Carces

Kid Cthulhu's blast catches the lady off guard while she is is busy with the hulking beast who had gone crazy, and she barely has enough time to bring her arm up and erect a forcefield to avoid being completely overwhelmed. Still, a number of blasts find their mark, and she is thrown off of the throne due to the sheer concussive blast. Staggered and weakened, she fell on the floor - only barely holding on to consciousness. Unfortunately, the hydra beast does not go down with her mistress, and only seems more enraged. Obviously looking for a way to escape, the beast slams into the aquarium on the other side of the wall, making it leak as well. The fish-people inside this aquarium become frightfully agitated.

Nice shot! I think I'll have a little more time tomorrow. I'll post then! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Death has always been surprisingly good at holding back the tides of the inevitable for long stretches of time. This situation seems no different. Within an instant, the water ceases to leak and the occupants appear lively, if rather agitated by the near-death experience. These poor people will be safe for the time being...

Yep, but keep in mind that it will still pull from your array. While you have the field up you won't be able to use the other Gifts, as per normal.

I'm back! Sorry for the delay. There's been a complication, so hero point to you both. I trust you are still keeping track of how many you have. Lone_Star, if you're still writing finals, don't feel obliged to post until you're ready. I'll be patient. :)

Kid Cthulhu's mental might is more than a match for the magical menace, as his mind-melting magicks meet its mark. The creature writhes in agony, slamming its multiple eel heads into various tables and chairs as it tries to somehow sunder the pain from its many brains. Your victory is short lived, however, when the creature screeches an unholy howl at you, preparing to charge. You're certain you hit something within the multitudes of minds that make up the aquatic adversary, but even the damage you've done has only served to make it angry! "Did you honestly believe you could defeat my greatest creation so easily?" As the witch of the waters is distracted by her own haughty arrogance, Nick takes the opportunity to draw upon the power of the grave, watery or otherwise, drawing the fear of death itself to a stunning climax within the humble seafood establishment. With a gesture, the lady extends her sea-green hand in defense against the wail of the banshee. An invisible dome just out of reach of her manicured fingertips clashes against the Nick's own magics, and the very sound waves themselves seem to be visible, if only for an instant, as they wash past the sorceress. She cackles excitedly as the waves finally dissipate. "You truly have no idea what sorcery you meddle with, do you necromancer? Such hubris! Such..." The extravagant smile upon the self-proclaimed sea-queen fades slowly to a look of terror. At first glance, one might think the banshee's wail perhaps indeed had an effect. However, her gaze falls upon the true source of fear as she watches something within her sea-beast hydra simply snap. Roaring with incredible ferocity, the beast simply goes beserk in a mix of fear and anger as every head and limb of the abomination flails out at anything and everything within reach. Fortunately, for you, neither Nick nor Kid Cthulhu are quite in reach, without being focused on. "No, Creature! You belong to me! Obey your mistress and DESTROY these fools!" The queen's commands fall on deaf ears, as she narrowly avoids a snapping, electrified head from her own minion. It seems the fear effect was not enough to stop the creature from attacking, but it does serve its purpose in some respects. One of the heads smashes hard into the reinforced aquarium hard enough to cause a huge crack, which begins leaking water at an alarming rate. Another head slams in a similar place, deepening the crack as the entire wall aquarium begins to buckle. Despite the wail of the banshee's victory, your hydra troubles do not seem to be over. There's a lot of people in the aquariums, and in their current fishy forms, they will not last long against a cornered hydra's rage!

Mission complete! If you're still in a bid for posts, Fox, we'll be doing the follow up thread pretty quick for the actual kidnapping. Since it's Dragonfly's tracer, I really doubt she'd have a problem getting to the location. I'm just waiting for work to die down a bit on my end.

Without wasting much time, Creature Feature cheerfully bounded towards the door, stopping to spin around and energetically wave to Dragonfly before exiting. "Good night! Thank you for all of your help!" Vance barked as he gave a goofy-looking grin. As he went about exiting the wondrous workshop of technological oddities, Creature Feature allowed his mind to wander while he followed behind Silhouette. What a nice... if kinda odd, scientist lady. Biting his lip in realization that he went through the entire encounter without addressing his host properly, Creature Feature made a mental note to ask Silhouette for the scientist's name before returning.

Creature Feature gently pinched the watch with two claws, his high spirits returning quickly. It was difficult to stay down in the dumps when you get re-invited back to a super scientist's secret lair! "Thank you, ma'am!" He gazed at the watch with wide-eyed wonder, marveling at every little detail. He soon put started to work a hand through the strap in order to wear the watch properly, but stopped before he could wear the watch completely. He'd still need to take a Vance form today, and it would be rather difficult to remove a watch gently with the clawed hands he was sporting. "Time to go?" Creature Feature said as he spun to look at Silhouette. "Is it that late already?" he wondered aloud, despite having just been handed a brand new high-tech watch.

