[M&M 3E] Storm of the Extraordinary ( IC )

[Drakeburn]

RIG

Your energy beam goes right through the male air elemental at the upper center of his torso. The air elemental appears to be silently screaming in excruciating pain as his gaseous form breaks apart. The pieces of the air elemental slowly fade away, with the screaming head being the last thing to vanish into nothingness. That leaves only the female air elemental, who appears to be growing weak at the window.

Spoiler: Enemy Status

Show

Stratus: [Dead]

Aerial: Compelled, Disabled, Fatigued, Lost one rank in Will, Controlled

[Quellian-dyrae]

The triplets drew back in some shock as Rig finished the locked-down Stratus off. Wow. Okay then.

Not quite willing to bring that level of violence to the table (and not quite certain they could do so against the incorporeal woman if they wanted to anyway), and having had some success commanding the other elemental, they went back to that, moving to semi-surround the remaining elemental and bringing Trinity's voice to bear.

"You've. Lost. Surrender!"

Spoiler

Show

'Nother dash of Commandment on Aerial with the order to surrender. Dodge DC 20 to negate, Will DC 20 to resist Impaired/Compelled/Controlled Affliction, Limited to that command (although I believe her Will rank would be back now, since Weaken recovers at the rate of a point per round).

Current Status: 2 Bruises.

[Drakeburn]

Trinity

The female air elemental seems be in too much of a shock that the other air elemental has been slain to be affected by your command. Despite her difficulty breathing, she raises both her hands over her head, signaling her surrender. You can see the sorrow, pain, and fear on her transparent face.

Spoiler: Current Enemy Status

Show

Aerial: Compelled, Disabled, Controlled, Exhausted

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Wise choice." Caleb said.

"Guys I think she's having trouble breathing," Amy said. Diagnosing a incorporeal spirit of air was...not exactly part of her medical training, but she had been trying to get out the window. "What's wrong? How can I help you?" she gestured at the window. "Do you need fresh air? If I open the window, can I trust you not to run away or start attacking again?"

[Drakeburn]

Trinity, RIGS, Carver, Markus

The female air elemental, slowly floating down to the floor. Mustering up as much strength as she can, the female elemental points to one of the curtains, which now completely on fire. Then the female air elemental starts coughing out puffs of wind.

Babs

"Agent Babs." A voice says from behind you.
You turn to see a tall man with black hair, black shades, and in a black suit. By how he looks, you can tell right away that he is an agent.
"I'm gonna need you to come with me." His face shows no expressions of emotion in any way whatsoever.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Amy blinked.

So that's what it felt like to miss the dancing bear because you're so focused on the basketball game, or whatever that experiment was.

The burning curtain just seemed so appropriate for some reason, in the aftermath of a superpowered battle. Like that was exactly where it was supposed to be, doing precisely what it was supposed to be doing.

Yeah, though, someone should probably put it out.

Fortunately, Amy had not yet had angel powers for long enough to grow dependent on them and start trying to come up with increasingly byzantine ways to use them to solve the problem. She ran to get a fire extinguisher.

Nadia, on the other hand, deemed that sort of solution way too pedestrian for a group of people that had just battled two air elementals. "Anybody have some super-cool anti-fire ability?" she called to the group with a bright grin, completely confident they could have the fire out by the time her sister got back with the fire extinguisher.

Caleb, meanwhile, looked to the assembled supers. "Everyone okay?" he asked, looking with some concern on Markus in particular. The guy didn't have to jump in like that, and not only had he, but he drew a lot of enemy fire in the doing.

[Theprettiestorc]

"Agent 'Babs'? Either go formal or don't, but that doesn't really mix. Agent Babochka or Agent Bondar will do." Zipping a couple of her things back into her bag, she reshoulders it and closes her coat before turning around to the man. "Either way, what can I do for you? We should probably keep this short, before the police come."

[Volthawk]

Now that the situation has resolved, Carver's focus immediately shifts to his pistols, as he begins to take parts off to examine the guts of the thing, still annoyed at the fight. Nadia's suggestion then reaches his ears, and he perks up, as he remembers his current project for the pistols. He'd done a bunch of the major work earlier, but it could be finished here, he supposes. He appears to work in a more focused manner, cannibalising what he has to hand (including his phone - he'll need to get a replacement ASAP), finishing up in right about the time it takes Amy to get a fire extinguisher to the room. Once done, he stands back up, motioning for the others to go behind him, and this time when he fires it isn't arcs of electricity that come out, but a blue pulse that spreads out before dissipating outside the window, leaving the area (including the curtain) icy in its wake, which he follows by trying the electricity again. "Perfect. Transfer systems are working as intended."

