Avenger Assembled

Steve was acutely aware of the specter hanging over the conversation - the teenage machine intelligence who had been dispatched to the stars by Miss Americana in order to fight the ongoing war with the Communion. Gina had made it very clear she didn't want to talk about her missing sidekick, but at the same time it was obvious what was on her mind. This had been the wrong time to bring this up - though no time was ever really the right time. "No, it's not strange," he finally said, body and voice softening. "Come, let us forget about the outside for a while," he offered. "I will make you the popcorn you like, and we can watch the show with the blue man. I understand he is some sort of nude weak-force nuclear entity."

OK, folks, we are out of initiative - but not out of danger!

The blood on the creature's tentacles seemed to vanish in an instant, not evaporating but draining into the whipping spiked chains that made up the creature's mass. Suddenly, the tentacled horror began floating in the air - and a low chuckle arose from somewhere near the center of its body mass, a chuckle that sounded exactly like Triakosia's own voice. Before anyone could react to that ominous sound, the creature stopped floating and began flying - rocketing up into the air and out of sight so fast it left with a BOOM of displaced air that knocked all the heroes around. Shading his eyes against the glare, Fast-Forward looked up after the retreating creature, already a vanishing speck high in the clear blue skies of Puerto Rico. "Well, that...can't be good. That thing's almost as fast as I am...aaaand it's gone." He looked at the others and at the field of debris all around them, then cocked his head back towards the psychics. "OK, kids, in case that thing's about to come back at us that fast, I suggest we get a couple more shields up around our subjects before this telescope turns into meteor crater. Who's with me?"

Character Name: The Patriot Power Level: 10 (150/150PP) Trade-Offs: None Abilities: 6 + 6 + 6 + 0 + 6 + 6 = 30PP Strength: 30/16 (+10/+3) Dexterity: 16 (+3) Constitution: 30/16 (+10/+3) Intelligence: 10 (+0) Wisdom: 24/16 (+7/+3) Charisma: 16 (+3) Combat: 12 + 12 = 24PP Initiative: +7, +3 in human form Attack: +6 ranged, +10 melee; +6 in human form Grapple: +18, +9 in human form Defense: +10 (+6 Base, +4 Dodge Focus), +3 Flat-Footed; +6 (+6 Base), +3 flat-footed in human form Knockback: -5, -1 in human form Saving Throws: 0 + 3 + 3 = 6PP Toughness: +10 (+10/+3 Con, +0 [Other]), +3 in human form Fortitude: +10 (+10/+3 Con, +0), +3 in human form Reflex: +6 (+3 Dex, +3) Will: +10 (+7/+3 Wis, +3), +6 in human form Skills: 44R = 11PP Concentration 8 (+15; +11 in human form) Intimidate 8 (+15; +11 in human form) SM Knowledge (History) 4 (+4) Language 1 (English, Gruen [base]) Medicine 6 (+13; +9 in human form) Notice 9 (+20; +12 in human form) SM Sense Motive 4 (+15; +7 in human form) SM Survival 4 (+15; +7 in human form) SM Feats: 6PP All-out Attack Move-by Action Power Attack Skill Mastery (Intimidate, Notice, Sense Motive, Survival) Takedown Attack 2 Powers: 67 + 6 = 73PP Alternate Form 13 (Patriot, Extra: Duration [Continuous], Flaw: Duration [Permanent], PFs: Subtle 2) [67PP] Enhanced Constitution 14 (to 30/+10) [14PP] Enhanced Feats 14 (Attack Focus [Melee] 4, Challenge [Fast Startle], Dodge Focus 4, Fearless, Improved Initiative, Leadership, Rallying Cry, Startle) [14PP] Enhanced Skills 16 (Intimidate 4, Notice 4, Sense Motive 4, Survival 4) [4PP] Enhanced Strength 14 (to 30/+10) [14PP] Enhanced Wisdom 8 (to 24/+7) [8PP] Features 1 (Eidetic Memory) [1PP] Leaping 1 (x2; running long jump 20 feet, standing long jump 10 feet, vertical jump 5 feet) [1PP] Speed 1 (10 MPH / 100 feet per Move Action) [1PP] Super-Senses 8 (Hearing [Extended], Sonar [Accurate Ultrasonic Hearing], Scent [Acute, Analytical, Tracking], Touch [Analytical]) [8PP] 14 + 14 + 4 + 14 + 8 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 8 = 65 Super-Senses 5 (psionic awareness 2 [mental; enhancements: acute, radius, ranged], uncanny dodge [mental]) [5PP] Drawbacks: (-0) + (-0) = -0PP DC Block: ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC 18/25 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Totals: Abilities (30) + Combat (24) + Saving Throws (6) + Skills (11) + Feats (6) + Powers (73) - Drawbacks (0) = 150/150 Power Points

