Earth-52 IC

[Bruendor_Cavescout]

The Question

Kate stopped concentrating, and her tattoo ceased its soft warm glow. While she had the others' attention, she pointed to where her eyes would be, and then held up four fingers. She gestured to Lock-Up, then to herself. Then she gestured to Deadshot, and pointed at the shadow of the guard ahead of them. He's all yours, Deadshot, she thought. Clear the way for Lock-Up and myself. We need to get into that room immediately.

Spoiler

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JIC:(1d20)[19]

[ChronicLunacy]

Deadshot

The heavily armed vigilante smiled under his mask and took aim at the shadow further down the hallway. With the guy generally not moving it was a simple shot, even in the darkness. Of course, the darkness mattered very little to Deadshot as he switched on the thermal imaging device built into his eyepiece and zoomed in on the man's head. He settled the crosshairs linked to his wristols on the goon's temple as he looked down the length of one arm and pointed with his index finger. Then there was a brief flash of light as the firearm spoke, its voice muffled slightly by the suppressor, and a rubber round cracked into the man's head. He kept his other arm ready for a follow-up just in case by some miracle the man didn't go down like a sack of potatoes.

Spoiler

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Taking ten on the roll against the minion for a 22. Blast 8, Subtle. If I can't take ten then I'll gladly use my JIC roll for a critical hit.
JIC: (1d20)[19]

[industrious]

Basement

((Collect a hero point, ChronicLunacy.))

Toughness:(1d20+3)[22]

The guard crashes to the floor, but his trigger finger twitches as he does so, and a burst of gunfire crashes into the wall. The sound echoes through the hallway, and any chance of a stealthy entrance is immediately lost.

The three of them can hear pounding feet towards them, the chambering of assault rifles, and barked orders.

((Initiative in the OOC thread would be a good idea))

Lobby

"Yes, Lieutenant?"

It's MacDonald.

"You need something? We're all back in MCU..."

Then she hears the shot, and the Cluemaster looks up, his mouth moving silently as he barks orders to his minions.

"Crap," mutters the Spoiler, forgetting that she had resolved to use "Blast" for these situations, as it sounded more heroic. "What do we do what do we do what do we do?"

[ChronicLunacy]

Deadshot
Defense: 26
Condition: Unharmed

"Of all the rotten luck..." griped Deadshot, his fists clenching in frustration. "Well, there goes the element of surprise. Let's just go and beat the crap out of them before they realize what's going on, okay?" he said as he started to hurry toward the door past where the guard had fallen. He took a moment to kick the unconscious man for making him look bad before continuing through. He went into a roll past the threshold in order to throw off any shots that might be coming his way.

Spoiler

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Using my Move to go into the room and my Standard action on Total Defense this round.
JIC: (1d20)[2]

[DeafnotDumb]

Lieutenant Walker

"Don't panic!" Katherine snaps, placing an arm on Stephanine to steady the girl. "MacDonald, Cluemaster's at the collider thing! Report any useful info now!"

Thank god it wasn't Allen on the other end there. His backchat would've been immense.

"Looks like our freaks have started the situation downstairs." Katherine says, drawing out her service weapon. "Crossbow, I'll see if I can break the glass with my and then you start firing. Attack on two fronts. That savvy?" She looks at the vilgilante, demanding confirmation.

JIC: (1d20)[18]

[ChronicLunacy]

Deadshot

Deadshot rounded the corner only to find himself face to face with a pair of goons charging around from the opposite direction. While surprised, he recovered more quickly than they did as he skidded to a halt. "Trick or treat!" he quipped as he snapped up both of his wristols into their faces and opened up with a fully-automatic stream of rubber pain.

Spoiler

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Taking 10, if possible, for a total of 20 on both mooks. DC23 toughness save. If they're super-minions or whatever and for some reason I can't take ten, I'll roll below.

Mook 1: (1d20+10)[11]
Mook 2: (1d20+10)[12]
EDIT: I am...I'm speechless. A 1 and a 2? Really? I've developed a habit of rolling badly, but never this badly. Someone up there must hate me... Here's hoping I can just take 10!

[industrious]

Goons

The first one goes down, slumping forward with his assault rifle skittering across the floor.

