Electra

Erin already had the Zombie Trevor in a submission hold with his arm up behind his back, an automatic response to his grabby hands. The zombie was struggling and snapping his teeth futilely, but despite the abnormal strength of zombies, he had no chance of escaping. "Sure," Erin said, sizing up the bizarre robot-zombie amalgam. She bent close to Zombie Trevor's ear, just for a moment. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you," she murmured, then turned him loose to face Midnight's efficient dispatch. For her own part, it was a little bit intimidating to face Travis Hunter in any form, but at least this one was just a zombie, or a percentage of one. Wishing she had her bat, Wander took a few steps back for a running start, leapt into the air, and delivered one punishingly efficient snapping kick that divested the body of its head as cleanly as if she'd been knocking a ball off a tee.

"Mmm, no bet. Give you a story to take back to him, anyway," Wander replied dryly. "Last time I faced off with anything Terminus, they tossed Megan at me, but it didn't work. They've got a lot to choose from, anyway, but at least nobody in my family had any superpowers. Stand ready, everyone," she instructed the others, "and stand back." She took a deep breath, then stepping forward along with Midnight, tossed the lid off one casket.

Miss Americana's hands went still over the board she was examining. Slowly she turned to look at Dark Star. "A month?" she asked hollowly. "One month before a planet-sized planet-killer comes along and rips us to shreds? What are we supposed to do with a month?" Her whole body gave a single spasmodic twitch, then she took a deep breath and seemed to gather herself. "What do you know about this thing?" she asked Dark Star. "What does it want? Is there a way to negotiate with it, bluff it or head it off somehow?"

"This was too easy," Erin said warily, momentarily disregarding the fact that she was already bloodied and batless from fighting thousands of Omegadrones and their overseer. "I don't like the idea of getting into these boxes, but I like the idea of whatever's in them coming up behind us when we're leaving even less." She looked over and locked eyes with Trevor. It was obvious who the horrors in the last two boxes belonged to. "I can take it if you can," she told him, a humorless half-smile playing over her face as she took a step towards one box.

Wander tried to grab Quo Dis before she could blast open another casket, but there were distinct disadvantages to being an non-flyer fighting a flyer. Despite herself, she watched as Martha Lucas emerged, and shuddered at the neat hole in Martha's forehead, the much messier one in the back of her head. It whispered to the revelations in Erin's own heart and mind that were still unresolved, things she couldn't afford to deal with right now. She shoved it away and concentrated on the faint thread of dark amusement that Mark's luck, even latent as it would've been at fourteen, had acted in his best interest and protected him from suffering, if not death. Somehow it seemed fitting for this cemetery of a world. Pushing all that aside, she forced herself back into full concentration on the fight. CT was helping Sage, but that left them both vulnerable to the cackling little witch zombie floating above them. Erin channeled all her conflicting emotions, the suppressed fear and the bottomless well of rage that Friendly's death had done nothing to quell, and directed them towards this small enemy. In a heartbeat she was in the air, bouncing off one of the empty boxes and turning an aerial summersault before barreling into Zombie-Faith with both fists outstretched. She knew how to kill a zombie with her bare hands. This one took a pummeling that would've atomized most zombies she'd fought, but the end result was the same. As she landed, Wander flung the zombie corpse at Zombie-Martha, almost as an afterthought. Both zombies careened across the room to fetch up against the far wall, not so much as twitching. "It's not real" she called to Mark. "None of this is real for you."

