"Imagine," Kara Luthor's page

What is the door to Room 1 like?

Imma pause until I see how big a hole Big Dave blasted in the wall.

What are we waiting on?

'An alien worm? That sounds serious!' Kara thinks and starts digging deeper in that direction.

If it's a brain infection, she might be able to help. And that would give Bill more time with his dad. Do him some good.

Kara smiles inwardly as she moves off in the opposite direction that William went, glowing about the win-win situation. He either had to comply with her, or hurt his own mission. That's how a Luthor do. She totally had to tell daddy about that soon.

Not one to simply ask a question when she get the answer in a more certain way, she stands a ways off from a nurses' station, pretending to look at her L-phone, and scans one of their minds.

Power Check!: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (17) + 12 = 29

'Of cou-- Kara starts replying out of habit. Then she stops, realizing that they're playing a role of deception here as much as anything. After all, Kara Luthor doesn't just visit friends' old parents out of the kindness of her heart.

"Of course, Honey. I'll just look around. I'm sure -someone- is going to know."

She stops and leans in to William, patiently waiting for a goodbye kiss.

'What? Do you think that Kara Luthor is known to just visit friend's old parents? If we're not a couple, things will look suspicious.

Your play, of course,' she thinks, smiling as she puckers.

Captain Attero throws a final **Acknowledged** back at Kyle. The video feed hand't been initially compatible with their HUDs, but a quick conference with LexSec IT and a hurriedly downloaded converter patch solved the issue.

Kara replies, 'Nobody really likes daddy. But that's how he prefers it. Working with someone you like always has the danger of keeping the relationship going after it's no longer profitable. But working with someone you hate? Then you -know- that it's good for the business. ;-3

And we're, like, totally sorry about that. Something something omelet, blah blah breaking eggs. Advancement of the human knowledge base isn't safe. He should think of all the people that he's helping...after the process is perfected, of course.'

Kara smiles inwardly and then she smiles outwardly.

She stands passively next to Bill, hands behind her back and swaying back and forth, silently waiting for things to go wrong.

"Oh hell," Kara bursts. "I'll have to just pay for them. At this point it'll be cheaper than cancelling."

Hanse sprouts a little grin and spread it around to the rest of the squad. The LexSec can't help but notice his infectious giddyness. "Oh-ho! Ya hear that lads? It looks like there are some merry maids what be all paid for but yet remain lonely! As we poor humans are unpowered, we shall have to take one for the team and find some way to keep them...employed."

Then Kyle comes through and gets their suits working, and they all seem a bit deflated, but a few choice words from Attero gets the squad back in form.

Surprisingly, a second helicopter comes along, and 2nd squad jumps into it. Imagine looks ready to turn it into molten lava, but again Attero intercedes. "Sorry, Imagine. Due to the recently discovered threat, they need to be reassigned. This...comes from your father."

Anger passes to resignation and she makes no mention of it. In her brooding she doesn't notice something transferred from the second 'copter to the remaining LexSec. Axeman attaches some sort of add-on unit to his suit and smiles an evil smile. The rest of the squad follows suit.

That done, 1st squad takes to the air, circling a protective perimeter, yet trying to stay out of the way.

'Mind if I tag along?' Kara clandestinely asks William, falling into step a few paces behind him. "I tend to have a calming effect on biological-based obstacles. ;-)'

Imagine's escorts will have to wait for another time.

Is Gigabyte also able to get the LexSec functioning again? Or does this mean that both my minions and Japanese servings-girls will need to find other ways to occupy themselves this evening? ... If so, it just dawned upon me that those two groups not be mutually exclusive.

Wait, are we going to Gigabyte's place to enjoy strippers and de-nanoification, or are we going to Unhuman's dad's nurse's workplace to wrap her up and not in the good way?

The next logical question is probably: GM, can we de-nanoify on the helicopter on the way there?

BTW, ever since reading Grant Morrison's run on JLA, I've thought that the real Batman superpower, the thing I've never seen in a build of Batman, is Nullify. What Morrison's Batman did that made him so powerful is that he was always able to tear down people's super powers.

