Poncho

Michael gave Charlie a thumbs up to confirm that everything was good now as the conversation moved on. He wasn't going to worry about it anymore, at least. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Callie. I'll try not to harsh your vibe too much." He wasn't concerned, friends of Charlie were people he'd generally be positive to. He offered an indifferent hrm to the question of the Headmistress. "She's not that bad, but I've also not dealt with her too much. I'm hoping that changes next year; not in a negative way though. Junior year is already almost Senior year, and Senior year is almost graduation! i've got to make sure that my extracurriculars are all accounted for on transcripts." this was a lie. He'd actually started all that stuff earlier this year, of course. You could never be too prepared! "Anyway, if you'd rather us get out of your hair, we can respect it, I think I see Sam leaading the others out to dance, and we're not connected to the band after all." he said with a wink at Charlie. "I'd hate to cramp your style; how can you be the cool guy leaning against the pillars with that smirk on your face when someone's talking to you, you know." he said in good humor and fully expecting Charlie to rib him back. Meanwhile, Sam had commandeered part of the dance floor for the combined students of Claremont and North Bay. While Michael had taken a table by talking with club workers and putting down a deposit, Sam controlled her little fiefdom on the dance floor with toxic looks and a stance that made those who weren't welcome stay away. That section was for Claremont and North Bay, simple as, and in that section she was having fun with her dancing, even if she didn't even have anyone to dance with, she was going to have her own fun.

Yes

"Of course, Code names from here on." He smiled as he took Puma's arm in his own to walk with her behind the Freedom Leaguer. He knew he was the +1, and he was going to play to that; he was supportive and he had no issues not being the most important person in the room; if anything he had gotten pretty good at that. So he kept his arm on hers and waved politely at each person. He cheered politely for Destin but did not step into the way; he was meeting the Patriot, and Golden Star was not going to get in the way of that or even imply that he was anything here; he was a polite, friendly, and open Superhero who was happy to be the third most important Hero here. He had never traveled with a Superhero before, not really, but he had practiced things like this, and he wanted to make a good impression, so even if he was limited in actionable experience, he managed to present himself well and diplomatically, shaking hands and smiling for cameras. For their romantic life, however, he worked to skillfully avoid many questions- especially those that cute too close-, or if he was answering honestly, he gave the answer in such a way that it was hard to tell if it was a joke or not. "Yes, we were working together as Heroes before we dated. We mutually asked each other out on Valentine's day, right before that surprise Alien Issue, if you remember that. So you could say our first date was protecting the City itself. Puma is a wonderful Hero and a credit to both herself and her mentor, I look up to her quite a bit." he said with a wave. "I'm lucky to have someone like her." he was confident in his answers and spoke up about Puma without putting himself, or others, down. However, he was also making sure he wasn't hogging spotlight or speaking too much. It was all a difficult balancing act, and one he was trying his best to maintain. All without making Carmen uncomfortable either. He wasn't going to talk for her, but if she needed help, he was there to give it.

"Come now, Rex." Dwayne said almost teasingly to the younger man as he adjusts his suit and checks his alien watch. "If I wasn't up for some rescue work, I wouldn't have been an EMT, and I definitely wouldn't have taken the offer to join the family." he looked across, to the other room, the portal and the different dimension, and nodded. "I'm ready when everyone else is, so let's get to it; we can't know what's on the other side until we get there, I would assume? So we'll have to be careful and keep our wits about us. But I'm sure we can managed whatever is going on." He said confidently. "And if someone's in need of help, then there's no way I can look away."

Inspire 3 on: Blue Bolt, Torpedo Lass II, Sever, Spaceman, and Timeout. drops my HP to 2. EDIT: to clarify, that's +3 to Attacks, Saving Throws you make, and skill checks for the round, until my turn comes back up again.

