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Water between Townsville and Magnetic Island. Queensland, Australia 2017 Thursday, February 2nd, 2017 9:00 AM It was a brisk and cool morning, and four Claremont Alumni found themselves leaving Magnetic Island back towards Townsville, Australia. Specifically to the Australian institute of marine science. Having spent the weekend near the vicinity of the Cockle Bay Reef, for Giang Trang's studies. Aside from surfers, fishers, and those preparing for tours the morning was relatively calm. All in all, it was a good start to the day. In the distance, Kimo Keli'i was steadying himself on his surfboard. Freedom College wasn't swimming in money, it took an entire semester of fund raising just for the surf club to save up for this three day trip to Australia. As such no one was looking to waste the opportunity as a swell began to form. Unfortunately, one of the less experienced members of the club fell off his board in between waves and began frantically splashing around worriedly.

Emerald City, United States Saturday, May 27, 2017 Afternoon The sun beat down on Emerald City, reflecting off the Albian River in all shades of navy and cobalt and sapphire. It was the first wave of spring on the West Coast and the city was enjoying it. Families were playing out in Magic Hill Park or Elysian Forest. The campuses of Arcadia College and ECU were crowded with coeds studying or playing on the grass. The streets of Southern Shore were crowded with people enjoying the bright day. Tona Baudin reclined in a chair outside a coffee shop, tight trousers and a tee giving her the chance to show off her definition. It wasn't just because she enjoyed the warmth as much as anyone and enjoyed showing off the results of her exercise. She finally had a chance to show off Emerald City to her girlfriend; Sam wasn't around nearly as much as Tona wished she was, but now that she was here Tona intended to make up for lost time. "It's called Ghost Sightings," Tona said, frowning as she hunted for something on her phone, "but it's not all about ghosts. It's about a lot of stuff happening around town, like fishermen down the coast turning up monster-sized lobster shells or a rash of disappearances among the homeless. It's a really fun read and a good source of information. I just wish I could find the damn site on my phone..."

Here we go again with a group of three.

I'm looking for a couple of Emerald City PCs in the 8-10 range to help Blue Jay deal with a new crime wave in Emerald City. Magic will be involved. Any takers?

GM Elysian Forest, York Hill, Emerald Enclave Retreat Cabin , Emerald City, Oregon "...I am so glad to see so many unfamiliar faces here today!" Max Mars grinned out at the crowd from the stage, artistically set into a rock slab cloven by a trickling stream. The meeting room was walled in glass and metal, the ceiling admitting light falling golden and green through the boughs of pines swaying high above. The hundreds of guests were scattered at low Japanese-style tables laden with delicacies from dozens of countries. They'd been through four other speakers, starting in the morning and interspersed with music and other entertainments. Mars was the fundraiser's host and had gone to extravagant lengths to impress on the visitors what a great idea it would be to help fund the preservation of the Pacific Coast rainforests. Or, more precisely, to help fund technology that would help protect them. "We don't all live here, but all of us need this and other natural resources to stay in business. We need these just to live, folks, without paying Mother Nature a tax Uncle Sam can only dream of. In particular I'd like to thank-" His bright green eyes flashed across the holoprompter embedded in his contact lenses, an inhman mind whirring over the unusual names literally faster than thought. "-Amir ibn Jafar ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Misri, of al-Misri Holdings and Antoinette Baudin of Danger International! Come on up, you two!" In the deep woods, the polite applause and brief swell of congratulatory music stood out even more than would in the city below. And the ringing seemed to last even longer than usual as the two were collected by ushers and brought on stage. Max Mars was a full foot shorter than Amir and even Tona towered over his leonine-haired head, which do nothing to shake the irrepressible glee in his cat-green eyes. Extending a vigorous handshake to both of them and an ostentatious air-kiss next to Tona's ear (his beard scratching her cheek), Mars nodded to the crowd "Why don't you say a few words, let us all know a little about the good people we'll be working with?" His grin and expectant looks from the other guests brooked no refusal.

Rolls and the like. Bleh.

