Khakhan

ISSUE #01 C-DAY CELEBRATIONS Zhou sailed effortlessly through the opening created by the strange weapon, landing on the debris-strewn interior with barely a whisper. As he pushed his senses outward, he half noted the edges of the hole he had entered through. The edges of the hole were melted into a slick glassy substance that caught the light sifting through the dust and sent the edges glimmering. He stood in the foyer of a galleria of some kind, glass display cases lining the floor, and cases along the walls. As the world fell away, populated by glittering clouds of light, the cases disappeared and he saw the occupants further into the building. What he saw was… odd. Three bright clouds were populated among the back of the galleria, one to each wall away from the hole they had carved through the wall. But for all the rest of the group he had seen enter the building, were pale, their cloud of lights muted and pulsing irregularly, matching the 3 stronger clouds with a delay in almost a call-and-response of life energy. Nellie gave the equivalent of a mental nod across the link. <Go. I'll help here how I can.> The impression of physical effort comes across the link, Nellie running somewhere or lifting something with effort. <Stay safe, girl.> Worry flickers momentarily, before surety comes through and a smile.. <Kick their asses.>

ISSUE #01 C-DAY CELEBRATIONS The psychic switchboard activated among the group with very little fuss, a testament to Mikaela's strength and skill. Despite not being a speedster, Zhou quickly found himself in the lead, with his path taking him more or less as the crow flies, or perhaps a phoenix. Quickly maneuvering out of the press of bodies allowed him to gain a fair bit of distance from the others. He watched, concealed for the moment by the angle created by the difference in elevation between him and his quarry. Coming around the corner at subsonic speeds, Jordan slowed to a stop a short distance from the group, just as the group came to a halt about halfway down University Boulevard. As they had the opportunity to examine them in a little more detail, they noticed that the outfits were a little more unusual than they first appeared. Rather than simply cloth, they seemed to be a glossy form-fitting fabric, with portions covered in a hard, almost glass-like substance over the chest, forearms and legs. Each member had a number on their chestpiece and adorning the plate on their left shoulder. The foremost members in the group pause a moment, appearing to confer with one another briefly, before breaking apart and directing a couple different groups to various activities. One separates to begin establishing a perimeter, forcing Jordan to duck away with his enhanced reflexes. As Zhou continued to watch from above, he saw the other two groups begin to unload several containers that some of the members had carried between them. From one container, a couple members handed out a series of devices to their fellows. These people moved quickly and began to spread among the various cars spread up and down the street. The third group began to assemble an item from a couple other containers. Moving with a practiced efficiency, they began constructing some strange device mounted upon a tripod. All too quickly, something even a layman could gather to be a weapon began to take shape. A tripod mount, topped with a long barrel with a strangely forked aperture at one end, all connected to some sort of control array. The three members who seemed to be in charge of the groups gathered around this object and began to operate the control array, adjusting the aim of the thing. A spot of brilliant white energy springs to life, suspended in the center of the aperture. It grows for a few seconds, tendrils of energy lashing out, before it fires. The light is so bright it forces Jordan and Zhou to look away for a second, even as stars and spots dance in their vision. A strange sound accompanied the blinding light. A loud, grinding, crackling noise like broken ceramic thrown across ice. When their vision cleared enough to see again, they saw a single file formation dart forward towards the new entrance in the building face that had appeared. A massive hole, seemingly drilled straight through the facade of the architecture, clouds of rock dust drifting across an opening nearly eight feet across.

