Avenger Assembled

Sounds good! I'll keep an eye out for the new stuff.

With a wordless yell, Neko turned and summoned fire in her hands, the blazing heat that was the birthright of any bakeneko. She directed the fire at the Gentleman, flames leaping from her outstretched hand as she executed a perfect chinte kata in the direction of Owain's tormentor. The flames washed over the flying villain, sending him dipping low enough to the ground for Owain to leap upwards and slash his opponent across the belly before executing a perfect pommel-punch against his face. As the Gentleman fell, bleeding, Owain tore off his shirt and declared, "I say thee nay! Who among you will challenge a Christian knight!" he declared, aiming his sword at his foes.

Holly gave Jonah a grateful smile and sent him a 'that's not necessary, but thank you' mentally. Out loud, she said, "Whatever. This scenario wouldn't actually be a problem for me anyway, because I could just find whose money it was." Neko's eyes flicked back and forth as the boys hissed at each other. She was naturally inclined to side with Leon, of course, who certainly treated her better than the he-yamuaba ever could. But actually getting involved in the argument wasn't really her style, especially since it didn't sound it was about anything important. The arguments between boys rarely were. "We take money to the family we know. And for ourselves if we need it. That is the end," she said. With that, she closed her eyes and folded her hands, and seemed to withdraw from the conversation. At that, a fluffy brown and white cat with only the stub of a tail appeared outside near where Wilona was curled up on herself. The car looked up at her with bright yellow eyes and rubbed against her legs, purring noisily and warmly. Mr Hawke had looked concerned as Wilona had left, but hadn't tried to chase her down once it was clear she was on her way out. He'd spoken quietly into a comm unit on his desk, but seemed to relax a fraction when he saw the students were on it. "A counselor is coming to help," he told the students who'd worried. "If you have such wealth," Owain was saying easily to Naomi, "remember that such treasures are of this world, not any other. Spend them here, and spend them wisely. Say Leon," he offered, "thou hast the solution there on the card- what moral are we to draw from this example?"

FASHION FORWARD BY THEV Edit for Neko: spend 1 PP on Quick Change: Add this to her Physical Description Neko has lived in the present long enough to adopt a superhero costume - finally. What she wears is a sleek, form-fitting bodysuit made of stretchy, breathable fabric in a dark navy blue color. The suit has long sleeves and pants, with a high collar and a full-zip front that can be easily opened and closed. Over the bodysuit, Neko wears a bright red and gold kimono-style robe with flowing sleeves and a wide obi sash tied around her waist. The robe is adorned with intricate gold and silver embroidery and bold, stylized Japanese characters that spell out "CAT" and "MAGIC" and "IYA VALLEY". The kimono and suit are both cut to give her tail freedom. To complete the costume, Neko wears a pair of tall, laced-up boots in a matching navy blue color, with thick soles to provide stability and support for her acrobatic movements. The boots have a slight heel, and are made of a durable, lightweight material that allows Neko to move quickly and easily.

"Good girl," said Ashley. She methodically started taking off her gloves, pulling her hands free, baring skin up to her wrists. "You know," she said softly, "when I was your age, I couldn't even take these off. Just be ready." She winked at Carmen, then walked out into the hallway. "I'm out here!" she called, "send out the hostages!" And sure enough they came, looking battered and frightened but on their feet; the security guards, the civilian staff, everyone Carmen had met earlier that night in what felt like a lifetime ago. With her hands raised, Ashley walked down the hallway past the hostages, making eye contact with their captor. It was easy to tell this was the alpha wolf; a big, muscular beast that towered almost as high as the door frame. He was halfway out in the hall, the last of the hostages just leaving his reach in the second the Patriot approached it...

Okay: Neko is going to stunt the following effect: Blast 8 (fires of a Bakeneko, PFs: Accurate 2, Improved Crit 2, Power Attack, Precise 2) vs the Gentleman She'll Bluff him as a move action: https://orokos.com/roll/964125 = 18 And then Blast the guy https://orokos.com/roll/964126 24 DC 23 Tou save for the guy She'll spend an HP to shake the fatigue Owain hits the guy with his sword! https://orokos.com/roll/964129 I will HP that! https://orokos.com/roll/964130 Another DC 23 Tou save if he is still moving.

Owain shot Nat an unaccustomedly sharp look. "You might think so," he said frostily. For her part, Neko listened patiently to Leon's example, then her yellow eyes flicked to the others. The true answer was that she would figure out how much money could benefit her and Owain, then give charity to the needy woman on the street. A single mother in these times probably had far fewer children than in hers but even so, a mother was a mother. "Why haven't I helped the single mother before this?" asked Holly. "If I call myself a hero, I should already be doing something for her - and everyone else in my neighborhood." "Perhaps you are poor," said Neko cooly in response to the telepathic girl. "Perhaps the money is all you have."

