The Nightmare of SIDE

[Dodgeson]

"Just roll with it." Avery said nonchalantly to Megan as he started walking away, confident that that was the last he'd see of his old nemesis. With side providing new digs for the Taskforce, Avery had taken the liberty of cancelling the lease on his old appartment, yep it was gonna be nothing but smooth sailing from here on out.

"Now come on, lets get you kids home before something really weird happens."

[Arlin]

Kate blinked. Well that was certainly unexpected news. Perhaps this hadn't been a waste... still, time to see what she could draw out of him.

The investigator turned to look directly at Max again, arching an eyebrow. "I have a very limited amount of pull as regards your sentence," she said briskly, keeping her features composed. "But I could see what might be done to make your stay more comfortable. I can also make certain that your part in this is not forgotten. After all, people seem to love a contrite villain that saves the day with key information..."

Kate let the sentence hang for a moment. "I could even wait until after things are settled, just to maintain your safety should things go awry."

She was hoping to make use of his ego- he knew that she had connections, and he knew her word was good.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Persuasion! (1d20+17)[36]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Aidan

Trying to figure out intended targets from a string of seemingly-random attacks like that was a puzzle, to be sure. That was kinda the point. But this was IN-SIDE, and with all the interrogations, the agency had collected the locations and times of most of the attacks.

At your suggestion, Director Glass dedicated one of IN-SIDE's top investigators to the matter. He went to each location at each stated time. For those whose times of attack had already passed, he got surveillance feeds and trawled social posts. He had a theory within a day, and was certain in three.

((Base result, equivalent to DC 25 Investigation))

In every instance, there had been a member of the Ilessian military on scene. It was clear that this had been an attempt to weaken the naval forces assigned to Gran Terna.

But for a master IN-SIDE investigator, it wasn't enough. Sure, most of these soldiers had been experienced officers. Killing them all would have absolutely done some serious damage. And more than a few of them were out with their families at the times they would have been attacked; the damage to morale would not have been trivial. Even so...it seemed to small. The investigator dug deeper, and he made another connection.

((Since the investigator beat DC 30 for a two-degree success))

Every one of the soldiers involved was a Blink Guard.

The Blink Guard was Ilessia's primary defense against unauthorized teleportation from other countries. There were Blink Guard hubs in several cities throughout Ilessia, Gran Terna being one of them. Their bases had specialized towers that could detect teleportation coming in from outside the country and trace it for their own teleportation response. The job was 99+% waiting, so there weren't really any full-time Blink Guards. Rather, qualified soldiers could volunteer to spend a few days a month taking a shift. Qualification for Blink Guard duty was something of a reward for good work; they had some pretty slick entertainment setups in their bases. It was also a good opportunity to rub shoulders with some higher-ranking officers in a somewhat more casual setting (since official ranks weren't really in play - a Blink Guard was just a Blink Guard), making it appealing to those who wanted to climb the military ladder.

A full Blink Guard team, fully-equipped and on call, was a serious threat, comparable to an Alpha Storm or ADE squad. Individually when off-duty? They were all experienced soldiers, sure, but they were still mortal men and women. If this string of attacks had succeeded, the Gran Terna area would have had insufficient protection to mount an effective response to a military-scale teleportation threat. So. Tara was planning to teleport in from another country at some point, and didn't want to be facing a full Blink Guard team when she arrived.

While that all was good information, you were the one to come up with the final piece of the puzzle. Because unlike the investigator, you had some foreknowledge of your own.

((But oh, wait, your Aid pushes it from 34 to 36, bumping it up to three degrees...))

Prophet's vision. At some point in the future, Tara would take the APEX stone from Mentallo Industries to Peral - using her lightning storm ritual to penetrate the building. She had given the stone to clone, and teleported away. That had ended the vision. Prophet had warned against interfering with that course of events - and now you could see why.

Because if she was teleporting back to Ilessia, from another country, she would trigger a Blink Guard response. With the satellite upgrade that Wraith had secured from Mentallo Industries, you would have been able to detect the ritual and have time to prepare, but you hadn't known which Blink Guard hub she would be teleporting into.

Until now.

All the Task Force had to do was get to the Gran Terna hub when the satellite detected her ritual in Millaine, and you could catch Tara Ellens.

Avery

Megan gave you a flatly disbelieving look as you suggested there were possibilities of something even weirder happening, but Matt just gave a sage nod and followed you, breaking into a stream of chatter about the "epic battle" and "did you see when" and, you know, typical Matt stuff. Megan just gave a long-suffering sigh and followed along, shaking her head.

It was weird, really. It wasn't like they hadn't both lived on the same Aranth all their lives. Why only one of them seemed to have any genre savvy proper understanding of how the world works is frankly beyond me.

Kate

Max's eyes were hidden behind his prison-certified shades, but you could see the little twitches in his lips as he regarded you steadily. Clearly, on some level at least, he knew what you were doing.

But then his face got very serious. He didn't even need to say anything for you to know you had him. He was already playing the role.

Of course, this was Max Victor. He could hardly help but play it to the hilt.

"I've done some things I'm not proud of," he said, looking away from you for a moment with a brooding pause. Slowly, his shades turned to face you again, his closed fist thumping lightly on the table. "But what Tara's planning...it's beyond the pale. She made an agreement with the Emperor of Haptarus - she would help him conquer Indelar, if he helps her destroy Paradisia."

"Can you even imagine the sort of damage those two could do? Tara Ellens with access to Haptaran Blood Magic rituals? The Emperor of Haptarus under the effects of Tara's augmentations? To say nothing for that APEX dust. I'll tell you, when I heard what she planned to do with that Chlorine lady with that stuff..." Max trailed off with a dramatic shudder. "And she says she knows where she can get more of it. Hundreds of times more than the little pouch she had. Forget Indelar, forget Paradisia. If those two team up," Max reached up to dramatically remove his sunglasses, "They'll destroy the entire woooorragghaghagahgghhgh!!!!!!" Max's speech ended with a gagging, sputtering cry of pain, his entire body seizing, as the advanced SIDE security device responded to the attempt to disable it with an electrical blitz, complete sensory deprivation, a face-full of knock-out gas, and a powerful but highly precise targeted concussive sound burst. Utterly overwhelmed, Max overbalanced on his dangerously-leaned-back chair and toppled backward, hitting the ground with a solid thud. All of the combat robots lining the room raised their weapons at him.

...

...

"...Not cool." he groaned out, as consciousness slipped away.

"...That sucks," one of the power-armored DES-SIDE guards said as he walked over to check on him, before looking at you. "He'll be fine. Buuuut I don't think he'll be awake again for another eight hours."

Everyone

This was...kinda actually it. Or at least the beginning of it.

It was bit more than two weeks after the death of Darryll Harrens, and SIDE had locations on the remaining twelve escapees (well, strictly speaking, the remaining twelve targets; Flashpoint kinda didn't count because a speedster of that level was functionally impossible to actually hunt). Four of them (including Killswitch) were confirmed working with the Steel Fist, and they would get what was coming to them when TOP-SIDE had finished their comprehensive takedown plan, which they were building courtesy of the data Wraith had retrieved from Jarvis Bradley and which TOP-SIDE assured everyone would enable SIDE to blitz the entire mercenary organization down in a single move to ensure no escapes (ETA was about a week). The other eight had all had their general locations confirmed, and FIRE-SIDE and the investigation team were narrowing them down and setting up to move in.

As you'd expect from people who had managed to avoid recapture this long, these guys had been laying very low, and apparently had all seized on roughly the same sort of plan. They set up false identities and moved to small towns, where SIDE had little presence and there wasn't much surveillance. In addition to making them hard to find in the first place, it gave them a very effective early-warning system; any sort of significantly increased SIDE presence would warn that they might have been found, and give them an opportunity to escape. SIDE had been playing it cautious, but they were uncertain if the targets were aware that they had been discovered - if they were, they would likely be in the wind quickly.

