Gizmo

If Jack's going out intending to fight, can he try for a surprise round or what here?

Jack gave his diminutive teammate a reassuring bump with his shoulder, his expression flickering with concern until he schooled it into a light-hearted amusement once again. "Eh, I got all my major organs ruptured by a giant demon 'til I died one time," he chimed in with a nonchalant shrug, "but then time travel made it all better. Well, except for the hellfire thing." Turning his attention back to Lynn, he winced slightly. "Sorry about all that, again, by the way." At Gabriel's suggestion he raised both thumbs and pointed his index finger at the white robed man jauntily. "Storm the castle, nice."

"Putting down a transdimensional bigot?" Wail noted with a snort, dusting off some of the dirt his sonic assault had kicked up onto his clothes. "This is one I woulda done for free even back in the day." He gave Bloodfang a level look over the tops on his sunglasses, though he wasn't entirely sure how well the gesture translated between species. The raptor lieutenant hadn't been the most gracious of the bunch, but the broad-shouldered hero supposed he could appreciate the effort she was making. "Well, like they say, your neighbour's truck brakes down, lend a shoulder getting it out of the ditch. Let's get you on your way."

"I feel like there's a joke here about warping physics to get undressed faster," Jill drawled with amusement even as she beamed at Dragonfly's rapid costume change, "but good taste prevents me. Did you put on sunscreen before we left?" The medically minded young woman dithered over her considerably fairer complexioned partner even as her own sienna tone easily soaked up the sun without issue. Shading her eyes with one hand, she looked back up the beach as people continued to arrive. "Okay, Shortround I know from school, Doc de Havilland is pretty hard to miss and I'm assuming that was your beau," she noted, turning to Jessica. "Anyone else I should recognize?"

Jack's hand slipped from the dryad's cheek and wrapped around her slender waist, pulling her to her feet and pressing her body against his with a newfound urgency. The fencer had spent a long time keeping the people around him at arms length, through a facade of immature taunting and brooding reclusiveness. Even among those he considered friends there were insulating layers of light humour, and some lonely part of him recognized the same reluctant solitude in Willow's words and the amber pools of her eyes. Finally breaking away, he kept his face close enough that white hair brushed against his cheek while his hand rested over her bathrobe's belt where it crossed her hip. "I'm thinking," he noted very softly, "that dinner can wait a bit."

Wail's face set in contempt as the massive dinosaur physically shouted his self-aggrandisement. "Inferior races, huh? You wanna roar, sucker?" Taking another massive breath, the earsplitting educator took a heavy step forward. "So let's ROAR!" The new onslaught of sonic force pounded into Kaiju, who had no chance to blunt the attack this time. Wail advanced one step at a time, continuing to pour forth the rumbling bass attack. Even as he kept the shout in a tight column, the pebbles on the street around him bounced up and down, and bits of loose brick fell from nearby buildings. With a final push that burned his super-dense lungs, he sent the T-Fuhrer spiraling into unconsciousness.

Hero Point: Surge for a Standard Action! Standard Action: Sonic Wail; All-Out Attack 5, Power Attack 5. (1d20+7=26) So close to a crit! Still, DC 38 Toughness Save.

Erik didn't even bother to feign ignorance as the suddenly appearing man addressed him, the grating, sulfur reek of hellfire crawling across the energy manipulator's skin like a nest of spiders. Stopping the lawnmower, he gave the unsettling blond a thin smile. "Well, nothing wrong with a well cared for lawn, amirite?" He made a show of mulling over the offer, not wanting to overcompensate and seem too eager. "You've got my attention, anyway. I'll listen to your sales pitch," he lied winningly, his true distaste completely unreadable. "Just give me a minute to get a couple of things together, deal?" Leaving the mower where it was, he quickly moved back to the house, grabbing his mother's wheelchair and bringing her inside without asking. "Friend of yours?" Gina asked quietly. "Not even a little bit," her son replied under his breath. "I need you to stay inside, out of sight, alright?" Though it clearly went against her nature, the ex-police officer nodded curtly. "Shall I call in the cavalry?" "Not yet," Erik told her, quickly retrieving a familiar royal blue bandanna mask and greatcoat. "This guys knew right where to find me and what I am. I want to find out what his game is first."

Jack's going to turn about and use that Bluff score himself to convince Keter to let him go put his costume on.

Wail Standard Action: Sonic Wail; All-Out Attack 5, Power Attack 5. (1d20+7=22) Let's start with that, lemme know how it goes.

"Uh huh..." Jill drawled sardonically at Jessica's suggested gender roles, giving Cobalt Templar, the only other person she recognized there, a brief wave before the girls reached a favourable spot on the beach. Slipping her jacket off to expose dark bronze shoulders, she draped it over one arm until the towels could be set up. "Well, they can look, I guess, but this isn't really for them." She kept her tone innocent enough, but shot her girlfriend a subtly teasing look before turning her attention to the water.

Bluff +26 and Skill Mastery, so... yeah.

