Raveled

So I've got a thread in mind for Starlight, introducing one of her personal villains. It starts with an attack on Hunter Museum, and I'm looking for another couple PCs to round out the antics. Anyone interested?

Tona followed Cerys up to the room, and dumped the luggage on the floor. "Leave the window open? That works for me." She stretched, glad to be rid of the weight. As she did so, she cast her eye over the other woman -- her roommate's -- side of the room. She frowned slightly at the austerity and Spartan look. It was foolish to be weighed down too much by material things, sure, but that didn't mean you had to be an automaton, either. The young girl put the idea out of her head and instead moved to the window, opening it and glancing up and down. She kept the bag of arrows and the bow on her back as she moved around, not yet ready to abandon it. Satisfied with the set-up, she turned around and perched on the window sill. "So, want to race down?" Her eyes sparkled with mischief. "I promise not to use any arrows."

Blue Jay hurried down the hallway to the door. It opened easily under her hand and revealed a small front room with a couch that was already smouldering, a kitchen with dishes piled in the sink, and a bedroom in the rear where a woman not much older than Blue Jay was struggling with a locked window. She looked back over her shoulder and noticed the heroine. "They painted over the jamb," she cried out, eyes tearing up either in fear or from the rising smoke. "Stand aside," Blue Jay ordered and unhitched the baton from her belt. A quick flick brought it to full extension and she smashed the glass out of the window, drawing in a rush of oxygen from the outside. The heroine carefully but quickly cleared the glass shards from the frame and stuck her head out; the window fronted onto an alleyway with a fire escape, but the ironmongery was already rattling and shaking fiercely and didn't seem safe enough to chance it. Instead Jay pulled the grapple line arrow again and anchored it a few feet up the wall opposite the window, then grabbed the woman around her waist. "Hold on," she ordered, and the pair jumped for it. The grapple caught and lowered them down as swiftly as Blue Jay dared. The floor of the alley was littered with glass shards from the burst windows above, and even as they caught their bearings another window shattered and rained more deadly shards down on them. The heroine urged the other woman on and they raced for the opening of the alley. They were almost there when a huge and heavy groaning filled the air above them; Blue Jay looked up and watched the fire escape part ways with the wall with a scream of tortured metal bolts, and begin to fall. The heroine pushed the civilian forward and out of the way, ending up flat against the burning building as ironwork crashed down around her. The civilian was hauled away by EMTs as Blue Jay considered her situation; trapped against a fire trap, surly to die or pass out from heat exhaustion if she didn't escape. Moving slowly in the confines of the space, trying not to breath the foul air too deeply, Blue Jay unfastened the end of her quiver. Instantly the nylon lost rigidity and allowed her a little more room; this was merely a side effect of the situation though, as Blue Jay's fingers went questing in the business end of the quiver. She found the curiously rounded head of one of the arrows and drew it out with careful motions, trying to to pull the entire load out at once. It took precious seconds, but eventually she held the matte black shaft in her hand; only the green striping on the fletching betrayed it as anything out of the ordinary. Blue Jay rapped it against the ironwork confining her in, hitting it once, twice, three, four times before the bulb at the end of the arrow shattered. A strong organic acid spilled out, adding its smoke to the blaze as it ate through the already rusted and pitted metal. Blue Jay spread the acid as well as she could and in moments the mess began to shift as girders were cut, changing Blue Jay's prison moment by moment. Finally she saw her chance, dropped the arrow, and leapt! For a horrifying moment she felt the quiver catch on a spar, then she was on top of the mess and doing a quick dance across shifting joists. An open window caught her eye and she made another leap of faith, ending up in another burning apartment unit. She fought the urge to breath deep as the adrenaline trickled through her system. She grinned suddenly, exalting inwardly at her unorthodox solution -- trapped and moments from death, she'd freed herself and gotten back on the case! Damn, she was good! Full of a sense of her own accomplishment she made her way back into the burning hallway, looking for more civilians to save. She'd get them out one by one if she had to!

