Avenger Assembled

Reasoning that his arrival could only distract the criminals before they injured their captive further, and that he was made of sterner stuff even than most superheroes, Comrade Frost went into action without hesitation. Swooping down from the sky, he made his way directly for the sciency-looking monkey with the ray gun: in his experience the weak-looking fellows with the large weapons were the most dangerous in a fight. "Forgive me, comrade, but you are new to Freedom City, yes?" he hissed as he roiled out of the sky, a cloud of freezing fog and chilling mist that rolled over and enveloped the monkey so that only his outline could be seen by those outside. "If you had come as a friend, I would have welcomed you as a man and a brother, but now?" At his words, icy cold seeped into the simian, soaking through his fur and into his muscles. "I am afraid you will find my reception far more chilly."

9 Comrade Frost flies down and attempts to paralyze the nerdy-looking monkey. In his experience, he knows the science guys are nothing but trouble. 19 DC 22 Fortitude save vs. the freezing cold for the nerd-monkey.

Initiative time, SW?

Edge had stopped quipping about the time the deception had been revealed, his eyes hardening at Medea's words. "I don't appreciate being lied to by bad guys, I don't appreciate being used by a fake hero, and I especially don't appreciate being used to bring sacrifices to the dark lord of Tartarus. Let's go," he said, his mouth set. "Medea, frankly, I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, and I'm sure as hell not going to leave you here where no one's watching you." He considered his words, and with an effort made sure to soften what he said next, trying to be persuasive. "Even if you are on our side, who's to say there aren't more bad guys out there hunting you today? You come with us so we can keep an eye on you. Meanwhile, we're going to stop Hades and Jason from hurting anyone else. Even really bad people." And with that, in a flash of his own overwhelming magical energy, the team disappeared and reappeared in the cavern indicated by Medea.

"She's his assistant, Callie Summers?" said Sharl, shrugging a little. "She seemed nice enough, and certainly very competent. You've probably seen her around campus. Miss A thinks she's going to take over if Mr. Summers ever retires." That didn't seem like a likely prospect, given how vital and active the man was even at his advanced age (for a human anyway), but the thought was still there. "Anyway, everyone who looked the Bus over swears it checks out. We'll have a direct connection to the dimensional portal Miss A's building in the lab, so we can trigger it as soon as we're back in the bus with the Tronik database. Not too close to their base," he went on, pulling up a somewhat sketchy holographic map of a town no one on the team recognized. "The base was built in the forest near a town called Branson. Something about it being a big tourist destination, so they could hide the traffic for it there. We'll be going in through the woods, so we shouldn't have to pass through the town itself." Gina had thought that was funny, in a grim sort of way, but Sharl hadn't really gotten the joke.

"Well, we're bringing a full load of up-to-date computer interface technology," said Sharl as he thought over what was set aside for the team. "We have the specs for their system, as much as the Tronikians could give us, so it'll just be a matter of physically interfacing with their system. People inside willl definitely notice something's up, but there's no 'secret' to keep there. It's just a matter of-" He hesitated, caught on to how the others were looking at him, and added, "Anyway! We'll be going in with a stealth vehicle, a heavily-armored one that's designed to stand up to punishment from a mundane army, and that should be able to pass right by most of the sensors we know the National Socialists have around their base. It's decently armed, enough that we can at least fight our way out if something bad happened." Despite all his promising words, Sharl still looked nervous, and when a gesture over the table revealed their vehicle, his nervousness made sense. "Yeah, yeah, it's the Wonderbus, but we got the systems up and running again!" he said defensively as the still-70s themed vehicle turned in holographic display before everyone. "It's freaking powerful! Chameleon cloak from a Lor starship, quantum cascade lasers Miss A installed, gravity engines, a connection to our portal here..." He touched the holo-bus as he spoke, cloaking device in the rear, lasers in the front, and engines in the back all lighting up as he touched. All the upgrades were on the inside, it seemed; it still looked just like a VW Bus to the naked eye. "Summers came out to personally inspect it to make sure it was up-to-date and ready to go. Even brought his daughter, the..." He noticed the girls looking at him and said, "You know, his daughter. They did a full inspection, and she's ready to fly." He pointed a few more times, 'unpeeling' the hologram to show what lay inside. "There's food, there's medicine, there's enough for us to spend a couple of nights there. But with any luck, we won't have to. In and out, save the day, and rescue millions of people who no one else gives a darn about. That's Young Freedom," he said with a little smile. "Anything else you guys think we need?"

