Avenger Assembled

Up on the roof, Solar Sentinel flew into an argument - and nearly into a radioactive blast. "Dammit, Max, you have a wife and son, I'm not letting you walk into that spider's nest with-down!" Luckily, Tesla Atom was too much the trained professional to blast a fellow superhero despite the stress of the moment. "...Solar Sentinel, isn't it? Were you down there?" she asked. "What did you see?" The brilliant young radiation controller was part of a trio on the roof; the big, burly Maximus Atom and their gruffy, grey-bearded former guardian, Jack Wolf. Tesla and Maximus were in their Atom Family jumpsuits, while Jack wore an armored bodysuit that reminded Henry of costumes he'd seen older space marines wear when they were expecting a fight. While Henry gave his report, the male Atoms continued to argue, standing alongside the white, semi-circular hovercraft they've arrived in. "Jack, you're over sixty years old. You're not in any shape to go in and fight the full Psion family! You should go home and try and reach Chase and Victoria on the moon, they'll-" "That is horse manure, boy," said Jack, pacing with an angry energy that belied his years. "I'm in a hell of a lot better shape than that creepy old bastard Psion. Max, that thing you had with that Juliana girl, and when you used to scrap with the Psions down there? This isn't like that. The Psions down there are grown men and women, and they're slavishly devoted to one of the outright sickest bastards I have ever met. I am not letting...letting my kids fight him without being there with you, especially not when you're understrength. Now this'll be tough, but we can hold them long enough for Tessie to take out Ember and for the auto-teleport to grab the hostages. After that, you can shrink down and Tessie can grab me, too."

The Brass Knight paused almost imperceptibly. "...yes, my alchemical charts had shown me something similar, yes. Why don't you come with me to Camelot Hall, my friend, so that we can find these anomalies together." Unexpectedly, he put an armored hand directly on Hronos' shoulder, and seemed to be doing his gruff, almost Spartan best to speak to the time-golem as comrade to comrade. "We've been through so much since you came to this realm, my friend. Believe me when I say that I am your true companion, and want only to help you in your hour of need." As he spoke, he was definitely fiddling with some of the alchemical enchantments on his armor with his free hand, tracing new sigils on the surface of the wrought-bronze he wore in his own defense. ---- "Kid, I never walk anywhere," said Fast-Forward. "I can't take you down the wall, so we'd better hit the stairs to this place. Here, take my hand. And hang on!" When she did, suddenly the city around them seemed to pause - birds in the air, smoke wafting from chimneys, voices from down below, all frozen in a moment of time - and then suddenly she and Fast-Forward had blurred into impossibly fast motion, zipping their way along the wall, down past a pair of startled, frozen-in-time guards, through a medieval city cast in the unmistakable image of Freedom. They found themselves in front of Freedom Hall, or what should have been Freedom Hall - instead a stone castle that looked as modest as Freedom Hall itself did. Proudly emblazoned with the words "CAMELOT HALL" in flowing Gothic letters of gold over the low wooden doors. Of course, the League does most of their business in the Celestial Lighthouse these days...dammit! Richard shrugged off the fake memories, then released Blue Jay back into the normal speed world. Camelot Hall was a bustling place, complete with royal flags flying in the cool breeze, buskers and apple-sellers by the busy front gates, and guards who looked on in surprise at the two new arrivals. "Just part of the show!" said Richard winningly to the armored goons who looked like any other cop, just in armor and with swords, automatically falling into patter that was natural on both worlds. "Come see tonight's show at the amazing Cline Family Circus and...well, you won't be disappointed!"

Bluff, Bluff, Bluff = http://orokos.com/roll/158785 = 4 Oh well. Daedalus is not the face man!

Frost took a few steps away from the archway, careful not to get too close to the rampaging Igneous, and formed into the icy, red-eyed fog that was his fastest means of transportation - and the safest in a confined space like this. He didn't speak, not wanting to add to the velvet-gloved threat that Gaian Knight (not to mention Fleur de Joie!) was in this place, but instead sussed out the battlefield. The big one, the one who threw that stone, take him by the knees if he becomes trouble. The woman...is that a woman? Yes, yes, you know Igneous women, Dimitri, you know what they look like; she could be a threat too. Be prepared to move fast and hard if they decide to take out their frustrations on the new arrivals.

