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Avenger Assembled

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  1. Avenger Assembled
    Dimitri hmmed. Most blind men in the Soviet zone were that way because of Soviet power. Oh well - what am I worried about? If the man had a weapon to use against him, he would use it and they would see what happened after that. It wouldn't be the first time a friendly conversation in these parts had turned to murder. "Ah yes! Always happy to share a drink and cigar with good German comrade," he said, irony laden in his voice as he walked over to join Murk. Something off about this fellow, he decided after a moment or two. Oh well, if this was one of Kantor's assassins, he was one of Kantor's assassins. He took the cigar and lit it with a great flourish, basking in the heat of the tobacco as he sat down across from Murk. The smoke was exceedingly warm - and the weather outside was cold, something that was if anything less pleasant than it had been before he'd died. This close, Murk could feel the walking cold front that was Frost, as if the heat had been leeched right out of the circle of air around him. When the brandy arrived, Frost raised it for a toast. "Na Zdorovie!" he commented. "To a truly liberated Berlin, eh?"
  2. Avenger Assembled
    Comrade Frost had very little sympathy for the admittedly-beleaguered citizens of the Soviet zone - in his opinion, if they disliked the feel of the Soviet boot on their chests, they should have done more to throw off the fascist boot before their leader had plunged the world into the worst war the world had ever seen. But he liked old Hertzmann, maybe because the tough old Jew had made a point of reclaiming his shop three years earlier only weeks after Hitler was dead, proof that not all Germans had had the soul beaten out of them by their predecessors. Hertzmann had friends across the border, too - and with walls going up between former allies, it served his interests to have a contact who knew some things. So he'd smoothed things over with the Handelsorganisation and the Red Army, and Hertzmann's friends in the American zones helped smuggle in enough goods for the shop to stay in business - in return for a comfortable place to spend the evening away from his fellow Soviets. "Satan's balls, it's cold out there!" he declared in accented German as he stormed inside the shop, the temperature of the store dropping noticeably the moment the Soviet ice vampire walked inside. He wore the uniform of a physician in the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, though his pale skin and the ice on his clothes. Cursing vigorously, he strode up to the counter - the faux-marble tabletop having been salvaged from a dead SS officer's mansion, and dropped a substantial bundle of Soviet rubles onto the table. "What have you got for me today, Leo?" Hertzmann, smiling enigmatically, swept the rubles off the table and provided Peshkov with an American cigar - the Americans always did have the best tobacco. Smiling, Peshkov took out his petrol lighter and struck it up, immediately feeling better (and looking a trifle more human) against the heat. "Good man!"
  3. Avenger Assembled
    There was much work to do over the next few hours - work that the tribe was happy to press Leviathan into doing. After all, wasn't he the biggest and strongest of them all? Some of it was mundane enough; gathering stored meat for the journey, his look at the small tribal larder telling him quickly that these people were pure carnivores, helping wipe out the marks and movement of their encampment to make sure that their enemies couldn't trace them. Others were perhaps more exitic - taking down the skeletal trophies from the outside of the sunken Liberty ship, gathering semi-translucent stones from various shelters that reminded him a little of frog eggs but seemed to be smoothly-polished pebbles, tying them together into bundles that would be easily carried among the various members of the tribe, carrying forward the physical manifestations of this nomadic peoples' history. While the tribe worked, they sang - they sang in rich harmonies and choruses of how they sacrificed for Dagon and Hydra, but one day the day of jubilee would come - the stars would be right and the seas would be as the land and the land would be as the seas, and Dagon and Hydra would bring enlightenment to all the world. They asked questions too of the exotic warrior in their midst - was it true that Surfacers ate plants and meat both? That their females birthed "like a degenerate dolphin"? That they lived their lives in the dry air and hardly ever knew the water? What was that like? By now it was getting dark above, and very dark indeed beneath the waves, but it wasn't slowing the tribe's work a fraction. Of course! With their big eyes and the voices that Tristan Delacroix could tell were shading into the ultrasonic and subsonic, the darkness of the sea bottom had to be nothing at all for them. Leviathan, for all his power, had rather more trouble with the sea bottom at night than the Deep Ones did. He found Aquaria in the Liberty ship with most of the other females, gathering up what had to be the tribe's nursery. There were no eggs here, but many young - Deep One young were shaped a bit like human toddlers, albeit human toddlers with a frog's soft, greenish skin and an fish's scales and fins, with sharp, pointy teeth and a tendency to climb on and nip at their caregivers like poorly-trained puppies - or maybe piranhas, if you were a paranoid sort. Aquaria and Naia were clinging to the 'roof' of one of the ship's old corridors, faintly glowing lichen giving Leviathan a distinct, albeit dim view (like being outside on a rural night) as a cluster of young Deep Ones climbed over their bodies and nipped at them. His translator rendered the noises they were making as laughter.
