Avenger Assembled

Does she have time to take 10 or 20 with Quickness 5, @RocketLord? She'll do either one of those, getting a 28 or 18 respectively.

@RocketLord, while we wait for @TheAbsurdist to post IC, let me run this by you: Can I roll Handle Animal to try and overcome the Mind Control on Sgt. Shark's behalf? This actually puts me at a mechanical disadvantage, since Aquaria could easily stunt a high-level Nullify or similar countering effect off her trident, but doing it with the skill sounds cooler even if it puts her at just rolling +10.

Lady Horus did a quick pass around the building from the air and didn't see anything - oh well, she was confident her associate and the other kids had successfully made their way into the building. Considering her options between stealthy infiltration (where they might never actually see each other), she made a choice that would make it easier for her teammates to make it inside and would keep their enemies guessing. Picking a vulnerable-looking spot on the roof, she zipped up high into the icy-cold air over Bedlam and then rushed downward at super-speed. She smashed against the roof hard enough to shake the building, a hero's warning to make sure she wasn't about to land on anyone killable below - then suddenly turned around and smashed her way through one of the upper story windows with a fantastic noise and flash of solar light that told everyone in the building she was there. "LO! THE SUNHAWK COMETH!" Ah, jeez, I sound like I don't know any dirty jokes! - Wadjet heard the noise from above and said a bad word in Spanish, then said, "That's the old lady for you!" She focused in on the guard and said "Hey, vete a la mierda, cabron!" Well, that's what she'd have said if she if she was back on the block by Hardwick Park - everyone around her got her meaning. With that, she turned to Doctor Thorne and pointed to the nearest wall, flattening herself against it before they began making their way upstairs too. She didn't bother explaining that it was better to stay out of the center of traffic when Lady Horus was around, both for the Lady herself, and for the people who usually came running.

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There was no good way to say it so Copycat just said it. "I've been made," she growled, arms crossed across her chest. The chestplate and much of the torso armor fit about as well as it had when she was sixteen, a testimony to how much she'd worked out back when she'd been Chris's age and to the sometimes-frustrating genetics she'd inherited from both sides of her family. "Not the big deal. But somebody inside the agency seems to know I was a vigilante." Speaking of frustrating genetics...telling the truth about her superpowers would have disqualified her for a law enforcement job for most of her life. It still would, outside from pilot programs like the one that had gotten her into the Secret Service. Telling the truth about being a former vigilante would have made sure she was never hired as a cop _anywhere_ - not even in her native New Orleans. "If they're digging into me - it means they can find the other problem too."

Okay, who's up for a IC post? Is it @Supercape?

After a little while of talking the group found themselves back at Claremont - and heading straight for the headmaster's office. Ashley went in first, leaving her helmet behind with Judy, and after a few minutes all the students from the outing rotated through with Headmistress Summers. For Micah and Danica, anyway, Callie was reservedly sympathetic - reassuring them that they weren't in any trouble and that they'd handled the situation well, but asking them for exact details about exactly what it was that had happened during their shopping trip. It was hard to know exactly what had happened when she spoke with Ashley and Judy - after all, her office was soundproof. But the latter had emerged looking nervous; and the former, scowling. When they were all back inside, Callie looked them over and said, "Well. This was certainly an interesting day, wasn't it?" She seemed - maybe a touch more heated than she usually was when dealing with unruly students? Steepling her fingers, she looked at the group. "Ms. Holmes, Ms. Smith, Mr. Roebuck, you handled the events today quite well. I'll be placing a note of merit in your files, so well-done." 'Gamifying education' had been the buzzword lately; which meant notes of merit would give them time out of classes, rewards for their teams, and other benefits deciding how they decided to spend them. "As for you, Ashley, I am - disappointed to hear about the display you put on. Encouraging other students to talk like...the worst kind of vigilante is not acceptable for a student at Claremont. Consider yourself confined to your dorm except for school activities until the start of the month." Ashley rolled her eyes and snarked, "Oh really. So you're gonna lock _both of us_ up for a week because of something that wasn't my fault?" "It will encourage you to be more thoughtful about your actions and plans in the future. And I didn't say anything about your sister, Ms. Smith," said Callie frostily. "As far as I'm concerned, she handled herself with distinction."

