Amelia

Mister Strix The man in white growled at the young woman. "I don't like to repeat myself, and I don't have time to teach you how to do this job. If you don't want to be treated like someone who doesn't know what they're doing, then stop acting like it. Yes, we 'walk up and ask for a meeting'. Yes, we have 'something resembling a plan'. The plan is that we go in knowing the Mara will shoot first and answer questions later. They'll attack us. It won't work. Then we'll hit back. We'll hurt them. We'll scare them. And then, they'll talk." He turned to the zombie. "Dead Head, you're the bait. Walk into that park like you own the place. I'll follow along, on the rooftops. You'll be seen. I won't. You're basically invulnerable, so you can laugh off anything they throw at you long enough for me to swoop in and back you up once things get heated. Once we've subdued them, I'll start mesmerizing them one by one, until we find one who knows something." Then he turned back to the young woman. "Where you fit into that plan is up to you. Keep your distance, or hold his hand and skip merrily down the sidewalk, your call. Depends on how you react to getting shot or stabbed. Dead Head here doesn't mind it much."

Mister Strix "No, no, you people aren't listening. Johann didn't make these things. He made me. I've been over this. Our bites aren't infectious. It took him days to turn me. Johann might have sent these things to Bedlam, or he might have just found out they were coming and decided to rub my nose in it before leaning back with a bag of popcorn to enjoy the show. But he's not leading them. They're not his." "'The shelter first. That's our likely infection vector. Getting them in one place' and 'dragging out their leader' might be one and the same. Some vampires seem able to summon and control their offspring. If we can find the one who started all this, whoever they are, they might be able to call their children to protect them. Or these things might be completely independent of one another, like a true virus. We just don't have enough to know yet." "Almost. I can't believe I'm about to suggest this, but if someone like Horus trusts you enough to work with you, and you truly want to remember this place, then there is one way. You can become a member of the Twilight Lodge." He reached into a drawer, pulled something out, and slid it across the desk. An unopened blood drawing kit. Syringe, strap, glass vial. "You provide a blood sample. I use my magic, get a look into your past, see the worst thing you've ever done. If it's not bad enough to disqualify you, and the bar for that is so low it's almost touching the ground, then you're in. The house stays out of your head, and you have a back-up headquarters. Take it or leave it."

Octoman Ben did a 360-degree spin, ending with one foot dramatically planted forward while his arms stretched out to his sides. "THE ONE AND ONLY." "Yeah! And then some IDIOT grabbed some wine and chucked it at him to put it out, but that didn't work, 'cause alcohol, and physics, and me, it was me." "Yeah, me neither! Figured I might get to do, like, tech support for a superhero someday, be the voice with an internet connection on the earpiece while they punch the bad guys, and that's as close as I'd get, y'know? Then BAM, freakin' DESTINY comes around the corner and hits me like a truck! Only, like, LITERALLY, a truck hit me. BOOM. Powers." "Dude, SERIOUSLY? They got their undies all twisted up their crack just 'cause you peaced out south of the border for a couple minutes? What, they're gonna declare war 'cause you bought a taco? WHACK." Ben's smile evaporated. His shoulders slumped a little. He turned his gaze to the side and rubbed the back of his own neck. "It's...um...OCTOPUS-powers. Not squid. But, like, whatever, no big deal." He cleared his throat, glanced around, then leaned in conspiratorially lifted up one of his forearms and rolled his sleeve up to his elbow. A seam appeared on it. Flaps of skin parted like flower petals to reveal an orifice. A couple feet of tentacle slipped out through it. "So, like, see how the suckers go all the way, one end to the other?" As he spoke, the tentacle lazily swayed and twisted in the air, and the suckers on the underside flexed, squeezing shut and then relaxing open, several times in rapid succession. "Squid just have, like, a patch on the end, and that's the only part with suckers, and it's got a spike, too. Octopus, no spike, just suckers all the way down." The tentacle rapidly retracted back into his arm, making a slurping noise. Ben couldn't quite bring himself to make eye contact anymore. "It's just, like...it sure sounded like THOSE freaky fish-people are GONNA come back some day. And when they do, THIS freaky fish-guy is gonna be on the front line, kickin' ass eight ways from Sunday. But when there's ONE freaky fish-guy doing the superhero thing, and ALL the freaky fish-people doing the superVILLAIN thing, someone's gonna panic, and BOOM! It's tako nigiri on the menu. Like, I don't even know if that's a METAPHOR. She SAID it, you HEARD it, they freakin' EAT people. Even their OWN people. Scratch that, ESPECIALLY their own people. Maybe they think I count? Maybe not just them. Like, who knows who all looks at ME and sees THEM, y'know? Like I needed one more reason for randos to tell me to 'Go back where I came from'."

