Dr Archeville

The look on Archeville's face clearly showed he believe Jack as much as a medical doctor whose overweight patient swears he's been going to the gym three times a week, not laying around the house gorging on junk food. But he made no remark, and simply turned back to Taylor. "Dere are a few more tests I vould like to run, ja," he said, his tone changed to a kinder and more diplomatic one. "As advanced as dat scanner is, it is still just an ultrasound/MRI, und dere is much it cannot tell. Fortunately, de tests I vish to do vill be far less stressful on you, as I require only a few samples of blood und amniotic fluid. However, do note I said less stressful, not completely stress-free -- de amniocentesis procedure typically involves a local anesthetic, since de procedure is qvite uncomfortable, but if mein theories about your time-locked biology are correct, most anesthetic agents vill not vork on you." "However...." he said, the corners of his mouth curling slightly up as his eyes lit up, his mind clearly racing with an idea, "I do haff von alternative, von dat vould involve no needles at all. I haff in de past treated metahumans mit extremely tough skin, und haff had to find alternative methods to piercing it in order to take blood samples or administer drugs, or to perform surgery. Von technique I developed vas a vay to use teleportation technology to extract blood samples; I could try und do someding similar mit you...."

And now the $64,000 question: a male what fetus? Full normal human? Dhampir hybrid? Something from out of left field, like a Danny Phantom-esque "half-ghost"?

Sandwich?

Muah hah hah 8-)

Muah hah hah 8-)

Unknown to -- though perhaps suspected by -- Grimalkin, Colt, and Jack of Blades, another set of eyes had been on them the whole time. From his Wissenschaftthron in one of the sub-sub-levels of his Hanover home, Doktor Archeville, the true founder and backer of the Interceptors, had watched the "intervention." "VINCE," he said aloud, seemingly speaking to the air but really communicating via the secret secure channel he had direct to the team's butler/mascot "do keep a close eye on young Herr Espadas." VINCE materialized, looking like Dr. Juan Miguel San Roman, the sexy Cuban psychoanlyst from the telenovela Cuidado con el ángel. "¡Sí, señor doctor Archeville!" ".... jaaa... oh, und tomorrow, give Colt some instruction on how to repair de security panel to Wreck Room, so he can fix it. Or, at de very least, make him sit dere und vatch you fix it."

So is Interceptors: Intervention finished? If so, I'll lock it up (after making a small addition....)

"De fifteenth of last month," he replied nonchalantly, nudging more pieces of broken machinery with his foot and watching the robots scurry all about it. "Dough he retired soon aftervards, so I am looking for a new von, in addition to mein own regiment of self-medication. Adequate psychological und psychiatric care is someding hard for many like me to find; de minds of de hyper-intelligent are so afire dat, should ve fully bare ourselves to most therapists, it is doubtful dat deir minds could survive de searing caused vhen minds of great power mesh deeply mit... vell, 'lesser intellects' is de most polite yet accurate label I can apply." Atlas picked up a hint of sadness in the Doktor, and then it hit him: as much as he stood out due to his impressive size and strength (even when not in "Big Red Man" form), Archeville must be even more isolated -- at least Atlas could talk to people without having to "dumb down" to their level. Playing dumb, to throw off a foe or for a laugh, was one thing, but to have to do that in every social interaction, to have to treat everyone as if they were incompetent babies.... "As for your strength," he went on, slapping Atlas on both shoulders (and having to hover up a few feet to do so), "I vould say dat, on rough estimate of vhat ve haff seen here today, you could bench press... oh, about tventy two und a half thousand tonnes. Dat... dat is an entire ocean liner, like de Titanic." * 22,679 tonnes = 50,000 tons = max load for Str 100. The Titanic weighed 52,310 tons.

"So," Dead Head replied to Jack's invitation, shifting to a thick Bela Lugosi accent, "you bid us velcome?" He breathed out an echoing laugh and slapped one of the tombstones as he took a few steps towards Atlas. "I'm sure we'll find some good ones for ya, man. Why, " he said with a snap of his fingers and a flare of his eerie eye-flames, "I even remember seeing a few Russian horror flicks, back in my college days. Viy, the Spirit of Evil was one, and... The Queen of Spades, and... and The Portrait, and Satan Exultant! Oh," he grinned sheepishly at Hellion, then back to Atlas, "maybe we'll skip that last one. One of the students had bootlegged 'em over on Betamax tapes... they still make those, don't they?" Dead Head honestly did not know: he'd been living on the road for the past decade, owning nothing but what was in his pockets.

