Mutants & Masterminds: Harmony City - First Day of Work

[Rorx]

Dwarfstar turns to Ditto/Tesseract, "No offence, but until I've seen you safely using interdimensional forces I think I'll T'port myself. I'll appear about 200ft above the Walmart, you better land at ground level for the non-flyers."

Addressing Dennis again, "Do you have any communications devices for us to be able to reach each other or to contact the police with? It would be handy if they knew we were coming and that we were on their side so we don't accidentally get shot at."

[314_Omega]

Omega nods, an awkward looking move from him, and moves to stand with the others. "My radio senses are tapped into the police band. I will do what I can to coordinate between our activities and emergency personnel."

[Rorx]

"I would assume that our priorites should be to protect civilians, protect the police, and apprehend the perpetrators with minimum necessary force without putting ourselves at undue risk? Or at least I guess that's the order the police are meant to do things in? Although there is probably something in there about protecting property as well."

"If I'm correct should we be trying to move people out of the way first, or going in with energy blasts blazing first, or perhaps splitting the labour doing a bit of both? What do people think?"

[SalmonMax]

"I think," Tessaract says amiably, "that it's time to begin the experiment."

She stands up and glances at the city map on the wall, then gives a small nod to herself.

Colorless light blazes in the room, engulfing the assembled heroes-to-be.

(OOC - At the risk of seeming uppity, I'd like to propose that we pile into the d-pocket and teleport out to the scene of the crime. Questions of tactics can be answered with feet on the ground. )

['The Apostate']

Ditto's shape contorts some more as Tessaract declares that she'll handle the transport. As he is embraced by the chrominance he turns to the would be teleporter/out-of-towner Tessaract.

"You know, I really don't think that Dwarf guy is a team player." His voice sounded odd as it was a mix if Tessaracts own and the new form he was adopting. "It just all seems about him."

As the Wal-Mart parking lot comes into view...

[Guest D_Dawnstar]

Dawnstar soars out from the light and directly towards the scene of the crime without waiting on the other to prepare themselves.

"Oh, yeah!" she shouts. "It's butt-kickin' time!" Just barely fifteen feet off the ground she closes the distance, dazzling energy already beginning to encase her delicate hands in an anima of potential, irresponsible destruction.

[Brightstar]

Kallen laughs and rises into the air, her hands glowing a golden hue as she searches for a target. Ditto mimicing her was something she wasn't particularly happy with, but it did make her smile.

[314_Omega]

"Fascinating, your abilities would certainly seem to prove higher dimensional string theory is true..." Omega looked around seeing two Brightstars take to the sky. A moment of thought and his clothes reformed into something close to a policeman's uniform but without any rank insignia. Mentally he taps into the police band looking for more information about the situation at hand.

[Silas]

Silas remains silent as he let's the light engulf him along with the others. Watching the others interact as they prepared for their first team assignment provided him a little bit of insight on how he was going to help out. "I'll help provide cover for the citizens once we arrive, as well as provide any cover we may need."

[Primax]

Primax leaps into the air with Dwarfstar and Brightstar. He wants to hold back and wait to see what, if any, plan someone comes up with, but Dwarfstar goes racing toward the commotion.

"Crap."

With that, Richard lights out after the disguised Ditto and into the fray. Hell, it wasn't like he had any Eye-beam lasers to shoot at anybody anyway.

[Rorx]

Post removed to avoid confusion!

[Dawn OOC]

It was already a scene of chaos. People were running and screaming; any heroes on the ground were immediately aware of the running crowd, with no apparent source of the fear. Those in the air immediately see the problem: twelve nightmarish beasts, animal and metal fused together in an unholy symphony. Some were canine, and some were insects and creepy-crawlies, blown up beyond their natural attributes. Three were crowded around a mound of blue and red flesh; after a horrible moment, the heroes can tell it's the remains of a cop. The other nine seem to be searching for something, sniffing or otherwise sensing the air and the ground.

The grouped three are seven feet north of the northern set of doors, with the nine spread in a rough line across the store front. While they are tracking, they seem to be aware of the heroes, though not concerned with them. As for the downed officer, someone will need to get closer.

Tessaract has left the party about a hundred feet from the building, facing the front. The closest thing is 75 feet away from the party, dead ahead.

[OOC: Please give your immediate reaction no later than 8 am Friday morning, though hold off on combat actions for the moment. Then give your initative, and we'll start combat at the top of the round. No one is surprised.

I'll have an initiative/combat tracker in a thread, but I'm going to ask that everyone use OOC tags at the end of your posts while in combat. They should include initiate, current action, damage, toughness and any rolls needed.

