Rebel_Scum

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"And I'm not an alien. I'm right here from Earth, just like those two. And I'm not tiny. You're all just giant."

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Pax raised an eyebrow at that. As far as she knew there were no people like him or the others anywhere on Earth, or on this Earth anyway. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're not from this Earth, ie: you're from an alternate dimension?", she asked curiously. The other option was they were from this Earth in a different time period, but she thought an alternate dimension was more likely. "Nice to meet you anyway", she added almost absently.

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"We tried the hem of my shirt a while back, but he tried to get into my bra and..."

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Pax wondered in passing why an apparently reptillian species would have breasts to begin with, but dismissed it as a peculiarity of alien evolution - or a slightly cracked god, depending on which theory one subscribed to. "Even alien men still only think of one thing", she mused to herself as she watched them. "Why're you so small?", she asked of the tiny one after Sarah set him down on the coffee table.

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"Back where we live, we've only got one."

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"Bet you've got way less bad guys though", Pax commented. That always seemed to even itself out, with there being more villains in a place with many heroes than there were in a place with few. She'd never really figured out why.

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"Attention all rebel forces," said Dispenser with a wry tone to his voice. "There will be an incoming teleport soon. That will be our ride out of here. There will be only one prompt, so do not miss or resist it. If you are left behind you will be killed or captured. That is all, Dispenser out."

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Isabel considered it a moment, in between hurling death at the soldiers who were still standing. Getting away from here would be good, they were doing alright now but she knew she at least couldn't hold out forever. Eventually, someone would get a lucky shot or she'd not notice one, and that would be that. Besides, wasn't like she couldn't turn the area where they arrived into a glassed-over crater anyway if it did turn out to be a trap.

Valerie's thought process was much simpler. If her sister went, she'd go. If not, she'd stay. Simple as that. Until then she kept firing, trying to put down as many of the Sovereign's forces as possible whilst still remaining unseen until the promised teleport arrived.

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"Arachnos has no need to explain our intentions."

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Cassie just laughed, swinging her plasma rifle around from the departing Chaos Red to aim squarely at the Spider's chest. "Actually, when you're staring down the barrel of two plasma cannons and a rifle, you really do. Arachnos won't miss one Crab Spider, they never have in the past and I don't see why you should be any different." Whether or not she would actually shoot the man and thus risk Arachnos depriving her of the license she had to legally (Or what passed for legally in the Isles anyway) run her weapons dealership out of a warehouse in Cap Au Diable remained to be seen. Contrary to what she said, she usually avoided annoying the spiders for just that reason.

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Pax followed the woman inside, leaning against the wall in the absence of a non-destroyed chair. "Coffee would be nice, thanks", she replied absently, looking around the room at the devastation and wondering what had prompted the woman to vandalise her own stuff. Sure she'd been through a lot, but surely the energy taken to do this could have been put towards something more constructive?

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Ten pillars of fire suddenly rose in a circle around Isabel and Zeo, each eight feet tall. They vanished as quickly as they came, revealing their occupants: men and women dressed in black VB uniforms with a red pattern crossing their chests. On the arms of their uniforms, a single green and black flame was printed.

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Isabel almost laughed. Ten guys? Against three superhe- well, against two superheroes and a mercenary cyborg but still. They were as good as dead. "Like I said, I don't do surrender", she commented. "Don't do captured either", she added before flinging a wave of energetic destruction at the nearest pair, who were standing just close enough together that the torrent of energy would hit them both unless they did something to evade it very quickly. Not stopping there, she turned and fired upon a third and then a fourth, energy blasts flying from both hands in seperate directions as she did her very best to eliminate every single hostile she could see. Fortunately for the other six, the big tanker she was standing behind was blocking her view of them.

Of course, he wasn't blocking Valerie's view of them though. From her hiding place a short distance back into the trees, she settled into a sniper's position and started taking shots at them as quickly as she could aim them, making sure to not fire when there was a chance of hitting noncombatants.

Drago would probably be rather unsurprised to find himself staring down the barrel of Mac's plasma cannons, the big Assault Bot reacting on base programming and targetting the newest intruders but waiting for Cassie's order to fire. "State your intentions", the machine said in a typical robotic monotone.

Cassie meanwhile had pulled a high-tech looking plasma rifle from who knows where and aimed it at the other newcomer. She looked around as Drago and the others entered, but her weapon never moved and she didn't order Mac to stand down until the Arachnos operative gave a satisfactory answer.

