Gizmo
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Nae-Dae let out a high-pitched, chittering sound of agitated surprise as the amphibious Terran appeared, looking much more like a particularly fearsome predator from Irrera-8 than the starship mechanic would have liked to admit. "Gyah! What're you croaking about?! The frell would I do with shoes?!" Indeed, the unclad feet that came into view as she climbed up onto the back of her chair to perch at slightly closer to the angry frog's eye level weren't much different from the hands that grabbed her toolbox and held it at the ready like a miniature battering ram. "I said we're here to take you, didn't I? Stop being crazy!" Across the room Rock ignored Eclipse's groans and reasoned planning to start toward the table. The blonde looked liable enough to take a swing at Nae-Dae but when the Spectrum Knight showed up the uneven pile of stones bellowed, "ROCK!" and began pushing his way through the crowd toward his little friend, knocking over tables, drinks and patrons as he went.
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Without hesitation - or what might have been advisable discretion - Nae-Dae scampered up to hop into the seat opposite the squirrely looking young woman, dropping her toolbox unceremoniously on the table with a thunk of metal. "Oy, crazy Terran girl! Don't be all crazy for a minute, yeh?" she requested, raising all four of her hands in a universal sign of lack of hostility. "Yer broodmate asked us to come grab you. Waddaya call, 'sister', like. Look like a clone t'me, but let's be straight, you Lor types gotta paint your hair all sorts of ways just to tell each other apart." Large, red eyes without pupils regarded Jessie curiously from within the Irreran's simian face while one of her hands waved in the direction of the bar and the rest of her crew. "Where's yer friend, with armour and the big murder stick? Star Knights wanna talk to her, too, no surprise there I bet, ha." Scanning the crowd from beside Eclipse, Nae-Dae's partner caught the motion of dark blue fur and straightened to his full height to get a better look across the room. "Rock?"
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Blood from the gunshot wound splattered across a shocked Winifred, faint pink mist spreading out in a fine pattern against her coat. For a moment she thought the droplets on her cheek were scalding like a chemical burn before she realized that the searing pain was coming from within her own veins, pumped through her trembling frame by a heart beating too quickly and too powerfully for a human body. The first spasm wracked through her leg and brought her down to one knee, fingernails from one hand scraping into the sidewalk while the other desperately tore the scarf from her throat as she gasped for air. Dimly she tried to remember the exercises she'd been learning at Claremont, tried to recite the modern table of elements her instructors had been quite pleased to show her but her thoughts were inarticulate roars of primal rage. "G-guh-get AWAY!" she forced out with her last scrap of coherency over the sound of tearing fabric. Even the morphic molecules of her coat struggled to keep up with the violence of the changes and twisted ropes of sickly grey muscle erupted from her limbs and reformed her body into something monstrous. The thing that stood back up was barely recognizable as having been human, a lumbering mass of misshapen meat that towered over the crowded mob. The Alkahest slouched within its torn coat for a moment, milky white eyes flicking forward with instinctive focus to the closest gunman. Then without warning the beast surged forward with a savage, unnatural howl or fury. "RAAAUUUGH!" Terrified protestors scrambled to get out of the rampaging monster's way but it paid them no attention at all, neither to grab at them nor avoid breaking bones as it passed. Instead it focused single-mindedly on its target, reaching the shooter in the span of a breath. A hand the size of a manhole cover backhanded the gunman with a thunderous crack, sending him flying through the air like a rag doll. The Alkahest didn't bother to watch to see what he eventually collided with, instead turning immediately to the next attacker with undiminished intensity.
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ALKAHEST Free Action: Transform Move Action: Barrel through crowd toward closest gunman. Standard Action: Unarmed Attack vs Gunman, Taking 10, Power Attack 5. That's a 13 on the attack and a DC 32 Toughness Save. I'm going to flavour it as swatting the gunman away, so we can call it nonlethal for the time being if that's alright.