With the cow gone, a great stillness seemed to fall over the corrupted town. For a moment the heroes thought the worst, at least until doors began opening and people began staggering out into the sunlight, rubbing their eyes as if they had just awakened from the most remarkable dream. From the growing crowd pouring out of homes and onto streets, as well as the deputies and sheriff sitting up and rubbing their heads on the street, it was as if the town was awakening from some bizarre dream. The heroes, though, who had seen the cost of this bovine nightmare firsthand, knew of course that it had been too terribly real. Whatever the cow had been, fallen divine messenger of the gods, warped alien, or some creature from beyond, it left behind no clues.

Combat is over!

as it is currently bound and helpless, the cow is restrained in Fleur's dimensional pocket...for now!

"I AM NO MAN, FOOL!" bellowed the giant cow in Vector's direction as great gobs of its spit flew in her direction, howling in rage as Tiamat's fangs bit deep. It took a step, staggering, as the rock around it crumbled, but whether through its own growing weakness or the strength of the earth, Gaian Knight's stony grasp held it tight. "Geld you all," it muttered weakly, though still with a voice like a roaring helicopter's motor, "Bring back the rule of the old gods..." It was weakening, and getting a sound thrashing, but it didn't sound like its intentions were lessening any. "When I turn enough, they will welcome us into their world as their divine handlers! It will all be...so very easy..."

That hits, since the thing is bound and helpless and blind. 34 Aw boo a nat-20! It rolls to escape the snare... 28 And completely botches! OK, GK's snare is straining, but still holding. Fleur is up.

Vector is up

bound helpless and blind

bruised again Bruised x4

Frost swirled back into his natural shape with a nod to the feline speedster, knowing from experience it was easier to do such things in a human shape. An unkind thought around such as this fellow, I suppose, but such is life. Perhaps there was some battle at the zoo."I am in city as liason to Freedom League. They are currently occupied. I have dealt with simian transformer before. But Ivanov uses drugs and chemicals, not transforming rays. Sounds more like incursion from parallel dimension, perhaps обезьяна or Simian gangsters. Can you scout area?" he asked Jubatus. "Speed makes reconnaissance easier. Will follow by air." Transforming back into his body of ice and fog, only two glowing red eyes were visible amid the miniature cloud back that drifted up into the air and over the buildings in direction of the attacking simians.

bruised and dazed again! OK, it's at Bruised x3 now. Tiamat is up.

With a fearsome roar, the cow pulled with all its might, the fire in its eyes dimming as it exerted all its Herculean strength against the bonds holding it down. Fleur's vines were mighty, but this creature was mightier still, seemingly drawing on its innate reserves of power to pit itself against her. "No, no, not when I am so close! Demeter's daughter, you WILL NOT CONTAIN ME!" And so with a terrible sound of cracking steel and concrete, the cow tore itself free of the earth, vines and leaves hanging off it now like so much festive decoration. Exhausted by the effort, the cow breathed with a massive exhalation, eying the trio of heroes as it waited for their next attack. "If we had known it would be so easy," it hissed in a whisper so low it made the ground throb, "we would have come here years ago!"

The Divine Cow is up: Fleur's Snare is really tough, and the cow can't do much while restrained. So it tries to bust its way out. The Snare is rank 18, so it has a Tou of 28. 47 Ouch, a nat-20! OK, the Divine Cow is out, but it can't do anything else this round. Vector is up.

