<strong>Hero Points:</strong>4 (Sleeping Wyvern), 2 (Hornet, Scarab)<strong>Luck Points:</strong>5/5 Conditions: None<br/><br/>“Rakutsu, I-” Ryoko was at a loss for words, and Teruko awkwardly looked away, feeling a lot more self-conscious at Rakutsu’s response.<br/><br/>“We’re sorry,” Teruko eventually said. “We didn’t want to hurt you.”<br/><br/>Ryoko laid her hand on her sister’s shoulder. Silently shaking her head, they said nothing else.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">“Should have came herself instead of staying home to play video games, if she wanted them.” That didn’t mean he wouldn’t do Eddie the favor. It’s just that he didn’t care for having a filter and not expression his annoyance at both him and Stacy.</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Eddie sensed that Rakutsu’s mind was elsewhere. He was midway through mouthing some words before Amrita interrupted.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">“Any of you want to go see the monkey exhibit?”</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>“Much rather be on a trip somewhere cooler,” Emily replied as she came over. “Whatever happened with the one planned for Spain?”<br/><br/>“Things are...thriftier as of late,” Ms. Hallowbrooks answered, sounding a bit glum. “It’s beyond the school board’s control, sorry. But maybe next year we’ll get the opportunity!”<br/><br/>“Budget cuts,” Rex whispered to the group as they continued the tour. “Things just aren’t the same since Mars yeeted out the window.”<br/><br/>He made a motion with his hands of someone falling.<br/><br/>“Splat.”<br/><br/>“Rex, that’s terrible!” Amrita exclaimed. “You’re talking about someone dying!”<br/><br/>Amy tilted her head. “Falling? The Gray Ghost said he was shot. Mob hit of some kind.”<br/><br/>“Fake news from a wannabe journalist,” Rex replied as he rolled his eyes. “There’s no way a guy like Mars would’ve let some idiot with a pistol get through security. My parents know a thing or two about city planning; Mars skimped and cut corners, building got weak in all the wrong places. One wrong slip, and Emerald City lost its mascot.”<br/><br/>Amrita stared disdainfully at Rex, although Alejandro patted her on the shoulder. “Let him believe what he wants, no point in talking him out of it.”<br/><br/>“Well, I believe you,” Eddie said to Amy. “Dude that rich, got a lot of enemies.”<br/><br/>Amy smiled. “T-thanks. Wait, you’re not trying to get in my pants, are you?”<br/><br/>Eddie blinked and flinched at the same time. “Uhhh...no. But I do think that you’re pretty.”<br/><br/>“Eddie, down!” Emily teased.<br/><br/>…<br/><br/>The monkeys were rather placid, sitting on the ground and hanging in trees. They seemed more interested in staring back at the visitors than climbing, swinging, or screeching that monkeys usually do.<br/><br/>“You think I can outrun one of them?” Alejandro asked Rakutsu. “These guys, they look like they got fed too many bananas today.”<br/><br/>Suddenly the skies darkened overhead. The weather was clear less than a minute ago, and the absence of thunder didn’t take away from the oddly-silent storm clouds looming overhead. The monkeys went wild, screeching as some ran in circles and others climbed as high as they could inside their cages.<br/><br/>“Ugh, and I’ve got no umbrella!” Amrita groaned. “Good thing it’s warm today.”<br/><br/>Rex laughed at the animals. “Stupid-ass apes, they’ll freak out over anything!”<br/><br/><div align="center">(https://i.imgur.com/kw2wGbb.png)</div><br/>Scene Music (The Wonderful 101: School Bus Pandemonium) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S47TqS8LNJo)<br/><br/>A silver-streaked bolt of lightning struck instantaneously. Rakutsu’s vision went white as his reflexes kicked in. By the time his eyes adjusted much of the surrounding ground...disintegrated, and a portion of fence fell over the newly formed rift, effectively trapping him beneath ground level. The steel bars were warped in places, sizzling as heat wafted from the metallic surface.<br/><br/>More thunderous peals of lightning rang out from argent clouds hanging in the air. Amrita was in the hole with Rakutsu, the portion of clothing hit by the lightning torn down her front. She just stared in blurred confusion, laying on her back.