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Avenger Assembled

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  1. Avenger Assembled
    Comrade Frost radioed in from Eldritch's house in response to the central announcement from League headquarters, the League Reserve's magical consultant sounding a little winded from the battle that had taken place near the home of the city's most powerful wizard. "Yes, that fits with our observations. Whoever is behind this, there is no magic in him, only cold mechanical heart. Have you tried contacting mechanical expert familiar with robots? I know Daedalus is dealing with crisis in Far East; but there must be someone the League can call, Dragonfly girl or Miss Americana." He hmmed. "I would have said try and reach Mentor if it were only Star Knight, but this speaks to greater crisis. I will be watchful here. Keep an eye out for Talos and his minions. This is the sort of trick that old creature might try."
  2. Avenger Assembled
    "No, it..." Steve put his hand on the ship's flank for a moment, considering. "This is a short-range craft. Interplanetary, not interstellar. But we know the Curator _has_ such ships, otherwise how could he have attacked your Earth, or taken us from our homes?" Speaking out in public wasn't his strength, but this was an emergency. His mind fell back to what he knew of the Curator, and more what he remembered of dark intelligences with cosmic power and their machine slaves. "A short-range ship has a base. A central base, with more ships, and possibly access to the Curator's processors. This ship cannot return us to Earth, but it can take us to where we can fight the Curator. If his defenses have been weakened, this may be our only chance. We are far from home and we know our enemy has placed spies on our world, among those we love. Fighting him, stopping his plan, that must be our priority." He'd expected Dorothy to look fearful at the words, but her brave nod and snap to attention made his heart twist. "VINCE, can you guide this ship to its home base?" "Yeah, I can," said VINCE seriously. "Looks like...half a day at this thing's average speed. You guys'll be riding blind, but I can get you in the door."
  3. Avenger Assembled
    Looks like plasma, but from what?
  4. Avenger Assembled
    Fleur sees Star Knight struggle briefly then burst into pale green flames! She can see as the faceplate melts away that there was never any person underneath the mask before the armored figure burns away to fragments
  5. Avenger Assembled
    The gathered heroes watched the pale green fire burn away at the giant flower holding the maddened Star Knight for what felt like forever before suddenly the fire sizzled out into nothingness, leaving a charred, but still standing, flower looming over them. At the same time, Fleur felt a strange sensation of lessened weight from inside the flower, and when at last she opened it with all the heroes in the room at the ready, a shower of metal and dust fell out of the opening. The scorched metal parts were only vaguely recognizable as pieces of the super-tough Star Knight armor. It looked as though something had come along inside Fleur's flower, or perhaps had been there all along, and incinerated something tough enough to fly through the corona of a star!
  6. Avenger Assembled
    It turned out that there was such a thing as a universal computer port, or close enough one that it made no difference. After a moment's pause, the various triangular monitors in the control center lit up with a familiar face: VINCE, sitting in what looked like a simplified cockpit, wearing aviator goggles and a scarf over his Archetech jumpsuit. "Well, this is new...hey kids!" he waved. He wasn't the cheerful fellow who hung around with Jill's Interceptors, but time by himself in his drive, or maybe the new surroundings, had taken some of the naked despair they'd seen on his face the first time they'd met. "I guess this is your ride home?" He pressed a few buttons on the 'console' before him, the lights outside flickering back and forth as he did so. "Ah...well, sorry, kids, but this isn't that kind of rocketship. I can fly you back to this thing's home base, maybe tool around on this, hey, ringworld? Neat! Anyway.." He shrugged. "If I'm reading this right, the top speed won't get you to another star for about fifty years, and the computer in here is so dumb it doesn't even know what star that is. Some alien hypertech, amirite?" He pulled the goggles back down and began to fiddle around with his cockpit again. "Can you tell what severed its link to the Curator?" asked Steve, thinking about mindless machines and their cosmic masters. "Maybe, something about an emergency protocol..." VINCE shrugged. "As near as I can tell, the big AI upstairs just stopped sending, so this thing came crashing down.Like I said, the hard drive's about as dumb as a box of rocks."
