


Big Al failed his toughness check by 1 degree he gains 1 bruise

"Which part of keep these mooks busy did you not understand?!"

The successful hit his accompanied by a triumphant chord of music as Platformer's subconscious abilities bring a large and heavy looking mallet in to being. (I'm sorry, my reference pool for power-ups is incredibly limited. Enjoy your Smasher)

Metakirb's up!

[metakirb]

Meta knows exactly who he wants to deal with. The stronger the better. That being so, he takes flight over the line of minions and gun-arm-girl, landing inside the shop, next to Big Al. As he lands, he spins a powerful kick at roughly stomach level before opening his wings again and sliding a few feet away from him.

Movement action, Spinning kick : Break the Unbreakable, [roll0], DC22, Move-by action.

[Dodgeson]

The large man takes Meta's blow without even flinching, turning his attention away from looting the store to face the young martial artist, cracking his knuckles threateningly.

"That the best you got kid?"

Mockingbird's up!

[jamieth]

Disheartened by the futility of her previous attack for but a moment, Meganleaps towards the nearest wall, using it to push herself further upwards, at the same time catching the Buzzer as it darts back to her and throwing it again, this time, at the top of the lamppost - and the next moment, she pushes off the wall and swings towards the jewelry store. Curling into a cannonball-like position midair, she smashes through the showcase window, landing right behind the gangster. Now, Megan isn't weak, per se - in fact, she's remarkably athletic...for a girl her age, which means should she attempt to overpower this hulk of a man, he most likely wouldn't even notice. The trick is to make it so that the physical power doesn't even factor in here. With the momentum from the swing, a girl falls to the floor and slides between his legs and spreads her own legs into a split, kicking both his ankles from the inside. Good luck keeping your balance now, she smiles, flipping to her feet. "He's all yours", she gives a dragon boy an exaggerated bow.
Using Buzzer in Swinging mode, move action to get inside the store through the window; if you rule that some kind of check is needed to avoid being hurt by breaking glass, feel free to roll it for me. Then, Improved Trip on the gangster. Attack roll: [roll0]. If hits, I force him into opposed Acrobatics check; Megan gets 28 with a routine check - beat that of fall prone :-) Also, if the attack fails, ignore the last sentence.

[Dodgeson]

I don't even need to roll for that and take a hero point for the badass entrance. The lumbering gangster is taken completely off balance by Megan's acrobatic maneuver and falls flat on his face, utterly dispelling any aura of menace the thug was trying to project.

Outside, blinded as she is, his girl is faring little better. "Take out those brats on the roof!" Aiming towards them as best she can given her current state she lets loose sending a deluge of machine gun fire towards the two heroes.


Zoya roll DC 21 Toughness save

Back in the jewelry store Al begins to pull himself off the ground, face practically red with frustration as the dragon slides out of his reach. Instead he attempts to take out his anger on his newest annoyance but the blow is wide and so telegraphed that the gymnast will have no problem in avoiding it.

Zoya's up!

[Dodgeson]

Following their boss's orders the cadre of mooks open fire on the two young heroes though in their panicked state they fail to connect with any of their shots, leaving plenty of holes in the surrounding masonary.

Lena's up!

[jolinaxas]

Lena lands in the middle of the goons, and floats downward - the air surrounding them becoming well below zero.

She concentrates on the cybernetic moll, attempting to freeze up her components.


Moving to a spot where I can be within 120 ft of the moll and the goons.
Switching from flight to Environment (Extreme Cold, Reduce Speed 2)
Using Frostbite on the moll - perception range, DC 23 damage check.

Since she's now in her favored environment, electing to get +2 to active defenses.

[Dodgeson]

The woman clutches her arms around herself, really regretting her choice of outfit as the cold sets in around her.


Big Al's Moll failed her toughness save by 1 degree she gains 1 bruise

Platformer's up!

[Quellian-dyrae]

As Kevin touched the hammer, he...changed, slightly. What looked almost like a...silvery turtle shell appeared on his head and back, and the swirling flames hovering above his hand was replaced by a pair of large hammers. And he got a big grin on his face.

"Fished my wish," he said in a low, almost threatening voice.

Meanwhile, a little message box would appear sort of hovering off to the lower right of his allies' vision.


Platformer: Boss's name is Big Al. Pretty standard bruiser enemy. Strong, tough, and dumb. Also, Smasher off the bat! Woo-hoo! Check this out!

And then he started chucking hammers at the gun-toting enemies with frankly ludicrous speed.

Adding the Smasher effects to the Shoot power, changing Menus to Chat.

Standard Action: Shoot with Smasher - All Out Attack for 5, Multiattack for 3, Power Attack for 2.

I'm assuming these guys are Minions; if so, my first attack will be a Routine Check for a total result of 18. If that hits, all further attacks will be Routine Checks. If it misses, I'll roll further attacks normally.

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]
[roll6]
[roll7]
[roll8]
[roll9]

I initially attack three targets with Multiattack. Each one hit must make a Toughness check, DC 25, vs. Damage.

If they are minions, for each minion that drops, Takedown 2 from Smasher lets me make another single attack against another minion in range.

Minions don't award Power Ups.

EDIT: Kevin's Active Defenses are at -5 for rest of round (so DC 11 to hit him).

[Dodgeson]

In a flurry of hammers the armed thugs are quickly laid out, hitting the ground below each with a thud and a shower of coins. Her thugs sprawled out in front of her, the woman with the cybernetic arm starts to look somewhat nervous. "Boss! This isn't going well!"

Meta's up!

[metakirb]

Meta darts towards Big Al once more, looking like he's going to go with a straight punch, he drops from his flight a short distance from Al, holding himself low to the ground before launching himself upwards with his wings in a powerful uppercut aimed straight at Al's jaw.

Break the Unbreakable + Power attack + All out Attack[roll0] DC27

After his uppercut he pulls himself backwards and situates himself where he was before his attack.

[Dodgeson]

Meta's blow connects with Big Al's chin with a loud crack that can be heard from outside the shop cutting off whatever the mobster was going to yell to his accomplice.


Big Al fails his toughness save by 2 degrees he gains 1 bruise and is dazed

Megan's up!