The second one, however, manages to remain upright, if wobbly from the impacts.

Katherine Walker

"Like what? It's a science thing with math that I really don't understand."

[Sophistemon]

Lock-Up

Moving smoothly, Lock-Up darts forward and pulls his nightstick out to the side before twisting and clubbing the remaining goon in the stomach. If the blow manages to hit, and the goon had lunch today, he's probably going to be tasting it again in reverse before too long.

Actions:
Movement: towards the goon.
Standard: attacking the goon; (1d20+10)[29]; DC25.

[industrious]

Minion

The second minion hurks up, and vomit stains the corner of his mouth; as Lock-Up withdraws the club, he crumbles forward as well.

End Combat

[DeafnotDumb]

Lieutenant Walker

"I want to know why the goddamn Cluemaster is at the Collider." Katherine hisses. MacDonald is a smart girl, but Jesus does she get on her nerves sometimes. "Ask somebody who knows and get back to me."

Katherine looks up from her whispered conversation and sees the fight downstairs. Or, at least, the end of the fight. She blinks. "Well, that was anticlimactic. At least you costumed freaks are good for something, though. What now?"

[industrious]

Walker

"Calm down, Lieutenant. Nobody knows why. I mean, it's a very expensive, 50 million dollar piece of equipment with a 75 million dollar insurance tag. He could be trying to destroy it and get part of the money back. He might want to destroy Wayne Enterprise's reputation; they did own the network he got fired from. Or he could just have turned absolutely wacko."

"Or d) all of the above," mutters the Spoiler.

The Group

Lieutenant Walker and the Spoiler rush down the stairs, the eggplant-clad teen a few feet behind the policewoman.


"Listen up, freaks. I have no clue why Brown is at this collider, and right now, I really don't care. He knows we're here. We know he's here. Take him in quickly, and I can get back to filling out paperwork that you don't need to and babysitting the kid Gordon fobbed off to me."

"Yeah!...Hey!"

Results of the Notice roll using your JIC's. Please put them at every post, because they are important.

Spoiler

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Lock-Up

Spoiler

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As you were, Bolton.

Deadshot

Spoiler

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Nothing out of the ordinary. For a given definition of "ordinary," anyway.

Katherine Walker

Spoiler

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You get a hero point, and everything's golden.

Question

Spoiler

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Oh, dear. The reason why the Spoiler is behind Lt. Walker is because when the two stepped over the Cluemaster's goons, she stopped, and lifted the man's pistol from his holster. It's tucked into the back of her pants now.

[Bruendor_Cavescout]

The Question

The Question nodded her head as she listened to the Lieutenant's plan - such that it was. "Get him" was a goal, not a plan. Still, it was The Cluemaster - hardly the sort of threat that Freeze or Ivy would cause, and she could rely on the others to spearhead that attack.

"I'll be right behind you. Bolton, toss me some zipties - I want to make certain these guys don't get back on their feet and try to flank us." The cerulean-garbed crimefighter began to restrain Cluemaster's mooks, and disassembling their guns with practiced speed, but this was only a ruse - her real intent was to have a chance to speak with Stephanie.

As the Spoiler began to follow the rest of the group towards the tachyon collider's control room, The Question quickly laid a hand on her shoulder, and speaks in a hushed whisper. "Ste...Spoiler, we need to talk for a moment. I know you want to stop Cluemaster more than anything, but there are lines that, once crossed, cannot be uncrossed. Maybe it's vengeance, maybe it's wanting to pay him back for all the pain he's caused, or maybe I don't know the exact reason. I can tell you this though - there is no closure to be found at the business end of a gun. Only more loss." She knew it had to be strange, hearing this moral lesson from a faceless investigator, but her voice was soft and reassuring, almost nurturing.

Spoiler

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JIC: (1d20)[13]

[DeafnotDumb]

Lieutenant Walker

The policewoman nods at the Question's words. "Trust her on this one, kid. She's right." Her words are short, sharp, and careful, and she quickly turns away. She doesn't want to say much on this point. "Best revenge is living well, they say. You... you take care on that point, all right?" There's barely any snap in there.

