Raveled

Jessica didn't seem to hear the question at first; she just stared at the wall as her mind digested all the new data. Finally she came out of her information dive, taking a long breath and sitting up straighter in the chair. She saw Mara looking at her expectantly and reviewed the last few seconds of conversation in her head. "You remember when I came to talk to you? About my grandfather, when I learned... learned what he did during his enlistment? This is all the information I was -- well, no. It's not all the information. But it's, it's a damn good lead." She looked at the oblong piece of black plastic in her hand for a moment, then slipped it into a compartment in her armor. She stood and stretched, walking out of the room to find herself in a musty, dilapidated hallway. It wasn't long before she found the front door and stepped out onto a similarly decrepit porch. Judging from the size and style, it was evidently a grand old house that had fallen into disrepair sometime in the last few decades; Jessica put that together with the sun rising on her right hand and deduced that they were, in fact, somewhere in Port Regal. The heroine walked a little ways down the overgrown lawn and looked back at the house. She sighed and rubbed at her forehead with one hand, waiting until Mara emerged. "Bet you a couch this place isn't here tomorrow," she called over to her friend.

As Zach slipped out of his grasp, Brian stepped forward, eyes shining with a sudden cold light. He felt his power rising inside of him, prodded higher and higher by every one of Zach's needling comments. If Corbin hadn't stepped in, there might've been a very bad outburst. As it was Brian forced himself to take several steps back and breath deeply. She's okay, he reminded himself. She's at the nurse's office, Morgan's with her, she'll be okay. He looked up and caught Zach's eye for a moment before letting his gaze slide to the side. "Right. We're... right." He waited until Zach was firmly ensconced at the snack table before making his way to where the paving stones were piled, cutting a wide angle around the other teen. He held out his hands and the huge, flat stones lifted into the air one after another, settling down in front of the greenhouse like a jigsaw, making a curving path to connect to the other myriad footpaths that crisscrossed the campus. A casual observer might have decided that the teen had dropped the entire matter as easily as that, but a closer inspection revealed that for a lie. The way he stood, the way he hunched his shoulders, even the way he concentrated on the menial job to the exclusion of everything else, spoke of the tension he was still feeling.

There was a sudden sound of pounding feet from outside the situation room, and the doors whispered open just in time for Brian to come barreling in. Or rather for Glowstar to -- he was already in his silver-metallic jumpsuit, cape fluttering behind him. He took a moment to catch his breath and fix his high collar, making eye contact and nodding at all the other students in the room. Well, almost all of them. When he caught Corbin's gaze, Glowstar ducked his head for a moment and moved on. Standing in the doorway, he pointed a finger at Morgan and pronounced, carefully, "Ass." The teen moved to a chair and spun it around, straddling the chair and leaning against the back. "Your text said the twenty-fifth. Met John coming down, still had to grab a shower, ended up doubling back for the suit..." He fell silent, still fuming. "Later on, you and me, man. Words."

Yes, Glowstar is getting confrontational here. His adrenaline's up and a pretty girl just got hurt, he's taking it out on the first target he sees. Feel free to separate the two harshly.

Brian stepped back from the scene and buried his face in his hands, breathing deeply. The crises had passed, but the adrenaline was still pumping through his system, and without a fight or another target to direct it against it was leaving him feeling weak in the knees and oddly cold. He dropped his hands and the first thing he saw was Zach, standing over where Gwen had been moments before. Brian's hands formed into fists almost by their own volition -- he stepped forward and grabbed the other teen by his shirt. "What did you do to her," he demanded through clenched teeth. "She was fine, then you did something to her!"

"Oh, John's a walking arsenal," he said, jerking a thumb at the serious-looking teen. "Or anything else you want, really. He can pull whatever you need right out of the air. Morgan's got some weird rune-magic thing," he continued, shifting his focus to his roommate, "that usually works more often than not. But if you have a favorite shirt, or jersey, don't let him get his hands on it." The last was said with a smile and a tone like it was a long-standing joke. "As for me, well, I blow stuff up. I blow stuff up real good."

