[M&M 3e] Second Chances

[Zelphas]

January 3rd, 2015
10:00 A.M.

So far, the winter has been mild for South Dakota; the first snow melted a few weeks back, and shockingly for the Midwest, no new snow has come to cover the ground again. Still, the weather was a brisk 30 degrees Fahrenheit, rather cold for prisoners in jumpsuits and lace-less shoes. Since the weather had begun to turn cold, access to the yard at the Mesa City Correctional Facility had become more and more restricted, so the sudden orders for all prisoners to assemble in the yard came as a surprise.

What’s even more surprising is the fact that the male and female prisoners have been sent to the yard at the same time. Lily and Howard know that this is strictly against the rules of the Mason City Correctional Facility, barring a direct order from the warden himself. The rest of you only know that this has never happened in all the time you've been here.

The yard is two hundred feet long and three hundred feet wide, shaped like a rectangle with two corners rounded off. On three sides run a twenty-foot tall grey cement wall, looking as though it was poured directly into a mold and never quite set; the fourth side is blocked by the prison complex. The wall is a foot thick, with a guard tower at each corner. The floor itself is also grey cement, bare and colorless. Bisecting the yard is a chain-link fence the same height as the wall, dividing the yard along its width. On each side, a small grate is set into the ground to drain away any excess moisture. A metal picnic table, bolted to the concrete floor and with any sharp edges sanded to smoothness, is also placed on either side of the chain-link fence.

Security cameras are placed at strategic intervals fifteen feet above the ground; collectively, they cover every square inch of the prison yard. Two guards are stationed at each tower, with two more guards flanking each entrance to the prison complex.

Men’s Side

Michael White and Nate Stone enter near the end of the male prisoners; Howard silvers comes in a few moments later. The book that he was allowed to bring to the yard as a reward for good behavior had been carefully searched to ensure he wasn’t smuggling anything inside it, placing him as the last prisoner to enter the yard. A fair amount of the male prisoners are gathered up against the chain-link fence, yelling catcalls and foul suggestions to the women on the other side. Howard recognizes among them Calvin Squires, a bear of a man with sandy brown hair and muddy eyes who had decided that Howard’s rewards for good behavior meant that he was in cahoots with the guards. Luckily, Calvin is at the moment distracted by the female prisoners, and has not yet noticed the former conman. The majority of the other prisoners mill aimlessly about the yard, though a few groups have come together.

The picnic table has been claimed by an impromptu Bible class, led by Christopher Horeb, a doctor in jail for manslaughter who “found religion” while in prison. A few of the members of the Bible study notice Michael as he comes into the yard and shift nervously—his stance on religion was well-known. If Christopher himself notices, he makes no indication, continuing on with the lesson unperturbed.

To the right of the picnic table, Morris “Lightfinger” Handel stands surrounded by six men, slowly cheating them out of their stashes of cigarettes. Morris is dwarfed by the other men around him, the Caucasian man only reaching a measly 5’4” in height; still, a sort of energy in his long-fingered hands and sharp grey eyes makes sure that the fair-haired man is always the center of attention in his own little sphere of existence. He’s back to an old standard today—a coin trick. Over and over again, he trades a penny between his hands, and then asks one of those around him to pick which hand the coin is held. Over and over again, the man chooses wrong. Only the most dimwitted of the prisoners bet against Morris anymore; still it seems like Morris should read his audience and end his show soon, before things get ugly.

As you watch Morris pull his trick, you catch a flash of something slipping out of his hand... did that coin just fall upwards?

It's over in an instant, but with your sharp eyes you distinctly see the penny float out of Morris's hand and tuck itself into the collar of his jumpsuit.

One final group consists of mostly younger men, all with the hungry expressions and emaciated frames of long-time users of one thing or another. One of them, a young man named Carl Dawes, catches sight of Nate and turns toward him, a hopeful expression on his face. Carl was a tall and painfully thin young man, with a tiny fuzz of black hair on his head, pale greyish skin, and sunken amber eyes that seem at the same time sleepy and hyperactive, rolling wildly around behind half-closed eyelids. He had somehow gotten into his head that Nate was a dealer, and nothing Nate could say convinced him otherwise.


Women’s Side

Elizabeth Greenwood and Lily Woods also enter near the end of the prisoners. The female prisoners are much more grouped together than the males, most of them keeping away from the chain-link fence and the leering men. One group of five women, however, stand right near the fence, responding to the men jeer for jeer.

At the picnic table, eight women, captured together when an illegal brothel was raided a few months back, sit talking quietly among themselves. One of them, a beautiful Asian woman with perfect heart-shaped features and deep brown eyes named Sandra Jackson, notices Elizabeth as she comes in and smiles, beckoning her over. Sandra was a friend of Elizabeth’s mother Crystal from many years ago.

Farther down the yard, six women huddle together, muttering quietly. Lily recognizes them as a group of technological geniuses, convicted of various separate cases of hacking and attempted cyber theft (though at least one had hacked the public street lights and made them go haywire, causing several accidents). They had excitedly approached Lily when she first came to prison, but lost interest when she revealed that she was focused on chemistry rather than technology.

A glint of metal catches your eye as you glance over at the tech group. They seem to be passing something among themselves, using their bodies to hide whatever it was from the security cameras.

Underneath the guard tower on the left back corner of the yard, six women are chanting up at the guards, petitioning for better food for the prisoners. Most of the other prisoners give the group a wide berth; they had been shut down forcefully by the guards on more than one occasion. Just behind them, Lily would see Linda Thompson, a tiny woman with brown hair and green eyes who was running her hand along the outer wall and humming tunelessly to herself. Linda was Lily’s cellmate; the woman was sweet, but Lily had gotten the distinct impression that she was not entirely ‘there’, mentally.

The rest of the prisoners wander around singly or in twos and threes, their expressions ranging from guarded, to angry, to simply bored. One woman, tall (though not nearly as tall as Elizabeth) with brown eyes and dirty blond hair, glances over at Lily and Elizabeth entering and stops, glaring at each in turn. Madelyn Sparks was an old opponent of Elizabeth’s from the fighting ring, and she had been itching for a rematch against “the Fighting Redwood” since she was thrown in prison. At the same time, she had taken umbrage with the fact that the warden had, in a misguided attempt to “protect” Lily, placed the world-class chemist in solitary for the first few days, until Lily demanded to be placed among the other prisoners. Madelyn had been looking for a chance to make Lily’s life miserable. As of now, she looks between Lily and Elizabeth, trying to decide which one to harass first.

Map is here (https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1n8nB3DZGdEPTOGsIZ0W-Nmv34jTHjwuh2C2c9gx1-cY/edit). If any perception rolls would be altered by your superpowers, please use your perception check as it would be if those powers were not in play (so no super-smell yet, Lily).

Howard, you have one book of your choice on you at the moment.

[PalusAbel]

Thanks to her height, Elizabeth is easily able to see Sandra waving at her from the far side of the table, even from halfway across the yard. She makes her way over in brisk, long strides; when she does not have to keep pace with her comparatively short-legged peers, Elizabeth moves quite swiftly despite her bulk.

"Hello Sandra," Elizabeth opens warmly. "I hope you and the girls are doing well. It is a bit chilly out today. If you like, I have plenty enough muscle to keep you all warm!" She gives a hearty laugh, encouraging the others to join in, before setting herself down on the cement in a cross-legged position. Elizabeth did this sort of thing often - she would crack a quick joke about her height and find a seat quickly thereafter so as to reduce the impact her appearance might have on people.

"I do wonder, though, about the nature of this assembly. I have never seen its like in my time here. Have any of you?" She raises her chin from her fist and offers the question to the table as a whole.

My understanding is that Elizabeth's attention is focused on Sandra, so she might not have the opportunity to make the Perception check in the first place. I'll still roll just in case you chalk that up as a modifier rather than a straight no-go.

Perception: [roll0]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Brr.

Brr.

BRR!

Now adding to the tally of indignities of prison: getting sent outside with improper attire while it was freezing. Slot that in right above "food is bland" but still barely below "I'm bo-o-ored!"

"I did do it, so I should plead guilty."

"It'll be fine. I'll catch up on my reading."

"I'm not a helpless child anymore! I can handle a few months in prison!"

She thought back to those memories of conversations she'd had with her family and nodded as a certain scientific experiment she had been dutifully running for the past month or so finally reached an indisputable conclusion.

You did not think this through! Next time, hire a lawyer, you imbecile!

Better yet, let's just table the very concept of next time indefinitely. Give the prison system at least one positive data-point on the whole "increases probability of repeat offenders" study.

God it's cold!

Lily had a tendency to keep to herself. Part of it was just her nature, she'd always been something of a loner. Linda was actually probably a closer friend than Lily had made in the past five years just because, well, they had to spend time together and it was silly (and rude) to try to ignore each other. Part of it...okay, yeah, she kinda saw herself as better than the rest of them. She wouldn't admit it, she'd be polite, even friendly when spoken to, but the fact remained. When she got out, she would be going back to a great job doing something that was going to make the world a better place. It was simply improbable that many of the rest of them could say as much.

Nonetheless, more people meant warmth, which at that point was far more important than either shyness or ego. Arms crossed before her and body sort of hunched forward, Lily started across the yard. She took a couple sort of wavering half-steps towards the hackers, but ultimately moved past them. That lot was smart, Lily had even entertained the fantasy, early on, that she could be something of a teacher for them, help them direct their intelligence to something more constructive once they had left the prison. In reality...the fact was, it didn't matter how smart you were, being in a conversation with a group of people who are all experts in a field that you have no particular talent in would make you feel stupid. Lily preferred to avoid situations that made her feel stupid (which would, she hoped, prove an exceptionally effective deterrent to doing anything that would land her back in prison in the future).

So instead she went to stand with the petitioners by the guard tower, offering a little pat on the head to her sense of dramatic irony as she did so. Lily had actually requested a cooking job several times. She was good at it, and quite sure she could provide healthier and tastier meals even with the limited resources that would be available. But, well, apparently there was some thing about letting a chemist work in a job that involved things like fire and stuff. Silly. In any event, it was a cause she could support. She kinda hovered for a few moments before picking up the chant, not with any particular enthusiasm, but at least she wouldn't feel like all she was doing was standing around awkwardly.

She did, however, try to keep an eye on Linda as she trailed the wall. If it looked like she was getting too close to the fence, Lily would run over to stop her.

[Arcran]

Howard tucks To Kill A Mockingbird into his waistband as he makes his way across the yard. As preposterous as it was, more than a few prisoners shared Calvin's line of thinking that he was in league with the guards. Sure, he wasn't above snitching on people that tried to take advantage of him but that was hardly in league, right? All of it made Howard thankful for his quick tongue though; he'd probably be dead if it wasn't for it.

Intent on keeping as far from Calvin as possible Howard finds an open space along the fence nearest the entrance, hopefully within easy eyesight of the guards. He does a quick double-take towards Morris as he watches the trick, only to decide it was a trick of the light. Things didn't go up people's sleeves but, in any case, Howard might need to learn that trick.

With a small groan as his knees crack in the cold Howard sits down against the fence, pulling the book from his waistband and finding the dogeared page, ignoring the other prisoners for now. The guards would likely know why they were all in the yard at once and would tell them when they were good and ready. Well, unless he persuaded them but, frankly, Howard doesn't care enough to put in the effort.

[Anubis Dread]

This was unusual. Unusual was good. Unusual created opportunities. An opportunity to escape was not an option however. Even if he could slip away in the crowd, there were much more guards than usual and they were pretty alert. This was a good opportunity to gather information though. With so many people around he could check the fences for any weak points without having a guard questioning what he was doing. He could also check the guard posts for blind spots, but that was less valuable since the guards weren't in their usual number or positions.

Making a show of sitting down and leaning against the fence, Michael patted the earth beside it. Hard packed, no use for digging. And even if he did get over the other side of the chain link fence, he'd just be in the women's section. Granted he'd at least have a shot this way. He'd determined long ago there was no way he was busting out of the men's section. It was too secure. But if there was a gap in the women's section he didn't know about.

Michael spat. Not likely. He'd be trapped in this place until they let him out. It stung. Being trapped in a cage like this just for beating up a few people who deserved it. He'd tried to keep his nose clean in here to wait for an opportunity to make his escape, but it was hard. That Christian club of theirs was obnoxious enough he'd been written up once already when he slammed one of their heads into a concrete wall after they tried to 'convert' him. And it was tempting to call that Lightfinger guy on his scam just because he was an insufferable prick, even if it would just result in a scuffle and him doing more time. So many temptations, but all of them would just mean he was in here longer.

Maybe another opportunity would knock today. He didn't intend to serve his whole time in this place, but if he could get loose early without having his face on a poster somewhere all the better.

[TooManySecrets]

Nate sighed internally, seeing Carl eying him. Carl was okay, in an over-earnest annoying-little-brother sort of way, but he was a major junkie. Not that, Nate thought to himself, he was really in a position to judge — what with having tried pretty much every party drug at least once and that whole "drug possession" thing. It was just, like, Nate didn't need to take drugs (he was quite sure he could have stopped anytime he wanted to, though the forced sobriety of jail was really getting on his nerves). Carl was always looking for his next fix, which in itself would be bearable but whatever concoction he was on had completely fried his brain. Nate was not looking forward to having to explain — yet again — that he was not a dealer, didn't have a stash hidden somewhere, and didn't have any contacts on the outside (if he did, he would have found a lot better ways to relax and pass the time).

Then again, Carl always seemed (keyword: seemed) to know what was going on, even if it had to be filtered through his two remaining brain cells. Plus, Doc Horeb and his cronies had already appropriated the picnic table so Nate wasn't going to do what he usually did: sit down and ignore everything. Might as well bite the bullet, charge ahead, and do all those other clichés and hope this would be over with quickly. Maybe the cold would keep him from being too chatty.

Doing his best to keep his face friendly, Nate walks over to Carl. "Hey Carl, uh, buddy. What's new? Got any clue why the Powers That Be decided to frogmarch the entire prison population out here? Trying to let exposure do their job for 'em in taking care of us?"

[Zelphas]

Elizabeth

The group of women laugh good-naturedly at your joke, though many of them do seem to be fairly affected by the cold around them.

"We're just as confused as you are," Sandra replies, smiling. "Maybe the petitioners convinced the warden that we weren't getting enough exercise?" she says derisively.

She gets up, coming over to give you a peck on the cheek. "There's something wrong with the guards," she murmurs next to your ear. Looking around, you can see what she means; at first glance, the guards seem normal, but their stances are too rigid, their gazes unwavering. It's like they can't see anything around them. Sandra gives you a serious look, her back to the other women. "The others haven't noticed. I don't know what to do."

Lily

The chanters welcome you with a few smiles, continuing their chant. Linda continues humming and running her hand along the wall, occasionally stopping and tapping a particular section of the wall. Madelyn looks disappointed as you join the petitioning group. She glances around and smiles cruelly, beginning to walk quickly. It looks like she's heading towards Linda.

Howard

Staying within eyesight of the guards proves rather difficult; all of the guards at the towers are staring straight ahead, not down at the prisoners... and so are the guards at the doors... how are they staying so still in this cold?

The other prisoners mutter and shuffle away from you when you sit down, but otherwise leave you alone for now. On the other end of the fence, Calvin has tired of catcalling the women, pacing restlessly along the back wall. The idiot always had some half-baked escape plan or other.

Michael

Looking at the guards again, you can see that your earlier assumption of their alertness might have been incorrect; the guards certainly looked alert, but the more you look, the more their stillness seems unnatural. They don't even seem aware of their surroundings, staring staring straight ahead with wide open eyes.

None of the other prisoners have noticed; a space cleared away from the fence the moment you walked up to it, and no one has dared to enter your personal bubble since then.

Nate

"Hey, Stone," Carl replied, his eyes flicking every which way. "I heard Lazy talking to one of the guards earlier; orders came down from old Warden Hoskins himself, but who know's what he's on about." Carl's eyes spun around the yard once more, and he leaned in. Here it comes. "Hey man, look, I'm not doing real well today. I can get some extra food, I'm sure of it; c'mon, man, I just need a hit."

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth's smile at Sandra's gesture dies before it even reaches fruition. She looks around to confirm Sandra's observation, and sure enough the guards are all acting strangely. That sort of stiffness was not normal. Elizabeth continues her scan and lights upon a vaguely familiar face. After running through her list of regular contacts, she can only guess it was someone she knew from the ring. The heated glare she receives when they make eye contact only confirms that. "Ah, you know what, Sandra? I think I recognize someone over there. I will go over and say hello. I am going to make a scene to see if the guards react. I do not like where this is going. So? Do you think she will laugh at that joke? Hahaha!"

She passes off her warning as a private experiment to the others before clapping her hand on Sandra's shoulder to reassure her. Elizabeth reestablishes eye contact with the angry blond. It looks like she is looking for a fight. Well, as long as I am not the initiator... What was her name again? It still had not come to her by the time she and Madelyn were face to face. She smiles as a suitable introduction comes to mind.

"You are scaring me with those eyes, you know. Have you been throwing looks at me the whole time? I think I used to know you, but your name escapes me. Were you a fan of mine?" This was not the way she would approach the conversation normally; Elizabeth tells herself that it is only a product of the circumstances, and that she will apologize later. She looks up at the guards both to continue observing them and as a calculated move to provoke Madelyn.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily cast a quick, nervous glance towards Linda as she caught sight of Madelyn heading her way, and the look on her face. She'd like to say that Madelyn annoyed her. She made a conscious effort not to get into any problems with anyone because duh, prison, and that just didn't seem to matter with her. It was annoying. Yeah, that's how she'd like to define her view of the woman.

Truth of the matter? Madelyn terrified her. Lily was fairly sure she could break her in half bare-handed, and rumor was she had professional fighting experience. Someone like her stalking around the yard was enough to make Lily regret not ever asking her siblings to give her some self-defense instruction. If she got trapped in a physical altercation with Madelyn, there was very little she could do to protect herself.

So there was no small part of her saying she should be sensible and stay out of it. If anything happened, the guards would take care of it. Just keep your head down and let it pass, same as anything else in this portion of your life.

But here's the thing, all that logic? It applied just as correctly to Linda. Only while Lily may have been just as physically vulnerable as Linda, the latter was far more mentally fragile. The thought of someone like Madelyn bullying someone like Linda just didn't sit well with Lily.

Of course, a physical challenge was out of the question. There was nowhere to hide in the yard and running would just provoke her. Words were unlikely to sway Madelyn and Lily had nothing to either offer or threaten. That left guile.

The petitioners were a group, and more importantly, were drawing attention to themselves and right near the guard tower to boot. Predators went after weak, isolated prey. It was simply how they were wired. Madelyn, Lily hoped, would prove no different.

"Li-Linda!" she called over, teeth chattering some from the cold but putting a friendly smile on her face. Her call was actually a bit louder than it probably needed to be. Draw attention her way, make engaging her too big a risk. She waved cheerily to her cellmate, a big exaggerated arm-over-head wave which she kinda regretted because freezing but would help point gazes where she wanted them to go.

"Come here! W-we're gonna t-t-try and get a b-b-better m-menu!" she invited, hoping her friend would take the cue and come over to relative safety (and hey, if it added one more body worth of warmth to the immediate vicinity, bonus). She then went back to chanting with the others, this time with greater volume and enthusiasm.

But as her next quick glance caught sight of Elizabeth intercepting the threat, Lily gave a soft breath of relief. Elizabeth was bigger and probably stronger than even Madelyn, but she had never seemed nearly so threatening. Her proximity made Lily feel safer than that of either the petitioners or the guard tower, if she was honest. There was just something viscerally different between your defense being an on-the-fly assessment of psychological instincts and probabilities and it being the fact that there was a six-foot-odd amazon between you and the person you feared might do you harm.

[TooManySecrets]

Nate's earlier sigh repeats itself, external this time. "Look, Carl, I - what I mean is. Ugh." He rubs his face.

"Okay, Carl, y'know what." Nate gets a sly look on his face and glances side to side, like he's making sure he's not overhead. Apparently satisfied, he gets closer to Carl. "You didn't hear this from me", Nate whispers, "but rumor is the guards have been cracking down hard on ... certain people which makes getting ... certain items much more difficult. Y'know, like, distribution problems, right? I'm not holding right now but I might being getting some in a few weeks. You don't have to get me anything now but if I get something we can work something out."

It was a performance filled with innuendo and significant pauses that wouldn't have fooled Nate's manager at the SaveMart. Man, Barbara always seemed like she could sniff out Nate's lies (probably because it doesn't take much in the way of a nose to know when somebody is lying about smoking pot). Nate felt a bit bad about lying to Carl like that but it wasn't exactly a lie, right? I mean, there was rumors about the guards riding herd on inmates (but there was always that rumor) and if Nate did have something he probably would have shared it with Carl (for a fair price) and, hey, maybe Nate would somehow miraculously find himself holding something worth sharing (not a good chance, but still greater than a zero chance). Viewed in that light, it seemed like it was hardly lying at all, right? Hopefully, Carl would just forget about it.

"Anyway," Nate says, no longer whispering, "I gotta move. Gonna go talk with Lazy." And, matching words to action, Nate starts walking around, looking for the ever-so-informative Lazy.

[Arcran]

As the guards look forward, stiff as a board, Howie begins to grow a little concerned. Since when did the guards not look at the prisoners? Or move?

A little worried, Howie closes his book, walking over towards the doors, trying to get the attention of the guards.

"Hey, what the hell is going on? Are you alright?" Howie asks, doing his best to keep his voice down. He didn't want to attract unwanted attention from the other prisoners but, at the same time, this was a bit too weird.

[Zelphas]

Elizabeth

Sandra smiles and laughs at your "joke", but her eyes are worried, and she glances nervously at the guards as you walk to Madelyn.

Madelyn stops abruptly as you walk up to her, a snarl appearing on her face as you deliberately provoke her. "You really are as dumb as you look, Redwood. You know I would've beaten you next match, if the cops hadn't shown up." She glances up at the guards, who haven't moved from their stiff positions. You're lucky the guards are here, whore's b****, or else I'd wipe the floor with you," the tall, angry blonde continues, seemingly unaware of the guard's strangeness.

Lily

It looks like Elizabeth has Madelyn well in hand; however, your waving and shouting caught the attention of Linda. Her face lights up when she sees you, and she waves back, jumping up and down with one hand still pressed against the wall. "Lily! Lily! Look, look! I found it! I found it!" she calls out, her face suffused with an expression of childish delight.

Nate

"Thanks man, you're awesome!" Carl replies, honest gratefulness on his face. As you head out, Carl trails a little bit behind you, looking at you hopefully like you're about to produce his fix at any moment.

William "Lazy" Malone is a fairly tall Caucasian man, slightly overweight. He's one of the men watching Morris's coin tricks, though his watery blue eyes look bored and he hasn't actually bet on a single trick yet. He doesn't seem to notice your approach.

Howard

"All prisoners are to remain within the yard until after," the guards say in unison, staring straight ahead.

You begin to hear a faint roaring sound, as though a plane is passing close by. The nearest airport is in Sioux Falls.

[Anubis Dread]

Michael took back everything he'd thought about unusual being good. Right now unusual was definitely NOT good. He could hear a plane coming in low. A private one based on everything else. And the guards were odd... though he was patient and reserved about a lot of things, there were a few things that made him jump to conclusions and lose his temper. And the more he thought about what was going on right now, the more he felt his blood pressure rising.

Hopping to his feet, Michael walked through the crowd before immediately stomping over to the nearest guards. Idly glancing at the book worm beside him, he roughly pokes the guard in the shoulder. "Dr Proxy said to let us out," he growled with as much authority as he could.

If he was wrong, he'd be beaten. If he was right and this worked, they'd be fine. If he was right and it didn't work, then thing would get very, very bad.


Deception: [roll0]

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth bites her lip, not at Madelyn's threat, but at the strange noise building up in the distance. If she were a betting girl, she might want to connect the guards' behavior and whatever was causing that roaring. Either way, she has no evidence to that end, and so pushes it out of mind. Elizabeth braces herself mentally, then draws out as much drama as she can muster.

"Hoho, was that a threat? But you should know a threat means little if you whisper it with fear in your voice," Elizabeth sneers menacingly as she invades Madelyn's personal space. "When you threaten someone, it should be like this: 'Talk about my mother that way again, and I will rake the cement with your teeth.'"

What may have started out as a ploy is coming dangerously close to the real thing; Elizabeth's blood has started to boil at being called a whore's b****. Madelyn could call her a dumb b**** all she liked, but her mother was a prostitute, not a whore, and Elizabeth was seething to teach her the difference.

Elizabeth's going to make an Intimidate check to demoralize Madelyn. She's only working off her Presence for this check, barring any circumstantial modifiers.
Intimidation: [roll0]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily obligingly shuffled over, putting a look on her face that she hoped looked more interested than bemused. "F-f-found what, s-sweetie?" she asked.

[TooManySecrets]

Trying not to interrupt whatever the other prisoners are doing, Nate walks over to Lazy and gets his attention. "Hey man. Carl says" — Nate gestures vaguely in Carl's direction behind him — "that you overheard the guards talking about why we're all out here."

Nate rubs his hands together to keep them warm. "Not that I'm complaining about this fresh air, but, like what's the deal? What are we all freezing out here for?"

[Arcran]

Howie takes a step back, more than a little concerned. He wasn't one to believe the in the supernatural and all that crap, but guards staring straight ahead and in unison? That wasn't normal. In fact, that was very, very far from normal. While Howie was doing well right now, if something was wrong with the guards he needed to get out of here now. The whole situation was odd from the start; since when did they but everybody in the yard? Since when did the guards not move and speak in unison? And how the hell were they not freezing their asses off in this cold?

And after what?

Howie was about to ask another question when he heard the aircraft. What the hell were they doing with a plane? Moving them to another prison? Since when did they use planes for that?

Beginning to panic somewhat Howie gets up and makes his way across the yard, trying to find Calvin. The idiot always had an escape plan and, frankly, that's what he needed right now.

[Zelphas]

January 3rd, 2015
10:02 A.M.

Michael

Your statement provokes a reaction from the guard. Slowly, he turns to look at you, a smile creeping over his face. As his eyes meet yours, you get a strange feeling that someone else is looking at you behind the guard's eyes. He opens his mouth, and though the voice that comes out is unmistakably the guard's, the inflection and tone is all wrong, as though someone else were speaking with his voice. "Well, well, aren't you a smart one? I hope you live." A moment later, the guard is staring straight ahead, his face expressionless, as though nothing had happened.

Elizabeth

Maybe it's your size compared to hers. Maybe it's the sudden realization that the guards really aren't paying attention. Or maybe it's the hint of genuine anger in your voice. Whatever the reason, Madelyn suddenly seems a lot less sure of herself. She breaks eye contact, glancing down and muttering something about you getting off lucky before wandering away.

Throughout your entire altercation, other prisoners had been quietly watching, and you receive a few discreet nods and pats on the back. The guards never moved.

Lily

"The seam!" Linda answers excitedly, slapping the wall. Sure enough, a thin crack runs vertically up the length of the wall from under her hand, showing where two sections of concrete were mortared together. "Casey said that the wall was all one piece, but I told her that it was all separate pieces stuck together. She didn't believe me." She pouts for a moment, but then her face lights up again. "But look, I was right!"

Nate

"Lazy" gives you an appraising look. "What do you have to trade for the information? No, forget it," he sighs, seeming to lose the energy to extort you before he can even begin. "It's not worth it. I don't know much; Officer James said something about an experiment involving the prisoners. I didn't get much else; he clammed up all of the sudden."

Howard

You see Calvin up near the back wall of the yard, talking quietly with a group of other prisoners. His brutish face looks worried. He breaks off as you near him, a sneer appearing on his face. "What are you looking at, Silvers? You come here to sweet-talk some of us into being part of the guards' little 'experiment'?" Several of the other prisoners spread out behind him menacingly.

The rushing sound grows louder, to the point that Lily also begins to make it out. It seems to be smaller than a plane, and moving much more slowly. This means that the source of the sound is much closer than you first thought; if you look to the sky to the south (over the far yard wall), you can see a dark blot, moving rapidly closer.

[Arcran]

"Experiment?" Howard says, doing his best to not insult Calvin. He needed him, and pretty badly right now. "What the hell are you talking about?" Howard asks before remembering why he was here.

"Anyways, something's going on man. Something that isn't normal. Look at the goddamn guards. Nobody stands that still when it's this cold. And do you see that?" Howard asks, pointing towards the black dot. "The nearest airport is, well, nowhere near here. Why the hell would they bring an airplane out here? Something bad is going on, and I don't want to be here when it happens. We need to get out, and now," Howard says, looking at the various brutes in turn.

"Got any good plans? Actually, hell, it doesn't even have to be good. It just has to be a plan."

I have Skill Expertise (Persuasion). 28 Persuasion to get a plan out of him.

[PalusAbel]

The tension slips out of Elizabeth's body slowly, like a bowstring gently returning to rest without loosing an arrow. Indeed, Elizabeth finds unexpected relief in not acting out on impulse this time. But the moment of comfort is short-lived, for it has only confirmed what Sandra feared - something really is wrong with the situation. The guards made no move at all despite the very real threat of a fight breaking out. At a loss for words, Elizabeth responds to the other inmates' amiable gestures with her trademark smile, then heads back toward Sandra to comfort her and maybe think about what to do.

The growing howl steals Elizabeth's attention away from the yard and to the southern sky. She narrows her eyes and tries to identify what could possibly be making that sound.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily gave a light chuckle. "Y-yep. Yep you w-were," she said, before exhaling into her hands and rubbing them together. "God it's c-cold out here!" she complained.

The sound caught her attention for a moment, but she didn't pay it much mind. Lily was a clever person. Perhaps, in some circumstances, she might have put together the strangeness of the guards ordering both sides of the prison out simultaneously in the cold, the unidentified object on approach, and put it together to realize that something weird was going on. Maybe if she had noticed how the guards were acting, it would have all clicked.

But Lily's brain was not currently working on identifying and analyzing the oddities of the morning. It was busy trying to come up with a more effective way to conserve body heat, estimate how long it would take before they were allowed back inside, and keep an eye out for other threats like Madelyn or possible situations like Linda possibly getting too close to the fence.

So she just stood there shivering, quite thoroughly unaware of what was about to happen...

[Anubis Dread]

Sh**.

How much time did they have? Michael looked for the source of the sound before seeing the small blot on the horizon. Not long at all... definitely not long enough to try and explain to the other prisoners what was going on. Even more definitely not enough time to make an in depth plan. The only option to escape at this point was borderline suicide, if not ACTUAL suicide. Then again, he'd rather die on his terms than die on Doctor Proxie's.

Curling his hand into a fist, Michael slammed it into the guard's jaw. With how the guards were acting, maybe he could actually push through and get out. Or be shot down rather than manipulated.


Power Attacking for 5, [roll0] to hit.

[TooManySecrets]

That ... doesn't sound good.

"Experiment? Like what sort of experiment? Isn't experimenting on prisoners, like, illegal?" It's obvious that Nate is getting worried as his words start tumbling out. "I didn't sign anything to allow this. They can't—"

At that moment he's interrupted by the sound of fighting. Nate turns around to see a prisoner trying to fight a guard.

"Oh ... fudge."

[Zelphas]

January 3rd, 2015
10:03 A.M.

Howard

Calvin looks as though he is about to snap back at you, but a nervous glance at the motionless guards on the watchtower has him responding to you seriously. "We need more for our plan, I guess. The guards don't seem to be paying much attention; we hit them at the doors, grab the key cards, and get out through the--" He looks over at the guards at the door as he speaks, seeing Michael White strike at one of the guards. "White's beating us to it! C'mon!" he breaks into a run, his cronies following afterwards.

Looking over at the doors, you see the guards, moving very quickly, spin to the doors and open them, beginning to vanish inside.

Elizabeth

You try to make out the shape, but a far-off pool reflect's the sun into your eyes, obscuring the figure. You can make out that it's grey and black, and getting very close.

You hear a wave of concerned exclamations behind you. Looking back, you see the guards on either side of the doorway quickly open the door and vanish inside.

Lily

Linda nods in agreement, shivering. Her gaze wanders off you and focuses back towards the prison complex. "Where are the guards going?" she asks, puzzled.

Looking back to the doorway, you see the guards quickly open the door and vanish inside, the heavy metal door slamming shut behind them.

Michael

Due to sheer bad luck, your blow came just as the guard turned with machine-like precision, your fist hitting empty air as the guard moves to the door and opens it with his key card. The two guards vanish inside the prison complex, the door closing and locking behind them.

Anubis, your dice roll didn't quite beat the guard's Parry DC. Still, take a hero point for a good plan at a bad time.

Nate

"I don't know if its--what the..." "Lazy" begins, breaking off as Michael White just misses one of the guards, who vanish inside the prison complex. Concerned muttering erupts all around you, most echoing Lazy's next statement: "This can't be good. Now what?"

Everyone

The roaring sound in the air is close enough that all of the prisoners notice it now, causing the tension to be cranked up another notch. The figure is close enough now that you can make out that it is a dull, metallic grey and black, with some sort of red material whipping about behind it. Judging by the speed it's going, it should reach the far wall within the next few seconds!

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily looked to the doors in confusion, then back towards the object as the noise grew louder. What was...it was heading right for them!

"Take cover!" she screamed, although she knew it wouldn't do much good. Pretty much the sum total of available cover in the yard was the metal picnic table, and that wouldn't shelter them all. It wouldn't shelter a quarter of them. She grabbed Linda's wrist and pulled her to the little nook of a corner where the guard tower connected to the wall, dragging her down into a crouch to try and shield them both as much as she could with the walls...but placing herself on the outside, between Linda and the object that was flying for them.

[Arcran]

"Well frak," Howard mutters, looking at the massive object on a collision course towards the prison. All thoughts of escape are near-instantaneously replaced with the simple need to get somewhere safe. Not entirely sure what to do, Howard runs towards the guard tower, hoping that the object will try to avoid the large building.

[PalusAbel]

Whatever the object might be, it is simply too far for Elizabeth to make it out clearly. She shrugs and begins making her way back to Sandra's table. The sight of the guards scrambling indoors when they were stiff as statues only moments before gives her pause. Voices ring out only to be drowned in that ever-intensifying drone.

Elizabeth's head swirls with half-thoughts and blurred images, but one desire rises above of the mental turmoil and seizes her every muscle: the urge to take cover. With no time to consider anyone else, she tenses her body and springs as far away from the object's apparent destination as she can.

Elizabeth will make a standing long jump in whatever direction will take her farthest. If she has the option to go prone on landing, she'll take it.

[TooManySecrets]

Hearing the roar, Nate turns to see the thing flying towards them. With seconds to act and the safety of so many people at stake, Nate springs into action to do a very foolish thing: nothing at all. He just stares, dumbfounded.

[Anubis Dread]

Damn it! Michael curses to himself as he sees the guards escaping. Now they were locked in with no way out. The door was all but impenetrable, meaning he might as well curl over and give up. But that wasn't his style. He'd rather do something stupid and it not work than just sit here and wait for the inevitable.

The guards had retreated, so he could climb the walls without interference. Or rather he could if they were climbable, which they almost certainly weren't. Still it was the only chance he had, so Michael attempted to find any hand and foot holds he could.


Athletics: [roll0]. I am pretty sure the DC is higher than what I could get on a 20 though :smalltongue:

[Zelphas]

January 3rd, 2015
10:05 A.M.

The yard erupts into chaos as the object gets closer and closer, prisoners pounding on the doors, ducking for cover like Elizabeth, or simply staring open-mouthed at the approaching object as it gets nearer. The object gets closer and closer, approaching with the speed of a car on the highway--

And then coasts to a stop, landing almost delicately atop the outer wall with a hollow THUD. Now that the object has arrived, you can see that it is a dull grey cylinder, about ten feet in diameter and just as tall, with a curved nozzle facing the prison yard. On top of the cylinder juts a circular wheel; next to the wheel stands a figure (https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1XA-E60LG4hpLg83my1SIxhC9hiJcXJ_LYZF2iWrqNOI/edit) that was recognizable everywhere in Mesa City: the unmistakeable grey-and-black power armor and bright red cloak of Doctor Proxy.

Doctor Proxy regards the yard silently for a long moment, the reflective face-plate on his helmet giving nothing away. A voice suddenly sounds, artificially enlarged and warped so that it is impossible to tell whether the voice belongs to a man or a woman. "You all were chosen for on reason, and one reason alone. When history remembers this moment, it will be less inclined to remember how many of you died."

With one hand, Doctor Proxy spins the wheel on top of the cylinder, releasing the valve on the cylinder. A hissing noise issues from the nozzle as some unseen gas pours out of its container, filling the yard. The results of the gas are far from invisible, however.

Throughout the yard, people are dying, some simply collapsing to the ground, others convulsing, still others warping and deforming horribly before they rattle out their last breath. You are not among the dead, however; instead you are... changed.

Howard

Inside your pocket, To Kill a Mockingbird suddenly feels heavy. You feel strange, as though you have suddenly woken up from a dream. Everyone tells themselves the story of their lives, right? Well, you suddenly feel like you have gone from a simple reader to the editor-in-chief.

Behind you, you hear a roar. Turning around, you see standing where Calvin was is a giant, vaguely humanoid beast. The creature shudders, covered in dark brown spikes as thick and as long as your arm. "What did you DO to me!" the creature roars, its garbled voice barely recognizable as Calvin's. The creature spins around, bright red eyes fixing upon you. "Silvers! You're a part of this! Make them turn me back!" Obviously, Calvin isn't thinking too clearly at the moment.

For this scene, you must pass a Will DC 16 check in order to use your "Careful Reading" abilities.

Elizabeth

Your flying leap carries you to the picnic table. when the gas covers the yard, you suddenly feel heavy. Really, really heavy. Underneath you, the concrete of the yard ground groans and cracks, as though an enormous weight has been placed upon it.

Looking up, you see that many of the women of the picnic table have collapsed, life leaving their bodies as they slump forward. Sandra meets your eyes, her face suffused with unearthly, breathtaking beauty for a moment, before she too succumbs. Only one of the women at the table hasn't fallen; she stares in horror as her body simply melts away, the resulting deluge of water running down the sloped ground of the yard and draining through the central grate. Nothing of the woman remains.

You hear a cruel laugh coming from behind you. Turning around, you see Madelyn staring at a bolt of bright blue electricity arcing between her hands. She looks up, catching your eye. "Time for a rematch, b****," she yells, the electricity coalescing to a painfully bright bolt in her left hand.

For this scene, you are locked into your highest setting of density. Also, you must pass an Acrobatics DC 24 in order to move, or else you do too much damage to the ground underneath you and become stuck in place.

Lily

The gas fills the yard with a steadily growing scent of antiseptic and some sharp, unpleasant smell that you've never smelled before. In fact, you can smell a lot of things; fear and sweat and stone and cloth and water and ozone and fur and snakes and insects and oh Lord, so many smells! Your back itches and somehow expands, and you hear four distinct ripping noises from the back of your jumpsuit. A glimmer of pink and white catches your eye; you can see, extending to either side from your back, four strange shapes most reminiscent of massive flower petals. What's more, you can feel them! While all of this is happening, you suddenly become intensely aware of the sun. The rays of the sun caress you, and you suddenly feel full and healthy; even the cold seems slightly less bothersome.

Behind you, Linda screams shrilly. You turn around just in time to see her disappear into the stone wall, the grey cement swallowing her completely and cutting her off mid-scream. A moment later, the entire wall ripples, sending cameras tumbling off of their casings onto the yard floor all along its length. From the point where Linda was sucked into the wall, the structure, bulges outward; finally, part of the wall simply tears itself away from the rest, leaving a gaping hole behind. The newly free hunk of cement forms itself into a roughly humanoid shape. Two glowing eyes, made by emeralds the same vibrant green as Linda's eyes were, open at the top of the shape, and a gaping hole appears near its center as it roars in a voice like an avalanche.

For this scene, you must make a Fortitude DC 16 check at the beginning of each turn; if you fail, the new deluge of scents overwhelm you, and you count as Dazed that turn.

Nate

The gas wafts over you, and you feel... unchanged. No different, really. The wall shakes, dislodging one of the closed-circuit, 480 mega-pixel cameras, which lands near you. The casing of the camera is damaged by the fall, but the circuitry is pretty much intact; all it needs is a power source, and maybe some quick, easy modifications to streamline energy efficiency, and then it'd be good to--wait, since when did you know anything about cameras?

A hand reaches past you, to touch the camera's lens. There's a whooshing noise, and suddenly a tiny Lazy stands in the yard reflected by the lens. The reflection looks around, grins, gives you a cheery wave, and runs off of the reflection. Looking around, you see that Lazy has vanished from the yard.

at the corner of your vision, Carl convulses, his arms and legs stretching oddly and growing even thinner, somehow. His jaw elongates, and a thin layer of scales appear all along his visible skin. with a ripping noise, a long thin tail erupts from the back of Carl's jumpsuit, lashing about with a mind of its own. The creature that was Carl sniffs the air, suddenly fixing you with a bright amber eye. "YoU sMeLl... GoOd..." he chokes out, flexing newly- formed claws at the ends of his hands.

No modifications for you. Sticking you with a camera to work with and a drugged-up velociraptor seems like challenge enough.

