Avenger Assembled

Aw yeah this is bad

Richard took his lady's advice - not because he was afraid, and not because he wasn't looking forward to smacking 1-800-Justice around a little, but because when Paige said to run, he ran. After nearly ten years together, that was why they were so good together. He grabbed the real Hologram's hand and they ran, the heroes slowing like statues around them as local time froze, then the two of them bursting outside; Jive's ability to sense body language didn't help when that body was moving at supersonic speed. They'd made it out onto the streets, mere microseconds having ticked by, when there was a flash of light behind them. Fast-Forward turned his head to look as tremendous bolts of reddish-black lighting seemed to erupt from a clear blue sky. The greatest bolt, a trunk the size of a skyscraper, plunged to Earth somewhere near the center of the city, but dozens more smashed downwards into the landscape, blasting away brick and stone, causing an earthquake that made every building (in this city so far from California) shake, and some collapse altogether! Cars spun wildly out of control, drivers blinded or deafened or simply unable to drive through the shockwave, smashing into buildings and up onto the sidewalk, and people screamed in terror as windows broke! As Richard watched, briefly rooted to the spot, the Cline building, the biggest visible in Lincoln, visibly subsided, the next instant shockwaves nearly knocking him off his feet. -I can't run when the ground's like this!- The last bolt plunged into the park across the street, a blinding, deafening eruption that knocked him down entirely - afterimages of green and white seared into his retinas! As a tremendous dust cloud arose from the crash site, the half-blind Richard shoved himself between Paige and whatever lay inside the cloud. From inside the cloud, meanwhile, came the sound of fast movement, and human screams!

Suddenly, Henry felt a black, invisible wave crash over him, one that seemed to pull his very soul down into darkness. The civilians had fled the battlefield at his call, and with the escape of the others into the air he was briefly alone at ground level - alone just as he would be for the rest of his long, long life now that everyone he had ever known was dead and gone. Even the children's children would be grey-haired senior citizens now, and he himself was nothing but an old, faded relic of a long-forgotten war so far away that half the aliens on Earth had never even heard of it. Had never heard of him, all the sacrifices he'd made in long years of combat nothing but a pointless waste. So the civilians escaped, so what? This was just another battle in an endless war of blood and gore, an eternal purgatory of slaughter into which he'd been damned for his sins a century before the children around here had even been born. What was the point of it? What was the point of any of it? - Maximus stared at Kit as if she was the one who'd gone crazy. "I am trying to rescue this innocent baby from the lethal super-battle going on over our heads," he said, hastily removing his jumpsuit top and wrap the baby in it. "I thought you were supposed to be getting the little boy down here too. I don't know what the hell is going on up there," he admitted, "but I'm not gonna let these innocent kids be in the crossfire of those psychopaths, not until we know what the hell they just did to my Uncle Jack!"

Empath is going to go ahead and tag Solar Sentinel with Emotion Control (Despair) - that's a DC 22 Will save,

Tesla's flight speed, carrying a heavy load, is able to get them about 1650 feet up - Ember is easily able to catch them with her own speed. Ember blasts them, also having hit PL 12 in her fury. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4380479/ = 30 Given that she's firing into melee, I'll say she rolls a die to see who she hits - http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4380483/ = it's Victoria! http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4380484/ = bummer, she makes the save! But Ember's gloves are off, and she's doing lethal. And so is Aura, who Jump just teleported onto the roof! http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4380487/ = Jack Wolf takes a lethal damage to his brain, and is now injured. Kit is up now.

