Raveled

Starlight reached over and gave Young Brittania's hand a squeeze, but didn't speak. She didn't trust AEGIS not to record everything they were saying. She didn't shrug at the agent's words, but the movement of her eyebrows conveyed the same indifference. "If you wish to supply information regarding those who were behind these attacks," she said, "I will not turn the help down. But I do not understand why you felt the need to drag us down to your bunker to tell us these things. It does not engender trust."

Happy birthday to our Aussie action heroine. Make sure to ask for a stunt double this year!

Initiative 20 Negator -- Uninjured -- GM 17 Bee-Keeper III -- Uninjured -- HPx4 17 Ironclad II -- Bruisex1 -- HPx4 Negator Standard Action: Use Summon to grab 10 Minion versions of himself! Move Action: Rush 'em, boys!

Day of Wrath Southside, Freedom City Ironclad flew over the city, thrusters pushing her in a long curve over the south side of Freedom City. She had been out at Lonely Point, at the naval base, consulting with the US Navy on a stealth submarine drive they’d requested the Lab’s help with, when the police band radio came alive. Moments later all the local television channels had been interrupted to tell the citizens that heroes were going crazy all over the city, attacking civilians and other heroes alike. There were even reports of some deaths. Jessica had excused herself and armored up, flying up the river, trying to spot trouble before it reached the police band. She had managed to break up a couple of incipient riots (mostly people congregating in the street and yelling) and scared a group of looters in Lincoln into bolting. Now she was making a second pass and calculating the best route to the West End: apparently there was a giant robot stomping over there. Her plans changed when a ten-foot woman jumped out of the streets of Southside. Ironclad instantly recognized Victoria Atom, even as the young woman swung up the side of an apartment building on twenty-foot arms. The battlesuited heroine swooped close to the Atom heir, hovering on jets. “Victoria! What are you doing out here?†The Atom twisted her head around to address Ironclad. “Thank goodness. Quickly, there’s some villains holed up in this apartment block. They call themselves the Wolfpack: we have to stop them. They’re behind all this madness!†Ironclad paused. She’d heard of the Wolfpack in passing; they were T-babies and constantly tried to conquer the city, but she was under the impression that they were strictly small time. “Quickly,†Victoria urged. “Maximus is chasing one of them down in the basement levels, but I cornered the rest up top. I need help to take them all down!†That decided it – two heroes like the Atoms needed her help? They’d get it. Ironclad smashed through a nearby window and sent out a sonar ping, mapping the entire inside space in seconds. The building was mostly deserted, except for a cluster of people near the roof. Perhaps thirty individuals were huddled up on the roof, surrounded by five figures Ironclad recognized from police reports – Acro-Bat, Hombre, Multiplex, and Chamelia, the supposed leader of the group. After that it was child’s play to find an empty elevator shaft, force the doors open, and fly straight up, to where the Wolfpack had the civilians surrounded… families, actually. Adults protecting children who were clutching blankets or stuff animals. And the Wolfpack around them, spread out with even spacing, facing outwards. Like they were expecting an attack. Ironclad paused, trying to make sense of the tableau, as the Wolfpack rearranged themselves in front of the hovering heroine. Chamelia stepped to the front, hands balled into fists. “Another so-called hero, ehn? Well, we’ll fight you, too! Just like we fought off Victoria Atom and sent Maximus chasing after Spectra. You won’t get these people so easily!†That stunned Ironclad. “What do you mean, get these people? I’m trying to save them – from you!†Chamelia barked out a laugh. “Oh sure, just like the Atoms were going to? You’re not going to get at these T-babies, ‘hero.’ The Wolfpack looks after our own. We’re not going to let you kill them!†Ironclad was too stunned to answer. She was completely off-balance, the wheels in her head spinning freely as she tried to accommodate this new information. The Atoms… were killing T-babies? Had already killed some T-babies? And the Wolfpack were defending these people? It was true that the civilians certainly seemed more afraid of Ironclad than any of the Wolfpack… Victoria Atom suddenly crested the edge of the roof, clambering up opposite Ironclad as a helicopter bearing the logo of Channel 5 WXAD swooped overhead. Victoria grinned, showing all her teeth as she advanced on the crowd of civilians, who scrambled away from her. Chamelia scowled. “Hombre, Multiplex – hold off Victoria!†The two members of the Wolfpack raced around to put themselves between the crowd and the advancing Atom. Victoria looked over the heads of the civilians at Ironclad. “Well? Let’s attack! Between us, they won’t have a chance!