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GM Claremont Academy March 9th, 2020 Afternoon, after class Aside from Casanova and Stinger's grudges, things seemed to have calmed down considerably since the fight between New Young Freedom and the group of young heroes in October. New Young Freedom had resumed their patrols in December and, so far, they seemed to stay on the straight and narrow path. Well, things between the two groups had been mostly calm. A week or so before, Muirne, Luke's girlfriend, had been teamed with Sebastian for a project. Soon after, she had started talking about how maybe Sebastian wasn't that bad, that Luke and the others should try to give him another chance...

OOC for this. We'll start off with just @Kaede Kimura and @Nerdzul, I'll call in @RedSpine, @Cubismo and @Lone_Star as everyone else gets involved!

GM The Painted Desert, Arizona September 22nd, 2020 14:00 PM Doctor Alexander Macedon stepped out of the van, and into the bright light of the Arizona desert. If his heavy backpack weighed him down in old age, he didn't show. He was an older man, having pushed past 70 some years ago. He would tell anyone that bothered to ask that he was retired, and yet, he was, standing in the Painted Desert once again. Once again, the headmistress had convinced him to take a group of students on a survival class. He could only hope that it went better than the last time. Macedon's hair was thinning and grey, bordering on white. His beard was cut short, barely more than stubble. His left eye was hidden behind an eyepatch, with horn-rimmed glasses resting on the bridge of his nose. He wore khaki pants, a white dress shirt that was already starting to stain from sweat. His boots were heavy, but solid. Dressed for the weather. His well worn cowboy had was held in his hand, lightly fanning his face. He wore a slightly oversized revolver in a holster on the right side of his belt. Turning to the van, he grumbled something, before speaking up. "Alright, hurry up and get out here, kids. We don't want to waste more sunlight than we have to." The students were even younger than the ones in last batch. Fine. He'd deal with that. More of them were just regular people, no powers, just training or tech. He could respect that. He had even allowed them to bring their gear, as long as they carried it themselves. For emergencies, of course. Not just for the regular class. "Rule number one: I give an order, you follow that order. This is a survival class. You're going to learn how to survive if you ever end up in a place like this. No buts, if or maybes. As far as you're concerned, I am in charge."

OOC for this. @Kaede Kimura, @Tiffany Korta, @RedSpine, @Nerdzul

GM Claremont Academy October 15th, 2020 5:00 PM Sebastian Shields had not been happy about the events of the day that he had returned to Claremont after the summer. No, the way everyone had acted, like he was not better than him? It was simply not acceptable. He had been busy, since then. If the newly enrolled students wouldn't give him the respect that he deserved, then he would teach them why they should respect him. He would be better than all of them. All he needed was a team. Eddie Fell was the logical choice. Of course Sebastian needed Chump. Any good team needed some muscles, and Eddie was loyal. He wouldn't even need a nudge to help. Charlene Hart had been by Sebastian's side for a while. The two had often been seen together, at least ever since he had convinced her to go to prom with him. He had helped her, he had calmed her down. She was loyal, would never disobey him. Toxin got to be the second member of the team, her mere touch would be enough to stop anyone from messing with him. Sebastian quickly decided that he didn't need more boys for his team. No, Chump was quite enough. Melanie Cutter was a good choice. No powers, but she had extensive training and she was a killer with that bladed whip. He even liked her codename, Stinger, even if the redhead would probably challenge him a bit more than he would like, but that was fine. Sebastian would enjoy convincing her otherwise. Finally, the team needed some legitimacy, so of course he made friends with Cassie Dugan. Having the vice-principal's daughter on the team would open doors, and she filled in the much needed spot of a flier. She didn't really want to do it, but she did like the attention it would get her. Bluebird probably wouldn't cause too much trouble for Sebastian. So, his team had been set, and on October 1st, Sebastian made a big show out of presenting his group to everyone. Of course, no one else needed to do anything anymore. After all, they were the new big team at Claremont: The New Young Freedom. They had been busy in the few weeks after that, breaking curfew, fighting bad guys and punks. Not really any super villains or anything like that, and of course they did it in secret. Not like anyone would tell on them, that would just get others in trouble too. But... there were rumors. Maybe they had beaten up some kids for just causing a bit of trouble. Maybe the kids had not really done anything really bad, at least not something that deserved that? Maybe it was just a rumor. After all, they were heroes, right? Maybe not everyone trusted Casanova.