Michael

Unfortunately, you can find no purchase on the walls, at least not before Doctor Proxy releases his gas into the yard. When it hits you, you suddenly feel all of your rage, all of your hatred towards manipulators and brain-washers, super and mundane, coalesce, forming into a mass of pure, untapped energy in your mind. Some of that energy is siphoned off to shore up your mental defenses, forming thick walls against the men and women you are determined to hunt; still more of that energy courses through your veins, making you stronger, tougher, more able to hunt the trickiest of prey. The grand majority of that energy, however, remains sealed inside, waiting to be used for the kill.

A startled laugh rings out over the chaos all around you. Nearby, Herman, Schultz, an old man who seemed to share your view of life as dark, cold, and merciless, is laughing and crying, surrounded by five tiny, chubby infants with feathery wings. "The Lord has seen my plight at last," he cries as the cherubs swirl about him. "He has sent his angels to minister to me!" Looking closer at these "angels" however, reveals that their eyes are bright orange, with square pupils like a goats; one of them catches Michael's eye and grins, revealing needle-like pointed teeth, and heads his way.

For this scene, you must pass a Will DC 15 check in order to use your Black Hunt Array.

Roll initiative, everyone! New map is here (https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1z88peJCrSkYSQ_H2aIu_nnTIqFTYHRtl7OPyXAgjofk/edit).

Everyone gets a hero point.

[Arcran]

As Doctor Proxy lands on the wall the dread that Howard had been feeling reaches critical levels, the former conman finally panicking. He does his best to try to scale the wall but, never having been an athlete, the results are humorous at best. As the gas flows in he tries to run, only to find it impossible as it washes over him. Through the yard he can see other twisting and falling, dying and screaming and, yet, he hardly felt it. Was he immune? For a brief moment Howard felt relieved.

That is, until he saw Calvin.

Without even thinking about it Howard's hand drifts towards his back pocket, grabbing onto the book as if it could protect him.

"Look, Calvin, I don't know what's wrong with you but I didn't help them," the man pleads, backing away until he finds himself against the wall. "How about we get out of here? I have some money, we can hire some people to fix you, alright? Just don't hurt me," Howard says, doing his best to stay calm even as he takes a white-knuckled grip on his book.

Persuasion and Deception, 28 each.

[Zelphas]

Howard

Perception Result: two degrees of success! Calvin is indifferent to you now. Unforunately, he went first.

Calvin's Athletics: [roll0]

Close Combat: [roll1] Damage DC 27 if it hits.
Grab Roll (vs Strength or Dodge): [roll2]


Before you can begin speaking, the beast moves like lightning, becoming a whirling ball of spikes and pain. He rolls closer...

But he loses control of his new body, slamming into the wall next to you and gouging huge grooves in its surface. He lays there dazed, seemingly unaware of what you say.

Elizabeth

Ranged Combat: [roll3] Damage DC 21 if it hits.

Cackling madly, Madelyn thrusts her hand forward, arcing electricity firing straight towards you. The shot goes wide, however, burning a hole through the picnic table.

Lily

Close Combat: [roll4] Damage DC 23 if it hits.

The great stone shape seems confused. It looks around, finally spotting the gaping hole where it came from. With another roar like falling rocks, it stumbles away from the hole, its massive feet heading straight towards you in the process!

Michael

Herman simply cries, holding out his hands to the cherubs all around him. He doesn't seem to have noticed their... abnormality.

Nate

The creature that is Carl sniffs the air again, claws flexing and tail lashing. "I nEeD... I nEeD mY fIx..."he snarls, eyeing you with ever-growing hunger.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Toughness: [roll0]

Lily's heart pounded as she beheld the supervillain. What? What was he-?

She tried to duck away and hold her breath as the gas filled the yard, but it was no use. She watched in horror as most of the prisoners collapsed, dying, and as she and Linda began to change.

Somewhere in her head, the scientist was exulting. Powers! He developed some sort of process for artificially inducing powers!

Yeah, and with, she quickly estimated about a 75% chance to kill a subject exposed. The sheer breach of scientific ethics (not to mention the, you know, mass murder and all) shocked her.

Linda's return as a giant mass of stone brought her back to the present.

"Linda! Are...are you o-" she began, before her cellmate nearly trampled her. She tried to dodge out of the way, but the elemental's stone foot caught her full in the chest with enough force to launch her twenty feet down the yard and almost certainly shatter her entire rib cage. The splintered bones would go on to puncture several of her vital organs and cause severe internal bleeding. Death would be inevitable and come in seconds.

...Except for the part where, with an instinctive flutter of her new wings, she landed softly and harmlessly on her feet. It hadn't hurt any more than a friendly punch to the arm.

"Linda! Linda stop! You need to calm down!"

Her mind raced. Okay. Flight. Flight and enhanced toughness. Fight, enhanced toughness, and an almost painfully augmented sense of smell. Okay. The wings. That was a clue. They looked like flower petals, or maybe colorful moth wings. Like fairy wings. In fiction, fairies often had tricksy mental powers, illusions and mind control and stuff. Maybe some "naturey" transformation powers. What she needed here was some magic that would pacify her friend before she hurt anyone or anyone hurt her. Lily took a deep breath, pointed her hand at Linda, and willed her to calm!

...But instead of sparkly fairy magic or anything of the sort, all that came from Lily's outstretched hand was a sort of clear, kinda yellowy, semi-sticky semi-slimy, sweet-smelling substance that sort of oozed from her pores and dripped ineffectually on the ground.

That...was only slightly less disgusting than it was completely useless.

"Oh boy," Lily murmured as she tried to leap out of Linda's way.

Standard Action: Defend. I'll roll the Defend check OOC since I already rolled a die in this post.

[Anubis Dread]

There was too much happening at once. There was gas everywhere. There was power whelming up inside of him that made him feel like he needed to keel over and vomit. People were sprouting all kinds of crazy powers all around him. It was pandemonium. He couldn't think.

He had to focus. He had a bunch of fellow inmates going crazy, Dr Proxy cackling atop the prion wall, a half angel half pirahana looks like he wanted a meal and a golden chance to escape. Which of these things were the most pressing? If he went off of dangers to his personal self, the cherrub. If on the other hand he went with something he'd gladly throw his life away to end...

Michael looked up and glared at the figure on the prison wall. Escape or minor scuffles could wait. He had no intention of getting bogged down in a useless fight when he had a chance to take down Dr Proxy. Simply fleeing from the advancing angel, he ran along the bottom of the prison wall before stopping in front of the guard tower. This seemed the most convenient way up...

Struggling to force his power into his hands, Michael cursed as nothing would take form. Guess he'd have to do it the old fashion away. Stepping in front of the reinforced door, he swung his foot as forcefully into the metal frame as he could. Who knew, maybe it wasn't as tough as it looked.


Power Attacking for 5, All-Out-Attacking for 4 for a +9 to the DC of the Toughness check of the door. I think it's an auto-hit since the door can't dodge?

[Arcran]

Howard looks at the dazed Calvin, thankful that the bully-turned-monster didn't have proper control over his body.

Without a second thought Howard sprints away from the spiked monster, making his way across the prison-yard as fast as his legs will carry him. If he could get to the building and open the door he could get into the prison and get out that way. That was what was important right now. There were even guards in there, with guns! Maybe they could keep him safe from the other freaks in the yard.

If he got out, got to the city he could contact the media, let them know what happened. If he spun it right the public outcry against locking him up would be too huge. He'd be able to pay off a small portion of the debt he owed everybody and, maybe, not end up behind bars again.

[TooManySecrets]

Time seems to stands still. Whether it's through some sort of adrenaline response to fear or something else, everything seems to slow down to a crawl.

The first thing that went through Nate's head was that he was going to die. Chewed to death by a junkie-turned-dino by a supervillain's evil gas. Never saw it coming. Seriously, give me a million years and I'd never even come close to guessing this was how it was going to end.

The second thing that went through Nate's head was that the camera was wrong. It was wrong. It wasn't what he needed. Not in it's present form. No power. It needed power — not much, if it was applied correctly — but the circuitry would be wrong. It was out of phase but not out of phase of where it needed to be. Wasn't there something about out of phase matter on like Star Trek or something?

I'm seconds away from being a chew toy and all I can think of is technobabble from an old sci-fi show.

Without any conscious thought, he picks up the camera and smashes it on the ground, breaking the outer case. With hands moving faster than they ever have before in his life, Nate rips out and rearranges the wires in a seemingly haphazard fashion. The end product looked like a first-year art student tried to make a mechanical spider out of a broken camera, wires sticking out of the side of the camera in sharp bundles. A torn piece of cloth from his prison outfit served as a crude strap.

The machine needed power. Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell. Nate remembered that from somewhere or the other. Mitochondria were in the body.

This next part was gonna hurt.

And there was going to be ... consequences.

Gritting his teeth, Nate uses the bundled wire to stab the contraption into his upraised arm.

"AaaaAAARGH!"

Nate screams as his body seems to flicker and shift, like it isn't quite there.

Spending a victory point (1 remaining) to jury-rig an invention. I skip the design step and the construction time is reduced to 1 round per power point of the invention. Since Carl is going to be attacking me soon, I'm not going to get more than 1 round which means that my invention needs to be ... one measly point.

Right. Consequences.


Insubstantial 4 (Incorporeal): 20 points (vulnerable to electricity)
AE: Teleport 10, Quirk (visible trail): 1 point
AE: "Super Shock" Affliction 2 (Resisted by Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated), Increased Range, Cumulative, Accurate 7: 1 point
-2 to Strength: -4 points
-2 to Fighting: -4 points
-2 to Stamina: -4 points
-2 to Agility: -4 points
-10 to Technology: -5 points

Total cost: 1 point. The machine plays havoc with my body as it draws its power from my body, my mind, and my newly gained superpower but it works. Barely.

A jury-rigged device has a DC of 10 + power point cost + 5. PP cost is 1, DC is 16. I have Technology +18 so I don't even bother rolling. The machine is made.

Using a free action, I very much activate Insubstantial. (And, no, I'm not going to just Teleport out of here. I just need some mobility here.)

[PalusAbel]

"You all were chosen for one reason, and one reason alone. When history remembers this moment, it will be less inclined to remember how many of you died."

Doctor Proxy...! What the hell is he saying?! As she watches him release the gas, Elizabeth is torn between fear and some indescribable feeling bubbling from deep inside. Poison? Is this how I die? Elizabeth looks around at the dying, the wretched, and the changed. The fire burning in her own gut leaves her wondering which group she will soon join. Her heart and body both grow heavy as she watches Sandra and her friends slip away. Literally in the case of the poor woman reduced to liquid. Elizabeth closes her eyes to let the weight of the world take her away.

Or so she thought. Elizabeth had resolved herself to death laying prone on the cement when Madelyn's bolt struck the table. She turns around to find a cackling, crackling Madelyn. The fact that Elizabeth was still alive registered dimly somewhere in her brain, but her primary response was anger. "What are you doing?! You could have hurt them with that!" She gestures wildly at the women slumped at the table.

If it is a rematch you want, a rematch you shall have, but only with me! Elizabeth charges at Madelyn, wobbling unsteadily across the cracking cement. She has to use every ounce of athleticism in her body to keep from getting rooted in place. "Madelyn! Grit your teeth!" Elizabeth raises her elbow to perform a crooked arm lariat.

[Zelphas]

Lily

Ranged Attack: [roll0] Damage DC 19 if it hits.

Linda looks down at you, what little is left of her face conveying confusion and fear. She reaches out to you, but almost as if in reaction, the ground rumbles, a mass of stone shooting up in raised spikes and coming straight towards you.

Michael

Close Combat: [roll1] Damage DC 19 if it hits; also roll a DC 14 Will save vs. Entranced/Compelled/Controlled.

The door buckles and warps under the fury-enhanced strength of your blow. One more good strike ought to open it up.

You hear a hiss from behind you, and then the cherub flies past your arm, its teeth just missing your hand.

Howard

As you run towards the entrance, the visions of horror wash over you. You see Morris, his trick coin embedded in his forehead; near him stands a man who seems to be flickering in and out of existence and what looks like a velociraptor. At the picnic table, five of the men are slumped over, clearly dead; one of the only two left laughs eerily as his body slowly dissolves into a mass of hissing snakes. Another person near the fence seems to be covered in fire; an instant later, he disappears, vanishing into the ground.

Behind you, you hear a roar and a rapidly approaching rumble; It seems Calvin has gotten up and pursued, though his collision with the wall means that he hasn't caught up with you yet.

Nate

Perception: [roll2]

As you flicker in and out, Carl seems suddenly confused, head shaking from side to side. "I cAn'T... WhErE dId YoU... WhAt?" he exclaims, seemingly unable to pinpoint your location.

He suddenly focuses on you once more. "FoUnD yOu!" he shrieks, leaping at you with claws outstretched... and passing straight through you, landing on the other side of you with a confused snarl.

Elizabeth

Ranged Combat:[roll3] Damage DC 21 if it hits.

Unfortunately, your new heavy body doesn't exactly handle finesse well, and you end up careening straight past Madelyn... and into the wall.

Madelyn laughs again, charging up another bolt. "I want to see you fry!" she shouts, arcing the electricity at you once more. The energy bolt connects... and disperses harmlessly through your body. Madelyn crows in triumph; she doesn't seem to have noticed the fact that her attack did nothing to you.

[Arcran]

"Sh*tsh*tsh*tsh*t," Howard mutters, looking around the scene. How the hell had he survived? Why wasn't he a snake, or a porcupine or some other freak? Why hadn't he just died?

Still sprinting, Howard desperately tried to reach the door. Maybe Calvin couldn't get through the door? Maybe? Hopefully?

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily was already moving this time, and managed to get away from the stone. Her body felt...lighter, almost. Sort of. Like it took less physical effort to move. Augmented speed? No, she didn't feel any faster, she just moved easier. Augmented strength? No, that didn't feel right either. She wasn't exerting more force. It was like something was subsidizing the energy of movement.

Probably whatever it was that let those flimsy wings generate any lift whatsoever, because it sure as anything wasn't physics.

Amidst the barrage of scents, she realized that she smelled...well, better than she had since prison, that was for sure. Like she was wearing some sort of perfume. The liquid she had produced had a similar but noticeably different smell. Sweeter. There had to be something to that, but Lily couldn't figure out how smelling good was going to get her anywhere here.

It didn't matter much. Even if she did have some sort of offensive ability, she didn't want to use it on Linda. "Linda! Listen...you have to get a grip here! Just stop moving, take a deep breath, and calm down, okay? It's going to be alright! I promise! You just have to calm down!"

Standard Action: Defend at [roll0].

Persuasion: [roll1].

[Anubis Dread]

The door wasn't as tough as he was afraid it was going to be. That was good. If he could just bust it down and rush through before Dr Proxy made their escape, he could take down the madman once and for all. The only problem was that cherub. It rushing past him like that... if it hit with one of those attacks he'd be in serious trouble. He hoped once he was through it would give up rather than give chase.

He hated this door so much. Not just the door, this entire place. The walls too thick to bust through and too slick to climb. The doors that no-one could open without a card. The bars of his cell. This entire building was nothing but a bad memory waiting to happen. He didn't just want to escape it. He wanted to destroy it. He wanted the walls to crumble and fall apart. He wanted the doors to fly off their hinges and crash into uselessness. Every last bit of this forsaken building that had kept him locked away for so long, had wanted to lock him away for so much longer... he hated all of it! He wanted to DIE!

His hate finally manifested in his hands. A surge of dark red energy erupting from his hands and slowly growing in his grip. Michael felt a sudden weight where once energy was all there was, and stumbled a bit as he hefted up a warhammer as big as he was in his hands made of his pure, distilled hatred. Which probably explained why a pentagram was so obviously displayed on the head. Funny, it looked real. It's weight was real, and it felt like it was made of real metal. But he knew that if he let go it would simple vanish, and he could conjure another at will.

"Fancy," Michael muttered to himself, before hefting the hammer up. Time to swing this thing and... what? He felt like there was some other trigger to using his power that... oh you HAD to be kidding. Seriously? ...fine. "GOLEM HUNTER!" he called out, swinging the hammer as hard as he could into the door. Considering how banged up it was already, he could just run on through and as far up the tower as he could as soon as it was down.


Using Golem Hunter, Power Attacking for 5 and All-Out-Attacking for 4. Combined with Damage 7 and a Weaken 7 Toughness that affects objects... that door is toast.

Once it is Michael will run as far up the tower as possible. Making an Athletics check to run a Speed Rank higher than normal: [roll0]

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth's anger-fueled charge takes her straight into the wall, though she is hardly any worse for wear. Madelyn's attack strikes her in the back before she has time to turn around, but it leaves little more than a scorch mark and a soft tingling sensation. These two surprises are enough to bring Elizabeth back to a more stable state of mind.

What is this power? I feel so heavy, yet unstoppable. The wall, the lightning bolt... Madelyn's continued shrieking reminds Elizabeth where she is and puts an end to her brief reverie. She contents herself with a mental reminder to look into her power later; for now, there was someone else who demanded her attention. Exploding into a full sprint, Elizabeth hurls herself at the wall where Dr. Proxy stands. There was no way she would be able to reach him by climbing or jumping, so that just left taking down his perch.

[TooManySecrets]

Well, that worked, whatever that was. Not that Nate had much time to ponder exactly what had happened. That was for later. Now was all about survival.

Nate wraps the strap around his arm to keep the machine in place. His head was pounding and his legs felt weak, like he had been running all day.

"I'm sorry Carl for whatever happened to you. I really am. But nowhere near sorry enough to be your next meal."

Nate's image seems to freeze and then a line of identical afterimages seems to grow towards the women's guard tower. After a second, the afterimages flicker and then disappear.

Nate, huddling on the guard tower's balcony, fights to keep from throwing up. Being in multiple locations at the same time was an ... unpleasant experience, to say the least. It was like being high and hungover (which Nate had been at times in the past) but without any of the pleasant sensations of the former. It sucked. It also kept him alive, for now.

Nate quickly checks that the machine stayed in place during the teleportation or translation or whatever happened (it had). He quickly glances over his surroundings, seeing if there is anything useful nearby, and then his attention is back on Carl. The machine had drawn on a lot of power but Nate thought that it should have enough for another teleport soon. If dino-Carl jumped onto the tower or flew up there or became a swarm of bats (frankly, at that moment, all options seemed equally likely) Nate was going to be ready.

Free action to switch alternate effects. Move action to teleport. Standard action to ready a move action: teleport to the other tower if dino-Carl gets within striking range

[Zelphas]

Howard

As you near the door, you hear pounding coming from the other side, along with confused shouting. It sounds like the guards are trying to get back in. Looking down, you see the guards' key cards; it seems like they had snapped them into pieces and then shoved them under the door moments after they had gone into the complex.

The rumbling of Calvin's movement seems to be keeping pace with you; if you stop moving, it sounds like he'll catch up to you moments later.

Lily

As you try to calm Linda down, a figure in a dark cloak of some sort rushes past you and out the hole in the wall, followed by a prisoner with large bat wings growing out of her jumpsuit. A buzzing sound you've learned to dread over the years--the sound of bees--starts up behind you, then rapidly fades into the distance.

Linda complies and freezes in place, a high noise coming from her like using a cheese grater on gravel. all around her, the ground rumbles and bubbles, making it difficult to keep your footing. What looks like a velociraptor suddenly appears, running with superhuman speed only to trip and faceplant due to the rough terrain around Linda.

Environment effect--in a 60' radius around Linda, all movement is Hindered 2.

Michael

The door literally disintegrates under your blow, raining down in a fine metal dust around you as you rush up the stairs. The cherub, seeing your blow, keeps its distance from you, though it still follows, eyeing you warily.

You rush up the stairs, passing two guards unconscious on the ground. It looks like they knocked each other out with the butt of their pistols, both at the same time. You make it to the open air of the guard tower just in time to see an angelic figure in dark green armor, shooting out of the yard and out of sight in an eyeblink. Doctor Proxy is about a hundred and fifty feet away; the only way to get to him would be to run along the foot-wide top of the wall.

DC 5 Acrobatics check to run along the wall.

Elizabeth

Unfortunately, you embedded yourself deeply enough into the wall that you needed to physically pull yourself out, allowing Madelyn to fire another bolt at you in the process. "Hey..." you hear her say; it seems like she's finally noticed that her electricity is doing nothing.

No movement, since the Acrobatics check failed. Madelyn fired another bolt, which can't do anything so I'm not even going to roll for it.

Nate

The guards on top of the women's tower have disappeared. As you fully land at the tower, you see a swarm of bees shoot past you. Down below a woman with large, iridescent wings seems to be trying to talk to a huge concrete monster.

Carl begins to run to the fence the moment you disappear, moving almost as fast as you are. He slashes through the chain link with one swipe of his claws running straight towards the guard tower doors--and then trips and goes sprawling, just feet away from the cement monster on the ground.

[Anubis Dread]

Michael grimaced as he darted around the corner and out of sight of the cherub, if only for a moment. Quickly ducking down to conceal his presence from both it and Proxy, he considered his next move. The good doctor was too far away to just charge out and attack. And he didn't want that THING to be able to get the first move off. If he attacked Michael first with that brain washing power of his... he shuddered just thinking about it. He needed to get to Proxy asap, but not let him get an attack off.

Okay, he could do this. Taking a deep breath, Michael charged across the wall of the prison, staying low to avoid the attention of his target.


Acrobatics can't fail, but in case it does on a fumble: [roll0]

Athletics to boost his Speed by 1 for one round (going from 30 to 60): [roll1]

Using Hide in Plain Sight to Stealth, but taking a -5 penalty because Michael is still moving full speed: [roll2]

Oh and Michael will just Move Move this turn.

[Arcran]

"Get away from the door!" Howard shouts as loud as he can, knowing that there is no chance that he can outrun Calvin. "Just stay there!"

If the guards couldn't get the door open there would be no way to get inside without leaving a giant, gaping hole that killer velociraptors and whatever Calvin was could get through. He needed to somehow get Calvin occupied with something else...

As Howard runs he sees the giant concrete monster on the other side of the chain fence. That could be his chance and, maybe, just maybe, he could distract Calvin with it.

"Hey, ugly!" Howard shouts, changing course to try to put himself between Calvin and the concrete monster. "Did you have a nice trip?"

Not the best insult, but Howard was a bit pressed for time. Eventually he stops, simply waiting for Calvin to charge and trying to do his best to simply leap away, hopefully sending Calvin barreling into the concrete monster.

Defend! [roll0]

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Okay. Good. Good," Lily said. Everything was so...crazy. People flew past her. The buzzing of the bees had her briefly freeze up entirely, holding still, until she realized it was getting more distant. Her head jerked to the side as the dinosaur ran past and tripped, and pale yellow motes of...what looked like dandruff fluttered in the air.

Lily closed her eyes and took her own deep breath. Scents flooded her nose.

But they all made sense.

With her eyes shut, she still had a mental picture of the yard. She could still perceive the hole in the wall, where the smells of the outside passed in more easily. She could place every prisoner, the subtle differences in their smells, and somehow she could sort how far off they were and in what direction just by minute differences that she couldn't consciously describe. She could smell who was more scared, more angry. And she could smell herself, and she realized she smelled entirely different. This was no perfume covering up the natural scents of a human body. She smelled like...

...Like a flower.

And Lily opened her eyes with a frown. As sudden realizations went, it could have been better.

She opened a hand and let the "dandruff" fall into it. Pollen. She glanced back at her wings. Petals. She looked down at the liquid that had dripped from her hand. Nectar. She was literally turning into a flower here.

If she were honest, it wasn't really that bad a power. Flight was awesome on its face. The augmented sense of smell could be quite useful given her profession. And she actually felt full just from standing in the sun. For a civilian chemist, it was a credible power set.

For a woman in a prison-turned-madhouse, surrounded by dangerous new supers?

Yeah, it could have been better.

Well, if her powers weren't going to be of much use, she'd just have to rely on her brain. "Okay, Linda.Can you turn back to normal? Try to envision your normal body and remember what it feels like. Your height. Your skin. Your muscles. You know your body, concentrate on it. Want it. Change."

As she said the word, the pollen in her hand shimmered, and was replaced by a single flower petal.

...Well, that was interesting.

Standard: Use Green Thumb to transform some pollen into a flower petal. We're talking big, big contributions to our side's goals, people! Check Required: [roll0].

[TooManySecrets]

"My god. Bees," Nate says to himself.

No guards. Huh. Hope they made it out alive. Nate didn't have time to spare worrying about missing guards, however. He sees dino-Carl barreling towards him, tearing the chainlink fence apart like it was tissue paper. Nate couldn't imagine that his bare skin would fair any better when swiped by those claws. What Nate needed was more space.

Again, his body translates through space leaving behind a line of afterimages, this time to atop the prison complex itself on the men's side of the yard. It was about as far away as he could get from dino-Carl while still seeing him.

Well, that was better. Nate coughs. The strap holding the machine onto him is stained with his blood. That was only mostly terrible this time.

Nate raises his arm — and the machine — and aims at Carl. Let's see what this can do. Medium power should work.

There's a rush of hot air and an imperceptible moment later a bolt of lightning shoots out from the camera's lens, arcing towards dino-Carl.

Move action to teleport. Free action to switch alternate effects. Standard action to fire the super shock.

Power attacking for 3.

Ranged attack roll:[roll0] (DC 15 Fortitude save)

[Zelphas]

Michael

You couch low to the yard's outer wall, running nimbly along the ledge towards Doctor Proxy. In your effeorts not to be seen, you end up moving a little more slowly than you would have liked; Doctor Proxy and his container of gas are still about 90 feet away. Your stealth pays off, however; Doctor Proxy is too intent on the results of his "experiment" to notice your approach, and judging by the giant, furred shape that nearly knocked you off of the ledge as it leapt over the wall, no one else seems to notice you, either.

Howard

Athletics Check: [roll0]

Close Combat: [roll1] DC 27 Damage if hit
Grab: [roll2] vs Dodge or Strength

Calvin careens closer and closer, unfolding like a nightmare directly in front of you to swipe at you with a massive spiked paw. You easily evade his strike, however, and he overbalances, crashing through the fence and bringing a massive section of the structure down around him. He ends up only a about twenty feet away from the cement monster, but he's glaring at you with hate in his eyes. You notice that next to the monster is the velociraptor you saw earlier, which seems to be getting struck by lightning, and what almost looks like a fairy.

Lily

Linda Nods slowly and closes her eyes, seeming to concentrate. The ground settles around her, growing still once again, but she does not change. She opens her eyes, and the high grating noise sounds again.

Suddenly, the velociraptor that face-planted is struck by a sizzling bolt of lightning, and the grand majority of the fence between the two sides falls with an almighty crash, knocked over by a beast that seems to be made of spikes and rage.

Nate

Need Freak's Fortitude Save: [roll3]

The bolt of lightning flies true, arcing over to the creature that was Carl and sizzling into him. Unfortunately, all it seems to do is alert the creature to your location. Carl gets awkwardly to his feet and sprints towards you, ending up at the bottom of the prison complex directly underneath you in an eyeblink.

Elizabeth

You manage to free yourself from the wall; however, being trapped in one place caused your feet to sink into the ground, and precious seconds are lost freeing them.

Madelyn fires yet another bolt, cursing as it does nothing once more.

[Anubis Dread]

Finally. He was so close. He could practical smell the reek of deceptive evil coming off of his body. No more stealth. No more hiding, or being knocked around in a battle scene like a rag doll but villain and hero alike. It was time for him to get even. Not just for his own humiliation, but for everyone one Dr. Proxy had ever deceived, tricked or manipulated.

Forgoing all attempts at stealth, Michael stood up before running as fast as he could. He could feel his hatred welling up in his hands. His hatred for those who used silver words to manipulate others. His absolute despising of all who would make people controlled, compelled to do their bidding. His need to cut down the enemy before him, to slice that silver tongue right out of his mouth. An ornate sword formed from the energy of his hatred, a pentagram embedded on its pommel and angelic wings sprouting for the hilt. An odd juxtaposition, but he knew what this blade was for.

"PROXY!" he yelled as he charged forward, bringing the blade to bear on his enemy. "The feeling ISN'T MUTUAL! DEVIL HUNTER!"


Move, then Charge. Using Devil Hunter, Power Attacking for 2.

Attack: [roll0]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily gagged some as the already-intense scents only seemed to grow stronger. No...not stronger so much as richer, more and more olfactory data coming in through her nose. She could smell the cellular structure of the flower petal, how it differed from the pollen it had been.

So, add transformation of vegetable matter to the list.

Yay...

"It's - ghuuh - it's okay, Linda. You're doing great! Just stay calm, everything will be okay!" she said, even though she honestly wasn't sure if she believed it. "Just stay there and...and try not to hurt anyone who doesn't try to hurt you first. I'm going to see if I can...help. Okay?"

Yeah. Great. And how, precisely, do you plan to do that, Doctor Woods? Your big move so far is creating flower petals, so what exactly-

Petals for wings. Pollen in her hair. Nectar production. Floral smell. Photosynthesis. The pollen that became the petal came from her. Whatever she was turning into, she was plant enough to manipulate with her powers.

Which meant that Lily could stop thinking like a wanna-be superhero and start thinking like a chemist.

And not a moment too soon, as the huge spiky...whatever smashed through the fence and got unnervingly near to them. Lily ran a hand through her hair, gathering a thin film of pollen. She could smell its cellular structure, and with a thought, she changed it, changing every mote into a different allergen or irritant. With a sharp shake of her hand and a quick beat of her wings, she sent it flying out to burst over the spiky creature, where it would get in its eyes, its ears, its nose, hopefully impairing it enough that it couldn't threaten them.

Move: Dazed.

Standard: Impair Senses on Yon Spiky Beast. Fortitude DC 18 vs. Impaired/Disabled/Unaware Affliction, Dodge DC 18 for half.

[Arcran]

As another one of the freaks seems to attack Calvin, Howard lets out a sigh of relief. Maybe, just maybe, he could get the hell out of this prison and figure something out?

The door was a bust, unfortunately. With broken cards the guards would never get out, meaning that they'd have to bust the door down, leading to a flood of bad things. In other words, a bad idea. That only really left the walls, but how the hell was he supposed to get over them?

Without even consciously knowing why he's doing it, Howard sprints towards the wall, rapidly leafing through the pages of To Kill a Mockingbird. It was as if he knew there was something there that he needed but couldn't quite find it...

Until he finally did. As he finds the passage he needs Howard begins to read it aloud.

"Jem had outgrown the treehouse, but helped Dill and me construct a new rope ladder for it-"

As Howard continued to sprint towards the wall he can only watch as a rope ladder simply appears at the top, gently unfurling and falling down the length of the wall to the bottom. The book snaps shut as if its duty is done, and an awestruck Howard sprints towards his new escape route, not quite sure what was going on but taking the fortunate circumstance for what it was.

Shifting my array to Object of Convenience and making a ladder!

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth finally wrenches free of the stone wall. When all this was done, she would definitely have to find a place to train and get accustomed to her powers. When all this was done... Her thoughts and gaze drift back to the scattered bodies around the yard. The sight makes her grit her teeth in fury.

"Madelyn, are you so blinded by your anger towards me that you cannot see what is going on around us?! This goes far beyond the of us, far beyond. Look, I want to put this fight on hold; I give you my word that I will fight you another day. We can settle everything between us then. But on this day, there is someone else that we should both focusing on!" Elizabeth barely contains her rage as she tries to persuade Madelyn to stand down. She finishes her speech by vigorously stabbing her finger at Dr. Proxy, the perpetrator behind the prison's current predicament.

[TooManySecrets]

Alright. Max power it is. Nate blasts dino-Carl again. The bolt shoots out and the muscles in Nate's arm clench as the machine draws its power.

With no time to spare and no time to check the effect of the beam, Nate teleports back to the top of the women's guard tower.

I'm starting to feel like a ping pong ball, Nate thinks to himself, resting on the tower's balcony.

Standard action to fire. Free action to swap alternate effects. Move action to teleport.

Power attacking for 5.

Ranged attack roll: [roll0] (DC 17 Fortitude save)

[Zelphas]

January 3rd, 2015
10:07 A.M.

Michael

Toughness Check: [roll0]
Fortitude Save: [roll1]

???'s Will Save: [roll2]

Your blow catches Doctor Proxy across the face, a hairline crack opening along the top right of the opaque glass faceplate and stretching diagonally down its surface. Slowly, the armored figure turns to you. "Well, well, the smart one," the robotic voice intones, somehow sounding amused. "That was quite an... interesting blow. I would love to stay and trade blows with you, but I've gathered all the data I need. Such a good hit, however, deserves a reward."

A hiss of escaping air sounds from the armor, which splits open, disgorging an unconscious African American woman. If you don't catch her, she'll fall twenty feet off the prison wall. The armor, now empty, closes itself up once more. A rumble comes from beneath the empty suit, and it suddenly flies away of its own volition, rapidly leaving the prison complex behind.

Lily


Calvin/Razorbeast
Dodge: [roll3]
Fortitude: [roll4]

Close Combat: [roll5] vs Linda

Toughness: [roll6]

Linda/Avalanche
Linda's Toughness: [roll7]

Close Combat: [roll8] vs Calvin

Somehow, the giant spiked beast manages to narrowly evade the spores, head swinging around wildly as he tries to spot the perpetrator of the attack. His eyes land on Linda's new form, and he snarls, rushing towards her, one claw raised to strike...

But he overbalances, completely missing Linda and crashing once more into the wall. Linda stumbles away from the spiky beast, her flailing appendages coming nowhere near it's spiny hide.

Howard

Climbing up the ladder, you realize that this rope ladder is exactly how you imagined the rope ladder from that passage of To Kill a Mockingbird. Same look, same feel... everything about it is like it was literally ripped from the book and your imagination and thrown into real life.

Once you reach the top of the wall, you see Michael White, looking pretty much normal and wielding a strange silvery sword, attacking Doctor Proxy to your left. In the sky in front of you, you can just discern three blots in the sky, rapidly heading your way...

Straining your ears, you can make out the distinct thwap-thwap-thwap noise of helicopter blades, rapidly growing closer.

Elizabeth

Madelyn seems shocked by your words; she looks around at the carnage around her as though seeing it for the first time. "Oh--oh God," she gasps out, looking around in mounting horror. Her eyes follow your pointing finger, and she blanches when she sees Doctor Proxy at the wall, being attacked by a male prisoner with a sword. "I can't--No, not--I've got to--"

There's a loud zapping noise, and the smell of ozone. Madelyn seems to simply disappear, a line of lightning glowing in the air for a moment and tracing a path from where she once stood, across the yard, and out the hole made by the cement monster.

Since you made your Acrobatics check last round, but didn't move, go ahead and move where you like this round without making the check.

Nate

Fortitude Save: [roll9]

It looks like the raptor wasn't hurt by the electric blast this time either, but just before you teleport, you see the hunger in the creature's eyes suddenly... drain away, replaced by horrified realization.

When you land on the women's tower once more, Carl follows you; however, he runs straight past you, out through the hole in the wall and into the hills nearby. You can barely make out a strange noise he was making as he ran; it was somewhere between a snarl and a sob.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"You leave her alone!" Lily shouted furiously, flying over to where the spiky creature stumble. Flying up above him, and shaking her head wildly, dropping a cloud of pollen down upon him - pollen that she transformed as it left her hair into a powerful opiate.

Move: Fly about fifteen feet above spiky.

Standard: Induce Slumber. Dodge DC 18 for half, Will DC 18 vs. Dazed/Stunned/Asleep Affliction. This is Selective, so Linda won't be affected.

[Arcran]

Howard barley has time to think of the ladder as he pulls himself up it, finally reaching the top. He'd read the book and a ladder had come out? How exactly did that work? Could he do it with other things? Could he pull money out of the book?

Still confused, Howard begins work on pulling the ladder up the side of the wall, planning to lower it down the opposite face, climb down and make a run for it. He watches White as he does so; had he come out of this unchanged too? And when the hell did he get a sword? At least White would be able to keep Doctor Proxy busy enough for him to get away, right?

As he pulls it up, Howard begins to hear the thwap of the helicopters. That wasn't good. At best, they were going to capture them and lock them up. At worst, well, he'd seen enough movies to know that. Locked up, tested, interrogated. They'd become lab rats. All that was simply another reason he had to escape.

As Howard pulls the ladder the rest of the way to the top of the wall he quickly drops it over the other, attempting to climb down as fast as he can.

[TooManySecrets]

That ... was unexpected.

Nate sits down, all the stress finally catching up to him. His legs hurt, his arms hurt, and the machine sent persistent pulses through his body. It was like licking a nine-volt battery. Hopefully the chest-high fence on the tower's balcony would help him avoid notice from anybody else who might want to eat his face.

From where he sat, Nate could only really see the sky. There were three blots coming but they were just smudges. Not that he couldn't make a good guess at who exactly was coming. At minimum, it was some sort of response from the city (they tended to take dim views of people breaking into prison, out of prison, and mass murder). Probably some superheroes as well. They were always on the lookout for Doctor Proxy. Probably.

Nate kept an eye open, but hopefully this whole mess was close to over.

Man, I could really go for a smoke right now.

Standard action to ready a move action. Nate is prepared to teleport away to (let's say) the top of the prison complex if somebody approaches him with apparent hostile intent.

[Anubis Dread]

Damn it! If he had any chance of catching Dr Proxy he might have a decision to make on whether to take care of the situation here or go in pursuit. As it was, there was no chance he'd have any chance of catching up. Cursing, Michael catches the woman as she falls from the suit and shoves her to the side. "COWARD!" he shouted after the super villain, knowing it wouldn't do any good.

The woman was safe at least, but now to the issue at hand. Looking over the cylinder before him, Michael ran through everything he knew about this sort of technology. It didn't take very long. He had no idea how to shut it off, or even IF he should shut it off. Dr Proxy made it, so even if he'd just left it here it still had to be bad news. Thankfully he had a motto for just this sort of occasion - when in doubt, blow it up.

Forging the energy in his hands into a hammer, Michael swung it hard at the cylinder. "GOLEM HUNTER!"


Probably a horrible idea, but attacking the cylinder to destroy it and/or knock it on the outside side of the prison wall.

Power Attacking for 5, All-Out-Attacking for 4 with Golem Hunter

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth watches Madelyn disappear with muted ambivalence. On the one hand, she is glad that the pointless fight was over. On the other, she had no idea what Madelyn would do next. Perhaps standing up against Dr. Proxy and opposing him directly was too much to ask for, but Mesa City was not ready for the sudden explosion of supers the villain had created.

She turns to glare at the cause of this disaster, but finds him gone. Mixed feelings wash over her once again, this time a blend of relief and dread. Elizabeth pushes the world out of mind for a few moments to focus on re-centering herself. She had never seriously attempted meditation before, but any athlete knows the importance of breath control. She drops into a cross-legged sitting position where she stands to close her eyes and simply breathe.

[Zelphas]

Lily

Razorbeast's Dodge: [roll0]
Will Save: [roll1]

Close Combat vs Lily: [roll2] DC 27 Damage if it hits.
Grab Check: [roll3]

The spiked beast seems heavily affected by these particular spores, blinking up at you sleepily. "Fairy?" the beast mumbles, reaching up a paw lazily towards you.

On top of the women's tower you see what looks like the Great Danton landing and surveying the scene. Moments later, two police helicopters arrive, their loudspeakers ordering all prisoners to fall prone and place their hands on their heads. Linda, hearing all this, begins to make that high-pitched grating once more, the ground trembling all around her.

You here a growl from underneath you. Looking down, the spores seem to be wearing off; already, the beast seems to be attempting to come after you.

Howard

As you run, you see a fourth dot suddenly appear from the sky, falling straight down onto the hills below you before bounding once more into the air. watching its arc, you can see that it's going to land very nearby.

A shadow suddenly covers you, and you look behind to see the huge metal cylinder that contained Doctor Proxy's gas careening towards you, a massive hole blown through one side. it's coming down too quickly for you to dodge, it seems; the dull grey container comes down...

There's an impression of movement, faster than you can believe, and a glimpse of a face, horribly melted and distorted, like hot wax; and suddenly standing in front of you is a giant of a man, even bigger than Calvin's new form. A massive, misshapen face peers down at you--different from the melted face glimpsed before, but no less horrendously ugly--and you recognize the features of Freakshow, the black sheep of the Mesa City Variety Show, currently in his Elephant Man form.

"PRISONER?" the giant booms, holding the metal cylinder up in one slab-like hand as though it weighs nothing. "PRISONERS ARE TO BE IN PRISON. WHY ARE NOT IN PRISON?"

Nate

The central smudge in the sky grows rapidly larger and more defined, resolving itself into a tall man in a tuxedo, a top hat, and a black-and-red cape, flying with no obvious propulsion besides a trail of glittering silver light. The figure lights upon the top of the women's guard tower nearby, and you recognize him as unmistakably the Great Danton, Mesa City's foremost hero.

The Great Danton barely spares a glance at you, surveying the carnage below with a grim expression. If you attempt to speak, he holds up a hand imperiously. "Just stay where you are and stay silent, prisoner," he states in a voice meant to carry across a large auditorium. "You shall be dealt with after this mess is sorted."

Michael

Your blow rips a massive gash in the side of the cylinder, expelling all of its remaining gas in a blast over you and careening off of the wall. The woman in your arms coughs and shifts, but does not awaken.

