Masks: A New Generation of Heroes

Game Master Cwethan

It's been a trying day, but the man's mention of his prior acts of heroism actually helping is something he really needed to hear after all. I won't resist the influence. Shifting labels.

Ji-Wan sits down and actually smiles a little to himself, surprised that he's not bristling at seeing her like his usual mandatory visits tend to go. He scratches his head.

"Well, I kinda need your help with something." he starts. The words started to come out faster, like a stream of consciousness. "These alien jerks appeared at school today-oh yeah I actually went to school for once- and blew half of it up and kicked my butt when I tried to help stop them. Dude had a phase sword and almost cut me in half cause I can't blink like you do."

He picks at the slashed up shirt on his chest as he talks. "But then they left and I thought that 'hey, they only broke some s+$~, we're okay' but then I just heard from Wingblade that they had actually kidnapped someone and teleported away. And now everyone else was looking to me or one of my other buddies to figure out how to find and save this girl cause they said something about sacrifice and now I'm getting screamed at about this cause Wingblade's got a steel feather up her butt."

He takes a breath."I didn't want Eldritch-the other guy-to try it cause every time he does something powerful he goes blind or blows up or makes all pudding in a three block radius turn into snakes. So if he were to try to teleport all of us at once... Someone could get seriously hurt. So I guess... I figured... that the wardens might maybe let you teach me how to trace teleports so I could, you know, do that safer..." Ji-Wan's looking at his reflection on the metal bench. He looks tired and worn down and scratched up, things he normally hides with illusions to keep up his cocky attitude.

Condition(s): None

"Sure thing," affirms Atoms, nodding at Haden.

Standing nearby the bed, the former deputy watches the monitors and waits for the inevitable. Sure enough, and just as expected, his presence causes all kinds of small irregularities in the devices. Frowning to himself, Atoms moves back and stands next to the wall on the far side of the room. He waits, for Tectonic to wake up or Haden to come back, but he isn't entirely idle, or at least his mind isn't. So many things happened today, and perhaps now was a good time to think and process it all, make plans for the future.

Of course, to anyone looking at Atoms, it merely appears that he's staring very intently at the floor, his arms crossed behind his back.

Tectonic's eyes snap open, but rather than immediately panicking as Atoms would expect from her background, she seems almost... calm. "Atoms," she says quietly, "did you and Wingblade have a huge blowout argument?"

Condition(s): None

Atoms looks up from the floor. He's a little surprised that Tectonic would mention that first thing, but perhaps she was barely conscious or had heard it while she was out. Wingblade and him did have that 'discussion' pretty close by where she was laying, after all. Still, he didn't really know what to say to her.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't quite hear you," lies Atoms. He approaches the bed, a soft smile on his face. "Can you say that again?" The former deputy tries to buy himself time to think.

Truthfully, he was just thinking about Wingblade, The Team, and the situation at hand. Atoms was thinking about his part in the events, and in the events to come. There was a lot to consider. He had questions like, "How can we best prepare the team for what's ahead?", "Should Wingblade continue to lead the team, or should someone else take the reins?", and "What will the paragons do?".

I was actually thinking Panel's panels were really cool, and was wondering if I could find a way to get control of them. I'll choose that.

Prior to returning to the clock tower

As Wingblade tells him what happened with Hashtag, Ghost Dragon looks around Halcyon High. "I think something happened at Halcyon High, too. Something that shook North Star up pretty badly, and maybe Hashtag. I'll see if Eldritch or North Star can tell me more."

::The Clock Tower::

Ghost Dragon rubs his eyes. In all the excitement, he hadn't realized just how tired he was. He checked in with his mom to let her know that he was alright and he hadn't been hurt in that attack on Franklin High and he'd be home as soon as he could.

Ghost Dragon tells Eldritch and North Star what happened at Franklin High, then asks them what happened at Halcyon High.

"Did you and Wingblade have a massive argument? About whether you would take the fall for... what happened. Thanks, um, thanks for offering by the way. I'm... I'm checking if what I just saw is real." Nora seems... troubled. Distant.

Condition(s): None

"You heard correctly", says Atoms, unsure of how to treat "what I just saw". "Wingblade and I had a misunderstanding. She thought I was trying to give up, quit the team or something." He looks at Tectonic. "We worked it out. I just didn't want to see you behind bars."

Tectonic nods. "Okay." she then reaches for her communicator, pauses, then says, "Passing out suddenly or starting to freak out at random things may become a regular thing."

Unleash my (new) Powers: 2d6 ⇒ (3, 5) = 8

Tectonic is trying to make sense of the weird visions she got during the dream. Marking Angry.

Although her view of what had happened in her absence was somewhat... distorted, by the sheer primalness of it, it was still understandable, if only barely. And what the young woman saw pissed her off.

"And, Atoms," she says, "Be glad that you're not on the receiving end of what I'm about to give to Wingblade," before finally opening up her communicator.