Y'know I've been thinking about this. Like, I've been watching "Assault on Arkham" on Youtube which everyone says (everyone, including Tibetan monks) is the "good" Suicide Squad movie. Or what it should've been.

Anyway, (spoilers!) one of the early scenes has Deadshot who's power is that he never misses. I mean, that's his whole thing, that he just doesn't miss a shot, right? So, Deadshot is shooting at Batman and...*drum roll please*...misses. At which point he's incredulous. "Did I just miss a guy on a grapple line? Did I JUST MISS?!?" And then Batman fights him in close combat, and he misses a bunch more times until Batman breaks his wrist-gun.

Hence, that would actually play into this theory, that Batman actually -does- have a super power, and that is that other people's power is just always not on their top game when he's around. (That would also be why he can beat up fields of bad guys despite being a normal human--the bad guys suddenly all have a "bad day" at fighting things.

It kinda reminds me of a series of books that a friend of mine was telling me about this one time. Like, everyone in that world had some magical power. Everyone, no exceptions. Except one guy. And they couldn't figure out what his power was. But that was just it, his power was that no amount of magic affected him.

Eh, just sayin'. =)

That said, if the GM wants to move us forward, Kyle's Crib is open under the condition that Kara limits the amount of masseus/strippers/plain old' whores to one per capita (Attero and co included)

That's fair. That's certainly fair. *nods sagely*

"Ummmmmm..." Kara starts Unhuman throws a monkey in the wrench. "But, but, but, Gigabyte, and the dudes, and the little robots, and I ALREADY SAID MISA-CHAN SHOULD MEET US THERE DO HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT ONA-SAMA IS GOING TO CHARGE ME FOR BOOMERANGING LIKE THIS!?!?!?!?
Ugh. Fine! Gigabyte, can you clean the nanos in transit? Not sure what we have around here, since doing the Science! isn't really high on my supply list."

The helicopter turns toward Metropolis and the rest of the world fades to grey as Kara starts typing on her phone rapidly.

Imagine sits at ease in an overstuffed recliner that looks both ostentatious and small in the massive Chinook-class helicopter that is her personal transport. Glassware on the sideboard dances like some adult version of an animated movie as lime and gin tango and shake and mix together.

'Nah, it's cool, Gigs, if we need to go to your place to cleanse the nanos. But you have to share with the dudes,' she says, flinging a hand back toward her minions. 'To return the favor I can have the maid-girls come to your place. Ooo! Saku-chan is free. She an ex-personal trainer that is completing her masters in Nano-engineering. I'll see if I can get her friend Misa-chan. I think she's off tonight, but they like to work together and Misa just finished her doctorate in IT. I'm sure you two will have a lot to...talk...about. ;-)

Also, I just scanned him. Since he doesn't currently want to eat our brains, lets give him the benefit of the doubt. Besides, he ever does get KILLALLHUMANS upity, we can see how he does against LexCorp ultimate legal objection - the Warhammer.'

Captain Attero turns and gives the group a quick reassuring wink.

'So, we're settled that we somehow gotta get all these people from point A, where they are now, to point B, which is the Phantom Zone, yeses? Preferably by their own free will, yeah?'

A smile creeps along Imagine's face like a lithe kitten taking a long, languish stretch. 'My crib -does- have a swimming pool. And a MEGAbar. And the best entertainment system you can get when cost isn't an issue. And strippers. You guys like strippers? I know this place that does good work with Japanese girls that dress like maids...'

Imagine's phone hovers out of its pocket and starts texting away. There's no doubt that some of its words contain inquiries about price and availability of Japanese maid-girls.

'Don't knock 'em. Kami-chan is working her way through med school and she'd commit murder and throw in a vivisection if it meant she could graduate without debt. Also her body massages are -EPIC-.'

Yes, in that case all of that happens, except Imagine does it while making everyone mojitos. ^_^

Wait, but we did teleport? Where did you teleport us to?

"Hm? We got a problem with our local resident...whatever he is?

