# EPIC M&M: Issue 1 (IC)



## Calinon (Dec 19, 2003)

*August 28, 2120
Mega-City of New York
New York Aeroplex, Overflow Annex
5:00 PM Eastern Time*

You followed the instructions on your EPIC invitation, and using the enclosed passports as well as the train or plane tickets, have travelled to the capital city of the North American Alliance, the Mega-City of New York.  As your jet circles the airport, you see lights stretching to the east all the way to the ocean.  Those same lights stretch north and south along the coast as far as you can see.  You sit in a holding pattern for a while, then finally decend and land at the New York Aeroplex.  As the plane taxi’s to its terminal, a steward approaches you and asks that you remain in the plane.  Apparently you are to debark at a separate terminal, one rented by EPIC for your arrival.  This illicits several stares from nearby passengers, some curious, some frightened, a few even hostile, but thankfully the plane docks and most of the other passengers debark, leaving only the crew and a few other teens on board.  You sit in the plane as luggage is unloaded.  Your luggage is brought up into the plane.  That done, the plane rumbles slowly away from the terminal, and after a lengthy taxi, arrives at huge, circular terminal where several other jets are parked.  The stewards and stewardesses help you debark, placing luggage on carts for you.

You walk down the boarding tunnel and enter the circular complex.  It is easily five hundred feet across.  It has clean, tiled floors and three levels around the outer walls with benches against the windows and railing and various levels of docking for hoverships as well as standard aircraft.  Each level has a plethora of vending machines.  In the middle of the complex is a two story restaurant.  It is suspended from the roof and is accessible from stairways from the upper and lower levels, and walk-in from  the second level.  It has glass floors and is named “International Eatery.”  It is obviously open, with staff cleaning tables and floors, but from what you can see is completely empty of customers.  In fact, looking around, other than the restaurant staff, the entire complex is empty except for the teens coming in from other boarding hallways.  It’s strangely quiet, and in a place that can likely handle over a thousand people, having rougly sixty people in it makes it seem open and empty.

*tap tap tap*

The sound resonates through your entire body, though in reality you aren’t even sure you heard it in the normal sense.  You look around for the source, and notice that the other teens are doing the same.  The people in the restaurant seem unaware of the sound.

*tap tap tap*

This time you are certain you heard it as well as felt it.  Like the other teens in the room, you begin to migrate towards the middle of the complex.  As you approach, you see an elderly woman, obviously a native of your country, sitting on a bench.  She wears a typical “grandmother” hairstyle, is wearing a comfortable blue dress and is wearing casual jewelry.  In her lap is a small dog, a Chihuahua by looks, that is curled up asleep.  Her right hand rests on a cane.

*tap tap tap*

You see her tap her cane three times.  Certain now of the source of the sound, you approach and form a semi-circle around her with the other teens.  You feel completely at ease near her and know for certain she is a friend.  Her dog wakes up and barks once.

Randall McPhee

You approach with the other students, completely at ease, that is until you get in close enough to get a good look.  You see only the ghostly outline of an old woman, but behind that image you see what can only be the true form of the mutant.  An adrogynous being of average height, it has skin that is a pasty color.  It is dressed in a grey body suit.  It’s face is nearly flat and featureless, with two small black slits where its eyes are, and no nose or mouth.  Its eyes lock onto yours and you are frozen in place, and you aren’t sure if it is because of fear or some strange power.

Merlin said you would see me, child, but I did not believe him, a voice says directly to your mind.  Oddly enough, the voice sounds very soothing, in a natural way, despite it being projected into your mind.  You feel no form of control being exerted and begin to calm down.  You realize that her act of age is no act at all; she sounds very, very old.  Very few have the ability to see my true form.  I look forward to working with you at the institute.  Now, come here and help an old woman stand up, please, Randall.

You look around and realize nobody has noticed your momentary distress, and feel compelled to step forward and help her as she has requested.

OOC:  You may choose not to and make a willpower saving throw if you wish, but you truly feel you are in no danger whatsoever.

Everyone

The old woman waits until you are all gathered, and gestures a small boy forward.  “Come here and help an old woman stand up, please, Randall,” she says and a smallish boy who looks to be about twelve nervously walks forward.  He helps the woman stand up and the small dog jumps down to her feet as she rises.

“Hello, children,” she says warmly, speaking in your native tongue with the exact accent you’d expect.  “This is such an exciting day for me!  I very seldom get out and about these days.  Old bones don’t travel well,” she says with a smile.  “My name is Mrs. Wild, but I would prefer that you call me Grandmother.  Everyone does, and well, I do fit the role!” she chuckles.

“I am very glad you all arrived safely.  Kyle, the worrier, was concerned that some goverments might not be willing to let you leave to attend the institute.  Your special abilities are so rare, and each of you have shown unique ability to use your gifts; it is a special day for EPIC to have you all here.”  She pauses and shifts her weight a bit until she seems comfortable.  “Of course, Murphy’s Law has struck, and the Mag-Lev that was supposed to take us from here to EPIC Headquarters has broken down.  We’ll be a few hours behind schedule as a result, but thanks to some help from the airport, the Restaurant above us is open.  You can have whatever you like; it’s all paid for.  And it will be a good oportunity to get to know each other.

“But before we head up, I want to make a few things perfectly clear,” she says, her voice turning very matronly.  “First, you are no better than normal humans.  You may have powers that let you surpass them, but you are still human.  Violence against normals is to be avoided whenever possible.  Second, none of you are better than each other.  I will not tolerate any violence between you, no matter the reason.  Third, a few of us have unusual appearances, myself included,” she says, slowly shifting to a like sized strange looking mutant.  Despite the shift in appearance, you do not feel any differently towards her.  Shortly after, she shifts back.

“Who we are is not governed by what we look like,” she says firmly.  “Vincent and Tara, take off your trenchcoats and hats.  You have nothing to hide here.”  As the two remove their jackets and hats, you are confronted with a boy that looks like a demon, complete with oddly shaped head, small horns and batlike wings, and a girl with an extra pair of insectoid arms, like those of a praying mantis, and four insect-like wings.  Grandmother waits for the gasps and such to go away, then continues.  “Raisa, stop slouching.  You are not the tallest person here,” Grandmother says to an amazingly tall girl.  “Carl may continue to slouch if he wants,” she says chuckling, gesturing towards a dark-skinned, thin boy who stands at least eight feet tall.

“Now that that is out of the way, lets all go get some food while we wait for the Mag-Lev to arrive.  Second-floor, Pooky,” she says to her dog.  The tiny critter barks twice and Grandmother, Pooky and Randall vanish in a puff of pink smoke.  “Come along, children!” Grandmother calls out, drawing all your attention up to the restaurant where the three are now standing.

Suddenly, it’s like a mezmerization of sorts lifts from you, leaving you with a slight itching in your ears and forehead, and you realize she had somehow held everyone in a type of harmless thrall.  However, you also realize you are hungry.  There is an elevator tube and four stairways leading to the restaurant.


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## buzzard (Dec 19, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> Suddenly, it’s like a mezmerization of sorts lifts from you, leaving you with a slight itching in your ears and forehead, and you realize she had somehow held everyone in a type of harmless thrall.  However, you also realize you are hungry.  There is an elevator tube and four stairways leading to the restaurant.




Straightjacket gets an odd look on his face and turns sideways (to nobody though) and says
"Well what did you think of that?"
"You think? Well OK, not Iike we got other options. I'm kinda hungry at that, how bout you?"
"Ok then, let's go on up it's free"

He then moves towards the elevators. Getting to them he looks back at the rest of the youths  "You fellows comming?"



He then pushes the elevator button and waits. 

buzzard


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## Mule (Dec 19, 2003)

Randall is used to airtravel, and even though he is familiar with the arial view of New York, it still takes his breath away.  Suddenly, the immensity of being such a small boy lost in the huge crush of humanity hits him.  He has never been far from his parents before, and he misses his mother.  But the feeling passes as the jet begins it's descent.  He had made up his mind, he will be ready for what comes.

He is not surprised when he is asked to stay in his seat after the rest of the passengers debark, he is half expecting it.  As the aircraft taxis to the next terminal, Randall sits up in his seat to get a look at the rest of the remaining passengers.  Many look just as nervous as he feels, and that comforts him.

As he and the others walk down the boarding tunnel, Randall is amazed at the interior of the terminal.  "This must have cost a fortune!" he thinks to himself, admiring the restauraunt suspended above them.

* tap tap tap *

As Randall approaches the elderly lady, he feels instantly at ease with her.  His own grandmother is very dear to him, visits to her house meant a reprieve from his father, sometimes for a few days.  Randall tries to get closer to the friendly old woman. 



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> “Come here and help an old woman stand up, please, Randall,”




Randall is stunned at first at the being's true apperance, but he is just curious.  His interest increases when she "talks" to him in his head.  He is filled with pride when it mentions that Merlin spoke of him.  He is happy to help it to it's feet, and doesn't feel awkward at all to be singled out of the crowd, even though he usually would.



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> There is an elevator tube and four stairways leading to the restaurant.




When he reaches the "International Eatery", he gets himself a big cheeseburger with a side of fries, and finds himself a seat along one of the sides of the restaurant where he has a good vantage of all the other young mutants as they come in.  There are a few he wants to get a look at especially the red "demon".

Randall is sitting at a larger table, there is room for others to join him.


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## Mimic (Dec 19, 2003)

buzzard said:
			
		

> Straightjacket gets an odd look on his face and turns sideways (to nobody though) and says
> "Well what did you think of that?"
> "You think? Well OK, not Iike we got other options. I'm kinda hungry at that, how bout you?"
> "Ok then, let's go on up it's free"
> ...




OOC: Buzzard, you might want to get a lighter colour it's kind of hard to read, then again it might just be my old eyes 


A some what thin girl, with a perplexed look on her face, watches the young man talk to the air beside him, she leans toward the girl next to her and in a hushed voice says "Who is he talk..." at this point she realises that she is talking to the other girl's forearm. Blushing slightly, the girl glances up at the tall girl.

"Sorry, I'm still used to being the tallest person around. Your Raisa, right? I'm Michelle." She gives the tall girl a big smile. "I don't know about you but I'm starved. You wanna get something to eat?" Regardless what the tall girl says, Michelle raises about 15 feet off the floor. "Last one there has to eat sushi." She says with a giggle while making a gagging motion. She will then proceed to fly up the stairs and enter the restaurant.

Powers: Flight


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## Mordane76 (Dec 19, 2003)

X12 turns to the NAA agents that escorted him into the terminal, and extends his gloved hand.  "It's been a pleasure making your acquaintance, gentlemen," he says quietly, shaking the lead agent's hand, "I can go on by myself from here.  I will make sure to turn over my paperwork to the envoy here."  He then turns gingerly, manila envelope in hand, and strides off into the gathering crowd.


_After the introduction..._
X12 heads for the stairs, and walks slowly up to the restaurant.  He quickly makes his way over to Mrs. Wild, and presents his paperwork.  "I am called X12; the NAA agents told me I would be expected, and to turn my paperwork over to whomever was in charge," he says in a polite, quiet voice.  "I hope everything is in order, and I look forward to my time here," he adds quickly, bows, and heads off for a empty corner booth without stopping at any of the vendors.  Once seated, he absently tugs up his gloves, making sure they're as high as possible up to his elbows.


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## Elementor (Dec 19, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> “Who we are is not governed by what we look like,” she says firmly.  “Vincent and Tara, take off your trenchcoats and hats.  You have nothing to hide here.”  As the two remove their jackets and hats, you are confronted with a boy that looks like a demon, complete with oddly shaped head, small horns and batlike wings.




As he sheds his "disguise" Vincent smiles broadly around to those taking in his appearance.  "Hey guys, please call me Vince.  My Mom calls me Vincent when I just got busted for something."  The crimson youth seems quite comfortable with his appearance but apparently wears the disguise for the comfort of others.

As everyone heads up to the restaraunt, Vince moves up the stairs with the rest of the crowd but when he reaches the door he holds it open for the others.  "Please, after you"

Once everyone else is inside, he heads over towards the largest gathering of people and grabs a chair.  "So.....what looks good?"


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## Velmont (Dec 19, 2003)

As Kevin enter the complex, he looks around.

"A whole wing for our small group, I see they know how to great people."



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> “But before we head up, I want to make a few things perfectly clear,” she says, her voice turning very matronly.  “First, you are no better than normal humans.  You may have powers that let you surpass them, but you are still human.  Violence against normals is to be avoided whenever possible.  Second, none of you are better than each other.  I will not tolerate any violence between you, no matter the reason.  Third, a few of us have unusual appearances, myself included,” she says, slowly shifting to a like sized strange looking mutant.  Despite the shift in appearance, you do not feel any differently towards her.  Shortly after, she shifts back.




_I may be no better, but my power can make me more powerfull than many._

As Grandmother finish to talk, Kevin take the elevator tube. When the door open, he walk to the sushi bar.

"Please, I will take the biggest plate for one you sell with a variety of sushi. Do you have some sake with that? Too young? Too bad. I'll take water then. Thanks."

Kevin walk down to a table where others have start to gather.

"The plane meals are not big enough. My name's is Kevin York. The name may remeber you something. My father is the owner of the York business empire in Europe. You may have heard of me too lately in the press, but that I prefer not to talk about.

If we are all here, it must be for our special aptitude. The doctor said to me that my DNA had the power to dapt itself so it can mimic other's DNA. It can only repoduce some chromosome, but I always forget which number they wear. But in big picture, it means that if I touch you, I can end with the same mutation than you for as long as I am pleased to have them. I can even mimic more than one person's DNA at once. My cells can hold up to three more DNA code.

And for you want are your gifts?"


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## Dalamar (Dec 19, 2003)

Johan is a little surprised when they are asked to stay in the plane, but thinks it won't really matter. As the non-invited are leaving the plane, he digs out a book from his bag. While _Advanced Aerodynamics_ isn't for everybody, Johan considers it a good read for a flight.

In the complex, Johan starts making mental approximations of the angles the supports are placed to minimize strain. 

As Grandmother introduces herself, the budding scientist is taken back to his memories. His granny always smelled of freshly baked bread. He could remember it like yesterday. 
Of course, he could remember almost anything like yesterday.

The other members of the troupe interest him a lot, from a scientific perspective. There seems to be no one thing in common with them, yet _something_ must've triggered the transformation in each.
Johan pulls out a notebook and starts making notes as he walks to the elevator. 
When up at the restaurant, he sits down to a table to make more notes while a duplicate literally walks out of him to see what food is for offer.


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## Velmont (Dec 19, 2003)

Dalamar said:
			
		

> When up at the restaurant, he sits down to a table to make more notes while a duplicate literally walks out of him to see what food is for offer.




"Nice. It would be usefull to have a lazy life while my double would do the job. Well, I think my double would be too lazy to do anything. Finally, it isn't a good idea at all."

Kevin take another sushi and start to eat it.


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## buzzard (Dec 20, 2003)

John watches the rest take the stairs up and just then the elevetor arrived. Turning to his side he says"Yeah, I get enough exercise without walking stairs" and steps into the elevator. 

He takes a booth  by himself and looks at his menu  "You not hungry eh? OK, we I'm getting a burger."

He flags down a waitress and orders a cheeseburger with fries. If anyone comes over to sit down with him, he doesn't object. 

buzzard


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## Deva (Dec 20, 2003)

Looking around the complex from behind dark glasses, Raisa tries not to appear as out of place as she feels. Despite not being the tallest as she's come accustomed to, she still can't help but feel overwhelmed and completely out of her element. Never before had she been without her family or friends, and for the first time she's not only apart from them but not even in the same country.

As the others begin to move toward the second floor she can't stop the thoughts that run through her mind. _What are you doing here Raisa? This is so totally beyond you! Look at these guys! It's obvious why they're all here, why EPIC is interested in them, I mean come on! That guy can split himself into two for gods sake! What can you do? You're tall, but then so is that Carl guy. Better than normals? Not in your wildest dreams. Still, you're here for a reason, so don't screw this up!_

Still taking everything in, Raisa pushes aside her insecurites and shoulders her simple canvas backpack. She casually walks up the stairs to the restaurant  with the others, a bright smile on her shimmering pink lips as she tilts her head to the "demon" holding the door for them. "Thank you Vince." 

So as not to bump her knees on the table Raisa turns her chair to the side before she sits with the others. She tilts her sunglasses up onto her head and takes in the rest of the teens. "Anyone else finding this all a little intense?"


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## Elementor (Dec 20, 2003)

Deva said:
			
		

> "Anyone else finding this all a little intense?"




"Sure, but in a good way!  It is so freakin hard to learn how to use and control these abnormalities.  It will be great to be in a place where we wont hurt ourselves or others while we get a little control."

Vince waves over a waitress to the table, "Man I am absolutely starving!  You guys all ready to order yet?  Miss, do you have anything that is 'all you can eat'?"  He glances back down to the others and explains, "With my superspeed metabolism I tend to eat alot.  A growing boy and all that."


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## Calinon (Dec 20, 2003)

"Carl," Grandmother calls as the eight foot tall boy enters the eatery.  "Be a dear and pull those tables into a square.  It will make talking easier."  That being done, she calls everyone over to the group table.  "X12, come and sit next to me here please, at the end where you won't have to worry about being bumped into.  And make sure you eat as well," she says to X12 warmly, but with some authority.  "I must ask you all to be very cautious around X12, especially touching his skin.  His powers can be very dangerous to him, and we don't understand them fully just yet."

Your food is brought out to you.  Nearly anything you could want is available.  The waiters and waitresses seem unbothered by your mutations for the most part, though a few are definitely a little scared.

As Kevin introduces himself to the rest of you, Grandmother nods.  "Thank you, Kevin," she says as he finishes.  "This is the perfect time to let each other know a little about each other.  Dara," she says, adressing an asian girl to her left.  "Why don't you start?"

"Um... ok," Dara says with a bit of uncertainty.  "I'm _I'm_ Dara _Dara_ Chen _Chen.  _I _I_ come_ come from_ China and_ and_ I'm _I'm a telepath!_"  Her voice resonates both in the air and directly into your mind, very uncontrolled and a bit confusing.  "Oh no!  _I'm sorry!_" she says, again shifting between telepathic and vocal.  _"Oh no, they all are in control and I'm not!"_

"That's quite alright Dara," Grandmother says smiling.  Dara and Grandmother lock stares and Dara finally stops blushing and smiles.  "Now Jackson?"

An overweight boy with spectacles and freckles stands up and speaks in a strong English accent.  "I'm Jackson Burton, but my friends call me Rebound.  I can do this!" he says and suddenly he expands into a ball and bounces in place.  It's quite comical and several teens grin and laugh.  Jackson loses control a bit himself and starts bouncing all over, rebounding off walls until he bowls over Carl and Vincent, finally deflating.  Nobody is hurt at all.  "I'm still working on the directional bit," he says with an embarassed grin as he pulls himself to his feet and helps Vince to his.

Carl slowly stands, towering over everyone.  He speaks slowly in a deep voice.  "I am Carl Johnson.  I have mutated so that my voice can stun individuals or groups of people if I so desire.  I am from Los Angeles."  As the dark skinned boy speaks, glassware actually can be heard vibrating in the room.  Such is the effect of his voice that it stops most conversation, even after he's taken his seat.

Finally, Grandmother speaks up again.  "Would anyone else like to tell us about themselves?"


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## Mule (Dec 20, 2003)

Randall is ravenous.  He finishes his burger quickly, he has quite the appetite for such a small guy.  As he eats his meal, he is keeping his eyes moving about the resteraunt, watching the rest of the new students.  Randall exchanges names with the students who sit nearby, always introducing himself as Loki.

Then Randall notices a strange boy, who appears to be carrying on a conversation with himself.  "He's odd even in this group," Randall thinks to himself.



			
				buzzard said:
			
		

> He takes a booth  by himself and looks at his menu  "You not hungry eh? OK, well I'm getting a burger."




"Watch this," Randall tells those around him as he pushes out his chair and walks over to where the oddly acting boy is eating.

"Hi, I'm Loki" says Randall as he sits down in the booth across from the other boy.  "Pretty strange buch of diners we all are, can't imagine what a normal would think if he walked in here right now." exclaims Randall gesturing about the restaurant with one hand.  

"Hey, I had one of those," pointing at the burger in the other boy's hands, "but mine came with a side of fries!"

As Straightjacket looks down, he sees that his plate is covered in a huge pile of pink, wiggling worms! *OOC: Loki is using his illusionary powers.*

_(EDIT: D'oh! Calinon posted as I was proof-reading my post)_


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## Mordane76 (Dec 20, 2003)

X12 complies reluctantly, joining the others at the table next to Grandmother.

"I will eat if it pleases you, ma'am," X12 says quietly, "but it is not necessary.  I have no need for food or drink, and as such, my table manners are... underdeveloped, at best."


_After the first introductions..._


"I blame it on the snowplow," X12 says quietly.  "I'd still be wandering naked in the ice if it hadn't hit me."  While he's talking, he slowly rolls down one of his gloves and pulls it off.  "The bouncing boy and the man with the voice that shakes glass are impressive," he says as he picks up a soda bottle and carefully cracks the bottom on the edge of the table, "and I hope I'm as interesting," as he cuts into his exposed arm with the glass.  The wound, while it does break the skin, barely has a chance to bleed onto his skin, as it closely rapidly behind the jagged glass.

He quickly discards of the glass, and while away at the trash receptacle puts his glove back on and rolls it back up to his elbow.


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## Mimic (Dec 20, 2003)

Elementor said:
			
		

> "Sure, but in a good way!  It is so freakin hard to learn how to use and control these abnormalities.




"What we have aren't abnormalities, they are gifts." Michelle pipes up, while eating her cheeseburger. "We shouldn't have to hide our abilities from people who don't understand us."



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> Finally, Grandmother speaks up again. "Would anyone else like to tell us about themselves?"



"Might as well get this over with" Michelle mutters to herself standing up. "My name is Michelle, Michelle Remlard. I come from Calgary, Alberta. I have control of magnetic forces." Michelle glances around and raises her hand, several pieces of silverware floats off the table, make a slow circle around the tables and proceed to lower themselves back down to where they were before. She quickly sits back down and starts to eat again.


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## Deva (Dec 20, 2003)

Raisa watches and listens to the others with wonderment. Their abilities were beyond phenomenal, and again she found herself wondering why she was here. "Unlike the rest of you, with all the stylin' hidden powers, what you see is what you get with me."  She stands from her chair, rising to her full 7'1" height, shrugs the backpack onto the floor behind her and removes the jacket she's wearing. 

Dressed in a light purple halter top, the deeply tanned and perfectly sculpted eight-pack that is her abdomen is visable above her low-riding jeans. Raisa's body bulges with muscles, but not unattractively so, and just looking at her there is no denying her obvious strength. She gives everyone a half grin. "Raisa da Cruz, from Manaus -  a city in the heart of the Amazon Rainforrest. Sorry to disappoint, but no healing, no inflating, no telepathy, no fancy powers to speak of. Just sheer brute strength. Not much more to say than that. "

She puts the jacket back on before once more taking her chair.


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## Elementor (Dec 20, 2003)

Mimic said:
			
		

> "What we have aren't abnormalities, they are gifts." Michelle pipes up, while eating her cheeseburger. "We shouldn't have to hide our abilities from people who don't understand us."




The devilish visage of Vincent Prachett expands in a grin, "Sweetie, if I looked like the girl next door like you do, I am sure I would agree.  Try walking into a fast food joint looking like everyones favorite nightmare.  The service tends to be less than spectacular."  Vince looks around the table briefly before continuing, "Well, I guess it is my turn.  My name is Vince Prachett but the media seems to have dubbed me Speed Demon."  Vince pushes back his chair and stands back from the table letting his small leathery wings unfold.  "Aside from using these babies to flutter about, my main power is that I am super fast when I want to be."  Upon saying that, Vince dashes downstairs the way they entered the restaraunt.  He grabs the trenchcoats and hats discarded by Tara and himself earlier and then dashes back up into the restaraunt.  Not a heartbeat has passed before Vince is carefully setting the outerwear on a nearby vacant chair.

Returning to his previous seat, he looks down the table, "Next?"


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## Dalamar (Dec 20, 2003)

Of the two versions of Johan, the one doing the eating rises up and clears his throat while the other keeps making notes.
"Good evening. My name Johan Backman, I am a student at the University of Turku in Finland, and a mutant of late. I have the ability to create a temporal existence that shares both my appearance and knowledge. However, I have yet to decipher the needed emotional and/or physical triggers needed to do so."


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## Velmont (Dec 21, 2003)

"Abnormales? What is suppse to be normality in this world. After sesixm, religion wars, nationalism revolt, every nation have is own war, the majority vs. the minority. We are just another minority bunch.

I heard people call me freak, and I was thinking the same before I discover my powers. After that, I was seeing in every mutant a way to gain profit for myself. The was that brainy guy at university, you should see how it can be easy to do the yearly report of a big company when you can remeber everything and do maths without a computer.

Don't think your powers are a curse, think as a way to make your life better. I am sure there is a way to use them to your better profits. I think EPIC is the business opportunity you will have. Proof that band of ignorant what it is to have a mutation.

And now, let me show you what I can do. Loki, just relax and let that little feeling pass through your body, it will not hurt you, it can only hurt me."

OCC: If Loki fail (willingly or unwillingly) his Will save:

The same worms that appeared in Straightjacket plate start to crawl in Loki plate.


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## Mimic (Dec 21, 2003)

Elementor said:
			
		

> The devilish visage of Vincent Prachett expands in a grin, "Sweetie, if I looked like the girl next door like you do, I am sure I would agree.  Try walking into a fast food joint looking like everyones favorite nightmare.  The service tends to be less than spectacular."




"Oh please, I'm much better looking then the girl next door." She says returning the smile and giving Vincent a wink,  "seriously, if people have a problem with the way you look, or if say someone accidentally rips out all of the pipes in a house, then I say its their problem not ours."


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## Dalamar (Dec 21, 2003)

The Johan eating food looks over the shoulder of the other to see what he is writing, and points to spot.
"You forgot to write down the pipes."
"I am quite sure I did not, I was merely producing a description of the worms."


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## buzzard (Dec 21, 2003)

John freaks out when his fries turn into worms and knocks his plate off the table "What the hell?!?" loomimg to his side he goes on 

"Oh that must be one of those odd powers like you say. Waitress! Get me another burger please"

As he hears the introductions, he figures he better do his 
OK I'm John. I'm a wrestler. I am quite good at wrapping people up, hence my alias Straightjacket. I'm not really sure what I can show without breaking something or pinning one of you, so I think you'll just have take my word for it. I can show this."

With that he stretches his arm 15' out to the approaching waitress to take his new plate of food.  "Thanks" He says to the waitress. 

"Well I imagine you'll get a better idea when we get into training. "

He then looks onto the next in line. 

buzzard


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## Mule (Dec 21, 2003)

buzzard said:
			
		

> "What the hell?!?"




"Ha ha!" Randall enjoys his little joke immensely, especially Straitjacket's reaction, "you should have seen the look on your face!  I'm just trying to liven things up around here, no hard feelings?" Loki smiles warmly.



			
				Velmont said:
			
		

> "Loki, just relax and let that little feeling pass through your body, it will not hurt you, it can only hurt me."




"Hey that's cool," Randall exclaims when he sees the worms in his plate.  "I guess it's my turn now."

Randall stands on a chair.  "I'm Loki, master of distraction and deception, and prankster extraordinaire!" he says grandiosely.  Loki holds out one hand in front of him.  When he opens it, lying in his palm is a big obsidian egg.  A crack appears in the egg, beams of light shooting forth from within.  The room appears to darken slightly.  Then, suddenly, a large snakelike dragon burst forth.

The dragon has the body of a snake, is bright red, and is about 5 feet long with a huge ugly head.  It has 6 legs, and two large wings.  It leaps into the air and begins to circle the restaurant.  It opens its massive jaws and a jet of flame spews out.  After one complete circle, it seems to notice Loki standing on his chair, and charges towards him.  Just before the monster crashes into him, Loki opens his mouth wide, and the dragon seams to jump down the boy's throat, disapearing completely.  The room returns to its normal lighting, and Loki takes a bow.  He jumps down off the chair and has a seat in it, smiling smugly.


----------



## Calinon (Dec 21, 2003)

*Straightjacket*
As you shove the burger away, you happen to touch some of the worms, and you feel fries, not worms.  Looking closer you see through the simple illusion, though you can still see an afterimage of it.

*Everyone*
Many others stand up to introduce themselves, showing off a vast myriad of powers.  As people demonstrate their powers and tell everyone about themselves, you start to hear a quiet voice make mocking comments, but can't place the voice to anyone.  Despite that, you note that most of those attending are not as powerful as you (other than the ones previously mentioned by name), but seem to be able to control their powers relatively well.

As the girl with the insectoid arms and wings, Dara Naggy, sits, you notice a small girl in a wheelchair sitting next to her that you hadn't really noticed before.  She is very shy and it takes Grandmother some urging to get her to speak.

"I'm Anna Nikitov," she says very quietly.  "I... I can create things, but just little things, like screws and stuff.  But I was invited because I am really creative with building things and..."

"Blah blah blah," a rude voice cuts into Anna's introduction.  "Sweet merciful crap, shut up.  It's bad enough hearing the boring garbage coming from the rest of your mouths, but to hear it from a whiney cripple is quite enough.  You won't be making any special epic squads anyway.  You should have stayed in mother Russia," he finishes with a feral grin with a mocking russian accent.  The boy is caucasian, but you can't place where he's from.  He has no discernable accent.

"You all can call me Cosmo.  My given name is as unimportant as most of my unintelligent family is.  I am a super-genius.  Some of you have a passable level of intellect for normal humans, but none of you can come close to my brilliance.  Accept that.  There is no problem I can't solve, no device I cannot disarm, no lock I cannot bypass.  I have been taught combat techniques from the best the world has to offer, so I can defeat any of you.  Accept that as well.  I am here because I am going to be the next leader of EPIC."  

Such is his presence and arrogance that it leaves you all speechless for a few moments.  Grandmother is not affected in this manner and stands up, obviously furious.  Her dog growls.

"Accept this, young man," she says sternly.  "_You_ are not in charge here.  _You_ are not as good as you think.  And _you_ will be very lucky to remain at the EPIC Institute with that insular and aggresive attitude."

Cosmo rolls his eyes, unconcerned, smug in his superiority.  

The boy beside him rises.  His appearance is tall and somewhat strange, but not so much as to draw much attention.  Suddenly, his skin sprouts fur.  His face elongates into that of a dog, he grows a tail and claws and lets out a feral snarl.  Cosmo grins without looking at the boy.

"And this would be my brother, Jackal.  Don't make him mad."

Jackal shifts back into human form, chuckling.  He ruffles Cosmo's hair, an action that surprisingly ilicits no negative reaction from Cosmo, and sits down next to Anna, between her and Cosmo.  "Yeah, don't make me mad," he says looking directly at her.  He continues to stare at her until she starts to shiver in fear.


----------



## Mimic (Dec 21, 2003)

Michelle looks around to the others beside her, shocked at the arogant display by the two brothers. "Oh my God, rude much?"

Michelle will stand up and walk over to where Anna is seating glaring at the two brothers, she gives the small girl a big smile.

 "Hi Anna, I'm Michelle. we have a spot open where we are sitting and I was wondering if you would care to come join us?" 

Michelle will gently guide the wheelchair back to where she was sitting, making small talk to try and keep the girl occupied. Once she is seated again Michelle will address a waitress. 

 "Excuse me miss, can Anna have another plate of whatever she ordered? It seems that her first one was ruined by a rather foul and obnoxious odor."


----------



## Deva (Dec 21, 2003)

With a frightening scowl, Raisa looks over at Cosmo and his brother. "Gênio super? Se você não  fechar-acima, você estará tentando resolver o problema de remover meu pé de ascendente seu burro!*" 

Her expression softens and she smiles at Anna now sitting next to Michelle. "So you build things? Very cool. I'm all thumbs when it comes to that stuff. Wouldn't be able to build a brick wall if my life depended on it, though tearing one down I wouldn't even break a sweat!" She chuckles.


_*Translation for those who speak Portugese: Super genius? If you don't shut-up, you'll be trying to solve the problem of removing my foot from up your ass!_


----------



## Velmont (Dec 21, 2003)

*Mimic: Loki*

OOC: I will put as a title of my post, the name of the mutant I mimic, so I can easily keep track which powers and feat I have. As Loki have no power greater than 8, none costing more than 5PP per level, and no more than 8 feats, and Loki have willingfully failed his will save, I am mimicking all his feats and powers...



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> "Accept this, young man," she says sternly.  "_You_ are not in charge here.  _You_ are not as good as you think.  And _you_ will be very lucky to remain at the EPIC Institute with that insular and aggresive attitude."




Kevin turn to looks at Grandmother and for a moment, he looks like surprise, just as he was looking at a ghost. It takes a few instant to come back to his sense, and he looks back at Loki for a quick moment.

"So, Cosmo. Let me see how big genius you are. Let's shake a hand."  and Kevin present his hand, waiting for Cosmo reaction.

OOC: I use my mimic on him if he accept my hand.


----------



## buzzard (Dec 21, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> *Straightjacket*
> 
> "And this would be my brother, Jackal.  Don't make him mad."
> 
> Jackal shifts back into human form, chuckling.  He ruffles Cosmo's hair, an action that surprisingly ilicits no negative reaction from Cosmo, and sits down next to Anna, between her and Cosmo.  "Yeah, don't make me mad," he says looking directly at her.  He continues to stare at her until she starts to shiver in fear.




John looks over at the two and speaks "You know if they didn't say we had a rule about not fighting I'd be giving you and Furball there a lesson in manners. I reccommned you apply that super brain you supposedly have to controling that mouth of yours. And Furball, I'm sorry what chance did in choosing your brother. "



buzzard


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## Dalamar (Dec 21, 2003)

Johan starts furiously making notes as people are standing up, especially when Cosmo and his brother introduce themselves. His pen momentarily stops when Cosmo nominates himself the smartest person in the room.
When Jackal makes his transformation, Johan starts, in addition to describing the change itself, making guesses at how this and that bone and muscle warped.


----------



## Mordane76 (Dec 21, 2003)

Under his breath, but just loud enough to be heard close by (or by anyone _like Jackal_ who might be listening carefully) X12 chortles."Your ill-tempered dog would have to chew a lot harder and longer than normal to make a meal out of me," he whispers to himself.  "He's especially scary when he's brow-beating an invalid," he finishes facetiously.


----------



## Calinon (Dec 21, 2003)

Mimic said:
			
		

> Michelle looks around to the others beside her, shocked at the arogant display by the two brothers. "Oh my God, rude much?"
> 
> Michelle will stand up and walk over to where Anna is seating glaring at the two brothers, she gives the small girl a big smile.
> 
> ...



As you take hold of the wheelchair, Jackal's gaze shifts to you and he actually growls.  His eyes, you can see now, are yellow and shaped like a dogs, and for a long moment you can't look away from them.

"Go sit down," Jackal says with his growl at you.  After a moment you realize you have backed away and are, yourself, shaking.

_OOC:  Jackal uses his intimidate skill with a total score of 23 against DC 11 (10+wisdom bonus) to get you to back up.  You don't move Anna anywhere._



			
				Deva said:
			
		

> With a frightening scowl, Raisa looks over at Cosmo and his brother. "Gênio super? Se você não fechar-acima, você estará tentando resolver o problema de remover meu pé de ascendente seu burro!*"
> 
> Her expression softens and she smiles at Anna now sitting next to Michelle. "So you build things? Very cool. I'm all thumbs when it comes to that stuff. Wouldn't be able to build a brick wall if my life depended on it, though tearing one down I wouldn't even break a sweat!" She chuckles.
> 
> ...



"_Raisa da Cruz!_" scolds Grandmother.  Apparently at least one person understood you.  Grandmother and her dog are moving towards the troublemakers already, and you realize she scolded you mentally, though it left your ears ringing.



			
				Velmont said:
			
		

> Kevin turn to looks at Grandmother and for a moment, he looks like surprise, just as he was looking at a ghost. It takes a few instant to come back to his sense, and he looks back at Loki for a quick moment.
> 
> "So, Cosmo. Let me see how big genius you are. Let's shake a hand." and Kevin present his hand, waiting for Cosmo reaction.
> 
> OOC: I use my mimic on him if he accept my hand.



"Well by old means, chum," he says mockingly, forcefully taking your hand before you can notice the coldness in his eyes.

_OOC:  Sense motive check failed for Velmont, and didn't for Cosmo._

He grabs your hand and you instantly recognize your mistake.  A white wall of force starts building between you.  White noise starts to fill your ears but you think you can hear Grandmother shouting to stop.

_OOC:  Backlash.  His powers are too high a cost to mimic.  Your total score (including the +2 total instead of +1 against the damage save due to wisdom being used) is 12.  Do you wish to use a hero point to re-roll?_



			
				Buzzard said:
			
		

> John looks over at the two and speaks "You know if they didn't say we had a rule about not fighting I'd be giving you and Furball there a lesson in manners. I reccommned you apply that super brain you supposedly have to controling that mouth of yours. And Furball, I'm sorry what chance did in choosing your brother."



"Sounds fun.  Haven't had a real challenge in a while," says Jackal.  "Good to see there's at least one man in here," he continues, giving you a good once over but not actually appearing to threaten you at all.  



			
				Mordane76 said:
			
		

> Under his breath, but just loud enough to be heard close by (or by anyone _like Jackal_ who might be listening carefully) X12 chortles."Your ill-tempered dog would have to chew a lot harder and longer than normal to make a meal out of me," he whispers to himself. "He's especially scary when he's brow-beating an invalid," he finishes facetiously.



"Ooo, two men," he grins.  His mood seems to have shifted somewhat now that someone... some male... has stood up to him.  Everyone's eyes shift to Grandmother as she shouts "Stop!  Now!" and raises her cane as she walks at Cosmo.  She suddenly seems quite unhampered by age.

Seeing the woman about to strike Cosmo, Jackal growls.  His growl is immediately echoed by Pooky and Jackal freezes in place a moment, and immediately shifts back to human form.  Pooky barks and you see Jackal weighing his options.

_OOC:  Pooky manages to intimidate Jackal (Don't laugh; the dog can teleport too) into not acting to help his brother._

As Cosmo grabs Kevin's hand, you all hear a slight buzzing noise and see a wall of white force start to build up between the two boys.

You all turn as Grandmother shouts, "Stop, now!" and lifts her cane to strike Cosmo.

_OOC:  Resolution coming once Velmont decides on his hero point, or any other actions someone might take.  Amazon and Multibrain both spot another plane has docked at the terminal.  Someone is just entering the terminal from the walkway in fact._


----------



## Dalamar (Dec 22, 2003)

"Interesting" is all Johan says as he starts digging for another notebook since he ran out of space already on his first one. "Would you mind?" he asks his duplicate as he notices that other people are coming.
"Not at all," the duplicate answers, rises from the table and starts walking towards the terminal, ready to take note of anything interesting.