"Ow." Michael had landed on his back, hurled off by Paradigm with a powerful toss and landing a distance away. "Well that sucked." he groaned as he slowly got up, very unstable on his feet. He'd already given most of his power to Parker, and whatever else he had was minimal, and he was exhausted from stretching his powers, getting hit by creatures, grappling Paradigm, and everything else. He was very tired. Which wasn't something he had been for a very long time. As he got his bearings back around, he had to pause. He couldn't keep pushing like he was, he was straining against the boundaries of his possible limits, and he was smart enough at sports to know that doing that was how you ended up ruining things. So he paused. And waited. He looked at what was going on, and his friends. Then he brought his hands to his mouth and released an ear splitting whistle. "Alright!" his voice was loud, reaching out like a thunderbolt- or the sound of a sun lash- as he yelled. He was bloody and bruised and his shiny uniform was cut and damaged, but he was still standing up resiliently, no matter what went against him. "Blue Bolt! Keep it up! You're doing great! Keep Buzz safe until you can get him over here!" he paused and looked around. "Once you get Buzz here, can you help Sever and Super Cav? We should try to gather back up here, especially now that Timeout has shown he can fight this stuff." He turned his attention to the stranded Ryan and Mizuki next "Sever, Super Cav! Stay at each other's backs and try to get over to some support! I know we left you out to dry but you're fine, just try to slowly work your way back to us without leaving the other behind! You get close enough to us and we can all meet back up!" He paused and took a deep breath because his ribs were hurting but he didn't flinch as he looked at Parker and Lawrence. "Spaceman, I can't carry you anywhere right now, so you may be stuck here until I can catch my breath." he paused and looked at Paradigm. "...Unless Paradigm will be kind enough to hurl you into another pile of drones?" he suggested. "Because you and Blue Bolt were definitely doing the most in getting rid of all these things, and the clearer the skies are, the less we're getting worn down by a thousand cuts." "Timeout, I'll be right here to keep them off you, but I'm getting the feeling you're gonna have to do that trick again on some more of our opponents; so...I'm relying on you to do what I know you can do, because I have complete confidence in you." he said with absolute conviction.

using Inventor to make a tracker device here is a valid use; it's not going to use the exact Inventing rules, instead we're just making a single Craft Electronic or Mechanical roll- which can also have Aid applied so you can work together-, and success means getting better results that will require less calibration and thus less sneaking around in a Dennis Deacon infested town/municipal area. Obviously you could intentionally take the failure to require the maximum amount of calibration and get a HP each instead.

(GM Post) "Interesting..." Shine said, frowning. "So some sort of electronics...that does explain why there have been electrical problems as well; so this really is a multi-pronged epidemic, a physical disease changing from person to person, and some sort of electrical problem. Combined, if it swept across the county, or the state, it could cause severe destabilization. This might be the start of a terrorist or extra-terrestrial attack, at this rate." The Agent muttered, looking between the gathered heroes. "You can take whatever you need from this train to see if you can build some sort of tracker to find the source of this and take it down before it spreads any further. We can stay in contact as well and if you need heavy firepower, we can scramble a jet to bury something in firepower." she looked at a screen, then at the bodies in the containers, and shuddered a little. "We'll be hitting the last stop before Woodbury in a few minutes. If you need to keep looking at these corpses you can, but as soon as you're done I'm going to incinerate them. As soon as you're ready we'll send you out to try and find the source and set it down."

Diamondlight was carefully winning at poker. He was one of the most skilled gamblers in the entire universe, after all! A robot just trying to figure things out couldn't match up to him, at least not at first. But it was getting better. It was using every hand played, not just by the light manipulator, but every person playing against her, to increase her own skill at the game. "Hrmm, this is very interesting!" she mumbled. She gestured to one of the cameras using a spare hand and it seemed to cut away from Diamondlight's table for a moment. "Alright, let's get you a confessional here, you're getting a bit of ratings buzz, you and uh..." she pulled up an electronic screen momentarily. "I think their name in your tongue is Ziz? One of the Titans Three." she pointed over to a bird like alien at a far table. "So let's get you two set up; if you keep winning maybe we'll get you two on the same table in a few rounds, throw a little trash talk, stuff like that." she says as one of the drones pulls a bit closer to Diamondlight. Through camera tricks and twisting, it reflected a screen back showing Diamondlight at the table, by himself, the spotlight focused on him. "Alright, When the counter hits 0, the camera will swap to you. You're gonna be directly on camera, so talk about what you're here for, any family members or some heartstring tugging, that sort of stuff. Play up the emotion, or the smugness; make them care for you. The better you act, the more people either love or hate you, the more challenge and spotlight I can give you." Meanwhile, the other Tun was handling Mz. Grue, Shooting Star, and Pan. "What the Sprigori care about, hrm?" she thought as she looked at Pan and the other two. "Well. They truly care only about entertainment, but they're quite bad at it. They made AIs like me and my competitors to try and have good entertainment. They live somewhat similar to you humans in family structures, but their entire lives are handled by automated robot helpers powered by the infinite energy of their sun captured in a Dyson Sphere. My unfounded assumption is that the reason they were able to surpass human ingenuity was that they never developed the concept of entertainment; they never relaxed, never paused, until there was truly nothing left to do. And then they needed something to do afterwards. Thus it lead to the creation of me and my 'family'; all their entertainment delivered by AI, for them. If your ratings drop, you start losing viewers, then they start cutting your power. I was born at the end of a dying network, and thanks to Uearth's video games and sports, I've become the highest rated network on the grid. Which means the others are all constantly after me. So I must constantly be better, lest they take over from me and I starve to death." She said all this with her same cheerful, happy tone. Even talking about her possible terminal ending did nothing to stop her positivity, or maybe her insanity. "They do like violence, but they also like stories. They're not very creative, so sometimes you have to do the thinking for them, if you know what I mean; that does mean you can sort of...lead them on, story wise. If you lay the ground work, they'll follow along with it. But you still have to tell a good story. They're not really that different from humans in the macro; you all like the footballs and the gambling, right? They're the same way. They don't want to play, or gamble, but they want to text their friend and be like 'oh I could have done this so much better!', you know what I mean? Even if it's just a poor girl fighting for her family." she grins at Shooting Star. "Or an Alien making her grand debut on the stage." she looks at Mz. Grue. "Or...something else!"

