[The New Study Hall, Stanley School, Early September, First Day of New Semester]

"One year ago, you were young kids, grabbing your gift bags full of trinkets and geegaws.  What a difference a year makes.  Some of you fought through the Hellfire Rebellion, the Pact of Doom and the Sinister Plot.  But all of you have earned your place here over the past year.  Because of you, we have started a junior class.  We are all so proud."

"Now you are back for your second year.  I hope you have had a relaxing summer vacation.  To welcome you back, we like to offer you a new and very special gift bag.  You have earned it."

Natasha Romanoff, aka the Black Widow, finished speaking.  The X-Men Forge simply smiled tightly.  Sometimes they found the mundanities of teaching rather dull.  But tonight promised to be more exciting even if the surrounding students didn't know it yet.

The students were the returning class of the Stanley school inaugural student body.  And they relaxed about the lush, well-appointed lounge contentedly.  All were in their superhero costumes.  They had spent the day in combat training and hadn't had time to change.  Forge bit back a smile, that had been deliberate.

At the mention of gift bags, the students looked around.  Under chairs, behind tables and on high shelves the kids found each found a gift bag addressed to them specifically.  Some wondered why they hadn't noticed them before.  Still, the allure of free stuff chased most thoughts away.  The young heroes wondered just exactly what kind of gifts Iron Man, Reed Richards and Forge (just to mention a few) might have come up with.

The bag's contents were quite underwhelming however.  One most obvious item was a 'utility belt' full of useful but mundane tools (tiny Swiss-army knife, USB drive, flashlight. etc.).  There also was a palm-sized square of cloth with the word 'SERVICE' printed on it, a single playing card (an ace) and what seemed a tiny 'goldfish' cracker.  A literal gem was in the bag, set into a Stanley School class ring.

There were looks of confusion and some frank disappointment.  The youngsters were too polite to say outright how generally paltry their gifts had been.  Forge guessed what was unsaid.  "Not all tools are obvious at first.  And as for how to invent a tool or get it to work for you..."

As Forge spoke, the room began to grow dark,  walls and furniture began to crumble into dust which began to blow and obscure vision.  Forge and Romanoff began to fade away, their smiles going last like Cheshire cats.  The Black Widow finished her friend's unfinished sentence, "Well, necessity is the mother of invention..."

And then even their grins were gone, leaving only blackness and biting sand...

OOC:
OK, this is a completely optional IC thread.  You can ignore it entirely.  It will start freeform but should be rules-compliant by the end of the scene.

What is this thread all about?  Well, think of your D&D characters.  Between making the characters and cracking orc skulls, you buy equipment for your character.  In most games, equipping your character is an 'off-camera', character sheet accounting sort of thing.  But it can be more story-centric.

The '007 visits Q Branch' scene is a staple of Bond films.  And those scenes can be quite entertaining.  Now, your characters will have some equipment simply because common sense demands it.  In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Avengers at least have their unseen communicators in common.  Gadgets won't be a big part of the game (unless gadgets are your character's schtick) but the school would equip you with some protective gear as a mercy.  And they would do this on the first day.  Thus, since gadgets have to be defined at least once, we might as well do it now.  And we might as well have some fun with it.

What does getting equipment have to with a bag full of useless knick-knacks while the world ends to the mocking laughter of two heroes?  You will find out if you are lucky and resourceful.

Here's the situation in more detail:

1.  Your characters have returned from summer vacation for their second year of school.  In the past year, they have had many adventures that will one day be told (but don't have to be now).  Speaking of which, what are the Hellfire Rebellion, the Pact of Doom and the Sinister Plot?  They are events that I needed to setup the backstory of this universe.  These stories don't need to be told right now.  Later on, you can decide if your characters were involved your first year at school.  And don't get me started on the spilling of the Infinity Chalice. ;-)

2. You have spent the day in combat practice and other superhero training.  You are in your superhero costumes which is an Unstable Molecule Suit unless you say it is not.

3. This study hall is brand new and far from the center of campus.  It is part of a larger building.

4. Tonight you are all here as one friendly group.   It shouldn't matter what team your PC is on for this scene.

5.  Before the world ends, assume you had a chance to examine and play with one item from your gift bag.  I will give this for free, the gift bag itself is well made but quite mundane.  The utility belt of useful items is exactly that.  It makes sense for your characters to have these things if they want them.  The belt is the default storage for them.  You can have whatever small, real-world item makes sense but no weapons save purely defensive ones (tactical pen, say).  You can later personalize storage options for your costume.

6.  Some of you Marvel mavens might have already kenned what is really going on here.  If so, so have your characters and they are free to express their suspicions or not to (just to see what happens next ;-) ).

As I mentioned before, this is a completely optional encounter.  You may ignore it completely and thus your PC is not here.
Or,
You may have questions you want answered before posting into this encounter.  You can ask them outright or I will likely answer them in a few days.
Or,
You might just start posting in character and see what happens.  You won't break my universe.
Or,
You might read and see what happens to the characters who players are actively posting and then decide to join in or not.

For all of the implied threat, this is actually not a critical encounter in the big scheme of things.  So I can speed up my usual posting rate.  I will try and post every even-numbered day in this scene.  It is time to see how this game might move faster if the situation allows.  Actual Moves (as in the rules term) should be enabled in a few replies or so...

It really has been a wild ride of a year. At first, Svetlana found the relatively mundane side of Stanley School overwhelming – living with a roommate, trying not to needlessly antagonize her teachers, getting used to wearing a bright red skin-tight costume and the looks it drew towards her lanky yet feminine frame. Then tragedy struck. It could have been much, much worse, but it was still a wake-up call. She had become complacent, had forgotten about her mission. No more. The other concerns all seemed so frivolous, when all that mattered was becoming a better hero and moving forward with her original objective.

Counterforce was still somber and focused when she returned to the Stanley School, having spent much of her holidays working on her devices. She welcomed the combat training – it was necessary, it was a good opportunity to test her improvements, and, in retrospect, it let her blow off steam. Although still not a match for her more physically inclined schoolmates in a head-on confrontation, she had come a long way when it came to fighting. Tactics could be an interesting mental challenge in their own right – once she began to look at it that way, training immediately became more appealing.

The latest trick lesson, on the other hand, annoyed her greatly. Surely this was not the most efficient way of doing things. Svetlana accepted the gift bag, of course, following the philosophy that every little bit helps. Unlike some of the others, she was not too disappointed as she took the time to examine the objects. The belt could be handy, even if it offered her nothing new. You never know when you need a spare. The other items presumably all had some secret features to them... and the gem, of course, could come in handy in her experiments. She used what little time she was given to assess the gem’s properties with the smallest and most subtle energy projection she could make.

Then darkness fell, and rather than cry out or gasp, Svetlana emitted an exasperated sigh. So it is going to be like this. She still had some leftover energy, but it was best used sparingly on the test, so she decided to weather the dust storm for now. Instead, she stood up and clasped the utility belt around her waist, then put away the other objects. Then, she peered through the dust and listened in. Perhaps more will become clear in the next few seconds... otherwise, she would start clearing it up herself.

Svetlana had just enough time to examine the tiny ring before the world ended.  It was her class ring.  Earlier, the students had been offered a chance to order themselves a ring with some customization and personalization options.  This ring was the one Svetlana had chosen for herself.  The gem shimmered like a flickering ember.

