Electra
-
Posts
11,284 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Freedom City Guidebook
Freedom City PBP: A How-To Guide
Gallery
Events
Everything posted by Electra
-
Paige just stood and stared for a minute, all but gaping at the sight of a legend in the bruised and bloody flesh. Despite decades in the metahuman arena, she'd never actually seen the Centurion in person, she'd never been counted nearly enough of a threat for him to take notice of. She wasn't entirely sure he noticed her now, or that she wanted him to notice her. Yesterday morning, in another lifetime, she'd still been a villain who robbed banks for fun. Maybe it would be a wise idea to keep her head down and stay out of sight. It would definitely be a wise idea to take the offered retreat and find someplace with no Omegadrones, no hurting humans, no noise at all, until her brain stopped feeling like it was going to melt out her ears. She listened to the members of 1-800-JUSTICE and their easy bravery, feeling envious and small all at once. She still didn't think she understood what drove people like that to be heroes when it went against the law, public opinion, and every tiny bit of common sense. But they were absolutely certain that what they were doing was right, and that it mattered. If she wound up on the wrong end of a power pike tonight, could she say that anything she'd ever done had really mattered? Paige was still chewing on that unpalatable question when suddenly the Centurion's gaze was on her, locking her in place. She swallowed, tasted blood, but was used to that by now. "I... we... we're going to stay." She told him, her voice firming up a little as she spoke. "If there's no attacks tonight, we can regroup, maybe help out at the shelters. People still need help." Straightening her back a little, she asked, "Are you all right?"
-
Fleur shivered a moment at the darkness of the sky, her green hair losing a shade or two of color in the unnatural dimness. "Something's really not right," she murmured, then shook it off. There was work to be done! Hastening down the hill after Gabriel and Frost, she took in the situation with a professional eye, then knelt beside the most obviously injured victim. "It's all right," she murmured, reaching into one of her pouches. "My name is Fleur de Joie, I'm here to help. You'll feel better very soon." She began treating the wounded as quickly as she could, a poultice here, a gummy ball of medicinal herbs there. All the while, she kept an eye on the sky and its ominous clouds.
-
Hologram nodded approvingly at Crimson Tiger's silent movements as they walked through the dinosaur village. There were times, she had to admit, when having a ninja on your side came in handy. The less noise she had to muffle, the better. ~Let's circle the room while they're all focused towards the center,~ she suggested telepathically, ~get some footage of this ritual.~ Lifting her handheld camera to supplement the wearable camera's footage, she carefully made her way around the circle as the dinosaurs sang and swayed, finally coming to a stop behind a pile of what might have been nesting material. With a wave to Crimson Tiger to stop for a moment, she closed her eyes and concentrated, slipping over the fevered emotions of the saurians and into the consciousness of the shaman. Paige was startled for a moment at his level of awareness; for a moment she worried he might have noticed her intrusion. She "held still" as best she could, and he quickly went back to concentrating on his song. It helped that the information she wanted was not buried deeply in his mind, it was something he was thinking about anyway. She was relieved to note that he was pleased at the coming rescue from the sky, which meant he probably wasn't going to poison the people against it or fill them with fear. That was a good sign. Her relief was short-lived, however, when she read further and learned the source of the shaman's information. ~Richard!~ she called out mentally, stretching her perception across the continent. ~Time to get back to camp, we've got new problems. There's another player involved in this game, some kind of being that lives in magma lakes and knows what we're trying to do with the aliens... and sees it as some kind of liberation. I think we need to check it out.~ Opening her eyes, Paige beckoned to Crimson Tiger to follow her out the door, sending her and the others the same information as she went.
-
Okay, second question then, and a terrible, awful roll! Spending an HP Critical Success, she rolls a 30
-
Paige is going to attempt mind-reading on the shaman, to see if she can sort through what he actually knows about the arrival of the Preservers, and just as important, where that knowledge comes from. She rolls a 22
-
Wander lost no time in exiting the base and jumping onto the sled behind Midnight, zipping up her parka and tugging on her hood as she went. It was still way too cold, but the prospect of imminent action made it much easier to ignore. "Whoever it is, they've got a head start, but there aren't a lot of places to hide out here. We just need to start looking for heat signatures." She drew her bat, which immediately began to frost up in the frigid air, and held it to her side at the ready. "He may not have gone very far. This could be a ruse."
