High School Heroes IC

[Llyarden]

Six months ago, the city of New York was menaced by a giant rock monster (quickly dubbed 'Landslide' by the media), which ploughed through everything the city's emergency services threw at it - until four heroes with incredible powers appeared to defeat it. There was scepticism at first, of course, about just what ulterior motives these heroes possessed, and even a short-lived effort by the police to unmask the heroes.

But six months have passed now. Gemini, Gizmo, Yui and Starlight Jester have become famous heroes, and if there's still anyone that doubts them they are at least staying pretty quiet about it.

Now, it probably helps that while there have, of course, been all sorts of villains who've appeared over the past few months - The Smashomancer, Ice Queen, Madame Butterfly, Extinguisher, to name just a few. But none of them have really been serious threats. Not to all four of you combined, at least - though it's sometimes been a bit touch and go when the intricacies of extricating yourselves from your civilian lives means that one of you gets there first. But broadly speaking the villains are...almost seem as entertainment - when viewed from an appropriately safe distance, at least. There's kind of an unofficial race between the major news networks to figure out the source of these villains. So far none of them (or you) have made any progress, but it's not like it's a big deal if one or two new villains pop up before the truth gets unearthed.

Today is a Sunday, which is always nice because it means you don't have to skip school to go save the city - which is fortunate, because a new villain has appeared.

Sometimes it takes a while to learn that a villain has appeared, particularly the stealthier ones like Madame Butterfly. Usually it doesn't take long for major news networks to pick up on reports and broadcast amateur footage to the city.

In this particular case, though, the villain in question appears to be saving them the bother, because a whole horde of futuristic-looking TV screens and cameras have appeared flying over the city.

So where are you, and what are you doing, when your weekend is so rudely interrupted?

[Quellian-dyrae]

The twins were just sitting down to eat lunch, when one of the weird flying TV screens went zipping by past their window, causing the two of them to cast each other resigned looks.

You would not believe how many meals the Forces of Evil had interrupted in the past six months.

"Maybe...maybe it's just Gizmo...trying out some sort of...weird new invention? And nothing to worry about?" Lila offered unconvincingly, looking plaintively down at the bowl of salad she had made.

"It's not just Gizmo," Nina answered primly, before sighing and taking one bite out of her cheese sandwich.

The twins stood, bringing their plate and bowl into the room they shared with their sisters, each setting her dish on her bunk. By the time they got back the sandwich would probably be getting a little stale and the salad would be kinda soggy and wilted, but that was kinda irrelevant. They didn't waste food, and they didn't waste time when villains were out and about.

They had actually theorized, once, that they could afford to waste time. After all, the damage caused by the villains tended to go away once they were defeated, as long as they weren't close enough to have reasonably prevented it. So, realistically, as long as they ended up beating the villain, whatever damages they hadn't been there to prevent would just go away.

It was a viable theory, but they kinda figured that whoever it was that undid stuff probably had a reason for not undoing the stuff they could have prevented. And since they were fairly well convinced that said individual(s) were watching them, they might not undo things that they could have prevented had they been there, if they didn't get there with all due haste. In the end, they just didn't know how it all worked well enough to afford themselves the luxury of time. Besides, if their fellow heroes got there first, they'd be shouldering the brunt of the threat, and that wouldn't be cool.

(Also, it wasn't like Lila was going to just wait around while there were villains to fight and good deeds to do and awesome to be, so it would have been a moot point regardless.)

Their parents were out running errands and Yuna doing something. Mira was in their room. "Trouble, we'll be back," Lila said, grinning as she held a fist out to her twin.

Nina gave her her traditional just-slightly-exasperated look, but obligingly fist-bumped her.

A second later, the twins were gone, and Gemini stood where they had been. She climbed out the fire escape, closed it, and took off, springing and sprinting across rooftops, seeking out the Villain.

Swapping to Opposition and Synergy, and activating Strength and Speed, Sight and Hearing, and Past and Future. Then trying to find this villain. Routine Perception for 20 with a bunch of super-senses.

[Ridai]

Good old trial-and-error is the motto of the day. As rain and thunderstorm ambience drifts from her headphones, River is in the middle of debugging a simple(...ish) script. Japanese devs are way too fond of gating good stuff behind tedious mechanics and minigames, but ha! Nothing a little input automation can't fix! Well, once she gets it to work, that is. They put in some RNG, but she is fairly sure she is approaching a solution fast. Until she sees social media abuzz with weird floating TV sightings. In New York, even. River... probably could have seen it on her own if she looked out of her window, but what a laughable idea, as if said window were ever not covered by a curtain during normal hobby hours. She... she should probably check that out. Maybe it's Madame Butterfly again. Well, Madame Butterfly with some sort of big and obvious plan of action that may or may not be some sort of feint.

A hasty comment is hacked into the script so she knows where to continue (probably containing only very hazy hints for Future River). Quick dash out of her room to get her shoes and jacket (going out without those sucks a lot if she can't get back in time before becoming River again), back into her room, lock the PC. Parents are out, brother's seeing his girlfriend, nothing planned for today, so yeah, everything ready to go.

Deep breath. "...Henshin a-go-go, baby." River says to the room (though still not all that loud, as if dreading her family actually being at home despite them not being home), along with a big sweeping motion, ending in a dramatic pose with a spread hand in front of her face. Colors swirl in intricate patterns from her bracelet, enveloping her, and in the next moment, an (in her opinion) much more gorgeous face is looking into the mirror. A quick examination of herself, evidently liking what she is seeing, complete with a wink and confident smile (and if River were still out, she would turn beet red and bury her face in her hands). No need to open the window, she can get out just fine.

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

A shadow dashes through the chasms between the skyscrapers of New York City, too fast for the human eye, except for a brief red line of light glimpsed by only very lucky few. With one big arc, a stunning feminine figure lands atop the highest point of a skyscraper, clad in purple and black, the picture of poise and sexy kunoichi coolness, arms crossed, the telltale red scarf flowing dramatically in the wind. Well, it helps that the point she is standing on can sink into her foot a bit for extra stability, being able to transform her slime body to simulate clothes, and that she doesn't actually need suitable wind to make her "scarf" move. Details that should not concern the avid observer or fan.

She overlooks the city, her territory, and the habitat of her countless admirers, to see who dares to disturb the peace. She brings her wrist to her face, speaking into the Hero Link.

"This is Hibari Yui, beginning my hunt," the owner of said name declares in a bewitching voice that is the epitome of Japanese elegance, as she does every time she communicates with the team at the beginning of them coming together.

...And although she has said this many times, inner River still can't get over how great it sounds coming from Yui, every single damn time!

Current active alts are Slime Grappling Hook no Jutsu and Slime Unfathomable Perfection Splendor no Jutsu

[SquirrelWizard]

David yawned and rubbed his eyes as he stared at the screen before him. He was at the Library poring over the archived newspapers of the city looking for some clue as to why these super villains were popping up like weeds, and specifically why here? Motion and murmurs in the library lulled him out of his fugue as he glanced out of cubical he was in to see people gravitating towards the windows of the building, pointing and looking at something. An uneasy feeling rose up in his gut as he left his chair to join them, seeing the flying TVs zipping around the city.

"It looks like its going to be one of those days." David said under his breath as he left the crowd to gawk, signed out of the computer he was on and left via the stair case that led to the lower floors. His leaving went unnoticed by the people enthralled by the window, as did the brilliant flash of silver light from under the stairwell's door. Gizmo was cloaked in his invisibility field as he left the library, a conscious effort on his part to attempt to hide his identity after the police tried to hunt him down. He found a quiet spot to drop the field as he held out his hand and focused as light warped and shimmered in front of him, coalescing into the small platinum form of Bit.

"Heya boss, you called?" Bit chimed in as her form solidified, flicking her tail back and forth eagerly.

"Something strange, doesn't look good." Gizmo said as he pointed to the televisions flying about.

Bit gasped in excitement, "So we're Ghost Busters now!"

"Yeah, something like that. Lets go see whats up." Gizmo smirked under his helmet as he flew to the roof tops to get a better view, and hopefully track where these strange devices were coming from. Following close behind him was Bit, humming the ghost buster's tune to herself.


Gizmo
Repulsor Array Active - Repulsor Blast
Stardrive Array Active - Blink Drive
Bit
Repulsor Array Active - Bit Shot
Emitter Array Active - Accelerator Charge

[jamieth]

Weekend. Yeah, it should be a time to relax, to have fun, to meet friends...

Unfortunately, it also means a busy day for a small Italian cafe owned by Laura's aunt - and, therefore, a perfect opportunity to get Laura to experience what Auntie Agatha calls "the real , honest job".

Not that Laura minds much. Keeping a good relationship with Auntie is important, after all - if she wants any freedom being Starlight Jester requires - and if waiting tables for a couple hours is what it takes... there could easily be worse options.

Until, of course, the monitors... citizens of NY might have gotten somewhat used to the appearance of supervillains by now, but still - when it happens... most people would try to hide somewhere. Most of the rest of the people would try to get as close as possible to watch the fight. Neither of those categories, notably, is prone to enjoying Italian bakery at such a time. Therefore...

"Ehh, no point in staying open", Aunt Agatha sighs, "Thanks for your help, Laura dear... go to your room, would you? It's not safe outside..."

"Su-ure", Laura shrugs, "Not a foot on the streets..." untying her apron, "going to practice for a bit..."

With that, she grabs a couple of buns from the counter, throws them to the ceiling, does a quick cartwheel and catches the buns before heading off, nkowing perfectly well that Auntie is currently shaking her head in disapproval. All part of the game. Laura being too proper and prim would just look suspicious.

Once in the room, however, she quickly locks the door and pulls a little golden bell out of her schoolbag... Well then... "Allez-Hop!"
Swirling lights envelop Laura, covering her body with colorful tights, and, within seconds, Starlight Jester is ready to save the day... again.

Luckily, Laura's window opens into an empty alley ending with a dead-end... a perfect place to sneak out. One leap from the window onto the fire escape stairs - a leap that would be piece of cake for Laura, and isn't even worth mentioning for Starlight Jester - and up, up, up, to the roofs... and not a foot on the streets.

[Llyarden]

Across the city, the arrival of the four heroes goes...rather less unnoticed than it might otherwise do, or at least less immediately unnoticed. Yui's barely gotten her catchphrase in before half a dozen cameras angle in her direction - and in the direction of the other three of you as well, as each of you appear.

A moment later, the flying TV screens burst into life, first showing brief shots of each of the four of you before the footage fades into the background and is replaced by a woman with a mask and...long hair that seems to be made of newspaper? (It's not the weirdest getup you've seen villains take on, but it's definitely up there.)