8 Ouch! OK, at least until it tries to break the Snare, the cow is bound and helpless.

January, 2013 When the Young Freedom students got back home from Christmas break, or rather found themselves on campus again steadily for the first time, there was a message for them from Citizen, calling them to meet with him at the 13th Floor right away. Citizen had been very busy in the weeks and months leading up to the break, working with the school and his mentor Miss Americana, on the project they'd all signed on for: the stealth mission to the Erde variant where an enslaved city of Tronik was a cybernetic captive of a collapsing Nazi regime. The shiny, glossy headquarters of the sometimes-troubled team looked busy and lived in as the team got there, and Sharl ushered everyone in with a tight look on his face. The various holo-emitters in the main conference room were all playing images as they arrived, familiar images to those who'd taken their other-dimension classes: massive Nazi super-tanks moving across the landscape of a battered United States, heavily-armed and armored German super-soldiers in combat with determined Resistance fighters, and a thousand other scenes of a world at war. Sharl waved his hand to silence all the machines, leaving only the grim images playing out behind him. Without preamble, he said, "We have to go. We have to go now." He coughed nervously, his image flickering, and added, "Over the holiday, Miss A and I made contact with Erde-Sharl and the leaders of the resistance movement in that universe's Tronik. Their Reich is running out of Ubersoldaten, so they're building an army of combat droids to take out the Resistance. Plague weapons, chemicals, anything designed to destroy organic life. And the worst part is, they're planning to use Tronikians as the software. A sentient program can do things even the best non-AI can't, especially when you destroy the sections that allow for emotion and personality." His jaw tightened. "They've already started. Miss A is in New York getting the last of the parts we'll need for a real gateway, but our departure time is tomorrow." Sharl strongly suspected she was watching, but his relationship with his mentor right now wasn't such that he could ask. "A...defector captured by the Liberty League last year gave us the plans for the base in what the locals used to call Missouri, and the other Tronik gave us the passcodes we'll need to get in without bringing all the Ubersoldaten down on us. The school's been cleared on it and we're all good to go...if you all are still in, that is," he added, a little belatedly. He was a little out of breath, but that was what happened when you still thought you needed to breathe: program or not. "Even though we're not going to get in trouble now that the school signed off on it, we are still putting ourselves in a lot of danger."

January, 2013 Young Freedom risks it all for the salvation of a city of computer programs on an alien world.

"" muttered an appalled Comrade Frost from a nearby rooftop, his blue-parkaed form the last thing on anyone's mind as they fled the ape apocalypse before them. "" The veteran hero had seen his share of pacification missions before, but one thing he knew all too intimately was that his powers were rarely suitable for combat against altered civilians. or rather, all too suitable. He jumped from the roof and vanished, transforming himself into a freezing cloud of blue-white mist that roiled down to street level and began wheeling about among the civilians as it searched for the source of the ape infection. As it went, the cloud left behind a trail of ice and slick surfaces, not enough to actually trip anyone but enough to leave several of the newly-primated people (wait, weren't people already primates? It had been so long since his science classes...) shivering in their fur. "" he called out loud in Russian, ""

Sharl hadn't gotten much in the way of helpful tips from Gina when it came to dating Earth girls, so instead he relaxed and watched the movie for a while, thinking about worlds gone away and closer than you might think. There was something vaguely unsettling about the images on screen to his eyes, the eerie 2-D pictures like ghosts in a world already cast ghostly by his holographic nature. Ever since D-Gray's resurrection, it was hard not to see human entertainment and wondering what new image would spring to an all-new, very real life. Maybe all this is just another computer program. When he thought about _that_, he couldn't think of a single reason not to yawn a little, stretching his arms high, and let one arm come down across Temperance's shoulders. "Nice movie," he complimented as he turned to look at her.

"She just wanted to make sure that Corbin was adequately meeting my needs as a...partner," Quo-Dis reassured the others, nodding in Trevor's direction. The Ultiteen wasn't the most subtle of young women, but she could certainly take a hint. "I have convinced her that Corbin will eventually be able to provide me and the community with what we need...should our relationship go that far, of course!" she added, a little awkwardly. There was a silence for a moment before she said, "Anyway, I am told Father approves it as well, which is something, I suppose." She smiled thinly. "The mightiest vril does not make a good father. Only strength of character." With a nod, she headed across the room for the board games. "Have the two of you considered children?" she seriously asked of Trevor and Erin.

That hits! Bruised and dazed! I'll take it. The giant cow is now Bruised x2 and Dazed. Fleur is up.