Okay, Erin's too far to use Takedown Attack, so instead I have a new and cunning plan! Wander is going to use Acrobatic Bluff on Faith, DC 28 to resist. She is going to charge and do an all-out Power Attack on Faith, which means +2 to attack, +5 to damage, and a whopping -7 to defense, so nobody better need an interpose! It's a crit! Woo-hoo! I'm the best at space! Ahem. 1d20+17=37. DC 40 toughness save, plus autofire. Spending an HP to surge, throwing Faith at Martha-the-minion for a simple takedown. 1d20+12=28

Summers steepled his fingers and addressed Brian first. "Loyalty is an excellent quality that will serve you well. Blind loyalty, on the other hand, the sort that asks no questions and makes no judgments, does no service to you or to your friends. Loyalty alone cannot substitute for an analytical mind tempered by loyalty, one that assesses a situation and makes good judgments even when your friends are not." "Very well then," he said to the threesome, flattening his hands on the glossy desk. "After the dinner hour tonight, you are all to report to Mr. Archer in the gymnasium for training. You will report to him again at six tomorrow morning, and again in the evening. On Saturday, you will report at 7am and train for as long as he chooses. You will continue with this schedule, in addition to your other classwork, until he and I are satisfied that you can be trusted to go out on the streets without getting yourselves or anyone else killed. Until that time," he added firmly, "there is to be no unauthorized patrolling, do I make myself clear? And if your enemies show themselves again, Mister Crowe, I expect you to inform your RA or the staff." He gave them all a piercing look, the sort that would turn blood to ice water in the veins of criminals and students alike. "You may have the makings of heroes," he told them. "You managed to pull a difficult situation back from the brink. But if I see you back in my office for anything but a commendation, you may be looking for your hero training elsewhere." Obviously comfortable that they understood, he leaned back in his chair. "You may go."

Miss A led the way into a large empty room, longer than wide, with one long wall covered in reflective impervium-fused glass and the far wall dotted with various targets. The other long wall was colored in black and white stripes, while the floor contained distance markings and a thick red line marking off the near quarter of the room. In the center of the room was a set of reinforced gymnastics equipment. "This room is highly reinforced," she explained to Cole, "designed to stand up against metahuman powers. If you invested a lot of time and effort, you might damage it, but nothing we're going to do in testing should pose any problem." She gave him a reassuring smile. "Sharl and I are going to go back to the observation booth," she gestured to the glass wall," and let you do your testing in here. You'll start behind the red line, and I will tell you what I'd like to see. If anything ever starts making you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, I want you to tell me right away. All right?" Beckoning to Sharl, she headed for the booth with all the computers and meters.

In the blink of an eye, Wander had gone from pensive to active, diving across the room to pull Cobalt Templar out of the way of the doppleganger's attack. "Pull it together!" she demanded of him. "I know how it feels, but we've got no time to feel it now. Later! Sage, Edge, get Faith!" If they could take out these opponents, then Midnight could still get to the bomb before it was too late. Wander let Corbin go, then flipped across the room before launching herself into the air and slamming into the levitating paragon!

Silence hung in the air for a few moments after Morgan's lengthy explanation. "I am aware of what happened," Summers said coolly, his manner indicating that he was already quite familiar with the details of their antics, perhaps as soon as they'd transpired. "I'm far more interested in the thought process that led any of you to take the actions that you did." He tapped one long finger on the student handbook, regarding the trio levelly. "This school has rules, rules that you agreed to abide by when you became students here. These rules are not arbitrary, nor are they intended as a challenge for you to prove yourselves against. They are for your protection. Leaving campus for a solo patrol," he began, fixing his attention on Wisp, "without so much as informing anyone where you were going, was foolish in the extreme. This is not Chicago, and superpowers will not protect you, as you found out." His attention went to Morgan next. "You learned that someone you care about was placed in deadly danger because of your prior rash actions," he summed up pithily. "At that point, you had access to all of the resources of Claremont, the faculty, the more senior students, myself. Through those channels, you could have had assistance and counsel from any number of experienced heroes to handle a life and death situation. Instead, you did exactly as Brannagh hoped you would. You took the situation as an insult to your pride and rushed in yourself, endangering not only yourself but Victoria, Brian and John as well. You left an open dimensional portal behind you. It is sheer luck that the consequences were not far more severe." Finally, he looked at Brian. "Your loyalty to your friends is commendable," he began, though it didn't sound like much of a commendation, "but your methods are not. You saw that Morgan was in emotional disarray and perhaps not thinking clearly. Instead of providing a clear head and sound advice, you followed along with his plans, and in the process contributed to the worsening of the situation. Loyalty does not mean sacrificing your own intellect," he said crisply. Summers looked at each student again, meeting their eyes. "Your actions here have consequences. Luckily those consequences were not fatal, this time. What do you each feel would be the most appropriate discipline for me to assign to all of you?"

