Avenger Assembled

Ashley snorted, giving Benny a level look. "Really? We're not exactly in the same weight class, pally, and I can't take a .38 round to the face." Despite her words, she was putting the gloves on as she spoke. "Guess you want to look big for the other boys, huh?" She took off her utility belt, carefully folding it beneath her jacket so it wouldn't go off. Guess shooting him in the balls at this point wouldn't be fair. Left glove. "Typical." She put on the right glove, contemplating what she knew about Rebound's physical abilities Goddamit and weighing the relative merits of getting herself out of the fight by saying something really cutting about his dead mother. Well that was hardly heroic, now, was it? And it wouldn't do anything to teach Judy what she was supposed to learn. She stood outside the ring for a moment, then put her hands on the ropes and vaulted inside. stay in character. "Still gonna kick your ass," she lied.

Wadjet Esperanza wanted to say something like "Duh, you obviously tie the lady up first", but she recognized she wasn't getting anywhere with these two. So instead she said, "Send your 'friend' to the crypt. That's where I'm going." And so she did, heading for the pantry and prying up the floor with one of her crowbars. She didn't actually go down, though - hell, it was dark down there!

"Let's do this," said Richard, not wanting to dwell on how he'd been going into space since he was ten (mostly for his ma's work) and it had never been his favorite place. "We've done this dance before, and we've taken down what's her name too." He shrugged. "We'll play it your way when we're up there," he said, finishing his move behind Paige, though he seemed to direct his words to their guides.

Judy shifted uncomfortably as Leroy and Micah argued, feeling distinctly unsettled by the sight in a way she didn't expect. "Maybe you can work on that later, honey," she suggested as she came up behind Leroy. "We just want to do our science stuff now, right?" She leaned close, resting her hand affectionately on Leroy's back, her skin hot through the material of his shirt. "You can always use the one in my room if you need to," she said with a smile. "Maybe you can put the two of them together and see what happens." "Maybe not," said Watchdog firmly.

"Sure," said Judy before Ashley could object. "Ah mean, they're not the best people from what Ah hear," her face tightened, ever so slightly, "but nobody knows much about them." "What happened to your father, Leroy?" asked Ashley.

Ashley listened without interruption as the story came in, forgetting her cocoa so long that it was lukewarm by the time she took another sip. I'm glad that's not a normal day at the office, she said first, then decided that was inadequate. That's awesome. It's a damn good thing you were there for those people - and you did the right thing transferring. She wished, very badly, that Fa'Rua was there sitting on the couch with her, telling her that story in her great voice. Any time you want to talk to me about what happened during the Incursion, you can. That's your business and I'm not gonna pry. She'd served with enough veterans to know that stories came when they needed to come, and if they never needed to come it wasn't her place to pry. When no immediate response came, she wrote back Let me tell you about that Blue Lives Matter thing. Before I worked for our national government, I was a city law enforcer, a cop. I wore a blue uniform, a badge, and carried a gun. I'm still proud of it. She considered her words for a moment, then said, The BLM is a big social movement right now, they act like cops are untouchable warriors protecting the people from the criminal element. And a lot of them would really like to make it with a lady cop. I'm all about standing up for cops, but if you tell people they're untouchable, they're gonna act like it - which is a real shi_show if they've got lethal force and law enforcement powers. I had people who were supposed to be on my side who acted like soldiers in a conquering army. Psychos. That's one reason I transferred out. She thought for a moment, then said That's the nice thing about what I do. I don't have to worry that I'm surrounded by unaccountable losers with guns, and I don't have to worry I'm going to be busting somebody's head open who doesn't deserve it. I'm protecting a kid who needs protecting. And flirting with a sexy alien in my downtime. She added a wink.

He's so weird, but he's trying to be nice, and I don't really want Ashley to shove a bomb in his cloaca! She was pretty sure Ashley wouldn't actually do that to somebody who hadn't actually tried to hurt her or kidnap her if she didn't say the codeword. She smiled nervously at Benny and said, "Ah know how to fight fine, just not hand-to-hand. If we were at my daddy's old target range, Ah could probably show you a thing or two." Why is he so bad at fighting if he's been doing it since he was little? "Had to learn it, where we're from," growled Watchdog, who had approached with the insolent ease of somebody not bothering to conceal their movements. "Otherwise you get ...soft." She knew that look on Judy's face, when she was holding back discomfort without actually saying it, and drew the attention back her way. "Hey Benny!" she called to their ersatz teacher, "When do we make with the-" she mimed punching her hand with her other fist.