Frost is really more the frozen-knife-in-the-back, so - http://orokos.com/roll/158779 = 14 with his Vampiric Damage power. Oh well, not every roll will be high. Maybe the guy will be flat-footed...

That'll get the job done, and let you find the wrong 'un - The car headed south towards the airport. You don't think it's gone too far yet, but you'd better move fast if you're planning to catch it!

Hronos finds a total of four anomalies - himself, two by the edge of the city near what part of him thinks of as Bayview (and the other thinks of as the Academy District), and one in North Bay.

Won't they be surprised when they find that Comrade Frost's powers are completely unscientific? =D I like it, KD

Up close, the man's bloodshot eyes and slightly erratic demeanor offered some evidence for why the agents hadn't taken his concerns particularly seriously. Wasn't it a little cold for this kind of thing? "Yeah, it was the craziest thing! It was some Amish guy, or rabbi guy or something! He had a big bushy beard and one of those little black hats! It happened, I swear!" he said to the agents, who were looking decidedly unimpressed with this fellow. "He even broke my rear window and tossed something in. I've got a lojack on my car, maybe you can trace it?" he hopefully asked Silver Magus, the more technically-minded looking of the heroes dealing with him. "Just don't look in the trunk!" "We're talking about a prototype working time machine," said Agent Vardalos, giving Hronos an intense look. "You can understand why I'm reluctant to share information with anyone without full authorization." He stepped aside and raised a communicator to his lips, beginning an intense conversation in code with a distant superior.

"Hey, hey, you didn't say there was anybody else!" Jump looked panicked for a moment, and if not for Kit's promising words to him he might have vanished entirely. "I...all right, I'm in," he said to Kit, or rather directed his words to the darkness of the room. "Help me get my kid, and Empath's kids, and anybody else who wants to leave, and I'll help you with the rest of the family." He licked his lips. "Empath's a true believer, she won't leave unless you make her. Aura and Argent don't talk much anymore, but I know they're tired of being experimented on. Ember will do anything my grandfather says as long as he tells her to burn things," he added seriously. "Since that thing with Gamma, and when she told him she wouldn't have any kids, she's...anyway, you'll have to fight her. Do either of you have psion powers?" he asked seriously. "My grandfather's body may be failing, but he's more powerful than ever. I...oh, crap, the Atoms are here!" His face turned white. "Gotta go! Remember, I'll help you if you help me save my family!" And with that, he vanished into thin air - just as a faint rumble came through the building, as if a large flying craft had settled on the roof.

"My momma took me time-traveling without seatbelts a whole hell of a lot when I was a kid. Ancient Rome, Victorian London, far future, you name it. I've been doing it myself since I was ten. Doctor told me once I absorbed enough chronal radiation to exist outside the time stream, but I'm pretty sure that's just fancy smart guy talk for being faster than the speed of time itself." The unpleasant thought that Paige, and probably Will and Holly, hadn't been fast enough to dodge this shook him out of his fake confidence. He didn't like having to rely on a kid, but he could at least try and act like the grownup in the room. "A couple of years ago somebody dropped a whammy on the whole planet and I woke up in my mother's basement dressed like I was fifteen again. Never did find out what caused that, I spent most of my time dodging jacked-up supers on the West Coast. Wasn't the first time that happened, either. You'd be surprised how often somebody screws around with time, or space, or dimensions." He zipped around at every word, then stopped, his fingers drumming an almost impossibly fast tattoo on the stonework next to them. "All right, here's what we'll do. Any hero worth their salt who didn't get tagged by this, they'll be going for Freedom Hall," he refused to call it Camelot Hall, "or maybe Claremont if they're your age. I can speed you up and zip us both down to both places faster than anybody but Rocket and Velocity can follow. We can see if anybody around looks as lost as we are." He could have done it himself and been back in seconds, but he felt bad about ditching the kid up there in the parapet. Just keep an eye out for the...for the _authorities_." he added. "There's a royal visit, and that means bully-boys on the ground keeping an eye out for people causing trouble. The people here don't know this world is bullcrap. Most of them will try and stop us, especially the ones that have it good."