Wander will interpose, yes. Her hit DC is 25, so she manages to get Corbin out of the way without either of them taking a hit. Though her first impulse will probably be to smack him across the face and tell him to get hold of himself, she's going to fight Evil Quo-Dis instead. Move action, acrobatic bluff, DC 28. Standard Action, leaping charge, power attack. -2 defense, -3 attack, +5 damage. 1d20+12=15 An absolutely atrocious roll, but I don't want to spend more HP right now, and her defense is awful too. Autofire is in effect, damage is non-lethal.

Wander goes on 31

Summers' office was a spartan place, but the features it did have were elegant. The room was dominated by a large desk of a material that looked more like obsidian or onyx than any wood, its pitch-black surface gleaming under the glare of the overhead fluorescent lights. A window overlooked the broad and pleasant lawn of the Academy, an outside world that seemed like nothing more than a distant dream from here. Pictures of former headmasters lined one wall, an elegantly framed elevation of the school hung opposite. Four chairs had been brought in and placed in front of the desk, hard-backed and uncushioned, they looked about as inviting as they were supposed to. Behind the desk, not in the stereotypical leather wingback, but in an efficient black ergonomic desk chair, sat the man himself. Duncan Summers watched the students from hawklike eyes under hooded brows, the lines of age in his face only serving to make him look more formidable somehow. His face betrayed no expression whatsoever. On top of the gleaming desk, there was only one item, a closed copy of the student handbook that each new student had received at orientation, the one that contained all the rules they'd agreed to abide by. Summers listened to Morgan's outburst impassively, then looked at the three students head-on. "If you would," he said gravely, "explain the thought processes that brought you here today."

Erin was barely aware of the others coming in behind her as she stared at the affable face of soulless evil. Covered in blood spatter, her uniform torn, hair hanging loose, she looked far more the desperate EZO1 refugee than the superheroine she'd made herself into one painful step at a time. "Don't touch him," she warned the others. "Deadly nanites. And he's mine." She took a step forward, then another. "It's funny you don't recognize me," she told the doctor. "Steelgrave did. You killed my world. Now you can die with it." In a single blinding move, she flipped into the air, bounced off the nearest console, and dove towards the evil physician, the jagged end of her broken bat aimed squarely at his nose. Friendly didn't dodge, didn't block, didn't do anything but look faintly startled even as the baton smashed into his face and penetrated his brain, exploding out the back of his skull in less than a second. Erin let go of the bat and let it fall with him, breath rasping in her throat as she stared down at the body in what looked like disbelief.

Calling Lethal Damage now Move Action is Acrobatic Bluff, Skill mastery, DC 28. Standard Action charge attack, -2 defense, +2 attack. All out power attack, -5 to defense, +5 to damage. First attack roll not good enough, spending HP. 1d20+17=30

