It was October 28th, 2003 at 04:00.  Dillon was sipping that horrid sludge he called coffee, though he'd long since lost any sense of what it tasted or smelled like, while maps streamed across the new displays in the War Room.

He waited for everyone to arrive before starting into the briefing.  "Okay ... we're about an hour out from our biggest operation since Kansas City.  Some of you might be familiar with most of this already, but we're going to step through it one more time to get everyone on the same page."

He tapped the button and a power-point presentation began.  Satellite photos from a US Military Satellite of Chihuahua, Mexico with red circles indicating a few clusters of buildings on the north side of the city.  "See this area?  From about ... De Las Industrias to ... Cristóbal Colón, Mexico Federal Highway 45 ... just south of the industrial parks.  Someone dropped an anonymous tip on US authorities ... which through channels I don't even begin to understand got dropped off on us."  He clicked the remote again, and the presentation segued to closer up photos of buildings from street level: one- and two-story residences, crammed together, in less than ideal repair.  "These little residential buildings look pretty unassuming, but our tip says that beneath this entire square mile there's a reinforced steel and concrete complex."
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He clicked to the next picture.  "It's a huge maze of tunnels.  Best guess from our analysts is that they've been ditching the displaced dirt in the industrial parks just to the north.  We're not sure if the complex is finished, still under construction, or what, but if the information is good than we're looking at the largest drug and armaments warehouse of Los Zetas.  They're the biggest guns in Mexico now, and they're on the Colombian payroll."

"It bears mentioning that these guys are ... sort of our creation.  Back in the late nineties, before the team split and when most of us were just recruits, these guys were a private army for the Gulf Cartel, former Mexican Special Forces.  Then Pax and the original T2M took a month to clean up the drug trade.  One of the casualties of that little campaign was Arturo Guzmán Decena, Los Zetas first commanding officer.  Rogelio González Pizaña, Arturo's second-in-command, picked up the pieces.  And as we've been crushing their competition, Pizaña and his shadowy backers have been absorbing a lot of the leftovers, moving from private army to a cartel in their own right."

"So," he clicked to the next image of the neighborhood they'd be working in.  "Our intent here is to break their backs.  As of right now, we believe this intelligence is exclusive, which ideally means that we have the element of surprise.  We're going to enter, detain any and all Los Zetas we find, and do our damnedest to preserve the scene so there's enough evidence to prosecute every last drug dealer that's in bed with them.  Maybe even the Colombians."
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He flipped ahead another slide.  "Our contact for this operation is General Roman Zuniga of the Mexican Army ... el Ejército Méxicano.  Sorry, still trying to practice my Spanish.  He's independent of the usual chain of command, and his troops have the latest equipment -- new rifles, Humvees, grenades, even helicopters and demolitions gear.  They've been preparing for this for almost a year now and have special orders from the President and the Minister of Defense giving General Zuniga total authority on the ground.  We'll be bringing a few of our own along, but having seven battalions of highly trained backup makes me feel a little better about this whole show."
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After scrolling through a few images of Zuniga's Regiment, Dillon put the remote down.  "Once on the ground, it will be our job to find an entrance to and descend into those tunnels, provide Zuniga's Regiment with support, and take on any Novas working for the Zetas.  We've also got a barrage of suppressor drugs and authorization from Utopia to go ahead and detain any resisting novas.  Because of the secrecy of this whole thing, the Mexican legal system doesn't have a clue what we're doing.  In fact, since there's international drug trafficking and murder involved, by executive order anyone captured in this operation will be tried in an international court.  Utopia lawyers will do the prosecuting ... to be honest, this is pretty shaky ground, makes me a little uncomfortable, but we've got the president behind us on this.  And we don't want to risk all the good evidence getting drenched in acid and acetone."

"Now, what are we looking for ... our people have been watching all the major airports in Mexico, and we haven't seen anything coming in or out.  That means that the drugs are moving by truck or in some way we can't see.  Priority is anything to help us understand how the cartels are moving all these drugs.  After that, we're here to disarm Los Zetas: we're looking for arms, ammunition, currency, computers, and drugs.  There's even a chance of finding valuable documents.  Each and every one of you has a new headset with a digital camera attached.  Snap photos of everything you find, and our backup staff will log your location and send the appropriate professionals to handle cleanup and evidence collection when the situation is under control."

"Second, there's an element of danger to all this.  Most of the Zetas used to be commandos or military, and they are estimated to number six thousand or so.  We don't expect to find them all in one spot, but if there's a few hundred with assault rifles, missiles or worse it could get hairy out there.  They've also been recruiting nova support in preparation for taking us on.  Dr. Zero, you might remember Simón Espericueta," Dillon picked up the remote and clicked through a few slides, "that maniac that keeps sending you death threats, convinced you arrested his wife and killed his sister back in July?  Guess who he's running with now."

"Last, but not least, I have a few suspicions this is just another bait and switch, an excuse to let us do the US Government's dirty work or worse.  So ... everyone be careful.  Be doubly mindful of collateral damage.  If the situation escalates or starts moving out of control, T2M: Central is on standby, and that just worries me more.  Pax will probably cause in international incident, wreck whole neighborhoods, and then smile for the camera to make it all better.  So ... we've got just ourselves to count on."

"Okay ... before I start going through the roster of VIPs and possible nova opposition, we are joined, once again, by the illustrious Impetus, whose job it will be to sell this entire operation to the locals, and the beautiful Jennifer Landers, a.k.a. Slider, as seen on the cover of Newsweek and N!Sight with Parker Stevenson.  I want to hear a good send-off for her; her formal papers were filed and approved this morning, so she'll soon be an auxiliary like Impetus here, free to knock a few back at the Archon without fear of missing something important in the morning."  Dillon paused for applause.

"Finally, Dr. Saul Jansen and his medical team are here with us to provide emergency medical care and help contain the situation if something goes wrong and toxic chemicals get everywhere."  Dr. Jensen nodded appreciatively upon being introduced, but otherwise neglected to comment.

"Questions?"  Dillon had a few slides left with the enemy roster, but that was about it for the briefing.
This message was last updated by the GM at 21:06, Fri 30 Aug 2013.

Phantasm ran over the details, skimming the papers in front of her and glancing up at the screen every time a new slide came up.
"So... is this going to roll into an extended clean up mission, after we deal with these tunnels?  Are we going to try and shut down the majority of the 6000 of them, or just take out their main base?"

Dillon finished off his coffee.  "Nah, the six-thousand figure is an estimate, probably scattered across two continents.  Of the real commando types, I wouldn't expect more than a few hundred here at this complex.  Least, that's what all these reports are telling me."

"But yeah.  We crawl into those tunnels ahead of the Mexican task force, bring down the heavy resistance, take down any novas, and then mop-up.  If you brains want to play detective and try to find links to the Medellín while we're in there, awesome."

Tunnels.  Gale was not happy with this.  She tried to hide it, but she had to be honest.  Tunnels were not where she was comfortable, and most likely she would get in the way.  "Is there going to be a few of us left outside to clean up anyone who tries to escape or anything?"

"I thought about that.  We'll need someone doing combat air patrol, and unless there's a cry of protest that will be you and Solitaire.  And there's a reason for that too."

Dillon flipped back a few slides to a collection of photographs of Juan Tajillo shaking hands with a Zeta commander.  "Say hello to Juan.  Haven't seen much of him since Kansas City, but these photos are from three days ago.  I figured I wouldn't be a good friend if I didn't let you have another crack at him, Sol, so you'll be the dirty surprise if he tries to slip away."

"You two should also worry about these this woman," Dillon clicked along to a few pictures of an Elite, an American woman with short-cut blond hair and a eufiber suit, colored in a shifting gray and blue camouflage pattern.  "Eleanor "Cloudburst" Shechter, from DeVries.  Last time we saw her was Nigeria.  She's been in Mexico doing 'weather observation' for an unnamed employer.  She's a flier and has some sort of invisible projectile attack.  Usually she's against criminal enterprises and murder, so I don't know what's going on here."
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:20, Mon 01 Feb 2010.

Solitaire hits her left palm with her right fist and smiles evilly. "Oh, you're too kind Comstock, I've been waiting for this. I'm going to drop a mountain on that poor bastard, lets see him walk away from that..."

Juan was the one element of this that bothered her, Solitaire wasn't afraid of him, but he'd surprised her once, it wouldn't happen again. This 'Cloudburst' was just an Elite, beat them up a bit and they'd usually cut their losses and run. Jail didn't pay well after all. Still, it was depressing to see such talent go to waste.

"Stormy there shouldn't be a problem, Its either absurd pay or blackmail, either way, She'll likely bail if the battle looks lost. Sure you want me upstairs though? There won't be a lot of room to dodge down there, bullets don't bother me, but I suppose the rest of you, save Imp and Grav, can't fly."

Imp studied the files, basently rolling his silver coin whit his left hand. "So, when we talk about collateral damage, we're talking about the people topside, yes?  I'm guessing that there's going to be some, perhaps many, people in that barrio working for the Zetas.  Do we have contingency plans for if they take hostages?  Could get ugly.  Can we get some deep scans of the area and see if there is a tunnel network that tehy might bolt out of, or that we can insert into?  Also, thermal scans, they've gotta be powing that base somehow, and I doubt that they're getting their juice of the local grid.  Take out their generator, kill the lights, then go in and take advantage of the confusion.  We've got some pretty choice starlight optics systems that'll let us operate in the dark.  Can we jam their communications?  An EMP of somekind, or find and take out phone lines and relays?  Cloudburst, I remember from the Amp Room,  seemed like a decent person.  I don't know if she's working for the cartels, but I do know Anna doesn't usually hire know assets out to drug dealers.  Something odd there."  The silver coin continued rolling across his knuckles.  "If there wasn't the worry of civilian casualties I'd recomend taking a 5m long 30cm diameter tungsten rod up into orbit then fireing it at the compound.  Take the whole thing out in one apocalyptic flash."

Dillon nodded to Solitaire.  "Well, I figure you're used to the job.  And fast enough to show up at a moment's notice if we need you down there.  That and I want everyone with a partner at all times.  No one like Juan ought to get the drop on any of us alone.  Slider: you're with Dr. Jansen for fast response, by the way.  Fastest medical response on the planet."


Rods From Heaven had a certain appeal.  "I think they built in the middle of town specifically to avoid that.  Hide behind the factory workers and the unemployed.  But you're right ... we don't have time to get in there and clear out all the noncombatants without giving away our element of surprise.  And if we collapse any tunnels, it could pull in the houses over us.  Because of that, I don't know how useful I'll be in all this.  I'll be playing at half-strength until we've got a good idea of how well built the complex is."

"Unfortunately, I've got no detailed scan, no LIDAR, no seismic modeling.  Tip only got in three days ago, and this morning is about as fast as Zuniga could get his unit ready.  But," and Comstock pulled out a poster tube, "Frosty the Hitwoman has Halloween presents for everyone."  He pulled out a paper map and unrolled it across the conference table.  "It's a copy of a map courtesy of a Utopia psychic and a cooperative Zeta."  He turned to the displays again and fumbled with the remote, skipping past about half-a-dozen slides of other novas -- a woman in combat fatigues and a balaclava, a Hispanic man with a gleaming white aura, a man with bones growing through oddly discolored skin, a brown-haired woman in a sharp suit, a luchador, and a Chinese man in street clothes -- then scrolling back, and then finally going to the end of the presentation.  "And ... I think it lines up like this."

The map was sketchy, at best, built from the memories of a thug that had only been in the complex once or twice.  But it didn't show any tunnels stretching three miles outside the city, just tunnels beneath the square-mile of residential zone he'd shown before.  "Big entrance would be here, around this two-story.  There's probably other entrances, but we'll have to rely on our backup to build a firm cordon.  Nobody in or out once we arrive."

"Gravitas, you'll have to get the team there.  Slider, will be taking our support group just outside of town.  As for communications, the general will be jamming all radio frequencies except priority signals.  I ... don't know what we could do for an EMP, though."

"For EMP devices i recommend grabbing this guy named Skew who's in training, he erupted in Miami a couple weeks back, blacked out several square blocks, Sol would like his fashion sense.
Failing that, you get me a big chunk of pure iron, maybe 20km of fine copper wire, and some capacitors and I can make an EMP bomb in ten minutes or so.  It won't be pretty, but it will fry everything within a couple miles or so.  Safe too, no explosions, sound, lights, anything, one quick push through the gate and whatever's in the radius is useless.  it would wipe out computers though.  I don't know if our resident cyberkinesis experts could put humpty dumpty back together again.  Of course, if they've shielded their base from this kind of thing it's going to fail entirely."

This was the first meeting Slider had been at for a while, and the strain from previous incidents was still obvious in the way she sat, and the tired, detached tone in her voice.  Leaving would be good for her, but at the same time it would be sad to part with friends and go on auxiliary again.  At least Imp would be stationed out of the Nevada base.  She would be moving around, and permanently stationed in Europe.  But it would also be good to get away from the memory of their recent losses...

Slider heard mention of her part in the plan, and looked up.
"I'll bring in the support group, but did you want me on anything else?  Or just stay there to evac them if anything goes wrong?

Oh, and a couple of things:
One, I talked to Skew recently at a meet and greet for the newbies, and even though his personality is a bit out there at times, I think he would be good for this, and it'd be good for him to get some training in the field.

and two, I don't think you want to EMP the whole base, not if we want to get evidence on these people.  Which I for one do... any scrap that links them back to Columbia is evidence we can use to support going into that country and taking down the cartels there."

"Yeah ... shit, I didn't think of that.  Guess we'll rule the EMP out.  Frostburn's actually got some wide authority on this op, so if you guys want more backup we could call in anyone in training or Auxiliary.  Even outside contractors.  They might be a little late, but it's still better than nothing."

"But yeah," Dillon nodded to Slider, "you just stay with Dr. Jansen.  He can work miracles, so if anyone on the team gets badly injured it's going to be your job to get the Doctor to them or them to the Doctor.  Don't wander off, don't try to get into the fighting, just stay ready to portal to the coordinates our headsets send back to you."

He checked the clock.  "Uh, okay, let me get through the rest of these files again so we don't run out of time.  We ... don't actually know how many novas we'll be up against.  Could be as many as nine.  Could be as few as none.  Violates our usual doctrine, I know, but we've got a lot of support so ... I decided it was worth the risk."

It only took about five minutes for Dillon to finish out the slideshow.  The complete roster of possible nova hostiles came to nine, each rated on an experimental threat scale from one to five:

1. Juan Tajillo [Threat Level: 5]
Electrokinesis, Strength, Stamina, Absorbtion.  Since his escape at Kansas City, Juan's been sighted building ties with Mexican cartel leaders.  After one incident with some Federal Police, the government has issued a strict non-engagement order and sightings of him set off alarms.  He was seen just yesterday in Chihuahua.

2. Cloudburst, a.k.a. Eleanor Shechter [Threat Level: 4]
Basic weather manipulation, flight, toughness, and coordination.  Back in Nigeria Cloudburst worked for the 'right' side and favored carrying dozens of grenades to drop on trenches and fortifications from above.  It's unclear exactly what she's doing here -- 'weather observation' is almost certainly a cover -- but her experience increases her threat rating.

3. Simón Espericueta [Threat Level: 2]
Powers unclear.  A very recent eruption.  He has some talent for vanishing from sight and eliminating evidence of his passage, as well as some clear mental issues.  He hates Dr. Zero and regularly manages to send him actual paper letters promising a long and preposterous death.  Likely very little threat.

4. La Alegría [Threat Level: 3]
Trans-human marksmanship, speed, coordination, and leadership skills.  A Zeta commander, former commando, and counter-insurgency expert.  Photos showed a woman in some sort of modern combat armor, a kevlar helmet and a balaclava.  She wore the mask in every photo in order to avoid being positively identified, but photos from her military days made their way into the mission file.  She carries assault rifle, grenades, a mean looking knife ... the works.  Most of the intelligence on her is sketchy, rumor and legend, but some of her Zetas tangled with Mexican military near the border, and the whole thing was caught on amateur video and posted to OpNet.

5. Prometheus, a.k.a. Diego Roman Salazar [Threat Level: 3]
Trans-human intelligence.  A Hispanic man with a gleaming white aura, black beard, and spectacles.  Prometheus used to be Diego Roman Salazar, a university professor of Chemistry.  After his eruption he was briefly in the public spotlight in Mexico City, espousing some pretty extreme political ideals.  Most of the information in the file was gleamed from Prometheus' OpNet site, a blog that took Zapatista rhetoric to a new level.  His ideal was complete reform of the Mexican government and people, and to that end he claims to have sided with 'those willing to exert the greatest power for the greatest good.'  Other intelligence suggested that he'd turned his thinking to problems of infrastructure and production, giving the Zetas a lot of their edge over the other Mexican cartels.

6. Boneyard, a.k.a. Walter St. Claire [Threat Level: 5]
Trans-human strength, durability, natural weapons and some capacity to immobilize victims with fear.  Boneyard has bones growing through his waxy, purple and gray skin, forming hard, sharp edges.  Walter isn't a proper ranked Elite and has never had an agent or anything like that, but he's made his way around the world.  Once a native of New Orleans, he's shown his face in three different insurgencies -- Eritrea, Colombia, and Cambodia -- in the last year.  Two months ago his bank-accounts in the United States were subpoenaed and frozen, and it was found that he'd received two and a half million dollars in July from accounts suspected to belong to Mexican cartels.

7. La Voz [Threat Level: 2]
Possesses a Sonic-attack, the precise capabilities of which are unknown.  Another recent eruption, "La Voz", as she has been dubbed, is a brown-haired Nicaraguan woman, photographed in street-walking-prostitute clothes (complete with a mug-shot) as well as more recent photos wearing a suit.  La Voz was una leoparda, a prostitute working for Los Zetas.  Her eruption followed the mug-shot; she broke out of her own interrogation at the threat of imprisonment and ran, the force of her voice enough to punch two-foot diameter holes in reinforced concrete walls.  The more recent photos show straight teeth, perfect skin, and a subtle redistribution of her physical features.  Her newfound beauty earned her attention, and she spends her time attached to Rogelio González Pizaña (the Zeta Cartel's leader).

8. The Mask, La Máscara, a.k.a. Luis Reyes [Threat Level: 3]
Trans-human strength, stamina, and presence.  The Mask is a well liked luchador, a very public figure with his own action figure.  It is suspected that he has very strong ties to the cartels however.  The Mask's expensive private home in the hills overlooks Chihuahua.  Soldiers are going to try and catch him there to keep him inside while the operation is underway.

9. Mr. Tao [Threat Level: 2]
Powers unknown.  An unnamed Chinese man with a wide nose, always in very casual street clothes, trendy sunglasses, and carrying a satchel.  It is speculated that Mr. Tao works for the Triads as a courier and hit-man, but he's only ever killed baseline targets so very little is known about him and his powers if he has any.  Mr. Tao leaves a trademark yin-yang on all his work -- this being the only means of identifying him or even speculating that he's a nova -- and two killings in Juarez place him in the area.

This procession was followed by a few slides of "people of interest":

1. Rogelio González Pizaña, the Zeta Cartel's leader.
2. A collection of scientists, including Esteban Perez, a kidnapped medical researcher thought to be held captive, likely here.
3. Governor Patricio Martínez García, Governor of the State of Chihuahua.
4. Four or five Zeta commanders of lesser status that might have the information useful to the investigation.
5. About eight different drug traffickers, notably Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, who it is suspected handles interaction with the Zeta's Medellín backers.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Okay, information dump over with.  Anyone who is interested could make appropriate Intelligence rolls to glean additional information and insight from the pile of data Comstock's sitting on.

As for the map of the complex, here are the important zones:
Topside:
1. Northwest Barrio
2. Northeast Barrio
3. Southwest Barrio
4. Southeast Barrio
Underneath:
1. Northwest Complex -- large open spaces, presumably for warehousing.
2. Northeast Complex -- barracks, cell blocks, officers' quarters.
3. Southwest Complex -- no information available.
4. Southeast Complex -- chemical labs, food storage, ventilation and diesel power generators.

North of the neighborhood are the industrial parks.  South of the neighborhood is more city, eventually reaching the center of town where the state capital, a cathedral, and other historic sites are located.

Also, if anyone would like to have finished some useful weapons or other toys, such as the ones discussed after the Kansas City brawl, I'm all for trying them out here.  Just tell me what (or even who) you'd like to bring to the party.  Also, anyone wants to try something other than Comstock's "show up at the Southeast Barrio, find the entrances we know to be around there, and start punching" plan, I'm all for it.  It's your show.

Once everyone's satisfied and ready to go, we'll advance straight to deployment.

---

"Nine hostile novas?  Nine?  Holy crap 'Stock.  Your threat scale is nice, but I'm going to need some context.  How does it relate to our estimated potential for chaos and carnage if we went rogue? Would you be a 5?  Sol? Zero? Me?  You've read our files, how dangerous are we in comparison?
If we can bring in ringers I suggest Antaeus.  He can tell us withing a minute exactly how many tunnels they have, where they are, and can probably collapse them.
Further, at least initially, I'm going to be busy doing crowd control.  I'm going to want a megaphone and a large scale holographic emitter so that I can get those civilians to move out of there in case things get hairy.
Also, maybe having construction crews and materials  on standby to rapidly provide housing for these people wouldn't be a bad idea. They're going to be forcibly evicted after all, which is going to be highlighted by some jackass.  We should really have contingencies in place for them, yes?  We're going to be busy and drained after, so maybe getting some of the new trainees and Teen Tomorrow to do the grunt work would be best.
Also, I'm going to want some of those tranq darts loaded with Mox.  For the non combat novas turning them off is probably better than turning them into jam, yes?"

"I know, I know, I hear you Imp.  The analysts came up with the scale though, not me, and the thing is, each of us figures in at a 5.  Except Gale, who's sitting at a 4.  The thing is, any one of them might be down there for us or might not.  And they're not a team.  Most of them have never even worked together, certainly not in combat."

"Armory downstairs has all the Mox-rounds you could want.  I'll be taking a rifle myself."  He typed a pair of messages, one asking the support staff to locate construction equipment and materials in the city or nearby cities and another message requesting Antaeus' assistance on the operation.  Inside of two minutes he'd received a message back.  "Looks like he'll be a little late.  About half-an hour after we're scheduled to show up he says he'll catch a portal over and spare us two hours for whatever we need."

Quentin had been quiet during the briefing, merely absorbing information. "Holographic emitter that size should be in one of the storage closets. They're not really production-quality yet, but it should do the job."

He made a face, "Can't say I'm a big fan of the setup on this one. You've seen the sort of damage I do to buildings. I'm best locking down the battlefield so the rest of you can waltz in and take 'em down, but multiplying the gravity in these tunnels is likely to bring the neighborhood down on top of us. Guess I'm mostly playing fire-support. And detective," he grinned, "I do love playing detective."
This message was last edited by the player at 10:48, Sat 09 Jan 2010.

Gale was relieved that she was going to be outside, instead of in the tunnels.  She listened carefully to the rest of the briefing.  She was actually kind of surprised when she was told that she was at threat level 4.  She knew she was lower than the others; she'd only recently started getting new abilities.  But she didn't think of herself as all that powerful.

Of course, she kept such thoughts to herself. "I agree that we should try to capture any of these novas, or even the notable non-nova figures.  People are probably going to have more information about what's going on than anything we find in that compound."

"Well, no problems for me, stuff like this is perfect for what I do.  I can pull out a bunch of critters and have them flush nearby tunnels while I shield up and tear through whatever is down there.  Or I can go in stealthy and scout things out, really up to you guys.  Zero and I could probably go in together on that one; split up and take different directions, then be in place to strike inside whenever the rest of you make an overt attack at the entrance."

While everyone else talks, Zero slides over to Solitaire. "You know, Solitaire, I'm all about revenge. I love revenge. Truly. But I love seeing your pretty face everyday, and I especially love seeing your pretty fists smashing people's faces. So, could you humor your neighborhood oddball, and call for backup if you meet this piece of shit? 'Cause he's not worth you. Just so you know."

"Seriously. I think we've made it this far because we tag team these pieces of shit. Fuck them. They make their money off of poisoning people. Fuck them to the wall. We'll kill them all before the day is done, but we'll get to see each other if we do it together. Promise me you'll kick his teeth in with a friend. Please? Don't make me do the puppy eyes."

