Defenders of the District (MSH) IC

[Phantom Genius]

OOC link: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...rict-(MSH)-OOC

Fury and Bug should actually start their conversation here.

[BananaPhone]

Lisa had taken a quick shower and had managed to comb her hair and changed into a pair of casual-dress jeans and shirt, her chestnut hair drawn over one side and groomed neatly. On the whole she thought she had done a pretty good job, as hope swelled within her that Mr Movie-Star looks would take her up on her offer.

What she was not expecting was a rapping upon her door. Curious, bottom lip jutted forward in surprise, she composed herself and moved to the front door, checking through the peep-hole and, if safe, opening the portal.

[CardTrick]

Mildly swaying from side-to-side as he waits outside Lisa door, Deacon considers simulating a text message to further announce himself but his stomach distracts him with a rumble, not-so-subtly reminding him that the everything bagel he'd snagged this morning was no longer doing the trick. Hopefully the river monster or whatever it was wouldn't take up too much time.

When the door then opens and it is fairly obvious that Lisa had only just put herself together for something that probably didn't involve tussling in poluted river water, Deacon's facial features immediately scrunch into an sorely apologetic expression, "Yeah... umm... there's a thing, down at the river."

[BananaPhone]

Lisa/Fury

Lisa already had a sinking feeling in her chest when she saw his fish-eye-lens image in the peephole of her door. Closing her eyes and sighing, she told herself maybe the kid just wanted to run something by her or...something else innocent. Surely he wasn't going to be the grim reaper of her social life...

Opening the door, offering a pleasant smile, "Hey Deacon! What's up?" she asked.

Then she found out what was indeed, up.

Immediately her shoulders shrunk a little.

"Excuse me, sugar..." she uttered, closing the door for a second. The door, with its heavy wooden and nicely decorated frame was sound-proof enough so that the ensuing "Son. Of. A. Bitch! Why now?!" was muffled to barely audible levels.

A moment later, the door opened once more and Lisa stood there smiling, nodding. "Right, yes, the river! Let's go! I'll just quickly make a stop first, I promise just ten seconds!" she assured.

If the kid allowed her to indulge this seeming whim, as the pair were departing her apartment complex Lisa dashed across the street to the Cinnabon's, bought one of the delicious pastry treats and attached her phone number and a sorry note to it, described the man to the cashier and asked that she had it over to him.

With that minute-long distraction done, Lisa would hurry back, nodding, "Yup! Totally, let's go!"

[Phantom Genius]

Tomorrow's Headline: Three Killed as So-Called "Hero" Stops to Flirt. Could They Have Been Saved?

I'm kidding. The Post is only occasionally that brutal. I'm waiting to see if Bug grabs some food also before he Carrier Waves them to the crime scene in progress. Also, how far away from the water's edge do you land? Lisa can certainly say "closer" or "not so close!" Something is definitely forming at the water's edge and firing globs of polluted water at the onlookers.

[CardTrick]

Still getting used to the dynamics of being on an grown up superteam, Deacon shrugs, not wanting to rock the proverbial boat, "Uhh... sure, I guess. "

As Lisa was apparently indulging in a sweet tooth emergency of some kind, Deacon takes the moment to 'suit up' in the alley around the corner from the eatery, giving his teammate a thumbs up when they eventually come back and he can fly them off to the river.

*Deacon is an undergrad college student dealing with D.C. cost of living, his eventual next meal will probably be either sitting in on a campus group gathering for some free sandwiches or pizza (also 100% how he got his everything bagel this morning), or getting whatever his meal plan happens to cover*

[BananaPhone]

Lisa/Fury

Jogging up to 'Bug' in the alley way, seeing he had 'suited up', so to speak, Lisa nodded and held her arms out. She grabbed the kid around the shoulders from behind, latching onto him and pointing up to the sky.

"Hi-ho Silver - awaaay!"

[Phantom Genius]

The kid behind the counter looks at Lisa and then the phone number and starts to get the wrong idea, but then registers her request. "Oh, uh, I guess. You uh don't seem the type to eat big gobs of carbs." Lisa finds that to be some of the most awkward and pitiful flirting she's ever heard, but she thinks there's a 50/50 chance that he might do as she asked.