The container sails towards a figure you can barely make out as Howard Silvers, running away from the wall; just before it would hit him, it stops with a clang, lifted up by--is that Freakshow? A moment later, the Great Danton sails over the wall and lands on the women's guard tower, next to the kid Nate Stone. In a few more seconds, two helicopters you can now see bearing the insignia of the Mesa City Police Department fly up, blasting a message through their loudspeakers: "All prisoners are to drop to the ground and place their hands on the back of their heads. All prisoners are to--Oh, God..." the message falters for a moment, as the helicopters reach the wall and the people within get their first view of the carnage inside. The message quickly resumes, however. "All prisoners are to drop to the ground and place their hands on the back of their heads. All prisoners...

Elizabeth

A few seconds into your calm breathing, you begin to feel lightness creeping slowly back into your being once more. A few seconds later, a figure you know from posters as the Great Danton lands on top of the women's guard tower, followed seconds later by two Mesa City Police Department helicopters, blaring the same message over and over: "All prisoners are to drop to the ground and place their hands on the back of their heads. All prisoners...

[PalusAbel]

At last the cavalry arrives... Elizabeth quietly complies with the directive. She sees no point in resisting. She and the other... survivors would certainly be questioned, so making a sound now would only invite censure at best. Elizabeth does find some comfort in her body returning to normal; the cement she lays upon may already be cracked, but her jumpsuit prevents any real scrapes. The sound of the helicopters' chopping propellers and blaring sirens encourages her to simply close her eyes and wait for what will come next. It is not as though she has any other choice.

[Arcran]

"Woah big guy," Howard says, putting his hands up and slowly backing away from the behemoth. "Did you see what was going on in there? There was a giant spiked monster trying to kill me. I was just trying to get far away from him, not escape, I swear. Here, just take me back," Howard pleads, not particularly wanting to be killed by Freakshow for attempting to escape. He knew a lot of the hero's bad reputation came from his looks, but still. He was hideous, huge and apparently not that bright. Fear was the appropriate response.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Um," Lily murmured. The threat of the spiky creature, the concern that Linda would do something that got herself hurt, the chaos of the other prisoners, the sudden arrival of the heroes and blaring message of the helicopters, and of course, the continuing, overwhelming smells all around her was making it difficult to think. She shook her head vigorously, more to clear it than anything, although in the process it kept up the pollen cloud that was falling over the spiky creature.

Everything was too intense, too fast, too confusing. But with iron will, she forced herself to think clearly and come up with a coherent plan of action. Spiky was the most significant threat, but her pollen seemed to be having some effect. It could hopefully delay him. The superheroes were unlikely to cause her as much potential harm, but if she disobeyed there could be consequences. Last thing she wanted was to get her sentence extended. She couldn't trust them to recognize the extenuating circumstances. And, technically, while lying face-first on the ground with her hands behind her head would leave her somewhat more vulnerable, her powers meant she could defend herself from that position better than most, being able to smell all around her and, well, having her hands be right by what was apparently her primary weapon.

"Just follow me, Linda," she said soothingly to her friend, and then added a much louder yell of "Help!" for the benefit of the heroes as she flew about fifty feet away from the spiky creature to land face-down on the ground, hands behind her head.

Move Action: Dazed.

Standard Action: Concentrate on Induce Slumber. This is concentrating on the previous effect, not initiating it again, so I believe it doesn't receive a new Dodge check, just a new DC 18 Will check to resist.

Extra Effort - Additional Action: Fly away from Spiky and land Prone.

Current Status: Prone, Fatigued.

[Anubis Dread]

Michael cursed under his breath. So much for escaping... unless he tried to fight everyone here. The Great Danton was here, it might be worth it just to hit him in that stupid face at least once. But there was no need to rush. He had power now. He could bust out of his cell with ease whenever he wanted. There was no reason not to wait for a better opportunity.

Not happy about it, Michael dropped down onto the wall.

[TooManySecrets]

"Right. Silent. This is me being silent. As a mouse."

The Great Denton was one of the greatest superheroes in the city and Nate was a convenience store clerk turned felon. Talking back to him was the smart thing to do.

"Hey, blood loss is making me feel kinda light-headed," Nate slurs. "So I'm gonna go to sleep now. Please make sure I don't bleed to death."

And then he lays down and closes his eyes.

[Zelphas]

January 3rd, 2015
10:10 A.M.

Elizabeth

The sound of the helicopter blades grow louder, and you hear the sound of boots on the ground. Two pairs near you, and you hear a voice over your head. "Just stay where you are, miss. We'll get this mess sorted out." "Don't talk to the prisoners. Just secure them and move on," grunts another voice. "Of course, sir. Sorry, sir. Sorry about this, miss," the voice whispers, and you feel a pair of handcuffs close over your wrists. The boots quickly move on.

Howard

Freakshow ponders your words for a long moment, before breaking into a ghastly grin. "OKAY!" he exclaims happily, picking you up in one surprisingly gentle hand and placing you on his sloping shoulder. He walks ponderously back to the prison, his steps shaking the ground. Unless you speak to him, he remains silent.

Once you reach the wall, Freakshow places you on the ground, dropping the container on the other side of him with a crash. Then, in a fluid motion, he bends down and lifts up an entire section of the wall, grunting slightly as he hefts it over his head. With a jerk of his head, he gestures you to walk under the wall and back into the prison complex. After you enter, he kicks the container in with a dull clang, maneuvering himself under the wall afterwards and putting the wall back in place with a grunt.

A helicopter has landed in the center of the prison yard, and police officers are roaming the grounds, searching for survivors. Two officers come up to you. "You caught an escapee; well done, Freakshow. Hands out, prisoner," the officer on the right commands, pulling out a pair of handcuffs. Next to you, Freakshow shakes his giant head. "NOT ESCAPING. TRYING TO GET AWAY." he states. The guards look nonplussed. "Um, all right then, Freakshow. Not escaping. Still, we have to handcuff him."

Lily

Will Save: [roll0]

Well, he's out like a light.

As you sink to the ground, you hear a titanic snore. It seems your spores have finally taken out the beast. There is a rumble of earth, as Linda also drops to the ground,putting the appendages vaguely shaped like arms over her head.

The helicopter lands, and boots approach you. A pair of handcuffs are placed over your wrists. "Do we need to get the... things on her back?" a voice says over you. "Uh... we've got bigger problems. What do we do about them?" another voice responds from near Linda and the massive spiked beast.

Michael

You hear the helicopters land, and the sound of boots moving about. After a long moment, you hear boots walking slowly towards you from the women's side of the yard. Someone clears their throat above your head. You look up to see a young-looking police officer with a slightly queasy expression. "Umm..." he stammers. "Could you put your hands out for me to handcuff, please? And then can we get down?"

Nate

"Oh, for heaven's sake..." you hear the Great Danton mutter as you lie down. "Copter two? We have one wounded; send down Nurse Hello!" he says, seeming to be speaking into a radio of some sort.

After that, things get a little... fuzzy. You get an impression of warmth, and something pulls the device off of your arm. The colors behind your eyes are fascinating. The sounds behind you go in and out like someone tuning a car radio. ...of Doctor Proxy's?" you hear the Great Danton say. "I don't think so," a feminine voice answers. "It's too..." the sound fades away again, but that's okay; the colors will keep you company.

Wonderful, beautiful warmth spreads over your arm and through your body, and everything suddenly snaps back into focus. You feel good. Really, really good. Opening your eyes, you can see that the puncture in your arm from the device you created has vanished, along with the device itself. Standing next to you is a stunning young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a nurse's outfit that is just a shade short of being skin-tight; you recognize the second member of the Mesa City Variety Show, Nurse Hello. She holds up the device you created. "Did you make this?"

Everyone take 1 Power Point. This should wrap up this particular scene; I'll post a new reply shortly, to start the next one.

[TooManySecrets]

"Huh?" Nate says a bit confusedly. Those were some really pretty lights but he feels fine now.

Nate's head seems to be coming back together as he realizes where he is and what is happening. "Wow, hello, nurse. ... I'm sorry. That was a bit cliché wasn't it?" Nate looks at the machine as he runs his left hand over his now spotless arm. "Um, yeah, I made that. It's an, ah, Elemental Phase Oscillator and Bioelectric Energy Weapon. It's made from a camera. Well, mostly a camera. The strap comes from my prison clothes." Nate seems inordinately proud of this last fact.

[Zelphas]

Nate

Something very close to fury comes into Nurse Hello's eyes when you make your horrible pun, followed quickly by resignation. "A simple 'yes' would have worked," she sighs, throwing your contraption to a waiting guard. Another guard walks up to you, holding a pair of handcuffs. "Hands," he grunts to you.

January 4th, 2015
10:15 A.M.

One by one, each of you were handcuffed, ushered into the waiting choppers, and flown to the Mesa City Super-Human Correctional Facility. Once there, you were separated into different rooms. Each of you underwent a chemical bath, the most intensive physical exam you have ever gone through, and a barrage of questions concerning your history, reactions to Doctor Proxy's gas, and current Physical and mental health.

Each of you are interred in solitary rooms for the night. The walls are made of a shiny metallic surface several times tougher than steel, and you are strictly warned that any manifestation of superhuman abilities will result in your room filling with a sleep-inducing agent, guaranteed to work against the grand majority of super-humans.

Now, almost exactly twenty-four hours after the events of the prison yard, you are all awakened from sleep and led to a large room in the prison. Oddly enough, this room has a large window all along one wall, offering a panoramic view of Mesa City, with its central skyscrapers, large warehouse district, and the still-producing mine all in full view. Each of you are seated at a long table spanning the length of the room, and manacles are attached to your arms and feet, locking you to the table.

A few moments after all of you are seated, the door opens once more and a man who seems to be in his mid-fifties walks purposefully in. The man is heavy-set without being overweight, with salt-and-pepper hair cropped close to his skull and mud-brown eyes hard as the walls of this prison. He carries an unlit cigar in one hand and a stack of files in the other.

The man seats himself at the head of the table and opens the first file, studying it for a long moment. Then the file goes skidding along the desk, coming to a stop directly in front of Lily. "Lily Woods," the man begins, in a deep, slightly hoarse voice that sounds like it is used more for shouting than for conversation. "Convicted of one count of assault, sentenced to six months in prison due to a guilty plea. Three months served. World-class chemist, daughter of federal attorney Ralph Woods and leading epidemiologist and doctor Sarah Woods. Sister to SWAT sniper Hannah Woods and Chief Petty Officer Andrew Woods." The man whistles. "That's quite a pedigree you have there, missy."

Another file goes sliding across the table, to land in front of Elizabeth. "Elizabeth Greenwood, AKA 'the Fighting Redwood'. Convicted of taking part in an illegal underground fighting ring, sentenced to six months in prison due to a guilty plea. Three months served. Daughter of 'Crystal' Greenwood, now Stanton, and older sister to Jack, Jill, and Jane Greenwood. By all accounts, you were a top-line fighter, 26 wins to 5 losses."

Slide. This file lands in front of Nate. "Nathan Stone. Convicted of marijuana possession, sentenced to six months in prison despite a not-guilty plea and enough contraband confiscated from you to classify you as a drug dealer. Sloppy police work, there." The man shakes his head, before continuing. "Three months served. No family to speak of; nothing to speak of, really. Frankly, you wouldn't be here if our tech boys weren't still trying to figure out how you made that mechanical doo-hicky out of a camera."

Slide. "Michael White. Convicted of two counts of assault and one count of evading arrest; sentenced to four years in prison. Six months served. Parents deceased, one of the victims of the 'Desert Messiah' cult suicides, twenty years ago. Dishonorably discharged from the army despite excellent field scores, for assaulting a chaplain; no charges were filed. It says in there that you were caught because you tried to butt in on a battle between the Mesa City Variety Show and Doctor Proxy." The man chuckles, shaking his head, with something like the vaguest shadow of admiration in his eyes.

Slide. The last folder ends up in front of Howard. "Howard Silvers. Convicted of eight counts of larceny, five counts of fraud, three counts of identity theft, four insurance scams, two Ponzi schemes... and various other misdemeanors; sentenced to forty years in prison. Fifteen years served. Son of Silverback CEO Howard Silvers and wife Carla Silvers, currently estranged. You put a lot of people on the streets, Silvers; you wouldn't be here either, except that it seems you were scheduled for parole review in a few weeks. Good behavior."

The man leans back in his chair, biting down on the unlit cigar. "Well, convicts," he declares to the room, "today is your lucky day. You get to choose your future.

"Your first choice is to continue to serve your time. The minimum sentence for a super-human involved in criminal activity is five years; your sentences will be extended to reflect that, and you will be incarcerated in this facility until your sentenced is served, whereupon you will be released." The man looks around the room, as though expecting someone to speak up, before continuing on.

"Now, there are those who think that this should be the only option given to prisoners serving time, now matter how their powers were manifested." The anger in the man's voice during his next statements leaves no doubt which side he is on. "However, a certain attorney-at-law named Woods exerted some legal sway to open up another option. Some would argue that the man's personal stake in this matter clouds his judgment and persuades him to bend the rules, but here we are.

"The second option is, simply put, community service. An unknown amount of prisoners escaped from the Mesa City Correctional Facility in the ensuing chaos following Doctor Proxy's attack. The five of you would be assigned the task of hunting down these escaped felons and returning them to incarceration, by force if necessary. During this time, you would be given quarters within the city limits and limited free time, so long as you stayed within Mesa City during that time. The community service is set to last until the last prisoner is found and apprehended, or for six months; whichever comes last."

The man looks once more around the room. "Well, what will it be, convicts?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily followed the orders to the letter, not speaking unless it was requested of her (although part of her did want to question the people running the various examinations to see what they were testing for and what procedures they were using to acquire the data). She herself made some mental notes during the testing, in particular noting during the physical exam that despite how extreme it was, she was barely winded by the end of it. That was...pleasant. She'd never been particularly physically impressive, but she doubted her siblings could have made it through such a battery without coming out of it near exhaustion.

She answered the questions honestly and as completely as she could. In fact, probably a fair bit more completely than was strictly necessary, offering her own theories and impressions as well as hard factual data, along with a rather long list of the potential benefits her new powers could offer.

So she went into the meeting actually excited. She knew her crime was fairly minor, and her powers offered tremendous positive potential. She was entirely certain that she was going to have her remaining sentence excused. She gave a friendly smile to the others who had been brought in, although she was saddened to see that Linda wasn't among them. Saddened, but not surprised. Linda's mental health had been fragile in the first place, and she had seemed to have little control over her abilities. She was a sweet girl, and Lily doubted she would intentionally harm anyone, but the simple fact was it was safer for someone like her to be contained. Her face did twist some with distaste as the scent of the man's cigar assaulted her too-keen sense of smell.

The recitation of her file, and some of those after her, only increased her confidence. The only time it shook was when he started describing the crimes committed by Mr. Silvers. They seemed...tremendously in excess of the rest of them, but the worry vanished with those two little words, "good behavior".

And then the man revealed what their actual "offer" was. Five years? She couldn't believe it. A minimum sentence for committing a superpowered crime made sense, sure. But for it to apply to them, it had to mean the law was either for anyone already convicted of a crime who developed superpowers during their sentence, or applied to them for having superpowers during the commission of a crime even though they were in fact the victims. The sheer unfairness of it struck her.

And then the alternative, using their powers to bring in the ones who had escaped. Ah. And there's the reason for it. She wondered whether that minimum sentence really applied here. He said that they were only being extended this offer because her father had spoken out for it, but that struck her as rather convenient. "Don't bother looking for a better offer, a good lawyer who has a personal stake has already argued for you and this is the best you're getting. We don't want to take advantage of your incredible new powers to help us recapture these escapees, but we're going to generously allow it." Yeah. Way too convenient.

Of course, given those two options, the choice was obvious. Indeed, Lily might, maybe, have even been willing to help out without such an "incentive", although if she were honest it would be a tragically inefficient use of the abilities she had acquired. There was just so much more one could do with powers. Still, the threat was real, the need non-trivial...and she had to admit, she wouldn't have minded seeing the looks on her siblings' faces when they heard she had brought in a super-villain!

But the manipulation, that she wasn't fond of, so she didn't agree right out of hand. "So...we can talk to a lawyer before we decide, right? I mean...that's our right, isn't it?" she asked, inwardly kind of kicking herself as she did. She had wanted that to come out much more poised, polite but businesslike. She knew she hadn't kept the nervousness out of her voice.

Insight to try and get a sense of the guy, if he's not being entirely honest with them or maybe how he feels about the situation: [roll0].

Expertise (Law) to see if Lily knows more about that minimum sentence, mainly like, does it really apply to them straight-up, or is it something that a reasonable jury would see clearly doesn't apply to them since they're basically the victims here: [roll1]. EDIT: Clearly, Lily discussed this law with her father at length back when she was in her "studying the phenomena of superpowers" phase :smallcool:.

[Arcran]

As Howard is put through the various tests he's dismayed to find that he isn't any more capable than before, at least physically. He'd thought maybe he'd have gotten a little stronger, but it seemed his powers, whatever they were, had little to no impact on his actual body. Maybe a bit tougher than he was before, but that could simply come from being in prison for a decade and a half.

When it came time for the questions, Howard does his best to answer them honestly. They likely had files upon files on him. Hell, by now there'd probably been a segment on 60 Minutes about him. There was no benefit in lying and, at least in Howard's mind, no reason. After all, he was trying to repent for what he did, not hide it. He'd stopped running from what he did long ago.

In regards to his mental state, well, it was probably as good as anybody else that had gone through what he had in the last day.

He hardly slept that night. The ladder... Where the hell had it come from? He'd read the book; that much was without a doubt, but how the hell did it go from a passing comment in a book to his way out of the prison? It just didn't make sense. From what he had seen, the powers of the others seemed fairly concrete. They became a giant spikey monster, they flew, they turned into a velociraptor. None of them made any particular amount of sense, but they were concrete, easily understood things. Had the gas made him magic? That was the only option that really made sense. Fortunately, Mesa City had a resident wizard; maybe he could help elaborate in the future?

When Howard went in to the meeting, he didn't know what to expect. Was he going to have a few more years slapped onto his sentence for his little stunt? He thought that Freakshow had put his intent rather succinctly, but in a way that was likely easy to misunderstand. When he sees the others though any thoughts of that are removed; none of them had tried to escape, at least as far as he could tell. Hell, White had tried to kill Proxy rather than escape! He'd just sent Calvin at the others and booked it.

As the man goes by, briefing by briefing, Howard can't help but give what can only be described as a sad chuckle. All of them save White were in for six months, and even White was only in for a fraction of what he had been. By numbers alone it would appear he was the worst person in the room. What a feeling that was.

Naturally, the five-year threat has little effect on a person that has twenty-five remaining on their sentence.

"Even if you combined the sentence for the others it'd still be less than what I have left," he thinks to himself sadly, resigning himself to a very long time in prison. That is, until the next bit comes up. Howard looks at Woods with a small degree of admiration and perhaps a hint of jealousy. It would seem not all black sheep were cast out from there families.

For a few moments, Howard sits silently. It should be a no-brainer. Six months as a superhero or another twenty-five in prison. He'd be an idiot to not choose the first. Of course, there was the issue of what he'd be fighting as a superhero. The same convicts that had been more than willing to kill him in prison, albeit jumped up with superpowers. He was under no illusions that his skill or new prowess had saved him from Calvin; that had been pure, unadulterated luck. If Calvin had been in control of his body, he'd be nothing but a smear on the ground.

Still, this could be his chance to help people...

"I don't know about the others, but I don't know how comfortable I am hunting down supervillains. I mean, if we're going to be honest, I'm just a piece of trash that took people's money and got caught that happened to get caught in that gas. I still don't actually understand what I can do or even how it works. I mean, what the hell am I supposed to do? One of them almost killed me back there, and only luck kept him from finishing the job. I want to help, but what good would half of us be? Sure, White and Greenwood know how to fight, but so do half the other convicts. By my count, the other three are a chemist, a stoner good at building things and me, none of which seem to have much experience with this kind of thing. What the hell are we supposed to do?"

[Anubis Dread]

Michael had no intention of revealing how his powers worked to the people responsible for testing them. This could well be his ticket out of prison after all. If he revealed how they worked, they'd take counter measures and he wouldn't get a chance. That said, the tests were thorough enough that what he wanted had little bearing on what was actually revealed. In the end he consented to simply showing of Devil Hunter in the hopes of using Golem Hunter to burst out of his cell, but he doubted that he managed to even hide that much.

When it came to answering questions and the interview however he was much more open. He didn't really know what had happened at the jail, so he stuck to the facts that he knew - Dr Proxy had mind controlled the guards, shown up and sprayed them all with gas. He'd run after him and hit him once, but he'd escaped with ease. A fact that still irked him to no end. If he wanted to take fighting that man seriously he needed to be able to take him down without him escaping. Then again, it wasn't really him at the jail now was it? It was just another puppet. Unless he could find where the real Proxy was hidden out, he didn't stand a chance of ever taking him down.

There was another obstacle however. His new cell was virtually inescapable. The walls were too thick for even Golem Hunter to burst through, and that sleep gas was troublesome. He was probably the only one of the crew stupid enough to test out how effective it was. It was not a particularly restful slumber, and it knocked him out for hours in less than a minute. If this was where he was going to be staying during the rest of his sentence, there was no chance of him ever getting out of there and hunting down Proxy. He might have the power to actually do it now, but that didn't mean anything if he was stuck in a cell.

When he was called for the meeting, the idea of a longer sentence meant little to him. He never had any intention of serving his entire time, so why would having a slightly longer one make a difference? The offer though... now that was intriguing. It would be a painful distraction hunting down small time criminals rather than going after Dr Proxy and other manipulators like him, but it was the promise of a smaller sentence. What's more if they did have free time as the man claimed he could use that time to follow his own agenda.

"I'm in," Michael replied. "But I do have one condition, and one question. The condition is that regardless of what our actual mission is I'm going after Dr Proxy. I'll do my job alongside it, but I don't want you calling me off because keeping him at large is good publicity for the wonder squad or whatever. The question is pretty simple: you said we can't leave Mesa City, but that we need to catch all the criminals to be let loose. What happens if one of them leaves the city?"


Just a reminder that since Michael has Immunity: Interaction skills he should be immune to any Deception attempts.

[Zelphas]

Insight Check Result: You can sense (you realize with a start that you can literally sense this via smell) that the man before you is being entirely honest with his emotions. He truly believes that the second option you are being given is a massive bending of established legal procedure, at the very least. Despite this, you don't smell any malice on him; he radiates a bone-deep conviction that the law should be followed to the letter. You can tell that he feels manipulated as well, forced into this situation as much as you all were.

Expertise (Law) Result: Throughout conversations with your father during the time you were studying superhuman phenomena, you discussed in detail the rules and regulations regarding superhuman corporal punishment. If a person "naturally develops or manifests" super-powers while in prison, they are immediately moved to the nearest super-human correctional facility, and their file is reviewed by a summary council, which decides whether or not the prisoner in question should have their sentence extended, sustained, shortened, or, in rare cases, waived. Your father had made sure that you noticed the fact that all laws specified "naturally developed or manifested" powers; the laws made no provision for artificially developed powers. Your father had been lobbying for a change in the wording of the law to encompass all developed powers, but he had been in no hurry, since no way to artificially develop powers had been found. Thought through logically, it seems obvious that your case could be easily placed under the existing rules; however, with a good lawyer on the opposing side, the case would likely go all the way to the Supreme Court before that decision was finalized, a process which would take several years.

The man opens his mouth to answer, but a brisk female voice cuts him off. "That's correct, Miss Woods. As a matter of fact, legal representation should have been called for all of you the moment you were transferred from the Mesa City Correctional Facility, but it seems that someone wanted to ram this community service bit down your throat as quickly as possible." Standing at the doorway is an older African American woman in a crisp grey business suit, her greying hair tied up in a bun. She is currently glaring at the man, her hands on her hips.

The man reddens in anger and begins to speak. "There are no regulations--" "Yes, yes, there are no regulations regarding those with artificially induced powers, but these men and women are still American citizens, and are therefore granted the right to an attorney," the woman once again interrupts. "Now, now, I don't blame you, Agent Branch," she continues, looking at the man's obvious anger. "You're just being pushed around by those with power over you, same as these folks here. Excuse me; allow me to introduce myself. My name is Amelia Brannan, and I will be your legal representative for this matter." she nods quickly to all of you. "The first 'option' that Agent Branch here offered you is, of course, ridiculous; they can't summarily extend your prison time without a review by your peers." Agent Branch seems surprised by this, and then furiously angry, though it seems his anger is not directed at anyone in the room.

"Unfortunately, they can postpone your hearing indefinitely, pending the results of the legal proceedings in this case. It looks like this case is going to be appealed straight to the Supreme Court, so any ruling is liable to take at least three years. You would remain in prison until then." Mrs. Brannan pauses for a moment, to let that sink in. "The second option is possible, following the precedent laid down by Professor Pain vs. the State of Connecticut, 1993; you would be kept under close surveillance, and required to remain within Mesa City at all times. If any of the escaped prisoners were confirmed to have left Mesa City, their files would be turned over to the state police, and you would have no further requirement to apprehend them," she replies, turning to Michael. "As much as I hate to admit it, the second option is the most legally viable for a shortened sentence; due to the precedent of Professor Pain vs. the State of Connecticut, 1995, the results of the ongoing legal proceedings would not affect any of you after this, ah, 'community service' was finished," she says, grimacing.

The man laughs in response to Howard's question. "Read your file, Silvers. According to the Poindexters, you're a literomancer, and a powerful one." The files in front of each of you contain your arrest photograph, a transcript of your court proceedings, and short papers concerning your background and arrest history; behind all of this, there are sets of newly printed paper, detailing the results of the various physical and mental tests given to you the day before.

Physical Abilities: Unchanged.
Mental Abilities: Enhanced social cognition, enhanced literacy. Subject responded to questions posed to him in English, French, Spanish, Hindi, and Swahili with concurrent language; subject seemed unaware that a new language had been introduced.
Other Abilities: Literomancy (unknown degree).
--Observed Powers: Spontaneus creation of literary matter into the physical world. Said matter disappeared once subject finished use of it.
--Implied Powers: Unknown. Other noteworthy literomancers showed power as varied as summoning creatures from fantasy novels (The Overlord, 1987-8), Changing shape to famous literary heroes (Protagonist, 2003-Present), or manipulating space-time (Deus Ex Machina, 1994-6)

---Note: All literomancers require access to written works in order to use their powers.

Physical Abilities: Enhanced durability. Enhanced dexterity. Flight in excess of 100 mph. Pollen-like substance; chemical results pending. Blood sample revealed extensive mutation; blood closely resembles the sap of Convallaria majalis (lily of the valley). Further testing of the blood sample revealed a powerful regenerative agent within.
Mental Abilities: Unchanged. Subject shows extraordinary knowledge in the field of chemistry and biology, concurrent with subject's knowledge before incarceration.
Other Abilities: Possible transformative powers (plant-based?).
--Observed Powers: Pollen in hair acts as eye irritant / powerful opiate. Possible vegetative transformation (spontaneous creation?).
--Implied Powers: Precedent of vegetative-based powers, combined with subject's regenerative blood, suggest healing powers.

Physical Abilities: Enhanced endurance. Blood sample taken shows subject's blood replicating at an accelerated rate; regenerative ability likely.
Mental Abilities: Subject shows unprecedented ability to detect falsehoods and attempts to manipulate. Subject quickly grew hostile at repeated falsehoods; testing was discontinued under threat of violence from subject.
Other Abilities: Spontaneous weapon creation and use.
--Observed Powers: 'Devil Hunter' (bright silver sword. Subject claims that said sword was able to potentially weaken mind-control affects and other afflictions). 'Golem Hunter' (Large red warhammer. Said warhammer has a deconstruction effect upon objects far exceeding its size and the strength of its wielder. Subject made no mention of said power when questioned).
--Implied Powers: Unknown; other weapons and "hunting" abilities likely.

Physical Abilities: Greatly increased endurance. Enhanced speed. Subject showed extraordinary physical aptitude.
Mental Abilities: Unchanged.
Other Abilities: Density Manipulation (unknown degree).
--Observed Powers: Density Manipulation. Subject cracked and broke through 1 ft thick cement without any observed damage to self.
--Implied Powers: Unknown. Among the most skilled density manipulators is the ability to project said manipulation outside of self; this has only been observed twice in recorded history, however.

Physical Abilities: Unchanged.
Mental Abilities: Subject showed intuitive understanding of machinery. Other mental abilities remained unchanged.
Other Abilities: Possible technomancy (unknown degree).
--Observed Powers: Subject assembled a teleportation/insubtantiability/electrical bolt device out of a single closed-circuit camera in 2.35 seconds. Said device seemed to use subject's own energy as a power source.
--Implied Powers: Unknown. Given access to materiel, subject's intuitive machinery aptitude has unprecedented possibility.

Mrs. Brannan frowns at Michael's condition, before answering. "You are free to do with your free time what you wish, so long as you remain within Mesa City limits and refrain from breaking the law. If you do discover knowledge of Doctor Proxy's true whereabouts or plans, you will be required to share that information with your federal liaison, Agent Branch; due to your unique powers, you will very likely be on any strike force assembled by the city upon finding Doctor Proxy's lair."

[Anubis Dread]

New information. Did this effect his decision?

First of all, they knew about Golem Hunter. Since they knew about it, it was almost guaranteed that any cell they put him in would be as impervious as they one he'd just been placed in. He couldn't use it to escape. As such, he had to assume that his only choices were completing his sentence in full or hunting down these super human criminals.

Secondly, that little loop hole was interesting. If anyone left the town, they didn't need to hunt them down and they'd be marked off as caught for the purpose of their sentence. That meant that they'd only need to deal with those stubborn enough or stupid enough to stay in town, which meant they'd mostly be dealing with chaff. The job would be much easier than it sounded at first glance.

Finally they intended to put conditions on his condition. Though he'd likely be on the team of any attack on Doctor Proxy, he'd probably be sharing it with the Mesa City Variety Show. This wouldn't be too bad if he wasn't still pissed off at the Great Danton for blasting him in that fight. And being a borderline cult leader with his legions of fans. And... okay he just REALLY hated the Great Danton. On the other hand if that was the best he was going to get he didn't have much of a choice.

"Good enough, I'm in," Michael agreed, tossing down his papers onto the table.

[Arcran]

Howard looks to the woman as she walks in, trying to take in what she was saying. It really had no bearing on him; if he didn't take the deal he would still be in prison for two and a half decades, although he felt that any chance of an early release for good behavior would evaporate should he not take this deal.

"Alright," Howard says slowly, reading over his file. He spoke Swahili? He'd learned enough French and Spanish over the years to get by but he could, apparently, speak any language now? How did that work? He (as the paper noted) hadn't even noticed people had stopped speaking English. He did like the note about enhanced social cognition, although that was him, not the powers. Probably.

The next bit was far more interesting, especially the "when he no longer has use of it" part. What exactly did that mean? If he made food and ate it, how long would it last? What about money? A ladder was rather easy to tell when he no longer needed it, but what about the others? It didn't quite make sense and Howard might have to experiment a little with it.

"So I know what I can do. I'll give you that. I'm still fairly certain that, as-is, we're no better equipped than the escaped convicts save for the fact that there's a few of us. We need training. It'll give us an edge over the convicts and make us a hell of a lot harder to kill," Howard states, not quite willing to let up on that point. "If he gets a condition, I'm claiming one as well. I want training either from Danton or-" he says, looking over his paper again as he searches for a name, "Protagonist. Get me that and I'll catch all of them myself."

Sure, he had to make up for what he did but what good would that do if he was a red smear on Calvin's spikes?

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily felt relief as Mrs. Brannan entered. That was better. Now she could be sure they were hearing the truth, and could make a rational decision based on the information available.

Not that the truth was necessarily all that pleasant. They could put their faith in the review system, but that was uncertain and still subject to arbitrary delay. It seemed unfair, even foolish. Clearly, the smartest move when faced with new supers was to create a positive relationship that enabled them to use their powers to do good, not stand in their way at every step. It just made sense to her.

But since Lily tried to be rational, she tried to look at things from the other side. She called to mind some of the cases her father had tried, some of the crimes her sister had acted against, sometimes needing to end it with a bullet rather than due process. Replace people like her with people like that and...

And yeah, the system made a lot more sense.

Howard had raised a good point though. She wasn't much of a fighter. Time against time, yeah, the community service seemed optimal. But one had to keep in mind that it was also the only option that had a chance, and maybe not a small one, of also being a death sentence. That was a sobering thought.

Flip side, though, she had gone up against a giant spike monster back in the yard, and she had won. Her powers may not have been as flashy as, say, fire, but using them creatively, they could possibly be a potent weapon.

She paged through her file some as she considered the question. Most of it was stuff she had already noticed and suggested, but...regenerative properties in her blood? Now that she hadn't realized. And potential to use it to heal others? Gahh...fighting crime was going to be such a waste. Okay, relax, that's fine, it'll only be a few months.

Actually...regenerative properties in the blood had to mean it contained a non-trivial amount of energy. And if it resembled sap (she suddenly realized what that odd liquid she had produced was)...she might be able to affect it like she did her pollen. And that in turn...

There were a lot of harmful plants in the world.

None of those plants contained enough energy to rapidly regenerate.

But they did store energy. In cells. Which were what she was able to alter.

Her powers...could actually be really, really dangerous.

Lily closed her file. "Alright then. Thank you, Mrs. Brannan. I'm willing to accept the community service offer."

[TooManySecrets]

Nate has grown increasingly agitated during the entire conversation.

Well, that file was a big batch of fuel-grade nothing. Nate felt like it should have been a bit reassuring that everyone else was as confused about his "powers" as he was. It wasn't. Nate closes it without much feeling.

"Alright then. Thank you, Mrs. Brannan. I'm willing to accept the community service offer."

"I'm not." Nate is impatiently tapping his foot. His head is down. "Look, I get it, Agent Branch. You look at us and you see scum and losers and, uh, at least for myself, I can't really honestly argue otherwise. But, c'mon, I built a teleporter. Nevermind what else the machine could do, it was a teleporter. If I wanted to escape, I would have just left. Blamo, disappearo, man. I'd be on the other side of the world sipping Mai Tais on a beach somewhere. I would have been so gone you'd have to create a new word to describe how gone I was."

Nate looks up at Agent Branch. "Do y'know why I didn't leave when I had the chance? I think your drug laws are BS but that's life, right. Life is BS and vice versa. I was gonna walk out of there in three months a free man and nobody coulda said that I didn't earn it." Nate leans forward, angry. The words seem to be coming out faster now and with a harsh bite to them. "So, go ahead and bring it to court. Tell them how I didn't escape when I had the perfect opportunity. Tell them that I should have done nothing — that I should have just laid down and died, eaten by a reptilian monster that used to be human and a friend. Tell them how the authorities did nothing to protect us. Tell them how the authorities let mass murder happen when they should have been protecting us. Oh, and most importantly, tell them how the guards and the warden were complicit with Doctor Proxy! Whatever freaky mind control powers Proxy has or not, the simple fact of the matter is that none of us would have been out there if we weren't ordered to be. Go and tell the court all of that! You'll be lucky if the only thing they do is laugh you right back out."

Nate leans back, seemingly worn out by the outburst. He's sweating but seems a bit calmer. "Agent Branch, you can play your Bad Cop routine and Mrs. Brannan here can play her Good Cop routine. You can yell and threaten and intimidate and do whatever you have to. Uh, frankly, if you did I'd probably break down right here. But, uh, it wouldn't change my choice. Even in some fantasy-land where we get five years and nobody sues the state for letting mass murder happen right under their nose, I'd rather have five years in jail because I'd at least still be alive. That guy" — he points at Howard — "was right to ask what we were supposed to be able to do. Community service for at most six months? We'd be lucky to last a week before we end up dead in an alley somewhere or Proxy comes a-knocking to finish what he started. This isn't walking into the lion's den. This is, I don't know, like jumping into a shark tank. And the water has already been chummed."

Nate looks between Agent Branch and Mrs. Brannan. "A choice between death and five years isn't a choice at all. I mean, can't you at least give us some concessions here before trying to kill us?"

[PalusAbel]

The guard's apology gave Elizabeth more relief than he probably expected it to. It demonstrated both courtesy and professionalism, and she felt proud that he treated her that way despite the chaos of the situation. Subsequently, the examinations to follow did not disagree with Elizabeth at all. She complied willingly, and volunteered as much useful information as she could. Thoughts of escape or resentment toward her custodians never crossed her mind.

The next day, in the meeting room, Elizabeth was sorely disappointed that a courteous attitude was not a universal trait among the keepers of her new prison. She was not impressed by his bravado; she had seen that kind of air in the ring, and was by now accustomed to it. The report of her crime affected her as little in the present day as it did during her trial. It was not a matter of guilt or innocence. She knew what she had done wrong in the eyes of the law, and what her punishment was to be. Elizabeth was somewhat surprised to hear her mother's name mentioned, and that the boisterous man gave her an indirect compliment about her fighting record.

And then came the ultimatum. This, too, did not surprise her. The first option was perfectly natural, the second perfectly pragmatic. Elizabeth leaned for the second, of course, not least because she felt somewhat responsible for Madelyn's disappearance. She kept her silence for the time being as first her fellow female inmate and then the other men spoke out in their own defense.

The older woman introduces herself as the man's senior in both rank and manner. Mrs. Brannan brings light to the situation and makes the atmosphere more open, if not less tense, as evident by everyone else becoming more vocal. Elizabeth decides it is finally time for her to speak up.

"I will help recapture the escapees," she begins slowly. "I have a personal connection to at least one, Madelyn. She had a grudge towards me after I defeated her in a match, and she turned her new electric powers against me in the yard. However, my own power, density manipulation, was sufficient to render all her attacks useless. My increased mass made moving around difficult, so I attempted to persuade her to focus her attention on Dr. Proxy instead."

Elizabeth clenches her fists at the memory of the masked supervillain. "I may be mistaken in thinking that I was responsible for provoking her to escape, but I cannot in good conscience allow myself to sit in prison when there is an opportunity for me to do more." She turns to face her fellow inmates, addressing them next. "It would seem that I am one of the few who is suited to this task. I have both training and experience in fighting, and I possess physical power and stamina even without using my power. I am not bragging when I say this, nor when I tell you that, if we should fight as a team, I will do everything I can to ensure none of you come to harm."

Her next words are to Mrs. Brannan. "So yes, you have my cooperation, but I would like to stipulate conditions of my own. First, I would like to participate in training as well, for both controlling my power and for improving my skills. Second, and this is the far more important one, my sisters, Jack, Jill, and Jane Greenwood must be provided for during my term of service, and in the event that I... am no longer able to care for them." She trails off at the end of her speech, as the reality of the situation finally hits her.

She could die in the attempt of bringing back the escapees. Beyond that, whether or not she chose the prison term, the fact remains that former criminals with superpowers may be in the city, which puts her family at risk either way. If Elizabeth chose to fight, she would have the satisfaction of working toward safety and the public good, but that was in no way a guarantee that her own sisters would not get caught in the crossfire.

Elizabeth had not seen them in three months, and that, too, caused her heart to sink. However, this was not the time for sentimentality; melodramatic as it may be to think so, every minute that the escapees were loose could be a minute where the entire city begins sliding into total chaos. Elizabeth steels her resolve. "You must guarantee my sisters' safety, and that they will be taken care of no matter what happens."

[Zelphas]

Agent Branch and Mrs. Brannan look astonished at Nate's outburst. "Exactly what 'concessions' are you asking for, Mr. Stone?" Mrs. Brannan asks after a moment. "The others have named their stipulations for taking part in this, and I, as your legal counsel, will ensure that they are followed. What exactly are you asking for?"

"If the boy's made his choice, he's made it. I'm sorry, I was given the wrong information for what your choices were; but if I know my bosses, you'll be in jail until the Supreme Court itself votes to release you. Still, jail is safer than the outside; just look at your last prison." Agent Branch let's that hang in the air for a moment. "A few things need to be cleared up first, though. First of all, none of you will be going into this unprepared. We want you to capture criminals, not get killed. A new facility for training young supers has been in development in the inner city for a few years now; congratulations, those of you who decide on community service will be its first occupants. We also have other agents with similar powers being flown in to help with your training, though some of you were a little hard to place." He looks at Howard and Michael as he says this.

"Yes, Mr. Silvers; as for your request... I'm afraid the Mesa City Variety Show is technically a privately owned company, and as such we have no legal right to contract his help; he wouldn't be much help to you beyond the basics, anyways. As for Protagonist... I'm afraid he's a bit beyond our--" "Donald? He owes me a few favors from Afghanistan. I can call him in on one for this." Agent Branch interrupts calmly.

"I have a few more things to say, and then I've said my piece. Stone, you said that I look at you and I see 'scum and losers', but that is incorrect. I see convicts; simply put, men and women who have been convicted of a crime. At the moment, the most powerful force in your life is that conviction; it led to your being in that yard yesterday, and it led to you being here now. That conviction will always be a part of your past, but it is up to you to decide how it affects your future.

