Avenger Assembled

Neko grinned, pleased at this turn of events. "Thank you," she said, a purr in her voice as she turned and walked away. Tonight was going to be fun - but first, there were other things to do. She came back inside the living room and perched on Leon's lap, kneading his arm affectionately. "So what are we watching?" she asked. "I hope it's funny!"

Angelic I am tired of these people, thought Eira, not for the first time when dealing with humans in the last few years. I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives. "It was very stupid to stage a scene like this in public," she said flatly. "You are fortunate no one intervened more forcefully. Someone might have been hurt." She stared at Jeff as she could see through the back of his head, then said to Shadowbourne, "I will be in the boba tea line if you need me." With that she turned and walked away from the others, her shoes clinking on the linoleum floor as she went.

Neko's eyes snapped open wide, her ears retreating behind her head as her tail puffed out behind her. Her blade faded away in her grip as all but her most customary illusions faded away, and she stood there in her red and gold kimono and sneakers, a step away from what she might have been a few years earlier. No - decades more, in a Japan long lost to time and history. She blinked, her heart racing in her chest, and smelled home and family. The mountains all around. The feel of grass between her toes. The summer grasses All that remains of warriors' dreams "<I WAS A CHILD!>" she screamed in a voice that rang across the empty theater, a sob in the echoes as her mind cartwheeled ahead to the reality this man, this nekomata, represented. She stared down at her own clawed hands as she thought of a geas that lasted even beyond death, and for a whole people. "<I thought - you. What is your name? Where are you from?>"

Neko I hate time travel. Exhausted and sick from what had turned out to be a very long, very miserable day, Neko leaped through the portal, followed closely by Owain. She was never going on vacation again.

Sea Devil Sea Devil landed between Artificer and the ghosts of the unhallowed dead, and inside her armor her eyes flickered to the nearby Nick - before she focused again on the ghosts. She struck her trident against her chest, making a sound like a gong, and chanted in a base eldrich bellowing throb: "Vengeance! Vengeance! Vengeance!" And she extended her trident to the ghosts, as if inviting them to ride inside the fractured vessel of Hydra's power. "What we been! What we come to!"

Angelic It wasn't that Eira didn't see the assault, or even make plans to do anything about it. She had little doubt that (unless this was one of those stealth metahumans so irritatingly present across Freedom City) she could beat the man down with both hands tied behind her back. But she wasn't technically in costume here and Ghule had made the first move, so instead she moved to back her up. Arms behind her back, she glared at the man and looked concernedly at the woman, ready to offer medical help if needed. She did stop to take a subtle, silent picture of the man with her eyes while she dispatched a message to the Freedom City Police Department, warning them of an assault and battery in progress.

APPROVED

APPROVED

"I need to be alone with Leon tonight. Upstairs," whispered Neko, shooting an involuntary glance up at the ceiling of the kitchen as she spoke. "Maybe after the movie?" she asked hopefully. "If you can just keep people busy..." Normally that was the sort of thing Neko did herself, but one couldn't really do it under the circumstances. Her tails twitched behind her, a double thump, that betrayed a little bit of nerves.

I would like to fix the image - how do we make that happen? Everything else is taken care of, I think.