"I'm with Zero on this one, none of us operates alone.  They probably will get in each other's way as much as they help each other, but I'm not a big fan of two on one."  he pauses, then smirks lasciviously, "Well, not this kind of two on one anyways.  Three on one is always a disaster."

Dillon nodded.  "I'm not calling for any specific buddies, but yeah, pair-up everyone.  Once we have better command of the town the lot of you can start zipping around, but until then someone's got to stick around and put up with my slow ass."

"And, much as it pains me, we do actually want some of the soft-ones for questioning with a friendly psychic.  So try not to kill everyone on first sight."

"I suppose I can try, since you asked so nicely Doc." Solitaire grins back at Zero. "But its rather hard to make puppy-dog eyes in a mask, don't you think?" Though to be honest, Solitaire wouldn't put it past him to have a 'puppy-dog eyes' setting for the thing. It was entirely keeping with his peculiar brand of crazy. But it was good crazy.

Solitaire turns to Gale and adds, "Since we've both drawn air duty, feel free to smack me if I get overzealous. You're a level headed sort, I tend to get, swept up in the moment, shall we say. By the way, whats your top speed in flight? It strikes me I've never asked."

"Waddaya say, Flare, feel like hanging around with me until the civvies start moving, then head down and in and cause some trouble?  Let the heavy hitters like Grav, Comstock, and Zero and Tasm go first, then you and I take care of anything they miss, and be on hand for some rapid reinforcement if needs be."

"I'm down with the buddy system.  If you send me and Zero in early, that makes him my buddy.  If we charge in, I call 'Kaze, I can kinda-sorta keep up with her.  At least enough that we won't get in each other's way anyway."

Gale nodded and smiled.  "Ok.  No taking on the big bad without me."  She honestly hoped they wouldn't run into Juan.  Sure, Solitaire was a heavy hitter, but this guy sounded nasty.

"Top flight speed? Um, I think they originally clocked me in at about 50 meters per second, but that was years ago.  I haven't really tested it since then."  She shrugged.  She didn't seem to care that much about showing off how much she could do, probably because she was at the bottom of the group.  "Why?  What's yours?"

Dillon snickered and covered his mouth.

"Yes! Alright. I like where this is going. You and me, kiddo. We own this." Zero holds out its hand to high five. Psychically, Zero speaks to Phantasm and Comstock. "If we are going to pull a Scooby Doo, and split up, shall we stay together mentally?"

Zero mused to itself how pumped it felt and sounded. It liked how the teamwork was really jiving. Its team were in their prime, and everyone was clearheaded and driven. This was as good as it gets. The Doctor also couldn't deny that the prospect of some guilt free murder was invigorating. "Ah, I feel alive."

In reply to Gale (msg #23):

"My top speed clocked in about 1750 kph last time I tested it, which is what, about 500 mps or so?" Solitaire replies, estimating the numbers, she'd never been good with math. "I'll tone it down a bit so you can keep up."

"Anybody have any other tactical insights? Or shall we simply deliver a good thrashing like we usually do?"

"Hmm, tactical insights, well for starters I'd suggest hitting them as hard as we can from as many different directions as possible.  Also, hit and fade, so they don't know how many of us there are and where we are aiming for.  If Tasm and Zero can get into the nerve centre and take it down or get control of it before the rest of us hit that'd be ideal." Imp tossed the coin into the air and caught it. "When's our roll out time, Frosty?"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:30, Mon 11 Jan 2010.

"486," Quentin supplied. "And some change; around Mach 1.4.

"I agree with Imp, and I can provide some of that 'fade' by enabling some rapid transit. Do we know which direction the General's men are planning to hit them from, or are they coming in from all over?"

Comstock nodded.  "Zero raises a good point.  Our headsets are top-notch.  But it's not impossible that they could be compromised or jammed during the mission.  If that happens stick with your buddy.  Doc, uh ... could you keep everyone in contact with your telepathy if that happens?  How bad does that draw on your node?"

[Private to Dr. Zero: Poking around Comstock's head is getting harder.  More alien.  Like valves and circuits turning on and off.  In his own mind, his voice always has that distinct, mechanical and resonant 'ring'.  "If you're reading my thoughts ... yeah, I'm game for it.  I've gotta know, though ... have you ... you always been able to do that?  I mean, just hop into my head?"  He's not hostile, just curious.  And a little anxious and uncomfortable, since he's actively working against every instinct to seal himself against intrusion.

OOC: He's has a little trouble dropping his psychic shield to allow contact, but inside his thoughts you can do as you please.]



"Zuniga's troops should be moving in from all directions.  They should be on the highways now, with helicopters incoming.  I wish there were more of them, enough to occupy the whole damn city, but corruption is pretty bad.  Can't be sure other units aren't clean."  Dillon fiddled with the remote's integrated laser-pointer and indicated major intersections.  "They'll be setting up a perimeter for us around the whole operations area.  Separate units will be following after us and clearing the streets above.  And then they've got a few platoons that will be patrolling the industrial parks ... and this unit taking up position in the hills to keep The Mask at home."  Flipping through his report, he quickly appended the general description with unit designations in case anyone needed that level of specificity.

He checked his watch again.  "A little over twenty-five minutes now.  Checklist:
I've got Zero and Phantasm on infiltration, heading for the nerve center;
myself, Gravitas and Suzukaze on assault duty, moving into the tunnels alongside to sweep and clear;
Gale and Solitaire on CAP;
Slider and Dr. Jansen medical EVAC;
and Impetus and Flare on crowd control, moving in to support once everyone's pacified and agreeable upstairs."

"Antaeus is putting in some time to map those tunnels for us, and unless somebody tells Frostburn no than Skew and the other recruits will be deployed at some point to help guard the displaced civvies and get to work building them temporary housing."

He counted off everything on his fingers one more time, then nodded, satisfied.  "I like it.  Anything we're missing?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:31, Mon 01 Feb 2010.

"Is there an OP if things go pearshaped?  What happens if we get something like Iraq?  Having a sphinx working for them means that they could easily have some very high yield explosives, and some potentially lethal security systems.  Do we have disaster response teams on standby?"  Imp trails off, his eyes become unfocused, remebering tearing through the roof of the compound in Iraq, carrying Harley's lifeless body with him, feeling the heat of the explosion greedily clutching at him.  "For people who can't move at supersonic speeds, or teleport, or whatever, if the call comes in to abort, find one of us who can get you to safety as quickly as possible.  It seems like we've buddied up this way already, but let's make sure we know how to get out at a moment's notice at all times, alright?"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:30, Fri 15 Jan 2010.

"It's not much of a drain. I do have to pause, on occasion, though I am getting much better."

[Private to Comstock: "I was trying to develop this little trick when we where being plagued by '2-D Man.' Sadly, I wasn't able to archive results until after her capture. I felt weird developing it. I had a very nasty fight with a telepath before joining Utopia, but I had to know if there are better ways to utilize it than what that Nova chose to do with it. I can work with you on developing something similar, if you like."]



Zero stares at Impetus for a second. It can't remember ever seeing Imp so razed. Zero feels a little ashamed. It knew what happened to Imp and Harley in Iraq, and never tried to talk to Impetus about it. It was too wrapped up in what was left of it's own private life and it's luck in the desert to realize how much its teammates had lost out there.


"Don't worry, Impetus. They have a lot to lose, here, too. This is not a defeated nation, and they should feel they have a good shot at bringing us down. I wouldn't expect any desperation tactics for a while. But we'll keep our wits about us just in case, right everybody?"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:21, Wed 13 Jan 2010.

"So, Comstock, are we a go?"

Aside from enthusiastic clapping for Slider, Flare had been rapidly scribbling in the spiral notebook she carried with her but she looks up and smiles at Imp.

"That sounds great.  Its better to save my fire blasting in the tunnels as a last resort, and if we hang back I can work on any injured that come out way. And I'm ready to go whenever the rest of us are." 

It was convenient to be your own weapon.

[Private to Dr. Zero: Comstock's mind grew quiet.  Trepidation.  "Thanks, Doc, but ... I don't think I'd ever manage anything like that."]

Comstock nodded.  "If there's nothing else ... op starts in sixteen minutes.  Arm yourselves and make ready.  I'll meet all of you at the Portal Pad."

Comstock headed to the armory, grabbed a .556 carbine and an ammo belt with four clips of ammunition.  Two of rubber bullets, two of Mox rounds for anti-Nova action.  A bandoleer with four flash-bang grenades.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Please make some mention of any special equipment you are grabbing for this mission.  If you decide later that you want tracking rounds, scramblers, rapid-hardening foam, or any other super-tech, you'll have to portal back for it.

---

05:00 -- October 28th, 2003

Frostburn gave final updates: Zuniga's soldiers were pulling off the highways in their Humvees right now, while helicopter platoons pulled into the Industrial Parks to the north.  They would begin setting up the perimeter soon.  "I'll patch you guys into a secure line for the general's staff once you hit the ground.  Good luck."

Using the provided coordinates and photos, Gravitas' portal opens onto the street in front of a two story house at the corner of a relatively empty intersection.  A classic barrio, all the other houses were packed in tight and in various states of repair.  Sunrise was still more than an hour off, and the sky was just then taking on color.  A few locals were milling about, a little surprised by the sudden quantum display.

The two-story house was relatively unremarkable -- leering skulls and other decorations for the Day of the Dead were already up in the windows and stacks of garbage were piled up outside.  A boy, maybe fourteen, stands frozen in front of the house, mouth gaping open in astonishment.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
(Perception + Awareness) checks everyone.  Please note any powers that you'd like active and let's get this party started.

---

Imp followed Comstock down to the armory and grabbed several bandoleers of mox darts.  He was decent with a gun, but way better with telekinesis.  He also requisitioned a starlight optics set and the holographic generator and voice amplifier.  The generator was heavy, but well within his ability to carry.  He hustled back to the Portal Pad and checked to make sure that everything was set up correctly.  In his head he rehearsed his initial course of action.  Get up to altitude, turn on the juice and impel residents to get as far away as possible.  Hopefully the cordons that were going to be set up would route them to the appropriate location.  After everybody was moving he'd head in with flare to help bust skulls

With a sigh Flare realized that there might be people in the tunnels that were baseline and as such would crisp with her powers, she also tags along with Comstock and Impetus looking for something to subdue.

A tazer could be quite worth while when trying not to destoy terrain.

"Think some smoke and tear gas grenades could flush out the baselines? Then we'd just have the novas to worry about."

Gale also went with the others to get some equipment.  She wasn't good with guns (she'd never fired one before in her life), but she figured if she was goin gto be air support, some grenades might not hurt.  She grabbed three bandoleers, one of smoke, one of tear-gas, and the final with flash-bang.  Each had 4 grenades, and she sincerely hoped she didn't need more than that.

She met with the others at the portal pad.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
I'd like Gale to activate Elemental Shield after she steps through the portal.  Should we be keeping track of Quantum spent?

---

Suzukaze waits at the portal pad. Kneeling her katanas drawn held at her sides. The only equipment she needs. They are a part of her. She waits. She remembers that last time they went after Juan. She had been almost useless. She had found Juan in the blizzard but he eluded her. Even though she took out Chalk she wanted the one who eluded her. She wanted to prove herself.

I'm better than before.  I am the steel wind of tomorrow.

An image of Fire laughing and Shiro lying in his coma flash in her mind.

They will feel my rage. I was Assassin Wind for a reason and they will remember.

Solitaire never needed any equipment, except perhaps the communication headset, Yelling loud enough to make herself heard was slightly undignified. She was also waiting at the portal, letting Suzukaze do her meditation thing. Everybody had a way to psych themselves up, for herself, Solitaire had recently acquired a mp3 player and had hooked it up through her headset, quite happily listening to Nightwish as she waited.

When the team is assembled and Gravitas' portal opens, Solitaire  steps though, says, "Showtime." And shoots up several hundred feet, assuming her overwatch position.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

21:18, Today: Solitaire rolled 9 successes using 10d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8,5,10,3,4,10,8,10,8,5.
21:19, Today: Solitaire rolled 1 success using 3d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 10,4,6. Reroll 10's Percep, (Drug Wars thread).

So, 10 sux? Do tens reroll again?

---

This message was last edited by the player at 05:21, Sun 17 Jan 2010.

Zero stocks up on various explosives and grenades, two hunting knives in its boots, a pistol with a silencer.

Once Gravitas' portal was stable, Comstock shouted "Go!" and the mission commenced.  He stepped through and scanned the rooftops with his carbine.  "Let's get in there."

The youth leaning against the two story house shouts in astonishment as Solitaire shoots into the sky and the rest of the team emerges, Impetus and Flare hauling a holographic projector the size of two footlockers side-by-side with them.  No one in the street seems quite sure of what to do.  When the police come, it is one thing, but this was something totally outside of their experience.  There are a few people, however, that start backing away quickly, trying to fade into alleyways or houses and escape.  It is a fair guess that they have seen Novas before.

[Private to Dr. Zero: It takes only moments after opening the portal to realize that the neighborhood on the other side is quite saturated with residual quantum.  Novas have not only been active here, but have been using their powers quite a bit.  It is hard to say whether or not this 'residue' or 'haze' has had any adverse effects on local people, but it does not pose any threat in the short run.

It also indicates that you are definitely in the right place.

That Creepy Feeling: Furthermore, there are quite a few sets of eyes on you, including at least two cheap surveillance cameras.  One is in the window of the building across the street from your target, and one is in the window of the target house just next to the 14-year old boy ... and for that matter, the boy is paying a lot of attention.  He is, no doubt, a lookout getting paid to warn people inside if the police are coming.]

[Private to Flare; Impetus: It doesn't take an expert investigator or cop to read the crowd, and both of you are certain that these people, already a little agitated, are not shocked and very concerned about what is happening around here.  Furthermore, there are two people across the street with pistols in their belt loops and they are peeking around, looking interested in using them.]

[Private to Gravitas: It takes only moments after opening the portal to realize that the neighborhood on the other side is quite saturated with residual quantum.  Novas have not only been active here, but have been using their powers quite a bit.  It is hard to say whether or not this 'residue' or 'haze' has had any adverse effects on local people, but it does not pose any threat in the short run.

It also indicates that you are definitely in the right place.]

[Private to Phantasm: You'll have to tell me if you want to shapeshift to acquire any particular senses; I can't see Phantasm's character sheet, so I have to make some assumptions based on past experience.  Also, I take it you would like me to manage Frostburn for the duration of this scenario?  If not, I am perfectly fine with you playing her as well.  Otherwise, though, have fun as a true PC for a change.]

[Private to Solitaire: Soaring overhead, you get a fair look at everything going on.  The Mexican Army helicopters are circling and dropping off troops, and the cordon is more or less put together.  So far, you still seem to have the element of surprise.

Amidst the early morning activity, Solitaire notices that a few blocks away from the team there are three SUV-technicals with added armor plate and machine guns.  With them are some thugs in plainclothes with AK-47's and other guns, maybe 15 including those driving.  They seem to be headed towards the cordon, where in all likelihood, they will attempt to engage the Mexican army and lose.  The technicals give them a fighting chance, though.

If no one could confirm the presence of the installation before, you could do yourself: the thrumming of machinery beneath the ground is putting out a lot of low-frequency sound.  It is invisible to the human ear, but plainly obvious to you.  Besides 'mechanical' you're not really sure what it is, but if you took a few moments at ground level and stomped a few times for reference you might be able to identify it.  You might even be able to break your way into the sewers with a determined dive.

Finally, in the sky a fair distance off, there is the glint of pre-dawn sunlight off of a shiny eufiber suit.  She's far off enough -- maybe a mile or so up and east of you -- but you are fairly sure the human shape is Cloudburst and that she's squinting and trying to figure out who you are.]

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Re: Quantum Use: I won't ask anyone to keep careful track of their quantum pool until there's some sign of Nova-vs-Nova combat.  Trying to keep exact track of small power usage from enhancements, Maintenance-duration powers and the like tends to bog things down, and your PCs have had enough forewarning of all this to buff ahead of time.

Re: 10's: With Qualities on your attributes, you keep re-rolling those 10's and adding successes until no 10's come up.  For this roll, 10 successes should prove sufficient though.

Gravitas: I hope you don't mind my assumption that you've opened a portal for this.

---

This message was last edited by the player at 08:15, Tue 19 Jan 2010.

Imp fires up the holographic emitter and 4 huge images of himself rise up into teh sky. He centered himself and channeled energy through his node and out through the ether to be carried by the machine to whoever saw it, whoever heard it.  The figures in the sky were beautiful, terrifying and comforting simultaneously, then he spoke, "Greetings, my friends," he said in Spanish. "This is Project Utopia, and we're here to build you a new city, after we deal with the criminals who cower beneath you, using you as cover for their evil schemes.  I ask you to please move rapidly away from here, you will be met by other Utopia operatives who will show you to the temporary areas that will serve as a makeshift home for a few days before your new community is finished.  I repeat, please move away from here, help those around you, and be considerate of the old and infirm, as well as the young and helpless.  thank you for your cooperation."

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
using almost live (both cha and app) commanding presence, awe inspiring, and persuader to drive home the impact of Imp's words.  Good thing too, with 10 auto sux still only got 11 total sux.  Stupid roller.

---

This message was last edited by the player at 01:28, Wed 20 Jan 2010.

Gale shifted from foot to foot as she waited for the portal to open, not really meeting anyone else's eyes.  She followed Flare and Impetus through the portal, and following Solitaire's lead, leapt into the air.  She joined her partner in surveying the area.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
07:44, Today: Gale rolled 2 successes using 9d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 3,3,2,9,2,3,3,8,1. Perception + Awareness + Acute Sense.

---

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Using me for plot-wormholes is A-OK.

---

"Well, seems like the right place," Quentin commented as he strolled out of the portal behind the others. "And the locals seems antsy."

Flare whips out a pair of sunglasses to shield herself from the overawe that is Imp doing...well anything really.

"You know, I don't even know what you just said and I'm impressed. This whole job might be easier than I thought if you can just awe everyone into submission."


She then pops her fire shield and hovers a few feet in the air, scanning for anyone who might be looking to take a few shots at herself and Impetus, rather than running like heck.

She gives the pair with pistols a glare and just shakes her head.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
a slightly delayed perception roll to notice anything else out of the ordinary.
Flare rolled 2 successes using 7d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 1,3,1,9,8,6,1. Checking da scene (perception + awareness).

She also tries to look like the scary muscle (I'm sure being wreathed in flame helps the affect) and doesn't do to bad.
Flare rolled 3 successes using 5d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 3,5,9,9,7. Appearance + Intimidation.

---

Phantasm shifts before running through the portal, blending her suit with the environment, and altering her body for the mission at hand.  Her eyes adjust to see in darkness, her fast-twitch muscle fibers increase, bones shift positions, and her skin changes consistency to resist damage.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Phantasm rolled 6 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 1,6,2,5,2,9,8,10,4,7,7,7,1.
 2 str, 2 dex, 2 armor, electromagnetic vision.  The eufiber probably would work like the Chromatosphores body mod

---

Once on the other side, she forgoes the protection of her forcefield, and instead hides beside a dumpster, tagging Zero on the way.
"We're on Doc, you 'porting us, or are we going in the hard way?  We need to get in a good position without being seen, find any evidence we can, find the best place to hit them, and then do as much damage as we can until the cavalry arrives."

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
I'll wait on Zero to lead the way, he's probably better for the job even without porting.  My stealth for the situation will be [10]
You rolled 7 successes using 16d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((10,6,8,2,2,8,6,9,9,5,5,5,10,8,4,2))
and my intrusion will be [9]
You rolled 6 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((9,5,10,1,6,9,3,3,10,9,5,3,7)).

---

[Private to Comstock: My sheet is up if you wanna look.  I just never had much of a reason for one before now; I kept it all on a pdf character sheet (mr. gone's char sheets are awesome btw).  Oh, and yes, feel free to run Frostburn for this.]
This message was last edited by the player at 04:10, Wed 27 Jan 2010.

"Mmk, guys. We're in the right place, theres something down there all right. I can hear a lot of machine noise, can't tell you any more than that though. And would one of you that speak Spanish tip off the southwest stretch of the perimeter they've got three technicals and 10-20 men between them incoming. Stormy's here too."

Though Solitaire sounds crisp as she rattles off the status report, most of her attention is focused on the potentially hostile Cloudburst. Solitaire waved cheerfully at her. If she wasn't involved, or was, and would simply bail, that was all right. Otherwise, fighting this high up would require her to be mildly careful, she didn't know if the other nova could survive the fall.

Either way, it promised to be a most interesting day.

"I'm on it," Frostburn confirms.  Meanwhile, Cloudburst waved back cautiously and started closing in on Gale and Solitaire.  Not fast enough to be aggressive, though she leaves a thick foggy cloud behind her as she approaches.

The two men with pistols that Flare spotted think better of making a move and start backing off as the towering images of Impetus manifest in the sky.  A fair number of the people you can see are moved, happy, and react enthusiastically.  Faces peak out of houses all along the street.  There are at least a few in the small crowd around you that seem a little bothered, however, and one middle-aged woman starts running down the street screaming.  That could be shock, however.

"Message for you guys.  I'll patch him over."  A moment passes.  "Team Tomorrow: this is Zuniga," an accented voice announces over your headsets, a little cautious, a little concerned, decidedly used to being in charge.  "That is your hologram, yes?  Over."

[Private to Flare: You notice an old surveillance camera on the house across the street that has pointed itself toward you guys.  Also, the astonished kid hanging around the house in front of you looks like a lookout, probably getting ready to bolt and start spreading alarms.]

[Private to Dr. Zero: Zero has a fairly good estimate of how deep the complex is thanks to the briefing, and could probably 'hit' just about any point in the complex that you wanted with only a few successes.  As a side-note, it doesn't look like Teleport actually lets you take others with you.  But since Zero's done it before, I have absolutely no problem with Zero dragging an extra person around when he 'ports.]

Zero shots a cheap surveillance camera in the window of the building across the street from their target. Without missing a moment, Zero shots another camera in the window of the target house just next to the 14-year old boy. Zero than vanishes. The Doctor walks over to Phantasm from across the street, gently holding the unconscious boy.

"Hey. Sorry about that. Kid was a spy." Zero gently sets the child down behind the dumpster, than holds it's chin thoughtfully. "I normally like the hard way, but shock and awe sounds fun, today. Port?" And with that, Zero touches Phantasm's forhead, and tries to 'port' as deep into the enemy territory it's powers can allow.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Activate Quickness
Split Action: Shooting first camera: 3
10:42, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 3 successes using 9d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,9,8,2,8,5,2,3,2. 1Meg, Shoot Camera,Split Action.

Shooting second camera: 5
10:47, Today: Dr. Zero failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 2. Reroll 10 (wow.).
10:45, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 1 success using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 10. Reroll 10.
10:44, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 3 successes using 8d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 3,9,6,5,1,4,10,7. 1Meg, Shoot Camera,Split Action. 1 will.

Combat Teleport behind boy.

Quickness action, Knock out kid:7
10:50, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 1 success using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 7. Reroll Mega 10.
10:50, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 4 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 10,7,4,6,3,10,6,6,5,8,3. Nock out Child. Persicion Ench 1meg.

Next Turn:
Teleport into Enemy Territory! Dun, dun, dun! He tries for a spot where they can sneak about and cause damage. Power centers or intelligence areas sound fun.

---

This message was last edited by the player at 15:59, Wed 20 Jan 2010.

"Gravitas here, General, that's our man, yes. He's attempting to evacuate the civilians."

He looked around at the buildings and the people that were starting to make their way out of them. "We want to find a conventional entrance, make one, or take the shortcut?"

Solitaire also closes with Cloudburst, slow enough for both Gale to keep up and to seem reasonably non-aggressive as well. When she's close enough, and assuming she hasn't been hit with a lightning bolt yet, she retains her cheerful expression and holds out a hand politely.

"You're Cloudburst right? I'm Solitaire, now, I'm assuming you saw giant Holo-Impetus there, so, if you would be so kind as to go find the nearest Utopia official and wait there for the duration of the operation? If you're not involved, you'll be free to leave afterword, if you are, non-resistance will be in your favor. Though, if you're being blackmailed into this or something, I could always knock you out, and say you fought the good fight. If you don't come quietly... Solitaire shrugged, "The end result will be much the same, but I'll be less pleasant about it."

Gale followed Solitaire, as quickly as she could.  At first she couldn't see what Solitaire had waved at, but when Cloudburst moved and they started closing in on her, all became clear.