To be clear, Glowstar's going to be waiting until everyone else is in the room so he can do the dramatic-entrance-and-door-close thing.

The sun beat down on the city and the humidity rose from the bay and the rivers, until it was choking, like breathing through a wet cloth. Blue Jay was used to humidity or the sun, but not both at once. It was a strange feeling, but her costume could have been tailor-made for this sort of weather -- trim, sleeveless, and well-fitted, not allowing anywhere for sweat to gather or much loose material to rub and chafe. The mask was an oddity, but she accepted it as a challenge. the weight of her quiver and bow across her back was reassuring, and she drew strength from that. Just now, she was running across the rooftops of the city, hurtling alleys without a care and taking longer gaps with a special grapple-line arrow. She only had a few of those, and took care to recover each one. She liked this part of the city, what the maps noted as the Fens, because the buildings were fairly low and the roofs flat -- perfect for some exercise like this. She caught flashing lights out of the corner of her eye and slowed to a halt, breathing deeply, heart beating strongly and rapidly in her chest, as she watched the swirl of emergency vehicles and gawkers. She remembered the commlink she'd been issued by the Academy and dug it out, fitting the ear-piece and switching it on. The little piece of tech sought out the emergency band in a way that was still mostly magical to the teen, and she listened in as the firefighters called in more engines and ambulances. Blue Jay was not trained or accustomed to working in the public eye. She was an assassin by training, a hunter by inclination; her way was slowly catching up to her target and ambushing it, finishing the fight before it had properly begun. In the resistance camps a disaster like this one would be a sign for evacuation -- but in a crowded city like this, she reasoned, people couldn't simply abandon it all in a few minutes. Heck, most people around here didn't even seem to keep an emergency go-bag! Shaking her head at the foolishness, she fired off an arrow and was pulled across by the road by the special winch built into the side of her bow. A fire might not be a foe she could subdue with blows and traps, but she could certainly evacuate the civilians. She picked up speed as she moved and landed on the loose gravel of the building's roof, her breath catching in her throat as her entire skin contracted in the heat of the fire. She drew an arrow from her quiver, carefully using the thumb selector to pick a broadhead; she could see the door leading off the roof and deeper into the building, but it was likely locked. The archer nocked the arrow, paused briefly, went to full extension, fired, and resumed her run in a single smooth motion that took less than a second. The arrow pierced the lock and continued on. Blue Jay slammed into the door, rebounded, and fumbled at the catch for a moment before getting it open. She jumped across the stairwell, grabbed her arrow where it had embedded itself in the smouldering roof, and landed heavily on the turning below. Arrow went back in the quiver and bow collapsed with a squeeze and a jerk, to be slotted in its own holster on the outside of the quiver. She hurried down to the next landing and the first proper floor, banging the fire door open and stepping into the smoke-filled hallway. She bent down under the smoke roiling on the ceiling and started crab-walking forward, calling as she went. "Hello! Is anyone still up here? I'm here to help you!"

Blue Jay's on the job!

Tona hitched the duffel on her back and nodded. "It would be nice to get some of this off my back," she replied dryly. She was used to carrying loads long distances, but she usually didn't carry all of her material possessions for any length of time. And it would make it easier to investigate the school anyway, especially if there were any lines of retreat to check on or lines of sight to confirm.

Tona flexed her bandaged fingers, staring at the plastic wraps with interest. So this is a 'band-aid,' she thought to herself. It kept itself tight to the wound, it was small and easy to apply -- it was a small wonder, in fact. She brought her head up and listened to the clerk. "Yes. Well, they asked what I could do." Tona squeezed the grip of the bow again and it collapsed again, and after retrieving the arrows she rolled up the bag once more, fastening the straps and sliding it on her back. The clothes went back into the duffel and she hefted it over her other shoulder. Lastly, she grabbed the rolling luggage. The small girl looked comically overburdened with all the bags, but the muscles in her arms were clearly defined and impossible to miss, and if the weight bothered her she didn't say anything. She simply nodded to the clerk. The group made their way across the campus to the dorm building. At the steps the clerk stopped and handed Tona to folder. "All the information is in there," he said. "If you need anything, you have the number for the League, but maybe try the school's faculty, first." She nodded, privately resolving to both the faculty as little as possible. She came here to show how could survive anything, serve anywhere! She opened the folder with one hand, scanning the pages. "It says," she announced, "that I'm in room 314." She looked up at the building, uneasy. In her experience tall structures just invited attacks, so the idea of sleeping in one, as opposed to underground or in a natural formation, didn't sit well with her. Nonetheless, she swallowed her unease and climbed up a step. "Anyone know where that one is?"

