Raveled

Ironclad moved back and saw that those pale blue eye were set in a kindly, wrinkled face. The woman really did look like a grandmother from an after school special, or a made-for-TV Christmas movie. The effect was marred somewhat by her being in a lab coat instead of a chintz house dress; it was ruined worse, though, by the dried blood on her arms, all the way up to her elbows. She gave the heroine a warm smile and reached out as to cup Ironclad's helmeted face. The young woman started backwards, taking to the air and circling around until she was floating in the middle of the room above the drop. "Who are you," she demanded. "What happened here? What is this place?" The old woman moved to the edge of the railing and gripped it, still smiling at Ironclad. "This is a research station," she said, voice still calm. "Our universe was running out of energy, see? Well, we didn't want to just sit around and wait for the end, so we started stealing energy from neighboring galaxies. And when that wasn't enough, we started looking for other universes to siphon off of." Ironclad blinked at resisted the urge to look at the ceiling. "So... the alien I fought? All the remains I came across? They were trying to attack because you were stealing their energy? But then, what about the robots?" "Well, the robots were there to protect us, of course! Once we were attacked though, the Science Council felt time was running out and authorized us to begin taking more... unorthodox approaches." Granny peered down at the central viewport, and after a moment's hesitation so did Ironclad. The station itself was slowly rotating and orbiting the burned-out planet, so the view of sweeping through the local starscape. After a few seconds of searching the young genius saw it: a hole in space, like the whole thing was a backdrop in a cheap play that someone had snipped away. Through it she could see more space, purple gasses, and a gray and grim planet covered in screaming faces that had to be miles across. A line of burning something cut across the view, a column of fiery devastation that had to be on a planetary scale. With a start the heroine realized that this was a hole cut directly into the Terminus. "It's beautiful," Granny said, shocking the heroine out of her reverie. "I knew there was no point to prolonging our joining with the Ending, so I went around and I... freed everyone of their worries!" She held up her blood-drenched arms and smiled at the heroine. "Now that you're here, I'll do the same to you. I promise, the end will be quick." The woman's eyes went totally black in a heartbeat and she fixed Ironclad's eyes, even through her helmet. "Now feel the End come upon you!"

Glowstar borrowed a pen from Dr. Tanner and spread the map on the wall. "ASTRO Labs' here," he said, marking the map in blue. "And here's where we met Dr. Marks, right? Where's she live?" The older scientist reached over the teen's shoulder and pointed at a point on the map that soon had a mark. Glowstar ran the pen down a blue bend -- the Wading River. "There's gotta be a storm drain or something along the river. Let's check it out." Some minutes later the Claremont heroes were standing -- floating, in Glowstar's case -- in front of a storm drain set into the south bank of the Wading River. There had been some kind of mesh there, but it had been torn open and bent back. Glowstar shone a ruddy light from one hand, pushing the darkness back a bit. He peered down the concrete tube and licked one of the flashlights the heroes had borrowed from ASTRO Labs. "What a glorious life," he said sourly, moving into the sewers. "Defending the city and mucking through the sewers."

Design Journal 15.1. This is an offshoot of my earlier experimentation into using force fields as reinforcements. I've discovered a way to totally incapacitate a person using a strong enough force field, freezing them in place like an insect in a glue trap. Unfortunately the effect falls off rather quickly and so doesn't work over a large area. Fortunately, it can be focused through a relatively small emitter; heat issues stop me from making a bank of emitters, but I should be able to hide the one emitter fairly easily. This makes it perfect for building security.

GM Ludwig inhaled a dose of the powder, but it barely seemed to faze the outlandishly dressed youth. He jumped to his feet and swung at Warlock, cracking the hero on the jaw. The force behind his punch was readily evident -- in fact, it was far beyond human! He stamped and cracked some of the tiles, yelling at Warlock. "Don't you bloody get it!? I'm gonna rip your arms off! And I'm not just any droog -- I'm Ludwig! I'm the biggest, meanest thing that's happened to this town since the blitz!"

Ludwig unarmed w/ full All-Out Attack, vs Warlock's Defense. (1d20+15=29) Ha! That hits. DC 25 Toughness, Warlock.

