12-21-12: Day of Change

[Thorn14]

New breakthroughs of science, weapons of war thought impossible, super humans, gods awakening, spellfire from one's finger tips. Only in the comic books...right?


At midnight, just as everyone expected the mayan calendar to spell our doom. Something much different happened....

There are coincidences, and there is this. Battlesuits were stolen. Prototype serums are accidentally used. Solar flares, the planets align, killer spiders, gods awaken and more! And that was just the first 24 hours...


City of San Francisco - 12-21-2012, 13:00.

Some are discovering their newly found powers or circumstances...others are finding others who just discovered theres.

"Kill her!"
"She's a monster!'"
"I saw it! I did!"

An albino 8 year old albino girl turns a corner as tears flow from her eyes. Blood from an unknown source stains her white dress as it flows from the wind.

She heads into an alley, knocking over Garbage cans and whatever she can find as she nears the exit, her eyes wide open with fear.

The mob was only 20 seconds away, her small body able to help her get through a fence that wont stop the mob.

As she exits the alley...4 certain individiuals who have also been 'gifted' by the madness of the day see her, and she sees them (Whatever they may be doing.)

Noticing the 4 she stops, fearing she is surrounded.

The 4 can hear the sounds of an angry mob that can only be coming from the direction she was.

"HURRY BEFORE SHE KILLS US ALL!"


(Begin posing. You are somewhere near the alley and the albino girl sees the 4 of you doing whatever, even if you dont know each other. It seems an angry mob straight out of Dr. Frankenstein is on her heels.)

[Lord Bayushi]

At first, Walter Mathis believed he was mad. Now, he knew the truth: the world had really and truly become a realm of the insane. His legs were like lead, his breath was short, and he still had a trickle of blood emerging from the cut on the side of his face. Sparing a moment to be sure he was alone, he entered a nearby alley-way and nearly collapsed on a pile of trash and cardboard. Forcing himself to stay alert, he allowed his body a few more precious moments of rest.

His 'encounter' with the old gods of Egypt, earlier in the night, had caused him to doubt his mind, though the powers they had offered him seemed genuine. He had taken to the streets intent to find some of his father's more illicit contacts, fearing the worst he would have to deal with would be to explain his odd appearance to the police. What he had found was far, far more unbelievable.

The world had coughed up many things this fated night. Some were ancient, some were new, others were strait out of wild nightmares and insane visions. The city should have slept through the night, but the events in the dark called most to wakefulness. Creatures of legend walked, slithered, and hovered over the streets, some men had become like beasts, others like gods, while many others were simply reduced to terrified victim or bystander in the wake.

The world responded as it should have... first, it blamed what it knew. Hysteria, cults, madmen, and pranksters were the scapegoats for the first few hours. Then, when the world had seen too much to fool itself, the true madness set in. Defenses were called up, and released, unfocused, into the night. Police, National Guard, and self-appointed vigilantes took to the streets to boldly face the unknown, and, if possible, kill it.

The mob violence had begun at some point in the earliest hours, and, once the sun had risen, the mob could see. Now, these terrified and angered masses were striking back, though they were doing so at whatever they could find. Walter had seen the innocent targeted this awful day, and had stood in the way when he could.

In his mind, he had called out to the ancient gods, pleading for answers. They had remained silent. He had called forth ancient memories and reservoirs of ancient knowledge, that had been gifted to him from the strange artifact that now hung around his neck, but no answers as to what was happening, or why.

Certainly his appearance hadn't helped matters. He was surrounded by a mob himself on two occasions. But the armor he wore (and his quick reflexes) had saved him from a gunshot earlier in the night, and his guise caused some to stop and listen rather than shoot first, so he had kept it. His clawed gauntlets bared the blood of some unknown beast, attempting to charge through a group this morning. It had run off, but was still out there somewhere.

Most recently, he had tried to move some people off the streets to shelter, and for his efforts, was struck in the face with a make-shift club. He had been chased for some distance before remembering his new gifts, disappearing and then reappearing out of sight of his pursuers. That had been moments ago, and it looked as if he had more of this to look forward to. Was this the world to come?

His heart-rate had subsided, and his breath came steady again. The burning in his legs began to die down. Allowing himself a moment, he toyed with the amulet at his chest. It glowed pale blue, and the small, beautiful imperfections in the stone seemed to twinkle like real stars. He focused his mind, and allowed himself to take in more of the ancient secrets within, mind swirling with images. He was startled out of this contemplation by the sounds of chaos around him.

"Kill her!"
"She's a monster!'"
"I saw it! I did!"

Crashes of movement nearby drove Walter to his feet again. He turned toward the sounds of a hungry mob in pursuit.