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"Have you found him?" she asked wearily, "Have you found Kyle?"

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Pax opened her mouth to answer, but Arek beat her to it. "We were told you might be able to point us in the right direction", she added to what the big draconian had said, also hoping the girl wasn't about to slam the door shut in their faces.

Pax plopped herself down on the end of one of the couches, smiling as Akemi voiced her desire to one day be a real hero. "You will be, eventually", she murmurer, just barely loud enough for the girl in question to hear her. From her tone, it was clear that she honestly believed it to be true.

"And I'd imagine part of why you haven't heard of me would be that, assuming I'm right about which year this is, I disappeared without a trace some six months or so ago", she informed Mrs. Troy. "Very long story", she added, apparently not willing to go further than that unless pushed. Fortunately, Sarah's talking bag provided a convenient distraction. "Might want to let the guy out, he probably needs some air", she suggested.

Isabel muttered something unrepeatable under her breath as both her blasts missed. There had been no warning shot - she'd been honestly trying to hit him with both, but her aim was apparently a little off. Still, no problems so big they can't be solved. To that end she opened up on him again, a trio of energetic projectiles screaming towards him. The third in the barrage was explosive too, so even if it missed him he'd probably get hit anyway when it detonated against the wall.

She would have really loved to throw a few more his way, but a half a dozen soldiers had other ideas, probably something along the lines of revenge for her attack upon their friend, who was still picking himself up over on the other side of the street. Lifting into the air as a bullet pinged off the pavement near her she followed Zeo's advice and went over to stand behind the big tanker, using him as a shield while she lobbed projectiles over his head in ballistic arcs to land on or near the various forces arrayed against them. "I don't tend to do surrender either", she commented offhandedly, as though she wasn't currently in a fight for her life. "I do 'if I'm going down, I'm taking you all with me' instead."

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"Your plan has gone down the drain and with it all reason to keep you alive."

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Upon hearing that, Valerie stood up and aimed her rifle square at the robot's chest but didn't fire. All it would take was one word from Kruger though, she hadn't trusted Toy from the start and would honestly be glad for a reason to shoot him.

(( Also I have a question for you all. If I was to give Isabel a substantially more powerful Nova than the average energy blaster, would you still consider it balanced if I also added the disadvantage that it also affects friendlies within the radius? ))

Cassie almost sighed at the destruction her bots were causing. "Enough, guys. Back here before you bring the roof down on us", she commanded, and the bots obediently assembled front and center. She activated the teleporters on the five smaller ones, sending them back from whence they came. But Mac she kept with her, mostly becuase she still didn't trust any of these others any further than she could throw them. Which wasn't far since she wasn't gifted with any form of enhanced strength.

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Pax quite notably didn't step closer as Arek instructed, instead choosing to utilise her own form of teleport. Oddly though she disappeared in a golden flash several seconds after Arek and Cher'tak had, when the pair arrived they found her leaning casually against a lamppost as though she'd been waiting for them. There were after all, advantages to being a time-traveller.

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She thus turned to the Kheldian, "I guess if we're at it, what's your name? And...are you human, or something else...?"

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"Paxtera", the Kheldian replied simply. "And... sort of. What I am is a Peacebringer, created from the merging of a Kheldian energy being with a human host. Perfectly willing on both sides, I assure you. So yeah, I'm human but also an alien at the same time, depending on how one looks at it. And then there's all that tiem travel stuff but that's seperate, as well as being a very long story."

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"I suppose there are some advantages to being able to warp time and space to your whim. Myself, I've found a good stern talking to... and possibly a purse to the side of the head... usually does the trick."

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"Yeah well the boot to the face or the punch in the gut are always the less extreme options, but I was never one to be worried about overkill. Though, I've never actually done that to anyone. Always, the mere threat of doing it seems to be enough. Well, except for the ones who are powerful enough that you can't actually put them in stasis to begin with, but that's another story altogether."

She stopped as Akemi tripped over in front of her, raising an eyebrow as she noted the sais but refraining from saying anything. Wasn't her business what the girl was carrying in her bag, only became her business if they were put to use in an illegal fashion. And somehow, Pax didn't think Akemi was the type to do something like that.

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"She's been fighting the urge to try and catch one of them."

