Will handling three alts at once?  It really is the sign of the end times.

  "What does the ritual do?  Or is that a last minute tactical surprise?"  Bamzor is asking because the Robot Wizard asking would just look odd.

  "Do you figure more fire support will be needed against the Freakshow, or in case the Longbow failsafes fail, as failsafes often do?"  Does hitting on Luminary count as actions one would not get in trouble for?  Wait, that was the Vindicators (And not those other Vindicators a certain Panda lead).

Mittens would approve of the impersonation.

"I'm not one to refuse assistance," Raymond answers, "But I think you're more needed against the renegade Longbow."

To Emmy he answers, "I'll be there."

"With bells on!" Mittens concurs.

Emerald answers Bamzor because he asked, "In *theory*, it will make Hammidon revert more and more to his original human form with every attack he uses on us. So the more he fights, the weaker he gets."

Considering whole TEAMS form just to be the volunteers to die while everyone else blasts Hammidon, this will be very dangerous, but could really hurt Hammidon quickly too.

Liberty goes over to GG and reaches to grab his hand while smiling up at him. "It'd be great to have you along!"

Later on, at the ritual, many of the SG are there. Though this is where RP gets interesting in pointing out a few things about origin. Example: Shelly isn't there. While she was technically magic origin, that was due to a magic weapon passed down from generation to generation. Doesn't make HER magical. Liberty IS there because she's pretty sure being possessed by the spirit of America counts as magic. And so on.

Emerald is sure to watch to see if Mittens literally wore bells to the ritual.

OOC: Most characters I made defaulted to magic because it was a handy catch-all for Mittens' various incarnations (even though I leveled monk, rogue, samurai, warrior, etc. many many levels in FFXI).  Her story in CoX is that she originally came from Vanadiel but came to Paragon via some magic portal that opened up in her mog house.

Raymond's combat super powers are the result of hard training and a few bits of tech.  His tiny smidge of natural born arcane talent was just enough that he can deal slightly more damage with a shadow wand than most.  But he showed up just in case he can contribute at all.

Mits was unable to find her ankle bells, but she shows up wearing a Christmas scarf covered in a jingle bell pattern.  Today she showed up as a bard, wearing her artifact gear figuring she'd contribute most by buffing all the other participants.  If she's wrong it's very likely there'll be a moogle handy.  "La la la raise your intelligence song.  Doo de doo raise your skill song."

  "Ooooh, that could get interesting if I'm inside them punching his cells to death at the time."  The sort of violent science/magic Bamzor is looking forwards to seeing.

  Gadget nods, hand held by Liberty.  "Looks like I'll be along to deal with the more common problems then."  Really, more Longbow have been shot on Hero Tips than Devouring Earth at this point.

  As for the ritual, Alloy is using Runes and Binary auras at the same time, wow!

Mocha Moogle is there with Mittens. She grins up at Mittens and elbows Mittens in the shoulder. "Remember when you told me about those manaburn teams? I wonder if that's possible in this world." she muses with a smile.

Eli looks up at Bamzor. "...ewwwww."

Liberty says to Bamzor, "Don't get too excited... I'm sure you'll get ejected from him before he reverts too much."

Emerald performs the ritual. Magic flows over everyone in the room. But while it doesn't feel any different than standing inside Oranbega, it's obvious from visual effects that the magic is working. Once done, Emerald says, "Alloy... since you don't need sleep, I'm hoping you can keep looking into anything else that might help while those of us who need sleep do so."

"It is," Mittens answers Mocha, "My friend Scarlet put together a static with a few other sub rad trollers and their stacking accelerate metabolism powers turned them into an endless font of hyper stamina able to bust out their most powerful abilities in rapid succession."

In SG chat she announces, "If anyone needs a sleep song, send me a tell."

Raymond is glad he was able to contribute at least a little and chuckles at Bamzor's prediction.  He considers how unlikely it is he'll be able to get to sleep on his own and accepts Mittens' offer.

  Alloy nods to the short fox, "Sure thing Emerald.  More productive than staying up to clean exploded limeonuts off a lab ceiling at least."

  Bamzor meanwhile is disappointed at the lack of Totally 90s Doom for Hammidon.  You can tell from the lack of expression on his lack of face.

The next day comes. The moment of truth, as everyone is now prepared as they are going to be. The teams have been decided and the groups all head out in full force to their destination at the first light of day as agreed upon.