"New York City, your Heroes have arrived!" she announces dramatically, her voice coming through every single TV screen simultaneously to result in a rather loud volume. "And now, it's time to find out their deepest, darkest, most salaaaaacious secrets, liiiiiive on air!"

Even with your senses it takes you a while to find...at least where you assume the villain is. Among the swarm of TV screens and cameras are a few news helicopters which evidently are just kinda kept on standby for when villains appear these days. But one of those helicopters looks a bit...different...to the others - chiefly, it's not a helicopter at all, but rather some sort of contraption flying on glowing jets of light, with a futuristic design that looks stylistically very similar to the TVs and cameras.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Gemini...kinda ignored the bombastic statement. The attention would probably only embolden her. Instead, she meditated on the boundary between public speech and private thoughts, blurring the line enough to allow her and her fellow heroes to share thoughts mentally. (The Hero Links required way too much concentration to use during potentially dangerous situations).

~Hey guys. Look over {directions}. I'm seeing a pretty weird flying vehicle there, has a kinda similar aesthetic to the screens. Might be where the...person responsible is at.~ She kinda hesitated to call her a "villain" since as yet she hadn't seemed to try to, like, hurt anyone, or anything. This was also the reason she was not immediately teleporting aboard the craft or, like, blasting it out of the air or something.

Swapping out Strength and Speed for Thoughts and Speech.

[SquirrelWizard]

There was a moment of surprise as Gizmo heard more voices than normal in his head.

~~What? Oh hey~~
~~That sounds like Gemini. Is she a ghost now? Are we going to bust her?~~
~~No, Bit, I think she did some sort of mind link~~

Gizmo and Bit floated over towards where Gemini had indicated where the strange craft was, stopping as he neared the rooftop that she was on.

~~Bit, keep an eye out, I'm probably about to catch some heat~~

Bit hovered just over his shoulder as the palms of her hands ignited with cerulean power as a faint hud overlaid her face.

"Look, I dont know why you are doing this." Gizmo called out to the lady on the craft. "But there is no need to start a fight over it."


Gizmo - pitiful attempt to stop the inevitable (Persuasion) [roll0]
Bit - Protecting Gizmo with Bit Denial


Gizmo
Repulsor Array Active - Repulsor Blast
Stardrive Array Active - Blink Drive
Bit
Repulsor Array Active - Bit Denial
Emitter Array Active - Accelerator Charge

[Ridai]

Yui doesn't let the sudden voice in her head affect her, even if River would have had a "gah!" moment. Funny how used you can get to mental intrusion. With Gemini's pointer, a cunning plan is formulated in just a few moments. ~Time for an one-on-one interview.~

"Slime Grappling Hook No Jutsu," Yui says with her usual flair before jumping off of the building and crossing the distance to the helicopter in mere moments, the slime "grappling hooks" propeling the kunoichi with extreme speed, until she is standing on the side of the chopper... and perhaps invades the inside due to her fluid form water shape jutsu to say hello.

[jamieth]

A vast experience with ballisting of a human(ish) body immediately tells Jester that Yui's swing is ill-aimed, and for a moment, Laura considers whether the kunoichi would need saving... No, probably not. If anything, of all the heroes, her smile body was in the least risk of harm by falling.

"Dirty secrets?" she asks aloud, turning towards the flying machine pointed out by the voice in her head and pointing with her finger, "That's fine, eh, but - how about your own, Person-who-hides-in-a-weird-flying-machine? You want to expose us, well, first, show yourself!"

As she says that, a ray of light falls down from the skies upon the flying device - not nearly as noticeable now as it would be in the night, but still. It was a gesture.

Lighting up the supposed villain's craft with In the Spotlight!

[Llyarden]

"Are you looking around, Starlight Jester?" the woman retorts. "Eye Spy's exclusive report on the Heroes of New York is on every screen near yoooouuuu!"

And then Yui goes sailing towards her, propelled by her stretchable 'limbs.' Except...somehow it all goes a bit wrong, and instead of infiltrating Eye Spy's flying machine she ends up...kinda glued to the windscreen of one of the other news helicopters. The pilot seems delighted by this and snaps a quick selfie.

"Hey!" Eye Spy complains. "This is my excluuuusive interview, you tabloid interlopers!" A dozen of the flying cameras angle towards the helicopter, their lenses beginning to glow with an ominous white light...

Initiative:
Gemini: [roll0]
Gizmo: [roll1]
Starlight: [roll2]
Yui: [roll3]

Eye Spy & co: [roll4]

There are effectively three enemies here - the camera swarm, the screen swarm and Eye Spy herself. I'm not going to use a map because the copters are all kinda circling and the swarms can basically be hit wherever you are; Eye Spy is 500ft up so as long as you can make that distance vertically I'm fine with assuming you can arrange yourself somewhere in range laterally.

Gemini, Gizmo and Starlight Jester are up.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Gemini regarded the ominously-glowing cameras with decisive focus, and calm patience.

Those are going to shoot something, came a thought in Nina's mental voice.

That's not gonna happen, came a thought in Lila's. To say it was an answering thought would have been imprecise. Although it was certainly responding to the first one, the two thoughts came together in blurring synchrony, the point made and answered in the same mental movement.

Up on the rooftop, she gracefully raised one hand towards the glowing cameras. To say there was an explosion would have, likewise, be imprecise. Where once was empty air, now was a massive Yin-Yang symbol, half made of crackling bolts of blue-white lightning, and half of blue-black magnetic energy, as she invoked the two sides of the electromagnetic coin upon the cameras, the forces flowing around the news copter (and other incidentals) without harm.

"If you wish to talk, we can talk," Gemini said firmly. "But we will not stand by while you offer threat to our people."

Move: Nah.

Free: Swap to Snipe and Tank.

Standard: Yin and Yang on the cameras threatening the newscopter. Flawless Area attack. Toughness DC 25 vs. half [Electrical] and half [Magnetic] Damage. Gemini can trigger a Secondary Effect next round if she spends a move action. QD REMEMBER THIS!!!

Current Status: Normal.

[jamieth]

At first, Laura actually considers waiting and talking it out; maybe, just maybe, thbis one time the situation can be resolved without fighting?
But once Eye Spy brings civilians into this... well, that possibility is over.
Of course, that means she'll have to think of a way to get to the villain... Quick look around shows no more convenient way of transportation than the villain's weapons themselves. But, well, every floating screen seems like more than convenient foothold.

Of course, they are also relatively small, unreliable footholds zooming and twisting high in the air, where one wrong step, or the momentary loss of balance, can mean plummeting hundreds of feet down to the streets... but Starlight Jester lives for this kind of excitement. With a series of spectacular leaps, with a good dose of flips and somersaults sprinkled among them, she starts making her way towards Eye Spy's craft... only taking a little time to throw a club at the camera that - probably - got too close to get a better shot.

Move: Mobility check: [roll0]
Action: Juggling club throw (power attack +2) at the cameras: [roll1], DC 25

[SquirrelWizard]

~~Hey, Yui turned into Slimer~~
Gizmo inwardly groaned, Bit had become fixated on that movie since she saw it last night, ~~No, she.. Bit, try and protect the news crews, get them to leave the area if you can. I'll see if I can't help Yui~~
~~Okee Dokee~~

The Star Drive on his chest flared as Gizmo and Bit winked out of existence, reappearing closer to the news copter Yui had smacked into. A shiny silver streak took off from Gizmo's new position flew towards them as Bit yelled, "You guys need to leave! Its not safe here!"

"Yui, you alright?" Gizmo called out to the gooey ninja. Admittedly, watching her faceplant the canopy of one of the helicopters was somewhat funny, but he wasn't sure if she could fly much less if she was able to hang on in her current situation. The others seemed like they were handling themselves, it would be better if he was ready to assist Yui if she needed it.


Gizmo - Move: Order Bit to Protect News Crews. Move2: Blink Drive Teleport closer to Yui (up to 250ft), bringing Bit with him.
Bit - Move: 60ft towards News Crews (Piggy Back off of Gizmo Teleport). Action: Protecting News crews with Bit Denial (reflecting back to target)


Gizmo
Repulsor Array Active - Repulsor Blast
Stardrive Array Active - Blink Drive
Bit
Repulsor Array Active - Bit Denial
Emitter Array Active - Accelerator Charge

[Llyarden]

"And Gemini and Starlight Jester make a cruel attempt to stop an innocent reporter in her tracks!" Eye Spy proclaims, as juggling clubs and crackling electricity tear through a number of the flying cameras. "Tell me, Gizmo, what do you think of your colleagues' reckless vandalism?" And a dozen cameras swoop towards Gizmo, stopping just a few inches away from his face, lenses twitching occasionally, crowding him and leaving him with the distinctly unnerving feeling that he's the only one there to answer the question and he mustn't say the wrong thing and he doesn't know what to say and -

"Oop! Looks like we're having some teeeechnical difficulties with Gizmo's footage, folks!" It's pretty obvious what Eye Spy means; the TV screens showing the feed from the cameras harassing Gizmo are static-filled and occasionally cut out entirely. Which would probably be great, except for the minor fact that as the cameras surround him the real Gizmo starts to get all staticky and out-of-focus as well.

"Welp, never mind! Let's go back to our vandalistic duo! Starlight Jester, what do you think of Gemini's eeeelectrifying performance? How about you take a closer look?" The TV screens around Starlight Jester start replaying the tao symbol as it crackled into existence - and then suddenly it's not the camera swarm and the news helicopter in the centre of the replayed electromagnetic attack but Starlight Jester herself, and she can feel the actual electricity crackling over her.

"And Gemini, why electromagnetism?" A microphone comes flying through the swarm of drones and almost bops Gemini on the nose before retreating at least, like, a millimetre. "Is it a hidden message to someone out there - a secret boyfriend? Parents? The world at large? Me? Tell us!"

As she unpeels herself from the windscreen of the helicopter, Yui seems to have gone mostly unnoticed.

Camera Swarm:
Move: Dazed.
Free: Reconfigure From All Angles.
Standard: In The Spotlight and Corrupted Footage on Gizmo. Partially-Flawless attack; DC20 Will vs Entranced/Stunned/Incapacitated, and on a hit, DC20 Will vs Weaken Stamina. Attack: [roll0]. Miss.
Gizmo Will (DC20): [roll1] Resist.

TV Swarm:
Move: Reconfigure Play That Back.
Free: Reconfigure Widescreen.
Standard: Yin and Yang and Not Your Best Angle on Starlight Jester. Partially-Flawless Area attack; DC25 Toughness vs [Electrical] Damage and on a hit, DC20+Multiattack Fort vs Weaken Will. The TV Swarm can trigger a [Magnetic] Secondary Effect on the Damage next round as a move action. Attack: [roll2]
Starlight Toughness/Fort (DC25/17+M after defence disparity): [roll3] Hit. Bruised.

