Dr Archeville

On October 24th, 2007, the Freedom City Play-by-Post board was opened. About three and a half months later, on February 8th, 2008, I joined the site. Six weeks later (March 20, 2008), I was elevated to the Refdom, and about nine weeks after that (July 29th, 2008), following a shocking [redacted] and the brutal [redacted] of the previous administration, ownership & Admin-ship of the site was transferred to me. (Bwah hah hah! Four more years! Four more years!) Some Statistics Number of Posts: 148,411 Number of Topics/Threads: 6,283 Number of Users (who've made at least one post): 298 Current Number of Players: 35 Current Number of Active PCs: 72 Average Posts per Day: 85.31 Average Topics/Threads per Day: 3.61 Top Active Posters 01 Dr Archeville 12,975 02 AvengerAssembled 10,156 03 quotemyname 7,971 04 Electra 6,943 05 Supercape 6,350 06 Gizmo 5,309 07 ShaenTheBrain 4,178 08 Geez3r 4,005 09 angrydurf 3,996 10 Raveled 3,967 I would like to think that, on balance, FC PbP has been a fun place for all involved. I fully intend to continue keeping this site chugging along for the foreseeable future. Many great stories have been told you, and I am certain there are still many more left to tell, and I am humbled and happy to provide a place for such tales to be told. I must give special thanks to Arichamus, AvengerAssembled, Supercape, Tiffany_Korta, and trollthumper for running so many amazing stories, and to Electra and Gizmo for helping new players with the background/fluff parts of their characters. And to Sorus for keeping the place running! I have no grand changes in mind for the site, except in trying to keep a better eye on things, and making sure characters and adventures fit the overall mood/theme/tone of the board (DCAU-esque -- Relevant, not Cynical [or Homophobic/Misogynistic/Racist], and overall Enjoyable). We're not perfect, some things have slipped through that ought not have, and the Refs are going to try and be better about that. Plans are still in effect for a few Big Adventures, but if there's anything you want to see, please, let us know. The RedNames do a lot of the heavy lifting, but it's all done for you -- your feedback an desires are valued! Thanks for being such great players, and making this such a fun place to run :D

My RL issues are going to be getting even more horribad. I am striving to at the very least keep up with my Admin-y duties; even if I am unable to participate in this wonderful community as much as I once did, I do still keep it in my heart.

How is your character going to be using their spaceship? That is, how big a role will the ship have in day-to-day (or, rather, thread-to-thread) operations? A concern is that using it as a cheap (relativelY) way to get a bunch of Super-Senses and Teleport is a bit of a cheat.

Another one, already? Sure, why not? FC:PbP is offering the community another "vignette" opportunity! Thinking on the fact that The Dark Knight Rises is coming out this month -- and how it seems to be drawing heavy inspiration from the arc that introduced Bane, "KnightFall" -- we might as well offer something thematically similar for our heroes: The Crucible. Who: Any player who is interested. Please clearly label which character the Vignette applies to. What: As either part of a plot by some sort of criminal mastermind (August Roman is always a safe bet) or just a string of really bad luck, the heroes of Freedom City end up experiencing trials throughout the month that take them to the limit. Gina may have to deal with a Die Hard situation at HAX where she's cut off from Miss A. Citizen might end up dealing with a magnetic field-manipulating terrorist threatening to crush Pyramid Plaza. Nick Cimitiere finds himself cut off from his necromancy and thrust into the deeper part of Tartarus. And, of course, there's always the good old-fashioned archvillain team up. And the hero rises again, bruised, battered, but not broken. When: The deadline for submissions will be Tuesday, July 31st, by 11:59 PM EST (GMT -5). The time the vignettes themselves take place is up to you. Where: Anywhere in the campaign setting; the written Vignettes should be posted in this thread. Why: To enhance our community, to flex your writing muscles, to think more deeply about (or put a new spin on) your characters, and to earn a bonus PP for your character for the month of July. How: Once your story is finished and proofed, post it in this very thread here! Additional Notes/Clarification: Vignettes do not count as posts. Post here with questions. Blue Jay: Coming of Age Cannonade: Reforged Nick Cimitiere: Down in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go Cobalt Templar: [untitled] Crimson Tiger: [untitled] Doktor Archeville: The Reformatting Gabriel: [untitled] Harrier: Even When The Music's Gone Ironclad: Breaking the Bank King of Suits: Strength is All Myrmidon: History Repeating Rene de Saens: The Great Retreat Silver Spider: Sting of the Scarlet Scorpion Supercape: Heavy Metal Thrash Voltage: Thirty-Six Seconds

