Gizmo

Quick question, what's Moira's bar like, generally? Are we talking hole in the wall, trendy night spot, what? Jack would have heard of it if it's in the West End, but I need to figure out what his general reaction would be.

A tight backflip brought Jack of all Blades to a crouch atop one on the library's bookshelves. Vampire? Man, I was totally guessing silicon-based alien. Go figure. Cupping his free hand over his mouth, the swordsman made a harsh, echoing breathing sound. "Jack," he called to Avenger in an artificially deep tone, "he is your father." Dropping his hand to reveal an expression of mock anguish, he continued in a strained upper register, "No... no... That's not true! That's impossible!" The swashbuckler quickly resumed his first impression. "Search your feelings, you know it to be unbelievably corny." Returning to his regular voice, he grinned at the cosmic murderer infuriatingly. "You get points for 'wretch', but I gotta figure you threw 'foolishness' in there just to annoy me. That's just petty, Twinkle Twinkle."

Snaaaaap. Alright, if Jackie B tosses out a DC 31 Taunt, that'd give EDS a -2 penalty on saving against the others' Bluffs. Probably shoulda done that in the first place, in retrospect.

Jack ambled over to the disabled Power Corp member, leaning casually on a display case nearby and nodding to the criminal. "Hey. How you doing in there? Alright? Good." The swashbuckler made a show of dissipating his energy blade and crossing his arms. "Look, buddy, I'll be straight with you, we need to know what you guys were after. Now, I get it, you've got your professional pride, and I respect that, I really do. You're trying to make a living in a city where every time you blink there's another jerk with powers getting in your face." Jack chuckled easily, shaking his head wryly. "I really do get it. But the thing is, the kid back there? Well... you might have noticed he's got a fondness for explosions, and he's got a pretty polarized view of the world." The swordsman rolled his eyes and waved the idea away airily. "Everybody's either all good or all bad, y'know? What can I say, kids, huh?" Leaning forward he looked straight into the fallen man's eyes through the offline suit's helmet. "Now, you tell me what I need to know, we're good, problem solved. Otherwise... hey, I'm just a guy with a fancy sword, y'know? The kid decides you're all bad..." Shrugging helplessly, the acrobat let the implied threat hang in the air while gesturing for the mercenary to say his piece.

Diplomacy check. (1d20+12=29) I'd say he spills his guts.

That'll work. In that case, Jack's Diplomacy should be at +12 (6 ranks, 22 Charisma). What do you say he plays good cop to crazy-makes-everything-explode-kid's bad cop?

I think for Jack, dealing with Fulcrum's uncontrolled aura is like trying to be nice to the kid with tremendous B.O. Always trying not to pull a face, staying a few steps away without making it obvious; you know it's not their fault, but you can't help but sort of hold it against them.

Jack hesitated for a moment. After weeks of cutting himself off from everyone, he wasn't sure how much socialization he was prepared to handle all at once. Screw it, he decided, might as well quit this emo bull cold turkey. He finished the last of his drink and began to dig out his wallet. "Yeah, sure, let's head out. Getting antsy sitting around, anyway," he smirked.

Am I using Jack's stats before he dropped some skill ranks to pick up Beginner's Luck, or his current set up? I just ask because I specifically rearranged his Diplomacy skill.

Can I use a DC 31 Bluff check to either Distract EDS or give the others a bonus to their checks by keeping his attention off of them? Keep in mind, nobody's actually explained to Jackie B what the specific plan is, so he's just defaulting to 'mocking certain doom' mode.

Jack of all Blades' energy awareness flared as Dark Star's malevolent doppelganger made his appearance. Where the cosmic hero's gravitational powers registered as an aura the swordsman could only liken to the music of the spheres, his vicious double radiated the foul stench of smashing snowglobes. Though his nose wrinkled and his mind filled with screaming white noise, the swashbuckler's mouth, seemingly of its own volition, was already doing what it did best. "Jeez, all that mojo and you couldn't hire better writers? I mean, even if you allow that stilted, melodramatic verbal diarrhea as playing to genre conventions, you used 'foolish' and 'fools'." Jack shook his head with exaggerated disappointment. Inwardly, he knew that the best he could offer at the moment was to keep the villain's attention away from the others' last minute preparations. "'Cause that makes me feel like you just don't care enough to bring your 'A' material. Which hurts my feelings, man. There are so many synonyms you could have used! Watch, I'll show you: you're a... blockhead, a buffoon, a clod, a cretin, a dimwit, a dolt, a dunce, a dunderhead, a halfwit, an idiot, an ignoramus, an imbecile." Hopping and flipping from place to place, the acrobat ticked the insults off on his free hand. "I'm not even halfway through the alphabet yet! I'll bet somebody's feeling petty silly, amirite?"

Jack gave the cowboy a flat look, softened by a wry smirk. Gee, really? Taking a sip of his beer, he waited in silence as his teammates conversed over the phone, cautiously hopeful to hear what the shapeshifter had turned up.

Well, post-intervention Jack's going to want to swing by and make amends at some point, and it'd make sense for Mona and Ellie to get a chance to chat as well, but I think that should probably take place after Fulcrum gets something worked out with Doc A to control her powers or else it's just gonna be awkward.

Sure, sounds like a plan. We can probably play it mostly by ear.

"Yeah yeah," Jack of all Blades grumbled. "Big bad, ultimate peril, very scary. Excuse me if the multi-hour wait kills some of the drama for me." He resisted the urge to snap at his brooding host. 'Embarrassment' would be the least of his worries if his civilian identity were compromised. Not every hero had loved ones more than capable of handling themselves against super powered psychopaths, not to mention the various mundane gangs from whom the swordsman had drawn considerable ire. Somehow he doubted Avenger would be forthcoming with an apology, however, and so Jack simply let the matter rest. Moving the stand closer to where Ace was working, the energy manipulator focused his energy awareness of the device the immortal adventurer was tinkering with, noting the changes in its humming aura and relaying them back to Ace.

