Avenger Assembled
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"Hey." Riley sat down his magazine and shook Jimmy's hand, his callused hands gripping the other boy's firmly. "Riley Quinn." Jimmy had heard that name around the boy's dorm floor already; there'd been a fight between two boys that had ended with the two being seperated and reassigned to different rooms. For his part, Riley looked Jimmy up and down and repressed a quick smile - Jimmy was one of the few boys his age shorter than he was. "Recurrence, huh? What'reyainfor?" he asked, his words sliding together in a fast drawl that wasn't quite like any accent Jimmy had heard in Freedom City before.
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September 2015 Bereft of his crossbow, Riley sat in the infirmary waiting room, reading a technical manual. He'd already filled out his paperwork, showed his student ID, and made sure Nurse Joy knew that he was there and was patiently waiting for his next turn. At least in theory. When he wasn't in a blind with a bow in his hand, or waiting up a tree, Riley had never been very good at patience. So instead he buried himself in stories about the construction and care of wind power plants, all the while making the usual adjustments for whatever tools and other equipment would be missing back on his own Earth. Raymond couldn't keep running forever, he knew from lessons drilled into his head by his mother, and by the time he was an adult his community would need some other source of power to survive. He was going to make it back there. He was sure of it.
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This Concludes Our Broadcast Day [OOC]
Avenger Assembled replied to trollthumper's topic in Archives
Harrier will go ahead and All-Out Attack the creature. http://orokos.com/roll/330815 = 32 DC 27 Tou save + however much Autofire bonus he gets from that very nice roll. -
"Well, eat my-" Frost began to say in wonder as he reappeared on the bluff, an instant before the ritual's magic exploded in his face and sent him hurtling down at the feet of one of the jotun hordes. By the time he'd managed to pull himself to his feet, he was standing amidst a very truncated (in more ways than one) group of skeletons. "Not YOU!" he informed the giants peevishly before he spread his hands wide and poured forth the ultimate cold of Nifleheim upon the pikers of Jotunheim in the form of a curling wash of blue-white mist, sending skeletons before him crashing to the ground in a heap of frozen fragments of gigantic bone, each nearly as large as Frost's arms.
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Aquaria dropped to all fours and braced herself, Jessie's shrieks of rage and defiance burning in her small, delicate ears. She had heard cries like that before, in nights that had ended with visits from Erin, with medication, and sometimes Jessie going away for a week or two. There was only one thing to do now. With a bellowing croak of defiance, she leaped in the air, the thick, bulging muscles of her legs propelling her forward across rooftops as her leap turned into a hasty, frenetic dash across rooftops, vaulting over alleys, scrabbling up the roof of the house of mirrors and down to the door. Landing on her feet in front of it, she dashed inside, again on all fours, her yellow and black eyes bulging wide as they penetrated the darkness within. This place smelled of blood, and pain, and terror and death. "JESSIE!"
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"Hmm." Steve didn't comment on that as they continued down the sidewalk together, the normality of the day a sharp contrast to the abnormality of the two of them. "It is a typical block in this neighborhood." And Steve should know - he'd walked them all at one time or another, usually in the dead of night when Gina was asleep but his own demons kept him away. "But it is pleasant for all of that. The trees are in their last green stages, and the flowers do yet bloom." He bent down and plucked one of his favorite flowers of Earth-Prime, a pretty yellow dandelion, and handed it to Gina. "As beautiful as you."
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Whoop-Ant turned out to have been somewhat exaggerating about the "roommate lotto" - the common room on the first floor of the Carter dormitory turned out to have a long list posted on the wall of student names, ID numbers, and the name and ID number they'd all been matched with - along with the room they'd be sharing. The room was crowded with students getting to know each other; Riley was visible in one side of the room, awkwardly shaking hands with a young Asian man who was eying the former's crossbow with some heavy layers of suspicions. Whoop-Ant got his hands on a picture ID list and helped the new students get to know each other, pairing off roomates or telling people where their missing roomie was. "Huang Feretti?" Whoop-Ant asked the young dhampir, talking to him a little privately away from the others. "You have a medical exemption, so it looks like they gave you a solo room." After he spoke, Whoop-Ant waved his hand to the others and said, "Hey, guys, after you meet your roomie and take your stuff upstairs, meet me down here in twenty so we can go exploring! There's a lot to see in this place!" The room certainly was a sea of students of all shapes and sizes; boys, girls, and even a few young people who didn't look identifiable either way; some with obvious powers, some as human as anyone else.
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"You deserve better than that," replied Jack, the words almost shooting out of his mouth as he caught the resentment in his son's voice. "I don't know what happened in the original timeline," because you couldn't be honest with us about that from the start, "but you deserve better than growing up a super-brat, with nothing but our capes between you and the world out there. Whatever may have happened today," he said, unconsciously rubbing the spot where his son had bitten him earlier, "you are not some alien from the future, and you are not Ouroboros when you're not in costume and fighting crime. You are a human boy, and you deserve to grow up like one." By now, because that was the kind of father Jack was, he was practically standing nose-to-nose with Jack Jr. "We sent you to that school because we love you!"
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"Never saw it," said Riley with a shrug. It hadn't been part of the canon at Raymond, anyway. "But OK," he said suddenly, "you wanna do the burger thing, let's do the burger thing. That place, uh, open all night?" he asked, trying to remember the phrase. "We can hit it when we're out patrolling." That was one thing that both this world and his home had in common, even if the idea of being out at night with a metahuman was a thoroughly alien concept. "I'm gonna go change," he said after a minute, reaching down to pull a pretty heavy bundle of clothes out from the drawer he'd just filled up. "If you see any clothes of mine laying around and you don't know what they are...well, you don't wanna know," he finished with a grin, turning and heading into their shared bathroom.
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"My mom and dad have been heroes since before your moms were wearing diapers," seethed Holly in an angry whisper. "They fought in the Terminus Invasion, they-" "They did?" There was not much childish in the look Yolanda gave Holly - before she suddenly looked away. "I...okay." She looked back at Holly and said, "You...you wanna go play bocce ball?" "Yeah," said Holly, giving Yolanda a searching look of her own - and then a tentative, warming smile much like her dad's. "Let's play." - "Radical," said Richard, nodding along with Mara's words. "Science is awesome. My boy is talking about nuclear physics these days, but you know how kids are, every month they're into some new thing." He hmmed. "Hey, with all the science and engineering stuff you know, do you know how to fix an eight-track player?" He held Mara's gaze, then laughed. "Hah! I'm just kidding. Obviously a scientist like yourself has everything on CD by now."
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"I already know I can give you what you want," said Tarva, giving Kimber a warm smile. "You'll see." When she was alone again in her room and Kimber gone on her daily business, Tarva took a moment to center herself, then sat down at her writing desk. Pen in hand against lined paper, she decided this was a good day to write a poem. Love, kissed me bled me With cold hands Twisting my heart And soothing my soul. Hiding underneath Her garments lovely lips Appearing like Kimber
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A Picture of Sophisticated Grace (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in Port Regal
Aquaria padded after Indira on the way to one of the nearby roof accesses, actually hopping up onto the ceiling and scuttling along above the stairs to reach the roof faster. Just inside the door to the outside, she paused and began removing her clothing, shirt and pants, until all she was left in was a leather harness underneath. "I keep my ID in here," she croaked cheerfully, patting a leather strap that ran across her midsection. "Let's go!" She dropped to all fours and scampered out onto the flat roof, splashing her way through the torrential downpour. As lightning cracked above them, casting the room into dramatic shadows, she did a little dance in the rain and croaked a song in her native tongue, hopping around with her face set in an inhumanely broad smile. -
"From time to time," replied Nina dryly, shooting a glance at Mark and Joe. When the waiter came to ask about wine, Mark and Nina ordered a merlot. That particular decision led to a spirited discussion between the two of them about the first time they'd tried wine together; it was a long humorous story that involved Mark's old apartment, a bottle of shiraz, and a Duke Ellington LP. The two of them had the chemistry of a long-term couple, sharing laughs and common stories, even finishing each other's sentences - they'd obviously been together a very long time. In the middle of the story, Joe caught Mark looking at him, and then back at Asli, encouragingly.
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Before Yves' revelation, Steve had only one answer - his own story. "I had no murdered home. No lost world. I was born beneath the palaces of the Annihilists, in the Black Ghetto of dread Nihilor, among the proles that are the last remnants of their murdered worlds. But my parents had lived through the rise of what is today Steelgrave. They had seen how he had united his own world as its sole champion and righteous leader - and, then, how he became Steelgrave upon the arrival of Omega." He did his best to stay calm as they stayed on the subject of Tarva, reminding himself that having raised the subject with these other two that it was his responsibility to see it through. "From what I have been told, they chose to give her to Earth-Prime rather than leave her beneath the Silver Tree. She would have...polluted it, as I did in my time there, and Furion lives would have been spent defending her from the forces of the Terminus. It was the Swift and her companions who brought her from the Terminus, Tona - which is why I have not spoken before now."
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Riley immediately dropped prone, taking advantage of what was fortuitously an excellent sniping position. He studied the situation carefully with his binoculars, eyes passing over the bound League members, Doctor Metropolis, and the obviously empowered Green Man. It was the thralls, disappearing into the bulk of the tree, that made up his mind for him. He curled into a ball to cut down on his silhouette and took advantage of the position to pull the magazine of his crossbow free, pull another from his belt, and slide it into place with a ca-chunk. Laying on his back, his eyes closed, he murmured, "I give you the peace taken from you in life," before he rolled back onto his stomach and sighted down on his target. He was inside a living tree shooting at a master of trees. He had only one option open to him, only one way to even the odds. He pulled the trigger. The flashbang arrow came first, a black powder shot that detonated in the Green Man's face to briefly dazzle the all-powerful plant controller, the glowing bolt as it flew catching the attention of everyone down below, making them look up for its source. He pulled the cocking lever on the bow, dropping another bolt into place and pulling back the string. The next arrow zipped down and hit Dr. Metropolis in the eye, the impervium tip penetrating concrete and glass, the binary explosive within triggered by the force of the impact, detonating inside his head with the force of a small hand grenade. Without a twitch, he pulled the cocking lever on the bow, dropping another bolt into place and pulling back the string, ready to fire a smoke-bomb arrow that would give him a chance to escape and free the rest of the League - or even better, catch the Green Man unawares and do the same to him.
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Dauntless' words broke the spell over Riley, who for the first time since the scenario began looked straight up at the simulator window to see his friends there watching him. His friends could see his haunted gaze, see the leonine tension in his frame, but now acutely aware of their eyes on him (especially Robin's) Riley said the only thing he could. In a low, hard whisper that barely carried to the microphones, he said, "No. I can continue." He covered his face with his hand as the simulation restarted, willing himself back into the mode that would let him do what had to be done here. When he took his hand away, the calm-faced teenager slowly crept his way across the big branch, sure steps matched by a steady grip on each branch. At the end of the branch, he slowly rappeled down until he reached what looked like an overgrown knothole, an entrance to the tree that would let him enter it without being seen by the Feral crowd below. He took a breath, then another, and wedged his lower body inside, retrieving his grappling arrow before he began working his way inside the body of the tree itself, ready to find his way to the center.
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"My family is Socotra," replied Nina, her eyes flashing. Al-Darsah was a common enough name given what Typhoon had meant for the cause of Arab independence since the 1960s; albeit not a common one among Americans and those affiliated with the West - given what Typhoon had meant to the world; and his own people since the beginning of his rule. "I earned my name by birth." There was a challenge in her voice as she looked at Asli. "Nina came to the US to go to college," finished Mark, resting his hand on hers in reassurance. "I actually met her as her official UN bodyguard for her first trip to the States." "Five years ago," continued the princess with a sharp smile. "I moved permanently to the States last year."
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For a moment, stressed and fatigued for all that he knew perfectly well this wasn't real, Riley was overwhelmed by the nightmare. Prone on the roof to avoid his silhouette being spotted, he rolled over on his back and pressed his gloved hands against his eyes. His friends couldn't see his face, but they could see his chest rise and fall in a series of quick, hitching breathes that stretched for an uncomfortable half a minute. When he rolled up into a crouch, though, Riley was all business. He edged to the very end of the roof, then further, leaning out far over the distant tree-wrecked street, and fired a grappling line at the tree impaling Freedom Hall. He tied up the line, hitched up his hatchet for a zip line, and began sliding down towards the tree - when his hatchet slipped off the line! He hung there in space, grabbing on frantically with one hand for balance while the other automatically clung to his hatchet, dangling far, far above the simulated street below. He didn't cry out, for all that his eyes had gone very wide, and he hooked the hatchet back up, once again sliding down the line all the way towards the tree below - the center of the nightmare that had beset this Freedom City.
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Across the barrier, Riley slipped his hand inside his poncho and came out with a pair of expensive-looking binoculars. With fascination on his face replacing his usual dour or tense mood, he scanned the sky, studying those distant birds carefully. "Wow," he breathed, awe in his voice as he took a few steps to keep the distant animals in view. Reluctantly, his training and long experience reasserting itself, he lowered the binoculars to look over at Phantom. "Are they hostile?" he asked, keeping a wary eye on the nearby scrubland. He didn't have much experience with treeless natural environments - it was a little alien.
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Edge frowned. "Look, things got pretty rough, but we managed to deflect 'Horus' there before anybody died." That didn't really make a difference to Mark, of course, but he assumed it probably did to godly types. In the shadows left in the darkened city after the battle, he looked grim. "He was mostly focused on tearing up two thousand years of history when we got here - after that, he was all for a super-battle. Babe, can you go around and tell people in the city we got the guy? Maybe they can start cleanup and get word to Cairo to send people in." With a nod, Monsoon did just that, shooting one more sharp look in Set's direction before taking off with red-bled eyes and flying slowly in the direction of the heart of Saint Catherine's. "The White Knight's a bastard, but he'll go back in jail where he belongs. He couldn't have just made an ankh on his own, right?"
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Riley studied the city, his eyes narrowing as he took in the significantly altered landscape. His lips moved silently in a That's not right before he stalked over to the building's firedoor and pulled his hatchet free. Knowing he was working on borrowed time, Riley ran to the edge of the building's roof and, taking careful aim, fired another lined bolt at the building across the street. He made his way across by zipline this time, balancing himself on his hatchet as he sailed across the street above the hooting crowd, and took a moment to balance himself against a windowsill before moving on. In slow, agonizing real time, he made his way from rooftop to rooftop across the city, the exercise dragging on as he headed towards the former site of Freedom Hall by zip-line, rappelling, and sheer human muscle power. The canned sounds of the chanting crowd below echoed outside the testing chamber, but from Riley himself came only the sound of increasingly heavy breathing as he exerted himself, the zip of his grapple line, and the chunk of impervium-tipped bolts embedding themselves in or around concrete. Zip-chunk. Zip-chunk.
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"Okay, okay," said Riley, raising his hands in surrender. One day I'm gonna be in here eating grilled venison, and then we'll see who's crazy. "And you know, man, if you need money, you're welcome to it," he said seriously. "Peyton and the other Riley are loaded with the stuff. Where I'm going, money doesn't buy zip. Maybe I can buy toys and stuff with it, but I can't take it with me." He was silent for a moment before making an unguarded admission. "And what the hell's a Tin Man?"
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Tarva replied by nibbling Kimber's earlobe, not for the first time that day. She looked very pleased with herself at this turn of events, especially now that Kimber was growing more relaxed. "You don't know the half of it," she promised, her voice against Kimber's ear like warm shadows on a summer's day. "But I suppose I had better let you get about your day, at least for the next little while. Indira and Eve may think I've dragged you off to my room for unholy acts." She grinned wickedly. "We can meet each other for supper and talk about our day."
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"Well, about fifty of your years ago, my uncles Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto got tired of the Pact and decided to stage an invasion of your realm. After a long, bloody war against your armies and the various costumed, ah, champions of your realm, in which my uncles insist they painted themselves in nothing but glory, they won and 'restored the rule of the true gods to Earth.'. Oh, don't get me wrong," Hermes said with a shrug. "There are holdouts here and there, like the Helipolitan territory in Aegypt and that fellow in Felix Arabia, but the world belongs to Olympus." The divine messenger didn't sound terribly enthused about this, standing by as Apex finished her repairs of the drive. "It was all so grim and bloody, not like the wars of old, and they've all become so crass in their entertainments. Did that really not happen in your world?" Hermes asked, eyes lighting up with interest as quick hands briefly buffed and polished that shining silver helmet.
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You will be able to repair the ship - go ahead and describe doing so. Bluefish, you're up!