"Oh, Benny, that's so sad!" said Judy sympathetically as he told the story of what sounded like a truly disastrous first mission, remembering to stand where he could see her talking even as she wasn't at all sure what he was actually talking about. "You shouldn't worry, though, Ah'm sure you'll be better with a little more training. That's why we're here, right?" She smiled reassuringly. "Ah had quite a time the first time Ah really used my powers like that. The first big fight Ah got into, that was...well that was something," she hedged, looking away for a moment before turning back, "but Ah know it won't happen next time!"

Ashley's eye twitched behind her helmet. "JUDY GET DOWN!" She threw herself on Daystar, pulling her flat and keeping the crest of the hill between them and the battle below. What she wanted to do was get up and beat Macedon with his tonfas until he stopped moving, but that wouldn't solve the problem. From cover, she took out a pair of binoculars and pressed it to her helmet's well-shielded eyeholes, trying to get a feel for the scene below. "Ohmigosh!" whispered Judy, having sensibly doused her glow for the moment. "We have to do something!" she said.

The spirits were screaming. There was around this place the stink of ancient evil, of a long, deep rot that had sunk so far into the ground as to make the rot indistinguishable from the dirt that surrounded them. Human carnage and unholy suffering had happened again, and again, and again...And the evil had recently been freshly watered by a new infusion of spiritual horror - but then something had come along, something had come along and was still here, and the foul cannibal spirits that had been summoned by whatever unholy rites took place here were fleeing in terror into the darkness. Something unholy had happened here, and had happened here for a long time before.

Ashley _did_ sweat, though, and about the time they switched up to the more advanced maneuvers she somewhat disgustedly removed her leather jacket. It wasn't that she objected to fighting in gear that was already dripping with her sweat, but it was getting in the way. Most of what she needed was around her waist, anyway, her belt visibly bulging with utility gear. The only disadvantage to taking off her top was that it exposed the ink on her upper arms - the Sacred Heart of Mary and the name of her first college boyfriend. Oh well, let the little bastards ogle. She took a break to towel off and grab a water, confident enough in her own abilities that she was content to simply keep a close eye on Judy. For her part, Judy was following along closely with Benny's instructions. Maybe she didn't have a lot of direct experience with hand-to-hand fighting, but she was a quick study - and obviously knew a bit more than the naive princess she sometimes acted like. She was distinctly glowing now, but didn't seem to mind the look one bit. "

"Shouldn't we?" asked Ashley as their friends disappeared into the darkness ahead. "No!" said Watchdog firmly as she and Daystar stepped into the mouth of the cave. "Do your thing," she suggested. "Well...all right," said Daystar. "Ah don't normally like doing this," she said to their teacher, "but Ah guess this is an emergency." She concentrated for a moment and began to glow, shining like she'd swallowed a star, casting a shimmering yellow glow around the cave entrance. "Is this helping?"

I bet. It looks like you could use somebody to keep you warm there! Ashley grinned, feeling herself distinctly warmed just by the conversation - and the thought. She knew that objectively it was silly and more than a little dangerous to invest this much passion in a relationship that had had all of one real date, (even if it had ended in bed), especially with all the secrets she had to keep, the distance between them, and the difference too. But what the hell - why did she have to be objective about this? I miss you too. I'd rather be zipping through the stars, or even climbing around in an alien forest, than cramming for an eleventh-grade math test, that's for damn sure. Judy had turned out to be pretty good at math, and had volunteered her services as a tutor when they got back. She was a nice kid, anyway. She was reasonably sure that forest wasn't full of a telepathic hive mind of birds, either. Tell me about space. What's your favorite story about life up there?

Ashley still took the position that a better strategy was to shoot your opponent in the back - but she liked the cut of Benny's jib even so. She ran through the same exercises as everyone else, glad that no one was commenting that she was fighting in full costume rather than athletic gear. One argument I don't need right now. She tried not to think about how f*cking old the easy grace of the teenagers around her made her feel. Well, most of them! Uncoordinated though she was, Judy listened attentively to Benny's instructions, and certainly seemed to be doing her best to apply herself to the repetitive actions of the drill. She was slowing down perhaps a trifle when she was done, and was certainly breathing harder - but showed no signs of sweating or needing water. If anything she was glowing ever so slightly, as if the Sun was shining on her even when she stood in shadow.

