Immortals in the Playground, Episode 1

[Held]

Dieter

The boy had little time to appreciate the force with which the thieves came equipped. He scrambled to his feet, took quick inventory of the location of his assailants and made for cover immediately.

"'Dieter, you're a little kid', 'Dieter, don't get hurt', 'Dieter, go find more stuff'," the boy mumbled, impersonating Kaylee's voice. He snorted. Yeah, he did not much like this person. Who put her in charge? Who decided she got to give orders? "Freakishly tall giraffe," he muttered, as he picked up another item. This one looked at least more interesting: a long rod with a transparent ball attached to its top, and a long cord on its bottom attached it to some backpack. Dieter set the backpack upright, held up the rod and tried to find a switch on the pole itself.

Then he flipped a switch on the backpack.

[hobbitguy1420]

Bobby "Beat" Makamoto

High Concept: Acoustics student at SFIT Trouble: Easily distra- huh? what?
Other Aspects: Droppin' mad beats, Legs totally wants me, Bullies beware!

Equipment:

Resonant Excitement Oscillators Function: Destructive sonic blasters Flaw: Really freakin' loud
Neuro-Acoustic Disruptors Function: Sound-based stun blasts Flaw: Still in beta.

Fate Points: 3
Stress: OOO
Consequences:

Bobby holds Lee up, looking around a bit wildly, taking in the madness. "Hey, Legs, stay with me, all right? We need to get someplace safe." He looks around one more time, drawing from years of video game experience to judge the best cover available, and ducks down low as he helps Lee into a more sheltered location.

Spoiler: OOC

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Rolled in the OOC thread to Cleverly create the aspect "Ducked Under Cover" for Lee and Bobby - and if I can't do it for both, he'll make sure Lee is the one who gets the benefit of cover (self-Compelling "Legs totally wants me" if applicable).

[The_Admiral]

Lee nods at Bobby, muttering, ..Thanks.... limping to cover with him as she slowly recovered, taking quick glances around her, attempting to put the devices of the other students together in her head, to formulate some sort of plan.

Slowly, it came together, the regenerating wires, there were some form of self assembling nanobots, they didn't have much power, but that was easily solved with the power transmission proof of concept she commented on, plug that into the mains, easy. A couple advanced software projects seemed like they could be jury rigged into interfacing with her gloves for control and she should be able to build a device to trap the thieves.

Turning to Bobby, she says with a slightly crazy glint in her eyes and growing smile on her lips, the same kind of glint that came before something crazy,"...I have an idea."

Spoiler

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Okay, going to invoke TRUST ME I AM ENGINEER to Cleverly create an Advantage by mac guyvering other student projects.

(4d3-1)[9]

burning the fate point I got for the presentation.

The Advantage shall be called

NANOBOTS SON!

[ThreadOfFate]

Spoiler: Results

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Bobby successfully creates an advantage: Ducked Under Cover. This advantage will only last for as long as they are actively taking cover - moving out of it will remove the advantage.
Lee not only creates an advantage, but gets a free invocation on it: Nanobots, Son!
Miki successfully creates an advantage: Got Your Gravity
Dieter successfully creates an advantage: What The Hell Does This Do?

Alan zigs and zigs through the air, avoiding one air cannon shot and raising his shield in time for another before returning fire with his constructs. One of his assailants goes down from his shot, providing an opening for Kaylee, who is already charging forward, to take advantage of.

Meanwhile, Miki's gravity fluctuations are causing some odd reactions from the thieves, who are starting to wonder just what the hell is going at this expo, and also why they haven't yet stolen it.

Doubly meanwhile, Dieter's device flips on and begins to hum in an exceptionally low pitch. That appears to be it, at least for the moment. He kinda feels his ribs vibrating, though.

Lee's nanobots and constructed, cobbled-together device spark to life, working better than she could've hoped. They begin to fill the air with a mechanical buzz. She also notices a slight flicker in the corner of her eye, like the distortion from rising heat, only person-sized.

Kaylee moves in with her shield, looking to barrel over the thief in her path. At this point, the cops are less of a concern, compared to the students who are creating new and exciting ways to mess with their plans.

The group setting up the device continues as best as they can, new ones leaping in to assist when someone else goes down. They begin to set up a cover system for it, much of the pillaging having been completed.

Spoiler: Kaylee's Roll

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Kaylee Forcefully Attacks, invoking They Won't Get Away With This! for free: (4d3-3)[6]

Spoiler: Thieves' Actions

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They create a new Advantage, Determined To Succeed, with one free invocation.