Gwen's skin was hot, hotter than it should be, and her pulse was strong but fast. Her palms were dry, and he noticed the leaves on her vines were browning at the edges. Brian say back on his heels and wiped his forehead. "I think she's just overheated," he said, "but we shouldn't take any chances." He glanced around and noticed his roommate was hanging his head. Brian put his fingers in his mouth and let go with an ear-splitting whistle. "Morgan!" He pointed at the ground near them; in a flash the hero-in-training was standing over them all. "She needs to get to the nurse's station," he said, helping Gwen stand. He draped one of her arms over his friend's shoulder, then stepped away and slapped him on the back. "Go man, go."

Brian caught the football, chuckling at his friend's discomfort. He glanced at the new student and did a double-take when he realized the boy was floating -- and doing so upside-down! He tossed the pigskin from hand to hand, walking over to the new arrival. He smirked at the visual of the serious-looking young man in the suit, whose coatflaps were now hanging down and whose trousers were threatening to ride up on him. "So, uh, Subito was it? What can you do, exactly?"

Mako 5's Toughness roll, vs DC 22. (1d20+10=27) Nuthin'.

Shark continues to be bound. Since that's not a very interesting IC action, we're just gonna move straight to Wisp's turn.

Which means the shark is up. Mako 5's grapple check, vs Wisp's same. (1d20+16=30)

Glowstar's Diagnosis check on Flora. (1d20+5=23)

Brian's heart rate rocketed as Gwen fell to the ground. He crouched next to her, calling her name over and over again. He glared up at Zach briefly. "If you did something to her," he muttered darkly, before returning to his examination. Training from Boy Scouts took over; he checked her pulse at her wrist and neck, felt her forehead, held his hand in front of her mouth to check her breathing. He might not have super-healing powers, but he wasn't useless in this regard.

Not sure what you're rolling, there.

Nice pic! All this adds up. Initiative is Dexterity Mod + (Ranks in Improved Initiative * 4). She would have just +2. Grapple is Str Bonus + Melee attack bonus + Ranks in Super-Strength. She'd have +4. Knockback is (Toughness/2) + (Impervious Toughness). She'd have +6. Out of all of these, what worries me is the Attack Bonus. +4 is terrible, you're not going to hit anything with that. These all add up fine. I'd find a point for the English Language, even if your character has a universal translator. Likewise, if she's a star-hopping explorer, she might know the Lor or even Grue languages. Profession's not going to do a lot for you; I'd grab ranks in Know/Tech or more Craft. Finally, Astronomy is covered under the Physical Sciences skill. Other than that, everything adds up. Despite what there is in the book, a blaster pistol is unlikely to be allowed as Equipment. Rule of thumb is, if you can't go out and buy it at a store right now, it's not Equipment (HQs and vehicles can get a by on that). Given how much you need to raise her attack, I'd drop all the Equipment; she already has two Blasts, and the spaceship can be just a plot device for now. Think of the shuttle that brought Superman to Earth as a baby. All versions of the story have that, but in how many versions does he actually do anything with it? I don't know about Shape Matter, it seems a really wonky version of Transform. I'm going to let a ref take that one. Both Blasts have Accurate 3, which in fact takes care of my objections about hitting Attack Caps: However, according to the site's house rules, at least a third of your attack bonus (in this case, at least +3) has to come from Base Attack, not feats or power feats. I think the Nullify you want might be All Electronic (or All Technology) Effects. You need to specify a sense type for Detect. It looks like you mean for it to be Mental, though. Flight Suit looks good (though I wonder why it doesn't have any immunities) and Translator looks good. Though since it's Easy to Lose, I have to reiterate my advice on buying at least English as a Language. I have no idea what this means, exactly. Is it Effects with the Disease or Poison descriptor? Overall, looks like an interesting character. Can't really comment on the fluff (since there isn't any) but you seem to have a much better grasp of the rules than most newcomers, and that's always welcome!

Wisp is grappling the last one.

Yyyyyes she does, but I don't think they counter smoke.

"Get off me!" The words were muffled, but Brian's flailing was clear to see. With a grunt he rolled Morgan off of his body, then sat up, glaring crossly at his roommate. "You said those footballs were all supposed to go to the same place! You never said that 'same place' was the front gate!" He stood up and dusted himself off, muttering under his breath. "I swear man, if Summers had been walking by and got beaned by one of those, I would've laughed as he strung you up." He picked up one of the footballs littering the ground and tossed it at Morgan, intentionally aiming for the young man's head (but not throwing the ball very hard).

