Raveled

Jessica felt her whole body tingle with the kiss. She didn't press into it, but she didn't pull away, either. She let Blake take all the time he wanted; when he pulled back, she felt warm, energized, with goosebumps over her skin. Maybe that was why she got a vague feeling of unease, but when she glanced around it was obvious what was wrong. The lights throughout the whole mall had dimmed to a much softer, more intimate level. The young technopath blushed harder and waved a hand through the air, returning the lights to their earlier levels. She pushed her face against Blake's shoulder, trying to bury her head in his arm. "Buy me a mask," she said, her voice muffled, her tone flat. "Or a Halloween costume. Or a hole that I can pull in over myself, maybe."

Ironclad made a final stab at commanding the SPARTOI from the command console, but quickly dropped the idea. The machines were designed to handle post-combat clean-up, not a super-tank commanded by a really unpleasent intelligence. The heroine jumped into the air, her suit's flight systems easily overtaking the speeding tank and getting her ahead of it. She rotated in the air and lined up her shot, blasting at the articulated legs. If they could slow or even stop the vehicle, maybe Otaku would tire of his game and leave of his own volition.

Attacking ARACHNE, Power Attack + Accurate Attack (1d20+9=26) DC 29 if that hits, gonna wait for confirmation from TT before I post, though.

Equipment and Powers don't stack, so she can't get Protection from both at the same time. You could probably drop a rank from Drive and Know/Pop Culture; you could put one more point in Bluff.

The tunnel ran straight for a dozen feet, then dipped down at a sharp angle. The teen hero skidded down the slope, his free hand steadying him against the packed earth. The ride lasted about ten minutes before the hole leveled out to an easier grade, but glancing up Warlock could see that he had traveled at least fifty feet almost straight down. How had the criminals climbed that while digging the tunnel, not to mention while handling the artifacts on the way back? He put the question out of his head and continued down the path. It broadened to twenty or thirty feet, an oblong tube in the earth, but the walls stayed smooth to the touch. Before long, he could hear voices echoing down the path; extinguishing the wand and activating his sunglasses, he crept forward stealthily. He edged around one bend and came upon a group of humanoids painting something on the walls of the tunnel. He zoomed in on the figures and noticed their slimy skin, unnaturally elongated skulls, and their blank, black eyes. His training let him recognize them easily -- Deep Ones, Atlanteans corrupted by the ancient Lemurian gods!

Jessica stirred her remaining noodles slowly, then suddenly faster, until they were all mixed into a ball again. She stuck her chopsticks in it and they stood upright -- for maybe a whole second. Then the arrangement overbalanced and fell to the side. She frowned and tried it again with the same result. She considered trying again -- maybe flattening out the bottom? -- but decided against it. She wasn't at the mall to build pasta balls after all, so she left it. The young woman stood and stretched, casually draping an arm over Blake's shoulder. She gave her boyfriend a wide, self-satisfied smile. "That's supposed to be your move," she said, moving her hand down his side to just under his ribs. "If you're not gonna try to put the moves on me, I'm gonna make you sit through clothes shopping."

Jessica sat on the edge of the gurney, rubbing hard at her temples with the tips of her fingers. The chatter of the medical machines situated around her was increasingly distracting, like a pack of eager puppies yapping away mindlessly. Besides, it all reminded her of the night she got her powers, and she didn't want to relive those memories if she could avoid it. So, as soon as her vision cleared, she stood up, keeping one hand on the gurney until her legs felt firmer. She took a deep breath, ignored the throbbing at the base of her skull, and gave Doktor Archeville a small smile. "I think that's enough for today," she said. "Thank you for the check-up, and the peace of mind. I'll talk to the rest of the folks at the lab -- through normal channels -- about your offer of exploring the paranormal. And if you want my help on that project you mentioned earlier, just let me know."

"Malador the Mystic?" MacKenzie tilted his head to one side, then the other, searching Warlock's face. "I don't think I actually know who that is. But you can track the villain and recover the artifacts, right? Even if he only intends to sell them, ti could be disastrous. They might never be recovered, and those pieces are part of a historical legacy that the whole world has a right to."

Lots of folks seem to be having fun with this game, so I'm jumping back into it. Look for @Raveled. I have a lot of toons, but my main is an Electricity blaster-type.

I'm hoping the AEGIS techs are still logged in at the consoles, so Clad doesn't have to hack in. DC 25 to crash the ARACHNE tank if it's connected to the consoles still, but otherwise just getting the SPARTOI to Aid Another for the heroes.

Ironclad didn't understand most of what Blueshift was talking about, but when Otaku's voice was heard from inside the tank and it began firing gas grenades into the crowd she reacted. The technicians were bent over, coughing and wheezing from the tear gas, it the hero took a moment to find a clear landing space in front of the control consoles. She felt a pang of guilt as, instead of dealing with the gas, she instead stepped up to an activated terminal and started typing, gauntleted fingers flying over the keyboard. With luck she could shut the tank down right now; but even if she couldn't do that, she'd settle for turning the SPARTOIs' guns on the machine.

Enhanced Str isn't listed under Powers. Why Density? Why just Enhanced Strand not Enhanced Dex and Con, too? I'd probably drop Elusive Target for a second rank in Evasion.

"We believe orchalium is Atlantean in origin, yes. It's an alchemically derived metal, supposed to hold magic well and next to impossible to even damage." The academic wrung his hands, unaware or uncaring that he was talking to someone who probably knew a lot more than him about the properties of the mystical metal. "I can't imagine the other pieces would be of interest, except to someone with a fetish for prehistoric Lemurian artifacts. The mural is the only thing I imagine would have real value -- but you saw all there is! Half of the inscription is gone and the other half would only make sense to an ancient Atlantean alchemist, I'd bet."

