alderwitch

"I'm not reading your mind," Alex answered the unspoken question that a lot of people seemed to have, "I have perfect recall and Erin has talked about your coffee trips a few times. She doesn't have the resources that I do, so I buy the groceries we keep here in the dorm room. It was only logical to add coffee to the list once you two started spending time together. After all, it stands to reason you'd eventually be by." She folded her legs up under her, sitting down on the other desk chair that she pulled over and tucked her hands in her lap. Alex sighed at the question and then looked up at him, "No, I'm afraid not yet. Mr. Summers has sent her back to her family for her culpability in the events for prom night. I will, however, have a conversation with her when she returns."

Alex beamed at him and slid her arms up around his broad shoulders, entirely at peace with the hands that could bend steel encircling her slender waist. Alex had never been afraid of Mike and she never would be. She bumped his nose with hers playfully, and without even glancing over his shoulder telekinetically popped the window open. Her expression was curious, but the light touch of her thoughts brushed against his enough to get that whatever he had planned was supposed to be a surprise and she withdrew quickly even as her curiosity was peaked. Mike rarely tried to keep things from her for obvious reasons so this was quite unusual. She was happy to go along with it, however. "Do I need to change?"

"A day off?" Alex asked, crossing over to him. Her tone was teasing as she said the words like she'd never heard such a thing. "Whatever will we do with a whole day?" The last came out a little breathlessly as Alex had a few ideas and briefly entertained the idea that Mike had started to buckle under her private campaign to escalate the physical side of the relationship. She floated up when she reached him to pluck the glasses from his hands and give him a kiss.

She was definately going to end up with a pounding migraine as the only person who seemed to get what she was saying... was Colt. Other than that, it basically devolved like she thought it was like to. She stiffened at Grim's venom, already reaching one hand out to Jack. Phantom winced behind her mask at Jack's barbed words but she was the only one in this little group who knew just how much those things hurt her husband. She reached out the rest of the way to Jack, her fingertips closing around his gloved hand. "Jack..." Phantom shifted to look up at the harsh lines of his features. Letting her words trail off, she linked her gloved fingers with hs silently. Raising her free hand, she pulled a gap open in reality, large enough for them to walk through. Beyond the portal was a dimly lit graveyard for anyone glancing through.

'Everything okay?' flashed across their bond before Alex even opened the door. She wasn't aware of any problems but that didn't mean that one hadn't cropped up. She opened the door and stepped in. Alex was dressed in yet another dove grey tailored suit, the only nod to her love of all things colorful were the deep jewel tones of her low heeled sandals, silk shirt and scarf. Her red hair was swept up into a neat bun, without any sign of sparkle clips. Alex was tired but her face lit up for him like it always did.

Bombshell glanced up as Ace arrived, uncoiling from the bench in one smooth motion. Her expression was serene as of all the thoughts that had raced through her mind through the long night, never had she doubted Ace's arrival in the nick of time. It was what he did after all. She held her hand out for the small scarlet and gold ball, her smile wonderous, "You yanks always have the best toys." Bombshell held her hand out, palm up as the red and gold metal began to run down her fingertips, coating her black leather catsuit in distinctive heraldry as she twisted back to face Scarab. "Here's the twist, my darling. We both know there's only one way to break that crystal. You've been expecting to die all night and this, right here, is where you make a noble speech about duty and sacrifice. About what it is to be a hero." She lifted her chin up, giving Elena that small maddening smile. Bombshell glanced down as her costume was rapidly altered to mimic the Scarab's, "You'll have to save it, I'm afraid. I win the match but the game is yours. I'll be the hero I was once before, but as I've tried to warn you, she's a rather devious sort. Hurry, love, Ace will smuggle you out and then when you're whole again... give them hell for me."

"Would you like to?" Alex asked curiously as she held the door open for him in silent invitation to enter. It was easy to see the different sides of the room as Alex's things were as colorful as Erin's were spartan. When he walked in, Alex shut the door. Trevor easily noticed the movement of things as Alex glanced at them. The hotplate in one corner started up as a pot filled itself from a bottle of water from the mini fridge and settled on it. Then her hazel gaze flicked to the desk chair which turned around for him. Alex never took her hands out of her pockets. She wasn't showing off as she had none of the tells in her expressive face. Instead her posture was easy and relaxed as this was how she simply was when she wasn't having to repress what she was. She pulled one hand out of her pockets to gesture to the chair, "Would you like a seat? It'll be a few minutes before the coffee is ready."