Team Crey: Bamzor, Shelly, Maximus
Team Freakshow: Raymond, Raichel, Batsmash
Team Circle of Thorns: Emerald, Alloy, Mittens
Team Longbow: Liberty, Gadget Gun, Jake

---

Crey:

Shelly takes Bamzor and Max to the location of the suspected Crey locale. Sure enough, nestled somewhere in the ruins of some of Paragon City's bout with the Rikti, there is an entrance to a secret Crey base that looks like it's been there for a while now. It doesn't take long for the group to find a bunch of laser sights on them and a voice demanding "Surrender!"

---

Freakshow:

The first Freakshow location Raymond was told to go to was Carnival Town in Crey's Folly. As the "capitol" of Freakshow, this is where Raymond and his group were told they would likely find the location and plans of the Freakshow division of Hammidon's master plan.

---

Circle of Thorns:

Unsurprisingly, more of the ruins of Orenbega are accessible through the forested parts of Paragon City. It is at one particular entrance that Emerald leads her team in and begins infiltration. "Scout ahead, Mittens. We want the path of least resistance to save on time." Emerald says softly. She then looks at Alloy. "Protections, please. I'll prepare to recall her if needed."

With that, Emerald holds her hands to either side, ready to teleport Mittens back to the entrance when Mittens is done scouting.

(Feel free to invent what the path of least resistance is like)

---

Longbow:

Also among the forested ruins of Paragon is the entrance to a secret Longbow forward base. Liberty looks pretty upset. While GG was sent as FIREPOWER for Lib, Jake was sent as the one who will hopefully find ways to counter any Longbow tech; either by re-programming their stuff, using nature against tech, or simply leaning on his psionics. "If we could talk some sense into this renegade group... that could make a huge difference in our fight against Hammidon." Liberty comments quietly.

With Emmy tanking and Alloy trolling, Mittens decided to back up the group with damage.  Yay fireballs!  Oh wait.  CoT tends to resist fire.  Guns then!  She donned her cowgirl outfit and strapped on her self-loading sixshooters.  One of which is pink.  She never did get around to fixing the color.

When asked to scout ahead, Mits salutes, turns invis, then dashes forward at super speeds.  Sure wish I had this power when scouting for a camps in Crawler's Nest.  Once she finds what the group is looking for she offers a teleport.  Sure wish I had this power...  pretty much anywhere I ever went.

---

Meanwhile Raymond mows through Freaks with his huge two-handed maul, shrugging off even superfreak's energy drain attacks.  "Don't be fooled!  Hamidon is just using you!"

---

"Well if we convince their boss, we've convinced the whole group," Jake suggests, "Or at least that works most times.  Or we could defeat the boss, then imitate his voice with an emulator to broadcast new orders to his troops."

---

Maximus doesn't look concerned and faces the ambushers.  He holds his tongue to see how Shelly handles herself in this situation.

  Bamzor would eyeroll if he were capable of such a thing (Nevermind the fact he has sniper distance eye lasers).  <goldenrod>"That word is in my vocabulary.  It is also not what we are going to be doing.  Speaking of eye lasers, he looks down the laser sights for anything within range to decide on contempt of being shot, or contempt of 'not even close enough to be shot'.

---

  Batsmash lives up to his name... He also lives up to other potential names for Warmace combat style users, as he is Hammersmashed.  "Ow.  Ow.  Ow.  He's still standing though, enough experience has quite literally pounded in some Toughness™ into him.

---

  Plentiful hula hoops are had by all.  Emerald is once again enjoying the wonderful feeling of being as durable as reality can handle, even if Alloy still can't make others less susceptible to being knocked on their behind.  He of course is Yes For Port

---

  Gadget has similarities to Mittens in being fast, invisible, and favoring bullets.  Of course he also has toys to detect those who try to do the same (hello, Longbow Spec Ops).  "As often as it seems to turn up, not having to shoot our way through employees of a high profile justice department for the sake of justice would be a pleasant change of pace."

Team Crey: Bamzor, Shelly, Maximus
Shelly says, "Tell you what; You surrender first and we'll talk things over!"

Crey Protector says, "Take theMFF!!"

Shelly's trident smacks the guy across the helmet and the trio of heroes start getting swarmed. However, the trio consists of a tank and two off-tanks(scrappers). Shelly immediately gets to doing the break dance of staff fighting.

---

Team Freakshow: Raymond, Raichel, Batsmash
"Nobody fools us!" a Stunner Chief yells while laughing and stunning Raichel, "Least of all "heroes" like you who come into our turf and start swinging in the name of justice!"

Raichel breaks free from the stun and says, "We don't have time to arrest you for your crimes! Hammidon's making a push and you bunch are protecting him!"

Raichel would give greens to Batsmash, but... well she needs 'em. >.> Blaster defense and HP < Scrapper. Thankfully, she has a lot of resist electric.

