Log:A Sense of Order, Scene 2

A Sense of Order 2018/02/02 	 Dreamgirl Wanda Judith Solomon Gaia Revenant Polaris Cadmus Triumph Anvil Topaz Emi

2

The student quarter is north and west of the CBSU campus, and is entirely dependent on the university for its flavor, but its flavor is different. Much of it, especially in the back streets, is cheap housing, with students being the main tenants. On the three main roads, though - Courtland Way heading east, Harrisburg lane northwest, and Stardancer Boulevard south - are one or two grander buildings, most notably the stadium on Courtland and hospital on StarDancer. Along these roads, and scattered through the district, are other services such as students attract: fast food establishments, second-hand stores, laundromats, convenience stores, doughnut shops, and a small park.

The average age of people on the street is markedly lower than elsewhere in the city, whether walking, cycling, hoverboarding or just hanging out.

It's a quiet day here in the student quarter. The temperatures have been fluctuating between freezing and spring-like for the last week or so. Today, it's back to cold, and while most of the people on the street are bundled up, the students run the complete gamut from full winter gear to t-shirt and shorts. Students are moving back and forth, to and from classes on Friday. Tomorrow is the weekend of course...and some partying is starting early.

Emi is heading toward the Physical Sciences building. Some of the students have built a micro satellite to conduct an experiment, and Emi is graciously going to put it into orbit for them at 90% off her usual rate.

Councilwoman Edgemont has a full agenda these days. She works hard to try to bring equality and proper treatment to her people. By her people, she means Harrisburg. Regardless, there are classes on political science at the University and she makes a point of visiting the school from time to time and even gives guest lectures in some of the classes. That's why she's in her severe grey power suit today, striding across the campus. She just finished giving one of said speeches and has a conference call soon to discuss construction permits for companies wanting to do some rennovation in Harrisburg.

Either way, a six foot three amazonian stature woman is going to draw attention on campus, her muscular legs carrying her along, and her stride being hampered a bit by the skirt she wears. God, she hates these suits.

Amelia enjoys the enlightened intellectual discussions that form spontaneously in the Student Square. Even on a cold day such as this. Having just completed giving a guest lecture to a class in the Arcana Studies department she's headed down to the square to pop-corn, and sometimes take part, in the wide ranging conversations occurring.

A homeless teen in eccentric thrift clothes is sitting on the sidewalk, leaning against a building. Her feet are bare, and her clothes aren't made for this sort of cold. She just has a beige wrap skirt, a little dirty, a green sash, and a olive green bodice, leaving her midsection bare as her feet. Gaia doesn't hold a begging cup, nor does she shiver. She's just plopped down, legs extended out in front of her and people watching. A few passers by have to make way to get around her legs obstructing part of the sidewalk. There's a few coins and dollar bills around her, offered by good samaritans, but she hasn't touched the strange relics.

Wanda had been doing some of her jogging, she had several blocks she walked so as to be visible and active in her normal human identity and was otherwise just a normal person. In a blue workout jogging suit just heavy enough to keep her warm without too much sweat to cause problems.

The student quarter is north and west of the CBSU campus, and is entirely dependent on the university for its flavor, but its flavor is different. Much of it, especially in the back streets, is cheap housing, with students being the main tenants. On the three main roads, though - Courtland Way heading east, Harrisburg lane northwest, and Stardancer Boulevard south - are one or two grander buildings, most notably the stadium on Courtland and hospital on StarDancer. Along these roads, and scattered through the district, are other services such as students attract: fast food establishments, second-hand stores, laundromats, convenience stores, doughnut shops, and a small park.

The average age of people on the street is markedly lower than elsewhere in the city, whether walking, cycling, hoverboarding or just hanging out.

Dreamgirl is in the student square (as a somewhat busty auburn-haired girl in a fluffy sweater), intertwined with Chris, who has just finished his classes for the week. On seeing Amelia she gives her a friendly wave.

The sky gets dark rapidly, and there's a bolt of lightning that strikes a nearby building as a portal opens up on the street next to the university. The portal is round, dark, and opaque. Through this portal step several individuals, most likely metahumans, from the look of them. They look around the street, as if assessing their surroundings. The portal closes shortly thereafter and the sky clears just as rapidly.

Revenant looks around at the area. "This is clearly the place. I can see the signature. Anyone able to tell who we're dealing with? They might be long gone."

Revenant(#2783TOn)

This man...assuming that's what it is...stands about five and a half feet tall. His body glows constantly, giving off light...in fact he appears to be made of pure darkness with a glowing halo of energy. No facial features can really be made out. There's no clothing on the figure...but then again, there's nothing that seems offensive that's visible, either.

He almost looks angelic...the glowing body, the slightly disembodied voice...but there are no wings.

