Raveled

Tona sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "No. No I do not. I'm just trying to figure out this party, I do not need to be talking about my girlfriend, not tonight. I'm just... still trying to figure things out, okay?" The door rang and Tona immediately seized upon it as an excuse, breaking away from Lynn and cutting through her coworkers to answer it. She didn't normally put herself forward for social interaction, but the idea of getting away from a conversation about her love life seemed like the best idea in the world just now, so Tona opened the door eagerly. It took her a moment to process who was standing at the threshold, and all the air went out of her at once. She worked to draw in a breath, and sighed out "Sam." The archer stepped away from her, further into the store. "I... I didn't actually realize you were..."

"More of the same," Blue Jay sniffed dismissively, nocking an arrow with practiced speed. "Someone's already made a run at Walsh today. You don't get to retry it." She loosed her arrow, aiming to hit the be-goggled figure square between his eyes, but one of the rock-figures stepped between him and took the blow. The creature's head snapped back and no one was more surprised than Blue Jay when it collapsed into a pile of rocks. "You... you dirtheads!" the villain shrieked. "I'm going to bury you. Bury you!" He thrust his hands forward and a rolling wave moved through the floor, crashing into the car and making it buck and roll. Blue Jay tried to ride the pitching roof, but she was thrown to the ground. She rolled as she hit, though, and came up little more than dusty.

Initiative 33 Blue Jay -- Uninjured -- HPx2 17 Tectonic Hate -- Uninjured -- GM 7 Cannonade -- Uninjured -- HPx2 2 Geodudes x8 -- Uninjured -- Minion Blue Jay is going to open up with an attack Tectonic Hate. Blue Jay's ranged attack, vs. TH's Def. DC 20 Tou (1d20+15=33) That... is actually a crit, with Blue Jay's Improved Crit 2. Huhn. It was supposed to shatter on the Geodude's Impervious, but I guess he actually has to roll vs DC 25 Tou. Geodude's Toughness save, vs DC 25. (1d20+8=21) And that one crumbles! Surprisingly good start, I guess even Blue Jay wants to be done with this. TH is going to attack with a Strike 10 w/ AoE/Cone [General]. So that's a DC 20 Reflex, DC 25 Tou if you miss and DC 20 Tou if you make it. Blue Jay's Reflex save vs DC 20. (1d20+12=13) Good lord. Blue Jay's Toughness save vs DC 25. (1d20+10=30) Hot damn! WEll she comes through when it's needed.

So Mechanized can't understand a blasted thing we're saying, check. Corona is certainly not going to voulenteer that the home world was destroyed, not to a bunch of aliens from an outback protectorate. I figure she gave a boilerplate explanation about the Republic wanting her to fix a problem,and the analysts picking this team as being the best composition possible. Of course she can't control if Memorial or Galvanize leaks it.

Thev, can we assume there are Equipment -level translators, at least for Galstandard?

Jerry frowned. “We don’t exactly do tours,†he said slowly, “but I guess I can at least show you around while you’re here.†He led the investigators out of the barn, leading them away from the road and deeper into the campus. There were a couple other barns like the one where the murder happened; unlike the barn they had just left, those barns were boiling with activity. “We don’t race the horses here,†he told them. “Not exactly. We like to take them out to the pasture and run them, of course, we have to exercise them, and we have to give the jockeys time to get to know the horses. It’s not like race car driving,†he continued, pride beaming through his voice. “You can’t tune up a horse and expect to act the same way for every rider. Each jockey has to get to know his horse, and the horse needs to get to know the jockey, you know?†As they walked across the campus, they could see a large, Gothic-style farmhouse sitting in the middle of the grounds. A heavyset man with a florid face stepped out and caught sight of Jerry and the two detectives. He hurried across the fields towards them, a slight frown across his face. “Gentlemen,†he shouted as soon as he was close. “My name’s Tony Vendetti, these are my stables. I understand you’re looking into Tony Ito’s murder?â€

