Fox

"I don't have friends, Cricket, I have assets. You are an....acceptably competent fighter, and I assume an incompetent liar, all the better. I simply think it would be unfortunate if something happened to you before I decide what you can offer to pay off the significant debt you owe me." More smoothie. "And it is a significant debt. You cost me proper vengeance." She was running out of smoothie. She was going to have to figure out where this 'Smoothie Shack' was, and when she could get smoothies without giving Ryder the satisfaction of finding out about it. "What they have is power, Cricket, and nobody with power lasts long if they don't watch their back for knives. That, I think, is why you're going to get yourself killed."

"Getting yourself thrown in prison would be a very effective way to see her, Cricket," said Nocturne, arching an eyebrow, "except they're going to hide her down a deep dark hole so that her client - who is not getting his or her robots - doesn't show up to set an example. You have an orchid mantis...whatever that is. They have assassins, and corrupt guards, and probably a prison full of easily-paid goons. Turning on her client is the only leverage she has, and if I were her I'd think very hard about whether using it, or not using it, would have better odds." She took another long sip of her smoothie. She was no longer tying to pretend that the taste didn't please her. "Or, maybe not. Maybe she's lucky and got a client who knows that the risk is the cost of doing business and won't miss a few million dollars of investment. Maybe she got a client too incompetent to manage it. You don't believe in safety tests and didn't kill yourself the moment you built that armor, so I suppose miracles are possible."

"Ah, so you're a martyr," Nocturne mused. She picked up her smoothie and, somewhat reassured that it was probably not poisoned or laced with truth serum, took a sip. "That makes more sense. It's probably going to get you killed." The smoothie was worthy of her attention for a few moments. It almost managed to make her smile, the corner of her mouth turning upward by a fraction before she caught the reflex. "You do understand that building things is not supposed to break limbs? And fire should be rare. Perhaps your science could do with fewer mistakes and more testing. Not Mechanica's testing, but testing that doesn't get your arms broken." She paused, mid-sip, adding, "....you do understand that they're not going to let you see her? They're going to be very busy keeping her in prison while also keeping her from getting killed."

"Remaining useful to me is strongly recommended," said Nocturne in a tone bordering on imperious. "You'll last longer. .....mango and chocolate sound interesting, I'll try that, assuming you haven't poisoned them somehow." There was a lot you could do to a drink that wouldn't technically be 'poison'; she squashed the paranoia as best she could. "I'm certainly not compelled to tell you any of my secrets, and I'm still not entirely convinced you're real. Nobody gets to be your age and is still as nice as you are. Are you a robot? Some kind of clone, or alien?"

"Not anymore." Nocturne was fairly certain this was some kind of trap; that was the only thing that made sense. "Hypothetically," she said, "I now know your face, your name - which is uncommon - and where you work." Her finger had settled to pointing at the branded cups; she was closer to them than she had been a minute ago. She didn't remember doing that on purpose. It had been a while since she'd eaten. "I could have not wanted you hurt because you were useful to me, at the time. It would be pitifully easy to find out your full name, and where you live. You do understand that you flipped that coin for...everyone, yes? Employer? Friends, family?"

"Yes, I can see how they might not." That was mean, and less satisfying than normal. Nocturne wasn't sure why that was. She moved on, folding her hands behind her back and watching impassively. "First, I was not kidnapped," she lied, "and I'll thank you not to spread rumors otherwise. Second, you....you do understand how a secret identity is supposed to work, yes?" She turned her head to the side, eyeing his very colorful outfit. "Taking off your helmet and sharing your name with someone you don't really know is an excellent way to get yourself hurt," she said, twirling a finger at him to indicate all of....that. "You don't actually know that I'm not some kind of villain myself."

