Avenger Assembled

It was easy enough for both Wander and Monsoon to make their way onto the roof, where the high curves of the warehouse's sign kept them sheltered from view at street level without betraying their location to the people on the ground. "Mark has talked about children someday." she finally said, the cool dryness in her voice not sounding happy with the prospect. "So I suppose some things stay the same from universe to universe. I suppose you saw little of me; there can't be many universes where I was assigned a particularly beautiful escort on my flight to Freedom City." It was cool on the rooftop, and cool enough that evening that the only people on the street had a reason to be there - criminal or otherwise. Settling down, she looked over at Erin and asked, "Your civilian work, security for the science company - do you enjoy that?"

"Wait, what?" Nina was, for a moment, at a loss for words, the expression on her half-obscured face showing how she was trying to put that baffling scenario together. "That...is surprising. I would not have pictured the two of you as a couple." Sheltered though her upbringing had been, Nina had no concerns about the idea that her boyfriend had friends who were women. The only threat Erin has for me is a sound thrashing - which is a true threat for all of that. "And Mark knew about these dimensions and your romances there? Hmm. Normally he has been very open about that sort of thing." She grinned. "I will have to ask him tomorrow about these secrets in other dimensions. He's in Wakhanistan, building a base for the UN peacekeepers there."

"I'm familiar with the multiverse," said Nina quickly. "I learned about it as a child from my father, and of course Mark has told me all about Young Freedom's visits to alternate realities." She debated hinting around the question if Erin had slept with her cross-gendered dimensional counterpart as well, but decided she didn't know Erin well enough to ask that question - and it seemed unlikely anyway if she had had so many troubles with alternate versions of herself. "I was taught that there are worlds where one is a queen and worlds where one is a slave, and so the only wisdom is to worry about this one. But two extra versions of yourself would make that very difficult. Have you thought about coloring your hair, the way Jessie does?"

"Martha is doing well - her story with the Zultasian invasion of Ryeneck was nominated for an industry award. And she cooks Socotran meals every night we come over." Nina smiled at that, indulgently, the way one does at the eccentricities of a favorite relative. "She's not very good," she added in a confidential confession, "but she tries. She keeps trying to call my mother to learn more Socotran recipes, but...of course she's very busy." Nina fell silent at that for a while as they made their way down the Hanover street. "Was everything resolved successfully with your dopplegangers? Mark told me it was a personal story and I should ask you, but that I shouldn't ask much because it was a very personal story, and that...well, he went on like that."

Monsoon leaped from the bridge and fell fast for a long moment before catching herself on the way down, flying along above Wander's head at a speed that matched a few of the slowest cars on the bridge - the small number that seemed to be rubbernecking at the sight of two passing superheroines. A non-driver herself, Nina didn't make the connection. She was exerting herself, but didn't look like she was about to strain anything, either. "Patrolling with Edge means we fight pitiful insects who fall before I can so much as hit them, or giant insects trying to lay waste to the city," she agreed. Come to think of it, Mark had mentioned the thing with the giant locusts in Cairo at the last League meeting. "It can be challenging." She pushed herself as they went, weaving back and forth between suspension cables, until they reached street-level on the other side. They were right at the edge of Hanover proper, so close to the actual edge of town that research labs and computer shops had given way to warehouses and blue-collar homes. Even Hanover had its working-class neighborhoods.

Nina was intimately aware of the death in Erin's family. After all, she'd been at Mark's side when the early-morning call had come from the Hunter mansion about the death of Travis Hunter. She'd missed the old man whose strength and courage she'd respected (and who had helped tend to her mother), and she knew people well enough to know what a blow this must have been to the younger generation of Hunters. 'It had been Mark who'd suggested she get back on her planned patrol with Wander at the last Liberty League meeting; and if not for Erin's own agreement, she might have walked away from the idea for a while. But if Erin had come out, there was certainly no backing down now. "Yes, I'm ready," she agreed, rising to her feet, checking to make sure her sword was still strapped to her back. She sounded a little more subdued than usual herself, automatically matching Erin's tone. "Thank you for coming out," she finally said. "I've been looking forward to a night's patrol with an expert in the city's ways."

