Ari

GM The elevator was commendably quick and smooth. The interior, in contrast to the hallways had wood paneling and a mural depicting a mostly nude Nordic man punching a giant as he leaped down from a precipice. After a wait of a few seconds they landed with a soft thud at the bottom. The doors slid open to reveal a dead silent hallway, which branched off into other hallways at the ends. Lights shaped like runic sentences(most of them saying simply "I bring light") lined the ceiling. A clone soldier walked up to the pair of supposed officers <<"Hello officer Flay, officer Groan. Welcome back to Commandant Burkehardt's wing, I have been requested by him to escort you to his sanctum, as he believes there may be a slight impurity in the magic he has affixed to you.">> he bowed slightly, and both Myrmidon and Blodeuwedd could tell that he sounded surprisingly young, and almost...eager <<"If you are here for an inspection, I will of course be happy to assist you in that first. If you require no observers, merely say so and I will depart.">>

'For the love of God, now I feel guilty about this!' Heraldo thought in frustration, shouldering and sheathing the Banner with a twirl and a flourish for the crowds nearby. Turning to the Southside residents nearby he proclaimed grandly "And thus the day is won! Worry not, citizens! Whenever such as this man appear to imperil you, we are only moments away!" he said with a sweeping bow, adding to a nearby and relatively well-off woman "If you could call the police about this fellow, miss, I would be deeply grateful!" then turned his attention to the car that had been crushed by the sudden meteoric landing of the man with flesh like steel, and the other one that had been crushed apparently out of spite. "Also, I should probably get these off the road." he said aloud, sliding neatly underneath the car, and slowly lifting up, his powerful muscles straining under the weight of the car that had been holed by the impact, carrying it with all care to a clear and slightly overgrown parking lot nearby. Getting out from under it he took a moment to recover, smiled dashingly at the Freedonians around the crowded street and repeated the process with the other vehicle, parking it in the faded white markings next to his other cargo. Dusting off his hands he searched for the steel-fleshed guy he had just punched out, keeping a careful eye on him until the squad car arrived.

<"Possible, plausible, whichever. So this may effect changes even without any of his people being in our world? Troubling, to say the least."> Marceau commented dourly, stepping aside to let a scurrying courtier scamper past up the stairs. He tilted his head at the mention of the song, frowning <"I cannot say i care for such music"> he said at last, quite casually <"But at any rate, yes, I will be quiet."> Inclining his head to René, he quieted his step and slowed his breathing, signing that he would take the lead on this case. He led the pair of them down stairs that echoed dourly, carefully choosing passageways that looked unused, where fewer Fey dressed in impossible finery walked, and where the decorations were a little on the austere side. They went unmolested, Parsinkle's people apparently having been told to smile benevolently at everything the human guests did and not try to forestall them At last at the center of the castle a small and unassuming door stood at the end of a otherwise bare red stone corridor with dim sconces. He listened at it, gesturing for René to keep watch.

Staring in amazement as his enemy started shaking and slackening their jaw blankly, Heraldo hovered for a second before landing, looking uncertainly at the metal-skinned man. "Errant," he called over to where he knew the other boy was "Thank you for stopping this man. It is still discomforting though. Let me try and punch him out." He declared, stepping back, balling his hand into a fist that flared with national power that burned gold in the sun, and stepping forward to slam his fist straight into the head of the bizarre robo-man who apparently hated cars. 'What is WITH this guy? Who is he, what was he even doing here?!'

In which case, Power Attacking(+-4): 22! If that hits, DC30 Toughness save for him.

Edited, my apologies.

Subito nodded shortly when Cerys made her decision "I'll come too." he closed his eyes, and the costume dissipated into a breath of gold, leaving him in his t-shirt, jeans and baseball cap. He stood at ease, smiling as he said to Wisp "When you're ready, Wisp." 'I wonder what this guy will turn out to be... Is it not plain already? Okay, fine, what ELSE he'll turn out to be.'