Monday, August 11, 2016 Emerald City, Oregon The long, ragged line of passengers spilled out of the jet liner, six hours of flight time taking their toll on legs and patience and attention. Tona Baudin did her best to keep her face together until she was able to get away from the crowd. She stood alone by herself for long minutes, focusing on her breathing and her thudding heart. Flying through the air -- such an impossible thing that people here handled so blandly! -- always got to her, and crowds always got to her, and the two together for so long left her feeling twitchy and breathless. For now she was just happy to be on the ground. In time she followed the signs and the crowds out to the main terminal of Benjamin Jacobs International airport and towards the luggage carousel. That, at least, was easy for her. No one else had brought along a bright orange hiking pack with a solid bow case webbed onto the side. No one else could probably heft it one-handed like she did, either, which earned her plenty of empty room when she swung it onto her back. Out on the street, Tona briefly wondered how she was supposed to go about hiring a taxi cab before she saw the big man with her name on a sign. He was broad-shouldered, with greying hair and a powerful, wearing the sort of brightly patterned tourist shirt the archer previously thought only existed in movies. He waved at her, pointing at a black SUV. "Antoinette Bawd-in, is that right? Glad as hell to meet ya, girl!"

OOC thread for this thread. @Raveled @TheAbsurdist Blue Jay and Asad fight a chase thing. Okay RAVELED, here are the rolls: DC20 Notice to hear the engines of the badfolks before they arrive, if successful +5 to the following Reflex and Initiative rolls. DC15 Reflex from Blue Jay and Asad to dodge the shower of glass when the F.O.E. potentiate descends. Fail and you get a Bruise. Two initiative rolls, choose the higher for the encounter at the Enclave Retreat. Second for the chase scene through the Elysian Forest. Using Dreadnought and the Air Cavalry from the Emerald City Knights campaign for the baddies. Dreadnought("Air-Martial") first initiative: 25, second: 13 Drones: 22. Second: 17 Regardless, Asad gets a HP for his Misery Girl being flung into the sky, and Blue Jay gets one for being caught in her civilian ID. Assuming Blue Jay hijacks one of the drones to serve as aerial mount or otherwise gains some fast-moving capacitium, or Stunts a faster Swinging. And for the chase scene, please roll three Reflex saves at DC15, 18, then 20 to try and keep up with each section of the sky-flight, and an Attack roll to destroy the drones and free the captured guests, vs DC19. After that, Dreadnought slips out of his armor and leaves it to fight the heroes. It takes three hits and then self-destructs convincingly. DC15 to hit and +15 Toughness. If any escape with their valuable cargo, they tie into the later group thread.

GM Madden's West Freedom, Freedom City, NJMonday, September 12th, 2016 6:00 PM Samantha Vance and Tona were enjoying a cozy dinner in one of the popular Madden franchise's. The cozy atmosphere, did nothing to hide a notable peculiarity from the pair. They were being watched. Every other patron in the restaurant gave subtle nonverbal tics that revealed themselves to be law enforcement, or possibly even military. The distinction was very thin. None had made any overt signs of aggression. In fact, up to this point the rest of the restaurant seemed content on letting the couple enjoy their meal.

For all the rolls that come up in this adventure.

June 27th, 2016 Freedom City, New Jersey Late Afternoon The 129 sat at the station, a humming silver bullet of sophistication and technology, energy gathering in its mighty electric engines as the passengers and luggage was loaded. In a car new the end of the train, Tona Baudin walked down one corridor, a bulky bag over her shoulder. For one she was glad that the world was built to a larger scale than she was. Otherwise, she would been walking down the hallway sideways, like so many other passengers who insisted on bringing bags with them, and that just looked uncomfortable. She trailed her hand along the wall, checking each metal plate in turn and keeping an eye out for one in particular. Finally she found it, nearly at the end of the car; she used a key and let herself in, once again finding that her small size made maneuvering in the tiny room easy. The archer stowed her bag quickly and sat next to the bright, wide window. She smiled at the woman across from her, reaching over and taking Sam’s hand in her own. “Thank you,” she said. “For all of…” She trailed off, twirling her free hand in the air to indicate the entire locomotive. Tona had some issues traveling by plane, and neither of them wanted to drive all the way to Miami, and a ship would take even longer; which left only a few options. She was just grateful her girlfriend could afford it all, and that Sam had agreed to take the slow route. “I’m happy you’re not going out on your own, this time.”

