Avenger Assembled

The Duke's words didn't finish Frost's analysis of him; but it certainly gave him grounds to assign him both order and genus in his personal taxonomy of antagonists. Ah, one of those. Frost suddenly, vividly remembered, the last man who had taken him prisoner in an effort to extract the secrets of his immortality from him. And indeed he learned them. Poor fellow. "Oh, I understand. You feel cold embrace of death closing around you. Many have known such a feeling" As he spoke, the temperature in the room around them dropped noticeably. "Perhaps I misspeak. I know your game, my dear doctor, but what stakes do you play for today? And might my associates and I...raise them?"

Anna Cline had left her sidekick down in the Rio Grande Valley for the week; Esperanza having to help a "friend" with a problem that she wasn't comfortable talking to her mentor about. With the Hammer of Justice quiet for the moment and Bedlam enjoying a brief period of unity, that made this the perfect opportunity to slip back to Freedom City and check on her family. She'd done that, and been incredibly relieved to find them safe and well - but then she was bored, and Esperanza wasn't expecting her until the end of the weekend. The gods that occasionally spoke in her head even when she wasn't wearing the helmet were quiet here in Freedom, probably trying not to attract Set's attention. Anna had thought about attracting Set's attention too, but Set still had a boyfriend and there'd probably be conversations she wasn't quite ready for. Luckily, she wasn't the only one who'd been called back to Freedom City for a while because of the invasion. She'd made Nicola wait for an actual yellow cab to pick them up at the hotel, not wanting to trust "those new-fangled Internet taxicabs, probably try and slit your throat soon as look at you." She wasn't worried about that so much as she was worried about ruining her brand-new dress, a flowing number in green that clung tight where it should and hung loose where it needed to - and a chance to go out on a date in a town full of heroes, where she wouldn't have to worry about anyone except herself for a few hours. The city looked like it was relishing the chance to relax. In the back of the cab, she was next to her girlfriend, hand resting on hers, as they headed back buildings under reconstruction on their way to the club.

"What else brings men of world together? The question of the day revolves around a lady." Frost winked. "You know the kind I mean." He turned the cup in his hands and said, "The good doctor has won company of a particularly fine one recently; a countrywoman of my friend the giant's. This is a matter I would-" Frost made a show of waving his hand, as if looking for the right words. "address. Now we could settle matter through tedious fisticuffs, but I ask you, dear doctor, why ruin our host's fine home with such matters?" He smiled. "I ask you instead - what is your game?"

The easiest thing to figure out was who wasn't coming - the robot Erin was still too injured, her self-repair systems still in the process of repairing her internal damage. Megan wasn't coming either (despite her protests) and Clara's mother was staying with her daughter. The Midnight-Erin took charge of the stealthier group of Erins, who'd approach from below the bridge, the Deep One Erin coming for her watery expertise along with a few others. With a few parting words, and a touch on the shoulder that spoke volumes, she headed away with her group, one of their versions of Redbird providing stealth as they approached. The actual group who came with Wander and Midnight included Singularity, the white-haired Erin, the red-haired one with the flaming scythe, and the one being there who probably wasn't included in plans about various Erins and Trevors - Aquaria Innsmouth, the Sea Devil! It was easy enough for them to find their way to Pramas Bridge, which they found looking innocently packed with summer tourist traffic, with hardly a sign of intruder or strange device. At least until they spotted Erin, standing on a bridge support tower well within leaping distance for those given to such things, the wind ruffling her short black hair as she stood with bat extended, looking at the city across the way. From close inspection, she looked like any other Erin - albeit with the scars and dark hair that the robot had identified as her assailant. She seemed to sense them coming, and turned. "So. Here we are." "Is that all you have to say?" demanded the white-haired Erin. "Who the hell do you think you are?" Erin, the fundamentally wrong Erin, cocked her head and stared at her counterpart. "I'm you, idiot. And most of the rest of you - including whichever ones are about to backstab me."

