Raveled

Ironclad's going to go All-Out and try to grapple Looking Glass again. Ironclad's melee attack check w/ +5 All-Out Attack, vs Looking Glass's Def. (1d20+15=35) For the Crit bonus, I think I'm going to go with a free taser-hand attack. Stun 10 [20PP] Looking Glass has to make a DC 20 fort save on top of everything. Opposed Grapple. Ironclad's grapple check, vs. Looking Glass' opposed grapple. (1d20+24=35)

Young Britannia's blast hit Cold Front's bracers again, but this time the British heroine could see them cracking under the sustained assault. The criminal gasped as the damage to her armor, taking a quick step forward and swinging at Britannia's head, but the hero was too fast and danced back from the blow. In the other melee, Starlight took advantage of Heat Wave's temporary blindness and launched her own brilliant bolt of light -- but the criminal seemed to sense it coming somehow, and still side-stepped it. "Just face it, hero," Heat Wave spat, still rubbing at her eyes but grinning triumphantly. "We're just too hot for you two to-- ugh!" Starlight's blast had curved around behind the criminal and impacted the back of her head. "Might want to shut your mouth," Starlight offered, "and watch your back."

Cold Front's Toughness save, vs DC 21. (1d20+10=18) Bruise x1 Starlight's up next. She's going to smash Heat Wave with her own ranged attack. Starlight's ranged attack check, vs Heat Wave's Def. DC 25 Tou (1d20+10=13) Ugh. Well, goodness knows she has plenty of HP to blow, so reroll. Starlight's ranged attack check, vs Heat Wave's Def. DC 25 Tou. Reroll (1d20+10=16) Well at least it becomes 26, so it hits. Heat Wave's Toughness save, vs DC 25. (1d20+8=13) Ouch. That's Staggered + Daze'd. Heat Wave gets a chance to shake off the Dazzle. Heat Wave's Fort save, vs DC 20. (1d20+6=15) Nope. Cold Front is gonna punch at YB. Cold Front's melee attack check, vs YB's Def. DC 23 Tou (1d20+8=9) Wiff. Initiative 22 Cold Front -- Bruise x1 -- GM 21 Heat Wave -- Dazzle (Visual), Stagger, Daze (Starlight) -- GM 13 Young Britannia -- Entangled -- HPx3 10 Starlight -- Uninjured -- HPx2

Starlight's attention drifted from the endangered CEO and the active EMT, to his partner. The one who hadn't said anything, hadn't even reacted when Starlight had forced her own solution to the situation. Among the Grue such easy acceptance was the way of life, but the people here weren't laboring under a tyrannical telepathic regime, so... The heroine stepped around one EMT and stopped close to the other, intentionally too close in fact. Starlight's black face was just a few inches from the other medic's nose, well within the man's personal space. She didn't say anything, merely stared him in the eye and waited.

An hour's ride, ehn? Well, Starlight can get them there in the blink of an eye! ... And be Fatigue'd, which I would rather avoid (though she is kind of the odd one out when it comes to PL). Okay, how does this should to the group? Starlight can easily stunt a group Teleport to get them to the factory instantly (well, in a full round), and then they rest for the hour it will take her to, well, rest and remove the Fatigue.

Glowstar's Notice check (1d20+8=19) Glowstar's Search check (1d20+5=10)

Ironclad rubbed at her temple, or at least where her temple would be if she hadn't been wearing her helmet. This Gabriel was thoroughly injured, it didn't take a medical degree to see that, and it could have been because of torture. She didn't know anything about 'sound-producing nodules,' but metahuman biology wasn't her forte. Although, engineering was... "Excuse me." Ironclad walked forward and took the plans away from alterna-Gabriel, looking them over closely. Quantum computing was beyond her skill, but she knew the theory behind it and knew some of the structures it would have to have. "There's an occlusion chamber," she said, pointing. "Those sensors... they look kind of like a SQuID. I guess that's the output?" She shook her head. "I should try imaging this..."

