Raveled

That hits. Lizard-Marks' Toughness, vs DC 22 (1d20+8=19) Bruise. Changeling's up.

Right now he's delaying. He will do that, once she's 'on-board.'

Glowstar jumped through the shattered window, force field snapping on with a thought. The teen hero paused, judged the distances, made a flight-assisted leap over the heads of the doctors and nurses gathered around the empty bed, and finally went out the far window himself. He glanced around and spotted the transformed scientist easily. He lithe green form was scuttling up the side of the hospital, claws tearing into the white stone facing of the building. The energy controller grinned widely and drew back one fist, preparing to launch a bolt of energy at lizard-Marks. He stopped just short of attacking, though. This was a hospital they were fighting around, not an empty warehouse or some villain's base. If he missed, he could blow into a surgical theater or a patient's room and kill someone. Even if he hit an empty room, chances were that he'd cost the hospital millions of dollars in repairs. Glowstar let the energy fade, cursing softly. "Wisp! She's head to the roof! Meet her there! Changeling!" He gestured the other woman closer to the window. "C'mon, we've gotta go up!"

Initiative order is: 26 - Lizard - Unharmed - GM 24 - Glowstar - Unharmed - HP x6 (Six! Freaking six!) 17 - Wisp - Unharmed - HP x 3 15 - Changeling - Unharmed - HP x 3

Jessica very carefully noted that Murdock has avoided answering her questions on the Gorgon's other weapons. She hoped it was because the man didn't know, and not because the answer would depress them all. "If the Gorgon uses a gravity drive, we might be able to use that to delay her. Project an artificial gravity field in her path, turn it on and off maybe -- it'll be a space hazard. At the very least she'll have to route around it. We might get a couple more months to prepare. "As an alternative." She waved a hand and the air above the table misted, then resolved into a holographic map of the solar system. "A gravity cannon could act like a kind of tractor beam. We could either slingshot her around and out of the system," As she spoke, a white line entered from off-projection, slipped around the central point, and moved back out of the projection, "or just drop her into the sun." This time were were no gentle curves, just a straight line ending in the central star. "That's assuming the Gorgon would notice a dip into a yellow dwarf."

On the bottom-most level of the space station, all corridors lead to a central room, which was itself composed of circular tiers descending towards a round, transparent viewport. The levels were crowded with computer terminals and there was a corpse at every station. Some were unmarked, at least where Ironclad could see, and some wore the signs of violent death openly. all had been dead for quite some time, at least long enough for the blood to dry and pool, and few of the corpses the heroine passed looked stiff. That's how she tried to view the room, coolly and with a scientist's detachment, but she just couldn't. The magnitude of death -- easily a hundred bodies, each one mutilated in a unique and horrifying way -- was overwhelming. She felt hysteria creeping over her, and as a last-ditch effort she cut off all her visual feeds and hunkered down inside her armor. Images flashed in front of her eyes, not from the space station but from Jessica's personal files. There were pictures of people she cared about, like Blake and Mara; people she emulated, like Miss Americana and Daedalus; and her own personal triumphs, like the Lab and her armor in all its evolutions. One face that ran through every set was that of Malcolm Dawes. Despite her complicated feelings towards her grandfather at the moment, she knew that he wouldn't be cowering in a corner while a crime of this enormity when unpunished. The young heroine took strength from that, pushing her fear and unease into a small corner of her mind, letting her anger and outrage come to the fore. Ironclad reactivated her external sensors, only to see a pair of pale blue eyes, only inches away from her face. "Well, well, well," said a motherly voice just as close. "Who has come to visit Granny?"

Jessica turned onto her side and kissed Blake lightly on the lips, then flopped onto her back again and giggled. "I don't think I'm going to be any, uh, use to anyone." She reached across and patted Blake's arm. "But I saw you get a nap on the plane. Watched you sleep, babe. And, um, right across the street? The Victoria and Albert Museum. Which I guess is a pretty big deal if you like, you know, art." She pulled Blake's hand over and kissed his knuckles. "Your girlfriend is awesome, because she thinks of everything."

Jessica watched the presentation intently, absorbing every detail in silence. When the video finished she sat back and scrubbed at her face. She was surprised to find tears there, although maybe it did make some sense; she was looking at something that might, in a few short months, be her own home planet. She inhaled slowly and deeply, then addressed Murdock. "How much do we know about the Gorgon precisely? Do we have a sample of its materials? How about its propulsion system? Does it have any weapons, besides the obvious?"