The house in its general shape looked like any of the other brick rowhouses around - homes that might once have sheltered Polish and Italian families now giving space to Latino families. But it didn't look like families lived in this particular house - not with the bright red arcane symbols painted on the brick, winking third eyes weeping blood, and gory Aztec symbolism like something from an 80s metal album from south of the Border - the impression was amplified by the carefully-painted over windows, and the muscular young men in tight, fashionable clothes casually loitering around on the stoop. Chromium knew enough about crime to know that smart criminals didn't flaunt their true profession; and these men didn't look stupid either. One fellow appeared to be checking his phone, another was casually whittling with a sharp bowie knife. A third was on high alert, actually watching the street as people passed by, scowling and turning to his peers to say something Chromium couldn't have made out even if he understood Spanish. On her perch on a nearby rooftop, Wadjet methodically loaded her gun, waiting from beneath cover as she watched a shiny Porsche head down the street through her binoculars. Good. Everything was happening on schedule.

"Because a superhero should have clothes. If you check the hall closet," she commented, "you can find one of the outfits my husband made - they should just about fit you," she said, giving Tempest a critical look over. "Go ahead and take one." The clothes in the hall closet, close enough that he was still in Nina's view as he went, turned out to be mostly outdoors clothes - jackets and hats from Freedom City's universities and sports teams for both men and women, but there were several complete outfits in sealed plastic bags. These were clearly not of the generic make of other clothes in the closet; instead they were generally sports shirts and slacks of various shades of gold, blue, and white. If Nina thought it was strange to have that in the hallway, she made no comment, instead calling "If you're not hungry, at least take some food for the road! Yes, pretty boy!" "Aaaah!" called her son cheerfully.

Well he seems like a fool - but then so do I, thought Dimitri of the Duke as the ice vampire sat down. He'd been in worse company than this; but never quite under circumstances of a similar nature. "Your hottest tea, if you please, comrade! Perhaps even just the hot water? Ah well." He studied the two men and said, "So! The giant is mine, if you wish to discuss his services we can at some later date." He waited patiently for the tea, then sat back in the old stuffed chair, content to let the heat of it soak up his frigid fingers. "The giant outside, that is. The giantess and I are partners again." He raised the tea to his lips, then said "Or do I have it wrong? Shall we conduct business with pleasure?"

Hi everyone, E and I are at my sisters's house and the Internet is not very good - and tomorrow we have a very long car ride. We will be online Monday night.

Monsoon listened to Tempest's history as she unfastened her son from the backseat, nodding at all the right moments - well he certainly sounded like a powerful and even useful ally, assuming she could keep befriending him. "When was the last time you ate something?" she asked politely as they walked inside her house, an older house with a strange assortment of interior decorations - to Tempest's eye, it looked as though someone had gone wandering the world to find dark hardwood tables from Latin America, Chinese art on the walls, and books on the shelves with a wide variety of subjects. There was an artist's eye behind the chaos, though, turning the inside of the house into a collage rather than a cacophony. Dropping Amir in a playpen near the dining room, Nina headed for the kitchen. "And while I am at it, do you have a change of clothes?"

Midnight's scans, coupled with Psyche's mental explorations, left them with a strange reality. The signature of the way-strengthening device was not inside that distant fortress, as best they could tell - it was down here in the strange mockery of Freedom City that lay at their feet. A few blocks over and down underground; deep in the heart of what passed for residential terrain hereabouts. As the others looked, Mark made a point to keep his eyes upwards rather than downward, concentrating on the silent beauty of the aerial war overhead rather than the horrors that lay all around them. He'd heard the stories about Nihilor too; how it was a trap for heroes from across the multiverse, a place of such bottomless degradation that heroic lights could sink into it like candles being snuffed out by the bottomless dark. He closed his eyes. Stay calm. Stay quiet. Think of your family, and going home to them. He opened his eyes, still looking upwards, and gasped. Something up above their heads had caught alight in the war in Hell's Heaven - and was plunging down directly towards them. "Incoming!" he declared as loudly as he could, pointing upwards as something shaped vaguely like a spacegoing shark, but as long as a schoolbus, came rocketing down towards their location!

Nina told Tempest the story of the Liberty League with some pride - founded during World War II and abandoned in the early 1950s, it had been revived in the new century by her husband and his friends, the former being the grandson of Jimmy Lucas. "I joined myself some time later," she said with pride, "to help bring liberty to my people in Socotra." She shot a look at Tempest to see if he recognized the name of the Middle Eastern monarchy, then added, "But we'll discuss that later. Siri, call Mark Lucas." She spoke to the man on the other end of the line in Arabic for a few moments, giving Tempest a chance to see they were driving down recently-cleared streets towards a house by the edge of the Atlantic before she hung up. "I understand being afraid of assassins," she commented as they parked in the house's driveway. "Who wants you dead?"

