Avenger Assembled

"Hey folks," said the man inside the plane sociably as he stepped out of the plane, his hands raised in the air. He didn't look terribly prepossessing at first glance; his pale face looking worn and sagging with hard use, his black mustache drooping and wan, his body a little tubby and out of shape inside black and red leather clothes that might once have been fine before what looked like a scorching and beating had taken place. But he was smiling despite that. "Thanks again for the rescue, I really do appreciate it. And just for the record, I surrender myself entirely into your custody. You can do with me what you want." Bowman swore explosively and notched another razor-edged arrow, aiming it directly at the figure's left eye. "That's-" "Hey, hey, come on, you want to waste all those arrows you used on the drones, Bowman?" said the man reassuringly. "As you were saying, I'm Shadivan Steelgrave?" said the figure from the plane as he stepped out onto the soil of Earth-Prime, having the grace to look embarrassed. "That's really a matter of perspective..."

When the pretty girl's friend moved off, Sharl made his move and walked up to Eliza's booth. The Tronik teenager was dressed like a human clubgoer for once, his usual trenchcoat reprogrammed and shaped to look like a black hoodie and Miss Americana T-shirt. "Hey there," he said with a little nod, trying to play it cool like he figured Koshiro would. "I'm Sharl. I don't think I've seen you around here before." Of course, this was Sharl's first time at the club, having decided to go out on one of the nights he was at Miss Americana's place and technically didn't need to follow Claremont's curfew.

After a moment's pause, the door to the spaceship irised open and the man inside leaned out. He was hard to make out from that high up, wearing black and red clothes that looked like leather, his face half-hidden by the vines that shrouded the spaceship. "Thank you!" he called down below. "I never realized just how threatening drones were until a couple of thousand were chasing my ship! I was getting worried I'd have to armor up before you guys got out here, and that would have looked pretty bad, huh?" He laughed, sounding happy to have avoided such a disaster. "If one of you could lower this thing down so I can get out, that'd be great. I'm not exactly what you'd call Zandar material"

Bowman didn't need to be told; firing off several deft headshots via razor-tipped steel arrows that instantly struck down the last few Omegadrones like bolts from the blue. "Looks that ship's been through Hell," he said, carefully approaching the fallen Terminus craft. And indeed it had; the commuter-jet sized craft was burned to sizzling brown metal along one flank and scored in a dozen different places by power pikes. It hung gently in the vines overhead, swaying back and forth in the breeze, eerily silent and still in the all-too-clean summer's day. It had all happened so fast that the moment; the gateway, the ship, the drones, all seemed to have an air of unreality about them on such a pretty day.

"Well, let's just see if there's something hidden inside-" Citizen stuck his head and upper torso through the Winnebago's doors and gave a startled exclamation. He pulled his head back, looked at the others as if he'd seen a ghost, and reached over to push open the doors. The minute he did so, something decidedly odd happened: the room visible past him was not the interior of a forty-year old RV, but rather a shag-carpeted living room with old-fashioned wood paneled walls on the inside. And just coming to the door to greet them was an eight-foot-tall humanoid covered entirely in fur! "Heey kids," said the man-beast in a slow, slightly slurred voice, looking at them with massive, vaguely blood-shot yellow eyes. "You must be the hero kids that pretty lady was going to send over to check the place out! I was just getting out the nachos and the Fanta so we could have a nice party for you guys. I don't get to show the ol' bus off much these days anymore. Come on in and let's get groovy!" he invited them from his position inside the 'Winnebago'. "I was just putting on some Stones, man. People on Earth usually call me Bigfoot," he rambled on without being asked.

I'll say the Reflex DC for half is DC 23 26 Ouch! Tou vs 21 9 Nice. OK, the drone force is staggered, disrupted, and disabled: most of them are smashed to pieces by that attack, and the tiny number that remain will be easy pickings for these powerful heroes. The drones cannot act; though a few are attacking the ship still, they look far less threatening. Fleur is up.

25 Ugh, they just pass the Reflex save even with the area boost: Gabriel is able to take out a few with his Dazzle, but not enough to appreciably slow down the horde. GK is up as soon as Gabriel posts.

