Raveled

Since the Voltage issue seems to be settled, I'd like to bring up something else. The Lab has no Reputation table. I'm going to take a stab at fixing that! Part of me thinks there should be more there, but I can't really think of anything else.

Rise, thread, RISE! Yes, Victory is up.

Starlight frowned down at the false EMT as it exited the cab and headed into the warehouse. She waited for the cab itself to pull away -- but then the cabbie got out and started towards the warehouse himself! The heroine disappeared in a blaze of light and reappeared just in front of the driver. She stared at him with her blank gold eyes for a long moment, then a slit of a mouth opened in her face. "It is not worth it," she told him. "Turn around and leave. There is danger in this place." With the advice given, she turned on her heel and stalked into the warehouse herself.

Starlight gave Siphon a blank look, which was a much more effective tactic now that he/she actually had facial features. "Just follow my lead," the cosmic hero said. Starlight turned back to the mayor and the smith, affecting the cowboy persona once more. He swaggered over and planted himself in front of the pair. "Yer honor," he drawled, "if you could see your way clear to loaning us three horses, they would be put to good use. Why, with God and strong horse we might even run down those bandits that attacked this town. As for you, sheriff," he added, deliberately turning to address the smith, "if you could take hold of that cowpoke we rustled until we're back, well I'd be much obliged."

Jessica broke her mental link and smiled warmly at Wilkins. "Of course," she said. "I'm eager to watch you work. When you say the girl retreats into fantasy, are these actual hallucinations?" While she pressed the doctor for more details, he contacted Geckoman's communicator. ~If you have any lockpicks,~ she transmitted, ~get them ready.~ Then she switched over to Silhoutte's 'channel.' ~Wilkins is coming over to your location. Observe him.~ Her right hand twitched slightly; part of her really wanted to call up her armor and throw down with Wilkins right now, but she fought that impulse down. Right now, going quietly was the best plan she had.

Ironclad watched the presentation impassively (something helped by her blank helmet) until the faces of Miss Americana and Doktor Archeville flashed up on screen. When she saw them she inhaled sharply and stood up straighter. She knew intellectually that this was a different dimension, different rules, different history, but to see two such heroes and to know they would be the opposition... She wondered what she would do if she was forced against Dragonfly or any of Blake's incarnations. More to the point, could she do much against Miss American and the Doktor. That was a pretty formidable team, the rest of the 'heroes' aside. She cleared her throat and addressed broken-Gabriel. "I understand you're used to working under the radar, as it were," she said, "but if time's a factor why are we going slow? I mean alright, stealth, fine. But give me a few days and I'm sure I could whip up something to punt us into orbit and smack down in the middle of the facility, before Mastermind or anyone else knew what was happening."

Young Britannia managed to grab Cold Front's arm and noticed the slick, cool feeling of the metal under her hands, but in another moment the supercriminal twisted her arm and broke free. "No one builds a self-respecting power suit without being able to benchpress a bus," she sneered at the hero. Flashing red and blue lights began to show through the ice barrier at the front of the store and the criminal sneered, backing up. She summoned up a few icicles out of thin air and tossed them at Young Britannia. "Heat Wave," she barked. "The fuzz is here, it's time to get away!" Across the room, Starlight aimed another burst of white energy at the scantily-clad Heat Wave. It hit the blind woman (and how was she dodging the blasts so easily, anyway?) and spun her around, leaving a bruise across her ribs. "But Cold Front," she whined, "I'm just starting to have fun. See?" She juked left and right and landed a nasty-looking uppercut on Starlight's chin. Lights exploded in front of the heroine's eyes and she staggered back, caught off balance. "Serves you right, Light Bulb," Heat Wave spat.

