Raveled

The background has a sense of things piled on other things. He was a preemie baby, he had CP, he had asthma, he had a crappy home life AND he was run over by a plane? That's a lot of stuff to drop on a guy and still keep him basically "calm and laid-back." How exactly was he in position to be run over by a plane? Even if it was a situation where the passengers had to go out on the tarmac and climb one of those step-ladder things to get on-board, the plane will be parked long before the passengers are out there. Maybe have him getting hit by a truck, that's a bit more plausible and can still mess a person up. Oh, and liking Sex and the City isn't much of a Complication, all told.

The hero of Puerto Rico made the call and soon the police arrived with their specially prepared vehicles. Iapetus and the remaining cloned soldiers were easily herded up and locked away, carted off to Blackstone and points incarcerated. Once the dust cleared the two Claremonters were left alone, as the light slowly drained from the sky. Somewhere Tethys was no doubt slipping back into the water and paddling off, but for now it was quiet. They could sit and relax, drink in their success, and pointedly not think about the paper they needed to write on their trip to the Aquarium.

... Sorry, when should Starlight go?

Starlight glanced at Young Britannia and nodded curtly. "It shall not take very long, I suspect." She held out both hands in front of her and a glow formed between them, illuminating the room. "In fact, I believe we shall be finished shortly. I just need to thin the herd a touch." Rays of energy leapt out of the bright sphere, lancing through the gathered Merges and cutting them deeply.

Starlight Free Action: Stunt off Mystic Light Array. Damage 10 (Extra: Area/cone [Targeted]) Standard Action: Shoot as many Merges as possible. Starlight's attack check, vs target's Def. DC 25 Tou (1d20+10=29) Goddammit, and I can't even grab Improved Crit this round. :facepalm:

"You win," Changeling said, "by following me around and not being seen. I'll be visiting a few different places around town; once all this is over, you each have to write a paper tallying where I went and what I did." She paused and added with a smile, "Oh. And I'm going to be driving to the Promenade, but I won't tell you where I'm going after that. So first thing, I would recommend finding a way out there." She walked through the door and left the pair of crime fighters standing there, stranded. Tona frowned hard. "Have to track a car? Without a car of our own? And then we have to... Hm. She's cheating." She grinned suddenly. "Good." The archer walked over to one of the windows, reaching back and rummaging in her pack. "Sam, can you figure out how to get us to the Promenade? I think I can figure out how to find her after we get there." The archer ran her free hand along the edge of the window pane. How did these open, anyway?

It is pretty much plug-and-play as regards to powers, as long as you are doing a freeform hero. Why don't you trust the wikis and the stickies?

The secretary at the Lab's front desk knew to expect the grey-haired superhero and sent him in the proper direction. The security guards knew he was authorized to be here, so he only got a passing nod from them. And the door was unlocked, letting him walk right into the gathering of super-geniuses. Jessica turned when the door opened and felt a thrill of nerves. This was really it, the whole thing came down to this. She supposed she shouldn't be feeling this on edge, she was already part of this amazing group, but Voltage be such a great help at the Lab! Who wouldn't be excited? She forced her anxiety down and smiled at the young man. "Voltage. Hi, thanks for coming." She took a deep breath and launched into the prepared speech. "In this city, among its superheroes and citizens, there is a small group dedicated to the advancement of science and human knowledge. Those of us with superlative intelligences have banded together, to pool our resources and make the city and the world better than we could separately. In acknowledgement of your skills and your natural intellect, we of the Lab would like to extend an official offer of fellowship and membership to you, Voltage." She let out a small sigh as she finished and relaxed slightly, her ramrod straight posture sagging a bit. At least with her photographic memory she hadn't needed to resort to reading off cards!

Iapetus reeled back from the repeated blows, bleeding from cuts in his under-robes. He held up his scaly arms to shield his head, cowering back from the assault. "Hssss. Ssstop! I... I sssurender." He ground his teeth together, spitting out the words. "You may have driven off my companion, you may have defeated me thisss day... but you ssshall sssee. You may have the children today, but blood will out. One day... they will return to usss, of their own free will!"

"Your Unity is anything but," Starlight said condescendingly. "It is slavery, and chains of the mind. At least you shall no longer have to suffer under it." She raised one hand and a glow built up there, until it took off and smashed the Grue drone in the head, hard! The creature's neck snapped around and it went down, bloody and close to death. The heroine seemed unconcerned with its final fate and turned to the captain instead. "Captain, I would suggest that you prepare to be boarded. If you can determine some quick way for crewmembers to identify each other, it would not be a bad idea; Grue like to sow confusion through their shapeshifting. Otherwise," she added, "I would fall back and prepare to defend key areas of the ship." She turned to Synth. "I think we have the best chance of seeing off the boarders. Shall we prepare to make battle?"

