Still Not Safe #2 [M&M 2nd ed]

[Tengu_temp]

This is why Emi hates fighting in such tight corridors - she can't really see the cloaked figure (from her perspective it only looks like her friends are fighting something), there's no way she can hit it with precise attacks, and if she drops something on it from above it will hit the other people engaged in melee as well.
Gah... At least you won't run away!
She raises her hand and creates a crystalline barrier in the tunnel, several yards behind the cloaked enemy's estimated position - if the cultist wants to retreat or if enemy reinforcements come, they'd have to break through it first.

[Cubey]

Ben finds no ID, no wallet - nothing. Maybe the Thoughts are simply too smart to carry such things when they're... on a mission.
The control you find has only a single switch on it. Flipping it back into a different position does not result in the sound of a hatch opening... but there's nothing more you can do with it! Was it a one use only item?

Andy... misses. Cat... misses too! The figure keeps jumping back, and back. But with Emi creating a barrier behind its back, the camouflaged Shifter has nowhere else to run!

(James can still perform an action)

[Haven]

Lorne:
"Backup is on its way. Try to hold, and if the situation is too tough, retreat." The Commander answers back.

"No, Lorne. Stay back!" Laura yells at you as you fly away. But she cannot stop you physically - the first group of shining Shifters descend upon her and the Japanese Shifters. You can only glimpse Takeshi's Red Oni and Usagi's... whatever her armor is called rushing forward to the enemies. Let's hope they will be alright.

Upon getting close enough, Lorne notices that both figures he faces against are familiar! It is the gold-clad female knight, and the martial artist Shifter that you faced a longer while ago. They look the same like before, although the martial artist's uniform is yellow now, and not red.

Your analyzed target seems to be a straightforward fighter, but can also create and manipulate objects. Her weakness are hard-to-control emotions.
(Blast +2, Emotion Control 2, Evasion 2)

Your Drain attack would hit the target - but the martial artist stands in its way, blocking the blast! It has no obvious effect.

"We don't have to fight here, but if that's what you choose..." The knight sounds disappointed.
(Toughess DC: 24)

"Trapping my friends underground is not exactly an olive branch." Still, interesting...I wonder...

A straight sword immediately appears in her hand, and she leaps towards you, her newly formed weapon swinging at your armored flesh! It misses... but the attack was followed up by the silver martial artist's roundhouse kick. And this one does connect.

Toughness save: (1d20+10)[11]

Lorne dodged the sword strike, then gasped as the martial artist's kick connected. The swirling winds around him threatened to corrode her, however. ((DC 12 Toughness-draining save, and then a DC 17 Toughness save.))

Though physically unharmed, he starts trembling within his suit. Acting on instinct, he flies 1220 meters straight up.

[Matar]

"Hey Andy!" Todd yells, rather annoyed that he missed. "Do you think I should open a way up? I'm damn sure I can rip a hole in the roof with ease!"

[Fri]

"Do that, todd. Fighting in the warehouse is better than fighting here."

Looking that their enemy is cornered, James leapt forward.

"Your camouflage is useless against my Grey Fowl!" Concentrating at the skittering voice, he bounced once and launched a leaping kick. "Shattering Fowl Kick!"

Spoiler

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All out attack(1d20+15)[16] and if the camouflage protect him from sight, Grey Fowl has accurate hearing.

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"If we're going back the way we came, I'm going to melt that hatch at the other end of the tunnel! Can you guys handle Predator boy?" Ben asked of the others. If the answer was affirmative, he rocketed back down to where the hatch had closed above them as his hands began to glow white hot, disturbing the air as he passed it. When he got to the hatch he pushed off of the floor and sank his glowing hands into the metal. Hopefully, his touch would turn the hatch into rivers of molten steel, molding it and ripping it apart enough that they could all pile back into the warehouse above them.

Spoiler

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Since the door is motionless, I'm hoping I don't need an attack roll. I'm using Corrosion 10 to melt the hatch into a useless, butter-like substance.

[Cubey]

James's hearing is precise, and pinpointing the exact location of his enemy? No problem.