A faint pause, and then a clear, deep voice. "Voidrunner, this is Dr. Narab Zober of Lor Science Station 47. We read you." The Voidrunner's sensors had to strain to the utmost to make out the little winking dot that was the station's source; a single iron asteroid in low orbit of Pegasi 51b. "Advise that the Gorgon entity's appearance has destabilized the gravitic constant in the inner solar system. I suggest you tune your mass-stabilizing systems to the theta-band to maintain structural integrity when you approach the planet. What is your cargo?" There was a refreshing lack of deeper questions from the Lor scientist, who had evidently read the FOF signal from Voidrunner (a gift from the Lor military) and made some logical deductions.

They both know enough about science to know that angstroms and nanos refer to things on the microscopic scale. Give me a DC 25 Notice check, both of you!

"It was serious business!" declared Andy, repeating a catch phrase from the Ace Danger Adventure Hour that the kids all loved. "Lord Angstrom's armies have crossed the threshold into the Nano Realm! If champions cannot rise to defeat him, then all will be lost!" He waved his arms around for emphasis, like a kid telling the story of the cartoon he just watched. "The greatest sages of the Nanos are building a mighty machine to summon a host of champions even now, but the forces of Angstrom have laid siege to their capital!" At this point, the excited boy was actually standing on his hands - for all his mother's distress, he was evidently not bothered at all by what he was hearing. "Sometimes they say scary stuff," he admitted, legs flopping back against Dr. Mendoza, "but not too much. I just don't listen when that happens."

The OOC.

"I come speaking for your military cyber-casters," said Sharl seriously. "And I have uncommon experience with the doings of galactic cyber-intelligences, sir." Citizen's voice was ice, his holographic body perfectly human if not for the tell-tale green glow that betrayed a Lor telepresence projector. With the exception, of course, that he wasn't actually teleprojecting - but residing comfortably in the outpost's computer systems. It had been Miss A who had suggested he bring along the data about his fatal struggle with the Curator - something which had opened enough doors to at least get him to this point. He pointed at the holographic projection of the nearby stellar group at the center of the room. "I have personally been inside the programming architecture of the Communion, both during Lor-Van and the attack on Terra. Barring a select few intelligences with singular, specific uses, like those involved in the raid on Terra, the Communion is one mind, one voice. Cut the link to the central intelligence and the vessels in the Fomalhaut sector are so much scrap. And if that trick can be done again..." He pointed to several more spots on the map. "Then the incursion into this whole region of space can wither like a plant deprived of its roots."

The OOC

March 1, 2015 51 Pegasi 50 light years from Earth 51 Pegasi is an LV-type star, the kind of small yellow dwarf utterly undistinguished except for the simple accident of longevity and luminescence that means they are, by a wide margin, the stars most likely to support Lor-type life across the galaxy. 51 Pegasi does have one novelty - 51 Pegasi B, the gas giant trapped a little more than 4 million miles from its home star. 51 Pegasi B is a burning hot world, wracked by storms and super-heated winds that make the planet one of the most hostile in Lor space. Even so, the scientific research station on 51 Pegasi Ba, the single asteroidal satellite of the planet, has always been something of a backwater. The fluid dynamics of superheated gas giants is a vigorously debated scientific discipline, but one with few practical applications. The team from Ohtalv University arrived for their year-long assignment five and a half months ago, a few weeks before Ohtalv University and the rest of Lor-Van was atomized by strong-nuclear suppression from the Communion. A routine scientific posting had suddenly become a refuge, but also a cage - the picket ship usually assigned as their rescue vessel was called away for convoy duty months ago and they have nothing on the base rated to so much as leave the shadow of the asteroid. Of the five person team from the University, their world gone and families dead, supplies dwindling more and more every day, four are still alive. It's a sad story, but a story repeated again and again the Lor Republic. Nothing out of the ordinary here. Until recently. As he sat in the station's control center, Narab Zober watched what would have been the career-making discovery of a scientist a year earlier play out before him with calm interest. Only the cool discipline of his Hephestian martial heritage kept him here, kept him working, and kept thoughts of home, family, and all he had lost out of his mind. Lives had ended - but life went on. "...from deep neutrino scans, the entity has reached the rocky core of Pegasi 51b and has begun what can only be described as _feeding_ on the heavy metals and other materials within." He watched the rippling clouds, gone chaotic in recent days, and raised a long feathered eyebrow, his padded fingers folded on the table in front of him. "To survive at the heart of a super-heated gas giant, the Gorgon's energy and matter absorption abilities must be even greater than previously estimated. Fascinating. At current rate of consumption, I estimate that within seven standard days, Pegasi 51b will have lost its gravitic cohesion and begin breaking up." And then plummet into the burning heart of the star - along with this station. "This is Dr. Narab Zober of Lor Science Station #0047, ending this rotation's report. Tomorrow Dr. M'Kelley will offer her report on the fluid dynamics of a gas giant in the process of core destruction. End transmission." When he was done, he stared at the communications terminal, as if willing a reply by sheer force.

"I have far less brain to numb than you do," he replied in what they both knew was a bald statement of fact. His hands flat on the table, he stared at Gina for a long moment before going back to his meal. "You know," he went on, his grave tone as serious as if he was discussing an imminent alien invasion, "I have tested that yard at night and when you are working." There had certainly been plenty of the latter lately, as Archetech dealt with its new hires and the continued consequences of the encounter with the Communion. "No one has ever looked at me out there. Even when I sang. It is a safe place." He knew she would not eat now, at least not while he was there. "It is a safe place. It is your place - it is just one open to the sky."

The conversation between the two Dimitri Petrovs was almost inaudible - especially once Super-Bee's head appeared in one of the Pyramid's windows. "FLEUR DE JOIE! WE BEET THE ANOPHELEZ BUT EVERYTHING GOT WEIRD! ARE YOU OK?" It was a sign of how well Super-Bee knew humans that she could tell there was something amiss with Fleur - the bees usually had a little trouble with things like that. "<...we fought a war. I died in it,>" Frost was telling his counterpart, whose wispy voice didn't quite carry to the rest of the group. "<And became what you see now. And you, 101! Magnificent. How have you lived?>" There was more talk at that, the echoing whisper of a very old man's voice as the other Dimitri waved his hands for emphasis, and Frost smiled at the words from his counterpart. "<You old devil! Well...>" Frost stood up and the sight of himself, human and aged, seemed to crack something inside his icy heart. "<You tell those children that their other great-grandfather says hello. From another life.>"

Nina's eyes widened as she seemed to stare off at something Cannonade couldn't quite see. As she did so, cracks began to appear in the sub-basement walls, cracks that deepened even as the powerhouse watched. "Run!" she called to him, "Run and take all that to the surface. I'll flood the whole place," she was muttering, "flood the whole place and wash it all away, drown any of the miserable rats that live here, I-" she went on, her voice shifting to Arabic as she started shaking her head back and forth.

"It's dry," he assured her with some truth, having walked around in it plenty that day. "And there is more to see out there than you know. Even in your brightest nights, the stars here are beautiful." He fell silent for a moment, conscious that she'd stopped eating, or never really started - a sight that made him flush uncomfortably along his scars. He found the too-familiar sight of Gina not eating food, as always, distressing - he understood anger well enough, but not having food and not eating it. It was a reminder of just how different he and Gina were, and the wounds she kept inside herself where not even he could look. "You should eat more. This is very good." He found himself shifting in his seat, the metal squeaking underneath him. "You are an excellent cook."

Oh hey, so no Aid actions at all? Thanks, guys. =P Here's a 25 on my Computers check. Sure hope that sticks!

Richard Cline had done cocaine for the first time at the age of sixteen. It was easy to get your hands on drugs when you hung around the Crime League, and his mother had assumed that he'd get tired of coke the way he'd gotten tired of cigarettes. That hadn't happened - he'd loved the stuff, and wanted more! Juvie had made it harder to get his hands on the white powder he loved so much, but it had been damned easy for a young Fast-Forward, eighteen years old and absolutely convinced of his own immortality, to get his hands on mountains of cocaine. Between the dealers he robbed and the police evidence lockers he cleaned out for fun, sometimes the hard part had been figuring out what to do with all the cocaine. Paige had never liked it, sure she'd smoke some things with him and even take some of the more interesting pills that turned up, but she drew the line at coke, horse, and anything else that addictive. He hadn't really listened as the years went by and he needed more and more, as he slept less and less and started waking up hallucinating half the time. He'd quit a few times, but he'd always come back - until the last time. He'd never raised a hand to Paige, but his fights with cops, vigilantes, and other villains had gotten more and more violent, until finally a tearful ultimatum from the girl he'd loved had gotten him to swear off cocaine for good. He'd been clean twenty-five years as of that summer. Volunteering for Narc-Anon had been one of the first decent things he'd ever really done. When Kiki Hernandez, a friend from meetings and fellow sponsor, had called him in for help, how could he have refused? He paused on the streets of the Fens to zip up his jacket, shivering slightly against the cold. He'd forgotten how cold it got in Freedom in February. Especially on nights like this, with a young girl, one of Kiki's, dead, and for what? For some damn dope dealer? With a snarl on his face, the veteran speedster started moving again, zipping towards the apartment complex.

"Thank you." Taught to Steve as a blessing, he now understood them as a politeness people used amongst each other on worlds like this. Confronted with a meal, Steve ate in his usual messy fashion, digging ravenously into the plate of food before him. The idea of food being unhealthy (at least, food that wasn't poisonous or riddled with toxins) had never really occurred to the Nihilor survivor, so as usual he made no complaint about a plate full of bar food being on the menu. In fact, he relished it. "We could warm each other." He caught the look on her face and added, "No...we could bring out the spare blankets and spread them on the grass." With his metabolism mostly replaced by cybernetics, he was certainly warmer than the average human man, as Gina knew only too well.

Andy's room looked a lot like any other working-class seven-year-old boy's in Freedom City. He had a small shelf of early learning books, mostly Pixar novelizations from the look of things, and posters on the wall of football players from the local team, the Heroes. His toy collection was much more impressive, shelves along the walls and shiny red plastic boxes full of a whole variety of toys! There were some staples here and there; a cowboy there, a space ranger here, and a whole collection of superheroic merchandise - fictional characters like Tentaclor and Batman, real-life heroes like the collectible Atom Family action figures, a plush Edge on the bed, and a substantial collection of Miss Americana-themed merchandise. Andy ran in next to his toy chest and cocked his head. "They're quiet now! But there was a big battle just yesterday!"

"Thank you," Steve told the robot levelly, in the same tone he would have used for a human who'd brought him something. He considered Gina's words, then chose to push forward with the idea he'd conceived that afternoon. "It is uncommonly warm for the season," Steve replied, tentatively groping ahead to where he wanted the conversation to go. He forced himself to sip the hot chocolate slowly, having the old habit of wolfing down food and drink in times of stress. "The sky is clear. We could sit outside and watch the sunset, and then the stars." Though Steve had heard Freedom City's sky described as sparse, the few hundred stars visible in neighborhoods like this seemed like an infinitely diverse sky after the cold red skies of the Terminus. "We can see the Moon," he added hastily, "and be glad we are no longer on it!"

Obediently, Steve took a seat and watched Gina cook. He knew she didn't like being stared at, so he averted his eyes when she looked his way, concentrating instead on his hands. "I like anything you cook," he told her, and that at least was perfectly true. "I am glad the work has gone well. You deserve to be rewarded for the efforts you have made." When he was sure she wasn't watching, he watched her, and thought She is so much more than I deserve. "HAX has had no real news. A thinking bathtub was made too mobile and I had to pin it to the floor," he admitted, "but the day was otherwise quiet."

"No longer than most." He had learned that idiom in his time on Earth, even if it still took him a moment to translate it. He had learned how to act like a man of Earth-Prime primarily from television and watching his friends - luckily here his lessons matched his sentiments, not a common thing given the strange ways people of Earth-Prime so often had. He gently put his arms around Gina and kissed her cheek, inhaling the scent of her body and the food smells that had accumulated from her cooking. "How was your day?" he asked her. "Are the new employees serving you well?"

March 1, 2015 6PM Steve typically walked home from work. At a steady pace HAX was not so far from Gina's front door and he preferred walking to riding a bus or taxi (and thus taking space away from someone who needed it). But today, with the chaos of the Communion attack safely in the past, he had plans for the evening. So for once he took the bus, head down in his hooded sweatshirt so as to avoid attracting unnecessary attention, a solitary figure that bulked above and beyond the tech commuters coming home to Hanover. From the bus stop, he walked a circuitous route back to Gina's house before walking right up to the front door. He sometimes suspected that Gina, in her more protective moments, would have preferred to keep him inside with her, but they had long since discussed the smooth protocol that led him to walk up to the door, opening it, and stepping inside. Automated security had already scanned him and pronounced him fit before he even reached that point, security that would stop any intruder who tried to follow in his path but security that was subtle enough not to alert anyone that this house was unusual. For a woman who had grown up on Earth-Prime, Gina understood how to protect herself very well. "I am here!" he called loudly from the door, remembering those times he had "scared the living beeping daylights out of me" when he had walked into the house and gone looking for Gina without announcing his presence.

All right, the balls know when they're taking a pounding. So the last remaining ball EXPLODES! Everybody take an HP. Damage 15 (Extra: Area [burst]) Your Reflex DC is 25 The Tou save that goes with it is 30. Harrier: Reflex save: 25 And he soaks the rest with Impervious. The dome is already in pretty bad shape - so I'll let Jill O'Cure roll to see if her Force Field protects the people inside. (Let's hope it does!)

Frost snapped off a salute to the citizens of past Freedom in the middle of his chanting - then resumed his work as clouds of icy fogs came boiling out of the symbols on the ground to swallow the two time-and-dimension-displaced heroes. Cold and white, much like Frost's own misty form, the blanketing sheets blotted out the world for both heroes. And then, when they faded, they weren't in the world at all! Instead they were standing on a frozen, icy fjord with dead pine trees rising up behind them to cold, sere mountains. They weren't alone, either; the forests and paths around the fjord were frozen with what looked like zombies. Pale-faced and in shabby clothes, they roamed with sightless, unseeing eyes, their bodies thin like starvation victims. "Well, let us not tarry!" declared Frost as he took Fleur's hand. "Come, Hel will not slow Hel's champion, but is no place for a lady of life, ha-ha-ha." At first he seemed nervous, but after a moment she realized he was _embarrassed_ to be seen in this place. He led her a few steps forward, chanting all the way, and just as the crowd of shambling dead noticed them the white clouds descended and they were lost to view again... ... And were re-emerging in the center of a pyramid decorated with arcane symbols that just happened to hold the rest of the Freedom League! The spell had taken a lot out of Frost, but he managed to stay on his feet as he limped away from the smoking circle of runes that had served as their arrival 'pad'. "Hah! I am genius! Hello, Freedom League!" he declared, a moment before falling silent. He hadn't seen Warlock before, but none of them had seen the man with him. An oxygen mask on his face, his hair snow-white and eyes cornflower blue, the very, very old man couldn't so much as rise from the wheelchair that the tentacle-faced Warlock was pushing. "It worked! Hey, that's great. Not that I had any doubt." Warlock's face-tentacles rippled as he laughed. "There, ah, there was one League member who was still here..." Frost walked over, his white face almost expressionless, and knelt down to look the other man in the eye. "<Hello, Dimitri,>" he said in Russian. "<You are still here, eh?>"