Liliya

MASKS- A New Generation

@Joshie Is there something that I would roll for messing with the computers? I mean, it's been established that Alex has a history of being tech savy, and very familiar with Anne and Scarborough Enterprises tech in particular, but I would prefer to make sure before messing with anyone's plans, especially your's.

Everyone else; if Alex has control of the mainframe, we'll soon find out if the computer thinks Hana can control demon bugs. ^^

MASKS- A New Generation

"They're f#$%ing assholes, b," they were assholes, too. What was mom thinking? Or did someone else put this shit show together? All the adults knew just how dangerous it was to ask Andrea to use her powers for much of anything, especially when under duress and in an agitated position, and to ask her to put herself in danger to, what? Get their rocks off at the thought that they were toughening up the youngsters? Maybe they’d forgotten just who they were dealing with. Swarm, Riley, hell, even Ian were all kind of civvies, still. Hard to say if the first two had ever been faced with any tough decisions that, either way, would have real consequences for their friends and families, the people they love. Ian might get what the stakes are, he might know internal strength in the face of abject terror, but he’d never been in a position where someone he cared about was in real danger. Closest he’d ever been was in that fight with Arsen. Shit, he still played pranks on people at the high school, I mean, funny as shit pranks, but that’s hardly the point. Like, a few months ago, Alex had nearly killed her best friend’s aunt, to save lives. She knew Andrea would never forget what she saw that day, her aunt bleeding out the back of her head, or what was left of it, on the pavement, and her best friend just collapsed on top of her, hand fifty feet back from her body, bleeding like a pig on the street from a wound that had nearly put her in an early grave. Nasty shit, that day.

And here it was, laid out before them all over again, several months later. The same buildings, same people, same lab, even Dragoon looked just like she had that day. Before the whole, ‘getting her head smashed in,’ thing, of course, but it sent shivers down Alex’s spine all the same. That really hadn’t been a good day, for Andrea, for Alex, for anyone. It was even stranger from up here, seeing it like this. Her and Andrea had gotten there after most of the fighting, like Malcolm had graciously reminded her during their conversation earlier. The view was familiar, but only because of the videos taken by bystanders in the surrounding buildings of the first stages of the fight. By the time they’d gotten on scene the crowds were already scattered, and a lot of the immediate surroundings were in pretty rough shape. Thankfully Swarm had been there to let everyone know to get down there; she saved more lives than Alex had with her actions on that day, and kept her hands. Then again, maybe most of the destruction was only because supers responded. Who’s to say? Maybe they’d be better off running simulations where no one showed up and interfered with Dragoon, see if she just took whatever it was she was there for, Sai she supposed, and left. Alex wondered if Swarm still had that laptop, a Class S super intelligence, just lying on her bed at home or something. She supposed it didn’t matter, whatever became of Sai, no doubt Anne was in the loop and wanted the thing right where it was. There were no accidents when it came to her.

Alex was sitting, knees to her chest, against the central mainframe of the viewing room, typing faster than anyone ought to be able to type on her little go phone. She knew her mom would be pissed that they, that she, wasn’t down there, fighting this stupid hologram. It had all the makings of turning into one of their famous four hour screaming matches followed by weeks of not talking to one another. Maybe she’d be too distracted planning her wall to notice. She hated that Andrea had been put in this position, she knew it sucked having to choose between doing something that might get your friend in trouble or doing something that might get you and your friends in trouble, and that seemed really awful and unenjoyable to boot. Alex wanted to be down there, clobbering Dragoon’s ghost, for cathartic reasons, but there was no f#$%ing way she was going to let them put Andrea through this stupid shit, and there was no way she was going to leave her alone up here. Better to deal with mom later, and find something enjoyable to do in the meantime. Speaking of enjoyable things to be doing, these jackasses didn’t know what they were in for. “Oh, Annie,” this had been easier than it should have been, getting past the locks and onto the mainframe proper. The HQ was hardwired, of course, couldn’t get onto the web from a central terminal, to keep out bugs and keep in data, but it didn’t matter, --, it was a serious design flaw, but the central terminals were Bluetooth compatible, as long as one knew how to enable it.