She was content to let Solitaire do the talking.  After all, Solitaire had the ability to back it up.  She made sure to hover several feet to Solitaire's left, partly because of her wings, and partly she didn't want Cloudburst to be able to get a jump on both of them at once.

About a dozen people from the small crowd started pushing in close for a chance to thank Impetus personally while the streets fill up.  Some had hastily packed their suitcases and were heading immediately for the cordon, while others were trying to confirm what that wonderfully articulate giant man had said.  "You have come!  I prayed to Jesus that you would come to save us!  Oh thank you!"* one woman fawned, tears in her eyes.  Flare is getting a similar amount of attention, though no one is reaching out to hug or touch a woman wreathed in flame and most think better than to try and slip past her to touch Impetus.

[Private to Flare: Weirdly, Flare actually feels a weak psychic force from someone in the crowd, someone trying to slip into her thoughts, clumsily urging her to "kill Impetus and destroy that device".  Her mind burns away the suggestions, leaving only truth behind, and after half a minute or so she notices a man about twenty feet away with wild hair and a gray beard staring at her and concentrating very hard.]

Meanwhile, General Zuniga seemed satisfied.  "I see.  Let me know if you are using that device again.  I do not want the enemy using similar devices to confuse the chain of command."  There's a pause.  "I am grateful for your help.  Do you know how long before my units should move in?"



Comstock approached the building and looked through the broken glass, finding the camera that Dr. Zero had shot at.  "Generally I'm a front door kind of person, but I don't want to run into more surprises than we have to.  You think you can portal us down into that mess from here?  It's probably about eight meters."  It shouldn't be too difficult with the street as a point of reference.  While Gravitas decides, Comstock waves for Suzukaze to follow him and enters the building.

[Private to Gravitas: Your senses easily detect someone on the second story of the target-building trying to point a rifle at you through the blinds.  High powered rifle, too.]

A few frightened and outraged screams issue forth from the back of the house, and Comstock moves back there to clear it, finding the young boy's mother in the kitchen.  While he is calming her down, two men and a woman upstairs start rushing down to see what's going on.

[Private to Suzukaze: Following after Comstock and considerably faster than the average human, Suzukaze witnesses the three -- two rough looking men and a woman -- bringing guns with them.  Ak-74's, so they're clearly not just guarding their home.]

---

At around ten meters away, it looks like Cloudburst has seen better days.  Her eyes are a bit sunken in, her skin moist and clammy, though that could be her powers at work.  A thin mist follows her and rolls over the three as they come to a stop above the city.  She's created quite a thick cloud behind her.  "What is this?  Those helicopters are ... messing with my work.  Is this legal?  How are you here?"  She's nervous, and eyes Gale and Solitaire as though sizing them up.  She also has her old Equatorial Wars armament over her eufiber -- grenades and a powerful sub-machinegun.  She hasn't reached for them yet.

---

Dr. Zero and Phantasm blink out of existence and return in an enormous laundry room.  That idiot must have remembered the complex layout wrong, since you were aiming for the armory.  The place is steel reinforced with concrete walls, exposed beams, and plentiful wiring and pipes along the ceiling [Private to Dr. Zero; Phantasm: all the pipes, wiring, etc. have the same mark on them, so the whole place is probably a big pile of evidence indicting CEMEX corporation.  They're the world's leading building materials supplier, by the way.].  There's old uniforms, combat fatigues, casual clothes, dress suits, and a variety of washers and driers spinning noisily.  No one appears to be here at the moment [Private to Dr. Zero: and you detect no one watching], but about twelve seconds after your arrival klaxons and yellow lights start up.

On one side, the air wafting in from the next room is thick with acetone and rotten eggs.  On the other side, there's a hallway.  You can hear people in either direction shouting and talking in Spanish, generally asking "what the hell's going on"* or "quick, to positions!"*  A woman with a commanding voice shouts over the din, "Get Prometheus NOW!  Tell him he was wrong and he needs to fix this immediately."*  People quickly quiet down and get to their work.

[Private to Dr. Zero: Since Zero's a super-genius and places like this tend to follow a logical order, if you'd like to try teleporting again for a new destination give me an Intelligence+Teleport roll to guess at the layout.  Right now, you are around the corner from what you think is one of the major 'labs', and from the smell is meth cooking den.]

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
For convenience, the asterisk (*) will always imply "translated from Spanish".  Also, since no one is using it, I've snagged Yellow for NPC speech so it doesn't get lost in the giant posts.  Let me know if this is confusing so I can edit it back out and not use it in the future.

---

Suzukaze gets on the com to Comstock as she sets into motion...

"Comstock three hostiles two men all armed heading your way. I'm going to engage..."

Quick but silent she moves after the three.

They have to be non novas using those... I could come from the front and cut down their guns... Could remove their hands. They'd definately open fire.

She comes at them from behind twisting the blades in her hands. She swings at the heads of the two men with the backside of her blades...

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Let me know what I'd have to roll... Two normal hit rolls or some penalty for multiple targets. Goal is to knock them out or daze them atleast to gain an advantage before turning on the female.

---

Flare is, as always, disturbed by crying fawning people.  Thankfully Imp could handle that part. She wasn't sure how well he stood up to psychics, even weak, moronic ones, so that she would work on.

"Hey Imp, there's a mind controller among your adoring fans. I'll just be a second with the beat down."

Flare flies closer points at a crazy looking older man. The man is suddenly wreathed in flames, like a cage.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Flare rolled 5 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 4,5,6,9,4,2,9,7,9,4,8. Imprison -1 die for not being mastered. Confinement has a might of 10. Attempting to escape would normally do no damage, but since its fire, would likely do lethal damage.

---

"This is a Utopia/UN/Government raid of the Cartel base right below us. I recommend you don't interfere." Then adds with genuine concern, You don't look so good. Are you OK? And what exactly are you doing?"

Dr. Zero looks about the laundry room curiously. "Huh," speaks Zero to Phantasm's mind. "Looks like we have some bad directions." Zero turns on the camerae function on it's helmet. Zero zooms in on the writing on the various wires and pipes in the ceiling. "CEMEX corporation. Iiiiinteresting. I think I have stock in them. Perhaps I should sell."



"Prometheus?" Zero looks over to Phantasm. "Do we know any Novas or government spooks named that? It's not rigging any bells."

"Let's see. Now that we are here, perhaps I can figure this place out." Zero scratches its head as it ponders the layout and tries to figure out where they should go. "I think I have it. The armory. Shall we, my dear?" Zero holds out it's hand for Phantasm. If she agrees, they vanish, hopefully to land in the real armory this time.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Guess layout: 5 Successes.
19:59, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 4 successes using 9d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 7,6,1,5,10,2,2,8,10. 3Meg, Guess Layout.

---

While Impetus fends off inane questions -- "Can I take my truck with me?"  "Is Utopia going to help bring jobs?"  "Am I dreaming?" -- Flare's cage of flame roars to life around the old man.  He jumps, surprised, and his hair nearly catches fire.  "No!  No, please don't kill me!"  He shouts and stammers in passable English, no longer using any sort of powers.  "Don't kill me!  I just do what I'm paid to do!  I have a daughter!"  [Private to Impetus; Flare: He's a panicking liar who botched his deception roll.]

If he's a nova, he's rather weak.  Or remarkably good at faking it.  At the fiery display, the small crowd begins to understand what their neighbors already had and make their way to the edge of the cordon, leaving Flare and Impetus with their new prisoner.

---

Comstock turned to exit the kitchen just in time to watch Suzukaze dispatch the two men that had dashed down the stairs.  As the backside of Suzukaze's swords connected with their heads they crumpled to the ground with a visceral thud and dropped their weapons.  The third, following close behind, shouted in surprise and hastily aimed for Suzukaze.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
No die rolls necessary.  These folks are extras, and as a result dispatching them is simple for someone as skilled as Suzukaze.  If it matters, they are at Defense: 2 and Bashing Soak: 3.  No Lethal Soak.  And, again, I'll make it clear at what point you actually have to worry about initiative and keeping track of quantum pools, so don't sweat it.

---

Meanwhile, the rifleman aiming for Gravitas still believed himself safely concealed in upstairs in the house.  He took his time, lining up the perfect shot through the blinds.

---

Cloudburst shifts, looking jittery and slowly backing away toward the cloud-bank that she devised.  "I'm ... conducting surveys.  Uh," she stalled for time, planning something.  "Is the whole city under arrest?  How the hell many people did you bring with you?"  [Private to Gale: Gale, she's locked eyes with you.  You get the impression that she's sized you up and decided you're the weaker of the two novas about to kick her ass.]

---

Dr. Zero and Phantasm blip out of existence again and appear ... on a table in the middle of the armory.  At their feet are ammo boxes and spare magazines, mostly in .545 x 39mm for the hundred or so AK-74 rifles lining the walls.  There's heavier weaponry too, including two anti-tank rifles, a number of explosive weapons and disposable rockets, grenades, and a few boxes filled to the brim with cheap rifles and pistols.  There's also a few closets with bodyarmor, helmets, goggles, and gas masks.

You can tell all of this because there are five very surprised soldiers here hastily trying to arm themselves.  There's about four seconds of utter silence as it clicks in their heads that two novas are now standing on the long table in the middle of the room.

Gale met Cloudburst's gaze, watching the other nova carefully.  "That's not something you need to know.  Now, as Solitaire said, you can either come quietly, or not quietly.  Up to you."

Gale had slowly tensed her muscles; she knew she was going to get jumped soon.  Solitaire might be able to pick up on the subtle difference in her wing beats as the tension changed the way she was hovering.

In a tightly controlled whisper, easily picked up by Zero but inaudible for less sensitive ears, Phantasm replies.  "I've never heard of Prometheus, but its a loaded title if I've ever heard one.  We need to investigate further after we get out of here.

Yeah, 'port us on ahead, the others are in by now and we need to stay on schedule."

---

After the second teleport, Phantasm quickly assesses the situation, and plans an attack pattern while the poor baselines are still trying to process what's going on.  "You figure out where we need to be going, I'll clean this up."

Replacing neuro-chemical impulses with quantum, she blurs into motion.  She strikes at the first man with a quick jab to put him off balance.  He backs up, into his companion, and in the confusion Phantasm moves in for a quick hook punch and uppercut that leaves them both unconscious.  As the other three level their guns, she leaps across the room, left foot sweeping a broad arc through the air and connecting with one of the gunmen's jaw, snapping his head around sharply.  Landing on her left foot, she uses her momentum to bring her right knee into the next man's temple, and ends her attack pattern by landing on her right foot and striking out with her left in a back spin kick to the final man's head.  Looking at the unconscious people laying on the ground, Phantasm notes the high caliber weapons in the armory, and makes a brief comment to Zero "I don't want to break radio silence just yet, but the others should probably know that they have some heavy weapons down here..."

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Activated quickness and multitasking, three actions for both the primary and secondary actions in the turn.  All my rolls were 4+ success except one (disregard the 13 dicepool, I forgot to subtract penalties).  Assuming that all these guys were extras, My base strength at this point should be enough to loop around into lethal, even doing bashing only (I'm trying not to kill them though). If I took too many liberties, feel free to alter as needed.

And Zero, hope I didn't take your fun away taking them all out, just trying to forward the feel of teamwork we've got going.  P' is going to try to clear out obstacles so that Zero's more esoteric power set can be used for problem solving and dealing with other problems.  Next bit of resistance we encounter, you should take the lead on the fighting, and if you want to leave it to me I'll clear it out, or you can take care of it yourself.

---

Solitaire rolls her eyes and puts her real hand to her temple. Why they always try to resist?

With a sigh, she says, "Don't do anything stupid, you were in the Wars, you know how this is going to go. You can't outrun me, you can't outfight me, bullets are useless and so is lighting. Hell, if your actually conducting surveys, there's nothing to worry about. You can get back to it once we're done, it'll probably take about 20 minutes, we're quite good at this sort of thing. Now, I'm not going to ask again..."

Gale had shifted a bit behind her, Solitaire figured that must be her battle stance. Good kid, she'd be fine. Without taking her eyes off the now-backing away Cloudburst, she says, "Think you can take a lightning bolt Gale? Or any other type of weather-based attack for that matter?"

Quentin narrowed his eyes. "We've got snipers," he said into the comm. He moved rapidly out of the line of fire to the wall of the building. "Second-floor, this building." He experienced a flash of frusteration. Normally it'd be easier to deal with such problems, but he needed to conserve his energies, and he wasn't able to simply bring the building down on top of the would-be gunman.

He edged his way along the wall towards the door the others had used. "I'll go up and get him," he offered. There was very little that a bullet could do to him if he was properly prepared, after all.

Zero adjusts it's gloves as the room turns into a blur of violence. It walks over to one of the fallen soldiers, as he's falling, and nabs some handcuffs. As each one falls, Zero softly whistles as it cuffs each prisoner.



"I'll try the Telepathy. It's a bit new, to me. I can use the radio if it fails." Zero taps it's head and tries to contact Comstock. "Yellow? Hello? Big guy? This is Dr. Zero, speaking to you with my voice. We've found some heavy weapons down here. Nice stuff. Could Gravitas open a portal down here? I can throw them all out, and we can keep our sneaky element of surprise if we don't have to blow them up."

Zero eyes were to place the explosives if that plan will not work, and starts jury-rigging some explosives together.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Nah! Have some fun.
Telepathy Roll: 3 successes.
14:35, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 2 successes using 7d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8,5,3,6,7,4,3. 1meg, Telepathy Roll.

---

This message was last edited by the player at 19:36, Mon 25 Jan 2010.

"She's not the only one around here who can move clouds," Gale responded.  She also had her force field, but best not to let the enemy know just how much she could do.

"Just asking. I doubt Imp could, for example, but perhaps thats not giving him enough credit." Solitaire replies with a shrug.

Imp was a little frustrated, Sol never had people stick around looking for handouts after she'd told them to scamper.  He put a little more bite into his voice, formerly comforting undertones rolled like thunder beneath his words, his brow furrowed and his eyes tightened angrily. "Leave, for your own protection, flee this place!"

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
21 sux this time, that should get them moving.

---

"Well, that's one room down, only an entire hidden base to go..." quips Phantasm as she watches Zero handcuff people and  catalogs the stuff in the armory.  She picks up anything explosive that might be useful to the job at hand, perhaps something with a detonator that could be attached to the facility's generators...
This message was last edited by the player at 04:14, Wed 27 Jan 2010.

Though the man seemed weak for a Nova, with his powers staying in touch with the baddies would probably be simple.  Better to get him out of the way.

"Sorry man, this won't hurt long, and unlike your bosses, I won't kill you for getting in my way."

Flare tamps down the urge to simply roast the Nova. He hadn't merited a painful death, yet.  The street shimmers as a roiling wave of heat lashes into the man.  The heat would hopefully knock him out, but he'd live to whine another day.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

The non-lethal version of blast (a wave of heat) is lobbed at the villain.
Flare rolled 4 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,9,4,5,4,10,4,5,3,2,7,1,8. Proper die roll for knock out . Flare spends a will as well for 5 successes.

Flare rolled 10 successes using 20d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 4,3,8,8,4,4,4,8,2,8,4,8,3,1,2,9,7,10,9,9. Blast damage.  And in a fairly awesome roll, Flare likely knocks him out.

To sum up, 5 to hit and 10 bashing damage.

---

"Hey, you know, in this body armor we could pass ourselves off as these guys, and roam around the inside of the base and find out whatever we want... and avoid distractions like this fight."

"Ooooooh! Cool. It'll be like Starwars!" Zero starts putting on the armor.

"I don't remember Anakin and Obi Wan dressing up in stolen armor... Oh, you must mean Padme...  ooooh, your old, you could be talking about the 1970's version... I never saw that..."

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Damned kids, don't know the classics...

---

This message was last edited by the player at 23:47, Wed 27 Jan 2010.

Those nearest to Impetus had the benefit of looking him directly in the eye rather than staring up in awe at his hologram.  And so they begged and worshiped and reached out to touch him.  With his anger, however, the skies themselves seemed to split open in a peal of thunder.  Within moments, the small crowd around Impetus had scattered like leaves in a hurricane, seeking cover.  Across the whole of the city, even beyond the cordon, people did as they were told, fleeing at their idol's behest.

Meanwhile, Flare's prisoner collapsed in a most unbecoming fashion, apparently lacking endurance beyond that of a fit human.  He slouched to the ground, a little singed and exhausted but probably alright.

---

Comstock aimed a burst of rubber bullets at the woman threatening Suzukaze but never fired.  Suzukaze had the matter under control.  Without missing a beat, he entered the room and kicked the guns away from each of the thugs.  Then he paused, listening to words voiced in his head.  "Hey, Zero says he's found the armory," he said loud enough so Gravitas and Suzukaze both could hear.  "Do you two want to head down through whatever hidden door is in here or portal us straight there?"



Gravitas slipped off the street without incident and ascended the stairs to find his would-be-assassin staring out the window in horror at the enormous images of Impetus.  Hearing Gravitas approach he turned in a panic and fired once, the bullet veering along the edge of Gravitas' defensive aura and disappearing in a wall.

---

Cloudburst nodded her head slowly.  With what seemed to be a fairly extensive effort she eased her hands away from her weapons, held them out at her sides, and turned slowly in the air.  "This is illegal and you're jeopardizing thousands ... no millions ... millions of dollars of climate research."  On her back, Gale and Solitaire could make out some sort of machine attached to her lower back.  A metal box held on with a strap and, from the look of it, with some tubes heading into her abdomen.  Cloudburst pointed to the box before completing her turn, then pointed to a metal disc the size of a dime on the collar of her eufiber suit.  "I don't care who you're with ... I need to see something from the Mexican government or else we're going to have a fight on our hands."  She mouthed 'sorry' and swallowed hard.  She was sweating a fair amount and very jittery.

---

It took only a few moments to immobilize the men in the armory.  Not even a single shot was fired.

Phantasm and Dr. Zero found enough equipment to dress and arm themselves however they wished.  Soon they were a pair of masked, body-armored and camouflaged Zetas with assault rifles and bags full of plastic explosives and detonators.  The radio on one of the men squawked to life as they filled their bags.  "GUTIERREZ, REPORT!  Why are you not at your station? ... Gutierrez!"*  It was the woman commander's voice.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:08, Thu 28 Jan 2010.

Hearing the girl shout Suzukaze turns towards her as the riffle is raised. Charging at the girl Suzukaze knocks the gun to the side and crashes into her slamming her against the wall. Suzukaze presses her forearm against the girl's throat...

"Speak any english girl? Anymore of your friends upstairs or just the three of you?"

The girl can only gasp from the pressure Suzukaze is applying. Frustrated despite it being her own fault the girl cannot respond. Suzukaze sheaths one of her swords, and grabs the girl by the hair and forces her to her knees. Crouching down behind her Suzukaze flashes the blade of the other before the girl's eyes before pressing the blade to her throat. A thin line of blood forms around the edge of the blade. Suzukaze leans in and whispers into the girl's ear.

"I'll ask this one more time. Are you alone? Or are there more of you?"

With the civilians dispersing Imp toggled a switch and the images in the sky wavered then evaporated into mist.  "Nice work Flare, now, lets see what we can do about getting down into the belly of the beast."  He flexed his hands then looked around.  What he was looking for was a building that was slightly better built than those around it, that didn't have laundry hanging on windowsills, a cross above the door, or ornamentation of any kind.  A shack that wasn't lived in but hand't been cannibalized for building materials.  That, he figured, would be their best bet for finding an access-way down into the complex.

Gale's demeanor suddenly changed from aggressive to sympathetic as she noticed the things that Cloudburst was pointing out to them.  The mouthing of the word 'sorry' confirmed that one of them was a wire.  She turned to Solitaire, and pointed at the box.  "What is that?" she whispered so the wire wouldn't pick it up.

Apart from the building that was the team's initial objective, Impetus notices at least one or two buildings that satisfy his criteria on this very street, spaced out by a block or so.

ETA on Antaeus: about 20-25 minutes.

---

Suzukaze's prisoner gasped and choked.  "S-... Santi's .... upstairs."  She felt her blood escaping and shuddered with panic.  "Under the TV ... por favor ... la puerta esta debajo de la TV!"

Meanwhile, Comstock concentrated on thinking really hard so Zero could hear his thoughts.  Can you read Gravitas from there?  Let him know where to portal to?

---

The wind was carrying Cloudburst's cloud-cover over the three.  Visibility was still good, but in a minute or two they could be fighting in a thick gray thunderhead.

---

Fortunately, the Zetas appear better equipped than the Death Star was.  Your uniforms fit appropriately.

Imp reached out towards the two buildings that suited his criteria an extended his...sensors into the dirt underneath them, then he lifted.  The buildings and their foundations, such as they were, lifted free of the ground.  He squeezed his hands and the buildings crumpled and fell into the patches of open terrain that passed as streets in the barrio.  He gestured to the exposed hatches, "Would you like me to go first, beautiful lady, or shall I hold the door for you?"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:53, Fri 29 Jan 2010.

"Let's find out..."

Zero tries to contact Gravitas with the intel.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
5 successes.
12:36, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 4 successes using 7d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8,1,9,10,7,5,6. 1 meg Telepathy roll.

---

"You are too kind, sir, I believe I'll go first." Flare manages a cheesy Southern accent to go with a quite genuine smile and sashays to the hatches.

She opens a top and drops on in, her shield of fire creates enough lighting for a good look around the area, and lets Imp know what to expect once he comes down.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Flare rolled 4 successes using 7d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8,5,3,5,8,8,8 to get a good look around.

---

Solitaire had no idea what that box attached to Cloudbursts back was, only that it was A Bad Thing. She cocked her head and looked quizzically at it, wondering how they had managed to get it on her in the first place, Cloudburst was a professional. Her first instinct was to simply rip it out, but with no idea what it was, much less the consequences of doing so, rendered that a Bad Idea. Her second was to get Grav or Doc to do it.

"Grav, Doc? I might need one of you smart guys in a minute or two. Think you'll be able to jump to our position if I call?" Solitaire said quietly into her headset, figuring if the Bad Thing proved dangerous/lethal to any of them, she'd call in one of the brains.

Then she gives Cloudburst a sad, Don't hold this against me sort of smile, and says, "All the ID we have is T2M and Utopia related, we are of course acting with the full approval of the Mexican government, and can get you conformation shortly. Otherwise..."

Suzukaze pulls the blade away. Letting go of the girl's hair she moves the hand around the girls throat feeling the blood. She slides her hand up smearing the blood and grabs the girl under the chin.

"Good girl." She whispers into her ear, and she leans in kissing her on the side of the head.

Suzukaze stands looking down at the girl. She then swings with the backside of the blade knocking her out like her friends. She kicks the gun away from the girl. Looking at Comstock, Suzukaze moves silently up the stairs. She re draws her second katana as she moves. Once at the top she moves silently looking for the tv and Santi.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:39, Thu 28 Jan 2010.

With a slight effort, Impetus tore the house from the ground and obliterated it, leaving only compressed ruin behind.  The hole where the house stood did indeed connect to a concrete pipe with a metal hatch leading down.  Within there was a small room facing a heavily reinforced steel door, the only light provided by Flare's corona and a pair of spinning yellow alarm lights that indicated the complex was on alert.

There was a spot for two small keys and presumably some trick to opening the door, as well as peep hole with bullet proof glass.  A man in a balalaika drew open the metal plate to peer out the peep hole.

---

Suzukaze found Gravitas quite in control of the situation with Santi, the man with the rifle.  There were three bedrooms upstairs, two of them with televisions, but no sign of any door or passage beneath any of them.  Downstairs however, after a quick search, she discovered the family room, its enormous big-screen TV and its two leather couches.  Stacks of old beer cans and other trash covered the floor.  Comstock restrained the concussed people and followed after.  Sure enough, a slight shove rolled the television cabinet across the carpeted floor, revealing that the carpet could be flipped up to expose a metal hatch descending into the complex.

Meanwhile, Dr. Zero's thoughts reached Gravitas without trouble, providing him with the appropriate coordinates for the armory.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
So long as Gravitas' defenses are up, there is actually no way that Santi can hurt Gravitas.  Dispose of him as you like.

---

---

Cloudburst shook her head, splashing sweat in all directions.  Her breathing became faster, more aggressive, as though her heart were pounding.  "I ... grrr ... HHRRRRR ..."  Cloudburst's eyes were dilated, and she looked more uncomfortable.  Her hands snapped to her hip, grabbing for the submachinegun and one of her grenades.  The wind picked up considerably as Cloudburst's nose began to bleed.

