[Masks IC] Resurrection Roundabout: Drawing Individuals

[Thanqol]

Masses are rude, lame, unmade, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not to be flattered, but to be schooled. I wish not to concede anything to them, but to tame, drill, divide, and break them up, and draw individuals out of them.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Resurrection Roundabout

A game of Masks

STARRING
PhoeKun as Errant
Raz_Fox as @Sarahphim
Eldest as Ferra
Balmas as Brainstorm

*

Angel-IKA: Hey guys! Wtf's up with the stream numbers? I've never seen them this low.
Locker: comstar
Angel-IKA: {Scrubbed}is a comstar?
Dominus: RUDE.
Angel-IKA: Oh, um, sorry
Dominus: SHE IS STREAMLEACHING FROM SARAFIM. DISGUSTING. I CANNOT BELIEVE EVEN A SUPERVILLAIN WOULD STOOP SO LOW.
Angel-IKA: Seriously {Scrubbed}
Ferraphim1tp: Comstar is a supervillain who also does the streaming celebrity thing. She creates ridiculously elaborate plots and 'escape rooms' that she sticks people into and broadcasts the results. She's also got crazy high production values because she just re-invests all of her heist loot into her show so all the fair weather fans have switched over to watching her stream instead of Sarah's now that they're fighting :/
Locker: i have both open
Ferraphim1tp: Like I say >:T
Dominus: ALSO SHE DELIBERATELY IS JAMMING SARAFIM'S CAMERAS AND LOWERING THE STREAM QUALITY. I CANNOT FORGIVE THIS.
Locker: whats the big deal
Ferraphim1tp: We need to show our support now more than ever! >:(
Locker: its a long term signal boost dnt freak out
Angel-IKA: {Scrubbed}is that thing on the stream? Like, is Comstar a tentacle monster?
Bode: What is a "tentacle monster"?
Ferraphim1tp: You should google image search it, Bode :)
Bode: Now I'm even more confused.
Angel-IKA: No! Don't!
Bode: Are there any pictures of tentacle monsters without the girls.
Angel-IKA: ><;;;;;;;;
Bode: I can't really see much of the monster itself in any of these.
Dominus: SHUT UP. FOR GOD'S SAKE, SHUT UP. IT'S A BOMB.
Angel-IKA: That's a bomb?


*

Errant! @Sarahphim!

That's apparently a bomb.

You're in a room with that thing, a set of wire cutters, maybe ten bank employees chained to the wall who are all shouting unhelpful advice - the note from Comstar says she gave each of them a single piece of the solution, but they're all freaking out, crying and yelling at each other as much as at you and you get the impression this wasn't a very healthy workplace culture.

While you're dealing with that whole situation, there are also a couple of goons wearing cutesy hello-kitty style animal masks over four-piece suits, standing outside the doorway on the other side of the room, sending the odd burst of gunfire your way. You can see one of them pulling the pin on some sort of smoke grenade that may or may not be poisonous.

Also your stream numbers are abysmal, @Sarahphim. It feels bad.

What do you do?

*

Brainstorm! Ferra!

Comstar's headed to the vault. She's left a trail of knocked out bank workers in her wake. And once you got past the public part of the bank the type of security you see has taken an ominous turn for the higher. You're both internet connected smart people and you can recognize that this is the kind of kit you place to defend something much more valuable than money. This is the kind of place where the emergency call doesn't go to the police - it goes to a mega. And not a friendly mega.

You catch a glimpse of a diamond checkered cape as the first vault door slams shut behind her. Comstar is inside and to chase after her you've got to get through a big reinforced steel bank door. This isn't, like, inner vault level security, this is just a big ol' hunk of metal - or at least, that's what it looks like. No telling what Comstar's done to spice up this part of the show.

What do you do?

[PhoeKun]

Okay then, what's wrong with this picture?

Errant fights to keep a frown off of her face while she contemplates the horrifying mass of colors and electrical signals calling itself a bomb. Thank goodness this was Comstar's, at least. That didn't make this any less dangerous, but it did at least make it fair. A puzzle with no solution wouldn't keep an audience's attention. But still, how could she have let it come to pass that the super genius and the robot who could make solid light walls wound up in the basement, while the flashy fighter half of the team got stuck in the damn escape room!? She'd been had, and she was going to get such an earful about it later back at HQ and just... ugh.

"People, please remain-- I need you to... just one at a--"

With a huffy sigh, Errant dives for the other side of the desk she'd upended to keep the gunfire at bay, grabs a stray tablet off the floor, and whips it like a discus at the guy winding up the grenade. Opening enough, Sara?

She pops back up onto her feet, ramrod straight, and turns so that her AEGIS emblem is pointed straight at the chained up employees.

"I promise," she says while one hand smooths her hair back into alignment, "We're going to get you all out of here."

[Balmas]

Brainstorm! Ferra!

Comstar's headed to the vault. She's left a trail of knocked out bank workers in her wake. And once you got past the public part of the bank the type of security you see has taken an ominous turn for the higher. You're both internet connected smart people and you can recognize that this is the kind of kit you place to defend something much more valuable than money. This is the kind of place where the emergency call doesn't go to the police - it goes to a mega. And not a friendly mega.

You catch a glimpse of a diamond checkered cape as the first vault door slams shut behind her. Comstar is inside and to chase after her you've got to get through a big reinforced steel bank door. This isn't, like, inner vault level security, this is just a big ol' hunk of metal - or at least, that's what it looks like. No telling what Comstar's done to spice up this part of the show.

What do you do?

Why'd they have to split up this way? He couldn't just be stuck in a room with no exits figuring out a bomb? No, he had to be next to... her.

No. Focus. Ferra is good. Ferra is a friend. Ferra doesn't know.

Blinking, Brainstorm stares at the door. There has to be a way through here. Comstar values the showmanship almost as much as @SARAHPHIM. Mess up the door, and they were going to be cuello-deep in megatroopers who probably thought they were Comstar's goons.

There's a camera. This is a challenge. And where there's a camera and a Comstar challenge, there's going to be an audience of puzzlers. So, Brainstorm pulls up Comstar's stream, and ViJilanteReal starts listening in on the chat.

[Raz_Fox]

“Christ nailed upside down and hung out the window to dry, people!” @SARAHPHIM is having none of this. With one hand, she summons up an attack pattern.

It hangs in the air, three targeting reticules, each one shaped like a small wheel studded with eyes. They blink a moment and then become bright, powerful beams of light tearing through the doorway, even as three more reticules blink into being, telling the intelligent observer where the next three lasers will be originating from. It’s elegant and a bit basic, TBH, but it’s a decent warmup and lets her focus on a second little display.

Stop lights blink furiously into being in front of the bank employees, drowning out Errant’s bland Mega-PR speech. “We are actual {scrubbed} heroes who do this {scrubbed} professionally, so shut up, clench those quavering virgin {scrubbed}, and take your turns or I swear by God’s actual literal toes that when we get you all out of here I will make you all take remedial kindergarten courses until you can operate as literal grown-ass adults without drooling all over yourselves, okay? Okay?” One light blinks green.

“You. Chubbs. Go.” ‘Chubbs’ is actually a perfectly fine weight and Sara is just being mean, which is going to play hell with the employee’s self-esteem later in life, probably. But she’s entitled. Some jackass has jumped on her turf, doesn’t even have proper artistry, and is leeching her followers? Christ swinging in the wind, she’s going to punch Comstar in the goddamn face when she catches up.