GM Wednesday The 20th of April, 2016 3:34 PM Southern Parkside It’s an average day, the sky is nice but a few clouds are starting to show themselves, life in Freedom City is progressing as usual. Then, a message far too familiar to those living here flares up on the TV Screens all across the city: “We interrupt this broadcast for urgent information” Just a few seconds later, a middle aged woman, holding a microphone shows up on the screen. She is clearly standing on a roof, a few others can be seen behind her. “This is Joanna Olubunmi, reporting live for Channel 5 and all others tuning in. Please avoid the area around Love Street, Parkside at any cost. If anyhow possible, this extends to all of Southern Parkside as well as bordering areas. It appears there are Dinosaurs rampaging through the street. Skeletal ones. The police have secured the perimeter, and it appears the street has been for the most part evacuated. Various heroes have also been stopped at the scene, and have already engaged the hordes of dinosaurs. “ In the meantime, a pillar of dark smoke rises behind the reporter, then quickly dissipates. Throughout the announcement some unnatural screeching, like the grinding of hard materials, can also be heard. Once Ms. Olubunmi has finished talking, the camera cuts to the view of the street. Cars are overturned, newspaper boxes and fire hydrants broken. Most windows of the street-level stores located here have been smashed in, and there even are cracks in the concrete in some places. Obviously striking out most are the skeletons running around the area, attacking objects seemingly at random. There are about two dozen skeletons resembling Velociraptors, slightly smaller than average humans. They are all grouped up in packs of 5, each pack featuring one bigger, bulkier raptor, quite clearly a leader of some sort. There are also lots of bones, quite clearly belonging to other Raptors, scattered around the area, having been taken out by the heroes on scene beforehand. Standing taller than the raptors are three bulky skeletons, standing slightly higher than a human, and about 10 ft. in length. Standing on all four, they have a thick layer of bone on their back, and a tail that a looks more like a boulder than a bone – Ankylosaurs, as anybody that liked dinosaurs in their childhood could easily tell. They were ramming into cars and striking the concrete with their bulky tails, one of them had even started smashing into a wall, leaving some cracks in there.

Freedom City January 2nd, 2016 Later Afternoon Sometimes Tona Baudin regretted working just below where she lived. After a long day at work, she didn’t have to walk several blocks or ride a bus to get home; all she had to do was walk up a set of stairs. It was convenient, but it meant that she had no time to decompress and process what had happened during the day. After work she was immediately at home and had to deal with things there. So she was already figuring how her evening when she walked through the door and saw her smartphone on the kitchen table, blinking. She didn’t reach down to feel where it normally was, since she had obviously forgotten it this morning; instead she just crossed over quickly and checked her messages. Tona’s heart skipped a beat when she saw that her phone was full of messages from Sam’s number, but her mood soured when the first few messages revealed that they were from Miss Vance, Sam’s benefactor. Vance’s texts were short and to the point, letting Tona know that she was invited to dinner at Chicago with Vance and Sam. In fact, Vance was going to show up with a car at… The young woman glanced up to double-check the time and confirmed that she had about ten minutes before Miss Vance’s car arrived to pick her up. She didn’t have much time, but Tona still managed to waver over which shirt to wear and grab a few essentials. She was outside the store, wearing a green hoodie and carrying a small bag, when the cab pulled up.

?????????Monday, June 8th, 2015???? Time had become a distant memory. Day in and Day out the three teens had been dragged out to fight for the entertainment of an alien audience. Never as a team. Always one on one in a staggered order until they were left exhausted. Their clothes were torn, their bodies battered. And worst of all they hadn't spoken to anyone in a week. At least not out loud. Errant, had been acting as a communication relay from his cell when it wasn't his turn to fight. Perhaps serving as the only saving grace in keeping a measure of sanity. Each of their cells remained completely unlit. There was no mattress, the food in their trays were flavorless gruel. They were essentially in completely sealed 4' x 4' rooms. There were guards posted outside of each of their cells, sight unseen. All armed with staves that acted as blasters. Despite their imprisonment, their spirits had not been dampened in the slightest. Escape was on all four teen's minds. Ranked slightly ahead of revenge.

