Episode 19 - A New Year

[Phoenix1]

Team FLNS

Well. It wasn't like Team FLNS would be shown up by a mere Professor, whether his Semblance was pure shenanigans or not. Fen's first shot blew one of the remaining Nevermores out of the air, and her reverse shot sent a second flying into a third. The one that was sent flying was badly damage; the one it crashed into, beak-first, was instantly destroyed.

Sorin's charged blasts of multiple Dust types caught both targets solidly, the first one taking relatively less fire but more water and lightning, badly shocking it and eroding its defenses while also giving it a pretty severe scorching. The second caught more of the fire, managing to resist the shock and most of the erosion, but suffering massive burns.

Neither of them were in much of a position to weather any sort of a follow-up attack, which would have been fine for them if Hunters worked in teams of two. Since they didn't, Nicoale blew a massive hole into the first one's chest with a partially-charged shot from Caladbolg, while Chapi blinked over to butterfly-kick the second one in the face with fire blazing around one foot and lightning crackling around the other. Both of them collapsed and started dissolving, leaving the field clear.

OOC

Battle over! Everybody take a Hero Point! I figure I'll give you guys a chance to act before having the Fable brothers do anything, since they can't necessarily easily tell that all the Nevermores are down.

Team RACL

There wasn't really much time to await any responses from JNBS, although the "HOHOHO! ROUND TWO MOTHE..." that you heard dwindling behind you suggested they had it in hand.

Rhys's Olympian speed allowed you to keep up with Vlad as he tried to flee. The light blazing from Rhys's chains burned the master vampire, slowing his defense, and all three of you managed to get hands on Jack in a concerted effort to wrest him away.

"Now, now. No take-backs!" Vlad growled, and with a surge of inhuman strength fueled by his cursed Semblance, he heaved Jack free from all of you, though whether on main force or just on the fact that if you had tried to hold on in the face of Vlad's vampiric strength he would have torn your Aura-broken classmate in half was a matter that could be debated.

Regardless, he had Jack in hand, and took off down the darkened-but-not-actually-where-you-all-were, shadows from outside of Rhys's aura of light seeming to flow to him as he ran, fading him to near invisibility.

Mechanics

Vlad:
Free: Reconfigure Serial Killer. 14 points to Scaled Opportunity, 16 points to Aura Mobility, 4 points to Shadow Form, 6 points to Potence, 16 points to Shadowblend, 28 points to Fast Healing, 14 points to Rapid Recovery.
Free: Activate Shadowblend. He gets Total Concealment from Visual, Auditory, and Olfactory senses (he doesn't have the Complication the spawn do). He can't actually conceal Jack though so this only gives him the defensive benefits.
Move: Race.
Standard: Ghost. This is a bit of an odd call on his Combat Assassin Benefit. Functionally this is an attempt to Hide and he is in combat, so I'm going to give it to him on the check, but it won't count towards his degrees of success, since in normal situations Hide wouldn't give any benefit for those.
Vlad Stealth (DC 35, +5 for Combat Assassin not applied to degree of success, -2 for Impaired) ...Fails thanks to the Impaired.
End of Turn: Restorative Regeneration clears Vulnerable.
Resistance to recover from Impaired (DC 20, -2 for Impaired, -2 for Weakness) And very much does not recover from it.

All PCs are on turn.

Robin

Chro's own dagger caught him full in the chest, and though the fell power that Vlad had placed upon him meant biological matters like poison were a fair bit less threatening to him than most, added on to the rest of the damage you had caused, his sand-colored Aura started crackling around him as his Aura levels dropped into the red. "Urkh! Why you little-!"

WHAM!  Your bat clocked him full upside the head, snapping it to the side again, only this time you were prepared for the endurance that his Semblance offered him in a mountainous environment. WHAM! you dealt another resounding blow on the backswing, they kept coming. WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WH-

Chro's Aura snapped open as he disengaged his barrier!

-AM!

With his Aura barrier disengaged, your final blow delivered its full force straight to Chro's skull. He wasn't entirely defenseless - his Aura had to be almost exhausted, but it hadn't broken, so his Semblance and the enhanced physical resilience he derived from it was still going. Even so, being as tough as solid rock only mattered so much against an unmitigated hit from a Huntsman-level weapon. There was a distinct cracking sound and Inugame was fine.

