Shofet

Corona Serena felt sick. Her stomach had been doing loop-de-loops since she woke up that morning, and she didn't expect it to stop any time soon. She had only ever been outside of the United States once in her life, and now she was about to leave the atmosphere of the only planet she had ever known. She felt as though she should be more eager than she was, but the sheer number of things that could go wrong in space kept weighing on her mind. Of course, there was another reason for her nervousness too. She was going to see Heather and Wu for the first time in decades and do battle with them. She had hoped, when this had started, that somehow she could redeem Heather, but the woman had threatened two families. She didn't know if there was any walking back from that. Her eyes drifted over Richard and Paige, then Black Mamba and his wife. She wondered what they were planning. Despite it all, she hoped it wasn't anything lethal, but she didn't believe she had any right to stop them if it was. After all, what would she do if Heather had threatened Mia? At least Archer was excited. She sighed, craning her neck backwards, then looked over at the group. "Uh, if I can just... Look. Thank you, all of you. You came to help me when you didn't need to and I don't think I could do this without you. And to Fast-Forward, Hologram, Black Mamba and Akhona... I am sorry. If I had known she was going to threaten your families, I would have never gotten you involved. She might have been my friend once, but it's clear she's become someone very different and I am not going to let old feelings get in the way of you protecting your kids. I am hoping it doesn't come to that. But I understand. As for the rest... This is going to be really dangerous. Heather's a real powerful psychic and Wu is one of the smartest human beings on the planet. I don't know what we're going to find out there, but if any of you want to back out, I understand."

GM Rachel nodded at Hologram. "She runs cold so no one will be picking up any heat signatures, and I've taken what I know about Heather's powers and integrated defences into the hull so she won't be picking up your minds, which means the two most obvious modes of detection aren't going to happen. The Peregrine can't turn invisible, but it'd be pretty hard to see you flying anyway unless they knew where to look in the first place. She's sturdy, too, so if they see you, you should be able to land unless they are packing some serious artillery," she said, patting the ship on the side. Looking over at Akhona, Rachel held out her hand in greeting. "As for you, some important details. She has a landing computer to help guide you down, which should be helpful given the condition of the moon's surface. There's an emergency separator on the ship, if the engine gets hit and looks like it will blow, you can pull a lever and separate her and the front portion of the ship. There'll be enough fuel and a small engine in front, enough for an emergency atmospheric re-entry. Oh, and if you need to take off really quickly, there is a by-pass for the start-up procedures but you should only use that if you really need to skedaddle since it's really hard on the engine. Clearly labelled on the dashboard. There's also a digital manual in the computer and dead tree manual under your seat."

The Meta-Naut is going to try and make another notice check to find this jerk. 10. Sigh. Spending a Hero Point. 2, which +10 = 12. Dangit.

Alright, that is a hit, so let's see her grapple check: 15. She is so grappled. Toughness save from her: 34. She's pretty tough, being made of metal and all. Octo-Ben also needs to make a DC 23 Toughness Check. Now, let's do a powers check between her and her fire aura: 9 from her, and 14 from the fire hydrant. Octoman's gambit has paid off, she's extinguished! Now, Gabe's pretty mad that you just smacked his girlfriend into the dirt. So mad, in fact, that he's going to concentrate his gas into a liquid spray of toxic acid at Octoman... And he misses at 13. Angela's powers are mostly nullified atm, which is a major shock to her. She's going to try to reignite herself, only to find herself unable for the round. So instead, she is going to call to Gabe, and try to flee instead.