-
Paige closed her eyes for a moment, sifting through the mind of the nearest Slamdance. "There's at least two copies still in the city limits," she reported without opening her eyes, "one is too far away for me to get an accurate bead, but the other is just a few blocks away." She opened her eyes, grinned at her husband. "I bet we could track him down and ask him where he's going," she suggested, wrapping a practiced arm around Richard's waist. "You want to hitch a ride?" she asked Cannonade. "It's much faster his way."
-
Hologram is going to attempt mind reading on this guy. First roll is bad, spending an HP Second roll is a 30
-
Fleur chuckled a little bit at the reminder of the giant cow, but quickly sobered. "I agree, let's not start showing off unless we have to. We don't want to make big changes in the landscape of this place without a really good reason. First we find out what's going on, then we can make a plan to stop it. Everybody ready? Hold hands." She tossed a seed onto the ground, which immediately sprouted despite being on a concrete floor, then showed similar disregard for gravity as it climbed and twisted its way up and then down into a door-shaped archway. Taking hands with Gaian Knight and Velocity, she led the way through the leafy door, and immediately out the trunk of an oak tree, many miles away.
-
"I'm fine." Sojourner's eyes, now brown again, were focused on the prone figure of Hendahwit in the center of the circle. She hadn't so much as flinched when Knightfall kicked him, merely scuffed a foot to break the ritual circle ahead of the younger woman's charge. "A little tired," she admitted. "I wasn't prepared for a physical teleportation. He must've planned to use it as an escape route all along if things went wrong." She glanced over at Mystery. "You all right?" In the center of the circle, Knightfall struggled against her brother's hold, but it was a halfhearted effort, complicated by the tears sliding under her mask and down her face. "You saw it, Hank! You saw what he did! He killed Mom and Dad, over and over again, and for what? For magical powers? He deserves worse!" She aimed another kick at Hendahwit, this one more southerly, but couldn't quite connect without breaking Daybreak's grasp first. "Maybe he deserves it," Erin cut in, stepping into the circle and putting herself between the tarp-covered villain and the enraged girl. "But we're not going to give it to him. We're better than that. Heroes don't kick the bad guys when they're down," and here she quirked a rueful grin, "no matter how much we might want to." "If we can't send him back, what do we do with him?" Tensile asked the room at large as he leaned back comfortably against the wall. "I can't take him home with me, my wife laid down a strict no-pets policy after the thing with the mini-dragon." "You have a wife?" Erin repeated, at the same time Sojourner asked "You have a dragon?" "Well not anymore," Tensile replied, then added hastily, "to the dragon thing, I mean. Sure I got a wife, and more." He smirked at Erin. "But I didn't think you'd appreciate me showing up and calling you Grandma." Erin opened and closed her mouth a few times before speaking. "You're probably right," she finally allowed.
-
"And what's your favorite color? Purple? I think we can do that..." Stesha grinned and tossed a handful of seeds to the ground, where they immediately sprouted up into deep purple pansies, much to the delight of the small crowd of kids surrounding her. She hadn't had time to do much park beautification in Freedom City lately, what with Sanctuary taking up so much of her time, but since she was on call and on Prime for the day anyway, it was nice to get back to her roots. So to speak. Her distinctive hair and the rapid plant growth had drawn some attention as she made her way through Freedom Park, mostly children and parents enjoying a few last summer afternoons before school started again. She mixed marigolds in with the pansies, and was about to lay down some geraniums when her phone went off, notifying her of the current crisis. "Sorry, guys," she said with a regretful smile, "I've gotta go help some people now. Have fun in the park!" With that, she stepped into the trunk of the nearest tree and vanished, popping out moments later in the lobby of Freedom Hall. "Fleur here," she reported in as she headed for the stairs, "I'm ready to go."
-
Paige, who had immediately thrown herself to the ground at Richard's warning, climbed to her feet and stepped between Fast-Forward and Cannonade. "Of course that's true," she told Cannonade, trying to be placating without being condescending. God, when had she gotten such a Mom voice, anyway? It was the only part of her body that acted its age. "We've listened to some angry bastard music ourselves," she pointed out, giving Fast-Forward a narrow-eyed look that suggested he agree. "It's just taunting, throw your enemy off-balance by targeting something you know is important to him. We haven't gone up against Slamdance since..." She frowned thoughtfully. "I don't even know how long it's been. Decades. But he hasn't changed all that much. Which is a little odd, come to think of it." Paige dusted her hand off on her pants, then offered it to Cannonade. "I'm Hologram, by the way, and this is my husband, Fast-Forward. It's a pleasure to work with you."
