Raveled

Tona straightened, looking almost guilty as she looked at Sam. "Something's not right here," she said. "I got a computer-mail message that told me to be here, right around now. But there's nothing here." She looked around, backing away slightly so that if someone or something attacked either her or Sam, it wouldn't be able to get both of them. "I think the message was sent by one of the teachers. So why isn't anyone here to see us?" Unless they can see us but we can't see them, the archer thought to herself.

The OOC for thread. Kit and Blue Jay on training! What can go wrong? With a special guest star, NPC!Changling.

2:53 PM September 16th, 2012 Claremont Academy Tona Baudin crossed the grassy quad of Claremont Academy quickly, short hair moving in the breeze. Her shirt was long-sleeved and dark red, and the word HERO was appliqued across the chest. It caught a few eyes and knowing grins among the Academy's student body, but it was a common enough appellation in the city that it wouldn't draw too much attention. Aside from that she had her standard black jeans and steel-toed boots. She was also lugging around a bulky green messenger bag, which seemed stuffed to the gills; it was the gear she was never without. She came to the Mathias Cook wing and climbed the stairs up to the top level. There she found a specific room -- a room she'd received a piece of electronic mail about -- and entered. Only to find that, aside from the desks, it was empty. She paused, and looked closely at room. The chalkboard wrapped along two walls and had been recently cleaned, but some scribblings in the corner were marked by a border and a 'DNE' logo. There were several rows of long tables with plastic chairs set behind them; she bent over and checked underneath the tables, but there wasn't anything there except old, hardened chewing gum. The room's trash bin was empty. There wasn't even a layer of dust on the teacher's desk. It was all perfect and empty. Maybe that was it, maybe it was a subconscious instinct, but Tona felt her skin crawling and wished dearly for a target.

Hee, archer people - Ecalsneerg Blue Jay :arrow: Fixed some notation re: Knockback and flat-footed Toughness. :arrow: Putting 3 PP into skills, buying 3 ranks of Sleight of Hand and 9 ranks of Search. [-3] :arrow: Dropping the multi-tool from her Equipment and picking up mini-tracers.

Snare's Toughness save, vs DC 27. (1d20+11=16) The Snare is, um, Injured? Go post IC.

GM The man in the greasy suit rolled gracefully out of the way of Tona's attempt at a shoulder tackle, but the Welsh ninja hit right on the money. He staggered back, clutching his stomach, eyes watering in pain. "You b----," he spat. "All of you, b----s!" He blurred and was suddenly everywhere, raining blows down on Tona and Cerys without hesitation or pity. Tona tried to block or parry the blows, but they were too much, too fast and she ended up half-curling into a ball, sheltering her head and crying out at particularly well-placed fist to her kidney or floating ribs.

Speed Freak 2's Toughness save, vs DC 18. (1d20+9=17) Bruisex2 Initiative 34 -- Speed Freak 1 -- Asleep -- GM 25 -- Speed Freak 2 -- Bruisex2 -- GM 24 -- Suit -- Bruisex1 + Staggered + Dazed (22)-- GM 23 -- Kit -- Bruisex1 -- HPx1 22 -- Crimson Tiger -- Uninjured -- HPx2 21 -- Blue Jay -- Bruisex1 -- HPx2 11 -- Bruiser -- Escaped! -- GM 9 -- Blodeuwedd -- Bruisex1 -- HPx2 Speed Freak Free Action: Switching to the Area AP on his Zoom Array. Standard Action: He'll punch both Blod and Blue. Speed Freak 2's melee attack check, vs Def. DC 25 Tou (1d20+10=28) o.o Yikes. Blue Jay's Toughness save, vs DC 25. (1d20+8=12) That... is very much not good. Rerolling that. Blue Jay's Toughness save, vs DC 25. Reroll (1d20+8=15) +10, so 25 means she juuuuust makes it.

Blue Jay waded into the water and glared at the tracks, trying to intimidate them into continuing farther. After a long minute it was evident the plan wasn't working and she splashed ashore and followed the tracks back up to the grove, and then the music back into the more populated sections of the park. She noticed people were giving her sidelong glances, and though intellectually she knew that part of being a superhero was being the center of attention it made her skin crawl. She just wasn't used to so many watching her; the fact that they were all taller than she was and any group of them would block her line of sigh didn't help matters. The archer found a handy head-height wall and, grabbing the top, hoisted herself over the edge and sat there, legs swinging freely. She watched the man with the guitar on stage, trying to lose herself in the music for a moment. At least it had a good beat; she found herself reflexively kicking to the thumping bass line, bobbing her head up and down with the rhythm of it.

Iapetus's Will save, vs DC 24. (1d20+8=20) Iapetus's Toughness save, vs DC 26. (1d20+11=19) That is Dazed + Bruise.