Freedom City, New Jersey, United States Wednesday, January 6th, 2016 Midmorning A neon green bolt sped through the center of Freedom City with a tail of red and blue lights stretching behind it for a solid block. As it turned the corner with a squeal of tires, Blue Jay swung into an alley on a blue-white grapnel. She was moving fast, fast enough that the buildings were a blur around her, fast enough that one grapnel shot took her entirely through the alley, and when she shot out the other end she was just in time to see the car chase shoot past her. The archer swung around and landed on a convenient rooftop. She watched the tiny neon car with the green running lights flash past her, easily staying out of the reach of the police cars that were chasing it. Unfortunately, that same speed and agility kept it out of Blue Jay’s reach. She watched the chase move away from her, breathing through parted teeth. She’d never catch up with the car with her own speed; she’d have to get smarter to stop the reckless driver. Jay reached up and tapped the commlink in her ear, sending out a signal. “Blodeuwedd. Do you see where the car is headed?”

For rolls and suchlike going here.

Silberman's Books. Saturday, October 31st, 2015, from the Crack of Dawn to the Witching Hour. Originally Lynn was going to give Halloween a pass this year; not that she wasn't going to observe her favorite non-Jewish holiday (yes, she liked it even better than Thanksgiving), but she wasn't going to do anything special beyond having candy for trick or treaters and maybe conjuring up a few decorations. School was taking up more of her time, and since Gretchen had become her personal crime-fighting assistant she was actively hitting the streets again. In addition, last year's Pier 13/Autumn Court incident took a little wind out of her sails, and she still felt bad about how she'd treated Tona at last year's Halloween party. So this year, she planned to keep it low key. That is, until her sidekick saw how pitiful she'd looked all week, what with the sighing and the longing looks at every jack o' lantern or cardboard cut-out of Frankenstein's Monster taped to a window. She hated to see her normally effervescent boss all mopey like this, so she made a decision and confronted her. "We are doing a haunted house on Halloween, right here in the store," she'd insisted. "And you are going to be scary and inappropriately cheerful and have a great time." And that was that. Shaken from her funk, Lynn really went to town, staying up half the night on Friday to cover the place in cobwebs, skeletons and other ghoulish paraphernalia. Gretchen tweaked the store's sound system and ran cables out into the yard so she could set up hidden speakers in the spooky mini-labyrinth her boss had conjured between the back of the building and the carriage house. Lynn's dad Butch dug his vintage 70s haunted house LPs out of storage and lent them to Gretchen to upload and remix. And in the loft of the carriage house, Lynn cleared out all her conjured gym equipment to make a funky, freaky black light party room, where kids and adults could bob for apples, play scary games and make their own Halloween masks. Emails were sent and cryptic hints left on rooftops in the hope that some of Grimalkin's 'friends' might make an appearance. Not bad for a night's work, really! - - - In the morning before opening, the Silberman's staff was rather stunned; Lance wandered around the dusty bookshelves, slowly shaking his head "Uhh, boss lady? When were you planning to tell us about all of this?" "I know, I know, I should have; I wasn't planning anything, but then Gretchen got sick of seeing me all hangdog, so-" "No, it's awesome, I just-" "We don't have anything to wear," chimed in Kiki, who also seemed to be charmed by the whole affair. "We can make costumes; we can use stuff lying around the store, I can conjure more stuff-" "I have lots of makeup!" Maddy dumped out the contents of her purse and began digging through it. Gretchen grinned wryly, crossed her arms and bumped her hip against Lynn's. "See? Told you this would work."

Okay, just in case we need it, I'm putting this here. Let's assume a time jump from the morning when Saku arrived (we will assume she helped out in the background) to the evening when everyone else gets there; I think that will make things smoother.