-
Hologram fails the reflex save She gets a 25 on the toughness save and is bruised.
-
Hologram didn't join in on the taunting between Cannonade, Fast-Forward and Slamdance; drawing attention to herself in a fight had never really been her style. Sometimes, though, a little attention-getting was necessary. At least the civilians were all gone, she thought with resignation as she looked at the passel of marauding duplicates. She lifted one hand in front of her, palm out, fingers spread, and watched as black energy began to trickle from her fingertips and flow to the ground like water. Black swirled into her eyes, making them shine like puddles of oil even as the tendrils of energy seeped quickly along the floor. They spread like a spiderweb, touching each of the clones, and finally homing in on one in particular, the real villain. Closing her fist around the leftover fragments of black energy, Hologram studied her target for a few seconds while he sparred with Cannonade. Entropy called to her, singing up her arms and through her head, seducing her with the call to greater power if only she'd just use it. She shook it off, but couldn't quite make her eyes back to their normal color. She used that frustration, that tendril of fear, and slammed it all into her mental attack. He wanted the fear and anger of the bad old days? Well, he could just choke on it.
-
"Nope, nope, nope, nope," Paige cut in, a look of faint horror on her face. "We absolutely are not starting a brand new dragon-based religion among the dinosaur people. There is no possible way that will ever lead to anything good. Saving these guys is good, saving them so they can wipe each other out in a war over what kind of dragon their god is and what kind of ritual sacrifice she prefers would be very not good. If they're going to cook up religion, let them do it on their own. I still think Crimson Tiger and I can just drop in on them and see what kind of magic they're using without causing any fuss at all. If not, I think we should leave them alone entirely and just run the risk that there might be some panic. It's got to be better than what would happen if Tiamat went in, shock and awe style."
-
In the blink of an eye, Wander was racing past her friends, putting herself between them and the helicopter on the increasingly precarious deck. Jamming one foot against a tiedown anchor for leverage, she set her body and caught the helicopter by one skid, swinging it in a partial arc before bringing it to a stop. A ship the size of a carrier should not be tilting like this, she realized. But nothing about this situation was normal. "Edge! You've got to get Typhoon out of here!" she called. The other Socotrans could manipulate water, but without their leader and strongest asset, the royal family would be at much more of a disadvantage. She spat water, salt already stinging her eyes, and for a moment wished she had a mask like Midnight's. Or some scuba gear, if things got any worse.
-
Hologram is going to do what she doesn't like to do and dip into her Entropic Array for her nifty TK Blindsight power and attempt to use it to pierce Slamdance's concealment and find the real guy. Assuming she can do that, she will then fall back on her other, much less creepy array and use her perception-range mental Damage power, which will require a Will save of DC 25. And just in case the Blindsight is not effective for whatever reason, I'll roll the miss chance: With a 14 she hits anyway,
-
Everyone just stared for a moment at the naked man gasping in the middle of the ritual circle like a giant landed fish. Erin looked at Sojourner, wondering if that was supposed to be part of it, but she looked just as confused as anyone else. The circle was quiescent now, the blood burnt away to leave only black paint and candlewax on the floor, bright flourescent lights utterly mundane after the glow of magic. Even the clock in the center of the circle was silent, its face cracked down the center. Knightfall was the first one to break the general paralysis. "That's him! He's the one who did the magic!" Racing into the middle of the circle, she delivered a nasty kick straight to the ribs of the prone man. "That's for my mom and dad, you son of a bitch!"
-
Erin's eyes widened at that, and she quickly stepped forward. "Nobody's seriously going to launch nuclear missiles over this, right? That would be..." insane, horrifying, a little prelude of apocalypse, it didn't take a psychic to watch the options play over her face before she chose one, "an extremely strong reaction to an isolated attack. But somebody needs to get out there and stop them so cooler heads can prevail." She looked at Eve. "So I know you're on deck for France, are any other national superheroes turning out, or should we come along and help out?" Superheroic jurisdiction was very far from Erin's specialty, perhaps one of the many reasons she'd been turned down for the Freedom League when she'd applied.
