Ari

'Oh thank Teotl. They can put aside past grievances much better than I had hoped.' Wave-Eye thought in relief, sinking his head slightly further into the sandy water. His voice echoed through the windy air of the narrows, grating out "I thank you for your forgiveness, O spirit of the waters. I shall do all I can to make amends for the wrongs I have done to your people." Hunching up his massive shoulders he went on, a little muffled by the partial submersion of his head "You have not heard that Leviathan stirs? That is...very strange indeed. Tell me," he asked carefully "Did you sense the disturbance of the shard of the Mighty One that attacked nearby? In the river due west?" He glanced briefly at the two human women, wondering vaguely why they weren't also bowing.

Holding a small bag of ice to his head, Wave-Eye snarled in vague triumph as the small gang of criminals were hauled away with a roar of tires and a blare of sirens into the night. The lights hurt his eyes, however, and so he had to close them after only a few seconds of watching the departure. With his scaled lids tightly closed over his burning, gigantic eyes he gurgled to where he felt Gabriel's heartbeat "You haven't improved that very much in this age, have you? A constant throughout the world it seems. I spent half century once living on shells, bits of coral, and sips of my own ichor. But that is another story, for another time." he slowly opened one massive black eye, staring down at the gleaming holy champion. A slight note of admiration creeping into his voice as he spoke on "I am glad to know such as you are about to guard the surfacers, Gabriel. It used to be that your race walked on the edge of a knife, with hardly a single mighty one that could stand against any of the deeper or higher powers. I am sorry I was so...incapable in that struggle. A sign I must redouble my efforts, I suppose." he commented dourly, shifting the ice bag to get it over the bones where the hammer of iron had struck him, leaving a blackened bruise. "I hope you will not hold my poor fighting against me?" he asked, sounding fairly sure that wasn't going to happen.

DC25 Toughness save for Angcrist: 11. Failed by 14, Staggered and Dazed. Stormbreaker is up!

'To battle, my Herald! What, wait, where did..alright, fine. Grant me your power, O Dama Azul!!' Ducking into an alley while the Southsiders around him jostled each other to either get closer or farther from the bizarre metal man, Subito found a small hiding place behind a mass of dumpsters. Concentrating, he suddenly burst into a flare of golden light, a sound like many marching feet, and a lusty shout like soldiers preparing for a charge. Resplendent in his costume as El Heraldo, he soared over the crowd trailing golden light that illuminated the evening crowds and blazed off of every storefront and car in the block, calling down joyously "Have no fear, citizens! You shall not go unprotected this day!" before landing next to the man tearing the car and throwing his arms around the strange invader, trying to get a grip on him before he caused any more havoc!

"I will tell you the truth, Crusader." The King of Suits said thoughtfully "I had never heard the term 'metahuman' before I came to America. I thought the term used was 'super? Back in France we call such people 'Le Puissante' or just 'puissants'." he scratched the back of his head for several seconds before simply pulling back his cowl and fishing out the small bits of gravel and dirt that had managed to get in, tossing them out the door with a note of irritation. His thick black hair was short, his nose broad and his eyes perpetually slightly widened. Thinking over what Crusader had said about the dream he said at length "A young girl, you say? I am surprised. No such children were involved when I first encountered Dr. Green and that poor man he was trying to grant powers to. Could he have a sister?" he wondered aloud "Not impossible, but mere speculation at this point. I will have to look into this. I thank you for the vote of confidence," he added with a slight bow, and a rueful smile that caught the moonlight brilliantly "I confess, I do not quite share your surety in my skill." Scooting his legs under himself he went on "That is an amazing shield you have, Crusader. Where did you get it? Is it a family heirloom from your predecessors?" he glanced over at the gunwoman "...Also, did you notice those...jolts, too? Where one thing seemed to happen, and then another?"

Alright, transforming time! Free Action Using Quick Change to get into costume, and another to say something suitable to the occasion. Move Action Moving up to the new challenger who hates cars. Standard Action Try for a Grapple: 20. If that hits somehow, opposing Grapple check DC is 30. EDIT: Yrch. Initiative roll: 13. Oh no, the horror.