Power Level: PL 10/11 (172/172PP) Trade-Offs: None Unspent Power Points: 0 In Brief: Timelost Japanese supersoldier turned popular Internet personality Alternate Identity: Neko Musume (she prefers just 'Neko') Birthplace: Iya Valley, Japan Residence: The apartment beside the Espadas residence Base of Operations: The West End, Freedom's Little Tokyo neighborhood Occupation: Online streamer Affiliation: Various sponsoring agencies Family: Various heroes like the Espadases, Sparkler, etc Description: Age: 19/95 Apparent Age: 19 Gender: Female Ethnicity: Asian Height: 5’ 1" Weight: 120 lbs Eyes: Yellow Hair: White Neko is short and slight, with big eyes that are distinctly yellow and fluffy white hair speckled by brown, crowned by what are clearly two big boofy cat ears. She has slightly pointed front teeth and nails that grow in sharp. She has two tails when she wants it - a mark of her growing age and power, white speckled with brown spots. She has a lot of borrowed clothes but actually prefers to wear kiminos and bare feet, usually bright Art Deco colors. Neko has lived in the present long enough to adopt a superhero costume - finally. What she wears is a sleek, form-fitting bodysuit made of stretchy, breathable fabric in a dark navy blue color. The suit has long sleeves and pants, with a high collar and a full-zip front that can be easily opened and closed. Over the bodysuit, Neko wears a bright red and gold kimono-style robe with flowing sleeves and a wide obi sash tied around her waist. The robe is adorned with intricate gold and silver embroidery and bold, stylized Japanese characters that spell out "CAT" and "MAGIC" and "IYA VALLEY". The kimono and suit are both cut to give her tails freedom. To complete the costume, Neko wears a pair of tall, laced-up boots in a matching navy blue color, with thick soles to provide stability and support for her acrobatic movements. The boots have a slight heel, and are made of a durable, lightweight material that allows Neko to move quickly and easily. History: Neko was born in 1929 in the Iya Valley on the Japanese island of Shikoku. Even today the Iya Valley is remote, tucked away beneath sheer mountain slopes on either side, and in 1929 it was even more so. Neko's family had come to the region sixty years earlier in their grandfather's time, when their forebears realized that the new Meiji government would be hostile to their way of life. For Neko's family were the children of nekomata and bakeneko, cats imbued with fantastic supernatural powers, and carried that magic in their very veins! She learned some of that ancestral magic as a small girl, how to change her form and other fantastic abilities, and lived the relatively simple life of a peasant girl, carefully adopting human mannerisms and appearance when the government inspectors came by to study the local school. Though she heard about things like Japan's righteous war to liberate the oppressed people of China, their bold attack against the forces of the Americans in December of 1941, and their war against the wicked foreign foe, it didn't really mean anything to her. Until June of 1944, when American bombs began falling on Japan in large quantities thanks to Operation Matterhorn. Though civilian casualties were few compared to what would come later, she would learn much later that this had been a terrible insult to the Black Dragon Society, proof that their magics were not so great and powerful after all, but what it meant for her was that a small delegation of the Crimson Katana's elite troops arrived in her home village and announced that they were recruiting volunteers to defend Nippon against the hated enemies who had brought death to their shores. Neko looked around, saw older siblings and cousins debating what to do, and stepped forward with a cat's boldness. "I volunteer!" And so, at fifteen, she was taken away for training. She remembers the look in her parents's eyes still. "Bootcamp" was not easy but she was quick and clever enough to pass her trials, and the sheer gaping size of nearby Nagasaki was terrifying enough that she slept in her bed every night despite her fears of the Crimson Katana and his magic. She knew better than to risk his wrath, and she knew full well what they might do to her home village if she did flee. In late summer of 1944, having passed her trials, she was sent away to war, specifically to Burma, where the recent failure of Operation U-Go meant that Japanese forces were now on the defensive. It was supposed to be a minor, even inconsequential posting for the youngest piece on the Crimson Katana's shogi board, the latter being focused entirely on his American rivals. Until the Allies attacked in December of that year, and she found herself in the midst of her first battle. It was terrible. Any hopes she might have had that her fellow Japanese really were righteous defenders of justice faded when she saw what they did to those they captured, and any hopes she might have had that her enemies were really friends faded when she saw what they did to the Japanese. She might have fallen into grief and faked her own death, or something even more drastic, had she not met Kid Gawain, attached with his master to the British forces in Burma. Gawain was an enemy and so they fought, but they realized quickly how displaced they both were. Burma was as far from Camelot as it was from the Iya Valley, and Kid Gawain's dreams of knightly honor had faded before the reality of 20th century war. They began meeting occasionally, having the kinds of conversations that neither of them could have with any of the adults in their lives - and then came the mission in February 1945. A powerful American cryonic weapon had been stolen by a Japanese agent who had himself been killed in a bombing run. In a cave near Mandalay, the Crimson Katana (who had himself arrived to supervise the evacuation of Green Dragon assets from Burma), the Green Knight, Kid Gawain, and Neko no Akuma fought to the last. The Green Knight's ax and magical healing powers proved stronger than the Katana's blade, and the Katana (who never really believed in bushido, as convenient as it was) fled after triggering the cryonic device while ordering Neko no Akuma to cover his retreat. Thinking of her village, she stood between the knights and the way out; only to be pinned under a rock when bombs struck the roof of the cave mouth. She remembers Gawain and the Green Knight shouting at each other, namae o age rarenai uragiri, then Kid Gawain kneeling at her side in prayer, hensai dekinai shakkin, then a terrible feeling of cold - and then she remembers nothing for a long time. Until today. Things are - okay? She got good grades in high school, made many friends, got a boyfriend, found clues about her missing family - and her pretty face, exotic looks, and willingness to hustle has left and her friends financially comfortable. She's worked hard to get where she is! Personality & Motivation: Neko has had a lot of trauma. But she is good at hiding it behind the perky aura of beloved Internet star Neko, heroine and narrator of Catgirl Reacts! (a show where she reacts to video games, conventions, and food - and various other things.) Part of her is a normal teenage girl, another part is a cold-blooded feline magical predator - the last daughter of the demon-haunted Japan of myth and legend. Maybe she can't find that Japan anymore, but it's with her - always. Powers & Tactics: Neko's illusory abilities are vast, enough that she could easily dominate a WW2 battlefield in which she mostly fought mundane targets. She will mostly prefer to try and drive off foes, or fool them into doing something rash or self-destructive. If really and truly angry, she will pour down a terrible curse on their head, striking them with a powerful weapon pulled from her own sub-conscious. When using her powers, her eyes glow bright yellow and her ears and tails seem particularly obvious. She has has something of a cat's physicality, enough to escape from some though not all crises. Complications: Out of Time: Neko is from almost seventy years ago, and had an isolated, rural childhood in a rustic region before that. There's a lot she still doesn't know. Ghosts: Spirits and ghosts are drawn to the children of cats, often for ill. My Enemy: There is much left undone from that great and terrible war, and wounds left deep in her psyche. My Language: Neko's English is still not perfect; the GM is welcome to tell her she has lost the thread of a conversation or misunderstood something, especially if spoken loudly and at some volume. Abilities: 14 + 10 + 14 + 4 + 0 + 6 = 48PP STR: 24 (+7) DEX: 20 (+5) CON: 24 (+7) INT: 14 (+2) WIS: 10 (+0) CHA: 16 (+3) Combat: 8 + 8 = 16PP ATK: +4 (+7 Melee/+10 Yokai) DEF: +10 (+3 Dodge, +3 Shield, +4 Base, +2 flat-footed) Grapple: +14 Init: +5 Knockback: -5 Saves: 0 + 5 + 7 = 12PP TOU: +10/+7 (+7 Con, +3 Protection) FORT: +7 (+7 Con) REF: +10 (+5 Dex, +5) WILL: +7 (+0 Wis, +7) Skills: 72 r = 18PP Acrobatics 2 (+7) Bluff 12 (+15, SM) Climb 3 (+10) Concentration 4 (+4) Diplomacy 2 (+5, SM) Intimidate 12 (+15, SM) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 3 (+5) Knowledge (History) 3 (+5) Knowledge (Popular Culture) 3 (+5) Handle Animal 2 (+5) Languages 2 (English, Mandarin, Base: Japanese) Notice 5 (+5) Sense Motive 5 (+5) Stealth 10 (+15, SM) Survival 4 (+4) Feats: 17PP Attack Focus (Melee) 3 Benefit (Cult Hero [her many fans]) Challenge (Fast Taunt) Distract (Bluff) Dodge Focus 3 Evasion 2 Luck Prone Fighting Ritualist Skill Mastery (Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Stealth) Takedown Attack Taunt Powers: 2 + 2 + 4 + 36 + 1 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 4 + 5 = 61PP Comprehend 1 (Yokai heritage, spirits) [2PP] Comprehend 2 (feline physiology, Speak to and Understand, Flaw: Limited 1 [felines]) [2PP] Device 1 (Ladybug, Flaw: Hard to Lose) [4PP] Feature 2 (AV Recording, Internet Connection) {2} Super-Sense 3 (Radio, Tracking 2 [half-speed, radio]) {3} Yokai Array 16 (32 PP, PF: Alternate Powers 3, Subtle) [36PP] BE: Concealment 8 (all visual, auditory, and olfactory, Flaw: Phantasm, PF: Close Range) [9] + Illusion 6 (all senses, Flaw: Phantasm) [18] + Morph 4 (humanoids, +20 Disguise, Flaw: Phantasm, PF: Covers Scent) [5] [9 + 18 + 5 = 32/32] AP: Illusion 10 (Yokai magic, all senses, Flaws: Action [Full], Phantasm, PFs: Progression 12) [32/32] AP: Damage 10 (illusory weapon, Extras: Alternate Save [Will], Range [Perception, +2], PFs: Indirect 1, Subtle) [32/32] AP: ESP 4 (Cats; Auditory + Visual Senses, 1 mile, DC 24 Notice; Extras: Action [Free], Duration [sustained], No Conduit, Simultaneous; PFs: Fast Task 4 [Full Action to search 1-mile-diameter area]) {32/32} Leaping 1 (feline physiology, x2; running long jump 26 feet, standing long jump 13 feet, high jump 6 feet) [1PP] Protection 3 (Yokai heritage) [3PP] Shield 3 (Yokai magic) [3PP] Speed 1 (feline physiology, 10 MPH / 100 feet per Move action) [1PP] Super-Movement 2 (feline physiology, Slow Fall, Sure-Footed) [4PP] Super-Senses 5 (Yokai heritage, Auditory [Extended] [1] + Olfactory [Acute, Illusion Awareness, Uncanny Dodge [3]}, Visual [Low Light Vision] [1]) [5PP] 48 + 16 + 12 + 18 + 17 + 62 = 172/172