†Ironclad paused, and shouted back over at Victoria. “They said you attacked them,†she called out, “and that they were protecting the civilians.†Victoria laughed, loud and shrill. “Civilians? No, no, no. These people are symptoms, symptoms of a disease. You see, all these people are T-babies – or families of T-babies who won’t do the right thing and bring them forward to be exterminated.†Ironclad blanched under her mask. “Exterminated!? For what reason? For being a T-baby?†“Isn’t that enough? They’re bringing the taint of the Terminus into this world! Why, at any moment they might rip a hole in this dimension and let Annhilists and their armies through. We can’t wait for that to happen, Ironclad. We have to kill them all!†And Victoria rushed forward, using her elongated limbs to bash aside Hombre and Multiplex. She raised one noodle arm above the crowd, clearly intending to smash as many as possible to paste. What she wasn’t intending was for Ironclad to catch the blow on her crossed arms. The force of it drove her down several inches, but she routed more power to the thrusters and pushed back. “I don’t know what the hell is going on,†Ironclad said to Victoria, “but this wrong. There’s no reason to kill these people just for being like this!†Victoria bounced backwards and sneered at Ironclad. “So you’d stand with villains? And wait for the world to be destroyed.†Ironclad charged her weapons and went into a battle stance. “I’ll stand alongside anyone who’s against murder. And I’ll protect this world from any threat, even if they think they’re a hero!†“So be it,†Victoria sneered loudly, even as the news chopper settled at a comfortable distance to film the fight. “If you stand with them, I’ll just have to kill you all!†The Atom girl wound up and swung, and Ironclad misjudged the timing of her distended limbs; the blow cracked off her armor plating and sent her flying. Multiplex called down lightning to blast Victoria, but she wove away from it – and into Hombre’s line of fire. The space biker let loose with a volley and Victoria rolled with the blows, falling off the roof – only to reappear, swinging up. She snatched Hombre off the roof and pitched him into the air and over the chopper, to land somewhere far away. Ironclad jetted back into the fight, blasting Victoria and driving her towards the flipping Acro-Bat. The nullifying villain got a hold of Victoria and grinned as she sent her power into the woman… Only to have the Atom laugh in her face and retaliate with a rabbit-punch. Acro-Bat folded, and Hunger came in swinging. Victoria dodged his open mouth and flipped him onto a neighboring building, but the distraction gave Ironclad enough time to get in close and grapple Victoria. The heroines rolled across the roof, Victoria’s inhumanly long limbs fighting for leverage against Ironclad’s servo-assisted strength. It seemed a lost cause for the Atom woman, but suddenly her limbs moved with a disturbing fluidity and seeped out of Ironclad’s grip. Victoria landed in the midst of the civilians and laughed haughtily. “Time to make with the killing,†she crowed. “Time to cleanse this place of the AIEEEEEE!†The air crackled with energy and Victoria arched her back, bending into a horseshoe before collapsing. Chamelia suddenly appeared, a smoking gauntlet on her arm. She glanced over at Ironclad and back at the gauntlet, shrugging. “Something I nabbed off a Super-MAX last time I tangled with STAR Squad,†she said. “Kind of over-charged it, I think, since all the lights are red.†She pulled the glove off and let it drop, as Ironclad came to stand next to her over the unconscious body of one of the city’s defenders. “What are you going to do now?†Before Ironclad could respond, a woman in white floated out of the floor. Spectra doubled over in the air, laughing herself silly. “Oh man, Chamelia. You should’ve seen the look on Maximus’s face!†The ghostly villain paused and looked over the roof. “Oh. Um. Is everything okay?†Chamelia crossed her arms and nodded, giving Ironclad a side-ways glance. “Everyone’s fine. And the civilians, too. Where’s Maximus.†“I, uh, left him in a sewer pipe under the river.†She giggled. “When he comes out he’s going to smell like what he has instead of brains.†She looked at Ironclad. “And we’re teaming up with the white masks, now?†Chamelia gave Ironclad a look, and the armored heroine sighed. “I have to get Victoria to the police,†she said. “After that I expect to be very busy. But I will be following up on these people, every single one of them, so if you have something in mind I’d drop it right now!†Chamelia held up her hands and rolled her eyes. “Right. Well I guess we’ll just get everyone inside and bunkered down.†Ironclad nodded and gathered up the unconscious and smoking Victoria Atom. She rose into the air as the Wolfpack began to regroup and herd everyone indoors, and the news chopper flew off in search of another story.

