Raveled
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The man gave Sam a No. 1 glare for a moment, then sighed and set a folder down in front of her. The tab at the top read SAM VANCE (KIT) and the front had the Claremont logo on it. "Yeah," he said. "We know. Listen, do you think you could at least tell us why your friend is covered in blood?" He waited, but ended up giving in before Sam dropped the stonewalling technique. "Alright, fine. I just hope you know that you're going to have to explain this to someone today." He stood and moved to the door, opening it and looking at Sam. "Well? Do you want to see your friend, or not?" It was a short walk to the infirmary, where Tona was sitting upright on an examination table, flexing her arm. The left side of her shirt had been cut away, and the blood cleaned off and replaced with two white pads. The archer moved her arm, checking the full range of motion and wincing slightly as her arm started to pull more on the flesh over her ribs. She glanced up and froze when Sam entered the room, then dropped her eyes to the floor and her hands into her lap. "Hey there," she said after a minute, avoiding meeting Sam's gaze.
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Gold shirts' Reflex save, vs DC 25. (1d20+6=14, 1d20+6=15, 1d20+6=11, 1d20+6=8, 1d20+6=9, 1d20+6=17, 1d20+6=9, 1d20+6=23, 1d20+6=8, 1d20+6=15, 1d20+6=26, 1d20+6=17) One minion makes it through and has to weather five DC 24 Tou saves. Gold shirt's Toughness save, vs DC 24. (1d20+13=21, 1d20+13=22, 1d20+13=24, 1d20+13=25, 1d20+13=31) Yeah, no. Down for the count.
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The greenery erupted out of the panel and soon grew to towering sizes, forming a leafy barrier around Fleur as the gold shirted thugs made the gantries shake with their charge. Jay nodded at the older heroine's tactical advice and moved up to the railing, drawing a few more arrows and sighting on the goggled engineer below. She nocked, drew, waited a heartbeat, and then loosed. Her arrows flew straight and true -- knocking his weapon out of his hand and over the side of the platform, to be lost in the maelstrom of energies swirling around the power plants. She smiled and laughed. "So no more gun for the tricky grease-monkey," she taunted. "Any more tricks up your sleeve?" The engineer shook his stinging hand and glared up at the archer. "Oh, no. Sleeves aren't really my thing, girlie. I'm more about the eyes." He reached up and tore off his goggles, revealing that he only had one, massive, blood-shot eye on the side of his head. His monocular gaze fixed on Jay's, and he began to stare her down. She wondered momentarily why he was just staring at her, but then training about invasive mental techniques kicked in; some mind-meddlers could only work their mojo through a direct eye-to-eye contact. Jay broke off the gaze and composed her mental defenses. "Nice try," she said, though her voice was shaking a bit, "but you have to get up earlier than that to beat me!"
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Goldies will spend their turn getting up the rest of the way. Initiatives 28 Blue Jay -- Uninjured -- HPx2 24 Gazer -- Uninjured -- GM 19 Fleur -- Uninjured -- HPx6 19 Tree! 1 -- Uninjured -- Minion 19 Tree! 2 -- Uninjured -- Minion 19 Tree! 3 -- Uninjured -- Minion 19 Tree! 4 -- Uninjured -- Minion 19 Tree! 5 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 1 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 2 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 3 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 4 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 5 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 6 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 7 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 8 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 9 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 10 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 11 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 12 -- Uninjured -- Minion Blue Jay So Blue Jay will be using Ranged Disarm on Gazer. Blue Jay's ranged Disarm attack, vs Gazer's Def. (1d20+15=19) ... Well that was horrid. Rerolling. Blue Jay's ranged Disarm attack, vs Gazer's Def. Reroll (1d20+15=32) MUCH better. So with Autofire that's a DC 25 Str check, which Gazer cannot make, so he loses his little ray gun. Gazer Good thing he's got that Transform, ehn? He has to make eye contact with Jay for it to work, so she gets a DC 20 Reflex save and a DC 20 Fort save. Blue Jay's Reflex save, vs DC 20. (1d20+12=28) Good thing she has a tricked-out Reflex save!
