Ari
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Freedom City PBP: A How-To Guide
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OOC thread for this thread. Spectre and Sun Dragn and Dio are attacked by ghosts! And it's all someone's fault! No possibility to make the Reflex save here, so everyone gets an HP. Except for you, Buddy Dio. @Darksider42
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"I hear many things," Leroy said brightly, "usually they are merely my own imagination, or Dio playing a prank-!" He paused, a white jacket in his hands. "Usually, they are more specific." The white jacket in his hands turned, something inside it filling the sleeves and looking into his face. Stale, cigarette air tangled with the reek of decay. In Max's hands the grey robe also filled. The hood had fallen forward, covering a gaunt, snarling face whose hollow eyes gazed into hers. They spoke, in the same voice and with the same words. "It's your fault." And then the costume mountain came alive. Sleeves and trouser legs filled with unseen, monstrously-strong limbs, reaching and curling around the three super-powered students. Capes, shawls and scarves slithered out, tying themselves into snakelike ropes coiling about the necks and legs of the teens. Dio bucked and struggled furiously, roaring in fury, to the hoarse, rustling snicker of the animated cotton and polyester. "Hurrah!" Max heard Leroy yell above the growing havoc, "Finally, ghosts!"
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"An exposition?" Leroy turned around in his seat, lights racing the depths of his suddenly pitch-black eyes. Behind his head, the pillar of light began to pulse in a steady rhythm, black and white lights melding with increasing speed into a cold, searing grey. "I have heard of the good works of this Taker. Is the school in affiliation with them or their hoardings? Should we construct some prosthetic limbs? I have heard such is their speciality!" He swiveled around the other way, addressing Benicio across the room "Good Mr. Wang, perhaps you would be kind enough to attend? Your native gifts are splendid, and could open many doors!" The light around his crystal subsided, and the Dragon Prince of Earth-2 eagerly turned back to it. It had taken on a cylindrical appearance, and the sandwich was gone. The interior was some sort of free-floating mass within the crystal confines. "Crude, but effective." Leroy smiled, waving a hand over the top of the cylinder. A perfectly fresh sandwich materialized atop it, with the same ingredients as the leftovers fed into it. But these vegetables glistened, the bread steamed and the cheese was perfectly melted. "This was how Mother solved world hunger," he said cheerily, "after the planet surface proved inhospitable and resistant to agriculture. When the ground could unleash stonetigers and the seas boil with whalesquids, one must think outside the box!" He frowned. "Wait. This is putting your thoughts into a box..." He lapsed into grim silence, stroking his chin and squinting suspiciously at the magical sandwich-dispenser.
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Let's do Intelligence. DC10 + rank, so DC11. 11. So that's good.
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Staring at his schoolmate in no little astonishment(flinching noticeably at the description of his mother as an 'asshole', reflexively glancing at the sun), Leroy started to shiver as she neared the end. "Ms, Thurs...no, Astrid." His eyes were full of tears, his voice wavering, "I never thought anyone here could understand. It was so silly, and I...I have so many blessings. But...it is still so miserable..." Putting his arm around her shoulders, he thumped her equally hard on the back. "Thank you. I will not forget what you said. If you would take me as your student, regardless, I would be honoured." He indicated her luggage, "May I lend my might, comrade at arms?"
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Leroy and Dio glanced at each other anxiously when Ava Johansen rushed to Astrid, but their contented attitude never wavered. With a happy giggle, the boy rolled across the floor in his stone swaddling clothes to the circle of other children. Awkwardly levitating upright, the deep rumble of his powers thrumming the air, he looked curiously around at the others. <"Hello!"> he said brightly, his sunny face at stark odds with the pained wailing of Astrid in the background, <"Why are we in a circle?"> Flapping and scrabbling and hopping up the bookcase next to Louise, Dio glanced down nervously at Ava. Tail lashing furiously, the tiny wyrmling scurried closer, saying aloud "Hrg, R'luurulu, k'mon down to thssss, the serkel!" Eyes flicking back and forth, he whispered a word. The light in front of her eyes changed, filtering to reveal a simple, blunt message: 'CAN YOU READ AVA'S MIND?'
