Fire. Turn. Fire again. Best shooter game in the world.
Hijack'd ant:
The ant's shot goes wide this turn.
Rift opens a portal in front of herself and steps through, appearing next to one of the ants that is shooting . There, she lets the travelling portal close and ducks, opening a horizontal portal above her head, Its twin tearing through the middle of the gravity-afflicted ants.
Both armed ants fail the save, taking damage but remaining up.
3 of the gravity held ants take area damage enough to knock them out.
There are currently 2 hostile active shooters and 2 more stuck by Tesla.
He grimaces when the creature goes down, 'It dosn't look like it's breathing... I can bring him back though, right? Right! Of course I can.' Theodore didn't want to kill things, that's just... not heroic! He wanted to save people! But in a situation like this, taking an active roll is seemingly the only solution. He takes a glance down, noting the 'reverse' setting on his armband, before turning his hand toward another creature.
'Nope, that's not gonna cut it!' He notes, seeing as how nothing seemed to happen.
The heroes mop up the remaining ants, all now being unconscious (except perhaps the one under Hijack's control?). Police sirens finally begin to wail, as all of this took place in a just a few minutes.
It won't take long for the police to arrive; the station is only a few blocks from here.
What actions would people like to take at this point? You're still linked by Hijack's telepathy.
Stopwatch looks over the ones he had reached too late... or did he really? No! It's never too late to turn back the clock. He tightens his gloves, adjusts his watches, and immediately goes to try and bring those that had died during the crisis back from the brink.
There are five people you MIGHT save. Give me 5 DC 20 checks with a bonus of +6 (5 ranks + 1 for their Con).
Bridger thinks There are still some bodies under the rubble down here. Any help getting them out would be appreciated.
He begins to dig through the debris to locate the deceased.
If anyone notices, the one remaining ant under Atticus' control begins performing an odd form of jumping jacks.
I've always wanted a pet. He jokes to the rest of group.
But if someone wants to restrain this one, it might be useful to leave it for scientists and the like to examine or interrogate. Unfortunately I, as stated before, don't speak bug.
"Yes, of course." Guardian responds to Hijack aloud. He flies down next to the exercising ant and requests "If you wouldn't mind keeping him still for a moment?"
Reaching out to one of the pieces of concrete, he concentrates and restructures it into soft clay. After telekinetically molding it into a series of bands around the ant, he changes them into steel chains.
"There, that should hold it. Shall we go somewhere to talk, or does someone wish to speak to the police?" he asks as he rises back to the top of the crater, landing near Stopwatch.
"In a moment... let me try this here. Messing with time is a tricky business, you know, even more so when they've already... well, yeah. Never understood why that is exactly." His brow furrows, and he starts putting in his all in order to get these people healed.
He blinks, and looks down at the last person he was trying to save. Placing a hand to the woman's neck, he bites his lip and hopes... And then he feels it, a pulse. A smile warms across his face, and he stands up. "That's the last one... Nobody had to die today in the end afterall."
"Yes, of course."
"There, that should hold it. Shall we go somewhere to talk, or does someone wish to speak to the police?" he asks as he rises back to the top of the crater, landing near Stopwatch.
"I'm not sure that I want anyone to know who I am." Rift says, nervously adjusting her scarf around her face to make sure that its still in place. [b]"Like I said, I haven't really done this before and I don't think I want the press. It doesn't look like we can do much more here anyway."
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After the citizens are healed, Tesla will float them back up to the surface. (After they are street-level, he simply gives them a nudge sideways to get them back on the ground.)
"I am not one to relish the limelight, but I have no disinclination for it. Have a care though, I might blame this attack on giant ants, or I might blame it on Thomas Edison. Even odds, really."
It's unclear if he's saying that as a joke or if he might -really- blame this on Edison.
Those characters that want to meet up to discuss the situation, assume you're at a somewhat private location near the river, top of a seldom used parking deck.
