[M&M3] A Little Trouble in the Big Pear - IC

Lamprey
HP: 1 | Condition: Normal.

Cyrus wonders if he should be insulted. He wouldn't call himself a cape or a vigilante or whatever, but he had actually been there to offer aid. Maybe he should invest in some sort of "look."

In any case, he searches the notw with his senses to find the aura of whoever wrote it. At least he'd be able to recognize them if he came across them again. Assuming they weren't super-speeding aroundv he guesses.

Then, just to cover his bases, he gets out his phone and makes a call.

"Hey, Specs? You still keeping your ear to the ground? Something's going down by Tyron Chemicals and I just want to know if anyone you know heard anything about them doing any shady business lately."

Spoiler: OOC

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First, a Perception Check with Postcognition on the note so Cyrus can get a read on mystery speedster's aura.
[roll0]

And after that, since he's going to be Sir Not-Participating-In-This-Fight, a one-minute Investigation check using Contacts, to see if he can find some dirt on Tyron Chemicals:
[roll1]

John moves deeper into the building, looking for the source of the red light as well as some sign of the woman who went in earlier. "Um...Heat-Girl, are you there? Any idea what this is yet?"

Joule

Seeing the fading heat signatures from all of the remaining staff having suddenly vanished form the building it becomes evident that there is another player on the field. At least with the civilians out of the building the gunmen are slightly less of a priority. The device upstairs and the monster coming in the front door are her top concern. Probably best to find out what is upstairs first.

Spoiler: OOC Actions

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Head up to see what the device is and try to avoid encounters with the gunmen for now. If there are any locked doors I will use Precise heat powers to cut locks open and try to minimize the property damage on the way.

Hearing noise below and thinking more gunmen are afoot, Lapis creates an illusion transforming the entire building into an illusory spa and bathhouse, hoping to confuse whoever else is in the building.

Pandora
Hero Points: 1
Condition: None

The momentary pause in noise caused Pandora to hesitate at the window. She wasn't sure what had happened, but just as she was about to break the window to enter, the entire facade of the building twisted and altered itself. She cursed under her breath at the fact that someone was either warping reality or using illusions. A swift incantation later and her eyes glowed red as she could perceive the mystical flows of power again and saw, as she thought, the office building being masked as some spa.

Not waiting for someone to think up something else kooky, Pandora tried to break the window as quietly, or at least while under the cover of any further gunfire, as possible. Sneaking into the building and carefully, quietly, trying sneak through the office hopefully towards whatever magical effect was causing the periodic burst of red light. Hopefully sooner than later.

Spoiler: OOC

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• Current Weal and Woe Array Power: Lampad's Torch
• Activating Detect Magic as FA, pierces illusions. Pandora is Vulnerable
• Deactivating Icarus Flight upon entering building.
• Glyph of Warding (7 Impervious toughness vs physical attacks)
• Stealth to break window sneakily [roll0]
• Stealth to move sneakily through building [roll1]
• Perception to hopefully notice any thugs before they notice her, preferably, [roll2]

V'Rak rushes towards the entrance to the building in the wake of the giant monster. There might be more civilians in there, or at least the source of the red light. If he can make it far enough, he'll search for computer terminals. If there's alien tech involved, there should be some electronic record of it. Even the Û-mans can't keep a secret from bureaucracy.

In the street

In the street, the thugs are firing at Missmash... who is the only super target still visible.
Four of them take her as target... and miss miserably.

The others are firing at a bunch of mercenaries who, following the monster's entrance, are retreating through the only way they can. They maybe thought they would have better luck against assault rifles. They guessed wrong : four of them are scythed by heavy gunfire.

Spoiler

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Missmash has currently a Dodge of 9 so it's 19 or more to hit.
None of the four that fire at her even come close.

The mercenaries have Dodge 2 so 12 or more hit.
4 hits. DC 20 Toughness Resistance Check.
None succeed. As minions, they are incapacitated.

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Lobby

With a wet noise, Carapace snatches one of the mercenaries in the lobby, holding him by the neck in his over-sized hand while he advances toward the stairs. The building is meant to be sturdy, what with the laboratory equipment being heavy and hundreds of people and their desks being supported daily. But still, the stairs are indeed narrow and the railing make a weak metallic protest as the frame of Carapace deform it. The gunman is also protesting but more in a desperate way, with mumbles of "not eat me" and a lot of "please" and "no" together with a fair amount of wiggling at first but eventually only sobbing.