Reflex save, vs DC 19 (1d20+5=16) Missed that Reflex save. Will save, vs DC 19. (1d20+6=20) ha ha! Still in this!

Ludwig's melee attack vs Warlock's Defense. DC 25 (1d20+10=11) Ouch!

GM The macabre magic washed over the group of thugs and unnerved the majority of them. They dropped their sticks with a resounding clatter and backed away from Blake. One tripped over the velvet rope and sprawled onto the floor, dragging the rope and stand with him, resulting in an ungodly racket for a few seconds in the echoing chamber; that broke the spell and they fled, running into and bouncing off walls in their hurry to be away from the American hero. Ludwig, for his part, felt the touch of the magic but shook it off. He glared after his fleeing minions, screaming after them, all pretense of decorum abandoned. He finally turned back to Blake, shaking a finger at the hero. "You right bloody wanker," he said. "I'm gonna tie your arms behind your head and bounce you off the roof. Come here!" He bent down to scoop up one of the rope stands and charged forward at Blake. At the last moment he tripped on the waxed floor, however, and went bouncing and sliding over the tile.

Ludwig! Thug Group 1 and 2, Initiative. (1d20+1=10, 1d20+1=5) Nope! Will save, vs DC 21. (1d20+6=22) Ha! But he makes that one! The droogs are all minions, so they go fleeing.

GM The man danced back from Blake, putting his fists up and wheeling them in the air in a comical imitation of a boxing stance. He gave a sharp whistle and the other pajama'ed thugs moved forward to to surround the American. "Oi, a colonial? Well, let me tell you how it goes. I, am Ludwig. And these are my droogs. And these streets, and this building, and everything else we want, are ours for the taking. So why don't you just give me back the stick and we might just settle for an instructional beating, d'you follow?"

Ludwig's Initiative. (1d20+2=7) Thug Group 1 and 2, Initiative. (1d20+1=10, 1d20+1=5)

GM Blake got into the Victoria and Albert Museum without trouble, despite some initial confusion over the differently-colored (or was it coloured?) British money. The young artist moved slowly through the gallery, taking in all the wonderful pieces on display. The chandelier by Dale Chihuly; the ceramic staircase and the Dorchester House fireplace; the Cast Court; even the John Madejski Garden. He was examining the display on acid-etched metal when a sudden commotion down the hall caused him to glanced down that way, then do a double-take. Ten young men (and a pair of women) marched down the hall, dressed in combat boots, bowler hats, and white long johns. As they passed the exhibits, they knocked them over or simply pushed at them with long, black sticks; the foremost member of the group, though, had his eye fixed on something near Blake. The young man hopped the velvet rope in front of the hero and gave Blake a mocking bow. "Scuse us, govenor," he said, smiling cruelly. "We just gave for some new soup tins." He lifted his stick high into the air, preparing to bring it down on a (complete!) set of 15th Century plate armor.

GM Dragonfly tumbled out the window before her wings caught on whatever they pushed against (it certainly wasn't air) and propelled her forwards. Freed of passengers, she was again free to push her suit to its limits; the world blurred all around her and the castle quickly receded past the horizon. No doubt the inhabitants would make up some story about how she disappeared in the middle of the night, or how she vanished in smoke before the king, or how she called a dragon to ride off into the sunset. It was none of the heroine's concern: she had her own problems. Like trying to anticipate what was at the Temple of the Door. The map and descriptions lead her high into a mountain range, over sharp peaks and through narrow passes. She had to double-back a few times as she passed a sharp turn without noticing it, but before long was standing in front of the temple entrance. It was a pair of huge doors, each thirty feet tall and just as wide, apparently set into the middle of the mountain itself. Surprisingly, the cyclopean doors opened with the merest touch of Dragonfly's gauntleted hand, revealing an unlit hallway of dressed stone that plunged into the mountainside.