Nocturne stood at the mouth of the alley for a solid ten seconds, wondering how exactly her day had gone so completely wrong. None of these people did any of this correctly. Cricket was going to get himself killed at this rate, to boot, and she didn't want that to happen and even that fact alone was something she didn't want to think about too deeply. "Pride and control," she said, quietly, to herself, before setting her shoulders back and walking out into the street with all the aloof confidence she'd started this day showing. After the kidnapping, anyway. She wasn't going to think about that too deeply either. "If you think I'm going to change back into normal clothes in the middle of the street, Cricket, you're out of your mind."

GM "You already did?" May had to twist around again, though this time she'd cocked her head in something approaching curiosity. It was the kind of tone you'd use to idly discuss a minor hypothesis, not talk to your captor while sitting on pavement in the bad end of town. Her expression continued to be extremely, casually flat - she may as well have been waiting for the bus. "It probably would have been more efficient to ask for permission before sending your text message." Nocturne made a face like the conversation was actively killing her, threw up her hands, and turned to walk back down toward the other end of the alley. "I can't stop you from trying, but you may have a hard time finding me. Your friend can probably explain why, I think she knows how this works." She shrugged, turning back around to wait. "Thank you for not letting her accelerate me through several tons of cement and rock."

With the hostages in tow, they found a hallway past the door, a stairwell past the hallway, a sewer basin past the stairwell, and a (mercifully nearby) access stair past the sewer. Nocturne did not deign to walk along the sewer basin - she floated, very carefully, touching absolutely nothing until she could feel sunlight again. As Chitin's text messages finally went through - received, without reply - sunlight was hitting the last of the hostages as they exited the alleyway maintenance door a fair distance from where they'd all started. Mechanica had already found the street and, with surprising grace and zero pomp, dropped down cross-legged to wait. "You can probably leave the arms," she said, somewhat belatedly. She'd turned around halfway, looking back at the rest. "They wanted them for evidence last time, they'll probably want them again. I don't know what happens to them after that. I guess they're making a collection." "My clothes may never be clean again. I think I'll have to remake them." Nocturne was inspecting the trailing ends of her outfit, finding nothing and not finding nothing satisfying enough. "As for Mechanica...pathetic as she is, I don't much think I want to stay here and loom until the police arrive." The last of the hostages had been the fallen hero, a truly androgynous figure in a torn, if still colorful, bodysuit. "We'll watch her," they said, leaning against the wall. Nocturne arched an eyebrow, and the pizza deliverer wandered off to make a phone call. "No, really. I mean, she's...she's not exactly a threat anymore, right? We can at least do that, there's a whole lot more of us than there are of her."

APPROVED!

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Cricket." Nocturne had folded her arms and was regarding their villain with all the warm comfort of a steel knife. All her malevolent enthusiasm had left her, though, and she'd downgraded from theatrics to scowling. "I'll hold you to that, though, I do count my debtors. He's right, though. Name, now." "May." The disarmed villain had crouched down, rolling the robo-gorilla's head over with her foot to inspect the base of its neck. "Excuse me?" "May. It's my name. Like the month, but, a name." Nocturne narrowed her eyes. "No villain worth their salt does business with someone named 'May'." "....Mechanica?" May - Mechanica - looked up, shrugged, and stood back to her feet. "We should probably go. Your hostages don't have serious injuries, but they're going to need to be checked anyway." And, off she went, walking slowly toward the back door, her own victims clearly not sure if they should intervene or not. Nocturne's eye was twitching, but she set off after May anyway. "Cricket, I hope your 'Mike' took more pride in his villainy than this. I'm starting to worry about this city's standards."

Dragonfly (maxed) Kids Table (3) Nocturne Field Test (14) GM Field Test (10*2 = 20) Roll Dragonfly's posts over to Eclipse, Grim, and Masque to get them 1 post each, please. 11 GM posts to Nocturne to get her to 25 posts. The remaining 9 posts to Masque to jump her to 10 posts. Ref point to Nocturne.