See the OOC thread for further instructions.

Spoiler: Active Scene Aspects

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This Is the Cutting Edge
They'll Show the World
Here and Now
Tonight They Will Shine
Project a Positive Message
Nothing Will Happen on Their Watch
Hey, Who Killed The Lights?
A Calm And Orderly Evacuation (2 free invocations) No longer viable, or calm, or orderly.
On Shaky Ground
They Won't Get Away With This!
Ducked Under Cover (Bobby and Lee only)
Nanobots, Son! (Lee only)
Got Your Gravity (Miki only)
What The Hell Does This Do? (Dieter only)

[Argentum]

Flying slightly behind Kaylee, Alan watches as she barrels over another one of the thieves with an improvised shield. Looking around, he realizes that the thieves have replaced the man he had disabled and were continuing to set up the device undeterred, the ones not helping to set up the device were aiming more cannons at him and his friends, determined to set up the machine.

Their determination lights a spark of irritation within Alan, rapidly growing as he takes in the sight of worthless thieves stealing other people's inventions and accomplishments for their own selfish desires.

...Let's see if they can set up a machine from scrap. Alan's annoyance reaches a peak and he surrounds himself a sphere once more, manipulating the light reflecting off it in such a way that the sphere was transparent but still protecting him. He flies towards the machine at the speed of a race car, surely too quick to be targeted by any of the thieves and protected in his sphere even if they managed to get a lucky shot.

The sphere crashes into the device like a wrecking ball.

[Space Lawyer]

Miki grins maliciously. "Time to fly."

The gravity around the thieves suddenly changes direction, throwing the thieves up towards the crumbling ceiling.

Then down to the floor.

Then up again.

Then down again.

Up.

Down.

Spoiler: Go go action heroes!

Show

Invoking Got your gravity to wreck the thieves.

[The_Admiral]

Lee smiled as she spied on the thieves, her frankenstinian creation coming to life, creeping up on the thieves not being assaulted by what seemed like gravity manipulation. She notices the haze of heat, and ignores it, pushing it aside.

They began self replicating and rooting themselves to a spot, surrounding as many thieves as possible and completely immobilizing them.

Spoiler: Roll

Show

Invoking that NANOBOTS SON! For a Clever Attack

(4d3-4)[4]

[hobbitguy1420]

Bobby glances around, slightly panicked, then turns to Lee, who seems to have some idea what the hell is going on.

"What the hell is going on?"

[Held]

Dieter

Well, this seemed a load of... Wait, it wasn't useless yet. It might do something...

Dieter had little time to consider the issue of his newfound tool, and hit the floor when he realised he was once again the subject of incoming fire.

[The_Admiral]

"...what do you mean?" she replies slightly confused as she focused her efforts on troubleshooting her macgyvered invention on the fly.

[hobbitguy1420]

"What are you doing? Who are these guys? Is that one flying?"

Bobby takes a chance, quickly poking his head out of cover to try to get a look at the scene, then ducks back down.

[ThreadOfFate]

The thieves are scrambling to get the machine set up, but the constant assaults are slowing down their progress, if not stopping it entirely. Kaylee barrels over someone, shoving them aside and slamming into another, knocking him away. Miki take the chance to float a few away as well, up towards the cracked ceiling. Lee's nanomachines yank one or two more away, holding them back. Everyone's working to give Alan his clear shot.

Which, fortunately, he takes.

Alan's shot manages to penetrate their now-lackluster defenses, but one of them jumps in front of the blow at the last moment, getting blasted back and slamming heavily into the machine - which turns on with a beep and a heavy whir. All of the thieves suddenly stop and look at it, then each other, and they all have the same expression.

Oh, sh-

Something clicks inside, and the ground violently quakes once more as the machine strikes the ground with something heavy - but this hit was something far worse. Everyone nearby is blown backwards, Kaylee included, as a shockwave spreads through the floor and air. Alan's flight pattern is thrown way off course, and he has to struggle to keep from crashing.

The area immediately around the device is nearly pulverized, with cracks running along the ground and up into some pillars. The destruction is relatively well contained, and it falls off fast the farther away it is from the strange device, which was clearly activated before it was ready - it now lies in a smoking heap, having been misused one time too many.

Curiously, the area around Dieter's strange humming wand thing is perfectly unharmed - a visible lack of cracks or fractures from the new impact is obvious, and he seems to have felt no seismic activity from the impact, though previous damage remains.

When the dust starts to settle, the thieves are trying to pick themselves up, the presentation hall is ruined (but still barely standing), and there's a lot of general silence. The police spring into action, quickly moving to arrest the thieves.