Eye Spy:
Move: Attempt to Feint Gemini, penalty reduced due to Fast Talker: [roll4] vs [roll5] Feinted.
Standard: ??? (Subtle & Insidious): [roll6], ??? (DC27 or 22): [roll7] ???. Feint expires.

All PCs are up.

[Ridai]

Inner River may be burying her psychic face in her psychic hands at the moment. That selfie is going to spread everywhere, and only if she is very, very lucky, one half of the audience will find it endearing, and the other, thirsty half will be all over it. Yui, meanwhile, just owns it. She splashes across the windshield and takes her sweet time drawing herself back together and into a puddle sticking to the helicopter, only to then rise out of it and into a standing position, heels right on the glass (and the pilot may or may not get a little wink). Once again, she stands with perfect poise as if nothing had happened, arms crossed. She fixes her eyes straight on this "Eye Spy", slowly moving her hand backwards and over her shoulder, sure to grab attention as there is a certain... glow (?) around her. She almost radiates "think you can handle me?"

And Yui thrusts her hand out to the side, her hair and scarf flaring outwards in grandiose (and sort-of slow motion, after a moment) fashion, along with sparkles and just the perfect lighting. The Kunoichi is getting ready for action. (For realsies this time)

Free Switch Slime Support Jutsus to Slime Concentration No Jutsu
Free Switch Heavenly Slime Arts Technique Jutsus to Slime Unfathomable Perfection Splendor No Jutsu

Move Taunt Eye Spy (no penalty due to Benefit 2)
Deception [roll0]

Standard Slime Unfathomable Perfection Splendor No Jutsu, blasting everything that can see her (except for the other heroes and the pilots of the news helicopters, just to be sure they don't immediately crash the helicopters)
Defense DC 20 to halve, Will DC 20 Progressive Subtle 2 Insidious Affliction (Entranced+Vulnerable>Compelled+Defenseless). Only Compel command possible is "basically worship Yui and her absolute coolness and beauty".

[Quellian-dyrae]

Gemini didn't actually roll her eyes at Eye Spy's spin, but inside, Lila totally did. Since it was obvious self-serving dribble, she didn't dignify it with a response.

She gave a little frown when the screens used her own attack on Starlight Jester. "Well now that's just plagiarism," she complained.

"Your goons are electronic, so obviously, I was fishing for vulnerabilities," she answered politely, though with a slightly wry undertone. "Not exactly Pulitzer-winning material, but maybe you'll ask an intelligent question next time," she added, the poise in her voice almost drowning out the withering sarcasm.

Then she unleashed another electromagnetic blast, this time on a more densely-populated swarm.

Standard(+Move?): Yin and Yang, this time being intelligent and targeting both cameras and screens. If I can get the Eye Spy Copter too I'll take it. Actually, if I can get the Screens and Copter but not cameras I'll do that and just use my move action to hit the cameras again. Toughness DC 25 vs. [Electricity] and [Magnetism] Damage, possible SE next turn.

Current Status: Normal, probably.

[SquirrelWizard]

"We wouldn't even be here if..." Gizmo's reply was cut off by the camera zipping away from his face. There was a mild sense of uneasiness that he got from the camera that his gut told him that there was something wrong about them.

Meanwhile Bit had paused momentarily in her attempts to get the new crews to leave to gawk at Yuki, her blue eyes growing in awe as she said, "Wow so inspirational!" She then snapped to and waved at the pilot and yelled out over the combined din of their copter's engine and the battle starting to brew. "You people are in danger, you should leave!"

Gizmo flexed his hand as he felt the repulsor in his glove shift forms, the single emitter dividing multiple times to create a multi-faceted array in his palm.

~~The cameras do something, not entirely sure, be careful around them.~~ Gizmo thought as part of their mindlink before saying, "Alright, lets clear the air."

He flew after the cameras drones, aiming his repulsor at them as an advanced targeting hud began highlight targets in his helmet. The repulsor flared to life as small energy blast shot out of it, lashing out at the camera drones in rapid succession.


Gizmo -
Free: Change Repulsor Array to Repulsor Spray.
Move: Follow Cameras.
Standard: Repulsor Spray (Multi-Attack Single Target, Ranged)
Attack: [roll0]

Bit
Free:
Move:
Action: Protecting News crews with Bit Denial (reflecting back to target)

Gizmo
Repulsor Array Active - Repulsor Spray
Stardrive Array Active - Blink Drive
Bit
Repulsor Array Active - Bit Denial
Emitter Array Active - Accelerator Charge

[jamieth]

"Ouch", Jester twitches, nearly losing her balance - probably only her literally superhuman agility saving her from falling - "You know, I think your equiopment is not quite safety-compliant! I'm sorry, but we'll have to power it down..."
With that, she jumps up high and, spinning through the air upside-down like a top, showers the TVs with a seemingly endless rain of clubs, appearing in the air in front of her just in time for a launch... granted, at the same time making a perfect target of herself; but then by this time, Starlight Jester being somewhat reckless in her actions is a well-known trait of her.
Move: Agile Feint (no penalty due to Benefit) vs. TV: [roll0] 32, see OOC
Attack: Juggling party (multiattack mode) vs. TV screens, at -4 for attacking 4 targets: [roll1] 23, see OOC On hit, Toughness 23.
1 bruise;
Vulnerable

[Llyarden]

"Bah! Do you have any idea how many people have tried to escape the truth by breaking my equipment?" Eye Spy retorts to Gemini. "I'm hardly going to leave such an ooooooobvious weakness in my..." She kinda trails off as more crackling energy lances down and wipes out a vast swathe of her cameras and a fair number of the TVs, followed up once again by Starlight Jester's rain of juggling clubs that take out an equal number of TVs. "Well, that's just annoying."

But the electromagnetic energy crackles harmlessly over her copter, and while Gizmo's repulsor blasts hit a half-dozen cameras they were the cameras that were already destroyed and falling from the sky. (The pilots of the news copters, meanwhile, totally ignore Bit's warning with a persistence that Eye Spy herself would've been proud of.)

Yui's dramatic pose gets a fair bit of attention - not just from the real reporters, but a decent number of the cameras start to turn towards her. But then Eye Spy clicks her fingers on all the TV screens and they swivel away again, very pointedly ignoring her. "Don't you understand how journalism works?" Eye Spy asks Yui, with a rather haughty, dismissive tone. "The public don't want the side you present to everyone - the artificial, beautiful facade. They want the truth. And I'm going to get it, no matter what!"

And then one side of Eye Spy's vehicle retracts sideways, revealing Eye Spy herself.

She looks...pretty much exactly as she did on the TV screens, actually. Her newspaper-y hair blows wildly in the gusts caused by the various helicopters and drones, and the little microphone that had been hovering around Gemini's face soars back towards her and she catches it with a dramatic flourish.

"Don't worry, viewers arooooooound the world! Your very own investigative journalist will never give up! The truth about the Heroes of New York will be revealed!"

A number of the cameras leave you guys alone for once and fly back to start taking footage of Eye Spy herself, which is helpfully broadcast out to the four of you by the floating TV screens. But some of them also angle towards Starlight Jester as she falls back towards the (now rather depleted) swarm of drones.

"Hey, Starlight Jester! Why don't you strike a pose for our viewers?!" And as slightly infeasible as that is right now, Starlight Jester suddenly finds herself struggling with the urge to do just that, to strike a pose and hold it as she plummets back to earth with the cameras watching her every move.

"And Gemini, if you're accusing me of plagiarism, well, then you're just downright boring. I mean, take a look at this again!" The TV screens that had been reflecting Gemini's attack onto Starlight Jester flit over to Gemini, now replaying the second wave of electromagnetic energy - except someone seems to have turned the speed down by about three times, and as the screens surround her Gemini begins to see the world speeding up as she slows down to match it.

"And what about you, Hibari Yui and Gizmo? What makes you so quiet, and you so desperate to keep up a facade? What are you two hiding from the world?"

Camera Swarm:
Move: Staggered.
Free: Reconfigure From All Angles.
Standard: Say Cheese! on Starlight Jester and Zoom Lens on Eye Spy. Against Starlight, DC20 Defence for half, DC20/15 Will vs Dazed/Stunned/Paralysed. This has a secondary effect that can't inflict Paralysed.
Starlight Defence (DC20, -7 for Vulnerable, +5 for Evasion 2): [roll0] Full Effect.
Starlight Will (DC20/15): [roll1] Resists anyway.

Screen Swarm:
Move: Dazed.
Free: Reconfigure Widescreen.
Standard: Slo-mo Replay on Gemini and Broadcast Around the World on Eye Spy. Against Gemini, on a hit, DC20 Fort vs Cumulative Dazed+Vulnerable+Impaired/Stunned+Defenceless+Disabled. Attack: [roll2] Hit.
Gemini Fort: [roll3] Dazed+Vulnerable+Impaired

Eye Spy:
Free: Activate Risky Reporter.
Move: Feint everyone, with the penalty for doing so as a move action reduced to -2 and the penalty for feinting 4 different characters reduced from -8 to -4 due to her benefits.
Gemini: [roll4] vs [roll5] Gemini -2 for Impaired, but resists anyway.
Gizmo: [roll6] vs [roll7] Feinted.
Starlight Jester: [roll8] vs [roll9] Resist.
Yui: [roll10] vs [roll11] Resist.
Standard: ??? enhanced by Broadcast Around the World and Zoom Lens, expending whatever feints she succeeded on.
[roll12], [roll13]
[roll14], [roll15]
[roll16], [roll17]
[roll18], [roll19]
Why are you so bad at hitting with this attack, Eye Spy?

[Ridai]

First purposefully ignoring her, then still wanting to know more. Right. Well then, let's see if Eye Spy can make one Hibari Yui talk. In response to Eye Spy's question, a faint smile crosses Yui's blue lips, taking her time to get into a perching position on the helicopter's windshield. From one moment to the next, Yui is gone, having propelled herself forward at high speeds and being just about in front of Eye Spy and her "helicopter". Perhaps in one short instant, Eye Spy can see what looks like a small white ball in Yui's princess-like fingers, which gets flicked forward, followed by a sudden giant wave of smokey white slime erupting in the air. By the time, Yui is already gone again, once again, standing on the underside of a flagpole, with gravity seemingly meaning nothing to her black slime hair. Still not a word. Just a smile.

Free Switch Slime Support Jutsus to Slime Grappling Hook No Jutsu
Free Switch Heavenly Slime Arts Techique Jutsus to Slime Night Shadow Smoke Bomb No Jutsu

Move Use Slime Grappling Hook No Jutsu to move to Eye Spy, attack, then continue moving until ending on a flag pole somewhere behind Eye Spy.