[Pinnacle]

RIG
HP: 2
Condition: Normal

That was... unexpected. It seemed that these creatures weren't as durable as RIG had expected once one found an attack that was actually effective.
Once the fire was out, he re-entered the room. He kept his weapon armed and pointed in Aerial's direction, but not aimed directly at her.
"It's hard to know what's wrong with her as I don't really know what she is," he said, although more to the trio than to the elemental herself. She seemed either unwilling or unable to answer questions directly, anyway. "They seemed somehow linked to the Monsoon person. If his defeat harmed them, that may be why they attacked in the first place.
"Or... you bound her powers, yes? Given that she seems to be made of her powers, perhaps that causes her pain?"

[HopeHubris]

"I am unharmed, I am rather tough. Unlike the male, who was unfortunately slain. Though, I am sure it was unintentional, no true hero would do such a thing on purpose"
Markus says, in his deep manly 'hero' voice
They're all well bloody trigger happy, 'cept the angels I guess, they seem alright
He think, in a rather different voice

[Drakeburn]

Babs

"In that case, we'll talk about it at the limousine."
With a simple wave of the agent's hand, a black portal suddenly appears next to both you and the agent.
"You go ahead and wait for me there. There are a few individuals I need to bring in."
With that said, he turns and walks out of the room, leaving you with the portal.

RIG, Markus, Carver, Trinity

The female air elemental seems even more frightened as Carver's pistol freezes the curtain, but her breathing seems to be getting better already.
"Excuse me," A voice calls out from the hallway.
Down the hallway is a man with black hair, wearing black shades and a black suit walking towards you. His face appears to be expressionless.
"I'm gonna need you to come with me. There are some questions I'd like to ask all of you."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Amy came running back in with the fire extinguisher just in time to see Carver put out the flames. She just blinked and set the extinguisher down by the door.

"Nice," Nadia said with a grin.

Caleb nodded grimly, thankful, then, that he and his sisters hadn't acquired powers that could be so dangerous. Although even as he thought about it, he became acutely aware of the weight of the sword on his back. Had their opponents been flesh and blood this day, might that blade even now be stained with blood? He didn't want to think so but...it was a sobering thought.

"Are you o-" Amy was beginning to ask the remaining elemental, when the suited man arrived.

"And you are?" Caleb asked, eyeing the man warily.

[Drakeburn]

Trinity, Carver, Markus, RIG

"That is something I prefer to answer that question elsewhere." The man in black replied to Caleb's question
"The police are on their way here, so we're gonna have to take this conversation elsewhere."
He turns to the female air elemental. "As for you, I've already sent somebody to pick you up."
The female air elemental simply nods in response.
"So, are all of you going to cooperate?" The man in black asked as he turned back to all of you.

[Theprettiestorc]

"Oh, lovely...he gets to shoot portals out of his hand, and now he's going to grab the people I found fair and square, along with the paperwork. What do I get? Radiation, asthma, immortality, multiple arms, a veritable arsenal of modern weaponry and science...life just isn't fair." Hmm. "Talking to myself...I need to stop doing that, or I'll become a villain for sure. I think some of those were mixed pro-slash-con, too..." She steps through the portal, putting on her own shades beforehand and letting the Agent handle the kids. "Kids". Either way, she's pretty sure she's been at this a lot longer than them.

[HopeHubris]

Oh ****, black suit, prob'ly a government guy, not good, need a disguise... Well, here goes nothin', never tried something like this before, not that I've 'ad much of a chance, only got the powers earlier
Markus thinks, having managed to conceal his identity so far.
He musters up all the focus he can manage, bending and distorting light itself, though it takes all his concentration to do only this much.
After about six seconds, the light has formed into a glowing golden costume, complete with a mask to hide his identity.
"Are you a legal authority? You seem to want to avoid the police. As a hero, I always follow the law!"