Having done so well with one group song, Judy automatically moved on to another one she knew well. "Jesus loves me yes I know, for the Bible tells me so!" While some of the kids started singing in various degrees of on-tune, a serious-faced young girl with dark lines around her eyes raised her hand and said loudly, "My parents said Jesus is a false prophet and that only Mighty Ra is real!" Judy blinked, looked at the little dark-haired girl with a briefly stunned expression, then said with a smile, "...well that's okay, you don't have to love Him back for Him to love you!." It was about that time that Miss Lupine intervened, smiling professionally, to get the kids to go brush their teeth and put on their pajamas - depending on their sleeping habits. At that juncture, Ashley and Judy joined in with making sure sleeping bags were unrolled, cots laid out, and thermal heating pads in place for the various kids with various needs. Nicholson was a little different than Claremont, much less residential than the boarding school, but many of the children here were going to go right back to their school for Christmas. Even Ashley had to admit it was a pretty raw deal. With the return of the kids, Judy and Ashley bunked down on the east side of the room where most of the girls would be sleeping, while the boys took up their positions on the other side. Even at a school like Nicholson, where the kids could fly and shoot lasers from their hands, girls and boys didn't bunk down in exactly the same space! The next little while was the usual muffled noise of elementary-age kids having a sleepover, giggling whispered conversations, the occasional smuggled flashlight, and a few urgent needs to go potty. But under the watchful eyes of the Claremont kids and their adult supervisors, the room gradually got quiet.

Aquaria is going to be spraying her Trip + Knockback effect down into the crack in the ocean floor - it's basically a cannon of abyssal trench ocean water. She'll see if that'll stir up the aliens! It's a rank 12 General Cone Area effect.

Yes, Aquaria had been thinking, drive the Surface-Men from your waters and - her hand tightened around her trident with a sudden convulsion of muscular energy, hard enough that she'd have cracked a Surface-Man's bones if she'd been gripping him ...no! No! She shook inside her armor and closed her eyes, opening her senses to the waters around her. Did they think to handicap her by taking her eyes? She could see much with them but she was of the blood of Dagon and Hydra and her eyes were one of many ways she could see. She heard the song of the sea, smelled and tasted it - and realized abruptly she was under attack! Oh no! They have him! She heard and felt Sgt. Shark's teeth slide off her armor and bellowed inside hers. "I already have gods!" She raised her trident, glowing with an unwholesome darkness, and aimed it at the crack in the ocean floor. "Let me show you their power!" She wasn't put off by Sgt. Shark's display - males at times lost control of themselves during the mating season. But a wise female knew how to show a male her true power. At the top of her gigantic lungs, she sang, "Ia! Ia! THIS IS THE FATHER'S OCEAN!" And something remarkable happened - Asad had the impression of something erupting past him and bursting towards the crack in the ocean floor, a sudden rumbling torrent of cold, high-pressure water from the very depths of an abyssal trench firing out of the trident's head and blasting its way downward.

"Your English is already idiomatic. Good." Steve moved his index finger in slow circles, his face thoughtful. "That replacements for Omegadrones exist shows a change in the relationships among Annihilists. A portent." Who could say what would happen now that the spirit of Omega had returned - but changes that meant fewer doomforges burning were good changes, he decided, whatever difficulties they created. "Conflict on Nihilor can only serve this world." It meant more suffering for the people of Nihilor but the hard hand of fate had long ago drawn a veil across his own dimension. Perhaps I forget them too easily, he thought as he considered Delta's words about himself. He considered more what his life would be like if he had no memories of the time before his taking by the forges, the corners of his lashless eyes crinkling slightly at the thought. To distract himself from such a thought, he stepped from the wall to stand at Miss Americana's side - if they were an odd pair, it was an oddity he was well-used to now. He turned to Miss Americana and suggested, "Are you free after..this?" This could potentially be some time.

Is the effect being used on Sgt. Shark magic, @RocketLord?

"Ah, I suppose I cannot strip to underthings again this time," commented Frost. He studied the warehouse for a moment, then said, "All right, I will follow lead of you young people. I suggest looking before entering however, because you never know what is being hidden." He peered closely at the building, narrowing his eyes to try and gaze at whatever traces of heat he could spot inside the structure. "When time comes, I will enter roof as problem with building heating systems while you women enter from below in stealthy fashion?" he hazarded.

