Raveled

Tona Baudin was making a concerted effort to explore what this world had to offer. Much of it was still inexplicable to her, but the idea of investigating a music festival appealed to her. Her trip in town with her friends had shown her that there was much greater variety in the music of this world than her home, so it promised to be an educational day, in any event. After some consideration she'd settled on a pair of tight jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt with a white anarchy symbol on it. As always she brought her backpack with her bow and an outfit to change into, should trouble start, but for now she was enjoying herself. The heavy metal was too loud and generally incomprehensible for her to truly enjoy, but the atmosphere was charged and she'd had fun dancing in the crowd. Now she was hungry, though, and looking for a place to eat. There were stands selling food, of course, but Tona had found that so much food on this world was over-processed and greasy, so she'd brought some pieces of dried fruit with her, instead. A large tree presented itself and in a twinkling she was up in it, braced steadily in the upper branches. She brought out the dried slices of apple and banana and chewed on them as she let her eyes drift over the festival.

Tagged with arrowy goodness.

Jessica sighed and slouched on the bed. "I don't know. I just always thought that Granddad was... He always taught me that my brain and my money meant I had to help people! Finding him fighting people, killing people was just a... a big shock." She listened to Corbin's story, worrying that she had brought up bad memories in someone who just wanted to comfort her, to reassure her that she wasn't forgotten. She wanted to get up and sit next to him, but that wasn't an option, so she just said, "Our lives get kind of terrible sometimes." She sighed at the question, glancing up at the ceiling. "I don't know. If someone you really cared for went over to the other side, could you... take them down? Kill them, if you had to? Could you ever face their family again?"

My bad. Tethys' Toughness save, vs DC 24. (1d20+9=29) Sorry, Scuffles!

Tona gritted her teeth. The idea of someone being called out, being made fun of, simply because they took care of themselves, could defend themselves, was irrational to her. That someone did it to her friend made her mad. She took a step forward and grabbed the other girl's shoulder, squeezing tightly. "Mali," she said, "you shouldn't be worrying about what such... fool irréfléchie thinks of how you look. Understand?"

Jessica hugged herself. If she'd had control over her legs, she would've drawn them up. "He was killing people. "I knew he was a soldier. I knew he'd been in battles. But this was... these were ordinary troops, Corbin. Poor souls armed with rifles and bayonets. He had cannons, flamethrowers, and rocket, he was invincible. It was a slaughter." She shivered. "Until I put a stop to it. "Corbin, do you think you could fight Quo-Dis, or someone on Young Freedom if they went bad? I mean, all the way?"

EDIT: :ninja:

Ironclad frowned behind her helmet. Fifty years wouldn't quite put the Reich's armies on par with modern military, but it would mean having to about more than U-boats, Panzers, Messerchmitts, and MP-44s. At least they're unlikely to have drones, she said to herself, nodding absently. "Alright then, Miss -- um, miss. Ma'am? Whatever. First thing we should do is." She stopped speaking and started again. "No, the first thing we have to do is conquer the language barrier. We've not always going to have an interpreter handy, so I should get started on something for the rest of us. It's gonna take a few hours though, okay?"

Starlight's miss chance vs. Merge. (1d20=18) :argh:

Tona took the clothes from Kit and ducked into the changing room, coming out in the long pants and the belly shirt. She looked down at the strip of flesh visible between the top of the jeans and the shirt, frowning slightly. "I like my belly," she said, slapping it lightly. "I've got a good belly." She looked Mali up and down. "I think you could do with showing a bit more, Mali. You've really got stuff worth showing off, after all."

Ironclad's Ini. (1d20+5=15)

Jessica nodded, commiserating. "I got caught in one of those portals. I ended up going back to some point in the Cold War and... and fought my grandfather." She clenched her hands into fists for a moment, a ghost of the original feeling of betrayal passing over her. "Did you ever... did you ever find out that someone you thought was one way, was good and true and heroic and never had a doubt, was the exact opposite? Was everything they had told you never to be?"

