Heroes of Bastion IC

[Llyarden]

OOC Thread

The city of Bastion is on edge.

Not because there is some menacing danger approaching, or a supervillain who had vowed to take over the world, or anything like that. In fact, the threat had already been dealt with.

Six months ago, a villainous necromancer had popped up over in Houston. Necromancy, like any other magic, is not automatically evil - in fact, there's a fairly well-known German hero who goes by the codename of Caspar, who uses necromancy for good - but this particular necromancer was bending his powers to robbing various scientific research facilities, using the knowledge gained therein to upgrade his necromantic creations, and repeat ad infinitum. (What his actual goal was remains unknown).

Now, this would obviously have been bad enough on its own. What made this particular necromancer, Emilio Bacchan (he didn't have an official villainous codename, although there had been a vague attempt by the media to call him Armok that had never really caught on), truly reviled was a combination of two things. The first was simply a matter of appearances. When Caspar summoned ghosts, they were cute little balls of white ectoplasm with kinda child-like demeanours. When he summoned skeletons, they were so clean and perfect they could've stepped out of a biology classroom, and they often did little tricks like juggling their heads when they weren't busy doing actual heroics - and they just kinda popped out of thin air rather than actually being somebody's grandpa or whatever. Bacchan's necromancy was...not that. He couldn't summon spirits at all, but what he could do was animate dead flesh and bones. So aside from being able to summon zombies who were often half-rotten, smelt vile, and were still recognisable as a friend or family member, he could also, for instance, use his necromancy to animate the entrails of a dead body and use them to strangle someone.

Now, to be fair, one could argue that you couldn't really blame Bacchan for the nature of his magic. Given that it was learned magic and not an inherent power, it would be a bit of a questionable argument, but it was still an argument, and one his lawyers had made repeatedly to the jury. But the second reason that Bacchan had rapidly become so hated was that he was simply a sadistic, despicable person.

You guys hadn't actually been involved in capturing him. After making smash-and-grab raids on various laboratories that steadily got more and more violent, he'd rapidly accrued a half-dozen Heroes chasing him, and had fled Houston and its surroundings. He'd eventually made his way to a fairly unassuming university about an hour's drive away from Bastion, where he'd finally been captured by his pursuers (although sadly they hadn't been in time to save all of the researchers at the university). At that point, the Heroes' Guild building in Bastion was the closest place with cells that could nullify the magic of its inhabitants, so for the past few months - all through the trial, which had been done via videolink - he'd been languishing in the basement of the Guild HQ.

Now that Bacchan had been convicted, though, he couldn't legally be kept in the Guild's cells any more. Which meant he had to be transferred to a police cell (which had by now been reinforced and set up with its own magic nullification). And this posed some logistical problems - Bacchan couldn't use any necromancy magic that could actually harm a living person, but even something as simple as a dead fly could become something dangerous in his hands once his magic was available. And he had a lot of contacts among the villains of America (which was in part how he escaped capture for as long as he did, although his allies were never actually caught). So simply bundling him into a police van was obviously not an option. For legal reasons, teleporting him, dragging him with super-speed or any other kind of super-powered conveyance were also not possible.

It was into this mess stepped a private company, Larsson Electronics, a well-known and very powerful company that, amongst other things, produced combat robots and the like for private security and even police use (for those police forces with the budget for it). LE's CEO personally arranged for a dozen security robots and a custom-made magic-proof, self-sterilising van that could be driven remotely, all without charging the city of Bastion a dime. (A cynic might have commented that it was a comparatively trivial expense for a major PR gain).

So that brings you to today. A special set of magic nullification pylons have been constructed around the entrance to the city jail to ensure that he can't use magic once he's in there and out of the 'clean room' of the LE van. Various road closures are in place to ensure unobstructed passage from the Cannon to the city jail, and the route is lined with civilians and news crews wanting to watch. The jail itself has the biggest crowd, of course, since it's the one place that Bacchan will actually be visible.

As the city's Heroes, you haven't actually been asked to help guard the transportation route, per se...but even Mrs Larsson, who's publicly stated she's confident that her robotic security would be able to stop any attempt by Bacchan's allies to free him, hasn't gone so far as to say that the assistance of Heroes would be unwanted.

[Ridai]

Thankfully, there was ample prior warning for this. And Lin even managed to have a quiet night beforehand! The Mars Cannon apparently was doing surveillance and wanted its Envoy fully rested. Of course, that means things will probably get heated, but that's just the Bastion Hero Life. So Lin used the sudden free time for an impromptu sleepover at Manu's place, game and watch movies, that sort of thing. Go into the big important day with good mental. Sadly no breakfast with Manu, she's had a bit much to drink on top of not being a morning person. Preparing breakfast for her and cleaning the place up only took a few seconds, making this a very easy way to appreciate her most precious friend. As far as Lin is concerned, they each owe the other their lives, so cherishing Emanuela is non-negotiable.

Projecting Duty calls, talk to you later. Breakfast's on the table into Manu's mind still in the process of slowly waking up, Lin becomes Envoy and contacts the Mars Cannon. An instant later, she is whisked away in an instant, into the secret sanctum of the cannon's avatar. The Mars Cannon fills Envoy in on the situation, discuss the matter at the speed of mind, and given all this takes perhaps seconds, a little time is also spent on non-mission-related matters, such as discussing the frankly baffling behavior of the masses gathering to observe the transport of a dangerous criminal passing by, and the Mars Cannon inquiring about Envoy's way of optimizing her mental state for this assignment, as well as the "mechanics" and circumstances of human bonding as showcased by the sleepover.

The Mars Cannon also wishes to inquire about the contents Manu's dreamscape, given Lin was connected to it throughout the night and thus the Cannon knows, as well as more in-depths matters. However, doing so may lead to distracting its Envoy or impact her mental state, so it delays such discussions. Envoy feels some relief, given she is about to head out on a mission. She is still getting used to her patron's very inquisitive, direct, and vast mind, and while interacting with it is a joy (partially because there is just no navigating social mores and tiptoe-ing around matters, partially because of her love for her patron), it can also be very taxing. The Mars Cannon's regal avatar concludes the discussion, tells its Envoy it is looking forward to her performance, and sends her into her mission.

