Thevshi

Surprise Round: Hound: 15 Bloody Mess: 10 (2 HP) Firebug is flat footed, so the first roll does hit (no need to use the HP right now). Firebug just misses the toughness save, so he picks up a bruise. He gets a 4 for his initiative roll for next round. So, Round One: Hound: 15 Bloody Mess: 10 (2 HP) Firebug: 4 (bruised) Hound’s action.

Dropping down, Bloody Mess delivered a solid blow to Firebug's upper back, causing the arsonist to stagger forward slightly from the force of the blow. However, he managed to stay up on his feet as he began to turn around to see what had just hit him. The fire was still going strong, but at the moment had stopped spreading any further. All instincts screaming otherwise, Hound came bounding down the stairs as best he could, shifting back into human form as he went. Though it took some effort, he managed to make it all the way into the front room of the optometry store.

The old man on the sofa had looked up in surprise at the dog that suddenly appeared in the apartment, and began to talk no less! "Who…what…" The man was shocked, standing up and glancing back towards the window when he heard another voice respond from that direction. Seeing the humanoid form made of blood, he gasped in surprise and could only watch as it began making its way along the ceiling and out of the room. Looking back down at the dog who had just been talking, the man slumped back down onto his sofa. "What is going on here?" He asked, apparently still a bit in shock and bewildered. Mess was able to slither his way down to the first floor, and as he came out in the main room of the optometry shop, he caught smell of smoke, coming from the back room. Moving out near the doorway to the room, he could see the figure standing inside, his back to Mess. The man was holding his strange looking pistol off to his side, the barrels still emitting a faint bit of flame from their ends. Directly in front of the man, a bunch of boxes were now aflame. Firebug's left hand was out in front of him, almost reaching towards the flames. As Mess watched, the fire seemed to intensify and then began to spread…

As he draws near the open doorway, Hound can hear the sound of someone whistling softly from within side the store. Coming to a brief halt beside the door, the currently canine private eye then quietly made his way into the room beyond, slipping off to one side and under a nearby table. Looking about, he could see he was in the shop's back room, which held boxes of glasses frames and lenses, as well as the equipment needed to fit the lenses into the frames. Standing in the middle of the room, looking casually about as he softly whistled a tune was a man dressed in dark blue jeans and a black leather jacket. He looked like he might be of Jamaican descent, with long dreadlocks. In his right hand, the man was holding what appeared to be a very strange looking, double barreled handgun, certainly not one Hound had ever seen before.

That is good Because he is distracted, Firebug only gets a 16 on his roll.

Ignoring his partner's frantic attempts to get him back down to streetlevel, Mess slipped under a gap in the window in into the room beyond. Once inside, he could hear the news playing on the television, the ticking of an old grandfather clock next to the entryway to the apartment, but otherwise everything was quite. The old man shifted slightly, but otherwise kept his attention on the nightly news. Down on the sidewalk, Hound bounded around the corner of the building after shifting into dog form, easily able to follow the scents of Firebug and the accelerants he was carrying. Following the smell, Hound came to an alleyway that ran behind the buildings on this block. Glancing around the corner, he found the dark alley empty, but saw the back door to the optometry shop standing wide open. His sensitive dog nose picked up the smell of melted metal, and he could see smoke rising from where the lock had been burned out.

Up by the window, Mess hear's Hound’s hissed warning. Glancing back through the window, everything thing in the apartment seemed perfectly normal at the moment. If Firebug was nearby, he had not made his way up here. Or at least not yet. Down on the sidewalk, Hound sniffed the air more, trying to track the scent. As best as he could tell, Firebug had walked right in front of the building not very long ago, and had headed towards the corner to the right and then along the side of the building. Hound also picked up another familiar smell, the accelerant he had detected at both previous arson sites.