----------



## Elementor (Dec 22, 2003)

"You guys just ignore those two," Vince says as he nods towards Jackal and Cosmo, "The only way they can fill their sad little lives is by bullying others.  As far as desperate pleas for attention go, it is pretty much the lowest form.  Ignore them and they can't hurt you."


----------



## Agamon (Dec 22, 2003)

A young man enters the complex from the terminal, dressed in nice, but casual, clothing.  The light from the the ceiling seems to reflect off of his silver hair.  A big smirk on his face, he pulls his sunglasses off and puts them in his jacket pocket, revealing the fact that his entire head and hands are made of some shiny metallic substance.  Looking over the nearly empty terminal he says, with an Indian accent, "Wow, check out the welcoming commitee.  I am truly humbled."

He sees one kid looking at him and scribbling in a notebook.  He only raises an eyebrow and grins, looking about the rest of the complex, spotting everyone else upstairs.  "There they are."  He flies forward, close to the ground and up the stairway, landing at the top.  Looking everyone over, he says, "Oh, yeah, this is definitely the right place.  Never fear, I made it.  And though you all seemed to be doing pretty good on your own, it's not a _true_ freak convention without me."

Not seeing a free seat nearby, he spots an opening at a table beside him where a chair materializes out of thin air.  He plunks himself down with a muffled *clank* and looks at the teen sitting next to him as he scribbles in a notebook.  "Whoa, deja vu.  So what's good to eat around here?"


----------



## Mimic (Dec 22, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> As you take hold of the wheelchair, Jackal's gaze shifts to you and he actually growls.  His eyes, you can see now, are yellow and shaped like a dogs, and for a long moment you can't look away from them.
> 
> "Go sit down," Jackal says with his growl at you.  After a moment you realize you have backed away and are, yourself, shaking.




"Yikes, you've had your rabies shot right?" Taking several steps back from the intimidating boy



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> Seeing the woman about to strike Cosmo, Jackal growls. His growl is immediately echoed by Pooky and Jackal freezes in place a moment, and immediately shifts back to human form. Pooky barks and you see Jackal weighing his options.




Seeing that the two brother's attention is elsewhere, Michelle concentrates slightly as the air around her ripples slightly, _"Better safe then sorry"_ she thinks. She trys to subtely lift Anna's wheelchair an inch into the air and pull her back to where she is standing.

Powers: Forcefeild, Energy control: Magnetic


----------



## Mule (Dec 22, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> Suddenly, his skin sprouts fur. His face elongates into that of a dog, he grows a tail and claws and lets out a feral snarl.




Randall is a little frightend when the boy called Jackal transforms.  Loki's powers are incorporeal, and as such, can not be used to harm, or to directly defend.  



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> As Cosmo grabs Kevin's hand, you all hear a slight buzzing noise and see a wall of white force start to build up between the two boys.




Randall does not understand what's going on.  He wants to help, but doesn't know how.  Randall's body begins to change colour, he is unconsciously blending in with his surroundings, making him harder to see clearly.  He crouches down in his chair, trying to make himslef appear smaller.

Randall recognizes a bully when he sees one, he has been picked on enough growing up.  Always the smallest in his class, he makes an easy target.  Constantly moving from town to town with his parents, he was always "the new kid", and that was tough on him at times.  His newfound powers, while a definite boon, could sometimes alienate him even further.


----------



## buzzard (Dec 22, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> "Sounds fun.  Haven't had a real challenge in a while," says Jackal.  "Good to see there's at least one man in here," he continues, giving you a good once over but not actually appearing to threaten you at all.
> 
> [/i]




John just continues to look at him making no move, but ready to if necessary. He's played the psych out game at enough meets for it to be nothing new. He's also quite used to people who talk a big game. 

buzzard


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## Dalamar (Dec 22, 2003)

Agamon said:
			
		

> "Whoa, deja vu.  So what's good to eat around here?"



"Wha..? Oh, good evening. So far nobody has had any negative reaction from consuming anything, so I would be inclined to say that everything is edible."
Johan looks up from his notebook and to the new person next to him.
"Is that a coating, or are you fully made of this metal, inlcuding your internal organs??"


----------



## Agamon (Dec 23, 2003)

Sanjay responds with a "is-this-guy-for-real?" look, but just shakes his head and grins.  "Everything, hey?  Don't mind if I do..."  He rises from the chair and walks to the counter, completely oblivious to the tensity of many the people around him.

Sanjay returns to his seat with a tray filled with plates of different food.  "Airport food.  Ah, well, it's a step up from airline food, I guess," he says as he starts to dig in.  Between mouthfuls he says, "Buh da wuh..." *gulp* "Ahem...by the way, my name's Sanjay."  He sticks out his tongue, which is as fleshy as the next person's.  "Yeah, I guess you could call it a coating, but it wasn't Shake'n'Baked on, or nothing."   He nods his head towards the doors.  "That your twin?  You guys have some sort of gestalt thing going on?  Or do you, like, touch hands to activate your shapechanging powers?" he asks, stuffing some fries in his mouth.


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## Mordane76 (Dec 23, 2003)

Elementor said:
			
		

> "You guys just ignore those two," Vince says as he nods towards Jackal and Cosmo, "The only way they can fill their sad little lives is by bullying others.  As far as desperate pleas for attention go, it is pretty much the lowest form.  Ignore them and they can't hurt you."





"I'm pretty sure," X12 quips with a glance towards Jackal, "that even if I don't ignore him, he couldn't really hurt me."


----------



## Calinon (Dec 23, 2003)

_OOC:  Continuing onwards, the re-roll really doesn't make much of a difference overall._

The buzzing sound intensifies and there is a loud bang.  Kevin is sent cartwheeling through the air, directly towards Anna, Jackal, Michelle and Sanjay.  Jackal, reacting quickly, picks up Anna's wheelchair and spins out of the way while Michelle barely manages to drop to the floor to avoid Kevin hitting her.  Sanjay is not so lucky, catching a foot in the head, knocking him off his chair and to the floor.

Grandmother finishes the swing of her cane, which strikes Cosmo in the back of the head.  His eyes roll back and he collapses to the ground.

One of the waitresses screams as Kevin slams into her, sending both into and through the glass window.  Shattered glass flies through the air as the two start falling towards the ground.

"Catch them!" shouts Grandmother.

_OOC:  Kevin is stunned by the backlash and knocked flying as excess power cascades through him, suffering a stun hit.  The glass did not stand up to the impact and both he and the waitress are moments away from a fairly long (30') fall._

_Initiatives:  Amazon 22, Pooky 22, Loki 20, Speed Demon 19, Metal Mistress 18 (prone), Rebound 17, Straightjacket 16, Grandmother 12, Anna and Jackal 10 (prone), X12 9, Neutron 8 (prone), Multibrain 5_


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## buzzard (Dec 23, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> _
> 
> Initiatives:  Amazon 22, Pooky 22, Loki 20, Speed Demon 19, Metal Mistress 18 (prone), Rebound 17, Straightjacket 16, Grandmother 12, Anna and Jackal 10 (prone), X12 9, Neutron 8 (prone), Multibrain 5_



_

Now granted this is a comic book, but I still doubt Straightjacket could manage to fall faster than they do(just ask Gallileo), thus he's probably going to have to do nothing. The source of the problem is unconscious, so nothing to do there either. I suppose I'll just hold my action. 

buzzard_


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## Deva (Dec 23, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> One of the waitresses screams as Kevin slams into her, sending both into and through the glass window.  Shattered glass flies through the air as the two start falling towards the ground.
> 
> "Catch them!" shouts Grandmother.





Instincts taking over, Raisa leaps for the now shattered window, diving across the floor in an attempt to grab onto the wrists of the two falling people.


_*POWERS*: Not entirely sure what would be usefull, but I'm assuming Accrobatics(5)_


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## Mordane76 (Dec 23, 2003)

X12 stands, and starts walking towards the stairs down to where the pair will impact.  As he walks, he starts pulling off his gloves, grumbling something about really stupid smart people and the problems they cause.

_"About 30 feet down... just like a moderate-speed car accident; they should both survive, which means, at least this won't hurt me that much.  Too bad it's probably three of them, since the big girl jumped as well... I'm gonna have such a headache,"_ X12 thinks to himself as he starts descending the stairs.


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## Mule (Dec 23, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> The buzzing sound intensifies and there is a loud bang.  Kevin is sent cartwheeling through the air. One of the waitresses screams as Kevin slams into her, sending both into and through the glass window.  Shattered glass flies through the air as the two start falling towards the ground.
> 
> "Catch them!" shouts Grandmother.




Randall's jaw drops when Kevin is sent flying.  Randall watches, as if in slow motion, Kevin's prone body go spinning trough the air and into an unsuspecting waitress sending them both crashing through the glass and down towards the floor far below.  Randall rushes to the window to watch in horror, he knows there is nothing he can do to help either of them.


----------



## Elementor (Dec 23, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> "Catch them!" shouts Grandmother.




"Chill.  I'll get em."

Vince dashes downstairs to catch the falling duo.  Realizing he wont be able to catch them both physically, he will run in circles really fast to make a whirlwind of air to catch them both.  He can then set them down gently.

Powers: Superspeed to get downstairs.  Whirlwind is a stunt that I dont have yet so I will use extra effort to be able to do it.  I will use a hero point to negate the fatigue too.

ooc: Of course all of this is dependant on whether Raisa has already caught them.


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## Dalamar (Dec 23, 2003)

"That's a fall of aproximately 10 meters, resulting in about square-root two seconds of fall, giving them an impact speed of about 14 meters per second. That makes the force that the floor hits them with around one thousand newtons, depending on their weight, aproximately the same as a car hitting them at three kilometers per hour.
It could result in serious internal damage if they make the fall really badly, or, if they're lucky enough, they can manage it with lots of bruises and ache."


----------



## Calinon (Dec 23, 2003)

Around the room, people are stunned and shocked.  Luckily, some of you manage to keep your wits about you.

Raisa dives and reaches past the edge of the window, grabbing at the waitress.  Amazingly, she grabs the woman's ankle and halts her plunge to the floor.  Her other free hand is too busy keeping her from following her out to grab Kevin.  The waitress screams and faints, hanging limply.  Raisa's shirt sleeves are badly torn, but she suffers no injury from the glass she is crushing beneath her arms.

_OOC:  Half move to the window and half action to grab the woman.  A dexterity check resulted in a 21 against DC 20._

Vince bursts down the stairs, preparing to create a whirlwind of force, and nearly trips over Pooky.  He must have teleported down.  Vince looks up and realizes he has no time to get his whirlwind in place.

_OOC:  Running down and getting into postion is just under 70', which is a half action.  Activating your super speed is also a half action.  The whirlwind stunt is a full round action._

Pooky lifts his head up and lets out an ear shattering bark.  You can see a cone of some sort reach upward through Kevin, and everything within the cone stops moving for a number of seconds.  Grabbing your chance, you enter your whirlwind and send a wall of air upwards to cushion Kevin's fall.  It's messy, but it definitely slows his decent, along with ripping quite a few light fixtures from the walls and ceiling.

_OOC:_ _ Hero point spent to enter your whirlwind.  You have limited control, enough to get what you want done, with some side effects due to lack of training._



			
				Dalamar said:
			
		

> "That's a fall of aproximately 10 meters, resulting in about square-root two seconds of fall, giving them an impact speed of about 14 meters per second. That makes the force that the floor hits them with around one thousand newtons, depending on their weight, aproximately the same as a car hitting them at three kilometers per hour.
> It could result in serious internal damage if they make the fall really badly, or, if they're lucky enough, they can manage it with lots of bruises and ache."



"Or that could happen," rumbles Carl, the huge boy, eyebrows raised from the surprise.

Grandmother grabs John's shoulder.  "Pick this twit up and take him downstairs.  If he wakes up and continues his foolishness, knock him on his skull again."  She is, quite obviously, very angry.  "Michelle, pick yourself up and go with John.  If either of you start to feel your powers vanish, knock him out."

Jackal stands up and rights Anna's wheelchair, gripping the handles tightly but says nothing, casting baleful glares at both John and Michelle.

"Everyone else, finish eating, gather your luggage and come downstairs.  I'm sure the Mag-Lev will arrive soon."  As she finishes, she sounds very, very tired and is once more leaning on her cane, more heavily than before, as she hobbles over to Sanjay.

"I was told you were not attending, young man.  Help me downstairs, and you can tell me why, exactly, you were suddenly allowed to come to America."  She grabs hold of his arm as he gets up.

_OOC:  Sanjay, you feel very attached to this woman, like she really is your grandmother.  She is obviously from the same region as you are._

_X12, as you pass Dara, the telepath, you see she is slumped over, unconscious._


----------



## Mimic (Dec 23, 2003)

OCC: Scratch that part.

Michelle will go with John

"Well, at least we can't say nothing exciting ever happens." she says to John in the elevator.

Once they reach the main floor, Michelle spots the broken lighting fixtures on the wall.

"Hmmm, maybe I can be of some use after all."

Using her magnetic powers, Michelle will wrap some of metal fixtures around Cosmo's legs and pin his arms to his chest

"He won't be going any quickly now. And," as she lifts the unconscious boy into the air, "neither one of us has to lift him."


----------



## Dalamar (Dec 23, 2003)

"A _very_ high-speed controlled wind. Impressive. and running with a speed of over ten meters per second, very intriguing. I wonder how he resists the friction caused by the air he runs through..."
Johan starts furiously scrippling notes of what happened during the last few minutes, including a quick sketch of the situation. Done with it, he graps his bag and starts heading downstairs. When the Finn comes next to his duplicate, it fades away into nothingness.


----------



## Mordane76 (Dec 23, 2003)

As the fury of action dissipates, X12 stands at the top of the stairs, a little smirk on his face.  "Show off," he says jokingly and with a measure of relief as Vince passes him.




			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> _X12, as you pass Dara, the telepath, you see she is slumped over, unconscious._





X12 returns to the unconscious girl and kneels down next to her.  "Duck next time, please," he says.  He braces himself against a potential fall, and then lightly strokes her cheek with his ungloved hand.


_OOC -- *Powers: Healing*, and *Powers: Regeneration* to deal with whatever consequences come with the touch._


----------



## Deva (Dec 24, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> Raisa dives and reaches past the edge of the window, grabbing at the waitress.  Amazingly, she grabs the woman's ankle and halts her plunge to the floor.  Her other free hand is too busy keeping her from following her out to grab Kevin.  The waitress screams and faints, hanging limply.  Raisa's shirt sleeves are badly torn, but she suffers no injury from the glass she is crushing beneath her arms.




Raisa easily pulls the woman back through the window, being careful not to cut the unconscious waitress or herself on the remaining shards of glass. She will set the woman on the ground, leaving her to be tended to by the other serving staff. 

With a sigh, and a few mumbled Portugese curses, she removes the torn remains of the jacket she had been wearing and examines the damage. She could remove the sleeves, make it into a vest, but still she was unhappy. The jacket had been made by her mother, and had been the only coat she owned that fit. _Guess I'll have to call Mama and ask her to send me another when she can._

She slings the ruined jacket over her shoulder and scoops up her backpack. Setting her sunglasses over her eyes once more she walks down the stairs to wait for their ride.


----------



## buzzard (Dec 24, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> Grandmother grabs John's shoulder.  "Pick this twit up and take him downstairs.  If he wakes up and continues his foolishness, knock him on his skull again."  She is, quite obviously, very angry.  "Michelle, pick yourself up and go with John.  If either of you start to feel your powers vanish, knock him out."




John picks him up with one arm doing a half nelson and the other holding him up. He figures that even without his powers he could convince the pest that trouble would be a bad idea. 
"Sure thing, I'll make sure he doesn't get any bad ideas, or at least keep any."



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> Jackal stands up and rights Anna's wheelchair, gripping the handles tightly but says nothing, casting baleful glares at both John and Michelle.




John looks back at him  "Yeah, like it's our fault what happened. Get a grip"
He looks to the side where noone is standing and continues 
"OK, OK, I should know better, I'll be quiet".
 He then walks the limp form in his arms down to the elevator and takes him downstairs. 

Using her magnetic powers, Michelle will wrap some of metal fixtures around Cosmo's legs and pin his arms to his chest

"He won't be going any quickly now. And," as she lifts the unconscious boy into the air, "neither one of us has to lift him."

"Sure that works, just make sure I got room for a sleeper hold if I need one. "

buzzard


----------



## Velmont (Dec 24, 2003)

OOC: Sorry if I didn`t answer earlier, but I was moving and I don`t have a connection yet, but I will be on once a day for the next few day.

For the Hero Point for a reroll, I wouldn`t have done it anyway.

I have a question. Do I mimic Cosmo power at level 8 or I have nothing at all?


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## Agamon (Dec 24, 2003)

Lying on his back, but still awkwardly sitting on the tipped over chair, Sanjay blinks.  "Man, what was that?"  He looks down at the chair, which disappears from beneath him, his body slumping to the floor as a result.  He gets up, covered in much of what was left of the food he was eating.  Crumpling his brow, he glances about himself and the floor, the food disappearing much as the chair did before.  "What a waste of perfectly semi-edible chow."

As Grandmother grabs his arm, Sanjay responds.  "Oh, yeah well..." he pauses to stare at Raisa as she passes them, heading to the stairs. _"Oh my..."_  He blinks and looks back at Grandmother.  "Uh, what was the question?  Oh, right: why am I here."  He pauses once more, this time to collect his thoughts as they make their way to the elevator and wait for it to return.  Initially, a look of concern crosses his face, but it's soon replaced with a smile.  "Well, speaking non-existentially, my dad pulled a few strings.  Things were pretty tight at first, but the story has a happy ending and here I am.  Not much to tell, really," he adds as they enter the elevator.


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## Mimic (Dec 24, 2003)

buzzard said:
			
		

> "Sure that works, just make sure I got room for a sleeper hold if I need one. "




"Sleeper hold?" Michelle asks cocking her head to the side, trying to figure if he was pulling her leg.

 Suddenly she snaps her fingers. "Rats, I forgot my luggage. Hang on for a sec." She holds up her hand and closes her eyes concentrating, moments later a peice of luggage floats through the open window and down onto her waiting hand. She turns and gives John a sheepish smile.

"Mom got fed up with me forgetting my stuff, so she had the handle replaced with some steel. Ah, if you don't mind me asking, who were you talking to up in the restaurant just before we came down here?"


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## Mule (Dec 24, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> Raisa dives and reaches past the edge of the window, grabbing at the waitress.  Amazingly, she grabs the woman's ankle and halts her plunge to the floor.  Raisa's shirt sleeves are badly torn, but she suffers no injury from the glass she is crushing beneath her arms.
> 
> Vince bursts down the stairs, preparing to create a whirlwind of force, and nearly trips over Pooky.  He must have teleported down. Pooky lifts his head up and lets out an ear shattering bark.  You can see a cone of some sort reach upward through Kevin, and everything within the cone stops moving for a number of seconds.  Grabbing your chance, you enter your whirlwind and send a wall of air upwards to cushion Kevin's fall.  It's messy, but it definitely slows his decent, along with ripping quite a few light fixtures from the walls and ceiling.






			
				Mimic said:
			
		

> Using her magnetic powers, Michelle will wrap some of metal fixtures around Cosmo's legs and pin his arms to his chest.




Randall is awed at the ability of the others.  Their rescue of Kevin and the waitress was nothing short of spectacular.  Michelle's nonchalant use or her powers is somewhat fearsome.  Randall can't help but feel a little out of place, the others' powers seem so much more formidable than his own.



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> "Everyone else, finish eating, gather your luggage and come downstairs.  I'm sure the Mag-Lev will arrive soon."  As she finishes, she sounds very, very tired and is once more leaning on her cane, more heavily than before, as she hobbles over to Sanjay.




Still feeling slightly humbled, Randall makes his way downstairs with the rest of the students.


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## Calinon (Dec 24, 2003)

Velmont said:
			
		

> I have a question. Do I mimic Cosmo power at level 8 or I have nothing at all?



_OOC:  You were unable to mimic anything of Cosmo's.  His power cost was above your range, painfully so._



			
				mordane76 said:
			
		

> X12 returns to the unconscious girl and kneels down next to her. "Duck next time, please," he says. He braces himself against a potential fall, and then lightly strokes her cheek with his ungloved hand.
> 
> 
> _OOC -- *Powers: Healing*, and *Powers: Regeneration* to deal with whatever consequences come with the touch._



You touch Dara's cheek and groan in pain as your head develops a raging migraine.  Dara stirs, unhurt, as you collapse to the ground, unconscious.  After a few moments, you also sit up, though you still have a mild headache.

_OOC:  You take one stun hit and are rendered unconscious, the condition Dara was in.  Your check to recover from unconsciousness was 28._



			
				Agamon said:
			
		

> "Well, speaking non-existentially, my dad pulled a few strings. Things were pretty tight at first, but the story has a happy ending and here I am. Not much to tell, really," he adds as they enter the elevator.



Grandmother sighs heavily.  "I'm sure everything will be fine, whatever you are concerned about," she says kindly.  "Perhaps Sandstone will provide a better sounding board for you.  I know he had his problems with the ALF government since he's joined EPIC.  Transmutation I believe your powers are, correct child?"


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## Elementor (Dec 24, 2003)

Vince hustles back upstairs to grab his things before catching up the others.



			
				Mordane76 said:
			
		

> As the fury of action dissipates, X12 stands at the top of the stairs, a little smirk on his face.  "Show off," he says jokingly and with a measure of relief as Vince passes him.




Vince pats X12 on the shoulder on the way by, careful not to touch any exposed skin.  "Just trying to keep the team in one piece my man.  Besides I am sure the less you have to use your mojo the better, right?" 



			
				Dalamar said:
			
		

> "A _very_ high-speed controlled wind. Impressive. and running with a speed of over ten meters per second, very intriguing. I wonder how he resists the friction caused by the air he runs through..."
> Johan starts furiously scrippling notes of what happened during the last few minutes, including a quick sketch of the situation. Done with it, he graps his bag and starts heading downstairs. When the Finn comes next to his duplicate, it fades away into nothingness.




Quickly grabbing his gear, Speed Demon cant help but overhear Johan's contemplations about him.  He grabs a couple clean paper placemats off the dirty table and dashes down to catch up to the now singular version of the Finnish lad.  "Hey Johan.  I dont want you straining that big brain of yours over this.  I heard you talking to...errr...yourself up there and thought I would show you this.  Vince takes the 2 placemats and rubs them together at superspeed til they ignite.  He then quickly crumples them in his hands to extinguish the fire before any sensors go off.  "Lucky for me the heat resistance came as part of the package.  That is pretty neat how you can split yourself up like that.  How many copies of you can you have?"


----------



## Agamon (Dec 24, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> Grandmother sighs heavily.  "I'm sure everything will be fine, whatever you are concerned about," she says kindly.  "Perhaps Sandstone will provide a better sounding board for you.  I know he had his problems with the ALF government since he's joined EPIC.  Transmutation I believe your powers are, correct child?"




Sanjay nods.  "Yep, that's my motto, don't worry, be happy.  And I'm looking forward to meeting Sandstone."  He looks down at his hand and a tulip appears, which he hands to the elderly woman.  "That's my main power, though I can also fly, and, of course, this," he says, rapping on his head with his knuckles.  "My mother thinks my ability to eat large quantities of food is a power, too..." he adds with a grin.


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## Dalamar (Dec 24, 2003)

Elementor said:
			
		

> "Lucky for me the heat resistance came as part of the package.  That is pretty neat how you can split yourself up like that.  How many copies of you can you have?"



"Ah... An automatic self-preservation on the behalf of your mutation, meaning they can't be completely random but are somewhat structured..."
Johan adds a a couple more notes to his notebook and then puts it in his pocket.
"Regarding the number of temporal instances... I do not, as of yet, posses the ability to consciously create them, only to dismiss them. As a result I have not been able to test the limits of my ability. The first time that I activated my ability, two of them appeared. After that, only one has been in existence at a time, usually when I have been majorly busy with reading for an exam."


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## buzzard (Dec 24, 2003)

Mimic said:
			
		

> "Sleeper hold?" Michelle asks cocking her head to the side, trying to figure if he was pulling her leg.




"Yep, it's a dirty trick in wrestling, but everybody knows it. A good way to put someone into lullaby-land if necessary. In this case it could come to that".



			
				Mimic said:
			
		

> Suddenly she snaps her fingers. "Rats, I forgot my luggage. Hang on for a sec." She holds up her hand and closes her eyes concentrating, moments later a peice of luggage floats through the open window and down onto her waiting hand. She turns and gives John a sheepish smile.
> 
> "Mom got fed up with me forgetting my stuff, so she had the handle replaced with some steel. Ah, if you don't mind me asking, who were you talking to up in the restaurant just before we came down here?"




"Oh, that's my dad. Most people keep telling me he's not around anymore since the thing at the plant, but I still see him. He talks to me, so I talk back. Simple enough."
 He then turns to the side as if listening to someone else.
"Huh? OK alright". Turning back to Michelle he asks "He wants to know how much steel needs to be in the item before you can pick it up, and are you limited to properly ferromagnetic materials, or can you work on things which are paramagnetic which are, umm I don't remember the rest, it was technical. I wish he'd ask people this sort of thing himself."


buzzard


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## Elementor (Dec 24, 2003)

Dalamar said:
			
		

> "Regarding the number of temporal instances... I do not, as of yet, posses the ability to consciously create them, only to dismiss them. As a result I have not been able to test the limits of my ability. The first time that I activated my ability, two of them appeared. After that, only one has been in existence at a time, usually when I have been majorly busy with reading for an exam."




"So if we just keep loading more and more work on you, you just keep spliting to handle it all?"  A mischievious grin crosses Vince's face, "If we have to do chores at this place we are heading to, you totally can do mine.  In the interest of research of course.  To see how many temporal instances you can develop at one particular moment."


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## Mimic (Dec 24, 2003)

buzzard said:
			
		

> "Oh, that's my dad. Most people keep telling me he's not around anymore since the thing at the plant, but I still see him. He talks to me, so I talk back. Simple enough."




 "Your dad is here? How cool is that? Is he a mutant too? Is he like invisible or something?"




			
				buzzard said:
			
		

> He then turns to the side as if listening to someone else.
> "Huh? OK alright". Turning back to Michelle he asks "He wants to know how much steel needs to be in the item before you can pick it up, and are you limited to properly ferromagnetic materials, or can you work on things which are paramagnetic which are, umm I don't remember the rest, it was technical. I wish he'd ask people this sort of thing himself."




"There doesn't have to be alot of ferrous metal in an object for me to be able to lift it, obviously the more there is the easier it is, but there is the danger of me just ripping out the metal. Take for instance a human being, there is iron in the blood and trace amounts throughout the body, so technically I should be able to lift someone up but there is a chance that I would pull out all of the iron from their body, so I haven't actually tried that yet." She says with a small shudder. 

"What I really want to try is to control computers at a distance, you see a magnetic feild can create electricity, so if I use my powers carefully enough I should be able to use my powers like a remote control of sorts. I did try it on a computer once, but it sort of imploded... boy was my brother pissed. I can sometime use my ablities on paramagnetic metals, it's tends to be random, but the doctors said that as my ablities grow my control over them should get better. What about you? Does it hurt when you stretch like that?"


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## Dalamar (Dec 24, 2003)

"While I think it would be interesting to test the limits of my ability, I have a concern you are not proposing this just for the sake of science. And I would rather first have the power work on my beckon, not on a whim."


----------



## Mordane76 (Dec 26, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> You touch Dara's cheek and groan in pain as your head develops a raging migraine.  Dara stirs, unhurt, as you collapse to the ground, unconscious.  After a few moments, you also sit up, though you still have a mild headache.





X12 sits up, pulls his glove up, and straightens his clothes.  He stands, and turns towards the stairs again.  "Mag-Lev... that will be nice."


----------



## Velmont (Dec 26, 2003)

OOC: Tell me when I will come back to my senses.


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## buzzard (Dec 26, 2003)

Mimic said:
			
		

> "Your dad is here? How cool is that? Is he a mutant too? Is he like invisible or something?"




"You don't seem him? You know lots of people say that. I see him just fine. I don't think he's a mutant or anything. I think he just avoids people these days...since the accident. Where'd he go?" 
He replies while looking around as if for someone. 



			
				Mimic said:
			
		

> "What I really want to try is to control computers at a distance, you see a magnetic feild can create electricity, so if I use my powers carefully enough I should be able to use my powers like a remote control of sorts. I did try it on a computer once, but it sort of imploded... boy was my brother pissed. I can sometime use my ablities on paramagnetic metals, it's tends to be random, but the doctors said that as my ablities grow my control over them should get better. What about you? Does it hurt when you stretch like that?"




"Nope, I don't feel any pain. It's just kinda like a good stretch to the muscles. " John explains as he reaches above his head as if to stretch, but elongates appreciably. 

buzzard


----------



## Mimic (Dec 27, 2003)

buzzard said:
			
		

> "You don't seem him? You know lots of people say that. I see him just fine. I don't think he's a mutant or anything. I think he just avoids people these days...since the accident. Where'd he go?"
> He replies while looking around as if for someone.




"Ah, no I haven't seen him at all. Is he around alot? What happened with the accident?"



			
				buzzard said:
			
		

> "Nope, I don't feel any pain. It's just kinda like a good stretch to the muscles. " John explains as he reaches above his head as if to stretch, but elongates appreciably.




"Ohhh, very cool how far can you stretch?"


----------



## buzzard (Dec 27, 2003)

Mimic said:
			
		

> "Ah, no I haven't seen him at all. Is he around alot? What happened with the accident?"





"Actually, I'd rather not talk about that." He replies with a sad look on his face. 




			
				Mimic said:
			
		

> "Ohhh, very cool how far can you stretch?"
> 
> 
> "Oh, about 15 feet or so  I think. I also seem to get bigger when I envelop people. I'm also rather hard to hurt when I'm doing a wrap up type move and I seem to get stronger."


----------



## Calinon (Dec 27, 2003)

Kevin recovers from the mental shock and the high speed spin to the ground, finding himself being helped up by the telepath, Dara, having been unceremoniously left lying among shards of glass and by Vince.

"I can't believe he just left you lying here," she says as she kicks some larger pieces of glass away from you.  "_Hold still you're cut!  Ooo, I hate blood," _she says directly to your mind as she holds a cloth napkin to the back of your head.  "_Oh no, I'm doing it again!" _she exclaims telepathically.  "Sorry," she says as she helps you to a nearby bench, casting a non-too-impressed glare at Vince as she does.

Michelle and John come downstairs, Cosmo floating in a magnetic field between them.  Cosmo has regained consciousness and is struggling against his metalic bonds.  "Don't mind me," he says confidently.  "I'll let myself out."  He executes a twist and flip of sorts, and lands on the floor to the right of the peices of metal that are still floating in the magnetic field.  "Thanks for the lift," he says as he saunters towards Grandmother's bench.

Grandmother is sitting next to Sanjay on a bench by an escalator going down to another level.  She raps her cane on the floor three times again, grabbing everyone's attention and bringing everyone towards her.  In a few minutes everyone is there, Jackal still looming over Anna's wheelchair, acting as an intimidating Chauffeur.

"I'm able to move myself around, jerk.  Let go of my chair," Anna says confrontationally.

Jackal snorts in response.  "Don't wanna, and you can't make me," he growls.

"Wrong on one count," Anna mutters and clicks a button on a small device in her hand.  Jackal howls and clamps his hands over his ears, staggering back and then crashing to his knees.

"Alright, children," she says once everyone is present, ignoring Jackal's discomfort for a very long moment.  "Alright, that's enough Anna," she finally says.  "Jackal, come here.  If you are going to help someone move around, you may as well help me."  It takes Jackal several moments to gather his wits before he does as she asks.

"Now, we'll go downstairs and wait for the Mag-Lev.  For those of you that haven't seen it, it should be quite a treat.  There's an arcade downstairs to keep you occupied while you wait."  With Jackal helping her and Pooky running along beside her, Grandmother leads the way downstairs to the Mag-Lev terminal.

*The Mag-Lev Terminal*

As you enter the terminal, you are greeted to perhaps one of the cleanest places you've ever seen.  The floor is almost a mirror, as are the walls.  The ceiling is sound insulated tile.  Everything is a sterile white.  There are maps of the Mag-Lev route and city sites around the terminal, an internet cafe that is open across the terminal and several bank machines and vending machines along the walls.  The arcade is to your left.  The track for the Mag-Lev enters from the right, and the terminal is a dead end, with the platform circling around the end of the track.  There is a gap between the platform and track that is easily twelve feet from any part of the platform.

As you all take in the sight, Michelle walks forward slowly, as if in a daze.  Her eyes are fixated on the six foot wide magnetic track twelve feet from the edge of the platform that bisects the circular terminal.  It emits a very soft hum.  She reaches the edge of the platform before anyone notices her and is floating above the ground, hand reached out towards the track.

*Michelle*

The controlled magnetic field of the track is perhaps the most amazing thing you have ever experienced.  You wonder if you could control it, or maybe even absorb it!  If only you could reach it... hmm... it's a good twelve feet away on all sides.  But can't you fly?


----------



## Mule (Dec 27, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> There's an arcade downstairs to keep you occupied while you wait.




Randall's ears perk up when he hears mention of a video arcade.  His unnatural manual dexterity allows him to dominate any game.  He's spent many hours wasting his day away in arcades across the continent, he can stretch some pocket change a long way.  "I'll take any of you on in the arcade, any game of your choice!" he issues an open challenge.  He is so excited he doesn't even notice Michelle's trance-like state upon seeing the Mag-Lev.


----------



## Mimic (Dec 28, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> Michelle and John come downstairs, Cosmo floating in a magnetic field between them.  Cosmo has regained consciousness and is struggling against his metalic bonds.  "Don't mind me," he says confidently.  "I'll let myself out."  He executes a twist and flip of sorts, and lands on the floor to the right of the peices of metal that are still floating in the magnetic field.  "Thanks for the lift," he says as he saunters towards Grandmother's bench.




Michelle glares at the boy walking away, her anger evident by the floating metal that is slowly compressing into a tiny cube. "What an ass, the next time remind me to entomb him." With a small sigh she lets the cube drop to the floor with a small clang.



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> The track for the Mag-Lev enters from the right, and the terminal is a dead end, with the platform circling around the end of the track. There is a gap between the platform and track that is easily twelve feet from any part of the platform.




Michelle's anger for Cosmo is all but forgotten as she gets her first look at the at the magnetic track, "It's beautiful" she says to no one in general as she walks up to the edge of the platform. "I can feel it from here, I have to touch it." 

The air close to her body ripples as she steps off the platform and starts to float towards the track, unknowning and uncaring whether anyone notices what she is doing. She glides up close to the magnetic field and places her hand within a few millimeters of it feeling the ebb and flow of the power that pulses from the track.


----------



## Elementor (Dec 28, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> Kevin recovers from the mental shock and the high speed spin to the ground, finding himself being helped up by the telepath, Dara, having been unceremoniously left lying among shards of glass and by Vince.
> 
> "I can't believe he just left you lying here," she says as she kicks some larger pieces of glass away from you.  "_Hold still you're cut!  Ooo, I hate blood," _she says directly to your mind as she holds a cloth napkin to the back of your head.  "_Oh no, I'm doing it again!" _she exclaims telepathically.  "Sorry," she says as she helps you to a nearby bench, casting a non-too-impressed glare at Vince as she does.




"Hey sweetie.  I just save em, I don't heal em.  I left him there for X to take care of."  Rather than letting this become an arguement, Vince heads down towards the arcade.



			
				Mule said:
			
		

> Randall's ears perk up when he hears mention of a video arcade.  His unnatural manual dexterity allows him to dominate any game.  He's spent many hours wasting his day away in arcades across the continent, he can stretch some pocket change a long way.  "I'll take any of you on in the arcade, any game of your choice!" he issues an open challenge.




"Oh man!  You are SO on!!  What kind of game you wanna play?"


----------



## Agamon (Dec 28, 2003)

"Pff, games.  I have much more important things to do," Sanjay says to no one in particular.  He nods a farewell to Grandmother as he gets up and makes his way over to where Raisa is standing.  "Hey, señorita, my name's Sanjay.  Don't tell me, let me guess...your power is to make everyone around you shorter," he says, looking up at her with a grin.


----------



## Deva (Dec 28, 2003)

Agamon said:
			
		

> "Pff, games.  I have much more important things to do," Sanjay says to no one in particular.  He nods a farewell to Grandmother as he gets up and makes his way over to where Raisa is standing.  "Hey, señorita, my name's Sanjay.  Don't tell me, let me guess...your power is to make everyone around you shorter," he says, looking up at her with a grin.




Raisa smiles at Sanjay and chuckles softly, tossing her backpack and jacket onto a nearby chair. "Something like that." She keeps her sunglasses on and sits down next to her things so he didn't have to crane his neck back to look at her. "I'm Raisa, though most people call me Rai."  

She gestures to his silver hair. "Sweet hair. I tried to dye mine gold once, didn't work and ended up neon green for a few weeks. Mama threatened to cut it all off if I tried it again." Raisa leans back in the chair, finally removing her sunglasses and draping her arms over the back. " No offense or anything, but is your skin really metal or does it just look that way?"


----------



## Dalamar (Dec 28, 2003)

"Somebody might want to stop that girl, whatever her name was. Unless her mutation grants her resistance against magnetic forces, she is about to suffer great pain once the electrons and protons of her form are being pulled to different directions by the magnetic field."

*OoC:* Take that with a grain of salt, I don't personally know really much about magnetic fields and the forces they generate.


----------



## Mordane76 (Dec 28, 2003)

Dalamar said:
			
		

> *OoC:* Take that with a grain of salt, I don't personally know really much about magnetic fields and the forces they generate.




_OOC: The magnetic field itself shouldn't do a whole heck of a lot to her... it's the massive amounts of electricity running through the rails on the Mag-Lev that will leave her with a major headache -- it's a lot like a subway's third, power-supplying rail in theory._


"Trust me, you don't want to do that," X12 says, walking up behind Michelle.  "Making suitcases float is one thing, but unless your arm has a resistance value high enough to take being hit by lightning a few times, I'd pull your hand back -- your hair won't ever be the same again, and your complexion won't look good in charred black..."


----------



## Agamon (Dec 28, 2003)

Deva said:
			
		

> She gestures to his silver hair. "Sweet hair. I tried to dye mine gold once, didn't work and ended up neon green for a few weeks. Mama threatened to cut it all off if I tried it again." Raisa leans back in the chair, finally removing her sunglasses and draping her arms over the back. " No offense or anything, but is your skin really metal or does it just look that way?"