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Dio looked up at the teacher, his stubby tail lashing back and forth, his pearly-white bone plates quickly sheathing behind thin reptilian lips. Suddenly turning back to Leroy he shouted "BORK!" At the word of power, earth and stone burst from the floor and rose up around the squalling boy, sealing him in a cocoon that left his head exposed. The effect was instantaneous, Leroy abruptly quieting and snuggling deeper into his cradle of stone, gurgling happily to himself. <"We were just playing, instructor,"> he said in crystal-clear Atlantean, golden eyes shining guilelessly, <"is Mother on her way? She promised to skip the executions this time, and take me to see Cousin Adrian!"> Dio managed to make even his monitor-like face look contrite and soulful as he gazed up, adding in his own, oddly-still way of speaking "Jah, m'soree. Kan I szit with Lulururu, Ava?"
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Little Leroy sat up slowly, his huge eyes roving to take in his new surroundings. He was back in a smaller, kid-sized version of the costume he'd come in with, and the boxy hair surrounding his head was even more adorable than before.His lower lip began to tremble. Standing up by degrees, he took in a long, deep breath. "WAAAAAAAAAAH!" Red-faced and shrieking, he ran straight into Danica's leg, put his arms tightly around it and held on as hard as he could. Still screaming, he tugged furiously back and forth like he was trying to rock her clean off her feet with all his tiny strength! "Mrawr. K-kwit itt, Leree!" A puppy-sized ball of claws, wings and snout bowled into Leroy, the pair going down in a rolling, squalling pile of the human child grabbing hold of Dio and refusing to let go, while the dragon fought furiously to escape the iron grasp of a very angry toddler.
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"Justice is rarely found in this world," Leroy said, seemingly deaf to the ladles of sarcasm Max had poured over her words, "but I am glad its lack brought us together." Sifting through the dizzying pile of assorted cloth, sequins and cracked leather, he considered two red capes carefully. "No. Too little flair." Setting them up on a clothes rack, he went back to the search. "Cinderella and her path to glory was portrayed in a film. Radiant Judith Smith adores the story and its myriad delights of romance and freedom from an oppressive parent. She wears blue, the colour of purity and her bonds of strength. Red Riding Hood is self-explanatory, the cloak and hood of sacrifice and renewal." Seizing a likely red hood, Leroy turned it over in his hands for inspection. As he regarded it, he went on at full speed. "Jack is a farmer, and hence wears darker clothes to hide the dirt and grime of his labours. Mutability of purpose and inner change. There is no change in his costume. The Bakers wear brighter ones, such as cream and dove grey and white aprons, with caps at first to keep their hair out of the bread. With travel clothes, a headscarf and pluméd hat. Steadfastness and unflinching integrity." Unfurling a dingy grey smock, the golden-eyed boy smiled in triumph. "I shall take the Bakers and Hood. I have strong opinions on how they should look. I desire to play Jack, as his story speaks to my own hopes and dreams, yet he is easily-clothed." The largely-hidden dragon chuckled, "I get to be the cow, and the scenery." He grinned, revealing giant bone plates instead of teeth. "And speaking as the priest of a buried god, this stuff's got a dust layer on it about ten years' old. I think Prof. Kuzin just got sick of wrangling kids into costumes, but still grabs them up thinking maybe he'd get to put a costume production on." Shifting under the load, his own golden eye rolled over the pile. "Still, this is a lot more costumes than any school could want or need. This is more like something ArcHall stages would have back on Earth-2." "Yes, far too much."Leroy paused, surveying the box and its contents. "And it seems impossible that all this could have fit within even such a container." Settling back on his haunches, he frowned, "Every time I look, there seems more of it too." A faint, sudden chill swept through the air, and a whisper at the edge of hearing. "It's your fault..."
