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slydingdoor
Oct 26, 2010

Are you in or are you out?
Issue #1



Spotlights dance across the clouds above Halcyon City on a warm, spring evening. There's a big game going on at the Ember Center, named after the telecom company, and the score is tied. One side scores, then fireworks join the replace the stars hidden behind the clouds. When they pop and hiss, the windows of a prism-shaped building on the skyline flicker and go dark.

Atop that building, the keypad on the door to the roof turns from red to green, then it opens to reveal a tall white girl with cybernetic enhancements holding a black metal attache case and speaking into an earpiece–Mastermind. A helicopter descends without the aid of landing lights, and White, a pale Indian man in a suit and vest steps out of it, applauding. He courteously extends an arm into the escape vessel, palm up and bidding her to take her seat, and suddenly the suitcase leaps out of Mastermind's hand and flies into it. As the helicopter door closes she reaches at the cockpit and green beams of light fire from her fingertips pass through the cockpit window and crawl across the instrument panel. The pilot doesn't move, he just flickers with static and vanishes–a psychic illusion. With a bewildered look the lights go out and she murmurs, "It's completely mechanical...!"

Then come the alarms. Mastermind steps over the edge of the building and slides down its side, leaving a trail of five glowing green lines reminiscent of a circuit board. Every floor she passes the lights turn back on. On the streets below the building streamlined electric cars have shut off completely, with some drivers futilely and repeatedly pushing the start buttons, and others scrambling for futuristic storm cellars. A latin man in flannel steps out of a retro pickup truck, gas engine cut with a turn of a key, opens a modern sportscar's door and hauls out a white man, pointing him to safety. Mastermind hits the ground and he hustles after the white man, holding his cowboy hat atop his head to keep it from flying off.

The cybernetic woman waves a hand and all the cars turn on and part ways for her, forming a path to the sportscar, which beeps twice and turns on. She steps toward it but is interrupted–

A hero is on the scene!

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Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....

Freak +3 | Danger +2 | Savior +0 | Superior -1 | Mundane -1
Potential 0/5 | Conditions: - | Location: A street downtown

"Tsk tsk."

A slightly chiding, girly tongue smacking cuts through the air as a bluish, ethereal glow illuminates the dark street. This, in turn, was due to Styx floating straight through the street in her ghostly form and cutting off Mastermind, eliciting a number of screams from passing civilians. She tried her very best to ignore them as she addressed the young villainess.

"Up to no good again I see, Mastermind", she quipped as an impenetrable black flame enveloped both her arms, "Don't you know this is a no parking zone?"

Styx smirked, "So that's at least a ticket. Might be more if you don't drop what you're doing and surrender right about now."

Theantero fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Apr 19, 2017

Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage



Freak: +1 | Danger: +2 | Savior: -1 | Superior: +2 | Mundane: -1
Potential: 0/5 | Conditions: N/A | Location: Downtown!

"I'd pay the fine, Mastermind. It'd be a crying shame for a beauty like this to get wrecked."

Raiken stepped out from behind the sports car, crimson lightning dancing across her body. The eerie red contrasted nicely with the blue glow that Styx was providing. She ran a finger across the ruby red paint as she walked around the front of the car, then leaned against the driver's side door.

She whistled appreciatively as the engine purred, "Nice choice for a getaway vehicle. Zero to sixty in, what, two seconds? Three?" A mocking smile crosses her face. "I don't think it'll be doing much of that in impound."

TheFireMagi
Nov 6, 2011

...She's behind me, isn't she?

Freak -1 | Danger -1 | Savior +2 | Superior +1 | Mundane +2
Potential 0/5 | Conditions: None! | Location: Somewhere Downtown

“Sheesh, you two. Talking ‘bout zero to sixty, we sure went from casual to full corny in no time.”

Kon mumbled and sighed under his breath as he watched the affair from a nearby alleyway, half impressed and half exasperated by just how terrible the team’s jokes were tonight. Not to say that he wasn’t fond of said terrible jokes, he made them all the time himself after all, but no parking zone and tickets? Really? Sheesh was right. Shaking his head, Kon moved forward and took cover behind a dull black SUV, finding it a better vantage point to watch the civilians. If they had any sense, they’d get outta here before things (probably) got messy. Plus, it was easier to keep an eye on Mastermind from here as well. That was always a bonus.

slydingdoor
Oct 26, 2010

Are you in or are you out?

Location: the street outside the Ember Company Headquarters.

The girl rolls her eyes at you all and recites her thoughts in a slightly autotuned voice, "White sets the alarms to be sounded and you show up like Pavlov's slobbering dogs..."

She closes her eyes and touches her temples, then the SUV Kon is hiding behind starts up with a roar and peels out, turning clockwise, hard. All of the electric cars save the candy red sportscar follow suit, while it darts over to Mastermind at speed. She has perfect confidence in her calculations, and no doubt it will skid to a stop in front of her, door open. She opens her eyes wide, drinks in the controlled chaos–every electric car on the street is doing tight spirals at top speed, threatening to run you all over, chasing you and herding you while perfectly staying out of one another's way.

She calls out to you somewhat tentatively, "This must really grind your gears...?"

slydingdoor fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Apr 20, 2017

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....

Freak +3 | Danger +2 | Savior +0 | Superior -1 | Mundane -1
Potential 0/5 | Conditions: - | Location: A street downtown

"Heh, you're getting better at making bad jokes", Styx remarked as she floated a bit higher (not that the cars would hurt her in the ethereal form she had taken, but she didn't want them to be afraid of hitting her), closed an eyelid (not that she had actual eyes), stuck out her tongue, pointed an arm towards the red sports car and let out a bolt of utter blackness that struck straight through the engine, instantly liquefying it into viscous black slag.

"Your 'genius plans' could still use some work though haha", Styx smiled, "Or don't tell me, was your getaway getting smashed your plan all along?"

Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage



Freak: +1 | Danger: +2 | Savior: -1 | Superior: +2 | Mundane: -1
Potential: 0/5 | Conditions: N/A | Location: Downtown!

As the sports car peeled out, Raiken stumbled backward as her support suddenly disappeared. She almost fell unceremoniously onto her back, but caught herself at an impossible looking thirty-five-degree angle and straightened herself with uncanny ease.

Two of Mastermind's car puppets charged towards her from opposite directions, their programming seeing a chance to strike, but Raiken was ready for them. As the first one closed in, she extended a hand outward. The roar of the engine choked into a muffled whine as the car skidded to a sudden halt. Not even bothering to look at the second, she held it back with her other hand. The two cars struggled for a few moments longer, then their engines gave out with an awful grinding sound and twin curls of smoke.

Blowing a bit of hair out of her face, Raiken focused in on Mastermind. Her tactical computer ran a full spectral analysis and came up with no less than thirteen highly lethal methods of disposing of the villainess. Most of them focused on dealing traumatic damage to her augmented head. Raiken wasn't surprised. Brainiacs always did hate it when you roughed up their money-maker.

Mocking grin still in full force, she called out, "I think the only gears getting ground are these motors, Mastermind! Now are you gonna come quietly..." She cocked an eyebrow. "Or are we doing this the hard way?"

Assess posted:

Raiken (Tricky) - Today at 6:23 PM
/r 2d6+2
SidekickBOT - Today at 6:23 PM
@Raiken (Tricky): 2d6+2 = (3+3)+2 = 8

How can we end this quickly? - "Mastermind doesn't like getting hit in the head, she'll probably surrender to protect her cybernetically enhanced brain."

Tricky fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Apr 20, 2017

TheFireMagi
Nov 6, 2011

...She's behind me, isn't she?

Freak -1 | Danger -1 | Savior +2 | Superior +1 | Mundane +2
Potential 1/5 | Conditions: None! | Location: Outside the Ember Company HQ

“Whoa there!”

More surprised than perhaps he should’ve been considering who they were up against, Kon couldn’t help but shout as the SUV he was using as cover started going berserk. No, not just the SUV, but all the cars in the street. Wait a second, Kon thought, wasn’t this kind of a real bad situation to be in? Styx had her necro powers, and Raiken was being Raiken, but he was just, well, him. The heck was he supposed to do here? If there was nowhere to hide, all Kon really had was his acrobatics and mobility… Wait. Acrobatics?

“...Hah! This supposed to scare us, Mastermind? C’mon now, you can do better than-”

quote:

Unleashing to use acrobatics and dodge the cars and get up onto high ground!
SidekickBOT - Today at 10:46 PM @Kon (TheFireMagi): 2d6-1 = (1+1)-1 = 1
...Oh. Well, marking Potential at least.

The boy’s laughter cuts off mid-breath as he’s suddenly launched into the air. Had he misstepped…? No, it was from the car he stepped on having suddenly braked. Dazed, Kon recovers just in time to see the SUV coming towards him, then another car, and another...

quote:

Slydingdoor- Today at 10:54 PM
While you walk up the front of one of a sedan it hits the brakes and sends you somersaulting right into the path of that SUV. Its brights turn on, dazzling you, but then it stops just short. Three more cars hedge you in, then they all start peeling out with front wheels locked. If those front brakes are disengaged you're going to be a Kon sandwich.

"The one without powers is at my mercy. Let me go."

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....

Freak +3 | Danger +2 | Savior +0 | Superior -1 | Mundane -1
Potential 1/5 | Conditions: - | Location: A street downtown

Styx stared. Mastermind was a villain, of course, and this sort of thing was entirely expected, but she still couldn't help but snarl. "Taking hostages huh. Not cool", her eyes widened and her claws and hair elongated, "Not cool at all", her entire form seemed to wither, pruning against her bones as her jaw dislocated, and a veritable flood of nether energies emerged, slithering across the road like a billowing cloud and completely covering the cars surrounding Kon. They would become mere wrecks, jagged slimy carcasses of corroded metal, knew Styx.

She just hoped that poor Kon didn't get any on himself...

Roll posted:

Here goes, Styx Defends Kon with some more nether energy action, +1 for Influence
/r 2d6+1
SidekickBOT - @Styx (Theantero): 2d6+1 = (2+1)+1 = 4
...Yay for Potential at least.

GM ruling posted:

Slydingdoor - oh cool, it works but Kon takes a powerful blow

Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage



Freak: +1 | Danger: +2 | Savior: -1 | Superior: +2 | Mundane: -1
Potential: 0/5 | Conditions: N/A | Location: Downtown!

Still focused entirely on their foe, Raiken didn't see much of what was occurring with Styx and Kon. She retrieved a pair of high-tech pistols from her thigh holsters and leveled them at Mastermind. Bolts of crimson lightning shot forward from the twin barrels and blew smoking holes in the asphalt beneath Mastermind's feet.

Raiken's eyes hardened, "That was a warning shot. The next one is going to fry that circuit-board you're so proud of, Mastermind. You really want to push your luck?"

Mastermind grinned, "Are you sure that your targeting computer is calibrated? It looks like you just missed to me!" The noise from the cars around Kon melting drew her attention and her confidence melted away. "I miscalculated...!" She started to back away and Raiken, true to her word, began launching a barrage of shots at her. The shuffle backwards turned into a full retreat as she adeptly dodged each shot with incredible precision. As the smell of ozone filled the air, she reached the safety of the building behind her. Thick steel doors dropped down the moment she crossed the threshold. The windows followed suit and soon the office building seemed more a brutalist fortress than a beacon of business.