She starts out simply. "You b!**%," she snarls. "How f%$$ing dare you! You have no idea what Vick was going through, and you have the bravado to make it out as if he's the bad guy when you try to bully and mock him into going on a dangerous mission while he's clearly not ready? And then to flat out lie to the rest of the team that he threatened you? I don't care who taught you, if you start melting down the moment something goes wrong, you are not qualified to lead!"

Changing Atoms to Tectonic's Love and Wingblade to Tectonic's rival.

Wingblade stands still as a statue as Tectonic screams at her over the communicator. When she finishes, there's a prolonged silence as she processes her words, trying to figure out how Tec could possibly know what had occurred while she'd been knocked unconscious -- and gotten everything so entirely wrong. The only possibility, she realized, was that Hashtag had gone to her and was telling her a very skewed version of events.

"Listen to me very carefully," she begins, her voice low and soft, though somehow more dangerous than she'd ever sounded before. "Vick was asleep when I went to him. So whatever he's going through, he couldn't be bothered to stay awake for it." Those able to watch her see her wings quiver and twitch, their sharp edges glinting in the light.

"I asked him for help; he wouldn't. I went after him, because we needed him to trace the kidnappers. And he said he'd 'port me into space if I went after him again. That is the truth. If he told you different, he's lying," she snarls.

Wingblade begins to quiver with anger, her vision beginning to go red at the edges again. Her hands ball into fists and her wings flare outward. She wanted to scream. She wanted to yell that she had never asked to be leader. She wanted to point out that Tectonic was one to talk about melting down when things went wrong, or really any one of them. She wanted to point out that she had killed -- she had a list of people dead by her hands that can never be erased.

And lastly, she wanted to point out that so far, she was the only one who still seemed to care whether this girl lived or died.

But she stayed silent. She trembled with rage, but she bit her tongue. Her eyes went to Ghost Dragon, Eldritch, and North Star, challenging them. Her wings fold back into place with a click and she crosses her arms in front of her.

"Well?" she says at last.

When Dragon and Atoms found him, Tycho was sitting on a low wall, staring at his feet. He barely registered their presence, and gave them a weak smile.

"So I know it was bad, but I'm hoping there might be someone to fix it. No one should have to suffer what that poor lady did. The other guy is...terrifying; and I couldn't do anything to stop him. He made me watch him do it. I tried to stop him, but He just took over. Is she okay?"

Tectonic barks out a short, bitter laugh. "Unless Hashtag has a bag of magic pixie dust that's been giving my brain all of these weird-ass visions, then he's at no fault for giving me the truth. He said, and I quote, that if you threatened him again he'd port you into space. You have no idea what he went through. And I can quote the rest of the conversation verbatim right here, right now, if you want me to."

While she wanted to know how a comatose earth-mover was privy to her and Hashtag's conversation, she forced away her curiosity. We live in a strange world, Whippoorwill had said once. You'll never understand it all and sometimes you have to just let some things go.

Instead, she replays her interactions with Hashtag in her mind once more. "Tell me," she says, her voice calm even though she wanted to throttle Tectonic, "When did I actually threaten him?"

Tectonic says, equally quietly, "You threatened to kick him out of the team. That's the worst. I don't care that he said you could keep the headset, it's not about that. We all need.... this. Vick especially. He's too proud to admit it, but he does. He's trying to help that girl, believe it or not, last time I saw him. That's how much the team means to him. He's going to do this, even though he isn't ready. But you can't force him to make that decision."

"You're gonna have to start at the beginning, North Star. Tell us exactly what happened, from the beginning. What happened here at Halcyon High?"

She puts a palm to her forehead as the red fills her vision, her anger boiling over. ""He chose to leave! He's ignoring her right now so he can go spray paint more bridges or join his mom in prison!"

She pounds her breastbone as she shouts at the top of her lungs. "I didn't want to be leader! Being leader means it's my fault when I turn around for two minutes and a school gets wrecked! It's my fault when a bad guy gets away! And it's my fault when a girl is gonna be sacrificed and the team can't get its sh!* together to go save her!"

She falls on her knees, choking out sobs. She brings her fist down hard on the wood floor and there is an audible snap! as bones break. "It's my fault! My fault."

Clearing the angry condition by breaking something (my hand).

"And that's where you wrong," Tectonic's voice is gentler now, but still cold as ice. "The last thing I saw before I woke up was Vick doing the last thing he wanted to do to help her: talk to his mom." Tectonic fights her way past her anger, past Wingblade's stupidity, to tell the truth. "Thing is, Wingblade, just because you're a leader, doesn't mean you have to take the blame for everyone's mistakes. You help them realize who stupid they were, and how to get past their stupidity and hopefully learn from it. But you can't yell at your teammates until they stop being stupid. That only makes them angry and idiotic. If you're going to be the leader of this little band here, you need to learn how to guide us, not to order us."

"Alexis," Ghost Dragon says as Wingblade slams her hand on the floor and screams about it being her fault. When she looks up, he says, "The girl's name is Alexis. She's on the basketball team and gets decent grades. Rumor has it she has a rough home life, but she doesn't really talk about it." Meeting Wingblade's eyes, he says, "Also, as I recall in the fight, I was the one who was attempting to contain the mage, I was the one who couldn't stop him, and I was the one who saw Tectonic falling out of the sky and instead of looking for him, went to help her when she didn't need it."

