Heritage

1d20+14=22 Well, at least she didn't miss the base check. Let me know if I need that Diplomacy check.

Any chance of this moving forward, Tiff?

You know, this wouldn't be a problem if she was dressed like Khaleesi This sounds fun; I'm working at school right now, but I will post some Notice checks tonight in the hopes Casey can get a bead on 'em (and yes, heatvision sounds like the best bet for tracking purposes; a car in a hot pursuit has an engine that stays pretty, well, hot). Also down with the Diplomacy radio situation; we need all the HP we can get at this point.

"Well, I didn't bring my sneaky outfit along with me; to be honest, I didn't think you'd show," admitted Miracle Girl. She pointed across the river, in the general direction of Bayview. "All that stuff is back in my dorm, but I could get it in no time." She shrugged. "Maybe we should rendezvous near the target site at a specific time?" Then she frowned. "Also it sounds like we still don't have a strategy; are we just going to show up in costume and wing it? Because we can try that, but I'm not sure how successful we'll be." She was starting to get the sense that Echo was fairly impulsive, which wasn't bad in and of itself, but Casey was a planner who was used to working with planners; might it be a good idea to try things a little looser, or should she stick to the tried and true?

Casey's cheeks went a little pink at the Dancer's compliment, and she self-conciously ran her fingers through her hair. "Oh, ah, thanks! I just use Acure Organics, pretty much for everything; hair, skin, lips, you name it. Everything they make is 100% natural, cruelty free and green as can be!" You are such a Girl Scout, Case! At first the mention of a wager made the teenage powerhouse uncomfortable, because she really didn't like gambling, but when it was made clear the prize would involve food, she did a complete one eighty. "Oh, you Ultimates are going down! No one comes between me and my food!" She quickly went over the rules for flag football as she put on her belt and twisted her hair up into a French braid to keep it out of the way.

Once inside, Marcus could smell a few things right off the bat: delicious fresh roasted coffee, turkey bacon, old books...and magic. The whole store seemed to be suffused with it, but not the overwhelming sulferous stink of dark magic, but a more subtle fragrence, more like...pine needles, morning dew and fox fur. Nothing told him to flee, but certainly he was acutely aware of his surroundings. As for the store itself, it looked like most other used bookstores, though the presence of several posters featuring classic stage magicians now seemed to make sense; there was a long combination front counter/espresso bar and a few tables, where customers sipped thier lattes and read the paper or a book or worked on their tablets or laptops. Nothing too surprsing there. Three women were currently working in the store, two behind the counter and one on the floor; all three were fairly short but also rather attractive, sometimes shockingly so. The pale girl behind the bar wore hipster glasses, a lot of 'ear art' and a rather disdainful expression; her flannel shirt and ironic, pop cultural tee suggested a college student, possibly from FreeSA. At the very least she seemed to be good at her job, and that line moved swiftly. The one behind the register, however, seemed to be having a bit more trouble; maybe she was new to retail? She was a colorfully-dressed, curvy girl with pink and blonde hair, and there seemed to be an unspoken tension between her and Art School Girl. And lastly there was a young woman walking the floor, very pretty, almost distractingly so, with curly, shoulder length hair and an elfin face with huge brown eyes. All three wore matching brown Silberman's Books aprons, and they all looked pretty busy. Gretchen was the first to notice Marcus come in, and an she arched an eyebrow beforing sending a message Lynn's way. Big Guy! What? Big Guy! Nice shirt and slacks, looks like he needs something. Kind of lost. Big Guy! Okay, jeez, I'll see what he wants! Shaking her head slightly, the store owner moved to intercept the new arrival, her warm smile a thing to behold. "Hi, welcome to Silberman's Books! Can I help you find anything?"

I f###ing hate magic. Sneaky people will always find a way in; it's what we do, I should know. Grrr. "Well, I think that's everybody," said Lynn as she nodded and gestured towards Blod. "Welcome Blod, and nice to meet you, Gwenyth. Everybody help yourself to the candy dish, and let me know if I can order you any coffee." Then she addressed Blod directly. "So, what's all this about the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, and what can we do about it?"