If your character would rather not join the others, he/she can head to his or her home or elsewhere.
Atticus sends a mental ping to a spot where he doesn't detect any mental presences. A few blocks away in a nearby wooded park area. He travels over there, curious to meet these blessed individuals.
He decides to come along, seeing as with all that happened his date is pretty much guaranteed to not show up now. And seeing as he has yet to successfully recreate total time travel, going back in time to prevent this disaster is also out of the question. With those thoughts, he moves off to the safe location.
"Blame it on Edison huh? Well, I suppose he's as good of an explanation as any right now seeing as we're still missing the facts." He speaks, a grin at his lips while speaking to the elder scientist. "Hmm, you know, you look familiar somehow... Can't put my fingers on it just yet, but I'll figure it out soon enough."
Guardian looks at Tesla for a moment, the face behind the mask unreadable. "Yes, perhaps we had best avoid speaking to anyone until we find more information about what is going on." he says diplomatically.
He nods at Hijack's mental suggestion for a meeting spot. He lifts off, then pauses and comes back, stopping a few feet off the ground to ask "Does anyone need a lift?"
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"That 'twould seem wise council, good Reece. The police, inept as they are to catch even obvious crooks, like Thomas Edison, will at least seal off the hole. Let them commence with their own investigation. Indeed, they may even be better equiped than us to locate the insects' nest. I would not beard a tiger in his den, nor rush to find the multitudes that would arm ants with laser guns."
Tesla agrees and meets up with the others. He still seems a quite normal impecably dressed business man, though when he lands his feet make deep, rectangular impressions on the ground. To Dave Theodore he replies, "I look like myself, hence you might know me. Normally I am seen with a cadre of trained eagles, for I'm a well-known hawker, but today I was on business, and needed to fly about the sky, not unlike a celestial white angel, for that is how the radiation of the sun is best measured.
Still, the question looms: What now? Do we dare investigate yon hole, or simply keep vigil?"
Atticus rolls into the meeting, lagging behind most of the more maneuverable fellows.
"Apologies for the tardiness, but you must forgive these wheels of mine."
He sits in a wheel chair, a blanket over his legs for warmth. His face is young, but there is a glimmer of power behind his eyes.
He smiles.
"You may recognize me as the voice in your head during the little battle back there, though I do try and avoid such rudeness while speaking, while old-fashioned, is available."
To respond to Tesla question,
"As my retainer's have been preoccupied, I am up for a little adventure."
"An obsession with Thomas Edison... and an obsession with birds... Wait- Are you Tesla? Nikola Tesla? I've heard about you! All that really cool stuff you created way back when." He smiles wide, though that's not visible under the mask he's been using. "Hah! Imagine if my friends knew I met the madman himself. And yeah, hey! Good to see you in person and not clamoring about in my head."
He tries to keep up a diplomatic front, though mention of retainers sends a string of bells through his head. Though it could admittedly mean a lot of things, but something about the man struck him as slightly off. "I'm Stopwatch by the way," He notes aloud, just in case nobody already knew. "And that's Tesla, but what about you guys?"
Looking around at the group, Reece is not sure what to make of them.
One claiming to be the Tesla, although stranger things have happened.
A telepath, a teleporter, a strongman... not sure what to make of the jester. Stopwatch... need to keep an eye on him. Control over Time could be a scary thing, I wonder if he knows how powerful that can be!
He is pulled from his rumination by Stopwatch's question. "Guardian." he says simply, folding his arms in front of his chest. "Does anyone have any knowledge or theories about those ants? If not, we should probably go with Tesla's idea of investigating the tunnels they came from. Although that will require speaking to the authorities, who have no doubt sealed off the area, and they usually don't like people leaving a crime scene before they can get a statement from them."
Atticus cocks his head to one side and examines Reece.
"Have we met before?"
"No, I'm fairly sure we haven't." Guardian seems a bit nervous and defensive, moving a bit further away.