The flight to the river is quick and almost thrilling (especially if Lisa has never ridden the Carrier Wave before.) How far away from the water do you land and how much time does Lisa need to become Fury?

[BananaPhone]

Lisa/Fury

Lisa would be lying if she said she didn't have a fantastic time literally flying across town.

"Woohoo!" she laughed and grinned, the wind billowing her dark hair out behind her as she gripped around Bugs shoulders/collar with one arm.

"Yeeee-haww!!"

Where they landed though was up to the kid, as he was the one flying. Lisa pointed out some spots that where near the frothing river, but it was ultimately his decision.

[CardTrick]

Deacon doesn't comment about Lisa's apparent first flight excitement, as it wasn't that uncommon a response. Though he does kind of hope he's staying high enough that the gleeful implications of him being some kind of pony are not reaching anyone's ears.

Once the pair reaches the distrubance in the river, Deacon circles over an area closer to the ground by the river and noting Arcane wasn't anywhere in sight activates his predictive powers, "You can hop off wherever you want, I'm going to stay up here and get out over the water; give whatever this thing is a target away from people.", briefly calling back over his shoulder as he glides off, "Oh and, just so you know... you uh... don't actually need to hold on... so long as you stay inside the umm... shimmery bit you're fine."

*Guess he'll activate Danger Sense too.*

[BananaPhone]

Lisa/Fury


When Lisa touched down on the pavement, she gently took her shoes off and put them aside and out of sight. Those things were expensive. The clothes she could replace easily enough, but the shoes? No no no.

Drawing her shirt off, revealing the black, hex-patterned form-hugging suit beneath, she kept her eyes scanning the area before she moved over to the river, trying to spot the concentration of frothing, bubbling brew.

[Phantom Genius]

Bug: Your Danger Sense is SCREAMING at you. The rippling and frothing river is firing hydraulic blasts at the people on the shore. Some people are already unconscious and lying in a puddle of water. Others have been launched into the parking lot. Since you can't be surprised and I'm about to roll initiative, please declare what your actions will be and roll any Dodge, Evade, Block, or multiple attack options.

Fury: You don't have the aerial view, but you have eyes. The person facedown in six inches of water a few feet from you will drown any moment if someone doesn't act. As you reach for them, a fleeing man grabs your arm and tries to lead you to "safety." Breathlessly, he says only, "Come ON!!!"

You also hear someone yell, "It's Bug! He'll save us!" At least someone's popularity is strong around here.

[BananaPhone]

Lisa/Fury

Lisa thought the civilian heroics were sweet, but she had to act.

"I'm fine sweetie - go!" Lisa yelled back over the noise, easily ungrappling herself with a few twists and turns of her body to reach down and grab the person in water and haul them from the watery grave.

ooc:
Using her Martial Arts ability in a reverse grapple to 'un'grapple herself and rescue the drowning person.

[CardTrick]

Deacon lets out a concerned and clearly annoyed grunt as the river creature fires upon random bystanders, "Hey... uh... water weirdo... on your six!", and with a barrage of microwave energy blasts, makes the water around whatever it is beneath the surface sizzle, attempting to draw its fire on himself and away from civilians.

OOC: Bug's initial declared action is taking the Dodge action along with using the Lure tactic, the above described blasts are not attacks just descriptions of how he'd trying to goad the creature his way.

[Phantom Genius]

The wet whatever fires a blast into the sky somewhere near Bug. It holds its form for over a hundred feet before coming apart and falling to the ground as simple river water. Fury sees this as do the many observers that got away. Cell phones start to come out and point toward the action.

Both of you please declare actions for Round 2 and roll any Dodge, Block, Evade, etc. I will roll initiative, remembering Bug's effective Monstrous Intuition.

[Phantom Genius]

Hope you all had a good holiday. Ready to get back into it?

