Before Imp and Phantasm head off Imp pauses, then ruefully shakes his head.  "CD, were there any other elite novas assigned to the column you were with?  The guy who made you invisible, perhaps?  I know you don't give a shit about me, but 'Tasm's not guilty by association, is she?"

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
http://meta-religion.com/Paranormale/Cryptozoology/african_mystery_beasts.htm  It may be whole cloth fabricated crap, I dunno, but it's flavourful crap!

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This message was last edited by the player at 01:15, Thu 23 July 2009.

"... Just one of their novas.  Calls himself Heatshimmer.  Actually, sounds a lot better in the native language, little more... masculine.  Fire and illusion powers.  Anyway, anyone attacking them will be in for a fight, so if you aren't up for protecting her, you can take me or the big guy over there..."

There is more than a hint of macho posturing there, as the girl he was hitting on is being taken into combat by the guy he hates, and just beat up.

Frostburn replies from her position, propped up against a crumbled wall.
"Nah, not much, just widespread rioting and me bleeding everywhere.  But the panic is just getting started, and I patched up my leg, so we're good for now.  Any suggestions on restoring order?  Not really in my usual skill set...

I guess I could drop the temperature, at least in the immediate area anyway.  Get people to cool down."

Frostburn proceeds to drop the temperature nearby, which shocks a few people out of their panic, as well as providing a break from the sweltering midday heat.  But there's still a great many people panicking, some rioting breaking out, not enough medical crews to take care of all the locations that were bombed, and from the air it looks like one of the city's major overpasses was taken out in a blast, blocking traffic.

"In case you don't know, 'Tasm's more than capable of taking care of herself, CD.  Problem is, in the shape I'm in she'd probably have to take care of me, and she's not looking too fresh herself." Anybody really looking at Imp will realize that he's almost out of steam.  he still seems perky and alert but there's a hollowness to him, there's no spark, no oomph.  What with the fight, doing aerial recon and PR, carrying everybody over, doing more aerial recon and talking CD out of killing him he's dangerously low on juice.
"Waddaya think, 'Tasm, can the two of us handle a fresh soldier, or do we need a bit more grunt?"

"We're in Bunia. There was no mercenary presence at the time, and we thought we could stabilize the place before ground troops took it over. I think the surviving merc from the Capital didn't run as far as we thought, and is now taking advantage of the situation in the Capital. We've lost contact with Impetus as he was scouting an approaching convoy." There is a long pause in communication as Zero talks to it's teammates.

"Wait. I see two approaching Novas. One looks like it has Impetus' contrail." There is a second long pause. "Alright. I have an update. There is a Mercenary here, but he is going rouge to assist us in holding the city. Apparently he didn't know about the atrocities we've seen, and he's not to happy about it. Has there been any update with the situation in the capital, Gravitas?"

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
OOC: To Rydi: Did Zero's Intelligence/Engineering rolls from earlier help it make a leap of logic about what might be causing the Communication disruptions and how to possibly deal with them?

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"Um, ok." Zero scratches the back of it's head as it approaches the litteral monster trucks. It turns around to CD. "Hey, where did you say we could get some materials for repairs?"

"I don't know.  I'm drained, and it's gonna be hard to keep both of these going.  I'd kind of like someone there with us if you can manage it.  Not sure who's free to go though, or who even has anything left after all this fighting today."

"Sure, I can take Comstock, or, CD can fly along with us. CD, how potent is this Heatshimmer?  Do we need more than 3 people to take him down, knowing that two of us are almost tapped out?  Is he contracted to fight to the death, or can he be cowed into submission by a show of force?  Also, are those soldiers armed with anti-tank/nova weaponry or small arms?  Assault rifles don't scare me that much, but bazookas... i dunno if i can tangle with a few hundred guys with rockets..."

"Oh! You son's of...! Why am I the last one to get picked!" Zero is besides itself with indignity. "I don't throw Quantum death, but I damn well have taken out my share of opponents a lot tougher than me. Can either of you beat people stronger than you? I'd call that quite an accomplishment! That's it! We are all going and stopping one problem at a time! Now!" Zero folds it's arms in a huff.

