Raveled

Rose, Stormbreaker and King are already in Tony's dorm room.

Tona frowned and muttered to herself. "Tu ne voule pas tuer quelque chose, mais parfois tu finisse par avoir à ." Still, she looked down at herself, tugging at the material of her shirt. "These are good clothes," she said. "Sensible clothes. They have lots of pockets, which let me carry lots of things. When I told the Freedom League what sort of clothes I wanted, this is what they gave me." She looked up at the sky again, sniffing the rapidly-becoming night air. "It's not becoming too cold for these sorts of clothes, is it?"

Jessica was quiet as Corbin picked her up and put her back in the bed. She clenched her jaw and balled her hands into fists, which she pounded on the bed. "I know, it's just... no, it's nothing." She pulled the laptop into a move comfortable position, moving the attached cube to the other side so it was between her and Corbin. "Okay, this is the situation." She tapped at the keyboard and a projection appeared, an idealized female form with as much definition and anatomical accuracy as a Barbie doll. It rotated around once, then the 'view' expanded until just the lower back and upper buttocks could be seen. Another tap and a human spine was projected inside the human body. "I'm basically missing several vertebrae. Shredded." More tapping, and four vertebrae near the base of the spine flashed red and faded from view. "So I've got to replace them. But I can't grow something exactly like bone, so instead I'll hold them in place with a ceramic plate." The missing vertebrae reappeared in gold, with a contoured plate hugging the outside of the spinal column. "So, all of that has to be machined across the river," Jessica nodded out the window at the Lab, "and then implanted surgically. At the same time, there's some nerve damage and residual heavy metal deposits in my body. So I came up with this." Another flurry of typing saw the human form disappear and be replaced by something that looked a little like a computer chip, a little like a dust mite. The body was roughly rectangular and tapered off to a long, thin tail, while a dozen or so metal 'legs' sprouted off the body. "It's a nanobot, small enough to pass through the blood-brain barrier and even enter the lymphatic system. It finds the heavy metal deposits and electroplates them to the tail, sucking them up. Eventually the tail gets too heavy to move, the nanites go with the flow of the body's systems instead of doing their own thing, and it all gets flushed out." She sat back, a little of her earlier good humor restored. "Just like that. Inject myself with robots, put a ceramic plate in my spine, and I'll be hunky dory. Good as new." Her voice took on a strained tone with the last phrase and she looked down at her lap, her free hand fidgeting with the blankets suddenly.

"Got dinner at the cafeteria," Tona said. She slipped her backpack off and settled it beside herself on the seat. "And I got all my stuff with me." She leaned back and rested her head on the padding. Looking more or less straight up, she could see clouds scudding across the orange-blue sky, the world turning shades of russet and tawny as the day ended. "I've never really been in a city," Tona admitted, her voice quieter than usual. "I don't know what there is to do, or see."

Tona smiled under her disguise. "You saw through it more quickly than I would have," she admitted. "But then, a lot of things around here that are weird to me." the young woman felt the air pressure normalizing and looked over at Cerys and Kit, noticing the illusion dissolving, and nodded curtly. There wasn't any point to it anymore, after all. The car was... a car. Long and low-bodied compared to the coups Tona had driven around in, with a rather appealing coloration. That was about the extent of Tona's car know-how, but she did know one thing backwards and forwards. "I like that the roof isn't there," she said. "It was a good idea to take it off." She planted one hand on the car's rear quarter and vaulted over the side, into the backseat. "It's a wide field of fire," she said. "Very sensible."

Ironclad's Reflex save, vs DC 20. (1d20+9=17) Nope. For Ironclad that's actually a rank 15 effect, with her Vulnerability, so. Ironclad's Toughness save, vs DC 30. (1d20+16=20) Stagger? No, rerolling. Ironclad's Toughness save, vs DC 30. (1d20+16=22) Ffffff-- minimum result of 27 on the reroll, so just Bruisex2.