  4. Avenger Assembled
    Okay, let's do this. Take that HP, Fox! Attack vs Matt. =15 Ah well! She'll do better next time. I imagine initiative may follow! "Fred' goes on 13
  5. Avenger Assembled
    A lot of things happened in very short order after that, at least from Matt's perspective. The cell door slid open - and Fred looked up at him. She looked at him with rheumy yellow eyes like infected cataracts and smiled a smile where all her teeth looked like the ravenous, carnivorous fangs of a shark. Heh! Meat! The Fred-thing declared in a voice that was like Fred's but distinctly was _not_ like Fred - a moment before it went for him, moving with impossible speed and tenacity as it grabbed his arms with sharpened nails and lashed its head out like a striking snake to try and bite out his throat! An instant later, he heard the wall behind him smash open - and as the teeth snapped towards his jugular, he distinctly heard the distant, far-off echoes of a dog's howl...
  6. Avenger Assembled
    Keith frowned, the illusion fading away. Demons knew the foulest of curses and the most honeyed of praises and could move from one to the other like the beating of fire-scorched feathery wings. But being ignored was not something demons readily understood - or handled easily. "I'm trying to save you a lot of trouble, girl," he said seriously. "Even if your friends don't flush the Cancer fast enough, your girl here's gonna die. It's just a matter of fact. Question is, does it happen on your terms? Or His?" he asked, making a dismissive gesture that was somewhere in the direction of the One Above.
  7. Avenger Assembled
    Notice: 18 Survival: 27
  8. Avenger Assembled
    All right! It's time for Notice/Search/Investigate/Survival checks, as your dice favor you.
  9. Avenger Assembled
    Back at the museum, the arrival of the three superheroes temporarily interrupted the ongoing repair efforts of the museum staff. The damage SFX had done to the gallery floor and walls had already been repaired before she left, but there was still the broken display case to repair and the broken glass to pick up. The Deep One armor itself was back in the museum's safe, where a reluctant Dr. Charles Craig (having shed his captain's hat and persona) escorted the heroes back to see it. They were an odd trio amid the mundanity of papers, files, and the various artifacts left behind by nearly 250 years of Freedom City area nautical history. Anonymous in her armor, or at least not apparently a Deep One, Aquaria lifted the helmet of the now-disarticulated suit with a soft noise. No prisoners survived of those who attacked under Archevil. The one who brought this to Freedom City must be dead. She could see the marks along the side where a mighty blow had been struck, perhaps a superpowered fist or energy blast. "This belonged to a warrior-priest. To help them call upon the Gods Below." She set the helmet back and stepped away from the armor pieces, her posture crouched and tense. "It. It would mean nothing to Devil Ray. The men who came as thieves, did they leave any clues?"
  10. Avenger Assembled
    "You sing well," said Aquaria to Alexa as Singularity disappeared, politely not adding for a Surfacer. It was true, after all, and using her machines had been a clever idea. It was good to dwell on something like singing - and not on Devil Ray. That would come later. "You will catch, uh, many friends! We will meet you here soon," she promised before turning and scuttling away after Jessie, running on all fours as she bounded her way up the stairs with a wet shlicking sound as the wet, sticky pads on her feet and hands made contact with the rubberized covering of the steps. For a few moments, Alexa was alone in the stairs by the butterfly garden in the Dutemps Building.
  11. Avenger Assembled
    Riley had no idea what accent they were doing - he supposed it was supposed to be British, but the only British person he knew at all well was Cathy; who sounded nothing like any of the people in the room. He did know about monsters, though, so he did go tense and give a single cold, hard stare to the Christmas creature that had just arrived in the door before he forced himself to pay attention to the party and not the probably perfectly nice superhero. "Huh. Guess word got out about the party." Oh well, heroes tended to be a tolerant bunch - most of the time, and he didn't see any of his usual Claremont tormentors out here tonight. "Come on!" he called, his voice a little higher than usual from the tension. "Let's party!"
  12. Avenger Assembled
    That sucks, EP! Good luck.
  13. Avenger Assembled
    Aquaria croaked again, her throat inflating - but this one didn't sound happy. And this time she did not sing. "I know Devil Ray. He is a monster." He's the one that killed the babies! But what could she tell SFX of that? How could she make her understand what she herself did not understand? Making a decision, Aquaria hopped to her feet - rising until she stood, an oddly balanced humanoid. "A shark who missed his prey once will try again. We will go to the museum and help you hunt," she croaked. "Singularity and I, together. And you. Let me get my space armor, so that I do not frighten anyone who sees us," she added, padding her way towards the door of the butterfly garden. "It is very powerful - but it does not help me sing. We will be fine."
  14. Avenger Assembled
    He is knocked out and down! Boom, punch.
