Avenger Assembled

Lady Liberty smiled faintly, returning Jav's look with one of her own. "It sounds like you have all the inspiration you need. I'd better heal those I can here, and..." A device clipped to her belt started beeping and the heroes started up, ready for a fight, but Lady Liberty's eyes were all on Paige. "...Hologram, isn't it? I remember when you and Fast-Forward robbed the Clocktower Gallery last year. Are you all right?" She walked right over to Hologram as if expecting the other woman to keel over at any moment. She pointed to her belt and said, "Some people who took a near-miss from one of those blasters took heavy radiation damage without any outward signs, so Daedalus rigged this up to detect people with high levels of Terminus radiation in their systems. If you'll let me help you," she offered gently, "I can use the Light of Liberty to get that stuff out of your system. You're only going to make yourself sick if you try and fight that way...." She approached Hologram, hands glowing a warm shade of yellow, her face full of concern and reassurance.

Frost seemed to light up at the sight of Revenant, tugging at his collar and pulling out a chair for her. "Why hello! Come in, come in, Lucy, and have a seat. Yes, Kimber and I have mutual acquaintance in Canada, so I thought I would call her in for this one as well. Not that I think your presence needs any help, heh-heh-heh..." He winked at Lucy, then paused for a moment, remembering Ghost Girl's question. He normally used his nomme de guerre to keep a distance between himself and his colleagues - but in the company of the ghost and his fellow vampire, that seemed a little silly. "You should call me Dimitri, Kimber, as long as we are working together." Now that they were all there, he headed to the corner of the room and pulled the cover off a slide projector that had been old when Kimber was alive. Plugging it in, he rested his hand on the warmth of the projector as it began to radiate through the white casing, the glowing lens casting an image of a sere, dry desert on the screen. Unusually for the desert, the camels on screen were resting beneath the shade of a rusty ship. "Aralkum, in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. All that is left of noble Soviet effort to tame mighty rivers of Central Asia, and of once deep Aral Sea." He kept paging through the slide projector as it hummed, showing a fertile land transformed to desert in what must have been very quickly indeed. "Recently the land has been...taken by an American necromancer." He moved the slide forward to an image of a wild-eyed woman in what looked like a funeral shroud, a gleaming, golden staff in her hand as she hurled a ball of black lightning directly at the camera. "A cultist bonded years ago with Staff of Necro-Kings who calls herself Sister Sixtus. She has been seen here and there in area, but now she has taken city of Muynak. She has driven out local population and cast zone of...death around city. Living who have disobeyed her warnings have become, in the American parlance...the living dead." He turned off the projector, his hand leaving a quickly-melting icy outline against the warmth of the decades-old machine. "Peoples' Heroes unwelcome in Uzbekistan and Freedom League is...challenged to enter Russian soil in these times. So we go in to remove her. As simple as that."

"If you have power I have heard, you should be able to tell dead man of ice and snow from a robot, eh?" Frost smiled, relaxing fractionally in the presence of the personable teenage spectre. He'd always been comfortable around young people (for all that the feeling was rarely mutual) and the young lady was especially disarming. "Could show you insides, I suppose, but you might find sight unpleasant. All is frozen and dead! I was in Russia, but I remember that business with false Stratos. A shame no one was paying attention in those days, or we might have prevented Day of Wrath." Fighting the craving for a cigarette, he went on, "Whatever Daniel Storm has told you about me, it was truth." That, he could say with conviction. "He speaks highly of you as well, which is why I have sought you out. I have a situation in Russia that requires services of dead, and a certain degree of...discretion. With things as they are, Freedom League cannot simply walk into Russia."

March 5, 2014 Freedom City "The entire garrison? You are absolutely certain?" Alone in the small, cramped office that was all he had in Freedom City, Comrade Frost closed his eyes as he held his cellphone to his ear. "All right. All right, I will be there within twenty-four hours. Yes, with superpowered associates." At his interrogator's question, Frost simply laughed bitterly, remembering what he'd seen in the reports sent his way from Bukhara, as well as what he'd seen on the news from Moscow. "No, not the Freedom League. No, we will need rather different help for _this_ threat..." For all that he'd had to wheedle his office space and his first-level access to the League, the effort paid for itself again and again every day, as now when Frost used the League's access to make a few clandestine phone calls. And so it was that with the help of a few borrowed phone numbers, he managed to have a message sent to Ghost Girl and Revenant, albeit the first through a third party. CRISIS OF THE DEAD. MEET ME IN FREEDOM HALL TONIGHT AT SUNSET. -COMRADE FROST At the appointed hour, Frost was sitting in the small meeting room he'd set aside for the occasion, drinking from a large cup of nearly-boiling hot coffee as he awaited his guests - allies in what promised to be a difficult situation to come.