Looking stunned, Jump sat up, wiping the spattered blood off his face - after a moment, he seemed to collect himself and rolled away from the carnage that was his grandfather's corpse - and then vanished. He reappeared a moment later behind Aura, who he grabbed by the arms and vanished with as well, taking the obviously terrified telepath away from the scene of carnage. Psion's corpse seemed absurdly fragile and alone as it lay fallen on the floor at Wolf's feet, a man's life become the remains of a child's toy cast away amid gore. In the air, Tesla Atom seemed to make a snap decision. "Jack, no!" She landed and threw herself at him, but spread her glowing arms wide to grab her stepfather around the midsection! And then they were rocketing upwards at fantastic speed, a glowing green streak that zipped upwards right through the hole that Ember had made on her way in. Screaming with rage, Ember Psion completely ignored Solar Sentinel's attack and rocketed upwards after them, the phoenix-like aura of painfully bright blue flame around her simply melting the glass and steel of the overhead window. Solar Sentinel couldn't see exactly what was happening up there, but there was an exchange of blows, and a yell of pain! Over by Kit and Argent, Maximus suddenly grabbed the baby and vanished right through the floor, man and child both seeming to disappear beneath the concrete as the Atom used his atomic powers to change his mass and slip between the cracks of the universe. "What did you do!?" Argent was shouting at Kit, and at the world, "What did you do?!"

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4380231/ = 27 Sorry, TK.

it is a mystery!

have an HP, Blue Rose and TK!

As Ember and Victoria began flying around the gymnasium, blasting each other with bursts of flame and gamma rays that cast an eerie, alien reddish-green light over the assembled hostages, Jack Wolf seemed to spring into action. With Ember in combat, the fiery barrier she'd put up around the hostages faded. No fools, they ran for the exits - nearly bowling Wolf over as he pushed his way through the crowd, hand on his blaster. "You can't run this time, Psion!" he called, hand falling to the blaster he wore at his hip. "The party's over!" He pushed his way through the crowd towards where the Professor, Aura, and Jump had disappeared and seemed to reach for thin air. And suddenly he was grabbing onto the chair where the Professor still sat, shoving a startled Aura aside. The Professor gripped Jump's hand in a palsied grasp, his liver-spotted hand shaking, as Wolf drew his pistol with trembling hands. Trembling hands or not, though, there was nothing but fanatical determination on Wolf's face as he yelled, "THREE GENERATIONS OF IMBECILES IS ENOUGH!" And then he grabbed Psion by the collar, put his pistol to the old man's temple, and pulled the trigger. There was a flash of light that erupted from the gun and out the other side of Psion's skull - and suddenly Aura was screaming, covered in blood and gore, and Psion's body slumped lifelessly to the floor, the cratered wounds from the blaster round showing where the energy bolt had killed him as neatly as braining a steer. -- Across the way, Argent was reaching tentatively for Kit's hand when suddenly she was screaming too, hands clutched to her temples. "I felt it! Oh my god I felt it on my face!" She clutched her temples and staggered back, staring at something invisible. "He killed him! He killed him!" Maximus interposed himself between Argent and the kids, protecting the most vulnerable people there from the potential consequences of their aunt's grief and rage. -- "MURDERING BASTARD!" came a voice like an angry god from above, and the face of Empath Psion flashed on the few remaining screens - the fury in her voice knocking Jack Wolf to his knees as the old mercenary threw away his sidearm, his eyes wide and face blank with shock and terror. Besides him, Jump had collapsed too, blood on his handsome features, face pale like he'd seen and felt death - as they all had. "Forget the flatscans!" she yelled in a voice that seemed to reach all the Psions in the building. "KILL JACK WOLF!"

Wolf takes a full-round action to coup-de-grace the helpless Psion, inflicting Lethal. That raises the Tou DC of his blaster pistol to 25. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4380056/ = 7 Welp, he's dead all right. Something seemed really, really off with Wolf as he fired the shot - as if someone else was speaking through him. The look of horror on the faces of the Psions, however, is perfectly genuine. Empath: is suddenly PL 12! And uses Fear on Jack Wolf! http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4380081/ = 22 Who is now shaken Argent takes no actions but screaming in grief and terror, having felt her grandfather die both in her own mind and rebounded through her connection to Aura. Solar Sentinel is up. Can either of you make a DC 15 History check or DC 25 Life Sciences check? If so, try to do so now.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4378812/ = Victoria blasts Ember -and hits! http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4378819/ = Ember takes a bruise! Ember blasts Victoria in return = http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4378823/ and hits! http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4378824/ Victoria soaks it. Aura uses an illusion to make her and the professor seem to disappear. Maximus holds his action Kit is up