KD, I'll volunteer Comrade Frost for this one.

Giz, can I hold an action to freeze the first bad guy who keeps fighting after GK does his thing?

"Morrie, Neppie, and baby Seth are living in Paris with brother Baaz these days," Nina said cooly to Trevor. "It's better for them there - the public would grow restive if they knew Serpent People had married into the royal family, and Baaz is certainly a generous host, he..." Unexpectedly, her pretty face screwed up, dark eyebrows lowering like stormclouds. "He had to leave first, you know. He didn't whore himself out like Durian or Murjana, and he didn't do cocaine or mite, but my father has some very...provincial attitudes about homosexuals and he said and did some very embarrassing things." She actually looked away, especially from Eve, and waved her hand. "This was all many years ago, you understand, and I haven't heard anything about it since." "Careful, babe, or you'll make us feel bad about that business with the Black Stone," said Mark gently, but his direct, blue-eyed gaze not letting Nina off the hook either. Maybe they hadn't wanted Nina's father executed, but they'd still intervened on his behalf. "I sent you guys the pictures, I think, maybe to Erin's old account," said Mark with a nod Trevor and Erin's. "Really cute baby, slit eyes and fork tongue or not. I think he looks a lot like your brother." "It is a cute baby," Nina conceded. "I just...I just don't understand why things have to be so unjust!" Nina exclaimed. "It wasn't as if Morrie suddenly became a Communist or fell in love with democracy, he just fell in love with a reptile woman and suddenly he became unsuitable for anything, not even to walk the soil of our homeland anymore. Durian can shoot his whoring partner to see if anyone will complain and he's not banished from the succession, Kelia can spend ten years working for the filthy Ba'athists to feed her cocaine habit, but Morrie and Baaz love the wrong way and they're gone from the family!" She threw up her hands. "I never thought I would actually find something where your way was so much...better than ours." she conceded reluctantly.

Mark proved reachable through the usual means, the scrying stone he'd left with Erin and Trevor when he went off to be a diplomat in the court of his lost grandfather - the Djinn-Emperor of the East. "Nay, nothing strange in these realms. My Lady Nina continues to be amenable to my suasions about abandoning her father's court of the Dark Marids, and the ifrit are still, ah, snuffed from our previous joust with them." The wink he gave them was pure Mark, a sign that one thing hadn't changed, even if the silk draperies and stuffed cushions behind him looked like something out of a Victorian seraglio. "Things are still difficult here," he admitted, "with Nina's father ill the courts of marid and djinn threaten to war upon one another, but today at least there are no crises to speak of.There _was_ something from New Camelot that I had meant to speak with the both of you about," he said. "A diplomatic message came at sunrise to be on the lookout for, what was that..." He fumbled around on the table before him, then pulled out a piece of parchment. "'doomsayers, astrologers, and other ne'er-do-wells questioning the nature of Creation, even those who wear the shape of champions' It came straight from the Royal Court itself!" Mark smiled. "I suppose I should trouble myself to actually sending this message on..But I know you two of old, when we fought the King of Hell together even if no one else remembered that day. No one is more true of heart than my fellows of the League of Liberty."

Give me a Notice check and a Search check, Hronos

"Oh, thank God, somebody who speaks English!" Richard didn't like turning to a kid for help, but these big crises meant you had to find allies in unlikely places. "Listen, I'm Fast-Forward, from the TV? Fast-Forward, host of Supercrime!?...no? Okay." He talked fast, circling the parapet as he spoke and taking in the city beneath them as he did so, zipping around almost impossibly fast in the confined space. "You probably go to school with my son Will, he just started at the end of the year. Do you have any idea what happened?" he asked her seriously. "I've traveled in time before, but that's not some kind of freaky London, that's Freedom City, or what's supposed to be Freedom City. When people were dressed like this," he added with a gesture to his outlandish costume, "all this land was just sandy beaches, seagulls, and grumpy Lenape." He drummed his fingers on the stonework, then looked back at Blue Jay. "And dimensional shifts don't shove fake King Arthur memories in our heads. Why are you different?" he asked suddenly. "You a time-traveler?" - "Greetings, fair golem!" The sky rending in a small fireball _should_ have been a friendly sight for Hronos, who had worked with the Brass Knight many times, but the sight of the bizarrely-changed Daedalus in his greatly altered armor was no pleasure even as he joined him, waving off the crowd who relaxed at the sight of the familiar League of Camelot member. Daedalus looked like a medieval knight, and not just any knight, but one in the kind of showy, elaborate, gold-inlaid armor suitable for court rather than warfare - yet it hummed still with arcane power, warped by whatever change had swept over 'Freedom' City. "Dost thou sense the change in the air as well? Trouble not just with the city, but with the whole world around! Rumor has it that our fair king and queen's arrival has ill portents about it."

