Avenger Assembled

Thomas Cleary was waiting for Erin and Trevor when they arrived at Project Freedom, the facility itself as usual looking like one of the many old mansions in Port Regal now given over to apartments. Only the sign on the facility wall, and the security cameras on the high brick walls and fences that surrounded the yard, suggested anything was out of the ordinary. "Come in, come in," Cleary told them, like most people in Freedom City looking very glad to see superheroes. "I have Ms. White and Mr. Accolon as far from each other as possible; he's in the clinic and she's in her room. Under guard," he admitted unhappily. "I can't understand what happened. She's been doing so well lately; they both have," Inside, the front room of the Project looked like an upscale bed and breakfast, barring a few small modifications like the bulletproof glass in the windows and the security cameras that looked to be nearly everywhere. This late, especially after a fight, the residents were in bed - with at least one exception. When they reached the second story that held Jessie's room, her suitmate Aquaria was in the hallway outside Jessie's room (along with the two armed guards), her big froggy eyes staring at them for a moment before she croaked "Mr. Cleary! You've gotta let Jessie out! There's no way that was her fault!" She hopped closer, her greenish skin nearly the same color as the walls. "You should put that crazy French guy in Blackstone, not her!" "Aquaria, we're just making sure Jessie is all right," said Clearly reassuringly. He sounded pretty tired. "And Roland too. Now, Mitch and Harry here," he said, glancing at the guards, "can handle this. If you want to speak to them when they're done with Jessie, feel free. I'm going downstairs to greet our other expert - the Raven has recommended Blue Jay speak with Mr. Accolon, as he's been mentioning her during his recovery."

Move Object to Throw Fountain at White Hunter; Accurate Attack 2: 1d20+12 30 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4526265/ 12. Okay! So this portion of the fight, anyway, is done.

All right. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4526189/ = startled! Bruised x4 - +12 Toughness, 11 Impervious, -2 startled He is rolling with 6 and gets... http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4526193/ = 23! Bruised and dazed again, for an impressive 5 bruises! http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4526197/ = and he is entangled

The monster's head snapped back, and it was clear the time-traveling assassin was badly hurt. The ice crystals on its nearly featureless face were beginning to flake off, but that armored obsidian carapace was still cracked and warped in several places, the black fluid it leaked puddling and smoking on the carpet. The blood, if it was blood, bore an ominous resemblance to liquid midnight mist infused with an unholy darkness that seemed to devour the very stuff of light all around it. "Cut the tree at the root," it finally said, heat beginning to melt that cold voice. With a foul word that scorched the very air, it summoned a curling ball of ebony fire that sickeningly sizzled in its palm, and hurled it directly at Midnight himself! Wander intercepted the blast, though, and took it across her midsection like a Secret Service agent diving forward to protect a President under fire. The blast seemed to burn out against her stomach - and then suddenly, as she hit the floor, black flames erupted from her mouth and nose for an agonizing instant! The creature took this opportunity to disappear in a curl of black flame, but as the mansion's security alarms continued to blare, it was clear they were not alone - and looking outside the open door, the heroes could see where the killer had appeared, not far from the oncoming gas cloud that was Mystery!

The White Hunter knows his plans are going badly - so he changes tactics. He blasts Midnight with his Blast 15 (Extra: Alternate Save [Fortitude]) - but Erin interposes. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4522711/ = 24 That does hit! That is a DC 25 Fortitude save vs. lethal damage for Wander. He then teleports 100 ft outside onto the lawn. (He could go further, but he wants to make sure he's in sniping location)

June 5, 2014 Namibia The private hunting reserve had been hidden carefully by the Crime League - or rather, by Orion, the League's huntsman. For a substantial cash infusion, or a 'favor to be named later', League members, supervillains, criminals, or simply the unscrupulous rich (which often fell into the earlier categories, depending on how you felt about it) could come to southwest Africa and hunt creatures as they saw fit. This could mean endangered animals like gorillas and elephants, exotic alien animals taken from far-away planets by the Crime League's stellar allies, or even extinct animals reconstructed in laboratories like the dodo or the Tasmanian Tiger. But a foolhardy guest had actually gone so far as to post pictures to the Deep Web, pictures which wound up falling into the hands of science heroes who had first tracked its location, then alerted the Freedom League, who had closed in with all the force they could muster. Orion had been defeated by Bowman in a daring bow-against-rifle duel, Blackstar had been beaten by Captain Thunder, and the day was saved... But what to do with all the animals? The League was on the case, but the story had gone beyond the League. It had become an international story in the last few days, one that had attracted significant media attention. UNISON had sent a team whose members included one of UNISON's most famous employees; Edge, the American superhero-turned-humanitarian, while the Discovery Channel (taking advantage of their connections with the League) had sent a documenary crew including Paige Cline, part of a dynamic duo of super-hosts that was unfortunately seperated today by something as mundane as a parent-teacher conference and the need to chaperone a field trip to Cleveland. The compound, located in the high desert, was built like an old-style English manor house (albeit with all the latest amenities) - the animals were in emergency housing in the shade thrown together by the League and especially by the UNISON team (thanks to Mark Lucas' special abilities), and an unusually pensive Edge was still there as the others went about their work. Mark had never really had pets growing up, and even though he knew this menagerie was made up of wild animals (some of whom would probably need to be put down), he was trying to fight the urge to take them all home with him. Instead he contended himself with volunteering, and so was currently in a rocking chair, nursing a baby wild boar that had mostly fallen asleep with its little mouth around the bottle.

