Heroes of Millaine IC 2 - Coming Soon to a Theater Near You!

[Quellian-dyrae]

Round 2

Look, newly Awakened Dreamer with a sizable power-bump or not, this was still the full force of the Heroes of Millaine we're talking about. Waterworks caught hold of the young woman, but just as they were shifting to water, she blinked away from Waterworks, her powers instinctively countering the teleport with one of their own. With removal of the threat not being so easy, Team Neutralization let loose. Bastion's taser gauntlets shocked through the cosmic embodiment, leaving her jerking spasmodically under the electrical assault. Sean's claws were turned aside by a shield of starlight that sprang up before her, but Declan smashed right through it with two heavy blows of the stunhammer. Powerful though the new Dreamer might have been, she wouldn't be able to hold up long under that sort of assault. As long as the Heroes could just withstand the uncontrolled blasts of cosmic energy, they should be able to resolve this matter quite-

...Oh, it could never be that easy, could it?

Even as Maestro exerted his hyperkinetic powers to hold up the collapsing dorm (while simultaneously assessing the structural damage, cross-referencing it with the floorplan he had memorized when he had visited the college for about fifteen minutes one day to be presented with a few honorary degrees, and calmly and efficiently telepathically communicating the safest exit routes to the students inside), the situation, in full Millaine style, went from bad to worse.

It started when a man suddenly appeared behind Waterworks with this...awful squelching sound. He was covered in dirty, soiled rags, discolored lesions and pus-filled boils. His arrival came with a spray of some unidentified putrid...liquid or jelly or something. And the smell. Oh, gods, the smell. It was just...indescribable.

Spoiler: Sean

Show

I know you have Analytical scent. It is still indescribable. You just get a perfect sense of exactly how insufficient language is to describe the sheer awfulness of what you are smelling.

So, you know, that was horrible. But he didn't really do anything aside from appearing disgustingly. The same couldn't be said for those who arrived with him. A freckled, red-headed woman came flying in above the school's library, wind swirling around her and her eyes crackling with lightning. She pointed her hands and unleashed a barrage of lightning bolts down upon Kay, and as she did so, the sky above grew cloudier.

Another woman with dark skin and hair and blazing with an aura of white-gold light came flying in, seeming to be riding on a disk of light that extended from her aura. "You should all get back!" she shouted at you, but she didn't seem to have any plans to wait for you to heed her warning, and her aura exploded outward in a brilliant flare.

As the light died down, another man, with pale skin and dark hair, dressed in an immaculate suit, came rushing in at super-speed. He reached out to try to lay a hand on Kay for just a moment, before darting off to establish some range. As he passed, everyone might notice that for just a moment they felt...not calmer, quite, but number. Whatever emotions this whole attack might have stirred up seeming to fade for just a moment.

And then, of course, the sound of a few dozen or so low-end rockets firing, followed by a like number of heavy deployment boots hitting the ground, as four units of eight soldiers Defiant armed with shotguns propelled over the library, took up formations, and began firing on Kay with volleys of explosive rounds...and the typical Defiant level of disregard for anyone who might have been in their bullets' flight paths if they missed.

In response, Kay's own aura flared up, a corona of brilliant sunlight blazing around her and exploding out. The uncontrolled power of the sun was a healing force - for any who could withstand the cleansing fires!

Spoiler: Sean

Show

You recognize the woman with the light aura from your time among the Repentant. Her name is Chloe Michaels, and as you recall hearing it her Awakening had...not been well-received by her parents, who were active Reclaimers. They had demanded she not use her powers, which hadn't exactly been easy -
Reclaimer parents often refused to let their kids undergo early practice for techniques to control Dreamer powers, and her powers were both quite strong and,
well, an aura emanation. Those things don't exactly do dormancy well. She had tried, but the power had kept building up inside her, and her control had finally slipped during an argument with her parents. The resulting blaze had destroyed her home and killed her family. She had sought help from the Reclaimers, and last you had heard she had been sent off to a "camp" in the Lastellan region to learn how to "control" her powers better (here meaning, better tolerate the constant pain of trying to keep an intense energy aura completely contained).

Spoiler

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I'll be honest, I was kinda disappointed she got so lucky on those last Will saves. I feel like this all would have been more intense if she only had one health track still active.

Good news, Kay is too powerful for these guys to lethally damage naturally...except for the fact that her present power is temporary, and if she's knocked out will fade. Resultantly, the Repentant can effectively cause lethal damage to Kay on a final hit. The Defiant can't lethally damage her regardless, though they could use Finishing Attacks against her once she's down.

The Repentant and Defiant are subject to lethal damage from Kay, as she is unable to control her powers and way stronger than them individually.

Assume any civilian who gets caught in any of their attacks, even as an accident or afterthought, is going to be pretty much instantly killed.

Maestro:
Standard: Hold up the dorm.
Free: Direct the evacuation.
Maestro take a Hero Point for me NPCing you non-tactically and/or for saving the students in the dorm.

Yamato:
Standard: Teleport into Z22 with Disgusting Arrival. Everyone give me Dodge DC 22 for half, Fortitude DC 22/16 vs. Impaired/Disabled/Incapacitated.
Kay 1: Dodge: (1d20+20)[39]. Fortitude: (1d20+15)[27]. Resists
Kay 2: Dodge: (1d20+20)[31]. Fortitude: (1d20+15)[20]. Resists
Move: Meh.

Stella:
Move: Fly into Z5 with Ride the Winds.
Free: Swap to Command the Weather.
Standard: Attack Kay (both, due to Targeted Shapeable Area) with Lightning Bolts. On a hit, Toughness DC 27+Multiattack vs. Damage, Fortitude DC 22+Multiattack vs. Vulnerable/Stunned Affliction.
Kay 1: Attack: (1d20+12)[23]. Toughness: (1d20+13)[19]. Fortitude: (1d20+15)[32]. Miss
Kay 2: Attack: (1d20+12)[17]. Toughness: (1d20+15)[27]. Fortitude: (1d20+15)[25]. Miss

Chloe:
Move: Fly into Z13 with Aura Flight.
Free: Swap to Heighten Aura.
Standard: Aura Flare. Kay, Bastion, Declan, and Sean, give me Dodge DC 22 for half, Toughness DC 27/21 vs. Damage, Fortitude DC 22/16 vs. Dazed+Vulnerable/Stunned+Defenseless.
Kay 1: Dodge: (1d20+20)[28]. Toughness: (1d20+13)[18]. Fortitude: (1d20+15)[27]. Bruised
Kay 2: Dodge: (1d20+20)[29]. Toughness: (1d20+15)[17]. Fortitude: (1d20+15)[34]. Bruised

Gideon:
Move: Into AA18 with Hunter's Speed.
Standard: Attack Kay with Consume Love at (1d20+12)[19]. On a hit, Will ((1d20+15)[29]) vs. Weaken All Defenses. Miss
Move-by Action: Into S28.

Defiant Units:
Move: Leap into position with Deployment Boots.
Standard: Attack Kay with Massed Explosive Shots. On a hit, Toughness DC 25+Multiattack vs. Secondary Effect Damage. Unfortunately, Defiant aren't careful. If they don't all hit Kay, any PC can choose to take the missed fire on themselves; this counts as a full-Multiattack hit if they miss outright, a +2 Multiattack hit if they get a normal hit on Kay, and a normal hit if they get a +2 Multiattack hit on Kay. Otherwise, stray bullets kill one civilian per point by which they failed to achieve full Multiattack bonus. Hero Points for anyone who takes at least one such attack on themselves, but remember they carry Secondary Effects!
Unit 1: (1d20+10)[22]. Kay Toughness: (1d20+13)[16]. Miss. Toughness DC 30 to absorb, otherwise 13 civilians killed.
Unit 2: (1d20+10)[18]. Kay Toughness: (1d20+13)[14]. Miss. Toughness DC 30 to absorb, otherwise 17 civilians killed.
Unit 3: (1d20+10)[16]. Kay Toughness: (1d20+13)[24]. Miss. Toughness DC 30 to absorb, otherwise 19 civilians killed.
Unit 4: (1d20+10)[30]. Kay Toughness: (1d20+13)[32]. Crit, and thanks to the prior Bruise it just manages to ding her with another Bruise. No civilians at risk.