---

Back in the armory, the female commander tried again to contact her unconscious soldiers over their radio.  "Gutierrez, you horse-raping dumbass, REPORT!"  There's a bit of static, but the signal is clearly understandable.

[Private to Dr. Zero; Phantasm: There are three possibilities here that the two of you can imagine ... a) the Zetas have some sort of sophisticated radio system or Nova support that somehow defies jamming, b) it has somehow escaped jamming by being underground, or c) someone is screwing up in their job of jamming all available frequencies.  Unfortunately, the third is more likely than the first two.]
This message was last edited by the player at 04:57, Mon 01 Feb 2010.

"So Flare, I hear you can melt a tank, but do you have the finess to just melt part of something?  Think you can melt the lock out of this door?  Melting it completely would probably charbroil whoever's on the other side.  That or I can rip it out of the wall, your call.  Also," he lowered his voice so that it wouldn't carry over the alarm, "are you resistant to small arms fire?  What about RPGs and explosives? This might be getting really interesting really fast, stay on your toes, don't take unnecessary risks."
Imp was feeling a little vulnerable, he lacked his teammates' resistance to damage.  Hopefully he would be fast enough to get out of harm's way.  he also didn't know how much punishment Flare could take.  He grinned wryly, being a glass cannon made life interesting sometimes.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:56, Sat 30 Jan 2010.

Flare smirks a bit. "Anything short of a Howitzer or an angry Comstock shouldn't be able to scratch me with the shield up." She looks a bit irritated at the door and the fool behind it. "Unfortunately finesse isn't my thing, I can melt the door, the moron, and the surrounding wall, but just a little flame has never been my thing. However, if you do the grunt work on the door and don't mind getting a bit cozy I'll handle defense, since I can't fly in here anyway."

Flare over to take Imp's arm (not entirely necessary for the effect, but who on earth could blame her?)and the pair are dwarfed as an entire wall of flame springs into existence.  The wall is over 10 meters high and wide, and likely fills the entire hallway.

"The wall should take care of most things, and if your close I can easily move it around the both of us."

Flare had realized that beyond social-fu she had no idea what Impetus was capable of.  Better to burn a little extra power now, than have to do so to heal an injured comrade.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Flare uses wall, which isn't in her normal repertoire and comes at double the quantum. Impetus gains 10 soak to bashing and lethal from any damage in that direction. The wall is 10 cubic meters and moves with Flare and at her discretion as long as she doesn't leave the ground.

---

"Grunt work?  Grunting?  How very uncivilized."  Imp grins, then looks at the door.  With a tortured shriek the hinges give way and the door falls down onto the floor, leaving the man behind exposed to the crimson light of Flare's wall. "Why don't you just give up now?" Imp asks in Spanish. "It'll probably be a lot less painful than the alternative."

"Well, shit. There goes the peaceful solution." Solitaire comments dryly. She made a note to find whoever had hooked up the thing to Cloudbursts back and shove it down his throat. Controlling Nova's in such a way was unforgivable.

"Try not to kill her though Gale. The paperwork is terrible for that sort of thing."

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Is it initiative time? Or shall I just knock her out quickly?

---

If the portal opens, Zero tosses the weapons through as the speed of story, using Fast Tasks, and even Quickness if necessary.



"Oi. With a boss like that, I feel bad for these saps." Z picks up a radio from one of the guards. It tries to remember the tone of one of the guards, although it has only their grunts from Phantasm's beating to work off of, but hopefully their pushy boss didn't bother memorizing their voices.

"All is clear, boss. Can we get new radios?"

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Zero is using Copy Cat to perfectly fake their voices and keep the difficulty normal.
Fake it, baby: 3 Successes.
21:28, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 3 successes using 10d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 9,6,9,6,8,2,4,6,4,2. Thug Acting.

---

"Yeah.  Hopefully we can get through this without having to do too much damage to the grunts in the process... Hell, down here a lot of people work for the cartels just cuz they're the only good job in town."

Gale frowned as she watched Cloudburst.  Whatever that black box was pushing into her was doing this, but could they safely take out either the box or the tubing?  "You got it, Sol," she responded to Solitaire's order to not kill her.

First task would be to disarm her.

"Oh, so sorry to have offended your delicate sensibilities, by disparaging your massive destruction."
With the destruction of the door, Flare and Imp can easily make their way down the hall and terrify anyone inside.

"So then, we're off to see the wizard?"

With some effort, Impetus' telekinesis tore free the metal door, shattering the concrete around it.  Shouts of surprise and amazement issued out of the hallway, followed by a sharp order to fall back.  The Zetas, already armed and camouflaged, complied swiftly and with admirable discipline, dropping back to the next intersection.

Entering the hallway, a few of the soldiers opened fire, their bullets smoldering and burning up in Flare's shield.  "Shit!  Back-off, move!  Move!  Move!"*  The squad gave up their intersection and turned down another hallway, heading north.  Judging from the smell -- cigarettes, cheap booze, human sweat, aftershave -- you would say you are in the barracks.

Further investigation or pursuit would have to wait, however: Flare and Impetus each notice blocks of plastic explosives cleverly, albeit hastily, taped into convenient hiding spots in the ceiling.  Shaped charges, aimed for decapitation.  Radio detonators suggested they were live and would explode any moment.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Both of you noticed the traps.  Only seconds to back off or find another way to dodge the impending doom.  Also, roll Initiative and post your defense scores and soaks, please.  It should not effect posting order, but it will help me settle any ties when it does matter.

---

---

Comstock knelt and flipped open the metal hatch, revealing a small chamber with a reinforced steel door exactly like the one Impetus found.  "Good work," he nodded to Suzukaze.  Unceremoniously he dropped down and took a look at the door.  "I can wrench this open."

---

Cloudburst shook violently and catapulted into the sky, a veil of thick vapor and fog closing in around her, obscuring her from view.  Out of the vapor, a hail of bullets strafed Solitaire and Gale's position, one flattening itself against Solitaire's leg.  It was a heavy caliber and some sort of special load, enough to crack her skin and sting like mad.  Well-aimed shots might actually be dangerous.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Initiative time.  Defense and soaks as well.  If I'm calculating Sol's defense right, she's hit but to no effect.  Also, now would be an ideal time to begin keeping track of quantum expenditures.  Anyone looking for Cloudburst in her fog-bank, please roll Perception+Awareness.

---

---

"Damnit, Gutierrez, you and your squad should have been in place two minutes ago!  The Utopia Swine are entering.  Take the explosives to Lab C and tell Tajillo and La Puerta to get ..."*  There was a pause and an epiphany.  Zero could almost hear the commander slap her forehead through the radio.  "New radios?"* the commander asked incredulously.  "Shit.  Where is Gutierrez?  Did you kill him too?"*

"Stop moving Flare, booby traps,"  Imp deftly extricated his arm from her grip and wrapped it around her shoulders and pulled her in tight to his ribcage in one smooth, natural motion: playboy training had done its job well.  "Wanna try something crazy?"  He grinned down at her, the adrenaline of combat overriding his new-found sense of caution.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Imp's DV is 9. Init is 20.

---

This message was last edited by the player at 11:17, Thu 04 Feb 2010.

Solitaire looks down at her leg contemptuously, frankly let down if that was the best Cloudburst could do. Solitaire expected better of someone her age. All that bullet had managed to do was put a hole in her jeans. Still, even if Cloudburst wasn't herself, it was on now.

"Watch yourself Gale, I'll try to take any bullets, but no promises." Solitaire says with her customary grin, then adds to her mic "Solitaire engaging."

In her haste, Solitaire doesn't take enough time to aim properly, and likely rockets straight past Cloudburst, no matter though, it wasn't as if Cloudburst could hurt her, even if she missed.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
23 Initiative
19:54, Today: Solitaire rolled 13 using 1d10+10 with rolls of 3. Init, Mexico. +10 Enhanced Init, 1Q spent.

20:04, Today: Solitaire rolled 9 successes using 10d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 10,7,8,3,10,10,2,4,6,3. Per+Aware.
I do also have Blindfighting, if that makes any difference, nothing escapes The Solitaires notice!

20:00, Today: Solitaire rolled 1 success using 9d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 1,9,3,4,3,3,2,5,1. Hyperspeed Strike.

DDV: 5
Soak: 19/13

Dice roller once again hates me, except Awareness rolls, it loves me there. Once this mission is over, Martial Arts here I come!

---

This message was last edited by the player at 04:13, Thu 04 Feb 2010.

In reply to Solitaire (msg #94):

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Not to interrupt, but doesn't your hyperspeed make your DV higher?  Seems I remember that somewhere... At least as long as you are moving full speed.

---

"Ooh, Doc, I think they're onto us... But we also have a location for some Important People... Off to Lab C?"

Phantasm contemplates pulling up a shield, but instead decides to stick with the disguise just a little bit longer, at least until they're in sight of the lab.  She relies on her Intuition to warn her of danger.

Suzukaze drops down behind Comstock. She drops into a stance ready to strike not knowing what may be behind the door. He body glows for a second along with her katana's as they are filled with energy.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Activating Claws, Forcefield, Quickness and Enhanced Initiative. I don't know what DV is or how to figure out. Did this come from another game system or am I just missing it?

10:37, Today: Suzukaze rolled 4 successes using 7d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 1,8,8,4,8,3,7. ff roll mexico.
10:27, Today: Suzukaze failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 6. init mexico.


Initiative: 25, 23(quickness)
Soak: 17 bashing/ 15 lethal
Dv: 8 (11 at full speed)

edited after looking at ooc for the dv

---

This message was last edited by the player at 07:15, Fri 05 Feb 2010.

"Is it violent and explodie? 'Cause I'm totally down for that."

She can't help but grin. Whatever Imp had in mind was likely to be a blast. (pun intended)

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

Initiative is 19 Flare failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5. Initiative +14

Behind the wall with shield up, 29B 27L.  If the attack isn't through the fire wall, then 19B 17L.  The fire wall also has a soak of 10 for Impetus as well.

---

Gale nodded at Solitaire.  Her first instinct was to activate her force field, which brought up a wall of solid air around her, hopefully stopping the bullets before they hit her.  Unlike Solitaire, she wasn't super strong.

Assuming she survived the first barrage, she'd bring up the wind to get rid of the cloud cover.  She knew how to fly in her own winds, and Solitaire flew fast enough it probably didn't make a difference.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

19:53, Today: Gale rolled 21 using 1d10+13 with rolls of 8. Initiative, Mexico.

19:54, Today: Gale rolled 3 successes using 8d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7. Perc+Awareness, Mexico.

19:57, Today: Gale rolled 1 success using 4d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7. Force field, Mexico.
So, Force Field activating for a total of +6B/6L.
Visual for Force Field effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogel

Assuming Wind Shield was activated on entry,
Soaks: 20B/18L
DV: 7

20:04, Today: Gale rolled 2 successes using 6d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7. Int+Elem. Anima, Mexico.
Effect: Wind increased by 50% (25% per success).

Quantum Spent: 3 for Force field, 3 for Wind Control.  Current Quantum: 22/28

---

Imp frowned, "Changed my mind, no sense getting a bunch of people killed. Us in particular." Thoughts of his two daughters and Caroline flickered through his mind.  While still behind the safety of her barrier, he pulled the explosives free of the ceiling and:
A) If they didn't explode: held them in place in the air.  "Time to drop the curtain and start cleaning this place out, yes? Watch out for more explosives."  As soon as the barrier is down Imp moves rapidly down the hallway, explosives held a few meters ahead of him.
B) If they do explode: Imp shields flare with his body.  Probably needlessly as the barrier should take most of the damage and Flare probably can take more punishment than he can.
After the explosive situation is resolved Imp radios the other teams, "Impetus to all teams, watch out for explosives and other booby traps, I don't know if they can damage us, but they may collapse tunnels and slow us down."

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Sorry, forgot to post Imp's soak.  11B/8L.

---

This message was last edited by the player at 05:36, Sun 07 Feb 2010.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Sorry for the delayed response, still re-adapting to returning to school.

---

After approaching the building, Quentin realigned his personal gravity and walked up the side to the window where the shooter was situated. As he climb/walked, he brought up his defensive shielding, resulting in a characteristic human-shaped black void. While his defenses had universal applicability, they were particularly powerful against ranged weapons like firearms, as his shielding was able to entirely redirect projectiles away from himself.

Without fanfare, he swung through the window directly at the shooter. Anticipating this, the shooter had backed away from the window and had lined his rifle up to shoot Gravitas as he entered. The bullet escaped the gun, was immediately caught in a whirl of gravity, and tossed aside to pierce a wall.

Gravitas held his hand out and released waves of gravity to pin the shooter to the far wall. While his new prisoner was confined, he relieved the other man of his gun and emptied it of its remaining ammunition.



Gravitas receives the Doctor's transmitted thought and replies with a signal to hold. He first opened a wormhole to the approximate location of one of the General's outposts. He tossed his prisoner through before going himself. Once there, he opened another portal to the location Zero had provided.

The Doctor tosses the prisoners in as well.



Zero suppressed the urge to make pig noises in the woman's own voice. This woman was quick, and anything Zero would say would only give her more to work with. The Doctor stayed silent.



"Indeed. Let us." And with that, they vanished.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Locations:
Overhead -- Gale and Solitaire
Northeast Complex -- Flare and Impetus
Southeast Complex -- Dr. Zero and Phantasm; Comstock and Suzukaze readying to breach.
Wherever he wants to be -- Gravitas

---

---

The charges -- little red bricks -- did not explode, and soon Impetus had half a dozen small gray packages with little metal detonators floating in the air ahead of him.  As they came to an intersection, they heard one of the soldiers shout "Jesus Christ!  Get back!"  For about a minute or so, the floating bombs were useful in clearing out the barracks as men dashed away down the corridors in all directions.  A radio left on a folding-card table then squawked to life.  "Everyone is clear?"*  "Clear!"*  "Clear!"*  "Clear, sir!"*  The bombs went off, but being meters away the blast was harmless.  The complex shook, but nothing collapsed.

"Hold this position!  Alpha with me!"*  The barracks were a relatively cramped affair, the halls narrowing as one moved away from the entrance-hatches until they were aircraft-carrier narrow.  Not ideal for squad-based action.  From the rooms Flare and Impetus passed through, they guessed there might be room for a little under 200 soldiers at full capacity, crammed into triple-stack bunk beds with scarce room for personal belongings.  Very spartan.

Back in the corridor, Flare found a sign posted to the wall giving directions; military efficiency, but clearly little preparation for infiltration and assault.  It indicated directions to Labs, Cellblock, Officers Quarters, Showers and Mess Hall.  There was little organized resistance after the bomb trick.  Some of the zetas had even left their rifles and masks behind at the sight of little red floating explosives ready to blow.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Sidenote: Flare, I think you applied the soak from your Fire shield twice.

---

---

"Gravitas this is Comstock: Sue and I are breaching the door downstairs.  Fill in wherever your instincts tell you.  Over."  Comstock went heavy and pulled the door open, tearing apart the wall as he did so.

A hail of large caliber rounds slammed into Comstock and the door, forcing him to take cover beneath it.  Suzukaze could make out two masked and armored soldiers with a pair of heavy machine guns and a single man with an anti-tank rifle positioned behind a hastily prepared bulwark.  A few other men took cover further back.  The hallway had about six red-orange bricks of plastic explosives along the floor and ceiling as well.

Comstock picked up a stray block of broken concrete and threw it blindly down the hallway.  It missed the heavy guns, but collided with another man's shoulder, knocking him prone.

---

Solitaire rocketed into the clouds, aiming for the sound of the gun's slide and clipping Cloudburst as she passed.  The gun spiraled toward earth below, but Cloudburst was long past caring about that.  Meanwhile, the cloud began rushing away at an alarming rate as Gale's node accelerating the light breeze to a stiff wind.

Unable to keep up with Solitaire, Cloudburst turned her focus toward Gale, flying at maximum speed.  She raised a hand and an nearly invisible column of water-vapor and lightning crashed into Gale's shield, the scent of ozone filling the air.  Cloudburst herself impacted the shield of heavy air next.  Gale narrowly slipped away from her grasp.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Solitaire missed Cloudburst there.  Cloudburst failed to damage with her bolt and grapple both.  On the bright side, everyone can see her now.  Between Blindfighting and sturdy winds, her preferred mode of combat is invalidated.

---

---

Gravitas' portals opened and a squad of Mexican soldiers helped strip the armory bare in under a minute.  Another squad took up positions in the armory, since it provided such an effective toe-hold.

Zero and Phantasm, however, disappeared.  The Doctor guessed at the location of Lab C, and the pair reappeared behind a massive steel vat of some sort.  They could hear a few men quickly packing paperwork and glassware on the other side, with soldiers urging them on.  "Come on ... COME ON.  Pack faster!  You heard what Juan said!"*

Peeking around the corner, it was clear that this was some sort of medical lab.  Petri dishes and chemical glassware was scattered across every surface.  File cabinets were being emptied and hard drives removed from computers, the men doing the labor in casual street clothes.  A few more red-orange charges of plastic explosives were being set by a pair of zeta soldiers.

Two novas helped.  One was Simón Espericueta; he was the yelling idiot, a Mexican man in a cheap short-sleeved shirt that buttoned up the front, dark sunglasses and hair gelled into spikes.  He was waving a Desert Eagle everywhere, occasionally pointing to his own head in his flailing about.  There was a weird dark aura on him, like he was constantly shedding black motes into the air.  The other was La Voz, dressed in her fancy suit and helping the scientists pick up their crap as fast as possible, a very human expression of panic on her face.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:11, Sun 07 Feb 2010.

Imp scanned the map with his multi-optic sunglasses, relaying the images to HQ.  "Frosty, this is Impetus, please send this along to the other teams and the General, over. Also, Frosty, can you patch me into the radio system here, or their PA?"

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
if frosty can't Imp will just grab one of the radios left behind in the panicked withdrawal from the floating explosives.

---

He then winked at Flare, "Keep me covered beautiful, this may draw some heat."
He clicked the radio to transmit, focused himself, and said "Hello my friends, this is Impetus from Team Tomorrow, I know that for many of you this was the only way you could support your family, and that you don't want to go to jail and be executed.  If you surrender now, either to the operatives currently storming your base, or to the troops currently surrounding the barrio, I promise that you will be shown leniency, and that your families will be well looked after.*"  He was unsure how he focused himself on tapping into the radio transmitter with his node to affect everyone who heard his voice, but then he wasn't exactly sure how he did a lot of things.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
used almost live (cha), commanding presence, natural empathy and analyze weakness to fuel the roll 18 sux. quantum remaining: 16.

---

This message was last edited by the player at 04:51, Tue 09 Feb 2010.

Phantasm smiled at Zero, then cocked an eyebrow.  She mouthed "ready to go?  Which one you want?"  Once she gets an answer, she brings up her forcefield, and partitions off flecks of quantum energy into four decaying sheep.  Their piteous bleating will likely catch someone's attention... That, or the green glow.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

Forcefield: +20 soak, yay for good rolls
You rolled 8 successes using 8d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((7,7,8,4,8,1,4,10)).
2q

QC: Been a while since I've made any of these... http://www.slithis.org/images/3.jpg
1 to get a sheep, 1 for sentience, 2 to double twice (4 sheep), 1 for 5 nova points (3 for m.str 1, 1 for str 4, 1 for 2 maimed hl's)
You rolled 5 successes using 8d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((3,2,9,10,2,5,9,7)).
3q

activating Multitasking, Quickness, Physical Prodigy, and pay the upkeep on Shapeshift.  The round costs me 11q total.

28L/32B soak for the round, defense 8

---

Flare was glad she still had Quantum to spare, this would certainly draw a reaction.

"Geez, I think the wall will keep out bullets, but if a hoard of converted worshippers come down here, I'm gonna let them have you."
She couldn't suppress a grin though, Imp's way might save lives and had the benefit of being showy as hell.

"Well then, let's continue our tour of the underground and see if we can meet up with out wayward team mates, and your new fans."

After narrowly slipping away from Cloudburst, she closed in on the other woman.  She attacked with her claws, swiping at Cloudburst's exposed skin.  She didn't want to kill the nova; she wasn't in her right mind after all.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Activating Quickness.

Attack 1: 23:24, Today: Gale rolled 3 successes using 9d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 1,8,5,5,6,4,8,1,6. Attack 1, Mexico.

23:27, Today: Gale rolled 3 successes using 6d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 9,1,2,2,10,10. Damage Attack 1, Mexico.

Attack 2: 23:28, Today: Gale rolled 2 successes using 9d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 1,2,6,1,5,2,4,8,10. Attack 2, Mexico.

23:28, Today: Gale rolled 3 successes using 6d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,6,8,8,5,7. Damage Attack 2, Mexico.

Spent 1 Quantum on Quickness.  Current Quantum 21/28

---

Zero speaks telepathically to Phantasm. "Hmmm... scary bunch. Tell me what you think. I'm guessing our best goals are to secure those files and that woman. She's the one we can use to connect a lot of dots. From where I'm standing, everything else is superficial. What if I tried to make a grab for her or the files, and you use a creation to distract those Novas? Does that sound like a plan?"

While Zero speaks, it focuses on all the people in the room and opens it's Quantum senses. Something wasn't right about them.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Zero will use a combo of Quantum Attunment and Medical Prodigy to try to decern their Quantum, Node, and Taint Traits. If enough successes are forthcoming (at least 3), the Doctor will try to learn what type of Quantum Powers they have. This is the Doctor's main goal. It also wishes to see if there are any odd Quantum traits in the area.

Medical Prodigy: 4 Succeses.
21:56, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 3 successes using 8d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 3,3,7,8,3,8,6,1. Medical Prodigy Roll. 3 Meg.

Quantum Attunment (Medical): 7 Successes

21:59, Today: Dr. Zero failed (no successes) using 3d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 3,6,6. Reroll 10's, Observant Quality.
21:58, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 6 successes using 15d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8,4,2,10,5,9,5,7,3,10,5,3,10,4,1. Q-Attunment Medical Roll, 1Meg.

---

This message was last edited by the player at 03:00, Wed 10 Feb 2010.

Suzukaze charges at full speed towards the gunmen. She approaches them one at a time swinging her blades at their arms.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Assuming these are still human extras. Aiming to cut off their hands or arms at elbows. Suzukaze dosen't want to play nice today.

---

Phantasm nods at Zero.  "Just say go..."

Whenever Zero gives the signal, Phantasm will send the sheep running and bleating loudly into the room, and will go for a few hits herself as Zero tries to do whatever it is planning on doing.

In the meantime she fashions her eufiber into spikes that come out of the backs of her hands.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Should be enough... hmm... there may be an unskilled penalty, since I don't have weave... I'll check on it later.  You rolled 3 successes using 7d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((1,6,1,8,2,8,9)).

---

This message was last edited by the player at 02:22, Thu 11 Feb 2010.

Quentin spoke into his comm as he finished helping the General's men empty out the armory. "This is Gravitas, anyone want some backup?"

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Locations:
Overhead -- Gale (Init 21; 20B/18L; Dv 7) and Solitaire (Init 23; 19B/13L; Dv 5)
Northeast Complex -- Flare (Init 19; 19B/17L; with wall, 29B/27L; Dv 7) and Impetus (Init 20; 11B/8L; with wall, 21B/18L; Dv 9)
Southeast Complex -- Dr. Zero (???) and Phantasm (Init ?; 28L/32B; Dv: 8)
------------- Nearby -- Comstock (Init: 8; 40B/34L; DV: 3) and Suzukaze (Init: 25, 23; Soak: 17B/15L; Dv: 8 (11))
Wherever he wants to be -- Gravitas

---

"We haven't had any luck breaching their channels yet."  There was a slight pause as Frostburn typed something.  "Okay, Impetus.  You're patched through on the General's channel."  Impetus had to use one of the discarded radios, but soon found the channel that fed over the entire intercom system.  His message echoed off every wall of the complex.

Within seconds, another voice came over the channel.  The woman commander from before.  "Soldiers!  You have fought long and hard for the future you believe in, too long and hard to be swayed by another colonialist lie!  Any man or woman who abandons their sacred duty to their brothers and sisters in arms will have to answer to me.  Stand firm, have faith, and we will prevail today!"  Her voice packed a lot of punch.  Probably La Alegría.  "And to you, Impetus ... how does it feel to support an organization intent on enslaving half the world to support the other half in luxury?  Do you sleep easy in your silk sheets and private mansion?"*  Vindictive.  Maybe even a little desperate.

