Mutants & Masterminds Mutants & Masterminds: The Magisterium - [2.3] The Huntresses [Farhenheit, Grav]

[Dawn OOC]

“I know it’s what you want.” David was smiling at Farhenheit, his mouth curved up in a little quirk. It wasn’t quite a positive expression, but it was hard to say what exactly was wrong with it. “So I’m not expecting any argument.”

“You’re letting me hunt Silberstein?” The flames that compromised the woman seemed to flare hotter for a moment. “You’re giving him to me.”

“Of course.” David watched the expression that crossed her face with bemusement, wondering if she looked nearly-orgasmic at the thought of killing most people or just this man. “He deserves to die after what he did to you. But. There’s a condition.”

Farhenheit’s eyes narrowed. “What condition, Atum?”

“We are a family, a fraternity of mutants. We share burdens and pains. So I’m sending Grav with you, as backup.” David leaned forward and looked at both women. “Is that a problem?”

[Fahrenheit]

The crimson-skinned Mutant stared at Grav with a disturbing indifference and waited with her answer as if she didn't know what to say. The prospect to kill Silberstein was alluring above all. Even though this man annoyed her for but a fraction of her entire existence if things were measured in years, the damage he had done to her was thousandfold.

"Fine.", she finally said. Fahrenheit would've preferred Horus, or Tengri how called himself now as backup, but if this Grav was trusted by these Mutants she'd do fine, just like she said.

"I don't recall having seen you before. My name is Sekh..., Fahrenheit, Can you help me find Dr. Silberstein? Do you know who he is?"

She raised an eyebrow at her inquisitively.

[Grav]

Grav looked at her. "I don't know who he is, or your history with him. I wager though that it's fairly bad, by the way your eyes lit up when you were told you could kill him."

"Even so I can probably help especially with transportation, and I know some tricks to prolong things, so you can savor this."

This wasn't the Grav that had been seen before. This was one of the two the others fought to keep in check. They'd lost.

"So, is he Human, what did he do to you, and are you planning to kill him quickly, or make him suffer first?"

Her yellow eyes seemed bright, almost as though they glittered. It was as if there was great madness behind them, yet the way they focused, keen intelligence also resided within her.

[Fahrenheit]

The same kind of madness seemed to reflect in Fahrenheit's eyes and a wicked smile crossed her face.

"He tried to control me, to strip away every iota of my being until there was only one thing left - a weapon they could wield. But they failed...", there seemed to be more but she didn't trust Grav enough, yet.

"He's a mortal Man, I want him dead, I don't care how as long as he burns. Just don't get in my way.", it wasn't meant to be a threat but Fahrenheit's entire posture and bodylanguage was aggressive and unrelenting. She was deadly serious about this. She'd probably kill everyone except her mother to finish Silberstein off.

[Grav]

Grav shrugged. "One of those, eh, well don't hog all the fun. I'd prefer I got to have some fun as well."

"I won't take the kill, this sounds like Vendetta, and those I understand well." Putting these two together might not have been the best idea...

[Fahrenheit]

"They will probably try to protect him and he'll desperatly want me back so I suppose there'll be plenty of humans to kill. I don't care.", the fiery angel of wrath stated without as much as an emotional rise in her voice. She was already trying to develop a plan to get him but unfortunately her last lead was his private residence in the German Schwarzwald and after her attack and almost destruction of the building it was unlikely he would go back there.

There was one option which she didn't like at all - she could let Sascha take over and she'd probably find a way to contact Silberstein... or he'd find a way to contact her, if she was seen somewhere in Germany. But maybe with Grav as Backup she could take this risk. Unfortunately Sascha wouldn't cooperate much and it would take some convincing to make her do what she wanted.

"Atum - what is Dr. Silberstein's last known location? Do you have any knowledge where he might hide, that miserable coward?", Fahrenheit hated Sascha almost as much as Dr. Silberstein so her idea had to wait until there was no other option left.

[Dawn OOC]

“He’s still in Germany.” David smiled, yet his expression gave away nothing. “That much I know. In fact, from what I have heard, he’s under military guard at a hospital.”