[Eldest]

Ferra is most comfortable when things are going wrong. It's where all her programming was directed, after all, if something is going wrong she can deal with it, or improvise a solution from a couple of dozen other ideas. In this case, the door was blocking them from perusing criminals. Criminals must be stopped, it was in the Directives hierarchy. So, with an awkward glance at Brainstorm's obvious attempt to logic out the puzzle in front of them, she lays her palm against the metal, sending out a pulsing, battering edge of solid light into the door, trying to cut it open. Unfriendly megatroopers were a problem for future Ferra. The Directives were clear on that too.

Spoiler

Show

Unleash My Powers (2d6+2)[8] Unstable or temporary in some way, then!

[Thanqol]

Angel-IKA: Good and evil. Light and dark. Paragon and renegade. I ship them so hard <3
Ferraphim1tp: >:?
Angel-IKA: I mean, they're not the 1tp obviously, but I ship them anyway.
Ferraphim1tp: :3
Bode: What do you mean they are not the one true pairing?
Ferraphim1tp: Oh jesus here we go 9_9
Bode: It's clear that they are the most compatible pairing. @Sarahphim requires a stable, balanced, cool and normal girl to offset her jarring personality. Moreover, the military discipline that Errant brings will be advantageous in both domestic administration and chore distribution which is an underappreciated factor that leads to the long term downfall of many marriages. SarahKim is clearly the one true pairing.
Ferraphim1tp: :words: :words: :words:
Dominus: NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR BORING VANILLA HOUSEWIFE SHIP.
Locker: errant isnt smart enough for sarahfim. shed get bored.
Angel-IKA: o.o;; hey, wow, things in here got really intense really suddenly, huh?

Okay then, what's wrong with this picture?

Errant fights to keep a frown off of her face while she contemplates the horrifying mass of colors and electrical signals calling itself a bomb. Thank goodness this was Comstar's, at least. That didn't make this any less dangerous, but it did at least make it fair. A puzzle with no solution wouldn't keep an audience's attention. But still, how could she have let it come to pass that the super genius and the robot who could make solid light walls wound up in the basement, while the flashy fighter half of the team got stuck in the damn escape room!? She'd been had, and she was going to get such an earful about it later back at HQ and just... ugh.

"People, please remain-- I need you to... just one at a--"

With a huffy sigh, Errant dives for the other side of the desk she'd upended to keep the gunfire at bay, grabs a stray tablet off the floor, and whips it like a discus at the guy winding up the grenade. Opening enough, Sara?

She pops back up onto her feet, ramrod straight, and turns so that her AEGIS emblem is pointed straight at the chained up employees.

"I promise," she says while one hand smooths her hair back into alignment, "We're going to get you all out of here."

Your combead crackles. It's time for everyone's favourite part of the show: mid-mission updates to your orders!

"Agent Errant. We've got confirmation that the megatroopers are closing in on the building. Get the civilians, get your team, and get out of their way. Do not, repeat, do not enter the inner part of the building - the megatroopers will not be asking questions on their way in."

“Christ nailed upside down and hung out the window to dry, people!” @SARAHPHIM is having none of this. With one hand, she summons up an attack pattern.

It hangs in the air, three targeting reticules, each one shaped like a small wheel studded with eyes. They blink a moment and then become bright, powerful beams of light tearing through the doorway, even as three more reticules blink into being, telling the intelligent observer where the next three lasers will be originating from. It’s elegant and a bit basic, TBH, but it’s a decent warmup and lets her focus on a second little display.

Stop lights blink furiously into being in front of the bank employees, drowning out Errant’s bland Mega-PR speech. “We are actual{scrubbed} heroes who do this {scrubbed} professionally, so shut up, clench those quavering virgin {scrubbed}, and take your turns or I swear by God’s actual literal toes that when we get you all out of here I will make you all take remedial kindergarten courses until you can operate as literal grown-ass adults without drooling all over yourselves, okay? Okay?” One light blinks green.

“You. Chubbs. Go.” ‘Chubbs’ is actually a perfectly fine weight and Sara is just being mean, which is going to play hell with the employee’s self-esteem later in life, probably. But she’s entitled. Some jackass has jumped on her turf, doesn’t even have proper artistry, and is leeching her followers? Christ swinging in the wind, she’s going to punch Comstar in the goddamn face when she catches up.

Chubbs breaks. He spills entirely, telling you his part of the code, and everyone else feels awkward enough about seeing their jerk manager crack under the pressure of a teenager getting in his face that the vague vestige of cohesion that they had falls apart. To cut a long story short you need to cut the wires matching their neckties in the order of their birthdays with only a second's delay between each cut. Like a messed up team building exercise where ten people need to trust each other to negotiate and execute a complex precision task. These guys totally flubbed it.

As that comes out the goons in the doorway receive instructions that it's time to step it up. One of them steps into the room wearing a smiling Aggrestuko mask and toting a flamethrower. She lights it up and starts doing that sedate flamethrower walk directly towards you, burning everything in her way as she approaches.

Why'd they have to split up this way? He couldn't just be stuck in a room with no exits figuring out a bomb? No, he had to be next to... her.

No. Focus. Ferra is good. Ferra is a friend. Ferra doesn't know.

Blinking, Brainstorm stares at the door. There has to be a way through here. Comstar values the showmanship almost as much as @SARAHPHIM. Mess up the door, and they were going to be cuello-deep in megatroopers who probably thought they were Comstar's goons.

There's a camera. This is a challenge. And where there's a camera and a Comstar challenge, there's going to be an audience of puzzlers. So, Brainstorm pulls up Comstar's stream, and ViJilanteReal starts listening in on the chat.

BloodHackerXxX: Hell yeah! This is the part I love to see! Full signal lockdown in an three block radius - she IS the machine!
DeathGun69: These chuckleheads have no idea what they're gonna get! It's gonna be a BLOODBATH
SSJ2Rick: Don't you get crazy feedback from living that much hardware all at once?
BloodHackerXxX: Yeah I tried it once and it was having a building rammed into my MIU port. It was fine as long as everything was quiet but then important stuff happened on like five different cameras at once and I got a migrane.
DeathGun69: Yeah! It's so cool that Comstar can handle all of that! This is gonna be a BLOODBATH
BloodhackerXxX: Yeah! The megatroopers are gonna show up and kill everyone! Comstar will escape in the chaos! Hell yeah!
Locker: only the ppl between them and the inner vault
DeathGun69: You've never seen the megatroopers in action! BLOODBATH
Locker: yeah i have. they're only here to protect one thign. everything else is a distraction and they dont get distracted.

Ferra is most comfortable when things are going wrong. It's where all her programming was directed, after all, if something is going wrong she can deal with it, or improvise a solution from a couple of dozen other ideas. In this case, the door was blocking them from perusing criminals. Criminals must be stopped, it was in the Directives hierarchy. So, with an awkward glance at Brainstorm's obvious attempt to logic out the puzzle in front of them, she lays her palm against the metal, sending out a pulsing, battering edge of solid light into the door, trying to cut it open. Unfriendly megatroopers were a problem for future Ferra. The Directives were clear on that too.

Spoiler

Show

Unleash My Powers [roll0] Unstable or temporary in some way, then!

Turns out that a whole lot of security is linked to a bank door being cut through. As you emerge onto the other side - in a clean, white tiled, cold blue lit laboratory environment - an alarm goes off and a second layer of doors slams shut behind you. This set then electrifies. Brainstorm won't be coming with you - at least not by that route.

Waiting for you in this room is a TAG - a Tactical Armoured Gear. It's a three meters tall robot, armed with a shotgun the size of your body, painted a vivid yellow and white. They're generally the best piece of kit a 'mundane' security force will possess - not quite on the level of a superhero like yourself, but enough to pose a threat. This one is in the colours of the BlackSun Mercenary Force - Megatroopers. From its vivid pink glowing eyes and the hastily spraypainted Comstar logo on it's chest you'd judge it's been hacked by the villain, and it's coming to get you. What do you do?