His voice grows louder with each repetition of 'I'. "So, it's my fault Alexis got kidnapped, because I put the safety of my near-indestructible teammates ahead of the safety of civilians. The only thing you're at fault for is trying to take responsibility for everything. You can't be everywhere at once. We didn't go into that battle against these guys with a plan. The aftermath is my school getting wrecked, Alexis getting kidnapped, and Tectonic getting knocked out. You aren't the only one worried about saving Alexis, but if we rush after them, we're going to end up in the same situation we just did, except this time it'll be on an alien planet with the possibility of no way to get back."

Ghost Dragon has been moving towards Wingblade this entire time before he kneels down next to her and says, "Your responsibility as leader is not to assume blame for everything that goes wrong during a mission. Your responsibility as leader is to pull your team back together and get them ready for a rescue mission. Eldritch can trace their magic, but we need a teleporter - like Hashtag - to trace the teleport so this isn't all on Eldritch. We need more information about what we're getting into, and since Haden's team seems to have some, we'll go the briefing at their tower, gather that information, and then go rescue Alexis." Smirking, Ghost Dragon says, "And if they tell us not to, we'll do it anyway. So, what's it gonna be? Are you going to assume the blame for everything, or are you going to pull this team back together so we don't all die rescuing Alexis?"

Comfort or Support: 2d6 + 2 ⇒ (2, 6) + 2 = 10

Adding a Team to the pool. If breaking her hand wasn't enough to clear Angry, Wingblade can clear a condition, mark potential, or open up to me and shift her Labels.

That can be arranged Ghost Dragon

Yeesh, guys. The way you argue as teenagers makes me think we have actual life experience in this kind of pissed off environment *wink*. Let's cool off the arguing for a bit, and move ahead.

==========Clock Tower===========
Ghost Dragon, Wingblade, North Star, Eldritch
I'll say breaking your hand is good to clear Angry, though that does mean you won't be able to just fix it up quickly. Wouldn't mean anything if that were the case.
As Ghost Dragon said, you can mark potential or shift labels if you open up.

Emotions are flying high, and as tensions and voices rise it seems like the very fabric of the team will be ripped apart. Any memory of the good times shared, the intimate feelings felt, or the fierce loyalty given to the others on your team seem to be washed over by the shame of defeat, the hopelessness of weakness, the fear of failure.

"Is this a bad time?"

The new voice comes from a portly man in a clean grey suit, a growing concerned look on his face. His bristling mustache twitches as he talks. Those of you who don't live under a rock recognize another of the Halycon City's heroes, Earl Grey.

"Sorry to intrude, but the situation has....um....in so many words escalated. Perhaps in a better word, given an opportunity."

And before any of you can protest, you all feel a light thrusting sensation and find that the scenery around you has changed. The tall marble walls with decorum similar to that of the ancient greeks surround a circular room, in the center, a magnificent table that can seat seven.

You all also notice you smell faintly of chai.

==========Halycon High Security: Penitentiary=============
Vick

Your mother gives you a smile and fondles your hair a bit.

"You've really grown since I last saw you huh? Haven't seen you this upset since they locked me up. You must really care about these guys...."

Her caring smile lilts into a sad one.

"Tracing a teleporter is a bit tricky, but you've got my genes so it should be fine for you. But it'll take time. Time and training. Something I'm not the Warden will appreciate the public noticing with the amount of space it'll need to take."

Your conversation is interrupted when a tall woman wearing a uniform marches over. From the gazes and the snarls some she elicits from the prisoners, she is not thought of highly here

"Prisoner 21112, you're going out for community service." She informs as she snaps a metallic cuff around her wrist.

"You're to report to Halycon HQ. This metal cuff will always teleport with you and if you teleport somewhere outside of the city, it will deliver an electric shock while sending out a rescue beacon. If you somehow die before we get to you, not my problem."

The Warden finally notices you Hashtag.

"They also mentioned to bring the kid along." she says, not bothering to address you directly. "You are to leave immediately."

==========Halycon HQ=============
Tectonic, Deputy Atoms

A sound echoes through the recuperation room as a metal bucket full of water and a mop go skittering across the floor, cutting the comms conversation short. There, wearing some patched up jeans, sneakers, and a polo was Foresight, his glasses askew as usual.

"Seeing bits of the future does not let me see buckets hiding around corners..." he mutters in explanation before either of you can ask such a question.

He picks himself up, dusts off his pants and palms, before addressing you.

"The Defenders are having a meeating upstairs, and we'd like your involvement. I believe the other members of your team are being gathered as we speak."

==========Halycon HQ: Main Room==============
Everyone

As everyone makes their entrances, you see the others from your team as they arrive. It seems that a few members of the Defenders haven't arrived yet, but Foresight and Earl Grey are present, talking to each other on the other side of the table currently.

Feel free to roleplay a bit more.

Tectonic, while still simmering with somewhat counterproductive rage, walks somewhat stiffly into the main room. She quirks an eyebrow at the appearance of Vick's mother, but keeps silent.

