alderwitch

Bombshell didn't do it!

"You liked dinosaurs when you were four." This time, the hollow, echoing voice was clearly exasperated. Phantom fixed that baleful gaze on Huang from beneath her cloak as she let the clipboard vanish back into her dimensional pocket. "It's a good learner dimension for you and its still a good learner dimension for you and all your classmates." Phantom waved a hand at Riley's commentary as if to say 'See, the archer likes dinosaurs' before she turned her attention back to Raina and her questions, this time with clear approval. Shaking off her irritation with effort, Phantom found the rhythm of her lecture once more, "Quite right, Ms. Sanderson. This Earth is just scraping the tip of the dimensional ice burg, so to speak, and there are some charting efforts although none that are universally acknowledged across all of space and time. Which is good to keep in mind if you're ever stranded. Some civilizations might send you to a very different 'prime' indeed. The multiverse has many names and is near infinite in scope and depth so it is very - VERY - easy to get lost." Phantom lifted one hand up then reaching out to touch the air in the center of the space that had been cleared among the students. The fabric of space rippled beneath her fingertips before splitting wide open. At first, the portal was black from end to end - an endless nothing broken only by flashes of eldritch lightning across the space. The Void faded after a second, replaced by a milky portal that looked out on a beachfront that wasn't quite primeval, but looked nothing like any part of this Freedom City, either, "Now, typically, a portal - if you can open one - will open in almost the same identical spot in another dimension. Research is the first and most important step into any interdimensional jaunt. I should add, that if you don't HAVE to go, it's better to not travel at all. Not that anyone ever listens to my advice, but I offer it all the same."

Robin bumped her shoulder against Riley's as Archer's assistant stepped in front of them and the hard light holograms activated. It was a companionable sort of bump and she offered the archer a side-long smile even as she deflected, "Whoa, I am pretty sure we're a few dates away from matching uniforms. Or at least a few super-capers," Robin replied, her voice light, "Besides, you've got a good look going with all of that and it works well for you." Her voice dropped lower as Raina's hologram cultists started chanting. It certainly didn't sound great to Robin's utterly untrained ear. She whispered then with a small grin in return, "But that's your loss as my last name is very pretty. Do you think she's supposed to punch them? I think she's supposed to punch them."

I'm pro social thread first too. I've got a few combat threads I'm running right now and that's always harder for me to juggle than social threads.

Robin nodded once, swinging down from the bus entrance and stepped to the side as she waited for her erstwhile compatriots to follow. Even though she expected their not entirely unreasonable nerves, it still stung to see the tense expressions. She let it go without comment, though, as the girls descended from the bus. Absentmindedly, Robin stepped on a still smoking cigarette butt, putting it out with one sneakered toe. "It's early in the day still. The streets are safer when its light out," Robin offered the reassurance as the girls stepped out onto the Fens. Shifting her trashbag over one shoulder, "C'mon, Henry usually hangs out in front of the bars this time of day. That's down this way." Robin turned down one of the narrower streets with confidence in her direction. "You have to get in early if you want to hit the soup kitchens but most of 'em aren't too keen on Rufus so Henry usually ends up grifting for hand outs instead. It's Saturday, so that means the crappy dive bars that open early."

Psyche will go on 18 !

Psyche caught up to wander, tossing one arm up over her eyes automatically at the second flash of light and sound. "Well, that's an interesting and likely related phenomena," she commented to Wander as she glanced over the sphere that had been deposited. "Dimensional? Temporal? Translocation?" That was likely more Psyche thinking aloud as she peered down into the twin craters, bending to touch her gloved fingertips to the side of the crater. Crumbling up the dust between her fingertips, she let it sift through. "It's alright," Psyche offered, "Amnesia isn't uncommon and it clearly isn't total as you're talking just fine. Just take it easy and try to breathe. Is the egg-thing over there familiar at all to you?"

