Dr Archeville

Binder said nothing, as he was too busy beating his head against the ground. However, it would be many minutes before the Ubermensch Eindämmung Streitkrafte (Superhuman Containment Force) would get to Archeville's remote Schloss, and before they arrived, the team recovered! Binder shouted something, and Blackstar and Thunderbolt both began to glow! Then the entire team began to glow, and suddenly disappeared in a blinding flash of blue-white light! A brief sensation of vertigo also passed over everyone, similar to the side-effect those near the destination or arrival point of Archeville's own teleportation experienced. And with the Castle's systems either down or overloaded -- and Archeville's Screwdriver overloaded due to being in his hand when he punched the bioelectric Thunderbolt -- there was no way to track them!

"" Binder (weakly) cursed, "" But Archeville was not there to translate, for he had already teleported several levels down as soon as he received his Screwdriver from Fulcrum. Flying to the power core room, he found the entire chamber was sparking, especially the reactor, and he could just make out a man-shaped light inside it. With his mighty science, Archeville tore Thunderbolt form the power core, and with his might fists of science, he knocked the temporarily-dazed villain out! Moments later Archeville appeared at the main gate, flying up from the hole in the courtyard that Blackstar and Radum had bashed in, carrying an unconscious Thunderbolt over his shoulder. "It vould appear your plans haff been ruined, Binder. I haff already called de authorities, dey are on de vay to pick you all up. You are going to be avay for a long, long time."

Round 10 Move Action: Move into position Move Action: Set Gadgets to Electrical Control 15 (Flaw: Action [Full]) Round 11 Full Action: Use Electrical Control to counter what Thunderbolt's doing. Dok's attempt to dislodge Thunderbolt from power core (1d20+15=27) Thunderbolt's attempt to resist being dislodged from power core (1d20+11=13) He is dislodged! Concentration check to maintain Force Field (DC 17) (1d20+1=7) Free Action: Extra Effort to SURGE Standard Action: Punching! Unarmed attack vs. Thunderbolt (Defense 14); Power Attack +/- 5; DC 20 Toughness save if it hits (1d20+15=30) Toughness save (DC 20); includes -2 from existing Bruises, and does not include Force Field bonus (1d20=5) KO'd! ... and then the GM cheats and they all get away anyway as Blackstar & Thunderbolt pool their powers to stunt a Selective Area Teleport. But there will be a rematch!

November 1st, 2010 Whoa. Really... whoa. So I kinda haven't been me for the past decade, but instead was some kinda puppet for Papa Ghede. Except he was also restin', leavin' me to do my own thing, so... I don't know. But now he's gone, and so's a lot of my mojo. I can still see and talk to the dead, still touch 'em, but I can no longer animate or raise 'em. On the plus side, I 'heal' up a lot quicker'n before. And Mutt seems like a great companion (may have to figure out a real name for him, though). Fortunately, both Phantom and Nick Cimitiere offered to help teach me some tricks to copy some'a the things I had been able to do, so it's far from a total loss. And, I'm still here, and everyone else is still here ('cept Samedi and Hades and a lot of their crew), which is a definite plus! This gives me a new appreciation for what Atlas went through, too. I mean, I know it's far from the same deal, but we both had something Not-Us in our heads, for a long time; now that it's gone, things seem... different. I hope the big lug's okay, no one's seen him since the Gruevasion. An' speakin'a findin' a new way in life, I need to try an' find a job. I don't wanna mooch off Jack & Taylor forever, 'specially not with Erin 'round. Fortunately, an opportunity suited to my unique abilities has come up: Doc Robbins, down in Freedom Medical Center's morgue, says there's always a need for medical cadavers. Why not a recyclable one?

And to make sure people actually buy it/give to charity, Phantom enchants it so that any pirated copies instead show pics of Dead Head (in the same poses/outfits)?

"Y-you... are... not..." the head cultist choked out from under the Midnight mass. Trevor heard several thuds, as of a shovel coming into violent contact with a cultist's skull. He only heard three such sounds, though, so there were still others up. Two metal creaks from the passageway beyond the ritual chamber echoed throughout the cavern. A massive form emerged from the left passageway, at first appearing to be a particularly large lion. But lions have neither green scaled limbs, not great curling ram's horns! It leaped towards Trevor, jaws open wide to deliver a terrible bite, but the teen of terror easily avoided its (comparatively) clumsy lunge! "Got a bunch'a deaders comin' up th' right passage, man!," Dead Head called out. "They's the hungry type, too. I'll see if'n I can hol' 'em off!," he called as he ran down the passage.

Hrm... I'll split the difference. So he Cultists have partial concealment against Dead Head while they're all in Trevor's Mist o' Doom.

So Dead Head's Darkvision is enough to let him see through it, too?