"Well, I'm glad you like it," Sanjay says, motioning to the short-cropped hair on his head, "because, from what I understand, it's staying like that for the rest of my natural life.  As for the skin, I dunno.  It's kinda like metal," he replies, rapping on the side of his head with his knuckles, *tink, tink*, "but it still sorta acts like skin, too," he adds, pushing his finger into his cheek.  He shrugs, "Really, I think in the grand scheme, I was meant to be attached to the top of a life-sized trophy."  He raises his arms in a frozen victory pose and goofy grin on his face.


----------



## Calinon (Dec 29, 2003)

Cosmo hears X12 and Johan and sees Michelle float out towards the track. He grabs Rebound by the arm and drags him to the edge of the platform quickly.

"Dolts," he mutters. "Hope you inflate fast," he says, then shoves Rebound into the drop-off beneath the track. Twin beams of black energy shoot from Cosmo's eyes and strike Michelle in the back. Michelle suddenly blinks, finds herself barely an inch away from grabbing the track, then screams and falls straight down, landing on Rebound and bouncing off him and into X12, bowling X12 over and landing heavily on him.

_OOC: Michelle fails her will save versus Cosmo's Neutralization power, rendering her temporarily without powers._

Jackson (Rebound) climbs up a lader shortly after, looking right ticked off. He storms up to Cosmo, who is now standing over X12 and Michelle, spins him around by the shoulder and clobbers him in the jaw, knocking Cosmo cold.

"You could have killed me, you dick," he says. Cosmo, naturally, drools on the tile floor in response.

Everyone in the area hears Jackal let out a howl and sees him charge at Rebound, in hybrid form.


----------



## buzzard (Dec 29, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> "You could have killed me, you dick," he says. Cosmo, naturally, drools on the tile floor in response.
> 
> Everyone in the area hears Jackal let out a howl and sees him charge at Rebound, in hybrid form.




John is going to try to wrap him up before he can get to Rebound. 

buzzard


----------



## Agamon (Dec 29, 2003)

Sanjay, hearing the howl, turns to see Jackal charging Rebound.  "Oh, for crying out loud.  Everyone here has become such fast friends..."

_If he can react fast enough, Neutron will use Transmutation +7 to put up a 10' high, 15' wide, 5' thick brick wall in front of Rebound, between him and Jackal._


----------



## Mordane76 (Dec 29, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> Michelle suddenly blinks, finds herself barely an inch away from grabbing the track, then screams and falls straight down, landing on Rebound and bouncing off him and into X12, bowling X12 over and landing heavily on him.




"Well," X12 says, pushing Michelle unceremoniously, yet not roughly off of him, "at least I'm good for something today."


Standing up, X12 preps to head over to Jackson just as Jackal pipes off and shifts forms.  He pauses a moment, then steps as though to place himself between Jackson and Jackal.  "Let your genius of a brother fight his own battles when he wakes up.  He might be a complete and totally abusive jerk, with little regard for potential consequences, but he did have an incredibly intelligent and resourceful idea, considering."


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## Dalamar (Dec 29, 2003)

"Indeed, that was an intelligent idea, even if he did execute it in an unacceptable manner."
Saying that, Johan pulls out his notebook again and makes notes of what happened. Sometimes he wonders why he does it when he hasn't forgotten a single thing so far...


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## Calinon (Dec 29, 2003)

*The Fight*

_Initiatives:  Neutron 19; Straightjacket 18; MM 16 (no power); Rebound 12; Jackal 11; X12 5_

Jackal charges with a feral howl, knocking several surprised teens aside.  About ten feet from Rebound, a brick wall suddenly materializes in his path.  "Your illusions won't work on me!" he shouts moments before there is a loud _smack_ as he hits the very solid, and non-illusionary, brick wall.

_OOC:  Jackal believes Loki to be responsible for the wall and hits it full force, suffering a stun hit and ending his charge.  He still has a half action remaining._

To Sanjay's right, Grandmother can be clearly heard saying, "Well done Sanjay.  Contain the danger.  But I don't think it was completely effective."

Her words prove true enough as Jackal recovers immediately and leaps the brick barrier with relative ease, landing nimbly and unfurling six inch long claws from each hand.  "Ok, maybe it wasn't an illusion," he growls, a bruise showing over his right canine eye and blood trickling from his snout.

"No claws, child," Grandmother calls calmly.

"Right, sorry Grandma," Jackal says, his claws vanishing as John begins to stretch, attempting to engulf Jackal.

_OOC:  John stretches quickly around Jackal, getting a total score of 18 in the grappling attempt.  Do you want to use a hero point to re-roll?_


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## buzzard (Dec 29, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> *The Fight*
> 
> 
> _OOC:  John stretches quickly around Jackal, getting a total score of 18 in the grappling attempt.  Do you want to use a hero point to re-roll?_




Since that's already an 11 on the die, I'll keep it. 

buzzard


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## Mimic (Dec 29, 2003)

Having no powers Michelle will get out of the way of the upcoming fight.


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## Calinon (Dec 29, 2003)

_OOC:  It's actually a 10 dice roll; you have +7 in melee, and another +1 when grappling.  Growth hadn't been activated yet._

*The Fight continues*

_Initiatives: Neutron 19; Straightjacket 18; MM 16 (no power); Rebound 12; Jackal 11; X12 5_

Straightjacket appears to have a hold of Jackal when Jackal vanishes and a four legged Jackal suddenly twists and weaves his way free of the entangling form of the wrestler.  A short second later, Jackal is back in hybrid form, five feet behind Straightjacket.

Michelle quickly steps away from the battle, putting thirty feet between her and the combat as Jackal leaps forward towards X12, ending up a mere five feet away from X12, and only ten feet from Rebound.  Rebound inflates, expanding to a ten foot round ball, and with a sound not unlike a basketball, bursts into bouncing motion, ricocheting off the ceiling above X12 and impacting hard into Jackal.  His momentum carries him careening past Straightjacket and into Neutron's wall.

_OOC:  Rebound uses power attack and attempts to slam Jackal, using a hero point if the dice roll is under 15.  He rolls a 3, hero-point used and gets a 20 total.  Jackal fails his damage save by 6 and is stunned, taking one stun damage, and spends a hero point to shake off the stunned condition._

_Michelle feels her powers rapidly returning and thinks she should be back to full power momentarily (at the start of next combat round)._

"Nicely done Jackson," says Grandmother.  "But you need to work on the exit from that attack."

*What was that?*
Raisa, Johan, Kevin and X12 hear Grandmother say quite quietly, "Go help Jackal, Pooky."  Raisa and Kevin see Pooky wag his tail and vanish.  Neutron notices Grandmother's dog appear atop the brick wall he created.

*The Arcade*
Vince and Randall, along with a number of other students, have rushed to the arcade.  It is an amazing room, about 50' x 30', filled with loud sounds and flashing lights of holographic video games.  A 3D head to head space combat simulator is in the center of the room, begging to be played.  The sounds are loud enough, once you add the sounds of teens playing the games, that none of you notice the battle going on outside.

*Back to the combat...*
Jackal is only feet in front of X12, crouched down and ready to attack.  He looks behind X12 and towards the floor, and his lips curl into a feral grin.  X12, you have a very bad feeling that Cosmo was not as badly hurt as you believed by Rebound.

_OOC:  *X12, it is your turn.*  Anyone else aside from those in the arcade, who want in on the battle, can post their actions or wait patiently for their turn.  Next round initiatives are as follows, should people want to engage:_

_Pooky 24; Cosmo 19; Neutron 19; Straightjacket 18; Stealer 17; MM 16; Rebound 12; Jackal 11; Amazon 10; X12 5; Johan 1 (ouch)
_


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## buzzard (Dec 30, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> _Pooky 24; Cosmo 19; Neutron 19; Straightjacket 18; Stealer 17; MM 16; Rebound 12; Jackal 11; Amazon 10; X12 5; Johan 1 (ouch)
> _




I imagine I'll try to wrap him up again. If the shapechange will get him free, I'll try to stretch and completely englobe him so there isn't a way out (call it a pin maybe). 

buzzard


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## Agamon (Dec 30, 2003)

Sanjay can't help but laugh as Jackal slams into the wall.  "Actually," he says, responding to Grandmother, "I wasn't trying to contain, just dissuade.  Wolfboy, there, has a harder head then I thought though...luckily for him."  He chuckles again.  Momentarily glancing in amusement to Rai, he continues to watch the engagement, not currently interested in taking sides.


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## Mordane76 (Dec 30, 2003)

"I won't fight you," X12 says, tensing for action, "but I also won't let you just use me for a chew-toy."

_OOC: Stepping so I can see both brothers in (at least) my peripheral vision, I will go into total defense._


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## Calinon (Dec 30, 2003)

Mordane76 said:
			
		

> "I won't fight you," X12 says, tensing for action, "but I also won't let you just use me for a chew-toy."
> 
> _OOC: Stepping so I can see both brothers in (at least) my peripheral vision, I will go into total defense._



X12 turns hoping to be able to watch both brothers, but can't see Cosmo.  He turns fully to find Cosmo still on the ground unconscious.  He gets a confused look on his face, then realization hits him that he was duped.

_OOC:  X12 fails his sense motive check against Jackal's bluff, losing his dodge bonus next round as he recovers.  Sorry, couldn't let on it was just a bluff _

*Round 2*
_Initiative:  Pooky 24; Cosmo 19; Neutron 19; Straightjacket 18; Stealer 17; MM 16; Rebound 12; Jackal 11; Amazon 10; X12 5; Johan 1_

_Currently, Rebound is standing nearest the brick wall created by Neutron.  Pooky is atop it.  Straightjacket is about 10' from Rebound, and another 10' (pretty much a straight line) from Jackal's back.  X12 is between Jackal and the still unconscious Cosmo, trying to recover from Jackal's trickery.  Neutron and Amazon stand about twenty feet to the left of Jackal.  Grandmother is a few feet behind them sitting on a bench.  Stealer is near the bottom of the stairs with Johan, about 30' past Jackal._

Pooky looks down from the wall at Straightjacket and Rebound and lets out a bark.  A visible cone of some sort of force extends down and envelops the pair.  The two start to slow down.

_OOC:  Pooky's bark triggers a time-stoppage.  Rebound fails his saving throw and freezes in time momentarily.  Straightjacket gets a score of 14 on his WILL save (die roll of 15).  Do you want to use a hero point to re-roll?  _

_With Neutron staying neutral, and assuming Stealer isn't going to leap in to interfere, Straightjacket will be next, followed by MM._

*The Arcade*
Most of the games were rapidly taken.  The head to head space combat simulator is free though, probably because it costs $2 a game.  The holographic imaging is incredible, and it's just begging to be played.


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## Mule (Dec 30, 2003)

"Played it, played it, played it...."  Randall is nosing through the arcade looking for a game that interest him.  When he spots the 3-D space combat simulator he shouts out over the noise of the crowd, "Hey speedy!" looking at Vince, "Check that sucker out!  You ready to lose?"  Randall hustles over to the machine, eager to play.

OOC: very subtle hinting there Calinon... heh


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## buzzard (Dec 30, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> n.
> 
> _OOC:  Pooky's bark triggers a time-stoppage.  Rebound fails his saving throw and freezes in time momentarily.  Straightjacket gets a score of 14 on his WILL save (die roll of 15).  Do you want to use a hero point to re-roll?  _




Nah, A 15 is a pretty good roll. 

buzzard


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## Mimic (Dec 30, 2003)

"Interesting that grandma hasn't stopped this yet, maybe she is watching our combat skills or something." Michelle mutters to herself. 

The air close around her ripples as she raises her arm and a variety of chairs, tables and other assorted metal objects floats up in response, she makes a small pointing gesture towards Jackel and the objects hurl themselves at the hopefully unsupecting mutant.

_If I can just pin him down with this stuff this fight can be over with._ She thinks to herself

(OOC: Going for a takedown, swarm him with the objects and keep him pinned with the magnetic control. Plus not ripping out terminals from the floor or anything like that, trying for no structural damage. If there is no easily gotten metal she will attack with an energy blast)

Regardless of what happens she will rise up close to the ceiling.

OOC: Activate force field +8 (free action), Energy Control: magnetics(half action), Activate flight (half action)


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## Velmont (Dec 31, 2003)

*Mimic Power: Loki*

OOC: Sorry for my silence. I hope it won`t stay like that for long. I should have a connection in the next two days and come see the game each day after that.

Back in time a bit...

From the airport terminal, all the time, Kevin was taking care of his wound. He seems he didn't take what had happen and prefer to stay in his corner.

When Cosmo get the hit from rebound, Kevin quickly laugh. "What a team!" But the action start to grow fastly and he starts to be a bit confused.

Holding his action up to now, he exclamate to grandmother: "Easy to say, all I have is Loki powers, and they are more usefull out of combat, except..."

Kevin shout: "Jackal, move to the side!"

Kevin try the power of Loki, creating another Jackal image. It will appear on Jackal and move on the other side, so Rebound may be a bit confuse for a moment seeig double, giving Jackal an opportunity.

Concentrating to give some real life to the illusion, Kevin ask to Grandmother: "Does Jackal can see in the dark?"


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## Calinon (Dec 31, 2003)

*Back to the battle*
_Initiative: Pooky 24; Cosmo 19; Neutron 19; Straightjacket 18; Stealer 17; MM 16; Rebound 12; Jackal 11; Amazon 10; X12 5; Johan 1_

*Straighjacket*
You invoke your growth, now towering over Jackal, and prepare to engulf him.

*Everyone Else*
Straightjacket freezes in mid growth, obviously briefly trapped by the time altering cone.  

_OOC:  Straightjacket, from your point of view, there is no pause and don't worry, it's a harmless effect._

A second image of Jackal appears beside the original, and it become exceedingly hard to tell the two apart.

The air around Michelle ripples and a clear sphere of magnetic energy surrounds her and she rises into the air.  She extends her arms forward towards a metal laticework table and chairs outside the cafe, and they rise slightly on a wave of magnetic energy.  She throws her arms towards Jackal and the furniture hurtles at him.  A chair strikes Jackal in the side and he kicks the table away.  The second chair whizzes through the illusionary Jackal, crashing to the floor nearby.

_OOC:  Michelle scores a hit against Jackal with her trip attack, having correctly guessed which was the real one, and Jackal takes a stun hit from the impact, but manages to keep his feet.  The fake Jackal is still there after a momentary disruption, giving Jackal partial cover from ranged attacks.  Michelle is now about 20' in the air, near the stairs.  Rebound is up next, but loses his round of action in the vortex._

Grandmother chuckles as Stealer creates the image.  "Very well done, Kevin, but I think you forgot that our Jackal has a bloody nose right now.  As for seeing in the dark, that's for you to determine, not me, deary."

Jackal ignores Michelle and with a *snick* unfurles his claws again.  With a quick slash, he's reduces X12's shirt back to shreds, moments before attempting to throw him to the ground atop Cosmo by hooking his leg behind X12's and shoving, hard!  X12 realizes the tactic is to make him come into skin-to-skin contact with Cosmo and heal his unconsciousness.

_OOC:  Jackal has been paying attention to the power descriptions of everyone.  He shreds the back of X12's shirt without even scratching X12 at all, then attempts a trip of his own!  X12 makes his sense motive check to determine what Jackal is planning.  Jackal scores the initial hit easily thanks to his cleverness of last round, and now the two engage in opposed rolls.  If X12 loses, Cosmo may just be waking up!_

_Jackal will use a hero-point to re-roll the opposed check if he rolls less than 15.  X12, you have a score (die roll + strenth modifier) of 18.  Do you want to use a hero point to re-roll?_

_After X12 decides, Amazon is up._


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## Calinon (Dec 31, 2003)

_Posting on behalf of Elementor who's computer is el deado..._

"Give up Randy!  You're goin' down faster than I can run from here to Venezuela!" he says zipping to the simulator.  "You realize this will look as fast as grass growing to me, right?  I mean, heck, I'll pay to watch you lose!" he says, dropping four bucks into the machine.  "I just hope the controls on this thing can keep up."


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## Mordane76 (Dec 31, 2003)

_OOC - No, I won't reroll... I can't do much better than that._


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## Deva (Dec 31, 2003)

Raisa watches everything with a rather bored and unimpressed expression on her face. After a few moments she finally shakes her head, slouches down in her chair and lowers her sunglasses over her eyes. She tilts her head back to look at Grandmother who sits behind her. " It was a long flight from Brazil, would you mind waking me when our ride gets here?" She folds her arms over her chest while stiffling a yawn.


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## Calinon (Dec 31, 2003)

*The Battle Continues*

_Initiative: Pooky 24; Cosmo 19; Neutron 19; Straightjacket 18; Stealer 17; MM 16; Rebound 12; Jackal 11; Amazon 10; X12 5; Johan 1_

_Jackal trips up X12, and sends the boy crashing onto Cosmo.  X12 only comes in brief contact with Cosmo's bare arm, but it's enough to make his jaw hurt something fierce.  His eyes roll back and he falls unconscious.  "Ouch, sorry," X12 hears Jackal say with some honesty in his tone as his world goes black.

__OOC:  Jackal rolls a 9, hero point is used and rolls a 14, giving him a score that beats an 18, but I'm not gonna tell you just what it is   X12's empathic healing cause him to take a stun hit, and fall unconscious.  You can use a hero point to make an immediate check to recover from unconsciousness, and if successful you'd just be dazed (-2 to all actions) and would go before Neutron.  Um... forget if... you automatically would make it (+9 to the roll on DC 10)._

While Raisa reclines and Johan makes notes rapidly, Pooky vanishes with a bark, reappearing just above Michelle.  He lands with his belly over her head in a most undignified way, with Michelle now looking like she's wearing a weiner dog hat, barks again and the two vanish.  Michelle finds herself standing at the top of the stairs leading down to the Mag-Lev station, Pooky sitting at her feet looking quite proud of himself.  Pooky pants, sits up on his hind legs and wags his tail, looking like he's expecting a treat.

Cosmo sits up, looking completely disoriented, X12 still draped across him.  Straightjacket and Rebound both show signs of movement as Straightjacket continues his growth spurt.  Straighjacket continues to move to engulf Jackal, only to see two Jackals in front of him and X12 unconscious on the ground.

"Raisa, darling," Grandmother says, tapping the girl on the shoulder with her cane as Raisa reclines.  "Be a dear and get X12 out of harms way."  _Raisa is non-combatant,_ everyone in the station and arcade hears in their minds, in a tone that brooks no argument about the subject.

_OOC:  Neutron is up, then Straightjacket, Stealer and MM._


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## Mordane76 (Dec 31, 2003)

_OOC: Won't waste it -- why should I, when I'll automatically come conscious in just under a minute, and that stun hit is gone almost before I hit the floor?  And, with the Regeneration, Super-Con, and taking into account stacking of powers limitations, if stacking limits count on this combination of powers, I have a +12 to recover from unconsciousness, or a +16 if these powers stack without limitation._


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## Velmont (Dec 31, 2003)

"In that case, animals are suppose to have a better night vision."

Using Loki powers, I supress as much light as possible around Jackal. If it`s become total darkness, I stop using the illusion power and I rush on rebound, and touch him to mimic his powers. Note: with Loki feats, I can see in darkness. I will re-roll any damage roll (in case of backlash or any other thing during that combat) that put me out of combat defenitively. 

If it is still possible to see, I continue with the illusion and try to figure what next.


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## buzzard (Dec 31, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> _OOC:  Neutron is up, then Straightjacket, Stealer and MM._




Then I'm not frozen anymore?
If I'm not, I will continue trying to envelop Jackal just so this nonsense stops. 

"Uhh, Grandma, what is this, some kind of game?"


buzzard


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## Calinon (Dec 31, 2003)

_Initiative: Pooky 24; Cosmo 19; Neutron 19; Straightjacket 18; Stealer 17; MM 16; Rebound 12; Jackal 11; Amazon 10; X12 5 (KO)_

Cosmo stands up and beams of black energy once more shoot from his eyes, striking Straightjacket in the chest.  Straightjacket shrinks down to normal size again as he advances on Jackal.  The wressler completely ignores the illusionary Jackal, passing through it as if it isn't even there and throws an arm around Jackal's neck, pulling Jackals arm behind him in a nasty elbow lock.  Though Jackal struggles, he doesn't manage to escape the hold.

_OOC:  Cosmo neutralizes Straighjacket's powers thinking it will eliminate the threat (SJ's save score was 13).  Straighjacket's training allows him to get a good hold of Jackal (attack score 25), and despite Jackals size and obvious greater strength, the wolf boy can't break free (Grapple check SJ 18, Jackal 16)_

The lights around the combatants dims, creating a shadow in a fifteen foot radius around Jackal as the lights above him are snuffed out.  You all hear Grandmother rap her cane once on the ground and she says, "Cease!"  She stands and hobbles over towards everyone.

"Let him go John.  I am impressed that you managed to maintain your focus despite Cosmo neutralizing your power and didn't try to hurt him.  And it was more a test, John, not a game.  I was curious to see if anyone had any leadership qualities.  Jackal," she says, patting th boy on his arm.  "That was a clever way of waking your brother up, though I distinctly remember saying no claws," she scolds Jackal, now back in human form.

"I didn't even scratch him," Jackal mumbles.

"Michelle is lucky you had the sense to take some action before she was harmed, Cosmo.  But that does _not_ excuse putting a fellow student in mortal danger!"  She glares at Cosmo, and though he says no appology, he has the common sense to look away a bit embarassed after a few long and awkward moments.

"Yah, you idiot, I coulda bee..." starts Rebound.

"And you, Mister Burton," Grandmother says angrily, "had better control that temper of yours in the future.  Kevin, return the lighting to its normal level please."  As he does so, a female computerized voice comes over the speaker system.

"Mag-Lev arriving at Terminal F in three minutes.  Mag-Lev arriving at Terminal F in three minutes."

Grandmother looks up at John and says, "John dear, could you go find Michelle and Pooky for me?  Kevin; gather the rest of the students and have them pair up for the trip please.  Sanjay; clean up your wall and put the table and chairs back, using your powers only," she says with a slight grin.  "Raisa, lay X12 on that bench until he comes around.  Jackal, you'll stay with me, and _you_ two," she says to Cosmo and Rebound, "are not leaving my sight.  Consider yourselves 'buddies.'"

"Aw man," they say in unison, looking none too pleased.

_OOC:  X12, you come to as Raisa puts you on the bench.  Everyone can pick a travel partner, first come first serve, or can just get a random one if you want._


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## Mule (Dec 31, 2003)

After spending almost all his cash playing video games with Vince, Randall is ready to leave anyways.  He's never had any competition like Vince before, both of them have exceptional hand-eye coordination.  A friendly rivalry is the result.

"Man, where did you learn that trick on Aliens Tomb?  Next time you should dodge left when I use my flame attack in Death Combat.  That space combat simulator was awesome wasn't it?"

Upon leaving the arcade, Randall instantly notices that something happened while he and Vince were in the arcade.  Judging from the mess, there was a fight.  From the looks of Jackal, X12, Rebound, Straightjacket and Cosmo, they were the combatants.

"Looks like we missed the show," Randall says to Vince.  Randall will find Kevin whom he saw in the arcade rounding the rest of the students up.  "What happened Kev, what did I miss out here?"

OOC:  I understand Elementor's computer is kaput, but I will try to partner up with him for the Mag-Lev ride.  Give Randall some more time to talk video game strategy with Vince.


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## Mordane76 (Dec 31, 2003)

Coming to, X12 sits up and takes stock of his clothes and location.  He thanks Raisa for pulling him back to a safe place, and looks himself and the area over.  

Cosmo awake, shirt ripped, headache... Working it all over in his mind,  X12 calls over to the Jackal, "Hey Jackal, you owe me a shirt."  He hops up and closes the distance to the four (Grandmother, Jackal, Cosmo, and Rebound).  Once he closes to Jackal, and everyone starts loading onto the Mag-Lev, he says, "Next time you want your brother awake, since we both know someone else will knock him out for something soon, trying asking -- I hate being used as smelling salts against my will."  As he turns away to get on the Mag-Lev, he adds, "Wasn't a bad move, though," he says with a smile.


_OOC: X12 doesn't look for a partner; if someone wants me, just ask._


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## Mimic (Dec 31, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> *The Battle Continues*
> 
> Pooky vanishes with a bark, reappearing just above Michelle.  He lands with his belly over her head in a most undignified way, with Michelle now looking like she's wearing a weiner dog hat, barks again and the two vanish.  Michelle finds herself standing at the top of the stairs leading down to the Mag-Lev station, Pooky sitting at her feet looking quite proud of himself.  Pooky pants, sits up on his hind legs and wags his tail, looking like he's expecting a treat.




"Hey, what the..."  is all she says before vanishing, "hell." she finishes as she reappears at the top of the stairs.

Dropping her forcefield she bends over and scratches the dog behind it's ears. "Ok, I get the hint, no butting in where I am not wanted. Sorry Pooky, I don't have any doggy treats on me, but grandma probably does, so lets go get you some."  She tells the dog as she stands up and starts to walk down the stairs.



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> "Mag-Lev arriving at Terminal F in three minutes. Mag-Lev arriving at Terminal F in three minutes."
> 
> Grandmother looks up at John and says, "John dear, could you go find Michelle and Pooky for me? Kevin; gather the rest of the students and have them pair up for the trip please.




"No need to find us, here we are."  Michelle states as she walks up to grandma. "That's a very talented dog you have, I think he is expecting a treat."  Once that Pooky and grandma are reunited Michelle will walk up to Anna. "Hi Anna, I was wondering if you wanted to be partners for trip?"


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## buzzard (Dec 31, 2003)

Calinon said:
			
		

> "Let him go John.  I am impressed that you managed to maintain your focus despite Cosmo neutralizing your power and didn't try to hurt him.  And it was more a test, John, not a game.  I was curious to see if anyone had any leadership qualities.  Jackal," she says, patting th boy on his arm.  "That was a clever way of waking your brother up, though I distinctly remember saying no claws," she scolds Jackal, now back in human form.




John does as ordered and drops the hold. 





			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> Grandmother looks up at John and says, "John dear, could you go find Michelle and Pooky for me?  "




"Sure, no prob, did anyone notice which way they went?"

buzzard


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## Dalamar (Jan 1, 2004)

"An interesting ordeal" Johan says as he once again stashes his notebook. 
"Interesting to see what the others can do."


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## Calinon (Jan 1, 2004)

*The Mag-Lev Arrives*

Two minutes after the announcment, every has gathered on the platform and the Mag-Lev arrives.  While some of you have seen other train systems operating on a similar system, nothing quite matches up to the sight of the train as it enters the terminal.

The first impression you get is that it's huge!  Filling the track area completely with only a mere inch space between it and the platform on each side, the Mag-Lev is just over 30 feet in width.  There are five, two-story cars, including the two engine cars, and the entire train is painted white.  Through it's windows, you can see rows of comfortable, airline style, seats and a wide isle providing standing room.  A set of circular stairs wind upwards in each car from the middle, to the upper deck.  There is a set of entry doors in the middle of each car, on each side.  A holographic sign on the final car to enter the terminal says "RESERVED BY EPIC" on it.

The train is virtually silent, with only a slight humming indicating a power source.  Braking is rapid but controlled, and the behemoth slides to a halt without any noticeable rocking.  The other four cars are empty of passengers, and the upper deck of the reserved car has no lights on, though you can see through the windows that it, too, is empty.  Now stopped, two men and two women emerge from the lead cockpit and exit near you.  A middle-aged gentleman, most likely the pilot, walks towards you.

"Terribly sorry for the delay, ma'am," he says to Grandmother.  "The techs just got finished fixing a magnetic constrictor problem, but everything is fine now.  Strangest thing too, considering we just had our maintenance last week.  Well, if everyone will follow me, we'll get you all squared away in your car, and be on our way.  It'll be about an hour long trip for you to get to EPIC headquarters, and we still have to pick up other passengers," he says to the group as a whole.

He leads the way to the car, and leads you all in.  As you enter, a steward and stewardess are waiting, and put small metal bracelets on you.  The two are obviously twins, and are both rather incredible looking.  "These will give you Mag-Lev access for the next year.  There's a small microchip inside to let you pass pay terminals without cost, courtesy of the Mag-Lev Corporation," the woman explains once everyone is inside.

There is easily room for 200 people in the car, on the main floor alone.  The chairs are comfortable and roomy, and even recline a fair bit.  Each row of seats has four seats on each side, and there will be plenty of room for passengers and luggage.  There are small round objects on the back of each seat with a small green light on them.  As you take a seat, the light changes from green to red.

"The techs weren't able to restore power upstairs, since we were on a tight time frame, so just stay on the main floor please.  We'll get underway soon," the male steward says.  Soon, as promised, the Mag-Lev accellerates away and exits the station, reaching a rather incredible speed as it races towards the main terminal of the airport to pick up other passengers.

_Most of you feel a tad queesy as the train accellerates.  Michelle gets a bit nautious and has to close her eyes as the power moves the train along.  It kind of makes you happy you didn't touch the track.  Johan, you have calculated that the train can likely hold over 5,000 passengers when fully loaded.  Given the accelleration and fact you still feel like you are speeding up, you estimate the maximum speed to be well over 350 mph._

As the train rolls off, Dara plops down next to X12!  "Hi!  I'm Dara Chen!  _I can fix that shirt cause I'm_ a seamstress!" she says, part spoken, part directly into your mind.  She doesn't actually wait for a response but starts tugging your ripped shirt off and rooting through her bag, pulling out some cloth, thread and needle.  She is extremely bubbly and starts talking about random stuff, from her dog to her family to her own line of designer clothing.  In fact, after a few minutes, you aren't so sure she's working on your shirt, because it sure wasn't red and you know it didn't have any silk in it... Hey, is that a chinese dragon on the back?

Cosmo and Rebound put two seats between each other and grumble constantly.  Soon, the grumbling turns to arguing about "Robot Wars" and who should have won the last series and how they would beat Decimator.

_Pairings:  Loki and Speed Demon, Anna and Michelle, Jackal and Grandma, Cosmo and Rebound (Har har!), X12 and Dara.  Johan, John, Sanjay, Raisa, Kevin, any preferences?_


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## Mordane76 (Jan 1, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> As the train rolls off, Dara plops down next to X12!  "Hi!  I'm Dara Chen!  _I can fix that shirt cause I'm_ a seamstress!" she says, part spoken, part directly into your mind.  She doesn't actually wait for a response but starts tugging your ripped shirt off and rooting through her bag, pulling out some cloth, thread and needle.  She is extremely bubbly and starts talking about random stuff, from her dog to her family to her own line of designer clothing.  In fact, after a few minutes, you aren't so sure she's working on your shirt, because it sure wasn't red and you know it didn't have any silk in it... Hey, is that a chinese dragon on the back?




"Why, thank you," X12 says, regarding her assistance and her exceptional handiwork.  Otherwise, X12 sits quietly and listens attentively to Dara.


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## Agamon (Jan 1, 2004)

Sanjay does as Grandmother asks, removing the wall and fixing up the table and chairs.  He also removes the broken glass upstairs, but decides not to replace the window, as he isn't sure whether it would stay in place or not; best to leave that to professionals.

Realizing the Mag-Lev has pulled up, he flies down to the platform and enters the posh train. "Sweet ride," he says, looking about inside.  He spots an open seat next to Kevin and plunks himself down.  "Hey, buddy, this seat taken?  Name's Sanjay, but you can call me Lord Chromium,"  he deadpans with a perfectly straight face, offering his hand in greeting.


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## Velmont (Jan 1, 2004)

*Mimic: Loki*

OOC: I have a connection. I should show up once a day now.

"No, the seat is empty, you can take it.

My name is Kevin. Nice to meet you. So, what have you done during that little test from Grandmother. It was confusing enough like that that I didn't catch everything. I know I may sound a little annoying asking everyone about their powers, but I am pretty useless except if I can't use others powers.

Look just what happen. Not easy to use on the fly some light controlling power in the middle of the fight. If I can find something else to mimic, I will be in business. I know I can handle more than one power at once. That give a great potential to my powers, but I just learn that it is more dangerous than I thought. Never had such backlash. I once had an headache, but not being knockout like the one I get with Cosmo."


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## Elementor (Jan 1, 2004)

"Yo, Randy over here." Vince calls over to his partner as he grabs some seats amidst the others.  "This is a pretty nice ride, it may not be as fast as me but at least I can catch some Z's in transit this way.  I wonder what this facility is going to look like.  I bet its freakin huge!!"


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## Mimic (Jan 2, 2004)

"Ugh, whoever said taking the train was better then flying was wrong." Michelle says as she lays back in the chair closes her eyes and waits for the queasiness to pass


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## Deva (Jan 2, 2004)

With her backpack over her shoulder, Raisa moved with the rest of the teens as they boarded the Mag-Lev. Seeing him without a "buddy", she sat next to Carl. "Carl, right? I'm Raisa. Hope you don't mind me sitting with you, just everyone else makes me feel like the jolly green giant, you know? No offense of course, just nice to know I'm not going to be tallest in this group. I mean, first time away from home and I was like, it's gonna suck because everyone's gonna be looking at me like 'hey, there's that really tall chick'. So what do you think of all this? It's pretty funky you know, you know? Seriously, I thought I was the weirest thing every and then I see people who blow up into human ballons or turn into rabid dogs and stuff. Guess I'm luckier than I thought, and I suppose it won't be so bad... And I'm talking too much, aren't I? Sorry, I ramble when I'm nervous."

She gulped when the Mag-Lev lurched forward, her hands gripping at the arms of her seat and looking a little paler than normal. " Should have seen me on the jet coming over here, talked the guy's ear off sitting next to me the entire flight. I don't think I handle mass transportation very well..."


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## Agamon (Jan 2, 2004)

Velmont said:
			
		

> "No, the seat is empty, you can take it.
> 
> My name is Kevin. Nice to meet you. So, what have you done during that little test from Grandmother. It was confusing enough like that that I didn't catch everything. I know I may sound a little annoying asking everyone about their powers, but I am pretty useless except if I can't use others powers.
> 
> Look just what happen. Not easy to use on the fly some light controlling power in the middle of the fight. If I can find something else to mimic, I will be in business. I know I can handle more than one power at once. That give a great potential to my powers, but I just learn that it is more dangerous than I thought. Never had such backlash. I once had an headache, but not being knockout like the one I get with Cosmo."




"Whoa, you can copy other people's powers?  That's pretty cool.  I didn't do a whole lot during the 'test', just created the wall to try and stop the furball from chewing on bouncy-guy's leg.  Did you see him smack into the wall?  That was worth the price of admission," Sanjay responds with a grin as he watches the scenery whiz by outside.  

"Don't worry too much about how well you can use your power, Kevin, this is a school we're going to, after all.  It won't be long before you know who you can and can't copy.  Plus you'll be able to get some practice in on using different powers.  Soon, you'll be a copying machine, and then you'll have to change your name to Xerox."


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## Velmont (Jan 2, 2004)

Kevin smiles at what just said. He pick a newpaper that is lying around.

"Yeah, but that mean extra homewrok too. I may have to train qith everyone powers to learn to control them properly. Not bad when you have only one power, but if you have the possibility to meet a lot. Well, now let see what is happening on that continent."

A little ball of light appear above Kevin, ligthing the article he is reading.

"Not bad, Randall's powers."


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## Dalamar (Jan 2, 2004)

"Vince, while your speed seems quite amazing, I have to doubt that you can exceed a speed of over 350 miles per hour."
Johan puts his luggage down to a seat and then goes over to Grandma.
"Excuse me, Grandmother, but how wrong would I be if I said that EPIC arranged so that the Mag-Lev would be late?"


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## Calinon (Jan 2, 2004)

Dalamar said:
			
		

> "Vince, while your speed seems quite amazing, I have to doubt that you can exceed a speed of over 350 miles per hour."
> Johan puts his luggage down to a seat and then goes over to Grandma.
> "Excuse me, Grandmother, but how wrong would I be if I said that EPIC arranged so that the Mag-Lev would be late?"



Grandmother is patting Pooky, who sits on her lap, and listening to Johan and the other students.  "You'd be completely wrong, child.  On both counts, actually, since Vincent can break the sound barrier and EPIC doesn't make a habit of damaging public transportation covertly or otherwise.  Epecially considering we have testing facilities far better equipped than a subway station.  That was my decision, to keep some of the more... exciteable people busy."


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## Mule (Jan 2, 2004)

Randall pulls out the deck of cards that he usually carries with him and starts performing some card tricks to pass the time, and entertain those around him.  Randall's been a pro at that sort of thing long before his powers manifested themselves and can put on quite a show.  However, quickly realizing the effect his illusionary skills could have on his "magic" tricks, he has invented some pretty amazing new stunts.

After a few of the more routine tricks to warm up, and build up an audience,"Pick a card any card,"  Randall says to Vince.  "Don't show it to me, but show it to everyone else."  Randall closes his eyes.  "Now put it back in the deck, anywhere you like."  Opening his eyes, and gesturing grandly, Randall begins his oration.  "What you are all about to see was taught to me by an old native Indian woman.  She showed me how to blur the line between this world and the realm of the spirits.  And, in some cases, even to break it..."  Randall begins to chant some gibberish he hopes sounds like an old dialect.  He then snaps his fingers, and a small "flame" appears at the tip of his right index finger.  Still chanting and holding the deck of cards in his left hand, he touches it with his right, and it quickly ignites.  The deck "burns" fiercely, Randall holds it out on the palm of his hand, seemingly unaffected by the flames.  The blaze builds bigger and bigger, until it is roughly 2 feet wide and 4 feet tall.  (_OOC: for those of you who are unaffected by the flame illusion, this is where Randall quickly checks which card Vince chose (8 of diamonds) and pockets the entirely unaffected deck of cards._)

You can see the deck wilt and blacken as the cards are consumed by fire.  Then, the light seems to dim, and the flames turn a strange shade of green.  Concentrating intently and illuminated by the eerie green glow, Randall continues chanting.  Strange ghostly forms begin to take shape in the flames.  The shapes grow in size, taking the form of medieval Kings, Queens, Knight, and Soldiers.  The ghostly figures are white and semi translucent and appear quite fair.  But if you catch the eye of any of them, they appear long dead and grotesquely decayed.  Randall breaks his chanting, and appears to communicate with the spirits.  One by one, with a wave of his hand, Randall dismisses them, until he finds one that he speaks with at length. (_OCC: The "ghosts" make no noise, their mouths just open and close so Randall appears to be talking with them_.)  Then Randal dismisses the rest, and the flames die.  There is nothing left of the cards, and the light returns to normal.  "The spirits told me that the card you chose was the 8 of diamonds!" Randall exclaims loudly.


