Avenger Assembled

The DC to hit the guy is normally 24. But now he is helpless, so the DC to hit him is 15! So that does hit. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4430352/ = 25 Aw, but he makes it by one! OK, Merlin starts getting saves to break out of the Paralyze _next_ round - so now Wander is up as soon as you post IC.

Darnit, your "player away" stories are always so much more interesting than mine

A DC 20 Notice check will reveal to the heroes on the surface that this stuff on the side of the prison

Inside "The prisoners aren't rioting. Not yet, anyway." Drummer was listening to his earpiece, a look of intense concentration on his face, and after a moment he barked a few code phrases "Sierra Mike Alfa, yeah. And put Alfa Lima Lima on it." Realizing there were people in the car who didn't know those words, people who might need to know, the warden explained. That's the outer perimeter alarm, not the inner security alarm," he said aloud, letting Crimson Tiger translate for the benefit of their guest. "That only goes off if someone is attacking the exterior of the prison, but that hasn't happened in over a decade, not since the '03 Grue Invasion. I'm sending people on top now to see what's going on." - Outside Once they made their way to the island, either by ferry or by boat, both Mindsteel and Foreshadow found a guard staff eager and ready for superheroic help, albeit thoroughly baffled at what they were dealing with. A menacing reddish-brown fluid had been sprayed across the side of the prison by the explosion - a foul-smelling ichor that clung to the sides of the old fort like rotting glue. "I don't know what to make of it!" said Captain Schmitt of the upper-deck Blackguards, who had buzzed Mindsteel on through to the island and greeted Foreshadow on the beach. "If that's Grue technology or some crap, my people aren't getting near it till we get a lab guy on it! Can't even get through to the warden with the security alert on." - Inside "As per standard protocol, the elevator's going back to the last floor it visited, and into lockdown, until the perimeter alarm has been breached. Better to cut down our own mobility than give intruders access to-" Sure enough, the elevator went down to the level they'd just left - just in time for a Blackguard, one of the three who'd been left to put prisoner 03314, to smash violently into the unbreakable security glass that had been deployed in front of the doors. As the man slid down in a boneless heap, the heroes inside the elevator saw what had happened in their absence. There were four of them, a jumpsuited figure in plain, generic black with a fully-covered face and limbs none of the heroes there recognized, and three more familiar - a green-glowing powerhouse with a nervous disposition, aka Gamma the Atom-Smasher, another black-clad figure who was from his speed and blurred movements the speedster-thief Downtime, and a fourth with a sandy body and muscular build who looked very much like the lovely veteran villainess Sandstone. Their target was clear enough - Prisoner 03314! While Downtime worked on the security panel to open the cell, his fingers moving at an impossible rate, 03314 stood in there, still shackled but with her bite guard gone, and stared at the glass as if she could burn holes in it with her eyes - seemingly focused directly on Gamma, who despite his size and well-known powers was actually twitching nervously beneath that glare. As the elevator opened, Sandstone turned and said "Damn!" Walking up to the elevator shaft, she said "Hey, none of you are on the list, so as long as you...Markus? Markus Flynt?! Hey man, how's it hanging?" She grinned, her threat forgotten. "So you're still in stir, huh?"

"Hey! Watch the birdie, jerk!" Fast-Forward ran up and got right in Merlin's face, his hands tracing complicated patterns in the air, time around him seeming to slow to a crawl - even as he moved almost too fast to see to the other heroes. He chanted in a voice like a tape on, well, fast-forward, calling upon particularly formidable ancient magics to deal with this particularly formidable foe. "Surehopethisworksneverdiditforrealbefore-gazeintothecursedlightofAlgolandseethesinofAthenamadeflesh!" And with that he reached into the glowing circle he'd traced in the air in front of him and slipped his fingers between the complicated Behenian patterns, pulling something out from the space between stars. He didn't look too closely at the writhing orb in his hand, but Merlin did - and all of a sudden, the wizard gave a gasp as his body abruptly turned grey and cold, even his clothes turning the same color of poorly-cast marbe! Richard zipped away. "Nice! Hey, he's still thinking in there, kids, so I suggest we beat his ass till we fix whatever's going wrong!"

OK: Fast-Forward: 41 Blue Jay: 28 Merlin: 24 Wander: 16 Fast-Forward uses his Paralyze 12 vs. Merlin Reflex vs DC 22 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4429077/ = 12 so he saves vs. the full effect Fort vs DC 22 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4429079/ = 16 All right, he is Paralyzed! Blue Jay is up.

