Gizmo

Leaving the eccentric couple's antics studiously uncommented upon, Trevor observed each section of the airship Liz pointed out with an almost owlish intensity behind his oval shaped sunglasses. He seemed most interested in the airship's propulsion system and its practically self-sustaining power source. "Hnn..." he rumbled in a thoughtful baritone as he stepped forward to get a better look at the vessel's underbelly. "Been stuck of a... project. Could be a solution."

Jack began idly tossing the pebbles he'd collected at Fear-Master, the bound villain making noises of muffled indignation as they bounced off of his hockey mask. "Oh, the girls compliment me on lots of things," he rejoined, leaning back enough on the rail so that his greatcoat fell backward, uncovering a black bodysuit which left little to the imagination. "Besides the doctorate in stabiture, I hold several honorary degrees in romanceology. Multi-talented," the swashbuckler elaborated with no false modesty.

"Oh, I'd say you've got plenty of advantages," the swordsman drawled dryly, tilting his head ever so slightly to one side with a suggestive smirk. "As for my, ah, 'specialty'," he continued, rubbing the back oh his head as his grin took on a jesting, boyish quality, "I guess you could say I'm a student of the 'sweet science'." Swinging himself past parallel to the ground, he scooped up a handful of loose stones and began tossing them idly up and down in his palm.

With the multilimbed mechanoids well in hand - or, at least, well in vine - Midnight stepped surreptitiously back away from the fight a pushed one sleeve of his black jacket up his arm slightly, revealing a back-lit screen installed into a bracer strapped to his forearm. A few taps were all that was required to access the GBN building's internal network and pull up a series of floorplans. Sifting through them, the masked mystery man soon found was he was looking for. "Know where the control room is. Finished here."

"Moose and squirrel," Jack agreed sagely with a vague wave of his hand in response to the string of foreign language. Stopping his pacing he folded his arm in good humour. "Flying is totally cheating, by the way." By this point Miss Americana had to wonder whether the acrobatic hero was trying to impress her or just had that much trouble standing still. "As for guessing, I don't like a brag," he lied, "but I'm kind of a freaky genius like that."

Jack's teeth ground audible against each other as he reviewed the surveillance videos of their home. His only consolation was that he'd evidently made a wise choice moving out of his family home. "Think if I hit him some more he'll get amnesia and forget where we live?" he drawled tightly to Grim, barely contained stress giving his voice a thready quality. "Well, deal with that later. Let's end this," he agreed, nodding to Colt.

"Naturally," Jack agreed, adjusting his bandanna mask fussily. "I'm a very private person; hate to draw attention to myself." Hunkering down again, the swordsman rubbed the light stubble on his chin. "But see, now I'm all curious, 'cause there's no way anybody'd forget a face like yours. I've known my fair share of shapeshifters and you don't read like fairy glamour or... Russian." Tilting his head to one side slightly, he frowned. "Disproportionately represented in the shapeshifting community, Russians." Snapping his fingers, he popped back up and began pacing along the railing like a tightrope artist. "Did you invent a Jekyll and Hyde style potion with a clothes ripping transformation sequence? 'Cause that would be fantastic." His manner was exaggerated enough that he clearly wasn't making any legitimate attempt to pry into Miss Americana's secrets.

Switching his hand-held tablet to a different function, Midnight scanned for radiation in a radius of several miles, quickly picking up a number of hot spots of the telltale emanations of daka crystals. "Meteor dislodged nearby deposit," he informed the others, giving Phalanx the exact direction and distance to the largest concentration before indicating the peak of the volcano. "Hellion, transport. Please."

Hopping off of her own force field and letting it shimmer away into nothing with a faint, electrical pop, Jill let out a short breath, tossing her unruly black bangs into the air for a moment. "Don't go ruining the farmboy mystique with attempts at irony, now, half-pint," the teenage girl drawled before turning to Erin. "Makes sense, I guess. Wouldn't want people working out without a spotter. I'm game; I don't get a lot of butt kicking practice sans hermano."

Jack laughed again, this time a sharper bark with a slightly ironic edge. "All that, huh? Well, it's an honor, Uncle Samantha," he drawled as he nimbly rose to his feet in a single smooth motion, still balanced atop the round guard rail, and lifted the edges of his greatcoat in a mock curtsy. "You do realize you're not wearing a mask, right? Granted, it'd be a crime to hide that face away, but it is generally considered a key part of the whole 'secret identity' thing."