Kay (Action 1):
Stunned.
End of turn: Recover from Stunned (DC 22) at (1d20+15)[35]. Well, yes.

Kay (Action 2):
Move: Whyyyyy?
Free: Reconfigure Embody the Cosmos array. 10 points to the Regeneration of Embody the Sun, 15 points to the Immunity to Embody the Sun, 15 points to the Impervious Toughness of Embody the Worlds, 5 points to the Flight of Embody the Bonds.
Standard: Invoke the Sun centered on self. She's immune from both her Embody the Sun and her Space Embodiment powers. Everyone in 30' has to roll Dodge DC 25 for half, Toughness DC 30/22 vs. Damage. Anyone who comes out undamaged (including Kay herself due to immunity) receives Persistent, Restorative Healing (with Quirked heal order and condition costs) at (1d20+10)[13]. Totally forgot to roll for the Repentant in range, but anyone who resists heals one degree, Bruises first.

Also, we have a Map.

All PCs are on turn.

[manwithaplan]

"Ewww. Guess they were right about getting an oxygen filter..."

Bastion dealt reasonably well with the appearance of the disgusting one, and the shining woman's flare of light was not fast enough to catch him. He was smarter today than in the first major battle, and he moved much quicker. He could not move fast enough, however, to avoid an invocation of the actual sun coming from a Nation Class Dreamer who was directly behind him.

Sebastian grimaced for a moment, staring at the three-sixty sensors as they described for him the intense current of incoming solar energy.

Wait...solar? He switched to game face.

"Military override. Switch operations to Emergency Solar Draw."

Without any response, the HUD went black and everything around him turned dim; Sebastian gulped as his servoes forced him into the correct position.

Bastion went into a neutral stance, arms out at either side, as numerous control surfaces on his armour slid out of place. Losing his armoured protection for a moment, he revealed a very large number of panels newly coated in solar collection paint. The flames of the sun burst out from Kay, consuming him in an instant and seeming to leave nothing in their wake. But then...

OPERATOR DETECTED, STARTUP COMPLETE. WARNING: POWER LEVEL AT NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-

"HAHAHAHA! I'M SO GOOD AT THIS! Did we record that? Can we send it to the Green Room?"

Up-up-up-load- the onboard computer fizzled out into static, and the Flight, Combat, and Briefing HUDs were all on Sebastian's screen at once, overlayed over each other.

"...Oh boy."

Whatever had happened to the Bastion, he was in perfect health now, and his standard machine guns revealed themselves from underneath the arm plating as he leapt up into the air with Kay. Supported by his thrusters, he hovered beside her while unloading fire into the enemy force.

"You are worsening the emergency. Leave immediately."

Spoiler

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Standard Action: Fire Autoguns on CM, Power Attack 4. Attack (1d20+10)[21] for DC 27+Multiattack Damage. Area Forcefield is go for another round.
Move Action: Switching to Flight and popping up to hover directly in Kay's altitude, attempting to give her cover or concealment or something from some of the bad guys.

Status: Fatigued, Impaired (Recovery DC 16 (1d20+10)[30]).

[Hyperbolic sine]

As soon as the disgusting smell began to spread, Declan started reflexively to hold his breath.

Wha-

More Dreamers started appearing, and it looked more and more like a three-way battle. But who? Why?

And then the squads deployed, and he understood.

Defiant.

Of course. It was obvious.

Should have been the first thing coming to mind, but he was purposefully avoiding that train of thought. Maybe therapy had its downsides, after all (aside, you know, having to talk about things).

And, no matter how much collateral damage the girl was cuasing, there was no way he'd keep up the subjugation and leave her open for them to kill - or take.

He darted towards the two squads on the left, intercepting every last bullet and...well, he couldn't really let out a battle what what with him being holding his breath and everything, but the intention was there. Then, once between the two, he smashed the Stunhammer on the ground and unleashed all of its vibrational energy in a single pulse that threatened to knock them all down and/or out.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move:Y19->S10.
Standard: Attacking with Pulse Wave (Burst Area), Dodge DC 22 for half, Toughness DC 27/21 vs Damage and Strength or Mobility DC (1d20+12)[24]/18 vs Trip.

Defiant Units 1 and 2 should be wholly inside the area, here's hoping they have some kind of AoE-related Complication.

[Llyarden]

Sean sprang forwards as the Defiant arrived, putting himself cleanly in the line of fire between one of the squads and Kay. The hail of exploding bullets hammered into him, as did Chloe's aura, and Kay's wave of sunlight...and he barely even flinched.

When he landed back on the ground, though, there was obviously something a little...odd...about the way he was moving. Normally he was tense and still when he wasn't actually moving or attacking - much like a cat about to spring - but now he kept twitching, looking between his allies, Kay, the Repentant and the Defiant soldiers like he'd forgotten where they were.

It wasn't the first time since his Awakening that he'd been without his supernaturally keen sense of smell (courtesy of his repeated visits to Sameera's power-nullified prison wing) but that didn't mean he was any more comfortable without it at the best of times, to say nothing of in the middle of a civilian-packed fight.

He did spare Chloe a brief glance, but didn't make any attempt to communicate - probably partly because he was trying to hold his breath - and instead leapt at the source of the foul smell in a supernaturally-fast tackle, claws slashing straight for the man's face.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move: Close with Yamato.
Standard: Rending Pounce on Yamato, all-out, power and repentant attacking for 5 apiece, and at -2 for Impaired: (1d20+8)[20]. DC29 Toughness vs Damage and DC24 Fort vs Dazed & Vulnerable / Stunned & Prone affliction.
End of Turn: Regenerates a Bruise.

Status: Impaired, Fatigued, -5 to defences, +5 to saves against Dreamer powers, deflected at 1d20+10, impending DC30 Toughness save.

[Zelphas]

Waterworks is careful not to let her tension show as Kay accidentally transports away from her. "It's all right," she says soothingly, "The Heroes of Millaine are here." She winces as her team attacks the poor girl. "I'm sorry about this; we'll make sure you're--"

The sudden presence of the overwhelming stench was easy to ignore; Waterworks simply stops breathing. She watches the rest of the attack from the Defiant and Repentant upon a helpless, innocent young woman, before the flash of the sun's light obscures everything...

Revealing a glittering, translucent swirl of water where Waterworks was standing a moment before when it fades. Lashing swirls of water jet out towards Yamato, seeking to simply envelop the putrid mass before ejecting it in a blast towards the floating red-haired woman. Almost in the same moment, a multitude of watery tendrils stream silently over the form of Kay and pound into the woman with a white-gold aura, looking to snap her up as well and throw her into the man who deadened emotions.

Waterworks is angry. So angry that she is beyond words, beyond human speech. However, she is not the Maelstrom.

Yet.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move Action: Nope.

Free Action: Switch to Maelstrom Fling.

Standard Action: Maelstrom Fling on Yamato, All-Out Attacking for 5, Power Attacking for 3. (1d20+12)[22] Crit on 17+. On a hit, Toughness DC 30, Strength or Flight DC 25 vs. being thrown into Stella. To hit Stella: (1d20+12)[13] On a hit, Damage DC 30.

Extra Effort: Maelstrom Fling on Chloe, All-Out Attacking for 5, Power Attacking for 3. (1d20+12)[21] Crit on 17+. On a hit, Toughness DC 30, Strength or Flight DC 25 vs. being thrown into Gideon. To hit Gideon: (1d20+12)[13] On a hit, Damage DC 30.

Status: Fatigued next round, -5 to Active Defenses, very angry.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Round 3

Chloe managed to zip out of the way of Bastion's autoguns, the bullets missing by inches. "SCATTER!" one of the Defiant shouted as Declan raised the Stunhammer to smash it to the ground.

Not fast enough.

The Defiant tried to spread out, but it was for nought. Declan's shockwave hammered both of the units to the ground, and at least one of the Defiant wouldn't be standing back up any time soon.

