Avenger Assembled

Lady Horus: 5, 12, 15, 13, 12, 15, 16, 5, 14, 18, 5, 15, 1, 13, 16, 8, 7, 1, 11, 11 Wadjet: 8, 19, 15, 7, 9, 8, 10, 20, 17, 19, 8, 13, 5, 10, 1, 5, 12, 14, 18, 4 Okay, let's make some assignments - Lady Horus is going to spend the first round rescuing civilians inside the building. From her fire escape perch outside, Wadjet is going to shoot the Damned Thing outside - she's not going to alert Lady Horus to the illusion until she knows what's happening. Lady Horus Init:5 + 22=27 Wadjet Init: 8+5=13 Lady Horus Will Save: 12+5=17 Wadjet Will Save: 19+6=25 Wadjet Ranged Attack: 15+8=23 Wadjet's Stealth (if it matters): 7+12=19 That's a DC 23 Toughness acid attack from an exploding paintball.

A moment before Kimber burst into Tarva's ritual room, she distinctly heard "No. Not this time." She found the room alive with umbral power, shadow hounds leaping from wall to wall, barking and growling like maddened dogs as swirls of energy like spilled ink filled the air. Tarva stood in the midst of an arcane symbol etched into the floor, two loops and a straight line, and somehow the black against the black of the sign drew her eyes impossibly because the black marble of the floor stood out like a summer's day against the eye-draining, light-draining energy that swirled unnaturally at her lover's feet. Tarva's dress billowed around her like a shroud as she raised her hands before a misshapen altar to strange gods, clutching a dagger in one hand that looked to have been made from one of the kitchen knives. "Kar’Kradas and the Howling Dream! Dagon and Hydra! Apep and Erebus! Hear my prayer! Cast my realm through yours Below and shield me from my enemies! I have paid the price!" In a voice that struck Kimber like cold fire, the swirling sign at Tarva's feet spoke - "The price is paid. The deal is struck. The way is open." Tarva brought the dagger downward a moment before Kimber reached her - and suddenly, even as Tarva's flesh ripped open, Kimber felt other things rip open too, outside. And then outside, great black wriggling things like umbral tentacles spread across the building from the castle downward, enveloping the entire structure like a squid around its prey. And Eve felt the touch of cold, impossibly ancient intelligences. And for the first time, Daphne heard the song of the Arcane. And Kimber knew that outside something far more primal than a robot army had been summoned, and it had them. "Any price." said Tarva as her blood spilled out on the floor - as the skyscraper and the castle vanished from the city.

Tagging.

It had been some of the worst days of Anna's life - though not the worst. Screaming on the phone to make sure her grandbabies were okay and were not being sent into the fight in Freedom City (and they weren't being sent to her, because she hadn't been honest with her own blood about where she was living, and for once she didn't care because it meant they were going somewhere safer than Bedlam) - praying to Egyptian gods she didn't really believe in for a salvation she knew perfectly well she didn't deserve. The last time the Terminus had come to Earth she'd run away, left people to die because she thought they deserved it for locking her up - and all in all it was one of the many reasons she knew she was damned. All in all, Esperanza's warning that somebody had blown up a house in Stark Hill was almost good news. She took the time to dress and don her godly disguise, and to get her sidekick out of the house and dressed. Esperanza was inclined to doom and gloom in the best of times, and the end of the world threatening wasn't helping her. Getting out of the house and helping save the day would be just the thing! It would keep her from running away and vanishing down the interstate, anyway, which was what Anna worried about half the time. So it was that Lady Horus made a quick deposit of her sidekick nearby the broken house in Stark Hill, and then a much more spectacular public landing at the site of all the damage. Well holding it up ain't gonna do a damn bit of good, that thing'll fall apart! A quick blow disposed of the door, and she stepped inside.