The attendees leapt into action remarkably quickly, given their general novelty to actual heroing. Mikaela's field of telekinetic force expanded over the crowd, the blooming of the barrier a thing of beauty if anyone had been in position to actually watch it. At nearly the same time, Zhou exploded into the air, landing gracefully atop the field at almost the same time it unfolded into being beneath his feet. He moved to the edge of the park and cast around, looking for clues. He spotted them just before Edward did, even caught back in the thick of the crowd as he was. Ripples in the pond, but moving in the wrong direction, against the flow of the river. Given the precious seconds needed to process the facts, it couldn't have been plainer if there were a neon sign directing his attention to it. The locations of the explosions, given bridges and streets and their spacing, weren't necessarily meant for damage. However, if one considered the day and the timing, the locations would be better served as distractions, or potentially temporary chokepoints into a particular block of buildings. As he puts this together, he notices two more things. Firstly, as he scoped out the scene, patterns kept changing, blinking, warping faster than they should, something against the so-called chaos of mass panic, which still spilled out in orders. The second thing he noticed was less puzzling, but far more pressingly important. Amidst all the movement and swirl from the press of people, was several groups moving not away from the explosions, but towards them. An action that was not necessarily against the norm, even for the situation, but something in the way they moved tickled something in Edward's brain, the way things normally did when he had a Hunch. Nick rose into the air and called out over the crowd, shaping the sound to carry over a greater distance. The sight of the flying young man gave enough people pause to shake them from the initial stupor of terror and they began to slow. Moving more calmly, some of them even began to slow others and make concentrated movements to exits, and the crowds followed, slowly at first, but the movement began to calm and flow more smoothly as time moved on. Jordan managed to move a few folks out of the way before they were hurt, either by debris not caught by the force field or by being caught in the rush of people. As he maneuvered them into safer positions, he also caught sight of the groups of people moving in towards the explosions. Not counting the group Jordan himself had been a part of, all of the others were dressed the same, dark clothing and glasses. They weren't clustered tightly, but loosely scattered throughout the crowd. As those who had seen them watched, they noticed that the group was moving in a way that pulled them all together towards one location, but it wasn't quite where the explosion had occurred. Instead, it was a bit further down the block, and around a corner as some of the people in the lead began to disappear out of sight.

Ooooo. I just installed 2e on Foundry!

The duo on the stage continue to talk, sharing some of the smaller details of the day, including itineraries of various celebrity showings and meet-and-greets. Among the various timetables, Halogen mentions special signings and a couple times throughout the day that both Orion and herself will be available for autographs and photographs and "perhaps a special treat or two". As the group in the audience have their conversations, various lulls give way to turning their attention back to the stage in time to catch the next section of the speech. Halogen steps forward, replacing Orion in stage prominence. "And now, I would like to introduce to the stage, Ms. Gwendolyn Knight... CEO of Cobalt Cybernetics." There is a slight pause in the murmuring of the crowd, and then a polite applause breaks out. Gwendolyn Knight was the daughter of Thomas Knight, former CEO of Cobalt Cybernetics, and the Ultramarine. Gwendolyn walked across the stage towards the microphone, she looked out at the audience, brushing a stray strand of hair out of her face. Approaching Halogen, she shakes her hand, saying something too low for the microphone to catch, before turning to Orion and shaking his hand as well. A quick exchange between the three occurs before she moves to the microphone to address the gathered crowd. "Hello Cape City." Her greeting feels a little forced, although anyone thinking about it, knows the glut of misfortune she has experienced within her life, let alone the past few years. Really, was all that surprising that she wasn't in a good mood, days away from the anniversary from her father's death? Clearing her throat, she continues. "My father loved this city and the people of this city. He believed, no matter how bad it got, everyone was capable of helping make a better tomorrow." She pauses and blinks hard. "Which means that today, I have the utmost pleasure to announce the creation of the Thomas Knight Foundation. In the words of my father, For a Brighter Tomorrow." The awkward energy in the crowd begins to disperse slightly, into a murmur of approval spreading throughout. The catchphrase had been a commonly heard one from Thomas Knight, a play on the man's name and his genuine drive to help people, with dozens of charities and foundations calling him their biggest donor. "Though hardly the first attempt for aid done in my father's name, this will be the first to bear his name. As many may know, he was a graduate of MIT. Their mission is to generate and preserve knowledge, and to bring it against all the world's challenges. With the Knight Foundation, it is my hope that my father will get to finally live out his true dream, and share knowledge and creativity with everyone, with no restrictions. The Foundation will monitor a grant, gifting scholarships and funding research all throughout the country, and enabling people to take a step forward into a better, easier, safer future. Starting with, effective immediately, any student debts owed by any resident of the city have been fully paid off or forgiven-" The rest of her sentence is cut off by massive cheering in the gathered crowds, which continues for a solid minute before petering out to a more tolerable level. Gwendolyn watches the crowd, a sad smile on her face. When the volume drops enough to be heard again, she clears her throat and continues speaking. "I can't say I disagree with the sentiment, heh. But, celebrate, have fun, and then together, we'll step into a brighter tomorrow. Now-" She is interrupted a second time by another rumble, but this time, it's underfoot. A tremble and shudder, and then the ground feels as if it jumps underneath you. Then, in further away, an explosion, a gout of fire followed by a massive pillar of smoke pouring into the sky. Then another, deeper into the city, then a third, on the outer edge of the park. Chaos took the crowd, Halogen and Orion cast a quick glance at each other before taking to the sky, and Gwendolyn, her face pale, grabs the microphone and speaks into it, her voice tight but steady. "Ladies and gentlemen, please stay calm, everything will be fine." But as glass and stone and wood rain down from the sky, "fine" seems to be the furthest thing from the truth...

