Geez3r

Alright end of round 1 recap: 46 - Dan (Red vien guy) -- Bruise x1, Stunned 29 - Captain - VP x2 22 - Nathan (croc man) 15 - Adam (dog dude) -- Bruise x1 (grappled by Malice) 7 - Earl (gray skin guy) -- Bruise x12, Stunned, Staggered, Unconscious 2 - Malice - VP x0 -- Bruise x1 (grappling Adam) You're up quote, as Dan is stunned.

The Captain's mighty Adrenaline Cannon hits its mark on both of the targets. The injured Earl is blasted clean off his feet and doesn't get up again. Dan on the other hand, fairs slightly better as he avoids the worst of the hit, but his clothes are a little more crispy than they were a moment ago. Nathan takes advantage of the Captain's lack of attention on him to rake his claws across the Captain's chest. "Got ya." taunts the croc-man. Elsewhere in the arena, Adam is circling Malice to look for an opening. Malice however sees what he's up to and keeps him in his line of sight. His plan discovered, Adam switches tactics and simply lunges at Malice. The attack catches Malice right in the neck but Malice rolls with the hit to avoid any serious damage. With a roar of annoyance and anger, Malice lashes out at Adam. With in human strength Malice gets a bonecrushingly powerful grip on Adam. And try as he might Adam, simply muscle his way out of Malice's vice like grip. As soon as Malice has a solid grip on Adam, he treats him to several quick gut punches and a knee to the sternum but Adam won't go down without a fight.

Don't like beating around the bush do ya?

When Benjiro is complementing Eric and Darts, he grins slightly and nods respectably, but when he says that he would buy Darts, and Eric knows he has the money to do so, all expression drains from Eric's face, giving it a midly disturbing mask like appearance; someone shouldn't be able to mask their emotions so quickly after something like this is announced. The mask isn't because he isn't feeling any emotion, but because he is feeling too many emotions. He's surprised and stunned that anyone would make an offer so plainly, he's excited because he stands to earn a thousand times his weight in gold, he's sad for the few trusted employees that would lose their jobs, he's angry because this is his company and someone is just trying to swoop in and take it, and this list goes on and on. After a rather pregnant pause, Eric clasps his hands in front of him and peers at Benjiro, like he's sizing him up. When Eric speaks, it's in a slow and deliberate, if not mildly monotone voice "You've placed me in a very precarious position Mr. Fujisama. For every part of me that welcomes your proposition with open arms, there is another that, to be quite frank, wants to cause you bodily harm." Eric lets that statement hang in the air for a moment to make sure all present caught it, understood it and processed it. More importantly, he wanted Mr Fujisama to know that he wasn't joking around, he was dead serious. "Now, that being said, after I've had a moment to consider I'm leaning towards the former instead of the latter." Eric relaxes a little and lets some emotion start peeking through his mask "I can not and will not give my final answer to you this day, I simply won't speak for the whole company about this issue; it's not a decision one man should make. Now, in your pitch, you mentioned that Darts would essentialyl be an independent subsidairy. Let me make this point perfectly clear, the one thing we value more than anything else at Darts is our freedom. We work on what projects we want, when we want and how we want. If I feel that even one iota of our freedom will be impinged by this deal, then I will not let it go through."

If it matters, Red Star's action is readied until a clear line of sight, ie: no cover, or concealment, exist between him and Grab, he'll miss of course, but if it matters how and when he'll miss.

If Shinken's shot ends the fight: Within moments after Shinken's blow connects, the area is filled with a red glowing light as Red Star touches down next to Grab. "Thanks a lot for your help, I don't think I could have got her that quickly by myself. Think we should bring her back to the Record Store? The others are probably wondering how I made out. I'm Red Star by the way." If Shinken's shot does not end the fight: Red Star moves into a better position above the ground and lies in wait until he can get a clear shot, not wanting to hurt the random passers by or the new samurai guy.

Not a hero in most peoples' sense of the word, but if Malice was given the opportunity to work with the government, on nearly any official level, and most unofficial levels, he would be all over that like stink on a monkey. He's already got the red white and blue armor. But alas, he is a villain, so probably wouldn't come to pass, unless it was like one of those anti-super programs.