[jamieth]

Noticing Big Al's moment of weakness, Megan bursts into action. In one jump, she is perched on the nearby showcase; the second sends her to tbe ceiling, and,with a push, she floes down, right at the gangster - but the first thing that connects to his head won't be her legs,iw would be her Buzzer, set on full-on stun mode.
Agile feint again, for 28 against Acrobatics, then Power Attack for +2 with the Buzzer. [roll0], DC 23 Damage and 18 Affliction (vulnerable/stunned,Fortitude)
The next moment,of course, the acrobat herself lands on the gangster, immediately hugging his bull-size neck with her thighs.
Extra effort for additional action, to use Grab on the Al. Using Dex, and in case of success, Megan isn't vulnerable. That'll be [roll1] to hit, and [roll2] opposed by Str or Dodge - unlikely to work, but I thought it would be fun to try.

[Dodgeson]

The mobster yells in pain as the Buzzer's charge runs through him though not enough to stop him shaking off the gymnast as she tries to wrap round him.


Big Al fails his toughness save by 1 degree he gains 1 bruise

Out front the showgirl faces down Lena, hoping to remove the cold manipulator as she unleashes a hail of machine gun fire in her direction


Lena roll DC21 Toughness save

Back inside as Big Al dislodges Megan from his back he roars angrily "I've had enough of you damn kids!" Bringing his fists smashing down on the ground with enough force to splinter the shop floor.


Megan & Meta roll DC19 Dodge Check then DC19 Toughness & DC14 Fortitude against Dazed/Vulnerable, Stunned/Prone if you succeed and DC25 Toughness & DC 19 Fortitude if you fail

Lena's up!

[jolinaxas]

The bullets speeding towards Lena thankfully slowed to a crawl as they were robbed of energy.

"No more of that..."

Figuring that the brute was simply to massive to try and freeze up at once, she attempted to lock down the cyber-moll.


DC 18 Fort check (Impaired and Vulnerable, Disabled and Defenseless, N/A)

[Dodgeson]

Al's Moll begins to slow down to a crawl as Lena brings her power to bare, becoming practically a statue in front of her.


Al's Moll fails her fortitude save by 2 degrees she is disabled and defenseless

Platformer's up!

[Quellian-dyrae]

The chat window vanished from his friends' vision as Kevin leaped up high, coming down with a mighty war cry-

"IT'SSSSSSSSAAAAAAAAMEEEEEE!!!!!"

-right for the defenseless Moll's head before backflipping off and landing in the building beside Meta, ready to take the fight to Al...assuming his allies hadn't finished him off first.

Free: Change Chat to Jump, Shoot to Stomp.

Move: Jump into Close range of Moll.
Standard: Stomp as a Finishing Attack (not going for kill), Power Attacking for 5, at [roll0]. Toughness DC 33+Multiattack vs. Damage, and Fortitude DC 28+Multiattack vs. Dazed+Vulnerable/Stunned+Prone Affliction.
Double Jump/Move-by Action: Jump into Close range of Meta.

Power Up chance (don't have actions to collect this one immediately, and not sure I want to lose the Smasher regardless, so it's open to others if it triggers): [roll1].

[Dodgeson]

The cybernetic showgirl barely has time in her sluggish state to utter a surprised utterance as the superteen leaps from on high, downing her in a veritable fountain of coins.


Al's Moll failed her toughness save 4+ degrees she is incapacitated

Meta's up!

[metakirb]

After almost ignoring Al's floor shattering fist pound, Meta takes to the air again, flying towards Al and spinning a kick at the side of his head.

Break the unbreakable [roll0]

His kick done he darts back once again, staying just above the shop floor this time.

[Dodgeson]

Al's attention is complete focused on the Platformer as he bounds in to the building, he doesn't even register the martial artist's attack as it collides with his head.

"No one does that to my dame! You hear?! No one!"

Megan's up!

[jamieth]

Megan's reaction to the Al's pound was almost instant, in fact, she was already in the air by the time his fist connected to the floor - too bad it couldn't protect her from the shower of concrete shards his strike launched. Plus, she lost quite a lot of time trying to land perfectly... and she did, but is was too late to properly plan a counterattack already. She only manged to send her favoruite device into his bare neck...
All-out, Power attack, for -2 Def, +2 DC.
[roll0], DC23 Damage, 18 Affliction (Vulnearble/Stunned)

[Dodgeson]

Far too focused on Platformer to pay attention to some girl with a yo-yo proves to be a costly mistake for Al as the device hits true and electricity courses through his body!


Big Al fails his toughness save by 2 degrees and his fortitude save by 1 degree he takes 1 bruise and is dazed/vulnerable

Yelling in pain, he manages to just about shake off the effects of the Zapper, enough to charge towards Platformer anyway.

Lena's Up!

[jolinaxas]

With the cybermoll down, Lena focuses back on the big man, attempting to freeze him again.


Frostbite - DC23 Damage, Perception Range

[Dodgeson]

The mobster once again yells in pain as Lena's blast hits home, a layer of frost forming over his patchwork suit.


Big Al failed his toughness save by 2 degrees he gets 1 bruise and is dazed

Platformer's up!

[Quellian-dyrae]

Time to draw some aggro, Kevin thought.

"No one? Really? Man, your girl went down like a goomba! And not even one of the tricky goombas that jump at you! Just your average, run-of-the-mill, fat, waddling GOOMBA!" he taunted.

In the back of his mind, he started holding down the R key.

Free: Changing Stomp to Block.

Standard: Defend action. DC to hit is set to [roll0]. If attacked and missed, will Reflect the attack back at [roll1] to hit, critting on 15+.

Toughness reduced to 8 this round.

[metakirb]

Meta charges once again, this time aiming to slam a punch into Al's back.

Break the unbreakable [roll0] DC 22

[Dodgeson]

The martial artists blow bounces off Al's back, the mobster so consumed with anger at Platformer that he continues not to pay any heed to the young dragon.

Megan's up!

[Dodgeson]

Seeing red Al's blow completely fails to connect with the source of his anger.

Megan's up!

