Raveled

Melee Attack vs Jill O'Cure (1d20+10=26) Oooo, just misses. All-Out Attack, Power Attack vs Bear-Knuckle (1d20+9=12) Ew. Well, haven't spent any HP yet, so I might as well start with a reroll! All-Out Attack, Power Attack vs Bear-Knuckle (1d20+9=22) At least that hits. Bear-Knuckle Toughness vs DC 29 (1d20+14=16) O.O Fugtta about complicated plans, I guess! Staggered + Stunned

1d20+1=15 Concentration for Flight (the important one) 1d20+1=17 For Force Field (the not-so-important one)

Glowstar's Toughness save! 1d20+10=26 Yeeesh. Well, I pretty much knew he'd at least be taking a Bruise from that. At least he's still upright (but Stunned).

Hits it with plenty to spare. 1d20+10=26 Toughness makes it. Okay, multi-blast against Thunk! Full Power Attack, full All-Out Attack 1d20+15=19 Oh dear god, that's horrid. Rerolling that. 1d20+15=32 Muuuuch better. Um, Blast 10 w/ Autofire 3, PA'd up to Blast 15. Have fun working the math on that, Quinn.

Will save vs Taunt. 1d20+10=26 Juuuuust barely.

Jessica slumped on the stool. "That's what I mean. I went back and I saw five minutes of a fight. There's no mention of it in his service records, so what was it? A personal vendetta, or some secret mission? But in either case why was he killing those people?" Jessica hung her head. "My grandfather practically raised me. He's why I studied hard, got into engineering and became a hero. I thought if he'd just be proud of me it's be the greatest thing ever -- but now I don't know if I ever really knew him."

+Def shifting! :argh:

You have 14 PP in the array: Might as well use them. Stick Penetrating or Knockback on the Strike; maybe she grows long, thin claws like Lust from FMA, or big hammer-fists. You can stick Rapid and/or Subtle on Datalink in order to use it faster and more surreptitiously. Regrowth would be a good PFeat for Healing, and why not take all the ranks in it you can? You're fighting her natural -5 Recovery bonus, after all.

Ironclad danced back from the melee, putting her back to a wall. Inside the armor, Jessica was breathing hard; this was a much harder work-out that she normally went through for a fight. She quickly rerouted the suit's power and blasted off a high-powered shot at the villain. The energy backwash obscured her vision for a moment, but when she could see again she noted the black, smoking patch of fur on Bear-Knuckle's forearm. He let out a sudden roar and turned to face Jill "Shut up," he screamed at her. He barreled towards her and swung hard, but the nimble healer danced back from the blow.

Full Power Attack vs. flat-footed Bear-Knuckle (1d20+4=19) That hits. DC 29 Toughness save Startle'd Bear-Knuckle Toughness vs DC 29 (1d20+12=27) Bruised! ... Just Bruised. :cry: B-K Rages, retaliates against Jill. Rage'ing B-K attack vs Jill O'Cure (1d20+10=25) DC 29 Toughness save.

Jessica watched Tom talk, watched his expression and body language. When he was done she slid out of the booth, pulling her coat along. "This was a mistake," she said, shrugging into the jacket. "I shouldn't have come here. I'm sorry I wasted your time, Tom, but I shouldn't be doing this." She walked out the door and back onto the street, setting off back towards the garage where her truck was parked. She only got as far as the corner, though. The young woman stopped there and hugged herself tightly, trying to figure out what she was going to do next.

Jessica tried to busy herself with the armor for a minute, but before long she gave it up and sat with her hands in her lap. "I... went back in time," she said. "I don't know how far back, but I ended up seeing my grandfather, Malcolm Dawes. I don't know if I ever told you, but he was the first Ironclad, way back." She started twiddling her fingers around, not meeting Mara's eyes. "He wasn't really a hero like us. I mean, this was back when freelance heroes like us were illegal, so he worked for the government. I never really what he did, but I thought he... well, helped people." The young woman looked up suddenly and Mara could see the tears in her eyes. "He didn't. He killed people, Mara. I saw him attacking this military base and he was killing everyone! I had to stop him. I had to fight my own grandfather!"

Jessica winced, remembering how easily she let slip some of Mara's secrets to Blake. And, for that matter, letting slip her own secrets in front of an entire emergency room. "Probably not," she said. "But what if you could go back and stop some of it? Go back to the critical instant, push yourself out of the way, or call the ambulance early, or make sure the fire extinguisher was charged, or whatever happened? Would you do it? Would you go back and have a normal life -- even if it meant that all the folks you helped as a hero now have terrible lives because you, personally, weren't around to save them?"

Jessica sat down on a stool and did something rare these days; she shut her suit down entirely and started to peel the pieces off. Just her left gauntlet and vambrace, but it was more than she usually did. The armor opened like a clamshell and she put it on the kitchen bar. Underneath she was wearing a sort of padded bodysuit, a dark blue color that conformed tightly to the lines of her body. She rolled back the suit and rubbed at the pale skin there. "What if... what if you misremembered some of it? Like a kid who doesn't understand why adults do some of the things they did, or maybe you didn't know all the facts of the matter then but you do now? Would you want to go back and learn the objective truth? Even just go back and look at things from a different perspective?"

"Um. Kinda. That's actually why I'm here." Jessica put the menu down and twiddled her fingers. "Do you remember when you decided to become a hero? I mean, when you decided that you wanted to stand out in the rain, trail bad guys, get hit and shot at, not sleep enough and eat mostly fast food, just the for pleasure of knowing that you made an impact on someone's life?" She looked up and met Tom's eyes. "And if you could go back to that moment. Would you change your mind?"