They shouldn’t be, it wasn’t particularly smart, but with walls like they had everything was practically in its own individual faraday cage room to room, so outside stuff was hardly a threat. Didn’t even need to install outside hardware, no doubt this was some stupid shit Anne did so she could use her tablet more conveniently, just flip a switch, and... If everything had worked properly, the Guardians impenetrable system would have been bluejacked and was now owned, by a teenager with a psyPhone Go, courtesy of Anne Scarborough herself. A few more lines, and the speaker system in the viewing room, mostly just a semi-hexagonal glorified balcony jutting out over the training room a few floors up from its faux, ‘ground level,’ with fancy one way glass floors and walls and a series of computers that looked oddly like something people in the seventies thought future computers would look like, would be playing Disturbia. The cameras in the room would be set to loop with Andrea and Alex just sitting around, Alex on her phone and Andrea doing whatever it was she was doing, --, Alex hadn’t looked up from her phone, too busy getting into the mainframe to even notice what her friend was up to, --, and if all went according to plan, she’d get up and start dancing to the music. Was it the best choice in song, given the circumstances? Hell no. Alex didn’t even particularly like it, but it had a beat, and it was easy to lamely white girl dance to, plus she had it on her phone, no interwebs needed. “F#$% them, dude. Let’s give ‘em bugs,”.

MASKS- A New Generation

@Liliya

“If that’s what you think, fine. Go ahead. Do what you want.”

Network turns away and slowly goes to the training room, but not before saying his last part. His sound harsh and emotionless, more than ever.

“You sound so certain that we could take Dragoon down. But we didn’t. Tachyon. Warbird. Siegfried. Buzzsaw. Riptide. Black Night. Damager. Tip and Top. Basher. Kid Wonder and Girl Wonder. Turbine Twins. They were the ones who beat her. Not us. Never us, Polaris.”

And then, it was all gone. He barked his orders.

“Luxurias, Network, Swarm, with me. We still have a mission to finish.”

@Joshie

Yeah, that's cool, too.

Guys, this RP is awesome.

@Tengri

Like, fer realizes, I love the pre-IC banter part of the role play. ^^ That was a lot of fun, actually. Have fun blasting baddies while we play with the controls and send demon bugs your way, --, or did everyone forget Alex knows how all of Felitrix's junk works? ;D

MASKS- A New Generation

"There you go, Malcolm. See how well you handle Dragoon without us, --, ciao,"

MASKS- A New Generation

<Snipped quote by Liliya>

The point, though is to give Andrea the 'chance' to reject influence. If things stand, she's already in there, get what I'm saying? But a good point was brought up: Would Andrea just do this without voicing out concern. What I plan is to give a chance to reject influence and grow from there.

I'll leave it to @Ermine though.

@Joshie

Well, if Andrea sat it out, so would Alex. She's way too involved in Andrea, and already predisposed to avoid causing what she views as unnecessary harm to her friends and teammates, to actually stick around and let the gang be drawn into an imagined, somewhat pointless conflict with Andrea's holographic aunt, the part of the gang that cares anyway (presumably no one besides Robert, who already said he was going through with this, would have had any prior contact with Andrea's aunt for any reason). My strong suggestion would be to start posting in the IC, and leave me and Ermine's posts last in the order. Presumably we'll know what's going on by the time the other four of you can get a post in.

"No, for this training we need the whole team involved. No excuses."

He sighed heavily, feeling like the whole world was crushing him under its weight. It wasn't a pleasant sound.

"And yes, I would fight and I would kill my mentor. Not out of my duty. Because that's what she would want. Nucleus knows that sometimes we have to make compromises with ourselves. It's what heroes do: fight bad guys. To no end. Again and again."