[jamieth]

The battle starts to take its toll on Megan, but, by sheer force of will, she forces herself to go on; Gotta keep smiling, can't let the audience see my exhaustion...
She dashes after the gangster, once again aiming at his legs... not counting on the same trick to work twice, of course - no one got to Al's position without, well, not necessary smarts, but some kind of combat instinc certainly, so this time the acrobat actually uses the Buzzer, not to hit, but, rolling between Al's legs, she throws both its ends at the opposite walls, turning the device into a tripwire. And, when it works, she jumps from under the falling body at the last moment and lands on top of him - then, somersauts off of the gangter's body and gives a bow to her "audience", "He's all yours - get him, boys!"

[Dodgeson]

Timber! Megan's trick works like a charm and the over-sized gangster falls to the ground with a heavy thud.


Big Al failed his acrobatics check and is now prone

Lena's up! For reals this time!

[jolinaxas]

Lena concentrates on the big man, attempting to keep him down on the ground.


Frostbite - DC23 Damage, Perception Range

[Dodgeson]

Lena's efforts bare fruit as the mobsters attempts to get up become more sluggish and his skin starts to discolour.


Big Al failed his toughness save by 2 degrees he gets 1 bruise and is dazed

Platformer's up!

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin fends the attacks blow for blow, giving a big cheesy smile. "Come on man. Kid hits you in the back with a fireball, drops your girlfriend, calls her fat, and insults your mother, and you come at him with a bunch of sissy punches like that?"

Anyone feeling confused about that last one in his list of offenses, well, that would be explained by the little chat window that suddenly appeared in the lower-right of Big Al's vision.


Platformer: @BigAl: Yo mama's so ugly, they thought she had superpowers!
Platformer: She's listed in the database as a "Fear and Nausea Manipulator".
Platformer: Oh snap!

Swapping to Chat, otherwise same as last round.

Defend Check: [roll0].
Reflection if attacked and missed: [roll1], crit 15-20.

[metakirb]

Meta starts getting a little irritated at his blows bouncing off. The others may notice a number of sparks forming around his mouth as he launches himself up and brings down a vicious axe kick at Al's head.

Break the unbreakable, power attack. [roll0]

[Dodgeson]

Al has no time to decipher Platformer's sick burn or scramble to his feet as Meta's foot connects with the back of his head, slumping over on the floor of the store, in a flash of light our heroes'll find themselves back in the blank white room they started in.

When they exit they'll be met with an explosion of confetti and ethusiastic applause from their guide along with a small fanfare. Behind her hangs a banner reading 'New Record'.

"You guys did awesome!"

[metakirb]

That's it? I was just getting warmed up.

[jamieth]

"Eh, what?.. Where?.." Megan appears a little confused for a moment, but soon the reality catches up, "Oh... I totally forgot it was a game for a moment, you know. But..." she notices the banner, "Wow! For real?!" Excitement overcoming the fatigue, she does a double somersault, "Yeah!"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin gave a slender grin when their return signalled they had won. Which broke into a big smile when he saw the "new record".

"That thing has a...really good AI," Kevin said. "Or...well...I mean the enemies reacted very realistically. The actual intelligence displayed was...well, in keeping with the villain that it was based off of, anyway."

[jolinaxas]

Lena just kept on walking around the area, as most of the exertion she'd had had been mental in nature.

"Huh - that's the first time I've tried that skin-freezing thing on a human - for obvious reasons. It didn't work as well as I'd hoped."

[Dodgeson]

The banner vanishes along with the confetti, Emily attempting to clumsily mimic Megan's feat of acrobatics with her own flight.

"Yeah the crucible is like super-advanced. They don't even know how most of it works."

Deciding her future does not lie in aerial performance she vanishes with a 'pop' and reappears, fully righted, by Lena.

"Don't worry about it, the Crucible'll give you a ton of practice. Anyway! Tour's over, you can go unpack your stuff. Oh and Valiant came by whilst you were beating the tar out of Al, there's a party going on in the guy's dorm if you're interested."

[metakirb]

Who's Valiant?

[Dodgeson]

"Another student, he was just taking his group through the tunnels."

[jolinaxas]

"The party sounds good. I guess I'll go unpack..."

She looks around the nearby tunnels.

"Um... which way is out?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Follow me," Kevin offered, pulling up his mini-map of the area from his Menus and heading back for the lift.

[jamieth]

"A party? Sure I am interested!" Megan exclaimed, "Need to take a shower and change first, though... oh, by the way, what about the room assignments?"

[Dodgeson]

"Oh right, room assignments that's easy."

Their guide thinks for a second before before pulling her clipboard back out of the aether and flicking over a couple of sheets of paper.

"You and Lena got Room 7 on the first floor and Meta and Kevin got Room 13 in the guys dorm."

[jamieth]

"Oh, so we're roommates?" Megan turns to Lena with a smile, "A shame about first floor, though - makes sneaking out through the window no challenge at all... so, let's go?"

[jolinaxas]

Lena nodded.

"Sure thing. You think they care about people sneaking out when the student body can fly or walk through walls? I'd think it'd be a lost cause..."

[metakirb]

Guess we should find our room then.

Meta glances at Kevin as he says this.

[Dodgeson]

Get back above ground is a simple matter of retracing their steps and returning to the lift. It's even obliging enough to set of back to the surface once our heroes are assembled inside. Once the door reopens the girls will find themselves only a short hop up a flight of stairs to reach their room.

The boys on the other hand need to make a quick dash across the quad to reach their dorms. Though this is going to be complicated slightly by the vast array of young superhumans in front of them. Speedsters dashing about recklessly as they finally find others who can keep pace, people dancing and twirling in the sky with glee whilst others discharge exotic balls and blasts on strange energies, marveling at the colours they produce.

[metakirb]

Meta sighs and tries to get across the party in the fastest way he can. Trying to fly across it.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin makes his way across carefully, watching nearby (a condition which, for them, means "in line of sight") speedsters before moving, leaping over groups of students, expertly dodging stray energy balls...occasionally bouncing off of someone's head (well, the air about an inch above their head, but whatever). He manages to mistime one jump as a speedster gets just a bit too close, launching himself directly into a sudden firework that causes his Smasher to suddenly launch itself out of his body and vanish in a cartoony puff of smoke, while he takes advantage of his momentary flickering to run straight through three chatting students and into the dorm.

