<div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 24pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;">Yellow Brick Row  ~  Emerald City  ~  March 2014</span></span></div><br/><hr/><br/><div align="center">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/7/7c/Pedestrianised.png) (https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/0/09/YellowBrickRow01.jpg)</div><br/><hr/><br/><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 10pt;"><br/>It's a sunny Saturday morning, providing many of Emerald City's residents with the first real opportunity to get out and enjoy a bright, pleasantly warm day.  The hillsides and mountain slopes overlooking the city are doing an especially fine job of displaying the colour for which the valley was originally named, the brilliant green of fresh growth now blanketing almost every undeveloped patch of land.<br/><br/>Even in the heart of the city, the resurgence of verdant beauty is often in evidence - with Yellow Brick Row, for example, blessed with a generously-spaced central line of trees to provide a touch of 'urban garden' and to break up the sensory assault of shop-signs and window-displays.  The breeze-stirred rising lines of branches and foliage also serve to lift a walker's gaze from the yellow-painted bricks beneath their feet, helping to draw attention to the mix of elegantly-restored 19th century buildings and the array of 'statements' that serve as architectural showpieces for both their designers and those companies that wanted to be seen to embrace modernity in a very public fashion.<br/><br/>At ground level, the Row is half-filled with pedestrians: the steady flow of people to and fro chaotically fluid in its motions, with occasional swirls and eddies as people get backed up behind a dawdler or move aside to let a short-cutting cyclist through.  At several points, the walkers take to the skies, using elegant foot-bridges to cross those streets left open to road-traffic moving through the city between East and West, but for the most part people are able to remain at ground-level all the way from Atlas Mall to the Cannery complex.<br/><br/>Here and there, what might have been sold as a building-plot to accommodate yet another set of shops has instead been converted into an enclosed garden.  Such havens are popular with weary shoppers in need of a rest, but tend to be crowded near lunch-time during the working week as office peons flee the surrounding area to pile into the little oases of green.  At this time on a Saturday, however, most visitors are still firmly focused on pursuing the delights of the Row itself.<br/><br/></span><div align="center">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/5/5c/SpringInCity.jpg)</div><br/>The shops that one might pass en route between Mall and Cannery include expensive boutiques and some higher-end chain stores, interspersed with small art galleries, artisans' shops, and independent traders in jewellery, antiques, and curios.  Those interested in <em>good deals</em>, geekery, or the finest independent artistic creations are also to be found moving along the Row, as they pass between the conventional commerce of the mall and the eclectic offerings of the Cannery, but here and there an outpost of counter-culture holds its own on the Row itself: for example The Rose of the Row is one of the city's premier comic and gaming stores, hosting roleplaying and boardgaming evenings year-round as well as an array of events during the Emerald City Tournament of Martial Arts, courtesy of its now-retired B-movie action star founder, Rose Flynn.<br/><br/>The geeky crowd are unusually well catered for in Emerald City, courtesy of both the status of an unashamed tech-nerd as the city's most popular man, and the rise to prominence of companies such as Starbase Coffee.  Its science fiction theme appeals to a high proportion of the engineers and computer scientists who dominate the staff of Emerald City's many technology companies, while it has a carefully-cultivated reputation for both generosity (free wifi in every shop was a novel concept, when Starbase first committed to it) and being environmentally responsible in comparison to longer-established corporations.  That it is a locally-based company that rose as part of the 'Mars Renaissance' wins it further goodwill and credit with many locals... and the Row is duly studded with Starbase outposts, ensuring that no one is more than a couple of hundred yards from their next opportunity to combine nerdery with caffeine.<br/><br/>Also present on the Row is Arcadia Coffee Roasters, Starbase's primary local competitor.  Doubling-down on Starbase's environmental concerns, Arcadia takes them to the next level - and then some.  They aim to have absolutely everything used in their shops be fully recyclable (from flooring to smoke alarms, never mind such things as cups or furniture), and make a point of powering their own free wi-fi with on-site renewable energy sources.  Of course, this has ensured that its shops have a reputation for losing internet access without warning if the sun goes behind a cloud or the wind dies down, but its patrons tend to feel that any such occurrences just prove how much people take on-demand power for granted without considering its consequences....