Dr Archeville

Ah-ha! Now ta dig a bit deeper.... "Lincoln, eh? That where the bum fights go down?," the over-clothed newcomer asked. "Not somethin' I'd want ta do, but if it came to it, I can hold my own in a scrap." Dead Head knew he had to tread carefully, and not ask too much, not at first. The people around him had what to most would be an unimaginably hard life, and trust came hard in such cases. "Know anyone hirin'?"

"He calculated some exact solution vhere Einstein himself had only produced approximate solutions," he said as Fulcrum began to feel a tingling sensation, "in regards to certain gravitational fields, such as de point at vhich a spherical object becomes so dense it becomes a singularity, a black hole." The tingling sensation rapidly intensified, and Fulcrum's vision blurred. There was a sudden sensation of rapid movement, as if she had been flung across the room like a rag doll; flashes of light streaked by her, like what was shown on that Candian sci-fi program when they moved from world to world. Wait, was Archeville taking her to another planet?! Just as quickly as the sensations hit her, it was over, and her vision returned. She was outside, on a large and well-lit helipad, which was attached to... a castle! Looked to be off the 3rd floor of the castle, though there were more levels above, including a massive tower in the center! The skies were dark -- no sun, and considerably more cloud than what they'd had in Freedom. Colder, too -- it had to be below freezing out here! There was even patches of snow here and there! Fulcrum felt her hand begin squeezed, and realized Archeville was still holding it. He was looking at her and grinning. "Steady on your feet, ja?" Date: January 16th, 2010 (Saturday) Time: Around 7:00pm (local); sunset at 4:02pm. 26oF, S wind 10 mph, overcast skies.

"Now who's the one refusin' an offer'a hel-" it began, then suddenly stopped. The skyclad zombie calmly picked up the clothing it had been wearing earlier, then slowly walked off. The fact it did stop to pick up its clothes probably meant is had not suddenly come under the control of some outside force which was calling tit to do horrible things... right? She don't want help, and I ain't gonna press it. Person's gotta want t'be helped, nothin' ya can do otherwise.

Extra Effort to stunt the following off his Pseudonatural Brain: :words: :words: :words:

"Ah, excuse me, Herr Keeper," Archeville aid as he peered out from behind Dark Star and the real Fleur. "Vhen you say 'quintillions,' are you using de Ameican und Briitsh short scale, or de European long scale? Dat is, is it a von mit eighteen zeroes behind it, or a von mit thirty zeroes behind it? If de latter, dat is a lot of bees, und I vould be quite interested in learning how you got so many!" "Of course," the Doktor continued rapidly, "such a large number of bees is only second to de fact you made dem so big! How did you do dat? I haff a few guesses -- de venom dat von of your pets pumped into me, coursing through mein veins even now, has a familiar tingle of radiation. I haff been through alot, you see, faced a vide assortment of foes, so after a vhile you get to de point vhere you can just tell dese sorts of dings. Ah, you used some of dat new isotope ASTRO LABS developed, de von dey found had de side-effect of causing immense growth in insects, ja, you sly devil? Come on, you can level mit me; I am a Doktor." "Und speaking of deir venom," he continued, his voice wavering ever-so-slightly in pitch and tone, "dat is some remarkable vork you did on redesigning de stingers so dey do not tear out vonce dey sting somevon! Did you just transplant de genes for de non-barbed stinger from a qveen into de drones, or make dat up from scratch?" "I bet it vas just a transplant," he went on, his tone wavering more and more wildly, "I mean if de armor you haff is any indication. Dat is some of Eric Micheals vork, ja? It looks very similar to Malice's suit. I vonce vorked for him, did you know dat? Ja, I did! But now he is locked up, und I spun his company into mein own. Sort of like a larva developing into a full-grown bee! Shame, really, he had such potential. Vould you like to come vork for me? I am vorking on starting up a vork-release program for de so-called 'supervillains,' und I can dink of several projekts dat vould be right up your alley, such as easy-to-use transdermal 'slap-patches' to replace epi-pens, or using bee venom to cure some forms of paralysis! Clearly you are highly intelligent to haff pulled all dis off, to haff created all you haff done." "Oh, und once you take over de vorld, vhat den?" His pitch and tone wavered more and more, rising and falling and sliding up and down in volume. "How are you going to get de whole vorld? I mean, haff your adapted your bees to survive in extremely cold climates? High-altitude vons? Do dey haff de stamina needed to fly across de oceans to ozher continents? And if so, und you do take over, den vhat? Force humanity to build more und more hives? Harvest all de pollen to make honey for your bees? Vould you stay on Earth, or try und start some sort of intergalactic colony? Dere are plenty of inhabited alien vorlds out dere, und a few inhabitable vons mit not much native life. How about ve take you to von of dose und you can live out your day creating your own bee-based ecosystem? Vould dat not be exciting? Dink of it -- you could create a vorld vhere man evolved from bees!" "By de vay, dat is not de real Fleur de Joie you are holding. Dat is Ace Danger, in a costume; I must say dat he pulls off dat outfit far better dan I vould have thought. You haff heard of him, ja? Member of de Danger family, agent of AEGIS, member of de Freedom League, international pansexual playboy und man of mystery? I hear he is a fine kisser; vould you agree?"

