Lily grins at the odd-suited newcomer and shrugs.

"Me, I'm just happy to get a roof over my head again. I'll worry about the rest later."

In Dr. Beverly Long's office...

A red-gloved hand roughly flipped the doctor over and riffled through her pockets. The keys were snatched out of her pocket, then the intruder marched down the hall, red and yellow boots stomping. They marked a noisy path back down the hall, to Michael's room.

The keys were quickly sorted through, and each one tried. Finally, the key both slid in and turned the lock, and a digitized voice exclaimed, "Ah ha!"

An electronic pad next to the door lit up as a sterile computer voice requested, "Please place hand on pad for palmprint verification."

"Wha?" the form in the powered armor exclaimed in surprise. "Aw, I don't have time for this sh-"

"Warning. Failure to provide palmprint will result in alarm activation in five... four... thr-"

The voice was cut off as a blast roared through the hallway, a bright red burst of energy that tore through the palm-reader and its curcuitry. The door was wrenched open with a squeal of tortured metal. Light flooded Michael's vision as the door snapped open. Groggily, he lifted his eyes to see the familiar suited form of...



While at The Heroes' Headquarters...

A low buzzing sounded, and Sam's head snapped around. "What? The alarm?"

"Alarm?" Overclock asked curiously.

Sam dashed to the computer and began to type frantically. "Yes, someone triggered an alarm at the... somewhere. Hang on," she said. "All city building alarms will notify us as well, so that we can respond... the Mental Hospital! Someone's breaking in!"

The phone rang and Sam snatching up. "Yes?" she listened for a moment, then said, "It's the Mayor. He's asking... we know it's your first day. We know you haven't even been tested or anything. But could go and see, and help?"

"A mental hospital?"

Vixen thought for a moment, then nodded. "Tell him I'm on my way."

She rises into the air, and zips out through the doors! A moment later she returns.

"Sorry, I'm new in town. The mental hospital is... where?"

"I know where it is. It's at 701 Lincoln Road #2, east by northeast of here. Any of you that cannot fly quickly, can climb inside my Jeep and we'll get over there by the fastest route." He dashes outside to his jeep. He climbs in and starts it upstarts it up and places his light and switches his radio over to the main police band as he waits to see who takes him up on the offer.

"Fly? I...hey wait!"

She runs after Michael and jumps in the jeep after him with a bemused shrug. "Shotgun."

"Oh. Well, let's - "

She pauses in mid-air, suddenly lost in thought.

"Actually? Save me a seat in that jeep. I'm going to try something."

Vixen hops in, swearing slightly as she squishes a tail. "One of my... abilities, is that I can see and hear things from far away as if I was right there. I'm going to try and see inside the hospital."

Vixen gesticulates, looking slightly annoyed. Her eyes fill with green light that fades, the coloring of her eyes having inverted.

Tim followed the others out to the jeep. This is not going to go well. Two kids, a flaky fox chick and a powerless cop. What the fuck have I gotten myself into?

"Is rushing over there without any idea of whats happening such a hot idea?"

Vixen's vision narrows to the black behind her eyelids; she can hear and feel the other heroes clambering into Officer Guitierrez's Jeep but her awareness of those sensations faded as her vision sped away from here.

She was suddenly in the hospital, looking up and down a hallway. She glanced down, and was a little disconcerted to not see her body or feet. Instead, all she saw was a wall, built of cinder blocks and painted an offsetting blue.

Two big, male orderies ran past her, glancing over their shoulders, looks of terror on their faces. That must be where I want to go, Vixen thought, and without warning, her perspective jumped to a new point.

Now she was in a padded cell, watching from behind as a figure in a powered, armored suit bent over a weeping teenaged boy in a straight jacket. He was making little to no effort to flee from the suit; he appeared to be shouting at it.

The suit stopped and turned slowly, looking right at Vixen. As it turned, Vixen realized who she was looking at; Harmony City's entire reason for hiring her and the other heroes: Dr. Dread. Silently, Dr. Dread lifted her blaster cannon, and Vixen released the vision.

"Ahh!" Vixen jerked back, her eyes returning to normal.

"There's - in the hospital. Someone in power armor. I think it's Doctor Dread. She was standing over what looked like a teenager in a straight-jacket. She saw me."

Great. I think I blew it. If she knows we're coming, there's no element of surprise.

"There are innocent lives in danger. Geting them out is the job of this team and the HC Police. You applied to be on the team you should be ready for the work. Doctor Dread is the reason this team is being formed." Michael drives through the town and out onto the island making great time to the Mental hospital. He brings the jeep to a stop at the entrance to the hospital.

"Everyone out, nobody go off alone. We're strongest in a group. The idea is to find Dread, and get Her out of the city as quicks as we can to minimize casulties and property damage. If we can't bring her down fast alot of people will get hurt. Everyone is counting on you all."

He grabbed the handset for the radio. "This is Lieutenant Guitierrez on-site. I will do the best I can to evaccuate the area should Dread decide she wants to play rough. I request back-up in-force to get the civilains out of here. I estimate we already have a good deal of wounded."

The dispatch officer came back. "Understood Lieutenant. What about the applicants?" Michael thought a moment. "they elected to stay back. They aren't signed up for this. We damned well can't expect them to go out on a job this. The ink on their applications isn't even dry yet."

"Understood, still it would have been nice..."

"Life often isn't nice, Guitierrez out." He shuts off the headset and smiles.

He turns to the other superhero applicants. "Ok, now that that bit of misdirection is out there, We might still have a decent elmement of suprise." He draws his gun and releases the safety. "I'm open to any ideas as to how we do this. The frontal approach sounds fun, but I'd prefer something else considering I don't know exactly how tough our foe is."

