RaynnVerse: The Reign IC

[ripleycat]

"You are much too smooth for your own good." Emily's face flushes bright red at the compliment. "And if I were single, I would be all over that. Just, uh, so you know. But I'm not. Sorry if I gave you that impression. You can go ahead and hate me now." Smooth. Smooth like gravel. Or Ashley.

Emily distracts herself from the conversation for a second by turning and firing an energy blast at the dazed supervillain. She supposed that dealing with the guy who was trying to kill them should come first, ineffectual as he might be. "Come on, man, you stay down. Please? I got things to do."

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Energy Ray: (1d20+8)[24] Power Attack +3/-3, DC 27 Toughness if it hits.

[Raynn]

The Café

The blast from Air Ace shoots the Armadillo-Man out of the window of the Café onto the street. He groans audibly

"YOU . . . ugh . . . F*** that hurt . . .YOU SHALL NOT DEFEAT THE ANARCHIST ARMADILLO!"

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Toughness Save: (1d20+12)[19] vs. DC 27

Stunned + Bruised (2), assuming Air Ace isn't doing Lethal Damage here.

[ChronicLunacy]

Green Lantern

Danny shrugged. "Hey, you win some you lose some. Who's the lucky guy, if you don't mind my asking? Oh, 'scuse me a sec." he said, taking a moment to form two hard-light cougar minions that immediately went to work batting around Anarchist Armadillo's robo-badgers like kittens with tennis balls.

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Summon Minion 5 (Extra: Fanatical, Horde, Broad Type [Hard Light Constructs], Flaw: Duration [Concentration], PF: Progression)

[ripleycat]

Emily ducks as a robo-badger sails overhead. "Oh, save me a couple of those if you can. I need them for... um, science reasons."

She hops up on the windowsill and fires another snare at the Armadillo Man, trying to wrap him up so they could wrap this up. "Give in! You've lost, and your really cool toys are finished." Air Ace hems and haws for a moment at Danny's question. Answering this was an awkward pain in this dimension. "Um, the lucky guy? The lucky guy is actually King Jake. But, uh, not the one you know. I'm from another dimension, believe it or not. I got a sweetheart waitin' for me back home."

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Tensile Energy Snare: (1d20+11)[21] DC 19 Reflex save if it hits.

[Raynn]

The Café

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Reflex Save: (1d20+5)[23] vs. DC 19

[KaganMonk]

At Claremont

Dare's calm begins to break into anger and his eyes narrow. "What you're going to settle for? Apparently you're going to settle for trying to kill me. Again. And in case you've blocked it from you're memory in your attempt to be self righteous, half the time's you've been a threat to me and my family you were still alive. The only reason I don't try to exorcise you and lay your malicious little soul to rest is that you apparently have a part to play in all of this. And yes, you're obviously a free agent, beholden to no one, which is why Tomorrow came to you and not to any of the myriad of other heroes that were around, more capable of stopping me."

"I didn't see the other woman for more than a brief moment, so I don't know why you're asking me. I'm not omniscient. You were the one running towards them, trying to kill my cousin. As for my cousin, all I know is that she's darting around Time trying to keep reality from unraveling. She's possibly smarter than me and is my boss to boot. I do my duty, "to prevent temporal alterations that come to my attention, no matter the cost to myself". If that means I end up not existing or dead, so be it. You won't find me coming back as a ghost to rage against the unfairness of my death."

Near Richard Woolsey

Apollo doesn't take any chances being detected by Woolsey. He knows where Woolsey lives and that he's apparently OK for now. He makes sure he's out of sight before donning his mask to quickly check the house for anomalies. Then he teleports back to the base to prepare for the meeting.

At the Base, Waiting

Apollo sighs, "I know. I guess it's the hazard of trying to coordinate a bunch of fiercely independent heroes."

[Green Bean]

Remembrance was heavily outnumbered, but never outclassed. The poor patrolling gangsters outside the factory never knew what hit them. The first guard walked around a corner and into a right hook. The second went over a trip wire and stayed down. The third went down to a basic sleeper hold. The fourth, a little on edge from not seeing any of his buddies, actually spotted her at the last possible second, but a light but firm tap to the larynx stopped him from calling for help before she knocked his lights out. They were hardly her greatest challenge yet - it took her longer to disarm them, drag them together, and tie them up than it did for her to actually take them down to begin with.