This first combat will be our shakedown and things may get rough. Please be patient as I figure out the best way to handle this. And have fun! ]

[Rorx]

(((OOC Rewind/repost in light of new information... )))

As Dwarfstar steps from the light of Tesseracts transport method the light can be seen to bend very slightly as he increases his density and activates his forcefield.

Ahead he can see a mass of humanity in all it diversity, united in panic and generally heading towards and to either side of where the heros arrived about 100ft in front of the main entrance in the car park. Seeing Ditto-Brightstar and the original Brightstar take off, followed by Primax, Dwarfstar shrugs and Teleports to the front of the roof of the Walmart ovelooking the carpark.

From his new position he can clearly see the cyberbeasts, including those gathered around the body of the police officer. On seeing this his expression hardens and the air wavers around his hands as energy builds up.

(((OOC Initiative = 1d20+4 = [3,4] = (7)

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1851826/

Getting ready to Energy Blast the ones around the cop)))

[SalmonMax]

Tesseract blinks, bemused by the chaos and the mad rush of screaming, panicking people. She considers, and rejects, several possible actions including lifting them all up by lowering local gravitation, or just moving them all into the closed space for safekeeping. The first would limit her options unacceptably. The second was too unreliable en masse...probability alone dictated that some would probably avoid the wormholes, or would be able to escape over time. Not to mention she wasn't sure if it would affect the actions of the subjects.

Best not to tamper too much, at least until some baseline results were gathered.

Annoyingly, her body was reacting to the situation irrationally. Tesseract could feel her heart beating faster and the moisture in her mouth drying out. Her legs actually felt a little weak, which was of mild concern. The demands of the body to flee were making it harder to concentrate, so she decided to take some preventative measures to try to 'convince' her body that it was in no danger.

The air around Tesseract seemed to swim and distort for a moment, then snapped back into focus. The spatial distortion that surrounded her should cause attacks to veer away harmlessly, though a measure of uncertainty remained. This would be a valuable opportunity to put the theory to practical test.

(Raising force field)

[Vixen]

Vixen took to the air upon teleportation, looking with horror at the pulped remains of the police officer and the nightmarish creatures that were responsible.

Is he still alive? I can heal him - if I can get to him -

Vixen didn't over-analyze any further. She flew straight for the downed officer, intent on seeing if her gifts could save his life.

[Primax]

Hovering over the battlefield, Primax feels like a God. He is trying to figure out which hair-machine he will take on first and even figuring in which is the greatest danger to the people running away when something dives past him.

Has she lost her damn mind? he wonders as he locks onto Vixen and guesses her destination. Instinctively, he dives after her. As he closes with her, and the ground, he shouts out,

"I'll cover you!"

[Guest D_Brightstar]

Soaring just a few feet above parked rooftops, her eyes and arms encased in the golden anima of her destructive abilities Ditto/Brightstar closed the distance between her and the innocent as quickly as possible.

Whatever those beasts were was irrelevant at this point and as long they put lives in danger. Recklessly she picked up speed, the numbers were not looking good and the group was still too green and unused to working together.

"Vixie!" She shouts, swooping up to hover above a minivan. "Maxie's got your back. Max, brick wall for her, let nothing through! I'll lay down cover fire!"

"Tessy, Silly, handle crowd control, get these people our of here!" Being the only actual superhero present, even if only for eighty-issues, Ditto took as much control of the situation as possible. He was never the sharpest tool in the shed, but when it came to saving innocent lives he had a natural cunning only a few possessed. "Dwarf, Bright, Omgea... we're the perimeter... nothing gets past us, and keep em off Vix until she's is in the clear and the civilians are safe!"

He/she had to admit... working alone was never this much fun.

Initiative: Roll(1d20)+15:7,+15 Total:22

Click to reveal..

Mimicked Powers (Brightstar): 75 avail

Powers = 42

Blast (Accurate x2): 10

Protection: 10

Flight: 5

Feats = 13

Attractive 3, Evasion 2, Improved Initiative 3, Interpose, Precise Shot, Uncanny Dodge (auditory, visual), Ultimate Effort (Toughness save)

Combat = 20

Attack +5 (+9 w/Blast)

Defense +5

[314_Omega]

Omega stopped and cocked his head. Over the radio came panic and calls for backup and medical help and a SWAT team. More and more voices than even he could make out. Underneath it all was something odd though. Not a voice but a digital signal of some kind, one that did not carry voice data. With barely a though Omega's form shifted subtly. Externally one would be hard pressed to say exactly what was different but inside it was clear. His nano-machine network optimized for radio data transmission and his communications subsystems reverted to translation mode. Omega applied a slight amount of concentration and homed in on the signal attempting to determine the data being sent and if possible to access that same data stream.