GM After a few moments the would-be escapee edged out of the cockpit, holding his hands in the air and looking rather nervous. They were a sandy-haired vaguely Dutch looking man, wearing the same combat uniform the other OVERTHROW soldiers wore. "I..uh...I wasn't gonna shoot anyone! Those rockets don't even work!" Inside, the other man down the hall abruptly lit on fire, barked "Okay, screw you guys. You're going DOWN, Light Lady!" and hurled himself at Young Britannia, his feet moving faster than the eye could follow, leaving a smear of burned marble behind him, his fist full of flame lashing out...and whistling past her wit a trail of smoke. "You need to time your attacks, Charfoot" the shadowy man explained, sounding a little pained after the sudden concussive blast to the chest he had received from Asad. He had cushioned the blow moderately well, and a sudden tentacle of darkness lashed out at the energy absorber with a faint hiss of otherworldly power, trying to snag him around the waist. "As for ad campaigns, I would suggest some good French agencies I know, but when you're pulled in half such things can be a little hard to keep in perspective." The guard overseeing the hostages looked over the prisoners, humming quietly to himself as he wandered over to the door, glancing out "Huh, wonder where the others are..."

DC30 Will or Intimidate save. They can't make it, but anyway! Will is higher so going with that: 6. Well, they halt alright Charfoot's up, and will Slam Young Britannia: 16. Misses. Halb-in-Shadow: uses his power to try and Grapple with Asad: Attack roll 11. Also miss. The guard moves over to the door of the room where the hostages are, wondering where the others are. Starlight is up. EDIT: DAMNIT. Forgot that THeAbsurdist did a +-5 All-Out Attack. Okay then Grapple roll: 22.

GM The alien was sitting very quietly as the alarm rang, and looked as hopeless as its largely expressionless face possibly could. As the medics followed Catalyst in and began carefully reattaching it to the machines cleaning its system, it lifted its head up, solid green eyes peering at her dully. The mouth reappeared on the brick-red face, though few words left it, its voice grinding through her mind ~"Yes, you are helping me now."~ the morose look all but vanished, and it snapped vocally "But how long until I am no use to you, and you send me to the Lor for..study. I have been informed about the things you do to us! I..." it had been slowly getting to its feet, voice raising until it fell at the last syllable, the protean alien sinking back into the chair like a ragdoll. After a moment it went on, its mental voice much quieter ~"I understand. I will not try to escape, nor will I act against you or try to gather information for the Meta-Mind while I am in your care."~ its eyes closed ~"As for more information...There is not much that is helpful I can give. I and those other two you captured, we are all that remains of a collective sent to infiltrate your Soviet Union tens of orbits ago. Our efforts were betrayed by the one who has now enslaved us. He calls himself Olezhka Ohoitnik, or the Hunter. He was..changed by the psychic monster you call the Cosmic Mind, and believes that he is a male human, using only such forms and chemically forcing his body to default to such a state. He is as lost to us as the Pseudo."~ ~"He caught us by sending a message after the last attempt to take your world. He claimed that he had found a way to strike at you from within, by cloning. We caught people who worked at that chemical laboratory, and twinned them. Then he needed police officers, and only too late did we realize what he was doing. He poisoned us then. He wants to destroy...you would call it 'the Mob', or Mafia, here in the city. He detests it. Will try and kill them with a poisonous bomb."~ After such a speech its voice was very weak, and it gratefully allowed itself to be lifted onto a rolling gurney. ~"He has many clones now. He has fortified himself beneath a syscraper nearby the laboratory. It has...many gargoyles on it..."~

"Well, at least these people are direct in what they want." The King of Suits rumbled to himself, slipping out of the alley after the spiral-decorated man sauntered into the nearby store, loudly announcing his intention to get 'the stuff'. He was a slightly reassuring sight to the crowd, costumed rescuers being somewhat of a familiar and welcome sight in such situations. Sighting the unheathily pale and lanky teenager down the street, apparently talking down the other half of the bizarre menace, he sighed in relief 'Ah, that young man seems to have the situation there well in hand! One less thing that needs to be worried about...' He ducked against the doorway, holding up a hand to forestall any shouts to him that might give him away as he carefully drew a few razor cards and tucked them into the narrow pockets on his wrists, peering into the shop for a moment before darting inside with a soft clik of his boots and a rustle of . Standing in the midst of the wrecked shelves, among the debris caused by the stampede of antelopes through the shop, he called out "Wreak! Step forward, I am the King of Suits and I want to talk to you! You and Archetype say you are the 'New Breed' of man, but use animals to do your dirty work, and stoop to theft? Explain yourselves!" He tensed for the answer, which after considerable experience with villains he guessed would involve violence, and derisive shouts about how he couldn't possibly understand them.