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## Elementor (Jan 2, 2004)

Dalamar said:
			
		

> "Vince, while your speed seems quite amazing, I have to doubt that you can exceed a speed of over 350 miles per hour."
> Johan puts his luggage down to a seat and then goes over to Grandma.
> "Excuse me, Grandmother, but how wrong would I be if I said that EPIC arranged so that the Mag-Lev would be late?"




Vince grins broadly and nods towards Grandmother.  "She is right Johan.  When I have a hankering for some home cooking I can run home and get it....from Brazil...from my Mom...you know what I mean.  Anyways Dude, I am quick enough to run up walls and over water.  350 MPH is cake."



			
				Mule said:
			
		

> Randall pulls out the deck of cards that he usually carries with him and starts performing some card tricks to pass the time, and entertain those around him.  Randall's been a pro at that sort of thing long before his powers manifested themselves and can put on quite a show.  However, quickly realizing the effect his illusionary skills could have on his "magic" tricks, he has invented some pretty amazing new stunts.
> 
> After a few of the more routine tricks to warm up, and build up an audience,"Pick a card any card,"  Randall says to Vince.  "Don't show it to me, but show it to everyone else."  Randall closes his eyes.  "Now put it back in the deck, anywhere you like."  Opening his eyes, and gesturing grandly, Randall begins his oration.  "What you are all about to see was taught to me by an old native Indian woman.  She showed me how to blur the line between this world and the realm of the spirits.  And, in some cases, even to break it..."  Randall begins to chant some gibberish he hopes sounds like an old dialect.  He then snaps his fingers, and a small "flame" appears at the tip of his right index finger.  Still chanting and holding the deck of cards in his left hand, he touches it with his right, and it quickly ignites.  The deck "burns" fiercely, Randall holds it out on the palm of his hand, seemingly unaffected by the flames.  The blaze builds bigger and bigger, until it is roughly 2 feet wide and 4 feet tall.  (_OOC: for those of you who are unaffected by the flame illusion, this is where Randall quickly checks which card Vince chose (8 of diamonds) and pockets the entirely unaffected deck of cards._)
> 
> You can see the deck wilt and blacken as the cards are consumed by fire.  Then, the light seems to dim, and the flames turn a strange shade of green.  Concentrating intently and illuminated by the eerie green glow, Randall continues chanting.  Strange ghostly forms begin to take shape in the flames.  The shapes grow in size, taking the form of medieval Kings, Queens, Knight, and Soldiers.  The ghostly figures are white and semi translucent and appear quite fair.  But if you catch the eye of any of them, they appear long dead and grotesquely decayed.  Randall breaks his chanting, and appears to communicate with the spirits.  One by one, with a wave of his hand, Randall dismisses them, until he finds one that he speaks with at length. (_OCC: The "ghosts" make no noise, their mouths just open and close so Randall appears to be talking with them_.)  Then Randal dismisses the rest, and the flames die.  There is nothing left of the cards, and the light returns to normal.  "The spirits told me that the card you chose was the 8 of diamonds!" Randall exclaims loudly.




"Pretty slick, Slick.  Now ask those guys if they can make all of Jackal's fleas disappear."  Vince quickly ducks away from the anticipated rap on the head from either Jackal or Grandmother.  "Joking!!  Just kidding really!  Well kinda....  Seriously though Jackal.  You seem to have quite the wicked combo of powers.  What all can you do man?"


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## Velmont (Jan 2, 2004)

*Mimic: Loki*

"I am not impress, Randall. I can even tell the trick."  Kevin stands up and the light that was floating above hisnewspaper dissapear. He walks next to Randall and put his hand in Randall pockets to take up the card deck. He show to everyone all the cards, and everyone see a deck full of 8 of diamonds (For the ones seeing illusion, you see a normal deck). "Entertaining your trick, but you'll have to practice a bit so it is not obvious."

Kevin whispers to Randall "Gotcha! You should always shows the deck before the trick. Like that, I could not have done my little trick. And pretty amusing your powers."

Kevin walk back to his seat and take back his newspaper and the ight reappear over his head.


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## Dalamar (Jan 2, 2004)

"I am surprised, both by Vince's ability to break the sound barrier and the fact that the delay wasn't set up. But the latter can be attributed to two statements that got my imagination running, namely your comment on wanting to see if anyone of us had leadership skills and the captain saying that the mag-lev had checked a week ago."
Johan moves back to his luggage and and scribles a note, mumbling "soundbarrier as he does.


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## Calinon (Jan 3, 2004)

*The Mag-Lev*
*6:45 PM Local Time*

People have gathered around Loki watching his tricks, and most are rather amazed.  Kevin is shouted down a bit as he reveals the trick but it's quickly forgotten in the wake of further illusions.  

Carl listens with a wry grin on his face as Raisa babbles on and on, throwing in the odd "Really" and "I see" here and there, but really doesn't get a chance to tell anything about himself.  

Dara too is still talking non-stop and is tailoring, what you now can see was a nearly finished sleevless red shirt with a green chinese dragon wrapping around it, to X12's size without taking a single measurement or missing a single stitch.  (Think demolition man, and what Stalone wore at Taco Bell... reminiscent of that).

The Mag-Lev speeds along for a few minutes, travelling the entire length of the airport.  You see a number of aircraft landing and taking off on your brief trip.  As you approach the main terminal, the Mag-Lev comes around a wide corner, and you see a huge throng of people waiting for the train to arrive.  Among the travellers, you see a large contingent of media.

"Oh dear, I was afraid of that," you hear Grandmother say when the media come into view.  "Stay in your seats, Chilrden, and avoid using your powers until we are away from the flashbulbs."

The train slides gracefully to a halt at the terminal, and cameras, both flash and holographic motion cameras, are pressed to the glass, snapping off shots and rolling film for several minutes before airport security finally regains control and moves the line back.  Thankfully, none gain access to you car.

A knock is heard on the door to the car and the steward and stewardess go to answer.  The pilot has stepped out of his cockpit.  "Not to worry, folks," he says calmly.  "We were fairly well prepared for this."

As if to argue the point, as the steward talks to man, apparently airport security, just outside the door, a wirey looking reporter with a camera bursts past them.  He starts rapidly firing off snapshots, his camera flash creating an after image in your eyes from how quickly it's going.  He's snapping so many pictures and the flash goes off so often, that it causes the small seat-sensors start flashing from red to green constantly until several give a fizzle and burn out.  The spots dancing in everyones eyes, combined with the shouting and cameras from outside, make most of feeling a bit overwhelmed.  Rebound has expanded in surprise and is ricocheting off the walls.

"Hey, get him out of here!" the pilot shouts and security recovers their wits and rushes in.  They subdue the man quickly and drag him away as he pelts you all with questions.  "Well, mostly prepared," the pilot says once the man has been removed.  Security leaves and after making sure nobody else is lurking about outside, the steward closes the door and locks it.

The Mag-Lev leaves the station in about ten minutes, lifting off again and rising quickly on its track until it is at a height of easily two hundred feet.  It soars towards the city and begins to cross over an outlying subdivision, building speed until it finally reaches what you guess (or Johan knows) to be 200 mph.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking," the pilot's voice is heard over the speakers.  "We'll be heading for the main Mag-Lev terminal now.  Estimated travel time is forty five minutes, so please make yourselves comfortable.  Track height will rise to 200 meters shortly, or roughly 550 feet, and you'll have a great view of the Mega-City of New York as we pass overhead.

"We have several guests with us today, as our reserved car indicated, and you are sharing your trip with EPIC's first students to their new academy.  If you are a reporter, the next one of you to try anything stupid will be ejected from my train.  Everyone else, feel free to punch the nearest camera man.

"The Mag-Lev corporation thanks you for choosing to travel in comfort and style.  Enjoy your trip."

"The captain is quite a card," the stewardess says cheerfully.

When Vince addresses him (I just put it back in order for the heck of it) Jackal chuckles a bit, but still manages a warning glance against making jokes about him, something Vince feels he probably won't do very often, at least not today.  "You've seen what I do," he says.  "Well, most of it.  I can talk to dogs, though great conversationalists they are not.  And I heal probably as fast as the tatooed wonder over there," he says, gesturing towards X12.  "See?" he says, pulling out a penknife and nicking the end of his finger.  It doesn't heal right up, but it's a minor cut really, and he resorts to sucking it until it stops bleeding.  "Heh, well usually," he says, with a embarassed grin.

*Loki*
As you entertain people, you spot a man exiting the stairwell from _upstairs_ in the mirror near the front of the train.  He is dressed in a Mag-Lev worker uniform (like a utility worker uniform), but has no tool belt.  He watches you watch him, gives a slight smile and nods at you, then continues up the train nonchalantly.  Nobody else seems to notice him, not even Stealer who is copying your powers.

*X12*
You smell something... metallic?  It is reminiscent of the smell in a machine shop, like when you work softer metals into shapes, with a faint hint of some sort of lubricating oil, but it is very faint.  The back of your neck begins to tingle.

*ELSEWHERE*
In a darkened room, a man sits in front of a fireplace.  His hands are steepled before his shadowed face in contemplation as the fire crackles and sputters.  A door at the far end of the room opens and a butler enters, a tray with a single wine goblet upon it in his hand.

"Your wine, sir," the butler says deferentially, and the shadow-faced man takes the offered goblet.  "The gentleman says they are in position, sir."

"Very well, Xavier," he says in a strong voice that is the complete opposite of what one would expect from a man cloaked in shadows.  "Have them proceed."

"Yes, sir.  He is concerned that excess force will be needed, given the nature of the samples."

"Remind him to not use deadly force until we have determined if what we are seeking is there.  Now leave me."

"At once sir," the butler says, quietly making his way outside the room.

The shadow-faced man sips at his wine and sets it down on a table beside him before steepling his fingers before his face again in contemplation.


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## Mule (Jan 3, 2004)

OOC:  _Don't tell Randall how to do card tricks Velmont, he is the master.  He had done several "natural" tricks before his illusionary one, the usual sleight of hand stuff like making cards "disappear" and "reappear" in onlookers' pockets, and some amazing shuffling techniques (he's had alot of practice).  Suffice it to say, everybody could tell it was a completely ordinary deck of cards.  And, I have burned the memory of Demolition Man from my brain, sorry Calinon._

Randall is stunned at the media presence at the terminal.  He stays in his seat, overwhelmed by the attention.  But, when the Mag-Lev gets underway again, he is astute enough to notice a strangely acting man coming *down* from the level above the EPIC students.  Randall looks around to see if anyone else has noticed the man, but no one has.  Randall jabs Vince with his elbow.  "Did you see that guy come down the stairwell?  I'm gonna follow him and see what he's up to, he didn't look like another photographer.  Maybe you should tell Grandmother."  Randall stands up and starts to follow the man up the rest of the train.

OOC:  _Randall will follow as sneakily as he can.  He will use his blending powers if he needs to._


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## Elementor (Jan 3, 2004)

As the cameras flash, Vince poses a little as he wonders if they will see these back home.  



			
				Mule said:
			
		

> Randall is stunned at the media presence at the terminal.  He stays in his seat, overwhelmed by the attention.  But, when the Mag-Lev gets underway again, he is astute enough to notice a strangely acting man coming *down* from the level above the EPIC students.  Randall looks around to see if anyone else has noticed the man, but no one has.  Randall jabs Vince with his elbow.  "Did you see that guy come down the stairwell?  I'm gonna follow him and see what he's up to, he didn't look like another photographer.  Maybe you should tell Grandmother."  Randall stands up and starts to follow the man up the rest of the train.
> 
> OOC:  _Randall will follow as sneakily as he can.  He will use his blending powers if he needs to._




"Man, I didnt see squat and I can see everything around me.  Was he invisible or something?  Yeah yeah, I'll tell her but I am totally backing you up."  Vince heads up the aisle to where Grandmother is seated and leans down to whisper to her, "Ma'am, Loki just headed upstairs after somebody.  He said he didnt look like a photographer.  Just letting you know, but I am following my 'buddy' up there."

Vince then heads to the staircase leading up and kicks in his superspeed along the way.  He wont do anything speedy yet but is ready for action just in case.


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## Mordane76 (Jan 3, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> *X12*
> You smell something... metallic?  It is reminiscent of the smell in a machine shop, like when you work softer metals into shapes, with a faint hint of some sort of lubricating oil, but it is very faint.  The back of your neck begins to tingle.





"Does anyone else smell that?" X12 says fairly loud.  "Something off -- metallic, and something like machine oil -- something out of place....  No one else smells that?"  X12 gets up sniffing, trying to pinpoint the source of the odor.

_OOC - Thank goodness for Scent and Survival... _


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## buzzard (Jan 3, 2004)

Mordane76 said:
			
		

> "Does anyone else smell that?" X12 says fairly loud.  "Something off -- metallic, and something like machine oil -- something out of place....  No one else smells that?"  X12 gets up sniffing, trying to pinpoint the source of the odor.
> 
> _OOC - Thank goodness for Scent and Survival... _




"Smell what? Where's Loki going? Grandma, are we in for some other kind of test?"
 John says as he looks up from some cheap novel that he's reading to pass the time. 

buzzard


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## Calinon (Jan 3, 2004)

*Loki*
As you say that, the man heading towards the front, and Grandmother you have now determined, shimmers and a second one of him appears walking back towards you.  In his hand is a gun of some sort, and he's raising it at you.  As Vince moves towards Grandmother, the man splits again, and the third one of him cleverly trips Vince to the ground.  Vince looks a little confused.

*Vince*
You move towards Grandmother and start to bring your powers up.  You have an odd feeling in your stomach and can't seem to make them work.  In fact, your wings feel very heavy too and rather useless.  You miss your next step and trip to the ground heavily.

*Everyone*
You see Vince trip unexpectedly and Randall's eyes are rather wide with surprise.  Grandmother is getting up to find out what is wrong when a man appears next to her.  He pushes a device into her neck, and electricity surrounds her, knocking her out!  Pooky ends up twitching on the ground, also unconscious from the effect, and Jackal cries out and slams into the nearby window, cracking it, stunned.

On the heels of this surprising event, three circular sections of the ceiling vanish and three perfect metal spheres drop through from above.  When they land, they unravel, forming three robotic soldiers.  X12 recognizes them as African MK192 Series battle-bots.  

X12, you have a extremely bad feeling about this and images begin to flash through your mind painfully in bursts.

The robotic soldiers look formidable.  Three armored individuals run down the stairs, two with blasters trained on various people, one with weapons holstered and a case in hand.  Behind the last person, another robot floats down, reminiscent of the robotic assistants used in blood doner clinics.

"Nobody moves and nobody gets hurt," the man who knocked out Grandmother says calmly.  You notice the steward and stewardess have weapons drawn as well, aparently part of this assault force.  "We just need a few blood samples and we'll be on our way."

Behind the man, the pilots door has slipped quietly open.  The pilot sneaks up and puts a gun to the back of the mans head.  "Drop your wea..." is all he gets out before the man kicks back and slams the pilot into the wall.  A twin of the man appears next to Randall, turns and shoots the man.  Blood sprays back across the wall and nearby windows as a laser takes the pilot through the head.

"Nobody moves and nobody gets hurt," the man repeats.

You notice both the stewards look rather horrified at the pilot's death.  The woman looks particularly shaken, unable to hold her stun blaster steadily.  The man with the case follows the robot towards the nearest person, Michelle.

_OOC:  Like nobody saw that coming..._

_The assault force managed, however, to surprise you, allowing them to get into place and have prepared attacks.  Worst yet, many of you have tried reflexively to activate your powers, and found them unavailable.  Loki, X12 and Multibrain know they still have their powers available.  Speed Demon is prone, but unhurt.  If anyone wants to do something, initiatives are as follows:_

_Initiatives:  Loki 26, Enemy leader 24, Speed Demon 22 (prone), Cosmo 22, MM 16, Amazon 15, MK192's 15, X12 14 (dazed -2 to actions), Soldiers 14, Stealer 12, Straightjacket 12, Carl 12, Jackal 11 (stunned), Anna 6, Multibrain 4, Neutron 3_

_Please remember that they have attacks readied, in case you do try anything, but with the exception of the Leader's twin, most seem to be using standard stun blasters.  Even the robots appear equipped with stun blasters.  (6 of 9 of you make spot checks for this, go figure!)  The robots would be reminiscent of the star wars rolling combat droids from episode 1.  Amazon and Multibrain see a strange logo on the shoulder of the soldiers.  _

_MERC._


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## Mule (Jan 3, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> "Nobody moves and nobody gets hurt," the man repeats.




Randall is frozen in fear when the man points a weapon at him.  Eyes wide, he doesn't make a sound.  But, when a twin of the man zaps Grandmother unconscious, something wells up inside of Randall's gut.  Still unmoving, he watches in horror the grisly murder of the Mag-Lev's pilot by the man standing beside him.  And Loki snaps.

"ARGGGHHH!"  Loki will attempt to blind the killer next to him with light, and quickly punch him in a tender area with all the strength he can muster.  Loki will then dive beneath the nearest seat for cover.  He will create as many illusionary copies of himself as he can, then he and they will all crawl under the seats in various directions, trying to draw fire.  Loki does not have a plan in mind, it's just survival instincts kicking in here.

OOC:  _Loki is not really expecting his attack on the "leader" to work, he's not much of a fighter, he's just lashing out.  He's more concerned with escaping and will activate his blending powers as soon as he can._


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## Mordane76 (Jan 3, 2004)

"Stun blasters..." X12 mumbles through the haze.  Tensing, X12 makes a break for the leader, going for a bum-rush and hopefully a diving tackle.


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## Deva (Jan 3, 2004)

With everything happening so fast, it's hard for Raisa to notice everything, but seeing Grandmother now unconscious and the pilot's brain's splattered across the window she refuses to sit and do nothing. Moving cautiously she hooks her foot under the empty seat in front of her and looks around.

_ACTIONS: *IF* she's not pinned to her chair like a newborn kitten because her strength is gone, and *IF* one of the goons/robots is near her, she'll kick the chair as hard as she can in the hopes of tearing it from the floor and into the air. If that works, and manages to distract the goon hear her, she'll punch him/her/it as hard as she can._


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## Dalamar (Jan 3, 2004)

"Not the best tactical situation..."
Johan concentrates for a moment and suddenly there are 7 of him. All of them say at the same time "This is interesting" as four of him move to tackle the leader and his twin and three dive for cover.

*OoC:* Using Extra Effort with Duplication and spending a HP to ignore the fatigue. Each duplicate has an effective rank of +4. The attacking duplicates will try to grapple while Johan and two dups move behind cover.
Duplicates will spend a HP if they roll 12 or less on the initial touch attack and/or grapple check.


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## Elementor (Jan 3, 2004)

From his back, Vince looks towards the connecting passenger car to see if any of the reporters or civilians are seeing this or are in danger by the actions of these terrorists.

Vince will then roll under the nearby seats, grab Pooky and start crawling towards X12.


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## Mimic (Jan 4, 2004)

With Vince and Randall causing a diversion, Michelle will jump out of her seat and try to knock the case from the man's hand. This is a ruse, her real objective is to get the weapon. If she gets ahold of the weapon she will try and shoot the man.

"Anna, little help here please."


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## Calinon (Jan 4, 2004)

_As promised in OOC, a brutal, yet effective, Mag-Lev map. I'll get better at it as we go, but it's just a visual reference for you all to use anyway. Each "square" with an icon in it is five feet. I've also made a map link on the website main page._

_Initiatives: Loki 26, Enemy leader 24, Speed Demon 22 (prone), Cosmo 22, MM 16, Amazon 15, MK192's 15, X12 14 (dazed -2 to actions), Soldiers 14, Stealer 12, Straightjacket 12, Carl 12, Jackal 11 (stunned), Anna 6, Multibrain 4, Neutron 3
_
Loki panics and throws his hands forward, throwing a tangible beam of light at the eyes of the Leader before him. The Leader reacts quickly, bringing his arm up and catching the beam on his forearm. The light drips from his arm as he turns to the side, free of the blast. As he does so, the area around Loki shimmers briefly and four Loki's scatter, one left, one right, one through the Leader's legs and one towards the staircase.

_OOC: Half action for illusion, half for dazzle, free five foot step under your bench as your illusions dash off as a distraction. You notice the leader's outfit is cleverly concealing some serious body armor and abandoned your punch idea quickly. The Leader made his saving throw for dazzle._

"Careful, there may be more than this rat with powers active," the Leader in front of Loki growls into his headset. He grabs at the Loki heading for the stairs, and his hand passes through it, disrupting the illusion. You hear him curse angrily. He flips a switch on his pistol, raises it, and showers the area with a series of pulse blasts, destroying another of Loki's illusions and knocking out two of the students who had been nearby.

Up front, the Leader is grinning and shaking his head bemusedly. "I knew this would get interesting," those near him hear him say. "M31, area collection incoming," he says calmly as he draws his own pistol, waiting to see if anyone will come at him. As he does this, a group of medical needles rise from a case at his belt and fly at nearby students. The needles appear to be remote controlled and self propelled. Jackal, Rebound, Cosmo, Multibrain, Speed Demon, Stealer and all other students in the front save Loki and Neutron are struck by the devices which draw small amounts of blood and zip towards the back of the train before you can swat at them. A needle bounces off Neutron's head with a ring.

_OOC: Using his special gadgets, the Leader makes a pre-planned area attack to gather what he's after, blood. Catching everyone flat-footed, he hits all but Loki (100% cover) and Neutron (really really bad attack roll). No damage is sustained by anyone; they are just tiny needles designed to draw blood._

Vince feels a needle strike him in the left buttock, but isn't hurt. He roll's under the isle of seats and crawls forward to grab Pooky. As he does so, the leader's boot comes down on his wrist, pinning it. "It's a dog," he says as he casually shoots Vince in the arm with his pistol.

_OOC: Attack roll hits, hard. With evasion, you use reflex instead of damage save, at +6 since you don't have super-speed right now. Your roll a 14 getting a total of 20 for the damage save; do you want to use a hero point to re-roll?  *No re-roll used, Vince misses his damage save by less than five, taking a minor stun hit.*_

Cosmo leaps off his seat without a sound, launching a roundhouse kick as he flies at the Leader. The kick connects, sending the Leader slamming back into the wall, off of Vince's arm and away from Grandmother and Jackal. The Leader growls, wiping blood from his mouth and raises his gun at Cosmo.

_OOC: Cosmo hits, stunning the leader and knocking him back into the door frame to the cockpit. The Leader uses a villain point to shake off the stunned condition immediately._

Raisa leaps forward slamming her shoulder into the MK192 infront of her, giving her just enough room to follow up with a punch.

_OOC: Without your powers, you are perfectly capable of moving yourself around normally, you just don't have your super-powers so aren't super-naturally strong. You hit the robot first with your shoulder, then with a punch, and while it doesn't have its normal force behind it, sparks fly as you clip the robot in the shoulder. It takes a normal hit, damaging it._

The robot grabs Raisa's arm on the follow through and level's its blaster at her with the other hand, firing off three blasts of energy at her. She spins, leaps and tucks, landing lightly beside the machine like a dancer, but it spins quickly and the third blast hits her in the left leg.

_OOC: Miss miss hit, but the hit doesn't hurt, it makes your body start to go numb. You roll a fortitude save with +4 instead of +9 and get a total score if 15. Do you want to re-roll?  *Re-roll used, dice comes up 18, giving you 22, making the save.  You are not stunned.  The attack otherwise is non-damaging.*_

Michelle grabs for the soldier's weapon, but is slapped back by a sharp blow to the face. She feels something jab her neck and realizes she's been jabbed with a needle. Behind her, she hears Anna fiddling with something and suddenly exclaims, "That's it, it's these br..." Her voice is cut off as a stun blast catches her in the chest. A third leader appears near the base of the stairs. "That's enough out of you, little lady. MK192-3, pacification protocol, now."

_Michelle misses, her ploy seen through by the soldier who fends it off easily. Both she and Anna have had blood taken, and now the needles that were sent by the leader at the front have deposited their loads into vials in the soldiers open case and are flying at everyone in the back. Anna is stunned by the blast from the Leader._

The MK192 up front trains its weapon on the six people nearest it, in a group, and prepares to shoot anyone who dares try to move. "Containment protocols in effect. Do not move," it drones. The MK192 in the rear says "Affirmative. Pacification begining." It's gun bursts into action, letting out a blast that cracks windows and stuns all the students in a ten foot radius.

_OOC: Area attack, still willpower based save. Raisa is out of range. Anna is stunned again, yay her. The soldier near the medical bot manages to resist. MM gets a 19 score on her save; do you want to re-roll?_

_X12 is up (who may want to change what he's doing, given his position on the map). The map is updated. Only people within 30' of Anna heard her over the din of battle._


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## Elementor (Jan 4, 2004)

No, I wont use a HP on the damage save.


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## Deva (Jan 4, 2004)

_ooc: Yes, I would like to reroll._


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## Mordane76 (Jan 4, 2004)

_OOC -- Yes, I will change what I'm doing; I was hoping for a different turn of events._

X12 stands, spreading his hands in a show of pacifism.  "Take what you want, but let me tend to the injured," X12 says to the closest copy of the leader.


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## buzzard (Jan 4, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> _X12 is up (who may want to change what he's doing, given his position on the map). The map is updated. Only people within 30' of Anna heard her over the din of battle._



_

John will attempt to envelop (growth+grapple) the robot closest to him, and once enveloped, pin and crush it. Any rolls under ten will get a hero point re-roll. 

buzzard_


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## Calinon (Jan 4, 2004)

_Initiatives: Loki 26, Enemy leader 24 (1S, 1VP), Speed Demon 22 (prone, 1S, 1HP), Cosmo 22, MM 16, Amazon 15 (1HP, 4S), MK192's 15(1/NA, 2/NA, 3/1DP), X12 14, Soldiers 14, Stealer 12, Straightjacket 12, Carl 12, Jackal 11 (stunned), Anna 6 (stunned), Multibrain 4, Neutron 3_

The Leader nearest X12 nods.  "Smart lad," he says in an accent different from the Leader up front.  "But you won't be helping the pilot, and anyone else will have to wait until we are gone.  "M31, complete gathering the samples.  You, and you two," he says, gesturing to the soldier and stewards, put her down."  He's looking at Raisa.

The M31 robot extends a long tube with a needle at the end of it towards X12 as the other robotic needles zip in and out of the case, depositing their payloads.  

*X12*
As the arm with the needle comes forward, you get an strange white ceiling with florescent lighting.  A hand is guiding a needle right towards your left eye.  You scream as it pokes you in the eye!  You can feel them making incisions in your arms and legs.  You beg them to take the bracelet off and let you heal, but they don't listen.

*Everyone*
As the needle comes in, X12 gets a distant look in his eyes and collapses to his knees, head forward, hands clutched to his eyes.  The robot freezes as his tatoo becomes visible.  

OOC:  _X12 is prone and dazed again, but rapidly gaining his capacity again and can act still._

"Sample collection aborted.  Directive 12 override.  Orders?" the machine says.  

The soldier with the case is rapidly organizing the vials of blood.  He inserts each vial into a chamber and a light flashes red.  With each one, he mutters a sample number and "No dice" and labels it, moving to another sample.  When the robot makes the statement, he looks up.  "Um... sir?  What is a directive 12 override?" he asks to his com-unit.  The Leader nearest Michelle lets out a nervous laugh and backs up, gun trained on the robot.

"Well, that's unexpected," the Leader says.

The soldier near the stair well follows his orders.  You can see him adjust his blaster rifle, and he squeezes a round off into combat, hitting Raisa in the shoulder.  The stewards train their sights on Raisa as well, firing two shots each.  Raisa is hit by three of the four shots in the back.

_OOC:  Raisa has used her hero point for the round.  She gets damage saves of 21 against the rifleman, only getting a bruising and taking a stun hit, and saves of 17, 18 and 24 against the stewards shots, taking three more stun hits.  Your back feels like it's on fire, but you are still on your feet._

Up front, the soldier cuts three shots at Loki.  Two strike his crawling illusion, and one impacts the wall just above his foot.  The soldier looks down at him and grins.  "Found you."  As he says that, a needle streaks in and manages to steal a blood sample before flying off.

_OOC:  The soldier would have hit, but nailed your illusion instead.  His last shot missed you.  Next folks up:  Stealer, Straighjacket, Multibrain and Neutron can also make their moves and Carl is the only one left to go in the back of the car._


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## Calinon (Jan 4, 2004)

buzzard said:
			
		

> John will attempt to envelop (growth+grapple) the robot closest to him, and once enveloped, pin and crush it. Any rolls under ten will get a hero point re-roll.
> 
> buzzard



_Initiatives: Loki 26, Enemy leader 24 (1S, 1VP), Speed Demon 22 (prone, 1S, 1HP), Cosmo 22, MM 16, Amazon 15 (1HP, 4S), MK192's 15(1/Destroyed, 2/NA, 3/1DP), X12 14, Soldiers 14, Stealer 12, Straightjacket 12 (1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11 (stunned), Anna 6 (stunned), Multibrain 4, Neutron 3_

John attempts to make his powers active, but nothing happens.  Even so, the robot doesn't give you the impression of being unstoppable nor unpinnable.  He doesn't pause when his powers don't work, and leaps towards the robot, pushing his arm under its head, and knocking out its gun arm as it fires at him when he advances.  The blast hits the ceiling sparking against roof.

_OOC:  The robot, with attack prepared, fires but misses.  John rolls a natural 20 for the hit, making the hit on this round a crit if he makes his grapple check.  Grapple check is an opposed roll.  John gets a 9, hero point used and gets a 19, the robot scores a 15, and John ties it up._

John spins over the robot, locking its arms in front of it with one hand.  He reaches around, locking his hands together and squeezes.  The robot lets out a fizzle and sparks fly before the robot stops moving.

_OOC:  I assumed you'd do damage, since you can't pin and do damage.  Robot fails its damage save, badly, and is rendered inoperable, it's systems crushed by the bear hug._

_Once Stealer makes his move, I'll resolve Johan's duplication and Carl's actions.  If you want to change your plan with Johan, feel free.  Neutron won't be posting till tomorrow._


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## Velmont (Jan 4, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> "Careful, there may be more than this rat with powers active"




"You seems too, let's see what you got."

Kevin move next to Leader 1 and touch him, trying to mimic his powers and feats.


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## Dalamar (Jan 4, 2004)

*OoC:* No change, the situation is unchanged enough


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## Mordane76 (Jan 4, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> *X12*
> As the arm with the needle comes forward, you get an strange white ceiling with florescent lighting.  A hand is guiding a needle right towards your left eye.  You scream as it pokes you in the eye!  You can feel them making incisions in your arms and legs.  You beg them to take the bracelet off and let you heal, but they don't listen.





"No... Get it out... take your filthy hands off of me!" X12 screams.  Rising to his feet, X12 turns to 'the closest animate being (robot or person)*' and bellows, "I'LL KILL YOU!  KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME!!"

_OOC: I'm assuming I'm delusional at this point; if I *can't* actually make out who people are when I rise, feel free to point me at the closest person and sic me on them.  If I *can* actually make out who people are when I rise, point me at the nearest Leader, and sic me on him._


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## Calinon (Jan 4, 2004)

Mordane76 said:
			
		

> "No... Get it out... take your filthy hands off of me!" X12 screams. Rising to his feet, X12 turns to 'the closest animate being (robot or person)*' and bellows, "I'LL KILL YOU! KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME!!"
> 
> _OOC: I'm assuming I'm delusional at this point; if I *can't* actually make out who people are when I rise, feel free to point me at the closest person and sic me on them. If I *can* actually make out who people are when I rise, point me at the nearest Leader, and sic me on him._



*X12*
You grab hold of the nearby medical bot angrily, the flashback still fresh in your mind.  It's repeated voicings of "Directive 12 override.  Orders?" as it stares at you bring you back to reality, if a bit confused.  You aren't in that room anymore, you can tell.  But why are you wearing the same bracelet?

_OOC:  Nope, you have no weakness really; the flashbacks are painful and disjointed memories, leaving you dazed, but typically are very important pieces of information or links to your forgotten past.  Your reaction was definitely right, but the flashbacks won't make you attack your friends, though show emotion, you bet your buscuit!_

_I'll resolve the rest of the first round of combat once Neutron does his action.  For some reason I left off Dara, who, amazingly, got lower than Neutron with a 2 for initiative!  See, it can get worse!_


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## Agamon (Jan 4, 2004)

_double post, my bad_


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## Agamon (Jan 4, 2004)

_OOC: Sorry for the delay, I have returned.  I am unsure as to whether Neutron has his powers or not, as his Big Shiny Skin is a special effect of his Protection power.  Regardless, I'll attempt to render the point moot._

Sanjay just watches the events unfold around him, unsure how to react.  He is looking behind his seat as Anna exclaims her discovery, only to be cut off by the attack on her.  He pauses a moment trying to understand what she was saying, before the realization hits him.  "The bracelets?"  He rips the bracelet from his arm and angrily exclaims, "You want to take some of our blood, you're going to have to leave some of your own behind!" as he fires a white-yellow beam of energy at the leader than took out Anna.

_OOC: Remove bracelet (1/2 action), Energy Blast +7 on Leader 3 (1/2 action)._


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## Mordane76 (Jan 4, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> *X12*
> You grab hold of the nearby medical bot angrily, the flashback still fresh in your mind.  It's repeated voicings of "Directive 12 override.  Orders?" as it stares at you bring you back to reality, if a bit confused.  You aren't in that room anymore, you can tell.  But why are you wearing the same bracelet?




X12 looks around, confused.  "Where did this come from?" he mumbles, looking down at the bracelet...

The voicings of the robot jar X12 back from the bracelet.  He looks square at the med-bot, and muses, "Hmm... Directive 12.  I wonder."  He then says in a strong voice to the med-bot, "Your orders -- Retrieve the sample case, and bring it to me."


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## Calinon (Jan 4, 2004)

_Initiatives: Loki 26, Enemy leader 24 (1S, 1VP), Speed Demon 22 (prone, 1S, 1HP), Cosmo 22, MM 16, Amazon 15 (1HP, 4S), MK192's 15(1/Destroyed, 2/NA, 3/1DP), X12 14, Soldiers 14, Stealer 12, Straightjacket 12 (1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11, Anna 6, Multibrain 4 (1HP), Neutron 3, Dara 2_

Stealer jumps over the seat and manages to touch the leader on the face.  The leader spins around, knocking his hand away, but Stealer can't activate his powers to copy the leader at all.

_Stealer scores a hit on a touch attack; no effect as he has no powers currently._

Johan stands up and suddenly duplicates seem to pour from his body.  There are now nine of him.  Three of him scatter behind seats and under them, while six of him leap at the nearby leaders in teams of three.

_The three attacking Leader 2 nearly get a hold of the man, but he drops to the floor, executing a roundhouse leg sweep, knocking all three doubles down!  The other three make it up to the first Leader, but don't have the action to attack due to the difficulty of moving over objects.  The leader is flanked however.  Hero point used to counter fatigue for extra effort of "Horde" extra leaving no hero points left for other rolls this round._

Neutron stands on his seat and levels an energy blast from his hands at the Leader that is beside Stealer.  The blast strikes him in the face and he lets out a scream that's cut short as he falls to his knees and collapses backwards, the flesh burned from his skull.  He vanishes, leaving only some ashes behind.

_Hey, the second natural 20 of the round.  Needless to say, he failed his save._

As he collapses, two more of him come down the stairs, one has a glowing sword in hand and advances at Stealer, while the other has some sort of portable cannon system that looks like it could take out a tank and is eying Neutron up.  He spits on the ground between them.

"Oh, it's on now," he says in a heavy New York accent.

"So true, companion," the other says, his swords splitting in to two identical ones.  His voice bears a strong hint of the orient.

In the meantime, X12 has recovered from his latest... whatever is happening to him... and the robot answers him.  "Directive 12 orders assimilated."  It turns towards the soldier with the case, who has enough presence of mind  to pull his gun as the robot grabs the case.  The case hits the floor.

Up front you hear the leader shout, "Get the case!" and the oriental sounding leader pauses his advance long enough to click something at his belt and say, "Extraction required, now."

Carl looks at the case and you hear a low sound rising in intensity to painful levels.  Those looking see a sonic energy coming from Carl's mouth.  It strikes the vials in the case.   The vials shatter, soaking the interior and the strange sensor. X12, MM and Carl notice the sensor light change from red to blue to green and a computer voice says, "Match found."

Johan, to the side of the jet, one of your doubles sees a pair of helicopters streaking towards the Mag-Lev.  The double near the door of the cockpit glances forward to see a rather sharp corner in the track a few miles up.  Your knowledge of mathematics and physics, coupled with a quick estimation of the speed of the train, lead you to believe either the train has the most magnetic undercarriage known to man, or bad things are going to happen when you reach the corner.

Dara hears Neutron, grabs her bracelet and manages to slip it off her wrist.  A bolt of white light streaks from her forehead and strikes the robot battling Amazon, to no effect.

_Next up:  Round 2 (same initiative order)_


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## Mordane76 (Jan 4, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> In the meantime, X12 has recovered from his latest... whatever is happening to him... and the robot answers him.  "Directive 12 orders assimilated."  It turns towards the soldier with the case, who has enough presence of mind  to pull his gun as the robot grabs the case.  The case hits the floor.
> 
> Up front you hear the leader shout, "Get the case!" and the oriental sounding leader pauses his advance long enough to click something at his belt and say, "Extraction required, now."
> 
> Carl looks at the case and you hear a low sound rising in intensity to painful levels.  Those looking see a sonic energy coming from Carl's mouth.  It strikes the vials in the case.   The vials shatter, soaking the interior and the strange sensor. X12, MM and Carl notice the sensor light change from red to blue to green and a computer voice says, "Match found."




"Med-Bot -- Abort sample retrieval.  Med-Bot -- New orders!  Hostile patient requires restraining for transfusion.  Restrain that patient!" X12 orders, and points towards the Leader copy with the cannon system.


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## Mule (Jan 4, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> The soldier looks down at him (*Loki*) and grins.  "Found you."  As he says that, a needle streaks in and manages to steal a blood sample before flying off.




"Too bad for you!"  A large jet of flame shoots out of Loki's mouth at the soldier's face.

OOC: _Loki is attempting to blind the soldier or at least make him move back.  Hopefully the soldier is shocked (and blinded) enough that Loki can try to grab his weapon.  If successful, Loki will try to shoot the soldier.  If not, Loki will scurry under the seats to a safer location._


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## Deva (Jan 5, 2004)

Agamon said:
			
		

> "The bracelets?"  He rips the bracelet from his arm and angrily exclaims, "You want to take some of our blood, you're going to have to leave some of your own behind!" as he fires a white-yellow beam of energy at the leader than took out Anna.




Seeing Neutron and Dara remove their bracelets, Raisa clues in and snaps hers off her wrist. _Oh hell, I should have stayed in Brazil!_ She pulls back and slugs the robot in front of her with all her strength.