Yamato managed to keep just ahead of Sean's rending claws, but he wasn't fast enough to escape Waterworks' tendrils as she...well, as she grabbed at him, but instinctively avoided actually making contact with the embodiment of pure disgust.

Chloe, on the other hand, was eminently grabbable, and while Gideon leaped aside to avoid his teammate-turned-missile, the light radiator hit the ground hard.

Maestro took ten solid minutes (elapsed time: 0.5 seconds) to stare dumbfounded at the sheer, crippling stupidity of the Defiant, and then with a huff just went ahead and chucked Xylander into Chloe. Because that's how the Heroes of Millaine rolled.

The civilians scattered...more-or-less away from the fighting. It was a kinda chaotic situation, but they did their best. Which hopefully would make them somewhat less likely to get accidentally shot. Hopefully.

The fallen Defiant helped each other quickly to their feet. "Are you stupid!? There is an uncontrolled cosmic-powered Dreamer that is going to destroy this entire campus if we don't put her down now!" one of them shouted at Declan. They scattered to present less of a cluster, still firing at Kay from all directions.

Chloe powered her aura back up, and flew back at Kay. "Please! All of you!
Get out of here NOW!" she screamed as she unleashed another blast of light, this one even more searingly intense.

Yamato picked his nose. It was...horrible.

But the energy didn't dissipate after the initial burst this time, only building up, brighter and brighter. "No! NO! Oh gods...RUN!!!"

Stella flew in, a quick attack-dive at Kay, hurling a blast of eroding rain from her hands before banking up into the sky, getting well out of Chloe's range. The clouds above darkened, and thunder rumbled within them. It was starting to become clear that the more the weather-controller used her powers, the more they would leak out into the natural weather; if she wasn't stopped quickly, a wild storm might become yet another threat to deal with!

Gideon scowled and rushed not at Kay, but at Bastion. "It you are going to insist in interfering in this conflict, you can at least do so usefully," the emotion vampire said in a haughty voice, reaching out to devour any semblance of calm from the power-armored engineer, before darting away.

Spoiler

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You know, given how much offense is focused on her, gonna post for Kay separately.

Defiant Units:
Free: Both units succeeded their off-line Mobility checks to instant stand (unit 1 with a natural 20,
if fact).
Move: Unit 1 is Dazed, the rest scatter.
Standard: Massed Armor-Piercing Shots at Kay. Bastion's forcefield absorbs any misses, so no civvy peril this round. On a hit, Toughness DC 25+Multiattack vs. Penetrating Damage. Bastion provides cover from Unit 1 (but takes the hit if they miss by 2). The other units are scattered, but I'll apply the cover bonus against their Multiattack threshold (Bastion doesn't take meaningful hits in this case).
Unit 1: (1d20+7)[16], Deflected at (1d20+11)[23] (min 25). Toughness (DC 24): (1d20+12)[18]. Deflected
Unit 2: (1d20+10)[26], Deflected at (1d20+11)[15] (min 25). Toughness: (1d20+12)[25]. Hit. Resists.
Unit 3: (1d20+10)[27], Deflected at (1d20+11)[14] (min 25). Toughness: (1d20+12)[29]. Hit. Resists.
Unit 4: (1d20+10)[26], Deflected at (1d20+11)[25] (min 25). Toughness: (1d20+12)[27]. Hit. Resists.

Yamato:
Move: Meh.
Standard: Nauseating Sight. Everyone give me Dodge DC 22 to negate, Fortitude DC 22 vs. Progressive Impaired/Stunned/Stunned+Defenseless. His allies have been around him long enough to qualify for Selective exclusion, but the civvies haven't. Figure about half of them fail both checks (counting a +10 bonus to the Dodge check since they're effectively averting their gazes) and are Stunned+Defenseless.

Chloe:
Free: Reactivate her Platform Flight.
Move: Use Aura Flight to fly into AA20.
Standard: Aura Blast. Bastion, Kay, Waterworks, Sean, and Maestro, give me Dodge DC 22 for half, Toughness DC 27/21 and 22/16 vs. Damage Linked Weaken Toughness.
Chloe's power is going out of control. She's going to trigger a much larger area attack next round, putting civilians in peril! You have one round to prevent this!

Stella:
Free: Swap to Ride the Winds.
Move: Use Ride the Winds to fly into Z19.
Standard: Attack Kay with Eroding Rain at (1d20+12)[26], Deflected at (1d20+11)[18]
(min 25). On a hit, Toughness ((1d20+15)[16]) DC 22+Multiattack vs. Secondary Effect Weaken Toughness. Applies to Kay 2 instead since Kay 1 is down. -6 Toughness
Move-by Action: 900' up. Stella has Total Visual Concealment due to storm clouds.
Stella's power is building dangerously, and will unleash a destructive storm if not stopped. You have three rounds to prevent this!

Gideon:
Move: Use Hunter's Speed to move into Z16.
Standard: Attack Bastion with Consume Calm at (1d20+12)[31], Deflected at (1d20+18)[35] (min 28). On a hit, Will DC 16 (after half immunity) vs. Cumulative, Progressive Entranced/Compelled/Controlled. Limited to forcing you to attack the nearest target with maximum offense, including lethal damage; you may ignore Entranced in any round you do so. Never had a chance
Move-by Action: Into AS20.

Kay's action to come

[Quellian-dyrae]

Bastion's forcefield held just fine against the frontal assault, but it could only do so much against a bombardment of autofire coming from all directions. Not that it particularly needed to. Kay tanked a few score of armor-piercing rounds and didn't even flinch.

Chloe's light blast was another story. Kay's manifestation of the power of the sun averted most of the harm, but she hadn't been able to fully protect herself, and the effort it took to hold the brilliant light off was clearly draining. Still, the young woman's powers protected her.

Then Stella came in, blasting her with that focused spray of rain, and Kay screamed as the dissolving power tore through her stellar shields and struck her skin like acid, dissolving hair and clothes and flesh wherever the droplets touched. If Waterworks had been making any headway at all in calming the panicked Dreamer down, it was erased.

And the thing way?

Kay wasn't just scared now.

Now, she was mad.

"LEAVE! ME! ALONE!" she screamed at, just, everyone around her, brilliant blasts of searing starlight crashing down from the heavens to blast more-or-less any threat she could see.

It was about a second too late that she noticed nearly a score of students fleeing right into one of her blasts.

Spoiler

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Kay:
Free: Reconfigure Embody the Cosmos. 5 points on Senses from Embody the Moon, 15 points on Immunity from Embody the Sun, 10 points on reach from Embody the Void, 10 points of Regeneration from Embody the Sun, 5 points on Flight from Embody the Bonds.

Move: WHATEVER.

Standard: Invoke the Stars. All Out Attack for 5, Multiattack for 4. Unloads four separate Targeted Burst Areas, DC 30 Damage on a hit. One on Stella, one on the biggest cluster of Defiant (including Declan, but he's immune to meh), one on everyone near her, one on Maestro and Yamato, which tragically includes like eighteen civilians.
Stella: (1d20+16)[32]. Toughness: (1d20+8)[21]. Bruised and Dazed
Defiant Unit 1: (1d20+16)[27]. Toughness: (1d20+8)[19]. Bruised and Staggered, two members KILLED!
Bastion: (1d20+16)[28], Deflected at (1d20+18)[35] (min 28). Deflected
Chloe: (1d20+16)[31]. Toughness: (1d20+11)[25]. Bruised
Waterworks: (1d20+16)[21], Deflected at (1d20+15)[31] (min 25). Miss
Sean: (1d20+16)[27], Deflected at (1d20+12)[16] (min 22). Hit
Maestro: (1d20+16)[23]. Toughness: (1d20+11)[17]. Incapacitated after Chloe's attack. Will check with Cap if he wants to HP.
Yamato: (1d20+16)[19]. Toughness: (1d20+11)[13]. Miss. He is very lucky.