While hovering there, Raichel grabs a hold of her right wrist as it shivers and unleashes a torrent of electricity at the Stunner Chief, causing even him to get hurt and then stunned from the overload of electricity.

---

Team Circle of Thorns: Emerald, Alloy, Mittens
When teleported, Emerald and Alloy, being teamed with Mittens two-gun... yeah the fight is pretty one-sided. Emerald tears up a couple dozen right off the bat with Cryonic Judgement, and then just holds the attention of the rest of the enemies so Alloy and Mittens can tear them a new one. "Circle of Thorns! You were once respected, the pinnacle of civilization, and I'm sure you still mean to restore things the way they once were! But Hammidon means to destroy you just as much as he means to destroy all of civilization!"

"Hammidon is a TOOL! He believes he uses us, but we are the ones using him!" replies a Force Mage, "Now die and empower us more so our plan can come into fruition!"

"...not for lack of trying..." Emerald mutters before twirling her hands around, then SLAMMING her hand on the ground, causing a wave of force to knock over all the nearby CoT, making them all feel like they each got punched by the Undertaker.

---

Team Longbow: Liberty, Gadget Gun, Jake
Liberty suggests, "How about we try both? First we try to persuade him. Then, if he refuses, we beat him up and use your voice modulator."

Liberty is, of course, wearing her Longbow outfit. It's best when dealing with Longbow, she found. When you wear the uniform, you're "one of them". When you don't, you almost may as well be a civilian. Thankfully, there's some truth to this as the Longbow who are at the base ignore Liberty at worst, smile and wave at her, or even comment "Hey, Liberty! Thanks for your aid in taking down those Outcasts a few days back!" or such.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:26, Sun 10 Mar 2013.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Max says with a smirk on his face as he joins in the trident sweep attacks.  He does his best to cover for Shelly but blocking bullets with a trident tends to be much tougher than blocking blades for or fists.

"We should let Bamzor hold most of the attention of ranged attackers," he suggests in team tell, popping a green.

---

"They never listen," Raymond grumbles, taking advantage of the stunner's dropped defenses to hit him with a devastating finishing attack.
"Nice shot, Raichel," he commends.  With electric armor's self-heal handy, he can spare greens and hands a few over to Raichel and Batsmash.  Also, he's sure to taunt frequently to keep the enemy focused on him.

---

Why is it the first thing that comes to mind when I hear about them using each other is to tease them about having a sordid affair with a giant blob when I absolutely hate it when people twist my words that way?  Oh well.  "You so smart, let's see if you can outsmart cryo bullets!"  Blam!Blam!Blam!Blam!Blam!Blam!Blam!  She starts singing her own take on a Beetles song.  "Bang bang MitTens Silverbullet came down in his head!  Bang bang MitTens Silverbullet made sure he was _{incapacitated enough to be recalled by the medivac system then sent directly to jail do not pass Go do not collect $200."}

---

Jake thumbs-ups at the suggestion.  "Feels kinda weird to be openly walking through one of these bases.  At best I have to sneak around."
Sometimes he has to blast his way through.  But this is the first time he hasn't been shot at in a Longbow base just for showing his face.
"Doubt it'll help any, but feel free to mention my nature affinity.  I know what they'll say.  'That's like saying he's an expert on Recluse just because he's a mastermind.'"
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:42, Mon 11 Mar 2013.

  Bamzor does not half to walk far to reach the biggest cluster of VIOLENCE.  Not only because he can fly, but because travel in combat is for losers when you can just appear in a flash of lightning and fists in faces.  The end result as means a lot of minions and lieutenants in for a bad day by the sheer Melee AoE spam electric punch and long poles tend to cause.

  "So, which protector would you say you like the least?"  The answer will have a built-up finisher with their name on it (so far as Crey Protectors have names).
 

---

  Batsmash is fine, really!  He's only dead.  Wait, no, he's back up again. "Mot hates me a little more every day." He mutters, as he jams his bat between the exposed lack of stomach in a Tank and twists...  That looks more like Mortal Kombat than usual, but the huge Cyborg is still alive if now missing their legs.
 

---

  "We've been over this.  You can't steal and put in a magical crystal jar what isn't there in the first place."  Alloy's legal team (Aside from Angel, she's busy enough as it is) still hasn't gotten back to him on the prospect if simply getting all of the Mu bloodline simply disowned to fulfill that whole 'So long as those of Mu blood live' issue with the CoT's demonic contract.

  Speaking of things like hellfire and brimstone, Earthquakes and Volcanic Gas because really, they don't have time for this.
 