She scavenged a bit of equipment before moving into the factory proper.

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Stealth Check: (1d20+23)[28]

[Da Beast]

At the Meeting
Decibelle takes a few quick breathes to pump herself up before entering the base. Doing her best to look like a tough loner who don't need no team she throws open the doors and struts into the room. She grimaces slightly when she sees that no one else has arrived; she had hoped to be fashionably late enough to miss any introductions and just sit through the briefing. She plops herself down on a chair and faces Dr Dare. "What's the matter Doc, your friends find somewhere cooler to be?"

[Raynn]

The Café

Slowly the Armadillo-Man manages to collect himself and charge the Green Lantern again while he is busy making cats

"I WOULD HAVE WORDS WITH YOU, YOU GARISH GREEN GRIEF GIVING A$$!"

***

The Meth Lab

As Remembrance moves through the gantry of the Meth Lab she picks out about a dozen figure, but two thirds of those seemed to be little more than laborers, and not the big kind, and 'amateur chemists'. The four that remained were low-level 'Post'-humans, most likely high on a hit of MGH and coke. One looked like he was draped in the skin of a crocodile, another had arms draped all around him like noodles, the third had one monstrous oversized arm and the last appeared normal except for glowing green eyes.

***

The Meeting

Navi starts to look nervous

"I'm sure they're just a little late . . ."

She outstretches her hand to Decibelle with a smile

"I'm Navi by the way, you're Decibelle right?"

[ChronicLunacy]

Green Lantern

Green Lantern couldn't move out of the way in time, so he just stepped into the charge. Holding his hands up, he met the Armadillo by just putting up his shield and holding steady. There was a flash of emerald light, but when observers' eyes cleared they'd see that Danny hadn't budged. "Okay, the alliteration has officially passed from doltishly charming to outright irritating." he decided out loud.

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Have to keep my points in Minion until they finish up with the robo-badgers.

[Raynn]

The Green Lantern

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That'll take just one more round, they're tearing the hell out of them.

[Da Beast]

"Yeah, I'm Decibelle. New kid in town." She stares awkwardly at the floor for a minute. What do super heroes say to each other when they meet? Trying to break the silence she asks "So Navi, what do you do around here? Do you have any powers?"

[ripleycat]

There's a loud growl of frustration from behind Armadillo Man as Air Ace hops back off the windowsill and charges the Omni-Pistol to dangerous levels. "Rahhhh! STOP MOVING! It should not be this hard to hit something so huge and stupid!" Emily plants her feet and fires an enormous blast of energy at the babbling behemoth.

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(1d20+11)[23] DC 29 Toughness save if it hits. Em's active defenses are at +4 until her next turn.

[Raynn]

The Meeting

Navi blinks at the question, then replies nonchalantly

"I randomly and uncontrollably teleport myself and those around me to random Hell-dimensions.

Also I have a degree in political science and another in Applied Quantum Physics,"

She nods to the coffee machine

"My most relevant skill is that I know how to operate that unforgiving monstrosity."

She glances at her hands for a moment

"Though I can understand from the bright pink semi-transparent skin how you might have assumed I might have some actually useful super-powers but sadly not."

***

The Café

For a moment Armadillo Man is blasted back again but this time he is harmed but not stunned and rushes forward to attack Air Ace!

"I'M NOT STUPID!"

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Toughness Roll: (1d20+11)[27]

[ripleycat]

"Yes you are."

Even caught flat-footed, Emily manages to sidestep the charging Armadillo Man, sending him plowing through a table and chairs rather than caving in her ribs. She then spins the dial on the Omni-Pistol and attempts to trap the absurd and angry villain with her "tractor beam."

"Now give up or I'm actually gonna start trying."

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Tractor Beam: All-Out (+5/-5) Power (+5/-5) Attack: (1d20+11)[24]

If that hits, then Grapple (Telekinesis) check (1d20+11)[22]+14

[Green Bean]

Remembrance was outnumbered, and while she figured that if it came down to it she could take a few drugged up low-level metas, even a single mistake could be fatal. So she concealed herself near the one-way fire escape door and waited.