I have two characters that might make for interesting interactions. Phantom would be in the 'I'm not sure you can be redeemed' camp as she lived in Riverside when it blew up and was an active hero during his villainous time. She also tangled with Knievel. Bombshell never fought Malice but as an ex-villain herself, she might be an interesting conversational partner on going 'straight'.

"It's a simulation room," the answer came, surprisingly, from Robin as she stepped out of the elevator into the room proper. Absently flexing her hands to work the taping, she glanced over her shoulder to the other kids, "When they don't have equipment in the gym, they can make it up down here. Archer brought me down here when I was getting re-assessed after that whole museum 'thing'." In Robin's case, it had been more of a precaution to ensure Archer not having to replace expensive gym equipment if it was broken. "Or they can make other stuff. It's kind of neat."

"We also no longer buy or sell human beings like commodities," Robin pointed out laconically, more towards Raina than really to help bolster Fred's impressions of the wonders of the modern age. She took a slow breath and then let it out, "Raina's right, I think its pretty clear that things are pretty different now and its not like there's an easy way to break down what's happened. So, it's out now, nothing to do but deal with it." Robin's gaze travelled back to Fred's bent form as she added, emotion draining from her voice until she sounded rather emotionally remote. "But all the neat stuff isn't going to matter. She's trying to deal with everyone she knows being gone and that just... takes time. Nothing's going to make it better. Nothing can." Since there was no more need to deal with a pow-wow, Robin dropped back to the bench next to Fred, turning towards her. "I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. Do you want to be left alone?"

Phantom's gaze had fallen on her erstwhile offspring, her brow creasing under the deep cowl although whether that was at the flirtation or casual demonstration of his vampiric fangs was hard to say. A muscle twitched in her jaw, below the line of her mask before she turned her lambent gaze to Riley at his question. "Quite." Phantom said, the word sharp and clipped. She threw back her cloak as she extended one arm out, her palm open and flat. Mystical power coiled from her fingertips and all the chairs that had not yet gotten shifted out of the way were moved by mystic means neatly up against the walls. Teenagers. This was worse than the time that hell had invaded. Well, no. That had been more unpleasant but this was a close second. Phantom often felt out of her league with only one sassy teenager. With her cloak tucked out of the way, Phantom's boots clicked across the floor. She retrieved the sign in sheet and held it out for Huang, thrusting it between him and Fred, "Stop flashing your fangs, Huang, and sign the sheet." She turned back then spreading her hands wide, "So, today we'll be discussing the basics of inter-dimensional traveling - some simple safety precautions - and taking a jaunt to one of the near-Earths that's not populated. Questions?"

For the heroes who dropped in, the room was a large open space - typical to an art gallery. About a half dozen police officers milled through the room while one had the security guard in question in one corner, likely taking his statement. The last officer was the one clearly in charge of their prisoner. The woman in question was a curvy blonde in a catsuit that seemed to have more straps of dubious use than the last time Jack had seen her and an utterly extraneous pair of goggles perched on top of her blond head that were unrelated to the black domino mask that didn't really hide much of her features. Bombshell, for her part, looked definitely more annoyed than bored with the police, although the keen eyed might notice the micro movements of the muscles in her shoulders despite the handcuffs keeping her wrists locked behind her back. Regardless of her irritation, Bombshell was exerting her not inconsiderable efforts on keeping the officer focused on what she was saying, although both looked up as the heroes quite literally dropped into the scene. An amused half smile kicked up the corner of Bombshell's mouth. The room itself was the one that Bombshell had dropped into, with paintings largely from the mid 1800s on display and little amiss although the officers were certainly combing over it looking for anything that seemed like it could be used to further their case. The room beyond, however, had been ransacked with several broken, likely once priceless pottery shards around the room itself along with debris from the canisters that had exploded. The stink of toxin mixed with magic was thicker down here but not overpowering, adding a nasty tang to the air. As the heroes descended, the officer gave the well known heroes of Freedom City the sort of respectful attention that they were due, "Ah, hello there. Sir. Ma'am. We're still doing an inventory to find out what exactly was the target of the heist but, you see, there's been a lot of damage-" "Hullo, Jack," Bombshell interjected with an affected drawl, popping the 'K' at the end of his name as she shifted her shoulders like she was getting comfortable. It also covered the slight wince as she took her thumb and twisted it in its socket so she could work the cuff down, "So nice when some appreciations both vocabulary and diction. And hello to your pretty friend. Always appreciate a lady in a cat suit. Such an under appreciated ensemble these days, don't you think?" If nothing else, Bombshell was certainly succeeding in her goal to rile and irritate the officer who turned from the heroes to shake a finger at her, "Listen, missy, you're in a heap of trouble already. You could save yourself a lot of trouble by telling us where your friends went and what you took." "They don't know, is what he means." Bombshell translated, her expression solicitous even as she proved she retained her knack for aggravating Freedom City's finest, "My best guess is that it wasn't anything on their roster but was inside one of the very many smashed things in that room over there." Bombshell gave a little nod of her chin before turning innocent blue eyes to the officer once more, "Ex-thief. EX-thief." "Except you disabled the security system!" "Well, I can't say that you don't have a valid point there."