But instead of slumping to the ground, his body collapsed...into a swirl of dark vapor, two roughly eye-shaped pits of red light opening up within it.

"I'll kill you! You hear me Robin! Next time I see you you're dead!" Chro ranted, but with his body having suffered what would normally have been mortal damage, he couldn't reform until his vampiric power had a chance to repair it. "DEAD!" he yelled again, as he flowed up through one of the vents near the ceiling.

OOC

Battle over! Take a Hero Point for the victory and another one for me Fiating Chro's escape.

 

Edited April 26 by Phoenix1 (see edit history)

[Arlin]

Anya wobbled briefly before stabilizing herself in the aftermath of the struggle. Alright, fine. If the situation and his grip made it difficult to peel his grip away from their classmate, then she would just have to see how good his grip was through a broken arm. It was a risk she wouldn't take, if she couldn't maintain her precision. Anya narrowed her eyes as Vlad started to fade from view, and from smell. But not from her hearing. "Not quite enough," she muttered to herself, awaiting the next moment Rhys closed with the enemy, and then unleashing a flurry of carefully aimed kicks.

 

Mechanics

Free- Configure Huntress to Compromised Integrity {11}, (Just base Weaken Resistance), Recitative Retribution {11}, Martial Training {11}, Diamond Dust {11} (Multiattack), Infused Dust {11} (Light descriptor on Damage), Pizzicato {6} (Strength 11 for disarm only), Precision Sonar {5} (Counters Auditory Concealment).

Move- Stabilize. Mobility to Stabilize

All-Out Attacking and Power Attacking for 5.

Reaction- Preemptive Weaken 11 (Resistance).Weaken (Resistance) On hit, DC 26 vs Weaken (Resistance).

Standard- Attack Vlad with Damage linked Strength.Boot to the... Arm On hit, DC 31 + MA / 26 vs Damage / Strength (disarm).

EE: Do it again!Weaken (Resistance) EE Boot to the Arm EE

Status: Fatigued next round, -5 defense, Deflect/Reflect/Redirect (with penalty), Counters Auditory Concealment, Partial Energy Immunity.

[Zelphas]

Fen burst out of the tree in a crash of noise, spinning around to... to...

Nothing but dissolving shadows remains on the field.

For a long moment, Fen simply... hangs in the air, her Aura supporting her in this brief but profound confusion. She honestly thought that she wouldn't have to think about this part.

The moment passes, and Fen's eyes snap to the blue box. Everyone inside DELORES! Hurry! She sends to the group via their lightning-fast communication, her Instinct Suit already (silently) shifting to give her greater speed as well. She rockets across the hated clearing a moment later, skidding to a stop ion front of the doors. The moment she sees av screen, her hands begin moving. The moment everyone else is inside, go; just go!

Fen plants herself in front of the box, and forces herself to face... her brothers. Time didn't blur her memories; every face was clear and crisp, and now there they were before her, beaten, bloody, Auras broken... and alive. Her lip trembles, and she feels her face twist.

Then, very carefully, she moves her Screeching Raven to point at the air above their heads. They were safe, now; she couldn't let that change, no matter what.

 

OOC

Move Action: Shift to V36.

For kicks: probably-doomed Intimidation check to keep her brothers in DELORES until the time machine leaves.

Intimidation

 

[Keramane]

:: Lapin "Chapi" Champagne :: 『Attack 6/11』『Defense 14』『Resistance 8』 『H.P 4 (+5 Party)』 Condition: None Active Powers: Notes: Time-Taxi Bun

Chapi would flip back to land on the ground, ready to resume bullying her Nevermore to... see clear skies. Huh. And them bun fists get raised in a silent cheer! Woot!

 

Then comes the Fen-structions, and anyone not already nearby Delores would immediately receive a free Chapi-taxi back to the time closet! But seeing Fen with her weapon above her family's heads, she'd give a blink, turn to the siblings and say. "Your sister has made a heck of alot of distance in short time. We're going to use this vehicle to go pick her up. All of you are tired and she's doubtlessly having a terrible time, so getting everyone a nice, happy ride to safety is best, yes?"

