Avenger Assembled

Ashley was silent for a while, considering the differences between Raven inside the mask and Alek outside it. I can tell his mentor runs a school. "That's quite a story," she finally commented quietly. "Nothing that exciting here - I was just a Claremont student she took an interest in." She shook her head dismissively. "I heard you were an orphan she took in." Well, she'd put that together herself from some of the comments Callie had made, and hadn't made, in the last few weeks. "Everybody needs to have a family." She thought of her mother and her sisters in far-off Lafayette, half a world away, and her cousins down on the gulf coast - both Tonkin and Mexico. "So how is the new Foreshadow?" she asked curiously.

Aquaria is VERY UNHAPPY now. @Heritage, have Miracle Girl punch her lights out!

"Mm." Ashley knew how easy it was to just start talking when you were inside this thing, and decided she'd unburdened herself enough today. "It's a hard life. I'm glad your predecessor grew out of it before anything happened." The truth was, she had fully expected to be called back to Freedom City someday to deal with the death of Callie Summers and the fallout that would bring. Maybe Chris and Alek and I would have had to wrestle for the cape - no, that's stupid. If she hadn't wanted to be Raven when she was eighteen, she sure as hell didn't want to be Raven now. "I must sound pretty full of myself," she said easily, "being a meta talking about how hard it is to be an unpowered operator."

That hits! Looks like I missed a dieroll earlier, so let's give him a bruised to go with the injured the dog has. Go ahead and post, Fox.

Solution and Alkahest traded punches - and for those close, it was like twin bombs going off. There was a concussion loud enough to make Merlin clap his hands to his ears above, frantically summoning the Freedom League, and a gust of wind strong enough to kick up dust and debris from all around them, and strong enough to knock Woundmaker's remaining guards to the floor. As they scrabbled to their feet, they fled - whatever the Murder League was, it wasn't more frightening than this. As the dust cleared, it became clear which of the two abominations was winning the fight; and it was the outsider. ...Winifred The Alkahest looked at the Solution and smiled a grin that spoke of shattered dreams and murdered hopes; of a world's champions turned into its predators. Winifred! Meat! And then it grabbed the Solution by the side of the head, massive paws on either side of her face, and bit down, hurling away the struggling powerhouse and swallowing what it had taken.

"People have a pretty good idea Raven doesn't kill," said Ashley with a small shrug. "But at the end of the day, that's how it works. Raven, Midnight, Avenger, all the rest - if you don't have any powers, you're just one person in a mask. You need something that'll make people respect you as much as Phalanx or Captain Thunder, something that'll keep people in line who could take you out with one stray shot to the chest. Somebody like the old Patriot, they could keep people in line because everybody admired them." She hmmed, snapping open one of the vehicle's first aid kits to wipe down one particularly set of bloody knuckles. "Most...people in your business, that's not how it is." It was one of several reasons Ashley herself had gotten out of that particular life, but there was no reason to get into that here.

Out for the moment!

Sea Devil had no idea what the Shark-Man was talking about - and what was the British government, anyway? It sounded important - but it seemed like a question a Surfacers would be able to answer. She decided to play the voice of experience. "You should be careful. If there are god-things here, they will not like you." Aquaria sighed - it sounded like the shark-thing was another Surfacer in disguise, despite his extremely attractive visage. Weren't they all? "I am going to see what that is!" she croaked, turning and jetting off towards the kraken.

Okay, so you'd like a thread where Comrade Frost talks immortality with Grim?

Under the water, Aquaria sang a Deep One song that echoed out of the water in a strange, eerie bass, a slow rumble as she translated from Lemurian to English as she went. Their boat will sink soon into the water they fall And then - the young shall play! She stuck her head out from the water, pulling now at the propeller with her legs, feeling the satisfying sensation of straining metal, and gave a great bellow. "You should surrender now!"