Let's see, not too much to critique here! Mostly just some math stuff: Human form: 'Variable descriptor' here should probably note the descriptors in effect. On a damage power, it should call out the broad types of damage the attack can do - you often see "Variable Descriptor [any physical]", for instance, or Variable Descriptor [blunt/piercing/slashing]" (which is basically the same thing under Mutants and Masterminds). Try to imagine that you're using Variable Descriptor to counteract an enemy's immunity to certain kinds of damage. What kinds of immunities could you counteract here? Can the attack to multiple kinds of physical damage? Can the attack do normal physical damage, or also a specific energy damage? I'm not familiar with the 'Weak Spot' drawback - where is that from? As-written, the Morph power would cost 1.5PP, rounded up to 2PP; flaws don't make feats any cheaper, they only change the cost of the underlying power itself. Dragon form: It's worth noting here that the dragon form is PL7 on defenses, rather than PL8; the human form is technically better in a fight than the dragon is, outside of niche techniques like grappling. The Dexterity ability score is listed as 14 (+4/+2), but I can't find where the +4 comes from. Copy & paste error? You're shortchanging yourself a little bit on the max grapple bonus, if I have my math right; +5 melee attack +11 Strength +8 size = +24 grapple. Double-check the defense, too - even flat-footed, the dragon form would still have +1 Flat-Footed Defense (+3 base, -2 size, /2 = 0.5 = 1; it's about the only place in the system that appears to round up in the player's favor). Your Strength bonus from Growth does not apply to Strength-linked skills like Climbing and Swimming, since the increased strength is offset by the increased mass. This is noted in the Growth power, in the books, but it's really easy to miss. See earlier notes on the Morph power's cost. You've tallied the powers section as 68pp, but the final totals list 67.

User hasn't been around for about a month; moving this back to Character Building. It can be resubmitted if they return and show interest.

Nocturne took a deep breath, pinching up her face like her inability to throw someone through a wall was starting to cause her physical pain. She had to think hard about that, for a couple long seconds, before she finally let the breath out and her floating objects settled back to the floor. "You're really determined to take the fun out of this," she accused. "Yeah. It seems like the safe bet." "I think I hate you." "Alright. Oh - back door's the way the hostages came, it takes you into the sewers a couple blocks down. No traps." Nocturne pinched her nose. "Cricket. Next time, I think I'd prefer the putting-people-through-walls option."

GM "Yeah, well." She looked bored, more than anything, tired and dissociated from most of her surroundings...but even she wasn't completely impervious to Ryder's words. She turned the robo-gorilla's head over with her foot, looking down at it with...regret? "Yeah. In my defense, do you know how hard it is to make something like that on a budget without making it lethal? If I had the resources for my best, you'd have seen it. But that isn't really how it works, huh?" She sighed, looking up at the enthusiastic Chitin and the increasingly murderous Nocturne. "Well, you got me, so I guess it's all done now. Probably in my best interests to not be a threat, right?" She pulled up her sleeve to fiddle with a touchpad on the back of her gauntlet, and didn't even flinch when Nocturne made a warning noise. "Relax. You beat my gorilla, I really didn't have the parts for anything better. Here, you have your helpless people..." She pressed something, and the door popped open with a hissing noise - a couple doors, apparently, as the hostages could be seen filtering out of their makeshift cell and into the room proper. "...and you've got me." She didn't press anything, this time, but there was a metallic noise from somewhere up around her shoulders as her arms...fell off, slipping out of her sleeves to clank onto the floor at her feet. "Literally disarmed, couldn't hurt a fly. I'd detach the legs, too, but they're real." She shrugged a shoulder to keep her coat from falling; it looked like she'd had practice. "Call the police or whatever, I know the dance."