Starlight's Ini. (1d20+7=8)

GM The fog kept the heroes from seeing what happened, but they could hear well enough. Cottonmouth sounded like pouring sand or the surf rushing in as he moved across the wooden boards, moving perhaps a bit more slowly than otherwise because of his injuries. The snake-man gathered his mother in his arms and slithered to the edge of the pier; there he paused and turned back to the heroes. "Another time, nusssiancesss," he hissed. "Next time, I ssshall eat you whole!" Then there was a splash, and nothing. A few moments later the fog lifted, and neither Cottonmouth nor Dahlia could be seen.

Fight is over. Villains escape, everyone gets a HP for that. El Heraldo keeps the one he would've spent on Inspire, since no one got to use it. Notes Glow -- Uninjured -- HPx3 Crow -- Uninjured-- HPx2 Heraldo -- Uninjured -- HPx3 We are out of Initiative. What's your next move, heroes?

Tona squeezed her fist tighter, causing more blood to flow, and stuck her hand behind her back so that none of the other teens could see it. "It's fine," she said. "Just a papercut." She frowned and looked at the bow, with its nearly invisible string. "They said the bowstring was... silk from a spider? Something like that. Something to fine it could cut through a steak if you pulled it hard enough, but strong enough to suspend a car from it." The cars she had seen were big enough, certainly, but they moved so fast! Certainly they couldn't weigh that much, could they? "Antoinette!" Tona's head jerked up as her proper name floated over the quad. The young man who had driven her here, some clerk who worked with the Freedom League, was walking down the steps of the central building. He was holding a manilla folder in one hand as he jogged over. "Okay, got you set up in a dorm and a class schedule. It's mostly assessment stuff, real school doesn't start until August." He glanced at the pierced water bottle. "Some target practice with your fellow students, Antoinette?"

GM Dahlia was hauled into the rafters, the sudden movement drawing a loud and undignified squeal from her. The woman ended up upside-down and completely wrapped up in Crow's metallic lines. The brief surge of electricity interrupted a long string of profanity, and for a moment silence reigned. Crow almost believed she was down for the count -- until she started cursing out both sides of his parentage at the same time. The woman might not have been much for solidarity, but she had an active imagination at least. Outside on the pier, Lady Mamba was sucking in deep breaths. The blow from El Heraldo had knocked the wind out of her, her son was looking rather worse for wear after the cowled mage's spell, and now her daughter had fled! Again! Clearly, the loa were against her tonight, and fighting any longer only risked further embarrassment. The bokor's breath hissed through her teeth as she called upon her power. A deep and heavy fog precipitated out of the air; much like Dahlia's efforts, except this one also seemed to weigh heavy on the mind, clouding thoughts and intentions. "I would love to stay and spar with you some more, heroes," Mamba taunted, the pain in her voice giving lie to her words, "but my masters demand my presence! Farewell."

Lady Mamba is up next. She's Staggered, but she can do something like... Obscure 5 (Visual and mental)? Fog springs up and engulfs the pier. El Heraldo's next and he needs to make a Fort save +1.

