[X] Plan: All Or...Some.
-[X] Mirage, time for a tactical retreat. Stay in the room, but get as far from the lightning-shooting sociopath as possible.
-[X] Marco, Lizzie, Mez, team up on her. The National Guard is en route, so focus on defense and stopping her from killing anybody, especially Mirage, and if the opportunity provides itself, take her out. Be prepared to cover Hego or fight with him should it be useful. Lethal force is permitted, but only as a last resort. Use your best judgement.
You are Mirage, and you are worried on more levels than you can count.
"Do what you can, just… be… careful." you say over your comms.
"I'm good at careful." Marco says in an attempt to sound cool, while Lizzy simply nods before striding towards the battle. You can't actually
see Mezmerella, but she gives an affirmative as well and you take that as a positive. With that, you begin to retreat.
To their credit, no one thinks badly of you for it. You have no combat ability, and no real use here that would outweigh the danger you would be putting everyone else in by simply presenting a target. You serve better as mission control than as anything else, and you are best used watching from afar.
No, no one blames you for running away once again. For watching in realization as a lunatic springs their plans and choosing to flee rather than do something, anything, that might have excused your own role in it.
Stewardship Check: Keep it together
DC 75
36+23+19=78
Bare Success
No one at all.
You take a deep breath and push your conflicting emotions to the side. There can be time to worry about that later, for now all you need to do is make sure everyone makes it out of here in one piece.
The exit to the room is a twisted, flaming mass of what was once the metal doorframe and the rubble of the collapsing building. The emergency exits are a lot more accessible, but they're much farther away and would give the lightning-flinging madwoman a clear shot. Your best option is to move off to the side and hide, hoping that Evelyn's attention will be taken up by your bodyguards.
A large potted ficus has somehow survived the chaos of the evening, and it's honestly your best option. Unobtrusive enough to blend in with the rest of the wreckage, off to one side near the wall, and not currently on fire.
"Oh, it's you again darhling."
Unfortunately, it is also occupied.
"I assume you've sent your little friends off to fight, hmm?" The short woman asks, nearly invisible except for the glint of her massive glasses deep within the plant. It brings to mind a roosting owl, or perhaps a hunting one.
"Is that going to be a problem?" You ask, attempting to keep any trace of bitterness out of your voice.
"What? No, by all means, destroy her, go ahead. I'll come back to you later. Whatever you are hiding, it is quite clear you do not approve of
all this." A diminutive hand pops out of the plant and gestures expansively across the scene.
You awkwardly settle down behind the plant in what you hope is an unobtrusive way.
Intrigue check: Conceal yourself.
48+31+10+3=92
Evelyn Contest
76+40-20(A Little Busy)=96
Bare Failure
Say Please Activates
Bare Success
It is mostly a matter of not drawing attention to yourself. You're fairly certain the woman would have found you right now if she were focused on looking for you, but…
Marco Martial Check: The Enigmatic Cazador
41+29+7+27+5=109
Evelyn Contest
55+29+15=99
Marco Bare Success!
A single fist
slams into Evelyn's back, knocking her completely off balance. Through some quirk of her new physiology or simple good luck she does not fall, instead rolling with the punch and whirling around quickly enough to face her new target. Evelyn frowns for a moment before recognition crosses her face.
"Mirage's guard…"
Marco shrugs in what he probably hopes to be a nonchalant manner. "I'm not really in a mood for banter, so let's just get to it, shall we? You're not hurting anyone else today."
"Just. Stay. OUT OF THIS!" Evelyn growls, a wave of electricity loosed from her palms and aimed directly at Marco.
Evelyn Martial check: Eliminate the interloper
47+29+15=91
Marco contest
43+29+7+5+27+5=116
Failure
But a few months of unwilling practice with an unwanted power are no match for someone who has been training since he was a child. Marco leaps over the energy field as it passes, falling back to earth with practiced grace.
"Aaaaaaaghh!" Evelyn growls, and the lights flicker. "What else could go wrong today?!?"
---
Hego sighed.
No matter what he did, or said, or tried, Winston remained resolute. The man refused to back down, to retreat, to do the sensible thing. Even Hego could see that the situation was looking grim, and while it was admirable to support your sister, that shouldn't come at the cost of life and limb! But the man was stubborn, and if he wasted any more time trying to convince him, Evelyn was likely to find some other innocent, or else deal with him while he was distracted.
"At least stay behind me." Hego begged, knowing it was the best he was likely to get. "Things are likely to get… unpleasant."
"I…" Winston replied, steeling himself. The poor man had idolized supers for so long, but he had never seen just how messy it could get, out there on the floor.
Hego Diplomacy Check
DC 50
50+11=61
Success!
Except… that was wrong, wasn't it? Winston had told him himself, one night, when the call of duty had kept them both up well into the early hours of the morning. Of how their father had died out of a certainty the heroes would come. The man wasn't an idiot, no matter what others thought. No matter what his
sister thought, Hego realized, and in that instant knew that further diplomacy would be futile. But Winston understood the risks. He was an adult. And that meant that what he was really concerned about was…
"Winston, I'm going to have to fight. But I promise, your sister… she'll face the consequences of her actions in a court of law. Not here. Okay?"
