Avenger Assembled
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"Usually use the hatchet when I don't have the bow," said Riley with a tight little smile. "Figure you don't wanna fight me with that yet. You do that special combat training at the dojo?" As he spoke, Riley had begun the obstacle course again - this time starting in the middle, painstakingly climbing his way up the low-hanging rope. It wasn't easy in full gear - especially if you did Riley's way with said hatchet gripped tightly in one hand. At the top of the rope, he began the slow, careful dance of swinging from one rope to the other, all without losing his balance or betraying too much vibration in the ropes below. "Saw that thing with the airliner," he admitted, "that was pretty cool!" Riley had never actually been on an airplane himself, but as he swung from rope to rope, far above the matted gym floor, he decided his own version of flying was still pretty fun. "My combat training's gotten a lot more, uh, pointed. Guys with hostages, mind-controlled people, freakin' shapeshifters," at the last word, he let go of the rope and fell, fast and hard, staging a roll as he landed that let him duck away from the damage of falling some fifteen feet to the matted floor below. "Think Archer's trying to send me a message. Jerk," he opined. "Like I've never been in a fight before." He hmmed, listening to the conversation about Raina. "Yeah, glad she's all right. She's a nice girl. That must have shook her up pretty bad."
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A lightbulb went off over Steve's head. "Oh! I understand now." While monogamy was the norm in this part of Earth-Prime, he understood that humanity was diverse - and that Min was a particularly diverse part of that humanity. "Congratulations," he offered Talya and Min as he dug into his burrito. He knew Min would not speak of a relationship she had undertaken without Erik's approval, and so had no concerns in that regard. "I owned very little when I moved out of the FLSCH." In fact, many of the things he now owned had been bought for him by Gina. "Indeed, my robotic counterpart actually used the gift of clothing to attempt to drive Miss Americana insane before the Day of Wrath. I understand your concerns, Natalya," he told her, his voice a deep rumble. "I do not recall the local customs," he confessed. "Will you be marrying each other as well?"
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"No cars back home," commented Riley, "but yeah, I've been looking at a lotta maps, of all kinds of things. City's the same in a lot of ways when it comes to where the streets are, but different in a lot of ways too. No use breaking my neck because there's no tree there." He smiled thinly, rubbing the back of his neck as he spoke. "Guess I've been kind of a dick to people here lately," he admitted, looking unhappy with the thought. "Specially after the shootin'. Bein' somebody they were scareda or thought was a dick meant I didn't haveta worry about 'em or what they thoughta me. Sucks though."
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"Ah, but the forest provides convenient cover!" said Dimitri with great confidence. "I know boy's father as I said and he is very protective in that way of fathers. If he or mother catch the boy in flagrante delicto, as it were, a Herne summoning provides such an easy story! Set and young man were simply swept away by the passions of the Wild Hunt, and who could blame young man and woman for such a passionate display." He hmmed, then pointed a finger at Set. "Young man, does he know that Girl Set is oftimes Boy Set? Good to establish the rules of ground before you are on ground." He put his hand on his chin, thinking back. He didn't actually know Jack's son's sexual tastes, not being one to ask that about the children of the men and women he worked with. "If friendly enemy is neeeded, I know sprightly young spectre who would be happy to assist in matchmaking combat."
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A Picture of Sophisticated Grace (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in Port Regal
Still dripping wet from the rain, Aquaria padded into the stairwell again, now walking on two legs. "I didn't want to hurt anyone," Aquaria croaked softly, remembered pain pulling at the edges of her froggy voice. "But I didn't speak English then. I just knew they were screaming at me - and some of them were armed." It was not a happy memory, and so she changed the subject. "I have been thinking I could be a superhero, though. Jessie does not like the idea," she went on, plopping along as she walked ahead of Indira, "but that's okay, she doesn't have to be part of it. If Surfacers see a Deep One who is their friend...maybe things won't be so bad next time. I know there are bad Deep Ones who have hurt Surfacers," she assured Indira with great confidence. "But most of us do not." -
The OOC
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"C’est vraiment des conneries!" said the shorter of the two, a redhead with a scarred face and thick handlebar mustache. He went for leather - but his brother put a hand on his arm, fast, before another duel could break out. This was a far more vigorous reaction than House mercenaries under cover usually had! "I hardly think the House would send men from space after us, brother. And how would Ruth and Abigail think if they heard you talk that way, hm?" He gave Erik a tight smile - and as he looked at the two men, Erik was struck with a distinct feeling of recognition - he had indeed seen these two men together, with that distinctive facial hair, in an oil painting on a wall somewhere..."My name is Achille Batallie - this is my brother Etienne. I will not trifle with you good sirs, or you good lady," he said with a cordial nod and a tip of his hat to Echo. "If our mother sent you, then you may tell her that we follow the teachings of Jesus Christ rather than the teachings of the House of Cups. If you wish to argue this point, we shall all go see Him together, hm?" He was still smiling as he looked up at the big dinosaur, and over at the three superheroes arranged to oppose him. "Personally, I would far rather speak of the men from space. They landed here two months ago, killed the sheriff and our town militia, and began making those damnable iron lizards - with the help of our fellow townsfolk. The riders we have sent out did not return - our fellow Saints must believe us besieged by hostile Indians. But the reality is worse than that. If your friend is here, and has not been killed by the riders, he is either excellent at hiding...or he is below. The Master of the vessel below, as he calls himself, has been exhibiting certain strange artifacts since his arrival. A man of metal would have been as interesting as a lizard of similar vintage." He looked up at the T-Rex, his dark eyes narrowing unhappily at the sight of the beast.