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Leroy had been too busy puzzling over how Nader could have become President to notice the start of the fracas, but seeing Louise kiss Davyd drew him sharply back to reality. "Oh how splendid, you two!" He clapped enthusiastically, beaming from ear to ear, blinking at the sight of Danica chomping down on an orderly while Astrid hung pinned between the beleagured pair. "...Well, I suppose this our plan." With a flick, and then a harder flick, and then a fierce, sustained yank, he tore the top off his hospital uniform and hurled himself into a spin aimed at the legs of the struggling foursome. "Power of gravity!" He roared as he collided. "I'd love to help, but apparently I don't exist." Dio said.
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October 19th, 2019, late afternoon Claremont Academy auditorium, backstage "Whoof! That is some dust!" Leroy crawled laughing out from under a pile of fallen costumes and the hanger box they'd been stored in. In the dim, harsh light of prop storage the doublets, robes, hats, gowns and shawls seemed like a great sprawling mass of fallen humanity, struck down by some horror. The sleeves reached pitiably, shawls and hats created the shadows where faces might lurk and the robes and gowns hunched and billowed as if something was still lying within. Jumping lightly to his feet, Leroy beamed happily. "I did say we would find it, and behold: we have! Now, to select the costumes for the main parts. Jack, an oppressed farmer boy; Red Riding Hood, a child forced to care for senior citizens in leiu of proper civil programs; Cinderella, a scullion with aims to seize political power; and finally the Bakers, man and wife, seeking fertility assistance." Despite not really needing to breathe, Leroy took a breath. Smiling proudly at the titanic pile of costumes and random assorted clothes, he tossed off the robe he'd worn on the way with Max to the auditorium's backstage. Under it was his usual tunic and trousers, black and threaded with green and pink flowers. "What say we split up which character we pick for, Max? That way, we will bring our own tastes better to the fore." Kneeling at one side of the mountainous pile, he smiled across it to his schoolmate "By the by, what did you do to be set to this? I grievously burned my Farside Flan in Extrasolar Ec!" "I helped burn them." The great green dragon Dio shifted under the pile, revealing his reptilian face and spiny crest. He sounded not the least bit sorry.
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What would be a good way to roll for properly changing the programmable matter? Idea is he's trying to make a food replicator that spits out controlled amounts of ideal versions of the materials making up the sandwich. Just an Intelligence or Wisdom check?
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Flexing his fingers as feeling and control gradually and visibly returned to them, Leroy's eyes sparkled at the excitement and buzz of action in the room. But he clearly hadn't forgotten that this was a contest as he settled into position, breathing in and out slowly as another block of the black diamond took shape under his eyes. Holding it between his fingers, drinking in the dark light pulsing within, Leroy took stock of the room, scanning it for something, until his eyes suddenly lit on a discarded, half-eaten sandwich on a bench. It was some ghastly, crushed horror of meat, cheese and wilted leaves with a slab of tomato sitting forlornly in the middle. "Joyous!" he sang out merrily, rising and crossing the room in a streak of gold and blue, snatching up the sandwich with a flick of his fingers that transfigured gravity. Taking it back to his desk, the prince put the half-eaten food on top of the crystal block, gently sliding his fingers down the sides as he closed his eyes and furrowed his brow in focus. Under their pressure the crystal began to shine, glistening lances of bright rainbow light darting in and out, the solid mass softening and warping its shape, trembling and growing to embrace the abandoned sandwich. "So many problems," Leroy said, though murmured and soft, as if he was not aware he spoke, "yet here is their solution." The light steadied until the crystal and the sandwich alike were impossible to see.