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Blue Jay wasted no time in staring at the population on display. She moved forward and drew several arrows from her quiver, then loosed them at the largest group of gold shirts moving to intercept the heroines. One, two, three, four arrows went out and found their targets unerringly -- unfortunately each of them bounced off a shimmering gold force field that was projected just in front of the advancing enemies! Jay swore and fell back from the railing, considering her next move, while the man up by the power plants laughed at the attack. "You can't be so foolish as to think no one has ever tried to attack here, hm? I protect my boys!" He drew a polished blaster pistol from a holster at his side. "Sorry to say, you can't be so lucky!" He took aim and fired, his shots focusing on the green-haired plant controller more than the pierced archer.
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Initiatives 28 Blue Jay -- Uninjured -- HPx2 24 Gazer -- Uninjured -- GM 19 Fleur -- Uninjured -- HPx6 17 Goldshirt 1 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 2 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 3 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 4 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 5 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 6 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 7 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 8 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 9 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 10 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 11 -- Uninjured -- Minion 17 Goldshirt 12 -- Uninjured -- Minion Blue Jay Jay's going to open up by shooting arrows at the goldshirts. Unfortunately all the goldies have enough Impervious to shrug off a bog-standard arrow barrage. Whoopsie! Gazer Gazer is going to start by blasting Fleur. Gazer's ranged attack, vs Fleur's flat-footed Def. DC 20 Tou (1d20+15=31) ... I think that would hit even her full Defense.
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Perhaps it should have been harder to find the engine room, or at least harder to move about the ship, but Fleur and Blue Jay hadn't snuck on-board while it was in port -- the ship was in the middle of combat, and retreating as fast as its engines could carry it. Any crewmembers that would have been inclined to get in their path were at battlestations, and while they run across a few folks rushing from one station to another, Blue Jay's hand-to-hand talents and Fleur's rapidly-spreading vines proved sufficient to subdue them without trouble. The engine room was well-marked and so the pair moved steadily aft, until they came to a huge, sealed door simply marked ENGINEERING. Jay tapped on the thick metal once, then stepped back for Fleur to drop a few strategic seeds. The plants that grew out of them were easily able to pry the door open, and the two heroines stepped through into the space beyond. The engine room turned out to be an open space several stories tall, with gantries on the side Jay and Fleur were on and the huge power plants opposite them, shining with exotic radiation. All around the rest of the room were computer consoles, and spacers in various dress and fashions manning them or rushing from one to another. The one element that tied them all together was a bright gold sash across their chest, as well as a tendency towards grime and dirt on their exposed skin. Standing in front of the power plants was a rather short man in a full-body gold uniform, shouting orders to the crew. He might have been rather forgettable among the menagerie of aliens crowding the room if it hadn't been for the goggles that he wore; bulky black plastic things that had only a single, red viewport off-center on his face. The cyclops looked up as the doors were forced open and pointed at the heroines. "Intruders," he shouted. "Intruders in engineering. Boys, get 'em!" And several crewmen did glance up and leave their work stations, rushing towards the ramps and where the heroines were standing.
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Of course they're fighting and a bunch of 12 goldies, all PL 8. Visor man is as-written. Initiatives! Blue Jay's Ini (1d20+15=28) Gazer's Ini (1d20+7=24) Goldies' Ini. (1d20+7=17)
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Tona frowned. "Some people still have to," she said, her thoughts still on Sanctuary. "Some people still sow and farm by hand. To them this isn't just musty old history, it's how they live their lives." She wandered over to a display showing corn yields, absorbed in her thoughts. "We only think about the world we can see," she said, half under her breath. "We never think about all the things that go on that we can't see that we need to survive."
