Avenger Assembled

"The Eye sees you. It sees your technology and knows it blinds you to the Light. Only when the false Vision ends will you truly be able to see." The spotter glared up at Mannequin. "When the Light comes, all technological abominations will be swept away in its-" "Hang on a second," said Woodsman, his brow furrowing. He gestured at the bound criminal with his free hand, careful to hold the hatchet securely in the other. "You came here inna car! You threw boomerangs a'tus and your partner had a freakin' assault rifle!" He seemed more annoyed by the hypocrisy than the violence. "Necessary sacrifices," spat the spotter. "And she was nothing but a mercenary, selling her soul for filthy lucre. I am the Eye's Fist. You _will_ hear from me again - and so will the Vision."

Well, that explains a lot, doesn't it? Lousy- "Have you ever heard anything negative about them? Anything that might imply they're not on the up-and-up?" Citizen was cracking his knuckles as he spoke, an unconscious habit he'd picked up from Miss Americana. "I have reason to believe that one of my robotic bodies may have gone missing - and they, or someone very much like them, might have been behind the theft." It wasn't exactly a lie - but he certainly had left out quite a few details. There was no reason to burden Emerald Spider with the details of how his consciousness worked - not when that seemed to make most people from Terra uncomfortable. "I think we may need to pay them a visit. Together."

"I...huh, I guess we could," said Riley, not too proud to accept what was an excellent suggestion. He scratched his chin thoughtfully, enjoying the definite feeling of whiskery stubble there. "That makes a lot of sense. I never thought of doing that," he admitted. "Yeah, let's head over there and introduce ourselves, I guess. Nice thinking, Sparkler." Once at the bike, he got in front and said, "Hey, uh, question." He gunned the engine for a moment, thinking, as Raina got on behind him, and decided he might as well push it to the limit tonight because things were probably about to get really heavy. "Can you make the whole bike fly there? I was thinking we'd look more like real superheroes if we just fly in there and land it on the helipad or the parking garage or something."

"I went there." Woodsman scowled beneath his poncho's hood, his dark face in shadow. "She doesn't want to talk to Riley. Any Riley," he said, shaking his head. "Hospital has a guard on her door, but it's not that hard to get in the window if you know what yer doin'. Made sure to put a trap in so nobody'll come in that way after me." He hmmed. "You could probably magic your way in there no problem - unless Seven put up magic traps or something. I dunno what those look like," he admitted. "Wanna try for it? She's at Our Lady 'a Mercy, s'on the way back to Claremont anyway."

The interior of the warehouse still looked like the aftermath of a magical battle - if Dr. Metropolis was planning a visit to help clean up, he was evidently going to wait until after the investigation was over. Sparkler was no tactician - but she knew fire enough to see the scorch marks on the steel beams over her head that must have come from subterranean fire, and the marks below that must have come from above. The actual magic circle was still there, right in the middle of the empty warehouse floor, its inky pattern scuffed by the battle that had taken place here and by someone who knew what they were doing afterwards. Her first guess had been right - a creature from below had been summoned here. But to know more, she'd have to look deeper. Woodsman had already joined her by the time she'd reached the warehouse floor, having made his way in quietly through a first-floor window. "Bowman'n'Seven said they came in on patrol, caught the thing at ground level and took it out. Rhonda was here." There was a mark on the floor that might have been a bloodstain, not far from the ritual site. "Tried to look it over, but that demon thing burned the place up pretty good. Can't even pick out most of the footmarks."

For a moment, Riley wondered if Raina's spell would make the whole bike fly - which even in a serious moment Riley had to admit would be pretty awesome. He deflated just a hair, at least until he revved the engine and felt better about it. "I'll be the one buildin' a crossbow out of the pitchfork," he said with a smirk before he headed them off into the orange light of dusk. "Hope Merlin's gotta helmet in there." Despite Raina's worries, Woodsman didn't try anything fancy on the road - he wasn't averse to trying some tricks, but not with a weird passenger behind him who didn't weigh as much as a normal person. He wasn't much in the mood for conversation - and based on his usual experience with her, Raina probably wasn't either. He took her past the Boardwalk and along the Mona-Glenn Bridge, navigating the city as if he'd been born to a live Freedom instead of a dead one. Woodsman left the bike in an alley in Greenbank, taking a moment to chain it to a railing guarding a sunken window. This was a particularly old part of the district, the warehouses around them were made of brick rather than concrete, and they could smell the river nearby. The warehouse had police tape on it, even the windows a story above them, but that sort of thing wasn't really an obstacle to the two heroes. Raina could smell the clean scent of last night's heavy rain - and a faint scent of sulfur that she wasn't smelling with her nose.