Inside The prisoner made a muffled noise that could have been anything - but it wasn't hard for Markus to guess that it wasn't anything friendly. "C'mon, 03314, it's this or the hole. We know you don't like it down there - it's cold, and it's wet..." Joe took over with Markus while the stiff with rage 03314 was escorted into the cell, helping the convict pack the cardboard box that held his worldly possessions not already in the hands of the state. Joe was a friendly guard, the kind who got to work with the trusty prisoners, and for a moment looked unhappy before he smiled at his escort. "Let's get you upstairs, big fella. You know," he said with a wink as he scanned his keycard and stopped the elevator coming up from down below, "I may not even have a missus. A guard would have to be pretty crazy to talk about his family where the cons can hear, right?" As the doors slid open, he added, "Thanks, though She's fine." Inside the elevator, the Blackguard escorted the hulking prisoner into a surprisingly crowded space - there was a slim, elderly Asian man with a white goatee, hornrim glasses, and tweed jacket that made him look like he'd stepped right out of Central Casting for a college professor, Warden Drummer himself who nodded a courteous hello to Markus. "Mr. Flynt." Standing next to him, in full costume, was the girl who'd put Breaker behind bars in the first place. - Outside Fate, as it sometimes does, brought motorcyclist and jetskier within sight of each other - the darkness of the night suddenly interrupted by a flash of light and sound from overhead - something was flying towards the prison so fast that it was lighting the very air on fire! The projectile zipped past Mindsteel and Foreshadow and slammed into the walls of the old concrete fort that was the only external structure visible on Blackstone Island, erupting with a great splash of liquid color as it splattered across the walls like a giant ball of colorful paint. As they approached, lights and sirens came from the prison itself - the sound of a highly-secured facility moving to a serious alert!

The others were hurt - Dragonfly's machinery had weakened to the point that the Curator would probably kill her if he turned his attentions upon her, and Gina had been hurt through her connection to the robot. Steve knew he couldn't stand against the nanite-empowered juggernaut. If Dragonfly fell, if the robot burned and knocked Gina out, there was nothing that could stop the Curator from releasing a plague of technological enslavement upon Earth-Prime. And to prevent that, Steve remembered old, grim lessons of strategy and tactics forged in blood and horror. The darkness was nothing to his vision as his jetpack shrieked to life - he roared up in the Curator's face and brought his weapon down - stabbing the Curator in the thigh. It was a deep cut that penetrated the nanite pockets buried in his quadriceps, the searing Terminus energies behind the pike letting the blow bite deep. "Cosmic Entity 047," said the armored knight in a voice that had lost all pretentions of medieval flair, "I have fought you before." The Curator just had time to realize what it was facing when Steve screamed in primal frustration and grief as he called on the memories of universal destruction to save those he loved, Harrier twisted his blade and poured a searing entropic charge into the Curator, setting blood and bone afire with entropic radiation to burn away the metal within, leaving only battered flesh behind. "No! More! Slaves!" he shouted over the sound of nanotechnology burning like leaves in a firestorm.

Move Action: Fly up to the Curator Standard Action: +5 All-Out Attack the Curator with the Strike power on his Pike - http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4427486/ 36, my my my. That's DC 12+15+5 from the crit+5 from the Autofire That'll be a DC 37 Tou save, KD For my next trick stunt Corrosion 12 (Extra: Secondary Effect [2], Flaw: Limited 2 [Electronics]) {24/24} Not spending an HP to cancel fatigue - but spending an HP on the next roll Attacking again (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4427489/) = 17 + 17 = 34 That does hit, and I believe this will do the trick.

For Merlin, I will be using stats for the Supernatural Menace from Iron Age. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4427316/ = 24 He goes on 24! Fast-Forward goes on 41! http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4427321/ = 41

