Electra
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Paige nearly missed the start of the battle because she'd put a hand over her eyes in frustration, but she managed to catch the rather spectacular failure of her speedier family members to do anything to the faux-Baron. Of course Anna hadn't merely been trespassing in an ordinary apartment, of course it belonged to an unfriendly supervillain type. Why would she have ever thought it would be otherwise? For a brief moment she thought longingly of Florida, and how if Anna wasn't going to use her perfectly lovely condo, maybe Paige could live there while Anna was in Freedom City. But first things first. Paige was typically loathe to fight supervillains who weren't engaged in actual villainous acts, and if anybody was breaking the law tonight it was the heroes, but the situation was already way out of hand. Maybe there was still time to defuse things before anyone got hurt. She sent out a subtle psychic probe, hoping to sneak into the back of his mind and encourage him to have a little nap while everyone was leaving. No such luck, though. Poseur or no, the not-Samedi had a pretty decent mental shield on him. Of course he did, Paige thought with a sigh.
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Sometimes it was just no fun to be proven right. Sometimes it was downright horrifying. Miss A wouldn't say she'd ever really liked Magnus Katastroff, but seeing him like this was still horrifying. Knowing he'd done it to himself somehow didn't make it any better.She did, however, have just the faintest flicker of satisfaction that her decision to have nothing to do with the Curator debris had proven to be extremely wise. Right now it was scant consolation. She watched as Curator Katastroff speechified, doing her best to hold his attention with her attitude and social cues and finally angling her torso so he could see partway down her blouse, but the alien presence had subsumed the man to the point where he just didn't care. He noticed Dragonfly anyway, and his calm attitude about that made Miss A distinctly nervous. Fortunately, Harrier had significantly better luck drawing the Curator's attention with the help of his power pike, but even that did less damage than she would've expected. And there were about three hundred billion nanites primed to spill out over everything in the room or maybe everywhere on the globe at any moment. Not good. Making a snap decision, Miss A blasted off with her personal jets and flew over to the teleporter unit. Ripping off the facing of the main console, she began working almost too quickly to see, fingertip-soldering circuit boards and rewiring the entire array to shut itself down. "Thirty seconds to shutdown," she murmured to Dragonfly. "I don't know what would happen if we destroyed it, but it's chock full o' nanites right now. Risky."
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Stun Attack, DC 20 will save or sleep
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Even though coming back had been her idea, Paige didn't think she'd ever been more scared in her entire life. And she'd been in some frightening situations. Almost without conscious effort, the energy she normally shut away as too disturbing to use began to pour forth, surrounding her body with crackling black tendrils of energy. She suspected that if her hair weren't already spiked, it would be standing on end. but at least in the midst of so much Terminus-based destruction, one more manifestation was a little less obvious. And it was power she desperately needed right now. Closing her eyes, she let the energy seep into her pores and into her mind, insinuating itself into the center of her psychic abilities like pollution spilling into clear water. As soon as the reservoir was full, she released it in one great rush, attacking the minds of the drones with no finesse or subtlety, just raw and destructive power. The psychic attack ignored armor and power pikes, arrowing into what remained of the sentient beings inside the drones and shattering them from the brainstem out. In seconds an entire company of drones had stopped moving, some of them buckling and falling where they stood, while others merely halted and swayed in place, black energy beginning to play over their bodies as well, trickling out of the faceplates of their uniforms. Paige took the opportunity to scamper behind a tipped-over car, scant cover but better than nothing.
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Okay, gonna stack the Entropic Damage on top of the regular Damage for extra damagey goodness! DC 27 Will Saves Move action to seek cover!
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Miss A will use her move action to fly over to the teleporter, then perform a Disable Device check to try and shut it down. And it's a nat 20! That makes a total of 45 on the DD check. Oh, and just in case, she'll be Interposing for Dragonfly in this fight, since much better if the robot gets nanited than the battlesuit person.
