Thunder King

Mali grimaced from the blow and backed off a bit before watching him. Every fighter had tells, all of them, even the best ones.. Whatever he was doing was getting annoying, and she was getting tired of it. She lunged forward, as if to take a wild swing at her foe. She watched him carefully...there! He flinched into a block. As soon as he did so, she balled up her fist and brought her other hand up, from nowhere, to deliver a solid uppercut to the stomach. That had to hurt. "What's the matter, don't like getting beat down by a girl?!" She growled.

Damage shifting for three, so DC24 TOU save got him!

Mali smiled, the same sweet, nice smile she'd used before. "Sure, yeah that sounds great. I'd love to meet everyone." Of course they weren't going to throw her on the team so quickly, introductions were in order. She grabed her backpack and threw it over her shoulders and turned away for a moment. Then, she caught herself. What had Koshiro said? Grab something to eat afterward? Did he mean with just Koshiro, or with the whole team? Then again, she wasn't really sure anyone else on the team even needed to eat. He did mention a lack of 'traditionally alive human beings', but she had no idea what the team did in situations like that. Was this a date, or...she had no idea, she didn't even know if she should ask! What if she embarrassed herself? Best to accept the invitation, and dress well, that way she could simply pass it off as making a good impression. All of this ran through her head in only a few moments before she turned around and flashed another smile. "That sounds great." She said, writing something down on a small slip of paper before handing it to Koshiro. "That's my cell phone, just call me when you guys get everything sorted for tomorrow, okay?" With that, she turned back around and tried to leave. She was blushing just a bit, and worried about what Koshiro was thinking. That was a very bold thing she did, far bolder than she'd ever done. She wanted to leave before it sunk into her head what she'd just done, and let Koshiro sort that out...

acrobatic bluff...32!

Voltage vanished, transforming into silvery bolts of lightning as he suddenly hovered overhead. Energy crackled through his body for a moment as he aimed his hands down towards the metal man. He grimaced through the pain of his recent injury and felt the sparks fly. The energy coursed from Voltage into the large thing, shocking it suddenly and throwing it off balance momentarily. It couldn't take too many hits like that, could it?

"Wow, really?"o She asked, her jaw dropping. Never in a million years did she expect to be invited onto a team, especially a team like theirs. "Wow, um...yeah, wow..." She shook her head. "Okay so...a distinct probably, but not a definitely. I have to think on this, you know? I can't make this kind of decision easily or quickly, but I promise you guys will know soon, and thanks for the offer! It's really flattering, makes me feel good, you know?" Of course, she was probably going to say yes, but she needed to weigh the risks, and make sure it was right for her. At least, she needed to meet the rest of the team before making the decision. Definitely wouldn't do to agree to something only to find out that she couldn't get along with the rest of them.

"You know we're gonna have to..." Mali said with a grin. "Spar?" finished Malian, who crossed his arms and chuckled. "Think you can beat me?" "Think you can deal with the humiliation of being beaten up by a girl?" "Mom used to kick my butt in our spars all the time, I got used to it." "Well then, how do you want to do it?" Though, to be fair, she already had an idea. "We should do it right, you know. I don't think any of our friends have seen a proper Muay Thai match." "The rituals and everything?" "Yup." "I can do that." She said, grateful that she'd brought along a few of the necessities. She'd not had a 'proper' match in a long time, and eagerly awaited fighting her male double. She anticipated that he might be a bit stronger, but perhaps not as fast. She'd definitely had to put that to the test. "Wait, one more condition..." Malian said, raising his hand. They both silently agreed. They would pull their punches. Both of them had bad memories of the one time they got reckless when fighting a friend. Never again.

"I get that, now..." She said. "I wasn't willing to blow up a whole planet full of people without knowing anything about them. I still don't really know anything about them, though. I'm 16, and I have a lot of years to make tough decisions in. I was thrown into a decision that's bigger than me, without enough personal knowledge to go on. I've never even seen a Grue, so as far as I knew, we were about to blow up people, not mindless puppets." She offered a sweet smile as a counter to Koshiro's heated voice. "I'm still a kid." She admitted with a wry grin. "A kid who was in way over her head and went with the choice that made sense based on what she knows and believes. I'm still growing, and learning, and trying new things and experiences. I went into being a superhero to beat up muggers and stop gangsters, not to deal with Grue and other huge threats. If I was ready to make big, tough choices I'd be an adult already." "But hey, that's what the Doom Room is for, right? To train and educate us, so that when we're the newest generation of big name heroes, we'll know how to make those choices, and make sure we make the right ones."

Mali shook her head. "I still disagree. If we're super heroes, we have to watch ourselves. We have to watch what we do, and make sure taking lives is never an option. I'm not saying the Grue are nice people, but do we really know that was the right choice? From the moment we arrived we were in constant danger. I'm not sure we assessed the situation the way we should have, and I'm not sure we shouldn't have just left the moment we figured out where we were. I...those sorts of choices are just...bigger than me. I couldn't wrap my head around the consequences. I'm not a genius, I would much rather leave the big choices to the smart guys who can make sure they're making the right choice. If I have to make a choice, I make the one that saves lives."