Steve looked at Vector and answered "Yes." He had always been a poor liar, and could hardly start now - not over something so important. He might have preferred to keep the Australian heroes out of this, but he could hardly act alone in this strange city. Even Yves, with her strange name, was an ally only because of what they both had once been. What they still were. While Vector's father took over the role of dealing with the media, the two drones; and their local escorts, headed back to see what had become of the Sword. Sure enough, just as Yves had predicted; the Sword was missing. A smashed rear door, and tasered guard, showed the likely path of the blade that had been snatched out of an open glass case during all the confusion. At the sight of the stolen blade, Steve scowled intently, pressing his balled fist to his mouth for a moment. "We could chase the stolen blade...but I suggest we strike for the one who paid for the theft. I am in no mood to spend time chasing petty scum or hired criminals like those we fought before. This is no time for petty wars with petty men. Larrakite, where could the Omega Boss be found?" "He's got a penthouse in Evolution, that's the tallest building in town. Says he likes to look down on us little sodding wankers. Mate, if you're gonna go for him with some hard evidence, I'll back your play - he's scum who should never have made it out on bail. But who are you? No tricks this time." "I am..." With the media still in the other room, and the hotel's patrons and staff still evacuated, Steve took this opportunity to transform - a flash of holographic light hiding the unspeakable reality of his Omega armor erupting from flesh and bone, transforming himself not into the armored monstrosity he was but instead into a shining beacon of armored wonder. "Caradoc. Come. Let us strike ye foe down. Before he dooms us all."

All right, let's do this! Initiative time

"It's his fault! He made me-" "-she was the one who cast the spell!" called Merlin, still struggling against his verdant bonds. "She is to blame for what befell your world!" Nimue blanched briefly before adding, "Only to try and hold _him_ in his bonds! Have none of you read the stories?" she demanded. "He is the son of the Devil, and the man that was his other half has long since withered to dust. He seeks only to rule your world in the name of his dark father!" "I-" Suddenly, a flash of searing light came exploding downwards from the sky above, a column of pure fire that struck both the Lady of the Lake and Merlin! The former staggered backwards, hands to her eyes. "You fools! What have you done?" With his captor distracted, Merlin had pulled his way free and was now laughing evilly. "They have given me the keys to the universe! Soon all will bow before-" Nimue hit him with a bolt of watery power, just as Fast-Forward, holding a spellbook in hand, reappeared among the heroes. "All right, I solved it! C'mon, kids, let's beat the hell out of this guy till they can fix the planet!" Richard had had a very long day.

Frost sighed, staring into a warm drink that was definitely not beer, but something with a rather higher iron content. His efforts to keep the conversation away from the subject of eternity were not going well. "And those who preferred non-existence to this eternity? Or cast their worship in other directions?" "They got the eternity they chose," replied the angel, which made Frost look up and glare at Kushiel again. "So what's the point of all this? Your god, your churches in the lands below?" Frost waved a hand through the ground. "What is the purpose of all of that, if one can simply be a good man and come to this place, hmm?" He took another drink and found there was definitely something alcoholic in there. "What does it matter? And that you simply watch, and let men suffer and die for this, what does that say about you?" "It says we do our duty," replied Kushiel evenly. "Just as you do. Perhaps there is more of Russia in Heaven than you think." "Indeed." Frost looked at his cup and set it aside. "I think I've had enough. Come, let us return to our labors."

The answer to her question is yes! Go ahead and do some creative scene-building and tell me what you're after, SC

> Here you kids go

Posted Today, 12:09 AM March 15, 2014 Blackstone Prison 8 PM "Congratulations, Number 01337, you're going out 24 hours early!" The thump of the Blackguard's truncheon against his glassed cell door caught Breaker's attention. A trio of guards, flanking a convict Flynt hadn't seen before, were standing outside his cell with keys and transfer equipment in hand. "Number 03314 here managed to get herself out of the psych ward overnight, so we're putting here in here and moving you upstairs a day early. You'll like it up there, Number 1, just make sure you don't go outside till your parole clears. It's colder than Hell out there." The new prisoner, a woman with a close-cropped prison haircut, met Flynt's eyes with a truly murderous glare (the kind he'd gotten a lot in and out of prison); the swollen-up bruises on one side of her face a testament to whatever brawl had gotten her back in gen-pop overnight. She couldn't talk, not with the bite guard in place, but she did not look happy to be taking his spot - their power nullification gloves about all they had in common. --- "Fascinating, simply fascinating." Down in the reactor room, Richard Pasaphan, architect of Thailand's planned Royal Prison for Extraordinary Crime, was taking furious notes as Warden Drummer spoke. He'd been friendly enough upon his introduction to Crimson Tiger, the legacy heroine who was the most prominent Thai hero active in Freedom City, but for the most part had spent all his time soaking in the tour of the most famous super-prison in the world. "All right, I think we're ready to go upstairs," said Drummer as he led them out towards the elevator, he and Pasaphan talking a mile a minute about the logistics of super-prisoner containment. Crimson Tiger had gotten the full tour as well, but it was obvious she was just part of the local color here. --- Precognition was a funny thing, as were psychic powers in general - what else could have led both Foreshadow and Mindsteel to the same windswept island on the same cold, gloomy evening? Of course, for heroes like Arrowhawk, it wasn't psychic powers that steered you along but pure instinct...