Before long they were in among the big city, their cabbie taking a more scenic route through the city, rather than the strictly fastest one. The pair of Americans took the opportunity to gawk at the sights and point out the landmarks of the city, excitedly exclaiming about their plans and the city all around them. In any case, before too much longer they were at their destination, the Remembrandt Hotel in the heart of London. Jessica and Blake checked into their rooms and paid a bellboy to bring the bags up, rather than display their superpowers. Once they were safely in their room, Jessica let out a happy squeal and threw her arms around Blake's neck, kissing his briefly and hugging herself to him. "We did it! We're in England, in Europe! We're on vacation, we've even got our own room!" She kissed him more thoroughly then, taking a long minute to do so. When she broke it off she was giggling hard and stepped back until she fell onto the bed. "Oh wow," she breathed, staring up at the ceiling. "I don't know if it's the stress going away because we're here and we did it, or if I'm so happy to be with you, or if it's the twelve hour plane ride in the middle of the night and the five hour jet lag, but I'm feeling pretty loopy just now." She closed her eyes and focused on breathing deeply, a wide smile on her face.

I think it's time for more Initiatives. Glowstar's Initiative (1d20+6=24) Niiiice. Lizard-Marks is using AA's Feral Canadian build. Mostly. Lizard-Marks' Initiative (1d20+9=26)

Horner shrugged. "I don't really know much about what happened. Most of it was before my time, and the executives don't really like talking about. From what I gathered though, Cooper Seidel was a herpetologist working on a universal anti-toxin. He and Dr. Marks were engaged, but when the anti-toxin was disapproved for human testing by the FDA he went nuts. Injected himself with the stuff and, well, you saw what happened. I heard the Freedom League took him down the first time; I guess he escaped from wherever they put him." He paused and thought about Wisp's question. "I don't know what kind of venom he used. Back in the day he was supposed to be a genius with that sort of stuff, though." The scientist's story was interrupted when the monitors in Marks' room suddenly went crazy, sounding off with dire tones and summoning a flood of medical personnel. The doctor herself started flopping around on the bed, her limbs limp and flying in the air. One nurse flung herself bodily over the thin doctor, trying to hold her down, only to be flung off Marks and through a window for her troubles. As the teen heroes watched, the scientist's body split open like a ripe fruit and a scaly, reptilian creature burst through. It leapt straight up and clung to the ceiling, hissing angrily at the gaggle of gob-smacked doctors and nurses. It lashed out suddenly, and another nurse went down with blood streaming across his face. The teen heroes surged to their feet and lizard-Marks snapped up to watch them. The tension stretched for a moment and then the transformed scientist scuttled around and surged through the window, breaking through the glass and scrabbling up the outside wall!

He's worried about Dr. Marks, but kinda geeking out over talking to actual heroes. He's certainly not lying about anything.

"I should've done... something." The teen looked down at his hands and curled them into fists, feeling especially impotent. His friends had powers with versatility and nuance; what could he do besides blow things up? He was a big, dumb wrecking ball, and he very obviously didn't deserve the chance Summers had given him. Similar dark thoughts were chasing themselves around his head when he noticed a man standing by the window to Dr. Marks' room watching her monitors intently. He was average height, pale and skinny, with dusty brown hair that he didn't seem to bother with combing; he was wearing a lab coat, but didn't have a stethoscope and didn't seem to be dressed in scrubs. After a moment the other man turned and caught the teens staring at him. "Oh. Um. My name's John Horner, I work at Astro Labs. Well, not at the moment. I don't mean that I was fired or anything, it's just that right now we're running this drug trial here and... Well, I heard they brought Dr. Marks in. I had to come see her." The scientist glanced around carefully and stepped closer to the group of teen heroes, lowering his voice conspiratorially. "Is it true you fought Dr. Seidel? Goanna, I mean?"

The staff at the Freedom Medical Center weren't wholly used to patients appearing out of thin air, but they knew how to handle an emergency. Before long Sophia Marks was in a gurney and headed to the ICU while doctors and nurses hovered over her, shouting medical jargon back and forth and thoroughly shutting Wisp out of the proceedings. Just as well, really, as a police officer stepped up to the young hero and took her aside, starting to ask her some pointed questions. Back at the coffee shop Glowstar used the store's phone to call the police and he and Changeling settled in to do the whole dance themselves. An hour or so later, the two other Claremonters joined Wisp at the hospital. The staff had let the suited teen hero stay outside of Dr. Marks' room in the ICU, and Glowstar brought chairs (carefully choosing plastic ones) for the three to sit on. They weren't allowed into the room with the injured scientist, but it was bad enough just to watch; the slim woman seemed to have shrunk in the last few hours, the pale yellow tinge to her skin spreading rapidly to her face and opposite shoulder, and the sickly green veins were all over her body. The staff had changed her into a hospital gown and she was lying under a thin sheet, but she was sweating enough for a steam room. Medical monitors beeped and IVs in each arm fed a steady drip of chemicals and fluids into her; for now it was a waiting game, and Glowstar could just barely stand it. After a minute he spoke up, eyes still locked on Dr. Marks even as he addressed the other Claremonters. "We really messed up, didn't we?"