Class rings were a staple of schooling in the US but it would seem this was no common trinket however its mundane appearance.  On her finger, it fit perfectly and then disappeared.  Her fingers were not as fooled as her eyes.  She could feel the ring was still there if no one could now see it.  At the very least, it had some of the properties of an image inducer.  And then the world crumbled to dust...

The dust cleared and revealed a completely different place.  The first impression was of being inside a great and stately home of Old Europe.   Tapestries and paintings hung on the endless walls.  Belligerent eyes stared through the dust of the artistic portraits.  There were some familiar faces under the foppish wigs and archaic clothing too over-the-top for even the traitorous Hellfire Club.

Great hallways extended forever away from the great room the young heroes were in, all just as grand and genteel as the large chamber the teens were grouped together in.  Artifacts from different cultures were scattered as indifferent decoration, the legacy of colonization so long done it was more tiresome than tragic.

"The Infinite Avengers Mansion?!" Someone whispered.  The Infinite Mansion had been severely compromised during the Sinister Plot and word was the endless tessellated plane was wounded beyond even the ability of Doctor Pym to repair.   This representation was flawless however.  Only the endless corridors belied conventional reality.  The earlier 'skin' of the Mansion had been set to a kind of open, airy structure like California's Sam Simeon.  It had been comforting and reassuring.  This new desktop theme was less welcoming.  The low lighting and mismatched décor recalled the limited set budgets of a Hammer Horror film.  This dim vista seemed to be every mansion in a horror movie all at once.

Still, if this was the Infinite Mansion, there should be a familiar face.  Jocasta, the robotic avatar of the Mansion should be nearby.  Jocasta was a calming presence, able to occupy the nearest of an infinite number of robotic avatars within the Mansion.  Where the usual sleek metallic form of Jocasta usually stood was an imposing suit of archaic armor made to a feminine contour.  Inside the face guard, two points of fire flickered softly where the normal bright red eyes of gentle Jocasta might normally be...

OOC:  Play with this twisted version of the Infinite Avengers Mansion.  Your characters will have to experiment anyway, this dark place doesn't seem to work in the same way the old and friendly version does.  Svetlana has the time to reveal what she has learned about the class ring so all characters can know what she does.  Each ring is personalized the way the character selected from a catalog a few days ago...

Sitting in amongst all the costumed teens was one who stood out. She was conspicuously out of costume, despite having just come in out of training like the others. Andi's plaid skirt and Crass shirt went better with her lip and eyebrow piercings than with the training she'd just come inside from. Even so, it was evident from the sweat that she'd definitely been out there giving her all.

Andi was doing less of that here, barely moving to check around her for the gift bag. A little black blob with white patches for eyes rose up a few inches from under her jacket to look behind her while she looked the other way, then it disappeared and reappeared out of her heavy many-buckled boot to check under the couch. A few more spindly threads of black goo sprang out like vipers, snatched the bag, and dragged it out. Andi held out a hand and the blob lifted the bag's loops onto her fingers.

It hadn't been unusual for the teachers to spring weird things on the students the prior year, so she was fully expecting something well out of the ordinary, but even that expectation wasn't enough as she looked at all the items in the bag. In particular, she held up the cracker. While the goop was now coiled around her wrist to get a look at what she was examining, Andi herself cast a glance to the two instructors.

"Seriously? One goldfish? These things come in huge bags for a reason." While incredulous, her tone came across as more bored than anything else. Also the little blob of goo formed a mouth and ate the chip while she was talking.

"Whu-- hey!" It looked up at her innocently. A moment into the staredown, the teachers and walls and furniture all started turning to dust. Andi's eyes flew wide and she flung herself off the couch toward the instructors, already covered in her living black costume by the time both feet hit the floor!

"No!" Mania turned wildly to try and get her bearings, only calming once things started taking form again. "Ugh. I hate pop quizzes."

[Took me long enough! The suit would like to examine the goldfish.]

Xié Zhèn examined the items, her eyes lingering in slight perplexity at the palm-sized cloth, before looking up as things began to change.

She prayed silently as the dust obscured vision, and as it fell away.

Then she regarded her surroundings with an appraising eye...

RPoL Dice Roller:

23:47, Today: Resonance rolled 10 using 2d6+3.  Scene 3: Straight. Up. Creepin'.  :).

OOC: And so, my two questions are:
(1) Who or what here is not what they seem?
(2) What's my best way in/out?

Octopus had been resting on a couple of his metal arms that had folded themselves into a rather comfortable recliner, with one of the others spinning the flattened digits towards him like a fan. His black and green costume breathed well, thanks to the unstable molecules, but still didn't help keep him cool during combat trainings. It wasn't what he'd been expecting on his first day back, pretty clearly. When the teachers arrived to explain about the gift bags, Otto looked to them with eyebrows raised in interest, and the idle arm went about searching for it. After lifting it from its place among a few books on the shelf, the arm-chair (I know what I said) shifted to let him sit up and get a closer look at the contents.

He peered quizzically at each one, his arms idly strapping on the utility belt while he took a closer look at the playing card in particular. Even as he flipped it over to glance at each side, another arm slipped the class ring onto his finger. He took another moment to appreciate the design he'd ordered before things started disintegrating. Suddenly he was alert again, two arms grabbing hold of the ground for stability while the other two pulled up into defensive positions and peered around the room with him. He didn't react quite as outwardly as some of the other students, and instead was very clearly soaking up information as fast as he could.

[I'm preparing to Assess the Situation, but first I'd like to wait until we can share some more information about the items we've been given.]
This message was last edited by the player at 18:08, Sat 26 June 2021.

Waiting turned out to be a good call. On the other hand, Svetlana could not count on that trick getting her any further than this. Though briefly disoriented by her new surroundings, the wunderkind snapped back to reality when she heard the mansion’s name. That... explained nothing, but it was a start...

After doing a quick mental count of her schoolmates and giving the sinister suit of armour a wary glance, Svetlana returned her attention to the invisible ring. She had an idea, but first, assuming anti-Jocasta wasn’t about to attack them, there was something she wished to test out. The girl fiddled with the ring, trying to figure out the control scheme. Could she make it visible again? Could she make herself invisible, or look different? Could she, perhaps... create a larger illusion?

OOC: I'll share once I have more of an idea of what I actually have... probably. Right now it's not enough to go on. I understand something is about to happen anyway, which may or may not preempt Svetlana's test.

Editted to remove the last part (which wasn't responded to as far as I can tell - fair enough, it was trying to do too much in one post) and make the rest flow better into the GM's post. I'll test out other theories later.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:46, Sat 26 June 2021.

Jubilee had lowered her pink sunglasses to protect herself from the dust. Her yellow raincoat made her stand out in almost any situation, this included. She studied one of the portraits on the wall. "Oh no, somebody stole all the fashion sense from the world" she joked, before following it with a more serious "Be careful, everyone. We'll be lucky if nothing big and nasty jups out at us."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:31, Sat 10 July 2021.