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Paige goes on 20
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"I understand," Paige told the detective, cool detachment a thin veneer over the turbulent emotions inside. "I'm assuming you're going to be ordering a psychiatric assessment for Frances, to determine whether she is competent to assist in her own defense. Her attorney will meet with her there, and I'm sure will ask for testing as well. Carolyn is represented by counsel as well, I'm sure you'll wait to question her until her attorney is present. She's in a very fragile state of mind now, watching her grandfather murdered in front of her eyes." Paige rubbed thumb and forefinger against her own eyes for a moment, steadying herself, trying to remember the words to say, the plans she'd made, back in the day, in case she herself had ever been picked up by the police. Right now a good attorney and no talking was all her brain would cough up. She wondered if she'd have an argument with Richard later over the fact that she'd be paying for the lawyers. "What's going to happen to the child?"
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Miss A goes on 18
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Paige folded her arms, and it was almost possible to watch her counting to ten in her head. "I understand you want to spend time catching up with old friends," she told Anna in her best conciliatory voice. "I know you've been bored at our house, and I really do appreciate all the casseroles. It's just been... it's been a very hard month, and I hope you can understand that we're just not ready for any more drama with the police or other superheroes or anyone, really. And I'm not sure, but I suspect that this apartment doesn't belong to anybody that any of us know, so if you could please take off the costume, we can all go home and have a nightcap and some pie and look at the old photo albums." With belated, slightly exhausted politeness, she turned to address the two strangers. "And it really is very nice to meet you, Set. I've read so much about you. Sekhmet, a pleasure as well."
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Wander stifled her instinctive protest at Midnight's idea, forcing herself to consider the situation logically. Someone had to hold the line here, someone had to overcome whatever defenses waited at Camlaan. She had to go, and he was right to stay. The horrible leaden feeling in Erin's chest was not convinced, but she choked it back and went to him. Closing her eyes, she wrapped her arms around Trevor and held him tight as they kissed, her arms just a careful inch shy of bruising. "Don't let them hurt you," she murmured into his ear before letting him go. "Buy us whatever time you can, then get away, get to ground. I'll see you when things are back to normal. I love you." She stepped back and let him go, watching till he was up the stairs, then turned resolutely to the others. "There's a back way out, into the woods behind the stables. If you can't poof us out of here, we'll go that way."
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As they walked into the chamber, Miss A put a hand to her forehead and swayed once before her knees locked automatically to hold her upright. This room must have far more shielding on it than the rest of the base, it was partially blocking her remote signal. Not good. As Gina struggled to compensate for the lack, Miss A nodded once to Dragonfly and stepped forward towards the chair. "I see you've been busy in here, Magnus," she began conversationally, arms loose at her sides. "Your people outside are worried about you. Care to tell us what you've been up to?"
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Wander was much happier to get on the motorcycle than on the giant horse, but that was about all the happier she got as the heavenly earth fell away and she was suddenly plunging not only into a war zone, but into every war zone all at once. It was overwhelming at first, the shocking violence, the screaming, the smell of blood and death in the air. She was in sweltering hellholes fighting with a machete and in cool sterile rooms filled with computers that made death at the push of a button. At her sides were trained soldiers in field gear and frightened children with antique weapons. She felt the old Erin rising up inside her, the face she recognized when she looked at Singularity, the Erin who killed remorselessly to stay alive in a neverending fight to the death. "STOP!" she cried aloud, her own voice nearly deafening her with unexpected resonance. And for a moment... everything stopped. Every war, everywhere, a thousand small coincidences brought about a sudden ceasefire. Weapons jammed, vehicles became stuck in suddenly muddy earth, units of fighters swung inexplicably wide of each other instead of meeting. Erin gasped for breath as the quiet seeped into her mind, restoring a more rational frame of mind. "It cannot hold," one of her red-garbed companions told her impassively. "The nature of humanity is to war, and many of these conflicts are of long standing. To block them will only serve to increase the carnage later." "I know," she told him, "I just... needed a minute. It's hard at first." The angels nodded, offering neither sympathy nor condemnation. "I know these wars need to be fought. You've been watching them develop, right? You know what's going on?" More nods. "Good." She twisted her hand on the handlebar of the bike, revving the engine. "We can at least minimize the atrocity factor. You can tell me how. Let's go."