Jessica wigled in her seat and patted Blake's kneed. She looked into her bowl, giggling and giving her boyfriend sidelong glances. "We have a weird life, you know that? You're talking about how it's 'probably' not a god, just a run-of-the-mill, pull folks from the grave and make 'em dance, necromancer." After a moment her smile faded and she squeezed Blake's knee. "Still, be careful out there. No offense to Nick, but messing with the dead is ten different kinds of creepy."

Ironclad hovered over the fight, watching Protectron and Blueshift have a casual conversation while she and Victory tried to take down the last member of the Power Corps. At least Geckoman was helping to evacuate the hostages! The battlesuited heroine bit her tongue, though, and targeted the battlesuited villain. Her particle beams lit up the warehouse in a brilliant display of power and color, striking the mercenary in the small of her back. The soldier for hire convulsed suddenly and then fell to the ground, lying still. Ironclad stayed in the air for a moment longer until she was sure that this wasn't some kind of trick, then lowered herself to the floor. She glanced around and noted that two of the silvery centaur-creatures had retreated to a corner of the warehouse. Exchanging a quick glance with Victory, she moved close to one wall and began slowly advancing on them. The last thing she wanted was to stop some villains only to release aliens on the city.

Power Attack + All-Out Attack vs Power Corps (1d20+9=21) Wut-wut! DC 29 Toughness, and she's bruised, so... Toughness vs DC 29 (1d20+13=16) And she is OUT! Combat's over folks, feel free to move around.

I... don't know why you're talking about a Bluff check when you should be making an Acrobatics check, but upon reviewing Shift's sheet I'm willing to take it as a typo.

Ironclad held still as the other tech-head fiddled with the robot in her hands. All of a sudden the machine shuddered and died, lights flickering off and the whole structure sagging in her grip. "Fast work," she commented dryly. The heroine gained altitude and hovered a dozen feet or so away from the fight. Laying the robot on the ground and kneeling over it, she rolled one gauntleted hand and a thin piece of metal sprang out of a concealed hatch on her wrist. She plucked the wire and began poking at the machine's innards, humming slightly while she explored its workings.

Brian laughed at Crow's summary. "Well, that sounds like a pretty normal night for a bunch of teenagers -- little bit of excitement, looking to find some ladies, and sneaking back after curfew. Let's do it!" He gave Evander a wide smile and grabbed the offered hand, squeezing it hard -- maybe a little too hard. It was obvious that a night of heroics appealed to him a lot more than a night of studying and he was fairly bouncing off the walls in anticipation. "Hey, man. I'm Brian, but for what we're about to do I guess you should call me Glowstar."

I don't actually think that's allowed. This is a Reaction, so there's no time to Take 20.

Patricia gestured and they were walking again. "The museum recently received a number of Atlantean and Lemurian artifacts. Some of the pieces have already been processed and put on display, but most are still waiting to be appraised. That's where the thieves hit." Processing, as it turned out, was a large, auditorium-like room, subdivided into smaller areas by hanging curtains. Most of the room was open now, though, filled with long tables. The tables supported various artifacts, mostly stone with the occasional gold or patina-encrusted bronze piece. One table was conspicuously empty. An older man with a shaved head was half-sitting on it, leafing through a clipboard. He looked up when Patricia and Warlock entered and set the clipboard aside, walking up to the pair and smiling weakly. "Hello," he said, offering the hero his hand. "Bruce MacKenzie. I'm a professor over at FCU, with a specialty in pre-history. I volunteered to help the museum catalog the new pieces. I, um, assume you'll want to see what was stolen?" He let Warlock over to the bar table and handed him the clipboard. There were ten pictures there, all black and white. None were particularly note-worthy: a stone bowl, a dark knife, the metal remains what might have been some kind of headdress or crown. When the hero reached the last page, MacKenzie peered over his shoulder and began talking. "That's the only rally notable piece that was taken. It's a mural, and you can see that much of it is missing, but we think it's the most complete recipe for orchalium in surfacer hands." It wasn't much of a recipe. It started with human figures putting three bars of what was presumably gold into a dish or crucible. Intermediate steps showed the addition of leaves, jagged lines, spirals, and other details worn away by time. At the end of the line a single bar of metal was divided into a sword, a disc - or maybe a shield? - and a crown.

Brian stood firm in the face of the literale and figurative storm, batting away a flashcard that zipped at his eyes. He'd seen both Vicky and Mercury around campus, but he didn't really know either of them. Still, the more the merrier; with luck they'd beat the bad guys quickly enough that Brian would be able to take the woman out to a movie or something. Shame she didn't speak English, but maybe one of her sisters would.

Notice 19. Yay Skill Mastery!

Jessica swallowed her noddles and washed it down with some soda, as she listened to Blake. "So, are we talking total zombie apocalypse? Because there were a lot of dead men around Halloween, and I'm still not sure what was going on, there." She stabbed at her pasta, thinking for a moment. "On the other hand, I never got a chance to test out even half of my zombie-capture traps."

Patrica sniffed derisively. "I don't care if it's acquisitions agents from China. They ransacked the antiquities department and grabbed a number of valuable prehistoric artifacts. Not to mention put three of my guards in the hospital." She eyed the young hero, not trying to hide her disappointment. Maybe she had been expecting someone in a cape and tights. "Of course, if you can just figure out who took the items, I'm sure another hero could actually get them back."