Heraldo Among the Sea of Faces 9 IC posts. A Silence Loud 6 IC posts. Being Yourself 2 IC posts. Blod in the Air 3 IC posts. Flying Flag 3 IC posts. Marching to the Beats 4 IC posts. Roughin' It 5 IC posts. Slave to Time 2 1 IC post. The Serpent and the Devil 4 IC posts. Twilight Tag 7 IC posts. Two's Company, Four's a Party 4 IC posts. y Dderwen 1 IC post. King of Suits All Take and No Give 1 IC post. Behold the Hunters 2 IC posts. Goodbye to Gravity, and to Death 2 IC posts. The Fourth Freedom 2 IC posts. Vanguard#1: Kings and Shields 8 IC posts. Walk and Squeak and Squawk 2 IC posts. Red Moon Dynamite and Laser Beams 2 IC posts. Wave-Eye A Convocation of Eagles 1 IC posts. I Crush Everything 3 IC posts. Speaking in Tongues 6 IC posts. GM (Please give all earned PP to Heraldo) All Take and No Give 3 GM posts. All You Need is Hate 4 GM posts. Ants Among the Flowers 1 GM post. Behold the Hunters 4 GM posts. Goodbye to Gravity, and to Death 1 GM post. OVERTHROW in City Hall 1 GM post. Riffsational! 2 GM posts. Speaking in Tongues 8 GM posts. The Fourth Freedom 1 GM post. The Purple Flame 2 GM posts. Two's Company, Four's a Party 3 GM posts. Waqlk and Squeak and Squawk 2 GM posts. Vanguard#1: Kings and Shields 6 GM posts. Vanguard#1: The inevitable, the Inexorable... 4 GM posts.

That nets her the answer to any questions she asks, though the Grue might not answer them quite fully.

Gabriel sees

That hits! Assuming the trade-off is for +2 Attack -2 Defense(please correct me post-haste if this is not so)EDIT: It is +-5. So DC30 Toughness save for El Halb: 19. Fiating a reroll(4HP to Asad): 27. A bruise. Gabriel's up, DC20 Notice check please.

The words 'poisonous to the touch' got the lion's share of the stockier boy's attention, and his initial reaction was perhaps less than exemplary. Listening closely and with obvious sympathy to Elias' patient recounting of what to Subito sounded like an unimaginably horrible upbringing, his sorrowful eyes suddenly narrowed in thought, and he said "Wait, hold on. Your mom's poisonous? Do you mean that metaphorically, or that she's, like, literally poisonous? I mean, sorry to ask about that, of all things, but you do sometimes go all poetical in the middle of sentences. And that if it's the latter..I dunno how that could even work." he spread the flannel shirt out on the grass, carefully arranging the mushrooms so that they could dry in the weakening autumn sun as he pondered this new revelation. Looking back up from the humble piles of fungi he told the telepath "If that's the case, I don't blame you for having those issues. I thought it was one of those "I gotta keep control, or else I'll go all Scion of Sobek on everybody!" problems. To be fair, that's a thing a lot of psychics I've heard of seem to have to deal with, but...yeah, shouldn't have assumed that was the whole story. And I meant that I didn't want to act like I didn't want you t'be with them. Here's hopin' you meet a dashing alien princess who wants to know what 'love' is!" Subito laughed, grinning widely "You could learn it from each other!" He considered the question put to him for a few second before answering "Okay, you wanna know why I get so nervous when you start talking about..uh, me and Blodeu? Well..." he glanced over at Cerys before muttering to the other boy "She's awesome. She's really cool, smart, has a kickawesome family, fights evil with a magic sword, is always really collected in situations where I'd start freakin' out..." he shook his head, downright starry-eyed and gently smiling "She's like, Welsh James Bond if James Bond was a girl and fought evil magic guys" he declared firmly, his gaze drifting up at the clouds before descending back to Elias' face. "I like to be around her a lot too. She..likes to be with me, and I have no idea why. Sometimes when we meet around campus between classes and talk and I'm talking so much louder and laughing so much harder than her, I feel like I'm this really overeager dog that's always bouncing around and barking, like I'm being annoying and dunno how to not be, and..." he stopped abruptly and looked sheepish "Uh..that probably doesn't answer your question at all, does it? Okay, short version: You bring it up a heck of a lot when we talk, seriously dude It's gettin' a bit weird, and I feel nervous talking about it." He went back to inspecting the mushrooms, checking for anything unwholesome that he had missed while cutting them out, grimacing a little at the faint pangs from his hand, grinning with bravado as he replied "Sure thing! I'm not too sure my hands will ever be all that good with delicate stuff, but it can't hurt to practice. Hey, Cerys!" he called over to quiet girl cheerily "You think they'll catch somethin'? Sam and Arrow Girl, I mean." he added by way of clarification, a sudden thought striking him "Huh! You know, I haven't heard that Bowman's got an Arrow. Gotta to ask Tona if she's ever thought about that."