About a minute later, Flare heard men approaching slowly.  "You there?  We ... we can really surrender?  Just call it over?"  A man poked his head slowly around the corner and removed his facemask, licking his lips anxiously.  "I want to come out and put my gun down, okay?  My friends do too.  Okay?"  His English wasn't bad.

---

Suzukaze dashed through the hail of fire, ducking under the stream of bullets and deftly sidestepping the anti-tank round as it screamed down the hallway and blasted a hole in Comstock's cover.  As she closed the distance, the machine-gunners tried to correct their aim, painting a stream of bullets across the hallway a step behind her.

Closing in, Suzukaze's blades shot forth in an instant.  One man lost a hand at the wrist, the other his arm at the elbow, and the man with the anti-tank rifle leapt to his feet only to fall backwards, both his arms slashed across the biceps.  A tenth of a second later, gleaming purple quantum force knocked each of the men back against the walls of the narrow hallway.  The other three men of this squad were further down the hallway, their eyes too slow to catch up with the carnage.  The one with the detonator for the explosives jumped and jammed the button in surprise, filling the corridor behind Suzukaze with shrapnel and dust.

Comstock doggedly marched up the hallway, bending the metal door so it would fit in the corridor.  He used it as a shield against the explosives.

At the sound of Impetus' message echoing over the radio, the man with the detonator jumped again and dropped it.  He dove to try and catch it before it hit the ground.  The other two men raised their rifles and fired on Suzukaze, but those bullets that would have hit merely fragmented against her armor and anima.  For Suzukaze, events moved at a crawl.  Another 20 feet down this corridor hit something that looked like a break room.  Suzukaze could see men and women in plain-clothes dashing across that room and down another corridor, carrying bags and plastic crates.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
DV 11 is hard to touch.  Even in a six-foot high, six-foot wide corridor with full auto.

---

---

In the sky above, Gale raked at Cloudburst's hands and face with her claws, cutting her across the bridge of her nose and above the eye.  Cloudburst retaliated in kind, aiming an elbow for Gale's head with deadly force and diving at her once again.  Gale slipped beneath both attacks, swooping away before Cloudburst could get a firm grip.

The berserk Cloudburst roared with rage and reached to her boot, drawing a hardened knife.  Her off-hand still held a grenade; she'd pulled the pin, but not yet released the arming mechanism.  The strength of her grip was warping the explosive, however; it could be armed already, or compressed enough to go off at a moment's notice.

Meanwhile, as the stiff wind swept the clouds out of the way, Solitaire had a perfect vantage ... and her enemy's back was turned to her.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Narrow misses all around.

---

---

Impetus' message crackled out of the radios of the two soldiers, as well as the one on Espericueta's belt.  Impetus' charisma seemed to cause the young nova to coil up in pain.  "Hyaaaeeehh!  Hrrrgg!  Hrrrrrnnggg!"  More black, light-absorbing motes showered off of him as he tried to decide whether to grip his abdomen or head.

The four plain-clothed scientists paused and looked to each other, apparently tempted by the offer and a little alarmed at their keeper's episode.  La Voz kept pulling files from the cabinet into a duffel bag, zipping it closed as she finished.  One of the two soldiers, however, noticed a peculiar green light and moved to investigate.

In a moment, he'll turn the corner to find four phantasm-sheep straight from his nightmares.

[Private to Dr. Zero: Both of them seem to be Q3, with a variety of powers.  Espericueta's powers are all about hiding, getting away, and washing away trails.  You are sure he has Teleport, as well as Shroud, and might be able to hold his own in a fist-fight since he's so fast.  The pain appears to be some sort of reaction to mental influences: his entire body is firing off pain-receptors anytime someone tries to drop some Quantum-backed influence on him.  Weirdly complex.  Probably good for a paper.  If he weren't waving a gun around dangerously -- and from the look of it, wearing a Semtex suicide vest! -- he could use a good Doctor.

Seriously, though, if that is a suicide vest under his shirt, he could set this entire side of the complex off.  There's an awful lot of chemicals around.  Probably why the soldiers were setting up Semtex charges, too; they plan to bury this compound behind them.  Possibly on T2M.

La Voz, on the other hand, has one hell of a voice and definite Mega-Appearance.  It's hard to pin everything down -- you'd guess she is 'dormed down' as the slang goes -- but Dominate and Sonic direct damage are in play.  She's probably hypnotic, too.  Don't let her speak.

Also, the medical equipment itself seems to be covered in Quantum.  Mite?  Soma?  Something else?]
This message was last edited by the player at 02:25, Mon 15 Feb 2010.

"Sacred duty?  Sacred?  This is an organization that deals in addiction and misery.  It sells drugs, murders, and enslaves, all in the service of greed.  There is nothing sacred about this, no higher cause, no pretense at building a socialist nirvana.  Listen to her words and hear her lies, her fears that your eyes will be opened to the truth, and you will decide to do the right thing and stop throwing your lives away for people who care nothing for you.  Be not afraid of your former commander's wrath, instead be hopeful for a brighter future not only for yourselves and your families, but for all of Mexico once you have cut yourself free from these shackles that bind you.*"
Scorn and contempt drip from Imp's voice, lambasting those who would lie and cheat and fatten themselves off human misery.  He then shifts gears, becoming softer and warmer as he delivers his heartfelt plea to their reason and their better natures.

Flare doesn't have super charm, she smiles encouragingly at the men.  She nods toward Impetus "That's what the man said, if you put down your weapons, I won't hurt you. Just lay them on the ground then come forward, slowly."

Flare leans over to whisper at Imp, "Do I tell them they can just walk through the wall of fire? If this is a trick it would leave us vulnerable."

"Impetus to Grav, we could use some support here, I'm probably drawing some heat with my proselytizing, over."
To Flare
"Yeah, sure, let them in.  Unless it's Juan in a really good disguise I think we can handle them."  Imp eyed the men critically, trying to see if there was anything unusual about their body language, expressions or equipment.  If nothing was amiss he continued his diatribe and urging, unless they did something about him soon he'd have the entire base working for Utopia within a couple hours.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
10 sux on the roll.  that roller is on crack

---

This message was last edited by the player at 12:20, Mon 15 Feb 2010.

"Freakin a..." Zero speaks mentally to Phantasm. "I apologize for delaying the attack, but I'm not sure how to proceed with these two.

Both of our openets seem mid range is raw Quantum distribution, with a variety of powers.  Espericueta's gifts seem focused on hiding, getting away, and washing away trails.  He has what we call teleportation, as well as an ability to shroud the area, and might be able to hold his own in a fist-fight. His potential speed is amazing.  The pain he shows appears to be some sort of reaction to mental influences. His entire body is firing off pain-receptors anytime someone tries to drop Quantum-backed influence on him.  Weirdly complex. This would be good for a paper.  He could use a good Doctor, but the thing that is the biggest problem is he is wearing a Semtex suicide vest.

If that is a suicide vest under his shirt, he could set this entire side of the complex off with all of the chemicals around.  This is probably why the soldiers were setting up Semtex charges, too; they plan to bury this compound behind them.  Possibly on top of all of us.

La Voz has an amazing voice and definite superhuman  appearance.  It's hard to pin everything down, but I guess she is 'dormed down,' but mental domination and sonic damage powers are in available to her.  She's probably hypnotic, too.  We can't let her speak.

Also, the medical equipment itself seems to be covered in Quantum.  It could be anything. Mite?  Soma?  Something else? God. I'm not sure how to go without tripping the explosives. Let's see..."

Zero tries to analyze the explosive equipment. If the suicide vest will only trigger with Espericueta's death, than the Doctor will feel better about blitzing him. Are the other explosives armed? If so, can they be easily disarmed with a superhuman reflexes? (OOC: Quickness Action?)

"How good are you at disarming explosives?"

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Sorry for the delay. My fiance has had food poisoning for the past two days. I'll jump into action next post. Just wanted to make sure I don't blow us all up. ;p

I'm not sure what to roll for Explosives, as I can see it being Engineering or Science, but both are 5, so here goes.

Wow. 12 successes. (1 Mega was a 10)
20:56, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 1 success using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8. reroll 10's, Ingenius Quality.
20:55, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 9 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 1,10,6,5,7,8,1,9,9,8,9,8,8. EvalExplosives, 3meg.

---

"Explosives aren't my thing, though I could take care of them in a pinch probably... why don't you let me take care of pretty over there, I can make sure she doesn't get a chance to open her mouth, and the sheep can clear out the people... I'll even send one to distract the guy with the suicide vest while you disarm him."
Phantasm takes a peak around the corner, and uses reflections in glass and metal to analyze the room as well... She's looking for the best approach to hit her target from.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Phantasm will run in for a flurry of death when her time comes.  Activate Analyze Weakness, quickness and multitasking for another 3q, make three hits each attack, for a total of six attacks.  The first attack will be focused on collapsing her larynx (I've got a little medicine and a lot of mega-int if need be).  I don't want to kill her, but I won't be gentle either; she's a nova, and should be able to recover from some pretty serious damage.  I want her unconscious, and severely wounded.

An.Weakness: Phantasm rolled 1 success using 8d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 2,2,4,1,1,3,1,10.
Dice roller hate...

---

"On may way," Quentin responds. He quickly obtains the coordinates for Imp and Flare's location from the General's men and opens himself a pathway.

Elsewhere, a swirling vortex erupts into existence, depositing Quentin (and possibly a few of the general's men?) at Imp's location. "Backup is here, as requested," Quentin reported, "I'm sure a few of these guys will genuinely surrender, but I expect a few will use this as an excuse to try to take a stab at you and any 'traitors' who might come here as well."

"Agreed.  Their HQ doesn't know exactly where we are, but they probably have a pretty good idea, what with all the soldiers running away from us.  And towards us.  Now that you're here, and we have some of the general's men for backup, let's start clearing this place out, yes?"

"Roger, Roger." Zero attacks at the same time as Phantasm, vanishing and reappearing behind the soldiers setting the explosives. The doctor attacks them with lightning jabs before approaching Espericueta. "Alright, you! Take off that suicide vest, and..." The Doctor suddenly stops, as if in shock. "Juan? Is that you? Juan?! I thought you where dead! I thought they killed you!" Zero reaches out it's arms, and pauses to Esper's reaction. "Don't you recognize me? It's your brother! What have they done to you?" Zero nervously shakes it's head, using it's body language implies it's hidden eyes are trying to see into Esper's eyes, trying to find some recognition from it's brother.

Zero tries to play up on Esper's extreme paranoia about being mentally controlled, implying that he has already been completely brainwashed by the Cartel into being their enforcer. 

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Zero uses Combat Teleport to port behind the two soldiers prepping the explosives. Quickness activated.

The Doctor splits it's action and attacks both of them.

Attack first soldier: 3 successes.
22:42, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 2 successes using 9d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 4,4,4,5,7,2,5,4,8. Attack soldier, 1meg.
22:45, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 1 success using 2d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 3,9. Forgot Rear attack accuracy bonus1.

If that connected: 2 (successes) +5 (Mega-Str) +Extra Attack Successes. Precision Enhancement in effect.
22:49, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 2 successes using 6d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8,8,5,2,3,4. Damage.

Attack second Soldier:3 successes.
22:46, Today: Dr. Zero failed (no successes) using 2d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,6. Forgot Rear attack accuracy bonus2.
22:43, Today: Dr. Zero failed (no successes) using 2d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 6,3. Reroll 10's, Agile Quality .
22:42, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 3 successes using 8d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 2,5,10,10,3,8,6,1. attack soldier, 1meg.

If that connected: 4 (successes) +5 (Mega-Str) +Extra Attack Successes. Precision Enhancement in effect.
22:49, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 4 successes using 6d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 1,7,10,10,3,7. Damage2.

If they are both knocked out, Zero calmly approaches Espericueta, and drops to his knees. (Quickness action.) Zero will try to manipulate Esper with its Manipulation and Medicine Ability (Psychology!).

Medical Prodigy: 7 successes (2 Mega successes! Thank God.)
23:02, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 5 successes using 8d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 7,9,5,5,9,6,7,9. Medical Prodigy Roll. 3 Meg.

Manipulate Esper. 5 successes. (Fingers crossed!)
23:05, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 5 successes using 16d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,6,5,9,7,4,5,8,1,8,5,1,4,7,2,2. Subterfuge+ProdigySucesses,1Meg.

---

Alegría kept at it on the radio.  "If we deal in drugs and death, does that make us any different from your Utopia, with your 'prescriptions' and your 'peacekeeping'?  And what motivates this brighter tomorrow of yours if not the hunger for more?  It is always more with you.  Never enough."*  There were a few clicks and some static across the signal as she spoke.  She sounded like she was sneering.  The radio wasn't particularly high quality: a heavy thrumming noise was echoing in the background, like a diesel engine.

Meanwhile, six men entered the room and placed their rifles, pistols and other weapons on the ground in a pile.  Then they backed away, hoping the woman behind the wall of fire would not simply kill them all.  Somewhere else in the compound, sounds of gunfire and shouting echoed to Flare and Impetus.  The surrendered men looked between each other and sweated anxiously.

After a few quick calls, Gen. Zuniga gave an enthusiastic thumbs up to Gravitas and split off two squads to support him and T2M in the tunnels themselves.  Gravitas' portal opened into the barracks and the men immediately split up to form a cordon.  Flare's wall of fire gave them pause, but they did their best to work around it.

"Team, this if Frostburn: Zuniga's men are winning the scattered firefights.  He wants to start sending in patrols in the next ten minutes.  We're ahead of schedule.  Also, Antaeus will be here in about twelve minutes."

---

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
I'm not advancing the Comstock-Suzukaze or Gale-Solitaire action yet so people have a chance to post.  Damn busy week for me, broken computer for Sol, and probably busy for Suzukaze too.  Feel free to post two-turns of actions, too, if you like.  You can assume that a) the mooks will keep on shooting if not silenced, and b) Cloudburst, in her frenzy, has her mind set on hacking the two of you open.

---

---

The more investigative of the two soldiers took a deep breath, eyed the unnerving green glow, and turned the corner quickly.  His world promptly went black.

The other soldier heard a surprised shout and grabbed his gun, only to be felled by a punch to each kidney and a rabbit punch.  Meanwhile, four horrible sheep floated out and tore into the rest of the lab-techs.  There was a great deal of shouting and a few harsh bites, but the constructs quickly had the men herded into the corner of the lab farthest from the doors.  They bleated menacingly.

In the confusion, Phantasm leapt into action.  As La Voz stood up to see what was going on, Phantasm appeared from her blind-spot and struck her in the throat.  There was an unnerving, juicy pop and a surprised gasp.  La Voz doubled over in surprise, and the fight was over; Phantasm's knee crushed La Voz's nose, and another two hits shattered her ribs, tore her flesh, and sent her careening to the floor.  Phantasm had to stop herself on the fifth hit.  Anything more might kill her.  In retaliation, La Voz could only reach a weak arm out blindly to search for her dropped cell-phone.  She lay on her back, wheezing and choking on her own blood, and her eyes rolled back into her skull.

As the attack began, Espericueta fired wildly at the sheep, then whirled to brandish the gun at Zero.  "What?!"* he shouted, furious spit flying everywhere.  "What the fuck do you?!?! ... how did you?!?! ... you?!?!*"  He heard Zero's words, then saw his stolen uniform, then his mask and began hyperventilating.  "Brother...?!  What the hell are you talking-"*

Suddenly, his eyes lit up with recognition and his face twisted into a grotesque mask of grief and rage.  "You!  YOU!!!  You killed my sister!  You killed my wife!"*  He doesn't shoot, but his left hand finds the detonator on his vest.  His eyes flick back and forth wildly.  "They ... they lied to me ... THEY FUCKING LIED TO ME!  All those letters ... all those promises I sent you and you were here all along?!?!  How long have you been working for them?!?!  Oh God!!"*  His paranoid mind reels through dozens of possibilities for this turn of events, but he seems convinced that Zero's sudden appearance in Zeta uniform and armor means that his employers have been playing him for a fool.

The beautiful thing about plastic explosives is that they are remarkably stable.  Shoot them, drop them, whatever and they won't go off.  Disarming these bombs only requires someone remove the detonators without setting off any traps or fail-safes that might set the explosives off.  The detonator for Simón's vest is somewhere under his shirt, but the button is in his hand.  The detonators for the charges around the room are plainly visible and don't appear to be very complicated.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
First: Zero knocks out the extras.  His psychology attack is super-effective as well.  Maybe not quite the effect you desired, but Simón's too confused and off balance to do much of anything right now.

Second, to expedite things I rolled for you, Phantasm.  Though you didn't know it at the time, six attacks is overkill.  Her DV comes to a staggering ... two.

Attack 1
^{17:15, Today: Comstock, on behalf of Phantasm, rolled 7 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8,2,8,7,6,9,5,10,9,3,10. Attack 1 on La Voz.}
Attack 2 (quickness)
^{17:17, Today: Comstock, on behalf of Phantasm, rolled 4 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 4,2,4,3,4,9,1,3,10,9,8. Attack 2 on La Voz.}
Etc. etc.

Since you have MegaStrength and are doing lethal, I'm just not going to worry about damage after all those hits.  She would have been really mean if Zero hadn't pegged all of her abilities with his analysis roll, but now she's just a casualty.  Not even a chance to speak in her own defense.

---

Imp toggled his Utopia headset.  "Sounds like Alegria's near a generator or other power source," he checked the map, "Comstock, she's pretty close to you if she's in Generator room 1."
He looked the 6 men over carefully, "Gentlemen, please wait here with these soldiers, you'll have to agree to be handcuffed, or zip-stripped more likely, but you've made the right decision.*"
He then spoke into the radio, "You're right, Alegria, what you do and what Utopia does is similar, if diametrically opposed.  Opposite sides of the same coin.  We promote education, you promote ignorance.  We immunize and you addict.  We build, you corrupt.  The hunger is the same though, we both want more, will never stop wanting more.  Utopia won't stop until disease has been eradicated, the environment has been restored, and hunger and poverty have been relegated to the history books.  Sadly for you, we won't rest until you've been relegated to the same books.  You can't win, and I while I'm sure your men admire your spirit, I know that you won't fight to the death for what you believe in.  You'll throw your soldiers into the meat grinder without hesitation, but you will run like the coward you are, will fight only when you're cornered, and will sell out everybody working for you, friends, family, and your soul to get what you want.  I know you have those terrible quiet moments when you realize that you will sacrifice everyone but yourself for what you want, and that you are a damned creature.  Your karmic debt has come due lady, and we're here to collect.*"
That's right you stupid bitch, he thought to himself, focus on me, trade barbs, get angry, forget about Zero and Phantasm and Sue moving like ghosts through your base, leaving broken bodies behind them. Forget about Comstock who will tear through the walls and doors of this base like they are toilet paper.  Forget to give yourself enough time to run, although that time is long past.  I'm the obvious threat, focus on me.

Flare starts ushering the new men to join in on their movements.  A very brief explanation, "It won't burn you because I don't want it to." Should suffice to get the men moving without letting them think of switching back to the druggie side.

"Hiya Grav, great timing." She winces a bit at Imps meat grinder analogy, but otherwise tries not to let the witty banter distract her from the underground that needs to be scoured.

"Shall we move along?" Flare and her firewall continue on toward what is likely the center of the compound. She keeps her ears open for any cries, screams, or demonic sheep that might tell if they're close to meeting up with the others.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Flare rolled 5 successes using 7d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8,4,6,10,7,9,10. Moving along in the Drug Compound.
(shiney!!!)

---

Zero suddenly feels a bit disgusted with itself. A moment ago, it was so sure of it's own cleverness for trying a non-voilent solution. Now it felt like an arrogant fool, mucking around in a man's broken mind. It didn't know how much of what this man said was true, but the man believed that people very close to him had been murdered by someone equally close. It was hard to tell if this interpretation was correct. The man was barley making sense. The Doctor had a brief flash to it's own deranged moments, years ago, when it had a normal name, and guessed it must have looked the same to so many people.

Zero decided that pushing the psychological edge was too cruel and risky, and decided to trust in a three prong attack with Phantasm and her terrible creation. Hopefully they could stop Esper before the poor man killed them all.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Event Horizon: 4 Successes.
21:17, Today: Dr. Zero failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5. reroll 10's, Ingenius Quality.
21:16, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 4 successes using 9d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 6,1,4,2,8,4,9,10,7. Event Horizon, 3Meg.

Quickness activated. Precision is in effect for all martial arts attacks.

Combat Teleport behind Espericueta.

Zero attacks from behind: 6 successes. (Mega was a 9)

21:22, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 1 success using 2d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,7. Forgot Rear attack accuracy bonus (again.
21:19, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 4 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 9,7,9,3,8,6,4,2,2,6,6. Vulcan Chop! 1 Meg.

If that hit... 4 rolled damage + 5 Mega-Str + _ extra attack successes.

21:23, Today: Dr. Zero failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 2. Reroll 10's, Brutal Quality.
21:23, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 4 successes using 6d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 1,9,10,9,6,7. Hit Damage.

Second (Quickness) Attack: 7 successes (Mega was a 10. Wow.)
21:25, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 1 success using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8. Reroll 10's, Agile Quality .
21:25, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 4 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 10,3,2,3,5,4,8,4,2,8,9,1,3. Quickness attack, 1Meg.

If that hit (God, I hope it did!)... 5 rolled damage successes + 5 Mega-Str + _ extra attack successes.

21:27, Today: Dr. Zero failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5. Reroll 10's, Brutal Quality.
21:27, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 2 successes using 2d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 10,8. Reroll 10's, Brutal Quality.
21:27, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 3 successes using 6d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 6,1,4,10,10,7. Damage roll .

---

"Lambs for the slaughter..." Suzukaze says to herself. Her lips curled into an evil grin.

The grin turns into a frown as she stares at her blades. She charges into the room and chasing after the fleeing people she swings her blades as she passes them.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Aiming mostly for the legs. Going to use precision to inflict just enough damage to stop them from running, but not be lethal hopefully.

---

Phantasm waits to see if their last opponent falls from Zero's onslaught.  If he doesn't, she will step in, but until then she goes about trying to diffuse some of the nearby explosives (the ones that can be disarmed without having to deal with a moving person they're attached to).

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

used my engineering pool, though my science is higher
Disarm: You rolled 8 successes using 9d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((7,3,10,3,10,3,6,10,10)).

Quickness action (1q)
Will start a similar attack pattern to the last one, if it becomes necessary.  Otherwise, will continue disarming explosives.

---

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Locations:
Overhead -- Gale (Init 21; 20B/18L; Dv 7) and Solitaire (Init 23; 19B/13L; Dv 5)
Southeast Complex, Corridors -- Gravitas, Flare (Init 19; 19B/17L; with wall, 29B/27L; Dv 7) and Impetus (Init 20; 11B/8L; with wall, 21B/18L; Dv 9)
Southeast Complex, Labs -- Dr. Zero (???) and Phantasm (Init ?; 28L/32B; Dv: 8)
Southeast Complex, near entrance -- Comstock (Init: 8; 40B/34L; DV: 3) and Suzukaze (Init: 25, 23; Soak: 17B/15L; Dv: 8 (11))

---

Zuniga's soldiers handled the arrests and the disarming of each of the surrendered men.  Another four arrived soon after and dropped their guns, nervously praying the amnesty was real.  The barracks is secured and now forms a hard-point of resistance inside the tunnels.

Flare, Impetus, and Gravitas begin advancing through the tunnels, seeking out the center.  A few tunnels have been hastily blocked with debris, but that is nothing.  Crossing an intersection, two men hear them and take off running.  Probably some sort of early alarm.  If your information was correct, you're closing in on on the middle of the Southeast part of the base: labs, generators, ventilation, food storage.

Impetus and Alegía are no longer on the intercom.  They must have cut the system out somehow.  She's still talking though: "Each and every soldier is a law unto his or her self, an individual and equal.  I cannot give orders in this army: I cannot sacrifice anyone save myself.  That is what makes us different, you feckless minion," there is a pause, "and your justice is a joke.  We're the ugly history you tell yourself is cured.  We have disease and poverty.  Walk the streets above, see it with your own eyes.  Face it: your rhetoric hides your discomfort with the capitalist yoke about your shoulders."