  15. Avenger Assembled
    That hits all right! Tou vs 28, eh? Give me a Notice and/or Sense Motive check, whichever is higher.
  16. Avenger Assembled
    Startle: fails That hits by 1! Rendering him flat-footed also cuts his Toughness in half Tou vs 25: 18
  17. Avenger Assembled
    SFX was almost certain she heard giggling from somewhere in the garden as the song died down - but that sound was soon lost by the sound of Aquaria inflating her throat sacs with a booming bass like a gigantic bullfrog. "Beautiful!" Aquaria added. "No one ever sings for me!" She considered for a moment, then began to sing herself. It was distinctly odd singing by human standards, a deep bass like standing next to a concert speaker, but Alexa could make out the words. As she sang, Aquaria kept time by stamping on the rock beneath the bench where she crouched. "Many were lost in the Archevil war. They died for the false one. Surfacers with pride took what was to show their kill armor trident all Armor of the priest Symbols of gods below great mighty power But all is naught to Surface hands. No power for the cursed many." Aquaria croaked in summation, her crest seeming to stand especially tall as she finished. "The armor there wouldn't work for a Surfacer. They could not even wear it on their bodies - it would not fit. Do you know who might have tried to steal it?" .:
  18. Avenger Assembled
    Aquaria hopped up on a nearby bench and fixed her gigantic eyes on Alexa, guessing that one or the other of them had been the victim of a practical joke. "I do not look like you. It is surprising. They should have told you." Unthinkingly she reached up with a leg? - with a back leg? It was a limb attached below her rear and it had three webbed fingers on it, just like her hands, and scratched the side of her face for a moment. "They told me that you have problems with Deep Ones. Sing them for me." In addition to coming in croaks like an animate frog's, her voice had the slow, careful diction of someone speaking an alien language. Given what Alexa could see of Aquaria's throat, English probably was quite alien.
  19. Avenger Assembled
    "Okay!" came a croaking voice from inside the garden. "Thank you! I am over by the pond!" SFX headed into the garden, made a few turns, and found herself by an aquatic pond full of flowering plants and small animals. Crouching on the stonework by the pond was...something. Its bulging black and gold eyes were set much too far apart to be a human's and its nose, flattened almost against its face, was more like a snout. It had no visible ears - but its mouth was big, very big. Its skin was mottled green and white, white towards the belly and green towards the black, a dark green the color of certain unnameable seas. Its body was not quite shaped 'right' either - its limbs are too long and jointed like a frog's rather than a human's, its torso too sturdy and rounded, and its arms and legs both ended in three-fingered 'hands'. Its skin was covered in blue and black tattoos depicting strange and fantastic scenery, looking like something out of a hallucination. Looking closely, Alexa could make out gill slits on the neck, and a scaled, ridged back. Alexa had been in Freedom City enough to know what a Deep One looked like. "Hello," croaked (there was no better word for it) Aquaria as the Surfacer female entered, crouched on all fours and keeping a careful distance. "I am Sea Devil - but my friends call me Aquaria." When Aquaria spoke, Alexa could make out sharp, triangular shark-like teeth - and lots of them.
  20. Avenger Assembled
    Woundmaker laughed, cocking his head in Peyton's direction, and seemed to refer to a conversation the rest of them hadn't been privy to. "You see? Just as I described them to you." Looking back at Nighthawk, he added, "Your teachers have certainly taught you well, little lady. Nighthawk, isn't it? Defending the Fens while you take a boarding school scholarship. At least your friends here don't put on airs of superiority to the rest of us." "I see it," agreed Peyton, "but is there any reason to point a gun at her?" Looking at Robin, she added sharply, "Don't mistake that for sympathy, by the way, supergirl. I'm just not going to let today be ruined by watching you be gunned down because you couldn't keep your mouth shut." "Mom!" said Riley, stung into action by his mother's words. "Don't talk to her like that! She's my-" Riley had never been one for subtlety when it came to emotions, especially not when romance was concerned - and the word he'd been about to say was obvious. "These are bad guys!" he added, gesturing to the armed goons all around them. "Nobody's even explained who they are, or why they're here - or how they know the things they know!" His crossbow was in his hands - but he wasn't going to escalate. Not yet. "Son, I really don't want to have this argument with you in front of your mother-" "You're goddamned right you don't," added Peyton, moving to stand next to her son. "Why don't we all just act like adults here instead of posturing gunmen? That means you too, Woodsman," she added with a look Riley's way. "Why don't you just give them the same talk you gave me?" she suggested. As the arguments continued, the consultants seemed more interested in other things. "Actually, with you here, closing the portal temporarily is going to be a snap," said Raina's father, not looking terribly interested in the teenage fight. "As long as, you know," he added, coloring ever so slightly and glancing at his wife. Too quietly for anyone else to hear, especially the teenagers that were evidently her friends, Raina's mother whispered, "Do you still honor Astraea?" Along with the usual talks about not making any rash decisions that could break her heart or otherwise endanger her future, the power that came from 'honoring the Virgin Goddess' as Raina's mother had put it had been a pretty basic part of her sex education from a very early age.