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"Ugh, yes," Leroy sighed dramatically(that is, more an usual), as they separated. He was almost too warm to hug, though otherwise perfectly suited. "I have heard of the wonders you call 'home' and shall not bore you with what small, sad things I accepted since childhood as everyday. This summer I enjoyed the hospitality of Mother's coastal-heritage cousins, the Lagos Ransome-Contes, and got to stare at all their bloody heads. It was hoped I would spark the flames of passion within one of my cousins and myself, so she would not have to meet anyone new when I get married. Even cousin Adrian was a candidate, the Demon herself! Who is the worst and whom I hate for being awful!" Leroy crossed his arms, hunched a little little closer to Astrid and said, soft and sharply, "Ms, Thursday, if you have one hundred and eight rooms devoted to all the awful tyrants and fearsome monsters you bested in battle, one may begin to suspect you have something to prove. If the heads are still alive to blab of their tragic fates and miserable existence, one may be certain. If you wear the bloody heads in your cloaks...!" Throwing his arms up into the air Leroy growled and swung incoherently in frustration. Recovering his composure, the Dragon Prince turned, gathered his robes and bowed solemnly. "Astrid, I need your help. Mother thinks I am too weak to be on my own. You are gifted with and have developed superlative such qualities gloriously. Without my star-heart, I am nothing. Will you help me seek out my own strength, and birth this Phoros within me in power, not only in pain?" "I will return this with any favours you care to ask. Anything. No matter what it is." He raised his head and looked at her more seriously than she had ever seen him. "I must be worthy of Judy Smith, whom I now know is the destined savour of this Earth, but to stand with her I must stand on my own."
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School kids thing maybe not exactly unfitting. They are all obviously pretty young, and even teenage superheroes are, well, teenagers.
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A copy of the Courier-Express hit the floor between the two, followed by the stomping of Maggy the Molten Mutant as she marched onto the scene. "Grairghk!" She announced grimly, pointing at the paper's mentions of inexplicable deaths preceded by superhuman prowess. She tapped the photo of one man in particular, circled several times with flames and an anchor drawn underneath. "Frrrrnd." When it started to smoke and curl under her fingers, she quickly dropped the newspaper, stamping on the fire to smother it. "Haughlk grkrrrg!" She offered her hands to the other two, her crystal face set in a look of determination. She paused though to sniff suspiciously at Rebellion, gemlike eyes narrowing as their inner green flame rose.
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Leroy had not laughed at the sight of the empty room; marching right into the center, adjusting his sunglasses and clearing his throat, Leroy was about to make some droll, laconic comment when the floor vanished. Mia's scream as they fell was echoed by the even more terrified shriek from the boy and the bellowing wail roaring from Dio's throat. "The ocean, the ocean! We will drown in the deep!" he was yelling, when suddenly the world was lit again, they were standing on soft earth and surrounded by the wonderful close press of warm brick walls, and someone had come to check on them. Springing across the lawn, Leroy flung his arms around the man in the red sweater and hugged him as hard as he could. "It was horrible! I thought I would die-! Wait." Frowning, he disentangled and stepped away from the other man. "Dr.? How...how is that intended to frighten? Soliton, Crystal-Gazer, Arcana, what do you make of this?" He turned to the others, blinking at them in their new outfits, "Ah...Chelone, where is your mighty shell? Where did my costume go?" "Prince, you've changed. Your eyes...it's just like the dream." The dragon was hunched on the ground, one golden eye turned to his charge, the giant reptile trembling like a very large scaly green leaf. "Oh, Dio, you are imagining things!" Leroy laughed nervously and turned to a window, the laugh dying a gurgling death as he stared into two warm, kind brown eyes. The scars were shallower, too, thin gouges where human fingernails had torn at his face. "Dr. Harlan," Leroy whispered, rooted to the spot, "Is Nnamdi Azikiwe still President?" Dio let out a soft, horrible hissing noise of sheer distress as he slithered across the grass, digging madly at the ground n the centre of the courtyard. The soft mud seeped back under them, refusing to make so much as a toehold under the increasingly frantic, mud-splattering efforts of the dragon-priest.