"How do you expect us to formulate a plan when we don't even know what we can do?" Tim spat at the cop. He turned to Vixen and said. "Chin up. Anyone who breaks into a a place like a mental hospital decked out in power armor is expecting to set off alarms."

"Considering how public Harmony City's been about recruiting super heroes I'd put money on Dread expecting some sort of super response. I'd say this could all be a test of the city's new super team but it's an odd choice of targets for that. It's more likely that she's after something or someone inside."

"I suggest we hit her hard and fast. If you can dish out the pain, then do it. Our ultimate goal though should be to stop her from taking whatever or whoever she's after."

He took a breath and noticed the others were staring at him. "What?"

Overclock quickly looks to her sides. Realizing that everyone has left without her. She starts formulating her plan. Although she knows nothing about who this guy is, or what his weaknesses are.

But with a strong enough EMP Pulse she should be able to handle him... she hopes.

Lily opens the door of the jeep and gets out, surveying the hospital.

"There's just one of her, right? I say we walk in the front door and follow the bodies until we find her. Then do what we do until she's lying in the middle of a puddle of slag."

She tries to inject some bravado into her words, but it comes out sounding a bit flat. Toneless. It was how she felt, oddly. Flat. Emotionless. Probably savagely repressed, she decided...but maybe it was for the best.

"If she's as dangerous as they say, then maybe we should be more cautious. I've never..." She looks to Michael. "You're right, I've never done this and you have. I think it's your call if you have experience with this."

The outer wall of the hospital buckled outward, torn out by a roaring blast of energy. Rubble dropped through the air, slamming into the parking lot. Car alarms drowned out the screams of the panicking people as they began to run away.

On the hole, framed by the sunlight, stood Dr. Dread. A young man was tucked under her armored arm, bound in his straight jacket. "Ah, mon, I done have time for dis." The voice was digitized, yet clearly feminine. "Rohbots!"

Several flying drones buzzed into view, discarding their perches on rooftops to hover menacingly. "Get 'em!" Dr. Dread ordered, waving her free arm at the assembled heroes.



Meanwhile...

Avra had just wanted to go to the beach. She had just wanted a chance to stop and stare at the endless ocean, but after getting off at the wrong bus stop, that goal was several blocks away. With a sigh, the young woman started to walk.

She'd only made it a couple of blocks when the side of a building exploded, sending rocks whizzing out over the sidewalk. Avra stopped, and just in time; a rock the size of her fist whizzed through the space her head had just been.

Just like everyone else, she recognized Dr. Dread. And the Jamacian villian seemed to be kidnapping a young man.

On seeing the armored figure and its drones, panic seized Lily. Cold sweat broke out over her skin...and with it, the by now familiar deep wrenching sensation of a metamorphosis coming on. She'd had the foresight not to eat breakfast before the mission at least...

With an agonized grunt, she doubled over as if punched in the gut. Tears appeared in her shirt and pants as her skin seemed to boil, swelling up around unimaginable changes in her skeleton, then hardening into a grey, mottled chitinous carapace. Her arms seemed to explode in grotesque growth, their shells developing articulated joints even as her fingers fused and expanded into serrated, grasping claws like those on a vast crab. Bony spurs erupted from her back, punching right through the shell, which quickly healed in their wake.

When all was done, what had once been human more resembled some bizarre cross between a pillbug, porcupine, and crab, all rolled into a 9' tall monstrosity clad in only tatters of what she'd been wearing.

(Shapechange Pool of 50pts - New Powers are: Protection +8 (8), Growth +4 (16), Strike +10 (10), Blast +5, AE:Cone (15), Total: 49pts. Changed attributes: Str: 20, Con 16, Reach 10', Defense 14, Toughness Save +15, Fort Save +7.)

With a weird sound halfway between a bellow and a chitter, the creature hunches forward, half-rolling into a ball so that the majority of the spines on its back are directed towards the foes. The bony spikes quiver...then are ejected in a hail of sharp, fast-moving projectiles!

(Actions! Shapechange as Move, then use Blast (Damage DC 20, Reflex DC 15 for half) as a 50' cone targeting everything she can fit into AE. Can 5' step if needed to include more targets, I believe.)

Michael watched as the young woman took the initative and leaped on the attack at the robots. "So much for the polite way of doing this. Spread out. We don't to give them a large targets. Try and save the hostage. Go!" Carefully he took aim at Dread's shoudler as the others made their own preparations. He focused and pulled the trigger unleashing his own blast and the small bullet from the gun in practiced synchronization. He hoped it the suprise would be enough.

Okay. All right. No sweat. She just wants to kill me. No sweat.

Vixen rose into the air, greenish smoke rising from her eyes and runes dancing around her fingers. A small blue sphere shimmered into existence, floating in front of her.

She points at Doctor Dread and fires a thin green beam. "Perfect Lagomorphic Illusion," she intones.

Realizing that at this point, there would be no time to whip up a device, and if there was time, it'd probably be outside of her current skill, she changes plan. She patches into the communications system the team has, after hearing their chatter. She then encrypts the signals using herself as the main network hub from the headquarters.

"Guys, be careful. If that "Doctor whats-their-face" is controlling them, if she is incapacitated somehow, it might send the drones wild. Do we have anyone on the drones?"

She sees the overhead view from one of the traffic cameras close by. She focusses on Lily. "Nevermind, that avenue is covered at the moment. I'm on my way. My original idea was too ambitious and... would take too long. I'm heading to the area to coordinate."

She puts her quadlux capacitor on stun, and flies out as fast she can.