"Dagon and Hydra, Your deep-dark seas are so great and we are so small," Aquaria had been uncharacteristically subdued since the invasion had begun, particularly since she and Jessie had seen their second home vanish into shadowy darkness. She'd had some inkling of Tarva's plan, or at least her desire to flee somewhere that her ancient enemies could never find her. And so Tarva had indeed slipped the net, for now - but what of them? Sea Devil and Singularity had fought in North Bay, defending the home of Jessie's sister and those protected there, helping the innocent escape from the carnage. But no seas were deep enough or dark enough, to hide them from this enemy. Aquaria's eyes saw things her friends could not, her skin heard songs that were beyond them, and she understood the gravity of what they all faced only too well. As they headed into the Sloan Mansion, she and Singularity knew why they were there - to strike at a generator that had opened the way of their enemies to this place. As they headed into the Sloan Mansion, Aquaria's trident spoke to her through her armor. It had been doing that a lot lately - but she had chosen not to share that with her friends. What did it mean when the gods whispered to the living, now when the end of all things seemed nigh? That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die. She was silent as they went below, staying close to Singularity, making sure her friend wasn't alone. Of course, they weren't going to be alone on this mission either...

...I think Frost is going to stay quiet here still? Too many cooks spoil the soup, and so far Dreadnought is handling the negotiation well enough. Let me know if you'd like him to intervene, Exaccus.

"Hang on a minute here," said Goggle, frowning. She took one of the 'screwdrivers' and looked it over herself, peering at it through her goggles with a critical eye, then cast it aside to look at a few more. "This is standard dimensional shunt technology," she said. "As far as I can tell, they haven't been tampered with at all. They aren't about to blow up, they aren't leaking radiation - what's the point of seeding the multiverse with this?" "It's a trap!" croaked Aquaria from the ceiling, a moment before adding in a bellow to the sudden sea of bats and blades beneath her, "Sorry! Sorry! I didn't mean to frighten anyone but Baxter is finished with his eatings!" She patted the back of her head nervously, then hopped down and landed on the opposite side of the group from the hybrid Erin. "If the trap isn't in the sea, it's on the rock with all the fish...right?"

"The Sunhawk's light shines on poor and rich alike," spoke Lady Horus, though what Anna really wanted to say was Somebody's gotta give a damn in this little podunk burg or nobody's gonna give a damn at all. "There has been death in the Iron Works before - but not for some time." She remembered names from her girlhood, from her father's stories about life in Bedlam; Polish and Italian guys who'd gone in there and never come out again. "What do you know of this?"

Anna reached up and twirled the hair by her ear, taking a moment to inhale deeply - of course, with Nicola this close, that didn't help much. "I...gotta call Esperanza and tell her everything's okay. She's sorta, ah, watchin' my back." She considered disentangling herself from Nicola for the call, then decided she didn't quite want to do that. Pulling out her fliptop phone, she dialed quickly. "Hey. Yeah, it's me, you don't need to keep watchin'-" An interruption, and then, "...yeah, I'm workin' on it! We're just talkin' now, so you should hit the library. Yeah, yer a real arm of support." She hung up the phone, blushing, and admitted, "She, uh, she said she thought it was real cute how I was discoverin' my real self at my advanced age, and said she's gonna make us a rainbow costume." She sighed softly, her hand resting on Nicola's thigh, then said, "I don't think I'm discoverin' anything new. All my life, I got what I wanted, and I wanted what I got. I just...I don't want you to think I'm some cheap whore," she added. "I got called a lot of things - because I wasn't married to the father of my boy, and because I did what I wanted with other men after that. And most of the time I don't give a damn what people think; unless..." She locked eyes with Nicola and went on, "I give a damn what they think."

https://www.freedomplaybypost.com/topic/10619-hell-broke-loose-the-terminus-invasion-of-2018/ Okay, folks! If you are a GM, please post the start to your thread by tomorrow. Post a link to it in the linked thread by editing my post in the OOC timeline - and link it here as well just to be safe.

Vignette Prompt - June-July-August 2018 WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE INVASION, GRANDPARENT? For vignette credit for the summer of 2018, please write a story about what your character/s did during the Terminus Invasion of 2018! You can write this whether or not you or your character participated in an active thread. Did you fight Omegadrones? Rescue civilians? Feed the hungry? Beat one of the low-ranking Annihilists? Celebrate the victory afterwards? Mourn the dead? Cavort in the ocean? Weep in terror and rage at the cosmic injustice of it all? Spend all the time on your girlfriend's bedroom floor? Yell imprecations at the Moon? Either way, go ahead and write it up and post it below - the usual double credit for a vignette of more than 1000 words applies.