Whatever creatures had once lived in the leftward tunnel were long-since dead, or fled; the tunnel was actually blocked near its end by rusted iron bars that it was trivially easy for Aquaria's tridents (quieter than anyone else's great strength) to cut through, giving the heroes access to a brick-lined tunnel that looked and smelled decidedly odd. Perhaps this section of tunnel predated the power plant entirely and had been sealed off when the complex was built and its aqueduct structure added? There was no certain way to tell. The brick tunnel, sloping upwards, eventually led them to another room, this one sealed by a wooden door that no one had opened in decades. The room was spare and the air inside foul, enough that even Singularity had to resist the urge to gag and Foreshadow had to leave himself outside entirely for a moment. With her helmet sealed, Aquaria entered to report a square-cut room with the skeletons of _things_ heaped in the corners and marks on the walls, but nothing any of them recognized. In a city like Freedom, with its long history, strange orphan relics like this were not uncommon. When the stink had faded and they all could enter the skeleton room, they were all left with the unpleasant reality that they'd found a dead end. At least until Aquaria's eyes bulged wide and she raised a hand to her mouth to signal for silence. She breathed, silently, her throat bulging - then pointed upwards. When she spoke, it was in the low, wet hiss that she used to be ultra-quiet. "They are above usss. Many of them. We are inssside the wallsss."

"A ninety-nine year lease," said Lady Horus, speaking with an odd, slow deliberation as if she was driving her voice to particular words. The hyperkinetic goddess had notably slowed down to take in the conversation, joining her sidekick and the other heroes to hear the story. "Bedlam was a different city then; the fires of steel burning and the clouds of ash thick in the sky, blood in the streets as men fought men for bread." Behind the mask, Anna swallowed hard. It was well within her power to go _back_ to 1919 (a year she had visited more than once) - but the consequences of that could be grave. Or I could look back... "Well any of those girls has to be dead," said Wadjet brusquely. "The one we met said she was one of their daughters, and even they'd have to be about as old as-" Her head turned momentarily in the direction of her mentor, but she seemed to think better of it. "We need your records of what happened - and we need their names. All of them!"

APPROVED

Esperanza worked the slide on her gun, considering her options and fighting the urge to see how tough the car-man actually was. "...new plan," said Wadjet, processing this situation like a chemistry problem in her laboratory. "Going to meet you there." She turned, gesturing with the hand that wasn't holding the paintball gun. "Left turn at end of road, right at bodega, then drive to dead-end street. Red house, thugs hanging out front - go in back once you go in front. Can't miss it." She flipped her gun down and fired a shot at her own feet, sending out another cloud of foul-smelling smoke. When the cloud was gone, so was she.

"I think we can go without our formal wear today," she said politely. She put Tempest in the front passenger seat of the station wagon, a saleswoman's smile on her face once they were inside the vehicle proper. "Siri, play Etab!" That got a burble of delight from the baby in the backseat, even as Nina affectionately rolled her eyes. "Pardon my son's taste in music, but he only likes the oldies." As the car moved, she looked at Tempest and said, "The Liberty League was founded during World War II to fight the forces of fascism. Midnight and Jimmy Lucas were some of its early members." She wondered about amnesia, but was comfortable enough in her own space to trust this stranger. "Do you have a name besides Tempest?" she asked.

Dimitri paused for a moment, considering - and then he was on. "Well well well! Such a pleasure to see old friends!" he said with a warm smile, putting out all the conversational energy of an American despite the distinct cold his presence brought to the room. He bustled into the room and shook the Duke's hand with a cold iron grip, then Sin's too, because why not? Taking the offensive upon entering the room would have been all well and good but you could always assume Sin had a bodyguard, or an alchemically-shaped duplicate, or some other matter to make combat a dangerous entanglement. So instead he took the offensive in another way, preparing himself already for whatever trap Sin would seek to spring on them that afternoon.

Aw, are you sure I can't make the roll now and say the character made the plan earlier? ?

