Raveled

Ironclad didn't think much of Push's assessment, but she had to acknowledge that she didn't know much about matters arcane or mystical. She helped the strained and exhausted hero to take a seat outside the warehouse, then unfolded her helmet with a curt gesture. Jessica Parker's blonde hair was matted to her head, and her face was flushed. Her suit was climate-controlled, but that didn't mean she didn't sweat in the middle of combat. She scratched at a fearsome itch that had been building on her crown, then turned to the hammer-wielding mutant. "I'm up for food," she announced, "but one two conditions. First, he gets the first order," she began, pointing at the reclining Dead Head, "and second, that I pay."

Ironclad hovered in the air and watched as the combined attack from the other three heroes strip the sorcerer's defenses and blow him away. He was still making vague noises though, so she lined up another attack and hammered them in, one from each wrist blaster. It was probably overkill, but she didn't want to give him any chance to escalate. The heroine did a victory lap around the roof of the warehouse, and only stopped when she noticed the bad shape Dead Head was in. She came to a stop in front of the hero and grabbed his bony shoulders, holding him upright. "Whoa, man! We need to get you to a hospital or something."

Burning that last HP to Surge and attack the sorcerer twice. As usual, full Power Attack, full All-Out Attack. 1d20+9=26, 1d20+9=16 Boo-ya. DC 29 Toughness if those hit.

Jessica waited while Blake got his food and walked around the edge of the food court, smelling the food scents coming off each franchise stall. She stopped outside of Wok Works and ordered a bowl of noodles swimming in sauce. She let Blake lead the way to a table, pondering how to answer his proposal. "I really appreciate the gesture," she said, "and I'm sure another girl would be blown away by the offer." At least, the women in sitcoms and comics would be; the only women she actually knew -- Mara, Miss A, Dr deHavillard, her own mother -- all shared her own problem. "Unfortunately, I'm rich. Like, amazingly rich. Like, own my own car rich. Like, couldn't spend all my money if I tried." She opened her chopsticks and started rubbing the wooden sticks together to remove the splinters. "So I don't really need you to buy me stuff. But I appreciate it."

Glowstar advanced on the entrance that the Kineval-bots were spilling out of, step by slow step. He'd never pushed his powers so far and he was riding the adrenaline high, smiling madly. Every bot that came within range of his energy tendrils was smashed, torn apart, or simply aged hyper-fast into a pile of rust and silicon. The teen hero herded the bots back, and though he kept the majority of them away from the civilians a few slipped past.

Why did Kineval buy robots with self-preservation instincts?

While the other heroes coordinated a major strike, Ironclad rushed into the warehouse. She drew a bead on the stunned sorcerer, intending to take him out before he could summon any more minions. Her targeting system locked on easily and she charged up a powerful blast, but at the last moment her sensors caught the final shadow-hound circling around her. She broke off the attack and moved up to hover near the ceiling. She didn't want to risk tangling with one of the beast's in close combat.

Clad's gonna attack, and she's gonna knock that sorcerer out before any other awesome happens! Blast with full Power Attack and All-Out Attack (1d20+9=10) ... Or not.

Attack! Attack! Attack! 1d20+6=13 Fail. :(

"Ariel interception! Danger close!" Brian Harris, surrounded by the characteristic red glow of his energy powers, swung out of the air in a wide arc. He was dressed in a casual outfit of jeans and a leather jacket, but he seemed as unconcerned as Corbin with the cold; more importantly, his arms were loaded with a double handful of snowballs and his red eyes were shining with glee as he strafed the blue-tinted energy controller. "Foul! No heavy artillery on school grounds!"

Jessica found a push broom and started working on the mess. She tried to keep her mind busy, but it didn't take her long to mentally section the shop floor, time herself on cleaning one section, and multiple the time out. It wasn't a small number, and that was just for sweeping the floor! There were still plenty of surfaces the scrub down, regrease, or as Push was demonstrating even rebuild. At this rate it would take them hours to finish, and she wasn't prepared to wait that long for chili. She set aside her broom with a muttered word and started collecting the materials she would need; a spare steel drum, a pair of creepers, and a grab-bad of machine parts. The young genius cleared herself a spot in one corner and went to work.

