Mutants & Masterminds: Heroes United - [Heroes United] Issue 1: Some Assembly Required

[Javier Duncan]

The Paladin nodded his assent to Mr. Focht's requests, and followed the group to the gym. Honestly, he was underwhelmed by the ordinary-ness of everything; however he did know that he needed to spend some time in here training so he wouldn't be completely reliant upon his suit and powers. Maybe he'd be able to get Scout or Mrs. London Spy to teach him some moves.

,,

"I'll do what I can, though I think that the Dr. and I will have to team up to get it perfect." He says, looking to Dr. Northlight for confirmation before returning his gaze to the gym. "Though I don't think that we should get rid of all of this. It'll be good for us to practice both with powers, and suits, as well as... like everyone else... just in case we can't use those for some reason."

,,

And with that, he shut up, waiting for either others to say their piece or for the tour to move on. His mind, on the other hand, was busy already planning what needed to be made or upgraded as well as speculating on what was to come.

[darksol-aeternium]

"This beats the hell out of a mere Gold's Gym membership, but you're probably right in that we'll need some more specialized facilities. I don't know about any of the rest of you as far as energy blasts, but we could use a firing range to work with." Gatekeeper seemd to be judging distances within the gymnasium area as he spoke, after he'd finished scanning the room he just stood by waiting for the rest of the tour.

[Slither]

Slither was also grinning once they entered their 'temporary' workout space. "Yes, this should do VERY nicely for the time being." The mask slipped back down her neck as she ran full tilt towards the obstacle course and began to leap, twist and flip through its many challenges. She paused to catch her breath while standing on top of tall, thin pole, easily balanced on just one foot.

"Yes, very nicely indeed! Hah-hah! Bloody brilliant!"

Suddenly both her arms shot upward, fingers spread to grab hold, and then she hoisted herself up to the ceiling, where she stood upside down and seemingly unsupported, beaming with hands jauntily on her hips.

"So, anyone fancy a game of tag?"

[Doctor Northlight]

Rachael sighed. "Hehe. First item of note, create a flight obstacle course to practice my aerial maneuvers. But..." She closes her hood/helmet again, looking at the course, she dashed forward. Some of the course was simple enough, but when she tried to use the rings, she positioned herself all wrong and tumbled forward. After a awkward moment of getting her bearings again she sighed. "Yeah... I need practice." She said, running her finger over her helmet checking for any cracks she couldn't see from her side of things. "Yeah... I shouldn't do that in space or anything if somehow I do crack this."

,,

She smiled, even with the tumble she took, her suit's cushioning was more than enough to lessen the impact. Putting her arms behind her head to stretch out a question crossed her mind. "Oh! Got a swimming pool nearby to this Gym? I sort of like a relaxing swim once in a while, or to test my suit's diving capabilities."

[Magnum Opus]

Magnum Opus picked up one of the barbells one-handed, holding it at arm's length. "Well, if anyone needs a spotter, I have that taken care of, at least." She replaced it. "I'm curious if you have anything to see what my upper limit is. What's a 747 weigh? I caught one of those."

,,

At seeing Northlight take a tumble, Magnum Opus zipped to her side, holding out a hand to help her up. "Practice does make perfect. You'll have it down in no time." She looked up towards Slither. "Sure, I'll be up for it. I can fly, though, isn't that kind of unfair?"

[darksol-aeternium]

Suddenly both her arms shot upward, fingers spread to grab hold, and then she hoisted herself up to the ceiling, where she stood upside down and seemingly unsupported, beaming with hands jauntily on her hips.

"So, anyone fancy a game of tag?"

,,

Gatekeeper couldn't resist that, and a barely concealed smirk started to spread on his face. Gesturing to his side a smaller aperture, no larger than his hand, opened at his command. Those standing next to him could see that he poked a single finger into the warp, and simultaneously across the gymnasium Slither felt a light tap on her back.

,,

"Heheh...Tag" he said withdrawing his hand quickly as his smirk mutated into a shy, yet impish, grin.

[Doctor Northlight]

Rachael accepted MO's hand up. Being a space girl stuck on her butt from her own enthusiasm was a bit embarrassing. "Thanks, MO. I guess I should stick to zapping bad guys with stunner pot shots behind cover, to be honest." She giggled. "To be honest I wager being strong enough to move a 747 with your own strength and have the center of gravity enough not to have it damaged is a feat in of itself."