"Ah, well, give me one moment." Highfollower turned to his computer and worked there for a minute. He brought up the email and scanned it quickly, reading off information. "Okay, here we go. Vincent MacBride, Freedom City University. Undergrad, double-major of biochemistry and virology. Seemed very interested in my work, and quite knowledgeable." He turned back to the heroes. "I can't imagine that he would be doing something wrong. He seemed quite, well, quite eager to learn, but very nice!" Back in Freedom City, the Ages Lost floated over the city, serenely cutting through the clouds and making a spectacle for a city that lived on such. King of Suits was able to make a hurried call to the records department, which saved it from another dramatic entrance from Strombreaker. Instead they descended upon a block of student housing on the southernmost tip of the campus. The pair hurried through hallways until they came upon the correct room. Inside there was the usual clutter of young people who are living outside their home for the first time, exacerbated by a young man running, positively sprinting, from room to room. A hard-sided suitcase sat before the door, coincidentally at the heroes' feet as they entered. The inhabitant didn't seem to notice them until he ran up, arms loaded with clean and not-so-clean clothes; before he could dump them inside the luggage, he skidded to a halt as he took in the pair of heroes. He face paled even further as he backed up from them, letting the laundry fall to the ground. "W-w-w-w-w-what can I h-h-h-h-help you with, superheroes," he asked, trying and failing to bring off an air of nonchalance.

Initiative Order 15 - Bee-Keeper -- Uninjured -- HPx5 13 - Starlight -- Uninjured -- HPx5 10 - Silver Spider -- Uninjured -- HPx2 8 - Siroccoro -- Uninjured -- GM 8 - Hooded Menace -- Uninjured -- GM 3 - Ricochet -- Uninjured -- GM Everyone gets a HP for their secret identity. Zuth, Spider's up first.

Liz didn't need to run far, with all the security moving in the opposite direction to surround the fast fighter. She scooted around a desk and dropped to one knee, putting her out of sight of the rest of the room. Then she concentrated and shifted, and Starlight stood up. The alien heroine took to the air and sped forward, shedding light ahead of her. The security guards had surrounded the dusky-skinned man in a loose circle by the time Starlight arrived. She drew up short and hung in the air, radiating power. "Surrender, miscreant," she commanded, "or else face the justice of the Light of Logos!"

"Yeah, Protectron. He's an okay, uh, simulated guy, I guess. I helped him, a knight-in-armor type, and Phalanx stop a steam mech that was drawing power off the nuclear plant, once." If Jessica realized that getting paralyzed was something to be ashamed or concerned over, she didn't show it. "It's a pretty interesting problem," she said. "I'm approaching it from two directions. See, firstly I need to replace the shattered vertebrae. I was working on a sort of spine-armor replacement or augmentation for awhile, something that would interface with the suit, for a direct neural link. I was able to adapt it to replace the shattered vertebrae. I still need to iron out the details and put it in, though." She smiled mirthlessly. "My days of backless dresses and bikinis may be over, alas. "The more interesting problem is how this all came about. See, a couple years ago I got gassed by this supervillain. He was using some heavy metal concoction and while it made me sick, the counter drugs bonded it to my nervous system and bones, like this." She reached behind her, straining for the table she had set the laptop on. She'd pushed it a bit too far away, though; her fingertips brushed it and pushed it farther off, and she reached further without thinking. All of a sudden her balance was past the tipping point and she tumbled out of the bed and onto the floor. She caught herself on one arm and managed to avoid smacking her face into the floor, but her legs thudded down in a tangle. She swore in a very unladylike fashion and grabbed the side of the bed, trying to haul herself up; her noodle-arms managed to lever her upper body off the ground, but the dead weight of her legs meant she wasn't going far like that.

Tona folded the bow and replaced it, almost reluctantly. She'd never fought a ghost. It would be an interesting experience, to see how she could possibly even hurt it. She'd heard stories of ghosts, of course; they couldn't be any tougher than Omegadrones, but Tona had never actually had a chance to try herself against one before. In any case, the moment had passed. "I should probably find my chaperone," she said. "Once he finishes talking to the Headmaster -- Summers, I think it is -- he'll probably want to see me, next." She stepped lightly off the stage and began walking up the aisle. Partway up she turned and waved at the group. "Au revoir, les amis!"