@Tengri

IC: "Well, after this is over, we'll come back, start up a holo, and kill Nucleus together. I'll make you watch while she rips off my arms, or I rip off hers, and I'll snap a pic when you have to make the call to let one of us die and allow the other to live. In the meantime, I don't care that it's a hologram, --, in fact, you know what? I do," she lowered her shirt and spun on Net, with a ferocity few ever saw in her. Alex was usually the girl who sat in the corner and played on her phone, occasionally chiming in with some comment or another until there was work to be done, and even then she was all business. Everyone knew she cared about Doktor Faust, though, even those who weren't aware of their civvie relationship, perhaps she was known for taking things way too far when her feelings and safety were concerned by this point. Another thing that a war time commander wouldn't have the luxury of. "This. Isn't. Real. No one is in danger, and there's no reason we need to brainwash ourselves into cold hearted robots to stop imagined super villains, who we've all already proven we can fight and beat. You wanna talk threat preparedness? Arsen is dangerous, she has a Class S briefcase that has who knows what in it, and we're sitting around in this fancy room terrorizing Faust for no reason when we could be out there looking for that bitch," it was still a sore spot. Tal had been like an older sister to her, was around before Andrea and talked her through a lot of the earlier super stuff, when her powers were developing. Knowing that not only was Zondervan using her as a puppet towards whatever his ends were, and remembering getting kicked out of that window into the street by someone she trusted, well... Needless to say, it was super shitty.

MASKS- A New Generation

@Liliya

"You're wrong. We hurt people. We only hurt people. We hurt people that hurt other people, hoping they won't come back. It doesn't matter whom we hurt. On the other hand, why we hurt them is all that matters.

Her aunt is a criminal, willing or not. I don't want to say she is a bad person, but we're still finding new bodies in the rubble, and some of them had masks on. And so, we will stop her again. Not because we want to.

Nothing can prepare us for what will come. But we can try. We have to.

It's our duty. If we don't prepare to carry them, nobody will. As a team. Because I am not good enough. And neither are you. Nobody here can stop even a bootleg copy of Dragoon. Not alone.

Polaris... Alex, have I ever failed you before?"

@Tengri

"Andrea already proved that she could stand up to her aunt. We already beat Dragoon, together. If she gets out, and becomes a problem, we'll face it as a team, like we always do. And no, you've never failed me, Robert," she couldn't remember the last time she'd used his actual name, it'd been near on a year at least since the whole Malcolm thing had started, but he seemed so... Personable, and open, vulnerable for once. It was a rare display of care that he would bring up something like his loyalty, and he was loyal, always had been. Of course Alex would use it to step on his feelings. "So far as I can tell, the only one here who hasn't proven that they can face someone they care about, is you. Could you do it? Fight Nucleus, kill her? She's as susceptible to brainwashing as Dragoon ever was, she's just as smart as you, and more dangerous than Dragoon and Arsen combined," half compliment got buried in there somehow, calling Malcolm as smart as Nucleus. Maybe she just felt bad about her supposed leadership position, and wondered if Malcolm wasn't the one who should be calling the shots. Then again, should he? He'd have them all strangle puppies to display dissociative properties if he had his way. War time commander, maybe, but a peace time leader? Never.

MASKS- A New Generation

Hmmm... considering what @Ermine stated (and that makes perfect sense), would this mean that Andrea would sit this out, even if the Guardians 'insisted' on it?

@Joshie

OOC: Well, wouldn't we have to roll for influence? I don't quite know how the system works as of yet, but I mean, Andrea's wishes and what she feels conned into doing by the grown ups are two different things. Same goes for Alex, I assume.

IC: "You ever lost a hand, Malcolm? I have. You've seen bad, so have I. I ran that bitch into the pavement hard enough to kill a normal human," tearing at her stupid costume, Alex pulled her right arm from out of the sleeve with enough force to tear the portion of the fabric along the seam from her underarm to her lower ribs, before pulling the arm out from under the shirt and lifting the cloth along the right side of her body, pulling it up to display nearly the entire length of her scar, covering only that portion of the scar which would require her to display those bits considered unseemly to reveal in public. "I am well aware what the costs of this job really are. If Dragoon gets out some day, and I have to, I'll put her in the f#$%ing ground myself, but we are better than this. We don't hurt people. I am not going along with making Andrea fight her aunt just so we can, what, get it drilled through our little kid heads that sometimes bad shit happens? We already f#$%ing know that bad shit happens," she kicked the steel wall, hard. A clear indentation in the shape of a size eight, five hundred fifty dollar Lucchese boot was left behind when she regained her composure.

MASKS- A New Generation

@Liliya

And what would we do when we face another rogue hero again? This is a training. We have orders. In fact, they even gave you a chance to end everything better. If only inside the training room. Not many people have a chance like this.