TheFireMagi
Nov 6, 2011

...She's behind me, isn't she?

Freak -1 | Danger -1 | Savior +2 | Superior +1 | Mundane +2
Potential 1/5 | Conditions: Angry, Insecure | Location: Outside the Ember Company HQ

Held hostage by the horde of remote controlled cars, Kon laid there in the street on his back, unsure which movements were safe and and which were not. How stupid of him to try a stunt like that, he thought. Sure, it would’ve been super awesome if he had actually pulled it off, but that was a big ol’ if. No point in complaining now though. All he could do was wait and see if his team could get him out, or if there was an opportunity to escape.

And there it was! Kon still didn’t exactly understand how Styx’s powers worked, but he watched as her nether form swarmed over the cars, corroding them down before his eyes. Then, a number of their headlights exploded outwards, shards of glass heading right for said eyes. Covering his face with a surprised, “Ah, shi- shoot!” Kon dove out of the way as the melted down remains of the cars sped forward. Fortunately they had slowed down enough that Kon just managed to avoid them, but his left sleeve had still dissolved from a far too close for comfort miss.

“Ow, ow, ow, sunnva- Styx, I appreciate the rescue, but how about actually shooting Mastermind next time instead of your teammates! We’re supposed to be saving lives here, not taking down friendlies. I mean, the heck do you think would’ve happened if it was a civie instead of me there? They would’ve been like a smashed up pile of goo right about now! Sheesh...”

Of course, even as Kon shouted at her, he did realize that maaaaybe it was his fault for trying to kick off a windshield in the first place. But, c’mon! It would’ve been so cool! Even Mastermind would’ve (probably) been impressed! He still felt like an idiot for being caught as a hostage, but it wasn’t entirely his fault. Just… mostly.

quote:

Taking a powerful blow!
SidekickBOT-Today at 11:05 PM @Kon (TheFireMagi): 2d6 = (5+5) = 10
Well, this is going well. Marking Angry and Insecure and Provoking Styx to chase after Mastermind without waiting for us, and actually shoot the right person!
SidekickBOT-Today at 3:27 PM @Kon (TheFireMagi): 2d6+2 = (5+4)+2 = 11
Add Team if Styx chases after Mastermind, take a condition if she doesn’t.

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....

Freak +3 | Danger +2 | Savior +0 | Superior -1 | Mundane -1
Potential 1/5 | Conditions: - | Location: A street downtown

All Styx could do was lift her hands to her mouth as as she stared at the aftermath of her powers with wide eyes. She could do little except feel excess rivulets of black goop seep from her eyes and roll over her cheeks as the reality of the situation set in along with Kon's words. Yes indeed, what if it had been a civilian? Certainly in that situation she would have realized the danger and done something else...? Wouldn't she? She was not that reckless was she?

...

"I..." she reached a hand towards Kon, stopped, brought it back to her side before reaching again, hesitating, "I'm sorry, I, didn't mean...", mas was this pathetic. Kon was right. She had to fix this right away. She was powerful enough with such powers that Mastermind could most likely do nothing against her. Yeah that girl was a chump.

"...Yes, you're right I'll go end this right now, I, you just stay right here okay? See to it any civilians didn't get hurt or or or, well do something you know I'll fix this I will!"

And with that, Styx beelined towards the fortress. At least her tears weren't in any way distinguishable from her usual seepage. Talk about silver linings, huh?

Haha...

GM sez posted:

Styx, It's pitch black inside the building except for the red lights of security cameras. You tingle as the light cosmic rays they emit pass through you–the kinds that big companies need to detect immaterial beings like you. The feeling gets twice as uncomfortable, then three times. She's making every camera in the building point at you, and is overloading them!

Styx burned. She was not used to pain, one of the few perks that being dead had granted to her. Well, it wasn't as if that was totally unknown to her either of course, as that one fight with Wolfsbane had proven, but it was unusual. And were circumstances more normal, she might've screamed. Cried her poor fortune, perhaps, it wasn't as if Lydia had ever been a particularly tough sort of girl, who could just shrug off a thousand searing needles stabbed through her entire body. Thankfully, Styx was currently in far too much emotional turmoil, self-doubt and determination to prove herself, that her mind simple had very little room for any extra sensations.

Only a single thought dominated her mind. She had to find Mastermind. And she had to subdue her. No pain, no anything would stand in her way right now. Hell, if Mastermind made her scream, that would just increase her power further.

Thankfully, that never became relevant.

Mastermind's voice comes over the intercom, "I don't want to hurt you. Just let me go and–"

And with that, the cameras, the beamcasters, they all stopped. Was that her friends? Styx didn't know. All she knew, as she concentrated on her aptitudes, was the dull throb of Mastermind's soul, one that she could faintly feel, faintly see through the veil...

quote:

Styx, take a looksie for Mastermind with your powers! Unleash!
/r 2d6+3
SidekickBOT - @Styx (Theantero): 2d6+3 = (5+5)+3 = 13

GM sex posted:

you see Mastermind's soul sitting cross legged on the ground behind some walls. She's on the same floor as you. When the lights go out she stands up and slams something that must have been in her hand onto the wall she was facing.

"You", Styx snarled as she bared her teeth, "I've got you now."

Theantero fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Apr 20, 2017

Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage



Freak: +1 | Danger: +2 | Savior: -1 | Superior: +2 | Mundane: -1
Potential: 1/5 | Conditions: N/A | Location: Downtown!

Raiken looked at the steel wall with a critical eye. This was Mastermind's gambit? She was usually a little better prepared than that. This wasn't about to stand up to her strength, let alone her ghostly companion. As soon as Raiken thought of the undead girl, Styx rushed through the steel barrier with little more than a faint hint of a sniffle. Was she...? What had happened? Raiken shook her head, cracked her knuckles, and stepped up to the wall. She could see the current rippling underneath the steel, but it wasn't about to stop her. Especially not if Styx was in trouble.

Unleash posted:

SidekickBOT - Today at 11:49 AM
@Raiken (Tricky): 2d6+1 Unleashing Raiken's powers! = (6+3)+1 = 10

Raiken easily shoved her hands through the reinforced steel plating and began to peel it apart as easily as one might peel an orange. The steel sparked and sent arcs of electricity playing across her skin, but Raiken paid that no attention. As soon as electricity burned a patch of skin and revealed the chrome beneath, it would rapidly knit back together. After a moment, she had a large enough hole opened up to jump through.

The interior was dark, but that posed little trouble to her enhanceements. Her HUD swapped to night-vision and highlighted a strange particle flow that was converging on... Styx! It looked like she was in pain! Raiken looked around. There were particles flowing from all over the building. This wasn't going to be pretty. If she wanted to stop them all, it was going to take some extreme measures. Red lightning began to crackle around her fists. If she could just find the nearest power hub... A quick moment later, a thick bundle of wires was highlighted by her tactical display. Not stopping to think of the consequences, she slammed both fists through the wall and began to send all the energy she could produce straight into the building's wiring!

GM posted:

The building has a capacitor that stores all the energy anyone would use to overload its grid, then unleashes it as backlash once it pinpoints the source, ie Raiken. They call it a Superstunner. The superstunner also magnetizes to lock the external threat to its point of contact. Raiken's got wires all magnetically grabbing her, and you can hear an electric whine rising in pitch: the superstunner charging up.

As wires whipped out and began to grapple her, Raiken loudly growled, "Mastermind...! You're gonna pay for trying to hurt Styx! Nobody..." The red lightning began to weaken a bit as the capacitor tried to suck her dry. "...messes with my friends!"

Defend posted:

SidekickBOT - Today at 12:14 PM
@Raiken (Tricky): 2d6+3 Raiken defends her love! (+Danger, +1 love) = (2+1)+3 = 6

When Kon teams it, choosing to take Influence over Styx and expose Raiken to danger from the Superstunner.

Tricky fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Apr 20, 2017

TheFireMagi
Nov 6, 2011

...She's behind me, isn't she?

Freak -1 | Danger -1 | Savior +2 | Superior +1 | Mundane +2
Potential 1/5 | Conditions: Angry, Insecure | Location: Chasing after the Team!

Oh, great, and now Styx was running in by herself! All right, so maaybe that was ‘cause he pushed and prodded her more than he should have, but… yeah, no, there really wasn’t any excuses he could make here. He had snapped without thinking, though to be fair he had totally just scraped by, if not death, then at least a very nasty trip to the hospital. Still, while the hints of frustration remained, Kon felt a pang of sympathy arise as well. It wasn’t as if Styx had ill intentions, after all. She was just a little careless, that was all.

“Why the heck do I gotta feel like the bad guy here? I’m the one who almost got smooshed.”

Grumbling half-heartedly as he adjusted his mask, Kon hurried through the hole in the wall that Raiken had made. Be nice to have strength like that, he thought while hopping in. Or maybe not, considering what she went through to get it. Noticing that the whole building was pitch black, because of course it was, Kon fumbled through his backpack for the flashlight he tended to carry on him. Styx and Raiken might’ve had their ways to see in the dark, but he had to rely on more mundane means.

“Oi, Styx, Raiken, where the heck are you two?”

Glancing around, it was only now that Kon realized his teammates were nowhere to be seen. Well, it was business as usual for them to lead the charge, but Kon was worried nonetheless. If Styx had fallen into some sort of trap because of his thoughtless words… no, no, surely she could handle herself, right? Around then was the time he noticed the familiar sparks of red emerging from closeby. Running over, Kon started to say,

“Oh, there you are-”

-before he spotted the wires wrapped around Raiken’s body. To say that Kon was somewhat confused would’ve been an understatement. Why, exactly, was she putting more holes into the wall? And why was she sending energy through the wires that were attempting to restrain her? Both were questions he would have liked answers to before acting, but it seemed there was no time to ask because apparently… this had something to do with Styx being hurt. Without thinking, Kon began to shout,

“You serious right now? Is this sad lil’ lightshow of yours really the best your souped-up mecha self can do? No way the badass Raiken I know would let herself be seen outputting sparks that hurt less than some static shock. If you’re the only one who can do something to help Styx, then how about actually doing something!”

In the back of his mind, all Kon could think was “Man, here’s hoping she doesn’t smack me for this later.”

OOC: Spending 1 Team to pep talk/goad Raiken and giving her +1 to go FULL POWER.

TheFireMagi fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Apr 21, 2017

Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage



Freak: +1 | Danger: +2 | Savior: -1 | Superior: +2 | Mundane: -1
Potential: 2/5 | Conditions: N/A | Location: Brutalist Fortress!

For a moment, the flickering lightning around Raiken died completely. Then Kon's words hit her. Her teeth audibly ground together, a shower of sparks issuing forth from her mouth. She bit out, "What-" The electricity flared back to life, more potent than before. "-do you-" Red lines began to snake up through the walls. "-THINK-" The energy surged through the wiring, tripping breakers across the building. The cameras died and the particle streams bombarding Styx fell silent. "-I'M DOING!"

Raiken panted for a second, torn between anger and a dawning realization that she had probably been needled for that very reason, when a high pitched hum started emitting from the hole in the wall. She looked at it in confusion, realizing that she was stuck to the wiring, then began to struggle against the magnetic pull. Kon managed to cut through a few of the exposed wires, but he couldn't get them all. The hum fell silent, then all the energy she had sent rampaging through the building's wiring thundered back into her body with a sudden crack.