  7. Avenger Assembled
    As far as Crow can tell, Mr. Archer's voice is legit. He's worried, but controlling himself for the kids. Crow also knows that this _is_ a procedure on the Claremont campus in the event of an extreme emergency, albeit there are supposed to be adult heroes around helping out. Of course, from what he's hearing from outside the campus, there's a reason why no help is coming... Darren's job is a little tougher because his usual social media networks aren't working. While he does get some graphic stories of students he recognizes from Claremont; Blue Jay firing a bombardment of arrows into a crowded group nearby, then being battled by her fellow students, he does get some information from a few people on campus who are posting online when they're not supposed to: they're down in the emergency shelters! It sucks! And some of them are scared,since there are rumors going around of evil shapeshifters from the Terminus on campus.
  8. Avenger Assembled
    We are officially out of initiative.
  9. Avenger Assembled
    DC 15 Reflex save vs. a Rank 5 DMG plasma Burst effect, and we are out of initiative, kids.
  10. Avenger Assembled
    Jill's throat crumbled like tissue paper wrapped around a soda can beneath Willow's grasp, the robot's eyes flaring a searing red again before falling into eerie mechanical stillness. A bare second later, suddenly the 'remains' erupted in a silent wash of pale green fire, a searing bright light that scorched the eyes and skin of those around, burning hot enough to ignite the roof beneath their feet! Those still paying attention could see a robotic skeleton emerging from the ashes, albeit one melting itself like so much candlewax amid the searing white-green fire that had erupted from what had once been, no, what had maybe never been Jill O'Cure.
  11. Avenger Assembled
    DC 25 Tou save for the punch, then another one for the falling rocks (which still weigh about STR 100 to lift, Corbin). Have an HP! DC 20 Reflex save vs hand-flamey death (i.e., flash burns) for the group near the Erin-candle. 23 Mark is fine. Go ahead and post IC, guys.
  12. Avenger Assembled
    "Fine, but we're not done. I'm Power Fist, by the way." The Labyrinth thug helped Cobalt Templar hold up the ceiling, sighing and rolling his eyes whenever people thanked him. "Goddamit, what is _up_ with you genetic norms, anyway?" he asked Cobalt Templar frankly. "I was trying to put you and your friend down a minute ago, and now I do one thing they think is heroic and they think I'm great." When the last of the civilians was out, Power Fist shook himself off and said, "Well, that was fun. Anyway, I've got a message for you to give your friend the crazy screaming girl." And with that, he punched Cobalt Templar in the stomach, knocking him off his feet as giant chunks of masonry came raining down all around them. "Later!" As the pieces fell, the man flew out through the hole he'd made in the roof earlier, just before the entire roof came tumbling down right on Cobalt Templar! - Across the way, a long moment passed as the battered woman struggled against her bonds before falling deadly still. A second later, she suddenly exploded in a burst of pale greenish fire, an eruption of heat that flash-fried false flesh away in an instant, revealing a metal frame beneath that was visibly running and melting like wax in the fire as a wash of scorching heat flash over the small patch of ground near where Erin lay, or had laid: the grass around the scorching cauldron of boiling and running metal had already burst into cheery red flames!
  13. Avenger Assembled
    The news from across the city wasn't good. There was a bad fight in the Fens that was still winding down between the Bee-Keeper, the second one, and a group of heroes amid a scene of blazing buildings and carnage, while some shooting incident at the hands of a Claremont student at a Walsh campaign rally had left behind dead and wounded, including several dead Terminus activists, civilians, and rumors abounded about the iconoclastic Congressman himself. There had been an incident at Providence, now repressed, and a riot was ongoing at Blackstone Prison, where Gabriel and Miss Americana, the last heroes on the scene, were still incommunicado. All they had was word had come out that Harrier, the Omegadrone, had gone mad and been destroyed before he could destroy the reactor beneath the prison. At least in Freedom Hall, the damage itself wasn't too bad, or at least not as bad as it might have been. While people had been hurt by the rampaging Star Knight, some quite badly, by some miracle only the one security guard had died in her last great powering through the building. The same could not be said for her rampage at the courthouse, but one had to take small mercies where one got them. They were certainly glad to see Myrmidon, particularly the injured group of kids from the local high school who'd been hit by a shower of falling masonry. Scared as they were, things weren't so bad that the sight of a hero with first aid wasn't a very welcome thing. In the situation room, despite the holes in the ceiling and floor, Gaian Knight could see the regular status reports coming in from the various branch teams: whatever was going on, it only seemed to be happening in Freedom City. Meanwhile, down below, Fleur felt a faint echo of a concussion, and realized her flower, the one trapping Star Knight, had burst into flames!