Carapace ignores the first three floors and keep climbing to the fourth, which will take a few minutes.

Behind him though at a secure distance, V'Rak enters the building, seeing a dozen or so gunmen in military gear who are slowly backing away from the rampaging monster. When they see him, they hesitate only briefly : fire and potentially call the attention of the big one ? Or not fire and take a knife ? They know their weapons don't work on the big guy but some of them probably think they have a chance here : they fire. Two manage to hit V'Rak. The others don't even wait to see the result : they keep retreating toward the street, where Missmash and an handful of demoralized opponents are the only obstacle they can see. They'll take those odds.

Spoiler

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With 27 to hit, Carapace easily beat the parade of 2 (hence DC12) from his opponent. He then proceed to grab him and carry him wherever he wishes.

I need two Toughness checks from V'Rak vs DC 20

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2nd Floor

The second floor is a pair of hallways with a few personalized offices and a large laboratory with a few basic chemical equipment but also a fair amount of high-tech electronics. As John Doe opens the door of one of the small offices, he calls :

"Um...Heat-Girl, are you there? Any idea what this is yet?"

The only answer to that was a hail of bullets, followed by a feminine voice with an heavy east european accent :

"-Who you call "heat girl", you pig ?!"

The bullets, of course, did nothing, as the gunwoman and her partner realized quickly. They assess the situation, looking at John Doe's cloth and skin before summing it up :

"-Aw Crap..."

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3rd Floor

The whole floor is mostly laboratories in sealed rooms, with large nitrogen pressurized vats and a few small-scales centrifuges. Nobody here. Small offices were lined at the back of the building, each with a golden plate and name of various professors on it. One of the offices has now a hole into the wall and a half-frozen gunman on the floor. Another office has a broken window.

As Joule advances in the stairwell without much stealth, she is lucky enough to avoid the last gunman, which is made easy since she can see his heat signature through walls using the Energy Senses. As she opens the door of the stairway, she can hear metal bending and breaking downstairs, along with the rasping breath of the creature as it is climbing the stairs.
The echoes of one of his victims are also rising :
"No, no, no, don't eat me, please, please, please, oh no !! Le'me go !!"
While the victim is sobbing heavily, there doesn't seem to be violence involve yet.
If she climb the stairs, she manage to sneak in the corridor of the 4th floor, as all guards are inside the main room with the machine.

She doesn't see that she is being trailed : a horned creature with purple skin, hair a mix of red and black, clothed in black leather, with a long tail dancing behind her.

Pandora, from her point of view, see the flying woman with the helmet that had frozen a pair of thugs earlier in the street.

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Jefferson Park, somewhere in Churchtown District

For one moment, Lamprey goes still as he focus specifically on the lingering psychic track of the mysterious SuperSpeedy. The aura's lasting remnants appear in long, stretched lines of glittering purple and blue. This is strange as, while most people do let a rope to follow, it usually isn't very long, as Lamprey can only track them back so long after the fact. But here, it looks as if the speedster was everywhere at the same time, each foot of aura track being as vividly bright as the previous one. This creates both an opportunity and a problem :

An opportunity, as Lamprey can visualize perfectly where his quarry went and what he did, the humanoid shape being sometimes still visible when the speedster remained still long enough. The aura is so easy to read that Lamprey has a very clear signature to remember, should he encounter it in the future.

A problem because, normally, the fading of the aura allows Lamprey to pick the chronology of it, which allows him to track either the point of origin or the current location. Now, it is hard to pinpoint an beginning and an end to this kind of track.

Meanwhile, the phone rings back
(See MP)

Spoiler: toughness checks

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Rolling these now, will write post in a sec
[roll0]
[roll1]

Sawbones
HP: 1
-1 to resist damage

V'Rak hisses as the bullets slam into him, but he knows they're just flesh wounds. He rushes forward, closing the distance between himself and the gunmen before drawing more knives, twirling them in his hands before using them against the gangsters.

Spoiler: Actions

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Run 30ft towards the gunmen. Use a mixture of Knifework and Knife Throw to takedown as many adjacent gunmen as I can. Both are damage 9, 24 to resist, 19 to hit.

Agent Fox
Condition: Unharmed
Frag: 0
HP: 1 + 4

Taking stock of the situation and what she knew, Fox wasn't exactly worried, but definitely rising to the level of concerned. Perhaps even bordering on anxious.