Main Ingredient: Chicken Yes, I know Chicken isn't a starch, but these recipes are for the stovetop too. The pinwheels go on tortillas, and the tomato chicken goes over baked potatoes, oven roasted potatoes, rice, quinoa, or pretty much anything. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are more expensive than other kinds of chicken, but you can catch it frozen on sale. Tomato Soup Chicken 2 large or 4 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts 1 can tomato soup concentrate (Campbell's usually, it gets very cheap on sale) 1 tbsp brown sugar 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1/4 cup warm water Olive Oil Brown the chicken breasts in the olive oil in your sautee pan. If the breasts are thick, be extra careful they cook through to the middle. You might want to put the lid on for a little bit. While the chicken browns, mix soup, water, sugar and vinegar in a bowl or large cup. When chicken is almost finished, pour mixture overtop,, making sure to soak everything really well. Put the lid on and simmer for another 5 minutes per side, then with the lid off until the sauce begins to thicken. Serve any way you like, on a sandwich, over potatoes or rice, any starch that will soak up the delicious sauce. Buffalo Chicken Pinwheels 1 large or 2 small chicken breasts (or leftover rotisserie chicken) Olive Oil Buffalo Sauce Cream Cheese 4 tortillas Ranch Dressing Celery (optional) Cook chicken in olive oil in skillet or sautee pan. Chop cooked chicken as finely as you can, into a sort of pre-chicken salad consistency. Stir in buffalo sauce to taste. Spread cream cheese on a warmed tortilla shell, making sure to get the edges. If desired, chop celery fine and sprinkle it over entire tortilla. Sprinkle buffalo chicken mix over entire tortilla. Roll up tortilla and slice into 5-6 pieces. Serve with ranch dressing for dipping. Beer Can Chicken (You actually need an oven for this one, but if you've got one, it's cheap and delicious) 1 whole raw chicken 1 can beer, any kind Spice Rub (I use Emeril's Essence) Butter Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make sure your chicken is thawed, then rinse it well inside and out, pulling out any packaged parts from the cavity. Lightly coat the skin with butter, then rub liberally with your favorite spice rub. Take the can of beer, open the tab a tiny bit, then use a can opener to remove the entire top. Drink or pour out 1/3 of the beer, then add 1 tbsp rub to the remaining contents. Place can upright in a baking pan, then pop the chicken on top of it, so that the can goes into the cavity and the can and legs form a tripod for the chicken to stay upright. Cook at 400 for 1/2 hour, then turn oven down to 350 for an additional 1.5-2 hours. If you have a meat thermometer, use it, otherwise check for juices that run clear, legs that are very loose, and white meat clear through when sliced open. Crockpot Recipes A crockpot is a must-have appliance for the frugal kitchen. A crockpot not only lets you prepare a meal to cook while you aren't even home, it takes the cheapest, toughest, most freezer-burned cuts of meat and turns them into something nice through the magic of just cooking them for a really, really long time. A crockpot, like a rice cooker, is something you can often find with years of life left in it at a thrift store, or you can look for sales, display models, clearance, or scratch-n-dent specials.I personally prefer a very large crockpot, since even if I make too much food, crockpot leftovers are usually very nice. Pot Roast This is a go-to meal for when you are having guests, because it is easy, inexpensive, plentiful, and looks like a lot more work than it is. Some ingredients are more expensive, but can be used more than once The amount of everything is very flexible. I recommend at least two pounds of meat, whatever kind of beef roast is cheapest when you're shopping. 2lbs or more beef roast (Pot roast, round roast, any sort of thick, inexpensive cut of beef) 4-6 medium potatoes 1-2 lbs baby carrots 1 can cream of mushroom soup 1 can mushrooms, pieces and stems 1 packet onion soup mix Worcestershire Sauce Red Cooking Wine (optional, but nice) Garlic Salt Pepper Trim excess fat from roast, then garlic salt and pepper both sides freely. Set aside while you chop the potatoes into 3/4 inch chunks (about the size of a Duplo block), and rinse the carrots. Layer the bottom of the crockpot with potatoes and carrots, till there is just enough room on top for the meat. This amount will vary with the size of your roast and your crockpot. Shake soup mix packet over roast and veggies, then add cream of mushroom soup. Fill soup can halfway with water and stir vigorously to get the residue, pour into pot. Add mushrooms and liquid to pot. Splash in approx 3 tbsp each Worcestershire and wine, a little more if you have a big pot. Add lid, turn crockpot to low, and cook for 6-8 hours until meat is falling apart. Stir occasionally. When the roast is finished, remove it and the vegetables to serving dishes and preserve the leftover cooking liquid. This can be thickened into gravy with flour and cornstarch, or used as a wonderful hydrating liquid for TVP. TVP made with this liquid can be served as meatloaf sandwiches with ketchup.

