Freedom's Avengers: Earth's Unlikeliest Heroes IC

[FuzzyBoots]

Red Ranger
HP: 2
Status: Fine

The tire iron thudded with pleasing heft into the side of the mercenary, doubling him over. The groaned imprecation sounded like Portuguese profanity -- No... not quite. Spanish? Are these guys on loan from Tropico? -- before stumbling back and reaching for something on his vest. Xerxes braced, ready for a weapon, but all that happened was a loud whine.
"Oh, hell no..." Xerxes yelled, "Not again!" In his mind, he was back at the bottom of the Paradise casino with the Huckster and his deadman's switch. Surging forward, he lifted the mercenary by neck and crotch and hurled him toward the direction of the stage.
"Bomb on stage!" he yelled as he turned to see who was left standing.

Shit... they're turning on each other. This has to be some sort of mental control. Well, two can play at that game. He tapped his communicator.
"Woman-in-Black, Hex-Mistress, things are really, really ugly in here. What are the odds you can call in some kind of air strike on my position, something to put them to sleep or calm them down?" He instinctively ducked as a fire axe went sailing above his head to embed into the opposite wall.
"It's a madhouse in here, a madhouse!"

[American_Patriot]

Warp

As Warp’s flurry blows pummeled the Conqueror Worm, knocking the thin albino mastermind to the ground. Warp’s fists kept slamming into the man’s face and upper body. Warp had barely heard Red Ranger’s shouted warning about a bomb coming to the stage. The young teleporter looked up and saw Red Ranger using all his strength to throw the mercenary in his general direction… the pitch of the loud whine of the bomb vest was so loud that it cut through the sounds of the mob ripping itself apart. He only had seconds to act, but his choices were so limited when another of the mercenary bodyguards slammed into his side, knocking the both of them off the stage just as the bomb best worn by the mercenary whom had been thrown at the stage by Red Ranger detonated...

The shockwave of the concussive blast that knocked down many of the rioting mob, was evident that the primary use of the bomb vest was to keep the mercenaries from being captured and questioned.

The Mercenary whom had tackled Warp looked up and snarled as he too pulled the cord from his vest, “Damn you imperialist infidel American dog. If I die here today, I will take you with me... but only I will go to paradise as a martyr…” His eyes were full of hate and a sense of purpose, his accent was so thick that Warp could barely believe what he had heard.

So focused on the man standing over him, he barely noticed as Legeria and two other mercenaries grabbed the Conqueror Worm and rushed out of the gym. The sounds of multiple bomb vests being primed to blow filled the gym.


Woman-in-Black

Woman-in-Black’s mind was feverish… the hunger was so overwhelming that she was barely able to contain it. The hunger had created such a strong amount of white noise she was barely able to concentrate enough to respond to Red Ranger’s message.

“I can try…” she stated as she started to try and push through the fog that was clouding her mind as she pushed the door of the locker open and looked up and down the hallway, seeing both groups of the Conqueror Worm’s followers. And Red Ranger was right… there was something affecting these people. But it wasn’t anything she could put into words. It wasn’t mind control… it was something deeper, more primal.

No, these people where True Believers.


Hex Mistress

Hex Mistress reached out with her mystical senses trying to find out what was controlling these people…


Red Ranger

Red Ranger looked up and saw as the Conqueror Worm was being hustled out of the gym through a hole in the back of the stage by Ligeria and three mercenaries as the four others took up positions flanking their emergency exit as they gave signals to those mercenaries whom were not close enough to the entrance of the tunnel and could not make it out of the gym. Those men all nodded and smiled as they too pulled the cables on their vests, the high pitched whines of all the bomb vests filled the room.

It was obvious that they were all were more than willing to die for their leader so that he could escape. And the clock was ticking down…

[McGuffin]

Warp
Danny Ward
HP: 3

"Sorry buddy, I'm not buying what you're selling." Warp sneered at the mercenary before disappearing from underneath him. He reappeared near where Conqueror Worm was being evacuated by his cohorts. "Leaving so soon Chuckles? You'll miss the grand finale of us hauling your deluded @ss to Providence Asylum."