"I saw the footage from the surviving security cameras. You used your device to run from prisoner Carl, it's true; but if all you intended was to run, you could've simply hidden yourself away within the prison complex. Hell, you could've stayed insubstantial and just stood there, if you were just worried about not being killed and staying to serve your time. Instead, you found a vantage point, and you threw lightning at him. That ensured that his attention was always on you; why would you do that, if you were only trying to get away and quietly serve your time?" Agent Branch keeps his eyes steadily on Nate as he says this, seeming to genuinely want an answer.

Agent Brannan moves over to Elizabeth in the ensuing silence. "Jack, Jill, and Jane will be moved to an apartment conjoining yours while you are serving your community service. In the event of your death, they will become wards of the state, and I will personally see to their placement into the best home I can find."

[Arcran]

"Alright then," Howard says, feeling a twinge of regret at forcing Branch to call in what he can only assume are very valuable favors.

As Nate speaks Howard frowns, but not out of any disapproval towards what the man was saying. In fact, just the opposite. He was him, not so long ago. More charismatic perhaps and not in prison for owning more marijuana than you could ever possibly need, but, at their cores, they were identical. Both only cared for themselves and their own skins. There was nothing wrong with that; even now, as intent on Howard was to make up for what he did, if he had to be completely honest he didn't know if he'd be able to sacrifice his own life to save another. In fact, he was almost sure he couldn't. But he was willing to give it a shot, at least for now.

"I'm in, White's in, Wood's is in and Greenwood is in. That only leaves you Stone," Howard says, speaking slowly. "Out of all the survivors they captured only us five were picked for this team," Howard says, not quite believing that fact himself. There had to be others, right? Not everybody in prison had gone crazy with their powers. It would have been impossible. "They picked us five for a reason: we're the only ones that aren't criminals. At least, not anymore," Howard states, under no disillusions that sitting in prison for fifteen years made his crimes vanish. "As far as I can tell, you're the only one that ended up in prison for a harmless mistake. The rest of us hurt others, even if said others were okay with it," Howard says, nodding towards Greenwood. "You're here because of a little pot. That makes you the best of us," Howard states, not leaving that up for discussion.

"Me? I hurt people. A lot of people. Probably more than I could count," he says, voice becoming slightly sullen. "And you know what my power is? I read things really well. Isn't that terrifying?" he says, fairly sarcastically. "You? Somehow you learned how to build a teleporter out of a frickin' security camera. Without any training. You know what I did? I made a rope ladder. Imagine how much good you could do if you let these people help you and, in return, help them."

"Us?" Howard says, gesturing to the other convicts at the table. "We're a bunch of criminals that got screwed up by some gas and ended up with powers. You? You're a genius that ended up in prison because of an honest mistake. If we're willing to give this a chance, why aren't you?" Howard says, doing his best to sound encouraging and not accusatory at the end as he leans back in his chair, looking Stone in the eyes.

[Anubis Dread]

"If you want to leave, leave," Michael said bluntly. "But don't make a show out of it. You can make a teleporter out of a camera. Unlike the rest of us, there's pretty much no way they could ever keep tabs on you or contain you if they let you out for this community service. You could agree and be on the other side of the word as soon as you got your hands on a f***ing twinkie."

At this point he outright glares at Stone. "Seriously, you're pissing me the f*** off. We don't have choice. If we did I'd still take this chance to beat the sh** out of some people that deserve it, and I'm sure at least one or two of the others would too, but that's not the point. You DO have a choice. There is NOTHING they can do to keep you locked down. Just shut up, get out and build a teleporter to Paris if you're too cowardly to fight, but don't drag this on any longer than it has to when you're the ONLY one that has that option."

He could rag on how unfair all of this was all he wanted, but they were being given a chance. As far as he could tell Stone was the only one who didn't even NEED to take that chance, and yet he was still b***ing more than all of them combined. It made him want to slam his whining face into the desk.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily had to admit, Elizabeth's words set her mind more at ease. She didn't really know Elizabeth all that well, which...she realized now was kinda odd, since they had arrived at around the same time and for the same crime. But then, Lily had largely kept to herself. Even so, Elizabeth's presence had made her feel safer. She was bigger and stronger than any of the other women - probably all the men, too, for that matter - but Lily couldn't remember her ever lording it over the others or using it to hurt or exploit anyone. She couldn't be certain, but she was fairly well convinced that her stay had been safer than it otherwise could have been because there was a general understanding that trying to hurt another prisoner could provoke Elizabeth's intervention.

Nate's outburst came as a surprise, and honestly, she didn't think he was wrong on all the counts, particularly regarding the mess it would be if this all actually did go down in courtrooms and in front of the media. That said... "If you really don't want to do this, Mr. Stone, I can understand that and don't want to try and coerce you, or anything. But...honestly, I think it might be the best option. Even ignoring the extended time in prison thing, if they're offering training and testing for our powers, that could be hugely beneficial in the future. And if we do this...I mean, I'll be the first to say that I think most super-powered individuals could put their abilities to better use than crime fighting. That probably goes more for you than most of us, honestly. But there's a certain amount of celebrity and goodwill that comes from superheroics, which would also be hugely beneficial down the road. This isn't five years in jail vs. death. This is five years in jail and missing out on training and experience in the use of your powers and a non-trivial level of personal fame vs. a risk of death. And with all five of us working together with government backing, that risk actually probably isn't very high."

"I do have one other question. Who is it that has it in for us, why, and should we expect them to attempt to harm or hinder us over the course of this mission? Because while I do understand the general reasoning for the rules in play here, I think Mr. Stone's analysis is quite correct. Bringing all this into court would be a media frenzy, and frankly, I think in our situation in particular, it's unfair enough that we should legally be able to win it. Moreso, because just going by what I'm seeing here, we're all pretty sympathetic defendants. You said the case could be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, so if I'm right and we would have the advantage in court, that would mean the prosecution is the one appealing trial after trial, spending taxpayer dollars trying to keep five newly-powered people in prison for as long as possible when most of them probably don't deserve it."

"It doesn't change the fact of the situation, of course, but it suggests an intent to harm from some person with a lot of political power. And I think we would all be better off if we knew up-front who that person or group is and what it has against us."

[TooManySecrets]

Nate leans forward to Agent Branch. "Because. He was. My friend." Nate says it slowly and with emphasis, as if talking to an idiot. "He might have annoyed me sometimes but he was still my friend. Do you have any friends, Agent Branch? What would you do if one of them was turned into a monster against their will? Would you let them just rampage around, maybe kill someone, knowing — that if there was anything left of the person you knew — that they were trapped in a body which wasn't theirs anymore? Would you do all that, knowing that you had the power to stop them? Could you do that and still call yourself human?"

Nate leans back again. "The shock was non-lethal. If I could have knocked him out then maybe, I don't know, maybe a doctor or a scientist or somebody whatever could have undone what was done to him. Give him back his life. And I can guess exactly what you're gonna say, Agent Branch. 'If he was really your friend,' you say, 'why aren't you jumping at your chance to go on this suicide mission?'. You don't get it. You see it as a choice between saving a friend and wasting away in prison. If that was what it was, my choice would be easy and obvious. But it ain't. My choice is between the relative safety of prison and death. Call me a coward or whatever but becoming a corpse isn't gonna help anybody, least of all Carl."

Nate turns to Howard. "You think we aren't criminals? Wait long enough and maybe we won't be convicts" — Nate glances at Agent Branch as he says the word — "but, man, we're always gonna be criminals. I'm not saying, like, we're gonna break the law again or whatever. I'm saying that whenever somebody looks at us they're gonna see a criminal. And it won't get better. You think they're gonna just, like, let us walk away when we're done, free as a bird? Maybe they can let a thief or a conman or a stoner or a thug or whoever walk. But remember, we've got powers now. Superpowers. Criminals with superpowers. They've got a name for that, right? It ain't a nice name. The powers that be, dude? They're never gonna trust us. You can't trust something that you fear. Maybe we'll eventually walk away from this, but they're always gonna have their eyes on us. No matter how much good we do, they'll always be waiting for us to slip up again, to turn into the next Wyrm the Pillager, or BloodFeast, or Doctor Proxy. That's their job — protect and serve, right? — and they're always going to look at us as a threat."

Nate turns to Michael. "Dude ... shove it."

Nate turns to Lily. "The risk isn't high? Dude, why do you think we're the ones who are doing this? Y'think that the Mesa City Variety Show are too busy doing charity performances to stop some escaped super-criminals? We're expendable. If we do the job, then ... bully for us, right. And if we die then that's five potential supervillains that nobody has to deal with. The government can't lose. You remember Professor Pain? It seemed like every other month he was escaping jail to perform some sort of medical abomination. After he was released to stop that rampaging cyborg, he's been the perfect model of an upright citizen. Not because he reformed himself, oh no. He stopped the cyborg but not before the thing broke his back and skull. Now Professor Pain is confined to a wheelchair and eats all his meals through a straw. Guess it's hard to stitch together some corpses into an unholy golem when you can't even move your head, let alone anything else."

Finally, he turns to Mrs. Brannan. "If we're going to be your disposable heroes, we're going to need some things. Money, first of all. I'm not a trust-fund baby with six-figures, like, stashed away somewhere. I was a convenience store clerk. I've got, like, a thousand bucks in savings, if that. It can be budgeted and doled out through that facility of yours to make sure that we're not going to cut and run with it, I really don't care, but we're going to need something. That's in addition to a place to stay, of course. Second, you can't be watching after us. If you want to keep us under the cameras at this facility, well, I can't stop you and if we have to report in every week or so just to make sure we haven't run then so be it, but once we walk out the facility's door you can't follow us. That dinosaur monster had a pretty good nose on it and I'm sure the other escapees have some similar sort of powers. Maybe — maybe — we'll be able to figure out a way to shield us from being detected when we're trying to track them down, but there's no way that we can keep them from getting a whiff of anybody else. Electronic cameras won't work, either. There's no way that you know everything the escapees are capable of and, hey, you already know that at least one of the prisoners got technomancy powers, right? And I can definitely figure out a way to monitor some cameras. That's to say nothing of what Proxy is capable of. If you can see us, they can see us. We'll never be able to capture them or, worse, they'll ambush us and we end up diced meat. And, finally," — Nate glances a few times between Agent Branch and Mrs. Brannan before settling back on the lawyer — "there has to be an apology. From the state, the governor, the prison, whoever. I want them to say how sorry they are at letting this happen. I want them to say how they're going to do everything to stop something like this happening again. I want it to be sincere, not just another form letter. And I want them to send it to us. And to the families of everyone who died in that yard. That's what I want."

[Zelphas]

Agent Branch has no answer to Nate's explanation of his treatment of Carl, besides cracking a smile at Nate asking him if he has any friends. When he turns to Howard and speaks, Agent Branch shakes his head. "You've got it the wrong way around, son," he says quietly. "Let me add a few more names to your list: The Proprietor. Skullmask. Sandstorm. Empress Orange. Quarrel. All began as villains; all are now either living quietly as citizens or are trusted and respected heroes of their own cities. You will always be convicted of a crime; you don't always have to be a criminal."

Mrs. Brannan stepped forward in response to Nate's comments to Lily. "The Mesa City Variety Show is a privately owned company of superheroes and performers; as such, the government of Mesa City has has no more than an advisory role in their activities." "And since Nurse Hello doesn't want to soil her high-and-mighty boots dealing with 'common' criminals and The 'Great' Danton is a selfish b****** who hates Doctor Proxy so much any other criminal may as well be invisible to him, the Mesa City Variety Show has decided that foiling Doctor Proxy before he can strike with this gas again should be their top priority," Agent Branch growls. Mrs. Brannan gives Agent Branch a warning glance, but doesn't contradict him. "I was on the defense team for Professor Pain. I don't know how much it matters to you, but I was convinced--I am still convinced--that he was a changed man prior to his altercation with the cyborg Gamma."

"A weekly money stipend is included in the community service agreement," she continues, answering Nate's first stipulation. "It's not much--only slightly more than you were earning as a convenience store clerk--but room and board will be free." "If you're low on cash, you could always invent something and sell the patent--" Agent Branch begins, only to be cut off by Mrs. Brannan. "--but in that case, the Mesa City state government would legally be privy to ninety-five percent of the proceeds, so I strongly suggest as your legal counsel that all of you refrain from selling anything until your service is concluded."

Agent Branch laughs aloud at your second stipulation. "Of all the people in this room, I am the only one who can state with certainty that Doctor Proxy cannot get into my mind," he declares with confidence. "Nevertheless, I see your point. Still, we can't simply let you wander off completely un-monitored; you will each be issued a shortwave radio, and expected to report back your location every hour you are outside of the facility. If you do not report in, a SWAT team will be sent to your last reported location. I will insist that your mentor makes these radios as 'hack-proof' as he can; if you can build a better one, let me know."

Both Agent Branch and Mrs. Brannan are sobered by Nate's final condition. It is Brannan who speaks first. "The death of the people in the yard was a tragedy, a senseless waste of human life. I don't know if I can promise you sincerity, but I think I can convince the governor to send out a personal letter. In fact, if I suggest it as a way of giving the lie to Doctor Proxy's words on that wall, I may be able to get him to do more than that. Those people were still human beings; they should be treated as such, even in death." An edge creeps into her voice near the end of her speech.

Agent Branch leans forward in his chair, looking Nate directly in the eye. "Let me be the first to offer that apology. This should never have happened. We should have done more than we did; there is no excuse. I promise to do everything I can to ensure that this never happens again; it is part of what I am trying to do now."

After a long moment, Mrs. Brannan turns to Lily. "You're right, of course; common sense dictates that this should be an open-and-shut case. However, the law often has a sense all it's own, and in the eyes of the law, you five, and the other changed prisoners, are something entirely new. There is no legal precedent for artificially gained, non-mechanical powers; furthermore, there is also no precedent for powers imparted to another person without said person's consent. As it is, the Extra-Human Defense Coalition has already thrown in their backing behind the defense, while the Human Rights Counsel has sided with the prosecution. A dozen other smaller political groups and lobbies have come in one way or the other, and all of them want to see this case reach the Supreme Court. This case isn't about you anymore, not to these organizations; all they see is a case that will likely define Supehuman rights in America for the next decade or more."

Both the Extra-Human Defense Coalition and the Human Rights Counsel are massive organizations with impressive political power, often appearing on opposite sides of legal and political debates.

The Extra-Human Defense Coalition argues that super-villains are often summarily imprisoned almost without trial; they argue for more rights for supers in jail and an abolition of the five-year minimum sentence rule for supers. Detractors of the EHDC claim that the organization is too lenient on supervillains who have committed horrible crimes, and that they promote those with super-powers as inherently better than those without.

The Human Rights Counsel is primarily responsible for the five-year rule being in place in the first place, and argues for more restrictions for those with "dangerous" powers or abilities. Detractors of the HRC claim that the organization is far too harsh with supervillains who committed petty crimes, and that they denigrate supers to sub-human, beneath "pure" humanity.

As evidenced by her voice (and to Lily, the smell coming off of her), Mrs. Brannan seems to hold both the EHDC and the HRC in contempt, though she is less disgusted by the EHDC.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Part of Lily really wanted to try and reassure Nate, but she didn't want him to feel like he was being pressured and, the truth was, her reassurances would have based more on optimism than fact. Her hypothesis was that all of them working together and with government training and backing would have the advantage where most of the escapees would probably be on their own and trying to figure out their powers themselves. Still, she couldn't be sure of that. Any given escapee could be more powerful, or some of them might band together, or they might receive their own backing from Doctor Proxy or other villains. And even if she was correct in the general sense, just how readily that nebulous "advantage" translated into actual safety over multiple missions was unknown. Fact was, she had precisely zero data on the survivability of a job hunting down supervillains, so she didn't argue the point.

Understanding lit Lily's features as Brannan explained the politics behind the situation. That made sense, and it was stuff like that that was why her first request had been for a lawyer instead of trusting to her own knowledge. Sure, she had gleaned a fair enough understanding of the law and politics from her father and her studies, but she wasn't an expert.

Yeah, it kinda sucked for them, but she felt better knowing they weren't being targeted here. It was actually kind of exciting, being part of such an important case.

The point of the government owning 95% of anything they worked on drew a frown. She had been hoping to work on her projects during their free time, but while the money wasn't her primary concern, it was a priority. And, frankly, she felt the government was getting a good enough deal here that they didn't deserve the free income. Lily was still positively disposed towards the government and legal system in general despite the current issues she was facing - she had grown up in a pretty patriotic household, all told - but still. No sense rewarding greed. Still, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Use the next six months to really nail down what she could do with her new powers, and then start actually doing it once she was back on her own time.

"I think that covers everything I'd be concerned with," Lily said. The only other question she'd have had was whether they'd be able to see their families, but that was pretty much answered by "limited free time", "hourly check-ins if not in the facility", and "don't leave the city".

[Arcran]

Howard can't help but chuckle helplessly when Stone demanded the stipend. Here was, making teleporters out of cameras and he thought he'd ever need to worry about money again? The note about the patent was interesting though; the greedy portion of Howard instantly notes to make sure to make nothing while the saner, more in control part notes that making money is one of the last things Howard needed to worry about right now.

Still, he can only nod approvingly when Stone demands the apologies not just for them, but for the families. That was the right thing to do.

"Will the group of us being a political target complicate things?" Howard says, somewhat concerned with the fact and knowing full well what people will do for a cause they believe in, especially against an apparent threat. "I don't exactly know much about either of the groups, but are they likely to try to contact us and steer us one way or the other?" Howard can't help but ask, a hint of apprehension slipping into his tone, especially as he notes their lawyer's dislike of them. Was it simply due to bad campaign practices or something more?

"Other than that, I believe I'm good to go as well," he quickly adds, more than a little excited to find out exactly what he could do.

14 Insight so I know easiliy.

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth stifles a sigh when Agent Brannan allays her concern, but her relief is evident nonetheless. She quietly absorbs the ongoing conversations, much of it stretching beyond her limited knowledge. Elizabeth would only admit expertise in one subject: athleticism. Sure, she might know how to swing a pickaxe, but that did not mean she knew anything about geology. Her world thus far had been very small, and whatever skills she managed to pick up usually came out of need. However, even she could sense the tension in Agent Brannan's voice regarding the EHDC and HRC. Elizabeth could gather their functions and goals from their respective names.

"I, too, am satisfied." Elizabeth follows Lily's lead. "Crude as I am, the legal battle does not much concern me. I will do what I can to not put forward a negative image, but that is all I am capable of with my limited knowledge of politics." She announces her position clearly to the benefit of all. She did not consider herself a loner; cooperation with her fellow convicts and with the state was not the issue. Rather, she felt somewhat like an outsider, someone cut from the loop long ago and only now rejoining the mainstream. Whether that would continue to be the case remains to be seen.

[TooManySecrets]

"So, I guess that's it then." Despite getting nearly everything he asked for, Nate still seems agitated. "I'm in. Show me the dotted line and I'll sign in blood."

[Anubis Dread]

Michael simply remained silent. He'd said his piece, they already knew he was in. There was no reason to repeat himself.

Still that political situation could be messy. It seemed a lot of fairly powerful political factions and smaller but more extreme ones both wanted to get this case to the supreme court. That would drag this out extensively. Taking the deal should avoid that, but he doubted all of those groups would take kindly to this development. Odds are any attempts they make to follow their end of the deal would be used as an excuse by these groups to end the deal entirely and take it to court. If they were one of the groups against them walking then they might even start trying to frame them or push them to do something that violates their agreement.

He had to sigh as he mulled over it all. This was going to be a much bigger pain than he'd originally thought.

[Zelphas]

"Blood is nice, but we've found that pens are more efficient. Less messy," Agent Branch jokes. "We'll have an actual contract ready for you in a day or two--" "Which I will personally review, before sending it to you to review and sign, Mrs. Brannan once again interrupts. The two glance at each other, obviously embarrassed by their constant interruptions of each other, but move on quickly.

"For the time being, you will be moved from this facility to the accommodations waiting for you in the city. Your mentors should be in town by tomorrow morning; I can guarantee you a few days of training, at least. Good luck to you all." Agent Branch unlocks the shackles of each of you, shaking hands with whoever is willing, before ushering you out of the room.

All of you are placed upon a shuttle bus, with four armed guards (in one of the guards, this is true in both senses of the word--the man has four arms and a gun on each side of his belt). the bus takes you down from the small hill atop which the Mesa City Super-Human Correctional Facility is situated, winding down into the valley where Mesa City proper is located. It wends its way through the city streets, passing through the warehouses and slums of the shipping district, which steadily transition to to more affluent housing. Finally, you are among the tall skyscrapers of the central city.

You pass Halsey Park (named after Marcus Halsey, one of the founders of Mesa City), and then the O'Rourke Theater. It seems that the Mesa City Variety Show is running tonight's show as planned. As you continue on, the buildings once again begin to degrade in value and appearance, until you stop in front of a large three-story building.

The neighborhood you are now in is not the worst any of you have seen; Elizabeth grew up in a neighborhood much worse than this, and Nate's neighborhood wasn't much better. Still, the relatively new finish of the building you are parked in front of stands out against the obviously weathered shops on the street. The building itself is not much to look at, a squat grey block of unadorned cement; the main thing separating it from the prison you were recently housed in is the presence of much larger windows and the absence of a fence or wall surrounding it. Each of you are handed a shortwave radio and instructed to keep it on your person at all times. The bus's doors open, and you are led inside.

The supers school consists of only a few places you would consider "normal" in a school. The front door leads to a hallway with classrooms on either side, and the back quarter of the facility is obviously a gymnasium, though larger and with far more elaborate equipment than the average school would possess. Other rooms of irregular size dot the first floor and dominate the second; one seems to be filled entirely with junk, one is a mad scientist's dream laboratory, and one seems to be an indoor garden, with its own imitation waterfall and creeping vines. The kitchen is also far more polished than any school would possess, with several stations for frying, grilling, baking, and stewing food. A row of floor-to-ceiling walk-in freezers sit against the back wall.

The third story of the building has been renovated to a set of private apartments, more reminiscent of an Ivy League college dorm than a jail cell. Each of you are given your own rooms, and only a few things make it apparent that you are still in jail: the windows are heavily reinforced and refuse to open, and quick inspection would reveal motion sensors around the windows and external doors of the building. After giving you the tour, the guards instruct you that all the supplies you need are within the kitchen, ready for you to prepare. They leave the building, and you can see them through the windows, patrolling the outer perimeter of the building and standing guard at either side of the door. None of the guards reenter the building, and if asked, they say that Agent Branch gave them instructions not to do so, in order to partially fulfill Nate Stone's conditions.

The next morning, all five of you awaken and go about your morning routines. At separate times during the day, each of you are called upon your shortwave radio and told to go to a certain point in the house, for your first meeting with your mentor.

Lily

Your radio squawks shortly after sunrise, instructing you to go to the indoor garden room. When you arrive, you see a woman with long glowing golden hair, inspecting the waterfall with interest. The woman turns around, smiling when she sees you. "Hello! You must be Lily. My name is Dawnlight. I'm told you have powers over plants and healing; I'm better with the healing than the plants, I'm afraid, but I'm here to see what we can bring out in you."

Elizabeth

Shortly after breakfast, you hear your radio crackle to life, telling you to report to the gymnasium. A huge hulk of a man is in the gymnasium when you arrive, standing calmly with feet spread apart. "Elizabeth Greenwood, right? Density manipulator. I'm Todd Carmichael. I can't teach you if I don't know what you know in the first place, so let's see what you've got," the man begins without preamble, settling into a fighter's stance. "This place is built for superhero sparring, so don't hold back."

Michael

Your radio tells you to report to a classroom on the first floor shortly before 11 A.M. In the classroom stands a woman with midnight black hair and pale skin, who introduces herself as Shamaness. "I'm told that you still have a lot of untapped potential in your powers," she says. "I was also told that you don't have the patience to go about learning your powers through deep introspection. Learning by doing is best in any case." Shamaness walks a few paces back, and suddenly about ten small furry creatures stand in front of her, clutching pointed sticks and growling at you angrily. "Your powers adapt to fit the enemy you fight, correct? How would you deal with these?"

Nate

At just past one o'clock, your radio buzzes, telling you to meet your mentor in the "Machinery room". This room turns out to be the junk-filled room from the tour, though most of the junk has been pushed and piled into one half of the room, revealing a panel saw, drill press, and several other cutting, measuring, and combining tools. Shortly after you arrive, another man comes bustling in, fiddling with a chunk of metal about the size of your closed fist. He stands in the center of the room, muttering to himself and twisting the device, before he suddenly seems to realize that you're there. "Oh, hello!" the man says, reaching out his hand for a handshake. The device, forgotten in his other palm, suddenly sprouts helicopter-like wings and whirs away, bumping into the ceiling fifteen feet above. "I'm usually called Slapdash; I wanted MacGyver but the name was already taken. So, first things first; which side appeals to you more?" he says, gesturing first to the clean side of the room with supplies in neat piles and gleaming machines, and then to the massive pile of strange and random metallic odds and ends.

Howard

At around four in the afternoon, Your radio finally speaks, instructing you to await your mentor in the library. The library room in the facility is impressive, a room approximately one-quarter of the size of the yard of the Mesa City Correctional Facility crammed full of bookshelves and books of all shapes and sizes. After a short wait, the door opens and in walks... A tall man, wearing glasses, with black-and-grey hair and a square-shaped face. Atticus Finch, exactly as you imagined him in To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus Finch smiles at your reaction, setting a large briefcase down at the end of a nearby end table. "You must be Howard Silvers. I heard you used the rope ladder from my daughter's tree house to escape from prison." Finch's voice sounds exactly as you imagined it would sound as well.

After a moment, Atticus Finch's features shifted, the man growing shorter and stockier until an entirely different man stood before you. This man had sandy brown hair, grey eyes, and perfectly unremarkable features. "I am Protagonist," the man said, then smiled "but that's probably rather obvious. I'm going to warn you right away that every literomancer's powers manifest differently. I can give you the general guidelines, but don't expect to do everything I do. I can't make a rope ladder, for example. Now, the best way to find out what you can do is to find out why you do it; therefore, first question: what do you like to read, and why?"

Feel free to roleplay as much or as little as you like with your mentors, everyone. I'm still ironing out the rough patches, but I should be able to time skip us ahead a few days, if that works.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily wasn't honestly a hundred percent sure whether the feeling of sudden cheer that came over her when they stepped outside was because of how her powers interacted with sunlight, or because she was finally outside of the prison. As much as she had tried to tough through it with stubborn pride, she almost hadn't realized just how oppressive the place was. Sure, she wasn't technically free yet, but she was elsewhere, and that made all the difference.

She was quiet on the bus ride, not really talking unless spoken to, taking a seat of her own but not arguing if anyone elected to sit by her for whatever reason. She honestly...wasn't entirely sure quite how to relate to the others. She felt like she should do something to be sociable, get to know them, since they would be working together, but felt rather awkward about it, so she just went along passively for the time being.

The school wasn't as pleasant as home, but was better than the prison, so she couldn't complain. She looked into the lab with interest during the tour, and made a note to check it out more thoroughly later. The size of the kitchen brought a smile to her face, and she immediately determined a solution to her interaction issues. Once they were finished the tour and left to their own devices, Lily headed back there, spending some time taking inventory and familiarizing herself with it, and then getting to it.

Lily wasn't concerned about going a bit all-out for their first night. Even though their stipend wasn't great, she had money put away, and wasn't averse to spending it to keep them in good supply. Everyone had been in prison for at least three months, and that meant they had missed Thanksgiving. That was all the inspiration she needed. Granted, the kitchen didn't have a full turkey on hand, but she deemed chicken close enough for her purposes. When the rest of the group started looking for something to eat, they'd be greeted by a full on Thanksgiving feast with...well, most of the trimmings, anyway, and a simple, dead-serious declaration: "No. More. Prison food!"

--

The next day, Lily was up with the sun. Which was...early for her, but she had a surprising amount of energy. She again wasn't entirely sure whether that was thanks to her powers or being out of that cell. She washed and readied herself for the day and was heading down to make breakfast when the radio sounded. That'd wait, then, she decided, heading to the garden.

She greeted Dawnlight with a friendly smile. "Glad to meet you. And...that's the theory, anyway. I haven't had an opportunity to test it yet. How should we go about it? I guess the obvious experiment would be, grab a knife from the kitchen, start with finger pricks and work up from there, huh?"

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth finds her new quarters more than comfortable. Having been raised with little in the way of luxuries, she was quite at home in a building as plain the school. In fact, she was quite pleased at how well-equipped it was. A wave of nostalgia washes over her as she looks over the gymnasium; it had been quite some time since she had properly trained. The early morning stretches and calisthenics did not always manage to satisfy her craving for stimulation.

"Good morning, Todd. Pardon me for interrupting you with pleasantries." Elizabeth offers her new instructor a smile and a bow. She moves to take up her own fighting stance, but stops halfway. He instructed me not to hold back... does that mean I have permission to use my power? She ponders this for a moment, then decides that he most likely meant exactly what he said. Elizabeth closes her eyes in order to focus on her breathing.

She pictures her diaphragm as a giant piston, rising as she inhales and falling as she exhales. Each time the piston strikes rock bottom, she imagines herself sinking deeper and deeper. Her muscles relax and make her body feel that much heavier. The memory of the prison yard and how its concrete floor buckled under her weight floats to the top of Elizabeth's mind, and she seizes that image in order to try and replicate it. Finally, Elizabeth pulls a mental trigger to complete her exercise. Density manipulation, on.

Standard action to activate density manipulation.

[Arcran]

Howard frowns as he sees the building from the outside; for some reason he'd expected something more glamorous from a superhero school. Still, it was infinitely better than a prison although, after spending fifteen years in one it might take a little bit of adjusting to get back to something resembling normalcy.

Of course, when Howard enters the building he can't help but be a little blown away. It was again not what he'd expected from a superhero school, just in the other direction. The kitchen, the rooms, the gym; it was so elaborate, so flawless. It was pretty clear that the people who built the school knew what they were doing and hadn't spared many expenses.

When Lily makes the meal Howard eats ravenously, putting away far more food than his slender frame could possibly hold. His hunger seems never ending as he keeps eating and eating, keeping pace with the far larger members of the ragtag crew. It had been fifteen years since he'd had real food and Howard made every moment of it count.

The next day Howard spends the morning alone, reveling in the solitude. He slept soundly without a bunkmate snoring a few feet away. He took a shower alone, something that hadn't happened in years. He went for a quick jog alone and, for a few brief moments, Howard almost felt back to his old self. Almost.



While Howard waits in the library he can't help but marvel at its volume; there were enough books to allow him to experiment for weeks, at the very least. He'd have to figure out the issue of how to carry books while he was in the field, but that could always come later. He'd have to figure out how to use them effectively first.

When Atticus enters the library Howard blinks, more than a little stunned. The Atticus Finch in the old movie had been close, but not perfect as to how he should have looked but this? There was no doubt that it was how Howard had always imagined. It wasn't much of a surprise when Protagonist revealed himself (after all, he was coming to train him) but watching Atticus morph into somebody else was still a disconcerting experience. Despite his own powers, Howard was still adapting to the bizarre reality that was having superpowers and working with others that possess them.

"What did I read," Howard mutters, thinking back. "When I first was put in prison, I didn't read. Never really had before; it seemed like a waste of time. It took a few years before I realized it was one of the only things I could actually do in there," Howard says, wondering how he dealt with the monotony of his early years in prison. "At first, it was light stuff. Pretty much kids books, if we're going to be perfectly honest. Then it was a religious binge; back then I was trying to do anything I could to shave time off my sentence and the whole finding religious bit seemed like it would help. None really sat well with me, but I went through them. Then it was classics, as many as I could get my hands on. I figured if they had stuck around that long they had to be good, right?" Howard says, trying to find somewhere to sit. "That was probably when I began to like reading. Since then it's mostly been old stuff, but, whenever I can, I tried to read the new pop culture stuff. It helped me feel like I knew what was going on outside," Howard says, a note of sadness entering his voice. "Those are my favorite, but everybody wanted them. I guess I won't have that problem anymore," he says with a bit on a nervous laugh.

[Anubis Dread]

The ride over had been tightly controlled and guarded. There were only a small number of guards, but judging by the fact one of them had four arms they were all likely supers. A fight there would be winnable but it would be tough. What's more it would only have been winnable if they'd all chipped in and fought. If any of them had reservations it would have been a slaughter. However, despite being heavily guarded they made no effort to hide where they were going by covering the windows. This was consistent with what they'd been told. They could hardly hunt down supers in the city if they didn't know where they were.

The new holding facility on the other hand was almost disgustingly low security. Certainly there were bars and motion sensors, but the walls weren't nearly as reinforced as their old prison let alone the metahuman holding cell he'd endured. One good Golem Hunter would disintegrate the wall. Then again, what would he do if he escaped? Unlike some of the others he had no way to move distances quickly, at least that he was aware of. He'd be as efficient at escaping as someone without powers once he was actually out of the wall. Besides he intended to let this play out before doing something rash. It gave Michael comfort though to know that he could walk out of here at any time, even if he'd have to evade the entire Mesa City Police Department once he did.

Good food was a bit of a novelty. Going from an orphanage, to the military, to a vagabond to a prison there'd been no real point in his life that Michael could remember where he wasn't eating something bland. Once he'd determined it wasn't laced with anything it was actually rather enjoyable to just sit down and eat with the others. He didn't talk much, but listening to the others talk while they ate was... nice. Nobody was spouting nonsense or being annoying, so it was a nice break from the drama from before. Still he dared not eat too much. If he got sluggish and something happened he could wind up dead. That report said he had some kind of healing factor, but Michael had no real desire to test how effective it was.

The next day his training began, and they'd paired him up with a rather interesting mentor. So it seemed his powers were somehow magical in nature? That didn't make much sense considering that he'd gotten them from a chemical. No, more likely they'd decided his powers were conjuration based, and so had gotten someone who was a conjurer in their own right to help train him. He could feel that wasn't really how his powers worked. It was... both much simpler and much more complex.

"It's not that I'm against introspection - HEALTHY introspection anyway," Michael amended bitterly. "I just simply don't have time to meditate over candles when we have a task at hand. And my powers don't quite work that way, though it's a close summary," he went on. "Maybe you'll be able to tell when you see it in action."

Walking towards his target dummies, Michael fought to bring his hatred to bear. But he couldn't. These things may be ugly as sin, but they hadn't done anything personal to him. He couldn't hate them more than casually, and he needed more than that to bring out his weapon. But he'd stayed up all night just playing around with his power, trying to work out how it worked. He knew a loophole to deal with that particular problem. Let's see... these ones were small, agile and large in number. His discharge from the military had been a little more than dishonorable. Though they brass had let him off with just a pink slip citing mental health, the chaplain he'd beat up had been quite popular among those who he preached to. A bunch of cowards with more drink than sense in them had corned him against a barracks as he'd been leaving the base. All of them were just whiny snots who couldn't even land a decent punch, but they'd all just flicked away of the way whenever he'd tried to counter attack. One of their little friends would dart out and beat him while he was distracted. He'd left the base a bloody mess in the end, even if they all ended up looking a lot worst.

He HATED things like that. Quick little things, ganging up in groups like cowards. He DESPISED things like those. And these things seemed to fit the bill. Super imposing his old hatreds onto this new enemy, Michael felt a pair of dark blue knives materializing in his hands. Rushing forward, he rapidly began to slash every enemy he could reach. "GOBLIN HUNTER!"


Not sure how many I can reach, but here's rolls for all ten I suppose! If Michael can only reach less than that add 1 to the roll for each one he can't reach.

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

[TooManySecrets]

It was good to be out of jail. Well, out of one jail and into another, though a significantly nicer one. It was especially nice to have his own set of clothes back. It's strange, the sort of things you miss when they've been taken from you. Nate's clothes: a black t-shirt with big white writing on it that says "YOU LAUGH AT ME BECAUSE I'M DIFFERENT. I LAUGH AT YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE ALL THE SAME"; a heavier cotton, red, buttoned shirt over the t-shirt; a worn pair of jeans; and a pair of even more badly worn brown sneakers. His scratched music player was still in his pant's pocket, along with his wallet. The music player had some charge left to it and his wallet had a whole ten bucks in it.

Tomorrow would be a brand new day, in more ways than one. Nate was sure of it.


_/ _/ _/ _/ _/

Nate returns the handshake, before glancing around.

"Uh, honestly? What would really appeal to me right now is, like, a greasy fast-food burger and, uh, some too-sugary pop. You probably know but, uh, we were just released from prison."

Nate walks over to the massive pile of random objects. He gingerly picks up a sprocket or widget or whatever it was before placing it down. Wiping his now-greasy hand on his pants, Nate turns toward Slapdash. "Really, I don't have any preference. I don't think that my, uh, 'power' is that specific. Do you have a diabetes machine in here that you wouldn't mind losing? A blood sugar testing machine, y'know what I mean? Uh, non-strip version, preferably."

[Zelphas]

January 5th, 2015

Lily

"Oh, no, I don't think we need to go that far yet," Dawnlight replies, smiling. "Since your powers seem to all tie back to plants I thought I'd see what you could do with the plants in this room. Take, for example, this group of daisies here," she says, pointing to a rather sickly group of drooping white flowers. "They're obviously being affected by something, but my healing didn't do much more than brighten them up momentarily. I thought you might be able to do more.

A quick examination of the daisies tells you that they aren't suffering from disease--rather, they are being slowly killed by a parasite. Sure enough, you see a cluster of Orbanche Fasciculata (clustered broomrape) nearby. The squat yellow bush-like plant with small flowers that are reminiscent of snapdragons is very likely the parasite causing this problem.

Elizabeth

Todd's mouth moves almost imperceptibly into what a generous person might just barely call a smile. "Nice to meet you. Whenever you're ready." As you warm up, the large man simply stands, waiting for you to make the first move.

The heaviness returns to your limbs and core, and you think you hear a slight creak under your feet as you switch your density on. These floors must be more than wooden, or must be made out of some wood you've never heard of before, however, because they don't even bend under your new weight.

Howard

"Hmm... forgive me for over-simplifying, but the themes I hear from what you said are manipulation of others, imagination, and influencing the world around you. You were drawn to classics because of the influence they still held after all this time, and the contemporary books were a way to get a feel for what the world was like outside of your own sphere of contact. Does that sound fairly correct to you?" Without waiting for you to answer, Protagonist moves among the shelves, skimming over the titles as he goes. "Feel free to let me know if I'm making incorrect assumptions. The more accurately I understand you, the better I can help you with your power." Finally, it seems like Protagonist has found a book that he likes. "Myself, I always wanted to live the lives of the heroes of the stories I read," he continues, pulling a large, weathered book from the shelf before him and starting back towards you.

"I read for strength of character, complexity, daring deeds and clever dialogue. My power let's me become these characters that I love so much, for a little while. From what you said and what power you've already shown, I believe your powers are going to be external rather than internal." Protagonist places the book before you. It turns out to be a fairly ornate copy of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, wrapped in dark green cloth with embossed gold lettering. "If you're willing, I'd like you to try to pull something from this book. The best way to try this is to remember why you read that rope ladder into existence two days ago, and then try to duplicate it as best you can. Don't be discouraged if it doesn't work right away; learning your powers, any powers, is rarely a quick process."

Michael

The small furry creatures manage to leap out of the way of several of your strikes, though four of the ten fall to the knives. "Interesting... do you have to yell out the names of all the weapons you use?" Shamaness says, sounding vaguely amused. The furry creatures before you suddenly shift and melt together, absorbing the smaller bodies into the roiling mass and forming into one huge, white-furred beat that towers over you, growling deep in its throat and flexing long arms that end in wicked black claws. "My little Tribesmen were no real match for you; Perhaps a Berserker will last longer."

Nate

Slapdash looks concerned, digging around in his pockets. "Do you need a factory-made one? Cause if not...give me a sec... here!" about fifteen seconds later, he presents you with a device that resembles blood-sugar testers you've seen in stores, though not any brand you're familiar with. "As for the food: Hey! You up there!" The metal box with helicopter blades stops bumping itself on the ceiling and buzzes down to Slapdash. "Two Whoppers, large fries and a large drink for each, Dr. Pepper for me and--what do you want?" he asks you. After you let him know, he tells the box and hands it a few dollars, after which it goes whizzing off down the hallway.

"I asked about the two sides because a lot of technomancers can be classified into two groups: workplace or scrapyard. Basically what it boils down to is whether the inspiration to build things strikes when you have all of your tools ready or when you see a load of parts and say 'you know, I bet I could make something with that.' I'm definitely disorganized, and judging by your teleporter/insubstantializer/electric blaster--genius work, by the way--I thought you might be too, but that could've just been your power using what it could under pressure. I guess you might be one that's a little less quantifiable, or maybe your powers haven't quite settled yet. Have you had the urge to make anything since you got here? Any ideas, flashes of insight, anything like that?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Routine check on the Expertise

Lily examined the plant for a few moments before saying, "Well, first thing I notice is they're not sick, they're starving. This sort of damage is a sign of a parasite. Another plant, not an insect. Mmm...yeah, that guy there's the problem, Orbanche Fasciculata. It attaches to the roots of another plant and sucks the nutrients out of them." She looked over to Dawnlight. "This is interesting. I mean, I could tell the difference between a disease and a parasite before, but not without a microscope, or some chemical tests. And even then, I haven't studied that particular plant. My focus has always been more on edible crops. I may have read about it at some point in the past and just not really remembered it, but either way, it does appear that some manner of cognitive enhancement is in play here. Most obvious explanation is that it's tied to the enhanced sense of smell, since scent triggering memories is well-documented, but it doesn't quite fit. I wouldn't have smelled the plant itself, if anything I'd have been smelling ink and paper when I learned about it, or maybe a computer screen."

