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Avenger Assembled

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  1. Avenger Assembled
    Finished with his own food, Steve stood up, keeping the low rumble of his voice even. "I will find something to wear." He had a substantial wardrobe of clothes thanks to Gina's good offices, and he knew she liked seeing him in them. Once in the bedroom, he paged through the neatly ordered clothing on its hanging racks, looking for just the right outfit, then headed for the bathroom so Gina could dress herself without his presence in the room. He knew that might make her feel more uncomfortable than she already was. He had picked blue jeans and a red T-shirt that Gina had previously said went well with his dark skin, donning the clothes then studying himself thoughtfully in the mirror. He was never any judge of these things. With a sigh, he stepped out of the room to go looking after his partner. It would not be an easy day, he was confident, but it would be a good day nonetheless.
  2. Avenger Assembled
    "Woah," said Aquaria, fascinated. "That's really interesting. Are you a magic detective? Is that where you got your baby?" She pulled the gloves off her hands as she spoke, exposing thick, muscular green fingers, three on each hand, with pale green pads running along the surface of each. "Jessie's not a dimensional anomaly, though, that sounds bad.," she said with great authority, though she wasn't really sure what that was. "She's my best friend." While they talked, she slipped her hands inside her newspaper-wrapped burden and flexed them, a sudden crack echoing through the room. Ooh - was that too loud? Maybe that was too loud. She raised the lobster's still-twitching tail to her mouth and opened wide, wrapping her mouth around the tail and sucking the meat out the way a Surfacer would with a single crab's leg. Schlurp! Her gold-black eyes widened - As delicately as possible, she began lashing out with her tongue, licking fragments of meat out of the now-very-dead crustacean.
  3. Avenger Assembled
    "I have made a plan," said Steve, folding his hands over the table. "After we eat, you and I can go outside together. The day is fair, but not so fair that the neighborhood will swarm with pedestrians. This is our best opportunity to go outside before the end of summer." He looked levelly at her across the table, knowing he didn't need to remind her of her promise. "After that, we can shower, and I can read while you use the Internet." It would make things a pretty typical day off for both of them - with the exception of that voyage to the streets. "I have been reading field guides to the natural life of Freedom City. We can keep our eyes open for certain birds, and small mammals, and perhaps if we are fortunate, the city's own flowers growing in the green lawns hereabouts."
  4. Avenger Assembled
    "Nay, brother," replied Horus, warmth in that mockingly, maddeningly frustratingly familiar tone, Horus not seemingly surprised at all to see Set's arrival on the scene. In fact, he smiled. "'Tis no deception but Ma'at's own truth. The scales have but fallen from mine eyes!" He gestured to the damaged temple and the lone hero guarding it. "'Twas always them who were our enemy, the covetous, grasping, race-mixing Jew and their bastard offspring the sons of the carpenter and the caravan master. It was they who destroyed the glory of Egypt, they who cast Helipolis into darkness, and their destruction 'twill be our victory and the restoration of the Two Lands!" It was as if someone had built Horus out of a description of the god without having a likeness to hand - glowing blue eyes that were the wrong shade of blue, a green-eyed falcon's headpiece with too dark a green in the eyes and a beak too long and pointed, a muscular chest and bronze skin that were simply built the wrong way! It had not fooled Set, nor would it fool another Helipolitan - but to the watching mortals, this would seem Horus gone mad. The being inside was harder to read - an outer layer that was the false presence of Horus, but inside something that writhed and squirmed in terror and rage, a small thing trapped beneath the boot of something great and powerful... "LET US SMITE THEM TOGETHER! AS IT WAS MEANT TO BE!" declared 'Horus', his ankh glowing with white-yellow brightness as he turned again to face Edge. - "I can fight," said Monsoon, and from her tone of voice Sekhmet knew the water controller would say the same thing if her legs were broken on the floor. "I have to fight. Edge and the pretender out there are evenly matched - but Mark is a man, not a god. If the false Horus gets away from here, to a larger city or a place without superhumans, he could kill thousands as easily as walking down the street." She shook her head even as she rose into the air amid a swirl of diamagnetism, her eyes bleeding over to red. "We must go."