Markus says, as he notices the other agent walking through, following her. Since, despite his claims, he would rather avoid the police, never know where you have active arrest warrants.

That's right, lay it on thick

[Pinnacle]

RIG
HP: 2
Condition: Normal

"As a rule," answered RIG, "I am always eager to cooperate with any person who asks for assistance, unless I have a very good reason not to.
"In this case, however, we do have some villains here who attacked indiscriminately in a hospital with civilians present; I feel it would be unsafe to simply leave them alone, do you not?"

[HopeHubris]

"Of course, you raise an excellent point, you should always try to aid people in need. But, what if this 'agent' fellow is in fact also a villain, trying to lead us into a trap so that he can recruit the others? Now, of course, I would never accuse someone of being a villain without proof, that was a purely hypothetical scenario"

[Drakeburn]

Babs

You find yourself on the top of a parking garage, next to a black limousine. From a distance away, you can see the hospital, partially torn up.

Trinity, Markus, Carver

"I don't have time for this." The agent sighs.
Suddenly, a blackish portal suddenly appears under one of the other superhumans that was with you, and he quickly sinks into it until he is completely gone.
"I assure you that all your questions will be answered when we get away from here."

RIG

After the agent's sigh, you begin to sink into a blackish portal. The whole thing happened quickly, and the next thing you know is that you're at the top of a parking garage, with a woman in a long coat and shades and a black limousine.

[Theprettiestorc]

Seeing the new one to join the party, Babs gives a two-fingered salute. "Oh, hello. Any trouble?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Caleb was quite in agreement with Markus's (stated) views. "You don't have to go into detail here, but I can assure you this will go faster if you'll just identify yourself and your au-" he began, only for the man to open a portal under one of the others.

Caleb drew his sword. He was feeling something both familiar and foreign, an old emotion that he had not had cause to experience since he met his sisters, buried deep beneath years of happiness, but remembered all too easily when it returned.

Caleb was feeling threatened.

He did not like to feel threatened!

Fortunately, Amy rushed over before he could do anything rash, setting a stilling hand on his arm and gently guiding his sword back into its sheath. "Calm down. No need for conflict. Sir, if you would just-"

And then Nadia hopped into the portal.

Not really because she believed the guy, but if there was danger on the other side she wasn't going to just let the other super face it alone.

"Nadia!"

~It's cool. It's just a parking garage. Agent Bondar's here too. Ooh hey limo! Ask him if we get to ride in the limo!~

*Sigh*

Amy and Caleb eyed the suited man warily for a moment more, but they weren't going to just leave their sister there. "If you try anything, I will warn you now, these powers we have? They will be the least of your concerns," Caleb told the man. There was something about the way he said it. It wasn't bluster, it wasn't threat. It was simple fact, as certain as the rising sun.

Then he and Amy walked over and stepped into the portal.

[Pinnacle]

RIG
HP: 2
Condition: Normal

RIG turned around and took in the new environment.
"One of the creatures... dissolved when I blasted him." he answered. "I may have used too much power, but I'm uncertain because I still don't understand exactly what they are and I'm not sure what an incapacitated elemental looks like. And it had seemed prudent given our difficulty in harming them at all, the force of their initial assault, and that they did attack like that in the first place. The second one then surrendered."

He turned to face Bondar directly. "The man who transported me here is concerning, though. He suggested that we should come with hi, but did not identify himself and seemed familiar with the wind creature. I pointed out that he was suggesting we leave potent villains, one of whom was still conscious, unattended among sick and injured civilians; he responded by teleporting me without warning.
"I would have assumed he was an enemy, but given the lack of ambush I'm not entirely sure what's happening."

From a distance away, you can see the hospital, partially torn up.

RIG frowned at the hospital in the distance. "Was that like that?" he asked, "We managed to keep the fight fairly contained; did something else happen there?"*

"Oh. Hello," he said with a nod as Nadia arrived, "Were you also sent by force?"

*_{Unless I'm misinterpreting that and "partially torn up" is only referring to the window, in which case disregard this paragraph.}

[Theprettiestorc]

"He's an Agent - not all of us are social, and I'm not quite sure if he's in my organization or not. I should tell him he looks like a dork in the suit, though - the suit is too damn conspicuous." Hmm. "That said, this may be connected with the meteors, he might be here to give me intel...he referred to me by my shorthand name, so it suggests he's with the DMA. I figure I've heard about him, if he gives me his name."