Vance turned to Silhouette and nodded. Looking over the railing from the makeshift second floor, he peered over at the watch, eager to have a closer look. However, turning towards the spiral staircase, he bit the right side of his top lip as he rubbed the top part of his nose. I really don't need another repeat performance of that fiasco. My stupid-clumsy-moment quota is filled for the day! Gathering all of his focus and grace, Creature Feature flipped over the railing in a stunning display of acrobatics, somersaulting through the air with an ease he had never accomplished until this point. Using every ounce of his training with Silhouette, Creature Feature ended his leap to the ground floor with an absolutely silent landing, his legs spread apart in excellent form while his left hand touched the ground for both balance and as a support for whatever he desired as his next move. Giving a second to let the maneuver sink in, Creature Feature gave a goofy grin as he stood upright, saluting as a gymnastics performer would after an Olympic performance. His grin soon faded into a drooped frown when he noticed the only available audience member on the ground floor was the perpetually-distracted Dragonfly.

Work has been picking up lately, leaving me with a lot less free time. I shall still post whenever I can, but I might be delayed for a bit. Sorry!

Really sorry for the delay in posting, guys. Work is really getting crazy. I shall post as soon as I can.

Creature Feature made a disturbed face at Dragonfly's overheard thoughts. This particular skewed werewolf face was, in a rather predictable happenstance, itself rather disturbing to look at, as the odd amalgamation of a canine muzzle and a human expression attempted to present itself to the world with no small amount of difficulty. He leaned in close and whispered gruffly to Silhouette, "Maybe I should avoid an upgrade. Y'know... j-just to be on the safe side." Turning back towards the computer, Vance looked at the information at the computer. With a moment's hesitation, the werewolf carefully rose and leaned over the slightly-too-short railing in order to address the relatively small and as-of-recently intimidating figure of his disturbingly-accommodating host. "U-uh... does the computer have a... a printer or somethin' like that to get the info and stuff out? Uh... preferably without skull-surgery required or eye lasers or anythin'."

"A movie?" Creature Feature considered the disembodied voice's question carefully. It'd be great to have a choice in monsters from a clip. Hrrm... but all the small monsters that meet up are from TV specials and stuff. They look and act too lame for this sorta work. The giant, stomping monster meet-ups are great, but then I'd always be the size of a building... Gotta stick with the basics. That's what Silhouette would say! I hope... After the brief moment of thinking, Vance nodded to himself and spoke up again towards the monitor. "We have the wolf-guy movie still here, right? A quick scene from that'd be fine." Vance smiled as he made his decision. His smile soon faded as the rest of the scientist's discussion sunk in. "W-wait, 'attach?' Like, attach to what? I have really sensitive skin which reacts terribly to... uh... 'installments.'" Feeling the panic return, Creature Feature turned back to Silhoutte. "The scientist person does know I'm not a robot, despite the tiny machine-things, right?"

"I'm... uh... sure we can figure something out. With the kid. And whatever. He's probably a pretty cool guy." Creature Feature scanned for the black box on the shelf amongst the treasure trove of technological odds and ends, stacked neatly (or occasionally not-so-neatly) in some sort of odd order. None of the boxes had labels, from what CF could see, which made him wonder about how the lady knew where everything was. He reached out for the box before stopping himself. Between the stairs and the computer, Vance had enough embarrassing, clumsy moments to fill anyone's dumb moment quota for the day. Deciding against trying for the hat trick, he instead pointed at the box for Silhouette to see.

:P LS Go ahead and post your move when you get a chance, Troll. I'll post results when I get a chance to type for a longer stretch of time. FYI - this guy won't be using minion rules.

Fair enough. My mistake.

Did you use any modifiers to get it up to DC 21, Lone Star? Usually, your mental blast is DC 16 (10 + power rank for Fort/Ref/Will, 15 + power rank for toughness attacks).

"I don't think so. 'cept if I have homework over the weekend or somethin' like that." Creature Feature answered back to Silhouette before pulling his head back at the sound of a speaker and a hammer. Frowning as he glanced around, looking for any obvious signs of a microphone nearby, Vance spoke up. "Yeah, uh... well 'reasonable' is an awfully strong word. At least, it is in this case. Buuuuuut I think I might be able to do it. Maybe." Vance bit his lip - or the equivalent of biting one's lip when one's teeth are too sharp for doing anything but devouring hapless movie victims. This would be a tough sell for sure.

Vance frowned as he skimmed through the list. While there were a few film festivals happening in and around the university district of Freedom City, many of them occured over weekdays and there was no way that he could convince his parents to let him skip school. On top of that, many of the conventions and gatherings happening around this time appeared to be largely professional-development types of gatherings, where film-making hopefuls would gather to hear various lectures from people in the field. While Vance was certain his parents would appreciate an educational angle on the festival, it wasn't the type of atmosphere where getting kidnapped was ideal. Finally, the cursor rested on a home-brewed web page. It seemed that, during an early December weekend, a member of HIT was showing horror movies on a projector out in the commons for a "late night horror extravaganza". He was also inviting anyone who cared to come along. An outdoor attraction in the dark in a place where he was the youngest and would stand out like a sore thumb? Creature Feature grinned to himself, showing off his large row of sharp, jagged teeth. It was definitely the kind of place they were looking for. However, convincing his parents to let him go to something like this would be much trickier. While the showings happened at night every for three nights straight, it wasn't necessarily the kind of convention where Vance could spend all day, presumably. But his parents didn't know that, did they? It was real enough to check on, and if push came to shove, he could always say he was sitting on a lecture or two during the day. It was a tough call that required expert advice. "How about this one?" Vance asked Silhouette as he pointed to the screen.