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"Hmph." Well, even if Anibal wasn't as cool as Riley thought, it was nice to know he wasn't the only person who cared about the condition of his body. "Been all right. Gotta a date with Robin soon - gonna see where she's from." He headed over to where he'd left his gear as he talked, pulling first his poncho, then buckling on his crossbow. "You know, nothin' wrong with learning how to manuever even without yer powers. Someday you're not gonna have 'em, and then what are ya gonna do?" He wanted to just leave it at that - but seemed unfair to brag about his own life if he didn't ask after Anibal's. "How 'bout you? Raina ever finish pukin'?"
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"As long as the underwear is clean, Goodwill will purchase it. Even if it can no longer be worn, it can be shredded and used in industrial applications," Steve offered to Min, glad to be on firm ground with the immortal dryad. "It was one of my first jobs on Earth-Prime," he went on, "repetitive, easy work that nonetheless made life better for others." He nodded in satisfaction at the memory. He hasn't asked about closets at the dojo - there'd been no question of where he was going to live, after all. Talya was no doubt living above the rest of them. "I still visit the shelter in Hanover. I would be happy to help, Min," he offered her, glad to have one normal conversation on what had been a very strange day.
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Upstairs, Steve was sitting on the far end of the room's round table, the better to keep his eye on the door. As Ellie arrived, he gave her a polite smile, trying to avoid the interpersonal tensions that had bizarrely sprung up between himself and Erik. I should say nothing. There need be no conversation. If there are no words, there need be no argument. He could say that, of course, but he wasn't blind to the tension Ellie seemed to be repressing. Perhaps it was better to ask a question that was clearly removed from all the sources of tension. "Ellie, is Min pregnant?" he asked after a long moment of silence at the table. .
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"Thanks." Riley didn't so much as start at Anibal's arrival, standing at the top of the apex ladder and judging the distance to the next one. After a moment's consideration, he turned and started moving smoothly backwards down the ladder at a pace equal to a jog. He was glad the way Anibal had spoken to him - he'd gotten enough flinching from the other teens for his taste. "You should see me do it the hard way." He turned and jogged over towards Anibal, looking the other boy up and down. "You gonna use this?" he asked, shooting a glance back at the obstacle course. He sounded impressed - and he was! Knowing the other boy's powers, it'd be easy enough for him to fly over it entirely. "I'm just starting, but it's got room for us to take turns." Sharing resources in a confined space was something he understood instinctively.
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October 2015 Riley was alone in the gym for now; just the way he liked it. He'd even changed for the occasion, down to the binder and green and brown costume that were the minimum level of clothes he was willing to be seen in while walking around the school. On the obstacle course near one side of the ample gym, he took a moment to wrap his hands before beginning his run. First came the low wall of padded foam, which he vaulted with contemptuous ease, then the elevated, irregularly placed blocks that were equally no obstacle to him as he went. He vaulted to the balancing bridge without so much as touching the matted gym floor and made his way along at a dead run, eyes open and ears wide as he went. This was easy - here he was in minimal clothing, with no gear. Later he'd do it the hard way; gather up his clothes and his bow from where he'd left them neatly folded in one corner of the gym, and do it that way, but for now he was content to warm up. He had a long evening ahead of him in here - if he was lucky.
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Riley winced, sensing the other boy's lack of interest. "It's fine, I know some people here like store-bought better. I've gotta admit," he confessed, "I'm lucky I work out, because the food here is really great, even if it's really crappy for me." He enthused. "I mean, I still like comfort food like chicken or venison stew, but you've got cotton candy, and those really spicy chips that make you cry when you eat them..." He ticked off a few menu items. "Prolly lucky I haven't broken out yet," he admitted, running his hands over his cheeks. "Of course, you've got cream for that here. I gotta admit, your world's pretty great about some stuff."