Main Ingredient: Ramen Noodles Ramen noodles are a stereotypical staple of the cheap diet, and for good reason. They are extremely inexpensive, as well as tasty and versatile. They are by far the least healthy main ingredient on the list though, with a high fat and sodium content and few redeeming nutrients. Remember to use these recipes in moderation. Broccoli Ramen Casserole 2 packages chicken ramen 3/4 cup shredded cheese, yellow is best 1 cup frozen broccoli (other frozen veggies may be substituted) 1tsp minced garlic Pepper to taste Bring water to a boil in saucepan, toss in frozen broccoli. Wait for water to return to boil, add noodles and cook. When noodles are soft, drain and return to pan. Add the contents of one ramen flavor packet (set the other aside for chicken broth, or for flavoring other dishes). Add cheese and garlic, stir well until cheese is melted. Add pepper to taste. Spicy Buffalo Ramen 2 packages Spicy Chicken ramen 3 tbsp (approx 1/4 brick) cream cheese 1/2 cup shredded cheese, yellow or Mexican-specific is best 2 tbsp Frank's Red Hot Sauce or other buffalo wing sauce (more or less to taste) Cook ramen noodles and drain thoroughly, return to pot. (You can also cook in the microwave and drain with a fork, but watch out for the steam.) In a separate small dish combine cheese, cream cheese, one spicy chicken ramen packet (save the other for later) and hot sauce. Microwave until cheese is melted and stir together, pour over noodles. To get all the sauce from the dish, fork up some clean noodles and use them like a mop to swirl around in the bowl. Mix sauce and noodles thoroughly, add more hot sauce if additional heat is desired. Main Ingredient: Couscous or Quinoa Couscous and Quinoa aren't as easy to find on the cheap as other carb staples, but if you can get them, they're really nice. Quinoa can stand in for rice or couscous, and is absolutely packed with nutrition. It's worth looking for. Cheesy Lemon Pepper Tuna Couscous (or Quinoa) 1 cup dry couscous or quinoa (rinse the quinoa first!) 1/2 cup any shredded cheese, yellow is best 1 can tuna, not drained Lemon pepper seasoning Make couscous or quinoa according to package instructions. (Note: It is way, way easier to make good quinoa in a rice cooker than on the stove.) Add tuna and all liquid, as well as cheese. Stir well until combined. If mix is too dry, add a splash of milk. Season with lemon pepper to taste. If you don't like lemon pepper, garlic salt will also make a nice flavor.