Standard Slime Night Shadow Smoke Bomb No Jutsu, trying to get Eye Spy and as many of the minions into the 30ft burst area as possible without affecting any friendlies.
Dodge DC 20, Active Defense DC 20 Affliction (Dazed>Stunned>Incapacitated)

[Quellian-dyrae]

Time slowed down around Gemini, but only a bit. She focused her own powers to push through it, balancing slow with fast to continue acting at normal speed. "You make these grand claims about the truth, but you won't actually face it yourself."

"A real journalist gets to the truth with investigation, with talking to people, with not just asking the right questions but already knowing the answers. If you had done your due diligence, you wouldn't be flailing around trying to get us to do or say something embarrassing with your powers. You would already know the truth about us."

"But you want the truth? Here it is. Deep down, underneath the powers, and the costumes, and all the hype that surrounds us...we're exactly who we are. Just a few normal people, who happen to be blessed with an abnormal capacity to help others."

"And you are exactly who you are - just one more superpowered hack using your gifts to get your way regardless of who you have to hurt to do it. It's no huge surprise. Many, maybe even most, people with power choose to use it for their own ends, even at the cost of others. It's one duality I'm proud to be able to do my part to set into balance."

"But that's why your vaunted audience is cheering for us right now. Not you. When this is over, and the real journalists tell the story? Spoiler alert, it won't be about your quest for truth. It will be about how one more wanna-be supervillain hack with delusions of grandeur rolled up and got trounced by New York's heroes just like all the others have."

"News at eleven," Gemini concluded with a snap of her fingers, reversing the polarities of the energies she had unleashed, blasting everything that had hit by electricity with magnetism, and vice-versa.

Move: Dazed.

Extra Effort - Additional Standard Action: Joy and Pain Pride and Shame. Flawless attack on Eye Spy - Will DC 20 vs. Impaired+Vulnerable/Disabled+Defenseless. She may ignore these conditions in any round that she says nothing. The augment goes to Gizmo:

+5 points to remove Penetrating from Repulsor Blast.
-5 points to add five ranks of Damage to Repulsor Blast. This doesn't increase the range.
-10 points to add Burst Area to Repulsor Blast.
-10 points to add Selective to Repulsor Blast.

(This lasts for one round unless Gemini concentrates, and you can just drop it if you want to use Repulsor Blast normally instead).

Move: Trigger Secondary Effect of Yin and Yang.

End of Turn: Secondary Effect triggers. Toughness DC 25 vs. Damage.

End of Turn: Will to recover (DC 20, -2 for Impaired): [roll0]. Recovers

Current Status: Fatigued as of next turn.

[jamieth]

being completely honest, a chance to show off in front of the camera is tempting. Really tempting. Were it less suicidal - that is, were it somewhat closer to the ground - Laura would've likely jumped at it... as is, though? Landing is the first priority.
After she finds the suitable footing, though? That's a different matter, and, turning towards the nearest camera, she flips into a handstand - one-handed - making a V-sign with other hand in front of her face.
"Caught that? Great, now catch this!"
And, flipping back to her feet, sends a club at the same camera.
Move: nothing (except for continuing to find the footing among the swarms, Mobility [roll0])
Attack: Basic Club Throw, Power Attack +2, at a single camera. [roll1], DC 20 due to single-target attack.
1 Bruise

[SquirrelWizard]

~~Gizmo, they aren't listening. Can I bust them?~~ Bits frustrated voice came over the mental link.
~~What? No, just try and help with the fight.~~ Gizmo thought as he slowed to a hover.

Bit huffed and stuck her tongue out at the pilot before flying off towards Gizmo.

There was a ripple of energy that washed over him as his HUD lit up as information on his repulsor systems updated, new details on a "Repulsor Cannon" lit up. Switching to it he felt the emitter on his palm reconfigure.

"Okay, lets run with this." he said to himself as he aimed at the clouds of cameras and televisions, as a new targeting systems locked them as targets. There was a loud tearing sound as energies condensed into a small fist size ball before Gizmo launched it at the two swarms. The ball streaking out till it reached the desired distance before erupting in a scintillating orb of swirling silver and cerulean energies.


Gizmo -
Free: Change Repulsor Array to Repulsor Blast(With Gemini Modifications).
Move: Command Bit
Standard: Repulsor Blast (Area(Burst), Selective, Ranged) Aimed at Camera and Television Swarms, avoiding hitting any fellow heroes, or drones they might be perched on.
Attack: Area
DC: 20 (Effect Rank 10)

Bit
Free: Stick Tongue out at Pilot
Move: Move towards Gizmo
Action: Move towards Gizmo (should put her next to Gizmo).

Gizmo
Repulsor Array Active - Repulsor Blast
Stardrive Array Active - Blink Drive
Bit
Repulsor Array Active - Bit Denial
Emitter Array Active - Accelerator Charge

[Llyarden]

As it turns out, opening the door of her helicopter so she could argue with Gemini better...might have been a bad move on Eye Spy's part. For one thing, it lets Yui's smoke bomb land right at her feet, leaving her coughing and spluttering too much to argue back with Gemini even if she wanted to. And then when the cameras are caught up in the swirling electromagnetism dashed against buildings and the copter, one of them beans her neatly in the face and she stumbles around inside the smoke cloud, dropping her microphone.

And losing direction seems to kinda make the TV screens...go a bit mad. Suddenly instead of any kind of coherent image they all start displaying random shots from the fight at various speeds, voices overlapping in the wrong order. Unfortunately this doesn't help with their strange, supernatural effects, and the entire world around you starts to jitter and twitch

...my...vaunted audience...don't want...the truth...they want...the story...

One last camera manages to record Eye Spy's microphone falling towards Starlight Jester - and then the TV screens seem to snap back into some kind of sense for a moment and the ones around her start to broadcast the shots of the the falling microphone.

But then somehow they start to show something that never happened at all - on the screens, the microphone seems to accelerate and curve and slams heavily into Starlight Jester's chest. And at the same time, the real Starlight Jester feels a heavy, painful impact against her side.

...catch this!

Eye Spy:
Stunned.
Defence to remove Stunned (DC20): [roll0] Still coughing.

Screen Swarm:
Move: Dazed.
Free: Reconfigure Widescreen.
Standard: Attack Gemini, Gizmo and Starlight Jester with Not Your Best Angle and Slow-mo Replay, multiattacking for 3, all-out attacking for 5. On a hit, DC20 Fort vs Dazed+Vulnerable+Impaired/Stunned+Defenceless+Disabled and Weaken Will. 8 ranks of the Weaken Will have a secondary effect.
Atk vs Gemini: [roll1], Gemini Fort: [roll2] Lucky Gemini is crit immune. Stunned, Defenceless, Disabled, -6 Will
Atk vs Gizmo: [roll3], Gizmo Fort: [roll4] Hit. Stunned, Defenceless, Disabled, -9 Will
Atk vs Starlight: [roll5], Starlight Fort: [roll6] Miss.
In addition, since its target has been subjected to another attack, Eye Spy's Story Trumps Truth power from last round activates. Starlight Jester Bruised & Staggered.
End of Turn: Active Defence to remove Dazed (DC15, -5 for AoA): [roll7] And it shakes off the Daze for good measure.

[Ridai]

With Eye Spy drenched in an avalanche of slime stuck in a cloud of smoke, it is time for the finishing move. Two sets of arms rapidly perform a series of complex gestures, a blur to most onlookers, until landing on two particular gestures, done with a palpable finality. Yui smiles a deadly smile once more. Distance has no meaning for a true kunoichi, shaping her form to the task, long having mastered being water. All she has to do is to reach out for her quarry. Her hand jets forward, closely followed by the red streaks of her scarf and her two secondary hands, crossing the distance to Eye Spy unleash her deadliest of walloping taijutsu, moving into every distance as if to strike the swarms instead, only to go for the leader after all.

Free Switch Slime Support Jutsus to Slime Concentration No Jutsu
Free Switch Heavenly Slime Arts Technique Jutsus to Slime Lightning Hurricane Strike No Jutsu

Move Feint Eye Spy (no penalty)
Deception [roll0]

Free Elongation 10

Standard Slime Lightning Hurricane Strike No Jutsu against Eye Spy
Attack [roll1], Toughness DC 25 Damage (Multiattack, Secondary Effect, Improved Critical 4)

On hit, initiate Grab via Fast Grab (Improved Grab, Improved Hold). +5 bonus from Extra Limbs 5 (Slime Enlightenment No Jutsu)
Strength [roll2]

[SquirrelWizard]

~~Yeee!!!~~ Bit squealed in excitement through the link as Yui prepared her next attack. ~~She's gonna use her super ultimate fantastic final deathmove of amazing awesome!~~

~~BIT!! Focus!!~~ Gizmo had barely managed to brace against the televisions' attack, hitting Eye Spy definitely had pissed them off. ~~We gotta take these TVs off the air!~~

"Aye aye, Capt!" Bit snapped a crisp salute as she floated up next to Gizmo. Holding out her hand to the him as Cerulean energy flowed out to form a holographic bracelet around his wrist as she said, "Engaging auxillary weapon protocols."

"Okay, lets try this again." Gizmo aimed the repulsor in his glove at the flying TVs as his HuD started tracking targets and the bracelet moved forwards and grew into a circular lens of shimmering energy infront of his palm. His repulsor ignited in a rapid barrage, each bolt of energy flaring with energy as it passed through the lens.


Gizmo -
Free: Change Repulsor Array to Repulsor Spray
Move: None
Standard: Repulsor Spray (Multi Attack, Range, +1 Accurate) Targeting TV's.
Attack: [roll0]
DC: 23 (15+ Effect 8)

Bit
Free:
Move: Move towards Gizmo
Action: Accelerator Charge (Grants +3 Damage Rank(9 Points), +1 rank Accurate(1 Point))

Gizmo
Repulsor Array Active - Repulsor Spray
Stardrive Array Active - Blink Drive

Bit
Repulsor Array Active - Bit Denial
Emitter Array Active - Accelerator Charge

[Quellian-dyrae]

Gemini allowed the reality-warping produced by the screens to wash over and through her, unhindered and unmoved. In an ocean of chaos, she stood as an isle of serene order, everything precisely as it should be.

"Starlight! Catch!" she shouted, tossing a sphere of glowing golden light with her right hand towards the Jester, that would carry with it a charge of healing power. With her left hand, she threw a similarly-sized sphere of pulsing darkness at Eye Spy, woven from the essence of death. It would no more snuff her life than the golden orb could restore it to the slain, but it would leave her weakened, or perhaps even powerless, as it sapped her spiritual strength.

