Avenger Assembled
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Citizen led the way through the oddly quiet halls of the administration building to Summers' office, where the headmaster greeted all the students with a grim look on his face. "Come, sit down." Summers' office was quiet and secure as always, the intimidating presence of the man himself among bric-a-brac and the artifacts of a long life well spent cast among bookshelves the only thing that wasn't comforting about the room. "Tell me everything. I need to know all the details of your mission." For his part, Sharl left nothing out as he told the story, still securely holding the Erde-Tronik's storage unit on his lap as he spoke. He was obviously eager to get out of there and get back to Miss A's laboratory, but he was a good student and trusted his headmaster. He grew more and more uncomfortable as he spoke, acutely conscious of Summers' narrowing eyes as he spoke about bioweapons and recovered Erde electronic consciousnesses. "Maybe we bent the rules a little, but all in all it worked out for the best. Glace's people are going to try peaceful coexistence with the humans of Erde, and if they do hook up with the Canadians Kimber met, they'll be in a good position to fight Nazis without taking on the entire human race. We saved twenty-five million, eight hundred thousand and fifty Tronikians, too, which is certainly none too shabby." He smiled, growing more and more nervous as Summers glared at him. "And we pulled out a big stockpile of bioweapons, which will save thousands of lives in the long run on that planet. It, uh, it really went well..." He suddenly wished Miss A was there, and tried to contact her even as he spoke to Summers. "Sir, is everything okay?" "No, I'm afraid it isn't," said Summers, almost baring his teeth at Sharl. "You see, while you were away, I learned some very interesting information. It seems that there are _infiltrators_ active in this dimension and in Erde, posing as superheroes but actually working as agents of the _Terminus_. I happened to learn of a plot just this morning by one of their agents to smuggle a biological weapon and electronic warfare agents directly into this very school, brought to me by someone I trust more than my life." Suddenly, Summers reached beneath his desk and came out, whisper-quick, with a big, lethal-looking sci-fi raygun that he pointed right at the city in Sharl's lap. Sharl's eyes went wide and his muscles tense as he recognized a magnetic blaster! "I don't know how you replaced my student, monster," Summers rasped, "but we'll find out under interrogation. As for your stockpile of computer viruses there, we don't need them." His finger began to tighten on the trigger. All at once, Sharl moved like lightning, passing right through the Tronik unit on his way up. It fell back onto the seat, protected by his body from the gun. His eyes wide with panic, he yelled "No!" He shoved his hand through Summers' weapon and further on, deep into the old man's midsection. There was suddenly a great crackle of electricity in the air as sparks erupted from Summers's eyes, and with the scent of burning meat and electronics, he fell lifelessly and bonelessly to the floor as alarms began to blare.
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Tona shook her head as she watched El Heraldo and Warp try to stop a brawl from breaking out on stage. "Hold my things," she told Sam, handing the other girl the notebook and pen. "Someone's got to give these folks some perspective." Tone retreated further into the alley and pulled off the messenger bag she'd taken to wearing everywhere. Inside was a tightly rolled Claremont jacket that she pulled over her long-sleeved shirt, a mask that settled easily on her face, and her bow and quiver all rolled up for maximum storage. In a few moments Blue Jay was standing there, and in another few moments Blue Jay was scaling a fire escape up a nearby building. Soon after she was standing on top of the building, bow in hand, leaning on the lip of the roof. She raised her fingers to her mouth and produced an ear-splitting whistle her father had taught her, which cut easily through the distance and the wind and the talking on stage. "Congressman Walsh! Heroes and citizens of Freedom City! I want to tell you something. I... am a survivor of the Terminus. "I was born there, raised there, and had the great good luck to escape to this happier place. I'm learning, slowly, how to live here and how precious life can be. I'm learning to defend it, all of it! And so Congressman Walsh, as a citizen of both Freedom City and the Terminus I cannot support your plan to register the Terminus mutants." In one smooth motion she'd drawn an arrow and nocked it. "It doesn't go far enough. No one will ever be truly safe as long as the stain of the Terminus is on this planet." And she loosed, straight towards Whiplash's heart. The arrow went through Whiplash's chest and pinned the young woman to the wall behind her, eyes rolling back in her head and bleeding from the mouth as she died on television before a horrified crowd.