Phantom reached up to squeeze the bridge of her nose with gloved fingertips. She was starting to get a serious headache. Her only reaction to the cursing and the vomiting was to phase reflexively and then stay intangible. "This, right here, is why we don't mingle well socially, honey," Phantom said to Avenger in an aside as if it was the continuation of a long standing arguement, before she turned back to the clustered heroes making yicked out faces, "I can't believe we're out here in the middle of the night over this. You're all heroes. We are all on the same side. Avenger and Knight deserve the benefit of the doubt. Grim, seriously, do you really think that Avenger would have any sort of sick joy about your death? Enough to put together an elaborate prank?." She pivoted to pin Wesley and Avenger with baleful white eyes, "You two, knock off blaming each other and just explain. I'm not spending all night sitting on this statue while everyone has a pissing contest about about what boils down to a miscommunication and some serious cultural differences. First person to get agressive gets sent to the Void for a time out until they can be civil." Phantom folded her arms and looked at the rest of them expectantly.

"Its Dr. Stratos, Medea and Hiroshima Shadow. They're carving open a corridor deep inside the sanctum!" Psyche said in a voice that carried as she pivoted towards where Hiroshima Shadow was surging through the ground towards them. "And Hiroshima Shadow is on his way up. Medea can sense my ESP somehow, I guess. Sorry, guys." She focused her thoughts on finding the ghost of a man and when he popped through the floors, Psyche focused all the power of her mutant mind on a stunning blast that she sent winging his way.

Okay, well, Psyche will talk as a free action and then ready an action to psychic blast Hiroshima Shadow when he pops up through the floor. That's a DC26 will save for damage. It is perception ranged.

Wow, I'm actually going on 1d20=20

"No, he's deliberately misleading you," Phantom spoke up, her tone the same aggravated one she used when she did manage to catch Jack in one of his not-so-white-lies. Her body language shifted under the cloak, arms folded up under her breasts, "They did manage to trap the outbreak inside the city alone. There are humans, normal humans, outside the walls of the city. Know this, I am the guardian of the veils. I will not help you and your little group inflict your blight on an unsuspecting world. It goes against all that I am and all that I stand for."

"Looking," Alex said simply and she went rigid next to Mike, trusting implicitly that the powerhouses of her team would keep her from getting squished as her eyes made those rapid flicks of movement, dilating in response to stimuli that was entirely in Alex's head. "This place is really big so searching what I can."

Into the uncomfortable pause, one of the shadows of statue lengthened and twisted away, stretching and distorting until it was the shape of a hooded and cloaked figure. To those who could sense such dimensional and mystical energies, it was a serious ripple of power on the fabric of reality. The shadow darkened into the solid midnight hues of the trademark cloak of the Phantom. She spread the edges wide, revealing the crackling nothing of the Void that disgorged Avenger onto the ground below. She shook her shoulders, resettling the fabric before floating down to the ground next to her husband where she solidified. This time when the cloak parted there was a woman beneath it rather than endless nothing. "I'd say that we always pick the most dramatic places to meet but really, I remember the collateral damage the last time we had one of these talks in doors." Her teeth flashed white below her mask and she introduced herself to Wesley's partner politely enough, "Phantom. The gravely voiced man in leather would be Avenger."

Talya gave Jack a wink as Elena rushed off and said simply, "I'll work on her. I'm very persuasive." Then with polite excuses, she followed her date over to the man in question, giving him a quizzical look. When Elena stepped to the side, she didn't hesitate to introduce herself, offering one slim hand. When she spoke it was in German that sounded more native than flawless, the accent faintly of a Berliner. "" She grinned, her crimson smile wicked, "" Talya glanced over as Grim came over and nodded at Ace. She'd come take a look after him.

She flipped off the balcony and tumbled through the air. Jack hadn't really seen anything quite like it as she seemed to flip towards the building and then skidded her feet down the brick side before flipping away and then back again building, slowing her descent without even needing a hand hold. How she didn't smack on some sort of outcropping was really anyone's guess. It did mean that his direct way down was much, much faster.