In the West End, Erik Espadas pushed a rumbling lawn mover back and forth across the lawn of his family's home, trimming the grass back to a manageable height after the recent warm weather had seen it spurt skyward. His mother watched idly from the porch before turning back to her book. The sound of neighbourhood children playing sounded faintly in the slightly humid air, pausing only for the occasional passing car. Rounding another row down the width of the property, Eric wheeled the mover back on it's rear wheels as he reoriented it and continued with his mundane work, a brief respite from his hectic life.

Jack ladled the mixture form the bowl onto one half of the tortilla slowly, devoting only a fraction of his attention to the task as he watched the unaging guardian's face. "Ah, florecita," he murmured, shaking his head a little ruefully as he set down the wooden spoon. "I really hope you're not actually a supervillainess, because you've already infiltrated my home, learned my secret quesadilla recipe and discovered my greatest weakness." Stepping around the island counter, he reached down to gently take one of the hands from Willow's lap. "I cannot stand to see a gorgeous woman looking so sad." Leaning down slightly , he used his free hand to cup her coppery cheek lightly and kissed her. His movements were confident, but there was a delicacy to the gesture that suggested an asking of permission.

With her arms wrapped around her girlfriend's neck, Jill laughed in delight as she watched the ground speed by below them. It wasn't so much the sensation of flying - if anything, swinging from rooftop to rooftop in a constant state of barely-controlled plummeting was probably more thrilling - but knowing how much work Mara had put into getting the wings to work the way she wanted them to, refusing to take any shortcuts or make any compromises, made seeing the fruition of that dream something special. "That was amazing!" she enthused as they set down, giving Dragonfly a hug she likely could feel much of through her newly minted battlesuit. The taller girl had opted to wear the crimson bandanna mask and jacket of her typical costume, but the two halves of a lighter red and white polka dot swimsuit peeked through the coat's flaps and a borrowed pair of baggy board shorts.

Another vote for violence!

"Ha, it's the nose, right?" Jack laughed back, grinning broadly as he moved his hand to rub the back of his head, the tone of his face doing a good job of hiding a light flush of minor embarrassment at the compliments. Don't get me wrong, dalliances I do alright with. I'm gangbusters at dalliances." The athletic young man pulled a back a cloth from atop a plate to reveal a short stack of sizable, steaming flour tortillas and moved the one on top to his working space. "A lotta folks swear by settling down and all, but I don't see why that should stop anybody from finding some happiness in the here and now, y'know?"

"Well, you don't mince words, Miss Willow," Jack chuckled a little ruefully, scraping the slices of pepper into the bowl with the rest of the mix and stirring more thoroughly. "I guess... someone I find attractive physically, obviously, who's fun to spend time with. Ah, good to share some common interests. Someone who challenges me but who I don't have to watch what I say and do around." He set down the wooden spoon next to the cutting board and rubbed the stubble on his jawline absently, trying to answer the question as honestly as possible. "Then again," he admitted, "with my track record, I'm probably not a great example."

Wail ran out through the Rock's front doors with street shaking strides only to face the truly titanic footfalls of the über-dinosaur! "Man, I've fought drug-peddling monkeys, sword-swinging birdmen and a dolphin was was pretty much rude to everybody, but a fascist dinosaur?" The broad-shouldered bald man took a deep breath that filled his prodigious chest. "This sorta thing is why I came out of retirement!" Fists clenched at his sides, he let loose a column of bludgeoning sonic force that warped the very air between him and Kaiju, an impossibly deep bass that those nearby felt in their bones. The Tyrannosaurus Rex turned to meet the scream head on, a wave of neon green flame roiling from his jaws to disperse the bulk of the attack. Eyes narrowing behind his sunglasses, Wail planted one foot behind him and redoubled his efforts, punching through the radioactive fire and wearing the saurian down.

Alright, LaMarr will spend an HP to Surge! Standard Action: Sonic Wail, All-Out Attack 5, Power Attack 5. (1d20+7=25) So that's DC 38.

Wail Move Action: Get outside! Standard Action: Sonic Wail, All-Out Attack 5. (1d20+12=25) That's DC 33, and technically Knockback 36, though I expect Fiating on that part!

Jack's rhythmic chopping paused for split second as he glanced up from the cutting board to regard Willow quizzically before quickly resuming. "Look for?" he repeated, lifting the wooden rectangle to dump the slivers of fowl into a bowl with grated cheese and salsa. "As in, romantically speaking?" The swordsman stirred the contents of the bowl together briefly before setting it aside and retrieving the kitchen knife along with a small handful of jalapeño peppers, rocking the utensil back and forth, leaving a row of thin discs in its wake.

Initiative. (1d20+2=14)

"Huh. That's cool," Jack responded affably, leaning against the wall next to Gabriel and crossing his arms over his chest. "Explains why I don't get a juju vibe from you." After a silent beat, he added without being asked. "I was bitten by a radioactive playing card. True story." For all he was attempting to lighten the pious hero's somber mood, that really was fairly accurate. If Gabriel had been a latent mutant, his origin ran parallel to Jack's own, although the metamagi of the House of Swords took a more active hand in 'kickstarting' their own powers. Raises a few new questions.