The Patriot muttered something about "the tracks" , then stood up. She reached down and unbuckled her belt, letting it fall to the floor with a heavy thump, leaving her wearing just her bodysuit, boots and gloves, and helmet. "Okay!" she called out. "You've got super-hearing, you heard my weapons fall to the ground just now! I'll give you something better. I'll step out there unarmed, and we'll do a switch! The Patriot is a more valuable hostage than a bunch of clerks and security guards!" The werewolf demanded Ashley kick her gunbelt out into the hall, which she did. While Daisy daintily licked the werewolf blood off the back of her hand, Ashley leaned down and whispered in Carmen's ear. "I know this is hard, but I need you to be in here and make sure the hostages are secure. Once you think they're safe, then you decide if you need to come help me. Can you do that?" she asked the girl seriously.

@NerdzulI will take the coward's way out and spend a remaining HP (if I have one) on inspiration for what would be a good idea here.

The night of Ashley’s 30th birthday, she dozed on Stesha’s couch with a half-eaten small cake in front of her. Things weren’t as bad as they looked, she’d told herself before she’d closed her eyes. She’d had a perfectly fine party with the Raven family the weekend before, and Fa’Rua was finally getting two weeks on Earth starting the weekend afterwards, so they’d have a party of their own then. She’d left her personal League information blank when she’d joined, keeping it all safe behind the emergency contact paywall. Nobody knew her birthday, nobody knew her family, and that was how she liked it. Most of the time. So what if the only people in town who knew when her birthday were the tween she was babysitting at the behest of her work friend and her green-eyed baby brother? Amaryllis had gone to sleep after talking for hours to her friends on a League issue phone (she’d gotten some cake, Ashley figuring it was better to be indulgent than not and not minding a bit a reputation as a soft touch), Basil had fussed his way through dinner and then fallen asleep in his toddler bed, and the apartment was quiet. She set up the card she got from her mom to look at after she ate, a big cheery red HAPPY BIRTHDAY with a fluffy birthday cat that was her only companion before she closed her eyes for a few minutes. All right, it had been a tiring day, but doing things for your friends was what it was all about - especially if they were some of the greatest people in the world. In multiple senses of the word. Ashley had an uncanny knack for sensing danger; but of course Stesha’s return wasn’t dangerous at all. - Ashley’s offer to Stesha, months earlier, had been tentative. “If you ever need anybody to watch your kids, consider me available.” She’d meant it, the New Years when Basil was very small and Amaryllis was just leaving her tweenhood behind, but hadn’t expected it to come up very much. Sure, Ashley herself had plenty of experience - more than anyone else on the League, when it came down to it. How often would a plant goddess on maternity/family leave with her own city full of people need a sitter, anyway? But Stesha had seen something in her offer, or maybe something in her, and so more than once she’d found herself pressed into a service that went beyond just being the Patriot. It honestly was - pretty good? Outside of humanitarian disasters and the occasional supervillainous attempt to kidnap the President, mind control him, or turn the population of Washington DC into gold, the Patriot generally didn’t work by surprise: which meant there were days (post office work) when she just didn’t know what to do with herself now that she wasn’t working full-time for the Secret Service anymore. With Fa’Rua still on the Moon, there’d been enough nights spent alone that she was happy to have something to do that didn’t involve work, super or otherwise. And this was a job she could do with some frequency. Stesha traveled a lot, but whether it was just taking personal days in Freedom City or doing humanitarian work all over the world, she seemed to return home refreshed and happy. She did most of her sitting in Freedom City, Stesha having a full roster of sitters at home back in Sanctuary. (It helped that Ashley herself tended to suppress weak superpowers when she was around, so she could make sure there were no ‘accidents’ in public without actually having to put nullifiers on a baby.) She’d often been accused of overthinking things. (Except of course by the Raven, who thought she didn’t think things through enough.) She knew objectively that being a babysitter wasn’t the same thing as being a parent - she’d learned that particular fact when she was babysitting five younger sisters at the age of 14, and she’d learned that again in much less stressful circumstances as the oldest aunt in an ever-growing family of nieces and nephews. (That didn’t even get into pretending to be a teenager and keeping a big-hearted but dopey First Daughter from getting herself killed or kidnapped by supervillains.) Being able to take Amaryllis out for the kind of fast food her mother didn’t like, or out to a neighborhood she’d never visited, with Basil riding along in a babyseat, then back to overnight with kids movies and videogames at Stesha’s apartment until she returned home, was definitely not the same as parenting. (Really, Amaryllis was old enough that she could plausibly have babysit herself and her little brother too, but as long as Ashley was taking her places her mother probably wasn’t interested in, this was more like an adventure with her little brother along than anything else.) It was almost certainly a lot better. It was a lot easier to be around kids when you never had to be the bad guy or the authority figure, when you were always Mom’s friend from work with the cool hair and the nice car. It wasn’t like she was spoiling them all the time or undermining her friend’s authority with her kids (well, kid - you can’t really undermine a baby’s relationship with their parent). The mom had the hard work. Which is what Ashley reminded herself every time Amaryllis (who was a pretty well-adjusted kid for the child of a world-famous single mom) said something clever, or Basil looked up at her with movie-star green eyes (or as the months went by, started waving up and babbling up, and even crawling around with much more speed than she’d have ever given a baby credit for.) Parenting would be much harder. Much harder. Stesha’s return was quiet, as usual, heralded not even by the opening of a door but by the gentle jingle of the bells she’d tied to the leaves of the enormous pothos in the corner of the living room. That had been a concession not only to Ashley, but to anyone who watched the kids and got jumpy at the thought of her just appearing in the room whenever she pleased. She probably could’ve simply put a plant in the common hallway and walked into the apartment, but the bell was a decent compromise. As soon as Stesha stepped into the room Ashley caught the strong smell of woodsmoke and charred greenery, almost strong enough to make her eyes water. Wildfires again, then. Within a few moments, Stesha had shucked off her