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Mutants & Masterminds: Future Imperfect - Chapter 2: Resistance


Joani

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Juno had changed clothes. She was in a drab olive T-shirt and a black leather vest now, with blue jeans and grey socks in sandals. She seemed a bit more relaxed than before as well, if still not exactly in a great mood.

"Stole the PDA," Juno said smugly. "This guy Hicks gave it to me so I could look up dad's name, then it seems like he forgot about it so...your tax dollars at work."

She put it back in one of the vest's pockets and stopped to think for a second before saying, "We're going into a screwed up situation pretty much no matter what. Honestly, I think Ronnie probably works with or for the government...I'm not completely sure which, but my money's that she's some kind of private contractor or something. Not part of the government, but with clearance and stuff. That's just a guess though, from what I've seen."

"She's not selling us out though, I don't think. She hasn't told Hicks that any of us are mutants."

Juno shrugged. "All we can do is wait and see." She gives Adrian a look. "Or leave, I guess. But I'm sticking it out awhile longer."

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Actually having some of his suspicions confirmed relaxed Adrian a little. She probably was a mutie-turncoat, but Juno seemed up on the situation.

"I'll stick with you the," Adrian confirmed. "I'll try to keep an eye on her, incase it looks like she's going to hand us over the the authorities, but if you are okay with it, I can manage."

As Adrian headed over to the cafeteria for some food, he spotted a kid he hadn't seen before.

"Hey, who are you?"

Then,

"Six?" as the next kid walked in.

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Sam woke up groggily as the rumble of the hummer came down the street. She rubbed absent-mindedly at a catch in her neck as she pulled the lever that brought the seat upright.

"Luxury car my ass."

She looked in the rearview mirror and watched what she could only assume to be the rest of the fives emerge from a Hummer and head into the building.

"Guess school is in session, better hurry up before the bell rings."

Sam grabbed the satchel, but left her backpack as she opened the door, making sure to let everyone else make their way into the school before following suit. No need to cause another incident with yet another jerkwad that was having a bad thong day.

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A long, long time ago.. when the twins had the luxury of sleeping in till they chose (or till one of their parents woke them up), Sieg had almost always woken up before Jer. He was one of those morning people, who preferred not to waste too much time unconscious. Jer had always hated that - not because he was up early, but because he'd always been of the opinion that once he was up, she should be too. She preferred burying herself in the warmth of her blankets. But, of course, you can't block out a voice in your head by burying yourself under a blanket, or hiding your head under a pillow. So, reluctantly, she'd always gotten up.

Even in the hectic days after they'd fled, calling each other new names and living off secret money, he'd always been an early riser when they felt safe. But in moments like these, it had been Savannah who'd developed that instinct for danger. It had been she who woke HIM up, whispering urgently in his mind that it was time to go, that danger was nearby. And that's what happened this morning, the first morning of their freedom from captivity. Just because you were free didn't mean you were safe, and when the door opened, and other people began to file in, she sat up, rubbing her face and eyes to wake up, and whispered softly in her brother's mind.

*Sieg.. wake up. It's time to get up, people are back from their scouting mission, we should be ready. We don't want to miss anything.*

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The blonde boy rolled away, mentally and physically. Years of heading his sister's warnings had taught his body to move even before his mind had registered her thoughts completely. He still felt drained and fear was still the staple of his existence, but the sheer freedom of being able to wake up was a luxury he reveled in and brought a smile to his lips. His movements were fluid and his long hair gave him almost a leonine air.

He watched the scouting party as they made their way into the gym. *We should take them to Six and his resistance, just so everyone knows what's going on in the building. Surprises are not welcome things here right now, I think.*

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Sly grumbled as he stretched and got out of the sleeping bag. This sucked. He hated morning and rarely did the well with them. For the last several years he'd spent all his time gambling and hanging out with people till the wee hours of the morning because Las Vegas was not a morning kind of city. Business, the kind Sly was involved with was handled at night or at the earliest in the afternoon. Now here these people were waking up first thing in the morning. Dang. He left the sleeping bag right where he'd slept in it and headed to the cafeteria looking for coffee and something edible.

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Joshua was awaken by one of his 'goblins' when the scouting party arrived back at the school. Feeling much more refreshed from the sleep, Joshua made his way to locker room, where he finally took a warm shower and cleaned his clothes as best as he could.

He returned about 15 minutes later, refreshed and curious what the scouting party had found during there trip in the night.