  14. Avenger Assembled
    It took a sustained bombardment by water to finally put out the blazing green fire inside the former headmaster's office, leaving the building sodden and scorched in its upper stories. On any normal day, there should have been wild activity all across the Claremont campus, which after all foot for foot had probably the highest concentration of superpowers in the United States. And this was no normal disaster, not with the building scorched and now a healthy shade of glowing diamond along with all the fire and water damage. But the campus was still eerily quiet! Activating their commlinks and tuning them to the Claremont frequency got them Mr. Archer's voice. Or was it?
  15. Avenger Assembled
    "That's not Erin," said Mark, his voice calm and steady in Joe and Trevor's ear through their shared commlink, even as he clung to Redbird's rear seat for dear life. "You know it, I know it, and we've known it from the second she killed that man. Whether that's a clone, or a Grue, or those nanites again, or a robot double, or it's Erin from another Anti-Earth, or she's been possessed by demons, or maybe a ghost, or she's been drugged, or is being mind-controlled again, or anything else, that's not Erin. We're going to stop her, and we're going to save everybody. Just like Erin would want. C'mon, guys. Let's do this for Wander."
  16. Avenger Assembled
    Mark Inspires as a full-round action.
  17. Avenger Assembled
    They headed out towards the city, walking hand in hand in the brave new world Eliza was showing Sharl. He was quiet, almost tentative, but paid attention as she pointed out the sights of the spirit world. "Back where I'm from," he said quietly, in a rare confession of something he hadn't always been subtle about, "we're taught that all this is just..." he waved. "superstitious nonsense. The kinds of things a culture leaves behind when it learns how to fly through space, or the first time it makes contact with an alien civilization. There's nothing like this there, no spirits waiting behind the corner, no creatures from other dimensions. There's just us. And you," he added, with a look at Temperance.
  18. Avenger Assembled
    The ship remained dead even as the heroes approached, a grimly silent black arrowhead laying on its flank amid this copy of Chicago. To Harrier's surprise, a panel on the side swung open at their approach, exposing a darkened interior lit only by the glow of alien computer panels. Harrier studied the interior for a moment, using his armor's sensors to peer closer. "This is an intersystem craft, I think, sent from the Curator's control centers out on the surface of his world. The power systems appear to be intact...and there is a habitable compartment in the rear. Probably for specimen gathering. But there is no master computer." He looked back at the others. "This is all dumb systems. There is no internal guidance, no system to send commands here and there."
  19. Avenger Assembled
    "We, uh, I..." Sharl tried to put his hands on the table in front of him to steady himself, but found they were shaking so badly he couldn't hold them solid. "The Curator is a powerful cybernetic intelligence, one that dates back to before the birth of the Lor Republic, and before Earth people discovered agriculture. He controls a Ringworld structure on the other side of the Galactic Center, a...giant construct built out of the material from an entire star system, with the space to hold thousands of Earth-like planets. His ships go around the Galaxy gathering what he's interested in, unique plants, animals, people...cities..." He swallowed hard, and went on, "Tronik was a special case. We don't know why he chose to digitize the city, only that he planned to use them for experimental purposes in his mainframe. The Centurion captured the unit where Tronik was stored and took it away before it could be copied." He licked his lips, eyes ever on the growing metal ship as it squatted obscenely on the Sanctum. "One of those ships would be enough to fight Freedom City, but since he's here it...it's us, oh God, it's us. It's my fault, I..." He scrubbed his hand over his eyes, obviously on the edge. "That ship is probably full of drone robots and digitization equipment, with an avatar of his that's directly linked back to his mainframe in his home system. There's no intelligence there, it's just programming and a direct linkup to his will. If you guys can destroy the drones and break the subspace link, that ship'll be nothing but a collection of dead robots to add to the Sanctum. Kimber, you and I can interface with the systems in the Sanctum directly the way the others can't," he said with a look her way. "We can go in, stop whatever infiltration is happening inside the Sanctum's systems, or Tronik, and then we can go help the others. We can...we can do this. But we have to move fast. He could be in there _right now_."