Sea Devil Descended From Voyagers Day One - Evening Sea Devil descended alone into the crater where the DuTemps Building had stood that morning, her helmet partially retracted so she could hear and smell all around her. It was dark down here and wet, broken water lines meaning that the hole had partially flooded before the underground rivers had been closed. But dark and wet were no foes of hers; and so she silently picked her way down the crater walls, occasionally catching from the pooled water below that told her the skies above had none of the metallic servants of Destruction for the moment. She took a deep breath, and then another, thinking about what she heard and felt. She couldn't radio her report in from here, but she could sing it in her head. I can hear the song. It is not the song of Destruction - something else happened here. She stopped for a moment in the shelter of a broken sewage pipe, reaching down to run her armored fingers over the lip of the strangely-divided rock. As smooth as if it had been cut with a knife, she mused - or perhaps something as sharp as her armor's tridents. She could tell some mighty magics had happened here but the song was too great, and too strange, for her to know more. As if many voices sang at once; but not all of them in harmony. She would have to go deeper - literally. With a smooth dive, she leaped from her perch to the sheltering water below, reluctantly closing her armor's vents at the last moment so that she wouldn't have to taste and smell water poisoned by the chemicals of the city. So she was greatly surprised, just as she hit, to realize that the water she hit was pure and clean - and as cold and thick about her as the depths of the ocean! She thought this a trick, having been warned of the canniness of the forces of Destruction, and lit her tridents in defiance - but there was nothing about her to be seen - no metallic monsters came for her, no gateways to the daemon sultan's realm opened; but the water around her was not the polluted water of Freedom City's underbelly, but the pure, clean salt water of the depths of the sea. She'd known its touch so rarely in her life; but she knew it as she would have the song of her tribe. With that she dived lower still, more eager than ever to find the solution to the mystery that had taken another home, and another family, from her - and now to know what had given her the miracle of the cleansing waters. She swam down low, past debris that had fallen into the water, Surface vehicles and a few sad bodies, trying to reach the very bottom of the crater dug out by the building's disappearance. She swam deeper, and deeper still - and then she saw it. The trident, lodged at the bottom of the inverted pyramid, the trident, which from its workmanship was made by Deep One hands, the trident that she had never seen before but seemed to call to her like a lost member of the People. She could hear the power that rang through the metal and knew that something had delivered this great and mighty weapon to her - but who had done so? She swam down to the trident, studying it uncertainly, the faint glow of her suit reflecting off the burnished black metal into her great gold and black eyes as she weighed whether or not this was a trap. And then she heard the song; and saw to her right a vision. Herself, in a twisted mockery of herself, her body swollen and misshapen like an Atlantean's, a Surfacer's long black hair streaming behind her, tiny eyes seeming to peer at her uncertainly. And to her left, as the song deepened, another vision - herself, covered in glory, with Dagon's fleshly mantle upon her face and Hydra's gaze upon her brow, a Deep One descended to the ranks of the most blessed! Her heart hammered wildly in her chest as she studied her 'sisters' and they studied her. Finally the blessed one's many eyes moved, and the cursed one's small head moved, and Aquaria realized that they like her were studying the trident. Who should take it? Aquaria herself? The monstrous one, who surely had great need of power? The blessed one, who surely knew the songs of the gods very well indeed? After what seemed an eternity down there where her home had once been, Aquaria realized the answer to the riddle. The cursed one could never hold the power of the gods and the blessed one had no need of it - the only bearer of the trident had to be the one made in the image of the gods themselves. The Water-Bearer-In-His-Mouth! She reached out for the trident and gripped it tight with her left hand, and as she did she felt the power of it surge through her like a lightning strike - Under the water, Aquaria blinked as her gold-black eyes rolled over to a deep shade of black. Her mouth moved with a voice that wasn't hers, a sinous echo like the movements of the vasty deep. Her heart felt, for the first time in a long time, the great joy of faith rewarded and confirmed. The children of Destruction have forgotten their father and moher. Teach them our songs. When the blessing had faded, she stared at the trident for a long moment, wondering if she would be again indwelt. But she heard no voices, and her eyes remained hers. "I will carry your power, Dark Father and Mother,," she croaked reverently, "I will sing to the stars - and make this world right." when no other signs were obvious, she took the trident and hung it from her back, then began swimming in quick, powerful strokes for the edge of the pool. Perhaps she had no certain answers about the fate of her friends, but it did not seem the forces of Destruction had taken them today. And if the gods themselves had entered the fight for Freedom City, who could stand against them?