,,

She massaged her head out of habit, rubbing the top of her bubble helmet. "You know... I could convert my Gravity Alteration Circuit System technology that I use in my flight pack to augment my strength, well, by cheating Physics. Reducing the gravity around what I come into contact with so I can lift it."

,,

"Seesh, you guys are a bad influence! Giving me ideas!" She said with a playful tone. Wagging her finger as if to lecture those around her.

[Scout]

"And on that note," Fulcrum said from over by the door. "Is there a bathroom around here? I'm going to be drowning in this suit in a few more seconds. Go ahead without me, I'll catch up."

,,

(Anyone can read this, but I'm spoilering it to help keep things clear about what the characters see, and what they don't.)

No sooner than Focht had given her directions, Fulcrum was out the door, hurrying along towards the lavatory. She barely registered anything else on the way there. Once inside she yanked her mask off, sending her short, dark hair flying into chaos and braced herself on the sink as she stared into the mirror.

,,

"You are not going to do this," Renata snarled at her reflection. "Fuck you. All right? Fuck you. You are going to stay focused. You are going to keep your eyes on the prize."

,,

She ran water over a paper towel and wiped it over her forehead and face. God that mask got uncomfortable sometimes.

,,

"It doesn't matter who she likes," she went on. "Girls. Boys. Banana squash. Whatever. It doesn't fucking matter. I am not available, I am not looking, I am not going there." Renata took a deep breath and nodded at herself in the mirror. She pointed her first two fingers at her eyes, then out at the mirror. "Eyes on the prize, Ren. Not her. Good? Good. Eyes. Prize."

,,

With some wiggling of her head, and shifting of cloth around, she managed to wedge the bandana-mask back over her head with the eye-holes lined up right. It was a little looser now, so she took a second to retie it too.

,,

Sweet. Awesome. Underground base. Million bucks. Actual fucking superhero. No drama. That was the prize. She had her eyes on it. Not those spectacular boobs, or that ass that wouldn't quit, all wrapped in skintight...

,,

FUCK YOU!

,,

The mirror cracked suddenly, cleaving her reflection into two slightly mismatched halves.

,,

"Great," Renata sighed as she reached gingerly out to touch it. "That's probably coming out of my paycheck."

,,

After being away from the group for maybe five to eight minutes, Fulcrum came trotting up behind everyone and saw the gym, which brightened her up considerably. She breezed past everyone into the area and immediately started checking the weights and the machines.

,,

"Low tech, are you kidding? This is all top notch! These ellipticals cost like twelve grand each, retail!" If the previous room had been a geekout for the political scientists in the group, it was clear Andrew had found Fulcrum's geekout zone.

,, ,,

The Paladin nodded his assent to Mr. Focht's requests, and followed the group to the gym. Honestly, he was underwhelmed by the ordinary-ness of everything; however he did know that he needed to spend some time in here training so he wouldn't be completely reliant upon his suit and powers. Maybe he'd be able to get Scout or Mrs. London Spy to teach him some moves.

,,

"I'll do what I can, though I think that the Dr. and I will have to team up to get it perfect." He says, looking to Dr. Northlight for confirmation before returning his gaze to the gym. "Though I don't think that we should get rid of all of this. It'll be good for us to practice both with powers, and suits, as well as... like everyone else... just in case we can't use those for some reason."

,,

And with that, he shut up, waiting for either others to say their piece or for the tour to move on. His mind, on the other hand, was busy already planning what needed to be made or upgraded as well as speculating on what was to come.

,,

"It's certainly quite the training room you've got here," Scout dropped his bag and took a few steps toward a nearby heavy bag. Not even bothering with wrapping his hands or knuckles, he let loose with a combination of jabs and crosses, finishing with a left cross, right elbow, and thrust from his right knee. "Yea, this will do nicely. Anyone that wants a good workout is welcome to it if they can put up with me as a trainer. You might want to puke your guts out after a session or two, but I can promise you I'll have you running circles around any mugger on the island with or without your powers." Scout smiled, confident he could deliver on his offer. Physical training was his area of expertise, after all.

,,

Slither was also grinning once they entered their 'temporary' workout space. Yes, this should do VERY nicely for the time being." The mask slipped back down her neck as she ran full tilt towards the obstacle course and began to leap, twist and flip through its many challenges. She paused to catch her breath while standing on top of tall, thin pole, easily balanced on just one foot.

