Avenger Assembled

"Yes, I think so, I...oh!" Tonya looked in surprise in Cobalt Templar's direction, bicolor eyes widening, before she looked back at Hologram and laughed nervously. "I can...I can understand English again!" She looked down at a discarded Time magazine and grabbed it ecstatically. "And read! Oh my lord, I thought they'd fried my brain for sure!" She looked down at her bleached-white hands and fell silent. "Can you fix these, too? I mean, I..." She blinked, reaching up to run her hands through hair that was much longer and silkier than it had been at the beginning of the day. "Can...can I have a mirror, please?" she asked, a scared kid (even though she looked a couple of years older than Will) deferring to someone who looked like an adult. --- Temperance had more luck when she reversed her spectral hound's investigations and sent it back the way the creature seemed to have come - she found a definite trail leading backwards towards Kingston, usually a quiet semi-suburban neighborhood that today was alive with activity - the spot where she and her hound lost the creature's trail was in an empty scrub forest swarming with cops. A flashlight beam pinned her briefly in the air before someone yelled, "It's another cape! Stand down!"

"If there is a threat to the world, we will deal with it," said Steve seriously. "But I think it is unlikely that will happen." He gave Gina a reassuring look, or at least as much of one as his odd face and demeanor could manage. "We will show your family what you have built here, and that will be good. What we have is..." He was briefly at a loss for words to describe their relationship, his occasional attempts to do so having only led to arguments, before he finally went on, "is ours. Your family loves you. They will appreciate it for what it is." Having finished his own sparse breakfast, he rose to his feet and began loading the dishwasher that he had reluctantly begun using. "We are not normal," he conceded, "but we are not alone in this. Mara, Yolanda, and their families will be sharing a Thanksgiving meal together today, and they are not normal people either. It will be a...worthwhile occasion." Steve had visited Peter and his family on Gina's behalf when she was otherwise engaged, at least once he was absolutely sure Peter's mental safeguards were in place enough to make sure that he would never know the face of the monster that was taking his sister to bed. As the machine kicked on, he walked into the sparsely-used dining room, mentally reviewing his carefully-memorized checklist for the day. "Now, for the football game this evening, your brother supports the Green Bay Packers. Should we order more cheese in homage to their symbol?"

Temperance's little buddy is able to follow the giant's spectral trail east and south, down towards the trailer park communities south of Jordan International Airport.

Hologram steps into Tonya's mind and finds - You're just leaving work when they come up on either side of you - a short, stocky guy with a heavy brown beard and a woman with jet-black hair and olive skin, both of them dressed for clubbing rather than the working-class streets of Lincoln. The man looks up at you and asks you for the time and then...you're not sure what happens next, but you're beaten up and slashed up, standing in a dirty suburban forest in Kingston. You yell for help, but when the heroes arrive, they and everyone else are speaking a language you can't understand! When Hologram probes, she finds - Hologram's Mind Reading countering is sufficient to overcome the active mental conditioning that is only allowing Tonya to speak Old English, but this will not change her altered appearance. Hologram's DC 25 Well-Informed will let her recognize Medea the sorceress. With a DC 25 check, she also recognizes the man - Unferth is a Scandanavian mercenary and supervillain who affects a "Viking Warrior" theme. He claims to be the historical Unferth from the story of Beowulf, but a lot of guys do that. If every infernalist who claims to have been at the Crucifixion had really been there, it would have been like Woodstock...