There was a lot of very chaotic events unfolding very quickly, with more of these superpowered citizens popping up by the second. From news reports, web-searches and some casefiles she'd browsed over, she had ID's on most of the bunch, at least enough to know she could probably avoid adding them to the list of targets that needed to be subdued.

The timeline of events was also becoming clearer. Professor Stanilzlas's briefing memo had cleared up the main situation, and definately fell within the category of potentially anomalous tech, which was a big red flag. When there wasn't an active battle going on, she'd have to backlog the research to make sure it followed a natural chain of discovery suggesting that this was the result of normal (if exceptionally gifted) research. But if she saw sudden leaps in progress, that'd be a clue that someone from Up the timeline had been helping things along.

Fox herself wasn't a great tech person. Actually that was a complete lie, or not, depending on where you were standing. By her own metric, she was functionally knowledgeable, but by no means an expert. By the standards of this corner, where portable computers were still the biggest trend in the market, she was a genius. She still didn't have a great grasp on what the lab was up to, and that almost-concerned her. Because she was starting to think that if the bio-armor guy and the cape-guy and the fire-chick and the sidewalk-chick didn't knock it off, the building might collapse. And that would be sub-optimal.

Direct intervention to fix up the building would be possible, though she was stuck as to how to do it without drawing attention to herself. There weren't really any rules about going public. It could be a pain to deal with from a paperwork standpoint, and sometimes you got messages saying to go clean up any witnesses. So stepping in prominently was on the table, if needed.

Fox really wanted to stay out of things. She also really wanted to get into the machine she had seen and figure out what was going on from that end. She wanted to shoot some of these thugs, because they were causing her this headache. She wanted to take a nap, because she felt like she deserved one.

If the building collapsed, the machine that she didn't fully understand could do a lot of bad things, probably related to those blasts of red light. Working out the machine still ran the risk of the building causing problems, so stopping the demolition derby was first and foremost in her mind. None of which could be done from her current position.

Fox notted a potted plant near her and casually kicked it over to find a grappling hook, along with a note in her handwriting reminding her to pick up dinner later. The note was on the back of a recipt, letting Fox know where in her Yet she'd need to pick up the grappling hook and then go Down from now to hide it. Letting out a small sigh, she ran a hand through her hair as the steps of her rapidly-being-made-up-as-she went plan ran through her mind.

On her belt she fired up her Tech-box and transmitted to the police cars, accessing their loudspeaker so that everyone would get the message. "For the safety of everyone in the area, stop trying to knock the building down! There is potentially dangerous technology on-hand" She avoided adding 'idiots' to that, but only just.

Grappling line in hand, she took a running leap off the rooftop, and used the handheld cable to swing across the battlezone, aiming for the 4th floor window. As she crashed through, she ducked into a roll and moved for cover, one hand drawing her firearm. It was weeks ago now, but she recalled leaving two armed individuals here, and didn't want to get caught in their crossfire.

With her otherhand, She touched the building, and mentally adjusted its alignment along the timeline, running the clock back to undo as much of the damage it had suffered. Fox had a lot of things she wanted to do today, but being inside a collapsing building was not one of them. She noticed her nose was bleeding, and tried to ignore it. Just meant she was pushing to hard on the timeline.

Spoiler: OOC

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Communicate as a free action to relay the message.

Spending a HP for scene edit via slipshanking to give myself a grappling hook (minor equipment to enable swinging movement)

Using the grappling hook to swing across the building and access 4th floor.

Using Rewind on the building to fix up the damage caused to the building so it doesn't collapse.

Healing Check DC10, 1 degree of healing per success. Affects objects. Visually the building rewinds backwards till its repaired.

[roll0]

I couldn't find any rules Re: healing objects or buildings. I checked under installations and damaging objects but it wasn't clear. If there is a reason the building doesn't count for healing purposes, let me know I'll edit this part of my action.

Frag check (Will DC 25)
[roll1]
[roll2]

Edit:One degree of failure, -1 Toughness due to frag. Regeneration on standbye.

John really did not appreciate getting shot at this much in one day, but these people were still not a threat, so his response was measured. No need to hurt anyone, just stop them. Mixing molecular energy in his lungs, he exhales a wave of what is effectively intense cold at the shooters and whomever that was that spoke.

Spoiler: Actions

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Affliction 10, cone area, DC 20 Str to break the effect. Impaired/Immobile/Paralyzed, Cold descriptor.

Joule

While the device upstairs needs to be investigated, the pleading of the man down with the monster is too much to be ignored.