This was not the first time a young man had asked Comrade Frost that question. His answer had changed over the years, depending on who he was speaking to, who was listening, and whether or not he ever wanted to have a pleasant tea with that person ever again. In this case, he temporized his answer. Slightly. "There was a German physician in the Great Patriotic War named Grawitz. Well, I call him a physician but he was a butcher - an SS functionary of high rank who specialized in the murder of children born with eugenic deficiencies. He presided over, oh, the deaths of some five thousand children, I think it was. This was when he was not encouraging experiments on homosexuals and the like - that was a favorite activity of his. His rank was such that he rarely went to the camps himself, you know? He simply authorized experiments. Head of the Red Cross in Germany too. Such a time it was." Frost fell silent for a little while, then went on speaking, "At the end of the war, I was to apprehend him - there was talk he might have some records of the Thule Society in his keeping, you know, magical experiments and the like." Frost waved his hand. "I was the first into his home in Potsdam. The smell of blood was everywhere outside, and stronger inside. When I entered the dining room, I found..." Frost fell silent again, then said, "Well, his Fuhrer had denied him permission to leave the city and flee to American lines, so what he had done was sit down with his wife and children for dinner and detonated two grenades under the table. Seventy-three years ago, and I can close my eyes and see myself in that room as if I was there still. That is what war is." His tone as he spoke was cool, but not unfriendly, as if relating a difficulty that had happened to someone else. "I want you to understand that I tell you this not to frighten you - but because you are a young man, and young men are lied to about these things. You know?"

Okay: Sparkler is up vs the Sandersons, @Electra The dog is up vs. Woundmaker, @Fox Cannibal Alkahest is up vs the people fighting it: Well, let's go ahead and have the Cannibal go for itself. -2 from Demoralize http://orokos.com/roll/612452 = 22! Okay, that'll be vs. the Solution. Give me a DC 30 Toughness save, Giz - it is of course doing lethal

Time passed. The Lor set Puigo up with his own room, providing furniture and food as he required. Their ability to provide species-specific materials for him was evidently fairly limited, but they were doing their best - by the end of his time there he had a place to eat, a place to sleep, and a library computer with a connection to the Galactic Information Network - albeit not a live one. From what he could tell of the current Galaxy they were somewhere isolated, at the edge of wild space and close by several nature preserves. He had the strong impression that this was indeed a remote military outpost, albeit one with a profound archaeological secret. The officers and scientists aboard ship were happy to offer him support, but generally kept their distance, asking after his welfare and other questions, but not "overburdening him with the state of Galactic affairs." Several local 'days' later - his vessel arrived. He and Captain Samran, along with some of the scientists he'd gotten to know, were waiting in the officer's lounge when the officers of the escort vessel Nimbus entered - and everyone leaped to attention. "Stand down, everyone, stand down." The older woman who entered the room, in the company of several other officers, was in what Puigo recognized as Lor civilian dress. "I'm just Defense Minister Frankan now, remember?" With a warm smile, she walked right up to Puigo and said, "Greetings, pilot. I'm Defense Minister Bucklin Frankan of the Imperial Star Navy. I'm here to take you to see your people."

Aquaria hung her head and breathed deeply, nostrils on the end of her snout flaring widely. With her body like this, she could see, smell, and hear everything. She could hear the click-click-click of the crab-creature's claws. She could hear the echoing song of the bird-thing, and the sound of its heart beating wildly in its chest; and watch the scuttling of the insect-things through the leaves and branches of the trees. This really was a perfect place. But then, so had Atlantis been - in the days before the gods had pulled it down into the world. "How...how did you make these things?" she croaked throatily, her voice uncharacteristically quiet.

Sea Devil waved to the helicopter as she passed it by, concentrating on her navigation. This part of the ocean lay beneath the Many-Eyed Sea and might be a gathering place for her people; which meant strange doings there were her responsibility. She was fairly confident, from what she'd heard of these thefts that her people weren't responsible for them - but manifestations of the gods would bring them. And then there would be trouble, if no one was there to keep the peace. She'd left a message back at the castle about where she was and what she was doing, but Jessie was in school today and few of her friends loved the ocean as much as she did. She hit the water fast and dived deep, her armor instantly filling with the brackish tang of Mother Hydra's Ocean. It burned some, as it always would, but it was a clean, pure feeling. She opened her eyes and peered outwards, her suit instantly transmitting small underwater movements to her keen senses. She was immediately aware of the nearby figures of Feeding Frenzy and Sergeant Shark; the former of which she recognized from Freedom City (though she'd never gotten to know him) and the latter not at all. Her faceplate opaque to disguise her true nature, she sped over to join the two males, kicking her long, muscular legs powerfully, her body entirely concealed by her glowing green armor. "HELLO!" she croaked at them, her voice a booming electronic bass. "I AM SEA DEVIL!"