Kaylee, blown away from the blast, coughs and stirs, rubbing her head and back as she slowly sits up. Tonight was not one of her better nights, apparently. "Everyone all right? Dieter? Alan? Miki!?"

[Argentum]

Alan catches a glimpse of the other students as he rushes toward the machine like a speeding wrecking ball, smirking as he sees the thieves get barreled, shoved, yanked and... floated away? Whatever device was doing that, he wanted to see it once this was over.

He focuses his attention on the machine again, smirking triumphantly when one of the thieves jump in his impromptu wrecking ball’s path. Alan’s eyes widen, too stunned at the move to slow down or swerve away as the sphere collided with the thief and slammed him against the machine heavily.

A beep and heavy whir from the machine sounds in his ears, the man’s body hitting the machine had accidentally turned the device on, that was fine, Alan’s sphere was still going to wrec-

A shockwave knocks him off course, an instinctive panic grips Alan for a short moment before he recollected himself and corrected the sphere and suit’s flight, slowing its speed down to a crawl before stopping entirely. He could have stopped immediately, but that would have been like pulling the emergency brakes on a car while it was speeding, unpleasant to say the least.

Looking around, Alan sees the thieves picking themselves off, but the police were moving in to arrest them and seemed to have the situation under control.

“Everyone all right? Dieter? Alan? Miki!?" He hears Kaylee’s calling out.

Well, the police should be able to keep this situation under control now. With the equivalent of a mental shrug, Alan lets the sphere dissipate and uses his suit to fly back to where the rest of the students seemed to have grouped up. "I'm here, how's everyone else?"

Alan looks around the exhibition hall, lamenting the destruction as he takes in its ruined state, but he pushes that aside and tries to look for clues, anything that would lead him to the perpetrator of this ordeal. He looks at the thieves, picking out details in their uniforms, at the ruined machine they had been setting up in hopes of finding clues to its origins.

[hobbitguy1420]

When the shockwave comes, Bobby instinctively curls up, trying to shield Lee (if she lets him). Afterward, he falls back with a groan. "Aw, god damn..." He coughs and looks around. "Lee, you okay?" He starts to climb to his feet, and looks around in shock. "Holy..." He sees the flying man and walks up. "Hey - You're not one of the Big Hero 6. Are you new? Are they the Big Hero 7 now?"

[Argentum]

Bobby's questions bring Alan out of his observations, he turns to the DJ in puzzlement. "What? No, I haven't even met the Big Hero 6." Then he realized just what he looked like at the moment and descends from the air, gently setting foot on the ground before letting his helmet disappear, "It's me, Alan, I just saw a bunch of thieves raiding the place and figured that any help I could give would be useful."

[Held]

Dieter

"Yeah, I'm great!" Dieter yelled back, without a hint of arrogance. He looked with marvel at the device he was holding. All right, so it wasn't some super amazing weapon, but if he were a professor... Well, whoever invented this'd get an A for An Astoundingly Amazing Apparatus!

[Space Lawyer]

Miki stands up from where she had ignominiously been sent sprawling on the floor by the blast, shaking the dust off. "Yeah, I'm here, all good." She walks quickly over to Kaylee. "Are you ok? Did you hurt your head!?"

The gravity spheres zip back into Miki's bag. Having them feature as part of the story of what happened here didn't seem like a good idea.

[ThreadOfFate]

Kaylee rubbed the back of her noggin, wincing slightly. "I did, but it's nothing. I'm fine! I'm all fine, I'm just, I'm, I'm really glad you're all right. You're all right, right? Nothing hurt, nothing bruised, they didn't..." She slowed down and took a deep breath, then gave Miki a small smile. "You're safe. Okay. Good. That's...that's really good."

The various calls of okay from her impromptu teammates settled her even more, and she slowly got to her feet with a little help from Miki. Lee was coughing, but also pushed herself up, gushing to Bobby about how awesome that whole scene was.

Kaylee thought otherwise as she surveyed the disaster of a presentation hall. Pillars were toppled, signs and displays were long since destroyed, and more than a few injured were scattered about, though it seemed like the paramedics had arrived and were tending to them. The police were well on their way to arresting the thieves, handcuffs clinking loudly in the din of noise that was springing up following the excitement.

Alan, looking attentively, notices a strange symbol on the outfits of many of the thieves. They're wearing uniforms, or things much like uniforms, and he discovers the aspect Unusually Well Organized Thieves. The symbol doesn't jump out to him immediately, but he might remember it later.