Octoman "'Was it really that bad?' WAS IT REALLY THAT BAD?!" Ben jumped back up to a sitting position, gesturing wildly as he practically shouted. "DUDE. My ROOT CANAL was more fun. TOTAL DISASTER." Ben's face immediately shifted from an angry grimace to a grin. He let out a chuckle. "Y'know, Man, usually, when people say 'Pick up yo' face', it's a METAPHOR. But Dude. PICK UP YO' FACE!" And just as quickly, the jovial expression turned angry again. "The only thing 'DEEP' about HER was the 'detritus' she was shoveling up to her freakin' KNEES." He cupped his hand around his mouth and harshly stage-whispered "'DETRITUS' is the TECHNICAL TERM for FISH POOP." His voice rose back up to a near-shout. "And now I'M probably the 'Deep One', as in 'Deep Detritus' of my own, with that TOOL Summers, 'cause I called her fishy ass OUT. Picked the mic up and DROPPED IT, know what I'm sayin'?" He mimed the act as he described it.

Octoman Ben faded out of view for a second, then reappeared. "Yeah, I get that a lot." He looked up at Mia. Damn, she TALL. And probably SUPER self-conscious about it. The baggy clothes, the long hair hiding half her face, the giant "PISS OFF" sign hiding the OTHER half of her face...don't poke the sore spot. Seriously. Don't. He flashed her a quick double finger-gun gesture. "Heyyy, you look familiar..." He snapped his fingers. "Ben David, right? 'Shalom' and all that. So, what're you tall for? I MEAN, what're you in tall-tall-tall-tallKING to who're you TALKING to in the place with the people who do the stuff with the things and the SO HEY Rabbi Feingold, am I right?" Nice save. I think she bought it.

Octoman "Uh HUH." After Dayv's family left, Ben whispered "Hey, Man, I got a lot of TV shows on my hard drives back in the dorm. Remind me to make you copies of The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. They're, um...they're good shows. No other reason." Ben came to a sudden stop. His jaw fell open. "...Dude. DUDE. 'GUITAR'? You SERIOUSLY just asked THE DEAF KID if he wants to come to a freaking JAM SESSION?" His eyes started to tear up. "Day ONE, and you're ALREADY makin' fun of me? I THOUGHT YOU WERE GONNA BE MY FRIEND! HOW COULD Y-BWAHAHAHAHAH!" Ben cracked up laughing so hard he actually did wind up squeezing out a couple of tears. He leaned on Dayv with one hand to steady himself. "OH MY GOD! *WHEEZE* YOUR FACE! *COUGH* I'm sorry, Man, that was mean." He moved his hand from one of Dayv's shoulders to the other, pulling him in for a quick half-embrace before breaking away. "Hehhh. Hell YEAH I wanna come."

Octoman The door to Room 213 slammed open. Ben Wang stormed in. He hadn't ripped it off its hinges, but he'd loosened the screws. "What's next? When we get a robot kid up in here, is Summers gonna bring TALOS in to give a talk about how, ACTUALLY, A.I.s really DO wanna kill all humans?! But that's OK, 'cause that's not BAD, just DIFFERENT?!" He turned around and let himself fall onto his bed, then turned his head to the side so he could see Dayv's face. "You made the right call, Dude. COMPLETE waste of time. WORST. SUPERHERO. EVER. And Summers? NEVER shoulda trusted that SLIMY BACKSTABBER. I still don't know who here taught Geckoman how to be a superhero, but I can DAMN sure cross ONE name off the suspect list. Would she even BE here if DADDY didn't OWN the place?"