Jessica thought about Blake's words for a long minute, the pair walking towards the food court, but eventually she took a step back towards Blake and slipped her arm around his waist. "I can't stay mad at you," she said, "especially not if you're out heroing. But you could drop me a line sometime, you know?" She stopped walking and turned to kiss him on the lips, taking her time with it. In fact, she took more time than she intended; another group of teens hanging at the mall stopped to applaud and catcall. Jessica broke off and burrowed next to Blake, hiding her red face. They walked along and the hecklers moved in the opposite direction, so before long she felt fine with showing her face again. "So what are we doing here then?" Her stomach gurgled suddenly and she quickly added, "Once we get some lunch, that is."

The spandex-clad hero dashed between the groups, sawing through duct tape bindings with remarkable speed for someone who felt it necessary to ride around in an airship. Before long most of the civilians were upright and rubbing at their wrists or ankles. One of them, in the uniform of a security guard but with his belt holster empty, turned to the heroes. "Quick! Those Power Corp mercenaries broke in here and tied everyone up! There was a couple of them watching over us, but they all went outside into the main area just now. If you hurry, I'll bet they're still around!"

Jessica ducked her head as Blake pulled her close, and they ended up nuzzling rather than kissing properly. As they started walking into the mall, she took a step away from her boyfriend and trailed her hand down his arm until they were walking along, fingers intertwined. Part of her enjoyed the physical contact -- enjoyed it immensely -- but she had only seen Blake fleetingly since... God, since last December! That whole debacle with Quo-Dis and her mother. She felt hurt that Blake had just ignored her for two months and some change, and wasn't sure how to react, now that he just wanted to jump right back into things. Regardless, she was willing to give it a try. "So how's life as a big adult," she asked, strolling alongside him. "Finding things outside Ivy League's confining walls more to your taste?" She hadn't agreed with his decision to drop out of Claremont, either, and the words came out more acrid than she intended. This whole date was starting out poorly.

Jessica huddled into her winter coat. She hadn't expected to be up on the top of a freaking skyscraper, so she hadn't dressed for the harsh wind that seemed to cut through her layer of fleece and straight to her bone. She licked her lip to see if there was still any sensation there and regretted it instantly, since the wetness just made the cold and the wind worse. Still, she wasn't about to complain in front of Archeville; he was out here in just his lab coat, after all. The young woman walked around until she stood in the lee of the helipad, where at least the wind was blocked somewhat. She closed her eyes and leaned against the large structure, careful not to let bare skin touch cold metal, as she stretched out with her new abilities. It was odd, experiencing the world as a flow of information and digital signals. At some places the signals crossed and converged, creating nodes that pulsed with data, each sending out streamers that connected with other nodes in a vast, intricate network; Archetech itself was a vast glowing monolith, a stupefyingly complex pyramid of data and access codes and security protocols. Jessica narrowed her awareness of and focused on the cellphone towers blanketing the city with their reception, then tried to link into the nearest one to call her coworkers. It was hard, very hard -- it felt like she was reaching for something just beyond her reach, something she could only barely brush with her fingertips. Her breathing increased as she pushed herself and her nascent abilities past the comfortable threshold, feeling a sharp spike of pain flash through her head. She ignored it, fought past it, and reached out for the cell tower again. There was a sudden wetness on her lip, a sudden copper taste in her mouth. She opened her eyes and touched her upper lip, bringing her fingers away wet with... blood? She spat out the liquid in her mouth, rich and red on the tarmac. Her brain suddenly seemed to seize, like itself had been frozen by the wind, as she felt more blood run down her lip. "Oh," she said finally, weakly. "That's not good."

After some consultation with Archy, I'm going to be running the non-modified members of the PC as minions. They'll basically be supporting the Hulkers instead of taking actions on their own; this'll hopefully make the fight a little more manageable. Initiative order has been altered to reflect the fact that the guys aren't going to do anything until just before the Hulkers.