"Hm. With that talk, I'm sorry we couldn't have finished our business. I like you, robot." Red, bat-like wings smoothly erupted from the Meta-Grue's back, and without another word he took off like a rocket, his speed belying his bulk and awkward-looking wings. Through the cloud cover and gone almost before the others could react, this was one prisoner who wasn't staying around to go back behind bars! As for the rest, the usually sharp-tongued Saturnalia Roman was too busy tending to her ailing father to do more than glare at the heroes. As the League clean-up crew arrived to take away the meta-prisoners, mostly the bodyguard who had unsuccessfully defended the Romans, with Bowman handling that situation, the Raven turned to the heroes. "Nice work, everyone," she said shortly. "Pleased with what you've done here. Anyone need a ride home?"

"Stealing it may be immoral, but it would help protect these people," said Tomorrow with a tactician's frankness. "If the Dragon arrives and finds the Ark stolen, her wrath will be directed against the thieves, not against the primitives who were unable to prevent the theft. And this is not the day the Ark is destroyed, nor will that day come in this century." He hmmed, and added, "A destroyed Ark would mean that the efforts the Dragon expended were completely in vain, and would only grow her fury. So we are left with the choice of taking the Ark from these people, or defending them from the Dragon." He hmmed, looking around the clan that was in the middle of a heated psychic argument over the fate of the Ark and the outsiders who had come for it. "If we let the Ark remain here, we would need to first defeat the Dragon, and then construct a defense against future attacks. Otherwise we would leave them vulnerable to future attack. What do you think we should do?" he asked her seriously. It didn't look like there was much time to decide; the news of impending fiery doom from the skies had caused quite a frenzy among the bear-men! There were prayers from some and spear-clashing from others, as if a mini-riot was about to break out among the large family group.

"Call me!" Clock Queen yelled after Set. With that she ran out the window with Thoughtspeed, zipping along at a pace slightly slower than her grandson's but no less speedy for being a seventy-nine year old lady. "So, kiddo, tell me about this ninja girl your dad is so worried about..." --- "Oh." Richard sighed and zipped around the apartment, cleaning up everything they'd touched - door handles, windowsills, and even his mother's wine bottle, with a thoroughly practiced eye. Heedless over the sounds of melee from the street below, including what sounded distinctly like triumphant yowling and an agitated baritone that said "Aw dammit I knew I should have gone with Kriminel!", he approached his wife and put his arms around her. "I'm sorry about this, honey. I know this wasn't how you wanted this week to end."

http://orokos.com/roll/170731 = 15 Demoralized!

-The great rock was left here by the giants, long before we came down from the icy cliffs. It sang to us of places far away, and worlds to build, and so we came to live alongside it. But it has been quiet since we arrived - you have awakened the rock and the place where the giants placed it lo those many years ago.- The elder walked up to the Ark and placed a furry paw against its surface, seeming to take a deep breath and inhale whatever energies his inhuman physiology could sense. -We have seen these walls speak before, but never have we heard _these_ walls speak. And we never seen a giant,_ he admitted with a twitch of his brown and black nose, -only lived in the places they built and seen the great works they have left behind. Are you a giant?-. -No, we have spent too long in this place!- came the stern psychic 'voice' of another of the beings, this one a squat-bodied male who seemed younger than the other. -We have hunted here and made our home, and listened to the voices of the lesser rocks and the walls that talk, since I was born! We cannot let a stranger from beyond take what we have lived and worked for all these years!- The squat one faced the two humans down fearlessly. -I say we drive them off if they do not leave!-

Carolyn seemed to shrink slightly, slipping into a brief silence, and even for Paige it was hard to tell how the girl felt. She remembered the days in the compound well enough, learning how to hide your true self even from those who could literally gaze into your very soul. "You're not anything like how Grandpa said you were," she finally said. "I don't...I don't know if I want to live like you do, but I can't go back to the way things were. None of us can." She folded her cuffed hands in her lap, her eyes torn between Paige and the baby before she finally settled on the former. "I don't want to go to flatscan jail. I'll do anything, take any help I can get, to stay out of there..." She looked like she was trying not to cry, her fatigue and grief triumphing over her fear as exhaustion began to set in. "Just take care of Jimmy. He's a good baby. He didn't deserve what happened today. And tell Sam...Kit thank you."