August 14th, 2010 New England, United States Earth-Pastrol, Terminus Tona Baudin hit the ground running, kicking up dead leaves and bracken off the forest floor. She leapt an old, fallen tree and stumbled; fortuitously so, as a whistling shaft of steel cut the air above her, so close she could feel the breeze of its passage. It shot straight through a thick tree, leaving silvery splinters hanging in the air alongside the heartwood. She slipped and fell on her backside, sliding on the slick, dead undergrowth, scrabbling at the ground with calloused fingers. The young girl fetched up against the bole of another towering tree and scurried around to the far side, feeling her limbs tremble in the grip of adrenaline. Her bow was in her hand, and her quiver banged dully against one thigh; she’d expended her last arrow either ten minutes or a lifetime ago, depending on if you asked the clock or her own muddled perceptions. It had been a good attack, the first one her father had let her come on, but extracting they had run across a column of enemy infantry and now the planned retreat had turned into a route. She was all alone out here, with no arrows and no back-up. Her free hand slid down to the long, straight knife balancing her other hip. It was dangerous, but if she wanted to get out of this alive it might be her only choice. The dead tree behind her exploded into a flurry of wood and metal chips as a rotating blade, crackling with dark energies, ripped through it. A form marched through the wreckage: it might have been a man once, before a madman hacked away at it and replaced flesh with steel and brass. The right side of its countenance had been swallowed by a mask of bronze that only roughly matched the contours of the human face, its eye replaced by a glass implant that clicked and chattered as it scanned the forest before her. Its left arm had been amputated just below the elbow and replaced by a three-foot length of spinning chainsaw, wreathed in red and black fog. Its right arm was largely intact, but wrapped in molded steel armor. A spike launcher loomed over its left shoulder, clacking menacingly as it loaded another round. The entire monstrosity was wrapped in the stiff blue and red uniform of the Steam General’s brass legion. The creature who was once a man but was now merely an extension of the will of the warped mind who would be lord of this doomed world took a step forward, dead branches crackling under its tread, feet sinking into the ground as its frame was weighed down with a couple hundred pounds of armor and augmentations. Tona tried to get control of her ragged breathing and slipped around the other side of the tree, watching the steel soldier march slowly forward. She pulled up the cowl to her mottled cloak, willing herself to blend into the background, to be merely an oddly-shaped knot of wood. Hoping and – well, no one on this world prayed anymore, but hoping and wishing that the monster would just keep walking in a straight line. It moved forward at a slow, steady pace, artificial eye scanning the forest in slow, even sweeps. The resistance had spent a lot of time and effort to take such monstrosities intact and determine what those eyes could do that flesh and blood ones couldn’t, but their construction was beyond any mind but the mad Steam General’s. The Furions who occasionally came to assist them looked over the designs and spoke of light enhancement, thermal imaging, chemical spectrography, and longer words that Tona never knew the meaning of. All she knew was that the beasts could sometimes seem to see through wood and stone to the fighters cowering behind it, but once Tona had hidden from several just by standing behind a waterfall. There seemed to be no logic to it, so she simply hoped. The soldier marched on in an arrow-straight line, varying neither to the left nor the right, following whatever infernal programming it had. Tona kept the bole of the tree between her and it, gripping the hilt of the knife in one hand and her bow, useless as it was with no arrows, in the other. Finally it reached her, and paused for a moment. The head turned to the left, turned away from her! Tona bit her lip, but she was never one to wait when opportunity came – she dashed out, trying to run quietly over the dead leaves, placing her steps with care but placing them quickly nonetheless. She pulled the knife and, at the last moment, held it low and to her side, deciding on a quick thrust under the ribs. An overhand stab to the spine would have more power behind it, but the spine was always strongly protected on these beasts and besides, she was too short to reach very far up anyway. No, a quick blow under the ribs and into the heart. Even something like this had to die if you hit its – The blow came without warning or sound, the cyborg abomination swiveling on its hips without a grunt or cry. Tona opened her mouth to scream but she had no breath for that; instead she let her feet slip out from under her and cut wildly with the knife. As she went past the steel soldier she felt her blade cut something, and heard the chainsaw whine down to nothing. She felt a spike of triumph as she fell on her back on the other side of the creature, she’d managed to disable the blade! That only lasted a heartbeat, though, as its heavy foot came up and stomped down on her, and she had to roll to avoid having her brains mashed into the forest floor. The foot came down again and she reversed her direction, feeling the ground shudder with the blow. A cat coughed again and again as the spike launcher fired, and Tona felt a line of fire on her leg as one grazed her. She kept rolling though, but was suddenly brought up short by a sharp pain across her throat; the clasp of her cloak! It hadn’t even been trying to hit her, just to pin the cloak! Thankfully the resistance thought of things like this and with a sharp tug the clasp broke and she rolled free, just before a heavy foot mashed her hood into the dirt. Tona rolled to her backside and scooted away from the cyborg. It looked at her, no emotion showing on its face, and the spike thrower came up to fire. She held her breath and crossed her hands in front of her face, a wholly futile gesture but one she could not have stopped for the life of her. The cat coughed and… nothing happened. Tona peeked