"He's currently a resident of Project Freedom, a city program designed to redirect meta-criminals into more productive areas." Summers leaned forward, her eyes still locked on Blue Jay's. "Moved there from Providence. Considered a psych case - delusions of sorcerers destroying the world. Earlier tonight he attacked another patient, one who bears a striking resemblance to Wander. And now he's evidently talking about you. He used your code name, geai bleu, and now he's known to be violent. Could let adults handle this." She shrugged smoothly, another thing that the elder Summers didn't do much, and leaned back in her seat. "Thought you would prefer to manage your own affairs. I've told Project Freedom to expect you as a consultant."

The aliens studied and scanned the group for over an hour, not seemingly affected by the high heat and humidity. "We must return to our vessel and communicate with the homeworld," said Irdonozur. "You have made this a great day for our people. Long will we remember the place where we met the first peoples like us..." Its snaky hair seemed to flutter in the air as the 'heads' turned to focus briefly on the distant dinosaur city, "...even if it came with tragedy. Thank you; all of you. We will return when we have finished." With that the trio gathered together again in their triangular formation and vanished back up into their ship with the same burst of static - and the ship itself, a few moments later, seemed to spin on its complicated axis before vanishing as silently as it had appeared. It was hard to know if their guests had actually left.

Blue Jay's phone rang too, a rather surprising eventuality for someone who was supposed to be following a curfew. She'd been on campus this late before but only when patrolling, not when she'd been summoned by the powers that were - at least on the high school level, anyway. For a surprise, a summons to the headmaster's office didn't give her the headmaster at all (it really was a little late for a man his age to be awake, anyway), but rather a woman of early middle age who Blue Jay recognized as Callie Summers, the headmaster's daughter and one of the board members of the school. She was younger than the old man, with Eurasian features and piercing brown eyes, but she had the old Summers steel in her voice as she said, "Baudin. Tell me about Roland Accolon." She steepled her fingers and bestowed a penetrating gaze on the younger woman. It was not a name Blue Jay had ever heard before.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4521745/ = bruised again, whaaat

And so it was that the intrepid band of heroes found themselves in a Furion warshuttle headed for the Palace of the Virgin Flame, with a painfully silent mistress of the dark and terrible arts sitting in the jump seat behind them. Tarva was obviously not pleased to be returning to the heart of the Terminus and was practically vibrating with suppressed tension - or perhaps, from what they'd gathered of her volubility, with the effort of keeping silent. She squeezed her pale hands into fists as she seemed to forcibly contract into herself, the black radiance around her now dialed so far back she looked like a photograph someone had drawn a line around in black ink. Outside they knew the hexagonal craft bulged with weapons and stealth technology to allow them to get close to the stronghold of Steelgrave; inside it was simply a hexagonal room, a head in the back (past Tarva), with a control panel and viewscreen (decidedly not a window) in front. As the Silver Tree receded behind them, the round opening on the control panel beckoned. Scarvos had pressed the red and gold 'egg' into Eve's hand before they left , saying simply, "A sacred trust. Use it when you have left our planet." And that, it seemed, had been that - though the heroes had gained the distinct impression that the surly Furion had simply skipped a few procedural steps before packing them off and sending them on their way to fierce battle.

With his opening given by Argonaut's attack, Harrier smashed the blunt end of his pike directly into Newman's face, then followed it up with a bladed strike into the mid-section of the maddened drone. He was still bleeding, but he'd felt armor and flesh give way beneath his blow and knew that their enemy was struggling as well. With the two of them working together, surely this slaughter could finally come to an end before more innocent blood was spilled! Despite his determination to beat this powerful, dangerous enemy, his heart was hammering in his chest as he faced Newman down. Caradoc's disguise didn't fool him - he was all too intimately aware of what he was as he struggled with the other two drones, more than he'd been alone with since the last time he'd fought on a world being conquered by the Terminus. Battles, no, unholy slaughters flickered at the edge of his vision, and he forced himself to speak to bottle down the rage and unquestionable fear that came with those memories. "It ends NOW!"