There is sound coming from the intercom.  Tapping noises.  Orderly tapping noises, fast and slow.  [Private to Dr. Zero; Gravitas; Impetus; Phantasm: Each of you makes out the Morse code fairly quickly.  '... am prisoner in base.  Other scientists with me.  Are planning to ship us out.  Repeat.  Help, I am prisoner in base.  Other scientists with me.  Are planning to ship us out ...']

---

Suzukaze fell on the fleeing men and women, rendering half a dozen of them unable to flee with thin cuts to their backs and legs.  Comstock incapacitated the remaining soldiers behind her, choking them into unconsciousness and then wrapping part of the metal door around their unconscious legs.

Three more casuals dashed into the breakroom, the first two careening to a halt as they saw Suzukaze, the third nimbly stepping around them.  The third could be recognized from the briefing: Mr. Tao, in trendy sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt, satchel over his shoulder.  "Don't want trouble," he said cautiously in thickly accented English.  "Just looking for the door."

Comstock followed up quickly behind Suzukaze ... but then another four Mr. Tao's appeared behind Mr. Tao.  The first one spoke again.  "Just here on errand.  Will go.  No trouble."  He was oddly calm.

---

As Cloudburst swung wildly at Gale, her teeth grinding together audibly, Solitaire shot out of the sky like a meteor.  She collided with Cloudburst, the force of impact washing over nimble Gale like an explosion.  Cloudburst tumbled out of the sky, righting herself only a few hundred feet from the ground, her torn eufiber colony struggling to pull itself back together.

Despite broken bones, Cloudburst managed to fling her grenade back at Solitaire as she fell.  A few fragments of shrapnel stung, but that was all.  When she came to a halt near the ground, she began firing wildly on Solitaire with her bolts of vapor and lightning, filling the morning sky with an ominous rumble.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Solitaire managed to hit and soak all return attacks, and the quantum bolts missed thanks to hyperspeed.  Gale spends her actions dodging.  Solitaire's hit on Cloudburst, though, has inflicted some major damage.  Seventeen successes with mega-strength leaves her woozy and in wound penalties.
^{11:39, Today: Comstock, on behalf of Solitaire, rolled 5 successes using 9d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 9,7,1,4,4,8,8,6,8. Hyperspeed Strike.
11:57, Today: Comstock, on behalf of Solitaire, rolled 2 successes using 10d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 4,3,1,4,7,2,10,5,1,3. Damage on Cloudburst.}

---

---

Espericueta grimaces, a tide of black particles flowing out of him to drift around the room ... but goes nowhere as Zero appears behind him and knocks him to the floor.  He rolls about on the floor, firing wildly in Zero's direction but catches nothing but air, but Zero's second attack knocks the gun from his hands.

Furious, he grimaces again, trying to summon up some other power, but Phantasm and the sheep arrive and pummel him into submission.  He is separated from the detonator and easily restrained, being no stronger than a normal man.  Phantasm manages to pull the detonators from the explosives around the room, but the vest on Simon is covered in wires and fail-safes.  Getting him out of it is possible, now that he's unconscious, but tricky.

He's also drawn symbols and warnings all over it, as though making a magic spell against the devil.

Finally, that same tapping that Impetus and the others hear through the intercom is audible in the labs.  Very orderly.

[Private to Dr. Zero: If it matters, you might want to hit message #11 in the briefing for a little more information on Espericueta.  I thought you recalled that information, but from your last post I'm thinking you might have forgotten or missed it.  Either way, tell me how you want to proceed with Simon.  Your Event Horizon has shut down his teleport ... and if I understand the power correctly, the power will now forever be unable to function while Zero is nearby/has a hand on him.]

As Imp walked the halls beside Flare and Grav, he cocked his head, "Have you ever wondered why anybody who wants to build a regime based on drugs, oppression and violence turns to communism?  Marx must be rolling in his grave."  He slammed a soldier into the wall, hard enough to stun, but not hard enough to cause any lasting injury.  Then, "Grav, that morse code, could you open a portal for us into the lab area?  The midden's going to hit the windmill once we're through though, so we should be prepped before we step through, yes?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:28, Mon 01 Mar 2010.

Zero watches as Phantasm and her creation knock Esper down and out. "Wew! Thank you. I believe I was seeing my life pass before me for a spell, there. God, I love teamwork!" Zero Walks over to Esper. "I hear some morse code over that loon's ranting. It claims to be a scientist warning us he is a prisoner, with other scientists, and that they are about the ship them out. Now that Esper is out, perhaps I can find out their exact location. Shall we go together?" Zero looks up at Phantasm.

Zero will difuse the explosives after it's mental probe. If Zero obtains the information and Phantasm agrees to go, the Doctor will use Combat Teleport to jump immediately to the location.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Activate Quickness and Fast Tasks
Try Telepathy to read Esp's mind to find location of traped scientists. 5 successes.
21:48, Today: Dr. Zero failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 4. Reroll 10's, Observant Quality.
21:48, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 4 successes using 7d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 1,10,8,1,7,9,2. Telepathy Roll, 1meg. 1 Will.

2nd (Quickness) Action: Use Fast Tasks to disarm all explosives. 5 successes.
21:41, Today: Dr. Zero failed (no successes) using 2d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 1,5. Reroll 10's, Ingenius Quality. .
21:40, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 2 successes using 2d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 10,10. reroll 10's, Ingenius Quality. .
21:40, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 3 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,9,2,10,10,5,6,6,5,5,2,1,1. FastTasks,DisarmBombVest,3Meg,Enginering.

If Telepathy was successful, Zero will use Combat Teleport's free port action to go immediately there.

---

"Works for me.  Lead the way."
Phantasm leans down to her sheep and gives them strict orders to clear out the surrounding area before she and Zero leave.  They nod in unison, and depart the lab, bleating as they herd any nearby enemy troops toward friendly forces.

"...Oh, and don't eat them!" she shouts as they disappear.

Gale had been having a tough time deciding what to do.  They didn't want to kill Cloudburst, after all.  She was frozen with indecision, until Solitaire came and made a decision for her.

Cloudburst had now turned her focus to the other Nova.  Gale saw this as the chance it was and swooped down behind Cloudburst, preparing a sphere of spinning wind.  She aimed it at the back of the berserker Nova's head, letting it fly when she was sure she wouldn't hit Solitaire.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Gale attacks with non-lethal version of Blast. 3Q spent, bringing Gale to 18/28

---

Suzukaze looks over Mr. Tao and his clones. She glares at the original.

"No trouble! No trouble! I didn't want any trouble when I went to take my friends on vacation and visit my family. But trouble came. And I am more than trouble. I am the steel wind of death. Try and pass me if you want to leave."

She shifts into a stance ready to either attack or defend if needed.

"Because the subjugated masses believe that in communism everything is equal.  These poor people don't realize that its only equal among the destitude and that they're being used. I think most governments just exist for subjugation." Flare is pretty sure that none of the governments around are the ideal that their creators strove for.

"When did a beautiful young lady like yourself get so jaded, Flare?  I'd say that most governments in Southern Asia and South America do, but it's not all doom and gloom."  He idly flexed his hands, "Impetus to all teams, we've got the barracks locked down and are going to make a strike into the lab complex.  What's say we move in 10 and hit em as hard as we can from as many different directions as possible? Over."

Her real thoughts on the world were on the tip of her tongue when Flare caught herself, this drug war was no place to discuss her rather depressing opinions of the world at the moment. Instead she sighed rather dramatically.

"After that Easter Bunny fiasco when I was six, and then finding out Santa was a lie, I'm afraid my soul is bleak and empty, my friend."
She takes a breath and stretches a bit in preparation of charging into the lab and shakes away thoughts of the attacks on all of their families. No, it wouldn't do to get distracted.

"Ready to rock and roll."

Quentin nodded as light began to warp around him, slowly being absorbed to the center of his form before his body blacked out entirely, a faint spatial ripple at the edges causing a prismatic effect to outline him.

He brought up a mental map of the facility as he knew it and determined the vector to the lab from his current location. "I am ready," the sound came from the black form, somehow escaping its immense gravity.

He touched space, giving birth to a wormhole. He briefly considered how unstable such constructs tended to be and found himself wondering how they might be made more persistent, or even created through some artificial means (as if he, himself, were a natural producer of Einstein-Rosen bridges).

The thought was there and gone in the time it took for the space-bridge to form and stabilize sufficiently for use. "After you," the flat-black figure gestures at the hole in space.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Locations:
Southwest Barrio Surface -- Gale (Init 21; 20B/18L; Dv 7) and Solitaire (Init 23; 19B/13L; Dv 5)
Northwest Complex -- Dr. Zero (???) and Phantasm (Init ?; 28L/32B; Dv: 8)
Southeast Complex, labs -- Gravitas, Flare (Init 19; 19B/17L; with wall, 29B/27L; Dv 7) and Impetus (Init 20; 11B/8L; with wall, 21B/18L; Dv 9)
Southeast Complex, near entrance -- Comstock (Init: 8; 40B/34L; DV: 3) and Suzukaze (Init: 25, 23; Soak: 17B/15L; Dv: 8 (11))

---

Phantasm and Dr. Zero finished securing Lab C.  The sounds of fighting had stopped.  The phantom sheep kept the prisoners in line.  Elsewhere, Zuniga's soldiers were playing their role fully.

T2M's power.  A demonstration for all the world.  Half an hour to liberate a city from warlords.

Zero reached out with his thoughts across the base and gradually found a very bright mind making a very determined effort to attract notice.  There could be no doubt that this was the individual responsible for the signals over the intercom.  The Northwest part of the complex, not the labs.  In a moment, Zero was there.

The two found themselves inside a standardized metal shipping container.  The only illumination was a white glow from a handcuffed nova sitting on the floor against one of the walls.  Prometheus.  There were other people as well, all restrained and presumably chemists or doctors.  "Oh thank god.  I was worried you'd miss us entirely."*

Their comms whispered in their ears: "Impetus to all teams, we've got the barracks locked down and are going to make a strike into the lab complex.  What's say we move in 10 and hit em as hard as we can from as many different directions as possible? Over."

---

Quentin's portal connected points only a few hundred feet distant, and without soldiers or enemies the place was quickly searched.  Lab A was abandoned, with a small fire burning in a garbage can, filling the complex with smoke.  Around the corner was a chamber labeled Lab B and filled with machinery for manufacturing weapon parts.  It seems impossible, but the Zetas must have been manufacturing their own explosives.  Hardly any components remain, but this is still a goldmine.  Potentially a means of tying numerous bombings back to a single source.

Lab C holds several of Phantasm's sheep and some terrified or unconscious prisoners.  Espericueta must have been faking his unconsciousness somehow or had the good fortune to wake in the seconds between Zero and Phantasm's departure and the trio's arrival, because he is struggling weakly against his restraints and mumbling disoriented profanities at the sheep.

Lab D, however, holds something more interesting.  Whatever laboratory equipment and spare drugs they couldn't sneak out with on short notice the Zetas seem to have tossed here in a big pile and doused in gasoline.  There are bullet marks on the floor from where some idiot attempted to start a fire quickly with gunshots like in the movies but failed.  Likely a lot of evidence here to build ties to other organizations and gangs.

Meanwhile, despite major interference from Quentin's portal, Alegía is still talking.  ... our demands, we will retaliate with lethal force.  First, that our captured soldiers be treated as prisoners of war and afforded rights under the Geneva conventions.  Second, an aircraft from the airport to the location of my choosing available within the hour.  You have thirty seconds before I make my move and prove just how serious we are.  And do not think for a second that I won't take action.  It's nothing less than what you will do to stop me."*

---

Above the city, Cloudburst unleashed lightning and death upon Solitaire, all to no avail.  Solitaire charged forward, ignoring the onslaught.  Cloudburst's attention held entirely on Solitaire ...

And she scarcely noticed as Gale dove behind her.  There was a tumultuous crack as Gale's vortex of air impacted the back of Cloudburst's head, exploding with enough force to send the Elite tumbling forward.  Ears bleeding, senses swimming, she fell, and Solitaire grabbed ahold to guide her descent into a patch of unpaved ground.

The Elite was disabled, and without a lethal injury.  Even her implants and equipment were generally unharmed.  And damage to the town had been minimal.  Within a minute, vehicles and soldiers from Zuniga's army arrived to help.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
This die roll is incredible and deserves re-posting.  I think you bribed the die roller.  Twelve Successes.  Between that and another hit from Sol, both doing some bashing, that's all the fight CB's got left in her.
^{00:16, Today: Comstock, on behalf of Gale, rolled 6 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 10,10,10,6,10,9,4,6,6,2,9. Elemental Blast vs Cloudburst.}

---

Moments later, Impetus' message to coordinate and attack came over the comms.

---

"I had heard that you were targeted.  That is unfortunate."  Each of the five Mr. Taos looked genuinely sad, but after three seconds of hesitation all five of him leapt into action.  Two charged directly for Suzukaze, two ran for the exit ahead, while the last advanced on Comstock.  They attacked with bare hands, crackling quantum energy manifesting around them as they did so.

Comstock retaliated with an uppercut that sent one Mr. Tao careening to the ceiling and back to the floor with an ominous thunk.  "Stand down and surrender!  We won't ask again!"  The Mr. Taos kept silent, aiming wing chun kicks for Suzukaze or running off into the corridors.

"Impetus to all teams, we've got the barracks locked down and are going to make a strike into the lab complex.  What's say we move in 10 and hit em as hard as we can from as many different directions as possible? Over."

"Impetus this is Comstock: engaging multiplying enemy nova.  Need a moment.  Over."  No sooner was Comstock finished talking than another Mr. Tao appeared in the room and he was forced to defend himself from a silent, determined onslaught of kicks.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:18, Wed 10 Mar 2010.

"Understood, Comstock.  We will wait for your signal, over." Multiplying enemy nova, weird.  Imp held himself ready, waiting for the green light.

Seeing the prisoners, Phantasm makes a quick scan of the area, looking for any specialized equipment, and the means by which they were holding the nova prisoner (he could just be of baseline strength, but it's a rare nova that couldn't manage some method of escape from a metal box and some handcuffs).  If she finds anything, she attempts to disable it, and if not she will promptly open the cuffs and attempt to get everyone out.  As she's processing the information coming in from the environment, she talks to the prisoners as well.

"Is everyone here ok?  What happened, and how are they holding you here?  We need to move quickly, everyone get ready to move, we're going to get you out."

"I want someone to figure out how to get that equipment out of her!  And without killing her!"  Gale said to the new arrivals as she landed on the ground shortly after Solitaire.  She took a few steps off to the side, as she chose to answer Imp's message.

"Sol and I are still topside, Imp.  Just wrapped up a little sky-battle of our own.  We'll need a minute to get into position." She said over the comms as she started walking to the nearest entrance into the underground base.  She was actually feeling on top of things, feeling useful.

Suzukaze blocks the kicks with whatever she is able arms legs even the flat of her blades. She waits for an opening and swings the blades at the necks of the Tao's. With Tao's words her rage has filled her. She attempts to slaughter anything in her path as she trys to hunt down the original Tao.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Locations:
Southwest Barrio Surface -- Gale (Init 21; 20B/18L; Dv 7) and Solitaire (Init 23; 19B/13L; Dv 5)
Northwest Complex -- Dr. Zero (???) and Phantasm (Init ?; 28L/32B; Dv: 8)
Southeast Complex, labs -- Gravitas, Flare (Init 19; 19B/17L; with wall, 29B/27L; Dv 7) and Impetus (Init 20; 11B/8L; with wall, 21B/18L; Dv 9)
Southeast Complex, near entrance -- Comstock (Init: 8; 40B/34L; DV: 3) and Suzukaze (Init: 25, 23; Soak: 17B/15L; Dv: 8 (11))

---

"Thank you.  We're in the tunnel.  They are planning on moving us onto a plane and from there to Colombia,"* Prometheus said quietly.  "Are you Team Tomorrow?  How many are here?"*  He seemed to be calm and in very good health.  The white glow off of him no doubt made stealth difficult, but had no obvious ill-effects.

Prometheus struggled against his hand-cuffs to show he was restrained so Phantasm would free him.  The remaining scientists could be easily freed of their restraints as well but were completely stoned, probably to keep them pliable and sedate for transport.  The box had no bombs, no cameras, nothing.  It was simply a shipping container that had been locked shut.

Meanwhile, there was a sudden jolt of electricity through the box.  Enough to sting and numb everyone's fingers and toes for a moment.  Outside the shipping container you can hear truck engines and people speaking, including Alegria barking into a radio.  They're planning to leave alright.  Wherever that electricity was headed, the box wasn't the target.  You're in the belly of the beast, so to speak, only locked in a steel box.  Furthermore, it only takes a moment for Zero to recognize that you're in the Northwest part of the Complex now.  So far so good.

---

As Impetus, Gravitas and Flare moved about the lab complex, it's clear the party's over here.  The Southeast part of the complex seemed stable and secure.

Alegria kept right on barking into the radio.  "TEN seconds, Impetus.  Are you listening?"*

The lights flickered.  Everywhere within the complex there was a sudden wave of static electricity that made hair stand on end, and a cracking noise echoed through halls.

---

The soldiers surrounded Solitaire and Gale.  A pair of medics arrived and took a look at Cloudburst.  They immediately put a valve mask on her and found a stretcher for her.  Her blood-pressure was falling dramatically as she went into shock, her high wearing off.

As information circulated, Frostburn's voice came over the comm.  "Gale, Sol: Slider's on standby.  We could get Cloudburst out that way and put a pair of the new kids on guard duty.  Over."

---

Suzukaze's weapons struck home, met resistance ... and cut through nothing at all.  They were illusions.  Visual, tactile illusions.  None of them made any sound as they fought, and their blows had no force behind them.  Comstock figures it out moments after Suzukaze does.  Together, it takes only moments to clear the room of Tao, but the original is nowhere in sight.  The sound of his flight can barely be heard over the frantic activity and fighting in the complex: he's fleeing down a corridor heading south.

"Damnit," Comstock grunted.  "Kaze!  After him!"  He keyed his comms.  "Comstock to all points: Tao's making a break for it.  He doesn't clone, he just makes fucking holos of himself."  He took a moment to think.  "Solitaire, Gale: can you two cut him off?  He's heading south from where we are now.  Impetus, I'm coming over to you.  Be there in a second.  Over."  He was too damn slow.  He'd need to stick with Gravitas to remain useful.

[Private to Suzukaze: For expedience I went ahead and did the die rolls for this one.  Tao's fast, but you can easily outpace him.  What Suzukaze noticed but Comstock didn't is that Tao's gone invisible, fleeing while his holos kept everyone distracted for a moment.  Finding him again will be a difficult perception check.  Other than that, however, he doesn't seem like a major threat.  A talented martial artist, but not the sort of nova that can knock over buildings with his bare hands.]

"Impetus to all teams, emergency evac any and all baselines, now!  Allegra's doing something drastic.  Impetus to solitaire, how much juice can you absorb?  She's doing something involving the electrical system."  He turned to Grav and Flare, "Think we can ride things out or do we need to get to safety as well?"

"Do it." Solitaire replied to Frostburn. "Be advised, Cloudburst requires medical attention, and I'd do it quickly. She's got some device attached to her that can't be healthy. Over."

Solitaire stood there, waiting for Slider to show up so she can hand off the unconscious Cloudburst to somebody who knew what the bloody hell to do with her. She had no idea what to do about the device, and she was quite probably the least intelligent member of the team, considering her intellect was still about that of the average human. She got around that, when a problem required thinking, by doing a lot of it, otherwise she just reacted.

Switching to Impetus, Solitaire replied, "Dunno,  point me at the power room and I'll give it a go. No promises though. Co'ords?"

"I think I can handle this, but my firewall won't do much if that crazy hag is electricuting the whole compound. You may want to get the hell out of here."

Suzukaze races down the hall after Tao. About half way down she closes her eyes and reaches out with her senses. She readies her blades.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Spending a quantum to activate blindfighting. Not the best roll. 1 die is mega.

00:45, Today: Suzukaze rolled 3 successes using 7d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8,8,4,2,3,9,6. Blind fighting for tao.

---

"Power room co'ords are Delta tango manwhore.  you're gonna have to move, you've got 5 seconds."  He turned to flare, then levitated so he wasn't touching anything.  "I'll hold the walls if they collapse, can you make that wall a shell around us?"

Quentin similarly lifted off the ground. "I think we'll be fine. If worse comes to worse, we've got a quick exit."

Impetus, Gravitas and Flare braced themselves.  Around the complex, soldiers took cover or backed off quickly.

Up top, Slider's portal opened as Impetus read off coordinates.  Slider nodded for Solitaire to go and Dr. Jansen quickly took control of the situation.

Five seconds.

---

Suzukaze senses Tao scrambling up toward daylight, using the way that she and Comstock had entered the complex.  The wave of static electricity passed over her now.  The rapid radio-chatter even faded to static for a moment.

As she presses forward Suzukaze's blades erupt with energy. Swinging the blades she sends a blast of purple energy at the area she sensed Tao. She readies her blades to strike as she continues to charge.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
The dice hate me and apparently like giving out 3's.

18:43, Today: Suzukaze rolled 3 successes using 10d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,3,7,6,3,10,8,2,4,2. Quantum bolt on tao.

---

Five seconds? No pressure...

One second Solitaire was there, handing off Cloudburst to Slider the next there was simply a dust cloud and a shockwave. She rocketed toward the power room, searching for a way inside, knowing there wasn't time. She didn't know the layout, she'd have to go through. As Solitaire approached, she arced upward, then back down, trusting herself to be tougher than the stone.

Solitaire hit the ground at full speed, fist first, and punched her way down a level, uncaring of damage she might take in the process. Once inside the room, she glanced quickly around, then made for the biggest generator in the room. She took a millisecond to look at her left arm, said softly, "You'd better work."

Then Solitaire rammed it into the generator.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

23:19, Today: Solitaire rolled 7 successes using 9d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 9,10,2,10,4,4,6,3,9. Absorption, 3 mega.
23:19, Today: Solitaire rolled 1 success using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 7. 10 reroll.

8 sux on the absorption roll

---

Gale followed after Solitaire.  She wasn't going to be able to keep up, not by a long shot, but if something happened to Sol while she was in there, at least Gale would be right there to help.  She set down next to the opening the other woman had made, and if it seemed there was nothing happening inside, then she'd drop in.

Solitaire slams into the ground, pavement and earth giving way.  There's thin steel reinforcement, but it barely slows Sol down.  Her fist slammed into the diesel generators, spilling fuel everywhere.

"Time's up!"*

An enormous surge of electricity arced through the city's grid, and Solitaire's arm gleamed at the strain.  Elsewhere, explosions rocked the compound.  Up top, a few small buildings around the barrio detonated.  The lights inside went out completely, a scarce few red emergency lights kicking on after a few seconds.  No one appeared to be hurt.

The radio frequencies erupted into a storm of chatter.  Ground commanders and teams in the compound were reporting to Zuniga, Zuniga was demanding answers, total chaos.  Frostburn cut the team off from most of the confusion.

"Do we have your attention now?"* Alegria shouted.  "A plane!  Recognition!  And full protection for prisoners of war.  You have three minutes.  If our demands are not met, we will burn this city and its inhabitants from the face of the earth."*

Solitaire, wrapped in smoke and standing in an inch of diesel, recognized the generator was dead and the wiring in the walls was dead.  She was getting nothing now.  Though her flesh ached and protested, she felt vivified and ready for war.  Gale descends through the whirling cloud of dust to settle at the lip of the crater caused by Solitaire's descent.

[Private to Solitaire: I'm at work, so I can't check the book for Absorbtion and its mechanics.  I don't think Sol would have taken any damage, however.  Also, there was something unmistakably familiar about that charge she just got.

Furthermore, the rest of the generator room is empty, reinforce and locked tight.  Just some vents up to the surface through the chimney of a nearby house for the generators.  There's now a small crater in the center of the barrio.]

[Private to Gravitas: Enormous intelligence and diligent investment in science and engineering leave you the only one to succeed on the instantaneous knowledge check.  The electrical effects were almost certainly a quantum power of some sort, but the explosions above are another matter.  Based on what you've seen so far, you'd guess that the Zetas have been stockpiling a fair amount of plastic explosive and have great familiarity with its use, likely a byproduct of background with the Mexican military.  You believe it is likely they have seeded explosives throughout the city, and that it is equally likely they will hold the city hostage.

The particulars of the method by which they are detonating the bombs remain unknown.  The electrical phenomena suggests that the detonators are plugged into the electrical grid.  This would allow the detonators to stay ready nearly forever and permit detonation via any electrokinetic with access to a socket and a knowledge of where they were going.  Which means this defense has been planned for quite some time.  Radio frequencies and point to point communication could be blocked or interfered with, but this is a little trickier.