[b]"Hmmmm," says Imagine as she peers at Dr. Fate. "Yep, he's not his normal kinda-odd self. Let's try this again, shall we?"

Again the silver mercurial wave rushes toward the intellectual fortress of the Lord's possession. Again a massive tidal force crests impossibly tall as it probes against his mental defenses, searching for the truth of the matter.

Mind Reading Power Check!: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (17) + 12 = 29

'Helloooooooooo in theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere'

"Hey! Great work guys! So, you wanna blow this pop stand? It looks like the master of the house is either too much of a coward, or just to unsociable to come out and meet us, so there's not much point in hanging around," she says as her LexSec seem to be just randomly beating things.

"Hey! That looked important!" Wolfhound says as something metallic falls heavily to the ground.

Imagine--it does a body good. ;-)

Imagine floats over to Gigabyte. She tries to focus in on his optic nerve and the centers of the brain that are seeing the highest levels of inflammation. Using her healing ability on its lowest setting, she tries to induce a minor amount of pleasure in those areas, to coax a greater endorphin response to try and take the inflammation down so he can at least see.
Aid Another attempt for Fort save.

Meanwhile, Attero keeps talking.

"Are we almost done here, Imagine?" Attero asks.

@Gigabyte: The Good news: I jazzed your chips, so you have +12 to all stats, so that should equate to +6 to that saveing throw.
The bad news: At DC 23, You still didn't make it. X-)

@GM: Since ImagineandherMinions were on Delay, can we Aid Gigabyte in his save roll? I'm not real sure what we would do IC, other than pour water over his eyes and constantly say "BELIEVE in yourseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelf!!!"

My guess is that he's watching us off-base through cameras. Be just like him. Why give your enemy any chance to see you when you can give them no chance?

Imagine and her minions delay and try to look for ways to help the others.

The rockets land with great sound and fury amongst the assembled military men. Instincts kick in and each wheels away from the blast, dropping down and giving the shockwave the smallest profile possible. When the tempest passes, Attero calls out roll, and nine hale voices answer him, though surviving is all they can seem to think of doing.

Save vs BANG dc 23: 1d20 + 10 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (11) + 10 + 1 + 1 = 23
Imagine blinks her eyes and the after-image finally fades, and the chronic tinnitus tamps down a bit.

She floats over to where gigabyte is still struggling with the effects of the grenade and gives him a boost, rocketing his body into overdrive.
Boost all attributes +12. Slow fade 2.

I thought we were waiting on something. A simple "pssst, Imagine, it's your turn" would've sufficed.

I'll reduce the LexSec from 10 to 5 once out of this scene.

Ugh. The sidekick deal is...rough. Even maxing out with just one you get...a sidekick. Think Robin (waaaaaay before Nightwing).

Uh, what's the drawback to make it less than 5? Will four be okay? That's still a lance, which is an important number. You can still walk in a wedge with one commander/reserve.

I'm still doing Math! to this. Not sure yet.

And who is 'ST'? =p

Sorry, I'm not seeing it. It just says I can move the number on the scale list, and the list goes from 1 to 2 to 5.

How about I cut it down to 5, and I give each guy a unique power? I'm thinking about Healing, Drain, Fatigue, Negation, and....Entangle?

How does that sound?

GMST: Is it possible to have 3 or 4 minions/sidekick/thingys? The rules just don't allow for that, but that might a be a sweet spot here.

That's why I put the hyperlinks to Wikipedia...but I understand if that is, itself, TL;DR. =)

Of note, I'd actually like -more- between Hickle and Shmick. Right now it just seems like the gnome says something, and the golem quips against it, and that's all their relationship is. I mean, I've put some work in to it so Anton and Alanna really _feel_ like a couple, and not just that she means as much to Anton as one of the eagle's meant to Isagoras. Does that make any sense?

(teehee. Now I'm imagining an old man saying "Gah. You kids. Get off my lawn!" And then one kid yells "GET 'IM!" and then the old man says "oh bloody hell" and 15 kids pile on him. teeheheheeheehee.)