"There was an altercation with another inmate," replied Cleary, his voice sounding fatigued. "We're talking with Aquaria and some of the staff and other residents who witnessed the event. She has some minor lacerations and the man she fought with has a concussion and a broken arm. There was an argument, one we're still trying to understand, and it became violent. If Aquaria hadn't been there to help keep them apart, there's no telling how the situation might have escalated. With their abilities, physically they'll both have fully recovered within twenty-four hours - but we can't let this kind of thing happen at Project Freedom without knowing what caused it. I'm calling in another expert to deal with Roland Accolon, the inmate she fought with. We need to get answers, and soon, or they both may have to be remanded to a psychiatric facility - and that's not something either of them deserve."

OOC thread

June 1, 2014 Urgent phone messages were nothing new for Midnight Manor, even those that arrived at an hour of the day where no decent person would be awake. Was there crime afoot in the darkest corners of the city? Or more commonly, a cosmic threat like those that the newest holder of the Midnight legacy and his partner had so often battled? Not today. For once, the late night phone call had been for Erin. "Ms. White? This is Thomas Cleary, I'm the night supervisor here at Project Freedom. I'm calling you because Jessie White has had an incident with another inmate. We've placed her in medical isolation for now - but she's not communicating. we're hoping you may be able to help us figure out what happened."

Harrier: Harrier goes ahead and All-Out Power Attacks - http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4519622/ = 18 I will spend an HP to reroll that. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4519623/ = 26 w/HP 12+5+2+15= DC 34 save for Newman http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4519624/ = bruised x2, staggered, and dazed! Newman is still dazed this round, and can't do much. I'll post ASAP...

He does pass that Acrobatics check. That does hit http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4518141/ = 28. Bruised x3! Hematite is up, that poor battered guy.

"Never cared for the Russkie stuff," said Archer, his tenor voice tight with pain, but he took the wine despite all that. "Was never the bottle," he said as if speaking to no one in particular. "It was loving the bottle more than what was outside it. Doesn't matter now anyway." Despite his words, the marksman's hands didn't so much as flutter as he took the wine bottle, carefully worked out the cork, and raised it to toast with Yelena. "For everyone. All of us." He met the eyes of the civilians they'd been protecting, many of whom would have scorned Lincoln's most active defender only twenty-four hours earlier. "We'll get through this." - The next morning, an aerial emergency took Lady Liberty from them. "Damn, they're going into the stratosphere! On my way, Thunder!" she shouted into her commlink before taking off, her form silhouetted against the rising sun. Whatever she was doing up there was hardly visible to the ground-bound heroes in Lincoln, and with a faint sigh Fast-Forward began the work of helping with evacuations - at least until there came that familiar sound, that screaming roar like a thousand damned souls as Terminus-powered engines roared towards Lincoln. Except that this time, even as the heroes formed up again for what felt like the last battle of their lives, it wasn't drones anymore. The circular hovercraft, wasn't it, Richard thought, was piloted by six figures still in Blackstone orange, its spiky, twisted armor showing its unmistakable origin in the same forges that had produced the Omegadrones whose wreckage now coated the battered neighborhood. At the sight of the small band of heroes defending the bank in front of them, the pilot of the craft, recognizable as the villainous Ver-Man, a filthy rat creature and cold-blooded murderer, directed the hovercraft right at them. "Die for Omega!" Ver-Man cackled.

The arrival of the Cline men got the Space People's attention as well, briefly causing the aliens to draw into a tight triangle before an explanation that the hypersonic new arrivals were friendly seemed to satisfy them almost at once. ~Keep an eye on things~, Richard told his son. ~Make sure your friends don't harsh anybody's vibe~ before going to join his wife beneath the shade of one of the overhanging pine trees. "I came in slow!" he objected, seeing the look on her face. "We were barely supersonic coming in. They must have tracked us. Brainwaves clear?" he asked her, their long-established code phrase for checking the security of telepathic communication. ~Thinking dinosaurs, aliens...I knew this would work! This is going to be the best show we've ever made.~ he teased with a smile behind the thought. ~Assuming we don't screw this up, that is.~ The aliens were very interested in the new arrivals, scanning Will and inquiring about how his speed worked, their growing excitement like a building wave in the air, one of the many layers of anticipation that fell across the scene. ~We got great footage in the mountain run, everything we could have wanted. Is it just me, or do these guys look like you know who?~ The crew, all around them, was keeping busy - the cameras were running and directly uploading to the solar-powered data storage units at the campsite, the better to make sure that absolutely nothing of humanity's first encounter with aliens was missed.

