Shofet

Starlok Countess Ori-Bath simmered in silent anger at the intruders. Not only had they ruined her meal, they threatened her hostess and her fellow guests. However, she was faced with a conundrum. Her gear remained aboard the Pale Rider, leaving her less effective than she would be normally. To make matters worse, the signal jammer ensured that she wouldn't be able to call it back either. Not unless she could find the machine responsible and break it. Still... Something had to be done. She looked over at Maybelle, hoping to lock eyes with her. She intended to follow the chef's lead in this matter, given that it was her place of work and these were her guests. Still, should the opportunity to strike arise, Starlok wanted to take it. Thankfully, it seemed as though, given she was at the back of the restaurant, she had not yet been noticed. That, or these intruders weren't aware of that grey women weren't very common on Terra. She wasn't yet sure which.

GM The man in the reflective mask's face obviously could not be seen, but there was a palpable sense that he was smiling like a jackal when Maybelle made her way into the dining room. He seemed to regard the forcefield for a moment, before briefly tilting his head to one of the other individuals, who proceeded to make a small nod. "Excellent, excellent. You saw reason. Hostages can do that, of course," he said, clearly pleased with himself. "Maybelle McQueen, please come with us. We have many questions to ask, and you have many valuable answers I plan to sell to the highest bidder." He held out his hand for Maybelle. "Unless the safety of your patrons no longer concerns you. Then we could do things the hard way, instead," he cooed.

GM The armed men looked between each other, shrugging, until the man with the reflective mask finally spoke up, chattering to his men in the language of the Lor. Three peeled off from the main group, moving around so that they could secure the back entrance as well, leaving five, including the apparent leader, in the main room. Then, he turned to Rose. "I think fetching her would be a very good idea," he said in a low, restrained tone. "You should go do that now. Oh, and if she tries to escape, I would like for her to know that I will feel compelled to take out my frustrations on her staff." He gestured to his men again, and then to the patrons. "Do you see what they are carrying? These are guns. You've invented guns, right? That means no heroes today. None. Or we will use our guns." He turned back to Rose a final time. "Now go. Before I become impatient."

Soliton Despite herself (and the situation), Mia genuinely enjoyed the whole 'mad scientist' thing. It felt like a rare occasion that Mia got to use her powers for what she felt they were meant for - making things that pushed the boundaries of what was possible. After all, she had all the rarest materials in the universe at her fingertips! And yet the idiots in the governments of the world would rather she waste it on blasting petty criminals and dealing with whatever nonsense came up that week. She could change the world! But oh, no. That wasn't allowed! All to maintain a status quo that was doomed to collapse in a few de-- Mia eventually caught herself in this mental rant, and decided on two things: Maybe she liked mad science a little too much and also she should probably stop drinking caffeine today. When the machine worked and brought them to the apartment, Mia had settled herself (switching to tapwater instead of cola) and had thought to conjure up her costume to wear instead of her day-to-day clothes. Didn't need to be giving up her identity to evil Swedes. That was always a recipe for trouble. Before she had time to gather her thoughts, though, Pan raced off, and Mia didn't know exactly what to do about that. "Yeah I mean sure Forever Boy, I could have turned the air in his room into laughing gas or strategically blocked all the windows, but bullrush it is, I guess. That's cool. That's fine."

Mia is going to investigate the hole to the outdoors, along with the rest of the crime scene, for any sign of chemical or techno foolery. Result is 13+10 = 23 on a Know Physical Sciences check

Soliton Mia had been sleeping fairly soundly, for the most part. She had considered teleporting home to sleep and returning in the morning like she often did on trips, but it felt like kind of a waste to do it here, in this big house with all these big, extra beds. Besides, it was nice to relax away from home sometimes. Of course that was now all up in smoke thanks to screams of despair and the sound of people talking. Resisting the urge to just teleport to the noise, Mia instead went the slow way, tromping over in her t-shirt and black pajama pants, rubbing her forehead and grumbling to herself. If she had to hit someone with a beam of white hot butt-whoopin', she would.. She wandered into the room, and immediately, she frowned, looking at the photos. "Ohhhh, I've heard about this room," Mia said gravely. She looked around, frowning at everyone. She tried to piece together what was going on. She squinted. She looked at the hole in the wall. Squinted some more. "Huh."