Thus, Envoy emerges from the Mars Cannon (and thus the Hero HQ) in all her splendor.

"The Mars Cannon sends its regards and wishes to offer its assistance during the transport," Envoy tells the assembled forces. She has wide-reaching security clearance throughout the city of Bastion, so technically she could just join the convoy without anyone else's approval. But she is an envoy, and matters are not massively time-critical at the moment.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Oddly enough, despite having lived around it for literally her entire life, Kelly's personal experience with magic was relatively limited. Her mother's facility with artifice wasn't a trained skill, and neither was it something passed down to her as the descendent of a long line of artificers or something. She had read some sort of magical tablet or something and then been able to craft magic items. This wasn't to say that the process was entirely intuitive; once she had been given the capability it was something she had been able to improve with practice and study like any other skill. But while her mother knew exactly what she was doing when she crafted a magical device, that didn't mean she could explain it particularly well. She could tell you exactly how any of her devices worked, but even after all these years, why any of it worked was still something of a black box to her.

So Kelly's understanding of magic remained cursory. She couldn't really tell you the difference between a rune and a glyph, and she had no idea why it was more efficient to put movementy enchantments on boots and mentally enchantments on hats. But she did know that it was. Her experience with magic was cursory, but it was still enough to know some of the basics and form some coherent opinions.

As the daughter of an artificer, her experience with magic was, she felt, more than sufficient to lend a certain well-considered authority to it when she stated: Necromancy. Ew.

Nobody had actually requested the city's heroes be on hand for this. One might even consider that Larsson Electronics might prefer handling the matter themselves, after stepping up like they had. (Kelly understood the way the media worked well enough to know a great PR move when she saw one, but she was also anything but cynical - far as she was concerned, Larsson deserved the PR for being both willing and able to provide the resources necessary for this, at their own expense no less. The fact that it also benefitted them was a good thing - it meant everyone's incentives were aligned.) It was uncertain whether heroic assistance was really required or even appropriate here. But Kelly decided to come along anyway for three reasons.

First, and most importantly, because this was an important enough matter to make sure it went smoothly. There were crowds all along the route; if something went wrong, people could get hurt. Having heroes on hand would reduce that risk.

Second, she had a formerly-villainous parolee that she was helping learn the ins and outs of being a hero, and this was a good learning experience!

And the third entry on her list was also the third entry on Mom and Dad's Rules for Effective Superheroics: When it doubt, just help out.

All of which explains why barely half an hour after sunrise this morning, Charlie had been subjected to (and maybe woken up by, depending on her sleeping habits) an insistent knocking on her door and an almost obnoxiously chipper (considering the hour), "Work today partner I brought smoothies!"

On the one hand, there was really no reason to get started that early when you had the kind of super-speed Kelly did. It wasn't entirely certain that being late to literally anything was, in fact, physically possible for her.

On the other hand, she had brought cinnamon rolls as well as smoothies, so maybe some indignities could be forgiven.

In any event, by the time the transit was getting ready to begin, Streamer was there in full costume, her hair today dyed in a near but not exact match for whatever Larsson Electronic's brand colors were, just because. She didn't actually approach anyone involved, although given how flashy her powers were she'd hardly go unnoticed, but far as she was concerned she'd mostly just be providing overwatch and tactical support if necessary. She ran a quick circuit of the planned route a couple moments after arrriving. Kelly's (lack of an) attention span could have been legendary in its own right, the odds of her detecting even the most amateurish of ambush or trap were...low. But you know if there were any known supervillains standing along the route in full costume or something, she'd probably notice them.

Spoiler

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LOL Perception to check for possible issues along the planned route: (1d20)[18]. Shockingly decent! Not enough so to detect anything even remotely level-appropriate but still!

[Keramane]

Cassandra had a love-hate with zombie flicks. She liked the ones that focused on the human element; the stresses of an altered world, the struggle for survival, the altered day-to-day that really drew you to the characters' plight. The ones that focused on the rotting flesh, gore and horror were the ones she didn't like. Namely, everything this Necromancer was about.

"I really don't want to do this." she'd think to herself, countered by "But you will, because it's your duty." Duty.. was it really though? "Also because you're poor and there's a payout." She winces slightly as she was bludgeoned by the facts like the rod that certainly does not spoil the child. She certainly approved of justice, and this was going the best and most proper route. Trial, jury, sentencing, incarceration; the proper way. No vigilante or mob justice. Good. Great.

...but it was still gross magic and stuff she didn't want to be near. Ick. "Just because I have to do this doesn't mean I have to like it." would be her weak counter to the cudgel what had struck her nerve. In casual retaliation, "Fair enough, but you'd best not let anyone else know. We have an image to maintain." would be tossed her way, the carrot as best as it could be. And she accepted it, because it was true. She did need to do some heavy PR to counter her awakening, but even moreso she had that divine requirement to be seen and known by all for mercy and glory and whatnot. Divine arrogance, perhaps, but still a requirement she needed to meet.

And so the fuzzy sweater and matching shorts would once again reuinite with her favourite chair, her glasses reclaiming their place bridged over Teddy's nose, bringing him to slump against the book she'd earlier set down. The glow of sunlight would reflect in his newly aquired spectacles as she 'changed into her work clothes' and made her way to exit her room. Gone was the uncomfortable expression and meek behaviorisms, replaced by the visage of confidence and strength. The click of her plated heels would announce to all that she was en route and that duty was to be performed, regardless of how rotten and icky it might end up being. Golden hair cascading like sunlight, eyes glistening with purpose, she was at her peak and ready to roll. Off to the hand-off point she went!