"They're here to kidnap...Dr Delacroix," Casey managed as she shook her head, attempting to shake the stars out of her eyes. "They don't want him for ransom, though; they said...they said they need him." She waved her hand in the general direction of the SUV, then doubled over with fatigue. "I think...something to do with their powers. Bad side effects, I bet...looking for a cure." Finally she sank down to her knees. "I can't fight 'em, not like this, but...can't let 'em get away." Looking up at Leviathan, the blonde heroine squinted as she tried to focus her thoughts. "Have you seen Delacroix? Is he safe?"

The changeling gingerly reached over to gently pat the tragically besotted genie on the shoulder; the size disparity between them was enormous. "Ira Silberman was...many things, and not all of them were good, but I'm sure his affection for you was real, at least at first. The man was cursed with a very wandering eye; he broke hearts all the way from here to Timbuktu." Lynn paused as she tried to think of some more comforting words. "Well, you're out now; the world has changed a lot since you got stuck inside that tin can. if you need a place to stay for a while, at least until you get your bearings, you're welcome to hang around here, as long as you don't scare the customers." Meanwhile, Gretchen returned with an icepack, which she gently put at the back of Morgan's head; her mental words for her girlfriend, however, were a little less delicate. No. F###ing. Way. We just can't release a lovelorn eight foot genie out into the streets! She's been trapped in their for ages; she doesn't understand the Internet or the TSA or smartphones. Think of the damage she could do by just floating down the street! I just...fine, it's on your head. One way or another, this is all on you. Agreed. And believe me, I do expect to regret this, but I'd regret kicking her out into the cold, dark world even more. "So whaddya say, Farrah? You wanna hang with us for a few days?"

It all made a lot of sense; a broken family with ties to Hollywood, the tragic death due to alcoholism, the disposable nature of the entertainment industry, an indifferent world and self-righteous indignation. Any one of those elements would be enough to breed a new villain, and then when you mixed them all together... "I can do an IR sweep of the house before we hit it, maybe give us a heads up on the number of warm bodies under that roof." Then she gave Aquaria a smile and a nod. "And I can be sneaky, believe it or not, if I need to be."

It worked! It actually worked! Sadly, Casey internal celebration was short-lived; the fact of the matter was the stress of repeated injuries and drawing on her reserves of strength had badly depleted her bioenergy field. The warm golden aura that normally surrounded her had grown dim, and even occasionally flickered; it was during one of these 'brownouts' that the duplicate's blast caught her square in the face. No, the shotgun slug did not kill her as it would a normal human, but the force of the impact snapped her head back, her golden hair flying backwards like a shimmering fan. Casey's vision swam as the flare of the blast was burned into her retinas for several seconds. No! Can't let them escape...

I vote for change of venue It's a little frustrating, but not horribly so; it still doesn't beat my all-time worst die roller streak from several years ago, where i didn't get a die roll in double digits for like five or six rounds straight.

Toughness check: 1d20+9=11 Groan! So where are we at now?

Slither shrugged, crossed her arms and leaned in the doorway, so as not to contaminate the crime scene as much as possible; instead, she extended her neck to several feet in length, and sent her head around the room, giving the body's outline a good once over before inspecting the floors and ceiling. In cases of fire, sometimes traces of things ended up coating surfaces that were normally out of reach, but not for the former agent! She didn't speak during this process, since it was rather hard with her neck so stretched out, so she would have to wait until she found something before she could talk again.

So Casey's Toughness check is now -3, correct?

Notice check: 1d20+10=25 Izzy will check where the body was, as well as the floors and ceilings, because she can, and such areas are frequently overlooked by those who can't.

Casey's eyes had gone wide at the sight of the veritable feast laid out for them, and she had a little bit of everything, feeling only slightly guilty stuffing her face on the taxpayer's dime; besides if it wasn't eaten, they'd probably just throw it away, right? After feeding the power-hungry furnace in her belly, the blonde powerhouse checked her email, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts, checked the sites for New Jersey Girl Scouts and her various church groups for any new or upcoming events, did some research for a few homework assignments and then played some games; with super-speed and a several hours on your hands, you could get a lot done. When Colonel Chalmers finally returned, Miravle Girl leaped to her feet with excitement. "Ready and raring to go, sir!"