"Second thought is that I might have an instinctive sense for the plants, but in that case, I'd expect to be able to identify kind of what it is and what it's doing, but that still shouldn't give me the proper name for it. And it certainly shouldn't tell me that the Zuni people use it as a hemorrhoid remedy, of all things. I'm quite certain that's a little factoid I didn't know before."

"Which leads to the conclusion that whatever that gas was somehow implanted knowledge directly into my head. Why does that strike me as both weirder and a greater personal violation than the fact that it gave me wings and transmuted my blood? Silly."

She shook her head briskly. "Sorry, I ramble sometimes. It helps keep my thoughts in order. Okay, let's see what we can do here. The healing is supposed to be in my blood. Or what passes for it. But they don't need healing. First thing they need is for the parasite to be removed. So, Experiment #1. I was able to transform the pollen in my hair into a rose petal, and then a cocktail of allergens, and then an opiate. So, I should likewise be able to transform this guy into something else. Some roses would look lovely there, they would go much more nicely with the surrounding plants." Blink. "And I have...no idea how I know that. Okay, matter for later. Let's see here..."

Lily concentrated on the offending plant, and when that accomplished nothing, reached out to touch it. A sniff gave her the details of its cellular structure, and in her head she could sense the difference between it and the plant she wanted. Over the course of several seconds, a single flower transformed into a rose.

Lily nodded slowly, and focused on it again. More and more of the two plants' cellular structures floated in her brain, all the subtle little chemical and biological differences between them. It took her a few minutes to picture the whole of both plants in her head...and then it was done, and where the Orbanche Fasciculata had been before was now a pristine bed of roses.

"That's...actually kind of tricky. I don't know if I can properly describe what's going on in my head when I do that. It's not just a matter of imagination, I can say that for sure. There's some...significant mechanical work that goes into making one plant into another. And more material definitely takes longer."

"Okay, but, our daisies are still starving. We're going to need a fertilizer. Hmm...so what if..." Lily held her hands over the soil, and with a focus of will (actually, now that she knew what she was doing, she realized she was just manipulating her now-semi-vegetal body that same way she had the plants; forcing herself to sweat, effectively) she manifested more of that yellowish fluid from before, letting it drip into the soil. It wouldn't be immediate, but over the course of the next several minutes, the daisies would perk up as, now freed from the parasite, they were able to draw nutrients from the soil, which for the next while anyway would be very nutrient-rich from the energy-full nectar Lily had just fertilized it with.

[PalusAbel]

Ah... I see that my concerns about using my power were unfounded. Elizabeth rolls her shoulders and experimentally hops from one foot to the other as she gets accustomed to her new weight. When this training session is complete, I will ask Todd what these floors are made of, and if there is a scale or other means of measuring my weight.

Elizabeth swiftly transitions from a pose of evident relaxation to a sliding dash, erupting into an uppercut just as she reaches Todd. He had given her every indication not to hold back, and so she takes every effort to show her dedication.

I'm assuming that Elizabeth hasn't developed the ability to moderate her strength yet, so this will be a full-power blow: Strength 12 / Unarmed 4.
Attack: [roll0]

[Anubis Dread]

"Don't judge me," Michael growled in a tone so dripping with frustration and embarrassment that anyone could see the answer was 'yes'. Seriously, why'd he get stuck with such a stupid condition for activating his power? It was such a pain in the ass. He supposed it was to warn his prey. Hate was the base of his power, so his power wanted his mark to be aware of what was being used against them? That was the best logical answer he could come up with. But it was so stupid...

This one was easy to hate. He'd come across plenty a big bullying brute in his day, and every last one of them was as easy to hate as a fat man was to roll down a hill. Focusing his hatred, his blue knives quickly dispersed into his raw hate energy, reforming into a green axe. ...was he going to have to go through the whole color spectrum too? If his power got any more irritating he'd end up developing a Hunter Hunter...

Charging forward, Michael lunged at the enemy with his weapon. "WOLF HUNTER!"


Power Attacking for 4, Wolf Hunter: [roll0]

[TooManySecrets]

Nate takes the machine in his hand. "Thanks," Nate says. "Uh, sure, that order works." Eating would be good. Since Nate got up at around 12:30 he didn't get a chance for breakfast.

He looks at the blood testing machine for a few seconds in silence, before holding it up to his ear and giving it a little shake. Sounds good, I guess. Nate brings it down. "Thanks for the compliment but, uh, I don't know if I really deserve it. When I was in school they gave us one of those standardized tests for intelligence and aptitude and stuff like that and I guess I rated relatively high, but it's like I was convenience store clerk and then I was in jail. Like, how smart do you have to be to have that happen? What I mean is that it's not like I made it. Not really." Nate sounds a bit embarrassed and pauses for a moment before going on. "I don't know if my power works in either of the ways that you described. I mean, I've only really created one thing so far and, like, I think I used a camera because that's what I had on hand. The only thing that was, uh, really like going through my head — besides the fact that the reptile monster was going to eat me — was that I needed a weapon and something to defend myself with. The, uh, the machine is basically two parts put together: the Bioelectric Energy Weapon and, ah, the Elemental Phase Oscillator. A weapon. And something to defend myself with. It was exactly what I needed."

"It had some, uh, nasty side effects. Maybe because I had to improvise with, like, limited tools. That's why I wanted this." Nate holds up the blood testing machine for a sec. "The machine needed metal-to-blood contact, I think because it needed energy and to better modify the body's frequency. I thought that using a blood testing machine would be a safer way of doing it so, like, I didn't need to shove a bunch of wires in my arm again. I sort of hoped that I could just put this in my hand and my power would tell me what to do but I guess not. Uh, do you have a DVD burner, uh, and a blank DVD, too?"

[Arcran]

Howard winces slightly as Protagonist takes his favorite books and cuts to the core of his personality. Manipulating others and influencing the world? It sounded about right but, when put that way, didn't exactly make him sound like a good person by any means. From what Protagonist had said, his motives were far more pure. He wanted to become Atticus Finch, to fly through the air like Superman, saving the innocent.

"I suppose those would be correct," Howard says reluctantly, taking The Hobbit from Protagonist. He'd read the book more than once in prison; for whatever reason, it seemed to always be open although that had been a simple paperback copy, not something as ornate and beautiful as this.

Howard opens the book, trying to remember what he had been feeling when he read the rope ladder into existence. He had wanted something to let him escape, something to make it possible for him to not fight Calvin. What had he been driven by? Fear? Survival? The most basic of human instincts?

What he needed now was almost the opposite. He needed something to show how capable he was. Something that would make the others take him seriously, especially after the rope ladder comment he had made to motivate Stone. In terms of power, there was only one thing in The Hobbit that truly qualified as monstrously powerful. With a quick, apprehensive breath Howard opens the book, skimming quickly as he tries to find the appropriate passage. In the latter half of the book he finally finds it and begins to read.

"There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light. Smaug lay, with wings folded like an immeasurable bat, turned partly on one side, so that the hobbit could see his underparts and his long pale belly crusted with gems and fragments of gold from his long lying on his costly bed."

With each word a sort of presence appears in the room, growing stronger and stronger with each passing word. As Howard finishes the passage the presence finally emerges. It wasn't in some great flash of light or powerful boom; rather, it seemed to simply be there. Well, not it, he.

Wedged carefully between two grand bookcases, nearly pushing them over, Smaug the Magnificent covered the floor, great stacks of smoke rising from his nostrils. Each breath by the beast reverberated through the massive library, accompanied by the clatter of coins upon the floor as the wyrm's vast riches fell from its hide. Fortunately, Smaug seemed to be asleep, just like he had been in the passage of the book, but exactly how long would that last? And what would happen when he woke up? Panicked, Howard looks to Protagonist, clearly not knowing exactly what to do. He hadn't quite expected it to actually work, much less bring a whole dragon here!

Using Extra Effort to Power Stunt Careful Reading. Howard is Fatigued.

Summon Smaug the Magnificent: Heroic Summon, Hostile Attitude (2 Points/Rank) 8 Mental Link 1

If you need some stats for him I can try to cook some up, otherwise I'll leave them as-is. Currently, Smaug is only as strong as one of us. Power Level 8, 120 Points

I guess the only real liberty I took was him being asleep...

[Zelphas]

Lily

Dawnlight watches you with growing amazement as you perform your transmutation and slow healing. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but I think you may have gotten the wrong teacher, she says after a long pause. "It seems that your powers are more related to plant biology and chemistry than healing. Still, I'll do the best I can. Your healing is intriguing; in most cases, healing is immediate, but yours is a slow process. Again, it seems chemical; it boosts and supports the natural healing of whatever it is used on rather than performing the healing itself." She takes a moment, collecting her thoughts. "You've already shown that you're powers are more than healing; one of the most common powers that go along with healing is causing pain." She demonstrates this, summoning harsh yellow-white light that reminds you of the desert and the hottest of summer days and using it to lightly scorch a nearby oak trunk. The light softens to a golden glow, and when she removes her hands, the tree is unmarked. "I'm not sure how it would manifest for you, though... poison, perhaps?"

Elizabeth

Toughness Check: [roll0]

Close Combat Roll: [roll1] Damage DC 27 if it hits. Not only did he fail by three degrees, but he also crit failed, dropping it to four degrees of failure and knocking him out of the fight. Good punch.

It seems that the flooring was not quite as steady as you thought. Your dash towards Todd causes part of the floor to crack sharply, sending wood shrapnel flying into the air. This doesn't effect your footing in the slightest; Todd, however, quickly raises one of his hands to protect his eyes, dropping completely out of his defensive stance. He lowers his hand just in time to watch as your fist rushes to the underside of his jaw. His eyes widen ever so slightly. Then your fist connects, sending the man flying in an arc through the air He lands with a loud thud about ten feet away, completely unconscious.

Michael

Toughness Check vs DC 30: [roll2]
Will Check: [roll3]

It's not likely he'll survive that hit, but if he does:
Close Combat: [roll4] Damage DC 23 21 if it hits.

Current Condition: -1 and staggered.

"Oh, I'm not making fun," Shamaness replies as you summon your ax. "I once knew a guy who had to do a little dance step every time he--"

The green axe bites deep into the white-furred beast, causing it to howl in pain. Shamaness shudders, looking at you with realization dawning in her eyes. "It's hate; every strike is fueled by hate! I didn't catch it with the tribesmen before, there were too many and they died too fast, but now... what makes you hate so much?" The beast slashes at you with its claws, and although it hits, its movements seem stiff somehow, as though some of it's strength has vanished.

Nate

"There should be a working burner in the pile, somewhere. I think I have a blank DVD on me, hang on," he says, pulling out several discs and flipping through them. Scratched, scratched, used, scratched, encrypted... ah, here you go!" he says, handing you a surprisingly clean disc.

Perception DC 8 or Knowledge: Technology DC 25 to either spot a DVD burner or quickly build one with what is around you.

Howard

Protagonist catches your reluctant tone. "Influencing the world around you or even manipulating others can be used for good or for evil. The world can be influenced for the better, and some people must be manipulated out of their own defenses and fears if they are to see the truth. I started wanting to be these characters because I thought they'd make me more important than I was. Their stories revolved around them, and I wanted that. No power makes you noble or treacherous; powers simply are."

Your summoning of Smaug produces a more... pronounced reaction. "Holy--" Protagonist almost shouts before catching himself. "All right. Obviously, you're fairly powerful, if you can bring something like him out of a book on your second go. Now, do you mind putting him back?" Protagonist says, his voice scarcely above a whisper.

Smaug is still currently asleep; Stealth DC 13 to keep him that way.

[Anubis Dread]

Toughness Check: [roll0]


Wincing as he was knocked backwards by the impact of the blow, Michael eyed his opponent up as he pondered his next move. It seemed like his weapon had weakened his enemy... good, but it seemed like it had just been a glancing blow. "Let's just say the past couple of days have been rather indicative of my life in general," he replied, lunging forward to swing his axe into the enemy again. It seemed like he only needed to say it to conjure the weapon, not use it. Good, if he needed to shout out his attacks every time he'd go nuts.


Wolf Hunter, All-Out-Attacking for 5, Power Attacking for 3. Also the Secondary Effect takes effect on the Weaken portion of the last attack.

[roll1]

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Honestly, I'm not sure if that was healing. I fertilized the soil, basically. I mean, really well, I guess...maybe the principle would be the same." She could experiment with that on her own though. Fact was, poking herself with a knife and trying to heal it was in her future, but there was no need to make Dawn sit through it.

When the hero suggested turning the power to harm...Lily kinda clammed up. "Okay, see...here's the thing. The reason that did work, and took only a few minutes rather than, like, days, is because whatever my blood's been turned into, it stores energy. Like...a lot of energy. And plants...they use energy. Sometimes to grow, or bear fruit...but some of them can convert that same sunlight to...really, really dangerous stuff." She was kind of hedging, and she knew it. "Poison, yeah, probably. But I think there are other possibilities. Like um..." She licked her lips, looked to the tree Dawnlight had scorched and healed, and spat at it, a glob of the same yellowish substance. But as it left her mouth, she made a quick cellular alteration to it to unlock some of the energy it held, and it wouldn't just scorch the tree, but bore straight into it, a gaping wound that would grow and spread until all the energy was expended, leaving the wood around it soft and pulpy.

Then she'd walk over and drip more of the nectar onto the tree, this time trying to use the energy contained within to hasten its cellular regeneration.

First Floral Acid on the tree at [roll0]. Auto-crit if it hits for attacking an object as a non-routine check. Toughness DC 28 vs. Damage and Dodge DC 23 vs. Weaken Toughness.

Then will try the actual Healing Nectar, at [roll1], although healing beyond the first condition takes effect over the course of one additional round each. It is Restorative as well, so would remove up to ten points of the Weaken. However, it's not Affects Objects, so it presumably won't actually work on a tree, barring GM discretion.

Actually, you know what, since it actually makes a lot of sense for Lily to be able to heal and poison plants, what would you say to a Feature that's basically "Lily's Flower Girl powers count as having Affects Objects for purposes of affecting living plantlife"? I could spend the PP we earned on that.

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth's grin widens as she feels her knuckles' impact. The powerful blow carries him up and away. She quickly retracts her fist to resume her guard position; it takes her a moment to realize that doing so was unnecessary. "...Todd?" Elizabeth looks back over her shoulder at the shattered floor and connects the dots. She had not planned it, but it seems her charge provided a screen of sorts.

"He did say not to hold back," she mutters indignantly as she walks to his side. "Is this a praiseworthy outcome, I wonder?" Elizabeth shakes her head and kneels next to Todd. She gingerly runs her fingers over his chin and his throat to confirm that he is indeed only unconscious. The thought of using the radio to call for help crosses her mind. She raises the radio to her mouth, pausing to prepare her next words. "Better safe than sorry... Elizabeth Greenwood reporting from the gymnasium. My instructor, Todd Carmichael, has been rendered unconscious as a result of our sparring exercise. I will perform what diagnosis I can, but I may require assistance in a worst case scenario. Over."

DC 10 Treatment check to diagnose injury. I'm not sure if Elizabeth requires proper medical equipment or not; I'm going to assume yes, so her check will take a -5 circumstance penalty.
Treatment: [roll0]

[Arcran]

"Okay, okay," Howard mubmles, staggering slightly. Not surprisingly, summoning Smaug had created a bit more of a negative impact on him than summoning a rope ladder had. In his still panicked state Howard doesn't know exactly what to do. The ladder had vanished when he hadn't needed it, right? That's what the file had said? He certainly didn't need Smaug right now, especially since if he woke up there was a very non-zero chance that he would set them on fire. What had happened in the book? He didn't kill Bilbo then and there, but that was because he smelled odd. Maybe they'd smell different than Middle Earth humans and get a small mercy? That would be too much to ask for, right?

Quickly shaking his head, Howard tries to focus.

I don't need a giant dragon in the library. I don't need a giant dragon in the library. I don't need a giant dragon in the library. I really don't need a giant dragon in the library.

Hopefully it would work?

Stealth: [roll0]

I suppose RAW I should just dismiss him by turning off the power, but that seems wrong somehow since he's Hostile. If this power had the Resistable extra it would be a DC 18 Will for him to resist being summoned; maybe something like that applies here? Not really sure. Rolling Will anyways.

Will: [roll1]

[TooManySecrets]

Nate takes the DVD, then awkwardly transfers it over to his other hand (the same one the blood testing machine is in). He moves over to the haphazard pile of scrap and looks at it. Ah, there. Not a DVD burner but pieces of one. Working pieces. Nate didn't know how he knew that they were working just that he did.

Both hands now full, he walks over to a work bench on the "clean" side and places everything down. Taking out a screwdriver followed by a soldering gun, Nate quickly deftly puts the pieces of the DVD burner together, along with splicing a normal AC plug to it. He plugs it in, turns it on, the little green light flashes and the tray opens up. Nate gently puts the blank DVD into.

Apparently satisfied, Nate gets up, grabs some safety glasses, and searches in the pile for some clamps and a thick sheet of metal. He puts the clamps on the table, and then goes over to the milling machine and places the metal sheet onto it. "Uh, glasses on or stand back," he says to Slapdash before putting on his own glasses. He turns the milling machine on and then cuts a circle out of the metal sheet. Keeping the circle, he tosses the remnant on the pile of scrap.

Why did I do that?

Nate turns to Slapdash. "Uh, let's go to the kitchen, shall we? There's something I have to cook." Nate starts walking out, thinks better of it and turns back to unplug and pick up the DVD burner and take the clamps, along with the circle of metal he is already carrying. Then he walks out.

[Zelphas]

Michael

Toughness Check vs DC 25: [roll0]
Will Check: [roll1]
EDIT: Both of these should be minus 1, but it doesn't change the outcome this time. My mistake

Close Combat: [roll2] Damage DC 22 if it hits.

Your second strike doesn't seem to affect the creature as much as the first one did; already, its strength seems to be returning slightly. "What does... I'd love to pry, but I don't doubt you have a periwinkle mace or something for people who ask too many questions, so I'll just stand back here."

Lily

That feature works fine by me; go ahead.

The acid eats a gaping wound into the tree, causing it to sway and creak alarmingly. Your healing nectar gets to work almost immediately, however, slowly forming new wood and sap to replace what was eaten away.

"...Well," Dawnlight says after a long moment, bemused. "I see what you mean by stored energy! I wonder what else you could--" she is interrupted by your radio squawking. You hear Elizabeth's voice a second later: "Elizabeth Greenwood reporting from the gymnasium. My instructor, Todd Carmichael, has been rendered unconscious as a result of our sparring exercise. I will perform what diagnosis I can, but I may require assistance in a worst case scenario. Over."

Dawnlight blinks, and then sighs. "Of course Todd got himself knocked out cold. Kinetic absorption doesn't keep it from hurting, I keep telling him that... may I?" she says, indicating your radio. Once she has it, she speaks quickly into it. "This is Dawnlight. Lily Woods and I will revive Mr. Carmichael. Guards are not needed at this time, thank you. Be right down, Elizabeth." She hands you back your radio, looking exasperated. "Well, come on, let's go meet my often-unconscious teammate."

Elizabeth (and Lily)

Heal check: [roll3]

You look Todd over, but you can't tell how serious his jaw looks. He is still breathing, but he's not waking up as of yet.

A few minutes after 'Dawnlight' speaks on the radio, a woman of medium build, with long, glowing golden hair and bright amber eyes walks briskly into the gymnasium, followed by Lily. Dawnlight groans when she sees Todd on the floor. "Right in the jaw, of course; Todd, you idiot," she mutters, bending down over the unconscious man. Her hands begin to glow with soft golden light, spreading over the growing bruise on Todd's jaw. After a moment, Todd's eyes open, and he coughs, sitting up. "Grace," he says, seeing Dawnlight. He rotates his jaw a few times, looking over at Elizabeth."Solid hit. Almost the hardest I've been hit in a long while."

"Todd, what is wrong with you?!" Dawnlight explodes. "Why on earth did you--" "It was the best way to figure out what she could do," he responds, unperturbed. "She has lots of power, but little control." He nods to Elizabeth. "We'll work on that."

Howard

Unfortunately for you, your stagger knocks the ornate copy of the Hobbit off of the table it was sitting on, causing it to fall onto the floor of the library with a loud THUD. Protagonist freezes. The quiet is deafening.

Then, Smaug opens one great golden eye, gazing around him in growing confusion. He swivels his thick, red-scaled neck, zeroing in on your and inflating his nostrils in a massive intake of breath. The great maw opens, and Smaug speaks. "WHO--"

You suddenly feel a surge of energy run out of you, and the great worm is gone. Nothing except for the stench of sulfur and the cracked, bowed, and crushed remains of the bookcases give any hint that Smaug the Magnificent had ever been in this reality.

You see a glint of gold, half-hidden under a pile of torn and tattered books. It seems that some of Smaug's riches may have remained behind when the great worm was banished.

Protagonist walks towards you, taking your arm and leading you to a chair. "You look exhausted. I think that's enough for today; you over-strained your powers already. I think we'll do tomorrow's training outdoors; I'll bring out some books."

Nate

"Sure, no problem. You know where they are, right?" Slapdash grabs the remnant of the metal sheet and stores it in one of his pockets, following you out the door. "What are you--nah, nevermind. No questions until the end of the tour, I promise; I don't want to mess with your process," he says, grinning.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Uh...y-yeah," Lily responded, her eyes a little wide. She had expected an acidic reaction, sure. She figured it would be harmful, even dangerous. After all, for the nectar to have the healing properties the scientists had suggested in her file, it would have had to store a lot more energy than any normal plant. She had figured it would have to be at least ten times as much. Maybe as high as a hundred. That'd be pushing it, but that sort of energy could make something like citric acid approach the strength of hydrochloric acid. So she expected similar results to what Dawnlight had - burning the tree some, maybe making a small hole, and repairing the same. To her, that rated as dangerous. You could really hurt someone with acid that strong!

So when Dawnlight went to check on her teammate, Lily followed along in something of a daze, honestly trying not to panic. That wasn't "approaching" the strength of hydrochloric acid - that blew it out of the water. She spat at the tree and nearly tore the thing down. Forget hurting someone, an acid that powerful could kill someone easily. She almost didn't want to know what kind of poisons she could create.

She looked down at the fallen Mr. Carmichael as they entered the room, and then up at Elizabeth. She didn't look hurt or even at all winded. He was able to absorb kinetic energy, and she had floored him without even breaking a sweat? Evidently Lily wasn't the only one whose powers turned out to be stronger than anticipated.

Just what did that gas do to us?

[Arcran]

"That could be a good idea. I think I'll stick to rope ladders for a bit," Howard says with an awkward chuckle, falling into the chair, wiping the beads of sweat away from his eyebrows, although that seemed to be more from fear than the exertion. Had he just - that was Smaug. A dragon. He'd pulled a dragon out of a book and dumped it in this room. A dragon that had probably been about to eat them, or burn them, or something to that effect.

"And look," he mutters, pointing towards the hidden gold. "He left us our insurance money, if it decides to stick around," Howard says, becoming a little more revitalized. He'd somehow managed to force Smaug away but the gold had remained? Did it not actually count as the dragon once he left? Or were there other rules that governed what stayed and what went away? There had to be rules for his powers, right? This kind of stuff always had rules.

"Can you wait up a second? I want to try one more thing," he says, pulling himself out of the chair and walking towards the pile of gold. If this was permanent he could be rich. All he had to do was call up a dragon on occasion. If not, well, sometimes things just don't go your way.

Unsure how to go about this, Howard picks up one of the pieces of gold.

I don't need this anymore, he thinks over and over, focusing on the small, glittering piece of metal.

[Anubis Dread]

Toughness: [roll0]

Berserker is hit by another Weaken effect due to secondary effect.


Michael didn't even bother responding. This thing was pissing him off too much. Not only was it still standing no matter how much he beat it up, but it had actually tried to injure him. It had almost succeeded even. He knew he had some kind of regeneration power, but he had no idea how it worked. For all he knew it could just mean he'd spend half the time in a hospital bed he would normally.

This THING wasn't just some big brute or bully. It was certainly, but there was a lot more to it than that. It wasn't real. It was just some magical figment called forward from reality to PISS HIM THE F*** OFF! There was no blood to shed. No mind to outwit. It was just some mindless abomination from the mystic realms, a big middle finger to reality as a whole. Lots of people claimed to be able to do magic. Some of them even could. But a lot of them tended to show it off. Gather a following. Use it to advance their station. He didn't care that this thing was a conjuration and not a magician itself, he was going to kill it dead.

His green axe shattered in his hand. Focusing his hatred, a golden spear took its place. Lunging forward, Michael attempted to impale his enemy, ending things once and for all. "WITCH HUNTER!"


Switching to Devil Hunter, Power Attacking for 5, All-Out-Attacking for 5

[roll1]

[PalusAbel]

"This is Dawnlight. Lily Woods and I will revive Mr. Carmichael. Guards are not needed at this time, thank you. Be right down, Elizabeth." Elizabeth let out a small sigh before replying, "Roger. Over and out." True to her word, Dawnlight appears minutes later with Lily in tow. Elizabeth keeps her silence as Dawnlight goes straight to work. She is mildly surprised by Todd's near-instantaneous recovery.

That is a convenient power. I only picked up the basics of first aid to carry me through back-to-back nights in the ring. I could not so much as diagnose his injuries, to say nothing of healing them. Her own power lacked finesse and restraint, at least for now; with Todd's help, that might soon change. With that hope in mind, Elizabeth offers her instructor her trademark smile. "As I recall, you said not to hold back, haha. Still, you are correct in that moderating my strength is difficult. Back in the prison yard, I buried myself halfway into the wall after running into it."

Elizabeth realizes that she has not yet addressed her other visitor; an issue she soon corrects. "Ah, Lily. I take it Dawnlight here is your instructor? I hope your training began more smoothly than mine did."

[TooManySecrets]

Nate makes his way down the holes, clutching his random assortment of items. The kitchen was empty of anybody at that moment — lunch had been a while ago and dinner was still hours off. Nate goes to one of the stations with an oven and, carefully but without much ceremony, places them down on the counter. He looks through the cupboards until he comes across two things: an aluminum cooking pot and a bag of sugar. Dumping some of the sugar in without apparently measuring it, he then puts the pot under the faucet and runs some water into it. It creates a sort of sugar slush.

Nate brings the pot over to the oven and puts the metal circle on it's top. It fits perfectly, almost like it was made for it. On the clamps go, securing the ad hoc cover. He then puts the whole pot into the oven and turns on the heat to a relatively low temperature.

Turning to Slapdash, he says "Well, that's done." Whatever that was. "It'll take about two hours for that to cook. I think. Ah, so, I guess we can talk until it's done, uh, if you want."


_/ _/ _/ _/ _/

Slapdash had been good on his word and the little helicopter drone had returned shortly carrying a bag of food with a little mechanical claw. The fast-food was exactly as Nate remembered: greasy, slightly overcooked, and with the distinctive taste that one can only achieve through rigorous corporate standardization and the attention of apathetic burger flippers. It was terrible. It was also something familiar and, in Nate's mind, proof positive that he was finally out of jail. Sure, this "facility" was still a gilded cage but it was way above prison.

Whelp, I won't have to have another one of those for at least a few more months.

Slapdash and Nate sat in the little cafeteria that was attached to the kitchen. It was nice, in a sort of government-sanctioned-school way, and obviously made for more people than just the former convicts. Nate had finished his burger and was now sucking down the last of the pop bit by bit. "So, uh, Slapdash, you said earlier that your, uh, 'technomancy' was disorganized. When did you, y'know, uh, find out that you had this, uh, 'power'?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

It took the distracted chemist a few moments to realize she was being spoken to. "Uh-huh," she answered. "I mean, yeah, she is. And...maybe? I kinda almost broke a tree. But then I fixed it, so it's okay. I guess."

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth's grin widens. "Ah, so basically, if you consider Todd to be a tree, the two of us ended up doing more or less the same thing." The laugh that follows is a booming affirmation of her genuine amusement, devoid of any ill will.

[Zelphas]

Lily and Elizabeth

In the background of your conversation, Dawnlight is chiding Todd, while he stoically takes the verbal abuse, looking as though he's heard all of this a thousand times before.

I don't have much else for you guys to do here; I think that your training has a good groundwork to build on. Talk as much as you like; but I'm ready to jump ahead when you are.

Howard

With a small *ping*, the gold coin disappears. You notice a few books shift among the ruined shelves; it seems other bits of gold vanished as well.

"I think we'll do our next training session outside," Protagonist says, coming up to you with a smile.

Take a Hero Point for the loss of the gold. I think your opening training session is well wrapped up, unless you have anything more to add.

Michael

Toughness: [roll0]
Will: [roll1]

Shamaness' Fortitude: [roll2]

Close Combat: [roll3] Damage DC 23-Weaken if it hits.

Your spear strikes true, stabbing through the conjured fur and flesh and biting into the magical substance beneath. You hear Shamaness gasp, and the Berserker's form flickers, flashing once into vivid reality before fading into nothingness before you.

"That's... that's it for today. I can't... I can't summon anything else, not right now. We'll try... something else tomorrow." Shamaness is clutching her stomach, her hand over the exact place where your spear entered the Berserker. She looks sick, and badly shaken.

That's probably enough for today. If you have anything else you want to do, go ahead.

Nate

"Oh, that." Slapdash pauses from devouring his Whopper to run a hand ashamedly through his hair. "I was about sixteen. I had forgotten about a science fair--mandatory for all students, 30 percent of my Physics grade, all that crap--and it was due that day. So, during Study Hall, I threw together--well, I thought it was a perpetual motion machine." Slapdash still looks ashamed, but there's pride in his voice as well. "It took about a year to show noticeable signs of lost energy, so that was a bust. It won me the science fair, though. Now, I have a question for you," he says, taking another huge bite of his burger. "Do you know what you're making right now?"
-----
Two hours later, your concoction is complete. Slapdash hovers in the background, ready to see what you have made.

Sorry if I'm rushing you; it looks like everyone's just about done with this day, and I'd like to get you all in one place and working together again at some point.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"I thought you were the tree," Lily replied with a grin. "The um...Raging Redwood, right? Or something?" she asked with an uncertain shrug.

"But yeah, hopefully the guys will manage to be at least somewhat less destructive with their powers."

(Lily was, of course, blissfully unaware of the events occurring - or to occur, whatever - in the library).

[PalusAbel]

"Haha, touché! I should have seen that one coming." Elizabeth's laughter redoubles. "I hope that does not mean you will break me next."

She thumps her chest with her fist. "And as for my name, how could anyone forget the name of the glorious Fighting Redwood, terror of the Mesa City circuit?!" She pauses briefly, then laughs again. "I merely jest. The nickname is nothing clever; my manager simply took one look at me and then at my last name and decided to make a play on words. I used to think it was tasteless, but I have grown accustomed to it since then. Although I will say I prefer 'Fighting' over 'Raging' - do I look that angry to you?" Elizabeth directs her beaming grin toward Lily.

"What about you? Agent Branch mentioned that you and your mother were doctors, and that your father was a lawyer, if memory serves me well. I wonder if people in those lines of work pick up nicknames, too?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Fighting Redwood, right. Yeah, that's definitely nicer than raging," Lily agreed with a nod. "Yeah. Well, different sort of doctors, but yeah. Although I guess maybe not quite as different anymore, if this...nectar or whatever it is works as well on people as it does on trees."

"Nah, no nicknames. Hmm... I wonder if I should get one though. You know, if we're going to be doing this superhero stuff. The recognition could be valuable down the road."

[Anubis Dread]

Interesting... he hadn't expected for this power to feedback like that. He didn't know whether it was a result of his spear or if it was just how that particular summons worked. Either way it was definitely something to file away in the back of his head. You never knew when someone might become your enemy after all.

Dismissing the spear from his hand, Michael began to walk out of the room. "Sure. I'm sure you learned what you set out to already anyway," he remarked as he stepped outside. And he'd learned a few new hunts. He may still not have much of an idea on the limits of his regeneration, but progress was progress.

[Arcran]

"I agree," Howard mutters a little dejectedly, looking longingly at the empty space where there had once been a gold coin. It looked like he wouldn't be making anything permanent anytime soon, if ever.

After one last look at the heavily damaged library, Howard turns to Protagonist, a look of concern on his face. Would they be able to fix that easily? Or did he just destroy some priceless classics?

"Is it dinner time yet?" Howard says, trying to force the concern on his face into something lighter, trailing off awkwardly at the end when he realizes he doesn't know Protagonist's real name. "Actually, I never caught your name. Or is that a secret?" Howard asks, still a little too tired to think straight. He'd guess not because of the lack of a mask, but who really knew? Or maybe he was disguised as some unimportant protagonist from an uninteresting book? That would be an excellent disguise if done right.

[PalusAbel]

"Nectar, huh? Then, is 'Lily' not a suitable name already?" Elizabeth voices what she thinks is obvious. "I do not believe that we need pseudonyms. In my case, I would be hard-pressed to conceal my identity no matter what name or costume I adopted, but perhaps it is not the same for everyone. Lily is a fine name; if you have the option, I would suggest you keep it."

[TooManySecrets]

Ah, don't worry. We're almost to the end. Besides, with everybody acting at different times we don't want to cause any time paradoxes.

"Do you know what you're making right now?"

"...No."


_/ _/ _/ _/ _/

Nate opens the oven and takes out the pot. Well, he does after remembering the pot holders. He unclamps the top of the pot and there's a hiss of escaping air followed by the smell of burnt sugar. Using a slotted spoon, Nate skims the top of the burnt sugar mixture and takes out ... something. It looks almost like soggy, black tissue paper and comes in ragged squares about thumb size. Nate takes them and, opening the DVD drives, places them on top of the blank DVD, before closing the drive again, plugging it in and turning it on. He skims the rest of the mixture and places some more of those black squares in a bowl. When he's done, he dumps the remaining mixture, which is mostly brown water and a sludge of burnt sugar at the bottom. A few minutes later, he pops open the DVD drive and takes out a large black wafer the same size as the blank DVD. He places the rest of the black squares into the drive. A few more minutes later, he now has two of the wafers.

Picking up the metal pot top, the wafers, and the DVD drive, he walks back to the workshop and places them all down.

Why did I do any of that stuff? Strike that, I know why I did it. My power. But why did my power do any of that?

He looks down and picks up one of the wafers. It felt extremely light but it didn't feel like it was going to tear or anything. What purpose did they serve?

I told Slapdash that I thought that my power worked when I wanted to accomplish some goal but who knows if that's true? What if there's no rhyme or reason? What had I been thinking of- Side effects. He had been thinking of side effects. Nate glances over at the blood testing machine on the other work bench. He had wanted something that made it easier to get blood-to-metal contact but that was only part of the problem. If he didn't want any more side effects he needed to solve something else: power requirements.

Time stands still. In his head: a new machine. Smaller than the old one. Better tools this time. Better material. The blood testing machine. The wafers. The DVD drive. And a few more pieces to hold it all together. He saw what he needed to do.

He looks down on the table. There it is. No, really, there it is. Nate shakes his head. He felt light-headed. His hands are dirty and he doesn't remembered how it happened. He felt tired and a bit hungry (but only a bit).

Nate reaches down and picks up the machine. The Elemental Phase Oscillator, Mark II. It was relatively small, no wider nor longer than his hand. Maybe about an inch thick. It seemed to have two main parts: two smaller enclosures next to each on one end and a larger enclosure up front, both on a thin frame. Nate flips it over to check. Yep, the larger enclosure was the blood testing machine, or at least part of it. On the underside was a tiny needle — little more than a pin prick, really — and, welded to the frame of the machine, were some small steel loops for the black leather straps. The entire machine seemed pretty solid, all steel burnished black. He takes it, rolls up the sleeve on his right arm, and puts it on. A perfect fit. Of course.

He tightens the straps and he can feel the machine, really feel it. It was warm but not uncomfortably so and it seemed to move something inside him. Must be whatever energy it's ... oscillating, he figured. It almost felt alive.

Nate swivels in his chair to look for Slapdash. He was there but not where Nate remembered him. "Um, did I black out or something?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Huh. That makes a lot of sense, actually. But it's not about keeping a secret identity. I mean, it's the opposite, really. It's like...most people don't really know Elizabeth Greenwood, right? Some people might have seen her, talked to her a bit. They know she's tall and friendly and pretty and..." Lily thought back to their "briefing" (she decided was a charitable name for it), and Elizabeth's conditions for joining the team. "...she has three sisters that she cares a lot about. But she's still just another person. She's taller than them, but not larger than life. But then...well, you said it yourself! How can anyone forget the name of the glorious Fighting Redwood, terror of the Mesa City circuit!" She tried to speak a bit deeper and louder at that, to emulate Elizabeth's voice some. It was a laughable attempt, but it's the thought that counts.

"There's a power in names, an advantage to be had. Yeah, Lily's a perfectly good name and an...oddly fitting one, actually. But it's not a hero's name. Lily Woods and Elizabeth Greenwood are two people you could meet at the supermarket. When they help catch an escaped criminal, sure, it'll be in the newspaper, people will hear about it, but it'll still come up beneath the latest headline about Doctor Proxy or the Mesa City Variety Show. But if I'm going to be spending my first six months with powers fighting crime instead of developing a high-energy form of corn that will simultaneously reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and feed half of the Third World, then when I'm done I plan to have sponsors lining up to fund my research and agricultural businesses stepping all over each other to try and earn the right to distribute what I develop. Forget reality stars, forget singers, forget actors, heck, forget politicians; we have the chance to be superheroes, and if we do it right it will open so many doors for our futures that a precog would curl up into a ball weeping at the sight of us! And an exciting, media-friendly, memorable name will help with that."

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth, lost for words, simply stares at Lily in stunned silence. "Well," she says after a pause a truck could drive through, "That was more profound than I expected. Clearly you have put more thought into this than I have. Makes me wonder whether sticking to my old nickname is really enough." Elizabeth smiles again, her impression of Lily deeply changed.

"You know, you probably have more to offer the world than I do. I have said as much before, but I am a simple person whose only real talent lies in fighting. I lack the education you have, and my power seems rather one-dimensional. For that reason, I think that for the next six months I will be in your care. Someone with your foresight would make a wonderful leader. And as long as you have me around, you can rest assured that I will protect you with all of my might. Okay, Lily?"

[Zelphas]

Howard

"It's Donald," Protagonist responds, smiling. "Get some rest. Using your power gets easier once you find your niche, I promise."

Nate

Slapdash watches silently as you finish building your machine, chuckling once when he sees what you have made from the sugar. "'Blacking out' might not be the right word," he says after a moment. "Your focus on building was so complete that you blocked out everything else. If I'm guessing right, it looks like you have all the ability to build whatever you need, without the foreknowledge. That's going to be my job, then. Building whatever your power needs you to is all well and good, but it's better to control it than to let it control you." Slapdash shrugs, looking around at all of the materials in the room around you. "It won't be quite as much fun as building increasingly outrageous devices to test your ability, but there you are. Now, so that we have a baseline; how many of the tools in this room can you name?"

January 8th, 2015
11:03 A.M.

Everyone

After three days of varied training, all of you are ordered to a classroom on the first floor of the building. Agent Branch stands at the front of the classroom, waiting for you all to enter. "Hello, all of you. I trust that the training is going well.

Eventually, we'd like you to begin tracking down the escaped convicts using your own skills, but a problem has developed in the Mesa City Zoo that we think would be perfect for your group. It seems that the Silverback gorilla tribe at the Mesa City Zoo has become increasingly hostile; several zookeepers have sustained bludgeoning injuries and bite wounds from the animals when they attempt to feed them, and the zoo patrons have been attacked by thrown objects, such as sticks, rocks, and feces." Branch pauses for a moment to look up at you all. "Now, normally this wouldn't be something that we'd call you in for, but one of the zookeepers that was injured claimed that there was an extra ape among the tribe; this one walked more erect, he claimed, and he seemed to have supplanted the old leader. He also claimed that the creature had extra arms.

Your job is to investigate this incident and bring in the four-armed ape for identification, if it exists. IF this is one of the criminals, then it's as good a place to start as any; if this turns out to be nothing, then it's a good team exercise for all of you. Plus, you get to go to the zoo," he adds with a twinkle in his eyes. "A car has been provided to take you to the zoo, and police will be nearby if necessary. Try not to kill any of the gorillas; the Mesa City Zoo is very proud of their tribe, and any casualties will be rather... expensive to replace."

You can assume that you have a basic understanding of your powers after these three days. Nate, feel free to have built your GBP and NAB in this intervening time.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily gave a warm smile. Part of her didn't want to feel as comforted as she did, but the fact was, much as she talked down the dangers and focused on the future, what they were going to be doing was dangerous. Although to be fair, she didn't see herself as much of the leader type. More an advisor maybe, she thought. "Yeah, okay," she agreed. "But don't sell yourself short! We've only had these powers for a couple days, after all!"