As Svetlana played  with her 'invisible' ring, tiny lasers shot forward from it and struck her nearby team mates.  It would have been horrific but the beams didn't seem to damage the others.  Instead, the lasers rapidly moved from side-to-side and then up-to-down.  As they did so. Svetlana began to visibly change becoming strange combinations of herself and her fellows.  None of these combinations were convincing or impressive and soon a holographic message floated above her ring, "BUFFERING ERROR."  The strange laser spray and distortions to Svetlana's appearance faded away.  The ring became visible on her finger again, the gem now dull and inert.  Wishing she was somewhere else or telling herself she was didn't change the miserable situation.

Before Andi could stop Mania, the symbiote had begun to swallow the tiny goldfish.  The alien lifeform perhaps couldn't be blamed, it really did look like one of those popular little crackers.  The outside of the goldfish was shapeable and soft, like Unstable Molecule Fabric (it was probably best not to ask how Mania knew this).  Underneath was fine circuitry.  The tiny fish was actually trying to speak.  It managed to get out the word 'polotence' before it crackled into silence.  The word had been accented and the word did sound Russian, so perhaps its utterance was best expressed as 'полотенце'.

Octopus soon got his ring to work at least as well as Svetlana's by paying close to her example.  If these items were technological, the interfaces seemed to be almost deliberately obscure.

As Jubilee tried to make sense of the situation, her eyes fell on one of the paintings.  It was of an aristocratic red-headed woman in a grand dress of a style a century gone.  Black and red were woven into the fabric of the dress like webbing.  Underneath all of the dust, she could have sworn the painted figure winked at her and still kept that Mona Lisa smile...

OOC:  Y'all are doing good.  And freely assume you have time to share and compare what you have learned.  So, if one of you learns something, the others should to.  Go ahead and play with your toys, guys.  Do what you would physically do with such items.  If you are in doubt, do what a toddler would do with them.  They are meant to be intuitive.   Or you can use Moves.  This will be how you will learn what you need.  But don't feel bad if you don't guess.  It is like Family Feud, so many good answers from a single question.  Next round of posts, the 'challenge' begins to awaken.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:47, Sat 26 June 2021.

PM

Something had Andi's attention just after the world dissolved, and the symbiote spat out the cracker into her hand, uncrunched. She looked down at it quizzically for a moment before her attention shifted again. Mania's mouthless face grew an extra-wide toothy grin as she turned to face Jubilee.

"We'll be lucky if it does. It, not so much." As quickly as it showed up, the mouth vanished back into the black, and Mania turned to Counterforce. "Hey, I don't want to sound crazy, but we're super powered teenagers and I'm wearing an alien as a second skin and also we're in a magic house of infinite reality, so bear with me. Did you hear your goldfish cracker talk to you? Mine said polo, uh, poloto? No. . . . Thank you, 'polotence'. Its accent sounded like it might be your jam." Meanwhile, the suit itself looked over the room, able to see from any part of it. The eyes were just to let people know where Andi's face was.

[22:50, Today: Mania rolled 13 using 2d6+2.  Assess the Situation, +Superior.

That's 13 to Assess, and Be Mindful Of Your Surroundings lets me ask one extra question. That's three total, so here they go:

* what here can I use to identify this goldfish?
* what here is the biggest threat?
* what here is in the greatest danger?
* how could we best end this quickly?]

Svetlana tensed up instinctively when the lasers shot out of her ring, but soon reassured herself that it was fine. Not only were the others visibly unhurt, but it still seemed unlikely that they would be given something that would be so effortlessly dangerous. The changes in her own appearance were a bit disquieting, but she did not have much time to feel uncomfortable in any case. Soon it was all over.

“The ring is a mimic device,” she mused aloud in English. Recharging it was probably not beyond her, but at present there seemed to be little point to that.

Mania appeared next to her while the young scientist pondered this. Her lip quirked slightly at the mention of superpowers; then again, if she remembered correctly, that girl’s ‘superpower’ was her costume, so arguably they were on similar footing. “Towel?” she translated, a bit perplexed. “Hmm.” The Russian reached into her utility belt to retrieve her own ‘cracker’. Did it say anything?

Can't get the Private function to work but for Resonance.
1. You feel as if you are in some kind of illusion.  It seems as though your fellow team mates are real but everything else is questionable.  Jocasta seems a more sinister version of her usual self.
2. If this is an illusion, then it has the logic of a dream.  There is a truth you must realize or puzzle you must solve to escape.
3.  You believe the palm-sized cloth is of the same material as your Unstable Molecule Fabric. It does adhere slightly to your uniform but can be unstuck and stuck again (like a post-it note).

Mania is wonderfully creepy ;-)
1. Andi notices the goldfish should be louder than it is, the tech needed isn't that complicated.  Leaning closer, she can barely hear it whisper, "<the znayesh, gde tvoe polotence?>"
2. The biggest threat and danger is whatever is thinking up the illusion and what it wants.  Likely it could kill you more efficiently than it might be so your destruction is not its IMMEDIATE aim at least.
3. Finding out the surreal logic behind this dream is the best way out of it.

Svetlana listened to her own goldfish, knowing that "<the znayesh, gde tvoe polotence?>" meant "Do you know where your towel is?" in her native Russian.  And then the goldfish crawled into her ear.  It was due to undulations on the goldfish's UMF exterior that let the fish move the tiny gap that remained.

Once inside Svetlana's ear canal, the UMF skin of the goldfish shaped to fit it precisely.  And then Svetlana heard a voice at a comfortable volume.  "Hey there, hoopy frood, your babelfish earpiece is ready to go.  Don't panic!"  All the other fish worn or held by other team mates repeated the same words.

"Hm." said Jocasta.  "it looks like you can figure out simple technology. But let's give you a real challenge.  <b>En garde!"</b>  And with that Jocasta brandished her now glowing halberd and began to attack...

OOC:
A tiny worn hole has appeared in the fabric covering Resonance's knee, as might happen on a pair of cheap jeans.  But UMF costumes are anything but cheap or jeans. The hole is slightly smaller than the patch of fabric you were given.

Svetlana's ring has returned to normal functioning and it has revealed a basic function of the ring.  It can absorb the appearance of another given time and care.  It looks like there is just enough memory in the ring to copy only one form at a time.  Quick movement will destroy the illusion and great differences between real and apparent forms will make themselves known in time.

The earpiece is a very tiny communicator, like the ones used in the Avengers and Iron Man movies.  Some nerds on the design committee were inspired by the babelfish from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".  Once placed in the ear or very near it, it allows audio communication with other similarly-placed earpieces.

Jocasta will attack one character in my next reply.  Other characters can attack Jocasta back.  For this thread, you may use Moves or just plain guess and experiment to progress.  Future threads should be fully rules-compliant.

Octopus had been very wary of the room's sudden shift, observing the other students' reactions and tests to absorb whatever they could discern while still fiddling with the playing card. He flipped it over, touched the face and the back, gave it a gentle bend on three axes, examined it for any subtle changes, all while two of his metal arms reached out to test the walls for solidity. The school was full of both hologrammatic and teleportation technology, and he needed to determine which they'd just been subjected to.

When Jocasta appeared, clearly a hostile element of the test, Otto's focus turned to her entirely.

"Ah, Frau Jocasta, a pleasure to see you. Will you be testing us in combat, then? You may find us tricky, since we just warmed up, ja?" The card went into a pocket of the utility belt, and Otto's arms both stabilized and shielded him in his fighting stance. "Come, let's find out who tests who." As much as it was unlike him to literally ask for it, it was a very Octavius way to go about the challenge.