Jessica did her best to ignore the odd feel of Murdock's hand; given that she'd dated a squamous thing for several months, she'd had experience in filtering out some nasty physical impressions. She sat back down and cracked open the top of her water bottle, settling the cap on loosely. "I'm the in-house engineer," she said, her tone half-serious. "Everyone else flies around with their head in a cloud of nanites and quantums. I'm the gal around here who just really likes to tinker with machines." She leaned back in her seat and set her tablet in her lap; a casual swipe of one hand collected the flickering image to one side and the young genius got down to the real business of design.

Goanna goes down and escapes: Everyone take a HP and relax. Or not!

Gonna reared and shrieked with an inhuman, almost unholy sound as Changeling's immaterial blade punched straight into his brain, sending waves of agony through his body. He convulsed and tossed Dr. Marks into the fay heroine, before sprinting to a nearby water drain and smashing through it to the sewers below. Glowstar zipped over and glared down into the dank, smelly tunnels for a long minute, but the monster didn't seem eager to reappear. He dropped the force field and dropped to the ground, walking back over to the other Claremonter and kneeling next to her, examining Dr. Marks quickly. The scientist was still unconscious, her head lolling loosely; the former Scout frowned and prodded the scratch on her arm, with was oozing blood slowly. The flesh around the would was turning yellow, and dark green veins stood out on the flesh of the woman's skin. "This isn't good," he announced unnecessarily. "Wisp?" He stood and glanced around, looking for the teleporting heroine. "Wisp, one for your ambulance special!

Goanna's Will save, vs DC 19 (1d20+5=7) Ouch. That's... that's into the negatives. -7 Will save, in fact. Goanna's Will save, vs DC 27. (1d20-5=10) Yeah, that's not a world of good things for him.

GM Wisp hit harder than her slight frame suggested she should, but Goanna was packed solid with abnormally dense muscle tissue; he rode the blow and came back swinging, but by then the teen hero had already disappeared to the bathroom stall. He didn't let the change in the situation dissuade him, though. The lizard-man leapt from the floor, to the ceiling, to the near wall before leaping past Glowstar and grabbing the startled Dr. Marks! There was a cloud of dust as he impacted with and tore through the wall behind their table; when it cleared Glowstar and Etain could clearly see the scientist hanging limp and unconscious in the monster's grip. One shirt sleeve had been torn off and they could see blood welling from a deep scratch there; other than that she looked unharmed. Goanna crouched in the kitchen -- apparently the doctor had been sitting with her back to it and he'd just crashed on through. "Meddlesome heroes," he hissed, his long tongue adding an extra sibilance to his speech. "If you would just leave us well enough alone! This is true love you're fighting, and no force in the universe is stronger than true love!"

Goanna makes a Leaping Charge to pick up Dr. Marks. She doesn't even have a chance of resiting the grapple, so I won't bother rolling; she's Pinned, essentially. Sits there expounding at the heroes while he's at it.

Jessica Parker breezed into the conference room, tablet under one arm and an oversized bottle of water in her other hand. The screen of the tablet was covered in flickering images, mostly of wireframe drawings and CAD models; someone with a fast enough intellect (which, truthfully, was most of her fellow Lab-mates) would notice several early, discarded architectural plans for the Lab itself. She made to flop into one of the oversized chairs surrounding the table and noticed at the last moment that they had a guest. She tried to stop her inertia and was partially successful; her rear had barely made contact with the seat when she was back on her feet, water bottle and tablet put on her place and hand extended towards Harrier. "Hello," she said, smiling at the dark-skinned man with the odd... tattoos? They looked like facial markings at first, but on a second glance they seemed to extend all the way to his hands. She put the thought firmly out of her head. "I'm Jessica Parker."

Not quite yet, Roo. I'd appreciate it if you'd hold off posting for your PC until they're actually up.

Ironclad has +15 Know/Tech and +15 Craft.../Mechanical is her best. Obscure Flawed to One Sense (normal Auditory) gives us 2 ranks per PP; Flaw it further to Range/Touch makes it 3 ranks per PP. So let's try this. Obscure 6 (Auditory; 250 ft radius; Feat: Progression [save] 4; Flaws: Normal Auditory Only, Range/Touch) [6PP] As I see it, that should be a +10 Power Check to counteract any Auditory Mind Control this guy has. TT, you concur?

Ironclad intertwined her gauntetled fingers and worked them against each other in ways that would set the knuckles to cracking if they weren't encased in armor. She bobbed there lightly for a minute or so, lost in thought, before she answered Silhouette. "Blocking a mental signal entirely is a toughie," she admitted. "But, I think I have another angle of attack, as it were." She turned (rotating in midair, actually) to ask Kyle, "You said this man talked to you? Communicated his commands verbally? And he had an odd voice?" Before the rocker could answer, the heroine addressed the rest of the assembled heroes. "I'm pretty sure I can create a device to disrupt verbal communications -- to counteract all sound, to be truthful. It could put us at a disadvantage," she admitted, "but it's better than having our minds taken over in the middle of a fight."

So just a regular Enhanced Str punch, then? Okay, 31 has no problems hitting. Goanna's Toughness, vs DC 22. (1d20+12=30) Nope! No effect.