GM Their mysterious host got up to her feet, making much the same impression that she had on a television screen: mousy brown hair, goggles, and a lab coat over a t-shirt and loose pants. She'd have fit in at the Freedom City University science department if it weren't for the metal gauntlets sticking out the ends of her sleeves. "Not no data," she corrected, oddly calm. She was looking over the remains of her creation with sad detachment. "The neck clearly requires reinforcement; I didn't want to build the whole spine, it's a waste of space, but the actuators clearly didn't hold up. And the overclock under-performed, it was really supposed to melt down before you could smash it. How much force do you put out in that mode? You've miniaturized it very well." She sighed, shoving her hands into her coat pockets and looking at Chitin with something like tired resignation. "Do you think she's really going to put me through a wall? It's all just stone past that cement, I don't think it's going to work that well unless she happens to hit a crawlspace or service corridor."

"Good job, Cricket. Very dramatic, flashy landing, solid seven out of ten." Nocturne had a grin with entirely too many teeth, reeling the late robot's creator in through the air only to dump her, skidding to a short halt, on the floor. "And you missed it! No data for you, so sad! But you can still help us sort something out," she invited, spreading her hands wide. Her tide of wispy black and gold dust went with them, nearby objects hovering ominously. "I want very badly to find out if I can use you to make a hole in one of these walls. Cricket doesn't think that's a good idea! I think you should be our tiebreaker. What do you say?"

Toughness Save vs. Chitin, DC30: 1d20+11-2 10 Welp!

GM Nocturne's target didn't have a great deal productive to say - several words, none of them fit for print - but she did reach out and hit something on her console before she lost leverage completely. The robot's body was broken but technically attached, which is to say that the mechanical monkey was wearing its own head as a necklace, wavering as it tried to get a fix on its opponent with its face bouncing on its chest. It had nearly collapsed before its maker hit a button, but now it reared up with an awful, broken grinding noise and - metal audibly popping somewhere down in its torso, and empty neck emitting a concerning red glow - it swung out with a back-handed fist in the hopes of catching Chitin while he was distracted.

"You have acceptable taste in accessories, Cricket." Nocturne sounded sincere enough, but didn't turn around - the observation deck's glass was largely gone but the underlying steel was giving her more trouble than it was worth. Her particles reformed into a great claw again, which went surging into the no-longer-protected room like a cat fishing something interesting out of a box. Nocturne's grin was predatory as it lashed closed around her target - hopefully her target, she was going to be very embarrassed if it wasn't - and started dragging her out through her own window. "I can see you. No escape routes for you, come down to watch your monkey get crushed."

Going to fiat the daze and the consequences on disabled for the robot, purely for the sake of dramatics. Have a hero point, Chitin! One last punch! For monkey justice! Melee Attack Roll vs. Chitin: 1d20+6 15 That'll hit. DC25 toughness save for Chitin!

Nocturne's going to try to grab Mystery Science Person, since it looks like the monkey fight might wrap up sooner than expected! All-Out Attack +2/-2 Ranged Attack Roll vs. Villain: 1d20+8+2 26 Yyyyyeah, that'll do. Grapple Check vs. Villain: 1d20+18 31 Villain's incapable of beating that, and is grappled.

Well, the good news is that I don't need to figure out a robot's Sense Motive, because an 18 hits just fine. Toughness Save vs. Chitin, DC30: 1d20+11 20 Monkey not feel so good. Round 1 22: Chitin, 2HP 15: Nocturne, 1HP 11: Robot, Staggered, Disabled, Dazed

GM Indeed, the robo-gorilla could have used it. Chitin's punch dented some plating but didn't seem to do much damage, the robot righting itself and slamming one chest-sized fist into the ground before swinging it the insectile hero's way. It was a rough punch, telegraphed and single-minded, but there was power behind it - whatever powered this things arms, it looked like it would hurt. "I think I'll stay up here," said the voice, still confident but ever less so. "I really did expect you to be more worn down by now. That's my fault, I suppose - even for a budget job, perhaps I cut too many corners. Useful data for next time." The people behind the window, still silent, were visibly cheering now. The lone captured hero in the group, even, was propped up on someone else's shoulders - they looked about as rough as they had on camera, but they had to watch. How could they not?