Avenger Assembled

Steve turned and stared in shock at the new arrival, for a moment completely distracted from his interrogation of Steelgrave. This isn't right! This isn't right at all! Forgetting for the moment that things were awkward between them, he leaned close to Miss A and whispered, "What is she doing here?" Steelgrave's attention was off them both for the moment, the former despot still glaring at Gabriel. "She is supposed to be elsewhere and with her super-team today." "Hey, that's your funeral, Paddy," Steelgrave finally said, crossing his arms confidently. "You think you can handle people jacked up on T-meth and Martinet's Tears, that's fine by me. I'm way down here in my cell so if they rip your arms and legs off I don't even have to see the bloodspray. I know you people like to dress up entropic radiation as some kind of normal superpower, but we all know that's not the way it is. Drugs with T-juice in them are going to be addictive, deadly, and that energy's not going to just go away because someone smoked it up their nose. Equal and opposite reaction, kids."

Before Steelgrave could respond to that, the elevator doors slid open again. "Prisoner 53024 coming in," called a new guard as she escorted in an oddly familiar face. With her hair cut very short and her face oddly young, 53024 was still recognizable as Erin White, aka Wander. Or rather her dimensional duplicate, Singularity. A civilian employee of the prison was walking with 53024 as she returned to her cell, excitedly holding up a watercolor drawing of birds flying over a deep green forest. "This is very good work, Erin, I think it's some of your best yet." They headed by the group with just a glance in their direction, Erin's cell door sliding open to reveal what was almost certainly the most comfortable cell in the psych ward. "Do you want to hang it up here, or leave it up in our studio?"

DC 50 will get the job done there, yeah, KD

"Hey,I know more than you'd think, honey," said Steelgrave, giving Miss A a cutting look. "I know that little victory your little friends had over Omega a couple of years ago? That's not going to last. The Terminus is coming back, and it's coming back _here_, and I want to make sure I spend my last few years in a comfy little cell instead of getting pulled apart on another lab table." He stood up and began to pace, considerably. "Subversion, huh? Sounds like something I'd do. I have to admit, Mandragora may have a prettier face and the Martinet may be a better fighter, but you're not going to find anyone else in the Terminus with my ability to make plans." He grinned at some private joke and said, "It seems like a legitimate plan. Invasion hasn't worked and kidnapping your kids for grins hasn't worked, so why not go in through the back door? A lot of people are open to being...realistic about these things. Especially for the right price." "Yes, that is something with which you would be very familiar," agreed Steve, his arms folded like a cigar store Indian. "But this dimension has proven to be made of sterner stuff than others. The population is proud of their freedom, and will not give it up so easily, whatever promises or bribes you make to the weak-minded among them. What has your counterpart offered them?" "Oh, who's to say?" said Steelgrave with a wave. "Power, immortality, the whole nine yards. It's not that hard to make the kind of chemicals I used to take to stave off old father time. A lot of people will happily make the choice to live forever at a despot's side than die stupidly fighting him. Like your parents did, Steve."