20 Miles Out from the Senkaku Islands Saturday, November 29th 0800 Local Time Cannonade looked out at the listless gray skies over the East China Sea, trying to focus on the task ahead of him. Then again, that might have been easier if he knew anything about what it was. He had some idea of why he was flying over international waters in one of AEGIS' high velocity planes, but he was a bit flaky on the fine details. He could, as always, blame Commander Grayston for all of this. He'd answered the knock at his door Saturday afternoon thinking it was Andy coming over to talk about all the things that he'd experienced during the semester up in Boston. He'd actually fought to stifle a groan when he saw who was standing there instead. "Come on," he'd said, "it's Thanksgiving..." "Exactly," Grayston had said, "so think of the ones who didn't make it home to their families." That had shut Joe up real quick. Once Grayston had settled in and salvaged some coffee from Joe's kitchen, he laid all that was known on the table. An AEGIS light aircraft had experienced heavy turbulence while returning from a mission in Japan, and had gone down somewhere around the Senkaku Islands. A transceiver in the plane's black box logged the crashdown site as 20 miles out from one of the islands, and there was a chance the three agents on board had made it to shore. "The Senkaku Islands have been in dispute for years. Japan, Taiwan, and the People's Republic of China all think they have a claim to them, and each one calls them by something different. This island, however... no one seems to be champing at the bit for it. If anything, we've intercepted intelligence that indicates Taiwan has tried to foist it upon Japan in return for claims to one of the others. Our information on it is spotty at best, and neither nation wants to disclose much about it. The best we have to go on is that Japanese intelligence has referred to it as Avici." "Guessing it ain't after the DJ." "No. It's a term for the lowest level of the Buddhist Hells, the place from which sinners have no escape." "Great. So, if the survivors made it there..." "They're capable men and women. But this island has folklore associated with it going back centuries, little of it pleasant. There's no clear, concise picture of what may be dwelling on it, but whatever it is, it has teeth. We need somebody who can get in there, get the agents, and get out before that beast wakes." "Well, it's been a while since I went on a nature hike through Hell itself --" "You're the muscle for the operation. You'll be accompanied by specialists better suited for the... eccentricities of the terrain."

September 2015 Gruen Tanzer Contacting the two other Terminus survivors living on Earth-Prime had been no easy task - particularly Blue Jay, who unlike Argonaut had never actually exchanged contact information with Harrier except in those days after their abduction by the Curator. But he'd gotten the job done, with a little help from Miss Americana's connections. He hadn't directly discussed with Gina what the meeting was about, but he was supremely confident his genius lover had figured it out. She was very smart, after all - and she'd heard the same things from Sharl Tulink that he had. So he sat alone in a private room in the German restaurant Miss Americana opened, a hot buffet on one side of the room, the seats on the opposite side of the table empty. He'd given both Yves and Tona a message they'd have to respond to - a message that asked them to come meet and talk about the Terminus.

OOC for this thread in which the Murder League gets all murdery.

A Blind Alley, West End, Freedom CIty 7:30 pm 20th March 2015 Freedom City was for many a popular destination for tourists from all over the world. Yes the near by New York had it impressive buildings but only Freedom offered so many superheroes. Despite this the city still offered dangers for those who didn’t have their wits about them. The well dressed woman had obviously taken a wrong turn whilst exploring one of the lesser known area of Freedom City. She hadn’t realised it yet but she’d started walking down an alley closed at one end. The two muggers who followed in behind her did however know this and was obviously taking advantage of the situation. Luckily for the woman the were heroes here even in this area of Freedom City.

Some AlleywaySouthside, Freedom City, New JerseyMonday, June 1st, 20151:04 AM GM In less than 24 hours, the Claremont class of 2015 would be walking across the stage. Normal high school seniors may have spent their last night without a diploma talking to their girlfriends. Throwing a rager with friends. Or even sleeping the night away. Tona had other plans. Blue Jay had been spotted throughout the night actively skulking the Southside moving from rooftop and preventing crimes as she saw them. At some point she ran into Samaritan, Vonnie who was taking full advantage of his Summer vacation, and the pair began an unofficial game of "who can catch the most criminals the fastest". Blue Jay was winning, but to Vonnie's credit the boy had no quit. In a night full of purse snatchers and muggings, when a woman gave a blood curdling scream it was easy to assume they were in store for more of the same. Chasing down the scream they found themselves in an alleyway. What they found was nothing short of horrific. The woman had an arrow struck through her eye. Signs of pressure from something small like a digit pushed against her neck. The corpse laying there. Silently contrasting what until just a few moments ago felt like a bustling night in the city.