Joule flies down, not too quickly, to confront the behemoth.

"It looked like you were saving the civilians in that car so I am going to assume you have some intelligence. Do you understand what I am saying?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Will cycle through different types of energy sense to try to figure out what she is dealing with. Electromagnetic, x-ray, etc. It will not be as effective as an actual x-ray machine or a MRI as she is relying on the naturally occurring background radiation but perhaps she can gain some idea of what is in front of her.
She is going to be ready to try to cool it off with more Thermokinesis (Minor) if it tries to attack her.

Carapace
^{Hero Points: 2 Luck: 2
Conditions: None.}

The massive form stopped as the young woman in what appeared to be a flight suit, complete with utility jacket and some sort of flight mask hovered before him, energy crackling around her eyes as they shifted through the energy spectrum. Her cursory scan revealed a massive form, a living creature, however, it's underlaying muscle structure was significantly denser than any terrestrial life form. Covered in a chitinous carapace that defied simple composition scans, and augmented with alloys and metals that hadn't yet appeared on the periodic table. However, something deep inside the creature's form was familiar, a spine, a rib cage, human in form, albeit indelibly connected to the surround tissue and muscle, and her vision was unable to tell where one ended and the other began.

The creature, shrugged it's massive shoulder's in a human-like gesture, eliciting another whimpering pleas from the lobby gunman it held so casually in it's grasp. It exhaled, a warm, damp stream of air filled the lobby, an odd scent, organic, like wet loam surrounded the two before dissipating. It looked up to the 4th floor, and beckoned the young girl to follow, considering the energy crackling around her hands, she likely was in little danger if there were more men like the one he dragged behind him.

Quote:

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OOC: Continue moving to the device that is the epicenter of the energy fluctuations, Speed 4, so hopefully should get there this round. Joule can follow. Not releasing my grip on the Gunman, but I am not using him as a human shield either, I kind of want him alive for questioning (by police) when we're done all this.

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Joule
No conditions

As there appears to be a humanoid skeleton and nervous system deep inside this monstrous form it is possible that this is another super that is also here to deal with the situation. However it is not very talkative, if it can even speak at all right now.

"If it is your intention to investigate that device then you should leave the gunman here. We could tie him up with a banister railing or something so he does not escape. Whatever is up there might not be able to do much harm to you, but I cannot say the same about the guy you are carrying."

Pandora
Hero Points: 1
Condition: Vulnerable

Pandora followed Helmet Girl quietly. Specifically she wanted to observe her to get a feel for who she was, and why she was here, after all it wasn't unthinkable that a superpowered villain might interject themselves in another's business. To judge by her interactions with the monster downstairs she seemed at least lodged along the positive end of the alignment spectrum.

She softly padded up behind the girl, her eyes glowing red as she looked for any magics afoot, and softly said, "I dont know who you are, or if you can even control that thing," her eyes glanced over to Carapace, "but the last thing we need is a chemical spill in this building because someone got too stompy."

Spoiler: OOC

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• Current Weal and Woe Array Power: Lampad's Torch
• Detect Magic: See magic, pierces illusions. Pandora is Vulnerable
• Deactivating Icarus Flight upon entering building.
• Glyph of Warding (7 Impervious toughness vs physical attacks)

Carapace
^{Hero Points: 2 Luck: 2
Conditions: None.}

With a casual shrug it tossed it's hostage over it's shoulder with enough force that he cracked the wall and slumped to the landing of the stairwell. It huffed a stream of that same damp, organic breath at the second heroine, and continued up the stairs towards the strange source of energy emissions.

Joule
No conditions

Takes a quick look at the discarded person with energy sense attuned to x-rays to try to see if there are any broken bones that would require immediate medical attention before responding to the new arrival.

Spoiler: OOC

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No ranks in treatment but a crack in the skull is usually serious.
Is the person that Carapace was carrying still alive?
If he is, it there something on or near the stairwell that can can be used to tie him up with Precise Move Object 10?
Perception roll if required [roll0]

In the street

The retreating gunmen from inside the building come better into sight. While the ones Missmash has been fighting so far have been dressed in various civilian cloths, these guys are in military gears, though still lightly equipped. They fire at the gangsters but at the cops, trying to pin them down so they could get away probably. The gangsters fire back, one targeting Missmash. When the smoke cleared, three more mercenaries and two gangsters lay on the ground. Missmash is unscathed.
Under fire, the material girl repeated her previous tactic, charging at a nearby group of gangsters and then stomping the ground, causing it to briefly shift and then overwhelm her opponents. Three new statues materialized in the street.