"Eh, not bad for a first playthrough, I suppose," he murmured waiting for his life bar to refill.

[jolinaxas]

Lena took in the whole room, imagining where her things would go in each half.

"You pick a side - I don't care either way. So... what do you think of this place so far?"

[jamieth]

"Well, I don't care either, so... say, this one", Megan points to the left bed, "Ah, I don't have much to unpack, pretty used to moving, so mind if I hit the shower first? And, why, I love it - whtever else, this place is for certain isn't dull!"

[jolinaxas]

"Yeah, sure. I can wait. Besides, I think the guys might be busy for a while just getting back to their room - it was like a madhouse out there."

[Dodgeson]

The martial artist shouldn't have too much trouble navigating the sky across the quad as long as he's careful to avoid some of the more inexperienced fliers around him. On the ground below Kevin's rather unique method of traversing the crowd garners him no small amount of attention, even more so when he charges straight through a few students incorporeally.

Inside away from all the hubbub our heroes will find pretty much the same thing. Their rooms are split neatly down the middle with a bed, a desk and a chest of drawers each. Whatever belongings they brought with them neatly stacked in the corner waiting to be unpacked.

[jamieth]

"Thanks, I'll be real quick", Megan heads for the shower, continuing speaking through the door, "I think they'll be fine, actually - the dragon boy can fly... not that it helps much around here, and Kevin... well, I somehow think he's kinda used to navigating such a paths. In theory, at least..."

[metakirb]

Which side you want?

Meta moves to grab his things as he talks and quickly replaces his makeshift bandanna with an actual one.

[Quellian-dyrae]

In response to Meta's question, Kevin walked over to each desk and chest, opening and closing them, a look of disappointment growing on his face each time. "Seriously? Not even a healing potion? Lame," he muttered when he had finished.

"Eh, I dunno then. Right, I guess," he said.

[jolinaxas]

"Fair enough. Heh, those two are gonna kill each other, living together. Serious and zany, like oil and water..."

While Megan showers, Lena unpacks the couple of bags she has, filling out the drawers and putting her laptop on the desk. It was near-ancient - one of her father's old computers for business trips, but it could word-process and check out the internet and play music and DVDs, though maybe asking it to do all three at once was pushing it.

After getting out what she'd need for a shower and the upcoming party, she lounges on her bed for a while, after making it.

[jamieth]

"Yeah, I'd love to see that myself... OK, I'm done", Megan comes out, finishing wrapping a towel around her, and starts ruffing through the bag, "Hm, let's see... what should I wear..."

[metakirb]

Meta nods and starts unpacking his things, which seems to consist entirely of various styles of martial arts outfits and a single, long desert cloak.

[jolinaxas]

Lena takes the opportunity to head into the shower, and comes out a while later in jeans, a t-shirt and a light winter-ish jacket.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much - I mean, everyone else just got finished fighting the virtual mafia too, right? Doesn't exactly scream out 'tuxes and evening gowns."

[jamieth]

"Yeah, I suppose you're right... then again, it's not like I have any evening gowns in the first place. Oh well, this will have to do..." she quickly slips into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, the bright yellow one with patterns of flame shaped into some Chinese characters (unknown to Megan, the characters read, "reckless" - a gift from some friends), and starts setting her things. A few more t-shirts, shorts, leggins and sport tops go into the chest drawer, a well-worn netbook on the table, with a DDR pad wired to it immediately and temporarily stuffed under the bed, and that's more or less it. While there's still some time, the girl does an oversplit between the two beds and launches a game on her smartphone - an old-school platformer.

[metakirb]

After putting his outfits away Meta picks one out, heads to get changed and heads to the party, knowing it's the most likely place he'll find Serra.

[Dodgeson]

The boys don't have far to travel as the party is just below them as for the girls the journey is certainly a lot easier than it would of been earlier as the morass of excited students has dispersed some what, some to the party and others to other parts of the campus, leaving only a few excited meta-teens to navigate through.

The party is easily located by following the intermittent and loud noise of music coming from behind a door on the ground floor. Inside is another large group of students some gathering around a TV, others excitedly chattering by a table covered in a spread of finger foods. Others still are looking through a notice board covered in different coloured sheets of paper, whilst more students still are attempting to dance as a gingered haired boy argues with a girl baring a snake tail and glowing tattoos by the sound system, both changing the music to their preference whenever they can. More students are crowded around a table watching two blonde haired girls arm wrestling.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin was...about a breath from just staying in. He was something of a loner, so parties had never really been his thing. In the end, what pushed him to it was the chance to see more of the various powers and such the students possessed. That was interesting.

Even so, he didn't really prepare for it. He had showered that morning, and didn't deem a full-fledged superheroic fight as sufficient exertion to warrant another. Likewise, the clothes he was wearing were considered just fine, and he didn't really have anything all that much nicer anyway. He just got his stuff situated, and followed Meta when he went.

A part of him wondered if he could just designate Meta as the "front" character and spend the party in whatever hyperspace other player-controlled characters spent when not in a battle or cutscene, but it didn't seem to happen. He just shadowed his fellow student, walking silently behind him a couple feet back, zooming his viewpoint around to keep an eye on pretty much the whole room.

[jolinaxas]

Lena looks at the party with confusion more than anything else.

"Hrm. Well, we were right on the money with the dress code, but someone needs to tell those two who keep messing with the music to chill out."

[jamieth]

"Well, yep, if they settled on something, that'd surely make it easier to dance to... I'll still try, mind you, but first... Hey, Kevin!" Megan waves to the video-game-obsessed boy, "How're you doing? Care for a little rhythm minigame?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Hey," Kevin said. "I'm good, you?"

He got a kinda nervous look at the offer. Rhythm games fell into one of the big three classes of games he was just no good at - games that you play parts of your body other than your thumbs (the other two were racing games and first person shooters, for those keeping score at home). "Uh, sure. Um...as long as you don't mind not having much competition," he said with a shaky laugh.

He remembered the stunts she had pulled off during the fight. He wasn't sure if her power was some sort of enhanced prowess or she was just that good, but he knew he had no business even pretending he was in the same league in what amounted to a contest of agility. Although...