Witch from the Future -JK Rowling PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 0 + 0 + 10 + 20 + 10 + 0 = 40 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 10 (+0) CON 20 (+5) INT 30 (+10) WIS 20 (+5) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 8 + 8 = 16 pp ATK: +4 (+10 Magic) DEF: +8 (+4 Dodge Focus, +4 Base, +2 flat-footed) Init: +10 Grapple: +4 Knockback: -6/-3/-2 Saves: 0 + 5 + 5 = 10 pp TOU +12/+6/+5 (+5 Con, +1 Protection, +6 Force Field) FORT +5 (+5 Con) REF +5 (+0 Dex, +5) WILL +10 (+5 Wis, +5) Skills: 56 r = 14 pp Concentration 5 (+10) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 15 (+25, SM) Knowledge (Theology and Philosophy) 15 (+25, SM) Language 1 (English, Future English [base]) Notice 10 (+15, SM) Sense Motive 10 (+15, SM) Feats: 13 pp Attack Specialization (Magic) 3 Environmental Adaptation (Zero-G) Dodge Focus 4 Eidetic Memory Jack of all Trades Ritualist Skill Mastery (Knowledge [Arcane Lore], Knowledge [Theology and Philosophy], Notice, Sense Motive) Speed of Thought Powers: 12 + 2 + 39 + 1 + 3 = 57 pp Device 3 (Flight Suit, Flaw: Hard to Lose) [12PP] Flight 1 (10 MPH/100 fpm) [2DP] Force Field 6 [6DP] Immunity 7 (all environmental conditions, suffocation) [7DP] Immunity 2 (disease, poison) [2PP] Master Mage 2525 Array 16 (32 pp, PFs: Alternate Powers 7) [39PP] BE: Blast 10 (Extra: Autofire, PFs: Variable Descriptor 2 [any magic]) {32/32} AP: Communication 15 (entire solar system, visual and auditory, Extra: Two-Way [+0], PFs: Rapid [x10], Subtle) {32/32} AP: ESP 15 (entire solar system, visual and auditory, Flaw: Feedback, PFs: Rapid 2 [x100]) {32/32} AP: Immunity 9 (Life Support) (Extras: Affects Others 9 and Area [burst] 9) {27/32} AP: Nullify 10 (any one magic effect, Extra: Duration [Concentration], PFs: Improved Crit 2) {32/32} AP: Nullify 10 (any one technological effect, Extra: Duration [Concentration], PFs: Improved Crit 2) {32/32} AP: Teleport 15 (1500 ft/entire solar system: Extra: Affects Others, Flaw: Long-Range Only) {32/32} AP: Transform 10 (1000 lbs, inanimate to inanimate, Flaw: Action [Full], PFs: Innate, Subtle) {32/32} Protection 1 [1PP] Super-Senses 3 (Detect Magic 3 [visual]) [3PP] costs abilities 40 + combat 16 + saves 10 + skills 14/56 + feats 13 + powers 57 = 150 pts ---------------------- Design Notes: Mysa Nal, aka Xola Aq, aka the White Witch, is one of my favorite characters from the Legion of Superheroes. Denied her planet's natural psychic gifts by an accident of birth, she became that rarity in the sci-fi future of the Legion - a sorcerer! Trained on the Sorcerer's World, the last refuge of most Earthly magics in the 30th/31st century, she's been hero, villain, victim and victimizer, and one of the few reliable sources for magic in a world where science has largely triumphed over superstition. So I looked through a few old comics online to get some ideas for the kinds of tricks the White Witch has pulled, and then went from there to think about how a magic user in the far future would operate. First of all, she's smart - much smarter than most contemporary mystics, with a vast understanding of the magical and divine history of the world. This is a product of 26th century educational practices, which have advanced just as much as various other practices. With her high INT and WIS, she can at least try her hand at almost anything. She's a product of far-future medical science, and her enhanced physiology can pretty easily shrug off contemporary diseases or toxins - for a trip back to these primitive times, she had to get her shots! (She's not bulletproof, though, a legacy of mostly fighting big bads like Mordru rather than low-level thugs). One thing she lacks is Comprehend; a downside of popping back to an era when most people don't have access to translators! She has access to super-tech like the flight suit that protects her from harm and lets her fly (without which she is PL 7 defensively), but her primary skill is her incredible magical knowledge. She's designed to operate at a solar system level, augmenting her Teleport, ESP, and Communication with Enhanced Magic earned from frequent use of the Ritualist feat. Her magic is a little generic, but enough to let her fill many niches - she should be able to do _something_ in most situations, particularly against high-tech opponents armed with battlesuits and other far-future gear. It may seem odd that she's good at fighting other mystics, but she's probably one of the few mystic heroes in the galaxy when she's from! Keeps a girl busy. Why is she back in the 21st century? Maybe there's a threat in the future that she's trying to stave off in the _now_ before it becomes a cosmic crisis in the future, or maybe she wants to learn about Earthly magic in an age when it's much stronger than the world she left behind. Her knowledge of the future may be both a blessing and a curse, depending on just how much she knows about our history outside the world of magical affairs. The early 21st century is a good time for Freedom City, but other things are coming. If you don't like the time traveler angle, this works just fine as a Lor mystic come to Earth to investigate what may well be the source of her people's magic...