Creature Feature might be bad for Silhouette's ego. ;)

As the last of the tin soldiers falls to the heroic onslaught of Nick Cimitiere and Kid Cthulhu, the lady of the water slams her fist into her throne. "NO! I will NOT see the servants of the deep DEFEATED by any surface dweller! I will show you a cornucopia of watery horrors, the likes of which you've never dreamed about in your darkest NIGHTMARES!" With a recklessness unbecoming of any sorceress, she pulls two giant watery orbs from both sides of the aquarium that float in thin air and join together in the center of the room. One orb of water contains a couple dozen eels: rather impressively large specimens. In the other orb, a shark swims in circles around the orb over and over while a single lobster floats aimlessly, looking rather out of place. The Lady cackles wildly as she forces the orbs together. "We'll see who laughs now, Heroes! Your ends are nigh!" The watery orb glows with intense magical power, exploding forth in a shower of mist. Taking up most of the room, and standing upon the fallen bodies of the minions you had previously defeated, is a large, hydra-like monster of the sea. The heads appear to be oversized crosses between eels and sharks that squirm and weave in every direction, while arcs of electricity pass between one elongated neck to another. The body, however, is that of an enlarged lobster, complete with two incredibly-large pincers that appear capable of easily snapping a person in half. The sorceress slinks back in her chair, looking rather exhausted, but content with her abomination. "Destroy them BOTH!" the lady yells as she points to you. The hydra's heads turn towards you, as they vie for which head will attack who. With the size of this creature, the length of their necks, and the relatively small size of the parlor, there's nowhere inside that the beast cannot reach!

While it was true that Creature Feature was no stranger to being surprised by Silhouette, and while it was also true that he was attempting to learn as much as he could about fighting and the art of super-heroic war, of which the element of surprise was usually a factor, Creature Feature had a long way to go to taking surprise well. "FWAAGH!" Creature Feature let out the curious mixture of a grunt and a yelp and toppled backwards where he had squatted precariously, sending the rolling chair flying backwards, clanging against the railing of the spiral staircase. "Oh, uh... hi Sil." CF rubbed his head as he addressed his mentor with an appropriate measure of embarrassment. Embarrassing or not, Vance was always glad to see Carrie, particularly in a time of crisis. It would likely take both of their abilities to crack this indecipherable user interface and access... By the time Vance had finished getting up off of the floor, Silhouette had already completed the search. "What?? B-but, how did you... WHEN did you...?" Creature Feature stared at the screen in disbelief for a moment before realizing that Silhouette was waiting for him to browse through the search results. He closed his muzzle tightly as he crouched down again to look at the computer. Figures. Even *aliens* can't make a computer ninja-proof.

He tries so hard. Yeah, I wasn't sure how Dragonfly would set up any of her other systems either. I figured anyone with quickness: mental 6 would die of boredom before Windows managed to boot up properly. :)

Farther away and up one floor from the serious discussion on the motives of a hero was the hunched over figure of a werewolf engaged in a battle he was presently losing. The age-old struggle between werewolf and technology is counted on the disturbingly-low ratio of wins between the werewolf and the silver bullet. While Creature Feature's struggle with the computer upstairs was, perhaps, one that resounded less dramatically through the ages, it was certainly going about as well. Where are all the icons? I *like* icons... Creature Feature frowned at the monitor as he squat down, the chair having been long-since abandoned after several sessions of trial and error regarding sitting comfortably while using the computer. Of course, using implied knowing what to do at a command prompt, a useful tool for a technical genius with an incredible amount of technical talent, keyboarding skill, and the ability to formulate complex algorithms in the same amount of time it takes a normal person to remember their password. Alright, alright... don't panic. Gotta keep a cool head. It's just like fighting a thug, right? Just... with words and commands. The scientist lady talks to the machines, so they gotta be helpful and chatty, right? Right. Let's do this. Taking a deep breath, Vance summoned to his mind everything he knew about computers, until he was entirely satisfied he wouldn't need help. Tapping at the keyboard, one claw at a time, he went to work at the computer. >google 'google' is not recognized as a command or program. >internet 'internet' is not recognized as a command or program. >GOOGLE 'GOOGLE' is not recognized as a command or program. >google.exe 'google.exe' is not recognized as a command or program. >google.com? 'google.com?' is not recognized as a command or program. >internet dammit! 'internet' is not recognized as a command or program. >hlep 'hlep' is not recognized as a command or program. With the age-old standby of asking the computer for help failing him, Vance engaged the screen in a staring contest while clicking the mouse a few times for good measure. This was probably some sort of alien technology, where the earthly concept of 'help' was far too primitive to be included in any sort of operating system. This warehouse sure had some weird stuff in it.