cowl, boots and gloves and shoved them back into the plant, which cut down on the worst of the smoke smell. “Hey,” she greeted Ashley with a tired smile. “Sorry to be back so late. The wind was really not on our side today and things kept flaring up. But there were no bad injuries and we kept the damage to a minimum.” The tone of her voice wasn’t exactly triumph, but at least it was weary satisfaction. “How were the kids?” As she rounded the couch, Stesha caught sight of the little table display. “Oh, is today your birthday?” The part of Ashley that dealt with crises had awakened immediately when she heard Stesha come in. “It’s a good thing you were there. Those damn fires.” Australia was outside the Patriot’s purview, but she’d kept track of what was happening on her phone - and the League’s signal device - the whole evening. Just in case. “It was a good evening” she went on. “Ammy got some extra chocolate but I think she’s actually asleep, and Basil went out like a light when he had a full belly.” She smiled a little, thinking about the expression on the kid’s face, then realized what was in front of her. “Oh, uh, jeez, yeah, I didn’t - ah, I didn’t mean to leave that out,” she fumbled, thinking of the cake before the question Stesha had actually asked. She and Stesha had a good relationship, she was confident, but it was hard to forget the memory of Stesha, the wife of her high school science teacher, who’d always had a good word for the students. “Everybody had a scheduling thing today.” Don’t look pathetic. “Ammy sang me Happy Birthday unprompted, she’s a good kid.” Automatically, she picked up the plastic cover to put it over the cake, then looked at Stesha. “Did you want a piece?” she asked. There were plastic utensils still out, and an extra plate. “Happy birthday!” Stesha told her, sounding sincere despite the tiredness. “I don’t think I can eat anything right now without it tasting like ash, but thank you. Now I’m doubly sorry I kept you so late.” She tugged off the protective cap that had been shielding her long green hair and shoved it into the plant as well. The plant was starting to look a little sorry for itself. “I appreciate you saying yes tonight, I could’ve put them in the creche on Sanctuary but they both prefer their own beds.” Stesha’s Freedom City apartment was sparsely furnished and looked like it was mostly secondhand pieces, but the fridge was nearly new and had a top of the line water filter. Stesha made use of it now, dispensing a tall glass of cold water and drinking the whole thing where she stood before refilling it and heading for a chair. “Did you do anything fun for your birthday?” “I’m always up for sitting,” said Ashley easily. “My nieces and nephews are halfway across the country. Gotta get my kid time in where I can.” She hesitated just a fraction at Stesha’s question and said “Some things fell through,” she admitted. “Everybody’s got some kind of crisis this month. But the Ravens gave me a party last week, and Fa’Rua’s coming next week, so we’re going to have some fun.” Stesha had met Ashley’s elven girlfriend, the Lor officer assigned to the small Lor facility in the Solar System, mostly when space crises came to Earth. From the sound of things, her work in near space kept her busy and off-planet most of the time. She took a moment to show off her new stud earrings, brightly colored tortoises that Judy Cahill had bought from their friend’s Etsy store. “My sisters pulled off a group Facetime with my mom, and for the first time nobody dropped the call or was on mute the whole time, so that was nice.” She’d poured herself a glass of water too, probably the best thing to drink this late at night, and smiled. “I turned twenty-seven and twenty-eight undercover, so this wasn’t so bad.” She hesitated again, finger over her mouth, before she went on. “You guys are still planning on Christmas back in Sanctuary, right?” “Yes, we spend most of our time in Sanctuary, except for weekdays in the school year,” Stesha agreed. “Amaryllis got to middle school and discovered extracurricular activities and now there’s not enough hours in the day for a commute between worlds.” She smiled a little ruefully. “But Nicholson has a few more days of holiday break than most schools, so we’ll be at home for a few weeks, at least. Not everyone on Sanctuary has Christmas traditions, but there are a lot of good midwinter and new year parties that go on.” Her smile toppled over into the humorous. “If you’re looking for a good Christmas tree, I can definitely hook you up.” “The Patriot’s Christmas tree is coming from Oregon this year,” said Ashley with a faint smile of her own, “don’t tell anyone I told you. North Carolina tree farmers just aren’t good enough Americans.” She hesitated again, looking down into her water, and pictured Stesha and her family and friends at Christmas. “I don’t really have Christmas plans yet. I might be down in New Orleans, I might be on the Moon, I…” She sat down her glass. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s stupid to make those kinds of plans in our business. There’s always somebody pulling some kind of crap around the holidays in this godforsaken town.” She looked away, thinking about stories she’d heard about superheroes encountering Santa Claus, of all things. “I’d like to be able to make plans for the holidays that don’t involve my secretary and kids who want an autograph,” she admitted. “And where I can be sure everyone I want to be there will actually be there.” A question about how hard it had been to balance the holidays with Dark Star had died on her lips, because of course she knew the answer to that one. “The Patriot’s tree may come from Oregon, but Ashley’s tree doesn’t have to. You’re more than your uniform, especially at this time of year,” Stesha reminded the younger hero gently. “Sure you might be on call for part of the time, but you still deserve to make plans and go to see family and friends. One thing about hanging out with superheroes, there’s pretty much always someone who can get you a ride where you need to go!” She laughed a little. “The Moon’s a bit more of an ask, but I do know a couple people. Let me know if you need a lift sometime.” “I…maybe a small one,” she said, allowing it after a moment’s thought. “I mean, it’s just - it’s just me on my boat, but I could get one of those little miniature trees and decorate it.” The picture flashed in her mind of her and Fa’Rua decorating the tree, or even just her herself, and it was a nice picture despite everything. Maybe she’ll be able to make it this year…God, Stesha’s so nice. Everyone on the League was when the chips were down, even Tiamat, and her professional identity was being a big fiery bitch. “I’ve never actually had my own Christmas tree,” she admitted. “But that would be nice. Thank you.” She thought about the people who’d be standing around that tree, hesitated, then said, “Stesha, I…I know it’s late and you already had a hard day saving western Australia, but can I ask you something personal?” She took a breath, and then said, “What made you decide you wanted to have kids?” Stesha’s eyes had been drifting downward, maybe even halfway to shutting, but they flicked upwards in surprise at the question. “Why did I want kids?” she asked. “I don’t know, I suppose I’ve always wanted them. I grew up in a big family, I have five siblings, and that was the sort of life I wanted to have myself. Loving marriage, lots of kids close together, some kind of job that I loved. The details were a little vague,” she admitted with a half-laugh. “Things didn’t turn out quite how I planned, but I got two great kids and I’m happy about that.” Steepling her fingers around her water glass, Stesha studied Ashley. “Nothing like a birthday to make you take a look at the direction your life is going, hmm?” she guessed. “Your kids are great,” Ashley told her sincerely, “I don’t know how you managed to be such a good mom, but you are. As for me, I was the total opposite,” she admitted. “My parents are Catholic. Five kids in ten years and I wanted nothing to do with that.” She snorted. “My first real boyfriend started planning how we’d have our first kid before we graduated, so that was a flat no.” She looked away, then said, “I…I actually like kids. I just didn’t think they were right for me. So I babysat when I started getting nieces and nephews, and I did teen mentoring…” Deep breath. Good soldier. “I want a baby,” she said, and for a minute she wasn’t crying, but she wasn’t talking either. When she could, she whispered “I know, it’s stupid. I can’t just take a year off to get pregnant…” The Patriot’s powers and training didn’t allow her to just get behind plant walls for a year, after all. “I want a family.” Stesha’s eyes widened briefly at Ashley’s first declaration, but by the time she’d finished talking, the plant controller’s face had softened into sympathy. “It’s not stupid, not at all,” she assured Ashley, leaning forward in her seat. “Having a child, making a family, that’s one of the most beautiful and satisfying things anybody can do. It’s the deepest and most natural desire coded in our DNA, why wouldn’t you want it?” Setting aside her water glass, Stesha gave Ashely a long look. “It absolutely seems daunting, I understand that. With your powers, you probably would have to take time off. But anybody who wouldn’t let you, who wouldn’t encourage you,” she emphasized, “is a fool you shouldn’t be working for anyway. Do you know how many superheroes burn out from the work every year? From the loneliness and the ugliness and the same routine every night for a world that won’t stay saved?” Not waiting for Ashley to respond, she barrelled on. “You have to bank time and energy for your real human life because that’s what will keep you going when everything is way too hard. You need a family, whatever that looks like for you, because they’re going to keep you alive.” Ashley knotted her hands in front of her, seeming to stare at nothing. “...God, I didn’t even tell most of my super-friends that I’m the Patriot. Much less how jealous I am that they had kids that just fell out of a wormhole on them.” She took a breath. “I don’t…” She trailed off, her mind working faster than her mouth. She couldn’t look at Stesha, not with Basil asleep in the other room, and tell her that the Patriot needed to be married to have a family. Fleur de Joie didn’t have the same kind of people gunning for her job and her identity, in more ways than one. “I’ve never been very good at that. I can’t be in a room with my mentor without biting her head off, and the best relationship I’ve ever had is with a woman who doesn’t have to see me more than two or three times a month. God.” She still wasn’t crying, but her eyes were distinctly wet. “It doesn’t sound like you’re very happy with your life right now,” Stesha pointed out softly, without judgment. “You’ve chosen an especially hard row to hoe, being a government superhero with a set of strict rules to follow. If that’s something you want, then that’s great and you should keep doing it. But if it’s making your life worse, if it’s keeping you from living an authentic life with people you care about… maybe that needs to change?” There was something in Stesha’s face and voice that said she maybe understood the problem more deeply than Ashley would’ve guessed, but how did anybody ask that sort of question? Ashley hesitated, considering what Stesha’s words meant for both of them. “I wasn’t very happy before I put on the costume,” she admitted hoarsely. “So I can’t blame it all on the Patriot.” Unthinkingly, she ran her fingers over the place where her chest emblem was when she zipped up her jacket. “But you’re right. I have to figure out if I can be happy doing this.” She thought ahead, picturing what would certainly be a professional coming-out to match her personal one. “And that means figuring out how to be honest with the people I love - and figuring out how to have a family.” She hesitated, looking at Stesha and weighing her words. Commenting about how Stesha had been defending the world since she was in high school and deserved some of her own happiness seemed declasse - even if it was certainly true. She finally said, “And just for the record, if you ever decide you want an authentic life on Sanctuary with the kids or something, I will find a way to make that work, and so will everybody else on this planet. You deserve it.” Stesha gave her a smile for that, a smile that was surprisingly exhausted for someone whose dossier said she didn’t even need sleep. “I appreciate that, seriously,” she told Ashley. “I don’t know that I’ll ever find it in me to retire, not when nobody else can do exactly what I do, but I don’t mind riding the bench a little more this past couple of years.” She took a sip of her water and began working a couple of pins out of her tightly bound hair. “The world’s never going to get to a point where we can just make one big overwhelming effort and save it forever. Hero work is a marathon, not a sprint, and nobody can do it at full speed forever. Except maybe Dark Star,” she quipped, then looked like she wished she hadn’t. “In any case, I think you might find that being more comfortable in your personal life makes your work easier, and vice versa as well.” Oof. That had to hurt. Ashley got up and stretched, automatically throwing away her paper dish and plastic forks. It was not a long motorcycle ride back to her houseboat, even at this late hour. The city was usually quiet; there was time to think. “I have kept you on my bullshit long enough. Thank you, Stesha.” She hugged her friend lightly and said, “I’ll let you know how things turn out with - everything. Maybe someday we’ll-” She looked at the kids’ rooms, thought a minute, and decided it was better not to count her chickens before they hatched. “-do this again. Preferably without fire to go with it.” Stesha returned the hug, briefly surrounding Ashley in a cloud of fresh-grass-and-flowers scent, mixed liberally with woodsmoke. “Thanks so much for watching the kids, I know they have a good time with you. Let me know if there’s ever anything I can do to return the favor, all right? And not to be a yenta or anything,” she added, a twinkle in her eyes, “but if you’d ever like an authentic life on Sanctuary, I can guarantee there’d be a place for you, and plenty of available colonists around your age. But take care now, and drive safe!”

The small marina was residential, if one could call it that, dotted with houseboats that were just a little bit too small to be luxurious and probably not really seaworthy enough to handle more than a few small waves out in the bay. It was the sort of place where you bought a boat if you wanted to live on a houseboat rather than take one down the coast; the sort of place that had to get its mail from mailboxes by the marina office and where it was hard to find you if you turned off your phones and didn't give directions about which small secondhand house that was technically older than you was yours. It was perfect for the Patriot. Most of the time. Of course, now she had company just a couple of days before Christmas. Ashley stood at the bow of her houseboat, gripping her mug of hot cocoa tightly to stop her hands from wringing together. Everything will be fine. Ellie and Mara are good people. These are your friends. So what if that friendship had come from Ellie being the only underclassman to make her laugh out loud when they were Claremont students. It had been a good start, even if they'd mostly lost touch with each other until after she'd moved back to Freedom. She turned her head, surveying the small space where she lived. It was a beautiful December day and the sun was shining brightly, casting a cold bright glow on the water. It was pretty, anyway, even if it was cold out. That was why they weren't sticking around, she was going to show them around her place, have some hot drinks, then maybe walk down to the nice Arab place down the road. The truth was, Ashley had been nervous - and she was nervous. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a guest other than Fa'Rua - and even that had been entirely too long ago. She had scrubbed every surface, arranged the furniture so it didn't look like a crappy bachelorette pad in here, and even splurged on some new throw pillows for the tiny couch. Now, as she glanced around the front room, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of anxiety. She slipped a hand into her jacket pocket, fingering the box there, and tried to steady herself. She'd made important decisions, especially after her talk with Stesha on her birthday. She was doing the right thing. She tried to push the negative thoughts aside. Everything was going to be fine. She had worked hard to make this day special, and she was determined to enjoy it. It was going to be a freaking magical afternoon with her friends. Once she was done cleaning up. She grabbed a broom and started sweeping the deck, repressing the catastrophic planning urge that had her remembering where her life jacket was and how long she could hold her breath for the swim out to the nearest water access to her motorbike.

Neko shifted in her seat, tail thumping loudly behind her for a moment. What she wanted to say to her friends was that none of them knew what poverty was, not really. She had patrolled enough in the gigantic towers of this overgrown city to know the luxury of this place. Even Wilona, who had no parents, had lived all her life in a world of computers and medicine and food. She blinked her huge eyes and remembered being hungry. Why would I not want to be so full that I can never be hungry again? But what would they think of me? she thought unhappily, if they knew all the things I had seen. "I have seen both worlds," said Owain. "I was born in a castle, to a noble family. We lived finer than those we protected, our reward for the sacrifices we made defending them." He hesitated, then said, his voice a soft admission, "but as far as people live, here, the quality of it, this place is far better than that one. There is no hunger here, no want, not in the same way there was in my homeland. This is the good and spacious land, the land flowing with milk and honey," he quoted. Neko took a moment to collect herself, then smiled for Luke. "Yes, the show is very good for -money. And fans. You should start one," she offered, "but not about cats. That one is mine," she laughed, a little too brightly. Catching Owain's hesitation, she spoke loudly enough for his table to hear, keeping her voice gentle. "There is so much. Why not give some of it to us?"

Neko gave Carmen an innocent, wide-eyed stare with just the hint of a smile behind it. Then she sneezed and hissed at Jonah, ignoring the conversation for a moment. "If you please, sir," Owain said to Hawke, "I know this is not one of the tales you have chosen, but I think it worthy of discussion." He looked at the others, gathering his thoughts carefully. "If one spends one's life in service to others, be it with hand to the plow, by use of great abilities, there must be something owed! Else one is no better than a - crofter, laboring only for the benefit of others, never for oneself. How is one even to eat?" Holly Cline looked at Owain suspiciously, then allowed, "My parents had to be part-timers when I was growing up because neither of them had any money back then. If you can't support yourself heroing full-time, there's no shame in getting a job. If you spend your whole life heroing," she said, obviously quoting someone, "you'll only have half a life." "There are ways to make money," offered Neko. "Ryder will be very - rich," she said with a nod to the young gadgeteer. "It is - clever. If they pay you for being a superhero, maybe they stop."

A little while later, the trio found themselves in a very similar situation. They were in a room with several beaten, bloody werewolves, each one bound and gagged by dint of the seemingly never-ending series of zip ties and handcuffs that the Patriot kept in her costume. Two of them were getting tired. (Nothing seemed to make Daisy sweat.) But they still had the same problem they'd had before; the hostages were in another room with at least another wolf, and that wolf was increasingly aware that his operation wasn't going very well. "Give me what I want or the hostages die!" The wolf leader was calling. "And free my people too!" "I think you know what the government will do to monsters if you start murdering its employees!" the Patriot was calling, her voice echoing out the open door and down the hallway to the next room down. She looked back at the group and mouthed 'we can't keep this up forever. ideas?' 'I could go out there and try something,' murmured Daisy doubtfully, 'but if he goes for me he'll ruin this outfit and I am _already_ covered in werewolf blood." To be fair, they all were.

Owain hrmed, looking uncomfortable at the turn the conversation was taking. "Whatever label you give it, those so empowered must do all they can to protect those less fortunate. Is there nothing that comes in return then? No obligations that flow upwards?" When Red skittered out from Neko's sleeve, she gently skritched the top of the robot's head as she looked at the others. Maybe this wasn't such a dangerous conversation after all, now that they had moved away from topics like killing. Her tail lashing lightly against the back of her chair, poking out between her oversized T-shirt and sweatpants, she agreed, "Too much praise makes - you soft. A cake nobody bakes. If I tell Carmen her hair looks good, maybe she stops washing," she added with a toothy smile the other catgirl's way.