"Well?! I don't see someone picking me up to fly! Let's go people! Time is tissue! You! Big scary guy!" Zero points to Crimson Dawn. "I'll hold my friend down for you latter on if you fly me! No, wait. You'd kill him. I'll give him a wedgie and a wet willy he'll never forget in front of people he'd rather not see it! Ah, bugger it!" Zero stomps over to the fastest car it can see and hot wires it is seconds. "With the time it takes you losers to decide which ass cheek to wipe, I'll have them all knocked out already! See ya all at the finish line! Losers!" Zero makes an "L" with it's left hand, which makes it backwards from what it should be, though the Nova is far too annoyed to notice. It burns rubber as it racing off in the direction of the arriving forces.

After driving a few blocks, and after littering the air with some choice words, the Dr. tops it's head set, switched to a one way satellite communication. "Hey, Gravitas. Can you hear me? If I parked at..." Zero flips through the map with one hand. "(Insert African Street Name here), could you open a portal to the outskirts of the City, at about (gives rough area on the map). I'd need something big enough to drive a car through. Over. Or something."

Zero keeps driving if Gravitas can't do it or can't respond.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:23, Thu 23 July 2009.

"Well, I was gonna tell him where the materials cache was at, but I guess I'll tell you... Comstock was it?  Damn, am I just old, or did your friend there sound a lot like Scrappy Doo?

Uh... I don't know what his power level is, but he likes to show off with his powers, flash fry things, intimidate, that sorta thing.  Pretty sure he's in this to win though, he was promised a city after all the conquest is done."

"Sure you're OK Frosty?" Solitaire looked down at Frostburn's leg. "Well, if you say so. Anyway, I suppose the first thing to do is get their attention. Pity I can't do anything flashy like the others, still, I guess I'll go ask them nicely to stop."

Solitaire kicks back up off the ground and heads off toward where the worst of the rioting and looting seems to be. First, she'll just ask them to stop, if that fails, Solitaire will order them to stop. If they can't understand her, or something, she will give them a rather stern look and waggle her pointer finger at them in a 'no-no' type gesture. Once she has them calmed down, or browbeaten into submission, if that's what it takes, Solitaire will head off toward the next group.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
1Q spent to fire Awe-Inspiring back up, which gives me 5 auto-sux on command rolls. Is that sufficient or shall I roll?

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This message was last edited by the player at 22:39, Thu 23 July 2009.

Comstock watched Zero head off, amazed at the speed of his carjacking.  "Damn ... one of his moods now?  Yeah, Dawn, just give Phantasm the location for those materials.  Zero won't be right until he's gotten a chance to kick some heads in."  Actually, Comstock was lying; he didn't know that Zero would ever be 'right.'

"P, you need to keep an eye on your phantoms, right?  If you're worn out, stick around; you're in charge of the city.  I'll be in contact, so if anything bad happens you can tell command I'm an idiot.  Sam?  Keep an eye on her and arc-weld anything that bothers her or these people.  Zero's right ... we shouldn't split up more than we need.  If the enemy nova's over there, then I'm heading out there."  Gotta look out for the team, even guys like Zero flying off their rockers.  He'd have called Gravitas back, but he hoped that the genius was keeping Pax busy.

CD, Imp, and 'stock were ready to go.

Imp watches Zero tear off in bemusement. He grins and shakes his head.  "Y'know, even though he has taken down guys bigger and stronger than himself, I don't know if he can stop an entire army."  At Comstock's command Imp picked him up and flew off towards the approaching army.

"Soooo... I'm staying here now?  That wasn't the plan...  No, I'm going to, the cars can think for themselves.  Hey, CARS!  Go to the cache and bring back the materials, do what Sam or anyone else here says, and if anyone attacks them or you, attack back."

With that, as Impetus is about to take off, she makes a running leap and jumps on his back so that they can follow through with the original plan.  It's a few minutes before she realizes what she just did however... Grabbed onto the guy she's been fastidiously avoiding getting close to for weeks now.

How is he this attractive?  We're in the middle of a fight, he's caked in dirt, burnt up, and he still... Yeah, I need to think of something else... Building projects back at base?  What are we going to build, a gym was it?  Hmm, he smells like... Grr, this is going to be a VERY long flight.

Very long indeed, considering Phantasms heightened processing speed...

Imp staggered ever so slightly, then continued liftoff.  Comstock held by the armpits in front of him and Phantasm on his back.  She was much lighter than he thought she'd be, warm too...  Anyways, once they were airborne Imp keeping his voice totally neutral, " 'Tasm, thanks for coming.  We're going to be on top of them in under a minute if we want to be so here's my plan.  I don't think those guys in the army need killing, well, maybe they do, but they're pretty young and can be reformed, I think... So, how about if 'Tasm scares the crap out of those guys while Comstock, CD and I overwhelm Heatshimmer?"
This message was last edited by the player at 11:33, Fri 24 July 2009.