APPROVED

"There is good food here," said Eira, with the abstract acknowledgement of someone who ate for taste rather than sustenance - and only ethically sourced things at that. "I recommend Impossible Meals if you are looking for something vegan." Catching sight of where Vik was looking, she peeked in that direction herself. "Something unusual?" she inquired, having had a lifetime of experience with that.

In the kitchen, Neko sighed and wished for a cigarette. She could have made one, of course, but it wouldn't be the same. "The second one is fine!" she called through the door. "With the yokai that possess the man!" She looked at Bernadette's double and whispered softly, "Can I talk to one of you - just us?"

the Atlantean is down, eh? <Tuxedo Mask "my work here is done" meme> Did you want to take us forward, TT?

Sea Devil stared wordlessly at the science abomination, its scent a foul sickly-sweet in the air, before she spoke in a low, almost contemplative rumble, a sharp contrast from her noisy rage of before. The thing's words spoke of things in cage, and experiments, and the terrible fates Surfacers inflicted on their living and dead enemies. "There. are. no. masters. here." Her helmet snapped shut again, turning her voice mechanical but no less inhuman for that, dropping to a deep and resonant bass, like the bellow of a gigantic amphibian. Her trident crackled with barely suppressed Hydran fury, tentacles emerging from nowhere and writhing around its tipped blades to vanish somewhere dark and wet. "And no gods but Those Below. Come. I show you them."

Neko's tail thumped back and forth, twitch twitch, her yellow eyes on Miurne like a cat watching a bird outside the window, radiating invisible magic from her eyes, her skin, the soft white cat on her lap where she sat on Leon's. "I know that movie. Movies about King Arthur are bad," she said suddenly and with conviction. "That was real." Maybe Owain had stayed home today but she knew how he felt about people using the stories of the land he'd left behind and might never see again. "I smell pizza," she said, scampering out of the room to join one of the Bernadettes in the mansion's kitchen. Only her cats stayed behind, watching the others impassively.

Neko struck home again with her second strike - but didn't seem to do any damage, instead her flaming naginata skitting off her target's sword. She responded with a gutter oath that would have gotten her ears pulled - hard - when she was a girl, and leaped out of the way of a retaliatory strike, keeping moving so she stayed out of range of the man's blades. "Kutabare paku!" she spat, the pupils in her golden eyes narrowed to slits. "<You fight for a ghost! A dead thing! I have seen it in the brains of an American boy! Katana is dead and so is his cause!>" She had learned something of a real warrior's honor from Owain and so added in a whining, inhuman growl, "<A man would not hide his face, Katana's dog!>"

APPROVED

would be a pretty wacky PC sheet but I like it as an NPC! Approved!