Hashtag and someone new arrives just outside the Defender's headquarters. While he appears with a sharp Crack, the woman created no sign of her appearance. No displacement of air, no sound, smell, or sight other than she was just suddenly there.

She's a tiny south korean woman. She looks like someone who would normally be at home making dinners for her family, almost entirely unmemorable unless you'd been watching the news 8 years ago. She's dressed in the jumper of the supermax prison, stitched with warnings about approaching her without a guard. On her wrist is a very obvious tracking/submission bracelet. Blink. An untouchable thief and murderer of two high-profile heroes.

And there Hashtag was, talking with her as they were escorted through the building. She looked uncomfortable going into the stronghold of the Defenders, but despite that, she still exuded the confidence and strength that most adults had.

When they enter the meeting room, Hashtag will pop over to one of the table's seats spontaneously, only to find that Blink was already sitting next to him. He does a double take and then rolls his eyes. "Teleporting is instant, HOW do you keep getting there before me?"

She pats him on the head in a motherly fashion. "Is it?" she asks simply.

He sighs, then looks around the room. His eyes narrow when he sees Wingblade, but he just grins and leans back in his seat, lacing his fingers behind his head.

Condition(s): None

"Passing out suddenly or starting to freak out at random things may become a regular thing."

"Wait, what?", thought Atoms. His mind was burning with questions now. Before he could say anything though...

"Be glad that you're not on the receiving end of what I'm about to give to Wingblade," before finally opening up her communicator.

"Wait, what do you mean by—"

"You b@$+%," she snarls."

"Oh wow." Atoms looks away, grinning.

He partly felt awkward, listening to only one side of this heated conversation. But the grin was because of how impressed Atoms was. It took guts to stand up to anyone. To stand up to Wingblade though, and only a minute after waking up from a possible concussion? That was pretty cool. Not to mention all the truth Tectonic was laying down.

That grin fades though, as Atoms listens and realizes the severity of what is being said. There was no way the team was going to be the same after today. He even doubted that the team would even stay together after all was said and done. It was a lot to take in.

Atoms greets Foresight, but he moves quickly in order to catch up to Tectonic.

"Hey." The former deputy walks alongside her. "What happened back there? What did Wingblade say?"

Excellent. Panels for me!

Also, I was totally trying to cool off the arguing. That's part of what my pep talk to Wingblade was for. Bit of tough love, just like she gave Ghost Dragon at the end of the last adventure :).

Ghost Dragon gonna pull this team back together kicking and screaming, if he has to.

EDIT: Forgot the actual gameplay post.

Ghost Dragon looks over at Earl Grey's sudden entrance, his eyes saying, Not now, you twit! I think I was getting through to her and getting her to pull it together.

Upon finding himself suddenly in the meeting room, Ghost Dragon wrinkles his nose. He hates the scent of chai. It's gonna take forever to get this stink out of my costume.

Seeing Tectonic, Atoms, and Hashtag, Ghost Dragon breathes a sigh of relief. With everyone there, hopefully the team would be able to pull themselves back together.

~~~AT HALCYON HIGH~~~

Eldritch listened to what it was that happened to their psychic and already, things were beginning to click in his mind. His eyes widened before he sat down on the wall beside him, an arm moving around Northstar before he spoke low.

”It was that other you, wasn’t it?” Kenneth knew that Tycho’s situation was strange, even stranger than his own. How horrifying it must be, to be taking a step every day that could be bringing you closer to a monster you don’t want to be but there was no way to know.

Eldritch would begin to tell Dragon what happened there from what he had seen; the fight with the mage, the group splitting up, every detail he could remember. Vick, Tycho, and Imagine were the ones outside and were the ones who fought the guards so he didn’t really see what exactly happened to anyone else. Looking back at Tycho, he’d try to muster up a smile upon his face.

”Honestly Ty? I don’t know. You got hurt, you got scared, and you let your guard down.” Kenneth said with a nod, making sure to hold that eye contact with him. ”This doesn’t mean you’re weak though. This doesn’t mean you failed. We all screw up sometimes and trust me, I know what it means to screw up badly and to have a heavy price. But if he could do it, then you can do it. You can fix it. You can make it right.”

Comfort Other: 2d6 - 1 + 1 ⇒ (6, 2) - 1 + 1 = 8

On a hit, Ty may clear a condition, mark potential, or shift his labels. Kenneth is looking to try and clear his conditions and get their psychic back in fighting shape.

"We can't do that now Ty. People have been taken. People that need us. We're all going to be meeting at the Clocktower to try and regroup, then to the Defender HQ for a debriefing about what the hell is going on. C'mon, let's go."

~~~THE CLOCKTOWER~~~

How long ago had it been when they watched movies together? These were the thoughts that Eldritch had as the others fought, argued, shouted, and screamed. He stared at the television set for a few moments now, remembering the black and white horror movies and the Chinese kung-fu films that played with an abysmal audio track. There was laughter then, smiles even, he even caught Nora smirking while she leaned against the wall in the back.

