Electra
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"I didn't exactly plan it that way," Stesha admitted with a rueful laugh. "When I started working with Sanctuary, it was a blasted husk of an alternate Earth, destroyed by something back in the days when the horseless carriage was a big new thing. The landscape was so ruined and dead I thought nobody could possibly have survived, so I adopted it as sort of a sandbox while I was trying to learn my powers. Someplace safe to do big landscaping projects without worrying about anybody being hurt or getting annoyed that I terraformed their backyard. I put a little weekend home there, and a shelter in case I needed to teleport civilians out of danger in a pinch. Which happens more often than you might think!" she added, raising her coffee cup and having a sip. "Anyway, it turns out I was wrong about there not being people on Sanctuary. A group of survivors found my evacuation shelter and started living there because there were live plants and food and clean water. I absolutely wasn't going to throw them out, so I recruited some help and got a village going. A couple post-apocalyptic generations had been really unkind to their knowledge base, and everything else as well, but they were really eager to learn the skills to get a community up and running. Then my archnemesis got sent to prison, and asked me to take care of his giant bee colony. Super long story, but I brought them to Sanctuary as well, and got a friend to help me build them a colony. Then a couple years later one of the kids from Claremont asked me for help to evacuate her home before it got eaten by the Doom Coil. Terminus, you know? Incredibly bad news. I certainly couldn't say no, not when the alternative was letting them die, even though it was closer to ten thousand refugees instead of the thousand we'd been expecting. We doubled up and made do, and I got some friends to help me get the materials and people necessary to build two more villages and hugely expand the one we already had. Then on top of that we've got the support staff of teachers and doctors and farmers and such who are passing along their skills, the monks in the monastery, and a couple of other superheroes who base there, plus Ammy and I. As of last Tuesday morning, the population is 10,789 people, and somewhere around fifteen hundred bees, though I have stopped trying to keep count of them. But you met some of them at the party!"
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"Oh sure, I can do that," she assured him brightly. "And I do have all the stuff, it's just sort of in a big pile. Let me grab some coffee and we'll sit down and relax." Stesha headed to the counter and placed her order, then shared a few friendly words with the barista and looked like she might have signed an autograph as well. In a couple of minutes she was back with a caramel-scented latte and some kind of flaky pastry. "Whew," she said, sinking into her seat with a laugh. "Big morning. Okay, Nicholson." She steepled her fingers and gathered her thoughts. "You're right that I'm not sure if I'm going to send Ammy there, but it's not actually because of anything I've heard about the school. I've taken tours there and talked with the principal, and it seems very good. But I run a school district of sorts for almost two thousand children on Sanctuary, and I feel a little weird if I don't send my own daughter there, if you understand what I mean?"
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The appointed hour came and went, then another minute, then five more. They were very long minutes. Suddenly the bell on the door jingled and Stesha rushed in, looking slightly windblown and flustered, a couple of the yellow flowers trying to escape the intricate loops of her green braids. She glanced around the shop and smiled in pleased relief when she saw him waiting. "Hi Ellis! I'm so sorry I'm late!" she told him as she hurried over. It was hard to tell if she'd agonized over her clothes the way he had, but she was looking very pretty in a hand-knit heather gray sweater and dark slacks that gave very little clue as to whether or not she considered it a "date" or a "meeting." "I was on my way out the door on Sanctuary," Stesha explained, "I was going to be early and try and organize all the information I got from the school and everything, but then one of the cows exploded. Not like that," she hastily backtracked, "I don't even know what happened yet, Gabriel's out there trying to find out. But suddenly one of the cows was fifty feet tall and running all over the pasture making a huge mess, and we had to call out the dragon, so at least somebody was happy about it..." She shrugged and spread her hands. "It was kinda weird." Shaking her head, she gave him another smile. "So have you been here before? What's good?"
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Raina walked to the front of the bus and dug into the cooler that held the drinks for the "hydration replenishment break" that was hero high code for "snacktime." She grabbed a bottle of water, then shrugged and snagged a chocolate chip granola bar, an apple and a package of ranch-flavored tortilla chips as well. Girl hadn't eaten for a couple hundred years, she might be hungry. "Here you go, Fred," she offered as she walked back down the aisle. "A little food and water will get your stomach settled down, and maybe you can chill for a few minutes before everybody else gets back." She handed the statuesque girl the food, then opened the bottle and handed it over as well. "You're probably better off just not trying to think too far ahead for now. Somebody will take care of things for you."
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"Hey, come on, shut it down!" Raina demanded of Dauntless, stepping out of the observation area and back into the simulator itself. "Take a time out, whatever the hell you wanna call it. Collate your notes." She stopped just a little ways out of Robin's arm's reach, studying the other girl's face with cautious sympathy. "You okay?" she asked carefully. "You did pretty good there with all those guys, you need a breather? We could blow this thing, go out and find some fun that's actually fun." She glanced over at the guys, especially at Riley, a look that obviously expected something.