"Yes, very nicely indeed! Hah-hah! Bloody brilliant!"

Suddenly both her arms shot upward, fingers spread to grab hold, and then she hoisted herself up to the ceiling, where she stood upside down and seemingly unsupported, beaming with hands jauntily on her hips.

"So, anyone fancy a game of tag?"

,, ,,

,,

Gatekeeper couldn't resist that, and a barely concealed smirk started to spread on his face. Gesturing to his side a smaller aperture, no larger than his hand, opened at his command. Those standing next to him could see that he poked a single finger into the warp, and simultaneously across the gymnasium Slither felt a light tap on her back.

,,

"Heheh...Tag" he said withdrawing his hand quickly as his smirk mutated into a shy, yet impish, grin.

,,

"Haha!" Scout laughed at Gatekeeper's surprise attack on Slither, "Good one, 'Keeper," He placed his knuckles under his chin and rubbed his bottom lip with an index finger, "Perhaps we should make some kind of rule where you have to touch the ground every so often. You know, just to make it fair for those of us that are less aerially inclined." Scout stopped for a moment and let his hand drop. With his arms out to his side, he looked incredulous, "Wait a moment, are you telling me I'm seriously the only one that can't fly, or teleport, or something?!"

[Doctor Northlight]

Rachael sighed. "Hmm... another project to add to my schedule." Rachael said, looking over Scout. "Just tell me your weight and some basic measurements, I think I could whip up a anti-grav pack for you. It might take a bit but I could get you on our level pretty easily now that I understand counter-grav technology."

,,

She smiled. "When it comes to catching everyone up, Technology is the great equalizer. The liberator of the masses." She cleared her throat. "Sorry, that sounded like a revolutionary, then again what we are doing is pretty novel to begin with."

[darksol-aeternium]

"Since we're talking tech upgrades, I got something else either you or Paladin could help with." Gatekeeper said as he entered the gymnasium with the others. "Paladin's already got the costume down since he's clearly already versed in making suits of functional armor. How are you on metallurgy and space-age alloys Doctor?" Asking this, he reached up into nothing and pulled down an old-style tachi and saya from nowhere. "I'm nothing in hand to hand combat, so it looks like I'll be hitting the gym with Scout in the future, but I'm actually somewhat proficient in swordplay so I tend to use this more. It's made from typical steel though so it's unlikely to last long unless upgraded."

,,

OOC

The sword is hand-made and of servicable quality, but is otherwise mundane in all aspects. It shows minimal wear and is apparently kept up decently. There is no way however that such a blade could be acquired anywhere in the USA easily.

[SalmonMax]

Fulcrum looked away from Slither's acrobatics and glanced at Scout. She shrugged.

,,

"I can always give you a lift if you ask nice," she offered with a teasing smile. "No fancy glowing tech in your pockets, but I figure between her and Paladin, you'll have all of that you can take."

[Doctor Northlight]

"I don't design patently lethal weapons." She said. "The other setting on this blaster of mine I designed to use to damage machines. Not to use on people. Scout I might help out. I could see him being able to fly on his own would be an asset, but I refuse to make that sword better."

,,

She sighed. "Something to keep in mind, we got a whole team here. We aren't alone. That and Paladin and I already got our plates full outside of the whole hero gig. We got a Danger Room to design after all."

[Javier Duncan]

The Paladin snapped out of his thoughts and mental designs at the mention of a sword. He listened to Dr. Northlight's position, then turned to Gatekeeper. "I'll add that to my list." And then he turned to Dr. Northlight, "Wouldn't be trying to make a non-lethal sword be a nice challenge? They can be used to block and parry as well as intimidate. Maybe electrify it to give it a stun setting and make the actual cutting blade out of contained plasma so it could be turned on verses inanimate objects and turned off against people. No telling what we could pack into that thing if we tried..."

,,

And with that he cocked his head in thought and went back to designing in his head.

[SalmonMax]

"So," Fulcrum said slowly, "A stungun then. Basically. I think someone beat you to it."

[darksol-aeternium]

"I can grab a stun gun if that's what I need, I was thinking more in line with the previous comment about attacking killer robots and stuff. No Stun functions are applicable there..." he said as he let the sword slide back into the void he drew it from. "But if by 'contained plasma' you mean 'lightsaber' there's no way in hell imma turn THAT down!"