Ah, right. "Er...my Department, rather. I think you might get a brief from him, so I'll let him explain it. Either way, I figure that he's probably brought a cleanup crew as well, so they'll get the 'villains'." She makes fingerquotes. "I just hope I don't get my ass chewed out for something I wasn't informed of, but that's life. And that, I believe, was a miniaturized tornado." Pointing to the hospital, Babs adds, "If those were air-based entities, and they can control that much power, I'm pretty sure he's not leaving the last of them unapprehended." She looks to Nadia, and then the other two, as they join. "Oh, welcome to the party! I'm not sure if you're old enough to drink, but I hope this limo's stocked. I could really use a mean shot of vodka right now."

[Volthawk]

Carver, for his part, has no sisters to reassure him, and he doesn't know them well enough to just buy their words. He doesn't quite like this man, whoever he works for, and he certainty doesn't trust him. This combined with the fact that he was still standing there with his weapons in hand and his handiwork behind him rather added to the...awkwardness of the situation as Carver just glared at him, tech all still powered up and ready to go at a moment's notice. "Hm, black suit. Agent, yes? Who are you with? I make it a policy to not go with unknown suits with ambiguous motives."

[Drakeburn]

Carver, Markus

"For the last time, everything will be explained when we're through the portal." the agent says to you, without showing a hint of emotion in his voice.
With that said, the portal disappears and reappears under Carver, which sends him falling through it immediately.
The sound of police sirens can be heard from outside,and the sound is growing louder.
"You hear that? That is the sound of policemen and SWAT teams heading this way." The agent says to Markus.
"It would be wise to come along willingly, so that we can get away from here."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Nah, I just know what the paperwork is like to get that place to finally discharge you, and figured taking the portal would save time," Nadia replied with a light laugh. "I will say, as far as agents go, I find your approach preferable," she added with a nod to Babs. "Although I reserve the right to reevaluate once we see if the limo's well-stocked."

Caleb had a pensive look on his face when he and Amy came through the portal. It wasn't even so much that he expected a trap or anything, he was just really on his guard after the guy had used his powers on Rig. "Is there a particular reason why he wants us to avoid the police?" he asked Babs.

"That...is kinda weird. I mean, we're all on the same side, right?"

[Theprettiestorc]

"Technically, we operate in the shadows for a reason. Technically, we're operating with a separate jurisdiction when we work with supers, and we try to keep them out of the public spotlight as much as possible if they wish to stay anonymous - we have quite a few 'civilian consultants', and even some success stories of cures or medicine for those with detrimental conditions. I'm...well, still a work in progress." She shrugs, looking toward the new arrival. "To the average civilian, at this moment, I and the other Agent would technically be kidnapping you, according to normal laws, and given that you have the option of getting new identities and such, there are several problems. Faking deaths or missing cases could eventually get us into trouble."

Rolling her hand, Babs continues. "Now, the likelihood that we get charged with all this is very slim, because we try to be subtle, but when someone gets brought in, it's a nightmare. Strings are pulled, and it looks like a big public CIA cover-up. If you know anything about those, you'll know how much **** they stir up - the best example is the Watergate Scandal. There are public heroes, but for every one of those, there's ten people who just want to live normal lives, or help out from quiet places. We do everything in our power to preserve that, because humanity is a cruel race, and any sign of differences would have them calling for our blood in the street." Sigh. "Like it or not? Welcome to the life of a metahuman. Be glad you don't have extra limbs and the king of all inhalers." To emphasize the last part, she pulls down her collar, showing the metal contraption that distorts her voice ever so slightly and makes it hollow.

[Volthawk]

Carver's dislike of this man in black intensifies, and he takes a few moments to think up of ways of getting back at him, before putting them to one side in his mind when Babs mentions her condition and shows them her mask, piquing his interest and switching his mind away from fighting-mode. Holstering his weapons and powering down his field, he walks over to Babs, finally giving her a proper look and reaching over to touch the mask as he muses (it appears things like personal space and manners aren't on his mind). "Fascinating...health complications from whatever mutation gave you the arms, I'm guessing...do they all work properly?" He seems to go back into thought. "You're already an agent and seem rather acclimatized to all this...I'm guessing you're not a result of the meteor...another incident?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Nadia bit her lip, trying to resist, but nope, she couldn't. "But we do have extra limbs!" she said with almost exaggerated cheeriness, fluttering her wings.