---

  Gadget messages to Jake, "I'd avoid it for the more likely 'plants, must be evil' reaction.  Because that is more dumb therefore more likely."

Team Crey: Bamzor, Shelly, Maximus
Shelly smiles and says, "Thanks, Daddy!" when he commends her. To his request of letting Bamzor aggro the ranged ones, Shelly flings her arm to the side, sending a wave of force in the direction of a runner who falls to his butt. Then Bamzor demonstrates his electrifying personality.

To Bamzor's question, Shelly says, "The one who demanded us to surrender."

The Crey Protector yells, "Fools! You dare take on Crey?! You wage war with us, you wage war with the whole organiza-OOF!" staff to the sternum. Ouch.

---

Team Freakshow: Raymond, Raichel, Batsmash
Of course, while Batsmash's fatality is certainly uncomfortable looking, rag doll physics has had bad guys see worse days. "Thanks, Raymond. And don't worry, Batsmash, I think Mot hates our whole supergroup. So you're not alone! From our toughest members to our weakest, the members of Redemption tend to knock on death's door and then give him a raspberry." Or a wedgy in some cases. Or a punch in the face. You know what? One might almost feel sorry for death in a setting like CoX if not for many a jerkface thing that cost actual lives.

The freakshow pull out a large honking gun. And by large, we mean it has a 3-foot wide barrel. They fire it at Raichel and she screams before spiraling from the sky she was hovering in towards the ground.

---

Team Circle of Thorns: Emerald, Alloy, Mittens
The CoT seem to be throwing a bunch of "cannon fodder" at the team while a bunch of others continue with a ritual. Emerald frowns. "This is why I studied teleportation extensively." she mutters.

With that, Emerald vanishes and reappears right in the midst of the ritual and smashes several of the ritual practitioners back with her cone attack. WHAM! "Alloy! Mittens! I recognize this! It's an energy funneling ritual! They are GIVING magic and this ritual sends it somewhere else! If we can defeat them without destroying this ritual, we might not only be able to siphon the power back, but we could potentially teleport to Hammidon directly!"

The CoT appear to panic as they start pulling all the stops and summon a couple dozen demons!

---

Team Longbow: Liberty, Gadget Gun, Jake
The team arrives at a room where what appears to be the leader of this base is. Liberty approaches. "Commander Duncan; I'm Sergeant Striker, aka Liberty. I'm here to talk with you about what's going on at this base on the authority of Ms.Liberty herself." she offers papers to Duncan.

Duncan looks amused and looks at the papers. "Sergeant indeed... you realize that rank of yours is honorary only and holds no merit. Nobody would put a child in an officer position, much less any fighting rank."

Liberty says, "In the same respect, sir, your rank holds no bearing on me either. I am here as your equal. Those orders from Ms.Liberty, however, DO hold bearing on you. Sir."

Duncan looks rather annoyed. "I know where I stand in rank structure, girl!"

Liberty says, "And I know where I stand. That said, please don't be upset with me for being a messenger, sir. I hold you in high regard and it is with respect I come here, sir."

Duncan calms a little, but still looks annoyed. "What is going on here is none of your concern. I'll telegraph the information to Ms.Liberty directly."

Max has a fancy hard-hitting attack as well.  A trident uppercut that sends the protector sailing up into the air followed by a leaping overhead attack that slams the enemy prone on the ground!  Hopefully between that, Shelly's and Bamzor's attacks, the protector won't have a chance to activate its invincibility power before he's defeated.

---

One of the disadvantages of wielding a huge maul is building momentum with that first swing of a combo takes time.  So in spite of having super-fast afterburner powered flight, Raymond was unable to put himself in the way of the blast to protect Raichel, but with a gun that big, it's debatable if even a brute like him could have survived the blast.

"Raichel!"

His eyes go wild and he pulls out all the stops, hitting the trigger man with a Judgement Bolt, followed by summoning a huge thunderstorm and tornado, hasten, a flurry of sweeping attacks against everyone near the cannon, then finally a crushing blow against the weapon itself!

"I have a spare wakie," he informs his team between the shouts of rage.

---

Speaking of pulling out all the stops...

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Mittens answers.

Super speed to next to Emmy, hasten, Fulcrum Shift to bring her team to near the damage cap, then a cryo-bullet barrage so fast it would make Cloud's Omni-slash proud.

---

"You're probably right," Jake answered with a heavy sigh.

Later, at the boss, he listens to the conversation and figures it best to keep his thoughts on how well this is going because no one has shot at him yet to himself and decides to apply some "enemy of my enemy" psychology.  He puts on his best impersonation of Maverick's "I mean business" face.