"Powers allowed?" he asked with a bit more confidence. He had an idea, no clue if it would work, but it would be interesting to try. And it might give him a better idea of her abilities, since he still didn't seem to have any "team stats" listing in his menus.

[Dodgeson]

Meta wont have a hard time locating his charge. She's over by the food table, happily talking to a girl with cat ears whilst trying everything laid out on the table.

At another table in the room with one of the girls triumphs over the other, the shorter haired of the two slamming the other's hand onto the table with a loud thud. She pushes back her chair and grins as a boy holds her arm aloft.

"And the winner is....what's your name?"

"Cloudbreaker."

"Cloudbreaker!"

The other girl slinks off in defeat through the crowd, money changing hands around her.

"So who's next?"

[metakirb]

Well that sounds like an open challenge. Meta turns from his original destination and heads towards the table.

I'm up for a challenge.

[jolinaxas]

Seeing Megan break off to see if Kevin was interested in dancing, Lena heads over to the refreshments, pouring herself a soda and dropping a few ice cubes from the air into the cup. While the arm-wrestling hadn't initially interested her, the dragon kid's challenge to the reigning winner led her over to watch.

[jamieth]

"Well, as long as no one gets hurt, I suppose why not", Megan smiled, "you know, if I wanted an easy mode, I wouldn't be here in the first place. Let's go!" she grabs Kevin's hand and drags him towards the dance floor.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin followed along, although he panned his camera angle around to watch Meta's challenge while they walked.

[Dodgeson]

The black haired boy gestures towards the table at which Cloudbreaker is seated whilst the crowd around them exchange money with him.

"We have a new challenger! Place your bets! What's your name?"

Out on the dance floor the subject of music is apparently resolved in favor of the girl with the tattoos by the appearance of a large bipedal hyena, the music now far more consistent the students get back to dancing. The students themselves look mostly normal baring a few odd eyes and hair colours with the exception of the snake girl herself and a guy and girl dressed like escapees from Pleasantville.

[metakirb]

It's Metakirb. Meta will do.

Meta takes his seat as he talks.

[Dodgeson]

The girl opposite lays her elbow on the table, waiting for Meta to do the same before grabbing his hand.

"Ready to lose?"


metakirb make a strength check

[metakirb]

You tell me.

[roll0] Strength check

[Dodgeson]

The girl strains with all her might, gritting her teeth in concentration. She manages to hold even for several seconds before Meta manages to slam her hand down on to the table.

"We have a winner!"

Cloudbreaker glares daggers at the dragon boy, throwing herself out of her chair and slamming her hands down on to the table.

"Cheater!"

[metakirb]

Oh? Sounds to me like you're a sore loser.

Meta stands up.

Dragon's don't need to cheat. We're just naturally stronger than humans.

[Dodgeson]

"Oh yeah!? Well lets see how strong you are outside!"

[metakirb]

Meta grins.

Bring it on.

[Dodgeson]

"I'm going to wipe that smile off your stupid face!"

With that she storms towards the exit, the crowd parting like the Red Sea to allow her passage. The smaller boy hurriedly rushing in to the crowd, calling fresh odds and making new bets.

[metakirb]

Meta follows, rolling a shoulder and adjusting his bandanna slightly for combat.

[jamieth]

Megan almost makes it to the dancefloor by this time, but, overhearing the challenge, stops and turns to Kevin, "Hm... do you think we should check it out... just in case?..."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"It would be a shame to miss it," Kevin responded with a slender grin.

[jolinaxas]

Lena catches up to Kevin and Megan on the dance floor.

"Hey, hate to interrupt, but I'm pretty sure your roommate's about to get in trouble like, a half hour into the school year..."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Eh, he already won the arm wrestling match. I doubt a stand-up fight will be a particular problem for him," Kevin said, starting for the door - though to watch, not to intervene. Yes, he was aware that fighting in school was, ya know, generally bad. He just kinda figured that the rules might be slightly different here, considering their first "assignment" had been to beat up a gang of fake thugs.

Kevin was, as we've seen, not exactly a boy with the strongest grasp of reality.

[jolinaxas]

"Thats... that's not what I'm talking about! I'm pretty sure that we're not supposed to fight."

Lena scratched her head for a moment.

"Unless they tell us to, of course!"

She follows him out the door in a huff.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin tilted his head to the side in confusion (and panned his camera angle around to look at Lena directly, although since he didn't turn his head, it wasn't exactly noticeable). "But...he won the arm wrestling match, so clearly it's a scripted event. Why wouldn't he be supposed to fight?"

"Ooh, although come to think of it..."


Platformer: Hey Meta, remember, even if the rest of the party isn't involved in a battle, you can still access items from our inventory.
Platformer: I always forget that stuff in solo fights and then wonder why they're so hard :smallsigh:.
Platformer: Err...although I'm not sure we actually have anything in the inventory yet :smallconfused:.

[jamieth]

"Well, yeah, we'd better be nearby in case it goes overboard..." Megan follows her roommate, "though I'm not sure what counts as 'overboard' around here".

[Dodgeson]

Outside on the quad a circle of students has surrounded Meta and his opponent, eager to see a fight, the girl floating a good six feet above him.


metakirb roll initiative (and anyone else if you're planning something daring!:smalltongue:)

[metakirb]

So, you can fly. Well I guess I won't completely flatten you then.

[roll0]

[Dodgeson]

"Shut your stupid face!"

A smell of ozone pervades the air, crackling blue energy arcing between her hands. Thrusting them forward, the energy shoots towards him in a mighty lightning bolt! Which of course leaves the draconian martial artist complete unharmed.

[metakirb]

Maybe you should take some time to learn about dragons. Lightning is what a blue does.

Of course being Albino it's not immediately, or in fact at all obvious he's a blue dragon, not that Meta seems to care.

Hope you can do more than sparks.

Meta spreads his wings and launches himself towards Cloudbreaker, spinning into a vicious overhead punch at her head as he approaches.

Break the unbreakable, [roll0] DC 22

[Dodgeson]

The martial artist's blow connects with her head, sending her careening down in to the dirt shaking the stars from her head and pulling herself up.

"That the best you've got?"


Cloudbreaker failed her toughness save by 2 degrees, she takes 1 bruise and is dazed

[metakirb]

You're not looking so tough down there.