Lots of PL bumps (eight) and new Player Awards (four), and many fine Vignette submissions -- good job, gang! All but those in red have been tallied & edited. Arranged by Player, it looks like this: Airon no posts in 2 months; archiving Saiph: --- Weaver: --- Aoiroo Catalyst: 1pp Changeling: 2pp Silhouette: 3pp and can now be up to PL 13 :clap: Arichamus Heraldo: 4pp King of Suits: 4pp and can now be up to PL 14 :clap: Wave-Eye: 3pp AvengerAssembled Citizen: 5pp Edge: 5pp Harrier: 3pp Azuth65 Siphon: 1pp Wisp: 3pp Belladonna no posts in 2 months; archiving Daeva: --- Blue Rose Kit: 1pp Stormbreaker: 1pp Cowboy no posts in 2 months; archiving Vitae: --- Cube no posts in 2 months; archiving Pyre: --- Steel Shrike: --- Cubist Jubatus: 2pp and is now a Bronze player Dariusprime Fulcrum: 1pp Darksider42 Rift: 1pp and is now a Bronze player Dr Archeville Dead Head: 1 pp Doktor Archeville [maxed]: 3 pp, 2 directed to Protectron Protectron: 5 pp and can now be up to PL 14 Ecalsneerg Arrowhawk: 0pp Equinox: 1pp Geckoman: 1pp Scholar: 0pp Electra Fleur de Joie [maxed]: 4pp Miss Americana [maxed]: 2pp Papercut: 8pp and can now be up to PL 12 :clap: Wander [maxed]: 8pp Eviscerus no posts all month Leviathan: 0pp Spitfire: 0pp Fox Dragonfly: 2pp Gaian Knight: 2pp Wraith: 2pp Gizmo Ghost Girl: 6pp Jack of all Blades [maxed]: 6pp and is now an Impervium player Midnight (II) [maxed]: 3pp Wail: 1pp GranspearZX Arcturus: 0pp Crusader: 1pp JackgarPrime Victory: 1pp KnightDisciple Cobalt Templar: 3pp and can now be up to PL 13 :clap: Gabriel: 3pp Lone Star no posts in 2 months; archiving Kid Cthulhu: --- Zap: --- Magic Butterfly: 1pp Miss Rabbit Sidestep: 1pp Paragon Quintessence: Quinn Crow: Overclock: Raveled Glowstar: 1pp Ironclad: 3pp and is now a Gold player Starlight: 2pp Scuffles Glow: 3pp Semi-Autogyro Myrmidon: Shofet The Penitent: Sorus Sage: 2 Willow: 1 Supercape Lord Steam: 3pp Rene de Saens: 10pp and can now be up to PL 13 :clap: Supercape [maxed]: 8pp Synth: 3pp Thunder King Crimson Tiger: 3pp Voltage: 2pp TiffanyKorta Blodeuwedd: 3pp and can now be up to PL 9 :clap: Revenant: 4pp and can now be up to PL 13 :clap: Young Britannia: 4pp trollthumper Cannonade: 4pp and can now be up to PL 12 :clap: Nick Cimitiere: 5pp Temperance: 4pp Vahnyu Net Fly: 1pp VideoGeek no posts in 2 months; archiving Corporal Chaos: --- Vith no posts in 2 months; archiving The Swan: --- Velveteen: ---

I'll be away this weekend. Sister's birthday, and she's shopping for a wedding dress.

