Gizmo
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I assume there will be threads for the Liberty League, Interceptors and Yong Freedom, so Midnight, Jack, Jill and Ghost Girl are all in. Wail as well, if you need him somewhere.
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After a few minutes it became fairly clear that no one was going to respond to Erin's broadcast. Jill let out a muffled shout of frustration into the bunched up folds of her sleeping bag before lowering it and staring accusingly at the radio. "I swear, when we find those numbskulls the reprimands will be scathing." Gloved hands held palm upward with clenched fingers emphasized her point. "It's looking pretty clear that the only people here are the ones dropped on their butts. I bet out gracious hosts only bothered making a Vince 'cause computers count as 'backdrop' for this screwy performance piece." Rubbing the bridge of her nose, the medic grimaced in thought. "But if this is a big set-up then they have to be watching somehow, right? Like... satellites or something?"
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"Yeep!" Kimber gasped quietly, ducking down and scooping up the manticore cub in the folds of her reaper's cloak's sleeves. The tiny beast chirped happily and butted his head into her chest before settling down in a ball of spines and fur. "That's Eldrich!" the poltergeist hissed urgently under her breath to Indira, bobbing up and down in the air. "He's basically just the boss of magic stuff...!" Straightening out, she did her best to appear as professional as possible while holding a mythical kitten.
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"Need to find three dozen basketballs and an abandoned creamery, but would probably be fine," Trevor deadpanned, stepping over to the counter as Erin finished preparing her hot chocolate to set his own preferred beverage brewing. It was pretty obvious that she was fishing for a topic to distract from her unusual seasonal behaviour. Chiding him about the contents of the fridge and appealing to his ego where it came to preparedness were fairly weak efforts, however, and he wasn't having any of it. "Thinking about swinging by this year?"
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Trevor's lips thinned in a perturbed expression as he leaned against the wall opposite Erin. "None of those sound like attractive options," he assessed flatly, one hand rubbing against the morning's worth of stubble along his jawline. "Not much planned. Brief phone call with my parents. Stay in, provided no emergencies arise." The Hunters were not given to grand displays and Travis had long since left behind his propensity for holding large parties as he aged. "Few events to make appearances at leading up to New Year's."
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"Not too taxing," Trevor confirmed, following after Erin into the kitchen, walking cautiously. He had the unsettling feeling of circling around an easily spooked wild animal, a sensation he felt immediately guilty for having. He wanted to believe that Erin was genuinely recovering from the painful associations she had with the holiday season but it was a big step without much warning and he was no great fan of sudden surprises. "Milk just expires so quickly. Hard to stay on top of it." He certainly knew he wasn't likely to check on the relative freshness of any dairy in the house with any regularity, given all the other demands on his free time. "Here. Taking a nap."
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Jill expression revealed how aghast she was at the artificial intelligence's despondent request, leaving her standing silently while Wander once again stepped in and took charge of the situation. The medic forced herself into motion, helping to carry the supplies, using her force fields as translucent, floating forklifts, but her thoughts were full of static. It was impossible to concentrate with the severity of the situation truly starting to weigh in on her and the possibility that they might be stranded wherever they were indefinitely moving from a hypothetical to a likelihood.
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Erik was able to avoid Tarrant's attack with relative ease, but not so much so that the proficiency of the professor wasn't evident. "Nice. Heavier sword, heavier stance. Grounded." The fencer respected how unflappable the elder student remained in the face of the youths' flashy displays of raw ability. Tarrant's movements weren't just those of someone completely comfortable with himself but someone who knew how to play to his strengths intelligently. "Alright, well, I think it's fair to say we can jump ahead a couple lessons further than I was expecting," he admitted, running his free hand through dusty brown hair. "We've got a good mix of styles, too, lots of opportunity to practice against varied opponents and pick up some tricks for each other." Erik didn't make an attempt to suppress the broad, lopsided grin that dominated his face. "I'm pumped! Let's get to work."
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Erik couldn't claim to always be the quickest on the uptake, but he did have to good sense to realize that the effortlessly-side-stepping routine wasn't getting much traction with this group. When John charged with single-minded purpose he made the youth work for the hit, but rather than putting all of his effort into avoiding the attack entirely, he moved with the precise strike, taking note of the cold, utilitarian directness of the taciturn teenager's movements. As the blunted practice blade made solid contact along his side, he ruefully wished that Mona had given him a bit more of a head's up before sending a batch of superheroes-in-training his way. Blodeuwedd as already a talented swordswoman in her own right, Eve's mobility would allow her to fight circles around anything short of super-human speed and he suspected very nearly anything became a potentially effective weapon in John's hands. That said, they were still in-training. "Nicely done," Erik congratulated before abruptly bringing his own sword about in a tight arc once the blond fighter had closed the distance between them. In a flash, the younger man's blade had been wrenched from his hand and fallen to the mats a few paces out of reach. "You gave yourself an objective, committed your resources and succeeded. Also: ow," he continued, holding the point on impact with his free hand and giving John a wry grin. "But you're physically stronger than me, too; I could only do that because you were so focused on one thing. Balance, yeah?"