[Zelphas]

Elita knew magic theory about as well as anyone could who did not practice; as the adopted child and foster sister of three powerful mages of different specialties, she had been introduced to all sorts of different sorcerous powers just about as soon as she could walk, and enshrouded with protective magics since long before then. She knew, at least in theory, what Bacchan has been doing with his powers, and the trajectory he had been going on before his arrest. Just as well that she seemed physically incapable of growing sick to her stomach.

Part of the reason why Elita had chosen to supervise the transit of Bacchan to his new (hopefully permanent) residence was due to beneficent pressure from her family. The reason that Thanatos was not already involved in the capture of Bacchan had more to do with distance and timing than anything else; by the time the New York-based hero had heard of the necromancer's flight to Bastion, the arrest had already occurred. Elita counted her blessings for that. The chance of facing down a horrible monster like Bacchan would have given Cyril every chance to flex his melodrama to its utmost, and Chesed would've been worse. Eating magic that gross couldn't be healthy anyways, so Limos should be happy he didn't get the chance to meet the man, rather than jealous of Elita for the chance. In any case, neither of them would ever forgive Elita if she didn't involve herself in some way with the twisted necromancer, so she got up early and checked her suit carefully before venturing forth.

The second reason Elita decided to take part in this activity had to do with the means of transport. Larsson Electronics had a fairly decent reputation both for robotics and for ethics, as far as companies go, but Thanatos' upbringing had instilled in Elita a deep and abiding disbelief that everything will go smoothly without contingency plans. At the very least, she could serve as an outside eye to evaluate the robots and the van for any obvious errors. ...And the chance to simply look over cutting-edge robotics was always nice too.

And so it was that Akhlys found herself circling the van and the robots wherever they were stationed, getting as close as she can with her suit as her credentials. The simple, constant hum and whir of her suit faded into silence for her years ago, but she still notices it every now and then in the quiet, and robots are nothing if not quiet. Her green goggles reflect back the scene as she circles, hiding her eyes, and she probes for any obvious weaknesses before the whole event begins.

One nice thing about her nature; very few approach too close to her, most of the time. The crowds that are gathering give her space so that she can do her work.

Spoiler: OOC

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Technology to evaluate the robots and transport van, if I may: (1d20+20)[37]

[Dodgeson]

To the surprise of nobody, Charlie Arktos was not a morning person, like the noble beast whose ears peaked out from under her hair she slumbered long and deep. So when there was an insistent knocking at her door she was not pleased, bleary eyed she forced her heavy frame out of bed and began to lumber across the messy floor towards the source of her irritation.

"I swear to god if this is another room search I am going to strangle you with your own spi-" Her growl did a complete 180 as the door slid open and revealed Kelly "Oh it's you, give me like ten minutes?" She still had to play nice with her, she was still on parole after all and as much as she might complain about the Hero Guild she definitely prefered it to being prison. Also she'd brought cinnamon rolls and underneath the fearsome exterior of Man-Eater was an enormous sweet tooth, her parole officer would have learned early on in their relationship that sugary treats made excellent bribes.

One quick shower later and she was on the scene. Kelly hadn't managed to convince her to go all in on the whole costume thing just yet so a for now a tank top and a pair of denim shorts would have to do.

She wasn't exactly sure what the plan was for this gig just yet, a lot of hero work just seemed to be sitting around waiting for the bad guys to do something but that didn't mean she couldn't be a little proactive, taking a deep breath she focused on her surroundings, her powers hadn't just made her stronger, they'd sharpened her senses to the point where she'd trust her nose before her eyes...

Spoiler: OOC

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Extended/Acute Scent-Based Perception (1d20+20)[32]

[Llyarden]

Spoiler: Kelly

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You do not detect any known supervillains standing along the route in full costume.

You do, however, see one familiar face, about three-quarters of the way along the route - not someone you actually know personally, but you've seen her face in court drawings and photographs by the media: Isabela Abioye, one of the prosecution's key witnesses and the only survivor of the half-dozen scientists who were attacked by Bacchan at the facility he was finally captured in. Presumably she wants to get some closure by seeing him locked away (granted, she's not actually at a position where she would be able to see Bacchan getting unloaded, but, y'know, close enough.)

Spoiler: Elita

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The combat robots are, indeed, pretty advanced. They've been hyped up enough - and gotten enough good press - that you're aware of the models' basic capabilities; they're not quite at full-fledged heroic level but they're strong and fast enough to handle the average threat they go up against. They're also equipped with an assortment of non-lethal combat weaponry - they aren't technically armed with lethal weapons, but in practice their strength and speed makes them a lethal weapon by default. Larsson Electronics makes a point of emphasising that the robots analyse the situation before attacking and would never strike a living being, but they'd certainly be capable of killing an ordinary person bare-handed if they wanted to (although to be fair, the same is true of many superheroes.)

As for the van, your magical training tells you that creating a mobile field that suppresses magic is...challenging, especially without using magic itself. You note that the LE press release made a point of calling the van magic-proof; your guess would be that it's designed to take advantage of the fact that Bacchan is seemingly incapable of using any magic but his necromancy, and that his particular brand of necromancy is restricted solely to reanimating dead flesh - he can't do anything like astral projection or necrotic curses or any of the other spells that necromancers sometimes learn. Most likely, the outer plating of the van has been lined with a substance that blocks magic (you can think of at least three off-hand), so while Bacchan can use magic within the van he wouldn't be able to reanimate a corpse even if one dropped in front of the van from the sky. And to prevent him doing something extreme like reanimating his own ripped-off hair or the like, the part of the van he's being loaded into is equipped with devices that will disintegrate any dead biomatter before Bacchan can spend the couple of seconds necessary to cast the spell.

All told, it's a pretty impressive contribution from Larsson Electronics...which might be related to the rumour you've heard that LE are trying not only to supply their combat robots to police forces, but also to the Guild as a potential replacement to normal Heroes.

Spoiler: Charlie

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There are a lot of people here. Most of them smell angry (and for once, the vast majority aren't angry at you!) but you don't notice anything suspicious in the crowd.

