Curious Key

And at the eleventh hour, when all hopes is lost, the cavalry rides over the horizon . . . Kat wasn't familiar enough with Riverside to port wherever she wanted. She could barely even tell where the gunfire came from. Luckily (ha!) it kept up, giving her a chance to find it. She had to rely on quick, short warps instead. She balanced, precariously, on a rooftop, peering at the horizon. Flash. Landing easily at the top of a street lamp, balance like a cat. Flash. Where were they? More gunshots. Flash. Was everyone safe? Flash. Those were real bullets. Flash. If she wasn't fast enough . . . The world cut open for a fraction of a section in violent red light, and out popped Kat. She landed easily on the stone outcropping of the building, grabbed a weather vane and leaned out over a hundred foot drop, squinting. Trying to remember where the gunshots were from, already looking for a better vantage point to search from when . . . "Here we are." Warp knelt down on her perch squinted and considered her approach. So. Armed robbers. A bank. How should she deal? Loud and hard. A part of her insisted and Warp couldn't help but smirk. "No, wait." She shook her head. "Hostages. They could have hostages." So, what? Rescue anyone who needed rescuing first, then kick some behind? It'd do.

Things are going to get a little complicated again. Take a hero point.

The heretic reached inside themselves_and . . . No! Stop!_Turn back before it's too la Cassidy. Yes. Cassidy Bauer. That was his name. As he kindled his fire, impossibly, his powers kindled just the same.At the very most, the water should have turned to steam around him, but instead a wave of raw, unfettered fire burned around him. The oppressive weight of the water, the feeling of it pulled back into his throat . . . It was all still there. But if any doubt remained, this was not the real world. From the top of the tower, Bonfire could hear a soft, beautiful song trying to insinuate itself into his ears. It sounded like it feels to watch your family die. It is not too late. The words slipped through Cassidy's mind as though they were his own thoughts, but their texture was strange. The song rose in timber to a screech that made the landscape shake. Phantom hands grasped from the darkness. The fire is too bright. The light, harsh, burning. Welcome the dark. Sleep. Shapes began to spin outward from the tower, swimming rapidly around it, while a black hand the size of a house seized the platform on which Cassidy stood and, with a crack, began to break it free.

Kat recoiled bodily away from the window, her hands twitching backward as she imagined what would happen to her hands if she touched that . . . thing. That dinosaur was bleeding. What would happen to her hand? Kat avoided getting hurt by never getting hit. But there was no getting away from this. He didn't even wait, he didn't ask for other solutions, he just put his damn claw on the portal and burned. It was moving too fast, now. Kat's eyes swung from the stranger to the window and back again. Should she just bite the bullet? She was a damn mutant, and a superhero. It was practically Kat's job. But Kat wasn't any tougher than other girl! She ran her hands over her face, muttered in indistinct panic and tried to muster to courage.

Warp could get to a heist real quick, if you'd have her. Edit: Amending that she can do it in either Freedom or the Emerald cities. Teleporters have no respect for distance.

For the record, your wounds are all healed by now.

Yes! YES! The heretic creature reached out his hand toward the abomination and clasped it. You'll hurt so many. You'll hurt yourself. Stop. Keeping going! Submit. Stay strong! LET GO. HANG ON! Let There Be Light. The abomination smiled, dissolved into energy and coursed through the heretic's body and blossomed with unholy strength. The coral's hold broke at his touch. Was it ever really there? The fire within him cast a solitary light through the dark water. There were two things within his sight. First, the infinite depths below, descending into darkness, and the vastness above. Though the water pressed in hard, the heretic seemed close to neither surface nor bottom. There was, with a certainty that he knew up from down, that there was not bottom. That the water expanded forever. Second was the tower. he stood within a rusted factory overgrown with coral as fish spun through shattered windows and waterlogged machinery. But he could see through the window outside as it buried into the steel skeleton of an unfinished skycraper that flowed into a smokestack, from which poured the holy darkness through which the heretic could find salvation, if they just. Let. Go. This can't be real.

Warp considered. "I mean, maybe. I haven't really thought about it, but I guess I could do that pretty easily? Space is a little complicated, I think I'd need a guide to get out that far." Kat stopped. Blinked. Remembered that the only person who'd understand what she was on about was her old handler. ". . . A live video feed or something, I mean. But it's not like I'll have trouble storing a space suit, so . . . eh?" She shrugged. "I'll get back to you on that. If I do need a suit, I'll know where who to ask." Turning and giving the tent a measuring stare, Kat gave it a firm shove to test the thing. It barely moved. She let her weight fall full on it. Again, nothing. She laughed. "Well, that might be a little overkill, but I'm glad for it." As Grimal made her pledge, Warp raised a hand and called a thermos out of her Pocket in a red flash. "I can second that!"