Happy birthday, Thev!

Gretchen looked at him like he was some sort of weird alien fish from the depths of the ocean. "You're a young man in college with the ability to manipulate emotions. If the many ways you could abuse that position haven't occured to you yet, I assume you're either Amish or were raised by monks." "What I think Gretch is trying to say," said Lynn as she rolled her eyes in mild embarrassment, "is that you may be tempted in life to use that power to take advantage of others, particularly young women in your case. But it sounds like we don't have to worry about that, do we?" The young barista harrumphed, folded her arms and looked at Mason expectantly, waiting for his inevitably awkward response.

Grim finally figured out the zipper, which only seemed like a fancy zipper when in fact is was perfectly normal; even the most basic tech threw her for a loop sometimes. "Hi! Oh, it's nice and roomy in here! And it doesn't smell of mildew and bug spray, which is step up from the tents I grew up with." Her leather working clothes shifted into a light sweater and sweatpants as she took a seat on one of the air beds, though her mask remained in place. "Yeah, 2016 was not a great year for me, either, but I got a new girlfriend out of it, which almost makes up for all the suck." She held her hand out, and a steaming mug of spicy hot cocoa appeared, which soon filled the small space with its heady aroma. "Here's hoping 2017 kicks serious ass!" She raised her mug in salute, then took a sip.

Casey managed a crooked smile and a feeble little wave of acknowledgement. "Heyyy..." Yes, she was hurt, but she was far from being down for the count. Luckily Leviathan's arrival served as the perfect opportunity for the teenage paragon to catch her breath. Which is exactly what she did; Saku had a theory about another way Casey could use her super-breath, and now seemed as good a time as any to test that theory. She inhaled, filling her lungs to capacity, but this time instead of a sudden direct burst of air, she blew a steady stream of accelerated airflow over a broader area, essentially creating a localized 'wind chill' effect. Directed at the three women, it suddenly plunged them into teeth-chattering, sub-arctic temperatures!

Sorry, got a bit behind in posting meself!

"Oh, I know," said Casey with a chuckle. "Miracle Girl cannot be seen breaking into office buildings at night, and neither can Echo." She ran her fingers through her hair and looked a touch embarrassed. "I, uh...sort of created a kind of criminal alter-ego a few months back; it was part of another sort of shady hero op, which turned out fine, actually. It's actually what gave me the idea to try this." Then she frowned. "Of course then, we had a super-genius to do all the planning..." The blonde heroine stopped herself, took a deep breath and shook her head. "Look, the point is, I think we can do this. 'Hardcase' wears a totally different outfit, doesn't sound at all like me, and is pretty much just super-strong and super-tough; she doesn't fly or use any other of my superpowers. Maybe you can do the same; come up with a different M.O. in case anyone sees us, maybe use your powers differently?"

The blonde powerhouse grinned. "Ah, 'please Hammer, don't hurt 'em'; I got it." She flashed the '2 Legit' sign, which she remembered from the Addams Family video; see, kids today know their history! When he asked her about athletics, Casey nodded vigorously. "Oh yeah, I've played flag football before; also soccer, softball, basketball, volleyball and field hockey." She smiled self-consciously. "I've always been a bit of a jock." She waved at Jann, who she recognized from school, but got a little bashful when she looked at Phallanx, because he was really cute, but very much in a relationship as far she knew. But once she heard Dol-Druth speak, her expression changed and her tone became grave. "I was very sorry to hear about the loss of the Lor homeworld, Speaker; I never had the privilege of visiting it, but my father did, and he told me about it. He called the Senate 'the greatest shrine to democracy ever built'; its destruction is a loss to all free and sentient life." Having now spoken to the alien, she was suddenly completely tongue-tied and looked down at her cleats; it was times like this she felt like her future, mature adult self briefly manifested, but then disappeared and left 'the kid' behind to finish the conversation. Thanks a lot, Adult Me.

So many winter babies! Happy birthday to you all!