What does catch your attention, though, are the vans, which smell of diesel. Which is not, in and of itself, particularly unusual...except that while you're more au fait with cars rather than vans, you're pretty sure that these vans are a purely electric model.

The area surrounding the Heroes' Guild definitely has the biggest presence, with more than a few protestors holding placards demanding that Bacchan be punished more harshly than the multiple consecutive life sentences he received (in particular the fact that the possibility of parole was not removed, merely prohibited for two decades). Aside from them, the place is full of reporters all talking over each other and kinda trying to elbow each others' cameras out of the way so they get the best shot, plus a few freelance reporters, and then just an absolute load of people who are just there to watch or because they felt like they had to be there...and also a few low-ranked Heroes and Specialists, because the chief officer of the Bastion Guild, a bureaucrat by the name of Meinard Post, had agreed to LE's request to evacuate every floor of the Guild building between the holding cells and the exit. (This, of course, does not include the passages Lin uses to get around the building, on account of...well, no-one except her being able to get at them. Kind of hard to evict someone from somewhere you yourself can't go.)

The crowd are being kept away from the Guild itself - and the route to the city jail, of course - by the police. In a semicircular ring inside that exclusion zone, within the antimagic field being projected by the Guild building, are the two vans supplied by LE, and ten of the twelve combat robots, all sporting LE's colours (white and blue, incidentally) and a prominent LE logo.

One of the robots turns to Envoy as she arrives, looking down at her. "Greetings, Hero Envoy!" it says, in a cheerful voice that's human enough to easily convey tone but robotic enough to avoid the Uncanny Valley effect. "Of course, we welcome assistance from all Heroes and independents! Prisoner Bacchan will be brought up shortly!"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly didn't really respond to Abioye's presence other than just noticing it. Not really any surprise she'd be here. Her streamer of rainbow light was only just fading away from her starting point when it came looping back around and ended with her standing by Charlie. "Everything looks clear ahead!" Kelly reported cheerily, not qualifying the statement with any commentary on the probability of her actually noticing anything because for these purposes at least Kelly's lack of awareness very much included a lack of self-awareness. Maybe one day she would be deceived, ambushed, and otherwise surprised enough to actually realize that she was not good at paying attention, but for now she felt entirely confident that running up and down the planned route at super-speed and scoping the whole thing out in a matter of seconds should be more than sufficient to detect any possible traps! "Although I only ran the planned route itself, so we can't rule out the possibility of an approach from a distance via superpowered movement modes. So we should stay alert nonetheless!" To be fair inattentive did not mean stupid.

Spoiler

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Let's throw a Well Informed check up regarding Isabela Abioye just in case. Using Persuasion since Well Informed lets you do that, but since she's not actually interacting with a character her Limit obviously can't possibly apply: (1d20+15)[20].

[Dodgeson]

"Alert, got it." Charlie nodded at the brightly coloured and suddenly appearing Kelly, or really Streamer because they were on the job (I wonder if anyone's ever been disappointed by Kelly's internet presence?) "Something doesn't add up about the transport, give me a sec."

Without any elaboration she left Kelly and marched towards one of the robots "Hey tin man, these vans are all electric right?" Of course if they gave her some credible reason why they weren't, she'd drop it and return back to where she had been next to her parole officer but otherwise she was going to make with the obvious follow up question "Then why do they do they reek of gas?"

Normally this would be the part where she would start cracking her knuckles and very much trying to impress her height difference on the subject of her questioning (unless the robots were huge obviously), she'd done it a million times before, heck her and Kelly Streamer would probably make a pretty good good cop/bad cop duo but as far as she was concerned trying that stuff here was going to be about as useful as threatening a can opener.

[Ridai]

"Thank you," Envoy responds. "Are operations on schedule thus far?"

Looking around, she spots several heavy-hitters of the local hero scene. With the exception of Streamer, all of them (including herself) are "works in progress" in terms of being acknowledged and accepted as a "true" hero, for different reasons. Regardless, the Mars Cannon sees them all as important, valuable parts of Bastion. And thus so does Envoy, though for her, it is more giving the benefit of the doubt. She would rather give working with them an honest shot and see how they do in practice than listen to much hearsay.

Thus, when Wildfang brings up the smell of gas, Envoy smoothly backs up her inquiry, turning back to the robot. "That is worrying. Please inform Larsson Electronics of Wildfang's findings immediately, the fossil fuel needs to be removed at once. We could assist in the matter. Has there been a mix-up in the deployment, and could you forward a request to double-check other deployed units as well?" Envoy keeps a calm, but insistent voice. No assignment of blame or wishing to boss the LE bots or the corporation around. Instead quickly discussing and fixing the problem, as well as get the process of checking for any other undiscovered ones in motion. LE and the supers present are all in the same boat and working towards the same goal here, judging by her tone.

Meanwhile, Akhlys, Corona, Streamer, and Wildfang all feel the mental equivalent of a courteous knock on the door. Immediately after, they feel Envoy's voice in their minds, in what she has been told is a surprisingly pleasant sensation (though part of said feedback group is quite biased). Of course, sensation does nothing in regards to whether they welcome this kind of communication channel.

"~~This is Envoy. What you are experiencing is a secure, hidden mental communication channel operating at accelerated speed of thought. Given how important and time-critical our mission is, and there potentially being hidden enemies, I thought this would come in useful. Fair warning, I might need to limit the network's range or sever the communication link if we are seeing combat and it is getting heated, unless you all deem these communications crucial to the operation. Please simply think your responses. This network is only for communication, I have no mental access to or control over any of you. If you'd prefer not to be part of this, just tell me so and I will remove the link immediately. It's a privilege to work with all of you.~~" The communication happens in the fraction of a second, yet all heroes are able to process it just as fast, and respond likewise. Like thoughts clearly separated from their own minds appearing, and being sent the same way.