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"You know how seniors are, they obviously had better things to do," Raina said blithely, heading for the dorm with her suitcase still bobbing along behind her. "Though that one did run off with my monkey. She better at least feed him before she gives him back, it's only fair. How do you think they did the roommate assigments?" she wondered aloud. "Like random chance, or some crazy psychological assessment? I just don't want to end up with somebody really lame for a roommate, like somebody who's gonna be all narcing to the RAs if anybody has any fun. Can you imagine having to be in by curfew every night, even on weekends? And never have any boys in your room? Their rules here are straight out of the fifties." Raina bounced a little as she walked, all barely contained nervous energy and bravado.
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"You've got incoming on the north face," Koshiro called out to the group on the bluff, even as he moved to intercept them himself. Wheeling around in his paper airplane, he cut through the sky at top speed, his cranes speeding ahead of him and diving down to attack the wolves. Wolves proved a slightly more challenging target than skeletons; even when the paper birds made contact, they didn't always manage to do any damage. Two wolves were persuaded to break off the attack after a vicious slicing attack, but that left plenty more ready and able to continue the fight. "Big and nasty, nd strong!"
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Papercut will target the wolves heading up the bluff on the North side with his fancy-schmancy stunted blast again. Blast 8 (Extra: Area [Targeted, Cone]) {24/24}
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"Why don't we get out the bocce ball," Stesha suggested, walking back towards Ellis and Ellie with Mia tucked securely in one arm. The baby was attempting to eat the big pink flower she clutched in her tiny fist, or maybe pull it apart, but she seemed entertained either way. "It takes so much less time to set up than croquet, and Ammy can teach the other children to play. Then maybe in a little while we'll open that very thoughtful bottle of wine," she suggested to Ellis with an approving smile. "I guess you two already know each other?" she ventured, looking between him and Ellie. "From the university?"
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"Wait, that was it?" Raina asked in surprise, looking up from where she was trying to get a better look at the symbols on the leader's robe. "So it was good that I didn't just charge in and fight them, just because they looked scary?" She seemed gobsmacked for a minute, then actually smilled a little bit. "Cool." Tossing her fireball playfully from hand to hand, she straightened up and headed back to the sidelines, seeming rather more comfortable with the whole training exercise than she had been a few minutes ago. She found a spot next to Anibal and leaned close to murmur to him. "They got a ton of the details wrong on that, but it was just an exercise. I've seen it done so that everybody's eyes glow at the end, it's creepy-cool."
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Raina's face cleared as the workings of the spell became more obvious; this was an invocation to gather power from beneath the earth. The coven must be planning some more intensive spellwork later, or they planned to channel the energy into a member who had become depleted. She'd seen rituals very much like this done before, though she had been warned to keep her magical wards up and not partake, as she was too young and unskilled to control the power should it enter her aura. "Power is power," her father had explained to her, "but you should be cognizant of where it comes from. When you use dark power, you have to know you're strong enough to master it, or it could hurt you." These folks seemed to know what they were doing, she doubted any of them would be overwhelmed by the magical energy. None of the casters were paying any attention to her, still lost in the working, so Raina wandered the periphery, taking a look for any clues about what they had planned for the evening. Her little fireball flickered darker red and began to smell faintly of brimstone as she lingered near the circle, so Raina fortified her mental defenses just that much more. It would be quite embarrassing to let herself be overwhelmed on her first training mission. When she neared the others, she murmured, "they're raising power for a ritual. It's a pretty common spell, I've seen it a lot. I'm trying to figure out what they're going to do with it."
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Raina's first roll was bad, so she's going to spend an HP for a reroll. She gets a 25.
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Raina gave the new kid a quick, assessing look, then favored him with an equally quick crooked grin. "Hey Jimmy, you're late," she pointed out. "We're just heading over to the dorms to have a look at the roommate assignments. You gonna survive the trip over?" She gave his suitcases a look, her own single suitcase still floating like an obedient balloon behind her. "Go ahead and toss yours on top of mine if you want, it doesn't make any difference. I'm Raina, this is Huang and that's Cathy," she added, with a gesture at each as she named them. "So what's your super-special power?"
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Jessie's eyes widened at Kimber's sudden transforrmation, but it was Avro who made her gasp and snatch back her hands in startled dismay. "Oh! What... what is he?" She twined her fingers tightly together and stared at Avro, obviously trying to parse what on earth kind of creature he could possibly be, and coming up with no answers. Even so, she carefully, very carefully, extended one hand toward him again, keeping a very careful eye on that scorpion tail. "Cats are... not always what they seem," she ventured cautiously. "So, um, is he a pet for real, or is does he just live here with the rest of you?" She scrambled backwards on her heels when Indira changed as well, only her preternatural grace keeping her from falling on her butt. For a moment her eyes were too wide and her breath too fast, but she looked over at Aquaria, who did not seem at all bothered, and made herself calm down. "Nobody here is the way they seem," she muttered, sounding mildly disgruntled.
