Electra

As John walked across the peaceful quad, the silence was suddenly broken by loud barking! A gangly orange cat streaked across the lawn, followed by a wildly yapping terrier mix hot on its heels. The cat crossed directly in front of John's path, ran straight through the broad trunk of a nearby oak tree, then scaled it in a wink, hissing angrily. The dog, unable to stop in time, clobbered into the tree at a full run, yelped, and then sat back shaking its head, wondering what had happened. The orange cat bristled a few moments longer, then seemed to notice John. With a curious look in its oddly intelligent eyes, it walked out along a low branch to get a better look at him.

"Okay, we go for the big group first," Erin murmured, pointing to a group of ten aliens on a platform a hundred feet away. "Go in fast, while we've still got surprise. I'll land us in the middle of the group, and as soon as we touch down, you smoke 'em. Then we take out as many as we can, as fast as we can. Good?" She waited for his assent, then picked him up around the waist with one arm and made a perfect standing leap, right into the thick of the group of aliens. As soon as the air filled with smoke, she started hitting, relying on her memory and an extremely acute sense of hearing to tell her exactly where the bad guys were. They didn't have a lot of of fight in them, and by making big sweeps with her bat, she took down better than a half dozen of the rank and file, and one she thought might have been a command type. She fought in silence, concentrating hard on listening to what she needed to hear.

Initiative! 1d20+13=33 Erin's going to grab Trevor and jump over to the big concentration of baddies 100 feet away. He will use his midnight mist as a free action, so she will be using her accurate hearing to attack with. She will power attack the first baddie, using her bat. She takes ten, gets a 19, lays him out. She repeats this six times, for a total of seven minions down. After that, she comes to a non-minion and must roll the dice! 1d20+9=25. DC 34 toughness save.

"Of course," Stesha said immediately. "If he has skills that can help, I'll be more than happy to have him along. I know time is of the essence, so someone who is already up to date on the story thus far could really help." She looked over at Trevor. "How long do you think it'll take you to be ready? I can take you right back to the latest defoliation site as soon as you are. I'd like to get back there anyway, I'm hoping that next time it happens, if there is a next time, I'll feel it and can get over there before whoever it is escapes."

Erin fell in with him as he walked, while Persephone stayed behind to do whatever it was she planned to do to fix the ship. "Well, it didn't sound like whatever it was was very bad," Erin observed, "so I guess we shouldn't have to worry much. So what have you been up to since graduation?" It wasn't as though she wanted to hear the gory details or anything, but talking to Persephone about James' busy social calender had gotten her curiosity up. She wasn't jealous or anything, obviously, of course. What would she have to be jealous about? She just wanted to know what was going on.

Erin looked a little startled to see him arrive, but recovered immediately. "Fine up here," she told him, gesturing to the cage with the sleeping tigers. "I don't think they managed to actually hurt each other, so they should be okay when they wake up. And the lights are starting to come back up, so I think things are going to be okay. How are things down with the engine room? We going to have to write away to Star Trek for an engineer?" she asked with a grin.

Stesha's eyes widened at that pronouncement. "That's not good news," she managed, staring at the little vial. "Dead plants are bad enough, but if someone's about to escalate to buildings or god forbid, people, we could be looking at serious trouble. And we haven't even found any clues to who might be doing it, except for the poison itself!" She looked from Travis to Trevor. "I'm probably going to need to get some other heroes in on this," she admitted. "I'm not really much of an investigator."

"They're just kids," Erin pointed out with a shrug, "none of them have trained like we have. They probably don't even want to be superheroes." She chose a branch near the top of the trees, just deep enough to give her some cover while letting her see out. "Most of the people who come to Claremont are like that, they have powers they aren't really developing, but they want the education, and to feel special because they're hanging around with other metahumans. That's what makes you special, you haven't really got a big flashy power, but you want to be a hero and you've worked your ass off for it. I don't see anything coming down at us yet," she reported, switching gears without a blink.

"Oh, wonderful!" Stesha exclaimed, setting her teacup down and rising as Travis came into the room. The vial didn't look like much, but that was why she was a botanist and not a chemist. "I was afraid it would take much longer. Have you figured out what the poison is?" she asked eagerly. "Or how we can fix it?" Who and why were also pressing questions, but she suspected that the elderly chemist would not be able to help her with those. She'd be happy enough to save the plants, for a start.