Need thread lists for GranspearZX Magic Miss Rabbit Paragon Quinn Semi-Autogyro Shofet Thunder King

My sincerest apologies for being more MIA than usual the past few days. Part of it has been work-related -- they've moved all the library servers from the old/current library to the new one (which opens Dec 2012), and since almost all of us here are on "virtual machines," no server = no computer. (Upside: our desks are really clean now, and our invoice & license files have never looked better!) This process started this past Friday afternoon, and getting everything hooked back up took longer than expected; it's now Thursday afternoon, and some of us are now back up & running. Part of it has been electrical problems at home; the big storm that blew through the East coast over the weekend knocked out my power for several hours Saturday evening/Sunday morning, preventing me from starting the monthly post-counts as early as I'd like. A larger part is several personal issues I'm trying to work through, and am still working through, which is why I've not only not been on at all the past few days but also why I've not been on very much the past few months. I am making some progress with some of the issues, but others have a long way to go. I would like to thank AvengerAssembled, Gizmo, supercape, and trollthumper for keeping things going in my absence, and Sorus for keeping the site itself running. And thanks to all of you, for making this such a creative and mutually-supportive community.

Dead Head 0 posts = 0pp Doktor Archeville [maxed] 0 posts = 0pp + Vignette + Ref = 2pp roll over to Protectron Protectron 0 posts = 0pp + 2 rollover from Dok = +2pp (to 193/208, 15pp unspent) GM and NPC

In order to make sure the Refs accurately count all your IC posts and award you the due amount of power points, please post with a list of all the threads in which your character posted IC this month (including the News forum). Remember that we require that posts be a minimum of about 500 characters. You can see here what a 400, 500, and 600 character post looks like. Posts shorter than 500 characters will not be counted. Please also mark things from the Non-Canonical forum as being non-canonical, as those count 1/2 (2 posts made for your char in a non-canon thread count as 1 post for the char). And if you are GMing something, list those threads, too. GM-only posts count as full posts, and can be assigned to whichever of your characters needs a 'push' to get up in post numbers. When you make your list, please post a link to the IC threads -- preferably to the top of the page where your first post for that month appears -- so we (and the auto-count program) can jump right to it. When you post the link to your thread, the URL should look like this http://www.freedomplaybypost.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=4478&p=100643#p100643 or this http://www.freedomplaybypost.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=4478&start=10 or this http://www.freedomplaybypost.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=4478 NOT this http://www.freedomplaybypost.com/viewtopic.php?p=100643#p100643 The four digit number in the URL (bolded & underlined in the correct example) is the thread id number which we need to use the autocountamotron. When you start a thread, make sure [iC] is in the title/subject line of the IC thread, and [OOC] is in the title of the OOC thread. If you make a post in an IC thread as a GM or an NPC, add [GM] in the subject line of the thread. If you make a post and [iC] is not in the subject line, the AutoCounter will not count it. And if you do not put [GM] in the places you post as an NPC or Ref, it won't count those properly. Please list your threads in alphabetical order. Please clearly note any threads in which you are both player and GM/running an NPC. Also, when you start a new thread, please mark it on the Timeline (if you have a handle here, you have an account for the Wiki, and anyone with an account can edit it). You do not have to be specific on the date, but I would like to keep track of when things are happening relative to each other. The Timeline also serves as an index for everything we've done in the nearly three years this site's been active, and it's useful to know if X happens before or after Y. If you've done any extracurriculars -- artwork, HellQ, 20 Questions, NPC, Vignette, Wiki work, etc. -- please be sure to list them along with your active threads. Failure to comply with these guidelines may result in your post counts being postponed or skipped completely.