As to the crime scene itself, I've put up the basic description in the IC thread but if there are appropriate skills people would like to use or searches made, let me know here and I will elaborate as needed.

There are a few other characters alive in that period of time though I'm not sure who had else had fighting in the war as part of their big back history. The question is the desire for like an actual adventure or more of a social thread?

Bombshell's first attempt to drop her cuffs did not make the DC (DC35) for escape artistry from a pair of handcuffs so she is taking twenty to work her wrist free slowly. She's currently distracting the officer with her skill mastered bluff (DC30) as she takes the time to work free. For everyone else, DC25 notice check to realize she's most of the way out of her handcuffs by now once you are in the room.

"Daddy!!" The little girl shrieked, high pitched enough to make even those with normal range hearing wince, breaking away to pelt with the short-legged clumsy strides of an overstimulated five year old towards her father. Without pausing for breath, she pelted into her relieved parent's arms, all of her words tumbling out one over the other and only moderately intelligible. "DADDY! I was lost and then the magic ladies found me and now I'm a princess and I was so scared and WHEREWEREYOU?!" "Rebecca, honey, I told you not to pull away in the fun house, remember? It's a maze and you could get lost?" The well deserved scolding was probably blunted by the tight hug Rebecca was scooped up in. As her father buried his face against Rebecca's hair, his relief was palpable. Nothing was quite like the unpleasant adrenaline rush when one's child went suddenly absent. He finally glanced up, a little baffled at the appearance of his daughter's erstwhile rescuers. "Thank you. Thank you so much." "All's well that ends well?" Phantom suggested to Set, a smile curving her features even as she copied Sekhmet's arms crossed posture. "Poor guy. That is one of the worst feelings. I have two of them and, frankly, if my husband's heart could stop I think they'd have managed it by now." Phantom's voice had warmed, the last of her formal intonation dropping away and she turned her head to Set with a dimpled smile, "Do you know that the arcade games here are rigged, right, O goddess of chaos and outsiders? Personally, I always enjoy a bit of a challenge." Was Phantom suggesting they go cheat at crappy arcade games? Perhaps!