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'Inconspicuous' wasn't exactly in Rock's repertoire but he could pull off 'imposing' with both hands tied behind his stoney behind, which was nearly as good. Most of the assorted beings in the bar were happy to keep to themselves and the dangerous way the coals of the towering mercenary's eyes smouldered was enough to discourage anyone who might have foolishly erred toward curiosity. He stood with his titanic arms folded just behind Eclipse, not ordering anything but generally serving as an illustration of why checking weapons at the door only went so far in mixed-species establishments. Nae-Dae on the other hand was able to lose herself easily in the milling crowd, slipping between tables and stools. Most sentients of roughly Lor equivalent size were conditioned to dismiss anything of her size as a child and enough of them had evolved from one sort of primate or another that they underestimated her intelligence, too. Both were foolish assumptions in the galaxy at large, of course and if she took advantage of that to add a few trinkets and a considerable amount of currency to her collection as she ran reconnaissance she considered it a service in education.
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Reagent Initiative: 1d20+5 8
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Stone-faced, Winifred told their guide, "Should you believe that line of reasoning might dampen her enthusiasm we have perhaps misrepresented Raina's fondness for both fire and aggravating those she dislikes." The young alchemist even managed to get through the whole sentence without cracking a smile. Certainly there seemed little benefit in antagonizing the mob but it was still nice to hear the witch say the sort of thing she would have liked to herself if not for the dire consequences of letting herself get worked up. She wasn't yet clear how 'T-Babies' were differentiated from the many varied individuals with extra-human abilities to whom she'd been introduced since awaking in the future but slurs and prejudice she was able to parse well enough. "What did you see, Smith?" she asked Riley just loudly enough to be heard over the noise of the protestors. He was just as likely as Raina to make the situation worse before it got better, she suspected, but she had nothing but respect for the marksman's keen perception. If there was a hidden danger lurking among the obvious threat of the mob she trusted him to spot it. As a figure appeared inside the building levitating toward them she smoothed the folds of her stately white coat. "I believe that would be our hostess, yes? Could I convince you two to allow me to handle the first impressions?"
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"You do tend to be a little more laid back about this stuff than most of us, florecita," Erik pointed out with a chuckle that turned into an annoyed groan as he thought a few steps ahead. "The old man's side of the family are going to be such @#$%s about this when they find out. Uh. I mean, that is..." He turned his attention back to Talya, leaning away from the tangled embrace enough to get a better look at her expression. "What I mean is, how do you want to handle this?" It didn't come out half so smoothly as he'd been hoping but it was at least earnest. "You know we're with you whatever you want to do."
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"You make it sound so reasonable," Gina groused, unfolding her arms so she could wheel herself forward slightly, adjusting her chair into a position where she could continue to watch all three of them at once after Talya moved to the counter. "Well--!" Erik's mother raised a hand to mime shutting his mouth, which proved as effective coming from her as actually pinching his lips together. "Si, hilarious." She regarded them in silence for several moments and it was clear from her expression that it was best if no one spoke until she did. Gina wanted to object on a instinctual level but she wasn't one to blurt out words without thinking them through. Her biggest concern had naturally been for Eden and Mia but Min had addressed that head on and it was hard to deny that the girls adored Talya already. Whatever they were doing it was apparently working at least for the time being. That didn't mean she had to be particularly thrilled about it. "You know, tu hermanita doesn't do this to me. She meets a nice girl, they do things in order, they date..." "They adopt an extra-dimensional moppet..." Erik supplied with a broad grin, the tension visibly leaving his shoulders. Complaining aside if his mother could joke about their situation then they'd crossed the biggest hurdle. Glaring, she continued to mutter, "You tell your kids to be themselves, to follow their hearts. That you decide to listen to... Let me at least help you with those, Talya; don't want you ruining that lovely dress with dishwater after all of that."
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Midnight II Initiative: 1d20+5 12
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"Aw, look at you with the emotional growth," Kimber teased Sharl while Eliza waxed poetic about the nature of duality. It wasn't like the poltergeist was in much of a position to judge, not when her own personal development had literally involved physical growth. Still, joking was easier than asking how Eliza reconciled her philosophy with Sharl's distinct lack of 'spirit'. She had to assume the elementalist was aware of it given the nature of her magic but it wasn't something she was in any rush to have clarified in detail. Instead she rotated lazily though the air until she was right side up again and turned to Eira. "But ice is so much cooler! Eh? Eh?" Grinning broadly she waved in the direction of the castle beyond the room they were in. "C'mon, I'll give you the tour so these two can be all gross for a bit."