With a shattering crunch, you strike into the camouflaged Shifter, weakening the defenses and sending your opponent flying back - his/her back hitting the barrier created by Emi.
(1 bruise and stunned)

"Alright, now!" Frank grabs for his gun and unloads half of the magazine towards the Ascender. This is done mostly to distract the enemy and give someone else a chance to attack - Anne uses the opportunity to fire a thunder-like arrow, hitting and further wounding the enemy! (1 injury)

"Yaaah!" Sara lunges forward, intent on beating the crap out of your enemy - but something disturbs her so much that she misses terribly.

And that something being your opponent's cloaking disappearing. The figure revealed underneath looks... unsettling, to say the least. It is a human - if a human's skin was turned on the other side, with all the muscles visible. Your enemy's head is featureless, except for a maniacal grin... and he (it?) starts to breathe heavily...

(You receive a hero point each)

Only a split second after the breathing, fleshy tentacle-like tendrils emerge from your opponent's chest! There is a lot of them, and they only grow larger and more bulbous the closer they get to you! They do not have a chance to touch you though - before that happens, they explode in messy red clouds, creating a powerful shockwave that fills the whole corridor!

(The enemy used an area Blast - reflex DC 22, toughness DC 27/21 on a passed save)

Lorne: Your opponents use this as an opportunity to jump down - they Shift and disappear under the road below. Since Shifters cannot pass through solid earth (or can they?), they probably entered the sewage system below the city. You can act more sensibly now - will you try to follow the two, or help the Japanese squad? The latter are engaged in battle, but despite the superior enemy numbers it seems they are winning. Or at least, nobody dropped down yet.

[kamikasei]

Cat blanches at the disturbing sight of the Ascension Shifter. What are they doing to them? Her gorge only rises further when it makes its attack - but an instinctive half-turn lets her brace herself against the wall and ride out the shockwave. Shaking her ringing head, she looks around to see how the others have fared.

Spoiler

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Reflex - (1d20+10)[18]
Toughness - (1d20+10)[23]
Evasion 2 means that's a passed Toughness save.

[Cubey]

"Now you've made me angry! Taste the fist of justice!" Sara is only mildly bruised by the attack - but that's enough to fire her up in more ways than one. She looks visibly stronger now. (1 bruise)

As for Anne, the attack knocked her out of breath and out of balance, too. She managed to stand, leaning against the wall, but she is unable to do anything else for the second. (Bruised and stunned)

And then there is Frank. As soon as the tentacles emerged, he dropped to the floor and rolled expertly out of harm's way. Because of that, he suffered no wounds at all.

[Drascin]

Focused on finishing this quickly because Lorne and the rest are up there surrounded, Andy barely winces at the look of the... thing. Thank God for alien and horror movies making him able to distance himself from it, though, or he'd been seriously creeped out. The adrenaline rush also does help a lot.

And so, as the tentacles rush out, he parries and grabs one, trusting the suprior toughness of his armor to protect him and using the momentum to throw himself towards the enemy, his right fist descending like the hammer of justice.

"Titan's HAMMER!"

Attack - (1d20+10)[26] ((As always, full Power Attack with All-out))

[Fri]

(1d20+13)[29] reflex save

With his superior reflex, James easily dodges the enemy's attack.

"Whatever it is, it has no chance. I almost feel bad for it, alone against all of us." He says as he recovers back to fighting stance. "But we have no time!"

Following Andy's attack, he leapt and unleashed another kick.

[Cubey]

Andy's and James's combination attack hits the Shifter, and knocks him(?) out instantly. Is it over now? Let's hope so.

(Those who didn't should still roll for reflex/toughness, though.)

[Matar]

Todd gives his head a nod, and takes the explosion full-force... and is unaffected!

"My devotion to the tentacle gods has granted me immunity to your powers!" Todd is ready to attack until Ben and Andy double team the poor bastard. Sad about not being able to hit anything, Todd yells out "To infinity, and beyond!"

And jumps straight up. With enough force to rip through the ceiling like wet paper, and leave a sizable hole behind.

...Besides, the hatch was no doubt a trap.

[Haven]

Lorne flies down towards the sewer at top speed, hoping he can catch up with the enemy shifters.

I'll have time to regret later; right now I still have a chance to compensate for running away in the middle of the fight. If I'm more careful this time...