"This is murder. Heroes don't kill. Justified or not, act of war or not, that's no excuse. What do you think the Freedom League would do, in our situation? Destroy that many lives? Heroes don't do what they do because it's easy, or take the convenient route. They take the better way, they do things better than that. I can't stop you, but you know this isn't what heroes are supposed to do."t It was true, this was still all a simulation, and attacking her classmates couldn't possibly be the way to handle this. "All life is sacred, even life you don't like, or life that doesn't agree with you. Even life that tries to hurt you. I understand the Grue are bad, and I understand that they'd do it to us in a heartbeat, but that's the point! We're supposed to be super heroes, we're supposed to be better than the bad guys!" She said her peace and sat down quietly. She closed her eyes, and lowered her head. Simulation or not, she was bothered. She knew her friends had valid points, but every fiber of her being told her this was wrong, that this wasn't something they should do. "Just...do what you think you have to do."

Won't be here all weekend this weekend. I have some stuff to do. Will be back late Monday though.

"I...didn't really know that." Mali said quietly. "I just, I mean, it's people, isn't it? We'd be killing people? There are sentient Grue right? At least a few? I mean, what if there's another Pseudo down there? What if we detroy something vital, what if destroying the Grue destabilizes something, I mean. This is just too big, can we make this decision on our own? Are we smart enough? Do we know enough about what's going on?"

okay...have a stunt magnetic blast, upped to perception range, given the full-round flaw, making it 2 per rank again, that's 10 ranks, so... DC25 TOU save for a blast of pure magnetic force (or rather, magnetic descriptor, anyway)

GM It was all there, the safe had everything. Except for his plans. Corporate manifestos, more detailed blueprints that explained which companies contributed which parts. Personal expenditures. No mention if Walker Black was a real name or not, but there was a lot there to go over. Walker Black was a very secretive man, and it was evident that his exact plans were yet unknown. Lord Steam knew far more than he had previously, especially in regards as to what corporations to investigate, both on Earth Prime and Earth Victoriana.

inside are some documents, specifically detailing Mr. Black's exact personal expenditures in the illegal matters. There are also blueprints for the designs, extensively detailing not only the information regarding the automatons, but also where the parts came from, which corporations contributed what, and, perhaps most of all, which Earth Victoriana corporations contributed to the designs. Information about why exactly he's doing all of this, however, is not present.

Lord Steam finds a few suspicious documents, mostly connecting 'Walker Black' to the other information. He finds receipts for what look like perfectly legitimate purchases. However, he does find a hidden safe, behind one of the paintings. It's locked, of course.

blowing up the swarm with a lightning blast

Attacking for 23 Voltage is going to teleport as high as he can without leaving his first range increment and then rain down lightning with a blast.

Mali concentrated, trying to focus on the right target, to make sure she hit the right guy. She swung hard, finally deciding on exactly who she was hitting. Unfortunately, she was so focused on hitting him that she didn't make sure she'd hit him where it hurt. Watching him casually ignore her strike was a bit disheartening, but the fight was far from over.

Mali shook her head. "Heroes don't kill, even bad guys, even very bad guys. If I let an entire planet of people die, it's no different than killing them myself. I know how bad the Grue are, I know their invasion was awful, but still, we have to be better, we can't take the easy route and just kill them. If we let this happen, if we don't try to stop it, we're no better than they are. The blood of millions, maybe even billions, will be on our hands. I won't take part in that."

"Need to turn that off." Mali said. "Don't want to blow up the Grue homeworld, that could spell all sorts of trouble. We need to get this ship out of here, fast." Mali said. She glanced around the area, hoping, perhaps, that there was some sort of control device she could use. The ship had been sent to destroy the Grue, and she wasn't really keen on doing that. She momentarily forgot that it was a simulation, or at least, convinced herself it wasn't. She had to react naturally, anything else wouldn't look good. Still, she had no idea what to do.

21...I'll just take the bruise burning an HP for a reroll Yeah, 24...that's a bruise

Voltage knows not what this 'first' is at a 9

The moment Keres appeared, Voltage realized that this individual probably had a personal history with Miss Americana and Citizen. That left it up to the rest of them to fight the remaining drones. That was just fine to him. He watched as the drones dove and narrowed his eyes. Attacking someone else who could defend themselves was one thing. Attacking civilians was an entirely different thing altogether. Silvery current crackled around him as he extended his hands. He watched, carefully, as the drone dove, waiting for the exact moment to strike best. A bolt of energy coursed through the air, cracking the air with a sizzle and a pop. The drone jerked and seemingly lost control. It was evident that it was at least struggling to remain aloft. It would be out of the conflict, at least for the moment. He turned to the other drones...

"Okay, so...recap. Alien space-ship, very old and probably Lor. Suddenly taken way the heck away from Earth, into uncharted Grue space. So...situation completely messed up." She looked around, wondering if she should pull herself to her feet, or if they'd make another sudden jump. It certainly wouldn't do to be pulled in like that, after all. She dusted herself off a bit and glanced at the other two. "I'm no expert on space, but I doubt the Grue will be very happy with our presence. Any idea if we can get out of here?"