GM The would-be huntress paused, looking not a little surprised at such a measured reaction. "I thought you were going to start trying to tell me some sob story about how you "have a kid at home!"" she commented with a rather unpleasantly cheerful laugh, which she quickly schooled away. "Though, hm. You make a good point. Those things are difficult to control, and if we do not get them someplace more suitable to them, they will cause no end of trouble. Very well, I will use my power to help return those animals. But that might take a few minutes, I ah..." she frowned "...I teleported them here. Anyway! Let's get to work before Wreak gets wise." she clapped the Farsider on the shoulder and set off for the herd, whistling sweetly as another aura began to grow about her. "Keep the bulls from charging me, I need to set up the Sending Sphere." she added briskly.

GM As if on cue, the alarms began, a low thrum throughout the lower levels, not the higher alert warnings. The sound had been carefully chosen to present the mood of suspicion more than frantic activity, or escaping to the fortified areas to ride out a supervillainous attack. The security chief listened to a brief message on his radio, sighed, gestured to the two heroes and said loudly "Come on, people! Disturbance down at the front doors, let's hustle! Medics, see that our guest gets back to the medical wing. Trevor, Mary, go with them, rest of you are with me, keep your channels and eyes open!" Leading the way down the stairs, the chief explained between gasps of breath "Just got an alert, some kind of attack right on the front door. Hasn't damaged anything but we might learn a little about the attacker from it." With that he settled into the motions of running at perilously high speeds down the steps, swiping his card through the scanner placed next to the doors that had appeared at the first alarm, leaning a little so the scanner could read his retinas, and charging through the doors as they opened. At last, the small band arrived with a clatter in the main lobby, for the anticlimactic sight of one guard kneeling next to another, who looked unhurt but was lying still on the floor, breathing shallowly. "Guy got in here, knocked out Freddy, then bolted chief," the man said quickly without turning around "I fired a warning shot to make sure he ran a bit longer, then activated the alarm." Catalyst could see easily enough that even in profile, the man lying unconscious and the one kneeling next to him looked uncannily alike...

Archetype is currently Unfriendly, not Hostile because she doesn't see Philos as much of a threat to what she and Wreak are up to. That puts her over into Friendly, and persuades her handily.