Sense Motive vs Taunt (DC 30) and Bluff (DC 25) (1d20+9=25, 1d20+9=14) Both look good.

Jessica shook her head, walking over to the door and poking her head outside. "Uh, Blake's not around, actually. I think he's out doing his investigator thing; not really sure where he is just now. I just came out here alone." She waited while Tom locked up the store and the garage, nodding to herself as the electromagnetic locks on the rolling doors thunked into place. They walked down the block to the Greek place; it was a greasy hole in the wall, and the pair ended up crammed into a small booth near the front window; Jessica stuffed her coat between the cold glass and herself, glancing over the menu. "Getting enough work?"

Jessica didn't hesitate to shake Tom's greasy hand; she was used to working with people that smelled of brimstone, putrescence, or burning electronics. Grease and sweat didn't put her off like it might some other women her age. "Hey, Tom. Was in the neighborhood," she lied, "and decided to drop in and see how things are doing." She glanced out into the garage and noted the placement of cameras up at the ceiling and magnetic locks down on the floor. "The ED-209 system working out pretty well?" Her eyes darted around the reception area desperately and alighted on the clock high on the wall, its arms both pointing almost straight up. "And it's almost noon! Want to grab something to eat? I passed a Greek place on my way here, not too far away."

Seeing Mara genuinely happy was a new experience, and Jessica savored it for a moment. "If anyone would try and put math to a relationship," she remarked, "it would be you." Silence stretched between the two woman until Jessica finally took a deep breath and said, all in a rush, "This is gonna sound kind of invasive and I know you don't like talking about your past much, but could you tell me why you became a superhero?" She winced and added quickly, "I don't mean you have to relive whatever traumatic thing happened, but was it one event? Or are you the latest in a long line of Franco-Cossack-Nippo crime-fighting geniuses or something?"

April 20, 2011 Nearly noon Jessica Parker circled the block in her black Explorer several times, looking in vain for a big enough parking space. She finally capitulated and paid for a space in a garage, parking on the roof and taking an elevator down. Lazarus Auto and Industrial Repair was a couple city blocks away, and not in the nicest neighborhood, all of which meant it would've been more sensible to fly in her armor, but Tom Walker was still trying to be circumspect about the whole 'hero' thing. Though to be truthful, she wasn't quite looking forward to this conversation. LAIR's public space was roughly divided into two areas. The much larger, and much noisier one, was the garage where vehicles were worked on, machinery was repaired, and the actual work of the business was done. The other, cleaner area was a waiting room-cum-reception; it was walled off from the vehicle bay with a thick pane of glass, but the noise was still considerable. Jessica waited at the window until Tom happened to look up, then gave him a small wave.

A smirk tugged at Jessica's mouth as she walked around the open space, not quite touching several of the dissembled devices lying around. "The only woman in the world who can actually have more hours in the day," she teased, "and you don't want them. Either you're way too responsible, or you're squandering a perfect opportunity." She walked a full circuit of the warehouse space before she spoke up again. "I'm doing good," she said. "On schedule to graduate in May. Looking at an apartment in Hanover. Blake's doing his job, so I don't see him as much as I would like to." She stopped next to the kitchen bar, peering through the stacks at her friend. Her mouth was suddenly dry, and she swallowed before stammering out, "Can I... how did... If you could... Um, how's things going with Jill?" It plainly wasn't what Jessica wanted to ask, but whatever her real worry was, she apparently felt the need to work up to it.

Ironclad lowered herself through the skylight and into the warehouse, glancing around at her friend's living space. The young inventor tallied the numerous unfinished projects, the darkened kitchen nook, the diced mannequin parts in Mara's testing area. She touched down without a sound and took a moment to compose her features, then folded back the gold and green helmet to smile at her friend. "Morning, Mara," she said. "How're the wings coming?"

April 17th, 2011 Just after 10 AM The top hatch of the Lab's uppermost levels dilated open and Ironclad rose up and through the opening. She waited there as the hatch ground shut, watching the leaves scratch against each other. She'd argued from the beginning that the iris door was a flawed design but she'd been voted down. Now that they were running into issues with the system and reevaluating their options, she allowed herself a moment of satisfaction. She wasn't up here just to boost a failing ego, though; she had places to be, and the best way to get there was in her suit. The young inventor brought up the proper location on her GPS, lined herself up, and set off. She had to adjust her heading a few times in her fairly sedate flight (Ironclad tied to keep under the speed of sound when inside city limits) but soon enough she was flying over the warehouses and rail yards of Greenbank. Before too much longer she was circling one warehouse in particular. Ironclad activated the cell phone function build into her armor, dialing up a well-known but little-used number of late. Once she heard her friend's familiar noncommittal grunt on the other end, she spoke. "Mara. It's Jessica. Do you have time to talk?"

Using Extra Effort to boost his Environmental Control to 1000 foot radius.

Glowstar was surprised at the appearance of the other three heroes. He recognized Wisp from school, of course, but the guy with the gun (Very Eighties, man. Very passe.) and the gal with long hair were new ones to him. He hunted around for another target but it seemed like, together, they'd blitzrieged the baddies and not left one standing. Deciding that the fight was pretty much done, he rose even higher above the treeline, gathered his power into himself, and shone it out like a beacon. They were a good ten miles from the prison, but if anyone was watching they might see them and come investigate.