The hope of course is that everyone stays within the network for now at least (while things are quiet), but that decision is left to her new colleagues. "~~Now, given we have fuel present, I can potentially remove it with a few minutes of prep time. Do you have faster and better means to do this?~~" On to finding solutions to present problems.

Spoiler: Actions

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Reconfigure to:
9 in Cannon Legs: Speed 6 (Subtle), Movement 1 (Leaping; Fast)
32 in Cannon Head: Communication 3 (Mental; Area, Rapid 2, Selective, Subtle 2), Comprehend 1 (Understand all languages), Senses 8 (Mental: Accurate, Acute, Analytical, Danger Sense, Ranged, Radius, Tracking)

Establishing communications with the other PCs (the Mars Cannon may or may not also hear all communications). Using Mental senses to keep an eye out for anyone/anything unusual, and maybe track Bacchan's transfer. Especially now examining the van.

[Zelphas]

Elita nods in grudging appreciation at the robots; good machinery, though obviously still lacking in the finer points of what a Hero can do. If Larsson is looking to usurp the place of the Heroes Guild in Bastion, the fact that a single misstep could cause one of their robots to simply pulp a person is a significant stumbling block.

...And speaking of stumbling blocks. Behind her mask, Elita sighs as Charlie directly charges at the robots and begins questioning them, and her mind lights up with an unknown voice; less concerning than it perhaps should be, after her upbringing. "You're talking to tin cans, Smokey," she says aloud to Charlie as she passes nearby, swinging towards the door to the Guild headquarters. "They're smart enough in a fight, but anything outside of their programming doesn't exist. May as well ask the vans why they've got gas in them."

In her head, Elita has a bit more to say. ~~Better? Possibly. Faster? One way. Both at the same time? Nope. We may not have time. Bacchan's sadistic, megalomaniacal, and building to something; he wanted to get led into those vans and burst out in a shower of fuel, then start killing and adding to his supply. Now that the plan's hit a snag, he's either going to rush it or fall on plan B. Call me pessimistic, but I'd assume that the robots are now useless at best and hostile at worst, and Bacchan's going to have his powers the instant he walks out that door. Don't preempt--rumor has it that Larsson wants to replace us, and "Heroes Attack Robotic Convoy Allowing Necromancer to Escape" is a lovely headline to spin into doing that for them. I'll watch Bacchan, if someone eyes the bots.~~

Is she being paranoid? Elita considers it before shrugging, the small motion hidden beneath her suit. Magic users seem to have a flair for the dramatic, and an unexpected escape that plays a power-hungry tech company against the Heroes Guild seems more than dramatic enough for someone like Bacchan to try.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly kinda tried not to grin when Envoy explained what the mindlink was. I mean, she got it, good thing to do when linking to people you haven't mindlinked before. Having fairly extensive experience with telepathic communication thanks to her sister, though, she found it amusing. ~Awesome, thanks!~ she sent back. ~Oh, I'm Kelly by the way! Or Streamer, whichever works. Nice to meet you guys like, for real, and all!~

Some ado was being made about the van smelling of gas, which she supposed was a bit weird if it was supposed to be fully electric vehicles, although she did kinda blink Elita's way when she suggested it meant that the robots were somewhere between useless and hostile, the prisoner was fully powered, and the whole thing was possibly a setup to make them look bad. That was... ~I mean...okay yeah that might be a touch paranoid but it's okay because it's better to prepare for the worst than just assume everything will go well! It's just, um, why is the gas a problem, exactly?~ Larsson was an electronics company sure but as far as Kelly knew there was no reason they couldn't use regular gas-powered vehicles like anybody else, and she was pretty sure it was the magic suppression rather than a lack of fossil fuels that was supposed to prevent Bacchan from getting up to any shenanigans.

...That being said, if Bacchan could go from "something something technically composed of biomass millions of years dead" to "animating a giant oil zombie in the shape of a tyrannosaurus rex" Kelly would be forced to rethink her knee-jerk distaste for necromancy.

[Ridai]

Envoy can't really fault Akhlys for her low opinion of the corporation. PR is a hell of a thing, after all. Still, better to try and keep people focused on more pressing matters in the middle of an operation. ~Akhlys focussing on Bacchan, understood. Let's focus on the here and now in the meantime, we can examine hypotheses on the reasons why afterwards. As for removing the fuel, it's a safety in case the magic inhibitors are unable to block Bacchan's magic entirely for the whole transport, and he is able to use fuel as material for his magic. There is of course the possibility of hidden collaborators, so we also need to find out if anything else has changed, if this is a distraction, or a simple mistake.~

[Keramane]

Corona was listening to the verbal reports, giving a little nod here and there in response aimed at noone in particular. Then came the knock on her brainspace and another voice joined her mental discord channel. She would let slip a ~~Oh, another voice in my head...~~ without realizing she'd not 'muted her mic' per se. Still, she kept herself on the call for efficiency if nothing else. ~~Corona here, the gold and glowy one for those who don't read the gossip sheets. Anyways, fuel? He can mess with that? The idea that he can animate fuel, which while being once biological has since been boiled and refined into base chemicals, is kind of astounding. That would be akin to being able to control ash that comes from a crematorium because it used to be a corpse. What the heck is that, eesh...~~ giving a little tsk in real-space. ~~I'm a little surprised they didn't just sedate him during transit. Given the level of risk involved, it wouldn't be overly hard to play that case, albeit tricky given how close it flies to Constitutional Rights in regard to permitting substances within one's own body and so forth...~~ The equivalent of a small, quiet mental back-and-forth about playing risk to society vs basic human rights would transpire before she gave a telepathically audible shrug. ~~Anyways, I've no real faster way, nor more efficient. All yours, Envoy.~~

[Ridai]

On Corona mentioning another mental voice: ~My apologies for the intrusion.~

On Corona wondering about Bacchan's necromancy fuel: ~To be honest, the full extent of Bacchan's necromancy and what can be used as material is unknown to me. However, it has been described in a pretty superlative way, which is also making me wonder about dead skin. So this is firmly on the "better safe than sorry" side of things.~

With it increasingly seeming like the potentially needed fuel removal will fall to Envoy, she responds ~I'll start preparing a solution. No guarantee it will be done by the time Bacchan gets here, I don't know the exact time table.~

So while she is backing up Wildfang, Envoy starts engage in... let's call it Gun Logic. Drawing on the power granted to her and shape it into a gun to annihilate any fuel it is aimed at, as a straightforward way to conceptualize the solution.