Amelia sighs and walks toward the newly arrived group. "Welcome to our realm. May I be of assistance? I'm Amelia Steinberg."

Solomon is waltzing down the street, more or less aimlessly when he catches sight of Judith in her power suit. He's turning his head to watch her move in that tight skirt when he's tripped by Gaia's outstretched feet. He falls face first onto the concrete where he lands face first- already mid-curse.

That fury is ready to go all the way until he catches sight of the clearly homeless teen. He is struck- right in the soft, chewy center. He sighs, already certain he's going to end up buying this one lunch.

He's about to say more when a lightning bolt strikes the building near by and a portal opens up. "What the hell is goin' on around here?" He says, wiping the blood from beneath his nose.

Wanda was jogging, going towards the portal noticing it happening. Immediately over HRRP she sends a transmission of the event to the police and local authorities, warning about 6 metas appearing along with their descriptions. It would take her another half a minute before she was right in front of them, her hair tied behind her head in a single ponytail.

Polaris looks at Amelia. The eyelets narrow as she looks at the woman approachign them. "Commander, do you see it? I'm seeing the dimensional signature."

Dreamgirl says to Chris, "Looks like hero work, maybe. I'd better go check it out...."

"You have -got- to be kidding me." mutters Judith, aka Councilwoman Edgemont. She sighs and turns to regard the new arrivals. Seeing Amelia going to greet them, she folds her arms over her abdomen. Straining the material of her jacket. It doesn't like that posture. But she doesn't overdo it. After a moment, she starts to slowly walk forward towards them. But she's not speaking up yet. She is not the sort of politician who feels a need to get the glory in every situation. But so long as people are talking, they're not fighting and that's a good thing.

Revenant looks at Amelia more closely. The interior of his black outline shows stars briefly before reverting to solid black. "You were in our dimension recently. I can see it on you. Why were you spying on us? Why did you sneak into our dimension?" He sees Solomon...and then Dreamgirl. "And two more. We definitely came to the right place."

Emi's eyes widen and her ears flatten in panic. . o O (Oh crap! This looks bad. This looks really bad. I should go. I really should go.) She looks around at all of the students out and about despite the cold. . o O (Crap. Crap. Crap. If a fight starts, a lot of people could get hurt. Including me.) For some reason though, she doesn't immediately teleport away.

Gaia stares at Solomon as he curses, tilting her head at what he's saying. She leans forward, pushing some of the donated coins and dollars his way as means of apology. Humans seem to be calmed by these charms. Her eyes lift as she feels a rent in space, the existence of some where there were none. "Strangers," she says as she gets up to her feet. She offers Solomon a hand up.

Anvil looks around, "Huh. The re-education center is a...university here? What kind of nonsense is that?" Cadmus smiles slightly at the comment.

Amelia strokes her chin with a hand as she replies, "Allow me to make some clarifications and corrections. You are correct in that a number of people from our dimension visited yours recently. However we were not spying. Our visit was entirely involuntary. As you may have the knowledge and ability to determine our dimensions has a greater level of chaos than yours. Our presence on your dimension was a result of that choas and our only intent was to return here to our own dimension as soon as we could. Which we did." she says calmly.

Revenant shakes his head, "A likely story...that a spy would tell. We'll need to take you three in for questioning."

Dreamgirl says to Chris, "Ok, this is more dangerous than I thought - you'd better stay here. Or get somwhere safe." She extricates herself from his arm and heads over.

Chris nods, though he just hides someplace close to watch.

Solomon takes the hand up as he nods in agreement with Gaia, though he ignores her offer of money. "Yeah- but there's somethin' about dat one..." He says as his eyes fall on Anvil. "I wanna punch dat one." He murmurs to himself as he begins walking towards the new arrivals. He cracks his knuckles as a slow grin creeps over his face.

Hearing the end of Revenant's statement only makes him more eager. "Oh yeah... I'd like ta see dat, chump." He says, as ever the model of interdimensional diplomatic relations.

Amelia shakes her, "I would have to question your jurisdiction. Also your wisdom. This dimension is, alas, tainted by high levels of Chaos. If you were to take us to your dimension you would be importing Chaos, and the resultant disturbances, into your." She points out. "I would suggest you accept our apologies for the unintentional visit and refer your next course of action to a higher authority."

"Were you someplace where -your- authority held sway, I might actually allow you to 'take her in' for questioning." offers Judith as she strides forward now. She glances to Solomon and curses inwardly, "Mister Wright. If you would kindly refrain from speaking and making matters worse, I would appreciate it." she says to Solomon before looking back to Revenant, "My apologies for the interruption." she offers, gesturing to Solomon, "But as I was saying, you are here, in -our- home. I am a representative of this city's government, and empowered by this nation to uphold and enforce our laws. One of which involves juristiction. I would love to sit down and -discuss- this with you all if possible."