_*ACTIONS*: Remove bracelet (1/2 action), punch robot (1/2 action)_


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## Agamon (Jan 5, 2004)

Sanjay watches in horror at the results of his attack.  But when the body disappears, he becomes confused.  _"Note to self: no more blasting people in the head."_  Watching the two additional "leaders" come down the stairs, he crumples his brow.  _"Addendum: this guy's getting annoying."_  He nervously prepares to neutralize whatever is shot at him from the cannon before attempting to destroy the cannon itself.

_OOC: If attacked, Defelction +7 against the first attack aimed at him (Neutron's deflection stems from his creating the nemesis to the attack and blocking with it - water vs fire, mirror vs laser, shield vs arrows - if nothing comes quickly to mind, a metal wall works) - (free action), will also attempt to use the back of the seat as cover if possible; Transmutation (shapable) +7 (turn cannon in plastic pink flamengo) - (1/2 action)._


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## Velmont (Jan 5, 2004)

Kevin dodge in a hole to take cover, as he sees himself helpless for the moment, and try to remove that bracer.


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## Elementor (Jan 5, 2004)

"I can't believe I fell for this crap!"  Vince tears the wristband off, fires up his superspeed and gets up off the floor.


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## Dalamar (Jan 5, 2004)

From the mouth of the duplicate at the window: "Vince, run through the mag-lev and tell all the passengers to go sit at the (whichever side is the inner side in the turn) side, it should shift our weight centre slightly."

Johan 8 will try to enter the cockpit and see if he could stop or at least slow down the mag-lev.


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## buzzard (Jan 5, 2004)

John, noticing the bracelet issue, will rip his off and envelop the nearest target. 

buzzard


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## Mimic (Jan 5, 2004)

"How stupid can I get?"  Michelle mutters to herself as she rips off the bracelet from her wrist.



> Carl looks at the case and you hear a low sound rising in intensity to painful levels. Those looking see a sonic energy coming from Carl's mouth. It strikes the vials in the case. The vials shatter, soaking the interior and the strange sensor. X12, MM and Carl notice the sensor light change from red to blue to green and a computer voice says, "Match found."




The air ripples around her as she raises hands. "Let's see if I can kill two birds with one stone."

Michelle will attempt to lift the weapons/robots, except for the medical robot, to the ceiling of the compartment (if the robots are too heavy then just the weapons) as well as pull the case past her under Anna's wheelchair. (If I can't do both then saving the case is the first priority.)

_OOC: Remove bracelet (1/2 action) Forcefield (free action) Energy control (1/2 action. Note with Energy control she can lift 12,800 pounds of ferrous metal)_


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## Calinon (Jan 5, 2004)

_No book at work, so bear with me. I also can't edit the map until later tonight. So read back and onward for positions. Remember, there are two "Leaders" where the third one was._

_Initiatives: Loki 26, Enemy leader 24 (1S, 1VP), Speed Demon 22 (prone, 1S, 2HP), Cosmo 22, MM 16, Amazon 15 (1HP, 4S), MK192's 15(1/Destroyed, 2/NA, 3/1DP), X12 14, Soldiers 14, Stealer 12, Straightjacket 12 (1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11 (1S, 1HP), Anna 6, Multibrain 4 (2HP), Neutron 3 (1HP), Dara 2_

Loki spits flames of light, striking the reaching soldier in the eyes and blinding him! The solider curses, reels back and starts firing blindly at the area where Loki was as the teen rolls under the seats and comes up by the four teens at the Mag-Lev entrance.

_My random number generator likes Loki and gives him a 20. The soldier fails his save, was using a villian point in case of failure, and still failed his save. He's blinded and pissed off. Dazzle is an attack, and so is grabbing the gun, so you couldn't do both._

The Leader at the front of the cab looks none too pleased. "This is going downhill fast." He grabs an energy grenade from his belt, pulls the pin and drops it, saying "Four, coming at you." In that instant, a beam of force exits his chest and weaves through the people on the train, striking the sword wielding duplicate. The Leader at the front vanishes as the beam of light is absorbed by the duplicate. The front of the cab erupts in an explosion, windows blown out and bodies and seats flying.

_The Leader transfers himself to his duplicate's location, ending the duplicate's temporary existance and taking his spot. He's now wielding the swords. The grenade goes off violently. It is not a stun grenade and has a fifteen foot blast radius._

_Reflex saves (you will all still require damage saves, but the reflex save reduces PL of the blast by half): Cosmo 18, Mb5 9 (Re-roll ends up with 14), Mb 7 11, MB 8 7, Grandmother 0, Pooky 0, Jackal 14 (RR total of 9 becomes 14), SD 23, three helpless students 9-18-17. *All but SD fail their reflex saves.*_

_Hero point use: Cosmo if roll is less than 12; Jackal if roll is less than 10, Grandmother/Pooky if rolls are less than 15._

_Damage saves: Cosmo 18, Jackal 32, Grandmother 11 (RR becomes 15), Pooky 6 (RR becomes 19); Helpless students (unknown), Mb5 18, Mb7 18, Mb8 7, SD (Evasion) 15 (Re-roll becomes a 21).  *Cosmo takes 1L, Jackal's seat protects him fully, Grandmother takes 1L as does Pooky and both are buried beneath pieces of the floor, ceiling and chairs.  The students fate is unclear, though you hear screams of pain.  Both duplicates take hits and wink out of existance.  Speed Demon rolls and backflips out of the area nimbly.*_

The explosion shakes the entire train and the lights flicker out, emergency lighting snapping on. The front of the train is smoking and thick black smoke is coming out of the cab. You hear cries of pain followed by an eerie silence for a moment as everyone, villian and hero, turns towards the front. In unison, the other two Leaders break the silence with one word. "Cool."

The Leader who shot the pilot spins on the two duplicates of Johan, his gun firing of letal rapid-fire rounds at them. Both are struck, and the third laser strikes Neutron in the side of the neck.

_The Leader (version2) hits both duplicates near him and Neutron in his murderous frenzy. Damage saves for the duplicates are 11 and 13. Neutron feels the blast, though his protection reduces its effect greatly. He still requires a damage save at a reduced DC, and gets a 19 save (assumed no re-roll on this), and is unhurt._

_Both duplicates are hit and vanish as they fall dead._

The Leader with the cannon says, "We didn't get a sample from you. Guess that means you are expendable," and pulls the trigger while wearing a big smile. For a moment nothing happens, then an energy globe begins to form at the tip of the cannon. "Let's see how you handle _this!_" A pulse of energy bursts from the tip of the cannon, followed by a steady stream. Neutron, expecting the attack, raises a thick sheet of reflective metal in front of him. The beam strikes it, but the angle of the mirror seems somehow wrong to properly deflect the attack.

_Deflection score of 16. Do you want to re-roll your deflection attempt after my subtle hint?  *Re-roll results in a 24.  It's a fail, and the result will be in the next post.*_

The Leader with the swords, now with his normal accent he was using up front, says "Titan? Are you certain? *pause* Crap! Dock now! Pull out, we're leaving!" he shouts. As he shouts that, another duplicate walks out of him, pulls out a strange gun and fires at the case on the floor. A grapple flies out and strikes it and he starts reeling it in.

_HP uses updated above so far. Battle will continue once PC hero point useage is determined._


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## Mordane76 (Jan 5, 2004)

_OOC: When my Initiative comes up, I can issue my change of orders to the Med-Bot and dive for the case, correct?_

X12 issues his change of orders to the Med-Bot, and drives for the skittering sample case.


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## Dalamar (Jan 5, 2004)

*OoC:* MB5 spends a HP on the reflex save, others don't spend any.


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## Elementor (Jan 6, 2004)

Yes I will reroll my Damage save I rolled a freakin 1.


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## Agamon (Jan 6, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> _Deflection score of 16. Do you want to re-roll your deflection attempt after my subtle hint?_




Yup.  That looks mighty painful...


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## Calinon (Jan 6, 2004)

_Initiatives: Speed Demon 30 (1S, 2HP), Loki 26 (prone), Enemy leader 24 (1S, 1VP), Cosmo 22, MM 16 (Stunned, 1S, 1HP), Amazon 15 (2HP, 4S, stunned-power), X12 and Med-Bot 14, Soldiers 14 (B=blinded), Stealer 12, Straightjacket 12 (Grappled, 1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11 (1S, 1HP), Anna 6, Multibrain 4 (2HP), Neutron 3 (Stunned, Pinned, 1HP), Dara 2_

Speed Demon finishes his backflip and tears off his wristband. Instantly, his limply hanging wings snap back into proper form and his muscles swell slightly as his powers come to the fore.

_You now have a 30 initiative, putting you first next round._

From his vantage point, you see a great deal of carnage. The ceiling has partially collapsed, light fixtures hang from the ceiling, smoke pours from the cockpit. Chairs are ripped from their foundations and the windows are blown out. You see blood on the floor coming from the ruin of chairs where Jackal and Grandmother were.

An high pitched whine erupts behind you, sounding like a high powered laser. Lo and behold, it's the Leader with the cannon, cutting loose at Neutron. Neutron's reflective barrier holds for a fraction of a second before the laser melts straight through it and the chair back, slamming into Neutron's chest, pinning him against the next seat back. Neutron screams as the laser burns into him.

_Neutron gets a damage save of 12, and thank goodness for that. He takes a lethal hit and is stunned. Worse yet, the beam is continuous, has him pinned to the seat and continues to burn through his chest. You wish you hadn't killed us all in D&D last night. Just kidding!_

"Hahaha! It's time for a bar-b-que! Let's crank this sucker up!" the leader cackles and the beam intensifies.

Cosmo ignores the piece of metal impaling him through his forearm and doesn't bother removing his bracelet, instead kicking through the rubble by the door and climbing into the cockpit. You lose sight of him as he enters the choking smoke.

Michelle pulls her bracelet off and immediately a bubble of force surrounds her. She stretches her hand at the case and brings it up, but the leader fights back, trying to pull it free and to him.

_Opposed roll, strength versus telekenesis. Leader will re-roll if he rolls less than 20 (yes, 20). Michelle's check results in an 20 (12+8). Do you want to re-roll? This is also the only attack you can make. *Michelle re-rolls, gets a roll of 10, keeps the 12 ending up with 20. The Leader rolls a 5, re-rolls, gets a score 22, pulling the case free.*_

Raisa snaps her bracelet off with ease, rears back and slams her fist into the robot infront of her. Her attack is nothing short of devastating and the robot explodes into tiny pieces after letting out a paind _SQWAWK!_

_Raisa's attack score is a 24. She's not silly and won't re-roll. She inflicts catastrophic damage to the machine, destroying it completely._

The robot left standing beside Raisa, turns back from the unconscious students, and its cannon fires directly at... CARL. "Pacification protocol, continuing." The blast hits Carl and explodes in a ten foot radius, enveloping a large number of students in the stunning wave.

_Carl is hit, and fails his reflex save. Raisa scores a reflex save of 15. The students nearby fall unconscious. I'll assume you want to save your RR for your fort save._

_Carl uses a hero point to roll if he scores less than 12 on his fort save. He does, re-rolls and suceeds, fighting off the stun! Raisa gets a fort save of 14. Do you want to re-roll? *Re-roll used, resulting in a 5 roll, becomes an automatic 10, giving her a 19. She is stunned and can save next round again at +1 to become unstunned as it is the stun power, not a stun hit.*_

X12 issues his commands to the medical bot and it immediately floats rapidly towards the Leader with the cannon. Not built for combat, it appears somewhat clumsy, the leader ignoring it to his own danger as the bot jabs him with two needles, injecting something into him. He shakes his head and nearly staggers, cursing angrily, but keeps his focus on trying to kill Neutron.

_Attack was sneaky sneaky, and hit the leader, injecting him with a sedative. The Leader made his saving throw, and is able to fight off the effects temporarily._

X12 leaps forward and reaches for the case.

_That part of the action will be resolved once Michelle decides if she wants to use a re-roll._

The blinded soldier fires blindly, and two students are struck, one in the leg, but the second is thrown back against the window, and as she slides down, blood smears the pane. The soldier by the stairs and the soldier who had the case originally both draw a bead on Michelle, letting out single shots. Both strike her.

_Damage saves of 22 and 15 (including your force field bonus). The shot from the soldier by the stairs ricochets off your force field, but the other strikes you in the arm. You take 1 stun hit and are stunned._

The stewards open the door, and are confronted with a cameraman who has been filming the whole thing.  The male stewards shoots the man in the chest, sending him flying into the next car where people are screaming in terror.  They slide the door closed behind them.

_This got eaten yesterday, very odd._

Carl gets up, towering over the seats. His bag is hanging from his hand, and he shakes it off and raises a blaster that was concealed within. He enters the isle, and a vibrating field of force surrounds him. Anyone within 20 feet can feel the vibrations. He walks straight at the robot, pulls the trigger and holds it, and bullets spray out. He hits the robot with nearly every shot, and the machine staggers backwards, sparks flying. As it is pushed between seats, Carl has the gun pressed to the chest of the robot, and continues firing until the machine smashes through the window and plumets to the ground below.

John tears off his bracelet and tackles the Leader before him.

_John gets a 19 (12+7 factoring in growth penalty and grapple bonus). *You hit the Leader and start engulfing him. Opposed check: John 28, Leader 19. You have him pinned.*_

_Continuing on next post._


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## Deva (Jan 6, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> _Carl uses a hero point to roll if he scores less than 12 on his fort save.  He does, re-rolls and suceeds, fighting off the stun!  Raisa gets a fort save of 14.  Do you want to re-roll?_




_OOC: Yes, I will re-roll._


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## Mimic (Jan 6, 2004)

I will re-roll the opposed roll.


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## Dalamar (Jan 6, 2004)

*OoC:* Since MB8 is apparently out of commission, the last two duplicates will try reach the cockpit instead and Johan creates two more (using both half-actions) to tackle one of the remaining soldiers.


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## buzzard (Jan 6, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> John tears off his bracelet and tackles the Leader before him.
> 
> _John gets a 19 (12+7 factoring in growth penalty and grapple bonus).  Do you want to re-roll?_
> 
> _Lots to resolve before we continue._





Keep the roll. As a rule, if I make better than a 10 I won't re-roll. 

buzzard


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## Calinon (Jan 6, 2004)

_Initiatives: Speed Demon 30 (1S, 2HP), Loki 26 (Prone), Enemy leader 24 (1S, 2VP), Cosmo 22 (Burning, 3L, 2HP), MM 16 (Stunned, 1S, 1HP), Amazon 15 (2HP, 4S, stunned-power), X12 (1HP) and Med-Bot 14, Soldiers 14 (B=blinded), Stealer 12 (Battlesuit), Straightjacket 12 (Grappled, 1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11 (1S, 1L, 2HP, berserk), Anna 6 (Disabled, 1L), Multibrain 4 (2HP), Neutron 3 (Stunned, 1HP), Dara 2_

X12 grabs for the case and grabs hold of the handle just as Michelle loses her magnetic hold. He and the Leader enter into test of strength for control of the case.

_Opposed check, X12 gets 14. Do you want to re-roll? *Re-roll used, score of 17!  Leader gets a score of 23 and comes away with the case though.*_

The groan of metal grinding on metal sounds from the front of the train and a low growl echoes through the air as well. With an surge of motion, a large pile of rubble explodes as Jackal stands up, arms thrown upward as he surges to his full height. He crouches and with a roar, leaps forward, landing lightly on the back of the first in-tact seats. Eyes glowing red and saliva dripping from his jowls, he enters a snarling charge across the seats at the Leader with the cannon. Six inch claws extend from his claws as he leaps the final two rows, and Neutron, landing in the energy beam. The acrid smell of burning fur fills the area, but Jackal pushes himself against the lasers power, reaching forward and slashing through the barrel. The gun shorts out and the Leader holding the remnants unslings it and reaches for a hand blaster at his hip.

_Jackal makes his balance checks for his movement across the seats and his jump check for the leap past Neutron. He is struck full force by the energy beam, freeing Neutron from his pin, taking a lethal hit and ending up stunned. He spends a hero point to negate the stun immediately, and attacks the weapon itself, sundering it._

Kevin, now faced with three of the four leaders, takes advantage of the focus on the case and leaps the nearby bench, landing in front of Anna, pulling his bracelet off. As he does so, he feels someone slap something on his back. He feels a painful pinch as four... somethings dig into his skin on either side of his spine, then hears an ominous clicking sound and sees iron plates moving around his chest and down his arms and legs. He holds his breath as they climb his neck and encompass his head. For a short instant, there's complete darkness, then a screen activates and he can see in an enhanced vision mode.

Kevin is now in a Battlesuit!

A menu system seems to be activated by your eyes, and targetting crosshairs are taking in a nearly 360 degree view. Your eyes lock on a weapons menu.

_OOC: Anna has given you her battlesuit, because she's too badly hurt to use it herself. The suit seems fairly easy to use, and in a short second you've figured out the following: Energy Blast +6 (stunt: dual damage, extra: area affect), All-around-sight (feat, super)_

Johan concentrates, and a pair of duplicates step out him, one after another, as the remaining three lesser duplicates (Mb8, 9, 7) head for the cockpit. All three vanish into the choking black smoke.

_Mb8 was outside the grenade blast; two others were killed._

As the duplicates enter the cockpit, the entire train lurches suddenly and sparks appear outside the windows. It appears a brake has been deployed. Two large shakes further rattle the train as the helicopters land on the roof. The two stewards pull the door behind them open, revealing a reporter with a camera rolling. The male steward shoots him in the chest, shoving him bleeding into the next car, where you hear screaming coming from, as he leaves your car, and the female steward leaves behind him, closing the door.

Dara rushes forward to where the injured and dying student is, to try to help.

*Inside the Cockpit (Johan only)*
Your mental link holds solid with your duplicates as they enter the smoke filled room. You see falling parts, sparking consoles and a big gout of fire! Mb8 is hit and destroyed, being reabsorbed into your being. Mb9 and Mb7 dodge the fire and make it inside. Cosmo, face scorched and metal still piercing his forearm, has his hands around a beam and with immense strength (despite the fact you can see his bracelet still on), heaves it to the side, revealing a trap door. He pulls it up revealing an emergency manual brake.

Mb8 looks forward, standing at the nearly ruined control panel and sees the corner fast approaching. A warning light over the speed indicator shows 380mph. Mb7 sees a sign whip by indicating maximum speed for this section of track is 150mph. The engine is running in an accellerating mode.

"Shut the engine down!" shouts Cosmo over the sound of the engine, fire and falling parts. Ignoring a fuel fire inside the manual braking trapdoor, he reaches in and pulls hard on the brake. You hear the braking system kick in, and the train gives a heavy lurch, but you aren't slowing down fast enough!

Both of your doubles look desperately at the immense control panel, trying to find the speed control and engine shut-off. Mb7 spots them, side by side, on a melted panel. A nearby working computer console with keyboard, showing track condition and other Mag-Lev terminals, gives you your only option, and Mb7 steps up to try to activate the engine shut-down command through hacking directly into the train processor.

_Mb7 and Mb8 work together. Both have maximum of +4 to powers, skill ranks and ability modifiers, giving them +8 to their computer check. Mb8 helps Mb7 successfully, and their computer check is 19. They fail to get past the high tech encryption codes in place to prevent just this sort of thing from happening._ 

Mb8 estimates they have about 10 seconds to shut down the engine before it will be too late. One more attempt. Mb8 sees Cosmo's arms and hands are, quite literally, on fire, though he doggedly refuses to release the brake.

_Cosmo is obviously badly hurt. He uses a hero point to boost his strength enough to move the heavy beam. He takes a lethal hit to his hands doing so, as the beam is intensely hot. He takes a further lethal hit grabbing and pulling the brake, and is now on fire._

_*Speed Demon and Loki are up. Maps are updated.*_


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## Mordane76 (Jan 7, 2004)

_OOC -- I'll use a HP for a re-roll... maybe I'll get better! _


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## Calinon (Jan 7, 2004)

Mordane76 said:
			
		

> _OOC -- I'll use a HP for a re-roll... maybe I'll get better! _



OOC:  Hero point used, refer up for results, Round 3 commences.


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## Elementor (Jan 7, 2004)

Now that Speed Demon has his mojo back, he dashes down the aisle after the Steward and Stewardess that are fleeing into the adjoining cars.

As tempting as it is to Mach One Punch someone on the way past, he will resist the urge and instead move 140'.  I remember them shooting a reporter as they try and run away but I cant seem to find the post anymore.


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## Mule (Jan 7, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> The ceiling has partially collapsed, light fixtures hang from the ceiling, smoke pours from the cockpit. Chairs are ripped from their foundations and the windows are blown out. You see blood on the floor coming from the ruin of chairs where Jackal and Grandmother were.




Loki rushes over to where Grandmother was sitting with Pooky.  Seeing the carnage, he frantically tries to dig them out of the wreckage.

OOC: _I assume that Loki is giving up his cover.  He will use a hero point for extra effort if he needs to boost his strength in order to dig out Grandmother and Pooky._


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## Calinon (Jan 7, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> The stewards open the door, and are confronted with a cameraman who has been filming the whole thing. The male stewards shoots the man in the chest, sending him flying into the next car where people are screaming in terror. They slide the door closed behind them.
> 
> _This got eaten yesterday, very odd._



_That is now up (two of my posts back) where it should be._

_Initiatives: Speed Demon 30 (1S, 2HP), Loki 26 (Prone), Enemy leader 24 (1S, 2VP), Cosmo 22 (dying, 4L, 3HP), MM 16 (1S, 1HP), Amazon 15 (2HP, 4S), X12 (1HP) and Med-Bot 14, Massive Robot 14, MK192 14, Soldiers 14 (B=blinded), Stealer 12 (Battlesuit), Straightjacket 12 (Grappled, 1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11 (dying, 2L, 2HP), Anna 6 (Disabled, 1L), Multibrain 4 (2HP), Neutron 3 (Stunned, 1HP), Dara 2_

*In The Train*


			
				Elementor said:
			
		

> Now that Speed Demon has his mojo back, he dashes down the aisle after the Steward and Stewardess that are fleeing into the adjoining cars.
> 
> As tempting as it is to Mach One Punch someone on the way past, he will resist the urge and instead move 140'. I remember them shooting a reporter as they try and run away but I cant seem to find the post anymore.



_OOC: Ok, but you didn't see them leave. You were flipping away from an explosion and have no line of sight to them. That being said, I'll let you see them and do your action because I can be a bit sarcastic and this will really help me use your weakness against you._

Vincent, ignoring the moans of agony from nearby injured and possibly dying people and ignoring the smoking cockpit and people he saw go inside, dashes by the soldier who is continuing to pump bullets at the students blindly, and goes by Dara who is ineffectively trying to stem the flow of blood from the critically injured student who lies in a pool of his own blood. Rapid scolding and anger, spoken in a language sounding oriental, rings through his ears. He ignores the three leaders and the battle for the case, flies by the two soldiers shooting Michelle and soars down the rest of the train, past a stunned Raisa only to find the door through which the stewards left, locked! He fights to open the door, finally giving a huge heave and breaking the lock.

_Half action move, free action teasing and mockery (way to look like a monster! go weakness!), half action opening the locked door (locked from outside) with a 19 strength check to break the lock and open the door. You have super-speed sustained._

The door opens up and a metal monstrosity of a robot steps from the left, coming to stand infront of Speed Demon. A smaller, familiar, MK192 is standing in the doorway to the next car, weapon trained on those within, keeping them back. The massive robot in front of Speed Demon growls.

_Think robot from Judge Dread. The robot is easily eight feet tall. One arm is a massive cyclic cannon. The other is a massive crushing hand. The MK192 is just like the others. Both have been inserted into the initiative order._

Loki rolls away from the blinded, shooting soldier, running to the front, and starts to dig Grandmother and her dog out of the rubble. He can see them both under the rubble and both appear to be breathing, though the smoke can't be good for them.

_Half action to stand, half action to move. You can start digging them out next round and it should take a full round to clear enough rubble to get them out. You also notice (spot 17) a stream of blood coming from the ruin of the car on the other side under a huge pile of rubble where the ceiling collapsed._

The Leader with the case steps backwards directly into the original Leader. The case vanishes with him. 

The Leader with the swords hurls a sword over his other duplicate's shoulder, striking Jackal in the throat where the blade is buried up to the handle. Jackal gurgles and collapses, shifting back to human form as he falls, blood pooling about him rapidly. That Leader then says, "Six, coming at you," and a beam of energy leaves him and races up the stairs. In a moment he's gone.

The Leader pinned by Straightjacket starts laughing maniacally. Straightjacket, from your close proximity you hear a female computerized voice saying this: "Ten, Nine, Eight..."

The Leader who had the cannon rapidly draws his gun while grinning coldly and clicking a button on his belt. "You wanted a bang, you get a bang, brother," he says to his headset before shooting Neutron.

_Case bearing leader is absorbed by the original. Original throws his sword at Jackal, scoring a critical hit. Jackal fails his save badly. He is dying. Cannonic leader activates "something" and shoots Neutron with a standard blaster, hitting. _

_Neutron gets a save against reduced DC and scores a 18. (Do you want to re-roll?)_

_The murderous leader cackles as the countdown begins, not even attempting to escape the tight pin._

Michelle struggles to clear her head after being shot with the stun blaster. Her force field has winked out of existance.

_Michelle has no actions this round due to being stunned. Since she has no actions, she cannot maintain her powers._

Amazon staggers, her body going numb. She struggles and comes out of it, though still feels sluggish.

_Amazon gets another Fortitude save to shake off the effects of the stun power, this time at +1. She scores a 29 and can act normally, but all actions this round have a minor penalty._

The entire train gives another jolt as further brakes are applied, slowing the train more. Sparks fly up past the windows and the entire underside of the train is vibrating.

*In The Cab*
Cosmo reefs on the brake again, putting it full on and locking it in place before collapsing against the wall.

_Cosmo suffers yet more injuries, becoming disabled, but locks out the brake. His condition worsens to dying._

_Amazon, X12 and his pet med-bot are up next. Maps will get updated tonight again._


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## buzzard (Jan 7, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> The Leader pinned by Straightjacket starts laughing maniacally.  Straightjacket, from your close proximity you hear a female computerized voice saying this:  "Ten, Nine, Eight..."
> 
> _The murderous leader cackles as the countdown begins, not even attempting to escape the tight pin._




Assuming that the explosion made a hole in the side, Straightjacket will attempt to fling his trapped Leader out the hole. If he can do this and still have actions, he will then try to engage one of the soldiers who is slaughtering the wounded. 

buzzard


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## Mordane76 (Jan 7, 2004)

EDITED FOR STUPIDITY


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## Mordane76 (Jan 7, 2004)

"Dammit! X12 exclaims as he loses grip of the case.  Watching the carnage unfold, with the injured mounting, X12 calls new orders to the Med-Bot.  "Med-Bot!  Increase dosage and sedate hostile transfusion patient!" he barks as he advances on the fallen Jackal and the Leader with the gun.

_OOC: I think I got my triage levels right; I want the bot to assist patients in this car that are wounded, but not critically; I'm going for Jackal.  Depending on if the Med-Bot sedates the Leader with the gun, I'll either pull the sword from Jackal for use as a weapon, or pull it out of him prior to reviving him._


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## Deva (Jan 8, 2004)

Giving her head a shake to clear the cobwebs, Raisa glances over her shoulder, momentarily considering going after the two that had the audacity to shoot her in the back.  However, seeing the carnage in the train car and the soldiers preparing to take a few cheap shots against another student, she growls and closes the distance to the weapon toting soldier standing over Michelle. "You are so going to regret this!" She snarls at the soldier, her fist flying through the air.

_ACTIONS: Movement (1/2 action), Punching soldier (1/2 action). Will use HP to reroll if miss and die roll is lower than 12._


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## Calinon (Jan 8, 2004)

_Initiatives: Speed Demon 30 (1S, 2HP), Loki 26 (Prone), Enemy leader 24 (1S, 2VP), Cosmo 22 (dying, 4L, 3HP), MM 16 (1S, 1HP), Amazon 15 (2HP, 4S), X12 (1HP) and Med-Bot 14, Massive Robot 14, MK192 14, Soldiers 14 (B=blinded), Stealer 12 (Battlesuit), Straightjacket 12 (Grappled, 1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11 (dying, 2L, 2HP), Anna 6 (Disabled, 1L), Multibrain 4 (2HP), Neutron 3 (Stunned, 1HP), Dara 2_

Amazon charges forward, leveling a roundhouse right at the nearest soldier. He doesn't see her coming, and his head turns painfully far around as he flies backwards into the stairway wall. Amazingly enough, he keeps his feet.

_Raisa hits, the soldier fails his save, is stunned, and knocked back into the wall. He spends a villian point to shake off the effect of the stun immediately._

X12 moves around the stairwell, coming up beside Jackal as he shouts commands to the med-bot. Seeing the sword sticking from his throat, he grabs hold and yanks it free. There is little blood coming from the wound, but from the pool on the ground, there likely isn't much left. He stands up, facing the Leader with the glowing blade.

_X12 moves (half action) and pulls the sword free (half action)._

The med-bot is twitching oddly, sparks coming from its inner workings. "_Unable to comply! Self destruct sequence activated!_" It's head explodes and the robot crashes to the ground motionless. The Leader grins evilly at X12. "Boom," he says as he raises his gun at him.

In the rear of the car, Vincent stares slack jawed at the massive robot before him. The behemoth steps into the door, ripping the metal as he enters the car, creating a much larger doorway. He bats out with his left hand as the cyclic cannon starts whirling. Vincent dances back to avoid the amazingly fast grab of the robot and finds himself staring at that huge cannon as the robot starts firing at him.

_The robot swings fast enough to catch anyone but Vincent, who evades the blow. The cyclic cannon is another story and Vincent suddenly feels very much like a fish in a barrel... or in this case a goat headed boy in one. The robot fires, scoring a 25 (miss), 21 (miss) and 29 (critical). Vincent's evasion gives him a whopping +14 to his damage save. He gets a roll of only 7, but still has a 21 damage save. Do you want to re-roll?  *Hero point used, and indeed it is a happy occasion.  Though you only roll a 3, it automatically becomes a ten, giving you a 24 damage save.  Not enough, but now you aren't in such dire straights.  You suffer a lethal hit, getting shot in the leg, and are stunned.  Curses upon you, critical hit!*_

Vincent spins and dodges as the robot fires a barrage of huge bullets at him.  A bullet tears through his thigh, entering and exiting smoothly, but Vincent appears in a state of shock as his momentum is suddenly halted.

The MK192, visible only to Vincent now, keeps guard over the passengers in the next car.

The blinded soldier manages to overcome the Dazzle, but instead of firing at the students anymore, retreats to and up the stairs. The other two soldiers do the same, quickly running up the stairs, though one still appears somewhat dazed.

Straightjacket stands up, picks the Leader up and readies to hurl him through the window! You all now hear a woman's voice counting down... "_Six, Five, Four..._" The Leader hits the windw and smashes through, failing to grab hold of a nearby chair. He shouts, "_You bastarrrr..." BOOOOOOM!_

Another explosion rocks the train violently as the Leader, or rather the bomb strapped to him, explodes. All the windows along that side of the train are blown out, showering the inside with shattered glass (not shards, pebbles).

_Straightjacket wins the grapple check and hits the window he was aiming for, though the ones close enough are all in place. The leader hits it and blasts through and he very nearly gets a hold of a chair on the way by. He fails and falls a short distance before exploding._

Carl whirls to the sound of the gunfire and opens his mouth. A low frequency vibration is felt then a huge wave of vibrating energy races out and strikes the robot in the side. It staggers sideways five feet before stopping and turns towards Carl. _"Former target threat factor 3. New target threat factor 8. New target acquired."_ It seems undamaged by the attack, though Carl takes a step towards it, his energy barrier circling around him constantly, and much to Vince's surprise (and immense joy now that it's not shooting at him any more), the robot slides back a bit. Carl's vibrating energy wave doesn't stop.

_Carl hits with his disintegration attack. The robot makes his saving throw, but Carl continues to blast him._

_Stealer and Multibrain are up._


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## Elementor (Jan 8, 2004)

I will happily use a hero point.


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## Agamon (Jan 8, 2004)

No HP for me, thanks, but I will use one to unstun myself, if need be (so I'm not stunned 2 rounds in a row).

Daaamn, I thought I was the evil GM.  I've taught you well, I see...


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## Dalamar (Jan 8, 2004)

Johan and the two duplicates still in there will move over to help wounded students with their amazing +1 bonus to Heal.
The duplicates at the cockpit will try again to stop the mag-lev.


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## Velmont (Jan 8, 2004)

Seeing the carnage around him, Kevin start to be a bit confused.

_Why I wanted to come here at first?_

He takes a looks around, seeing the soldier feeing, he doesn't mind for them. Then he see the robot who seems to be a threat, and take a aim.

"Now, let see if that little toy is easy to use."

And shoots at the robot.

OOC: If it isn't consider an attack, I will use my power Mimic:Feats and touch Anna, to be able to learn some more tricks with the battlesuit.


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## Calinon (Jan 8, 2004)

_Initiatives: Speed Demon 22 (30 when super speed is back) (stunned, 1S, 2HP), Loki 26, Enemy leader 24 (1S, 2VP), Cosmo 22 (stabilized, 4L, 3HP), MM 16 (1S, 1HP), Amazon 15 (2HP, 4S), X12 (1HP) and Med-Bot 14, Massive Robot 14, MK192 14, Soldiers 14 (B=blinded), Stealer 12 (Battlesuit), Straightjacket 12 (1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11 (stabalized, 1L, 2HP), Anna 6 (Disabled, 1L), Multibrain 4 (2HP), ????? 3, Neutron 3 (1HP), Dara 2_

Stealer, unable to get a clear shot at the massive machine of bullet spewing death, steps out into the isle, and raises his armored hand at it.  Activating the firing sequence from the menus he sees, the arm suddenly transforms into a blaster and he sends a blast of red energy towards the robot!  It strikes the robot in the shoulder, but other than a quick shift of it's shoulders and a small dent, it's unharmed.

"_New threat assessment, rank 5.  Current target acquisition unchanged,_" the robot says.

_Stealer is firing into combat, suffering a -4 to hit as he doesn't want to hit Speed Demon.  He rolls an 18, becoming a 17 ranged attack, which I doubt he'll waste a re-roll on, and hits!  The robot staggers, taking a point of hardness damage.  _

Jackal lies completely still and unbreathing, a visible and bloody wound evident where the sword entered his throat.  A few short seconds later however, and he draws a rattling breath, the hole on his neck sealing up.

_Jackal has stabilized and regenerated one hit, though is still unconscious and disabled._

Johan and his doubles outside the cab start helping the wounded.  They quickly discover why Rebound hasn't entered the fray as the boy lies unconscious on the ground, but alive.  The doubles manage to stabilize a dying student under the rubble at the front.  As Johan himself moves among other students, he finds most of them simply rendered unconscious by stun blasts or from relatively minor injuries.  Suddenly, all of them freeze in place and as one turn towards the cockpit and start spouting off random number and letter combinations.

Dara, covered in a lot of blood that isn't hers, seems to have stemmed most of the bleeding though is keeping pressure on the bullet wound.

*In The Cab*
Johan's duplicates struggle against the security measures in place over the train's computer system.

"It's an encrypted code," says one double.

_Breep!  Incorrect password!_

"Simple algorithmic formula.  We nearly have it," says the other.

_Breep!  Incorrect password!_

"8971AX874," says one, typing fast.

_Warning.  Current speed exceeds safety recommendations.  Reccommend immediate shutdown of engine and maximum application of braking system._

"79DB," says the other as he looks forward at the rapidly approaching turn.

"3A4789," says another duplicate to their minds.

_Breep!  Incorrect password!_

"Z9759," says one of the duplicates from outside.

"78379," adds the last of the duplicates.

_Breep!  Incorrect password!_

Johan sees a mental projection of what is happening in the cab.  Attached to the computer screen is a picture of a woman, the words Erika `14 on the bottom.

"Erika2114!" shouts Johan through the link.

"I hope I'm right!" exclaims his double as he hits enter.

_Breep!  Password accepted!_

"There's the command!"

"Got it!" replies the one at the keyboard, activating emergency shut-down of the engine.

_All the duplicates combine their knowledge to help, Johan included.  First roll ends up with a 13.  Hero point used for re-roll because my other options would be falling back on the giant eagles to save the day, and that particular crutch has been beaten to death.  Re-roll gets a score of 26.  _

The train lurches as the engine shuts off and the full force of the emergency braking takes effect.  Cosmo flies forward into the bottom of the command console, one of Johan's duplicates soars up and over the console and through the broken window.  He hits the track and is incinerated instantly.  The other makes his reflex save and manages to brace himself with the computer, remaining unharmed.  He doesn't think that the shutdown came soon enough.

_Cosmo suffers no damage thank goodness.  One of Johan's duplicates fails his dexterity check and reflex save and flies to his doom.  The other makes his dexterity check._

*In The Train*
The whole train suddenly lurches as the engine shuts down.  Everyone standing staggers, trying to keep their balance.  Over the screeching brakes you can hear helicopters flying off, and can see one leaving off each side of the train, flying in seperate directions.

_Dexterity checks (DC10) to avoid being prone and thrown towards the front 10 feet or until you hit an object:_

_Loki 19, MB111, MB 2 15, MB3 12, Straighjacket 9, X12 15, Leader 18, Dara 5, Stealer 17, Carl 5, MM 15, Anna n/a, SD 24, ROBOT unaffected, MK192 8._

_Those with scores less than 8 are prone and ten feet towards the front of the train now.  Carl loses his continual disintegration beam as a result._

_Next up is Loki, then the Leader and then MM (and so on).  SD can make his move whenever he is able to post, should he want to spend a hero point to immediately unstun on his turn._


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## Mimic (Jan 8, 2004)

"Damn it, they got away."  Michelle mutters in anger as the air once again ripples around her. 

Ignoring the duplicate leader she looks around noticing the damage this short fight has done, she spots the large robot and moves in closer. "Thanks for the save, you take out the leader I will deal with the robot." She says to Amazon as she passes by the girl.

Once she is closer Michelle will attempt to throw the large robot through the wall of the cabin outside into the air.

OOC: move 30' (1/2 action) Forcefield (free action) Energy control (1/2 action)


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## Mule (Jan 9, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> You can start digging them out next round and it should take a full round to clear enough rubble to get them out. You also notice (spot 17) a stream of blood coming from the ruin of the car on the other side under a huge pile of rubble where the ceiling collapsed.
> 
> The doubles manage to stabilize a dying student under the rubble at the front.




OOC:  _I am assuming that the dying student under the rubble was the source of the stream of blood, and that the Johan doubles have saved him._

Loki starts digging frantically at the rubble covering Grandmother and Pooky.  "Help! Help me somebody!  Grandmother and her dog aren't moving!"


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## Calinon (Jan 9, 2004)

_Initiatives: Speed Demon 22 (30 when super speed is back) (stunned, 1S, 2HP), Loki 26, Enemy leader 24, Cosmo 22 (stabilized, 4L, 3HP), MM 16 (1S, 1HP), Amazon 15 (2HP, 4S), X12 (1L, 1HP) 14, Massive Robot 14, MK192 14, Stealer 12 (Battlesuit), Straightjacket 12 (1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11 (stabalized, 1L, 2HP), Anna 6 (Disabled, 1L), Multibrain 4 (2HP), ????? 3, Neutron 3 (1HP), Dara 2_

Loki pulls the rubble from Grandmother and Pooky, exerting to move some of the heavier items.  He manages to pull them back out of the smoke.

_Loki, due to being a wimp, uses a hero point to boost his strength._

The final leader looks flushed and bleary eyed and shakes his head.  Despite fighting off the sedatives in his system, he manages to squeeze off a shot at X12, shooting him in the shoulder.

_X12 is hit.  X12's saving throw score is 20.  I'll make the wild assumption you don't want to re-roll.  You suffer a lethal hit, but otherwise are fine and dandy._

Michelle steps into the isle and concentrates on the giant robot.  She reaches out with her hand and a rippling energy field surrounds the robot.  The air around it ripples as she tries to lift it from the ground.

_Michelle makes her ranged attack roll with a 21.  Now it's an opposed check.  Michelle gets a score of 20 (12+8).  Do you want to re-roll?_

_Amazon and X12 are next._


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## Mimic (Jan 9, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> _Michelle makes her ranged attack roll with a 21.  Now it's an opposed check.  Michelle gets a score of 20 (12+8).  Do you want to re-roll?_




What is it with me getting 12? Yes re-roll please.


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## Elementor (Jan 9, 2004)

Vince wipes the sweat from his eyes as his vision blurs from the pain caused by his leg wound.  "How many more surprises can there be??"  He once again becomes super fast and hits the ABC robot with massive force.

HP used to unstun.  Powers:  Superspeed powered back up (1/2 action) and Mach One Punch (1/2 action) to this massive metal monstrosity


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## Calinon (Jan 9, 2004)

_Initiatives: Speed Demon 22 (30 when super speed is back) (stunned, 1S, 2HP), Loki 26, Enemy leader 24, Cosmo 22 (stabilized, 4L, 3HP), MM 16 (1S, 1HP), Amazon 15 (2HP, 4S), X12 (1L, 1HP) 14, Massive Robot 14, MK192 14, Stealer 12 (Battlesuit), Straightjacket 12 (1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11 (stabalized, 1L, 2HP), Anna 6 (Disabled, 1L), Multibrain 4 (2HP), ????? 3, Neutron 3 (1HP), Dara 2_ 
_Michelle re-rolls. Good news!  She doesn't get a 12!  Bad news: it's a 7.  End result, she keeps her favorite number.  The monster machine gets 23._

Two lights on the robots shoulders flash.  _"Positional rockets, activated.  New threat assessment, rank 5.  Keep current target," _it rumbles as small blasts of air push it to the ground, breaking Michelle's telekinetic lift attempt.  As it touches down, speed demon launches himself and, in a blur, is at the robots side and punching it.  His fist moves faster than the eye can see, and his motion ends with a loud _CLANG!_  This sound is followed by a yelp of pain.  The dang thing's outer parts are electrified!

_Vincent hits with a 19 score.  The robot takes a point of hardness damage, failing it's damage save in a minor fashion.  Vincent, having touched the behemoth, discovers it has an invisible electrical energy field coursing through its outer casings.  Vincent makes his damage save with a 31, the contact stinging but causing no damage do to its brevity.  It does make you yelp in surprise tho!_

_Still Amazon up, then X12 can attempt to remove the leaders' hands/head/heart with the sword._


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## Mordane76 (Jan 9, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> The final leader looks flushed and bleary eyed and shakes his head.  Despite fighting off the sedatives in his system, he manages to squeeze off a shot at X12, shooting him in the shoulder.
> 
> _X12 is hit.  X12's saving throw score is 20.  I'll make the wild assumption you don't want to re-roll.  You suffer a lethal hit, but otherwise are fine and dandy._





_OOC: Darn right I'm not re-rolling... even though it does hit, it's like being with a very sharp pea.  _

X12 chuckles a little, as the wound quickly begins to close.  "You're gonna have to shoot me with something a heck of a lot bigger than that," X12 quips.  He thrusts the sword forward, hoping to impale the Leader in the stomach.  "Don't worry if it hurts... I can keep you alive for a very, very long time."


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## Deva (Jan 9, 2004)

Pain and dying to the front of her, pain and possibly more dying behind her. She had never seen so much blood before, and it still isn't over.The uber robot left behind by the big bads is going to be a problem. Despite the aches in her entire body, she grips the back of the seat she is standing beside and tears it from the floor. "I have really bad aim, so get down!" She shouts the instant before she throws it down the aisle and at the robot.

_ACTIONS: Picking up seat (1/2 action), throwing seat (1/2 action). Will use HP to reroll if miss and die roll is lower than 12._


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## Calinon (Jan 9, 2004)

_Initiatives: Speed Demon 22 (30 when super speed is back) (stunned, 1S, 2HP), Loki 26, Enemy leader 24, Cosmo 22 (stabilized, 4L, 3HP), MM 16 (1S, 1HP), Amazon 15 (2HP, 4S), X12 (1L, 1HP) 14, Massive Robot 14, MK192 14 (prone), Stealer 12 (Battlesuit), Straightjacket 12 (1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11 (stabalized, 1L, 2HP), Anna 6 (Disabled, 1L), Multibrain 4 (2HP), ????? 3, Neutron 3 (1HP), Dara 2_

Raisa manages to tear a nearby, unoccupied seat from the ground only to realize she has no line of sight to the robot.  She has a better chance of hitting someone in her line of sight than the robot.

_Currently, for range, you have -6, and another -4 for throwing into battle and no line of sight.  For this reason, you have the chair and move closer, past the prone Carl, just behind MM._

X12 lunges forward, arm burning from his new bullet hole.  He trips, missing badly, staggering forward, and feels the barrel of the gun on his chest.  "You make it to easy," laughs the leader.

_Boy, aren't you unlucky?  You stagger and fall to one knee, missing your attack completely and find yourself at his mercy.  I wonder if he knows that word...  By the way, getting shot still hurts like a sonufagun._

The robot's head turns slightly as Raisa rips the chair from the floor.  _"Former target, threat factor eight.  Current target, threat factor eight.  Acquire new target due to range.  Target acquired."_

The robot stomps forward, and Michelle smartly moves aside as he advances.  Raisa takes the opportunity to hurl the chair at the robot.  The gun arm of the robot continues to whir, pumping lead at Amazon.  Bullets thud into her and rips the chair apart in mid air!  The base of the chair thunks off the Robot's chest, falling to the floor.

_The robot advances, and Michelle is intimidated into moving aside, though honestly, with that much tonnage moving at you, you'd probably want to move anyway._

_Raisa hurls the chair as the robot fires, and hits!  Sadly, the weapon is of far less power than her punches, and does no damage at all.  The robot fires through the chair.  Having changed its targetting to react, it misses with the first shot, but nails the chair.  Poor chair really badly failed its damage save.  The second two shots hit Raisa, once in the chest and once in the stomach.  Damage saves are 16 and 25.  Do you want to use a hero point to re-roll?  I'll resolve in the morning if no answer tonight._

The MK192 in the next room stands and withdraws to the platform, using its weapon to weld the door shut.  In the windows, the helicopters are getting farther away.

_Up next, Stealer, Straightjacket, Multibrain and Neutron._


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## Deva (Jan 9, 2004)

_ooc: no HP for re-roll, but will use one to negate stun if necessary._


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## buzzard (Jan 9, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> _Up next, Stealer, Straightjacket, Multibrain and Neutron._




Looking at the map, the nearest target appears to be the Leader standing over Jackal. I can't get a sense of the distance, so I don't know if I can reach him on a stretch or if a move is required. If her is within 20', SJ will stretch over and attempt a grapple, and on the following action attempt a pin. If the range is too great, he'll move and initiate the grapple. He should already be grown to large. If a roll is below 11, use a hero point to re-roll. 

buzzard


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## Mordane76 (Jan 9, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> X12 lunges forward, arm burning from his new bullet hole.  He trips, missing badly, staggering forward, and feels the barrel of the gun on his chest.  "You make it to easy," laughs the leader.





"Better make it count; you don't have too much time before you go off to Dreamland," X12 says.


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## Calinon (Jan 9, 2004)

_Initiatives: Speed Demon 22 (30 when super speed is back) (stunned, 1S, 2HP), Loki 26, Enemy leader 24, Cosmo 22 (stabilized, 4L, 3HP), MM 16 (1S, 1HP), Amazon 15 (2HP, 1L, 4S), X12 (1L, 1HP) 14, Massive Robot 14, MK192 14 (prone), Stealer 12 (Battlesuit), Straightjacket 12 (1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11 (stabalized, 1L, 2HP), Anna 6 (Disabled, 1L), Multibrain 4 (2HP), ????? 3, Neutron 3 (1HP), Dara 2_

Raisa staggers from the power of the bullets impacting her.  The first bullet slams her chest, ruining her shirt and dropping as a rather heavy slug to the ground.  A second hits her hip, tearing along the skin and leaving a bleeding gouge.

_Raisa makes her save once and fails one, taking one lethal hit._



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> _Dexterity checks (DC10) to avoid being prone and thrown towards the front 10 feet or until you hit an object:  Straightjacket 9_



Straightjacket gets up, unhurt from his slide towards the front of the train, and moves towards the leader, stretching around to try to grapple him.

_I forgot to add prone to your condition after updating yesterday, but you are.  Standing (free action), Move (half action), Attack (half action).  Attack roll is an 12 (my number generators favorite number in the freaking world), becoming an 19 score, and the leader avoids your grapple._

The Leader watches John come at him out of the corner of his eye.  Without moving, he manages to shove out with his free hand, and John ends up going over him, ending up directly behind the Leader.  "Hah, Amateur!" he laughs out.  

_The Leader has full cover from anyone behind John directly or towards the top of the map.  He has 1/4 cover from X12 from his front._

_Next up is Stealer and Multibrain are up next.  Carl needs to get up and get in position and Dara will continue helping students._


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## Dalamar (Jan 9, 2004)

The duplicate in the cockpit will move to help Cosmo, first removing the bracelet limiting his powers, then the metal thingy that pierced his arm.

The ones still in the passenger area start helping Loki while the real Johan turns to where the massive robot is.
"Unless I am completely mistaken, so far Carl has fared the best against the colossus, I'd suggest the rest of you concentrate on keeping him standing and a safe distance from it."


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## Mimic (Jan 9, 2004)

n/a


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## Calinon (Jan 9, 2004)

_Initiatives: Speed Demon 30 (1L, 1S, 2HP), Loki 26 (1HP), Enemy leader 24, Cosmo 22 (stabilized, 4L, 3HP), MM 16 (1S, 1HP), Amazon 15 (2HP, 1L, 4S), X12 14 (1L, 1HP), Massive Robot 14 (4DP), MK192 14 (prone), Stealer 12 (Battlesuit), Straightjacket 12 (1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11 (disabled, 2HP), Anna 6 (Disabled, 1L), Multibrain 4 (2HP), Titan 3 (1HP), Neutron 3 (1HP), Dara 2_

Carl stands up and lets loose a blast of vibrating energy. The blast rips through Raisa before blasting into the robot!

_Carl uses his disintigration power. It doesn't affect flesh, though most of Raisa's top is shredded. For decency, her underclothes make their save easily. Raisa is a little queesy, but otherwise none the worse for wear. The wave of energy continues on, striking the robot. The robot fails its save, uses a villain point and makes it._

The robot staggers back a few inches before stopping its movement. It's hand arm starts changing form until a silver morning star dangles where the hand was. It starts spinning it rapidly. The robot is looking up at the ceiling, its eyes glowing.

"_New target recognized as alpha threat. EPIC member target is...._"

That's as far as the robot gets as you hear an explosion of metal and then the celing rips apart as something streaks through the roof and into the robot. The robot is slammed backwards ten feet, stopping itself at the doorway with its gun arm. A huge piece of its chest plating is crushed inward. Standing where the robot was is a spanish man you all recognize.

"_Creo la palabra que usted buscan, amigo, es Titán_," says the amazingly good looking, and easily recognizable super-hero, Titan. He's dressed in his trademark silver and white body-suit with flowing cape. The cape has his name emblazoned on it.

_Translation: I believe the name you are looking for, amigo, is Titan."_

"You have done well, los jóvenes (t_ranslation: youngsters)_, but now let Titan tip the odds in your favor, shall we?" he says to those nearby.

"_Internal systems damaged. Damage repair beginning,_" drones the robot.

"You can try, robot, but I think your chance of success is waning," Titan says, a smirk on his face as he flies at the robot, punching through the chest casing of the robot, shattering it the casing.

_Titan's first attack hits, damaging the robot and knocking it back. He finishes his move and with heroic surge strikes the robot again, damaging it further. The robot's internal workings in its chest are now visible. Titan is flying a foot off the ground and is right in front of the robot._

Johan's duplicates help Loki continue to dig people out, stabilize students and generally check on folks. Dara is trying to do more of the same, but appears very shaken. In fact, anyone getting within five feet of her gets a blinding headache and feels a strong urge to break into tears, crying. On the floor, Jackal's wounds close fully.

*In The Cab*
The train slows down rapidly and manages to come to a grinding halt midway through the turn without flying off the track. Johan's duplicate kneels next to Cosmo, breaking off the bracelet and considers pulling the 18 inch shard of metal from Cosmo's forearm, but knowledge dictates that leaving it in will probably be much safer as it could be piercing something important.

_Johan makes his medicine check with an 18. Pulling out metal would be bad! Best to let a doctor or X12 do that._

With that handled, he takes the opportunity to grab the fire extinguisher and put out the blaze still smoldering in the cockpit, and succeeds!

_Stealer can still go, then Neutron.  Then its round four (cleanup round)._


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## Agamon (Jan 10, 2004)

His head finally clearing, Sanjay, more than a bit peeved, moves out into the isle to get a clear shot at the leader.  "You son-of-a-bitch!" he spits as he raises his hand and unleashes another blast of bright energy at the jerkwad.

_Move around the chairs, to just north of Jackel and X-12 (1/2 action); Energy Blast +7 (1/2 action), HP to reroll if attack roll is less than 12._


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## Elementor (Jan 10, 2004)

If the ABC still has any life in it at all, Speed Demon will once again use a Mach One Punch on it.  Speed Demon is careful not to get in Titans way as he continues his attack.

If the ABC is out of commission, Vince will instead move up to the remaining robot and engage it while focusing his Dodge skill on it as a single target (an additional +1 Defense).  

Powers:  Superspeed maintained.  Mach One Punch is being used on one robot or the other.


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## Calinon (Jan 10, 2004)

_Initiatives: Speed Demon 30 (1L, 1S, 2HP), Loki 26 (1HP), Enemy leader 24, Cosmo 22 (stabilized, 4L, 3HP), MM 16 (1S, 1HP), Amazon 15 (2HP, 1L, 4S), X12 14 (1L, 1HP), Massive Robot 14 (4DP), MK192 14 (prone), Stealer 12 (Battlesuit), Straightjacket 12 (1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11 (disabled, 2HP), Anna 6 (Disabled, 1L), Multibrain 4 (2HP), Titan 3 (1HP), Neutron 3 (1HP), Dara 2_

Neutron leaps out, energy rippling about his arm, screaming at the Leader.  The blast is powerful, but the Leader leans back just enough with his Torso to avoid the blast, though the doors are completely blown off the train.

_Attack roll gets a 15!  No hero point spent.  However, you're firing into combat (-4) and he has 1/4 cover from there (+2 to defense) and you miss.  I think you made a friend, lucky you!_

"Hey, you aren't dead!  But don't .. you worry, no matter what .. happens here, I'll be back .. for _you_, guaran-damn-teed!" he replies, though he is sweating profusely and seems to have lost a little of his balance.

_Next up is Stealer, but I'll continue tonight if he hasn't posted by the time I go to bed._


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## Calinon (Jan 10, 2004)

_Initiatives: Speed Demon 30 (1L, 1S, 2HP), Loki 26 (1HP), Enemy leader 24, Cosmo 22 (stabilized, 4L, 3HP), MM 16 (1S, 1HP), Amazon 15 (2HP, 1L, 4S), X12 14 (3L, 2HP), Massive Robot 14 (4DP), MK192 14 (prone), Stealer 12 (Battlesuit), Straightjacket 12 (1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11 (disabled, 2HP), Anna 6 (Disabled, 1L), Multibrain 4 (2HP), Titan 3 (1HP), Neutron 3 (1HP), Dara 2_

Vince punches out again at the damaged robot, striking it under its gun arm.  The robot doesn't so much as dent.  He has to be careful as the giant silver morning star is whirling around, trying to hit Titan.

_Vince hits the robot with a 20, however, the robot makes its damage save._

Loki, with the help of the Johan's, continues to dig injured and dazed people from the rubble.  The smoke is beginning to disappate out the shattered windows now that the fire appears to be out.

The Leader squeezes off a pair of shots at X12.  Not willing to go down that easily, X12 dodges to the right, taking a second bullet in the shoulder and one in the forearm.  The pain is, oddly enough, intense, and you find yourself looking at your bleeding forearm with amazement as the wound shows no sign of closing.

_The leader hits X12 with both shots.  X12 gets a 18 and a 9 on his saves.  He does use a hero point to re-roll the 9 and gets a 14.  He takes two lethal hits and is stunned._

The leader says, "Hah, I... got... aw crap..." and collapses unconscious.  His body shimmers and vanishes.  The cannon he had been wielding earlier remains behind, broken.

In the back of the train, Michelle tries again to lift the robot to hurl him out of the train, and enteres into another test of strength with the unwilling robot.  It's air jets fire forcefully, keeping it on the ground.

_Michelle hits easily, with a 21, then scores a 24 on the opposed power vs strength check.  The robot ends up with a 26, staying on the ground._

_Amazon is up, then the evil scary robot because X12 is stunned._


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## Agamon (Jan 10, 2004)

With the leader gone, Sanjay turns his attention to the helping those trapped by debris by disintegrating as much of the rubble as he can.


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## Mordane76 (Jan 10, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> The Leader squeezes off a pair of shots at X12.  Not willing to go down that easily, X12 dodges to the right, taking a second bullet in the shoulder and one in the forearm.  The pain is, oddly enough, intense, and you find yourself looking at your bleeding forearm with amazement as the wound shows no sign of closing.




"Uuuhhh... don't remember it hurting this bad... why is it not closing..." X12 mumbles, going down to one knee.


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## buzzard (Jan 10, 2004)

Mordane76 said:
			
		

> "Uuuhhh... don't remember it hurting this bad... why is it not closing..." X12 mumbles, going down to one knee.




"You don't look so good. Take it easy, I'm gonna go help with the big robot"  Says Straightjacket as he moves down the train towards the remaining fighting. 

buzzard


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## Dalamar (Jan 10, 2004)

Johan's duplicate from the cockpit comes to the door and speaks.
"X12, as you seem to be unengaged right now, you should come here and help Cosmo as he has suffered high-degree burns, and has a piece of metal wedged in him."
And with that, the duplicate disappears, unneeded. The fire extinguisher that was still in its hand drops to the floor with a clank.

The real Johan moves over to the cannon that was left behind by the leader and starts inspecting it, checking if it could still be repaired with the right equipment and spare parts.
The two remaining duplicates keep helping get students free of the rubble. When everybody is stable and safe, they too will disappear.


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## Deva (Jan 10, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> Carl stands up and lets loose a blast of vibrating energy. The blast rips through Raisa before blasting into the robot!
> 
> _Carl uses his disintigration power. It doesn't affect flesh, though most of Raisa's top is shredded. For decency, her underclothes make their save easily. Raisa is a little queesy, but otherwise none the worse for wear. The wave of energy continues on, striking the robot. The robot fails its save, uses a villain point and makes it._





She feels the ripple go through her and looks down with an unimpressed scowl at the almost non-existant remains of the halter top clingling to the cream colour lace of the strapless bra she's wearing. "Oh for the love of god!" Raisa looks over her shoulder at Carl and smirks teasingly. "Honey, if you'd wanted to see the breasts all you had to do is ask."

Taking in the situation with the robot in front of her, she will take to the seats to the right, leaping to the head rests and using them like stepping stones as she heads toward Titan and the heaviliy damaged robot. "Mind if I cut in?" Balancing on the headrest of the seat next to the robot, Raisa will kick out at the monstrosity's head. 

_ACTIONS: Seat jumping - Acrobatics(5)(1/2 action), Kicking Robot - Balance(5) (1/2 action)_


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## Mordane76 (Jan 11, 2004)

Dalamar said:
			
		

> Johan's duplicate from the cockpit comes to the door and speaks.
> "X12, as you seem to be unengaged right now, you should come here and help Cosmo as he has suffered high-degree burns, and has a piece of metal wedged in him."
> And with that, the duplicate disappears, unneeded. The fire extinguisher that was still in its hand drops to the floor with a clank.
> 
> ...




Still swooning a little, X12 mumbles, "Maybe someone could help me understand why I'm still bleeding here... then I can stop someone else's bleeding." He tries to stand, stumbles a little, and looks towards the real Johan (who should be fairly close by).


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## Dalamar (Jan 11, 2004)

"Oh? Have you not yet removed the bracelet that is neutralising your powers? Most of us present already did."


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## Calinon (Jan 11, 2004)

_Initiatives: Speed Demon 30 (1L, 1S, 2HP), Loki 26 (1HP), Cosmo 22 (stabilized, 4L, 3HP), MM 16 (1S, 1HP), Amazon 15 (2HP, 1L, 4S), X12 14 (3L, 2HP), Massive Robot 14 (7DP), MK192 14, Stealer 12 (Battlesuit), Straightjacket 12 (1HP), Carl 12, Jackal 11 (3HP), Anna 6 (Disabled, 1L), Multibrain 4 (2HP), Titan 3 (1HP), Neutron 3 (1HP), Dara 2_

Carl arches an eyebrow.  "I'll remember that for later," he says seriously.  Raisa leaps from seat-back to seat-back, swinging over the one right by the massive battle robot and delivering a hard kick to its side.  A small shower of sparks erupts from its side from the blow.

_Acrobatics check of 21 allows her to move over the seats.  Attack roll of 22 hits.  The robot fails its save versus DC24 suffering a hit and reduction to its hardness.  It looks to be getting fairly badly damaged._

X12 experiences pain for the first time in memory, not thinking clearly, but does register what Johan says to him about the bracelet and feels kind of silly for not removing his earlier.  Johan's doubles start to vanish from the front of the car as people are removed from the rubble and stabilized.

_X12 removes his bracelet after instruction._

The robot, while heavily damaged, is far from down.  It's morning star arm whirls and strikes out heavily at Titan.  Titan looks to be ready to block the blow but suddenly steps back, the morning star whipping past his face.

"¡La mierda!  Silver!" he says as he avoids the blow.

The gun hand continues to churn out bullets, this time at Titan.  The bullets slam into him, driving him backwards, slamming through the stair wall and stairs themselves, ending up on the other side.

"_Titan, eliminated,_" the robot says.  "_Former contact acquired,_" it drones, training its gun at Carl.

_Titan is hit all three times, once critically.  He makes a save and fails two, taking two lethal hits and becomming stunned, flying back 60 feet through the stairs.  Those near the robot lose sight of him._

The MK192 steps up behind the massive robot and shoots Raisa.  The laser is set to stun, and leaves a small burn on her stomach.

_Stun weapon hits.  Fortitude save results in a 20 (16 +9 -4S -1L).  Do you want to re-roll?_

Stealer, originally fumbling with his battlesuit is suddenly heard to say, "Woah, cool!" as jets extend from his waist and fire, giving him flight.  He uses it to charge the robot, fist thrown forward, and slams into it.  As he does so, the fists turn a bright orange, enveloped in energy.

_Stealer activates flight and charges the robot.  He strikes it full on in the upper chest and the robot staggers backward a half step and reels slightly before regaining its equilibrium.  The robot fails its damage save, and the battlesuit absorbs the damage done back to Stealer from the slam attack.  The robot swings reflexively at Stealer, who is knocked to the side of the car, but unhurt._

Straightjacket moves off towards the fray as Neutron turns much of the rubble in the front of the cab to air.  Carl raises his gun and hits a button, and the gun extends into a rifle.  A laser scope pops up as he braces it against his arm and shoots the robot in the head.

_Carl shoots one shot, and hits!  He is deadly accurate with the gun, and a bullet pieces one of the robot's "eyes".  Sparks fly and the robot lets out a squawk but doesn't go down.  It's movement is sluggish at best as the hits are building up._

Those on the cab side of the train are surprised when Titan bursts through the wall.  Amazingly, he doesn't end up on his back, but on his feet!  And boy does he look pissed off!  _"GET DOWN!"_ he shouts as he streaks through the hole he had just made, flying straight at the robot.  Everyone in his path drops to the floor. (Leadership).  He's not much more than a white blur as he hits the robot in the chest.  At least you think he does, as he's not infront of it.  The reason is soon obvious as there is a massive hole in the robot's chest.  It lets a low groan out as it collapses in a heap of twisted metal, landing on top of the other robot.  Titan's momentum carries him past the other robot and into the next car, smashing the door to pieces as he does so.  He stops and turns around glaring back at the smaller robot, eyes glowing bright white, brimming with energy.

_Titan has used a hero point to unstun, and uses heroic surge again to gain an extra half action, turning into a full move and attack (slam).  He does critical damage, and the already damaged machine fails its saving throw badly, and is destroyed.  His movement ends in the next car, the door having virtually no chance to make its save.  The MK192 is prone and pinned by the massive robot as it had no place to run to._

_Combat is over.  Do whatcha like.  Another update will come tomorrow _


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## Deva (Jan 11, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> _Combat is over.  Do whatcha like.  Another update will come tomorrow _




_ooc: since combat is over, no I will not use a HP to reroll._


Raisa slumps into the chair she had only and instant before been standing on, her eyes closing as she can no longer ignore the aches and pains. _"Am I dead? I feel dead... I'll be dead once my mother hears about this...Damn, am I'm gonna be so grounded! And it was so totally worth it to see Titan in action! If I could move, I'd get an autograph..._" She sighs, more of a groan from the pain, but with a smile on her lips none the less.


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## Elementor (Jan 11, 2004)

Vince isnt taking anything for granted anymore and although the combat appears over he bolts up to the second floor to make sure there are no more surprises from above.


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## Mordane76 (Jan 11, 2004)

X12 stands slowly, thinking to toss the bracelet aside, then pockets it instead.  His wounds begin to close almost immediately, his senses dull once again as the pain subsides.

Passing Jackal, whose wounds have already closed, X12 states detachedly, "One.  From description, his brother is a Three, so he'll have to wait."  He passes the pile of rubble (where they're digging out Ms. Wild), clipping off a terse, "Two.  I'll be back to this one next if no other Three's present themselves."

Forward into the cab, X12 takes a look at Cosmo and the cab itself.  He shakes his head with a slight chuckle.  "Didn't peg you as the hero-type," he says to the semi-conscious Cosmo, as he pulls off a glove.  "We're gonna do this in two strokes, Cosmo.  The first one is gonna hurt a lot -- I'm going to touch you first to heal you enough for the trauma of removing the piece of metal, which will open the puncture wound.  Then I'm going to touch you again, afterwhich you'll feel a good bit better."


*Powers: Healing (half action for 4L), Remove the metal shaft (half action). HERO POINT to remain up and continue the healing if necessary.  THEN, Healing (half action for remaining lethal), Healing (half action for removing disabled condition).*


_OOC: From my count, Cosmo has 5+ Lethal wounds, and a Disabled condition.  It will take me more than one action to stabilize and heal him completely.  With his wounds healed, if I read correctly, Cosmo should auto-stabilize. _


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## Dalamar (Jan 11, 2004)

*OoC:* So, what does the cannon look like? I was thinking of fixing (adding it to my powers) little by little.


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## Calinon (Jan 11, 2004)

*Titan*
Camera's are flashing as Titan walks over to the MK192 pinned beneath the massive non-functional robot and rips its head off.  "Titan eliminated indeed."

He comes into your car and looks around at the battlefield the Mag-Lev has become.  He turns and glares at the reporters that are already trying to get into the car and none-to-gently knocks them back into their car with a blast of super-breath.

"Off limits," he growls, and surprisingly, the cameras stop flashing and the reporters stay back.

"We're nurses," a middle-aged woman says as she and a younger companion walk up to Titan.  "We can help."  Titan considers them both for a moment, then lets them into the train.  The formerly stunned reporter that the steward shot is helped to his feet by another reporter.

Titan turns his attention back to your train.  "Sanjay Mohan, come here," he shouts down the train, spotting Sanjay through the hole in the stairs.  "I need a wall, steel, two inches thick, over this door."  He starts to move down the train, but stops and puts his cape over Raisa as he does, patting her on the shoulder as he does.

As he moves by each student, he addresses them by name and gives them instruction or assurances.

"Michelle, Kevin, fly outside and guide Sanchez in for a safe docking.  The train is a bit unstable so do what you can to steady it for the landing."  

He pulls Straightjacket to his feet with immense strength.  "Shrink down, John.  You're taking up a bit much room.  Help move the students back here.  It's less damaged."

He passes Carl and looks at his gun.  "We'll be having a chat about that later, Carl."  You are beginning to understand he knows each of you by sight.

One of the nurses finds a medical kit under a seat and starts to treat the wounded.  Of everyone, there are only a handful of critically injured students, and most of those have been stabilized by Johan, Loki and Anna.  "Titan, we need to get these students to a hospital, and soon," the older nurse says quietly to him as he passes the stairwell.  "Some are badly injured, and others," she says glancing at Dara who is sitting, knees clutched to her chest rocking a bit and crying, "are in shock."

"I know," Titan responds calmly.  "Sanchez and Thunder are on their way.  We'll air lift the kids to hospital when they dock.  Do what you can until then." (_Those within ten feet will hear him)_

"Hey!  You!" he shouts at Vincent as he's about to run up the shattered stairs.  "Stay down here and help the others," he says commandingly.

*Jackal*
As Sanjay passes Jackal, he sees the boy, surprisingly, get up and follow X12 towards the cockpit.  His pace at first is slow, but as he moves he gets quicker, and looks quite angry.  He shoves anyone in his way to the side and enters the cockpit just behind X12.  Just as X12 is about to pull the shard of metal from Cosmo's forearm, Jackal grabs his wrist and pulls him back towards the door.  "You aren't going to touch him at all," he says coldly and his tone makes it obvious there will be no compromise.  His touching your skin also tells you he's completely unharmed now.  "Get out.  Go help someone else."  He pauses a moment, and you see he's really fighting his animal side.  "Others are far worse off out there.  I'll take care of my brother," he says a bit more gently, but still with a lot of anger under the surface.

_Sense motive check of 19.  You have a distinct feeling he'll try to tear you apart if you try to touch Cosmo to heal him._

*Johan*
You see Jackal walk off, but the cannon draws your attention.  It appears to be a standard Tank Buster Electrostatic Pulse Cannon (Model D).  High tech military weaponry for sure.  The entire cannon barrel and a quarter of the power pack has been slashed through by Jackal's claws, rendering the cannon completely unsalvageable.

*The Rest of the Students*
The rest of the students who are not critically wounded are coming out of their various degrees of stun effects.  They help those nearest them as best they can.  Off to the North, you see a hoverjet rapidly approaching.


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## Agamon (Jan 11, 2004)

Sanjay will continue to help free those that are pinned or buried and do what he can to assist the wounded (very little, unfortunately).


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## Mordane76 (Jan 11, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> *Jackal*
> As Sanjay passes Jackal, he sees the boy, surprisingly, get up and follow X12 towards the cockpit.  His pace at first is slow, but as he moves he gets quicker, and looks quite angry.  He shoves anyone in his way to the side and enters the cockpit just behind X12.  Just as X12 is about to pull the shard of metal from Cosmo's forearm, Jackal grabs his wrist and pulls him back towards the door.  "You aren't going to touch him at all," he says coldly and his tone makes it obvious there will be no compromise.  His touching your skin also tells you he's completely unharmed now.  "Get out.  Go help someone else."  He pauses a moment, and you see he's really fighting his animal side.  "Others are far worse off out there.  I'll take care of my brother," he says a bit more gently, but still with a lot of anger under the surface.
> 
> _Sense motive check of 19.  You have a distinct feeling he'll try to tear you apart if you try to touch Cosmo to heal him._




"You're a medic too?" X12 asks sarcastically, but backs off.  "You're welcome for pulling the sword out of your throat as well.  But unless you've got some skin grafts for those burns in your back pocket, he isn't going to heal well on his own, or worse, infection will get him if the lack of proper body tissues to maintain his internal body temperature doesn't kill him first.  And that puncture isn't gonna heal on it's own, either, but he's your brother -- you want my help later, find me if I'm not already knee deep in some else's bleeding wounds."  With that, he turns on his heel and storms off out of the cockpit.

Once in the main cabin, X12 looks around for the next most critically injured person.


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## buzzard (Jan 11, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> *Titan*
> 
> He pulls Straightjacket to his feet with immense strength.  "Shrink down, John.  You're taking up a bit much room.  Help move the students back here.  It's less damaged."




"Umm, yessir, sure"  John replies as he resumes normal size and moves to do what he can to aid the process. 

buzzard


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## Dalamar (Jan 11, 2004)

"Pity" says Johan as he sees the weapon isn't going to be usable anymore. He starts looking for his luggage since everything seems to be alright for the moment.


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## Mimic (Jan 11, 2004)

Watching Titan take out the armored robot pretty much by singlehandedly is awe inspiring to say the least. "Wow" is all Michelle utters as he quickly takes care of the smaller robot.



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> "Michelle, Kevin, fly outside and guide Sanchez in for a safe docking.  The train is a bit unstable so do what you can to steady it for the landing."



"They wanted our blood,"  Michelle blurts out "or something genetic from one of us. They had a case and they were testing our blood samples in it, during the fight I heard it state it found a match." "I almost had it, but couldn't keep it."  she says sheepishly



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> Off to the North, you see a hoverjet rapidly approaching.




Michelle will fly up into the sky using the whole in the roof that Titan made, once airborn she will attempt to stabilize the Mag-lev


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## Deva (Jan 11, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> He starts to move down the train, but stops and puts his cape over Raisa as he does, patting her on the shoulder as he does.





Eyes wide as she looks down at the cape that is now draped over her, Raisa takes a quick second to glance around her - making sure no one is watching - and smells the fabric. _Oh. My. God. I'm wearing *HIS * cape. Titan's Cape! Ohmygod! My friends are so totally not going to believe this! I can't wait to tell them!_ 

Rising from the seat, keeping the cape right around her, she goes back to her original seat to find her backpack. Once she finds it, she takes a baggy sweater from inside and slips it over her head.  She walks over to Titan, offering him his cape back. "Thanks, but I think it looks better on you." She looks around the devastation. " What can I do to help, Sir?"  _Ohmygod! Now I'm talking to him!!_


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## Velmont (Jan 12, 2004)

> "Michelle, Kevin, fly outside and guide Sanchez in for a safe docking. The train is a bit unstable so do what you can to steady it for the landing."




"OK."

He starts to fly by the hole in the roof, just after Michelle. Once in the air.

"Whoa! I really need to buy one of those suits. I wonder how much it cost?"

He looks at the Mag-Lev.

"Well, I don't have any idea how to stabilize that. Michelle, you'll leaqd on that one."

He starts to looks at the function to see if there is an exoskelleton that give more strength to the suit.


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## Mule (Jan 12, 2004)

Seeing that the rest of the injured are being taken care of, Randall will stay with Grandmother until she and Pooky regain consciousness.

"What have I gotten myself into" thinks Randall to himself.  "All this violence and destruction is not what I was expecting when I decided to come the EPIC school."  Mental images of the battle begin flowing though Randall's memory, the image of the Leader gunning down the pilot is especially vivid.  Randall is feeling overwhelmed, and a little in shock despite being uninjured.


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## Calinon (Jan 12, 2004)

*On the Roof of the Mag-Lev*

Michelle and Kevin fly out of the Mag-Lev and see the damage caused on the roof. In addition to the hole made by Titan, two other perfect circles have been cut through the roof, undoubtedly where the mercenaries left through. Scuff marks indicate the helicopters touched down on the roof and slid around a fair bit, a testament to the piloting skill of those in control of them.

Michelle tries to envelop the Mag-Lev in a stabalizing magnetic field, but the train is simply too masive. She realizes the problem, as the entire train is no longer hovering, but resting on a three foot wide piece of track. Flying to look underneath, she sees clamping mechanisms underneath holding the train down, but the heavy braking has shattered two on the left side, leaving the train dangerously unstable, at least for landing a jet on its roof. She manages to project an energy field around each broken clamp, stabilizing the train.

_Spot check: 14 vs dc10; Knowledge (metals): 24 vs dc15._

The hoverjet slows as it approaches, landing struts extending. A voice comes through Stealers' battlesuit earpiece as he flips through the menu system. "Glad you are alright, Anna. You'll need to guide us in carefully," a female voice says with an accent somewhat like Raisa and Vincent have. "We're barely going to fit as it is."

_Stealer, you only get a few moments before the voice interrupts you, but it appears that it gives flight, has an ablative armor system, energy blasters, all around sight, radio headset, night vision and that's about as far as you get._

*In The Mag-Lev*

Titan nods to Michelle as she tells him about the blood sampling. "We know. We were stretched thin as reports came through from all over the world from similar situations or we would have been here sooner. This is the second worst situation so far. Now get up top and make sure the jet can land safely."

Sanjay doesn't hear Titan's orders, but Titan doesn't press the issue since the removal of rubble from trapped students is certainly still a concern. In a few minutes, Sanjay manages to get the front of the cab completely clear of debris, glass included.

John is in the process of moving the relatively uninjured majority of the students to the back. With Sanjay clearing the rubble, there is plenty of space to keep the injured students where they are.

Titan is somewhat surprised to find Raisa has followed him up, especially given he'd assessed her injuries as somewhat severe. "El señorita bueno, usted es alto," he says in Spanish. (Good lord woman, you are tall) He takes his cape back and kneels down to wrap it around Dara. She doesn't even seem to notice. "Dara," he says to her. When she doesn't respond, he gives her a small shake and she comes to her senses. Immediately, an intense scream rips through the mind of Raisa, Johan, John, Vince and others nearby. Even Titan winces and falls back onto his rear. The pain is akin to driving an icepick into your eyeball.