Not gonna let you get away creep. Warp practically burned with the thought, his conviction so strong that the Woman in Black couldn't help reading him through their link.

Gonna keep porting after the Worm, whatever it takes to keep line of sight on him.

[Crazyivan777]

Thunderer

Hank's eyes went wide, then narrowed. He hissed to Patriot, "Get past 'em, try to take 'em down non-lethal. Whoever did this is going to pay."

He took a knee, then bellowed, "ENOUGH!" His hands smashing down into the ground, sending a rolling shockwave out towards the crazed masses.

Groundstrike with super-strength. Gonna at least knock 'em all down.

[FuzzyBoots]

Red Ranger
HP: 2
Status: Fine

Xerxes looked at the mercenaries with growing horror. Gods... what makes a man... damn it! Too many of them to try to pull he trick I did with the last guy. Biting his lip, he let his suit accelerate him to give time to think and considered the cold calculus of the situation. I can't get to all of them, but I can try to reduce the impact of the explosion or I can open up more exits. The flow of humanity had much of the mob beginning to push toward the one door. Woman in Black and Hex-Mistress didn't respond, so I have to assume that they're busy or in the midst of their own trouble. I don't think I'll be able to convince them to head for another exit fast enough even if I did break the chains off of the emergency exits. I don't know how to disarm bombs. That pretty much leaves me to trying to minimize the explosion. Images of blast radii and structural integrity flashed through his head as he fit the room into his head.
That just might work... people will still likely get hurt, but this will save the most people and you can't really say that everyone here is innocent... He dashed forward and implemented the plan.

OOC: Knowledge (Demolitions): (1d20+1=15) ^_^ Or other relevant knowledge skill. He's using Eidetic Memory which lets him use it as a skilled check, but with just his Intelligence bonus. If necessary, he can use an HP to manipulate the scene to make it possible to implement a clever plan. Just let me know.

[Bending Equalist]

Hex Mistress
HP: 2
Condition: In Control

Something snapped inside of Summer, it was like she was in her own body again. She didn't know where she'd been, but it definitely wasn't in her own mind. She would have to talk to The Woman In Black about that. Right now she seemed to be scanning for something magical. And what she found was...

Well, what am I looking for?

[American_Patriot]

As Thunderer slamed his fists into the floor, sending the shockwave radiating outward from where he had hit the tiled concrete flooring. The rippling effect knocked down nearly all of the mob that was so absorbed with destroying each other thanks to the thought that some of them MIGHT be disloyal to their leader. Such a cult of personality had been rarely seen in the world in this modern era... but yet here it was once again raising it's ugly head.

As the dazed men and women started to try to get up, the deafening silence was broken by the growing high-pitched sound that was coming from the Gymnasium...

"Thunderer..." American Patriot called out, the sear amount of disbelief that he had to push away. "We have to get these people out of here NOW... that sound it's the sound of bomb vests. Not one... but multiple!"

"Ranger..." American Patriot called out over the Comlink. "We've got less than a minute... we have to clear this school NOW!"

OOC: one of the quickest ways to make the concussive blast not as deadly, is to provide it with a vent since the blast will be vented out the path of least resistance. these bomb vests are a combination of concussive and flash bang explosives... they are nasty inside a building thanks to the enclosed spaces.

Hex Mistress is able to sense a mystical artificat that is in the gym... if she sees into the gym as Ranger is trying to lessen the effect of the bomb vests that are about to go off. And she sees the various symbols tha are all over the wall. there are BS symbols that look like they were part of the 'Flower Power" age of so-so spiritualism with a mix of real mystic runes that are NOT VERY NICE, and without their knowledge theyve actually been tapping on infernal powers.. thus turning the school into a nexus that if there is enough bloodshed here, it will allow the barrier between the planes to allow infernal beings to break through.

Ranger can get Warp to start 'porting people out to lessen the bloodshed... but only if he knows that what will happen if more people die in here...

