Fox

"'Pure' is a complicated concept," Mara advised, still frowning at the screen, "and magic is all about breaking rules. Still, probably right here - don't think mundane, commodity-part-built computers cast spells. Might be able to hold and sustain them? Not my area, really should get to know more magic types. Puppy," she added, glancing down at the little robot that had wandered in during their investigations, "note, please, low priority: look up trustworthy magic consultants. Do-magic types, not are-magic types." Puppy's one great eye spun in place for a moment, and he chirped an affirmation. "Thank you, Puppy. And, yes, probably good to see what's going on. Not sure how sim's built without taking it apart, but it has bits -" - that was probably a joke, but who could tell - "- and if it's simulating something sensible it has to be representing that somewhere in one of those. Can cycle through them, tying them to the video card?" They keyboard clacked, Mara's fingers moving in apparent defiance of both talking and what she was actually paying attention to, head turning around to raise an eyebrow at the others. "Have to assume it'll represent nicely on the hardware, but it's already running strange code that shouldn't work. Willing to give it the benefit of the doubt there."

Mara was still in a lab coat when she entered the room, having left the project upstairs in Miss Americana's admittedly-capable hands; between that and her slacks she just about looked like she belonged at the head of a technology company. The illusion of authority might have been enhanced by a concerned-but-grumpy expression...but she pretty much always wore that, and it rarely seemed to help under better circumstances. She took a moment to scan the room, popping an eyebrow at Ryder in his suit but deciding it wasn't time to ask. This all smelled like trouble. "....okay. Erin, can you call Jacob and have him air-gap the network? Take us off the internet? Should still be in the data lab. Probably nothing, but if this spreads, don't want it leaving the building, don't want anyone hitting us while we're down. Now what're you...." She grumbled, pushing some books aside to make more room for the keyboard as she sat down and started poking at the computer. Mara typed fast - very very fast - but it still felt like trying to move uphill when she had to use her actual hands. "....like a stone-age...." That part might have been out loud. She probably shouldn't do that. Neither should this computer. When she sat back it was with an expression of immense dissatisfaction. "....it's running a program. It's a running program. That," she clarified, gesturing vaguely at the screen, "isn't in our software. That is software. It's running that, as native code, on an OS that shouldn't recognize it as native code, to do some kind of...sim? Simulation?" She glanced up at the others, eyebrow high and frown low. "I don't like it. Where'd it come from?"

To see if she can make the same screen-to-book connection without being told: Notice Check, DC20: 1d20+5 16 Nope! What weird characters! She'll auto-30 a Computers check to see what's up with the computer, though.

APPROVED!

A pretty clean sheet; this character probably rides the line of "teenagers who aren't actually teenagers", but I think she's comfortably on the safe side of that line given her personality. Combat Initiative's total is correct, but it notes a +5 from Improved Initiative. Minor typo: "Chronoscyth". Skills I count 85 ranks of skills, which puts Chronia 1 point over-budget. Powers The Chronoscythe array is missing its cost (or, rather, that cost has shifted further up the line!). The cost of each alternate power in the array is already accounted for in the array line; please note the cost of each power in the array, rather than the device points spent to gain it. The character sheet template has examples of array formatting. Immunity to all effects of the 'time' descriptor would cost 5pp; the 2pp version would only protect from time-based damage. Minor typo: Luck Control's pp cost has lost its '['. Alternate Power is part of the cost of the Teleport power; it'd cost 17pp, not 16pp.

Dragonfly (maxed) Bug Hunt (1) Kids Table (2) Masque Hero Prom (1) Split the Dragonfly rollover between Eclipse, Nocturne, and Grim, please. Ref point to Nocturne.

Character archived at player request.