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While Talya seemed mildly nonplussed by Huang's comments Erik froze with his mouth open, about to say something to Sarah and Cathy. He turned back to the dhampir with an expression that said he wanted to ask for clarification as well but knew he'd heard correctly the first time. With a soft groan, the self defence instructor placed one palm to his face. "Kid, this is some textbook Michael J. Fox stuff, you're killing me." He realized he wasn't sure if the other teens were supposed to know that their toothy friend was from their future - a possible future anyway; Eli had explained something along those lines to him once but he hadn't really been paying attention to the speedster - and he was pretty confident Talya didn't want to discuss her pregnancy in front of a bunch of baby heroes. Twins, though. Twins! "Oy. Alright, Faretti, start stretching, you just volunteered to go first." He looked to Talya and turned his hands upward helplessly.
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"Where do I want to start. Well!" Gina folded her arms across her chest and gave the three other people still in the kitchen the sort of look that called into question why the FCPD had ever bothered issuing her a sidearm. "I knew something was going on with her but-- What am I even looking at, here?" Erik stepped in closer to Min's other shoulder, unconsciously mirroring his mother's posture as he folded his own arms. "You know her name, you can use it. Look, I'm the only one you should be mad at, I should have had this conversation with you before now, I just--" "Thought it would be better to wait until we had an entire house full of company?" the Espadas matriarch interrupted, keeping her voice low but no less severe. She and her son at least appeared to be in agreement over the target of her ire; most of her attention was split between glaring at Erik and glancing behind him toward the entrance to the kitchen and the room full of people beyond. Talya slowly began to wonder if Gina was intentionally avoiding meeting her eyes. "Yes, obviously that was my master plan, hear my evil laugh," Erik shot back sarcastically, tossing his hands up in the air. "For some reason I wasn't super eager to talk to you about this." "So don't talk." Gina raised a hand to silence the dusty drown haired man and with some reluctance shifted her gaze to the two standing women. She let out a long breath and asked in a less aggressive tone, "Explain this to me. Help me understand."
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You're aiming for 26, yeah. 59 - Downtime - Unconscious 20 - Echo - Bruised x3, 0HP > 13 - Sparkler - Uninjured, 3HP 6 - Wildcard - Bruised x2, 0HP
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"Is'at Dora and her friends?" a male voice called in response to Talya before Erik appeared around the corner in time to catch most of Raina's introductions. Where Talya had chosen some forgiving clothing of late the way the sword instructor's white tank top hugged muscles flexing as he balanced a set of practice staves on his shoulders suggested that the garment was perfunctory at best. "Hey kid, assorted youths. Come on in. You bring Boots? Vince wanted him to look at some wiring." Tossing the wooden lengths into one corner of the room he took stock of the teenagers, recognizing the familial resemblance of the one who 'lived in a haunted house'. "Broodmini! You're looking shorter than I remember. Still making your old man feel long in the tooth?" The lopsided grin was just charming enough to err on the better side of infuriating; Erik had to admit he was curious to see which of his parents the time-traveling version of JJ took after when he wasn't actively cosplaying as his father.
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"Well. Which of us do you suppose is the 'freak' and which the 'devil spawn'?" Winifred asked Raina lightly under her breath as she followed behind the receptionist, back straight and shoulders squared as she looked straight ahead. With her immaculate posture the teenager seemed to occupy a little more space than her petite frame justified but she was still small against the size of the jeering crowd. She didn't include Smith in the exchange - remarkably he'd had less exposure to toxic hate of that sort and was far less likely to turn the other cheek - and the taller girl noticed Winifred's chest rising and falling in the careful rhythm that meant she was very consciously forcing herself to remain calm. This was the last place she needed to have an 'episode'. Her condition was what brought them there to begin with. AEON specialized in biological mutations, as it had been explained to her, and had ties to Claremont. Rather than send the displaced Victorian out into the city by herself Raina had agreed to accompany her for the consolation and after a video of the hollering mob had been brought up on someone's portable computer within Smith's earshot he'd insisted on coming along as well. She wasn't at all sorry to have either of them along; it felt as though the corridor of relative calm would be swept away in a riot at any moment and she hated to think what the Alkahest could do to the masses, vile as they were.
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Reagent Notice check: 1d20+5 14
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Wildcard Opposed Grapple Check: 1d20+15 29 She breaks free!
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Responsible or not that seemed to shatter Erik's determination to put the trip to the lockbox before anything else. "So it's my job to incentivize your good behaviour, too, huh?" he asked in a soft rumble, hooking his thumbs into the belt loops of her pants and fitting himself more closely against the curve of her body. Lowering his voice ever further he brought his face close enough to the more-or-less ex-thief that her nose went out of focus for him. "Good work, if you can get it. Sure you don't like that outfit too much? 'Something something look better on the training mats'."