Planning on using the Atoms for this story. If no one has any objections, that is.

GM The Lab's hanger was in fact three entire floors, with the center and walls cut away, creating a huge empty space occupied by any number of fantastical flying vehicles. Right now it was filled with humans in stiff, metal-gray uniforms, at least two dozen of them checking over the flying vehicles with different instruments. A smaller number, maybe seven in total, stood in a loose circle around the center shaft, bearing weapons similar to the group that had attacked the lobby. And then there was the two lounging on the lip of the building. He was dressed in a tight black uniform, open at the chest to show an expanse of powder-blue skin. Lounging in the sun, he looked like a model that had made a go at looking like a smurf. She was in white-and-gold armor that came up to her chin, which let her golden-blonde hair blow in the breeze. Blue was speaking. "I'm just saying, this whole plan is overcomplicated. Give me a legion and twenty days, and this city would be burning. "A legion transport would be detected at the edge of the system," Gold-Blonde replied, "and destroyed by the Lor. Then you could have your twenty days in the Correction Pit, Azariah, explaining why you lost our master's precious soldiers." She smiled at him, sickeningly sweetly. "And if you managed to land any troops, the champions of those planet would destroy you and them." Azariah sniffed dismissively. "You overestimate the Lor, Ronahn. And this world's defenders." He laughed and spread his arms wide. "Why, they only know we're here because we chose to announce it!" "As part of our mistress's plan. Stick to the plan, Azariah, and we shall be richly rewarded in court. Deviate from it and..." Ronahn left the threat hanging, but the blue man waved it off. "I can follow a plan, tinkerer. Don't worry: by this time tomorrow, this city will be a wreckage."

GM The team of commandos from the lobby hurried up the Lab's access stairs, making for the thirteenth and fourteenth floors. Miss Americana did her best to divert them, making switch from staircase to staircase. The Lab was generally more worried about keeping dangerous experiments from escaping, though, not stopping invading troops. Finally they reached floor thirteen -- and a steel plate four inches thick slammed over the door. The lead commando stepped forward and touched the plate, only to receive a strong electric shock for his troubles. He swore in a language that the Lab's computers failed to translate and gestured one of the women forward. "Go for it, Elanee," he said, settling down to watch the stairs above them. The woman stepped forward, removing her gloves and letting her weapon hand. She closed her eyes, and in a moment was engulfed in flames! She put one hand on the steel plate began to burn through it, slowly but surely.

Blue Jay was emphatically not happy about flying, and intended to spend most of the flight snugged down between two benches, on the floor of the bus, pretending as hard as possible that she was on the ground. However this trip revealed something new about herself: She got air sick. So rather than spend the trip trying to master a rebellious stomach, she was forced to sit near the front and watch the clouds and far-distant mountains pass by. That way she only had to deal with the tension headache from the fear that she was going to drop out of the sky any minute. The stops in forests and car-parks were a blessing and she spent as much time out of the bus as possible, but all too soon they were forced to get moving again. Still, she was as happy as she could be sitting around the fire just outside Chicago; surrounded on all sides by an Omegadrone, the hero who had befriended it, an unknown quantity in a bandanna, an expelled student, and someone who was on speaking terms with Stratos. She was almost glad when the object broke the cloud cover and went streaking towards the horizon. Jay jumped to her feet, pulling out the folding binoculars she carried even as the group rushed to the bus. She knelt near the fire and trained the binoculars towards the impact site, trying to resolve some detail while she avoided getting onto the bus and into the air.

Jay's Skill Mastery would only make it 25, so rolling! Blue Jay's Notice check, vs DC 29. (1d20+15=24) Denied!

Blue Jay looked around as Blodeuwedd landed on the roof near her. "Hello, Blodeu," she said, her voice quite calm and even. "I remember. You're going to help me go back home and kill all of the Terminus." She glanced back at the stage and loosed three arrows that stitched across Hammerhead's legs. "Just think of this as getting started early. I told you it wouldn't be like any fight we've ever had before. What did you think I meant, that it's just be really hard? Like camping all the time? No." She drew again and put an arrow through Hammerhead's heart, then into one of his eyes. "Being in the Terminus means being ready to kill, all the time. Kill anyone, if they turn." The archer surveyed the stage, but she couldn't see any more of the T-Babies. She turned to her friend, grinning from ear to ear. "Quelle supris! If it's all this quick, I'll be done tomorrow! C'mon, Blodeu, come and help me kill them all."