A Notice check for Corona using the ship's scanners. 1d20+11=18

Aya stared at the blinking display for a moment before her mind managed to kick her out of the rut her thoughts had worn into her brain. She blinked and reached out for the intercom, her movements smooth and slow and robotic. “We have --†Her voice cracked and croaked and Aya stopped, surprised in a slow, dumb sort of way. She swallowed hard and began speaking again. “We’re at the edge of the sector,†she said, speaking in Lor. “I’m going to begin scanning. Prepare for contact at any time.†She shut down the intercom before any of the other women could respond and set the computer to scanning space. Aya stood and stretched. She’d been sitting for nearly a standard day, and her muscles were tight and screaming for release. The thought wandered through her head that she should go back and talk to the other people on the ship; after all, she might have to fight alongside them soon! She turned and reached for the door controls. Adrenaline crashed through her, cutting through the cotton she had wrapped around her mind like a blade. Her fingers started trembling, and then her hand, and then it spread to her entire arm. Aya gasped and grabbed her arm, holding it against her body until the panic attack passed. She collapsed back into the pilot’s seat, trying to get her breathing back under control. Maybe… maybe she wouldn’t talk to them just yet.

Thev, just how far out are we from our destination?

I will put in one bit of Shaen wisdom here, and I'm paraphrasing. Skills in M&M can be broken down into two large categories: ones that rolled against another skill, and ones that are rolled against a set DC. Skills that are rolled against other skills are ones like Stealth, Search, and Bluff; it pays to get those as high as you can. Skills rolled against set DCs are like Knowledge, Medicine, and Craft skills; those are rolled against DCs that are usually multiples of 5 or 10. There isn't a great advantage over having Medicine 8 and Medicine 5, because there's no difference between hitting a roll of 18 or a roll of 15. So it's not at all odd to have Craft and Knowledge and Medicine skills at intervals of five or ten. Having Notice and Search and the like at the same intervals is a bit odd, though. :P

Actually, Memorial, give me a Notice check as well.

It had been not quite a full day since Aya K’Zan, also known as Anya Corazon, also known as Corona, had received a message that she was to travel to a particular sector in the outer edges of Lor space and enforce law and order. Nineteen hours since she had picked up three passengers who stood outside the boundaries of Lor law and Lor order. Nineteen hours since her entire universe had been upended, everything she had counted on as being solid and immutable turning to dust and waves under her feet. Nineteen hours since she had locked herself in the cockpit of her starship and not emerged. She had been all but utterly cut off from her passengers, answering their increasingly-infrequent inquiries from the ship’s intercom with curt monosyllables. Her hands moved over the control panel, rechecking their position and heading for the nth time. It was a useless action, but it kept her mind at least superficially busy, which was infinitely preferable to staring outside the front viewport and letting her mind provide the worst images possible of the destruction of Lor-Van. So the proud officer sat in her chair, armor gleaming dully in the starlight, and worked through her calculations again and again. Anything was better than stopping for a moment and imagining.

... As you were.

SG, please give me a Notice check for Mechanized.

"Takin' down any member of something like the Freedom League's a mark of trouble," Corona said. Even she recognized the power and skill of Earth's premier superhero team. "If you don't have an idea of what Redback's bringin' in," she said to Catherine, "how about the where? Or the who he's dealin' with?" With smugglers, it was always possible to run down the operation from the other end, after all. "If none of that's on tap, then I guess there's always roundin' up the usual suspects and sweatin' 'em."

Corona sniffed in irritation. "There is plenty of evidence for Lor evolution on Lor-Van," she said with arrogant certainty. "Probably. I ain't a biologist." The heroine made a face as she reached the level of sewage, and quickly made a decision. The suited heroine floated along behind Memorial and Mechanized as they proceeded down the tunnel. "And if Earth's the seedworld, then how under the stars can Lor be so much more advanced, hm?"

Tona grew very quiet and very still, as she felt her brain and emotions shift into overdrive. Moving slowly and carefully, she put her drink on the bar behind her, and began swearing fluently in her mother’s tongue. After a solid minute of Algonquin invectives, she shifted to French to match Lynn. “<Why would you do that?>†she spat. “<This isn’t any of your business, Lynn. We… had an argument.>†And hadn’t seen each other since, she didn’t add. It was true that neither her or Sam had managed to have two seconds alone since their mission to the Terminus and their argument at Sanctuary’s clinic, but that still didn’t justify Lynn’s meddling. Tona paused, suddenly going very still. “<She’s not in the room right now, is she?>â€

"Seedworld?" Corona half-turned to Memorial, raising an eyebrow behind her mask. "Earth? That old story?" She snorted and stepped out over the middle of the hole, hovering there. "Y'all really think that the planet we came from is generations behind Lor-Van in, well, everything?" She started to sink into the hole, her suit's scrubbers keeping her air pure and sweet-smelling. "If you're goin' for off-tha'-wall ideas, at least keep them relevant to what we're doin'. Like where this all goes!"