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Comrade Frost blinked a few times. "This is absolutely wonderful, Kimber!" he called, obviously speaking very rapidly, "I will return shortly but I am now being called away." And with that, he vanished in a puff of white snow and a wisp of truly celestial cold. Or maybe infernal. He'd made sure to warn Kimber ahead of time that he might be called away unexpectedly - it was no real surprise. - When Frost opened his eyes again, he was wearing only his boxer shorts and strapped, spread-eagled, to a giant silver dish. Looming over him was a familiar figure indeed - half her face in shadow and half in light, beauty and horror mixed together, towering over Man just as Death itself towered over all things, Lady Hel loomed over his prone form - a knife and fork in her gigantic hands, each as big as Frost himself. "<Frost>!" she growled, her breath at once sweet and smelling of rotten maggoty flesh, "<you've really done it this time>!" "Yesss..." said Frost, slipping into the same Old Norse tongue as she. "But we had a deal! I help Kimber Storm with her desire for mortal flesh, and in return she will stand by us when-" "You said the Annihilist would probably be dead! I was looking forward to eating her soul!" Hel's shout would have shattered a mortal's eardrums - even Dimitri had to concentrate to heal his own injuries. Hel's plate was warm, like blood. "And she probably will be, eventually! I thought those bison would probably eat her! They are pretty tough customers and she seemed like the type to jump in their mouths in a fit of sadness! What could I do, just murder her there in front of everyone?" Hel gave him that look, the one with her dead rhuemy eye. "No, not with so many witnesses!" he went on. "They would be so wrathful! Lady Hel, I make you a pledge," Frost temporized. "The next time I encounter a soul that corrupted, I will personally see it appears on your plate. Yes?" She hmmed, leaning back from the plate, and poked him in the belly with her knife. "Agreed, Frost. But on one condition..." - For her part, Tarva had no idea of the conversation that had just taken place. Instead, shrugging at Frost's abrupt departure, she headed straight for Kimber. At the sight of the transformation that had befallen her boon companion. Tarva looked Kimber up and down, her eyes wide. "Kimber, I...I did this once for you to save your life. I do it now for the life you have won anew!" And with that, the tall shadow-witch hovered slightly in the air and planted a passionate kiss right on Kimber Storm's lips. Sharl's robotic eyes widened at the sight, but he said nothing besides, "Do we...do we need to give the two of you some privacy...?" he joked awkwardly.
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Steve blinked, the strange conversation taking a turn for the worse. "No, ah, no, I was just, ah, using slang..." He coughed nervously, trying to defuse what had become a tense moment. He could face a charging soul-killer with his bare hands - but this...! His voice gravely serious at what might be a potential rift with his friend produced by one of the many conversational landmines he knew. "Erik, I do not think you are hiding anything from me. If you have not told me, it is not my business to know. If you have eaten the sausage already, that is all right. I know you have many mouths to feed in this house, especially these days." He held the look, to make his point clear. "I can visit that establishment myself when it is open." He turned back to his work. "All right, that appears to be all we need. On that subject," he said, carrying down burritos on paper plates with paper napkins and plastic silverware, "as I was saying earlier, I think finding a position for Talya on your staff was a wise idea. And that she is teaming up in, ah, other ways means that we can be more open with each other."
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"In his..." Aquaria hastily turned to her inner dictionary of Surfacer medical terms. "Okay! Got it, number one!" She bounded forward and sat on the monster's legs. "How do these work?" she yelled at Dr. Ellis, securing the direction before jabbing the pen as hard as she could into his muscular thigh. Of course, Aquaria was much stronger than almost any Surfacer, and the pen armored to cut through Megaladon's skin - the pen wound up jabbing deep into the skin, but Aquaria was pretty sure that was normal. "Injecting now!" she yelled, still pinning down the tricky sharkman's legs in case he broke loose and cut up to more trouble.
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"Well, there's my girl..." Riley thought about raising _that_ subject, but decided he wasn't nearly ready to mention his love life to his mentor. "Her name's Robin, she works out of the Fens, does, uh, vigilante stuff." It had taken him a minute to remember the word. "There's a girl who's a witch, and a guy who's a dhampir or something..." He thought for a minute, then said, "I think we're mostly the team the 'cool kids' don't like, but I don't give a crap about that at all so it's cool. We train together, stuff like that. Hopin' to go on patrol fer real soon."
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Riley fell silent, uncomfortably thinking about what must have happened to his friends in his world. Robin and her parents in a Fens sinking into the mire, Huang's North Bay mansion pierced by oaks, Raina's hometown vanished into the vast Forest west of the Appalachians, and all of them the kind of little children whose mass graves still dotted the edges of the fences of Raymond. "No. No, I never want them to have to see any of that. Maybe it made us better in some ways - but that's just because we were lucky too." He looked over at Erin and asked, "Is it true what you used to do on the gym set here? That's so badass!" he commented. "Most of the strong people here trip over their own feet if they try and turn a somersault."
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"She is a talented woman. I am sure she would be an asset to the team. We discussed tactics for a time; she agrees that an infiltrator will be valuable to our work." He nodded in satisfaction at Erik's words. "I am glad to hear about Eden." As well he should be - nightmares were something he understood all too well. Sensing that Erik was uneasy with the conversation about his daughter's mental health. Steve changed the subject as he headed for the refrigerator. "Thank you for guiding me to that carniceria," he said, deliberately pronouncing the word in the local fashion. "Miss Americana greatly appreciated that Polish-Mexican sausage. There are some great advantages to the blending of peoples in the West End..." He looked around in the refrigerator, frowning, then looked back at Erik. "I was going to suggest Bombshell try the meat as a welcome to the neighborhood. Where are you hiding your sausage these days?"
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"I, uh..." Riley was squirming at her touch, not unpleasantly, his nerves pulled to the point of anticipation. "I never, uh, I never thought about that," he admitted. "On the one hand, I want you to touch me everywhere," he admitted, his voice rough with emotion. "But..." He laughed softly and leaned closer, pressing his forehead against hers. "That's maybe not a good idea right now..." He kissed her again, hard, nipping lightly at her lip. They'd probably get in trouble if they were caught kissing up here, especially after earlier that day, but he didn't care at all. "So why don't you just touch me wherever you want, and I'll tell you if it's right? If I can do the same thing, that is," he added, smiling with his teeth.
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A Picture of Sophisticated Grace (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in Port Regal
When she was done, Aquaria landed at Indira's feet with a palpable thud, the last echoes of her bellowing song still ringing across the rooftop. "This place is so nice. And you people are so nice." She straightened up to stand erect, her amphibious form looking considerably more gawky on two legs. "I was scared for a long time that Jessie would have to go back to prison, or that I'd get in trouble again. " She crossed her long forelimbs over her broad chest. "I hurt people when I first got here," she admitted. "They saw me when I was foraging, and they started screaming. So I kicked them. And then the police came and I kicked them too, and then Nereid came and she beat me into the pier until I passed out. I don't like Atlanteans." She shook her head and broad shoulders. "Anyway, they took me in, and they taught me English, and I learned how to pretend to be a Surfacer. And now I have a job cleaning lawns, and I live here!" -
"Wait a minute," said Mark, looking at Mike. "Hang on, is your email address not still..." He rattled off the email address that Mike had used back in high school, before Alex had talked him into getting a more professional-sounding one. "You haven't seen my emails?! With my newsletter, and my digest-sized accounts of our adventures?" Mark looked crestfallen. "Well no wonder you never emailed me back!" He coughed. "Anyway, we're the Liberty League. The last one saved the world - then had to disband because the people in charge didn't trust them. This was right after Graduation Day, so it made sense." He blinked. "You did get my email about that, right? With the pictures, and the story I wrote?"
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"Yeah, I know. Marquez tells me that all the freaking time. Doesn't make it any easier." He set the bow aside and folded his hands in his lap for a moment, thinking about ideas he had never been brave enough to put into words before. "Do you ever just get mad at all of them?" He made a little gesture, encompassing the whole place. "I know it's stupid," he went on, scratching the back of his head. "But...they talk a good game about saving the world, and maybe they always have here. Couldn't always do it, though. Not where I'm from, not where you were."
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160 years later, the time portal no longer absorbed or radiate visible light. But it glowed like a torch at the higher and lower end of the spectrum - standing out like brightest day to Miss Americana and Dragonfly on their arrivals, and in fact putting out so much radio waves that the former couldn't get very close without the risk of losing connection to her controller. For those with normal eyes, the strip mall parking lot in the West End was quiet and still - any eyewitnesses to any recent events at this location had either fled the premises or were in hiding.
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"Oh, permits," said Frost, rolling his eyes with an affectionate smile. "How the mighty have fallen! What would Set say if he knew the 'Princess of Plundering' was seeking to file forms with city planning commission." He hmmed as he drove. "If they are in, you know, trade, I could maybe get them discount old Freedom League gear. Can you believe they just give me keys to half, two-thirds of their lockers?" He waved a hand. "Such a change from old days, when any time I would show up in Freedom Hall it would be 'It's that Red bastard,' or 'Die, bloodsucking fiend''! He did a pretty good Bowman II and Eldritch impression, if he said so himself. "Is sometimes not as fun as it was back then," he admitted.