Okay, after much delay, here are my best cheap recipes. I'm going to divide it up into a few posts for easier reference. These recipes are actually part of a much longer work in progress that is a comprehensive guide to cooking and eating cheaply, which will be posted on my blog when I'm finished with it, if anyone is interested. Recipes are grouped by main ingredient. Main Ingredient: Boxed Macaroni and Cheese Mac and Cheese is a staple of cheap cooking, and more versatile than you'd think. Use half-again as much evaporated milk as the recipe calls for and only half as much butter for a healthier version that is just as creamy. Macaroni and Peas Ingredients: 2 boxes macaroni and cheese 1/2 bag frozen peas 4 hot dogs Garlic Salt Put water on to boil for macaroni. While the water heats, cut the hot dogs into small pieces. When the water is boiling, put in the pasta, wait two minutes, then add the hot dog pieces. When the macaroni is nearly cooked, add the peas and cook just long enough for them to get warm and the pasta to finish. Drain all, return to pan, and add cheese powder, milk and butter. More milk may be required for desired texture. Season with garlic salt to taste. Tacoroni and Cheese 2 boxes macaroni and cheese 1 lb frozen ground turkey OR 1 cup dehydrated TVP 1 package taco seasoning 1/2 jar salsa 1/2 cup any yellow or Mexican shredded cheese Make macaroni and cheese according to instructions on package, or using modified directions above. While macaroni is cooking, brown ground turkey in skillet and add taco seasoning, OR mix taco seasoning with water and rehydrate TVP according to package instructions. Add meat or TVP to completed macaroni and cheese, add salsa, stir well, reheat on stove if necessary. Serve, topped with shredded cheese. Main Ingredient: Dry Boxed Pasta Dry boxed pasta comes in many different forms, and these recipes work for all of them. It's merely a matter of preference and availability. For an extra nutritional boost, look for sales on whole wheat pasta or garden-style multicolored pasta. It takes a bit longer to cook, but it's very nice, and very filling. Chicken Linguine (Chicken Optional) Dry boxed pasta (Rotini and thin spaghetti work best) Butter or margarine Grated Parmesan cheese in a jar Garlic Salt Leftover chicken, cubed (leftover grilled chicken breast, rotisserie chicken, skinned fried chicken, whatever, so long as it's all meat with no sauces and can be cut small) This recipe has no amounts given because it is extremely flexible and relies upon the taste of the cook and the number of portions needed. Cook up the pasta to your desired tenderness, drain well, return to pot. Add approximately 1tsp margarine per portion of pasta (that's box portion, not how much you think you'll eat, so that an entire box of pasta would take approx. 4tbs of margarine), and stir till it melts. Shake on Parmesan cheese and garlic salt, stir to coat. Taste it several times as you go, add more until it tastes yummy. At this point you can stir in your chicken cubes if you have them, or just eat it the way it is. If you have any feta cheese crumbles, they are also really good in this dish. Meat (or Meatless) Sauce for Spaghetti 1 lb ground turkey (OR 1 cup dehydrated TVP) 1 large jar or can commercial spaghetti sauce 1 can diced tomatoes, not drained 1 bay leaf Minced Garlic (dry or fresh, fresh is best) Fresh Basil, Oregano and/or Rosemary if available Italian seasoning Salt and pepper 1 cup mozzarella cheese 1/4 cup Grated Parmesan cheese The spaghetti in this recipe is self-explanatory, so I'm focusing on the sauce here. For meat sauce, brown the turkey first in your saute pan, adding a spoonful of garlic and some Italian Seasoning while you do it. Drain by soaking up the excess grease with some paper towel, there shouldn't be too much. Add all the ingredients to this pan. Start with the jar of sauce, then the diced tomatoes and their liquid. Add 1tsp dry minced garlic, or a heaping tbsp of fresh minced garlic, then chop any fresh herbs and add them. Add bay leaf, Italian seasoning (less if you're using some fresh herbs), salt and pepper to taste, then simmer for about 20 minutes on low. As the sauce cooks, you will probably want to add more spices to taste. When the sauce is done simmering and the spaghetti is about done, remove the bay leaf and discard it, then add the cheeses and stir well. Serve over the noodles, adding extra parmesan if desired.

Wander worked her way steadily towards Freedom Hall, smashing, stomping, and stabbing as wave after wave of drones fell before her. It was almost uncomfortably easy to fall into the old mindset, tell herself that these weren't people anymore, and that giving them death was nothing more than a release. She paused and looked up, wiping blood from her face, as Midnight lit up the sky with fire and cleared the parts of the battlefield she couldn't reach. She smiled just a little before leaping up the steps to the hall itself, steps now littered with bodies but entirely unguarded. "Come on!" she shouted to the others. "Now, let's move!" The doors were already open from the drones who'd come spilling out to fight her, so she ran straight in, ready to clear the way.