<br/><br/>More shouts could be heard off in the distance, hard to identify who and from where.<br/><br/>“Eddie, are you okay?!”<br/><br/>“Look out! Call 911!”<br/><br/>Amrita opened her eyes. Glowing, the damaged gate was pulled away by an unseen force as she held up her arm.<br/><br/>“Run, now,” Amrita said in Japanese to Rakutsu, a calm yet firm tone. Which was a surprise, as she never demonstrated knowledge of the language, but that didn’t matter now.<br/><br/><div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 24pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;"><strong>Trouble Afoot!</strong></span></span></div><br/><em>Storm clouds overrun the sky, distant silver bolts shooting down at irregular intervals. The zoo is in chaos, animals both harmless and dangerous runing amok without a trainer in sight. This is a <strong>Challenge Sequence</strong> (https://www.d20herosrd.com/9-gamemastering/8-action-adventure/) for you and your 2 allies. You must accumulate 3 successes before 3 failures, and can choose to delegate a roll to your ally in the event you feel they’re more suited for a task (can apply the teamwork advantage to grant them a +5 bonus if you can narrate a way that Rakutsu helps out). Success will help you and many civilians get to a calm ‘eye of the storm.’ Failure will cause larger casualties in your area and impose 2 injuries (-2 on Toughness saves) to both you and your allies.<br/><br/>The below challenges are examples. If you have any creative alternatives on acting like a big, badass superhero, state the relevant attributes/skills/powers and their modifiers with a roll, and I’ll judge if they’re sufficient for your desired task: DC 15 for risky yet manageable stuff, DC 25 for very difficult things even for professionals and metahuman-level people.<br/><br/>Presume that Rakutsu has enough time to change into his Sleeping Wyvern uniform if so desired. The DMPCs don’t have their outfits yet. The Silver Storm has rendered wireless communication worthless, so he’ll be unable to call or record via smartphone or similar means.</em><br/><br/><strong>Crowd Control:</strong>Although the Pacific Northwest is no stranger to mudslides, floods, and windstorms, Emerald City is not familiar with super-powered calamities like the people of Freedom City. Civilians are unprepared for the Silver Storm and panicking crowds will only complicate matters. A DC 15 Persuasion, Intimidation, or even some mind-affecting power (add power ranks as a bonus) can help in this regard. Cool and Attractive advantages can apply here.<br/><br/><strong>Duck and Cover:</strong>Merely being indoors is not enough when the Silver Storm can dissolve and break stone and steel. Rakutsu can attempt to block, intercept, predict the path of, or otherwise overcome a "silver lightning bolt" with a DC 20 roll. Dodge or Parry along with an appropriate energy-based descriptor, an attack roll to scramble/nullify the energy within, an Intelligence roll to make predictions on targets based on probability, etc. Parkour can apply here to grant a +5 circumstance bonus on checks related to dodging.<br/><br/><strong>Street Sweeping:</strong>Shards of glass, caved-in ceilings, flung cars, and demolished animal enclosures make a straightforward escape impractical even if the Storm dissipates. The ability to lift or manipulate 10 ranks of weight via Strength, Move Object, or similar powers can apply here, as can certain movement-based powers to chart a safe course around through them. Damaging the obstacles into smaller chunks can be accomplished via a DC 15 attack roll, but needs to deal 8 or more damage with an attack or 5 or more if the attack has the Area/Penetrating Extras). Forceful Throw can apply here.<br/><br/><strong>Easy there, Tiger:</strong>Lions, elephants, and honey badgers, oh my! Even if you’re not the animal rights activist type, animals getting in the way of people (or worse, in the way of superpowers) will only make things worse. An appropriate skill check or power to corral, pacify, or otherwise neutralize them as a threat is needed here. A DC 10 social skill check with Animal Empathy and appropriate Comprehend-based Powers can help (DC 20 without them), or simply using raw strength and might (DC 20, given some of these fellas are big and tough). Kiai Shout can apply here (add ranks in power, so +10).<br/>