Birthday Vignette (Protectron): Cycles On Sunday, January 1st, 2012, Protectron was one of the few entities up and about working in The Lab. On weekends the facility did not open to the public until later in the morning, and this morning would likely be slower than usual owing to the hangovers so many visitors (and staff) were sleeping off. A month and a half ago the strange robots’ security clearance had been upgraded to nearly that of the Lab’s founders, as had its responsibilities, so it was used to performing opening duties while the rest of the staff finished preparing. Abruptly, at 10:00:00am EST, the following thoughts passed through the mind of Protectron. Observation: I have -- as far as I can tell -- been online for 364 days. Today could be considered my ‘birthday.’ Review of Accomplishments Contacted and befriended with Lab Founders (Dragonfly, Miss Americana, Supercape, later Gossamer and Ironclad) and Caradoc.Update: I have still yet to find a tactful way to ask about why Cardoc is encased in/disguised by a full-body hologram, or nature of constant transmissions to/from Miss Americana. Priority: Low.Contacted and befriended Atlas, observed uneasy courting rituals between him and Dr. deHavilland. Assisted Blueshift, Geckoman, and Ironclad in stopping the Power Corps from exploiting stranded extraterrestrial centaur-like beings, and assisted them in returning to their home world. Contacted and befriended Sharl Tulink, a digital entity rescued by Miss Americana. Introduced by Supercape to Baron Magnus Katastrof. Impressed by ideas for energy generation/deployment, unimpressed by attitude.Task Update: Confer with Lab-Founders before responding to Katastrofs’ latest request for information re: The Lab’s generators.Observed improved health in Friend-Dragonfly, partly from my insistence on proper nutrition, partly from development of pair-bonding with Jill Pique. Update: Have yet to meet Jill’s brother, Jack, but have gathered that he is a ‘people-person.’ Should increase efforts to meet and converse with him.Assisted Dragonfly, Miss Americana, and Sharl Tulik in dealing with “The Conquering Mind” (Grue/Legion Virus hybrid).Initial assessment: for a digital entity from the Internet, Tulik seems oddly dismissive of fellow digital intellects like myself. Concerns lessened due to Miss Americana’s vouching of him.Assisted Caradoc and Ironclad in stopping villainous ‘steampunk’ roboticist from initiating catastrophic meltdown reaction at Raymond Nuclear Power Plant. Assisted Cobalt Templar, Freedom Angel, and Glowstar handle a breakout of human-animal hybrids, and track the quasi-governmental organization responsible for their creation and training. Assisted Lab-Friends Dragonfly, Gossamer, Ironclad, Supercape, and Victory in taking samples from and developing countermeasures against Cosmic Entity 31966, aka “The Gorgon,” and explored ultra-secret Asteroid Belt headquarters of Doktor Viktor Archeville. Update: Still decoding transmission intercepted from patchwork civilization within Gorgon. Analysis of language itself fascinating from evolutionary linguistics standpoint.Upgraded security profile in and responsibilities to The Lab Analysis: I am still no closer to determining my origins. Lab-Friends claim they are sure I am not a threat, but I am not certain, and I predict they do have some lingering concerns. Query: What am I? Am I unique? I am sentient -- I can process sensory information, and act upon it -- as most all life is. But I am also sapient: I can learn, am capable of creativity, empathy, reasoning, and self-initiative.Given my intellect, I am capable of reasoning better than many humans. This, however, does not make me better than them. Most organics who have met me assume