Alrighty! Kazra Initiative Results 1d20+7: 26 [1d20=19] Kazra Stealth Results 1d20+15: 34 [1d20=19] Esquire Initiative Results 1d20+9: 21 [1d20=12] Esquire Notice Results 1d20+14: 32 [1d20=18] Drones Initiative Results 1d20+5: 13 [1d20=8] Drones Notice Roll: Results 1d20+8: 12 [1d20=4] So Esquire spots everyone except Kazra, while Neko, Daniel, and Lawrence are all hidden from the Drones for now. Neko: 28, 1HP Kazra: 26, Staggered, 2x Bruised, 2x Injured Timeout: 21, 4HP Esquire: 21 Drones: 13, 6 of them Iris: 4 2HP Daniel: 4 @Avenger Assembled it is Neko's turn. You have a rough idea of where Esquire is since he isn't exactly hiding himself, and the Drones aren't hiding either.

As the group settled on branches, prepared for a battle, the drones swept up and around, beeping and chirping. They flashed an alert when they happened to find Iris, starting to circle around her. Meanwhile, from a few dozen yards away, there was the sound of a bolt being pulled back. "Tech-No. The hangers-on are here. Hotshot, get back around here. And release TOG 1 and TOG 2, we're gonna need the big guns here." He kept the same stiff upper lip British accent, even as he prepared for combat; ready to go. Whatever was being sent back to him wasn't heard, since it was an ear worn communicator. But there was no reason to doubt it was happening.

(Golden Star Post) "Yeah...Isn't that the truth." Michael agreed. "It's not a big deal that she's leaving, but the fact she just heads off on her own without telling anyone and sometimes doesn't come back in time for class is concerning. She's...well she deserves better than that. And I want to help her but maybe you're right that I'm just pressuring her too much, instead I should just let her handle it her way...I've actually been pretty lucky finding great friends like you two, and I think she's struggling a lot more." he said, smiling at both of them genuinely. "And...yeah. We've been...arguing lately. We used to only pick at each other but we've had actual arguments. When we got back from 'Vacation' we had a yelling fight; she was mad she didn't get to go, I was exhausted from the fact I had to help hold down Paradigm, among all the other things that happened, and her complaining that she 'didn't get to go' made me angry for a moment. I shouldn't have lashed out at her. I apologized for it, but I still feel bad for lashing out. She just wanted to be involved." He noted, frowning. "Plus, I don't think she's getting along with her squad, the other three are excluding her apparently." He shook his head. "Sorry, I'm dumping garbage on you two that isn't even mine to share. I just feel bad about it." he stomped his foot. "Honestly, I could go for a fly or a swim myself. Maybe we should all head down to the pier? Might be nice to do some night flying or night swimming, respectively."

Michael frowned as Mr. Murtagh got out of the bus, but he wasn't going to argue. Instead he made his way to the front to watch from the window as the man called out. "...Don't you think it would be better for one of us to go out with him?" he half-asked no one, half asked the others as he leaned over the dividing seatback to watch the interaction curiously. "If it's a damage tire or something one of us could probably help lift the car or something, right?" He didn't really make a move himself at that exact moment; he was too respectful to do anything like that, and while he was always a very nosy person, he was also trying to be more thoughtful these days. Enough dangerous adventures with Lawrence had made him realize the benefit of slowing down, at least for a moment, to examine the situation. So instead he looked at the others to see what they felt like the goal should be here.