If you can count your age on all your fingers and toes, and have some digits left over, you ain't old, trust me. Happy Birthday ya whipper snapper.

Hey, I'd like to make a quick change to Malice's Weapons Array. I would like to change the Liberation Cannon to the following * AP: Blast 9 (Extras: Targeted 9- 5ft square cubes Shapable Area, PFs: Indirect x3) – Liberation Cannon Essentially, I swapped one area of affect for another (decreaseing the maximum number of targets as well) and got rid of the selective and distracting modifiers. Done by Sandman XI

Eric returns Benjiro's handshake with one of his own. When the topic shifts to Dr. Archeville's presence, Eric jokingly replies "Yes I seem to be attracting more and more of these famous scientists today, I must make a note to wear this colonge more often." As the discussion shifts to the accomplishments of the people present, Eric is quick to pipe up "And have followed your career as well Mr. Fujisama; with what I admit is a bit of jealousy. I have had more than a cursorary glance at several of your battlesuits, and I must say that I am impressed." As they move into the conference room, Eric non chalantly removes one of the chairs from the table to accomidate Bejiro.

Publicly traded, Eric is the majority shareholder. And don't worry about sounding dumb here, we all do that next to Dr. A, he's more fluent in technobabble than I'll ever be, to the point where I'm not even sure where to draw the line between babble and actual science. I kind of got around that by having Eric play down how smart he is at work just so people won't connect the dots between him and Malice.

Alright end of round 1 recap: 46 - Dan (Red vien guy) 29 - Captain - VP x3 22 - Nathan (croc man) 15 - Adam (dog dude) 7 - Earl (gray skin guy) -- Bruise x1, Stunned, Staggered 2 - Malice - VP x1 -- Bruise x1 Here's what I need from you quote: First oppose Nathan's DC 10 Startle check with the best of your Sense Motive, Intimidate or Will Save If you fail to beat that, then make a DC 21 toughness save, if you beat the above check, skip this step because Nathan will have just barely missed you Lastly, Oppose Dan's annoying taunt with the best of Bluff, Sense Motive or Will save to avoid becoming shaken for 1 turn as his taunting gets to you. Then go about your turn as normal.

Although the Captain's punch was indeed mighty, Nathan's reptilian skin was too tough and he shrugged off the blow. "You'll have to get passed me first!" sneers Nathan as he lunges at the Captain with unexpected quickness. Not wanting to be left out of the fight, Adam dashes up to Malice, who was slow on the uptake. He flies through the air swinging wildly. Although the attacks hit home they have next to no effect, and Malice feels pretty confident about this fight until he realizes that Adam's attacks were just the distraction which allowed Earl to get into hurting distance of Malice undetered. Earl takes full advantage of the opporotunity and drills Malice with a vicious haymaker. As Malice gets pushed back from the force of the punch it looks like he'll be taken out of the fight just like that. But he digs deep and endures the hit. As Malice comes to a halt, he drops to a knee. "That's a pretty powerful punch there kid. But you know that's more powerful? The 2nd Amendment." With that statement, the guns on his arms start whirring to life. As the barrells spin faster and faster, the mechanical screaming gets louder and louder until they are joined an absolute storm of gunfire as an unrelenting torrent of hot lead washes over Earl. The barrells quit firing, and slow to a stop, smoke issues from the guns and the last of the small mound of casings fall by Malice's feet, it can been seen that Earl weathered the hit but it's also obvious he's got no idea where he is. Elsewhere in the chaos that is the arena, Dan is dashing around like a squirrel on crack screaming "You can't hit me! You can't hit me! You can't hit me!" over and over again, in quite possibly the most infuriating voice ever.

The Captain and Malice get a little over zealous in their cheering on of the crowd, and Dan's surprising quickness gets the best of them. No sooner does the match start than does Dan dash forward with inhuman speed. He runs along the ropes and punches the Captain in the back before continuing his circuit and ends up right back where he started, with a little smirk on his face.