"Ha, appreciate the vote of confidence, beautiful," the swordsman laughed, hopping up to perch on the edge of the stairs' metal railing, balancing on his toes like a gargoyle, his royal blue greatcoat hanging down behind him. "Usually don't mean 'roll in the hay' quite so literally, but the 'barn raising' one-liners alone..." Jack shook his head exaggeratedly, as if trying to conceptualize a dizzying array of possibilities. "So is that what the codename's about? Miss Tulsa, Homecoming Queen, Belle of the Harvest Ball?"

More Gadgets! Super-Senses 13 (Detect Radiation [radio]; Extras: Accurate, Acute, Analytical, Extended 4, Radius, Ranged, Tracking; Direction Sense; Distance Sense) [13PP] Enhanced Skills 2 (+8 Notice) [2PP] Notice Check to Detect Radiation. (1d20+18=31) That should be enough to pick out any nearby deposits of daka crystals, right?

"Still waiting on the parade," Jack quipped, tilting his masked head to one side with a broad grin. "I'd settle for the key to the city." The swashbuckler spread his hands emphatically as though indicating an expansive group. "Watch out, here comes Jack of all Blades! Fathers, lock up your daughters! Oh wait, he's got the key to the city! Nice." He laughed loudly, a surprisingly melodic, brassy tone, flush with the thrill of a recent victory.

Making a flat face behind his featureless mask at Otaku's obnoxious prattle and Fusion's subsequent outburst, Midnight stepped out of the shadows behind the tentacled robots and without preamble dropped a nondescript sphere about the size of a softball at his feet. The ball hit the floor with a metallic clang then with a brief, high pitched hum, let out a white flash of light. As it faded, the automatons jerked back and forth as energy crackled over their surface, thin wisps of smoke rising with an acrid smell. Their creator had provided them with EMP shielding, but predictably his work had been shoddy and incomplete. "Wasting time. Hurry," Midnight rumbled to the others.

Gadgets! Corrosion 10 (Extras: Area [General, Burst], Selective, Flaws: Action [Full Round], Limited 2 [Electronics]) [15PP] So, that should be a DC 20 Reflex save to halve the effect, a DC 20 Fort save against the Drain Toughness and a DC 25 Toughness save against the Damage.

"And you wonder why everybody wants to frisk you," Jack drawled to Talya, waving briefly as the pneumatic platform raised his mother's chair into the bus before the entire vehicle drove away. He really didn't love the idea of getting his family even tangentially involved with the part of his life the ex-thief inhabited, but with his sister accompanying him on patrol more often than not and his mother in on his secret identity, Jack had to admit that perhaps it was time to admit that battle had been lost. "So, why did I have to bring the monkey suit?" the fencer asked, lifting the suit bag over his shoulder slightly.

"So I'm just getting myself into more trouble than ever, huh?" Jack grinned with a sharply arched eyebrow. Still holding Bombshell's honey hued tresses back with one hand, the fencer leaned forward to brush his lips lightly across her arched neck, starting just below her ear and moving slowly down to the collar of her waitress uniform, light stubble grazing the immortal's skin. "You should probably know, I thrive on trouble."

Recovering from Erin's well-meaning tackle, Midnight rolled to his feet into a low crouch, keeping out of his more overtly powerful teammates' way. Fortunately, his hearing appeared to be as resilient as his mutant eyesight, as he shook off the resounding crash and pulled a palm sized computer from his belt. "Fine," he assured Erin, giving her a thumbs up when he realized she couldn't hear him and his mask prevented her from reading his lips. Turning his attention back to his tablet, he quickly connected to a geosynchronous satellite and scoured recent astronomy charts and live telescope feeds. His lack of findings confirmed his suspicions; wherever the meteor had come from, it wasn't natural.

Gadgets! Datalink 9 (Radio, 20 000 miles) [9PP] Enhanced Skills 4 (+16 Knowledge [Physical Sciences]) [4PP] Knowledge [Physical Sciences] Check. (1d20+16=28)

Fortitude Save vs. DC22 (1d20+7=22) Right on the money!