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GM Like a retro-style cartoon character, Octoman's rubbery limbs unraveled across the deck, whipping around Imamba too fast for the startled ship captain to do more than let out a "Whoof!" of escaping air from his suddenly-contracted lungs. He struggled fiercely enough for his shirt to tear, but he quickly subsidied at the feeling of steel-hard tentacles locking him in place. "Octoman? He's just a legend!" shouted one of the crew, disbelieving, horrorified and gleeful all at once. One of the others was about to yell something at them, when the last tentacle aimed at Imamba went wide. Striking a cargo container with a hollow THUD, the power and speed of Octoman turned it into a spinning, screeching, multi-ton bulldozer hurtling for two of the crew! "No..." robbed of most of his breath, Imamba could only whisper as he stared at his two crewmen desperately, futilely, trying to escape their impending doom!
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Good catch Grumble, Durf. I'll review the Core and Ultimate Power so I don't need quite so much reminding how this game works. -Base assumption is everyone is costumed up at the end of an investigation line. -That hits by a mile and there is no way he can beat that, so Imamba is Bound, just saying he is to get that out of the way. -Yeah, SURGE is applicable here, and let's bring in a Complication to mix it up. -Invoking Ocotman's Accident Complication, so at 6HP. Which would be terrible news in D&D but is awesome in M&M. -Ocotman has understandable trouble swinging all those arms around a crowded cargo freighter deck, and accidentally sends an unsecured empty container spinning towards some of the crew. If he lets it, it'll take out two of the crew, but they'll be (narratively) badly injured by getting hit with over a ton of metal to the entire body. He can stop it, but only at the cost of getting an Injured condition from the sudden shock and strain. On the plus side, stopping it will also net a Hero Point.
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"This is where kids like you belong, Paris, this is the future!" A small squad of men and women in black Kireime Kei jackets and slacks had been the first into the building, their stony faces partially obscured by sleek rimless sunglasses. In their midst was the unmistakable, 5-foot-nothing, red-haired and bearded and beaming, the favorite son of Emerald City: Maximillian Mars. In his more conventional suit and tie, Mars stood out jarringly from the people who were obviously his bodyguards, his grandiose gestures and boyish grin in marked contrast to their rigid composure and the nervous, gangly Native teenager fumbling and shuffling in his wake. Looking around at the far-flung sci-fi extravaganza, Paris tugged self-consciously at the manbun Max Mars' barber had lovingly tied his hair into. His own suit was painfully new, scratchy and soft all at once, green with silver accents to complement the Slipstream suit. "This looks kinda crap, Mr. Mars." he said, voiced pitched low so as not to carry, side-eying a lavish diorama of the Martian landscape. "You've told me a bunch how Mars is a pipe-dream, and the only hope we got is through that wormhole at the edge of the system. Why're we even here?" "Same reason I go anywhere, Pear! We're here to make friends!" Max marched across the room, heading right for Raya. "Hey there, Wells!" He waved merrily, "Lovely setup! Wish I'd thought of this myself! Listen, this here's Marstech's new hero: Paris Redwater!" He slapped the younger man heartily on the back, green eyes sparkling. "Mr. Mars was devastated to hear you were expanding out of Upper Emerald." Paris smiled wrily. "He cried for an hour." "Hey! It was fifteen minutes, alright? Fifteen. Nine-hundred seconds, that's it. You going to make a habit of lying, Pear?" Mars snorted in high dudgeon, turning loftily to Sam Rio, "Sam, can I get a second with you, in private? The kids can't get into trouble that fast."
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"We make no promises." Leroy could not have changed more suddenly, arms folded and face schooled into a study of dispassion. Even more surprising, that was all he said. Behind him, Dio tried to look inconspicuous. Nudging Davyd he muttered "Hey, uh...I didn't look anything up before we came. Are we supposed to...nitrate? is that traditional?" His tail stirred agitatedly across the floor, eyes swiveling to take in the decor. "I mean...it is kinda unsettling, all this fakeness. Like we're about to be turned into dolls or something, you know?"