Soliton Soliton was about to go join Octoman down there, when a molten hot woman came launching up at her. She tried to teleport out of the way, but it wasn't fast enough. The woman's fist connected with her cheek, and immediately the skin began to bubble and blister. "AUGH!" cried Soliton, and she took the opportunity to complete that teleportation, sending her a few hundred feet away onto another rooftop as she aimed her arm at the young woman. "That hurt!" she cried, and then, she manipulated the atoms in front of her, inverting charges. There was a flash of light, and Soliton focused hard to create a tunnel for the blast to travel in. It came as a focused beam, heading towards the woman in a blinding flash. However, the molten woman managed to throw herself out of the way just in time, leaning to Soliton accidentally annihilating a bill board advertising health insurance instead. "Why do you even wanna kill this guy?" Soliton asked indignantly. The response, she wasn't ready for. "Wait, I know that voice," responded the molten woman. "...Mia, is that you?"

GM Gabriel's eyes went wide as Octoman tried once more, and then he ground his teeth. Once more he shifted into his purple, gaseous form, allowing the ink to pass through him, but this time he remained in his form. He made a face at Ben. "You little rat bastard," he spat. "I'm gonna make you regret you ever put on those tights." Following up his threat, he held the gaseous forms of his arms in front of him, which blasted forth in the form of a great cone of noxious gas. The smell was chemical in nature, almost metallic and harsh on the nose. It was clear that it was incredibly toxic to breathe in, as even as it washed over Ben's skin, it started to itch and chafe, though not enough to impair him. "How do you like that? I'm made of poison, buddy," Gabriel gloated. "And I got an infinite supply. Can't hold your breath forever." Angela was about to join him, when out of the corner of her eye she saw someone waiting in the wings, looking an awful lot like a super hero. Glowering, she turned on her heels and launched herself upward toward the building. She didn't even know she was able to do it, but somehow, instinct told her to try. Sure enough, she launched herself onto the building where the woman in black and white stood, and launched her fist at her face. "Only one partner to a dancer, sweetheart," she said.

Alright! Ben successfully avoids breathing in the doomfart. The young lady, however, is going to make a quick notice check. 15, which means she sees Mia who isn't even hiding. Rather than gang up on Ben, which might be the better idea, she is going to throw herself at Mia with a leap, and then attempt to punch her. 22 to hit. That's a direct hit on Mia, who must now make a DC 27 toughness save. 20. Oof. I'm gonna try and use one of Mia's hero points, and... 25. Bruised, but not dazed! Mia, incensed at this, is going to go on and teleport off to another building and try and blast this lady. 11. That's a miss. Once I get my IC posts up, Octoman is back up.

It is exactly a 20 on his counter bluff. And now his reflex save... 30. Oof. Sorry, Ben. He's going to go ahead and move into his alternate form. It is Gaseous with a bit of a twist! The powers that are immediately obvious to Ben and Mia are Insubstantial 2, Flight, but no obvious concealment. In fact, he smells pretty toxic. Don't breathe him in! Now annoyed, he is going to try and blast Ben with some of his gas! This is a Drain Constitution 10 effect with the ranged and general area [cone] descriptors, meaning that Ben needs to make a DC 20 reflex save to hold his breath, and if he fails that, a DC 20 Fortitude save, or he will lose 1 point of Con per point of DC he's missed.

Phew! The Meta-Naut survives with a 23. As for an initiative roll, we got a 13!

The Meta-Naut "Ah... Well, you could say that," the Meta-Naut said sheepishly as she considered whether this was the sort of story she wanted to be sharing. Given Justice had been forward with her, she gave it a shot. "I accidentally sent myself to a dimension where the dinosaurs never went extinct and made a civilization of their own. I was made a slave to a professor, turns out he was a cool guy, gave me this badge, and then I made my way back here after about... 12 years. Decided to adventure not long after that since my life here was kind of... weird now. And that's sort of it. I mostly do adventuring more than superhero stuff, I'm not really a heroic person like you are." She shrugged her shoulders. "I do stuff for the government sometimes, but that's mostly because if time nazis take over America, then I'm out of a place to live and... well, you know. Time nazis. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing this ruin. Will be interesting to poke around a bit." She smiled.