*ahem*

GMST didn't say how many guns I was under fire from, so Imma wait for Dr. Fate to weigh in before we start chucking numbers around, but I've...never considered mass of dialogue to be a big deal. Whenever I see another PCs entry (and, hell, half the GM entries I see) I do pull a "TL, bord now" and just skip it. Oh by all means feel free to skip any dialogue you don't care for. Again, the current entries are just filer since there's not much else going on, and it's a thing that I've wondered for awhile: Does Batman really care about his mistakes? (a.ka.: Reasons why IronMan is better than Batman. ^_^ At least Tony has been known to drink himself into a stupor feeling sorry for his mistakes. =p)

Dave! No! Say it ain't so! =p

Alright, I'll ask you the important question: What would you have me do?

I admit I made the LexSec to have some strength where Imagine had weakness--she doesn't have much offensively, and they shoot things with guns. Also, they have a few neat tricks that Imagine doesn't have--the aforementioned Fearless, which might be the straw that broke this back?

Remember, as minions they have exactly 1 hit point. If they fail a single TOU roll they're down. Sure, I spent (some would say "wasted") points so that they can come back in the next scene, but that does all of dick if we lose the fight.

Are you talking about combat or the talkings? Right now almost all of us PCs are laid up in one way or another, so, yeah, there's a vacuum that I'm just filling. But that's it. We're all just spinning wheels until we get to save from the Flashbulb. Hell, I kinda thought it would be nice to have something to read instead of "So, is it next round yet? It's not like the whole party being blind and deaf isn't super fun, but how about we move it along a bit?"

As far as combat they're just using off-the-rack weapons. And always will. If you noticed they were almost worthless in our first fight because anything worth fighting had Impervious 8, which cancels out all of their attacks.

So, let's put a fine point on it. What would you have me do? (Mind you, I've named just about all of them, and I was about to have them start a dialogue. I even came up with poetry!)
(Also also, no matter what I'll have to keep Attero. Gotham May Cry is just to awesome to lose. I call it as a band name!! =p)

There! You see! That is _exactly_ me in a nutshell.

AND now seems a good time to reiterate that GMST is _very_ forgiving about remaking builds. -of course- you're going to go through some learning pains learning a new system, but GMST was very open about understanding this.

Hell, all I'm doing narratively right now is that I googled "Times when Batman screwed up" (I'm not going to give a link, that's srsly what I put into google) and then read the wikipedia entry on some of them. Bam. Interesting dialogue.

First off, I'm bewildered that _no_one_ came to me directly first off. I've gamed with you all for quite some time and why did you all feel like you had to start talking to the GM first?

Just come out with it and lets hammer this out.

DC 23 means it's PL 13, 2 more than my mind shield. Well played. -_-

vs FEAR!: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (8) + 16 = 24
vs BANG!: 1d20 + 10 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 10 + 1 = 15

The Fear rolls like a tidal wave toward Imagine's impervious breakwater. Her confidence quickly cracks as it proves more than enough to crest the ridge, but she is a creature of the mind and emotion, and she stands against it in proud defiance.

Alas, her eyes do not heed the call and she remains without sight or hearing, but her link to the group at least keeps communication open.

Without other options, she turns invisible and flies up a bit, determined to not get caught in any more area effecting shenanigans.

'Wait what? Who's Stephanie? Who the hell is Arthur? Can we at least talk about--okay, you're just gonna go on and on, ain't ya?'

She ponders a moment, then sends out a broad-wave message, excluding the group. It's just says: 'You online? Daddy has a message.'

It was a longshot. Most thoughtwaves don't work without a prior link or direct perception, but you never knew with the Bats. Hell, half his sheet was just ranges, and the other half was blind guessing. It took them _weeks_ just to determine that it wasn't bee-dubs that killed Abattis.

For all the good it did her now.

"AhF@%$!" Imagine yells as she and half the squad bend over, clutching their eyes with ears ringing.