Odd...His mind feels somewhat familiar...Then again, people tend to think in similar patterns. Pull a fire alarm and 80% will have the same idea, the other 20% are you extremes at both ends."
"My apologies., but yes, what is our next course of action. If we wish a jaunt down yonder hole, we may have to act fast."
Oblivious to Reeces thoughts regarding temporal manipulation, he makes a humming noise, his head leaning forward with a hand coming to his chin. "I might be able to think of some sort of way we can deal with those creatures, if we choose to return and investigate this situation further. And personally- I feel that we should! A mystery like this demands to be solved, especially before it has the chance to harm more innocents."
Not to mention, might get Aegis to loosen the collar a bit if I contribute to society and all that.
While the heroes are discussing the situation, the police have arrived and are setting up barricades and investigating the hole, tentatively. They're probably going to call in civil engineers before anyone at all ventures too far.
Several detectives (as well a reporter recently arrived on scene) are questioning those involved or witnesses. It seems like several people remember being in the area, but somehow were not standing in the danger zone just before the collapse. Several others reported seeing "The Freedom League" or some other hero group swoop in and save people. One of them is certain he saw Centurion, who's been dead for several months now.
"Afraid we may have missed our chance everyone."
Atticus is concentrating, weaving through the many minds on the scene and picking up surface thoughts here and there, nothing invasive.
"The good news, or bad depending on your perspective, is that everyone seems to be jumbled on who exactly did the heroics today. But they are putting up barricades and monitoring entry and exiting of the hole."
"We could still investigate, we would just have to tell the police why we left the scene, unless we just want to swoop past them into the hole. We should probably try to stick as close to the truth as possible if we do speak to them.
"Are we a superhero team? And if so, what do we call ourselves? You know they are going to ask." Guardian adds as an afterthought as he moves to the edge of the parking lot to scan the bottom of the hole more thoroughly, looking for the tunnels the ants must have come from.
"Well... I suppose very well could be. If they were made aware it was us who helped when the crisis first,started, perhaps then they'ed be willing to let us pass through and combat the threat more directly."
"Umm,... I could probably open a portal for everyone pretty easily if we want to go down there. I don't want to talk to the media or the police.... At least not dressed like this. Someone'd be sure to recognise me and I don't want that. Maybe if I had some kind of mask better than just a scarf?"
"I can help you with that." Guardian says casually as he reaches out to touch Rift lightly on the shoulder. The fabric flows and creeps up to meld with the scarf, continuing up around her head until it forms a thin mask complete with goggles, leaving only her hair free.
"Is that all right, or would you prefer a different color?"
Emily's eyes widen and she shivers as the fabric reforms over her face. "Hang on a minute." she says, turning and opening a pair of portals that let her see through to herself like a mirror. "Wow. Thanks. That looks great. Maybe a bit bluer though? You know, to match the edge of my portals? Can you do more? These clothes aren't really suited for fighting." she indicates the dress she's wearing. "I was here to meet someone for a date, not to fight giant ants with guns! Maybe something kind've athletic but,.. you know, not too revealing or anything? And no cape. I think I'd look stupid in a cape."
"Amazing!" He gasps out, as Reece demonstrates his abilities. "Molecular breakdown on an object and a complete reconfiguration of their present state... You simply must explain the process to me more in depth later, ah, when we're not pre-occupied." He seems to beam at the others, already enjoying this little rag tag group.
"Oddly coincidental! I was waiting for someone to show up before all this happened. I wonder, if I were to... No no, the technology's not quite ready for that amount of temporal manipulation yet. Your abilities, you could just create your own portal inside the tunnels– Or close enough to them? It'd certainly make avoiding the public easier, but it might bring up awkward questions if we were to come out of them later on."
He starts tapping the side of his gas-mask, which by this point he really wasn't feeling any more. He'd have to make changes to it at a future point... Or did he already? No, wait, can't get distracted. "A plan a plan... I need to start working on a plan."