Jack was about to admonish Edge for his pun when the teen leaped into the heart of the fray and the Power Corps' armor went haywire. Probability control...! he recognized immediately from his dealings with his opposite number from the House of Coins, Coinpurse Jack. The specific flavours of the the power was different, but the chaos it caused was all too familiar. Well, that explains the kid's name, anyway. Taking advantage of the malfunctioning mechanics, the energy manipulator seized upon one of the Power Corps' energy blasts, pulling a sliver of the laser fire to him, when he quickly coxed it into a glowing rapier. As Ace offered the off balance Number Six to him, Jack gave him a brief bow in return, saying, "Just give me a moment to finish something." Turning back to the mercenaries' leader, who's armor was slumped and smoking, the swashbuckler let loose a flurry of swipes, using his laser blade to carve a rough spade shape over top the numeral emblazoned on Number One's chest plate. He lunged forward for the final touch, aiming for a section of the suit already scored by friendly fire. The sword pierced the armor easily, and as the mercenary toppled over backward Jack used him as a stepping stone to launch himself through the air, arcing up and over to land next to Number Six, who received a similarly brutal collection of blows. "Man, I hope that guy was only leader 'cause he was somebody's kid," the annoying acrobat remarked. "If he's the best of you the rest of this is just going to be boring."

Sweet. Power Attack 5, Autofire 1. (1d20+10=20) So, if his Defense is 12, that's just enough to get the full Autofire bonus, making it DC 31. Jack's still got a move action left, so he'll Taunt PC6 at DC 26 if he's still conscious; if not he'll use it on PC8.

First, Jack will more to finish off PC1: Power Attack 5, Autofire 1. (1d20+10=30) Woah-ho! Crit! So, DC 22 + 5 + 5 + up to 4, depending on by how much he exceeded PC1's Defense. Since he's Feinted and Stunned, I'm pretty sure it'll total DC 36. Jack brings the pain. Let me know how that turns out before I figure out the rest of the turn, because I'm hoping to knock him out then use Takedown Attack 2 to take a swing at PC6 as well.

So, yeah, Jack's a pretty massive jerk here. But at least he feels bad about it later!

"Well alright," Jack of all Blades nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Meanwhile, I'll just, y'know, stand over here. And wait." The swordsman leaned against the end of one the library's bookshelves, lazily twirling his dimensional blade. He glanced over at Ace. "Boy, sure glad you came to family home, invading my privacy and risking my secret identity, 'cause clearly I could not have gotten here a moment too soon," he drawled in a consummate deadpan.

Jack was moving even as the light of the teleport was fading. Stepping calmly toward the leader of the armored criminals, the swashbuckler kept his body language deceptively relaxed, though beneath his flowing greatcoat muscles coiled in anticipation. "Number One, huh?" he remarked casually. "Is that like a self-help thing? If you keep telling yourself that you're the best maybe you'll start to believe it and stop being quite such a loser in a tin can? Or do the numbers just indicate how high each of you can count?" Jack snapped his fingers as if in sudden realization. "Oh! Number of times you've kissed a girl!" He turned to one of the underlings with a double thumbs up and grin. "Wait to go Number Eight, you big smoothie!"

Jack doesn't have a sword formed yet, so he'll toss out standard action Feint at PC#1, DC 31, followed by a move action Taunt against the same guy, DC 26. He'll also take up a defensive stance, for a total Defense of 28. He'll form a 'laser' sword once the bad guys start blasting.

Below, in the shadows, Jack of all Blades sat of the ground, his back against a dumpster and his hands lying over his knees. Had anyone been around to see him, his expression still would have been hidden, his face tilted downward. He stayed there, silent and unmoving, for a very long time indeed.

Eric contemplated the cowboy's words. "So, then ends justify the means and the motivation, huh?" Without warning the fencer broke out into raucous laughter, open and genuine. As it died down, he sighed through a chuckle. "We are some messed up S.O.B.s, huh? But alright, sure, point taken. I guess it wouldn't do anybody any more good if we were miserable about it, huh?" He swashbuckler groaned, throwing back his head and covering his face with one hand. "Argh, I have so many people I need to apologize to. Y'know Mona tried to talk to me about it? Hadn't seen me in like ten years, having just about the worst day ever, and she still asks what's bothering me. I pretty much stopped just short of flipping her the bird. I've been... I have been a guy in need of face punching."

Eric's expression hardened again as he rose to his feet. "Are you serious? Man, what is with you people? Do super-strength and flight combine to create a chemical imbalance in the brain or what?" The swordsman's greatcoat flapped about his ankles as he moved, exaggerating his tight body language. "The 'Eric you know' hasn't been around for over a decade. I grew up. Things happen, I deal with them, and I sure as hell don't need to be patronized by Miss Meltdown. You weren't here." Reaching into his pocket, the acrobat withdrew a card and flicked it at Mona. One side featured a bold capital letter 'I', bisected by a thin, triangular cutout, while the other was printed with a phone number. "Look, I know a guy who might be able to help with your Terminus problem. I'll track you down if it pans out. In the meantime, if you run into trouble, call that number. None of us can afford for you do be duking it out with a giant freaking robot or whatever right now. My team, we'll pick up the slack. That's how I deal." With that, Eric leaped from the entrance to the stair case, somersaulting through the air past the edge of the Jade Dragon Theater's roof and disappearing into the shadows below.