Move: "Feint" Starlight Jester because Ranged Healing is dumb and M&M never runs out of ways to punish Defense-shifts. [roll0]. I think she's allowed to voluntarily fail that, though.

Standard: Life and Death, using the Healing on Starlight Jester and the Affliction on Eye Spy. All Out Attack for 5 at [roll1]. On a hit, Starlight Jester heals at [roll2], and Eye Spy has to roll Fortitude DC 20 vs. Cumulative Impaired/Disabled/Transformed [Traits to 0]. That should hit either way, healing both Bruises and the Stagger.

Current Status: Fatigued, -5 Defense this turn.

Mindlink is currently off.

[jamieth]

"Ouch!" Laura, hit in the chest by... nothing, seemingly, staggers in place, almost losing her balance on the flying TV... but still manages to barely catch the glowing light. "O-off... much better! Thanks, Gemini!"
Still, that was only one of her problems... the heroes' successes so far, nice as they were, also meant there was less and less stuff for her to maneuver around. Indeed, it seemed like cameras were either all gone, or at lesat too few remaining to have any effect... and the amounf of screens was dwindling also.
"Hey!" Starlight Jester calls out, waving, to the nearest news copter - the legitimate one, at least, "Mind if I catch a ride?" and, not waiting for a reply, turns in mid-air and throws the club at the screen she just leaped off of, cutting herself a way to retreat.
Move to the copter; with Grabbing Finesse and Improved Grab, I probably still have at least one free hand while hanging off the copter - possibly two by hanging to the rail with my knees, trapeze-style
Attack: norlam club throw vs. TV; [roll0], DC 19 after swarm immunity
All healthy

[Llyarden]

"Sure!" the reporter in the chopper Starlight calls to replies, enthusiastically, before quickly turning to her cameraman. "You're getting this, right, Bob?" She clears her throat as Starlight climbs aboard, the duo leaning out rather perilously to get footage of both the reporter and Starlight in the same shot. "We're here live and in person with Starlight Jester as she battles the latest villain to plague both New York City and the reputation of journalists!"

Gemini's quick reaction might have healed the wound Starlight Jester had received, but it...didn't otherwise go all that great for the heroes. Eye Spy staggers aside suddenly enough as Yui leaps towards her that the kunoichi flies through the open door of her copter and straight out the other side - though it's debatable whether she actually saw Yui coming or whether it was just a stroke of good fortune - and while Gemini's ball of necrotic energy hits her squarely enough, she doesn't seem all that affected by it.

And then there's the TV swarm, which might well leave you guys wondering if whatever power source had given Eye Spy her power had given rather more of it to the TVs than to the woman herself, because Gizmo's repulsor blasts and Starlight's clubs just kinda bounce off them.

With their controller still (temporarily) out of commission, the screens still seem a little glitchy, though - because the pictures flicker briefly, and now their replays are all kinda...skew. Some of them have stretched y'all out vertically, some horizontally, and still more have done some really weird things with perspective. And with Eye Spy's supernatural power still strengthening them, the mis-proportioned replays feed back onto you in a manner that's really quite painful indeed - though for Gizmo and Bit, who seem to have attracted the swarm's attention, the amplified power of the dozen screens threatens to outright physically transform the duo, making them bigger or smaller at random.

Eye Spy:
Still Stunned.
Active Defence to remove Stun (DC20): [roll0] Still coughing and/or trying to get slime out of her hair.

Screen Swarm:
Free: Reconfigure Widescreen
Move: Power up Wrong Aspect Ratio.
Standard: Wrong Aspect Ratio and Not Your Best Angle on all heroes, multiattacking for 4, all-out attacking for 5, critting on a 16+. On a hit, DC25/20 Fort vs Damage linked Weaken Will. For Gizmo and Bit this also has a Defence DC20 for half, Fort DC20/15 vs Weaken either Defence or Attack Bonus.
Atk vs Gemini: [roll1]. Gemini Fort (DC25/20): [roll2] Miss Hit due to AoA. Bruised, Dazed, -4 Will.
Atk vs Gizmo: [roll3]. Gizmo Defence (DC/20): [roll4]. Gizmo Fort (DC25/20/15): [roll5]. Weaken: [roll6] Miss, Half Effect, Resist.
Atk vs Starlight: [roll7]. Starlight Fort (DC25/20): [roll8] Hit. Resist.
Atk vs Yui: [roll9]. Yui Fort (DC25/20): [roll10] Hit. Bruised, Dazed, -4 Will
Bit Defence (DC20, +5 for Evasion 2): [roll11]. Bit Fort (DC20/15): [roll12]. Weaken: [roll13] Half effect, -8 attack bonus (because, y'know, she was really using that.)

[Ridai]

One would think that a slime body being stretched out would not do much, especially with Yui's super secret ninja techniques doing that to a ridiculous degree. Such thoughts would be wrong, as Yui is feeling the smallest particles of her body being stretched out, which for inner River is more than a little unsettling and upsetting. But Yui plays it cool. You know, after her feint turned into just missing entirely. Because, ah, you see, that was the actual feint! Unfathomable are the mindgames of Hibari Yui, Slimu no Kunoichi, that there is a notable sparkle in her eye (well, at least the coloration around her eye emulates such a thing) as her immaculate trap snaps shut in the form of her outstretched arms and scarf coming rushing back to slam right into the sputtering Eye Spy!

Free Elongation 10

Standard Slime Lightning Hurricane Strike No Jutsu against Eye Spy
Attack [roll0], Toughness DC 25 Damage (Multiattack, Secondary Effect, Improved Critical 4)

On hit, initiate Grab via Fast Grab (Improved Grab, Improved Hold). +5 bonus from Extra Limbs 5 (Slime Enlightenment No Jutsu)
Strength [roll1]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Gemini grunted as the screens used their warping power. It hurt, but it was nothing she couldn't take.

"You have lost," she pointed out, even though there wasn't actually any indication that the screens were in any way sentient or intelligent. "But if you are going to insist on carrying this conflict to its inevitable conclusion, very well."

She snapped her fingers, and once again the field was bombarded by electromagnetic forces, each balanced in perfect opposition.

Move: Dazed.

Standard: Yin and Yang on Eye Spy and the Screens. Toughness DC 25 vs. Damage with possible Secondary Effects.

End of Turn: Recover a point of Will. Regenerate a Bruise.

Current Status: -3 Will, Fatigued.

[jamieth]

"Thanks!" Jester nods with a bright smile, making sure the helpful reporters will get the good shot, and... lets go of the helicopter's door, plunging downwards.
Not far, though, as she makes sure to catch the copter's ski-like-support-thingy with her knees... thus freeing both of her hands for another shower of clubs, aiming to pick up some more of the surprisingly-resilient screens... "Juggling Party!"
No, she didn't actually shout the names of her attacks. But, well, when it's on-screen...
Feint move: [roll0]
Attack: Juggling Party - All Out +2, Power +2, Multiattack 4 vs. Screens.
[roll1], DC 25 with the immunity bought off
Vulnerable, All-out attack. Current Defense at 4

[SquirrelWizard]

Gizmo gritted his teeth as the strange flying Tvs' power washed over him, trying to warp his form. Thankfully he came through unscathed. Behind him he heard, no felt Bit go through the same thing.

~~You alright?~~ Gizmo asked mentally to Bit.

Behind him Bit blinked, the world jittered and spasmed a faint hit of energy leaked from her eyes. ~~Target acquisition is down 88%, but I can still help!~~

Gizmo watched as Gemini and Starlight kept up their attacks on the TVs. Given the TV's recent attacks, that seemed like a good idea. "Okay, we try and take out those TVs." He aimed through the energy ring and unleashed another barrage of energy blasts.

At the same time, Bit leaned out from behind Gizmo holing out her arm like he did as a small cerulean star of energy formed lancing out bolts of energy of her own at the swarm of televisions.


Note: unless you noted, its assumed that characters are sustaining beneficial powers.

Gizmo -
Free:
Move: None
Standard: Team with Attack Repulsor Spray (Multi Attack, Range, +1 Accurate) Targeting TV's.
Attack: [roll0]
DC: 23 (15+ Effect 8)

Bit
Free: Switch Bit Denial to Bit Shot, Sustain Accelerator Charge (Grants +3 Damage Rank(9 Points), +1 rank Accurate(1 Point))
Move: None
Action: Team Attack Bit Shot (Penetration 5) Targeting TV's (+5 from teamwork)
Attack: [roll1]
DC: 20 (Since Gizmo's DC is higher then the team attack would use his DC + Team Attack Bonuses if it hits)

Gizmo
Repulsor Array Active - Repulsor Spray
Stardrive Array Active - Blink Drive

Bit
Repulsor Array Active - Bit Shot
Emitter Array Active - Accelerator Charge


HP 2/3
Gizmo: Fine

Bit: -8 Attack

[Llyarden]

Yui's 'masterful trap' works perfectly, leaving the still-coughing Eye Spy bound in her grip - just in time for electricity to rain down upon the villainness. And then the familiar 'rewinding' effect begins.

It starts with a small, rainbow light beginning to issue from Eye Spy's chest, rapidly growing brighter and spiralling out like smoke until the entire area around her and her vehicle is suffused in a prismatic glow. And then the 'smoke' flies outwards, leaving behind no trace of Eye Spy, her copter, the shattered remains of her cameras (or the damage they dealt to the pavement below as they rained out of the sky) or the maddeningly-durable television screens.

It does leave Yui just kinda in midair, but eh, slime kuniochi.

And all around you the people of New York burst into applause.

And everyone gets a Hero Point!

[Ridai]

And just like that, everything goes according to keikaku (adoring fans by now know that keikaku means plan), which surely must have been put into motion by the kunoichi before the first move was even made.

"I hope you liked your exclusive interview," Yui ends her punishing silence towards Eye Spy as the latter dissolves like most villains before her. From her aerial position, the slime kunoichi makes one fluid leap, down onto the top of a smaller building in front of the masses, through the rewinding "smoke", striking a most dramatic pose as if in ninja post-combat meditation (index and middle finger outstretched and pointing upwards in front of her face, with eyes closed). The trademark red scarf and black "hair" billowing suitably. Just taking in the applause, something inner River never got outside of obligatory gestures in class that don't mean anything. Hibari Yui opens her eyes and looks at her fellow heroes, notably nodding to them.

