Basarin

That was pretty bad. Save vs. Will DC 25: 7+8 = 15. Taking advice of others, I'm just going to burn the Hero Point that I have to get the "Fearless" feat. If I fudge up any rolls afterward, I can at least deal with it; losing to a roll like this (to a teammate no less!) is just kind of embarrassing. That being said, whenever it's Slipstream's turn, he's flying up to support Lukos; there's more room to maneuver up there than in the ship's hold. Standard Action: Attacking P90 Mook (Blast 10) Move Action: Positioning himself above deck.

Slipstream just shook his head and punched the accelerator to take to the air. However, rather than just shooting to the sky to take into view the deck only, he made sure that he was in a position to support either Lukos above deck or Tank in his impromptu dynamic entry. He muttered as he kept his blaster pistol on hand, "I am so not in charge of this, and so not paying for damages out of my pocket."

My rather disappointing initiative roll. 1d20+5=9 *shakes fist and hopes this doesn't set a trend*

I am really open to anything (within reason, whatever that may be). I still need actual experience running through combat rounds, so it'll all be the same to me.

"Right behind you." The engines were still idling on Slipstream's back, but a low, stronger hum could be heard if you listened closely. "Not much for an 'in-your-face' style fight, but keep me at a distance and I can lay down some hurt." He took the opportunity to draw his blaster pistol; up to now in his new career, he hadn't had the need to use it at all. "Though...how exactly are YOU getting in?"

"Yeah. Just got a report about the docks for the past day or so." He paused, as if listening to something, and nodded. "Okay, thanks, HQ." He then turned to Lycos and Tank. "Funny you should mention cargo ships. There's one ship in particular that's standing out like a sore thumb. Crew hasn't come out since it docked, and no one in port's even made contact with them inside." Nodding to Lycos, he added, "I'm guessing it's that ship your nose's picked up. Would be a good place to start at least, though we don't have any intel on what's IN there; we're going in blind."

Is it already established for the characters that the ship's the target (or will be established)? If not, I was thinking maybe Slipstream can use his security clearance with AEGIS to get information (satellite data or whatnot) of the port to get a better idea of what's going on. If they're headed straight there, then disregard what I just suggested.

"The port'd be my guess," Slipstream suggested. "If they're going near the ocean, we can at least narrow down the search down to the port. Better than the whole darn city." Turning to Tank, he explained, "Just a guess, but maybe they were figuring to hightail it on a boat and hide out in the middle of the ocean. It'd make a rescue operation a lot harder, that's for sure." Still, the fact that they might have just effectively narrowed their search to something more manageable gave Slipstream pause for thought...

"We should probably hurry then." Slipstream didn't seem like one for just sitting down and waiting. "If we sit around for too long, then we WILL have to play treasure hunt in every street." His tone indicated his own thoughts on THAT potential disaster. "Besides, they're not going to oblige us and just wait until we get there. The sooner we can find out where they are, the sooner we can surprise them."

He answered, "I was a pilot. And I was pretty good at it." He shrugged as he continued, "I wanted to fly and be a superhero, but I never got any powers. So I took the next best step and flew for AEGIS. Then I got lucky with this thing." He knocked a hand against the metallic surface of the jetpack. "Long story about how I got this thing, but after we got it, they made an offer to let me fly with it. So here I am." Glancing eastward where Lukos did, his eyes narrowed behind his visor. "So, east huh? If you can track down where the scent goes, I might have more for us to go on. We're going to have to follow your nose there; you have a heck of a better idea of where to go than any of us do right now." Turning his head toward the gasmasked hero, he asked, "And you? How'd you get started in this whole superhero gig?"

"Fair enough." Ian was just as impressed at Tank being able to make the trip he did in a single bound as Lukos was. Entering the bank first, he asked, "So what do you expect to find in here? CCTV footage? License plate tracking? A ransom note snarking at us?" His voice might have had a light-hearted "take it as we come" tone to it, but his face was entirely obscured by the silver helmet; no facial expression could be seen otherwise. As they entered, he also added to his question, "And what're you making of all this? You look like you've been around the block for a bit, and I wouldn't mind an opinion to refer against when we find something I can double check with AEGIS about."