Blue Jay Free Action: Switch Bow Array to Arrow Flurry. Standard Action: Arrowarrowarrowarrow against Hammerhead. Jay's ranged attack check w/ +4 Power Attack, vs Hammerhead's Def. DC 28 Tou + Autofire (1d20+15=33) EDIT Free Action: Surge. Standard Action: Jay's ranged attack check w/ +5 Power Attack, vs Hammerhead's Def. DC 29 Tou + Autofire (1d20+14=24)

Blue Jay reached out with an arrow and casually broke the glass on the skylight as the 'Freedom League' swept down into the space. She stood, placing one foot on the lip of the window, drawing and nocking an arrow. She scanned the room for a nice grouping of targets, and noticed a trio of the gangers standing some distance apart from the rest of the pack. Her hunter's instinct marked them, and she sent a volley of arrows in their direction.

Blue Jay frowned as she tried to recall more details of a scene she'd only heard second and third hand. "I didn't really know Dorothy before today," she said, glancing at the other Claremont teen uneasily, not quite sure how much she should say when the other girl was standing right there. "I do know people seemed quelle surpris that she had attacked another student, though." She reached up and scratched her neck. "I mean, no one at Claremont is really that bad, except for that one boy on Young Freedom. But you're right, no one thought Dorothy would do something like that."

Minion 11 is down. Blue Jay is up. Blue Jay Free Action: Switch Bow Array to Arrow Against the Crowd. Standard Action: Arrowarrowarrowarrow. Taking 10 for the attack, DC 20 Tou for, hm, let's say 3 guys. Thugs' Toughness save, vs DC 20 (1d20+3=8, 1d20+3=20, 1d20+3=13) One comes out of it. Kit is up.

Blue Jay turned back to Quickstep, frowning. "But just a few days ago, you attacked a transfer student from New Freedom. A couple of the Next-Gen kids pulled you off him and took you to the principal's office, and the next I heard..." She trailed off as she slowly tried to process the information. The Omegadrone's question caught her off guard. She wasn't in the habit of tracking the exact day of the week, but there had been that big food festival not too long ago. "It was... two weeks after Thanksgiving? Something like that. Maybe two and a half. Are you saying that some weird time thing is going on here? We arrive home before we leave here?"

All the Initiatives. Ironclad's Ini (1d20+5=17) Negator's Ini. (1d20+6=20)

Ironclad lead the way into the darkness under the water. It turned out to be a single huge room, the wash of water into the space causing a vortex in the river above it until a massive steel door ground closed over the opening. Sodium lights burst into light, letting the heroes see a large, open box, big enough to hold a couple of the metal spheres that had attacked Dawes Tech. The room was empty now, though. Ironclad checked her sensorium again, but the only things moving were her, the Bee-Keeper, and the water draining out the side. She turned in a slow circle, despite the total view her suit's sensors gave her. "This doesn't make any sense," she muttered. "This room is too small for the attack force from earlier. Do they have hangers all around the state?" The heroine's question was answered when the entire room lurched and the walls began to rise. Or rather, the room went down -- the entire thing was a giant elevator car! A form flickered to life in the middle of the car, at least ten feet high; an older man wearing what could pass for military dress, staring down his nose at the pair of heroes. "I should have known, when my attack squadron didn't return, that something like this would happen. Delinquents, coming in here without any idea of what's at stake and seeking to punish a man of vision because he bruised your ego." He sniffed. "Troublemakers. When the histories of this day are written, you shall be but a footnote on my rise to gr--" The voice cut out suddenly, even as the image kept monologuing in silence. Ironclad looked over at the Bee-Keeper and shrugged. The pair didn't have long to ponder the silence, however, as the elevator car lurched suddenly, then dropped out from under their feet. The armored heroine fired her jets and hung in the air for a moment, then slowly descended towards the bottom of the shaft. The shaft opened out into a wide assembly area, lit by hanging sodium lights. Bodies in paramilitary uniforms littered the space, some burning and some merely laying still. A man stood in the middle of the space, grinning a mad grin as the heroes descended to his level. He was a bit shorter than Baxter, dressed in a white jumpsuit with pockets all over it. All in all he looked like a rather inoffensive, slightly geeky sort; expect that half his body was shrouded in black energy, the edges of his body outlined in red. And the blood on his hands and splashed across his chest, that was a bit off-putting. The half-red man grinned at the heroes, he smiled a little too wide for sanity. "Oh, goody goody," he said. "Two new little toys for the Negator to play with. And they brought the elevator down with them! How nice of you. Perhaps I'll burn your heads first before consuming the rest of you!"