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"What, the Clockwork?", the Peacebringer replied. "They're not that hard to catch. Only problem is you have to be careful with them after you get them 'cause the little buggers don't stay down. If you want one though I guess I could go find one. Though it'd stop working entirely once you took it far enough from Paragon. Oh, and the university is that way", she pointed roughly in the direction of the university's Steel Canyon campus.

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All I know is last time I met a new human, he tried to smash me with a baseball bat.

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"Yeah, a lot of people will do that in this city. Usually they'll stop if you threaten to trap them in temporal stasis for all eternity", the Peacebringer mused more to herself than to them.

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"In that case, let me merely say it is pleasant to see you again, regardless of current state."

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"'Current' is relative", Pax replied. "Though it's good to see you again too. Anyway, where do we find this Bronze Shield guy?"

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"So...why kidnap Regens? Some elaborate brainwashing scheme? Some brand of mad science?" She asked the question aloud, looking up at the others.

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"Taking a completely random guess, I'd say there's more than a little mad science involved", Cassie replied with what was almost a laugh before turning to her bots. "Go take a look around, guys. We need information." Immediately the six robots did exactly that, spreading out to search the whole apartment. Stealthy they were most definitely not, especially Mac who roughly tore a chunk out of the wall in trying to go through a door far too small for him, but if there was anything of use that hadn't already been found they would most probably find it.

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Hoping to find them distracted, Burning swooped in to grab the 'Sovereign' and take him to where the other actors were waiting for a chopper.

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Quite possibly he would be most effectively distracted by the energy blast that roared across his path, Isabel abandoning the helpless innocent act as Zeo charged in. They might not be able to get the Sovereign, but she had every intention of putting this guy down for the count and seeing what they could pry out of him later. To that end, she sent a second blast in his direction before realising she was still standing next to an armed soldier.

"Word of advice, sir". she told him. "Don't come back." With that she punched him quite solidly in the gut, a reddish glow forming around her hands as the energy attached to the punch almost certainly sent the man flying for a fair distance.

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"A chaos demon." he answered objectively, "But I think we may be getting ahead of ourselves. Take a step back - where do you know me from...?"

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"Probably", Pax answered simply. "Keeping track of what happened when is hard, it's the price of time travel. But anyway do you remember in Spain after we killed that werewolf, when Tempus got all angry and started eating time and I disappeared? Or one of me disappeared anyway. That was the last time I saw you, that I can remember anyway. So either something's messing with my memory or our apparent second meeting hasn't happened for me yet even though it has for you."

She fell silent, thinking. Chaos demons weren't something she knew much about, but she knew any number of mages and sorcerors in any number of different places and times that would probably be willing to help. She made a note to go talk to some of them after they were finished with whatever this business here was, maybe she could figure a way to avert her presumed demise at the hands of this Vharsuun.

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The lightning arced off the nearby furniture and crackled at the contractors. A fiery glow erupted from the man's eyes and his laugh started to get more haggard.

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True, Cassie could have just left the room. But Cassie was rather too stubborn for that. Instead, she flicked a hand at the man and a bolt of concussive force erupted from her fingers to blast him through the window he was in front of and thus cause whatever he was doing to hit only the empty air outside.

And if that didn't work, her next trick would be to cast an impenetrable detention field around him to stop whatever he was doing from affecting her or any of the others. Only if both those failed, would she consider vacating the premises. Though she'd probably consider activating her own nearly impenetrable personal forcefield and laughing as it deflected his attack before she'd consider leaving.

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Whoever this guy was, he was not a friend.

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Cassie spread her arms wide, the device on her wrist emitting a dome of force that would blunt and deflect attacks within it's radius. And just in time too, as the slithery black whatever that stuff was impacted against the shield with a noise she couldn't quite describe. Regardless, Cassie moved back behind Mac, ordering the bot to attack at the same time.

Her shield might have deflected the first strike but that was no gaurantee it would successfully deflect any subsequent strikes, so she put a wall of robot in front of her as a second shield. Simultaniously, the room lit up with a series of flashes as the rest of her bots teleported in. Five in total, three drones and two protector bots. Immediately the protectors began applying another layer of shielding first around Cassie then around the other bots, while the drones simply pointed and opened fire.

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"Right." he almost smirked a moment later, "Kheldian. Still good to see you made it."

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"Ahh, so you do remember me", Pax laughed, before what he'd said registered properly and she looked up at him in some alarm at the implication she was supposed to be dead. "Wait. Who's Vharsuun? And why were we banishing him or her?"