Ian nodded and began to follow Lukos, then looked at Tank as he passed by. "The sooner we can finish this, the sooner we can find and save those people. Besides, if we put our heads together on this, it'll go that more smoothly." He then continued to follow Lukos; he had a mission to complete, and Lukos looked like his only real lead. As he didn't want to go back to base empty handed, there really wasn't much of an option to begin with.

"You can track by smell, huh?" Ian shook his head. "And no, I don't have anything belonging to the victim. I also don't know if my case is really related to yours either. But if we find anything that we can use when we find your friend, I can cross reference with the AEGIS databanks and narrow things down from there." He shrugged as he adjusted the weight of his jetpack, which was still idling, as he followed Tank out of the alleyway. "And while I could be wrong, I haven't really heard of any other kidnapping case outside of mine. Well, yours included now," he corrected himself quickly. "Unless command gets back to me with some data (which I'm not expecting), I'm working on a clean slate."

He looked at Tank for a moment before shaking hands with him. "Name's Slipstream, and no, I'm not an alien. Would be cool, though." He dusted himself off before adding, "I'm looking for leads on a possible kidnapping case, but I've come up with about nil. Then I run into you guys. Literally the only out of place people I've found tonight." Looking around, he asked, "And you guys? What're you around here for?"

If it's not too late to sign up, I'd like to have Slipstream join in the fight.

"Whoah. I actually heard that one," Ian muttered in surprise. His HUD immediately sprang to work figuring out where the heck the voice came from. It didn't take long, and the helmet provided him the coordinates to zero-in on. "...well, not like I've got any better leads or anything." He eased the jetpack into an almost gliding descent and made his way towards the source of the voice (and vaguely wondered if he'd find broken windows along the way). It didn't take him too long to arrive, and as he approached the source he looked up in surprise at what was possibly a hero, and...a green alien? After a moment, he shrugged. Not that much stranger than what you ran into a few nights ago, he thought to himself. He landed a few feet away from the two after cutting his engines early (something he learned was a necessity with the temperamental thing) and slid along the ground for a moment before coming to a full stop. Getting up to his feet, he looked at the two and asked, "Okay, which one of you's the loudspeaker here?" His voice has a somewhat mechanical tone to it, as if speaking through a modulator.

Becoming a hero was less fun than Ian had first imagined. Of course, this may have been partially due to the fact that it was a government-agency run show, with all the stereotypical inefficiencies that came with it. Case-in-point: his new mission. His superiors passed down on his plate the responsibility for the search and rescue of a colonel's family member, someone who apparently worked at the docks in Port Regal. It was his job to go in and find him, and come back in time for someone else to claim credit for his work (he'd suffered that far too often as a regular pilot). No support, no additional information; just go in gun blazing or just find the target on the first pass. And his superiors probably wondered why Ian was less than thrilled with those conditions. "Going in blind, jetpack still finicky, and no support. Hoo-frakking-yay," he grumbled. To be fair to his superiors, normally they were better about these sorts of things, but as this was a last minute mission that had the urgency of needing to be finished by yesterday, they had to mobilize the one asset they had that could be out and doing something at a moment's notice; him. Not that he was any happier about it. He was flying high enough above South Freedom that he could see quite a bit of the city, the port facilities included. For the moment, however, he simply kept his helmet keeping tabs on any possible disturbance or leads he could fish out to even get started on his job.

Dang. Just noticed this thread, but looks like I was beaten to the punch before I could volunteer Slipstream. I'm still interested, though (and will keep an eye on this regardless).