Crimson lightning danced over her body for a few moments, Raiken twitching a bit under the onslaught, then she laughed as it faded. "Is that it? That's your play, Mastermind? It's gonna take more than a little voltage to take me out."

Take a Powerful Blow posted:

SidekickBOT - Today at 4:21 PM
@Raiken (Tricky): 2d6 Powerful Blow = (1+3) = 4

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....

Freak +3 | Danger +2 | Savior +0 | Superior -1 | Mundane -1
Potential 2/5 | Conditions: Angry | Location: Elevator Shaft

Somewhere, on the back of her mind, Styx heard Raiken, and a glimpse she caught of her in a flicker of light from the street showed the girl hanging on to severed wires for dear life. And in that moment she realized who it was that took away the casters, who it had to be. Raiken, who was gnashing her teeth and enduring all the pain the fortress could throw at her, just so that she would not have. Raiken was suffering in her stead. That someone would do something like that, for someone like her..? It strung a chord, very deep down. For even though they had gotten along, even though they joked and talked, there had always been a part of Styx that thought Raiken had just been polite. Accepting of her to not seem cruel, but deep down... maybe not disgusted, but weirded out and uncomfortable around her. Well, maybe she still was, that was genuinely not something Styx could blame anyone for. But the fact remained, that you did not do something like this for people that you didn't truly care about. And so, with that, the flickering flame of doubt that had been there evaporated.

Raiken had done all this for her. And Styx was not the sort to not pay that back in kind. She would trap Mastermind. She would not have Raiken suffer in vain.

And with that, Styx hooked into the elevator shaft, where Mastermind was making her way up. Apparently she had hooked some outside power source into the elevator chassis to supercharge it, and was now speeding upwards. Styx snarled. She was faster. And she was going to make this girl pay for what she had almost done to her friends.

Well, technically she had been a pretty big part of that herself. Thankfully having an outside force to blame so furiously kept all that pesky self-doubt well buried in the furthest reaches of her mind. Currently, there was room for nothing but herself, Mastermind, and a just reckoning that was fast coming.

So Styx sped up, wailing her frustration as she tapped into the deep reservoirs of her power to speed up after the elevator, the energies transforming her further, leaving her but an emaciated frame of skin and bone, with elongated claws and teeth and hair. Indeed, she was an almost picture perfect image of a terrifying ghost straight out of survival horror as she screamed and approached the elevator from below, the only illumination present from her ghostly form, leaving but scattered, blurry, ever approaching images of herself on Mastermind's night vision and x-ray cameras. There was little she could do to avoid Styx from gaining ground, but measures had to be taken.

And thus, Styx slammed into the carriage. Not through it, like she had anticipated. Some sort of electric web now constrained her, a final, improvised defensive measure, it seemed. No matter. The elevator could not run without power. And the longer she kept it in place, the longer her friends could take to arrive and finish this...

quote:

Styx Directly Engages Mastermind in a ultra terrifying elevator shaft chase straight outta survival horror (proccing Not human enough, taking Angry)
/r 2d6+2
SidekickBOT - @Styx (Theantero): 2d6+2 = (2+1)+2 = 5
Due to the move I procced, I still get to choose one option, and I choose to 'take away Mastermind's ability to escape, for now'.
I also mark Potential.

Theantero fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Apr 21, 2017

slydingdoor
Oct 26, 2010

Are you in or are you out?

Location: Ember Company Headquarters, elevator, floor 44.

Mastermind instantly recognizes she's stuck in this box and lies down the recovery position, looking down on you, unblinking. Her voice comes over the PA, but her lips don't move. She's somehow transmitting her signal past the electric web, but it's rendered her temporarily comatose.

"I was in control. Everything was completely safe. I never wanted to injure you or Kon. Why? Because I'm just Jennifer Tyner, like you're Lydia Bristow. Your soul got lost and returned to you broken. So did my brain. But if you found something that could make you whole, you'd take it, right? I did... but White stole it from me. I can't find him from prison, I can't catch him... Please: help me. No one has to know, I can find him from the holding cell in your headquarters. I'll lead you to him, you can beat him, I'll fix myself, then I'll do everything I can to fix you. Raiken too."

Tears stream down the side of her face onto the floor of the elevator. The cage turns off and she rises to a sitting position.

"I surrender... 0% chance of escape."

She takes Influence over you and Take a Powerful Blow.

slydingdoor fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Apr 26, 2017

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....

Freak +3 | Danger +2 | Savior +0 | Superior -1 | Mundane -1
Potential 2/5 | Conditions: Angry | Location: Ember Company Headquarters, corridor, floor 44.

Styx blinked as she listened to Mastermind's appeals (not that she really had a choice, since currently she was much more in the 'beat in faces' than the 'listen and sympathize with villains' mood), her seething rage subsiding ever so slightly into more of a dull, throbbing anger as the girl spoke. She... couldn't have been telling the truth. Could she..? Hell, her actual moniker was Mastermind, and she excelled at taking expert advantage of even the slightest opportunity or weakness. She was a super genius, after all.

...

But there was just something... really heartfelt in those words you know? Something that tugged at your heartstrings? Sure, the logical, smart part of her said that there was like, a 95% chance she was just lying to take advantage of her heroic good will. But she would not succumb to that sort of thought, she would not become a cynic.There was no evidence that she was lying, and there was no real history between them of her doing such thing. What sort of hero would she be if she wasn't capable of giving just one chance to someone? Even someone who didn't seem deserving?

"You're, like", Styx stated as she floated through the elevator floor, her more monstrous characteristics gradually, slowly fading as her power usage had lessened, "the least trustworthy person on the planet. Well, the city. The city block, at the very least."

"...But you know what? I feel compelled to give you a chance, at least, even if you're not really deserving of that. Which I'm sure you were counting on anyway, but I can't really let that get in the way, which is another thing I'm sure you realized. Guess it's just one of those Catch 22 of heroism type situations huh? Now, hands behind your back, I'm going to cuff you for now", and she did, "Let's move."

And so, the two exited the elevator. Only to be confronted by Raiken and Kon, who crashed out of the stairwell.

"Uhh, hi", stated Styx, somewhat self-conscious of her still somewhat extra-monstrous appearance and thus avoiding eye-contact, "I got her, so you can relax a bit."

"Also, uh... turns out she's got a sob story and all. About how some guy named White messed with her attempts to fix herself, and if she is in jail she can't find him. And really, all that she wants is to find him to fix herself. Also promised to help me, and you too" Styx nodded towards Raiken, "if we help her out."

"And, look, I know that's probably all lies, especially that latter part, so I wouldn't get any hopes up. I mean it's Mastermind right? But still, we're heroes, aren't we? Like, the only thing we really caught her doing was escaping, and it's not like she has a history of lying to us or anything..."

"So I was thinking that we're heroes, right? Shouldn't we give her at least one chance, even if just that singular one?" Styx smiled ever so slightly, "Even if just so that we can feel all morally superior after her sudden but inevitable betrayal? Hah..."

quote:

Styx, take a Powerful Blow!
/r 2d6+1
SidekickBOT - @Styx (Theantero): 2d6+1 = (5+2)+1 = 8
I choose to Provoke Raiken into foolhardy action, mainly (sort of) taking Mastermind at her word and giving her a chance

quote:

Styx Provokes Raiken to give Mastermind a chance (+1 from Influence)
/r 2d6
SidekickBOT - @Styx (Theantero): 2d6 = (4+5) = 9
Right, Raiken takes a Condition if she doesn't do this

Theantero fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Apr 21, 2017

Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage



Freak: +1 | Danger: +2 | Savior: -1 | Superior: +2 | Mundane: -1
Potential: 2/5 | Conditions: N/A | Location: Brutalist Fortress!

If there was one distinct advantage to come from the Superstunner's attempt to fry her, it was that Raiken was absolutely full to the brim with energy. She made that most evident as she charged up the stairs towards where she could vaguely see some action in the elevator forty-some-odd floors up thanks to the wide suite of sensors feeding into her vision. As she skidded out of the stairwell, she leveled both guns at Mastermind. Styx was looking extra rough, which wasn't helping Raiken's mood any. Her eyes flashed with anger and her guns began charging up.

Of course, Styx laid out some story about how it was all for a good cause and that Mastermind could totally fix them, maybe, and they should give her a chance. On the one hand, Raiken found it patently ridiculous. The Foundation had replaced almost all of her with machines and strange, alien organs. There wasn't exactly much left of her to fix. On the other hand, she was super smart. It wasn't unbelievable that she might be able to do something for Styx. At the least give her some super-gadget that would help her fit in better.

Her anger warred with Styx's plea for a few moments, then Raiken sighed and holstered her guns. "Fine, we'll do it your way. But Mastermind..." Raiken's eyes narrowed. "I'll be watching. If you ever do something to hurt Kon or Styx like that again, I will personally take you down. Hard."

Accepting the provoke.

TheFireMagi
Nov 6, 2011

...She's behind me, isn't she?

Freak -1 | Danger -1 | Savior +2 | Superior +1 | Mundane +2
Potential 1/5 | Conditions: Angry, Insecure | Location: Inside some building!

Before meeting up with Styx…

On the one hand, his attempt to prod and poke Raiken until she really gave it all worked. On the other hand, it had worked. Thankfully she seemed to realize it was intentional, so there was no retaliation to be found. Yet, anyways. There was always the possibility for it to happen later, which was something that Kon would have to watch out for. Before he could relax, however, the wires wrapped tighter around Raiken’s body, and a whining began to sound out. Panicked by the sudden situation, Kon acted on his first instinct: cut the wires!

...Which hardly worked as well as he would have hoped, though at least Raiken managed to shrug off the effects of whatever had just happened. Still, he couldn’t help but feel somewhat down from his failed assist. Seemed like yelling at his teammates was all he’d been good for on this mission. Shaking away his negative thoughts, Kon said to the laughing Raiken,

“Alright alright, ‘nuff screwing ‘round, let’s go find Styx, yeah?”

After meeting up with Styx…

And they had indeed managed to find not just her, but Mastermind as well, after an unexpected meeting out of the stairwell. Before Kon could react to the sudden sight, Raiken had already drawn her guns, prepared herself to fire. Then came… a request from Styx to help Mastermind out? Wait, what? Not that Kon minded the opportunity, because obviously it was their duty to try and aid even villains if they seemed sincere enough and Mastermind being both cool and cute had absolutely nothing to do with it, but really? He definitely didn’t see this coming at the start of this little encounter. Well, he thought, no reason not to seize this chance. Carpe diem or whatever.

“Relax, Raiken! Sure, she threw a few moving cars at us, but no real harm no foul, yeah? ‘Sides, like Styx here said, it’s our job as heroes to help those in need, even if those in need happen to be villains. ‘Course, that means I’m holding you to at least trying and helping out Raiken, you hear me Mastermind?”