"Ours is the supergroup that repelled the Rikti invasion of Portal Corp.  Our more ranking members are currently fighting off an alliance of Crey, Circle of Thorns, Freakshow, and others.  Liberty, Gadget Gun, and I were entrusted with the urgent task of delivering this message to you in person because you stand in a uniquely pivotal position that could turn the tide of this crisis.  Your help in this matter could make the decisive difference for the countless lives that hang in the balance."

Bamzor

  Step one, angry power up pose.  Step two, Thunder Strike.  Phase three is Profit.  "Well yeah, I do suppose Crey will just clone more protectors even if I do smash you down into the basement like a railroad spike"  Every time an Ipod is sold, a Paragon Protector gets it's helmet.

---

Bat

  Batsmash brushes bits of Freakshow out of his hair.  He never could quite get the hang of Brutalities, but it looks like Raymond had the trick down.

  "If she forgot to empty her pockets, I've got a resuscitator device anyways" it's even got a 'This End Up' label and everything!  Temporary tools are so convenient.

---

Alloy

  Let's see, Earhquake and volcanic gas were already in use so what was left for the stops pulling?  Oh, right Liquefy!  the best of both worlds (He already used his judgment on the last mob <.< ).  From there it's simply extra strength hold spamming the evil wizard with the most fancy outfit, and keeping his friends inside the bonus bubble.

  Melty saves time by hitting the portal with a demon.

---

Gadget

  Gadget always found it interesting that Ms. (as opposed to Miss, LEGACY CHARACTERS ARE CONFUSING) Liberty both ran the harsh militaristic Longbow, and the redemption style Vindicators made up of reformed villains and assorted nonstandards.

  "We're the Soldiers given a desk job while a war is going on, basically.  At your rank I'm sure you've had at least a few run ins with the frustration that can cause."

Team Crey: Bamzor, Shelly, Maximus
The room full of Crey is taken care of. As the trio fight their way through more rooms and prove time and again that Bamzor + 2 staff seabears = win, they bump into a room in the base that appears to be overgrown with ivy, moss, grasses, flowers, and various plants that look foreign. In the room is a single Crey Scorpinoid. But he looks overgrown with plantlife too.

He speaks and sounds like an infested terran. "The King of Urser. His offspring. A powerful robot. I urge you to abandon your mission and turn back. If you do not, you too will become... one with Hammidon."

(Infested Terran: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOBtzjS_mvk )

---

Team Freakshow: Raymond, Raichel, Batsmash
The fight with the Freakshow proves harder than anticipated, but once they are all KO, Batsmash and Raymond are able to revive/awaken Raichel. "...what HIT me...?"

Soon, the trio is able to question the freaks, most of whom still seem stubborn. But it doesn't take long to find a weak-willed freak who joined the Freakshow just to be part of something. He tells the trio where the secret Hammidon Freakshow base is and how to get there.

Once there, the trio finds a standard Freakshow hideout with all the metal planks seemingly randomly placed, as well as the techno beats... but the place is overgrown and the only sounds are the music. There don't seem to be any dancers or shouts of celebration.

---

Team Circle of Thorns: Emerald, Alloy, Mittens
Emerald yips as she finds herself suddenly on speed and able to punch as fast as Raichel! The extreme power of a team like these three proves more than even the ever-annoying CoT can handle. Their demons fall too fast to build up much of a defense or immunity. Then the mages fall alongside their ghosts.

Within less than a minute, the CoT in the room are all felled and the portal undamaged (despite Melty using it as the curb to stomp a demon or two). The fight proved challenging enough, though, to merit a short rest. Emerald says, "Alloy, help me figure out how to siphon the magic back from where it was sent. Mitts, keep an eye out. We skipped a lot of baddies to come here, so it's only a matter of time before they start swarming us again."

---

Team Longbow: Liberty, Gadget Gun, Jake
Duncan is getting this helpless smile on his face at the two children talking all serious. "How cute..." he says, patting both Liberty and Jake on their heads. He looks at Gadget. "Not just desk job, but babysitting in your case." He looks a little closer at the papers and frowns, getting angry again. "Ms.Liberty doesn't understand my situation. She'll just have to pull me from Longbow to keep me from doing what I'm doing! Because what I'm doing is saving lives!"

Liberty says, "Hammidon is not just a blob. He's smart and clever. If you think you are using Hammido-" SMACK! Duncan's hand sweeps across Liberty's face!

Duncan yells, "Don't pretend that hurt, Striker! Listen, you presumptuous brat! You don't know a thing about my plans or what they involve! Leave!"