GM At Philos' gentle words and calming movements, the rampaging sable antelopes rumbled to a halt, sniffing the coarse and stinking air for his smell and looking at him curiously with their oddly-shaped eyes, pointed narrow ears that stuck out almost comically from under their large curving horns angling towards him. A few even stepped closer a few cautious feet, shielding with their rounded flanks the rest of the herd. The experienced animal handler couldn't have helped but notice though, that something was wrong. Despite their natural movements showing that they wished to halt the Arican warriors still moved forward, jerking their hooves towards him, heads lowering as if against their will. One even dashed towards the zoologist, sweriving aside at the last moment with a fierce twist of its entire being that sent it tumbling across the pavement with a plaintive bleat as it shakily regained its footing. "Hey, stop that!" yelled Archetype, pointing an imperious red-striped arm at the interloping incognito Farsider. Striding towards him she went on, angrily gesticulating all the while "Cease your interference! I and my brother Wreak have granted these mighty beasts the thing all animals dream of: throwing aside the trappings of the old to replace it with the new! Now quit it with the ameliorations and soothing of the savage breast stuff!" she demanded as the air around her began to shimmer with heat "Or I'll teach you the new law of the jungle!" now standing quite close to Philos as she passed through the antelopes, close enough that it became quite clear she was wearing platform shoes and that her eyes were yellow like a hawk's. Her brother was a little more relaxed "Forget him, Archetype." Wreak called after the woman, the spiral patterns on his costume seeming to turn before the eyes of the King of Suits "There's no way any normal human can break o-" then the antelopes brayed aloud, shook themselves vigorously and dashed away from the imperious Archetype, running headlong for several feet before stopping and looking around stupidly. Wreak started, looked straight at the lanky young man and all but shouted "Arch! He broke through! We're not in control of them anymore! But..that's impossible..." he added quietly, his dark face drawn into a look of deep worry "...Unless..no, he's not one of Zandar's goons. Take care of him, we don't need a friend to animals around if we can help it, these things are hard enough to control as it is. I'll go get the stuff" he added, turning unconcernedly from the mystified and slightly bored crowd and walking leisurely into the small souvenier and antique shop the antelopes had just crashed through, stepping over a shattered bust as he ducked through the doorway. With a shrug, the woman looked back at Philos "If you want, I'll let you run. No sense in killing everyone who opposes us. I'll have to burn you at least a little bit, though, make it look convincing." For the Freedonian's benefit she added "Flee, relic! Or I'll turn you to ash where you stand, as penalty for opposing the New Breed!"

With a whisper of boots on the pavement, the King of Suits landed in the alleyway. He had been on his daily patrol, and seen the charging antelopes long before he heard them, swinging onto one of the shops for a brief look at the scene before slipping into hiding, knowing that odds were he would do better if he wasn't seen before he acted. He wondered at the pale young man who had so fearlessly begun to deal with the herd 'Maybe he is from the zoo?' he thought distractedly, readying a card. Let's see what these people are up to first...

The brief rain of blasts that hissed and blared around the crouching Farsider caused the vampire to twitch at every report and loud hiss as whatever the desk was made of 'Terran building materials, always breaking when you don't want it to!' she thought, waiting for a pause in the assault before vaulting over the front desk, fixing her blue eyes on the one who had spotted her as she crossed the room with vaulting steps, bringing back her gloved hand with a creak of dessicated muscle under the glossy suit, her hand wreathed in a deathly cold vapor as she swung it through the man. To all outside observers the attack whiffed just past his nose, but to the man himself, it was like a knife had torn straight through his very soul, ripping at the control his spirit had over his limbs.

Switching to the Strike power of the Array, moving over to the closest of the two thugs that shot at her, and attacking him, taking ten on the Attack roll for 20, DC25 Will save for Malanti Thug #5.

The time between his second good-bye to Cerys and his being brought by the Queen into the dining hall had been infuriating for Subito, who stood stiffly and staring into the middle distance. The undressing and redressing hadn't been so bad, and would have been bearable if the Queen had decided not to linger in the same room talking to the courtiers while it was being done, observing the stocky teen with her usual unreadable cheer as he was measured and fitted. So he plucked irritably at the elegant and body-hugging clothes, and struggled not to glare at her Majesty when he spoke politely "Your kindness is praiseworthy, your Highness. I look forward to the Afanc's words on this." 'Wait, are these pants that tight around...they are. Great.' he looked over everyone's head, looking deeply uncomfortable as he waited for this madness to start getting over with.

The villain's Notice checks: 17, 23. Neither succeed.