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Leroy spun and gasped at the sight of Abigail "Arcana! Welcome! That 'Anata of the Always' costume is delightful! So appropriate for the end to this skulking shack!" Dio grunted, eyeing the Black House dubiously. "Smells like there's been bad deaths." "Oh hush, that is merely to ward off off the cautious!" Adjusting his three-point shades, Leroy grinned wolfishly, "We have nothing to fear from the likes of some rotted wooden corpse. Oh! Arcana, I heard Crystal-Gazer kindly brought some fortifying "punch". If it is half as mighty as the "punch" Mother takes when she talks with Lavernius, you will gain the heart of a chimaera and the mind of a sage!"
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"Yes, with ours and all the powers of Hell!" A purple and black dragon spilled from the sky, landing next to the group and sending a gout of flame roaring into the sky! It twisted its serpentine neck to look down at Leroy" "Okay Likun. That's all you're getting outta me. This paint smells awful and I don't even like Sleeping Beauty." "You refused to wear a pink ruff and not have to say anything all night. And you called my suggestion of using magic to change your scales 'obscene'." The prince shrugged, "You left me no choice, Dio." "We were going to be Jack Frost and Re Ash!" Dio gnashed his teeth, sinking onto all fours and resting his huge head on the ground, golden eye blazing. "You stood on those little legs ten months ago and looked me in the face and told me I was going to be the triumphant love-interest! This is a betrayal!" Leroy patted the dragon gently on the head. "Look at it this way: am I actually an immortal superbeing created by pure, enduring love?" "No." "But you are a mighty dragon mystic, with the powers of another world at your back?" "S'pose." Despite himself, Dio was perking up a little, his back ridge frill sparkling as it waved eagerly back and forth. "You are. And when you remove that paint, will you stop being glorious and majestic?" Dio's thin reptile lips pulled back, revealing the great crushing slabs of his 'teeth'. Leroy patted him lovingly again and turned to the rest of the students. "Ah! Ms. Thursday, how wonderful to see you! I must refuse the "punch", one should have a clear head when venturing into certain doom!" He smiled at Mia. "So, Soliton, what is the plan?"
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"No worries, Chelone, if there are stairs we fly." Leroy had stepped out of the darkness beside the haunted house, upper face covered by a pair of yellow sunglasses shaped like the top three points on a star, his clothing a riot of purples, pinks and blues with dark pants. Complementing the silver ring on his right hand was a bronze on his left, which tilted down his shades as he smiled winningly at Danica. "And we have some very. Good. Fliers." "I love this hair!" he added giddily to Mia, shaking his head to set the black and unusually unadorned cube around his face to bouncing. "After the rainbow stripes failed to work, and Bismuth was cast beyond my reach, I never dreamed Garnet would be so simple!" He looked around the team, shining with joy "Our first mission together! Spirits and rogues of the deadly manor, you will suffer the wrath of Orange Squad!"
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@Grumblefloof Thanks for that reminder about the Danger Sense, this time it's perfectly good for him to be Octomanning it up and acting during the surprise round. Sun Dragon initiative roll: 4. Dio initiative: 7. Initiative order: Octoman: Unharmed, 5HP Red Lynx: Unharmed, 2HP Ms. Thursday: Unharmed, Flat-footed, 2HP Viper Star Crew: Unharmed(10)-GM White Lioness: Unharmed, Flat-footed, 2HP Artificer: Unharmed, Flat-footed, 2HP Dio: Unharmed, Flat-footed, 2HP Sun Dragon: Unharmed, Flat-footed, 2HP Ocotman, take us away. To set the scene, the 10 crewmembers are scattered across the cargo freigher's deck, roughly circling the group of teens, with partial cover behind various containers and the like. Only Captain Imamba is out in the open, preparing to move to cover on his action.