---

Later that evening, as Lily was walking into the kitchen to prepare dinner, "Okay, let's see, I'm sure everyone's pretty tired from training and stuff all day. We want something high-energy, and preferably munchable, 'cause I bet everyone will want to talk about all the cool stuff they did with their powers. So maybe start with a nice huh?" *Sniff*

"What the..." *Sniff sniff sniff!*

"Oh my God...!" *Sniff...sniff...!*

"Someone brought fast food into my kitchen!? What treachery is this!?"

---

Between getting settled in (and just taking the opportunity to enjoy the renewed ability to be alone for a blessed change) yesterday and training today, it wasn't until after dinner that night that Lily finally felt she had the time and the energy to call her family. She was eager to tell them about her powers, and what she had learned of them, and how by the end of the six months she was going to turn this whole community service bit into a superheroic reputation that would when combined with the powers themselves skyrocket her research and development plans decades ahead and maybe get help figuring out a codename...

Anyone with a room close enough to Lily's might have become aware of the fact that the talks didn't go as she'd hoped. She exchanged tense words with her dad when he told her to stay out of harms way and avoid taking as many risks as she could and to leave it to him to get her out of the situation, which she A) rather doubted was possible at that stage and B) wouldn't have accepted anyway especially after Elizabeth's heartfelt promise earlier. No way would she just abandon her fledgling team even if she could. Her mom seemed at least more interested in what she had learned about her healing abilities but any time she tried to even mention the offensive potential of her powers she tried to push her towards staying out of any fighting. She dressed it up better than her dad did, talking about how a medic is valuable but not expected to do any fighting, but dressed up or not it was the same basic idea.

Her brother at least pretended to be supportive. She could hear in his voice that he was trying to channel nervousness and concern into enthusiasm but she appreciated the effort at least. They even had a few laughs coming up with name ideas ("The Pollinator" had them both in stitches for a solid minute), but then he got absolutely stuck on the idea of Flower Girl and would not get off it no matter how many times she told him she was going for more "awesome science healer/hero" rather than "six year old at a wedding" and she finally gave up.

Her call with her sister was the worst, devolving into a screaming match before the end, Hannah telling her she had no training, no combat experience ("Uh-huh! I put a giant spiky guy to sleep in the prison yard!"), none of the physical or mental strength necessary to handle mundane combat let alone super-powered enemies, and any time Lily tried to counter with her powers she only got dismissive responses. "Oh, your pollen can blind them? So your big power is kicking dirt in their eyes?" "If you have to bleed on them to get the job done it means you are losing, Lily!" "What are you going to do? Smell good at them really hard?" She repeated several of the same things Nate had brought up during the briefing, demanded that she back out of the deal immediately ("Yes! Even if it means you have to stay in prison for another few years!") and Lily had finally hung up on her in a fury.

She knew, logically, that they were just scared for her, just trying to protect her, but it was just so...demeaning.

But fine. Whatever. She'd show them. She'd show them all!

(Lily didn't consider herself a mad scientist, but she could admit, she kinda had always wanted to say that).

---

At what Lily immediately decided would hereby be known by all (but mostly just her) as the Second Briefing (AKA "The One With The Gorillas") she listened quietly as Agent Branch detailed the assignment.

Disable without killing. Well, that she could do. The past few days had given Lily ample opportunity to conduct some experiments, and the memory of the damage her acid had caused to the tree had been all the incentive she needed to come up with some alternate ideas. Some of them were more theoretical, still, but seemed to have been feasible in small-scale testing. This would make an excellent full scale. Operation: Smell Good At Them Really Hard was officially a go.

"Understood, Sir," she said.

[Anubis Dread]

Last night had been the first night Michael had allowed himself to sleep. There had still been far too many questions left unanswered as to how his powers worked for him to waste time on rest, and he knew training alone wouldn't cover the full extent of his abilities. So he had experimented and trained of an evening, until he decided he finally knew enough about his powers that further work would be dangerous and got some sleep on the final night.

As far as he could tell he had seven hunts, each covering a different situation. Some were somewhat flexible in the type of enemy they were designed to take down, others were incredibly specific but especially harmful within that specific scenario. He suspected that he could make any weapon he wanted for any opponent if he so chose given some time to refine his hatred however - the seven weapons he did have simply reflected his seven greatest hatreds as they stood right now. He was not sure if making a new hunt would supplant an old one however - for all he knew he could only keep the mental data required to maintain seven weapons at once, and that was why he only had seven as it stood right now despite hating plenty more than he had hunts to deal with.

It also seemed all of his other powers related to his hatred as well. His fortitude was self-explanatory for how it related to his hatreds, but his regeneration was... interesting. It seemed to correlate directly to his absolute hatred of the idea of dieing. After being close to death several times he understood the hate he had for potentially throwing his life away before his work was done, but that seemed to translate to him constantly having the same energy used for his hunts pumping through his body to heal injuries. It seemed to heal plenty of injuries too. The most severe was a stab in the heart, and though it had been agonizing he had regenerated before the shock and blood loss killed him. If it had been training he doubted it would have been an acceptable test, but in his own quarters it had been a simple enough exercise. He was hesitant to try anything more severe however.

This had a peculiar effect though - being that the energy in his body was the same he manifested for his hunts, in theory he should be able to divert from his regeneration to boost their effects. But he couldn't. He hated death so much he couldn't consciously move that hatred to another target. In theory if he hated a target so badly he was willing to die to destroy them he might be able to, but he doubted such a target would be easy to come by.

All of this was running through his mind as Michael absently listened to the briefing. "Go to the zoo and kill all the gorillas. Simple enough," he shrugged.

[PalusAbel]

"Haha, you need not worry about that. Perhaps the only thing 'short' about me is my temper! Hahaha!" Pleased with having shared bonding time with her fellow hero-in-training, Elizabeth politely excused herself and resumed her training.

---

Later that evening, after dinner was over, Elizabeth quietly cooled down in her room with a number of stretching exercises. Well, the stretches would have gone quietly if Lily's impassioned cries did not tear through the dorm's atmosphere. Elizabeth respected Lily's privacy by tuning out the words, though even then it was fairly clear that Lily had made a phone call and encountered some problems with the people on the other line. This, naturally, brought up mental images of the three little girls sitting in that dim, lonely apartment. No, it was only dim and lonely in her imagination; surely the smiles and laughs the sisters shared amongst each other and with their babysitter would provide the light and warmth that they needed. But not all of it. Not when the big sister was sitting here halfway across town.

As the echoes of Lily's voice finally began to die down, Elizabeth wondered whether she should make her own call. She ultimately decided against it. Though the conditions were no longer the same, Elizabeth still considered herself an inmate with time left to serve. It was simply that the "bars" of her "cell" had changed shape. Elizabeth assuaged her swirling emotions with the memory of Agent Brannan's promise; she would reunite with her sisters soon enough. Mhmm. I will see them soon. I need not call them. And who knows, maybe they will like being surprised better?

---

"...whew. Forty-five tons, huh?" After their initial spar, Todd had furnished the gymnasium with a special device capable of measuring both Elizabeth's weight and the power of her strikes. Thanks to his guidance and the machine's digital readouts, Elizabeth learned how to moderate her strength, if not the degree of her density manipulation. That would likely take longer than a few days to train. In the meantime, the enhanced precision in her physical movements gave her the confidence that she would not be a sheer liability out in the field.

Which was just as well, since the group's very first official mission was to be assigned the next day.

---

Though she tried her best not to show it, Elizabeth was somewhat discouraged that the area of operations was a public zoo. Even regular gorillas possessed strength far above that of an average human; she would almost certainly need her power to fend off an organized assault, to say nothing of matching a superpowered ape. Using her power, in turn, guaranteed a level of collateral damage. Easy, Redwood. Destroying the landscape is far more acceptable than loss of life, human, gorilla, or otherwise.

To her dismay, Elizabeth's mental reassurances are dispelled by Michael's nonchalant malice. Her fist meets the table in a show of fury. "Michael! Agent Branch specifically instructed us to refrain from killing the gorillas. Why do you show such blatant disregard?" She withdraws from the group, first retracting her extended arm, then taking a few steps away. Elizabeth re-centers herself with a deep breath before continuing in a calmer voice. "...I know that the situation might force us to take a life. I know that. But that does not mean we should go in with the expectation that that will be necessary."

[Arcran]

Howard takes his time to rest rather seriously, at least for the first night. Pulling Smaug the Magnificent, King Under the Mountain, the Dragon Dread out of his story had been more difficult than Howard could have imagined. Of course, when you go from pulling ladders out of stories to pulling out dragons there are, understandably, likely to be a few issues.

The next few days, Howard takes things easily, at least for him. He and Protagonist continue continue to summon things from books, although they remain fairly mundane. While there weren't any more ladders there were plenty of chairs, tables and plates. Howard did make a small amount of food, although he never was brave enough to eat it. He wasn't exactly sure what would happen when he dismissed it but, for some reason, the idea of something that was inside his body just vanishing didn't seem appealing.

It wasn't until the third day that Howard began focusing on some damaging applications of his power. Initially it was just another shift in creating things; dropping them, using them to slow opponents. Nothing too exciting but, at the same time, nothing useless. It wouldn't do anything compared to the others, especially White, but it was enough.

No, the real breakthrough came later when Howard was doing what he did in his off-time; devouring books. Before they'd been for entertainment or some small tidbit of knowledge but now? They could keep him alive. Howard looks again and again through the books, trying to find objects that could help him or, at worst, giving him just a little more material to draw from.

Howard was reading To Kill a Mockingbird... Again. It wasn't a particularly long book. Back in prison it might have taken Howard four, maybe five hours but now? It seemed like he could read it in thirty minutes. He was reading a short passage aloud, mind somewhat wandering as he did so, glancing around the room as he whispered under his breath.

"With movements so swift they seemed simultaneous, Atticus's hand yanked a ball-tipped lever as he brought the gun to his shoulder. The rifle crac-"

Howard's reading is interrupted by the crack of a gunshot. Turning to find the source as he dives under a nearby chair (a small testament to Protagonist's training) Howard sees Atticus Finch, strangely without his glasses kneeling on the ground holding a smoking rifle.

"Donald?" Howard starts, only to watch the man vanish much the way Smaug had.

A slow smile of realization crosses Howard's face. He could pull more than people and things out of books; he could pull events. Now if only he could focus it...



When Howard wasn't reading, training, sleeping or eating (something he did ravenously), he spent his time researching. He had no family to contact and no real friends to get back in contact with. Instead, he focused on the fifteen years of news that he missed. Super Bowls that had gone by, presidencies that were long gone. Technology that he couldn't have dreamed of when he was locked up (touch screen phones?) and some things that he was surprised by the lack of. It was a monumental task, to say the least, and one that Howard did his best to accomplish. There was just so much that had happened, and news was a little harder to get behind bars.

And, of course, Howard looks wherever he can for information about his old victims. In six months he'd be free and, maybe, just maybe, he could do something to help them. He'd need to find them first though...



Zoo cleanup? Howard thinks to himself, having a hard time taking the issue seriously. Guess we've got to keep them down before it becomes their planet, right?

"I have to agree with not killing off the gorillas," Howard says, a careful look on his face. "This is our debut, and in a very public space. If we go in and kill off half the zoo we're more likely to have PETA send assassins after us than get any gratitude," he states, already trying to think of books. The Hobbit was a must. So was To Kill a Mockingbird. Maybe The Jungle Book? That would at least give him plenty of distractions, right? And, of course, Jurassic Park. If he wanted to take down gorillas without killing them there was a perfect scene for that.

"Is the zoo going to be closed while we investigate? Or are we going to be working around field trips and the like?" Howard asks, a little concerned. The zoo was usually fairly busy and contending with the normal visitors might make things more difficult than usual.

[Anubis Dread]

"Hm?" Michaels makes a grunt of confusion. "Sorry I wasn't really paying attention. We're only supposed to kill the four armed one then? Difficult but do-able."

If they did kill the gorillas, would that be good or bad for their position? It would deface them in the eyes of the government, but it would also deface them in the eys of the people working on the outside who believed them being in jail was better for their campaign for meta-human rights. Either way it was a moot point - rocking the boat on their first mission was a bad idea.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily kinda...coughed/cleared her throat and stage-whispered to Michael, "We bring the four-armed one in for identification."

Yikes.

[PalusAbel]

Both of Elizabeth's hands collide with the tabletop this time. "Are you still not paying attention?! We are not killing anything or anyone unless we absolutely must!" Elizabeth pinches the bridge of her nose to stall for time. "...it is not my place to make absolute judgments before we investigate the situation. All I ask of you, Michael, is that you keep an open mind and do not adopt violence as your go-to policy."

This coming from the person who made violence into a career, Elizabeth noted grimly, shaking her head.

[Anubis Dread]

"Alright fine, we'll try not to kill it," Michael agreed with a sigh. "Might be difficult between the blades made of pure hate, the fists that can punch through solid rock and... whatever the hell Howard does that could destroy and entire library, but we'll try."

That made the difficult of the mission go up significantly. Taking something down without killing it was a lot harder than just killing it. It significantly curtailed the tactics they could use and the amount of power they could bring to bear. None the less it wasn't like they had much of a choice but to at least TRY and non-lethally take down their enemy given their current situation...

[Arcran]

"I already apologized for that," Howard mutters, still keeping that fact secret. Protagonist may know that he summoned Smaug and he may know he summoned Smaug but the rest of the team didn't need to know that; if they did, they'd expect far too much from him.

[TooManySecrets]

Nate was tired. Sleep hadn't come easy the past few days. One would think that being out of prison would lift anybody's spirits, but there was something bothering him. He'd got at least a few hours sleep, though, so hopefully he wouldn't be completely zonked out.

Training had gone well. Sort of. Nate had made some more things - the Glacial Beam Projector and the Nanoreactive Armored Bodysuit. Should come in handy. But Slapdash's attempts to teach Nate had gone rather poorly. It's all just so boring. Who cares about the difference between an angle grinder and a bench press or whatever it is? Nate had absolutely no aptitude with machine tools — at least when not using his power — and had little interest in learning some. Attempting to teach Nate science and engineering had gone about as poorly. Nate was smart enough it's just that nothing ever really clicked together and his poor attitude towards the whole ordeal certainly didn't help.

I probably disappointed him. Well, that's par for the course at least.


_/ _/ _/ _/ _/

This briefing has gone swimmingly so far. 'Mr. Furious' over there should just tattoo himself with 'poor impulse control' and be done with it.

Nate was still in the same clothes he was in when he walked out of prison. Washed, though. He hadn't had a moment of real free time to find different ones and he doubted that any of the others had either.

Nate sat in the back of the classroom. Of course.

"Right, so, like take down a pack of 600 pound gorillas, one of whom might be a super-gorilla. Uh, forgive me for asking Agent Branch, but does like this sort of thing happen all the time? 'Cause, like, I've never really seen stuff like this reported on the news. At least not all that often."

[Zelphas]

Agent Branch scowls across the room at all of you. "Like it or not, convicts, you're a team now. You need to start to trust each other. That means actually listening to the mission briefings and showing yourself worthy of that trust, and not flying off the handle at your teammate's misunderstandings, intentional or not." He focuses on Michael and Elizabeth, his voice hard. "White, unless you or your teammates are in definite mortal danger, lethal force on this mission and in all future missions is strongly discouraged unless you are given specific instructions to the contrary. Greenwood, your temper, however noble its intent, is a liability in battle, especially with a team. Master it."

He turns to Howard next. "The zoo was closed yesterday, when a rock thrown by one of the gorillas hit a seven year old, hospitalizing him. He only broke an arm, but this incident along with the zookeeper's report prompted us to send you in. There may be reporters and the like waiting around the front of the zoo; my advice would be to ignore them."

Nate's question draws a thin smile from the stout Agent. "In tiny Midwest Mesa City? Nah, this hasn't happened here. Go to somewhere big like New York or San Francisco, and it seems like every two-bit criminal who gets some minor animal mojo tries to break into the zoo to start an army. The Big Apple recently hired some supers to double as zookeepers, so that they wouldn't have to close the zoo when it happened anymore.

"If there are no more questions, we'll head out in fifteen minutes. grab what you need and meet me at the bus," he finishes off, dismissing you.

-----

January 8th, 2015
11:38 A.M.

There are a few news vans parked in the zoo parking lot as you arrive, but otherwise the lot is empty. Among the vans is one for Channel 7, Mesa City's premiere news channel. As the bus opens and you are let out into the front lot of the zoo, a group of reporters and cameramen rush up to you, microphones at the ready.

"Are you the criminal survivors from the Mesa City Correctional Facility incident five days ago?"

"Is it true that the government offered you a full pardon and a six-figure salary for your cooperation in this crisis?"

"What do you think about the ongoing court trials involving you?"

"How many of the prison guards were working for Doctor Proxy?"

"Is there anything you would like to say to those calling for your re-incarceration?" The questions go on.

When you enter the zoo itself, the reporters fall back, barred entrance into the closed facilities, you are directed to the Ape Building, one of the larger enclosed structures in the zoo. You are ushered to a side entrance, where a large Asian man in a zookeeper's uniform introduces himself as Stanley and leads you to the zookeeper's entrance into the enclosure itself. "The gorillas have been throwing things at whoever opens this door, so I'd move quickly once you're in," Stanley says, unlocking the door and gesturing for you to enter.

As you enter into the zoo, your nose prickles with the smell of antiseptic and a sharp, unpleasant smell you've only ever smelled once before--at the prison yard, when Doctor Proxy released his gas. The smell is not nearly as strong as at that time, and seems to be strangely diluted; it's also old, almost a day old, and it seems to be leading out of the zoo and away in the opposite direction from where you came.

I'd like a Perception Check and a Dodge Check for whoever enters the gorilla enclosure, please.

[Anubis Dread]

Damn Agent Branch acting all tough. Damn reporters getting all up in their grill. And damn apes for getting them all to come out here to a freaking zoo for their first mission. What were they, 12? He hadn't been to a zoo since he was... ever, actually come to think of it. When he was a kid he wasn't well off enough to go, and when he was an adult the whole thing seemed childish.

"I'll go in first," Michael told the others, stepping forward. He had a lot of anger he wanted to work out. Non-lethally, of course. "With my regeneration we probably want whatever is in there to explode in my face first anyway."


Perception: [roll0]
Dodge: [roll1]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily considered speaking to the reporters, but elected not to for the moment. For one, she still hadn't come up with a name. That aside, if they were going to talk to them, she'd rather do it after emerging victorious. Would be a much better show.

Something also kinda told her that "suggestion" was something of a euphemism for Agent Branch, and she'd rather they had a victory under their belts before testing that. So she simply looked to the reports with a soft smile of acknowledgement and a mouthed "sorry" before skirting past them with a flutter of her wings. Though if any of the others wanted to speak to them she'd stop and wait patiently.

When they entered the zoo, though, she halted cold. She sniffed the air a couple times to confirm what she thought she had caught.

"The gas was here," she said to the others, keeping her voice low enough that if any reporters were still nearby they hopefully wouldn't be able to hear. "From the prison yard. It's faint...maybe a day old?" She wasn't a hundred percent sure how she knew that, but was confident in her estimate. Her augmented sense of smell was wired to her brain in ways she couldn't yet begin to understand. "And more...diffuse than it was back then. Perhaps a lower dosage, or mixed with something to reduce the casualty rate."

She took another long, deep breath through her nose. The sensation was strange. She knew of synesthesia of course, and she realized that was kind of what she was experiencing. She couldn't actually see the faint cloud of sort of sparkling neon green hanging in the air and trailing off out of the zoo. But that was the only way her brain was able to translate the directional data her nose was now able to process into something usable. It was kinda trippy. "Wow...guys. I think I can track it. It leads out of the zoo. Maybe it could be diluted because it's already in a subject? Okay, um...don't want to go off reservation on our first mission. I'd say, handle the gorillas, then radio in for permission to track it, maybe?"

[Arcran]

As the group walks towards the zoo Howard pulls out The Hobbit, quickly flipping through his various bookmarks.

"Goblin spears and helmets," he quickly reads, placing emphasis on the latter. A second later a helmet appears in his hands, something that the hero doesn't waste any time plopping down on his head, momentarily disregarding how ridiculous he looked. He also makes a point of keeping his face turned from the cameras; there was no sense in making the media throw a fit over Howard Silvers being one of the convicts that had survived. Once they'd built a bit of a name for themselves maybe, but right now? Forcing a confrontation with the press was close to the worst thing he could do.

As the gate closes behind them Howard quickly dismisses the helmet, taking a short second to fix his hair. As Stanley mentions the gorillas throwing things Howard quickly flies through his bookmarks again, pinpointing another passage.

"Some of them actually sat down and laughed. Others waved their spears and clashed the shafts against their shields."

A shield appears from seemingly nowhere and, after fumbling with the straps for a moment, Howard lifts his arm somewhat, shrugging his shoulder under the unexpected weight.

"We need to focus on the actual zoo first," Howard agrees as Lily speaks. "Our job right now is to take care of the effects of the gas, not hunt down the source. We'll get the gorillas pacified, then see what Branch wants us to do," Howard says in a model Boy-Scout fashion. With a quick nod towards the others he lifts his shield up, trying to hide behind it as much as possible before entering the zoo behind White, looking around fervently.

Perception: [roll0]
Dodge: [roll1]

The shield is really just fluff; it's just my Create power, not anything that actually boosts my stats.

[TooManySecrets]

Nate is wearing the Nanoreactive Armored Bodysuit, which covers him from head to toe in all it's tie-dyed glory. The suit is skintight. It might be a good look on somebody with the body of a supermodel or a bodybuilder, but on a lanky and scrawny stoner it was ... not quite as good a look (to say the least). He had had to undo his ponytail as well in order to fit the suit on tightly.

I look ridiculous but, hey, at least nobody can see my face.

Getting through the scrim of reporters was rather easy, if annoying. Maybe the suit helped there, too. Who knows.

Nate had a particular fondness for zoos. Cute animals, lots to see, and zookeepers who didn't care whether you were high or not as long as you didn't try to climb into the enclosures. What more could you ask for? Seeing the zoo like this, so empty and quiet, was a bit weird. It reminded him of being in a school or a stadium after everybody had left. There was a certain depth of silence to places that were once so noisy. That's freakin' profound.

"The gorillas have been throwing things at whoever opens this door, so I'd move quickly once you're in." Nate really hoped that the gorillas weren't throwing what he feared they were throwing. That would get messy really quickly. No way Nate was going in there first. I can teleport in later.

"Maybe it could be diluted because it's already in a subject? Okay, um...don't want to go off reservation on our first mission. I'd say, handle the gorillas, then radio in for permission to track it, maybe?"

"Uh, Flower Girl, ah, Lily," Nate says turning to Lily. "Is there, like, anyway that you can get a sample of the gas? For, like, analyzing for later? I don't think they ever, uh, got a sample from the prison attack. Or, uh, if they did they certainly didn't tell us."

[PalusAbel]

Agent Branch's rebuke takes Elizabeth aback. He is exactly right; her anger could easily undermine the legitimacy of her arguments. She bites back her bile and listens to the rest of the agent's briefing without comment.

---

Elizabeth was used to being the center of attention, and used to having to push through a crowd. Her imposing physique was the primary factor in both of those instances. She tunes out the reporters' incessant chirping and proceeds directly to the zoo's interior.

"If I may say so, I believe that that merits a call to our handlers. We might not be responsible for dealing with it right away, but it is something the bureau should be made aware of." She raises her radio to the ready position, but refrains from turning it on pending her teammates' response.

In the meantime, Elizabeth sweeps her eyes over what parts of the zoo she can see. Maybe, after this issue was resolved, she would be able to bring her sisters here. Her previous work schedule did not often leave time for such outings, but perhaps now it would be a possibility. If that is the case, I will have to use my power in moderation. I must make sure this zoo remains open.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily gave Nate a kinda wan look at the Flower Girl name. Okay. Yeah. Got to find a hero name fast because that one is apparently what comes to people by default. She shook her head when he asked his question. "No. I mean, I don't think so. It's very diffuse now anyway, we're probably talking like, one part per...ten million? Hundred million? Some unreasonably high number."

She did sniff the air again, to see if there was anything else she might be able to tell about it, although as diffuse as it was she wasn't sure there would be enough even for her nose.

She nodded her own idle agreement to Elizabeth, whether they called it in before or after dealing with the gorillas was fine with her.

Expertise (Chemistry) maybe to try and get more info about the gas? Worth noting that Lily's sense of smell is Analytical, but if this trail's almost a day old there might not be enough to analyze, even for her nose: [roll0]

[Zelphas]

Mentally comparing the two, you notice some differences between the gas you smell now and the gas back at the prison. Going by your extensive experience with chemicals, it seems that the gas you smell now is inert; another ingredient needs to be added to activate the mixture.

As Howard and Michael step into the enclosure, Michael quickly dodges a hail of brown goop and rocks; Howard simply allows it to splatter and bounce harmlessly against his upraised shield.

The enclosure is roughly semi-circular in shape, with various outcroppings of grey rock and several overhanging branches big enough to swing upon. Around eleven gorillas are clustered on the far edge of the enclosure, watching you distrustfully. The mixture of fresh dung, animal stench, and the sweat of hundreds of people passing by each day muddies the air enough that although Lily can smell that one of the gorillas is different from the others, his smell is mixed in with the tribe to the extent that his current location is nearly impossible to pinpoint. The gorillas do not make a move to attack after throwing their feces and rocks at you, though they probably aren't baring their teeth in a smile...

Although he keeps to the shadows and moves with the rest of the group, one of the make gorillas catches your eye. Carefully folded across his chest is one set of arms, but he is using another set to move. Looking even closer, you can see the remains of orange jumpsuit pants, tattered to rags and covered with enough mud to make the original color almost impossible to see.

Map is here. (https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1oKTWwDCyK333jW5sRVCSUk1hoZW37qwX29HuUy-9tEE/edit) The enclosure is about 100 feet long and 30 feet wide at its widest point.

Everyone roll for initiative please!

Gorillas: [roll0]

[Anubis Dread]

Enemy sighted. There were a bunch of other gorillas around, but as long as they could take down that one enemy their mission would be accomplished. Once they were done they could just leave even if other gorillas were still conscious. As such it made sense to take down that particular enemy first.

Dodging the warning shot, Michael ran ahead of others, ignoring all the gorillas between him and the obvious convict. Calling forth his green axe, he slashed at his target. "WOLF HUNTER!"


Passed Athletics, so moving 60 and then charging the rest of the way to attack the 'Alpha'. For now he's making a normal Wolf Hunter to feel things out.

Attack: [roll0]

[TooManySecrets]

Okay, Nate thinks, looking into the snarling faces of gorillas in front of him. They were still a fair distance away but Nate didn't think they would any better up close. Probably best to freeze them instead of sending shards of ice at them. They've got fur; they'll be okay. Probably. Can apes get frostbite?

Boy, I hope these aren't electric apes.

Nate flips a couple switches on the Glacial Beam Projector: freezing blast, deep freeze. He teleports into the enclosure, about 60 feet away from the gorillas. The new Elementary Phase Oscillator had improved tele-translate functions and Nate's trail of ghost "frames" shift to turn to the gorillas and aim at them with the GBP. He squeezes the trigger on what used to be a Mr. Turbo Cold freezer and a wave of icy air blasts out, streaking towards Michael's target.

With no time to spend gawking at the effects of the beam, Nate flicks a switch on the EPO and he starts to flicker in and out of phase.

Move action to teleport, 60 feet from gorillas. Free action to change descriptors on the GBP (Cold, Energy) and select Deep Freeze beam. Power attacking for 4.

Attack roll: [roll0]

If it hits, it's an Affliction 8 (Resisted & Overcome by Fortitude; Hindered and Vulnerable, Defenseless and Immobilized). It is cumulative.

Free action to switch to Phase Out on the EPO and free action to activate it.

[Zelphas]

Ogrillan
Toughness: [roll0]
Will: [roll1]

Close Combat: [roll2] Damage DC 27-Will result on hit; Dodge or Strength versus DC 22-Will Result on hit as well.

Gorilla Ice (1)
Fortitude: [roll3]
Movement: 30 feet towards Nate.
Standard: Charge Nate. Auto-miss.

Gorillas 2-10
Movement: 30 feet towards party.
Standard:

Gorillas 2-4: Throw at Howard.
Gorilla 2: feces. [roll4] Affliction DC 13 (Fortitude; Dazed/Stunned) if hit.
Gorilla 3: rock. [roll5] Damage DC 18 if hit.
Gorilla 4: feces. [roll6] Affliction DC 13 (Fortitude; Dazed/Stunned) if hit.

Gorillas 5-7: Throw at Elizabeth.
Gorilla 5:
Gorilla 6: feces. [roll7] Affliction DC 13 (Fortitude; Dazed/Stunned) if hit.
Gorilla 7: feces. [roll8] Affliction DC 13 (Fortitude; Dazed/Stunned) if hit.

Gorillas 8-10: Throw at Lily.
Gorilla 8:
Gorilla 9: feces. [roll9] Affliction DC 18 (Fortitude; Dazed/Stunned) if hit.
Gorilla 10: feces. [roll10] Affliction DC 18 (Fortitude; Dazed/Stunned) if hit.
Lily: Take a Hero Point for your sense of smell working against you.

PCs are up.

Michael slices off a thin strip of flesh from the alpha gorilla with his glowing axe, causing it to give out a coughing roar of pain. The great ape resists the draining effect of the axe, however. A few of the other gorillas move in to help , but a few coughing barks from the alpha sends them away, turning to the others. The alpha stands up on its hind legs, unfurling both sets of arms and lashing out with sudden, crushing force. The beast lifts Michael up, snarling; then, through a mouth full of jagged teeth, the creature speaks. "You," it grunts out, staring at Michael's face with red eyes. "Know...you..."

The other gorillas, leaving the alpha to deal with the challenger to his supremacy, lope towards the other intruders, throwing rocks and dung as they move closer. Most of the thrown detritus misses the mark, but a glob of pungent dung splatters across Elizabeth's body, and a rock bounces off her arm.

The gorilla hit by Nate's GBP comes out with a fine dusting of frost over his fur, but is otherwise unharmed. He charges Nate with a roar--which turns into a yelp of surprise as he sails straight through the young engineer, leaving him unharmed.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily ducked away from the projectiles, though the smell still made her gag a bit. "Ugh. Really?"

Well, you know what, fine. They want to throw their foul-smelling feces at her?

She'd smell good right back at them.

Really hard.

Lily made subtle changes all along her body. At a glance, she would look slightly flushed, as every hair and dead skin cell on her body took on a soft red hue. The pleasant flowery scent that had clung to her like perfume for the past few days intensified thousands of times over. Fortunately, she had grown accustomed to the scents of her allies in their time living together, and carefully modulated the smell she was giving off so that their own pheromones would block out most of it. To them, it would still be an intense, cloyingly sweet floral smell, unpleasant but tolerable.

To the gorillas, it was about a thousand times too much of a good thing, an overwhelming scent that could cripple them with nausea.

Standard Action: Induce Nausea. Selective Perception Area attack. All opponents capable of smelling Lily (figure within about sixty feet for a normal human's sense of smell under normal conditions) may make a Dodge check, DC 18, to plug their nose or otherwise prevent themselves from smelling it. Those who fail must make a DC 18 Fortitude save vs. a Vulnerable/Stunned/Incapacitated Affliction. This attack is Cumulative.

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth's wonderment at the enclosure dulls her reflexes, and thus the first two projectiles, a rock and clump of feces, land squarely on her torso. The rock bounces off without causing so much as a scratch, but the brown goo clinging to her camisole fills her with righteous indignation that incites her to dodge the second lump of feces hurled her way.

Any reservations she might have had about charging into a group of opponents that had her severely outnumbered slip out of mind. Without even activating her power, she dashes forward to deliver the poo-thrower his comeuppance.

Move action to Gorilla 6. Standard action to Multiattack (effective Str 4 via Precise, Unarmed 12). Move-By Action in tandem with Speed Rank 4 gives her plenty of leeway to run in and back to her starting point.

Unarmed: [roll0], Damage DC 19 on a hit.
Crit on 30-32. +2 DC with 2 degrees of success, +3 DC with 3 degrees of success.

[Arcran]

Howard hides behind the goblin-crafted (whatever that meant) shield, arm shaking somewhat as stones and feces splattered across it, thankfully not hitting the conman.

"That's just gross," Howard states, quickly pulling our Jurassic Park, flipping through the book. Right now he didn't need darts; he just needed to take out a gorilla without completely killing them. If they could take out the alpha maybe the others would scatter?

"Another hadrosaur slammed its big tail against the rocks," Howard says, focusing intently on the alpha as his shield vanishes, almost dropping the book as the sudden cry of a hadrosaur tears through the enclosure. The beast whirls around, huge tail swishing through the air on a collision course for the gorilla.

Howard uses Death of a Hero to summon one of these (Another hadrosaur slammed its big tail against the rocks) to use Tail Whip on the gorilla alpha. He gets a DC 18 Dodge to avoid damage, otherwise its DC 23 Toughness. Perception range, so all the rolls are in his court.

[Anubis Dread]

...woah. When did the ceiling start moving around like that? It looked kind of red. Almost like his brain was bleeding into his eye socket- wait a minute. Sh**.

Michael could already feel his wounds healing up, but it wasn't enough. He felt like he'd been hit by a truck just with that one hit. He needed to try and take this guy down in one shot. One more attack would almost certainly kill him, so he needed to take down this ape before that could happen.

Still in a hold, Michael kicks off the apes chest to get some momentum before plunging his axe in as hard as he can.


Secondary effect of Wolf Hunter activates.

Well Michael is currently Defenseless, Immobile, Impaired and Staggered. And since he took three degrees of damage last round... yeah. He's going to be All-Out-Attacking for 5, Power Attack for 5 and blow a Hero Point to improve the roll.

[roll0]
[roll1]

[TooManySecrets]

Seeing Michael being tossed around like a ragdoll, Nate has the brilliant deduction that that gorilla might be the leader. The four arms are also a hint.

Nate sees Michael attacking the monster-ape but whatever the result of that is, Michael was in bad shape and it was unlikely he was going to stay on his feet for long. There were only a few options left.

I hope these batteries really work 'cause this is going to tax them. Nate stops flickering for a second before a phase trail reaches out from where he's standing to right next to Michael. "C'mon, Mr. Furious," Nate says as he puts his hand on Michael's shoulder. "Let's go."

An imperceptible instant later, Nate and Michael are teleported outside of the enclosure, hopefully safe for the moment.

Free action to change effects to Hop. Move action to teleport. I'm assuming a free action to touch somebody as a non-attack (especially since I have enough control over teleporting to change velocity and direction). Standard action converted to move action to teleport out again.

[Zelphas]

Ogrillan
DEFENSE
Dodge (Death of a Hero): [roll0] Fail.
Toughness (Death of a Hero): [roll1] Pass.

Dodge (Induce Nausea): [roll2] Pass.
Fortitude (Induce Nasuea): [roll3] Ignored due to passing Dodge above.

Toughness (Wolf Hunter): [roll4] Pass.
Will (Wolf Hunter): [roll5] Pass.

Removed: [roll6]

Gorillas
DEFENSE
Gorilla 6 toughness: [roll7] Fail. Incapacitated.

Gorillas vs Induce nausea:
[roll8] Pass.
[roll9] Fail.
[roll10] Fail.
[roll11] Fail
[roll12]Pass.
[roll13] Incapacitated by Elizabeth
[roll14] Pass.
[roll15] Fail.
[roll16] Pass.
[roll17] Pass.

[roll18] Passed Dodge Above.
[roll19] Pass.
[roll20] Pass.
[roll21] Pass.
[roll22] Passed Dodge Above.
[roll23] Incapacitated by Elizabeth.
[roll24] Passed Dodge Above.
[roll25] Pass.
[roll26] Passed Dodge Above.
[roll27] Passed Dodge Above.

End Result: None Incapacitated.

OFFENSE
Gorillas 1, 5, 6, & 7 all attack Elizabeth.
Gorilla 1: Close Combat [roll28] Damage DC 21. Miss.
Gorilla 5: Close Combat [roll29] Damage DC 21. Miss.
Gorilla 6: Close Combat [roll30] Damage DC 21. Incapacitated above.
Gorilla 7: Close Combat [roll31] Damage DC 21. Miss.

Gorillas 2-4 move 30 ft and throw again at Howard.
Gorilla 2: Rock. [roll32] Damage DC 18 if hit. Hit.
Gorilla 3: Feces. [roll33] Affliction DC 13 (Fortitude; Dazed/Stunned) if hit. Miss.
Gorilla 4: Rock. [roll34] Damage DC 18 if hit. Hit.

Gorillas 8-10 move 30 ft and throw again at Lily.
Gorilla 8: Feces. [roll35] Affliction DC 18 (Fortitude; Dazed/Stunned) if hit. Hit.
Gorilla 9: Rock. [roll36] Damage DC 18 if hit. Miss.
Gorilla 10: Rock. [roll37] Damage DC 18 if hit. Hit.


Inside the Enclosure
The Alpha Gorilla sees the dinosaur tail coming at him at the very last second, and... catches it. With one hand. Michael's axe is similarly stymied by the great beast. He seems about ready to bite down on the hate-filled weapon-summoner's face, when Nate suddenly warps up, grabs Michael, and warps out of the enclosure. The Alpha roars in fury, chasing down Nate and Michael's flickering trail until he hits a wall. Undeterred, the four-armed gorilla exchanges his horizontal momentum for vertical momentum, taking to the sky in a great leap that smashes him straight through the corrugated-metal ceiling above and out of sight.

The gorilla Elizabeth targeted is knocked out cold in mid-roar, several of its teeth flying out of its mouth and spinning into the enclosure. The rest of the gorillas react with surprising resilience to Lily's sickly sweet smell, half of them covering their noses and mouths quickly while the other half simply bare their teeth and carry on regardless. Three attempt to tear Elizabeth apart, but can't get a hold on the experienced fighter; the other six divide their attention between Lily and Howard, once more sending rocks and feces their way. Two rocks slip past Howard's shield this time, and a rock and a pile of dung find their mark on Lily.

Outside the Enclosure
Nate and Michael fade into existence just outside the gorilla enclosure, none the worse for wear for their trip. The Elemental Phase Oscillator feels ever so slightly warm to the touch on Nate's arm, but otherwise seems none the worse for wear from the extra mass.

Before you can take a breather, however, there is a smash and a black blur flies out of the top of the gorilla, sending metal shrapnel everywhere. A few seconds later, you just make out the shape of the four-armed gorilla as it falls from the sky several yards in front of you and out of sight. There comes a slight thump, and then roaring--one sounds distinctly like the gorillas you were fighting earlier, but the others... were those lions?

All PCs are up.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily threw up her arms instinctively to ward off the projectiles. The dung she shook off with the casual disregard of a woman who had spent far too many days of her life in deep examination of various fertilizers. She could barely even make out the smell through the powerful scent she was emitting. The rock just bounced off of her upraised arms as if she were made of wood. That was just as awesome as it had been last time.

She took a step towards Michael before noticing he had vanished. She was worried about him, after the blow he had taken, but she did recall him mentioning regeneration. He'd be okay, she hoped. Meanwhile, these gorillas needed to get under control.

Scent was a powerful tool, perhaps moreso to animals than humans. Overwhelming them had proven ineffective, but perhaps that had been the wrong tactic. The red hue faded away, and once more the scent that came from Lily was simply a pleasant, floral smell.

Very pleasant, in fact. And pervasive. It still filled the air all around her, but not with the same overwhelming intensity. A subtle, calming smell filled the air, enjoyable and relaxing...

Standard Action: Induce Delirium. All enemies who can perceive the scent get Dodge DC 18 to block and Will DC 18 to resist an Entranced/Compelled/Controlled Affliction. Opponents subjected to the Compelled or Controlled results will be directed to attempt to grab and restrain those that are still fighting. This effect is Selective and Contagious, so those who are grabbed by the ones affected will likely have to resist again.

[Anubis Dread]

"...thanks," Michael replied genuinely as he got back up onto his feet, brushing himself off from landing in the dirt after teleporting. "You really saved my a** back th-"

Oh hell no. That thing had followed them?! Well his regeneration was kicking in, so he wasn't quite ready to keel over dead anymore. But he was still reeling. He didn't think he could catch that thing if he tried. If he could just get ten seconds to breathe and let his power work...

"Use that thing of your to help the others. I'll hold off here as long as I can," Michael replied, shifting into a defensive stance and raising his axe.


Regen kicks in, so now only at Phase 2 damage. That still means Michael is Dazed though, so for now he's going to be taking the Recover Action. This means he should only be at 1 instance of stage 1 damage next turn.

[PalusAbel]

A mix of savage pleasure and bitter regret washes over Elizabeth's mind as her blow knocks the gorilla cold. All things considered, these gorillas were not likely at fault for their behavior any more than the guards were for theirs during Dr. Proxy's attack on the prison yard. The futile scratches of the other gorillas does not put her mind at ease, but it does serve to ground her attention back where it should be.

She plants her feet firmly on the ground, then releases a trio of punches at each of her new attackers. Elizabeth knew better than to hope for three knockout punches; instead, she hoped to establish herself as enough of a threat that the gorillas would keep their attention on her, rather than on her teammates.

