Shofet

GM The police were touchy, to say the least. Roadkill's speed troopers had caused millions of dollars in damage and quite a few injuries, though mercifully no fatalities. Corona explained the situation to the best of her abilities, and the police were a little more understanding once they heard the whole story. Roadkill was loaded up into a fairly heavily guarded ambulance, while Liteshow had nullifier cuffs slapped on him and he was loaded into the back of a cop car, screaming and cussing the entire way. Everyone received their own personalized insult. Serena rode down to the station with Louis and Jenna. There, they were put on a sort of probation, having them wear portable power nullifiers and tracking bracelets until they could be more properly processed. Lester came to pick up Louis, and Serena was able to take Jenna home after filling out a veritable mountain of paperwork. After that, it came down to a time of rest. Soon enough, they would be going to the Moon itself to take the fight to Heather. Until that time, it was up to the members of this unnamed team to prepare. Hopefully, when the time came, they'd be ready.

Corona Serena dropped to her knees, gasping for breath in between sobs. Hearing Heather's voice again had been too much. How had things come to this? How had everything gone so wrong in the intervening years? Was this her fault? She wasn't sure anymore. Once, she wouldn't have blamed herself for this, but Heather seemed so very convinced that somehow Serena had abandoned them. But what could she have done? There would have been no easy way to find her, and even then, in the intervening years she had been imprisoned, things had already moved on. Her crying was interrupted by the sound of sirens. Her eyes settled on the girl that was supposed to be her daughter. She had two kids now. Whether she was ready or not. Jenna seemed young, too young to go to jail. Too mixed up. How much of this was even her fault, with a powerful psychic like Heather as her mother? She felt a sudden and heavy responsibility for this child. She sighed, wiping at her eyes. "Okay," she said. "Before the cops come... I think I... I think I'd like to... Jenna, do you want to come live with me for a while?" she asked, trying to obscure the 'or go to juvie' as the alternate option. Jenna stared at her. "I... I guess. What will happen to the rest of us?" Serena looked over at Roadkill, Liteshow and Louis. "I... Louis, you have a dad... I think. Lester. I think he could probably... If he isn't able, I will. Do you wanna come?" Louis nodded. Her eyes moved to Liteshow, and she got a snarl in response, much as she expected. Looking at Roadkill, she knew that the girl was probably too old for the possibility anyway. She looked back at the destruction her arrival had caused, and realized that she probably didn't want Roadkill around anyway. The girl was pretty vicious and she didn't think she could help with that one. "...Well, I guess that's that, then," she said as a fleet of cop cars arrived, all looking pretty tense.

Mia figured at some point she was going to have to go back and disintegrate the temporary shelter she had made, but right now, she was mostly just pleased that it had managed to withstand the onslaught of bird leavings. It was admittedly rather creepy that all the birds were around now, but she chose not to mind. Especially since she had other things to keep her spirits up. She knew it was bad to find it funny, but she couldn't help but take glee in Ashley's situation. And hey, she had offered the girl a ride home, so wasn't this really just the universe punishing her for being proud? "Hey, Ashley," Mia said, stifling giggles. "You look pooped!" She descended into a fit of laughter and snorting, only broken up by another crack of a joke. "Guess you're having a crappy day!" More giggles, interrupted by the puff of an inhaler. Tears were at the corners of her eyes, and her face was read. "God, your face. Oh noooo."

Mia nodded at Judy. “Daystar, it suits you! And I’m glad you’re going to be participating more. I’m not the best at gym but I am good at blasting. Admittedly not aiming, but we can be partners. Work on it together,” she said sunnily. Then, her attention turned to Leroy. “Well! We’re gonna be watching a few things. First thing’s first, Rocky Horror Picture Show, my personal favourite movie. I told Ash and Judy this, but I can quote every line from this movie verbatim I have seen it so many times. And maybe one day, you will doing the same. I’m actually dressed up as a character, Columbia. So, yeah, I didn’t just put on tiny shorts for no reason,” she said, giggling awkwardly. “I’ve also got some snacks and drinks.” Her eyes shifted to Ashley. “All perfectly age-appropriate, I promise.” “The movie’s kind of hard to explain. But I think you’ll like it, Leroy. It kind of reminds me of you, a little bit,” she said, smiling. “We also have a movie Judy picked out. I am forgetting the title at the moment, but the case is on the player behind me. Uhhh. What else? I dunno, I think I have everything, actually.” “So! Drinks are over there, food is there, we have anything we need to do before we start?”