[Scout]

"Don't worry, kid," Scout clamped a hand down on Gatekeeper's shoulder, "When I'm done with you, you won't be needing that old thing anymore," he nodded toward the hole in space-time where the sword had disappeared to. "I'll whip you into tip top shape and get you fixed up with a pair of fighting trousers!" Scout beamed, proud that he was going to be so helpful to their new team.

,,

"And I'll be happy to test any of your inventions, Doctor. I can't say I'll use them all the time, though. I do like a good run." Scout gave Dr. Northlight a smile, always willing to do his part.

,,

"Fulcrum, I would be honored if you'd provide me with a lift from time to time. Please and thank you." Scout continued to try his best to be nice to her. He could only hope that she was warming up to him.

[Slither]

,,

"Heheh...Tag" he said withdrawing his hand quickly as his smirk mutated into a shy, yet impish, grin.

,,

Slither yelped in surprise, then crossed her arms and scowled comically at the distant Gatekeeper. "Hmph! I'm starting to see there's really no such thing as 'fair' when one's dealing with superpowers; everyone has an unfair advantage at least some of the time." She dropped to the floor, gracefully flipping over in midair to land lightly on one of the mats. "Perhaps we should form into teams for practice?"

,,

As the others began to discuss technical issues, Izzy did her best to pay attention, though it was all a bit outside her area of expertise. Once issues of mobility became the topic of conversation, she stroked her chin thoughtfully.

,,

"Before we continue along these lines, perhaps we should discuss and demonstrate our powers in a bit more detail, so we all have a better idea of what we're all capable of doing, and where we need help from each other. I'll start us off, shall I?"

,,

The pretty young Brit cleared her throat and stood up straight, as if she was about to recite a poem in front of the whole class. "Right then! You've already seen my elasticity; I can stretch any of my limbs up to ten meters, or even fit through a hole-" She indicated a circle maybe eight inches across. "That big." She twisted her shoulders about in a somewhat alarming fashion. "Bit of a tight squeeze, but I can do it." The she held up a hand, turning it this way and that in the light; it appeared to be glistening slightly, as though damp with a thin coating of oil. "I can also secrete a toxin from anywhere on my skin." She smiled and inclined her head towards first Doctor Northlight, then Scout. "Non-lethal, I assure you; at a low dosage, it impairs judgment and focus, a bit like being drunk, or so I'm told." Izzy looked at her hand thoughtfully as she turned it this way and that. "A higher dosage leaves the subject unconscious." The former spy shook her hand vigorously to dry it off, and then indicated her suit with a wave.

,,

"And lastly there's this, which I call my Slither suit." Seemingly of its own accord, it began to change shape, rippling over her body as it became first an elegant white ball gown, then a scruffy pair of jeans and a grey hoodie, a sleek red one piece bathing suit, and finally back to Slither's preferred matte black body suit. Izzy grinned, clearly proud of the strange garment’s capabilities. "Saves lots of time packing and shopping, eh? And then lastly, it does this-" The neck slid up to cover her whole head, the red lenses back in place, and then the light in the room seemed to ripple and bend around the suit until Slither was gone...but not quite. There was a slight readjustment every time she moved, reminiscent of the alien's camouflage technology in the Schwarzenegger classic 'Predator'. "This, of course, is my favorite feature; very helpful out the field." As she spoke, her voice seemed to come from different parts of the room, though from time to time there was a flicker of movement in the air. "Of course, you can't move about too fast, or the suit can't keep up. Also it's limited to the visible portion of the spectrum, so you still light up in infrared."

,,

At last she reappeared, arms spread in a 'ta-da' pose. "And that's the whole Slither story, really." Then she frowned. "Well, the suit has a few more features; keeps out the cold very nicely, and those red lenses give you just brilliant low light vision. But yeah, that's about it." Izzy looked around. "So, who's next, then?"

[darksol-aeternium]

"Sure, I'll go" Gatekeeper chimed in.

,,

Teleporting to the weights area of the gymnasium as opposed to walking there, he selected a 25 lb weight and threw it in the air as high as he could. As it fell to the ground he gestured and it immediately halted in midair, still spinning from being thrown. "I am not levitating this thing. I call it distance distortion, what is going on here is the removal of 'distance' from the equation of 'speed' in relation to this object. It can be reversed, making the distance you cover with the same amount of movement increase." He allowed the weight to resume falling and took 3 short steps...which managed to propel him the entire length of the gymnasium before he blinked back to where he was.