I promise to stop writing novellas for posts Ari. Looking forward to things really getting going with this. :)

Following Thomas back into the store, Megan nodded as she took the business card. "Thanks again, I'll see you later next week then." She replied as she continued on to the front door and out onto the sidewalk. Glancing back over towards the site of the fight with Bonebreaker and Mindfire, where the police and emergency services personnel were still busy cleaning up the mess. The young blonde again ran through what Voltage had said about not understanding what the goal of the two villains could have been, and whether it had just been a diversion. But a diversion for what? She thought as a small frown came to her face. Realizing she would likely gain no new insight now, Megan turned away and started back towards where she had parked her BMW. After all, she did indeed need to get her exam off to her professor to officially be done with the fall term.

"Well, the bad guys tend to be asking for it when the start throwing cars around and the like." Megan replied simply. "I am glad no bystanders were hurt." She then added. As he came over and talked about never seeing a superhero fight up close before, Megan nodded. "The closest I have ever been was seeing that car fall out of the sky back in the shop. That was close enough for me." "In any event, if things are relatively back to normal now, I should probably be going. Need to get home and email this exam to my professor back in New Haven." The blonde then added.

Also SC, just in case my earlier IC post wasn't clear, the drive over took enough time for Mess to recover from his 3 bruised conditions (as his CON bonus is high enough to automatically make the checks needed to recover).

The humanoid blood form of Mess slithered its way up the wall to the third floor window. Reaching it, he was able to see inside through the parted curtains. The room with the light was a small living room, filled with old furniture, somewhat worn, but still appearing to be in good shape. There were several bookshelves, filled with old books. Sitting on an old sofa was an old man, his back to the window, who was watching the old, bulky television that was up against the far wall. Mess could see a small dinner table off to the right of the sofa, and a kitchen beyond the living room. Back down on the sidewalk, Hound was watching over his friend and partner's body, trying not to lose his rushed dinner, when he caught a whiff of something on the wind. Taking a couple of sniffs, he recognized the scent he had picked up as the arsonist at the burned down adult bookstore. Firebug was somewhere nearby.

Megan slipped back into being the frightened blonde college girl as the door to the front of the shop opened up and the teenager that had helped her recover her take home exam stepped in. She immediately looked over to the grey haired teen, a worried look on her face. The young blonde let out a small sigh of relief at the report that the super battle was now over. "That's a relief." She replied. "It's just crazy sometimes how common those sorts of fights can be, though a bit less so up here in Kingston compared with downtown. Was anyone badly hurt?"

Doc, very good to hear from you! I am sure everyone here will be glad to hear that things are going well for you. I believe most have been concerned about not knowing what was going on. RL can sometimes throw you a lot of curveballs at once, so take your time. Look forward to seeing you again soon! :)

"Thanks." Velocity replied as she took the card, glanced at it a moment before slipping it into one of the pouches on her belt. "I might only be a reservist now, but I still have my Freedom League email, so I'll shoot you one later today. I would like to try to figure out what all this was about as well, besides, it never hurts to have someone to call if you need backup on something." "So, I wouldn't quite say this has been fun, especially considering the pounding you took, but it has been good working with you. Talk with you soon." The speedster added with a small salute and a smile, before she was gone in a blur and a sudden WOOSH of air. Velocity ran a dozen blocks down the street before taking a left turn in order to double back towards where she had stashed her civilian clothes. A split second later she was back on the roof, and once again Megan Howell. A moment after that, she was back down in the alley behind the computer store she had dropped her damaged laptop in and back inside the back room, pretending to be hiding from the superbattle that had been ragging outside.

Mess managed to chug down the rest of his pilfered beer before they were out the door, setting the empty bottle down on a table as he passed. Hound took the wheel as he started towards the address provided by Ricky, allowing Mess a chance to catch his breath a bit. By the time Hound was slowing down to drive past the optometry store, Mess felt almost as good as new. The optometry shop was in an old, three story building, an old wooden sign in the shape of a pair of eyeglasses hanging over the main door. Bars covered the large windows on either side of the door, and drapes were drawn, preventing anyone from seeing what was inside. The floors above the shop appeared to be residential, and Hound and Mess saw at least one light in a room up on the third floor.