Initiatives. I'm really sorry guys. Arnold: 20. The Dis-Possessed(x3): 18, 7, 19.

GM The nearly-visible hammers of heavenly sound swept through the room, battering at the three Wreckers still in any position to fight. They blasted the flames clean off of Rubber Burner and smashed him resoundingly to the floor, where he convulsed for a moment, shouting silently inside his helmet as the world spun and dimmed before his eyes, the appalling fire dying in them as he fell unconscious. Combine managed to stay up for only a few moments more, his limbs gradually resolving into the normal hands and feet they had been before, and almost managed to yell something defiant out before the second wave knocked the wind from his lungs and slammed him straight into the carpet with a thud. The robot's last few fuses blew out, and it powered down with a dull whine. Francine Scallop appeared from behind her desk, a massive revolver in one hand, the other rubbing the side of her head where she had bumped it against the desk. She surveyed the fallen that littered her office, the wreckage that covered still more of it, and the papers scattered everywhere. She winced at the dripping, scorched walls. "I...I appreciate the help, Gabriel" she said tightly, glaring at the triton sprawled on the floor "And his too, but next time maybe it would be a good idea if he did not accompany you." she shook her head and sat down, with a weary sigh she called the cleaning staff. The STAR squad captain was bright and happy despite the late hour, shaking Gabriel's hand with good will and directing his men as they placed power cuffs on the Wreckers and hauled them into the vans, The Rig apparently having already been caught en route. "Thanks for you two's help! We'd heard that these folks were somewhere in the area, but until now we didn't know exactly where. Good night gents! These extortioners are caught at last." with a final shake of the hand, and a signal to his crew as they sped off into the night.

GM Stroking his luxuriant beard with two thick fingers, Strongarm considered Heraldo's words, staring down with his coldly penetrating gaze at the stocky teen. At length his fingers stopped and he answered slowly "You at least know how to make half of a point. I agree, job security would be nice." he took in a massive breath and let it out slowly, sitting down and gesturing for the colorful paragon to follow suit "It's not so much the money, kid, I just want to be something other than some place's resident strongman. That's why I called m'self Strongarm, because everywhere I went, I was just wanted because I could lift and hit stuff harder and heavier than other people. It's why I left Stockholm, in fact." he rested his chin on his knuckles staring morosely at the younger man for a full minute. Mumbling under his breath, too quietly for Marcus or Kristin to hear, "And like I said, if you have powers like mine, you're very expendable." His face clearing slowly he said more loudly "But you are right, if I really want to be more than just that, being a hero to those in need is one of the best ways to do it." Floating over to the edge of the roof with a faint *woomsh* he looked down at the STAR vans below, the wail of sirens still resounding through the air. "Now then, it would be too much to hope I will be forgiven for all that destruction I just caused. I will go down and surrender. Good-bye, Heraldo," he concluded, shaking the patriotic flier's hand with a genuine smile before rising to his feet and descending gracefully "If you have the time, look up Charles Holmström. I would be glad to talk with you again." he saluted the younger boy, and then swung downwards with his hands raised over his head, peacefully complying with the very surprised and relieved STAR officers. Then the world stopped, the door opened out of the simulation and Alan Archer's voice rang out, with a slight note of concern "Okaay...Subito, I'll need to discuss some things with you after the conclusion of the session. Not bad work exactly, but definitely could use some improvement. Don't worry about it for now!" he added kindly, and with his regular enthusiasm "Just head on out and join the other two. Get a shower, get patched up if you need to. Only one left to go!" His voice cut out once more.

Sorry for not specifying, but going to have Trasher simply get deactivated by all the punishment. We're out of rounds.

Heraldo listened with a quietly furious look obvious on his masked face to the Captain's breakdown of the situation, floating at roughly eye level in his golden mist, the fact that they were really no closer to getting to the bottom of El Sierpe's schemes and putting a stop to them a bitter blow to the hopeful young paragon. Giving the serpentine crime lord a vicious glare he dropped to the ground and walked up to Capt. Meddows, shaking the older man's hand firmly, briefly wondering why he felt reluctant to let go. "Thank you captain, anything you can do will help, no matter how little it seems." he said with a smile that was a lot stronger than he felt things warranted. "El Sierpe, we'll see you tried yet." he added furiously to the fat man. Turning on his heel, he walked down the sidewalk past Glow, muttering to her "C'mon, we need lunch anyway. I know a place a few streets down." he set off slowly into the air, directing his flight towards a small diner a few blocks away.