<br/><br/>For those who might wish to avoid either environmental activism or a sci-fi theme, the quirky Mud House and the elegant Victrola stand out as the Row's finest independent coffee houses.  Each maintains relationships with local independent bakers, plays a role in sponsoring the local arts scene (of both material and performing kinds), and offers the sort of secluded corners and private function rooms that are hard to find in the big chains' establishments.<br/><br/>Today, on this cheerfully sun-lit Saturday morning, <strong>all our (future) heroines</strong> are to be found at various points along the Row.<br/><br/>For <strong>Claire</strong>, the Mud House is her destination.  Doctor Graham (https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/c/c3/Yalda01.jpg) arranged a time and booked what she has promised is a 'quiet table' for a discussion of Miss Inanis's paranormal predicament.  The semi-public location has apparently been prompted by the Doctor's desire to "<em>introduce you to someone else who might understand a little of what you're faced with</em>."  The surrounding bustle of the Row should certainly provide a good dose of anonymity for a clandestine super-related meeting, while also providing the security of many people within earshot should someone shout for help.  Claire has just brought the Mud House into sight some distance up ahead, but has a gaggle of gawping tourists to work her way around before she can get closer.<br/><br/><strong>Iona</strong>, meanwhile, has a rather vaguer appointment with the morning-shift manager of The Rose of the Row, to discuss what comic-promotions she might best suit (and be available for) in the next couple of months.  That's a simple "drop in before lunch" arrangement, leaving her free to arrange a morning's amble along the Row (or an extended visit to the Rose) as she chooses.<br/><br/>Rest days are to be embraced, and <strong>Amber</strong>'s exceptional constitution leaves her unusually well-suited to doing so - injuries and lingering fatigue are vanishingly rare for her, leaving her free to make the most of a day without either competition or training.  That is especially true since, as a student representing Malory in honourable contests, her tutors make sure that her academic work-load is arranged to leave her time to dedicate her weekends to her physical labours.  Now, she has an entire day to herself... which, of course, means that it's also a rare opportunity to catch up on shopping for gifts and cards for relatives' birthdays and other such familial duties.  But she can at least hope to fit in a good bit of self-indulgence over the course of the day.<br/><br/><strong>Hitomi</strong>, in contrast, has business reasons to be on the Row.  Today would make for a lovely one on which to take groups up into the Elysian Forest... but the tourist-season is only <em>just</em> starting to get into gear, and pre-bookings are minimal.  Instead, most of the guides in Emerald City's oddest industry are either engaged in off-season jobs, or are out and about in the city drumming up custom.  For that particular task, Hitomi is considered rather well-suited - standing out among a crowd as she does, people tend to <em>notice</em> her.  And, of course, she might be able to claim that things like visits to coffee shops are a key part of her leaflet-distributing publicity efforts....<br/><br/>For <strong>Valerie</strong> and the former <strong>Miss Venus</strong>, a combination of curiosity and commercialism might provide ample reason to be out and about on the Row on the year's first morning that truly suits some relaxed browing, window-shopping, and enjoyment of the street-entertainers and free-sample stalls scattered around the yellow brick road.  But whatever the reason, <strong>all our heroines-in-waiting</strong> happen to be within a couple of hundred yards of each other when the day takes a pronounced turn for the unexpected.<br/><br/><hr/><div align="center"><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Tagging</strong>:  <strong>Everyone</strong>    <strong>Setting Information</strong>: Found here (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=347842.msg16368096#msg16368096)    <strong>Taking Actions</strong>: See this post (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=347842.msg16368191#msg16368191)<br/><br/><strong>Hero Points</strong>: <strong>1 for every character</strong></span></div><br/><hr/><br/>For <strong>Valerie</strong>, the <em>incident</em> starts with a marginal increase in crowd noise somewhere up ahead... followed by a hint of panic in those distant voices, then a deep <span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;"><em><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;">whumph</span></em></span> as something... detonates?  There's an accompanying flash, and the distant crackle of a large quantity of glass shattering, and a lot of screaming, and a rising plume of smoke - that then <em>changes</em>....<br/><br/>The others all happen to be closer than the teleporter, and thus get to experience a little more of the incident first-hand.  