Three-way Multiattack. Effective Strength 4 (Damage DC 19), effective Unarmed 9.
Attack vs Gorilla 1: [roll0] Critical Hit - +5 Damage DC
Attack vs Gorilla 5: [roll1]
Attack vs Gorilla 7: [roll2]

[Arcran]

"What the -" Howard says in shock as he watches the alpha simply catch the tail with one hand. How the hell was that possible? It was a dinosaur. It had turned enemies into red smears on the rocks in the book with that same attack!

"You guys handle these gorillas! Those two need help!" Howard shouts, turning to sprint from the enclosure only to get drilled with two stones, one bouncing harmlessly off his arm while the other connects solidly with his temple, causing the former conman to stumble. Still, he sprints as fast as he can for the edge of the enclosure, intent on not allowing Stone and White to fight the alpha alone.

[TooManySecrets]

"Uh, yeah, right. This little freeze ray of mine," Nate hefts his raygun to emphasize the point, "has only got, like, three settings on it. One of which would fill the entire enclosure, so, like, if it's all the same to you, I'm gonna stay your little guardian angel."

And, with that, Nate teleports onto a nearby enclosure.

Move action to teleport to the top of an enclosure that is as far away as possible while still (a) providing line of sight to Michael and (b) is less than 200ft away. If there is no nearby enclosure that provides that, Nate will take the ground if needed. Standard action to Ready a Deep Freeze Affliction, targeting Ogrillan. Power attacking for 4 (giving a rank effect of 8, which means short range is 200ft).

Attack roll (as needed): [roll0]

[Zelphas]

Inside the Enclosure

DEFENSE
vs Elizabeth
Gorilla 1 Toughness: [roll0] Fail. Incapacitated.
Gorilla 5 Toughness: [roll1] Fail. Incapacitated.
Gorilla 7 Toughness: [roll2] Pass.

vs Lily
1: [roll3] Incapacitated Above.
2: [roll4] Fail.
3: [roll5] Fail.
4: [roll6] Fail.
5: [roll7] Incapacitated Above.
7: [roll8] Fail.
8: [roll9] Pass.
9: [roll10] Pass.
10: [roll11] Fail.

1: [roll12]
2: [roll13] Fail.
3: [roll14] Pass.
4: [roll15] Fail.
5: [roll16]
7: [roll17] Fail.
8: [roll18] Passed Above.
9: [roll19] Passed Above.
10: [roll20] Fail.

OFFENSE
1, 5, & 7 vs Elizabeth
1 Close Combat: [roll21] Damage DC 21
5 Close Combat: [roll22] Damage DC 21
7 Close Combat: [roll23] Damage DC 21 1 & 5 are Incapacitated, 7 is Controlled.

2-4, 8-10 vs. Lily
2: [roll24] Damage DC 21 Controlled.
3: [roll25] Damage DC 21 Miss.
4: [roll26] Damage DC 21 Controlled.
8: [roll27] Damage DC 21. Hit.
9: [roll28] Damage DC 21 Miss.
10: [roll29] Damage DC 21 Controlled.

Controlled Grapples
1: [roll30] Incapacitated Above.
2: [roll31] Miss.
3: [roll32] Uncontrolled.
4: [roll33] Hit Gorilla 3.
5: [roll34] Incapacitated Above.
7: [roll35] Miss; no target in Range.
8: [roll36] Uncontrolled.
9: [roll37] Uncontrolled.
10: [roll38] Miss.

1: [roll39] vs DC 21 Incapacitated Above.
2: [roll40] vs DC 21 Controlled.
3: [roll41] vs DC 21 Success. Un-grappled.
4: [roll42] vs DC 21
5: [roll43] vs DC 21
7: [roll44] vs DC 21
8: [roll45] vs DC 21
9: [roll46] vs DC 21
10: [roll47] vs DC 21 No Other Grapples.


Despite her reservations, two of Elizabeth's punches are clean knockouts; the first connects with such force that she can feel the gorilla's skull give way under the impact. The third blow was glancing, however, and the gorilla caught it on one thick shoulder without so much as a grunt.

Then Lily's new scent attack floods the enclosure. This time, only two of the apes are fast enough to cover their noses as the smell hits. All but one of the rest suddenly grow very still, before turning towards the three now thoroughly spooked gorillas. The three gorillas whose minds are still their own charge towards Lily in a panic, since she is standing between them and the door out of the enclosure. One gets bogged down by the other gorillas grabbing at it, evading their grip but falling short of reaching the flower woman; the other two careen towards her. One throws out a clumsy strike, which misses; the other, more out of desperation than skill, manages to connect with a solid punch.

Outside the Enclosure

DEFENSE
Will (vs Secondary Wolf Hunter): [roll48] -8 Strength.
Fortitude (vs Deep Freeze): [roll49] Pass.

OFFENSE
Attack vs Michael: [roll50] Damage DC 27 19, Strength or Dodge DC 22 14 on hit. Hit.

(Note to self: Ogrillan is at +2 to active Defenses until next turn)

Michael's axe suddenly glows much brighter. You hear a screech of terror coming from where the Alpha Gorilla landed.

Howard tears out of the enclosure just in time to see the Alpha leap into the air once more, landing with a crash directly before Michael. The Alpha is holding himself strangely, as though he lacks the strength to stand upright. "What...did you--" he snarls out, before Nate's beam hits him in the chest. Unfortunately, it only seems to make him mad. "ALPHAS FIGHTING!" he roars, once again grabbing at Michael (though his grip is much, much weaker this time). "NO HELPERS!" he howls into Michael's face.

All PCs are up.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily beamed as several of the gorillas turned on their fellows. It worked! She was able to induce psychological influence through the modulation of scent pheromones alone! That was...that was...that was...

That...was flipping terrifying! The acid was bad enough, but mind control? She didn't deserve a power like that. No one deserved a power like that!

I will use my powers only for good. I will use my powers only for good. I will use my powers only for- WHAM! Gorilla fist straight to the chest.

Lily barely even flinched.

"Aaaaand...sleepy time," Lily said, shaking her hair wildly in the gorilla's face, releasing a burst of pollen that carried its own deeply calming scent...

Standard Action: Induce Slumber. Opponents within 30' of Lily get Dodge DC 18 for half, Will DC 18/14 vs. Dazed/Stunned/Asleep Affliction.

[Anubis Dread]

Aha! He'd slipped out of the grab! It had broken all of his ribs, but he... sh**...

Coughing in pain, Michael slumped over. He was as bad as when he'd gotten out of the enclosure. In other words, he was probably completely screwed at this point. His regeneration wasn't keeping up with the amount of damage he was taking. He was going to die.

"Alright, you want to fight like alphas?" Michael coughed, dropping his axe where it shattered out of existence. "Let's fight like god damn alpha's." Manifesting his huge red hammer in his hand, Michael went all or nothing to take down his enemy once and for all. "GOLEM HUNTER!"


All-Out Attacking for 5, Power Attacking for 5.

[roll0] I think?

[TooManySecrets]

How many hits can this thing take?

Nate, not caring about violating the apparent strictures of an alpha duel, teleports behind the four-armed ape at a distance of about 20 feet. He fires his freeze ray once again and then teleports back to his perch.

Move action to teleport as turnabout (so, behind the ape and then back). Standard action to fire Deep Freeze. Free action to change alternate effects to Phase Out and become Insubstantial.

[roll0]

[PalusAbel]

I must be stronger than I thought, Elizabeth reflects as she takes down the pair of gorillas. She readies her fists to bring down the third, but it stops in its tracks before she can follow up. The faint floral scent hanging in the air keys Elizabeth in to what happened. "Hey, thanks for the save, Lil-"

Elizabeth herself freezes up when she sees the gorillas swarming around Lily. "Hey! Leave her alone!" She dashes to her comrade's side just in time to see her loose a burst of pollen from her hair. Elizabeth, though confident that the pollen might dissuade the gorillas from attacking without the use of physical force, nevertheless stands by Lily's side in case the gorillas manage to resist.

Move action to join up with Lily. Ready Multiattack against Gorillas 3, 8, and/or 9, pending their resistance. I'm going to roll a three-way Multiattack ahead of time - adjust results as needed. Again, effective Strength 4 (Damage DC 19), effective Unarmed 9.
Attack vs. Gorilla 3: [roll0]
Attack vs. Gorilla 8: [roll1]
Attack vs. Gorilla 9: [roll2]
Crit on 27-29; +5 Damage DC.

[Arcran]

Howard looks at the alpha, still more than a little terrified. White was by far the toughest out of all of them and, yet, he was somehow almost down already. If White went down it would just be him and the stoner against that ape and, strangely enough, Howard didn't like those odds.

The hadrosaur had clearly not worked, even though their tails were supposedly strong enough to break a Tyrannosaur's neck. He'd have to try another tactic. Flying through the book once again, Howard begins to read.

"The hadrosaur turned to flee, and one of the raptors lumped onto its back, biting into the long neck, while others raced forward, circled around it, nipped at its legs, leapt up to slash at the belly with their powerful claws-"

With bestial cries a small pack of raptors appears out of thin air, leaping and slashing at the ape. Howard watches with baited breath, terrified that his efforts will be for naught once more.

Howard uses Death of a Hero to slash him with velociraptors. He gets a DC 18 Dodge (I don't believe his +2 applies here) to avoid damage, otherwise its DC 23 Toughness. Perception range, so all the rolls are in his court.

[Zelphas]

Inside the Enclosure

DEFENSE

vs. Lily's Induce Slumber
Dodge (DC 18):
Gorilla 3: [roll0] Fail.
Gorilla 8: [roll1] Pass.
Gorilla 9: [roll2] Pass.

Will (DC 18/14)
Gorilla 3: [roll3] Fail. Asleep.
Gorilla 8: [roll4] Fail. Asleep.
Gorilla 9: [roll5] Pass.

vs. Elizabeth's punches
Gorilla 3: Miss. No rolls necessary. Asleep from above.
Gorilla 8: [roll6] Asleep from above.
Gorilla 9: [roll7] Fail. Incapacitated.

OFFENSE
If conscious, Gorillas 8 & 9 run out of the enclosure. Gorilla 3 moves 60 feet, ending up right at the entrance to the enclosure.

Inside Closure Battle is over.


Two of the gorillas succumb to the soporific spores, the last succeeding in its struggle to stay safe from sleep. This gorilla quickly joins its fellows on the ground, however, albeit more painfully, as Elizabeth's fist clips its temple, causing instant unconsciousness.

The inside of the enclosure falls silent, the only conscious gorillas still completely enraptured by Lily's smell.

Outside the Enclosure

DEFENSE

vs. Death of A Hero
Dodge (DC 18): [roll8] Fail.
Toughness (DC 23): [roll9] Fail. -1 to defenses.

vs. Golem Hunter
Toughness (DC 22): [roll10]-1=19. Fail. -1 to defenses.
Fortitude (DC 22): [roll11]-1=21. Fail. -1 to Toughness.

vs. Deep Freeze
Fortitude (DC 18): [roll12]-2=16. Fail. Hindered and Vulnerable.

OFFENSE
Close Combat (target dependent upon affects of above hits): [roll13] Damage DC 20 on hit. Miss. Oh boy, did he miss.

OGRILLAN'S STATUS: 3 Bruises, -7 strength, -1 toughness. Hindered and Vulnerable.


Things take a turn for the worse for the Alpha. First, raptors appear out of nowhere, tearing into his skin and leaving long lacerations. The beast's confusion at this new foe provided the perfect opportunity for Michael; his hammer drove into the beast's stomach, doubling him over and robbing him of some of his defenses. His defenses thus broken down, Nate's freeze ray finally had an effect; the Alpha howled in pain as the arctic beam washed over him, his muscles stiffening and hampering his movements.

The Alpha lashes out at one of the raptors with more desperation than accuracy, but by the time his fist reached the dinosaur, it had already disappeared.

All PCs are up.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Woo hoo!" Lily cheered as Elizabeth dropped the last gorilla. Existential terror aside, that went swimmingly! Her theories about the offensive applications for her powers proved correct, and Elizabeth's super-strength was every bit-

...

...

Wait a second.

Lily thought back, now that she had a couple seconds of breathing room. Even with the gym well reinforced, it wasn't generally hard to tell when the Fighting Redwood was training. It got kinda loud sometimes. But here, Elizabeth had moved with grace and precision, not so much as a single boom accompanying her steps or strikes. Which suggested...

Was she not even using her power?

Lily kinda stared at her for a second, but the continuing sounds of battle outside brought her attention back to the matter at hand. With a flutter of her wings, Lily flew outside at speed, landing beside Michael and setting her hands on him. He would feel a sudden intense warmth, maybe a degree or two from being painful, at the point of contact, which quickly spread throughout his body. Lily removed her hands, leaving a thin film of nectar where she had touched, but the energy it carried would hasten his already potent regenerative abilities.

"You okay?"

Move Action: Fly adjacent to Michael.

Standard Action: Healing Nectar at [roll0].

Okay, so let's see, Michael's currently Bruised and Staggered, right? So that will remove the Bruise. Normally it would remove another Damage condition next round, but I'm pretty sure Michael's Regen is going to take care of that anyway. So unless he currently has other Damage conditions, that'll probably be it for that dose of healing, since it won't persist into new conditions even though the roll was high enough to have potentially healed up to four.

[Anubis Dread]

Urk... he'd gotten lucky. He was amazed he was still alive. Those raptors had really saved his a**. ...not a sentence he'd ever expected to even have to think. His regeneration meant he was back on his feet, but he was still pretty roughed. Just attacking was going to be difficult. He needed to... what was this?

Michael blinked in surprise. Another one of his comrades rushing to his rescue. And he felt great! He was back into complete fighting form! His regeneration was piss weak compared to whatever this stuff was. It gave him the chance to keep fighting. And this gorilla looked like they were just about ready to go down.

"Thanks. I'll take it from here," Michael thanked Lily before dropping his hammer into oblivion. He'd weakened it a bit, that was enough to try something a little different. Materializing two blue blades in his hand, he slashed at his enemy as rapidly as possible. Goblin Hunter!


All-Out-Attacking for 5, Power Attacking for 5, Multi-Attacking to increase the DC.

[roll0] to hit

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth meets Lily's stare with a smile. The poop clinging to her shirt aside, this was probably one of the smoothest outcomes she could have expected for the group's first sortie. However, the din outside and Lily's subsequent fluttering remind her that the mission was not over just yet. "Just one more, huh? And the big one, no less."

She drops into a runner's pose, once more shutting out the world and focusing on her breathing. "Here we go!" Elizabeth bellows the last word, surging to life as she makes her way outside. She arrives just in time to follow up Michael's Goblin Hunter with a flying double axe kick. Have to show off for my adoring fans, after all, she thinks with a grin.

Move action into Multiattack.
Multiattack: [roll0] (Damage DC 19 on a hit)

[TooManySecrets]

Finally. Nate takes a second to appreciate the beating the four-armed ape is taking, before aiming the freeze ray again. Let's make sure he stays down. Fwoop! the freeze ray fires again.

Second verse, same as the first. Well, third verse, same as the first and ... I, um, whatever.

Free action to become un-Insubstantial so that I can hit stuff (let's say I switched back to Hop). Standard action to fire Deep Freeze. Still power-attacking for 4.
Attack roll: [roll0] (That is a critical. +5 to effect, so total rank is 13.)

[Arcran]

Howard, while relieved to have actually struck the gorilla-man, can't help but feel a tinge of remorse. How was this any different than just stabbing somebody on the street? They hadn't even given the man a chance to surrender and already they were trying to kill him! Or at the least maim him. They didn't even know what he had done; he could just be somebody like Stone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got unlucky. Not everybody in the prison had been as awful as he, something made especially clear by the present group.

Flying through the book, Howard finds his next reading, the words flowing from his tongue effortlessly.

"There was a small auditorium dominated by a robot Tyrannosaurus rex," he reads, a large, metal tyranosaurus rex suddenly appearing behind him, standing stock-still like a photograph brought to life.

"Surrender and we won't hurt you any more," Howard says, stepping to the side of his newest creation. "We don't know what you did and, frankly, I don't care, but you need to come with us or suffer the consequences," Howard states, glancing towards the metal t-rex to clearly demonstrate the consequences.

Using Create to make a big scary metal t-rex from Jurassic Park.

If I need checks, I have a Skill Mastery for Deception and Intimidate, giving me 28 and 26, respectively.

[Zelphas]

DEFENSE
vs. Elizabeth
Toughness (DC 24 due to Multiattack): [roll0] Pass with flying colors.

vs. Howard
Auto-fails Will vs. Coercion. Coerced.

vs. Michael
Toughness (DC 27 due to Multiattack): [roll1] Fails by three degrees. -1 and Staggered.
Fortitude (DC 22): [roll2]-1=24. Still Passes.

vs. Nate
Fortitude (DC 23): [roll3]-1=18. Fails by one degree; due to Cumulative, he is Defenseless and Immobilized.

OFFENSE
Nope.

Ogrillan's condition:4 Bruises, -6 Strength, Defenseless, Staggered, Immobilized.


Before Howard is able to summon his metal monstrosity, Elizabeth comes flying out of the enclosure. Somehow, however, the Alpha senses her coming through the haze of pain, grabbing her leg in midair and stopping her attack cold.

Howard's show of power and words trouble the Alpha, and he opens his mouth as if to speak. Michael takes this moment to blitz the beast with his brilliant blue blades, and instead of words a high keening note of pain erupts from the once-man. Then Nate squeezes off one final shot, and that sound is abruptly cut off, the Alpha freezing completely in place. Silence falls outside the enclosure.

Looking closer, you can see the Alpha's eyes tracking individual movements. He's still alive, but it doesn't look like he's moving any time soon.


A flash of light from one of the bushes catches your eye, It seemed like it came from light reflecting off of a camera lens. Lily, you suddenly become aware of the smell of another human in the bushes, as well as the smells of ink, warm metal, and several other trace chemicals used in photo development.

Battle is over. Everyone gains a Hero Point.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily gave a quick, relieved breath as the mutated gorilla froze. She was shaking some with adrenaline in the aftermath of the battle. "Yay go team. Everyone okay?"

[Anubis Dread]

So, it was still alive... that was probably a good thing. He kind of wished it was dead though. HOW many times had he had Michael on the verge of being ripped apart limb from limb?

"I'm fine. My pride is wounded a bit by the fact I'd be a red stain on the floor if my a** hadn't been saved twice, but otherwise fine," Michael replied. "Not that I'm ungrateful, it's just... this b***** really pissed me off."

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth let out a long, low whistle, like a locomotive cooling down at the station. A very apt comparison indeed; the tension in her muscles slowly began to ebb, and she switched mental tracks away from her fighting mentality. "I could say likewise about my own pride. I do not much enjoy having feces thrown at me." She wrinkles her nose in disgust.

"But I think, all told, this ended fairly well. There was no loss of life on either side, so far as I can tell." Elizabeth grins in recognition of this fact, though her smile is tinged by a shade of remorse for the inmate before them. "I think that that is something to be proud of, especially for our first mission."

[TooManySecrets]

Nate phase teleports down from his perch to the rest of the "heroes".

"Well, that was fun — in a terrible, sick, not-at-all-fun way." Nate glances around the zoo. "So, like, is that it? All the, uh, animals are, uh ... 'subdued'?"

[Anubis Dread]

"Oh right. I heard lion's earlier," Michael realized, dropping his blades out of existence. "Well if it's just lion's the law enforcement can probably deal with it. We need to get this thing back to base before it works out a way out of there."

[Arcran]

Howard winces as the Alpha goes down hard, a frown quickly crossing his face.Sure, the ape-man was obviously still alive but what had he done to deserve that assault?

When Howard sees the flash of light in the bush, he slowly turns, trying to get a better look. Wasn't the park supposed to be evacuated? Why would somebody still be inside the park?

"Whoever you are, you don't need to hide," Howard says slowly, doing his best to not scare them away and staring directly at the bush, hopefully alerting the others. "The intruder is down; why don't you come talk with us?" Howard asks, doing his best to sound non-threatening even as he looks through the book, trying to find one of his sections marked "wall."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Sleeping, unconscious, or, um, pacified," Hannah confirmed in answer to Nate's question. When Howard started speaking to a bush, Lily frowned and faced it, sniffing at the air.

[Zelphas]

The bushes rustle for a moment, and then a man steps confidently out. The man had been downwind; that and the amount of people who passed through the zoo daily must have foiled Lily's senses. You recognize him as one of the reporters at the front entrance when you first came in. A camera hangs on a strap around his neck; as he comes up to you, he fishes out a handheld voice recorder. "Tanner Dickson, from The Mesa City Star," the man begins without preamble, seeming unperturbed by the fact that he had broken into the zoo. "I have a few questions. Was this ape-man one of the escaped convicts from MCCF? Do you know his name? What crime did he commit?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily's lips twitched up a flicker of a smile. Bold guy. She could give credit where due. And with victory earned, now was certainly the time to start introducing Mesa City's latest hero team! She strode confidently forward and-

...She strode forward...

...She...

...Um...

Well, actually, she didn't so much as take a step. Consciously, she definitely wanted to, but indecision paralyzed her. She didn't actually know the answer to most of those questions. She didn't know what she wanted to say, didn't have any sort of speech prepared. She wasn't even entirely sure if the others wanted to be talking to the press, or how Agent Branch would react if they did. And anything she said would be on the record, subject to scrutiny by the entire city, and that...

So Lily, despite her desire to start getting their names out there, stood almost as frozen as Ogrillon, only barely managing to keep as friendly smile on her face and mostly avoid looking like a deer in headlights.

Stage fright. Silly.

[PalusAbel]

"We are under no obligation to answer your questions, Mr. Dickson." Elizabeth steps forward to address the reporter. She looks him up and down to get a sense of his character; he would soon be removed from the premises if he could not be trusted. "More to the point, we are unable to confirm nor deny any of the facts you seek." The peculiar phrase stuck out in Elizabeth's memory as something suspects were supposed to say during interrogation. It would, hopefully, cut off his line of questioning.

Insight check to Evaluate Mr. Dickson.
Insight: [roll0]

[TooManySecrets]

This is gonna be bad. In Nate's experience — which, granted, was mostly limited to trying to find ways to wheedle out of work — you had to treat the boss with kid gloves. While Mister Reporter wasn't the boss by either physical stature or actual hierarchy, he could definitely make their lives miserable. If Elizabeth kept trying to stonewall him so abruptly, who knows what might happen?

"What my, uh, 'colleague' is saying," Nate says, stepping forward a bit and making sure that the freeze ray was pointed to the ground, "is that, uh, any questions you have will have to be, like uh, directed to the, uh, Mesa City police. You and your readers can rest assured, however, that, uh, everything that can be done to keep them safe is being done."

[Anubis Dread]

"I really don't give a damn what you write in your article or record," Michael told the report bluntly. "But I feel like I'd get chewed out if I didn't advise you of the fact that this zoo may still be crawling with animals that could eat you up and sh** you out quicker than you do a front page tabloid article."

[Zelphas]

As far as you can tell, Mr. Dickson is looking for a story. You can't quite read what kind of story he's looking for at the moment though--maybe he doesn't know himself? He's excited, though he's hiding it pretty well. No matter what, this could be big.

OOC: At the moment, Mr. Dickson is Indifferent to you. He's just here for a story.

Mr. Dickson smiles thinly in response to Elizabeth's confrontational manner and Nate's stuttered assurances. He looks slightly nervous for a moment when Michael mentions loose animals, but quickly hides it behind his professional demeanor. "No one's forcing you to answer any questions, Miss..." He gives Elizabeth the chance to introduce herself, and then continues. "For the sake of time then, just a few questions that perhaps you can answer. What do you want to be called? Is this--" he gestures to the frozen Ogrillan "--the only reason you were here? What's next for you?"

As he speaks, your radios crackle to life. "Hello? This is Agent Branch. It sounds like everything's gone quiet in there; is the target neutralized? Over." Mr. Dickson suddenly looks incredibly interested.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily took out her radio. "Target neutralized sir. Over." She elected to keep the response simple and to the point with the reporter present.

[Arcran]

"Everybody cool off a bit," Howard says as he listens to Stone and Elizabeth. He was surprised the reporter hadn't just turned tail at that point; two superhumans just told him to leave? And he flat out ignored them. "The poor man is just trying to do his job and, at least as far as I can tell, is doing a fairly good job at it. Breaking into a zoo with animals of questionable containment? That shows dedication," Howard says, a very familiar smile stretching over his face.

"Personally, I'd love to answer your questions and I'm sure you'd love to talk to me," Howard says, his tone already apologetic. "Unfortunately, we have an ape man that I'd put at a conservative half-ton to get as far away from a zoo as possible. This time safety has to trump what we both want," the literomancer states, a sad frown on his face as he motions for the others to try to get moving.

"Of course, I'd love to talk in the future when there are less pressing concerns. My people will contact your people, The Mesa City Star, correct? Perhaps we could start with something a little more formal, preferably one that doesn't start with us catching you in a bush," Howard says with a quick chuckle, the conman act quickly coming back to Howard.

Of course, internally Howard was torn. Did the reporter recognize him? if word got out that Howard Silvers was out and about again it could prove trouble for the team. It'd be impossible for them to accomplish anything, especially with the press hunting them down to try to put some nasty spin on Howard's tale. On the other hand, working with Branch was the only real way to go free and, by extension, the only way to start to pay for what he did.

Whatever rolls you want I'll just take ten on. 28 for Persuasion/Deception, 26 Intimidate.

[Zelphas]

"Affirmative," Agent Branch responds. "Good work. Head back to base, then, unless you have something to pick up at the gift shop."

Mr. Dickson looks intrigued by your words. "An exclusive... All right. Just give me your contact info, and I'll get in contact with you right away," he says eagerly. "The paper prints tomorrow, though... for now, just give me a name. Something to call you guys, to keep the readers interested." he finishes, still holding out his recording device.

Due to Silvertongue's Diplomancy, Mr. Dickson's status changes to helpful! He'll probably write up a glowing story of your heroics, in the hopes of securing that exclusive. He still wants a name, though; either individual names, or a group name.

[Anubis Dread]

"I'm not giving out my real name, and we haven't picked out pseudonyms yet," Michael replied plainly. The authorities should be able to take care of any other animals in the area, it was time for them to go. "If I ever decided on one you'll be the first to know. If you happen to be in the area when I'm saying it," he added. Odds are they'd just release them all as a press release though.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Copy that," Lily replied. Of course, she wanted to discuss the scent trail before actually leaving, but that she definitely didn't want to talk about in front of the reporter. She looked to him then, "Yeah, sorry, you caught us a little unprepared. Next time, we'll have names and stuff for you, but we haven't had a chance to discuss that sort of thing amongst ourselves yet. You ask us now you'll just get a bunch of stupid stuff, end up calling me Flower Girl or something, just doesn't make sense. Contact info we can do I think...mmm..." Come to think of it, Howard probably didn't have a cell phone, did he? And she didn't think telling him to get in touch with Agent Branch was a good idea. "Well, my cell is 555-8377, anyway."

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth remains silent. There is no evident hostility or ill-will in the reporter's actions, so would answering his questions truly be that problematic? She hesitates, unsure of whether what she is about to say will come back to bite her later on. "In my circle, I am known as the 'Fighting Redwood'. Someone back at your office may know the name; I have no contact information to give you, but perhaps my epithet will suffice."

[Arcran]

"We can't give you everything on the first meeting, can we?" Howard says, his grin easy. "I don't quite have a permanent address at this point; how about you give me you card and I'll contact you as soon as I'm able?" Howard asks, actually honest about the request. They would need to get there name out at some point and, fortunately, it seemed like Dickson would be a source that may even be slightly biased in their favor.

"As for a name, just call us what we are; the people that took care of the insane animal problem at the zoo. Don't know what you managed to get on your camera but it should more than suffice to keep the readers interested," Howard states, wondering if he should perhaps be a little more clandestine. Exactly how low of a profile were they supposed to be keeping?

"As for my name," Howard says with a wince that is more real than fake. "That will come a bit later. People aren't ready for that yet," Howard says, not wanting to risk the damage it could cause the team for others to know he was out and about. "Until then, just call me Silvertongue," Howard says, the name rolling of his tongue. It wasn't entirely original, of course; a book character with a power similar to his own had a prior claim to it. Still, it was perfectly fitting and, with his past, had a sort of twisted irony to it.

"Until we meet again," Howard says, offering his hand with a bit of an apologetic grin.

[Zelphas]

Mr. Dickson looks disappointed, but perks up slightly when Elizabeth gives her fighting name and Lily gives her number. "All right, here's my card," he says, fishing out a laminated square and handing it over to Silvertongue. "I'll get in contact soon." He shakes Silvertongue's hand with a smile, nods to the rest of the group, and walks quickly away, shutting off his recorder as he goes.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily waited until he got far enough that she was fairly certain he wouldn't hear her, before pulling out her radio again. "Agent Branch? Sorry, there was a reporter waiting for us after we finished up. When we arrived at the zoo, I caught the scent of the gas that gave us our powers. Or, an inert version, anyway. I estimate the scent to have been about a day old. It's probably responsible for what happened here. Here's the thing, I think I can follow it. It might be worth trying before we head back to the school. Do we have leave to do so if the others agree? Over."

[Zelphas]

There is silence from Agent Branch for several seconds. "Affirmative. Follow that trail," Branch finally responds, sounding on edge. "Report your location every five minutes. If you run into any hostiles, do not engage without confirming with me. Radio me, and I'll send backup immediately. Over and out."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily licked her lips. Okay. That sounded serious. "Copy that," she said, then looking to the others.

"Um..." she said with a little shrug. "Thoughts? Or should we just...go, I guess?"

[PalusAbel]

"Our mission here is completed, and we have just been assigned a new one." Elizabeth speaks in a flat, matter-of-fact tone. She flicks her eyes in the direction the report left. "Since we made the report, I think we are obligated to pursue the lead, unless there are any among us who are unfit to continue. I am, myself, physically well, though I should like to find a change of clothes, at the very least."

[Anubis Dread]

"If they're giving us more work we should take it," Michael replied, looking around carefully. The smell had started here is what they said? He couldn't detect anything. But he might be able to find some tracks somewhere nearby...


Tracking: [roll0]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily nodded, and started sniffing around to try and pick up the trail.

I'll Routine the Perception check to track for 25.

[Arcran]

"I say we go before we need to come up with a cover story for more reporters," Howard says, dropping the facade as soon as the reporter was out of sight. He does carefully pocket the business card; he would talk to the reporter, after all, but with not the same excitement one might have expected from his enthusiasm a few seconds ago.

"If we can stop more people from becoming.. infected?" he says, trying the word but not liking the taste of it, "We have a duty to."

[TooManySecrets]

"Right, right, once more into the breach dear friends. Time to stick our hand into the meat grinder to see if it's, uh, sharp." Nate is laying the sarcasm on pretty heavy. "Unless Doc Proxy has some sort of ironic love of the zoo, he used his gas here for a reason. We have like no clue why he came here, no clue what he's planning, and no clue of what we're walking into. That's not just dumb. That's like frighteningly dumb."

"I don't know about you guys but, uh, I like living. Since I know we're going to end up doing this anyways, I'd like a little bit of warning before dying." Nate moves as if to look at a watch but, given that he's (a) not wearing a watch and (b) he's wearing a tie-dyed supersuit so he couldn't use one even if he did, he stops himself quickly. "Look, I'll be back in about .... eh, make it like a minute."

Then Nate disappears. No phase trail. Just poof he's gone. Except without any poofing.

Less than a minute later, he's back again just as abruptly as he left. On his left upper arm there's what looks like a remote control to a TV but with an antenna and what looks like a tiny speaker tied down with a strap. He's also carrying a ball of shiny metal maybe about a foot in diameter. The ball is featureless, save for four cylindrical holes from the top to bottom of the ball evenly spaced around the circumference and maybe about an inch in from it. Nate lets the ball go and it slowly floats upward. You can barely hear the soft sound of fans humming above the cities background noise.

"Since we don't want to-" "Four Unidentified Unique Heat Signatures Detected," the little radio interrupts by squawking in a tinny blare. Nate squinches his eyes before he presses some buttons on the remote. "Add to database. As I was saying, we-" "Adding To Database." At least this time its volume is reasonable, though still tinny. "-don't want to be surprised so, like, uh, I made this little thing here to help see the baddies before we do. It's got like heat vision and, uh, can see electricity, and can do both through walls. That should help with the whole, uh, meat grinder thingie."

The little metal ball starts to float in a lazy circle around Nate.

"The drone is running off battery power so it's doesn't have too much time. A few hours, maybe. Could be a bit more or less. So, uh, I'm ready, I guess."

Free action to switch to Long Jump Teleport. Double move action to Extended Range Teleport. That gives me a teleport range of 250 miles. Unless Mesa City is redonkulously big, that's more than enough range to teleport back to HQ to build some stuff.

Invention: Semi-Autonomous, Enhanced Vision and Bodyguard Protocol Drone. It's just Enhanced Sidekick 18.

Designing the SAEVBP Drone* is a DC 28 (10+18) Technology check and takes 18 hours (1 hour per pp). 18 hours is Time Rank 14. Nate has Quickness 15, so it takes him 3 seconds to design. He also does the check as a routine check and automatically succeeds at it.

Constructing the SAEVBP Drone is a DC 28 (10+18) Technology check and takes 72 hours (4 hours per pp). 72 hours is 3 days which is Time Rank 16. Nate's Quickness reduces that to 12 seconds to construct. He does it as a routine check as well and automatically succeeds at it.

It takes Nate a grand total of 27 seconds (6 seconds to teleport, 3 seconds to design, 12 seconds to construct, and 6 seconds to teleport back) to make the SAEVBP Drone and come back. The rest of the time is him getting over being woozy from the teleport and trying to find that tool that he just had I know I put it down right there just a second ago but now it's gone darnit.

* Nate really needs to get better at naming things. SAEVBP is pronounced "save-beep", incidentally.





Semi-Autonomous, Enhanced Vision and Bodyguard Protocol Drone

PL 8





STR
STA
AGI
DEX
FTG
INT
AWE
PRE



-3
—
0
0
0
-2
0
-4










OFFENSE




INITIATIVE +8



Unarmed (Hovering into things menacingly) +0
Close, Damage -3







DEFENSE



DODGE
4
FORTITUDE
— (Immune)



PARRY
4

TOUGHNESS
8 (14 vs Physical)



WILL
10








ADVANTAGES


Interpose, Improved Initiative 2







SKILLS


Expertise: Informing People Of Danger 10 (+8), Expertise: Seeing Things You People Wouldn't Believe 10 (+8), Intimidation 0 (-4), Perception 0 (+18 w/visual), Stealth 0 (+8), Technology 0 (+18 to identify)










POWERS




Enhanced Vision [Technology]:

Enhanced Perception 18, Limited to Visual; Enhanced Technology 18, Limited to Identification; Senses 16 (Infravision, Penetrates Concealment, Quirk: poor penetration; Detect Electricity 2, Acute, Accurate, Analytical, Penetrates Concealment, Quirk: poor penetration; Analytical (All Visual)) • 26 points




CommLink [Technology, Radio]:

Senses 1 (Communication Link (Armband Radio));
"Chatter Speak" Senses 1 (Communication Link (Armband Radio)), Rapid 2, Limited to Nate • 4 points




Ducted Rotor Fans [Technology, Air-Based]:

Flight 4, Quirk: no ground movement; Permanent • 7 points




Titanium Plating, Nanoreactive Underlayer Armor [Technology]:

Protection 8; Protection 6 (Limited to Physical) • 11 points




Small Body:

Shrinking 8, Innate • 17 points




Construct [Technology]:

Immunity 30 (Fortitude Saves) • 30 points




Expert Programming [Technology]:

Enhanced Will +10, Permanent • 10 points







Power Points: -28 (Abilities) + 3 (Advantages) + 0 (Defenses) + 105 (Powers) + 10 (Skills)




Total: 90/90




Note: The quirk (poor penetration) for SAEVBP's Infravision and Detect Electricity means that its vision does not entirely penetrate concealment. Every inch of intervening material imposes a -1 penalty to Perception. I am also assuming that Detect Electricity is vision-based. The limitation on Enhanced Technology means that SAEVBP can identify what a particular piece of technology is and it's function (which would include recognizing a technological trap), but can't do anything else (e.g. operating, repairing, disarming a trap, etc), mostly since it lacks any hands.

[Zelphas]

Michael finds himself unable to pick out what trail Lily is following until they exit the zoo; the zoo is well-traveled enough that any attempt at traditional tracking is near to impossible.

Lily fares far better. She picks up several instances of the scent throughout the zoo; whoever or whatever was carrying this scent wandered through most of the zoo. All of the scent snatches in the zoo are older than the one you picked up at the entrance, though; the scent's source isn't in the zoo anymore.

When you make it to the entrance, Michael begins being able to follow the trail as well, as the amount of foot traffic stops being so heavily packed. To Michael, it seems that the scent Lily is following is carried by a man. The man is either thin or small, judging by the lightness of the footprint you find in some dirt near the side of the parking lot, and the shoe he was wearing was falling apart. The trail leads southwest, away from the more affluent commercial district of town and into a poorer, more industrial section.

The reporters are waiting at the entrance, and once again mob you with questions. You see that Mr. Dickson has made it to the entrance before you; he gives you a smug smile and a wave before getting into his car and driving away.

January 8th, 2015
12:14 P.M.

After about twenty-five minutes of walking as the trail meanders through steadily worsening streets and Nate's SAEV-BP occasionally squawks [X] Unidentified Unique Heat Signatures Detected" as you pass people on the streets, the scent finally leads to a squat concrete building nestled into a dead end between a run-down thrift shop and the shadiest liquor store anyone but Elizabeth and Michael have ever seen. In faded black letters, a sign above the door reads "Caring Friends Homeless Shelter". An equally faded cartoon portrayal of a man sitting down to a bowl of soup is also displayed on the sign.

[Anubis Dread]

"...this time the mission data did NOT specify we don't kill the target," Michael notes with a growl, smashing a fist into the palm of his hand to emphasize the point. Prisoners were one thing. Even if he was one of them, they'd at least done something. Gassing a bunch of homeless people was just sick.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily kinda stared at Nate a moment as he returned with the new invention. She knew his power was super-inventing or something but...he had whipped that thing up in less time than it would take her to make a sandwich.

Note to self: when community service has been completed, ask Nate if he would like to help end world hunger.

Lily made sure to check in every five minutes as ordered, and she took out her radio one more time as they arrived at the building. "Scent trail leads to Caring Friends Homeless Shelter on {insert street name here}. No hostiles detected as yet, we're going to check it out, but if you're planning to send backup you might as well send them on ahead. Over."

She didn't head straight for the door though, figuring Nate would want to scan the place with his device first.

She grimaced as Michael spoke and turned to him. "Okay...Michael, I kinda get where you're coming from, but killing shouldn't be our first plan of action ever. It's wrong, and whether someone lives or dies is not our call to make. Aside from that, we're in this for six months, but do not think for a second that the people behind this operation wouldn't love to have access to our powers for longer. A few murder charges they can add to the books is all they would need, however justified you may think them to be. For all of our sakes, please, we have to resolve these missions non-lethally unless doing so places other lives in immediate peril."

"All that aside, we don't know what's going on here. The trail we're following could be from someone using the gas, or it could be from a victim of it taking shelter here. Even if it is trying to gas the people inside, Doctor Proxy doesn't act directly. That's pretty much his entire schtick. The person we're tracking could easily be an equally innocent victim of his powers. And if it isn't, if it's a person who is willingly working with him, then he or she might be able to provide information on his operations. Capture is, by far, the most tactically viable action in this circumstance regardless of any other moral and legal considerations."

[Arcran]

Howard gives a low whistle as Stone pops away, only to return a few seconds later with a robot floating by him. Somehow he got the feeling that Stone might be far, far more powerful useful than the rest of them. What was he going to do next, create cheap power for the entire planet? The conman hastily pulls some armor from The Hobbit as they exit the zoo, doing his best to once again mask his identity from the press.

While the group walks Howard mindlessly flips through The Hobbit, thinking quietly. He needed to find a way to pull multiple things out of the book, simply so he could have some sort of armor on him at all times, otherwise apes throwing rocks would be almost enough to kill him. So far he could only sustain one object; maybe with some help from Protagonist he could work his way up to more than one?

"We aren't killing anybody," Howard states simply, looking at the homeless shelter. Hopefully, in the future, he'd be spending a lot more time at these, assuming his community service went well.

[/I] "Want me to scope the place out a bit?" Howard asks, pulling out To Kill a Mockingbird and flipping through it rapidly, figuring that it likely had the best chance of containing some sort of rags.

[Anubis Dread]

"I'll head in directly," Michael stated. "This way if it turns out it's urgent I'll be in position to rush to any location inside the building."

That and he wasn't sure if a floating drone or whatever Howard could pull up would be all that subtle. Sure they were small and all, but if someone did see it they'd immediately know what was up. Sometimes the old fashioned way was the best way...


Stealth: [roll0]

Whoops, entered 16 instead of 12. So 15 I guess.

[TooManySecrets]

Nate points at the drone. "Drone." He points to the maybe-homeless-shelter. "Meat grinder." And then he waves his arms. "Bad!"