Cyborg With A Power Ring Abilities: 12 + 4 + 12 + 4 + 4 + 2 = 38PP Strength: 34/22 (+12/+6) Dexterity: 14 (+2) Constitution: 22 (+6) Intelligence: 14 (+2) Wisdom: 14 (+2) Charisma: 12 (+1) Combat: 8 + 8 = 16PP Initiative: +4 Attack: +4, +8 Melee, +12 Move Object Grapple: +17, +16 w/Move Object, +24 w/Enhanced STR Defense: +8 (+4 Base, +4 Dodge Focus), +2 Flat-Footed Knockback: -11 w/Impervious, -6, -3 w/out ring Saving Throws: 1 + 5 + 5 = 11PP Toughness: +12/+6 (+6 Con, +6 Protection) Fortitude: +7 (+6 Con, +1) Reflex: +7 (+2 Dex, +5) Will: +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 44R = 11PP Concentration 8 (+10) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 3 (+5) Intimidate 14 (+15) Notice 3 (+5) Pilot 3 (+5) Sense Motive 13 (+15) Feats: 11PP Attack Focus (melee) 4 Dodge Focus 4 Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 45 + 6 +5 + 1 + 2 = 60PP Device 11 (55 pp, Yellow Ring, Flaw: Hard to Lose, PF: Restricted [startle]) [45 pp] Enhanced Immunity 12 (buys off Flaw) [6DP] Entropic Manipulation 15 (30 pp, PFs: Alternate Powers 3) [33DP] BE: Enhanced STR 12 (to STR 34/+12) (Extra: Penetrating [10]) {22} + Super-Strength 4 (Effective STR 54, Heavy Load: 22 tons) {8} = {22+8=30} AP: Enhanced Impervious TOU 10 (buys off Flaw {5} + Extras: Reflective 2 [all ranged] {20}) {25/30} AP: Move Object 8 (STR 40, Heavy Load: 3 tons) (Extra: Damaging, PFs: Accurate 3, Chokehold, Precise, Subtle) {30/30} AP: Strike 6 (entropic weapons, Extra:Penetrating 6 [as DMG 18], PFs: Extended Reach 2 [10 ft.], Improved Crit 2, Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Knockback 3 [Total 15], Mighty, Precise, Takedown Attack [to Takedown Attack 2], Variable Descriptor 2 [any weapon]) {30/30} Flight 2 (25 MPH, 250 fps) (PF: Subtle) [3DP] Protection 6 [6DP] Super-Senses 5 (Danger Sense [mental], Detect Magic 3 [visual], Uncanny Dodge [mental]) [5DP] Immunity 12 (aging, life support, sleep, starvation and thirst) (Flaw: Limited [half]) [6PP] Impervious TOU 10 (Flaw: Physical Only) [5PP] Super-Senses 2 (Infravision, Radio) [2PP] Super-Strength 1 [2PP] Drawbacks: (-0) + (-0) = -0PP None Totals: Abilities (38) + Combat (16) + Saving Throws (11) + Skills (11) + Feats (11) + Powers (60) - Drawbacks (0) = 150/150 Power Points --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Design Notes: Wounded in battle, the great champion lay in agony in his hospital bed. The cybernetic implants had saved his life, but at the price of taking away his psychic powers and leaving him a lumbering automaton. It was then that Omega whispered to him in the darkness of power and revenge, how he could destroy both the hated Psi-Knights who had abandoned him and the Dark Lords who had replaced them. He was tempted, tempted enough to take the bribe of an eerie gold ring that tapped into the power of the Terminus itself, but his hero's heroes, not to mention picturing what his son and daughter would say about this, made him pull back from the brink before he could fall over the edge. Now he has a new home in Freedom City, where he works to fight for honor and justice as he once did in his homeworld, making amends for the failure of conscience that once nearly delivered his entire world into the hands of the dark side. Yes, it's Darth Vader with a power ring, inspired by Doc's Martial Artist with a Power Ring build. I think I captured most of what Darth Vader can reasonably do. He can summon blazing red (or yellow) weapons, throw heavy objects or casually lift men with one hand, or just throttle bad guys with his mind! (Not to death, though, obviously) He can make surprisingly acrobatic leaps despite his massive metallic bulk, take big hits, and if he's concentrating he can casually deflect Blast 5-Blast 8 Blaster pistols with his free hand while sitting down for his nice lunch. He doesn't have a lot of options in combat besides Startle, but his high Sense Motive should keep acrobatic young striplings from catching him flat-footed too often. He can fly his own space fighter OK if he has to, enough to hold his own against enemy NPC pilots thanks to his HP and other abilities. He can also go out into space on his own if he has to! I went with a vaguely techno-psionic feel to his powers here, with a natural Terminus connection, but you could go a lot of ways with this. Perhaps he was an angel tempted into Falling, wearing the infernal ring that once tempted him, or perhaps he formerly was a magician that now wears the ring of the pseudonatural forces he once battled! As written he has no problems with taking off a helmet and breathing normally (though all his powers are implanted in him), adding the device discount and a drawback that it partially buys off could free up a lot of points for you. It's up to you whether you want to bother saving up enough points for a space battleship, and maybe some minions to go with it...

APPROVED

Mark had gone out of the country to finally meet his girlfriend's family for the holidays, and between one thing and another had only recently gotten back into Freedom City. When he answered his League communicator, he was still on Socotran time and wide awake. Sitting at his kitchen table, he sipped the coffee that had been a Christmas gift from Trevor who knew how long ago and futzed around for a few moments with his Liberty League communicator. Midnight Manor had always been the team's gathering place, and Mark had learned from long experience that Trevor objected to people just barging in on him. "Midnight, it's Edge," he said as he changed into his costume. "I'm about to head over to your place so we can plan." He had no doubts Trevor had gotten the message too. "Is anyone else there yet?" With his free hand, he texted back to Corbin, "C U @ Midnite: Edge."