Smoke on the Water Sea Devil In an industrial shower deep in the DuTemps Building, one where unfiltered water could be sprayed constantly into a fine hot mist, Deep Ones sang in a happy chorus. Aquaria remembered when this has happened to Jessie's sister some months earlier and so was not particularly put off by the sight of so many of her sisters from across the Cosmic Coil - not when they sang in such beautiful voices! There had been work to do to round up loose Deep Ones hereabouts and to explain the order of things, but by the blessings of the gods none hostile to Aquaria herself or to the Surfacers who lived in DuTemps had emerged. So she'd stayed busy rounding up her counterparts and finding them a good place to rest - and what wonderful things had happened. Aquaria had heard such tales today; the Aquaria who led an army of rebel Deep Ones and Surfacer against the Archvil-thing, the Aquaria whose service in the Star Knights had taken her across the Sea of Stars, the Aquaria with a mate and a clutch of eggs in the building at home (Aquaria and several of her sisters had croaked wistfully at _that_ thought), a dazzling array of Deep Ones who had dared breach the boundary between sea and sky and had come off the better for it. With songs to sing and fish to eat, Aquaria and her sisters could wait out the crisis. Well - except for the two who had decided not to join in. Still concerned about those two oddballs, Aquaria excused herself from the group to leave. Hopping over to her armor, she wriggled her way inside, then stepped into one of the stairwells that she could use to climb her way to the penthouse at the top of the castle far faster than the elevator could take her. Inside the penthouse reception room, she found the two Aquarias right where she had left them. Sympathetically, she sought out the silent one first, but just as before that one said nothing. She was a Deep One all right, one who carried a trident like Aquaria's and wore the same armor from the Sea of Stars, but she had not opened her armor or made a sound upon their arrival, save to slowly, methodically walk back and forth against the penthouse's window, over and over again. When the silent one did not speak, Aquaria turned and checked on the other oddball - the deformed one. "Hello, Aquaria," spoke the woman as her Deep One counterpart padded up to her. The other Aquaria's hair was green and blue, the color of Aquaria's skin with its tattoos, but in all other ways - the hideous small eyes, the mammalian bosom, the flat teeth, the five fingered hands, she was very unlike the Sea Devil. Her hair was cut in the same style as Jessie's. She carried no trident and her armor was Atlantean - something that had nearly made some of the less sociable of her sisters tear her apart before Aquaria herself had intervened to separate the group. "Thank you for your concern, and for making sure I had food to eat." The other Aquaria's bags of seaweed snacks had been neatly rolled up on the table next to her. She had sworn she ate no meat by the will of the gods, which was not like other...Atlanteans Aquaria had heard about but what could one do on such a strange day but believe it? "I'm all right now," she said, rubbing the partially exposed thigh where one of Aquaria's sisters had taken a bite out of her. "My spells have healed my flesh." The other Aquaria had told her story as much as she desired; she was of the royal bodyguard of Princess Thaelia, of a bloodline not royal herself but magical in great renown, and was a warrior-priestess of the whore gods of - no, of the Atlantean pantheon. Aquaria would not make herself even think the names. It didn't do to have such thoughts in one's head, especially when one needed clear thoughts for dealing with a crisis. She struck her trident against the ground, making a gong sound that made her counterpart start just a little. "...so they do," croaked Aquaria unhappily. She was glad she hadn't actually seen some version of herself call upon the gods of Atlantis for healing. "G-good." She hadn't enjoyed the smell of Atlantean blood in the air nearly as much as she'd expected; there'd been a crisis to deal with. She tried to think of how all this must seem to the deformed one, with her armor and her strange visage and her strange gods, and finally croaked "If you would sing, I would listen." The other Aquaria hesitated, wrinkling her shrunken nose for a moment, and then said, "...oh! Well, there's not much to tell. I know the Cosmic Coil had many turns, and this must be one where Lemuria won the Great War and so what we were, ah, well, survived." Hastily, she added, reaching out to lay a shrunken five-fingered hand over Aquaria's, "I want you to know I don't have any ill feelings towards you, Aquaria, and I appreciate all you've done for me. When I get back, I'll tell Jessie that even in dimensions like this, there are still good people." She smiled at Aquaria with her flat teeth and Aquaria swallowed to keep her gorge in check. "You-you have a Jessie there?" "Yes, she was my room-mate in prison." The deformed one's smile wasn't quite so soft-edged now. "It's my own fault for drinking and fighting so much; my father-" Aquaria shivered slightly at the misused word in her counterpart's mouth. "says it's the Lemurian in me. My own sins made it easy to frame me for far worse things." She shook her head. "But once I was free and on the path to redemption, I left with Jessie, and now we're on that path together. She'll be moving down to Atlantis soon, I think." "Good," Aquaria croaked again. "Ask if you want food." She hopped away, watching the deformed one, and tried to tell herself that she would sound just as monstrous if she was in the other's dimension. It was by no means easy, so she took up a position on all fours by the side of the silent one, and together the two Deep Ones enjoyed a strange, uneasy silence for what felt like an age. Aquaria closed her eyes and napped briefly inside her armor, and when she looked again, the deformed one was gone. And something was tapping her head! Automatically, she leaped into the air and landed upside down on the ceiling, peering down at the silent one, who was looking up at her with an armored face that said much through saying nothing at all. Who exactly was under there, anyway? She could _smell_ a Deep One, anyway. "You startled me," she croaked, a little annoyed at her own indolence. "But we are alone now." She landed next to her counterpart and said "What do you want?" By way of response, the silent one reached behind herself and opened her armor's headpiece. In a moment Aquaria saw why as she saw the glowing golden sign emblazoned within, the awesome power of the gods displayed along with flesh within that was - divinely transfigured! Aquaria gave a soft gasp, unable to help herself, and her grip tightened on her trident. "The gods - did they do it? Did they rise?" The blessed Aquaria looked at her with the three eyes of Dagon and blinked - then nodded. Slowly, the marks of Hydra on her face writhed in a symphony of divine beauty that would have pleased Aquaria to her core if not for the look of terrible grief in those great black eyes. Multiversal theory had been not explained to Aquaria but sung to her and so she knew the logic as well as she knew the taste of a delicious fish. The armor. She has the armor. The thoughts came in her mind like song. I have the armor because of Jessie. She must have a Jessie. And so - And so - The visions in her mind now were much worse than the whore gods of Atlantis. Almost despite herself, Aquaria croaked softly in the Lemurian that was her birthright, "What did it cost?" And for the first and last time, the one blessed by the gods spoke. In a voice like the remorseless thunder of the storm, she croaked."Everything." That night, the crisis was over and the Deep Ones were gone. On the roof of the uppermost towers of the DuTemps Castle, Aquaria sat under the naked stars, trident balanced on her lap, and sang to the gods. But she was alone.