Glowstar sloshed out of the sewer, covering his nose and wishing it would adapt to the stench. "Yeah. I don't even know how on Earth you clean morphic molecules. I mean, can you dry-clean them? Is there a solvent I can use?" His speech was cut off when they heard the groaning metal falling from above, and his head snapped around to see the sign falling. He gathered his energy up -- only to be beaten to the punch by Wisp's faster reactions. "Nice job," he observed, examining her energy shield. "Let's see who's responsible for this, shall we?" Tendrils of black-red energy wrapped around the metal letters and dragged behind Glowstar as he flew up to the building's roof. "Excuse me," he said, "but trash pick-up isn't until Thursday. I'm going to have to fine you for littering."

Jessica's findings were less than concrete. Jack Renner had gone into Wilkins' office, there was a break in the recording, then he came out and went about his day. She dithered in her head. There was a mountain of evidence against Wilkins, but it wall circumstantial. There was nothing firm to point to him as the mastermind behind all of this. Jessica always tried to operate within the bounds of the law, even as a superhero, and right now she was inclined to pull out and let the situation develop more. However, she wasn't the only hero here. Geckoman, she transmitted. Not quite a victory on the computers, not quite a loss. Lots of odd circumstances surrounding Wilikins. Should we pressure him or group?

Glowstar's Ini (1d20+6=12) Woo. Something tells me the speedster/teleporter is gonna go first.

"From what you told me telecommuting doesn't mean much for you," Jessica pointed out, still watching the snow. "Either your body's laying in a comfy bed, or it's reclining in a top-of-the-line office chair. Though I suppose if you put a futon in your office it would mean --" "ATTENTION, CITIZENS OF FREEDOM CITY!!" The voice boomed over the air waves and Jessica cringed as it invaded her headspace. Simultaneously, the television in the corner turned itself on and began broadcasting. It showed an image of a snow-covered hill and a wall of blowing snow, then a head poked on screen. It was skeletal, blue, and slightly translucent, covered in sharp spikes; it looked like like someone had carved a skull out of ice and given it an anime haircut. Its mouth opened, revealing row after row of sharp, shark-like teeth. "I am the Glacier King, and I have chosen your planet as my new throne. There is no chance of resistance. By this time tomorrow, this city will be buried in snow, and then the world!" The ice-creature tossed its head back and cackled madly as the image faded.

"Yes, well. I was more worried about having to protect the archeological team while we explored the ruins." And set off Finagle knew how many traps, she pointedly did not say. They were a stick thrown into a minefield, and the less people around unable to protect themselves when the mines went off, the better. "I wouldn't say no to having my suit linked up to a starship, goodness knows, but I'm just now sure how much use it would be. No offense, but from what you've told us this ship's sensors haven't been very effective at penetrating whatever shielding the site possesses." When the captain left, Jessica sat back in her chair and sipped at her coffee slowly. "I vote for a chance to let breakfast settle," she pointed out, "as well as a chance to use the restroom. My suit can handle stuff like that, but it's not very comfortable."

At Gabriel's sudden reaction, Ironclad switched her sensors over to SONAR and turned to watch the door. She could follow the movement of the figure beyond by his tap-tap-tapping, but when he walked through... well, if he had been planning a sneak attack it would have been the perfect time to launch one. Her mind whirled and tried to find an explanation, and it settled on one just as he announced it. A different world would account for a lot of changes, of course, but there should be some similarities. That Gabriel existed at all and in some heroic capacity was heartening, but his apparent injury was not a good sign. She didn't have much to add to the conversation at the moment, though, so she moved towards the doorway and stood there, arms folded, watching the new Gabriel while her sensors continued to listen carefully.

Starlight pounded the proverbial pavement, but had precious little information to go on. She tried terrorizing the street toughs, cajoling them, even using her Grue abilities to insinuate herself into their social circles, but after two hours she had nothing to show for it. The cosmic Light Bearer hovered in the air, on level with the Sentry Statue's eyes. Her face was its normal impassive mask, but internally she was fuming. She wasn't used to failing so completely; with luck, the other two heroes would have some good information.

Ironclad inhaled slowly and deeply when Wail mentioned the kidnapping. "That... that ranks a little bit higher than some stolen chemicals, yes." She turned back to focus on the warehouse, her sensors probing it and trying to peek inside. The fact that she couldn't was very nearly the most damning thing about the whole situation. "I didn't see them bring anything in. I mean, people have been arriving in ones and twos all night, but they haven't been moving any boxes or crates big enough to hold a person. Certainly not a teenager." She fell silent for a moment before adding, "They did open up the roof an hour or so ago and closed it a few minutes later, but I didn't see any aerial craft approach during that time."