Cold Front's grapple check, vs 23. (1d20+20=32) Yeah, sorry. She has Str 26 and S-Str. Starlight's ranged attack check, vs Heat Wave's Def. DC 25 Tou (1d20+10=18) That just barely hits. Magmin's Toughness save, vs DC 25. (1d20+8=23) Bruise x1 and her Daze goes away. Cold Front's Ranged attack check, vs YB's Def. DC 23 Tou (1d20+8=25) That'll hit. Heat Wave's melee attack check w/ +2 All-Out Attack, vs Starlight's Def. DC 23 Tou (1d20+10=25) That will hit. Starlight's Toughness save, vs DC 23. (1d20+10=14) That's Dazed + Bruise x1. Initiative 22 Cold Front -- Bruise x1 -- GM 21 Heat Wave -- Dazzle (Visual), Stagger, Bruise x1 -- GM 13 Young Britannia -- Entangled -- HPx2 10 Starlight -- Bruise x1, Daze (Heat Wave) -- HPx2

Ironclad gritted her teeth and waited for her senses to settle from the teleport. It never failed to disorient her, crossing so much distance in the time it took to blink. Logically it was just because surroundings were changing so quickly but was that really all? Maybe it was something in the head, teleportation interfering the electrical/quantum workings of the human mind... Such contemplations served to keep the heroine occupied until she recovered. Looking around the area, she nodded to Supercape. "Systems are at one hundred percent," she said. That sound was getting on her nerves, though. She switched her sensorium over to auditory pick-ups and started analyzing it. The reports hadn't stated anything about weird noises, and anything new was suspicious in this circumstance.

Ironclad is going to be using her Auditory Super-Senses and taking 20 on Notice as they move forward. Automatic result of 30, and her S-Senses have Ultrahearing and Analytical on all Auditory, as well. Oh, and 1000-ft range increments.

Fighty fighty fight time. Glacier King's Ini. (1d20+2=18) 5 Snow Monsters, all going on the same count. Snow Monsters' Ini. (1d20=12) Ironclad's Ini. (1d20+5=10)

"Whatever he is, this guy made a television broadcast across the entire city," Ironclad reminded Dragonfly. "I don't think he's the sort to hide his light under bushel -- city obscuring blizzard notwithstanding." The pair flew south, separating as widely as they dared given the conditions in the air. Ironclad worried about the consequences of a sudden snow storm shutting down Freedom City for any length of time. Hopefully, anyone caught out on the street would be able to get inside, at least until the heroes could stop this villain, but what about commercial flights in the air? News and police helicopters, airliners... Two suits of powered armor were barely able to remain aloft, how could a jumbo jet? Hopefully there wasn't anyone in flight just now, or if they were other heroes could save them. Ironclad and Dragonfly had to stop whoever was causing this, before the entire city froze! The heroes flew south, exchanging terse observations. Ironclad's sensors probed forward and found an odd cavity in the storm. She directed herself and Dragonfly towards it, and suddenly were out of the storm. Like stepping from one room of a house to the next; Ironclad could see, in her 360 degree field of view, the blowing snow making a solid wall behind her, but in this area was clear as, well, as the air had been twenty minutes ago! It only took her a moment to figure out where they were -- hovering over Lake MacKenzie in Port Regal. The lake's waterline looked incredibly low, even for winter; well, the moisture of all that snow had to come from somewhere, right? Standing at the much-reduced shoreline was the craggy-headed figure from the television, hands sunk deep into the lake. His height was hard to estimate from that position but he looked to be no taller than Ironclad, clad in an outfit of shaggy white and brown furs, like a Nineteenth Century Arctic explorer. He straightened up as the heroines descended on him, sticking his hands on his hips. "Sorry to interrupt your work," Ironclad said as she primed her weapons systems, "but I'm afraid your license for a white Christmas has been revoked." The self-proclaimed Glacier King laughed harshly at the heroes. "Earth's champions! I heard much of the amazing individuals who protected this world. Come then, warriors, and prove that you can handle the challenge! Defeat me -- and my army!" He gestured broadly and the mounds of snow scattered along the expanded beach, levered themselves upwards, and started walking towards the heroes. Each one looked like a pile of snow, a rough and hastily-formed snowman, towering a good three or four feet over the heroines. Well, at least it wouldn't be a dull fight.