OOC for this. @Cubismo, @Nerdzul, @RedSpine, @Heritage

October 13th, lunch period at Claremont. Fall had arrived and was here to stay, and many in Claremont Academy wouldn't have it any other way. Many shared stories filled with terror and gloom, of unknowing brusks with supernatural doom. Across social platforms however a curious story began to spread, of kids and teens finding a decrepit and decidedly Gothic Manor appearing in places one shouldn't be around the city. Some said they saw it deep in an alley way, others that they saw it in places where they knew someones house or business stood before. Without anything more than hearsay though it would be easy enough to just dismiss as someones attempt at making fresh creepypasta if it wasn't for the fact that no mods of any sort seemed to take notice of these posts no matter how many rules were broke in the comments. An interesting mystery for sure but one seemingly destined to be forgotten. Or it was. Lunch Period had only just started and the assorted teens of Claremont Academy were already pushing and shoving their way past each other to claim the best tables and other seating when two in the crowd heard the very distinct sound of someone they knew calling their names. "Hey! Pol, Luke! Over here!" Zach called out, raising his voice only loud enough to be heard over the clamor of the crowd as he made his way to whichever of the two was closest and waving the other over. "You two see those stories about the teleporting house? I figured out where it's going to show up next. You two want in on cracking that ball of weird wide open?"

OOC for This

Kord Dorms, Floor One, Claremont Academy Monday, September 7th 2020 First days of class were always a fine mix of hectic and pointless to Zach. Everyone shows up, says hello, goes over a syllabus that everyone only pretends to be interested in and on and on and on. Who could blame him for matching wits with the clock as if will power alone was enough to hasten the steps of time. All things however do come to an end eventually and Zach had made his way out of the class and back to his room quick as one could. After all today he had a purpose, he had a plan. Today 'The Board(tm)' was making it's triumphant return. Sliding his bag under his desk Zach took the moment to really size up his side of the room. On the desk itself laid a small assortment of tools, bits, bobs, components and spare parts whose only organization seemed to be 'within arms reach'. At the desks side his silvered armor sat loosely atop one of the teens suitcases. Easily reachable for any tinkering that may need to be done to it. A stand would honestly be better but this was only week one. He'd have time for more projects later, even if he'd have to find a dark corner of the schools basement to shove the stand into over summer break. Looking at the empty space on the wall however Zach knew he had his spot. Big enough to get all the corkboards up and far enough from a corner that you could stand back and get a good view without risking having to lean on a wall or something. It was perfect. Corkboards the size of the average school text book came out of their hiding spaces in bags and promptly made their way onto the empty wall courtesy of easy-to-remove double sided tape and a little patience. He'd gotten a third of his pile up before the thought occurred to him. "Aw heck I probably should have double checked with Pol before putting this up."