The cops, having received enough reinforcements and encouraged by the repeated blows that the super citizens dealt to the criminals, decide to act : a SWAT team sweep through the street, firing at the remaining five gangsters and the three last mercenaries. Seeing this, those duck for cover and then surrender : there's no getting away from this situation.

Above the street, yet another mysterious figure zipline between buildings, crashing into the last floor...

Spoiler

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Missmash has currently a Dodge of 9 so it's 19 or more to hit.
None of the four that fire at her even come close.

The mercenaries have Dodge 2 so 12 or more hit.
4 hits. DC 20 Toughness Resistance Check.
None succeed. As minions, they are incapacitated.

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Lobby

"Do not provoke the angry knife-wielding bipedal gecko" should be an universal good piece of advice, even though one doesn't hear it often.
As it stands, the five mercenaries that thought it a good idea to stand their ground inside the lobby and to fire at V'Rak received the lesson through pain.
The giant lizard moves fluidly from one limb to the next, dispatching with bored ease the five of them. Barely five seconds pass before five bodies hit the floor while Sawbone's tail pick up and clean the blades before sheathing them back in a single swift motion

Spoiler

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Routine check against minion.
The mercenaries have +2 to Dodge and Parry so 12 would be enough to hit
V'Rak has +9 to hit and rolls an average of 19.

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2nd Floor

And two more bodies on the floor, a thin layer of icicles having formed on them.
John Doe doesn't find anyone else on this floor.
He does hear people climbing the stairway, though. They aren't really discreet.

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3rd Floor

Since everyone went down to meet Carapace, there's only one lone guard left there.

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4th Floor

In a shower of glass, Agent Fox lands inside the building.
The noise of her falling through the window is loud but not enough to go over the sound of the machine.

As she is busy mending the building by trying to shift it whole back through time by a few hours, noise is rising from the stairway.

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Stairway

The mercenary is wounded, sure, but not critically so.
He even regains consciousness already, though he doesn't look able or even willing to struggle.
Being surrounded by two super citizens and a monstrous bruiser tend to have that effect if you ain't got a clear conscience.

Speaking of monstrous bruiser, Carapace just went to the four floor, literally getting through the railing of the stairs as he climbed the steps 10 by 10.
The pieces of railing could make for very sturdy ropes...

Leaving the disabled criminals, John moves to the stairwell. He was still concerned for that woman who'd come in here first, he had no idea what she could do and how much danger she might be in. Seeing the collection of super citizens was a surprise, as was the fact none of them seemed to be fighting the giant monster. It didn't seem hostile towards innocents, but he'd partly expected someone to provoke it by now. "Who are all of you?"

Sawbones
HP: 1
-1 to resist damage

V'Rak rushes towards the stairwell. He ignores the stairs and climbs upwards using the damaged railings. He'd better follow that monster and the flying Û-man. They seem to know where they're going.

Joule
No conditions

Joule reaches out with her mind grabbing the railing pieces and uses them to tie up the mercenary, bending the metal as if it were a wet noodle.

To the purple skinned being "Unfortunately I have no control over the big thing. It appears to understand English and can be reasoned with. You are right, we should work to prevent a disaster."

She flies up the stairs to the device and all of the converging supers.

Answering the one in the cape "I have chosen Joule as my alias."

In the street

Paramedics are taking care of the wounded, both criminals and victims.
Missmash is standing there while the SWAT team sweep through the bad guys.
None of the cops yet dare to approach her or issue her any instruction.

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Lobby

Bad guys on the floor, in pain.
The SWAT team isn't there yet.

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2nd Floor

Bad guys on the floor, half-frozen and unconscious.

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3rd Floor

One lone bad guy left there.
Probably panicking as he can see what is happening in the street.

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4th Floor

Agent Fox... and a door with the source of the red light behind.
Also, another door... which Carapace just busted open.

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Stairway

John Doe, Joule and Pandora.
With V'Rak not far behind.

Spoiler

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I'll let you discuss in detail where your characters will go from there.

• They can go to the 4th floor to meet Fox and maybe go to the last room. Most of you already know that there are a lot of heat, electromagnetic energy or magic at work up there.
• They can go into another floor to investigate while the cops aren't here yet. Time is short, though.
• They can go home and call it a day, since the authorities have everything under control, Batman-style. They may or may not bag the prisoner.
• They can try to cooperate with the police which, while in a friendly mindset, is still under heavy political pressure to treat super citizens as unlawful vigilantes.