As a sidenote, this room has been specifically designed to accommodate its bulk. This is overkill security for an ordinary bank.

[Raz_Fox]

[X]: ANGRY

I mean, it’s the obvious play, right? @SARAHPHIM is seething and not in a very chipper mood right now. Some people would internalize dropping stream numbers as an internal flaw, but it would take sustained and prolonged loss for Sara to take it as a personal failing rather than more of the same {scrubbed}.

“Get the wires, idiot,” she says, as if Errant’s not naturally going to do that. It’s the dominance play, showing off for the stream, maybe even an acknowledgement that it needs to be done and Errant’s the one with hands steady enough to do it.

And they might have had a very pleasant time of it had {scrubbed} not proceeded to get real.

[Assess the Situation: 6. I intended to have @SARAHPHIM take stock and figure out how to end this fast and, possibly, how to look good doing it, which will probably be a stock question for her. This is the part in the opening episode where we establish the Problems with our teen heroes, so this tracks.]

+1 POTENTIAL!!

[Eldest]

Ferra steps into the room, readjusting from the secondary doors. Whoops. She made a note to try to avoid that particular pitfall next time, and turned to the other occupant in the room, sensors flicking over the eyes, the shotgun ("overcompensating much?" flickers across her mind), and the spraypainted Comstar logo. She raises her arm in front of her, shield flickering to life, and sets her stance. "Stand down. This is your first and only warning." When it inevitably doesn't, she springs forward, palm still flickering with the arc-bright light that cut through the door. Should work on security drones too.

Spoiler

Show

Hot robot on robot action! Directly engage a threat: (2d6+1)[8]
Let's go for take something: not sure what, but I want an advantage against Comstar, so I figure she might have some sort of connection to the drone? Plus, a decent part of where I want Ferra to start is somewhat unconcerned for her safety: one of her lessons is "I am a robot", which I will eventually upgrade to "I am a person" but not yet.

[PhoeKun]

"Uh... say again, Command?"

Ooh, good one Euna! You look super in charge right now! Can you tell me what's wrong with this picture yet?

Errant seizes the wire cutters with a speed and suddenness that is in no way at all compensating for anything because she is one hundred percent in charge of this situation and always has been, thank you very much. She doesn't even frown more than a little bit at Sara's behavior, so you can see just how on top of things she is.

"Brainstorm, Ferra, do you copy? You've got bad news coming your way, I want you out of there before it gets there. Can either of you get me schematics for this place?"

Chrome hands don't sweat. They don't slip up, either. She couldn't alter the mission like this, not just yet. Errant's arms dart out like glossy, black snakes and carefully isolate the kill-the-bomb sequence wires from the the tangled forest of kill-everybody-else ones that comprise Comstar's stupid trap. Her eyes dart back and forth between her quarry and the ties on the mafia/bankers' necks to make sure she's got the right ones.

Cutters up. First wire...

[Balmas]

BloodHackerXxX: Hell yeah! This is the part I love to see! Full signal lockdown in an three block radius - she IS the machine!
DeathGun69: These chuckleheads have no idea what they're gonna get! It's gonna be a BLOODBATH
SSJ2Rick: Don't you get crazy feedback from living that much hardware all at once?
BloodHackerXxX: Yeah I tried it once and it was having a building rammed into my MIU port. It was fine as long as everything was quiet but then important stuff happened on like five different cameras at once and I got a migrane.
DeathGun69: Yeah! It's so cool that Comstar can handle all of that! This is gonna be a BLOODBATH
BloodhackerXxX: Yeah! The megatroopers are gonna show up and kill everyone! Comstar will escape in the chaos! Hell yeah!
Locker: only the ppl between them and the inner vault
DeathGun69: You've never seen the megatroopers in action! BLOODBATH
Locker: yeah i have. they're only here to protect one thign. everything else is a distraction and they dont get distracted.

Brainstorm's plasteel fingers tick-tack a distracted staccato as he reads. "Okay, I think we have a viable plan of assault against Comstar. If we can overlo--"

Ferra is most comfortable when things are going wrong. It's where all her programming was directed, after all, if something is going wrong she can deal with it, or improvise a solution from a couple of dozen other ideas. In this case, the door was blocking them from perusing criminals. Criminals must be stopped, it was in the Directives hierarchy. So, with an awkward glance at Brainstorm's obvious attempt to logic out the puzzle in front of them, she lays her palm against the metal, sending out a pulsing, battering edge of solid light into the door, trying to cut it open. Unfriendly megatroopers were a problem for future Ferra. The Directives were clear on that too.

Spoiler

Show

Unleash My Powers [roll0] Unstable or temporary in some way, then!

Turns out that a whole lot of security is linked to a bank door being cut through. As you emerge onto the other side - in a clean, white tiled, cold blue lit laboratory environment - an alarm goes off and a second layer of doors slams shut behind you. This set then electrifies. Brainstorm won't be coming with you - at least not by that route.

"--ad… Or we can do that. That's an option."

Brainstorm draws a breath, huffs, grits his teeth, and growls, "It's not a good flippin' option, but suicide by megatrooper is always an option."

And he sprints for the hallway. He'll find a way around, but right now he doesn't want to be here, because 'here' is probably about thirty seconds from being full of 'Shoot first, shoot later, rifle through pockets for relevant answers afterwards.'

"Brainstorm, Ferra, do you copy? You've got bad news coming your way, I want you out of there before it gets there. Can either of you get me schematics for this place?"

"Negative, chief. And the reason the megatroopers are here is because Tinman thought it'd be a good idea to brute-force her way through a bank vault. We're split up. I'm seeing if I can't make my way in without getting a shotgun sundae.

"Good news is, I may have a weakness for Comstar. She's using a multicamera setup that's difficult to manage at the best of times. If you can overload that connection--splice in new cameras, flashbang the ones she has--it'll leave her with a hell of a migraine. Might even knock her out where she stands."

[Thanqol]

Angel-IKA: Hey, she, like, sees the flamethrower lady, right?
Locker: dsnt look like ti
Dominus: OF COURSE SHE DOES. SHE IS LURING HER INTO A TRAP. VERY CUNNING.
Ferraphim1tp: o.o;;
Angel-IKA: .-.
Locker: lol
Dominus: SACRIFICING AN UNDERLING TO CLOSE THE JAWS ON A TRAP. VERY CUNNING.

[X]: ANGRY

I mean, it’s the obvious play, right? @SARAHPHIM is seething and not in a very chipper mood right now. Some people would internalize dropping stream numbers as an internal flaw, but it would take sustained and prolonged loss for Sara to take it as a personal failing rather than more of the same {scrubbed}.

“Get the wires, idiot,” she says, as if Errant’s not naturally going to do that. It’s the dominance play, showing off for the stream, maybe even an acknowledgement that it needs to be done and Errant’s the one with hands steady enough to do it.

And they might have had a very pleasant time of it had {scrubbed} not proceeded to get real.

[Assess the Situation: 6. I intended to have @SARAHPHIM take stock and figure out how to end this fast and, possibly, how to look good doing it, which will probably be a stock question for her. This is the part in the opening episode where we establish the Problems with our teen heroes, so this tracks.]

+1 POTENTIAL!!

Hey, so. There's a lady with a flamethrower.

It's fair to not expect her to move that fast. Not every flamethrower lady moonlights as a circus clown, but there you go. She flips over a table, rolls across the ground, and before you can even map out a pattern she's pumped a sustained stream of liquid fire onto Errant's back.

The slightly stressed red panda mask rotates ominously to face you. Then gives a jaunty thumbs up.

"Uh... say again, Command?"