The Meta-Naut Old ruins? That sounded fascinating. She nodded eagerly, and flew off after Justice. As she did, she considered the possibilities. If time was a factor, here, maybe she could make an attempt at travelling backwards in time to see it in its height. Of course, attempting that could be a foolhardy proposition. If time didn't work normally, she could end up with bits of her strewn across the multiverse, a very lethal scenario indeed. As they ascended the mountain, she attempted to match Justice's speed so they could talk. After all, there was much to talk about with someone as fascinating as Justice. It wasn't often you got to meet someone who designed their own armour and decided to become a superhero. "So, how did you get started with all of this?"

Unfortunately, the Meta-Naut is not good at Notice Checks: 6.

GM Gabriel almost looked caught-off guard when the ink came rushing towards his face, but he reacted quickly, phasing into a transitional stage between gas and solid which allowed the ink to pass right through him. When he re-solidified, he looked pretty miffed at Octoman. "Dude! Don't fire your wrist butthole at me, you freak! Angie, honey, let's ice this creep before he does anymore weird crap!" The molten woman looked concerned. "I dunno, don't we wanna catch the doc? This guy doesn't seem like he's worth anyone's time." She looked away for a moment, eyes scanning the crowds for any sign of Doctor Meyer. "HE TRIED TO POOP ON ME, WE ARE KILLING HIM, ANGIE," Gabriel said, clearly incensed. "Alright, fine, jeez," Angela replied. "Sorry, Captain Calamari, but looks like you die today." She crouched down, and got ready to fight.

Oof! Well, looks like Ben is going first. Lemme make a quick reaction IC and then you can go again.

Unfortunately, that's a miss by a single point! Which means Initiative begins! Gabriel rolls a 19! Angela rolls a 17! Soliton rolls a... 6 Dangit.

Mia shrugged her shoulders, though she was rather concerned about the fact that Leroy was willing to just give up on his family after a small thing like that, she also felt she didn't know the situation well enough to comment. Not to mention, it seemed like Ashley really, really wanted to change subjects and now that she knew Ashley was a president cop, she didn't want to get... spin-kicked or something. "So..." Mia said quietly. "How is it doing the whole 21 Jump Street thing, Ash?" She asked, clearly feeling awkward. "...Better than the first time?" It was weird to know that Ashley was an adult. She couldn't imagine any adult wanting to hang out with teens, and the idea that anyone could crush on her became intensely skeevy, and more than that, the question of how many people actually knew made her a little concerned. The fact that the US government could just do this made her wonder how many people she had ever met were secretly Feds.

GM The smoke stopped mid-flight, and took on a more humanoid shape as it twisted to get a look at Octo-Man. Slowly, the smoke coalesced into a solid form, looking like a young, Mediterranean looking man with a mop of curly black hair and deep brown eyes that had an almost feral quality to them. Other than that, he was handsome in a young kind of way. He was dressed in a jump-suit with the ASTRO Labs logo on it. He briefly exchanged glances with the molten woman, then grinned at Octo-Man. "Wow, a real super-hero!" He said, clearly sounding insincere. "Hey, buddy, I'd come over to kiss your ass and worship the ground you're walk on like the rest of this city, but right now I am kind of in the middle of something so why don't you go on and play while I finish ending this doctor I'm hunting, okay?" The molten woman cackled. Her features were mostly obscured by the heat and light she was giving off, but she seemed to leave long, wavy hair extending down to her back, and it looked like she was wearing the same type of jumpsuit the smoke man was wearing, which was miraculously resisting the intense heat. "You're so mean, honey," said the woman, in a chiding but amused voice, before she turned to Octo-Man. "Seriously though, you don't want no part of this. Let us do our thing."