"I have no name," hissed the spotter, looking from Woodsman to Hyperactive as if he seriously thought the former might do him harm, then sliding just a touch closer towards the speedster. His face bulged red, his eyes bugged out as he hissed his words through clenched teeth at the heroes. "I am a servant of the One Eye, and I have acted in His sacred name. Why not tell you? We came to take the Vision's eye and tonight we nearly did. If we fail, what does it matter? Another will come and blind the servants of the False God." "Welp, he's crazy," opined Woodsman, putting away his sharpening stone and twirling his hatchet in his free hand. "Maybe if we beat him harder, he'll start making more sense."

Louisiana makes sense! Intimidate check to help: 32

"Learned to drive it from Midnight and Wander," replied Woodsman, "and the helmets are over'ere." He produced two of them from the other side of the bike, both black, and tossed one Raina's way. "Not crazy, not gonna ride a motorcycle without a helmet." He patted the bike's handlebars. "Fixed it up myself, if that's whatcha mean. aSome rich guy traded up for last year's model, so I spent all last summer fixing it up. C'mon, Sanderson, I carry four, five hand grenades in my bag half the time. If I was gonna die of bad workmanship, 's gonna be a long time ago." He didn't mention that he took Robin for rides on the thing all the time - Robin and Raina could both take big hits, but Robin was usually...more willing to do it.

Sneaking out after classes was something Raina and Riley both had a great deal of familiarity with, albeit usually not in each other's company. Paradoxically, it was usually easier to sneak away from Claremont in pairs rather than solo even when going on clandestine adventures - the school's security evidently thinking that two young heroes going out on patrol were more reliable than one going off to do who knew what. Woodsman rendezvoused with Sparkler on the streets of Bayview, his motorcycle retrieved from storage at the school. "C'mon, hop on," he suggested, "Blends in better if there's some weird magic stuff goin' on there, right?"

"She was talking about giving herself a vagina instead of a dick," said Riley with emphasis, half-daring Raina to say anything from the look in his eye. When nothing was immediately forthcoming, he said, "and maybe she did. Trans people are people too, right?" He drummed his fingers on the table for a moment. "But I dunno, that's too easy - silly trans girl does something stupid, gets herself hurt, happens all the time, right?" He frowned. "If that did happen, I want Riley and Rhonda's mom and dad to hear about it from me, not from some fancy hero-type. And if it didn't, I wanna find out who did it. You wanna come see? It's not far to Greenbank from here."

"The other Riley has a friend." Riley put his hands together under his chin, looking down at the picture. "Her name is Rhonda. He met her through the LGBT Club at his school. I think he wants her to be his girlfriend but he's too scared to ask her out, he-" He bit his lip, changing the topic as he moved from picture to picture in the tablet, showing what looked like the aftermath of a small super-battle inside an old warehouse, or maybe a firestorm. "She's real into magic - nothing like you, but she's got tons of books and stuff." He turned the 'page' again, showing an image of the other Riley (who Raina had seen a couple of times, a rounder, happier version of her schoolmate) in the company of a young, dark-skinned woman with long, thick braids. "Riley said Rhonda was talking about some kind of magic that could help her, you know, fix herself up. A couple of nights later, they found her in a warehouse by her house, just about bleeding out, with some kind of monster in there with her. If Seven and Bowman hadn't been there, damn thing'd have finished the job."