Argent looked doubtful for a moment, then shook her head. "And do what with myself? Go be a prostitute on TV like Aunt Paige? I know how to fight, and I know who I can trust, and I can't do any of that outside the family. As long as I'm with them, I'm a soldier fighting for a better world, even if the flatscans don't know any better. Don't you get tired of them constantly pushing _you_ around? Telling you what's right, even though your powers mean you know better?" --- As heroes and villains squared off against each other, suddenly Jump vanished with a faint pop - taking with him the toddler and infant Psion that their grandfather had insisted they bring along in the first place. He appeared with them next to Argent, depositing them by his cousin, and gave Kit a long, searching look. "Thank you." And then he vanished again, only to reappear next to Professor Psion, a plea on his face. "Grandfather, please! It doesn't have to be this way!" He knelt at Parker's side and took his frail old hand. "You've cared for us, raised us since the Atoms killed our parents, and I will always love you for what you've taught me...but we don't have to live like this! Remember what Rand said: 'A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others!' Let them squander their gifts!" he said with a wave towards the Atoms. "Fighting bank robbers and hooliganism. Let us build our own lives, and walk our own path!" "Josh, I don't know what the Hell has gotten into you," Ember flared blue, her voice as burning hot with rage as her face, "but this does not amuse! Why don't you-Argh!" Suddenly she was blasted backwards by a bolt of searing green energy from the hand of Victoria Atom, who rose in the air and shimmered with her own searing verdigris energies. "He's finally the hero your family's needed for forty years! Come on, Ember," taunted Victoria, "It's always been us girls in the air. Let's finish this!" "Go to hell, smarty-pants!" yelled Ember, throwing a fireball at Victoria that skittered harmlessly against her shield. Cursing, she flew in close and a wild melee began in the air over the gym! Meanwhile, Aura reached down and grabbed the handles of the Professor's wheelchair - the two of them seeming to shimmer as they disappeared from Henry's view. Across the way, Maximus appeared from the small bundle of squirming infant energy that was Juliana's baby, popping up to human-size in the corridor with Kit and Argent. He looked warily at his old enemy, then at Kit, obviously trusting the heroine on the scene to know how to treat the Psion scion.

Jump = 24 Victoria = 23 Ember = 23 Aura = 21 Maximus = 21 Kit = 15 Jack Wolf = 9 Empath = 9 Solar Sentinel = 6 Professor = 2 Jump takes a standard action to evac the kids, then returns and spends a move action delivering a speech.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4378780/ Maximus goes on 21, Victoria goes on 23

Let's go ahead and roll for Initiative here. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4378761/ = 23 for Ember http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4378763/ = 24 for Jump http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4378765/ = 21 for Aura http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4378767/ = 2 for the Professor http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4378768/ = Argent has 8 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4378771/ = Empath has 9 http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4378773/ = Jack Wolf has 9 (and goes before Empath)