"Oh!" Mia said. "So my powers were inherited, yeah, but not like... Okay, so. My mom's powers come from alien crystals that this evil scientist put in her blood, along with some radiation and chemicals and stuff to activate my mom's mutant genes. Only the crystals matter here though. I got my powers because some of those crystals were transferred to me through the umbilical cord. Turns out though, that was a bad idea, because I coulda exploded in the womb - my mom didn't know that at the time -, so my godmom had to do some weird stuff, and sorta... Melted the crystals? It's hard to explain, but they're not part of my blood like they are for my mom, but... Like just sort of part of all of me. In my skin, my hair, my yadda yadda, which is why my powers are so different," she explained. She shrugged her shoulders. "We don't actually know where the crystals came from and it's not like I can go and ask the mad scientist guy, but I've always kinda wondered. I mean, I know they're alien and from space or whatever but that doesn't really narrow it down. But I think it would be cool to know." "So... Yeah."

The Meta-Naut “Eh, I’ll fly,” replied the Meta-Naut. Flying out after Justice, she could not help but marvel at the strangeness of her surroundings. She had been to many weird dimensions, some of which that didn’t obey her own native homeworld’s laws of physics, but few were as alien as the world around her. Watching the colours, she couldn’t help but note that it was very pretty, too. “Huh,” the Meta-Naut said, popping her cheek. “…This is… Huh. I don’t really even have words for it.” Putting her hands on her hips, she looked out into the distance, observing the floating rock. All sorts of questions came to mind about this place, and the adventurer in her wanted to race off and explore. However, that would be quite rude to her host, so she held herself back. What she didn’t hold back on was the questions. “So, do you know if this place has any native life-forms? Have you gone far out from here, tried to find any potential civilizations? Any other strange materials besides the metal? Like a room temperature superconductor? Been looking for one of those. I found one in another dimension, but it dissolved on contact with our own dimension’s laws of physics. It was very disappointing.”

Mia looked between Leroy and Judy, and suddenly felt as though she was intruding on something important between them. She was glad she had been told, but now the two seemed like they needed time together. And then Judy just threw out just all sorts of stuff that Mia had no idea about until now. “Wait, what?” Mia said, sounding a little dumb-founded. She paused. “His world?” she asked, her voice cracking a bit. She looked over at Leroy, eyeing him up and down and then realizing. “Oh my God, you’re from another dimension, aren’t you? HOLY CRAP. So much makes sense now. Jeez.” Then, she realized instantly just how rude that might have been. “UHHHH, I mean.” “...There’s no good way to walk back from this.”

Alright! This is the OOC for Kingmaker: Checkmate! To start us off, here are the stats for the Peregine: In addition, all heroes gain the power Immunity (Life-Support) from their space-suits. Finally, since we have so many players, I will be instituting a 72-hour time constraint for posting to ensure that the thread progresses in a timely manner. @Avenger Assembled @Electra @Tarrakhash @Exaccus @Heritage @RocketLord @Tiffany Korta

GM August 20, 2019 A barrier island off the coast of Freedom City 6:00 AM This was it, the fateful hour. The morning fog rolled over the barrier island, the waves calm. Rising up from the island’s rocky surface was the vessel that would take the fateful group up to the Moon: The Peregrine. Standing tall as a building, it looked like a rocket ship out of Buck Rogers, tall and thin and cast in chrome. An extendable stairway lead into its interior, inviting the people on the surface to step inside. In front, a crowd of heroes had gathered, dressed in space-suits. Rachel stood out front of the Peregrine, dressed in a labcoat and holding a datapad that she was going over intently. She paced, occasionally looking at the heroes, then at the rocketship. She sighed sharply through her nose, then nodded to herself. Stowing the datapad, she clapped her hands together. “Alright! So, I’ve quintuple checked everything, and it looks like we’re cleared to go. Just some things to cover. Flight up to orbit is going to take 3 hours, then making it to the Moon will take another hour You won’t have to do anything for the first bit, I’ve installed a guidance system. One reinforced against psychic interference, this time. However, our pilot,” she said, looking over to Black Mamba, “will have to guide it down to the surface. I’ve deliberately made the controls easy and familiar, so you shouldn’t have any problems. If you’re attacked, I’ve installed Photon Cannons. However, I would be careful, if you fire them in our atmosphere you could cause a fireball. The firing mechanism is very clearly labeled.” She gestured at their space-suits, red ones that were similarly retro. “Your space-suits are state-of-the-art and tailored to what I know about your powers so you can use them. For example, Fast-Forward’s suit has been implanted with a reactive graviton array that will allow him to use his speed powers as though he was in normal gravity. Similarly, I’ve developed a field generator that should allow Archer to use his bow and arrows effectively. The same goes for the rest of you. I’ve tried to account for everything. More than that, your suits have a nano-array that should allow them to quickly seal if you’re hit, so no worries about suffocation. There are limits, though. Take too much damage and the nano-array won’t have enough material to repair. Life support is good for 72 hours, so if for some reason you get blown away into space, we have time to retrieve you,” she said. “I will not be joining you up there, sadly. But I have an FTL-communication device set up that should mean I will be able to communicate with you instantaneously with you wherever you are, as long as you don’t all decide to like… visit Mars or something. Please don’t do that.” She paused, and then tilted her head. “Alright. Any questions?”

