<div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 24pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;"><strong>A Trip to the Zoo</strong></span></span></div><div align="center">(https://i.imgur.com/kw2wGbb.png)</div><br/><strong>Emerald City, Washington State.<br/><br/>Population:</strong>1 million.<br/><br/>In another American city, giant storm clouds zapping people with lightning nanomachines may be another Tuesday super-battle between Captain Thunder and Doc Otaku. In another American city some egotistical masked miscreant would be uploading a video on LiveLeak, stating their demands for their supervillain pals to be released from prison or for the government to deposit a nine-figure sum into a Swiss bank account.<br/><br/>But when the Silver Storm hit this sleepy West Coast city, there was nobody taking responsibility, no masked gangsters stomping around for people to pin the blame. There was only sudden, unexplainable chaos, without a superpowered being in sight.<br/><br/>At least, not out of sight for long…<br/><br/>(http://)<br/><br/>Scene Music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S47TqS8LNJo)<br/><br/>Evelyn “Lyn” Eldridge regained consciousness between a pair of warped steel bars, the foundations with which they were attached to frayed like so much tissue paper. Her blurred vision made out shapes running around, the red-and-blue cherry lights of a police car somewhere off in the distance. Roars, bleats, squawks, and a dozen other species of panicked animals filled the din. Eventually things cleared, and found that she was lying beneath the broken bars of a zoo cage.<br/><br/>“HEY!”<br/><br/>A force lifted the bars up off of Lyn. Shockingly it was one of her friends: dirt-splattered, ripped clothes. Cuts on her face. Chest rising and falling with audible deep breaths.<br/><br/>“Are you okay Lyn?!” she shouted. “Wait, your head...what are those?”<br/><br/><em>Choose one of the 4 DMPC superheroines to help you. As this is your “origin story” you do not have a proper superhero costume yet, nor will they or any Devices.</em><br/><br/><div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;"><strong>Trouble Afoot!</strong></span></span></div><br/><strong>Hero Points:</strong>1 (Lionheart), 1 (Unnamed DMPC)<br/><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 run 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 ally. 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. 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 ally.<br/><br/>The below challenges are examples. If you have any creative alternatives on acting like a big, badass superheroine, 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.</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 thus 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.<br/><br/><strong>Duck and Cover:</strong>Merely being indoors is not enough when the Silver Storm can dissolve and break stone and steel. Lionheart 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 with a blaster to scramble/nullify the energy within, an Intelligence roll to make predictions on targets based on probability, etc.<br/><br/><strong>Street Sweeping:</strong>Shards of glass, caved-in ceilings, flung cars, and overturned school buses all make for a straightforward escape impractical even if the Storm dissipates. The ability to lift or manipulate 10 ranks of weight via Strength, Move Object, etc can apply here, as can certain movement-based powers to chart a safe course around or even blowing the obstacles into smaller chunks (DC 15 attack roll, but need to deal 8 or more damage with an attack or 5 or more if have Area/Penetrating Extras).<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 (or worse, superpowers) will only make things worse. An appropriate skill check or power to corral, pacify, or otherwise neutralize them as a threat. A DC 10 social skill check with Animal Empathy and appropriate Comprehend-based Powers (DC 20 without them) can help, or simply using raw strength and might (DC 20, given some of these fellas are big and tough).