Remembrance knew she was going to need a distraction to make a move on the inside. Fortunately, there were plenty of discarded pallets she could improvise with. She broke half of it into kindling, and piled it up near the fire escape door at the back entrance. A bit of fiddling with matches and there was a tiny plume of smoke in the middle of the woodpile. She tossed two of the gangsters' ammo cartridges on the periphery of the pile before heading off to make her break in.

She started to smell smoke, and shortly after heard the ammo cartridges cooking off. Without a gun barrel, the ammo would harmlessly fly a few feet away, but it sure sounded like someone outside opening fire. Remembrance prepared herself for a little divide and conquer.

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Sorry if this is a little too much narrative control. I could have just doubled back outside to set it up, but I thought it'd be cleaner to simply have done it before hand. If it's an issue, I have no problem changing it.

Stealth: (1d20+23)[36]

Readying an action to slam the fire door shut if/when two of the enforcer guys walk through the door.

[Da Beast]

Decibelle face shows a look of shock as she blinks away her surprise. She's never been good at dealing with such a deep emotional issue and doesn't know how to comfort Navi. "So... political science and quantum physics? That's an interesting double major. Probably helps in this crazy world, right?"

[smuchmuch]

"And you call me a pawn ?" There's a pause, there's certain contempt in the ghost's voice. "Maybe. But you have any idea what you are being used to bring about"

"Let's set the reccord straight. For what little it'll be worth in an instant. How would the me from a timeline where your cousin never existed knew who she was ? I didn't even notice her before she did something. I was going for Nemesis. As for you, it was a stun gun. But I would be lying if I said I wasn't tempted. I found in my malevolent little soul to try to do this non violently. The power source theft by the way, that was me."

"I'm sure you'd give your life, Dare, it's what a hero does." There actually no sarcasm here. Just a certain sadness for a little moment before going back to cold furry. "But it wasn't you that paid the price for yourcorrect timeline. A sacrifice is a noble thing, but this was a pointless slaughter.

I think it's only fair you should get a taste of how it felt."

Shade appariton slowly fades from view as the door to the room ominiously opens.

Meeting

An a computer an invitation from a chat client named ChatGheist blinks. The feed from the webcam shows no one apparent

>Shade:Hello
>Shade:Not particulary lively I see.

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I'm assuming the meeting happens while Shade (an possibly remebrance ?) are still in Washington ?
If yes, since machines can't actualy see Shade even when she want them too (the little downside of talking with phantasmal illusions) that kinda limits the possibilities of video-conferencing. I suppose she could join in by chat (or Navi can spend her time with a Ouija board )
Else I'll just edit.

[Raynn]

The Café

The tractor beam is powerful enough that Armadillo-Man has no way of escaping. It is at about this time that the Green Lantern has sorted all the ROBO-BADGERS

"YOU MAY HAVE CEASED MY CHAOTIC CRUSADE THIS TIME HORRID HEROES . . ."

he barks as he tries in vane to struggle free

". . . BUT THIS IS NOT THE LAST YOU SHALL HEAR OF THE AWESOME ARMADILLO-MAN!"

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Opposed Grapple Check: (1d20+14)[26] vs. DC 36 (Auto-Fail)

***

The Seedy Meth Lab

Two of the figures react to the noises and head off to check it out, passing through the doorway. These are the thug with the crocodile skin and the other with the single enlarged arm.

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Roll Initiative!
'Big Arm': (1d20+1)[21]
'Crocodile': (1d20+4)[12]

Remembrance gets a Surprise Round to act, so if she gets the highest Initiative she gets two rounds of actions against flat-footed targets, in a row.

***

The Meeting

Navi smiles at Decibelle's comments

"Well most of the physics stuff was actually left behind from when I was a millennia old robot, so it required minimal effort on my part during my Poli. Sci. degree."

Navi starts to make herself some coffee, offering Decibelle a cup

"I got turned human when I followed Johnny Rocket into the Source at the edge of time and space . . ."

She falls into a chair suddenly looking exhausted

"I just realised if my life was a movie it would be a Sci-Fi Original . . ."