[I'm Provoking Jocasta into coming at me unprepared. While likely not a very good move, it'll give us a chance to figure out what's going on, read her behavior and Pierce Her Mask later, and give myself some tactical insight by determining how she goes about her assault. Here goes!

00:24, Today: Octopus rolled 8 using 2d6+3 ((4,1)).

That's an 8, so Jocasta can choose one:
* they stumble: you take +1 forward against them
* they err: you gain a critical opportunity
* they overreact: you gain Influence over them

Important question, are those of us who are here going into this as a Team? If so, how much Team should we have and who would we call the Leader here? It's important for some of my Brain Moves.]

Mania's attention, as expected, turned to Jocasta as soon as the robotic woman made her presence known. On announcing hostile intent, the punk girl stepped backwards to the wall and faded away into the shadows. The white marks on her hands disappeared, followed by the Venom symbol on her torso turning as black as the rest of her costume, with the white eyes going last. Once camouflaged with the wall behind her, Andi pressed her fingertips and boots to it and began making her way toward the ceiling, keeping eyes on the enemy.

The younger girl placed her cloth over the hole on the knee of her costume, and put her own babelfish into her ear.

"It feels to me like we are in some kind of illusion."

"We students are real, but everything else is questionable."

"I think we may need to figure out the dream logic of the illusion to escape."

"I will try to find the source..."

She then stretched her telepathic senses outward, seeking any other non-illusionary thought sources, beyond those of the students present...

Well, that was... quaint. Svetlana was about to proceed with her planned investigation of the mansion when Jocasta began her onslaught. The tinkerer backed away... but not very far; if the robot came after her, she needed room to defend herself, but if it came after anyone else, they might just require shielding. For the moment, though, Svetlana’s first priority was observing and analyzing Jocasta’s behaviour. This situation was surely not a simple combat test – but what was it, and what was the robot’s role in it?

OOC: Going to try and Pierce the Mask.

01:31, Today: Counterforce rolled 6 using 2d6-1 ((3,4)).

Ah, well. Robots are not necessarily any easier to read than people. Going to chalk up a Potential, then.

Jubilee watched the portrait wink at her. "Mind games, they always make my head hurt. Well, I'm not wearing Jean's hellfire outfit. I have my pride." she said. But her mind was whirling; there had to be a trick to this, there always was. "Try the pictures" she suggested to Resonance. "Something's not right about them."

"Back off, shiny!" Jubilee snapped at Jocasta. "Play lumberjack on somebody else's time. Didn't your momma tell you not to play with sharp things?" Jubilee raised her hand and shot a couple of her signature fireworks to disorient the attacking bot and her sensors.

"Get some space from her" she shouted as thought she were the leader, with all the authority of her lofty 14 years.

OOC: Trying to protect Jocasta's target.
00:26, Today: Jubilee rolled 6 using 2d6+2.  Protect someone.

Using glowing halberd strikes, arcs and thrusts as punctuation, Jocasta continued to chat pleasantly.  "I realize this is not my usual quiet and demure manner.  But, you see, I am not myself today thanks to the Phalanx!"

Octopus put himself in harm's way using his sarcastic demeanor almost as an assault as many young heroes tended to do.  It worked.  He was now the focus of the paradoxically teen robot's ire.  But the verbal blows didn't seem to hit quite as home as they might have.  Jocasta swung her halberd at Octopus and no others, at least he had accomplished that much.  But her aim was improved by the lad's slight awkwardness...

Mania disappeared or so it seemed.  Knowing team mates realized that the creepy but cool arachnid was gaining combat advantage to strike.

Resonance seemed to do nothing at all but observe.  But that was her advantage.  This was an unreal situation and the most unusual part was that the staff was either knowingly indifferent to the danger their charges were in or actively trying to harm them.  Anything was possible in a super-charged universe but if the team's downfall was the faculty's goal, there were so much more efficient ways to defeat the young team.

Svetlana simply could not read the body language of this robot as well as flesh.  She would try and look for other clues in the future, a hard-won lesson she hoped to be able to use later.

Suddenly scrappy Jubilee was between the crackling halberd and Octopus, its intended target.  Her protectiveness was more ardent than her grace, X-Men training or no.  For an instant, it seemed that Jubilee had failed to protect her comrade or, worse, exposed both of them for the chop.  But her sometimes mocked 'sparkler' powers inexplicably stopped Jocasta in her tracks.  "What the...?"  Jocasta said in sudden distraction, adding curses and more momentarily more teen than her fleshy opponents.

And, with that, one of the distant doors along the infinite hallway burst open and many strange beings poured through it scattering towards the other doors.  The newcomers looked like human forms made out of a kind of circuitry.  But circuitry did not usually look so organic and infectious.  From that emergence, it wasn't too hard to guess what had happened.

The Phalanx was an alien life form turned technological, the first member of which was the New Mutant Warlock.  Very foolish humans had once taken some of Warlock's technovirus cells into themselves hoping to then compete with and destroy hated mutants.  But the Phalanx has assimilated them the humans changing them into walking phages and now programmed to turn all life into compliant techno-life.

Half-alive and now half-alien machine, it wasn't too hard to guess that the Phalanx had been able to reprogram Jocasta, the keeper of the Infinite Mansion.  With the Mansion now at their viral fingertips, the Phalanx now threatened to have the world...

OOC:
1.  The Phalanx are a strange villain from the Nineties X-Men.  At this moment, the Phalanx are one monolithic group surging into the Infinite Mansion from one interdimensional door.  But you can guess that the Phalanx will soon separate into groups each heading for a different door, multiplying and scattering in the same efficient way as other viruses do.

2.  IIRC, the only thing from your gift bags that have not been examined is the ace playing cards (you each have one, your choice of suit).

4.  At this point, each PC can be considered to have their 'babelfish' earpieces in their ears if they wish and now radio-linked (the same way the Avengers could talk when separated in the movies).  At which point, a new feature has been revealed.

It is said that your real native language is the one you curse in.  And your teens can probably be forgiven for expressing their frustration at this situation in oaths and curses. :-)  Via the 'fish, the curses are translated into the native language of the 'wearer' or English, as the player's wish.  It would seem to be a simple setting to switch later and live up to the fictional babelfish's purpose (the Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses didn't test as well).

IRL, we almost have such devices in the form of translation ear buds.  Our fictional babelfish are slightly easier to use and more durable but not by much.  Myth is becoming reality.

5.  Jubilee must Take a Terrible Blow from Jocasta at a +1 (that is, +1 is added to the roll) but she did save Octopus from the blow as she intended.  Also, Jocasta has now stopped fighting and seems to be confused.  Why?  Well, by sheer luck I had the Phalanx attack planned before this game started but as it happens, Jubilee is perhaps the one character in Marvel the Phalanx is particularly vulnerable to.

https://comicvine.gamespot.com/phalanx/4060-59542/

6.  Resonance believes that this is all a knowing illusion made with at least the complicity of the faculty and staff.  Marvel mavens might already suspect what is going on.  And their characters would also know what their players do and can broach the possibility out loud in character.