"They're all mierda," opined Esperanza bluntly in response to Chromium's question about the Freedom League. "Powers like gods and they spend all their time farting around with dragons and giant maldito bees." She punctuated the second to last word with great emphasis, then went on, "Saving the world all the time but never paying attention to the people who live in it. When was the last time you saw Gabriel working in a soup kitchen on Ash Street, hm?" She raised an eyebrow at that, gesturing with a spoon laden with sweet potato casserole. "Or Gaian Knight down in the barrios. They're just putting on a big show and dance for the stupids."

Thanksgiving 2018 Nightingale's warehouse Nicci's place had advantages over Anna's - it was bigger, cleaner, and you didn't need to start generators to turn on the lights. It was a good place for Thanksgiving dinner, and so it was tonight. Anna was at the head of the table, her hair up and wearing the pseudo-Victorian dress Nicci liked, looking down at a table that seemed, well, not exactly like her family but was close enough for now. There was Esperanza on one side, her styled hair dyed a mix of red and black that matched her crimson shirt and black dress, Jason across the table, the two of them shooting each other looks like feuding siblings, and Nicci next to Anna herself. Anna had had big plans to make a Honduran Thanksgiving for her sidekick's benefit, but an irritated Esperanza had fired back that her mom had never bothered with that stuff anyway. So instead they had what could optimistically be described as an all-American Thanksgiving; roast turkey and cranberry from the can, stuffing from the box and mashed potatoes from same, and a sweet potato casserole Anna had picked up somewhere that had marshmellows cooked brown on top. Esperanza was eating and not saying much; which was about as good as it got. It was going to be a good day. Anna reached under the table and squeezed Nicci's hand, smiling at her. "Happy Thanksgiving, honey," she said softly. Maybe nothing here was on the menu for Nicci - but she was going to make sure Nicci ate well that night.

Stopping the bombs took all day, especially since they had a tendency to climb around, blink in and out of this dimension, and occasionally sprout lethal defenses - but when it was done, the day was saved. The bridge bombs had been defused, some of them cast into infernal realms, others rapidly dismantled, and the structure that meant so much to Erin and Trevor in many universes had been saved. There was still the question of what to do with the Erin left scarred and scorched by the fires of the Terminus, but first there was something else to do. For the battle had not come without casualties. "Oh the poor giant bird," said Aquaria sympathetically as she stood by Swander's body, hand over her mouth. She wasn't entirely sure what the proper rites were here, though she suspected that this Erin (much like Jessie) would prefer her flesh not be eaten. Big birds had never been her favorites, anyway, they didn't have as many crunchy bones. Confronted with her bomb, Swander had dealt with it by the expedient of popping it in her mouth - now she smelled distinctly cooked, with X'd out eyes and smoke coming from her open beak. "I guess birds don't have a soul," opined the hellish Erin, bending over the singed corpse with the half-sympathetic expression of someone studying pitiable roadkill. "Or maybe they go to Bird Heaven, I don't know!" she added when the white-haired Erin made a sharp noise and shot her a look that the other Erins recognized from the mirror when they were particularly annoyed at each other. "She's the last one who fell - and she died saving this place. We'll find a place to honor her. Maybe scatter her ashes in DuTemps, Eve has a nice-" Swander suddenly coughed, wheezed - and sat up! "Swack! That was a big one!" She put her wings over her stomach. "Gonna be feeling that one for a while." She craned her neck to look from one to the other of her counterparts. "...What?"

