Masks: the Ties that Bind (Issue 1: Bound by Fate)

[Ramsus]

Smoke nods and takes the granted excuse to not allow the suits to respond to her. She floats up after Tunweya and makes a solid smoke half pipe slide on an area of the structure on the far side from Tunweya's ropes going to the ground.

---

Defend: 10
I'll clear Guilty.

[Sahe]

Firefly
Potential: 0/0
Conditions: None
Influence on: Solar Girl, Smoke, Wild Card, Tunweya
Gadgets: 1
Cosmic Insights: 1 (spend for +1 to Assess/Pierce/Unleash)

Laura nodded and had Riley project the current location of the incoming enemies as well as the smaller ones onto her hud. "Keep them tracked Riles and give me an intercept course."

She was about to turn to the team when THE SOLAR of all people appeared with all the subtlety of a Super Nova, berating his daughter with an overbearing voice that despite the Firefly's automatic audio filters still seemed to drown out everything in her head. Was she glad that Athi (isn't that a cute name? Focus Laura) didn't use it. However the distressed beeping of the incoming enemies actually managed to quickly bring her back. Solar Girl would have to deal with her dad for now on her own. Not that she knew if she could even do something there. She'd rather stay out of family business.

Instead, she opened that com-channel, "Not to interrupt you gals and guy...good job on getting those workers out btw...we have two more incoming and two smaller ones nearby. Get them all out, I'll run interference."

And with that Firefly took off towards the two new challengers on the intercept course Riley had plotted for her.

"Riley...give me a visual and analysis"

_________________________________
Rolling to Assess:
(2d6+2)[4]

[truemane]

Tunweya and Smoke busy themselves with the mechanics of leading the remainder of the workers from the swaying structure to the ground. The soldier-types mill about on the ground, keeping the workers milled into a single group, telling everyone to hang on, stay put, stay patient, that ambulances were on their way, that everyone had the rest of the week off with pay, that they would all be taken care of.

Meanwhile, the CEO seemed completely overwhelmed at the arrival of Solar. His face turned red and he started stammering and stuttering.

I KNOW NO DR.TEMPER-TANTRUM, Solar said, without a trace of irony, BUT THIS... SOMETHING ABOUT THIS SMELLS OF ATHI'S WORK. A pause. ATHI... OR...

And he looks up...

Firefly is in the air, tracking the drones. Riley shows her the two smaller ones, basically sensory equipment attached to articulating rotors, flitting about along the periphery, pointing here and there, lights blinking and flickering.

The two on their way, however.

"One of them is a tactical bot," he says his voice maddeningly calm, "Heavy armour, heavy weapons, basically two legs, over jets and guns. The other is humanoid. Realistic facial features. Realistic voice. Meant to be remote-controlled by diplomatic envoys in hostile territory."

[Eldest]

Wildcard lets out a long, put out sigh and leans against the wall frowning at the drones. "Hi dad."

[davyjones]

Tunweya thanks a nearby guard for looking after the workers, and slowly begins to make his way back to the others.

Wildcard lets out a long, put out sigh and leans against the wall frowning at the drones. "Hi dad."

"Wait. What?"

Stopping in mid-stride, Tunweya starts scanning the area for the Patriarch; sighting Firefly hovering above, he follows her line of sight to the glint of a couple incoming aerials. His eyes grow wide.

"Oh, boy. Wildcard, are we in for another fight?"

[Eldest]

"Iunno." She shrugs, staring the drone down as it approaches. "Up to him really." She's still, except for her hand, which keeps clenching into a fist, before deliberately loosening back up, with the cycle starting back up again every few moments.

[Ramsus]

Smoke drifts over after having safely delivered the last of the civilians.

"What's this about another fight? Solar is right here. Oh... though I guess if he's anything like his daughter I could see how we might have to do all the work anyway." Underneath her annoyance is a good amount of trepidation.

Spoiler

Show

If anyone wants to say their character is especially perceptive or make a roll for it, they'd note that what she's uncomfortable about is being so close to Solar rather than the possibility of another fight. (Of course she did miss who the other fight would potentially be with which might change things there.)

[Thanqol]

Smoke drifts over after having safely delivered the last of the civilians.

"What's this about another fight? Solar is right here. Oh... though I guess if he's anything like his daughter I could see how we might have to do all the work anyway." Underneath her annoyance is a good amount of trepidation.

"Fighting villains is good for your self confidence!" said Solar Girl with a bright smile that let you know that she's genuinely happy to have done you this favour. "Don't worry, I would have stepped in if you were actually in trouble."

[truemane]

SOLAR GIRL
Solar shakes his head as though to clear it. Still floating just enough off the ground that everyone else has to look up at him, his gaze finds Solar Girl.