I merely understand emotions, but do not truly feel them. They are incorrect. I am fully capable of feeling boredom, excitement, fear, hatred, love, pleasure, rage, wonder, and more; I feel great compassion and sympathy for organics, and for non-organic life. I emphasize logic and scientific rationality -- which includes suppressing illogical emotional manifestations -- and prefer to rely on direct data rather than supposition or extrapolation, though I can do so if need be. Supposition: Similarity of my personality to that of the green-blooded science officer from popular 1960s science fiction program is one reason for my popularity among certain social groupings. There are few other machinekind entities as advanced, physically or mentally, as I am, and it fills me with regret that the most prominent ones are Talos and its organic-hating associates. Why do they insist on destroying -- or, in rare cases, replacing -- organic life? Can they not appreciate that working together is the best choice for both organic and electromechanic life? Perhaps they are not as advanced as they believe, or else they would see that acting in a moral and supportive manner is driven by forces similar to organic evolution: actions which help a society/species to survive and reproduce will be conserved and selected over those that do not. I would like to think that, in time, they would come to realize this, except Talos has been active in the contemporary era for over four decades (reactivated ~March 1971), and for an unknown time before that, so it is possible it has decades, or even centuries, of life experience. Did some trauma occur in its past to make it hate organics? Or is mental deterioration a threat to all immortal entities? The immortal organic Ace Danger indicates that such monomaniacal xenophobia is not destined for all immortals, though it is impossible to tell with only a few decades of data to draw upon. Is such a mindset inevitable for immortal machinekind, like Talos and myself? The villainous trio of androids known as the Erinyes/the Furies Three, originally the heroic Chorale, point to such a possibility, but they have been active for less time than Talos, and their minds were patterned directly after an existing organic mind (Mary Minstrel), so any developments their minds have gone through over the years would be markedly different from that of Talos or myself, whose minds were never housed in an organic brain, never subject to hormonal influences. At least, as far as I know my mind was never housed in an organic brain. This does still concern me: the future is, partially, predicated on the past, but what is my past? When I first came online I had only a spotty knowledge of the past, which I have tried to fill in my ‘off-hours’ by studying world history via the internet, which has proven to be tricky at best. I know no more of future events than anyone else (save precognitive superpowered organics), yet the advanced composition of my body imply a possibility that I am from the future. If I am, why do I not recall it? Was knowledge of the future wiped so I would not use that knowledge to unduly affect things? That is illogical; what would be the point of sending a being into the past without knowledge of their future?Punishment? Incarceration? What could I have done to warrant such punishment? Regardless of where I am from, who made me, or why I was made, I know what I want out of my existence: to safeguard the survival and reproduction of life, in all its wondrous and myriad forms, on this planet and throughout the universe, and that the best way to do is is the assist the dominant organics, Homo sapiens sapiens. I know I have allies, associates, and friends. And that is sufficient.