Extra Effort - Additional Standard Action: DO IT AGAIN!
Stella: (1d20+16)[34]. Toughness: (1d20+8)[20]. Hit. Bruised and Staggered after above Bruise.
Defiant Unit 1: (1d20+16)[31]. Toughness: (1d20+8)[9]. ANNIHILATED!
Bastion: (1d20+16)[30], Deflected at (1d20+18)[26] (min 28). Hit
Chloe: (1d20+16)[22]. Toughness: (1d20+11)[25]. Miss due to Evasion 2
Waterworks: (1d20+16)[26], Deflected at (1d20+15)[16] (min 25). Hit
Sean: (1d20+16)[33], Deflected at (1d20+12)[19] (min 22). Hit
Maestro: (1d20+16)[21]. Toughness: (1d20+11)[16]. Also Incapacitated after Chloe's attack unless he rerolls
Yamato: (1d20+16)[36]. Toughness: (1d20+11)[31]. Crit. Crit resists.

Declan, if you spend both of your Interposes this round, and take the full force of both of these blasts on yourself (losing your Impervious and half immunity against them), you can take these hits for all these civilians if you wish. There's a Hero Point in it for you if you do so, as this functions as something of a Complication.

All PCs are on turn

[manwithaplan]

Bastion performed what could only be described as a slap in the direction of Gideon. The manoeuvre was lazy but firm, and somewhere between the aftermarket 'improvements' he had made and the incalculably high volume of solar energy he had absorbed, the resulting defensive field knocked the incoming strike away with little fanfair but a big shockwave.

"My scanners detect a natural disaster and civil distress. However, I am unsure which conflict you are referring to - please clarify for the Hero App, should your murder-fuelled terrorist attack be considered a conflict?"

Failing to retrain his view or his guns from Chloe as he spoke down to Gideon, Bastion made it clear that enemies could take his entire suit away from him if they hit hard enough, but they could never take away his calm.

"OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!" Sebastian winced as, between a pop-up about BootOS and an inaccurate map of the new thrusters he had installed, he watched Kay charged up another attack on the rear camera. He instinctively redirected all of his shield power to protect him from above, grimaced, and watched as...her powers ineffectually bounced off of him.

The engineer paused.

"Um...quantify energy flow to force generator?"

NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-

The Bastion's guns had not erred, pointing still directly at the radiator. He unleashed another flurry of shots before blasting off, matching altitude with the weather controller up in the sky.

"You're creating a storm. People are going to be hurt."

Spoiler

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Standard Action: Power Attack 4 Autoguns on Chloe. Attack (1d20+12)[13] for DC 28+Multiattack Damage.
Move Action: Fly up to meet Stella.

Status: Bruised, Fatigued.

[Zelphas]

Yamato's disgusting nature is nothing to Waterworks; what does water care for the filth that may one day pass through it? *Shudder* though I hope not, he's--focus!

Chloe's blast of light is powerful, but Waterworks takes it in and reflects it back out, simply redirecting the light so it pours away from her with no issue. One defiant screams about "putting down" Kay, and the weight of Waterworks' terrible attention focuses upon him. She drags it back to Chloe after a moment, mentally shaking what she still vaguely recalls as a head. No, I need to stay focused, Chloe's the bigger threat--

The blast of sunlight rolls over Waterworks, and she disappears in a cloud of hissing steam. A moment later, the steam floats up and away, revealing that Waterworks has grown... larger. Much larger.

The Maelstrom is on the field.

With an inarticulate scream of a hurricane, giant rivers of water smash their way towards Chloe, seeking to smash her down and snuff out her light.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move Action: Staggered.

Free Action: Spend a Maelstrom Success to turn into the Maelstrom as a Free Action.

Standard Action: Attack Chloe with Jet Blast, All-Out Attacking for 5, Power Attacking for 1. (1d20+14)[26] Crit on 31+. On a hit, Damage DC 30+Multiattack, Fortitude DC 25 vs. Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated.

Status: 1 Bruise (Heals), Staggered, -5 to Active Defenses this turn.

[Llyarden]

Sean took a half-step towards Chloe, but the Maelstrom got there first. He left it to it and leapt upwards instead in the direction Stella had vanished in. The first time, he came back down again and landed on the roof of one of the few still-intact buildings on the other side of the clearing. Then he leapt up again, and didn't come down.

Up in the clouds, Stella might be rather surprised when Sean suddenly cannoned out of the clouds at her, taking advantage of his opponent's flight power to cling on to her with one clawed hand. "You know, if my friend hadn't stopped Chloe just now, she'd have hurt more innocent Sleepers than she ever did before she joined the Repentant in Lastelle. And do you honestly think they'd have cared that it's their fault, not hers? They'd just use her as an example of another dangerous Dreamer."

He didn't seem to expect a response, though, because he wrapped his free arm around the weather-controller's throat.

"They're real good at seeming sympathetic to people like us, but when it comes down to it - they just want to use us and toss us aside."

As Stella slumped into unconciousness and the power that was keeping the two of them aloft faded, Sean shifted his grip on her slightly, keeping hold of the Repentant woman as they both fell back to earth and carefully setting her down in a side alley, out of immediate view - and hopefully out of range of the chaotic battle going on a couple of streets over.

"Something to think about when you wake up," he said softly - not that she could hear him.

A moment later (having taken a very deep breath before returning), he reappeared on the campus as swiftly as he'd left it, perched on the crumbling roof of a starstruck building.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Forgot to roll for the horrible-smell Complication, but I'm not doing anything that cares about it this round until I get out of range anyway.

Hero point to ignore Daze.
Move: Fly at Flight 8 after Stella.
Extra Effort: Startle Stella at (1d20+20)[27]. (If she was somehow Vulnerable because of the clouds or something hiding her from us, then not bothering with this, obviously).
Standard: Rending Pounce on Stella: (1d20+10)[12] 30. On a hit, DC29 34 Toughness vs damage, DC24 29 Fort vs Dazed & Vulnerable / Stunned & ...prone? Rerolled and crits.
EDIT: Move-by action: Back down to the ground with Stella, somewhere away from the fight.
Free: Drop Stella.
Move-by action: Back into the campus.
End of Turn: Regenerates the second half of the first Bruise and the first half of the second.

Status: 3 Bruises, Fatigued, Exhausted next round.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Battlefield awareness is fundamental in a fight, and more so if you are supposed to act a a shield for others. As such, even as he looked at the Defiant like they were a bunch of Yamatos, he noticed the fleeing civilians...and a moment later, he noticed the incoming solar flares or whatever it was that Kay was throwing around.

"Arch!"

He darted towards the group of students. The disgusting nose-picking was completely ignored.

"Damn!"

Trying to appear as threatening as he could be, he kept screaming in order to scare them and stop them in their tracks - which he manged to do barely in tiem, but at the const of any chance to dodge.

"IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTT!!!!!"

The searing beam struck, and kept going: when it finally let up, Declan was bent on one knee, fuming all over and with barely any coating left...but that started to quickly recover, and other than that he was unharmed. With the Defiant soldiers scattered about, he turned his attention on the closer individual threat - Yamato.

As he swinged the Stunhammer down, he thought he was glad he didn't have to try and hit that thing barehanded, coating or not.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move: X27 -> V27.
Standard: All-out Power Stunning Strike on Yamato at (1d20+12)[30], Toughness DC 32 vs Damage and Will DC 27 vs Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Round 4

Bastion's autoguns...jammed. Jams when firing on full auto kinda sucked. In addition to no bullets coming up, his guns and the tactical computers in his gauntlets were badly damaged.

But it was okay, because then the Maelstrom came out and everybody died.

...Okay, maybe not quite, but I mean, Chloe got smashed into the ground by a few tributaries of water. Stella got...just straight-up abducted from the clouds by Sean like he was a monster in a horror movie. Like, one moment Bastion could vaguely make her out as a somewhat darker blur in the clouds before him, and then there was a flash of movement and she was gone possibly never to be seen again. And Declan smashed Yamato to the ground with a single blow to the head from his mighty Stunhammer. Granted, that caused...some manner of fluid to spurt out and get on him and that might have been one of the great tragedies of Declan's life, but I mean, he was in therapy now so he'd probably come out of it okay long-term, or whatever.