Archeville had been conversing with Dr. Frank, trying to get information on exactly what it was the League members stole, and seeing if he could recall the specific questions they'd asked. Suddenly, a new line of questioning occurred to him. "Doctor Frank, you said it vas Lady Liberty, Johnny Rocket, und Kapitän Thunder, ja? Did dey say anyding about de other Leaguers, about Daedalus, Pseudo, Raven, Siren, or Star Knight?" He turned slightly to address Stesha, "I believe our mutual friend up in de sky vill be in need of some assistance."

Archeville gave a reluctant shrug, "it is impossible to tell mit dis test vhether or not it is human, dough it does appear so. To know for certain, I vould need to do some an amniotic fluid test for any chromosomal abnormalities or signs of infection, und some bloodvork on Taylor to see if it is causing any changes in her, beyond vhat a normal pregnancy vould engender." "Und speaking of blood," he said, turning to directly face Jack, "you must stop feeding from her. I know you still are, und not using de blood substitute I made for you; even dough her own regenerative abilities vould compensate for any damage constant feedings vould do to her circulatory system, or at least any signs dat dis particular scan vould detect, de fact dat you haff pointedly avoided answering mein qvestions regarding how you are coping mit de substitute is enough to tell me you haff not been using it, und are still feeding from her, if not also from others. She is going to need all of her own blood, for herself und de fetus, und as I am sure you do not brush your fangs betveen feedings I am sure you do not vish to risk contaminating her -- or de child -- mit someding you picked up from some criminal."

I was unaware of that bit, and if that's the case, yeah, I say go for it. *aims the RetCannon at ex3lev3n's version, charges up*

"Mad?!" he snapped suddenly, standing straight up and fixing Atlas with a piercing glare. "I haff been called mad before... und vhy? Because I dared to dream of mein own race of radiation-resistant leech-men?! " One uncomfortable silence later, the Doktor again burst into laughter. "Ohhh, I love doing dat!" he said as the last of his giggles left. "Ahem... now, as for you qvestion," he went on, as if nothing unusual at all had happened, "I had designed de system for a pull of approximately von hundred und eighty tonnes... dose vould be metric tons, of course. Und vhile dat may sound impressive, vhat is more impressive is dat, even at dat level of resistance, de look on your face indicated dat you vere barely exerting yourself, no more dan... dan I vould vhen lifting von two-und-a-half kilo bag of potatoes! I vill need to completely redesign a system to accommodate you!" he added as he nudged a few broken parts around with one foot. * Doc's machine went up to Str 70 (heavy load 200 tons), I believe Atlas at this time had a Str of 100 (light load 4,000 tons).

Why not have two legacy holders? Do the backstories clash so badly they can't coexist? Could one be an older legacy, a Nightwing to the other's Robin?

As I recall, the tubes had lots of holes around them, to let the plasma out enough so it could burn/melt anything you wanted, from any angle.

That was on one of the eps of this show, too. Funny thing is, it looked not unlike the toy lightsabers you see -- the plasma "blade" would be confined by a telescoping ceramic composite... thingy, like the telescoping plastic "blade" of a toy lightsaber.

Had a thought for a new AP for Doc's Giant Pulsating Pseudonatural Brain: explosively overclocking it, gaining a temporary boost in brainpower, but at a cost. At the moment, it looks like this Enhanced Intelligence 24 (to 48/+19; Flaw: ???), Linked Enhanced Quickness 6 (to Quickness 12 [x10,000]; Flaws: Limited to mental tasks only, ???) [12+2=14pp] The ??? Flaw is what I can't figure. At first I thought Unreliable -- he tries to push his brain, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't -- but that doesn't quite fit my idea. Then I thought of Side Effect, a Damage effect that happens to him when he activates the power. Or, as a tiny amount of damage at first, but slowly building as time goes on... but I have no idea if such is even possible in this system. Thoughts?

8 tasty unspent pp for Doc. 2pp on feats: Second Chance for his other two crafts: * Second Chance x3 (Craft [chemical, electronics, mechanical] checks) -- Reroll a check if you fail. Keep the other 6 for now, I'm still mulling over what to do with them. No updates for Dead Head (yet), but a request for a rearrangement on a part of his char sheet. Please change this [b]Enhanced Feats 2[/b] (Affects Insubstantial 2 for unarmed) [2x1 = 2pp] [b]Enhanced Feat 1[/b] (Jack of All Trades) [1pp] to this [b]Enhanced Feats 3[/b] (Affects Insubstantial 2 for unarmed, Jack of All Trades) [3x1 = 3pp] and move this [b]Enhanced Super-Senses s[/b] (acute and analytical for magic awareness; [i]Flaw[/i]: Only for Necromantic magic) [2x0.5 = 1pp] So it's below his Super-Senses power (since it directly modifies that power). Also, please replace that s with a 2. Done by angrydurf