The door opened again and Gold paused in the entry. “Jack said to come here.”

An unreadable expression disrupted the smile for a second before David’s face resumed a pleasantly blank mien. One thing was clear; David hadn’t expected Jack to send Gold here. If he was upset by the change, he didn’t show it. Instead he nodded. “Are you willing to come along with the ladies, Gold? And are you ladies willing to have him?” Gray eyes focused on the two women and there was no indication which way he thought they should answer.

[Gold]

Jack had found him hanging from a tree branch by his arms. He’d been there for two hours. He did not have the sort of mutant abilities which gave him superhuman strength or resiliency, something that he definitely felt the lack of with his new… allies. What he did have, though, was a cold dedication to physical perfection.

Gold just listened, still hanging from his branch, while Jack asked him to report to David. He dropped down afterwards. The words were not phrased as an order, but he nodded and loped off to Lamia’s home, and his stone couch.

His clothes and equipment were carefully arranged around that couch, in a precise circle two meters in diameter that he'd sketched with white chalk. That was the personal space he defined for himself, and not one item belonging to him ever trailed outside it.

Now he toweled off and rotated his shoulders to work out the kinks and aches, before pulling on his favourite T-shirt. It was a custom job, made by Mary at his request. It was white, with a bright yellow smiley face and the legend ‘World’s Friendliest Man’ scribed beneath in big, rainbow-friendly letters. He found it funny.

He headed right over to the briefing room where David, Fahrenheit and Grav were cloistered away, knocked and entered. David looked up, not sharply, but with that slight suddenness that betrayed surprise. Other than that he gave nothing away beyond the momentary drop of his smile. <em>Funny how often people stop smiling when they see me.

"Jack said to come here,” he said in his usual cool, toneless voice. He cast his eyes over the other two women. Fahrenheit’s fire caught in the gold of his irises, giving them a molten shine.

David got back on point fast. “Are you willing to come along with the ladies, Gold? And are you ladies willing to have him?”

Gold shrugged. He bit back on his instinctual retort. Stupid question. It still tried to get out. He worked his jaw. Finally he said, “Wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t. Jack didn't give me any details. I'd appreciate a catch-up on anything important.”

[Fahrenheit]

"As long as I get to kill Dr. Silberstein I don't mind", Fahrenheit said to Gold regarding him with burning eyes. She would've preferred someone she was familiar with but she guessed accepting help would be the better decision on the long path.

It didn't occur to her to consider Grav's opinion about this matter, since it was her hunt after all and Grav had no say about this - at least as far as Fahrenheit was concerned

"If he is still in Germany they'll have him holed up somewhere like a rat surrounded by Hyenas for protection.", if she was able to tap Sascha's conscious thoughts she might get a glimpse at the places she was held captive with him. Unfortunately she couldn't, at least not without consequences she wasn't willing to expose herself to. Not yet.

Looking at Gold she raised an eyebrow and simply asked him, "Are you familiar with the DEHA in Germany? Or do you know how to gather information about their Temples? We are going to meet a strong resistance."

Maybe he would proof useful right now.

[Grav]

Dark nodded. "I have no problems, I remember watching you last time."

"As for Germany, There are many places to hide him, the Lab where I was born leads the list, to be honest, since it's a mutant research facility."

[Dawn OOC]

“Agreed, that’s a good place to start. From what I understand about this human, he’s likely to be at the heart of whatever sick experiments Germany is performing on our people.” David’s face was twisted with distaste at the very idea. After a moment, he focused on the group. “I’ll have Tyrone set you down outside the facility.”

After they’d gathered any gear they wanted, they met with Tyrone outside the temple. He opened the now-familiar warp portal. Once they had their sat-phone, the group was sent on through.

They found themselves in the forests outside of Berlin. They had a marked map, and knew where they were going: a building on the outskirts of the city.

[Gold]

Gold looked around the forest. It was day here, too, but the atmosphere was all different. The soil felt firmer underfoot, the trees younger. That sense of age which was always there at the hideout was not present in this place. This felt like a place people went. If you go down to the woods today, you’re in for a big surprise, he sang inside his own head. If you go down to the woods today… how the fuck does that song go?

