Armadillo stepped out into the street (forgetting for a moment the cold pizza conundrum). His vague interest in the situation was starting to build into annoyance.

"First off... 'Cut'?" he says, with many other 'offs' apparently in the offing.

Squirrel Girl, still holding her coffee while staring wide-eyed at this spectacle, takes a quiet sip, then glances to Lockjaw for a moment.

"Uh, don't mind us, Mister Director. We were just walking our dog."

“If you’re filming here, then surely you saw our arrival.”  Moondragon gestured toward where she thought she saw a camera. She wasn’t certain with the commotion, but it looked as through they’d crashed a television set. At least that would explain Northern Exposure. “Who are you? And are you...are you rebooting Northern Exposure?” Was there hope in her voice?

Iceman had been slouching in his seat, an arm draped over the back of his chair. He continues to stare at the U.S.Agent, waving his free hand in front of the soldier's face as though trying to get his attention. As the people around the heroes suddenly dissolve into a mass of Skrulls, he nearly falls out of his chair, then slowly blinks and looks around. A slight grin comes over his face, his jaw agape in amusement.

"So... Did we just become TV stars? I think we just became TV stars."

Then he makes a face as he sees the massive, chair-bound hover-Skrull screeching in their direction.

"What's with... uh... 'S.K.R.O.D.O.K.?'"

"Second of all, *I've got representation*, y'know!"

"You need a glass of water, Iceman?" the USAgent asks Bobby, pronouncing his name like ICE-mn. "That's a nasty cough."

Finally the 'Agent looks up and the vapid blankness in his eyes is replaced with a violent fire when he notices the Skrulls. "These jokers have representation too -- of my starred n' striped fists in their wrinkled faces!" The man stands up suddenly, sending his chair clattering to the floor. Indeed, the patriot's rage is ready -- for Skrulls and/or for America's Hat!

"Walking your dog!?" the one in the hover chair says. He pauses a bit before busting out in maniacal laughter. The other skrulls look around at each other for a moment before mimicking their leader. "That's brilliant! You were walking your dog and ended up in Alaska!"

He turns to Moondragon, also looking a bit hopeful "And what if I am?"

Next, he glares at Iceman, "You may address me as Director. Or if you must know my formal designation is M.S.D.O.S. Modified Skrull Designed Only for Syndication."

Next up is Armadillo. "Representation. Yes. You have an agent? Would you like to play a Wendigo? I've attempted to create some, but the keep coming out... wrong. Plus, do you know how hard it is to convince a human to eat another human?" He says all this with a perfectly matter-of-fact tone as if cannabalism and agents are in the same category to him.

Finally, he regards US Agent. His voice dripping with disdain, "Is this one your dog, or the quadriped with the tuning fork on its face? It's so hard to tell with you earthlings, you all look the same to me."

In reply to Watcher (msg # 78):

Iceman raises an eyebrow at the Skrull leader's introduction. "MS-DOS" was an ancient computer operating system he'd used in his darkest days searching for an accounting job post-graduation. He'd joined that firm only to quit the same day in frustration. No way was he going to grow old there with all those senior citizens. Did this M.O.D.O.K. wannabe choose that name?

Bobby stifles a laugh.

The U.S.Agent jumps into a fight-ready position. "Let's see if these red, white n' blue fists look the same to you, Big-Head!" he hollers, holding up gloved fists that are only red, and which both look exactly like mirrored reflections of each other.

Are we ready to roll dice? I'm ready to roll dice.

Armadillo thinks about the offer for a second. "Tiger Shark would do it."

It's not clear whether he means "act", "play Wendigo" or "eat people". Possibly all three.

And then, of course, MO-not just said that all Earth creatures look alike to him. So, Tony decided to mess with that. Pointing at USAgent he says-

"And PRESTO! We changed places! Fear the power!"

And by now, it was fight time.

"Oh, very well, then. If that's how it'll be." MSDOS says with a sigh. "ACTION!" he yells.

With that, the skrulls all jump into action.

Soviet Super Skrull has been eying US Agent. A huge fist made of an inky black energy coalesces in the air and reaches out to grab US Agent. A tendril of black energy connects the fist to Soviet Super Skrull, and little purple motes of Kirby-energy flit off the construct at random places.