Maestro was reeling from the blasts of energy, but his telekinetic armor had held in good stead. He lashed out telekinetically at one of the Defiant, but his vision was a bit doubled still and the strike went wide.

When no tremendous detonation of light occurred, Gideon came racing back into the fray. The Heroes of Millaine were causing way too much interference. They had to finish the target off now. So the emotional vampire took a risk. His life was meaningless, after all. He ran straight at Kay, leaping at her with both arms outstretched, aiming to grab the cosmic embodiment into a chokehold that would hopefully leave her exposed to the Defiant.

The latter fired away wildly, with utter disregard for anyone who might have been within their fields of fire - even their own allies.

Spoiler

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Gideon:
Move: Into AA18.
Standard: Attack Kay with Draining Grasp, All Out Attack for 5, Power Attack for 3, at (1d20+14)[21]. On a hit, Toughness ((1d20+10)[26]) DC 30 vs. Damage, Dodge ([(1d20+10)[13]) DC 25 vs. Grab. If Grabbed, Will ((1d20+15)[16]) DC 25 vs. Weaken Will. The Damage has a Secondary Effect if she remains Grabbed by the end of Gideon's next turn, and the Weaken is Progressive for as long as she remains Grabbed. Hit due to AoA. Bruised. Bound even though I forgot her Resiliency feature means she ignores active defense penalties for resistance checks (that's Feature 2 for those keeping score at home). -9 Will.

Defiant:
Move: A bit.
Standard: Massed Spreading Shots. Everyone in 30' of Kay (so, Kay, Gideon, Chloe, and Waterworks) gets attacked three times for DC 25+Multiattack vs. Damage, critting on 18+. This attack is not selective.
Kay: (1d20+10)[23], (1d20+10)[14], (1d20+10)[14]. Toughness: (1d20+10)[23], (1d20+10)[24], (1d20+10)[20]. Crit with full Multiattack, two normal crits, due to Bound. Since she's Defenseless, these are treated as finishing attacks with intent to kill. The first one is fatal, the other two would be Bruised and Dazed. Pending Interposes.
Gideon: (1d20+10)[12], (1d20+10)[27], (1d20+10)[30]. Toughness: (1d20+12)[23], (1d20+12)[26], (1d20+12)[22]. Miss. Hit with +5 Multiattack. Crit with +5 Multiattack. Two Bruises and Staggered.
Chloe: (1d20+5)[7], (1d20+5)[24], (1d20+5)[21]. Toughness: (1d20+9)[23], (1d20+9)[13], (1d20+9)[17]. Miss, and two crits with +5 Multiattack. Since she's Defenseless these are finishing attacks with into to kill. KILLED! unless both second attacks are Interposed.
Waterworks: (1d20+10)[29], (1d20+10)[15], (1d20+10)[25]. All hit after AoA, two with +5 Multiattack.

All PCs are on turn, I'll give Kay an action if Interposes keep her active.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Gideon caught Kay firmly, and the Defiant filled the field with bullets. If it wasn't for Declan jumping in to take some of the shots for her (and for the unconscious Chloe), even their powers wouldn't have been able to preserve them in the face of such an onslaught. However, Declan did jump in to take some of the shots. And that changed things.

Gideon's touch drained Kay of her emotional energy as well as holding her immobile. Now, that wasn't a good thing by any means. She could feel the empty numbness spreading out from her heart as her very ability to feel was sucked away by the emotional vampire. But, for a newly-Awakened Dreamer in the throes of panic at uncontrolled powers and massed assault, let's be fair. It did bring a certain amount of clarity.

Kay embraced the terrible cold calm that Gideon's touch had filled her with, fell into the silent void of Space that now lay at the center of what she was. She called upon the darkness of the void, the light of the sun and stars, the electromagnetic forces surrounding the planet. She wove them together and let them out in a shining display of colored lights in a rippling, swirling pattern. Aurora Borealis shone from her in a beguiling, entrancing pattern.

And even as it did, she reached up to lay a hand on the arm Gideon had locked around her throat, and hit him full force with the mercurial power of the Moon.

Spoiler

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Kay:
Move: Dazed.
Extra Effort - Power Stunt off of Embody the Cosmos.

Embody the Lights: Invoke the Moon Affliction gains Extra Condition (Entranced/Stunned/Stunned+Defenseless), Perception Area, Selective, Quirk 0 [These Extras and native effects resolve independent of each other].

Standard: Embody the Lights + Invoke the Moon. All enemies (for the purpose of this attack, the Heroes of Millaine do not count as enemies) who can perceive her have to roll Dodge DC 25 to negate, Will DC 25 vs. Entranced/Stunned/Stunned+Defenseless.
In addition, she attacks Gideon, Power Attacking for 5, -2 for Impaired, at (1d20+8)[12]. On a hit, Fortitude ((1d20+10)[22]) DC 35 vs. Sleep Damage, and his Will save also applies to a Cumulative DC 30 Impaired+Vulnerable/Disabled+Defenseless/Controlled+Transformed Affliction. Miss
Defiant Unit 2: Dodge: (1d20+7)[26]. Will: (1d20+10)[19]. Negates
Defiant Unit 3: Dodge: (1d20+7)[21]. Will: (1d20+10)[15]. Stunned
Defiant Unit 4: Dodge: (1d20+7)[19]. Will: (1d20+10)[21]. Entranced
Gideon: Dodge: (1d20+7)[20]. Will: (1d20+14)[32]. Resists

All PCs are on turn

[Zelphas]

Waterworks and the Maelstrom are united in thought and action, driven by a single overwhelming instinct. For perhaps the first time since it burst from the APEX stone Waterworks absorbed, the Maelstrom is not fighting primarily to destroy its enemies; destruction is what it desires, but it is a means to an end, not the end in itself.

How dare they. How dare these bits of detritus clogging the river dare to strike out against a person in her city. Fools and cowards; they see a force displaying its power, and think that since they are the first hesitant trickles of a new stream that they have the power and the right to dam it up. They stand before a forming thunderstorm, and think that by waving their sticks they can cause it to dissipate.

Kay's active, focused attack draws out a scream of fierce joy from the Maelstrom as it bends over to swat the vampiric emotion eater away like an errant fly. "GoOd, StReAmLeT," it hisses and booms, a distant hurricane making the windows shake. "sEiZe YoUr PoWeR, oR bE sEiZeD."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move Action: Staggered, Dazedx2.

Standard Action: Jet Blast on Gideon, All-Out Attacking for 5, Power Attacking for 3. (1d20+12)[17] Crit on 29+. On a hit, Damage DC 32+Multiattack, Fort DC 27 vs. Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated.

Free Action: Switch to Dessicate.

Extra Effort + HP: Dessicate on Gideon (if still up) or Defiant Group 2, All-Out Attacking for 5, Power Attacking for 3. (1d20+12)[32] 29+. Crit! On a hit, Fort DC 32/27 37/32 vs. Damage Linked Fatigued&Vulnerable/Exhausted&Defenseless. If the Damage causes at least a Bruise, Healing for the Maelstrom (1d20+14)[25] (I don't think AoA works for Healing). Degree of healing caps at degree of damage.

Status: 1 Bruise (heals), Dazed x2 (end), Staggered, -5 to Active Defenses.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Even though he didn't hate them like he did Defiant, old Declan probably wouldn't have spent limited resources gone out of his way to save the life of a Repentant - they were still dangerous terrorists, and they wanted to die, didn't they?

Well, old Declan was dead, and the new one...he still hadn't been able to feel sad when Kay vaporised an entire Defiant unit, but he did resolve to not let anyone die if he could do something about it, and so he shielded Chloe, too. And hell, it felt good.

Giving those Defiant that weren't mesmerised a look of contempt for their blue on blue (among other things - they just kept piling up!), he lunged towards a group of them - quickly shedding and regrowing his coating to get rid of the disgusting stuff that splattered on him earlier - pointed the Stunhammer forwards, and let them taste its Pulse Wave mode again.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move: Z19-> F21.
Standard: If Cone Area works as a think it works, it should catch the Defiants in G20, J17 and O15 while barely avoiding the civilians and the lone member of squad 4. Dodge DC 22 for half, Toughness DC 27/21 vs Damage and Strength of Mobility DC (1d20+12)[19]/13 vs Trip.