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Noises roused Tim from his slumber. He let out a small, sleepy groan and tucked his head under the flap of the sleeping bag. It was too early and his body still hurt. He tried to go back to sleep but the scouting team sounjded like a thunderous herd on the wooden floors of the gymnasium. 10 minutes later, Tim gave up trying to get back to sleep and sat up. Blood had dried the T-shirt to his body and now he repoened the wound.

Click to reveal..
-1 injured

Willpower: 4/4

QP: 28

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Tom sat up as the scouting group returned to the gym, the difference in their footsteps awakening him while they were still in the corridor outside. Rubbing sleep from his eyes he calls across to them, "So what's the situation out there?"

Click to reveal..

Health = Hurt (-1)

QP = 30/30

Willpower = 3/3

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Having found a clean shirt, pants, socks and a nice pair of hiking boots, Kevin rode quietly in the backseat on their way to the school. If his heart had been in gear, he might have questioned their new friend or their new ride. But for now, he was simply content to sit back and absorb information. He would speak if directly spoken to, but otherwise he'd remain stoically silent.

This continued as he entered the school, medical supplies in the over the shoulder satchel that he'd been able to find. He was ready to set up shop, but would wait until all the current info had been dissemenated first.

Click to reveal..
(( [Wounded -2] || 28/28 QP || 6/6 WP ))
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Six ignored Adrian completely and instead rushed towards Juno and almost tackled her. She quickly adapted to the sudden outburst and managed to hold her own against him stepping back a little to absorb the impact.

“I thought I’d never see you again!”, he said almost crying which was very unusual for him. The last days must’ve been hell.

Six struggled to regain his composure and smiled weakly at his friends. “They slaughtered everybody who resisted – we had to flee. I’m really sorry Juno, we had no chance.”

His shoulders slung forward as he confessed their defeat. The other kids gathered around them looking at Juno and Adrian for guidance.

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Juno hugged Six almost painfully tightly when he slammed into her; an unusual display of emotion from her.

"It's cool, Six," she said in a choked voice. "You did the right thing. Jesus, I thought you guys...I had no idea what happened to you..."

She gives his back a pound, then lets go with a quick wipe across her eyes.

"Alright, listen up!" Juno said then, her voice raised and cracking like a whip. "You guys, every one of you, has balls three feet wide right now, so I don't want to hear any more apologizing. Staying in town when there's tanks and...and fucking killer robots stalking around? Crazy...fucking...awesome."

She nodded seriously, then with a sweep of her hand indicated Ronnie and the other mutants.

"Girl with the punk hair's Ronnie. She pretty much saved my ass, so give her respect. These others with her are the same deal. We all got taken, and we fought our way home. So that's one for our side. I know that must seem like one to like...a million...but we gotta start somewhere. First point's the hardest...after that you just keep the streak going. That's what Ronnie and our new friends here are going to help us do."

"So look at them, and look at me, and then look at yourselves. You are now looking at the winning team!"

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"Hey, Trav," Ronnie said, greeting her friend with a smile. A cigar burned away in her mouth, and she looked calm and relaxed in her regular clothing. "Trav, this cutie is Captain Hicks. Hicks, this is my friend, Trav." She gave Trav her cheeky grin and added, "He on loan from Uncle Sam and he's going to help us."

He looked at the rousing mutants, as well as the newcomers. "Alright, guys, let's have some order," she said, speaking up so all could hear. "We all seem to know something about what's been going on. The twins and cyber-girl were captives, I and the General have been fighting these guys individually for years, Juno and Adrian seem to know the Lost Boys, and the Captain here is our liaison to the impressive resources of the U.S. of A. I'm sure there's more I don't know about. So here's the deal. It's show and tell time.

"Some of you aren't going to want to share. That's fine. You don't have to tell us everything, but tell us what will help out," she continued, getting serious. "You may not trust us and that's valid but let's consider that we have to survive this mess for trust to be an issue.

"In short, what do we know? There's a curfew, the US is under martial law and we're dealing with aliens backing or pretending to be Nazis. Can anyone tell us more about the aliens and/or Nazis?"

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Originally Posted By: May Allman
"Hey, Trav," Ronnie said, greeting her friend with a smile. A cigar burned away in her mouth, and she looked calm and relaxed in her regular clothing. "Trav, this cutie is Captain Hicks. Hicks, this is my friend, Trav." She gave Trav her cheeky grin and added, "He on loan from Uncle Sam and he's going to help us."


Travis fought to remain composed, "Umm, yeah, hi. Travis if you please." Damnit Ronnie this is the opposite of a good idea. This is in fact a rather bad idea. He shook the captain's hand and lead them all to the gym where the others were already waking. Travis found Ronnie's little speech amusing as much for the fact that she avoided mentioning that he'd been right there fighting with her much of the time. At least that's what she tells me.