Glowstar floated down to the street and through the door, force field crackling and snapping. He waited until the drug cookers were in full retreat, then let himself touch down and dropped the force field. He stepped up to one of the labs, peering at blue flames, bubbling flasks, and tubes filled with some fluid or other. He examined in all, leafing through some papers someone left on a lab top. "So," he said finally. "Anyone here get more than a C- in Chemistry?"

Hm, keep forgetting this. Starlight Move Action: Approach the navigator. Standard Action: Intimidate check. Intimidate check. (1d20+4=20)

Ironclad scanned the area, but all of their opponents appeared to have been defeated. She relaxed and the armor's helmet folded back; she gave the Seat a good, long look, trusting the armor to save its scanning data for when she had more time to peruse it. She took a step forward and hesitated, biting her lip. But all of the Yao-gui had touched the Seat, hadn't they? Along with the other two teenage heroes. She couldn't let a chance to experience something like this pass her by! The young scientist reached out and put her hand flat against the monument.

Ironclad perused the sensor data she picked up in the transition. Depressingly brief, but there was something there to peruse, and her genius intellect quickly leapt beyond obvious connections and began to theorize on the underlying math. The General's voice snapped her out of the scientific haze and she glanced between the newly introduced soldiers. "Ah, Gallic! That would be, um, let me see." She reached up and turned off the translator. She'd learned a few foreign languages, and even though she rarely had a purpose for them they were soon at the forefront of her mind. " oui?"

The sorcerer twisted and struggled, fighting against El Heraldo's incredible grip. "Releassse me, ssssurface dwelling ape! Your impudence will be your undoing!" Suddenly he went limp and slipped out of the hero's grasp, leaving his robe behind in the paragon's grip. "Be bound by the mighty coilsss of the Unssspeakable One!" Green fire leapt up from his ring and rose in the air, forming into a green-fire python! It struck El Heraldo with disturbing speed and wrapped around him, attempting to drag the hero down.

Iapetus Move Action: Escaping from a grapple. Rolling vs. El Hearldo's grapple bonus of 21. Iapetus's escape check, vs El Heraldo. (1d20+12=22) Just barely! Moves away from him. Free Action: Stunting off the Magic Array. Snare 12 Take a HP, El Heraldo! Standard Action: Snare vs. EH. Iapetus's ranged attack check, vs El Heraldo's Def. DC 22 Snare (1d20+8=27) Hey hey, it hits! Initiative 22 -- Tethys -- Escaped? -- GM 13 -- El Heraldo -- Buisex2 -- HPx1 11 -- Iapetus -- Uninjured -- GM 10 -- Glow -- Uninjured -- HPx2

He can still take mental actions and try to break out. Let me roll that after school.

Ironclad A Convocation of Eagles The Jade Arenas of Heaven: Shock the Monkey Party Time Glowstar Street Sharks Starlight Right By My Side Starlight's were meant to fly OVERTHROW in Freedom Hall! Blue Jay Riffsational Mistaken Identity GM Shark Week: Ghost Sharks! Paint the Town

"While there is no evidence that any of the Terran settlers have survived," Brey said, "if they are then this is technically a Terran colony world. Since your home planet is a protectorate, the Lor military should strive only to intervene in times to emergency." He shrugged briefly. "I notified my superiors about the find and, as I understand it, they liaised with the local Star Knight and the Freedom League, selecting you three." He clasped his hands behind his back and clicked his heels. "Primarily, we'd like you to go down to the planet and see if there are any survivors. Of course, if you can also discover how the colony came to be so far out there, that would be an interesting bit of the puzzle, eh what?"

"The planet is within habital bounds for both baseline Lor and Terrans," the commander said. "A bit hot and dry, but nothing a few water-bearing meteors wouldn't fix. It actually ranks fairly high for terraforming potential. As for signs of life," he added, "we have detected very little. A radio broadcast on constant loop coming off the dome and a radioactive signal suggesting it's powered by a nuclear battery. No errant neutrino or thermal emissions that might suggest intelligent, industrialized life. Though I hasten to point out that there's regular dust storms that the sensors had trouble punching through." "The coordinates in the Lor stellar archive are," Brey paused and glanced at his device. "69-6E-0D. I really couldn't tell you what the name is in local terms, but as for where..." The holographic image returned to the overview of the system and then zoomed out even further, until it was showing a good portion of a spiral arm of the Milky Way. "Earth is here, and 69-6E-0D is here," he said, pointing at two dots separated by less than an inch. "In stellar terms they're really quite close. As for the age..." The last member of the away team spoke up. He was shorter than the rest, and thicker around the waist. He'd spent almost the entire time fiddling with an array of devices hanging off his belt and all leading back to his own smartphone. "Radio-carbon dating says the organic building materials are almost sixty years old," he said, not looking up. "Fading on the flag concurs with that." He glanced up and smiled at the heroes. "Chief Engineer O'Rouly. If you folks could just... refrain from moving around very much." He started side-stepping around the room, always facing the heroes and watching the display of his device intently.