Slipstream sketched them both a salute with his right hand. "Until the pencilpushers back at base find something for me to do, I've got a blank slate. If you need an extra body in a fight, let me know. Thanks for the chat!" With that, the engine flared to life and the hero sped off towards the skyline, his body seeming nothing more than a blue blur; being able to hit 200 miles per hour would do that. The contrail in his wake seemed stable enough for awhile...until it started to form a vaguely disorganized spiral. As he sped towards what was probably Crash #6 of the day, he muttered angrily into the radio, "HQ, after this concussion, I'm coming back home. And SOMEONE'd better give this thing a lookover."

Slipstream took the sheet of paper. "I really appreciate it," he said. "And no offense, but I hope I don't have to take you up too soon on that offer." He pocketed it in one of the various pockets on the jumpsuit. "It's not that I don't want the help. I'm just kind of hoping to get something done on my own first...if that makes sense." As polite and humble as he might have appeared, it looked like he did have some pride to nurse. He took two steps back before he revved his engine to life, propelling him about two feet up into the air in a hovering pattern. Thankfully, the blast didn't start any fires nearby. "So yeah. Whenever I'm out, though, I wouldn't mind running into either of you again."

"Not even a little bit." Even through the voice modulator, his frustration was all too apparent. "AEGIS didn't make it, and it's not like I've got a PhD or anything; I just fly the thing. Or try to. We got it from a raid on a villain group, and I'm the one who has to try and get this up to speed." He nodded to Fleur, and pointed to an area to their right while adding sheepishly, "She just saw my last attempt to land properly with this. If her grass didn't grow over it already, I think there's still a me-sized crater a bit that way. It's like trying to play an import game that thinks you can read the manual in Japanese." He shrugged again. "Kind of why I'm hoping the first big thing I have to go up against isn't an actual villain. Though at least I know my gun actually, y'know, works..."

"Whoah." Slipstream seemed to be saying that a lot tonight. He picked up that the two seemed to be something of an item, but he didn't comment about it. "And yeah, Fleur's been saying a lot about it. Sounds like a good way to go." Just hope I don't have to make a decision between that and orders down the road, he thought to himself. ...or maybe falling on my face five times with this stupid thing's making me pessimistic. Didn't you jump at the call, Ian? Banishing those thoughts out of his head, he looked at the shadowy Dark Star and asked, "So quiet night for you too? From where I was flying around (well, trying to), there was a grand total of nothing. Not that I have an issue with that."

"Um...thanks?" Slipstream extended a gloved hand to accept the daisy from Stesha. He then shook his head. "Well, if nothing else, it's been an interesting night so far. Jetpack testing my insurance plan, running into you and watching a small forest grow..." He pocketed the flower in his breast pocket while he kept speaking, "...and now I'm getting a vague idea of what kind of life I'm getting into on top of all that. And there's probably more details out there lining up to smack me on the head." He took a deep breath and stopped. "Okay, minirant done. I'll probably look back at this down the road and laugh at myself or something."

"I really couldn't tell you. We stole this thing from a villain group, but we could never figure things out about it." He shrugged and rapped a knuckle against the metallic surface. "No documentation, no gift card, no warranty...and no instruction manual. Part of the reason why we can't figure this stupid thing out." Standing up, he added, "Well, hope I get the hang of this sooner than later. God knows what sort of weirdo villain I'll run into first." He looked thoughtful for a moment as he watched flowers grow in fast forward. "...hero work without fighting, huh?"

"Well, I've been working with 'em for a few years already," he admitted, "Just not as a hero. I was a pilot before I got this." Speaking of the jetpack, he knelt on one knee and tweaked with the settings a little bit as best as he can (not that he was an expert at it). "They're alright, though I get the feeling red tape's going to strangle me more than a villain would. But not much I can do about that." He looked up and watched Stesha work her abilities around the park. He whistled a low tone in admiration. "Niiice...Bet people love you for stuff like that." Not seemingly having any luck with the temperamental device, he said while still fiddling around with the settings, "And I hope the learning curve doesn't turn into a cliff. If I tried fighting someone right now, I'd probably have a chance at taking him down from the guy laughing too hard at me. How long'd it take you to adjust?"