Door guard cannot possible make that, so he's down.

Jessica waited for a moment. She didn't know the whole story behind Mara's crusade against weapons tech, but she knew it was something deeply emotional for her friend and didn't want to drop herself into the middle of that rage. "I agree. This has to be stopped, Mara, but I'm afraid it's going to take a little direct action. If you would like, I'm sure I wouldn't mind a friend of yours coming along to make sure your tech got back to you, however." A sudden idea came to Jessica, and for a moment she wished for her technopathic abilities back. Instead she dug a Bluetooth earpiece out of a pocket and fitted it. A few taps on the screen made the call wireless and pulled up Jessica's text messenger service. It took her a moment to find Baxter's number, but when she started in on the message it was with the speed of a teenage techno-fetishist. Hy Bax gong to punch bad dudes w8t 2 come with?

Blue Jay shivered suddenly as she imagined the wall around Claremont Academy broken, the buildings on fire, the quad littered with bodies. She'd seen scenes of devastation back home, but for some reason her mind shied away from the image of a devastated Claremont. She could see the buildings collapsed in on themselves, gutted with fire; and draped across the steps were Mali, Cerys, and S-- Jay felt a hand closing around her chest, physical pain searing through her suddenly. She took a few shallow breaths as she pushed the picture away. Instead she moved over to the side of the road, looking for a gas station. "Is that where you picked up the Claremont uniform," she asked Quickstep. "I mean I guess they wouldn't let you keep it once you were expelled."

AA, how about a story about a villain protecting T-Babies from the populace? I was thinking of using the Wolfpack, specifically.

Blue Jay drew and nocked again almost immediately. "Heraldo," she called over to the stage. "I'm sorry you had to get caught up in this, but it was inevitable. You're standing with the Terminus, so you shall die with the Terminus." She paused and added, "And yourself, Congressman Walsh. Maybe a few more scars will show you how serious you have be about these monsters." The young archer loosed, drew, and loosed again in smooth rhythm. Arrow after arrow pelted the stage, coming down among the heroes, Walsh, his security detail, and even the crowd pressing up against the platform. Jay claimed to be there to destroy the T-Baby menace, but she certainly didn't seem very discriminating with her firepower!

Jay's PL 14, so for the record her Def is +15, Toughness is +13, Att is +19, and all attacks are DC + 9 Blue Jay Free Action: Switch to Arrow Against the Crowd. Standard Action: Arrow'ing the group on the stage. Lethal damage, slashing damage type. Blue Jay's ranged attack vs. group. DC 24 Tou (1d20+19=27) Move Action: ... Nothing, just yet.

The Thug archetype doesn't actually have any Notice, so he certainly can't beat that roll.

The gang-bangers will be using the Thug archetype in the core book, pg 229. Thugs' Ini. (1d20+1=3) Hahaha. MYSTERY's Ini (1d20+10=25) Who is it? It's a myyyyyyyystery. Initiative 25 MYSTERY -- Who knows? -- GM. Or is it? 24 Crimson Tiger -- Uninjured -- HPx2 23 Blue Jay -- Bruisex1 -- HPx2 13 Kit -- Bruisex1 -- HPx1 10 Blod -- Bruisex1 -- HPx2 3 Thug 1 -- Uninjured -- Minion 3 Thug 2 -- Uninjured -- Minion 3 Thug 3 -- Uninjured -- Minion 3 Thug 4 -- Uninjured -- Minion 3 Thug 5 -- Uninjured -- Minion 3 Thug 6 -- Uninjured -- Minion 3 Thug 7 -- Uninjured -- Minion 3 Thug 8 -- Uninjured -- Minion 3 Thug 9 -- Uninjured -- Minion 3 Thug 10 -- Uninjured -- Minion 3 Thug 11 -- Uninjured -- Minion Yes, we're keeping the HP and damage totals from the last fight. Wee, continuity! Crimson Tiger's up first.