Starlok ”Thank you, Ori-Bath sipped her sweet tea thoughtfully, taking in the restaurant around her now that she had time to herself. She found herself watching the patrons around her. Despite herself, she found herself comparing the people here to the people of Nokton. She listened to the way they spoke, and while it was more… rudimentary, she could hear flashes of something she might expect to hear in Castle Lugo’s dining halls… Ugh, now was not the time to be riddled with nostalgia. She produced her data pad so that she might record her thoughts on the food. She had become something of a diarist in recent times, cataloguing her thoughts during her temporary exile from her home. She wrote personal little reviews on the food she tried in more peaceful times, something to remember to bring back with her when she regained her rightful throne. Things were going fine until Ori-Bath began to notice that her data pad was suddenly on the fritz. The screen wavered, before dissolving into white noise. The Countess looked up to see other patrons looking quizzically at their own devices, trying to get them to work. They only began to look up from their when a series of armed individuals began to make their way into the building through the front door. “Gentle diners and staff!” Said a man in a reflective mask, speaking in a thick Lor accent. “I apologize for the interruption. Please, remain in your seats and no harm to come for you. We are only here for… Maybelle McQueen.” Ori-Bath glowered, dragging her nails across the table. What a terrible time to be without her Panoply.

GM Not too far in the distance, another spaceship entered into Freedom City and lowered itself invisibly onto a rooftop in the North End. Silently, several men clad in high-tech armour and armed with blasters stepped out, observing the Southern Queen from afar. They had come with one purpose: to capture a member of the Praetorians. After considering each member, they had settled upon Maybelle McQueen, reasoning that if they moved swiftly and decisively, they could wrangle her without having to worry about the Terran law enforcement’s woefully underdeveloped weaponry. As long as none of the local heroes showed up, they would have one major asset. Watching the windows through a scope, they prepared to spring their assault. ”Remember, no casualties. Weapons on stun. We’re here to take her in live so we can press her for info. Any information she has is going to be a gold mine if we can get the Khan’s agents to buy our intel," said one, dressed in all black, a reflective mask covering his whole head and molded over the features of his face to form a sort of mirrored visage. The men nodded, and bided their time for the right moment to move.

OOC for Carolina Red .

Soliton Mia looked up at Eira's mother, smiling awkwardly. "Oh, uh, hey Mrs. Natt och Dag. I'm alright, just taking a break from talking to everyone," she said. "Sorta get overwhelmed when there's too many people for too long. Uh..." Mia rubbed the back of her neck. She knew that Eira was pretty shaky with her parents, but Mia didn't know that it was her place to really say anything. Her mom definitely would have said something, but her mom was also used to being thrown out of places. Still, she felt like she had to say something. Just not something provocative. Just... had... to be... careful. "I'm... I didn't get along with Eira, at first," Mia says. "But I'm glad she's my friend. You raised a really good person." Oh God, was that too much? THAT WAS TOO MUCH! NO! AAAAAAAAA!

Soliton Mia had mostly checked out during dinner. Her capacity for drama went way down when she was eating, and so she learned, in her own way, to shut out the students of Claremont to avoid it as best she could. Eating was supposed to be a time of joy and peace, not a time of screaming and fighting. But now dinner was done, and people were talking trash about her friend in her own house. She supposed, today, would feed the drama by coming to Eira's defence. Moving over to Pan and Micah, she inhaled sharply as if to give them a moment to flee before she spoke. "Eira can be difficult, but it's a little messed up to say she's just doing something to make her parents mad. Especially since she's been into Pan since, like... They met. Also talking about your host behind their back while you're in their house is super bad manners okay bye." Not giving Micah the chance to interject, Mia disappeared by teleporting to a random location in the house, thus making her more of an angel of conscience rather than a nagging friend, in her own mind.