He had a lyric about finding three homicidal mutants, but it wasn’t coming together in his head.

To provide a bit of music of his own, he cocked his pistols one at a time and then returned them to their holsters.

He turned to the two women accompanying him, or who he was accompanying. One or the other. “We going? Woman made of fire isn’t the stealthiest thing in the world. Less time we’re standing still the less chance they’ll have of seeing us coming.”

[Dawn OOC]

“Agreed.” Fahrenheit looked around, orienting herself before floating between the trees. Gold noted that the leaves above her curled while grass and moss turned brown in her wake. Someone who knew what to look for could easily track them. It wasn’t a comforting thought.

The facility was hidden back in the trees, but there was no way that Fahrenheit could get close. She reluctantly hung back, letting Gold sneak forward and do some surveillance. The mutant crept forward until he had a good look at the place. For Gold, that wasn’t as close as it would have to be for some.

The building was structured somewhat like a hospital; in fact, as Gold recalled Grav’s words, there was a very good chance it had a nursery, at minimum. His golden eyes tracked back and forth over the building, noting the two Rapid Responders patrolling the grounds. There were probably more; there always were more of them. Gold’s eyes flicked to the roof, then narrowed when he saw the man walking the perimeter. He was a mutant; no human would walk on the very edge of the building. And though the kid—he was around eighteen or at least appeared to be around that age—was wearing casual jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt, he had a silver AMP collar around his neck.

The place had its protections, and Gold was sure it might be hiding more surprises.

[Grav]

Grave had held back with Fahrenheit and waited patiently. She made some effort to hide, but knew that her stark white hair made this difficult. "This will not be easy if we must fight our way in."

,,

For her part she thought back to the facility, her time there, and a scowl formed on her face as she remembered all the "games" she played as a child, all the "medicine" they gave her, all the pain when she was 'bad"

,,

"If I had the strength, I'd compress it all to a singularity."

[Gold]

The building was structured somewhat like a hospital; in fact, as Gold recalled Grav’s words, there was a very good chance it had a nursery, at minimum. His golden eyes tracked back and forth over the building, noting the two Rapid Responders patrolling the grounds. There were probably more; there always were more of them. Gold’s eyes flicked to the roof, then narrowed when he saw the man walking the perimeter. He was a mutant; no human would walk on the very edge of the building. And though the kid—he was around eighteen or at least appeared to be around that age—was wearing casual jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt, he had a silver AMP collar around his neck.

,,

Gold kept low in the grass, watching from the angle of a snake but with the eyes of a hawk. He waited until he'd assessed and counted three complete circuits for all the visible guards, in case there might be others walking a weird patrol route, and slid back on his belly until the treeline hid him altogether.

,,

He jumped up, caught a branch and flipped up onto it. His feet found the right places to lay and spread his weight, his body adopted the perfect posture. The mind piloting his body played little part in the affair. It often seemed like he did not, but he had long ago grown used to that. Over time he'd come to view it a little like having a permanent autopilot, like an overprotective friend. Friends...

,,

There were none of those in his life. Not yet. The idea that he could tag a 'not yet' onto the statement raised conflict. A potent mixture of distaste and longing, neither grounded in anything solid.

,,

Gold sprinted along the branches, hopped from tree to tree, until he found the glowing woman of fire and the somewhat subtler figure of Grav. He crouched on a branch above them. Both could fly. They'd get to look down on him plenty later.

,,

"Scouted the place out. Counted at least two rapid responders and one mutant. Young, post-pubescent teenager and dressed like one, wearing a silver AMP collar. Don't know if the colour means anything. I have a bit of a history with these responder assholes. I'd appreciate it if you two could handle them and - hopefully - any others they have hiding in their colon. I should be able to handle the kid. He's on the roof, either to protect against incoming fliers or, I'd say more likely, he's got enhanced perceptions. If we're lucky the latter isn't the case, but I'm assuming we'll be spotted going in right now."