  5. Avenger Assembled
    http://orokos.com/roll/319583 = 13
  6. Avenger Assembled
    "...yes, of course," said Monsoon with a suspicious look first at Set, then at Sekhmet, the Socotran princess able to see perfectly well in the occasionally strobe-lit glow of the museum - especially with Set putting on a display of power like that! "An hour or so ago, a being who calls himself Horus the Avenger appeared outside St. Catherine's Monastery some three miles from here and announced his intention to purge a temple of idolaters and 'Jew-worshippers.'" She sneered magnificently. "He is a false god," she agreed with great determination, "I am told his costume is amiss and his ankh a clear forgery. And he is...cruder than the original. And more violent in his aims. So you understand, Sekhmet of Heliopolis," she said with a sudden fire in her voice. "That when one false god appears, a wise warrior makes sure there are no more lurking about. Who sent you here?" she demanded. - Outside, it was easy enough for Set to make his way through the small Egyptian town to where the imposter Horus was doing battle. He could follow the sound of the explosions; and the flashes of celestial light. He found the false Horus on the ground, facing down a blue and gold figure standing in front of the ancient (well, relatively speaking!) monastery compound. The monastery had taken damage; it looked as though at least one ankh throw had gone completely through one exterior wall and out the other, collapsing some buildings and starting fires. But luckily the false Horus had gone no further; instead he'd stopped to bandy words, or at least engage in a shouting match, with the blue and gold figure blocking the way between the monastery and the man. The monks had taken shelter in their compound, and the people of the surrounding neighborhood had either fled or taken shelter on their own. "THINE WOMAN IS A JEZEBEL WORSHIPER OF THE GOD OF THE CARAVAN MASTERS! THEY TOO WILL BE SWEPT ASIDE BY THE LIGHT OF THE AVENGING SON!" He pointed a massive, muscled fist at the man blocking the way, glowing ankh in his other hand. "YOU SHUT UP, FAKE HORUS!" yelled the UN agent in response. "YOU'RE LUCKY I KNOW SHE'S FINE, BECAUSE YOU'RE A TERRIBLE HORUS! YOUR COSTUME IS THE WRONG COLOR, YOUR ANKH GLOWS FUNNY, AND THE REAL HORUS IS NOT A CRAZY ANTI-SEMITE BIKER!" An odd assortment of smashed items stood in front of him; broken concrete, steel, and what might have been the scorched remains of a giant confection.
  7. Avenger Assembled
    "Certainly," said Nina, confident that Trevor, a connoisseur of the brew, wouldn't insult her with an inferior blend as so many Americans did. Socotran coffee, served blazing hot and strong as sin, was hard to come by in the States - but there were a limited number of acceptable substitutes. She looked around the manor with interest as she entered, noting the various small changes that Erin White must have brought to the place in the weeks and months since the change of ownership. In the kitchen, or perhaps the nearest kitchen, at any rate, she took a seat at the small table by the window and watched Trevor work. Conscious of a noise outside, she glanced out and was briefly distracted by the site of the estate's groundskeeper in the middle of planting flowers on the vast back lawn; a damp humanoid completely covered in wet earth and fertilizer, obviously enjoyed herself as she went about her work. "Hmm." She turned back to Trevor and set her bag upon the table, waiting for her cup.
  8. Avenger Assembled
    ooooooooh APPROVED
  9. Avenger Assembled
    A few minutes later, Aquaria left the store, cradling her newly-bought lobster, which the seafood counter clerk had helpfully wrapped in cool wet newspaper for her. Her hands were mostly obscured by her burden, but Aquaria was intimately aware of what someone looking too closely might see. She let Jessie push the cart and made a beeline for the shadows herself, no easy task in the brightly lit corridors of the underground mall! This can't be a mistake, she told herself firmly as she waited for Indira's signal that it was safe to enter the closed-off store she was going to open for them. We're going to make new friends, and Jessie will be okay, and then I'm going to eat this! Absently she patted the lobster, which sleepily complained to her ears about its bondage. She was tempted to tell the lobster that it would all be over soon, but people usually thought it was creepy when she talked to food like that - and it was important to make a good impression today.
  10. Avenger Assembled
    Sizing up the situation, the Tronikian hero decided to try and reassure his Terran girlfriend - who was obviously a little on edge about the whole thing. Terrans can be so weird about screwing! Better not say the wrong thing and make her feel bad; or blow the whole deal. "We don't have to do anything if you don't want to," offered Sharl, stepping up to Temperance and gently taking her chin in his hand. He looked down at her from his slightly greater height. "Say the word and we'll get out of here and go back to your place." And when we're there, maybe I'll lock all the doors and throw you down on your bed and then...He'd worked up a lot of energy that night between one thing and another, but he didn't want to push his girl any further than he had to. "Tell me what you're thinking?" he asked as an electric spark passed between them in more ways than one.