None of them were Tara-augmented or especially powerful, though; the strongest two were rated at roughly Hero level, but were alone. A pair of them were partners, and were considered military-grade talents individually. And the last four were a small family of mid-level Dreamers, combat-capable for sure (with the parents a bit stronger than the kids), but none of them even close to your level individually. Now, the safe play, of course, would be for you guys to just portal to each set in turn, lay waste to them in classic Task Force fashion, and just hope they weren't actually aware of the danger so it wouldn't matter if there was a bit of delay due to attacking consecutively. But, it was of course also possible for Kate to open portals for each of you to separate locations, and for all of you to strike at once, to minimize the chance of escapes. That would be somewhat riskier personally, but might be the best move if you wanted to make a clean sweep.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

So. Here's what's up.

We're in our final adventure and there are essentially going to be two "boss fights". We've got the Steel Fist Takedown next episode and Tara as the finale. This, then, is an opportunity to fatten up your Hero Point totals.

If you guys want to just do consecutive smack-downs at full-strength, these guys have nothing for that. We won't even play it out, but it won't be worth Hero Points. We'll just do some nice posts about how ya'll utterly trounce them and move on to the next episode.

If you take the riskier play and each of you solo one of these sets, you'll get normal Hero Points for the encounter and may even have an opportunity to earn some Complications. Further, whoever wins their battle first will get a bonus Hero Point, because why not make a race out of it?

Now, point-for-point, these guys actually come out weaker than you individually, so I'm throwing in a little something extra to add to the challenge. Anyone who completes their fight (win or lose) without using any limited-use resources (Hero Points, Luck rerolls, Extra Effort, or Recover actions) gets a bonus Hero Point for it. If the entire party does so, the party will also gain two floating Hero Points for the next episode's battle.

The basics of each group are below. I'll get you power scans if you decide to solo them because hey why stat them out before I know you're going to fight them, right?

Group 1:
Jesse Brooks (PL 10): Malefic Artillery. Originally arrested on one count of Homicide.

Group 2:
Odette Yukimura (PL 10): Ferrokinetic Wings. Originally arrested on four counts of Kidnapping and four counts of Unlawful Imprisonment.

Group 3:
Auberon Hopper (PL 8): Light Energy Bomb Generation. Originally arrested on several counts of Grand Larceny.
Celeste MacFarlane (PL 8): Fire Web Creation. Originally arrested on several counts of Grand Larceny.

Group 4:
Laila Savage (PL 7): Elemental Shapeshifting. Originally arrested for Mass Murder, convicted of Mass Manslaughter on the merits.
Morgan Savage (PL 7): Implosion Manipulation. Originally arrested for Mass Murder, convicted of Mass Manslaughter on the merits.
Basmat Savage (PL 5): Weapon Transformation. Originally arrested for Mass Murder, convicted of Mass Manslaughter on the merits.
Bettie Savage (PL 5): Refining. Originally arrested for Mass Murder, convicted of Mass Manslaughter on the merits.

--

In other news, I've converted remaining HP from the past adventure to bonus Downtime Actions. As a result, Avery has 4, Aidan has 2, Kate has 12, and Wraith has 4.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Wraith

You arrived in downtown Bloomingville, a quaint little town in the Estruan region. The sky was clear, the sun was bright, the air cool with a brisk late-autumn wind. People were walking down the sidewalks chatting and shopping. The street you arrived at was mainly lined with little shops, restaurants, and other small businesses. According to SIDE intelligence, Jesse Brooks was staying in a little apartment on the top story of the Find Your Rhythm! dance studio. You could see it from here.

Kate

You arrived in Edingarht, a town in the Adaros region. It was a rugged, hilly town, once an important military holding - the hilly terrain led up to a rocky crag overlooking what had once been a major road and was now a highway. The Adaran heat might have made a Verdanian think it was early summer. The old-school fortress keep that the town had been built to support still stood up there, an enduring testament to old-school Adaran architecture. But you arrived in the lower part of the town, outside a squat, kinda dumpy three-story apartment building. Odette Yukimura would be in apartment 2H.

Foxglove

You arrived in the suburbs of Garden City, a small town on the eastern side of the Arbera region, at a cul-de-sac lined with smallish but well-appointed houses. There was someone jogging down the street, a family having a barbecue on their front lawn, and one man near the end of the cul-de-sac watering his garden. According to intelligence, Auberon and Celeste were living in the third house on the right side of the street, 2176 Catherine St.

Avery

You arrived in the very aptly named Snow Valley, a surprisingly-cozy little town nestled between two high hills in the kinda mid-northern portion of the Lastelle region. This far north, and with the sky completely occluded by thick, dark clouds, it was already starting to get dark. A light snow was falling over the town, icing atop the solid three feet of it that covered more-or-less everything but the roads in a fluffy white blanket, but bright lights shone from the street lamps (which were in fact heat lamps that both lit the streets and kept them free of snow and ice) and the houses, giving the town as a whole a sort of warm glow. You were outside an apartment complex with maybe a dozen house-sized buildings, each one containing two or three apartments. Not a soul was in sight outside in the thick snow and bitter cold. The Savage family would be in apartment 7B.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Aidan surveyed the house, frowning slightly when he noticed the two cameras - he usually approached with deceit instead of stealth, and between those and the fact that the escapees likely knew his face, they were both far from assured to succeed.

...which, of course, didn't leave him entirely without options, but given the choice he'd have rather minimsed collateral damage.

And speaking of that...

His gaze fell on the family having a nice barbecue: he'd better have them go inside, before they ended up taken hostage or getting caught in one of Auberon's bomb's blast radius. He leisurely approached, taking care to remain outside of the camera's view or - if that was physically impossible without abnormal movement - at least taking care to never turn to face them.

"Excuse me, may I bother you with something?" he cheerily called out to them, beckoning one of the parents to come to him before showing his SIDE ID once they were close enough and continuing in a soft voice. "Apologies for the interruption, and please don't panic. Please, find an excuse to take your family inside as naturally as possible."

"Ah, I see, thanks! I'll go ask him, then!" he would then go on to add, cheery again, once his request was acknowledged, and would proceed to walk towards the man watering his garden.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Persuasion if needed: [roll]1d20+12/roll].

[Dodgeson]

Now lets get one thing clear, despite his time in the Taskforce, Avery was no SIDE agent. So when it came to drawing out a family of dangerous Dreamers who had gone to ground he eschewed things like planning, tactics and reconnaissance, instead walking up to appartment 7B with a neatly wrapped package.

Placing it on the ground in front of the door he quickly rang the bell before quickly bolting around the nearest corner.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Standard Action: Set Hammer Space to 'Special Delivery' Damage 11 (Triggered) Linked to Move Object 11 (Triggered)(Reduced Range, Limited to Away) Linked to Affliction 11 (Dazed&Impaired/Stunned&Disabled, Fort)(Extra Condition, Triggered)(Limited Degree) [30]
Move Action: Ding dong ditch

[Quellian-dyrae]

Aidan

Small town like this, a SIDE agent telling you not to panic but please go inside was...well, it was kinda panic-inducing. The parents' eyes widened and they almost immediately started shooing their kids inside, but their teenaged son said, "Wait. Um. Dad, take the burgers off the grill. We'll just...it'll look like we're just going inside to eat."

As you headed for the next house, you could hear the father saying loudly, "Alright guys, lunch is ready! Let's go in!" He kept any fear he might have been feeling out of his voice pretty well, but he was kinda overloud and dramatic. The acting would have made most experienced field agents cringe, but it was better than them suddenly running inside with the food still cooking, at any rate.

The man watering his garden looked up and gave you a neighborly wave as you approached.

Avery

After several seconds, you could hear the door opening, a woman's voice calling, "Hello...?"
and then a tremendous and satisfying kaboom!