Frost threw his cigarette on the ground and crushed it beneath his feet, sending a message more profound than putting it out against his hand. "And what would that mean, eh, punisher of God?" Having long since confronted the reality of his existence, Frost said in a calm, level tone - "Born an atheist, I died and was reborn as a champion of the Norse god of the underworld." Red eyes glowed, ever so slightly, even beneath the light of Heaven. "And in those stolen years that I have walked the Earth, powered by the forces of undeath and a hunger for the warmth of the living, I have...well, you saw it all." He smiled. "If I can do all that, and be admitted here, what does that say for your-?" "Hah-hah, no, no, I'm sorry." Kushiel patted Frost on the shoulder. "I wasn't talking about after you're destroyed, obviously." He grinned. "But you're here, and doing good works, and there's no reason for you to stand around looking so dour. Come on, I'll take you to where we socialize with the border guardians. If you're good, I'll tell you what happened to Stalin's soul..." Frost hesitated, then broke into a wide smile. "Oh, all right, you silver-tongued fellow, you've convinced me! Perhaps I am taking all of this with too much heat, and not enough...light." He gestured to the blue sky overhead as he walked across the street to an inn that bore more than a passing resemblance to a traditional Russian tavern. The angels there were a bit surprised to see him, but soon he was at the bar with a warm mug of something delicious and red, while Kushiel began telling the promised story. Perhaps this place wasn't so bad after all.

She can reach the leader...who rolls a nat-1! http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4414925/ OK, he is unconscious.

I would personally use Enhanced STR + Super-Strength with the descriptor "going into a rage", but that's just because I'm lazy and can't be bothered to keep track of Rage's mechanics!

Vector is up

Another blast to the chest did nothing but rip Steve's shirt further, this time driving the leader of the pack to desperate measures. Taking to the air on the roar of jet boots, the leader called, "C'mon, you sorry sack, see if you can get me up here!" As a matter of fact, Steve couldn't get him up there - not without deploying his armor and risking the exposure of much more than increasing amounts of scarred brown skin. Up close he really did look strange, his body criss-crossed with scars that it looked impossible for any human to have endured. Taking in the scene quickly, he knew what he had to do. "You. Come to me." He threw a punch at one of the armored mercenaries, smashing the man in the belly, then met the goon's shielded face with an upthrust knee as he fell forward with a CLANG that resounded like metal striking metal. The Nazi fell silent in Steve's arms, collapsing like a puppet with the strings cut, as his human body met the metal interior of his armor with force to break bones even inside the putative protection! "I grow tired of you," he said, looking up at the now-flying leader with cold, dead eyes. "Come down again and surrender."

"He was my best friend for ten years..." Carefully, Richard carried Ethan Keller into the protection of the bank, his face still pale and hands streaked with blood and dust as he exited. "They wouldn't have run," he said, speaking of FORCE OPS to the others, his tone with as much conviction as he might once have talked about the Freedom League. "They were heroes who fought to the end. That's what they've always been." He sat by Paige and put his arm around her shoulder. "At least Ma has to be safe. No way they'd attack Blackstone, it's the toughest prison in the world. For now." He looked up at the sound of a distant explosion, his face pale, and opted not to say anything about Paige's dad, or her little cousins who were probably somewhere in a deep bunker in Colorado. "We-" The gregarious speedster was interrupted, this time not by an attack, but by the arrival of a friend - in red, white, and blue, Lady Liberty was instantly recognizable as the patriotic defender of New York City, though usually not looking battered and bruised as if she'd been in the fight they'd all been in that day. "Oh, thank the Lord!" she called, heading towards 1-800-Justice and their new-found supervillain allies. "What's your situation here?" "Bad! Real bad!" Richard snapped, jumping to his feet. "The damn sky is tearing open, and Freedom City's heroes were too busy hiding to do anything about it! If it wasn't for Wail and his buddies, we-" "If it wasn't for all of you, they'd be spilling out into the New Jersey countryside right now," said Lady Liberty, efficiently shutting the upset Fast-Forward down by not engaging with him at all. "As long as you're holding the line here, we can keep pressing onto the portal at Freedom Hall. AEGIS and the Marines from Lonely Point are moving inland, but right now Lincoln is the cork in the bottle on the other side. The American countryside can be targeted by those raiders if you break."