Scuffles, do you want to get in one last punch before Iapetus surrenders?

Starlight is going to Coup de Grace the Grue, with lethal damage. Automatically hits, DC 30 Toughness save and a DC 20 Fort save if he's not dead. Tiff, can I get the result of the rolls before I post IC?

Starlight's Ini. (1d20+7=15)

"We will be less effective apart," Starlight pointed out. "I do not like the idea of letting criminals profit by their actions either, but I cannot abide the idea of this criminal, or this group of criminals, or however you parse the idea, escaping because I was too focused on recovering the money of a group that cannot even think to put fake bills in their giant box." She took a deep breath; the speech was rather more impassioned that Starlight usually got. She preferred to think of herself as a dispassionate source of judgement, so she forced the emotions down and gathered her power. She began to glow gently, shedding a dim light about the control room. "I cannot control your actions, Young Britannia," she said. "We must both go to where we feel we can do the most good." With that she was gone, discorporating into a fog of light, which separated into many small motes and zoomed off. The cloud precipitated out of the air of the recording studio, swirling around the pack of Merges and coming together to form Starlight once more. "Desist with your criminal actions and give yourself up to the police," she thundered as dramatically as she could, "or you shall be laid low by the Light!"

Iapetus's Toughness save, vs DC 26. (1d20+9=15) Daze again + Staggered. Get an IC post up, Arich.

Snare's Toughness save, vs DC 27. (1d20+10=11) Ah-hahahaha! Okay, EH is free. Arich, if you want to Surge, you could pound on Iapetus a bit.

Starlight isn't in there, somewhere?

An artificer golem, huhn? Interesting concept, certainly one I haven't seen before. So she's publically known as a magic robot? That's interesting. Any particular place the name "Ginerva" comes from? It's very close to Minerva, the Roman name for Athena (goddess of crafts and wisdom! ). 20 Dex is an interesting choice. That is a very limber golem. Ini, Grapple, and Knockback have to be calculated, of course. Math looks right on Attack and Defense. Exotic saves are pretty much where they should be. I'd recommend moving some of that Reflex into Will, but that's a personal thing. You should note which Language is her native tongue. Also, that's a lot of PP into Language; at some point it becomes easier to buy Comprehend. All checks out there, though I'm interesting to see what the Equipment goes to buying. Kudos on buying the full Immunity. The concept is an interesting one. Right now I'd recommend filling that Skill list out or possibly buying a rank of Skill Mastery. Think about her hobbies, the little things Ginerva did that kept her sane from day to day. Also, don't disregard the fluff. Fluff can be very important when deciding little character points.

Iapetus's Sense Motive save, vs DC 26-2. (1d20+3=11) Iapetus's Toughness save, vs DC 24. (1d20+10=18) That's Bruisex2 + the Daze refreshes. Get an IC post up, Scuffles.

Since Iapetus is Dazed, he can't act this turn, so we'll go straight to Glow.

Glowstar :arrow: Putting 1 PP into Impervious Toughness. CAPED!

Starlight :arrow: Both PP into Skills. Buying 8 ranks of Intimidate. [-2PP] CAPED!

Crimson Tiger's up next, then.

"Scans showed the buildings to be empty," the commander said, "but there's some mountains nearby and visual scans suggest an extensive cave network. There might be survivors in there." "Travel time will be about, ah, twenty-nine Terran hours," Engineer O'Rouly said, still circling the group. "We can fabricate containment suits to your physical specifications, but I can't promise that they'll survive lifting a boulder or shooting fire or growing wings, or whatever it is you all have to do once you're down there."

"Okay, that's about as far enough." The voice drew the attention of the girl's to a tall blonde woman standing in the back of the room. She was dressed in a bright floral tee-shit and flared jeans, with flip-flop sandals on her feet. She smiled brightly and waved, coming closer to Sam and Tona. It would be an entirely disarming appearance, if the back of the room hadn't been empty just moments before. "You can call me Changling," she said, her voice cheery. "I used to study here at Claremont, but Mr. Archer asked me to come back for a little lesson." She glanced between the two young women. "So who is Antoinette, and who is Samantha?" Tona gave the new arrival a suspicious look. "I'm Tona," she said. "Where did you come from? I didn't see anyone back there." "That's for me to know and for you to find out," Changling replied airily. "Or rather, for you to figure out. I'll be going around town today. The two of you have to tail me and make sure not to lose me. Do you think you can do it?"