Frost was driven back from his prey by the swarm that bit at his undead flesh, the attacking insects pushing back his hood and revealing the monstrous features of a draugr beneath. With his red eyes, pointed ears, bloody mouth, he looked as inhuman as the creature he fought. Snarling like a wounded animal, he pushed his way through the swarm, feeling their insectile jaws gnawing at his dead flesh. As the vampire's boots dragged on frozen topsoil and the abominable insects swarmed in unholy numbers that would have killed any human nearby, the song of their maddening wings an infernal paen to eternal hunger, the once-Heavenly glade looked like a scene from Hell itself. Frost could feel the insects crawling through the ice beneath his feet as he reached Famine again, and he knew that the monster would soon break free again to threaten all that lived. He grabbed Famine by the head, ungently this time, and shouted in its monstrous face, blotting out its words with his own. "NEVER AGAIN!" - ---- When it was done, Frost walked out of the iced-over glade, leaving behind him the fallen bodies of the insects that had once been Famine's. So the deed is done. Famine is dead. He flexed his fingers, pulling his gloves back on with slow, deliberate care, like a drunken man trying to give the impression of sobriety. But the dead are no less dead for all that. A smile curled his lips, his teeth now human again as he pulled up his hood. As we ever have been. He willed it, and was with his peers again - the girl Wander rather than the men. "Famine is defeated," he said simply, watching the armies of their enemies retreat. "You seem to fare well here."

Post-Apocalyptic Portal User PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 6 + 6 + 10 + 2 + 4 + 0 = 28 pp STR 16 (+3) DEX 16 (+3) CON 20 (+5) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 12 + 10 = 22 pp ATK: +6 (+7 Knife/+8 Blink) DEF: +15/+5 (+10 Shield, +2 Base, +2 flat-footed) Init: +3 Grapple: +9/+18 w/Move Object Knockback: -12/-2 Saves: 3 + 5 + 6 = 14 pp TOU +15/+5 (+5 Con, +10 Force Field [+10 Imp]) FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3) REF +8 (+3 Dex, +5) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 36 r = 9 pp Acrobatics 8 (+11, SM) Language 1 (English, Chinese [base]) Notice 8 (+10, SM) Sense Motive 8 (+10, SM) Stealth 8 (+11, SM) Survival 3 (+5) Feats: 9 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Specialization: Blink Equipment Evasion Luck 2 Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Notice, Sense Motive, Stealth) Ultimate Save (Toughness) Uncanny Dodge (visual) Equipment: 5ep Masterwork Commlink [1ep] Knife (Strike 2, PFs: Masterwork [+1 to hit], Mighty) [4ep] Powers: 33 + 23 + 11 = 67 pp Blink Attacks 15 (30 points; PFs: Alternate Power 3) [33PP] BE: Feature 10 (Buys Off Dodge Bonus Flaw on Impervious Toughness 10) {10} + Impervious Toughness 0 (Extras: Reflective 2 [all attacks]) {20} {10+20=30/30} AP: Blast 12 (danger portals; PFs: Indirect 3, Precise, Variable Descriptor 2 [any natural]) {30/30} AP: Enhanced Teleport 6 (to 1000 ft/Earth to Moon) {30/30} AP: Move Object 12 (involuntary space warp, Effective STR 60, Heavy Load 48 tons, PFs: Indirect 3, Precise, Split Attack, Subtle) {30/30} Teleport 4 (400 ft/1 mile, Extras: Accurate [+1], Portal [+2], PFs: Change Direction, Change Velocity, Easy) [23PP] Teleport Shield Array 5 (10 PP, PF: Alternate Power 1) [11PP] BE: Force Field 10 (Extra: Impervious, Flaw: Dodge Bonus) {10/10} AP: Shield 10 {10/10} costs abilities 28 + combat 22 + saves 14 + skills 9/36 + feats 9 + powers 67 = 150 pts --------------------------------- Design Notes: Having recently seen X-Men: Days of Future Past (a movie you should see too), I wanted to build Blink, a standout character in the movie and played memorably (albeit with very little dialogue) by Fan Bingbing. I was torn for the longest time on how to build her - should she be a dodge monkey or a tank? I went with a combination of both - when fully tanked up, she can devastate an army just by walking up to them and redirecting their bullets or high explosives, or she can just evade incoming attacks with almost impossible grace. She can do standard attacks like closing a portal on somebody or by accelerating something (or someone!) through her portals until they reach terminal velocity to hit with devastating force. It's pretty clear she can do long-range teleports, even if the movie doesn't show that - so while primarily she's a short-range tactical teleporter, she can potentially take her entire team anywhere on Earth. She's pretty vulnerable to being caught flat-footed or being stunned - it's safe to say the movie does demonstrate that her Uncanny Dodge is definitely visual. She has a kniiife - why? Well, when you live in a gritty post-apocalyptic future, you need a good knife. She's about PL 5 with her powers removed, about right for someone who comes from Circumstances. She doesn't have Attack Teleport, because nobody likes Attack Teleport. Potential complications from her rough and rowdy upbringing are legion - AoA Blink in the comics, when confronted by a better world, barely knew what toilet paper was. In game, this could be a refugee from a gritty alternate dimension hellhole well enough - the Freedom City setting uses parallel universes pretty heavily, so Ages of Mastermind, Set, or Omega could potentially be out there. She could also be a Chinese-born superhero well enough, perhaps a former (or current) government agent to explain her physical training and relative martial prowess. Fan Bingbing has made a lot of how much she liked the role (she's happy with being an Asian actress cast to play a character usually written as white, which as she notes is not that common...) and has noted that she is signed for more X-Men movies, so we may yet see Blink again in X-Men: Apocalypse. (Where they'll probably fight Bastion and Omega Sentinel or something. Who can say?)