"Party time", Isabel muttered as all hell broke loose. Unlike the cyborg she didn't turn invisible and go for stealth, but rather simply walked over to the nearest soldier to say hi and almost innocently ask what was going on. After all, she wasn't so different to these people that she couldn't at least make the attempt at passing for one of them.

Valerie meanwhile remained where she was, looking to Kruger for orders.

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"...do I know you?"

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She looked back at him curiously for a moment before answering, "Maybe not. I never did find out which time you guys were from. I'm Paxtera, by the way", she added to both Arek and the Rikti. Again, the presence of a Rikti Warmaster didn't seem to surprise her entirely much.

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"Here's her address. Her name is Bronze Shield... She's a tanker, one of the recent ones who take after Blue Steel. Careful, don't make her mad. She's got a mean right cross."

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"So do I, strangely enough", Pax replied. "One always hopes to not have to use it though..."

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"So we are a team, then?" Jack asked to no one in particular before he left.

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"I wouldn't go so far as to say that", Cassie replied as she followed him outside. "More of a loose alliance."

Once outside, she looked around before joining Rose in making a beeline for the Black Helicopter. "Room for another in this crate?", she asked as she got in regardless. Dropped off a while later, she had to laugh as the shotgun-wielding Marcone at the door found himself face to face with the barrel of one of Mac's plasma cannons. He got really friendly really quickly and let them pass with no further objections. She made an odd gesture at Rose as she followed the other villain up the stairs, and the screen of the watch on her wrist glowed as a bubble-like shield of force sprang into existence around her.

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He thought about checking some minds out, almost did it, actually, but decided not to.

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Not that it would have helped him anyway, at least where Cassie was concerned. Her mind was fairly well defended, after much practice against Rikti mentalists while she was working with Vanguard. And Mac of course was a robot and didn't technically have a mind at all, so he would have been out of luck there too.

Looking up as Manning came in with presumably another mercenary she listened with uncharacteristic patience as Rose introduced herself and offered information. Holding up one arm so that the rather fancy looking watch on that wrist was easily visible, she politely requested one of the electronic copies.

When Manning explained about the message, she stood up. "What are we waiting for then?", she asked the assembled group.

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Chances were Arek might recognise the redheaded caucasian woman that dropped out of the sky beside him, dressed in what could only be the costume of a superhero. The blue and white starburst patterned tights plus loose sleeves and winged boots in the same colour weren't quite as bright nor as colourful as some of the costumes the city's heroes ran around in, but they came close.

"Hiya Arek", she commented offhandedly, almost as if she'd expected the draconian to be standing there at the precise moment she dropped in. Turning to Henry Wong, she added, "Sign me up for this thing too."

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"No...Tornado...what's a Drokar?"

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"Translates literally to Dragon, or so the others I met told me. Lemurian, I think they said it is. Anyway, you bear more than a passing resemblance. My mistake." And she'd been so sure too. Oh well.

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"You're not going to like...scream and try to clock me with something heavy...?"

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"Well I wasn't planning to, but if you really wanted me to I guess I could. You'd have to wait while I go find a suitably heavy object though", the Peacebringer replied with a cheeky grin, making it fairly obvious she was kidding before glancing over to Sam. "You mind if I come too? Didn't have anything to do that can't be put off, and..." She trailed off, apparently having lost her train of thought. She did though give Eileen the strangest look when she so matter-of-factly told the dragon that her scales were getting dry.

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The sight of an Assault Bot caught her eye and earned a startled "whoa", as Dr. Lore took a couple steps back for safety.

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Cassie suppressed a laugh, she loved the way Mac scared the piss out of people just by being there. Even metas, though most metas could probably take him fairly easily in a straight one on one fight. "Don't worry, he won't bite", she said as the other woman sat down. "You get that letter they sent out too?"

Before the good Doctor could reply however another man strode in the door like he owned the place. Cassie was tempted to order Mac to take his nose off to put him in his place but she really couldn't be bothered to spare the effort for something so minor. Mac looked back at her, and she shook her head almost imperceptibly.

(( And yeah doodaa I remember you. Is this Jack the same one you had in TSS? ))

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"Um..." the monochromatic one finally raised a hand in a ginger gesture of greeting, the look in her eyes very expectant of a scream or something when she said, "Hi...I'm Sarah..."