"To the shadows, I return. From the shadows, I shall strike at the heart of evil." And with that, Hibari Yui turns... and disappears, leaving only a few cherry blossom petals (that may or may not be pink slime) behind. Yui just generally gets out of there and out of "sight" of the crowd and her fellow heroes before she begins her circuitous way home using more mundane stealth alongside her high speed, to eventually slip back into River's room and somewhat reluctantly with a last look into the mirror assume the more solid form of one River Shade again. Eye contact immediately is getting avoided, but warm fuzzies are still had. The city and its people are safe. She was able to make a difference. People cheered for her. Well, for Yui. Feeling a little weak in the knees and her hands shaking, River decides to lie down on her bed and just... let everything settle for a while.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Gemini watched the villain, and all the damage she had done, disappear with a sort of wanly-patient look on her face. She still wasn't entirely sure why whoever gave them their powers didn't just do that in the first place. It would save people a lot of stress.

Though she supposed that given the choice between fixing everything after it was done and not fixing anything at all, she did prefer the former.

~Way to go, team!~ she sent to the other heroes, telepathically since Yui had already made her exit. She wasn't in too big of a rush to get home, lunch aside. So instead of heading off immediately, she called up to the news copters, "Do any actual journalists have any questions?"

Not that she really knew all that much, but still. She took it on faith that the heroes were more than just protectors of their city. They were symbols. They inspired people and made them feel safe. She didn't have any qualm about talking to the press in the aftermath of a battle.

For the record I'm cool to just move on. I don't mind playing out talking with the press, but it's not something I see as particularly necessary to do on-screen unless someone else wants to.

[SquirrelWizard]

"Yeah, busted!" Bit cheered as Eye Spy and her Terrible TVs dissipated into the aether or wherever it was they went after they were beaten.

"Yep, we did. How is... and Yui has left the building." Gizmo said as he scanned the surroundings. Sure, the results of their fights against villians typically vanished when the villian lost, but it wouldn't look good if something was left behind and they didn't do anything to help.

"Looks like Eye Spy suffered a massive ratings drop." Gizmo said as he and Bit landed softly next to Gemini. Inwardly he groaned, there had to be something about playing the roll of hero that made him think such bad quips were a good idea. He eyed the press around them as he said to Gemini, "Yui, left so I assume she's alright. Are you okay? I'd ask jester, but I think she's hitching a ride."




Note: unless you noted, its assumed that characters are sustaining beneficial powers.

Gizmo -
Free:
Move:
Standard:
Attack:
DC:

Bit
Free:
Move:
Standard:
Attack:
DC:

Gizmo
Repulsor Array Active - Repulsor Spray
Stardrive Array Active - Blink Drive

Bit
Repulsor Array Active - Bit Shot
Emitter Array Active - Accelerator Charge


HP 3
Gizmo: Fine

Bit: Fine

[Quellian-dyrae]

"All good," Gemini answered with a smile. "How you been?" she added, just polite small talk. She only really tended to see her fellow heroes during, you know, battles and stuff (as far as she knew, anyway). So it was nice to catch up when the opportunity presented itself.

[SquirrelWizard]

"Okay. I think Bit got caught by something, but its wearing off I think." Gizmo replied to Gemini.

"Hee... I can see both of you!" Bit giggled as she leaned around Gizmo's shoulder, her eyes periodically glitching out as she waved at a point 3 feet to the left of Gizmo.

"So, um..." Gizmo hesitated, it was no longer a fight, and the conversation had turned to something resembling the murky waters of social interaction. "I umm... have been doing research--"

"--He's been looking up you girls on the computer." Bit interjected in her cheerful "I'm helping voice."

"What? No," Gizmo stammered. "I mean, yes... but not like 'that. I've been trying to figure out why we got these powers... and why all these villains keep popping up."

Inwardly Gizmo groaned, why was talking to girls so hard?

[jamieth]

"Oh, thanks!" Jester smiles as the copter comes sufficiently close to the nearest roof, "Guess I'm taking off here..." and with that, she falls off the helicopter, swisting in the air and coming into a classic three-point-landing nest to the others. "Heh, the ninja disappeared already? Oh well... I think we did a nice job today, no? So, what were you talking about? Sure feels nice to still have some time to talk after the fight..."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Gemini gave the tiniest hint of a bemused smile as Bit "helpfully" translated Gizmo's statement, but she otherwise let it pass by. Instead she asked, "Have you discovered anything? I've been under the impression that whoever is responsible for...'undoing' the villains, or whatever, is the one who gave us our powers. But that still leaves a number of questions."

When SJ arrived, she said, "We did, and it is. And mainly just speculating on...what the deal is. With, you know, everything. All this."

[SquirrelWizard]

Gizmo shook his head as he said, "Not much luck I'm afraid. Its just odd that these villains show up and then we appear on the scene. I'm pretty certain there is a connection, but haven't had any luck finding it. I mean its not like they're handing out super powers at pawn shops, or villains are doing recruitment drives. So.."

Gizmo trailed off. Yes, he could contact Yui, Gemini, and Jester through his hero link, but their hero powers were limited in time so time for talking was very limited. In fact trying to organize anything would likely--

"Ow!" Gizmo flinched as Bit slapped the back of his head.

"Netwoooork...." Bit said intently.

"Look, I'm not trying to pry into anything personal." Gizmo reflexively rubbed his head where Bit hit him. "But I was wondering if it was possible to meet up somewhere? You know, so we can plan outside of being heroes?"

~~Date!~~ Bit said telepathically.

Gizmo was thankful that the faceplate of his helmet obscured his face, ~~Not what I meant! It would be nice to be able to work together without having to activate our powers.~~

Bit giggled as she sat on Gizmos shoulder.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Well. That was a question, now wasn't it?

In Gemini's form, Lila and Nina weren't entirely suppressed. Their individual trains of thought were still essentially present. But to a large degree they melded into a single thought process, deliberations between them happening too fast to really be considered separate. It was a discussion that hovered somewhere between conscious and unconscious, so that in the moment it felt like just one train of thought, but if she wanted she could look back and see where each consideration came from.

In this case, if she were to concentration on following the exact deliberations of the two sides of herself, it would have been something like:

Finally! It is nonsense that we have not known who each other are this whole time!

Well, wait...! We can't just...I mean, there are reasons to keep our identities secret.

Well yeah sure but not from each other! I mean, we're all heroes here, it just gets in the way of communication and working together!

It's not that easy. We're in high school. If we reveal who we are...I mean, they may try to stop us from helping. Say it's too risky for kids, or something. Look we can meet up but we shouldn't reveal ourselves.
We can, like, still wear the costume or something.

Never work. Even if we look the same, we'd never be able to impersonate Gemini individually. They'd know something was up.

Okay so we give them our phone numbers or something! Or, like, use an internet chat or texting app or something. That's probably smartest, lets us talk and coordinate without revealing who we are.

But then we don't learn who they are! Aren't you curious?...!

I mean, the more people who know our identities, the more opportunities there are for them to get out. And same for them. It's safer for all of us to just keep them secret.

Not...really? They're going to be protecting their identities just like we are, so the risk is minimal that they would actually reveal ours to anyone else.

But it means that if any of us get compromised then all of us do.

I mean...sure, I guess. But you're still putting all your attention on a rather tiny risk. And there's a lot of really good reasons to coordinate better. It kinda comes down to which we'd rather be: better heroes, or safer.

...

Outwardly, that whole argument took almost no time at all. Gemini hesitated only for a second or so, a brief pause to think about it, before saying, "That sounds sensible."

She switched to telepathy to ask, ~Did you have a place and time in mind?~ Because that...seemed like something they probably shouldn't discuss in front of the news copters and all. Once again she let Bit's remark pass by uncommented, save a hint of a grin. Fortunately for Gizmo, Gemini was serene enough - or maybe just nice enough - to not make a big deal out of it.

[jamieth]

Starlight's Jester's thought process wa much shorter - thinking long and hard not being Laura's usua; MO in the first place. In fact, it only consisted of a single concern...
What about Auntie Agatha?
Well, WHAT about Auntie? "I'm going to meet some friends" is a perfectly fine excuse. True, even... hopefully.
Yes, that was the issue, wasn't it? Ever since settling down in NY, Laura didn't have much luck in making friends. Not that she had a bad reputation in class, or anythgin, just... well. Sure would be nice to have someone she wouln't have to keep secrets from.
"Sure, it's a great idea! In fact, I'd offer my place, but, you know. Too many ears."

[SquirrelWizard]

~~We could meet at the Library, they have private study rooms.~~ Gizmo offered. ~~we could just agree to a time and date to show up? We could say we're meeting as a group project as cover.~~

[Quellian-dyrae]

~That works for me. Hmm...~

Gemini extended her mindlink out again.

~Hey, Yui? This is Gemini. We're talking over here about maybe meeting, sometime soon? Like...without costumes. Possibly at the library at a date and time still to be determined. Is that something you would be interested in?~

For the record, she's not talking privately to Yui, just directing the speech more at her; everyone's still in the mindlink.

[Ridai]

In a distant bedroom, one River Shade yelps as she starts out of her quiet contentment and falls out of her bed. Before she can curse Gemini's invasion of privacy, River hears what she is actually transmitting, to which River responds with frantically trying to keep herself from transmitting anything as she holds her aching knee. Waffling between getting up to pace nervously around the room and being frozen in place, River kind of inches about on the floor, a thousand of bad scenarios going through her mind about how this could go wrong for her and ruin things in the future. But she has to answer somehow. Only she doesn't get a peep out. Crap, she's been silent for too long. Thus, she frantically waves her arm, trying to get herself to transform. Yui can do it!

The kunoichi is soon lounging in the office chair in the room, nonchalantly answering ~Fine with me, as long as you are ready for a surprise.~

A moment later, River is sitting in the same place, staring at the wall for a moment. Panic mode intensifies.

[Llyarden]

The press give you your usual barrage of questions - you could pretty much guess what questions would be asked and who'd ask which one by now. But there's a definite...edge...to the questions this time, like some of the reporters kinda start to ask a question and then change tack.

Riiiight up to the moment that one of the rather newer reporters, still looking a bit star-struck at being in the presence of, well, three-quarters of the city's heroes, pipes up and asks "Was it just us, or was 'Eye Spy' a lot more powerful than the previous villains who've appeared?"

Unfortunately, any greatly-detailed answers end up having to wait, as a little chiming sound from Gemini's necklace heralds her impending de-transformation.


---

Some time later

The local library is...basically exactly as you expect a library to be. Quiet, full of books, and - as Gizmo had promised - with private study rooms that can be booked out or just kinda occupied if they're free. 'Private' might be...a bit of an exaggeration, given that most of the walls are glass and any particularly loud noises would probably get out, but to a group of teenagers having an innocuous conversation, they're private enough.