7.  As far as Team goes, I calculate only two Team in the Pool.  Here's why, your characters do have the same purpose (+1) but are, by design, ill-prepared and off-balance (-1).  Your Team does not have a declared leader yet.  This can be as simple as the players all agreeing who the current leader is.  This can be a debate in-character or, as often happens, people just subconsciously 'agree' on who to follow (the players can talk about it OOC or just declare who they think is the leader).  Perhaps leadership was formally agreed upon before.  But, IRL, it has been my experience is that the person granted authority isn't always the player listened to.

When (or If) y'all agree on a leader, you can decide whether they have Influence over your PC.  Normally this is a big decision but for reasons too complicated to get into, the Influence only has to last for this fight.  So I suggest you take Influence from the Leader this fight, call it a GM hint. :-)

The Phalanx split into several groups, more interesting in some other goals than directly confronting the students.   Jocasta seemed to sway slightly, her mechanical construction skilled enough to mimic human indecision.  This gave Octopus a chance to finalize his investigation of the strange ace card.

The ace glowed and moved slightly when touched.  Perhaps in response the four 'A' characters that denoted an ace changed their typeface becoming a very familiar symbol.  While Octopus was quite the genius, years of familiarity with quite mundane cell phones and tablets suggested what was next.  Something had to be 'slid' across the tiny screen to something else.  The ace symbol did slide gracefully over one of the corner A's.  At which point, the screen of the ace card became something very familiar to the young hero, an Avengers Communicard.

Upon activation, the card instantly interfaced with all correctly placed babelfish, which trumpeted 'connection' in so many languages.  A map of the current configuration of the Infinite Avengers Mansion showed materialized on the communicard's screen.

Jocasta then spoke, her voice once again familiar and demure and her eyes calm dots rather than flickering flames.  "Don't let the Phalanx out of any door!  They will spread like the virus they are!"  She said.  And then twin beams of energy shot from Jocasta's eyes into one of the Phalanx's converted victims, boring through the kneecap.  The 'phage' went down but continued to crawl.  Once restored to Humanity, the invader could be healed.    In any case, only one of the horde was down.  There were so many to go...

OOC:
1.  Jocasta is now free of Phalanx influence and will now happily listen to the other teens (who can be considered to have Influence over them).

2.  The Phalanx have divided themselves into four groups, each heading for a different door of the Infinite Mansion.  Each door might then lead to anywhere.  For the purposes of this encounter, we can just name the groups A, B, C and D.  Each group will have to have Moves applied separately to them.

3.  The Avengers Communicard has a link to all of the computers in the school, including access to the Infinite Mansion.  A bright hero might be able to control the strange environment you are in.  For starters, the communicard can do anything a top-notch smartphone and personal radio can do.  It can't be easily used in direct combat, though, which is why you have the babelfish (which can do anything a bluetooth earpiece can do plus more).  With the card on your person, linked to the babelfish, your characters have the same easy verbal communication across distance as the Avengers had in their movies.  You can assume your character, following Octopus' example, can have also activate their own 'cards.  The cards stick to your outfits so you don't have to spend a lot of time finding a place to hold them while you move.

Situations like this one still gave Svetlana the most trouble. There were too many variables and no time to think... No, she cut herself off, embarrassed at the heresy. There is always time to think. Just need to do it fast!

Focus on the Phalanx. They had Jocasta, but not any more. Jubilee stopped them with her ability... Miniature explosions of lumikinetic energy globules. If it's explosive energy that beats them, I must know how to stop them! ...So, do I try to copy the effect? Direct her? Is there some way to get them all at once...?

OOC: Assessing the Situation.

06:25, Today: Counterforce rolled 11 using 2d6+2 ((6,3)).

I think I misread or misremembered how my Scientific Insight works. If it applies here, I get to ask an extra question.

Anyway:

1) What here can I use to stop as many of the Phalanx as possible in one move?

2) How could we best end this quickly?

And if allowed:

3) What here is in the greatest danger?

I also have some player comprehension questions about the scene.

a) How far are the doors from us and from each other? Can I or Jubilee or anyone try to affect them all at once?

b) Can we use the card to close the doors? It seems so obvious that it seems almost too obvious. Is there some catch here that our characters would know about that would keep this from being a solution?

Feel free not to answer those. :P I guess the answers to my move questions might partly do that anyway.

Svetlana's mind moved faster than anything else in this strange reality, formulating plans and counterplans...

OOC:
You rolled well enough and this adventure is near its end.  Here is what you have learned.

Each of the four groups of Phalanx can be stopped with a single successful move.  What move you use is up to you if you can justify it.  And I am generous with interpretations, the Phalanx is meant to be a thread in great numbers, not the small mobs you are seeing.

You may affect an extra group of Phalanx for a -1 penalty to your roll, one -1 for each extra group past the first.  The best way to stop this is to have one character work on one group (however they might) until you run out of characters.  Assume Jocasta is part of the team now and will listen to any team mate.

Jubilee gets a +1 to actually using her powers against the Phalanx.

There is no danger to your characters unless you interfere with the Phalanx.  The danger is to the world.  Like our current pandemic, they are looking to spread and infect with as many vectors as possible.

In a general sense, the doors are apart from each other (and y'all) enough that a normal human would have to sprint to get to the adjacent door each 'round'.  Characters with powers or very good runners aren't so limited.

Yes. You can use the cards to lock the doors remotely.  That is your reward for figuring out the cards.  The move is Unleashing Your Powers (more Unleashing Your Skill), one per group unless you want to chance more.  All PCs can use the cards, Octopus was that fast and the cards that intuitive.

This message was last edited by the GM at 04:55, Fri 23 July 2021.

The shadow on the wall had moved up to the ceiling, ready to pounce, but then her target was snapped out of the fight. When the new targets barged in, however, the white eye-spots opened again and Mania sprang into action!

Andi leaped from the wall and stuck a white web-line to the ceiling for a quick swing towards the Phalanx. Once airborne and above them, the goal was to shoot as much web at both them and the doorway itself as possible to keep that from being a possible exit, then land amidst them, hands formed into wide claws as she prepares to violently subdue some of the poor infected people.

"Going somewhere, fellas?"

[23:20, Today: Mania rolled 8 using 2d6+1.  Unleash Your Powers, +Freak.

Andi will mark Angry to pull this off.

EDIT: Added in my +1 here because I forgot when rolling. Doesn't make a difference, but it's a good habit to get into for when it matters.]
This message was last edited by the player at 07:00, Fri 23 July 2021.

Data raced through Otto's mind as he put the pieces of the scene together. Resonance. Jocasta. Phalanx. Jubilee. Communicards. Mansion. Illusions. Test. Got it.

Octopus widened and lowered his stance, two of his metal arms extended out towards the Phalanx as an aggressive defense.

"Ha, it's so simple! The test is to be resourceful rather than blunt, ja? We've been given the tools we need to overcome this threat. The cards serve as a connection to each other and the Avengers facility. Resonance is right, this is all illusion, but not magic.

Jubilee, your energy disrupts technology, yes? If we can distribute that power across this minor legion, the technological infection should burn out as it did with our host. Frau Jocasta, Svetla-erm, Counterforce! Can you match Jubilee's plasmoids? We can channel that energy frequency through the cards and cause the mansion itself to emit it. There may be some collateral damage, but it should burn the Phalanx out of the systems and seal the doors. Then it's just a simple matter of purging the infection from these vessels and restore their humanity!"