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Strangely, though some might have expected it, the Peacebringer did nothing to protect the others at all from the apparent monster. In fact, she didn't even move except to turn her head to look at her. And why should she? There were far odder creatures in the ranks of Paragon's heroes after all, even if this particular one wasn't a species she vaguely recognised - enough to give her the benefit of the doubt at least. "...Drokar?", she asked simply, more curious than anything else.

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"Maybe, but I've seen some people get hurt cause they weren't careful. Even some heroes sleep, you know? I mean, I love you guys but you shouldn't have to save us cause we were careless."

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"And you think I haven't, considering what I do for a living? Come on, man. And who knows, maybe you are something interesting. Don't have to be a hero to change the world, you know", the Peacebringer replied with that same grin before turning to the other girl. "I knew someone named Akemi once. Didn't look anything like you though", she commented offhandedly.

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"Um, excuse me...um...did something happen...are you guys okay...?"

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"Hmm? Nah, we're fine", the Peacebringer replied. "Guy here just dropped his groceries is all."

The Crey office in Nerva wasn't her favorite place, and any number of corpses and near-corpses would stand testament to the people who worked here not being her favorite people. But Cassie was nothing if not opportunistic, and the email she'd got had just happened to arrive at a time when she found herself in need of some funds. All in all, despite her dislike of Crey it was simply too good to pass up. Though, that didn't stop the big assault bot following her from casually blowing away a couple of guards that got too close - she'd 'neglected' to tell him not to. They'd be mostly fine anyway, just a few plasma burns and one hell of a headache when they woke up.

Leaving the Bot to stand guard at the door, the black-haired Mastermind walked up to the reception and dropped the printed email on the counter. "I'm here to see Gregory Manning, is he busy?"

The girl behind the counter picked up and read the letter before responding. "Ahh, you're another one coming for this", she muttered before checking if Mr Manning was busy, which he was. "I'm sorry, he's in an appointment right now. Would you mind waiting?"

Patience was a thing Cassie never quite had enough of. Though, the fact that she needed that cash and the fact that if she just barged in she'd likely see none of it combined to give her a little more than she usually had. "Sure, I'll wait", she said, the look in her eyes easily giving the impression that she wouldn't likely wait very long as she went to sit on one of the benches at the side of the room. Without even being told her Assault Bot came and stood beside her, directing a look that would have been a glare had his features not been unchanging metal at anyone who came close.

Absently, she scratched an arm while she waited for Manning to finish whatever it was he was doing.

(( She's a bots/forcefield/mace mastermind, if you were wondering.

Edit: Oh, something I should mention. She owns and fairly skilled at operating a helicopter - heavily armed and as seen previously in Blakmoore equipped with cloaking technology. Since it'll likely show up later, though I should mention it now so it's not such a surprise when she pulls it out. ))

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Seriously, you're an enabler. I know you think you're helping, but you're not. I get you're his friend, but you need to let him grow up some. This has been going on for a long time. It has NOTHING to do with realism and EVERYTHING to do with god moding. Once that veil is torn down as well, MAYBE we'll get him to see that we're really just concerned with a little balance.

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I won't say his characters aren't anywhere from a little to ridiculously overpowered depending on which one you look at, because to be honest they are. It doesn't bother me. The only thing that really bothers me in an RP is people trying to railroad people into a situation they want to happen despite any and all attempts, whether successful or not, to get off the train. And you and Devious are both guilty of that at times, from my point of view at least.

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No, really, explain to me why it's realistic that a sword would cut clean through a barrier that an archmage throws up in a world where that archmage can punish up to four or five average super heroes?

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My broadsword scrapper does that all the time. Ditto for my Dual Blades stalker. It's called Build Up.

One hit - fine. Three or four hits maybe not so much.

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You wade through enemies hip deep never once suffering any damage. Awesome!

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I seem to remember a certain elderly archmage somehow getting to the end of a CoT cave without a scratch on him, then having a pleasant chat with a boss who by all rights shouldn't do anything other than attack on sight.

Later, that same character ran back through those same tunnels with. in your own words, 'about seventy Circle of Thorns' chasing him. Despite being a blaster and thus rather squishy, he survived.

Just saying, can't really [censored] at Devious for doing something with his character that your own character did not too long ago.

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I predict this will go nowhere constructive and you'll just see a massive post by Devious proving that it's all your fault.

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Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see anywhere in Devious's post that says anything was Harrier's fault.