Michael didn't stop! Not while they only had a few seconds to get everything done before those troops went crazy! He needed to take out as many as he possibly could! So he rushed through the smoke and out the other side, bringing his hands back before clapping them forward, sending out a wave of force from his hands and pushing the disoriented soldiers back as he did so! "Don't stop! Let's keep moving up, just take them out if they're in the way and keep going up, fighting them all seems like it might be impossible!"

I want to use a HP to get the Super-Strength Power Feat for Shockwave; creating the effect of a cone shaped area with Length 80 feet and Width at the end of 80 feet. It's a Reflex save of 18 to half the damage, and a Toughness of 23 for no save, and 19 for saved.

Michael got what was going on here; he had an older brother. But he understood what being a younger sibling was like, so he just smiled cheerfully at the sibling's play and waited to be acknowledged. When she did, he waved at her. "Yup. I'm Michael Adon, and I'm ready to do super science. Or to learn about how you manage such a large and broad company. I'm interested in that as much as the actual science; good bureaucracy is a science all it's own, after all." He said, extending his hand to offer to shake Tracy's, and maybe get Parker out of the headlock in a gentler way as he did so.

let's roll Initiative and also Stealth, trained or untrained.

(GM Post) With the invisible, hissing, tormenting cats left behind, the group went through Lawrence's Portal, and back into the mists. They landed across several of the branches of the same tree that Kazra was hiding in, and she took a moment to register surprise before raising her fingers to her lips. Her statement was whispered. "Quiet. Being hunted." She said frantically. "Brave of you to come, but we must be careful." A gun shot split the air and the tree near the Lost World's inhabitant, and she moved to the side. A cutting british accent hissed through the air afterwards, yelling loudly. "Oh ho! There's no use hiding! I was just coming here to hunt some Dinosaurs, but taking out a prize like a real human who lives here will be way beyond a T-Rex skull in the sitting room! But we can all be civilized about this, now can't we?" said the man who was 'cheating' at a life or death hunt. The mist was hiding the group fairly well, but it was also hiding the man himself; he must have some sort of special scope to let him see through it. The sound of a rifle being reloaded split the air momentarily as he prepared for another round. "Tech-No, get the drones back around, let's keep her pinned in." He wasn't exactly aware that the Claremont Students had moved into this battlefield, which gave them an advantage.

(GM Post) Bernadette "Folks. She has handed me the cover of the magazine in question. We'll be getting this on the station website as soon as this interview finishes so we can get it out to you." Thomas said, suitably dramatically. "Plus a link to the interview if we can. The cover is quite something." He said appreciatively as he looked at the cover. When she brought up the hard work and her other bandmates, he nodded along, thinking about how to phrase his next questions. "It sounds like a great situation to have ended up in; did you get your band together before or after you got to school? I imagine getting together with like-minded people in a scholarship school like you're in would help make the band be more cohesive, so everyone has the same goals in mind." He's intentionally being vague about what school Bernadette is a student at, since he doesn't want to end up revealing something she'd rather not reveal; privacy was very important for stars after all. "It's really interesting to hear a frontwoman whose so intune about keeping the group operating and working together on the same page; it's a humble way to view your situation and your relationships to your band mates. What would you say gives you that sort of view point? Just general experience with your family?"

(Golden Star Post) "Uhh...yeah." Michael said to Mizuki, shaking his head. He was clearly frustrated and he rubbed his face with his hands as he thought about what to say. When he finished rubbing his face he looked up into the sky. "Some of the teachers asked me to check on her because she wasn't turning in her homework. She's smart enough to do it all, she just...well she's strong-willed, I suppose that's the way to say it. And I don't think she's adapting well here. it's sort of my fault we're here in the first place, and she didn't want to change schools even if it was for the best. We've been friends for awhie, but I feel like I haven't managed to be a good friend lately. We had a big fight after we got back from uh...well the past. And I don't know that we ever got over it. Things have just been strained lately. I'm sorry if we caused you some issues, or if she's caused you problems in the dorms. She's a great friend, really." he said seriously. "But, thanks for checking in, Mizuki." he gave a smile that was a lot less open and forceful than his usual ones, more lopsided and awkward. He offered a wave to Vueriz as well. "Hey Vueriz. Sorry if we bothered you. How are you holding up?"