"Sorry," Dara mumbles. Titan flashes her a winning smile and those nearby sense her mood improve nearly immediately. "Eso es bien, Dara. I'm just glad you aren't hurt." He picks himself up and beckons Raisa to follow him. As he walks away, those watching Dara see her smell his cape and pull it tightly around herself. "_I can't believe I have his cape,_" you "hear" in your mind.

He points to an empty seat. "Sit," he says. "Someone is hurt worse than she believes. You aren't indestructible you know," he says, pointing at a blood stain already appearing on the arm of her sweater.

X12 finds a student next to Rebound critically injured, though somewhat stabilized. Touching him, X12 is overcome by the injuries and passes out. The student's wounds vanish, though he remains unconscious. A minute later, X12 sits up. Titan grabs him by the arm and pulls him to his feet. "Glad I don't have to do that," Titan says with a smirk. He points at the door where the nurse is still working on the student Dara was saving earlier. "You need to help that nurse's patient."

X12 approaches and finds the student suffering from two gunshots, one to the neck and one in the stomach. Both are severe. You touch him and his wounds rapidly close. The bullets actually pop out of the wounds! The pain is as intense as it was when you got shot earlier, and as a blast of agony rips through your hip, you realize the student's hip had been broken as well. You pass out and are disabled. Your wounds are already closing, though.

He passes Neutron and gives him a smile. "Well done. Once you're finished, I need the stairs repaired. Some fool seems to have destroyed them," he jokes. He stops at Loki and pulls him up to his feet. "Hey kiddo. Saving the day again I see," he grins, looking down at the unconscious pair next to him. "Don't worry, they seem fine, but I need you to make me a wall so those reporters stay out," he says, pointing to the other end of the Mag-Lev car.

And indeed, the reporters are inching forward. Cameras are flashing, especially focusing on Vincent. Several people can be heard referring to him as a monster, and infact, several reporters seem to be discussing possible headlines. "Monster causes Mag-Lev wreck" and "Demonic boy terrorizes Mag-Lev passengers" and the like are being bantered around. Carl quickly puts his gun away in the light of the cameras.

Titan calls out, "Where are Cosmo and Jackal?" loud enough for everyone to hear.


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## Mule (Jan 12, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> "I need you to make me a wall so those reporters stay out."




"H-h-hello Titan," Randall stammers.  He looks down the Mag-Lev to where the media is congregating, "um, ok."

Loki walks down the train car.  He will create an illusionary steel wall stretching from floor to ceiling, wall to wall, completely obscuring all view of the EPIC students.  If any reporters persist in taking pictures, Loki will shoot beams of light at their cameras hoping to fry the electronics or at least the film.


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## Calinon (Jan 12, 2004)

It only takes a matter of moments before someone touches the illusionary wall.  "Hey, this is fake!" shouts a reporter, and several move through it and into the car.  Carl steps forward, knocking them back through the wall.  Cry's of "One of the monsters attacked me!" from one angry reporter can be heard, and a general discontent is heard coming from the next car.

"Perhaps something more solid, if you can," Carl says, pulling a small bat from the same duffle bag his gun is in.  "Though this could be fun, too."


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## Dalamar (Jan 12, 2004)

"Unless I have missed something, Jackal should be in the cockpit with Cosmo, the latter having suffered severe injuries, some of them while forcing the mag-lev to brake."


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## Mimic (Jan 12, 2004)

While keeping the Mag-lev stable, Michelle will fly up and see if she can help land the jet.


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## Calinon (Jan 12, 2004)

Mimic said:
			
		

> While keeping the Mag-lev stable, Michelle will fly up and see if she can help land the jet.



Michelle flies up as the jet starts to slowly maneuver into position.  Unbeknownst to her, as she moves up and from under the mag lev, her magnetic force she is projecting moves up with her.  The train gives a very slight shudder as the stabilization it had a moment ago, vanishes.  Michelle, now thinking of helping the jet land somehow, doesn't notice the predicament.

_Spot:  4 on dc15.  Failure.  In order to keep the train stable would have required extra effort on your part, since you are stabilizing both broken pieces of the undercarriage._

Inside the train, Carl says, "Woah, somethings shakin."  Amazon and Multibrain also feel the slight shift in the car.

_Dang near everyone failed their spot checks.  That blows._


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## Deva (Jan 12, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> He points to an empty seat.  "Sit," he says.  "Someone is hurt worse than she believes.  You aren't indestructible you know," he says, pointing at a blood stain already appearing on the arm of her sweater.




"Oh..." The colour drains from her face as when she sees the stain. The adrenalin that had carried her through the attack vanishes almost instantly and she wobbles momentarily on her feet before slumping into the seat. Tears well up in the corner of her eyes at the pain, at the realization that people were honest to god dead and she could have very well been one of them."If you need me, I'll just be freakin' out over here..." 



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> Amazon and Multibrain also feel the slight shift in the car.




Her stomach lurches as the car shifts and she curses colourfully in Portugese. "That can't be good!"


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## Agamon (Jan 13, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> He passes Neutron and gives him a smile.  "Well done.  Once you're finished, I need the stairs repaired.  Some fool seems to have destroyed them," he jokes.




Sanjay, unusually quiet, lost in thought as he clears the debris, is somewhat startled by Titan.  "Oh, uh, yeah, sure."  He half-smiles and turns his attention towards the stairs and any other patch-job repairs he thinks he can handle.


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## Elementor (Jan 13, 2004)

Backing away from the hostile crowd Vince shouts back, "What is wrong with you people??!!  I am trying to help here.  I'm with Titan.  You ever hear of him?  Yeah.  I thought so."

Vince pulls back into the extremely damaged car and tries to help as best he can, the whole time muttering about the sheer quantity of stupidity and steroetyping happening in the neighbouring car.


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## Velmont (Jan 13, 2004)

OOC: If he didn't spot that
"Sorry, but it isn't Anna. He is hurt but someone take care of her. First, we will land that jet, after that, I will tell you what happen."

Kevin will help Michelle and guide the jet.

OOC: If he saw the train is not stabilized: (but I think not, if I understood well)
"Hold a second before you land, the train is not stabilized." tell Kevin in his radio. "Michelle is working on it."

"Michelle. You'll need to do more to stabilize the train. Don't bother with the jet, I'll take that in charge."

Back to his headset "In the jet, my name is Kevin. Anna is hurt, but someone is taking care of her. I'll guide you to safe landing. First, stay above the train while Michelle stabilize more the train."

Kevin will guide the jet as soon as Michelle have stabilized again the train.


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## Dalamar (Jan 13, 2004)

"Unless my sense of balance was somehow disoriented by the combat and unexpected duplication, I'd say the mag-lev just moved. Which gets us to a conclusion that it is not securely on the rail. Somebody might want to inform the pilot that it might not be safe to land."


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## Mule (Jan 13, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> "Perhaps something more solid, if you can," Carl says, pulling a small bat from the same duffle bag his gun is in.  "Though this could be fun, too."




"I c-c-can't do solid," says Randall as he takes a step back from the swarming reporters.  Seeing the hulking Carl pull a bat from within his bag of tricks, Randall begins to panic slightly, "Titan!!"


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## Calinon (Jan 13, 2004)

*Outside*
Kevin is guiding the jet down when Michelle floats up beside him.  As it touches down, somewhat roughly, grappling lines shoot out and attach themselves securely to the train, locking the plane fairly tightly in place.  The engines start to power down.

Over his radio receiver he's been guiding the plane through, Kevin hears Titan bark out, "Sanchez!  Abort landing!  It's unstab...!" just as the train gives a huge lurch to the right!  The hoverjet, locked firmly in place, adds to the momentum as the car starts to roll.  It's connectors to the cars behind it start to break apart, leaving the other cars safely on the track as the lead car tips wildly.

The plane engines sputter as Sanchez tries to restart them, and conk out.

*Inside*
Sanjay is repairing the damaged stairs as Raisa makes her exclamation.  John is helping those regaining consciousness into seats and buckling them in.

"What's not good?" Titan asks Raisa just as Loki calls for help.  He looks back to see Carl with the bat and Loki explains he can't do solid shapes.  "Carl!  What do you think you are doing with that bat, Amigo?  And you can make your light solid if you try hard enough; at least so Merlin says."

In the conversation, Johan's dry dissertation on the state of the Mag-Lev is completely lost, since it sounds alot like his standard dissertations on whatever subject has caught his attention.  That, coupled with the sound of the hovering jet, causes nearly everyone to miss it.

Titan, however, catches part of it as he sees Michelle fly up from under the Mag-Lev from the corner of his eyes.  You see him stomp his heel down once and the whole car shudders.  As it does he shouts into a small microphone attached to his headset, "Sanchez!  Abort landing!  It's unstab...!"

The train gives a huge lurch to the right as the plane thumps down onto the roof.  You hear the snapping of metal coming from beneath you.  Titan lifts calmly into the air, quickly passing through a broken window.  "La mamá siempre me dijo _(translation:  Mama always told me),_ if you want something done right, it helps to have an incredibly strong and good looking son to do it for you," Titan says somewhat jokingly as he vanishes out the window and under the train.

Thankfully, the train slowly gets righted.  About a minute later, Sanjay has just finished the stairs and a black leather boot appears at the top of the stairs, surprising him.  He looks up into the confident and reassuringly smiling face of none other than the leader of EPIC; Thunder.

*Back Outside*
Over his headset, Stealer hears an amazingly relaxed conversation, despite the direness of events.

"Titan, isn't the train supposed to be stable!?" says Sanchez.

"Hey I sent Michelle out to handle it," replies Titan.  "Don't worry, I'll handle it."  True to his word, the train starts to right itself.  Looking behind you, both you and Michelle see Titan under the right side of the train, lifting it back into a secure position and holding it there.

"Are you sure you can hold it?" Sanchez says.  "It's kind of important since I rather flooded the engines..."

"For you, sweet lady, I shall hold it for eternity!"

"Oh gawd," says another male voice.

"Hush you," says Sanchez.

"I'll check on the kids, and if you think you can handle it you can carry the lead car down once everyone is secure," says the male voice.

"If?  _IF!?_  There is no such word as _if_ in the vocabulary of the mighty Titan!"

"Oh, here we go," says the male voice.

Kevin and Michelle find themselves hoping to hear one of Titan's famous hero-speeches with baited breath.

<Dead silence>

"That's it?" asks the male voice.

"You've already said the rest in your head," jokes Titan.

The engines suddenly roar to life again.  "Aha, got them working again!" says Sanchez.  "Lowering the ramp."

True to her word, the ramp lowers down and a man clad in a black body suit with lightning bolts emblazoned across the shoulders steps down it.  He looks up at Stealer and Michelle.  "Either get back in the train or into the jet, but get out of the way," he says.  While said in a "don't fool around" way, it's not barked in a harsh way at all.  Thunder jumps down into the train through one of the holes in the roof.

*Back Inside*
Thunder walks down the stairs.  The EPIC jet leaves to the north and starts descending to the ground below.  Thunder is every bit like his posters show.  He's in his mid-to-late 30's, dressed in his famous black leather body-suit decorated with lightning bolts.  His deep blue, nearly black, hair is tinged grey at the temples.  He is extremely handsome, in a rugged sort of way, and he speaks in a voice that commands attention.  

"Hey there everyone.  If you all could take a seat and buckle up, Titan's going to show off a bit and fly the car down to the ground.  Help those that can't do it themselves.  Those who can use their powers to help keep the injured safely in place where they are, do so please."  He grabs hold of Sanjay by the shoulder and turns him to the back of the car.  "I need a wall to close off that hole in the back before we move."  Turning from Sanjay, he surveys the rest of the car.  "Anyone have any questions?  And where are the brothers?"


----------



## Velmont (Jan 13, 2004)

> "Anyone have any questions?  And where are the brothers?"




"Yeah, I got one. How I get out of that thing now. I think any of you would make better use of that suit than me."


----------



## Calinon (Jan 13, 2004)

Velmont said:
			
		

> "Yeah, I got one. How I get out of that thing now. I think any of you would make better use of that suit than me."



"Hey son, I'm sure you did just fine with it.  Lets see here," Thunder says as he examines the suit.  He pushes something here, and twists something over there then stands up and exclaims, "I got it!  We'll wait until we're on the ground and get Anna and Sanchez to help you remove it!"


----------



## Dalamar (Jan 13, 2004)

"I take it you mean Cosmo and Jackal, Sir. They should be in the cockpit."
After saying that, Johan tries to find a seat that is still mostly in one piece and sits down.


----------



## Mule (Jan 13, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> "...you can make your light solid if you try hard enough; at least so Merlin says."




"A wall of light?  Hmmm..." Loki thinks to himself,  "If Merlin thinks so."  Loki creates a small (3"x3"x3"), simple cube of light, and tries his very hardest to make it as dense as possible.  But, despite his efforts, he can easily break the cube with his own hands.  "Something to work on for the future I guess"

"Wow, it's really Thunder," Loki thinks when he sees the EPIC team leader.

OOC: _Loki's cube is hardness level 2, I'm not exactly sure how hard that is, but I'm betting it is not._


----------



## Mordane76 (Jan 14, 2004)

X12 shakes his head as he comes to.  "Who did the examination on this kid?" X12 asks the nurse he was called over to help.  "Fractures hurt... a lot... Next time, let's try and set a fracture with a splint... instead of with one of my bones.  Helping tissue-injury patients first, and then the fractures, will generally extend my usefulnes."


----------



## Mimic (Jan 14, 2004)

humiliated, Michelle floats back down into the Mag-lev, finds a seat and tries to be as small as possible.


----------



## Velmont (Jan 14, 2004)

Kevin walks near Michelle.

"Don't be ashamed. There is nothing to be. No one of us are prepared to what just happen. It is not because you failed to stabilized the train that you must think you worth nothing. Look at you, you can move metal items at will. Every damn thinig human have created in the last century have some metal in it. You are pretty powerfull. And that train must weight tons. It is just a feat of power to be able to move it with your will.

Just take a look at me. I have a power that can kill me. I am dependent of other mutants power, and I can't even mimic some cool power like yours, they are just too versatil for me. And during that combat, I just scratch the polish on that bot. Come, get up, you'll have another chance to prove what you worth pretty soon, and I'm sure you won't miss it."

Kevin give his hand to Michelle, and wait to see if she accept it.


----------



## Agamon (Jan 14, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> He grabs hold of Sanjay by the shoulder and turns him to the back of the car.  "I need a wall to close off that hole in the back before we move."




"Wall, right...just call me Damage Control," Sanjay replies, a bit of exasperation in his voice.  He creates a metal wall up against the gaping hole that is somewhat sloped on this side to make it more stable.  He then regains his seat once more and puts on his seatbelt.  "I have a question," he says to Thunder, waving a hand.  "Who was that?  I like to know someone's name before I put my boot up their ass."


----------



## Deva (Jan 14, 2004)

Raisa leans over in the seat, letting her head rest on her knees, her stomach twisting into knots at ever motion of the car. "Meu deus," she mutters to no one in particular. "I think I'm gonna hurl. This is a train, it's not suppose to fly..." She squeazes her eyes shut, waiting until it's over.


----------



## Calinon (Jan 14, 2004)

"Who was who?" asks Thunder. He kicks one of the MK192's with his toe. "Hm. MERC again. They've been busy boys. Anway, Sanjay, I don't know what member of MERC was here; you'll have to tell me about him once we land. And don't get too uptight about being damage control, kid. I spend more time cleaning up things than I do fighting," he says with a bit of a wry grin.

The train waivers just a bit as Titan lifts it from the track and lowers it, and all of you, towards the ground.  Amazingly, as the train descends towards the ground, Cosmo comes out of the cab of the train, completely uninjured.  Jackal is leaning heavily on him, arm draped over Cosmo's shoulders.  Neither say a word and take a nearby pair of seats very very quietly.


----------



## Calinon (Jan 14, 2004)

*Bush Memorial Hospital*
*VIP Facility*
*Megacity of New York*
*11:00 PM*

Titan lowered the train quite well, though the landing left a little to be desired. You were all loaded onto the EPIC jet, a tight squeeze to be sure, and flown to the Bush Memorial Hospital. The hospital, Thunder explained, specializes in VIP treatment and mutant recovery.

Each student is examined and treated by one doctor, bearing a strong resemblance to Thunder. He is both soft spoken and kind, and a mutant. Unlike X12, his healing abilities have no deliterious effects on him, though it takes him several long minutes to treat most wounds. Kevin lets out a scream of intense pain when the battlesuit's final plate is removed from his back.  Those present see eight hooks pulled from his spine, some kind of neural interface Anna explains.  After an hour, everyone has been treated for their remaining injuries. After you are examined, a nurse leads you to a comfortable sitting area, with benches, televisions, magazine stands and a small area of computers. Vending machines line the wall and there is a Krispy Creme and a Deli operating within the area. A few video games are on another wall.

Thunder has already assured you that you'll be at the institute in an hour or so and is in a nursing station on the edge of the sitting area, talking into a vid-phone. Titan reclines on a bench, feet up and eyes closed. A large, overweight woman, dressed in grey fatigues with a multi-pouched belt on her waist and blaster pistol on her hip, is in the Krispy Creme getting some donuts. Her hair is tied back into a simple ponytail and she is smiling and laughing as she talks with Anna who is in her wheelchair nearby. You recognize the woman as Michelle Sanchez.

Most of the students are here, milling about and talking about what happened.  A news broadcast is on, and you see the words "Mutant Attacks" flash up on the screen and pay attention to the broadcast.

_"Several attacks around the globe happened today, all on mutants. Who is behind the attacks remains a mystery, but various powerful mutant teams fell victim themselves to the surprise assaults. EPIC was active both in the NAA and in the EU. Reports of a massive battle in EU were confirmed when an eyewitness sent in this tape."_

_The tape that plays is of a massive combat between rather familiar robots and members of EPIC. Trailblazer, Jun Po, Kodiak and Merlin are present battling the robots. As you watch, a detonation rocks the area the battle is in, detroying the walls of nearby buildings. Both Trailblazer and Jun Po are videotaped lying unmoving on the ground. The scene cuts to what must be the final moments of battle, where Kodiak has grown into his gigantic bear form, ripping apart a human mutant, also grown to giant size. Of Merlin, there is no sign._

_"As you can see from the tape, the battle was fierce and possibly deadly. Reports from Liverpool indicate Trailblazer and Jun Po were taken to local hospital with undisclosed injuries. No report has been received of the whereabouts of Merlin._

_"In related news, the train carrying EPIC students was attacked as well. A car containing several reporters witnessed the battle between the students and several robots and soldiers. What the attackers were after is unknown. According to one reporter, two mutants participated in the attack. Only one was caught on tape as he attacked a reporter." The screen shifts to show Vincent shouting at a reporter, then the image turns to static. According to eyewitnesses, one reporter was badly injured when this mutant attacked him and shoved him away from the scene. It is unknown if the mutant is in custody or not, but it is assumed he is on the large and extremely dangerous. If you see this mutant, call the police immediately._

_"We will have more news on these strange mutant attacks as it becomes available. For CNN, I'm Theresa Soulsmith."_


----------



## Velmont (Jan 14, 2004)

In the health center:

"OW! ANNA... NEVER... AGAIN... PLEEEEAAAASOOWW!!!!"

Later, when looking the TV:

"Finally, some rest, that's good! And the pain in my backs start to goes away." When the report pass at the TV, Kevin fell silent. "I start to doubt I have made the good choice by accepting to come here. My father would have paid good protection for me... well, if four of the oldet EPIC have trouble stopping those guys, I think there is almost nothing that can stop those robots."


----------



## Mule (Jan 14, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> Titan reclines on a bench, feet up and eyes closed.




Randall nervously walks over to where Titan is relaxing.  He wants to talk to the impressive super-hero, but is worried that Titan won't like being disturbed.

"Um, Titan?  Remember me?  It's Randall, from that time in LA?  Well I was wondering if you think Merlin will turn up alright, I kinda wanted to meet him again.  That news report on CNN looked bad, I really hope he's ok.  I owe him a big thank you, I don't know if he understood how much he helped me out, back in LA that day, with my Pa."

"And thanks for saving our butts back there on the Mag-Leg, you were awesome!  How did you know we were in trouble?  You *DESTOYED* that giant robot!  How did you get so strong?"  Randall starts rambling.  He is in awe of the legendary man in front of him.


----------



## Elementor (Jan 14, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> _"In related news, the train carrying EPIC students was attacked as well. A car containing several reporters witnessed the battle between the students and several robots and soldiers. What the attackers were after is unknown. According to one reporter, two mutants participated in the attack. Only one was caught on tape as he attacked a reporter." The screen shifts to show Vincent shouting at a reporter, then the image turns to static. According to eyewitnesses, one reporter was badly injured when this mutant attacked him and shoved him away from the scene. It is unknown if the mutant is in custody or not, but it is assumed he is on the large and extremely dangerous. If you see this mutant, call the police immediately._
> 
> _"We will have more news on these strange mutant attacks as it becomes available. For CNN, I'm Theresa Soulsmith."_




"WHAT THE......  HOW DID THEY????   WHY AM I!!!"  Vince is pointing at the news report and stammering in Titans general direction.  "Next time I see a reporter falling off a building I will catch them on the first bounce instead of right away....  Filthy bigoted....." He heads off to a chair in the corner muttering to himself but the occasional outburst of "I am NOT the bad guy!" or "Hard to be a hero while being SLANDERED!" still erupts from him.


----------



## buzzard (Jan 14, 2004)

Elementor said:
			
		

> "WHAT THE......  HOW DID THEY????   WHY AM I!!!"  Vince is pointing at the news report and stammering in Titans general direction.  "Next time I see a reporter falling off a building I will catch them on the first bounce instead of right away....  Filthy bigoted....." He heads off to a chair in the corner muttering to himself but the occasional outburst of "I am NOT the bad guy!" or "Hard to be a hero while being SLANDERED!" still erupts from him.





"Hey Vincent, I wouldn't bother getting too worked up about it. That's the only kind of crap that will fit in their small minds. " John then turns as if hearing something from his right . "Yeah, exactly"
Turning back to Vincent he continues "As dad says, reporters aren't interested in the truth, just what sells and fits their preconceived notions. I can't really argue with that". 

He then waits for the news program to get to something important like sports. 

buzzard


----------



## Dalamar (Jan 14, 2004)

Johan is making precise notes as the suit is being removed from Kevin. He sketches a diagram of where the hooks were positioned in his spine on one page, and adds a bunch of more notes on the next.
When the news program starts, Johan is sitting on a chair, muttering the happenings of the battle to himself. He grins a bit when the tv shows Vince as a bad guy.


----------



## Mimic (Jan 14, 2004)

OOC: Sorry was having some internet problems at home so I couldn't get on until today, so I am doing some back tracking.


			
				Velmont said:
			
		

> Kevin walks near Michelle.
> 
> "Just take a look at me. I have a power that can kill me. I am dependent of other mutants power, and I can't even mimic some cool power like yours, they are just too versatil for me. And during that combat, I just scratch the polish on that bot. Come, get up, you'll have another chance to prove what you worth pretty soon, and I'm sure you won't miss it."
> 
> Kevin give his hand to Michelle, and wait to see if she accept it.




Michelle looks up at Kevin and smiles as she wipes a few tears away with the back of her hand.

"Thanks, sometimes it's hard to remember that we aren't supposed to be superheros."  She tells him as she takes his hand and stands up beside them. They go join the main group of students and soon she is talking Kevin's ear off.



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> Bush Memorial Hospital
> VIP Facility
> Megacity of New York
> 11:00 PM




Once in the waiting room, Michelle will send off a quick email to let her family know that she is ok and will contact them later and fill them in on the details. Once that is done she will go to the Krispy Cream and buy a box of assorted donuts.



			
				Elementor said:
			
		

> "WHAT THE......  HOW DID THEY????   WHY AM I!!!"  Vince is pointing at the news report and stammering in Titans general direction.  "Next time I see a reporter falling off a building I will catch them on the first bounce instead of right away....  Filthy bigoted....." He heads off to a chair in the corner muttering to himself but the occasional outburst of "I am NOT the bad guy!" or "Hard to be a hero while being SLANDERED!" still erupts from him.




Michelle walks up to Vincent and offers him a donut. "Like I said in the restaraunt, it's their problem not yours, you should just ignore them."  Whether or not he takes the donut she will place the box on a table take one and let everyone know they are there if they want them.


----------



## Mordane76 (Jan 14, 2004)

Sitting quietly at the table, X12 pulls out the bracelet from the train and looks it over carefully.  He watches the news stories half-interested, but does manage a weak smile at Michelle and takes a donut when she sets them down and offers them up.  He half-heartedly munches on it, still looking over the bracelet.

After a while, he sits back in the chair and stares off ahead, his large black eyes unblinking.


----------



## Calinon (Jan 14, 2004)

Titan opens an eye as Loki talks to him.  "Yes, amigo, I remember you.  Merlin will be fine; he always is.  As for the trouble, when Kodiak's called Thunder about the attack in Liverpool.  I was close to the Mag-Lev so he sent me to check on you all.  And while I'd like to claim I eat right and excersise hard to get so strong, the fact is, I'm an alien from a far away galaxy who is plotting to take over the world."

He says it so deadpan and seriously that you and several others stare blankly at him, mouths agape.

_Vincent, Raisa and Johan make their sense motive checks._

"Aye carumba!  It was a joke!"

Sanchez turns the TV channel to sports and a recap of today's soccer games.  "What a load of crap that news broadcast was," she says.  "Those robots were nothing, certainly not to EPIC, but the mutants with them sure were.  Kodiak said at least four mutants were in Liverpool and they were well prepared."

Sanchez nods at John's and Michelle's comments.  "He's right, you know.  Besides, and I hate to burst your bubble, you aren't a hero.  None of you are, but you could be.  And you better develop a thicker skin than you seem to have if you want to be one.  Ask Titan," she says, as she examines the back piece of Anna's battlesuit.  The two start talking quite excitedly about it in fact.  "Damn, bet those hurt like a sonufabitch," she says to Kevin, pointing at the hooks.  "Ever think of just using rubber sensors?" she asks Anna.

Titan grins and sits up.  "I'm sure you all remember this one.  'Titan destroys cruise ship!  Menaces coastline!'  Or, 'Titan causes space station to explode!  Astronauts barely escape!'   I was paying for those for months," he finishes with a laugh.

_In fact, you all do remember the bad press of about three years ago (except X12) involving both situations.  You also recall how the press charges were completely revealed as incorrect months later._

Sanchez reaches over and grabs X12's wrist, pulling him forward over the table a bit and looking at the bracelet.  "Contained power cell, interlocking chains appear titanium and what's this?"  She snaps the clasp shut and the bracelet shrinks a bit.  "Oooo, clever!  Did you make this?  What's it do?"  Unlike what you would expect from one of the most intelligent people on the planet, she seems completely personable.

Thunder has just hung up the phone and is talking to the doctor that treated you.  There _has_ to be a family connection between them.  

The other students mill about chatting.  Carl is sleeping in a chair, head on a table, a few feet from X12.  Dara is still running around with Titan's cape and has a number of the female students around her, all giggling and looking at Titan.  Rebound is playing a video game.  Cosmo and Jackal are sitting well apart from everyone, talking privately.  Jackal is very pale.  In fact, you don't recall him getting treated come to think of it.


----------



## Mimic (Jan 14, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> Sanchez reaches over and grabs X12's wrist, pulling him forward over the table a bit and looking at the bracelet.  "Contained power cell, interlocking chains appear titanium and what's this?"  She snaps the clasp shut and the bracelet shrinks a bit.  "Oooo, clever!  Did you make this?  What's it do?"  Unlike what you would expect from one of the most intelligent people on the planet, she seems completely personable.




"Those things neutralized our powers, or most of us anyways. They suckered us into wearing them by saying that they were Mag-lev passes that we could use for a whole year. That's how they got the drop on us." Michelle pipes up as she continues to eat her donut.


----------



## Mordane76 (Jan 15, 2004)

X12 nods at Michelle's description.  "I was thinking of keeping it.  Might be nice... for me."  He doesn't let go of the bracelet.


----------



## Calinon (Jan 15, 2004)

"Really?" Sanchez says, flipping over the bracelet.  "Clever fellows then, hmm?  Oh hey, this is what the Mag-Lev pass looks like," she says, pulling out a similar, red colored, bracelet from her vest pocket.  "You know, for reference.  Hey, gimme that a sec," she says and something pokes X12 in the palm, giving him a mild electrical jolt and making his fingers flinch.

Before he can complain much, she has the back of the bracelet open and has pried out a batter and a few other tiny pieces of electronics.  Anna is leaning forward in her wheelchair checking it out too.  "Wow, expensive," says Sanchez.

"That looks like new-age fibre optic wire," says Anna.  "Wow, I never could afford that."

"Me neither, but look at that.  Some sort of detection thingy?  Or maybe a tracking node?"

"Naw, detection, look where the..."

The conversation breaks down into the technical nature of the device rapidly.

_Anyone with knowledge electronics or something similar, or a related craft skill, can get the gist of what's going on in the conversation._


----------



## Deva (Jan 15, 2004)

In a chair off to the side, Raisa examines the remains of her jacket and clothes she had been wearing earlier. The jacket is salvagable, maybe, the rest is definately something to be thrown away. She looks at the sleave of the sweater she is wearing, at the blood stain that is now beginning to dry. "Free or not, this trip has been killer on my wardrobe," She mutters, going through her backpack for her wallet. She opens it and frowns at the money she has. _Thirty bucks, I'll be lucky if I can get a shirt for that. Should have stayed home and gotten a job like everyone else instead of flying off the first chance I got._ She sighs, stuffing the wallet back into her backpack. _Guess I'll have to call Mama and see what she can do._


----------



## Elementor (Jan 15, 2004)

Mimic said:
			
		

> Once in the waiting room, Michelle will send off a quick email to let her family know that she is ok and will contact them later and fill them in on the details. Once that is done she will go to the Krispy Cream and buy a box of assorted donuts.
> 
> Michelle walks up to Vincent and offers him a donut. "Like I said in the restaraunt, it's their problem not yours, you should just ignore them."  Whether or not he takes the donut she will place the box on a table take one and let everyone know they are there if they want them.




"Thanks Michelle that is really cool of you."  Vince grabs a donut and smiles.  "Yeah, I just have to be me and let the chips fall where they may."



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> Titan grins and sits up.  "I'm sure you all remember this one.  'Titan destroys cruise ship!  Menaces coastline!'  Or, 'Titan causes space station to explode!  Astronauts barely escape!'   I was paying for those for months," he finishes with a laugh.




Vince's mood seems to have turned 180 degrees and chuckles as well.  "Yeah, I suppose you turned out not too bad.  I guess folks were just a bit more tolerant of my appearance back home is all.  I'll try to not let it bother me."


----------



## Mule (Jan 15, 2004)

Elementor said:
			
		

> "I am NOT the bad guy!"




Randal turns around, obviously angry.  "Then why'd you leave me there by myself in the front of the Mag-Lev?!?  While the rest of us were being shot, you zoomed off on your own, leaving us behind!"

OOC:  _From where he was, Randall couldn't see Speed Demon invite the giant ABC robot to the party, so he'll leave that part out._

"I though you were a friend!"


----------



## Elementor (Jan 15, 2004)

Mule said:
			
		

> Randal turns around, obviously angry.  "Then why'd you leave me there by myself in the front of the Mag-Lev?!?  While the rest of us were being shot, you zoomed off on your own, leaving us behind!"
> 
> OOC:  _From where he was, Randall couldn't see Speed Demon invite the giant ABC robot to the party, so he'll leave that part out._
> 
> "I though you were a friend!"




"Thats simple.  Do you remember how the whole mess got started?  The steward and stewardess gave us those," he says as he motions towards the wristband being picked over.  "It was bad enough that they drew weapons on us but when I saw them shoot that reporter and try to run away, I figured I was the only one with a chance to catch them.  I didnt expect that insano monster robot getting in my way though."

Vince looks down at his feet and seems to look a bit sad as he continues, "Dude, I wish I could heal folks like X can.  Then I could have been way more helpful with the injured.  But I can't.  I can move fast, hit hard and dodge stuff pretty good.  I guess I was just trying to play to my strengths and be as useful as I could.  The way it turned out though I guess I should have just stayed behind anyways.  Back home I was superheroing alone, I guess I have to get used to being more a part of a team.  Sorry guys...."


----------



## Deva (Jan 15, 2004)

"Meu deus, will you leave the guy alone?!" Having heard enough, Raisa gets up from her chair and scowls at Randal with her arms crossed over her chest._(ooc: intimidation 11)_ "See, here's the sinch. I've been shot numerous times, ruined some of my favorite clothes, have sworn I was going to die, and now I'm a little cranky. Now what was suppose to have been the start of the  greatest opportunity of my life is turning into the day from hell. And from what I'm gathering here, so have the rest of you. So do me a favour, quit your whining and accept the fact that if you're going to blame someone for this, blame MERC since they're the one's that decided we were easy targets because we're a bunch of kids. Vince did what he thought he had do, just like the rest of us. Now if you have a problem with what he did, you're going to have to take it up with me. We clear?"


----------



## Mule (Jan 15, 2004)

Elementor said:
			
		

> I guess I was just trying to play to my strengths and be as useful as I could.  The way it turned out though I guess I should have just stayed behind anyways.  Back home I was superheroing alone, I guess I have to get used to being more a part of a team.  Sorry guys...."




"Sorry doesn't cut it, we could have been killed!  Your strengths should include helping your friends!"  It's obvious that the stress and violence of the last few hours are catching up with Loki.  He is starting to come apart a little.  To hide this, he stomps out of the waiting room, heading nowhere in particular.


----------



## Mordane76 (Jan 15, 2004)

"Yeah, take it away from the guy it might actually help," X12 mumbles with a bit of a hurt tone.  He gets up from the table as the conversation over the bracelet's intricacies starts, and heads to sit somewhere by himself, especially as the other students begin to argue.



			
				Elementor said:
			
		

> "Dude, I wish I could heal folks like X can. Then I could have been way more helpful with the injured. But I can't. I can move fast, hit hard and dodge stuff pretty good. I guess I was just trying to play to my strengths and be as useful as I could. The way it turned out though I guess I should have just stayed behind anyways. Back home I was superheroing alone, I guess I have to get used to being more a part of a team. Sorry guys...."





At this, X12 gets up and stalks back into the fray.  "You don't want this...  I don't want this," X12 says to Vince.   "I don't do this because I want to, or because I feel some sort of greater good is served -- I do this because I have to, because everytime I see someone down in their own blood, I have to; it's all I'm good for.  I spill my own blood for them, so they can get better; it breaks my arm, so theirs can heal.  It knocks me out, so they can wake up.  Every time I watch one of these 'heroes' pummel someone into a pulp, I pray it was me doing it -- so that someone else would have to heal those wounds, and I could just lay back let my damage go without concern.  I can't touch people, because I have to worry they have some disease they don't even know about that I might heal... and catch until my body rids me of it... or worse -- some injury or plague my body can't heal.  Stick to the speed, Vince -- you don't want this.  I'd trade you anyday for what you have, just so I could shake hands with someone and not worry about it."  He then turns and leaves the waiting room, heading for the front doors and some fresh air.


----------



## buzzard (Jan 15, 2004)

"Umm, well, so who yinz guys thinks gonna win the Superbowl this year? I always root NAFC myself out of a misguided sense of loyalty, even though my Stillers are bums this year." Mutters John desperately trying to drag the subject to something more pleasant.

buzzard


----------



## Calinon (Jan 15, 2004)

A hugely loud whistle grabs everyone's attention.  Jackal noticably winces.  Sanchez stands up, looking none to impressed.  Titan is chuckling in his seat.  The first person she turns to is Raisa, speaking angrily and rapidly in Portuguese.

"Se pensa durante um momento que que aquele tipo de conduta é aceitável, Raisa da Cruz, você doloridamente são equivocados!" Sanchez shouts loudly, freezing everyone in their tracks, including those planning on leaving.

_Translation: If you think for a moment that that sort of conduct is acceptable, Raisa da Cruz, you are sorely mistaken._

"You concern yourself with clothing when X12 has not even a shirt, and worry of injuries that are not of any concern to someone with your powers.  Vincent may have made a poor choice, he may have made the right one; it is of no concern now, and Randall being upset over it is no excuse to threaten to use violence on anyone.

"And you, Mr. McPhee, should hold your tongue.  Have you been regularly put in combat situations so that you know exactly the right thing to do every time?  Did you try to disarm the soldier shooting those around you, or did you do what your instincts told you and got away while those about you were shot, I wonder.

"You are all fortunate to even be alive.  Many around the world today are not so fortunate.  Many of the students who did not accept the invitation here, and many of those not invited, lie injured or dead in hospitals about the globe.  Many powerful mutants lie in the same conditions, including two of our own.  And while _they_ lay in hospital, Thunder is contacting _your_ families to make sure they are alright and let them know you all are fine.  To think that you would bicker and argue when so much has been lost it is... it is obsceno!"

She pauses a few minutes, face bright red from her outburst, taking several slow breaths.  "You," she says, pointing at X12, unable to remember his name at the moment.  "Sit back down.  I did not steal something that can even help you.  It's power supply is expended.  I may be able to fix it, but blocking all your powers is not going to be all that useful unless I can figure out a way that you can disable the sensor," she says as X12 returns and she points at several wires inside the device, "that tells the computer chip it should be working.  And until I can find a proper energy source, it would be a very short term thing, like an hour.  This connection and this one," she continues, back into her gadgets, beginning a dissertation of the bracelet that will likely be a while.  While X12 doesn't get what she's saying, the fact that she can fix it rings clearly in his mind and makes him pay rapt attention.

Thunder and the doctor walk into the room a few minutes later to the still stunned silence and Sanchez explaining the problems of the bracelet to a baffled looking X12.  He looks at Titan, who is still trying not to laugh out loud.

"She blow up yet?"

"Forty-seven minutes and thirty six seconds!" Titan exclaims and breaks into laughter.

"Damnit," Thunder mutters, pulling out a twenty dollar bill and handing it over to Titan.  "How do you always know."

"I hate you both," Sanchez says in a brief pause of her dissertation before continuing as if she hadn't left off.

Carl finally breaks the silence of the students, answering John.  "Niners all the way, from wildcard to superbowl."

_OMG!  Shirt!_  Dara shouts, echoing in everyone's minds.  She dashes over to her duffelbag and pulls out the shirt she'd been working on and goes over to the table.  She practically starts dressing X12 completely unconcerned about his powers activating, which is somewhat unnerving to X12.  "Sorry!  I forgot about the shirt with all the shooting and ... and blood," she adds quietly.  She puts a shining red sleevless shirt on X12, made of 100% silk.  It's shoulders flair out, and wrapping around the shirt is the threaded image of a golden chinese dragon.  It has a closing flap that wraps to the right side, where buttons fasten it closed.  It looks simply amazing and is unmistakably (to those that follow fashion) a work of world famous Chen International Designs studio.