[Quellian-dyrae]

You know, it was weird, usually when they visited the library, Lila was who looked uncomfortable and Nina relaxed. Well, not uncomfortable, really. More just...fidgety. But yeah. Today, though, Nina was on edge, her normally withdrawn body language kinda doubly so as she walked with quick, shuffling steps, her face down looking more at the ground than where she walking, shoulders scrunched, arms hanging in front of her with the fingers of both hands entwined together. She was wearing a gray hoodie and sweatpants, intended to further project an air of "nothing to see here", although her sister had convinced her to leave the hood down, since it was like, past a certain point it just makes you stand out more. Still, her hair hung straight down around her face, lightly obscuring it from casual view.

Not that it mattered, really, since her twin had no more qualm about standing out than ever. Lila was dressed in a sky blue tube top with some tassels hanging from the top and a matching skirt, her hair done in an elaborate series of braids from which one hung down over her left shoulder, a smile on her face and with her head kinda bobbing up and down to whatever music was playing through the earbud in her ear. She gave a wave if she happened to pass anyone she knew on the way. It wasn't that she wanted to draw attention to the meeting, or anything it was just...well, this was how she was, and if she acted all weird about it that would draw more attention than just acting normally.

(She hadn't bothered her sister on this point, because really, this was pretty much normal for her too.)

If you weren't looking straight at their faces, side by side, you might not have noticed they were identical. Certainly, you wouldn't have guessed it. And even not counting the mask, there was simply no way the reserved, anxious Nina or the cheerily energetic Lila could ever have been mistaken for the poised, serene Gemini, for all that they retained the same face and form.

They went into the designated meeting room, and sat down to wait for the arrival of their fellow heroes. Nina sat in a chair that put her back to as much glass as was physically possible. Lila pretty much ruined the gesture by sitting precisely opposite her. Nina glanced up at her, eyes crinkling in a little glare, which was answered with just a wry look.

[Ridai]

By the time River entered the library, she has gotten past at least a dozen of moments where she was this close to not going. But once past the threshold of the building, the only way is forward. Well, she is still feeling awful and jittery and with a permanent sinking feeling in her stomach. So through the library goes the bit-more-than-five-feet-tall-girl, doing her best to be entirely upright, only to slouch a little again as she goes without noticing. Brown hair in a no-frills bob cut. Thick glasses frame eyes trying to avoid other pairs on the way. Black hoodie with a stark large red symbol on the back, looking like a vertical line with diamond-shaped lines around its lower half and sort of the same on the upper half, but with an open top. Regular jeans, if a wee bit on the baggy side, clearly emphasizing comfort over fit. Comfy sneakers.

And there's the meeting room. And two people are already inside. Hesitating for a moment, River does find the courage to actually step in. It's for a good cause. "Hello," she greets, just going for a normal, friendly opener, without realizing her nerves are showing in there as well. "So, uh..." And around that moment, she realizes she has not thought of anything to actually ask about people in there being who she wants to meet without revealing herself immediately. Or she has forgotten anything she thought of saying before. Noticing the pause that is happening because of her brain being stuck in loading, something needs to come out, and pronto!

"...you here for the hero team?" In an ideal world, what would have come out of River would have been less ambiguous, but maybe it still works...? She's also still standing at the door, though she closed it before asking.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Since she was sitting facing the glass wall, Lila saw River approaching.

Flip! Naturally, River would have picked today of all days to visit the library. She must have seen them and come over to say hi. Or maybe hang out. Which, you know, normally Lila would be totally cool with (frankly she was just happy Nina had, like, some friends). But right now was not ideal, given that their fellow heroes were going to be here shortly.

Okay. No worries. No big deal. Say hello, ask how she's doing, make her go away. Totally doable.

When she walked in and said hello, Lila answered, "Heya River! Nina kinda blinked and turned to look over her shoulder, a clearly nervous look on her face.

...And then River closed the door and asked if they were here for the hero team.

Nina started making the...same kinda high-pitched sound their dad's car made on cold days. Even with the door closed that actually wasn't nearly vague enough for her tastes. The room was private but not necessarily sound-proofed and it was a library and what if other people overhead they might deduce that this meant they were the heroes and and and...! (Nina had a habit of overestimating the reasoning skills of others.)

Lila, on the other hand, just stared at River for several seconds while her twin had a minor panic attack, as if her brain had completely broken. They were Gemini and Gizmo was a guy and that meant that River had to be either Yui or Starlight Jester and Lila may not have hung out with River as much as Nina did (or at least not since recently when they started doing basically everything together) but she still knew her well enough to know that that...that...that was...neither of them could possibly...!

Flat "What."

[Ridai]

If River could observe herself from the outside, she would surely hear the gears in her brain working. She only registered two people before in her rushed and mildly terrified state, only to realize those people were Nina and Lila. After she spoke and heard the greeting. So during the mixture of dumbfounded silence and eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, it's like the realization is loaded into her grey matter with a heavy ka-chunk. "Oh, uh, hey there... Nina and... Lila..." Much hand-wringing is had. Is nervous meltdown and "what" a good or a bad sign?! As she is standing there, waffling between staying and going as the speed of sound (and wearing her unlabeled Berserk hoodie, as Nina recognizes), a hand kind of wants to creep to the door handle, while at the same time, her voice apparatus tries one last attempt.

"H-Hibari... Yui... desssssu?" River increasingly squeaks out, the final "s" sound drawn out as she becomes increasingly more convinced this all was a horrible, horrible idea and that she should be excusing and fleeing any moment now, also becoming beet-red and at the same time somehow managing to look like she is drained of color.

[jamieth]

Laura was... a bit late for the meeting. All because it took so long to convince Auntie she was really going to the library! What, did it sound that unrealistic? OK, OK, speaking completely honestly, it probably did... still...
"Hi people!" Wearing her usual shorts, sneakers and a t-shirt, Laura stepped into the "private" room and waved to the girls inside, "I solemnly swear to conduct myself and not clown around... much. That said..." Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a cardboard box with her auntie's place logo, "A treat from my aunt.... in case we get hungry from studying. Feel free to..."
From how they looked, her companions in hero-ing certainly needed some distraction, and quick. The amount of awkwardness on display was... uncomfortable...
"Laura, by the way. Resident jester... so to speak."

[SquirrelWizard]

David too was running late. Extracting himself from his parents had been harder thanks to the recent event regarding Eye Spy. He had been out during that time and they were worried. They finally yielded when he emphasized that it was a group project and he needed to meet with his classmates to get full credit.

If he was panicking over meeting at the library, he wasn't showing it, at least on the outside. He had spent enough time at the library where most of the staff knew him by name, so in his mind there was no real need to try and conceal his being there; he had shown up in jeans and a three dodge moon shirt. Meeting the other heroes, in the flesh, was twisting his guts up in knots. Even if you factor in the fact that the other heroes were girls, they were basically exposing themselves to each other (gods why did he have to think of it in that wording), which was potentially dangerous. He knocked softly on the door and poked his head in.

A quick mental count of the people in the room came up to four and alarms went off in his head. "Oh sorry, thought I had reserved this room for my group... I'll just.. leave you guys alone." Panicking as he ducked back out, he wasn't sure what to do, he had told them to use this room, but some other girls had ninja'd it. How would he know who to flag down to visit a new room!?

[Quellian-dyrae]

While Nina was trying to fight off her mild panic attack and Lila was trying to piece together the remnants of her blown mind, Laura walked in and introduced herself as Starlight Jester. That...that...

...No, actually, Lila could totally buy that. Come to think of it, she was mildly disappointed in herself for not having figured it out earlier. Nina was not, because however much sense it might have made in retrospect did not come close to overcoming the prior probability that the other heroes were students in their class. Or at least, it didn't overcome what she had believed - quite mistakenly, as it turned out - the prior probability to be. But given that three out of the four (four out of the five, whatever) of them were from the class, Nina was rapidly updating her probability estimates.

She didn't quite manage to deduce Gizmo's identity based on what she knew of him and the remaining students in their class by the time David arrived, but as soon as he did, she knew. "N-no! You're...you're in the right room!" she said quickly. Lila, meanwhile, had leaned her face down onto her arms on the table and was, just, laughing.

They were all in the same class. The same freaking class at school. If she had had any doubts that some intelligent agent had given them these devices, that would have removed them. There was no possible way that was a coincidence.

(Nina wouldn't have put it quite so certainly, but still, the odds were infinitesimally low. She revised her probability of it being an intelligent agent upward significantly, and started nudging around probabilities that it was, in fact, one of their teachers or maybe their principal.)

After several moments, Lila managed to gather herself enough to stop laughing and lift her head from the table.

"So...hey, guys!" she said with a light laugh that threatened to devolve into a full gigglefit again, but she managed to resist. "...Okay, but, for serious though, you're not really River, right? I mean, I know you're a master of disguise and all. Gonna be honest it's kinda unfair that you're pretending to be someone else when we're all here. And like seriously, could you have picked a worse person to impersonate?"

"Maybe she...wanted us to know she wasn't actually who she appeared as, without revealing who she actually is, so she picked the classmate who is most unlike her to make sure we didn't get confused and actually start, like, talking about...stuff...with River?" Nina speculated.

"I mean...I guess that makes sense? Still kinda unfair though... Ooh, snacks! Thanks!" she finished cheerily to Laura, once she, you know, noticed the box and all.

[SquirrelWizard]

David stopped short as he was ducking out, leaning back in and asked, "Is this the... uh..." He wrung his brain and added, "Super Hero History project?"

He recognized the other girls in the room as fellow classmates, at least in passing. By his own admission he had done a poor job of mingling with the rest of the class, his distance stemming from the circumstances that had mysteriously claimed his sister. That, and he figured that Lila and River were part of Herrington's crowd which meant they were part of the popular class and way out of his league, while he knew very little about Nina or Laura.

Stepping into the room and softly closing the door behind him with a click. He stood before the group sheepishly and said, "I'm.. doing research on Gizmo."

[Ridai]

River has achieved perfect stealth. Even when she is revealing who she is and is literally in the room, people still think she is not actually there, but Yui in disguise. Yui plays incredible mindgames even when she is not actually there. No one will ever learn her secret, not even her closest friends. Any moment River is there, she may actually just be Yui in disguise. Or not. Who can ever really know?

:( (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FB9GYkIT3E)

"B-but I'm-" River stammers, but then everything else happens. So with not even her best friend believing her ( :( (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwVjTlTdIDQ) ), "River" hangs her head and shoulders, burying her jawline as deeply in her hood as she can, and just plops herself down on one of the chairs facing the others. With the others coming in and introducing themselves, "River" doesn't look up, just raising a hand.