Robin opened her mouth to argue but Casey was off and gone before she could say a word. In the few seconds that Casey was gone, Hannah could certainly see a muscle flexing in Robin's jaw as she wrestled with a self-protective desire to not share this trip with yet another friendly stranger. She exhaled sharply as Casey reappeared. Dr. Marquez would be very proud of the fact that Robin contained herself to a sidelong look before allowing, "....Sure. Let's go." She led the way to the bus although when Hannah held out money for the bus fare, Robin wasn't too proud to let the other girl pay. Certainly, her pride stung as she shoved the handful of carefully scavenged bills and quarters back into one worn pocket. "Thanks," Robin said as she led the way to the back of the bus, "This'll take a bit." Robin didn't talk much as she took up a seat on one of the benches and the bus trundled along from the rather ritzy Bayview area towards first the theater district and then through it. At first the bars were the sort of moderate gastropub types that appealed to theater goers but as the bus chugged along, they turned quickly seedy. The sort of bars that opened at 10 AM interspersed with adult stores and cheap convenience stores. By the time Robin had reached up to yank the cord for the next stop, the buildings were run down with laundry drying from the balcony of the low rent apartment above the adult book store the bus stopped in front of. "This is the stop," Robin said as she stood up, her expression stony, as she swept up both backpack and trash bag to pick her way towards the front of the bus. She paused and then turned back, not unkindly, "It'll loop back around to Bayview if you've changed your mind," before heading for the front of the bus.

Robin's shifted the bag under one arm, stuffing the other 'claimed' sweatshirt on top of her small collection of sandwiches. Her expression was tight, not quite embarrassed but certainly self conscious. "Nope. Not camping," she answered Casey, her sentences brief and clipped but not unfriendly, "Just packing up a few things to head, you know, home." Robin gestured vaguely with her free hand towards the gate and swung the small trash bag back up to one shoulder once more. She shifted, her worn sneaker scuffing the grass as she weighed her options. Hannah seemed like a nice girl, certainly well meaning, but Robin wasn't exactly the sort to invite people back to the streets. Especially rather sheltered kids like Hannah, but she didn't really want to linger here - or make Hannah feel rejected. "I guess we're both heading to the Fens. You got bus money?" She asked Hannah as she shifted her weight, decision made, "'Cuz we should hoof it if we wanna make the next bus."

"I don't think that Shania Twain is what most kids are listening too," Taylor murmured, the words a little doubtful. Sure, she wasn't the most up on pop culture lately but as she remembered Shania Twain from college, she felt that it was a safe bet. She touched JJ's spiky hair, her maternal efforts to smooth it down rather futile. Despite her best efforts, the boy's hair tended towards disarray unless kept very, very short. The thoughtful noise she made in the back of her throat hummed before she added, almost absentmindedly, "Probably eaten or dragged to hell. Sulfur's generally lingers for days after a manifestation." Taylor sighed, and then finally, gave a reluctant nod, "Alright. Sure. I suppose a show about it is better than people blundering into things blind, right?" She might have been trying to convince herself more than really anything else before nodding once more, this time more firmly. "Alright, alright. Sure, I can do something for you on your show." After all, she'd convinced him to nip the multiple dimensional antics episodes, right? Least she could do in return. Of course, Taylor had no frame of reference at all for what was involved. She had a mental image of spending an afternoon out answering questions and offering a bit of advice. That was probably accurate, right? Right.

Robin paused in stuffing the 'lost' sweatshirt into the bag and for half a second clutched the bag to her chest like it might be taken from her before forcing the tension from her body. "Oh, this? It's..." She hesitated for a moment before lowering the bag slightly. Robin adjusted the truth just a bit, "It's supplies... and stuff... for home. I was going to go back to the Fens today." She hesitated for a long moment before reluctantly adding, "They need me. I've been gone all week for school."

"Without the racism, and the polio and the war and all that. More a nod to the clothing, dancing and not like 'hey, let's recreate this time period'," Alex agreed with a light laugh and shoved off of the roof to once again catch the air. She gave Erin's knee a light tap of her fingers, "Sure, lets buzz the airport. Race you!" With that invitation hanging in the air, Alex gave a little kick of her feet and began heading towards the airport without waiting for a response since chances were good that Erin would probably win. Alex didn't have anything like Mike's mach 10 flight, she normally drifted along like the super-hero version of a cheerful VW Bug instead. Like most things, though, Alex was good natured enough to just enjoy the exercise even if she was almost certain to lose. "Loser buys the midnight snack!"