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"Oh, jeez!" Seemingly blind to the gecko making his way up the surface of his big armor, Jerry bent his massive metal frame down over the smashed Pitchoo, bringing his glass-domed pilot's capsule to within just a few meters of ground level. It was tough to tell if he wasn't paying attention, or was just that thick. "Man, I really smashed this thing up. Oh man, was this the Pitchoo? Sweet. Hey, I wonder if I could bring down the Raven's jet too! That would be totally wicked!" Police bullets from a few exceptionally fearless STAR Squad officers were beginning to bounce off his bulletproof glass bubble, but Jerry didn't seem to notice. "He must not even have been in it. That's good, because now he'll suffer knowing I broke his ride! Hah-hah-hah!"
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ic Counterfeit Medications (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in City Center
Down below, the meeting was indeed taking a sinister turn as Midnight and le Renard Bleu listened in from their clandestine location, their data relayed to the heroes upstairs. Jonathan Grant had entered right at the hour of nine and was in a sour mood, though not directed at anyone in the room. They were too much his loyal toadies to attract his notice. His bodyguards had swept the room for bugs, but luckily they hadn't quite done a thorough job. "Now that our technological partners have failed, it's up to the biologists and chemists to do the heavy lifting. As usual!" He looked around at the junior executives, his executive's blonde crewcut almost a halo in the light from the big floor-length window behind him. "What's our progress on production?" One of the junior executives, one of several nearly-identical looking young men in red polo shirts and black slacks, said, "Street-level distribution is at 80%, which is well within our current expectations. We should be outcompeting most non-syndicate dealers of zoom and max within the next 12 months, and most of the syndicate distributors are already buying from our front companies. The black market will be ours by 2014." "Good, good." Grant drummed his fingers on the table. "I'm concerned about what we're doing with the vaccinations. Too much close distribution is just going to give us outbreaks of T-babies at every hospital and school, and not only is that going to get traced back to us, setting a neighborhood on fire is going to be very bad for business. If we expand our push out through the free clinics and the HIV test sites, we can still get full distribution without endangering our operation. Or the general public, aka our cash cows!" he added with a laugh. -
The deed isdone! JoAB! is up
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"It was really...messed up, like there had been a battle there. And bodies." Quickstep looked away, scrubbing her hands up and down her arms. "I didn't know about any of the underground stuff that, um, Wander and Jill have been talking about, but I used the emergency shelter in the administration building and ate up all the food there, and I opened the vending machines in the cafeteria. I tried to sleep in my bed the first night, but it wasn't...it wasn't good.That's where I saw Dr. Stratos, when he was flying over-" She saw the looks on the others' faces and went white, covering her mouth. "Oh no, did I forgot to say that? I'm sorry, I just, I just forgot..." She swallowed hard. "He was flying around yelling, trying to call out Bolt or Captain Thunder, so I hid in the administration building and he flew away." For his part, while the others talked, Steve walked around until he found an abandoned city bus parked alongside the road like it had always been there. "The keys seem to be in the ignition," he called to the others as he worked, "but the gasoline tank is empty." The bus was intact, with even its windows still holding out. "If we siphon gasoline, we will have a working ground vehicle as well as accommodations in the air."