Archeville smirked at the sight of the gown, "I believe the German -- Eigentum der Universität der Viktor Archeville der Wissenschaft Verrückt -- would be more fitting." Archeville held his hand out, and the blue-and-gold beetle -- similar to the ones she had seen at Scarab's Lair (fitting, since Archeville had worked on them), but more cockroach-like than scarab-like -- passed the scanner he had assembled back to him, which he used to scan the wound. And once again his brows knitted as he tried making heads or tails of the results. "Had you not tried to turn into mythological beasts before your trip? Have you tried turning into mythological beasts that you did not encounter there?" "Damien Silver? No, I cannot say that name sounds familiar," he admitted. "I do not go over to the Lantern Hill area much, though I stay mostly in Hanover or the City Center. Was that delivery the only mission you were tasked with?"

Archeville shrank into himself a bit at Grim's reaction, placing hands flat on his lap and his mouth tightening up. Mona's words loosened him back up, though... and Grim's perfectly-placed popcorn projectile and silly grin got him back to his old (well, new-old) relaxed self. He stretched out, propping his feet on the arms of the couch on his head on Fulcrum's lap; she actually heard him sigh contentedly. "So a blonde super-strong and super-tough man and a redheaded elastic woman give rise to a blonde speedster boy and a girl with jet-black hair and invisibility powers? How does...?"

"Clever lad," Archeville said, gently tapping him in the shoulder, "but then, I would expect nothing less from you." "That is good news, Miss Americana! The possibilities for improved balance alone will be remarkable!" The Doktor turned back to Rift, "you said the poor creature was on your bed, in your home? Well, then, lead on!"

Refresh my memory: can Trevor see through his own Mist? Will he be able to see something coming out of an adjacent chamber?

"Apparently," Archeville replied, looking back and forth between Rift and Miss Americana, "a larger-than-average flying mammal of the order Chiroptera, heavily cyberized by parties unknown but with many missing or damaged systems, displaying extreme aggression, and found in an alley by this fine man here." "Now, Warren," he continued, focusing back on Rift, "I know rock and heavy metal music has a long association with bats, so you probably are quite attached to this poor thing already, but you did check it for homing signals and such, yes? Cyborgs do not occur in nature -- as far as I know -- so someone had to do that work to it, so someone may be looking for it. And the very aggressive behavior, which could indicate that it was either rabid, or intentionally programmed to be a war machine, neither of which would make a good pet." Archeville stroked his chin in thought, "but... we cannot just leave it, especially not in your home. Sooo... " he grinned, "we had best save the poor thing! Miss Americana," he turned to the stunning scientist, "could we drag you out of the laboratory for a few hours to see to the needs of a damages cyborg bat?"

There was something off about the Doktor, though not in the same way as when Rift had first met him, exactly five months ago. It was almost as if he were trying to overcompensate for his prior 'off'-ness, but in the process became just as 'off,' though in different ways. "Oh, so it is a stray you found, not a pet? Did it have a collar or RFID tag; did you check for any lost pet notices? Or- wait..." His smile fell, then slowly crept back up, "if this were just a normal cat or dog, even a badly wounded one, you would not be bringing him in to me. What have you found, Warren?" Archeville lead Rift through a set of double doors to a very spiffy laboratory/workshop. Judging by the mixture of what appeared to be robotic components, anatomical diagrams, and MRI scans, this did indeed seem to be a medical prosthetics area. "Hello, anyone home?," he called out. "I bring a guest, and a challenge!"

"Of course, Rift!," Brandi the perky young blonde receptionist chirped. She handed over the Visitor's ID badge, "you know the routine; follow the arrows, seventh floor." Had she had more work done? Yes. Yes, she had. "Have a super day!," she called behind him as he headed to the elevators. When he stepped off the elevator, the teen hero was met moments later in the hall by Archeville himself. "Ah, Rift, so good to see you again!" He smiled broadly and shook the teen's hand, "all has been well with you, I trust? I am still waiting to hear your reply on the internship offer! And... ah..." He looked around Rift, a brief look of confusion flashing on his face, "oh, I thought you were going to bring the poor wounded animal in with you. Is it at another veterinary facility? What happened to the poor thing?" The Doktor practically dragged him down the hallway, "I did bring in another to help on the case, an expert in medical prosthetic. She mainly works with humans and metahumans, but I am sure she would be up to the challenge of designing some non-human cybernetics. You will like her; she was a wonderful personality." "Wonderful personality"? Uh oh...

Archeville had been very slow in his approach, noting her reactions to the iron rod. His eyebrows shot up when he saw it made her clothing dissipate; when he made contact, he immediately flung the rod behind him. "Oh, I am sorry, I am so sorry, are you okay?" He very carefully examined the wound, and gave a cursory look over the equally raw edges of the dissolved fabric. "How is the pain? Is it better now that the iron is gone?" She never heard the clang of the iron rod landing after he tossed it. Where had it gone? If she weren't in such pain, she might see the small blue-and-gold robotic beetle off in the distance, which had caught the rod and was carrying it to a work station several dozen feet away. (A similar 'bot had caught the sensor widget Dok had dropped earlier, and set it neatly on the table beside Lynn.)