Ricochet leaned out of the way of the spray of webbing and caused another few steel ball bearing to rise from her bandoliers. "You should learn a little control and accuracy," she hissed, sending another flight of spheres at the white-clad heroine. Sirocco paused in his frenetic motion, frowning slightly as he noticed his blows having no affect on the apian avatar. He set his jaw and moved in for round two when the Bee-Keeper's blasts caught him upside the head. The flamboyantly-dressed speedster went flying through the air, crashing against the far wall and falling to the ground in a heap. He rose to his knees and tried to get farther, but after a moment his body gave up the ghost and he fell to the ground, still and unmoving. Starlight, for her part, was emboldened by her wounding of the man in the hoodie with the boiling shadows. She fired off another blast of light energy, but this one went wide again and shattered some of the tile floor. She set her jaw and resolved to use less power and more finesse from now on.

Sirocco's Toughness save, vs DC 30. (1d20+8=15) Well then. That is exactly unconscious. Ricochet Standard Action: Since it worked so well the first time, attack Silver Spider again! Ricochet's ranged attack check, vs Silver Spider's Def. DC 25 Tou + Autofire (1d20+10=21) That's 3 points beyond Spider's Def, so DC 26 Tou. Waffle, since Bee-Keeper used the Delay action, his new spot in the Initiative order would be where he acted, right at the end. He wouldn't get to act right after himself. It doesn't make much difference in the long run (since he was at the top of the Ini order before) but you should know how the rules work. Also, I made a mistake: Spider should be going before HM, not after. Initiative Order 13 - Starlight -- Bruisex1 -- HPx4 8 - Siroccoro -- Unconscious -- GM 10 - Silver Spider -- Bruisex1 -- HPx1 8 - Hooded Menace -- Bruisex1 -- GM 3 - Ricochet -- Uninjured -- GM 15 - Bee-Keeper -- Fatigue -- HPx4 Okay, Starlight is up. Time to keep the heat on HM. Starlight Standard Action: Starlight's ranged attack check, vs Hooded Menace's Def. DC 25 Tou (1d20+10=11) Yikes, that won't hit.

Starlight looked around, and cursed at having lost the scrawny man, the "Dwayne." She let off another searing blast of light at the reeling Merge in the room with her, then stepped up to the control panel. She watched the Merges in the studio begin herding people out, and more Merges stealing cash from a box with an improbable number of zeroes on it. The money didn't worry her, anyone who kept that much currency around without some serious protection was a fool anyway. She focused on where the hostages were headed.

So Camera Obscura is out of the room. Starlight Standard Action: Attacking with Blast, going +5 Power Attack and +5 All-Out Attack. Starlight's ranged attack check, w/ +5 Power Attack & +5 All-Out Attack. DC 30 Tou (1d20+10=16) Eugh. Was going to Surge, suppose I'll just reroll that. Starlight's ranged attack check, w/ +5 Power Attack & +5 All-Out Attack. DC 30 Tou. Reroll (1d20+10=18) Minimum of 21 there. Hope that hits. Move Action: Moving over to the controls.

Actually Ricochet still needs to act.

Ricochet can beat that without rolling, and that Dazzle misses her. Sorry.

Starlight can hit that without rolling. Yay, Skill Mastery.

Tona looked down at her dress and then at the shorts. The shorts certainly appealed to her own sensibilities more than the skirt, and she disappeared into the dressing room. A moment later she was admiring the shorts in the stall's mirror. She'd spent some time watching television and trying to absorb the culture of her new home, and she'd formed the opinion that women were supposed to spend a lot of time worrying about how they looked. Tona thought her body looked damn good, and if she was supposed to be attracting boys' attention then she preferred to go with clothes that showed that off. And the shorts did show off her butt nicely. She lifted her shirt and looked at her stomach in the mirror; her abs looked good, too, flat and well-defined. Definitely something worth showing off, but how would she keep the shirt up? She thought a moment, then went digging in her bag. She came up with one of the zip-tie handcuffs she'd taken to carrying habitually. She raised the shirt again, pinched off enough fabric on the side to keep it taunt, and then used the tie to keep in place. She raised her arms and shook a bit to make sure it was secure, then walked out into the store again. Tona spun around again to show the new outfit off, a bit more spring in her step this time. Pockets and dark clothes, this she was used to! "Well," she asked. "Do I look good, or what?"