The shark trying to nibble on Glowstar's arm released that morsel and backed up a bit as Crow's booted heel struck it in the back of its head, shaking that huge cranium like it was dazed. The silver-and-red teen struck a pose, feet shoulder-width apart, body facing the monster; he took a deep breath, the aura around him brightening until it was painful to look at directly. "I've got a real classic for you," he said, eyes flaring. "Kah, meh, ha, meh, HA!" With the last word he brought his hands towards his chest and then thrust out, flinging dozens of black orbs trailing red fire at the shark. They exploded on impact, throwing the misshaped creature back to crash into the stage. The display was bright enough to reflect off the buildings of Riverside, nearly a mile away.

Glowstar's up; he can't take on the one that Wisp is grappling, so he'll hit the one that Crow just set up for him. Full Round Action: Multi Blast. Glowstar's ranged attack w/ full All-Out Attack, vs Shark's Def. DC 26 + Autofire 3 (1d20+15=17) No. NO! Reroll! Glowstar's ranged attack w/ full All-Out Attack, vs Shark's Def. DC 26 + Autofire 3 (1d20+15=33) That's more like it! It's enough to give him full benefit of Autofire, so that's a DC 36 Toughness save from the shark. Shark 4's Toughness save, vs DC 36. (1d20+9=16) Soooo done for. Autofire 3 is a beautiful thing. Flora's up.

Shark 4's Toughness save, vs DC 28. (1d20+10=24) Bruise.

"It was real," Quirk said somewhat petulantly. "You both saved worlds. Isn't that a good thing?" "It's a good thing to help people," Jessica allowed, "but you didn't really give us a choice. I'm sure we would have chosen to help if you had just asked." "Oh yeah. I always forget to ask people before I help." The childlike figure put his chin in his hand for a long moment before shrugging dramatically. "Still! You saved two worlds. And since you got done first, Ironclad, you get a prize!" He tossed something to the taller woman and then did a backflip -- which spiralled inward at a far-too-acute angle, Quirk contracting in on himself until he disappeared. Jessica caught the object almost on reflex, only to hold it at arm's length to inspect it. It appeared to be... a USB drive, utterly unremarkable. She touched it with her mind (tentatively, keeping the whole events of the night in mind) and poked around the information there. There really wasn't much, not even a full gigabyte, but what was there was revelatory. Pages and pages of what looked like scanned military documents, with large portions blacked out and almost every single one stamped TOP SECRET. There were files from both the US Army and the young USAF on Malcolm Dawes, as well as his Ironclad suit in all its iterations; and many more people, almost thirty all told. They apparently all belonged to something called "Section 8." What that was wasn't exactly clear, but... Jessica sat down suddenly, eyes distant as she combed through the data again and again. It wasn't everything that she needed, it wasn't close to everything -- but it was a start.

Jessica took her time in the shower, luxuriating under the hot water. Despite a rocky start, this vacation really was shaping up to be something special, a way for her to bleed off all the tension in her life -- and to do it with the man she loved, at that. When she finally finished with her toilette, she walked out of the bathroom in a fluffy, white cotton robe with the hotel's logo over her breast. She made a face one she saw that Blake was already dressed. "Okay," she said, making shooing motions with her hands, "at least brush your teeth or something. Let me get dressed!" Once Blake was out of the room, she pulled on a pair of flared jeans and a tee-shirt that featured Darkwing Duck prominently. She pulled on a pair of sneakers -- and only then did she glance at the clock, quickly doing a double take. It was almost eleven o'clock, and they were scheduled on the noon Chunnel train! She knocked on the bathroom door and started throwing clothes into their bags. "Blake, we gotta move! Oh man, it's even later than I thought!"

GM The smoke pellet rapidly filled the area, shrouding the entire area and making the fighters blind. Steelshanks spun in place, her heavy feet resounding as they pounded the pavement. "Stupid kid," she muttered, groping through the smoke as she strode forward again. "Stupid kid with their stupid toys and their stupid, stupid cars. When I find you, I'm gonna crush you!" Unfortunately, only Catalyst could see that the metal woman was, in fact, walking in entirely the wrong direction. Targeter let out a scream of frustration, firing her weapon into the mists in short bursts. She didn't hit anything, though; how could she, when she couldn't see anything?

Which direction will Steelshanks go? (1d9=5) Straight back, it would seem. Move Action: Steelshanks moves straight back 30 ft. Targeter can't even do that much, so she's going to waste time yelling at our heroes.