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"That's a limited time offer, pal," Gina muttered at his refusal, hunching up her shoulders like she could cover her head with them if she tried hard enough. Being told not tonight, or not today as the case may be, was another of her many touchy areas, but it was almost subsumed under the consuming need to just not be outside anymore. When he started talking about death, about Nihilor, she scrubbed her face with both hands, rubbing the heels of her palms over her closed eyes. "Christ. I can't imagine being with me and doing the hero schtick has improved your odds of survival all that much. Stuff we do is stupid dangerous. You'd be better off with some woman who's actually a computer programmer, and actually sane, and just... much, much better." She reversed course without turning around, suddenly taking tiny backwards steps towards the house.
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Singularity watched dispassionately as the sharks attempted to bite her. They couldn't hurt her, very few things could hurt her, which had made the painful attack from the tall Atlantean earlier so disquieting. The monsters could hurt the human people though, bite them so they bled and died. Not acceptable. She dispatched the three attackers very quickly and in a manner some might have described as needlessly gory, but it was undeniably efficient. When the last partially-fileted shark lay on the pavement, Singularity at last turned some fragment of her attention to the old man. "Go away. You're not safe." With that, she turned on her heel and ran towards the house of mirrors. Something bad was in there, something laughing and malign. If it was responsible for the monsters, it would have to be stopped. She smashed right through the first mirror she came to, not bothering to stop or slow down as she continued deeper into the fragile maze.
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Singularity will Take 10 on the attack and use Takedown Attack on her 3 remaining shark opponents. When they are all dispatched, she will run into the House of Mirrors to see what Mr. Laughyman is up to.
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For a moment, Raina's breath caught in her throat as she was suddenly thrust back into memories of her old home, her old life. The details weren't exactly the same, but the smell of pungent herbs and woodsmoke, the crackling firelight playing off the walls, the soothing monotony of chanting, it was all so incredibly familiar. This was the sort of work she'd wanted to do all her life, cooperative magical casting with a coven of experienced practitioners. They made it look so easy, made it sound almost like music. Was it possible to work magic with a holographic coven? She stepped forward, holding up her little ball of light to guide her steps as she walked towards the casting area. "Bring me your loves, all your loves, your loves," she sang under her breath, rubbing the amulet on her necklace with two fingers. "I wanna love them too, you know..." Her spell didn't work on the most esoteric and lost of inhuman languages, but it was pretty foolproof for things that alive people were likely to speak. She wanted to know what was going on, but she didn't want to disrupt the ritual.
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Raina took out her lighter as she was looking around at the tangles of machinery, flicking it absently a few times till it lit up with a thin golden flame. "Playmate, come out and play with me, and bring your dollies three, climb up my apple tree," she sang under her breath. The fire obligingly grew taller, wider, turning into a brilliant orange globe with red and golden tips. She flicked off the lighter and tucked it away, then cupped the pretty ball of flame in her left hand. She took a couple of steps towards Anibal, standing next to him and slightly angled, just enough that anything trying to sneak up would have a harder time. "Well I'm betting it's not going to be a fun Super IMAX 3-D experience...."
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Raina raised her hand and waited to be called on. Tardiness was one thing, but politeness to an older practitioner about to teach you something was deeply ingrained. Besides, unlike most of the adult magic users she knew of, Phantom hadn't been involved (so far as Raina knew) in attacking her family and home. A little professional courtesy was warranted. "Are we going to go to one of the charted dimensions?" she asked. "Like the ones in the theory textbooks, where everyone's genders are flipped around, or everyone is older, or the color blue is a lot more purple than here?" She assumed they wouldn't be going to the one where everyone was Nazis or where all the good people were evil on a school trip, at least not a sophomore school trip. She wouldn't really put anything totally past the administration.
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I will explain what she's doing IC, but if I can get her attack resolved at the same time, I can post both those things together without having to double-post or edit the IC post.
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All right, Wander will knock Psyche out of the way, then she's going to jump into the crater with the Sphere and give it a solid punch, on the theory that they can fix it later if it's important. She rolls a 21, which is crappy but hopefully enough to hit a non-moving target. DC 27 toughness save.
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Wander will go on 28. She will also be interposing for Psyche against the Blast, since she has Uncanny Dodge and is not flatfooted. DC 22 is required to hit her.
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"Well I didn't mean to," Raina hissed back, "but she had to find out sometime, she had to notice we look like freaks and she's sitting in a school bus. What if the driver turned it on, right? And get ahold of yourself, she's not even wearing any clothes." Raina shivered and tried to resume her pleasant mien. "So, Winifred, you said? I guess this'll be your first time in the United States. It's pretty nice here, you know, mostly. Women can vote now and wear pants, and we have television and indoor flush toilets and horseless carriages, all kinds of good stuff." She brightened. "Oh, and we've totally got on-demand refrigeration now, so if there's a food you like, you can basically have it no matter what time of year it is or where it's from."
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"My name is Wander," the taller heroine said, walking to the edge of the crater. "You're in the Ashton Mall, in Freedom City. New Jersey, Earth Prime, 2015," she added after a moment's thought. Wander had been a heroine long enough that pretty much anything seemed possible when it came to disoriented people walking out of impact craters. The guy looked human, which narrowed things down a bit, but not really all that much. "From the look of that crater you made, you arrived with a bang about three minutes ago, but I don't think you came down through the ceiling. Do you remember anything?"