Alpha Flight Skrull takes to the skies so quickly his form blurs. As he does, he reaches into the pouch at his waist and pulls out a blizzard. Icy, snowy wind begins whipping around the the street.

The skrull minions surge forward, shifting their forms as they do. They all grow in height and girth, and take on a shaggy white, beast-man form complete with claws and fangs. In the form of a pack of Wendigos, they pounce on the team.

MSDOS hangs back and cackles.


Soviet Super Skrull is attempting to put a Grappled complication on US Agent
Team d10, Communist Cold Warrior d8, Darkforce d10, Combat Master d10, Constructs d6 = 3d10, d8, d6

21:18, Today: Watcher rolled 15,2,6 using 3d10,d8,d6 with rolls of 5,5,5,2,6.  soviet skrull grapple us agent.

Total 11, Effect d12, 0 Opportunities

---

Alpha Flight Skrull is adding his Sorcery die to the doom pool by creating an Arctic blizzard. This will replace the Kinda Cold scene distinction

---

The skrull mob is doing an area attack on the team in the form of Wendigos, taking advantage of the newly created blizzard and using their Shapeshift die to represent their new form.

Team 5d6, Arctic blizzard d8, Shapeshift 2d8, Combat rookie d6, Area attack 4d6 =
10d6,3d8

21:32, Today: Watcher rolled 30,10 using 10d6,3d8 with rolls of 4,1,2,4,5,1,4,2,3,4, 1,4,5.  skrull minions as wendigos area attack.

10 Total, d8 to Armadillo, d6 to Moondragon, d6 to Iceman, d6 to Squirrel Girl, d6 to US Agent
3 Opportunities

MSDOS is holding his action.

In a rundown building down the street, Machine Man looks up from an expansive sound board at the bank of monitors covering the wall in front of him. He sees the battle on the street beginning to unfold through the eyes of the various camera bots that are hovering around.

He'd been working for MSDOS and this group of skrulls since he'd been reactivated several months ago. His memory banks from before that time had been wiped, so he wasn't sure how he'd gotten here. MSDOS kept the town locked down, off the grid, and sequestered from the rest of the world, so Machine Man hadn't been able to leave or even do any research about what was going on. That was ok though. These skrulls seemed to keep to themselves and weren't causing any trouble that MM could tell, and they were giving him all the beer he could drink.

But the beer ran out last week, and he's been stepping up his efforts to escape. Opportunity might just be knocking now...

The green fleshy ones were fighting the pink fleshy ones. It almost didn't matter who won, at least to Machine Man (aka Aaron Stack, aka X-51), because flesh was flesh. Except some flesh was less obnoxious than other flesh, and some flesh even provided beer.

Ah, beer. The only good reason for keeping flesh around.

So, he was confused as to why the flesh was fighting. Did they have noble but conflicting agendas? Was this a battle for the ages, over the fundamental rights of all sentient lives everywhere? Or was this because some fleshy one forgot to change the toilet paper roll? They seemed to fight over any range of reasons.

Machine Man wandered out into the middle of the brawl.

"I am out of beer and ready to punch someone," he announced. "Someone tell me — in twenty-five animal grunts or less — who should get a faceful of mechanized fury?"

Moondragon ignored the biting cold of the Skrull’s arctic winds. A mass of new Wendigos pounced on the team. Genia once told her about the savagery manifest that was the Wendigo. She hoped that these imitators lacked the raw power and durability of the true beast. “Iceman! Hold them off!”

Recognizing the greater threat, Moondragon concentrated on the amalgamated “Alpha Flight” Skrull. “I must attack the greater threat!”The aliens had an advantage while he controlled the weather. Marshaling her own considerable power, Moondragon unleashed a psychic blast on the weather wizard!

OOC:

1d10 Solo + 1d8 Disciplined Mind + 1d10 Psychic Blast + 1d8 Enhanced Durability + 1d8 Cosmic Expert.


01:03, Today: Moondragon rolled 9,9 using 3d8,2d10 with rolls of 3,2,4,3,6.  Psychic Blast the AF Skrull.

 

OOC:

1d6 Team + 1d8 Dragon Within + 1d10 Superhuman Durability + 1d8 Enhanced Stamina + 1d10 Combat Master

22:03, Today: Moondragon rolled 5,5,7 using 1d6,2d8,2d10 with rolls of 5,4,1,4,3.  Reaction roll.