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Just then, there was a loud knocking on the front door of the penthouse, but Richard was already moving to answer it. Paige Cline was waiting outside, looking slightly winded and vaguely put out. Her outfit of faded blue jeans and an old Los Angeles Sparks t-shirt suggested someone who'd been anticipating an evening at home, not scouring the city for an errant mother-in-law. "Parking is terrible out there," she muttered to Richard, before turning her attention to the others in the room, especially the two young women. "I thought you said she was with Set. Didn't all his ladies wear the cobra corsets?" Before Richard could comment, she caught sight of Anna and her swords, and looked truly pained. "Mother Cline."
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Paige shuddered a little bit at the mental image Argent's words evoked, but seeing her niece and great-nephew actually helped her pull herself together. There was too much to be done for her to lose her composure now. "I'm sorry you had to see all of that," she told Carolyn sincerely. "That's not the way heroes act in Freedom City, hasn't been for decades. I know it's little comfort, but the superhero community is going to be vitally interested in knowing what happened here. No superhero, no matter how well-connected, can get away with cold-blooded murder." She rose to her feet as a squad of policemen began to diffidently enter the arena. The FCPD were trained to not interfere in metahuman combat situations, but the forensics team needed to do their jobs before the body could even be covered. Best to let them work. Paige turned her attention to Kit. "I'm sorry," she said in a quiet, distantly polite voice. "I don't think we've met before. I'm Hologram. Are you with the League?"
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The shock of her visions had stunned Paige sufficiently that by the time her head cleared and she realized what was happening, she and Richard were a half-mile out to sea and heading towards Ireland at a good clip. She knew from experience that letting go of his hand at this point would result in a quick dunking, so instead she began hitting his shoulder with her free hand. "Hey! Hey! What the hell are we doing? Where are we going?" Even the sea was choppy here, but it was nothing compared to the devastation being wreaked on the land. Paige wasn't a brave woman, but she already knew the images she'd seen in the smoke were not ones she would forget. "We can't just leave!"
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For a few minutes, Paige was alone with the body, or at least solitary enough to pretend. There were a few people moving around in the stands, police officers, she supposed, or the ghoulish sorts who liked to see destruction and gore. There'd probably be photos on the internet by evening, pictures that she would be hard-pressed to explain while keeping her public identity and her buried past entirely separate, but for once she just couldn't care. There was a heavy weight on her chest, in her head, and it made her feel unutterably tired and numb. She murmured her way through what she remembered of the Shema Yisrael, a surprising amount after all these years, stumbling over the line, "and you shall teach them diligently to your children." That one was a bit too fraught in a lot of ways. By the time she finished, people were flying down from the roof, coming to land not far away. Paige vaguely recognized one as a Freedom City heroine, one who'd been around a little while but whose name didn't immediately spring to mind. The other was familiar, if only from photographs. "Carolyn," she said in a thick voice, wiping her face with the heels of her hands. "And that must be Jimmy?" Damned if she was going to call the baby Gimel, that was just sick, and how could she still be so angry with Parker Psion when he was literally dead at her feet? "Are you all right?"
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"All right then." Taking a deep breath, Paige filled out and signed the permission slip in neat, precise handwriting. "I expect you'll act in such a way that both we and the school will be willing to let this be the first of many field trips." She handed him the papers. "And I hope you have fun. Just don't listen to anything your father says when he tries to give you advice about space travel. He just has a bad taste in his mouth because the cosmic flyers are so much faster than he is," she advised sagely. "Do you have to go now, or do you want to stay for dinner and run film with me?"