November 28, 2013 Earth holidays were something Steve Murdock had gradually learned to celebrate during his years living in Freedom City, none having been part of his own upbringing. Some made sense, at least on an abstract level - the religious holidays to celebrate the birth, death, and rebirth of the primary god of the local population, the national holidays to celebrate the birth of the local nation-state, and those that commemorated the beginning and end of the year. His favorite of them all was the day of thanksgiving, perhaps because it was the closest thing to a holiday he himself had had as a child, even if the historical underpinnings of the day were at best an abstraction to the native of the Terminus. He'd spent most of his Thanksgivings on Earth-Prime working in homeless shelters and soup kitchens, gladly giving hot meals and warm beds to those who had fallen between the cracks even of this shining, near-perfect society. This year, however, was different - instead of helping strangers at a difficult time, he was helping someone very close to him indeed. Facing Gina across the breakfast table on Thanksgiving morning, he said, "It is strange to have a holiday together. I like the feel of it." Steve normally worked right through the holidays on behalf of his coworkers with children and families, but had made an exception this year given that Peter Evans was finally well enough to leave his treatment at the Albright Institute and walk safely on the street without fear of disaster. It was an occasion Steve understood only too well. Speaking of the day itself seemed like the safest place for the conversation to go, knowing how tense she was about the holiday reunion with her brother and his family - for all that she'd invited them there in the first place.

The Omega Mob The Australian Federal Police, and many Australian superheroes, know all too well about the criminal activities of Leigh Newman, one of the most infamous Australian crime bosses. From his spacious office in Darwin, overlooking the beautiful Timor Sea, Newman has a finger in every pie in Australian vice - the Italians, the Serbs, the biker gangs, the tongs and the triads, all of them owe a little something to this suspected footsoldier turned drug lord. He's been behind bars a few times, but it's never stuck. Unlike many crime lords, he's not a racist - though he openly despises the "stinking bloody sewer" of Darwin and the "worthless sodding scum" around him, he'll gladly work with anybody to make a profit. Of course, he's also not afraid to sell out his criminal allies-turned-rivals to cops or northern Australia's vigilantes, then move in and take over the newly-decapitated operation once his rival is safely behind bars. The self-described "Omega of Crime" is a short, hairless man covered in brutal-looking scars, and when he smiles his teeth are yellowed with drink and tobacco. Everyone knows he's bent, but general consensus among those who've dealt with him is that the bloody gang war that would result from taking him out would be worse than letting this crude little man run his empire. Despite his crude manner and shocking personal style, peppered with obscenities vile even for an Australian, he's surprisingly charismatic. He's also very fond of references to the Terminus, peppering his speech with gloating talk about how his enemies will all rot in the fires of the Terminus, and adopting the last letter of the Greek alphabet as his personal seal - he's even branded it on his forehead! But Newman is a canny man, particularly when it comes to dealing with American superheroes. He knows they're much more sensitive to talk of the Terminus than Australian heroes, isolated by distance from the invasions were, so he plays "the bit" down when they're around. His footsoldiers, many of whom actually tattoo themselves with the Greek letter Omega, are primarily young thugs addicted to the drugs he supplies them, while his super-agents are heartless mercenaries willing to work for a grotty little man in an ill-fitting suit who happens to be rich. He's currently behind bars after what seemed to be a rare misstep - local Australian hero Larrakite caught Newman after he and his gang kidnapped American 'talking head' Harold Harbing to 'teach him a lesson' about "loving superheroes too bloody much." Newman surrendered to the authorities and confessed everything at his trial; now he runs his empire from behind bars while his loyal lieutenants keep the faith in his absence. He has loudly insisted that the world hasn't seen the last of the Omega of Crime, but frankly Australia's heroes seem to have bigger priorities to worry about. They are wrong. For stats for Newman, use the Crime Boss from page 80 of Iron Age, equipped with the weaponry and armor of from the Freedom City book.