Gaia scampers after Solomon. "Why they want you?" she asks.

Wanda says, "What's going on here?" Wanda asks as she gets within 10 feet of everyone, quite a group had gathered. While running in place her hair bouncing up and down along with her chest a bit, panting a bit while waiting to see if she should continue on her way, dart off or fight..."

Emi circulates among the students. "You guys should get out of here. This might turn into a fight!"

Students are kind of milling about. One looks at Emi, "A fight? Why? What's going on?"

Solomon would normally argue- and is honestly mulling over his options. Its still on the table, but for now- he lets Judith and Amelia handle it, crossing his arms behind her. "Hmmmph." Is all he says as Judith plays politician.

His eyes gaze around the crowd of students, some standign to watch, others retreating. if it weren't for them, he'd already be brawling.

Dreamgirl allows herself to change shape to Triumph's preference as she approaches. Assuming he has one.

Wanda looks to see if anyone has cell phones or cameras or something up...

Emi stares at the students. "Um, can you not see the metas that appeared out of nowhere that are picking a fight? Run you idiots!"

The students are busy doing things like...shooting video. One of them looks to Emi, "I know, right? So...awesome. LOVE this town!"

Solomon turns to Gaia, who is starting to sound very familiar to him. "Not sure. I think some weird stuff dat happened a while back- didn't get ot smash anythin' then... hopefully this time things go a bit better." He nods to her hopefully but cuts eyes to Revanent. he wants them all to know he wants this to end in violence. He's just waiting for an excuse.

For a moment, Judith feels like Wyatt Earp, or rather Kurt Russel playing the character when, in the movie tombstone, he sees everything about to go south. In her head, she thinks. . o o O O (Oh... shit. They're gonna push it.) And she steps back a half pace beore saying loudly, "Clear out! Students of the university! Seek shelter immediately just in case these people prove to be unreasonable and hostile!"

Dreamgirl shifts as she approaches the group, ending up looking a lot like Polaris!

[NPC]Revenant tilts his head, "We'll be sure to not hurt any civilians. Just the spies, if they resist." A wave of energy washes out from him in all directions, drawing energy toward him from each person.

[GAME] AoE 256m Radius, 4d6 END Drain

Amelia feels the effect wash over her but that's the only affect it has on her.

Car engines sputter a little. Phones die. Lights go out.

Emi panics in earnest now. "Ahhhhhh!"

Grunting, Judith just shakes her head, "Alright. You wanted to push it." she remarks to Revenant. "You are under arrest for... well, likely a couple hundred counts of assault. Do you truly wish to push it further than that?" she asks.

Gaia feels a little tired as she follows after Solomon, stumbling a step for a moment. "Oooaaahh...at...?"

Amelia reacts with outrage, "How dare you?! Claim to spare innocents and immediately attack everyone here. The last thing I would have expected from supposed agents of Order would have been a lie."

Revenant shakes his head, "Agents of Order? What are you talking about? Clearly you're out of your mind."

[NPC]Cadmus tilts his head and just remains where he is...though his body morphs to a copy of Judith. "Interesting. Very interesting."

[GAME] Shapeshifting.

Gaia lays eyes on the one who attacked everyone. She doesn't so much mind the noisy cars and phones dying. But the humans didn't deserve that. She holds her hands out to her sides and then scoops them up, summoning the wind. A strong breeze blasts her, sending her hair fluttering wildly as she lifts off the ground and flies towards the others. "You. Will. Leave!" All that people watching, and that's as good as she's gotten with sentence structure? She takes a deep breathe and roars out lightning that issues forth in a sweeping cone towards the invaders. And as few innocents as possible. But the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few who got too close.

Most of the other-worlders aren't terribly hurt. Triumph, Polaris, and Topaz are knocked off their feet. Anvil stands firm. Revenant is hit and the electricity seems to get sucked into him, causing him to glow brighter. Cadmus/Judith looks the worst off, collapsing to his/her knees.

Triumph manages to roll to his feet after getting knocked back.

Those martial arts classes Amelia takes as a hobby sometimes turn out to be useful. Knocked back by Gaia's bolt of lightning she rolls nimbly back to her feet.

[NPC]Anvil says to Gaia, "We were just going to tire you lot out to make this easy...but you gotta do this the hard way, doncha." His metallic body seems to slew forward, morphin as he moves, his fist turning into a sledgehammer as he gets close to Gaia.

[GAME] Half move, followed by a 12d6 Strike vs. PD

Anvil's attack misses just to the right.