Kenneth had a terrible tendency of doing this, when things would get stressful he'd tend to lean back and notice everything else and remember anything else but what was there. He had done the same when there was a test in third grade he forgot about, instead studying the design of the playground outside the window. He had done the same when Kktharos began to rip through his body, amazed at how intricate the sacrifical chamber's ceiling patterns were. He would distract himself from the world and let it all go by him.

"Now Kenneth, you cannot let your mind dawdle. What you have is a gift. What you have is a chance to change the world...for the better." His shrink's words floated through his mind and he'd turn his attention back to reality instead of continuing to escape to the daydream of his mind. It was the crack of Wingblade's hand that pulled him entirely out, his eyes widening for a moment before he quickly moved to the fridge and grabbed a thing of ice.

"Pressure. Now." Kenneth almost seemed to growl at their leader, wrapping her hand in a washcloth that was soaked and filled with chilling ice. There was no argument in his voice and when Earl Grey showed up, he didn't have the chance to give his input on the situation. Instead, they were suddenly just...there.

~~~CURRENTLY~~~

Kenneth's face would break into a smile as he saw Nora walk in, his lithe figure rising from his seat and interrupting her before she could make it to her chair. In a rare display of outbursted emotion, he'd wrap her in a hug that would've been tight if it wasn't for the fact that she was likely in better shape than him.

"I'm glad to see you're alright Nora." He said with a smile, looking back at the others. Hashtag and Blink were just suddenly there and his eyes widened as he studied the supervillain for a moment.

Moving to the table, he'd settle down in a seat nearby Nora and Hashtag. He'd look over the others, each one simmering in their own anger. Only Ghost Dragon seemed to have remained calm throughout it all, the kid who decided to become a superhero. Taking a deep breath, he cleared his throat and looked between them all.

"Guys..." Kenneth would start, his voice soft enough to be heard by them and maybe Vick's mother but possibly ignored by the others. "...I know we're all dealing with things right now. We're angry. We're afraid. We're guilty. We're hurt. We've said things to wound each other, to hurt each other. I don't mean to sound like some damn teacher but now...for right now...we have to put this behind us."

"Wingblade has been leading us not really out of choice but because we put her there. It is okay for leaders to get weak, to make a mistake, to get upset. Just like it is alright for us to f**~ up, to come up short, to want to run away." He looked at each one of them and thought to himself that he wished the Outsider was back again. She'd say something innocently funny and lighten the mood, she was much better at this then him. He was all black and dour, who ever wanted to listen to the goth kid for life advice?

"You're all my friends and I think, honestly, we all know that we don't have a lot of them outside of this group. Outside of us. I still think back to that night at the movies, sitting in the front with 3D glasses and listening to Imagine critique their spacecrafts and theories. We're still those same people, right now, even if things are going to hell."

"After this, we're going to hash this all out. Get s!$@ off of our chests. For now though, we're going to hear what the Defenders have to say. We're going to listen to their plan. And then...then we're going to save Alexis and everyone else whether Haden and his crew want us to or not. Just...I don't know...we got to swallow our feelings for a bit more."

He'd lean back into his seat, shaking his head before murmuring quietly. "Jesus, giving monologues is exhausting..."

"So, um, some lady appeared in my head while I was KO'd and was giving me that stereotypical, weird mystical BS, and then showed me all of the stuff that happened while I was out. I saw everything," Tectonic grimaces, but continues. "It was all really weird. Everything that was real was grey, and I could hear what everyone was thinking a lot louder than what everyone was saying. And... and there was this other, weird metal forest that kind of... overlapped with everything else." Tectonic sighs and rubs the back of her head. "Wingblade... she was really falling apart back there. You don't even know. Vick nearly got killed. He just needed some time alone, and Wingblade... she just completely lost it after he told her to f$+@ off and leave him alone while he was trying to stabilize after he nearly got cut in half. With... a swordfish, I think? You heard the rest."

At Eldritch's speech, Tectonic nods and steps forward. "To summarize, we all got f#&#ed up hard by that fight, but we need to kick all of our baggage to the side of the road. We can punch the s*$# out of and scream at each other all we want after this is done. I just really hope that I won't need to kick your heads out of your asses so that we can be a team again."

@Default: I guess it depends on how long is long? Is a day or two too short of a time for my hand to heal? I want to have a fairly potent healing factor. Soft tissue injuries should be repaired in a matter of minutes, but I could see bones taking hours to a day. If that's too short for you let me know and I'll clear angry another way.

Her hand throbbed, the bright pulse of pain cutting through the red haze that still lingered on the edges of her vision. She had barely time to process Tec's and Ghost's words and wipe her eyes as Eldritch tended to her hand when Earl Grey showed up and suddenly they were someplace else.

Wingblade looks around her. Oh, yeah. This place, she recognizes. While Eldritch talks, she stands up and walks over to one of the columns and reaches behind it, finding the latch with her working hand. The panel slides open and she grabs a cold water bottle and an energy bar from the hidden fridge. The cold felt good on her busted hand, but she doesn't rejoin the others at the table. Instead, she just leans against the column and listens.