,,

He focused his attention on Fahrenheit, who shone and flickered, a beautiful image of all-consuming hunger.

,,

"Best I understand it, this is your op. Do we go in hard or do we try to be sneaky?" Har har har. I did a funny.

[Dawn OOC]

“Let them see death coming.” Farhenheit lit up with a gout of flame as she shot up into the air. Before either of the other could complain, the woman was a fiery comet heading straight for the hospital.

A second later, alarms started to wail, and the slim blonde man lifted off the roof and angled toward Farhenheit’s blazing form.

Sorry for the short post; we’re now in combat. Please state your first action and roll for initiative and that action in a spoiler box.

[Grav]

Grav sighed. "Ahh well, nothing goes according to plan." She knew there were Rapid Responders present, and they would be her first targets. She brought her gravitic shield up, and then took flight, and blasting the first rapid responder she came to.

,,

Array is Blast 10 Subtle 2 Flight 4

Initiative and attack

,,

[Long6] 9:39 am: initiative
Long6 *rolls* 1d20: 20+4: 24
[Long6] 9:40 am: allll of my hate....
[Jeremy] 9:40 am: oh?
[Long6] 9:43 am: wasting a 20 on init
[Jeremy] 9:45 am: heh
[Long6] 9:46 am: attack roll
[Long6] 9:46 am: /d1d20+10
[Long6] 9:46 am: Warning ! Only IRC subset can be used (Type /? or /help for list of IRC commands)
Long6 *rolls* 1d20: 1+10: 11
[Long6] 9:47 am: oh my god
[Long6] 9:47 am: witness?
[Jeremy] 9:47 am: ya
[Jeremy] 9:47 am: heh

,,

P.S.

,,CHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dawn OOC]

Dark cursed vilely as her attempt to trap one of the suited goons in a gravitic beam failed. She hated missing, particularly when her target was one of those suited humans. It seemed wrong to her that the humans could challenge her without powers of their own.

,,

As Gold crept forward into battle, one of those hated Rapid Responders aimed an arm cannon at her and fired. The blast of electricity enveloped her and left her, arcing over her skin with painful intensity.

,,

Above them, Farhenheit and Prime waged their own private war.

,,

[End of Round ONE]

Initiatives

Grav/Dark: 24

Gold: 18 (I rolled 11, +7)

Rapid Responders: 15

Regular Soldiers: 4

,,

Im handling Farhen and Prime cinematically

NPC Saves

None in first round

Combat Rolls

Dark misses.,,

Gold is moving into position.

,,

RR #1 [attacking Grav/Dark] Electrical Cannon vs DC 20, 16+6 = 22, Hit

RR #2 [attacking Grav/Dark] Electrical Cannon vs DC 20, 2+6 = 8, Miss

,,

Soldiers are moving into position.

NPC Damage Tracking

none yet

PC Required Rolls

Grav needs to make a Toughness vs DC 23

,,

[start of Round TWO]

[Grav]

[Long6] 5:33 pm: toughness

Long6 *rolls* 1d20: 5+10: 15
[Long6] 5:34 pm: fail by 8

,,

Dark snarled at the hit, it had gotten past her defenses and done some damage, and she zeroed in on the soldier that had attacked her. luckily she didn't need to move to attack, and lashed out again with her gravitic attack, seeking to explode the man's heart within his chest.

,,

attack

Long6 *rolls* 1d20: 19+10: 29

DC25 blast

[Gold]

Oh me, oh my, Gold thought as he drew his pistols and idly flipped them in his grip. Though his emotions were often deadened, adrenaline touched him the same as anyone else. He felt twitchy. 'Working' with Fahrenheit would not meet professional guidelines in most forms of military career. But then, he'd never had a military career, so what the hell.

,,

He pushed up from his creeping crouch just after the Rapid Responder opened fire on Grav and, hoping she could keep its attention, he ran up and vaulted the circling wall, opening fire on the ground troops as he dropped.