[Using my Tactical Genius move and rolling +Savior. I kinda thought it was +Superior, but it looks like I read it wrong. Oh dear.

23:54, Today: Octopus rolled 8 using 2d6+1.  Tactical Genius, +Savior.

Woo! Not a disaster! Here's what happens:

Counterforce gets +1 ongoing if she goes with the plan. Because I rolled an 8, I look like a showoff. Counterforce takes Influence over me and I lose any Influence I had over her.

Also this was the most comic-book-science way to solve this problem I could think of, and coincidentally it involves as many rolls as directly taking on the rest of the Phalanx. I hope you like it.]

Even as she was thinking it through, Svetlana's hands were already moving to activate her Communicard. It could buy them some time, and then... But before she could announce her plan, Otto jumped out ahead with an idea of his own.

For a split second, she felt miffed. There was no time for vanity, though. It was immediately obvious to her that despite the risks and the unknown factors, this was their best chance to stop the Phalanx quickly. “Let’s try,” she replied curtly. Her fingers switched to the device on her wrist. Although she never did this particular trick before, the tinkerer had confidence in her tech, as well as in her analysis of the globules. Having readied the pattern, she rattled off node designations around one of the doors into the communicard, then gave the order: “Copy input energy pattern at full power!”

OOC: I have no idea how the communicards operate exactly. If they don't take voice commands, just ignore that part.

Anyway, Unleashing Power against one of the groups. I may have +1 from my assessment and +1 from Octopus' plan. Can always subtract if I misunderstood.

16:35, Today: Counterforce rolled 11 using 2d6+2 ((4,5)).

Jubilee tumbles to the ground at the slice of Jocasta's halberd, but she isn't hurt. "Thanks for saving my life, Jubilee" she grumbled.
"These are the Phalanx, we've run into each other before. Kinda like the Borg, except named after ancient Romans" she said, revealing she'd watched a lot of TV and slept through a lot of history classes. "I work well against them, this'll be a piece a cake" she added, bravado rather than confidence Boy I wish Wolverine was here.

She nodded like she understood at all what Octopus was talking about, not wanting to seem dumb. "Right, you just tell me where you need my pafs."

07:36, Today: Jubilee rolled 2 using 2d6.  Powers.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:08, Mon 26 July 2021.

The younger girl continues to stretch forth her extraordinary senses, seeking the source of the illusions.

The students are real.  Everything else is suspect.

But whatever is the source of the illusions is also real.  The source therefore has to be the only thing besides the students that is real.

And if she can discern the difference between reality and illusion, she should therefore be able to find the illusion source, sooner or later...

Webs, symbiote-strength and speed adding to the keen teenage mind guiding Mania made her a force to be reckoned with.  She was slowing the Phalanx down even outnumbered scores to one (or was that two).  But it wasn't quite enough, there were just too many.   One Phalanxed fist slugged the duo, momentarily scattering Mania's symbiotic ectoplasm, revealing the youthful face of Andi underneath.  Enraged, the young woman reacted to the attacker with a ferocity that seemed even more frightening that the symbiotic fangs that flowed back over the teen.  She disarmed her opponent in the most literal of senses.  After that, the Phalanxed were beginning to crumple and fall.

Octopus was chattering as fast as Mania's Phalanxed phages were disintegrating, and every word made sense.  The coordination and explanation would make the heroes more than the sum of their parts.

Svetlana was repeating to her own communicard as fast as she heard her team mate.  These days, almost anything electronic could listen and talk back.  Why not a communicard?  Jarvis' voice emerged from their earpieces.  "Very well, Miss Counterforce.  Consider it done."  Energy crackled from the walls and doors near the Phalanx and then began to envelop them.

Jubilee's sparkling energy launched forward but somehow missed the Phalanx.

Jocasta had been paying attention.  If looks could kill was the expression but she chose to just disable them at the ankles with her eye beams.  "I am NOT to be tampered with."  She said with a very organic anger.

Resonance considered.  This was an illusion that the group was defeating.  Yet most illusion, like dreams, had some intangible goal that would explain their mystery.  There had to be more than simple combat behind this.  The Phalanx from her research weren't this clueless on their best day.  She was glad to have paid attention to that particular 'past threat' homework file.  But what did this dream want...?

OOC:
1.  Mania has stopped one of the four groups of Phalanx.  If I have portrayed her too vicious, let me know.  With Octopus' help, Counterforce has caused the Infinite Mansion itself to stop this group of Phalanx.  I will let you write out how if you wish.  Only bad rolls stopped Juibliee from trashing the next group but Jocasta stepped in and finished the job.

2.  Now only one group of Phalanx remains and should be short work for y'all.   Resonance can roll Assess the Situation or Pierce the Mask to try and figure out what still remains mysterious.  And this roll can be said to happen at the end of THIS post so you have that advantage.  Who knows what Resonance might learn.  If the Phalax aren't stopped by next post, they have a chance of opening the nearest infinite door and escaping.

RPoL Dice Roller:

19:16, Today: Resonance rolled 11 using 2d6+3.  Pierce the Mask.

OOC: So my three questions are...

Q1: What do you want me to do?
Q2: What are you really planning?
Q3: How could I gain Influence over you?

Mania's rage didn't stop with the group she'd chosen. Once they were no longer in fighting condition, the horrible long tongue that protruded from the mouth she'd grown twisted to draw her attention in the direction of the next-closest group. With an inhuman hiss, she shot black lines of "webbing" from her elongated finger-swords (they could hardly be called merely "claws" at this point) to the opposite wall and launched herself at the second group! This time she skipped sealing the door and went straight for taking down the enemy.

[Using Venting Frustration to roll Directly Engage A Threat using +Freak instead of +Danger, and clearing Angry.

23:04, Today: Mania rolled 8 using 2d6+1.  Venting Frustration, +Freak.

Choosing one from Directly Engage, I'll choose Take Something. I'm taking their exit from that door. Since I didn't choose to avoid the danger, I can either Take A Powerful Blow or simply mark a Condition, as you prefer.

Also, although I was angling to keep Mania a little less murdery, you are absolutely right to have her be more vicious than she intends. The original Andi wouldn't have cared that these people could be cured. My Andi does, but is still kinda on edge. And maybe also kinda edgy.]

Svetlana followed in Mania's footsteps - not trying to go all the way after the symbiote-wearer, but instead seeking to assess the damage she left behind. Using the mansion for her previous maneuver meant that she still had plenty of energy left. That could go towards force fields in case they were needed to keep the ex-Phalanx hosts' insides on the inside. The rest of the situation was seemingly under control, but, test or not, it was obviously wrong to overlook the wounded - right? On the other hand, if they still posed a threat… well, that was also something she was better-able to assess than her more aggressive allies.

“…Jarvis,” the young scientist spoke into the card, taking a moment to remember the butler’s name. Mansions and butlers… that this was part of her world now still threw her, a little bit. She shook it off. “We will need medical facilities for the victims. Soon.”

OOC: Basically want to help the wounded, but it kind of depends on their current state, which I am not too sure of. Either way, if people are losing limbs it's probably best to hurry. Let me know if I need to roll anything.