Spoiler: Actions

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Not exactly sure what it would look like mechanically, but Envoy starts using Ritualist to create a ritual to annihilate fuel, using her full Quickness and taking 10 on her +25 Magic Expertise.

If this takes too long for the scene or is otherwise not feasible, no worries.

[Llyarden]

One of the other robots - which are, incidentally, a tad under seven feet tall - turns to look at Charlie as she stomps up to it. "Greetings, Probationary Hero Wildfang! We are not equipped with olfactory receptors, so we will have to take your word for it! Prisoner Bacchan's transport to these vehicles will be halted until you are satisfied! We can assure you, however, that these vehicles are eco-friendly! They run purely on electricity and are charged at the Larsson Electronics depot, using energy drawn from sustainable sources! Larsson Electronics cares about this planet!"

It pauses and turns towards Akhlys. "Unfortunately, Hero Akhlys, these vehicles are not equipped with synthetic intelligences! But we are sure they would be delighted to talk to you if they were!"

[Ridai]

Envoy does not miss a beat. "Of course." She has plenty of experience with PR slogans, and thus lets all of it just glide off her, like raw sewage off a perpetually spotless surface infused with the mythical, entropy-annihilating properties inherent in all cleaning detergents (according to their ads).

She looks to Wildfang. "Can you pinpoint where the fuel is?" Of course, the first things to check are whether the vehicle has an exhaust, and then if there is an obvious fuel tank or some other addition underneath. But chances are it won't be that easy.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Vehicles using gas for fuel did not particularly strike Kelly as sufficiently implausible to warrant concern.

With confirmation that the vehicles were, in fact, fully electrically-powered, that changed the equation.

She didn't know if Bacchan could in theory target oil with necromancy, but for practical purposes it was a moot point. An outside associate could plausibly detonate the fuel, which if it produced a large enough explosion could both ruin the magic-suppression on the van and kill a bunch of people in the crowd (which he could then zombify, although at that point that would really be a secondary concern at best). It certainly wasn't guaranteed that that was the plan, there could well be an innocent explanation for it, but it definitely warranted action.

If the vehicles were designed to be fully electrically powered, that presumably meant they didn't even have gas tanks, so the fuel was likely either stored in tanks inside of them, or located somewhere in their vicinity. Kelly went zipping around, looking in windows, checking under the vehicles, and even zipping off to the nearest manhole to go zipping through the sewers beneath their location and the designated route to check for anything anomalous down there.

(When she returned one might notice that her hair was damp. She ran home and got a quick shower after checking the sewers, because speedsters are just shenanigans.)

Spoiler

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She'll use the flashlight of her smartphone for searching the sewers. Powers set to Super Speed, Hasted Action, Hyperspeed, Rainbow Trail, Rainbow Weaponry, and Rainbow Binding (Speed and Quickness 15, Fast Whisking Platform Flight, Elongation 4 whips, Strength 10 for purposes of her whips and platforms in case she needs to move heavy stuff.)

Routine Investigation for 20 to Search, checking the vehicles for like fuel tanks or whatever, but also looking under them to check for explosives, looking for traps on the doors, etc. Not actually trying to open the vehicles or anything though, just visual inspection.

Perception to detect anything anomalous along her route: (1d20)[19]. I am wasting all my good rolls on Kelly's worst skill. X-D

[Zelphas]

Elita pauses in her surveil of the doors, turning slowly to face the robots after they speak. Her costume and mask fully hide her expression, turning her nearly robotic herself as she stares at the figures around the electric vans.

A moment later, she speaks, the amusement not quite flattened from her voice by her mask. "Heh. Guess I deserved that. Even if you really aren't able to think." She turns back to watch the door, letting the others handle dealing with the gas; she's used to doing one task while the rest is taken care of by others.

[Dodgeson]

Charlie shot Elita the smugest of grins as the robot spoke up, she knew she wasn't exactly the brains of the outfit but at the same time she resented the idea that she was just dumb muscle, it was either that or a very unheroic gesture that Kelly certainly wouldn't approved of.

And then it was mind talking "Oh god there's two of them." Was the first though that slipped the powerhouse's mind as Corona made her presence known across the mental link, of course they'd not met before but Charlie was more than willing to slot another light controller in to the same pigeon hole as Kelly until she proved otherwises. Realising that people could hear her thoughts she quickly tried to clamp down and turned her attention to the situation in front of her ~I swear if someone is just trying to petrol bomb Bacchan that is so low rent. It's embarrassing for both of them~

It was time to focus and once again Charlie tried to zero in on the scent she had already detected, the sooner they got this under control the sooner everything could get moving and the sooner she'd earn some more time off her probation.

Spoiler: OOC

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Don't know if another Perception check is needed but here it is just in case

[roll]1d20+20[/roll] 24

[Dodgeson]

"Forget the gas thing! It's a fake out." Charlie announced loudly as she moved around to the front of the vans "Someone is trying to mess with us and whoever it is is smart enough to try and cover their tracks and dumb enough not to know these things are electric. Don't want to get all conspiracy here but if someone's trying to mess with my nose then maybe keep an eye out for something that's gonna screw with you guys too."

"Anyway, whoever it is isn't as good as they think they are because I still got paydirt." In a truly just world both of the vans would be close enough to each other that she could slam a fist down on each to pop the bonnets open in a suitably dramatic fashion but if they weren't she'd settle for simply reaching down to and throwing open each one in turn to hopefully reveal the source of the meat-y scent she had sniffed out within. "Someone's trying to give Bacchan something to play with."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly did actually catch a whiff of the gas smell - albeit either coating the vans or maybe mixed in with the paint? - as she searched around the vehicles but Charlie's nose was on the case and that was officially yestersecond's news.