Comstock looked back silently.  Efforts to look after 'little 'sis' and keep her away from harm weren't working so well.

Back at the capital, Solitaire is able to once again quell the social disturbances.  When she arrives in an area, the people take a few moments to notice her, but as they do, they invariably show her respect and either worship, cower, or flee.  Novas are the current threat (and obsession, and military weapon, and pretty much everything else) after all, and Solitaire is certainly a very intimidating nova.

The more difficult challenge facing her, after 20 or so minutes of crowd quelling, is going to be just getting the place cleaned up.  Aside from the admin building, 2 other buildings have been severely damaged (as well as the surrounding property), and at least one overpass and multiple streets surrounding the damaged buildings.  This is grinding any emergency aid to a halt, and increasing the isolation and panic in the city.

Oh, and the military has decided to actually do its job and enforce order, though it is doing so with a rather violent tone.  Several people have been hurt due to military violence.

Frostburn is dealing with the situation near her, leaning on a makeshift crutch to get around and intimidating those intent on disobeying her will, but she is not terribly mobile and doesn't have the power suite for the situation to be of much help.  She has however been working with several city administrators and the president on plans to get things in order... but really they all involve waiting for the worst of the disaster to calm down.  On the upside, no further attacks from the enemy nova.

)))))

Comstock, Impetus, and Phantasm fly over Zero as he's driving to the scene.  Imp is significantly faster, and doesn't have to deal with terrain, so unless he decides to give Zero a lift the doctor will miss the show.

Either way, when the group arrives, the military is on alert.  They do have some heavy weapons, though most are hand fired (a rocket launcher rather than a tank, for example), and the force seems to be more intent on occupation of a damaged and defenseless city than it is on taking out reinforced (or nova) targets.  A few bullets come your way, and rockets, but for the most part you are left alone until you come within range for them to get off a more accurate shot.

"I can't arbitrarily set the 'near' end of the bridge, it needs to be somewhere near me," he directed the map to focus on the street that Zero provided. "I've got enough juice to make a few gates though, so I'll make the trip for you. It sounds like there are some problems in the capital though, so I won't be sticking around after that, I'll be heading over to help manage the situation there. Give me.... two minutes to wrap things up here and I'll be waiting at the address you specified, or somewhere near it if I miss. Uhm, over."

He turned back to Dr. Anteaus, "Well, as enjoyable as this has been, it seems that my services are needed elsewhere for the time being. I hope we'll be able to talk like this again in the future. I think a lot of good can come out of the brain storming of folks like us." After completing any farewells he found an open space sufficiently large to allow the creation of a wormhole and tried to target the other end in the area Zero had indicated.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
14:10, Today: Gravitas rolled 3 successes using 9d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 4,9,5,1,4,10,9,6,2. Warp targeting, 2 Mega.
4 successes, even with a +3 diff, this should be enough to pass. Not bothering with other rolls, this is just to make sure he gets where he's going.

---

Once he arrived he started concentrating to make another portal. Though he had typically created openings that were only about two meters across, easily large enough for a person, but not much larger. He tried to imagine creating one that was large enough to move a car through. It should be possible, after all, it was basically exactly the same thing.

Zero pulled up in it's car and rolls down the window. "Wunderbar! Most excellent. I thank you kindly, my friend. And, I have an idea about communication. If it turns out local radio can work at the Capital, try opening a small portal back to our location, and use the radio function of your headset. We could receive a signal. If you need serious help, please do not hesitate to open a portal. The Capital should be our priority.." Zero salutes Gravitas and drives through his portal (assuming The Doctor sees it's desired location on the other side.)

Comstock went heavy and stalked toward the column of troops, ignoring incoming fire.  "All of you!  Return home immediately!  This is your only warning!"  He let his voice resonate through his entire body and poured meaning into it.  He didn't expect them to route, but anything he could do to draw attention would help Imp and Phantasm escape immediate fire.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Everyone!  Start spooking the poor bastards!  Also, it looked like I've got 4 successes total after popping a quantum on Commanding Presence.
21:24, Today: Comstock rolled 1 success using 3d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 3,5,9. Commanding Presence.