Emphasis added. The word "offering" is important there. She's not gonna force herself on anyone.

I split the difference with my most recent IC post, so that the thread can either move forward or not, as everyone else prefers.

Persephone Persephone laughed and gave Chris's shoulder a squeeze as she broke away. "Don't hold your breath, Pumpkin. I've made it thirty years without taking any of my own advice, and I'm not about to break that streak tonight." Once she had healed everyone whose injuries could become fatal in a matter of minutes, Persephone took a "break" from medic duty to return to the corpse claimed by the note to be the perpetrator of the night's carnage. She knelt down onto the ground, pressed her palms against it, and turned her head so that her ear was almost touching it, tickled by the couple of inches of rainwater still rushing by. "No, he wasn't just dumped here. This is where he died. Here, or someplace right near here. The plants saw it. The killer was...also touched by death in some way. Another zombie like that gator, or some Doctor Frankenstein type. Maybe that type of wizard, you know, the ones who raise the dead, there's a name for it, can't remember..." She grabbed onto the improvised table she'd crafted for the body and pulled herself to her feet. "Sorry. Not much to go on, I know. But they weren't eager for a closer look, any more than most people would be." "Oh hey there, Honey, can I see those for a second? Got a pen?" Persephone took the handful of business cards and scrawled something on the backs as she spoke. "This...is the name and number for a local psychiatrist...one who has experience...dealing with metahumans. She charges on a sliding scale, and she can be discreet." After handing them out (to everyone except Cheval), she returned to her personal mission to heal every single person injured by the gator's attack. As the night dragged on, both the green in Persephone's skin and the violet in the leaves covering that skin gradually but noticeably faded. Even the petals on the medicinal flowers she kept growing out of her hands were steadily becoming pale, washed out. Each expression of heartfelt gratitude from the friends and families of the wounded invigorated her a little, but the smiles she gave in reply grew weaker as the hours passed. By the time the sun came up, the twinkle in her eyes had long since been replaced with a thousand-yard stare. Still, she remained to answer every question the rescue workers had for her, she posed for every picture anyone wanted to take with her, and she promised the city official who approached her that she would meet with the mayor as requested, leaving unsaid how she would do this even though she'd much rather go home, sleep for a week, order a week's worth of take-out, then go back to sleep for another week. Once the innocent victims had all been tended to and evacuated and the police took full control of the crime scene, Persephone finally left, but not before offering a big hug to each of her fellow heroes. "See y'all at the mayor's later today, weather fittin' and the Lord permittin'."

Octoman "So that's IT?" As Ben spoke, several tentacles slipped out from under his shirt. They spread out around him for several feet in every direction, stretched down far enough to touch the ground, then kept stretching, slowly raising his feet about a meter and a half above the ground. He relaxed the muscles controlling the texture and pigment of his neck, revealing shiny, rubbery skin under his ears and chin marred by dual sets of three parallel scars on each side, which then flexed open to reveal that they were gills. They squeezed shut and pulled open repeatedly while he talked, getting louder as he went on until, by the end, he was screaming himself hoarse. "I was ROOTING for you! I really was! I was all, 'YES, here comes an awesome superhero fish-person to school everyone on how even freaky fish-people can be awesome superheroes'. I figured I throw you a softball like 'Do you really eat people' and you'd knock it outta the park, easy win, everybody has a laugh. But I lined up the ball ten yards from the goalpost and you STILL booted it out of bounds! WHY YOU COULDN'T JUST SAY 'NO'?! Why'd you have to be all like 'Oh, OUR definition of "people" is just DIFFERENT from yours' like, WHAT, that's supposed to be COMFORTING?! Well IT AIN'T! Then you go FULL galaxy-brain, all 'Welllll, we don't NOT eat people, but we can talk to FISH, so it's cool.' NO IT'S NOT COOL! You were SUPPOSED to tell everyone they had nothing to be afraid of, not CONFIRM everybody's WORST FEARS! What kind of superhero ARE YOU?!" Ben's tentacles quickly spider-walked him up over the seats to the nearest exit. He took a moment to glare over his shoulder at the faculty table. Then the tentacles slid back under his shirt as he kicked the door open and stormed out of the lecture hall.