OOC timeline: July 10-13, 2018 Another Castle [Evac] (TT GMing, WRAITH [Fox], MISS GRUE [TiffanyKorta], GHOST GIRL [Gizmo]) - this takes place from around noon on Day One to around 8PM on Day Four Early Freedom Evacuation Thread (EternalPhoenix and Ari GMing, PRISM [Thunder King], MANNEQUIN [Vorik]) - this takes place around 7PM on Day One Crack the Anvil [Kingston] (3 players, Gizmo GMing, REPLICA [Cubismo], CANNONADE [Trollthumper] , BLACK MAMBA [Tarrakesh]) - this takes place on Day Two Shepherd the Flock [West End] (3 players, Gizmo GMing, PINNACLE [Jander-Prime], DREADNOUGHT [Exaccus], GLAMAZON [HG Morrison)] - this takes place on Day Two And the Moon Is In Shock [Lantern Hill] (TT GMing, PHANTOM [alderwitch], MS BRITANNIA [TiffanyKorta], RENE DE SAENS [Supercape]) - this takes place on Day Two Technobabble Thread (3 players, Cubismo GMing, TERRIFICA [EternalPhoenix], SALVO [Zeitgeist Blue], SOLAR SENTINEL [Thunder King] ) - this takes place on Day Two How Much Further to Fall [Bedlam][/url] (TT GMing, ARROWHAWK II [Ecalsneerg], LADY HORUS/WADJET [AvengerAssembled], JETTE [EternalPhoenix]) - this takes place on Day Three The Only Thing I Know For Real [Claremont/Southside] (Olopi GMing, Rev [Supercape], Pacer & Stalwart [EternalPhoenix], Facsimile [Exaccus]) - this takes place on Day Three Running up that Hill - TiffK GMing, RED LYNX [Angrydurf], ASAD [TheAbsurdist], DALIR THE DASHING [HG Morrison] - this takes place on Day Three NIHILOR - AvengerAssembled GMing, WANDER [Electra], MIDNIGHT II [Gizmo], PSYCHE [Alderwitch] - this takes place on Day Three FREEDOM CITY - HG Morrison GMing, SINGULARITY [Electra], SEA DEVIL [AvengerAssembled], COBALT TEMPLAR [KnightDisciple] -- this takes place on Day Three World's On Fire (3 players) - TheAbsurdist GMing, PHALANX [angrydurf], TRIAKOSIA [TiffanyKorta], GAIAN KNIGHT [Fox] - this takes place at around 6PM on Day Four