OOC:

Switching to Mechanical Interface and Control Mode (Omega Array) and Translation Mode (Comms Array)

(07:56:04) (omega): Init Roll (+5)

(07:56:09) ChatBot: (omega) rolls 1d20 and gets 3.

Result = 8

[Brightstar]

Kallen's fists blaze with golden energy as she picks out a target. She's ready to start frying these abominations. She didn't need to see the seriously injured officer to get angry, or even need to be told what to do. She greatly looked forward to using her real powers again. It had been far, far too long.

(OOC Initaitive roll 8+17=25 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1853337/ )))

[Silas]

Silas tries to remain calm in the chaos that he finds himself in. The others quickly race off into action, leaving him to deal with the crowd. In a subtle voice Silas speaks the words Multimodis deperdo murus while his hands draw big circles in the air.

(OOC: (22:34:37) ChatBot: (silas) rolls 1d20 and gets 16+1=17. Using Elemental control Air to shield the civilians from harm.)

[Dawn OOC]

ROUND ONE

Vixen flew in, and one of the creatures spun on her, suprisingly fast. Teeth that were a mixture of gleaming metal and blood-stained ivories snapped shut just short of her arm, making a sickening noise like a scalpel sliding off bone.

[OOC Notes: Ani-borg Beta, DC 18, gets a 16, MISS]

[Brightstar]

Kallen trusts in Primax to protect Vixen and lines up her hands with the thing she'd chose. She felt an almost joyful sensation as she sent a bolt of coherent bio laser energy at the creature.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1858208/

(6+9=15

The blast misses the creature by inches greating a crater in the concrete. Inwardly She cringes. Dammit I've gotten rusty without a good shooting range. Well at least that ought to change now...

[Dawn OOC]

Primax was close to the ground, covering Vixen. He was too close perhaps; one of the beasts turned on him next. Ugly pinchers caught his arm, but Primax jerked away before they could tear into his skin. That was close - too close!

[OOC: Anti-borg Alpha, DC 18, gets a 17, MISS - my villians need more luck!]

[Guest D_Brightstar]

Hmm... Vix is in a pickle... Brightstar thought to herself as she soared a bit higher to gain a better vantage point. No time like the present.

Focusing for just a slight moment Brightstar threw her arm back and hurled a shimmering golden sphere towards the Beta Ani-borg that was hindering Vixen from applying much needed healing to the downed officer.

"Hey, dog!" She said with a mild urban accent. "Got sumtin' fo ya!"

Click to reveal..

Standard Action = Attack

Attack Roll = Roll(d20+12)12,+12 Total:24

Attack +5, Accurate +4, Dexterity +3. Total Bonus: +12

Precise Shot negates the -4 for firing at opponents that are engaged in combat.

With the bolt well on it's way to her target, Brightstar soared upwards, away from the clamping jaws of the oncoming ani-borgs.

Click to reveal..

Move Action = Movement

Flying out of Ani-borg melee range.

[Dawn OOC]

Click to reveal..

Toughness vs. DC 21 - gets a 17, fails by 4: Bruised, -1 Penalty

The monstrosity was hit squarely by the bolt, sizzling over flesh and components. The Ani-borg growled and shook its head as the dancing sparks sparked over its mottled fur and faded. One normal canine eye and one machine orb settled on the mimicked Ditto-Brightstar with an intelligent malevolence.

[SalmonMax]

Tessaract vanishes as she takes a step, and reappears immediately in the thick of the combat without any lightshow or drama. She looks mildly around at the cyborged animals.

"Isolating hostile entities."

Since the supers aren't caught up in the effect this time, it's easier to see what happens. The air ripples and twists around Tessaract, expanding quickly outward like a three-dimensional ripple from a stone dropped into water. Where that wave intersects an ani-borg, a colorless blaze of light erupts as waste energy escapes into the universe from some massive contortion of spacetime. The wormholes form quickly, but not so fast they can't be dodged...

[Dawn OOC]

All but three of the mutated animals are sucked in, including the ones around Vixen. Meanwhile, Tessaract had nine little packages waiting in her pocket.

Click to reveal..

#2, #3 and #6 remain - they were on Silas, Tess and Brightstar, respectively

[Dawn OOC]

Silas reached out, chanting under his breath. His very words broke the laws of nature, twisting them into a new reality, his reality. Power marched along his bones; it ate at his nerves. And then he released this new reality.

It shimmered where it interacted with normal reality and imposed its will. Whether that will-working was successful remained to be seen.