Recover: I can keep the roll, hopefully.

[manwithaplan]

Bastion recoiled as Sean snatched his bad guy from mid-air, and then looked down to re-assess the situation on the ground.

"Is this...is this the point-

-where you all stop playing around and actually defeat the villains?"

He smirked.

"I don't see why we can't just start at that bit."

He rocketed back down, slamming onto the ground next to some of the remaining Defiant forces.

"You are under arrest." He grasped out with his crackling fingers, the tazer energy once again seeking to course its way through a human nerve system.

Spoiler

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Move Action: Fly into H20, switch back to the Area Forcefield.
Standard: Tazer Gauntlets on Defiant 2, Power Attack 4. Attack (1d20+12)[15] for DC 22 Fortitude against Cumulative Vulnerable/Stunned/Incapacitated.

Status: Bruised, Fatigued, Guns Misfired.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Round 5

Well, yeah, the Maelstrom smacked Gideon down like an angsty mosquito. He was a dude who ate emotions and wrote bad poetry and she was a giant living tidal wave that also happened to be a living embodiment of the very concept of the pack alpha. It really wasn't much in question, is what I'm saying.

Declan's force wave knocked out the three Defiant that had been caught in it, so that was fair enough.

But the rest of this...I swear to Arch, it had to be seen to be believed.

The Defiant Bastion hit with his taser gauntlet? Yeah, he shuddered a bit as the shock went through him. But he didn't drop to the ground in a convulsive spasm. In fact, he just gave a fierce smile and leveled his gun. Evidently Defiant train for tasers.

Then Sean went running through the field, picking up Defiant and hurling them every which way, ricocheting them off one another, just a whirlwind of grabbing and throwing and pinballing that, by all reason, should have left every last one of them sprawled out on the ground. But flame-blast if the Defiant didn't respond like they had all grown up in the circus. They knew they couldn't avoid being turned into living projectiles, but they maneuvered perfectly to make do with that, even the ones who were distracted by the super-powered aurora borealis, with the sort of instinctive grace that can only come for training long hours for this exact sort of maneuver. The trick of it seemed to be, they jumped up a bit as the projectile came in, not fast enough to dodge or anything, but it got their feet off the ground, left them free-hanging and actually easier to push around. The flying ones maneuvered mid-air, so that when they connected, it was with hands and feet that would push off of each other, allowing the one who had been thrown to come to a more controlled stop and the momentum to transfer easily to the next in line while giving them just a bit of extra control over their orientation. Only one of them didn't quite manage to pull off the maneuver and got kicked in the head and knocked out; the rest of them landed on their feet and only a little bit roughed up by the handling.

Then Maestro, either as an intentional, cunningly-developed strategy or out of sheer, fed-up-with-these-people-and-possibly-the-world-they-live-in frustration, closed his mindlink to the others, opened a new one to every Defiant on the field, and he just...screamed into their heads. As if they were a pillow or something. And this is Maestro Mentallo we're talking about. I could bring up that this was the man who had psychic-dueled a giant irradiated space-brain and telepath'd so hard he had blown up an APEX dragon's head, but frankly that stuff's irrelevant compared to just how much anger and frustration the man has available to vent. A psionic scream like that should have at the very least left every last Defiant unconscious and possibly broken a few of their brains.

But here's the thing. That's before you take into collective volume of sheer, venomous, frothing, wrathful hate that nearly a score of fanatical Defiant are able to whelm together. They answered Maestro's psychic scream with one of their own. It was the scream of an angry mob on a riot. It was the scream of a crowd extolling a hateful demagogue. It was the scream of people so terrified by the way the world had changed that the only thing they could think to do was tear it all down.

And it blocked him cold. It would not be fair or right to say that Maestro's telepathic prowess was overcome by the force of will of the collected Defiant. He wasn't outmatched on the field of mental combat.

But in that moment, Maestro Mentallo was out-angered.

Now, the math at this point was clear. The Defiant simply did not have enough bullets to get through the level of defense that the Unbreakable could provide. They could not achieve their objective through force of arms. Their Repentant assistance was neutralized. This battle was over. The smart thing to do here would have been to scatter. With their deployment boots and the number of them that were still active, it was possible that at least a few of them would have been able to escape if they cut their losses and ran.

But you always have to remember, these were the Defiant. They did not have the same sort of powerful equipment and advanced tactics that SIDE or the Dreamcatchers could field. They lacked the personal power of Hero Corps and the Protectors of Paradise. They didn't have the numbers of local law enforcement and modern militaries. They did not win their fights, they did not achieve their objectives, through raw power, through force of arms.

They achieved them by doing whatever it took, no matter how risky, stupid, or outright evil it may be. They did not accept defeat. They just kept screaming into the void and firing their weapons in any direction that they thought would allow them to hurt a Dreamer.

Declan could provide a perfect defense. But he could not defend everyone.

Most of the remaining Defiant continued firing on Kay.

The rest turned their weapons on the civilians that were still staggering with nausea or retching on the ground.

Spoiler

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Defiant Unit 2:
Move: Dazed.
Standard: Attack eight random civilians with Massed Armor-Piercing Shots, All Out Attack for 1, Accurate Attack for 1, Multiattack for 8, Routining the attack roll. Toughness DC 20 vs. Penetrating Damage. Any civilian not interposed for is killed unless it gets a lucky 20. However, these are innocent bystanders - everyone may make one free Interpose attempt if desired.
End of Turn: Fortitude to remove Fatigued+Vulnerable (DC 27, -4 for lost bodies): (1d20+6)[23]. Nope

Defiant Unit 3:
Stunned.
End of Turn: Will to remove Stunned (DC 25, -2 for lost bodies): (1d20+8)[24]. Nope

Defiant Unit 4:
Move: Attempt to Startle Kay at (1d20+12)[16] vs. (1d20+4)[9]. Vulnerable
Standard: Attack Kay with Massed Armor-Piercing Shots, All Out Attack for 5. Power Attack for 5 if she's Vulnerable. (1d20+15)[24]. On a hit, Toughness ((1d20+8)[16]) DC 25/30+Multiattack vs. Damage. Bruised and Staggered

Kay's action to come

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kay hurled up another shield of starlight, but even her newly Awakened power was nearing its limits. The barrier shattered, but it slowed the bullets enough that they hit like punches rather than, well, bullets. Of course, that was like punches to an otherwise normal human college student's body, not punches to a nigh-invincible embodiment of the cosmos, so it still wasn't great, is what I'm saying.

But as if that wasn't bad enough, the pain and shock of the injury seemed to break whatever fleeting control she had gained. Adrenaline isn't an emotion, and neither is the survival instinct.

Kay began to blaze with solar power, making the prior building light of Chloe's mighty aura look like a candle by comparison. The young woman screamed as the power of the sun built up within her, an intense burning sensation that nonetheless somehow felt good. If someone didn't stop her, now, she was going to blow.

And by the looks of it, the explosion was going to take out the entire campus.

Spoiler

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Kay:
Move: Staggered.
Standard: Recover from Exhausted.
End of Turn: Recover 1 Toughness and 1 Will.

Kay is going to Power Stunt a really big area attack next round. It will pretty much wipe out the college and kill every civilian who was unable to escape. You have one round to prevent this!

All PCs are on turn

[Zelphas]

The Maelstrom growls at the Defiant as they continue to stand in the face of obvious defeat and use coward's tactics, then dismisses them from its mind. All its focus turns towards the glowing girl in front of it, and it begins to glow a soft, somehow beatific blue-green as it speaks again. "sTrEaMlEt..." is hisses slowly, its voice menacing in its calm and quiet, yet still oddly maternal, "YoU aRe BeInG cOnTrOlLeD aGaIn. Do NoT dEsTrOy PACK lAnD wItHoUt CaUsE."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move Action: Staggered.

Free Action: Swithc to Element of Life.