Roll(1d20)+12: 19,+12 Total:31 The giant breaks the Snare! Have an HP, TT - since it takes this opportunity to make a fair escape. Hologram - Give me a Mind Reading power check vs. DC 14.

"Genóge! þu betulde mec! Ic þæs huntunga edgrówunga!" With a mighty effort, the giant strained its tremendous muscles and shattered Temperance's icy barricade. But it made no effort to approach her or resume their dance; instead it flew into the sky with a bellowing roar and heave of its mighty wings, rapidly evading the hydrokinetic as it flew above the roof - and promptly vanished in a rush of wind so icy cold that frosty vapors rose from the space it had departed like a cartoon smoke outline. Temperance was alone, and the monster was gone. - "Ic náhtu acnéow," said Tonya, sorrowfully shaking her head, but she didn't resist or pull away as Paige sat down opposite her and began probing her mind. While the psychic did her work, Officer Petersen put down his police phone and turned to Cobalt Templar and Stronghold with a look of sharp professional concern on his face. "Tonya Morris' appearance matches that of a Jane Doe discovered two nights ago in Wharton State Forest. Black hair down to the waist, blue eyes, and looked like some big animal had been at her before she died. State police think she was a runaway from Manhattan or Newark. No ID yet, either nobody put her in the system...or after she got changed, they couldn't make an ID."

They all piled into the car for the trip across town to Bayview, Paige behind the wheel and Richard in the front passenger seat, Will and his heavily-bundled up sister in the back. The TV cameras were back at home, of course, but Richard had the Nikon CoolPix that even he had to admit was more efficient than the camcorder he'd used to record Will's trip home from the hospital. It was probably for the best Paige was behind the wheel, Richard found his mind wandering back to the past more and more - his son's first steps, his first words, and then his first run at super-speed! And now, off to be a teenage superhero, just like the ones Richard had been fighting when he was Will's age. "Now remember," he said seriously to Will, repeating advice his son had heard from him a lot since they made the move, "if you see what looks like a man made of blue fire chasing you, run and get an adult hero, because that's the Burning Ghost and his hosts are always serious dorks. And don't let any of the other kids try and rag on you just because your mom and dad used to be in the trade. They're probably just jealous your mom and dad are so awesome!" he went on. "Be proud of who you came from, and you'll do fine."

Officer Nancy Lee was waiting for Paige when she walked in, an older woman with a concerned look on her face. "Come in, Mrs. Cline, I'll show you to our victim. Or do you prefer Hologram while in costume?" she asked neutrally. Most superheroes just went by name, of course, but most superheroes weren't ex-villains with their name in the police rolodex. "We have a suspected kidnapping victim who may have been...altered against her will, brought in by Cobalt Templar and Stronghold." She led the way into the 'waiting room' where Tonya Morris was waiting for them, looking miserable as she wrote frantically with pen and paper in a language neither of the women spoke. She looked up at Paige and her escort and said, "Hwæne?" "I've tried to tell her that her mother's on the way," offered Lee, "but she can't understand me, and she can't make herself understood." "Ah, our expert's here," said Peterson, pointing as Tonya's escort ushered a familiar face into the conference room that held Tonya Morris - in her black costume, silver belt, and familiar holographic symbol, everyone knew Hologram, psychic host of popular Discovery Channel show Supercrime! With his knowledge of history, Cobalt Templar knew the TV host was a former villain, now on the side of the angels.

That hits! Roll(1d20)+5: 13,+5 Total:18 It is entangled!