Spoiler

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Special Delivery Attack: (1d20+11)[23]. Hit

Laila Toughness (DC 26): (1d20+7)[13]. Bruised and Staggered
Laila Strength (DC 21): (1d20)[18]. Thrown
Laila Fortitude (DC 21): (1d20+7)[23]. Resists

Living Room Wall Toughness (DC 26): (1d20+4)[5]. DESTROYED!*
Apartment Inner Wall Toughness (DC 26): (1d20+5)[8]. DESTROYED!*
Next Apartment's Living Room Wall Toughness (DC 26): (1d20+4)[9]. DESTROYED!*
Apartment Outer Wall Toughness (DC 26): (1d20+6)[10]. DESTROYED!*
Next Building Outer Wall Toughness (DC 26): (1d20+6)[9]. DESTROYED!*
Next Building Living Room Wall Toughness (DC 26): (1d20+4)[21]. Only Bruised. She ends up in the living room of the nearest apartment in the next building.
Next Building Apartment Inner Wall Toughness (DC 26): (1d20+5)[6].
Next Building Apartment 2 Living Room Wall Toughness (DC 26): (1d20+4)[24].
Next Building Second Story Window Toughness (DC 26): (1d20)[16]
Maybe A Roof? (DC 26): (1d20+8)[26].

*Since Avery's powers are strictly nonlethal, a Destroyed result means she leaves a cartoonishly person-shaped hole in the wall, whereas a mere Breach would leave a regular hole. Obviously.

Avery receives Automatic Initiative and is on turn.

[Thokk_Smash]

Wraith grimaces as he surveys the Find Your Rhythm! dance studio. He hasn't been getting great sleep lately, more because of the recent disastrous dinner outing than the nightmares from Darryl's Death Curse. Granted, the outing was ruined indirectly by the Death Curse, so perhaps it deserves more credit than he's given it. Ah, anyway. Wraith hasn't touched alcohol since that night, and he's developed several tics that serve as outlets for the nervous energy caused by the figments of the Death Curse. A silver coin dances over his knuckles as he walks, stealthed, through the door after a departing student leaves.

He scans the man at the front counter, who is turning away from waving goodbye to the recently-left woman. The man looks like he is smiling fondly--perhaps a crush on the woman? Or is Wraith just projecting? Wraith shakes his head with a silent snarl to dislodge that errant thought. There are several pairs or triads of people going over various dance routines. One couple in the corner dances in the vague square of the basics of a waltz. Another pair is pressed flush against each other, sinuous bodies moving through the back-and-forth of the salsa while a third, the teacher, watches on critically. Yet a third pair is practically floating around the dance floor in the frantic, yet fluid, steps of the quickstep.

Idly noting the air of the room, Wraith ghosts his way up the stairs to the apartment complex above. The coin flies across his knuckles as he narrows his eyes in concentration. He takes in every detail of the stairway to the hell-mistress, up to the door of her home. He examines it for a moment, seeing if he can deduce what Jesse Brooks may have been up to in this area.

Spoiler

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Currently in Forgotten By The World, just using the Immunity to Tactile senses. Will also be Stealthing with Master of Stealth for a 31, with Second Chance (Stealth) to allow a re-roll if that is beaten. Routining an Evaluate of the dance studio for a 26.

Using Tactical Deductions on the staircase and the door/area around the door. Expertise (Tactics), need an 18 to use the power: (1d20+15)[21]. Insight for Postcognition: (1d20+16)[22]

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Good morning, Sir. May I interest you in something?" Aidan asked, putting on a salesman act as he approached - before again pulling out his SIDE ID. "Please don't panic. Shoo me away, pretend to have finished with watering and go inside your house."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Persuasion (1d20+12)[16].

Uh, also, is the other man jogging away or is he running circles?

[Dodgeson]

Avery winced from down the hall as he felt his package detonate, maybe he'd put just a little bit too of the ol'kaboom in that one, but there was no time to ponder his competency as an explosives expert now! He'd caught the Savages off guard and he wouldn't have too much time to make the most of it, rushing in to action he followed the trail of property damage he Laila had created and came down on her with a swing of his trusty mallet.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move: Move in to Close range with Laila
Free: Set Variable to Damage 11 Linked to Affliction 11 (Dazed&Impaired/Stunned&Disabled, Fort)(Cumulative, Extra Condition)(Limited Degree)
Standard: All-Out/Power Attack +5 at Laila (1d20+11)[23] DC31 Toughness & DC26 Fortitude if that hits

[Quellian-dyrae]

Wraith

You make your way up the stairs to the apartment's door. There's not much of note in the hallway, tactical or otherwise.

Aidan

The man looked at you a bit askance for a moment, but got it and just eyed you with apparent annoyance for a moment before shaking his head firmly. He continued his watering for a few moments as you started away before turning off and putting away the hose and heading inside.

The jogger had cleared the cul-de-sac by then; the street was clear.

Spoiler

Show

Take a Hero Point for getting the civilians in the clear.

Avery

WHAM! Your mallet took Laila full in the face, leaving her seeing stars, but incredibly, she was still up. And still fighting, evidently - there was a moment of recognition in her eyes as she beheld Avery, recognition and terror - but her form began to warp and flow, changing from flesh and blood to water. She lashed out with kinda modest skill but breathtaking agility, seeking to catch Avery in a crushing hold while the elemental power of the water that now made up her form began healing her injuries.

And that wasn't the only problem Avery had to deal with. Avery could hear rapid footsteps coming up behind him, and then Basmat Savage came hauling in with a heavy stroke of a massive claymore, roaring "Leave us alone!" at the top of his lungs, although the young man's voice broke a little with fear.

Meanwhile, Avery's right shoulder started to feel like someone was trying to suck it through a straw...

(A few civilians between the two damaged apartments also came around to see what the flip was going on, and then upon seeing what the flip was going on wisely decided to get the Void out of the way.)

Spoiler

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Laila:
Move: Staggered.
Free: Swap to Water Form.
Standard: Attack Avery at (1d20+6)[7]. On a hit, Toughness DC 23 vs. Damage, Strength or Dodge DC 18 vs. Grab. Either way, Laila receives (1d20+8)[27]/2 Healing Points. Miss. Laila removes one Bruise and gains 3 Healing Points.
End of Turn: Fortitude to remove Affliction: (1d20+8)[12]. Nope

Basmat:
Move: Use Dreamer Parkour to move into close range of Avery.
Free: Transform a kitchen knife into a Claymore; Damage gains Linked Affliction 5 (Impaired/Disabled/Incapacitated; Fortitude) Linked Weaken Toughness 5 (Fortitude).
Standard: Attack Avery at (1d20+5)[22]. On a hit, Toughness DC 20 vs. Damage, Fortitude DC 15 vs. Impaired/Disabled/Incapacitated Linked Weaken Toughness. Hit.

Bettie:
Move: Into the living room of their apartment.
Standard: Refine Abilities on Morgan, adding Concentration to the Damage and Weaken of Partial Implosion.

Morgan:
Move: Into the living room of their apartment.
Standard: Partial Implosion on Avery, All Out Power Attack for 5, at (1d20+6)[13]. On a hit, Toughness DC 28/23 vs. Damage Linked Dazed+Impaired+Vulnerable/Stunned+Disabled+Defenseless Linked Weaken Toughness. The Damage and Weaken can be maintained with Concentration (well, for as long as Bettie also concentrates on maintaining her buff, anyway). Close due to AoA, but just misses.

Avery is on turn.

Kate

With a couple calls to the right people, and from the right people, you soon saw the building quietly emptying out. It didn't look like anyone was taking off on metallic wings or anything, so hopefully Yukimura wasn't aware that anything was amiss. In any event, the building was clear.

Spoiler

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Take a Hero Point for getting the civilians in the clear.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Alright, alright. Have a good day." Aidan sighed in defeat, and turned his back to the man, heading away...and towards a spot that was as near as he could get to the target house, but out of view from the cameras.

Then the ground under him started burning with green flames, and he sank.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Burrowing under the room with the TV on and making a STEALTHY DYNAMIC ENTRY from below. Stealth (1d20+6)[13]. Not really stealthy, though.

Hopefully Rapid Vision is enough to immediately locate if there's someone in the room and attack in the surprise round. Ah, also preemptive Assessment Routined for 30 for both of them.