Does Persephone get anything from her plant-medium Postcognition regarding the corpse?

Octoman Oh hey, you ARE still in here. SNEAKY! Wait, what? Sweet Home Alabama has MORE porn? How does THAT work? They got the same Internet we do. Ben turned to look over his shoulder at Ben. He held up his hands and shrugged while raising an eyebrow, shaking his head, and letting his mouth hang open. He signed, DUDE. What the hell? You got something you wanna say, you can just tap me on the shoulder. I'm RIGHT HERE. You don't need Ginger Reese Witherspoon to whip out the Spooky Mind Powers. Ben's eyes widened while Aquaria and the Atlanteans spoke "hypothetically" about killing each other. DAMN, this's getting HEATED. GEE, It's almost like putting the Horde and the Alliance together in the same room was a BAD idea! Good call, Miz Summers, turning a freakin' HIGH SCHOOL into a PVP ZONE. It's gonna take a DELICATE TOUCH to defuse this situation. Without raising his hand, still reclining in his seat, Ben piped up. "I loved the part where I asked 'DID YOU EAT PEOPLE', and she's all 'That would be wrong', and y'all just BREEZED right past how, oh yeah, THAT's NOT A 'NO'. Good times." NAILED IT.

Octoman Once Ben had his computer set up, he started disappearing into his own world mentally, so it took him a minute to realize that he was alone in the dorm room. He ran out into the hall just in time to intercept Dayv as the boy was running to catch up to his family. "Hey, you want a hand? Or, like, a bunch of things that aren't hands but can pick stuff up? I know I don't look like it, but I'm, like, REALLY strong. Like, I don't mean 'Bro do you even lift' strong, I mean 'Bench-press a car' strong. And I'm all done, just one trip. I pack light. Most of my stuff's digital, not really a physical-media type of dude, y'know? Also, Mamá and Tatay both had to work at the last minute, and you gotta rent moving vans in advance, and they don't let sixteen-year-olds drive those, even though I GOT my license so that's some BULLSH-...uh, anyway, so I had to take a rideshare, and there's only so much crap those guys'll let you pile into their car, even when it's some giant gas-guzzling S.U.V. there's no WAY they're making a profit on with a trunk bigger than your whole apartment. You know how it is."

Octoman DAMN. I thought *I* was a freaky fish-guy. But Kermit-thulhu up there just raised the Freaky Fish-Person bar for ALL of us. I could drop the act and STILL look normal if I was standing next to HER. Wait, or WOULD I? Is THAT what I look like to normal people? Aw man, it IS, isn't it? I'm gonna DIE a virgin. "What?" Ben's head started jerking back and forth when he heard Lulu's voice. What...how...RIGHT. Spooky Mind Powers. He closed his eyes and grabbed the sides of his own skull. GET OUT OF MY MI-...Waitaminute. He relaxed, opened his eyes, and leaned back in his chair. What am I even worried about? Actually, y'know what? It's cool. Hangin' out in my head's gonna be worse for you than for me anyway. Hope you like memes, porn, and Geckoman fanfic. Ben raised his hand. "Yeah, so, uh, elephant in the room, nobody's gonna ask but everyone wants to know...Do you guys really eat people? Like, in general, and also, specifically, have you ever eaten a thing that could and probably did say 'Please don't eat me' in like, a language?"