"It's all telekinesis, just on a microscopic scale. I move the atoms and subatomic particles around to the desired state. As long as you know the exact molecular arrangement of what you are trying to create, it's quite simple." he explains as he reforms Rift's dress into a simple, functional suit that covers her from head to toe. He stops talking to concentrate, and the color starts shifting up and down the spectrum until it stabilizes at a light blue.
"Is that close enough?" he asks, even though it is a completely different shade from her portals.
A teleporter? Excellent.
Atticus sits back in his wheelchair as he watches them get ready. Not much to do until their little excursion. Tempted to burrow into their minds...but it wouldn't do to pull out their secrets needlessly. He grow bored of them too quickly should he do that.
After a few experimental stretches to check out her new threads. Emily,... Rift grins and turns to Guardian "Maybe a wee bit darker? - Perfect. OK, now that I'm suitably dressed, maybe we should talk to the cops before we see what's up with the Ant things? Hang on a sec" With that she opens a portal down to the plaza and steps back with an exaggerated bow to the rest of the heroes. "After you."
He nods, and speaks as he inspects the portal, even sticking a hand into it just to understand the feeling first. "Yes, that might be a good idea. A few minutes talking to the officers at the scene, and I'd like a little time to try and organize a plan of attack, if optimized." Feeling the edges, he withdraws it as he thinks back to the battle.
"Tell me if I'm wrong, Rift, but these portals- When you used them offensively, was it like you were cutting bits of them, and shunting it off elsewhere? Closing the door on them, so to speak? Or is there perhaps something else at play with them- Er, sorry, I'm getting side tracked again."
Rift pauses in thought for a moment. "I've got to admit I don't really know how it works, but the portal's edges are really, really thin - like the portal itself is only two dimensional. So its really, really sharp. Watch out for the edges. You might cut yourself!"
"Very strange! Most theories about portals tend to agree, that they have no mass or matter to them. But if yours have an actual, physical edge to them? Perhaps that'd imply them not being true portals at all, simply summoned objects that perform similar matter shunting abilities- Or maybe they are! Not an exact science you know, still several mysteries about them and how they function. If you'd allow, I'd love to take time to study your abilities sometime when this is all over. Perhaps it'd help you as well?"
"Can't say that I know. I'm not a physicist or anything. Of course you can study them if you want, but maybe now we should head through and talk to the cops before they think there'll be more ant-thingies coming through?"
While Stopwatch is testing the portal, Guardian examines it thoroughly. "Very interesting; the edge of the portal does have a solid element to it, but it's only a single molecule thick! And I have never seen that molecular configuration before. The event horizon..." he turns away and rubs his temples. "Makes my head hurt..." he mumbles, a bit shaken.
Regaining his composure, he says boldly "Yes, we should go." before stepping through.
"A molecule thick... Oh! It all makes sense now, you can rearrange the structure of matter due to innate ability to see on it's level! Truly incredible, I never imagined I'd get to meet so many interesting people today, just my own date. Hmm... I hope she's alright though, and won't mind me skipping out before she's even arrived. It's been pretty crazy around here anyway." He decides to hop through the portal rather then step through, just to see how it feels.
Bridger has remained silent, apparently lost in thought. He finally looks up, "I need to grab something, only be a few seconds.".
He flies off like a shot, returning about 10 seconds later. Nodding at Rift, "Appreciate the portal." then floats through.
The police are very surprised when the heroes arrive through the portal. A plain-clothes officer approaches you. He's kind of a dumpy older man, early 50s maybe, traditional suit and tie trenchcoat kind of cop.
"So, you guys must be the heroes people are talking about. Gotta say I've heard reports from around town, but I wasn't sure they were real. You guys have a spokesman?"
Bridger looks around, then back at the officer. "Not exactly, but I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have." He holds out his hand, "Bridger."
Immediately after saying his name, Bridger thinks, "I have some experience in journalism, handling interviews. Stuff like that. I'm thinking we just give him the facts then we should get out of here."