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Tou vs 23 for the bike: 19 The bike is smashed, being a minion's equipment! The biker falls off and takes damage... [urhttp]And is unconscious SILVER SPIDER IS UP NEXT, ONCE JUBATUS POSTS
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ic Counterfeit Medications (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in City Center
"Okay, well, sounds like we've got a plan..." Mark missed cues about a lot of things, but he could feel the tension in the room like he could cut it with a knife. "Look, we'll forget about me sneaking in. I'll be with the powerhouse group while Midnight and Renard do their thing," Nice costume, by the way, Eve! he thought in her direction when he guessed her mind was turned his way. "I suggest we start on the roof," he said, pointing to the big wide roof of the Grant building that towered some twenty stories above all the neighboring buildings. Like any amateur historian, Mark was no fan of the giant glass boxes that had replaced urban architecture after World War II even in Freedom City, but in this case the sheer size of the glass tower would work to their advantage. "The meeting is just a few stories down from the roof. While you guys infiltrate, we can keep our ears open..." - The next morning, after just a few hours sleep, Edge was in costume and hanging out on the roof of the Grant skyscraper with Wander, Cannonade, and Cobalt Templar. He was in his subdued stealth costume, such as it was, the dark gold and blue he wore only about as bright and colorful as a Blue Angel jet fighter. They all had their commlinks open as Trevor and Eve did their thing, the meeting below was just a few minutes away from starting. The inside of the big corporate skyscraper was bustling and excited with the start of the business day; office workers were finding their cubicles, Bob the Breakfast Guy (if his cart could be trusted) was selling hot egg sandwiches in the lobby, and soft Muzak was playing down on the radio. The junior executives were filing in down in the small, wood-paneled meeting room where the big get-together was supposed to be held, talking in hushed whispers about the boss' new project. Between one thing and another, it was a tense morning. -
Looking back, the results weren't quite what Velocity might have hoped for. Only one of the bikers was down, having somersaulted right off his bike and landed hard enough on the pavement beneath to knock the wind out of him. She'd hurt another one, at least badly enough that he'd had to toss aside his cracked helmet, but the rest were still on their bikes and ready for action. Maybe whatever had empowered their weapons had empowered them too, either way, there was no denying that all but one was still in the fight. "Yee-haw, we've got one who wants a race!" yelled the leader, who'd lost his helmet in the affray. "Come on, boys, let's show how we can really move! HELL ON WHEELS!"
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We've talked this out; these complications might be appropriate later (if only for her own protection; it's not that Summers doesn't trust her, but rather he knows how _dangerous_ Sin is and how he might move against the girl...) APPROVED
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"Aaah! Don't sneak up on me!" yelled Jerry, his booming robot voice sounding distinctly fearful at Geckoman's approach. "I'm very on edge right now!" He made as if to throw the bus at the Pitchoo, but couldn't make it: Geckoman's well-timed magnetic charge had pinned the big vehicle right to the giant fingers of the suit. "Aaah...man, what the heck!?! My mother was right about city buses!" A moment later, with sheer speed that belied the bulk of his massive armor, he stepped forward and his other fist came down like a gigantic hammer on the Pitchoo, instantly smashing the flying craft directly into the pavement beneath with a sickening crack of crunching asphalt and broken metal. Not for the first time in his career as Geckoman, only Chris's sticky hands kept him from being pulped like the insides of a dropped egg, but looking at the giant warsuit _through_ the now-cracked open roof of the Pitchoo, it was pretty clear they'd need a different strategy.
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OK: With his efforts to dislodge the bus defeated, Jerry goes ahead and swats at Geckoman. 26 Nat-20, whoops! His stats are here: OK, well, that's a DC 40 Tou save for the Pitchoo with the Pitchoo? Um. I think it's dead, Jim. In any event, I'll subtract the Pitchoo's Tou and say Chris only needs a DC 26 save. Geckoman: 24 Jack of all Blades: 24 Dragonfly: 20 Willow: 8 Jill O'Cure: 7 Jerry: 2 Geckoman is up. Maybe down! But up. So as I don't forget, Dragonfly's Knowledge: Technology gives her the following:
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Reflex vs. 28: 14, 17 Bikers 1 and 6 FAIL. Their Tou saves: 28, 23 One stays up, the other one goes doooown. Jubatus is up.