Howl Power Level: 8/10 (150/154) Unspent Power Points: 4 Trade-Offs: None In Brief: Teenage Genius with a self-built Armored Suit with Sonic based weaponry, self-image issues, and a love for mysteries. Alternatively! Teen Tech Theorist with a Supremely Super Sonic based Suit Suspects Secrets are Secreted in the School! And the world at large. Catchphrase: Doesn't have one yet, unless you count the distinctive noises his sonic blasts make. Theme: Lost in Time by Celldweller Alternate Identity: Zachary 'Zach' Anderson Birthplace: Californias Bay Area Residence: Claremont Dorms (school year), Family house back in California (summer) Base of Operations: As above. Occupation: Student Affiliations: Claremont Academy. Family: Samuel Anderson (father), and Jacqueline Anderson (Mother) Description: Age: 16 (DoB: 2004) Apparent Age: 16 Gender: Male Ethnicity: Caucasian Height: 5'11 Weight: 155 Eyes: Green Hair: Blonde and always messy. Zach is a young man with a lanky build who usually dresses for comfort more than anything. Worn in jeans, a t-shirt with a 'witty' joke three wolves howling at a moon or some 'official super hero merch', along with a well worn black zip up hoodie. Complexion wise he's pale on account of staying inside which isn't helped by the fact that his armor covers him completely from head to toe. His hair almost always looks like he just got out of bed, he's tried to get it under control but it's been a long losing battle that he's all but given up on. Hair length wise he's sitting somewhere between short but styleable and mid length as if he hasn't quite decided if he's going to continue growing it out or if he should trim it back. As Howl Zach wears a black Bodysuit augmented with Silver gauntlets, Greaves, a matching belt to make up for a lack of pockets, a chestplate to protect his vital organs, and of course a Hardened Full face mask to hide as much of his identity as he can while protecting his noggin. History: Zachary Anderson has done his best to lead a normal life and it's failed so far. Plagued by Daily, and on the worst days hourly, crippling migraines for as long as he could remember Zach struggled to make friends, succeed academically, or really do much that wasn't something he could easily put down and continue however long later when Hade's own Lemon Juice and Ghost Pepper soaked flaming pick axe decided to unlodge itself from his brain. So focusing on what he could Zach threw what what he could of himself into learning how to code, Super Heroes, learning what he could about engineering and tinkering so he could have something to work on with his hands. As he got older he also started throwing his proverbial gaze wider and wider across the net finding digital mysteries he could tackle at his own pace. Many were simply ARGs made to entertain but others were old unsolved cases that the public had been trying to solve for years and despite his condition he felt like he'd found some sort of community he could participate in. Even if some of the mysteries people would investigate were more theory based than evidence based. That'd changed about a year ago when he suffered the largest Migraine attack to date lasting a full 16 hours before finally subsiding leaving zach stunned but able to recall near anything with perfect clarity that occurred outside of his attacks. Over the days that followed he was ecstatic, no attacks, he could zip from idea to idea faster than ever, and he could recall so many bits of coding or scientific trivia he'd learned over the years and combine them in new and exciting ways. He had Super Smarts! So they went to the family doctor to get it confirmed, and what tests they could provide came back negative. Zach was smart but he wasn't crossing the line into the realms of the Super except in the areas of memory retention and access. His mutation had cured the migraines and enhanced his memory, nothing more. So he turned back to his old pass times to distract himself, so he wouldn't have to face that all the pain he'd endured until this point was rewarded with next to nothing. He started building equipment he thought would have been cool for a hero to use, integrated it into first a gauntlet then a full suit. Building up the hero he could have been even as Emerald City up north started using Rent-a-Heroes in Corp-tech suits to protect the city, taking just a little bit more wind out of his sails. When portions of his project was discovered by his parents they immediately got back in contact with the family doctor who in turn used what connections he had in the hero community to make sure that the boy could learn in a place that could