The light woke Singularity as it rose in her compartment, bathing the bare walls and floor in its harsh glow. She startled awake, jerking herself upright as though she were about to be jumped on by an enemy. There was no one there, though, friend or foe. She put up a hand to wipe her face, and realized she was covered head to toe with blood and couldn't really remember why. When she thought hard, she remembered a fight with zombies, but couldn't remember if it was real or just a nightmare. Whatever it was, it was gone now. She went to take a shower, and hoped that there was food in the drawer for her. She couldn't remember when she'd last eaten, and she was pretty hungry today.

The monsters kept getting bigger and hitting harder, but Erin ran on, fighting and slashing and destroying as she went. They were hurting her badly now, and the other people were falling back, but she wouldn't stop, couldn't stop until she found Megan. Several of the monsters dogpiled her and she ripped her way free, even as she felt her own bones snapping and trying to reknit. These zombies were too big and too tough, she realized, she couldn't fight them. Something inside her breathed a sigh of relief, even as she charged heedlessly into the mob. She wouldn't get out of this one. Screaming incoherently, she went down fighting, pulled under by an overwhelming tide of monsters.

Now the zombies began to fight back harder, now some of them seemed to have superpowers that let them hit her back! She sensed more than saw people she recognized around her, but they didn't matter either and she ignored them. Sometimes the monsters fell without her touching them and she knew that was the other people. For a moment, through the press, Erin caught a glimpse of Megan! “Hold on, I'm coming!†she screamed, racing towards her threatened sister. She arrived just in time to shield Megan from several devastating blows with her own body, but by the time she'd regained her feet, Megan had disappeared again. She had to still be alive, Erin told herself, she had to be close by!

In just seconds she encountered the first group of moving targets, faceless creatures in her mind that were surely zombies. Everything was zombies until proven otherwise, and Megan was in danger and she didn't have time for any of this! Opening out the double-ended blade that had somehow come to be in her hand, she made short work of the first group of targets, then wiped the blood off her face and raced onwards. More and more of them appeared as she rushed onward, shrieking with the wails of the damned and flailing their rotting limbs at her as she mowed them down. They hardly mattered, they were no challenge, and most importantly, they didn't have Megan. She kept running.

Erin, help me! The voice was stronger now, with a sharp edge that couldn't be ignored. I'm so scared! They're everywhere! Images crowded into her head, Her sister surrounded by zombies, her mother being ripped apart by them, endless armies of the undead bearing down on her. Her knowledge of the world as it was began to splinter under the weight, the reality of the white room and the wall she'd been watching slipping away in the face of immediate, overwhelming threat. “Megan,†she moaned, still clutching her head, “hold on, I'm coming...†A five-foot section of wall folded out silently and unnoticed, forming a ramp down to the ground. A girl's scream ripped through the air, and suddenly Singularity was in motion, a bolt of speed as she raced through the opening and headed into battle, ready to destroy anything that presented itself. There were handlers in the bold colors of the Tyranny Syndicate there, and beyond them an open door leading to an empty corridor, but she ignored them entirely. Escape was no longer on her mind.

While the compartment was in motion, Singularity hurried back to the bed, crouching down in the space between the bed and the dresser. If she could spring out the instant the door started to open, she could take whoever was out there by surprise! A leap, a quick twist and snap, maybe a few, and she could make a run for it! She didn't know where to, but she was fast and strong and she would find some way out of here. There had to be a way out, even from hell! She tensed her muscles and stared at the door, waiting for her chance. Erin... The voice in her head was familiar, the most familiar thing in hell. Singularity clamped her arms against her head and fisted her hands in her hair. “No, no, you're dead, I can't hear you!â€

Instead, Singularity went to the dresser and opened the top drawer to see if there was any food there. She couldn't remember when she'd eaten last, and she was starting to get hungry. Sometimes the dresser had food in it, but not today. That probably meant she was going to be let out soon. That was an unpleasant notion. Outside was a very dangerous place, full of voices and frantic violence. It was never a good day when she was let outside. Still, it paid to be prepared. Walking to the open space in the center of the room, she began to stretch her muscles, keeping a sharp lookout for any signs of the door opening. Halfway through her workout, she was jolted into a backwards roll when the entire compartment started moving. Apparently she was going somewhere today. Useless information to be sure, since she didn't know where she'd been to start with, but it was better than not knowing anything. And she could be ready.

