Avenger Assembled
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ic A Dark and Spiteful God (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The Realms Beyond
To be immortal in the Terminus, Steve knew, was more curse than blessing - but of course GIna knew that too. "I pledge that I will do everything in my power to return to you," said Steve, his voice tight. He knew this wasn't what Gina wanted, even when he laid his hand on hers. "It is here with you that I do not exist, or survive, or continue - here with you is where I live. There is nothing more precious to me - and I will not throw it away. But I cannot let them walk into the Pit alone." -
ic A Dark and Spiteful God (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The Realms Beyond
"I will not go if there is another choice." The regret in Steve's low, rumbling voice was palpable. "But I cannot let others go to that place unprotected. Not when I know what they will face better than anyone. If it were Nihilor, I would destroy the machine myself and let them damn me for it. But if they touch the edge of the place, they may yet live - and I cannot let them go into danger when I might save their lives from the Terminus." His voice hardened. "You know that they will take the Annihilist with them - and you know that they will be unwilling to strike her down if it must be done." He looked at her, and when he met her eyes, his tone softened. "And for us...I would live for you. I wish I could be the man you deserve." -
ic A Dark and Spiteful God (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The Realms Beyond
With Erin Hunter-White, or one of his other friends, Steve would have talked tactics. He would not go to a Terminus world unprepared, he would have reassured them, and he certainly would not venture to such a place without proof that he would not fall victim to the same effect that had destroyed those other Omegadrones. But he knew Gina knew those things already - as she did much else. So instead he sat across from her at the table, sandwich and chicken before him and hands folded above it in almost an attitude of prayer. Steve preferred extremely spicy food, often to the limits of Gina's tolerance, and there had been plenty of the spicy wings left. "I was a coward" he said, his voice quiet and reflective. "I invited Talya because I thought it would be easier to bear Tarva's company with more allies. She nurses yet - and to think of her contemplating the Pit..." He was unable to finish the sentence. "I am glad that you will not go. Do not be tempted." -
Aquaria was mostly silent as they made their way back to the screen, snatching up a marker of her own on their way out of the laboratory. Something seemed to have spooked the gregarious Deep One, who even kept the faceplate of her suit opaque as she and Miracle Girl wrote their respective messages. For her part, Aquaria kept her message simple, writing on a white tablet. RUOK? Her handwriting was wobbly and irregular, looking more like giant inky squiggles than letters, but was legible enough despite all that. "You go first," she croaked to Miracle Girl, keeping the heroine between her and the screen as they let the projectionist put on another film. She ate again, scooping up handfuls of meat as she did so, compulsively shoving the raw protein inside her gigantic mouth.
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The glow of divine empowerment had largely faded from Woodsman, leaving behind a look of cold, suppressed fury. The muscles in his arm bunched tight as he held back instincts that would have put a final end to their enemy - and certainly his career at Claremont. Instead he put his hand on Nighthawk's shoulder, giving strength as much as taking it. They'd both been through a lot that day. It was hard, suddenly, not to envy Raina down in Mexico, who got to spend time with her boyfriend with nothing worse than some flies in the sky. "C'mon. We got the guy. Let magic people keep 'em down. We got cleanup t'do. If that guy killed anybody, they'll leave him for the bears."
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Ah, crap, maybe this is an alternate timeline, or maybe one of those temporary bubbles in the timestream that eventually reconnects with the main reality but is no less real for that. Ugh, why didn't I pay more attention when Tomorrow tried to explain this to me? Forty years earlier - and also two centuries later "You sackacrapNazi bastard!" Clock Queen was yelling at Dr. Tomorrow, shoving her son behind her and putting her twin swords in his face. "I told you to stay away from my family ya prick - and that includes my kid, goddamit!" Oh yeah! "Listen, I'm here, I'm unarmed, there are a lot more of you than there are of me. If we're gonna fight, it's gonna be real quick and it's gonna hurt, so let's just skip that stuff and get to the part where we help you get outta here, okay?"