 

There were better ways to handle this than at the threat of a gun. After all, these brothers were right about to fight to the death against a flight of Nevermores; they probably wouldn't think twice about rushing a single, obviously emotional huntress with a gun.

[Llyarden]

Sorin let out a sigh of relief as the Nevermores faded. "Well, that went pretty -" *fwip* "...and I'm in here now. Okay then."

He paused for a moment in confusion as he saw Fen aiming above her brothers' heads with her rifle. Leaving aside the fact that your brothers have probably had plenty of weapons pointed at them for one day - he still needed to apologise for that, but that could come later - maybe we should check with Dr Brown and that weird egg thing before we leave that this has actually worked and we haven't destabilised time by leaving Dust-weapon damage all over the forest?

He wasn't sure there was a...massive amount of point in actually trying to trick the Fables, especially since one of them had already recognised the present-day (or was it future?) Fen. But he wasn't going to start disagreeing about it right now.

[Ridai]

Unluckily for them, the attempts to free Jack were unsuccessful, this has become a chase through night time Mistral, and Vlad decided to turn invisible. Well then. Work must proceed on bettering the situation.

Lapis starts adapting to Rhys' motions at the drop of the proverbial +21 Expertise (Tailor) hat, to the point of his upper body being basically free of any the shaking inherent in standing on/hanging off of another person, and Rhys likewise feeling an unusually even and well-distributed pressure from Lapis' weight. Anya glimpses what her teammate is doing and the next thing she knows, that single cue was enough to eliminate any difficulties holding on. It is not an entirely new phenomenon, as whenever group assignments happened in class, whatever group Lapis was part of was always completely done with it first and with time to spare. And apparently that sort of team management also extends to motion.

At the same time, Lapis's myriad threads are in motion, out to mend Jack's injuries and keep making attempts at freeing him. All that efficiency still leaves mental bandwidth and physical time left over.

"Sir, in terms of craftmanship of your attire, it is impressive, however you could do better." A little non sequitur for good measure.

ELEGANCE - A vampire lord settling for second-best. They do not make them as they used to.

Actions

Free Reconfigure to Pull Tight, A Stitch In Time, 4 Range ranks of Proverbial Haystack, 14 ranks of Time Management and Team Management, Quality Control. This means Lapis has Semblance-scaled Quickness 14.

Free Perceive Vlad's clothes with Analytical Vision limited to fabrics. Or at least Lapis would if the guy didn't become invisible!

Move Stabilize. Take 1 to auto-succeed on Mobility 10 vs DC 10 due to Quickness-Speed-Rank 7

Standard Do many things:

• Try and disarm Jack out of Vlad's grabby hand with Strength DC 21 (DR 0) N-nat 20?!
• Give Anya Semblance-scaled Quickness 14 (if possible, do the same to Rhys just for fluff)
• Heal Jack with Healing 11 20 RP

 

Edited April 26 by Ridai (see edit history)

[RavingScholar]

When Lapis manages to grab Jack back from Vlad, Rhys can't hold back a genuine sigh of relief. Like, full-bodied, audible.

 

He wraps several dozen chains around Jack's torso, securing him along with Lapis's threads. The boiling anger demands blood from the monster. But the haunted nightmares of the Battle of Beacon demand something far more important.

 

"Run away empty-handed. Next time, I will burn you alive."

 

With those words, Rhys spits in Vlad's general direction and flips him the bird before making a hard U-turn. He does his best to not give his teammates whiplash as he sprints back towards NBS and Robin, to get Jack more healing and to mop up the remaining vampires.

[Imtar]

Nicoale was already dropping from her branch when the last Nevermore started dissolving. Things were going as well as they could have hoped. The Nevermores were down and the Fable brothers were already in Delores. All they had to do was-

She took a quick-step next to Fen and laid a hand on Screeching Raven. Firm, but not pushing. "There's no need for that." She put all the authority she'd gained in her years on the job into her words. Only a little of it was for Fen. Most of it was to keep her brothers in line.