"Hmph." Watchdog made a noise slightly muffled by her helmet, Ashley doing her best to hold back the surreal feeling of hysteria she'd felt ever since she'd realized Danica had just walked straight into the agency command post. "Caught them off-guard," she finally growled, after pushing through what sounded like a faint choking sound. "...did the job, didn't it?" Judy frowned, then murmured with a little more edge than she usually used with her sister, "Ah don't think talkin' like you were gonna shoot people is helping any!" "We'll talk about this later," said Ashley, coughing slightly as her tone grew more reassuring. "You know I wasn't going to shoot those people." Well maybe Graves and his stupid idea of using the damn Claire's as the command center!

December 20 2018 Claremont Academy It was December 20 and Watchdog was distracted. Ashley was thinking of the game schedule for the coming week and which ones she'd be able to check out from her favorite DC bars, and of seeing her mom and her actual sisters again (not that she didn't care for her charge, poor kid, but she wasn't actually her sister) - and also the common room was overrun with preteens with superpowers. It was the sort of situation to put any bodyguard on edge. It didn't help that Judy turned out to be great with little kids, having admitted privately to her sister that she'd always wished that she'd had more younger siblings. The youngest group of Nicholson students, a half-dozen or so kindergarten age kids, had been following her around all day, in the company of their teacher, a thick-glassed and big-haired young woman named Jessie Lupine who practically smelled of granola. Ms. Lupine had been content to let Judy stay close to her charges, though she was patiently watching as Judy led the kids in another round of Itsy-Bitsy-Spider. All around the common room, Nicholson kids were hanging out with Claremont students, the oldest of the latter on the anxious edge of teen, the youngest rambunctious gradeschool kids running around and giggling with the energy of small children when it was late at night. There were adults here too, Nicholson teachers watching their students, Claremont teachers watching both, but for the most part it was "Christmas Big Sibling Camp!" all the way. She caught sight of the Blue Team; a girl in a Disney dress chatting with Pan, a boy with electricity sparking in his eyes sitting next to Adam on the couch, a scaly child of indeterminate gender in Leroy's company, and a girl in forest brown discoursing with Arctos in Russian by the sleeping bags. That was the other great thing about tonight - the last night before Watchdog and Pulse went off for "special training". It was a sleepover. So freaking great.

"I have told that story before," said Steve to Delta, and indeed it was a familiar one - he took pride in both Gina's vigilance and her reaction to the story later. Steve kept a respectful distance as Miss Americana went about her work, not wanting to give Delta the feeling he was being stared at. Normally Steve wouldn't have said a word as Miss A went about her work, knowing that he likely had little to offer, but Terminus cybernetics were an area where he could offer useful advice to his partner's ear. Standing against the wall without leaning on it, as rigid as a statue, he commented, "Your skeletal structure remains. Good." Speak to the man - don't speak of him as if he isn't here, he reminded himself. After all, he'd been on tables like this before - and on those far less friendly. "I have done my best to maintain the vigilance of this dimension. They have been successful."

http://orokos.com/roll/690907 29, so Aquaria makes the Tou save! I'll go ahead and wait for @TheAbsurdist to post before I do anything.

February 2019 Freedom City All your lies exposed - two worlds in collision! Deceiver - what will you do then? The best I can! Inside Copycat's faux-porcelain mask, Ashley George opened her eyes to where she crouched alone on the roof of one of Freedom City's more anonymous skyscrapers - a Brutalist tower that had survived the 1970s, two Terminus invasions, and various other crises with no more than now-repaired cosmetic damage. The flat rooftop (minus the usual equipment one found on the roof of tall buildings) was the sort no one would look too closely at in a city full of weird gargoyles, public art, and superheroes. It was actually the perfect place for a quiet conversation, especially if you were dressed like - well, dressed in a costume that had seemed appropriate when she was sixteen, an unholy merger of the Raven's cape and cowl and the white mask of someone cosplaying as a Chesire cat. She hadn't dressed as Copycat in more than a decade. But then this wasn't exactly a meeting Watchdog could attend; nor could Secret Service Agent Ashley George. She sat - and waited for Geckoman and the third Raven. She'd called, telling them there was a problem with her mission - but would they answer?

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