Max:
Every time an Ipod is sold?  That's a lot.  But likely accurate.  When Max comes upon the strange garden scene he scans it for traps and ambushes.  He eyes the scorpinoid cautiously.  "Thank you for the warning.  Of course, if we abandon our mission entirely, everyone will wind up one with Hamidon, so that's not an option.  But that doesn't mean we won't take a moment to help you out.  What can be done for you?"

---

Raymond looks relieved.  "Good to see you survived."  He points at the smashed cannon.  "That's what hit you.  Makes me wonder where they got it.  Perhaps Hamidon."

At the overgrown base he searches for signs of a battle.  "Looks like a trap.  Let's be careful."

He describes it on the SG channel.  "Any suggestions?"

He then activates flight to keep from triggering any pressure plates.

---

"You sure make earth trolling look awesome, Alloy!" Mittens cheers between winded panting amid the carnage.  She uses the quick break to activate her self-heal gizmo then sits to rest.

"You got it, Emmy!" she answers with a smile and a salute.  She gets back up, activates sneaky super speed, then zooms off to keep an eye on the nearest enemy team down the tunnel, making faces at them behind their backs.

---

Jake activates his nature related buffs, filling the air with the fragrance of an open meadow.

"Don't you pretend that throwing a tantrum and assaulting a minor are the hallmarks of a hero," he retorts.  He begins opening a rift to the pocket dimension where he keeps his assault bots.

"I might even have believed your lies about saving lives if you hadn't acted like a big crybaby when you don't get your way.  But by your own words, you've already forsaken Longbow and prove yourself a villain in candy-cane clothing."

Red and white stripes.  Longbow taste like peppermint.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:28, Tue 02 Apr 2013.

Bamzor

  "It's probably not a very smart infected.  If they were, they would have given Shelly more credit."  Besides which, as completely awesome as Bamzor was, if he went overridden and crazy as opposed to merely aiming at acceptable targets Redemption had enough heft to bring him down if required.

---

  Batsmash

  "Nothing new here, unless you count how close to home it is.  Off in the Rogue Isles there's already Freakshow going through Coralax infestations."  Batsmash would be more worried about ambushes if this were in Pretoria.

---

  Alloy

  "Trick is that I'm not the most effective at smashing things, despite all the rocks."  While he did prefer his end result, a large percentage of his time had been spent envious of Alexis who could take a mob in less than six minutes with HAMMERTIME.  But had he been a Dominator, he wouldn't be nigh immune to enemy controllers nor would Melty be able to tank various Titans.

  He gets to work examining the mystic crazy.  "If it ends up as simple as reversing the polarity, which is still a thing even for Magic, I will be quite relived."

---

  Gadget

  "I don't think it bodes well for Longbow that I am completely unsurprised someone in your position has zero regard for your orders or chain of command."   Hmm, not one of the more physical sorts of Wardens then if it didn't hurt Liberty. "Punching the messenger isn't any less respectable.  Since we're supposed to be reasonable about this, I'm asking you to stand down rather than reply with a beanbag round to your face 'which won't hurt'."

  The audio and imagery of the career suicide captured by Gadget's targeting drone was transmitting back to Redemption, hopefully Angel's political skill could do something with it before they had to take out half a longbow base, again.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 16:42, Tue 02 Apr 2013.

Team Crey: Bamzor, Shelly, Maximus
Shelly hears Raymond on the SG channel and immediately responds, "We're staring down a Crey who's been infested with plantlife. Looks like some cross-breed. The place looks like what Raymond's describing. I advise you storm through there and look for anyone who might have survived. So far, this guy seems reasonable. Like being turned into Devouring Earth finally convinces people that working for Hammidon is a BAD idea."

The infested Crey says, "...nothing can be done for me now besides a mercy killing."

Shelly says, "No! Bamzor, knock him OUT and let's find out what else needs to be done here!"

---

Team Freakshow: Raymond, Raichel, Batsmash
...and nothing says updates can't change Primal Earth to be more like Praetoria. But the characters don't know that. They only can know Murphy plots against all living beings. Still, it is SOME comfort that so far, ambushes on Primal Earth are not like Praetoria or anywhere near as numerous.

Raichel says, "You heard her... let's look for survivors and try to STOP this!"

---

Team Circle of Thorns: Emerald, Alloy, Mittens, Mocha
There are plenty of baddies for Mittens to fight off as it becomes an endurance mission to keep all the CoT at bay as they try to disrupt Emmy and Alloy. Mittens is having a bit of trouble in that regard as she can dish out damage like nobody's business, but is having trouble taking it. She then hears Mocha on the SG channel. "Invite me, Emmy!" and her name soon gets added to the team roster in everyone's heads-up display. Then immediately, she pops into the mission. "TP!"