Standard Action: Use Element of Life on Kay. Perception range, so auto-hits; Healing: (1d20+11)[18]. The roll is rather irrelevant; it's Limited to 1 degree starting with Bruises first, and restores 11 Points of Weaken damage.

Extra Effort: Try to Intimidate Kay into controlling herself (willing to Team Check with Sean, if he's willing)(DC 25): (1d20+7)[19]

Status Fatigued (exhausted next round), Staggered (heals).

[manwithaplan]

Dashing about the field trying to take shots for the innocents getting aimed at, Bastion lost pieces of plating just as he'd lost most of his weapon power. Tactical computers out, gauntlets damaged...running out of ideas, he looked to Kay one last time as she prepared to destroy everything. The Maelstrom's words weren't working.

Letting down his defences, he turned to face her.

"You are in control, Dreamer! YOU ARE IN CONTROL! Today is the day when you set out into this world with the power to affect, to redeem. Indeed, to control. But it starts or it fails to start with what you do right now. I believe in you."

Spoiler

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Intimidation (1d20+22)[30].

[Llyarden]

"And lo and behold, the true face of the Defiant."

Sean leapt off the roof he'd landed on just a moment ago in time to take a burst of bullets to the chest before they could hit the civilians behind him. They might have been designed to pierce through armour, but they didn't pierce through the young Dreamer. They hurt him, though, but bruised and bloody though he was despite the best efforts of his healing factor, he didn't even flinch. "You don't care about dealing with 'dangerous Dreamers,'" he scoffed. "You just want people to be scared of you, to get your faces on the evening news."

Even with his injuries, he barely even seemed to move before he was suddenly standing in front of the Defiant that had tried to execute the civilians behind him, claws arcing towards the gunman's throat. "You're nothing."

Spoiler: OOC

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Sean is so done with these people lol.

Move: Dazed.
Standard: Charge D2 with Brutal Throw, Power Attacking for 3 at -2 for Exhausted and -2 for charging: (1d20+3)[18]. DC32 Toughness and DC27 Strength/whatever vs being flung around like pinballs again. The Move Object throw is purely to get around their troop immunities; I'm not even going to bother trying to hit D3 and D4 with the ranged attacks with my fabulous attack bonus of -5.
End of Turn: Regenerates a Bruise.

Status: 3 Bruises, Exhausted.

[Hyperbolic sine]

As he shielded the staggering students from the hail of bullets, Declan stared at the shooters with pure hatred. Indeed, this was the true face of the Defiant, and they deserved nothing but the most atrocious of dea-

No, we do not stoop down to their level, they only deserve one or two lifetimes of prison.

And for once, he felt that having the Stunhammer instead of DAMOCLES wasn't all that bad, because let's be honest - charging the target of your hatred and swinging a slegdehammer in their face without having to hold back was a particularly satisfying act, with the mind-scrambling effect as a nice added bonus.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move: F21 -> L21.
Standard: All-out Power Stunning Strike on D4 at (1d20+12)[21], Toughness DC 32 vs Damage and Will DC 27 vs Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated.

[manwithaplan]

Sebastian cringed as his allies' damage to the Defiants' mad rampage was significant, but not enough to end it.

"Don't do it, Bastion..."

He was all too aware of the HUD element in the corner that boldly announced [SHIELDS OFFLINE].

"I'm just on a contract, I've nearly died once already for these guys."

That day with the Haptarans. When he'd been hopeful to see how long he could go through his career without seeing anyone die. The same day he thought it was a great idea to kick right in the front door of the Regent, and instantly see himself cause his first two losses of life. Now here he was, civilians getting shot at left and right, and he gritted his teeth.

"And YOU! DEFIANT!" Bastion pointed a finger out and around the battlefield, at each and every transgressor.

"The world has changed, and it has had quite enough of your unleashed hatred. The chance in your hands is a chance to prove that you have some little commitment to your mission, that your goal is to hurt those between you and your misguided sense of safety, and not just all in your warpath! Fire on a Hero! Prove to us that your transformations into monster-men have not left you entirely senseless.

Spoiler

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Stunting an Intimidation (1d20+20)[21] to get the Defiant to focus on me instead of civilian targets.

Status: 3 Bruises, Fatigued, Exhausted next turn.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Round 6

Kay's breathing was coming faster and faster. The power of the Sun was building up within her.

"sTrEaMlEt..." is hisses slowly, its voice menacing in its calm and quiet, yet still oddly maternal, "YoU aRe BeInG cOnTrOlLeD aGaIn. Do NoT dEsTrOy PACK lAnD wItHoUt CaUsE."

She tried. With all her will she tried to force it down, to lock it within her. But it just kept growing, heartbeat after pounding heartbeat.

"You are in control, Dreamer! YOU ARE IN CONTROL!"

"I'm not..." she whispered. The truth was all too clear. Cosmic Embodiment,
is what they would her powers. But that wasn't her. The powers were the embodiment of the cosmic forces.
She was just the terrified college student they were stuck in. "Please run..."

"Today is the day when you set out into this world with the power to affect, to redeem. Indeed, to control."

She only wished she could. There had been a moment, one fleeting moment where her powers had done what she wanted, sure, but-

"But it starts or it fails to start with what you do right now."

-she didn't think she could do it again.

"I believe in you."

...But evidently, the Heroes of Millaine did.

The power was still building. She couldn't prevent that. She couldn't force it down. Every time she tried it just seemed to get stronger. But...

Maybe even if she couldn't control it, she could still affect it.

Kay stopped fighting the energy within her. Stopped trying to tamp it down. She just concentrated on an intent.

The brilliant golden glow of the sun began to change to the gentle silver of the moon...

Spoiler

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Bastion take a Hero Point for helping Kay regain control.

Meanwhile, Sean started bouncing a few Defiant off each other again. This time with even more force. It might have been a dangerous amount of force, if not properly mitigated. But the Defiant had already proven they could roll with it.

Roll with it they did. So instead of shattering every bone in their bodies, their impacts merely hurled them to the ground with enough velocity to leave them gently concussed and pleasantly senseless.

Declan charged another one and slammed him full in the face with a mind-scrambling sledgehammer. And sure, maybe it wasn't the biggest impact one could have in a battle against so many. But you know what, who cares? Everything went exactly as it was supposed to. The Defiant took a sledgehammer to the face, and was knocked immediately unconscious. Simple. Straightforward. Satisfying. The Stunhammer, delivers.

Maestro, was kinda blinking in surprise that the Defiant had tanked his raw fury. The lack of unconscious bodies had kinda stripped the venting of a certain catharsis, leaving him a bit numb. With a heavy sigh, he flew to a somewhat more central position and reached out with his will. The Defiant had proven tenacious even in the face of heroic power, but you know what? Whatever.
Whatever threat the Defiant still presented would be neutralized without their weapons. Maestro reached out with his mind to simply yank them away.

And yet...

He almost felt it coming. It was like a Pavlovian reaction. Through dint of hard experience and repeated exposure, the young genius almost had a sense for when the universe was about to take some action that should have been as easy as it was important and come up with some arbitrary reason for it not to work. And you know, sure, with his speed of though, Maestro could come up with rationale in retrospect. Exerting telekinetic force precisely against that many targets over that large an area had diminished the amount of force that could be applied against any single target to the point where it was actually possible for mortal strength to resist it. But it didn't matter. The end result was that somehow, when plying his full telekinetic power to take away all of the guns, Maestro had managed to acquire exactly none of the guns.

Which, to be fair, was a fairly moot point for about half of them, since they were still standing around staring at the Aurora Borealis.

But the other half...

Well, the other half ignored Bastion's challenge and kept shooting at Kay and the civilians. Because they were Defiant, and they went with what worked.

Spoiler

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Declan, give me Dodge DC 14 for half, Strength DC 21/15 15/12 vs. Disarm. Please don't fail because I don't know if Maestro could take it at this point...

Defiant 3:
Stunned.
End of turn: Will to throw off Stunned (DC 25, -2 for lost bodies): (1d20+8)[27]. Hey they're back!