Originally Posted By: Sam
"I believe I can help with that."

Oh sure, nice and cooperative now aren't we. Travis frowned but said nothing, Let somebody else ask.
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Adrian came out with two trays of food (now non-frozen pankakes, apple sauce, and several milks) and went over to his sister. He made the hand off to Rebecca and was about to ask a poignent question to Hicks when he saw the girl he'd rescued.

Walking over to Sam, he offered her his tray,

"I'm Adrian. Glad to see you up and about."

There was more to say, like,

'Were have I seen you before?' or 'You doing okay?' but this wasn't the time. The people gathered around needed information more than he needed his answers.

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Sam took the offered tray from the hottie with a smile and nod that may have been a reflexive bow.

"Thanks, I'm starving!" She said, moving to find a seat while shoving a rolled up pancake in her mouth.

She looked around the area as she walked, stopping just short of sitting down.

"Let's head to the teacher's lounge, I need a phone jack, and there is better seating, someone grab a projector on the way." She said around a mouthful of pancake, her cheeks bulging from the effort.

She looked down at the tray as she finally got the first bite down, "These things taste like crap, how do kids swallow this?" With that she shoved another large wad of pancake in her mouth and walked towards the probable location of the lounge.

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"Sure thing," Ronnie said ruefully, wishing she'd said it was less 'show' and more 'tell' time. But if the girl had vital information, Ronnie would listen. She just hoped that she didn't take too long - they had things to do and aliens to destroy. "Whatever you need... what is your name, anyway?"

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Tom quickly clears away the stuff he had been sleeping in and makes sure he is vaguely presentable before joining the group with the 'cybergirl'. "Teacher's lounge? They should have some coffee up there at least. Although I wouldn't count on the phones working, all the broadcast media are either out or heavily jammed at the moment. Or at least they were last night."

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Sly piled on a plate of the pancakes and some syrup to make them digestible and grabbed four cartons of milk and stuffed them in his pockets and carried his plate toward the teachers lounge rhythmically chewing and swallowing. Despite being a performer he wasn't much for public speaking and liked keeping a low profile so for now he just kept quiet. He suspected he probably knew a good bit about what was going on from his glimpses into the minds of the twins and cyber girl. He dearly wished he could read Ronnie's mind, but he wouldn't do that... would he? Given her psychic defenses it was a moot question, but an interesting one. He'd never had a friend before or known anyone whom he couldn't read as easily as listening to a conversation at the next table over in a restaurant.

One thing was sure, he wasn't comfortable with all these people knowing what he could do, and now that they did they would probably be wary of him and think mean things about him and get all paranoid in their thoughts around him. Like being out of his presence made any difference...

*Stop trying to make it out to be sour grapes Sly, they will either like you or hate you and there's jack you can do about it now so might as well just play nice and hope for the best!*, He thought to himself as he got comfortable on one of the couches in the lounge.

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Originally Posted By: May Allman
Vaguely amused, Ronnie said, "Swallow and try again. You just told me you're a slutty Swede, or perhaps the captain of the Millennium Falcon before he settled down."


Sam smiled a devilish grin, giggling a little as she swallowed "Maybe a little of both?" she said turning back towards the lounge.

Originally Posted By: Rorx
"Teacher's lounge? They should have some coffee up there at least. Although I wouldn't count on the phones working, all the broadcast media are either out or heavily jammed at the moment. Or at least they were last night."


"Call me Orphan." she tossed over her shoulder, "And I'll take care of that." she finished, heading through the door to the lounge.

The laptop started to power up on its own as Sam moved to plug it in to a phone jack and outlet while she waited for the projector.
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Tim followed the steady stream of people to the kitchen. An unlit cigarette hung from his mouth. In the cafeteria, he grabbed a couple boxes of Crunch Berries and a gallon of milk. These he took to the nearest table and ate noisily.

When he finished, he leaned back in the cafeteria chair and lit a smoke. It's sweet smell complementing the cereal's flavor.

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Jousha found a spot in the teachers lounge with his food and his 'goblins'. He was intriged by with learning more about what was going since it affected his life. He didn't feel the need to share any more info abouy his life as of yet. So he quitely sat waiting for the right time to speak.

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Juno and the 'Lost Boys' lagged behind the others, filtering into the lounge a few minutes after the others. Several of them were still chewing or had some microwave warmed hamburgers on trays. They traded gibes between themselves about the crappy food, and sometimes laughs rang out from something someone did or said. They formed a knot in the back of the lounge, exactly as they generally did in a class.