December 17, 2014. The West End, Silverman’s Books. Unknown Parallel Earth. Unknown amount of time after sunset. The books were getting a little dusty. Wynn Epstein hadn’t been inside in a few months, since the rebellion’s last gasp took a few employees…off the payroll. But today she was back, and cleaning up. New glass windows to replace the boarded up and broken ones. In the morning, a few new eager employees from Claremont would be by to help out, and best of all, a Carson security robot was schedules for delivery to keep things orderly. Everything was going to go just fine, and soon enough, the store would reopen. That was the plan. Meanwhile, Cerwyn Pefr was chasing down a thief. Yes, the world was largely peaceful and crime-free since the rebellion had been put down, but crime didn’t just magically go away. Heh, magically. The thief was fast. No. She was a teleporter. Moving from shadow to shadow. He touched his commlink. “Kit, it’s Blod. Can you catch this one? I’m having some trouble here. Seems she’s a teleporter.†Christina Vance, alias Kit, rolled her eyes. “She’s not a ‘porter. Just faster than eyes. I’ll get her.†Chris wasn’t what anyone would call subtle about it, either. A massive ball of fire flashed past the thief, stopping her short. She glanced around for a hiding spot-and found a store with the lights still on. She bolted inside, never bothering to notice that the fireball didn’t actually damage anything. In fact, there wasn’t even a wisp of smoke to prove it was ever there. Blod frowned. “You call that getting her?†He jogged up near the store, stepped into a shadow, and vanished from sight. “The freshmen can do better.†Kit popped out of the shadow next to him. She towered over the diminuative Welsh boy. “She’s off the street, isn’t she?†Inside the shop, Wynn was quite surprised by her guest’s sudden appearance. “I’m sorry, but we’re not open yet. Try again in a week?†This young woman was an archer, judging by the bow on her back. And, as Lynn abruptly learned as she stepped up to Wynn in the blink of an eyes, she was very fast. “I’m sorry. There’s a couple of people after me. They’ve got bad intentions and I’m not anywhere near invulnerable, so I’ve been on the run for a bit. Can I hide out for a few minutes?†Wynn was prepared to tell her to leave now, please…but on closer examination she bore a striking resemblance to one of her lost employees. Her heartstrings twinged, and she sighed. “All right. Bathroom’s in the back. Water…should work.†But before either of them could do anything else, Blod and Kit burst into the store. The young woman tossed a glance that screamed “HELP!†in Wynn’s direction. The timid young woman refused to lose her dear employee a second time, and she activated her fae magic. Blod and Kit had no choice but to defend themselves. Magic twisted, clashed, and surprisingly melded. There was a brilliant flash of light, and the store was empty. December 17, 2014. The West End, Silberman’s Books. Earth Prime. 7:43 PM. Cerys Pefr was taking Lynn Epstein’s offer of visiting the store. The Welsh girl and the fairy were having one of the most disjointed conversations of all time when the store was abruptly illuminated by a bright light and four people tumbled out of the air and onto the floor. The lone male of the group grumbled in a familiar accent to Cerys.“Gods curse it, Toni. You couldn’t just give me back my vid, could you?†The boy could almost be from Wales, but something was slightly off. “Now, again. We’re in another dimension, again. We’re gonna have to figure out where we are so Kit can port us back. Again.†For the parts of Tona Baudlin and Samantha Vance, the two lovebirds were enjoying a night in, when the hubbub distracted them from their activities. Specifically, Robin Hood: Men in Tights (along with a few other choice Mel Brooks movies) and a truly ridiculous amount of snacks. A certain mutual acquaintance had recommended the man’s work, and well…so far, so good.

Well, you all know what this is for.