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Hm. Let's say the elevator shaft, assuming it looks like Iyar would be able to follow him down that way with a minimal of help.
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"Who's hiding?" a caramel smooth voice called from Downtime's right. He whirled about but there was no one there, just a television set left on to some infomercial with a weirdly grinning salesman in a ridiculous lime green suit. "Macaulay Culkin, eat your heart out." The Crime Leaguer didn't have a chance to respond before the stubby turret that had silently unfolded from the seemingly mundane fire alarm over his head discharged a three coil-like spatial warps in violent electric blue. The computer targeted attack - with a little help from a certain capuchin - crashed like weighted bolas into Downtime's shoulders, waist and ankles, knocking him face down into to floor with a loud crack. The villain was instantly knocked senseless, bound without ever having seen what hit him. "Well!" Vince observed, blowing away smoke rising from his extended index finger. "I'll be a monkey's uncle!"
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Wildcard's flechette gun clattered against the ground as he scrambled out of the way of Echo's blow, his probability control powers wearing thin from the two pronged assault. From the way his manic grin twisted into a scowl he knew it, too. "Rrraugh! That's cheating!" he cursed at the heroine, making a clumsy lunge toward her. "Cheater!" In the apartment upstairs the door was thrown from its hinges, the wood splinted from the impossibly fast flurry of blows delivered in the held breath between seconds. Unattended bills on the kitchen table went whipping into the air as the temporally accelerated Downtime burst through one room after another, quickly covering the whole of the apartment and finding it empty. "What the hell?!" he demanded, winking back into the normal time reference in the living room to kick irritably as a discarded stuffed animal on the carpet. "Whoever you are, you're only making this harder on yourself! Quit hiding!" On the street Echo deftly side-stepped Wildcard's attack even in her injured state but reality twisted again, her precognitive danger sense sounding like a klaxon in her head as the demented jester moved faster than should have been possible. Before she could dodge again he had her in a solid headlock, sneering downward. "Ha! Guess who gets to be my hostage, @#$%! Unless your buddy with the fireballs wants to see what happens when somebody's luck really runs out!" Even as she struggled, however, Buffy couldn't help but notice that the laws of physics had suddenly gone quiet around Wildcard.
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Wildcard Luck Control: Opposed Grapple Check: 1d20+15 34 Sorry, Bluefish! But the good news is that while Echo is pinned that was Wildcard's last HP and without his influence Vince's defence systems are back online! 59 - Downtime - Unconscious > 20 - Echo - Bruised x3, Pinned, 0HP 13 - Sparkler - Uninjured, 3HP 6 - Wildcard - Bruised x2, 0HP
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Kimber seemed much more interested in discussing possible pets for Nick than interacting with the police officers but she followed through the opening in the crowd to get a better look at the house anyway, riding her scythe sidesaddle through the air with Avro perched on her shoulder. She kept herself just high enough off of the ground so that even the tallest onlookers would have had to look up to meet her eyes, though most of their attention was focused on the wicked looking blade trailing behind her. "Probably much faster to just go in and ask him!" she suggested cheerfully, turning to look over her shoulder and wave Grim and his dogs over to join her and Nick. "You know, I'd heard some big shot was looking to dark magic up their decor but I pretty much figured it was just more get-rich-quick talk. Vampires all think they're going to make a killing on stocks or antiques or something and be set for eternity, haha!"
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Winifred made a vague wave of dismissal in answer to Raina's smiling plea, recognizing that the taller girl was going off unchaperoned regardless and resigning herself with what little dignity she had remaining. With a distinctly unladylike sound she pulled herself to her feet, swaying back and forth for a moment before finding some modicum of balance. Matt had already made his way through Phaedra's portal apparently unscathed and with Riley following suit the unwell alchemist supposed just this once she could accept the violation of all reason and natural law without any immediate questions. Moving as quickly as she dared she made her way in that direction but paused when she reach Huang. "I... made a mess of your basket," she admitted miserably, nodding toward the closet into which the receptacle had been tossed. They hadn't been on the best of terms but with slumped shoulders and flushed cheeks the Victorian woman looked utterly defeated, her usually perfect posture forgotten.