and felt her heart skip a beat. There was no point showing from the spike thrower. It was empty! Adrenaline surged through her in another peak and she sprang to her feet and charged, wielding both the knife and her bow. She circled to her left, the monster’s right, keeping out of reach of the big blade. Even deactivated, if it hit her it could break her arm or collarbone, and that would be the end of the fight. Of course, the free hand could still crush her neck or blind her if she wasn’t careful, so it wasn’t a foolproof plan. She switched at the creature’s face with the tip of her bow, batting at its organic eye. She drew a line of blood down its brow and over the eye, cutting the eyelid. The monster staggered back in shock and pain, and she chose that moment to strike, lunging in and stabbing it in the belly. With a roar it struck back, lifting her off the ground and throwing her a good few feet, before she came crashing down and rolled again. Tona pushed herself to her feet and watched the monster advance, the knife in its belly leaking a trail of blood and other, darker fluids. If it felt the wound there was no sign, and the girl quickly realized she had thrown away her only real weapon. Her bow was… somewhere, no in her hands, and anyway what was she going to do without any arrows? As it reached for her she gave a scream and turned, running. But she couldn’t go far, and the soldier could run as fast as she could – faster, even, with its longer legs and mechanical endurance. And it had been a very long day, and she was riding the very tail end of an adrenaline high, her body operating on the very dregs of energy. Before long she was stumbling over her own feet and weeping with fatigue, and the monster behind her came on as relentless as ever. Desperate, she turned between two rocks and stumbled between them, hoping that the narrowness of the rocks would force the monster to turn back. After a few yards she glanced behind her and saw nothing behind her but rocks and trees! She felt her heart rise, then heard metal scraping against stone and felt a shadow fall over her. She looked up and burst out into a fresh wave of tears. The abomination was above her, walking above the stone! “Leave me the hell alone,†Tona screamed at it. “Just get the hell away from me and go back to your damn master!†She stooped and picked up a rock, chucking it at the monster. It struck the spike thrower, still hovering over the beast’s shoulder like an inquisitive bird, but the soldier was unmoved. With nothing better to do Tona kept stumbling forward, leaning against the stone wall for support. She heard the monster keeping pace with her above. “I hope it rains,†she spat, full of bile, “and your toes and ears rust.†The stone fissure continued, twisting and turning, never letting Tona see more than a few feet in front of her. Finally she turned a corner and the worst thing in the world happened; the walls pulled back, revealing a bubble in the stone, a cylinder ten feet wide and three times that tall. Tona leaned against the wall and half wept, half laughed as the cyborg jumped down and landed on the stone floor of the room. “By every dead god,†she said, pushing herself upright, “I never imagined I’d die like this. Beaten to death by a tin can with pretentions.†There was a long, low, bone-rattling rumble of thunder and the air was filled with the soft hiss of rain. “Okay, now a duel to the death in the rain? That’s the minimum level of drama I’d demand for my death. So bring it on, Tin Man!†The soldier charged at her, swinging the chainsaw with inhuman strength and speed. Tona half-dodged and half-fell out of the way, landing on the stone floor and scrambling out of the way. The monster had struck too decisively however, and ended up crumpling the blade against the stone wall, and pushing the wreck of steel through its own arm. Sparks flew and the hunk of metal fell to the ground, useless. Tona grabbed a sharp rock off the ground and spun around, slamming it into the side of the creature’s knee. The beast roared as it fell, leg crumpling underneath it, to lie across the girl’s legs. She gasped and tried to push away and crawl out, but soon there were a vising grip on her ankle. She screamed as the monster squeezed and she felt delicate bones rubbing together. Tona glanced around and saw a larger rock, the side of her head, a few feet away. She stretched – just out of reach. The monster squeezed again and she sobbed in pain and desperation. She freed her other foot, kicking the beast’s head before she found purchase against it and pushed. Her fingers scrabbled the last few inches and finally it was in her hands, and she could pull it to her chest. She twisted and brought it down on the cyborg’s head; blood squirted out and its grip on her ankle eased. She managed to twist herself into a sitting position and resumed raining blows on it as the skin opened and filled the gully with water. Sometime later she came back to herself. The cyborg didn’t have a head anymore, just a vague red spot above its neck, with brass plated beaten flat against the stone. Tona sat with her knees against her chest, shivering as the rain ran down her hair and back and limbs. She looked into the sky, flinching as the last few raindrops fell. The sun wasn’t visible, but that didn’t mean anything in the narrow ravine; she couldn’t see stars either, which probably meant more. She tried to straighten her legs and gasped as the muscles burned. Too much exertion for too long, and then she’d kept them clamped in one position. After a long minute she managed to stand upright, but a fierce shiver almost tumbled her down again. She was cold, cold down to her bones, and it was a long march back to the resistance camp and any kind of help. She eyed the body she shared the gully with distastefully, but there was no other option. She bent over and rooted around under she found her knife, then carefully cut the coat off the dead monster. Draped over her, it was more like a tent, but the inside was at least dry, and soon it would be warm. There’d be some awkward questions when she got back to camp, but at least she’d live to return. The young girl shuffled her way out of the defile, stumbling when she put too much weight on her abused ankle. “Hell of a way to turn fourteen,†she muttered to herself.