She turns her attention back to her comms with relief. "'bout to go in, MacDonald. Any chance backup will be here in time?" Of course it won't, but it's by the book to check, and if someone here has to do things by the book it's her. There are some things that must be done. "Anybody else there, or they busy?"

JIC: (1d20)[1]

[industrious]

Stephanie

"I...I don't know what you're talking about."

She's not that good at lying. Her voice is trembling, and her posture is all wrong and guilty and confused.

"We...we should go."

MacDonald

"Not unless you have an hour for us to get there. Sorry, Lieutenant. Tell Deadshot I said hi!"

She has a crush on him. Which is disturbing on so many levels.

[ChronicLunacy]

Deadshot

Speaking of the gun-toting vigilante, he had gone on ahead hoping to find either the Cluemaster or more goons to knock out. Who knew what he could be doing in the next room while they sat and talked?

[DeafnotDumb]

Lieutenant Walker

"Kid, learn to lie. You're gonna need it." Katherine looks around. "And Deadshot... aw, hell." The vigilante has gone ahead already. One of these days that is actually going to get him in trouble. "He's got a point, though. We waiting around for anything?"

[Sophistemon]

Lock-Up

The vigilante glances over at Walker, and then towards Deadshot, who is by now venturing further into the room in search of their quarry. "I'll go after him. Maybe you could circle around the other way, catch Cluemaster in a pincer." He gives Walker a brief salute before following after his comrade, the nightstick held low in prepared, practiced readiness. He keeps his eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary.

JIC: (1d20)[9]

[industrious]

((Proceeding under the assumption that everyone is good to go))

Deadshot

The moment he peeks out from the corner, the Cluemaster's goons open fire without warning or even banter from the villain himself. The automatic weapons covering Deadshot push his armor to its limit.

Spoiler

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Surprise! You are surprised, and lose your dodge bonus to Defense and Toughness Saves. Autofire means that for every 2 points the goons' rolls go over, the DC of the save increases by one. Base DC is 20.

Attack Roll: (1d20+5)[11]
Attack Roll: (1d20+5)[16]
Attack Roll: (1d20+5)[25]
Attack Roll: (1d20+5)[17]

Everyone

The sound of gunfire echoes through the hallway. Lock-Up notes that the sound aren't those of Deadshot's wristols.

Spoiler

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Everybody roll initiative in the OOC thread. You guys are a move action away from being where Deadshot is.

[ChronicLunacy]

Deadshot
Defense: 22
Damage: Unharmed

It was a good tactic, and with his eagerness to bring the fight to Cluemaster Deadshot had been surprised. Fortunately, he had almost superhuman reflexes and and technologically advanced hearing, which allowed him split-second reaction times. Deadshot snapped his body into a roll as he came around the corner and rebounded off of the nearest wall or railing as soon as he came to his feet. Shots pinged off of his heavy armor, but fortunately only one of the goons actually managed to hit him. He grunted with the impacts, but managed a quip anyway.

"Amateurs..." he smirked. He didn't raise his wristols in response, but rather flicked a hand up and released a small cylinder he'd pulled from the bandolier across his chest. The grenade hit the floor at their feet with a tink, bounced once, and then began spraying acrid smoke over Cluemaster and his flunkies.

Spoiler

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Deadshot has Uncanny Dodge, Extended 2 Hearing, and a great Notice check, so he's able to keep his dodge bonus to defense even when surprised. Using the last JIC roll as his Notice if need be. (12+16=28) Only one of the goons actually managed to beat his Defense of 22.
Toughness Save (DC21): (1d20+8)[22]
Tear Gas Grenade: This type of grenade releases a cloud of gas that irritates the eyes and lungs, causing temporary blindness and nausea. (Area attack - Reflex DC 14. Visual Dazzle plus Nauseate, Fortitude Save DC14.)

[industrious]

Tachyon Collider Room

The Collider room, for all the millions of dollars that had been invested into it, doesn't look all that high-tech. a plain concrete floor, lit by cheap office lighting. Four of the Cluemaster's thugs stand facing towards the way into the room, while an staircase made of iron grating leads up to a catwalk; a control booth lies some 20 feet beyond the stairs.