"Like, at least let the drone give it a scan. Even if you're like, uh, so eager to die, you can wait just a few seconds." Nate pushes a button on the remote. "Scan that building in front of us. Uh, full spectrum. Indicate position of all human-sized or larger heat signatures. Indicate position of all, uh, electronic signatures that match, uh, known security systems or do not match known consumer electronics. Verbose, chatter. Uh, stealth mode."

SAEVBP will do the perception check as a routine check, if that's okay. If it is, then it gets a Perception 28 result. Otherwise:

Perception-roll-if-I-have-to: [roll0]

"Verbose" means that SAEVBP will give full details of what it sees. Since we don't have all day, "chatter" means that it will use Chatter Speak to tell Nate what it sees at x100 speed (which Nate can understand 'cause it's a special language created so that Nate can understand it at that speed; Howard can probably also understand it since he can understand all languages). "Stealth mode" just means that SAEVBP won't announce any new signatures unless asked to.

SAEVBP is intelligent, so it can understand complicated commands that are in-line with it's normal operation. Asking it to play a game of chess will probably confuse it, though.

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth scratches her head at all the new developments. Nate sure was something to come up with a robot like that on such short notice. Lily, meanwhile, saved her the trouble of berating Michael for his continued rashness and apparent eagerness to kill. Thinking it best to let that particular topic lie, Elizabeth flatly states, "Waiting for the drone's report would do us no harm."

[Zelphas]

The SAEV-BP whirs in place for a few moments, before letting out a few quick beeps.

The beeps translate to this: "First Floor: No Unique Heat Signatures Detected. No Unknown Electronic Signatures Detected.

Basement 1: Three Unique Heat Signatures Detected 100 Feet North From Base Of Steps. One Unique Heat Signature 120 Feet North, 10 Feet West of Base of--Heat Signature Lost. Possible Reasons For Disappearance: Signature Moved Behind Concrete Wall. Subject Used Heat Cloaking Device. One Unique Heat Signature 170 Feet North From Base Of Steps. Heat Signature Approximately 4.12 Size Of Average Human. Heat Signature Too Stable for Average Human. One Unknown Electronic Signature Detected 170 Feet North From Base Of Steps. Signature Suggests a Containment Field of Unknown Power; Signature Decay Suggests Field Has Recently Powered Down."

As Michael sneaks in, he finds that the soup kitchen at the front of the shelter is worn but clean. The lights are off, giving the beige walls a grayish tint and dulling the gleam of the polished steel counter-top. The inside of the shelter feels no warmer than the outside; it seems like someone turned off the heat in the building.

[Anubis Dread]

The drones report would be invaluable true, but time was of the essence. They had radios - anything pertinent the drone could pick up could simply be sent over the lines.

Speaking of which, the place seemed empty. At least this area was. That wasn't a good sign. Michael hoped this meant that the place was a front rather than the alternative. "Entry is clear, any intel?" Michael called in over the radio as she snuck further in.

[TooManySecrets]

"Here's the scoop, Mr. Furious," Nate says into his radio. "You've got, like, at least four people in the basement. There's also some sort of force field device or something, I don't know what. It just turned off. Uh, three of the dudes are together, the other is a bit further off. Maybe in another room. We're coming in after you."

Nate commands the drone again. "Add the four human-sized signatures to Hostile Person database. Add the larger heat signature to, uh, Hostile Device database. Inform: Field starts to activate again or Hostile Device increases in, uh, temperature or Hostile Persons deviate from position by, ahhh, let's say 10%." "Complying. Beep." It actually says the word "beep".

Nate looks around at the others. "So, uh, after you guys. I'll be like right behind you."

[PalusAbel]

"I suppose I will go first. I would hope that I am a bit hardier." Elizabeth flashes a quick smile before slinking into the building after Michael. Well, slinking as well as someone her size could manage. She keeps her eyes and ears open as she proceeds; it is not as though she doubts SAEV-BP's report, but that a little extra caution could go a long way.

Rolling a Stealth check to keep hidden and a Perception check to look for anything amiss.
Stealth: [roll0]
Perception: [roll1]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily had been thinking to fly up to the roof to be ready to catch the guy if he tried to escape, but after getting the reports from Michael and Nate, it was apparent that this wasn't the situation she had thought it was. This was some sort of base or something.

She went for the radio again. One thing her siblings had mentioned frequently in their stories was the importance of communication in the field.

But she halted before turning it on. Another thing they had mentioned was the value of stealth and surprise. If she spoke into the radio now, it would come through Michael and Elizabeth's radios too, which might alert the people below.

She waffled on it for a second before deciding that with the people in the basement, the risk was minimal as long as she was cautious. She turned on the radio and said in a whisper "The building is mostly empty. I think it's a front. Nate found four people in the basement, presumed hostile, details unknown. Also a forcefield generator of some kind. We're approaching quietly. Please inform backup, but do not respond to message, and maintain radio silence until further notice. Over."

Between this and earlier with the reporter, Lily was quite convinced they needed to get access to a more subtle communication method when this was over.

That said, she slipped in after the others, trying to keep her steps light.

Stealth: [roll0].

EDIT: Wow. After all that to try and maintain stealth in communications, and I manage a mighty 2 on the Stealth check itself.

Such irony. I'll tell you, I didn't see that one coming.

I expected a 1, you see.

:smallsigh:

But pretty much the first thing she did was step on a creaky floorboard, and the noise startled her so she quickly tried to overcompensate by lifting off the ground with a sharp flutter of her wings that moved her too far and too fast and sent her straight into a wall with a solid thump.

Maybe she should have kept watch from the roof...

[Anubis Dread]

"Fill me in on the rough co-ordinates of the isolate target. We might be able to neutralize them before the other are aware of any trouble," Michael whispered in his mike, slinking towards the lower levels. Before grimacing as he hard an ungodly loud noise coming from above.

"I certainly hope that was an intentional distraction," he couldn't help but remark.


Stealth: [roll0]
Perception: [roll1]

[Arcran]

"White, do not engage," Howard whispers angrily into his mic, wondering if the others had even bothered to listen to the orders given by Branch. "Until we have the go-ahead from Branch just sit still," he states, almost rolling his eyes.

"Branch, clearance to engage?" Howard whispers, somewhat ignoring Lily. He didn't want to start a fight they weren't supposed to. For now, Howard simply stands at the doorway, not yet deigning to enter the building.

[Zelphas]

Michael and Elizabeth

You find the stairs behind a heavy steel door a little ways past the soup kitchen; the steps are bare concrete, and there are plenty of shadows to skulk inside as you move downwards. Upon opening the door, both of you begin to make out a voice talking calmly. As you move closer, you begin to catch a few words. "...Only three this... is on patrol... finished here, Master..." The voice is male, calm and confident, with a slight accent that neither of you can place at this distance. Then comes the crash from up above. Shortly afterwards, you hear a rumbling cacophony from above, much louder than the initial crash.

The voice down the hall goes quiet for a moment, and then you hear a sigh. "I had better...too much of a mess," he says. "Yes, Master." A crunch echoes down the hallway, followed quickly by footsteps walking unhurriedly towards you. The base of the stairs is framed by another door, this one standing open; the owner of the voice has not managed to get to the base of the steps quite yet.

Lily, Nate, and Howard

Lily, dazed from her collision with the wall, catches nothing but a sudden rumbling noise, and then suddenly she is being pelted by cinder blocks falling from above!

Lily, Please make a DC 23 Toughness Check.

From where they are standing at the entryway, Nate and Howard can see what happened more clearly. Shortly after Lily collided with the wall, a six-foot section of the wall wobbled and then suddenly collapsed, half-burying Lily in debris.

Maybe it was a trick of the old building, but... you could have sworn that you heard a woman's voice laughing just before that wall came down...

Everyone

Agent Branch's voice comes over the radio in a hoarse whisper. "D***it, are you already in a hostile situation? Keep yourselves alive. I've already sent for backup; if this looks like it's going to go FUBAR on you, get out. Your lives are more important than finding out what Proxy is up to right now." A moment later, you hear him mutter, "To me, anyway."

[Anubis Dread]

"Sh**," Michael curses, rushing down the stairs as quickly and stealthy as he could. It seemed like the distraction was causing them to run rather than investigate. If they didn't move in now they could lose their only lead on Proxy.

Their lives were more important... for the others that might be true, but Michael had never been afraid to throw his life away to take down an enemy. Hell, he wasn't even sure he COULD die anymore. He didn't know just how extensive his regeneration was after all. Either way, until things got hair he'd need to advance and attempt to take down the enemy.


Athletics to move quicker: [roll0]
Stealth: [roll1]
Perception: [roll2]

Michael will attempt to get into a position where he can check out the enemy and ambush them as they pass.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily was barely able to choke back a yelp as the wall crashed down on her. She threw her arms up to protect her face and came away with scrapes and bruises. By far the majority of the damage was done to her pride.

She stood there mortified for a moment, but then pulled herself free of the rubble and doggedly advanced. This was already turning into a comedy of errors and looking more and more likely to spiral out of control; that being the case, she'd rather be there to help Michael and Elizabeth as best she could than hesitate trying to decide what the right course of action was.

A little nectar seeped from her cuts as she went, and in seconds the only sign of the damage was the dust in her hair and speckling her clothes.

Advancing along with Michael. Setting Flower Power array to Healing Nectar to regenerate the Bruise.

Also, Perception: [roll0]

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth sighs quietly at the sounds overhead, wondering what could have possibly gone wrong up there. As Michael takes a ready position at the bottom door, Elizabeth ponders whether to follow suit. The stairway was not so large that she could completely conceal herself beside the door frame. She sighs again, then calmly walks down the rest of the steps to stand in front of the door. Subtlety was never my strong suit.

As per Agent Branch's orders, she was not to engage any hostiles without first getting confirmation. That said, his last transmission could be interpreted as confirmation in its own right. Armed with this justification, Elizabeth prepares herself to grab who- or whatever walked through that door.

Stealth and Perception checks, as before. Then, Elizabeth will ready a Grab attack for the first target that opens the door.

Stealth: [roll0]
Perception: [roll1]

Grab: [roll2] (DC 14 to resist)

[Quellian-dyrae]

((Should have rolled my Perception check before posting...))

Lily halted before getting too far, though, as her brain caught up with her and recognized the sound of laughter. She looked around warily, sniffing the air.

Perception to try and detect who was laughing: [roll0].

[Arcran]

"Goddamn it," Howard says aloud, watching the team disappear into the building one after another. Was he the only one that had a little caution? The fact that somebody had been laughing when the wall came down meant they were probably out of their league, to put it lightly. He quickly dashes in after Lily, doing his best to move debris away from her.

"Stone, we need to get in there," Howard states, pulling Jurassic Park out of his belt and flipping to the page with the velociraptors. They were, after all, apparently effective.

[TooManySecrets]

Nate hefts the freeze ray. "This is gonna go bad, man." Despite his words, Nate goes inside and starts to make his way to the basement, the drone following after him.

Ready action to fire Deep Freeze at the first hostile he sees, as Nate goes to the basement. Power attacking for 2 (+10 to attack, rank 4).

[Zelphas]

Elizabeth and Michael
You both manage to hide yourselves in the shadows at either side of the open door. Walking towards you is what looks like an albino in a pitch black suit. The man is slightly taller than Elizabeth and slim; his head is shaven, and one of his hands is clenched shut. His polished black shoes click along the cement floor as he nears you with more weight than his frame would suggest.

As the man draws closer, a few more things stand out. First of all, the suit he is wearing looks like it was custom-tailored, and it probably cost more than most houses. Secondly, the man's eye's are as white as the rest of him; you can see his irises and pupils, all pure snow-white with small grooves marking the differences between them. This, combined with the straight aquiline nose and haughty features of the man, make him look like nothing more than a marble statue come to life, walking around in an expensive Italian suit.

The man doesn't seem to notice either of you as he comes to the door. At the last second, however, he somehow senses Elizabeth's grab and reacts with lightning speed, turning his back to Michael and catching both of her hands with his own. A clump of crushed metal and glass falls from his now-open hand onto the floor between the two of you. "I'm sorry, Domina, but I am a taken man," he says calmly, his accent slightly more pronounced. Mediterranean, perhaps?

Behind him, you hear a muffled thump, which reminds Michael of the day in boot camp where they were shown how to load and fire a mortar.

Lily, Nate, and Howard

As Lily stops and sniffs the air, the entire building is laid open to her. She can smell the inert gas, permeating this building; the scent they followed here continues down the stairs and disappears into the basement. It doesn't come back up. Coming from the basement below, she can smell the sharp buzz of heated cement, and an odd smell that reminds her of a museum; and, weaving through all of it like a worm through an apple, she smells from the basement the stink of death.

From the wall next to Lily, a chunk of masonry explodes outwards, and Lily is struck in the face by a plaque reading "Graciously Founded by the Cantilever Society".

Another DC 23 Damage Check for Lily.

Nate and Howard enter the building, only to have the door slam shut behind them. The laughter returns, clearly audible now, and the temperature noticeably drops around you. The lights flicker and go dim, and all of your nostrils are filled with the smell of something rotting. From one corner of the room, the darkness swirls, morphing into the form of a little girl with stringy brown hair and dead eyes. Her head is twisted at an unnatural angle, and she stretches her arms out towards you as the laughter swirls all around.

For a second, you fully experience each of these symptoms; and then they suddenly fade to... transparency. You can see the darkened room, the child, you can hear the laughter all around, you can feel the cold air on your skin--but at the same time, you see the room as light as it was before, the child is see-through, and the air feels no colder than when you first came in. Best of all, the laughing all around you is fake; you can hear real, stifled giggles coming from a spot in the air about five feet above the 'child'.

A moment later, the SAEV-BP beeps. "Unique Heat Signature Detected 118 Feet North, 12 Feet West From Base Of Stairs. Lost Unique Heat Signature Now 120 Feet North, 12 Feet West From Base Of Stairs." Less than a second later, it beeps again. "Unique Heat Signature 118 Feet North, 12 Feet West From Base of Stairs Has Faded. No Longer Human-Level Heat Signature or Above."

Initiative please, if you're planning to fight.

Initiative List:
Nate: 21
Michael: 20
Howard: 13
Lily: 12
Elizabeth: 11
Statue Guy: 7
Creepy Girl: 2

[PalusAbel]

"My apologies, then; I did not know," Elizabeth replies with a smile. She takes a moment to look the man up and down. He was quite the strange one, surprisingly tall and evidently carved from stone. Just as well that the sneak attack failed. They were never my style.

Elizabeth uses the man's grip for leverage as she attempts to drive her knee into his solar plexus. Were he as sturdy as he looked, such an attack might not faze him, but it was worth trying if only to probe his defenses. He clearly had the reaction speed to defend against a surprise grab, so this could turn into a very interesting match.

Standard action to make a single unarmed attack. Damage DC 19, +5 with a result of 30 or higher.
Unarmed: [roll0]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily's head snapped to the side when the chunk of masonry hit. It split open the skin, but even with a head injury, the nectar that her blood had become only flowed slowly. The smell of death coming from the basement turned her stomach, and it only got worse when the girl appeared. What...was she? Was she even...alive?

Lily wanted to flee in horror, but she forced herself to swallow her disgust and her fear. This girl was a threat to her team. She had to neutralize the threat.

(Starting a rational dialogue didn't even enter her mind).

Lily rushed her, wiping at the nectar that was seeping from her head injury and then flinging it at the girl as she got close. The spray of droplets got thinner and more clear in mid-air, as she transformed each drop into a different debilitating contact poison.

Guessing I can act since I beat all enemy initiative rolls, right?

Regenerates that first Bruise. Then Regeneration lowers to 2 as Lily swaps Flower Girl array and turns off entirely since she's off Healing Nectar and we're inside.

Move Action: Advance into Close range of Creepy Girl.

Standard Action: Floral Poison at [roll0]. On a hit, Fortitude DC 18 or all physical traits (Dodge, Parry, Toughness, Fortitude, Athletics, Acrobatics, Stealth, Vehicles, Sleight of Hand, Attack Rolls, and any physically-oriented attacks or powers) lose 1 PP per point of failure (so, one rank for stats, two ranks for skills, rank depending on cost per rank for powers). Assuming she isn't immune to Fortitude effects in general or poison in particular, which seems kinda likely, but Lily's not the type to jump straight to acid :smalltongue:.

Current Status: 1 Bruise.

[Arcran]

Howard turns about in a panic, trying to pinpoint the source of his enemy as he covers his nose, doing his best to ignore the stench of rotting flesh. As the girl appears Howard leaps back, completely and utterly terrified.

"Stone, shoot it!" he cries in a panic, almost dropping Jurassic Park as he rapidly flips through The Hobbit, trying to find something.

Of course, when Howard feels the room flash back to normal he looks about in confusion, unsure of exactly what had just happened. Was what they were seeing not real? Was the laughing girl he couldn't see the one pulling the strings?

Slowly, Howard once again pulls out Jurassic Park. This time he has no such qualms about who or what the person was; the building was collapsing on Lily and, right now, whoever this was was doing their best to stop him and Stone from helping the others. In a low whisper, Howard begins to read, the words flying from his tongue.

"The hadrosaur turned to flee, and one of the raptors lumped onto its back, biting into the long neck, while others raced forward, circled around it, nipped at its legs, leapt up to slash at the belly with their powerful claws-"

With a multitude of snarls the pack once again appears, huge talons ready to strike.

DC 18 Parry, otherwise DC 23 Toughness

[Anubis Dread]

What was this thing? Whatever it was, it was going to down. He had no intention of letting anyone in league with Doctor Proxy getting away. That sound was concerning, but he needed focus on the threat in front of him first.

"GOLEM HUNTER!" Michael screamed, bringing the red hammer down onto the exposed back of his enemy. He didn't know what made his enemy tick, but he could tell he was a tough one. Weakening that seemed the best first step. What's more it also seemed to be strong. With that in mind, the red hammer shattered to be replaced by a green axe. "And... WOLF HUNTER!"


Golem Hunter Power Attack 5 All-Out-Attack 5
Attack: [roll0]

Wolf Hunter Power Attack 5 All-Out-Attack 5
Attack: [roll1]

[TooManySecrets]

Nate wasn't paying much attention to what Howard was doing. Okay, ghost girl. Not what I was expecting.

Nate's form starts to flicker as he phases out. A switch on the freeze ray is flipped and Nate fires at the creepy girl.

Free action to switch to Phase Out. Firing Deep Freeze as a physical attack (rather than energy, cold) as it layers chunks of ice on the target. I believe (though I'm not sure) that an attack fired by an incorporeal target vs an incorporeal target works, though I'm not sure. Nate is assuming the ghost girl has ghostly powers. Power attacking for 4

Attack: [roll0]

[Zelphas]

Elizabeth and Michael

Will Save vs DC 23: [roll0]

Close Combat: rolled a 24 in OOC. Michael, DC 23 Toughness vs. Damage.

Michael brings down Golem Hunter with a mighty swing. The great hammer crashes across the statue's back--and bounces off. Wolf Hunter suffers similar results, but Michael feels the great-axe siphon off a portion of the man's strength with even that glancing blow.

Elizabeth brings her knee up to the man's stomach, and the man makes no move to avoid it. The blow connects solidly... and it feels as though you attempted to knee your way through a brick wall before you gained your powers. There is absolutely no give in the man; he doesn't even bend over. "We have not been properly introduced; my name is Caesar," the blank-eyed man says calmly. "Who are you? And who is your colorful friend?" he says, one foot coming up to hit Michael with a kick to the stomach.

Lily, Howard, and Nate

Nate's first blast goes through the child without seeming to do any damage. His second blast freezes the girl solid, and Lily's poison splatters across the frozen figure. Howard's raptors jump to life, leaping back and forth across the space above the frozen girl, and for just a moment Howard can see the ghostly outline of an emaciated woman, utterly untouched by the claws slashing through her.

The frozen girl shudders and sighs, melting away into nothingness. Suddenly, the lights return to normal, the temperature rises, and the stench of rot disappears. A moment later, Nate feels something akin to a freight train slamming into his gut, and the laughter returns to the room.

Damage DC 23 for you. It's Physical Insubstantial Damage, so your NAB gets the full +11 to resist.

Perception DC [roll1] (Hearing) to pinpoint the laughter

The giggling is coming from the doorway between you and the basement.

Nate: 21
Michael: 20
Howard: 13
Lily: 12
Elizabeth: 11
Statue Guy: 7
Creepy Girl: 2

All PCs are up.

[Anubis Dread]

He was getting REAL sick of being knocked around like a rag doll. It wasn't as bad as when he'd been beaten by that four armed monkey, but this guy was no push over.

"Caesar..." Michael coughs. "Very traditional. Almost... ARCANE, really. Bit of a long shot, but I'm hoping I'm going to be your worst nightmare."

Dropping his axe, Michael reformed his yellow spear before lunging at the enemy. "WITCH HUNTER!"


Failed by two degrees, so -2 on this attack. Power Attacking for 5, but not All-Out-Attacking

Witch Hunter: [roll0]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily was willing to admit it, she was kinda freaking out here. She didn't understand what this enemy was, what she was capable of, and whatever power was cloaking her from sight was also concealing her from her sense of smell. Her untrained instincts were screaming at her to run.

But she gritted her teeth and forced herself to think, to keep rational control of herself. She couldn't discern her opponent's position. That was fine.

The smell of flowers grew more pervasive around her. If she couldn't see what to attack, she'd rely on an attack that didn't involve aiming.

Standard Action: Induce Delirium. Dodge DC 18 to avoid, Will DC 18 to resist, Entranced/Compelled/Controlled Affliction. If Compelled or Controlled, she will be forced to reveal herself and cease attacking.

Current Status: 1 Bruise.

[PalusAbel]

Part of Elizabeth wanted to call out to Michael, but the pain shooting through her own body cut her off. "You can call me the Fighting Redwood," she grunts through clenched teeth. "Caesar, I will make you forget all about that three-colored hunter." Elizabeth's gaze becomes distant as she focuses inward and begins coaxing out her power. Caesar might be hard, but could he withstand a force of forty-five tons? We will soon find out, she thinks with a smile.

Activate Density Manipulation as a standard action.

[Arcran]

"Over there!" Howard shouts as he pinpoints the giggling once again, pointing towards the doorway as he trades Jurassic Park for The Hobbit. What was the woman? A prisoner like them? There was no way; the woman looked like she hadn't eaten in weeks. Sure, prison food hadn't been good but at least they'd been fed there. She had to be something else...

Still, who she was wasn't the primary concern here. Right now all that mattered was beating her. The pages of The Hobbit are a blur as Howard looks through it, finally finding the passage he wanted. It was dangerous, sure, but how easy was it to hide when you were on fire?

"Fire leaped from the dragon's jaws," Howard says, mentally musing that, of all the places in The Hobbit to provide little description this was the part that Tolkein had chose.

Without a word Smaug's great red head appears next to Howard, mouth already open as a huge jet of flame billows forth, incinerating all in its path. A moment later the head was gone, but not until after Smaug's great eye had turned upon Howard for a fraction of a second, the hostility clear.

Cone Area Damage 8. Right now it just has the (Fire) descriptor.

[TooManySecrets]

"Danger, Nate Stone! Danger, Danger!" the control box on Nate's arm blares as the drone itself tries to interpose between Nate and the ghostly attack. It's not noticeable effective, though, for obvious reasons.

Perception: [roll0] vs. DC 28
Toughness: [roll1] vs. DC 23

Nate feels a section of the suit harden instantly and slight movement across the semi-fluid layer, but is otherwise completely fine. The suit had absorbed all the energy of the blow. A moment later it is back to normal.

He glances over to where Howard pointed but he can't see anything. Screw aiming, Nate thinks, as he flicks a switch and fills half of the room, the doorway, and the hallway behind it with shards of out-of-phase piercing ice.

As he stops flickering, he says to the others. "She's a ghost girl. You've got to be, like, a ghost to hit her."

Standard action: Firing the GBP on Wide, Damage 8 cone area attack, as physical. Free action to deactivate Phase Out.

[Zelphas]

Lily, Howard, and Nate

Dodge to halve Ice Damage: [roll0] Success. 1/2 Damage.
Toughness: [roll1] Failed by 2 Degrees. -1 and Dazed.

Dodge to halve Fire Damage: [roll2]-1=26. Still Success. 1/2 Damage.
Toughness: [roll3]-1=11. Failed by 2 Degrees. -1, already Dazed.


The giggling is cut by a cry as Nate's ice blasts through the empty space, the shards breaking across empty space in the vague shape of a floating woman. The giggling resumes, punctuated by haggard gasps of pain, until Howard summons Smaug. the roar of the fire is dwarfed by an ear-piercing shriek. The fire and ice combine to create massive clouds of steam, filling the room in the sudden silence.

A human-like shape appears suddenly in the fog, towering over all of the heroes on the top floor. The clinging mist and steam obscures its features, however.

Elizabeth and Michael

Will Save: [roll4] -4 to Strength.

Close Combat vs Michael: [roll5] Damage DC 29-4=25 if it hits. Miss.

"Ah," Caesar's blank eyes widen in recognition of Elizabeth's moniker, smiling suddenly. "The Master's newest batch. How many of you are here? It's always a pleasure to meet relations."

"Ancient, possibly. Arcane? Not in the slightest," Caesar says as he turns to Michael, the golden spear glancing off of his side without leaving a mark. Another concussive burst echoes down the hallway. "I was made by the Master's invention; the same substance that gave you your abilities, though mine was a bit... purer." He sizes Michael up and down. "I haven't had a nightmare, as I recall. If I had, I doubt it would contain you." He sighs. "The Master gave strict orders not to kill any of you; a pity. I must pull my punches." With that, Caesar drives a fist at Michael's head.

The staircase above you is lit by a wash of flame. Underneath Caesar's jacket, a wisp of smoke suddenly appears, and the smell of singed hair fills the small space. Caesar's punch falters and goes wide, and Michael can see sudden, stark fear in the statue man's eyes. "Lucy," he breathes, taking off in a sudden sprint up the stairs. He seems to have forgotten both of you.

Nate: 21
Michael: 20
Howard: 13
Lily: 12
Elizabeth: 11
Caesar: 7
Creepy Ghost: 2

All PCs are up.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Holy smite flipping what!?" Lily cried out as a freaking giant dragon head appeared to roast their enemy. She looked at Howard with newfound respect...and more than a bit of terror.

Her pheromone manipulation, on the other hand, wasn't amounting to much. She was starting to strongly believe her powers were simply ineffective against this opponent.

So it was flipping glorious when the big guy came to the top of the stairs. She didn't need to see him; she could smell his concrete nature. That was something she could affect.

Granted, still probably not with the majority of her tactics, but there was one she felt confident would work. Lily flew to about fifteen feet from him, and spat a glob of nectar straight for his chest. About ten percent of the energy was unlocked as healing potential to prevent mortal injury.

The rest?

The rest would start eating away his concrete body as a devastating acid.

Move: Fly within 15' of Caesar.

Standard: Floral Acid at Caesar at [roll0] (I assume that my Accurate, Analytical sense of smell allows me to ignore the concealment provided by the steam; -2 on the attack if not). On a hit, Toughness DC 23 vs. Damage and Dodge DC 18 vs. Weaken Toughness. The little healing bit is just fluff for the M&M default of nonlethal damage. Note: the Weaken should resolve simultaneously with the Damage, so he'll roll full Toughness even if he fails against the Weaken (figured I should specify because 2e had powers like this that did the Weaken first).

Current Status: 1 Bruise.

Or it would start eating away at the floor. That...that was also entirely possible.

[PalusAbel]

"You will not escape me!" Elizabeth tore after the fleeing Caesar, literally pounding the stairs to powder with the force of her footfalls. On the floor above, she is greeted with the sight of steam born from fire and ice. She pushes that thought out of mind to seize Caesar with a bear hug. Elizabeth's power made it no harder for her to bear her own weight, but it was clear that the same did not hold for others. She had become a forty-five ton paperweight; the strange statuesque man was unlikely to go anywhere soon.

[Anubis Dread]

Alright time to... and there went the stairs. Cursing, Michael looked over his options as his wounds began to heal. His main enemy was in a grapple with an ally. Anything he did there would risk doing more harm than good. He needed to get into that room and look things over to see if there was another way he could help.

Moving to climb the rubble of the stairs, Michael entered the room and ducked over to the side to collect himself. There was a lot going on here, but he had injuries to heal up before he could reliably deal with any of them.


Moving into the room, then taking a Standard to Recover. Combined with Regen this puts Michael back at full

[Arcran]

In the thick steam, Howard can't see anything but the outline of the human-like shape standing tall within the mist. Without a second thought Howard brings The Hobbit close to his face again, squinting to make the words out against the backdrop of the page. One more hit could end this, at least if the fire was effective as the previous time.

"Fire leaped from the dragon's jaws," he says rapidly, stepping aside once again as the dragon's head appears, a great blast of flame issuing forth and filling the top of the staircase once again. The head is gone as rapidly as it came, leaving only a feeble Howard holding a book, still shaken by the dragon's eye that always seemed to linger.

Sorry Abel!

DC 18 Dodge for half, DC 23 Damage

[TooManySecrets]

This is a pain. She's just going to get away again, Nate thinks as he fires the freezing blast again.

Second verse same as the first. Free action to go Insubstantial, standard action to fire GBP on Wide again.

[Zelphas]

Everyone

The only way he's getting out of Elizabeth's grip is with a nat 20, but I may as well roll for Caesar on the off chance: [roll0] Failed by two Degrees. Bound.

Close Combat (On Elizabeth): [roll1]-2 (from Impaired)=15. Just barely hits. Damage DC 25.

The steam begins to fade, condensing into droplets of water as Nate powers up his ray once more. The revealed Caesar looks around wildly as insubstantial ice flies through him, his blank eyes focusing on the insubstantial tech wiz. Then fire blasts over him, bathing the already-scorched hallway once more, and steam billows. For a long second, Caesar is revealed, completely unscathed and glaring at Howard with death in his marble eyes. He lets out a wordless roar, swatting Lily's corrosive spit out of the air like an errant fly and beginning to rush towards the literomancer...

Before another shape flies out of the mist, wrapping the living statue in an inescapable bear hug. The steam obscures the two figures, who struggle for a moment; and then there is a scream of tortured metal and a rumble of crumbling cement, and both Caesar and Elizabeth disappear into the gaping hole that opens underneath them.

Elizabeth

You and Caesar fall for a short while before slamming into the concrete. The fall was too short to hurt your recently-bolstered defenses, but it does jar your hold on Caesar.

Elizabeth, if you want to continue grappling with Caesar, you need to make a new Grab check this round. Take a Hero Point for me using your Accident complication against you.

Within the pit Elizabeth and Caesar fell down, you can hear a female voice, muttering something indistinct in a tear- and pain-filled voice.

Nate: 21
Michael: 20
Howard: 13
Lily: 12
Elizabeth: 11
Caesar: 7
Creepy Ghost: 2

All PCs are up.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Elizabeth!" Lily cried out as the woman fell through the floor. She wasted no time diving into the hole after her. Once she reached the bottom, she'd hold for a moment to see if Elizabeth was going to grab the guy again, before spitting another glob of acid at him.

Move: Fly into the hole. Lily's Flight has the Wings flaw, so depending on how big the hole is and whether or not it widens out below, she might be unable to fly down. If so, Toughness vs. Fall is: [roll0].

Standard: Assuming Lily either doesn't fall or isn't Dazed, Staggered, or Incapacitated from it, she will Ready an action to attack Caesar with Floral Acid immediately after Elizabeth acts, at [roll1]. If Elizabeth does choose to grab the guy again and manages to render him Bound again, this will resolve as a Finishing Attack, but not with intent to kill. Toughness DC 23 vs. Damage, Dodge DC 18 vs. Weaken Toughness, increase DC by 5 if a Finishing Attack.

Current Status: 1 Bruise (pending possible falling damage).

[PalusAbel]

Elizabeth refused to let go when Caesar attempted to strike back, but falling through a hole in the floor was another matter entirely. Even so, the fall was short enough that Elizabeth throw herself right back into the fray. "I am fine, Lily!" She yells as she barrels into the man once again. This man is dangerous. I cannot let him close to the others!

Perception vs. DC 15: [roll0]

Spending the new hero point to improve resistance roll.
Toughness vs. Damage DC 25: [roll1] 29; damage avoided. (+10 if 13-22)

If resistance is successful, will attempt another grab as an all-out attack (-2 to active defenses, +2 to attack roll). Grab DC 22.
Grab: [roll2]

If resistance is not successful, will use standard action to recover.

[Anubis Dread]

Nothing he had was penetrating Caesar's defenses. Jumping the hole seemed a horrible idea as well. Come to think of it the only ones in the hole were Caesar, Elizabeth and Lily right? Two of whom were indestructible, one of which had healing powers...

Calling his read hammer, Michael rushes towards the hole before jumping up when he reached the edge, lunging at the ceiling. "GOLEM HUNTER!"


Attacking the ceiling above the hole with Golem Hunter, Power Attacking for 5.
[roll0]

[TooManySecrets]

"Ghost girl got away. Watch out!" Nate yells out to his companions. He presses the command button and speaks to the drone. "Expand bodyguard protocol to all, uh, nearby non-hostiles." "Complying."

Nate takes a precious moment to think. I've only seen two dudes so far. SAEVBP saw far more. Something isn't right. Without any thought to the danger nor to such things as physical barriers, Nate follows Lily and Elizabeth not by dropping down into the hole but by flickering insubstantially down into the basement.

Move action to command SAEVBP. Standard action as Move action to go down into the basement. I want to end up as close as possible to the machine.

SAEVBP's bodyguard protocol is represented by the Interpose advantage (http://www.d20herosrd.com/5-advantages#TOC-INTERPOSE-GENERAL-). SAEVBP has a Fly speed of 4 which means it can Interpose for anybody within 500ft, which should be everybody. Since SAEVBP is sapient, it can make an intelligent decision about who to guard. If we were playing this game face-to-face, we would probably have OOC talk to decide when to have him Interpose. That would ridiculously slow down the game in play-by-post, though, so basically whoever wants to use SAEVBP just say so in their post. First come, first serve, since it can only Interpose once per round. It has a Toughness save of 14 vs physical, is immune to fortitude saves, and has +10 will, so despite being a minion it should be able to take a couple hits. Remember, you need to have it Interpose before you roll to resist (though after you know whether it hit or not).

[Arcran]

Howard stops flinching long enough to watch Elizabeth take down Caeser, watching as the ground crumbles around the two of them.

As the others begin to jump into the hole, Howard frowns slightly. What exactly was he supposed to do? There wasn't exactly anything he could do right now, especially after Caeser had simply ignored what Howard thought was his strongest attack. More than a little concerned and slightly less than willing to dive into the hole, Howard quickly taps his ear, trying to get in contact with Agent Branch. After all, help wasn't coming any time soon.

"Branch, how long until reinforcements get here?" he asks, speaking just loud enough to be heard over the clamor downstairs. "One of the enemies seems to have escaped and we are currently engaged with the other to little effect," Howard states, looking into the hole as best he can to discern what's there.

[Zelphas]

Roll to resist grab: [roll0] Fail by two Degrees. Bound.

Nate flickers down into the hole in the ground just before Michael hammers the ceiling with Golem Hunter; unfortunately, he catches the ceiling in only a glancing blow, causing nothing more than a few chunks of plaster to fall upon the people below.

Everyone not insubstantial in the hole make a Dodge DC 12 check to avoid debris, then Toughness DC 17/16 check for bludgeoning damage.

Caesar ignores the few pieces of ceiling that bounce off of him, struggling to his feet. Lily's spit catches him full in the face; it sizzles for a moment, before subsiding, leaving no mark upon the statue man's face. Elizabeth once again slams into Caesar, pinning him against one bare cement wall. behind a metal door, there comes a distant thump that Elizabeth has heard twice before, and the SAEV-BP beeps, warning of the exact same heat signature "133 Feet North, 12 Feet West From the Base of the Stairs".

Caesar smiles thinly, seemingly unperturbed by his current position pinned against the wall. "You seem to have me at a stalemate," he says calmly. "Any more fighting would be pointless; I think I shall take my leave. A reward for doing so well, however. Down the hallway in the basement is the boiler room. Inside are two women and a man, former residents of this shelter. They helped me create the newest batch of my Master's formula--unbeknownst to them, of course--and were accidentally exposed to the mixture. They are unconscious now, on the floor of that room." he pauses for a moment, in mock thought. "Oh, and in... ten seconds, maybe less, one of my Master's tools will bring the room down atop their heads, killing them. You can save them, or you can attempt to chase me. Your choice." Caesar's smile widens. "Don't worry, we'll meet again." With that, he nods to one side, and vanishes. Even his smell, which Lily suddenly realizes is so faint that it has already disappeared from the air upstairs, ceases, and Elizabeth feels as though she is holding on to air.

A bare moment later, Howard's radio crackles. "ETA two minutes on the backup; they're coming as fast as they can. Status report, Silvers; any injuries?"

PCs are up. Two rounds until Caesar's prediction comes true.

Just before Caesar disappears, a familiar giggle sounds right next to him.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Lily grunted as a big chunk of the rubble Michael had dislodged beaned her right in the noggin. Ow. Okay, yeah, getting his wanton destructive impulses under control might have to become a priority. She clenched her teeth as the concrete man vanished. She got the guy full in the face with an acid strong enough to chew through a tree trunk and he didn't even flinch. She was rather uncertain the rest of her repertoire could so much as inconvenience him, and she certainly didn't have anything that could hurt him.

No, there was simply no value in it. But what could she do to help the people in the boiler room? She wasn't strong enough to carry a full-grown person out of the building. And there wasn't any time to come up with a clever plan, either.

Lily felt helpless, and that only intensified the fear that had been setting her heart pounding throughout this debacle. She wanted to fly away, to get out of a danger, to let the more capable heroes handle it. Wait outside, heal anyone who needed it when they were finished. The medic was still a valuable role, didn't need to be a soldier too. Maybe that would be for the best. What could a mere Flower Girl do in a situation like this?

"The name...is Floral," she gritted out in defiance of her own thoughts, the name springing from her lips before she could really consider or analyze it, but it rang true as she said it. Floral. That's who she was.

And Floral wasn't some convict who cared only for herself. Floral wasn't a coward who ran from danger. Floral wasn't some healer content to sit on the sidelines.

Floral was a hero!

She spread her wings and took off, rising up through the now-widened hole and flying back down the stairs, trying to find the boiler room and, more importantly, whatever tool Caesar had mentioned. If it were a bomb or something, maybe she could disable it, or at least remove it.

Move (and Standard as needed) Action: Go hunting for whatever tool is going to bring down the room. Perception: [roll0]. Since Lily's sense of smell is Analytical, I imagine there's a pretty good shot that she'll be able to identify something capable of outputting sufficient energy to collapse a room, assuming it isn't cloaked from sense of smell or something.

If Lily finds something and still has a standard action available this round, I might use it to do something about it.

Current Status: 2 Bruises.

[TooManySecrets]

I thought villainous monologuing was just a comic book thing.

Nate starts to run towards the machine, flickering through everything and anything to get through.

I'm having a bit of difficulty visually the distances of everything down here. I know I'm going to need at least one move action to get to where the machine heat/electronic signature came from. If I need two move actions, I'll take them both. If I only need one, then I'll just post a second time for what my standard action is.

Since there's no reason not to, I'll use Athletics to attempt to move faster. It increases speed for an entire round, so if I need to use two move actions each is increased.

Athletics: [roll0] EDIT: I am really glad there are no consequences for failure for running.

[Anubis Dread]

It seemed everyone had made their decision. If the rest were just standing around, absent or had decided to chase their target Michael would be conflicted. As it was he knew his team was better suited to stopping whatever trap had been set up than he was. He'd be better put to use making sure their enemy didn't escape.

Let's see... Michael made some quick guess work before rushing over to a section of floor and slamming down into it with his hammer. If he was right, his enemy would be right underneath. If he was wrong... well it wasn't like a little more damage was going to cause much harm.


Perception to try and track their movements: [roll0]
Power Attack 5 Golem Hunter: [roll1]

...yeah I might be playing Michael as a bit of an a-hole. OOC though he doesn't have any skills that would be useful for deactivating the trap though.

[Arcran]

"Lily has taken a few hits but seems alright," Howard says rapidly, already leafing through The Hobbit as Caeser makes his prediction. "Send an ambulance though; we have civilians here. Over," Howard quickly says, finding the page he wanted. Why the hell hadn't he marked a part that said supports? That was what he needed but he supposed he'd just need to make due with what he had.

With a very, very reluctant look, Howard leaps down into the hole, hoping that his legs don't shatter underneath him as he hits the ground. As he lands he looks at the passage and looks around the room, doing his best to figure out where to place supports to keep the whole thing from falling down around them.

"Greenwood, grab the civilians! White, stop trying to hunt him and help the rest of us!" he quickly adds, turning to the book to read.

"William-never-spoke-for-he-stood-turned-to-stone-as-he-stooped;-and-Bert-and-Tom-were-stuck-like-rocks-as-they-looked-at-him," Howard reads, hardly stopping for breath as he does his best to place the statues in critical areas, hopefully buying his teammates a small amount of time. In a flash giant, stooped troll statues appear, braced against the falling house.

Extra Effort for Create 8!

And I guess I have to do raw Intellect...
[roll0]