Juno herself was a bit apart from the rest of the kids in her group, shepherding them and joking around with them, but sitting as close to Tim and Joshua and the other mutants as she did to her 'gang.'

She paid particular attention to Orphan as she fiddled with the laptop and computer.

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Savannah and Simon watched quietly as the others filed in, and movement began in the general direction of the teacher's lounge. She glanced at Simon, and motioned with a slight nod of hear head to follow them.

*Go on, you make sure we have somewhere to sit, I'll grab us something to eat at the cafeteria, it looks like some people are stopping there on the way.

They headed down the hall behind everyone else, and split off into the larger room for a second. She stepped into the cafeteria area as well, and smiled tentatively at a couple of the people there as she rummaged around quickly. She would've killed for the chance to eat something hot right then, but time was of the essence. So she followed suit of the lankier, brown haired guy and grabbed a box of cereal, two of the cafeteria bowls, and a few of those small, student-sized milk cartons. It would do for now.

She it all on a tray with some spoons, and a couple of bottles of water, and hurried down to the teacher's lounge. She arrived just as the cyborg girl - Orphan, she'd said to call her - was booting up the electronics. She sat down quietly next to her brother, and placed the tray in front of them both to share. Then she opened the water, took a long drink of it, and glanced around. She noticed after a moment that no one had gotten Sam the projector she had asked for, so she stood up and disappeared out of the room again.

*I'm gonna get this girl the projector she was looking for. I hope the cereal's okay - it's not much, but it's the best I could do for now. Anything else will take time to cook.

She headed down the main hall, hoping to find some IT closet or something. She ended up in a science room, which had a projector on a cart off to the side. Hoping that would be good enough, she wheeled it back to the lounge, and pushed it over to Sam.

"I hope that's okay. It looks like it hooks up to a computer."

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Kevin still didn't trust either the cyborg or the aryan twins that they'd found on the ship. However, they seemed to have been easily 'adopted' into this increasingly strange 'family'. He figured that he could at least listen to what they had to say, maybe even punch holes in their story. Besides, if things turned sour, everyone'd need him there to protect them.

So he followed everyone into the teacher's lounge, and leaned casually up against the wall beside the door. In actuallity he was anything but casual, but he wanted to put the cyborg and twins at ease... more chance that they'd try something if they thought everyone was off-guard.

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He caught her name right before he left. Adrian went hunting for a projector. Asking one of the school kids were to go, he went running off as fast as he could. Sure enough, the found the AV closet, but it was locked. No surprise there. What was surprising was how the door literaly disintergrated when he pushed against it. He hadn't even tried all that hard.

He found a digital projector and a screen. Grabbing them both, he ran back down to the Teacher's lounge ... just in time to see Savanah rolling in another pojector. He gave a healthy shrug, put the projector down and took the screen into the room.

Inside he was greatful to find the Becca had gone and prepared him another tray of food. It wasn't the best he had ever had, but it wasn't dumpster diving. Eating rapidly, he waited to see what Orphan had to say.

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Sam looked up as the juicebox wheeled in the digital projector and smiled, "Thanks."

She looked past the blond to watch McDreamy walk in with a screen and gave him a coy smile, "Thank you. You are so thoughtful, could you put that up for me? That would be delicious."

Sam turned back to the projector, plugging it in to her laptop and positioning it so it would point at the wall that gave the best vantage for the room.

Adrian hung the screen on the room's flag mount and went to sit by a young girl and started digging into a tray of food.

Sam frowned at the positioning, but readjusted the projector and stood back and to one side of the screen as images from around the world of robots, four-armed aliens, burning capital buildings and empty MIC's flashed across it.

"The two alien races are poised to collapse all human resistance within the week." She paused and let that sink in before continuing, "We have two advantages. One; they fear all you class fives for some reason. Two, you have me."

She continued on, wanting to get her reasons out before they lambasted her, "I used to be in their network, I know how it works, and know that they are sorely missing me. In fact, they are probably searching for me as we speak, as I was integral to their plan. However, if I can get into their system, I am pretty sure I can take control of the terminators, if not crash the network."

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"Well, you'd need to be reconnected to the network? Presumably with our help?" Ronnie asked softly. "Sounds good, save that we don't have any assurance that you aren't leading us into an elaborate trap. Please, convince us that you're on our side. Otherwise, we'll have to have you restrained until this crisis is over." Her voice was level, even a bit tired but there was no doubting her sincerity.