A hundred feet into the room itself, and the collider itself emerges. It's perhaps 200 feet in diameter; a long metal doughnut a good six feet high, and suspended another 6 feet above the floor by ceiling-mounted braces. Wire clusters about every 10 degrees feed back into the control booth, and while it doesn't appear to be running, a glass panel, perhaps a foot high, shows flickers of light inside the collider.

In the center of the collider is the Cluemaster, this time eschewing his usual outfit. Instead, he's wearing a tan corduroy three-piece suit, with a pale blue silk tie. Absently, he's tossing an dark object approximately the size of a baseball up and down in his hand.

The Spoiler tenses noticeably at the sight of the villain, fingers twitching in the direction of the back of her pants.

"Get rid of them," the Cluemaster barks out. "Marcus! Begin the sequence!"

[Sophistemon]

Lock-Up
Defense: 20
Damage: Unharmed

His eyes scan the room in a flash, taking in detail and filing it away for the confrontation that's about to unfold. Environment: multimillion-dollar pieces of experimental technology housed in a room designed more for form than function, un-ostentatious to the extreme, with a hard, un-carpeted concrete floor. Above the suspended collider is a catwalk; on it is a control panel. File that away. Opposition: five men, one of whom is the Cluemaster, wanted metavillain and recent murderer, the other four are henchmen, armed, and dangerous. The Cluemaster has something roughly the size of a large orange or a small grapefruit, capabilities unknown. File that away. Primary objective: defeat the Cluemaster and foil his scheme. Secondary objective: protect the others. Tertiary objective: survive. File that away. Choice of action: a violent distraction that will hopefully allow the others to act more freely.

He'd have to talk to Lucius about requisitioning some ranged weaponry - nonlethal throwing blades, perhaps, and grenades with various gaseous payloads. He could talk to Deadshot about that afterwards, once they're all out. He'll have to resort to melee, expose himself to a potentially fatal amount of punishment - which is fine. He's been in this sort of situation before and, should he manage to survive it, Shondra would be able to patch him back together. Bless that woman. Without her he'd be missing three fingers, two ribs, half of his liver, and his left eye. She's a living panacea.

As he passes Deadshot and trundles towards the first henchmen, the gunslinger will hear him mutter, his voice like fresh gravel: "Stop Marcus." And then he's in the room, fulled exposed, rushing towards the nearest henchman, his body turned like the blade of a knife so as to limit, however little, the targetable surface area.

He decides to shatter the man's primary collarbone, disabling his favored arm for the immediate future. Should it connect, it will likely end up as one of those old wounds that ache when it rains and throbs dully in the cold.

Actions:

Spoiler

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• Move: to the nearest henchman.
• Attack (DC25; Critical range 17+, Takedown Attack may occur): (1d20+10)[15].

[industrious]

Cluemaster's Gang

The man crumples under the force of the blow, and spinning sideways, Lock-Up forces his elbow into the gut of the other man, already blinded by Deadshot's grenade, and who doubles over in pain as vomit now stains the side of the vigilante's sleeve.

The remaining two were undeterred by the brutality; they had seen far worse in Blackgate. Their assault rifles are already raised, and one fires neat, controlled bursts towards the grey-clad giant.

Spoiler

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Attack Roll:(1d20+5)[8]
DC 20 Toughness save, +1 for every 2 points the attack roll exceeds Lock-Ups Defense.

Luigi's Turn

[Terron]

With surgical precision, Luigi takes a black bolt out of his quiver, which uncovers from under his trenchcoat at the moment he makes to motion with his hand to take the bolt out. He then puts it in place, as he loads the black ebony crossbow, and raises it to his face, aiming. The usual "thwang!" of this crossbow is barely audible. The bolt cuts through the wind, and into the target, the Cluemaster.

Spoiler

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Quickdraw 2 grants the ability of drawing and loading the weapon as FREE actions.
STDR: Attacking the Cluemaster with Balestra: Luigi attacks with All out attack 4 and power attack 3, so +10 attack + 4 - 3= +11 attack bonus for DC 25+3= 28 DC toughness damage. Defense drops to 16.

MOVE: Move to get total cover if possible.

Black Balestatore:
Defense: 16
Toughness 10
Fort: 8 ; Ref: 8 ; Will: 8
Condition: unharmed
Others: Absorbs 5 physical.