Burrowing out from the room's floor - or, more precisely, ascending while a section of the floor crumbled to dust - wasn't in itself a particularly noisy task, but there was little Aidan could do when the point he chose to emerge from happened to be right in front of the couch. He frowned at being deprived of the surprise element, but something as minor as that wasn't certainly going to throw him off his game; gathering his power in his outstretched hand, he let loose a disintegrating wave upon the two escapees and the unfortunate couch their were sitting on.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Standard: Disrupting Burst (reducing the sphere to a cone). Both of them + couch, Dodge DC 20 for half, Toughness DC 25/20 vs Incurable Secondary Effect Damage. Penetrating 8.

[Dodgeson]

This was more Avery's speed, sure all that sneaky secret squirrel stuff that SIDE did was handy, but this? Outnumbered by angry Dreamers? This was Hero work! Pulling the rubber chicken that had served him so well against Vermingo out of his sleeve he brought it up to parry Basmat's claymore with all the skill you'd expect from the Taskforce's longest serving member and totally misjudged it...

The chicken hit the ground as Avery's hand was neatly severed at the wrist.

"Maybe you should have thought about playing happy families before you got on SIDE's spit list huh?" He offered, shaking his arm to get rid of the stick of the fake hand that Basmat had just rudely ruined, a shiny black cherry bomb (that really shouldn't have fit in their) now held in his real hand, the lit fuse already burning down.

KA-BOOM!

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Free Action: Set Variable to Perception Damage 11 (Area:Burst, Selective)(Limited:Must emanate from Avery, Limited:Requires Move Action to Charge)
Standard+Move:Attack all Savages in range (which I think is just Laila and Basmat?) whilst leaving the building unharmed. DC26 Toughness Save

[Thokk_Smash]

With a small, unnoticed huff, Wraith shakes his head slightly. He continues to step up when the stairs run out, ascending on thin air and through the ceiling above. He walks a bit to the side in the air above, and then drops back down through the ceiling once more--into Jesse's apartment, a few feet past the door. Once inside his eyes rove around, taking in everything at a glance as he ghosts further into the apartment.

Spoiler

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Switching to Forgotten Physics, Permeating through the ceiling while Platform Flying, walking a bit into the space above the apartment, and then Permeating back down. Using Master of Stealth and Routining a 31 for Stealth, with a Second Chance if that's beaten (hopefully, at least, since we're not in combat yet).

Perception once inside: (1d20+6)[26] Possibly the most worthless crit I've ever rolled, but yay?

[Quellian-dyrae]

Round 2, globally speaking

Aidan

It was a funny thing about Dreamer powers that sometimes what seemed to be a more restrictive powerset came with advantages that the broader version never would. Take Celeste MacFarlane. Her Dreamer power was Fire Web Creation. Which, at its core, was basically just fire control, right? Fire control tends to be fairly straightforward. It burns things. Maybe occasionally you get some twists like "purifying flames" that could cleanse ailments, or "fires of passion" that could influence emotions or maybe augment powers. Millaine was supposed to have a guy who could invent things by setting them on fire or something. But for the most part, pretty straightforward. Celeste's power tended to go more for "trap-and-burn" than straight burning, which was itself fairly unique, but certainly not out of bounds. Plenty of energy controllers could manifest energy that for some arbitrary reason could act in some ways like matter.

But what you just wouldn't expect from a fire controller was tremorsense. Earth controller, sure, but not a fire controller. And yet, Celeste had tremorsense. Evidently her power was energy control with a splash of totemic augmentation. She had certain limited spider-like traits, which is why she manifested flames in a web-like form.

All of which went to explain why, when Aidan burst from the floor spewing disintegration, Celeste and Auberon, who were sitting on the couch together, weren't caught off-guard. In fact, as soon as Aidan DYNAMIC ENTRY!d his way into the room (huh, something else reminiscent of Millaine, amusing) the two of them were springing aside in opposite directions, clearing the wave of disintegration as it blasted through the room, consuming the couch and all of the drywall on the far wall (though that ablated enough of the energy that it only lightly damaged the actual structure of the house).

Celeste spat a curse, turned as if to run, and then suddenly turned back and hurled a net of clinging, napalm-like fire back at Aidan, while Auberon hurled a fist-sized sphere of light that would explode in a powerful but compact burst on impact.

Spoiler

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Celeste:
Move: Agile Feint at -2 from Improved Agile Feint Benefit: (1d20+10)[11]. Immune from Uncanny Dodge, not that it matters with that roll.
Standard: Attack Aidan with Burning Net at (1d20+8)[20]. On a hit, Toughness DC 23 vs. Damage, Prowess DC 18 vs. Cumulative Vulnerable/Defenseless/Paralyzed and Physically Dazed+Impaired/Stunned+Disabled. Hit unless his Deflect is up?

Auberon:
Move: Nah.
Standard: Attack Aidan with Mini Bomb at (1d20+8)[26]. On a hit, Toughness DC 23/18 vs. Damage Linked Weaken Toughness. The Damage carries a Secondary Effect. Hit, quite possibly even if his Deflect is up.

Aidan is on turn.

Avery

I think we should take a moment to appreciate that, in certain specific situations, Avery is actually an utter terror.

I mean, you wouldn't really think it, with all the cartoony antics and sight gags and occasional semi-self-inflicted slapstick and all. And to be sure, as a Hero, that comedic nature may well have been Avery's greatest power. From the standpoint of an average Verdanian citizen, superpowered battles were scary. They were dangerous. The sheer destructive power that Dreamers were capable of unleashing could be absolutely horrifying to someone without such personal power. The Heroes of Verdania did a lot to help with that, facing their enemies with ribald confidence and lighthearted enthusiasm. It was a comfort to the citizens they protected. But one cannot overstate how reassuring it was to be protected by a man who took one of the most terrifying perils of modern Aranth and treated it with all the seriousness of a cartoon.

But being protected by Avery is something entirely different than facing him as an enemy.

From the standpoint of someone like Basmat Savage, it was another matter entirely. It was a fact that honestly explained a fair bit about Aranth that relatively few Dreamers actually had a good sense of where they stood on the power ladder. Dreamers weren't exactly rare, but they weren't common either - while it would be a rare Ilessian who had never personally met a Dreamer, there were plenty who had never seen another Dreamer in action in person. SIDE knows that Basmat and his sister were considered combat-capable Dreamers, and their parents were pushing close to military-grade. But to Basmat himself? His parents were the strongest Dreamers he knew. His mother could take on the form of powers of all four of the elements - few energy-oriented Dreamers controlled more than one. His father had the awesome and terrifying power of Implosion Manipulation! Ignore things like Spiritual Energy strength and threat levels (and Power Levels, for that matter), and it should be obvious. There was no way, no possible way, that a Dreamer with so laughable a power as Cartoon Aspect would stand a chance in battle against Dreamers with Implosion Manipulation and Elemental Shapeshifting. And certainly, not backed up by the heavily combat-focused power of Weapons Transformation, and the potent support abilities of a Refiner.

Except for the part where Avery had trivially blasted Laila through like three walls, and then walloped her with his mighty mallet so hard that even her water form's healing powers couldn't hope to keep up. The combined power of his father and sister was ignored like nothing, and his own mighty blow had been made into nothing more than a cheap gag. For this was Avery, the Technicolor Titan, A-rank Hero-level Dreamer. And what Basmat hadn't known, hadn't had any way of knowing but was now being forcibly educated on, was that power-to-power, his family going up against Avery in a straight fight was the statistical equivalent of the Heroes' of Millaine first battle against the Maelstrom.

Except they had neither Hero Points nor a friend to help them fight the battle from within.

Avery detonated his cherry bomb, and Basmat was promptly given a personal introduction to the difference between Combat Capable and Hero-Level. The blast sent him reeling, injuring him and knocking him off-balance. Laila grunted with pain, but managed to more-or-less withstand the force of the blast, remaining up and fighting despite her numerous injuries more through sheer Mama Bear willpower than due to her water form's curative powers.