[BananaPhone]

Lisa/Fury

Lisa's eyes widened as she stared up at whatever that...thing was, before it collapsed down from its great height into a seemingly amorphous river that writhed for only moments.

Inhaling, reaching her mind into the earth, Lisa drew upon the minerals and soil buried beneath the pavement, her control over the crust of the planet surging the matter forward to pierce through the pavement and coil around the creature...

[CardTrick]

Deacon is glad that whatever it was attacking people beneath the river's surface had diverted its attention his way, but is less enthusiastic at the number of bystanders who had chosen not to evacuate in favor of making Instragrams, Youtube videos, and like. Still, it presented an opportunity. After all, Deacon didn't want to start blindly attacking whatever it was firing at him from beneath the water only for it surface as some poor local engineering student's malfunctioning submarine or some other such silliness. Though it was hard for him to tell for sure, it seemed like Fury was exercising similar caution.

Sleightly drifting to the side in the air so the reckless civilians trying to get video of him are also pointing their smartphones in the direction of the thing firing at him, Bug reaches out his mind to usurp control over the devices from them. While he does this, a cartoonish, anthropomorphic red scarab character appears on all of their screens with its wings flapping open to reveal the text reading: *Sorry To Bug You, But Please Evacuate Immediately* and the insectiod toon giving them two comically oversized thumbs ups.

[Phantom Genius]

While AGR-01 is setting up for a new painting, Bolt is mentally sketching the next improvement for their battle suits. Webs? Harpoon? SPF 100? But he quickly suits up and they fly out together.

---

Combat Round 2:
Heroes win initiative.
Fury, very light on her feet, prepares for another blast to come shooting out of the water and smacks that general area with hundreds of pounds of earth.
Bolt and AGR-01 arrive on the scene, within thirty feet of Bug, to confer with him on the situation.
Bug, his Danger Sense unrelenting, turns to the crowd and suddenly there is a chorus of "Awww," "What the..." and even a "Come on, BUG!"
Villain turn: The river water roils and surges upward, taking the shape of a fifty-foot tardigrade and swallows Bug whole. It's hard to hear if he screams over the whooooosh of the water, the screams of the crowd, and the exhaust of the rocket boots.


Round 3:
Please state if you plan to dodge (a ranged attack), evade (a hand-to-hand attack, but you do it instead of attacking,) or just move and attack.

[MutantDragon]

AGR-01, upon seeing Bug engulfed by the water-creature, swooped in to save the young hero through raw strength.

Spoiler: Actions

Show

If possible, AGR-01 will attempt to pull Bug free from the water-creature. If you want me to stick just to typical dodge, evade, or attack actions, he'll instead attempt to bludgeon it with his fists.

[paradox26]

Bolt watches in horror as Bug is engulfed and seemingly eviscerated. He feels the bile rise in his throat, but fights it down as he prepares to step up and fight the creature, whatever it is.

"I am not sure if my powers are going to be of much use against a water creature. But maybe I can fry it into steam. Worth a try, I guess," he says as he moves in to blast the creature with his fire powers.

He focuses his rage into a ball in his center, then launches a spray of flames into the water where the creature seems to be emanating from.

Spoiler: OOC Actions

Show

Bolt will move into range of his fire bolts, then will launch an attack using his fire powers.

[BananaPhone]

Lisa/Fury

Lisa ran back from the area, her eyes up at the thing as the thousands of pounds of dirt she had produced churned at the floor beneath it.

Moving back, she threw her attention back to the unearthed and exposed dirt, grabbing it all wit her mind and yanking it upwards to splatter inside the water creature with the hope of turning it into a viscous mud or clay - something that could be physically harmed instead of nearly insubstantial water.

[Phantom Genius]

Heroes lose initiative.

The "tardigrade" attempts to swat AGR-01 out of the sky with a brutal tsunami of river water but misses horribly.

The heroes working together like a well-oiled machine retaliate:
Fury fills the water with dirt, slowing the monster and converting much of it to mud. Bolt then blasts it with roaring gouts of flame, damaging the mud monster and hardening it in place. AGR-01 finally smashes a huge chunk out of it and it reels backwards, unbalanced and partially broken.

