Electra

Ah, right, I lost track of this one. Wander has Evasion 2 and Impervious 11, so she does not need to make the rolls. I do, however, need to figure out what the heck is going on with that bubble and whether I can hit through it. =)

"Sure, of course," Stesha said automatically. "I'm an excellent moral supporter." She hesitated for a second. "Ah, about Derrick, he already knows, actually. There was sort of a comedy of misunderstandings, and he wound up seeing the test you left on my table and jumping to the wrong conclusion. I had to tell him who it actually belonged to. He's really happy for you," she hastened to add. Derrick, at least, could be counted on to look steadfastly at the sunny side of even the worst situation. Though sunny might not be the appropriate term for it in this case. "We've both kept it under our hat since then, nobody else knows from us."

Erin shielded her eyes and looked up towards where Mike had fallen. "That's risky," she pointed out. "A hit that could knock Phalanx out of the sky might tear you in half instead. If anybody should try and take the hit it would be me, but I'm not crazy about the idea either. How close did you get before they shot at you?" she asked Mike. "Do you think you were close enough that someone with powers that work at range, like Psyche's telekinesis, might be able to reach before they could shoot at her?"

On the other end of the phone, Stesha was quiet for a few seconds, trying to think of a thing to say. She rubbed her face, forgetting for a moment that she'd been up to her elbows in potting soil before diving for the phone, and left a broad black streak across her nose and cheeks. "Well, congratulations," she said, doing her level best to inject some sincerity into it. "That's really something. You'll have to be really careful." For a long time, it seemed. Maybe forever, and that was in what could be charitably called a best-case scenario. "Is there anything I can do to help out?"

"Oh wow," Stesha murmured. "Did you learn anything else, how far along you are, or how it might have happened?" She was quiet for just a moment, mulling over what to say. It was hard to know what was appropriate, given the circumstances. Finally she asked, a little cautiously, "Have you decided what you're going to do?"

Stesha answered on the fourth ring, just as Taylor was expecting to be dumped to voicemail. She sounded a little breathless, but that wasn't unusual. For someone who worked in a service profession, she was really not good about keeping her cell phone handy. "Hey Taylor," she said, the phone rustling as she juggled it. "How's it going?" She sounded a little worried as well, but was obviously trying to hide it for the sake of normalcy.

Stesha gasped, putting her fingers over her mouth until Freedom Angel had safely caught the falling man. "That can't be the Freedom League," she said with great surety, "they'd never do something like that. Something terrible is going on." She closed her eyes and looked for plants inside the building that would let her get a peek at what was going on inside the walls.

"Hey, he's still here!" Stesha exclaimed. "Maybe we can still get him!" Instantly, a giant hibiscus flower yawned open behind them, its pink petals unfurling like a silk sheet being shaken out. It reared up on a long, slender stem, hanging over the threesome like an umbrella for a moment before flopping down, enveloping them all momentarily in overwhelming fragrant pinkness before they were spat out of the ornamental plant on the room that had just been on the screen.

Dark Star bought that one off, but you could ask Cyroa how he modeled it. I think he could go to full power in a round, but it took a number of hours to go back to normal identity once he was empowered.

Erin took a deep breath and rolled her shoulders, then got to work. Almost too fast for the eye to follow, she leapt up into the fire escape of the nearest building, actually overshooting the guys by a couple of yards. She made a one-handed grab for the railing and used it to twist herself around, turning all her momentum in the opposite direction so she was suddenly barreling back directly at Phalanx. With her bat leading the way, she connected with a solid thwack that had vibrations resonating up and down her arms.

Erin's going to attack Mike this round, which should save on interposing time, at least. She's going to use fast acrobatic bluff again, which is a 25 with skill mastery. Since Mike's Sense motive is +4, I think that succeeds automatically and puts him flat-footed. She's going to do a full power attack with the bat, which drops her attack to +8 and raises damage DC to 33. She rolls a 19.

Stesha gave Taylor a rather harried look. She was chasing after Clingy with the skimmer, but the little alien child was making a game of it, drifting just into reach and then darting off like a seal, burbling with laughter the whole time. Since Stesha was obviously unwilling to get back in the water, and would probably be just as unsuccessful if she did, it looked like a stalemate. "Yes, please," she told Taylor. "Otherwise we might not get this one home at all, let alone anytime today."

Curious, and rather worried to boot, Stesha extended her senses into the quiet building as well. She could see plants in the lobby, and was pretty sure there had to be plants elsewhere as well, even if it was just a potted plant on someone's desk. The moment she tried to see through them, however, she hit a blank wall and recoiled. Something was preventing her from seeing inside the building, very odd! She was just shaking off that strange feeling when she heard the reporter's words. "Astro Labs?" she murmured worriedly to Dark Star. "What would they be doing there?"

Stesha looked to the screen in consternation. "It's the movie they were screening in the other room, it's an anime cartoon. I think it's supposed to be really hard to find and controversial, but I don't really know much about it. He went to all that trouble, put all those people in danger, to steal a cartoon?" Her voice was incredulous.