"Yes, Dr. Green is likely to hear of this, and try again" the King of Suits explained grimly, misinterpreting Crusader's puzzlement "It might take a while for that poor man to recover, and be able to tell us what he knows. While we wait for the ambulance to get here," he went on while seating himself on the freight car floor, swishing his cape out behind himself so he wouldn't sit on it "Why don't we talk a little? I would very much like to know more about that dream you had, Crusader. If you can, could you tell me what you saw?" he asked with eager curiosity shining in his eyes, reflecting the light of the moon that shone down and spread monochrome silver over the now still and quiet railway yard. Turning his attention sharply to the 'cuffed and secured gunwoman, he stared at her through narrowed eyes before shaking his head and looking back to Clark with a warm smile under his cowl "Ah, my apologies, sir. I thought she stirred."

Pavor and Broma had practically glowed with pride at the words of Victoria and Serge. The two siblings looked at each other "So..foul line thing sounds good to me." Galanta shrugged "Eh, I got no problem with it, let's go. Yo!" she called over to Rodrigo, scribbling calmly away on a nearby bench "You sure you don't want in?" she asked with a kindly smile, which was met with a cool stare and a crisp Spanish <"No, I'm alright. Go ahead"> With a brief look of chagrin at her cousin, Galanta produced a basketball from the depths of a large bag she had brought along before loping over to the foul line. Tossing it into the air, she grinned at the others, jumped up, grabbed it in mid-air, and threw it with a fluid movement straight through the basket, the ball bouncing hard enough off the chain-link fence to rocket across the court and bounce back, skittering to a halt at Subito's feet. Kicking it up into his hands he looked at his sister reproachfully "C'mon, Galanta, don't go and show off like that." "Ahahahaha! Don't get so sore 'cayse you're not so limber, 'Bito!" she laughed heartily, rocking back on thick heels and looking quite pleased with herself, folding two muscular arms across her chest and smiling challengingly at the three Claremonters. With a theatrical sigh, her brother tossed it to Victoria "Here, you go next Vick." The quick sounds of Rodrigo's pencils drifted over the darkening court, lit by harsh streetlights overhead.

Ah, that explained it. Trying to demonstrate what he meant was deeply dangerous for the one attempting to understand him. 'No wonder you're like this' Subito realized 'Your powers must make it hard to be any different.' "Yeaaaah, El, might want to keep the 'give people seizures' thing as a last resort. If that." he cautioned bluntly and in a low voice tilted to only carry to Elias' ears. He walked on in silence for the rest of the brief explanation, nodding at the closing words and jumping lightly over a coin-operated newsstand that blocked his way "Okay, that makes sense, if we're not careful it might turn from you showin' me the world as you see it, into you controlling how I see and think about the world. That's a problem I've never even thought about with psychic powers" he admitted "I always assumed that everyone knew on some instinctual way that their thoughts were their own, and others not, and could sift through them that way." After a moment's thought he said quietly "Elias, I'm sure you'll be able ta keep yourself from doing that. And mentally, I'm not totally helpless" he added with a cheerful laugh, smiling encouragingly at the teen telepath. His smile vanished abruptly when he happened to turn at just the right moment, and see something he had definitely not expected.