The other Half of the squad, bolstered by Imagine's lifeforce and their natural physique, resist the blast, and Captain Attero, his AS7-D battlesuit still functioning, roars a challenge as the blast passes ineffectually over him.
"PRETENDER!!" Attero yells into the darkness.

'Uhhh, dudeman? What are you doing?' Kara mind-asks painfully, not able to concentrate enough to keep the convo private.

"COWARD AND MURDERER! Come and face me! Pay for your crimes! Come and face the JUSTICE that you mete out for others LESS worthy of it than yourself!" The captain the LexSex squad bellows.

'Uh, can we call get in the same page here?' Kara asks futilely as she's bereft of sight and sound, but Attero's thoughts carrying his message to her head as surely as his voice into the room.

"Graham was a FRIEND of MINE! A good man WORTHY of a BETTER death than the one you had that rabid DOG hand him! Dick would've taken the cowl, but YOU sent that MURDERER in your place! WHY? Because of your PRIDE? Because you wouldn't bend knee to ask him back? So you sent a half-trained ASSASSIN! He killed Abattior and GRAHAM SPENT THREE WEEKS STARVING TO DEATH!"

'Mental note; stop giving the dudes access to the secret files.'

"You escape punishment because you have money and power. I know how that plays out. Fear and Power have served you well.

But neither can save you today. On behalf of Graham Etchinson, I fear no man, and I shall not start with you."

Attero lobs a fragmentation grenade in the direction of where the flashbang came from, and follows it in, half the squad behind him.

Throw!: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16
Blast 5.

You ever try to push/pull a girl who isn't expecting it? The thing can become a "tangle of limbs" real quick. =p

Of note, Imagine considers silence to be consent. So, uh, good luck. ;-D

"See, no prob--WHAA!" Kara exclaims as William tackles her bodily from the light.
As Kara struggles in a surprised bout of flailing limbs, the two come away in a tangle of limbs and intertwined bodies. At last Imagine stops struggling as she sees she's not under attack, but is apparently being "rescued".
She leans in close, her nose almost touching Kent's as one long, sinuous leg trails a path up his calf. "Sorry, baby. We don't have time for much else. But I'll make reservations at L'Impassab for later...we'll see how much "rescuing" you can do to me then." She smiles and disentangles herself, just as the sound of the teleporter echos through the darkness.

The LexSec form up in a line and start fanning out toward the sound. Captain Attero turns on his flashlight, and Kara hovers her own torch over. Corporal Jack Powers grabs it out of midair and adds its light to their search.

Was never really that into metal, myself.

Unhuman, who do you think of when you hear "metal"?

I'm just asking because a lot of people hear some kind of death-metal and get turned off, or they think "I don't like Metallica, so I don't like metal". (Metallica is pop-rock, not metal.)

Anyway, not unlike most of music, metal has so many subcultures, that I think that there is a sub-genre out there for everyone.

Like, did you listen to that first song? That's ManOWar. Too metal?

There's also Sabaton, a very much more mainstream metal band that takes a lot inspiration from history. Like, um, this thing.

Still too metal? I just discovered these guys and, wow, boy are they good. That's the thing about the Japanese bands. Always high production value.

Still too metal? Alright, time for the finisher. Nightwish has finally planted their flag firmly in the metal camp, and this song is just...nice to listen to.

And then, for some reason, Holy Crap it's Christopher Lee singing with Rhapsody of Fire because reasons! =D

From what my Norton Anti-virus software keeps telling me, there is no security program for which there is not some better haXXorz. Hence, Gigabyte, maybe accompany that question with, like, a Computers roll, and see what happens? =) Hacker fight! =D

**kssk*Imagine, do not move into that light.*kssk* Captain Aterro says as he moves off to facilitate the LexSec's ongoing search of the BatCave.

Kara nods politely, trying not to think about going into the light. The beautiful, shiny light. The sweet, CANDY-like light.

Can she resist?

Can she hold out?

"NO I CAN'T!" she yells for some reason as she slowly walks her taut, round buttocks underneath the scanning light.

Let's put some gasoline on this fire, shall we? =3

Bump?