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Freedom Hall was not inexperienced at dealing with bleeding people appearing suddenly and shouting orders. Figures bearing the League's symbol on their sleeves appeared and hustled Tona off to the infirmary on the sub-level. It was odd for their visitors to not be sporting masks and brightly-colored outfits, but they still moved quickly and efficiently; in a handful of minutes Tona was reclining on a hospital bed with her shirt cut away and a doctor cleaning her cuts. They'd already sprayed her with a topical anesthetic, so she was able to have the odd experience of watching someone poke around in her wounds while being lucid enough to take an interest in it. Sam, meanwhile, had been hustled off into a room by her own and now a heavy-set man in a blue uniform with the League's symbol on his breast came through the door. "Hello," he said, shutting the door behind him. "I don't suppose you'd like to tell us your name? And why your friend was cut up?"
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Tona held on to the bow, the stanchion, and the thief, even as she felt searing pain in her shoulder and a warm trickle of blood down her back. Splinter raised the shard again and paused as Sam's psychic magic tried to worm into her brain. She looked down at Tona and saw her best friend, her trusted sister, her confidant, her mentor and ally and... and... Splinter screamed and shook her head from side to side. "No! Get out of there, you don't belong in my head!" She screamed again and stabbed down at Tona wildly; the blow deflected off her ribs and went into her side. The archer's face went white at the new pain, and her grip started to slip on the ironmongery under the bridge. She let out a wordless yell of frustration and pain as she slipped free and swung back on her grapple line. She was forced to face facts -- she wasn't going to be able to hold onto Splinter, not like this. So she opened her legs and let the other girl fall. Splinter made a surprised sound for a moment, before disappearing in her own fashion, but now Tona had a new problem; she was hanging under the bridge, clutching on to her bow with one hand, but when she tried to raise her other arm to grab it and start climbing, the pain made her hand tremble and she was forced to drop it. She couldn't climb up, and she might not survive a drop down. But sooner than she liked, she would have to risk the fall...
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Tona took a moment to simply breath. Flying on a giant bee, teleporting into a room, and losing her lunch all in a few minutes was exhausting, and so she stopped for a moment to examine their surroundings and simply be still. "... No idea where the bridge is," she admitted, "but the engines are towards the back, right? If we take those out, then we don't have to worry about them being able to escape." Tona stopped and thought for a moment. "Hey, just a second. Are we trying to stop them escaping? If they're gone they won't steal anymore goats."
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Splinter is using a PL8 version of Splinter's Will save, vs DC 17. (1d20+7=20) Nope!4
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Normally, Tona would never have enough momentum to carry her all the way to the underside of the bridge, but she had carried a lot of energy in her initial leap, and now she neared the ironmongry underneath the bridge at speed. Most of her limbs were either tied up with Splinter or her bow, and letting go of either would be borderline disastrous. Still, she had one arm that was able to reach out and snag an iron strut, and keep her from falling back and swinging like a pendulum on her arrow's line. "Okay," she said through gritted teeth. "Time to give it up." Splinter twisted in Tona's grasp, but it seemed apparent that the teleporter couldn't simply poof out of a grapple like the one she was caught in. "Just stop squirming," Tona grunted. She was at peak physical condition, would probably never be stronger or faster or more agile in her life, but even this was a stretch of her endurance. "Never give up," Splinter snarled. "Never, never, NEVER!" She briefly twisted an arm free, and raised it high -- and Tona could only watch as a red, crystalline dagger formed in the other girl's palm. And she could only watch as the other girl stabbed it into Tona's shoulder.
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Jessica giggled at Baxter's impression, but she wasn't entirely sure it was good news. It seemed like all Baxter's parents cared about was whether or not he was fighting crime, not whether or not he wanted to fight crime or whether he was any good at it. Granted, Jessica's situation was rather unique, both using her grandfather's legacy and being responsible for her own suit, but she didn't want to see Baxter entirely abandon crime-fighting just because of this one incident. "I can keep a secret," she said, bumping Baxter's hip with her own. "So let me in on another one. Where are you stashing the suit that your parents aren't catching you?"