Winston took a deep breath, and he nodded. "Okay."
"So." Hego continued. "Have any advice?"
Hego Stewardship Check: Work together
DC 80
27+18+29+15(months of practice)=89
Bare Success
Hego and Winston gain trait: We All Will Be.
+10 to martial when these units roll together on the same roll.
---
Hego Martial Check
61+36-7+9+10=109
Evelyn Contest
33+29+15=77
Success
There is barely time for the tempting words to leave Evelyn's mouth before Hego slams into her. Evelyn falls to the ground, hissing in pain as she impacts.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but this has to stop." Hego said, his usual officiousness tempered by a tinge of sadness. "If you won't stand down, I'm afraid I can't give you a choice in the matter."
"Oh, now you're here." Evelyn snarls. "This time you're here, and you're
perfect, with your little boy scout routine! What a sick joke that was, acting like you're some
hero straight out of the comics. I knew- I
knew I knew that it had to be an act, so I
looked. I looked into all those news articles from Middleton, all your stupid escapades in Danville, every single one of the stings I set you up for to see if you'd drop the act- and you
didn't! Even when it was so blatantly obvious that the odds and the
world were against you, you stuck to it! That simpering,
feckless naivete that carries you through every single day, the honest belief that you can make a difference in the world just by smiling and waving- that makes me sicker than any show you could've put on. What makes you think you can be a hero?!? What gives you the right to tell the world you'll be there to protect them? MY FATHER IS DEAD BECAUSE OF MEN LIKE YOU!"
Mirage Diplomacy check
Mirage not present
Winston Diplomacy check: Is he?
61+38+11=110
Evelyn Contest
7+33=40
Critical Success
Hego's fists clench as he recalls the smell of burning fur.
It makes me sick.
You need to wake up, and stop living in the past.
You want to cook good food. I can feel it, you do.
An absolute disgrace to the men you look up to.
It's an art, huh?
You couldn't even beat a guy I paid to take a fall!
Hego blinks at the feeling of a hand upon his shoulder.
"Evelyn, our father died." Winston says. "Because of people like you."
The super recoils as if struck. "Winston-!"
"And his own choices." Winston continued, louder now. "No hero held a gun to his head. No hero sealed off his panic room. Our father died from his own arrogance, and our father died because
men killed him. Selfish men, hateful men, cruel men. Men who put their own desires over the good of others."
Winston took a shaky breath.
"Stop this, Evelyn."
Evelyn
screams.
Circuit Breaker Martial Check
84+29+15-10(Off her game)=118
Winston Contest
57+9+36+10=112
Success
And goes on screaming.
The woman rises slowly into the air, eyes twin coronas of light. Massive bolts of electricity leap out in every direction, slamming into walls, into wreckage.
Into Winston.
A look of shock and horror has time to pass the man's face before he is lifted bodily by the power, energy couruscating up and down his form and not stopping even as he impacts the ground. Smoke rises from his still form.
Her scream became a keening, moaning thing, even as energy swirls faster about her.
Lizzy Martial Check
83+27+29+7+5-151
Circuit Breaker Contest
17+29+15-10=51
Critical Success
It then changed again as a thousand biting insects wormed their way into her armor.
"Am I interrupting something?" Lizzy asked blandly.
"Nah, you're doing great." Mez quips.
"ENOUGH!!!" Circuit Breaker screamed, another burst of power frying the insects en masse. The woman seems to be coming to the end of her thread in every conceivable way.
A premonition shudders through you.
"Men like me?" she screamed, moving in close to Hego. "MEN LIKE ME?! You think you can judge me when you've worked with that
monster?"
"Monster?" Hego questioned. "Who are you-?"
"I think she knows what I'm talking about.
Isn't that right, Mirage?"
"Mir- do you mean Ms. Peña? I know it was a common term for her at DEI, but-"
"
That's not her name! You're always blathering about villains but you
never knew!"
Your body tenses. Your pupils dilate, your heart pounds in your ears. The world seems to narrow. You can
feel Edna Mode's scrutiny upon you. You can
hear questions starting to form on your comms.
All thoughts you are having in an attempt to not acknowledge what comes next.
"Ms. Peña isn't a villain!"
In response, the woman soars even higher, looking out over the remains of the convention hall, silhouetted against the rising moon. She doesn't know where you are.
She doesn't need to.
"LEAVE! NOW!" Circuit Breaker screams.
"Or I'll tell them
everything."
===
[ ] Leave
You… you can't. Your mind is straining, your thoughts are racing, you need to get out.
[ ] Fight on
You don't care anymore. You will see this last stain of Kronos' legacy destroyed.
No matter the consequences you face.
[ ] Pretend to agree
If she thinks she's won, if she thinks you'll cower, she'll leave herself open. Your team is fresh, your team is ready, your team can take her down before she has a chance to make good on her threat.
You'll get one chance.
[ ] Her Own Medicine
You brought Mezmerella for a reason. Her own hypnosis gear is down. You're done playing with kid gloves.
This too could fail… And it will be seen.
[ ] Write-In
Be careful.
There is a twenty-four hour moratorium on voting. 
