Earth-52 IC

[industrious]

Spoiler

"Hey!"

The teenager squeaks out a protest at Walker's treatment, but goes along with it. And when the guy blows Katherine's blow, she goes at him simultaneously, sliding down into a kick the man's legs. The blow hits, but unfortunately, Steph simply doesn't have the mass to affect the beefy enforcer.

"...Oops?"

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Acrobatic Bluff: (1d20+11)[26]
Mook's Sense Motive: (1d20+5)[10]
Attack Roll: (1d20+9)[22]
Toughness Save (if necessary): (1d20+5)[19]

Lockup's Turn

[Sophistemon]

Lock-Up
Stunned, Bruised, Injured
Current Defense: 13 (20-Dodge Bonus-2)

After watching two of his comrades beaten down by the gray-clad vigilante, the first of the remaining gunmen raises his rifle and fires in a panic, the rounds chattering like angry teeth as they leave the barrel and slamming harmlessly into the wall beside Lock-Up, leaving angry pock-marks in the plaster, like craters on the Moon. Lock-Up glares at the man, and manages to take two imposing steps towards him before the second gunman, who had used the distraction of the first to take more careful aim, shouts out, and fires.

Lucius' technology is to be commended. Many of the gunman's bullets bounce harmlessly off of Lock-Up's armored chest and fall smoking to the ground, the lead deformed by the impact. For the purpose of mobility, however, the armor had to come equipped with seams that were less armored than the harder plate sections. On bullet lodges itself in a seam that allows him mobility about the waist - he'll have a nasty bruise there, at least - and another punches through and pierces his skin below the right pectoral muscle.

He drops to his knees with a grunt and feels blood begin to gush out into his armor before the absorbent padding on the inside swells with it, pushing back against the wound. There is another bright flare of pain as it does so, but it will keep his fluids in until he can seek medical attention. He gasps air through his mask and decides to take the next few seconds out.

Thank God he emptied his clip! he muses.

[Terron]

Black Balestatore runs and rolls into the smoke, trying to appear on the other side to shoot at the Cluemaster. Unfortunately, the smoke is highly irritant for the higher respiratory system. Coughing, the former gangster moves out of the cloud, unable to do anything else. "Watch out *Cough!* that thing is toxic!"
he warns the others.

Actions: Move into smoke, fail save, move forward out of the smoke.

[Bruendor_Cavescout]

The Question

Holding her breath, The Question dove into the smoke. Her Pseudoderm mask helped keep her eyes from stinging too greatly, and she emerged from the smoke, still invisible. She dove and somersaulted towards The Cluemaster, highly aware that the cloud would betray her exit.

Inwardly, she continued her moving meditation. Of all the techniques taught to her by the Sephirot, this was the most difficult. If she didn't want to be seen by others, she had to forget herself before the majesty of the divine. Forgetting one's self is the hardest lesson of all, and Kate hadn't truly mastered it. All it took was one errant thought, and she would be as easily seen as anyone else.

Still, for now, she was coping.

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Move 30', made my Fort save on the OOC thread, move another 30' to exit the smoke cloud.

[industrious]

Mook 3

The minion finds Lock-Up down, but with an empty gun, is forced to reload.

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Deadshot's Turn.

[ChronicLunacy]

Deadshot

Spoiler

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Apologies for the delay!

Deadshot came out of the smoke cloud at a jog, headed straight toward Cluemaster. He didn't speak, but made it obvious that he was intent on a brawl. He ran up the stairs toward the villain, but at the last second his legs bunched and he propelled himself up onto the railing. He took two steps up the railing until his balance started to fail, then jumped off and turned a flip to get to the catwalk at the top. It was obvious now that he intended on completely bypassing Cluemaster in favor of stopping whatever was going on in the control room! "Save a dance for me, Artie, I'll be back for you in a minute." he quipped as he headed past.

Spoiler

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Moving 30 feet up the stairs past Cluemaster and Total Defense as my standard action in order to give Deadshot a Defense of 26 for this turn.