Trenchcoat flinched at Kit's 'words', so hard that Empath actually turned around and looked at her cousin. "Argent? What happened?" "I...nothing. I'm going to use the washroom. Aura says the Atoms are almost ready, and they're coming with some ger toshav named Solar Sentinel. I'll be right back." Looking shaken by Kit's words, a sure sign that she knew the truth in the, Argent turned and walked out of Kit's field of view, leaving her with only Empath and the latter's brainwashed 'friends' as her company. With her cousin gone, Empath seemed to let her mask slip a little - the worry that creased that pretty face was heartbreaking to look at, the wrinkle in that pretty forehead like a vandalized da Vinci. "This is it," she murmured to herself in a voice like a whispering angel. "This is the last time." ---- "When we put him away this time, he had better stay away, dammit. This is the last time I want my family fighting that psychopath." Despite his anger, Jack Wolf went along with the plan as suggested by Solar Sentinel and amended by the Atom Family. Maximus would shrink down and make his way to where Jump was guarding the Psion kids and provide a 'distraction' that would help he and Kit (if she was still there) get the kids away from their parents and great-grandfather. As for Jack Wolf himself, as well as Solar Sentinel and Victoria, they'd be confronting the Professor (and Ember) directly. "Listen, if there's a fight, don't you kids worry about protecting me," said Wolf seriously. "If this old man has to take a few punches to save those kids, and their parents, from Parker Psion, that's fine. Risk is part of the business." As Maximus shrunk down and disappeared, Jack pressed a few buttons on his body armor's wrist, and their shuttle's teleporter 'popped' Jack Wolf, Solar Sentinel, and Victoria Atom down below inside the gym. As soon as their feet hit the ground, Ember was on her feet, throwing a ring of fire around the hostages with a sneer on her pretty, flaming face. Behind him, a new face - a young Asian woman in her early twenties recognizable as Aura Psion, pushed the Professor's wheelchair forward. "So," said Professor Psion, a sneer on his face to match his granddaughter's. "tell me, Jack, as we face each other once again after so many years...does it ever trouble you, deep in the night, that it is you who are here now, and Andrea and Mentac who are dead?" "Oh, please," Wolf fired back, eyes burning with an intensity that nearly matched the reddish flames still crackling on the circling Ember Psion. "I'm not a seventeen year old kid you can bait, _Artie_. I'm a grandfather now! And look at you! You're what, ninety? Ninety-five? More? Haven't you got it by now? You're not the future of the master race? You're just a crazy old man who surrounds himself with sad children."

"Well. I never thought I would find myself in this place," said Frost, raising his hood defensively even against a warm breeze that felt like a Ukrainian summer on its hottest day, the sort that back home he could have enjoyed in great comfort. The words were a jest, but the emotion of the moment made them raw in his throat. Be professional, Dimitri, he sternly chastised himself. Do not weep in front of the angels. "Not without being in flames, anyway. I have not yet had the pleasure, little lady," said Frost as he shook Wander's hand in a gloved grip, his hand cold beneath. "Comrade Frost." He looked around at the scene around him, which did indeed look like a busy kolkhoz through an angel's eyes - fat, happy children in their Pioneer uniforms, prosperous-looking men and women off to the fields together, a perfect picture of the new Soviet state. He stood beneath the shadow of the doctor's office, and could nearly smell the animals within. I wonder if they are sons and daughters of the Rodina taken in those days. If I travel to a gulag, will I see others?...Enough of this. "So!" he boomed, before pointing from one of them to the other. "Death, War, Conquest...and Famine." He hesitated, just a moment, before indicating himself with the last word. "Gabriel, are you the Anti-Christ?" he inquired. "I had no idea it would be you!" He winked, then turned to their hosts. "The old holders of these offices. What has befallen them?

Ticktickticktick The certain knowledge that he was going to end the day with more bruises than he'd started with by no means limited Fast-Forward's excitement. "Go back to your disco, old man," he sneered at Jav, but couldn't quite keep a real smile off his face at the prospect of a fight with superheroes like 1-800-Justice. "This is the 1990s, and it's a brand new generation of crime. And, hey!" He zipped out of the way of a kick coming at his temple, then zipped again from the follow-up that came within inches of knocking him down, a punch thrown as if the martial artist he faced had known exactly where he was going. He landed on the tiled floor and shook his finger scoldingly at the newly-arrived heroes, pouring through what he remembered about the old team at lightning speed. Wailcan'triskamissedshotbutthatteleportersgonnabeaproblem! "That is uncool, man, very uncool, I am in the middle of bantering with you!" He was mindful of his invisible 'hole card', and stayed far away from the corner where Paige was hiding as he zipped around the room. "Three against one, c'mon, don't you think that's a little unfair to you people?" he snickered as he bobbed and weaved. "Couldn't you find anyone else at the home for yesterday's heroes? Maybe get the Black Avenger in here, at least he was on the Freedom League!"