  11. Avenger Assembled
    Where did she get her powers?
  12. Avenger Assembled
    You've got a lot of wasted PP in the array, HL, do you want to get that stuff spent?
  13. Avenger Assembled
    APPROVED
  14. Avenger Assembled
    "I could use a lobster," said Aquaria uncertainly, obviously wanting to trust Phantom. This probably wasn't Pathos - Jessie hadn't started screaming and curling up into a little ball or become violently enraged, either of which could happen when she was really upset about something. "But not until we know who you are and what you want with us," she said after a moment's indecision and a look at Jessie to try and figure out her mood. "You're making my friend unhappy, and we are just law-abiding citizens like you trying to go about our business." She said the last sentence like she was casting a magic spell, nodding her head with great confidence. If they kept talking like this, people would start staring, and asking questions, and then maybe throwing things and screaming "Die, fish monster hellspawn!" Die!" "I know Mizz Wainwright doesn't send people to snoop on us, and reporters don't smell like you. What are you?" she asked.
  15. Avenger Assembled
    "Not yet," Steve said with a small smile. He pushed the meal her way and ate, concentrating on his own repast. He had learned to eat slowly, the better to encourage conversation - and the better to make sure Gina could eat her own meal in his company. "What are your plans for today?" he asked in an unsubtle sort of way as they dug into their breakfast together. "I know Miss Americana will not be needed until later in the day, and you said your next tournament was not for another two weeks." He didn't really understand Gina's online games, but they meant something to her and so they meant something to him. Still talking, he seemed to change the subject - but his mind was still on the very same thing. "These are the final days and weeks of your summer," he went on seriously, as if gravely discussing an imminent catastrophe. "Soon the rains will fall, and perhaps the snow, and the streets of Freedom City will be cold, its skies dark with cloud."
  16. Avenger Assembled
    It was Hathor who provided them the road to the Egypt of here and now, her ancient temples in the nearby Valley of Inscription being among the few artifacts of the Ennead that had lived in such an inhospitable place as the Sinai, meaning she was among the few of the Ennead who still had a toehold in that cold and mountainous land. Though civilization had penetrated the mountains of the Sinai here and there in the time of Dynastic Egypt, Set and Sekhmet remembered the "Roof of Egypt" as a land of tough, merciless nomads who tended well to their sheep and goats but had little truck with outsiders or their gods. With the pretender to their brother's good name laying waste to the Two Lands, Hathor didn't seem much like the One Who Filled The Sanctuary with Joy today. "Send him to Anubis by the most painful of roads," she made her sister promise. "I will see he spares his bowels for you to eat!" Hathor, as ever, had an exaggerated idea of her sister's appetites. The doorway she opened up deposited Set and Sekhmet in a scene of darkness and confusion, one that it took a moment to resolve as a darkened local museum of antiquities. The museum, stuffed full of artifacts from across Egypt's history (but rather heavy on the Roman period and later), was technically closed this late - but that hadn't stopped the crowd of refugees now filling the busy building. No one had even noticed their arrival amid the weeping, the prayers to God, the cellphone conversations, and the lights and sounds from outside - the sounds of explosions so loud they shook the ground and flares of light so bright they briefly lit up the interior of the building like daylight. No wonder there were burns, blindings, and other signs of exposure to impossibly bright light outside - and then someone came in through the window. First came a stream of high-intensity water like something shot from a firehose, enough to splatter against the far wall after it shattered the reproduction stained glass window by the door, then came the water's wielder, flying out of control before slamming into the fall wall. Her blue and white costume was battered and burnt along one side and she had an empty scabbard at her hip and no sign of the blade, but she was mad as Hell and pulling herself up within a few moments of hitting the wall. "<Filth-eating son of a whoreson god!>" she declared in Gulf Arabic as she staggered to her feet and limped angrily for the window she'd come through. "<We'll make him pay, I promise you that!>" she called to the civilians. "<Get below and away from all windows! So speaks...MONSOON!>"
  17. Avenger Assembled
    August 15, 2015 Midnight Manor Garage In black skinny jeans, a long-sleeved black T-shirt, and black leather shoes, Nina al-Darsah had certainly dressed the part for a meeting with Trevor Hunter. It was a little warm; but Freedom City's summers were nothing to Socotran heat. Messenger bag under one arm, she finished her walk up from the long 'guest' driveway and knocked on a garage door, banging her knuckles against the metal. With Mark away at work and Erin White mostly likely at her own security job, this was the best time to stage a meeting with Midnight when they wouldn't be interrupted. Assuming he wasn't with a client. She actually quite approved of Midnight's choice of a civilian vocation, unlike that of several of her fellow members of the Liberty League. Perhaps life as a high-end mechanic lacked the self-sacrifice of Mark's work, but there really was only one Mark. Building things showed cleverness, building things for others showed you were essential, building fine things for others showed you were indispensable. Of course, Father would say he was just a greasy-handed tradesman... She shifted the bag under her arm, the weight of it digging into her shoulder, and despite herself the images inside flashed in her mind, pushing her out of her speculations on Midnight's career. Photographs, hand-written letters that were obviously written under duress. CDs. CDs! Oh, Father. She thought despite herself, despite the pain and the fear she was holding back. I had to borrow Mark's laptop to see these. Did you think you were being au courant?
  18. Avenger Assembled
    There is no sign of Caradoc - she does find a whole lot of debris from Freedom City. It's debris that scavengers have obviously been picking over. There are animals around eating garbage; big flocks of birds, rats and mice, and buzzards and eagles. Lots of animals, really! She also finds a well-trodden trail leading up and out of the 'bowl'-shaped depression they're in; up towards the nearby mountains. (Take a look at the picture I posted) - a trail recently walked on.
  19. Avenger Assembled
    Here we go
  20. Avenger Assembled
    The OOC
  21. Avenger Assembled
    September 5, 2015 9PM (local time) (3PM Freedom City time) Dahab, Egypt Nina floated in the dark waters of the Red Sea, only her bare shoulders visible beneath the surface, as she looked up at Mark. Her voice was dark, too, and liquid like the sea that was her home, and the waves churned and thrashed around her with unnatural energies. "I will pull you down beneath the waves, Mark Lucas, and keep you prisoner in the depths of the sea to use for my own wicked ends. Come to me, and know my true power." Mark looked down over the side of their rented skiff and was in love. "That is really, really, hot, babe," he told her with sincere pleasure. Lying on his stomach, he reached down and took Nina's hand. In the darkness of the late night, he didn't worry about his admittedly hilariously fair skin burning - not that he'd have worried that much anyway. "But what if I break loose from your watery chains and subdue you, my tempestuous princess? What are you going to do if I-" The beeping of his alarm interrupted their conversation; and right when they were about to get to the part where they didn't talk, anyway. Muttering a curse, Mark rolled over and found his UNISON communicator underneath the black polo and slacks he'd been wearing as a Sinai Force civilian observer just a few hours earlier. He held up the text communicator, read the short message, and cursed with enough force that Nina slid right out of the water and onto the small boat with him. Mark looked over at her, the faint green glow from the comm casting strange shadows on his bare, sculpted chest. "Horus is attacking Egypt," he said, horror and disbelief mixed in equal measure in his tone. "What!?" Nina exclaimed in reply. - With the ongoing situation in Washington, Egypt barely merited a mention on the late-night news. "And in breaking news, superheroes working for the United Nations are today engaged in a battle with someone who claims to be the reincarnation of Horus, the Egyptian solar deity who served as a member of the Freedom League in the 1960s and 1970s." A grainy cellphone-shot video, with the tag "St. Catherine's, Egypt," depicted a conflict that pitted a woman in blue and white and a man in gold and blue against...against what certainly looked like the Avenger reborn, a darkened town illuminated by the glowing ankh in his left hand before a brilliant glare blinded the phone's camera. "Sources say Horus appears to be directing his rage towards St. Catherine's Monastery, the oldest religious organization in the nation. Both Egyptian and Israeli metahumans have taken up defensive positions outside the peninsula, with their respective governments promising to allow the United Nations to resolve this situation."
  22. Avenger Assembled
    August 15, 2015 Hanover Steve had slept poorly that night, a victim of bad dreams and worse memories - but this was not uncommon. Luckily, sleep was something he rarely needed. He was up much earlier than Gina and in the kitchen, cooking shirtless since he didn't worry about the spatter from the electric stove. Particularly not with what Gina preferred to eat - which usually didn't require the use of the nearly spotless stove at all. Toaster strudel went in the toaster and Fountain Mist from the soda machine, and within a few minutes he had Gina's favored breakfast. After some consideration, he took the eggs and potatoes from the previous night and reheated them in the microwave. When it was done, he had breakfast all ready for her - and for himself as well. With his limited sense of taste, he usually ate whatever she was eating, albeit in considerably larger quantities. While he waited for her to wake up, he took a seat at the table and began paging through the phone that was a present from her, digging out that day's weather report. It would be cool, for Freedom City in August, beginning the day at seventy degrees and not rising much above eighty even at the day's height. With clear, dry skies forecast and a breeze coming in off the ocean, it was by all accounts a good day to go outside. With things having settled down recently, and Steve himself having returned from his exile in 19th century Utah, it was a good time, he had decided the night before, to change things for the better.
  23. Avenger Assembled
    After a long pause, Artoo and Vigil reached out for each other; the two men grabbing arms. "...I have him." called Vigil, sounding considerably less like the true believer he had been when he'd first shown up on Earth-Prime. Artoo, for his part, didn't say anything at all - the mechanical man evidently choosing to trust in his organic rescuers. "Your terms are acceptable," declared Talos's mouthpiece. "For now! Now, enter his presence!" - The Goodman Building was a cathedral now; a cathedral of the Church of Talos. There was no better way to describe the palace of the ruler of this part of humanity. Its upper stories were gone, giving the impression of an almost entirely hollow building, with 'rafters' of what was distinctly computronium scattered throughout the vast building. All along the walls and spiderwebbed interior architecture scuttled machines of various sorts; spider-like repair-bots, humanoid forms clinging to the walls like so many spider-beings in their own right, and the air hummed with the quiet symphonies of a billion simultaneous processors. Talos was sitting on what was probably a power channeler, a device tapping into the fission core of the building that would certainly enhance his already formidable robotic strength and power. But as the heroes were ushered into the presence of the machine god, it was hard to see him as anything other than a gigantic robotic tyrant sitting on a golden throne that matched the color of his own augmented body. At their arrival Talos did not rise, indeed his mechanical body did not move at all. "Leave us." The soldiers who had escorted the heroes inside filed out, leaving the heroes alone with the civilization-destroying despot amid the fortress of his finery, the sound of machines above them the only noise in the room.
  24. Avenger Assembled
    Caradoc stepped away from the time portal and called up Miss Americana, using the internal transmitter she'd planted along his jawline for just such an emergency. "Yes, we've found the car-stealing cloud," the armored figure appeared to be murmuring to thin air in a mechanical, sonorous voice. "It is an unstable temporal vortex in the strip mall parking lot. We're trying to...hello?" His signal, and the cell and radio connections of the other heroes, vanished in a wash of static. It was easy to guess why, even for the people there who were not technically savvy. The vortex had begun emitting fat blue and white ropes of energy, crackling and dancing on the asphalt like snakes, putting out an electrical charge strong enough that it was interfering with everyone's electronics. Suddenly, one of the great snaky tendrils of temporal energy lashed out and struck Caradoc! Steve didn't cry out but he was driven to his knees by the sudden rush of energy that crackled over his armored body, driving his blade into the ground to stay upright as searing ropes of blue-white light wrapped themselves around him and squeezed him with terrific crackling force! He managed to grate out "Defense...system..." between clenched teeth before suddenly the lighting that had enveloped him lashed out to grab the others! For the unarmored heroes there, there was no pain. There was nothing at all. And then - The sun was beating down on them. Hot, merciless, and relentless - the overhead glare a pitiless glow in a dry blue sky that spoke of desert days and parched nights. They were in the middle of a desert surrounded by a rocky 'bowl' of red and orange fingers of sandstone that reached up towards those heavens above. Rocky walls of various shapes and sizes surrounded them on almost all sides; as did a tremendous pile of garbage. It was instantly obvious where the trash and other lost items from Freedom City had gone; dumpsters scattered open for the scavengers all around, cars scattered like toys, and heroes equally dispersed among the debris. There was no sign of Caradoc at all.
  25. Avenger Assembled
    "No, it's okay, I'd take it up the walls and smash it open on the..." Aquaria turned her body to follow where Jessie was looking, then awkwardly tromped after her, fighting the urge to vault her way there right over her friend's head. "Jessieee!" she whispered. "It'sss probably okay." She knew that look on Jessie's face and knew she'd have to act quickly if she didn't want things to get very bad indeed. And on their first shopping trip on their own. "That's probably some friend of Indira's!" she declared loudly. "Let's just pay for our food," she said, speaking in a normal tone so her hissing croak wouldn't betray her to the passing Surfacers in the store. "We've still got to buy the massaging foot bath at the other store." she declared, raising her foot straight-legged nearly to eye-level, reminding Jessie of her giant clompy shoes. "
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