Halogen's appearance was heralded by a series of bright explosions of colors, followed quickly by a humming, coruscating field of energy of that swooped through the sky before pausing above the amphitheater stage. Music swells and crescendos as the field of energy coalesces into a humanoid shape, and the ambient glow fades away, revealing a young woman sporting a beaming smile. Her hair is bound up and bounces gently in the breeze stirring through her locks. "Hey folks!" A scintillating tesseract of brilliant citrine energy unfolds into being in the air above the stage and the panels shift and fold outward, and a man walked out waving a hand. Tall and powerfully built, his alien heritage only becomes apparent as he nears the edge of the stage. Four lambent eyes gaze out over the crowd, and the surface of his skin seems to ripple and waver with energy. He pauses at the very edge of the stage, his feet not actually touching the stage, but hovering gently above the platform. A hand lifts and he nods slightly, his voice resonant and carrying with very little effort. "Greetings, Cape City." Halogen steps forward and the duo address the crowd together. "We're Halogen and Orion!" The sheer force of volume that erupted from the crowd was almost a physical entity, crashing through the open space and filling it. After letting it continue for a little while, Halogen steps forward and pats the air with her hands, her image broadcast on a massive display above the stage. A small smile on her face shows her own restrained delight as she calms the crowd. "Wow. Thank you, folks, for the incredibly warm reception. It is a massive honor to be here in Cape City, home of the Centurions and the Ultramarine, may he rest in peace." A small hush rustles through the crowd as they remember their fallen hero, before Halogen continues. "But we're here to celebrate folks, not mourn, and Ultramarine would not want us sad during a celebration. So let's make some noise and have some fun! We'll be here all day, announcing a few more fun and interesting things throughout the day..." Halogen goes on for a little while more, detailing some of the events throughout the area, with Orion chiming in occasionally. GM BOX I'm gonna do a cutaway to the crowd a little bit as she talks this huge speech thingy.

I voted time skip to evening, but it genuinely doesn't bother me when we move to. I was honestly expecting some folks to wanna do "Under the cover of Darkness, our heroes...." type stuff lol

Halogen's appearance was heralded by a series of bright explosions of colors, followed quickly by a humming, coruscating field of energy of that swooped through the sky before pausing above the amphitheater stage. Music swells and crescendos as the field of energy coalesces into a humanoid shape, and the ambient glow fades away, revealing a young woman sporting a beaming smile. Her hair is bound up and bounces gently in the breeze stirring through her locks. "Hey folks!" A scintillating tesseract of brilliant citrine energy unfolds into being in the air above the stage and the panels shift and fold outward, and a man walked out waving a hand. Tall and powerfully built, his alien heritage only becomes apparent as he nears the edge of the stage. Four lambent eyes gaze out over the crowd, and the surface of his skin seems to ripple and waver with energy. He pauses at the very edge of the stage, his feet not actually touching the stage, but hovering gently above the platform. A hand lifts and he nods slightly, his voice resonant and carrying with very little effort. "Greetings, Cape City." Halogen steps forward and the duo address the crowd together. "We're Halogen and Orion!" The sheer force of volume that erupted from the crowd was almost a physical entity, crashing through the open space and filling it. After letting it continue for a little while, Halogen steps forward and pats the air with her hands, her image broadcast on a massive display above the stage. A small smile on her face shows her own restrained delight as she calms the crowd. "Wow. Thank you, folks, for the incredibly warm reception. It is a massive honor to be here in Cape City, home of the Centurions and the Ultramarine, may he rest in peace." A small hush rustles through the crowd as they remember their fallen hero, before Halogen continues. "But we're here to celebrate folks, not mourn, and Ultramarine would not want us sad during a celebration. So let's make some noise and have some fun! We'll be here all day, announcing a few more fun and interesting things throughout the day..." Halogen goes on for a little while more, detailing some of the events throughout the area, with Orion chiming in occasionally. GM BOX I'm gonna do a cutaway to the crowd a little bit as she talks this huge speech thingy.