Congrats! That means that for now, Astrid is free of the clutches of the Room's mental depredations!

Oof. You do start the thread with a hero point, if you want to use it.

@Cubismo So! You have briefly interrupted the normal process. Make a DC 25 Will Save at full PL for me, please. No Wis damage.

Serena's mouth quirked into a sympathetic sort of smile, the kind mothers gave when their kids talked about having a hard day at school. She could tell there was something going on here. Her tone became a little softer. "Well... That was what I was doing for a very long time. I asked Mia to hide her powers because I thought the enemies that I had made might come for her if they knew that she had powers like me, if somehow drew attention to herself. But… what I realized was that it wasn’t fair of me to ask that of her. Yes, her safety was and is one of the most important things in the world to me, but you can’t just ask someone to hide away a really important part of themselves from everyone. Especially not when they’re at your age, when you’re all figuring out stuff out about themselves. I always loved Mia. She’s my daughter. But as a parent, sometimes the things you think you’re doing to protect your child end up hurting them without you realizing. Love’s funny like that, it doesn’t always lead to you making the right decisions,” she said. “Look, I don’t know everyone’s situation here. I am sure there can entirely valid reasons for hiding yout . I mean, I use a secret identity. But I also think it’s not something you should impose on someone else. I chose to have a secret identity, and if Mia wanted to be open to the world about her powers and who she is, then it is my duty as a mother to stand by that. What comes after is… We’ll figure it out. We always do.”

Serena furrowed her brow in confusion as she saw the small young man scurrying up to her, holding a tablet. For a moment, she had expected him to try and show her a YouTube video. What he ended up doing made a whole lot more sense to her, all things considered. Her eyes flicked across the text on the screen, and then she nodded. "Ohhh. So for people who can't read the screen, he's asking me why I chose to become a superhero. And the answer is my daughter. I mentioned that I had made Mia conceal her powers for a while, which had put a pretty severe strain on our relationship, and events happened recently that made me realize I was failing her. Basically, I chose to be a superhero because I wanted to be a good example for her when it came to using her powers. Unfortunately..." She held out her arm, and suddenly a flare of plasma came to life. She had cleared with the school that she was going to make a small demonstration of powers if necessary, so she had no expectation of being tackled by security or anything like that. "My powers aren't really suited to humanitarian work. I was the thug of the Delinquents, which means my powers are mostly based around things like melting bank vault doors or knocking people on their butts. Or taking a grenade to the face and being fine afterwards. Which, by the way? Happens more often than I'd like. So I figured superhero was probably the best way to go about things. That and it's a lot easier to hide your identity when you fight crime, rather than... I don't know, welding steel?" "And of course, I like helping people and protecting the little guy. You can do a lot of good for people as a superhero. So yeah, that's why I am one."

Mia thought about it for a while, considering the possibility of going down to the Gulf, but immediately a problem came to mind. "Gonna tell you right now, swimming in the dark while high and asthmatic is a recipe for ending up at the bottom of the ocean. But sure, I could bring us down to the forest. You gotta promise you're not going to tell anyone we did this though because I am still completely on the hook for Mexico, and they're gonna flip if they find out I jumped off to New York, even if it is a weekend, okay?" She stood up, stretching out. "I'll make an exception for Adam, but if he blabs, he's gonna have to watch out for me turning whatever he eats into sewage. If they don't suspend me, anyway," she said, looking out and around. She dropped her pajama bottoms. "Don't look at my butt," she said, before pulling a pair of jeans out of her dimensional pocket, along with some boots and a jacket. She changed quickly, and tossed her bottoms into the pocket. "Thank God for your concealment powers, Lulu." "Alright, I am ready to head out when you are."