,,

Using Precision Shot multiattack to shoot at two of the human guards while advancing and rolling:

,,

WhiteRain.vc *rolls* 1d20: 2: 2+12-2 = 12, miss
WhiteRain.vc *rolls* 1d20: 13: 13+12-2 = 23, hit

,,

DC19 or DC23? Not entirely sure.

[Dawn OOC]

Dark grinned as her blast seemed to stagger the Rapid Responder. The man stumbled out of the area of her gravity attack, making her grin fade. He spun and aimed at her, his cannon spitting out a blast of lightning. Dark dodged it so narrowly that she felt tingles over her skin as it sailed past.

,,

Gold tore into the human soldiers. He took one down but the remainder leapt for cover. Even as he contemplated his success, the other Rapid Responder responded to his arrival by firing at him. Gold twisted out of the path of the shot with contemptuous ease.

,,

[End of Round TWO]

Initiatives

Grav/Dark: 24

Gold: 18 (I rolled 11, +7)

Rapid Responders: 15

Regular Soldiers: 4

,,

I’m handling Farhen and Prime cinematically

NPC Saves

RR#1 [attacked by Grav] Toughness save vs DC 25, 17+14 = 31, fine

Soldier #1 [attacked by Grav] Toughness save vs DC 19, 8+5 = 13, fail by 6, Incap [Minion]

Combat Rolls

Dark attacks ,,

Gold attacks

,,

RR #1 [attacking Grav/Dark] Electrical Cannon vs DC 20, 14+6 = 20, Very near miss

RR #2 [attacking Gold] Electrical Cannon vs DC 25, 1+6 = 7, Miss by lots

,,

Soldiers are moving into position.

NPC Damage Tracking

Soldier #1 Toughness -1, Incap [Minion]

PC Required Rolls

None, you go, kids

,,

[start of Round THREE]

[Grav]

Dark shifted Targets, looking for the Rapid Responder again, lashing out with her Gravity blast to hopefully take it down. "Let's see you stand up to this one, flatscan." It was a pulse of gravity as intense as a microblackhole, designed to utterly annihilate everything it touched, compressing it to a singularity...

,,

attack

Long6 *rolls* 1d20: 20+10: 30

Damage +5

Damage DC 30

[Gold]

"Oh, joy," he shouted, as he dropped his shoulder and dived into a forward roll into a continued charge. The electrical bolt crackled into the ground behind him, sparked a moment and dissipated. "Fucking, fucking joy!"

,,

He gave himself about five seconds before they started tossing around electro grenades and dancing the macarena on his smoking body. That really gave him only one good option: force them into causing collateral if they tried it. He'd learned that if they closed on him he could, if he put everything he had into the blow, make them bleed. He did not know if the one he'd broken had died, but he'd hurt the human enough to force him into retreat, and honestly, anything that meant he wasn't getting electrocuted like some sort of toy frankenstein was an improvement in his book.

,,

Gold charged down the soldiers, spinning his guns back into their holsters, before leaping up and letting his reptile brain take over.

,,

Closing into melee on the soldiers, using multiattack to throw 2 close combat attacks; specifically

not using all of his multiattack to try and dissuade the RR from using their area effect attacks. ,,

WhiteRain.vc *rolls* 1d20: 6: 6
WhiteRain.vc *rolls* 1d20: 15: 15

[Dawn OOC]

In the interest of Getting This Shit Done with Already, I’m going to move this out of combat rounds. Why? Mostly because this was supposed to have Farhen in it as well, and the PC getting pulled was a blow. One that I should have dealt with earlier, but there you go.

,,

So feel free to mow down the helpless soldiers in your next post, and then I’ll wrap us up.

,,

The pulse of gravity hesitated a moment, powerful and lethal in Dark’s grasp. Then she flung the power away and it tore through the air. She tracked its progress as it bore down on the Rapid Responder, cutting over the battlefield like an invisible nightmare. Dark could see when it struck him, and not just because he reacted; she could feel her power. It knocked the Rapid Responder down and he wasn’t moving. Hopefully, he was dead.