Welcome to the site! Let's see, here.... General Unusual to see a young teenager with multiple best-in-nation/world-level ability scores (you can see general benchmarks for ability scores in the core book, page 30 in my edition); it makes sense to have the enhanced versions of dexterity and charisma come from his powers, but where does Masquerade get the very very high base dex, con, and cha from? Combat When tallying costs in a section line like this, tally the points spent, not the ranks or bonus values; with 4 base attack and 5 base defense purchased, it'd be "8 + 10 = 18PP". Powers What makes the rapier Hard to Lose as opposed to Easy to Lose? Most handheld items are Easy to Lose, since they can be disarmed; it isn't clear from the sheet what would make the rapier 'clingier' and only removable if Masquerade is rendered helpless. Restricted should be on the Device, not the power(s) inside the Device. The Damage power in the rapier is missing its formatting. Seems like a petty thing to pick on, but it really is important for picking things out of a sheet and being able to see, at a glance, what the character can do.

There was a clicking noise behind Ryder, where a woman in her late twenties was snapping the fingers of her right hand, eyes closed as if she was trying to remember something. She was short, with brown hair pulled back in a stunted ponytail, a long white lab coat, and glasses so perfectly round they took up an unreasonable amount of her face. "It's...Ryder, right?" Katie said, finally, dropping the last snap into a pointing gesture. "Yes! You brought those smoothies. Those were some great smoothies, we've got to convince the boss to do that again." She'd been on her way out of the building when she'd spotted the...crash? The entrance, certainly; the lab coat had already been partway off, and with the puzzle solved she pulled it the rest of the way and folded it over one arm. "Speaking of the boss, she had some sudden business, but I think she has you in a workshop on the ground floor. She had us clean it out this morning; she'll probably have your name on it by the time you get in there, but if she doesn't it's right across from the kids." Most of the rooms had screens outside for labeling projects and flagging danger or claimed meeting slots - the employees had long-since given up on figuring out how Mara managed the updates sometimes. They still took bets, though. The current winner was some kind of phone app. "Good luck!" she added, waving as she strolled toward the parking lot. Puppy made a happy trilling sound; it busied itself for a moment cleaning up its lights (it had no hands; pushing the little lights around with the surface of its ball was almost unbearably adorable) before spinning around to look pointedly at the television screen in the lounge that sat between the balcony and the rest of the building. !!SCIENCE!! - LAB 2 - CURRENT FLOOR TEENAGERS - WORKSHOP 1 - GROUND FLOOR LABS AND OTHER WORKSHOPS OFF-LIMITS NO DATA SNOOPING BEWARE OF CHILDREN The message was pretty stark, black text on white, but in Mara's defense she was trying to track a lot at once. She got out of her office chair, cracked her neck in a way Ellie would probably not have approved, and started toward Lab 2 herself. Whatever Gina had brought, it had to be something, and she'd just have to let Ryder cool his heels and see what he'd done with the time later. Puppy did much of the same, happily rolling off toward HAX's hallways in case anybody didn't know the way.

Mara settled back into her chair, gesturing with one hand to move the live feed of the kid's room off to one of her side monitors. Or, rather, the "kid's room" - they'd claimed a conference room, somewhere close to the security office and further from any of the active labs. Room for activities, office-safe toys to mess with, and a screen designed for conferences but, if she was honest, probably better-suited to children's entertainment. And that, apparently, wasn't all the rearranging she'd have to do. Ryder wouldn't need much Miss Americana coming here for anything had to be dire trouble. Lights flickered behind her eyes as she brought up the inter-office telecom and buzzed Lab 2. "Katie?" It took a moment; they must have been busy. Or they were playing around with the rare metal magnets again. She'd have given decent odds either way. "Yes, boss?" "Going to need to steal 2 from you today. Can you pack up, get the battery project into storage 'til next week?" More pause. "....sure? We're mostly just running some sims, we can get the hardware out of here. Anything wrong?" "Special consultation." She didn't need more explanation than that; everyone in her company knew what it meant as a matter of policy. Special consultation: someone in a cape wanted work done, probably dangerous and definitely prioritized over just about anything else. "Ah. Got it, boss - we'll get a move on." Mara cut the call and looked down at the little robot bumping into her leg. "Need to hire a personal assistant, Puppy," she said, pulling a stray strand of hair back behind her ear. "Too many things scheduled for one day." Puppy, a big electronic eye and miscellaneous circuitry packed into a hamster ball, looked back up at her with open curiosity. "Want to help? Go out onto the balcony and broadcast a landing zone, okay? Don't know what they have, probably don't want it in my lobby." Puppy spun in a happy circle, whistling a cheerful note and set off rolling across her office. "And let me know when you see them!"