Whatever the ones back at the camp were talking about, it wasn't any of his business. Directing his attention to the sounds coming from closer by, Subito wondered dourly 'Man, between me an' Elias we're gonna end up saying enough stupid crap to kill much chance of friendship. Not inevitable, but likely if you choose to not try and be less challenging.' Subito scowled "Sorry, I forgot about the poaching thing." he said apologetically, slowing his step and treading more lightly when Elias mentioned he was being too noisy. "Dunno about Sam, but Cerys is pretty good at the outdoors and hunting thing, went to Wales with her once and I could barely hear her walkin'." he added admiringly, a smile spreading across his face before he abruptly realized what the other boy had said "Wait, she points her feet at-what are you talking about?" he demanded with a sharp look at the more reserved teen before looking away, shaking his head and grumbling "I..forget it, nevermind." just as they stumbled upon the stand of dark birches, and Elias' quickly began gnawing away. Blinking in slight disbelief at the sight of someone chewing a twig from a tree, Subito shrugged it off, though he took a few extra pieces from the close grouping of ash-grey wood, stuffing it into the many pockets of his jeans, unconcerned with the holes they were bound to wear through the thin fabric. He started as his name was called, advancing quickly over the slightly muddy ground and almost stumbling upon the telepath by the mushrooms, he looked closely at the fungi before hesitantly nodding and taking out a narrow-bladed knife from his belt "Okay then, I will do that. Anything else I should remove while we're harvesting these?" he asked with obvious unease, glancing over at Elias as he spoke, severing the caps from their stalks with deft cuts. He was perfectly safe from any poisons the blewits might secrete, but he knew all too well that wasn't exactly a universal thing.

Rubber Burner's DC32 Toughness save: 10. That takes care of that. Combine's DC32 Toughness save: 10. ...Also knocked unconscious.

A splendid idea Cubist! The aspects of Ra Sourced from these two pages at Wikipedia, and this and this at egyptianmyths.net Ra is the god of the sun in Egyptian myth and, because of the power of the Sun, the supreme deity. He is portrayed predominantly as a royal man with a hawk's head and the Sun sitting on top of it with a snake wound around the solar disk. He was born from an egg out of the primordial water of Nun before any land existed, his infinite power resting within his hidden name, and if he gave a name to something it sprang into being. He spoke the names of each of the other gods, his creation of the universe involving the births of Nut, the sky, Geb, the earth, Shu, the air god between them that prevents their joining and throwing creation into disarray, Ma'at the spirit of order, and Hapi, the goddess of the Nile. His aspects as the sun he called Khepera, the dung scarab beetle god who rolled the sun into place in the morning, Ra, the hawk god who flies the sun across the sky(and is occasionally associated with Horus, because the people love Horus) at noon, and Atum, the human-shaped god of the evening who descends from the sky and prepares for the nightly journey into the darkness. As the sun was thought of as a giant ball of fire, and primordial waters surrounded the creation of Ra, and fire is known to not react well to submersion in water, he of course has two boats, one for the day trip across the sky, the other for his gloomy voyage through the underworld of his domain. During that period he is guided by his daughter Ma'at, and defended from such monsters as the famous serpent monster Apep by the warrior gods, including Set once upon a time. Ra has(more or less) four 'selves': Amun-Ra, his aspect as the supreme ruler of the universe and god of the sun; Atum-Ra, his face as the creator of all things within Ma'at the universal order; Khnum, his aspect as rebirth and the setting sun, and Raet-Tawy his aspect as a woman.

Twitching in sympathy as the shield crashed loudly into the side of the gunwoman, Marceau noted the swaying motion that she made as she reached for a support, realizing 'Aha! Disoriented by the blow. Well done, Crusader!' he cheered internally, leaping from his hiding place and running at top speed towards his briefly unsteady foe, pulling back his left fist and delivering it with a short lunge into her sternum, knocking the wind clean out of her, and sending her crashing to the ground in a gun-covered heap. He looked down at her for a moment, shrugged, and then handcuffed her, carrying the woman back over to where Crusader and the once-monster were. "Well, that was decidedly anticlimactic. I suppose that is just as well, too much havoc and damage would have been terrible even in this abandoned yard. What do you make of all this, Crusader?" he asked the heraldicly-dressed hero anxiously "This seems a rather perilous situation we've wound up in."

Rubber Burner's DC27 Toughness save: 22! Bruised and Dazed. Combine's DC27 Toughness save: 20! Bruised again and Dazed. Round 11 Rubber Burner: Bruise(x1), Dazed-GM Gabriel: Bruise(x2), 1HP Trasher: Bruise(x1), Disabled, Injured(x1), Staggered-GM Combine: Bruise(x2), Dazed-GM Gabriel is up again!