AvengerAssembled Comrade Frost: 1 + 5 = 6 Posts + 9 Rollover = 15 Posts = 2 PP + Ref rollover = 3 PP Edge [maxed]: 2 Posts + 17 GM = 19 Posts = 2PP + Ref = 3PP Fast-Forward: 6 + 3 = 9 Posts + 6 Rollover = 15 Posts = 2 PP Harrier: 2 + 5 = 7 Posts + 4 Rollover = 11 Posts = 1 PP GM: 3 + 3 + 3 + 4 + 4 = 17 Posts Arichamus: King of Suits: 2 + 1 = 3 Posts + 13 GM = 16 Posts = 2 PP El Heraldo: 4 + 1 + 1 + 3 = 9 Posts = 1 PP Osprey: 5 Posts = 1 PP Red Moon: No posts + 1 GM = 1 Post = 1 PP Wave-Eye: No posts + 1 GM = 1 Post = 1 PP GM: 1 + 2 + 2 + 4 + 5 + 1 = 15 Posts, putting them into King of Suits, 1 Post to Red Moon and Wave Eye Blue Rose Kit: 11 + 3 + 1 = 15 Posts = 2PP Stormbreaker: 1 + 1 = 2 Posts = 2PP Corsecjedi Shadowblade: 17 + 5 + 3 + 2 = 27 Posts = 3 PP + Origin + Rep + Interview + HellQ = 8 PP Ecalsneerg Geckoman: 2 Posts = 1 PP + Ref = 2 PP Electra Wander [maxed]: 1 Post = 1 PP Fleur de Joie [maxed]: 2 + 4 + 3 = 9 Posts = 1 PP Miss Americana [maxed]: 2 + 5 = 7 Posts = 1 PP Hologram: 3 + 4 + 3 = 10 Posts + 17 Rollover = 27 Posts = 3 PP Fox Giain Knight/Tiamat: 4 + 5 + 1 = 10 Posts = 1 PP Dragonfly: 2 + 3 = 5 Posts = 1 PP + Ref point = 2 PP Wraith: 2 + 3 = 5 Posts = 1 PP Misc: Ref point to Dragonfly Geez3r Maxima: 9 Posts = 1 PP GranspearZX Arcturus: 5 + 1 + 1 = 7 posts = 1 pp Crusader: 5 + 1 = 6 posts + 2 GM posts = 8 posts = 1pp GM: 2 KnightDisciple Fenris: 3 = 1 PP Cobalt Templar: 1 + 2 + 3 + 7 = 12 Post +4 GM + 13 Rollover Gabrile = 29 Posts = 3 PP Gabriel[maxed]: 13 Posts = 1 PP Thoughtspeed: 3 + 7 = 10 Posts = 1 PP GM: 4 Posts Horngeek Stronghold:: 2 Posts = 1 PP Vector: 7 + 1 = 8 Posts = 1 PP HG Morrison Foreshadow: 5 + 13 + 1 + 6 + 1 = 25 Posts = 3 PP Glamazon: 15 + 5 + 8 + 1 + 3 + 6 + 7 = 45 Posts + 21 GM = 66 Posts = 4 PP GM: 7 + 5 + 2 + 7 = 21 Posts, only enough to bump Glamazon Gizmo Jack o Blades [maxed]: 5 Posts = 1 PP Midnight [maxed]: 1 Post = 1 PP Ghost Girl: 2 Posts = 1 PP Set: 2 + 5 = 7 Posts + 3 GM + 6 Rollover = 16 Posts =2 PP + Ref = 3 PP GM:1 +2 = 3 Quinn Crow: 2 Posts = 1 PP Raveled Ironclad: 3 Posts = 1 PP Blue Jay: 2 + 1 + 1 = 4 Posts = 1 PP GM: 1 + 1 =2, not enough to help. RobRX Silver Magus: 4 + 9 = 13 Posts = 1 PP + Origins, Hell Q, Rep, Interview = 6 PP Cho Paige Lee: 11 + 0 = 20 Posts = 2 PP + Origins, Hell Q, Rep, Interview = 7 PP Sorus Blue Fox [maxed]: 2 + 1 + 1 = 4 = 1 PP + Ref = 2PP Willow: 3 = 1PP + Ref rollover = 2PP Supercape