A few blues approach the groups - one to Kaylee and Miki, one to Lee and Bobby and Alan, and one to Dieter. All of them say about the same thing: "Thanks for your help. Would you please come with us and make a statement about what you saw and did here tonight?"

Kaylee nods, then looks to Miki. "Dinner can wait a bit, yeah?"

[Argentum]

A look of concentration crosses Alan's face as he examines all he can about the thieves. They were too well organized to just be any run-of-the-mill fool who wanted to steal things. Well equipped too...

He inspects their attire, as best as he can while the cops are handcuffing and dragging them away at least. The thieves all wore similar clothes, a uniform of some sort? On closer look, he sees a symbol that is repeated on each of their clothes. That might be important. Thinking quickly, Alan saved a template of the symbol in his neural interface, that way he could recreate the symbol at his leisure if he decided to try his luck at some detective work.

His attention is drawn away from the thieves as one of the cops approach him, Bobby and Lee, asking for a statement of what they saw and did during the attempted robbery. It was probably just standard procedures, "Of course," he nodded, shrugging his shoulders and letting the rest of his armor disappear to reveal his casual clothes once more.

[Held]

Dieter

Dieter looked absolutely stunned. "I- I didn't do anything!" he protested. "I'm not part of their─ wait, for my help?" For a moment, Dieter stared a them, but then it clicked. His help! Here were people who could tell who was and was not helpful!

Take that, high-strung Dieter-you're-a-little-kid-go-hide flunk! He'd show the world, he wasn't some kind of short kid who never had his growth spurt!

"I- I'll come along, I'll come!"

[Space Lawyer]

Miki hangs close to Kaylee, looking a bit warily at the officer. Too many questions could be a bad thing. "Yeah, sure, it can wait." She makes sure that her bag stays close to her. The copse really didn't need to see what was in there.

[hobbitguy1420]

Bobby stares as Lee chatters about how incredible and awesome that whole experience was. "We... you..." He shakes his head. "You're crazy sometimes, Legs. You know that, right?" A fond smile cuts the harshness of the words. "Yeah," he calls out to the cops. "I'll make a statement."

[ThreadOfFate]

The blues take the group collectively off to the side, with a few other witnesses. There, they get audio statements from everyone, along with signed papers stating that your statement is true and all that other fun legal paperwork. The whole process takes a good 30 minutes or so, after which everyone is free to leave.

By now, the crowd has begun to disperse, and the building is being blocked off due to structual instability. Many crooks have been arrested and inventions recovered, but not everyone got their stuff back. A few news crews are already on hand, setting up lights and cameras and all sorts of other bits of equipment. The sun has long since set by now, and though the blues and the news are providing small flurries of activity, the general mood has quieted. It's over, whatever it was. You saved the day, so enjoy the quiet while it lasts.

The group is left standing on sidelines, watching the activity from a decent vantage point. From the outside, the building looks pretty wrecked - large cracks and chunks of the facade are missing, having cracked on the ground from all the activity and localized earthquakes. The surrounding area doesn't look damaged at all, so whatever hit the center seemed to hit only the center. The fountain just outside is completely fine.

Kaylee glances around at the rest of the group, eyes lingering on Miki for a second, before speaking up. "So...should we, uh...exchange numbers? You know, in case we need to get in touch again. Or...something. And hey, amazing job out there, all of you. Dieter, nice work. Sorry about the...what I said. The kid thing. You were a great help out there."

----

"How did it go?"

She couldn't see the person sitting behind the desk - their face and torso were wreathed in shadow. The vast window behind them provided a spectacular view of the San Fransokyo downtown area, all lit up with neon lights and massive advertisements. They were framed in that view, seemingly sitting with one leg resting on the other.

"Well," she rasped as she set a bag down on the table. Inside were several of the inventions that were stolen from the convention, in various states of repair. Sometimes parts were all that she managed to grab, but it had been enough. Some of the stuff there could be extremely useful. "We lost several, but no one we can't bother replacing."

"And now, I don't have to pay them," the person said, flashing a grin. "Excellent work. Everything is proceeding as according to plan. We'll have the city on its knees in no time."

She arched an eyebrow, then shrugged. "Whatever you say, boss. Also, is there a reason you left the lights off?"

A heavy sigh, and their demeanor changed instantly. Gone were the overly evil and suggestive tones from their voice. "No, I...the bulbs burned out, and maintenance hasn't gotten up here to replace them yet, so I...I swear I'm not just being dramatic. Really."

She rolled her eyes at that, then stood up and turned, heading out.