There is no cry of pain or look of confusion, so their instincts tell the heroes that this "monster" may be controlled water, not an entity of its own.

Round 4 actions and rolls?

[MutantDragon]

Pausing for a moment to consider this new information, AGR-01 concludes that it will be unable to locate the water-monster's animating force while it is still a threat. Additionally concluding that forming another monster would A) end this one's animation and B) take some amount of time and effort, the heroic computer concludes that the most efficient course of action for it to pursue at this time is to pacify the water, or, it supposed, mud, monster in front of it. To that end, the machine dubbed by the media as "The Angry One" releases a particle spray intended to reduce the animated liquid to a more manageable size.

Spoiler: Out of Character

Show

AGR-01 is using his diminution spray.

[paradox26]

Bolt sees that his attack has been effective, alongside those of his companions. So, now that the creature is turned mostly to mud, he thinks he may be able to continue to damage it with his firebolts. He moved behind where he thinks its front is, and throws out his hand, launching a gush of flame straight at the beast.

Spoiler: OOC Actions

Show

Launch Fire attack at the monster. (1d100)[92]

[BananaPhone]

Lisa/Fury

Watching the "creature" taking on the fibrous nature of the soil and dirt, its once liquid form hardening into something...punchable, Fury drew her shoulders up, exhaled and closed her eyes as she filled her own head with images that really pissed her off.

"God damn rent prices in this stinking swamp town I can't believe how ridiculously high they're getting...rw.....arrrg...ARGHH!" her body twisting and contorting; her trim and fit figure elongating, limbs extending, her skin hardening and darkening...


OOC:
Spending a turn to assume her Fury form.

[Phantom Genius]

Heroes win initiative.

As Fury grows and contorts into her ferocious Fury form, AGR-01 shrinks the blackened and battered mudigrade to 12.5% of its original size. Bolt blasts it with sheets of flame and it loses most of its integrity. You wonder for a second where Bug might be in that shrunken, crispy mess, but then suddenly a waterspout erupts from the river and envelops Bolt, thrashing him around in its tornadic grasp. He will need to make an Intuition roll to figure out which way is up and an Escape roll (with a 2CS bonus for rocket boots.)

Everyone please declare your actions. I'm assuming Bolt will try to escape, but he might surprise me.

*A waterspout is a tornado on the water. Or something like that.

[paradox26]

Bolt is startled by being engulfed by the water. He decides it is better to escape immediately, rather than fight from within, in case he can't get free later. He activates his rocket boots in his armour, and tries to launch straight up into the air.

Spoiler: OOC Actions

Show

Bolt will try to escape by flying into the air. I assume it is a percentage roll. (1d100)[51]

[MutantDragon]

AGR-01, after observing his ally be absorbed by the creature, slowly comes to a realization: this animated mass of material is probably solid enough to move, at least to some degree. Secondarily, the computer has a developing theory that the thing will lose integrity, cease animation, or at least be somewhat less annoying to deal with if it is separated from the main body of water it was created from. Additionally, the machine silently admits, he was fond enough of Bolt that he didn't want to risk bludgeoning him in a standard attack, especially now that the overall space within the water-mud-beast was so majorly reduced...though that admission brings with it guilt that he hadn't considered this when it came to Bug. Shrugging off these private thoughts, AGR-01 acts upon his new plan and rockets forward to grab hold of his foe.

Spoiler: Actions

Show

AGR-01 is attempting to initiate wrestling with the "creature". (1d100)[8]

[BananaPhone]

Lisa/Fury

Lisa's form went from fit young woman, to towering, red-skinned and brimming with fury. Her over-shirt had been discarded to reveal the black, stretchable material underneath that hugged her figure, as Fury panted and gasped at the end of her transformation and threw those wild golden eyes about her as if a new consciousness had also entered that body: it spotted the hardened mud-monster.

With enough control to discern between friend and foe, Fury let out a loud bellowing roar that could be felt as much as heard, depending on how close one was, before hurling herself forward into a terrifyingly fast sprint that would end with her collision against the beast.