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There was a groan, and a shriek of metal, and a popping of bolts as the plants heaved their green bulk against one wall. They cracked computer screens, flattened papers and books, and soon the electrical connections began to spark and sputter. Another few moments of sustained pressure and the entire wall fell out, the metal bulkhead falling away and exposing sky outside. Tona felt her stomach lurch again as she realized she was now staring at a huge hole in the side of the ship. "Already inside," she fairly screamed. "We don't need a hole anymore!" With a hole open to the sky, they could once again hear the deafening sounds of battle. Over it all they could just barely make out the captain on the intercom again. "Avast! Seal that hole in the plant lab! Or jettison the bloody thing again, see if I care." Tona shot Fleur a look and made a break for the only door she could see.
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Three women, all climbing and leaping and clambering over the traffic, wasn't nearly the most unusual sight most Freedonians saw in a week, but it did get its share of camera phones out and filming. The teleporter -- Splinter, apparently -- scowled at the attention and leapt off traffic, only to disappear and reappear over the river! Tona hadn't even noticed that the bus had taken them onto the Lindroos Bridge and was heading into Wading Way and Riverside. The archer steadied herself. This... was going to be tricky. She drew her bow and unfolded it with a jerk, drawing one of the arrows that didn't have any fletching on it. She nocked it carefully, steadied herself with one hand against the roof of the car she was on, pushed the bow forward with her other, and drew the arrow back with her teeth. It didn't give her nearly as much draw as she normally had, but then she didn't need nearly as much draw. She loosed the arrow and it hit the railing of the bridge, but more importantly it trailed a monofilament line back to the bow. Tona took a breath, leapt off the car, and ran forward, off the car. As she jumped off she hit the break on the line and her forward momentum was transferred into lateral movement. The girl's small body whipped around and thought she cut it fine, she just barely managed to clear the railing and swing underneath the bridge. There, she could see Splinter hanging in the air for a moment between teleports, before Tona slammed into her and wrapped her legs around the other woman. "Vous pris," she spat at the girl as her momentum began to swing her up and towards the underside of the bridge.
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Tona cringed inwardly. This was a recipe for an awkward afternoon. "D'accord. Great." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I suppose we just go there together. Just... over there." The pair wandered over towards the farming displays, where stone tools sat next to steel-tipped plows, going all the way to a picture of a huge, green combine harvester with a John Deere logo on the side. Tona wondered how Stesha and the folks on Sanctuary seeded their fields. Did they use plows and machines, or did they do it by hand? Or did Stesha just cause the ground to open up and they dropped seeds in? How would her father adapt to a life of farming, after hunting and shooting his entire life? "It's, uh. It's pretty amazing," Tona said lamely, not wanting to let any kind of silence grow between her and Katherine. "For so long people just used their own two feet to push plows across fields. They really had to work hard, every single day, just to survive."
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The heroes had just enough time to see titanic vines and roots rise from the ground and bash the ship, causing it to shed a few hull plates. In another moment they were inside... a park? A greenhouse? Some confined space overgrown with greenery; everywhere they looked was covered and coated in vines, leaves, and blooming flowers. A few steps brought them out of the densest part of the foliage and into something that looked more like a laboratory, with computer screens framed by creeping vines. They could still hear the battle going on outside, the distant thud-crump of the guns and the occasional deck-rattling hit by Sanctuary's planetary plant defenses. Oh, and the captain. They could now hear the captain speaking. "Put yer backs into it, ye scurvy space-dogs! Blast those bleeding buggering bees out of the sky, or I'll keel-haul the lot of ye and surf through the asteroid belt!" The ship lurched and the pair of heroines had the unpleasant experience of artificial gravity fighting against actual gravity as the ship began to list. "Avast! Twenty percent more power to the starboard thrusters, maties!" "Excuse me." Tona stepped off to the side, bent over, and vomited nearly into a near-by bush. After a few minutes she pulled a canteen from a pocket, swished some water around her mouth, and swished it around before spitting into the same bush. Then she returned to Fleur's side. "Okay. Let's get this thing to set down before that happens again, please."