Persephone Persephone glanced up at the mouth of the cave, and the storm raging above it, and chuckled as she rubbed the sand at her feet. "There's water plenty comin' your way, my Darlings. Just sit tight." She stood back up and turned to her fellow heroes. "The plants couldn't tell me anything we didn't already know. I figured as much, but it never hurts to ask." Persephone moved up alongside Chris, lightly squeezed his shoulder. "Can I borrow you for a second, Sweetie?" She took his arm and gently pulled him away from the carnage and the other heroes. "Listen, first I just wanted to say, what you did with the corpses back there, that was amazing. No more violence, no more desecration, you just stopped it. You should be really proud of yourself. You saved a lot of lives, and a lot of people some extra heartbreak they don't need right now on top of everything else. I didn't want to make you feel self-conscious in front of everyone, but I saw you lose your lunch when pieces of that monster started redecorating the neighborhood, and you don't look too far off from a repeat performance. And I'm sure the helicopter ride didn't help. I'm sorry I didn't get to you sooner." She closed her eyes tightly, gritted her teeth, and clenched one of her hands into a claw for a few seconds. A wispy dark brown root sprouted up through the skin on the palm of her hand, growing branches several times as it grew. Once it was a few inches long, it stopped. She opened her eyes, grabbed the base of the root with her other hand, shut her eyes again, braced herself, and yanked it out of her palm, keeping her mouth closed to stifle her scream. When she yanked it out, the soft glow from her eyes momentarily flared up so bright that Chris could see the light behind her eyelids. She grabbed Chris's hand and pressed the root into it. The root smelled faintly of licorice. "Chew on that like it was a stick of gum. Suck up all the juices you can get and keep chewing until it loses its flavor. That should keep your stomach settled for the rest of the night, no matter what else happens." A shiny amber liquid trickled out of her nostril. She felt it with the back of her hand, then pulled one of the leaves that made up her costume out and used it to wipe her nose. "Sorry." Another purple leaf grew back in its place on the back of her hand almost instantly. Persephone dropped into a crouch near the corpse. She shut her eyes tightly again, tensing every muscle in her face. Another trickle of amber liquid fell from her nose, and from the corners of her eyes. She slowly stood back up, her hands open upward and cupped as if she were lifting something. Roots as thick as her arms poked up from the ground beneath the body, lifting it several feet up over the water while they wove together into a multi-tiered structure similar to a bunk bed. Leaves sprouted from the wood and pressed together in an overlapping pattern similar to the leaves making up Persephone's costume, forming a canopy over and around the body. The corpse rested on a wooden lattice, through which it dripped water down into the second tier of the structure, which was basically a giant bowl. The bowl had already collected the water which had been under and around the body. Once the structure was assembled, Persephone staggered, nearly falling over. She yanked another purple leaf away from her glove and wiped the sap streams from her face, then crumpled up the leaf and tossed it aside. Her shoulders sagged. "There. If, by some miracle, there's still some evidence left that the storm didn't wash away, now it's preserved to the best of our abilities, and the police can collect it at their convenience. If any of y'all are detectives, feel free to reach in and see whatever you can figure out, but otherwise, I reckon we should disturb it as little as possible. Whoever did this needs to be found. They probably think they did the world a favor tonight. But they didn't just prevent all the bad things this man would've done. They also stole all the good things he could've done." Persephone walked over to Speed-Demon and rested a hand on his shoulder. "That was mighty impressive the way you evacuated that family from the church. They were gone so fast I didn't have time to say 'Hi how are ya'. I'm sure you'll be in their prayers for many nights to come. And as bad as this all is, it would've been a lot worse if you hadn't nipped that overgrown gator in the bud like you did. A lot of people still have their homes, their jobs, even their lives because of you." She turned around to face the whole group of assembled heroes, stood up straight, and raised her voice slightly so she could be heard over the howling winds. "Our city called for help tonight, and all y'all answered that call. Each and every one of y'all are as good as gold in my book. I'm proud to know you. And it doesn't feel right to ask anything more than what you've already given." Her thoughts drifted again to her residency at the hospital. "But some nights, the hits just keep on coming and they won't let up. Some nights, every time you put out a fire, two more spring up behind you. On those nights, the only thing that gets you through it is each other. You lean on them, and they lean on you, and that's the only thing that keeps any of you standing. There's still a lot of work to do here, and we might see the sun before it's done. Anyone who doesn't have it in them to keep going, you go on home with our blessing. Some folk only have so much to give. But everyone who's got their second wind, we're about to be busier than a one-eyed cat watchin' two mouse-holes. Here's how I see it." She smiled. "And these aren't orders, just suggestions, so I'd appreciate it if the cowboys could try and keep their spurs from janglin'. You two," she pointed at Speed-Demon and Torque, "You're the fastest, and you're the only ones this storm can't slow down. As soon as these people are ready to move, you can move them. You can get them to the nearest shelters that have room for them. This frog choker's got plenty of gas left in the tank, and they don't need to be out in it. You and you," she pointed at Cheval and Betsy, "You're the strongest ones here by far. There's a lot of debris here, wrecked cars and collapsed overpasses. You can move that debris, free anyone who's trapped, clear a path for anyone who needs one. And you two," she pointed at Sagrado Corazon and The Woodsman, "I think you're best with me. Look around, talk with people, help me organize my priorities, figure out who's tore up worst and who can wait a spell. I can't be everywhere at once. If you know any first aid, you could even keep someone alive until I can haul tail over there to work my magic." She addressed the group as a whole again. "And after this is all finally over, well, that won't mean it's really over. Disasters, stressful situations like this, they can leave a mark. You might want someone to talk to about it, and there's nothing wrong with that. Come find me after and I can help you sort that out." Once she was able to get a moment more or less alone with The Woodsman, Persephone spoke more quietly to him directly. "It looked like you took a nasty fall back there, Sugar. If you like, I can patch you up like I did the others, and like I'm going to do for these people. Won't take but a minute and you'll feel a lot better."