Imagine walks past gigabyte and casually waves her hand as she glides past him. He spasms a few times as his natural body reclaims the primordial strength his ancestors had known and shucks off the thin veneer of civilization that is still but recently come to mankind.
'An' there's plenty more where that came from. ;)'

Boost all 6 attributes +12. Slow fade 2.

Imagine's save!: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (15) + 17 = 32
A flurry of sparks explode up and down Imagine's form as countless nanotbots crash into her forceshield, but the final word of the L-belt manages to withstand the onslaught.

"Oh what the buttsex, guys? Alright alright fiiiine. Just, shuffle into a group."
The LexSec are still powerful men, and the suits aren't that heavy, so they march rather than tromp into a circle.
Then each one stiffens and jerks, as Kara juices their inner biochemistry to a natural maximum.
Boost all stats 12, slow fade 2.
The LexSec recover from the rush, then each man slings their now-useless gun, draws their low-tech knife, and commences to the business of securing the perimeter.

No excuses.

"Whoa."

Imagine allows herself to rubberneck for a moment, but the LexSec take no such luxuries. While the girl wonders just -why- someone would make a penny that large, the ten power-armored men fan out in a tactical walk, rifles leading the way. They try to at least establish a safe zone around their current position, with a list of possible avenues of expansion.

Their in-built cameras all record silently.

As Kara is reminded of Supergirl's current state, she pauses. She exchanges a look with Captain Attero, who simply nods.

**Acknowledged. Objective 5-2-7 initiated.**
Squad members 9 and 10 break off from the tumult and land near supergirl's still form. Each take hold of the downed hero and jump off again, into Kara's waiting LexCorp Chinook helicopter.

...says VICTOR because his query is answered by LexCorp's friendly and helpful staff?? =p

'Okay, ya ya, this is all great and super fantastic, but, um, instead of standing around with our thumbs up our butts shaking our knees about how totes scary DA BAT CAVEZORX!!! is, how about we, um, oh IDunno, actually go there and try to get in!

Ready?'

Imagines has frowns all around. As she think-talks she keeps sipping her drink, a benefit of not having to use her mouth, but it makes the overall effect even more 'uncanny-valley'.
'Yeah, the location we have. It's in the JL files, and, um, my family's files. grid coords we got. Defences? With -that- weirdo? Who knows? We can go fly around it if you like.

If we find him, it's because he wants us to find him. A place, we can find. Crazy-ass martians on fire? We even got thems. But teh BATSman. No. Not unless he's at home."[/i]

'Meh,' Imagine responds to Unhuman's words of warning, but at least happy that she finally got to introduce him to the wonderful world of mojitos. 'Fate's right. The whole 'Bat' line is un-powered. Bat-man, Bat-girl, Bat-um, dog? Bat-robin, Bat-bird, Bat-aardvark--the whole line doesn't have a wit of true power in 'em. My theory? Good marketing. They build up a reputation of superawesomeness, then they just show up, and everyone all but punches themselves in the face!

But, whatevs. That "man" hisself ain't been seen in sometime. Most like moved to florida and got some sun. You all can come up with a plan that involves 47 different words for "sneak". As for me?"

As one the ten LexSec powered-armored guards lock'n'load their WarHammer assault rifles.

'I tend to shoot things with guns and see how that works.

You got a better plan?'

Another mojito seems to pour itself and float over to Kara's waiting hand.

Sorry, just to recap, is Batman around right now?

Duh. Mojitos!

Once aboard the LexCorp Chinook-class helicopter, comfortable seating is found for everyone, and Kara personally makes everyone a world-famous mojito. The drink itself is nothing special, save that it's made from ridiculously fine ingredients, making all other mojitos taste like they were made from dirty bathwater.
But the really special thing is watching her make them. It turns out having a world-class telekinietic as your bartender is not something that happens to everyone.

'Alrighty, me hearties. We're airborne and we have a place to go. Y'all wanna just smash the place up for a bit or do we wanna do anything special? Maybe some naughty graffiti?'