Seeing the beeping message on the screen Navi flicks on the Microphone

"Hey Shade, yeah a little quiet. Dare and Decibelle are here, and I think Air Ace is coming and roping in that Green Lantern guy. Any idea where Remembrance got off to?"

***

Claremont

Suddenly the doors open behind Shade to reveal and bleak darkness silhouetting a single figure. A man in a well fitted suit, with short blonde hair and a red tie.

Nemesis.

Daniel Sword.

He takes a step forward and his eyes flicker with a pale ethereal azure light.

Shade, a spirit of vengeance, flickers away.

Dare tries to act but Remembrance's head is gone before he can make a move, a fist dyed with gore in its place. A corpse shattered by the kinetic force of a single blows falls to the ground.

The other hand is at Dare's throat as he raises the Caged Tesseract. The Doctor feels his arm break in three places as the gore drenched hand grabs the Tesseract clutching limb and slams into to the wall.

He looks Nemesis in the eye.

He sees rage and fury, an emptiness. Nemesis is not a monster here, or an animal, he is a force of nature, he is unrestrained destruction . . . no, not destruction. His only aim is murder.

Homicide wrapped in blood drenched Armani.

The hand at Apollo's throat moves to his head, Nemesis pulls back, about to crush in his skull like an egg. The Caged Tesseract glows.

Not today.

A blinding flash, sapphire beams and ruby ribbons of energy dance over the scene

Then all is black

***

When Dare awakes he kneels among the corpses of fellow time keepers. Meta-Minute of Earth 101, Princess Paradox of Earth 9014, Mr. Osiris of Earth 890, The Doctor of Earth 10, among others.

He looks up, feeling the pain in his still broken arm and realises where he is, the statuary within the Palace of Empress Dire. Dare considers the possibility he has flung himself to just after the failed attempt on Empress Dire's life. The Statuary is dominated by dozens of figures of Dire, each from a different world. Empress Dire has acquired a taste for killing herself and commemorating the occasion.

Ahead were the steps of the Palace of Dire, hundreds of them leading to great obsidian gates. The gates are closed but unlocked.

What do you do?

[Green Bean]

Remembrance gracefully descended from the shadows on the heels of the two gangsters. She capitalized on their inattentiveness, taking the big armed thug with a combination of a quarterstaff to the solar plexus and a knee to the face. It left her a bit overextended, but the pair were slow to react and she had plenty of time to get her defences back up and finish off with a probing quarter strike while she absent-mindedly kicked door shut behind her.

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Going full bore in the surprise round by maxing out All-Out and Power Attack. Second round, I'll max out Defensive Attack. The first attack is aimed at big-arm. The second's a little trickier. If big-arm's Stunned or worse, she'll go after gatorface, otherwise the second attack's aimed at big-arm. In case it ends up being relevant, I have Takedown Attack.

They should both be flat-footed, so I'm counting my Sneak Attack bonus. If they've got Uncanny Dodge, knock 2 off the DC.

Attack 1: (1d20+12)[20] DC 29 Toughness Save
Attack 2: (1d20+7)[21] DC 24 Toughness Save

[Da Beast]

Navi starts to make herself some coffee, offering Decibelle a cup

"I got turned human when I followed Johnny Rocket into the Source at the edge of time and space . . ."

Not wanting to be rude Decibelle wordlessly accepts the coffee.

"I just realised if my life was a movie it would be a Sci-Fi Original . . ."

"Yeah, those... those are crazy." Not sure how to comfort Navi Decibelle stares into her coffee cup, only now remembering that she doesn't like coffee.

"Hey Shade, yeah a little quiet. Dare and Decibelle are here, and I think Air Ace is coming and roping in that Green Lantern guy. Any idea where Remembrance got off to?"

"Oh hey, now the computer is talking. Does that mean we can get this under way? Cause I for one would love to know what's going on here." she stammers out, clearly getting more nervous by the minute.

[ripleycat]

Emily kept both hands firmly on the trigger, leaving Armadillo Man hovering helplessly in midair. "Look, I'm not really one to give advice on this, but you seem like you'd be a better TV host than supervillain, man."