Moving into Stage Three of the thread: Giant blob! Using the Giant Ooze archetype from the core book, page 233. Ironclad's Ini. (1d20+5=10) Giant Ooze's Ini. (1d20-5=-3)

Starlight kept up his/her false conversation while watching the counterfeit EMT walk right out of the building and towards the street. This was going to be even easier than the hero could have hoped for! Starlight ducked back into the self-same janitor's closet as before and disappeared, reappearing in a flash of light on a nearby building. She crouched near the edge of the roof as her body reformed into her superheroic persona. With her teleportation abilities, she'd have no problem following the cab all the way around the world. And people so rarely looked up, mostly limiting their perception to whatever was on any side of them. Even if the shapechanger was more likely to check its topside, the cabs in the city all had hard tops. It wouldn't be able to look up and see her, even if it wanted to.

The octo-blob shuddered under the hail of plastic projectiles from Catalyst, and even as it tried to attack her again the psuedopod moved rather lazily through the air, dripping ooze on the floor. Before the heroine could exploit the opening, the blobby mess was surrounded and boxed in by yellow-tinged walls of force. She looked towards the elevators and saw a handful of figures, in more elaborate and bulky versions of the Lab's security uniform, spill out into the parking garage. Each was holding a wapsish, chrome plated rifle, like something out of Flash Gordon. The rifles were pointed at the blob, and it seemed that they were holding it in place. The lead guard did a double-take at the biohazard-suited woman crouching on (the remains of) a car. "Hero! Listen, we've got this thing covered for now. Thanks for handling it, but they need you out on the street!" Up in the lab, heroine and blob exchanged blows to little effect. Ironclad pulled back and widened the distance between them, mind racing for a solution. The last time she had faced these things they hadn't liked heat; maybe spray ethanol on it and -- A yellow-tinged box sprang up around the blob, interrupting her thoughts and capturing it against the wall. She glanced up at the ceiling and noticed small metal devices, like chrome-plated pens, pointing at the blob. Oh yeah, she thought to herself, we have a security system. With the threat contained, the superhero opened up her mind, preparing to call a security detachment up to deal with the creature (and find out where Jasmine had gotten) when a flood of radio transmissions poured into her skull. ~All cars please report to vicinity of the Lab in Hanover. Code 221 in process, cordon area off and prepare for STAR intervention.~ Superhuman Tactics And Regulation? They were the police that were deployed when superheroes couldn't get to the area quickly enough. If STAR was being called in... She dashed out of the lab and to the curving window that made up the outer walls of the Lab. No one could see in from outside, but Ironclad had a perfect view of a neon-green blob, at least ten stories tall, roll down the streets. It lashed out with a pseudopod and smashed a row of cars. The armored heroine cursed under her breath and, after a thought, dashed over to the elevator core and headed up. She did not want to tangle with that thing in close quarters.

Well Wisp is up next, isn't she?

Why shouldn't his Melee attack be higher than his Ranged attack? It doesn't seem like he has any inherent ranged attacks (what he stunts or builds with Gadgets notwithstanding) so there's no real reason he'd be trained in ranged combat as well as melee combat. Feats look fine. Not sure why being timeshifted makes him stronger, but whatever. *Does math* You're intentionally keeping him undercapped at PL 10, then? But with Str 20 (+5 bonus) and Strike 4 (with Mighty) he has a Rank 9 Damage ability, and +12 attack with it. That averages out to PL 10.5 offensively. I'd recommend dropping attack by one point.

Looking over Voltage's sheet, I don't have any real problem with him joining. He's very, very focused on one area and he's young, but you could've said the same things about Ironclad when she joined. I would like it if he had some threads with the other Lab folks before joining, just so he doesn't come out of thin air to any of the characters.

I have no complaints with that plan of action.