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Jefferson Park, somewhere in Churchtown District

The phone calls of Lamprey end (see PM)
Around him, dozens of civilians are coming back from the confusion of being far away from where they were a few minutes ago.
The letters helped probably. None of these potential witnesses seem injured.
Some are already looking like they are about to leave.
Others are chatting with their work colleagues and fellow victims, no doubt working out their fears.

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Top of a building, somewhere in Churchtown District

The Pink Trickster observes the scene that unfolds in the street below.
Police vans and ambulances are coming.
A crowd of bystanders is being kept at bay by a lot of cops.
Nobody seemed to have notice her. Yet a voice rang behind her.

"-Normally, brooding on rooftops next to one of the biggest gang fights of this year isn't done while wearing pink.
There are standards, unspoken rules about mysterious strangers helping law enforcement from the shadows."

A thin woman wearing sunglasses even though the sun is down walks next to the Pink Trickster.
She is wearing jeans and a rather relaxed shirt but the pistol and badge hung at her hip make it clear she isn't a civilian.

https://i.postimg.cc/28CyPwZL/AgentTa.png

"-If I asked you to put your hands over your heads and to fall on your knees, would you obey ?
Or do I need to call a SWAT team first ?"

Missmash

Spoiler: Status

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HP: 0
Condition: Fine
Current composition: 95% Asphalt, 5% other

Current Dynamic Stats:
-TGH +9, FORT +6, STR +14
-DGE/PRY +9, CC (Unarmed) +5, ACR +5, "Flight" 5

"Allllll yours, guys!" Missmash called as the police swept in. Man, not a bad warmup. And not a scratch on her, either! I mean it had hardly been a fair fight, what with the bad dudes being both non-superpowerful and getting shot at by other bad dudes, but still.

As soon as it was clear that the rest of the thugs out here weren't going to put up a fight, she turned to the building. That weird red lightshow thing was still going on which, together with this being some sort of front for Azoth, seemed to her like a recipe for some Pretty Bad Stuff. Luckily it seemed like a few other super-types had gone in already, but hey, one more couldn't hurt, right? You know the old saying, "too many cooks makes for some really interesting broth". Uh. Something like that, anyway.

She sprinted across the road and towards the lab (Which seemed to be, uh, rebuilding itself? Ok then?). No need to take the slow way, though; she took a massive running leap and, shifting some adhesive to her hands and feet, began to scale the side of the building at an alarming pace. (Weird experimental adhesive stuff+super enhanced magic asphalt tendons+messing around with her body's own friction/aerodynamics = really really good climbing skills). Within a few moments she'd made it to the fourth floor, breaking her way in through one of the windows to find a woman with a grappling hook, a door with a bunch of crazy red lights coming from it, and...the giant monster thing from before.

"Oh, uh, ok then. Hiya!" She took a cautious step towards the massive behemoth, falling into a defensive stance. "So, before we get started here: are you, uh, evil? I mean I saw whatcha did with the car but, no offense here, ya do look just a little evil. Wait, damn, do you understand english, actually?"

Spoiler: OOC Actions

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Using both Move actions to move towards the fourth floor. At Flight 5 that's 1800 ft. of movement total, which I think is more than enough to get her there?

Also I assume that Carapace and Agent Fox are both here and in the same room at this point; if incorrect, I'll edit the post.

Joule
No conditions

Joule heads up to see what is going on with the thing on the 4th floor. Want to make sure that it is not something that is threatening to destroy some or all of the city.

John shakes his head. "No time for this, anyone who's interested in stopping whatever is going on, that light is coming from upstairs. If not, it might be best to withdraw from the building in case whatever this is explodes." He flies to the fourth floor.

Sawbones
HP: 1
-1 to resist damage.

V'Rak continues upwards to the fourth floor. Whatever that light is, it's up there, and if there's any alien tech here, it's going to be the light.

Carapace
^{Hero Points: 2 Luck: 2
Conditions: Dazed, Immobile, Vulnerable.}

Carapace again huffed, it's wet, earthy breath forming a vapor in the confined area of the stairwell, as Joule directly asked the creature if it had helped the citizens, it's massive head nodded an affirmative. Then it looked at the hallway towards the room where the energy fluctuations were occuring and moved ahead. As it encountered the door, it raised it's hand, it's dull, black carapace, glistened as the large protective shield like growths on the outside of it's forearms flowed, shifted, moved, until once again they soldified, into almost blade like protrusions extending a good 18 inches beyoung it's massive, knobbed fists. It then began to drive those protrusions into the wall surrounding the door, once complete it shouldered it's way through the remains of the wall, leaving a massive hole where the door had been.