As you consider radio interference, you wonder how the Zetas have avoided jamming on their handsets.  Two possibilities emerge: a) the Zetas have some sort of sophisticated radio system or Nova support that somehow defies jamming, and b) someone is screwing up in their job of jamming all available frequencies.  Unfortunately, the second is more likely than the first.]

[Private to Impetus: Since you were still patched in with Frostburn, it's likely that everyone on the command line -- Zuniga, Frostburn, etc. -- has heard all this.  This is uncomfortable political ground: once the Zetas are acknowledged as prisoners of war, they have legitimacy and power.  The government will be treating them as equals, and the whole conflict could be considered a civil war.  And if that happens, other dissidents and Zapatistas might join in the fun.  At that point, Utopia would have to pull out except in a peacekeeping capacity ... otherwise it would look like they were occupiers interfering in a local political struggle, supporting the agenda of the United States and the First World.

Your next problem is that, from the ten minutes or so of contact with Zuniga that you have had, you would guess he isn't going to take very kindly to this.  He won't want to compromise one bit.  You've been in dangerous situations, but rarely has the political stability of a country and Utopia's image hinged on the team quite this much.]

---

Comstock arrives at the labs, running as fast as possible.  It's clear from his face he's been listening while Frostburn piped the handset radio's feed to the team.  From his face, he's short of ideas but struggling to come to grips with the whole situation.

---

Suzukaze dashed into the hole, stepping over the debris from where Comstock had torn the door from the wall.  Tao let go and fell the floor, Suzukaze's blast slicing through the rungs where his hands should have been.  Gradually, he dropped his invisibility and faded back into view.

He turned nimbly to face her, raising his hands before him.  "Wait!  Wait!"

---

Zero and Phantasm hear a thunderous crack, followed by some distant explosions.  They hear Alegria's shouting into the radio quite clearly.  Then they hear a man's voice.  "Something went wrong there.  I didn't reach all of them.  Something blocked me."*

---

As reports file in, no one appears to have been hurt by the explosions or arcing electricity.  Damage was confined almost entirely to the evacuated barrio.  A few soldiers in the complex were injured.  A dumpster next to a fast-food restaurant in the middle of the city exploded, however; probably to signal the extent of the Zetas' reach.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Targets:
1. Juan Trajillo
2. La Alegria
3. Boneyard
4. Tao
5. La Mascara
6. Prometheus (?)
7. Cloudburst
8. La Voz
9. Simon Espericueta

---

Suzukaze pays Tao no mind as she continues her charge. As he raises his hands she brings one of her blades across as to remove them from the wrists. Her other blade she swings downward aiming between the neck and shoulder.

"That was, anticlimactic.  I'm guessing Sol got to their generators."  He frowned, then spoke into the headset, "T2M, switch to bravo frequency"  After a pause, "There's no way the Mexican government will want these people to be prisoners of war, it'd legitimize them, make other cartels argue that they are viable political entities, totally destabilize the region, and put a kibosh on our war on drugs.  Comstock, you're team leader, what's the plan?  I can keep her talking while everybody else zergs the bitch, there's going to be somewhere near half a dozen novas with her.  Her threats to destroy the entire city, well, that's going to happen no matter what we do.  Frosty, how far back is the security cordon?  Last time we had a throwdown with a dozen novas involved we destroyed an entire forest."

"I'm low on juice, but I think Zero and I can take out a good chunk of her bodyguard by ourselves.  Also, we've got scientists and and a nova all being held prisoner over here.  Not sure what the radius on Zero's port is, since he doesn't open gates like Grav, but it might not be worth the energy for him to evac... Maybe Slider or Grav, if they're available?"

"Did you doubt I would Imp? Oh ye of little faith." Solitaire says lightly over her headset, but she gets more serious with her next sentence. "I've got plenty of power to spare and wouldn't mind finishing this quickly. But Imp, are you suggesting we not take prisoners?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:40, Sat 27 Mar 2010.

"Ye gods, no, Sol.  Take prisoners yes, not prisoners of war, there's important legal issues surrounding the latter.  We kick their asses, we put them in jail, but we don't make them prisoners of war.  We're ready to go, anybody know where they are?

"Hmmm... Let's see if Grav can make a portal up here. If not, I could port them out slowly, one by one, or we can fight our way out." We seem to be in the Northwest Complex. I can at least fort Prometheus right now." If Phantasm agrees to Zero porting Prometheus right then, Zero does so and returns for the others. (Combat teleport allows two ports per turn.)

"Gotcha, but I didn't think we were taking prisoners of war in the first place, isn't this a police action?"

Solitaire was slightly confused, but decided it didn't matter. All she was doing was rounding people up, it wasn't her problem how they were handled. She looked around the wreckage of the room, there didn't seem to be much left but overloaded and dead generators. Still, she smashed the rest of them just for good measure, then kicked open the door and strode off deeper into the complex.

"No clue where they might be, It'll be like a scavenger hunt. Drinks are on whoever gets there last."

Phantasm finishes unlocking everyone while she contemplates briefly.  "I'm fine with that, you can even 'port in a gate-maker on the trip back, assuming they're around."

"Northwest complex.  Copy that, Zero.  Team: we're going to push the attack.  Knock her out before she can do that again.  No special legal status.  We've got about three minutes.  Frostburn: what's the ETA on Antaeus?"

"Have him look into the Northwest Complex first.  I want a full map.  No escape.  Uh," he paused, running a hand over his head, "Order of battle ... two on one match-ups.  Imp: tell her we're working on it, that's it.  Phantasm: see if you can get a look around.  Solitaire: wait for Gale, damnit."

"Antaeus should be here by now."  Thirty minutes never seemed quite so long before super-speed, teleportation and flight.  "The cordon's holding firm except for the platoons trying to sweep and clear behind you guys and up top.  A few firefights, but we've got at least half the baseline zetas now."

"Phantasm, Zero: Saul has Cloudburst stabilized.  Slider says shes going to drop them off and then come straight to you."

Comstock gave Gravitas a thumbs up and got into position with Impetus and Flare.  "Grav, portal us to the Northwest part of the complex.  Anywhere near Phantasm and Zero."

---

Solitaire tore through doors and walls on her path to the far side of the complex.

[Private to Solitaire: I refreshed myself on Absorption.  With that many successes, it looks like you are two dots of mega-strength richer and suffer no damage from the power-surge.]

---

In the shipping container, Prometheus stood quickly and helped Zero and Phantasm rouse the other scientists quietly.  [Private to Dr. Zero: You can drop Prometheus wherever you like, or just wait a moment for Slider to show.]

---

Suzukaze swung for Tao, cutting him deeply across the forearms as twisted out of the way.  Her second blow sliced cleanly through his clavicle and ribs, spilling blood on the ground.  He hissed in pain and leapt past her, rolling back onto his feet.  "Stop!  I surrender!  Don't do this!"

[Private to Suzukaze: Hit and narrowly hit.  Damage each time.  Anything more and he's a red smear on the floor.]

Gale inwardly cursed as Solitaire stalked deeper into the complex.  She danced for a few minutes debating whether or not to abandon her partner or brave the tunnels.  The message from Comstock gave her no choice.

Taking a deep breath, she dropped into the hole Sol had made, and then tried to follow the sound of the other woman breaking things as she headed to the Northwest complex.  Her wings folded as tightly as they could, and while the tunnels were more spacious than she had expected, they weren't spacious enough for flight.  "I hate tunnels," she muttered as she walked.  The truth was she probably hadn't always hated tunnels, but not being able to fly in here made her feel very trapped.  She pushed the feeling down.  It doesn't matter what I like or dislike, she thought, clenching and unclenching her fists, expecting combat around every corner.  I have to do what the team expects of me.

"Its not as bad as all that." Solitaire called back over her shoulder, having heard Gale's comment. "I'd take out the ceiling for you, but we're a little short on time, you understand." Solitaire kicked down another door as she spoke, took two AK47 rounds to the chest, frowned in displeasure then cuffed the offender lightly in the neck, knocking him cold. Then continued as if nothing had happened.

"Just stick close, we can blow up the tunnel later if it makes you feel better."

Suzukaze stalks around Tao the blood dripping from her blades. She positions them to strike again. She lets out a slight chuckle almost seeming satisfied.

"Surrender... Now that's funny. Maybe if you did that to begin with I wouldn't have done this... You know you can take the Wind from the Assassins, but you can't take the assassin out of the Wind. Tell me who exactly hired my old team and you'll be brought to the best healer we have. I even think your lying, or you try to run again and I swear I'll have your head."

An evil grin forms on her face as she licks her lips letting him know she is serious.

"No, that wasn't everything," Quentin says after having carefully considered the situation. "They've got this whole city rigged to blow. Plastic explosives hooked into the power grid. One of them is electrokinetic, that was the source of that power surge, and they're probably able to detonate any set of the explosives at will as long as they've got a power socket handy." Quentins brow is furrowed in concern, but his black eyes are otherwise unreadable. "They're going to try to hold the whole city hostage."

With a bit of straining and concentration Flare manages to create a dome of fire around the three of them. "I can't make an actual sphere, because it would burn you guys to walk on, but this should be a bit better."
Flare can't quite wrap her mind around that level of cruelty and apathy to the suffering of others.

"We...we don't have nearly the scale of people we'd need for a full city evac, do we? We've got to stop them.  Is there super-science knowledge that would let you guys trace the surge back to its source so we could take him or her out?"

Flare was sweating a bit, and feeling the drain of using so much power.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
I combined wall and elemental shaping to shape the wall, it makes sense, so I'm guessing it works, I assume an extra quantum to do so, and I burned a willpower.

---

"Woah, calm down, please don't make take out the civilians above!"  Imp's voice crackled with concern.  "You want a plane and legal status?  Decisions like that are out of my paygrade, but your requests have been passed on. Specifics would help, what kind of plane do you need?  A big one, or something smaller?  What kind of range will it need to have?  Talk to me, Alegria."  While he talked Imp made hurry up gestures with his hands, hit em hard, hit em fast, don't give em time to set up.

If Slider arrives before trouble does, Zero helps Phantasm release the prisoners. It examines their bonds to make sure none are booby trapped.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Engineering Roll: 8 successes.
20:23, Today: Dr. Zero failed (no successes) using 2d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 2,5. Reroll 10's, Ingenius Quality.  .
20:23, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 6 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 9,5,5,6,4,1,9,10,4,8,5,7,10. Engineering, 3Mega .

---

"Wait, run that by me again?"  Comstock didn't like what Gravitas had to say.  "Juan's file says he's electrokinetic.  If we take him down, would that do it?"  Time was flying.  They needed to be there now.  He gave Flare a reassuring nod.

Flare's shield formed a tight sphere around the four, Comstock stepping inside as it closed, while Impetus tried to talk Alegría down.  "Don't play dumb!  No smaller than a 747.  Full tank of fuel.  You don't need to know where we're going.  Two and a half minutes.  Get me the assurances of someone with the authority to make guarantees."*

"Phantasm, this is Comstock: tell me some good news.  Can you see them there?  Over."  He looked to Impetus, Flare and Gravitas.  "We can stop them if we take out Juan and the command staff ... right?"

---

Solitaire and Gale ran through the corridors.  The moron with the gun wasn't alone, and soon his squad-mates opened fire.  It was brave ... but not a well thought out decision on their part.

Dispatching them didn't take long.

Just past that squad the corridors opened into a large garage structure.  A descending gate had been rolled into place -- presumably once they'd heard gunfire, the four guys behind the gate had orders to make best use of the delay.  They were trying to weld it shut to buy more time.

---

Slider arrived with a grin and started quietly sneaking scientists out.  Zero's foresight proved invaluable: each of the men had a anklet tracking device on them with some sort of needle.  Enough to silence them if they traveled too far away maybe?

It takes only a minute to remove each of the devices.  Though drugged weary and incoherent, the scientists were free.  Score one for T2M.  Meanwhile, Phantasm gets a clearer picture.  Alegria and Juan are out there, along with about twenty more soldiers and a fair number of the ununiformed cartel minions.  There are also a group of ten men and women in generic kevlar body armor.  They're breathing heavily and incredibly overmuscled.  They've got heavy pipes, gauntlets, reinforced knives, and other brawling aids.

There are about four big-rig trucks in the large garage space, diesel engines rumbling as everyone prepares to abandon the complex.  There's also many pallets of drugs stacked up, more shipping crates, and a bunch of crappy pickup trucks.  A license plate manufactury, a gas station, a machine shop, racks of spare tires ... great operation here.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Phantasm can get a peak outside any number of ways, but I'm assuming she does it in a subtle fashion.

---

---

Tao winced and wheezed.  "I can't help you with your team ... I'm just a messenger.  I have information about the Cartel ... correspondences.  They're ciphered, but I know the key."  He was bleeding badly.  Eruption had made him tougher, but only a little.  "Very valuable.  You can't kill me ... alright?"  His eyes flickered with fear, still looking for escape from the madwoman who'd cornered him.

Imp whispered to Comstock, "She wants a 747 with a full fuel tank" then cued his radio to broadcast, "I've put your request through to someone higher up the chain of command, hopefully they will get back to me pronto." He then clicked off the radio.  "Fuck Juan, Sol can take anything he can throw at us and feed it to him.  I'm guessing she's jonesin' to do so anyways.  Give us the word, big man."

"Well if thats the case then alright..."

She smiles at him. Then all of a sudden the smile changes to rage, and she charges at him with all her speed. She lashes out with one blade across his body. The other swings for his neck.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
18:55, Today: Suzukaze rolled 7 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,7,2,10,3,7,9,7,8,4,7,6,5. Attack on Tao 2.
18:55, Today: Suzukaze rolled 8 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,10,7,8,10,2,7,6,10,2,4,9,10. Attack on Tao.

---

Flare had had more that enough of that pushy bitch Alegria and her demands. Out of radio earshot Flare has her own idea of concessions to the terrorist. "If she manages to get the damned plane, I plan to catch it and blow it to kingdom come." Some times it was nice to be one's own demolotion crew.  For the moment though, team safety was paramount in her mind.

Phantasm takes a look around, analyzing the situation.  Should she risk acting now, with the whole city wired to explode?  She'd better run things by the others...
"Yeah 'Stock, Phantasm here, waiting on further orders.  Not sure what to do now, there are twenty soldiers, a bunch of workers, 10 guys on some sort of super-steroids... and Alegria and Juan are both here."

Comstock nodded with conviction.  No time left for Quentin's thinking through every possibility.  "Okay team.  We're doing this.  P, Zero: as soon as we arrive, push the attack.  Solitaire, Gale: make us a distraction.  Frostburn, you reading all of this?  Fuck the plane, we're going to attack, get the General's men prepared.  Over."

Comstock turned to Gravitas and put a hand on the man's shoulder.  "Out of time.  We're doing this.  Get us a portal over there pronto."  He considered recalling Suzukaze and giving her clear orders, but she seemed to enjoy operating on her own.  He reasoned that she'd find the best way to apply her talents to the matter at hand.

Finally, after another second of thought, he turned back to Flare, covering up his microphone.  "Okay, but not so loud and so close to the comms, and if that moment comes I want your GPS locater and comms to mysteriously malfunction in the heat.  Got it?"  He flashed her a thumbs up and stopped covering the microphone, ready to sprint through the portal the second it opened.

---

Tao's head toppled to the floor in a flash of purple.  A look of disbelieving fear was locked in his eyes, and parts of his body flickered in and out of visibility for a few moments as his body attempted to carry out his brain's last abortive instinct.

One more down.

[Private to Suzukaze: If you check his pockets and bag, you'll find everything he said he was carrying and a whole lot more, mostly in portable hard-drives.  Tao wasn't carrying any weapons or explosives or anything of the sort, but he did have a detonator like the other ones you have seen around.  Multiple means of setting off the explosives?]

---

Meanwhile, Frostburn swore to herself.  The soldiers who'd been sent to baby-sit La Mascara for the duration of this apparently lost track of him ten minutes ago and hadn't thought to check in yet.  Zuniga's aides and support staff were barking at her and the rest of the T2M support staff to share more information and planning information under some belief that T2M must have more information than they were letting on.  Fistfights were breaking out as the military and the police tried to maintain order in the wake of the explosions.  And to top it all, one or more of the now reviled nova photographers was streaming video from various parts of the city in a replay of the 2-D Man incident at T2M:A headquarters.  The only blessing there was that the camera feeds from the team's headsets went directly to her console and no one had picked up on Suzukaze's swift and direct approach to justice just then.

If there was a time for the team to pull off a real, visible, and obvious victory, it was now.

The engergy surrounding her blades reduce to nothing as she powers down. Sheathing her blades behind her she gets on the comm...

"Suzukaze to Comstock... Tao is down.  Am I on my own to move or do you want to have someone portal me to your location."

As she is on the comm and waiting for a response she takes the satchel he was carrying and opens it. Placing it next to the body she begins emptying the contents of his pockets into it. When done with the pockets she removes his shoes and clothing to see if anything was hidden on him. She takes alittle caution when she comes across the detonator. When she is done she picks it up and moves over to his head picking it up as well. She looks into it's eyes.

"Your going to make a nice present to your buddies. Maybe I'll make a collection and send it to my old team. Theirs are the ones I truly want."

"Alright, bossman, let's do it.  You take point, we'll follow you through."  Imp focused and coronas of energy formed around his hands, waiting to be unleashed.

Comstock tapped his comms while Gravitas did his thing.  "Great work Sue.  We're portaling straight there, so make sure he's not going anywhere, feed Frosty your location and then find your way to the fighting, over."  As the portal opened, he sprinted through and shouted in a voice like pounding machinery ""Drop your weapons and surrender NOW!  You are all under arrest!"

Imp blurred into action, zipping though the portal behind Comstock and gaining as much altitude as he could.  His gaze swept around the room, looking for threats.  He flew in evasive patterns, and did what he could not to distract attention from the man of steel.

"Frostburn. I'm comming up to ground at the southeast entrance side. Tao is down and I've got some items from him. You want me to drop them somewhere or head right to the others?"

She throws Tao's head up through the entrance at the top of the ladder. Then securing the satchel she climbs. Picking the head back up she heads outside, and takes a look around and listens for sounds of the fighting before taking off.

"Alright, but I suggest you make Juan the priority," he said as he started opening the rift they'd use, "Keep him too busy to use his ability for anything but defense." He ushered the others through the hole in space he'd made before following them through.

After Comstock had given them the command to surrender, Gravitas held has hands out, palms down, and then pushed them rapidly towards the ground. Though the gesture might have looked a little silly, it helped focus his mind's intent on his power - he was pressing down on the local gravity well, increasing its effect on the people in the room.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
09:38, Today: Gravitas rolled 2 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 4,4,5,10,5,3,9,5,2,3,3. Wits+Gravity, 2 Mega.
Boo, dice roller hate. .5g alteration per success, so +1g for the bad guys - it is possible to be selective with the ability, so Quentin is not affecting T2M members. They can also resist with a Willpower roll (and will probably do so given my abysmal roll).

---

"Well, moment of truth..." Phantasm preps herself for the final push, quiets her mind, and begins focusing. Any anxiety over the situation and the danger the city is in leaves her as a stream of chittering, monstrous flying squirrels separate themselves from her forcefield and rip through the metal crate, attacking anyone not with T2M.

Phantasm herself jumped out behind the cloud of chittering, squeaking death, despite being dangerously low on energy.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

It's always nice to get good rolls.  I think I'm about out of quantum though, so this is all I've got.

11:51, Today: Phantasm failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 6.
11:51, Today: Phantasm rolled 5 successes using 9d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 10,8,4,8,5,10,2,2,8.

Making squirrels.  I think that calling them 1/4 the size of a sheep is fair.  Also, start them at 0 str, and work up from there, and give them dex 4 instead of 3, and 1 health level instead of 4.

1 sux for 4 squirrels, 4 sux to increase the numbers to 64 squirrels, 1 sux for basic intelligence, 2 sux for 10 nova points (1 to increase str to 3, 3 for wings, 3 for armor piercing claws, 3 for mega str 1)

---

This message was last edited by the player at 17:30, Wed 14 Apr 2010.

"Leave the bags at the beacon and get back to the others.  A squad will be there in under a minute to pick Tao up."  Suzukaze could already hear soldiers on the street above.

Aides and officers were dashing back and forth in a panic.  Some wanted Frostburn to call the team back before it was too late.  T2M personnel kept them at bay.  Someone was making an effort to get Zuniga back on the radio.

---

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Anyone who wants to try for a better initiative score is welcome to try, otherwise I'll just keep the old scores.  All of the remaining Nova targets except for Mascara are here.

Locations:
Northwest Complex --
Gale (Init 21; 20B/18L; Dv 7) and Solitaire (Init 23; 19B/13L; Dv 5)
Dr. Zero (???) and Phantasm (Init ?; 28L/32B; Dv: 8)
Comstock (Init: 8; 40B/34L; DV: 3), Gravitas (???), Flare (Init 19; 19B/17L; with wall, 29B/27L; Dv 7) and Impetus (Init 20; 11B/8L; with wall, 21B/18L; Dv 9)

On her way --
Suzukaze (Init: 25, 23; Soak: 17B/15L; Dv: 8 (11))


Targets:
1. Juan Trajillo
2. La Alegria
3. Boneyard
4. Tao
5. La Mascara -- Missing
6. Prometheus
7. Cloudburst
8. La Voz
9. Simon Espericueta

---

Gravitas' opening move combined with Phantasm's conjured minions scattered the zetas and threw everything into chaos.  People trying to run found themselves twice as heavy and scarcely able to move.  One man tried to quickly heft a crate into a pickup truck only to tear something in his leg or back and fall to the ground in pain.  Assorted rifle fire broke out, showering the team with bullets.  They either fell to the ground harmlessly, smashed against Comstock's armor, collapsed into themselves or incinerated against Flare's shield.  Once the first magazines were out of ammo the twenty soldiers backed off and tried to get in vehicles to escape.

The four soldiers trying to weld a gate shut dropped their torches and opened fire on Impetus as the rest of the team arrived.  He was too fast for them to aim properly.  The soldiers were oblivious to the fact that Gale and Solitaire could hear them from the other side of the door and had overestimated the strength of their hasty welds.

In response to T2M's arrival, Alegría swore loudly and leapt straight for cover, drawing an odd submachine gun and barking incoherently into her hand-held radio.  (It was the same design as the one Cloudburst was using before: big cylindrical magazine, slim profile, oddly high penetration.  Much more of a threat than the Zetas and their AKs.)  Juan stretched out his arms and a corona of crackling electricity stretched out to protect him.  "Wrong move," he muttered, readying himself for the attack to come.

The rest of the room found themselves distracted by Phantasm's sixty or so phantom-squirrels.  The ten over-muscled brawlers react swiftly to the critters, punching, tearing and crushing the beasts with nova-strength.  Mite-abusers, without a doubt.  The remaining squirrels -- as not even the mite-heads could handle more than half of the glowing horde -- tore into the vehicles and fleeing drug-dealers.  A great many bullets were fired into the air, and more than a few tires were quickly gnawed upon.

Phantasm and Zero hopped out of the truck ... and felt a horrible, crawling dread well up beneath their skin.  Someone behind them was hissing, and they gained a strange certainty that there were two gray, all-devouring eyes behind them.  Out of the two gray orbs crawled horrible things, things they didn't want to see.  Their muscles threatened to seize up, locked in terror-induced paralysis.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
OOC: Boneyard has hit both of you with his particular brand of Immobilize.  Roll Dexterity if you would.

---

Suzukaze places the bag on the ground by the beacon. She then holds Tao's head staring at it. "I guess I can't take you with me." She places the head next to the bag and stares at her blood covered hands. "This is what I was made for." She draws her blades and takes off full speed to the battle area. As she gets near she charges up her blades with engery. She heads for Alegria.

The fools, they were trying to weld her out? What did they possibly think that would accomplish? Solitaire shook her head, really, some people didn't know when to give up. She rapped her knuckles (relatively) lightly on the door, hopefully giving the baselines a few seconds to get out of the way before she kicked it in. Unnecessary bloodshed was just that.

"Pizza delivery." She said lightly, planting a boot atop the wreckage.

Anybody stupid enough to resist was going to be unconscious very shortly. She didn't have time for that crap.