A part of Liz wanted to stay and watch Agnus/Annice bawl it out, but that was hardly what she needed to do right now. As soon as the Merges moved toward her friend, Liz was off. She didn't dare use her powers of flight, but she was pretty fast on her feet either way and made the stage door, banging into the fire bar and getting out safely. Just outside the door, Liz slowed down, breathing deeply. A quick glance confirmed that the hallway was empty, and with a little twisting of her body Liz was replaced by Starlight. The long-limbed alien heroine stalked off deeper into the building. She needed to find a control booth or similar, so she could get a better look at the studio, before she could plan anything.

Tona stood, feeling the weight of the backpack, wondering how Kit's illusion was handling it. On the other hand, taking it off to look would be a dead giveaway, so she simply trusted in the other girl's magic. "Mali!" She shouted and threw her arms around her friend, crushing her into a hug. She wasn't as confident in her ability to imitate voices as Cerys obviously was, so after that she hung back. "I don't know," she replied to the actual Cerys as they walked along. "When Mali wonders why 'Kit' is speaking with a French accent?"

Well with the symbol it's probably Biohazard. :P

The exact opposite of Glowstar's powers, but in MLP that's probably what he's powered by.

Tona dashed across the road alongside Kirsten and fetched up in the lobby of the school, grinning. It always felt good to be moving; buses and cars were useful insofar as they could move a lot faster than a human could run, but they'd never be as much fun as running was, in Tona's opinion. She wandered to the back area, following the sound of voices talking. There were already a few people gathered there; a darker skinned woman with some nasty burns on her arms and hands, a man with even darker skin, almost as skinny as Kirsten, and a well-muscled man with a swarthy complexion, who looked at home among the practice gear. No doubt their instructor. Tona held back a moment, not offering her hand to any of the group or speaking up. She merely nodded at the others, content to let Kirsten speak for the moment.

"They don't all have that high IQs. Sometimes it's more of a seniority thing. People who have been particle physicists for thirty years and they have trouble deferring to people who have only worked on it for five or ten years, even if we have new ideas." She shrugged. "It seems stupid when you imagine that every scientist is trained to like new ideas, but they're all human, you know?" Jessica couldn't help giggling at Corbin's formal introduction, or at least reintroduction. "Hello. I'm Jessica Anne Parker, and I'm usually the smartest person in the room. And when I'm not, it's even more interesting. "I still have the kickin' suit of armor," she pointed out. "That never went away. It'll take some fixing, once all of this is handled," she added, indicating her non-responsive legs as all of this with a wave of one hand, "but it's still there. I could call it up now but, um, I'm not sure how the flight systems would work if I can't move my legs." She tucked a strand of reddish hair behind her ear. "I do all sorts of science stuff, really, but I gravitate towards engineering. It's fun to find out new stuff about the universe, sure, but if you don't figure out something to do with it, it's... well, it kind of sits there. I'm not against pure research or anything," she hurried to add, "I would just rather figure out a way to enrich people's lives with what we already know." She cocked her head. "History is... cool. But all that stuff is known, right? I mean, we're not going to dig up a bust of a new Roman Emperor, are we?"

The bus grumbled to a halt across from the large building, settling noisily on its air brakes before opening the doors. Tona Baudin was the first to bound down the steps. She was dressed in a tight-fitting tee-shirt that showed off her arms and a pair of jeans that went just past her knees, with her normal pair of combat boots. There was also a backpack slung over her shoulder that held another change of clothes, her bow, a dozen arrows, and her mask; the bare minimum to handle an unexpected situation. When her feet hit pavement she spun around and said to the girl descending behind her, "And that, mon pere said, is why the robin's breast is red!" She laughed at the joke and walked up to the edge of the pavement. The girl stepped off the sidewalk and into the lee of the bus; she held her breath as she glanced up and down the street. A part of her wanted to dash across, to test her reflexes in getting between the cars and getting to the far side safely. The larger part was aware, at least academically so, of how much energy those cars represented, and how fast her career would be over if one hit her. So she forced herself to wait for a break in the traffic.