"It wouldn't hurt to see if there was a super-teen around who could use the money and is responsible, I suppose," Stesha decided, giving Ammy a gentle stroke on the cheek to wake her from her mid-meal nap. "Or even an adult. We don't have a lot of money to spare, but once I can get back to doing some work, we should be able to pay a decent hourly price." She sighed a bit at that. Stesha certainly wasn't ready to think about going back to work, but they did have bills to pay, and building a new world wasn't exactly an expense-free proposition. "So," she said with a rueful smile as she lifted the baby for a burp. "I counted twelve more messages I have to respond to somehow, and about twice that for you. I think we're going to be busy bees, to pardon the expression, for the next little while."

"Send Harrier and the drones to Earth," Miss A agreed with a nod to Dark Star, "then go check what you need to check. Dragonfly and I will work to secure the ship and see if there's anything else we can learn. A new example of Terminus tech is always useful for improving our defenses, if nothing else." Now that she knew these were just children inside the metal suits, she was uninterested in prolonging the facade. She just hoped they would prove receptive to deprogramming. "We'll be all right on our own for a little while," she added, looking to Dragonfly for confirmation.

"It was in a different dimension," Miss A told Dark Star, rubbing her head as though trying to soothe away a phantom ache. "I can hardly fathom that there might be more than one of those things, even between universes. It was so massive, so destructive. I don't know if the planet was Earth in that universe, it might have been. The sentients looked human, but then most of them do. I don't know how we'd have a prayer of stopping something like that, not if every hero on Earth took up into space and went after it."

"Yes, I met their babysitter once, she was very... intense," Stesha replied with a laugh. "Very protective though, and that's good. I'm hoping Ammy won't have as many special needs as Jack Jr. has. So far she seems so normal, except for where she's absolutely brilliant," she cooed at the baby. "We'll know more after Doktor Archeville looks her over, of course, but that won't be for a few more weeks. Tarrant has offered to help out with babysitting, but he's busy himself," she added, referring to their friend and neighbor Gaian Knight. "I've been thinking of asking a few of the settlers, but I'm not sure," she admitted. "It seems half like I'm taking advantage of them because they're so dependent, and half like I'm not certain they'd take care of her properly. They're not exactly up on modern parenting."

In the silent moments just before they broke the water, Erin pulled off the sturdy camping knapsack she carried, the only part of their supplies she'd brought along from Seattle. She handed it to Mark. "Keep this safe for me, if you can," she asked him quietly. "It's important to me. Just don't guard it with your life or anything," she added with a small half-smile. Her eyes went hard as they broke the surface of the river and got a look at what they were facing. The lawn outside Freedom Hall was saturated with Omegadrones. The bike wouldn't be able to land, wouldn't even be able to fly over without encountering heavy resistance and those deadly powerpike bolts. She leaned forward and kissed Trevor on the cheek, then stood up on the seat of the Redbird. "It's been an honor serving with all of you," she said gravely, then leapt backwards off the bike like a swimmer on a high-dive. Her body turned gracefully in midair, almost flying for a moment, before she aimed her feet towards the ground and landed in the middle of the crowd of drones. For a moment, there was nothing but a roiling turbulence in the gathering, like the impact of a pebble falling in a pond. It quickly resolved, though, into an open space, then a widening empty area populated only by fallen drones. Wander fought like a demon, every other thought banished from her mind as she once again fought for her life against overwhelming odds on the world of her birth. Only this time, she had more to fight for than mere survival. One end of her bat snapped off as she jabbed it into the gut of a hulking drone, throwing off the weapon' balance and disrupting its electronic dampening system, but she still used it to great effect. Within moments, the broad lawn of the Hall was cleared, and the drones who were left had far greater concerns than one flying motorcycle.

Wander is going to use her move action to leap into combat with the Omegadrones. They should be flat-footed because her initiative is much higher, so she won't bother feinting. Full power attack, with bat. Spending 1 HP to remove the drawback from her bat. 1d20+10=27. That's a DC 35 toughness save, plus up to +10 from autofire.