Okay. CdG is a full-round action, so Crow goes for the Snare again. DC 15 Reflex, since she's already Entangled if she fails that's a Bound & Helpless. Dahlia's Reflex save, vs DC 15. (1d20+4=19) And the dice say that's not going to happen. Damage from the wire: Dahlia's Fort save, vs DC 15. (1d20+6=24) Yikes, no. And again! Dahlia's Ref save, vs DC 15. (1d20+4=7) NOW she's Bound. Dahlia's Fort save, vs DC 15. (1d20+6=14) Bruised, but not unconscious.

Tona, didn't answer, at least not at first. She squeezed the plastic object in her hand and with a snap it unfolded into a compound bow, blackened steel pulleys set into a carbon-fibre frame that almost seemed to absorb the light. She reached down and plucked four of the arrows from the bag. She gripped three in her teeth as she stood, fitting the last to the bow-string as she stood. She took her stance almost without thought, grinning fiercely -- though with three arrows in her mouth she didn't have much choice. She pulled the string back to her cheek and let fly, then again and again and again, the movements mechanical and precise and perfect. The arrows flew into the air, shrinking to a tiny dot, joining the shining point that was the water bottle. It seemed to jerk suddenly in the air, a sharp pull to one side as it reached its apex, and then fell to the ground. It finally hit the ground again and the students could see that it was pierced by all four arrows, each nearly ninety degrees around from each other. Tona nodded once, sharply, and looked Subito straight in the eye. "No powers," she said definitely, curling her the hand she had used to draw the string back into a tight fist. "Just that good." It would take someone with a lot of self-control to tear themselves away from the spectacle of the bottle and notice the blood welling up from her fist.