I am very tempted to have Barda misunderstand what the slip is saying because she's confusing meme culture with the larger pop culture stuff, and ask about... Eggplant emojis...

Should be fixed now. It was a site thing, not a user thing. Was happening in various spots.

A resounding silence follows Jan's speech. Slowly, eyes shift towards Darius who looks completely bewildered by the short girl's proclamation. "Uh. I've never met you before in my life..." He looks around the room, and jerks his hands up when he gets to Ty. "No bullshit, man." Ty nods and scrubs his face with a hand, sighing. "I believe you." He focuses on the rest of the team, and rolls his shoulders. "Okay. Assuming none of you have any further clues, we need to get on this." He looks over at Becks who nods and pushes away from the table. "I'll get in contact with Mr. Summers and see what he wants us to handle." Ty stands, clapping his hands together. "Joy. Extra homework. Okay folks. Some facts not widely known to the public. One, the school does train heroes, not just students with powers. The reason it's done here is for security and safety. Many of the faculty and staff are retired heroes, and the school itself is located on a nexus of ley lines. Two, that nexus sometimes... attracts attention from the wider universe. Seems you guys got caught up in the mess." He moves around the table and opens the fridge, looking through it for a moment before closing it without taking anything. "Now we have to figure out just how deep in it you are."

Barda Doyenne Dodge 4 • Parry 4 • Toughness 8 • Fort 6 • Will 4 Hero Points 1 • Perception +3 Ranged • "Heat Vision" +6 (300/600/1200 ft) • Damage 6 • Distracting Melee • Unarmed +7 • Damage 5 Barda nodded in response to Volker's statement/question about the school. "A Dragon? Indeed. I'd expect many of our classmates to have similarly impressive abilities."  Turning to Jack, she nods. "I did indeed fly myself here. My name is Barda." She lifts off the ground slightly in demonstration. "It is a very useful ability." Taking a bite of a second burger off her plate, she chewed and swallowed before continuing. "I cannot breath fire myself, but I have other skills." She looks down and focuses for a second, and her eyes begin to glow a deep scarlet before a beam of energy lances out and neatly bisects the burger. When Francis spoke up she turns to him, a smile spreading across her features. "You are a fan of science fiction movies as well?" OOC @JubalBreakbottle I don't think Jack and Barda did meet, but she didn't really introduce herself to most people after arriving at nearly her top speed.

Sorry about that. Wrote the post the other day in my notes and then forgot I hadn't actually posted it here.

Barda Doyenne Dodge 4 • Parry 4 • Toughness 8 • Fort 6 • Will 4 Hero Points 1 • Perception +3 Ranged • "Heat Vision" +6 (300/600/1200 ft) • Damage 6 • Distracting Melee • Unarmed +7 • Damage 5   Barda had spent most of her time wandering the school, getting familiar with the layout of the buildings, and looking for ways to get into the boy's floor without being caught. As she wandered, she kept her eyes out for the movements of the two boys she had spotted earlier. Not approaching, just watching and keeping track. Eventually, she made her way to the cafeteria, loading a plate down with a truly impressive pile of food. She had only just taken a bite of a burger when the girl, Kannd'r apparently, loudly announced her team affiliation and then floated off through the room. Barda's brows furrowed for a moment. Was this a trick? Some kind of ploy?  After a moment's pause, she tears through the rest of the burger and then picks her plate up, following slowly through the room listening to any chatter she could catch. This was an interesting game, in it's own way. Not quite her Forte, but she'd catch up soon enough. A gout of flame catches her attention for a second and she moves towards the group. "You can breath fire? That is an impressive ability."

<Making friends. You should try it.> The mental message didn't any physicality to it, but the implication of a stuck out tongue was so strong it may as well have. Nellie bows back to Zhou, and then extends a hand. "I'm Nellie. Ramirez." She looks around and takes a step forward, closing the gap in the line. "First, I'm getting sugar." She tosses a thumb over her shoulder at the stand. "But I'm also meeting someone here as well. But after that, I'm definitely not missing out on seeing Halogen in person." Halogen was a very popular heroine, somewhat new to the hero scene, but had taken to the role with passion. In a few very short years, she had made her name enough to become the youngest member inducted to the official ranks of the Centurions, as well as an absolute staple of the Cape City community in particular.