-
Paige looked up from where she'd been taking a five-minute sanity break, a few precious moments behind her mental walls and away from the fear and pain of the masses surrounding them. Being able to pinpoint survivors under debris was a valuable skill, but being inside the minds of the trapped had her a few shuddering breaths away from a claustrophobic panic attack. Assuming they all lived through this, she suspected she wasn't going to like the dreams she'd be having for awhile. The sound of renewed fighting and shouting drew her attention, making her pull herself once again to her feet. "He's right, baby," she told Richard as she made her way over. "Your mom's got amazing survival skills, and she'd know better than to get anywhere close to any of Omega's goon squad." Paige shot Wail a grateful look as she wrapped her arms around her new fiance. "She probably lit out right over the bay and didn't even go into the city. Once everything's cleared up, we'll hear from her from Canada or some tropical island with no extradition." She sniffed and rubbed the side of her hand against the nosebleed that had been a pretty constant trickle for hours. "I wonder what the Freedom League is doing now," she mused, sounding almost wistful.
-
"Huh, so someone down there is wielding actual magic," Paige said with a thoughtful frown. "It might be a risk we have to take. If they have enough magic to realize what's happening to them while they're being transported, they could panic or cause some serious upheaval in this society. I can keep cloaking us with a 'don't notice me' effect that might keep them from being interested enough to try to scry us. If we were closer, do you think you could tell exactly what kind of power they've got?" she asked Sam.
-
"Um, well the ritual circle has to come first," Sojourner replied, looking down at the notes she'd brought along. "I'd use a trowel and inscribe it outside, but it's dark-" "And snowing," Tensile chimed in. "And cold as hell," Knightfall added helpfully. "Can we please go inside?" "-so the garage is probably going to be the best place, and easiest to clean up. We'll need some black paint and eight candles, one for each of us. Nine if Great-Grandfather will participate as well. That would be good, nine is a mystically significant number. And we need a representation of time, a clock, a calendar, an hourglass even, so long as it works and measures time." "We've got all of that," Erin replied, "and I'm pretty sure Travis won't mind joining in on the fun. Let's get started before these holes get any bigger." The whole gang trooped into the big, bright warm garage and began to make preparations. Under Sojourner's guidance, the ritual circle was quickly painted down onto the garage floor, about as wide around as a tetherball pitch, with the candles spaced around it at equal distances. Erin had no idea what all the symbols meant, but her older-than-her daughter seemed entirely confident in what she was doing. The big black and white schoolroom clock from the garage wall sat in the middle of the circle, ticking audibly against the floor. "All right, now everyone adds a little blood into the bowl," Sojourner explained, demonstrating with her own hand and a neat slice at the base of her thumb. "Doesn't have to be too much, just so that there's enough all together to drip it around the circle. Once you've bled, go stand behind one of the candles." She passed the bowl to Erin, who took a clean knife and mimicked the cut on herself, then repeated it twice more before blood actually flowed out. Erin gave the destroyed knife a disgusted look, then passed the vessel to Tensile, who grimaced but retraced enough of his armor to make the cut on shockingly white skin, then gave it to Knightfall, who turned a little green and passed the knife to Daybreak. "You do it."
-
Sojourner's first roll is terrible. Spending one of Wander's remaining HP, she gets a 39.
-
Erin came back from the basement at a run, nearly clipping the automatic hidden door at the top of the stairs in her haste. The Midnight Manor was an engineering marvel, but parts of it hadn't been designed with super-speed in mind. She joined the others in the infirmary just as Trevor was explaining the situation to Mark. While she'd been downstairs she'd taken the time to change into her uniform, covering it with an oversized FCU sweatshirt that let it pass for leggings and concealed her bat entirely. "Things are looking rough in Socotra," she reported, "flooding in the streets, lots of damage to the palace. It doesn't look like anyone's cleaning it up at the moment." She glanced over at Nina, then looked to Mark and Trevor. "I've locked up the house, just in case we need to go out somewhere."
-
"Yep," Erin confirmed, her sigh of resignation audible over the comm channel. "I guess we'd better go after-" Her words were cut off as she looked through the window to see all their wayward descendants popping out one at a time onto the lawn. "Never mind." She jumped out the already-broken window to land next to the returnees, looking them all over for signs of damage. "Well?" "It was... THE FUTURE," Tensile intoned in his best vid-announcer voice. Erin gave him a singularly unimpressed look. "No, really. The very far future, way far ahead of when any of us come from. I couldn't even make sense of it." "We saw a clip of the idiot who started this whole thing, playing with dark magic and screwing up the timestream. He came to a bad end, but not nearly soon enough. Sojourner says we can fix it, though!" "We're going to need sterilized knives and a large bowl to start with," Sojourner told Wander. "You probably don't have the ritual circle scribed in the third-floor ballroom yet?"