Avenger Assembled

"" suggested Dimitri jovially, half-serious as he probed the young Russian teleporter. "" he said, pronouncing the second-to-last word in his accented English. "" He sighed, and added with a wry chuckle, "" he said with a wave of his hand at the beauty of Freedom Hall all around them. "" He set his drink down with a sigh, and Wisp could see the little flakes of ice floating in it. ""

That'll work! Whatever Mara is doing is solving the problem; she's making definite progress, and should have this situation handled in an hour or two. As long as nothing baaaad happens...

Quo-Dis put her elbow on the table and took Trevor's hand. "I wouldn't know," she confessed in response to his comment, looking wistful for a moment at the words. "My body heals all injuries as soon as they are made. We live on vril as much as on life itself. Now let us count down from three," she went on, "so that we may pit ourselves against each other. "Three...two...one!" She was all strength and solid muscle as she resisted Trevor; her eyes on him rather than their match as they pitted themselves against each other. "You are very fast, Erin!" she called to Wander as she and Corbin competed. "There are few who can stand against Corbin in foosball-battle and come so close to victory!" She gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes at Trevor for emphasis. "Your power is great, Trevor! Few humans could stand my strength so."

Go ahead and give me a Disable Device check, Fox.

A beam of something black and flaming seared from Edge's hands and cut into the flesh of the tentacle monster, cutting deep into its massive flesh without doing any lasting damage. Edge hadn't pushing himself as hard as possible, but that certainly had been no slacking attack. "Unh...it's tough!" exclaimed Edge, having concentrated hard on the attack but only barely done any damage. "Stupid Sharktopus. If we get into an interstellar war over this, I'm going to bake you into fritters and serve you at the next Freedom Day barbecue!" he shouted in frustration at the monster. "Can anyone see if there's an opening in the ship?" he called to the others. "Even if we can't get the creature off the pod, maybe we can get whoever is in there out before everything gets even worse!"

Reflex vs. 22: 21 Booooo. Tou vs 27: 30 Yay! Well, Citizen can't go Insubstantial inside the computer. He's Flying Brick Sharl at this point, using the stats from low down on his sheet. Citizen goes ahead and tries to Bluff her as a move action. I'll spend an HP to acquire the Challenge feat to do it without the penalty. That's DC 25 with Skill Mastery. He'll follow that up with an attempt to punch her. 11 Of course! Another HP...26 DC 29 Tou save.

"" said Dimitri with a wave, glad that Vicky didn't seem particularly concerned with the physical changes that had come with her maturity. He'd known plenty of young people with powers who had let a warped body lead to a warped mind, and it was good to see that the daughter of his old colleague hadn't gone that way. "" As he spoke, he poured himself a steaming cup of hot coffee and held it between his hands, visibly relaxing as the heat from it soaked into his fingers. "" he added, using the old term for Russia's super-soldiers that had been out of fashion for a great many years now. Figuring there was no harm in asking, he added speculatively, ""

Any objection to the use of Harrier's long-updated sheet, SC? If not: Harrier gets a 38 and is not intimidated by Skull-Face. He passes the zombiedrone's startle automatically via Skill-Mastery.

Dimitri had put his cigarette out as he stepped inside the building, having learned that it wasn't worth the arguments with his colleagues during his two months as Russian liason to the Freedom League, however much the small flame comforted him. Americans, so obsessed over the little things, he thought, pulling his parka up around his face as he headed into the building. It was going to get much colder, he knew, but he was old enough that he no longer worried about looking odd in front of young people: when the cooling Freedom City air chilled his bones, he would warm himself and what was it to anyone else? He was looking forward to the meeting today, which promised to be a reunion with an old friend and a chance to meet a new curiosity, and was smiling when he opened the door to see a familiar (albeit much-grown) face inside. "" he boomed ebuillently at the sight of WIsp, and walked right up to embrace the young woman with an avuncular smile. "" he said with a nod. " " he added with a wink.