TNTeen was grateful for the stop. This day had a lot more physical exertion in it than he was used to, and his legs felt like rubber bands after marching for so long. He'd tried a few long jumps, but it was hard to choose his landing area too precisely, and besides he didn't want to get too far away from the group. All of that meant a loooooooot of walking, in air that felt that it was squeezing his chest with humidity. The young man glanced down their path, to where Zander indicated their destination was. "So, these guys went to the ruins, then?" It was hardly a genius deduction, but Gene felt it needed to be said. "Is there something special there? Something valuable?"

Between Mechanized's mechanical strength and a focused cutting laser courtesy of Memorial, they managed to free Corona's arm from the death-grip of the robot dinosaur's jaw. The Lor officer ran a quick diagnostic and everything came up green, so she put it out of her mind and turned her attention to exploring the workshop. There were mechanical marvels in every corner. Jaws that were bending steel beams, foil-thin sheets of metal that were bent and pinged, but unbroken, and a fully articulated, nasty-looking claw held in a table clamp. A strong smell pulled them further inwards, though, and before long the three heroines were standing at the lip of a wide hole broken in the ground, with a strong smell of sewage wafting out of it. Corona activated her air filters and peered down into it. "Everyone on this planet has indoor plumbing, right?"

"Tony was a stand-up guy," Jerry said. "And if you haven't read the police report, then you haven't read the sort of stuff Wysocki put on his Facebook wall that night. Some really vile, racist stuff, you know?" He scoffed. "I'm not surprised he didn't mention it when he hired you. It'd be pretty hard to have any sympathy for him once you saw some of that stuff." The Hound's nose worked through the scents available, methodically sorting through the animal and people smells to find out what was tickling his brain. He finally noticed it where the floor met the outside wall of the pen, a long mark of something yellow-white that smelled of rotten eggs; sulfur, painted onto the ground like chalk. And it had been done recently.

Malestrom frowned as her brother began talking to the alien, but she knew well enough that there was no changing his mind when it was set. So instead she gestured dramatically, ripping up tiles and moving cabinets through the air, until there was a heavy cocoon surrounding the alien fugitive, the white-clad telepath, and the floating psychokinetic as well. Not going to get out to that so easily, brother, she thought back at him. If it happens to you, it happens to me, too. “Stronghold,†she called out, “put up what reinforcements you can and then help Thoughtspeed get everyone away from here.†The alien sighed at Mind-Set’s words. “Listen, I did not come to this planet looking to cause trouble. Trouble followed me. I’m obliged to all of you for dispatching the wardens that the Curator sent after me, but I do not intend to leave a trail for more of those robots to follow.†He hefted the chunk of rock. “This will make sure that the energy is dissipated enough that no one will be able to track me.†“Dissipating energy,†Maelstrom said, narrowing her eyes. “Like with an explosion?†The alien shrugged with one shoulder. “Explosions spread things around pretty well, yes.†“I think we need to find the Curator,†she stage-whispered to Mind-Set, “and apologize for blowing up his robots.â€