Emerald was in the middle of a critical arcane gesture, but she pauses and uses her other hand to summon Mocha. Mocha immediately flies off to Mittens. "Chang job!" the li'l brown bat-bunny-cat-thing yells towards Mittens while she flies in her direction. A tank job would fit nicely about now. Just the kind to hold attention.

Meanwhile, Emmy gets back to the arcane realignment with Alloy and the two are able to set all the runes correctly. "...why isn't it working?" Emmy asks, fully expecting Alloy to say he doesn't know why. "Theories?" she asks even as she looks around at the bodies of the fallen.

One of the fallen CoT chuckles darkly. "To fully reverse it, you need a willing conduit.... and none of you can handle that much magic entering your feeble mortal forms."

Emerald looks at Alloy with a worried look, only to hear Raymond's description and Shelly's response. "What Shelly said sounds good to me. Everyone, Alloy and I are working on a portal that may have been feeding Hammidon more magic power. My main thought is that Hammidon is likely drawing energy from the different factions in different ways. See if you can find anything that's feeding him and reverse it if possible. Then we strike."

She then looks at Alloy and in Team Chat, asks, "Well... I'm willing to be the conduit. I don't know if I can share the blast of magic or not, but if I get knocked out of the fight because of this, make sure everything continues as planned."

---

Team Longbow: Liberty, Gadget Gun, Jake

Does this mean Liberty tastes like peppermint? Either way, she is pouting and looking ready to cry, a mix of hurt and angry ( http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_tZHh...D2y0I/s1600/pout.jpg ) "...I'm stopping this operation with or without your help." she says with a slight quiver in her voice.

Duncan frowns at the reactions around him. "You're all in way over your head!" He activates his jetpack and flies up and backward before pulling out his rifle and aiming it at GG.

It's not that the guy wasn't one of the more physical sorts. It's just that Liberty's so tough that sometimes, it's hard to tell if she's been hurt. By the time you glance at her HP bar, she's already fully healed. But yes... the guy made li'l miss practically immune to physical attacks cry.

Liberty hears the SG comm and says, "Duncan, even as we speak, reports are coming in of people being turned into Devouring Earth! We NEED to stop this!"

Duncan just continues his assault without a word.

Team Crey: Bamzor, Shelly, Maximus
Max skews his lips, wondering why Shelly didn't knock the guy out herself rather than delegate the responsibility, but keeps his thoughts to himself.  This is hardly the time to be asking such questions.  He nods to Shelly's suggestion then answers Emerald.  "On it.  I'm guessing that if the CoT siphon is arcane in nature, chances are the Crey siphon is bio-technical in nature."

He turns to his team.

"But I suppose if something arcane sticks out, it's worth looking into."

He waits for Bamzor to take point.

---

Team Freakshow: Raymond, Raichel, Batsmash
"I'd offer to sneak ahead to scout it out," Raymond says, "but I think it probably best we stick together at least until we spot opposition we would save time in bypassing."

He does take point, though.

---

Team Circle of Thorns: Emerald, Alloy, Mittens, Mocha
"Woohoo!" Mittens cheers, "Thanks, Mocha!"

As the dramatic transformation music plays, ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dknzPgMkgqk ) she changes to her buster sword lightning paladin power set then charges back into the fray with renewed vigor!

"Could be he's lying and it's as simple as finding a glowie or defeating all these enemies."

---

Team Longbow: Liberty, Gadget Gun, Jake
"Here's hoping he's simply been influenced by Hamidon's mind-altering spores," Jake says, sounding like he's not expecting the guy to not be a villain, "Well two can play at that game!"

He sicks his robots on the enemy then starts loading him up with all kinds of spores, fungi, and various nature thingies to lessen his combat effectiveness.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:12, Tue 16 Apr 2013.

Bamzor

  "Fiiiiine.  I will punch and electrocute him into submission gently."  There is a logical flaw there, but probably not a fatal one.  Violence likely ensues.

---

Batsmash

  Batsmash follows along.  He may bounce back okay, but he's still nowhere near as tough or at his best as when somebody else has all the aggro leaving him free to soak up incidental area attacks and club ancient demons older than the stars above to half dead in one swing with a chunk of wood.

---

Alloy

  Alloy was about to suggest 'because you stopped in the middle of a delicate ritual for team managment'.  But then the jerk mage gave away valuable information.  "As much as I hate to say this Emerald, I am much more likely to recover from being blown apart by an overflow of arcane energy than you are.  That and my form is not Mortal"  We're still up in the air about that Feeble thing, even with more hitpoints and resistance than the average controller.