"Hey! Hey, can you hear me?" Whoever it was by the door had betrayed himself when he'd called out to Kit; he'd somehow arrived there completely silently. "Listen, I know you're not one of the Atoms! I want..." He stepped forward, exposing his face and jumpsuit beneath the grilled light overhead. "I want to change sides. Me, my son, I want out of this life. If you're a superhero, come out so we can talk. Please, my son's just a little boy, he shouldn't have to grow up in a warcamp." He swallowed hard. "If you're not a superhero, if you can't help me, just stay down here and I'll tell my grandfather I couldn't find you, and then tell the Freedom League when all this is done. Don't tell the Atoms," he added, contempt suddenly sharp in his voice. "Flatscans have no idea what they're really like, but they can't be trusted."

Paige opened one eye, turning to look up at Richard. "Wert thou perhaps expecting someone else, husband?" she asked, her voice a sleepy tease. "Didst thou have the dream about the succubus maiden again? She's naught but a character from the plays, she cannot really hurt you." She closed her eyes again, burying her face in the canvas pillow. "Come back to bed, tis too early for nonsense." Tickticktickticktickticktickticktick Paige, who'd always hated change. Paige, who had told him once that it was lucky time-travel couldn't actually alter the present. "Can you imagine realizing your whole world is a lie and that you have to destroy it? God, what an awful thought." For a woman who'd grown up with a crappy dad who'd constantly manipulated her, it was an attitude that made a lot of sense. But given her ability to sandblast his mind like a soup cracker, it wasn't something he needed to bring up now. _If I have to sleep on the couch because I rewrote all of reality, that's a risk I'm willing to take._ "..I'm going for a run. I'll see you soon, love." He zipped around fast like buzzing hornets, doing his best to ignore the memories that intruded into his mind like so many unwelcome probation officers. His life as a dashing young rogue in the company of his mother the Queen of Hours. His partnership with the runaway young sorceress Transept Rose and their merry life of crime, the battle with the forces of Hell that had brought them onto the side of good. A circus that combined morality plays (heavy on the "much-repented vice") and acrobatic feats. Kids, born late thanks to some magical help, and the relocation to New Camelot. His boy, the Claremont racer, his little girl, perhaps the most powerful witch in the world. He found not his costume, but a black and white leotard that a juggler might wear, a leather jacket...thing? Aaaghwhatisthisevencalled, and the Book of Starry Magic (looking about as he remembered) to fit neatly inside the latter. Can'tjustleavethislyingaround He turned and winked in Paige's direction, making out like it was any normal day, and stepped out onto the old parade ground where the circus had made camp. They- Bullcrap. I am Fast-Forward, and I am the fastest man alive. I'm going to make this right. And with that, he took off running, zipping up and over the nearest stone parapet as he made his way into the walled city of New Camelot, before he stopped dead when confronted with a blue and gold archer at the top of the wall. "Hey! Are you a Claremont student?" he demanded.

We are out of initiative...for now!

For Foreshadow, it was like being a cat grappling with a lion and demanding its surrender, even as he tore free the collar that kept the battered Meta-Grue in chains. At least until, from within the great bulk of the shapeshifted Grue came "...I yield to you." From around the heroes came the sound of energy systems firing up and that black, lens-capped wall that lay between them and the mysterious producers above their heads was now dotted with another row of lights that looked distinctly like muzzles. The announcer's voice came again, clear as a bell, having evidently recovered from her earlier excitement. "Now that our heroes have defeated this disgusting alien parasite, it's time for them to remember their place as our champions and KILL it while the whole world can see. Go ahead, Birds of Prey!" she added, her voice a clear, professional command, "Tear him limb-from-limb!"