Field Battle Damage Toughness Saving Throw... Effect Succeeds No Effect Fails Disrupted Fails by 5 or more Shaken + Disrupted Fails by 10 or more Staggered + Disrupted + Disabled Fails by 15 or more Destroyed • Powers that inflict damage are assumed to do their normal damage against the force as a whole, even if the power does not normally affect an area. The wielder is assumed to be making multiple attacks with that power during the battle round. Damaging powers with the Area extra inflict +2 damage to a force, with each Progression feat increasing this bonus by +1, but the total additional damage from Area and Progression cannot exceed the force modifier (since the damage effectively encompasses the entire force at that point). • Non-damaging powers that do not normally affect an area have a negligible effect on a force in battle. The character can only use such powers if they have the Area extra and sufficient Progression to encompass the entire force. So a character with the Mind Control power, for example, could not attempt to Mind Control an entire force unless he possessed sufficient area for the power to affect the entire force. The GM can allow these powers to operate normally at the individual scale, they just don’t have much influence on the outcome of unit-level conflicts. • A particularly spectacular or destructive use of powers may impose a modifier to a force’s morale checks at the GM’s discretion, either a penalty for an enemy force of a bonus (rallying the troops) for an allied force. • Impervious Toughness is compared against the force’s total damage (including force modifier) before determining whether or not the character has to make a Toughness saving throw against the force’s attack. This is one of the advantages of larger forces: they can overcome—through superior numbers and firepower—Impervious Toughness that would render a target immune to the attacks of a smaller force. So, for example, a character with Impervious Toughness 10 can ignore the damage of a platoon of green troops (+9 damage total) but not that of a trained

Using the field battle rules for 30 Omegadrones: 13 The mystery guest in the ship will _not_ be rolling initiative. These guys should go down pretty OK. Gabriel: 21 GK: 14 Fleur de Joie: 13 Bowman will not be rolling; he is an NPC and will be looking impressive while the PCs do all the actual work. (Besides, this should be a short fight) Gabriel is up. The crash site is close enough for all of you to reach with a move action.

Gimmie some initiative. (We'll be using field battle rules to speed things up)

At Fleur de Joie's words, the sky seemed to tear open. A red jagged portal ripped open in the clear blue sky overhead and a sleek, malevolent-looking alien starship, bulking as large as a commuter jet, came rippling through the gateway. With its blade-like crimson lines and belching black fire from its engines, it was instantly recognizable to the Freedom City heroes as a vessel from the Terminus! Swarming the ship as it came through the gateway were some thirty or forty Omegadrones, slashing at it with their pikes as it desperately weaved to avoid them! Seconds later, the gateway snapped shut with a sound like a bolt of lightning, leaving only attacking drones and desperately manuevering ship as the melee in the air swooped overhead just a few feet above the treetops and disappeared on the other side with a thunderous boom, but no sound of explosion. "Let's move out!" called Bowman, arrow snapping easily into his hand as he fired a shot up just in time to pierce one of the passing drones through the head, then turning and running for the nearby crash site. "We've got to get to where that thing hit and destroy those drones, fast! The alarm's down, which means that may be a runner!"

"Welcome to our home," said Quo-Dis, shaking Erin's hand and then Trevor's with a powerful grip. She was definitely hovering, her dress floating loose beneath her and nearly as tall as Corbin. "Yes, ah, it's been a very busy couple of weeks for all of us," said Quo-Dis, shooting a momentary look at Corbin with unaccustomed hesitation before gesturing for the others to come into the house. Come to think of it, Quo-Dis had been away for a couple of days recently..."Corbin tells me that you recently were empowered by all-embracing waves of cosmic vril," the girl added to Erin in what seemed like a hostess' style. "Is that...going well for you?"

I will spend an HP for heroic inspiration to know where the pumps are! (Where are the pumps?)

Edge is going to maintain his grapple. 37 Well, that sucked. HP-based do-over, and suck fatigue. 49 Nice. He'll inflict a DC 30 Tou save on Devil Ray.

The geothermal taps turned out to be older than most technology of the day, one of the first generation of geothermal heat pumps patented in the late 1940s. "These were actually built by the first Freedom Eagle," said Beaumont as he pointed out the technical details from the small, deep underground control room, "but the League has been upgrading them ever since. Right now the original copper core is sheathed in a daka weave to draw in more heat." They're one of the few things in the building that survived the Invasion of '93 completely intact." Only Gaian Knight could perceive the deeply-driven metal structures beneath the building without the use of the monitoring equipment in the room, but it was very exciting stuff for the geologically-inclined. Upstairs, the League had an ample library and small art gallery, mostly pictures of well-known League members over the years and the occasional production of League members with artistic talents. "The Hall is attacked enough that we don't have anything irreplaceable here," said Beaumont, glancing up at a small selection from the Centurion's personal library of Greco-Roman history. "But we do have a-FWEET FWEET, FWEET FWEET-" First his, then Fleur's, belt communicator went off, indicating a League priority alert. Bowman shot a look at Fleur, then took a few steps to the nearby computer panel, where his access code quickly pulled up a map of the greater tri-state area, a red flashing light visible inland in New Jersey. "Looks like...one of the dimensional alarms has been triggered, out in the Pine Barrens. What do you think, Fleur, can you get us out there?" Bowman and Fleur had never fought alongside each other in a large group, but he was familiar with her capabilities. "And are you two in, Gaian Knight and Gabriel?" he added.