"Hello... I'm studying Yui... and your future trust issues, apparently... :( (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wfYIMyS_dI) "

[jamieth]

"Hm, but in this case", Laura tilts her head, "how can we know that River who's with us in school is River? No, no, I've decided. From now on, I'll always treat any River I meet as if she was actually Yui... and if she ever freaks out from thet, well, I'm no stranger to being considered a bit weird, you know? Most of the time, it's even on purpose...[/i]"
Casting a quick glance at the transparent door to check if there's too many witnesses, she places her hands on the seat of her chair and does a handstand - something any of her classmates are probably used to seeing at least every other break. "So perhaps let's start... well... Super Hero Study?"

[Ridai]

"From now on, I'll always treat any River I meet as if she was actually Yui"
"always treat any River I meet"
"any River"

Inner River is is deeply :( (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9RAZxNdCk8) and screaming at this very moment, while outer River is doing a very River thing in that she is trying to bury her face with her hood.

That Brand of Sacrifice on her hoodie was picked because it looks cool and to see who knows Berserk, not to have River sacrificed for Yui, damn it!

[SquirrelWizard]

David sat down slowly, halfway expecting the chair to fly out from underneath him. He listened in as the others talked for a bit.

"So... we're all in the same class," David said. He glanced over at River and added, "or we at least know people who are in the same class. And... we have... um... 'homework.'" Inwardly David screamed at how stupid it was calling super powers literally homework, but they'd need to settle on something to call it in public. "So far I've just been tracking your... hero movements when the villains show up. You know. Thinking that maybe that where you... I mean the heroes were coming from in the city might give some clues as to the origins... their origins."

He sighed as he felt like he was now being a massive stalker, "and I've been trying to figure out where these villains keep popping up from. They're more complicated and seem to just materialize into existence."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Well obviously someone gave us the powers, right?" Lila...said more than asked (she thought the homework thing was a clever enough way to discuss it, but with the door closed she didn't feel like it was necessary to try to obscure their words). "Presumably whoever it is that makes the bad guys disappear and fixes all the stuff they did when we win. Why they don't just do that from the start when they have that level of reality-warping power I can't tell you, but there it is."

"It, um..." Nina started hesitantly, before kinda closing her mouth and staring down at the table.

"What? ... ...Nina, c'mon!"

"It, no, I just...I mean, I was thinking, it might be one of our teachers, or maybe the principal. Or something. I mean...I wouldn't have thought that, but...all of us being in the same class suggests a connection through the class. Um...teacher more likely, probably. Because, uh, if it were someone else just connected to the school, we'd have probably been spread among more classes." Nina didn't lift her gaze from the table the whole time she was talking.

[Ridai]

"So you... so you want us to investigate all teachers that have any connection to our class?" River asks, somewhat peeking out from under her hood (but still holding onto it). Potentially probing into Ms. Rouge's life on the off-chance of her having anything to do with this doesn't sit too well with her.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"I...maybe? I mean...to be fair, it's pretty obvious that whoever gave us these...assignments is...on our side and presumably has reasons for keeping it secret. So...investigating them may not necessarily be, um, necessary. But...if we do want to figure out who it is, our teachers would be a sensible place to start, maybe?"

Our teachers would be a good place to start investigating who gave us an "assignment". ...Quality spycraft, Nina.

[jamieth]

"That does make sense, of course..." Laura lowers herself into proper.. or, as she would say, conventional... way of using a seat, slightly disappointed by the lack of reaction... "But why teachers only? I mean, it might sound weird, but how about our other classmates? I mean, whoever does this, obviously has some abilities science can't really explain... so there's no reason it has to be an adult." Or even a human. But, well, investigating non-humans would be difficult, admittedly, so that can wait...

[Ridai]

"How do... how will you go about this?" River asks, though she is dreading the answer, already burying herself deeper in her hood again.

[SquirrelWizard]

David nodded along with the others glancing to each as the spoke. Lila he had known, at least from a distance, mainly through what he had observed of her crowd of friends. Nina he knew less of, though to judge by the way she seemed to have faded into Lila's shadow he didn't think she had many friends. River, well if you assume she was actually River, was a nerd. Apparently she liked anime if the hoodie was to go by, though he wasnt sure if she knew what that symbol entailed, an idle thought crept into his head: I really hope we dont end up like Guts is all I gotta say.

If someone gave them these powers, and they were in the same class, then it was probably someone they knew. "Even if it isnt a teacher, its gotta be someone we all know, and probably meet on a regular basis. Maybe start with our Home Room teacher?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"That's a good point. There's not really any reason it couldn't be a student," Lila said. "Hey! What if it's the real River! That would be hilarious!"

At River's, or "River's"...let's say Yui's question, Nina kinda spread her hands out in a sort of shrugging gesture, her head shaking and a bit of worry in her eyes. "I mean, I dunno. I wasn't...really planning any specific course of investigation or anything! We're just talking! It's like...it makes sense that it would be somebody who knows us, so somebody at the school, but yeah the evidence fits a student just as well as a teacher, but it isn't even conclusive there! Maybe it's just someone who, like, saw us getting out of class and picked us randomly or something..."

"That'd be a pretty big coincidence," Lila said with a dismissive wave. "Okay so, investigating {the homeroom teacher}, sounds good. So I guess like...what, we'd need to maybe know they're doing next time we beat a bad guy, right? Like, if they do some weird magicky thing and then the bad guy vanishes, we know it's them, or something. But how do we watch them while we're beating the bad guy?"

[Ridai]

River fidgets, being able to think of some ideas, but... "I... I guess the options are either invasion of privacy with a camera, or having someone else stalk them? Yui isn't clairvoyant, so she's kind of out."

[jamieth]

"Or, you know, we can just rotate the duty... I mean, at least some villains, the three - four -" (it's confusing as to whether count Lila and Nina as two people, or as one superhero) "- anyway, pretty sure we can afford to leave one of to investigation duties. And if things get tough... Well, that's why we have a hero link for, no?"

[SquirrelWizard]

"We can also swap phone numbers so we can communicate without having to use the link." David said in reply to Laura's comment on the hero link. "Also, what would we be looking for when investigating the Teach? Weird tech? Glowing pillar of light with a floating face in it? Mechanical lions that can form into a giant mech?"

He softly sighed as he leaned back in his chair and scratched his head. He'd highly doubt that the person who granted them these powers would so openly leave evidence of their actions out. They'd need a solution but that would require time, Gizmo, and Bit, assuming that they could craft some solution. He grinned as he chuckled attempting to not totally quash the mood, adding, "So, how long do you think it will be before we get a knock-off cartoon done about us?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Sounds good. I'm at (212) 555-5452, Nina's (212) 555-6462."

"Um...I mean, I'm not...sure we should, like, send one person to keep watch or whatever. I mean...of course, it would be good to know if one of our teachers or something is responsible for giving us powers and all, but, um, it's still basically just satisfying our curiosity, you know? And protecting people when the supervillains attack is...a lot more important."

"Yeah but I mean Laura's right, the villains don't usually take all of us to fight, and we can always just call for backup if we need it."

"No, I know, it's just...I mean, that's probably true, but if there ends up being a situation where it's not true, then...someone could get hurt. I don't think the chance is high, but the cost of it going wrong outweighs the gain of satisfying our curiosity by like several orders of magnitude, and since this is so speculative, we can't...really make up the difference in odds. Even if it's only a hundred to one against a villain actually needing all of us there from the start to keep people safe, it would need to be like a million to one or more for our not being there allowing us to learn what we're trying to learn for the expected utility to balance out. And our odds are simply not that high."

"Uhh...yeah I don't know about any of that. But I think it'll probably be fine."

[Ridai]

River weakly raises a hand. "Not feeling good about skipping out on fights, either. Wouldn't... wouldn't that count as something that might lead to things not getting rolled back, if there's intent behind it all? Ignoring duties and such? And the last fight seemed pretty... intense, compared to the previous ones." River pauses, folding, unfolding, and folding her hands in her lap. "What about the origins of villains?"

Hearing the question about cartoons, River scratches her head. "Now I'm wondering if studios would try licensing likenesses."

[jamieth]

"Hm... yeah, you're probably right. We can't risk things not repairing themselves... But then... I don't know", Laura says, as she quickly taps the phone numbers she hears into her phone and makes a call to them so that others' phones picked her number up as well (because, frankly, she doesn't remember it by heart).
"And villains... do we have any evidence thay have an origin? Aren't they, just, you kow, pop up from nothing every now and then? I mean, sure, I understand how weird it sounds, but then... what about all this situation isn't?"
"Hm... come to think of it. How were we selected in the first place? Where did you find your, ahem, gadgets, and how did you know what to do with them?"

[Ridai]

"Was chased by a group of villains, fell, spilled things over the floor, and as I stuffed everything back into my bag, I guess it was in there for some reason and it accidentally slipped on and, well, out came Yui. Just knew what to do at that point." River shrugs, being unable to provide much of anything that would help with a lead.

[SquirrelWizard]

David noted Laura and Nina's phone number. "(404) 647-7464. I haven't changed it since I moved here."

He shook his head as he shrugged. "I found my device in my backpack one day. Everything I know about it was either what I figured out on my own, or what Bit helped me with. And her help can be... spotty at times. I'm not saying that we stop fighting the villians, but I dont know where they're coming from and it seems that us getting our devices and the villians appearing might be linked. For what reason? I dont know, but it might help to figure that out if possible."

[Ridai]

"If we were given by this by someone at school, why wouldn't that person contact us in some way? If the intent is to beat villains, wouldn't we have been much more able to do that with guidance, explanations, anything? Anything that would improve success chances?" That's the part that bothers her the most if they are going with the assumption that someone around them gave these items to them with intent, instead of this being some weird phenomenon beyond comprehension. If the person is available to talk, but doesn't, that reads as either being stupid, neglectful, doing some weird judgment thing, or doing this for their own amusement, none of which sounds very encouraging.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Oh so you guys have the trinket things too? I was kinda wondering. We just found ours on our dresser one day. Next time we made contact with each other we just kinda..."

"Fuuuuuusion!" Nina said quietly, blushing a bit pretty much immediately after.

"Yeah pretty much. I don't know why they wouldn't try to contact us though. Unless they're just being purposefully annoying."

"Well I mean...it could be kinda like, a game, maybe? Like one of the players gave us our tokens, and the other one is giving the villains their powers, and they just kinda...put us against each other to see who wins, or something?
I mean...I'm just speculating but it does feel kinda video-gamey in a way. With the bad guys disappearing when we beat them and everything going back to normal. Or mostly everything, anyway."

[Ridai]

River has the feeling she heard a cracking noise from somewhere, but it's probably just her imagination.

More presently, however, River... really doesn't know where to go with this conversation. So she just kind of... shrugs...