APPROVED!

Justice Double check the maximum grapple bonus here; I think you're short-changing yourself. Please note this character's flat-footed defense in the combat section. Knockback rounds down, so even at Toughness 5, Knockback would only be -2. You're short-changing yourself at the max end, though; double-check the effect of the (optional) Impervious Toughness on that knockback modifier. The out-of-armor and in-armor reflex saves list different purchased bonuses (+6 vs. +5). Double-check the unarmored Drive bonus here, looks like it's accidentally inheriting the armored Dex bonus. I'm not sure you can double-dip on Hard-to-Lose flaws; the gadgets being vulnerable to loss is already covered by their parent device being vulnerable to loss. (The listed examples are also largely hand-held or similar, which would normally be Easy to Lose.) I count 95dp worth of stuff in the Justice Armor device, against its budget of 90dp. H.E.R.O. Mode Justice's notes on flat-footed defense & Drive count here as well. I'd recommend noting your attack bonus for the targeted attacks alongside H.E.R.O. Mode's attack bonus, since the majority of them have Accurate 3. As with Justice's normal mode, I count 95dp of powers, against the budget of 90dp.

Out of the gate, a note for you and GMs alike: Characters with large PL shifts like this are not entitled to use them if it would break agreed-upon PL limits for a thread, explicit or implicit (if you want to be in a PL12 thread and be under-leveled until the transformation moment, and you've worked that out with the GM, great! But no joining PL10 threads and then suddenly breaking out a +2PL change for a measly 2DP expense unless the GM and players are explicitly okay with it. Any GM can deny the use of H.E.R.O. mode, or PL-affecting upgrades like it, at any time and without normal fiat compensation, if it's for the purposes of maintaining thread balance. Reconciling how and why this limit is in place story-wise, if needed, is the responsibility of the player primarily, and the GM secondarily if desired. That being said, one quick fundamentals check that jumped out at me, and then a question: Our House Ruling on Fortune Feats (including Luck) doesn't explicitly call out Metamorph, but it does note that fortune feats "... must be purchased as stand-alone, always-active traits". This is normally a problem for folks using Arrays and VPs, but it would apply here too, so I'm not sure I can allow Luck inside a metamorph. The question is this: the character is not actually transforming in any fundamental way; the vast vast majority of their traits remain exactly the same, just moving up in PL a bit (with the usual boosts in effectiveness from the surplus points, like +autofire) and dropping a few super-senses and teleport utility for more attacks. Why build this as metamorph instead of a second device or such, outside of raw pp savings? The notation's slightly cleaner, maybe, but not so much so that it seems worth maintaining a completely extra sheet. A bonus +2PL with only 2DP spent for it also feels a bit like having your cake and eating it too, getting to build both wide (to be an extra-effective PL10) and tall (to be able to participate in PL12 threads) when almost every other comparable sheet on the site had to pick one or the other, so our standard of judgement is going to be a little harsher here. Thematically, too, I admit I'm curious: what's the downside to using the H.E.R.O. suit? Out-of-character reasons aside, why would Robin not always break it out when placed in danger, since using it gives up almost nothing (certainly very little that would be used in-combat!), provides significant advantages, and poses no apparent risk or mechanical drawback?