,,

Gold was making his own nightmare in the midst of the soldiers. They weren’t heavily armored at all. His elbow struck one of them in the head and the man went down, no muss, no fuss. A second attack, and a second soldier down—but there were still enough of them around that the Rapid Responders probably wouldn’t use their area attacks. Gold knew they respected human life much more than his life.

[Grav]

Dark smiled, and began to squeeze. She heard the gurgle as the metal pierced the flesh beneath, compressing the entire Rapid Responder to a ball of flesh, circuits and metal not much bigger than a grapefruit in a matter of seconds. She laughed, dancing around the shots from the other Rapid responder, who had seen the spectacle of her attack, and The crazed look in her Yellow eyes. she smiled wickedly, and launched the former responder at the other one at supersonic speeds, blowing right through the chestpiece.

,,

She scowled as her improvised weapon vanished into the forest, but quickly compressed the other one down to replace his friend. "Now, who else would like some of the same?" She asked almost playfully as she scanned the battlefield, looking for another opportunity to kill a flatscan human who thought themself her equal.

[Gold]

In the push and the press of bodies his instincts went into overdrive. He rolled from blows that had barely been thrown, countered attacks just contemplated, struck to kill on men a second after they thought to run. Blow after blow flashed out from him, and men fell like pebbles before an avalanche, screaming with horrendous injuries or gurgling out their final moments. He leapt and flipped and rolled, never letting anyone getting distance, daring the rapid responders to launch their grenades. But they never did. They let the slaughter go on, waiting for an opportunity he was never going to give them.

,,

As the soldiers thinned out, though, Gold's instinctual haze faded. Blood stained his face and the scent of it cloyed his nose. I must look like a regular human nightmare right now, he thought.

,,

Most importantly, his flak cloud was running thin. Pretty soon he was going to need cover unless Grav or Fahrenheit dealt with those Rapid Responders. But if one came down close, maybe he could cripple it again. Maybe. He didn't want to flip the coin if he could avoid it. He was part of a team now, sort of. People did different things on teams. One of the things he did was run from Rapid Responders, and take people like this apart.

,,

Gold jumped and kicked a soldier in the face. The man's neck snapped as the kinetic shock lanced through his vertebrae, breaking them just so. I gotta learn to be less effective against these guys.

[Dawn OOC]

A flaming comet descended to the earth, the two mutants struggling; Fahrenheit burned with all her fury and rage. Rocks and dust flew into the air as the grappling mutants hit the ground. But it wasn’t the flame-encased beauty that rose from the hole; it was the burned but victorious Prime that rose out of the hole. His clothing was mostly gone and his hair was burned close to his skull, but the youthful mutant thrust his fist into the air and screamed in exaltation.

,,

“Well, shit,” Dark muttered as she prepared to open the other mutant’s chest with a micro-singularity. “Came here to help a mutant get her taste of vengeance and end up having to rescue her ass.”

,,

A streak of darkness dotted the sky, then a plume of inky liquid shot at Grav. It struck her in the chest and sent her sliding back several feet but didn’t penetrate her shield. Golden eyes narrowed as she considered the still-distant form of the attacker.

,,

Gold was fighting a soldier when he felt something barely miss him. Glancing up, he saw an winged mutant soaring silently back into the sky. When she twisted to stare at him, he saw the owl-face instead of a woman’s and the feathers covering her body and wings. Then she was soaring up again, angling so that he’d be looking into the sun.

,,

Just in case I wasn’t clear (it’s damned late as I write this) Fahren is apparently unconscious over by the building and two new mutants showed up.

,,

As a note, you can stay and fight. This is my way of removing Fahren from play without killing her, should Joani be able to return, so I’d rather you didn’t. But if you must attempt the rescue, please roll Inits.

[Dawn OOC]

Dark made the call. There were three mutants, one Rapid Responder and a couple of soldiers left. It was down to her and Gold. With a curse, she turned and zipped over to Gold’s side. Without allowing him time to protest, she grabbed him with a gravity well—she knew better than to touch him.

,,

A change to the way she handled gravity followed, and the two mutants zipped away to safety, traveling at speeds their pursuers couldn’t follow.