"The book... sought me?," Archeville repeated, still looking very confused, and shielding himself from the shaking Kid Cthulhu with one raised arm. "That tome was... is... sentient? Sapient? How? Is this... is this a common thing?" "Will there be lasting effects?," he asked in a deeply concerned tone. "Will I be more vulnerable to this sort of thing from now on? Or will surviving it make me more resilient to further instances?" Archeville let Taylor usher Erin in first before he went in. If something went wrong again, it would be best if she were in a stable position from which she could knock him out again.

Archeville nodded, "yes, though we will go slow. First I would like to see how you do simply in proximity to various grades of iron and other metals. If it is a magnetic field interaction that is the cause behind the 'faerie' weakness to iron, then other feromagnetic materials -- like nickel, cobalt, gadolinium, and neodymium -- should have similar effects." The Doktor flitted from cabinet to cabinet around the laboratory, fetching assorted jars and boxes, and piled them all a few feet behind the large anvil. He then took a small iron rod from off the anvil, and slowly brought it closer to Lynn. "Please let me know as soon as you feel any discomfort, and what exactly you are feeling."

"Oh, our esteemed host already asked if I would assist with the fireworks," Archeville replied to Fulcrum and Victory, "so I do not believe we need to ask for any further permission, and can go directly to the pyrotechnicians already outside." "If we are to go out there now, though," he continued, grinning as he pulled aside his suit's vest to reveal the circuitry-patterned Gravimetric Belt we wore as a cummerbund, "why not do so in style? Let me see, total weight would be... 151 pounds for me... 600 pounds for Victory... for Fulcrum..." He chuckled slightly while making adjustments to the device, and winked at her, "I will never tell. Alright, gather close, please." They both felt a tingling sensation, and a tiniest bit of vertigo. Archeville called out to their host, before he'd done his "lead the guests out by elephant" act. "Herr Fassbinder, we are going to see to the fireworks. We will be sure to make them memorable!" As soon as Fassbinder -- and anyone else interested in seeing who was calling to the host -- turned to look at Archeville, he and his companions had disappeared in a blue-grey swirl of light. Once at the fireworks station, the trio set to work. Fulcrum used her superhuman speed to both design several colorful displays -- some featuring the images of some of Freedom's famed superheroes -- and mixing up some additives for his fuel so his contrails would be different colors, a task akin to mixing paints. Archeville worked on coding a GPS path for the cyborg so he'd know exactly where to fly, and mixed up a few particularly brilliant fireworks which he could deliver while in flight. "These will be fantastic!"

Archeville floated above them, looking quite awkward and confused. "There were four others, one at Providence Asylum, three not far from your home." "I am, ah," he continued, turning to Phantom and nervously scratching the back of his head, "I am sorry. I am so sorry this happened. I was arrogant and stupid and... and if there is anything I can do... or not do..."

Archeville was silent as she prayed, both out of respect and an awareness of the hypocrisy (if not blasphemy) of him uttering those words. When she calmed down somewhat, he spoke up, "do you have any leads on anyone who might be able to tell? You said the Winter Queen did not talk much with the Summer Queen, but what about the rest of the Winter Court? If their is anything like feudal European courts, surely there would be someone who would both know something and be willing to part with that information, for a certain price. Do you have any contacts there?" He tried to sound upbeat; it was the best idea he could come up with given what little he knew.

At that exact moment, down in the sub-sub-sub-sub-basements, Thunderbolt was at the Castle's fission reactor, and getting antsy. Why should he wait for 'orders' from Binder? He was his own man! He was power! With outstretched hands he focused on the Castle's fission reactor, feeling the ebb and flow of currents, and twisted! Most of the castle was suddenly plunged into darkness, while in others, equipment exploded from power surges!

"" Binder coughed out. "" a sinister laugh echoed from his helmet, "" "Den ve had best get him out of dere before you can send a signal, und before de timer runs out. Fulcrum," he said without taking his eyes off the villain below him, "can you round up everyvon und bring dem outside? Dere are staff in de main labs, de vons ve passed by vhen ve first arrived, und also in de kitchen, behind de dining hall, und de hangar below de courtyard." He began making swift adjustments to his Gravimetric Belt, "retrieving mein Screwdriver from de speedster vould be very good, too." Mona had seen something that could have been Archeville's Screwdriver, poking out of the pocket of the purple speedster, whom she'd seen laid out on the floor in the kitchen.

Blackstar, Cyclone, Radium, and Slick are all KO'd. Binder is bruised, fatigued, staggered, stunned Thunderbolt is bruised x2. Fiat to have Binder sake off stun, and taunt/threaten the heroes. Dok... misses his Electromagnetic Screwdriver He mostly talks during this round, asking Mona to round up the KO'd baddies and the other staff (and find his Screwdriver) while he prepares to extricate Thunderbolt from the Castle's power core. Thunderbolt is antsy, and begins to blow s#!+ up before being ordered to! Thunderbolt attempts to overload Caste's power grid (1d20+11=29) Castle attempts to resist having its power grid overloaded (1d20+14=20) (There's no real rules on this, so I'm just doing d20 + Electrical Control vs./ d20 + Castle's/Dok's PL) That beats by 9! Impressive explosions and blackouts galore!

Use Dimensional Pocket?