  "Of course if you think the end result may be your floating and favoring bright green over your usual colors, then the Plot would likely suggest you do it in that case."

---

Gadget

  Gadget adds to the general air pollution by chucking a Web grenade to try and bring them down to Libery's more convenient punching height.  Ow ow ow ow body armor only does so much.  Instinct says to shoot back HARD, but experience says to get his floating minigun turret between him and Duncan, and open up with a Beanbag Taser Combo.

  Unless it says "Elite Boss" or "Archvillain", then it's straight to Hastened A-TEAM FULL AUTO

Team Crey: Bamzor, Shelly, Maximus
It becomes clear to Max why Shelly didn't KO the guy herself as she begins flying around the place, as if searching for something. The infested Crey battles Bamzor and seems to be able to go toe-to-toe with him for a bit. But Bamzor wins at the game of "out endure your opponent".

---

Team Freakshow: Raymond, Raichel, Batsmash
The heroes come upon an Infested Super Stunner, who looks like his parts were melded with a Freak Tank. This one doesn't hesitate to attack the heroes.

Raichel takes joy in stunning the stunner, even if it is just for 2 seconds. That's 2 seconds Raymond and Batsmash can get in his face.

The infested guy is in the same room as one of those HUGE generators. Which seems to be shooting an energy beam through a portal in the wall.

---

Team Circle of Thorns: Emerald, Alloy, Mittens, Mocha
Emerald says, "I'm built to take in energy... it's my super power. I'm going to try it. After all... I *do* have a not-so-mortal form myself, where I just become pure energy. It will probably take everything I got, but I think I can do it without getting destroyed."

She looks at Alloy. "But at the same time, I can appreciate what you're saying. Eli could repair you if you get destroyed. But if your memory circuits get fried... do you have up-to-date backups of your memory core at our base?"

Meanwhile, Mittens is just kicking butt left and right, while watching her HP bar drop only to pop back to full again. Mocha cheers her on. "Go, Mittens!"

However, there starts to be even more than Mittens can hold the attention of and they are starting to swarm past her.

---

Team Longbow: Liberty, Gadget Gun, Jake
Let's see...
Liberty: Near unstoppable tank with super strength. Check.
Gadget Gun: Glass Cannon that can take out groups of leut/boss rikti in one blow. Check.
Jake: Frickin' robots MASTERMIND with bloomin' nature control? Check.

The team tears Duncan a new one before he so much as gets more than a smidgen of HP off of Liberty.

Liberty is still teary-eyed as she looks down at Duncan. "Why, Duncan..." she asks nobody in particular, since Duncan is KO.

Team Crey: Bamzor, Shelly, Maximus
Mas wasn't expecting someone asking for a mercy killing to put up much of a fight, so he didn't think to join Bamzor in the fight.  Instead he took off flying around searching as well.  When he finds out Bamzor finished off the enemy he says on team tell, "Thank you for dealing with that for us, Bamzor.  Had I known he had so much fight left in him I'd have offered to help out."

---

Team Freakshow: Raymond, Raichel, Batsmash
And that would be why we love Batsmash so much.  :)

One glance at the Boss Freak has Raymond convinced this is going to be a long fight.  Super Stunnders are tough enough on their own, but stacking a tank on top of that?  But he takes courage when Raichel manages to stun the stunner so he wastes no time charging in and opening up with a massive swing from his titan mace!

"Nice shot, Raichel!"

He then provokes the enemy.  "Hey Rosebush!  Time for some weeding!"

---

Team Circle of Thorns: Emerald, Alloy, Mittens, Mocha
"I'll bet the villain made the suggestion GET OVER HERE! only because he expected DURHURHUR STUPID DEMON! it to be lethal to anyone who tries!" Mittens comments between taunts, "I'VE SEEN STRONGER CANTRIPS!  But it could be he didn't know AWW BABY CASPER GET A BOOBOO?! Emmy can turn into energy so CUT IT OUT THAT TICKLES! worth a shot."

She grins and winks at Mocha then tosses a grenade at the enemies.  "I LOVE MY JOB!"

---

Team Longbow: Liberty, Gadget Gun, Jake
Jake keeps the robots available just in case and heals his team with flying leaves.  "Well done, everyone."

He reaches to put a comforting hand on Liberty's shoulder.  "I'm sure Duncan's reasons will come up during his trial, Liberty.  I have the entire exchange recorded for evidence.  That and to use his voice to call off his subordinates."

He taps away at his holographic laptop and brings up the voice modulator program and imports the voice sample file.

"All set.  Now any of us can sound like Duncan.  Would either of you like to make the base-wide announcement, or should I?"

He offers a his smart phone for use as a microphone.