Might help if I do initiative too Malice Initiative round 1 (1d20 0=2) hot damn Initiative: Earl, Dan, Nathan, Adam (1d20-1=7, 1d20 26=46, 1d20 4, 1d20 6=[18, 4], [9, 6]) OK, Initiative order: 46 - Dan (Red vien guy) 29 - Captain - VP x4 22 - Nathan (croc man) 15 - Adam (dog dude) 7 - Earl (gray skin guy) 2 - Malice - VP x2

Yeah, I'm going to say that's not legal as written. But what you could do is attach a limited flaw on B, C, D... that they couldn't be used until the previous power had taken affect. It's not really a combo anymore so much as a chain. Example: Power A : Stun 10 {20 points (if memory serves)} Power B: Blast 10 Flaws: Limited (Only if target previously failed a save vs Power A in this encounter) {10} Power C: Drain Toughness 10 Flaws: Limited (Only if target previously failed a save vs Power B in this encounter) {10 (if memory serves)}

Basically yeah, but for sake of getting down to business we could just do a scene change. Or if you want we could have the meeting in the labs I really don't care one way or the other.

I hope you don't mind me kind of cutting a bit out of the conversation, but I didn't want to wait a few days for everyone to get to the conference room.

The receptionist eyes instinctively begin looking over Eric's schedule as Benjiro gives his name. "Benjiro... Benjiro... Benjiro... Benji--!" The receptionist's head snaps up, with her eyes wide. She leans every so slightly to the right, and her eyes flick to the magazine rack, and then back to man sitting right in front of her, whose face is plastered across the magazines. "Ummm..." she stammers for a moment before regaining her composure "...Mr. Micheals is in a rather important meeting right now, but they should be finishing up. Let me give him a call shall I?" She reaches for the phone on he desk and dials a number, while it's ringing she says to Benjiro "He hates when I call him in the lab." to avoid dead air. Elsewhere down in the labs, Eric's phone rings. "Ah sorry about this Doctor. I have to take this, they wouldn't call me unless it was important; they know how much I hate being interrupted. Excuse me." Eric walks a few feet from Dr. Archeville and answers the phone: "Yes, Sam, what is it?" "You've got a new gues waiting for you at the front desk." "Why exactly couldn't they wait a few more minutes until I finished with Dr. Archeville?" "Sir, your guest is Benjiro Fujisama." "..." "Sir?" Eric walks back over to where Dr. Archeville is standing, and looks him straight in the eye before continuing the conversation. "So Samantha, are you telling me that Benjiro Fujisama, the billionaire battlesuit visionary is upstairs in the main lobby right now, and is requesting to meet with me right now?" "That's the gist of it sir." "Do you think Mr. Fujisama would mind if our newest consultant sat in on the meeting?" "No I don't believe he would. Conference room A then sir?" "That would be wonderful Samantha."

Ya had to announce this today huh? After I made a new post that fits that mold just yesterday. Looks like I'll have to get creative again :twisted:

Cockroaches. Cockroaches are probably widly considered the scum of the world by most of the population of the world. Most people hate cockroaches with a passion and believe them to be the most disgusting creatures on the planet, and won't second guess their decision to kill them for even one second. But with all that in mind, there is one thing you have to respect about the cockroach; it acknowledges that it is feared and loathed the world over. Whenever you turn the lights on, cockroaches don't stay around taunting you saying "Hey I'm a cockroach. Isn't that weird?" No, they have the decency to turn tail and run to the deepest, darkest and dankest corner they can wriggle themselves into. In short, they go to where they belong. They know their place and stick to it. They can't get in unless you let them either. A cockroach infestation just doesn't happen out of the blue, you have to let it happen. You have to live in filth, you have to ignore the signs of the impending infestation, and do nothing. But you know why people really, really hate cockroaches? There are two reasons. Firstly, they look nothing like us. Throughout all of history, the one constant is that no one likes anything that doesn't fit into their idea of what is right. No one likes what they think is unnatural, nor what breaks the status quo. What's that? "People eventually learn to like things that are different and work past their previous misconceptions?" Wrong. People just stop fighting. Fighting anything or anyone for anything length of time takes a huge amount of time and resources, until eventually one side has enough and just gives in. This ties into the second reason people hate cockroaches; they're really hard to truly kill. You can cut it's head off and it'll still scuttly around blindlyy for a week while it slowly starves to death and dies. They don't have the decency to admit defeat, they just linger. And for every one you kill there are another 12 festering in the filth just waiting for you to turn off the lights. It can get to the point where people stop fighting the cockroaches all together and just accept them as part of their life as they wallow in their filth with creatures they would normally kill on sight. ======================================================== *wh-TWACK* It was raining again. *wh-TWACK* Malice hated the rain, or rather what it did to people. *wh-TWACK* It made everything look all dreary and dead. *wh-TWACK* It gave people yet another excuse to get nothing done with their lives. *wh-TWACK* And worst of all... *wh-TWACK* The puddles wouldn't let you hear a satisfying sound when you slammed someone's head into the concrete. *wh-TWA-CRACK* Maybe the rain wasn't so bad after all. ... Malice stood up and looked at the stormy clouds overhead, the raindrops splatter on the mask reminded Eric of looking out of a moon roof when he was younger. But those were different times. Those were better times. Those were cleaner times. The rain washed away the dirt, the blood, the filth. Malice was one of the few in this world who could enjoy this rain. He was the only one who could become pure again in this rain. Everyone else would have to wait for their storm. ... Malice's thoughts left the rain and returned to the world around him. He looks down at the form of the person he had just savagely beaten. Her name was Jennifer. She was 21 years old, a senior at HIT. While not the most gifted student there, she was one of the nicest. She always had a smile and caring words for anyone who would listen. She had 2 cats, Brownie and Cookie. She dreamed of opening her own clinic to care for animals, and advancing technology to help benefit the lives of animals everywhere. How did Malice know all this? Jennifer was an intern at Darts, and Eric had written a recommendation letter for her 2 weeks ago. A week ago, Jennifer was transporting a prototype weapon from the storage room to one of the labs, and she dropped it. It fired and hit her square in the chest. It left a bruise but she was relatively unharmed. The weapon was designed to penetrate tank armor. Malice knew then what he had to do. These were the results. His eyes wandered over to the crowd that had gathered around the scene. Most looked horrified. Others disgusted. Many sad. All scared. There were two police officers there too. They had their guns drawn and were saying something, but Malice couldn't hear them over their fear. After lingering to the emotions playing on the faces of the crowd, his eyes strayed back again to the body of Jennifer. She was still alive, barely. She was a strong person, should would recover. She would not admit defeat. She would just linger. He had to finish it. He pointed his right gun arm at the body. The fear behind him drew a collective breath. Then Malice felt the rain. That shouldn't be right. He shouldn't feel anything inside of the suit. Was there a leak? No, there wasn't. The water shouldn't be there. But it was. It wasn't the rain. It was Eric. He shouldn't be in the suit. But he was. Eric slowly lowered his arm. He was wrong before, this wasn't his storm. ... Eric didn't go to work the next day. Nor did he go the day after. For a few days, he had to stop fighting. He had won, but it had cost him dearly. He had to fight the cockroaches, but they were slowly dragging him down. He couldn't out last them. He just didn't have the strength. He didn't have the strength by himself, but he didn't have to be alone. Once a person has been broken, they can be rebuilt... "Hey Jen. It's Eric. Eric Micheals. I just wanted to talk to you for a little bit."

I'd like to spend a few of Malice's points to flush out the businessman side of him, as it seems that going be important in the future. I'll spend his 3 points on feats: Contacts Connected Benefit 1 (Darts Inc. Head Researcher) These feats are essentially things that I've "always had". The Benefit is essentially access to high tech labs and materials not normally available. And I'm aware I won't get that much mileage out of them as I am now, but I plan on boosting Diplomacy, and actually getting a Gather Info in the near future. Done

Only for the people who want to dislike you.

Red Star's up for action.

As two more people joined the chase, Red Star became convinced that flying was a more common method of transportation than walking in Freedom City. Shouting at the samuria guy (who had a really cool costume by the way) "That's Grab! She ripped off a store a few blocks back! I'll circle around!" Eager to put an end to this chanse, and Grab's odd laughter, Red Star rockets foward at his full speed ahead of Grab, trying to block off her routes of escape, hoping his compatiriots will be enough to subdue Grab.