Mia snorted. "I'm not surly! I'd say I'm pretty friendly all things considered," she said with a smirk. "But thank you. I do appreciate being cool. That said, I have no idea what you think you're smoking because that psychadelic stuff is from LSD, not what we're smoking." There was a teasing hint to her tone at Lulu being so dramatic about it. "That said, I wouldn't mind sobering up a bit. This stuff really goes to your head," she said, feeling the effects of the drug running throughout her body. "It was like... 18%? I don't remember exactly. The stuff my mom smokes is pretty strong too but she doesn't let me have that because she 'read some studies'. I think she just doesn't want to share." She giggled. "Do you wanna go back to your room? I'm willing, but I am kinda worried I'm gonna pass out if I go back to a bed right now."

The Meta-Naut The Meta-Naut could not help herself. She only barely managed to suppress a squeal when she saw the workshop, and started moving around, looking through all the various half-finished gadgets. She could appreciate more fully now that she was in the presence of a true intellect. Not that she couldn’t before, but all of this really hammered home just how brilliant Justice really was. When she mentioned having to borrow a 3D Printer, it just came spilling out. “I can get you funding to build whatever you like,” she said. Then, she paused. “I know this lady, Raya Wells. Runs Compass Rose International, and she funds my stuff. I know for a fact that she would be super jazzed about investing in anything you have going. No return expected or anything. She’s cool like that.” She looked over at Justice expectantly. “I mean… If you still… If you would want that. It sounds like this dimension provides a lot but you know. Could be cool to have a more steady supply of stuff,” she said, shrugging and trying to look nonchalant. “You’re pretty clearly some kind of super-genius.”

Serena looked over at Benny, and nodded along as he asked his question. The process of unlearning things was something she was fairly familiar with, so she got what he was driving at. Or, at least she thought she did. “I mean, no, it wasn’t hunky dory. For me personally, yeah there was a lot of unlearning. When I was in prison, I had some opportunity to get a bit of therapy for my anger which did a lot of help for me. I couldn’t really afford that getting out, but I had been so scared to go back that I clamped down on it. But I really don’t think I stopped being the person I was as a teenager until I had my daughter. There was this realization, I think, that I had brought this beautiful little girl into the world and I wanted it to be the best possible place for her. And… that meant I had to change. Not because I was scared of going back to prison, but because I never, ever wanted to let this child I had just given birth to down.” She gestured, her hand spinning open in a circle. “A lot of it was self-taught. I’d go to book sales and pick up stuff on how to manage anger healthily. But there was also just a lot of self-reflection, too. I mean during the first few years out, it was tough. There were times when I was thinking ‘oh, this would be so much easier if I just whipped out my powers and showed people what’s what.” She laughed slightly. “There are a loooot of diner owners out in Freedom City who are super lucky I had those books. To answer your question, though, unlearning’s a big process and you will mess up a few times, but you have to have the real will to do it. You have to keep reminding yourself that you’re not just doing this because it will make your life easier, you’re doing it because don’t want to be the person you were. There was a thing for me that made it easier in Mia, because love’s such a powerful motivator and I do think that’s a great tool to use, but self-love should also come into that. You don’t want to let your self down, either, or all the people supporting you. Support networks are also really good for that sort of thing.” “As for the others… Well, I recently clashed with Wu and Heather, like I said. Lester, also known as Beastfreak runs a small business and has four lovely daughters, and Rachel, known back then as Heathen, is working for ASTRO Labs and is in a much healthier place than she was back in the 90s. She’s actually Mia’s godmom and my best friend, so yeah. Also a very devoted pacifist and Buddhist, which I think really helped her find her own peace. Kombat… We’re kind of not friends anymore, and I’m not at liberty to talk about his job for legal reasons. Rachel and Lester, they’ve gone through the same things I have, and I think they’d tell you the same answer.”