Ras,'i, he says, his voice lower now, more thoughtful but no less stern and serious, You will come with me. Right now. I must speak with Athi and you will be there with me when I do.

WILDCARD
The 'realistic' drone comes down to the ground. There is a flicker of light and shadow and a vague hologram imposes itself over the realistic, but basic features. It is the Patriarch, his patrician cheekbones and noble bearing partly obscured by the mask he always wore 'at work.'

The simulacrum walked over to Wildcard and stopped.

"This is enough!" somehow her father's annoyance was almost perfectly communicated by the electronic voice, "I've had it with this little rebellious charade of yours, Wildcard," he invested her nome de guerre with a shocking amount of scorn, "I forbid you from associating with these children. Come home. This is over. Now."

TUNWEYA AND SMOKE
Just behind them, as Solar and Patriarch both start trying to rope in their unruly children, the soldiers and the two executives surround the remaining workers. The one that had mutated is put in some kind of high-tech manacles and carried away by two soldiers.

They hear the CEO say to the chief soldier, "It looks like these kids are taken care of. Stun the rest of them. The truck will here in a moment to take them away."

FIREFLY
The remaining drone zeroes in on Firely and starts toward it on an intercept course. As it approaches, dozens of small hatches open up all across its surface and a massive cloud of small particles streams out from them toward her.

Nanotech, Riley says. And it's all he has time for before as they race toward her.

[Eldest]

Sam takes a breath. More, and he'd think she's waffling. Don't take one, and she'd say something she'd regret. It was a lesson she'd learned in the past, over years.

"Dad. I am your daughter, yes. I am also a person. I am not" she reaches out and jabs the drone in the chest, hard. "one of your drones. You cannot order me around. Your house is not my home. And these "children" are my friends. So no. Back off."

[davyjones]

TUNWEYA AND SMOKE
Just behind them, as Solar and Patriarch both start trying to rope in their unruly children, the soldiers and the two executives surround the remaining workers. The one that had mutated is put in some kind of high-tech manacles and carried away by two soldiers.

They hear the CEO say to the chief soldier, "It looks like these kids are taken care of. Stun the rest of them. The truck will here in a moment to take them away."

As soon as the guards start surrounding the workers, Tunweya pulls out his cell phone and records video. To the suit's instructions he responds, "Excuse me; you and your men need to back off and let first responders come take a look at these folks. I doubt the public and the authorities wouldn't look kindly on multiple counts of attempted kidnapping. And, so you can't take my phone..."

He disappears from view, invisibly and quietly padding several steps over to the CEO, where he has a good shot of both the suits and his goons.

Spoiler: Provoke Someone

Show

OOC: Provoking the guards into backing off. Result: 5. Potential!

[Thanqol]

SOLAR GIRL
Solar shakes his head as though to clear it. Still floating just enough off the ground that everyone else has to look up at him, his gaze finds Solar Girl.

Ras,'i, he says, his voice lower now, more thoughtful but no less stern and serious, You will come with me. Right now. I must speak with Athi and you will be there with me when I do.

Solar Girl looked over at Wildcard, red faced and angry and defiant. She looked for just a moment, and then turned back to Solar. "Yes, Solar," she said mildly. She lifted off the ground, ready to come with him, without as much as a goodbye to the team.

[Ramsus]

Smoke looks at basically everyone in this whole situation with incredulity. Patriarch sending drones to attack his kid's teammates while Solar is also right there. Suits kidnapping people in broad daylight after they've just been rescued when there surely must be dozens of cameras and witnesses on them given how loud this scene got. The workers just letting themselves be kidnapped right after being rescued. Her teammates prioritizing conversations with overbearing parents over action. Solar just floating there uselessly like his daughter did for so much of the prior fight, blithely ignoring people being kidnapped right in front of him.

She just wanted to scream at all of them about how stupid they all were and then leave. She strongly considers doing just that. But no, she doesn't want any of them later accusing her of not taking action when it was needed.

So instead she just elects to yell at a more narrowly selected group. She shields her eyes as she looks at Solar and Solar Girl and shouts at them, "Really!? You're really so involved with your family drama that both of you useless glow balls are going to ignore the people being kidnapped right in front of your noses!? Is this the kind of 'heroic behavior' I'm supposed to be learning?"
While "useless glow balls" isn't exactly harsh language, she injects as much venom into her tone as she can muster while being pretty terrified of one of them being distracted enough by their drama that they might just lash out at her in response and do something crazy like cut her in half with a stream of plasma.

---

Provoking Solar and Solar Girl to do something about the kidnapping: 10
Wow, I was expecting that to go terribly. Glad it didn't, making Solar actually mad at Smoke would suck.