"Do you know what a doomforge is?" When the heroes signaled that they did, Tarva went on. "Imagine a doomforge behind an Omegadrone's armor. A killing machine, built and bred for destruction and death, made to make more killing machines bred for destruction and death. What it kills die screaming as their very souls are devoured by nanotech machines and replaced with cold steel and iron hearts devoted only to raw, bloody entropy, the Unbirthing of the cosmos. And then they get up and kill, and those they kill get up and kill, again and again!" Her eyes were wide and her melodramatic voice shot through with unshed tears, enough that Scavros interjected with a question. "And you have seen this happen? It was not mere talk of Steelgrave's bedchamber?" She hit the glass with a solid thump, the shadows inside her cell swirling like disturbed smoke. "I saw it happen! The Black Madonna had sent false pupils of hers to their death, as is her wont, but this was no mere bloodsport! Steelgrave sent them fight these new...doomdrones and be slaughtered like so many cattle! And then they rose again, still with their powers, but with only service of Steelgrave in their hearts!" "Why would _you_ object?" inquired Scavros, still skeptical, seriously. "You are a shadow-priestess turned vassal of Steelgrave. You have seen and done things beyond the understanding of these," he added with a wave towards the heroes. "Because this is no mere game of decadence and treachery. No mere entropic dance. Steelgrave has engineered a way to end the factions inside the Terminus, and from there to end all factions, everywhere. Our doom is here."

APPROVED

All right, Mindsteel Arrowhawk Crimson Tiger Foreshadow This will be a story where the New Crime League stages a raid to try and liberate a new member of their group - but there are surprises waiting for them even beyond the heroes waiting for them. I will get a post up soon

"Hmm. I had a feeling something like this might happen." Tomorrow smiled, and it was a dazzling look that lit up the science hero's face. "Come, let us plan." He still couldn't communicate with the ursus sapiens tribe, a group whose name for themselves - Chimariko (as was usual with tribal societies) simply meant 'people.' It was easy enough for the Chimariko to make plans to defend their realm with Sunset - though they had faced no enemies in the City of the Giants, they had fought enough enemies in the forests where they had begun that they had plenty of experience with tribal warfare. Between warriors with atlatls and the chieftan's psychic powers, they certainly had several lines of defense. Those weapons tipped with fragments of the Ark would even be able to hurt the Dragon herself! As he unloaded weapons of his own from the storage compartment of his timecraft, Tomorrow explained the physics of the situation. "By coming here and finding the Ark, we have solidified all that came before us. The Dragon cannot appear anywhere in the Ark's past without altering its existence. The trick will be to prevent her from coming again and again in the future - but leave that to me." Now outside, with the warriors of the tribe setting up sightlines behind him, he looked at Sunset against the glare of a reddish-orange sunset. "You must keep her in the fight long enough that I can attune the isotemporal frequencies of her abilities to the surrounding area, rendering her unable to use them in the local timestream. We may not be able to bar her from this place...but if she cannot use her powers here, she will hunt easier game elsewhere. There is a whole galaxy beyond."

His face wrinkling along his scar lines as he furrowed his brow in concentration, Steve tried to think - this was so hard without enemies in front of him to fight, or without the smarter, savvier people he knew so well around him. "He...he looks like us, and bears the mark of Omega, and he walks openly around your city?" Steve could only imagine what fate would befall someone in Freedom City who openly wore the symbols of the Terminus. "Why do you allow this?" "It's a free country, mate," said the Larrakite with a shrug. "Don't know how they do it back in the States, but here we don't tell people how to dress. Not like I'm the bloody bastard's best friend! I put Newman in the boob meself last year." "What did he say he wanted?" Steve demanded of the Larrakite's prisoner, and this time his voice was fire where it had been ice a few moments earlier. "Why was he filming us?" He knelt down and looked the thug in the eyes. "He, he wanted to see who was after the sword! Said he had a real fancy buyer for it, he-" Standing up, Steve dismissed the man as he would an insect, taking advantage of the explosion of sound and noise that had accompanied Catharine's reveal, the millions of questions that came with a superhero revealing her secret identity in her hometown. "It must be a disguise. A way of appearing formidable to the other criminals. Surely no one who has..." He met Yves' eyes for a moment, then went on, "could be a champion of Omega today. Perhaps he has seen dead Omegadrones and copied their appearance."