"There.... there was this one guy, a few months ago," Warren said, calming down somewhat. "Said he was a student at Freedom City University. He said he was doing a report on cults and stuff, had a lot of questions. We weren't really very nice to him, kind of drove him off. If you'll wait a second, I'll see if I can find his IP address." He turned to his computer and began navigating through the web browser to the proper page. "Ah, here we go. Tory Vetto. Does that help?" Highfollower scratched at his nose as he considered the idea. "I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. It was all very theoretical work. I'd have to look at the actual bug itself before I could really venture an opinion." He smiled at the two, though rather more brightly at Young Britannia. "Really, I was surprised when young Vincent called me! I didn't expect anyone to really care about my work enough to expand on it."

Jessica sat, well laid there, quietly and listen to Corbin talk until it seemed like he'd run out of words. She smiled, trying to put him at ease. "Well I'm not going to drive you off or get security to throw you out," she said. "I don't mind if you... if you want to talk, or hang out or whatever. I don't really know how much we have in common, though. You were always more Blake's friend than mine, after all." She fell silent and fiddled with her fingers, looking down at her lap. "It's not always bad to disagree with your friends, you know. I don't always agree with Mara or, or the folks at the Lab. And I often get dismissed because of my age." Many distinguished scientists and engineers had to reevaluate their views to accept a girl young enough to be their daughter as being accomplished enough to speak at symposiums, or to be on the executive council of the Lab. She looked up and smiled brightly again. "But if you have something you want to talk about... yeah, I'm here." She laughed and added, "And 'm not going anywhere soon!"

"Consider it a test, yes?" Tona's fingers kept cutting away at the deck, even as she felt fatigue setting in. "We might not do this except as a joke, but an enemy might try to disguise themselves as one of us. Mali should learn to tell when something's off and we are not in our right skin." An edge of one card caught another and suddenly the entire deck sprayed into the air, before floating down to the grass. The archer swore and began snatching them out of the air, assembling the deck again.

Starlight stood in the corridor, not even trying to hide that she was talking to the four-armed alien. "They are called the Grue. G-R-U-E. They are a species of psychically linked shapeshifters, a sovereign power in space. They are also evil, tyrannical, the antithesis of liberty, and the grand enemies of the Lor Empire. For the Lor to allow them to view these proceedings, or worse to invite them here, would indicate that the situation is not nearly as clear cut as it may appear. The Nes, the creatures who claim I killed one of them, may be a protectorate or vassal state of the Grue. Or, as odd as the idea is, the Lor may have reached out to the Grue for consultation in matters of shapeshifting. "I am here as a prisoner, to be brought to trail. However I think, if I applied pressure, the captain would fight to get me free. I feel she has no great sympathy for either the Nes or the Grue." Starlight smiled slightly. "You are not in any danger, at least. Except that they have seen through your disguise, Synth."

Glowstar's crackling, snapping force field cast a ruddy light over the rooftop; not enough to read by, but enough to to give definition to shadows and shapes. "I don't really stealth around," he said. "If you need a hole in the wall, I'm the guy to come to, but sneaking around I leave to my buddy Crow." He looked over the building and shrugged; if the lack of a night life, or any life other than the four heroes, disturbed him, he didn't show it. "I vote we knock on the door and talk to the people inside."

Liz frowned. She wasn't sure how her friend was going to distract a trio of criminal-minded superhumans, but odds were it wouldn't be pretty. On the other hand, Liz couldn't act without revealing her identity -- not that Agnes could either. Which meant that whatever she was about to try would be spectacularly dangerous. "Do not act too rashly," she whispered. "I do not want to have to explain to the police why they have to bury three bodies in one grave." The young girl moved as close to the door as she could without invoking Merge Tois' wrath. She might not have much time to move once things started happening.

"I would not know if he does or not," Starlight said. "The balance of probability is that he does; everyone seems to, these days. There is a bigger issue at stake here, though." The heroine reached out and slowly pushed the oversized revolver down until it was pointing at the floor. "You are not going anywhere. If you can tell me where they went, I can deliver the message before returning to Revenant. But you are going to stay in this apartment."