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It wasn't until all the partings had been said and they were all on the Wonderbus that Sharl actually put his head down on the panel before him and started laughing. "We did it! I can't believe we did it! All these months of work, and we pulled it off!" He hugged everybody, well, except Kimber, and mostly just clapped Koshiro on the arm before he took his seat in the 'pilot's' section, leaving Mali to actually drive the bus proper. "Don't worry, I'll let Mali actually drive the thing," he joked, before flipping the glowing toggle switches that opened up the new dimensional gateway. "So long, Erde! Hello, Freedom City!" But, of course, it wasn't quite that easy. The muddy Missouri field they'd left behind faded out, but was replaced not with Freedom City but with whirling blue and white ripples, coiling back and forth against each other, that were hard to look at directly for too long. Sharl didn't look too worried, "It's fine, guys, don't worry, it's just some dimensional interference as a result of mu-axis slipping!" he called cheerfully over the vibrations that were now shaking the Bus. "It just means we can't go directly back to Americanatech! We'll have to put down at the secondary launch site, which just happens to be..." He pressed a few more buttons and with one last rippling rumble, the dimensional vortex around them collapsed. Outside the windows of the Bus were the very familiar confines of Freedom City, and one corner of it in particular: Claremont Academy! It was a quiet-looking Tuesday in the middle of January, the campus quiet and peaceful around them as the doors hissed open with the faint creak of old hydraulics.
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"Sure," said Sharl readily, though part of him was worrying that Eliza was going to try to convert him or something. Learning that she and her family viewed their interaction with extra-dimensional intelligences through a magical paradigm had nearly put him off dating her entirely, but then he'd done some hard thinking about how stupid it was to throw someone over because of how they saw the world. He'd spent his whole life, up until he'd left Tronik, with no idea what the real world was like; what if his friends had cut him off for that, or if Miss A had never given him any freedoms of his own? Besides, she was really pretty, and it wasn't as if her problems weren't real, she just wasn't looking at them right. Besides, those creatures she always talked about sounded interesting, and she certainly was interesting herself. "Do I need to bring a battery?" he joked.
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OK: These are tough baddies, so let's use this, riding motorcycles with Speed 5. Initiative for the six of them 1d20+8 → [19,8] = (27) 1d20+8 → [14,8] = (22) 1d20+8 → [20,8] = (28) 1d20+8 → [9,8] = (17) 1d20+8 → [19,8] = (27) 1d20+8 → [14,8] = (22) Yowsa! So that's Velocity: 64 Jubatus: 45 Biker 1: 28 Silver Spider: 27 Biker 2: 27 Biker 3: 27 Biker 4: 22 Biker 5: 22 Biker 6: 17 Bee-Keeper III: 17, boo Velocity is up! Velocity, those guns look _deadly_. They're definitely energy weapons, and high-tech ones at that. The writing on them isn't in English or any other Earthly language. They certainly look like deadly ray guns from space!
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Most politicians would have started to get uncomfortable with all the powered people on stage who didn't like him much, but Aaron Walsh so far stood as patiently as a rock. He reassured Warp, and the crowd, with, "Genetic discrimination has been illegal in this country since 2009. We don't lock people up in America because of a birth defect." "How dare you!" interjected Hammerhead. Standing this close, Warp could see that Hammerhead and the rest of his T-baby gang weren't that old. Even Mr. M, the oldest of them, didn't look like he was much older than Kat herself. "How dare you call our gifts defects! I'll have you know we are all superheroes! India Rubber here just saved a little boy from a burning building in the South Side last week, and I myself fought in the Deep One invasion! You're nothing but a small man who wants to pull the rest of us down to your level with your little mind games about Terminus powers!" "Son, for you to be above me, I'd have to be beneath you," said Walsh levelly, his voice beginning to sharpen ever so slightly, like a knife being drawn. "Is that you think your powers do? Put you above normal people? Are you really standing here, in Freedom City, telling these people that your costume and your superpowers make you their better? Because I met the Centurion, 'Hammerhead', and I don't think he'd approve."
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Steelgrave shrugged. "Suit yourself, big boy." He took a seat back on his bed, still studying Steve. "You know, Steve, you surprise me," he said conversationally, turning back to the former Omegadrone. "You grew up in that little hovel in the Black Ghetto, you've actually seen what entropic drugs do to proles. You remember that riot when the cruciform toxin leaked out and addicted that whole block?" From the look on Steve's face, his eyes narrowing and jaw setting, he certainly did. "I thought you, of all people, would be the most upset about this leaking out. Or are you just inured to all the horrible stuff by now?" "So you were watching me. I suspected as much," replied Steve evenly, staring through the 'glass' at Steelgrave as his metallic voice became a cold, distant monotone. "Grim as the cruciform madness was, I have seen as much and worse. You, of all people, should know that. I have faith that the defenders of this dimension are wise to your schemes, as they have been so many times before." "Hey, not _my_ schemes, not really. If my double is here, though, by all means track him down and give him my love. You have been looking for the power emissions from his suit, right?" asked Steelgrave ingenously. "45.2 in the entropic band, with the magnetic overlay?" Steelgrave's armor was built almost entirely around manipulation of electromagnetism.