Ooh, good one Euna! You look super in charge right now! Can you tell me what's wrong with this picture yet?

Errant seizes the wire cutters with a speed and suddenness that is in no way at all compensating for anything because she is one hundred percent in charge of this situation and always has been, thank you very much. She doesn't even frown more than a little bit at Sara's behavior, so you can see just how on top of things she is.

"Brainstorm, Ferra, do you copy? You've got bad news coming your way, I want you out of there before it gets there. Can either of you get me schematics for this place?"

Chrome hands don't sweat. They don't slip up, either. She couldn't alter the mission like this, not just yet. Errant's arms dart out like glossy, black snakes and carefully isolate the kill-the-bomb sequence wires from the the tangled forest of kill-everybody-else ones that comprise Comstar's stupid trap. Her eyes dart back and forth between her quarry and the ties on the mafia/bankers' necks to make sure she's got the right ones.

Cutters up. First wire...

You're on fire.

It's uncomfortably familiar.

So, fire is hot, and it sucks. Luckily there's not really that much of you left to burn. You're taking a powerful blow to begin with. Secondly, keeping the steady-handed mechanical precision to precisely cut ten wires in perfect speed and sync while being on fire sounds like the sort of thing you'd have to have freaky cybernetic reflexes to pull off - which sounds like an unleash your powers roll.

Ferra steps into the room, readjusting from the secondary doors. Whoops. She made a note to try to avoid that particular pitfall next time, and turned to the other occupant in the room, sensors flicking over the eyes, the shotgun ("overcompensating much?" flickers across her mind), and the spraypainted Comstar logo. She raises her arm in front of her, shield flickering to life, and sets her stance. "Stand down. This is your first and only warning." When it inevitably doesn't, she springs forward, palm still flickering with the arc-bright light that cut through the door. Should work on security drones too.

Spoiler

Show

Hot robot on robot action! Directly engage a threat: [roll0]
Let's go for take something: not sure what, but I want an advantage against Comstar, so I figure she might have some sort of connection to the drone? Plus, a decent part of where I want Ferra to start is somewhat unconcerned for her safety: one of her lessons is "I am a robot", which I will eventually upgrade to "I am a person" but not yet.

This is a straight up slugfest.

It shoots you point blank on the shield. The whole room shakes. The hard light doesn't break but it also doesn't do anything for the recoil of having a cannon empty directly into your arm. Take a powerful blow.

You slug it back. Carve into its chest. it snaps its arm around to hammer blow you on the back. There's a lot of dead armour on this thing. You have to back off, endure another shot, and wind up for a second punch into its centre mass. It's a brutal, attritional battle where you take it in turns to smash each other, like watching a JRPG fight play out.

Eventually one of your punches cuts through the last layer of reinforced metal and into the delicate wafer-thin electronics that make up the TAG's artificial brain. They shatter like potato crisps. The TAG gracelessly slumps in your arms and it's the work of some heavy lifting to get it off you. But you have what you were after - a hot pink dart that had been attached to the TAG's inner armpit. It's a Repeater - an extremely expensive hacking augment for fieldwork. Throw one of these at a piece of tech and it'll run a complex hacking program for you instantly. It's pretty easy for you to change the variables to identify you as a friend rather than an enemy - just don't expect it to hold up to sustained counterhacking.

"--ad… Or we can do that. That's an option."

Brainstorm draws a breath, huffs, grits his teeth, and growls, "It's not a good flippin' option, but suicide by megatrooper is always an option."

And he sprints for the hallway. He'll find a way around, but right now he doesn't want to be here, because 'here' is probably about thirty seconds from being full of 'Shoot first, shoot later, rifle through pockets for relevant answers afterwards.'

So, you're heading back the way you came when you hear the shattering of the bank's skylight and the zwhip-thip of megatroopers rappelling down from the ceiling. There are shouts of 'Clear!' and the skittering footsteps of combat remotes entering the building. They're going to start sweeping in your direction very soon and you need an alternate way into the vault if you're going to get Ferra out. What do you do?

[Raz_Fox]

[X]: GUILTY
POTENTIAL 1

Oh {Scrubbed}and all his angels, Errant’s on fire and it’s her fault for not immediately transitioning into a web pattern to catch the vanguard advance and listening to Brainstorm yammer into her ears like she’s not even in the middle of a firefight and why does firefight have to be so literal?

Focus. Move.

This is the sort of thing that her chat, her private chat, loves: the technique, the precision, moving so fast that you’ll need to slow it down to catch the details.

Golden arrows arcing through expanding sunbursts burning neon white, filters kicking in immediately on the ChRB drone feed to avoid the kind of feedback this is going to cause Comstar, each arrow shivering with perfect accuracy through handcuffs, releasing the hapless bankers from the wall and the bomb that’s about to go off.

So that’s the hostages saved if they don’t hang around like slack-jawed morons who need their mommy to pack a lunch for them, Comstar distracted, and-

The sound of a pilot light flicking into life.

@SARAHPHIM closes her eyes.

Serves her right.

[ANGER cleared, hostages protected, exposed to danger. Rolled a 6 - but Brainstorm’s advice bumps that up to 7. Granted, the link between advice and action is tenuous, but throw me a bone here.]

[Balmas]

So, you're heading back the way you came when you hear the shattering of the bank's skylight and the zwhip-thip of megatroopers rappelling down from the ceiling. There are shouts of 'Clear!' and the skittering footsteps of combat remotes entering the building. They're going to start sweeping in your direction very soon and you need an alternate way into the vault if you're going to get Ferra out. What do you do?

Way I figure it, they know where they're going. That means they either have keys to open the bigass lock, or a way around.

So, a distraction and some hiding are in order. I plunge one hand into the little storage hold in my right thigh to pull out a bit of circuitry, a motor, and a holoprojector. A bit of fiddling later, and I gingerly send the little machine skittering on its way. It's hardly the lightshow that @SARAHPHIM can put out, but hopefully the sight of one of Comstar's goons running away from the vault will distract the megatroopers long enough for me to Spiderman up the wall and get into an unobtrusive position near the ceiling beams.

[PhoeKun]

The world is fire: Errant screams.

The deep and reassuring blue of her uniform chars black. In places, it peels away and underneath is red and raw and pain. Does it melt into her skin? Is she blistering? She does not know. The world is fire, and she screams. It's a sound that humans shouldn't be able to make. Pain mixes with fear mixes with tears. Desperate, choking, wailing: a twisted animal howl and a little girl who just wanted to go see the pretty dresses, mommy, why is this happening? Why aren't you moving?

There are wires. Are there wires? Is that right? Errant is burning, the smoke stings her eyes and it's dark, Euna can't see. She cuts at something, but if it's one of her carefully isolated wires or a cluster of the detonation triggers she has no idea. Her arms do not burn, and in the moment where the world is fire she doesn't know how to reconcile that. They move on their own, completing a soldier's job given to them by a terrified young girl. Errant is burning, the world is fire. She screams.

But.

Errant's legs do not burn, either. The soldier is not harmed; only the girl caught fire. And wasn't the girl the one who was the hero? She turns from the bomb and dives to cover Sarahphim.

[X] AFRAID
Defend - (2d6+2)[6]

[Thanqol]

Angel-IKA: o.o holy crap
Locker: ahahahhahaha
Dominus: OKAY, POINTS FOR THE SURPRISE REVEAL.
Ferraphim1tp: Aaand... the stream's down. Damn it.
Locker: just watch comstars thats where eerythings at now
Dominus: NO. STAY TUNED. I KNOW HOW COMSTAR THINKS AND THIS IS WHERE THE ACTION IS GOING TO BE.

The sound of a pilot light flicking into life.

@SARAHPHIM closes her eyes.