[Bending Equalist]

Hex Mistress
HP: 2
Condition: Oh snap!

Summer's eyes widened as the infernal runes came to her attention. "Red," she shouted over the commlink, "very bad juju here. Get far far away. I'll meet you on your way out." She paused for a second and then hit the commlink again as she moved, "Seriously, ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight? Well you're about to do it if you stick in there."

I've always wanted to use that line in context. Not really, but it was fun

[FuzzyBoots]

Red Ranger
HP: 2
Status: Fine

Xerxes took a moment among assessing the situation to adjust his communicator over to speak to just Hex-Mistress.
"Well, that would explain the barrier-weakening sigils... that I mentioned to you before I headed in here." He suddenly dove off to one side as one of the soldiers decided his vest wasn't blowing up fast enough and let loose with a burst of automatic fire which left a series of pock-marks along the walls, "Sorry. Someone's shooting at me. Missed. Anyhow, I know this isn't the time to bring up how much I hate it when you don't listen to me, but... wait a sec. I think I know how to save most of these people." He quickly set the communicator back to a broad-band setup.
"Bunch of the mercenaries have their vests set to blow. First guy blew his wad early. I'm going to try to provide a tunnel. If this doesn't work... make sure say nice things about me at the memorial."

With those words, he blurred into motion, tearing the chains off of one of the double doors leading into the gym and sprinting down the corridor, leaping through the glass transoms where available, shoulder-slamming his way through double-doors where possible, and stopping to break individual locks and chains where not. Finally, he burst outside and into what appeared to be a blank alley on one side of the school. He paused for a brief moment, shook off the bits of broken glass and wood , and dashed in again to clear another corridor.

OOC: Red Ranger did make the check a while back and did mention he runes. Proceeding to suggested solution to he problem... the idea behind it is that he's moving points into Quickness to speed up his opening of the doors/breaking of chains, Speed to get from point A to point B, and Super-Strength for enough to be able to readily squish the chains/locks. Let me know what checks you need for the feat and/or whether you require Extra Effort.

[American_Patriot]

OOC: good work! I think using Extra Effort will be great for covering what Red is doing... breaking open areas to allow for the blast wave to bleed out will save lives of those outsside the damage radius of the blasts. but you still need to do something about that exterior wall to make sure that those in the gym aren't turned into pudding... unless Warp is going to push himself like he did during the Paradise Resort rescue to get thsoe hostages out of harms way.

American Patriot rushed forward, using his fighting batons to knock out those within the mob who were still trying to attack their comrades. "Thunderer... hit the floor to make a hole under these numbskulls. It'll hopefully protect them form the blast..."

[McGuffin]

Warp
Danny Ward
HP: 3->2 Cnd: Fatigued

Danny blinked, his teammates' words getting through to him. The vests the mercenaries were wearing. That noise when they activated them. Bombs, and everyone in the building would die unless they did something. And to top it all off, according to Hex that'd be extra special bad.

He could taste the bile in his throat as he watched Conqueror Worm getting carted off by his lackeys. He knew already what he'd do, what he'd have to do, because he wasn't like him. Danny turned his back on the fleeing villain.

Red had said something about making a tunnel and suddenly Danny knew exactly what to do. He took a step and was standing right next to the outer wall of the gym. He placed the palms of his hands, fingers outstretched, against the rough surface. It was pock-marked with gunfire from the fight.

He concentrated and then pushed, the wall exploding outward from him into the street, disintregating in the air. If one were able to perceive the minute details, one could see the whole of the wall teleport an inch outward before shattering. It was something Danny had theorized about but had been too scared to actually try out in such a large scale: dematerializing an object for teleporting without actually rematerializing it afterwards.

His legs feeling like Jello, Danny turned to regard the chaos in the gym. Tagging as many people as he could reach, he teleported out of the building and into the street outside before bending over double to catch his breath.

Move to port to the wall, HP to Heroic Feat Corrosion 11 off of my Teleport Array and Standard to do it, Extra Effort for a further Move to get the heck out of dodge. The effect is enough to take out a Steel wall 'taking 10' on Toughness.