Harrier thought fast as he faced down the oncoming drone, having neatly shunted aside sympathy for the creature now that he knew it was no more than what it appeared to be. What I might have been. What I was. In another life. The creature seemed to lack his own staff weapon, rather to have its devices integrated directly into its modified armor. Armed, as I am disarmed. I can survive underwater and eventually break out of this hold, but the humans here cannot. If I can't break out...it can! Harrier balanced on the balls of his armored feet and waited, waited as the creature bore down on him with its weapon aimed high and jerked aside with impossible speed at the last moment, the all-too-familiar icy kiss of a Terminus weapon blasting a hole in the bulkhead big enough for the humans still trapped inside to flee. "Run. Run!" Harrier called to the humans as he faced down the drone again.

At Sergeant Danson's thumbprinted command, the vault door swung open, letting heroes and escort into the sealed robotics holding area. It was a grim area if you were inclined to personalize hominid machines, with robot heads, android bodies, and other signs of super-scientific mechanical humanity everywhere. If these had been organic body parts, the stacked limbs and neatly sorted body parts would have made this look like a butcher's shop. Or a serial killer's lair. That thought was enough to make Citizen shiver inside his coat as he met the soulless red eyes of a long-quiescent humanoid machine, for all that he couldn't feel the cold of the temperature-controlled vault. _I see this all the time at Miss A's place. I don't know what's so...wrong here. But it is!_ thought Sharl nervously to Miss A. "We don't get the brains or anything else that can think," said Danson as she rolled herself along the central walkway, the steel walls slightly reflective beneath blue bulbs overhead. "That all goes to Booking or the Freedom League, depending on what's happening to Tin Can Timmy or Tina." She made a gesture to the rows of humanoid robots along the walls and added, "The big stuff is all downstairs in deep storage, of course. This is just the stuff that could walk and talk like a man, back in the day." Suddenly, as the vault doors swung shut behind them, a voice sounded over the loudspeakers: a timeless, weighty voice like something from the beginning of time, Or its end. "Dana. Dana. Dana. You are a criminal. They will punish you. Surrender to them." The sergeant flinched at the words and stopped her forward progress, but pressed onward after a moment, evidently not sure if the others could hear it or not, finally offering an explanation. "Lots of old systems in here. Sometimes you get...echoes. There's nothing to see here, you all need to leave. And I need to fix the damn speakers!"

Up top, the heroes and their counterparts from Erde took shelter in the darkness of the warehouse as they waited for the Koshiros to return. While the others studied each other, Citizen's attention was focused almost entirely on the other Sharl, still carrying that box of acquired vacumn tubes, paying just a little attention to the dimensional device that had accidentally transported the Axis agents. The streets of a free, prosperous city of humans passed before Tulink's eyes, and he almost wanted to weep. Sharl floated uncertainly for a moment in the air, thinking briefly of logistics, before he sent back, he thought with more and more determination. and Sharl knew that tone very well. That was enough to get his counterpart thinking, or at least enough to shut him up for a while. As Sharl studied the dimensional device again, he decided that was close enough.

Quo-Dis had arrived early for the festivities and was busy getting dressed in Corbin's room upstairs, where she'd left enough of her things that she generally didn't have to pack a bag when she did stay overnight. "Corbin," she called downstairs when she was done, "I see them coming up the drive! And I am finished dressing!" She had, after some persuasion, recently started calling him simply by his name. She didn't walk down the stairs, she flew, literally; her red velvet evening gown not quite reaching the floor as she hovered in the air, blonde hair in almost Germanic pigtails down her back. The crimson-colored outfit would have impeded the mobility of a woman without super-strength and the ability to fly; as it was she was at eye level with her boyfriend when she reached them. "What do you think about how I look?" Corbin knew damn well how she felt about him lying about her appearance.