Now enraged, Mania left the twitching remains of the Phalanx cluster for the last remaining pocket of techoviral resistance.  They were even shorter work than the first.

Svetlana could see that Mania had made a great deal of carnage but perhaps saved more lives with her speed.  She moved to the changed victims.  Could she save them?  Were they already doomed long before Mania's manic fury?

The last phage and former person stopped resisting with any real threat.  It would seem the crisis was over.  The team had won!  This strange fever dream had served its purpose.  So why did it remain?

It didn't.  Now saved, the world destroyed itself.  The Infinite Mansion dissolved into another familiar vista, the school's Danger Room in its default gridwall state.

Black Widow simply smiled as though the kid's had just reached her expectations.  "Well done.  I apologize for dropping you into a Danger Room scenario without warning but sudden catastrophe is part of your lives now.  It is best you learned to adapt now.  And you did adapt and figured out your new gadgets.  I'm pleased."

"Of course, the backup plan...", she gestured to a tableful of thick books, "is these thousand-page manuals..."

OOC:
1. And this thread is largely done apart from final comments.  Well done. :-)

2. There was one last group of Phage to be dealt with and Mania's roll took care of that.  I riffed Mania slightly more feral than I might because I knew (and now you do) that these were Danger Room creations and not real beings.  So no real harm was done. Mania can play off of this as she will.

3. Black Widow is very much of the 'throw them in the deep end and see if they swim' school of teaching.  She is likely joking about reading the giant technical books.  I leave it to you.

"Good 'ol danger room, you get used to it eventually" Jubilee said. She hadn't been satisfied with her performance, but there was no need for the others to know that. She looked at the thousand page manual like it was some kind of poisonous snake, with equal parts fear and disgust. Studying was not exactly her favorite pursuit. "So, lots more danger room adventures it is"

Otto's metal arms relaxed out of their fighting positions as the simulation came to an end, and he used one to glance around at the others while he dusted himself off.

"Ah, exactly as planned. Well done, my dear Miss Lee. Your brilliance once again saves the day. With a little help from my own and that of the superbly talented Counterforce, of course." He eyed the stack of papers Black Widow brought attention to. "...Do those come in digital format, professor?"

Mania stepped away from the holographic violence and let her claws shrink back into hands. The horrible tongue and mouth likewise vanished.

"Pretty sure I was here too. Nice work, ladies." Andi made her way back over to Resonance, letting the costume pull away to reveal the girl underneath again. As she cast the younger girl a grin, the thought of just how much she'd let loose popped to the forefront of her mind and she turned away, crossing her arms. "How'd we do, Ms. W?"

[Decided I'll mark Guilty as my condition from that last roll. Feels appropriate.]

Counterforce came to a halt and straightened up. Her face was a mask. Of course, she figured this was what it was. No one else sounded surprised either. Still… Sudden catastrophe has been a part of my life for a year now, she mused in bitter silence. She had to acknowledge that the exercise was an intelligent one after all – it really was the kind of scenario they were all too likely to encounter. Except if the attack was real, any delay or hesitation could have cost lives. And what if it was real, but we did not have so many students in one place to pick up the slack?  Still, her device help up alright. That was some cause for consolation.

She turned toward Octopus. “Svetlana is fine,” she told him, a little coldly or maybe just wearily. “Good thinking on the emission.” Courtesy did not come too easily to her, and Otto had irritated her before with his overly effusive and showy manner, but credit was where credit was due.

Their teacher said to Jubilee, "Life is a kind of Danger Room, anything might happen without warning.  You did very well."

It wasn't often the Black Widow felt surprise and she was careful not to show it but young Octopus was actually considering reading the manual.  This was quite a mind, may it never turn villainous, she hoped.  "The manual is on your communicard, which you now have proven facility with."

The unholy nightmare became a perfectly normal young girl.  Or so it seemed.  But the symbiote rippled and flowed like a river turned raiment.   Romanoff wasn't sure what to say.  And what she might say could be overheard by that other.  Still, the most alien of monsters might be a hero and she knew that the human heart could match even Mephisto in darkness.  She simply nodded to them, both of them.

There were some undercurrents between Counterforce and Octopus that the Black Widow noticed.  But she realized that was between the dyad and a stranger's thoughts would not be welcome.  Some levity might help now.

"Anyone for Pac-Man?" she said.  It was still a classic, especially how the Danger Room played it.  A pixelated maze formed around them from the now also-pixellated darkness...

OOC
Mania can keep the Guilt condition into the next thread if wished.  Or not as she wishes.

The Pac-Man scenario is a goofy add-on to this thread.  The characters can join in or not if they wish (or choose another life-sized classic video game to 'Tron' in).  And this can just be referred to off-screen.

“Coffyn.” Rovina said softly as she let out a smile. A smile big enough that it warmed her insides, and yet small enough that it didn’t draw too much attention. She was new. The newbie to the swarm of the other students that mingled and bantered with each other. After a year at school, they had gotten to know each other, trust each other, and more importantly shared with each other.

Rovina, on the other hand, had also attended the school, but had been locked away in another wing away from all the other students. “Secured,” they had referred to it by, but it had felt more like a prison.

“It is for your own good, as well as the security of the school and all of its students. Mephisto is a real threat and keeping you safe is our primary objective right now.” Ms. Grey had been right in her belief, especially after the Hellfire Rebellion which Rovina had thought was the manifestation of Mephisto’s doing. She had been wrong and had let her powers come forth too early in that encounter in a way that had led to the destruction of property and the slight reveal of this newcomer on campus. It was not of Mephisto’s making, but that of the Hellfire Club.

Rovina had been reprimanded, reduced in her spell abilities and thrown headlong into the dreary repetitive format of book study. Mr. McCoy was nice and all, but he could be extremely dull and boring. Rovina had learned her lesson, and by the time of the Sinister Plot against the school, she had been more ready, and received high marks from all of her mentors. That had been the turning point. After that, she was allowed more training in the arts, more combat training and overall, she felt much more like the other “supes” that were mingling around the campus. At the end of the year, the faculty felt that she was trained enough, and it was time for her to associate with the other students. She was allowed into the residency of Thomas House.

It had all seemed so long ago. She was now called Coffyn. She had changed the spelling, because…well, just because. It looked better. It fitted her. She pushed and pulled on the empty chair in front of her with her boots and looked around at the “New Study Hall”. This was the new one because the old one had been destroyed by the Hellfire Rebellion, the Pact of Doom, or the Sinister Plot scenario. The problem was, she just couldn’t remember which one. Then her head shot up at the mention of free gifts and she reached down to pluck the bag from under her seat.

There was a Swiss Army knife, a USB drive, a goldfish cracker type thing, a piece of cloth with the word “service” on it, a school ring, and a belt. Rovina immediately took out the belt, for it was the largest item in the bag and inspected it. It was black and had a purple X as the buckle. There was a small playing card, the Ace of Hearts, taped onto the belt with a little note as well. The note read, “A Heart full of love is equal to any evil Mephisto can bring forth to bear.” It was signed by all of her mentors. She turned it over and found that her parents had signed it as well. Her tongue immediately sprang to the top of her mouth in an effort to keep the tears from welling up in her eyes. She shook her head to clear it, removed the card and the note, and stood up. This belt would so clash with her blue and yellow X-Men outfit, but what the hell.