Persephone's gonna be a busy little bee for a few rounds. She has 3HPs, and she's Fatigued. First, Persephone spends a Hero Point to get rid of her current Fatigued condition. Then she acquires another Fatigued condition by using Extra Effort for a power stunt, gaining the following temporary AP on her Plant Control array: Immunity 12 (Disease; Nauseate effects of any descriptor; Effects with the "Nausea" descriptor; Poison; Extras: Affects Others, Independent, Total Fade; Flaws: Limited [Others]; Feats: Feature [Tastes good], Slow Fade 3 [20 minutes per PP = 8 hours]) [28PP] Then she uses that power on Sagrado Corazon. Then she spends another HP to get rid of that new Fatigued condition, so she can use Extra Effort again and gain an even newer Fatigued condition. She uses that Extra Effort for another power stunted AP on the Plant Control array, a Precise Permanent version of her Create Object power. Going from Sustained to Permanent is a net zero cost change, and she can lose a Progression feat to cover Precise. She will use this power to create an object to support and protect what's left of the corpse. With Toughness 10, Lifting Strength 50, Precise, and Stationary, it should be able to withstand the elements. This is her best attempt to preserve any evidence that miraculously hasn't already been washed away by the storm. Since it's Permanent Create Object, the object should stick around even after she switches the array over to a different AP. Then she'll use her Leadership feat and spend 1HP to get rid of Torque's Fatigued condition. That should leave her Fatigued with 0HP left. Then she offers to heal Woodsman, and if he accepts, she does, and with +9 from her power rank, he should automatically make the recovery check to get rid of that Bruised condition of his. Then she's going to use her Postcognition again to see if there are any nearby plants who saw what happened to the dead guy. Finally, she starts making the rounds with the bystanders, using Healing on any wounded people, and Move Object and Create Object as necessary to move any obstructions, anything limiting the movement of any people or vehicles.