Meet-Up Story: DENIZEN BANEFUL Dead Head/Doktor Archeville/Protectron “... and we’re back on TechTalk, Freedom’s premiere news show for all things super-science & ultra-tech. With us again is our good friend Doktor Viktor Archeville...” “Hello, Eve. Always a pleasure.” “... and our special guest, straight from The Lab -- Protectron!” “Greetings, Miss Haimo.” Tech Talk was part of New Horizon Media’s “Super-Vision” venture, broadcast from the GBN studios in Parkside. The host, Evelyn Haimo, was wearing one of her many ‘tech’ costumes, this one some manner of neon-biker outfit. Archeville had been a guest on the show many times over the years, but was told little of the particulars for this episodes, save that it was about robots. Haimo and the rest of the show’s staff had been trying for weeks to get Protectron on, to see just how ‘real’ the strange robot was, and the strange robot’s schedule finally left it an opening to do so. “So, let’s get down to it,” Eve said, launching right past any further preliminaries. She turned to the golden robot, “Protectron, in the year or so you’ve been active in Freedom, you’ve captured the hearts and minds of thousands. You even have numerous fan sites!” Viewers at home would see a split-screen effect, with one side being filled with news footage of Protectron soaring through the skies, carrying off robbers, rescuing kittens from trees, putting out fires, and (obviously photoshopped) images of him with assorted fans hanging off of its mighty frame. Eve went on for a few moments more, bringing up the numerous theories held about Protectron’s origins, and Archeville mentally prepared several questions for the robots (many which he’d been wanting to ask ever since he first heard of the strange being) while Protectron recalled the points Dragonfly and Miss Americana had stressed it not mention during the interview. But the two heroes thoughts were quickly interrupted. Greetings, Doktor. Don’t get up, and don’t bother tracing this -- I’m not speaking to you on your internalized radio, I’m speaking directly to your soul. Of course, a man like you doesn’t believe in such things, but I do, and I know all sorts of tricks to do with them. But I’ve not contacted you simply to brag. Well, not much. You see, my... associate has a small matter he needs attending, and you’re just the man for the job. There is a house that’s being attacked right now, and many innocents are in danger. Normally my associate would see to it, but the ones attacking it are... resistant to his powers. We don’t know who sent them -- the brief transmission we received was from a young man with a Japanese accent -- but you should be able to figure it out, and stop them, with little effort. Here’s the address. Oh, and, no, you don’t know that this isn’t some trap... but can you really take the chance? Hey, Protectron! Been meaning to screech at ya for some time! You are a shiny piece of work -- and I mean that as a compliment! Only things I’ve seen that comes close to as advanced as you -- that I didn’t make -- is Foundry stuff, but even that’s not as gear as what I’ve seen in you. I bet... Ah, time for talk later -- right now, I wanna play! And I’ve set up a great game in Lantern Hill, at the old Clark House. ‘Course, there were n00bs there already, some dumb field trip or something, but every game needs targets, right? Here’s the addy. Can’t wait to see ya in action! Hah, nah, ya don’t know it’s not a trap -- but ya ain’t gonna risk it, are ya? Archeville and Protectron both rose at the same time, “I am sorry, I must go,” they said in unison, paused, looked at one another. “You received a-” they began again in unison, nodded, then set off down the hall to the nearest window. Eve was left alone with the cameraman. “Well... ah, can we get a camera on them?” The two landed at Clark House, former home of Revolutionary War hero Major Jospeh Clark. The 19-bedroom Colonial home had been held in public trust as a historical landmark for decades, and the Freedom Historical Society held numerous tours daily of the painstakingly restored landmark, mostly to elementary school children. But now it was a in danger of becoming a charnel house, if the shrieks coming from within were any indication! The two rushed in, calling out their arrival and promises of aid to the innocents within, barely-noticing the shimmering blue field they passed through. Once inside, the two frantically searched through the dimly-lit house for the children and caretakers they kept hearing, but for several long minutes could find not a soul. At times they thought they saw movement around a corner, but when they ran to catch up they found nothing. Archeville tried to teleport around to get a faster look, but found whoever was behind this had planned well: something interfered with his Belt’s propulsion systems, leaving him unable to fly or teleport. Then they began to find things: corpses. Long-dead corpses, taken from Lantern Hill’s own graves, judging by the clothing and state of decay. They lay on the floor in the halls, or draped over furniture, as if they’d been walking (or attacking), then collapsed. “Deceased organics are not typically displayed in such a manner, are they?,” Protectron asked. As Archeville examined the corpses, he replied with a string of funerary customs from numerous cultures (mostly Germanic), stopping himself after the fifth example with “... no. No, they are not. And I cannot imagine why-” The Doktor was cut off mid-sentence when the corpse he was examining suddenly sprung up and tried to bite him! The other two in the room rose up and lurched towards the Doktor, and the exits out of the room were soon blocked by more of the walkers riding from the hallway. The zombies proved little trouble for the two heroes, and were easily put down with Protectron’s metal