Serves her right.

Errant's legs do not burn, either. The soldier is not harmed; only the girl caught fire. And wasn't the girl the one who was the hero? She turns from the bomb and dives to cover Sarahphim.

You both wake up.

Your ears are ringing. Your eyes are watering. The jagged technicolour taste of pepper is thick in your mouth - some rich lunatics use that stuff as an actual spice on their food but you each feel the overwhelming taste like you've gotten a mouthful of the stuff. Elements of Rx radiation hang in the air, blue and red sparks. You remember... the pain kicks in right about now. Blows to the head, sharp and precise. A remote control? The timer got another few minutes added to it. The big bomb didn't go off but the smaller ones that went off directly into your faces certainly did.

You're in a small, cramped space. A van? Filled with computers, generators, Rx. Your cybernetics aren't working, any of them - @Sarahphim, you've got wires plugged into your hardlight array. It's so closely tied into your nervous system that moving your limbs feels like you're pushing through molasses. Errant, all four of your limbs are cabled up. All the wires lead up to a computer that someone is typing aggressively into. She's sitting next to an Aggrestuko mask and an improperly stored flamethrower.

Vibrant, neon pink eyes. That's the theme throughout - neon pink text on black on all of the computer monitors, neon pink Comstar logo spraypainted almost automatically on the inside of the van doors. She's wearing a checker pattern cape and top hat but her trademark shark-tooth grin isn't there. She's grazing absently from a giant crate of blackberries as she works - like, way too many blackberries, one person cannot eat that many blackberries. She's monitoring half a dozen screens to and fro, and there are cables linking her own cybernetics - mostly in the back of her neck - to the huge server banks crammed in all around her.

She notices you're coming to. She gives you a brief smile - like, a ridiculously huge smile by a normal person's standards, but an extremely distracted one by Comstar's. "Heyyy ladies!" she said. "I'm Comstar. Huge fan. Don't mind me, I'm just prepping you for the next part of the performance. I think you're going to love being supervillains. I mean, Sarahphim, you're like ninety percent of the way there already, I just need to change the colour settings of your light blast. Errant, we're going to have to do something about your costume. I mean, you look like an Ultramarine. I kind of want to do you up as a sexy vampire but that's probably more to do with me wanting to do everyone up like sexy vampires. I don't know, maybe a Protoman, or maybe a Black Legion look? Work with me here."

Way I figure it, they know where they're going. That means they either have keys to open the bigass lock, or a way around.

So, a distraction and some hiding are in order. I plunge one hand into the little storage hold in my right thigh to pull out a bit of circuitry, a motor, and a holoprojector. A bit of fiddling later, and I gingerly send the little machine skittering on its way. It's hardly the lightshow that @SARAHPHIM can put out, but hopefully the sight of one of Comstar's goons running away from the vault will distract the megatroopers long enough for me to Spiderman up the wall and get into an unobtrusive position near the ceiling beams.

The megagoons have wasted zero time. Normal protocol is for them to very cautiously wait for the remotes to sweep the area first and then follow up once it's clear but you've just finished programming the holoprojector by the time they start swinging around the corner. There's a swish Madagascan woman in power armour loping down the corridor on cybernetic limbs comparable to Errant's and glowing golden eyes see through everything in the corridor.

She looks at you, grins and snaps her fingers. "You're the tech, right?" she says. "Here on time for once! C'mon, you're with me! Let's go kill some bank robbers!"

[PhoeKun]

The first thing she notices is that the room tastes purple. Then the existence of right angles. A moment later, the concept of time. Immediately after that comes pain. There's the headache that could kill god, and then the creeping agony of the burns angrily hissing up and down her back. From the sound of the small moan she can now hear herself making, she fits together than she is a girl of some description. The rest follows after: bits and pieces of reality come filtering in until eventually she can recognize that there are other women inside of this room with her, and that the one wired to hell sitting next to her is in fact the legendary @Sarahphim. Which makes the other person...

Oh god damn it.

Errant's first instinct is to struggle. This accomplishes less than nothing. Not only does she not move, the total lack of sensory feedback almost sends her back into an Rx induced haze. She tries to move each arm and leg in turn with increasing panic. If they were just moving sluggishly or felt weak that would be one thing, but there's nothing. There's another scream building in her throat but she chokesit down when she notices she can still move her neck. She cranes to see, and yes. Everything is still attached, it's just... switched off. Bad memories fight their way to the surface of her mind but she beats those down too with a glance at Sara. No more weakness, Soldier. You've gotta be strong for her sake too.

Errant turns her head away from her partner and looks at Comstar. Honey-brown eyes stare defiantly into the neon pink ones across the van.

"Ha," she manages with a lopsided grin, "Caught you."

[Raz_Fox]

[X]: GUILTY
[X]: HOPELESS
POTENTIAL 1

“Mother...”

@SARAHPHIM is dangling upside down from cabling like Saint Peter the Apostle. (Or Luke the Skywalker, if you prefer.) Her ChRB drones are stacked haphazardly in one corner of the van, cabled up and glowing menacingly. Every swish, every tremor that runs through her body creates feedback that nauseates her dreadfully. This is a dire and hideously dangerous moment.

“{scrubbed}.”

Ah, there’s the @SARAHPHIM we know.

“I am going-“ She bites back a sudden wave of vertigo. Ralphing in Comstar’s van isn’t a winning proposition, even to make her pay the cleaning bills. “To. Make you eat. Your own ratty weave.”

See, here’s the thing. The cables aren’t wired into her. She’s wired into the cables. That’s the dangerous difference, and if this asshat thinks she can plug anything into Sara without some consequences, she’s got another thing coming.

[Unleash Your Powers: I got a 9. I’m gonna mark Hopeless, possibly representing damage/overload to her systems.]

Cables spark and prisms arc from the ports in her back as she intentionally creates a systems cascade through sheer willpower. @SARAHPHIM arches in agony and lets out a sound of primal hunter-gatherer fury, the war-yawp of a wounded savage. And then-

She hits the ground face-first, with a meaty thump. For a moment, there’s just sizzling, and cables swinging wildly, and whoops time to dispose of a body, too bad about that, shame her promising career ended so soon.

Then one hand tenses, and Sara shifts her weight up. Her menacing chuckle is almost murderous, and her hair is all in her face, giving her a Japanese horror vibe. She hasn’t even noticed she’s facing the wrong way. Give her a minute or two.

“Gonna. Beat your ass. ‘to next week.”

[Balmas]

The megagoons have wasted zero time. Normal protocol is for them to very cautiously wait for the remotes to sweep the area first and then follow up once it's clear but you've just finished programming the holoprojector by the time they start swinging around the corner. There's a swish Madagascan woman in power armour loping down the corridor on cybernetic limbs comparable to Errant's and glowing golden eyes see through everything in the corridor.

She looks at you, grins and snaps her fingers. "You're the tech, right?" she says. "Here on time for once! C'mon, you're with me! Let's go kill some bank robbers!"

Brainstorm briefly considers it. Yeah, he could just play it off. A gifted young tech, the first to hear the alarm and somehow beat the megatroopers here.

It'd work, but probably not for more than five minutes. However long it took for the real tech to get here.

"Cards on the table, hermana. I'm not your tech. I'm a hero working to stop a bank robber named Comstar. She's coopted bank security, and one of my teammates damaged your vault door in her haste to catch her. I'll gladly help you--I want to catch Comstar just as much as you do--but I hope you can see your way to not shooting my AI teammate full of holes."

[Eldest]

This is a straight up slugfest.

It shoots you point blank on the shield. The whole room shakes. The hard light doesn't break but it also doesn't do anything for the recoil of having a cannon empty directly into your arm. Take a powerful blow.