Her black and red uniform was covered with blood, but she couldn't remember where it had come from. She had vague recollections of a fight with zombies, like usual, but there was no way to tell whether that was a real memory or just a nightmare. Her windowless compartment had a toilet, sink and shower in one corner, which she made use of while things were quiet. Those items, the bed, and a plastic dresser were the only furnishing in the 10x10 compartment. There was no door. When she was let out, half of the wall opposite the bed opened out to release her. That segment of the wall was covered in dents from her repeated batterings, but now it was also covered in electrified wires as well. She'd knocked herself unconscious a few times trying to break through anyway. It hadn't had any effect on the wall, or ultimately, on her. It hurt, though, so she didn't try it today.

Empire City, Anti-Earth Singularity woke when the lights rose in her compartment, but she didn't move from her bunk. It was impossible to tell what might be lurking in the brilliant white light that stung and dazzled her eyes. Still motionless on her stomach, she opened her eyes to slits and waited for them to adjust. The voices were quiet for now, which was a welcome relief. When it was quiet and she was alone, she could remember what had happened to her, that her family was dead and her world was dead and she was trapped here in hell. Those were the good days. She could think on those days, make rudimentary plans for escape or for suicide, though nothing had worked out so far. She couldn't remember how many times she'd tried or how long she had been here. There was no time in hell. For now, there were no other people either, so she sat up in her bunk and wiped her face.

"Actually, you're wrong," Erin replied. "If I don't look at you, you sound like a human and I can remember that you're not like the ones I know. That you can still think and have feelings and, you know, not try to rip apart everybody you come across. But when I look at you and you're all falling apart and tatty and look like you've been mindlessly shambling around for a year, all my instincts tell me to take you apart before you kill someone. You wait here, I'll be back in a couple minutes." Before he could say anything, she rose to her feet and executed a prodigious standing leap, disappearing into the night sky. It was closer to ten minutes before she came back, thudding down into the same spot she'd left with a quiet thump. She had a couple of packages in her arms as she looked around to see whether the zombie had waited.

At Mark's signal, Erin didn't hesitate. Using her bat as a pole vault, she leapt over the lead Centuritron, landing behind it and then tossing the bat away to smash it barehanded right in the small of its back. Like many robots, this one appeared to have a pivot juncture there, and the blow sent it reeling. Unrelenting, Erin kept after it, shoving it to the ground and ripping its metal head off. She didn't do that to most humanoids anymore, of course, but it was one sure way to stop most robots. And she was very good at it.

Erin is going to use Acrobatic Bluff as her move action, skill mastery plus five for the inspire means it's a DC 33 for the first robot to not be flatfooted. She will do a full power attack against the first robot. 1d20+14=19 DC 34 toughness save for the robot. Spend an HP to surge, power attack the same robot again. 1d20+14=34 A critical hit! DC 39 toughness save.

For Wander: Remove Mighty from her bat, let those points dangle for the moment because I'll use them later. Spend 4pp on four Strength, raising her to 38 Done by AA

Upstairs, Erin continued her conversation with Persephone, even as James worked to solve the engine room crisis. "Things are really different here," she agreed. "James is my best friend, but we're not, you know, together. He doesn't think about me that way, he likes to go out with really beautiful girls, which, you know, makes a lot of sense. And... well, Trevor and I are sort of going out, but it's complicated. I'm not really ready to be dating anybody, so you can be pretty confident I'm not going to be playing anyone. I really like him, but, you know." She shrugged. "That other Wander and I are different, and so is James from Hell-Ion. He and I are good friends, and that's all."

"Don't you talk to me about what I've lost," she told him, a dangerous edge in her voice. "I haven't forgotten what you did to me to learn about it. And don't feed me that line of crap about how nobody gives you anything because you look like you've been rotting in water. I just offered you something and you started whining because you're not pretty and nobody likes you. Maybe if you put on some real clothes and stopped scaring people for fun, you might get some actual friends. You think you scored a lot of points with Lady Winter by pretending you just fell out of a zombie movie?" She sneered. "Anyway, you want the uniform or not?"

Erin made a derisive noise at that. "You hang around with the goodiest do-gooders in Freedom City, and you think you can't get any clothes from them if you just asked? Or hell, get a job with somebody? I'm homeless and destitute too, but people practically fall over themselves wanting to help me out, and I'm hardly any more lovable than you are." She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "I could get you a uniform from Claremont. They're practically indestructible and come with hoods and face masks for cold weather. Would you wear it?"