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Haha, man, Erik cannot catch a break with these kids. Alright that hits, but: Disarm Myrmidon; Power Attack 5. (1d20+15=28) Opposed Roll vs. Myrmidon's Strength. (1d20+11=27)
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Midnight II Free Action: Configure Gadgets: Paralyze 10 (Extras: Alternate Save [Fortitude, +0]) [20PP] (shock sticks)Move Action: Auto-DC 30 Demoralize against Jason. Extra Effort: Surge. Move Action: Move to flank Jason with Wander. Standard Action: Paralyze vs. Jason; Sneak Attack 2. (1d20+14=30) That should be a DC 22 Fort Save, potentially at a penalty from the Demoralize.
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"Aw, hellmuffins," Jill muttered as she approached the worn out hologram. Her version of Vince rarely projected himself as a three-dimensional hologram, preferring to appear on screens, but then he also wouldn't have been caught decompiled in a ratty jumpsuit. Something about this AI's lack of panache made him all the more tragic to her. "I don't have a lot of good news for you, hermano," she admitted, moving over to stand next to him for whatever support she could provide. "Pretty sure I'm not even the Jill you're expecting; there's some dimensional shenanigans going on. Have you got a portable drive we can use to get you out of here?" There wasn't much point in voicing her suspicions that this was only a copy of a previously destroyed Vince just yet; that was a pretty nebulous topic when it came of sentient computer programs at the best of times and these were hardly the best of times.
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"I'll bet lots of people would rather just take a day for themselves and avoid all the drama," Ellie supposed airily, giving Steve an understanding nod without picking at the brief lapse in his carefully private nature. "We're looking at a pretty sizable family dinner sort of thing. It's Yolanda's first Christmas on Prime since... well. So we wanted to make a bit of a production, lots of friendly faces." She looked between the security guards significantly. "And if I were talking to anyone with the emotional health of a kumquat I'd assume that the open invitation for both of you went without saying."
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Kimber was getting increasingly anxious about whatever the local iteration of Rogue was planning and the lack of success her teammates were having convincing her to alter those plans but had remained silent and invisible throughout. When the alarm sounded, she was off like a shot back through the wall of the complex and out into the winter air, arriving in time to see the first batch of commandos neatly dispatched by Crimson Tiger and Papercut. Biting back on her instinct to shout encouragement, she instead continued forward as a nigh-undetectable, disembodied entity, mentally repeating back the lessons Siobhan had taught her. Drawing upon the great reservoir of cold she was connected to, the poltergeist let loose an obscuring cloud of fog and ice crystals, a freezing bank of glittering white that blanketed the space between the remaining squads of attackers and the base. With Sharl still transferring the refugees over, the priority seemed to be buying time; hopefully her cloud would at least slow the Nazis down for a while.
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Letting it go at that but still paying careful attention as he picked his actions and words, Trevor look Erin's coat and hat and walked them over to the tastefully hidden closet in the foyer, hanging them up. It wasn't as if this was an inconceivable breach in the norm for her, but traditional time of family togetherness tended to weigh heavily on the dimensional refugee and late December was easily the worst. She's certainly become more at peace with her traumatic past in the time he'd known her, on the other hand, so this could easily just be the next small step in that arduous journey. "In practice," he confirmed. "Exams were all early this semester, had projects instead in some classes." Other students still had a few days of testing left after the weekend, but many of his engineering courses had been more practical than theoretical.
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Erik was tempted to sigh as his suspicions were confirmed; though it was no fault of Eve's, he'd been hoping to go a little longer than that before someone inadvertently made the connection between the self-defense instructor and Jack of all Blades. Nothing to be done about it now, he reflected. Besides, it cut both ways and he knew Claremont students were adept enough at keeping secrets. "That explain a couple things, anyway," he laughed ruefully, explaining to the rest of the group, "Private school, with some... exceptional teachers. If you're actually tutoring there now, I don't feel quite so bad about just now."
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Ghost Girl Move Action: Fly out toward the remaining commandos. Standard Action: Siobhan’s Shroud (100' cone visual Obscure) to buy some time. Since that's from her secondary array, she'll actually remain invisible for the time being. What a crazy, sudden weather pattern, huh? I'll wait for Papercut's IC post to hit that up.