You slug it back. Carve into its chest. it snaps its arm around to hammer blow you on the back. There's a lot of dead armour on this thing. You have to back off, endure another shot, and wind up for a second punch into its centre mass. It's a brutal, attritional battle where you take it in turns to smash each other, like watching a JRPG fight play out.

Eventually one of your punches cuts through the last layer of reinforced metal and into the delicate wafer-thin electronics that make up the TAG's artificial brain. They shatter like potato crisps. The TAG gracelessly slumps in your arms and it's the work of some heavy lifting to get it off you. But you have what you were after - a hot pink dart that had been attached to the TAG's inner armpit. It's a Repeater - an extremely expensive hacking augment for fieldwork. Throw one of these at a piece of tech and it'll run a complex hacking program for you instantly. It's pretty easy for you to change the variables to identify you as a friend rather than an enemy - just don't expect it to hold up to sustained counterhacking.

Ferra's battered sensors get one last look at the drone, arcing light sputtering out, before something gives in her internals. That, in turn, starts a cascade, greens flickering to oranges flickering to red flickering to off in her diagnostic program. She feels something hit, but it's the floor, before she doesn't feel that anymore, and is back to the terrifying nothingness that was her life in the tank.

Gears Project 749.1 failure
restart? y/n
...
y
booting 749.2
47%
[/////-----]

Spoiler

Show

So yes, taken out, then regenerates. Intent is to leave it open if somebody else hit the restart button, and what the original version was, given this is the second iteration and she's about to enter the third. Chosing to swap an ability (lose the light projection, gain thermal control), change her appearance (going to be far more humanoid than she appeared before, with actual "hair"), and change her gender identity (instead of robot with female pronouns, actual chick), as the cost.

[Thanqol]

Bode: Stream's back up.
Angel-IKA: Oh hey awesome, I thought it was going to be - OH MY GOD
Locker: what
Angel-IKA: @Sarahphim is being tortured - OH MY GOD
Locker: what
Angel-IKA: SHE'S DEAD AAAAAAAA
Bode: I think on screen death violates the terms of service.
Ferraphim1tp: AAAAAAAAA
Angel-IKA: AAAAAAA
Locker: oh hey shes alive
Angel-IKA: OH MY GOD

Errant turns her head away from her partner and looks at Comstar. Honey-brown eyes stare defiantly into the neon pink ones across the van.

"Ha," she manages with a lopsided grin, "Caught you."

Comstar giggled into her wrist. "Heheh - oh, I love it, but seriously, feel free to save the one-liners for later. We're backstage. You'll get your chance. I was thinking we could just chat for a - oh gosh darn it, does she have no sense of pacing?"

As Sarahphim starts powering up you don't get distracted by the lights or the crackling or the horror-hair. You're watching Comstar's reactions like a hawk and in that moment you see her deepest, most reflexive instinct: she gets the shot. She doesn't arm up. She doesn't freak out. She doesn't double down on her hack or try to taze Sarahphim before she's stabilized or anything. Before any of that she makes sure that the camera is up and running and that the angle is perfect.

It's such a deep, default reaction for her, what she does where other people would be covering their eyes, that you're pretty sure she'd walk into your fist willingly if it resulted in a good action shot.

Then one hand tenses, and Sara shifts her weight up. Her menacing chuckle is almost murderous, and her hair is all in her face, giving her a Japanese horror vibe. She hasn’t even noticed she’s facing the wrong way. Give her a minute or two.

“Gonna. Beat your ass. ‘to next week.”

Comstar releases the camera, sweeps the blackberry crate safely to one side with a foot, and puts on her top hat. She flourishes, and screens come on all over the van.

Ferra lying in fragments on the floor. Brainstorm facing down an oncoming squad of Megatroopers. Unbelievably dire situations.

"So you want to make threats, hero?" says Comstar, very much using her outside voice. "Fool! You have no idea what you're up against. You have blundered into my trap! I have planned out every variable, every possibility, and you are puppets dancing upon my strings! I have you exactly where I want you! I have cornered and defeated your friends. If you value their pathetic lives then you will obey my orders - go into the bank and defeat the megatrooper squad after they open the inner bank door!"

[Comstar wants to shift your Superior down and Saviour up. Accept what she says or reject her influence]

Brainstorm briefly considers it. Yeah, he could just play it off. A gifted young tech, the first to hear the alarm and somehow beat the megatroopers here.

It'd work, but probably not for more than five minutes. However long it took for the real tech to get here.

"Cards on the table, hermana. I'm not your tech. I'm a hero working to stop a bank robber named Comstar. She's coopted bank security, and one of my teammates damaged your vault door in her haste to catch her. I'll gladly help you--I want to catch Comstar just as much as you do--but I hope you can see your way to not shooting my AI teammate full of holes."

"Ah!" she said. Her namebadge said 'Maria'. She frowned for a minute and then popped out her earbud. "The chefs are arguing," she said with a gleaming smile. "'Capture robot', they say. 'Terminate hero', they say," she made a talk-talk gesture with her left hand. "Once they finish arguing I'll probably have to fight you, and you are," she looked at you and frowned, "not dressed for fighting. Maybe you should start running, yeah?" She shifts aside to let you have a clear line at the exit.

[Maria wants to shift your Danger down and your Mundane up. Accept what she says or reject her influence]

Ferra's battered sensors get one last look at the drone, arcing light sputtering out, before something gives in her internals. That, in turn, starts a cascade, greens flickering to oranges flickering to red flickering to off in her diagnostic program. She feels something hit, but it's the floor, before she doesn't feel that anymore, and is back to the terrifying nothingness that was her life in the tank.

Gears Project 749.1 failure
restart? y/n
...
y
booting 749.2
47%
[/////-----]

Spoiler

Show

So yes, taken out, then regenerates. Intent is to leave it open if somebody else hit the restart button, and what the original version was, given this is the second iteration and she's about to enter the third. Chosing to swap an ability (lose the light projection, gain thermal control), change her appearance (going to be far more humanoid than she appeared before, with actual "hair"), and change her gender identity (instead of robot with female pronouns, actual chick), as the cost.

"I do hope you don't think less of me, leaving all this to chance," came a voice - a memory? "Honestly, I stewed for years thinking about how to create someone who could do such a dangerous job! The generalities always seemed so strong but there were always weaknesses in the specifics... there's this terrible interval between thought and reality where you have to pin everything into one place, creating something that isn't the perfect thought in your head but something that can endure in a mediocre reality. It was beyond my talents. It was much easier for me to build a dice than to come up with a natural twenty..."

The lights come back on.

[Dr. Gears wants to shift your Freak up and Mundane down. Accept what he says or reject his influence.]

[Raz_Fox]

[X]: GUILTY
1 POTENTIAL

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, puppet on a string,” @SARAHPHIM growls, using a screen as a handhold as she pulls herself up to her feet. Ferra’s wreck and ruin in glossy high definition. “But, counterpoint. That’s exactly what you want me to do, you ostentatious asshat. Run out. Leave Errant in your clutch. Clutches? Clutchii? And wreck the security so you can waltz in. So. Counter.”

@SARAHPHIM punches a knot of wires, looking for the release switches for Errant’s limbs. “I punch your face in. Then I wreck face out there. Then I watch you get sentenced on MasterJudge.” (“Five judges. Four cases. One grand prize.”)

[Oh, look, that’s a 7 on Reject Influence. I’ll take “clear Hopeless” for 400, Trebek.]

“Because it’s tough to monologue and steal views with a busted nose,” Sara says, before punching the nearest Big Red Button.

That’s the one that releases Kim, right?

[Eldest]

Gears Project 749.2 Reboot Complete
Do good out there.