GM The burning biker stared in disbelief at the collapsing figure of the fishman, glancing at Combine as the suited man cursed furiously and started getting ready for another try. He burst out laughing, clapping mockingly as he turned sneeringly to the just-recovering Gabriel. "I gotta hand it to ya, buddy! You sure do have a perfect hand on the situation here! In a few seconds you and your fishy pal here are gonna be tossed into the dumpster anyway, so why don't you be a good little choir boy, and sit down so me and my pal can beat you senseless? You can't win now!" he crowed, suddenly lighting himself ablaze, his eyes now visible as white-hot coals behind his smoke-blackened helmet "The Wreckers are gonna get their dues!"

With a bellowing, gurgling roar Wave-Eye jumped up in a scaly, shivering heap of muscle and bone and fins. He had awakened, more or less, a moment ago and seen the incoming hammer of metal descending towards Gabriel, and every instinct within himself honed by long years in battle promptly forced him up and sent him running full-tilt into the path of the arcing, transfigured fist. It smashed into his head with a resounding *clong* that echoed throughout the office and down the hall, causing the triton's eyes to slowly roll backwards, and sending him crashing with considerable finality into the dusty, scorched, paper file-strewn carpet. He managed a "Gllghckt..." before falling unconscious, a brief mutter of shame at the back of his head as he slipped away. 'The Christian will never let me live this down.'

Very well, DC20 Notice check: 21. Holy crap.

So...definitely part of the problem, myself, but one thing that hasn't been gone into much here beyond the Scarab is the pantheon of Egypt. Of course, the Voodoo Loa make more sense as a modern source of power or devotion, but as it has been a recurring gripe(in Chat at least) that the supposed focus on those two relatively dis-used pantheons didn't amount to much, I'd say it would be at least kind of constructive to give the Nile Gods more appearance and a larger role. I know Gizmo's working on his Kid Set and Sekhmet, and of course such things never work if they're forced, so I decided to ask you all, the wise and informed players of FCPBP, if this could be reasonably done, if it would be a good idea, and if so how it could be done!

It took a few moments to fully comprehend what the telepathic teen was talking about, but at last Subito nodded slowly. It at least made some kind of sense to his undeveloped mind "Yeah, I kinda get what you mean. People's minds, they're a little like an ocean around you? An ocean that your own mind draws stuff out of, like emotions and memories?" he rubbed the back of his head, raising an eyebrow at Elias "Show me? You can do that? How?"

The cowled man crouching in the fog on the roof, trying to ignore the two men blundering about nearby, was just puzzling over the problem of how they were going to resolve this when he heard Crow's clarion shout. These men were definitely not skilled fighters, but they were definitely were dangerous to the buildings around them, and Marceau knew all too well how slow and infrequent any repair work got in the Fens, having seen holes in roofs remain untouched for months, if not years at a time. Maybe if he tried He started at the call, his mind instantly leaping to years back, when he and some of his friends had happened to end up doing an all-nighter of American cartoons. Getting silently back to his feet, he grinned outright, more at the pleasant memories than with any malice towards the Crusaders trying to beat him to death. "Roooby Roo!" he replied brightly, thinking 'Now then, let us give them a reason to stay in the fog..' he waited until the man whose skull he had already rattled stumbled just a bit too close to him, and leaped out of the heavy mist, slamming one of his gauntlets into the man's side with a meaty thud as he pulled the trigger, punching the air clean out of the MAXed out man's lungs before ducking past the gasping, wheezing bulk that crashed to the roof behind him. Gaining speed on the slick concrete, the King of Suits took a deep breath, and hurled himself across the dizzying gap between the decaying building next to the Blanche Heights and the dingy building that lay in its shadow, rolling as he hit the roof to disperse the weight of his fall, and splashing through a slightly stagnant puddle as he rolled to a halt, well clear of the fog. He turned and looked back at where he had come from, saying to himself "Let's see what Crow has in mind..."