I’ll use 10 and keep the 7.

"You're gonna have 'em come at me with the whole 'abominable snowman' routine?" Iceman snarks at M.S.D.O.S. "Bad idea there, genius."

Focusing, he taps into the power of the arctic blizzard raging around the combatants, redirecting it upon the transformed Skrulls as they charge the heroes!

Reaction to Wendigo attack:

Team d8
Arctic Blizzard d8
Ice Mastery d8
Ice Blast d6

SFX: Add more than one Cryokinesis power die to your pool. Step back each Cryokinesis power die in your pool once for each die beyond the first.

12:08, Today: Iceman rolled 2,5,3,3 using 1d8,1d8,1d8,1d6 ((2,5,3,3)). Iceman reacting to the Wendigo mob's attack.

Total: 11
Effect: d8
Opportunities: 0

Spent 1 PP to add a 3rd die to the total.

Crap. This isn't working as well as he'd hoped. Iceman grunts as the Wendigos charge through his hastily-created snowstorm, more difficult to slow than he'd anticipated.

"Alright, SkiFree, my turn!"

Summoning his powers (and taking a page out the Agent's book), he tries to create an ice shield... and then, just to do it one better, Bobby adds a sword for good measure!

Attempting to make a "Sword & Shield" asset for myself:

Team d8
Heroic Prankster d8 (Constructs always look goofy, just ask Green Lantern)
Ice Mastery d10
d6 from Constructs SFX

SFX: Constructs. When using a Cryokinesis power to create assets, add a d6 and step up your effect die.

12:23, Today: Iceman rolled 4,2,3,6 using 1d8,1d8,1d10,1d6 ((4,2,3,6)). Iceman trying to create a Sword & Shield asset for himself.

Total: 10
Effect: d10 d12 (Due to Constructs SFX)
Opportunities: 0

PP's remaining: 0

Reaction Needed: The Watcher

Hearing Machine Man's query, Bobby spares the newcomer a quick wave.

"They started it," he shrugs in the direction of the Wendi-Skrulls.

As reasons to join one side of a battle versus another went, "They started it" was hardly compelling. But the robot's brain needed beer and thus Machine Man was just as likely to pop off and hit a skrull as he was a human... or whatever Mister Frosty-Pants was. So it was really all the excuse he needed.

"They started it!" he shouted as a battle-cry as he waded into the Wendigo-Skrulls with all his Superhuman-Robot Strength and Durability. "Rudeness shall be punished!"

Solo* d10
Robot Brain Needs Beer d8
Superhuman Strength d10 d8
Superhuman Durability d10 d8
[SFX: Multitasking. Add more than one Mechanical Body power die to your pool. Step back each Mechanical Body power die in your pool once for each die beyond the first.]
* = Solo, because he still hasn't really picked a side.

Machine Man rolled 5,3,8,4 using d10,d8,d8,d8 ((5,3,8,4)).

Total: 13
Effect die: d8

Opportunities generated: 0
Plot Points remaining: 1

The U.S.Agent staggers back, not sure what he's seeing. "I thought you were just special effects!" he yells at the alien as the Soviet Super Skrull lays into him. Immediately the 'Agent's shield goes up to protect himself but he still buckles, with the enemy getting enough of a jump on him to perhaps make a difference.

Reaction to Soviet Super Skrull Grappled Complication attempt, Total: 11, Effect: d12 (msg #82):
Team    d6
Ex-Soldier (confused by unearthly things)    d4
(+1 PP)
Superhuman Strength    d10
Superhuman Durability (Vibranium Shield)    d10
Combat Expert    d8

U.S.Agent rolls 3,6,4,5,7 using d6,d8,d10,d10,d8 ((3,6,4,5,7)).

Total: 13; Effect: d10

The 'Agent deflects the inky arms coming at him and regains his footing. "I don't know what you are so I'll just say this," the U.S.Agent sputters at full volume. "I don't know what you are!"

But the 'Agent has barely a moment for a breath before he turns around to face the Skrull mob coming right at him! The cold of the sudden blizzard bites at him, slowing his muscles just enough to perhaps make a difference.