  20. Avenger Assembled
    The real story behind the Day of Wrath: Oddball: Copycat Gorgon: Latchkey Kids Schoolhouse Vandals When It Rains Love the One You're With Where the Love Light Leads Merry HAXmas Test Site I Test Site II The End of the World
  21. Avenger Assembled
    OK: Heroes who successfully subdue the Wrathful will note that their targets appear to be extremely advanced robots.
  22. Avenger Assembled
    The Morning of January 15, 2013 The Wonderbus roared through the skies of the Northern Hemisphere almost impossibly fast, the extra-dimensional construction of the craft shunting away the excess heat energy from its hypersonic flight enough to keep it undetectable in the air. They were flying thousands of miles, but the fantastic speed of their craft would get them there in less than an hour. Trying to keep his mind off the crisis of Erde-Tronik, the bioweapons, and the advanced plasma weapon that had nearly killed them all, Sharl had pulled up situation monitors from the computer inside the Bus, trying to keep track of what they'd left behind. "The good news is, the chaos seems to be limited to Freedom City, so it must be something there...I don't know, that bomb was extra-terrestrial, but I didn't recognize the maker. Maybe it's something with the Grue again." At least what they hoped to do with the Sanctum was easy enough. "I'll connect Erde-Tronik to the power supply there and keep it safe until Miss A and I can get it protected. As for the bioweapons, we can just drop them in one of the stasis fields there. It's not a long-term solution, but it'll last long enough for us to keep things safe. We-" A distant beeping interrupted Sharl. "That's the proximity alarm. Maybe there's somebody from the League there already." He tapped a few buttons on the bank of monitors they were all sitting around, the black and white screens looking as much like something from a 60s sci-fi TV show as the high-tech pieces of super-science they were. "I don't understand, there's something on top of..." The great grey vessel squatted over the Sanctum like an anteater scooping out ants, tentacles rising from its lower half scooping away huge chunks of ice even as they watched. The three eyes and slight horn at the rear echoed the face of the Gorgon, but Sharl knew that face well enough from his studies and his nightmares. He saw the details in an instant; the great digitizing towers driven into the icy Arctic landscape like tent spikes the size of buildings, the glowing red 'eyes' that bespoke an active subspace connection across the galaxy, and worst of all, much, much worse, were the smaller tentacles already buried in the exposed roof of the Centurion's Sanctum. His eyes wide with horror, Citizen managed to form the words: "It's the Curator."
  23. Avenger Assembled
    Sharl erupted to life in the Wonderbus just inside the door, meeting Morgan's eyes just as he finished his speech. Sharl didn't know the other boy very well, Citizen's paradigm and Crow's being incompatible on multiple levels. But he knew Crow was a hero and evidently on their side, and as the news from a city gone mad pressed on his electronic consciousness like voices from chaos from another world, he knew their differences weren't nearly as important as what they had in common. He gave the other boy a hard nod and said seriously, "Get someone out to Blackstone. Tell Miss A what's happened. I know she can be trusted, and she'll know what's going on." Then the door slammed shut and systems sprang to life, and as Morgan watched from the outside the bus simply rose in the air with a faint glow from beneath its tires and hovered briefly above his head before vanishing from his sight in a ripple of energy. There was a distant rumble like a far-off jet, and then he and his team were alone with their mystery. Where _was_ everyone else, anyway? - Inside the Bus, Sharl checked on Tronik, then his injured teammates, his face white and tightlipped, before he joined the others in the cockpit. "We have to put Erde-Tronik in storage, and we have to put the bioweapon where no one else can reach it. There's only one place I can think of where we can do both that isn't currently being overrun by those...those things down there," he said, shooting a nervous look at the chaos they were still picking up from Freedom City below even as the city itself disappeared in their rearview. "We're going to the Centurion's Sanctum." As he programmed in their destination, he had a brief passing thought. I wonder who Morgan's mother is. I hope she's okay.
  24. Avenger Assembled
    TV: Yes, though the headmaster's office is still, bizarrely, aflame.
  25. Avenger Assembled
    That's fine, TV
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