It stepped into the room, prepared to confront anyone within.

Quote:

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OOC: Using Tunneling to get through the upright wall. Carapace don't %^$* around with locked doors, lol! I will then use a free action to switch my array into my sustained Immunity to forced movement, knockback, knockdown & trip. Thereby activating the side effect, causing him to become both Vulnerable & Immobile. While also making a Perception check to scan the room; rolling Perception +8, [roll0] Infravision, Penetrates Concealment & Tracking 2.

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Those observant enough would notice that the act of shifting his form to effectively drive through the wall seemed to slow Carapace down, not so much the material of the wall, but the shift to do so. Once in the middle of the room, the concrete beneath his massive feet cracked, as his knees flexed and he braced himself against any expected retaliation. A shower of bullets withered the wall and electrical equipment behind him. He roared his displeasure at one of the gunmen positioned close to a master console. Carapace reached for the security door he knocked loose as he charged through the wall and hurled it like a discus towards one of the gunmen.

Quote:

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OOC: Based on info provided in a PM, Carapace will use Accurate Attack, increasing his Attack by 2, and lowering his Damage by 2, as the Gunman is a Minon, I will take a 10 on the attack. Ranged Attack 6 with +2 from Accurate attack, for a total of 18, and a Toughness check of 25.

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Agent Fox
Condition: -1 Toughnes (Frag)
HP: 1 + 3 (Scene Edit)

Is it so hard to follow basic instructions? Fox didn't think so. She didn't ask anyone to go all that far out of their way. This wasn't like putting together furnature, or disarming a bomb, or even going to some fast food place to make an order for the group. She had been very straightforward: Please don't destroy the building. Its a request so simple it usually doesn't even need to be said. She'd even gone so far as to muddle up causality and sheered herself across split timelines in order to fix up the damage that had been done and keep the structure stable.

And the response she had gotten? From the sound alone, seemed like someone just tore through the entire building from the ground floor up. And that someone was a 10ft tall monster armor guy, who then ripped a reinforced steel door off its hinges.

In the agency, it was pretty common to hear field agents refereed to as spanners. It was a slang term that, as Fox had understood it, came from the phrase 'spanner in the works', referring to a wrench inside an operating machine. Usually seen as a bad thing, but it fit, as their jobs were to fix problems inside the largest and most complex piece of clockwork that could be imagined, while it was always running. In short, field agents fix things.

At the moment, Fox didn't feel much like a field agent. She felt more like a nanny who had just finished cleaning up a mess, only for a toddler the size of a mini-van to come metaphorically and also literally tracking mud and debris through the just-metaphorical living room. Gritting teeth in frusteration, Fox commented to herself "Ok, guess we are just going to do it this way then. Thats fine. This is fine". Field agents also had a tendency to talk to themselves. It was probably due to spending long periods of their age alone.

Fox poked out from behind cover to take a quick visual. Two hostiles, plus the guy in the machine. That was probably a bad thing, but it was the kind of bad thing that was screaming 'don't mess with this'. Anything that had arcs of lightning shooting around usually fell into that category. Line of far was crowded with tech, so gunfire would be discouraged. She could push herself and go for another blitz out of time, but she hadn't finished shaking off the frag yet, so that'd be dicey.

Oh, and the monster guy was roaring, and had thrown the door to take out one of the gunners and possibly the big obvious control lever. That's right, we're not being careful today. Today is 'smash everything and hope it doesn't irradiate the city' day. Guess being a time travler and all, Fox had missed that one. So forgetful.

Fox stepped out, keeping her gun trained on the sole perp, shouting "Hey, Dumbass" refering to the big guy "Knock it off with the creature-feature for a second" She then turned towards the only remaining criminal in the room. "And you, drop your weapons and stand down" She paused a moment and then added "You have no hostages and this guy literally just rampaged through an entire building and punched through a steel blast door just to get to you. And he has more super-friends on the way. Do the smart thing and just call it a day, alright"

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Going to try to talk the guy down rather than start a firefight next to OBVIOUSLY BAD NEWS MACHINE.

Fox is standing in the doorway, using Carapace as cover between her and the gunman closer to the door, keeping her weapon trained on him.