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It took a few moments for the door to open and reveal Trevor standing with an expression of muted surprise, which in his case consisted of his eyebrows lifting just barely over the edges of the oval lenses of his sunglasses. "Erin?" he asked as though unsure of himself before quickly stepping out of the way and beckoning her inside out of the cold. "Wasn't expecting to see you again until the new year," he admitted cautiously, carefully broaching a subject which had previously been understood but rarely commented upon. "Not your favourite time of year."
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This may be something of a stretch, but I'll throw it out there: can Ellie make some combination of Bluff and/or Notice against the deception of their surroundings? There's sort of an ambient Bluff check going on there, after all!
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Jill took the flashlight from Erin but ultimately called up the faint glow of her powers in one hand, taking comfort in having her power literally close at hand. She swore quietly when she spotted the ruined firearm, reflexively shooting a look at the youngest member of the party then feeling foolish for doing so with much more important things to worry about. The look she gave Harrier was much sharper when he revealed awfully specific knowledge of the building's shattered defenses. She knew this wasn't even her Brownstone just as she intellectually knew Steve had been forced to commit atrocities as an Omegadrone, but it was still jarring. Before she could say anything about it, his specific words sunk in. "Oh Dios, Vince?" she called, cupping her free hand to her mouth and looking about. "Vince? Are you still...?"
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"I usually prefer to be both. Also pretty," Erik quipped back, still a little distracted by the young woman's appearance. Beyond the hair colour, any resemblance to Willow was entirely superficial but he suspected he was still flush with some sort of new father brain chemistry, if that was a thing. His sister would have been able to tell him, but she also would have responded to any questions on the subject with some sort of sarcastic jibe so his continued ignorance seemed likely. That train of thought was starting to get away from him when Eve launched into astounding motion. The instructor was unequivocally one of the premier swordsmen in the world - perhaps even of all time, in his comparatively less humble moods - and no slouch when it came to agility and acrobatics. The Martel heiress, on the other hand, had trained for years compete against another set of the world's greatest athletes and even after she was barred from those events had continued to hone them against much higher odds. For all his hair-trigger reflexes and conditioned muscles, then, Erik found himself well outmatched by the only hero to ever out manuever the deadly gaze of Omega himself. It was a close thing, even so, as he pivoted just in time to take hit from her practice blade across the forearm of his off hand rather than squarely across the shoulders, but it still made solid and briefly stinging contact. Stepping back, he shook the arm and gave Eve a bemused look. "You 'do alright', huh? What are they feeding you girls these days?" His eyes narrowed for a moment as something clicked in the back of his mind and he blinked. "Wait, Martel? Were you at Claremont Academy a year or two back?"
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Acrobatics Check vs DC 35. (1d20+15=18) Erik's flat-footed defense is 19, so that's just enough to hit him.
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Wraith's question, serious or not, seemed to snap Ghost Girl out of whatever darkness she'd wandered into, her eyes regaining their usual hue and widening with an aghast expression. "Oh jams, I didn't mean to-- I mean, I did, but, ooh!" The phantom wrung her hands as she floated about the poacher encased in ice, unsure now that her preternatural calm had faded away. "We better make sure he can at least breath, right? I've never actually completely covered a regular person like this before!"
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Kimber watched the paper cranes fly back to Koshiro with a quiet sigh, holding up a translucent hand and watching the sunlight pass effortlessly through her ethereal substance. Although she was happy to see her friends celebrating the return of their natural states, she was uncharacteristically subdued as they rounded up with defeated villains and called in the cavalry. Fortunately the authorities were already mobilized and relatively nearby, having picked up the better part of the Factor Four from the museum and managing to juggle the appropriate containment measures when their elemental forms had abruptly reverted to normal. Explaining the situation had taken some doing, particularly when an argument had briefly broken out between two of the STARS officers on the scene about just what they were looking at when the team produced the Quantum Bauble, but eventually it too was safely contained and earmarked to join the rest of the Lucas Collection too potentially dangerous for public display. With that taken care of the teenagers moved to return to Claremont, but neither Eve nor Corbin could say for certain if they'd imagined a faint ticking of clockwork springs being rewound as the STARS truck drove off.
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"Uh, I can try at least," Jill told Erin, uncertainty creasing her usually confident face. "This one isn't even in the right part of the city, so it might be pretty different inside," she pointed out, absently rolling some of the tension out of her shoulders while setting her angular jaw resolutely. "That smashed up MAVERIC looked pretty much like the one mi hermano and the original team had, though, so it's worth a shot." She didn't want to voice the concern aloud, but she was also really hoping that whomever had set up this bizarre version of Freedom City hadn't gone to the trouble of leaving recognizable bodies in the wreckage of the brownstone.