Gale was right behind Solitaire, appreciating the more open space of this area.  A quick glance around told where the enemies were.  And it was hard to miss the crackle of lightning from Juan's hands.  "Let's go," she said to Sol with a nod towards the electric man.  "I'll cover you."

tick 20
Imp accelerated as the hail of bullets peppered the wall beside and behind him. He grinned, that's right you idiots fire until you run out of ammo. He flew in a tight loop then momentarilly accellerated to full speed and slammed into one of the mite heads, grabbed one of his flailing arms, cinched in under his armpit and heaved trying to throw the man into his fellows.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
a craptastic 3 sux on 14 dice. Wow

---

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

Init=19
Dexterity=8sux
You rolled 4 successes using 8d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((1,7,9,10,10,4,6,2)).
reroll 10s: You rolled 1 success using 2d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((4,7))
Burn 1W.

I'm not spending any more quantum for the rest of the fight.  I've had several powers up for a while, and maintenance is high for me.  I probably had time to do a node recharge, but should still be low.

---

Phantasm turns around to search for the ominous noise behind her, and finds herself transfixed by Boneyard's horrible eyes.  She struggles to move through the wave of fear, hoping that her mental defenses will help, and willing her muscles to keep moving. If she could just move her muscles, she would make sure those eyes could never frighten anyone again...

She was dangerously low on quantum however, so she couldn't spare any to further enhance her abilities.  It was all she could do to just maintain her shielding and the tiny, mega-strong squirrels that were tearing into the enemy.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

If the resistance works, then Phantasm will lunge forward, leap into the enemy nova, and slam a spiked eufiber projection from her right elbow into the nova's clavicle, then swing around with another spike from her left forearm for a hook punch. 6 sux on first, 8 sux on the second.  Dmg is 15auto + 7 dice (assuming the projections are probably 2d weapons), all Lethal.
You rolled 4 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((6,5,10,5,3,3,9,5,9,9,6)).
You rolled 5 successes using 10d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((9,7,8,6,4,4,3,6,10,8)).

If it doesn't work, she will angrily wait for her body to start responding and rely on her passive powers to protect her.

---

Round 1

25:
Suzukaze raced for the battle, tearing through the complex at an alarming speed.  The path of destruction and open doors Solitaire left behind her provided the most direct route, and she arrived only steps behind Gale and Solitaire in seconds.

23:
Solitaire's catastrophic entrance sent the slowest of the poor soldiers flying across the room.  He landed on his head and went limp.  Of the confused and alarmed remaining three, one found courage: he shouted and charged the 'pizza girl', aiming the butt of his rifle for her skull.  [Private to Solitaire: Presumably to no effect, but I'll let you dispose of or ignore the guy however you like.  Call it a free action since he's definitely an extra.]  The remaining two, having wasted their ammo on Impetus, just ran, adding to the confusion in the garage.

22:
Meanwhile, Alegría took stock of the situation, shouted one last thing into her radio before returning it to her belt, and called out to her men, "For freedom!  Fight, damn you!"*  The baselines seemed to take heart from this, the kevlar and camouflage soldiers standing, reloading and firing some more to try and buy time for everyone in plainclothes.

20:
The confined space limited some of Impetus' speed, weakening his impact.  Though he grabbed ahold of one of the mite-heads, the man pried himself free of Imp's grip, falling into a stack of tires as he fell.

19:
Phantasm urged her body to motion once again, adrenaline and conflicting impulses burning through her veins.  It wasn't clear how Boneyard had appeared behind them, but the sound came his yellowed teeth chattering together as he rose to standing.  Before he could attack, Phantasm was upon him; her elbow and left hook slammed into the nova's blotchy skin to no obvious effect.  Dark blood trickled from his nose and lip, and he seemed to smirk, that strange rattling hiss still working its way from his lungs.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
OOC: Definite hits, but apart from superficial bruising and blood it's unclear if he sustained much damage.

---

17:
Juan completed his shield and started drawing more power to him.  Every light save for the red emergency lights flickered and dimmed.

14:
Boneyard reached out to squeeze the life out of Phantasm.  He was alarmingly strong, but clumsy.  Against paralyzed opponents, he was surely death, but Phantasm slipped away nimbly before he could catch hold.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
OOC: Mega-Strength X and probably Mega-Dex 1.

---

8:
Recognizing that the zetas were going to put up a fight, Comstock trudged a few steps away and hefted a pickup truck sitting on blocks waiting for new tires.  With his new weapon in tow, he turned toward Juan and the baselines.

7:
The baseline zetas just kept firing.  Meanwhile, despite both having nova-strength, the mite-heads were prevailing against Phantasm's minions, slowly bashing and tearing apart the little squirrels.  A few of the other baselines managed to damage or disperse a trio of squirrels with massed gunfire before another squirrel swooped down from above to tear them up.  The increased gravity, flickering lights, flying quantum rodents, frenzied brawlers, and massed powers all contributed to the frantic chaos of the scene.  Of those who tried to flee, a single pickup truck actually got into motion with five men in it, only for a phantasmal squirrel to leap into the engine block.  The machine tore the phantasm apart, but the resulting damage tore apart the front of the vehicle.


Round 2

25:
Suzukaze

23:
Solitaire

22:
Alegría

21:
Gale

20:
Impetus

19:
Flare, Phantasm

17:
Juan

14:
Boneyard

8:
Comstock

???
Gravitas?  Zero?
This message was last edited by the player at 20:24, Fri 04 June 2010.

Suzukaze charges past the others her blades charged up at Alegria. She moves to run right past her. As she passes she swings with both blades at her torso. Suzukaze turns around to ready her next strike.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

19:09, Today: Suzukaze rolled 2 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 6,3,4,4,2,5,9,1,6,2,5,4,7. Attack on Allegre 2.
19:09, Today: Suzukaze rolled 7 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 10,8,8,7,4,4,9,8,6,2,6,10,4. attack on Alergre.

Also if it's not too late to also spend two quantum points to activate my quickness levels. So I should act again at 23 and 21.

---

Imp cursed aloud then focused and grabbed the mite heads with.. well, he wasn't quite sure what it was, but he grabbed with it.  Their motions suddenly fueled a rapid, awkward ascent towards the ceiling.  Once they hit, their energy dissipated and they came crashing back down to earth  in a stunned and disoriented heap.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Spent 2 quantum, used TK to grab and toss the mooks, affected 100,000kg (I think, afb)

---

This message was last edited by the player at 14:06, Sun 30 May 2010.

Never one to fight a war fairly, Zero quickly decided on attacking Boneyard from behind. Zero vanished from it's hide-hole and appeared behind the giant fighting Phantasm. Zero struck as best as it could with it's fists, curious if it's blows could hurt this odd Nova.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)


Zero activates Quickness, Precision, and Combat Teleport to attack Boneyard from behind is a non-lethal blur

Event Horizon Roll: 8 Successes (1 Mega was a 10)
10:41, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 5 successes using 9d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,8,10,9,1,7,3,5,7. event horrizon, 3 meg.
10:42, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 1 success using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 7. Reroll, Ingenius Quality.


First Martial Arts attack: 8 Successes
22:09, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 5 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8,5,9,4,10,7,5,8,2,3,6. Strike Boneyard 1 (1Meg).
22:09, Today: Dr. Zero failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 6. Reroll, Agil Quality .
22:19, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 2 successes using 2d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 7,7. Attack 1 Rear Accuracy Bonus.

If that hit, Damage Roll: 3 successes + _ extra attack successes + 5 Mega-Strength
22:11, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 3 successes using 6d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 9,8,4,1,5,8. Damage Roll 1.


Second Martial Arts Attack: 6 successes
22:10, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 4 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 3,7,6,1,3,8,4,4,10,8,3. Strike Boneyard 2 (1Meg) Quickness.
22:10, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 1 success using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 9. Reroll, Agil Quality.
22:18, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 1 success using 2d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 6,9. Attack 2 Rear Accuracy Bonus .

If that hit, Damage Roll: 2 successes + _ extra attack successes + 5 Mega-Strength
22:11, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 2 successes using 6d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 2,7,6,4,9,4. Damage Roll 2.

---

This message was last edited by the player at 14:45, Thu 27 May 2010.

Phantasm, seeing Zero move in, attempts to draw off the attention from her more vulnerable but highly dangerous teammate.  She rushes in, sliding into a low leg sweep and attempting to pin the monster in a leg lock, using skill rather than brute strength.  Hopefully, Boneyard would try and damage her, and she would prevent Zero from taking damage while providing an opening for his strange quantum aura to rip through their opponents defenses.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

Hit: 8 succ
22:44, Today: Phantasm rolled 1 success using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 7.
22:44, Today: Phantasm rolled 5 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 9,7,6,8,10,9,4,4,5,6,6,4,4.

Not trying to damage, just immobilize so Zero can rip it's guts out.  If it has any.

---

Tick 19

Seeing as the mite-heads didn't immediately drop to the ground and beg for mercy...persuasion seems to be necessary.  Aiming mostly to avoid her own team mates Flare blasts a nearby baddie.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Flare rolled 6 successes using 10d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,7,7,10,9,2,8,7,5,5. Lethal blast on mite-heads

Flare rolled 8 successes using 20d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,2,9,7,3,9,1,8,10,6,2,10,1,9,4,7,5,4,5,2. Lethal blast damage. (so 6 sux and 8L)

---

After Solitaire makes her move, Gale will follow her, probably a bit slower than the hyper-speed woman.  As she ran, she powered up another ball of air, but this one had spikes coming out of it.  She knew Juan was someone she did not want to go gentle on.  Once Solitaire had made her attack, and was out of the way, Gale let the mace-like ball fly from her hand.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

10:08, Today: Gale rolled 3 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,8,6,1,4,10,6,3,5,10,4. Lethal Blast To Hit.
10:06, Today: Gale rolled 4 successes using 6d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 1,6,9,8,10,7. Lethal Blast Attack on Juan.

Spent 3Q on Lethal Blast, bringing Gale to 15/28.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
For convenience, let's stick with the DVs already calculated rather than worrying about switching over to Rydi's new system.

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Round 2

25:
Suzukaze tore into the room, her first attack screaming for Alegría.  The Zeta commander's eyes flashed wide in surprise.  She managed to turn aside Suzukaze's second sword with her gun, but the first cut straight through her uniform and body armor to leave a bloody gash.


23:
[Solitaire]

Before Alegría could skip away, Suzukaze struck again.  In the blink of an eye, deep cuts appeared across Alegría's shins.

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Looks like 10 successes and 8 successes, actually.  Each manages to inflict a lethal on her.

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22:
Alegría leapt away from Suzukaze, tossing the radio high into the air behind her to free a hand.  She tumbled away, springing nimbly on one hand while firing a hail of bullets in reply.  They punched jagged holes in the floor and walls, but none hit Suzukaze.

21:
[Suzukaze Quickness action #2]
Gale followed after Solitaire, her bolt of sharp air shattering against Juan's shield.  He seemed unfazed by the attack, too focused on Solitaire to concern himself.

20:
Impetus' telekinetic onslaught slammed the mite heads and everything near them into the ceiling with sufficient force to crack concrete.  Their equally swift descent knocked the sense out of them, crushed a number of phantasmal squirrels, and broke bones.  Surprisingly, half of them managed to struggle back to their feet, bloodshot eyes and frothy lips wild for more.

Alegría's magazine wasn't empty yet, and she twisted as she ran to fire on Gale.  The bullets slowed as they cut through the hardened air surrounding Gale, giving her time to twist away from harm.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Die roller hate.

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19:
Flare's assualt followed quick on the heels of Impetus' attack.  She identified the first to break away from the pack, a bearded man shouting a warcry and hoisting a truck tire to fling back at Impetus, and blasted him.  He collapsed at last, scorched and writhing, the tire catching most of the blast and saving his miserable life.  The whole garage is now brightly lit by Flare's inferno.

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Too many die rolls later, only three of the mite-heads are in the fight.  They are woozy and injured, able only to defend themselves from rabid squirrels.

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Phantasm slid under Boneyard's heavy blows again, wrapped her legs around his and twisted.  His strength easily surpassed her own, but she held him juuust long enough.  Meanwhile, Zero shook off the unnatural influence of Boneyard's immobilization, reappeared behind the brute and punched through flesh and bone.  Held and taken by surprise, Boneyard had no chance to evade.  [Private to Dr. Zero: His "armor" comes in the form of extra skin, extra bony plates, and big purple-red bundles of sinew.  With Precision, Zero punches right through that without tearing the guy apart or bursting his organs.]

17:
[Zero Quickness action #1]

Thinking fast, Juan tries his best to ignore Solitaire and Gale, instead quantum-leaping directly for Gravitas.  He aims a solid haymaker for Gravitas' head, looking for an easy-knockout, but catches nothing but air.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Can't crack Grav's DV.  Also, this presumes that Solitaire doesn't stop him on Init 23 and that Gravitas moves after him.

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14:
Rather than crush Phantasm like a bug, the bushwhacked and vulnerable Boneyard falls to pieces.  Literally.  Both arms fall off his body, and his head tumbles away to land beneath the semi-truck.  Phantasm and Zero are left grappling with Boneyard's very solid torso and legs.  The torso twists to clumsily smash Zero with a protruding and oversized shoulder blade, only grazing him.


8:
Comstock ran after Alegría and swung his new truck-bludgeon in a wide arc.  He destroyed a few tool-chests, but Alegría nimbly hopped over the attack, stepping on the hood of truck and then leaping away to more cover.


???
Gravitas?
This message was last edited by the player at 16:42, Wed 09 June 2010.

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Umm 1st quickness action i guess

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Noticing how nimble Alegria is Suzukaze charges again. She slashes at her legs with each of her blades.

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21:20, Today: Suzukaze rolled 7 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8,3,10,10,2,8,3,10,10,1,7,2,1. 1st quickness attack on alegria 2.
21:19, Today: Suzukaze rolled 5 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 7,9,8,2,7,10,6,5,1,3,3,5,4. 1st quickness attack on Alegria 1.

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Just a placeholder while I work.  Actions for your opponents will be posted in a minute.  If anyone wants to get more done with quickness actions, just say so, and I'll edit them into the round 2 post.

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Round 3

25:
Suzukaze


23:
Suzukaze [Quickness action #1]
Solitaire


22:
Alegría, now determined to ignore Comstock, focuses in on Suzukaze.  She grits her teeth and gives Suzukaze the evil eye.  There's a wash of quantum power with little obvious effect ...

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OOC: Sue, next turn your initiative drops by a whopping four.  You feel as though the rest of the world is speeding up, but you are too slow to keep up.

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21:
Gale landed a solid hit, her claws raking across Juan's clothes and tearing through the electrical field.  The eufiber colony he wears beneath his jacket spares him from harm, however.


20:
Impetus focuses, intent on screwing Juan over in a vulnerable moment.

[Quickness] Alegría draws another pair of hand-grenades from somewhere.  M84 stunners.  With a fluid motion both cylinders leapt into the air heading for either side of Suzukaze.  The resulting blast was deafening, enough to make blood run from Suzukaze's ears.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Disorientation!  For two rounds, Suzukaze is blinded ... which, doesn't actually do anything so long as Suzukaze has blind fighting.  Comstock and Alegría were also in the area of effect, but neither were affected.  Also, thanks to force fields and other factors, damage to Suzukaze from that attack drops to a spectacular one bashing.

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19:
Flare
Zero

Phantasm narrowly dodged the discard arms and slid beneath the truck, picking up Boneyard's head.  He doesn't even try to bite her, just stares without expression right back.  Maintaining this sort of dislocation in battle seems to require quite a bit of concentration.


17:
Unable to keep up with the force-fields, shifting gravitational constants and well-oiled coordination, Juan begins fighting defensively.


14:
The Boneyard parts set about engaging Zero and Phantasm more directly, propelling themselves along at impossible speeds.  The torso concerns itself primarily with Zerio, aiming bone shattering kicks at the doctor.  One kick shatters the concrete floor, sending shrapnel and dust in all directions, but at this rate the clumsy torso will only be a threat if it is ignored.  Meanwhile, his arms leap beneath the truck after Phantasm, attempting to grab hold and throttle her.  Nimble reactions and force-fields win the day, however, and Phantasm slips out of his grasp again.

Boneyard's head leers.  "Hey pretty," he asks, his voice oddly unaffected by his self-dismemberment.


8:
Comstock


???
Gravitas?
This message was last edited by the player at 18:34, Sat 19 June 2010.

Imp knew that he was outmatched by the novas they were fighting, he once again went airborne, moving in a calculated, seemingly random, pattern that would make it hard for anyone to get the drop on him.  he then waited until one of his heavy hitting teammates moved to attack Juan.  Once the attack and its accompanying dodge had been initiated he reached out and redirected Juan's momentum to carry him straight into the attack.
[Private to Comstock; Operations; Rydi: Using momentum transformation to screw around with Juan's movement/dv/something.  Got enough sux (4) to make a 120 degree change of motion, so as long as he wasn't just moving directly away from the attack, this should work.  Should.  Hopefully.]

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3 Quantum remaining.

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This message was last edited by the player at 01:53, Mon 21 June 2010.

Gale has no intention of letting Juan get away.  With the close quarters though, she decides not to chance the wind blast.  That left her claws, and she moves in to take a swipe at Juan's face.

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23:24, Today: Gale rolled 8 successes using 9d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8,5,9,6,8,7,6,10,10. Claw Swipe at Juan, 3 mega.
You failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((2))

I know that Juan's soak will negate any damage dice I might have had.  But Gale doesn't know that so *shrug*

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Phantasm kicks herself of the ground and away from Boneyard with a backflip, using the momentum from the flip to carry her into a full tumbling pass, picking up speed as she goes, ending by sliding feat first under the semi in an attempt to grab Boneyard's head.

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Acrobatics: You rolled 7 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((9,10,1,4,9,10,1,5,6,1,3)).

Grab: You rolled 8 successes using 10d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((10,3,7,8,5,1,8,5,10,8)).

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Suzukaze comes to as stop as the grenades go off. She stumbles a bit from the disorientation. The blood running from her ears mixing with that which covers her from Tao's corpse. She swings her blades into a defensive stance. She takes the time to reach out with her senses. She smiles wickedly then charges fullspeed at Alegria. She swings both blades in a cross at Alegria.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Activating Blind fighting
20:47, Today: Suzukaze rolled 5 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 2,2,1,10,5,6,2,9,2,8,7,10,3. mexico- attack 2 on alegria.
20:47, Today: Suzukaze rolled 7 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 4,8,1,8,3,2,8,4,4,9,8,9,3. mexico- Attack 1 on Alegria.

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Depending on if activating Blindfighting counts as an action either the next will be my quickness action for the round or my first action next round.

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Suzukaze turns continuing to press her attack crosses her arms in front of her then swings for Alegria.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
21:03, Today: Suzukaze rolled 5 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 8,2,7,1,1,1,4,3,2,2,2,7,4. quick mex atk 2 on alegria.
21:03, Today: Suzukaze rolled 2 successes using 13d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 4,5,2,4,3,10,5,2,3,1,1,4,7. quick mex atk on alegria.

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"Hey there.  You gonna give up, or do I get to grind your skull to powder to make you stop?" Not a lie, not a threat, just an honest question as Phantasm takes evasive maneuvers to avoid the arms while applying her boosted strength to the task of crushing the defenseless skull, bracing it in the crook of her arm as she grinds into its temple with her knuckles.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Str 5 + M.Str 3 from shapeshift. Not sure how you want to resolve the action though, so feel free to roll whatever for me.

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Zero scratches it's head for a second, trying to figure out how to flank disembodied limbs, but then quickly tries to beat down on Bone-yard's arms.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Quickness, Precision activated.

19:10, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 3 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 4,7,1,3,1,9,5,7,1,2,5. Strike Boneyard 1 (1Meg).

If that hit: 3 Damage Successes + x extra attack successes + 5 Mega-Str Damage.
19:11, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 3 successes using 6d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 1,9,5,4,9,8. Damage Roll 1.

19:11, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 3 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 5,3,1,9,3,1,7,6,9,5,2. Strike Boneyard 2 (1Meg) Quickness.

If that hit: 2 Damage Successes + x extra attack successes + 5 Mega-Str Damage.
19:11, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 2 successes using 6d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 6,6,9,2,5,8. Damage Roll 2.

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OOC: In the interests of expediency, I'm summarizing the end of that face-off.  The numerical advantage is just too great, and play-by-post battle sapped a lot of energy from the thread.

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Boneyard was down.  Even with all his strength and armor, he was outnumbered and outmaneuvered.  Dr. Zero numbed his arms with precise strikes and was far too skillful to let him get a firm grip.  His torso, clumsy and unguided, smashed everything in its path but harmed no one.  And his skull was in the grasp of Utopia's demon-girl.  He tried to paralyze her again, his teeth chattering together, quantum fear crawling up her spine, but a little more force to the temple ended that attempt.  "I'm all yours, pretty.  My contract's up anyway."  That toothy grimace must be what Boneyard considers a smile these days.

Impetus and Flare tidy up the mite-heads, and like proper drugged up berserkers they put up one hell of a fight.  Rising again and again to the fight, the last handful manage to throw old tires and parts.  They collapse at last, smashed with TK and on fire, shouting and roaring slurred Spanish war-cries.  Tough as they were, at least half, if not all of them may survive to be questioned and examined.

And without support, the battle begins to press in against Juan.  Toe-to-toe with Solitaire and Gale, the big guy found himself evenly matched and regularly outflanked.  Impetus momentum control turned his strength to weakness -- his motion sent him in wrong directions, leaving him vulnerable to blow after blow.  Gale's claws could not cut him, it seemed, but defending against her left him more vulnerable still.  Eventually, he gathered his strength and made another quantum leap toward the garage door, hoping to break through and put some distance between him and T2M.  With one quick motion Impetus redirected his movement into the ceiling of the enclosure.  He pulverized concrete but didn't break through, and Solitaire caught him as he fell.

Alegría's undocumented powers availed her little.  Suzukaze was relentless in her assault, and the terrain favored close combat over firearms.  Periodically the fight would drift back near Comstock and the would-be general of a new revolution found herself dodging mortal blows from the savaged chassis of a pickup truck.  Bleeding from wound after wound, she found herself cornered at last.  Quick, but not quick enough, she finally dropped her empty gun and raised her hands, a blade at her throat.  Comstock dropped the truck and breathed a sign of relief.

Gravitas, meanwhile, quickly determines a means of sapping outgoing radio and electrical signals.  Alegría and Juan each try, in the fighting, to trigger more explosives again, but fail, their grasp of their own technology insufficient to overcome Utopia's best minds and technology.  His field of increased gravity keeps the baselines docile and immobile for the most part, making cleanup even easier.

Frostburn's voice came crisply over their headsets.  "Team?  Your video feeds are a little fuzzy.  What is your status?  Over."

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Phantasm, Solitaire, Suzukaze: if any of you want to get any last-minute poundings or killing in on your respective targets, just say so.  Otherwise, there's still explosives around the city and one nova unaccounted for (la Mascara), so this whole thread can finish up with some heroics/theatrics if anyone likes.

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Imp breathed a sigh of relief.  "Thank god that's over with," he muttered to no one in particular.  He walked over to an equipment shed and grabbed multiple lengths of chain and cable, then started binding the mite heads, he started trussing up the 'roid monkeys one arm and two legs behind the back lashed together from knee to foot and elbow to wrist.  He looked around at the rest of the team, "How're we doing everybody?"

Suzukaze leans in close to Alegría tightening the blade against her throat.

"You will tell me who hired the assassins or I'll have your head to go along with Tao's..."

Not waiting for a response. She takes her other blade and runs it through Alegría. Pulling it out she drops Alegría to the ground and walks out of the building. She then reaches out with her senses to make sure there is still no one loose on the grounds.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
21:51, Today: Suzukaze rolled 5 successes using 7d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 9,1,4,7,9,4,9. blindfighting... mexico search

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Comstock stalked up to Alegría, checking her wound.  "Suzukaze!  Head up top and look for bombs!"  His jaw was set and the hum was in his voice.  "That's an order."

Flare took a second to catch her breath and ambled to the main body of the group. She was a bit disturbed by the attack on an unarmed foe.

"Umm...that was, well..." It was crazy that went beyond words and a bit scary to see such ruthlessness in a teammate. "I can heal her, at least a bit. I'm pretty tapped out but its worth a try."

With using more Quantum after such a lengthy battle, Flare is staggering and fairly done.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Unless she can and does resist, Alegria is healed 3L

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