Avenger Assembled

"Not too long for you, baby," said Riley, whose eyes had lit up at the sight of his girlfriend. He was aware, out here on the streets of Freedom City and away from the bubble of Claremont, that he was not like the other boys - he'd gotten the usual baffled stares on the way out from jackasses who couldn't keep their damned eyes to themselves. Because of that, and more importantly because Robin was very cute, he greeted her with a kiss, his arms going around her waist and his lips against hers. She really was, he decided, an excellent kisser. "Hey, Fred," he said, his eyes narrowing just a little at the sight of her. He'd caught sight of her when the two girls were still inside the bus, of course, but he'd made assumptions then that maybe weren't true. "You gonna be our chaperone?" he joked as he tried to figure out why the sheltered scientist was there.

Aquaria was torn - wanting the Surfacers for protection against the Atlanteans (and because the Atlanteans did _not_ want them there), but not wanting more outsiders to know the location of her people's sanctuaries. She remembered stories of lost In-His-Mouth, the city along the Massachusetts coast destroyed by naval bombardment decades earlier. "I'm a lady too," she said, crossing her arms over her square chest and giving the Atlanteans a look that dared them to defy her words. "You could give us help. We will go out there and you can follow our trail. Atlanteans make big splashes in the water," she assured the captain. "You'll be able to follow them easy. Let's go, Jessie," she said, turning and heading for the door. "We have precious things to save."

"That's my cue!" called Hermes. "Good luck, heroes!" declared the speedster before zipping away from hir oncoming relatives. "I'llrememberyou!" As sky and sea boiled over with lightning and waves, battering the heroes in the air, Arcturus cast his spell just as Edge hurled a searing white bolt of pure magical energy directly at the ursine caster. The heroes and civilians on the boat had one last glimpse of giant figures rising from the air, the sea, the stuff of reality itself all around them - and then they were gone. - 24 hours later, back in Freedom City, the exhausted heroes were debriefed by no less a figure than Seven, resident magical member of the Freedom League! They'd actually left their vessel back in the Caribbean, Edge having teleported first the sick people, then the passengers, then the crew, then the other heroes (those who couldn't fly, anyway) back to civilization. A rescue crew was on its way to pick up the boat - but everyone's attention was focused elsewhere, having just barely had time to call their families and figure out what was going on. It turned out the sick crewmembers had fallen ill from exposure to the Mictlan's drive, a cumulative effect that had been produced by the boat's interdimensional energies. "Well, a cruise ship company that has found a way to penetrate between dimensions." Seven smiled thinly as she looked around at the other heroes, all of them gathered in Freedom Hall at the end of a very long day. "What a day this has been. Now, tell me more about this dimension you found," she said, looking from one face to the other. "I've read Edge's exhaustive report - but I want to hear of it from all of you."

Magic Black Canary PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 10 + 10 + 10 + 0 + 6 + 4 = 40 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 20 (+5) CON 20 (+5) INT 10 (+0) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 16 + 16 = 32 pp ATK: +8 (+10 Magic/+15 Melee) DEF: +13 (+5 Dodge Focus, +8 Base, +4 flat-footed) Init: +9 Grapple: +20 Knockback: -3/-2 Saves: 2 + 2 + 4 = 8 pp TOU +7/+5 (+5 Con, +2 Defensive Roll) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +7 (+5 Dex, +2) WILL +7 (+3 Wis, +4) Skills: 22 pp=88 r Acrobatics 15 (+20, SM) Bluff 11 (+13/+17, SM) Climb 3 (+8) Diplomacy 11 (+13/+17, SM) Drive 5 (+10) Investigate 5 (+5) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 10 (+10) Notice 7 (+10) Sense Motive 7 (+10) Stealth 10 (+15) Feats: 34 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee (7) Attractive Challenge: Fast Acrobatic Bluff Chokehold Connected Contacts Defensive Roll Dodge Focus (5) Equipment (2) Grappling Finesse Improved Crit (Unarmed) Improved Grab Improved Initiative Luck Move-By Action Power Attack Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Bluff, Diplomacy, Sense Motive) Stunning Attack Takedown Attack (2) Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Well-Informed Powers: 11 + 3 = 14 pp Magic Array 11 (22 PP, Flaw: Action [Full], Drawback: Action 2 [Full Action to Change Allocation], PFs: Alternate Powers 2) [11PP] BE: Blast 10 (PFs: Accurate 2) {22/22} AP: Damage 10 (Extra: Area [General, Cone]) {20/22} AP: Stun 10 (Extra: Ranged, Flaw: Feedback, PFs: Accurate 2) {22/22} Super-Senses 3 (Detect Magic 3 [visual]) [3 pp] Equipment: 10 EP Motorcycle [Feature: Alarm]) costs abilities 40 + combat 32 + saves 8 + skills 22/88 + feats 34 + powers 14 = 150 pts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Design Notes: Villains captured a young witch, torturing her physically and magically, until upon her release she found she could no longer cast spells. All she could do was see magic; see the world now denied her by her enemies. While some might have been broken by the experience, she was not. She began traveling the world, first to learn how to regain her magic. But on the way, she learned from her fellow heroes, learning how to drive a motorcycle where once she's flown, how to take a hit when she'd raised a force field, how to throw a punch when once she'd thrown a fireball, and from mystic sages in the high mountains of Tibet, she learned the Way of the Righteous Fist. When she reappeared on the streets, it was as a gritty costumed avenger, having traded flowing robes for leather armor. She was still a warrior for justice - just in a very different way. A few years ago she got her magic back after being exposed to one of Dr. Sin's serums, but she's kept that part of herself in reserve. The truth is, she's more effective as a martial artist than she was as a beginning mystic...and she loves the way her enemies still underestimate her. OK, so here's a riff on Black Canary as fallen sorceress. I've built her with the idea that she has particularly trained to fight evil mystics and their minions, skilled at laying them flatfooted with feinting or wordplay, then knocking them out with punches with nothing but muscle behind them. Her Chokehold and high Grapple makes her a serious threat vs. people who have somatic or verbal components to their spells, as does her Stunning Attack to people with low Fort saves. Her magic is there, but it's something she should be reluctant to fall back on - note that I haven't put in descriptors, but these all could potentially be words of power or some other sonic attack.

http://orokos.com/roll/338546 = 21! He's down, sports fans.

The five remaining Spectrum Knights in the air will act on initiative 10. New round!

Aquaria bent down and scooped up Jessie as soon as she was on her feet, her own mighty amphibious strength combining with her glowing green armor to let her heft Jessie's frame with ease. She crouched low until she was on almost all fours, spreading her massively muscled legs and broad toes. "You're a monster!" bellowed the Deep One at her former mentor, grief and betrayal knit large in her voice. Upset as she was, her voice was devolving into the croaking bellows that she'd first spoken in on the surface. "You don't care about freedom! You just want to hurt people!" The squamous faces of Dagon and Hydra swarmed behind her bulging eyes; the horrific betrayal of today, mixing with the horrific betrayal of her gods by her own people, mixed in her heart like the coldest waters of the vasty deep. It was all the same - she couldn't fight Bie Yie and win anymore than she could have fought the shamans of her own people, and these new enemies in the sky were as likely to blast her as anyone else. There was only one thing left to do. "Never again!" she vowed before she leaped - not at Bie Yie but _away_, vaulting over the heads of several fleeing Spectrum Knights into the obsidian tower - the home of the place where they kept the spaceships! Just as she did so, the mustard-yellow tower that had held the base's stored weapons exploded as the result of another devastating orbital blast, a tremendous burst of energy crackling down on the yellow tower as fragments of energy-glass went flying through the fleeing group of Spectrum Knights with devastating effect. As the heroes watched, Kallig, the-mass murderer they'd been chasing all this time, was torn to pieces by a flying shard as large as his body despite the desperate efforts of his Spectrum Knight guards to shield him from the blast. "Murderers!" they were screaming now, directing their fury at their enemies.

Singularity took another leap - but in mid-air, she felt a cold, icy feeling creeping over her limbs. Looking down, she saw blue energy like hardening ice spreading over her limbs, freezing them in place and binding her body as if she'd been stuck in azure amber. She just barely managed to toss Aquaria aside to avoid her friend being entrapped, but when she hit the ground at the edge of the 'arena', she was completely ensnared, with only her head and upper torso above the blue polished glass sphere that held her in place unbreakably. All around them Spectrum Knights were fleeing, shooting back at the Star Knights and Praetorians in the sky - luckily it was only the one on them. But maybe that was all it would take. "Your pink-skinned pet can't save you this time, Ackweereea!" Bie Yie taunted Aquaria as he moved in for the kill, his blue armor shining malevolently as he brandished his sword at the two women. "Maybe watching me cut off her pretty head will give you the true FIRE of a Spectrum Knight!"

Bie Yie flies in pursuit of the traitors! He fires a Snare at Singularity. http://orokos.com/roll/338533 = 30! A crit! Okay, that's a DC 29 Reflex save for Singularity.

APPROVED

I like the backstory! One thing with FC is that it doesn't have superheroic law enforcement as such, but Fortress could easily be a super-rescue squad member without actually having police powers. You should put in her Heavy Load with her Super-Strength. I'm a little skeptical of the flaw on her Area Damage - how about just putting an Action flaw on it?

No issue with reapproving this bad boy. APPROVED

"Hmmm, a pyrokinetic, eh?" Dimitri winked. He didn't press further, knowing that Talya would have mentioned the young woman already if she was a suitable woman for him to flirt with. I wonder how young she actually is. It was hard, he knew, for people their age, when adults with children might as well be children themselves for what they knew of the world. "Parents in prison is difficult. Have known children like that in Russia, even now." He put his hands back in his pockets and sighed. "Ach, when did we become responsible ones to care for children? My young friend the Canadian ghost, she calls me other day to ask for advice on romantic feelings she has developed for dark wizardess she lives with. What could I say to that? 'Demonstrate these Sapphic tendencies for me with kissing?'" Admittedly he'd thought about that, but that was not a good way of handling a relationship with a pupil. "But I said words and now they are together, so was right thing to say? Maybe?" He shrugged. "You have rooms here? Or would we wake leetle children above?"

November 2015 The Fens Riley had had to come to the Fens separately from the girls - after weeks of detention and extra 'practice', he'd been authorized to carry his crossbow off school grounds again, and he hadn't wanted to miss the last day of training that earned him those rights. He knew some of his friends didn't like Mr. Archer very much, but as much as he'd screwed him over with that Metropolis thing, Riley had come to respect the drive and determination of the man. Not a lot of the teachers at the school would have been willing to put in these hours with him. A long Saturday morning of shooting at rapidly moving civilian targets had left him drained, but it had gotten him on the street in his costume. He'd made his way to the Fens on his own terms, walking along the South River's bank right under the Boardwalk, marveling as usual at how strange everything in the city had looked. Crossing the South River where he was from meant a difficult hike across a swaying, unstable passenger walkway, here the Mona-Glenn Bridge was alive and well and roaring with traffic. He wound up using his grapple arrow to make his way from stanchion to stanchion, far above the eyes of tourists, and then disappeared into a dark alley near the foot of the bridge, where the Fens themselves met the river. Closing his eyes, he thought of the Fens he knew with its marshy ground and dying buildings, its pine forest and the creatures that dwelt within. Opening them, he was at the gas station/convenience store that was evidently one of the few businesses in this part of town, and the spot he was supposed to meet Robin and Fred. A business with history, he thought as he loitered in the parking lot, remembering how the place looked with trees through the roof and a family of bears living inside.

That hits by 1! Okay, we'll say he hits Knight 1. Tou vs 26... http://orokos.com/roll/338361 29 Man! Minions or not, the Spectrum Knights are rolling well.

Bombshell: 27 Miss Americana: 24 The Fire: 23 The Beast: 23 The Withering: 21 Jill O'Cure: 20 Willow: 19 Dragonfly: 14 Mastermind: 8 Spellbound: 5 The Darkness: 4 Okay, we just need Willow's initiative, Nick.

We'll use these stats for 'the Withering', kicking up to PL 12 http://orokos.com/roll/338342 = Jack goes unspotted! http://www.freedomplaybypost.com/topic/5825-trollthumpers-cave/?page=6#comment-200703 - Paddock http://www.freedomplaybypost.com/topic/4823-geez3rs-bag-of-tricks/?page=2#comment-137910 Dropping these to PL 12 http://orokos.com/roll/338345 Echo also goes unspotted!

The two women dropped into Socotran and Trevor distinctly saw Nina's face turn pale for several long seconds, her eyes widening and clutching her friend's hands as if she'd seen a ghost. Or learned about one for the first time. The exiled princess took one single, hitching breath before she pulled herself to her feet, freeing her friend of the last of her bonds. She hadn't looked like this upon meeting her thought-dead mother. "M-Midnight, this is Iyar al-Mizrahi. We are old...friends." With her thick, curly hair and square features, Iyar was obviously no relative of the leanly-built, pin-straight al-Darsah family, but she made a proper contrast against the lean, narrow princess. Her hands clenched at her sides, Nina went on through gritted teeth, looking around the guard post as she spoke. "Those who are left are down in the lowest levels." "Nina, it's a trap," Iyar was still insisting, switching to accented English. "They're waiting for you down there!" "No, they're not," said Nina, shaking her head as she looked at Midnight. "They're waiting for him, or whoever I bring with me. Farida is the one who will be waiting for me. In our father's name."

"Hey, thanks," said Mark amiably, pleased at the compliment despite the grim circumstances of the fight. "I wish I could have seen through him earlier. This city's so nice and these people work so hard; they don't deserve to get torn up by some racist psycho jacked up on stolen magic." He gestured at the ground as the gods watched; not with the elaborate arcane fingerings of a mighty wizard, but simply pointing as if pressing an invisible button. As he did so, hardened cement appeared out of thin air, wrapping itself tightly around the still-unconscious White Knight. "We'll make sure he goes back where he belongs - a deep, dark hole." As the cement crept its way up and hit White Knight's chin, the battered bigot opened his eyes, groaning from the pain of the savage beating he'd taken. "Uhhh...where..." He looked around wildly, struggling against his bonds as flames erupted across his body, but his bound arms meant he couldn't use the weapon - and every time he tried to burn or break the cement, Edge replaced it with another layer. "Aagh! All right, all right, you win!" he said, extinguishing his flames. "Jesus, what do you bastards want? This ain't part of our deal!"

"Eh, if I lose powers, I am withered old man who can only wound enemies with pity. And if I find enemy immune to cold, well, I have ways to punish him even so." It was an old argument. "Glad to hear you have protege," he said, not wanting to comment on the number of young people who had looked up to Talya over the years, and himself for that matter - many of whom were now gone too. "You make fine teacher, I have always thought, especially for dynamic young Millennial woman." He rolled his eyes slightly at the too-familiar buzzword. "So is she young superheroine, or young, ah, independent businesswoman? If you know what I mean." He winked.

"Dotage, pfah! You are four years my junior, woman, practically a sweet young thing." He walked up to the mirror, studying his reflection. "Whereas I am aged old ice monster." Index finger extended, he began writing on the mirror, his icy-cold finger leaving behind a solid line of frost like writing with chalk on a board. It didn't take Talya long to figure out he was writing the letters of his name on the ice. Two little girls, eh? Well, that leaves out one theory - unless that is they desire more..."You always were good with young people, as I recall. With me is ever "Aaah, is ice monster, mama!" He waved his hands dramatically. "Came to Hall one day and found that Fleur de Joie had brought leetle girl of hers to work. Was not popular that day." He hmmed. "So tell me about this teen! You teach him violence?" he inquired, executing an exceedingly awkward karate kick. Dimitri's talents had never been based on physical dexterity.

Talya had turned down Dimitri's offer to visit one of the West End's liquor stores on the way; a sign, he reflected, of how seriously she must take this relationship. So he resolved to be on his best behavior, despite his skepticism that the people who lived in this place had anything of emotional weight to offer his best friend of so many years. "I will be quiet as mouse," he promised her, pressing his white-skinned finger against his lips. "And not even demand cheese as reward." He pulled down the hood of his parka as he looked around the dojo. "A fine martial establishment," he commented, studying himself in the reflective mirrors that lined one wall. "How many girls here you say again?"

We'll call it a half-dozen of these guys - http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?p=496194#p496194 as Minions 1 http://orokos.com/roll/338045 = 27 on the Reflex, tanks it with his Impervious 2 http://orokos.com/roll/338046 = 20 on the Reflex, http://orokos.com/roll/338047 = 30, passes the Tou save 3 http://orokos.com/roll/338048 = passes the Reflex, tanks it with its Impervious 4 http://orokos.com/roll/338048 = fails the Reflex, http://orokos.com/roll/338050 = passes the Tou save 5 http://orokos.com/roll/338048 = fails the Reflex, http://orokos.com/roll/338050 = fails the Tou save and is unconscious 6 http://orokos.com/roll/338048 = 27 on the Reflex, passes with Impervious

Paradigm: 26 Traveler: 21 Cavalier: 20 Singularity: 18 Spectrum Knights [5]: 10 Bie Yie: 7 Aquaria: 6 I'll be throwing in some random knights here and there! Paradigm is up

"Not without you!" declared Aquaria, standing protectively between Jessie and her erstwhile mentor as she spat a terrified curse at Bie Yie. "Dagon and Hydra will eat your bones and excrete your soul!" And then the blue tower exploded with an earth-shattering roar. Screams of surprise broke out among the Spectrum Knights and their families as the blue tower, site of the bunker where Jessie had been staying along with the other civilians in the little garrison, went off like a bomb; flashes of crystalline blue energy shards hurling everywhere, impaling the other towers, and shaking the dome where Aquaria and Jessie had just become the centers of attention for all the wrong reasons. The Spectrum Knights, and the heroes in the air, had seen a flash of energy come from the sky and blast apart the tower as if it had been struck by the largest bolt of lightning they'd ever seen. As the echoes of the explosion died away, the Zultasian Spectrum Knight sneered at Singularity, his blue armor having been unphased by her devastating punch. "My fellow Knights!" called Bie Yie, "we have been betrayed to the enemies of galactic liberation! Run and continue our revolution elsewhere - while I deal with these traitors!"