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Arranging the date hadn't been easy for Sharl, given how busy his schedule was with activities he couldn't discuss with Eliza, even if he did really like her. But he liked Eliza and wanted to spend time with her, and the chance to take his mind off other dimensions and electronic liberation. He took the bus over from Miss A's laboratory, having gotten her begrudging consent, and was right on time when it came time to see his girlfriend. "Hey, Eliza," he said, walking over with his hands in his pockets. He knew that Earth's climate was being significantly distorted by primitive fossil fuel byproducts leaking into the atmosphere, but though it made him feel a little guilty, the warm January day was fairly comfortable given Tronik's unique weather patterns. With his projector on and his systems connected to the world, he looked as normal as anyone else. He leaned down and, taking a chance, and kissed her. What the hell, who knew where he'd be a week later? "Nice to see you again. So, I was asking around, and I heard if a girl is offering to take you somewhere you've never been before, it's really cool." He grinned.
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Time and tide waited for no man, as it turned out, or rapidly incoming super-geniuses. The giant armored suit and its absurdly tiny pilot finally did come to an obstacle, a city bus which had been delayed by the traffic jam of panicked flight away from the giant machine just a little too long. "Hey! You people better get out of there!" said Giant Jerry over his suit's tinny loudspeakers, reaching down to pinch the bus between his suit's massive fingers as the doors flew open and people began fleeing for their lives. "I want to see how far I can throw this bus! Maybe all the way over the river! That's what you can do when you're BIG!" He laughed manically and began to straighten up, bus still in hand. Flying close on her way past the roof, Mara had a bit of a start at the sight of the giant suit, which actually closely resembled some sketches Steve had done for her of Terminus technology. But this was not the giant mechanical murder-armor he'd described, rather the big black and red powersuit, looking almost like an angry insectoid humanoid with its compound eyes and spiky metal body, was almost like a child's drawing of the deadly Terminus warmechs she'd seen. If someone had taken those pictures of those genocidal monsters of steel and dialed them down enough that they could safely fit inside the confines of a children's book, Jerry Craven's giant armor would be just about right.
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Initiative time! TV, looking at your last IC post, did you want to try a Technology roll to try and figure out where the guns came from?
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"Hey, you out there!" came an accented shout from inside the warehouse. A mafiya member could just be seen, peering out the window with his gun in hand and tracksuit looking a little the worse for wear. "Those guys are crazy! They have guns that they got from some dealer from another dimension! Watch out for them!" A shot from one of the half-dozen whirling bikers drove him back inside, the Red Devils looking unintimidated even by the arrival of superheroes. Indeed, from the maniac grins on their bearded faces, it looked almost as if the Hells Angels-lookalikes had been counting on this very thing. "C'mon, boys!" yelled the leader, revving his bike and zooming towards the new arrival. "You want to see where we got our guns? How they work? Well, let's show him how the Devils BURN!" And the fight was on!