"Lets get on board. That little girl is still out there." We're almost there. She needs us to get her brothers home, not alarm them into trying something stupid.

OOC

Projecting authority to calm things down and keep the Fables in-line. Nicoale will get on Delores immediately.
Intimidation

 

Edited April 29 by Imtar (see edit history)

[Zelphas]

For a long moment, the Screeching Raven remains obstinately pointed upwards.

Then, begrudgingly (though still with enough trigger discipline to make sure that the barrel is never actually pointing at any of her brothers), Fen lowers the gun and steps into DELORES.

[Imtar]

Nicoale withdrew her hand and didn't contest Fen making it clear she wasn't bowing to her. Instead she carefully kept the trace of apprehension she'd felt off her face. She couldn't imagine Fen intentionally hurting her brothers, but she had her doubts how clear Fen was thinking with her brothers on the line.

She banished the thought and boarded Delores. That didn't matter now. They were almost home.

[Phoenix1]

Team RACL

Anya landed a hit to Vlad's shoulder, which when you were running at supernatural speeds while carrying a guy was not especially helpful, and Vlad...didn't quite over-balance, but it threw off his stride, although he kept his hold on Jack.

...Until Lapis made the comment about his clothes. "Really?" Vlad asked. "If you would like to discuss business once this little tussle is done with, my Scroll handle is @KillerCountChocula. Send me a qu-oh," he cut off as Lapis took advantage of his momentary distraction to yoink Jack free from his grasp. A moment later, Rhys delivered his warning and turned.

Vlad did not pursue. "Well. Hopefully I can get a new suit out of this whole debacle, at least," he grumbled to himself consolingly, before wrapping his ludicrously long cape around himself and vanishing into shadow.

By the time you guys got back to the hostel, the vampire spawn were all down (judging by the additional damage to the floor and the fact JNBS were all on one side of the room now it seems like they had Hunter'd their way out of the press and then Nick and Solstice had broken out the grenades). The dire wolves were still up and fighting but they would have had that well in hand even before you guys got back. Once you did? I mean, please. I'm not going to say they were down before Lapis and/or Solstice could finish waking Jack up, but he didn't actually get to take a combat action, so...yeah.

Jack kinda blinkingly looked around, orienting himself. "Oh," he said, a bit sardonically. "You called in RACL. ...That was mean of you."  Anya and Lapis may or may not have been a bit new to pick up on it still, but Rhys for sure would know that coming from Jack Bones that was basically equivalent to a "thank you, we owe you one".

"Hohoho! And I will sleep like a baby!"

"Are you okay?" Solstice asked him.

Jack eyed her a moment. "Are you?"

Solstice's general compassion and concern for others have been well established so I'm sure it's perfectly obvious to everybody that she was definitely not dodging that question at all when instead of answering it she suddenly looked around worriedly and asked, "Wait, where's Robin?"

"One of the vampires did the same mist-grab-thing that they did to you. I had originally assumed he would also be down here. Since he wasn't...it seems likely the vampire responsible took him to some other location. If so...he might be facing it alone," Ben said grimly.

...

"Aw that poor, doomed vampire!"

"What an absolute idiot."

"Well...no, one on one? Against Robin?  That doesn't make sense. Their tactics had been really good before!"

"Possibly it just dropped him in some chamber that is easy to access in gaseous form but not so easy for a corporeal being to exit? It would probably be wise to go look for him."

(I'm not saying that the thoroughly-defeated gaseous-locked Chro was even then passing through the substructure close enough to get an earful of just how stupid he had been going for Robin like that. But I'm not saying that he wasn't, either.)

OOC

Battle over! Everybody take a Hero Point!

Team FLNS

As the battle began winding down and you guys started returning to Delores, several of the Fable brothers were speaking at once.

"Well I guess we were lucky a team of veteran Hunters happened to be-" one of themFedir started saying as Fen reached the doorway (yeah you guys had just waltzed in and wiped out eight Nevermores like it wasn't no thing, they assumed you were veterans).

"Fadi, Fang, go get Fen. Don't get too close until she-" another oneFred was directing a couple of the others.

"Just hold still and let me apply the-" a thirdFeivel was telling the most-injured oneFabian, as he bandaged a deep cut in his side.