Mia had been making preparations for the event for a while now. She had acquired a few very large bags of pre-popped popcorn, including dill pickle flavour (her favourite), white cheddar and plain. She had the movie on her end cued up, and more than that, she had picked out (read: created) an outfit suitable to watching Rocky Horror. There were drinks ready - colas, a few orange drinks, stuff like that. She was ready. At the knock on the door, she shot up excitedly, and went to open the door. When it opened, her outfit was revealed. A sparkly golden blazer, multi-coloured top underneath, a big red sparkly bow-tie, rainbow-stripped shorts, fish-nets and blue heels, completed by a sparkly golden tophat, and some winged eyeliner. She was dressed as Columbia from the movie. But that outfit was entirely blown out of the water by what she saw standing on the other side of the door. Her jaw dropped. “Judy,” she said, stunned. “You look gorgeous! You’re like a living sunset! Oh my God!” She tried to move forward, but nearly tripped, only managing to steady herself on the door-frame. She was not used to wearing heels. “Holy crap! Come here or I’m gonna faceplant.” She held out her arms for a hug. “And you’re looking great too, Leroy! Here I was thinking I was going to the one surprising you guys.”

Serena looked over at Claude sympathetically. She instantly clocked what he was getting at, and her heart bled for him a little bit. Rubbing the back of her neck, she nodded at him. “Wow, two real hard balls, right after each other. For a long time, the answer was no. I spent a very long time feeling like I could never properly atone for causing a city that had just gone through the worst moments in its existence even more pain. I avoided using my powers entirely, and even making my daughter not use her powers out of… a lot of emotions. Fear that someone would track us down, shame at how those powers had come about… Just a lot of stuff.” She gripped the podium. “I think I have come to forgive myself, yes. A lot of that comes with making amends. There was this girl, Centuria, back in the 90s that the Delinquents basically… We basically bullied her out of being a superhero. She’s back to it now, she’s protecting Salt Lake City, and we’ve finally started talking by email. We’re sort of on a path right now towards me trying to make up what I did to her, and I’m gonna be visiting her pretty soon, actually. There are some people who still don’t want anything to do with me. There are certain heroes who were active at the time who have made it clear in no uncertain terms that I am to leave them alone, and I understand that too.” “But the best thing to start forgiving yourself is reaching out to the people you hurt, and seeing if you can make amends. Sometimes that’s not possible, and you’ll have to live with that. Otherwise, just try to be a better person than you were. That’s what I have been doing.”

Serena looked over at Max when she started speaking, and smiled. It was good to see that she was sticking with the Claremont thing. She had helped the girl get off that track and move towards doing hero stuff, so she felt a bit of protectiveness for the girl. The fact that Max reminded her a lot of Mia helped too. But then the question finished, and Serena’s smiled faltered. She went quiet for a moment, looking down at the podium. “...There’s… This summer. This summer, this summer. Back in August, I finally caught up with one of the members of the Delinquents who hadn’t gone straight. Heather Romano. Back then she was Tantrum. Back when I got caught, she was one of the two members who had gotten away. In that time, her sanity degraded and she ended up blaming me for abandoning her. The result was that she attempted to use her children to force me to rejoin her family and fully intended to brainwash me back into being ‘on her side’ again with her powers. Thanks to the help of a lot of people, some of whom I am now on a super-team with, we were able to stop her, but it was immensely painful experience for everyone involved. Especially the kids she had, one of whom used my DNA.” She frowned deeply. “There’s a very painful lesson ex-supervillains have to learn, and that is that not everyone can be saved like you were. Not everyone can come back from the Abyss. And when you have to confront, and you almost certainly will, it is one of the most painful experiences in your life. I am going to be straight with, I am still not over it. There’s no easy way to cope with the knowledge that you got out and they never did and maybe never will.” “The best thing you can do, when you have to deal with that, is just to find someone who is willing to listen afterwards. That’s all I can really offer,” she said softly.