,,

He then reached down to grab the weight that had fallen. "These short hops I do don't have to always be me either," and so saying he glanced at the weight, which vanished and then reappeared on the rack where he'd grabbed it in the 1st place. "In addition, they can involve more than just me," he glanced around at the assembled party before settling on Ren. Then he and she immediately switched places in a split second.

,,

"Hrm...lets see...If I were being shot at, I can open a smaller warp to redirect it to somewhere that isn't me. Kinda like pinpoint shields, but it requires that I be paying a lot of attention to what I'm doing. Especially if it matters where the shots get redirected to. It's probably a technique I'd use to defend someone else since I can teleport fast enough to use it to dodge."

,,

"Another thing I picked up recently: I found out that if you open a gate without a destination it has weird suspension properties. Exploiting that effect lets me fly around, but I haven't seen too much use for it other than saving myself from falling." He demonstrated by opening what looked like another black hole in the fabric of space and stepping over it, where he then stood over nothing, completely ignoring gravity. From there he sort of drifted through the air back towards the center of the gymnasium.

,,

"That hole I keep pulling things from is an extradimensional space I keep things in that I might need. It's not very big, only about 8 cubic feet or so, but whatever is kept in there is available at any time. Living things can't be in there for long though since it only has that same volume of breathable air in it."

,,

"The last thing I do involves 'twisting' the actual fabric of space to collapse it on a target. I have no words for how this works since I'm only at 300-level physics, and I'm not even sure there are words for this. The end result is the target gets hit with a mini-singularity for a split-second and usually explodes. If I do this to an area, it blasts a 60 foot radius with shockwaves and tends to creatre lots of collateral damage unless I'm out in the desert or something. I only tried this recently, but it seems to work pretty well. I was worried about targeting and such, but I seem to have a natural sense of exactly where everything is."

,,

He then stepped down from the disc he was suspended over and stood out of the way. "That's all I got, who's next?"

[Doctor Northlight]

Rachael sighed. "Well, I can't go full speed in here... not enough room... but I can break the speed of sound. A bit more than Mach Number 2 to be exact. I've been learning how to make sudden mach jumps and using the sonic boom to take down a group of miscreants trying to surround me." She smiled pulling out her blaster, it's very sci-fi in a retro fashion blaster design was a fine example of form and function in synchronicity. "This blaster is currently in stun mode, but in safety status." She presses a red button and a couple rings form around the muzzle appear, completing the 50's retro design. "The rings are the phased quantum pulse focus coils, I can change the frequency either to stun biological targets, or to cut through inorganic matter. Takes some tuning, but I have pre-programmed various stun settings, based on the size of the creature." She smiled showing off the suit. "The suit itself is a specifically designed protective garment, conceived to allow for everything from space exploration to going to the deepest parts of the ocean. It's amazing what you can do by altering quantum fields."

,,

She shows the various buttons, making sure people could see them. "These are the manual activation controls, something I want everyone to note in case I am ever knocked unconscious and I need environmental protection suddenly, or there is some sort of malfunction. I can brief on what to do with certain common glitches I have run into with the initial development of the Mark 1 CES."

,,

She smiled. "Outside of that..." She asked gatekeeper to hold some discs about 6 centimeters in diameter. "Gatekeeper, If I may ask, have these drop at random intervals from portals, and at random speeds..." She twirls the blaster in her hand. "I know some defensive martial arts, but only from self-defense courses, but I have practiced my marksmanship. In stun setting I won't damage the discs I handed Gatekeeper."

,,

She had asked Gatekeeper for permission, and wouldn't imply or think he would be using his powers like this without being asked. She was going to show her practiced accuracy.

,,

OOC

Okay, I decided not to have Gatekeeper right away use his powers like what Rachael proposed, instead I will have Rachael wait to see if Gatekeeper is cool with it.

[darksol-aeternium]

"Ok...I can't actually do all of that all at once. I can do random locations and intervals, but altering speed takes a lot of concentration so I can't do that AND anything else." Even so he grabbed the discs and chucked them into his personal black hole. "So, as long as you don't mind having everything move at the usual 9.8 meters per second per second, prepare for bombardment." With that he had to visibly concentrate, but the discs began to fall from random points all around as Racheal requested.