He saw movement on the other side of a fence, a small, pale body in a blood stained dress struggling through to the other side. Beyond her, a mass of angry humanity, surging forward like an angry river.

She stopped short, seeing the strangely clad man, and... others. Suddenly aware of other presences in the alley, Walter scanned around him, unsure of what was now to come.

"HURRY BEFORE SHE KILLS US ALL!"

[OOC]
Walter is in his costumed guise, though the cape is disheveled and torn, and he is clearly surprised by the sudden crowd in his little alley. The activities of the past 13 hours have left him haggard and hurt. Despite the disguise, it is clear to anyone with a decent Sense Motive skill that Walter is not far from the end of his rope. Exhausted, scared, and worrying that he is insane, stressed would be the least that his features would show.

Instinctively, Walter backs toward the child, dropping his body into a defensive stance. He shifts his gaze quickly between the approaching mob and the others around him.

[Terraoblivion]

It was less than an hour ago. Not having realized anything about the events of the night, she had taken out the mirror to check it one last time. And then it had happened. She had been at home all night and hadn't watched the news that morning, her appointment was in the afternoon so she had stayed in bed with a book, taking some time off. It was not something that had prepared her for what would happen.

It was clear that she hadn't gone crazy. Her clothes no longer fit as well as before and she could see the top of some of the books on her shelf that had been just above eye-level before. Those things didn't come from a deranged mind, she had truly changed. She wasn't certain what to think of the change, though. She was gorgeous, way more beautiful than she had ever dared to dream of looking if everything had come together properly, on the other hand it was still a foreign face looking at her. She'd probably grow used to it, but it was still odd. And then there was that other thing...

Heading into the streets confirmed that she had changed. People had never looked at her like that before. It was flattering to be sure, but she didn't know what to do about it. And her ill-fitting clothes just made it more awkward. She had a bit of money, she should go shopping. She had called off the meeting anyway, she had more important things to worry about than dating it. Getting fitting clothes for example.

On her way to the shop she heard the shouting, spinning around just in time to see the girl flee into the alley and the mob chase after her. Speaking up as she rushed towards the scene, she tried to stop the crowd. No kid deserved that. "What are you doing? She's just a little girl."

[RationalGoblin]

Stefan Fletcher

Well. Huh. That was bizarre. Of course, since his strange mutation an hour ago, Stefan was willing to accept lots of things.

Strange, inhuman bone fragments had cut through his skin, all over his body, and formed a strange, fragmented exoskeleton through his flesh. His body had grown stronger, hardier. He could heal injuries immensely, and with some experimentation, had a natural ability to throw his bone fragments with pinpoint accuracy.

After freaking out for about half an hour, Stefan decided to head out to the streets, only remembering too late that his freakish appearance would, at the least, frighten the wits out of anyone who saw him.

But then he came across the mob, and the little girl they were chasing. Oh. Well, now that was interesting. And rage-inducing. Mostly rage-inducing.

Before he knew what he was doing, Stefan shifted into a defensive stance, even though he knew from experience that he was a terrible fighter. Well, before the transformation, at least. Now, he didn't know. Still, he had to keep that mob from murdering the little girl.

Frustrated, but with no way to know why the mob was chasing the girl, Stefan turned his anger to "Spider-man" style quips at the crowd, and slowly walked towards the bloodthirsty group.

"Unless you're reenacting the witch scene from Monty Python, I think you need to stop trying to murder that little girl."

Stefan keeps an eye on the crowd, but turns an eye to the 3 others with him, wondering what they will do. He nods approvingly at the woman and the costumed man, when seeing their reactions.

((OOC: Not actually defensive stance, but simply waiting until the mob acts.))

[Cruxador]

Darren had just dropped from the side of a building, hearing the sound of turmoil. Some folks were chasing a little kid, yelling that she was a monster. Yelling that they wanted to kill her.
Figured. They were unsure of themselves, so they wanted to do something to show that they had power over their surroundings. Well, they didn't. Not really.

Some other people seem to be coming to the girl's aid. Not the way to handle it, they were just going to end up fighting the mob. Of course, that might well be unavoidable at this point.

One of them made some inane joke. Ridiculing the people. They were going to end up fighting the mob, almost certainly now. But maybe not.

Darren grinned at them.
"So, this monster, why does she need to be put down? She seems pretty damn innocent to me. If she could kill you all, why's she running?"

[Thorn14]

Noticing the 4 in fornt of her dont seem as willing to stab her to death, she pauses and turns arround in a voicless eep.

Noticing the one beautiful woman she rushes to her side and clings to her leg like a scared child normally would.

As the mob stops to notice the 4 heroes they glare at them and one shouts out. "She's a monster! You know what she did?!"

"Yeah!" Several voices yell out.

"If we dont get rid of her now, we are all going to end up like the people at that bank!"