handle a budding gadgeteer. That place being of course, Claremont. Now at the start of a new school year Zach has found his way to Claremont and is as ready as one can be to handle a new high school that also happens to be a boarding school for super teens. This is fine. He can handle this. He thinks. Personality & Motivation: Zach is very much someone who wants the world to be fair, for the rules to apply equally to everyone with no gotchas hidden deep to allow people to get off scott free when they shouldn't. Which at times leads him to seriously investigate things like conspiracy theories even if people think they're all just crazy nonsense, but the way he sees it "SHADOW is a thing, Those killer robots are a thing, Katanarchists and other secret Ninja clans are a thing. We have heroes who claim to time travel and meet aliens. What if this conspiracy theory is actually the truth being hid as fiction"? Powers & Tactics: When it combat Howl prefers to deafen his opponents by 'muting' the area around himself and pummeling his foe with sonic blasts or sonic strikes until they aren't an issue any more. When not in direct combat he prefers to try to stay sneaky, gather information as best he can and figure out exactly what's going on with any given scenario, even using voice mimicry and Auditory illusions to gain the upper hand or even just trick low level thugs. Currently he's rather fresh faced to combat and hasn't had as much of a chance to refine his technique. Power Descriptions: When Howl uses his sonic blasts/strikes the air his blasts go through twist, turn and vibrate with such force that even an unaugmented eye can follow their path on the way to their destination as well as creating an unmistakable Horrific Howl from which he draws his name. The same holds true for his Sonic Breakdown, though doing so requires both his hands and his utmost attention to break only the crystalline structures in front of him and not risk a resonance cascade that could harm people in the area. On the other hand when he Mutes the World noise simply stops within his area of effect leaving the entire area completely silent, you could bang pots and pans together and not hear a single clang. Complications: Secret Identity: Zach is keeping his identity as Howl a secret so that his actions as a hero won't put his family and friends into harms way. Scratched the Surface: During his time attempting to solve public cold cases Zach came dangerously close to unearthing ties that could have lead back to The Labyrinth. Close enough to have drawn the attention of some within the organization. Those someones, whoever they may be, will at times pull strings and try to hinder Howls actions throughout his adventures, divert him onto a wild goose chase, or even a simply case of slander and libel in order to further test if he is a threat or a potential asset. Of course many Labyrinth assets don't even know they are so almost anyone could be used to slow Howl down at a critical moment, the bumbling electrician who just needs a few more minutes to fix the control panel, the detective who absolutely refuses to let a hero contaminate his crime scene, the random employee who would love to answer questions but you really need to talk to her manager whose out on lunch, and so on could all be people who Labyrinth have tapped to become a roadblock. Of course if Howl causes to much trouble it'd be pretty simple to just drop a conveniently powered goon on his head as well. At any point a GM could just have a NPC react negatively or be steadfastly unhelpful with no real way for Howl to fix it other than to go around them some manner. Snack Attack: The human brain consumes roughly 20% of the energy a normal human body generates per day, Zachs brain however consumes a fair bit more even though his particular mutation is not as effective as other mental boosters out in the world. As such it's entirely possible for him to run out of steam if he hasn't made certain to keep his calorie intake high enough for the day, which in a super hero world is easy to lose track of. Anytime a GM needs to slap Fatigue or exhausted on someone here ya go. My power sucks!...Imposter Syndrome: Zach in a way both loves and hates his power. He loves that he has one at all but at the same time feels betrayed by his own flesh that the most it could cough up power wise was "Good at remembering things". And so surrounded by so many of his peers with 'actual power' has left him feeling like he got in on a technicality, like he doesn't deserve to be here, a fake, a fraud, or worse the token example student that shows that Claremont will accept anyone