[Doctor Northlight]

Rachael responded, bolts of greenish blue energy streaked from her blaster, with at first unerring accuracy, but then the accuracy went down on a few. Her final shot spun a disc in a random direction causing it to land wedged between a couple of unused weights. What was noticed is every hit left greenish marks on the paint of the discs. "Yeah... that was actually a good test." She said, holding up the discs. "Although to be honest that wasn't a good simulation of handling multiple sentient targets. Those have better resistance and probably some could possibly be on some psychotropics. But for a demonstration, that worked perfectly, and I can see my accuracy does drop."

,,

She holds up the disc that wedged between the weights, after pulling it out. She didn't look satisfied. "I can't allow a stray shot hit a bystander, that's against all of my standards."

[Justin OOC]

Andery smiled at them. "This makes me happy you know, seeing you all already working together, exploring what that will be like, planning for the future. I admit I want to monopolize our braintrust's time and abilities for now, getting the new training room, and a few other projects online."

,,

"There is still more for me to show you, if you all wish to see it."

[Doctor Northlight]

Rachael smiled. "Sure, might as well get the whole tour before we start to get cracking."

,,

She stretched out before putting her blaster back on safety and into it's holster. "The hardlight technology shouldn't be too hard to implement for the danger room, but trying to figure out how to simulate more than the room will take some creative bending of the laws of physics. The rest should be easy."

,,

She giggled. "I'm sure we all know what we're doing, for the most part. I think the surprises will make the teamwork easily more fun."

[SalmonMax]

"Wah! Jesus!" Fulcrum exclaimed when Gatekeeper moved her. She glared at him for the rest of his presentation, but spaced out a little during Rachael's.

,,

She gave Andery a shrug and said, "I move things around with my mind, and I punch things pretty well. Annnnnd that's pretty much it."

,,

Fulcrum gave the exercise machine in front of her a brush of her fingertips, then nodded.

,,

"I'm good with moving on."

[Javier Duncan]

"No, not a stun gun, an electrical discharge... probably want to control it by how hard you hit, that way you can take down a civilian, an elephant, or a super depending on how hard you.... hit... them...." By the time the Paladin realized no one was listening any more and tapered off his sentence, the rest of the group had moved on and was already into demonstrations. He watched with curiosity (though that's understandably difficult to tell through the mask of his suit). He watched everybody but kept silent. They'd all pretty much seen everything he could do upstairs, and what they hadn't seen he'd talked about or alluded to.

,,

He noted Dr. Northlight's accuracy drop and the thought of adding a targeting system to his suit surfaced again. It was one on a long list of upgrades he had planned.

,,

Once Mr. Focht mentioned moving on he nodded his head. "Let's see what else there is to see."

[Magnum Opus]

At the demonstration of Slither's suit, Magnum Opus nodded. "Nice. I think I might have something similar. I call mine the Dreamcoat."

,,

At her command, it shifted back into the skirt and blazer she'd been wearing previously. "It shapeshifts along with me. I think the substance it's composed of is from outside the universe - at least, that's all I've been able to piece together about the accident that gave me my powers. Normally I'm tough, but when I'm wearing this I'm very tough. I can reshape it to cover someone I'm touching, too, in the event Northlight or Paladin are caught without their respective armors or Scout doesn't have his shield for whatever reason."

,,

She then resumed her normal form, and lifted gently off the ground, surrounded by a faintly glowing, shimmering aura. "I can't do this trick while I'm going out of my way to look normal, of course - too showy. I can do about 250 miles an hour - I've been practicing, but I'm not at Northlight's speeds. I can lift about 400 tons. I can survive in outer space without a problem. I'm a little faster than a normal human being and my eyesight's keener, and that is about that. I'm probably the least potent person in this room. But honestly, it's what you do with what you got that counts. Anybody can be kind. And yes - " She landed gently on the ground. "I'd love to see what else we've got."

,,

OOC

Just so people know Magnum Opus' capabilities a bit more keenly, she has:

STR 12, Effective Lifting STR of 14

STA 12 with Impervious Toughness, so FORT 12 as well

FGT at 8

WILL at 8

DODGE & PARRY at 8

Flight at 7 with the alternate power Morph (One Form Only)

Immunity (Life Support) 10

Quickness 1

Senses 4 (Infravision, UV vision, Analytical Eyesight

Dreamcoat device (Impervious Toughness 12 by default, with an AP of a Force Field that Affects Others Only.)

,,

Paragons are point-hungry but at least all combat stats are at cap.