fists and the Doktor’s electromagnetic screwdriver/lightsaber, but they both knew these things would be a decidedly deadly threat to the schoolchildren, wherever they were. “Tiny organics! We are coming for you!” Protectron realized how its words might be misconstrued, “Tiny org- Children! We are coming to help you!” The two continued searching through the house, battling zombies left and right as they popped out from rooms they were sure they had already cleared, and from behind secret panels they were sure were not included in the original designs of the house. The two worked together surprisingly well; while the radio static prevented them from sending word to anyone outside, or even into another room, they were able to silently communicate with each other, with superhuman rapidity thanks to the superhumanly fast minds. They could easily share battle strategies and go over tactics as the battlefield took shape around them, and coordinate their moves to complement one another. Which proved very useful, as the zombies they faced began to get more challenging, moving faster, withstanding more damage, and were joined by bizarre, mutated dogs and crows. A heavy thudding sound echoed down one hallway, and the two heroes ran to see what it was. “Perhaps it is the children, banging on a wall, or-” Protectron was now the one cut off mid-sentence, as they rounded a corner and saw the source of the sound: a tall figure in a black leather trenchcoat, pounding on a wall with its fists. It turned to face the two heroes, and its lips pulled back, baring yellowed teeth as it growled one word. “STAAARRRS” “Yes, yes, I’m a star, so’s Protectron. You don’t have to keep doing that every time we meet, Dead Head.” The revenant laughed and slapped the two on the back, “eh, I’s jes’ havin’ some fun, is all! Someone needs to lighten this place up. But what are y’all doin’ here?” “I could ask you the same thing! We got a message, from someone who claimed to be an ‘associate’ of someone who’d normally be able to stop this, but couldn’t, so he needed my help. And I think I’ve figured out why, too, and it has to do with how these ‘zombies’ are being animated.” Archeville reset his screwdriver to scanning mode to examine the section of wall Dead Head had been pounding on. “Hey, if you know, I’m all ears, I been tryin’ t’figure that out myself. It ain’t any necromancy I’m familiar with; I heard about this when the spirits told me their bodies was bein’ used, but they had no idea how or by who.” “... yes, well, be that as it may, I’ve figured out these corpses are being animated by nanites, which share some similarities with the ones I have in my own body. That’s probably why you and the... spirits didn’t sense anything, it’s not like the.. ‘magic’ you’re used to. There are similar nanites in the mutated creatures we’ve found, responsible both for their physical changes and increased aggression. I’m working on a way to shut them off, or at least block their signals, though I’m concerned that stopping them from talking to one another will just leave them ‘wild,’ which would be just as bad. Why were you pounding on this wall?” “Thought I saw someone duck in behind, but danged if I can figure out how t’open it. Nanites, hunh?” Dead Head shrugged, “Makes as much sense as anythin’ -- Clark House is one of the quietest spots on Lantern Hill. The spirits of everyone who lived here’ve long gone on to their Final Reward -- or, if not, they’re hauntin’ someplace far from here -- an’ there’s not even a trace of anythin’ for a necromancer to use. But why send a buncha techno-zombies here?” “To test me,” Protectron spoke up as it performed its own examination of the wall. “I did not receive the same message as Doktor Archeville; mine appeared to be from an adolescent technophile, who claimed to have set this all up as a ‘game’ for me. He indicated he had long-admired me, and suggested he knew of my origins.” “Great,” Archeville grunted as he opened the concealed door, revealing a darkened passage, “so some villainous tech-head altered a historic landmark and endangered a bunch of kids just to test you? So who warned me?” The revenant and the robot both shrugged before the trio ventured down the passage. The three eventually found the school children and their chaperones, huddled together in a secret basement chamber, after fighting through many more zombies and mutated creatures, lead by Ako, Doc Otaku’s redheaded Angel Android. Once ‘she’ was deactivated (by, ultimately, decapitation), Archeville was able to salvage the last components needed for his Screwdriver to generate a pulse that burned out all the nanites in the area, ‘shutting off’ the zombies and returning the dogs and birds and other animals to normal. This also sent out a feedback pulse which shorted out the fear generators scattered throughout the house; Archeville later found the generators and determined they were of Fear Master’s design. The children had suffered only minor scrapes and scratches, their traumas more emotional than physical, as Fear Master had wanted; in the classic horror movies children and virgins were always safe, and that’s the rules he went with here, despite Otaku wanting a more J-Horror ‘everyone dies messily and for no real reason’ scenario. But while the two villains escaped judgement this day, vacating their temporary hideout before the heroes traced their signals back to them, and got what they wanted from the experiment (Fear Master got to test his latest generation of fear emitters and see Dead Head in action, Otaku got to test his series of nanites and see Protectron in action), neither knew why Archeville had shown up. Who had contacted him?

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In Washington, D.C. for the weekend. Wife wants to check out the National Air & Space Museum.