In December 2009, the Science Channel began a new show, Sci-Fi Science, hosted by Michio Kaku. He takes sci-fi concepts -- existence of & travel to parallel universes, teleportation, invisibility, FTL travel, sentient/sapient robots, etc. -- and sees how close we are to really having them. Last week's ep, he made a Super Hero Suit, with: * Super-Strength (via two types of artificial muscles, some made from a memory metal powered by alcohol fumes [the inventor must've been a Futurama fan], and some made from carbon nanotubes), * Protection (carbon nanofiber), * Mind Reading (touch range, via ultra-miniaturized MRI-like devices in the gauntlets), * Super-Senses (X-ray Vision, and some other vision enhancements, based on lobster eyes), and * Additional Limbs (two extending from the shoulders, controlled via impulses from the spine which would rewire itself to control them... not unlike Doc Ock)

Seven PL bumps! :clap: And one new Platinum Club Member! :clap: :clap: :clap: alderwitch Phantom: 4, +1pp For Vignette = 5pp and is now PL 13 :clap: Psyche: 4, +1pp For Vignette = 5pp Angrydurf Ace Danger: 3, +1pp For Vignette = 4pp Phalanx: 5, +1pp For Vignette, +1 Ref = 7pp Arcane Snowman Dalkaresh: 1pp AvengerAssembled Avenger: 4, +1pp For Vignette = 5pp Edge: 3, +1pp For Vignette, +1 Ref = 5pp Freedom Angel: 3pp Blink (chars archived) Blink: 0pp Cyroa Dark Star: 3, +1pp For Vignette = 4pp Hellion: 3, +1pp For Vignette = 4pp and is now PL 12 :clap: Dariusprime Fulcrum: 4, +1pp For Vignette = 5pp Dr Archeville Dead Head: 2, +1 Ref = 3pp Dr. Archeville: 3pp Ecalsneerg Arrowhawk: 1pp Geckoman: 2, +1 Ref = 3pp Electra Fleur de Joie: 3, +1pp For Vignette = 4pp and is now PL 12 :clap: Wander: 2, +1pp For Vignette = 3pp ex3leven (archived) Razorwing: 0pp Geez3r Atlas: 4, +1pp For Vignette, +1 Ref = 6pp and is now PL 12 :clap: Tempest: 2, +1pp For Vignette, +1 Questionnaire, +1 Reputation = 5pp Gizmo Jack of All Blades: 3, +1pp For Vignette, +2 NPC = 6pp Heritage Grimalkin: 4, +1pp For Vignette = 5pp and is now PL 13 and Platinum :clap: :clap: :clap: Kakashi64 Madcap: 1, +1pp For Vignette = 2pp Lone Star Kid Cthulhu: 3pp Moira Divine: 3, +1pp For Vignette = 4pp Seraph: 0pp Nyrath Mongrel Angel: 3, +1 NPC = 4pp quotemyname Breakdown: 4, +1pp For Vignette = 5pp and is now PL 12 :clap: Colt: 5, +1pp For Vignette = 6pp and is now PL 14 :clap: Sandman XI Quark: 1, +1 Ref = 2pp Wesley Knight: 0pp ShaentheBrain Scarab II: 0, +1 Ref = 1pp Zephyr: 0pp Sorus Paladin: 0pp Troubleshooter (chars archived) Elektron: 0pp Warmonger All-Star: 0pp Sen: 0pp The 100+ Posts per Month Club Colt (103) Phalanx (103)

Groovy 8-) ... frack! Stunting it off his Pseudonatural Brain & using it this round would be impossible, since it would require two uses of Extra Effort, but you can only use EE 1/round. (One for the power stunt, and one to surge so he can use it, since anything stunted off his Pseudonatural Brain would take a full round to switch.) Right, pure Gadgets it is. Standard action to switch Gadgets: Extra Effort to surge (and an HP to nix the fatigue), and a full round to attack. 22 hits? If so, DC 17 Ref save vs. the Toughness Drain.

Doktor Archeville As the battle raged, Archeville remained behind the bar, making adjustments to his Electromagnetic Screwdriver. Archeville suddenly popped up from behind the bar, holding his E.S. like a laser pointer. Aiming it at the Patchwork Girl, he fired several short blasts at her, or, more precisely, at the sutures holding her together. "Pew! Pew! Pew!" Yes, the great Doktor Archeville actually said "pew! pew! pew!" while shooting someone with a laser. He hoped his supposition was right, and that undoing some of those sutures on her would cause sections of her skin and musculature to loosen and buckle (if not fall completely off), making her a softer target for his allies. If his supposition was wrong... well, at least Dark Star was there to hold her.

Reverted to PC status at player request.

Char archived due to player absence.

Char archived due to player absence.