Kat breathed in through her teeth and narrowed her eyes. The possibilities fought for purpose in her head. She stared, watched the way he stood, moved . . . This smelled bad. This smelled so bad. But . . . "He's not lying." She said. She bit down on her lip, hard. "He means everything he's saying. But . . ." Warp's hand clenched into a fist. A dark light shone in her eyes for a moment . . . She could see him, even if he didn't seem to be able to see her. She could teleport to places she could see! Maybe she could . . . Kat shook her head and released a long breath out. "But living people shouldn't even be able to pass through this, right?" She turned to the conductor of their little adventure. "What can we do?" . . . Without ripping reality like a wet paper towel?

Hmm . . . She wouldn't just let it happen without scrutinizing this guy, much as the hero point is tempting, gah! I'll take it as a bluff instead, with skill mastery she has 26 automatically.

Darkness. Something tickled the edge of Cassidy's unconscious mind. Sounds. Noise. Voices? “Will it work?” “This was the most effective device that we could purchase given the short notice.” “Do you mean to suggest that you suspected I would fail?” “We simply wished to send him a message . . .” “. . . And then hope that we defaulted on our contract, hoping to keep your money. That's the kind of men you are, after all.” “How dare—“ “Quiet. I'm about turn it on.” “Yes, but will it work?” “Barring a miracle, yes. Cassidy Bauer will never wake again.” A jolt of something rang through his mind, something he could feel even through his unconscious haze. Strangling. Gasping . . . It felt like drowning. The creature that did not deserve a name could no longer tell what direction was 'up' or 'down.' The world pressed on all sides, as it always had, as it always would. (It's water pressure. Water pressure. Don't you miss the air? Don't you miss the sky?) His body was encased in something like stone. He belonged here. He was at home here. (Coral. You're trapped in coral. How?) There was no change. Change did not exist. All was nothing. Nothing was all. (This isn't right! This isn't right!) Then, change came. It radiated something bright and unnatural, it was abomination, it was monstrous. (Light! Its light!) The abominable power framed a halo around it, drawing out its silhouette in the dark, taking the shape of a man. (What is a man? Are you a man?) Bubbles emerged from the abominations head, and something gurgling and incomprehensible could be heard. (You know him, don't you? You know him. The abomination held out a hand. It lies. Do not take it. (Take it! Take it!)

Kat shrugged. She caught herself starting to lean against the tent . . . but tents weren't really meant to actually hold weight. They could hold off rain . . . and not much else . . . unless this one was special. Super-science gave her a headache, sometimes. "Yeah, it's not great. But, as far as I'm concerned . . ." She made a small, dismissive wave. ". . . I can call pretty much any year I don't almost disintegrate myself a pretty good year." By the time that Sakurako had come to Claremont, Kat had already had her accident. She was just another meta in school who didn't put on a cape, as far as Sakurako was concerned. Unless she'd looked at the newspapers for the past ten years, Kat guessed. It was hard to tell, with her. Sakurako was the smartest daft person that Kat had ever met in her life. "Well, if you need help setting anything too ridiculous up, I can take you pretty much anywhere." Warp said easily, eyes glittering in a dark red light. "I haven't tested that far, cause I need to breathe, but I should be able to go as far off as the moon."

Kat opened her mouth, closed it. Looked at the stranger for a single, baffled moment before turning back toward the window. I mean, she had said that people could talk across universes, right? It had happened before. Sometimes. "Did you make it switch again?" Kat whispered, then answered her own question with a shake of her head. "You didn't make it switch." Whoever this was, they had managed to wrest control of the window. They were looking into this room, at this strange face, because it was their will. Clenching at her thigh, she breathed through her teeth. Who was this . . . She didn't know. And they had power. But . . . What was this desperation? It felt real. She reached a hand and let its palm fall over her heart. This could be bad. Real bad. "Can you even hear us?" But if it was bad? She could handle it.