Persuasion check: [roll0]. Modify that if you want based on circumstances since it was mostly just listing out facts.

Using Psych profiling on the guy to try and get a read on their head-space and hopefully the larger plan.

Insight: [roll1] DC 21

Edit: Succeeded by 5. So DC 15 Will for the thug vs mind reading.

Regeneration of frag triggers start of next turn.

4th Floor

MAP
https://i.postimg.cc/WNwk9WfZ/mipui-1.png
Scale : 1 square is 5 ft x 5ft

The stairway, from where Joule, John Doe, Pandora and V'Rak emerge, exit to a small lobby. From there, several ways :

- Two doors are clearly marked "WC", indictating toilets. The doors are opened and there's no reason to believe someone might be hidding there.

- A hallway, running along the window, about 15 feet wide by 70 feet long. One of the windows is now broken, with an asphalt-covered creature with roughly feminine shapes standing in the entrance. A moment sooner, another woman, clad in a strange form-fitting uniform, was there. She is now right behind the 10-feet monster.

- A gigantic entrance, about 10 to 15 feet wide, freshly torn apart by the monster and now blocked by its massive muscular frame, with the uniformed woman right behind it. This entrance probably had a door but you cannot see it right away. It gives to a very wide room.

- Judging by what's left of the masonry, the walls of the main room are 5-feet thick of reinforced steel covered with a heat ablative material and several layers of conductive materials. Seeing through this is impossible with energy vision or infravision. Even the aura sensing and magical sight have some problems.

- This a very large room where a monstrous machine stands at the very center, connected to several generators with dozens of cables each as thick as a human legs. The machine looks like a transparent torus, the shell half-solid, half-liquid as a blinding red light courses through its center, with a few arks of crimson lightning licking the shell itself. At regular interval, pillars which are faintly glowing red are disposed. Gigantic vats with "NITROGEN" written all over it were covered it condensate water drops.

- The temperature of the room is very high. It must easily be 50°C, which while breathable is not comfortable for humans. Carapace's armor let him bear it without problem, though.

- A gunman is standing next to the monster. He is holding a weird gun.

- Those close enough to the machine can see beyond the crackling electric arcs and the red glowing pillars. There, chained at the center, is a man, half-naked, blind folded and gagged. He is wiggling weakly against his bonds.

- There's a lever. It's alone.

- And finally, there's the door !! It's a double door, probably armored, a good 3 feet thick, made of a solid 15 feet large steel frame to which some masonry is still attached. It is currently embedded into the wall to the left of the machine. A pair of boots hangs weakly at its bottom.

The gunman, having heard Agent Fox, hesitate only briefly.

Mercenary :
Screw this, I'm not paid enough for this !! Get that thing away !! Then I'll drop my weapon and surrender !!

Spoiler

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Mind reading : see MP

Lamprey
HP: 1 | Condition: Normal.

Cyrus had figured something was up. Call it psychic intuition.

But now he knew that that something was probably way above both his skill and pay grades.

(Technically most things were above his pay grade because he didn't get paid outside of bounty hunting or providing "information that leads to an arrest")

And he knew that he would stick his nose in it anyway.

After a search on his phone, he heads to the location of R,R&R.

Pandora
Hero Points: 1
Condition: Vulnerable

Pandora cursed as Carapace crashed through the door; what part of "no chemical messes" did it not understand!?

As she chased after them, she came to see the setup in the room, the strange machine surrounded by occult pillars. The room was awash with colors and energies, at least to Pandora, that she almost didn't notice the mercenary standing near the lever. With Carapace having apparently subdued the man with his/her/its? presence Pandora turn her attention turned back to the machine, saying, "Dont touch it till I get a look at it."

She approached, scanning the machine with her vision to try and determine its purpose, how it functioned, and how, if possible, to disable it without causing to do something hideous to the man, the people in the room, or the entire city block. As she analyzed it, she prepared her magic to try and counter any magical effect that might get thrown at her or those near her, it was the sensible thing to do.

Spoiler: OOC

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• Free Action to change Current Weal and Woe Array Power: Prometheus's Flame
• Ready Prometheus' Flame to counter any magical effect directed outside of the machine.
• Expertise Magic to examine the machine. discover purpose, effects if shut down, and maybe effects on the guy in the center if shut down? [roll0]
• Detect Magic: See magic, pierces illusions. Pandora is Vulnerable
• Glyph of Warding (7 Impervious toughness vs physical attacks)