Octoman Ben Wang was shapeshifted into what he still considered his "default" form. It wasn't his true form, the one his body reverted to when he completely relaxed, when he fell asleep at night. It was the recreation of his appearance before the accident, or, at least, as close as he could get to the pictures he had. No "scars", no shiny rubbery skin, no yellow eyes, just an ambiguously pan-racial brown kid who still had eyebrows, and a mess of hair on his head somewhere between a "medium Afro" and "short dreads". Technically, he was nude, but the top layers of his flesh were mimicking the colors and textures of the clothes he'd chosen closely enough that it was impossible to tell that he wasn't actually wearing a yellow and black zip-up hoodie, open over a white t-shirt dominated by a giant black gecko silhouette, with baggy blue jeans and slightly over-sized white high-top sneakers. When Ben reached the open double-doors leading into the lecture hall, he stopped short of walking inside. "Hm...'scuse me a sec." He grabbed both doors and pulled them closed. Then, almost immediately, he threw them back open and shouted "BOOM!" as he strutted into the classroom. "The B-Bomb has DROPPED! There ARE no survivors." Every time he saw a face he recognized, he pointed at them with his arm fully extended, grinned, nodded a few times, and said "Heyyy!" while only barely slowing down his strut. "Now where's that free food? That's the best KIND of food! Hey wait, this isn't tacos! Did you guys know they're doing tacos down in Cooke? Why didn't you guys, like, coordinate? We coulda had freaky fish-people AND tacos! No offense to the freaky fish-people, hey, one freaky fish-person to another, feel me? But nothin' gets butts in seats like free tacos." He held a piece of food up to his face. "I'm gonna go to town on you like you're my last meal, but the whole time I do I'm also gonna low-key resent you for not bein' a taco."

And here's a more expensive version: Psionics 22.5 (45PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 6) [51PP] Base Power: [45PP] ESP 10 (Sense Types: All, Range: 200,000 miles [From Earth To The Moon], Extras: Duration [Sustained], Simultaneous, Flaws: Action [Standard], Saving Throw [Will], Feats: Rapid 4 [x10,000], Subtle [DC30 Notice]) [45PP] Alternate Power: [44PP] Illusion 10 (Sense Types: All, Extras: Selective, Flaws: Phantasm, Feats: Progression [Size] 5 [250ft radius]) [45PP] Alternate Power: [42PP] Damage 10 (Extras: Alternate Save [Will], Mental, Range 2 [Perception], Feats: Precise, Subtle) [42PP] Alternate Power: [42PP] Mind Control 10 (Extras: Conscious, Duration [Sustained, Lasting], Instant Command, Mental, Flaws: Action [Full], Feats: Mental Link, Subtle) [42PP] Alternate Power: [45PP] Move Object 10 (Lifting Strength: 50, Heavy Load: 12 tons, Extras: Damaging, Range [Perception], Feats: Accurate 3 [+6 Attack], Precise, Subtle) [45PP] Alternate Power: [44PP] Stun 10 (Extras: Alternate Save [Will], Mental, Range 2 [Perception], Feats: Reversible, Sedation, Subtle, Variable Descriptor [Pain or Sleep]) [44PP] Alternate Power: [41PP] Transform 10 (Memory Alteration, Extras: Alternate Save [Will], Duration [Continuous, Lasting], Mental, Range [Perception], Feats: Subtle) [41PP]

Here's a cheaper version of that array, if you're interested: Psionics 17 (34PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 6) [40PP] Base Power: [34PP] ESP 5 (Sense Types: Auditory + Visual, Range: 5 miles, Extras: Action [Free], Duration [Sustained], Simultaneous, Feats: Rapid 3 [x1,000, 18 seconds / 3 rounds to Search a 5 mile diameter area, 6 minutes if Taking 20], Subtle [DC25 Notice]) [34PP] Alternate Power: [34PP] Illusion 10 (Sense Types: All, Extras: Selective, Flaws: Action [Full], Phantasm, Feats: Progression [Size] 4 [100ft radius]) [34PP] Alternate Power: [32PP] Damage 10 (Extras: Alternate Save [Will], Mental, Range 2 [Perception], Flaws: Action [Full], Feats: Precise, Subtle) [32PP] Alternate Power: [32PP] Mind Control 10 (Extras: Conscious, Duration [Sustained, Lasting], Instant Command, Mental, Flaws: Action [Full], Feedback, Feats: Mental Link, Subtle) [32PP] Alternate Power: [34PP] Move Object 10 (Lifting Strength: 50, Heavy Load: 12 tons, Extras: Range [Perception], Feats: Accurate 2 [+4 Attack], Precise, Subtle) [34PP] Alternate Power: [34PP] Stun 10 (Extras: Alternate Save [Will], Mental, Range 2 [Perception], Flaws: Action [Full], Feats: Reversible, Sedation, Subtle, Variable Descriptor [Pain or Sleep]) [34PP] Alternate Power: [31PP] Transform 10 (Memory Alteration, Extras: Alternate Save [Will], Duration [Continuous, Lasting], Mental, Range [Perception], Flaws: Action [Full], Feats: Subtle) [31PP]