OK: Harrier's plan is to have the Omegadrone shoot at him (since it's still armed and he isn't) so that it'll blast a hole in the side of the rapidly-filling room and let Wave-Eye and anyone still trapped down there escape. In order to accomplish this, I'll have him use the total defense manuever (giving him an additional +4 dodge bonus) and then spend an HP to double his total dodge bonus, giving him what I believe is a DC of 29 to be hit? I'll go ahead and post IC as soon as Wave-Eye goes.

20

"Yeah, time travel's not really as cool as it sounds," Mark frowned, took a few bites of his burger, and felt better. "Dimensional stuff is a lot more fun, when you're not being chased down by the embodiment of cosmic entropy, I guess." I wonder how Marcie's doing these days? His Claremont therapist, way back when, had recommended he not pursue further contact with Earth-XX, but he still could wonder. He shot a glance over at Erin and Travis and asked Trevor, sotto voice, "How's your grandpa holding up these days?" Intimidating though he was, Mark had nothing but respect and admiration for the original Midnight.

Vampire Nation Defenders of the Confederate States of America on Earth G-Vampire-1 Uses: Hyperclan, Squadron Supreme, Crime Syndicate [if suitably tweaked], etc Captain Confederacy: Virginia-born Richard Reynolds was a captain by the time the Blood War ended, a veteran of a dozen battles and not incidentally a blood-sucking fiend, having been transformed by no less than Jubal Early himself. A veteran of the Battle of Arlington, the last great Confederate offensive north ultimately broken by the Union necromancers along the Potomac, Reynolds has spent much of his long undead life hostile to the Confederate government. The martial values and camaraderie between soldiers has largely broken down in Albert Pike's CSA, where officers are apt to spend more time competing with each other than commanding their men, but when Pike's government recently reorganized the Vampire Nation, the costumed champions of the Confederate States of America, his very adherence to old values made him the favored candidate for field commander. In his heart of hearts, Reynolds sometimes wants the fighting to be over: he's savvy enough to know the vampire way of life is coming to an end as the values of the Union slowly percolate their way even into the unbeating heart of the Confederacy. But it's been a long time since his heart could beat. Miss Belle: Jasmine Fishburne is a woman of color in the armies of the Confederacy, not a friendly place to be even with the Blood War. (There's nothing like everyone becoming undead to break down distinctions between genders) She makes up for a skin too dark and a gender too feminine among her peers by being among the most vicious and uncompromising of the fighters under the command of Richard Reynolds, for whom she is a reluctant number 2. When there's a slave uprising, invasion by hostile aliens, or other incursion into the 'peace and order' of the Confederate States of America, she's there in the front lines, tearing apart her enemies and ferociously drinking of their blood. She doesn't enjoy fighting, she _is_ fighting, and if not for her gender might easily have replaced her (much less politically reliable) commanding officer by now. If the Vampire Nation is ordered to scout another dimension for raids or incursion, she'll be there in the front lines. Doctor Dark: Much-abused pilot Alan Hoban is Texas-born and bred, and also the only human being on the Vampire Nation. And it sucks! He's a second-class citizen in his own nation, something of which he is intimately aware despite his government's very public declaration that humans enjoy their second-class citizenship in the CSA. His power gem (which he found at the site of a crashed alien spaceship on his master's rural estates) sustains his life even when he needs to 'make a donation', he is all too aware of the fact that he has no superpowers of his own. You would think this might make him politically unreliable, but actually he's there in the front lines alongside Miss Belle in every big fight. (She actually respects, and is even attracted to him, not emotions she's used to feeling for humans) After all, if he fails, or is seen to fail, he knows what fate awaits him, and his family back home. Better to just ram their flying machine, the General Lee, straight into the nearest wall than let that happen. Wolfman: Despite his ferocious appearance, Howell Cobb IV is not that bad when you get to know him. He's devoted to his mama and his family like a good Southern gentleman (despite his ungentlemanly ways), and frequently visits the family estate back in Cherokee County, Georgia. He's not an old veteran like Cap or a dedicated political animal like Jasmine; he's a mercenary (transformed when he came of age like many of his class) who's done all sorts of covert work outside the Confederacy, particularly in vampire-loving Japan, before coming home and getting swept up into the call for defenders of the homeland. Don't mistake a mercenary nature for a lack of commitment; he's getting paid well and often for the chance to hunt down and destroy the enemies of his nation and people, and that's enough to motivate most any man. He likes the idea of raiding other dimensions; so much new blood there, and so much stuff to steal! Firegirl: They took Summer Grey away when she was a teenager, vampire leaders like her brother Rand eager to use her nascent psychic