[darksol-aeternium]

"Yeah...Super Strength and Nigh-invulnerability aren't anything to sneeze at. Twisting space is great and all, but if I take a bullet, I take a trip to the hospital with it."

[Doctor Northlight]

"Yeah...Super Strength and Nigh-invulnerability aren't anything to sneeze at. Twisting space is great and all, but if I take a bullet, I take a trip to the hospital with it."

,,

"Well, it should comfort that I have taken some training in first aid, and through some clever maneuvering got some paramedic training. I wager with us dealing with the public it would be advisable we have at the very least some first response training." Rachael said, adjusting her helmet a little. "I'll just have to remember to deactivate this helmet when giving mouth-to-mouth. Oh, I can at least help people figuring out the first aid stuff, I got the certifications."

,,

At the demonstration of Slither's suit, Magnum Opus nodded. "Nice. I think I might have something similar. I call mine the Dreamcoat."

,,

At her command, it shifted back into the skirt and blazer she'd been wearing previously. "It shapeshifts along with me. I think the substance it's composed of is from outside the universe - at least, that's all I've been able to piece together about the accident that gave me my powers. Normally I'm tough, but when I'm wearing this I'm very tough. I can reshape it to cover someone I'm touching, too, in the event Northlight or Paladin are caught without their respective armors or Scout doesn't have his shield for whatever reason."

,,

She then resumed her normal form, and lifted gently off the ground, surrounded by a faintly glowing, shimmering aura. "I can't do this trick while I'm going out of my way to look normal, of course - too showy. I can do about 250 miles an hour - I've been practicing, but I'm not at Northlight's speeds. I can lift about 400 tons. I can survive in outer space without a problem. I'm a little faster than a normal human being and my eyesight's keener, and that is about that. I'm probably the least potent person in this room. But honestly, it's what you do with what you got that counts. Anybody can be kind. And yes - " She landed gently on the ground. "I'd love to see what else we've got."

,,

OOC

Just so people know Magnum Opus' capabilities a bit more keenly, she has:

STR 12, Effective Lifting STR of 14

STA 12 with Impervious Toughness, so FORT 12 as well

FGT at 8

WILL at 8

DODGE & PARRY at 8

Flight at 7 with the alternate power Morph (One Form Only)

Immunity (Life Support) 10

Quickness 1

Senses 4 (Infravision, UV vision, Analytical Eyesight

Dreamcoat device (Impervious Toughness 12 by default, with an AP of a Force Field that Affects Others Only.)

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Paragons are point-hungry but at least all combat stats are at cap.

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The suit intrigued Rachael. "My, Outside this universe you say?" She stroked the bottom of her helmet as she looked at the suit. "You know, can this form a bubble around someone? This could be a key rescue strategy. Particularly if it can be airtight."

[Slither]

Slither sighed and looked somewhat disappointed that she wouldn't get to see any more power demonstration. "Yeah, all right then. 'Lead on, MacDuff'".

First days on the job were always like this; trying to figure out who you're going to get along with and who will just rub you the wrong way. In general, Izzy tended to get on rather well with her male colleagues but much less so with the females. She had a feeling history would more than likely repeat itself...

[SalmonMax]

Renata couldn't quite contain a snort when Magnum Opus claimed to be the 'least potent' in the room. Ren wasn't sure how to judge people's powers in total yet, but she suspected lifting 400 tons, flying 250mph and being nigh-invulnerable was far from least potent. Modesty was kind of cute though.

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She went over to Slither and said, "Those were pretty nice moves. Could you do that before you got your powers? I mean, you know, not the stretchy stuff, but just the gymnastics."

[Justin OOC]

Andery was about to lead them further into the complex, when his earbud began to buzz. "pardon me." "Boss, you need to get the team to the Observatory, now. We have a major situation in New York City. She's already there, but to be honest, she can't deal with it."

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"Understood."

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He turned back to the group "My friends, it seems we are needed back in the Observatory. There's a disturbance in New York City."

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He led them back to the room with the monitors, all showing newsfeeds from New York City, There were a dozen feeds from the news, all showing smoke rising from an area Manhattan just north of Central Park, giant plumes of smoke already coming up, as well as several buildings reduced to rubble. That sector of the city was bedlam, as civil services broke down due to the cause. From the rubble of two of the buildings, and a large pit in the park, dozens of creatures made seemingly from Stone and Magma strode forth, killing any humans they came across, their bodies shrugging off small arms fire. There were some who were glowing red, made seemingly of Molten Magma.