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That hits, as he is helpless. Doubling the DC as per usual, adding the full Autofire this time. DC 40 http://orokos.com/roll/446988 = 14! Okay, he's dead all right! Go ahead and write that up, alder.
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Comrade Frost: "I survived, but I paid for it." Woodsman: "Be careful with that one, love - he will do what it takes to survive." Edge: "He changes the game He plays and he raises the stakes And if there’s a reason He seems to thrive when so few survive, then Goddamnit— I'm willing to wait for it" Harrier/Caradoc: "Stand with our brothers as we fight against tyranny." Citizen: "I am not throwing away my shot!" Sea Devil: "Got a lot farther by working a lot harder By being a lot smarter By being a self-starter" Fast-Forward "Man, the man is non-stop!"
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Freedom Eagle smiled at Punchline. "I like you!" And then suddenly the scene shifted again. There was no feeling of change and no sensation of the scenery warping around them - they simply were in one place but then abruptly shifted to another one entirely. They'd been in a low-lying swamp before, but now things couldn't have been more different. The toy shop doors opened now into a vast, nearly palatial room that was clearly a gigantic office of some sort or another. Peering out one vast window, it looked like they were atop the Pyramid Plaza in Freedom City, albeit a Freedom City that looked subtly different. The heroes were standing beneath a gigantic wall painting of the world, a geographic rather than political map, with a blue, gold, and white mask superimposed over the globe which seemed to be centered somewhere in the Arabian Peninsula. Along the wall were heroic statues in marble, armored and masked figures that the heroes couldn't immediately identify, with the exception of two figures positioned on either side of the desk along one side of the room. "This is...well, this is embarrassing," said Monsoon, stepping out the doors just behind Edge, still holding the godling. "Someone must be pulling thoughts from our minds..." The two recognizable statues, cast in marble so white they were practically glowing, were clearly that of Monsoon herself - with Edge alongside, albeit slightly smaller than his usual form. "I'm sure we've all had idle thoughts that we would never want to see-" One wall of the room was covered in screens showing news programs all over the world - but the journalists were now saluting the same global flag. The one with Monsoon's masked face over a globe. "HAIL MONSOON! GLORIOUS MONSOON! MOTHER OF THE WORLD EMPIRE!" "It's okay, babe," said Mark, patting Nina on the arm. "Somebody just wants to see if we'll play their game. Don't let them get your goat."
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ic A Dark and Spiteful God (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The Realms Beyond
"People often assume that scientists and engineers don't know anything about their fellow human beings - but in my experience, the best scientists and engineers know human beings very well indeed." Daedalus didn't talk for a while after that, instead waiting until there was a moment's break in between refittings. "If you think they can be trusted together, I'll sign off on a live mission. I'd say that I hope the Fates would keep us from such a thing - but then they never do." His smile had very little humor in it. - "I understand," said Tarva, leaning her head against Kimber's. "I would ask nothing different of you, my own. It is our fate to be who we are." - Caradoc was out late that night, returning to the house that he and Gina shared only long after her repairs were finished and she'd left Miss Americana's body behind. He'd called only once, to speak over the radio about the modifications to the Emerson units she was building, and as usual had been satisfied with the quality of her workmanship. He could hardly be anything else. Neither of them were ready for the conversation that they'd have to have if the probes failed - so they didn't say much that night. -
It was a long walk up the narrow trail to the iron door wedged firmly into the mountainside, Mark and Nina both unusually quiet as they made their way up there. No surprise, since Edge and Monsoon had been there for the initial discoveries. The interior of the mountain was indeed a bizarre place, a little intimidating even for veteran superheroes. Hastily-produced flashlights from Mark meant that everyone could at least see as they headed inside, but the surroundings were an alien sight at the best of times. A honeycomb of rooms carved out of the living rock of the mountain, the complex inside was structured more like an ant's nest than a human-built complex, with strange looping tunnels lined with smooth-sided metal, leading to semi-spherical rooms full of strange, burnt-out alien machinery and the unmistakable sights and sounds of old gore, surely more than could have been produced by the dead superheroes, but more than enough to match those of the dozens of missing from the nearby villages that Mark had mentioned. "The smell was bad when we found it," said Mark tersely, "and the bugs." There were only a few insects near the exterior door when they arrived at the pathway inside the mountain, as if they'd only recently arrived. "The central chamber's where we found most of the equipment. And the bodies."