Not that Kon knew whether or not she could actually do anything, but he figured with that big ol’ brain of hers, surely she could think of something? If she couldn’t, or didn’t, then… well, he’d worry about that later. For now, he had to deal with the police who would be arriving just about now, if he judged those sirens in the distance correctly. Giving his team a quick thumbs-up, Kon said,

“Right, guess someone should go say something to the cops so they don’t get on our tail, yeah? See ya guys back at the hideout. Try not to get caught!’

Despite the fact that he was doing something that he probaaably shouldn’t as a hero, there was a certain thrill to the whole situation that Kon just couldn’t resist. It wasn’t anything that wrong, really, compared to a lot of things. Besides, the police would totally just get themselves hurt chasing after a villain like Mastermind. Totally better this way, for everyone involved. Thinking that as he exited the building, Kon called out to the officers cautiously entering the scene,

“Oi, coppers! It’s cool, it’s cool, put down your guns or whatever. Rising hero Kon is here to tell ya that everything’s just fine! Guessing you’re here about the alarms? So are me and my team. See, a certain Mastermind tripped them while fleeing from us, but sadly she got away from us. Pretty clumsy, yeah? No worries though, ‘cause Styx and Raiken are in hot pursuit, so she’ll be caught in no time.”

quote:

Defending Mastermind and deceiving the cops!
SidekickBOT-Today at 3:51 PM
@Kon (TheFireMagi): 2d6 = (1+6) = 7
Taking Influence on Mastermind and escalating the situation!
Slydingdoor - Today at 3:53 PM - Okay, the cops say they'll help you put out a bulletin to be on the look out for Mastermind, send out the helicopters and such

“Oh, no, that- uh, sounds great! It’ll be a real help in catching our girl, no doubt about it. Thanks a ton…”

Eventually managing to break away from the police, Kon released a pent up and all too anxious breath as he watched them go. At least he should’ve bought enough time for the others to escape. Sending out a bulletin notice and helicopters wasn’t exactly the ideal result though. Nothing that he could do about it now, however. Hopefully, Mastermind would deal once she heard the news.

Finally, back at the hideout, some time later…

Kon fiddled with his mask, intending to remove it before he recalled that the team had an unusual guest tonight. Right, should probably keep the secret identity still a secret from the villainess, Kon thought, even if it’s Mastermind. Also assuming she didn’t know already, which would be bad. Very cool and appropriate for her, but bad. So mask remaining on, Kon found the others, saying when he did,

“Yo, everyone, hope the trip here wasn’t too difficult. Managed to keep the cops from hounding us, though uh, if we see some helicopters around here during the next few days… let’s just try to keep our heads low, yeah?”

slydingdoor
Oct 26, 2010

Are you in or are you out?

Location: Your HQ, Memoriam's old laboratory

You all watch Mastermind's wrist-mounted screen rapidly scrolling with images of security camera footage. Every so often one shows a private helicopter and is outlined in green, or shows you two escorting her to your hideout and is crossed out, DELETED.

"Good job. I found White descending from his helicopter at a junkyard on the outskirts of town, the last place one would expect someone in a fancy suit to be. What he stole was some a rapid 3D printing, self-replicating nanomachine hub–I was going to use it to reconstruct my body...

"I'm going with you. I just need some clothes to hide from the police. Kon, you hide your identity..."

She thanks you in private for trusting her and lying to the police, then takes one your spare masks, puts it on, and remarks that it smells like your face.

. . . .

Location: White's lair

You all crouch behind cover just outside the junkyard, and Mastermind shows you a dated timeline of satellite photos of it. Over the weeks it would shift slightly as junk came in and was sold or crushed or deconstructed, then five days ago it completely changed and stayed that way. "It must be a psionic illusion. I also have to warn you, not all of his gadgets are electronic. His means of escape from me on top of the Ember building was a completely mechanical helicopter with a dummy control panel. He was operating it completely by telekinesis." She holds her arm and looks down and aside, "There might even be nothing for me to hack in here... perhaps I should just stay back."

She's Insecure. If you can clear the condition she will help you in the fight and you all can choose for her to spend Team to aid any of you. What do you do?

slydingdoor fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Apr 26, 2017

Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage



Freak: +1 | Danger: +2 | Savior: -1 | Superior: +2 | Mundane: -1
Potential: 3/5 | Conditions: Guilty | Location: Back at the Base!

Back at the base...

Raiken looked at Styx, a hint of concern on her normally cool countenance, "Hey, uh, Styx. You okay? You were real quiet on the way back."

Styx posted:

A moment passed. Not a long one, but a fairly telling one in the respects of the whole ‘are you okay’ thing. Finally, Styx answered Raiken.

“Nah, I’m just, totally fine. I appreciate the concern though!”, she tried to keep her voice peppy, as always, but there was a slight tremble. And then there was another pause, as if she wanted to say something, but was not totally sure if she should, “I mean, what's there for me to feel bad about anyway, it’s not like I almost hurt Kon super bad and am now helping out the perp in some soft-hearted harebrained idiot plot of mine no is it?”, she finally said. Well, more like angrily spat.

Styx turned her head to the side, and then quickly continued, as if desperate to change the subject, “Hey… um, so anyways. I saw that thing you did for me back there. Thanks a whole bunch. It meant a lot to me. It really did…” she grabbed Raiken’s hand, and smiled, even if in an uncharacteristically strained manner, “And like, I owe you. I do. How about I treat you to some burgers later? Then we’ll be even, hehe.”

She let go of the hand, “Haha, just joking, of course.”

Raiken held onto Styx's hand. For a moment, she didn't say anything. Didn't trust herself to say anything. It wasn't as if she knew what had happened outside the building, after all, and that seemed a big part of why Styx was upset. Finally, shyly, she said, "I don't want to see you getting hurt. Kon, either, but you're..." The reason I feel like more than a weapon? The one person I feel like can truly understand me? "Important. Really important."

She looked away, took a deep breath, then looked back. "I don't think you're wrong to give her a shot, Styx. I... Well, if she can help you, that would be worth it. And Kon is fine. I mean, he still had enough energy to needle me, run up and down like eighty floors of stairs, and lie to the police. Don't worry too much about what could have been."

Comfort/Support posted:

SidekickBOT - Today at 8:11 AM
@Raiken (Tricky): 2d6+1 Comfort Styx (+1 love, +1 influence) = (2+2)+1 = 5

GM posted:

slydingdoor - Today at 8:11 AM
looks like the ball's in my court
take a condition

After the words sat out there for a few moments, Raiken looked away, sighed, and tugged her hand free. "I should have been there, anyways. Forget it. Let's just..." God, she felt awful. What kind of friend was she if she wasn't even there when Styx needed her? "...call it even. I need to run some calibrations on my gear. Let me know when Mastermind is ready."

Raiken marks Guilty.

Tricky fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Apr 22, 2017

TheFireMagi
Nov 6, 2011

...She's behind me, isn't she?

Freak -1 | Danger -1 | Savior +2 | Superior +1 | Mundane +2
Potential 1/5 | Conditions: Angry, Insecure | Location: At HQ

At the hideout…

As Mastermind asks for some way to disguise herself, Kon immediately fumbles for one of his spare fox masks (hey, you never know when one might get broken), saying,

“Oh, uh, yeah, I got somethin’ you can wear. Not exactly much, but it works for me, so-”

And then she claims it smells like him. Oh god. Is that good? Is that bad? What the heck does he even smell like right now? When was the last time he had showered- no, no, it was this morning. That was one potential embarrassment dodged, at least. Sweating bullets behind his own mask, Kon does his best to focus on what Mastermind is saying and has said. Much as he was totally crushing on the villainess, she was, well, still a villain. Surely, she must have had some sort of agenda besides the one she had told them (and was absolutely not an attempt to distract himself from his own thoughts).

quote:

Piercing Mastermind’s Mask!
SidekickBOT-Today at 1:18 PM @Kon (TheFireMagi): 2d6+1 = (1+6)+1 = 8
Asking “What are you really planning?”

slydingdoor-Today at 1:36 PM: You notice that Mastermind's autotuned voice has a creepy and more robotic undertone when she mentions "reconstructing her body." The girl's natural voice sounds hopeful and determined, but the other voice sounds hungry and impatient. Same when she remarks that your mask smells like your face. The former sounds wistful and spontaneous in a way that you like, the other, scornful aand disgusted. Mastermind isn't just Jennifer Tyner, and she's not lying, but Mastermind is also something else that wants to reconstruct its body, and you doubt she's aware of it.
Except, much to Kon’s innocent surprise, she actually did. Or did she? It was hard for him to tell exactly what was going on, especially with such limited info, but… it was almost as if there was some sort of second identity within Mastermind. Was he imagining it? Possibly, but also unlikely. While Kon may have lacked for superpowers, reading through people was a small but handy talent of his, even if his thoughts were somewhat scattered. Yet if he was correct, then… what? What was going on, and what should be done about it?
Kon couldn’t say, even after considering it for a while. This was something that needed to be discussed with the rest of the team, no doubt. But how to inform them without alarming Mastermind? Obviously, he couldn’t say anything outright, and he knew her powers well enough that trying to call or text Styx and Raiken would be a bad, bad idea. All he could do was keep this new information in the back of his mind, and hope that he’d find an opportunity to speak to them, before it was too late.

At White’s Lair…

Approaching the junkyard now, Kon still had yet to find a chance to meet with the others. Unfortunate, but there was nothing to be done, he supposed. For now, the best thing he could do was operate as normal. That was to say, it was time for a bit of scouting! Now this was something he was confident on. Sneaking into a villain’s lair… there was definitely something satisfying about that, no doubt. But before that, there was Mastermind to deal with. Not about the potential second identity thing, though that was important too, but rather just how put off she seemed. It was weird, seeing her act unsure of herself, almost defeated. Doubts aside, Kon didn’t like it. Not at all.

“What’s wrong, Mastermind? Ain’t you supposed to be the one in control of every situation with that big ol’ brain of yours? Seem to remember the fact that you were running circles ‘round all three of us by yourself not all that long ago. Heck, not just us, but plenty of other heroes too. You really gonna let the one setback make you question yourself? C’mon, I know you can do better than that.”

quote:

Comforting Mastermind!
SidekickBOT-Today at 4:29 PM: @Kon (TheFireMagi): 2d6+1 = (2+4)+1 = 7
Mastermind gets to clear a condition or shift labels, as usual.
slydingdoor-Today at 4:37 PM
Mastermind will definitely go "I understand. Clearly... you need all the help you can get."

“Heh. That’s more like it. All right, sappy business aside, how about I go ahead and scout out the place before we go charging in like usual, yeah?”

Giving the team plus Mastermind a casual thumb’s up, Kon sneaks forward, searching for a method of entry and preferably quick exit, as well as any unusual sights...

quote:

Rolling Straight. Up. Creepin’ to scope out White’s lair!
SidekickBOT-Today at 3:58 PM: @Kon (TheFireMagi): 2d6+2 = (6+4)+2 = 12
Asked “What’s my best way in/out?” and “Who or what here is not what they seem?”

Slydingdoor-Today at 4:13 PM: Best way in is under a fence where the junkyard dogs have dug, it's away from the lights, silent, and if anything goes wrong you can be mistaken for the dogs. There's another option for the best way out though. If things get hot, scrambling under some chain link fence is going to get you shot in the butt. The fences are pretty high and ringed with barbed wire. The chained, padlocked, electric gate isn't hooked up to a power supply. Raiken and Styx can just jump them or phase through, but for you to get out quickly, the construction vehicles inside the place are heavy duty enough to crash through them, or you could run up that crane with the big magnet... it's tall enough to jump over the fence from.

The whole top of the structure is a see-through mirror type psionic illusion with a perfect picture of what lies beneath and beyond. Then main difference is, like with the door, all the electric devices are revealed to be unpowered once you get inside. He must have prepared for Mastermind to show up and disarmed her of all hackable machinery.(edited)

...and some time later, the team watches as Kon slips back through the shadows, his mask and clothes covered with dirt but seeming otherwise unharmed. Brushing himself off, he says,

“Right, found us a part of the fence we can go under for our way in. Bit of a tight and slow crawl though, so heading out that way if things get crazy is probably gonna just get us caught. Since the gate ain’t powered up at the moment though, Styx and Raiken should be able to get through it pretty easily for a quick escape, and I can think of a few methods for myself and Mastermind. Speaking of, seems like there’s some kinda… psychic illusion business going on at the top of the structure? I don’t really get that kinda stuff myself, but all the equipment and stuff up there is also powered down. Guess White didn’t want Mastermind here to take over his machinery, yeah?”

slydingdoor
Oct 26, 2010

Are you in or are you out?

Location: Viking Auto Salvage

Sparks fly in the dirty windows of the junkyard's warehouse, barely translucent except where they're broken. White, back to you all, murmurs to himself as the nanotech hub–otherwise just an open suitcase–deconstructs rusty automobiles by disintegrating them with a swarm of nanites that leave behind shining metal and gleaming crystal seemingly by alchemy, and then sprouts robotic arms to assemble those parts... but into what?

The Indian man sighs and stretches his arms, revealing in his right hand a free floating, concave satellite dish no bigger than a basketball. Its design is intricate, with lace-like wire and emerald needle. It rotates this way and that and changes aperture like a camera, always pointing straight at the hub. A psionic amplifier, that's how he's operating the complex machine! But on closer inspection, there's another amplifier too, in his left hand set in a silver band on his ring finger, turned palm-side. It's only the size of a coin, and it always faces its larger sibling.

It's obvious now what White needed the hub for. Before him, layer by layer, grows an even larger amplifier, large enough for him to step inside.

A junkyard dog howls at the moon and he winces, then amplifiers' needles point in the direction of the sound and replaces it with the sound of a whimper. He chuckles to himself and recites a poem.

quote:

Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In The House
by Billy Collins

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark
that he barks every time they leave the house.
They must switch him on on their way out.

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
I close all the windows in the house
and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast
but I can still hear him muffled under the music,
barking, barking, barking,

and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,
his head raised confidently as if Beethoven
had included a part for barking dog.

When the record finally ends he is still barking,
sitting there in the oboe section barking,
his eyes fixed on the conductor who is
entreating him with his baton

while the other musicians listen in respectful
silence to the famous barking dog solo,
that endless coda that first established
Beethoven as an innovative genius.

What's the plan, who's the leader, what do you do?

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....

Freak +3 | Danger +2 | Savior +0 | Superior -1 | Mundane -1
Potential 2/5 | Conditions: Angry | Location: Viking Auto Salvage

Styx raised an incredulous eyebrow as Kon mollified Mastermind. Yeah, just casually downplay your actual friends in front of them to the cyborg-villain to heal her bruised ego, no biggie. But seriously though, why?! To get into her robo-panties or something? Ugh. And she couldn't even really say anything or interject because that would be just, like, extremely crass after what she almost did to him earlier. UGH.

The situation being otherwise rather hard to defuse, Styx resolved to merely perform a sort of movement with her eyebrows reminiscent of an eyeroll as she turned away from the pair. "Whatever. Let's just, like, get this thing done with okay", she glanced to the side. Wow was this all such a dumb idea. But they had to at least try...

"So, Mastermind. That giant scary looking thing that White's making? That the thing you need? Because unless your superbrain can immediately give me a supergood reason to not just blast it to so much goop I will."

There was a slight edge to Styx' voice that was fairly unusual for the girl.

Mastermind posted:

"It's not that easy: it will rebuild itself. Then White can set it back to work..."

"Oh no, so the situation is hopeless then", answered Styx, deadpan. Man the girl just wasn't herself, "Is there something we can do to prevent that? Like, 'you have to smash the four energon crystals that power its self-regenenatron' or something??"

Mastermind posted:

"'You have to smash' the psionic amplifier before it's finished, although the hub will continue to rebuild it, and faster since White is inputting the blueprint in real time, and you'll be destroying parts that the hub already 'knows' how to build and thus, rebuild. The main thing you have to take out: White. The hub can't finish building something it hasn't yet received all the instructions on how to build."

"Perfect, see that is the sort of thing I can work with. I'll lead the charge and distract him, you rest work from there. Raiken, maybe close the distance and clock him in the face while I treat his psionic mind to the good old Lone Banshee Solo, alright? Kon, Mastermind, work as a pair and reposition to do something sneaky, look for an advantage, you know, you're better at that sort of stuff than me."

And then, Styx floated into the Warehouse proper. This might've been a good place for a pun. Or perhaps a one-liner of some sort. But really, Styx was just too pissed off at the moment to come up with one.

"Hey White", she merely said. Then she screamed at him, channeling the gnashing of teeth and the constant wailing of the dead and projecting it deep into his psyche, their tearful moans and grasping claws hopefully keeping his psionic mind in check long enough for the group's true bruiser to close in without him getting to her.

quote:

Styx directly engages White by Banshee Wailing at him!
/r 2d6+2
SidekickBOT - @Styx (Theantero): 2d6+2 = (6+1)+2 = 9
Creating Opportunity for Raiken, IF I get Teamed, then I also Resist Blows

Theantero fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Apr 23, 2017

Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage



Freak: +1 | Danger: +2 | Savior: -1 | Superior: +2 | Mundane: -1
Potential: 4/5 | Conditions: Guilty | Location: Viking Auto Salvage

Raiken, likewise, let out a disgusted breath and rolled her eyes at Kon's transparent flirtations. She thought about reminding him that Styx and herself had cornered Mastermind pretty quickly, let alone the way she had easily diffused her traps inside the office building, but figured it wasn't worth it. If Styx wasn't going to fight him on that, what right did she have? It wasn't like she had been there for what was bothering Styx, after all. No, better to stay quiet and follow the plan. Raiken nodded in confirmation, "You got it, Styx. I'm on him."

Once she heard the banshee's wail, Raiken burst into motion. She fired a few shots at White — she could see him starting to do something to Styx, even if she wasn't sure what — and forced him to duck down out of her line of fire.

Teaming Styx's Direct Engage!

Before he could fully turn and face her, Raiken was on top of him. Her tactical computer was almost screaming to simply render him unconscious with a measured blow to the head, but that wasn't her style. Not now, not today. She really needed to show Styx that she was a good teammate. The best teammate, even. For that reason, Raiken chose to go with a much more elaborate attack routine. An imposing combination of gunshots and flurries of kicks and punches that was sure to impress her!

Well, it might have. If it had worked. White was managing to be a few steps ahead of her. He danced out of the way of her attacks with ease and her shots did more to trash his hideout than actually inflict any harm. Windows were shattered, walls pitted, and pillars devastated. It was more luck than skill that saw his attempts at a counter-attack foiled by the rumbling of the building's roof as pieces of it started to rain down on top of their heads.

quote:

SidekickBOT - Today at 9:52 AM
@Raiken (Tricky): 2d6+3 Impressing Styx by Directly Engaging White (+1 love) = (1+1)+3 = 5

Marking Potential and using In A China Shop to Resist/Avoid Blows.

slydingdoor
Oct 26, 2010

Are you in or are you out?

Location: Viking Auto Salvage

"Silence one whining bitch and takes its place–!" White snarls as he pantomimes choking Styx with his ringed hand, but he has to redirect his attention to Raiken's attack. He darts through the air with psionic propulsion to avoid her rampage, taunting her all the way telepathically. "Remember when we first met? I never told you since then I consider you like a daughter to me, hmhmhm." The surfaces in the warehouse turn into that of the Santiago Foundation complex on that fateful day, and he superimposes Grace and Poise over Styx, occluding her. As the roof falls down upon you and your opponent he disappears from sight, having psionically taken control of and energized the dust to obscure his position even from super sight.

"I was there when I set you free to learn, you know–let me enlighten you!" He hits the brakes on the passage of time, which comes to a halt inside of a second, and then he transmits whole, unedited memories into your head.

quote:

White psionically invades the memories of an unconscious man with gray hair and translucent skin, head Santiago Foundation scientist Dr. Smythe. He learns that cybernetically enhanced children only have the illusion of free will, that their enhancements are quite ready to attack without mere organic stimulus. It is the opposite of his psionics, which are purely extensions of his will. However, they are slower than the speed of cutting edge computers... No matter, the price was too high, and he pitied most the poor children for whom it was paid without their knowledge.

He breaks the one with the costliest enhancement of all–the cybernetic brain–out of a cylindrical tank, removes her mask and covers her in a psionic shroud before escaping with her. It's Mastermind.

As he leaves, he sees you fighting Grace and Poise and thinks to himself that these children will never find peace as long as the Santiago Federation exists.

It angered him then, and he's Angry now. Kon, what do you do?

slydingdoor fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Apr 24, 2017

TheFireMagi
Nov 6, 2011

...She's behind me, isn't she?

Freak -1 | Danger -1 | Savior +2 | Superior +1 | Mundane +2
Potential 1/5 | Conditions: Angry, Insecure |Location: Viking Auto Salvage

Happily ignorant of the psychic shenanigans going on with Raiken, Kon watched from the shadows while his team duked it out with White, as he was want to do. Like Styx had put it, he was searching for an advantage, any way that he could help put an end to this fight with his own special brand of heroism. That was to say, being as far away from direct combat as he could possibly be. Hey, if it worked, it worked, right? Better to stick to what he was good at rather than leaping into the fray and making himself a liability. So, what did he have to work with here? Bunch of shut off machines, and a villainess on his side for once that really could use them being powered on. And he couldn’t help but notice that one machine in particular seemed to be catching Mastermind’s focus...

quote:

Assessing the situation while Styx and Raiken distract White!
SidekickBOT-Today at 3:32 PM: @Kon (TheFireMagi): 2d6+1 = (2+6)+1 = 9
Got Team’d by Mastermind, asked “How could we best end this quickly?” and “What here is in the greatest danger?”
Slydingdoor-: If you turn the power on then the giant magnet crane would probably gently caress everything up pretty bad, especially if you can overload it
you'd be in the most danger doing that of course
it'd be all up to your stealth, which against White involves also emptying your mind

...that being the magnet crane looming overhead, which Mastermind could definitely do some damage if he could get it going. If. Problem was, doing so would require him to go real close by to White, closer than he was comfortable with. Not that he was frightened, of course! But being good at stealth didn’t exactly count for much when the bad guys could just find your mind. Yeah, psychics were a real pain, all right. But there were ways around them, Kon had found. For example, the ol’ empty your mind trick did actually work, much to his surprise. ‘Course, it was a lot easier said than done, and Kon had more then a few thoughts running through his brain at the moment. Still, it wasn’t as if he could just sit around while his team was getting blasted. Nothing to do but to go for it. Giving a nod to Mastermind, Kon said to her,

“Thinking I’mma try to switch on the power. That should help you get back into the game, yeah? If, uh, a few minutes pass and the lights aren’t on, assume I got mindblasted. Wish me luck!”

quote:

Unleashing my full stealthiness to switch on the Crane without White noticing me!
SidekickBOT-Today at 4:03 PM: @Kon (TheFireMagi): 2d6+1 = (5+6)+1 = 12 :toot:

Fortunately for Kon, a few minutes passed and more than the lights did, in fact, come on. He even managed to do so without attracting White’s attention, it seemed. So far so good, he thought, so what next? Glancing back at the battlefield, things did not seem to be going as well as Kon would have liked. His teammates were nowhere to be seen, presumably because there was a very large wall of dust obscuring everyone’s vision. And of course, White was on the opposite side of his team, and had returned to constructing the amplifier or whatever. Which was, well, bad. Very bad. Kon had to stop him, he knew that, but considering that combat was in no way his forte and that he’d be going up alone against a psychic… charging in by himself seemed way too reckless of an idea, even for him. Nah, better to get White to drop that dust wall somehow. But, how?

“Oi, geekshow!” thiswas “You so scared of a few rookie heroes that you gotta hide from ‘em like a rat?” sucha “C’mon, that’s pathetic!” goshdarned “Least try and put up a bit of a fight before tucking your tail between your legs!” bad idea!

But, uh, it seemed to work? Didn’t appear as if White expected someone to be on this side of the dust wall, at any rate. ‘Course, all that meant was Kon had just blown his cover without anyone to actually back him up...

quote:

Provoking White by taunting him in an attempt to put his attention onto me and hopefully get him to weaken his dust wall so that my team can get back to punching him!
SidekickBOT-Today at 4:32 PM: @Kon (TheFireMagi): 2d6+2 = (6+5)+2 = 13 :toot:

slydingdoor
Oct 26, 2010

Are you in or are you out?

Location: Viking Auto Salvage
"For one whose mind is so dim one would need to squint to detect it, you have a fine idea! We all know how fragile you are... a fine trait for a hostage." Instead of moving to block Raiken and Styx's sight of him, the sheet of dust hangs still and White's attention shifts to the unfinished Psionic Amplifier. He lifts and inverts it like an upside down bowl prepared to drop it over your head like a glass over a moth, but when he releases it another lifting force takes its place–the magnetic crane grabs it out of the air with so much force that it flattens it, swings back like a pendulum, then swings straight at White and tosses it straight at him! He snarls and shields himself with his hands, but before it hits him the Hub sends a swarm of nanites through the air like a flying serpent swallowing it whole. Slowed by its mass, they sink to the ground and with a hiss, then the Hub shambles over and starts reassembling the Psionic Amplifier, salvaging what undamaged pieces it can.

White laughs, pleasantly surprised, "If only all tools were so loyal! I wonder though, what waste it will leave behind after devouring you." The swarm gathers behind him like flies on glittering sugar, and he points to you and watches it go. "Feel free to surrender at any time, sooner rather than later if you prefer to save Kon's skin."

The dust has settled and now he's in plain sight, but the nanites are after Kon. Styx, you seen Kon in this position before but when you tried to help you just made it worse. Raiken, Mastermind mentally "texts" you that if she can get to the Hub–or you can get it to her–she can override it.

What do you all do?

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....

Freak +3 | Danger +2 | Savior +0 | Superior -1 | Mundane -1
Potential 2/5 | Conditions: - | Location: Viking Auto Salvage

Styx was only partially aware of what had been going on as she screamed, and wrestled for control of White's concentration with the psion's own thoughts. There were shots, Raiken coming in guns blazing (she really was amazing with those things, huh?), but then she.. didn't quite make it the whole way? Did something happen? Styx could see her just standing there? Psychic tricks, it must have been. She'd have to charge White herself then, she thought, but then there was a wall of energized dust, something it would have been... painful for her to penetrate. By this point she had quieted down, and was in the process of seeking a point of weakness in the thing, when all of that proved moot as it fell down by itself. Convenient!

What was less convenient, though, was the nasty, hungry looking, billowing cloud of nanites currently charging towards Kon. A scene that bore rather ghastly resemblance to something that had happened earlier today, something that would have drained all color from her face if it wasn't gone already.

But she didn't have time to be shocked. Not now. She could do that when Kon wasn't in immediate peril. And so, Styx took all the raging, confused emotions inside of her, all the impotent rage that had been bubbling inside her during the day, and crushed it into a little, tiny ball that she chucked to the far corner of her mind as she charged the cloud of nanites. Styx sped along, as fast as she could, and indeed, she hit the cloud shoulder first, dispersing it and popping the nanites as so many firecrackers as the very molecular bonds keeping them together decayed, and emerged on the other side, facing Kon, staring into his eyes.

Oh god she had to say something.

"...Umm you sure are having bad luck with weird clouds today haha", oh GOD anything but that what WAS that

Her eye(sockets) widened slightly in flustered embarrassment, she looked to the side, then back at Kon, a dollop of the black goop that kept seeping from her eyes, slightly larger than usual, rolled down her cheek, "I'm... just", that little ball of frustration she had discarded was getting bigger again, as if demanding her attention, "So sorry, for earlier, you know? Forgive me, please", she punctuated this with a very small, brief hug, one that might have been longer if they were in a less hectic situation (and if she were on the whole far less self-conscious about her disgusting texture, clammy skin and touch that felt like a reaper had come for you early), but long enough still to cause that tiny ball to finally pop and disappear. Regardless, this whole interaction only took about five seconds. Five seconds after which Styx turned away from Kon, and faced White.

"As for you", she stated, flatly, the familiar dark flame once again materializing around her arms, "How about fighting someone with powers other than just being kickin' rad all around? Hmm?"


quote:

Kon let me Defend you with my creepy powers once again what could go wrong??? (+1 from Influence)
/r 2d6+1
SidekickBOT - @Styx (Theantero): 2d6+1 = (6+3)+1 = 10
As the thing I get to pick, I clear Angry

Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage



Freak: +1 | Danger: +2 | Savior: -1 | Superior: +2 | Mundane: -1
Potential: 4/5 | Conditions: Guilty, Insecure | Location: Viking Auto Salvage

Raiken reeled as memories flooded through her. Some that seemed her own, others that couldn't possibly be. They felt so real, though, that she couldn't help but process through them. Of particular note were seeing White lift Mastermind from the tank — she had been altered by the Foundation too? — and the memory of White invading the doctor's mind. She didn't possess free will? Couldn't? But... That couldn't be right. White had interrupted her brainwashing when he attacked. If she didn't have free will, why would they need to have done that?

Mastermind gains Influence on Raiken -- she's not just another villain anymore.

As Styx stymied the nanocloud and Kon restored power to the salvage facility, Raiken finally shook off the memories. The timely message from Mastermind helped solidify her resolve. This battle was a lost cause unless they could separate White from the Hub. He might fancy himself a father figure, but right here and right now? He's messing with the wrong superheroine's team. And nobody, nobody poo poo-talks Styx like that. Raiken sent a wild spray of energy bolts towards White as she started charging towards the Hub. It may be under his control now, but if she could get it to Mastermind...

Raiken skidded to a halt by the Hub, holstering one gun while continuing to spray fire at White with the other. With her free hand she lifted the Hub off the ground, almost effortlessly, and sent it flying over to where Mastermind was hiding. She looked at its flight path for a moment, satisfied, before White filled her head with another memory.

quote:

SidekickBOT - Today at 3:30 PM
@Raiken (Tricky): 2d6+2 Raiken directly engages White! = (5+1)+2 = 8

Taking the Hub from him! Hard Move - "When you grab it White sends you another telepathic vision of your forgotten past–it's of the Hub using its spider arms in surgery, to replace your old body with its new cybernetic parts. Take a condition."

This one was bad. She saw the Hub stripping the flesh from her body, removing meat and putting cold, hard chrome in its place. It suddenly occurred to her that she was now acutely aware of how little of her original body remained. Was it really so unreasonable to think that she might be under some sort of influence? Was she really her or was it just some simulated personality? If she could sweat, she'd be breaking out in a cold one right about now.

Raiken marks Insecure.

slydingdoor
Oct 26, 2010

Are you in or are you out?

Location: Viking Auto Salvage, junkyard, near electric crane

The cyborg girl kneels by the Hub and puts a cable into it that she pulls from the inside of her wrist and reprograms the nanoswarm that had been slowly rebuilding itself after Styx's attack to return to it. White watches its trajectory and warns, "You'll regret it, Jennifer Tyner! And not just the pain!"

She looks at him defiantly and continues reprogramming. The stream of nanites comes back out of the hub and start to cover her body.


Location: Viking Auto Salvage, destroyed warehouse

White shakes his head and turns back to Styx growling, "Very well." He flies into the air and points his psionic amplifiers... nowhere near you? Then, from outside of the now roofless and windowless warehouse you hear helicopter rotors. Styx and Raiken, with your super senses you see an electric field surrounds it, powered by a gadget inside, glowing bright white with spiritual energy and spinning gyroscopically. The raptor turns towards then its rotors angle down and it swoops low to the ground straight at you from behind. That field could fry you all!

Then Mastermind starts screaming.

What do you do?

TheFireMagi
Nov 6, 2011

...She's behind me, isn't she?

Freak -1 | Danger -1 | Savior +2 | Superior +1 | Mundane +2
Potential 1/5 | Conditions: Angry, Insecure |Location: Viking Auto Salvage

On the one hand, he had successfully attracted White’s attention. On the other, he had successfully attracted White’s attention. Overall, it was a net win really, assuming he didn’t get devoured by the nanite swarm. Of course, Kon had absolutely no plan as to how to manage that, and they were getting awfully close oh man oh jeez oh god-

-and then Styx chose that moment to hit the nanites with all the force of an undead freight truck. Maybe an undead train. Specifics of the awful metaphors aside, to say that she saved his backside would be an understatement. As such, when she stared into his eyes and apologized of all things, Kon was somewhat surprised. Returning his teammate’s hug rather awkwardly, not out of fear or disgust at her form, but more discomfort that she felt the need to apologize at all, he sheepishly replied,

“C’mon, Styx, there’s nothing to forgive. Cripes, I should be the one saying sorry, considering you had to save my sorry rear end twice in one night. So, uh, yeah. Sorry.”

Thankful that the embrace lasted only a few embarrassing seconds, Kon hastily tucks back into what shadows he can find as Raiken resumes firing upon White, using the opportunity to calm himself best he can and see what else he could contribute to the fight. There was the Hub, there was the Hub being tossed, there was Mastermind putting a cable into the Hub and… there was screaming. Not “I can’t believe I fell for the thirty-first jump scare this horror game” screaming either. Real, authentic, painful screams. From Mastermind.