From one of the cross-roads comes a blare of protesting horns, then a squeal of brakes - with rapidly-mounting alarm from pedestrians both at ground-level near the street and on the fly-over foot-bridges.  Some point, some shy away or even start to run, while some fumble for phones... and then something <em>really bad</em> happens, as a glimpsed-through-the-crowd blur of a mid-sized truck (mostly white, with some sort of red logo on the side) slews into view at the intersection - only to <em>burst</em>, erupting into a ball of flame as it explodes.<br/><br/><strong>Iona</strong>, thanks to a combination of a momentarily-clear line of sight and her preternatural mastery of perception, will be alone in later being able to clearly recall the glimpsed logo without a need for other assistance.<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">For Iona</div><div class="spoiler_body">In a fancy font, it read "Red Shift Technologies" - though that sadly means nothing to you off the top of your head.</div></div><br/><br/>The explosion is far enough away that there is an instant to <em>see</em> it, before the sound and the shock-wave hit.  Windows break, people tumble, other vehicles slew crazily across the road - yet the world briefly becomes eerily muffled as overloaded ear-drums are battered into temporary submission. Thumps and crashes dimly reach those nearby as an array of secondary car-crashes occur, while thick, black smoke rises up from the core of the shattered truck's wreck.<br/><br/>But the dense plume of smoke begins to crackle and shudder, gleaming streaks appearing within it before it <em>rumbles</em> - and lightning starts to zig-zag viciously through it.  Within a couple of seconds, it is laced with a web of impossible discharges, a growing vortex drawing brilliant red fire up from the flaming ruins of the vehicle.<br/><br/><div align="center">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/2/25/SilverStorm01.jpg)</div><br/>Many are transfixed, and more of those phones are coming out to snare pictures - with some tourists training full video cameras on the astonishing phenomenon.  Others, however, are sprawled where they fell, or are moving to tend to the injured - or else are high-tailing it, trying to make their escape before anything else strange or terrifying happens.  As hearing returns to our heroines, and Valerie finds a clear view of the foot-bridges as a possible point to which she might (were she to risk so public a thing) teleport herself or run to secure a vantage-point of the scene, the next development unfolds.<br/><br/>Having surged up into that whirlwind of black smoke, scarlet fire, and silver-blue lightning, the vortex abruptly <em>collapses</em> - hurtling out in every direction, somehow expanding as it goes.  It's solid enough that a blast of hot air precedes it, slamming into everyone before sunlight vanishes from view as the cloud erupts outwards.  Lightning still crackles and arcs through it - and though it is blessedly no longer forming a continuous web, there are detonations of broken stone and splintering trees where it hits, as well as screams and cries of pain and terror from the crowds caught in its path.  Searing grit slams into exposed skin, while the brilliant blue-white flashes leave lingering after-images in dazzled eyes.<br/><br/>To <strong>Amber</strong>, this is in some ways even more overwhelming than it is for any of our other heroines.<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">For Amber</div><div class="spoiler_body">Her <em>awareness</em> of electrical activity was being hammered even when the lightning-storm was contained in the vortex.  When it flows over her, the assault on her supersense is quite unlike anything she has ever experienced.  Still, there's something... <em>off</em> about it.  There's electricity galore in there, but it doesn't <em>feel right</em>.  Saying more than that while caught up in it isn't possible; perhaps with future consideration, or further study of the phenomenon, more might be discernible?</div></div><br/><br/>For <strong>Valerie</strong>, the view is less immediately horrifying, but in some ways worse.  Far enough away to keep her feet and to maintain a comparatively unrestricted view, she's able to see the impossibly-expanding cloud engulf entire buildings as it surges outwards from the intersection.  The pedestrian bridges briefly vanish entirely from view, only to reappear in momentary silhouette as they are struck repeatedly by lightning.  Portions of the cloud seem to get caught <em>inside</em> nearby structures, lightning-flashes blasting repeatedly within the confined spaces.  Then there no longer seems to be a bridge where one should be - just flashes arcing through empty air - before whole buildings start to fall: some crumbling inwards into themselves, while others slump out into the street.<br/><br/>Mere seconds after the incident started [i.e. as the Surprise Round ends], <strong>five of our heroines</strong> are within a suddenly-thinning cloud of acrid, gritty smoke, still interspersed with occasional glimmers of lightning.  