Acrobatics to move through an occupied space: (1d20+11)[19]
Bluff, if needed: (1d20+13)[32]
JIC: (1d20)[10]

[industrious]

((No problem))

Mook 4

"Bad move, kid," the man says, attempting to slam the butt of his rifle into Stephanie's gut. The Spoiler is too quick, though, and nimbly handstands backwards, even going so far as to mock him with a bow.

"Worse for you, big guy. Sic 'em, Lieutenant!"

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Attack Roll:(1d20+5)[10] against Defense 19
DC 20 Toughness Save
Toughness Save:(1d20+5)[9]

Walker's Turn

[DeafnotDumb]

Lieutenant Walker

"Kid, back!" Walker snaps, and is glad to see Stephanie dodge flawlessly, if too showily, out of the crook's attack. Gordon would give her hell if she let the kid get hurt, and he'd be right. Time to rectify the threat, then. Walker's cane rises, going towards the chin and nose, and then heading down towards the kneecap for a bracing impact. Well, he'd certainly remember it if it connected properly, at least, especially if this could keep him indoors until the winter stopped hurting his legs. She growls.

Spoiler

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To hit: (1d20+13)[32]. DC of 21.
JIC [roll]/1d20[/roll]

[industrious]

Spoiler

The mook screams and goes down; the Spoiler waggles her finger at the man.

"Told you," she sing-songs.

She turns towards her father, then, and stares at the gas cloud between the two.

"...That looks bad. Hold on."

She takes a small glass ball of her own, and lobs it at the vapor. It shatters, and the gas quickly solidifies into a disgusting, sticky-looking goop.

"I took that from his stash," she quickly explains. "Now let's go get 'em."

Deadshot

He bounds up the stairs, and a heavy looking metal door stands between himself and the control booth. But before he can act, though...

Everybody

The Cluemaster grins, and does a mock bow.

"Too late," he crows. "The sequence is complete! Marcus! Push the red button!"

The whomp-whomp of the generators escalates, and the cooling fans seem to strain to continue at their increased pace. The area in the center of the collider becomes saturated with light, and it becomes painful to look at.

It ends abruptly. And when the light fades, the Cluemaster is nowhere to be seen. The metal door to the control room automatically unseals, sliding to the left, and revealing a small, cramped-looking space covered in blinking dials, computer screens, and a hodge-podge of wiring connected to a large red button.

Sitting in an office chair is another of the Cluemaster's mooks, his back to Deadshot.

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Your Move

[ChronicLunacy]

Deadshot

Spoiler

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Since it's the end of combat, I'm taking some liberties with this. If he's actually dead or something else is going to happen, feel free to overwrite whatever I'm doing.

Deadshot walked up behind the mook, Marcus, and looked over his shoulder at the readouts in front of the man casually. When Marcus noticed who it was standing next to him and tried to fumble for his gun, Deadshot reached over his shoulder and shot a rubber bullet straight into his family jewels. Marcus produced a high-pitched scream just before Deadshot pulled him backwards out of the chair and slung him down the stairs toward Lock-Up. "Think you can get this canary to sing a different tune?" he asked the bigger man as he leaned on the office doorframe and looked down at the others.

[industrious]

Marcus

Soprano does not befit the muscular gentlemen at all; the Spoiler has to clap her hands over her ears to deafen the high and extremely grating scream that emerges from the man's mouth.

Unceremoniously tossed to the floor, Marcus stares at the group of vigilanties. Even the Spoiler, who everyone in the party knows is not particularly skilled or dark, looks threatening in her outfit.

"I...I..." he whimpers.

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Ask questions, and post JIC rolls.

[Sophistemon]

Lock-Up
Bruised, Injured.