Reaction to Skrull Minions-as-Wendigos Area Attack, Total: 10, Effect: d6 (msg #82):
Team    d6
Arctic Blizzard    d4
(+1 PP)
Superhuman Strength    d10
Superhuman Durability (Vibranium Shield)    d10
Combat Expert    d8

U.S.Agent rolls 6,8,4,1,4 using d6,d8,d10,d10,d8 ((6,8,4,1,4)).

Total: 14; Effect: d10
1 Opportunity

PPs: 1 (default start) +1 (negative Distinction (first defense)) +1 (negative Distinction (second defense)) +1 (Opportunity -- if Watcher automatically buys Opportunities?)= 4

The bulky hero knocks aside a few foes from the group but not enough to make a difference. "I'd say you're Skrulls, but they change shape. So what are you?" the bulky hero snarls. U.S.Agent snarls, just enough to perhaps make a difference.

Moondragon bobs and weaves, utilizing her Shao-lum martial arts to their fullest. Most of the mob's attacks miss her, but one skrull manages to land a glancing scratch across her thigh.

Purchasing that opportunity
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:07, Thu 01 Oct 2020.

Moondragon's mental blast lances out invisibly at the Alpha Flight Skrull. Despite its blurring speed, Moondragon's blast travels at the speed of thought. But the cold from the blizzard hampers her concentration, and its twisted alien mind is slippery and difficult to bullseye. These factors are enough to prevent her from landing a solid mental blow on the skrull.



Team d10, Blizzard d8, Doom die push d8
16:11, Today: Watcher rolled 6,15 using d10,2d8 with rolls of 6,7,8.  AF Skrull vs mental blast.

15 total, d10 effect, the Skrull resists the attack
Doom pool -1d8

Iceman's icy powers slow the wendigo-skrulls enough to keep them from overrunning the heroes, but really only slow the transformed aliens a little.

Refocusing his powers, he succeeds at creating an oversized sword and shield for himself.

16:14, Today: Watcher rolled 12 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,4,4.  doom pool vs. iceman asset.

8 total d6 effect. Asset creation succeeds at d10

Machine Man plows into the mob of Wendi-skrulls. Their forms are more durable than he expected, the thick wendigo fur blunting his punches. And there are just so many of them. Even though he smacks a few to the ground, two more just step up to take the place of their fallen comrades. MM can't really say his attacks did much to thin this mob.


5d6 mob, d10 shapeshift, d6 combat rookie
16:20, Today: Watcher rolled 10,19 using d10,6d6 with rolls of 10,4,4,1,3,4,3.  skrull mob reaction to MM.

14 total, d6 effect, 1 opportunity
MM's attack is ineffective

Solo was fine for this one, but you've essentially chosen a side now, so you should go team next time. Or if you fastball special or something that's pointedly buddy, you could justify that.

I took durability too (I try not to negate things). I'd prefer a little more narrative for it in an attack pool though. Something as simple as mentioning his steel hard fists or slamming his metal body into the mob of bodies like a couple of frat boys chest bumping would be sufficient.

US Agent manages to deflect the Soviet Skrull's darkforce attack with his own red-white-and-black shield. Likewise, despite the biting cold, he fends off the attacks of the mob of skrulls. This wasn't the first mob of snarling idiots he'd tangled with.

I laughed outloud several times, US Agent. I do usually buy opps especially at the beginning of fights, so yes, I'll buy yours. You're loaded with PP now!

Go ahead and do an action if you want.

I'll wait another day or two for 'Dillo and SG to react and take actions.

Doom is at 2d6, 1d8 now. Status thread is updated.

The U.S.Agent turns back to the creep with the furry legs. "Okay, creep with the furry legs," the 'Agent snarls, missing the more obvious America vs. Soviet angle. "Time to send you back to whatever planet you're from -- even if it's Canadia!" (Even though they're already in Canadia, er, Canada.) Then the 'Agent charges forward with the center of his shield aimed at the center of his opponent's face!

Physical attack on Soviet Super Skrull:
Team    d6
Ex-Soldier    d8
Charge/Superhuman Strength    2d10 (stepped down to d8 after this)
Vibranium Shield/Weapon    d8
Combat Expert    d8

U.S.Agent rolls 3,2,8,7,4,6 using d6,d8,d10,d10,d8,d8 ((3,2,8,7,4,6)).

-1 PP to add third die to Total
Total: 18; Effect: d10

PPs: 4 (starting; from msg #90) -1 to add third die to Total = 3