@Tengri

OOC: The pre-IC banter. ^^

IC: "Yeah, we have orders. We will face other rogue heroes. I have like, no friends, no life. Andrea is all I've got, and I'm not putting her through watching her aunt terrorize the f#$%ing villagers. Run a simulation against Lodestar, or me, or the only other person I've ever called my friend, Arsen, who kicked me topless through a window a couple months ago? Remember that? I do. She's a badass, just like Dragoon, and she's still out there. She'd make a better opponent, and no one's gonna have any issues with her except me and mom,".

MASKS- A New Generation

"You know what would be awesome? Being told to continually kill your aunt. Over and over again. Oh wait. I used the wrong word. I'm sorry. What I meant to say was 'you know what would be more traumatic than killing your aunt?' So no, I'm going to sit out this training session, if that's okay with you. Or if it's not."

@Ermine

Dude, is Dragoon your aunt? Alex is with Andrea, then, "f#$% you mom, we are not putting Andrea through this 'what could you have done differently so your aunt wouldn't have hurt so many people,' bit.

MASKS- A New Generation

Well, a bit busy at the moment, but essentially this is what Dragoon was before becoming a super villain (in my mind, anyway). A legacy, more advanced along the path than Alex and the rest of the team, but not quite an adult super. That spear is a magic weapon that'll go through most anything and can intelligently track targets when thrown, her armor is basically impenetrable by most anything, she's fast, strong, and whatever God-Like Beauty gives you in combat. ^^

Bryn/Dragoon

Brynhild Anker


Dragoon

Legacy Name: Thuban Draconis.
Real Name: Brynhild Anker.
Look: Woman, White, Trendy Clothing, Predecessor's Costume, Simple Symbol Insignia.
Abilities: Divine Armor, Magic Weaponry, Mythic Might, Legendary Speed, God-Like Beauty.

LABELS:

Danger +2
Freak +1
Savior +1
Superior +2
Mundane 0

❑ I know what I am: Once per scene, when you
defend a teammate you can shift Savior up
and another Label down in addition to any other
benefits from the move, even on a miss. If you
do, add 1 Team to the pool.

❑ Words of the past: When you seek the guidance
of one of your elders or a member of your legacy,
tell them a problem you face, and ask them a
question about the problem. They will answer
it honestly, and tell you what to do. Take +1
ongoing if you listen. If you go your own way,
mark potential.

❑ Never give up, never surrender: When you
take a powerful blow from someone with far
greater power than you, use this move instead
of the basic move. Roll + Savior. On a hit, you
stand strong and choose one. On a 7-9, mark a
condition.
- you get an opportunity or opening against
your attacker
- you rally from the hit, and it inspires the
team; add 1 Team to the pool
- you keep your attacker’s attention
On a miss, you go down hard but leave your
opponent off balance and vulnerable.

❑ Symbol of authority: When you give an NPC an
order based on authority they recognize, roll
+ Savior. On a hit, they choose one:
- do what you say
- get out of your way
- attack you at a disadvantage
- freeze
On a 10+, you also take +1 forward against
them. On a miss, they do as they please and you
take -1 forward against them.

Team Moves
When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, tell them whether you see them as an
equal. If you do, give them Influence over you and mark potential. If you don’t, shift Superior up
and any other Label down.

When you share a vulnerability or weakness with someone, tell them a secret about your legacy
(including your own true feelings about it) to clear a condition and give them Influence over you.

POTENTIAL >>>>❑ >>>>❑ >>>>❑ >>>>❑ >>>>❑
Every time you roll a miss on a move, mark potential.

Advancement
When you fill your potential track, you advance. Choose from the list below.
x Take another move from your playbook
x Take another move from your playbook
x Someone permanently loses Influence over you (Lodestar); add +1 to a Label (Superior)
x Rearrange your Labels as you choose, and add +1 to a Label (Danger)
x Unlock the remaining two powers of your suite

When you’ve taken five advances from the top list, you can take advances from the list below.
x Take an adult move (Take your pick)
x Lock a Label, and add +1 to a Label of your choice (Danger at +2, +1 to Freak)