Rodimus Prime! http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Hot_Rod

There were no more holdouts left in the apartment after the departure of the Mad Maple and the Weather Mistress, a small blessing on what was already promising to be a very strange day. Steve followed them to the edge of the perimeter, the police and AEGIS agents on scene wise enough not to provoke the still-tweaking criminals into a fight near the indifferently-secreted explosives, and watched as they flew away in separate directions with the aid of their respective talismans. With the police calling in an APB, Steve trusted that the job was done and headed back to the building to join Mara and Erin at their work. The basement was empty now but for them when he arrived; Mara and Erin's escorts all having sensibly evacuated the building. There was no cowardice involved, it was simply a safe place to be! Of course, it wasn't any of their jobs to be safe. "Maple and Mistress are gone," Steve murmured to Erin from their position near the door, having kept their distance so as not to disturb Mara at her work. "Police helicopters were in the air, but if they are caught, it will be well outside of our concern. There are heroes enough to handle that. The media present may be a larger concern," he went on. "But so far the authorities have them under control." He'd only seen the trucks pulling in as he'd left, but it was certainly something to keep in mind. Meanwhile, Mara found that the missing pieces of the bombs were all there, secreted away years before her own birth. That meant the bomb had begun to fail, but that did not mean her work was done. Bigeye's chemical components had begun to decay and rats had been at the wiring, but of course that made things no less dangerous, as the several long-dead scavengers (now skeletonized by hardier cockroaches) down below in the cement hole could tell her. Even rotting, Bigeye was a dangerous thing, and the explosive components still had the power to destroy the building itself and scatter toxins across the neighborhood. The loss of hundreds of people would still be terrible.

With his attention divided between drone and skull, Harrier aimed blade at the first and barrel at the other. "I have experience with skull-faced creatures from beyond the depths," said Harrier flatly. "I have better things to do than listen to your whispers, and I find it unlikely that even the designers of this vessel would have been so foolish as to tie their ship's lifecycle to this monster. Surrender yourself or evacuate the area, so that I may concentrate on the more important of unholy abominations." This was a very confusing day for Steve, but even amid a sinking ship and maddening foes he was determined to be true to what seemed right.

At Nick's words, Harrier didn't speak. He turned and walked with almost military precision down the church's well-maintained sidewalk right up to the front door. The reinforced wood didn't stop his armored body for more than an instant as with a mighty heave he grabbed with his armored fingers and squeezed hard, seizing the door in his hands and ripping through the lock that held the double doors together like so much cardboard. A moment later, he flung the double-red doors aside and stormed into the church. He saw at once that Nick was right; this was the temple of abomination he'd heard. And he'd seen places like this. before. He stormed into the sanctuary and caught the gaze of the half-drunk young man before the altar, who bolted to his feet with a terrified expression on his face that the usually gentle Steve found terribly satisfying today. As one, though with the one considerably more fearful than the other, man and drone shouted, "YOU!"

The church is a lovely place with a well-maintained interior, clean bathrooms, and beautiful stained glass windows. There's lots of art on the walls; a dark-faced woman in red embracing weeping children and comforting them: elsewhere a lamb and lion lay their heads down at her feet, here goats and sheep graze contentedly beneath a tree she has planted for them. The sanctuary is clean and bright, racks stuffed with pamphlets on each side; there's even a daycare center behind it well-stocked with toys. There are holy texts in the few pews, and a church library well-stocked. Down in the basement, there's even a fully-stocked kitchen. The church is a hellscape of the mind. Nick can see the titles of the books in the library and they're not pretty; Mein Kampf, the works of Pol Pot, and the Conqueror Worm's grim manifesto share space with crowded accounts of their most terrible deeds, while the section on comparative religion is a recitation of the grimly murderous deeds of all creeds and all faiths with power. The pretty drawings on the walls of the children's playroom show that same dark-faced woman, now with no features save a too, too white smile, lifting smiling children up into her bosom in a red-tinted sky as the world beneath them burns with a cheery flame. This is a place designed to teach congregants, especially children, that the world means nothing, and that its passing will be a blessing. Sitting in front of the altar is the white-haired man in green Nick saw earlier, but he's not praying. He's drinking, and cursing; from the empty beer cans in front of him, he's been at this a while.