Round 2 A takes a swat at Harrier http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4412823/ = 12 And a miss (note that Harrier's defense was 17 last round, but all the attacks against him missed anyway Not wanting to take any chances, he flies out of melee range! Harrier: Startles B as a Move Action, invoking a DC 25 Sense Motive check http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4412838/ = 16, failure! All-Out Attacks B for +2 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4412827/ = 26 +7Tou vs DC 27 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4412839/ = 18 Bruised and dazed - personally, I would rather get this fight done fast, since these guys aren't even the main action Harrier SURGES for an extra attack http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4412840/ = 9 And rolls pretty badly, well, I'll spend an HP now! (oh, I suspect there'll be more later) http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4412845/ = 26 with the HP http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4412846/ And B is down, thank goodness! IC post in the morning.

"Argh!" It had hurt, though, from the way the man staggered. "Is this the bloody circus or what? Take 'em down, Brigadiers!" "Bloody abo, think you need a girl to do your fighting?" sneered the one to the left of the leader ."Take you down and then take these rich bastards for all they're worth! See how you like a white man's-HUH!" Seeing the blow coming, but without time to strike back, Steve took a different course. The drone smacked the armored goon on the upper arm as one might swat an unruly child, the laser blast coming from his arm missing Steve entirely, instead tearing a hole in the stage and blasting a hole in the floor underneath. "Hey...stop that!"

B blasts Harrier! http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4411854/ and misses Argonaut is up

With the HP you spent, that hits... http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4411848/ And he takes a bruised!

For his part, Steve didn't hesitate - there were too many valuable artifacts around, the sword among them, for him to waste time with this sort of misguided human being. Knowing too well how robbers did their work, he could hardly let innocents suffer at their hands. There could be no armor here, not even as Caradoc, not with so many witnesses around. But Steve Murdock was no stranger to a fight with his bare hands. Especially not against armored foes. No indeed. He rose from his seat and charged onto the stage, a laser blast scorching the suit off his chest and exposing the muscular, heavily scarred brown flesh beneath. He didn't bother with a punch, instead casually backhanding the leader (who was also the one who had shot him) across the face, but to his surprise the man stayed on his feet (albeit staggered by the blow). Should not have underestimated them. Now I have their attention, at least. "You are children playing at war. Leave this place. Now!" But it did not look as though the armored goons were willing to listen!

> We will be using the PL 7 battlesuits statted above. They go on: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4411795/ A. 20 B. 10 C. 2 A: 20 Harrier: 18 Vector: 10 B: 10 Argonaut: 3 C: 2 A, the one who spoke, will hold his action to blast anyone who moves - and as it happens Harrier goes right for him! Attack vs. DC 22 = 15 Harrier: Move Action: Stands up and charges! (not the manuever) All-Out Power Attacks for +5 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4411808/ 15 just barely hits!): http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4411805/ = 27! He rolled a nat-20 and so is only bruised. Oh well! Vector is up.

There was confusion, and hurt, in Carolyn's mind, and a distant link to Gwendolyn that was like a mirror at the very heart of her soul. He was sick. Sick in his body, in ways he couldn't fix anymore. Images ticked by, one after the other, of what must have been a slow decline. Parker Psion must have first seriously fallen ill about the time Holly was born, a condition he'd staved off through favors for various supervillains Ember's face figured predominantly in those, and gloating stories about fiery destruction and his own genius. That's why it was our duty to do what he needed. Because soon he would be gone, and there would be no one left to do what had to be done. He...Paige caught real hesitation in her mind for the first time. He said the babies were there to teach the Atoms a lesson. So that everyone would see the future the Atoms had abandoned when they sided with flatscans over the people who could save them from themselves. "Just take care of him," she finally said out loud, handing the baby over to her aunt with tears blossoming in her eyes. "Gwen and I take care of the babies when the others are working, since we can't have any and Frances won't do it. She...are they going to kill her, too?"