With Bonfire blasted back and distracted, the Rainman had an easy second shot . . . But he didn't take it. He angled toward, closing the distance between them in a moment, landing with a splash. Cassidy was living flame, but he didn't seem to care; he shoved his left hand into the center of his burning mass. Water began to pool and flow around the battered Cassidy, then . . . freezing. Leaving the burning man encased in ice. "Can you hear me?" The man's mouth, until this moment a firm, serious line, quirked upward at the edge. "Do you know your true crime, Cassidy Bauer?" The rainman pulled the glove that he'd left back out of his pocket and slipped it back on. "Hubris. A little power, and you forget your place. We are little men, standing at the feet of gods. That is the difference between you and I. Take my advice." He said, raising his right hand as water bubbled and boiled in a sphere around it. "It will happen regardless. Let go." For the first time, there was a little emotion in his voice. It was hard to describe. Something softer, perhaps. "It gets easier." His hand twitched and sent out another attack, aimed straight into Cassidy's center. He couldn't run. Couldn't dodge. It hit him hard, full on, with terrible strength.

. .. Well, he's paralyzed and helpless, so. Rainman is going to coup de grace him. Auto-crit. That's a 41 toughness save. Technically he can get through that without being knocked unconscious. If he does, he needs to make a 1d24 Fort check to avoid being knocked unconscious. Now, I'm not seeing a way out of this even if he makes that save, considering the fort save he'd need to get out of paralyze. Your choice, but if you throw the roll and let him fall unconscious at this dramatic moment, I'll give you a hero point to use as part of your inevitable grand escape.

Alright. Rainman is going to make the name I've given him confusing and speed in real close and try to do something to Bonfire with an outstretched left hand that's looking kinda cold . . . Attack shift +2 . . . 1d20+10=27 That'll hit. Now, you'll need to make a DC28 Fort save against Paralyze.

Would you prefer to do an IC post now of him getting hit, or should I keep throwing stuff at Bonny and let you do it all at once? = )

Is there anything Bonfire can do now or is he stuck at dazed?

Rainman was raising a hand to take aim at Bonfire again even as he volleyed another attack toward him. There was an explosion of power, fire and steam. It parted around Rainman like water around a ship's bow, guided away from him by his barrier. When the smoke cleared, he was still floating there, right hand pointed toward Bonfire, an orb of water in his hand. He narrowed his eyes behind his goggles, taking more careful aim, now . . . The lance wasn't quite so big this time, but it hit on its mark, and hard, throwing Bonfire backward. Easily, Rainman pulled the white glove off his left hand. It was white, not white as some men like to call themselves but white like the snowcaps of Antarctica. The rainman held his ungloved hand off to the side and clenched it.

Rainman is going to try to put a little more effort into aiming this time to make sure he gets it. Going to attack shift +4 . . . 1d20+12=24 That'll hit. 10 damage normally. Since it's a water attack . . . 10*1.5=15, 15+15=30 That'll be a DC30 toughness save, coming right up!

Roll: 2 So that makes it landed 20 feet away. Damage/reflex decreased by 1d. 1d20+10=21 He makes it! And his impervious means he doesn't actually need to roll for toughness on the reduced damage. His water shield keeps the fire off him completely.

Hmm. He's it's only about 30 feet away from your normal range increment with this . . . I'll just roll a 1d3. 1 Means you center it within ten feet. 2 means 20 feet. 3 means thirty. Then I'll roll damage appropriately.

The goons flew backward, propelled up by the smoke before they had a chance to do anything at all, propelled gracelessly up into the air as they screamed. One landed on top of their own car, leaving a dent in the hood and starting the high whine of an alarm. But they'd done their job. For a moment, Bonfire's attention was turned away from the man in the sky. Rainman turned downward and sped, like a bullet, directly toward Bonfire before pulling up, circling in the air high above. He held out a hand and, even from here, Bonfire could see water gathering into a ball at his palm. It came out in a bolt, a long line of water so fast it was more like a bullet. It grazed just past where Bonfire's ear would be and cut deep through a car behind him and out the other end.

Creep 1 Reflex: 1d20+3=12 Toughness: 1d20+6=15 Creep 2 Reflex: 1d20+3=17 Toughness: 1d20+6=9 They're down.

It was freezing cold. In the air. But still, his fire burned just as hot. As he plummeted, his parting gifts ripped through the rainman's guard yet again, his hands held up in front of him to absorb some of the blow. Not enough, though. His clothes were in tatters, and his bubble of water had lost still more of its density, made more feeble every time he broke so decisively through it. But for now, at least,he was far outside of Cassidy's natural range. Out of the corner of his eye, Cassity' saw yet more figures. Two of those shiny, irregular cars, parked across the street from one another, had swung open their doors. And out of each crept yet more of the dark-suited mooks.