Well, that's handy. "Hey, I'm just glad to see you're all right! A lot of times when we come into these situations, everyone's been possessed by a monster from the pits of Hell, or an unnameable thing frozen beneath the ice for millennia..." Mark ticked off points on his gloved fingers as he went along after the scientists, trusting his much more observant colleagues to be looking for things like the condition of the base, the condition of the scientists themselves, and other useful pieces of information. "...and one time I got my head put through impervium, but that was a lot more fun than it sounds. Anyway, I'm a lot faster than helicopters, and I can carry a lot more. If need be I can have you, your friends, my friends, and the entire base transported to Switzerland. Hah-hah, wouldn't it be funny to see the looks on their faces?" He gently elbowed Alvarez just as they reached MacGregor. Geez, I hope there's something interesting here. I'd hate to think I brought my buddies out here for nothing. Maybe I can drop Trevor and Erin off somewhere nice like Buenos Aires or Rio, they'd like that.

Reflex vs 27 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4514800/ = 18 He failed the save by nine, so nine PP drops out of Protection 15 (Impervious 15) [30PP] So his Impervious is now 10 and his Protection is now 11 - since he's bruisedx2, he rolls with nine vs the damage http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4514801/ = 18+9=27 He just makes the save!

Richard processed that fast as lightning, immediately leaping up and taking his son's hand. If it was dinosaurs with spaceships, Paige would have said something and that meant this crazy day was just getting crazier. As messed up as the situation was, he felt a moment of real pride as he took his boy's hand. What other parent could possibly do things like this with their kid? ~There in six.~ With roughly a thousand miles between them, he and Will could be back in about five minutes - faster if they hurried. "Let's go," he said to Will, a moment before father and son took off across the tropical landscape like twin bolts of lightning. ~They teach you anything about aliens in that school of yours? Any aliens in dinosaur times?~ Lacking any formal education himself, Richard had no idea what space had been like sixty-five million years earlier - though he wondered if anyone else did. ----- The aliens went about their scans with fascination, all of them finally removing their helmets and letting themselves be filmed. Their alien look, from the tentacles to the three eyes to the great height, might have made them intimidating if not for the joy that practically radiated from them - a joy that was almost overpowering when Paige opened her mind. It was as if they'd never had cause to learn to filter their feelings from each other, or from other sapients. It was hard to tell what fascinated them more as they ran their scanning devices - Kit with her mystical tattoo, Frances the assistant director (who had been born Francis), Tiamat (who had always been Tiamat), or Paige herself. Neither Paige's psychic powers nor Kit's magic seemed to trip any triggers for them - active use of their abilities got scanners waved at them, but the Space People themselves seemed far more delighted than unnerved. "We could divert the asteroid," agreed Sirohthajed, the green alien who had been studying Mali as she looked over at Kit, "but to what end? If we prevented all disasters and interfered with all worlds, then there would be no galaxy, no aliens like you to greet us. There would only be us, and our slaves, those who we have made, forever. Why, what do your worlds do when primitives are faced with destruction like this?"