Amelia tells Anvil, "This was never going to easy until you had peacefully returned to your own dimension. Now it's not going to be the hard way, because you have no idea how badly you are outclassed. But it is going to be painful. For you."

The nimble teenager suddenly folds backwards as she leans just out of the way of the sledgehammer that brushes by her face. She straightens up and scolds, "You harm cubs. You do not belong."

[NPC]Triumph turns on his shield and charges in the direction of Solomon. He's not fast enough to get the entire distance, so he lauches his shield in the other man's direction.

[GAME] Half move, 10d6 Blast vs. ED

Triumph's shield strikes Solomon solidly...and hten dissipates. The shield reforms on his wrist.

[NPC]Topaz gets back to her feet, and reaches out with a beam of yellow energy tries to wrap around Gaia, the only clear aggressor on the opposing side.

[GAME] Half move, followed by a 4d6 Entangle (6 DEF)

Solomon snarls, "Oh I'll be resistin' ya creepy-crawlly shade..." He squeezes his fists together and draws his shoulderblades back eagerly.

Then he's hit with Revenant's wave of nullifying energy and that- well that makes him angry.

"Oh- ya gonna do it like dat? Alright- well I'm gonna let you watch as I smash yer friends to bits... den I'm gonna SMASH YOU!" He shouts as his voice gets deeper and his already rippling muscles begin to bulge. Unbreakable bones pop and stretch as he grows a foot and a half in height- going from Revenant's height to Anvil's quite quickly.

He turns to warn Gaia away, only then getting a good look at her face. "Oh! Cavegirl! Its time to SMASH!" He says- his tone happy for another friendly face to brawl with.

"Yer outta yer mind if ya think you can jus' come here and boss us 'round?"

+bp :rolls up his sleeves as he considers targets. He thinks it's Anvil first, though he does consider going for the Judith Doppelganger, if only to wrassle a bit before smashing its shapeshifting face into a pulpy soup. But the sun breaks through the clouds and reflects off Anvil's shiny exterior, beaconning Solomon to him.

He shouts excitedly as Gaia charges ahead and lays it down. Its this hooting that causes him to be struck directly in the chest by Triumph's sheild. He grumbles, deciding that Triumph just chose for him.

Gaia manages to avoid the tendrils of energy.

The winds favor Gaia, turning her aside from the yellow beam from Topaz. She certainly knows how to get someone's attention! But she looks as defiant and unconcerned as ever.

Emi starts trying to push the students to get them moving. "Oh come on! You're university students! You can't be this stupid! Move!"

The students do start to move, but of course...common sense isn't a strong suit. Some are still taking video while getting herded into cover.

Solomon charges for Triumph, throwing everything else to the wind. He only has eyes for the Super Soldier. "I'm gonna BREAK YOU!" He roars as he charges.

[NPC]Polaris ...disappears, seeming to shimmer out of existence.

[GAME] Power activation.

Amelia assumes the mantle of Raven, the Chosen One. Her hands lift and trace out a glowing sigil in the air. "I call forth the Horde of Shalomon. Come to my bidding. Come and feast!" she calls out, her voice terrible to hear as the words exho impossibly long in the Student Square. A moment later ghostly spirits are appearing all around the invaders and flying at and unless they manage to avoid, through them.

Revenant is struck by one of the ghosts, and curls up, screaming in pain.

Dreamgirl slinks ups to Triumph. "Your teammates vanished - guess she couldn't bear looking like *her* when I'm about," she says with a wicked edge. "Can you blame her?" she asks, showing off her improved-Polaris body.

Triumph does seem a little distracted by Dreamgirl, but it's unclear exactly how much. Needless to say, it would be a lot more effective if Solomon wasn't about to punch him.

Cadmus/Judith manages to recover from the electrical shock she took. She looks around, getting her bearings.

Sizing things up, waiting for the right moment.. Judith surges forward now. She reaches for Cadmus.. her duplicate number, and tries to get hands on the ... woman?... to get a good hold and grip. "C'mere." she mutters.

Orb enters from Old Town.

Cadmus is squeezed...and changes form again, no longer able to maintain the concentration necessary to look like Judith. Instead, he looks like a liquid-ish metallic being, with blades for hands.

Wanda feels and sees as the group suddenly goes hostile, feeling the drain students running away, her jogging in place stops and moves fowards to give a girly swing at Anvil the closest one to her... who knows, maybe he'd go off into the distance like those anime or cartoons where there's a twinkling star...

Anvil is hit, and there's the sound of metal being struck. He doesn't go anywhere, though. He wobbles a bit and ends up on his feet.

Wanda he hits him and the metal clang being heard... she retreats her hand and gives an 'ow' sound, seeing he didn't go off a dozen meters or anything her automata nature wasn't exposed...