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Andery scowled. "We have to do something."

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Okay guys lets quickly (within one week) come up with some sort of plan to handle this. Once you have a plan I will transition you all over to Chapter 2.

[Doctor Northlight]

"Oh son of a..." Rachael said. "That's close to home."

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She looked to everyone. "So, some sort of sentient magma people have opened some sort of opening to the surface. I deduce either it's an invasion or some sort of constructs made by an outside force."

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She adjusts her gloves. "Does anyone have access to liquid nitrogen? Freezing them in place might help us defeat those molten monstrosities. Also we should get down there quick."

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She turned to Andery. "Mr. Focht. Do you have some sort of extra medical equipment? We will need a full Paramedic response for bystanders. Of course at a certain level of response we would need a vehicle. In fact our first priority is to create a buffer between the opposing force and any bystanders in the area, as well."

[Slither]

"Those were pretty nice moves. Could you do that before you got your powers? I mean, you know, not the stretchy stuff, but just the gymnastics."

Izzy looked startled for a second; clearly, she had not expected to be approached by Fulcrum. "Oh, ah, nah, I was hopeless at gymnastics at school; I mean, I wasn't completely useless, but nowhere near that level of competence." She grinned and shrugged. "I was actually more of a bookworm, really; always had my nose in a book. Herodotus, Xenophon, Thucydides...all the dead white men in togas."

But then something horrible was happening, and Slither was staring at the carnage on the monitors with the rest of her new team. "Fucking hell..."

She quickly recovered and indicated several of the collapsed buildings with a wave of her hand. "I don't know how useful I'd be in hand-to-hand combat with these bastards if they're as hot as they look, but I can squeeze into these buildings here and start looking for survivors. Also get them oxygen, basic first aid and the like."

Then she looked to the technical people. "Or if someone can throw together some sort of, I dunno, 'freeze gun', I'm a pretty good shot; I could sneak up behind them and fire a few icicles up their arses."

[SalmonMax]

Fulcrum stared at the carnage, to aghast to speak for a second. It turned out to be good, because it gave the rest of her brain a chance to think.

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"There's a lake not far from the pit," she said, pointing. "The Meer. A few of us can keep those things busy, while me or Magnum rips up a sort of...trough...from the lake to the pit. We flood it. Those things came from underground, so we drain the lake into the tunnel they made there. Bonus points for throwing them into it."

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"Then...I dunno, I don't think we have time to really sit here and talk. Uh, warp...guy...can you get us there? We gotta hit the ground running on this one. People are dying out there!"

[darksol-aeternium]

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"Then...I dunno, I don't think we have time to really sit here and talk. Uh, warp...guy...can you get us there? We gotta hit the ground running on this one. People are dying out there!"

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"That'll be easy," he replied. "Find a spot wherever you want to attack from and I'll warp us there directly".

[Doctor Northlight]

"I don't think unless we are like MO here, that we should consider a direct strike with the entire team at once. I should look out for any first responders and protect them. All the while assisting them in their efforts."

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She sighed. "I might need some negotiating help though, our city's protectors don't take kindly to interlopers."

[Javier Duncan]

The Paladin followed them to the monitor room and watched the carnage. He thought for a moment before speaking relatively quickly. "If I can get a portal to the area I can go in and create a barrier around the area. It should keep those things in and the innocents out. I can give you a way to contact me so that I'll be in on the remainder of the plan, but we need to act fast, at least initially." He paused a moment to let what he'd said sink in.

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"As far as the pond idea goes, that sounds good but we need to know what type of damage that hole has done before we go flooding it. Otherwise we might flood a subway, mix the water with raw sewage or dump it in on top of live electrical wires." The Paladin was chomping at the bit to get out there and it showed, even through his armor.

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Moved back per Justin's request.

[SalmonMax]

Fulcrum nodded. "Fast is good. If you box 'em in, I can play goalie and make sure they're all there."

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She grimaced a little at his observation of the hole and the water, but nodded. "Alright, we can't really do much from here. We need eyes on the ground there before we know what we're doing."

[darksol-aeternium]

[spoilertag: OOC] Edited as per request [/spoilertag]

[Doctor Northlight]

(OOC I'm removing this post, wagering everyone will be on the HQ side of the portal. I need to respond to MO.)