"Wait...are you...why do you look like-" anotherFadi started to ask Fen, peering at her face.

"How does this work? I mean I've seen transfor-" yet anotherFerdinand was more asking himself than anybody, as he stared wonderingly around the space-warped interior of Delores.

...And all of the talking stopped when Fen raised her weapon.

The Fable brothers were badly hurt, Aura-broken, and obviously painfully outclassed here. But they weren't cowards. Weapons came out, held at ready guards, not in threatening stances, and two of themFred and Francis moved immediately to put themselves between the apparent threat and their brothers. "Woah woah woah!" one of the twoFred who had moved to the front (the same one who had been telling Fadi and Fang to go get Fen) shouted.

"Please," one of the brothersFarly implored. "There is no need for hostility. You saved us."

The tension...did seem to diminish a bit, as Chapi explained the plan. And sure, that sounded good to them, except...

Well, they were on their guard now, no longer entirely sure you guys had purely positive intentions. And as it turned out, Fen didn't acquire her reading-people skills on sheer osmosis. "Wait, just wait a minute. What's going on here? What aren't you telling us?" the most-injured of the brothersFabian demanded.

The others seemed to trust his instincts. Fortunately, Nicoale's authoritative statement (and probably more, the fact that it seemed like the Huntress with the sniper rifle was listening to her) kept them from trying anything aggressive.

"Thank you!" the one who had tried to de-escalate things beforeFarly said. "Yes, our sister is out there. We have to get to her. She's scared. The Nevermores came...I think she awakened a Semblance. We need to-"

Fen and Nicoale stepped on-board. The doors closed behind them. And since Dr. Brown would be making his own way home, that was everybody.

VWORP!

It wasn't super-obvious that any transport had taken place, from inside Delores. The frosted windows on her door didn't let through much detail. But it wasn't exactly difficult to notice the difference between the greenery of the forest, and the blue of the sky at the top of the mountain.

You had made it back to the future. And it appeared the Fable brothers had all made it with you!

"Wait..." the one who had been staring at FenFadi asked, "What just happened?"

Whether they had wanted to or not.

OOC

Fen! Take a shiny new (well, old, but whatever) Relationship Complication!

And then take a Hero Point from it, because yeah I would say complicated is the word to describe it.

Edited April 29 by Phoenix1 (see edit history)

[Zelphas]

For the second time since her team has known her--and also the second time in the last few minutes--Fen's Screeching Raven falls out of her hands, dropping silently to the floor of the time machine. On her face, emotions chase each other, one after another.

Disbelief. It had worked. It had actually worked.

Shock. It had worked so, so much more easily than she had expected, the unassailable monsters of her memories transformed into a flock of Grimm, far from the worst thing she had faced in the eight years since.

Denial, and something akin to rage, or sorrow. This isn't right. It was--it was supposed to be a trade. She had been sure of it. She doesn't--she doesn't deserve---

Suddenly, a sort of tremulous, hesitant, fearful happiness. And yet, here she is, and there they are.

Fen looks at her brothers, calling out each name in turn. Her Semblance erases the sound, but she says them, names she never thought she'd speak again, not truly. She raises her arms to speak--

And freezes, as pure panic flashes across her face.

Her brothers don't know sign language.

Fen remains frozen, arms half-raised, face frozen in almost comical panic. Her eyes dart around, slipping to her team and away moment by moment. It seems, faced with the social interaction of a family reunion, Fen has found herself completely stymied by the very first obstacle.

[Imtar]

Nicoale was quiet for the split second that was the journey home. Part of her found it amusing that a machine that could travel through time could do it in no time at all. Shouldn't such a... Delores that could part time itself have a dramatic charge up or something?

Mostly though, she was quiet because it wasn't her place to talk. These were Fen's brothers. Fen's family. Fen's mission. Fen's reunion. Fen's right to start the conversation. If it were her own mom and dad, how would... no. No. They were gone. Delores didn't change anything.

She watched as Fen spoke in absolute silence. Fen frozen, growing panic and realization in her eyes.