It's the squealing, really, that brings Bolton back to his senses. His vision clears just enough for him to see Marcus being thrown on the ground in front of him, clutching at his unmentionables as though he were worried they'd fall off - which might not be an unwarranted overreaction, given the circumstances. The promise of threatening a criminal gets a strong reaction out of Lock-Up, in that he goes from kneeling on the floor, bleeding into his body armor, to standing upright at his full heights, with the fingers of his right hand grasping at the front of Marcus' shirt. He lifts the smaller man two feet off the floor and holds him there. Bolton's eyes bore into Markus' weepy ones and he channels the the ire raised by his injury into his growl, which comes out sounding like he'd been smoking broken glass for the last three hundred years, give or take a couple.

"Where'd he go?"

Actions:

Spoiler

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Using Polymath to put eight ranks into Intimidate.
Using Intimidate to get information out of Marcus: (1d20+15)[18]
Just In Case: (1d20)[1]

[industrious]

Marcus

Spoiler

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Will Save:(1d20+3)[19]
Tough luck...

"I...I..."

Some hidden reserve of strength wells up inside the man, and he steels himself for what is to come.

"I...ain't...telling...you...nothing..."

[Sophistemon]

Lock-Up
Bruised, Injured.

Lock-Up glares at Marcus for a moment before noticing the slight tremor in his right hand, the one holding onto the shirt. Blood loss, especially that brought on by being shot twice in the chest, can do that to you. Still, to stand up and refuse someone like Lock-Up the information that he needs, that takes guts. So, it's about time they turned those guts to water.

"Fine," he says. "Keep your secrets like a good little soldier."

He grips Marcus by both of his upper arms and maneuvers him so that he's facing Deadshot.

"Shoot him again."

Spoiler

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JIC: (1d20)[9]
Not taking any actual Actions; just giving Deadshot a chance to Intimidate him.

[DeafnotDumb]

Lietenant Walker

"Lemee try this first." Walker snaps. "Or at least wait 'till the cop's looking away before trying something that close to torture." Jesus, didn't these people know enough to have a good cop in the routine? Besides, that kind of interrogation often got you what you wanted to hear as opposed to what you needed, which could be quite the problem.

Well, this meant that she was being the good cop here. Well, wasn't that a disturbing thought...

Katherine moves forwards to the criminal and kneels down a little so she's even with his eye-level, and makes sure she speaks slowly and carefully as not to shock the man. "These guys wanna hurt you to getyour information." She shrugs, and shakes her head. "Myself, I just want to get at the information, and I see no need to hurt here anyone if I don't have to. Talk to me, and I'll get you protective custody. Face the facts, mister - Cluemaster's left you behind with all of us, the bastard, and I'm hardly the nice one. But I don't got back on my word." She shrugs, as if to show she understands the joke too.

Spoiler

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Diplomacy roll: [roll]1d20+20[roll]
JIC(1d20)[10]

[industrious]

Marcus

His eyes dart from Deadshot to Lock-Up to Walker, then back again. His shoulders slump as he begins to talk.

"He's gone back in time. 30 years or so."

[ChronicLunacy]

Deadshot

"Time travel is impossible." Deadshot said matter-of-factly. "The guy in the wheelchair with the robot voice on the Discovery Channel said so. I mean, there's no way he could...right?" he said, looking around at the others for support. He did not want to believe what Mr. Marcus had just told them because it was the absolutely worst scenario possible. If Cluemaster went back in time he could knock over a trash can in a back alley and cause a nuclear war. He looked around them, waiting for the world to waver and change or blow up or something, but everything seemed exactly the same. He had to be lying.

"I'm gonna shoot him again." he decided.

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MOTHERF--- DICE ROLLER!!!
Intimidate: (1d20+5)[6]
JIC: (1d20)[13]

[Sophistemon]

Lock-Up
Bruised, Injured.

Lock-Up meets his eyes with Deadshot's monocle and shakes his head before squeezing tighter on Marcus' upper arms and giving him a shake, too. He wants to roll his eyes and sigh. Time travel. Really. The nerve of some crooks...

"We want the truth, Markus, not science fiction. Where's the Cluemaster? What's really going on here?"

[industrious]

Marcus

He sneers at Deadshot's words.

"Because if Deadshot the all-knowing deems it impossible, it must be--Ack!"