"I will soon awaken him," said Steve, walking over to the cell and smashing his hand against the button that rang a bell inside the cell. "Steelgrave!" he barked. "Get up!" The former lord of the Terminus did just that, starting ever so slightly before yawning ostentatiously and smiling at his former victim. He looked a little rumpled, and decidedly less handsome in prison fatigues than power-armor, but the middle-aged man with the slight paunch looked more like a successful business executive than a gleeful betrayer of ten thousand worlds. "Oh, it's you, Steve," said Steelgrave, crossing his legs and putting his hands on his lap as he looked over at the grim-faced Omegadrone. "Hey, sorry I haven't called, but they don't let me use a lot of electronics in here." He grinned. "So how you've been? What's this I hear about you having a girlfriend these days?" "You have the arrogance I remember," replied Steve, folding his hands behind his back as he glared at Steelgrave. "I had wondered if life in a cell of steel and stone would change you." "What, this? It's nothing, really. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm grateful they didn't put my head on a pike, or just toss me back home so I could get the same treatment from the other, stuffier me? But this isn't so bad. I mean sure, they're still figuring out what to charge me with, but you know there's nothing they can do here that'll be as bad as what could have happened back on Nihilor." He gave Steve a probing look. "You remember, right?" Steve blinked at that, his nearly expressionless face working for a moment, before he said, "The Freedom League has gained evidence of clandestine Terminus infiltration into this world. Drugs. Weapons. Devices known only to those intimately familiar with the technology and culture of Nihilor. There have been...incidents on the street, and in homes. Those in power seek to squash this threat before it can challenge the safety of their community." "Sounds like they have a problem." Steelgrave shrugged innocently. "What does it have to do with me? I'm down here in what passes for Hell in a cell, remember?"

Walsh was just getting warmed up when the microphones went dead with a brief whine of feedback and whisper of static. The Congressman was too much the old-time orator to be put off by such a problem, so with a smile he stepped away from the podium, pointed to his lapel mic, and was about to continue when another voice broke in. "People of Freedom City! We have taken control to give you an important message! You no longer have to be afraid!" The air rippled just off side of the crowd of Walsh supporters as they gasped, the cameras covering Walsh's speech shifting now to show the group fading out of thin air to join the party: a small group of bizarre, costumed individuals whose vaguely inhuman appearances suggested a deep series of mutations. There was a South Asian-looking man in a black jumpsuit whose limbs flexed and curled with unnatural flexibility, a green-skinned fellow in a brown fedora who seemed to be trying his hardest not to be seen, a stern-faced young woman wielding a whip curled around her hands, and the leader: a big, burly fellow with visible gills on the side of his neck. When he spoke, it was clear it was his raspy voice everyone had heard over the speakers. "My name is Hammerhead! These are my colleagues; India Rubber, Whipside, and Mister M. We are, all of us, T-babies! Children of the invasion, blessed with powers that we intend to use for the betterment of the world! And we reject _any_ attempt to take those abilities from us because of where they came from! Have we no rights as citizens? As heroes?" He gestured to the crowd of students behind him, obviously skilled at playing to the crowd. "Are we so threatening to you because of what we are? We have taken a stand together to not be bullied! To fight for justice, and to protect a world that fears and hates us. When we pull people from a burning building, they don't care that we have been changed by Terminus radiation! They care only about what's in our hearts!" A lesser politician would have deployed the police brigade obviously ready to move in on the intruders, but Aaron Walsh was a very good politician. Setting aside his microphone, he spoke in a voice that cracked over the murmuring crowd. "I'm sure your intentions are admirable, Mr. 'Hammerhead', but not all of your fellow T-mutants are so fortunate. Let me remind you, my fellow Americans, that no one is talking about some barbaric fantasy of forcing medical treatment on the unwilling. This is America, if people choose to walk around looking like badly-disguised Grue marauders, they have that right. What we're talking about is saving people. Like the girl in Illinois who nearly broke her neck falling through the floor the first time her mass shunted away into entropic space, or the young man from Louisiana who will have to spend his entire life in a containment suit so he doesn't incinerate everything he touches with the Terminus energy his body is raddled with." From his view on the stage, Walsh looked fearlessly down at the gilled man beneath him, the crowd having parted to let the T-mutants very close to the stage. "Are you so threatened by the idea that some people might not want to be like you?"

AAAH A ROBOWOLF LYNDON LAROUCHE WAS RIGHT APPROVED

DIAMONDS EH? Put down his flight speed and the duration on his Alternate Form, just so Refs can see it at a glance.