"I gotta magic problem," said Riley, his tone that of someone trying to keep a serious matter light. He glanced around half-furtively for a moment, in a style that wasn't too unfamiliar from how he talked to most people. He extended the tablet up to Raina - of all the boys in school, she had maybe the biggest height advantage over the wiry archer. "If I show you a magic ritual site, can you see any of the, uh, magic stuff that happened there? Or do you have to actually be there to work your mojo?" From what Raina could see at first glance, the picture on the tablet was of some sort of high pagan summoning circle - burn marks on a concrete warehouse floor in somewhat familiar arcane symbols.

"Woodsman," grunted Riley in reply, his face in shadow thanks to his poncho's hood. It was nice, even after that damn fight, to be acknowledged by other heroes. That sort of thing didn't happen a whole lot to the wiry archer, not even where he came from. Except for this weirdo, he thought, shooting a look up at Mannequin. What the hell? He kept his thoughts to himself, though, not wanting to have another whole thing. When there was no gunfire from up above, he slid his way out from behind the car and put the would-be assassin in handcuffs, tying them tight, so it hurt. (You had to be careful of circulation when you did that but Woodsman was always careful.) Searching the car didn't give Hyperactive much - but then that could be a clue in and of itself. The car was a rental from an agency by the airport, and weapons enough had been stored in the trunk to suggest that the two assassins had come armed for significant metahuman opposition. If the heroic trio hadn't intervened, they could have done considerably more damage. He found what must have been fake IDs - it somehow seemed unlikely that the sniper and her partner had been born with the names of "Jane and John Smith." Gradually, the spotter began stirring, recovering from the sound thrashing he'd gotten at the hands of the heroes. Trusting his more articulate colleagues to perform the interrogation, Woodsman took this opportunity to remove a hatchet and whetstone from his belt and began the slow, just-loud-enough scraping that meant he was sharpening the former with the latter. "Mornin'."

For her part, Sea Devil took the rear of the house. From Miracle Girl's description, the white door in front of her led to the house's kitchen, a place she knew well from her own apartment - but also the place where the two Surfacer females were going about their business. They'd either flee her approach or attack - the former she was familiar with. The latter, she was confident that her own physiology and armor could handle. Playing her own part of distraction (knowing her fellow heroes would be stealthier than she was likely to be), she kicked in the door and croaked loudly, "There is a BAD CRIMINAL in this house!" as she hopped inside the kitchen, making sure that she still blocked the door as she came in. "I AM HERE FOR HIM!"

April 2017 Claremont Growing up in what he now knew to be a small, closed community made it difficult for Riley to talk to strangers - and he tended to solve difficult problems by careful consideration. So it was that he'd earned a reputation for hanging around the quad staring at people and places before approaching them, which in all honesty hadn't done much to make him any friends outside of the small circle that centered around the people who'd fought Mr. Archer, exposed a cybernetic infiltration of Claremont, and kicked the ass of some of the top students of the school. They didn't have a name for themselves. Everyone already knew who they were. Considering his options carefully from the tree branch that he'd taken his lunch on, Riley finally decided to bite the bullet. Jumping down from his perch, he executed a neat little roll before walking up to the young woman just finishing her lunch outside, chattering little monkey in tow. "Hey, Sanderson!" He pitched his voice loud, so she knew he was coming. Even when he didn't mean to be, he was quiet - and Raina didn't like being snuck up on. He could appreciate that. "Gotta thing. You gotta minute?" He looked presentable enough, with nothing deadlier than a hatchet on his jean-clad hip, and a tablet from several years ago in his hand.

Something dripped off Sea Devil's armor as she hopped down to join the others again. It was hard to see exactly what had happened with the titan, but she had dealt quite vigorously with the creature that had tried to hurt Singularity. Vigorously indeed. She tapped a button inside the armor with her tongue, and the translucent slime covering her faceplate slowly hissed away. "There are strange things on this world," she croaked in agreement with Singularity, "and strange peoples. But the Dark Mother sings her song, and her children are happy." She cast her gaze upwards at the strange sky, wondering if it was to be her fate to live beneath these stars until even death died. "Jessie is right. Is there some way to cast you from our Sea of Stars and find your own?"

http://orokos.com/roll/497549 = 19 Sea Devil goes on 19

Woodsman is in costume - he looks a bit like hobo Green Arrow. (A major part of the inspiration for him is "what if Darryl from the Walking Dead had to pretend to be Green Arrow?")