[Crazyivan777]

Hank attempted to do one better: Leaping to a point that he hoped would put him between innocents and an explosion, and -then- smashing a hole behind him, hoping to add some cover to the unfortunates.

[American_Patriot]

As everyone hustled in an effort to save the lives of the mob from the detionation of so many bombvests at one time. American Patriot overheard the voices of the mercenaries screaming at the top of their lungs, "Farsi??" he muttered seconds before the vests finally detonated. The concussion blast wave expanded outward, rushing forward at the speed of sound... the destructive force taking the path of least resistance carried with it a blast of heat and fire, something that American Patriot had not been expecting.

The concussive force hit American Patriot as he reached Hex Mistress and Woman in Black, sheilding them with his body... taking the blunt of the destructive force. His meta-human healing factor kicking in, repairing his blown ear drums.

Unfortunately, the blast brought down the roof of the Gym as well as blowing out almost all of the windows in the school despite the venting of the explosive concussive force. As the smoke started to clear, Red Ranger could hear the sounds of sirens approaching and a new helicopter flying overhead. He could make out the Cameraman focusing his attention on him and several of the shell shocked mob stumbling out of the building.

The Camera didn't see that one of the men in the cover provided by the awning was taking aim at the helicopter with a hunting rifle.

I need everyone without impervious that is close to the blast to make a Ref & Tough DC14 save, if they fail either of these saves to make a DC14 Fort save. If they make the first two saves, they are okay and only a little shaken by the blast. If they fail the fort save as well, they are stunned. Even with making the saves, everyone's ears are ringing...

OOC: Had to correct 'Invulernablity" to "Impervious" sorry for the screw up. just heard that one of my friends is going to be home soon so he can vote!

[FuzzyBoots]

Red Ranger
HP: 2 (now 1 for Scene Rewrite)
Status: Fatigued

The bomb vests exploded with less force than Xerxes had feared, but still more than enough to do the trick despite his desperate actions. Why? he thought to himself as the concussion wave knocked him slightly off of his feet and made his ears ring. As he watched, one wall at the end of the gym gave way and a huge chunk of ceiling came down. At that moment, a crazy thought ran through his head.
You know... I bet I could catch that. I mean Thunderer could do better but... damn, out of time to think better of it. He leapt up, gauging his force to hit the apex of his jump just as he neared the piece of ceiling, nearly ten feet in each direction. He extended his arms upwards and tried to cushion the impact, damping the kinetic energy and, as he hit the floor in a wide stance, bending to absorb the shock. Intellectually, he knew that the concrete should shatter around him, but something about superheroes being around seemed to make the laws of physics go wonky.
Collective belief? a part of his mind queried as the concrete groaned, but held, providing a shielding umbrella to a knot of stunned protestors. As the last shockwaves halted, he glanced to one side, verifying some small area blown clear of debris, and propped one end. As he did so, further force buffeted his head. Looking up, he saw a chopper with camera-man staring down at him. He suppressed an urge to wave and scanned the area for a place to put down his chunk of concrete. While he did so, he cleared his throat and spoke hoarsely.

"Guys... is everyone mobile and up and... shit. This was a setup. That Conqueror Guy tried to kill everyone." Absently, Xerxes noted that he seemed to have shifted back into his full-body suit of Ranger Armor.
Subconscious desire for protection... yeah. It's been a while though.

OOC: He has Impervious 6, so he's unharmed. Using dramatic license and a Hero Point to salvage some lives out of it.

[McGuffin]

Warp
Danny Ward
HP: 2 Cnd: Fatigued

As he felt the wind pick up, Warp looked up groggily along with the disoriented handful of would-be rioters he'd pulled out of the building before the explosion. He blinked as he laid eyes on the news chopper and the approaching sound of sirens penetrated his fuzzy state of mind.

Then he ported up into the chopper where he stood unsteadily. "Whoah, sorry about that. Would you please mind backing this thing away for a bit until the cops arrive to contain the situation? We'll answer all the questions we can afterwards, promise."