July 10, 2018 8AM Joan Collier's soothing voice greeted Freedom City's commuters on July 10; those that didn't already have today off anyway. "All of Freedom has turned out for what may be the largest gathering of metahumans in recent history; a commemoration of the death of the Centurion twenty-five years ago-" In the waters off the coast of North Bay, Aquaria watched as Jessie and Baxter played fetch in the surf. Tourists usually didn't come to the beach by the airport, which made it the perfect spot for locals in the know looking to get away - especially when one of them generally couldn't be seen by human eyes. They'd brought their gear, just in case superheroing turned out to be necessary; but this was supposed to be a day off. In Bedlam City, Anna Cline was up early with her plate of breakfast sausage and eggs and a live newsfeed. Thanks to the satellite hookup her sidekick had made, she didn't even have to see the stupid Bedlam talking heads. In Britain, UNISON heroes Mark Lucas and his wife Monsoon were eating lunch in Vanguard's headquarters, their son sitting on his father's lap. It had been a good teamup. Woodsman slept late that morning, curled up in his tent screened from the bushes, his motorcycle chained to a nearby tree. Next stop, Minneapolis. The Omegadrone called Harrier sat in his house with his woman and was content. The cameras were off and the world outside them quiet. This was a day when neither of them needed to go out. In Emerald City, Washington, Citizen backed himself up that morning, prompted by one of several emails Miss Americana had sent him that night. After that, it was time for a morning speech to the Archetech staff, and then maybe time to get to work? In the VIP section of the audience in Riverside Park, Fast-Forward sat alongside his wife, occasionally shooting a glance over at Wail elsewhere in the crowd of dignitaries. He hadn't seen a crowd of supers this big since...well, since 2013. Elsewhere, Heyzel remembered "And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father" - but found the holy words bitter comfort. 9AM "Thanks for that, Carl - that was Carl Stallone on location with the Freedom League Auxiliary and True North in Greenland, where it seems one giant rock monster found that it bit off - more than it could chew." Joan frowned, as if judging her teleprompter, before continuing. In an undisclosed wing of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Ashley and Jaycee sat in a room free of any electronics and ate breakfast together - practice for that fall. "So, uh, are you really a...a lesbian?" Jaycee asked Ashley while she was sipping her orange juice. Ashley was a veteran superhero and Secret Service agent. She managed to swallow it. 11AM And all at once, psychics and mystics across the city screamed in mixed terror and pain as they felt the very stuff of the universe be violated - - And Harrier crashed to the floor without so much as a sound escaping his lips - - And the sky ripped open above the assembled crowds like the tearing of some great and terrible wound, and with the sound of hellish trumpets the Omegadrones poured forth from the sky like so many locusts- NOON The image of Captain Thunder and the Alpha Omegadrone, plunging together into the base of the Sentry Statue and sending it tumbling to the Earth amid belching smoke and flame, remains one of the most infamous images of the Invasion of 2018- Fast-Forward felt his tendons pull as he runs his way through the city, grabbing people and running them out, but he doesn't care - not yet, not time for that- -And in the center of the city something happenned to the DuTemps Building; great black wriggling things like umbral tentacles spread across the building from the castle downward, enveloping the entire structure like a squid around its prey before tentacles and castle alike vanish altogether 1PM "A body count already estimated to be in the hundreds and-yes, I've just gotten word that the portal in Liberty Park has been closed but that the crisis is not over-" 2PM "YOU CAN EVADE REALITY BUT YOU CANNOT AVOID THE CONSEQUENCES OF AVOIDING REALITY!" cried Abby Brio from her throne, the great golden chair glowing above the burning remains of the Ashton neighborhood, the chair itself cast in an eerie light by the great green dome overhead, flanked by Omegadrones. 5PM "And we are reporting now that the Freedom League has been driven away from the enemy fortress in Kingston as well, thus leaving two Terminus strongholds right in the heart of Freedom City." It was shortly after this moment that Joan Collier handed her desk off to someone else. 8PM The sun is setting. There are war councils afoot and civilians being rescued. The skies are red, but stars glow defiantly through them. There are bodies in Kingston and Ashton, and terrible things are being done to the dead - and very soon to the living. Omegadrones are flying - and the Sentry Statue is still burning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fju9o8BVJ8

Upstairs Black Mamba was confronted by a grim scene - a figure sheathed in flame and fire, and a half-dozen kids in the casual dress of Lincoln kids on a warm summer afternoon, the half-dozen in a tight circle ringed by fire. His sensors could detect the smoke in the room, but it wasn't enough to choke humans - yet. This crisis was about to get much worse. "YOU SEE!?" demanded the figure wreathed in fire. "YOU SEE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?" "He's crazy! He's crazy!" yelled one of the kids. "Please, you've got to help us!"

"How did you-oh yes, your time powers!" said Norris, speaking for an instant to all of them simultaneously before adding, "What I need you to do is help make sure that Abby and Pablo meet and fall in love - something that Pablo's job on the catering staff is going to make rather difficult. Just arrange a, what did you call it nowadays, a meet-cute?" Norris gave them all a smile. "Just get them together, and then let history take care of itself. I've spoken to some of your colleagues too," he admitted, "so you won't be alone in this. Just meet each other on the roof of the Freedom Masonic Temple, that's where the Westwinter show is, and then you can plan from there!" He smiled brightly, then added, a little nervously, "Just make sure you don't forget - my future may only be a possible one for you, but I want to make sure it's protected. Please - you're a hero, aren't you? We need your help." And with that, in a faint puff of air, he disappeared.