I like this concept a lot. All the blood is a little yicky, but there's nothing wrong with a little bit of a grossout factor. I like that you're getting some real use out of Boost, too, as well as the alternate form power. Projection needs more love. You might want to think about giving him some blood-related super-senses, but that's something you'll be able to buy with earned PP as the mood strikes you. His skills aren't that great for a PI, but he is pretty new at this! He probably got punched a lot as a boxer with no Sense Motive, but on the other hand given his backstory it sounds like that actually did happen! APPROVED in bloood reeeeed

Now is your time! :D

"Miss Americana is here?" Steve flushed along his scars at that, putting his hand in his sport jacket pockets. "That is, uh, a surprise." He leaned close to Gabriel as they boarded the elevator to the psych ward, his voice quiet. "Listen, Gabriel, while we are down there, if you could...keep an eye on things with her for me, that would be very helpful. Things have been very...complicated between us lately and I don't want it to interfere with the operation." He coughed a little and straightened up, still looking a little pink along the lines in his otherwise dark face. "This is a very important day for me. You know what it means for me to confront even a shadow of the dark lord Shadivan Steelgrave." He looked away as the doors slid open, letting them on the psych ward level. "It would be...appreciated, my friend." - "All right, I'll make a note of that," said Officer McInnis, frowning as her narrow-tipped marker squeaked along on her clipboard. "Outside of the whistler there, things have been mostly quiet today. 45034 is off getting her art therapy today, so it's just us and you-know-who down here. What can you recommend for anti-sonic material in the meantime? We can get almost any part in under 24 hours." She cocked a finger towards Shadivan Steelgrave, the goateed despot still snoring in his bunk. As she spoke, the desk officer, Officer Johnson, a middle-aged African-American man just beginning to grow a paunch, was just rising to his feet greeting two familiar faces. "Special guests today," she murmured. "Talking to Steelgrave about that Terminus stuff."

Dragonfly + Interceptors: Arms and the Man Blod, Warp, Kit, Blue Jay, and Heraldo: Pale Moonlight Velocity, Jubatus, Silver Spider, and Bee-Keeper III: Time and Chance Gabriel, Harrier, and Miss Americana: These Chains On Me The Liberty League, Cobalt Templar, and Renard Blue: Counterfeit Medications Forthcoming Young Freedom: Everybody Wants To Be Freedom League Auxiliary: Thank You Very Much

Feel free to post. I'll let Ari know when stuff starts happening.

The Interceptors + Dragonfly deal with some problems.

January 15, 2013 Morning West End There's a man in a giant robot suit marching down the street, calling down vengeance on all who have oppose him. Just another day in Freedom City. "Fools!" boomed the voice of the giant automaton, the pilot just visible inside. "Everyone always said old Jerry Craven wasn't ever going to amount to anything, but look at me! I've got a giant warsuit! Now I'm big, and YOU PEOPLE ARE SORRY! AHAHAHA!" He laughed manically and stomped forwards, people fleeing in terror as he made his way from the warehouse that he'd simply walked his way out of, heading in a leisurely fashion towards the sea. His suit was big, towering as tall as the small tenements on either side, and wide enough that he nearly brushed them on both sides as he went. This was a big problem for the neighborhood; one false move in that big suit and the whole thing would come crashing down on the neighborhood!

Velocity, Jubatus, Silver Spider, and the Bee-Keeper III deal with some problems.

There are fewer gun battles in the Fens than you might think. It is true that the neighborhood isn't a safe place to live and that crime is pretty common. But it's also true that there's not enough money floating around to really support a gang, much less a real syndicate operation. For the most part the Fens is where the heavy criminals go to score some cheap pornography or some relatively low-cost drugs. The most violent crime you're likely to see is the occasional giant coin golem robbing the place. Most of the time, anyway. The gun battle inside and outside the decrepit old warehouse had been going on for minutes by the time the first heroes arrived, the conflict between a rough-looking biker gang on the outside and what were (from the gang soldiers visible through the windows and from their shouts) a pinned-down group of Russian mafiya. The two groups traded shots and shouted obscenities at each other, the bikers using their mobility to try and cancel out the cover of the Russians. Normally even so, a half-dozen bikers against several dozen mobsters would have been a fool's errand. If not for the laser cannons they were carrying. "Pew pew!" yelled the leader, a stalwart fellow in black and red as he fired a shot from his massive handcannon that disintegrated a chunk of brick as big as a man's torso. "Yeah, these are the best damn things since sliced bread! The Red Devils are going to take this city back from the Russkies one street at a time, yee-haw!" he ducked as a bullet whizzed over his head, but didn't so much as wobble on his bike as he returned fire into the warehouse proper. The locals, no fools, had long since cleared the streets.