He made a noise that it took a moment or two to parse as laughter, then added, "Romance!" It was nearly a shout from the grim-faced Furion, enough to deflect the conversation for a few moments as they walked through gossamer crystal corridors and along shimmering translucent bridges, far above the world of the Silver Tree below. The path was not marked and the featureless, nearly smooth surface beneath their limbs was almost impossible to harm; finding their way back without a guide was not going to be easy. At the end of one long, particular corridor, They passed by two guards in ornate silver armor, then with a low rumble, a door seemed to rumble open in the sky itself - and Scavros ushered them inside a cell that was completely invisible from the outside. The cell was divided on the inside; the clear area where they stood (almost entirely transparent on the inside as well), and across a thin divide there sat a woman - with her eyes wide and skin nearly chalk-white, she looked up and for a moment a look of despair was on her face before she bolted to her feet with a big, confident smile. "The Swift! And company, yes, I knew you would come!" She spread her arms and shadows seemed to boil and spew forth from behind her; shadows that were unable to penetrate the barrier that separated them. "_I_ am Tarva the Terrible, daughter of-" "No, you aren't." Scavros folded his arms and Tarva winced under his glare. "I _am_ Tarva the Terrible, _scion_ of Taarvon the Undying, and I bring you ill news!" She pressed her face against the glass and stared at them with huge, soulful eyes, and suddenly pled. "But you must take me with you! This is no place for a wizard of my gifts and I have no desire to be thrown to the doomforges when Steelgrave learns I have deceived him! And I have deceived him, oh yes," she said with a shake of her pretty head, long white mane of hair fluffing behind her. "And Madrigal as well. But if Steelgrave succeeds, she won't matter. None of the others will. I could have joined him SO easily, you know!" she snapped a finger for emphasis. "But I did not sacrifice my SOUL, not even for my dark magic!" "Yes you did." Scavros was definitely enjoying himself, and Tarva smacked the glass in frustration. "That is not the issue at stake here!"

With his mates down and threatened by a very intimidating woman, the last armored thug broke down. "Hey, er, all this Nazi rubbish was just part of the job, you know? I'm half-Korean meself, heh-heh-heh!" He opted not to take his helmet off, though, having seen the quick, efficient way that Steve and Vector had disposed of the other two goons. "He just wanted to see who was in the crowd!" Steve said nothing, simply glaring at the man in counterpoint to the threat in Yves' eyes, and it made the man break. "The Omega Boss! It was a guy working for him who did it!" Harrier's brow furrowed and he spoke in a cold, controlled voice. "Who is the Omega Boss?" "The bloody worst man in Darwin, that's for sure, mate!" Steve's head snapped upwards as a new figure entered the scene, a man in a black costume and full-face mask with staring white eyes. Vector, being an Australian hero herself, immediately recognized the Loquacious Larrakite, who was holding a struggling man in a red tracksuit in one hand while supporting himself from an overhanging bit of wall decoration in the balcony, his one-handed grip evidently enough to hold both of them comfortably. "I caught this drongo filming ye's from upstairs! Dropped the picture-box on the way, but looked like it was sending a signal out to somewhere, maybe the boss himself. You know the Omega Boss, mate?" he inquired as he leaped down to join the heroes on-stage, heedless of the flashing cameras. "He looks a mite like you two," he said with a look at Argonaut and Steve. "Brown fella, got no hair, big Greek tattoo on his forehead..."

"Hey hey hey, let's all calm down!" Richard figured out what was happening fast, knowing the little secret about where Paige got her powers. "Starshirt, you never met somebody who lived through '65 before?" Richard had been about two years old when that happened, but calling on Freedom's history helped keep him from freaking out - and hopefully kept anyone from wondering what the supervillain was doing with powers derived partially from the monsters that were invading the area, and perhaps the entire world. "We're all fine here. Go help people. Archer's in there, he needs help. Go do your superhero thing." His arms around Paige, he watched as Lady Liberty headed inside the bank to treat the wounded. "We'll get this done, babe," he promised Paige. "You, and me, and our friends here, we'll fight these drone bastards and, and then we'll get far, far away from all this." He looked around at the half-wrecked city, acutely aware that it was only late afternoon, and added, "Back to Vegas, or London or Havana. Next time we're back in town, they'll have statues of us up around here! Wouldn't that be radical?" He smiled, doing his best to comfort his girl at a time when she seemed to need it the most. "Fast-Forward, Hologram, and 1-800-JUSTICE, the heroes of Lincoln!"