Meta takes a quick moment to gauge her strength before moving to land behind her and spin a kick at her side before moving back from her a little.

Assessment, Break the unbreakable [roll0] DC22

[jamieth]

"Hm, it seems if anyone needs our help here, it isn't the dragon-boy," Megan comments, "the question is, do we allow it to go on, or do we stop him? And, if the latter... how?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"She looks pretty tough. I'm sure Meta won't hurt her too bad," Kevin said with an apathetic shrug.

"Eh, here, wait," he then added...and then apparently just did nothing and continued watching the fight.

Activating Pause. Taking 20 on Perception to make sure there aren't any teachers coming, scanning the area and looking around corners and stuff with Third Person Viewpoint (Extended, Radius, Limited Penetrates Concealment). I'll continue doing so, eh, let's say every round. If teachers are approaching, I'll switch to Chat to alert Meta, Cloudbreaker, and all other students present.

[Dodgeson]

Sizing up his irate challenger Meta can easily tell that she lacks his level of training.

Dodge:12
Parry:12
Melee:+6

His blow connects once again but this doesn't slow her down as she charges towards him, swinging her fists with more power than grace.


Cloudbreaker fails her save by 1 degree and takes a bruise her blow connects metakirb make a DC30 Toughness Save

Meanwhile in the crowd there doesn't appear to be any teachers approaching though a few metallic poles appear to have sprouted from the ground around the throng of students. Something that might peak Platformer's interest his a student with messy black hair staring intensely at Meta and muttering to himself.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin frowns some, pointing out the poles to his teammates. "Either of you see where those came from?"

He kept the muttering kid in camera. He didn't appear an immediate concern, but he watched to make sure he was just muttering and there wasn't any, say, magic happening. Kevin was not fond of cheaters.

If Messy Hair targets Meta (actually, either of the fighters) with a hostile action, Kevin will Interpose.

[jolinaxas]

Lena looked at the poles nervously.

"No, I don't know. But I'm willing to guess they have something to do with, y'know, this!"

She edged closer to the fight, her force field up, in case she caught a stray hit.

"Hey! Are you both done playing 'I'm more badass than you!' yet? Calm down!"

[metakirb]

Not expecting quite such a strong blow Meta takes a heavy hit.

Well, now I know I don't need to hold back.

He aims a savage looking right hook at Cloudbreaker's side.

All out attack, Power attack, Break the unbreakable, [roll0] Gah, take 3 off because I'm stupid.

[Dodgeson]

Cloudbreaker fails by two degrees, she's dazed and takes a bruise

Clearly neither of the combatants are listing to Lena's sage advice the fight continue as Meta's blow leaves Cloudbreaker's head ringing as she aims to plant her foot somewhere very unpleasant for the young dragon.


meta make a DC25 Toughness Save

Back in the ground the boy Platformer has his eye on looses whatever baleful magic he was up to but he's close enough that he can rush to intercept, or leap if he's feeling theatrical.


Platformermake a DC16 Will save if you fail lose Agility, Fighting and Dexterity equal to the difference in your result.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin hurled himself in the path of the spell, thinking it would just bounce off as he blocked, or at worst ding his life bar. Instead, he felt the insidious magic stiffening his muscles and locking his joints. Status effects! Little creep!

Fortunately, Kevin wasn't just a weird kid who played too many video games. He was the son of a great wizard! He concentrated like his father had taught him, feeling the magic passing through his body, and guiding it out with a focus of will.

"Two-player mode it is!" he shouted at the mage, leaping into the air and coming down with a hard stomp for his head.

Free Action: Change arrays to Jump and Stomp.

Move Action: Jump into Close range of the mage.

Standard Action: Stomp at [roll0]. Multiattack, Crit on 16-20. Toughness DC 23 vs. Damage and Fortitude DC 18 vs. Dazed+Vulnerable/Stunned+Prone.

If Toughness save fails, Power Up chance (11-20 = Power Up): [roll1].

[metakirb]

Meta takes the blow, showing only a little bit of discomfort but nothing debilitating or major as would probably be expected.

Looks like we'll have to cut this short. Somebody wants to interfere in a duel.

Meta spreads his wings and lands behind the boy, waiting to see how much damage Kevin does.

[jamieth]

"Don't worry, we'll take care of it! Concentrate on your fight!" Megan calls the dragon and jumps on top of one of the metal poles, spinning Buzzer in front of her. So far, Kevin seems to handle the mage... of whoever that boy is, but he might not be the only one, after all. "It's a fair duel, and anyone trying to interfere with it would have to deal with me first!" Half a second later, though, she adds, taking quite a bit from the pathos of that statement, "Teachers and other authority figures are an exception, of course."

[Dodgeson]

Kevin goomba stomps true knocking the young mage back in to Meta, a large feathered wing ((Flyer)) bursting in to being in the space between him and Platformer.


Scucca failed his saves by 2 and 1 degree he is dazed/vulnerable and takes a bruise

((Bonus points if you know where the name comes from :smalltongue:))

Taking advantage of her opponents distraction Cloudbreaker launches herself back in to the air, putting her momentum behind her and charging towards Meta for another vicious blow!


meta make a DC 30 toughness save

Elsewhere in the crowd a boy in a worn black leather jacket forces his way towards Megan, hands in his pockets.

"Duel? That's kinda overstating it isn't it?"

[metakirb]

Meta takes a pretty heavy hit, not expecting cloudbreaker to continue to target him.

And here I was starting to respect you a little. No more games.

He lowers his gaze slightly before spreading his wings and charging at cloudbreaker, then turns almost immediately and follows with another blow, and again, and again, and again.

Hundred Crack Fist, All out attack, Power attack, [roll]1d20+9 ((Oh that's right, I can't Edit in a new roll... Roll in OOC thread : 26 For a DC27 + Multiattack result.))

With his savage barrage complete Meta lands exactly where he started from.

[jamieth]

"Duel? That's kinda overstating it isn't it?"

"Oh well, you may call it something else if you want" , Megan shrugs, "but, you know, it won't change the fact that I won't let you interfere with it..."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin bounced off the mage's head to grab the Flyer, a pair of white wings suddenly sprouting from his back, and immediately put those wings to use, a hard beat up speeding his descent as he came down for another stomp.

Move: Jump to collect Power Up, remaining in Close range of the mage.

Standard: Stomp with Power Attack for 2 (cap for default Power Attack since without the Smasher I don't have the Advantage) against the Vulnerable mage. Attacking at [roll0] for Damage DC 25+Multiattack and Affliction (Dazed+Vulnerable/Stunned+Prone) DC 20+Multiattack. Crit on 16-20.

If attack hits and does damage, Power Up chance (11-20): [roll1]

...And his wings went ahead and carried him a solid ten feet to the left of where he was aiming for. Hrm. Gonna have to get used to those.

[Dodgeson]

Cloudbreaker throws up her hands in defense but this quickly crumbles beneath Meta's repeated blows and she hits the floor, out cold.


Cloudbreaker fails her save by 4 degrees and is incapacited

Kevin's inexperience with flight has an unforeseen side effect, landing on his feet just a little too hard, well not just a little.


Platformer roll a DC 23 Toughness Save

Whatever Megan's challenger was going to say is cut off by another voice, coming from a woman floating above the crowd, easily recognizable as the Headmistress Diana Magdeline. "This has gone on long enough."

[metakirb]

Now you decide to step in.

Meta checks Cloudbreaker to make sure he didn't overdo it on his attack.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin landed solidly, but did not press his attack, halting as the headmistress spoke. Though he kept a close eye on both of their opponents with his odd form of vision.

[Dodgeson]

The woman's eyes blaze with arcane fire, an orange glow infusing Cloudbreaker's body and erasing any sign of her recent scuffle with the martial artist. "Mr Setesh, Mr Matthews, Miss Dawson, Miss Hassler, Mr Dutt, Miss Donner. I want you all in my office right. The rest of you are to return to your dormitories. "

The crowd begins to disperse immediately making it simple enough for our heroes to follow her in to the Kirby Building, through a series of corridors and in to her office, a large shiny plaque on the door reading


Diana Magdeline
Head Mistress

Taking her seat behind her desk she regards the students in front of her. "Now then, which of you is going to explain what you think you were doing?"

[jamieth]

"Well, our comrade got into a fight... Eh, a fair, one-on-one fight, agreed to by both parties... eh, so we were trying to stop anyone from trying any dirty moves..." Megan said, "Which, apparently wasn't the smartest thing to do... I suppose."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"He tried to cheat," Kevin added, sounding offended, pointing to the mage.

[jolinaxas]

Lena shifted uncomfortably - she had tried to get them to stop fighting, and now she was going to get heat for it?

"Ma'am, what they said is the long and short of it. Apparently the girl was unsatisfied with her arm-wrestling performance against him. The insults escalated into what you saw. I attempted to dissuade them from fighting, but they seemed certain, so..."

She cleared her throat.

"While they didn't actively attempt to stop the fight, Megan and Kevin were only trying to stop anyone from ganging up on him."

[Dodgeson]

The headmistress listens carefully to what the assembled students have to say, not that she needs to, the poles that sprung up around the fight recorded everything but she was happy that none of them were trying to lie to her.

"I have been in this job for sixty years, this is not first fight of this kind I've seen and it wont be the last. In light of the fact that there was no permanent damage to anyone or anything, I'm inclined to let you all off with a warning. However this is with the understanding that this doesn't repeat itself. Is that understood?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"No fighting on school grounds. Understood," Kevin said.


Platformer: Well, guess you two were right. Good call!

Though he wondered some if exceptions could be made if the only other option to resolve a situation was a stealth mission. There was no greater frustration than being sent back to the start of the level because some peon you could beat in somewhere under ten seconds happened to glance idly in your direction.

[Dodgeson]

"You're all dismissed, Miss Hassler your attempt to act as a voice of reason is greatly appreciated, even if none of your friends had the sense to listen. Miss Donner and Mr Setesh, might I suggest taking a look at the Crucible sign-ups on your dormitory notice board and channeling your aggression a little more constructively?"

[metakirb]

Meta turns to leave, as her reaches the door he turns back.

With all due respect, I'd rather you didn't refer to me by that name.

And with that he starts heading towards his room.

[jamieth]

"Yes, ma'm, I understand", Megan nods obediently. The next moment, a mix of curiosity and excitement appears on her face, "A Crucible? What's it about?" she turns to the other students, "Something like a tournament? What's the rules?"

[jolinaxas]

Lena gets up out of the chair uneasily - unsure if she's made enemies, and if so, how many.

"I think that's that simulated thing we fought the virtual mafia in. Makes sense for people ticked at each other to head there - training and fighting differ only in intent."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin sat in his chair for a few more moments, giving the headmistress and expectant look that changed to a confused one over the course of the seconds the others were getting up and going. He finally, tentatively, stood and followed the group that he considered his team.


Platformer: She didn't give us a mission.
Platformer: Weren't we supposed to get a mission?
Platformer: I mean...he won the arm wrestling contest!

[Dodgeson]

The young mage amongst them tries to slip away as they leave, Cloudbreaker taking a far more direct method and just trying to shove passed anyone in front of her on the way back to her dorm.

[metakirb]

Hey, Cloudbreaker. Not bad. Seems you're all power, but a bit of training and I think you'd be able to stand a chance. Anytime you want a rematch, just come find me.

[Dodgeson]

If the girl heard Metakirb she shows no indication of it, lifting off the ground as soon as she's clear of the group and quickly leaving.

[Dodgeson]

A week passes and our heroes (hopefully) settle in, making friends, going to class maybe even picking up an extra-curricular or two. The kerfuffle with Cloudbreaker has given the group, or at least Meta, Kevin and Megan, something of a reputation, though this is rather evenly split between them being bullies to just people who shouldn't be messed with.

We find our heroes in their first science class, the class room is a series of work benches with two stools behind each. The benches are arranged in rows of two leading up to the front where are blonde haired man in aviator goggles and an utterly garish rainbow coloured coat.

"Good morning class my name is Doctor Quantum I will be your science teacher for the year. Before we start..." He points to a black haired asian girl, a boy in a grey uniform and then to Lena. "You, you and you need to do better on your first homework assignment, I will have been very disappointed, I know you can do better."