_OOC:  Think of the shirt stalone wore to Taco Bell in the Demolition Man, only fancier._

Sanchez pauses her dissertation while Dara dresses X12.  "Nice shirt.  Hey, isn't that Titan's cape?"

"My cape," Dara says kind of surprisingly shyly, pulling it up around her mouth and nose and running off before anyone tries to take her cape.


----------



## Mordane76 (Jan 15, 2004)

X12 bows deeply in appreciation to Ms. Chen (_OOC: Diplomacy_).  "Your labor and concern is greatly appreciated.  I am honored by your gift, and hope to return your kindness," he says.

X12 listens carefully to Sanchez, and when she takes a moment to breathe(after her dissertation), he politely interjects, "I find all this very fascinating, but my area is biology... You lost me at, 'bypassing the transceiver microcircuitry....'  I think you're trying to tell me you might be able to make this device work again, and for longer periods of time -- if that's what you're saying, I'm all for it."


----------



## Elementor (Jan 15, 2004)

"And on that note..."  Vince grabs 2 more donuts.  Tosses one to Loki with a wink and a smile and then bites into the second one.


----------



## Deva (Jan 15, 2004)

Managing to contain the temper rising inside her, Raisa shoulders her pack and walks calmly over to where Sanchez is standing. Looking down at the older woman she speaks softly in Portuguese, but her anger is apparent in her gritted teeth and clenched fists. _"Vincent was getting bashed by the media, he didn't need it from these guys. I was just trying to get them to leave him alone, like I would have done for anyone else. And you know what, I get the rest. I'm alive, other's aren't so fortunate. Now we may be half your age, but that still doesn't give you the right to speak to us like we're a bunch of deviants for dealing with a screwed up situation in our own ways. 

Oh, and for the record, I've never been shot at before. For all I knew I could have been killed as easily as it would have anyone else. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I better get some air before I put my fist through the wall."_

She heads for the exit, turning around and pausing to smirk at Sanchez, speaking in English now. " And, a suggestion if I may? If you took a little more pride in your appearance instead of burrying your head in Krispy Cremes and gadgets, you might actual get laid and relieve some of that pent up frustration. " Raisa walks out of the sitting area.


----------



## Mule (Jan 15, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> "And you, Mr. McPhee, should hold your tongue.  Have you been regularly put in combat situations so that you know exactly the right thing to do every time?  Did you try to disarm the soldier shooting those around you, or did you do what your instincts told you and got away while those about you were shot, I wonder.




Red-faced, Randall immediately takes the nearest seat.  He catches the doughnut that Vince tosses at him, but just toys with it, not eating.  He is avoiding eye-contact with everybody.

OOC: _Teenagers..._


----------



## Elementor (Jan 15, 2004)

Deva said:
			
		

> Managing to contain the temper rising inside her, Raisa shoulders her pack and walks calmly over to where Sanchez is standing. Looking down at the older woman she speaks softly in Portuguese, but her anger is apparent in her gritted teeth and clenched fists. _"Vincent was getting bashed by the media, he didn't need it from these guys. I was just trying to get them to leave him alone, like I would have done for anyone else. And you know what, I get the rest. I'm alive, other's aren't so fortunate. Now we may be half your age, but that still doesn't give you the right to speak to us like we're a bunch of deviants for dealing with a screwed up situation in our own ways.
> 
> Oh, and for the record, I've never been shot at before. For all I knew I could have been killed as easily as it would have anyone else.
> 
> ...




Able to understand the entire conversation (since I speak the language), Vince spews his mouthful of donut all over the place in shock.  A quiet "Whoa.." escapes his lips as his eyes bulge...even more than normal.


----------



## Agamon (Jan 15, 2004)

Sanjay sits down at a table with a six-pack of Krispy Kreme donuts _(OOC: Not sure if Krispy Creme is a different company than the one I'm familiar with, but this would be the correct spelling of the latter )_ and a large soda, grinning widely, completely oblivious to the arguing and shouting around him.  Between mouthfuls of donut, he says, "Super Bowl?  Who cares, it's a World Cup year, and India beat Italy in a prelim match last month.  I think they can do some damage this year.  Being in EPIC, I bet I could score some primo seats to some matches.  That would be so cool!"  He takes a napkin and tries to clean some sugar from his mouth.  "This damn skin is so hard to keep clean...I think I need a buffer," he says, scrunching his lips in an effort to be able to see them.


----------



## buzzard (Jan 15, 2004)

Agamon said:
			
		

> Sanjay sits down at a table with a six-pack of Krispy Kreme donuts _(OOC: Not sure if Krispy Creme is a different company than the one I'm familiar with, but this would be the correct spelling of the latter )_ and a large soda, grinning widely, completely oblivious to the arguing and shouting around him.  Between mouthfuls of donut, he says, "Super Bowl?  Who cares, it's a World Cup year, and India beat Italy in a prelim match last month.  I think they can do some damage this year.  Being in EPIC, I bet I could score some primo seats to some matches.  That would be so cool!"  He takes a napkin and tries to clean some sugar from his mouth.  "This damn skin is so hard to keep clean...I think I need a buffer," he says, scrunching his lips in an effort to be able to see them.




"Well Sanjay, you're in the NAA now, so you better get used to Football. Our football that is. Soccer is all well and good, for a sleep aid that is."  Replies John. Turning to Carl, he continues  "Though I'm not a big fan of the west coast teams, I think the Chargers got a shot at knocking off the Niners.The Niners have a highly overrated secondary. 

buzzard


----------



## Velmont (Jan 15, 2004)

Agamon said:
			
		

> "Super Bowl?  Who cares, it's a World Cup year, and India beat Italy in a prelim match last month.  I think they can do some damage this year.  Being in EPIC, I bet I could score some primo seats to some matches.  That would be so cool!"




"Well, if you can't find some, I'll pay you one. My father have some contact, and season pass for Manchester's team. Manchester are the greatest, and it is sure they will win the cup in England, now let's see how they will perform in the Mondial."


----------



## Calinon (Jan 15, 2004)

Deva said:
			
		

> _Managing to contain the temper rising inside her, Raisa shoulders her pack and walks calmly over to where Sanchez is standing. Looking down at the older woman she speaks softly in Portuguese, but her anger is apparent in her gritted teeth and clenched fists. "Vincent was getting bashed by the media, he didn't need it from these guys. I was just trying to get them to leave him alone, like I would have done for anyone else. And you know what, I get the rest. I'm alive, other's aren't so fortunate. Now we may be half your age, but that still doesn't give you the right to speak to us like we're a bunch of deviants for dealing with a screwed up situation in our own ways.
> 
> Oh, and for the record, I've never been shot at before. For all I knew I could have been killed as easily as it would have anyone else.
> 
> Now if you'll excuse me, I better get some air before I put my fist through the wall."_



Sanchez is equally unintimidated as she is unimpressed, clicking a button on her belt.  As Raisa speaks, her voice is amplified and translated to English by some gadget.  Many gasps are heard, and some chatter of things like "How could she talk to Sanchez like that" and the like.  

"Such pointless posturing.  It is becoming painfully obvious that you are in dire need of both discipline and ethics.  At least Randall has the decency to reflect on his actions and be embarassed by them.  Undoubtedly he will learn from his actions as well.  I wonder if the same will be said of Raisa da Cruz, hmm?"



			
				Deva said:
			
		

> _She heads for the exit, turning around and pausing to smirk at Sanchez, speaking in English now. " And, a suggestion if I may? If you took a little more pride in your appearance instead of burrying your head in Krispy Cremes and gadgets, you might actual get laid and relieve some of that pent up frustration. " Raisa walks out of the sitting area._



"I'm sure she will absolutely love the school uniforms, being so concerned with her appearance," Sanchez says with a grin as she continues to work on X12's bracelet while Raisa leaves.  

She looks up at the comment that "Soccer" is overrated.  "Pfft.  'Soccer' as you call it is the world sport.  You North American's and your wierd football.  My husband, Romario, would certainly have more to say on the subject than I, though.  Maybe when they start strapping rockets to players I'll be more interested," she says, closing up the bracelet.

"Romario Sanchez is your husband?" Anna asks, stunned.

_Romario Sanchez is Brazil's greatest footballer.  He is often compared to the legendary Pele and is labelled as the best in the world._

"Yup," Sanchez answers.  "There, I'll get Anna to work on devising a battery for it soon," she says, putting the bracelet into a belt pouch and grabbing another donut.  "School project," she adds with a smile.

Thunder clears his throat, grabbing everyone's attention.  "Our ride is here," he says, pointing outside to a bus that is just pulling up.  The bus is a huge tour bus, one of the ones with the hinged back section.  It's double decker and has a ton of storage inside and beneath the first floor.  "Later bro," he says, embracing the doctor who healed you.  The doctor leaves through the same door Raisa stormed out of.

Thunder pointedly stands infront of the door that Raisa left through.  "Everyone, grab your bags and hop on board.  Sanchez, Titan, you go with the kids, I'll take the jet back."

Sanjay feels someone behind him and when he turns it's Titan, checking his teeth in the reflective surface of his head.  "Damn, amigo, you are shiny!"

"Carl, sweetie," Sanchez calls over to the big man.  "Let me have that gun of yours; I want to take a look at it," she says as she leads you all outside.  As she climbs the steps with Carl in tow you hear her scolding him a bit, "I'm pretty sure Trailblazer said no guns."

"Sorry," mumbles Carl.

"And a bat?  What's with the bat?"

Carl grins sheepishly but doesn't answer.

Rebound walks alongside Velmont.  "Yah, man, Man-U kicks ass.  Dad's got season ticks.  But I don't know if they are gonna get by Russia in the prelims."

As you leave the room, you hear Thunder say, "Cosmo, Jackal, are you coming?"  Looking back, you see Cosmo struggling to get Jackal to his feet, the latter looking pale and shivering.

*Raisa*
You storm out of the room, furious and embarassed.  As you pass the operating rooms, you hear a bark.  Turning to the sound, you see nothing but the doctor that healed everyone at a nursing station.  Turning back, Grandmother and Pooky are sitting on a bench.  "Going to punch a wall, Raisa?" she asks.  Pooky sits on the ground at her feet, wagging his tail and panting as Grandmother leans forward a bit on her cane.


----------



## Mimic (Jan 15, 2004)

Deva said:
			
		

> Managing to contain the temper rising inside her, Raisa shoulders her pack and walks calmly over to where Sanchez is standing. Looking down at the older woman she speaks softly in Portuguese, but her anger is apparent in her gritted teeth and clenched fists. _"Vincent was getting bashed by the media, he didn't need it from these guys. I was just trying to get them to leave him alone, like I would have done for anyone else. And you know what, I get the rest. I'm alive, other's aren't so fortunate. Now we may be half your age, but that still doesn't give you the right to speak to us like we're a bunch of deviants for dealing with a screwed up situation in our own ways.
> 
> Oh, and for the record, I've never been shot at before. For all I knew I could have been killed as easily as it would have anyone else.
> 
> ...




Michelle leans in towards whoever is close.
"Man, I thought I was a bitch..."



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> "I'm sure she will absolutely love the school uniforms, being so concerned with her appearance," Sanchez says with a grin as she continues to work on X12's bracelet while Raisa leaves.




"School uniforms? Ugh, no one told me about having to wear a school uniform."



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> As you leave the room, you hear Thunder say, "Cosmo, Jackal, are you coming?" Looking back, you see Cosmo struggling to get Jackal to his feet, the latter looking pale and shivering.




Michelle looks back and gives a small sigh, with "I-know-whats-going-to-happen" look, she approachs Cosmo.

"Looks like you could use a hand."  She says as she attempts to help Jackal stand up.


----------



## Velmont (Jan 15, 2004)

"Romario Sanchez? You'll have to present it to me one day or another. He is just too great!"


----------



## Agamon (Jan 16, 2004)

Deva said:
			
		

> Managing to contain the temper rising inside her, Raisa shoulders her pack and walks calmly over to where Sanchez is standing. Looking down at the older woman she speaks softly in Portuguese, but her anger is apparent in her gritted teeth and clenched fists. _"Vincent was getting bashed by the media, he didn't need it from these guys. I was just trying to get them to leave him alone, like I would have done for anyone else. And you know what, I get the rest. I'm alive, other's aren't so fortunate. Now we may be half your age, but that still doesn't give you the right to speak to us like we're a bunch of deviants for dealing with a screwed up situation in our own ways.
> 
> Oh, and for the record, I've never been shot at before. For all I knew I could have been killed as easily as it would have anyone else.
> 
> ...




Sanjay barely stiffles a sniker.  "Whoa, who tied a knot in her panties?" he says in a hush.



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> She looks up at the comment that "Soccer" is overrated. "Pfft. 'Soccer' as you call it is the world sport. You North American's and your wierd football. My husband, Romario, would certainly have more to say on the subject than I, though. Maybe when they start strapping rockets to players I'll be more interested," she says, closing up the bracelet.
> 
> "Romario Sanchez is your husband?" Anna asks, stunned.




"Duh.  Isn't that common knowledge?"  He turns to the others.  "You Americans, I swear...what's the point of watching a bunch of big buffoons run into each other?" he says with a smile shaking his head.



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> As you leave the room, you hear Thunder say, "Cosmo, Jackal, are you coming?" Looking back, you see Cosmo struggling to get Jackal to his feet, the latter looking pale and shivering.






			
				Mimic said:
			
		

> Michelle looks back and gives a small sigh, with "I-know-whats-going-to-happen" look, she approachs Cosmo.
> 
> "Looks like you could use a hand." She says as she attempts to help Jackal stand up.




Sanjay laughs out loud at the sight of tiny Michelle trying to prop up the enormous Jackel.  "Here, let me give him a hand,"  he says moving to take Michelle's position.  "After all, I owe the big guy, seeing as he took one for me."


----------



## Calinon (Jan 16, 2004)

Cosmo doesn't stop Sanjay and Michelle from helping Jackal, instead letting them go ahead and help Jackal, while he grabs their dufflebags.  As you pass Thunder with Jackal leaning between the two of you, you see him watching you intently, a faint smile on his lips.  You make it to the bus where Titan helps Jackal up into the first seat of the bus.

"Don't worry, amigo, we'll have you tucked away in a warm bed soon enough," Titan says as he pulls a blanket off an overhead storage rack and tucks it around the shivering boy.  "Grab a seat where you want, either level," he says to you and the other students as they enter the bus.



			
				Velmont said:
			
		

> "Romario Sanchez? You'll have to present it to me one day or another. He is just too great!"



Sanchez grins at Kevin.  "Don't let my husband hear you say that; his head is already inflated enough!  But we'll see if I can arrange for all of you to meet him.  Lord knows, you won't have enough famous people to meet at the institute," she adds with a laugh.


----------



## Deva (Jan 16, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> *Raisa*
> You storm out of the room, furious and embarassed.  As you pass the operating rooms, you hear a bark.  Turning to the sound, you see nothing but the doctor that healed everyone at a nursing station.  Turning back, Grandmother and Pooky are sitting on a bench.  "Going to punch a wall, Raisa?" she asks.  Pooky sits on the ground at her feet, wagging his tail and panting as Grandmother leans forward a bit on her cane.





"Better a wall than someone's face," Raisa huffs. She sighs, angry tears once again burning the corner of her eyes, and slides down the wall to sit on the floor. She looks at Grandmother, her mind knowing full well she wasn't what she appeared to be, but still finds it hard to stay mad. "Look, don't worry, I won't do anything. I'm not *that* stupid. I just didn't like the way she was disrespecting us, you know?  I mean, so I was worried about the clothes. Did she ever think to consider that I don't have the money the rest of them and that what you see in this pack is what I've got? My Mama made these for me, and I'm here less than a day and...  I'm getting shot at and bleeding and people are dying and..."  

She sniffles, wiping frantically at the tears that spill from beneath her eyelids, and clearing her throat before speaking again. " Hey, I'm glad you and Pooky are okay. You are okay, aren't you?"


----------



## Velmont (Jan 16, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> Sanchez grins at Kevin.  "Don't let my husband hear you say that; his head is already inflated enough!  But we'll see if I can arrange for all of you to meet him.  Lord knows, you won't have enough famous people to meet at the institute," she adds with a laugh.




"Well, if his head is so big, it will be hard to miss a head shot" Kevin rply with a smile.


----------



## Calinon (Jan 16, 2004)

Deva said:
			
		

> "Better a wall than someone's face," Raisa huffs. She sighs, angry tears once again burning the corner of her eyes, and slides down the wall to sit on the floor. She looks at Grandmother, her mind knowing full well she wasn't what she appeared to be, but still finds it hard to stay mad. "Look, don't worry, I won't do anything. I'm not *that* stupid. I just didn't like the way she was disrespecting us, you know? I mean, so I was worried about the clothes. Did she ever think to consider that I don't have the money the rest of them and that what you see in this pack is what I've got? My Mama made these for me, and I'm here less than a day and... I'm getting shot at and bleeding and people are dying and..."
> 
> She sniffles, wiping frantically at the tears that spill from beneath her eyelids, and clearing her throat before speaking again. " Hey, I'm glad you and Pooky are okay. You are okay, aren't you?"



"Other than not knowing what happened in the train, I am just fine dear.  Pooky is too, aren't you sweetie," she says, and Pooky barks and wags his tail.  "But do not place blame on others too quickly, Raisa dear.   Michelle wanted a stop to the bickering and finger pointing," she says, and pauses to make sure she has Raisa's attention before smiling just a little, "and threatening?  

"Now dear, I know you are not so ill-raised that you think your last comment to Michelle was anywhere in the realm of acceptable.  Your mother taught you far too well for that.  So when Kyle flies us to the school, you should think very hard about what you will say to Michelle," she says matronly, but kindly.  "You know, in way of an apology?  Not that she'll be mad tomorrow, but impressions, my dear, are important."  Grandmother hands Raisa a small pack of kleenex.

"Now dry your tears child.  You'll probably need to save a few for tomorrow when you get your school uniforms," she jokes.  "And given that you are far from the only person without a thick wallet, I think a shopping trip will be scheduled soon enough to help you all replace what was lost."

"Actually, why don't you just talk to your mother.  I'm sure she could send you some of her hand-made clothing as well.  I'm also sure she would rather hear you are safe from your own mouth, rather than mine," Thunder says, leaning against a wall nearby.  He stands up revealing the vid-phone on the wall just behind him, and you see your mother on the screen.

"I was wondering when you were going to stop skulking in the shadows, Kyle," says Grandmother, smiling.


----------



## Dalamar (Jan 16, 2004)

Johan takes his bag and heads to the bus, getting a seat from the mid-section and next to the window. He makes a mental note to ask Sanchez about how the gadgets work at a later time.


----------



## buzzard (Jan 16, 2004)

John will give up on the football thing for now. He gathers up his bags and boards the bus with the rest. 

buzzard


----------



## Mimic (Jan 17, 2004)

Michelle will go up to the top level grab a blanket and a pillow and get some rest.


----------



## Elementor (Jan 17, 2004)

As he drinks in the surroundings, Vince cant help but wonder to himself, "Wow, so this is my new life.  I meet the wife of my hero, I get flamed on TV, and I am now hanging and banging with the EPIC crew.  Man, I hope Raisa will be OK back there alone, I totally feel responsible for her getting into trouble since she was just standing up for me.  Maybe I can do something for her too."

"Ummm, excuse me?  Does this thing have a phone that we can call home with?  I know you guys have contacted our parents and all that but the way I looked on the news might have my parents wanting to talk to me."


----------



## Calinon (Jan 17, 2004)

OOC:  Elementor, don't use that dark green, I can't read it unless I highlight it.

"Thunder contacted all your families already.  I'm surprised so few of you took advantage of the vid-phones in the sitting area," says Titan.  "You'll have to wait until tomorrow at the earliest for that now, but not to worry, amigo's, your folks know you are fine."

The bus rolls out and through the heart of New York.  Despite the urge to sleep, the sights and sounds of the mega-city keep you awake, and rather wide-eyed.  Eventually, you wind your way out of the city region and into a pleasantly treed area.  The street lights, adhering to a no light polution policy, leave the sky amazingly star speckled on this clear night.  You turn onto a side road, and a sign on each side of the drive, carved of white marble with inlaid lettering reads, "EPIC Headquarters."  About a dozen feet in, a high wrought iron fence extends as far as you can see in either direction.  As you clear the trees on each side of the road, you finally get your first in person view of the EPIC facility.

A well lit grounds of neatly trimmed grass extends for a half mile before reaching a semi-circular building.  Made of a white stone, it's of remarkably simple design, but asthetically pleasing, with windows on the front.  Flags of each nation stand outside, lit from beneath by spotlights.  Several flags stand at half-mast; EU, China and Russia.  Australia is notably not present.

The bus approaches and turns past the headquarters of EPIC, passing the west side where you see the new institution.  A huge and elaborate building stands a half mile away.  It is three stories high and every exterior wall is completely made of glass.  Stretching off the back of the building which in your mind must be the school, are two small apartment blocks, probably the dormatories.  Surrounding the school area, athletic fields, a full track facility and a rather incredible looking sunken stadium are visible.  A few hundred yards on the outside of the track area, a giagantic building stands.  The EPIC Jet is lowering down towards a long tarmac to the East, near the building.

As the bus pulls up to the front of the school, you see Empath standing outside with several other people you don't recognize.  Suddenly, red light floods through the windows as the entire area infront of the school is illuminated by fire!  As you watch, a wall of flame appears well above the school, and slowly forms the words "Welcome Home!"  As your eyes grow accustomed, you see a young woman flying about below the writing.  She's completely wreathed in flame.  In fact you don't think she's wearing clothes, not that it would matter with the flames.

"Heh, showoff," quips Sanchez as she comes down the stairs.

"Nova knows how to give a warm welcome," Titan quips.  "Welcome to you new home!  Now lets get you to your rooms, amigos."

As you exit the bus, you see a truck coming from the tarmac.  When it arrives, Raisa, Thunder and Grandmother emerge.

*Raisa*

After talking with your mother, you join Grandmother and Thunder in the EPIC Jet and fly to the institute.  As you debark the plane, you see the bus by the school, and the flames exploding into writing.  A nearby truck gives the three of you transport to the rest of the students.


----------



## Velmont (Jan 17, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> "Nova knows how to give a warm welcome"




"Warm! Was that suppose to be funny?" ask Kevin.


----------



## Agamon (Jan 17, 2004)

Velmont said:
			
		

> "Warm! Was that suppose to be funny?" ask Kevin.




Sanjay pats Kevin on the back as they exit the bus.  "Gotta get up early in the morning to pull the wool over Kev's eyes..." he says.

He removes his sunglasses and looks over the compound with an approving nod.  "Sweet!  Can't wait to see the pad.  Let's go."


----------



## Mule (Jan 17, 2004)

Loki spends the bus ride lost in thought, re-living the battle aboard the Mag-Lev.  What he could have done, what he should have done, all the myriad possibilities spinning through his mind.  Sanchez's words echo loudly.  "Well that's why I came to the EPIC school, to learn more about my powers." Randall thinks to himself.  Randall feels badly about what he said to Vince. 



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> As you clear the trees on each side of the road, you finally get your first in person view of the EPIC facility.




All these thoughts are driven away as Randall sees the famous EPIC facility.  Seen so many times on news broadcasts, it looks somehow different in person; much larger, much more formidable.  "Wow!  I can't believe this is happening to me.  I'm actually here!"


----------



## buzzard (Jan 17, 2004)

"Well that was pretty impressive. I don't get the glas walls though. Seems kinda odd to me. Well, I'd like to see my room, I'm feeling due for some sack time. "  John says as he follows along with the group. 

buzzard


----------



## Agamon (Jan 17, 2004)

buzzard said:
			
		

> "Well that was pretty impressive. I don't get the glas walls though. Seems kinda odd to me. Well, I'd like to see my room, I'm feeling due for some sack time. "  John says as he follows along with the group.




Sanjay looks up at the glass building as they walk.  "I can think of lots of reasons.  To discourage us from coming to class naked.  So that no matter what class we're taking, we can sit and stare out a window, wishing we weren't cooped up inside.  Because, if we're ever attacked, enemies will focus on the easily destroyed, but unimportant, school.  To dissuade us from casting stones.  Because it's pretty."


----------



## Deva (Jan 18, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> "Actually, why don't you just talk to your mother.  I'm sure she could send you some of her hand-made clothing as well.  I'm also sure she would rather hear you are safe from your own mouth, rather than mine," Thunder says, leaning against a wall nearby.  He stands up revealing the vid-phone on the wall just behind him, and you see your mother on the screen.




A blush rises in her cheeks when she realizes someone else had been listenning to the conversation, and she gets to her feet. At the vid-phone she picks up the reciever, wanting to keep at least part of her talk private. Before the reciever had even touched her ear her mother's stern voice was pounding at her. "...... Mama please....... will you just....... no but....... But Mama!!....... Yes but...... I don't........ Can I please say something?....... Meu deus! Fine!......Obrigado, amo-o demais. Adeus."_(Translation: Thank-you, I love you too. Good-bye.)_

She hangs up the phone, appearing significantly cowed when she turns back to Grandmother and Thunder. When she speaks her voice is very subdued and more appropriate a girl her age. "So, when do we leave?"



			
				Calinon said:
			
		

> As you exit the bus, you see a truck coming from the tarmac. When it arrives, Raisa, Thunder and Grandmother emerge.




With her head lowered, and avoiding eye contact with the rest of the students, Raisa silently follows the group into the school.


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## Mimic (Jan 18, 2004)

Michelle trys to sleep but doesn't, taking in the sights and sounds of the mega-city are enticing as is the headquarters of EPIC.

_"Wow, this is it. A start of a new life."_ she thinks as the bus pulls up to the new building. Michelle will grab her stuff and head out of the bus, helping Jackel if needed.


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## Velmont (Jan 18, 2004)

Kevin takes is portable vid-phone. He composes a number and wait for some minutes. "Well, just said I am at Epic HQ and I am safe. Thanks to transmit the message, Andrea." Kevin walk  to the grass and lie down, and don't seems to be happy at all.


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## Elementor (Jan 18, 2004)

Vince looks incredibly excited as he grabs his stuff and heads out.  "Man!  This is so totally going to rock!!"  He breathes the NY air in deep and lets out a sigh as he lets his 360 degree vision drink in all the sights around him.

As soon as he sees Raisa he will run over towards her and ask, "You ok?  They werent too hard on you were they?  I really appreciate what you were trying to do for me back there."


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## Dalamar (Jan 18, 2004)

Johan admires the buildings, wondering too what the purpose of the transparent walls is.

*OoC:* If the floors/ceilings are made of glass too, I'd guess the place is a peeper's paradise


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## Deva (Jan 18, 2004)

Elementor said:
			
		

> As soon as he sees Raisa he will run over towards her and ask, "You ok?  They werent too hard on you were they?  I really appreciate what you were trying to do for me back there."




A half smile creeps onto her lips, and shakes her head. "Nah, I have to apologize to Sanchez though. That's gonna suck, but I was out of line with some of the stuff I said. Most of it though I'd say again. I mean, I've heard the stuff you did back home, in Brazil, and I just didn't like what they were saying about you, you know? Calling you a Monster like that on the TV and then getting attacked by Randall, that's just... _Bosta_!"


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## Calinon (Jan 19, 2004)

While everyone gathers their bags and gawks at the facility, Thunder and Grandmother talk to Empath for a few minutes while Titan and Sanchez chat amiably with various students.  Nova lands on the driveway, fire crackling about her radiating noticeable heat, even from a distance.

**tap tap tap**

The familiar sound of Grandmother's cane echoes through your head, stopping your conversations cold and drawing your attention to her.  Thunder steps just past her and addresses you all.

"Alright, a few things to get out of the way first.  It's glass because it was a gift from a rather creative and thankful architecht and the design is rather cool," he says with a grin at Sanjay.  "It's also not exactly glass.  Nova?"

"Right on, baby!  I wondered when I'd get to play!" she says in her heavy british accent, excited.  She launches into the air and moments later starts lobbing immense fireballs at the school.  The fireballs explode with enough concussive force to rock you back on your heels and nearly completely blind you.  When the lightshow clears you see the glass completely unharmed.  "Bah," Nova says as she lands.  "I didn't even scratch it."

**tap tap tap**

Grandmother brings your attention back to Thunder.  "Second, you are completely free to move around the compound, including EPIC HQ.  But if a door is locked, it is locked for a reason.  Third, nobody is a prisoner here, but if you feel the need to leave the compound, you make sure you tell us first, and you do not go alone.  Except you," he says, looking right at Vincent.  "You don't step foot outside the compound until we clear up this "monster" bull the media is stirring up.

"Now, I know you are all tired and sore, but before we get you to your rooms, I think a quick trip to show you a few highlights are in order.  So if you'll all follow me," he says, then pauses as he looks at Jackal.  "Titan, can you take Jackal to his room?  I think he'll be better off resting.  Everyone else, follow me."

Titan picks up Jackal and flies off to the dorms behind the school.  The rest of you follow Thunder into the glass school.  "The main floor and up are the school classrooms.  But that can wait until school starts in a few days, once you've all recovered fully.  Down here," he says, leading you down an escalator.  It stops in a very wide hall.  From your orientation, you'd guess the hall leads to beneath the dorms and the other way to beneath EPIC HQ.  A bit down towards the dorms, another hall splits off towards the huge building outside.  Another escalator goes down further.

"Down that way," Thunder says, "is EPIC HQ.  But most importantly, it's the cafeteria!  It's staffed 24/7, so if you get hungry, head down there and the chef will make you something.  Downstairs is the gymnasium and pools.  That hall that branches off leads to Sanchez's lab.  That is strictly off limits unless she or Empath are there.  It is also rather well protected with a security system that you don't want to mess with.  And that concludes the 30 second tour," he says with a chuckle.

He leads you towards the dorms.  As you get what you figure must be roughly midway between the dorms and the school, you pass through a door into a large common room.  It has a pair of huge tv's on either side, pool tables, dart boards, a few video games and a rack of snacks and soda.  "This stuff in here, is yours to use as you like.  Ours too, because just down that hall," Thunder says, pointing down a carpetted hallway, are rooms reserved for EPIC members.  Some are in use, some are only used while we're working since most of us have families we spend time with outside of this place.  Now, ladies follow Empath, guys come with me.  Your dorms are not co-ed," he adds with a grin at some dissapointed looks.

You each have your own room that is completely furnished.  Your rooms contain a complete bathroom, bedroom and living room.  Each room is tailored to your particular needs.  Michelle's room has furniture made primarily of metal backing; Rebound's room has virtually no breakable items.  You do notice some things distinctly missing.  There is no television, no computer and no phone.  It seems you are intended to use the common room for such things.  You have several openable windows with blinds and curtains.  There is a stereo system in the living room and a smaller one in the bedroom.  In the closet are school uniforms, made to fit you.

The lads uniforms are comfortable dark blue pants with white cotton shirts with collars.  There are ties, socks and shoes in the closet as well, along with swimwear and gym clothes.  The girls get dark blue pleated skirts that come down below the knees, high socks, white blouses that do up to the neck.  Similarly, you find swimwear (one piece) and gym clothes in the closet, along with comfortable shoes.  The clothing is surprisingly stylish, especially given the fact that it is, well, school uniforms.

After a few minutes exploring your surroundings, that bed is starting to look mighty good and you can finally get a much deserved rest.


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## Velmont (Jan 19, 2004)

As soon as the tour finish, Kevin enters his room and goes to bed.


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## Elementor (Jan 20, 2004)

"Well, I dont know about you folks but I have a serious case of starvation happening.  I cant wait to see what kind of grub they can make here.  Since I cant just run down to Mickey D's for a snack I hope it is top notch."  Vince starst to head for the Cafeteria alone but will welcome any company that wishes to join him.


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## Deva (Jan 20, 2004)

Calinon said:
			
		

> You each have your own room that is completely furnished.  Your rooms contain a complete bathroom, bedroom and living room.  Each room is tailored to your particular needs.  Michelle's room has furniture made primarily of metal backing; Rebound's room has virtually no breakable items.  You do notice some things distinctly missing.  There is no television, no computer and no phone.  It seems you are intended to use the common room for such things.  You have several openable windows with blinds and curtains.  There is a stereo system in the living room and a smaller one in the bedroom.  In the closet are school uniforms, made to fit you.




Inside her room, Raisa closes the door and welcomes the privacy. She tosses her backpack onto the bed and strips her stained sweater off as she walks into the bathroom. She runs some cold water in the sink to soak the garment over night before taking a look in the closet at her uniforms. "Well, they could be worse I suppose."

She opens what windows she can, letting the cool night air into her room, and switches on the radio. After finding a latin music station she turns the volume down so it's not heard beyond the room and shuts off the lights. Flopping onto the surprisingly large and comfortable bed she soon drifts off to sleep, her dreams filled with giant indestructable robots.


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## buzzard (Jan 20, 2004)

John will find his room and start unpacking some of his stuff. Looking at the athletic gear he wonders to himself how much it will stretch. 

After a short while he manages to hit the sack. 

buzzard


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## Mimic (Jan 20, 2004)

Michelle pretty much ignores everything else in her room, she falls into bed and quickly falls asleep.


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## Calinon (Jan 20, 2004)

With nearly all the students immediately asleep in their beds, the halls are eerily quiet as Vincent exits his room to go for some food. Ever step seems to echo, but it's mostly imaginated, thanks to being pretty much alone in a new place. It's not a long walk though, and after a few minutes he comes to a set of glass double doors with some stairs up beyond them. Vince climbs up the stairs and enters the cafeteria and what is likely EPIC HQ.

The cafeteria is very nice, far from a school cafeteria and more like a restaurant. Tables are neatly arranged on the floor, and the counter area has both pre-prepared foods and deserts, along with a place to order food from the chef who is currently watching soccer on a tv in the kitchen. There is a large television in the room as well. Across from where you enter there is another set of glass doors leading into a hallway. A short hall to your left appears to be where the washrooms are. Another hall extends to the right from the middle of the wall, and leads to a pair of dark coloured wooden doors. Tara, the insectoid girl, stands at the counter ordering something. Without turning around she seems to have seen you and waves.

After the two of you get your food and sit down, the room is very quiet. Only the quiet sounds of the chef's tv is heard beyond your idle conversation. Tara is obviously overtired and doesn't say much. As you eat, you hear sounds of an argument from beyond the dark coloured wooden doors. You notice they are somewhat open. Curiosity drags you both forward and you catch a conversation in mid progress.

"... a break! You're tellin' me you don't think it's MERC, even though it's their stuff!?" shouts a woman in a heavy british accent. A moment later, Nova can be seen pacing past the door.

"I'm saying this is not Ace's style. It was obviously a collection job; his people wouldn't go around shooting a bunch of _kids_ no matter what," argues Empath. "The guy..."

"Is barely better than an animal, amigo."

Vincent and Tara both peer in the door. You see what must be EPIC's war room. A huge stone table sits in the middle with comfortable chairs around it. A communication screen stands in the corner. Thunder, Nova, Titan, Empath and Sanchez are all in the room. The screen is active and you see Kodiak's face on it.

"I must agree with Titan. I, for one, recognized Everest," Kodiak says in a low voice, thick with russian accent. "MERC had its hand in this."

The screen splits and Sandstorm appears on it beside Kodiak, from another transmission.

"Sandstorm reporting in, Thunder."

"Thank god. Where have you been? We've been trying to contact you for hours," says Empath.

"Sorry Angel, I've been busy. Whoever attacked the other bases was busy here too."

"It seems to have been MERC," Thunder says, sounding somewhat unconvinced.

"I have no idea who these guys were, but they were vicious. I can guarantee they weren't part of MERC unless they're into assassinations now. We have probably fifteen dead on our hands here, not including collateral damage," he adds quietly.

"We better find Ace anyway," Thunder says after a brief silence. "If he's involved, we need information from him and if not, he may have an idea who is behind it."

"He's not going to just cough up the information," Sanchez says.

"He's gonna talk or he's gonna burn, baby," Nova says, flame radiating out from her.

"For once," Thunder says, "I completely agree with Nova."

Vincent and Tara quickly return to their seats to avoid detection.

*Elsewhere*
The fire still crackles in the darkened room. The man, still cloaked in shadows, sits before it, wine goblet empty. The clicking of shoes and boots on the tile echoes through the room as the butler, Xavier, and another man enter.

Xavier stops well back, forcing the other man to stop as well. "Sir. Mister Split is here with your package from North America."

The shadowed man smoothly stands, shadows flowing about him, concealing his face and even his feet, making him appear to float across the ground. He flows over to a nearby table without looking at either man. "You have what I paid you for?" he asks in that oddly strong voice.

"Of course. MERC always gets the job done, right?" he says with a bit of a grin.

"Of course," the shadowed man replies with a hint of a chuckle. "The case?"

Split comes forward, and copies of him seperate from him as he walks. One of them has a case in its hand when it appears. All the copies walk to the table. The case is set down and opened revealing a few series of vials and a large pool of drying and congealing blood in the center.

"I thought you said you did the job?"

"I did. The mutant you are seeking is on the train. And whichever of them it is, it isn't one of those," he says, pointing to labelled vials. The shadowed man says nothing, turning his shadowed face to glare at Split. "Hey, you hired me to find out if the mutant you are after was going to EPIC, and I found out. Job done."

"It will have to do. Anything else to report?"

"Yeah, some kid took over the medical robot you gave me to use. Directive 12 override or some crap. Talk about turning the tables." The butler gasps slightly. "Oh, and the metal headed kid didn't get sampled."

"Truly? Directive 12," the man ponders. "This has turned out better than expected. I am surprised though, that I did not forsee this. Well done Split. Well done indeed. You may go."

"And my money?"

"Already in your account. It was there before you began your assault." Split looks a bit surprised. "I may call on your services again."

"Don't expect me to assault EPIC headquarters for you," Split calls out as he leaves the room. The butler remains behind. As he leaves, the shadowed man continues examining the vials. The wall ripples and a man apparently made entirely of stone steps from it.

"Watch him. Kill him if necessary." The man of stone says nothing and starts melding with the wall, a grin on his rocky face. "If necessary," the shadowed man emphasises again.

"Directive 12. Very interesting, wouldn't you say," the shadowed man says, adressing the butler.

The butler says nothing in response.

"You may leave me," the man says, and the butler turns and walks away.

"One of you children hold the key. But how to find out which one," the man says as he sits down infront of the fire again, steepling his hands and staring into the flames.

_End of Issue 1_
_Link to Issue 2_


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