Citizen goes on 15

"Sentient Grue are hunted down and killed by the others," Sharl muttered, "there can't be any on the homeworld...right? Do it," said Citizen suddenly, thinking about childhood memories of horror stories about the Grue as well as the grim reality he'd encountered studying Freedom City's history. "Blast it now, and we can deal with the consequences later," he added, thinking both of the in-test consequences and what Mr. Archer might have to say when they were done. "Right now we need to stop the Grue, either from killing us or from attacking Earth again. I'll take care of the engines," he added, "we need to start up the wormhole drive whatever we're doing." And with that, and a decisive nod, Citizen disappeared into the computer banks, his form visible on the many consoles on the bridge as he flitted about, redirecting power to the engines that had brought them there in the first place. Once inside and directly interfaced with the system, he could feel the power represented by the starship's big gun and shuddered. Was this based on a real event? He hoped no one else had had to make this choice in real life.

Hey SleepyCharlatan, one thing: Would you mind switching your Obscure to Concealment 4 (swarm; all visual, Flaw: Partial) [4PP]?

Notice vs. 20: 19 Booo. Edge will go ahead and blast it with his Damaging Move Object. DC 30 Tou save. He'll spend an HP to force it to reroll if it passes the roll.

Use of Restricted items seems pretty potent; I'd probably go with SC's second suggestion.

"Hit with all you've got!" called Citizen, instantly obeying Miss Americana as he rocketed out of the way of Voltage's planned attack the moment the words to do so had left Miss Americana's lips. He dove for the drone and didn't slow down; slamming his shoulder against its midsection like a human football player as he plowed it into the brick wall of the loft apartments across the street from the Goodman Building, driving the robot towards the hard concrete below with all his considerable mechanical might. Got to take it out before it can hurt anyone else, then Voltage can take out Keres 2.0 and we can finally get back to helping D-Gray find a place to live! It was, he was confident, going to be a good day.

Move Action: Aid Voltage vs. Keres (Citizen succeeds on the DC 10 attack automatically) Move Action: Fly down to engage Drone 2 Surge (spending an HP to cancel fatigue) and attacking the drone: 31 DC 23 Tou save for the drone.

Edge put the first contact sheet aside with a curse. Stupid fish-squid abominatin! he thought irritably. If it's not one thing it's another with this msision! "Jubatus, grab that tentacle and pull like your life depends on it!" answered Edge with a short nod as he gestured to the grappled device. "It's not just you and me and Wave-Eye that's at stake here, it's that poor soul in the pod and the hopes and dreams of his people!" Down below, he added in a shout that he hoped would penetrate the water for Wave-Eye's benefit. "Try and hit the source as hard as you can!" he called down to the amphibian beneath the waves. "Go for an eye or a tentacle join, something! Get it focused on us and not on the person we're trying to save!"

Citizen was suddenly acutely aware of everyone there; his best friend, the pretty girl they were both trying to impress, and Mr. Archer and little Eira watching up in the booth. "...can the blast be focused?" he asked the ship's computer, speaking out loud and in English rather than directly connecting to the system for the benefit of the others. "Can you blast the location of the Meta-Mind without sterilizing the entire planet?" It was the first thing that came to mind, and seemed a fairer deal than the old doomsday device's original setting. "NEGATIVE. BLAST CANNOT BE CONSOLIDATED BEFORE INTERCEPTION BY GRUE HOME FLEET," intoned the computer sonorously. "FIFTEEN UNITS UNTIL INTERCEPTION," it added. "RECOMMEND DISCHARGE OF PRIMARY WEAPON WITHIN TEN UNITS TO ALLOW ESCAPE FROM HOME FLEET ELEMENTS VIA INTERSTELLAR PORTAL TO CAPTAIN'S HOME STAR SYSTEM."

Edge Inspires Jubatus, Wave-Eye, and Philo as a full-round action. They get +5 (as per the effects of Inspire) for the remainder of the round. He is down an HP.

"...I am unfamiliar with sorcery," said Harrier after a time as he gazed at the church, his mind obviously far beyond it to other matters entirely. "The magic of, ah, the dead, and of suffering and pain. Curses that burned flesh to the bone, punishments that scorched the soul to ash, and other things worse than those both. I recall she warred with several other mystics of the Terminus, but was as powerful as any, even those who do not stand immediately with Omega." He took a cautious step towards the church, just one, steeling himself to either flee or attack. "If this were Nihilor, then at their age they would be young men who have killed in their tens of thousands in Omega's name. Here...I do not know. That someone could be here[/i, and want that tells me they are sick in mind or have darkness in their souls."