that has a 'power'. Yes the fact that he wasn't going to be sent to Claremont until he started building a Super Suit is lost on him. You can just buy(rent really) a super suit out in emerald after all. Since this gets such a sharp reaction out of Zach bullies at Claremont or really anyone who just wants to get under his skin can use this put him on tilt. Walking Noise Violation: The problem with sonic powers is that they are by definition LOUD. Loud enough to draw attention even when it wouldn't be a good idea to do so. But perhaps ones of the other big downsides to using sound as the base of his powers is how it behaves in different circumstances, Water for instance amplifies the distance Sound can travel, Tunnels can channel sound into places Howl would rather they didn't go, and of course any vacuum may as well be an impenetrable wall to him since Sound needs a medium to travel through. Abilities: 0 + 4 + 4 + 12 + 2 + 0 = 22PP Strength: 10 (+0) Dexterity: 14 (+2) Constitution: 14 (+2) Intelligence: 22 (+6) Wisdom: 12 (+1) Charisma: 10 (+0) Combat: 8 (2PP / Base Attack) + 6 (2PP / Base Defense) = 14PP Initiative: +6 (+2 base, +4 Improved Initiative) Attack: +4 Base (+8 Sonic Blast, +8 Bass-Line Punch, +8 Sonic Breakdown) Defense: +8 (+3 Base, +5 Dodge Focus), +2 Flat-Footed Grapple: +8 Knockback: -1/-4 (when armored) Saving Throws: 4 (1PP / Fortitude) + 6 (1PP / Reflex) + 7 (1PP / Will) = 17PP Toughness: +8/+2 (+2 Con, +6 Protection while armored) Fortitude: +6 (+2 Con, +4) Reflex: +8 (+2 Dex, +6) Will: +8 (+1 Wis, +7) Skills: 104R = 26PP (1PP = 4 Skill ranks) Computer 9 (+15) Craft (Mechanical) 9 (+15) Craft (Electronic) 9 (+15) Disable Device 9 (+15) Disguise (+0) (Can make disguise check as move action due to enhanced Quick Change) Investigation 9 (+15) Knowledge (physical Sciences) 9 (+15) Knowledge (technology) 9 (+15) Knowledge (streetwise) 4 (+10) Notice 10 (+11) Search 9 (+15) Stealth 8 (+10) Sense Motive 10 (+11) Feats: 12PP Dodge focus 5 Inventor Improvised Tools Luck 2 Online research Skill Mastery (Knowledge Technology, Computer, Craft Mechanical, Craft electronic) take-down attack Enhanced Feats Eidetic Memory Improved Initiative 1 Quick-change Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 2 + 57 = 59PP Mutated Mind [2PP] (Biological/Mutation) Enhanced feat: Eidectic Memory Quickness 2 Flaw: Mental only Device 14 (Sound Suit MK I; 70 PP Container; Flaws: Hard-To-Lose, Feats: Restricted: Authorized users only) [57PP] (All Powers carry Tech descriptor unless otherwise noted.) Assisted Movement system [2PP] Leaping 1 (x2 jump distance) Speed 1 (10 mph) Communication 4 (Radio) [4PP] 1-Mile Range. Datalink 1 (Universal Data Cord) [1PP] (tech/physical) Enhanced Feats 3 "Threat registration and convenience systems" Uncanny dodge (Auditory) Improved Initiative [1DP] "Hot Join Protocols" Quick Change "Power assisted Donning and Removal System" Feature 2 (Vocal Mimicry, Throw Voice) [2PP] (Tech/Sonic) Immunity 2 (Heating and cooling controlled suit lining; Environmental Heat and Cold) [2DP] Immunity Sonic [10DP] (Sonic Filtration Field) (Tech/Sonic) Protection 6 (Armor plating) [6DP] Super senses 4 (GUI Add-ons; Direction, Distance, Radio,Time) [4DP] Super Senses 5 (Auditory Enhancement and Sonar Suite; Accurate [Auditory], Ultra Hearing) [5PP] (Tech/Sonic) Sonic Offense Array 8 Feats:Accurate 2, Alternate power x2 [20 DP] (Tech/Sonic) BP: Damage 8 (Sonic Blast; Range [Ranged]) (tech/sonic) [16/16 PP] AP: Damage 8 (Bass-Line Punch; Extras: Linked [Nausea]) Nausea 8 (Bass-line Punch; Extras: Linked [Damage]; Flaw: Limited to Sickened) [16/16pp] AP:Drain Toughness 8 (Extras: Affects Objects, Linked [Damage], Range [Ranged]; Flaws: Limited [Crystalline structures: Ice, Glass, Stone, etc.]) [8DP] Damage 8 (Extras: Linked [Drain], Range [Ranged]; Flaws: Limited [Crystalline structures: Ice, Glass, Stone, etc.]) [8DP]. [8 + 8 = 16/16DP] "Sonic Break Down" Array 10 ( Sonic Manipulation; Feats: Alternate Power) [11DP] (Tech/Sonic) BP: Illusion 8 (Sampled Noises; Auditory; Feats: Progression 2) [10/10DP] AP: Obscure 5 (World on Mute; Sense Types: Auditory; Area: 100ft radius; Extras: Selective; Flaws: Range [Touch]) [5/10DP] Drawbacks: (-0) + (-0) = -0PP DC Block ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT BLP Touch DC 23 Toughness/Fortitude Damage/Nausea Sonic Blast Ranged DC 23 Toughness Damage Sonic Breakdown Ranged DC 18/DC 23 Fortitude/Toughness - Toughness/Damage Sampled Noises perception DC 18 Will Auditory screwery Totals: Abilities (22) + Combat (14) + Saving Throws (17) + Skills (26) + Feats (12) + Powers (59) - Drawbacks (0) = 150/154 Power Points