Morgan's eyes went flat as Avery detonated a bomb over his wife and son. He tried again to implode a portion of Avery's body, channeling his fury into unleashing the full force of his deadly power, before calling a localized implosion into the air before him, controlling it precisely to tear open a wormhole, pulling he and his daughter through to appear beside the rest of their family, and giving Bettie the opportunity to gesture at Laila, refining her health to try to mitigate some of the damage that Avery had caused, while looking up at Avery with terrified, tearful puppy-dog eyes.

Laila's face twisted in fury as Avery hurt her son, and in response to his taunt she screamed with almost manic rage, "They hurt my daughter you *******!" her form shifting from fluid water to raging fire as she attacked Avery with all the destructive power she could muster, hurling a wrathful bombardment of consuming fires upon him.

Basmat transformed his claymore to a sword and shield, striking at Avery more in hopes of distracting him from his mother's attack, while maneuvering as best he could to protect them both as best the heavy shield could.

Spoiler

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Morgan:
Standard: Attack Avery with Partial Implosion, All Out Attack for 5, Power Attack for 3, at (1d20+10)[28]. On a hit, Toughness DC 26/21 vs. Damage Linked Dazed+Impaired+Vulnerable/Stunned+Disabled+Defenseless Linked Weaken Toughness. Hit
Free: Swap to Wormhole.
Move: Wormhole with Bettie into Close range of Laila and Basmat.

Bettie:
Move: Use Distracting Beauty to Feint Avery with Persuasion (opposed by Persuasion or Insight), with no penalty from Greater Distracting Beauty advantage, at (1d20+15)[34]. This only applies if her Attractive advantage would, so it doesn't work if Avery doesn't find human females attractive. If it succeeds, she uses Set Up 3 to pass the benefits to the next attacks Laila, Morgan, and Basmat make against Avery.
Standard: Refine Health on Laila for (1d20+10)[23]/2 Restorative Healing Points, and attempting to Counter the Affliction with a Linked Nullify (at the cost of 5 Healing Points) at (1d20+10)[11] vs. (1d20+11)[15] (Avery may reroll his opposed check normally if she succeeds, although bear in mind the HP bonuses for not using limited resources in this encounter). Laila heals a Bruise and has four Healing Points pending. The Counter fails.

Laila:
Move: Staggered.
Free: Swap to Fire Form.
Standard: Attack Avery with Fire Form, All Out Attack for 5, Power Attack for 2, -2 for Impaired, at (1d20+7)[10]+Aid. If the Aid gives +5 and Avery is rendered Vulnerable by Bettie she'll up the Power Attack to 5. On a hit, Toughness DC 25/20 vs. Damage Linked Weaken Toughness. The Damage carries a Secondary Effect. 15 after Aid, which misses his base Defense, would be 12 if also Vulnerable, so still a miss. Also I forgot her roll to throw off the Affliction.

Basmat:
Move: Dazed.
Free: Weapons Transformation. Damage gains Linked Deflect 5 (Burst Area, Selective, Reduced Range [Close]).
Standard: Aid Laila's attack at (1d20+10)[29], Deflecting at 1d20+5 for all allies in 30' of him. +5, for all the good it did.

Avery is on turn.

Wraith

Wraith dropped silently into the room, scanning it like a boss. He was so alert, so perfectly attuned to his surroundings, that he managed to spot himself in the mirror! That is darn alert right there. From a practical standpoint, though, there were three things he noticed.

First, Jesse was in the room, sitting at her computer, watching some sort of video with cats in it.

Second, Jesse's phone was on a little dresser next to the bed, maybe twelve feet away from her. That was important because...

Third, there was a little bomb hidden behind the TV, with a bluetooth detonator attached.

Spoiler: Technology (Securities) or Expertise (Architecture and Engineering) DC 20

Show

The bomb actually looks like it's positioned near a load-bearing wall. If it were detonated it could potentially collapse the building.

...Oh, actually, there was a fourth thing he noticed. Jesse was completely unaware of his arrival.

Spoiler

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You may continue to observe, do some stealthy activity of your own devising, or just jump right into your surprise round, as suits you.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Aidan couldn't help but let out a disappointed click of the tongue, even as he twisted and weaved so that the sphere of light would collide with the fire web just before reaching him. Then, since he had never been particularly chatty on the battlefield, he spared no words for the two escapees as he extended a hand to fire a a single energy beam at Auberon...and then swiftly closed in as soon as the man started dodging.

Spoiler: OOC

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Move: Agile Feint Auberon, Routine for 30.
Standard: Charge Auberon with Corrosion Punch at (1d20+8)[22], Toughness DC 25/20 vs Damage (Incurable), Resistance Impaired/Disabled/Transformed (Cumulative, Secondary Effect).


EDIT: Forgot Improved Crit, but it doesn't matter. Deflected at 1d10+22 (yes, I managed to forget Improved Defence earlier). Secondary Effects from Disrupting Burst trigger.

[Dodgeson]

Avery's eyes shifted to exclamation points as he looked down at his chest and saw it begin to collapse in on itself under the force of Morgan's power, thinking quickly he pulled off his hat, removing an oversized cork from its depths and shoving it in to the source of the implosion.

"Now you stop that." he chided the criminal, neatly ducking under Laila's fiery assault as he continued to rummage around in his hat "Hey lady, if you all want to throw your hands up and surrender like right now, I'll gladly listen to your sob story but somehow I don't think you're gon....AHHH!"

Avery's banter trailed off in to panicked shout (more panicked than he had been when he was imploding) as he removed his hand from his hat to reveal it jammed in a beehive! Spinning on the spot he tossed it against the wall where it burst and flooded the room with angry bees.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Free:Change the Descriptors on the attack. Gotta keep them guessing.
Standard+Move:Attack all Savages in range whilst leaving the building unharmed. DC26 Toughness Save

[Thokk_Smash]

Wraith allows himself a moment of self-satisfaction at the sight of himself in the mirror. "Well, that's not unexpected," he thinks to himself as he spies the bomb hidden behind the TV. Any little edge to buy her some time. And to hell with anyone who gets caught in the fallout of the building collapsing.

Silent as a heart attack, Wraith scoops up her phone on his way to the bomb. A quick perusal of the phone shows nothing of note besides the speed-dial--presumably to the bomb's bluetooth. He addresses the bomb and disarms it with deft assurance. A glance back at Jesse shows her still engrossed in the cat video du jour. Rocking back on his heels, Wraith takes a moment to consider the situation.

Even with the bomb neutralized, there are still a lot of potential casualties downstairs. Getting them out would take time, which may give Jesse the chance to notice something is amiss. Though he hasn't seen them in action, her little demonic helpers could probably notice something had changed if she used them. A thought comes to mind, and it is appealing...Wraith doesn't necessarily want to fight. And he does have a reputation to uphold...

So Wraith places the cell phone back where he found it, in the same position. He takes up an oblique position to Jesse, at an angle where he can see her profile while still being in her blind spot. Waiting for a lull in the cat video, just after a funny bit, he speaks up in a conversational tone. "Y'know, this isn't a half-bad setup you've got here," he says, his voice seeming to come from out of nowhere. "Fairly crowded area, easy to see suits coming from a mile away. Hiding in plain sight. Shame you couldn't get anything in the way of fortifications. Otherwise the Wraith may not have been able to come a'calling."

Toward the end of his little monologue he moves to the side a bit, to give the idea of his voice moving--and thus, keeping her guessing where he might be.

Spoiler

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Several actions in the OOC, including swiping her phone and disarming the bomb.

I'll attempt to begin a Talk Down action, using Intimidation with the Wraith's reputation to begin: (1d20+25)[28] Hopefully, the mention of no fortifications being present will let her assume he hasn't found the bomb.