If we're still not in rounds yet, I have an idea for a next post (which'll either be really cool, or really horrible).

I believe we need a Toughness save from the tree Hellion attacked with his fireball, then it'll be Dead Head's turn.

A very broad, Cheshire Cat grin had spread across Archeville's face. "Dey are indeed," he replied, tracing a finger along her cheek as he parted from her side and moved to one of the pad's control panels. "Officially, dey are 'Schwarzschild Vormhole Aperture Producer,' or SWAPs. Dey create vormholes betveen two points, similar to mein Belt; I am fairly confident your errant Terminus energies vill not interfere mit its functioning," he said with a wink. "Karl Schwarzschild vas a German physicist who made some discoveries in General Relativity, some in concert mit und some independent of Einstein. His research interests vere extremely broad, including vork in celestial mechanics, observational stellar photometry, quantum mechanics, instrumental astronomy, stellar structure, stellar statistics, Halley's comet, und spectroscopy." As his fingers flew over the buttons and switches of the controls, one of the pads began to glow more intensely and give off a gentle hum. "I am vorking on anozher name for de system, dough," he admitted, "since it does not really fit -- 'SWAP' implies an exchange of matter, but de system can send dings from A to B mitout requiring an equal exchange from B to A. Dough," he continued, "since de vormholes are not von-vay, at least some atmosphere exchanges, so I suppose in a vay it is an accurate name...." One final switch was flicked, then the Doktor hovered over to the pad, and landed on it. He held out one hand to Fulcrum, and gave a come-hither look. "So, ready to be 'SWAPped out' to out next destination?"

Whoa! Awesome! And the Young Imperials ain't too bad, either ;)

Your last post seems a good place to end it. Anything else you want to get in?

The zombie let out a low whistle, which echoed eerily due to the fact it came form its lips as well as a small tear in its throat. "Always wanted ta go to those places! An' you got tha guided tour, ya say? Who was it what took ya?" "An' what brings ya up north, hrm?" it continued. It really did act like any other eager and curious person. Perhaps that was what kept it tied to this word? Learning about people, about so-called "superheroes"? "Ya on here fer a specific case? Or jes' a general gut feelin' that yer needed 'ere?"

Dead Head nodded, then shambled off towards the cultists. "Hey! Hold up!" he called out to the cultists. "Any'a you fellers got tha time? I'm s'posed ta meet this gal here, 'round midnight. Man," he paused and looked around idly, "I hope she shows -- ya never can tell with those Undernet datin' sites." "Oh, I'm so sorry!" he said suddenly, smacking his forehead. "Where are my manners? Name's Ernie. Pleasedtameetcha!" He went around enthusiastically shaking cultist's hands, detaching one of his own after the third shake, and moving on as if he had not noticed.