Harrier's init roll: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4410725/ = 18

Frost Nixon PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 0 + 0 + [-10] + 12 + 6 + 0 = 8 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 10 (+0) CON n/a (-) INT 22 (+6) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 10 + 10 = 20 pp ATK: +5 (+8 Ranged/+12 Thermovore Array) DEF: +8 (+3 Dodge Focus, +5 Base, +2 flat-footed) Grapple: +5 Initiative: +0 Knockback: -11/-4/-0 Saves: 0 + 5 + 4 = 9 pp TOU +12 (+4 Protection, +8 Force Field [+10 Imp, +6 vs. Blessed/Magic/Silver]) FORT n/a REF +5 (+0 Dex, +5) WILL +7 (+3 Wis, +4) Skills: 14 pp=56 r Bluff 12 (+12, SM) Diplomacy 8 (+8, SM) Gather Information 8 (+8, SM) Intimidate 8 (+8, SM) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 2 (+8) Knowledge (Civics) 2 (+8) Languages 2 (Chinese, Russian, English [base]) Notice 7 (+10) Sense Motive 7 (+10) Feats: 15 pp Attack Focus: Ranged (3), Connected, Contacts, Dodge Focus (3), Eidetic Memory, Master Plan, Skill Mastery (Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate) Ritualist, Well-Informed, Ultimate Skill (Bluff) Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 1 + 14 + 35 + 4 + 30 = 89PP Drain Constitution 2 (Flaw: Requires Grapple) [1PP] Force Field 8 (Extra: Impervious [6]) [14PP] Immunity 35 (Fortitude Saves, Heat Damage) [35PP] Protection 4 (Extra: Impervious, Flaw: Limited [Not Vs. Blessed/Magic/Silver]) [4PP] Regeneration 6 (Recovery Bonus +0 [5], Resurrection 1/week, Flaw: Source [Heat]) [3PP] Super-Senses 2 (Infravision [Tracking-quarter speed]) [2PP] Thermovore Array 12 (24 PP, PFs: Accurate 2, Alternate Powers 4) [30PP] BE: Blast 8 (freezing blast, Extra: Alternate Save [Fortitude]) {24/24} AP: Blast 8 (heat drain, Extra: Vampiric) {24/24} AP: Damage 10 (Extra: Area [burst]) {20} + Environmental Control 1 (cold 2 [extreme], 5 feet, Extra: Action [Reaction, +3], Flaw: Range [Touch]) {4} {20+4=24/24} AP: Environmental Control 1 (cold 2 [extreme], 5 feet, Extra: Action [Reaction, +3], Flaw: Range [Touch]) {4} + Flight 1 (10 MPH/100 fpm) {2} + Strike 8 {8} + Insubstantial 2 (icy mist) {10} {4+2+8+10=24/24} AP: Snare 8 (icy bonds, Extra: Constricting [freezing]) {24/24} Drawbacks: -4PP Vulnerability (Cold [common, major]) [4PP] costs abilities 8 + combat 20 + saves 8 + skills 14/56 + feats 15 + powers 89 + drawbacks 4 = 150 pts ---------------------------- Design Notes: A recent Wonderella gave me an opportunity to do something I've wanted to do for a long time - build Richard Nixon as a PL 10 superbeing, in this case a Thermovore in the vein of my own Comrade Frost and Doc's Thermovore build. Despite what you might think, Richard Nixon actually has a long and sordid history in American superhero comics, perhaps the most famous being the bit where he...well, let's just say he and Captain America got to know each other pretty well. I've built this fellow as a smart, albeit relatively new, vampire and ice mage whose powers are substantial - he can freeze an enemy down to his marrow, sustain himself by draining heat from his targets (or just the walls), or encase his foes in solid ice or transform himself into an icy cloud of mist! He's not actually _healed_ by heat, but his inherent nature means he can't be hurt by it, and an active fire effect would be (IMO) a viable target for his Vampiric Blast assuming it had a physical nature to be attacked. He's smart, diabolically smart, and a good schemer, oh my yes. With his lack of Stealth, better off avoiding any burglaries, though. Despite his lack of Charisma, he's a decent face-man and good with people. With his connections, he could easily be a government-sponsored superhero - perhaps a corrupt politician killed by a vampire during a tour of a secret cryogenics lab, or one cryogenically preserved who had his cryonic fluids replaced with vitae by a passing vampire who thought his gift was a good jest for such a famous criminal! Now he's working to redeem himself for the mortal lifetime he spent on petty pursuits rather than the greater good - or maybe he's not, and he (suitably souped-up) will be waiting there at the head of his Secret Empire when your heroes kick in the door, rip off that white hood, and realize just how familiar the faces underneath is...