(Terra, notice check to notice something about the girl)

One spots the costumed man and yells out "I bet they are freaks just like she is!"

This gets the crowd even more pissed off as they seem ready to charge the group.

In the distance a siren sounds and appears to be getting closer from the east.

(Roll Init if you want to begin combat with the angry mob, who appear to be about 13 or so humans)

It seems the angry mob is in no mood for diplomacy.

[Terraoblivion]

Notice - (1d20+7)[22]

Jenny stood there a bit bewildered. She hadn't expected the mob to be that bloodthirsty and she had even less expected to be caught in the middle of it. Why was there a mob here anyway? This was San Francisco not West Africa where mobs actually did hunt albinos. Something like this shouldn't happen here.

"Monsters? Freaks? What's going on here? Albinos are just born with a genetic variation that makes them not produce melanin. She's a little girl like any other..." Her voice trailed off as she looked at the hostile faces staring at her. Something was seriously wrong here, to have riled the mob up like that, recent too. She hadn't heard about anything like this before.

With her too-short jeans that keep sliding down due to her shrunken waistline and the slightly too large wintercoat, she is painfully aware of how weird she had to look. It wasn't every day that people saw the traditional Japanese view of beauty standing in front of them in plain, ill-fitting western clothes trying to talk down a frenzied mob.

[Lord Bayushi]

The mob wasn't about to calm down, Walter could see that. The others around him, though a strange conglomeration, seemed to want to help, not harm. The child had taken a hold of the woman in ill-fitting clothes, but she had no idea of what had taken place over-night.

Walter stepped in the path of the mob, reaching for the whip at his side. He looked over his shoulder at the others. "You should get the child out of here."

He turned back to the mob, softly muttering an encantation that had protected him earlier in the night. He punctuated it with a wave of his left hand, and a thick mist began to spill from his cloak, covering his form.

With a fierce motion, he cracked the whip in front of the crowd, and raised his voice to be heard. "Pull yourselves together! Do you really intend to harm a child?!"

[OOC]
Cast Cloak of Mist (Concealment)
Initiative Roll (if needed): (1d20+3)[13]
Intimidate Roll: (1d20+4)[5] (any bonus for cracking a whip?)
--Uhg, natural 1, never mind. Commence laugh-track...

[Cruxador]

Darren sighed inwardly. "Well, now why don't you tell us what she did? Because she doesn't seem inclined to do anything now."
Why couldn't people communicate better?

[RationalGoblin]

Stefan Fletcher

Freak. You called her freak. Like everyone used to call me, because I had no drive to be successful, no desire for achievement. Whelp, that had done it. Now Stefan had to do something.

He simply removed his hoodie, now revealing that he wore a muscle shirt. Hundreds of sharp, tiny bone shards poked up from his ribcage, arms, neck, shoulderblades, right below the eyebrow, and various other parts of his upper body.

Stefan glared at the crowd.

"Care to rethink your words? Leave the girl alone. Oh, and tell us why you want to kill her."

Stefan pulled a particularly sharp-looking shard from his left shoulderblade. The bone made a wet noise as it was removed from Stefan's flesh. Stefan winced slightly, but idlely fingered the bone shard.

OOC: Intimidate roll: (1d20+6)[16], and talking to the crowd. If possible, then also delaying an action to throw Fletcherette (bone shard) at one of the crowd if they attack.

[Thorn14]

As the mist shows up, the entire crowd seems to find itself in an uproar. (Init rolls for those who havent)

As the sphinx dissapears from sight and sound from the cloak of magic, chaos insues.

The crowd rushes towards the crowd of 4 and the child.

The girl clutches harder and tears well up in her eyes.

(Terra, you notice the blood on the girl is fresh, as well as something else other than just blood. And it would seem her leg has been injured in some way, perhaps a sprained ankle.)

(Lord, your eye acts up briefly, you arent entirely sure, but you have this naggin feeling that if this girl bawls her eyes out, something VERY bad is going to happen.)

[Terraoblivion]

Initiative - (1d20+1)[6]

Suddenly Jenny's pose snapped. Rather than the awkward confused look she had had, she fell into a pose ready for battle, her face calm. This was followed by a shimmer of golden light surrounding her, seeming to cover her entire form.

She raised her hand and it became visible that the light started to gather there, growing towards a searing white. The small ball of light flew from her hand by its own accord, heading straight for the eyes of the man in the lead bursting just before hitting him.

(Using dazzle on the guy in the lead of the mob. It's a DC 18 reflex save to avoid being dazzled)

[Lord Bayushi]

Enclosed in the mist around him, Walter reached for one of the lead 'mobsters,' hoping to use his martial arts to throw one into another, perhaps blocking the path of several with fallen bodies.