Move action: move a bit, so she only has a general idea where he's at. Routining an Insight for 26 to Evaluate her reaction/response.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Round 3

Aidan

Auberon deftly dodged...right into Aidan's attack. He threw up his hands to shield himself, a burst of condensed light energy flaring forth, the hard-light barrier absorbing the disintegrating power of Aidan's punch and dispersing to aether. This, of course, left Aidan's fist to slam unrestricted into Auberon's chest. With each Dreamer's power countering the other, it left more-or-less (give or take some possible improvement from spiritual energy) human strength to meet more-or-less human toughness in a solid body blow - nothing Auberon couldn't take, but not exactly fun either.

Oddly enough, it was Celeste who got the worst of the exchange, Aidan's previous blast of disintegration eating its way along the floor and spreading up her leg. The spidric pyrokinetic shrieked as the wave of disintegration rose up her leg, not in enough volume to disintegrate the limb outright, but certainly enough to cripple it short-term, or perhaps longer if she didn't receive medical attention.

Celeste hurled a panicked strand of napalm at Aidan in response, attempting to wrap and trap him in the burning bind. Auberon, his powers not exactly...optimal for close-combat, hurled another mini-bomb at Aidan, before vanishing in a burst of light and reappearing beside Celeste.

Spoiler: Insight DC 20

Show

He'll almost certainly teleport them both away on his next turn if not prevented.

Spoiler

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Celeste:
Move: Staggered.
Standard: Attack Aidan with Burning Binds at (1d20+8)[10], Deflected at (1d10+22)[23]. On a hit, Toughness DC 23 vs. Damage, Fortitude DC 18 vs. Dazed+Impaired/Stunned+Disabled, and Strength or Dodge DC 18 vs. Grab. If the Grab succeeds, the Damage becomes Progressive for as long as it is maintained. Pathetic

Auberon:
Standard: Attack Aidan with Mini Bomb at (1d20+8)[9], Deflected at (1d10+22)[28]. On a hit, Toughness DC 23/18 vs. Secondary Effect Damage Linked Weaken Toughness. Weak
Move: Teleport into Close range of Celeste.

Aidan is on turn.

Avery

Bees. My God.

Gonna be honest, the insects kinda took it to the criminal family harder than freaking explosions had. Laila got away with relatively light damage, admittedly, but let's bear in mind she was on flipping fire at the time, so when you're a swarm of bees that's actually pretty impressive. Bettie only got stung a few times. Morgan got swarmed pretty hard, and had to slap and swat at the bees to get any breathing room at all. Poor Basmat took the worst of it, taking the dozens of tiny pinprick stabs that not too long ago Verminigo had tried with much less success to give you. It did not go nearly as well for him.

"You can't expect us not to defend ourselves when you attacked us!" Bettie said imploringly as she laid a hand on her father's shoulder, refining his offensive powers. "Just...just stop trying to kill us and maybe we can talk! Please!"

The rest of the family didn't exactly await your response, though. Morgan gave a low growl of exertion and forcefully clenched his fist, initiating a full-scale implosion that, if you got caught in it, would continue inexorably until it collapsed your body entirely. Basmat kept his shield raised, much good it did against explosions and bees, as he struck in time with his mother shifting into earth form and lashing out with a powerful punch that also ripped a barrier out of the ground to entrap you.

Spoiler: Insight DC 20

Show

They're taking one more shot here because you're a Grade A threat, but Morgan will almost certainly teleport them all away on his next turn if not prevented.

Also, for the record, Bettie does sincerely believe you're trying to kill them. Your words made her think it might be possible to talk you down, is all.

Spoiler: DC 25

Show

Even if you were to cease attacking, Morgan would likely still teleport them away.
However, if you did cease attacking, you might be able to convince him to stay and talk (DC 25 Persuasion).

Spoiler

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Bettie:
Move: Rushed Persuasion attempt (no penalty from Greater Distracting Beauty, +5 for Attractive 2) at (1d20+20)[40]. PCs are immune to direct social manipulation. EDIT: Which holy cats is probably a good thing.
Standard: Aid Morgan using Refine Attack at (1d20+11)[13]. +2
Reaction: Team Attack with Morgan's next Toughness-resisted Damage at (1d20+11)[29]. Morgan's attack gains Improved Critical 2. +5

Basmat:
Move: Staggered.
Standard: Attack Avery as a Team Attack with Laila's next Toughness-resisted Damage at (1d20+10)[25]. Avery is Vulnerable against this attack from the prior Feint. On a hit by two degrees, if Laila misses, Toughness DC 20 vs. Damage. The family is Deflected at 1d10+15. +5 due to Vulnerable

Morgan:
Move: Dazed.
Standard: Attack Avery with Inexorable Implosion, All Out Attack for 5, Power Attack for 1, at (1d20+10)[15]+Aid. Avery is Vulnerable against this attack from the prior Feint. On a hit, Toughness DC 24+Team Attack vs. Damage, Strength or Dodge DC 18 vs. Grab. Hit due to Vulnerable
Reaction: If the Grab succeeds, Avery rolls Toughness DC 18 or gains the following power for as long as it is maintained:
Imploding: Damage 8 (Reaction [Start of turn], Limited [Self Only]).

Laila:
Move: Staggered.
Free: Swap to Earth Form.
Standard: Attack Avery, All Out Attack for 5, Power Attack for 2, at (1d20+9)[11]. On a hit, Toughness DC 25+Team Attack vs. Damage, Fortitude DC 20 vs. Dazed+Vulnerable/Stunned+Defenseless, and Dodge DC 18 (no Power Attack bonus due to house rule) or be trapped in a Toughness 8 Created barrier. Defensive luck comes at the cost of offensive luck, evidently.

Avery is on turn.

Wraith

You want to know the only thing worse than suddenly realizing you have a deadly IN-SIDE assassin in your room? When you learn it in the middle of relaxing with a funny cat video.

Jesse Brooks, escaped convict, Hero-level dreamer, and one who not only trafficked with the darkest monsters of myth and legend, but used them as artillery batteries, jumped literally out of her chair and figuratively out of her skin with a shriek that could raise the dead, completely upending her entire desk and sending her computer monitor crashing to the ground amidst a series of sparks.

By the way, the shriek raising the dead? Also literal. Like, seriously, a ghost stopped by to complain.

She stuffed it into a (figurative) cannon and (literally) fired it at Wraith. BOO!M! (I regret nothing and refuse to apologize to any of you.)

Whoever wins this battle, metaphor will be the true loser.

Spoiler: Insight check results

Show

She's flip terrified and in a blindly aggressive panic. I'd...you know, I'd love to give you more nuance there, but she's not exactly in a nuanced state of mind. That being said, you could probably terrify her into putting a halt to her rudeness without too terribly much difficulty (two more Talk Down successes to at least get her to stop attacking).

Spoiler

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Jesse:
Move: CrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapCRAP!
Standard: GHOST CANNON! (1d20+10)[29]. On a hit, Will DC 25/20 vs. Damage Linked Cumulative Impaired/Disabled/Controlled, Toughness DC 20 vs. Weaken Will. Hit...s a wall because she has no idea where Wraith actually is.
Free: Swap to Ghost Phase, becoming Incorporeal.

Wraith is on turn.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Aidan effortlessy evaded both bomb and napalm, which was...perhaps unfortunate, since with the battle looking completely one-sided there was certainly nothing keeping the two from fleeing - and, in fact, it looked like Auberon was going to do just that.

Allowing them to, however, was not an option, and not only because of the stain on his reputation - this time, they might actually join the Tara camp.

"Surrender." he commanded while green flames enveloped his whole body, outstretching his open palm Celeste's way to fool them into thinking he intended to finish her - and, indeed, the first few rays were actually aimed at her, but they were weak. He was, after all, just delaying to give the residual energy still eating at Auberon's flesh a couple seconds more: once those passed, though...the flames shrouding him flared up, taking on an even brighter hue, and then were quickly extinguished by fuelling the veritable rain of disintegrating rays than fell on the bomb-slinging Dreamer.

Spoiler: OOC

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Move: Routine Agile Feint Auberon at 30.
Standard: Ready an attack with Disintegration Barrage for immediately after the SE from Corrosion Punch triggers. All-out Power Attack at (1d20+10)[23], crit on 26+, Toughness DC 30+Multiattack vs Damage.

-5 Active Defences, Deflected at 1d10+17.

[Thokk_Smash]

Wraith easily sidesteps the panicked attack from Jesse. He shifts his focus on his own powers, shielding himself from sight without having to actively avoid her sight. He gives an audible sigh and clucks his tongue.

"Now, now, Miss Brooks," he says, maintaining the tone of polite conversation. "If I'd wanted a fight, I certainly wouldn't have introduced myself first. Now put the ghost down, so we can talk like civilized adults."

The IN-SIDE assassin lets the emphasis in his voice echo for a moment in the room. "I'm not opposed to a fight, of course," he continues airily. "You're admittedly strong, but I'm sure you've heard of the targets we've taken out. I can't imagine it'd be fun for either of us, though. And to be quite honest, I'm not in the best of moods lately. If we do fight, I can't promise I'll be all that amenable to concessions upon your re-admittance to a SIDE prison cell. Or all that amenable to mercy in the, ahem, heat of the moment."

He lets that oh-so-subtle insinuation hang in the air as he focuses all of the killing intent he can muster upon the escaped convict across from him.

Spoiler

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Free action: Swap to Forgotten By The World, gaining Concealment from everything but Auditory

Move action: Talk Down, -5 for Move Action, Routining for 30

Standard action: Talk Down, (1d20+25)[36]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Round 4

Aidan

While Auberon's shield had absorbed all of the energy of Aidan's punch, preventing any lingering effect from getting through...it hardly mattered. Her threw up another barrier under Aidan's renewed assault, and while it absorbed the first few blasts of disintegrating power...there were just too many. Holes opened all along the front of his body as his flesh dissolved under the assault, and with a horrific scream he collapsed, writhing, to the ground.

Celeste blanched, but she didn't surrender. She gathered her powers and unleashed a strand of ember-red webbing straight at-

...Oh. Straight at the roof of a neighbor's house, swinging along it like a grappling cord and basically leaving the helpless Auberon to whatever was coming to him. But, you know...didn't surrender!

Injured and not exactly using a super-speed power, she probably wouldn't be too hard for Aidan's mobility suit to keep up with. The problem, however, was that every house and tree she used as an anchor for her web-cord ignited with flame!

Spoiler

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Celeste:
Move: Staggered.
Standard: Swing away, at Speed 5 due to Hindered from Staggered.

Celeste's Moves Like a Wildfire Complication is setting fires as she moves! If she's allowed to keep moving the fires will only spread further, but if the fires aren't dealt with quickly people may be in danger! Aidan take a Hero Point for the Complication.

Aidan is on turn

Wraith

"Alright, alright!" Jesse answered, returning to corporeal form and pointing her hands down at the ground. "I get it, you've made your point. I don't want any of th-"

She stopped suddenly, mid-word. She tilted her head to the side as if listening to something. Her eyes somehow grew even wider. "Oh..."

She looked up at you and said, a quiet dread in her voice. "Oh..."

"They want you...!"

"They want you bad!"

Jesse's bomb had been simple. Basic bluetooth detonation. No fancy wiring. No fallbacks. No secondary triggers. And it was plastic explosive, so pretty darn stable. Disarmed, it was pretty much no threat whatsoever. At this stage, it would have to be tampered with by gremlins or something to-

"Heehee!"

Boom, the voice of Darryll Harrens seemed to whisper next to your ear.

Spoiler

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Jesse Dodge (DC 20): (1d20+10)[28]. Half Effect
Jesse Toughness (DC 25/20): (1d20+10)[22]. Resists

Jesse:
Free: Swap to Demon Wings.
Move and/or Standard: ...Flee at Speed 10.

Wraith, give me Dodge DC 20 for half, Toughness DC 25/20 vs. Damage. This attack deals lethal damage (Incapacitated = Dying, 5 degree failure = Death), and you may not spend Hero Points or Luck Rerolls against it. Take a Hero Point for your Death Curse Complication!

The building suffers catastrophic structural damage and will collapse in two rounds, endangering the lives of all within! Take a Hero Point for the Accident Complication!

[Dodgeson]

Once again Avery took another of Morgan's implosion full on and barely noticed it, cartoon physics might have had its downsides sometimes but right now it was all gravy, it was in fact Bettie that was capturing his attention right now. She seemed to be sincere as far as he could tell, and he wouldn't put it passed SIDE to be doing something shady...

"Please don't make me regret this." He said letting his mallet hit the floor and holding up his empty hands (for all that meant in Avery's case) "Look I'm not even SIDE, I'm with Hero Corp and let's just say I know they're not the nicest people in the world. What's your side of this?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Standard: Diplomacy (1d20+12)[17]
End of Turn: Regeneration removes a Bruise

[Hyperbolic sine]

So much for being partners. It was good he had Julia's family as a counterexample, because Aidan was otherwise growing incresingly disillusioned with love.

Without sparing a second glance to Auberon, he darted out the house to chase after Celeste, harassing her with disintegration rays before catching up, getting in front of her, and swiftly letting loose a punch followed by a leg sweep; he was leaving himself wide open, but he needed to end it quickly.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move: Routine Agile Feint for 30.
Standard: Charge Celeste, All-out Power Attack with Corrosion Punch at (1d20+8)[20], crit on 24+. Toughness DC 30/25 vs Damage (Incurable), Resistance Impaired/Disabled/Transformed (Cumulative, Secondary Effect) and Strength DC (1d20+25)[27] vs Trip.

-5 Defences, NOT Deflected for once.

[Thokk_Smash]

Wraith had begun to get a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach when Jesse's eyes widened to the size of saucers. Call it a gut feeling, call it intuition, but Wraith realized he had underestimated just how badly his luck could be. It's about that time that he realizes that, in prowling the room, he had put himself scant feet away from the bomb.

Wraith reflexively begins to jerk away, but...

Boom, a voice in his ear says, and it's as if steel manacles wrap around his limbs. No, not manacles...it's the icy-cold vice grip of a true wraith. The bomb explodes, and Wraith takes it head on--though not by choice.

The pain is blinding and total. Hero-level dreamer he may be, Wraith was standing a foot away from a hefty amount of plastic explosive. After a second that feels like an eternity Wraith is left reeling, half-blind and scorched on every inch of exposed skin. His SIDE-issue tac-vest is in tatters, and he thinks one of his eardrums may be ruptured. The IN-SIDE agent allows himself a half-second to acknowledge and feel bad about the pain.

Then he forces himself to move past it. He can't disregard it entirely, of course; his body feels like it'll be a second slow to act on anything he wants to do. But his thoughts can be put to order, at least. The building won't last long. Within a dozen seconds or less, it'll collapse, and come down on everyone inside. Brooks can run, but eventually she'll have to go to ground. The civilians below have far less time.

Wraith tenses, gathering all his energy. He's probably only going to have one shot to get the civilians out of danger, and he can't miss a single one.

In a rabid burst of movement Wraith explodes through the ceiling to the room below. Angling for those closest to the collapsing wall, Wraith ferries the students mid-dance, and the instructors mid-lecture. He can't afford to go too far; he knows his own limits, especially in his current state. He can only bring them as far as across the street, but it should be enough. Hopefully the owner isn't there, so they don't have to see the collapse of their livelihood in person.

Wraith stops a dozen feet or so from the group of civilians, gasping for air. A shifting of his inner focus brings the world slightly out of focus, as if he has taken a step back from notice from everything. With not-insignificant relief, he feels his pains begin to slowly, ever-so-slowly subside, as he takes stock of the situation.

Spoiler

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Move action: Staggered

Standard action: Ready an action to pick up the civvies.

Free action: Swap to Forgotten Physics. Wraith has Platform Flight 10, Power-Lifting 2, and Permeate 2 (Affects others as well), which combined together with being Hindered by Staggered means he has an effective rank of 8 for Flight.

"Round" 2

Move: Staggered

Standard: Get the civilians out of danger. Just across the street for each should be far enough to avoid the collapsing building.