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben

Spoiler

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If Ben's still in range of it at the other side of the tunnel, here's my saves. Otherwise, he's still going about his last action since I haven't read any result of it yet.

Reflex: (1d20+10)[18]
Toughness: (1d20+10)[27]

[Cubey]

Ben, and everyone in the underground corridor:
The action you wanted to do was interrupted by the Shifter attacking. So only after taking a hit can you continue your chosen action. At least there are no complications this time - corrosive forces applied to a metal hatch make it melt like butter, Sophium alloyed or not.

Fortunately, the Shifter who attacked you has already been neutralized, and lies down on the floor without moving. As for the one before, who was holding the switch to the hatch... the explosive area blast attacked him too. And the results are grisly and bloody to say at least. He is obviously not alive anymore.

"Urgh..." Sara just noticed that, apparently.

Lorne:
You disappear into the sewers. But disappointingly, the Shifters you chased are nowhere to be found. Despite staying Shifted yourself, your increased visibility is not good enough to track them. And if you are trying to detect Sophium, you discover that their signatures are lost.
"Lorne! Lorne, is everything alright?" Laura calls to you over the amplifier's communicator.

[Haven]

Lorne:
You disappear into the sewers. But disappointingly, the Shifters you chased are nowhere to be found. Despite staying Shifted yourself, your increased visibility is not good enough to track them. And if you are trying to detect Sophium, you discover that their signatures are lost.
"Lorne! Lorne, is everything alright?" Laura calls to you over the amplifier's communicator.

((I can't detect them with my electrical radar blindsense either, I take it?))

"Damn it..." Lorne mutters to himself. Over the radio, he says "They seem to have escaped."

With that, he flies 100 meters up, analyzes one of the cultists, and blasts them with a (nonlethal) Telekinesis attack.

[Cubey]

Unfortunately, Lorne cannot detect the escaping Shifters, no matter which of his detection methods he uses.
And after getting back from the sewers, he discovers that the fight is already over! The Japanese Shifters (and Laura) have defeated all the Ascenders, who are lying all over the place now.

(Feel free to react, but I want to wait for other players to advance with the plot.)

[Tengu_temp]

Eek, that's nasty! Emi manages to dodge the shockwave - barely, but nevertheless she remains unscathed. As expected, the others handle the enemy well enough, so she can concentrate on other things, like checking how did the attack affect the others. She's amazed that Frank remained unharmed - just how good is this guy? - but she also can't not notice what happened with the other cultist.
God, he's dead... Just what kind of a messed up psycho do you have to be that you don't care whether your attacks hit and kill your allies or not?
"Let's... let's secure this guy so he won't wake up and run away, and move on." Her voice sounds slightly shaky at first, but she started to control it again. "I will take down the barrier when we're moving again."
Emi turns towards the wounded part of the group (that'd be Sara and Anne) and emits a cone of healing particles from her palms towards them. As announced, she's going to remove the barrier the moment anyone gets going down the corridor again. She also contacts the other team via radio.
"Hey, is everyone okay there? Do you need backup?"

Spoiler

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Using Healing Emission on Sara and Anne, giving them a recovery check with a +4 bonus.

[Fri]

"No time for dilly dallying. If everyone is alright, let's continue. We've wasted enough time for these guys." James says, completely unhinged.

[kamikasei]

Cat takes the awareness of what the Ascension Shifters did to one another, bundles it up and pushes it deep down below the level of conscious thought. She's seen death already in this line of work, but the casual disregard for an ally's well-being that she just witnessed isn't something she wants to dwell on. In a way, the thoroughness of the hapless victim's disintegration makes it easier to ignore - with the body so mangled, she can keep the knowledge that the remains used to be a person at arm's length.

She doesn't comment on it - even as an expression of disgust with Ascension is forming on her tongue, it occurs to her that in all likelihood at least some people will end up claiming they were the ones who killed him, and that's not a thought anyone needs to hear voiced. "Come on," she says instead, flourishing her levitated water to shake out... whatever that attack had consisted of, that she'd shielded herself from. "Ben, how's the warehouse look? We might need you to relay back to the others if the tunnel blocks radio."