That's was a DC 30 Toughness save, BTW, so she'd be Dazed and Bruised. Starlight's Ini. (1d20+7=14) ... And good that she was!

Iapetus' Toughness save, vs DC 28. (1d20+11=19) That'll be a Bruise and a Daze. Which actually means that Glow is up now!

The scaly sorcerer had no chance against the agile Aussie. He attempted to follow her quick, acrobatic movements, but either the ceremonial dress slowed him down or he simply wasn't used to tracking such a fast moving target, because although he pointed the ring in a lot of places it was never directly at Glow. Tethys, meanwhile, would not be deterred from El Heraldo. She seemed to scent his fear, her lips pulling back to reveal more and more teeth. "Come here, little boy," she said, moving sinuously around him. "Let me show you the color of your guts!" With that she rushed in, arms swinging wide -- not to strike him, but to grab him in a bear hug and crush him close to her!

Starlight frowned at the collateral damage her blast had caused to the diorama. She reigned in her power, and the next blast was thinner, more contained, more of a cutting laser than a pummeling beam of light. It arrowed in on Hooded Menace, who raised one shadowy tendril to block it -- but the light cut through the shadows, scoring a smoking burn across the large man's hoodie. He looked down at the wound, pain and anger and surprise twisting his features. "What... what is that? Why does it hurt so much!?" With a cry of rage he slung his shadow arms at the airborne heroine, but inches away from her body the light suffusing her rose to fill the room, and the shadows could not touch her. Hooded Menace fell back a step, raising one hand to cover his eyes while the other cradled the jar. "What are you?" The dust devil touched ground, slowing and dissipating to reveal the flamboyantly dressed acrobat. "An annoyance, is what she is. And you, too, Bee-Boy," he said to Baxter. "Why don't you all just get down, and not get back up again?" With that he flashed, moving far faster than anyone could hope to follow. Starlight and Baxter felt blows falling all over their bodies; Starlight tried to defend herself instinctively, but a particularly heavy blow to the back of her neck caused lights to dance in front of her eyes for a moment. All around the heroes, the assembled security forces cried out in pain and shock, falling to their knees or curling up in fetal positions under the assault.

Starlight Standard Action: Attacking Hooded Menace using +5 Accurate Attack. Starlight's ranged attack check w/ +5 Accurate Attack, vs Hooded Menace's Def. DC 20 Tou. (1d20+15=25) Hits. HM's Vulnerability means that's actually a DC 22 Tou. Hooded Menace's Toughness save, vs DC 22. (1d20+10=20) Bruise x1. Sirocco Free Action: Drop Insub. Free Action: Switch array to Strike AP. Standard Action: Attack! It's Targetted and Selective AoE. He'll hit the security guards, along with Bee-Keeper and Starlight. Sirocco's melee attack check, vs Def. DC 25 Tou. (1d20+12=30) Yikes. That will most certainly hit. Starlight's Toughness save, vs DC 25. (1d20+10=18) Daze, no thank you. Rerolling. Starlight's Toughness save, vs DC 25. Reroll. (1d20+10=19) Minimum of 21. I'll take a Bruise. Hooded Menace Free Action: Elongation his Additional Limbs. Standard Attack: Striking Starlight with all his many, many limbs. Hooded Menace's melee attack check, vs Starlight's Def. DC 25 Tou + Autofire (1d20+10=14) Nope. And for the record, it wouldn't have gotten through Starlight's Impervious Toughness, anyway. Silver Spider is up next!