Defiant 4:
Move: Attempt to Startle Kay at (1d20+11)[18] vs. (1d20+15)[19]. Close but no cigar
Standard: Attack with Massed Spreading Shots, centered on X:Y 23:24. After updating the map to remove the civilians who weren't nauseated and thus able to run away by this point, that puts nine civilians, the Maelstrom, Kay, and the unconscious bodies of Chloe and Yamato in the area. They attack everyone, and the attacks on the unconscious Repentant qualify as Finishing Attacks. All Out Attack for 5, Power Attack for 2, crits on 18+. On a hit, Toughness DC 26+Multiattack vs. Damage.
Civilians: Routine attack for 24. Toughness DC 31 if Interposed, auto-kill if not. Everyone does get a free bonus Interpose for civilians again. Just to note, I'm not giving everyone an HP for saving them again, but if you save at least half the group will get a floating HP. If you want to Heroic Feat additional Interposes to defend civilians or helpless targets, though, I'mma say you may do so at the cost of A) a move action for your next turn or B) a level of Fatigue if you wish, since it shouldn't be automatic but defending civilians shouldn't cost HP, it should grant it. Declan since you did that last round if you want you can retroactively recover the HP by taking a level of Fatigue.
Chloe: (1d20+14)[33]. Toughness (-2 for I totally don't remember how many Bruises she had but that sounds fair): (1d20+10)[17]. Crit. DC to Interpose is 36 if not crit immune, 31 otherwise. KILLED if not Interposed.
Yamato: (1d20+14)[19]. Toughness (Also hopefully-not-too-arbitrary -2): (1d20+10)[13]. Hit. KILLED if not Interposed.
Kay: (1d20+14)[33]. Toughness (-2 for Bruises, -3 for Weaken): (1d20+10)[11]. Crit. DC to Interpose is 33 if not crit immune, 28 otherwise. If not Interposed, she becomes incapacitated, her powers go latent, and she dies at the end of the PC turn unless the Incapacitated result gets healed beforehand.
The Maelstrom: (1d20+14)[20]. Hit

All PCs are on turn unless someone Interposes for Kay. If they do I'll post her turn tonight.

[Quellian-dyrae]

The bullets flew in, but Sean was faster than bullets and he could throw things faster than bullets and people counted as things and that, friends, is how a hail of bullets that might otherwise have killed nearly a dozen people (and maybe mildly irritated the Maelstrom) instead managed to do absolutely nothing! HUZZAH!

But that wasn't the Defiants' biggest problem.

The Defiants' biggest problem was that all that energy that Kay had been building up had to go somewhere.

But rather than a purging outpouring of consuming sunfire, the power that Kay released was a pillar of brilliant golden power surrounded by shielding silver energy that exploded into the sky like the blast of a kill sat in reverse. A heartbeat, then two, and it came crashing back down in cylindrical, hollow columns of opalescent light. The energy of the eclipse fell upon the Defiant with silent power, causing neither injury nor pain. Those caught in the sollunar spotlights would only feel a deepening lethargy, or drift gently off to harmless sleep.

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Kay:
Move: She's good.
Extra Effort - Power Stunt off of Embody the Cosmos.

Solar Eclipse: Invoke the Stars descriptor becomes [Lunar] [Solar], gains Sleep, Alternate Resistance [Will], two additional applications of Area, five additional ranks, Indirect 2 [From Above], Improved Critical 4, Affects Insubstantial 2, acquires the Tiring Flaw, and loses three ranks of Accurate.

Standard: Attack the Defiant with Solar Eclipse, All Out Attack for 5, Power Attack for 5, critting on 16+. On a hit, Will DC 40+Multiattack vs. Sleep Damage.
Defiant 3: Attack (DC 17): (1d20+10)[30]. Will (-1 for Bruise, -2 for lost bodies): (1d20+7)[25]. ...They spend a body to be immune to the crit! And then fail DC 45 by four degrees and are INCAPACITATED! anyway.
Defiant 4: Attack (DC 12): (1d20+10)[21]. Will (-1 for Bruise, -1 for lost body): (1d20+8)[25]. Hit. +2 Multiattack. INCAPACITATED!

That exertion burned off Kay's excess power. She reverts to baseline stats (PL 10, single character in combat). She also passes out from fatigue at the start of next turn.

All PCs are on turn. Battle over! Everybody take a Hero Point!

[manwithaplan]

Bastion's thrusters carried him over to Kay, where he placed a hand on the small of her back in preparation for her inevitable passing out from exhaustion. Looking upon her stressed form, he nodded.

"...Well done."

He looked to the sheer destruction that had taken place, and to the many, many unconscious bodies.

"I will call the Cleanup Crew."

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Since everybody's unconscious, and I'm planning on talking to Kay again later anyway, I'm ready to move on from this scene. But happy to stick around for anything the others want to do.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Declan let out an amazed whistle at Sean's stunt, then glared at the remaining Defiant, preparing to whack another one of them in the face: unfortunately, Kay's excess power decided to run out with a metaphorical bang and put them all to sleep before he could move.

"Tch."

Well, doing it once was still satisfactory enough. Grumbling not particularly polite things, he set out to drag all the unconscious Defiants over to one place so he could easily guard them until the authorities arrived.

[Llyarden]

Sean was quiet for a few moments after the last of the Defiant had dropped to the ground. Then, breathing a little heavily, he looked over to the others. "The Defiant don't do rapid response," he said softly. "No way they could've mobilised that quickly unless they already planned on doing something. And maybe this -" he gestured kinda vaguely to the campus-turned-battlefield "- was everyone they had, but maybe it wasn't." He paused again, and then glanced over to Maestro. "Can you read their minds, figure out if something else is gonna happen?"

[Zelphas]

The Maelstrom gives out a low rumble of approval at Kay's ownership of her power, then, for once, voluntarily subsides. The battle is over, the insects are squashed, and the new streamlet has begun to cut its course. There is no need for the Maelstrom at the moment.

Waterworks, forming out of the excess water crashing down, blinks in surprise for a moment, getting her bearings. Seeing Kay about to sway and fall, she reaches out a hand to help her.

The arcing sunlight tinges her arm a deep, rusty red.

All around her, the Maelstrom's water sinks into the ground, the grass drinking up the decidedly pink-tinged fluid with neither notice nor complaint.

Waterworks lowers her hand. "I--" abruptly, she turns towards the shattered rubble and debris in the courtyard, watery appendages rising and fastening onto the largest bits of concrete and stone as she converts them to water. This action is commonplace for anyone who has seen Waterworks after any building-damaging battle. The slight ripple in her water, the vaguely frantic way which she spears the next appendage towards the next bit of detritus, is probably not that important.

[Quellian-dyrae]

As predicted, the last Defiant had barely dropped before Kay swayed on her feet and passed out herself, her energy completely spent.

Maestro gave a kinda weary sigh at Sean's question. Telepathy wasn't actually his strongest suit. Raw psychic blasts and shields he could manage well enough through sheer will, but even just communicating with or sensing other minds was difficult without his earpiece. It wasn't calibrated for reading minds, but he spent like two and a half seconds thinking about it and said, "Yeah, give me a minute," before taking out his earpiece and tinkering with it. Precisely a minute later, he stuck it back in his ear and started going from Defiant to Defiant, setting his hand on their foreheads for a few seconds before moving on to the next.

By the time Maestro and Darla had finished up their work, SIDE and the ACC had arrived. SIDE went about securing the fallen Dreamers, while the Crew went to work helping out with the cleanup and the many terrified and/or traumatized and/or nauseous college students (and occasional professor) who were still around.

~I don't think there's anyone else. From what I'm getting, these guys were warned about this woman specifically. Somebody predicted her Awakening, and predicted that a lot of people would be killed if she wasn't stopped. The tip itself seems to have been anonymous, but does that sound like anybody we know?~ he asked rhetorically, looking at Declan.

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Gonna just say Maestro invents a Close-range Mind Reading to get the significant plot point out in the open. But did you guys want to speak with Kay and/or interrogate these guys? I can jump ahead to that with my next post, or just move on to the next adventure, whichever you prefer.

In other news everybody take three Downtime Actions.