"On it, babe," said Richard with a grin. He was dressed, complete with costume and leather jacket, faster than the eye could see - and with a little help from him, Paige herself was in costume before a woman who wasn't married to a speedster could have gotten out of bed. He took the eyeblink time to actually get the story from her mentally before they left the house, having long since learned the problems with rushing off into danger without proper communication. Geez, poor kid. Maybe we're lucky and the doughnut squad out there doesn't know Spanish when they hear it or something...For all Richard's feelings about the police, though, he was pretty sure that wasn't the case. With the conversation done, he took Paige's hand and stepped outside, and together, as they'd been doing for over twenty years now, Fast-Forward and Hologram ran. It was a second's run across the Narrows to Kingston, only taking that long because Fast-Forward needed to briefly pause to make sure his memory of Freedom City geography was up-to-date: a lot of Kingston had been built up again after 1993! Smooth glass water under their feet, a brief suggestion of small houses and suburban streets, and they were at the front door of the police station. He pecked her on the cheek and said, "Just get me when you need me, and I'll be back here. Love you!" And with that he was gone again into the Freedom City night, with only Paige's connection to his mind letting her follow the now-impossibly fast trip back across the river.

Across town Not long after midnight By after midnight in the Cline household, Holly was long since in bed, and her parents, who were no spring chickens themselves, were in bed as well and winding down with the promise of work in the morning. Despite Richard's speed, Paige was the one who picked up the smartphone first - after all, she was reaching for it even before it started ringing. He looked up from his Book as the conversation began. "Paige Cline? Hello, this is the Freedom City Police Department. We need a psychic's services for an investigation in Kingston as soon as possible and yours is the first name on our contact list. Are you available?" Knowing he had all the time in the world, Richard went back to the book. The light of Corvus, known as Gienah or Gamma Corvi, will cleanse ungodly lies and deceit from the world, but must be summoned carefully lest it cast a terrible thirst on all who burn beneath the Light of Truth...

The police took the still-incomprehensible woman away, bringing the heroes along to get their story and so they could offer what aid they could in this grim situation. In the back of the cruiser, she continued to speak in that incomprehensible language, proving even unable to write in anything other than a florid script that reminded Corbin of Iron Age northern European woodcuts he'd seen: the only thing that came through clearly were occasional clear words like "cops" and "superheroes" and "pizza!" when they went by a neighborhood pizza joint. Kingston Police Sub-Station #8 wasn't exactly equipped to deal with superheroes, but they did have the resources to fingerprint the patchwork-looking young woman. The two superheroes in the small police station attracted a lot of attention; even in hero-rich Freedom City, there wasn't much call for their work out in the suburbs. But the officers were professional, especially with a subdued kidnapping victim in their company. Officer George Peterson, the officer who'd escorted them in, a mustachioed man in his mid-forties, looked up in surprise as the computer beeped. "Tonya? Tonya Morris?" Their victim looked up and exclaimed "Géa! Mec!" before launching into another stream of incomprehensible words. While a kindly older female officer took Tonya aside for some coffee and to contact her family on her behalf, Peterson took the two heroes aside to explain the situation. "Tonya Morris disappeared just after her shift at the Bayview Five Guys last night. If her parents hadn't called it in right away, we might not be looking yet, but we take MP seriously in Freedom City. She's nineteen, going to school at Freedom CC, never been in trouble with the law." He laid a thin file on the station's desk, then looked at Stronghold and Cobalt Templar before saying, "Tonya Morris is a native English speaker who I bet doesn't know a word of...whatever that is. And there's another thing..." He held up a picture of what looked like a high school graduation. The girl in the picture with her bright blue eyes, kinky black hair, and mahogany skin looked almost nothing like the girl they'd found in the woods - it took a close examination to reveal the identical facial features under the off-color eye, the lengthened hair, and the skin bleached chalk-white. "Look, you two are the heroes," he was starting to say, "If that's some kind of Grue in there, or a space robot, I need to get my people out so you can take this lady down..."

Init: Temperance: 21 (+1 HP for being a victim of circumstance!) Monster: 15 Temperance is up.

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