With a small chuckle, Eldritch would look up at their geokinetic powerhouse and nod.

"Well damn, I guess I should've just thrown more expletives in there and summed things up better." Shaking his head, he'd smile at Nora and nod. "It is good to have you back. She's right. We do this, we save the day, we come back as badasses and then we can get it all out on the table."

Condition(s): None

Just to remind everyone~ Comfort/Support automatically fails if your target doesn't "open up to you".

Atoms nods in understanding, processing Tectonic's words as they walk into the meeting room. When they get there, everyone seems to be waiting for them, perhaps even one or two people he doesn't yet know (Blink). Everyone but Imagine, whose absence he notes. There is much on his mind though, and he leaves Tectonic's side to head straight over to Wingblade.

"I have something to confess. And no, it can't wait until after we're done here," starts Atoms, making sure to talk quiet enough so only the two of them can hear. His tone is soft "When I showed up at your place earlier, it was because I wanted to charge my communicator, but there was also some things I wanted to talk to you about. And I wanted to talk about it at the school too." He pauses here, and takes a second to form his next words carefully. "You've had a bad day and a worse life. I don't think you chose to become a superhero, like the rest of us did, and I know you didn't choose to be the leader of any sort of team and have people randomly barge into your home."

He pauses again. What he's about to say next is pretty serious, at least in his eyes.

"I don't... I don't like seeing you suffer. You have a lot of pressure on you, and I want to shoulder some of that burden. What can I do to help?"

========== Halcyon HQ ==========

Wingblade had steeled herself for yet another dressing-down, so she was surprised when it didn't come. Her eyes widened when Atoms introduced a thought she hadn't had before -- I don't think you chose to become a superhero. She hadn't. She was made to be a weapon. Whippoorwill had turned her into something vaguely heroic, but had she really made that choice herself? Or was she as brainwashed as she had always been, just this time obsessed with saving lives rather than taking them?

Thinking about easing her burdens only made her heart ache further for Alexis. "Just save her. That's all that matters right now," she says in a small voice to Atoms.

Condition(s): None

"Alright", says Atoms with a short, understanding nod. "I just want you to know that the life of Shayera matters to me just as much as the life of Alexis." Then he adds, "If you need or want anything, let me know."

Eldritch's words start to sink in, and then he catches the last part of the second sentence. "Someone was taken? What did I miss?"

I will choose to clear guilty.

________________________________________________________________________

In the Defender's HQ:

Tycho doesn't really have anything to add, even though he was clearly feeling better.

After listening to everyone attain some semblance of normal, before the briefing starts, Tycho will wordlessly walk up to wingblade and give her a hug.

::Clocktower::

Ghost Dragon sighs, but nods at Wingblade's words. He thinks she has it in her to be a good leader, but she had to rediscover her confidence on her own. Maybe if they rescued Alexis, she'd be able to figure things out.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

::Defender's HQ::

Ghost Dragon takes a seat near Hashtag, then leans over to him. "Eldritch and North Star gave me some idea of what happened at Halcyon High. We had something similar at Franklin. Want to talk about any of it?"

Hashtag leans over, creating small illusions of their attackers. "Some nutjobs with weird space-fantasy crap on tore open a hole in space and tried to close off the school in a bubble. We went out to stop them, that one with the sword kicked my butt and reflected my illusions back on me. His sword was out of phase or something so I think it could even hurt you, so be careful if you run into him, okay?"

"Dude would have cut me in half from the chest up if I hadn't tripped on a rock and fallen down just then. That guy really quickly shut me down. Would have scared the s#@@ out of me if I hadn't just went before 3rd period, you know what I mean?"

He adjusts his position. You aren't sure, but there may be an illusion he put up shielding your conversation from others. You and I share influence, so he's willing to open up more to you, but definitely doesn't want to share some of this with other people.

"So nearly dying scared me pretty bad, so I went home to cool down. Not like classes were going to start up again after that, you know? and it's not like I *knew* someone got kidnapped. So I am trying to clear my head and I guess I just drifted off. Next thing I know, miss steel feather up her ass is knocking on my window and DEMANDING I stop f~%$ing around and do what she wants right now."

He shakes his head. "And I just woke up, last thing I remember I nearly died, so I tell her to buzz off and I leave. She'd pissed me off and I didn't want to deal with that. I was venting on my own when I realized that she said something about a girl getting kidnapped, and so, you know, I hate her right now but f&!%, I can't let some student lose everything cause I'm pissed at her, yeah? So the only one I know who has been able to track other teleporters and evade them is mom, so I tried to call the prison and get permission to see her."[b] He sighs. [b]"And guess who shows up again? Decided she hadn't finished pissing me off again and then she says that I don't deserve to be on the team, so I told her to go f&&& off, you know? I don't care if I am a part of the team anymore... but... That girl doesn't have anything to do with it. She doesn't deserve this trouble. At least it won't be my fault."

Ghost Dragon shivers as Hashtag mentions the phase sword - which sounds like a weapon that he couldn't evade that way. "I'll keep an eye out for that. I have no desire to get stabbed by anything. Maybe I should start carrying a bo staff, or tonfa, or something so I have a weapon handy for situations like that."