"That is nice," said Neko, her ears turning back straight-up atop her head as her tail slowly settled down behind her. "Good friends." No one had asked what she thought, and she didn't actually have to offer anything - so she kept her thoughts to herself. She turned the card around and read "Intervention: When Galatea learned her friend Mary Minstrel had joined a metasupremacist group, she disguised herself as a new recruit, only to learn that the leader - the-" She hesitated over the words and wound up showing the card to Leon, flushing slightly. Over at the other table, Owain was finishing, "the Groovy Guru, was a psychic using his mental powers to brainwash new recruits. Immune to the effects herself, she liberated her friend from domination and they defeated their foe. Ah-hah!" he said, sounding delighted. "So it was corruption to be fought, delightful! There is hope yet." Holly scoffed audibly as Leon and Neko finished at their table. "Great, every time." Neko shot her a puzzled look before the telepathic girl went on, "Every time there's a mind-controller in one of these stories, they're the bad guy." Mastermind, as she called herself, was a formidable psychic but most of her abilities revolved around the control of other minds rather than communicating with them. Neko smiled thinly, her pointy front teeth just visible. "It is like with - the supremacists. They fear what they cannot control."

"Well-said!" offered Owain to Naomi, giving her a reassuring smile. "I met the Centurion only once, but he was a fine man, a veritable model of, ah, valor." "Wait," said Leroy, focusing on Owain with his one good eye. "You _met_ the Centurion?" "Aye, yes," Owain was about to say, before he fell silent to let the other boys talk. When the boy was finished, Hawke smiled at Jonah with the look that teachers have given clever young men from time immemorial. "It sounds like you're already thinking ahead to defending your ethical position in next week's essay, Jonah. I look forward to reading it." Her ears flat against the top of her head and her tail lashing, Neko reached out and snatched up the next card. She flipped it over, took a moment to adjust to the English, and said in a low, sharp voice, "A close friend of yours has suffered a series of personal tragedies and found it difficult to cope. Recently, you learn they have joined a meta-supremacist group that preaches the superiority of the superpowered to the unpowered. They are not a violent organization but their rhe-toric? makes you uncomfortable. They tell you that if it bothers you, he won't bring it up around you. Your friend has little remaining support networks other than you. What do you do?" "They're not my friend anymore," said Holly flatly, her hands pressed against the table in front of her. "No Nazis." "We do not know he is a Nazi," protested Owain at the other table, where Leroy the cyborg had just finished stuttering through his own read. "surely if a loved one has fallen into sin, it is our duty to lift him out, not cast me - him down!" he said, flushing and falling silent.

"Life and death scenarios happen all the time for superheroes," said Hawke, coming over to answer the direct question from Jonah. "Sometimes the lines are clearly defined, when you're weighing principles against safety," he said with a nod to Owain and Holly, "or when you're considering how to best apply violence to guard yourself and your loved ones," he added with a nod towards Ryder and Natalia. "My own advice is to choose life, because we all know the consequences of vigilantes becoming judge, jury, and executioner. Jail is cold, and Hell is hot. But the question is, after you've done whatever it is you're going to do, are you going to be honest and forthright about it? Or sneak? Because if you can't be honest about what you've done, and if you can't defend the choices you have made, how are you any better than the Silencer?"

"'Tis the Devil indeed," opined Owain, looking uneasily at Ryder and Natalia. "There are - devils that wear men's faces," he added, "or those that serve him, that must be dealt with in the manner that befits them. But this - I think it must be a lesson that we are not alone, but sworn brothers and sisters of justice." he went on. "If there are dangerous secrets in the land, we might silence them before we silence any tongues. We might turn to powers such as Mastermind's," he said with a nod to Holly, "or even a spell to do the deed. I myself know a few. We need not fight such demons alone." At the other table, there was only one good answer to this question, of course. If someone threatened your family, you killed them. If they had minions who might carry out their orders, you killed them too. It could be done quickly and quietly so that no one else living in the city knew what you had done; or in some great, spectacular way so that everyone knew of the killings even if they had no way to point their finger at you. There were ways to do such things even to the powerful, if you were clever. Neko knew this answer as easily as she knew the taste of raw meat, but she also knew she could never say such a thing. She looked at Carmen and felt a stab of envy for the other girl who could speak so freely of killing, who had no fears of losing friends for such talk. Her friends were friends with Neko Musume, the catgirl with the monkey friend who had a streaming channel - not with the bakeneko who had gone to war with the Crimson Katana and seen men killed with her own eyes. She would not shame herself in their eyes, now or ever. Unconsciously, she took Leon's hand and squeezed it for a moment, her nails sharp against his skin before she released him. It is like - building one of their machines to Ryder and Natalia. They can plan but they do not know. She blinked, staring at everyone with her large yellow eyes, tail flicking behind her. "Ohhh," she said carefully, "we should, ah, not do any killing," she said, gesturing with her delicate, callused hands, "It is not okay to do that. We should find ways to," she pointed to the side of her head, where ears would have been on a normal girl, "make them not know." She nodded to Owain and Holly, her serious face masking the turmoil within. Holly the telepath had fallen silent, eying the others as they spoke, and giving the catgirl a distinct look before she said, laughing nervously, "Woof! Y'all are - taking this one pretty seriously. Let's take a look at the historical answer..." She flipped over the card and said, "No solution - when the Conqueror Worm threatened the second Raven's personal life during his final arrest, he was left with a serious personal crisis - but before he could decide what to do, the Worm committed suicide while being taken into custody?" She blanched slightly. "Seriously?!" she asked, turning to address the teacher. Hawke explained the decades of terrorist activities of the Conqueror Worm back in the 60s and 70s - and how the second Raven, accused of his murder, had actually submitted to a telepathic probe by the first Scarab to prove the truth of his words. Looking somewhat mollified, Holly turned back to the group.