Starlok The Countess blinked. Oh, of course, it was probably one of those acronyms the Earth sorts seemed to love more than life itself. Well, she would have to deal with that later. Wait, she had been to this planet before. Did they know about that too? Oh, she hoped not. She hated having to scream at bureaucrats. When the tenders came out, Ori-Bath inclined her head politely, and using a fork and knife, cut off a small portion, and chewed thoughtfully, letting it travel over the different portions of her tongue, before taking a small sip of water and swallowing. She considered the flavours and the textures, before finally saying. "They're good. There's a similar dish on my home planet made from fried mycoprotein. The family chef would make it for me when I was going through my picky phase as a little girl. It was all I would eat for a few months. It's... Very nostalgic, thank you." she said with a small smile. Her eyes scanned the menu for anything she remotely recognized, her expression becoming more lost with each passing moment. Until her eyes settled on the drink menu. "Oh! Sweet tea. I will have some sweet tea, please. As for food... I... Whatever dish you are most proud of here? I don't know any of these but I enjoy trying new things."

Starlok Ori-Bath considered for a moment. "Nothing else food related," she said. "At least, nothing that grows on Earth, as far as I am aware. As for Uni-Son, I am certain she and I can come to an arrangement." She did find it interesting that a Terran woman had the same name as her maternal great aunt. Perhaps Noktonians had influenced this planet in the past? She folded her hands in her lap, smiling up at Maybelle. "Food in the County of Lugo is primarily vegetarian, so I am especially curious to try your dishes. I understand Southern food is very meat-heavy from what cursory research I did before I came here." There were some other thoughts she had, like the fact that the woman's name was 'McQueen'. Did that mean she was royalty? Or was the "Mc" an indicator of servitude? There was also a place called 'McDonalds' that served food. Perhaps the position of cook was hereditary here on Earth. Questions for later.

Starlok Ori-Bath nodded, retrieving the coins, and smiled at Rory. “Thank you, I am unaware of your customs. I’m sorry if I offended. Have a good night,” she said before she was lead away from him by Maybelle. Ori-Bath smiled today more than she usually did, as she considered herself something of a gourmand and thought nothing better than being able to receive especially good food. As she took her seat, she felt the need to apologize once more. “I hope I did not upset your guests. It is incredibly hard to acquire a vehicle on Terra. Er, it’s actually called Earth in your dialect, isn’t it? I do not intend to seem dismissive of your culture,” Ori-Bath. Normally, she would not be so cautious, but Noktonian chefs head a very special and important place in their homeworld’s culture. Given that politics were so vicious on the Night Moon, one had to stay forever in the good graces of those who served you food, lest they agree to one’s enemies’ proposition to put silver in their food. As such, chefs, waiters and cupbearers were effectively as sacred and untouchable as priests were in other cultures, and were to be treated as such. “I am excited to try your food, as I have heard tell of it even from my distant corner of the galaxy.”She paused, and then felt the need to explain things. “I understand I resemble a creature known on Terra as a ‘vampire’. I would like to clarify that my species’ taste map correlates strongly to Terrans, and as such you need not take any precautions for the purposes of food preparation. Oh. And, while this is embarrassing to admit, I cannot touch silver cutlery for very long or I will begin to develop ulcers on the affected area and may potentially get what you call ‘tetanus’.” She frowned. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound demanding. I merely wish to list… health concerns.”

The Meta-Naut Raya stared at the two of them, her mouth formed into a near-flat line. Somehow, neither of them had answered her question. That was fine. This was fine. She'd just ask it again later, and then if they ignored her then, just keep interrupting them with the question until they answered. For now, though, she'd let it slide. It was fine. This was fine. "Yeah I mean, dude, you can think whatever you like but it's not like I can just suddenly switch the resources out of thin air to make a supersuit. My facilities make spaceship parts and satellites. Like, even if I did, the amount of product testing and creation would take actual years before I could bring my own to market, at which point MarsTech would have a commanding share of the market. That's not even to mention the amount of permissions I would need to get from the government to manufacture that stuff," Raya said. "But sure, yeah, just because I'm jealous and trying to steal business secrets. For an entirely different industry."