Supercape: 23 GM posts = 2 pp + 1 Ref point = 3 pp (Maxed) Lord Steam: 10 rollover GM posts = 1 pp Rene: 2 + 1 + 2 = 5 posts = 1 pp (Maxed) Bloody Mess: 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 9 posts = 1 pp Pitch: 5 + 5 + 2 = 12 posts +13 GM rollover = 25 posts = 3 pp +1 Ref point = 4 pp GM: 1 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 11 = 23 posts TheAbsurdist Asad: 8 Posts = 1 PP Errant: 8 + 3 + 1 + 4 + 1 = 17 Posts = 2 PP GM: 5 Posts, not enough to help TiffanyKorta Blodeuwedd: 4 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 12 Posts = 1 PP Miss Grue: 5 posts = 1 PP Revenant: 12 + 6 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 = 12 Posts +3 GM = 15 Posts = 2 PP Young Britannia: 4 + 2 + 1 = 7 Posts = 1 PP GM: 3 +1 = 3 Thevshi Velocity: 16 + 4 + 9 = 29 Posts + 21 GM = 50 Posts = 4 PP + Ref = 5 PP Tsunami: 2 + 1 + 1 + 16 + 4 + 9 + 3 = 40 Posts + 10 Posts =50 Posts = 4 PP Synapse: 2 Posts + 17 GM = 19 Posts = 2 PP GM: 2 + 8 + 4 + 8 + 1 + 2 +2 +20 + 1 = 48 Posts Misc: Ref point not defined, so put onto Velocity Thunder King Crimson Tiger: 4 + 16 + 2 + 2 + 2 +4 = 36 + 14 GM = 50 posts = 4 pp Solar Sentinel: 7 + 3 + 1 = 11 + 7 GM = 18 posts = 2 pp Graft: 1 + 4 + 3 + 5 = 13 +12 GM = 25 posts = 3 pp GM: 21 + 3 + 1 + 8 = 33 posts Trollthumper Nick Cimeitiere: 2 + 2 = 4 Posts = 1 PP Cannonade: 2 + 1 + 2 = 5 Posts = 1 PP Temperance: 2 + 4 = 6 Posts = 1 PP + Ref = 2 PP Cavalier: 2 Posts = 1 PP Vahnyu Hronos: 3 + 2 = 5 Posts = 1 PP Net Fly: 8 + 2 = 10 Posts +4 GM = 1 PP GM: 4 Posts AWARDS: Avenger Assembled: Comrade Frost can now be up to PL 11 Arichamus: Wave Eye can now be up to PL 11 Fox: Gaian Knight can now be up to PL 14 Dragonfly can now be up to PL 15 Thunder King is SILVER (earned by Crimson Tiger) Crimson Tiger can now be up to PL 11 Granspear Arcturus can now be up to PL 14 KnightDisciple Fenris can now be up to PL 14 Cobalt Templar can now be up to PL 15 Gizmo: Set can now be up to PL 14 Quinn Crow can now be up to PL 12 Raveled: Blue Jay can now be up to PL 13 Sorus: Willow can now be up to PL 14 Thevshi: Synapse can now be up to PL 11 Tsunami can now be up to PL 12 Trollthumper: Cavalier can now be up to PL 11 Cannonade can now be up to PL 14 Temperance can now be up to PL 10 Vahnyu: Hronos can now be up to PL 11 SuperCape: Lord Steam can now be up to PL 12 Bloody Mess can now be up to PL 14 Pitch can now be up to PL 15