gifts in the service of the undead. Under Rand's watchful eye, she was gradually transformed into among the most powerful vampires in the Confederacy; her tremendous psychic assets and powerful pyrokinesis making her one of the most dangerous women in the nation. She was a natural recruit for the Vampire Nation, her good looks and silent demeanor making her the ideal image of a more traditional sort of Southern womanhood and (for publicity purposes) a good counterpart to some of the other women on the team. Lately she's been acting more and more mysterious, seeming to listen to voices only she can hear. She has a particular hostility towards Wolfman, one he himself can't figure out, largely because Firefist: The team's other pyrokinetic is Summer's brother Rand, a jaded athlete and politician who was inspired by his sister's transformation to make something of himself. He used his tremendous influence in Confederate society to acquire various stolen artifacts to augment his already formidable vampiric powers, and wielding the Firefists of Boltagon is a skilled, savvy face man for the Vampire Nation. Rand is more political than most of his teammates (he hopes to replace Albert Pike as President of the Confederacy one day), and better at dealing with high society, for all that he sometimes has trouble with the dirty work the team has to carry out on behalf of the Confederate cause. He's much happier fighting Grue than he is putting down internal rebellions, and sometimes hopes to be the next Confederate liason to the Freedom League. Nightstar: T-baby Sarah Baccarin fell into bad company in the high society of her native Rome and was an easy recruit for the Vampire Nation there. She's a mercenary like Wolfman, albeit one with more of a scientific bent, and occasionally has had something of a rivalry with Steel Girl (particularly since she just doesn't understand why Ruby is just so dirty all the time when ladies look so much nicer cleaned up) She affects a certain Continental mystery about her background, easy enough to do since her teammates can't exactly go to priest-heavy Italy to investigate. The truth is, she was born to a wealthy family, discovered her powers and fell in love with another outcast, and then became more than she had been. Unlike most of her teammates, she is eager to explore the outside world that she sometimes regrets leaving: she knows that the imaginary gangs of savage murdering free humans so popular in Confederate entertainment don't actually exist outside their borders, and she's the most likely to simply wander off if the team goes to a dimension with new sights and sounds to see. Steel Girl: Ruby White is the team's gadgeteer, a scientist and inventor despite her down-home accent and rough-and-ready manner. She's a former schoolteacher from Memphis, or so she says, who built her power armor to clean up the streets. She and Richard are lovers, as vampires can be despite certain complications, and they share a certain lack of commitment to the Confederacy's darker traditions. This is one reason why she spends a lot of her time among her beloved machines rather than on the front lines, though with her power armor she's formidable in a fight. Another reason is that She has hopes for Richard, who's not really that bad: just spoiled and not terribly bright. Dark Knight: Barney Glass, swordsman, adventurer, and monster is one of the great horror stories among Northern vampires: formerly a trusted operative of the Union's Patriot Regiment, he defected when confronted with the delightful rewards given to Confederate vampires south of the Mason-Dixon Line. A spiteful man who enjoys playing with his food, he is a firm believer in the unholy glories of vampirism, and will if asked happily speak at length about the divine majesty of the undead state. While the others might invade another dimension for gain, for blood, for love of carnage, to follow orders or to keep themselves alive; he'd do it because he genuinely believes that the living are better off under the rule of the dead.

Since SC has been sick lately, let me just substitute in an APPROVAL. You'll still need to get another one, but you'll be able to go right to play when it's done!

The team flew via Koshiro's giant paper airplane to Ditko Street, heading straight for the address Miss Americana had found for Citizen. "It was the headquarters of a team called the Newcomers back in the early 1970s," he explained to the others as they went. "An interstellar and interdimensional team of outcasts and exiles from all over the Lor Republic, even the Terminus. Most of their members left Earth or settled down here many years ago, but their headquarters is still here. It was called...the Wonderbus. Miss A swears it's intact and still right here in..." They swooped down low over the destination address to find a parking lot, Citizen's eyes widening in surprise as they came in for a landing. "I don't understand!" They were standing in a parking lot for Earth ground vehicles, a particularly deserted one behind a recently-gentrified coffeehouse. The only vehicle there was a worn-looking Winnebago, parked beneath an overhang at the edge of the lot, which from the dirt on the windows had been there a long time. In a cruddier city, in a less secure neighborhood, the tires would long since have been ripped off. "This is the right address. Ugh." Sharl frowned. "Maybe I shouldn't have given Miss A that speech about wanting a base just for teen heroes."