"I do not believe that will be necessary. Goanna may be insane, but he's not stupid. He wouldn't try to break into ASTRO Labs, or at least not so soon. We're too well-protected and expecting him. I suspect that his plan was to abduct Dr. Marks and let her transform in whatever lair he's created for himself. Right now, I suspect he's planning how to retrieve her, yes, but we can't wait that long." Dr. Tanner reached into the file folder and pulled out a piece of folded paper, which he handed over to the teens. "The FCPD supplied us with this. It's sighting of Goanna from the last month or so." Glowstar took the map and unfolded it, showing it to the girls. It showed Freedom City and it's immediate environs. The North End and Hanover was thick with red markings, which radiated sparsely out through the rest of the metro area. "Lots of activity around ASTRO," he pointed out. "I wonder if he wasn't watching Dr. Marks well before this." The teen fell silent for a minute, trying to match the map in front of him with what he knew of the city's sewers. "Wisp, Changeling, Goanna went through the drain at the restaurant, right? I think that might be the best place to start."

Ironclad wasn't fast enough on her thrusters to get out of the way of the golden woman's fists, feeling the solid impact on her chest. Same place again! I'd better reinforce that part. As Solarum drew back for another pummeling blow, the armored heroine leapt into the air, climbing rapidly and blasting behind her until she was a hundred feet or so in the air. She did a quick flip and looked back down at her opponent, noting sourly that none of her shots had actually landed. She didn't let that stop her from firing off her own taunt, though. "An advantage to being hollow is that I'm much lighter. So if you'd like to carve out a targeting circle around yourself, we can end this quickly."

GM Glowstar wasn't far behind the ladies. Three super-powered individuals showing up at reception, dragging a fourth behind them, got an immediate response. Once the security guards cleared them, they managed to get lizard-Marks put in a containment unit, deep underneath the main laboratory. The teen heroes were allowed to observe her from elevated rooms; the transformed Doctor Marks paced her metal cage restlessly, occasionally striking out with her claws but never leaving more than superficial scratches on the walls. After a few minutes of observation the heroes were joined by an older man with a full head of white hair and round-rimmed glasses. He was wearing a lab coat and carried a file folder under one arm. "Gentleman. Ladies. I am Dr. Robert Tanner, head of metahuman biologic research here at ASTRO Labs. We've examined Dr. Marks carefully and, well, the results are not encouraging." Dr. Tanner walked over to a workstation in the wall and typed at it as he spoke. "We believe Dr. Seidel injected Dr. Marks with a modified version of the cocktail that transformed him. Given your earlier statement to the police, I believe he coated his claws with it, but we can't be sure of that. In any case, it worked much faster than in his own condition, swiftly rewriting Dr. Marks' own genetic code with.. well, what you see." As he talked, a monitor above the workstation flickered to life and displayed images of Dr. Seidel before the accident; Seidel and Marks, arms around each other: Goanna destroying a lab: Dr. Seidel, clothes in tatters, being escorted into ASTRO Labs by Daedalus and the Raven: and finally, two DNA strands side-by-side, presumably that of Marks and her current lizard form, though none of the students had the necessary training to tell which was which. "Unfortunately, it appears that the mutation is not stable. This is a blood sample we took from Dr. Marks recently; watch what happens when we apply heat to it, speeding up the chemical reaction." The still images were replaced by a view of a dozen or so red blood cells, massively enlarged until each was palm-sized. The background went from black, to orange, to white, and the blood cells started moving erratically. A minute or so into the video, they suddenly contracted and then exploded into innumerable tiny pieces. "The blood cells dissolved into their constituent proteins. We think that will happen to Dr. Marks in at little as seven hours. We're trying to reverse-engineer what Goanna used on her, and Daedalus is allowing us to examine the mixture that transformed Dr. Seidel into Goanna in the first place, but there's no way to tell how long that will take." Dr. Tanner stepped away from the workstation and turned to face the heroes. "That's where you come in. We need Goanna's notes if we're going to have any chance of returning Dr. Marks to her human self -- or even of saving her life at all."

Glowstar gasped as Changeling removed the effects of her magic from him. "Right. Instant headache removal. Remind me to talk to you after chemistry class." With his head cleared, he jogged over and caught Wisp's arm. "I don't think it's such a good idea to take her back into the hospital," he said. "Unless they've got a lizard-doctor on staff, she's just going to wake up and cause havoc again. I think we should take her someplace better equipped to deal with her in her, well, present state? And she does work at a place like that." He turned and pointed due east, where the roof of ASTRO Labs could just be seen a few blocks away. "Think you can make the distance with her, Wisp?"