Click to reveal..

So I thought I had my book. I don't. Could someone kind and sweet and wonderful PM me the roll I need to make for Silas Elemental Control? Thanks!

[Primax]

He was prepared to surge forth into battle when ... the battle was suddenly gone. Instead Primax found himself staring down at Vixen and the wounded, or dead, cop. Gently, the bronzed superman landed beside Vixen.

"I can take him out of here when you're done," he managed to say to the Kitsune Spirit. While she worked her magic, he scanned around to see if anyone else would threaten them.

{Unless landing counts as an action, I'm holding my action.}

[Dawn OOC]

The three remaining mutations froze for a nano-second, rather like a hard drive receiving new data. Then the three of them shot off in various directions, moving away quickly (OOC: Speed 2).

And suddenly, the one on top of the cop reappeared, looking surprised - or as surprised as an animatronic horror of flesh and bone can look.

[Dawn OOC]

Omega's array was much more sensitive in his new configuration, and he was able to hone in on the strange communications. The were simple bursts of information, and he quickly deduced that they were commands to execute various computer files.

When most of the creatures disappeared, the information stopped for a moment, then resumed, on a much smaller scale, and with the command for the execution of a single file named 'SEPR8.exe' over and over. Omega quickly decided that this had caused their sudden change in action. After another .000498 seconds, he grasped the significance of the '8' in the name of the file and decoded the word-play. Any charm or cleverness was lost on Omega as he filed that away for further consideration of human irrationality.

He reached out with his own programming, knowing that shutting down the chain of command was critical to mission success. Overriding the command to issue this broadcast was even simplier than finding it.

[OOC: Notice check:

1d20=13 = 21

1d20=8 = 23]

[Rorx]

Dwarfstar had been intending to go for any near the downed officer and so when the 'borg re-appeared over the cop he quickly narrowed the focus on his enery blast, to reduce the chance of hitting the officer and unleashed a blast at the surprised 'borg.

Energy Blast, Precise Shot, reduce Damage Level from 10 to 8 t get +2 Acc = +10 total Attack.

d20+10 = 1d20+10=20

The Blast hit and Dwarfstar waited to see what it had upon the construct.

[Brightstar]

[Dawn OOC]

The frankenstein shrieked in pain as the bolt tore into it, its eyes rolling back in its head. Shivering, it stared around at the battle field, looking lost.

[OOC: 1d20=5 = 12, vs. DC 25, failed by more than 10, is Bruised x1 and Staggered]

[Primax]

For a moment, Primax was as surprised as the creature that appeared above the cop.

'To hell with that,' he thought as he lunged forward and punched it ... barely.

(22:36:49) ChatBot: (Adrian) rolls 1d20 and gets 8 +8=16. DC 27

[Dawn OOC]

Already limp and loose, the creature's strange machine-muscle mixture gave under Primax's blow. For the first time, he felt his own power as he damaged an enemy.

[OOC: Ani-borg #10: 1d20=17 = 23, vs. DC 27, Bruised x2, still Staggered

END OF ROUND ONE]

[Brightstar]

Kallen let loose another blast of golden energy at the thing she'd targeted earlier. The blast struck it dead on and she allowed herself a slight smile.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1874361/

(1d20+9 8+9=17 a hit)

[Dawn OOC]

The golden bolt hammered into the unnatural monster, and Brightstar got the further pleasure of seeing her power pound it to the ground. It remained there, panting heavily. After a moment, it slumped to the ground, motionless.

[OOC: Ani-borg #3's Toughness save:

1d20=3 = 10, vs. DC 25, Bruised x1, Staggered, Unconscious]

[Guest D_Brightstar]

"C'mon, c'mon..." Brightstar mumbles as she spun around from her flight out of melee range. "Go down already..."

She let loose with anoher blast from her safe position, targeting the same Aniborg that posed a risk to Vixen.

Click to reveal..

Standard Action = Attack

Attack Roll = Roll(d20+9)8,+9 Total:17

Attack +5, Accurate +4. Total Bonus: +9

Precise Shot negates the -4 for firing at opponents that are engaged in combat.

"Hey... hey... guys! It's okay! These things can't fly and are lacking ranged weaponry!" She grinned. "Not even a bio-organic missile rack that folds from their backs! We could tag these losers all day! The guy who made em' must have been a real hoser! Fish in a barrel! Woo hoo!"

[Dawn OOC]

The blast tore into the creature again, rocking its body further. Another strangled cry of pain escaped it.

[OOC: #10's Toughness check

1d20=15 = 20 vs 25, failed by five, already Staggered, cannot be Stunned, Bruised x3]