"Famine, yes." Frost stared at the scales, his eyes going back seventy years, back to the days of Dr. Dimitri Peshkov. The snarky armor he wore around himself as naturally as clothing faded before that terrible symbol, replaced with something cold, dead, and predatory. "I remember it was the old ones who died first in those years, starving themselves so their families could live. And then the children, too, of things that we could cure in a day in a hospital in Moscow, if we had had the resources. And then the parents died too, from grief and shame at their loss. Moscow blamed the peasants for stealing food, you know? They told the urban workers the peasants were to blame for why men were starving to death on the street every day." His gloved hands flattened against his desk. "When the NKVD came to the farm where I was posted, I expected them to have me shot as they had killed the other farm doctors around us. They said we had encouraged the peasants to hoard grain and that we were all wreckers of the revolution who had poisoned the animals. But I cowered and I simpered," he sneered in icy condemnation of the man who had died at the hands of the Nazis seventy years earlier, "and they complimented my efficient burning of the bodies, After they left, a woman in the village went mad with the hunger and took a knife, and she..." He met the angel's eye. "But then you saw that, didn't you? You people see everything." He reached out, then, and took the scales in a firm grip. "I take this burden with the promise. Never again!"

The Meta-Grue didn't so much climb the slope as he boiled up it, a bubbling, seething mass of righteous, predatory fury that formed into the shape of a fast, lean humanoid with red skin and great, scything claws for hands. "Not this time, Roman!" The captured alien super-soldier shouted at the air. "I'm coming for you!" And with that he ran for the elevator doors and ripped them asunder like so much tissue paper, and seemed to vault up the now-exposed elevator shaft and out of view of the heroes below. Down in the control room, Crimson Tiger's communicator beeped and Raven's grainy, static-filled voice came through. "<static> Tiger! You're <static> an oil rig eleven miles off Freedom City. Bowman and <static> are tied up with Sandstone and Recall." The sound of gunshots, and explosions, came through the line. "Try and stop <static> signal if you can so they can't zero more mercs on our position. And don't let the <static> escape, or they can just come back and do this all over again. <static static static> I'll be there soon. Raven out."

Well, no, that's a 14, hg! I will tag there once other people have a chance to roll.

Hronos couldn't make heads or tails of time - the flash of energy from that time machine, a chaotic wash of temporal radiation that seemed to have been completely out of the user's control, had blinded his senses as surely as if he'd been a human staring into a flashbulb. Instead he saw afterimages only, time seeming to at once be shattered into a million pieces and be more solid than he'd ever seen it before. Meanwhile, on the television, the newscaster reappeared - his dark suit and serious demeanor especially notable in black and white. "In other Genetic Purity news, the execution of Communist mutant leader Sebastian Stratos is expected to provoke a reaction from Communist sympathizers in Freedom City. Citizens are advised to be on their guard and obey all orders given by police, military, or Purity League officials. Colored citizens are reminded that their curfew begins at 11PM, Eastern Standard Time. Long live the United States!" He put his hand on his heart, then snapped it to a rigid attention stretched out in front of him. "Long live our purity!" And with that, the channel signed off, cutting to an old-fashioned test pattern and picture of George Washington. The heroes were very alone.

"Unferth's fell bride-in-death was The Volvur." The giant put capital letters on the words, even in his accented human speech. "When the Geat gave him his first death, her dark magics could not heal his wounds. So she called upon the fallen star of the Christians, pledging her soul to his realm forever if he would give her the power to let Unferth walk again when the centuries had passed. He seeks to end her eternal damnation. He seeks one whose body could accommodate her fell magics." Fast-Forward snapped his fingers. "Hey, that ghost-thing! Paige mentioned that, the memories she tapped into from that poor kid who got tagged by the spell. I bet that was this volver lady. Damnedest thing." This was a little much for Richard to absorb, but luckily he thought fast. "Medea was kind of my crazy aunt growing up," he offered, "and yeah, if she thought she'd have something to gain from it, and hadn't sworn an oath, she'd betray anybody for the right reasons." "The childkiller and Unferth are not allies," agreed the giant gravely. "They are...collaborators. I would see this spell end. This night Unferth lairs on the ancient hill at-argh!" Suddenly, a doorway seemed to open above the giant, and he cried, "I am summoned! I will be made your enemy when next we-" And with that, seconds before Fast-Forward could find a counter-spell, the giant vanished!