With Archy's advice in mind, Ironclad's gonna make one of these. Obscure 6 (Auditory; 250 ft radius; Flaws: Range/Touch) [3PP] Invention Design check, vs DC 13. (1d20+15=20) There was literally no way that could fail. Invention Construction check using Craft/Mechanical, vs DC 18 (1d20+15=35) Even taking +5 to the DC in order to half the construction time, that came out magnificently. So Ironclad's in her workshop for 3 + 6 = 9 hours, working.

Ironclad shrugged easily; dance clubs were hardly her scene, anyway. "That's alright," she said. "I'll keep in touch with you guys, but for now I'm going to head back to my apartment and whip up that sound nullifier." With that the armored heroine was off, speeding through the clouds and heading north, towards the city center. She made a beeline for a high-rise apartment a couple blocks off of Liberty Park. The glass doors to the penthouse opened at a wireless command and the heroine walked into her apartment, the doors closing behind her. She didn't bother to use the staircase winding up the elevator shaft at the center of the room, simply flying up under her own power. On the second floor the young genius walked into her private workshop and started clearing away the debris from a week or so of idle experimentation. She had a plan, now, and maybe not that much time to execute it in.

Ironclad's Toughness, vs DC 24. (1d20+10=13) Good lordy, that's getting Fiated. Ironclad's Toughness, vs DC 24. HP reroll (1d20+10=11) That... that's just... >.< Okay, the literal minimum result is still 21, which is just a Bruise. I'm okay with that. Okay, Ironclad flied up into the air and blasts the earth-bound opponent! At least it seems like this one can't fly. Wrist Blasters w/ full All-Out Attack & full Power Attack, vs Solarum's Defense. DC 30 (1d20+10=17) Oh, ffff-- TT, can I get a ruling on that? Does it hit?

Evasion applies to all AoEs. Wisp isn't affected at all.

Lizard-Marks either wasn't as tough as Goanna or not as experienced, because Wisp could feel her scaly snout breaking under the impact from the heroine's super-powerful fists. It was Changeling's magic that downed the transformed woman, though, her eyes sagging and her body finally collapsing onto the roof itself. She was sleeping soundly within seconds, brought all the way under by the heroine's fay magics. For his part, Glowstar felt a spell of dizziness sweep over him where he floated just off the edge of the roof. The teen edged forward until there was something solid directly under his feet, then sat down very suddenly. He held his head in his hands and breathed deeply until the world wasn't spinning anymore, then looked up at the two young women. "Huhn. Well, that was... a thing. Think she's going to wake up anytime soon?"

GM Dragonfly got a room in the keep, and true to the king's word it was soon filled with scrolls and leather-bound parchments. The young genius studied the material, but far too many of the authors and cartographers seemed more interested in adventurous fabrications than the facts. Of course, given what the heroine had already gone through, perhaps "Here Be Dragons" wasn't an exaggeration. One story grabbed her attention, though. The Temple of Door was apparently constructed over a dimensional rift, and an order of mystical warrior-monks protected the rift. Unfortunately nothing had been heard from them in generations, and the last three accounts she had read all ended with the author setting out for the fabled temple, and never being heard from again.

"If we're worried about detection," Jessica said, "why not whip up a cloaking device? Even taking into account that it has to work for the entire group, I think we should, working together, be able to fix something up for the trip. "I think a bigger problem will be handling the nanites themselves. Obviously we don't know how they work, but it sounds a lot like a classic Von Neumann machine. In any case I doubt dipping a ladle in it would be healthy or safe. If we get Dark Star to go along, he can probably scoop some out using his gravity manipulating abilities, but we need some way to bring them back safely, and to work with them while they're here. I'd suggest a magnetic or null-grav bottle for the former," she said, looking around at her fellow Lab-mates, "but I have no idea on the latter."

Reflex save, vs DC 22. (1d20+7=11) Nope! Now for the Will. Will save, vs DC 22. (1d20+6=16) Exactly unconscious. Nice job. Reflex save, vs DC 22. (1d20+7=8) Suuuuch a hard fail. Will save, vs DC 22. (1d20+6=18) Not down! Has a head-ache, but he's not out!