Tona's expression didn't change, but her eyes were laughing. "Superpowers? Like flying or throwing trees? No, nothing like that, but wait a moment." She resumed digging in the duffel and brought up a lot of neatly packed clothes; sharp eyes might notice that almost all the clothes were nearly brand-new, and some even had the cardboard inserts from the store still in them. At least half the girl's wardrobe looked like it had never been worn before. She finally straightened up with a complex piece of plastic and metal in her hand, and a roll of nylon tucked under her arm. She drained the water bottle and handed the empty plastic shell to Subito. "Throw this into the air," she said. The young woman kneeled on the ground and put the nylon bundle down; with deft motions she ripped open a couple of velcro straps and rolled it open on the ground, revealing bundles of long, matte black arrows. She looked up at Subito and smiled. "As high as you can, please."

Tona perked up at the idea of a tour. Freedom City was so much bigger than any place she had ever been before, and though she knew intellectually that the Academy was unlikely to come under siege from a force of Omegadrones (the walls might hold out against ground troops like the Mechanical Men, but Omega's soldiers would fly right over them) but her instinct was still to scout out the land around her, to prepare for any sort of retreat. "I would really like to see the city, yes." She paused and added, "But I'm supposed to wait until one of the teachers comes out to get me." She thought for a moment and then opened her duffel, digging to the bottom. "Tell me, which window is where the teachers are?" She jumped slightly as the new girl dropped to the ground. "Hello," she said cautiously. "I'm Tona."

Blue Jay Gather Information DC 15: Blue Jay is a new hero in Freedom City. She has amazing aim and so many awesome arrows! DC 15: Blue Jay was one of the heroes who attacked civilians on the Day of Wrath! The Freedom League says they were all robot duplicates, but did you hear what Jay said about T-Babies? DC 20: Blue Jay doesn't have any actual superpowers, but her bow and arrows are cutting-edge tech. DC 30: Blue Jay seems to have trouble with high technology, even relatively common tech like cell phones. Tona Baudin Gather Information DC 15: Antoinette Baudin is a student at Claremont Academy. DC 20: She prefers to be called Tona, and claims to be from Maine. DC 25: Tona has problems with a lot of hard science classes, and things like computers seem completely alien to her.

Jessica frowned slightly. "I would ask that the data on the Terminus portal be released to us," she said. "Like you, we have a vested interest in know as much as we can about that dimension, and any data available would help us prepare for any future invasion." She paused and added, "Not that we're expecting one, but then we weren't expecting the last few, so." Her gaze went far away as something she had just said started turning the gears in her head, and in moments she was light-years away from the conversation.

Tona froze as her mind worked. Opening up about being born in and growing up in the Terminus wasn't likely to get her a good reception, not if this world had already been attacked by Omega and driven his forces off. On the other hand she couldn't very well pretend that was from Freedom City, since she knew next to nothing about this world. To buy herself some time she shook off the cat's cradle and wound the string into a ball, which she stuffed in her pocket. Finally, looking more at the water bottle than Mali, she said, "I'm from Maine." While it wasn't technically a lie, it sure didn't mention that her homeland was illuminated by the Doom Coil. Her eyes flicked up to the other woman's face as she tried to assess how her lie was taken.

"I did not kill anyone," Starlight said, adding to herself, Not this time. "Whatever else you could say about the Lor, they do love to stick to their procedures and their procedures, if slow, do tend to reveal the truth in the end." The only problem was that sometimes the end was several months after any innocents were dead. Sometimes a more direct hand was needed, and that was where Starlight had usually entered the picture. "I am not sure what Nes' plan is here, but I cannot think it intends to execute me through the courts." She paused and added, "Which does not mean we are not in danger, of course."

Liz's face colored more darkly than usual as she blushed. "No, no," she said. "I'm, I'm not close to professional level, Agnes! This is your big chance to break into music here in the States, I don't want to ruin it for you." She waved the comment away. "Besides, I don't even know if you need piano for your song, and I only really sing in -- well, I don't sing in English, at least!" Grue didn't really sound like any human language, but hopefully the alien's friend wouldn't be able to tell it from Spanish.

Indeed, CO. Just another thing they have to blast if they want to hurt Starlight.