Ironclad put the plans down and crossed her arms, giving the broken Gabriel a long, hard look, trusting her blank helmet to keep her expression hidden. Truthfully, this new Gabriel kind of scared her. She hadn't had much interaction with her universe's Gabriel, but he had always struck her as a peaceful, honorable man at heart. This new one was angry, too direct, and too willing to exploit a not-entirely-moral situation that fell into his lap. "We'll help you," she said finally. "God, of course we'll help you. We wouldn't be much like heroes if we didn't. But abducting us like this is the worst possible decision you could have made. Putting aside how it makes us feel, I don't know how much we four can do. I mean, if you had approached us earlier, we might have been able to bring more heroes with us. I'm sure the rest of the Lab would have followed us and I would've petitioned the Freedom League to at least send along someone." She shook her head. "We'll do what we can, but don't expect us to be able to liberate your entire world over a weekend."

Starlight's eyes narrowed as the shapeshifter dropped the pretense, taunting the heroes and moving to leave. Her first impulse was to grab it and finish things here and now, but Synth stopped her and forced her to reconsider the issue. After a moment she nodded and half-turned to address the other hero. "Watch the CEO," she said. "Make sure they don't try to get at her while she's at the hospital. I'll... make contact." Starlight disappeared and teleported herself to the ground floor, inside a janitor's closet. She felt around for the doorknob and let herself out, immediately changing her form to mimic the many young, suited professionals common in the business district. She formed a pocket of skin into a reasonable facsimile of a cellphone and held it to one ear, holding a one-sided conversation as she wandered to the vicinity of the elevators. The hidden heroine chatted with herself as she waited for the elevator the EMTs had used to open and disgorge the shapeshifter.

Starlight's face settled into an impassive mask as he considered the benefits and risks of what Catalyst suggested. After a long few minutes he shook his head. "We don't know if they've noticed he's gone yet," he pointed out. "If they already realize he's been taken and I just pop up looking like him, they'll attack. It's too big a risk to take. Besides," he added ruefully, "I'd have to ride a horse. And I don't know how to do that, at all."

"I don't think all the king's horses and all the king's men are going to put your mirror back together again. Because I've got you lock." The heroine reached down, grabbed the back of Looking Glass' head, and hauled her upright. "Shock!" She continued lifting the criminal into the air, grabbing one thigh just about the kneed, and activated a pair of well-insulted metal prongs in the palms of her gauntlets. The prongs made contact with Looking Glass' suit and she temporarily became the path of least resistance for around twenty thousand volts of electricity. "And over a barrel!" Ironclad hoisted the other woman up high and flew into the air, carrying her to the peak of the lobby's high ceiling. "Now, are you going to give up or do I have to shake you until all the stolen change comes out?"

Starlight nodded to the civilians. "If you'll excuse us," he drawled, "I need to talk to my fellows. Padre, pardner." He tipped his hat to the pair and pulled the other heroes aside. He lowered his voice so no one else would hear and dropped the accent, speaking in his/her normal tone. "I could get us to the factor well in advance of the bandits. We could ambush them, and maybe scatter or capture the rest. Or we could simply watch their interactions with the factory workers and try to infiltrate the place later on."

Jessica pressed a finger between her eyebrows, her eyes squeezed shut. "Straight up. Fight bad guy. Save the day. Yeah, alright, that works. Just let me get some aspirin first, that broadcast gave me a headache." A few minutes later, medication ingested and armor on, Ironclad shouldered open the building's roof-access door. The first blast of howling, bitter cold air pushed her off-balance and almost spilled her back inside, but a quick burp of thrusters stabilized her and she headed out into the storm. Outside it was already whiteout conditions; the apartments on either side were vague blurs and the road below was already invisible to the naked eye. Ironclad frowned as she looked around, and tasted the radio chatter. As the pair of battlesuited heroines rose into the sky, staying quite close so as not to lose sight of each other, she linked with her friend's suit. "The storm came over Bayview first," she said. "Chances are, Jack Frost is somewhere south of the river."