SG, why did you call out Corona as having a scar e

An attempt to make Skeets on a very basic budget. WIP Player Name: Raveled Character Name: Skeets Not Skeets Power Level: 6 Trade-Offs: None Unspent Power Points: 0 In Brief: Abilities: 2 + 6 -10 + 10 -2 + 6 = 12PP Strength: 4 (-3) Dexterity: 16 (+3) Constitution: -- (Nil) Intelligence: 20 (+10) Wisdom: 8 (-1) Charisma: 16 (+3) Combat: 0 + 4 = 4PP Initiative: +3 Attack: +2 melee, +2 ranged Grapple: -11 Defense: +6 (+2 Base, +2 Dodge Focus, +2 Shrinking), +1 Flat-Footed Knockback: -6 Saving Throws: 6 + 4 = 10PP Toughness: +6 (+0 Con, 6 Protection, 6 Impervious) Fortitude: Immune Reflex: +9 (+6 Dex, +3) Will: +3 (+4 Wis, -1) Skills: 16R = 4PP Computers 5 (+15) Craft/Electronics 5 (+15) Craft/Mechanical 5 (+15) Notice 1 (+0) Stealth 0 (+8) Feats: 0PP Dodge Focus 2 Eidetic Memory Powers: 4 + 17 + 1 = 22 PP Feature 1 (Temporal Inertia) [1PP] Shrinking 8 (Tiny Size; -8 Str, -2 Tou, +2 Att, +2 Def, -8 Grapple, +8 Stealth, -4 Intimidation, Feat: Innate) [9PP] Drawbacks: 0 = 0PP DC Block: ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC 18 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Arrow Flurry Ranged DC 20 Toughness + Autofire (Staged) Damage (Physical) Arrow Against the Crowd Ranged/Area (Shapeable) DC 20 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Acid Arrow Ranged DC 15 Fortitude Drain Toughness Glue Arrow Ranged DC 15 Reflex Ensnared Baton Melee/Thrown DC 20 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical)Abilities (32) + Combat (22) + Saving Throws (13) + Skills (28) + Feats (33) + Powers (22) - Drawbacks (0) = 150/150 Power Points :arrow: Behold my take on a Terminus refugee. Okay, the vast majority (read: all) of the mechanics were cribbed from AA's Mockingjay build. I'm not much of a Hunger Games fan, but after seeing Avengers I was on a Hawkeye/archer tick and wanted to try my hand at it. :arrow: Differences in the Oddball and this build: Tweaking of the feats to make the character less of a hunter, more of an assassin (but that's not what she does now!). Also lost the Super-Senses mask, since this character is supposed to be from a less technologically-advanced civilization. :arrow: Of interest is the bow: rather than using straight Blast (which would allow anyone who grabbed it to fire it at full strength) I went for Blast with the Mighty feat. I feel that better models how a bow works in the real world: if you can pull the bowstring back at all, you'll get some damage out of it. But a strong person can get more out of the weapon -- to a certain degree. :arrow: I pondered making the character a quiet, depressed, borderline PTSD person, but I didn't want to create a carbon copy of early Wander. So I went for the opposite direction, someone with almost manic energy.

When talking in the chat last night, the idea of Doctor Who as Batman came up, and I started spitballing about a concept I’ve mentioned several times, a villain trying to go right. Gizmo pointed me in the direction of Iron Lad, and that has me thinking about something to fill my PL 7 slot when TNTeen retires. I have basically two directions to go right now. The first is that the character was a villain in the far past, even into the Freedom Legion time period. He realized that fighting against the Legion never really achieved anything, and he eventually decides that he wants to join the good guys; but he’s fought against them so long that nobody accepts his change of heart. Imagine if Doctor Doom tried to legit go good, or if the Kid Loki arc had a much darker end. So this character comes back to the past in order to start a new life. The second character is almost word-for-word Iron Lad’s backstory. A tyrant from the future manages to take over the world, but it so devastates the planet in the process that it’s not worth ruling. In desperation he constructs a suit of armor with a special AI, and sends this back into the past to his now-teenage self. Kid finds the armor and binds with it, and the AI gives him the short and sweet about the plan -- start his plan to conquer the world sooner and do it when there’s still something worth ruling. The kid rejects the idea of course, and eventually enrolls in Claremont to figure out how to do the hero thing without falling into doing the villain thing. The first idea is obviously the darker one, as it relies on starting with a character who is so hated in his native time that no one will believe him when he goes straight. I think it has some comedic potential, though, in a Leonard-of-Quirm way: he sketches out a plan to fix some big problem and realizes near the end that he’s building a deathray. I’m also interested in running a story where an even older and still villainous version of him shows up, because the questions that raises are delicious to me. The second idea is more optimistic and lets me play off the Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle dynamic. I’m not certain how his older self would take over the world, though. Idea? Opinions?