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"Heroes are always like that when they're dealing with people like us," said Anna, hesitating only a barely perceptible moment. "You have to understand, they look at me, your ma, your dad, and all they see is a family a' crooks." She snapped her fingers. "So when they see your grandfather, lyin' there almost dead, all they're gonna think about is how is this crook gonna beat the rap one last time. Nature a' the beast." She walked to the small, armored window on the corridor wall and put her fingertips against it. "He's really dead now, Willie. You heard your ma." She leaned forward, slowly, and rested her forehead against the glass. "You know I spent forty years hatin' that man, and then he was just lyin' there almost dead and he pulled that..." She didn't quite finish the sentence. "Oh, how I'd get so old, Willie?"
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Aquaria turned the bronze idol over and over in her armored hands, spreading her three-fingered hands across its surface. In a Deep One city, or even in her own tribe, it would have been a simple matter to spill blood for Dagon and Hydra so that They might show the way to the defiling Surfacers who had blasphemed against the star-things. But such things would be difficult here and would be alien, even frightening perhaps, for the Surfacer mystic. "We go to where you sing to your gods," she finally croaked, "and see if they know the path to the stars. If you will open the door, I will show you the Crooked Way.."
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Okay, this sounds pretty great - nice job, Ari! Is there anything else that needs to be done?
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Renegade's time!
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There were many differences between Cavalier and Sea Devil - but perhaps the most important right now was that Aquaria Innsmouth had spent most of the early years of her life as a hunter on the edge of starvation. Not just any hunter - a hunter of fish. "Voidrunner!" she bellowed into her suit's comms, the signal carried through Cavalier's linkup in a booming, mechanical bellow that was instantly recognizable. "It's a trap! Run away!" She grabbed Cavalier's arm and pushed off, driving him towards the Voidrunner - and though her suit lacked the power of the full Star Knight armor the latter was wearing, Kyle could feel the strength of the muscles within that were better-suited for crushing ocean depths than space. "Use your speed, Star Knight!"
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Let's get to it, yeah!
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The boy-child was silent, but the girl wailed still, the thin, eerie cry of a newborn. She wanted warmth from a living mother, she wanted things that the undead Dimitri Peshkov was long since unable to give. She would just have to weep until Talya's injuries began to heal. If they began to heal. "A pleasant sound." Across the room, Dimitri's patron was looking quite pleased with this turn of events. "The Espadas children were born amid death and pain - with betrayal and loss just outside the door." Hel smiled at Dimitri as the braziers on either side of her began to fade, casting her first into darkness, then into invisibility. "You have done well, my servant..." As Hel faded, Dimitri moved forward and picked up the girl, holding her wrapped in his parka, thick enough that he would not immediately leach away her inner warmth. Children died of such things. He had seen it happen. "Sssh...sssh...."
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APPROVED
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Aquaria knew she should have re-entered the ship - though she'd bathed in the sea of stars in this mighty armor that kept out the cold and airless void, it wasn't nearly fast enough to do more than make slow loops around the Voidrunner. And that if the latter was standing still. But she was loathe to abandon her time out among the stars, or to show weakness in front of the Star Knight. She knew this Surfacer was a friend, but she was yet reluctant to show him her belly. "Come, let us swim," she said, reaching out to take Cavalier's hand. Her three-fingered grip around his was sturdy, with strength behind it beyond even the automatic magnalocking systems that bonded Knights together when they touched. She'd instinctively stumbled on something programmed into most Star Knight armors - the original source of the armor she herself was now wearing. "The ship will follow!"
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This looks very good to me, Ari. How can we help you put this into practice?