[jamieth]

"Professor", Megan took no time to raise her hand, "Eh, but if now Lena, {insertname} and {insertname} would actually put more effort in their homework, won't it cause the disturbance in time-space continuum, or something like that? Oh, and one more question, if I may - since you didn't mention me... does that mean I'll do OK with my homework, or you just know I'm hopeless anyway?" she smiled, demonstrating that that last question shouldn't be taken too seriously.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin narrowed his eyes in calculating focus. He understood. Clearly, he was going to have to complete and turn in a homework assignment for this course before it was even assigned. He know an Achievement when he saw one.

"Challenge. Accepted." he murmured.

He was about to hit pause and start searching for the teacher's notes, but he caught himself. No, it wouldn't be that easy. Undoubtedly, Professor Quantum's own time powers would easily detect such a blatant temporal manipulation.

Hmm...

[jolinaxas]

Lena raised a hand.

"Professor, I think that's a... that will be.... that will have been... it's unfair to judge my performance based on a possible future!"

[Dodgeson]

((For those of you keeping score at home the other two students names were Suki, and Smith. Well Smith is his second, doesn't give his first, really needs to lighten up a bit.))

The teacher picks up a stack of papers from the desk behind him, moving down the middle of the desk rows and placing a paper face down in front of each student.

"A possible future but also a probable one. I should know, I've seen it, but and that was a excellent question Miss Dawson, the future is not immutable! It can be rewritten, we are all masters of our own destiny. Now in front of you I have placed a test to help me better gauge your grasp of the subject, you have 30 minutes."


Everyone make an INT check/Expertise (Science) if you have it

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin started quickly. With every question, menus almost unconsciously opened in his vision, every relevant fact he had ever learned simply appearing in his mind's eye to review.

Expertise (Science): [roll0], counting the +5 bonus from Eidetic Memory.

Replaced by 31 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16855843&postcount=67) with Luck Reroll.

[jamieth]

Oh, well, Megan thought, there goes a good impression I somehow managed to make... while not stupid - in fact, her IQ consistently scored as well above average - the girl held no illusion on how that compared to at least some of her classmates... not to mention, she was on external schooling for the last several years. Still, there was no reason not to try at least. Megan took the sheet and, leaning backwards and keeping the stool balanced on rear legs, started reading through it, hoping to find at least some familiar questions.
13 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16855861&postcount=68)

[jolinaxas]

Lena stared at the test, determined to defy whatever ridiculous time-shenanigans her professor claimed would doom her grade. While she did not concern herself much with science, her instinctual knowledge of thermodynamics (and a recent quiz-show binge before leaving for school) served her surprisingly well.

(18)

[metakirb]

Meta, while not an idiot, was never exactly academically minded. He didn't seem to care much for science either.

5 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16856236&postcount=70)

[Dodgeson]

The test starts off simple and ramps up in difficulty quickly after all they after to cater for everyone here, from people with no former history of education to those who spent primary school turning their microwaves in to death rays.

As the minutes tick on some students begin to panic, except for one smug looking kid who hasn't touched his paper in 20 minutes. The noise of pencil against paper is abruptly interrupted as the air in the room begins to ripple and a large metal box the size of a shipping container appears at the front of the classroom, obliterating the front desks and sending students scattering. Calmly Doctor Quantum gets up from his desk and approaches the strange box, pressing a hand against it.

"Was this any of you? It appears to be ticking..."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kevin fell back from his seat in surprise as the...box appeared. Once he had recovered his feet, he murmured, "Ticking?" and clenched his left hand into a fist, bringing it diagonally across his chest and narrowing his eyes in concentration.

Translucent, softly glowing blue forcefields appeared around every student in the room, as well as Professor Quantum.

Now, if I know what I was doing when I built this power...shields can resist Toughness, Fortitude, and Will resisted attacks at +8 Impervious; if shield succeeds to resist, target is unharmed. If shield fails, target must resist normally, and that target's shield takes a -1 Resistance penalty against further attacks. If shield fails by two degrees, a hole is made, though what that means is subject to GM discretion. A shield that fails by three degrees is destroyed. Shields otherwise last as long as Kevin concentrates (standard action each round). Being Selective, the shields don't impair the actions of the targets.

I'm also assuming the room is less than 30' radius; if not, some students may be outside the protection.

[jolinaxas]

As the strange force field came around her, Lena started backing up regardless as her own field subconsciously started to linger around her.

"So it wasn't you, Professor? That's not good..."

[metakirb]

This'll be all too easy.

Meta stands up and moves towards it and begins examining it.

Just need to find the right spot.

[jamieth]

The container's appearance was shocking enough that Megan almost lost her balance and fell to the floor together with the stool... almost. Still, she quickly got to her senses, leaped back to her feet and... stood still, unsure what to do. Buzzing the metal box just didn't seemed wise, and it was much to heavy to move... Now, if the box was opened... Taking the Buzzer out just in case, she waited, watching Meta at work.

[Dodgeson]

"No...not good at all."

The Professor steps away and moves around the back of the box as the young martial artist approaches, with his training it'll easy enough to find the perfect spot to strike.

[metakirb]

As he finds the point he's looking for he smiles.

There you are.

With that he pulls back his arm, and rather than actually striking the box, hits the point he was looking for with a single finger.

All out attack, Power attack, Shatter into Ruins, 1d20+9 DC 27 Damage and 22 Toughness.
Of course when I clip the enter key at the end of a line I don't notice I messed up the code... 17 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16867858&postcount=72)

[Dodgeson]

The side of the box explodes in to jagged shards of metal under Meta's blow, luckily for him his hardy scales protect him from the shrapnel and luckily for everyone else Kevin had the foresight to raise his shields.

Less fortunate however is the blood-curdling screech that emanates from the from inside the container as its cargo begins to flood out in the form of large angry reptiles, both their feet sporting a single large curved claw.


Roll for Initiative!

------

The raptors rush out of their containment, frothing at the mouth in a flurry of screeching and claws, lashing out at anything and anyone in their path even pursuing the students that try and make a break for the door. This leaves a quartet of the beasties for each of the students who stood their ground to deal with!

Kevin's Up!