His hands folded behind his back, Citizen studied the portal, letting his eyes unfocus as he studied the IR signature of the device. "I think it's too dangerous," he told the Terran scientist, not unsympathetically. "I've seen the nearby multiverse - Terran totalitarians with access to superhumans, rampaging 'god'-entities - it's not a suitable area for colonization." He hmmed. "There are civilized alternatives, but they're advanced and have a dense population." Personally, Citizen thought that technology like this should be much more tightly restricted by the Terran government and possibly held under the direct supervision of the Freedom League, but he knew saying such things would be impolitic. Terrans value their freedoms too much to give them up - even when those freedoms only make their lives more dangerous. Focusing on Dr. Razko, he said politely, "Still, this is a remarkable achievement - you should be proud of what you've constructed here. I could certainly see adapting it for work in exploration and diplomacy-" When the criminals arrived, Sharl thought about the levels of energy coursing through the room, and in particular through its walls, even as he took in their numbers. "Are you lost?" he inquired, imposing himself between the scientists and the newly-arrived gang. He scanned them for devices even as they spoke, all the while silently signaling Emerald City's law enforcement.

Hyperactive's escape worked - the two assassins weren't prepared for his maneuver and, injured or not, he was still fast enough to run beyond the range of normal human vision. Even so, it was clear this was all coming down to a matter of seconds. Luckily, Hyperactive wasn't the only fast one here. A one-two punch from Mannequin put down the spotter, disarming him with one blow across his staff and then smashing him against the car, knocking him down and out for a few fateful seconds. On the other side of the car, suitably hidden and with time to slap another bolt in place, Riley rolled into action. He'd been in battles like this before - desperate fights against deadly enemies, he just had to make sure he didn't fight this one the same way. Woodsman snapped out from behind the smashed-in car and shot the sniper in the back from a crouching kneel - a neatly placed shot between her shoulder blades that lodged in but didn't quite penetrate her armor. He'd seen the flexible armor-plating shrug off bolts before, even at close range, but this time he hadn't loaded a bladed arrow. The bolt lodged, internal chemicals mixing as hair-thin panes of glass broke and a binary explosive was born - and a sudden concussion hit! Blasted forward, she hit the wall opposite the alley with a loud crunch. Not hesitating now that she was hurt, she dropped her staff, the bladed instrument hissing and sparking before it too went up in a sudden, too-bright explosion. By the time the heroes could see again, one of their targets was missing. The other one wasn't, though. Keeping cover in case the sniper was lurking somewhere, Woodsman called to his superpowered allies, pointing to the form of the man Mannequin had taken out, still bleeding from cuts that any - from cuts that probably were going to need stitches. "Somebody better tie that guy up," he said, unhooking the cuffs from his belt and sliding them across the pavement.

Standard Action: Woodsman shoots the Sniper from stealth. Attack vs DC 14 http://orokos.com/roll/496982 = 17 That was a full-on Power Attack, so! DC 26 Tou save Tou vs 26 http://orokos.com/roll/496983 = 18 And with that bruised and dazed, she'll retreat and make a Fair Escape - take an HP if that troubles you, gentlemen!

That's a DC 30 Toughness save which he cannot possibly make. http://orokos.com/roll/496802 Okay, he is unconscious! I will post for Woodsman soon. Or maybe now!

That'll work! Go Mannequin go!

"She listens to all," said Lady Horus with a smirk, "and be assured - she hears your words." The mortal-in-goddess-garb hesitated a barely perceptible moment, stepping back from the two goddesses-in-mortal-flesh. "I have been many things across two centuries. If god is to be the last thing-" and she knew, or dreaded, or suspected it might be, "let it be known I choose my fate, now and forever, and that I choose the sun over the shadow. No offense," she added with a broader smirk, and it was hard to tell if she was addressing Set or her former consort. "I will see you both again." And with that, she raised her ankh to the sky and flew away, vanishing in a flash of too-bright light the moment she passed the level of Bedlam's tallest buildings, some forty stories up.