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The unknown blonde glared daggers at Sam, actually baring her teeth and snarling. "Don't you dare tell me what I can do," she said. "You don't have an idea what Splinter can do!" Then she was simply gone, the seat empty and Sam staring at nothing -- not even the bag. Tona had been watching the exchanged (although really watching Sam a lot more closely than the other girl) and sat up straight when the girl disappeared. Her head whipped around and she saw the girl -- outside, crouched on the roof of the car next to the bus! She blew the startled passengers a kiss and teleported again, appearing a few cars ahead, and then a few more. Tona wasn't sure what this meant for their test -- obviously they'd been spotted, but not by Changeling, so did that count? -- but her stubborn pride wasn't about to let this girl get away. She looked at the window and hit it experimentally, but the glass wasn't about to give. Then she noticed a red lever at the top of the pane, marked EMERGENCY RELEASE. Tona grabbed it, pulled, and the entire pane popped out and onto the pavement. The bus was soon filled by a noisy, roaring wind, that Tona didn't take any notice of. Quick as a wink she was balanced on the window frame and then she made the daring leap to the car next to the bus, where the teleporter had been balancing just moments ago! After that she had to make another leap, and another, just to stay abreast of the teleporting thief!
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Ship's Toughness, vs DC 30. (1d20+15=27)
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Beeatrizz fanned her wings and leapt into the air, going high and giving Fleur a grand view of the goings on. She could track several groups of interlopers, both by her spying plants and the giant bees dive-buzzing them. They were apparently retreating back to the empty clearing as fast as their various legs, tails, treads, and wheels could carry them, and it was soon obvious why. The air shimmered like a heat mirage and a huge, blood-red, roughly hexagonal ship appeared out of thin air. Pirate were charging up ramps, even as thrusters fired and the bulk of the spacecraft began to lift off the ground. "WE ARE VICTORIOUZZZ!" Beeatrizz crowed, doing a loop-the-loop in celebration. "THE INVADERZZZ ARE VANQUIZZZED! HAIL THE HIVE! HAIL THE FLEUR! HAIL THE --" The giant bee suddenly had to dive quickly as a superheated plasma beam cut through the air in front of it. Cannons were coming to life along the length of the hull and filling the air with white-hot beams of ravening energy. The bees were forced to break off their harassment and focus on evasion. Still, it seemed the ship's weapons weren't designed to target such agile figures because none of the bees had dropped yet, but with the volume of fire the craft was pumping out it was only a matter of time. Tona leaned forward and grabbed Stesha's arm. "We need to get on-board," she shouted, nearly in Fleur's ear. "We need a hole in the hull!"
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"Yes, I... didn't actually take my history exam before Winter Break, because..." Because she was light years away on the Curator's ringworld and a murderous robotic duplicate was standing in for her. Tona coughed. "I'm getting until the end of the month to turn in a paper, though. On anything prehistorical. I was, uh, about to look at the agricultural exhibit," she added lamely. Just what did you talk about with someone who had fought your duplicate to the death?
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Tona blushed as she heard the pause in Katherine's voice, saw her face go pale. Of course this wasn't just a chance meeting between students, just a month ago someone wearing Tona's face had tried to kill Katherine and several other T-Babies -- and they'd been more successful than Tona was comfortable with. "N'est pas," she said. "I was... stuck in my own head." She pushed herself to her feet. "Are we... Do you... I didn't expect to see you here, Katherine."
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Starlight was not thrilled about riding in any craft so loaded down with ways to strip her of her powers and expose her identity. Nevertheless, if she had to than she had to. She wasn't the sort to leave things undone, after all. "I do not require further equipment," she said. "I would prefer to be escorted directly to our vehicle." She paused. "But don't let me stop you, Omen," she added.