Free action: Swap to Forgotten By The World for that sweet, sweet Regeneration 5

[Quellian-dyrae]

Round 5, if this has any meaning whatsoever (spoiler alert: it doesn't!)

Avery

"H-Hero Corps? Oh... Um, well, it was the Defiant, they-" Bettie began to explain.

Except, nope! Completely taking advantage of your being such a nice guy, Morgan clenched a hand, and the space around he and his family collapsed inward before kinda expanding back out with a wobbling, bubble-like motion and a loud popping noise - only when it did, all four of them had vanished.

Spoiler: Perception DC 25

Show

But in the stillness of the quiet Lastellan night, you hear another loud, but distant, popping noise coming from the north!

Spoiler

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Take a Hero Point for trying to be nice even knowing your opponents might take advantage of it.

Aidan

Celeste wove and swung to "avoid" your disintegration beams - which left her web cord played out by the time you reached her. A disintegrating sweep easily severed the strand at the apex of her swing, sending her careening helplessly straight into your fist. Wham. Thud.

Two houses had fires growing along the roofs, and three trees were starting to burn merrily, but fortunately you had thwarted her escape before it could spread. Firefighters could probably contain the fire without too much damage being done. Of course, if you could stop it yourself, even better!

Wraith

In a trice, everybody was safely out on the street and nobody could remember how they got there. The dance studio collapsed to the ground with a roar, the people who mere instants ago had been within staring at it in dazed shock. Some of the people on the street ran to get further from the collapsing building, while others edged closer, a couple of them even pointing their phones at it, taking pictures or video.

Jesse was nowhere to be seen...but maybe there was yet a way to track her down...?

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Why is it that they never surrender?" Aidan wearily complained, shaking his head at the futility of Celeste's escape attempt. Not that anyone was there to answer.

Now, only the fires were left to take care of. He was no firefighter - or temperature manipulator, for that matter - but he certainly could deal with them at this stage, and he saw no reason to let them spread: starting with the closer house, he jumped on the roof, pointed his hand at the spots that were burning, and proceeded to remove the surface layers with a disintegration ray - and if the fuel itself was instantly turned into inert ash, the fire would certainly be extinguished before it could spread. Then he'd repeat the process on the second house, and after that the trees would be on the recieving end of an emergency pruning.

Spoiler: OOC

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The attack is Precise, so I think I should be able to remove just the burning layers instead of leaving the roofs riddled with holes. If not...oh, well, still better than letting the fire spread, I suppose.

[Dodgeson]

And like that the family were gone, Avery had wrecked a pair of apartments and had exactly zero to show for it.

"Hayseed is going kill me..." He said to the empty room as he made his way to the hole in the wall and fished his flask out from the depths of his hat "Well at least it'll look like a hilarious accident."

He had some time to think as he wandered down the side of the building, if they were being sincere then there probably wasn't much risk to letting them get away but if he knew anything about SIDE they weren't exactly going to let this drop and whoever they sent next wouldn't be anywhere near as sympathetic as him.

[Thokk_Smash]

After a moment, Wraith straightens up. Ain't no rest for the wicked, and for an IN-SIDE wetworks man. Okay, so she went west, and she wasn't thinking much further beyond escape. It'll probably take her a bit to find a good hidey hole, but she won't have gone far before dropping to the ground. No further than ten miles due west.

Wraith's powered exoskeleton whirs as he takes off down the road due west. It's a decent clip he runs at, although far below what he can do once he can stop focusing on recovering. As he runs, weaving through the crowds and parkouring off of walls as needed, he pulls out his ACCS and deftly begins to search for a map of the surrounding area.

After a half of a minute or so, Wraith feels more-or-less recovered, although he still feels vaguely nauseous and his throat is raw from when his mouth was open when the explosion went off. With a short shifting of focus, he feels himself become light as a feather and he runs into the air. This greater burst of speed means that he makes it to the rough area he thinks Brooks would be in short order. He takes a moment, hiding in thin air, to assess what maps he found online and comparing them with what he sees in real life.

Spoiler

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With Regeneration 5, it should take four rounds to recover from 1 Bruise and a Stagger. Wraith has Speed 6 and Leaping 2 from his Equipment, so he'll move using those ranks for four rounds before switching to his Rank 10 Platform Flight. So he'll probably take like six or so rounds to get to the general area Brooks may have gone.

He'll also be using his ACCS to look up maps of the areas, trying to find places Brooks may hide.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Aidan

Over comms, one of the members of the SIDE team who was standing by for pickup helpfully answered your rhetorical question with, "I blame comic books."

If the fires had been given time to grow, they might have proven beyond your powers to quell without resorting to massive destruction. Or at least like, I dunno, required a Counter check or something. But since Celeste had gone down in comfortably under five seconds, it wasn't no thing.

Spoiler

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Battle over! Aidan take a Hero Point, a bonus Hero Point for not using any limited resources, and another bonus Hero Point for winning your battle first!

Avery

Well the Savages managed to get away, but whatever they might yet live to regret it and hey the ACC would fix those buildings up in a jiffy! In any event, they'd think twice before doing anything that might draw the attention of SIDE and Hero Corps again, now that they had seen just what the difference was between a few mid-level Dreamers and a Hero!

Spoiler

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Battle over! Avery take a Hero Point, and a bonus Hero Point for not using any limited resources!

Wraith

Well, the good news was, the maps you reviews on the way matched up admirably with the terrain. The bad news was there were a fair few places that Jesse could have gone to, and at the speeds she could reach, the time you spent recovering expanded her radius significantly. There were at least five small towns within thirty miles where she might be able to slip in and lie low. It was further away and there would be more cops and even SIDE agents, but also a lot more people and less chance a newcomer would stand out, in the small city of Debonshire about fifty miles south. There was a small mountain fifteen miles north that was riddled with old mining caverns, not exactly comfortable but a great place to disappear. Perhaps the worst possibility though, was that knowing what you did of her powers, if she managed to stop panicking and think about it, for sheer avoidance there was little that could beat using the subterfuge her gremlins could gift her to just up and vanish in the sprawling open fields of the Estruan plains. Finding an invisible target somewhere in that large an area would be all but impossible.

The question was, which had she done...?

Spoiler: Brilliant Deduction DC 25, -5 circumstance penalty for her head start

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You could bet against her thinking clearly. Let's be real, it took more than thirty seconds to recover your composure after an encounter with the Wraith. Heck, there were some people that never did. Just ask Jarvis Bradley. ...And Poor Jeff.

Given that SIDE had literally just tracked her down in one of those quaint Estruan towns, odds were she wasn't going to try her luck there again. Besides, outsiders would be noticed way too easily in a place like that.

As for the city...it'd make sense if she were tied to this area long-term, but having been found here, most likely she'd want to move somewhere far away to throw SIDE off her trail. As a short term hideout, the city didn't work for her - your resources would be maximized there.

No. At the end of the day, she had an affinity for creatures of darkness, of the underworld. Any good SIDE agent knew not to underestimate the instincts that a Dreamer's powers might bring with them. Chased to ground by a foe she knew she couldn't defeat, the most likely place for her to retreat to was a deep, dark cave.

...There is, however, a...slight concern here. Mines are dangerous places at the best of times. And Estruan is a region known for its geological instability. You had already seen the havoc Darryll's Death Curse would play when you put yourself in the threat range of even something as stable as plastic explosives. The question it would behoove you to ask yourself now is, is bringing in Jesse Brooks really worth finding out if Darryll's Death Curse is powerful enough to bring a natural disaster literally down on your head, when it has a small mountain and Estruan's infamous geology to work with?

Spoiler: OOC

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If you fail the Brilliant Deduction check, you can still take a shot at one of the possibilities and potentially catch her if you guess right. If you guess wrong it's probably safe to say she makes a clean getaway, unless you come up with something clever.

In any event though, since Aidan and Avery have finished up, after your next post I think I'll move us along to the next episode and we can wrap this up in parallel.