She glances at Danny with a grin. "Nice work. Nice kitties! Don't suppose you could make a cardboard box with airholes in the lid for me to put him in, or call the cops for garbage pickup? I don't want to have to drag a 5th-rate villain to a team meeting."

Air Ace's eyes go wide. "Oh, son of a... the team meeting! It's probably already started. Hey, um, you think you would have the time to tag along for that? Doctor Dare has some big announcement to make, I don't know details, but it seems like maybe it might be handy for you to be in the loop? More the merrier, right?"

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Keeping Armadillo Man pinned for this round. Ready to move onto the meeting whenever CL is, I think we've kept the others waiting long enough.

[Raynn]

The Meth Lab

Big Arm stumbles back from the attack stunned but the turn around on Crocodile doesn't seem to have much of an affect and he slashes back with small but potent claws as he leaps forward in reply.

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Toughness Save 1: (1d20+6)[23] vs. DC 29
Toughness Save 2: (1d20+8)[25] vs. DC 24

***

The Meeting

Navi looks a little nervous again

"Well we should probably wait for Air Ace at least . . ."

***

The Café

As Armadillo-Man floats just off the ground he perks up at Air Ace's suggestion

"You really think I could become a TV host? I mean . . . I've always wanted to be an actor but . . ."

[smuchmuch]

Meeting

>Shade: No, sorry, no idea.
>Shade:I swear she's even harder totrack than me; and ihave an unfair advantage.
>Shade: But from my own experience: I'd be ready to guess: pumeling some thugs in a seedy wharehouse somewhere

There's a little pause, then the text comes again, changing subject.

>Shade:So there's a new green lantern already ? It's been like what barely more than a week
>Shade:How did you even rope in him ?
>Shade:I though they were busy policing entire space sectors ?

"Oh hey, now the computer is talking. Does that mean we can get this under way? Cause I for one would love to know what's going on here."

>Shade:Don't take it badly
>Shade:,I know you are even greener than the lantern,
>Shade:But, fair warning, if you are startled by a talking computer, you may want to stick to wrestling. Because else your life will probaly get a lot weirder soon.
>Shade:And possibly a whole lot shorter.
>Shade:Besides I 'm not a computer. Usualy. It's just a temporary thing
>Shade:Normaly I avoid electronic if I can. They feel weird.
>Shade:...No offense meant, Navi
>Shade:OH by the way, if we have time to chat, I wanted to ask you, 'Decibelle', if you don't mind.
>Shade:What's the first thing you ever remember ?

[Da Beast]

"Um, let me think... I remember when I was two or three my mom yelling at me about running away and getting lost somewhere. In a department store, I think. Why do you ask?"

[Green Bean]

Remembrance brushed aside the croc-man's blow with ease. His attack was clumsy but powerful, though at least now she had his skill level roughly pegged. Big-arm looked like he was about to recover, though, and Remembrance had no idea what he was capable of. So, she decided to screw the Marquess of Queensberry rules and try to pick off an injured foe by mashing the haft of her quarterstaff into the still dazed big-armed gangster's face.

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Maxing out Power Attack against big-arm.

Attack Roll: (1d20+7)[18]

[Raynn]

The Meth Lab

"Daf. . . ?"

Big Arm is cut off as a quarterstaff slams into his face and knocks him out, giving Remembrance time to continue her combo of attacks towards Crocodile.

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Toughness Save: (1d20+5)[13] vs. DC 29

You have Takedown and so can attack Crocodile as well now before he acts.

[Green Bean]

Remembrance coolly levered the back end of her quarterstaff into the croc-man's solar plexus before big-arm had even hit the ground.

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Maxing out Power Attack once more.

Attack Roll: (1d20+7)[23]

[Raynn]

The Meth Lab

Big Arm is winded and tries to shout in pain but finds his lungs empty as the quarterstaff shatters ribs, leaving him stunned.

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Toughness Save: (1d20+8)[15]; vs. DC 29

Staggered + Stunned

Your turn GB!

[Green Bean]

Sensing the fight was drawing to a close, Remembrance moved quickly. She swept her staff along the ground to knock the feet out from under him, and as he fell brought her knee up to meet his face.

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Max Power Attacking once more.

Attack Roll: (1d20+7)[21]