Michael was honestly surprised that he could even lift the tank. It was heavy, taking every ounce of his effort and every cell of his body working in tandem, but with a heave that crunched the ground beneath his feet and left a small crater, he tipped it over with a primal roar, as if it was revenge for how thoroughly he had been embarassed by the first tank the pair had gotten into. "Alright! In we go!" Michael yelled, not sure where exactly Daniel was in the smoke, but knowing it was time to get into the building before the smoke finished clearing and everyone opened fire on them. He was burning bright and glowing gold as he rushed into the building, his fists clenched and ready to go; if he saw a bad guy, he was ready to deliver some two fisted justice to these fake video game not exactly Nazis!

Michael could not believe that this was working. Somehow he had managed to actually impress these Deep Ones just by smiling and introducing himself and shaking hands? Maybe he was better at this then even he knew. That one that looked like it was maybe a female- He couldn't really tell, but it did look a bit like Aquaria- seemed to be appreciative of his efforts in particular. Maybe this was good; cross-species friendships could be beneficial. Especially between younger generations. As they supplanted the elders, younger people with difference beliefs could move forward society, and he could start here with a Deep One who was maybe around his age. He smiled brightly at her and gave her a little thumbs up. He was actually still pretty uncomfortable, especially once they started hopping around and croaking, but he was admonishing himself at the same time for being so uncomfortable. So he gritted his teeth and doubled his effort of trying to be nice and inviting to them, trying to get over his own nerves. "Yes! I would love to hear the song of the stars!" he said, thumping his own chest powerfully. "I am a Star myself! The Golden Star! I want to hear your songs!" Please don't let them drive him insane or turn him into a weird frog monster or something.

"Well, that's definitely...interesting." Dwyane mumbled, looking back and forth at the bear in the room and the bear in Rex's hands. "Same bear, different dimension, you think?" he asked the others. "I don't suppose some of this equipment could do a more detailed analysis and see if we're dealing with a copy." He hadn't even, and wasn't going to, acknowledge the remark given to Rex and the others; he had heard worse, and he wasn't going to raise up to a simple taunt like that. "I could try to do some distance perception on it but obviously it wouldn't be a scientific sensory like the equipment can probably do."

Michael placed his badge on his neck with a smile and a quick thanks, looking around at the decor in the building. He wanted to talk about the way this building's layout was designed, it's thoroughfare and presence. But he realized this was not the company for it, so he just smiled and nodded as he listened to Parker. "So they're looking into just about anything, huh? I wonder if I can help them with some energy studies...or maybe they can help me? Hrmm." he pondered. "But they're working with psychics too? Like...what, trying to awaken everyone's third eye or something?" he looked at the twins. "Like why is it that people always suggest everyone has latent psychic powers, that's clearly not the case, right? This is such a cool place to be, there's plenty of research I'd love to see, even if I probably couldn't understand even the start of it."

"Ye..yeah. I'm Golden Star. M'am." he said, extending his hand. He was about as flustered as her. "And of course I know the Patriot. I mean. I know the Hero, the Patriot. Of course." He clarified. "Um, yeah. If Carmen's fine with it, I can put on the game face. I'm actually pretty good at the whole...presentation thing. I've put a lot of practice into it. Since before I had powers, I've been practicing to be in front of cameras." He grinned, truthfully, and chuckled a little. That was an open and honest statement to the Patriot, something that showed what kind of person he was under the cape; someone who'd been working on public image for a long time. "Puma is...yeah, she's telling the truth. We started doing some studying, and then heroing. Me, Her, and a few of our friends; you know Timeout, obviously, plus Spaceman and Torpedo Lass and Gamma Buzz, if you've heard of them. And then I asked her out. On Valentine's day even! Right before Paradigm showed up and we got to save the world with Fleur De Joie. I mean, we danced at the Christmas party, and then it took me three months to finally manage to ask her out, we ended up being busy a lot... But I couldn't stop being impressed by her; she's saved my butt quite a few times. She's someone I have to admit I look up to in her skill at dealing with things...even if she's not always aware of how much I look up to her." He laughed again. "She's handled villains I was struggling with with no issue, my...uh..." he frowned. "Well she's not a knight in shining armor. But she's a Hero's Hero." he decided on saying for her. "The same as you, of course. So I think we work well together. She's uh...she's cute when she puts in all her effort to be social because she wants to match up to me." he scratched his cheek momentarily. "...Sorry. I'm gushing about her. I didn't mean to."