Midnight II 2PP - Add 2 Strength, for 18 (+4) 1PP - Add 1 Equipment, for 6 total. [quote name="Equipment"]3 + 1 + 3 + 4 + 14 = 25ep [b][u]Collapsible Escrima Sticks:[/u] Strike 3[/b] ([i]Power Feat:[/i] Mighty, Subtle); [i]Cost:[/i] 5ep [b][u]Gas Mask[/u]: Immunity 1[/b] (eye and lung irritants); [i]Cost:[/i] 1ep [b][u]Grappling Hook[/u]: Super-Movement 1[/b] (Swinging), [b]Speed 1[/b] (10 MPH); [i]Cost:[/i] 3ep [b][u]Midnight Costume[/u]: Protection 3[/b] ([i]Power Feat:[/i] Subtle); [i]Cost:[/i] 4ep [b][u]Night Cycle:[/u] Speed 5[/b] (250 mph) [list][u]Stats[/u]: [i]Size:[/i] Medium; [i]Strength:[/i] 20; [i]Defense:[/i] 10; [i]Toughness:[/i] 10; [i]Features:[/i] Disguise, Hidden Compartments, Nitro Injectors, Remote Control, Subtle; Cost: 17ep[/list][/quote] 2PP - Add Counters Obscure (fog/mist) to his Super-Senses: [b]Super-Senses 5[/b] (Darkvision, Infravision, Visual Counters Obscure [fog/mist]) [5pp] Adjust DC Block: Unarmed -- DC19/Toughness -- Bruised (Staged) Unarmed/Sneak Attack -- DC21/Toughness -- Bruised (Staged) Escrima Sticks -- DC22/Toughness -- Bruised (Staged) Escrima Sticks/Sneak Attack -- DC24/Toughness -- Bruised (Staged) Adjust Trade-Offs: +3 Attack, -3 Damage, +1 Defense, -1 Toughness DONE BY SHAENTHEBRAIN

Jack of all Blades 4PP - Add a rank to his Energy Sword: [b]Energy Sword 7[/b] (Corrosion, [i]Power Feats:[/i] Alternate Power, Improved Critical (18-20), Mighty, Variable Descriptor 2 [Any Energy], [i]Drawbacks:[/i] Limited [Available, Concentrated Energy Types], [i]Extras:[/i] Penetrating) [32PP] [list][b][u]AP[/u] Energy Sword Flurry 7[/b] (Damage, [i]Power Feats:[/i] Improved Critical (18-20), Mighty, Variable Descriptor 2 [Any Energy], [i]Drawbacks:[/i] Limited [Available, Concentrated Energy Types], [i]Extras:[/i] Autofire 3) [31PP][/list] 1PP - Add 4 Skill Ranks: Skills: 56R = 14PP Acrobatics 10 (+15) Bluff 20 (+26) Climb 5 (+10) Knowledge (Streetwise) 2 (+2) Language 1 (English [Native], Spanish) Notice 8 (+10) Stealth 10 (+15) Adjust DC Block: ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC18 Toughness (Staged) Damage Energy Sword Touch DC17 Fortitude (Staged) Drain Toughness Energy Sword Touch DC25 Toughness (Staged) Damage DONE BY SHAENTHEBRAIN

"I get a lot of compliments about my tongue from women," Jack confirmed, laying the fingertips of one hand on his chest with a swaggering flourish that belied the fact he had no idea what 'facile' meant. Looking back to the fuming villain he moved the hand to his chin with a grimace. "Dios, I wonder why we bother sometimes. It's free room and board, ya twisted fruitcake!" he exclaimed. "You even get to keep the straight jacket that you love so very, very much. Stop wasting the tax-payers' dime, Fat-Bas...sinet," the fencer finished carefully with an apologetic bow towards Miss A. "Forgot there was a lady present for a second there."

"Turns out he was running a little betting ring on the sly, too, so there's that," Jack elaborated with a dismissive snort in Fear-Master's direction. "Guess the tinfoil rain stick took some bank." At the suggestion that the university campus was his usual base of operations, the swordsman laughed aloud. "Ha, yeah, I'm not what you'd call the 'higher learning type'," he admitted with a wry grin. His own college plans had been derailed in his senior year. "Just happened to be in the area." In his civilian guise, he'd been running a few errands getting his sister's application in order when an overheard conversation about the hockey team's erratic behaviour had caught his attention.

Character Score Meme Midnight II Theme Song: [groove]21721308[/groove] For one more time, Let your madness run with mine. Streets still unseen we'll find somehow; No time is better than now. Combat: [groove]21721339[/groove] Darkness our disguise, We can see what's going through your mind; Breathing our demise, We can see the terror in your eyes… Romance: [groove]21721344[/groove] It was midnight; Your hand was in mine; All eyes were on our table. It was after noon before you were out of bed and I was able; To concentrate... To figure out a plan to keep you here; To evaluate... To make a list, a list to convince you. Tragedy: [groove]21721503[/groove] There's a sky blue sky; Behind these cold, dark clouds. When the rain lets up; We'll all complain about the heat. Story Arc Specific: ...Maeghan. [groove]21721393[/groove] Try as he might he's unable to speak. He grabs her by the hair, he strokes her on the cheek. The bed is unmade like everything is; Dark little heaven at the top of the stairs.