  21. Avenger Assembled
    "Oh yes!" Sea Devil croaked loudly. "I have many of those. My friend will meet you and take you to where I am. Where are you?" When she had a description of where SFX was waiting, Sea Devil said, "My friend is a woman like you. Her hair is blonde, and she has pale skin. She will take you to me." At that, Sea Devil hung up - leaving SFX alone in the lobby with tourists who were just beginning to realize a costumed heroine was among them! As cameras snapped and people came over to ask for an autograph, the building's security moved in, giving Alexa a momentary reprieve from the crowd, if she was so inclined. Upstairs, far upstairs, in Aquaria and Jessie's apartment, the former was smearing herself down with her moisturizing ointment, three-fingered hands smearing the fish-scented stuff over her torso and face. "She sounded young," she croaked to Jessie, "like one of those juvenile ones." She exhaled softly, bulging her throat sacs so she could fully moisturize them. "I think I will use the hiding spell. It would only frighten her to see me." She hmmed, fixing her great eyes on her reflection in the bathroom mirror. "I was in the butterfly garden today. It is warm and comfortable there - but the tourists will not be there until tomorrow."
  22. Avenger Assembled
    Beyond the information on the building itself, with its stores, offices, and condos so extensive that some people never left the complex, SFX's investigation told her that the DuTemps Building had quite a few super-people living there, a loose team of mostly women under the leadership of Eve Martel, the French heroine Blue Fox. There wasn't much information about Sea Devil, her putative contact - just that she wore a full suit of power armor that was rumored to be extraterrestrial, and spoke with a strange booming voice that sounded distinctly like the product of the suit. As best Alexa could tell, the armor did indeed look extra-terrestrial - it certainly had a distinctive design very different than anything she'd seen on the likes of Daedalus or Dragonfly! Sea Devil, who was evidently female herself, traveled with a woman named Singularity who had great physical strength and endurance, the latter of whom was a pale-skinned blonde about ten years older than Alexa herself. The bus deposited her in front of the DuTemps Building, and once inside (past the many holiday tourists and Christmas shoppers that filled the gaily decorated lobby) she was actually inside it was time to try and get in touch with her contact. She hadn't been given Sea Devil and Singularity's home address, just a number that when she called it gave her voice that was distinctly - odd, a croaking bay that rumbled low in her ear. "Hello! This is Sea Devil! The people told me you were coming!"
  23. Avenger Assembled
    Bencher shook his head quickly. "I don't know anything about those things - just that they're killers, with power and technology we don't understand. And if supers like you hadn't beaten them and their god-thing six years ago, we'd be nothing but scraps on their table now." He hmmed, then went on, "As for Devil Ray, I've never heard of him showing any interest in Deep Ones - but who knows what those costumed crooks get up to in their spare time?" Looking at SFX, he said, "I think I can send you to someone who might know. You know the DuTemps Building?" It was a rhetorical question - it was hard to miss the skyscraper with the gigantic medieval castle perched on it in the middle of the downtown. "There's this..." He seemed briefly at a loss for words, "pair that lives there - and we've used one of them as a consultant before. If you talk to her, maybe she can tell you what all this means," he said, gesturing to the Deep One armor, "and why Devil Ray might be showing an interest in this crazy magic BS."
  24. Avenger Assembled
    By the time the police arrived, SFX was able to tell them what she'd learned from her interrogation - the thugs (who were ex-US Navy) were working for Devil Ray, who'd dispatched them directly to steal the Deep One armor and take it back to them. But they weren't in the mood to say more than that. Something about their boss seemed to have them on edge, more so than the usual minion fear of their employer, anyway. In an event, they were certainly more scared of Devil Ray than they were of Alexa or of the regular squad cars who'd arrived to take them away. While taking the thugs away, and assisting her with the cleanup of this wing of the museum under the watchful eye of Captain Craig (who'd been talking about the young patron who'd fled in terror the minute the battle had broken out), one plainclothes officer named Detective Bencher, wearing a rumpled suit that looked older than his own mid-thirties, seemed particularly interested in taking her statement - and in discussing it with her. "Deep Ones, eh? God. You don't sound local," he added, "you probably weren't here back six years ago when those scaly bastards boiled out of the ocean and came for us all. We lost a dozen cops that time. I hear they had to raise their damn hybrids in the aquarium afterwards. You know anything about Deep Ones or ocean magic, kid?" he asked her speculatively.
  25. Avenger Assembled
    All right, combat is over! Have an HP for the remaining thugs getting away, if you like. Take a little time to interrogate as well - the cops will be here soon!
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