The Meta-Naut Raya rolled her eyes. "I'm not wearing anyone else's skivvies, used or not, but I'll deal with this stuff for now. No sense in ruining anything else," she said. She got dressed quickly, not wanting to take too long in the cold autumn air, and emerged in the ratty clothing. It was better than nothing, and even much better than that stupid clown bathing suit. However, the clown makeup remained on her face no matter how hard she scrubbed. "God, this better not be permanent," she said, staring at herself in the car door mirror. She sighed to herself, silently vowing revenge on all these freaks for making her life miserable. "Okay, let's do this," she said, looking up at them. "First thing's first, we should get my badge back. I think they have it hidden in the security trailer, or at least that is the last place I saw it." She cracked her back. "I'm hoping to god you guys are better fighters than I am or we're all going to be looking like me. Oh, also. The slime? Super flammable. Just thought you should know."

Serena paused in surprise at the question, and then immediately began to cackle. Judging by the pink hair, she figured she was talking to the girl ‘Ashley’ who Mia brought up, and used as reference for wanting to dye her own hair some strange colour and shave it into a chelsea hawk. Which she was fine with, but it was fun to put a face to the name. Leaning into the microphone, she stifled more giggles. “Okay, I wasn’t ready for that. So for anyone who is confused, I’m pretty active in the LGBT community and make no secret of it. I actually attended a pride parade in costume recently. Ahhh, so, no I can’t tell you about any of those because I really don’t want to get kicked out, but I can recommend a few more age appropriate places. If you’re looking for places to meet people in person, there’s a group called Power Pride which is a group for people with powers who are members of the LGBT community. It’s open to people 16 and older, and they meet every Sunday at the Matheson Community Centre. That’s near the City Centre, if you take number 9 bus it takes you right there. They have services for younger people like helping kids come out to their parents, and if they’re not into that, finding them somewhere temporary to stay. We’re always looking for new people, so feel free to come. There’s also a group for female-identifying queer heroes that meets at the Blue Jewel Cafe down in the Theatre District on alternating Fridays, where they mostly just gather to talk and sometimes share experience or anything really. If you don’t like meeting people in person, there’s also the forum Super Gay. It’s just name plus a dot com. It’s been running since like, 2001 and it’s a great place since you can be totally anonymous if you want to. A lot of people choose to be. It has specific subforums for trans people, for lesbians, for POC, since not everything fits everyone.” She giggled again. “So, yeah, no bars but hopefully if you’re looking for a space, I hope that helps you out.”

Serena immediately broke into a smile at the mention of the young woman's name. Mia had talked a fair bit about the girl in her phone calls, and was nothing but positive about it. And she had a fairly interesting question, too. She thought about her answer for a moment, before leaning into the microphone. "Okay so, content warning here, this answer is going to have some discussion of pretty common abuse techniques so if anyone needs to excuse themselves or..." she paused, waiting, and when she saw no one leave, continued. "Okay so it was pretty carrot and stick with Wu. Wu liked to lavish gifts in order to ensure loyalty. Sometimes it was small things like pizza after a successful mission, sometimes it was a new TV. That was when you were doing good. He'd also give out praise occasionally, but never very much, and liked to reinforce that the whole world was against you. When you did something he didn't like though... Sometimes you'd be forced to skip meals, or be confined to your room, but what he really liked to do was insult you in a way that encouraged the others to join in. And while we were close, the problem was that if you didn't join in, you tended to catch stuff yourself. He'd belittle your intelligence, your capabilities, or make it sound like you were planning to sell the others out to try and turn them against you. It felt awful, but it definitely sort of encouraged this sense of forced obedience. Of course, there was also that implied threat of him having you sent to jail or him just killing you." Brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear, she continued. "From what I understand, it's pretty common in groups like ours, younger ones. The same sort of tactics are used in cults, terrorist cells... Basically any group that aggressively enforces social cohesion and has an us vs. them mentality." Then came another question asking how to combat those tactics. "Ah, jeez. So, that's hard because it's not the same for everyone. Multiple people attempted to reach out to me during that time but I was not receptive for a lot of reasons. In my particular case, I really do think my going to jail was what I needed. But for a lot of other people, just extending a lifeline and some compassion can go along way, especially if they're not entirely programmed yet." "What I do want to emphasize is that while these people might be victims in their own way, if they are trying to hurt you, you aren't wrong for deciding that you are not the person to handle whatever problems put them in that position. You don't have to be their therapist or a martyr to their redemption. But if you see an opening and think you can do something, then great. Great, that's good."