Ah, now I remember what that other pp for Dead Head was going to be spent on! Feature 1 (internal compartment) [b]Feature 1[/b] (internal compartment) Done by Angrydurf* *also Eww

"Yeah, sure," the flaming-eyed zombie replied as he rose and shambled towards the bike, "but what about him?" [bg=#000000]... so cold... [/bg] "I don't wanna jes' leave 'im out here," it went on, looking back and forth between Midnight and the mostly-dead man, "but I don't think that thing can hold all three'a us. If the cops ain't gonna be by soon, ya think he can law low in yer friend's place," He cocked his head towards Travis' home, "'til I can come back an' escort him someplace proper, like tha nearest morgue?" [bg=#000000]... so dark... Emily? Emily, where are you?[/bg] "Whoa, hold up!," the flame-eyed zombie called to Midnight, then turned back to the corpse still sprawled on the lawn. "Who's Emily?" [bg=#000000]Emily... my... my girlfriend... was diving with me when... when it all went black...[/bg] "Says his girlfriend was with 'im. Probably taken, too."

AW okayed DH to be part of the festivities, a few days ago in chat :)

One several of the tables were small gift boxes, very colorfully wrapped, which radiated faint amount of magical energy. Necromantic energy, to those able to finely discern such things. The energy suddenly spiked, and four boxes popped open, revealing two crawling hands and two hopping feet! They moved toward a large table in the back of the room, darting under the hanging tablecloth. A moment later, the table -- actually two tables pushed together -- split apart as a decayed headless zombie in a dingy dark blue janitor's coveralls arose from under it. It shambled about blindly for a moment before grabbing a wrapped box on another nearby table, which it placed atop its shoulders. It reached up to undo the bow, and the box fell away, revealing a head with a permanent rictus grin and flaming green eyes. "Howdy, folks!" Dead Head said cheerily.

"I got all the rights anyone'd ever need to do exactly that," it said as it peeled off the top of the uniform, "an' if ya weren't so blasted stubborn an' close-minded, ya'd realize what a service I provide ta folks. Dead folks, sure, but why shouldn't they get their final wishes fulfilled, their last words passed on?" It began to undo the uniform's pants, "heck, if anythin' I'd think you'd be happy ta meet someone what could put tha dead ta final rest. Wouldn't ya want all that howlin' on yer world ta stop?"

Trevor had not heard of anything recently in regards to the assorted underwater and seashore caves that dotted North Bay, Port Regal, and Lonely Point, though he did know where all the most popular ones were. "Alright, man, stay with us," the flaming-eyed zombie said to the other, grasping both its shoulders. "Which cave didja go to? Where was it?" [bg=#000000]P-Port Regal...[/bg] "Port Regal, good, good!," the zombie repeated, "but where in Port Regal?" [bg=#000000]Near the Asylum... half a mile south...[/bg] The zombie drawled out a brief curse, "near th'Asylum, he says. Half a mile south. Man, I hate goin' near that place!" Trevor knew of some caves in that area. Many were off-limits due to a possibility of connecting to tunnels which lead to Providence Asylum.

Malice's last rant was indeed great. But having him set off bombs under the building, endangering all the people above (as well as himself & Knievel)... well, as Durf said, that's further past the ME Horizon's than he's gone (remember, Malice used to be known as the villain who reined in the collateral damage, making sure Bystanders didn't get hurt), and would completely nix any plans of him coming back as a reformed villain-turned-hero PC. I would assign Malice a hefty bonus (say, +5) on that Bluff, since it is something we'd all fear he'd do. Also, after five RL months translating to maybe 10 in-game minutes (IC's been mostly combat rounds, and those are only 6 seconds each), I think some of us are suffering from a bit of fatigue at this.

"Oh, man, yer preachin' to tha choir!," the zombie replied to Nick. Hearing it speak was somewhat odd, since undead 'together' enough to think and talk usually looked fairly preserved, not like this rotting-and-regenerating thing. He then turned to Freedom Angel, opened his mouth as if to say something, then shut it and turned back to Nick. "So, been at this long? Born with a caul over yer head, seen ghosts since ya was little? Or'ja have a near-death experience an' gain tha second sight after ya came back?"

Didn't Dark Star just teleport us all into the "hive" where Bee-Keeper and Ace!Stesha are?

Yeah, I did love that the judge seemed to know more about Spawn than McFarlane himself.