"Yes," said Frost neutrally, considering how to respond to the new Scarab - and what sort of conversation he should have with Talya afterwards. "I am sure you tell them great things." He studied the new arrival carefully as the Egyptian-themed fellow spoke, considering what either of the Horuses would have to say about the impersonation. "Quite a look you have, young fellow," he commented finally, hands in his pockets as he looked him up and down. "Worshippers?-" Third Eye looked profoundly disappointed as he watched Eldritch go, then turned to Lucy. "You get that he's not mellow, right? It's not just an old guy's bad vibes here? Talkin' about worshippers like we 're sitting on a throne instead of the top of a ladder, with our hand down to the next seeker," He shook his head sorrowfully, and added in a soft murmur, "When today is done, I'll send him back to Oregon. Maybe I'll get bad karma for it, but I just don't want him representing us out here any longer than he has to. I just think we should handle it quietly. "

What Anna Cline thought was Oh honey, if I'd come to rob ya, I'd already have yer jewels. What she said was, "Nay, I come on a grimmer errand. Thy secretary Verity Child is dead - I have come to find her murderer, and to know what you know." With casual ease, she walked into the bedroom, tossing her ankh from hand to hand as she did so. "You have a taste for old things," she commented with a look at the derringer. "As do I." Anna wondered for a moment if bringing her sidekick along on the mission might have made things go more smoothly, but Esperanza's usual methods of interrogation (especially of "rich bitches" as she called both men and women alike) were probably a bit too forceful for this encounter.

A shadowy white mist along the wall, Comrade Frost considered his options. It was sorely tempting to reappear and tell this two-bit hoodlum what he could do with his threats, but why not take the long game? Frost had been around enough dogs to know that if you backed one into the corner, it would bite you - and even a small dog bite could have dire consequences. So instead he stayed concealed as a puff of mist against the far wall, listening to the conversation without actually intervening. Dreadnought had the cards; he'd see how the English super played them. And if man continues to give us trouble, I freeze all his men and then we decide what to do next, he thought complacently. All will be well.

"And when the stars are right, the first will be last and the last will be first, and the sea will be as the land and the land will be as the sea, and enlightenment will come to the world."" "That is beautiful, Aquaria. You have been practicing your singing - and it shows." Tarva lit the last of their candles and asked, "What will happen to Jessie when that happens?" Aquaria blinked her eyes and said, "...I-I have wondered about that. The Surface is rarely spoken in the songs." "But if you've wondered about it, you must have some ideas," said Tarva patiently as the black smoke, scented of the sea and the things that lived there, rose around the kneeling witch and the crouching Deep One. "She doesn't worship your gods - and I don't think she wants to." "No, she follows her own ways." Aquaria stared down at the flickering flames around them, her great eyes letting her see them all without turning her neck. "There would be no point," she admitted. "She would never know their embrace. The gods do not love Surfacers." She didn't mind telling such things to Tarva, who knew perfectly well what waited for her after death. "But you do. Oh not like that," said Tarva, her lips curving slightly in a way Aquaria knew meant humor. "But you love Jessie." "Yes," said Aquaria simply. "I do." She reached down with one hand and pinched out one of the half-dozen flames around them. "My people, when we are together, wherever we go, we are not alone. We see, we smell, those who are ours- and we always hear our songs. When my tribe was dead, it was very hard to be alone." She reached out and pinched out another flame. "When I came to the Surface, it was because anything was better than being alone. You understand." ""Yes," breathed Tarva, in a voice so quiet only Aquaria could have heard. "I do." "When I was taken from the place where I thought I would die, there were those who lifted me up - and Jessie was the one waiting for me. I was alone, and then when I was with her, I was no longer alone. She is not the only one who I love - but she is the greatest. You understand," she echoed. "Yes. Yes, I do." Tarva extinguished a candle herself, then another, until only two illuminated the ritual space. "If the stars are right while Jessie lives, she will die at the hands of your people - and go to a place where she will be alone. What would you do to save her?" "Anything," Aquaria croaked softly. "And you?" "Anything." Tarva extinguished the last of the candles, and they crouched together in the darkness of the ritual room - and sang.

@Gizmo @Cubismo @TheAbsurdist @HG Morrison @Tiffany Korta @trollthumper Are you prepared? @EternalPhoenix @Ari How do you feel about running the evac thread?

Poke!

Okay, put in any more thread ideas you might have, or claim spots!

There are people upstairs! You can detect one group, huddled together, and one individual near the group, circling them. The house doesn't look very damaged at all, actually, which is also weird - a fire that has actually spread as far as this one should have done more damage to the house over time. It's as if the whole first floor went up at once.

sounds good! Let me know what interests you. OK, done some shuffling - just chime in if you'd like a thread at this point. We will be starting sometime this weekend Looking for someone to go alongside Singularity and Sea Devil.

No one showed much of an interest in being in that one, though, @EternalPhoenix and @Ari, so not sure about it.