[industrious]

The Cluemaster

At that distance, the Cluemaster merely steps aside; the bolt whizzes past him to sink into the opposite wall with a meaty thunk.

The villain looks at the wooden weapon, quivering and sunk into the concrete, and there is perhaps a hint of terror in his eyes as he hefts the ball one last time before throwing it towards the group. It rolls for a few more feet before beginning to spin, and smoke covers the area between the man's minions and himself.

Spoiler

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Fifty feet between the Cluemaster and his goons is covered with the stuff. It blocks line of sight, and anyone passing through it must make a Fort Save of DC 20 against a Nauseate effect.

Question's Turn

[Bruendor_Cavescout]

The Question

The sound of gunfire spurred The Question into motion. She darted towards where the sounds of automatic rifles was coming, unconcerned for her own safety. Her mind was focused more on the unknowns that Spoiler brought to the table. Could she be trusted not to shoot her own father? When she saw the obscuring smoke, she frowned even further - it would be difficult to follow anyone in that haze. Still, her best bet was to get close to the Cluemaster and try to intercept her, should the young girl's emotions get the better of her. Kate closed her eyes and focused on fading from existence.

Spoiler

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Move action to get into the action, and then turn invisible. I plan on heading towards where the Cluemaster used to be, but that's for a later round.
JIC: (1d20)[7]

[industrious]

Mook 3

"You're going down, Lock-Up! My buddy's in your little zoo!"

The rifle's magazine is soon empty.

Spoiler

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Attack Roll: (1d20+7)[23]
DC 20 Toughness Save, +1 for every 2 points it exceeds Defense.

Deadshot's Turn

[ChronicLunacy]

Deadshot
Defense: 22
Condition: Unharmed

Deadshot broke into a sprint and then flipped over the remaining mooks, leaving them for the others to take care of while he headed straight for Cluemaster and the control room. He plunged into the smoke heedlessly, trusting his mask's filtering system to keep him from breathing in anything harmful and his eyepiece's infravision lens to keep his target in sight. Even as he appeared on the other side of the smoke, he sighted down his arm and let off a rapid-fire burst of stinging, rubber rounds at the villain.

Spoiler

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Deadshot's mask gives him Immunity (Poison).
Autofire Blast 8: (1d20+12)[22]

[industrious]

The Cluemaster

The man ducks down, dodging and weaving through the monocled marksman's fire. Deadshot can see his face wrench up in hatred, even a hundred feet away.

Mook 4

The other mook unloads his rounds at Lock-Up, figuring that the concentrated fire would be enough to make the big man bleed, if not kill him outright.

Spoiler

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Attack Roll:(1d20+5)[22]
DC 20 Toughness, +1 for every 2 points the DC exceeds Defense.

The Collider

The collider is beginning to energize; the high-pitched whine of cooling fansas well as the steady whump-whump of the collider itself. The interior of the circle of the collider is also beginning to glow, despite there being no additional sources of light.

"Captain," the Spoiler mutters in an atrociously bad Scottish accent. "The tachyon emissions seem to be producing a large amount of photonic radiation."

Katherine's Turn

[DeafnotDumb]

Katherine

And on top of everything else, the machine starts glowing. "Goddamn can't be good." Katherine mutters, untentionally in tune with Stephanine's more referentual mutter. "Hope it doesn't blow up. I was supposed to be picking up cake."

Then she hopes no one else heard that.

She grabs Stephanine - experience has taught her that leaving the kid unaccompanied gets will get her into far, far more trouble than even Katherine could - and half drags her along to the best target, that being the idiot who wasted time shouting at Lock-Up and is now holding an empty clip. He's not one of the Joker's men, so she'll go a little easier on him, with elbows, fists and the blunt cane as opposed to the edge of her sword, but that doesn't mean she can't enjoy this.

Katherine's swordstick rises with a feral smile.

Spoiler

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To hit: (1d20+13)[30], DC 21 for the cane.
JIC: (1d20)[3]

[industrious]

Mook 3

Spoiler

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Toughness Save:(1d20+5)[25]

The mook actually manages to get his rifle butt up in time to defend himself; a glancing blow that would turn an interesting shade later, but for now, wasn't even an annoyance. Not with all the adrenaline in his veins.