Mia's mouth dropped open for a moment at the revelation that Ashley was, in fact, a Secret Service agent. Gears began spinning in her head. Ashley had seen her smoke from a bong. Ashley knew who her mom was. Mia thought she was shivering, but it was more like vibrating. She nodded at both of them. "Ah-hah, ah-yuh," she said. Then, a crack filled the room, and suddenly, Mia was gone. Standing in the middle of the Wharton State Forest, Mia took a moment to scream to herself and thrash about a bit, before returning to the room. Her hair was now wild and had a few leaves in it, her face even paler than normal. "Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool," Mia said, nodding aggressively with folded arms. She spread out a hand in a gesture, then reconsidered it and tucked it back into the folded position. Then she brought an index finger to her mouth, before again reverting to folded arms. "Hm-hm-hm-hm-hm!" she mumbled in approximation of a laugh. She wagged her finger in a panicked smirk at Ashley. "Oh there are so, so many things I wish I hadn't done in front of you now!"

Mia's eyes nearly bugged out of her head when Judy admitted that she was a member of the First Family. Quickly, she tried to think if she had ever said anything bad about the president in front of Judy. She couldn't think of anything, but the idea that she might have now hung over her like a giant cloud of terror. The idea that she could have insulted Judy's dad to her face and the girl would have remained silent was not a good one. Judy was Mia's friend, and she never wanted to hurt her. "...Well, Judy, your secret is safe with me. You're easily one of the best friends I've made here and I am so glad that you trusted me enough to tell me that. I won't ever break that trust," she said with a comforting smile. "Besides, sorta came to Claremont with the idea that someone was going to have a huge secret. Part of the whole super thing. Just didn't expect this one." Leroy's question to Ashley was a good one. She looked over at Ashley, considering what the secret would be. "Well, they're probably not bio-sisters given those things I said," Mia said with her arms folded and a thoughtful look on her face. Then, it occurred to her that trying to guess was probably kind of rude. "Uhhh, but you... I'm not gonna try'n'guess."

The Meta-Naut The Meta-Naut’s eyes widened imperceptibly beneath her visor as they went over the little developments they made, and she audibly squealed with delight at the blue foam. That was amazing! She wondered at some of the other applications of such a quick expanding foam. Of course, it probably dissolved quite quickly, but to expand from such a small pellet into something so big, and to have the strength to hold a person… a bit of tinkering with the formula and you had an excellent ad-hoc construction material. Then, the offer of going up and out into Z-Space came up. She had to stop herself from doing a little dance, and managed to divert her energy into simply nodding vigorously. “If it is half as cool as what you’ve shown me here? Then hell yeah,” she said enthusiastically. “No need for suits or anything for me, either, if that’s necessary. My badge provides life support systems so I will be fine,” she said.