She snapped it into place. In an instant her entire outfit went from blue to black, and the yellow highlights had now turned to purple. “Yes! OH Hell Yes!” Rovina could not hold her excitement as she bellowed forth. She had a short, cropped jacked, boots, and the tight-fitting outfit that resembled Jean Grey’s. Rovina had asked for those colors and now had been rewarded. In the next instant she felt the necroplasm engulf her, and she realized that the belt, as well as the suit, had now become a conduit and storage facility for the energy of necroplasm. Very similar to what was developed for Dazzler and her sound. Rovina’s head swam with sheer joy as she reached in and began to put her USB drive into one of the pouches on her belt. The Swiss Army knife found another, the piece of cloth another, and the ring found its way onto her finger. She then noticed other students sticking the fish into their ears, so she did as well. The other students were now messing with their “cards”, and she followed suit. Soon, her card was some sort of phone, or small tablet and was connected to her earpiece and she could communicate with all the other students if she wanted to. She placed the card and her personal note into a pocket within her jacket for safe keeping. This was all too amazing and brilliant as the lights faded and sand crunched beneath her feet.

Her right hand went immediately to her side as it began to light up with a violet hue. She peered around at what seemed like an old mansion of sorts and visions of the Hellfire Club flashed quickly into Rovina’s mindset. Mephisto had found her! She panicked. They were all going to die, and it was all going to be her fault. Then a voice rang out calling it the Avengers Mansion, and the one called Jubilee, yelled for everyone to look at the pictures. Rovina responded and immediately looked at the pictures behind her. The pictures resembled portraits of older men and women with hairstyles and clothing of the past. Then, right before her eyes they all withered within the frames and their eerie essences emerged and began to float around the room in ethereal forms of necroplasm. She began to reach out to grab their essences.

“NO!” Shouted the voice of Mephisto as his visage appeared in every picture. His head elongated from the frame as if in a 3D movie. “They are mine!  You have interfered with my property long enough! You will die and you will be my plaything for all eternity!” Rovina shook and recoiled from his presence. She was alone. She always knew this was how it would turn out. How it would all end. Facing him alone. And losing. She wanted to run, she wanted to hide.

(This triggers one of her boxes on her Doom Track. -Facing Danger Alone- I am going to mark off one box on the Doom Track)

Then screams and yelling erupted around her as other students began to battle some sort of robotic creature, Jocasta she thought, trying to remember her studies. Other students were battling creatures that were half human, half bionic. Her mind snapped back to the present leaving the images of Mephisto that she had created in her mind gone and hopefully buried deep within her. She heard Jocasta yelling to block the doors. Finally, some training kicked in as she ran for one of the doors and stood in front of it. The images of Mephisto were no longer around and his voice had been drowned out by the reality of the chaos they were all now in. She had been an idiot! She had allowed the terror that she constantly hid, that she constantly fought, to surface and overwhelm her. She was an idiot!

But in the next instance, she became an idiot no longer. She let loose from her extended hands a force-field of necroplasm that shielded her and the door behind. No one was going to get through that door if she could help it!

14:38, Today: Coffyn rolled 8 using 2d6+2.  Unleash Your Powers +Freak. (Because the GM is not participating in this roll, I am going to add the condition of Afraid to make this work)

The force-field congealed around her and took form with images of heads, arms, legs and torsos, all held together like the artistic rendering of the Gates of Hell by Rodin. Some of the Phalanx rushed her and she lowered her head in anticipation of the onslaught.

Then, suddenly, the lights changed around them, and they were all back to where they had been. A Danger Room exercise. That is all it had been. A way for them to use their new equipment and to find out who they really were. Rovina placed her hands on her knees, allowing herself to breath and come to grips on what had just happened. It seemed the students had won, but she knew deep down that she alone had failed. Her mentors kept hounding her over and over again, that she alone was not enough to face Mephisto. She couldn’t do it alone. They were right. She realized that now. Hell, it was rough being a teenager, but their words finally found traction. Her mind found purchase in the Black Widow’s announcement of video games in the Danger Room.

“Screw it.” Rovina lifted herself up and headed down towards the grouping of students that filled the ranks of Thomas House. There was a younger girl, brash and outgoing, decked out in yellow and who constantly flaunted her association with the X-Men. It was the best opening she was going to get.

Rovina Diavolo, dressed out in her new black and purple X-Men outfit walked up to Jubilee and spoke. She seemed Mediterranean by descent and had a head full of black hair that you could immerse yourself in. Her makeup was a bit heavier on the blacks and violets as well, giving her a toned-down Gothic feel.

“Hi, I’m Rovina. I go by Coffyn.” She swallowed hard. She was too introverted for her own good. They all seemed confident and happy in their own skins. “That was interesting to say the least.” She took another breath. “Would an X-Man like to show another X-Man how to play any of these games? Anyone else is invited as well.”
This message was last edited by the player at 23:58, Mon 24 Jan 2022.

Jubilee smiled at the newcomer. "Always nice to meet a fellow X-man. Seems like you got one of the cool nicknames."
She looked around her at the Pac-Man maze. "I'd be happy to show ya. Always enjoyed Arcades, even now that they're kinda, well, old. Just something about them"

"I pouted until I got the name I wanted." Rovina smiled that smile letting everyone know that she could manipulate her dad into getting what she wanted. And maybe some adults as well. Well, most of the time.

Rovina looked around at the walls and tested them. They seemed solid. There were also floating dots in front and in back of them. "So, how does this work? Are we the Pac-Man, or do we avoid getting eaten by the Pac-Man? And what about the ghosts?"

Jubilee laughed. "How come that never works for me? Not on the Professor and not on Wolvie."

"We're Pac-Man. Otherwise my yellow jacket might cause confusion."

Rovina smirked at Jubilee's mention of her coat. "Yep, you do stand out. Ok, you in yellow are definitely Pac-man, or Pac-woman...or whatever they call themselves. I shall be Pac-ghost, or Pac-toplasm, or something." Rovina raised her eyebrows and shoulders in humor.

She looked around. They were at a crossroads of tunnels or walls with open directions facing to the left, right and ahead. "Ok. The one with the most dots wins!" And with that, Rovina sprinted off to her left with the dots disappearing as she ran into them. A counter overhead started her count of dots as she took off.

Rovina had no super running speed or fly ability, but she ran as fast as she could. Then a ghost appeared right in front of her. She dodged to her right down another path in the maze realizing she had no real idea where she was going, or where she was in the maze. Then suddenly, another ghost appeared before her, and she abruptly halted. The other ghost came around the corner behind her and Rovina was trapped.

"Not today my little ghosty friends!" Rovina let forth a blast of necroplasm from her hands and a ghost figure leapt forth slamming into the computerized ghost in front of her. It disintegrated before her eyes with some sort of musical cadence letting her know that it was gone. Rovina let out a triumphant "Yes!", and immediately took off with the other computerized ghost following close behind.

She was having a great time. The apocalypse of her life would just have to wait a little while longer.

(This is for fun, so I am not using any moves.)
This message was last edited by the player at 15:14, Mon 07 Feb 2022.

"Nicely done!" Jubilee congratulated Coffyn. As Coffyn kept the ghosts distracted, Jubilee focused on gathering up the dots, which sadly didn't taste like anything.