Blue Jay, Warp, Heraldo, Kit, and Blod under Arichamus' watchful eye deal with T-baby problems.

January 15, 2013 Bayview "...and there are even rumors, my friends, of Terminus mutants so powerful that they can enter our minds and control our thoughts, taking away our God-given free will. Now I think the American people deserve the right to decide if they want their children to be in school with Terminus mutants. To be taught by Terminus mutants! Ladies and gentlemen, the truth is that Terminus mutants are very real, and that they are among us. We must know who they are, and above all, what they can do!" Aaron Walsh's rallies are always raucous affairs, the blue-collar Freedom City Congressman being something of a political showman. But something has happened recently, perhaps in the wake of his recent election, that's given the Congressman's simmering anger at the world outside South Freedom a particular focus. "Am I saying we should _abandon_ these people? That we should turn our backs on the _victims_ of Omega? No!" That silenced the crowd in front of him, a mixed bunch of Bayview locals who for a moment looked like they were ready to go beat up a T-baby or two. "Many of you, my friends, have lost family, or friends, to the forces of the Terminus. The wounds left on our bodies, and in our hearts, can't be healed as easily as those fixed up by Dr. Metropolis. The national T-Census will not only help keep us safe by letting us know the strength and power of the T-mutant problem, but it will also be the first step to finding a cure. So that our sons, our daughters, our friends and our family, can live free from the Terminus. Now and forever, I make you that my pledge! No! More! Terminus!" He pounded on the dais and the crowd roared. Maybe this wasn't how they had planned to spend Croatian Independence Day, but Walsh's charisma had swept the audience along anyway. Across the street, a less-friendly crowd, mostly college kids and hero groupies, had taken the other angle. "No more Walsh! No more Walsh! Take your hate back home!" The campus radicals are a plucky bunch to be out here in a Freedom City January for the sake of a protest against one of the most controversial men in Freedom City, bundled up beneath parkas and breath turning to steam. They waved banners high and chanted, "All heroes welcome! All heroes welcome!" The mood between the two crowds was getting ugly, especially with rumors that at least one T-baby group had put a hit out on the life of the Congressman. Walsh didn't seem to fear the danger, though, standing alone on the stage as he whipped up the crowd of his supporters, his wife, son, and traveling party guarded by uniformed Freedom City cops among the honored guests at the celebration.

Gabriel, Miss A, and Harrier get to the bottom of a serious problem. Miss A can tell that it was sonic damage, slowly applied over many months, that fractured these circuits.

January 15, 2013 Blackstone Prison With rumors of clandestine Terminus activity circulating through the city, it was only natural that the Freedom League wanted to interrogate their most high-level Terminus prisoner...and only natural that the most experienced expert on the Terminus would be part of the interrogation. Steve was waiting for Gabriel when the latter arrived on Blackstone Island, standing near the outer perimeter fence in a suit and tie and looking as menacing as any of the prisoners inside. "Good morning, Gabriel," said the former drone, his expression hard to read as he faced an imminent reunion with the monster who had destroyed his life. "Thank you for calling me on this case." With a faint smile, he cocked his hand towards the outer gate where the 'blackguards' were watching attentively at the arrival of the famous Gabriel. "They thought I should wait for you to actually go below. It seems I set off the security system." - Down below, in the ultra-high-security wing where the clone of Shadivan Steelgrave was currently sleeping in his cell, the man in the cell opposite was whistling. Miss Americana had been called in to repair a very high security, albeit damaged computer system; the tough, albeit rigid, circuits inside the cell's door control, among the most high-security in the entire facility and a restricted design trusted to only a few super-geniuses, had fractured into pieces like broken glass the night before. Only a backup system had kept the big impervium door blocking his cell from sliding right up and out of the way. "Yeah, 37042 thinks he's funny that way," Officer McInnis was telling Miss Americana, the stocky blonde rolling her eyes with a guard's amused distaste for a persistent prisoner. "Courts say we can't actually stifle him if he's not attacking people with his sonic powers, and he's been in here long enough to know the score. Nothing says we can't put you in solitary, though, does it 37042? " she called, rapping on the impervium with her billy club and making the whistling stop. "No pretty girls like me and Miss A to look at in there!" The only response was a single, defiant wolf whistle and a wordless grumbling that finally lapsed into silence.

Trawler's tables: Gather Info: Knowledge: Art: