olopi

The distinct noise of weapons shooting could still be heard. This was more than just one or two shots; this was a shoot-out. Energy weapon fire was difficult to pin down, even for somebody experienced in doing so. The sound echoed through the halls, and the general noise of a busy day in the streets made them fade into the background even more. Occasional screams as people saw the huge body being carried across the air above their heads made it even more difficult. Kresh had done this before, some concentration and she would be able to get a better idea of where this fight was happening. And then she heard it. Down a street, around a corner. That was where it was. The sound had come from there. Immediately, the shield of Elmega stopped, and alongside it it’s lyankan carrier. And then, a moment of no motion, before accelerating again, towards where these shots were coming from. It had only been a few seconds, there still was time to limit casualties.

And she sees ... something probably! 1d20 + 7 = 23

GM This attack might have been mindless, but there was something behind it. On closer inspection, something about the skeletons did stick out. The smaller ones were not all that interesting, and many of their bones had been smashed, charred or otherwise damaged. But for the skeletons of the bigger, Anklyosaur-like creatures, that wasn’t true. Yes, some bones had been smashed too, but they were bigger and sturdier on average, so there was less destruction there. And also, beneath the spine of each, the Archer found a tablet of bone, the same material as the skeletons themselves., about a foot in length, stuck to the underside. There was a message in each of them, indents in the structure of the bone. And it told of a higher purpose to this attack: Coleman Natural Prepare Yourselves 2 Days

Okay. She finds three identical tablets, about a foot in lenght, made of bone stuck to the underside of each of the Ankylo's spines with the following written into them through some indents in the tablet itself: Coleman Natural Prepare Yourselves 2 Days Post incoming.

Well, I guess I might as well get around to doing one of these at some point, right? Considering I’ve actually managed to stick around for a while and do not plan on leaving any time soon, it feels like it’s the right time to do it! So yeah, here’s me. Chances are most people have some idea of who I am already, considering I spend pretty much all my free time in chat, but either way: Hey, it’s me. Lopi/Salami/various misspellings of either, or well, Ivan. I’m 17, currently living in Switzerland, and I’m in high school or whatever the American equivalent would be, because my country really likes its confusing school system. The parts of my free-time I do not spend playing videogames and writing posts for on here, I’m usually either getting annoyed at politics, the state of the world, the educational system, and many other things (but let’s not dwell on that), spending time with my friends, playing Magic: The Gathering, painting miniatures, or at Kenjutsu training. I actually managed to win a sparring competition not too long ago. (It was pure luck, don’t let anybody tell you skill was involved!). Or I’m just in pain thanks to scoliosis screwing with every muscle of my torso, but that one’s getting better, so hooray. Also, while pictures cannot portray the lion’s mane that is my hair properly, I guess have one. And since I just realized I haven’t taken any in months (gasp!), it’s actually very recent!

PC Huh. The diplomat certainly was a lot more dangerous than Cass had imagined him to be, even after he had seen him throw a car. He had just wiped the floor with the remaining few skeletons, one threat less to worry about. And with all the heroes on scene now, pursuing whatever had caused this would be easy enough too. Somebody had to have planned this. Dinosaur bones didn’t just show up out of nowhere and start demolishing buildings, right? Right as the bones had hit the floor, Bonfire moved closer to the others, descending from his position above the heads of his fellow heroes. It was now time to figure out what was going on. He hadn’t really had time to introduce himself, or talk to the others so far. “Name’s Bonfire. Nice moves, I was not aware diplomats received combat training. I’m with you on the ensuring peace front, somebody must’ve caused this, and it probably comes down to us to figure out who. I doubt this attack was as mindless as the … things … executing it, there has to be sme reason for whoever is responsible for it to do it. And for the … civics works …. Uh, sorry, I think you’ll have to ask somebody else for that one. “

PC “Calls himself the Gas Man. Drives around in a van filled to the brim with explosives and weapons. He runs a legit bounty organization from what I could gather, at least the van was painted that way, and he certainly had enough money to sink into that thing. He just showed up and told us there was a bounty on our head. Possibly an ex-marine or something? And more on the old side. Started throwing around gas grenades, right outside a church filled with people. That’s all I know about him, chances are tracking him down wouldn’t be too much trouble. No idea where he is now since we left him for the police to pick up after we beat him. Other mercenaries, no idea who they were. I only ever saw them while running away, but from what I was told they had been hired by Neutron. “ This entire thing was coming together. The conversation had gone from AEGIS threatening Bonfire to him helping them, and them listening to him. He could work with this. Possibly work together with AEGIS to accomplish some more things related to Neutron. Maybe it wouldn’t lead anywhere, maybe it would. Currently, he was just annoyed he had never looked up whether or not the Gas Man had a website or anything. He had written a nice, long post about everything that had happened back at Lantern Hill, but he’d forgotten to look further into the Gas Man and his business.

WALKED THROUGH THE FIRE BY HGM Okay, quite a bit of stuff happening due to Bonfire's recent promotion to PL11 Abilities: Raise Constitution from 12 to 14 for 2 PP, this causes Toughness to rise to +2/+11 and Fortitude to rise to +8 Combat: Raise Attack from 3 to 4, for 2PP Skills: Raise the following Skills to Rank 16 (+21): Bluff Diplomacy Gather Information Add 1 Rank of Knowledge (Current Events), bringing it to 5(+5) Add 2 Ranks of Sense Motive, bringing it to 12(+16) All in all that should be 2PP Feats: Added one Rank of Improved Initiative, pushing initiative to +9 Added Ultimate Diplomacy Removed 1 Rank of Equipment, and along side that removed the Molotovs, since they never come up in play and were a leftover from an old build to begin with. This means that now there's 4 Equipment Points unspent, those will be spent when appropriate Powers: Raised Affinity to Fire Array to 27PP All the powers in the array change too: Added one rank to all Blasts, pushing them to 9, 13 and 11 respectively Raised Suffocate's rank by 1, pushing it to 9 Lowered Illusion's rank by 1, added in Concealment 2 to the container, for a total of 21+4=25 points Added 2 Ranks of Element Control (Fire), so it's 13 now. Fluff: Some more details regarding his family and home Added in better power descriptions Some more history to reflect the changes that happened over the past 2 months The same goes for personality Added in a complication related to his reputation I hope the math works out! Also, as a reminder to myself: Bonfire currently does not hit all defensive caps, and is lacking in the exotic front

Bonfire (41) : Un-Organ-ised Crime (2) Gangbusters! (2) A Show of Force (5) Nuclear Depths (32) Barrier (1) : Revanche : Under the Sword (1) GM (5) : A Show of Force (2) Un-Organ-ised Crime (3) All GM points towards Bonfire!

PC Bonfire quickly reached out for the card, quickly putting it into the pocket he used to store the things he had to have on him even in this form. To outsiders, it would always look like him just phasing it into the backside of his trousers, but alas, that was what illusionary clothing caused. He’d have time to check the card and its few contents later on. For now, he was going to keep focusing on the conversation. He didn’t really know, well, anything, about the mercenaries, apart from one’s name, the Gas Man. Whose vehicle he and Marie had stolen, and just left standing somewhere…. Maybe he’d found it again? Who knew, who knew. “Neutron Industries … well, they were dumping Nuclear Waste into the sewers and all that, I talked about that one quite a lot before, but I can elaborate on some details in case they’re not in your files yet. According to the AEGIS Agent that interrogated me afterwards the government allows them breaking various laws, since their proficiency in nuclear power’s too important to loose. And for the mercenaries, no idea. I only have one loose thread, and that’s the guy that tried to hunt us down and immediately got defeated. The other ones … no clue, I have no idea who they are. “

And here Cass was. In a special containment cell. In a high-tech police station. So this was where all those people he fought ended up after their trip to the hospital. Surprisingly cozy, to be honest. This entire thing had resolved itself better than he’d expected. He had considered running from the police, but that would’ve only let to him being deemed a proper super-villain. Maybe this way he could at least get some of his reputation back. And also, he was able to nap in the police car. Which was nice. He was still quite tired, but it wasn’t as bad anymore. A bit of sleep had helped. And hopefully the fire would dissipate sooner or later. For now, he still had to talk his way out of a lengthy trip to Blackstone. He really didn’t feel like ending up on an island, or in a prison. Or both, combined, even. And all of this wasn’t an easy task. He had, mostly rightfully, been accused of a pretty massive crime. And even bringing in a criminal gang leader didn’t soften that up too much. Maybe he could pin the blame on Marie. Which was a rather bad thing to do, but some self-preservation was fair. “Oh, it’s a long story. I guess I’ll start at what I believe to be the chronological beginning. She used to work for Neutron. Then, at some point they experimented with her body, from what she’s told me, which lead to her eyes becoming … whatever they are, her life being limited to a few more years, and her quitting her job and starting to fight against the company. Then, at some point she hired the Cut-Throat gang to steal a bunch of Uranium … 7? From Neutron, during which a bunch of the gang died, which caused the name-giving leader to start having a grudge. Then, sometime later, after fighting the gang myself, I ended up in a bar, where she had deposited the Uranium because she was being chased by a bunch of ex-military mercenaries around the sewers. I ended up helping her because hey, these people had hired mercenaries to kill her, that’s enough of a reason to stop them. You got everything so far? Anything I should elaborate on, or do I just continue?”

“Honestly? I don’t know. Maybe … I’ll just drop unconscious … in a second. Maybe I can still …. burn some things. After these … past few days … I can’t really tell myself. I’m … running on coffee right now. Don’t really know how much I … can push this however. We … can just … both stall for the police. Same effect … in the end. Was my … plan too. Forgot to account for … them wanting to take me in. So, do we … just wait? If you … want to turn her in … to the police directly … I have no objections. You keep your job and ... I ... get what I wanted too. “ Maybe Cass could still avoid a bad fight. Would be a lot nicer than the alternative. Sure, he’d probably have enough power to fling himself out of a window, heat would get through the glass fine. But then, he’d just be unconscious and burning somewhere outside. And that wasn’t that favourable. If he could simply convince Green that for now, he wasn’t going to fight him, that’d turn this entire thing from really bad to just not that good. Sure, Cass was still really angry about the entire thing, but neither him or Green were in a fighting condition.

“Her? … I owe her …. nothing. That’s … true. But … this isn’t about her. This isn’t about Neutron, even. This is about what I believe in. When I first met her, she was being chased by mercenaries. Getting shot at, lethal weaponry and all. Don’t get me wrong, I plan on turning her over to the police after this thing’s done. She’s done quite a lot, and her means didn’t justify the ends. But I’m not going to turn her over to the folks that tried killing her before. And that’s why I can’t turn her over to you. I’d rather see her get a fair trial than what would come from this. You said it yourself, Neutron has done worse. And if they have her I doubt they’d even hesitate to go all the way. I can’t just do something like that and walk away, knowing that whatever injury or death would come from it were entirely my fault. “ A small surge of energy. The last bit of energy Bonfire still had, he used it. This had to sound reasonable. This had to sound convincing. And lots of stuttering and heavy breathing wouldn’t have helped him in this case. He gave it his all, pushing forward every word with the determination to at least finish talking before all the strain these past few days had taken on his body would finally overwhelm him.

1d20 + 5 = 9 For the DC10 Charisma roll which Bonfire just failed!

It worked! Bonfire would not die today! The reactor was gone, and so was the threat! Sure, Cass was about to collapse due to both exhaustion and having sustained himself on just coffee for multiple days, but at least he was safe. The reactor had been dealt with, it … melted, probably, and hopefully all those explosions he had caused before outside would mean that emergency dispatch would arrive on the scene soon. And until then Cass could just take a nap. And obviously Green had to ruin it. Bonfire was just about holding onto consciousness, and he had a gun pulled on him again. He’d just saved this guy’s life, and this was the reward? Getting shot while almost going unconscious to begin with. He had hoped Green would just run the second he’d see what Bonfire was about to do, but that wasn’t the case. Great. Just great. One thing finally goes right, and then this. With some heavy breathing, and part of his vision going dark due to the exhaustion, he addressed the chief of security. Maybe just buying some time would be enough for whatever dispatch there was to arrive. It was a far stretch, but probably Cass’s best shot. “Oh, come …. on. After … all this destruction…. do you really think they won’t …. fire you and get some … mercenaries to silence you so this all … is covered up? ... Your best … bet is to … just leave now … and act like you … never were here. I … dunno, think … of something. There’s … probably people … out there that … pay better. …. And … won’t have a … huge stock crash … tomorrow. …”

1d20 + 16 = 32 There we go! Bonfire's about to faint, but hey, that should be enough!

Oh yay. Oh very yay. This was it, wasn’t it. This was the end. This was where Cass’s streak of luck would finally end. He could just run. Yes, and it was tempting. But it wasn’t heroic. It would cause even more trouble. And Green didn’t look like the guy to carry out two unconscious people he had just tried to kill mere seconds before. Marie was probably fine, at least towards the radiation. But Cut-Throat? He wouldn’t make it. And Bonfire had literally no way to interact with him. Not that he’d listen, most likely. Maybe by causing enough heat he could avoid a big blast? Or would that cause the exact opposite and just make the thing go off even more? Cass didn’t know. Green didn’t either. “I don’t know. Just run for it, that’s all I can help you with. “ What now, what now. There had to be something. Just … ugh. What could he do, what could he do. Maybe a lot of heat towards the reactor would work? Something something physics. Cass had no clue, but this was the only thing that sounded … not reasonable, no. But possible, maybe, with a low percentage. And so, Bonfire took a few seconds, took a big breath. This was it. Cassidy Bauer hadn’t planned to die today, and if there was any chance, he wouldn’t. He mentally prepared himself to take another nuclear blast straight to his smoky face, then started to work on creating even more heat, and drawing as much as there was in the room in. He just had to focus all this heat and fire right on the reactor. And then, it was up to physics to not fail him, and not kill him.

Okay, at this point the only thing left are a few minions, so for the sake of the pace how about we call the combat here? I highly doubt you'd there's any more trouble during this combat, so I guess just go ahead and describe how you clean up the remaining few enemies, and then we can get to the next part of this thread, where hopefully there's more social aspects!

Oh great. At least it explained why Green had thought taking away the coolant was a good idea. He had no idea of nuclear science either. So nobody in this building was both conscious and had an idea what to do. And cooling was literally the exact opposite of what Bonfire could do. At this point running felt like the safest option. Hopefully the building itself was somewhat protected. It would bring a lot more problems, but it probably was the only option. And Cass didn’t really trust Green with it. He’d probably just take the chance to finish off both Marie and Cut-throat. Or leave them in here to die. And those weren’t favourable either. “Currently bleeding out due to knife-related injuries. I think we just have to run. Cooling things is the literal exact opposite of what I do. So how about we just grab the two people that are unconscious down there and get out? We’ve got no way to stop this un- . Hey, you don’t have any Uranium-7 in here, do you? That might be the only way to actually stop this. “

PC The agents had gone from more or less threatening to just giving good advice within an astounding amount of time. Just a few sentences ago ... Adept, was it? Had been quite threatening. Now he was a lot less threatening suddenly. Still quite threatening, but a lot less than just before. This advice had a lot of reason behind it. Bonfire had thought about the whole team deal before, in fact it had been one of the first things he’d considered. But those had to develop naturally. Or with some rich backer throwing money at a bunch of people and making them get along that way. The second one wasn’t really something to actively make happen, and the first one required Bonfire to know more heroes. Yes, he’d met a few of them, but only once or twice at most, not enough to really form a strong bond. And the whole team deal would also need a lot of infrastructure Bonfire could not even dream of affording at the moment… But working with AEGIS? He’d have to consider that. It didn’t sound too bad. Would help his reputation, get him some more contacts, and probably even pay. And chances are he wouldn’t have to do much different from what he was doing right now. “I think a team of supers would be rather difficult to establish for me at the moment, unless you know of one that needs some reinforcements. I’d love to be in one, but it’s not that easy to do unfortunately. But, all the AEGIS stuff does sound interesting. Checking it out probably wouldn't hurt at least. Is there an easy way to get in contact with the Service? Or do I just talk to you?"

And the downward spiral had just belly-flopped through another floor. So Green hadn’t planned for this. He truly was an idiot. With how much Cass understood of nuclear reactors, this would really only mean that soon all of West Freedom would be a nuclear wasteland. And that really wasn’t good for either one’s reputation. So the whole “Ending it now” part would probably have to wait. This would be an end, yes, but not the one anybody was really looking forward to. Apart from some radiation powered super-villain, probably. It was time to figure out how to stop this thing. ASAP. And chances were that Bonfire could not do that alone. He’d certainly need Green’s help, and possibly Marie’s. Marie, who was currently bleeding out or already dead, after being attacked by Bonfire. Oh yay. It was time to communicate with Green. A valuable chance to catch him unaware lost, but this was too much trouble for Bonfire to handle by himself. And he certainly wouldn’t be able to get away. So, he simply yelled out, as loud as he could manage. This was bad. “No time to fight now. Can we run, or is this blast going to turn all of Freedom into a wasteland? And how do we stop it?”

PC Oooof. These people knew what they were doing. Cass was really uncomfortable right about now. Whatever they had planned, it was working. Working really, really well. Blackstone… Yes, that was a place Cass didn’t like already. Just mentioning it, and he already was feeling it’s rumoured atmosphere. No, no no. Best to forget about that. It really would be best if Cass maybe toned it down a bit next time something like this could be seen coming. This agent did not screw around. He was ready to track down super-criminals, so much could be told. He also was the one looking less threatening, which made him even scarier than just his words. The humanoid tank, a lot more scary looks wise. Cass’s uneducated guess was that he had enough firepower to take down at least a city-block if it were to come to that. And probably enough to take him down a few times over. He wasn’t as scary when it came to what he was saying. Reasonable arguments, really. By both of them. Cass wasn’t sure how to respond, usually he’d figure out something, but no, blank. His mind didn’t want to think of anything to say. … “Uh… uh … Yeah. I’m certainly going to be more careful in the future, especially around series of conveniences like that entire thing was one...” Bonfire's bodylanguage clearly showed that primarily, he was scared now. He'd expected his eventual meeting with AEGIS to not be so nice, but this was more than he'd planned for in his mind.

Okay, so another Area Blast, trying to get to the outside of the building, if that's anyhow possible. Essentially, create a big and fancy looking explosion. And then, invisibility and flying up to the area above him.

Immediate problem dealt with. Slightly less immediate problem, even if only ba a few seconds? About to go up. Nuclear blast. Another one. Cass really wished he’d have to money to actually afford hospital treatment right about now. And then there was the issue of the now 2 people lying here out cold and possibly dying. FireForm meant no interacting with a phone, or anything to notify emergency services, for a few hours. No way of contacting them the traditional way. There was one way however. Simply cause so much destruction somebody seeing I would call. And that was probably the only option left. But at the same time, Green was left alone to do his thing. And that might even have been the worse option. The reactor was already overloading, but Green probably had some plan to make it worse. And worse probably meant taking down the building, and the surrounding ones too. But if emergency services would be called now, they would maybe still arrive in time to save somebody. Possibly Bonfire too, he wasn’t really in fighting condition anymore. But that didn’t matter now, there wasn’t really a choice. First action first, cause a big enough explosion on the outside of the building. Loud, bright, and visible. Easy enough, that was what Bonfire was good at. And then, he’d just have to fly up to Green, invisible, with all this heat maybe the IR would have less of an effect. It was worth a shot. So, Cass quickly focused his thoughts back into doing something practical, and unleashed another blast of fire, this time focusing on making it look spectacular on the outside of the building, and also having a loud noise with it. Maybe somebody would notice it. And then, he rose upwards, revealing himself behind smoke while ascending. It was time to end this.

Oh sh--- This hadn’t been the plan at all. No, this was really bad. This was really, really bad. Sure, marie was a terrorist and all that, but still. This wasn’t what Cass had planned for. And obviously Green had to be completely fine too. All of this was just a huge downward spiral, and Cass wasn’t sure through how many low-points he’d smacked through head first at this point. Cut-Throat was dangerous. Really, really dangerous. And had possibly just killed Marie. And it was Bonfire’s fault in more than just one way. It was a mix of anger, panic and fear that went through Cassidy Bauer’s mind. He was angry, really angry. He’d been before, and this most recent development had only made that worse. But also he was afraid. Of everything. People dying. Cut-Throat and his knives. The reactor. Green. Anything else Green had planned, there had to be more. Just, everything. If there’d ever be a moment to simply turn tail and run, it’d be this one. But that wasn’t who Bonfire was trying to be. No running, not while people were still in trouble. Maybe Marie wasn’t quite dead yet. Sure, they had been fighting , but Bonfire did not want her to die. Cut-Throat, by now that one was a bit foggy. Death, no, but that was about the only thing there. There was no time to hold back. Just time to fire, fire, and burn. The quicker the better. Any more attacks and Marie would be dead for sure. And Green was still planning something. And had a lot of time now, while the fight down here would be happening. No time to talk. No time for witty comments. No time for moving. Fireballs. The flame that was Bonfire did not move, yet many fireballs shot out from it. Those were needed. And they were not allowed to miss. The first shot did. The second one too. But then Cass finally regained some of his focus, and the other shots didn’t miss. They didn’t miss at all. Straight hits. All of them. Cut-Throat wouldn’t be getting up from this one. Hopefully.