He listens to Hashtag tell him everything that happened and actually admit to being scared. Nearly dying must have shaken him really badly for him to admit that. "Know what I did after our fight ended? I went to hide in a janitor's closet so I could pretend to be a scared school kid for the first responders - all in the name of protecting my identity. Never a thought about the girl - her name's Alexis, by the way - being kidnapped or us trying to track her down. How's that for priorities?" Looking at the other teen, he says, "I screwed up today. I was the one trying to contain the mage one at Franklin, and I let him get away - then worried more about a secret identity than saving a kidnapped classmate. Wingblade is so focused on thinking everything that happened is her fault that she's been yelling at everyone, and Atoms tried to take the fall for Franklin High being in shambles. Mind you, the place needed a reno anyway, so Tectonic smashing a few walls down in her fight may end up being a net positive, but still. We're beaten, we're battered, but you know what? We're all here. We all want to save Alexis. We've got a common purpose. I don't know if we'll be a team past today, but for today, at least, that's what we're gonna need to be if we're gonna get through this okay. You feel me?"

Comfort or Support, Influence: 2d6 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (5, 4) + 2 + 1 = 12

"We're beaten, we're battered, but you know what? We're all here."

Sorry, can't resist... :)

"Um, guys? Where's Imagine?" Wingblade asks, looking around.

Kenneth looked down and shook his head.

"I don't know. She took flight and then, then she was gone. I didn't see her with the others though, so I don't think they took her." Maybe if he had just taken charge, Halcyon High wouldn't have been such a damn mess. Maybe things would've been easier.

I'll accept that. Uhm... Removing a condition sound okay?

"Yeah. I feel ya." he replies.

Hashtag tried to remember where Imagine went. He looks at ghost dragon and shrugs. His screen of illusion drops. "She was around after those dudes left. I didn't see her after that."

-Posted with Wayfinder

"I assume she's waiting to just pop in and say something confusing."

Wingblade tries to force a smile and laugh along with North Star, but Imagine's unexplained absence does not help with her tension. When Tycho hugged her it reminded her that she hadn't paid much attention to whatever he had been going through either, focused as she had been on the others. Her awkward return of the embrace had her accidentally clasping her broken hand and stars of pain danced in her vision.

She steps away from everyone, wings twitching in agitation as she waits for the adults to finally share what they know about the schools' attackers so they can formulate something resembling a plan to go after them.

And so the Defenders arrive one by one, some more well known then others. Instead of sitting, they stand beside their usual chairs as a sign of respect towards you teens as you don't have any seats of your own.

The portly Earl Grey finishes his discussion with Foresight and they each take their places. Haden arrives trying to finish some microwave Chinese food and has some spectral hands discard the leftovers. Whippoowill arrives stoicly and quietly, taking the spot on the right of Haden, and gives him a disapproving look as she notices a bit of noodle on his shirt.

Then some heroes you don't recognize enter.

An Android walks into the room, its soft silver body distinctly features feminine features. She's most likley the AI that runs the Defender's network and provides support from base, Matrix.

And then there's a younger guy, most likely not even much older than you all. He wears a black hoodie and his hands are nestled in its central pocket. He gives you all an odd look, but pays no further mind. There's nothing that really stands out about him, but nevertheless he takes a seat at the table.

It seems two people are missing judging by number of seats.

=====================================================

Haden smiles and begins speaking.

"Thanks for joining us....um....do you guys have a name yet?" he asks your group.

"Why are we doing a school visit when we've got a crisis on our hands?" the hoodie teen asks Matrix, who's standing at the spot next to him. He himself is sitting.

"These children have experience fighting the Givers," Earl Grey interjects. "I do believe they will be an invaluable resource."

Haden stops the talking.

"Anyway," he continues, "the short need-to-know version is that you guys did a great job while we were busy, and that the girl who was taken is not in any immediate danger.It's a bit complicated so I'm going to let Nick explain".

The hoodie teen waves his hand.

"Hey. I'm Nick. What's up?" he introduces, bored. "Haden leaves the laymen terms to me, so here you go laymen. The Givers give people powers to defend their home dimension, but since they don't' trust anyone the powers they give kids wipe their heads after their service is done. At the end of a couple years, the kids are swapped for new ones and the cycel repeats."

He yawns, then continues.

"The two that got left behind have no memory of their time on the Giver's world, though they did get to keep a minor version of the power they had, not a bad trade-off to some folks with no powers."

Questions so far?"

Hashtag smirks. He likes this guy. He doesn't have any questions, after all he's pretty quick on the uptake.

-Posted with Wayfinder

"So why do they do this? What are they defending their dimension from? and most importantly, how do we get them to stop?"

Tectonic furrows her brow. "I think the more poignant question here is why they haven't asked you guys for help. This is your schtick, right? Saving other dimensions, promoting peace on Earth, all of that s~&*, right? If they have enough information to come here and roughly speak our language, either through some weird mind-thingy or information gathering, why haven't they asked you guys to end the threat permanently, and stop having to deal with upstart heroes every time they need to grab a few more conscripts?"