(Okay, sort of. The gas coating the vehicles could still be used to set them on fire, she supposed, although honestly if they were dealing with someone whose best move for disabling the vans was coating them in oil so as to later set them on fire, there honestly probably wasn't much to worry about. Charlie's conclusion definitely held more water.)

But Kelly was a speedster and that meant she could multitask like woah. So even as she watched (beaming) as Charlie went for the big reveal, she was already also saying (primarily to one of the robots but loud enough for the other heroes to hear; she wasn't totally up to speed on everyone's tech skills but she knew Akhlys had some amount of tech and Envoy was very gun) "Even if given raw materials Bacchan would need the magic suppressor disabled to do any necromancy, and it seems clear at this point that a saboteur has had access to the vans. Is there any way we can run diagnostics or something to see what else might have been affected? If not my wands are magical so I could like, get inside one of the vans and see if they work, maybe?" LOL and here Kelly had thought that she would never have to enter a car again.

[Zelphas]

The pitch of the hissing noise coming from Akhlys' suit increases in volume for several moments; those who know her would realize that this is Elita letting out a long, slow sigh, even as her body underneath the suit begins to tense up.

~~No need for any kind of sabotage on the suppressor,~~ she sends to the group via whatever Envoy is doing, her form never turning away from the door to the Heroes Guild. ~~Making a mobile magical containment field is hard enough if you specialize in anti-magic; a magic-less "suppressor" is just magic-resistant material in a box around a containment space, followed-up with biomatter disintegrators on the inside to keep dead flesh from lingering. If you've got magic wands, they'll work in the vans; Larsson can't actually make an anti-magic space, they can just "magic-proof" their boxes and put them on wheels. In any case, if there's non-disintegrated dead matter in the vans already, then all Bacchan needs is to get there and he can play with it all he likes.~~

Despite herself, Elita glances back at the 'bots, waiting for their sudden yet inevitable betrayal. The PR nightmare that Larsson's going to have to deal with after this will be a sight to behold, if they play their cards right.

[Keramane]

Corona was listening to every word - internal or otherwise - but keeping track of the facts and fakes was a little tricky. ~~So the gas thing is fake, good. And his box is magic-proof, not anti-magic. Okay. So we're getting this show on the road then? People are going to start to stare and wonder at this rate...~~ giving a little glance about in real-space. Sure this wasn't some ticker-tape parade with crowds along the streets, but there would still be people someplace, or if nothing else, a news chopper for some politician's stunt or another. She would flick back a lock of hair as she continued to lounge on the roof of the ride. ~~Given that we know questionable levels about the guy, I'm of the mind we should get this over with sooner than later, otherwise our own second-guessing will do us in before whatever ambush does.~~

[Llyarden]

People are, indeed, starting to stare. Well, I mean, there had been people staring the whole time, because, you know, crowd, but the fact that Bacchan wasn't being brought out in an orderly fashion with the vans swiftly departing to convey him to prison as had been planned was by now starting to attract attention.

Fortunately (?), the robots are intercepting the few reporters who'd been close enough to the front of the crowd that they could immediately move forwards to ask questions. "Do not be alarmed!" one of them says, in response to a question from a reporter that you don't catch over the noise of the crowd. "Out of an abundance of caution, the Heroes of Bastion wish to make some final inspections before the prisoner transfer proceeds!"

The vans are not, unfortunately, close enough for Charlie to dramatically pop them open by hitting them both at the same time, but that doesn't prevent the dramatic reveal of...well, it's honestly quite hard to tell what parts of an animal it is, or even what animal it was to begin with. It basically seems like somebody had hit up the refuse of a butcher's shop or two, wrapped up the contents to stop them smelling too much, and wedged them into the bonnets of the two vans, where casual inspection would miss them. Fortunately, of course, Charlie's inspection was not particularly casual.

Sadly, in an affront to narratives everywhere, there is no dramatic gasp from the crowd at this revelation (because they don't understand what offal and gristle in the vans would've actually meant if they'd left the Cannon's antimagic field with Bacchan inside.) One of the robots comes marching over, however. "Intriguing! According to our logs, nobody has accessed these vehicles since they were completely sterilised at the depot! There appears to be a flaw in Larsson Electronics' security procedures!"

(Somewhere in a fancy office building, Mrs Larsson might have been regretting allowing her engineers to give the AIs in the robots quite as much freedom as she had.)

"Fortunately, we have been equipped for this task with custom emitters that can disintegrate dead flesh without any harm to living beings! Unless you would prefer to sterilise the vans yourselves, Heroes!"

And yes, the robots are still verging-on-maniacally cheerful in their tone.

[Ridai]

As impromptu as the team is, things are coming together pretty well at the moment!

To Akhlys: ~That is very good to know, thank you.~ There is an additional sensation like Envoy is pointing at Akhlys for further distinction of passing along vital information at the right time.

"Good job, Wildfang," Envoy tells her after she finds the meaty leftovers hidden away in the vehicles.

She turns to the robot offering the van sterilization and adds "Please do so immediately, yes." And turning back to Wildfang: "And please doublecheck if anything is left afterwards. You are our MVP in this regard."

To the team: ~Yes, we need to get the transport moving soon. Hopefully the meat was the last of the hidden traps here and now. I'll try to deal with the crowd in the meantime, buy us some time. Streamer, Corona, feel free to come along, if you want.~

Thus, Envoy walks over to the more agitated reporters, wearing one of her several professional smiles, the one for friendly relations, but with an edge of being there to do a job and having to deal with certain realities. Realities people may well be able to grasp if put into words. "Yes, we are doing a last round of checks to assist Larsson Electronics in this delicate matter. Given who we are dealing with and how many people have gathered along the route, public safety is paramount and is being treated as such, so we are providing third-party safety checks on the matter. Of course, this is causing a delay, we need to be thorough, since we too want to set this up for success as much as possible. But the transport will be going soon. Any questions?"