The Meta-Naut The Meta-Naut looked around curiously. Initially, she had expected things to be... stranger. Right now, it looked like the interior of a conventional, albeit impressive, building. She had expected levitation and counter-intuitive physics, maybe some weird architecture. But, she was impressed all the same. And besides, it wasn't like she was going to badmouth someone's place when she was their guest. She smiled over at Justice. "Well, when we work together in the future, it'll be cool to know there's a place we can go afterwards," she said. "Must be weird to sleep between realities. Still, this is really cool." She looked over at Justice. "So. I want to see your lab first, then your workshop, then your kitchen, okay? Unless it's off-limits, which, you know, I get. But I'd really appreciate it."

Claremont Academy, Freedom City Early November 6:00PM Once again, Claremont had invited a guest to the lecture hall, and again it was going to be someone a bit controversial. Serena Mustafic, known to the hero community both as Corona and formerly as Revolt, had been asked to come to give a lecture on being an ex-supervillain and how crime didn’t pay. After a few questions, she had found out she hadn’t been their first pick, but the first had referred them to her. Which made her suspect who it was, but she couldn’t be sure because they weren’t telling. Attendance wasn’t mandatory, which meant that Corona’s daughter Mia was off hiding in her room, away from the potential embarrassment. Not that Serena knew that. Instead, she was more focused on the sudden crowd in front of her. She wondered, briefly, if she had gone insane agreeing to do this. She forced the thought back down and approached the podium. She was dressed in full costume, complete with grey tights, black trunks and leather jacket. She figured if she was talking as a superhero, she should look the part. Rubbing the back of her neck, she waited for the introduction to happen. “Alright, everyone, this is Corona. She is here to talk to you all today about what makes a supervillain, how bad it was to be one, and how you shouldn’t become one. If you want to ask a question, please wait in turn and try not to interrupt,” said the host. Corona sighed, and leaned up to the microphone. “Hi, everyone. I’m Corona. Some of you might know me as Mia’s mom, others might not know me at all. I’m a superhero now, but back in the early 90s I was a supervillain called Revolt,” she said. “I was a member of a team called the Delinquents. We were formed basically right after the Terminus Invasion in ‘93.” “Uhm, some background. Before I got my powers, I was in and out of the foster system and I was pretty poor as a kid. I drifted from home to home, and started committing crimes when I was… Jeez. I don’t know. 10? I was angry at the world. Everyone, really, and I ran away a lot. It made me pretty ideal fodder for being turned into a villain. I was kidnapped by a man named Will Wu when I was 15 years old, and I was given superpowers. In exchange, I was expected to commit crimes for him along with four other teenagers.” “Before you get the idea I was entirely the victim in this, I was pretty into it. For most of my life, I had felt powerless, and suddenly having powers and the ability to act on a lot of anger I was harbouring… It felt good. It let me be blind to the fact that I was causing a lot of people a lot of pain. I think there’s a very large subset of super-villains who are people who felt powerless and then when they did gain extraordinary abilities they just… Got drunk on it. That’s not… I don’t want it to sound like I am making excuses for myself. But I think it’s important to remember that a lot of these people out there are people who are hurting in some way, and there might be a chance for you to make a breakthrough to them.” “Uh, but getting back to my story here. I was a supervillain for around three years. I fought with groups like the Freedom League, there’s a very embarrassing photo of me fighting Lady Li…” she paused, and looked up at the projector screen behind her, and sighed as she saw a teenage version of her attacking the Lady Liberty of the 90s. It was a newspaper clipping, underneath a headline of ‘DELINQUENTS AND FREEDOM LEAGUE CLASH’. “Yeah. Not proud of that one. Anyway,” she said as the image switched off. “I was caught at the end of those three years and sentenced to several years in jail, which was kind of a wakeup call for me. Once I got out, I made the decision that I was going to go straight. Most of my compatriots went straight along with me… Some didn’t. I am still dealing with the fallout of that today. I never finished high school, so I was really limited in my job choices, which meant after I had my daughter, money was tight as ever, and a few members of the super community paid me a few unwanted visits to let me know that I was being watched, which was a little spooky, not going to lie. Recently, I made the decision to return to the super world, but as a superhero. It’s been difficult at times, but it’s a lot more rewarding.” She paused. “Well, that’s the short version of my life story. One thing I really feel the need to say is that I know a lot of you are probably in a similarly crummy point in your life, and you might want to lash out. Your powers might make it easy to lash out. And for a time, it might even feel good. But consequences always catch up to you, and more than that, you’re not just hurting the people you think you’re lashing out at. Your actions tend to ring outwards. Which is why I think if you are angry at injustice, or the way you’ve been treated, what you should be doing is using your abilities to make the world better. Yes, I understand a lot of you are angry at the world and you probably have a lot of right to be. But the world does not need another super-powered jerk bullying people because they’ve been abused, or hurt… or whatever has happened to you. What it does need is more people doing good. That doesn’t necessarily mean going out and punching bad guys, either. There are a lot of really good organizations out there that can benefit from people who are super strong or can fly. Disaster relief really benefits from metahuman help. Like, unimaginably so. So… Just try to use that outrage for good, I guess.” She looked over at the host. “How was that? Was that good? Should I start taking questions?” She nodded at the answer. “Alright, if anyone has any questions, I can answer a few.”