[OOC]
Using Improved Trip to try to make one fall down in front of others.
Attack Roll: (1d20)[4] + 8 (Attack Bonus) +4 (Improved Trip): 16
Opposed Roll: (1d20)[12] +3 (Dex Bonus) +4 (Improved Trip): 19

Yeah! A roll above a 4!

[RationalGoblin]

Stefan frowned as his show of intimidation did nothing.

Init Roll: (1d20+7)[23](+3 from Dex, +4 from Improved Init)

Easing into a slouch-like position that nonetheless was good for aiming small projectiles, Stefan pulled another one of his bone shards out from his skin, emitting another wet-sounding noise from the flesh.

Grinning, Stefan aims his sharp, dart-like bone missile at one of the middle mob members, and throws, intending to stick the mob member's shirt to the walls of the alley.

Upon seeing the powers of his allies, Stefan remarks,
"My, my, my, it seems I'm not the only fellow with strangeness around here!"

Stefan gives a laugh, clearly having the time of his life.


((OOC: Ranged pin on one of the middle members of the mob, to stick him/her to one of the walls of the alley, since I assume it is within 5 feet. Since I need an attack roll to do so, ta-da. Attack roll: (1d20+8)[24], as I'm using Bone Fletcherettes))

[Cruxador]

Well.
It seemed like things would certainly come to violence now. Too bad, really. Well, protecting a small child was probably the best course of action. It was the side that the weird abilities were on.
Darren dropped down onto his fingertips and leapt forward, a knuckle going to the throat of one of the more vocal mobsters.

(1d20+7)[21]

[Thorn14]

Group Init [16]

Order:
BoneFletcher [23]
Darren [19]
Mob [16]
Sphinx [13]
Jenny [6]

BoneFletcher strians to fire some of the bone, but it shoots true and pins one of the men cleanly against the wall, him unable to get free despite his struggles!

As one of the mob members is flung, Darren's punch strikes true, his blow crushing the laryenx of the speaker as the force of the blow sends him toppling into 3 other mobmembers who scatter like bowling pins.

The mob is obviously pissed over the sight of the supers helping the girls as they charge in a relentless fury against the visable 3.

Fletcher is assaulted by 3 men, 2 with their fist and one with a 2x4. The 2x4 goes wide [5] and one punch is short [7] However another punch blows past the spiked man's defenses [20] But the punch is as effective as a light breeze against his protection [25 on Toughness save]

Darren, being believed to be the strongest, is assailed by the leader and 2 henchmen, all three armed with assortments of pointy objects. While he is able to avoid 1 of them [8], 2 thrusts make its way through [18][19]. But the two knives simply bounce off his tough skin [20 and 19 on toughness roll]

The last three, in an attempt to go for the kid rush after Jenny and attack with 2 baseball bats and their fists. She is able to side step 2 of them [5 and 7] But another bat makes it to her shoulder, butthe blow is weak enough even a normal human could ignore it [20 on toughness]

(You guys might want to activate your shields and toughness if they are free actions, I'll start to assume that you activate them as combat starts though, but please say so in the future.)

Sphinx: After the rush, it becomes hard to trip them but he is able to get one of the leader's boss off his feet!

Jenny: The leader, too distracted by trying to fight the costumed man, is easily blinded [15] as he recoils from the sudden light. The girl shivers and clenches harder....

Next Turn:

As the scuffle begins, the sign of supernatural elements and shouting is heard arround the area. And sure enough, from both flanks, many many more angered citizens seem to appear from almost no where, charging the supers! (About 15 on each side!)

Just then, a large black van screetches and stops behind the group and its doors swing open. As the door opens a quite tall man in a buisness suit and secret service like sunglasses opens the door of the van and pulls out what appears to be a large weapon. Firing it into the crowd in front of you, a large net takes the last of the standing mob in front of you, momentarily held down by the large fired net. He yells "All of you get inside!" He presses a button on his sunglasses and looks directly at Sphinx, despite his concealment. "Even you!"

The little girl's eyes shoot open with recognition as she bolts for the large van, but not without tugging on Jenny's pant leg first and looking up with pleading eyes first.

[Lord Bayushi]

The Sphinx glanced through the mist, to the newcommers with the van. Classic 'Men in Black' types. Great. Glancing at the approaching waves of angry citizens, he thought quickly over his options.

"The girl seems to recognize these men. We either take our chances with them, or we stand against the flood of humanity. The 'G-Men' are not an immediate threat, I say we remove the child from danger."

He took several steps back, trying to come shoulder to shoulder with the strange, bone-throwing man.

"We can't hold them for long. Decide quickly."

[OOC]
The Sphinx will again assume a defensive stance, hoping to cut off the incrouching mob(s) from the woman, the child, and the government types. If the others head to the van, he will follow as well.