Tona fell out of the stance and glanced at Erik, shrugging slightly. She moved to stand in front of him, and then dropped back into it. She forced herself to remember what hand-to-hand drills her father had insisted she partake in, augmented by Mr. Archer's training: feet apart, body square-on to Erik but with her left foot forward. Her hands were open and held near her face, ready to either ward away blows or take advantage of an opening.

Brey blinked. "Near? I don't think we could call what's happening very 'near' to anything, except in the cosmological sense." One of the other officers stepped forward. She was female, with black hair done up in a bun. "Mir, commander. Em-Eye-Are. It's a Terran space station that executed a planned deorbit eleven planetary cycles ago. Doctor Caranas," she added, addressing the heroes. "Ship's doctor and ethnologue." "Ah, of course." The commander sniffed sharply. "No no, the situation we've come to you for help with is at least twice that old." He took out a small plastic sphere from his pocket, the size and shape of a hockey puck but white and nonreflective. He stepped up to the conference table in the middle of the room and placed it on the surface, then tapped at the ovid. A holographic display flickered to life in the air, showing a solar system that certainly wasn't Earth. There were two planets close to the sun in a binary formation, a wide spacing, then another planet, and several gas giants further out. "This is system... Well, it has an official designation, but it doesn't matter. Suffice to say it is something like twenty-seven light-years away from Earth." The commander tapped the second planet in and the grew bigger until the planet was the size of the commander's upper body. Windows opened around it, scrolling various columns of data and graphs, all in the Lor language. "The Horizon was involved in the survey of this planet some two and a half of your weeks ago. What we found there was -- well, perhaps I'll just show you." The commander pulled out a small, thin, rectangular device not unlike a smartphone and tapped at the surface. The image of the planet shrank again and was replaced by a window which showed a black-and-white viewpoint racing above arid, barren ground, presumably of the planet in question. "This is a recording taken by a survey drone," Brey informed them. "It took several hundred hours of footage, so we're just showing you the part that piqued our interest." The commander tapped the handheld device again and the view unfroze, showing the drone rushing forward at what appeared to be great speed. Mostly the terrain was rocks and sand, but before long rectilinear shapes appeared in the distance. Brey dragged his finger across the surface of the device and the playback sped up until the heroes could see on-screen houses, small but definitely recognizable houses. They appeared to be metal or stone, with concrete roofs and only a single door in or out. They were laid out in a circular pattern surrounding a low dome-like structure. Rising from the middle of the structure was a flagpole, and flying from the top were the unmistakable sickle and hammer of the Soviet Union. Brey let the recording run until the drone left the settlement, then ran it back and froze it on the view of the flag. "We understand that this is the territorial emblem of a now-defunct nation-state native to this planet. One that all of you have ties to," he added.

Tona rolled over and pushed herself up, shaking her head and shredding bits of plastic as she crawled out of the wreckage of the drumset. She took a quick look around the dance floor and noted the missing bruiser and the gently slumbering man in the greasy suit. The man with the multiple bodies earned a stare, but she collected herself and prioritized. She wasn't sure she could handle him, but the twitchy guy? That was more her speed. Tona leapt down and charged, yelling out a battle cry as she closed the distance. She turned at the last moment and launched herself into a shoulder-check -- which he side-stepped in a blur of speed. She managed to land on her feet and turned, raising her hands in a defensive posture. "Tricheur," she spat and closed to a better range.

As the superheroes chatted, the inevitable question floated up: Why were they here? There was no one from the Freedom League coming to talk to them. For what purpose had they been gathered? All of a sudden, the room was bathed in a cool, pale green, Lady Winter's skin turning the color of a clear tropical ocean and Wisp's hair looking like the dead skin on a horror movie monster. At first the light didn't seem to be coming from any particular source, but slowly it gathered and grew darker as it did so, from pastel to the color of a lawn to that of a mint plant, and finally collecting into three shimmering emerald columns. The color faded and three human-looking life-forms were standing in the room, dressed in the unmistakable uniform of the Lor space military! One figure, male and older than the other two, glanced around and smiled as he saw the Freedonians. "Well, looks like that teleporter gate is just bully!" He stepped forward and nodded to the group. "I am Commander Brey, of the Imperial Scout Ship Horizon. On behalf of the Lor military, I'd like your help with a little problem we've found."

Blue Jay Move Action: Stand up. Standard Action: CHAAAAAARGE the remaining Speed Freak. With all things being equal, using full Power Attack on that, as well. Blue Jay's melee attack check w/ Charge & +5 Power Attack, vs Speed Freak's Def. DC 25 Tou (1d20+12=15) Though even without Power Attack that wouldn't've hit. Blod's up next.

Actually unless some of those attacks have Penetrating, I don't think Asad has to save against any of them. Impervious negates any attack that is equal to or below its rank.