Avenger Assembled
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"Some monsters are evil," said Riley bluntly. "If you tried some of the things people do here on my world, you'd just be dead. Or worse." He sighed, then went on more quietly. "And yeah, I know this isn't my world, and I'm not supposed to act like that here, so don't go squealing on me to Marquez, all right? I'm not a psych case, whatever everybody thinks." It didn't sound like he cared about their respect so much as their disrespect infuriated him. "Sorry everybody here's been a dumbass about your parents. Drives me crazy how much everybody goes at each other here over the stupidest things." Once in the girls' dorm, he signed in, giving the RA an unblinking look, then went to work on the common room's bulletin board. They were both getting looks now - Riley's infamy had certainly reached the women's side of things.
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"Ooh." Unfazed by Set's rejection of his first plan, Dimitri snapped the fingers on his other hand. "We wait for some demonic crisis, then summon this fine young fellow to assist in some robust way, perhaps where he must sacrifice upper tier of costume! And then Talya and I, we withdraw to some discreet location while young lovers go about business. But the question of civilian casualties...hmm. Porheps in state forest? Plenty of things that go bump in night there that could be let loose where no one would be eaten. And then fighting them could help you go bump in night! Hah-hah, you see what I did there? Is pun! You young people love that stuff." He casually leaned back and placed his hand in the fire directly. "I tell you, comedy is lost art."
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"Ach, Natalya..." Dimitri was impossible to offend, but the worry was briefly palpable in his voice. "Well, you are a grown woman - and we both know you are far more experienced in matters of the heart than a man with no heart at all." Speaking in Russian now, there was no trace of the comically broad accent he spread with a trowel when talking to Americans. "If you are happy, then I am happy for you. You deserve happiness. Though they had better not be trifling with you if they know what's good for them." He hesitated a moment, then broke out in a smile as he drew his thumb across his neck. "Otherwise, cold indeed their bed will grow!" The accent was back in full force. "You should build them a bunker," he commented, "to avoid nuclear weapons. Will be reassurance for all worries."
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Frost clapped his hands together. "Ah, delightful! To be young and in love, or five thousand years..." He waved his hand. "Who can say?" He wandered over to Talya's fire and settled down by it, crossing his legs before the flames and smiling contentedly. With the thermovore blocking, and absorbing the heat from the gas, the other occupants of the apartment could hardly feel it at all. "You are pretty girl, and sometimes pretty boy," said Frost with a reassuring gesture Set's way. "All will be fine, one way or another. You know what you do," he suddenly said, seizing on the idea. "You make him jealous is what you do. Surest way to motivate young man." He snapped his fingers. "What of one of those muscular young heroes roaming around the city these days, from that academy of theirs. Take up with one of those, see if fellow and his dimples come crawling back."
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Riley stared at Huang, bafflement on his face for a long moment as he tried to process the bizarre series of words coming out of the other boy's mouth. "Okay then. Let's go hit the dorms." When the boys were finished cleaning out the athletic side of campus, that was the direction they headed. "So why'd heroes give your family crap, anyway?" Riley asked Huang on the way. "Something to do with being a dhampir?" He thought Huang's habit of flashing inhuman, biting fangs around was pretty creepy to be honest, but it was a stupid thing to oppress people about. "Your mom seems to do okay, if they let her comeonta campus and talk to us about dimensions 'n stuff."
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Dimitri clucked his tongue. "Scarab never did get off pot, eh? A shame." He knew about their on-again off-again relationship, but he also knew that an off-again relationship was indeed off. "War will come most likely before you and I are dead for final time," he agreed. "But look on bright side. With Cold War over, will most likely be war of superhumans rather than war of nuclear weapons, so we need not worry about shuffling through dead, irradiated city. And if it is with nuclear weapons, well, at least it will be over quickly, with no tiresome propaganda or rationining as in last war!" He smiled that smile that wasn't really a smile. "I dread many things. But this generation will do well enough - it is the ones that came before, the ones that linger in power that are the children of our days, that I worry about. But soon they will be gone." Silence lingered in the car. In a tone like an elder brother, he went on, "So, new lady...or is it fellow this time? Is it here?" He waved his hand about in the air. "Or here?" He put his hand over his own absent heart.
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"Friend, eh?" With literally any other woman in the world, and for that matter a great number of the men, Dimitri would have taken this opportunity to wink suggestively or waggle his eyebrows. Instead he nodded, glad to hear his friend was doing so well. "Good. You deserve good friend. And do not worry about doing devil's work,. you have spat in his great eye enough." He assumed they were already heading for this gym. "I would join you in punching bags - but you know me, cursed forever with the upper body strength of lazy, paper-pushing sod." He grinned cheerfully. "Remember when that fat Swede with Ax of Donar actually said that to my face? Ah, such eyes he made beneath the ice and snow. Good times, good times. Porheps I will simply enjoy delicious comforts of sauna. They do have one, yes? Any establishment with class would and you are class!"
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So we've got 15, 17, and 20 among the PCs who can see infrared (Miss A's total without rolling). There are several additional IR trails running underground at various locations around the fort (Miss A can use her gadgets to see them if she makes a tricorder). Time for IC posts!
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"Good," said Steve, glad to know his friend had so many potential allies. Inside the kitchen, Steve took advantage of his height to open up the cabinets with the paper plates and plastic cutlery the family used when they were not eating formally. "Oh, I had a question I wanted to ask you, Erik." Methodically, he began sorting out plate, knife, and fork for all the downstairs guests. "One of my HAX colleagues has recently purchased a water-filled bed and is looking for a new home for his former bedframe and box spring. I told him I would ask around among those of my acquaintance. Could you use a king-sized bed for your apartment here at the dojo?" he asked Erik. "I thought it might allow you more space. Do you still have your extra, ah, passenger?" Some weeks earlier, Erik had mentioned that Eden had recently gone through a phase of nightmares - nightmares that had resulted in early-morning kickings into wakefulness for her father.
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Nina smiled, her lovely red lips parting to show perfect white teeth. "Just so. You know, it's interesting what people prioritize." She stopped talking when the waiter arrived to order their food - she opted for the veal, while Mark took the gourmet grilled cheese with the imported cheese and Canadian bacon. "In Orwell's book," she said while Mark topped off her wine, "all the world was like the Soviet Union of, what was it, 1948? As rich and inclusive as Stalin." That got a nod from Mark, who'd read that book back in school. "So a disaster for Western Europe, the Americas, for Australia, of course. But how many people in Africa, Asia, and South America were living better in Orwell's hellhole than they did in the world outside his window. Economic security for personal freedom is an interesting trade." "Hmm," said Mark, shooting Nina a significant glance. "_You_ wouldn't want to live there, though." "Well no, Oceania had all the boring repression of your typical Stalinist state, no room for street artists like, ah, Asli here." That was the only sign that she'd heard Asli's remark about her father. "But I wonder how many people, in 1948, have picked Oceania, where the old distinctions of class and race are gone, over a foreigner's boot. I wonder how many would do so now. What then?" she asked Joe and Asli. "What if that's what the people wanted?"
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Standing behind Huang, Riley had the unsettling realization that he had a perfect shot at drawing his hatchet and smashing the butt into the back of the other boy's head before those superior reflexes would let him turn around. The moment passed quickly - the anger did not. "So what, you finally figure out you're not gonna get in my pants, jackass, and now you think you can talk crap about my family?" He was acutely aware that, without his bow, Huang could probably kick his ass in anything like a fair fight - but that awareness was not foremost in his mind right now. "You have no idea what you're talking about. We didn't have a bunch of creeps in tights back home to save our asses because they all died and left us to pick up the freaking pieces. And you're the one from the world where people give a damn if you're black or your mom's Chinese, so don't throw that race thing at me! I don't care about _you_, why would I care about your damned grandpa?"