Mark removed the fist he'd shoved in his mouth after the transition, the better to avoid screaming at the images that were still locked in his head, and looked around, careful to stay away from the edges of the rooftop where they'd landed. Without Erin and Trevor's training or Alex's ability to make herself and others invisible, he'd just make himself a target if he stuck his head out without being careful. Play it quiet, he remembered from their briefings. You're not tougher than the whole multiverse. A big target in the Terminus is just a target. Luckily, everything was working out for them so far. He thought of Nina and Richie again, then carefully put them in the 'box' in his head where he stored things he didn't want to get torn up. He nodded at Trevor's words, then shot a quick glance at the others to see how they were holding up. "In the transit, did anyone else see-" he whispered, voice almost inaudible. Psychic defenses? The residue of failed, warped timelines that had grown up around the Terminus like fungus growing in a septic tank? He thought suddenly of Erin and Trevor's pupil Riley, and the failed timeline that was his birthplace.

When Wadjet fell, screaming, there really wasn't any other choice for Lady Horus. She turned and took off like a rocket, catching Esperanza around the shoulders and hips (to avoid breaking her spine) and rocketing them up into the upper reaches of the Works. She understood Esperanza's "The gun! The gun!" immediately but didn't make the connection about what it truly meant until she saw, and heard, the detonation down below as one of the tanks of molten metal ruptured from the explosion within! Why would they even leave the $(#Iing metal molten! Anna demanded of herself in an inner monologue that passed in the second or two before their feet touched the ground of the upper rafters. Who the hell is running this operation? Oh yeah, a crazy dwarf with delusions of grandeur. Her face set in a snarl of concentration, Lady Horus raised her ankh and fired a devastatingly bright beam of golden light down at the giant robot below, in her frustration trying to simply blast off the head whose security had so delayed her sidekick. She didn't speak, though; this was one of those situations where Lady Horus's Shakespearean intonations would seem like cheap mockery of the sizzle of angry words burning through her mind. Wadjet laid a hand on her linen-clad arm. "This is what happens when you make plans," she said frankly, "but listen to me, I know what to do...before those things get here, anyway!"

Lady Horus is immune to damage at that rank with her Impervious - her sidekick is not! Tou vs 20: http://orokos.com/roll/644256 Well not going to take that 9! http://orokos.com/roll/644257 = with the HP that's a 23, and Wadjet is okay. Lady Horus is getting frustrated - she's going to blast the damn giant robot to pieces. As I believe it's an inanimate object, the DC to hit is quite low even at range - do you want a roll to hit it, Cape? The roll I did wasn't so great. Wadjet is out of options since she's out of melee range of the robots for the moment and she's lost her gun - but she will activate her Master Plan! http://orokos.com/roll/644259 = a nat 20 on that roll! Okay, she'll add the bonus from that roll to all of her ally's subsequent actions.

He'd given his supername, so she gave hers - "Wadjet." Esperanza wouldn't have enjoyed sharing her real name, anyway. "Wisconsin cops won't take anything from supers - so you do it through fear. Break down their front door, bust some heads, and make sure they know it'll keep happening if they come to our neighborhood." All of that was true, in a sense. Staring at the man, she took a gamble. "I'll get on your back," she offered, "and steer you there." There was a time in her life when riding inside a giant Transformer would have been the highlight of her day, but she was almost twenty - she wasn't a kid anymore. "You'll take down a Mara house, be a big hero...maybe get yourself chrome rims." She still wasn't really sure of his story. He didn't sound like he was from the neighborhood, which meant taking down a Mara cell probably wouldn't get him killed.

"Oh, well, we can't have that," said Monsoon in a voice like warm steel. "Come along with me and I'll get you settled in." She fearlessly walked up to Tempest and looked him over, mother and baby now completely dry. "And don't think it's charity that I'm giving you out of the goodness of my heart," she told him with a smile. "Looking out for each other is part of the job." That was a sentence she'd picked up from her husband, but there was no reason to dwell on that. She fished her keyfob out of her pants pocket and tapped it, making the lights flash on a nearby Mercedes E-class station wagon. With that pronouncement made, she went to work strapping Amir into the big infant seat in the back of the high-end wagon, Amir cheerfully burbling and waving his arms. "I'm part of a team called the Liberty League, named for the first American super organization. I'll take you somewhere where you can meet people."

Go ahead and take us into the next scene, @Supercape