Eira smiled again, greeting Miurne as she joined the group. Her hands were folded behind her back, in unconscious imitation of Miss Americana. "I have been very well indeed! The installation at the museum has gone very swimmingly - and might have a few surprises for the little ones, yes?" Having thoroughly resented being forced to get a high school education among so-called 'normal' people _after_ earning her bachelor's degree at the age of 16, the one-time prodigy found it actually very pleasant to be socializing with once-high school students. Especially since my new body appears older than my chronological age! she thought cheerfully. She went on, handing out her business card, "If any of you are looking for a part-time position with Katastroff Consulting, you should give me a call. I can always use the services of a contractor, especially in very specialized areas."

Recognized by a Claremont student, and thus a potential partner, Eira excused herself from talking to the director and stepped outside to greet Luke and his friends. The blonde woman's hair was back in a bun that resembled the famous tech heroine Miss Americana's, her blue labcoat matching the color of her eyes, her lips painted the same gold as her hair. "Hello, Luke," she said, her distinct Swedish accent as present as ever. She gave him a firm handshake, then turned to the girl she guessed was his friend. Eira looked a bit older than the two Claremont students, much closer to twenty-five than fifteen, and her teeth were a perfect white as she said. "Hello. I am Eira Katastroff. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." She stood there and talked to Ghule and she was dead. No, worse - she wasn't alive and it didn't seem she ever had been. The being standing there talking to the two Claremont students was as alive as one of the video games in the arcade - fun center on the other side of the food court. "Did you go to high school with Luke?" she asked, an easy way of checking the other girl's bona fides.

Angelic It would have been a simple matter to install the mainframe for Archetech's newest contribution to the children's museum, a 3-D holographic display called JOURNEY TO SPACE! that let children interested in the final frontier 'zoom' out from Mercury all the way to the hub to CoVic Station at the edge of the Solar System. But Eira Katastroff didn't like to do simple jobs, especially when it let her honor the brand identity of one of her heroines. So instead she'd done the work - then installed an "FTL mode", allowing young people to zoom all the way out to the nearest star systems, complete with accurate maps of those systems and depictions of Lor and other alien vessels they might pass by. Unfortunately that did require a substantial upgrade to the core memory, much less the projection bandwith of the holographic projectors and the generators of the interactable hardlight objects - but fortunately Eira didn't need to sleep. She'd pulled an all-nighter, scored an excellent reference for her consulting business - and honestly things were going well. She leaned against the wall, fighting the urge to scratch under her blue labcoat by simply deactivating those sensors, and went on speaking to the museum's director. "Everything will be ready for the big unveiling, yes?" she said, her tone not really making it a question. There were many children here, playing happily and enjoying themselves immensely, or crying and throwing a fit, or any number of things - and she was happy to see all of them. She'd taken the time to upgrade the museum to make sure it was fully compatible with the Americans with Disabilities Act, one of the few things that she really liked about living (for a while) in the United States. As they spoke, she watched, a half-smile on her yellow-painted lips, as she saw a young girl in a wheelchair reach out for a holographic Mars the size of a basketball and clutch it to her chest, looking very pleased with herself.

CLEARANCE UPGRADED by Fox The Patriot 12PP Swap in the character pic below in place of the existing in-costume picture https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIG3.4m1WJkB22z9qePidgX2d?pid=ImgGn Feats: 2PP Improved Initiative 2 (to +13) Let's buy Benefit 5 (Is the Patriot) [5PP] Add the below to the linked structure of her Mimic. Mind-Reading 10 (Extra: Action [Move, +1], Flaw: Range [Touch, -2]) [5PP]

COSTUMED IN HUMAN FLESH'd by Fox (note that this cost you only 2pp, as you already had a mis-labeled Morph 2) Sea Devil: 3PP Let's buy her Morph up to 4 (+20 Disguise)