Velocity looked over at Voltage as he came over towards her and the police officers she had been speaking with. "Hmmm." The yellow clad speedster began as she glanced back around at the destruction the pair of supervillains had caused before they were stopped. "Yeah, it is somewhat strange, they seemed to have been pretty intent on causing as much of a scene as they could. They did not seem to focus on much of anything for more than it took to break it or knock someone out, before moving on. Until you showed up. And they only reason they did not stay focused solely on you was I showed up." She paused a moment, before adding. "But as to what this might have been a distraction for, I have no idea." The speedster glanced at one of the officers, who shrugged, not seeming to have heard about anything else significant going on, or at least nearby.

Velocity is using extra effort to stunt Air Control 13 off her Super Speed Array, trying to use it to put out the flames.

"I’ll see you there." Velocity stated after giving Fleur the address of where the initial battle had taken place, and was then off towards the site again herself, traveling at near her top speed, a loud *CRACK* followed by a deep *BOOM* sounding behind her as she broke the sound barrier. The speedster skidded to a halt as Fleur appeared by the scene of destruction. While the other woman turned her attention to the injured heroes, Velocity turned hers to the fire burning in the nearby tenement. Okay, been awhile since last I tried this. The speedster though as she moved closer and began moving both arms and high speed, creating a powerful vortex of wind that would hopefully blow out the flames.

Tsunami gets a 24 for her initiative.

Giang was silent as Adamas began explaining what had transpired so far, including their suspicions that there may be more explosive devices waiting to go off near the evacuation shelters. The responses from the mysterious newcomer appeared to be genuine, but then the Headmaster had appeared to be real as well, at least until he had drawn that weapon on the members of Young Freedom. The man seemed to know Crow, who appeared to know him in return. As Crow indicated he was willing to trust the newcomer, the Asian teen stood up from her martial arts ready stance. Where things not so possibly dire, she would normally have offered some form of apology and a more formal greeting. But right now, they were possibly very short on time, so proper etiquette would need to wait. Turing on heel, the teen stared off alongside Crow once more.

Fleur had just finished her message when the yellow clad speedster suddenly appeared right beside her, having already started in when she saw Bee Keeper step into the portal. "I saw. Nice job." She said with a small smile, before having a slightly puzzled look. "Self destruct?" But the speedster quickly went to answering the other heroine's question about injured. "Yes, back where Bee Keeper just went nuts. Jubatus and I think the other is Silver Spider. There are also a number of dead bikers and Russian mafia, as well as a few bystanders this teenager calling herself Quickstep killed with a lava blast. Speaking of which, I probably need to get back there to try to put out that fire."

Mobster 1 blows his save (it was kinda close though), with a 20. He is down, so you get a takedown attack on the other, and I will just have him go down as well, as it is a cool finish for a cool bar fight Go ahead and post IC.

Mobster 2 moves to Mess and tries to make an aid other action, but fails with an 8. Mobster 1 tries to hit Mess again, just missing with a 19. Moving to next round, This brings us to Round 7 (8?) Hound : 21 Mess: 20 (3 bruised) (2 HP) Mobster 2: 19 (near Mess) Mobster 1: 4 (in melee with Mess)

The two standing mobsters chuckled slightly as Mess dropped down to one knee after being pistol whipped. The one who had just dropped the biker moved over. "Not so tough now are you Furlong?" He asked as he grabbed the front of the private eye's shirt and dragged him to his feet. But even dazed as he was, the former boxer was able to pull himself away from the man’s grip. The mobster who had just hit him took another swing, trying to put Mess down, but with blind instinct, Mess' left arm came up to block the mobster's attack. Out in the alley, Stumbling back slightly after being released, Ricky stood back upright as he shook his head. "No, I don' know where the guy is hiding out. But…I think I might know his next target. There is this small optometry shop down on 58th. The old doc there hasn' been cooperating from what I hear."