Amy winced at the use of the word fascinating to reference the agent's health issues. As someone who had spent more than her share of time in hospitals (on both sides of the clipboard) that was just...yeesh. She didn't say anything, though, although there was definitely more sympathy and concern in her gaze when she looked at Babs, now.

"Fair enough, I guess. But if this is supposed to be for our own good, your colleague in there might want to learn how to show it better." Caleb said, still with some wary hostility in his voice. Kidnapping, yeah. That's basically what it had felt like he was watching when the guy used the portal on Rig. Some super-powered equivalent to a bunch of guys pulling up in a white van and grabbing him.

[Theprettiestorc]

"To be fair, it probably would have been better if he had asked me to help, considering I found all of you guys first." Half by accident. She lets Carver touch it - it's a reinforced metal, and has a faint vibration of machinery inside, as well as the intake of air. It's got a slight fang shape to it - probably because it looked cool, knowing Babs. Chuckling, though, she pokes her extra hands through the front and under her coat, wiggling what fingers and "flippers" are there between them. "There are now three generations of major metahumans - we have the First, which was around the time of World War II. That's when scientists were testing like never before, trying to find ways of preventing the bloodbath of the first. It's hypothesized that they even broke some natural laws of the fabric of reality, because since then, we've had event after event - aliens and heroes from space, sudden natural phenomenic creatures, which is what I'd classify those air-things as...supposedly, that would be the reason that you could have an Angel watching over the three of you. For all we know, things were already around, but the fabric separating our perception of and interaction with them was torn, like a thin curtain."

"Besides that, though, there were super-soldiers, and test subjects...anyone to give an edge in the war, on both sides. We still believe that part of the fruits of this research were the atomic bombs." She rolls a hand, letting the extra four slip back to secrecy. "The Second Generation, as we're called, are the results of the aftermath, and mostly relegated to the Cold War period, when research was still rampant in the civilian, military, and private sectors. Experiments gone wrong, or right, exposure to certain particles...Area 51 really does exist, to help keep some of these events under wraps, but my organization was formed in order to make use of resources to help the afflicted, rather than just store information - 'bagging and tagging'." She makes the fingerquotes again. "As of the past twenty years or so, there's been a slow lull in events, as widespread science isn't as commonplace when the world isn't at each others' throats anymore, and it's been slow to come, but there's been talk that we should refer to the start of the twenty-first century as the beginning of the Third Generation. As of this moment, I would classify you guys as Third Generation."

"As for me...I was born in 1962. On my twenty-fourth birthday, I was posted as a sniper at a nuclear plant...well, obviously, because it needed a guard. I was launched when the factory exploded, and I walked an impossible distance, burned, sick..." Parting her hair, she shows the severe burns on the left side of her face, at the edges, and hints of it under her hair. "...and discovered later on that I was likely the only survivor of the Chernobyl Disaster." Shrugging, she lets it down. "My name was Gefreitor Babochka Bondar, sniper in the great Red Army. My father got me to America so I could get proper treatment. I've been on a regiment of medicines, experimental treatments, and physical therapies for over twenty years, the results of which have helped me be...functional. Enough so that if I can't have a normal existence, I can help others to do what I can't - blend in." Taking a long moment, she puts out a hand, concentrating. "With practice...even do things that are a little extraordinary." A dim light flashes from her, radiating out warmly and sucking itself back to her...soothing bruises and scrapes. She grunts, taking deep breaths from the sudden intake. Ow, that hurts to do...

Spoiler: Action

Show

Healing two conditions of damage from everyone assembled by the limo with that DC 17 - this can include our golden flying brick if he's injured, since I figure she's been talking for a bit.

[Volthawk]

Carver still looks thoughtful as he looks over Babs' extra arms and listens to her story. "1962? You're in your fifties, then...don't look that old, guess the mutations did that..." He cuts his own tangent off as he feels the few injuries he picked up in the fight go away with Bab's light. "Are you alright? That looks like it hurt you...some kind of empathic effect?"