"My boyfriend's Blake Salazar," she answered. "He used to be Kid Cthulhu, back when he was at Claremont, but whatever gave him that power got... taken away somehow. Burned away, maybe, I'm not really sure on the whole situation. He doesn't really want to talk about what happened. I gather it was pretty painful for him." She gave a small shrug. "If he wants to talk about it, I'll be here. Until then, I'm fine with things. "I can't really say how much the other Lab folks would be interested in researching magic," she admitted. "I'm not that good at reading people, and the only one I know really well is Dragonfly. I think she's more interested in mutilating physics in her own manner." The young genius blinked and sat up straighter, a smile spreading across her face. "Hey, I know! If I can talk to machines, I should be able to talk to their cellphones! I could ask them right now!"

Geckoman -- Uninjured -- HPx3 Protectron -- Uninjured -- HPx1 Victory -- Uninjured -- HPx2 Blueshift -- Uninjured -- HPx2 Ironclad -- Uninjured -- HPx3 PC 7 -- Uninjured -- GM PC 5 -- Uninjured -- GM PC 3 -- Uninjured -- GM PC 1 -- Uninjured -- GM PC 6 -- Uninjured -- GM Hulk 2 -- Uninjured -- GM Hulk 8 -- Uninjured -- GM I think this is the biggest combat I've ever run.

They moved into the central area when the heroes showed up.

Jessica stood up a little straighter when Doktor Archeville walked into the room. She do dearly wanted to impress the man, one of her heroes since she was very young, but she fairly blanched at the idea of going back down into that crowd. "No, thank you," she said. "Too much finger food. I need to get something more filling. Excuse me, all." She walked out to the common room and looked up and down the hallway. She'd committed the floor plan to memory -- so where did they put that kitchenette?

Jessica Parker arrived bang on the dot for her date, but it took five full minutes to find a parking spot. Sometime she really hated her huge tank of a car, and never more than when she was walking past three empty spots marked 'compact only.' It was enough to make her want to fly everywhere in her climate-controlled armor, which could coincidentally travel faster than the speed of sound when needed. Of course, high-strength alloys didn't go with a red blouse, bell-bottom jeans, low pumps, and a black peacoat. She caught a glimpse of Blake sitting at the entrance, dressed in jeans and another band tee-shirt. She broke into a run for the last few steps, pulling him into a tight hug and planting a kiss on his cheek. "Hey there, stranger," she said, putting a bit of space between them. "Business is booming, I take it?" She snatched the cap off his head and snugged it down over her own.

"Mmm. Not really." Jessica's gaze drifted along the walls as she traced lines of data flow, though she kept talking to Archeville. "I mean, my boyfriend's really into magic, so maybe I should be more interested in it? But the whole theoretical side of things just kinda bores me. I like to look at science and theory and think about how to apply them right now, not ten or twenty years down the road." She gave a twitch of her shoulders that might've been a tiny shrug. "I've always been more interested in the practical application of things rather and the theoretical implications. I suppose that makes me a bad scientist, but whatever. Einstein figured out relativity, but I'll figure out how to make that push around starships."

Ironclad dropped neatly through the hole in the roof, her smaller armor passing through the hole with room to spare. "That's not how you do it, Protectron," she called out. "It's more like... this!" She hovered in the air, covering the two heavy mercs with a wrist blaster apiece. "Put the crates down, put your hands up, and prepared to be shucked out that armor!" The silvery centaurs scattered, most running for the portal but several, including the one Protectron had confronted, ran for the edges of the warehouse. The Power Corps reacted like the trained military unit they were, snapping up their weapons and popping off several shots at heroes crashing in on them. Geckoman and Blueshift, meanwhile, crashed into a single huge, open room. Several modular, fabric covered wall units stacked against the wall; linked together, they'd form the sort of cube farm endemic to offices everywhere. All that had been pushed to the side, however, so that several groups of civilians could be sat down on the floor. Their ankles were all duct-taped together, and soon the heroes could see that each group was duct-taped together at the wrists. Getting them separated and out would take time.

Initiative for Ironclad (1d20+3=9) Initiative for the regular members of the PC, in order (1d20+5=11, 1d20+5=16, 1d20+5=18, 1d20+5=9, 1d20+5=19) Initiative for the hulked-out members of the Power Corps (1d20=8, 1d20=2) The PC might end up going first.

Clad might be the best choice. She's uninjured and has a HP left.