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Steve disagreed with Gina's assessment of herself - and himself, to a degree, but he knew that was the stress of the moment talking. This was also not the time to bring up the situation with the DuTemps Building - Gina agreed with his views there enough that she would want to go back to the house and make further plans on that subject, plans he was himself not yet prepared to make. Dealing with emotions, he had learned, required extensive strategizing - and planning for tactical situations was something he understood. He moved the topic away from himself, and away from Gina. "I had another letter from Prometheus this week," he said, thinking back to the young Omegadrone he'd helped mentor, as best he could, in his early time on Earth-Prime. "He says he...he is happy on Kaiju Island. The beasts give him no trouble - and he makes sure they give no trouble to the scientists. I should use Skype to speak with him directly." He kept on talking to Gina about his former pupil as they headed up the street, obviously happy that the former drone had found a home free from the human race that would forever fear and hate his armor, his animation to distract her from the view not entirely feigned. "He is even dating one of the young women there. I am delighted he has found such a place in Earth-Prime."
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"Yeah, I heard about the damn plant controller." Riley became one of the few people Erin had met, at Claremont or anywhere else, to get that look in his eye about Fleur de Joie - the kind of terror and fury that she herself might have once felt towards someone like Dead Head. "I just...god, it seems so sick." He set his teeth. "You know , I think I heard she has kids? I heard about that when they were trying to talk up Sanctuary to me. We never found out what happened to my world. All the super-scientists, all the magic people, they just were...were food for the Forest. Every time I think about her, or someone like that woman on the Interceptors, I wonder if that was them, if they just...went crazy, or evil, and they decided to screw the world into their own image. Nobody should have that kind of power over other people's lives."
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"Geez." Riley thought about that one, a rueful look on his face. "Well, if there's an evil Riley, he's prolly dead. Can't imagine a bunch of evil people surviving the Forest Wave - and if they did, I bet they wouldn't take in some traveler. I'll, uh, I'll keep an eye out for another you." He obviously wasn't entirely sure what to make of Erin's revelation, but he'd certainly heard crazier things on this Earth. "Did anybody else make it off your world?" he asked her. "The original one, I mean." He asked it carefully, knowing it was gonna be a touchy subject. "The Freedom League said there was a place called Sanctuary where they put refugee when they come in big numbers. They were talking about finding a place for us, if they could find where I'm from."
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"May I see one of those?" Steve picked up one of the spare rings Talya had brought and held it in his hand, weighing it thoughtfully. Taking the ring in both hands, he pulled, the steel giving an unhappy screeching noise as it slowly, begrudgingly parted in his grip. "This would not hold the Centurion," he said seriously, gradually crushing the steel into a ball between his fingers. "But it is very strong." He looked up at the ceiling, then turned to Erik as he spoke. "Come, let us prepare the food for the women." On the way up the stairs, he commented without a trace of teasing in his voice. "Talya seems very dedicated. How long have the two of you been working together? I guessed you had found her a position here when I saw how she had made herself at home."
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"Yeah, I guess." He smiled thinly, thinking back to the home that wasn't quite his home. "The other Riley's kind of a dick, so maybe there's some of me in there too." He actually snorted at that. "He's gonna go be an astronaut, I think. He never did have to pick up a weapon in his life. And my mom can keep a nuclear reactor running after the world ended, so I guess it makes sense Peyton doesn't wanna give up on anybody either. She mostly sends money and clothes, mebbe I can buy stuff or somethin'..." He hesitated a moment, thinking back over Erin's words. "So the two, is that you and the other Erin?"
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"People fight each other over stupid things. Who's black and who's white, who's a girl and who's a boy, whose god has the biggest stick, who's rich and who's poor." Riley's hands kept working as he talked, smooth, fast, and efficient. "People here should...just work together, man, against the real bad guys, instead of acting like their neighbor's gonna knife 'em in the back over a can of beans. It's even in the movies. Every time people talk about the world going to Hell, there's always some stupid-ass metaphor about how the real monster is man. Well that's BS. The real monsters are the freakin' monsters!"
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"Yeah. It was weird. being with Peyton and the other Riley, they've both had it so good. Hell, Riley's dad isn't even dead - he just walked out when he was thirteen." Riley was quiet for a moment, not quite able to look Erin in the eye. "I had to...I had to leave after he and I had a fight. It was just stupid kid stuff." He ran his hand over his smooth chin before admitting, "He'd never been in a real fight before. I thought for sure he'd be able to..." He bit his lip, looking like he was visibly swallowing emotions. "The hell of it is," he whispered, "Peyton still sends me money, and says she's the closest thing to my mom here. But after that, when Bowman found me, we decided it was best I go to Claremont too." He looked around suddenly.
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Aquaria leaped out of the water, clutching the shiny silver shape of the epi-pen in her hand, water cascading from her almost completely bare greenish-white body. "I have his medicine!" she yelled. "It'll stop him from fighting! You guys hold him down!" She turned and gestured frantically to Dr. Ellis. "I don't know how this works!" she called. She tried to remember the times that Surfacer doctors had tried, usually not very well, to treat her. "Where do I put this in him!?"
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"Once they let me carry my bow off-campus again," said Riley with a tight shrug. "Don't like going out without it," he admitted. "Can't do that back home. I know, it's not the same here, I mean, my girl took me out to the Fens and that was all right, but it's just..." He scratched the back of his head, not quite able to go on, then went on, "Hey, uh, can I ask you somethin'?" He looked at her, then went on as if he was phrasing a completely alien question. "Is there another, you know, you here? Do you guys get along?"
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Notice vs 20 First time http://orokos.com/roll/332429 = 7 Second time http://orokos.com/roll/332430 = 18 Extra efforting two more ranks of the skill (spending an HP to cancel the fatigue) Got it! Okay.
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"Doctor damn well better know how to scrub things," Riley muttered in reply, "Gangrene's no damn joke." It was hard to tell if he was kidding or not. He went to work on the staples without another word, and for a few minutes there was nothing but the regular sound of staples being cleared. "That's the problem," he finally said, "People here put on airs because they can turn into some kinda divine avatar or build a reactor with their eyes closed, they think that makes them better than everybody else. People need to start workin' together and not give so much of a damn about what other people are doin'."
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"'Sgotta be done," he said with a shrug."Couldn't just live behind the fences my whole life and let other people fight for me. You'd be surprised how tiny a couple square miles feels when you've got over ten thousand people stuck in it." He smiled faintly, sliding the bolt she'd returned back into place. "Snice, when you're not running and hiding. You get to see the city, scavenge stuff, not just work in the fields or reactor-tendin'. Used to go in places and try and find old books and put 'em in our library. Didn't really give me a lotta skills for Earth-Prime," he admitted. "Least I can handle myself better'n most people who just have powers. No offense or anything," he added quickly.
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"I don't give a crap 'bout their stupid opinions," Riley snapped back, his voice almost a snarl. "Buncha spoiled fat-faced brats." He shook his head. "Just easier to work without them getting in the way." He cracked his neck, relaxing fractionally once they were away from the crowd. Despite his short legs, he led the way down the path, his wiry muscles pulling him forward. "Shouldn't even be a punishment," he muttered. "You ask me, everybody should be taking turns doing this. Just teaches people that cleanin' work's for losers."
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"Oh yeah, that thing!" said Riley, surprised to hear sympathy in his voice. "Yeah..." He looked away, having actually been present for that pretty uncomfortable moment, and having heard some of the rumors about the other boy after that. He'd been tempted to ask if Huang had really had sex with Set right in front of the Centurion statue - but he knew what rumors like that were like. "Jerk move. Shouldn't punish you because they were dumb. Back home they'd have been walking the line too." Riley was perfectly attentive, practically at a military stance, as they got their assignments. He understood the needs of recycling well enough - he'd done his share of scavenging. "Yessir." Once they were outside, though, he relaxed fractionally. "Okay. Do the field first," he suggested, pointing towards the school's athletic field. "Fewer people there now."