"Oh!" They called out before she left, causing her to turn around. "Tell Cheryl happy birthday if you see her! There'll be a party down in the meeting room on 14 later tonight!"

Without a word, she walked out.

Behind the desk, they sighed again. "I really have to get some new bulbs."

[Space Lawyer]

Miki scowled at herself in the mirror. Nothing was cooperating with her hair right now. A pile of rejected clothing sits on her bed, having grown steadily in the hour. Ok, this would have to do. Otherwise, she'd have cancel and just go buy all new clothes. A short skirt, high heels, and a thin, tight sweater would work. She had told Kaylee she was just going home to change really quick, get the dust off and everything; she couldn't spend too long here. She throws on a leather jacket on the way out the door, and hops on to her motorcycle, heading over to Kaylee's.

[ThreadOfFate]

Oh God. Oh God oh God oh God oh Goooooood.

Kaylee was freaking out.

Miki had gone home to shower and change. Kaylee had returned to her dorm, washing the dust and sweat from the expo off and actually spending some time on making herself look nice. The problem was, she didn't really know /how/.

Oh, she knew how to make herself look like she had just woken up, but that was how she liked to look. She normally wasn't in the realm of trying to impress anyone, and now she really wanted to impress someone.

In the end, she just decided on jeans, a long-sleeve, and form-fitting short-sleeve shirt on top of that. Her hair was styled as it usually was, out of her face and parted.

Asami, her cat, was sitting on her bed. She was staring at Kaylee, silently judging her (or so Kaylee assumed) for her clothing and styling choices. She did that a lot. Cats were naturally judgmental, it seemed.

With a final deep breath, Kaylee nodded at herself. Miki would be here soon. Maybe too soon. Oh God, what if she didn't like how she looked? What if she didn't want to go to dinner? What if-

With a soft meow, Asami rubbed herself against Kaylee's leg. Right. Calm down. She agreed to this. That was a start.

Taking another deep breath, Kaylee sat down on her living room couch with a book, waiting for the knock at the door.

[hobbitguy1420]

Bobby leaned against the doorjamb of Dieter's lab and rapped lightly against the wood. "Hey, Dietz, you in here?" He looked around the place with interest, noting all the fun little bits of tech and insanity that accumulate in the usual SanFran Tech student's lab.

[Held]

Dieter

"I'm here, I'm here!" Dieter called back, emerging from under the central table. "That little rat's hiding again!" He gestured around at the whirlwind that was his lab. All sorts of things had been knocked to the floor or turned upside down. Any cleaning enthusiast would have a field day. Any mother would have a figurative heart attack.

"It must be around here somewhere. I'll dismantle that hunk of junk when I find it!"

[hobbitguy1420]

Bobby blinks. "Hunk of junk? Did your cleaning 'bot malfunction or something?" He steps inside and starts looking underneath things, too, assuming he'll figure out what he's looking for when he sees it.

[Space Lawyer]

Miki finally makes it to Kaylee's. Damn side-streets; this place was a like a maze. She hustles up the stairs, finds Kaylee's door, raises her hand to knock . . . and freezes.

Ok, you got this, just knock on the door.

She paces back and forth.

Yep, knock on that door. Kaylee's waiting.

She stares intently at the door.

Time to do it. 1. 2. 3!

Knockknockknock.

[ThreadOfFate]

At the not-unexpected knock on her door, Kaylee nearly jumped two feet off the couch before staggering to her feet and rushing over. She reached out to the handle and grasped it firmly, but didn't turn it right away. She took a moment to breathe deeply, trying to still her beating heart, trying to get over the nervousness of what was her first date in a long, long while.

There were so many things that could go wrong tonight. Kaylee had spent her entire shower cataloging them and ranking them from completely disastrous to only slightly disastrous.

Then again, tonight she had helped fight off a giant, coordinated theft. This couldn't really go worse than that.

After another breath, she pulled open the door, stepping back to avoid it as it swung in. The sight of Miki made her pause and look, open-mouthed. "Woah, Miki, you look...wow. I mean, you look great! Just. All over, in general, not that you don't always look great, but this time, right here especially, with the jacket and the, the sweater and everything, you're...you're beautiful, I'm...I, uh, it's, um."

Great start. "So, um...noodles? We talk about it. That shop, we run by it almost every day. And then, here? Movie? I have Netflix. We can watch something. Or go for a walk! I don't know. Let's go."

One of these days, she was going to learn when to stop talking. Today was clearly not that day, not when Miki was making her blush and get all mumbly and wonder how she got lucky enough to go on a date with her.