Angel-IKA: Oh crap the match is starting I got to go brb
Locker: same cya
Ferraphim1tp: gl hf :)

[quote=@Tatterdemalion]
POTENTIAL 0

Sara gives Dominus the Tiger Look. The lidded eyelids, the appraising but disdainful slow scan up and down, the lips that don’t so much as twitch. It’s trademark. Any other fan would be melting into a puddle of “step on me.” But Dominus can try to match that as an equal.

Which means playing dirty. Hitting her from an angle she’s not expecting, one she can’t defend from.

“Sure,” she says, with contemptuous casualness and a boot on Witcherphim’s back. She waits for Dominus to take a step forward before adding: “After you ask out your Angel on a date.”

And that is when her little portable ChRB drone zooms in on Dominus’s face for the whole stream to witness.

[Even with Influence, that’s a [b]9[/b] on provoking her to immediately turn around and throw herself into a Supervillain Asking Out now that she has an excuse to do so for supervillainy.]
[/quote]

Ferraphim1tp: WAIT
Ferraphim1tp: COME BACK
Ferraphim1tp: ARGHSHJGHGHG

Much like Witcherphim before her, Dominus doesn't flinch or cower or blush more than a little. She's as on-camera as you in her own way. She grabs your drone out of the air and holds it steady up to her face. "You hear that, Angel-IKA? You're going on a date with the future ruler of the world. And after that, [i]so is she[/i]."

Just as all the cameras are focused on Dominus a slender finger touches your shoulder and a voice that is all the less confident for all the confidence being pushed into it tells you "Um, excuse me, Errant is in danger."

[quote=@Phoe]With a final leap and a flying kick she crashes straight through the hangar door and runs as hard as her body will let her as soon as she pops back up off of the ground. Her heart pounds so hard in her chest she feels like it's going to explode. Her lungs are screaming at her. Her back and her abs are burning. But none of it feels like anything next to how angry she is. None of them. [i]None[/i] of them were doing a damn thing!

For a moment, she's got nothing to listen to but the sound of her own heavy footfalls. Errant can't help but remember Nobunaga complaining at her about not getting to rescue her last time. Her visor runs corrections on her vision to account for the tear welling in her eye as she bites down hot fury at herself for thinking she'd help this time, too.

[Unleash squeaks by with a [b]7[/b]. Marking Angry][/quote]

The world behind you roars.

Victoria is catching up. She's [i]catching up[/i]. The light around you is offset with a red-orange tone from the backwash of her thrusters. She drifts around corners on hardware that's just [i]better [/i]than yours. That armour is the life's work of one of history's most notorious supervillains and it's going to run right over you.

Or it is before Victoria misjudges a corner and crashes into it. She boosts out of it without hesitation but her shoulder clips a wall and sends a scattering of broken masonry out behind her. She navigates percussively - this isn't someone who's trained all her life to handle this power, this is someone who is relying on the crushing weight of hardware to outweigh all other concerns. You've fought her type before. You haven't fought anyone of her [i]means [/i]though.

You're still racing through cubicle farms and storage hangars and training facilities. You need to slow her down.

[quote=@Balmas]So, here's the skinny. Spiral troops, if what Locker says is true, are inseparable from their power armor. That is, unless AEGIS R&D has been working overtime to miniaturize the gas injectors into a form that can be surgically implanted, which is a fucking terrifying idea, and so it's not going to be thought about tonight. Point is, they're pretty distinctive. As a result, he's going to look for ways to sneak a power-armored platoon into the broadcasting booth of the local Aristeaia stadium--you know, walls thin enough to breach without damaging the broadcaster, abandoned buildings adjacent to the gymnasium.

[Aaaand that's a five on Assess. Marking XP.][/quote]

You're searching one of those abandoned buildings right now. So you're not particularly into professional sports, right Brainstorm? Not your vibe. You know that Aristeia! is an anything-goes kind of sport, a battle of supers overseen by highly advanced medical drones and safety features - exactly the sort of thing that'd show up in a school full of rich kids looking to show off their custom augs and high fashion. In fact, it's just occurred to you that they represent the largest concentration of force in this entire building, and if you can get them on side you'll have all the force you need to directly confront Spiral...

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN," says Angel-IKA's voice from what feels like everywhere. "WELCOME TO THE HEXADROME!"

oh no.

"I'm Angel-IKA, with me is Locker, and strap yourselves in for the best night of high school Aristeia! that I am, um, not participating in directly!"

"In my opinion you were robbed, Angel-IKA," said Locker's voice. 

"Kind of you to say, Locker, but today isn't about me. It's about [i]them[/i]."

Two spotlights slam down, outlining two teams of four technicolour weirdos on both sides of you. This building isn't abandoned after all - it's the ring.

And before you have time to even think further there's a fucking [i]samurai [/i]in your face. With a [i]katana[/i].

[quote=@eldest]"Is Mars more survivable than the Aegis-Blacksun merger? Probably." She agrees cheerfully. "But that'd mean we'd be over there, and not over here, helping fix the problem. Which is going to be an issue if nobody else fixes the problem, and they come after the Gears projects on Mars. Which they would, by the way, with that much power they're going to consolidate everything under one roof within two decades and then we and Sylvanas are the two groups that aren't under their control, and anybody who's driven to do this to themselves for more power," she gestures out the window, "isn't going to stop with one planet, not while there's somebody else out there to rule. SO, that's the first reason not to run."

She takes a deep breath. "The second is that I want to help. My friends are out there dealing with something. Sara's had a run of all of her doubles going at her, Euna's gone dark, Victor's on the run. And disregarding the personal aspect, there's about to be the worst version of a totalitarian society seen, ever, and I don't think I could walk away from that and stay myself. Halfwoman asked me if I wanted to leave, too, and I would love to see Mars, and I'd have loved to go with her and see the multiverse too. But I have to try to help people here, first. If you want to go still, that's understandable, if a little disappointing. If you want to help, however... a flying lab with all of Gear's defense projects, that's going to be a bit of a nightmare to deal with." She grins, vicious.[/quote]

"Well... the orbital calculations would be a lot easier if I didn't have to account for the weight of all this spare ammunition..." said Professor Gears, starting to think.

But then there's the air-shattering sound of a portal opening. Howling wind and rain pour through. Suited up megagoons pile through in all directions, rifles raised. One of them grabs Professor Gears before she can react and swings around behind her, using her as a human shield while pointing her gun at you. "Autonomous Gears Project, you are hereby instructed to stand down in accordance with your contractual obligations as an asset of the AEGIS conglomerate!"

[They're trying to shift your Superior down and Freak up, accept their words or reject their influence]