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ic Counterfeit Medications (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in City Center
Down below, with a map of the headquarters of Grant Conglomerates on their tabletop, they began making plans for their infiltration of the meeting. Trap or not, a threat from the Terminus was well-worth taking seriously. The easiest course seemed to be to send in multiple fronts; Midnight and Sage would make their way into the building stealthily, Edge would simply walk in wearing a casual disguise and pass himself off as an employee (Mark's talent for talking his way out of trouble was even greater than his ability to find trouble), while the powerhouses waited in reserve to burst into the meeting if the evidence of crime and Terminus infiltration did prove to be accurate. "OK, this all seems straightforward enough," said Mark as he looked over their plans, having learned enough in his years with the Liberty League and Young Freedom to actually be able to follow conversations like this. Something seemed awkward around the table, particularly with his two friends Erin and Trevor, but he knew how private they both were and despite some worries tried to focus on the tactical planning. We can sort their relationship out later. Things have got to be okay! They're always so good together... "Weird that we all got the call," he said, trying to change the subject. "You know, I wonder if Trawler heard about what happened on Graduation Day and thought we could handle the Terminus fine ourselves? That's got to be it." -
They flew a few dozen miles into the deserted landscape of this alien New Jersey, then landed along the interstate to briefly reconnoiter. There wasn't much to see; though there was no devastation from the abortive Terminus invasion this far inland, the area was still almost entirely deserted. Reaching Philadelphia by nightfall, they made camp near a grocery store in the western suburbs. As he was the most familiar with the Curator, albeit only at one remove, Harrier did his best to explain to the others what he thought the Curator's intentions were for Freedom City. "If he has taken us here, it is for purposes of his own. I think it is no coincidence that he took that Freedom City as soon as we learned that we were in his hands. He took it to find us, and when he does not find us, he will go hunting. Whether for destruction or alteration, we cannot allow ourselves to fall back between his fingers." Steve had also done more thinking than almost any of them about the consequences of being hunted by cosmic forces beyond their control. He stared into the fire. "I suggest we head west, towards the mountains of eastern North America. Even if this copied version of Earth has no animal life, there will be both wild plants and untapped stores of food there for us to use. And the terrain will, for the moment, keep us beyond the Curator's vision." "How do we get back home, though?" Quickstep asked, looking around at the others. "I've...I've been here longer than you guys, and it...it sucks!" she said with a scared laugh, a girl putting on a woman's bravery. "I'm sure my mom and dad must be going crazy looking for me..." "There are ways," said Steve, looking guiltily down into the fire at Dorothy's words. "There must be a vacant ship left behind in a super-team headquarters; perhaps the Defenders in Chicago or even the Champions in Los Angeles. We can at least move fast enough to get off this 'map' and find another civilization that may be able to help us. And eventually they will come looking for us. Those we have left behind, those we love...will not forget us." He looked up at the blank sky overhead, still darkened by the artificial cloud cover layered over the surface, his lined eyes blinking. The next morning, after another night under the dark, moonless, starless skies of the Curator's world, they were left with the problem of travel. There were a great many of them, and only two could fly, only one of them particularly fast.
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Walsh moved quickly and efficiently to take back control of the rally, shaking Heraldo's hand with a solid grip for a man so old and with a firm, ready smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, young man. I've heard a lot about you from my colleague Sra. Fonelladas!" He put his arm around Heraldo's shoulder and waved as the cameras flashed, smelling faintly of an expensive cologne. Despite the close proximity of potential super-terrorists and the media, the Congressman wasn't so much as sweating. "You know how you can help me right now?" he went on, walking Heraldo off the stage in such a way that would make the defender of Puerto Rico get into a shoving match with a much older elected official if he resisted. "There are a lot of civilians and police officers down there who could use a superpowered backup right now," he said, pointing to the crowd of spectators who were watching the discussion intently, and not without some hostility. "We don't want this to get ugly." When that was done, he turned back to Warp and offered her his hand. His eyes and voice were gentle but firm, his manner paternal. "It's nice to meet you, young lady. Come down and join us, won't you? I heard you go by Warp. My name is Aaron. What's yours?" "She doesn't have to answer your questions!" barked Hammerhead, waving a meaty finger in Walsh's direction. Walsh faced him down fearlessly as they squared off. "There is nothing wrong with a super-person taking a super-identity! Especially if they're part of a feared and hated minority like T-babies!" "That's such an ugly word, don't you think?" replied Walsh suddenly. "T-Babies." He faced the crowd, but didn't take his attention off Kat either. "These are our children, my friends. Our sons, our daughters, and though they may have been tragically altered by the Terminus they are not the children of Omega. My friend here would have you believe we should abandon them. Abandon our responsibility to the victims of the invasion, and cast them to the winds of fate and mutation." Up close, Warp and Heraldo had both been able to see that famous scar along one side of the Congressman's face, the wound along his jawline that stretched up into hair permanently white. "I say, never. This is Freedom City. We will never turn our backs on our people."