While she speaks, she detaches a globule of the water and uses it to freeze the unconscious (living) Shifter to the wall of the tunnel, pinning him spread-eagled so that he can't get at any potential hidden devices, then follows after the others, taking the rear guard position.

[Cubey]

Catriona successfully freezes the Shifter to a wall... and only a few seconds after she does it, he raises his head and starts sneering in your general direction! Wasn't this one supposed to be unconscious?!

At least it seems the snare holds well, because the Shifter didn't break it yet.

"We are alright up here. Everyone did their best and the enemy was defeated!" Emi receives Laura's response. The older Shifter sounds pretty cheerful, but also tired and stressed.

"Support is arriving." And this time it's the Commander. There is some small static, but you can hear him more or less clearly.
"It may look like it's unnecessary, but don't lower your guard yet. Is everyone alright? And did you manage to locate Sarah?"

[Drascin]

Seeing the mangled man, Andy can't help but let a small ugh out, before he can push it deep into the "later" section of his brain. He shakes his head. "Yeah, sounds like they won up there, but some of us should keep going and see where the hell this goes" he says, taking point...

...when the alien shifter comes back to life. And has the gall to sneer. Andy stops and looks at him, the severe face of the God of War fixed on him.

"So Psychobitch McFriendlyFire wakes up" there's extremely obvious disdain in his voice.

[Cubey]

There is no reaction from your captive. After the initial sneer, he only focuses on trying to break free (unsuccessfully). You could as well not be here, as the Shifter treats you like air.

[Haven]

"I'm uninjured," Lorne says laconically, and turns his attention to the "tower". Landing near its base, he blasts it with his arm cannon until it turns to dust.

Spoiler

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Using toughness drain on it.

[Tengu_temp]

"We haven't located Sarah yet - we encountered an enemy Shifter, and managed to capture him.", Emi responds via radio.
Don't think about the dead guy... There's no time for that now...
"Everyone is okay here. I'm going after Sarah again."

With just a stare Emi takes the barrier down, and runs down the corridor. She doesn't just run forward upon reaching the turn, possibly running into enemy trap, however - instead, she creates another semi-transparent wall right after the corner, and then looks behind it - if any enemies are waiting there, this should provide protection against their ambush. If she sees nothing possibly aggressive or suspicious, she makes the barrier disappear just like the previous one.

[Cubey]

After the turn, Emi finds... no trap. Only the corridor's end - a large and closed hatch on the roof. It seems to be designed for cargo use, as there is no ladder but rather a moderately steep ramp.

Lorne finds that soon after the battle ends, the tower starts to disappear and degenerate on its own. Like if it served its goal and wasn't important anymore...

[Tengu_temp]

This looks bad...
Emi opens the hatch, fully expecting to find nothing but an empty street and the sign of a truck standing there just a moment ago. If it's locked, she summons a crowbar-shaped piece of crystal and uses force.

Spoiler

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In case the hatch is locked - Create Weapon, Power Attack +5.

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

Assuming he found nothing in the warehouse after melting the hatch, Ben returned to the corridor and quickly caught up with the others. He paused for only a moment to render the snared shifter unconscious with a vicious right hook to the jaw. "Nappy-time, psycho." he said. It wouldn't do to have the Ascender awake at the moment. Maybe later when they felt like questioning him, but not now.

Spoiler

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Delivering a coup de grace to the helpless, inside-out shifter. For some reason I just find them easier to deal with when they're knocked senseless. It auto-hits for a critical, meaning he makes a Toughness Save against an Unarmed strike of 12. (17 if I can use Power Attack for this.) If he doesn't get a knocked out result from failing the Toughness save, he has to make a DC 22 (or 27) Fort Save to avoid being knocked out. Rules for coup de grace are on page 162 of the rulebook and all damage is nonlethal.

[Cubey]

Ben knocks the Shifter out. Hopefully he won't be getting up again.
Emi finds that the hatch is unlocked. It would be difficult to lift and open the heavy gates normally, but thanks to the PSA, it's not a problem. On the other side you see... a normal storeroom.

There are a few metal crates around. You do not know what is inside them, as they are closed. The storeroom has signs of use, and there is no dust here either. There are no people, but there is a door that may lead to some other room.