Here's a bare-bones base to work off of. You'll have to make some painful cuts in order to afford more fluff-stuff. PL 10 149PP Abilities 10PP Constitution 30/20 (+10/+5) Combat 16PP Attack +4 Defense +4 Saving Throws 15PP Toughness +10/+5 Fortitude +10/+5 Reflex +10/+5 [5PP] Will +10 [10PP] Skills 0PP Feats 12PP Attack Focus (Melee) 6 Dodge Focus 6 Powers 96PP Comprehend 1 (Spirits) [2PP] Concealment 6 (All Auditory and Visual type senses, Feats: Selective) [13PP] Enhanced Constitution 10 [10PP] Enhanced Reflex 5 [5PP] Ghost Combat 13 (26PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power 3) [29PP] BP: Insubstantial 4 (Extras: Attack, Feats: Progression [Counter Rank / Save DC] 6 [Rank 10 / DC20]) [26PP] AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Affects Corporeal, Penetrating, Flaws: Distracting, Feats: Mighty) [21PP] AP: Snare 10 (Extras: Affects Corporeal, Flaws: Range [Touch], Feats: Reversible) [21PP] AP: Stun 10 (Extras: Affects Corporeal, Flaws: Distracting, Feats: Sedation) [21PP] Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9PP] Insubstantial 4 (Extras: Affects Others, Feats: Progression [Subjects] 1 [2 Subjects], Selective, Subtle) [27PP] Super-Senses 2 (Counters Concealment, Sense Type: Visual, Flaws: Limited [Ghosts/Spirits]) [1PP]

Octoman Oh HEY, she's a ROBOT. I won't tell anyone. Except her. I should tell her about how I'm not gonna tell anyone. Ben shrugged, both with his arms and with two pairs of tentacles. "Cool." He pointed a thumb at his own chest. "If ya got nicknames, make 'em good. Otherwise, it's 'Ben'." Then he pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "Two-thirteen, with Dayv. Knock REAL loud." After the elevator doors closed, Ben mumbled to himself as he doubled back to his discarded belongings sitting in the middle of the hallway. "Fine MY ASS..ya don't LOOK fine...well, ya DO look fine, HELLA fine, BOTH of ya, but not, like, FINE-fine..." He hefted the stack of plastic crates into the dorm room he'd be sharing with Dayv and started unpacking. He didn't finish unpacking, since he started with his Geckoman posters and his computers, and once he started messing with those they consumed his attention. The toiletries, the framed family pictures his parents "suggested" he take with him, the clothes his shapeshifting powers rendered obsolete but that he kept for show, those remained sitting in the crates in the middle of the dorm room floor. After liberal application of putty, all three 24" by 36" GECKOMAN posters (one portrait, two landscape) adorned the two walls at the corner of the room with the bed he'd randomly chosen as his. The mechanical keyboard and three enormous monitors for his desktop computer dominated his desk. The tower, with its bright green case, was almost as tall as the desk itself, just barely fitting in the space underneath on the floor. A separate laptop computer sat on his bed while he hooked everything up. When the desktop computer flared to life, the dorm room erupted into a cacophony of light and noise. The tower's many, many cooling fans filled the tiny space with the dull roar of a jet engine. The tower, the keyboard, the mouse, every piece of hardware, every peripheral, was embedded with multicolored LEDs, making the room look like a rave had been frozen in time, like a bug trapped in amber. "BOOM! We are in BUSINESS!"

Argh. The +7 attack with the claws/fangs is left over from the previous construction, which used Inaccurate Mighty Damage instead of just applying the power feats and drawbacks directly to his Strength bonus. That's fixed now. The missing skill rank went to Search.

Down in the cave, Persephone is going to use her Comprehend Plants power to talk to any plants that might be nearby, and then, if she gets any replies, she's going to switch to her plant-based Postcognition AP and try to see what happened in their presence, if anything, related to Croczilla or the zombie horde.