Elizabeth had been watching the many goings-on with...uncertainty, readjusting her grip on her crook staff like she was trying to wear a groove into it. She hated these kinds of conflicts. Beating up Nazis had been so much easier. The young trickster took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and tapped her staff against the floor; the mask charm on her wrist opened its eyes, and the ground rippled like she'd poked the surface of some absurdly large pond. A pond that was a lot more crowded all of a sudden - a copy for every student, a duplicate for every hologram, all moving and milling and reacting with as realistic a response as they (and she) could manage. Everyone but the Not!Leroy - he, and only he, stood alone. "Try....try not to be too rough," said Masque - indeed, wearing her mask, though she'd never moved to put it on. She sounded strained. "Nobody gets to choose how they're born."

Masque's not so fond of the fighting! At this point I'm not sure she wants anyone getting hurt, though it looks like we're well on our way to that not being a problem, one way or the other.... Still, she'll try to put the kibosh on any unnecessary damage. She's going to stunt: Concealment 10 (mirror images, All Senses; Extras: Affects Others +1, Area (General Burst) +1, Attack +1, Selective +1; Flaws: Action 2 [Standard]) [40pp] That should be enough to cover the whole area, but she has the pp left over to buy some Progression if not. I'm assuming the binding being done is more of a direct program attack, a plot thing, and would not be subject to attack rolls. Being a mirror images type effect, nobody's actually hidden - but any attacks against anybody suffer a 50% miss chance on top of the existing attack rolls (unless using some kind of tactile sense), and targeting area attacks and the like may be difficult. Attack extra means nobody gets to opt out (though they could arguably get some kind of reflex save against the area effect portion?).

Un-archiving at player request.

Un-archiving at player request.

Un-archiving at player request.

Un-archiving at player request.

Dragonfly (MAXED) Bug Hunt (12) Masque Hero Prom (4) GM Bug Hunt (14 * 2 = 28) 40 (!!!) posts to roll over. Egads. 21 posts to Masque to bump her to 25 posts / 3pp. 10 posts to Eclipse to bump her to 10 posts / 2pp. 1 post to Nocturne to bump her to 1 post / 1pp. 1 post to Grim to bump him to 1 post / 1pp. 1 post to Gremlin to bump her to 1 post / 1pp. I don't think the other posts will do me much good, so they can sit and cover for any miscounting I did. Ref point to Eclipse, please.

Mara had never liked special hero privileges like free drinks, but she had learned to deal with them. Largely, by planning future revenge. She hesitated only slightly, nodding as lines like creases in paper wrapped around the drone box; it folded in on itself in a way that was mildly uncomfortable to watch, and disappeared. This gave her time to commit the Smoothie Shack's menu to memory, and to call up weather forecasts. HAX employees would probably enjoy a full round of smoothies when the summer got hot.... "Thank you," she said, carefully taking the drinks in both hands. She'd promised treats, and there would be treats, and that made them precious. "Should get these out before they warm up. Good luck with your paper, and the science." As soon as she was out the door her wings burned their way into the world, and she was up, up, and away. She had deliveries to make.

Minor tweak: dropped Improved Pin to free up a point, and spent that point on the Selective power feat for her Immunity power.

Archiving at player request.

Dragonfly freed a hand to poke at her drone again, rolling it over and gently pulling back a loose plate. "...should be fine," she confirmed, cocking her head. In her head, she pulled the schematic apart and started running through a list of known damage. "Mostly needs a few replacement parts you don't have plans for. Don't feel bad. Wouldn't have had the facilities to manufacture them anyway." At least, she hoped not. If this kid had that kind of fabrication gear sitting around under a smoothie shop, she had questions. "Power array's a solid lump of metal now, whole thing's a loss. Memory core's scorched but intact. Good sign. Radio link's in pieces...." Mara was rambling, and realized it about two rambles too late; she cleared her throat and stood up straight again. "It'll be fine. Few days' work to rebuild instead of replace entirely. Will send you a picture."