Great. Wait, the opposite of that. Instinct called for Kon to dash over at the sound, to come to her aid. But a cool head prevailed in the end, and a cool head told him that openly trying to cross the battlefield with White out and about would be a bad, bad idea. He had already impulsively gotten himself into enough unnecessary sticky situations already. Getting into another wouldn’t help anyone. No, much as Kon desired to rush to Mastermind’s side, he knew he couldn’t. It made him grit his teeth and clench his fists, but he couldn’t. Instead, Kon watched the honestly kind of cool if crazy raptor from a distance, searching for some method to take that field down before it fried his team.

quote:

Assessing the situation!
SidekickBOT-Today at 2:46 PM: @Kon (TheFireMagi): 2d6+1 = (2+4)+1 = 7
Asked “What here can I use to shut off the electric field?
slydingdoor-Today at 2:49 PM: you have to put something in the gyroscopically spinning thing rigid enough to jam it, but you'd have to do so when the field wasn't there to block it
White will be using a psionic faraday cage to make a hole in it when he floats into the helicopter

And he found it. Sort of. A method, but not a practical one, or even a possible one at the moment. What Kon needed was an opening that wasn’t “Wait for the bad guy to pretty much finish his escape,” but there was no way he was tearing a hole in that thing by himself. He needed help. Good thing he had two heroines with him who had some actual superpowers. Finding a vantage point where his voice would carry, Kon cried out to Styx and Raiken,

“Oi! I got a plan to shut off that field, but I need one of ya to make an opening in it for me to slip through first!”

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....

Freak +3 | Danger +2 | Savior +0 | Superior -1 | Mundane -1
Potential 3/5 | Conditions: - | Location: Viking Auto Salvage

A brief smile danced on Styx' face before she responded, "Right, that'll have to be Raiken since that thing counters my powers preeetty completely. What I can do is distract Mr. junker kingpin here while you two work at it though", Styx winked, assumed corporeal form once again, took a step, a second, broke into a sprint towards White, leapt midway and flew the rest of the way to the villain, arms outstretched and wreathed in black flame, and slammed bodily into White, smacking the basketball-sized dish away with her offhand as she did so. The thing crashed onto the floor with a clear clang, bounced a couple of times before starting to lazily roll and wobble towards a corner of the warehouse. Styx and White, however, had no time to pay attention to such, as they engaged in a furious and dirty melee. Nether energies meeting psionic ones and annihilating in thaumaturgic fizzles, blows and fists being traded and blocked (even though neither side was a trained combatant, really, or possessing of super strength, so most of this was just ineffectual flailing). There was no grace or poise here, just furious brawling for dominance.

Styx grabbed White's wrist, White grabbed Styx' wrist, the two struggled, until Styx spotted the smaller amplifier, stuck on the man's ring finger, in a hand that he was trying to plant on her head and that she was trying to keep away. Clearly an opportunity she could not pass. Thus, Styx relaxed her protestations, allowing the hand to approach, and when it did, she chomped down on the finger with the amplifier. White yelped in pain, and released the shimmering energies stored in the hand, directing them straight through Styx' palate and into her brain, causing the girl to go flying (dragging her teeth allll the way across the man's finger as she did so, breaking the skin and causing nasty gashes).

Styx somersaulted through the air, lax as if knocked senseless, until the final moment when she flipped around and dropped on her feet, and spared but a grin at White who was clearly scanning the floor for his lost ring.

"Heyuu", she yelled, voice muffled as if she had something in her mouth, gaining the villain's attention. She spat the ring onto her palm, and waved it about a bit, rather smugly taken that the thing was now covered in gross blackish drool and a bit of blood, "Looking for something?"

Styx laughed as she pocketed the ring. "You'll have to do better than that, White. My soul was soaked at length in the river you know? THE River. Some trashy bargain bin psion like yourself is lucky to be able to even scratch it", a bit of bravado never hurt anyone, "So hey. Show me what you got, big boy. Without any of your toys this time around."

A predatory grin spread on her face as she brought her palms together, splayed her fingers, and summoned a large font of nether energies forth, from which a large black beam emerged and shot towards White, who responded with a similar beam of his own, composed of the incandescent shimmer of psionic energies. The beams met halfway, slamming into each other with a flash and a boom, and started to push against each other, neither one gaining clear advantage...

quote:

Styx Directly Engages White!
/r 2d6+2
SidekickBOT - @Styx (Theantero): 2d6+2 = (5+1)+2 = 8
I choose to take away his psionic amplifier(s)

quote:

Styx, take a Powerful Blow!
/r 2d6
SidekickBOT - @Styx (Theantero): 2d6 = (1+4) = 5
yay for Potential!

Theantero fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Apr 26, 2017

Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage



Freak: +1 | Danger: +2 | Savior: -1 | Superior: +2 | Mundane: -1
Potential: 4/5 | Conditions: Guilty, Insecure | Location: Viking Auto Salvage

The screams from Mastermind knocked Raiken out of her weird, White-induced introspection and existential angst. What had Mastermind done? What had she done, for that matter? If the Hub had been what changed them to begin with... Why would it be able to fix them? Raiken looked helplessly at the cloud of nanites surrounding the cyborg villain.

Raiken shook off the hesitation and looked back towards the raptor. Styx seemed to have White all tied up, so that left her to get Kon the opening he needed. A thought sent the red lightning crackling across her body and concentrating into a thick web of energy on her hands. It might be able to counteract whatever force was protecting it. Emphasis on might. It wasn't like she was sure this would work and her tactical analysis was all but begging for her to do anything else, but what choice did she have? Mastermind was in trouble and it was her fault.

She broke into a sprint towards the raptor and then met its charge with her hands. The momentum started pushing her backward towards Mastermind as her energized fingers began to pierce through the field and work it apart. The flesh on her arms began to blacken and sizzle, revealing gleaming implants beneath, but she paid that no mind. What was a little pain? It would heal. It always did. After a moment, there was a hole, hopefully large enough for Kon to work with, exposed in the field.

Raiken shouted, "Kon! Whatever you're gonna do, do it quick!" She'd hold on as long as she could. Longer, even, no matter what it cost.

Unleash posted:

SidekickBOT - Yesterday at 4:01 PM
@Raiken (Tricky): 2d6+1 = (4+3)+1 = 8

It's gonna be temporary! Kon better get his act together and figure something out quick!

TheFireMagi
Nov 6, 2011

...She's behind me, isn't she?

Freak -1 | Danger -1 | Savior +2 | Superior +1 | Mundane +2
Potential 1/5 | Conditions: Angry, Insecure | Location: Viking Auto Salvage

Kon whistled softly as Styx leapt back into the fray and took the fight directly to White in more ways than one. There was dark fire, there was psionic blasts, there was a whole lot of brute force and raw power. It was one heck of a spectacle, enough so that he almost lost himself in spectating it until Raiken’s shouting drew him out of his trance. Kicking himself mentally that he got so caught up in the fight when everyone else was putting themselves in harm’s way for his reckless, made up on the spot plan, Kon sprinted forward.

It wasn’t a large gap in the field, and Kon doubted it would last for long. But he was nimble, he was small, and more than anything else he was determined. And determination went a long way, when you were a hero. Hopping through the hole, he felt his hairs begin to crackle from the electric energy, and some of the tips got a little fried in the process. Yet, he made it through, and slid on past the raptor before it could tenderize him. Tossing aside his sheath, Kon leapt and jammed Kensei’s blade right into the spinning generator, praying that it would work-

quote:

slydingdoor-Today at 1:57 PM: You can feel the electric field making your hair stand on end as you pass through the hole in it, but when you jam the generator it gets worse before it gets better. A lot worse. Take a Powerful Blow.
SidekickBOT-Today at 1:57 PM: @Kon (TheFireMagi): 2d6+2 = (4+3)+2 = 9
Lashing out verbally!

-before his prayers were replaced with a rather loud yelp as putting a metal sword into an active generator produced the results one might expect. Still twitching from the energy, Kon felt his grip loosening, his mind wanting nothing more than to get away from this source of pain. But he ignored those thoughts, jammed the sword in only farther. As if he’d give in at a time like this from just a few shocks, when his team needed him, when what Mastermind was going through must have been a whole lot worse than this.

Right. Mastermind. She was down, but not out. Yet. White was preoccupied with Styx, which meant that an opening to help her there. And with him through and dealing with the electric field, there was only one heroine close by still available.

“Raiken! Styx has White, and I’ll, gah, be fine! Mastermind needs, sunnuva- needs help with the nanite swarm!”

quote:

Provoking Raiken to assist Mastermind with the nanite swarm, and ignore whatever White’s doing in the process!
SidekickBOT-Today at 2:06 PM: @Kon (TheFireMagi): 2d6+2 = (6+4)+2 = 12 :toot:?
Team if she does, condition if she doesn’t!

TheFireMagi fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Apr 27, 2017

Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage



Freak: +2 | Danger: +2 | Savior: -1 | Superior: -1 | Mundane: +2
Potential: 0/5 | Conditions: Guilty, Hopeless, Insecure | Location: Viking Auto Salvage

Raiken accepts the provoke! +Team!

Raiken looked on with shock and some amount of horror as Kon leaped into the hole she had opened and jammed his sword into the generator. That was the dumbest, most irresponsible.. but it worked. The field died down. The last bits of energy flickered across her arms, leaving them almost bare of flesh. She wanted nothing more than to take a breather, let her arms heal up, then take her doubts and frustrations out on White.

Of course, Kon had other ideas. Mastermind's screams didn't help matters either. Raiken stumbled backward from the raptor, still smoking, then said, "...Right."

She looked at the swarm devouring her fellow test subject and her heart sank. This was all her fault. If she had just trashed the stupid hub when she had the chance... She couldn't fry the swarm. She couldn't shoot them up. That'd just make things worse for Mastermind. Her only real choice was to shield her with her body. Draw the swarm's attention and buy Kon or Styx some time to fix her mess.

And that's what she did. Raiken leaped into the whirring, devouring swarm of nanites, doing her best to shield Mastermind from the swarm.

quote:

SidekickBOT - Today at 10:34 AM
@Raiken (Tricky): 2d6-1 Raiken attempts to Defend Mastermind! = (2+3)-1 = 4

Advance! Hard move - "The swarm leaves Mastermind and crawls onto you, the last thing you see is Mastermind missing all her cybernetics, big patches of hair missing, brain exposed. Then you feel the nanites drilling into your metal parts. That probably doesn't really hurt, but it's like being at the dentist, numb but you still feel the vibrations and the pressure. Take a condition."

God, it was horrible. Mastermind was probably dying and it was all her fault. The fact that the swarm was leaving her alone now, attracted by the promise of more implants to devour, was small comfort. Raiken didn't even bother to fight against the swarm's attention. Let them take everything. She wasn't a hero. She was only good for breaking things. Hurting people. Where had all her bright ideas gotten them? Kon? Electrocuted. Mastermind? Devoured. White was probably going to hurt Styx and it would be her fault too.

Raiken marks Hopeless.

Choosing to rearrange labels and add +1! Raiken still sees herself as dangerous and unique, but she's not feeling that smart. Not in the slightest.

TheFireMagi
Nov 6, 2011

...She's behind me, isn't she?

Freak -1 | Danger -1 | Savior +2 | Superior +1 | Mundane +2
Potential 1/5 | Conditions: Angry |Location: Viking Auto Salvage

The last bit of pain fading from Kon’s system, a grin appeared on his face as the field started to go down. And then the helicopter began to move. Still somewhat off balance from the physical and mental shocking he had just received, it took a great deal of Kon’s remaining strength just to hold on and keep himself from falling out. Just what the heck was White planning…? And then as the movement stopped, and Kon found himself overhead both Raiken and Mastermind, he realized. As he saw the nanite swarm wash over his teammate, as he saw the exposed and damaged form of the their temporary ally, he realized. That this was a trap, a trick, a ruse. That if he leapt out now, it would give White the opportunity to escape.