"Correct, your sister did awaken a semblance," she answered the brother who'd tried to deescalate, still carrying that authoritative tone. Very deliberately, she started using the older, obvious sign language as she continued. "It explosively magnifies any sound she makes. Quite dangerous, as you're no doubt aware. But in time, she learned it had a second mode - smothering sound and keeping her absolutely silent. She leaves it on the second mode."

"I know this is a lot to take in, but may I introduce my teammate." She extended a hand. "Fen Fable."

Don't worry, Nicoale signed with the newer method, We're here. Just say what you want to say. I, or we, can translate.

[Llyarden]

"Thanks, DELORES," Sorin said, as the scene outside the frosted windows changed.

If he was honest, he'd kinda expected Fen to break out her Scroll and start texting like she had before she'd taught them all sign language. But since she was kinda floundering, he came back over to her, unslinging his shield and taking out one of the 'paint' canisters. Remember how I introduced myself when we first met? he signed (also in the new, discreet method). I didn't want to get your hopes up in advance because this'll take a chunk out of my Aura and I didn't know if I'd have enough left after we dealt with the Nevermores, but between Hard Light Dust that's ground this fine and my Semblance I can let you write in the air like that. Kinda like how you taught me to shape Aura feathers, just minus kicking people off of buildings. I figure if anyone's going to be able to convince them what's happened it's probably gonna be you.

Of course, this probably would seem a rather difficult to believe claim that Sorin could do that if you believed that Sorin's Semblance was just illusions and a very good control over his Aura. But Chapi wasn't the only person who hadn't been wholly forthcoming about their Semblance - and after he'd quashed Sorena's emotions during the battle with Apex, he was pretty sure most of the others had realised that there was more to Sorin's Semblance than he let on.

He set his shield down, resting against his leg, and held out both hands - one holding the canister of Hard Light Dust and the other for Fen herself to take, his Aura glinting gold.

OOC

Using Adaptability to remove Increased Action and Full Action from one rank of Spin Phantasm, and Dust Transfer to add Affects Others to one rank of Spin Phantasm plus Independent and Precise. So Fen - if she's willing, that is - gains Illusion 1 [Visual] (Precise, Independent).

Edited April 29 by Llyarden (see edit history)

[Ridai]

Oh, things took a pleasant turn. Vlad's excitement gave Lapis the opportunity to rather than wrench the vampire's hand open, the leader of JNBS is slipped out of Vlad's grasp painlessly (for grasper and graspee). As Jack is pulled through the air to be safely deposited on Rhys' back, Vlad's Scroll chimes with a message from @CentaureanCreations to @KillerCountChocula, thanking him for his interest in acquiring a Centaurea suit and that a full quotation will be sent to him within the hour. In the meantime, a few choice examples of Lapis' earlier work are included, for "the distinguished, aristocratic gentleman", as proof of Lapis' claim.

At the same time, Orchid receives a message with full context about Vlad, his handle, a link to the message sent from the business account, and asking her to please send a full quotation as soon as possible. It would mean an interesting new client for Orchid (whatever she may wish to do with that, could be a simple one-off order, or a diversification of her network of influence), and it would keep a communication channel to Vlad open for Lapis.

Elegance is clearly pleased with the turn of events, smile hidden behind her fan. ELEGANCE - Ah, much better.

The moment of Lapis' hand moving in a blur ceases before already making his Scroll disappear in his outfit again (when did he even retrieve that?). "I can assure you that you will not regret it, sir." His voice is as reassuring as ever, and with a slight polite bow, Rhys zips all of them away into the distance.

 

Back with JNBS, clean-up as well as treating Jack occur. Jack's remark about calling RACL has Lapis quirk an eyebrow. "Mean?" That's a new one, for him at least.

Solstice dodging the question did lead to a look with the unspoken offer to talk later, especially because of the mind control that was involved. There is putting on a brave face for the team and not worrying others. But someone needs to look out for the healers, too.

"Robin has to be somewhere deeper inside the mountain. Let's search the building, and if necessary, we can always dig along the ventilation." Even with everyone around him confident about Robin being okay, and his performance at the tournament, Lapis prefers to search for him with at least some sense of urgency. Knowing his team leader is fine is better than simply assuming so.