Jessica nodded. "Yeah, the administrative stuff is boring. But the benefit of doing boring work at the beginning is that you avoid the bad kind of excitement later on. 'Measure twice, cut once,' as they say." Her eyes glanced around the room, pointedly avoiding the whiteboard with its meandering calculations, and the silence began to stretch between the two women. Privately Jessica cursed herself, but she just wasn't used to making small talk. Even with Mara, she just didn't know what topics to broach. Her eyes alighted on a window that she could see from her position and she noticed the snow sleeting past it, heavy flakes coming down at speed. "Wow, it really started snowing fast," she observed. "The streets were dry when I drove over."

YB is entangled. She has a -2 to Attack checks and -4 to Dexterity, so her Initiative and Reflex drop by 2 pts each. But she can still act!

He talked about blacking out in the club... Is there any chance Ironclad could find the recording of that?

Hm. Starlight will Search the bandit for anything he might have on him. Books, letters, pictures, anything. She'll take 10 for a result of 12.

Possibly the most security system ever.

Glowstar's a solid PL 12 and he needs some threads.

The blast of pure light streaked toward Cold Front, but the bundled-up criminal had time to cross her arms and deflect the blast. As the energy faded Young Britannia could see that her attack had succeeded in burning off some of the fabric on Cold Front's forearms -- to reveal blue and white form-fitting metal. Before she could regain her footing, Cold Front raised her hands and the British heroine could see cold blue lights running up towards the criminal's hands. "Time for you to chill out, hero," Cold Front sneered and Young Britannia could feel the temperature dropping quickly, frost forming on her clothes and all around her. Heat Wave, meanwhile, kept swinging and trying to hit the invisible (to all but her) Starlight. The heroine, meanwhile, ducked and dodged the blows while reforming her body into something that would cover her secret identity. She dropped the cover and crouched slightly, golden eyes fixed on Heat Wave. "I do not know how you saw me," she said, "but you are not going to be seeing anything else for awhile." Starlight opened her hand and thrust a blinding flash of light in Heat Wave's face. The criminal reeled back, holding her eyes. "My... my eyes! I'm blind!"

Cold Front's Toughness save, vs DC 20. (1d20+8=23) Bounces off, I'm afraid. Cold Front's up first, she's going to try and Snare YB. Cold Front's Ranged attack roll, vs Young Britannia's Def. DC 18 Ref (1d20+8=28) Yikes. Crit, so a DC 23 Ref to avoid that Snare. Heat Wave tries to smack Starlight around again. Heat Wave's melee attack check, vs Starlight's Def. DC 23 Tou (1d20+8=19) Swing and a miss. Starlight's going to burn a HP to get rid of the Fatigue, drop the Concealment, and handle Heat Wave with a Dazzle. Starlight's ranged attack roll, vs Heat Wave's Def. DC 20 Ref (1d20+10=29) Aaaahhhhh so close. Heat Wave's Reflex save, vs DC 20. (1d20+6=17) Yep, she's blind. Initiative 22 Cold Front -- Uninjured -- GM 21 Heat Wave -- Dazzle (Visual) -- GM 13 Young Britannia -- Uninjured -- HPx3 10 Starlight -- Uninjured -- HPx3

Octopus Hero's Toughness save, vs DC 24. (1d20+10=13) Staggered + Dazed.

Up in the Lab, Ironclad and the ambulatory puddle traded blows again, but though their strikes sent chips of tile and plaster spinning through the air neither seemed to be able to get an edge over the other. The blob's pseudopods rattled uselessly against the heroine's metal shell, and while she struck with enhanced strength Ironclad couldn't seem to actually injure the monster. Down below Catalyst was having much the same stand-off with her own blob. The thing whirled out against her again, neatly smashing the engine compartment of the vehicle she was huddled on top of. Now she had a scant few square feet of metal to crouch on and aim; if this wasn't ended quickly, she might have to find a new perch.