Those without super-strength have been (at the least) knocked to their knees; <strong>Amber</strong> could choose to have fallen flat to shield her face, or might have instinctively braced and held herself upright.  Thanks to her distance from the blast, <strong>Valerie</strong> is upright and with a clearer view (including of the one mostly-surviving footbridge arcing over the junction where the explosion happened, and <em>into</em> some of the damaged buildings), but is potentially about to be stampeded by fleeing shoppers if she doesn't get out of their way in a hurry.  The whole area of the intersection is a field of rubble and wrecked vehicles, while many buildings quite some distance from the junction are showing serious signs of damage - and some are in the process of wholly or partly collapsing.<br/><br/>Everything that the cloud reached is now at least dusted (and in many places, <em>coated</em>) in a fine, slightly glittery layer of ash.  Bits of trees, stalls, and walls are scattered throughout - along with unidentifable hunks of shattered metal, shopping bags, and personal effects.  A quick survey of the scene will allow all of the heroines to conclude that <em>most</em> people in the cloud seem on first glance to have 'just' been stunned and knocked to the ground, but some got hit much harder, and some seem to have been directly struck by lightning.  And then there is whatever is unfolding in those buildings experiencing varying degrees of collapse: crashes and ominous rumbles are currently coming from many different directions, as a deep undertone behind the general public's terror.  Amidst it all, a medley of car and shop alarms add their discordant clamour to the din.<br/><br/>For the first time in generations, Emerald City would seem to be in dire need of superheroic assistance.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>OOC</strong>: A bit of an epic opener, but I hope that it serves to give you all enough to respond to!<br/><br/>Post in whatever order you like.  If you fancy doing so, feel free to include a 'before' glimpse of what your character was up to when she was enjoying a lovely morning... or you can skip straight on to the 'after', if you want to get stuck into the superheroics without any preliminaries!<br/><br/>I'm leaving it up to you quite how close to things you were, and whether you were North or South of the junction (neither the Rose of the Row nor the Mud House have fixed locations just yet!): you will <em>not</em> have been right at the junction with a totally-clear view of the incident - even you superheroic types would struggle to take a detonating truck and a paranormal storm to the face in the space of a single round.  ;)  Valerie is specifically farther away than anyone else - but can 'ping' into action in a single round, given her abilities.<br/><br/>You can presume that you have at least a few rounds-worth of actions open to you: your characters can spend a few moments panicking, worry over whether to reveal themselves, and still have a chance to surge into heroic action when they see others doing so.  Or they might plunge in instantly, and save people without hesitation.  Or take a different tack, and look for additional threats or leads on quite what has happened....<br/><br/><em>Do</em> feel free to be heroic and / or investigatory.  There are dozens of injured people (from bumps and bruises to "got hit by a large hunk of wall" and "struck multiple times by lightning"), buildings that are still in the process of collapse, wrecked vehicles, and (though Valerie's the only one to have spotted this by the end of the Surprise Round) a foot-bridge that has collapsed into the roadway below (though its surviving partner could provide the best vantage point from which to survey the scene as a whole, or to have a look at 'ground zero').  There are also the remnants of the lightning-cloud still in the process of dissipating inside a couple of buildings, should anyone want to try plunging into the maelstrom once more.<br/><br/>You are at liberty to make up minor details: e.g. if you want there to be someone clinging on for dear life to an exposed beam as the building they were in falls apart around them, there can be.  There's enough chaos and enough variety that options are likely to be open.<br/><br/><em>Don't</em> include police or other uniformed emergency workers just yet: given the sheer number of people in the area there'll almost certainly be a handful of medics of various kinds scattered among the crowds, while at least some shops will have well-stocked first aid kits, but there aren't any ambulances or police cars or fire trucks in sight.  There ought to be at least a couple of beat cops <em>somewhere</em> on the Row... but it's a long road, and it'd probably take a speedster to find them quickly.  Right now, they're almost certainly radioing in for assistance as it is: even if they didn't have a clear line of sight, the explosion and vortex will have been noticeable from across much of the city.<br/><br/>As things stand, the Yellow Brick Row has been hit by a distinctly abnormal whirlwind, and only <em>special</em> people can hope to help many of those harmed by it....<br/><br/>;D<br/></div>