April 24, 2015 Lantern Hill The McCay Bridge, one of the oldest in Freedom City and the furthest upriver, got little use by the second decade of the 21st century. The traffic that the 19th century builder had hoped to capture had gone south to Freedom City proper in the years before Lantern Hill and Freedom merged together - and even Route 6 which runs through this part of town and over the Wading had gained a real bridge back in the 1940s during its initial construction. In need of repair, the McCay had long since been closed to truck traffic and was primarily used by commuters going back and forth between Hanover and Lantern Hill. On the night of the 24th of April, Monsoon sat on one of the brick towers of the McCay and looked out at the water below, feeling the distant pressure of its movements. She'd grown up on an island filled with water and so Freedom City's amount of rivers had been pleasantly familiar - albeit sometimes unpleasantly cold. She could stand the bottom of the sea as befit a daughter of Typhoon, but the waters around Freedom City were cool this time of year! In summer-time, when the sun's rays warmed even the bottom of the river, then things were comfortable. She checked her smartwatch, wondering if her partner for the evening was going to arrive on time or not. She'd only met Travis Hunter a few times but had respected the drive that had remained in the old man - and respected him more when she'd seen the grief his death had brought Mark. Maybe she'd never had a grandfather, but she knew the obligations that came with family - and the grief that came when it was taken away. Not for the first time that evening, she thought of Socotra.

Namazu is an old company - like many in Japan, it can trace its roots back over a thousand years. Originally a ryokan-operating company from the south, they relocated to Hokkaido in the 1870s and have been here ever since. They specialize in high-tech construction, largely dominating the meta-science market here in Hokkaido since most of their competitors are located much further south in Japan. Like many companies of its age, it's stayed in the same family for most of all that time. The current company President, Ken Namazu, was something of a media fixture for a few years after he took over the company in 2010, but has become something of a recluse in the last eighteen months. The closest thing to a scandal you can find at this point is Namazu's politics - they were a major supplier of military hardware during WWII (and continue to be a major supplier to the Japanese Self-Defense Force) and are active in Japanese far-right politics, funding conservative political candidates, donating textbooks that downplay the atrocities committed by Japanese troops during WWII, and the like.

APPROVED

By the next morning, the true extent of the devastation has become obvious. On the night of April 3, Sapporo was hit by a magnitude 6.5 earthquake with an epicenter located almost directly under the city. Even with Japanese architecture, built as it is to survive earthquakes, the damage to the city is appalling - at least five thousand people are dead, and hundreds of thousands more are injured, homeless, or missing. It's the deadliest earthquake in Japan in the 21st century, though luckily there was no serious tsunami from this primarily ground-focused quake. But as the heroes look out over a city where smoke still rises and sirens still echo, it's hard to feel very lucky. - Kingsnake found a company quite literally in ruins; the Namazu company's central headquarters having been seriously damaged by the earthquake. Uniformed security personnel and a handful of first responders from the city were doing their best to dig out an entire building in the complex that appeared to have been among the city's deadliest collapses. A concrete roof came down intact on a lower level full of scientists working on Special Projects, killing dozens of top scientists working there. It was hard to tell what alarms were live and what weren't; or what cameras were actually being watched and which weren't. Despite all that, it was easy to make his way onto the complex. He could hear, and smell, a few of those helper robots, but they seemed to be busy doing disaster relief from what he could determine. Making his way by feel and smell, he was able to make his way right into the executive offices in a partially evacuated building. Where he found a clue - or close to it. He could smell the murderer - right there in the empty office of the company's president, Ken Namazu himself. And there in the corner, in what turned out to be cardboard, was a model that felt exactly like the outline of the Kashima suit he'd detected in the stadium. He found the scent of blood as well, tracing it to an office mini-fridge that still held several containers of what felt and smelled like partially filled human blood bags. - Broken headquarters or not, Namazu was everywhere that night and in the day that followed; helper robots uncovering the fallen and delivering aid, Kashima himself flying around and using what seemed to be advanced sensors and great strength to dig people out, delivering medical aid and even food (with the roads outside of the city largely too damaged to use) to the scared, wounded people of Sapporo. Grimalkin found herself with several robots watching every move as she became a center for supplying aid herself, the hovering little machines both helping (by bringing supplies to her so her work could go faster) and sometimes slowing her down by taking the time to scan every new object she produced. She and Gretchen were working harder than they ever had in their lives; but as the day wound down hundreds of people had food, clothing, and shelter thanks to them. - The Freedom League Auxilary arrived early in the morning to help clear debris and otherwise do disaster relief, helping evacuate the stranded Freedomians in particular. It was good to have them there; especially since so few Japanese heroes seemed to have arrived on the scene. But even they didn't stay long, disappearing back to Freedom City after just a few hours with promises from Gabriel to return as soon as they could. Where _were_ the rest of Japan's superheroes? It looked as if the little group from the stadium were the only heroes in the city; minus the ever-present, ever-courteous Kashima. The authorities had taken the hints sent their way by the Freedom City heroes, but from the look of things they were far too backed up with rescue work to be able to investigate much right now. - Net-Fly found that this was primarily a dumb machine - in more ways than one. But he was able, with the help of a jury-rigged Japanese-English translator, to find some interesting things. This had indeed started out as a Namazu machine; a powerful ultrasonic generator programmed to produce deep vibrations in structural material for demolitions purposes. Someone had programmed it beyond its limits, setting it to vibrate itself to pieces, and then rigged a charge to detonate afterwards and melt the device down. It was only good luck the charge had misfired, probably from the effects of the vibration. He was able to find that a remote signal had activated the machine; but he'd have to rig up more sensors around the ruined city if he wanted to track down the source of the signal. - On the night of April 4, the Prime Minister of Japan arrived at Sapporo Airport, landing by helicopter on the only intact runaway. Kashima was there to greet him and act as bodyguard as the Prime Minister made an annoucement on live television just moments after landing. The Prime Minister was an old man, the son of a World War II veteran, and looked even older as he spoke. "...and as great as this tragedy is, darker clouds still hang over our beloved nation. We have learned that unknown meta-science devices were used to cause this horrific tragedy. This was the worst act of metahuman terrorism in our nation's history! In light of these events, I have asked our meta-population, and foreign metahumans alike such as the Freedom League, to remain outside Sapporo until repairs are completed - the better to avoid retaliation, to guard our people, and to avoid distraction during the hunt for these monsters. Many of our finest heroes will be in Tokyo and other large cities, guarding against other attacks. Kashima, also known as Ken Namazu, the head of Sapporo's largest company, will be leading the relief efforts here. We will endure today - together!"

http://orokos.com/roll/279243 Fast-Forward goes on 30

It was hard to describe the look that came onto Steve's face at Erik's question - or rather at the urgency in his friend's voice. It was as if man had suddenly become a wolf, eyes hard and body set. "Did you think it was John?" he asked seriously. "Yolanda, go below," he told her with the sort of quiet urgency that made the young girl spring into action; though perhaps with some gladness as she left her math homework behind to go scrambling downstairs to join those downstairs. "Who is John?" he asked with a tone that suggested a dire fate indeed for the interloper, whoever he was. Weaponless, his scarred bare hands looked like weapons of their own.

Tarva opened her eyes and rose to her feet, shooting a warm, honeyed smile at Kimber and Indira as she did so. Reaching up, she unfastened the short jacket she was wearing, letting it cascade back onto the seat and revealing she was wearing not much that was likely to be comfortable for Thunder Bay at this time of year. Or not much at all, for that matter. Her A-line dress was opaque where it stopped around the knees, matching the translucent black stockings that ran down to her chunky, glossy black boots. But above the line of her jacket, the rest of her dress turned out to be a thick mesh with squares several inches across bisected by thick, heavy black lines that looked to be made of her own shadowy spells. The mesh covered everything decent, but looked like it didn't - especially not with the translucent black mesh that practically crawled up her body beneath the dress, clinging tightly to every curve. She smiled, her eyes wide and teeth bared. "Oh, silly me, I must have been sleeping. If I keep lazing about instead of working, Lady Martel will have my hide!" Chuckling, she turned and walked away, swaying her hips as she walked. "I'll go make some tea."

Suddenly it wasn't speed signals on Ruby's transponder - it was pressure, and lots of it as if an impossibly great fist had taken the spaceship in hand and begun to squeeze it tight! The panels where Deep Freeze and Dragonfly had been working slammed shut with an ominous finality - and the Gorgon appeared again. She wasn't shaking or stuttering now; and the tone of fury in her voice burned with the fire of a thousand murdered worlds. "Puny things of flesh and bone, you think you can betray the Eternal Gorgon and live!?! Your Isopteran allies will die SCREAMING, and as for you, I will CRUSH you like the insects you are!" As she spoke, other holograms flared to life at either side of the projected Gorgon herself - images of the star system that held them, suddenly filled with the rippling wormholes of an arriving Communion fleet!

Scarab: You recognize this guy (the old guy) ! This is Harry Howard, aka Captain Freedom, whose career intersected the latter stages of Alexander Rhodes. Debuted in 1976 at the age of 16, used a peak human physiology and gravity control powers to climb around, fight crime, make witty quips. Teamed up with the Scarab a couple of times and was a pretty good kid. He was pretty protective of his secret ID; but didn't mind his brain being read. To know his post-1978 history off the top of your head is a DC 25 History check. Wail and Hologram You were alive during the latter part of the 70s - but you never saw Captain Freedom with his mask off! You both have the Gather Info/History to know plenty about his career, though...once the Scarab spills the beans. Let's call it a pretty high Notice check to recognize him without the mask, decades later - call it a 30 for Hologram and 25 for Wail, since the latter traded quips with him in battle a few times.

Their mutual search all led them to the same location - the small bungalow of Jean and Daniel Howard. This was the address Wail had been called to; this was the one blindspot in the Scarab's scans of the area, this was the home of the people that Paige had been called to meet. On that ominous note, they knocked on the door, which after just a few minutes was opened by a strangely familiar figure. Short and slim, but muscular all the same, he had the look of a middle-aged gymnast; his hair turning white at the top and a short brown beard and mustache on his chin. In a dress shirt and slacks, he might have just stepped out of an office's casual Friday. They could hear voices behind him, a small child that must have been Emma and adults talking, but that sound was cut off by the gasp the man gave as he looked from one face to another and a sudden curse of "Jesus God!" And then he slammed the door in their faces. "Dad!" A second later, the door flew open, revealing a woman in her mid-twenties who by her Florida A&M shirt and familiar face had to be Jean Howard. She'd pushed right past the man at the door. "What the hell? I...uh, wow, I didn't know you were bringing a friend, Mrs. Cline!" She didn't look displeased by all the arrivals, unlike her white-faced father, but she was very surprised. "Hi, I'm Jean Howard."

Nina tarried inside the building for a few minutes, long enough to feel the distant vibrations of the explosion beneath her feet, and to make sure all eyes were on them before she chose to make an entrance - an entrance rather more dramatic than Joe's. "BEHOLD!" Monsoon shouted as she erupted into view, water briefly cascading upwards to silhouette the outline of her blue and white costume as she hovered above the crowd below. She was immaculately clean despite the filthy water, a very pleasant effect of her powers. "We have crushed those who sought to bring disorder and chaos to your nation, defeated a terrorist plot that would have murdered your innocent citizens, and captured the telepathic filth who was the cause of all this madness!" She pointed dramatically to Cannonade's prisoner. "I...oh!" Drat - Cannonade was having a moment. Well, never let it be said I'm not a team player. "And you owe it all to this all-American hero!"

"I can project anywhere you want," said Sharl confidently as he finished his repair, snapping the projector shut with a click. Sure enough, his image did seem to noticeably stabilize. Wandering outside to look up at their escort, he waved to Sekhmet a little cautiously. "Uh, hi there! Nice to know you're on the case." He certainly had no quarrel with the cat entity, who was far less of a troublemaker than Set. Who was paying a lot of attention to him right now, which made him feel..."Anyway, somebody who spends as much time on the 'Net as you do should know that technology can do almost anything these days. Even Terran technology," he added. Looking out again, he added to Eliza, "You make this look like a real city."

At Miss Americana's arrival, Sharl quieted, quickly wiping his eyes and taking out a glowing holographic codex to take notes on the conversation. It didn't look like he was intimidated by the impossibly gorgeous Terran - just respectful, the way a junior officer might be to a superior. He nodded as she spoke to Corona, not surprised in the least to her her handling the Lor officer so expertly; though he liked to think his advice on Lor culture had helped with it a little! At her suggestion, he said, "I'm arranging a room now. I'd suggest you use the polaron-sensitive equipment," he added, "a lot of the new combat suits were using electron-atomic interaction as a power source when I was there."

"Ma made sure I got superpowers," said Richard from the window as he zipped back in just long enough to open the refrigerator, unwrap several slices of American cheese, grab the chili and hot sauce, and carry them outside for the cheeseburgers and the Cline Family Special. "She didn't know much about science, but she ran around with me when she was pregnant and once I was born, super-speed and back and forth in time. It worked, too! I was breaking the sound barrier before I kissed a girl." That particular subject had been something of a sore spot between himself and Paige in the past - had in fact been the subject of one of their most serious fights early in their marriage when he'd suggested taking her around to make sure Junior got the powers. But seventeen years had a way of healing all wounds, even if those wounds had involved the couch. "You were probably just a kid back in the day, but Fast-Forward and Hologram were pretty busy in Freedom back in the day. Ten minutes, honey!" he called as he zipped outside again, gathering Holly's skewered vegetables and adding them to the grill.

All right, TiffK and Heritage? Any die-rolls/extra stuff you wanted to do?

Much to Thoughtspeed's surprise, Racer's head came clean off! Her shadowy body fell to smoky pieces within seconds, vanishing entirely even from his psionic senses after that. The other Racers didn't seem too put off by their counterpart's destruction, though, letting him conclude he hadn't accidentally killed anyone today - they seemed intent on doing worse than that, though, one giving up an attack on Cho to swipe at him with claws that missed only thanks to his own fantastic speed. "You!" the Racer attacking him exclaimed. "They know about you! And your tainted line! Suppressive person! Sell-out! Agent of the Conspiracy!"

That is over the defense by 6, so that's a DC 32 Tou save. http://orokos.com/roll/278485 = and Racer 1 is destroyed! It vanishes in a puff of black smoke. Racer 3 goes for Thoughtspeed! http://orokos.com/roll/278488 = 16 That's a miss! Cho, do you want to spend an HP to shake your dazed status?

Attention - as in-site links were unfortunately cut during the recent site transition, please repost the links to your threads.

I'm just going to assume you used you ESP there Ayen!