And Kon realized, he really didn’t care. Oh, it absolutely infuriated him, no doubt. But between protecting those he cared about, and letting the baddie go so they could kick his rear end another day, there was really only one choice to make. That’s what being a hero was all about, yeah? Reaching for his sword still jammed into the generator, which he off-handedly noted was sparking with some kind of bluish light, Kon did a completely unneeded flip out of the helicopter (if he was gonna get eaten, might as well do it in style after all) and ran towards the swarm...

quote:

Defend Roll on Raiken!
SidekickBOT-Today at 7:55 PM: @Kon (TheFireMagi): 2d6+1 = (2+4)+1 = 7
Clearing Insecure!
...and much to his surprise, the light from his sword sparked outwards as he swung into the nanite swarm, arcing here and there and absolutely destroying them, heck yeah! Kon had absolutely no idea what was going on, but he wasn’t going to complain at this point, and decided not to think about what could’ve happened if his sword hadn’t been supercharged. Instead, he reached out a hand to Raiken, saying,

“C’mon, get up now, before White-”

quote:

Slydingdoor-Today at 8:25 PM: Suddenly, you are thrust kicked, hard, from behind and sent sprawling onto Raiken. It's the Hub, which skitters around shoveling the nanites into what looks like a crustacean's mouth with carbon fiber mandibles.

From the other end of the creature, a new swarm of nanites emerge, but they don't fly after anyone or anything, they just pool around and crawl all over the Hub itself. The amorpheous mass rises, straightening its legs and gathering from many into two. The rising stops, then the stalk begins to unfurl like a flower bud sprouting from the soil. When it reaches a ninety degree lean, its form becomes obvious. It's a bipedal hominid, skin still roiling from the crawling nanoswarm, embracing itself as if straightjacketed, head bowed and pointed at the ground until it snaps up. Facing you is a matte, carbon fiber death mask of Mastermind.

It stares at you, smiles, and says, "I am whole."

Take a powerful blow, from the kick and maybe the rest of that too.
SidekickBOT-Today at 8:27 PM: @Kon (TheFireMagi): 2d6+1 = (6+2)+1 = 9
Giving ground!
He had been shocked. He had leapt out of a helicopter. He had just been kicked. And now he had just seen the Hub turn into… something. What. What was even going on right now. Euphoria from his successful zapping of the nanite swarm fading all too fast, Kon could do little more than stare dumbstruck as he laid half collapsed on top of Raiken. No, seriously, what was-

quote:

Slydingdoor-Yesterday at 8:34 PM: The Hub walks over to Mastermind and its hand transforms as Raiken's can into a gun. It aims at her head, but pulls away. It aims instead at the junkyard fences, cutting a hole in it and sprinting through it and into the night.
Raiken, you know its weaponry isn't nearly as strong as yours. Kon interrupted its scanning and harvesting you.
Styx, you can sense that Jennifer Tyner is alive.
White laughs and gathers power, ready to psionically leap into his helicopter. The field generator inside it is damaged beyond repair.

Kon’s eyes widened as he realized the mechanical amalgamation wasn’t going for them. It was going for Mastermind. Move, he screamed to himself, move! But, the distance was too great, and his body refused to listen. Too much punishment in too short of a time, and he was just a kid. A kid with no powers, no enhanced body, nothing but guts and heart. Wasn’t that enough though? Wasn’t that what being a hero was about? So why couldn’t he just move, drat it!

Then the Hub-thing aimed away and blew a hole into the fence, instead fleeing the scene. Overhead, White had made his way into the helicopter, seeming ready to escape. Neither even flickered on Kon’s radar. Rather, as soon as the Hub-thing had left, Kon struggled to his feet and rushed over to Mastermind’s side. And she was… in a bad state. An awful, terrible state, really. But he didn’t want to think about that. He couldn’t.

“...R-Raiken! Styx! One of ya help me out here! We need to get Mastermind to a, a hospital, before she bleeds out! Or, or maybe there’s a hero with healing powers or something? I…”

...I can’t do anything here, he finished in his head.

Theantero
Nov 6, 2011

...We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now, Fester Addams, this Mamushka is for you....

Freak +3 | Danger +2 | Savior +0 | Superior -1 | Mundane -1
Potential 3/5 | Conditions: - | Location: Viking Auto Salvage

Styx, for her part, needed no particular prompting from Kon, giving him but a quick nod as she ran towards the girl. She was still alive, at least according to the state of her soul.

The soul, as it is, is a wobbly, elusive little thing, tied to and thus animating the body with a number of ethereal silver strings, only visible to those intimately tied to death or knowledgeable enough in the realm of necromancy. The strings can be cut only by a reaper's scythe (or by forbidden necromancy), but to say the state of the body has no effect on them would be false, for the closer one is to death, the more frayed, long and tangly they get. And looking at Jennifer Tyler, formerly known as Mastermind, Styx could tell she did not have long. Perhaps not long enough for them to get help, even...

Something had to be done, then. Normally, a necromancer would undo the tangles, smooth the frayed bits, and tighten the loosened string with great care, and thus reflectively also heal the body while they were at it. Styx, naturally, did not have this sort of knowledge or power. The best she could do was summon huge, bulky bars of necromantic energies to hold the soul in place. It would not HEAL Jennifer, or make her situation better really, but at least with her soul thus bolted on place, the situation should not get much worse.

She hoped.

And so, Styx waved her arms, bringing in large amounts of energies from the nether, and from them clumsily shaping purple, pulsing straps and bars that she tied across Jennifer like so many belts. And she could tell the soul, indeed, was now fairly well enforced. It would have to be enough.

"I've stabilized her!", she yelled, worry clear in her voice, "She should not get worse for a time, but we really need to get going! It's not good for her to be like this for too long, and I don't know how long I can keep this up!"

quote:

Styx, Unleash your powers to try and keep Mastermind niiice and steady!
/r 2d6+3
SidekickBOT - @Styx (Theantero): 2d6+3 = (6+5)+3 = 14
Jennifer status: Succesfully stabilized

Theantero fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Apr 29, 2017

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Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage



Freak: +2 | Danger: +2 | Savior: -1 | Superior: -1 | Mundane: +2
Potential: 0/5 | Conditions: Guilty, Hopeless, Insecure | Location: Viking Auto Salvage

For a moment, Raiken didn't realize that the nanites had stopped their invasion of her body. Kon was talking to her, she understood that much, but it was too late for her. It'd be enough if he got clear. Then she saw the Hub. Or, rather, the monster the Hub had become. It seemed... familiar. Very familiar. It was- Mastermind?

The shock of seeing the swarm form a replica of Mastermind and pull out weaponry just like hers as it made its escape knocked her out of the introspective funk and hesitation. What had happened to Mastermind? She clambered to her feet, paying no heed to the relentless itch of her flesh regrowing and covering the bare chrome of her implants, and limped over to Kon and Styx. Styx seemed to have done some sort of magic to help stabilize Mastermind, but she was still looking rough.

So was Kon, for that matter. He'd gone through a lot today. But even so! He was all too human. He wasn't going to be much of a hero to anyone if he ended up dead. Raiken clapped a hand on Kon's shoulder, fresh pink flesh once more covering it, "Kon. Those were some of the most harebrained, insane, completely irresponsible stunts I've-" She looked at his eyes, the hints of frustration and anger poking through, then sighed. "I mean... Thanks. You really saved me back there. Just be careful, okay? You aren't exactly built as tough as me and Styx."

quote:

@Raiken (Tricky): 2d6+4 Comfort/Support (+1 frustrate rival, +1 influence) = (3+5)+4 = 12

Clearing Hopeless!

TheFireMagi posted:

A moment passed where Kon wanted to reach up and knock away Raiken’s hand. Really? Now? This was not the time, not the place, and were not words he wanted to hear. But he stopped himself. Thought about what she had said for a while. Watched as Styx did… something to stabilize Mastermind. Something that he didn’t understand. Something that he couldn’t do. Just one of many things. Firmly, but gently enough to show that he wasn’t lashing out, Kon brushed aside Raiken’s hand before turning to look at her. There was fury in his eyes, though not at her specifically, and more than anything else there was just… disappointment.

“Think I knew that already, Raiken, even without ya saying it. Wish I didn’t, but them’s the breaks, yeah? I’m just a completely normal, harebrained kid with his head in the clouds trying to play hero. And look where that got us! Mastermind- Jennifer’s a wreck, we couldn’t capture White, and we released a new villain… monster thing on the loose. Heck, me ‘saving’ you? You wouldn’t even have been in that mess in the first place if I didn’t say nothing! It just…”

Kon bites down on his lip, shoulders heaving.

“I know you’re just looking out for me. And I appreciate it. But being normal? It sucks. It really, freaking, sucks.”

Raiken's face shifts between sympathy, curiosity and a brief flash of anger before finally settling on exhaustion, "I wouldn't say that, Kon. Not me, guessing that Styx wouldn't either. It's just... poo poo, I don't know. I think you're pretty impressive most of the time. Hell, I don't think we could do this without you. But-" She poked him in the chest. Not terribly hard, mind, but enough to push him back a half-step. "You can't be a hero if you're dead. 'Sall I'm saying."

She pauses for a moment, "And it's not like you're the only one that hosed up today. We all made some mistakes. Jennifer is more my fault than anyone."

TheFireMagi posted:

Looking as a variety of expressions flew by on Raiken’s face made Kon want to both cringe and laugh. Complaining about being normal was, in hindsight, kind of a messed up thing to say considering who he was around. But it was how he felt, not all that deep down. Still, didn’t mean he needed to say it like he did. So when Raiken poked him, he let himself be pushed.

“Didn’t mean to make light of you gals’ situations. My bad. Y’know I didn’t mean it like that. Still,” Kon curls his arm in an exaggerated motion, putting his more or less nonexistent muscles on display, “Ya don’t gotta worry ‘bout me dying, ‘cause I’m pretty hard to kill! Must be, otherwise I’d be dead a hundred times over, and that’s not even counting today.”

Smiling sadly behind his mask at his idea of a joke, Kon said after a while, “For real though, I appreciate you looking out for me. So believe me when I say I don’t got any intention to die. Not any time soon, at least.”

And then, chuckling softly, he added, “Yeah, we all seriously messed up, huh? ‘Course, if you wanna take the blame, that’s fine by me! Feel free to ease up my conscience here, I could totally live with that.” A more genuine smile now, one still weighed down by anxiety, but… talking about things helped. It usually did.

Raiken grinned, "Heh, that's fine by me." Talking things out with him helped put her own poo poo in perspective. Sure, she might secretly (?) be a remorseless killing machine tricked into thinking that she wasn't. That was a problem for another day. If Kon could fight past his insecurities and keep going when things seemed bleak, she could too. For right now? They had a life to save and some serious explaining to do. "Alright, Kon, let's get your lady to the hospital. We can figure out what to do with this Hub Monster and White later on."

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