Spoiler

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Will Save:(1d20+3)[16]

He stares at Lock-Up in horror.

"It's the truth! I'm telling you the truth! That's what the boss said he was going to do!"

Ra's Al-Ghul

"I, for one, am inclined to believe the man."

The years had not been kind to Ra's al-Ghul. His hair had turned almost entirely grey, his hands shriveled into little more than claws. There were liver spots, and a wracking cough whenever he exerted himself too often. He had brought over an muscular assistant named Ubu in addition to his secretary to help him physically.

"I came once I heard of the break-in. And my scientists have just informed me that such an event could, in fact be" He breaks off his speech, doubled over in coughing. A white handkerchief is pulled from his sleeve and a red handkerchief is put in the pocket of his gray Armani suit. There is still a red stain on his green silk tie.

"possible," he wheezes out.

[Sophistemon]

Lock-Up
Bruised, Injured.

Bolton watches Ra's' display impassively, having no love for the man who had booted Lucius from his perch at Wayne Enterprises. True, perhaps Fox was better off on his own in the long wrong, free now to let his brilliant imagination soar without fear of censure, but it was the principle of these things that mattered most, and the name Ra's al-Ghul left a bitter taste on Bolton's tongue. When the coughing fit has ceased, however, Lock-Up speaks. His grip on Markus, it should be noted, does not subside. Criminals can be slippery, and an eel like Markus would just love to escape.

"You mean to tell me," he says, his voice sounding for all the world like a spoon caught in the garbage disposal of Hell's industrial kitchen, "that time travel is not only possible, but now apparently in the incompetent hands of the Cluemaster, a man who is to the profession of super-villainy what John Wayne Gacy was to children's birthday parties?"

He gives Markus a series of shakes, for emphasis.

"How on Earth did this happen?"

[industrious]

Tachyon Collider Room

"I never even got a birthday party," the Spoiler mutters.

"Believe me, Lock-Up. I did not know myself of the possibility until this evening. And my team has assured me that the Cluemaster's escape is merely one-way; he cannot return to the present."

Ra's takes a few halting steps forward.

"However, given the possibility that he manages to change the past and affect the present, I have a way to enable all of you to return to the past and capture him swiftly. Before history as we know it is changed."

"Wait," the Spoiler says, uncharacteristically assertive and tense. "You're sending us back in time to stop an arch-criminal within a certain time frame, or history will change forever?"

"Yes."

"Whoo!" she pumps her fist in the air once, and starts doing a funny little dance. "Boot up the Chronal Computer! Launch the Time Probes! Power Up the Engines! We're on the case, and we're chasing him through history!"

Ra's...doesn't quite know how to respond to that.

[ChronicLunacy]

Deadshot

Deadshot raised his hand from the elbow, kind of waving it back and forth at the wrist a few times slowly deliberately. "Excuse me! Hi, important question? Did your 'team' figure out a way for us to come back once we stop him or are we going to be stuck thirty years in the past, too?" he asked. The raised eyebrow could be seen straight through the blank mask he wore.

[industrious]

Ra's Al-Ghul

"No, they did not. Because this solution is not from my team. The solution is not from any scientist at all. This solution is through magic, and indeed, it does offer a way back after your task is complete."

Ra's coughs again, and is forced to the floor. Ubu bends down to support him as he shakily makes his way back up.

"Forgive me, gentlemen. Ladies. I fear that this body is getting far too old."

[Terron]

"Now this is an interesting shift in events." Luigi mutters. He approaches to Ra, making a short bow. "Excuse me, but you said magic, am I right? So far, I've only seen a rabbit out of a hat on what magic is about. Perhaps you could explain a little bit more mister...." Luigi leaves the empty space for the man to complete with his name.

OOC: Luigi will use Well informed to make a Gather info check on Ra, once/if he identifies himself.
JICR: (1d20)[1]

[industrious]

Ra's Al-Ghul

"Taking in more strays, are we, Detective? Al-Ghul. Ra's Al-Ghul. CEO of Wayne Enterprises. And I assure you, that magic is quite real."