[Insecure marked]

Ferra sits up as the lights come on. That, in itself, was unexpected. She runs her diagnostic, all systems normal, with power flow to her thermal fluctuation suite normal. Which is odd, because she doesn't remember having one of those. But it's working perfectly, so something to deal with later.

She stands up, metal hair flowing around her face (another perfectly working component that wasn't there before she went down), and picks up the Repeater from where it lay on the floor, tucking it away in an interior compartment. "Brainstorm, I have found a way to track Comstar. I'm coming to where you are."

[PhoeKun]

"Criminal Designation B-2664, codename: Comstar. Your list of crimes has been updated to include blatant theft of the Lady Rapier scene in the recent film Duelist in the Rose Garden. Be advised that additional acts of copyright infringement and third-rate hackery will result in additional jail time."

It's a put-down to be sure, meant to sting more because it's delivered in Cop Voice, and you do not use Cop Voice unless you are in command of the situation. I see through you. You are off balance, and I have time to play to your cameras. Come shut me up.

It's the sort of thing that, in films at least, demands a particular sort of villainy flourish. And any time that she spent smack talking Errant's lame banter, or better yet making some move to shut her up directly, was time @Sarahphim had to work with a free hand. Don't waste it, Sara.

[If you want to tell me I haven't laid the groundwork for this I feel you completely, but a Provoke roll with the dice I rescued from my garage scored an 8]

[Balmas]

"Ah!" she said. Her namebadge said 'Maria'. She frowned for a minute and then popped out her earbud. "The chefs are arguing," she said with a gleaming smile. "'Capture robot', they say. 'Terminate hero', they say," she made a talk-talk gesture with her left hand. "Once they finish arguing I'll probably have to fight you, and you are," she looked at you and frowned, "not dressed for fighting. Maybe you should start running, yeah?" She shifts aside to let you have a clear line at the exit.

[Maria wants to shift your Danger down and your Mundane up. Accept what she says or reject her influence]

Reject her influence: [8]. Marking potential by proving her wrong.

Victor draws in a hissing intake of breath. "Ay, I'm gonna get the chancla for this... Look, it's a tempting offer that you give me, but I can't let you do either. If you come in, I'm gonna have to stop you. By your leave? Running!"

And run he does--towards the bank vault.

I am so dead.

Gears Project 749.2 Reboot Complete
Do good out there.

[Insecure marked]

Ferra sits up as the lights come on. That, in itself, was unexpected. She runs her diagnostic, all systems normal, with power flow to her thermal fluctuation suite normal. Which is odd, because she doesn't remember having one of those. But it's working perfectly, so something to deal with later.

She stands up, metal hair flowing around her face (another perfectly working component that wasn't there before she went down), and picks up the Repeater from where it lay on the floor, tucking it away in an interior compartment. "Brainstorm, I have found a way to track Comstar. I'm coming to where you are."

"Oh thank {scrubbed}. Have you figured a way out of the vault? We have megatroopers on the way, and by that I mean I mouthed off to one who was trying to let me go so I could try to save you, and I'm really hoping I don't wind up regretting that in a few seconds."

[Thanqol]

Locker: ten bucks on errant
Dominus: ARE YOU SERIOUS? SARAFHIM WILL CRUSH THAT GIRL SCOUT AS EASILY AS ONE OF HER COOKIES.
Ferraphim1tp: brb hacking girl scout records to find out if Errant was a member &&
Locker: so ur on then?
Dominus: OF COURSE.
Angel-IKA: Oh my god Duelist was so cool I hope they do the lines from the movie. Please please please please do the lines.

"Criminal Designation B-2664, codename: Comstar. Your list of crimes has been updated to include blatant theft of the Lady Rapier scene in the recent film Duelist in the Rose Garden. Be advised that additional acts of copyright infringement and third-rate hackery will result in additional jail time."

It's a put-down to be sure, meant to sting more because it's delivered in Cop Voice, and you do not use Cop Voice unless you are in command of the situation. I see through you. You are off balance, and I have time to play to your cameras. Come shut me up.

It's the sort of thing that, in films at least, demands a particular sort of villainy flourish. And any time that she spent smack talking Errant's lame banter, or better yet making some move to shut her up directly, was time @Sarahphim had to work with a free hand. Don't waste it, Sara.

[If you want to tell me I haven't laid the groundwork for this I feel you completely, but a Provoke roll with the dice I rescued from my garage scored an 8]

"Steal the scene...?" Comstar rocked back on her heels as if struck, and then bounced back with a grin and unnecessarily dramatic over-flourish. "I'LL STEAL THE WHOLE SHOW! Come then, Maid Elvia! The curse compels you! It is time for you to fight your best friend, and as your blades cross at my will then perhaps you will realize what it means to be a puppet! Hahahaha!"

[She's overreacting. Take Influence on Comstar. Remember that you take +1 ongoing to any roll against someone you've got Influence over]

Your cybernetic limbs come online, flaring bright pink through the signal lights. They operate without your consent, bringing your body around in an awkward but mighty blow towards Sarahphim.

[Oh, look, that’s a 7 on Reject Influence. I’ll take “clear Hopeless” for 400, Trebek.]

“Because it’s tough to monologue and steal views with a busted nose,” Sara says, before punching the nearest Big Red Button.

That’s the one that releases Kim, right?

Unfortunately this van was not designed by a supervillain, and the big red button simply opens the access port to a fire extinguisher. You don't have time to do anything else - Errant's coming at you fast and hard. Comstar's keeping her between the two of you. There's also a jolt and shake as the van begins moving - and then starts crashing into things.

Gears Project 749.2 Reboot Complete
Do good out there.

[Insecure marked]

Ferra sits up as the lights come on. That, in itself, was unexpected. She runs her diagnostic, all systems normal, with power flow to her thermal fluctuation suite normal. Which is odd, because she doesn't remember having one of those. But it's working perfectly, so something to deal with later.

She stands up, metal hair flowing around her face (another perfectly working component that wasn't there before she went down), and picks up the Repeater from where it lay on the floor, tucking it away in an interior compartment. "Brainstorm, I have found a way to track Comstar. I'm coming to where you are."

Reject her influence: [8]. Marking potential by proving her wrong.

Victor draws in a hissing intake of breath. "Ay, I'm gonna get the chancla for this... Look, it's a tempting offer that you give me, but I can't let you do either. If you come in, I'm gonna have to stop you. By your leave? Running!"

And run he does--towards the bank vault.

I am so dead.

Brainstorm and Ferra, you meet up by the outer vault door. It's still sealed by the electric barrier triggered - not an insurmountable obstacle, but it does put Brainstorm in a dead end facing a squad of onrushing Megatroopers. You need to get through this barrier really fast and fight a rearguard action against corporate goons with guns. What do you do?

[Raz_Fox]

[X]: GUILTY
[X]: INSECURE
POTENTIAL 1

@SARAHPHIM lights up. Dragons, writhing and serpentine, unfurl from the empty air, forming a lotus blossom with their bodies. Their pearlescent foreheads glow with neon glory as they begin to shoot bullets around the confined space. She waves with one hand while preening for the camera with the other, pushing her hair back up out of her face and showing off that, yeah, she’s still smoking hot. Literally. Parts of her back still have smoke coming off them.

“Can’t even fight yourself,” she says, nasty, as a pink-lit limb careens through the space where her head was. Spears of light pierce screens and wires as she gives way with a strut. “Trust me. When I come for you? I’m just gonna use my fist to split your dirty little lips open, chica. No lasers, no cheating, no nothing.”

[Directly Engaging a Threat using Stage Fighting, marking Insecure because, well, she’s deliberately trying to out-do Comstar on camera and that’s a fragile thing. Rolled a 9 - so I’ll create an opportunity for Errant. Instead of avoiding blows. This is gonna hurt.]