As the kids settled in, the shadows in the center of the room flickered as between one blink and the next a figure appeared in the middle of the ring of chairs. Well, mostly in the middle of the ring. A faint noise of annoyance echoed oddly from her throat as she appeared with one leg in the middle of a desk. Sweeping back her voluminous cloak with one arm, the intangible mystic floated back until she was free of either cloak or limbs ending up inside something else before she materialized fully. The woman in question, for it was a female figure under that cloak once she swept the bulk of it back floated a good foot off the ground, the tattered edges of her cloak drifting down to the ground to writhe along it and largely captured in her hands to keep the fabric from billowing out and getting caught under a foot or desk. With the deep hood, only her mouth and chin were visible between that and the mask she wore below it. "I am Phantom. Eldritch was unfortunately otherwise detained," There might have been annoyance in the hollow echoing of her tone. She paused, sweeping her glowing white gaze of the class for a moment and it lingered on Huang for a long second. Clearing her throat, Phantom reached inside the dark shadows of her cloak and pulled out a small clipboard, "If you could all sign in and push the chairs away from the center of the room, please. We won't need them."

As the heroes converged on the museum, the easiest vantage point was certainly on the structure's roof, although the roof wasn't that large. Without some stealth, the heroes would start to come into each other's view when landing on it. There were several large skylights with vague art deco leanings, one of which sat open still from Bombshell's earlier entrance. The lights had all been thrown on inside the museum itself, illuminating what was going on inside for those peering over. The more stealthy might be able to weed their way through the cops below but there were a large number of them, seemingly milling about. Those more experienced with typical police procedure would quickly spot that the bulk of the force didn't really have a task they seemed to be doing except for keeping busy with cordoning off the museum itself and setting up police barricades. Grim's senses were keen enough to still pick up an acrid tang of something lingering in the air as the gas had begun to dissipate into the night entirely but not without leaving the stink of poison and chemical in its wake. As for Jack's magic senses, there was far more recent activity than the ripple of Bombshell's passing generally left. Once close enough, they would all hear a raised, distinctly British and distinctly incensed voice drifting out from the skylight. "Now listen to me, you arrogant, inept morons," in her heyday, Bombshell's cover had been a lounge singer - one of many - but the fact that her voice was trained, led to it carrying quite clearly even through the skylight - clearest certainly to those with heightened hearing but it wasn't too muffled to be intelligible to the rest of them. "If I HAD been here to steal anything, I would have been here and gone before Paul Blartt over there had be-stirred himself from watching the game at his station." There was a pause. "NO, that wasn't a confession!"

Robin remained there for a moment, tipping her head to the side as she took in the new girl's manner of speech and habits but what mostly caught Robin's attention was the reference to being 'ended'. She gave a small nod of her head at Hannah to show she understood the request and would be along in a minute. Unfolding her arm, she dropped down onto the bench next to Winifred. "Hey," she said, "Winifred, right? Look, we all go to a school for people that have, uh, weird things going on. The lady who runs the place already said you're coming with us and they have people who can help with all sorts of things. Even your things." Robin's voice dropped a little, "You've got some alternatives to ending anything, okay?" She hesitated and then gave Winifred an awkward shoulder pat before she shifted to stand up and see what the pow-wow on the other side of the bus is about.

"Shev-al-yay," Robin corrected half heartedly with a soft sigh, lilting the words with a not-quite French pronunciation. French-by-way-of-Haiti. That she certainly did remember from her previous years at school, the years of teachers butchering her last name. She watched with a raised brow as the tree opened for a legitimate secret elevator. Giving a small shake of her head, she followed in to the elevator with the rest of the group. Robin took up a spot in the corner, watching with her arms folded. Riley's ambient tension she gave a concerned look to before her gaze drifted back to the others. "Readiness for what, exactly?" Robin wanted to know, her brows lifting, "Is this, like, the requirements for a day pass of doing what we do or is it more 'now you can go out in "normal" society and we are less worried you might explode people unintentionally'?" She lifted her hands up to make an air quote gestures around normal, "Not that I can explode people, but you know what I mean."