Bombshell's long leather legs were stretched out in front of her, loosely crossed as she kept her fingers lightly laced through Scarab's hand. Her gloves were off and tucked in the belt and her palms were cool, the nails short and neatly trimmed and the pads of her fingertips rough with the callouses from years of athletic activity. She rubbed one thumb over the back of Scarab's hand and if she was in the state of mind to note any of it, it was the most at ease Scarab could remember her lover being as she talked as she wasn't focused on keeping up all those rigid mental barriers. "I liked the tights. You looked good in them. Never understood why you always feel the need to hide under that massive cape." Bombshell said fondly before she went quiet. The story she started next wasn't one that she'd mentioned before, as it was far younger than the later war years story she was more willing to dole out. "It was 1938 and tensions were brewing. In my early twenties, I was like most other bored and young aristocrats, spending my time pub crawling and hitting the parties. The economy was terrible, of course, but it never hits those at the peak as hard and the young tend to think they're immortal anyways." She smiled at that and continued on. "A few of them were signing up for the service even then. It has always been the 'in' thing especially for the second sons to hie off and get some shiny medals to attach onto their coat. So, I went a long with it. I was a gymnast, did you know? Before, I mean. And in possession of a certain sort of moral flexibility and a smattering of accent-less languages. Next thing I knew, I was off to France before we'd even declared our intention along with a handful of others."

"Oh, darling," Talya straightened and covered the hands on her cheeks with her own palms, her husky voice taking on a soothing tone, "I am right here. Nothing has changed except for your perception of the world which is entirely temporary. Its just as foggy as its ever been inside my head as I play through the various routes of escape and the back up plans. I'm also thinking how nice that armor fits your shapely backside, one of the few tells that its a woman inside the suit rather than a man. I'm also remembering the cell I was in during 1943, deep inside enemy territory, also waiting for Ace to finish seducing an officer out of his uniform and get on with the plan." Talya smiled and turned her face to press a kiss against the palm of Elena's hand, doing her best to distract Elena from her fear and panic. "It was near the end of the war and my cover was blown to hell in hand basket. I was supposed to be executed as a traitor to the motherland. My cover, of course, being German at the time. I spoke the language fluently along with a handful of others. There weren't many women spies and those that did play the game weren't considered, well, very highly by the command that sent us in so I was very expendable."

"On it," Phantom replied shortly, her hands flinging out to part the cloak, already wreathed with magic. She was more taciturn than usual as although her voice echoed oddly, she didn't want to take the chance that this Jack would recognize her voice. She didn't know how close he actually was to the Taylor of his dimension but if there was any sort of parallel there, it wasn't something that Phantom wanted to risk. The eldritch power lashed out from her hands, forming glowing chain links that wrapped around the wrists and ankles and yanked the alternate Jack prone against the wall. "Got him. I can hold him even in mist form... if he has it."

To Hit: 1d20+10=25 Grapple: 1d20+24=32 I'll reroll if I need to!

Alexandra Albright, Erin's roommate was actually in her dorm room for once, her fingers clicking over the keyboard of her laptop rapidly. She paused at the knock, looking confused for a moment at the absence of anyone's mental presence behind the knock before she realized that it must be Trevor looking for Erin. She bounced up, dressed in jeans under clashing layered shirts, her long red curls pulled back in a high ponytail. "Hi, Trevor," she said as she opened the door to the dorm room, "Erin's out training at the moment, I think." She looked past him thoughtfully, sending her senses over the school grounds, "Yeahp, she's training. Want me to tell her you're here?"

The bright blue eyes behind her mask slid left and right, checking all of the escape routes before she rested her hands back on the railing behind her. Talya was too out of breath from the hectic race or she would have been laughing from a thrillseeker's sheer joy. She hadn't been left with any real options. Jack would beat her at the attempt to scrabble up the wall and backtracking would only prolong a loss as she knew once ahead of her, the race was all but over. Which left only one option. Her smile flashed and then she leapt for the edge of the balcony and the drop to the street below.

Bombshell has slow fall so she's going to attempt to leap over the edge of the balcony and towards the street several stories below. If you'd like to have Jack grab her, feel free to do so, no roll needed since we already worked out that Jack is going to win this game.

"Of course. I just get the big stuff done first." Alex explained, before she moved from the regrowth to actually melding the surface injuries. She didn't flinch away as the tentacles whipped around her legs. If there was something Alex was good at, it was microfocus. When she'd coaxed all the cells to the proper pattern, she finally stepped away, sagging a bit, her fingertips going to her temple, "Done. Whoo...." She leaned on Erin for a moment, already explaining, "I'm okay. I should just sit down for a sec. We'll get you the phone hand held if you'd like some privacy or you can just ask the computer to dial but that projects it out onto the speakers."

"S-s-so c-c-cold...." Alex muttered as she huddled against Mike's frame. It hadn't taken but moments for her fingertips and nose to go blue. She looked around curiously, still shivering and chafing her arms up and down as she tried to warm back up to human temperatures again. She glanced up from huddling under Mike's cape to look at the figure of the centurion and she looked sad once the expression of awe faded, "Aw... he m-must get s-s-so lonely up h-h-here. S'pretty amaz-z-zing, s-s-still."