Fast-Forward With her announcement done, Lady Liberty rejoined her fellow Terminus Invasion veterans, taking Paige aside for a quick, mostly-telepathic conversation. ...I called Donna and she said "It was about time the Spirit of America was a mother." We'll wait till after the New Year to announce anything, though. The business isn't like it was back when Donna wore the uniform. As the women talked, the veteran heroes, along with a few of Beth's friends from the League, found their way into the League's small museum. Mostly tended by the League's support staff rather than the professional historians and museum specialists who worked over at the city's various historical museums, this was more of a collection of curios with hand-printed labels (and short stories) next to each one. Pleased to see his mom's work in a place of pride, Richard borrowed Paige's phone to snap a picture of Clock Queen's first pair of swords, still buried in the concrete block where the Centurion had put them after their first fight in 1965. "She liked the impervium ones better anyway," he commented to his wife, remembering the way Anne Cline had always told that particular story. Zipping around the room as he usually did, Richard was actually the first to notice the painting - an image on the wall in acrylic and oil, a massive, nearly-life size picture of a small group of superheroes squared off for battle against a gigantic robotic monstrosity dotted here and there with grisly human remains like butterflies in a case. He recognized himself first, then Paige in her old costume (tattered as it had been by then), and then the rest of them. He knew this scene well enough, burned as it was into his nightmares even after twenty years. Zipping along back and forth like an angry bee, he was about to exclaim in disgust at who had stolen their legacy before he saw the artist's name. "..._Keller_ painted this?" Even after twenty years, he still wasn't really on a first name basis with Arrow-turned-Archer. "When...when did he even start painting?" he asked, looking up at an unmistakable image of what the local press had dubbed the Battle of Lincoln. "About ten years ago," said Beth, heading over to join him in front of the picture, a static 'shot' of an image that had come at the end of a very long, long, long three days. "He says it relaxes him. He donated this one over the summer, with the condition we keep it in the League's personal museum." "Damn." Richard looked up at the gigantic work of a city in flames and battered heroes at their last ounce of strength, showing that last moment when Fast-Forward, Hologram, 1-800-Justice, and the last survivor of FORCE Ops had teamed up against the end of the world, clearly done by somebody who'd actually been there. For once, he was at a loss for words. "...damn."

Oh snap it's snapped!

http://orokos.com/roll/157953 33! Having failed by more than 10, he is bound and helpless!

January 6, 2014 7:20 AM EST The first ray of sunshine came in the window and Richard Cline opened his eyes, ready for his last day off before they headed back to the West Coast for a full week of shooting. Richard sat up, pushing aside the linen sheets, and looked at the waxed-paper window on the wall of the little wooden house. Ticktickticktick Time slowed to a crawl for Richard Cline, as Fast-Forward took in his changed bedroom with all the time in the world. Linen sheets, featherbed, waxpaper windows, and I think that's a chamberpot under the bed...oh, geez, am I back in the Renaissance again? He looked down at the woman sharing his bed and reached down to gently nudge Paige awake, feeling the familiar brush against his mind that had been part of his soul for twenty-five years. Aw, geez, did I take her back with me again? She's gonna kick my ass after that thing with the Wild West... Ticktickticktick On the handwrought, overlapping planks, there was a woodcut of a man frozen in a blur of motion paired with a smiling woman in a low-cut dress, smoke and fire rising from her hands. Behind them were a young man in equal speed, and a young girl with the same energies as her mother. The legend read CIRCUS OF CRIME, MAGIC, MISCHIEF, AND MERRIMENT! STARRING THE LEGENDARY ROGUES - THE CLINE FAMILY! WITH PASSION PLAYS TO SHOW THE TRUE MORAL WAY! The smell of horses outside, the sounds of activity; a circus in the middle of waking up for the day. It's another goddamned crisis in time! Richard Cline snapped awake alongside an altered version of his wife, dressed in a long black nightdress, and asked the question he had to ask. "...Baby, is that you?"