---

After Comstock starts drawing fire Imp starts looking for signs that the other nova was around.  Blurry spots, heat shimmers, distorted patches, anything that might indicate that someone had hidden themselves using quantum.

---

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

---

Clapping her hands together, Solitaire comments, "Well, thats step one completed. Now for step 2."

Having quelled most of the rioting, and leaving the rest to the perhaps over-zealous military, Solitaire moves onto the rubble blocking the bombed areas. Opting for the quick, dirty and direct solution, she simply shoves all the rubble from one lane of the road onto the other. It was only short term, but the emergency crews were the priority, and they needed to get in. She could pick it up again later.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
23:10, Today: Solitaire rolled 2 successes using 8d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 4,6,3,1,6,3,7,9. Might, shoving rubble.

That would be 17

---

After getting all the pieces large enough to bar vehicles, Solitaire moves to the next site, and then the overpass. Good thing I pulled this job. She thought, wondering if anybody else had the right skill set for this. She shrugged, then threw a absurdly large chunk of what had once been a bridge over to the side of the road.

Zero waits patiently for it's teammates arrival, surveying the battlefield and clearing it's mind from any outside influence. It looks for the commanding officer of the forces and the Merc Nova.

As it sees it's comrades, Zero speaks into the intercom: "It's so great everyone finally joined the party. Boy, you old men are slow. OK, guys. Please don't soot me. I'm moving in..." It then sneaks in among the jeeps.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Zero spends a Willpower Point to nullify any mental influence imposed of it's mind.

Search for the commanding officer and Merc: 9 successes (Mega was a 9)

14:37, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 8 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 9,7,8,8,7,4,10,9,4,10,2. Search for the leader and Merc.  1 Mega.
14:39, Today: Dr. Zero failed (no successes) using 2d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 3,2. Observant Quality Reroll .

Quickness Action: 4 successes + 3 (Catfooted) = 7 successes

14:41, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 3 successes using 11d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 2,6,4,6,5,4,5,9,10,2,8. Sneak Amoung the Enemy 1Meg.

14:42, Today: Dr. Zero rolled 1 success using 1d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 9. Agil Quality Reroll .

2 Quantum Spent on Enhancements.

---

Phantasm busies herself creating monsters out of the soldiers worst nightmares.  She has them flank the troops, and lope alongside their vehicles occasionally, moving in and out of sight.  After tension has built up, she will have her creations begin disabling the transports one by one, ripping off doors, slashing wheels, pulling troops from their vehicles, but in such a manner that it inspires terror in those remaining.

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

Causing Terror: You rolled 5 successes using 10d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 ((7,4,7,7,4,8,5,2,8,3)). 3 mega
=7 successes

Add in any successes garnered from my earlier roll, and Imps folklore roll.

The critters themselves were rolled for above, w/6 successes.
1 for sheep size
2 mega str 2 (leap), Hypermove 1, 2 health levels
3 doublings (8 critters)
The critters are basically shaped like the smaller of the critters in the article Imp linked.  They dart in and out, leap away after they've caught something, and then leap back in after a few moments, picking things off slowly.  They aren't sentient, so I am maintaining control over their actions.

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This message was last edited by the player at 22:15, Sun 26 July 2009.

Outside of Bunia, the enemy troops rout.  They are superstitious, and the ghostly monsters frighten them.  Even though they know that they are likely the product of nova powers, novas themselves are a source of awe and terror, akin to walking gods.  The additional presence of a metal man with a voice of thunder, a portal to another place out of which a nova drives a jeep, and a flying man-shaped blur, are enough to make them turn back the way they came.  The commander tries briefly to keep them in line, but he gives up and joins the retreat.  Imp and Zero both note a peculiar blur in the quantum of the area that is likely the enemy nova, but he too seems to think better of taking on 4 novas by himself and makes a hasty retreat.

)))))

Back at the capital, the emergency vehicles are getting through to some of the areas now, though there really aren't enough of them to take care of everything, especially with the injuries from the rioting and the overly aggressive military.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:11, Mon 27 July 2009.

In reply to Rydi (msg #275):

Zero stays crouched while all the vehicles run away around The Doctor, readies for a pounce when the commanding officer stays a while to try to rally, and then just stands there some more as the officers get's wise and runs. It finally straightens itself out from it's crouching position and looks at the dust and odd shimmer that was probably the Nova. "Cool! Huh. Should we follow the Nova?"