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"Good luck with that," Travis muttered under his breath. He was glad that Ronnie at least still had some wits about her. He thought about what Sly had said the night before, Can we trust his word? Would they have planted an agent to be able to corroborate her story? Travis shook his head, he wasn't sure just what kind of game was being played at here but he did know he didn't like any of it.

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Juno raised her hand, then said, "Could we back up a little? Like, to the aliens? Okay, so there's two races and they're both fighting us? How long's this been going on? What do they want with us or the planet or whatever?"

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"If I was still under their control, hordes of machines would have descended upon the school last night and killed or captured everyone here." Sam said levelly.

"Especially after the way your fearless leader there introduced himself." she finished, gesturing towards Travis.

Sam sighed, "Look, I realize that you have no reason to trust me, and frankly I don't trust me either, but they are going to take over the planet by the end of next week whether you like me or not."

Sam bore down, becoming quite serious, emotional pain reflecting in her eyes, "And trust me, you don't want that to happen. Regardless, with my abilities, I don't think you have a choice. They are poised to seize all defenses at any moment."

Originally Posted By: Juno
Juno raised her hand, then said, "Could we back up a little? Like, to the aliens? Okay, so there's two races and they're both fighting us? How long's this been going on? What do they want with us or the planet or whatever?"

"Two races, one controls the other. I don't have the answers to the rest, they didn't see fit to explain themselves to the tools."

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"This has nothing to do with whether we like you," Ronnie said, her voice still calm as she spoke around her cigar. Only Travis knew that calm-Ronnie wasn't a particularly good sign. "You might not have been able to reach them last night, so couldn't tell them. You've given us a fake name and I don't know shit about you-"

She's a computer hacker who disappeared years ago, Nana said. I was hunting for her, remember?

Ronnie collected herself quickly. "So if we trust you, we're screwed, if we don't, we're screwed?"

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Originally Posted By: Sam
"Especially after the way your fearless leader there introduced himself." she finished, gesturing towards Travis.

"Fuck you," Travis made an irritated face. "I don't need some piece of shit traitor giving me crap. If you'd wanted to play nice you had your chance. I don't lead these people and none of them lead me, but if you need my help you've pretty much fucked that up completely. Congrats, great job." Travis pushed away from the wall and made his way to the door.
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"Whoa," Juno said, getting to her feet. "Did the rest of us miss something? Jesus, whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? If she was playing the other team, why would she bother with any of this? She could just play dumb, keep a low profile."

"What's the malfunction here?" she asked Travis.

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Simon set his half-empty bowl of cereal on the end table next to him and cleared his throat. He spoke quietly; there was roughness to his voice from long disuse.

"If we're under attack by an enemy that already has one slave race, I think out time would be better spent learning everything we can rather than cussing at each. I would not like to spend another four years as a captive and lab rat again. Some of you have been outside, does what you saw seem to fit with what she is saying?"

He watched the others in the room as he spoke, making eye contact with those that would let him. His words were spoken with no malice or accusation, just a simple statement of his opinion and his attempt to act on said opinion.

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"Travis," Travis was leaving so he had to be quick, "you got to think smart, not angry. We need you with us Man."

"Ronnie, we HAVE to take shit you do without explaination and you have the gall to call her on unverified information? Pot-kettle-black. We trust her because can we really risk not trusting her?"

Looking to Captain Hicks,

"Do we have any guaruntee that you won't shuve all of us into camps once this fight is over? Don't we have the right to say, 'what's in this fight for us?'"

Looking out over the room,

"The world is in danger - our home, no matter how screwed up," looing to Hicks, " but I think it's a fight we need to be in. Who else can do it? If we say no then maybe we did belong in those camps all along, because we weren't a part of humanity. I say we find out what's going on and find a way to strike back. I'm in. Whose in it with me?"

Click to reveal..

Trying to inspire others (Raw Charisma + 1 WP) (16:04:02) ChatBot: (Adrian) rolls 5d10 and gets 3,5,7,1,4 = 2 successes

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Kevin stepped in front of the closed door, blocking Travis' exit. His tone was flat and even, neither the 'Doctor' or the 'General' that any in the room had meet during the escape. His eyes also held none of the warmth or even humanity that they had before; these were the eyes of one who had seen too much death, but couldn't look away.

"Come on Travis, even Ernst Kaltenbrunner got a trial before they hanged him. Even if she's one of them, we can at least pump her for information before we decide what to do with her... and you never know, she might just prove useful." even if it's just as someone to throw in the way of those robots to keep us safe a little longer...

He made no motion to move out of Kevin's way, and actually started concentrating to bring up his forcefield, safely, if necessary.

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