[Zelphas]

Envoy's comment gets the mental equivalent of a shrug; Akhlys is on the job, and compliments are pleasant but unnecessary while there's work to be done.

Elita is happy to let the other super handle allaying the fears of the crowd. Thanatos and Limos loved the spotlight too much for her to seek it out, and she'd rather focus on making sure they weren't going to be facing a sadistic necromancer who could actually do something in a few moments. She almost offered to destroy the animal matter herself, but reconsidered at the last moment; her living matter was decidedly strange, but it might still qualify as "living matter" as far as Bacchan is concerned... which brings up a slew of completely different problems.

More to distract herself from that line of thinking than for any other reason, Elita risks looking away from the Heroes Guild door for a moment to scan the crowd. Someone had tried to give Bacchan an out, and had even taken steps to hide their sabotage. Now, that was getting exposed; a smart collaborator wouldn't be anywhere near the scene, but "smart" and "supervillain" had less overlap than one might think. Elita looked over the restless civilians, trying to feel for anyone out of place.

Spoiler: OOC

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Insight on the crowd, to see if someone is acting less confused and restless and more angry and/or tense at the reveal of the meat: (1d20+11)[22]

[Quellian-dyrae]

And turning back to Wildfang: "And please doublecheck if anything is left afterwards. You are our MVP in this regard."

"Yeah she is!" Kelly chimed in a big smile, because she had a very particular view of what her duties as a "parole officer" were and it was just barely possible that they did not much overlap with the views of literally any other parole officer in existence.

She gave Envoy a thumbs-up when she said she was going to talk to the press, and kinda kept an ear out there, but didn't directly follow along. Envoy covered the basics, and if Corona had something to add Kelly didn't want to "crowd" the journalists. Half the heroes all layering it on might be a bit too thick. And if Corona didn't have anything to add...well, the party line was this was all routine due diligence, so Kelly didn't see much to add. If the reporters started bombarding Envoy with questions she could step in to pick off a few of them, or whatever.

Meanwhile! The meat in the trunks and the lack of activity in the logs was indicative of a security bypass, but it might be useful to narrow down how that might have been accomplished. It could have been a technological circumvention, or a powered one - something like teleporting the meat inside. Kelly leaned technological - it seemed to fit with the oil-in-the-paint step, and presumably if Bacchan had an ally who could just teleport freely past the magic-proofed construction of the van, said ally could just...teleport in and grab him and blink him out. Still, you never know, so while the others were doing their things she was thinking back through what she knew about Bacchan to see if she could recall any known associates who might fit the bill.

[Dodgeson]

Charlie ignored the compliments that Kelly threw her way, it wasn't that she didn't appreciate that she could have done much much worse when it came to parole officers but making a big deal about it would only encourage her.

With Envoy handling the crowd she just stepped back to let the Larsson bots handle the clean up, it wasn't like she wanted to actually touch the junk that she'd uncovered or that she could help handling the media (unless they needed to threaten one of them) so whatever.

"You heard the gun boss boys, do your thing."

[Llyarden]

Spoiler: Elita

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You don't notice anyone acting particularly suspiciously in the crowd.

"With pleasure, Probationary Hero Wildfang!" the robot says, and proceeds to march over to one of the two vans, as one of the other robots goes to the other. The two hold out their hands, which ratchet back to reveal sleek-looking blasters, which...well, to say they disintegrate the offal wouldn't exactly be accurate. That would imply there was dust left behind. It was more like they were erasing the stashes of meat, sinew and bone from existence, right down to the stains. It doesn't take long before Charlie can't smell any more meat in the bonnets, and the robots close the two vans back up.

"We will now bring out the prisoner!" one of the other robots announces - and sure enough, shortly afterwards, Bacchan is indeed brought up.

He doesn't exactly look like a necromancer. Probably part of it is the fact that his staff, robe and other assorted necromantic accoutrements are in a big box that's being stored in the other van for transport to somewhere that can store the things long-term, and he's just in an orange jumpsuit, hands and legs chained together. He's in his late twenties, maybe early thirties, and if not for the prisoner jumpsuit you could probably have passed him on the street without really noticing anything unusual about him.

Of course, once he emerges from the Cannon, the protestors get a lot louder, but he doesn't really acknowledge them - or anybody else - with anything more than a disdainful sneer, climbing up into the back of the van before the robots close and lock it behind him.

The vans start up - controlled, of course, by Larsson Electronics employees - and the robots take off, jets in their feet allowing them to keep pace with the vans, skimming along at ground level.

Everything goes smoothly...right up until about three-quarters of the way through the journey.

Spoiler: From Discord

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She's more concerned with like, a remote charge under a manhole or something.

Now, at this point, it is important to wind back the clock a few years, to the time when Overlord was still terrorising the world. He wasn't the only villain out there, of course; even leaving aside his own followers there were other independent villains. But whether because of some flaw of his powers or just because he liked the style, Overlord's technology had a certain...signature to it, in the form of red bolts of lightning (or, at a pinch, red glowing parts.) Some people called it 'Blood Lightning,' although there was never any evidence that actual blood went into the mechanisms (although to be fair, it's absolutely something Overlord would've done if it would've been to his advantage.)

Unsurprisingly given everything Overlord did, even five years later, there are a lot of people who remember the Blood Lightning as buildings or even entire city blocks were blasted to pieces, or devices threatened to erase entire cities.

So it is therefore unsurprising that when a hitherto-invisible mine in the middle of the road decloaks in a crackle of crimson sparks and erupts in a blast of red lightning that surges over the vans, the robots, and the Heroes...there are a lot of people among the crowd that turn and run away without looking back.

The vans screech to a halt, one of them almost crashing into a traffic light as it swerves to a barely-controlled stop.

The robots land and take up defensive positions around the vans.

But, at least for the first immediate few moments...nothing happens.