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Can you bold the powers, italicize "PF" and "Extra", and denote carrying capacity?
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Can you bold the powers and more fully denote their cost? Our devices usually look something like this. Device 6 (Signature Weapon, 30PP, Flaw: Easy to Lose, Feats: Indestructible, Restricted 3 [Only The Worthy Can Lift, Only Wielder Can Use]) [22PP] Flight 1 (10 MPH / 100' per Move Action) [2DP] Immunity 1 (Own Powers) [1DP] Power Array 10 (20PP, Feats: Alternate Powers 4) [24DP] BE: Blast 5 (Thrown Weapon; Feats: Mighty 10) {20/20} AP: Blast 15 (Energy Blast; Flaw: Action [Full], Feats: Improved Crit, Indirect 2, Variable Descriptor 2 [any energy]) {20/20] AP: Enhanced Flight 7 (to Flight 8 [2500 MPH / 25 000' per Move Action]) {14} + Strike 5 (Feats: Improved Crit, Mighty) {6} {14 + 6 = 20/20} AP: Environmental Control 1-5 (4PP worth of effects [Cold, Hamper Movement (Icy/Wet Surfaces), Heat, Light [Ball Lightning], Reduced Visibility (Rain/Sleet/Snow), Wind]; 100' radius; Extra: Independent [+0]) {20/20} Super-Senses 3 (Extended Hearing and Vision [100' Notice Increments], Uncanny Dodge [Mental]) [3DP] 2 + 1+ 24 + 3 = 30
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"Extra-dimensional, eh?" Freedom Eagle studied the other heroes for a moment, seeming to take the newly-arrived bonfire at his word, then snapped his fingers. "Of course! That must be where the Gator's ship came from - no wonder he couldn't speak our language. Have you come to take him back? I'm sure he must be a fierce criminal on your world. I'd be happy to deliver him to your custody, assuming we can catch him." "After that, I'd certainly enjoy a chance to meet you and tour your world, ah, friend," he said to Punchline, "if everyone's like you, you must be..." Suddenly, he fell silent - and in fact everything had gone silent, the Gator, the swamp, the insects, everything. He stared at them all, then spoke again - but it wasn't his voice at all. The Golden Age hero now spoke with a high-pitched, breathy voice that sounded utterly alien from underneath his half-masked features. "Why not fight? You could have fought bad monster with favorite hero." He pointed at Leviathan. "Like when you were small!"
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Outside the walls of the 'room', things began to change. Looking outside, Paige could see that the ash was beginning to be replaced by snow. The storm outside hadn't abated, but it was growing greyer now and softening, as if the weather was in the process of shifting. Or maybe whatever fires were causing that ash were beginning to fade. "What am I remembered for?" he asked Paige. "A failed war. A fallen empire. I'm like a Caesar after the barbarians came, roaming through the ruins of what I built. But I can't roam anymore..." - Behind the shelter of the hospital, Fast-Forward watched, cursing under his breath, as the Angel of Death's fiery chains tore and ripped at the flesh of his fellow heroes. He wanted to go out there, maybe more than he'd ever wanted to in a fight, but he knew with hard understanding that he wasn't fast enough to get through that murderous mesh of hell-blades. So instead he waited and bided his time, looking for an opportunity. His opportunity came a moment later - when the Angel of Death pulled those chains back into its hands then whipped them out at impossible speed towards the already-battered Phalanx. The creature was targeting the most powerful of them, which was at least keeping the others alive. Until it finishes with that guy! "You will die," hissed the Angel of Death, "and your city will die, and the One Below will reign sup-" And then it stopped, dead still, chains still digging into Phalanx's skin. It seemed to be fading a bit around the edges, shadow and ash flaking off its skin and disintegrating into nothingness, but more than that it seemed stopped cold. As if someone had put it on pause. "I got your ass!" yelled Fast-Forward, running away as fast as he could, even knowing he wouldn't survive another direct assault from the creature. "Get him, everybody, get him with everything you've got!"