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She laughed a little, though there wasn't much heart in it. "I suppose I'll take your word for that, you're in unknown territory as far as I'm concerned. Everything I know about high school, I learned from watching television. Promise me you'll be careful, all right?" Paige returned to making her list,jotting down things like toothbrush, underpants, and long-range homing beacon. "And stay away from that wretched moon monkey if it's still around," she warned. "It's probably got rabies or moon fleas or something horrible like that. Nasty little thing."
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At those words, Paige's hand stilled, her pen halting mid-word in the packing list she was making. "Chase Atom," she repeated softly, "is the chaperone?" Will could see the sudden doubt in her eyes, even feel it on the edges of his mind despite his mother's excellent control. Right at this moment, Paige wanted very much to call the whole thing off, forbid the trip and keep her son on Earth, where if not safe, he'd be safer, and she could keep an eye on him. But to do so now would ruin the lesson she was trying to teach and undermine his self-confidence at the same time. So instead she asked. "Are you sure this is something you want to do, Will?"
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Paige's eyes sharpened a bit at that, definitely a Mom Look. "Overnight on the moon, huh? Talk about being a little bit out of reach on a class trip. And with a big-time senior named Molly?" She began to look at the crumpled papers in her hands, scanning the information provided on the slip. "So who are the chaperones going to be on this expedition? Are you going to need to pack food, or money, or your passport? What's the weather like on the moon these days?" She swiveled her chair to grab for pen and paper off one of the monitors. "You haven't grown out of those flannel pajamas yet, have you?"
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Paige raised an eyebrow. "You certainly don't have to say anything more than that to your friends, but is that going to stop them from wanting to know more?" she asked. "I know there are a lot of ninjas in your class, and they tend to be better than most about not asking uncomfortable personal questions, but kids are naturally curious. You need to know ahead of time what you're going to do if someone starts pushing." She smiled a little. "That's another one of those lessons you learn now and carry along for the rest of your life, by the way. Secret identities are a pain in the ass."
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Paige nodded, not looking entirely happy, but accepting what she'd known his decision was likely to be. "No spray paint," she told him firmly. "We're better than that. Have you thought about what you're going to say to your friends, how you're going to explain any precautions or irregularities?" Paige fixed him with a serious look. "Going into a situation that might be dangerous is one thing, but you're also carrying the secret identities of this whole family with you.The Atoms aren't the only heroes out there with a longstanding grudge against any Psions that might make themselves available for punishment. More than a couple of villains, as well. And as twisted as it may seem, the one big threat that might have stayed their hands is gone now. We have to be careful."
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Paige motioned to Will to take a seat on a chair that was only partially covered with books and papers. She looked as though she wanted to say something, but then bit it back and looked him in the eye. "You're sixteen now, William," she told him soberly. "Old enough to be on a superteam, old enough to save the world." She laughed a little, not exactly humorously. "I'd be lying if I said that didn't keep me awake nights worrying. But we've done the best we can to prepare you, and your father and I are both very proud of you." Reaching out, Paige took her son's hand and squeezed it lightly. "Being old enough means you're going to have to make some hard choices for yourself. If it were my decision, I would keep you home. There's enough trouble in the world without going out and borrowing more, and I've made it a habit of avoiding Atoms for thirty years now. Even before... before what happened last month. It's in my nature and my training to lay low and avoid threats where possible. It's been a long time since I purposefully courted trouble." She smiled a little, wistfully, reminiscently at that. "But you're more like your father than like me, and I understand that."
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The smile slipped from Paige's face, leaving her looking somber and sad again. "You know that's the headquarters of the Atoms." It wasn't a question; Will wouldn't be so concerned if he didn't realize the problem. "And there are likely to be a couple of Atoms on the moon as well. Last I heard, Chase and Victoria were living up there, and I can't imagine they wouldn't turn out. After..." She paused and swallowed, closing her eyes for a second. "After everything that happened, they know who I am. So they probably know who you are."