"Poorly!" called Owain in a muffled voice as he retreated, trying to guide those he'd been protecting away from the scene. "The fight does not go well, but I think Neko, ahh..." Bear-Knuckle's torments abruptly ceased - he could hear again, see again, breath again without the animalistic screaming in his ears and scenes of fiery torment in his eyes. He was seemingly alone, faced with a striking image. The little girl that stood before him was wearing a dark blue Japanese sailor suit, a schoolgirl's uniform like something pulled from the pages of deep time., but was clearly inhuman. A long white and brown tail twitched behind her and two long ears stood atop her head. Atop her head was a fiery, demonic crown that glowed with a spectral red energy like the flames of Hell itself, reflected in the catgirl's staring yellow inhuman eyes. "Surrender now," she told him, in a sinous voice that whispered from every corner of the darkened room, "or it takes you again a hundred-fold." Safely out of reach behind the veil of her illusory self, Neko listened with half an ear as Owain and perhaps the others in the room fled for cover. The illusory catgirl put her hand on Bear-Claw's chest and rose silently until she seemed to be gazing hypnotically into his eyes. Thinking of her friend, hurt defending these people, she called on a voice she'd hoped to never use again and whispered in a voice that rang with the screams of dead men - "I am Neko No Akuma, and I am hungry for you."

She will signal back to him that this is acceptable - let me know if you want a roll for that, @Nerdzul. If she does need to roll, I'll spend an HP and get 27 https://orokos.com/roll/962191

Fall 2022 Ethics 102 Mr. Hawke had given the big class their instructions. Break into groups, go down the list of 'real world' superheroic ethical questions, and discuss what they thought was the right solution. When everyone had finished, they would write down their solution on paper, then look at what the actual heroes (or villains) had done in their place. Matching their solution wasn't necessarily the key to a good grade, but it was good to know why your solution differed. Neko had managed to pair off with Leon and gave him a soft smile as they listened to Holly Cline, with the poise and slight melodrama of a born showbiz kid, read the prompt. "You have subdued a notorious supervillain when she tells you that if you don't free her, she will send her agents from prison to attack your loved ones. She names enough details that you can tell she isn't bluffing." Holly laughed a little. "Good luck versus my loved ones!" Everyone knew about the exceptionally pretty brunette's Hollywood parents, the villain-turned-heroes Fast-Forward and Hologram. "But, honestly, you find out how she got this information and make sure she can't use it. I'd just go rooting around in her head until I found it. But not everyone can do that, so we need more..." she added, trailing off. Neko looked hopefully at Leon, or maybe one of the other students, her hands folded neatly before her, not trusting herself to speak, only her twitching tail showing her nerves. - Over in his own group, Owain didn't need to think before he spoke after reading their prompt. "A grim foe indeed! I would recommend she be placed in the darkest dungeon one might find, and increase my watchfulness around those I love.

Okay, you're up - just one left!

What followed was an explosion of furry, bloody violence, both dealt and absorbed. The wolf Puma slashed howled as fangs and claws tore into his flesh, collapsing in pain as a result of a strike that hobbled his lower limbs. Whatever regenerative powers the beast had, it didn't seem to be kicking in - not versus the might of La Puma Negra anyway! As the scent of lupine blood filled the air, another one slashed at the Patriot, tearing a deep slash in the center of her costume that might have struck her heart if it had gone any deeper! Maybe that was why the Patriot went for him, smashing her gleaming black tonfa against the side of his head, then again, then flipping it around to fire a laser blast directly into his face. The wolf went down, blasted against the wall next to the one Puma had crippled, out of the fight. Meanwhile, one of the wolves had grabbed Daisy by the shoulders and slammed her against the far wall, hard enough that the plaster cracked and a sickening crunch sounded that would certainly have meant death for any normal woman. Daisy was still struggling, though, her face cold and dead except for yellow eyes that stared balefully at her tormentor.

Yep! Okay, gotta post for Daisy and the Patriot. Daisy - being injured, is dazed The Patriot - hits werewolf 3! Intimidate vs 25: 13 Startled! I want to move this combat along so I'll say we can treat these guys as minions with a DC to hit of 20. Ashley takes 10 and hits the one nearest her - he fails the save and goes down! I'll have her go for 4, since you can just keep goonsweeping with Takedown Attack. That guy keeps going though