"We haven't really talked about it yet," Stesha admitted, her cheeks coloring a little. "We've only been dating six months, and he hasn't even met my family yet. And with everything that happened at the wedding, we didn't exactly have time for a discussion on the subject that night. But yeah," she agreed with a smile at Taylor, "if and when, he'll probably be really traditional about it. He never really moves fast, but that's okay. In any case, it wouldn't be June," she joked, "it's my busiest month at work. Are you and Ace going out now?" she asked Moira, "or were you at the wedding as friends?"

"There's something metal up there," Erin reported after fiddling with the binoculars for a few moments. "It's definitely something man-made, but I can't tell exactly what it is. It looks familiar, sort of, but I can't place it from just the little bit I can see of it. Can you see anything from up there?" she called after Mike.

Stesha covered her mouth with her hands as the iron monster grabbed Moira, unable to look away as it swung her like a bat towards her own allies. She started breathing again when Atlas stepped in, but it was obvious that Moira was still in a pretty bad way. Kicking off her shoes, she ran across the dance floor in her stockings, pulling her seed pouch from her pocket and sorting through it as she went. She knelt next to Moira and cradled the fallen heroine's head in her lap, green leaves spilling over her hand and through her shaking fingers as she selected the appropriate seeds. "Here, try and swallow it, this will help," she told her friend, rolling up the leaves into a ball and sticking them in Moira's mouth. Acutely conscious of their very vulnerable position, Stesha took a deep breath and reached into her bag again, tossing a seed into the middle of the floor between herself and the bad guys. It began growing immediately, though it found no purchase in the floor, and instead began spreading wide roots across the parquet floor to stabilize itself as it grew. In seconds, a large and extremely thorny tree had grown up in the middle of the dance floor, sporting pleasant-smelling flowers and spikes nearly a foot long.

Stesha is going to use her healing power on Moira. A 24 probably hits, I think. That will add +15 to Moira's recovery bonus, I believe. She is also going to spend an HP to surge and use Growth to grow a honey locust tree between herself and the bad guys. Honey locust trees are cool, they have thorns that can be nearly a foot long. Anyone who needs a wooden stake, have at it! :D

Erin looked down the path, then tipped her head up to look at the sky. "The birds are okay," she pointed out, "they can fly over the path. Mike can fly up the path, but it might not mean anything. There could be something on the ground, or in the ground. If we get there by air, it might be safer." Taking her binoculars out of her pack, she trained them on the path, trying to get a better look at what lay ahead along the ground.

"Derrick is good," Stesha replied, digging into her purse and setting her cell phone to vibrate. Not that anyone would hear it in this place, but it was only polite. "He's been working a lot lately, but so have I, with the season. It'd be nice to get away for a weekend sometime in January, after all the holiday parties and weddings are all settled. January's such a blah month anyway, especially in the city." She grinned. "Every January I find myself wishing for someplace warm and sunny with drinks served in coconuts. Maybe this year I can actually manage it. No airfare or anything to worry about."

Erin had little stomach for another fight against her teammates, especially after the quick, hard drubbing she'd taken before. Even with her body's rapid recovery time, the smash into the pavement left a vague headache behind. Obviously the Terminus energy that had swamped Mike and Alex on Halloween had given Mike more of a boost than Erin had realized. And Mark was Mark, which meant some of the scenery was more than likely going to fall on her before the fight was over. Still, she wasn't about to back down or back out, and even if it hurt, well, it would get better. Her bat was still strapped to her belt, among a large assortment of apparently empty pouches and pockets on the odd costume, so she took it out and opened it up, giving it one last check. "How do we know when we're done?" she asked.

Sorry, better late than never? =) Stesha goes on 15

Stesha burns an HP to stunt Area of Effect plant-based affects-others teleport on the NPC section of the room. She's sending them to the nearest park, because those are the places in the city she is most familiar with, and there are plenty of plants on the destination end.

Stesha's heart leapt into her throat as the explosion of strange light bathed the celebration. Her first thought was for Derrick, though he could almost always be counted on to take care of himself, then for Taylor and her other friends. Taylor seemed to be doing all right for herself as well, for the moment. But there were a lot of other people in the hall as well, people who couldn't protect themselves and needed to be gotten to safety. Luckily, the entire room was bursting at the seams with flowers she'd placed herself, only hours before. Closing her eyes and trying to ignore the fear that wanted to cloud her mind, Stesha reached out to all those plants, every centerpiece, every hanging basket, even the corsages and boutonnières began to grow, extending leaves and tendrils until the whole area beyond the dance floor was covered by a thin web of green. It took only moments, and then the entire audience disappeared, chairs, tables, and all. The nearby park would be cold this time of year and night, but it was a lot safer than staying here, and it was the first open space she could think of. Of the civilians, only the bachelors who'd been in on the garter scrum and a couple of waiters remained behind. It was something, anyway.

Erin waved Alex off, climbing to her feet amidst the rubble of the formerly neat path. "I'm okay, just a bump," she assured Alex, taking advantage of the momentary lull to look at her bat and try to figure out what had gone wrong with it. "Are you sure you want to keep going? We can do a different simulation or something." There didn't seem to be anything wrong with the bat, so that probably meant it was just an Edge thing.