Wingblade scowls. She had actively avoided Whippoorwill's eyes, feigning disinterest in the whole affair. But the questions started, and she had a few of her own.

"They're giving people powers and letting them keep them? Sounds like all they would have had to do was put a few ads in the Daily Trumpet and people would be lined around the block for a chance."

"Are they given a choice?" Kenneth asks, not really pleased with the kid's bored personality. He looks at the others as they ask their questions, smiling on the inside that they have the same questions that he does. "And those that came here, are those some of the gifted that haven't been cycled yet? They seemed pretty potent on their own, why would they need others if they're that strong already?" After all, inter-dimensional travel isn't some small thing.

Nick rolls his eyes, but obliges with answers.

"What part of a race of people who can grant inhuman powers to regular people doesn't seem a tad bit dangerous to freely advertise? From the reports we've gotten and what we've been able to come up with, they aren't that strong on their own. We even managed to capture one of their mages, but he died not even a day later like a withering husk so no answers there..."

To Eldritch,

"From those we've found or have come forward, it does seem that way. The main problem is that these abductions aren't exactly always so bombastic. There have been plenty of sightings and rumors floating around, and we can't exactly lump all the disappearances that happen on Earth to this one dimension."

Foresight jumps in to the conversation.

"The facts are that Earth has been trying to get into contact with these beings for years, but as everyone we can attribute to them abducting is returned a couple years later perfectly content, it hasn't been the most prioritized item on the to-do list, somewhere under large meteor heading for Earth and Robot army in Australia."

"But something's changed..." Haden adds. "Not only Halycon city, but there has been a much wider range of abductions today, across the entire globe, and the places where there wasn't a hero response...swathes of students have been taken."

"So they're prepping for something." Hashtag concludes. "After hearing about what was said before, maybe they were doing preliminary work, setting things up for now. Maybe they needed an army? Or... Things might've gotten worse over there."

He looks over to his mom, whose been remarkably silent. Or she had been off in the break room drinking coffee half the time. Who knew?

"So now they're a certified threat, what are we going to do?" he asks. "I'll help, but its not like I'm on the team anymore."

-Posted with Wayfinder

Ghost Dragon listens to the briefing and his teammates' questions - that included Hashtag to his mind - and silently took the information in. This answered a lot about what had happened with the events of the day. He hadn't told anyone about the vision the mage had forced on him yet, and it might not be relevant. He did have one question, though. "Do the people they abduct have anything in common? During the attack on Franklin, the mage said they were looking for 'The Unblossomed', and he passed over some other students before choosing the one he did. That must mean that not just anyone can be given the abilities."

Condition(s): None

The former deputy isn't sitting like the others, as he would disintegrate whatever chair he sat in. Instead he stands, brightening the room with his incandescent form, the lightning from his chest clawing uselessly at the air around him, and his feet leaving marks in the floor beneath him, while his mere presence causes energy fluctuations in every piece of tech in the room. He had intended to stay quiet and merely listen, but he speaks up suddenly, adding to what had been said. He is stoic, perhaps even more so than Whippoorwill, but Atoms also seems kind of on edge, as if expecting and ready for a fight.

"When I went into Franklin, after breaking through the barrier, the leader sized me up," begins Atoms. "He told me that they—The Givers—weren't looking for someone "strong", and, like Ghost Dragon says, that they were seeking the "Unblossomed". So, if they are picking only certain people, then apparently they need people who are, at least initially, weak and without powers."

For as fast as his mind was moving, what with not having to worry about things like hunger, annoying itches, or the need to rest, everything sure seemed to be foggy. Sometimes it was like he couldn't feel anything, or that he had to choose what to feel and didn't know what he should be feeling. Especially today. Should he be angry, sad, happy, neutral? His thoughts grasped for something concrete to hold onto, but all it could find was that inner drive to save everyone.

Atoms didn't know how to feel about that eiter.

He sweeps his gaze over his team, remembering that Haden had asked whether they had a name. His eyes settle on Hashtag. Tectonic had told Atoms what had happened between Hashtag and Wingblade, and he could imagine that it went a lot more poorly than the argument that he—himself—had with Wingblade. Was there a way to put that matter aside quickly, so that they could continue on as a team? He ponders this.

Wingblade remained apart from the group, staying over by one of the tall columns supporting the vaulted ceiling and nursing her water she had swiped from the fridge.

Her eyes narrow at Hashtag when he talks, but can't help but smirk when everyone else seems to ignore his comment about not being on the team. Tectonic had erupted at her for taking back the communicator -- the one she had given him and he hardly seemed interested in keeping when it was time to come together to help someone.

She pushes aside her concerns for the team, grateful that Whippoorwill's allies were involved. They could give them a mission that she could focus on, and not worry about how the team was falling apart.

The pain in her hand throbbed, and she worked it to make sure the bones were aligned. Stars danced in her vision as the pain intensified, but she resolved to focus on what was being said about the 'Givers.'