I was hoping I could guilt you into a reroll but okay. Post coming soon!

Shouldn't that have been rolled with +12, given that Aquaria has already inflicted an injured on it?

Aquaria continues Power Attacking the submarine, inflicting another DC 23 Toughness save.

"No, it's fine," Ashley immediately lied, "you had a job to do and you did it. I've gotten beatdowns like that before, remember?" She was pleased that Raven had used a familiar pattern with the restraints - one that she knew from practice sessions inside the ancestor to this very vehicle. Pulling on the pressure points on the straps that held her down, she soon had herself freed and merely seat-belted in. Pulling the gloves off her hands, she ran her fingers over her bruised knuckles. "You sure as hell put the fear of God in anybody watching, and if that stops somebody from trying to be like Watchdog, that's fine with me. Besides, I think I can put "fought Raven and lived to tell about it" on my next yearly evaluation. Maybe they'll give me a raise." At the reminder of normality, she grinned, and almost entirely meant it.

Dispensing with the witty banter for the moment, Frost put his ungloved hand to the rocks and concentrated. Rocks were harder than steel to freeze solid - but one could do it with the proper equipment. In this case the falling rain was the equipment Frost needed. Flash-freezing solid almost as soon as it hit the surface of the stone, the ice infiltrated the stone, cracking and spreading the cracks further with the sound of ominously grinding stone, until at last what had once been a solid pile of rubble was now a nest of frozen rock and ice that looked ready to fracture with a few sharp blows. Stepping aside, he smiled and gestured for Klara to have at it. It really was very cold now, enough that it was more pleasant for him to be away from the rocks than close to them.

"You forget I was in stir when the 'drones hit, honey?" asked Anna, heat in her voice. "Ran fast enough that it was next Thursday when I stopped. I did my full five nickels - came out just in time to meet my grandbaby. They don't let you keep the money if ya get caught stealin' it." She sipped her drink contemplatively. "Happy to race ya back to yer place after this if you think I'm slow." On the other side of the speedster, Hope's eyes distinctly widened as she carefully bit down into her hamburger. The latter made a point of chewing and swallowing before speaking. "A third. I'm a third your age." "Well, that's diplomacy for you," said Anna, rolling her eyes at her protege. "I ain't no sellout or goody-two-shoes. I took enough from the likes a'them that I ain't ever gonna be on that team. But somebody's gotta do something about this place."

Okay - so they are probably not food. If they are his and he does not eat them, they are not food. She listened as he spoke further, though, and found herself with more questions. Jessie seemed to be content to her her speak - so she did. Aquaria looked from the life to Leviathan, then back again. "I do not know what that means," she croaked finally. "Do you have...flesh-shaping powers?"

Ashley stared up at the Raven, a shiner forming under one eye and a look of barely-restrained fury on her face. "You put me in there, you better tie me down so I don't break your neck, $()#er!" Eventually Watchdog was inside the Unkindness and strapped down - and the doors were closed. Once inside and out of public view, her whole demeanor changed - she slumped backwards, looking exhausted and not a little pained. As the car sped away, she had nothing much to say until finally, "My first year with New Orleans PD, they put me on Vice - they thought I didn't look like your average New Orleans cop." She checked her teeth with her tongue as they talked, making sure they were all still there. "So of course not only do I get that, I get assigned Vice in East, where I grew up. I spent that whole year scared to death somebody I went to middle school with was gonna make me and then call my mom. Lucky that didn't happen." She fixed her gaze on the back of Alek's head. "You okay? I didn't expect your belt to brew up so hot."

"That'll get you killed around here, sweetie." Anna took a club soda, which she swirled contemplatively with her straw. "You know I was born here? Back in the old days - well you know, things ain't changed that much. Town usedta be full of Italians and Polacks eatin' dirt. Now the Italians and Polacks are the ones servin' it up for the next generation." "Irishmen too," commented Hope, who didn't look like that was her real name, and who gave the entirety of the bar a long, hard stare before she drank her own drink. "Yeah. Yeah," said Anna quietly, a look of intense anger burning behind her eyes for a moment. Quickly, she changed the subject. "The old days. When you were out - why didn't you -" she made a little gesture somewhere in the direction of Freedom City. "You know. Get 'em."

Aquaria gets the guts of the metal beast if no one claims them later!