A series of vivid images came to Persephone, trees that must be as ancient as the stump itself. A woman is whipped, the men laughing as they do it. A man is hung, then mutilated as he strangles, then burned - the crowd cackling as they do it like so many crows. All of it laced in a feeling of a dark, red rain that filled the land, deeply and powerfully - Then came the cutting - a memory for the tree like the memory of a sighted man going blind. Things are dark after that - and the red rain stops. But then the red rain starts again, recently. The tree likes it. New buds are growing in the stump.

Speed-Demon and the others arrived to find what looked like the immediate aftermath of - something. They were near the edge of Cluet Farms proper, the part of the community damaged by last year's hurricane that still hadn't quite recovered. The address given by Woodsman put them at a big old rambling house, the sort of mansion that wealthy aristocrats had built a century earlier when they were trying to copy the antebellum plantations of their grandfathers. Something was amiss here, though, beyond the obvious. Signs for a local construction company and boarded up windows told them this was an empty mansion in the midst of renovations, but there was the lingering scent of something amiss here - a promise of something predatory in the closed mouth of the locked front door and the leering eyes of the upper stories. There was absolutely no sign of the Woodsman - not even when allowance for a momentary pause that seemed to fit his style was granted. The only vehicle on the scene was a Hummer, parked over by the edge of the dry dirt lot the construction crew must be using during renovations - its sides hanging open in the gloom, a promise, a temptation.

Everybody give me whatever checks seem relevant at this point.

Okay, so we've got Cheval Persephone Speed Demon Torque Thanks, @RocketLord, @Grumblefloof, @Thunder King, @Heritage

Aggressive primates are the story of my life. Ashley smirked, fighting off a momentary pang of doubt. She was reasonably sure that Fa'Rua was not using some sort of militaristic euphemism there for unhappy natives. You can't be suspicious and paranoid about every aspect of your life, Tran, she thought, picking out the words in Vietnamese as a bit of automatic practice. She had personal reason to know Fa'Rua didn't feel that way about inhabitants of primitive worlds. I'd take giant monkeys over the teenage ones I deal with most of the time. So how'd it go, your colonists gonna put down roots? She'd gotten an understanding from Fa'Rua about why colony scouting was so important these days, with so many Lor refugees and so many habitable worlds stretched to the breaking point - and had to admit it sounded like good work. Doesn't have to pretend to be a damn teenager, anyway.

"Nah, not worth another detention," said Watchdog with a lopsided grin at Octo-Ben, making sure to keep her face where he could see it. It was probably for the best that Rebound intervened at that moment. Watchdog moved into the drill, matching Ben's movements with a lazy drawl that told him she'd heard a lecture like this, or one very much like it, before. Daystar was obviously considerably more tentative. While she was doing her best, it did not look like she'd thrown a punch in anger in her life. For her part, Watchdog kept her eyes on Rebound and asked a question between breaths, "Hey coach," she said, "however many of these I learn to throw, I'm always gonna be a head shorter and a hundred pounds lighter than you. What's your advice?"

It is late. Thanksgiving dinner is over, the football games have wrapped, it is dark outside. Weather's good though.

https://www.freedomplaybypost.com/topic/12633-vibora-bay-even-the-mere-reports-of-such-ic/?tab=comments#comment-292858

Okay, here you go.

November 28, 2019 The voice on the municipal defender line is short, to the point, and familiar. "This is Woodsman. I need a municipal defender in Cluet Farms at 304 Polk Boulevard. Come quickly. Do not bring first responders. Not safe."

It is nice. Usually there's at least one big blowup when we're here, but right now everything's quiet, which is not easy in a house with eight adults, two babies, and four dogs. One of the latter was snoring on the rug nearby, so Ashley sent along the image of the sleeping old German Shepard. The last couple of weeks at work have been...an experience. Ashley considered her words. It was true that she worried about Judy, who was going to be put on display by her parents over the holiday, but Judy had reassured her she would be fine. She really did like volunteering in that soup kitchen where the First Family labored every Thanksgiving, and she appreciated the short break from Claremont just as much as anyone. Until she actually got a text that Judy was in trouble, or under pressure, she wasn't going to worry about it. So if I'm not actually worried about her, I can bitch about it., A couple of boys in this year's class want to prove they're tougher than Watchdog. It's actually pretty funny, but you start to get tired of not being able to bite back. She took another sip of cocoa, listening to the creaking upstairs as her sisters moved around, then typed back: Then there's my ward's choices about her secret identity. She considered what to say, then wrote, With me in the room, after some consultation, she told her boyfriend and her two besties. They took it better than I would have as a teen, I'll tell you that much. I was torn between being terrified and proud. She added an eyeroll after that, then added, What's new with you?