[PhoeKun]

Errant's eyes betray her surprise for half a second as her limbs flicker back to life. The normally gold light inlays give way to Comstar's neon pink, and she involuntarily stands and faces @Sarahphim.

Ah, right. Hacker. Ok then lady, if that's how you want it...

Errant lowers her head and her hair falls forward to cast a dramatic shadow over her face as her arms lift themselves into a default combat ready position.

"Oh Princess, please forgive me."

Then comes the right cross directly into the space Sara's head occupied just an instant before. She steps into the blow, pivots, and sends a knife hand and a flurry of snap kicks to harry the proper heroine of this scene. Her axe kick misses by a whisper, and puts a massive dent in the floor of the van. Attack after attack chain smoothly together in flashes of bright pink light that mix and swirl among @Saraphim's bullet curtain, and the entire van is lit up in neon like a digital aurora. And then, finally, she cuts across Sarahphim's threat with a vicious backhand directly across the cheek. Errant's head dips again.

"My princess, you must endure this a while longer..."

She's certainly dropped Cop Voice quickly. This isn't even after-hours Euna voice, it's too weird, too... silky. But she is, you must admit, damn near nailing her Elvia impression.

"Just know..."

Her legs flash gold.

"That love..."

She pivots on the ball of her foot and delivers a picture perfect rising knee to Comstar's solar plexus. A properly motivated villain could easily fix the hack and turn this into the lightest of taps, but Errant knows better. The shot is too good. It connects, hard, and sends Comstar staggering back into a row of monitors.

"Is stronger than any curse!"

She plants her foot firmly on the ground and taunts with her left hand. All four limbs flicker between gold and pink.

[Errant is spending 1 hold to stun Comstar, using the opening created by @Saraphim's attack. 1 hold remaining]

Spoiler: MEANWHILE, ON THE INTERNET

Show

Welcome to the Girl Scouts of Neo Halcyon Database!

Name: Euna Kim
Age: 16
Age at join date: 7
Membership Status: Active
Rank: Senior
Notable Badges: Digital Movie Maker, Comic Artist, Cross Training, Screenwriter, Special Agent
Awards: Gold Award, Gold/Silver Torch, Bronze Cross x3

Notes from Troop Leader Joanna: Watching Ms. Kim grow up has been an absolute pleasure. She's bright and eager to set an example, though she has difficulty connecting with the other girls, particularly after her accident. Sadly, we haven't seen her at many troop activities lately. All that work as an AEGIS officer must really take a toll, we'll just have to content ourselves with her speech at the next national assembly. Until then, Troop 206 is so proud of our little Eunacorn!

[Thanqol]

Bode: Boom! Now who's the vanilla housewife ship?
Angel-IKA: *swoons* so coooooool *swoons*
Locker: pay up
Dominus: DAMN IT. FINE.
Locker: ty
Dominus: HOW DID YOU KNOW?
Locker: uh its obvious
Dominus: EXPLAIN YOURSELF, WORM.
Locker: sarah always does this. she talks big but shes insecure or something idk and just sets up for other people to actually land the punches
Ferraphim1tp: Hey guys I'm back did you know that Errant's childhood nickname was 'Eunacorn'?
Angel-IKA: That's it, I'm declaring Errant official best pony.

“Can’t even fight yourself,” she says, nasty, as a pink-lit limb careens through the space where her head was. Spears of light pierce screens and wires as she gives way with a strut. “Trust me. When I come for you? I’m just gonna use my fist to split your dirty little lips open, chica. No lasers, no cheating, no nothing.”

She pivots on the ball of her foot and delivers a picture perfect rising knee to Comstar's solar plexus. A properly motivated villain could easily fix the hack and turn this into the lightest of taps, but Errant knows better. The shot is too good. It connects, hard, and sends Comstar staggering back into a row of monitors.

"Is stronger than any curse!"

Comstar crashed through the monitors. The shattering of glass, electronics, and hardware is an inherently satisfying melody. The entire wall comes down, revealing the front window of the moving van you're in - there's no driver and the vehicle's doing an unpleasantly fast speed given that fact.

For a moment you hear Comstar groan from under the pile of crushed hardware. And then, she bursts up and through it and gets to her feet! Well, sort of. She shoves a server off her with a triumphant 'ha!' - but realizes quickly that she's still got three or for more heavy things she has to shove off her before she can get up. She gets there eventually, fighting off tangles of wires and swearing and generally coming across as super-unglamourous throughout the entire process. You can tell how much she's feeling the humiliation of being upstaged on her own broadcast - in addition to the shallow breathing and nursing of a sore stomach from where she's been kicked, her cheeks are glowing an embarrassed red.

[Marking Insecure]

Finally, though, she manages to clear her way to standing on her feet, shakes her head - and suddenly the van starts accelerating. You're thrown off your feet as it goes diagonal up the stairs and then crashes dramatically through the front window of the bank. As it picks up speed - smashing through doors, cubicles, sofas, etc - combat remotes, glowing neon pink, start to leap onto the moving van, clinging to the edges like spiders. Some start ripping holes in the side so they can aim electric pulses or shotguns into the enclosed space of the van, and as the vehicle keeps moving it just keeps picking up more remotes.

Comstar flips her way over through the pile of destroyed electronics so she's standing on the driver's seat, facing backwards, putting a big heap of ruined crap between her and the threat of further violence.

"Very entertaining," she croaks, still a little winded from the kick, "but - *cough* - merely having a heart full of love will not be enough to stop me! Destroy them, my puppets!"

[PhoeKun]

Exhilaration! Command has always been extremely clear that battles are not meant to be fun, but this time (this time only!) they're wrong. The creativity! The cinematography! For once, her dumb nerd hobby overlapped perfectly with the mission parameters, and it just... is this what it feels like to be Sara? It's nice.

And then, in the moment she allows herself to smile, the van blows through the bank front and she's on her ass. Whoops. Eyes on the mission, Soldier.

She rolls backwards, finds the back of the van, and springs forward back into the fight. If Comstar thought a pile of smashed up computer stuff made a good line of defense, who was she to argue? Errant lunges and unleashes a series of exaggerated sweeping punches that knock the remains of servers, monitors, and what have you into the air to form a temporary scrap shield to guard @Sarahphim from the first barrage of the combat remotes. It's a bit crude maybe, but effective.

"You can't defeat me with puppet strings." She taunts, recovering her game face.

[If I'm right and my Influence adds to Defend rolls, then Errant scores a 10 protecting @Sarahphim. If not, it's a 9, and Errant is exposed. Either way, she clears the AFRAID condition]

[Balmas]

Any fan of bullet hell shooters--or, perhaps, someone who watches @SARAHPHIM streams--knows that it's usually not about your reflexes. No human being can accurately account for hundreds of projectiles and react to them in real time. Instead, it's usually about patterns, memorization, knowing about the one pocket of screenspace where you can stand unscathed by the chaos around you.

That's Brainstorm fighting style in a nutshell. No big hammer blows, no electric light shows, none of the flashiness that the stream adores. Just prediction, economy of motion, and the quiet sh-sh-shifting of mutable cybernetics. Sidestep the shotgun blast--so obvious--while placing a hand on the goon's wrist. Disconnect the hand, let it start to crawl towards the trigger mechanism and work some interference, and drop to the knees to avoid the shred of fire from the combat remote. Zip between Maria's legs on newly-smooth limbs, taking the opportunity to strike out at the hamstrings, knock her off balance.

It's stalling, it's delaying--it's ultimately probably ineffective. But it'll work until he can figure a way to let the heavy hitter out of the box.