Mia giggled again, watching as she blanket rose up with her. "Hey, hey now! You're stealing my blanket and it is cold out!" she half-whispered. She puffed again, before stubbing it out. She would save the rest for later. Now, she would simply ride things out as she hung out with Lulu. She smiled contentedly to herself. This was the sort of situation she could find herself in more often. "That does sound rough," Mia admitted. "Look, I... I'm sorry I misjudged you." She looked around. "Do you still wanna get pizza, by the way, or is that too risky for you? If it is, I probably have some snacks hidden up in my pocket dimension."

Mia looked up above herself to see what was, frankly, an apocalyptic amount of birds. More birds than she had ever seen in her life, combined and doubled. And that scared the ever-loving daylights out of her. It wasn’t that she was afraid of birds, but birds did not have much in the way of sphincter control, which meant that she was about to be covered in a near-monstrous amount of poop, which would probably make it pretty obvious she snuck out. Thinking quickly, she decided she was about to attempt what was perhaps the most massive attempt at using her powers ever. Sparkles filled the area as she began to weave the matter, desperately trying to create something as quickly as she possibly could. “Behold the power of atomic sorcery!” she cried. If she did it right, encasing the students would be a series of 13 ten-by-ten-by-ten cubic rooms made of biodegradable plastic to protect them from the avian onslaught in comfort! Ah, the wonders of matter manipulation.

Alright! Mia will respond to this awful threat by using her Create Object Power to make a shelter to help them weather the birdstorm!: AP: Create Object 13 (Molecular Forge; 13 10-foot cubes; Extras: Continuous; Flaws; Permanent; Power Feats: Subtle, Precise, Innate, Progression) {30/30 PP} (Mutant, Atomic)

Valid, granted. Alright, that goes against the the Will save of Heather. I'm going to warn you, it's quite high. It says 30, but I made a mistake. It's only 25. You succeed. For a moment, Hologram sees through Heather's eyes. What she sees is a grey room, full of glinting electronics and chirping computers. There's windows, staring out at a barren, grey landscape. The sky is black, empty except a... big blue marble. There's the Americas. There's Europe and Africa... You're looking at Earth. She's on the Moon.