"Knievel's not bluffing!," Archeville called out as he adjusted his Screwdriver with one hand and fished around in his labcoat's many pockets with the other. "On de ozher hand, since I haff been flooding dis entire structure mit microvaves since ve got here, interfering mit all unauthorized radio signals, de bombs should not go off as qvickly as he vould like. Und dey should only go off if Malice or de Giant Robot are damaged, but not if dey are simply restrained!" He turned briefly to Sarah, "Keepping dem distracted und off me vill aid me de most. Ah, I hope you have some non-visual means of locating target," he aid as he drew a small pellet from his labcoat, then tossed it amongst the villains. A thick cloud of dark smoke exploded out form it. A few quick adjustments to the Screwdriver, and it now functioned as a tech scanner as well as a radio wave blocker. "Now, let us see just vhat ve are vorking mit here..."

Part the Second: Move Action: Draw smoke pellet (Obscure 2 [10ft radius, Visual Senses; Extras: Independent]) from Utility Labcoat. Standard Action: Use smoke pellet, putting it as much in the center of Knievel, Malice and Giant Robo as possible. Free Action: Extra Effort to SURGE. Move Action: Reconfigure Gadget (which means the radio & etc. Obscure are gone) Free Action: Scan the tech in the area, particularly the remote Knievel smashed and for similar bits in Malice's armor. Due to Mental Quickness, can Take 20 on a Notice check, getting 36. IC post up soon-ish. Will be fatigued at start of next round.

I can make the dead walk. Most of the time, they're just basic mindless zombies (or, depending on the condition of the body, skeletons), animated just by my own will and a spark of the same ju-ju that keeps me going. 'Course, I always ask the local spirits before animating them -- it's just good manners. Weird thing, though, is that no matter what shape the body's in -- what condition it was in while alive or dead -- the animated form works pretty much the same: slightly stronger but slightly slower than a regular person if intact enough to rise as a zombie, slightly faster than an average person if animated as a skeleton. Now, I've heard of folks rising -- either on their own or due to some necromantic effect -- and having a wide variety of powers and such based on what type of person they were in life or the particulars of their death. I never really bothered looking more into it, until recently, when I started looking over some of the stuff Phantom's got, and chatting with some of Avenger's -- let's say, "associates". And I finally worked a few tricks out. Blazin' Bones: Sometimes I can make a skeleton burst into flames when I animate it! It's easier to do so if the person had died via fire,but sometimes my own weird energies are enough to ignite them. They become wreathed in flame (usually everywhere but their feet, so they don't burn a hole in whatever they're standing on), and become immune to fire, but lose their immunity o cold (some sort of 'elemental balance' thing, according to Phantom). I've done similar tricks with cold and electricity. I could probably do similar with radiation... but that's a bit too eerie. Spry Bones: I'm more limber than most ordinary folks, so it stands to reason I could use the energies animating me to animate skeletons that're really limber. And now, I can! These fellas are really agile, and they've got spidery fingers that're perfect for wedging into cracks and other imperfections in walls to climb up. Brainy (I) Zombies: Took me a while to figure out -- mainly out of fear I'd create something too feral -- but now I can raise zombies with varying levels of intellect. Not much, mind you, but enough to make them not completely mindless, and more useful in whatever help I need them for. At the most basic, they're akin to animals: they can single out specific targets and take them out first without instruction, and are able to use flanking tactics. They can and will hunt opponents, and will shamble away from a losing battle if overwhelmed. Brainy (II) Zombies: A bit more advanced, able to identify the weakest and strongest members of a group, set ambushes, flank opponents, use cover, and -- what I think is the most impressive part -- use basic tools! Brainy (III) Zombies: The smartest ones I can raise up -- that is, without binding their spirit fully back to their body and truly reviving them -- can spy on opponents and recognize weaknesses, identify people and objects, and use more advanced tools (like things with moving parts). They can also speak, but usually no more than a strig of three or four words at a time. Diseased Zombie: The human body's full of diseases, and dying just makes some of them more active. I can raise up a zombie and 'amp up' the diseases in it... but doing so's really, really iffy, for the same reason biological weapons got banned. Rigor Zombie: These fellas can pass on some of their own stiffness to those they touch. Stencher: Wow, do these fells reek! At least, that's what others tell me. Swift Zombie: "Oh, slow zombies are so passe; you can just walk away from them. Only the fast zombies are scary!" Fine, you want fast zombies, I'll give ya fast zombies! (Still as dumb as a bag of hammers, though.) Tank Zombie: Sometimes ya just need a big, strong friend to help batter down doors or walls, or protect others.