[DeafnotDumb]

Lieutenant Walker

Katherine has been silent for the past few minutes, merely reflexively suppressing ignoring the girl when Stephanie starts speaking. She's just trying to comprehend it all. Now, finally, she speaks. "Magic? Look, I could just about handle this stuff when it was science, but magic? What the hell is this?" She shakes her head, reluctant to believe any word of it. "Look, nevermind. That's not important. If this thing is true - and I mean if - what the hell happened thirty years ago that's so important?"

[industrious]

Ra's Al-Ghul

He raises an eyebrow, clearly shocked by Katherine's statement.

"Why, Lieutenant...everything. If you were to go back thirty years, you could use your knowledge of the future to make a killing on the stock market. You could slay your enemies before they were even born. Convince those who would be powerful in the future to work for you in the past, and thus shape the future as you see fit."

He gestures, and Ubu takes out a folding chair. He thankfully collapses onto it.

"And as for why magic...do you really believe anyone would have believed me if I claimed to be a practitioner a few years ago? I kept this secret, Lieutenant, so that I would attain my current job. And now my title is in jeopardy, for who knows what the Cluemaster is doing to the past?"

And suddenly, the man's theft of LexCorp's financial records makes perfect sense.

[DeafnotDumb]

Lieutenant Walker

"Magic." Katherine seethes. "We never had any kind of this weird junk before five years ago..." She realizes what she's saying, and shuts up.

Seeing Ra's body so degraded is unnerving for for the policewoman, as much as she'd never admit it. He's frankly a different man from the one she'd met five years ago, the one who would illustrate every discourse with a finely tuned turn of the hand or elegant gesture. Now, the mind may be better than ever, but it's as if to compensate for the body's failings. And she can't help the nagging feeling that all this 'magic' might be a product of some sort of dementia, or that this is how she and Allen and all the others may end up one day...

..If they're lucky, considering the survival rates of honest cops in Gotham. Or dishonest ones. So at least they probably didn't have to worry about that. Brushing off the thought, she faces Ra again. She has had a decent working relationship with him the few times they've spoken since way back then, even if she has trouble not mangling his name. "Okay, I'll accept that weird stuff happens these days. There's far too much evidence not too, even perhaps with time-travel, though I've not heard of that kind of thing before." She shrugs, and moves onto the important part. "But what the hell do you think I can do? This isn't my beat: it's another metaphysical alley altogether. I know the streets of Gotham, not strange magics and all that jazz. And I bet the same applies to most of you fre- people." She gestures at the 'Gotham Knights'. "Is there some way we can not go into this thing blind?"

[Sophistemon]

Lock-Up
Bruised, Injured.

The mountainous vigilante watches the proceedings carefully, having lowered Marcus to accommodate his view. Lock-Up believes in magic, himself. Until this point, he hadn't really thought that he did, having explained away said 'sorcerous powers' with the argument that shooting lighting from one's hands is no less a superpower than flight or invisibility, and therefore explainable by science, even if that science isn't yet available to us. However, deep in his mind, he knows that the King of Dreams is not scientifically explainable, and that therefore there must be other things that are similarly impossible.

So. He can accept this. Barely.

[industrious]

Ra's Al-Ghul

"Lieutenant, your task should be simple enough. Go back in time, and stop the Cluemaster before he does any mischief in the past, and return before you do the same."

He leans in closer to the group, despite being nearly ten feet away.

"It is imperative that you do not mess up the timeline yourselves. No matter what you see, no matter what horrors or injustice occurs, your sole concern must be the Cluemaster's defeat and swift return, or you can cause just as much damage as he can. As for going in blind..."

He shrugs and makes a dismissive hand wave. Or attempts to. His shoulders twitch at least. The hand wave is smooth, though.

"I would regard the fact that you are going in blind as a benefit. It means that the Cluemaster's manipulations haven't affected the present yet. Once we know what he did in the past, I believe it would be far too late for any of us."