Avenger Assembled
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"You look fine, Corbin," said Mark, trying to reassure the younger teen who after all did look okay. Man, how long has it been since I've seen Corbin? Or Eve? The camaraderie they'd all forged together when saving the entire multiverse from the lord of the Terminus had slipped away thanks to his work and Eve and Corbin's schooling. It was unpleasant to think that such strong bonds could be pulled apart by something as mundane as scheduling, so instead of thinking about it Mark produced as if from nothing (and oh, Etain could feel the very stuff of magic being torn asunder and reshaped, like watching a chainsaw sculpture at work) a bright blue tie that matched Corbin's usual costume colors. "Here you go, have a tie," he said with a grin. To Trevor and Erin, he added, "Hey guys. I've been speaking French the last two weeks, my punning in English is a little rusty." He thought for a minute, then rang the bell as Corbin had suggested. "I know Eve said the place is open to us anytime, but I don't want to just barge in." Besides, Eve seemed like she'd take him catching her coming out of the shower pretty badly.
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The cockroach monster shook, but bore up under Cannonade's assault with the loss of only a few dozen insects on its outskirts. "YOU! JOE MACAYLE!" it spat with a sudden, unpleasant recognition as it focused what might have been eyes (after all, they were only writhing divots in the swarm) on the helmeted hero. "WE KNOW YOUR FAZE FROM EARTH HIZTORY! A HIZTORY WE WILL DEPRIVE YOU OF, JUZT BEFORE WE DEPRIVE IT OF ALL OTHERZ!" It threw a mighty blow at Cannonade, seeming to take a special interest in squashing the patriotic powerhouse like the proverbial cockroach, but despite mighty swings from tremendous arms-colonies as thick around as Joe's body, it couldn't quite make an impact.
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Reflex: 19 Almost! But not quite. Tou: 31 Tou, LCed: 30 Ouch! Mark is down an HP and the monster is unhurt. It's going to go ahead and lash out at the person who just went for it. 16 It doesn't do so well on its own go! Midnight's up once I post IC. Midnight is up now.
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Steve had already planned on not directly bringing this conversation up with Gina, but news that their conclave was about to be interrupted by some supernatural monster (he wasn't entirely sure what 'brimstone' was, but most of the references he could recall had been about the inhabitants of various magical sub-dimensions) convinced him that he would definitely be keeping it to himself. "A poor argument for the outside," he muttered almost inaudibly before turning to the others. He was about to make a suggestion about a diversion when the room did it for him. And then, with a sound like tinkling glass rubbing together through a stream, the broken glass and booze behind the bar reared up in a terrible humanoid shape that was all broken glass and swirling liquid, the clear spirits stained black and foul by dirt and some unnameable thing, like perhaps the fell sorcery that seemed to be seeping up from the very basement in waves that made the hair tingle even on the non-sensitives in the room. When it spoke from cracked and jagged lips and peered at them from behind colored-glass black button eyes, it spoke in the voice of a waterfall from Hell. "Yessss! The Lord of Broken Dreammmmms has been freed after a thousand years! Now, to conquer the world of the Lord!" It made a gesture and summoned from within its own warped, translucent body a spear of jagged glass, which it used to gesture at the others. "I am a symmmmmbol of pain and sssssufferring from beyond the starssss! Your world will be mmmmmmine!" And now the remaining patrons were retreating, eyes wide with terror at the monstrosity before him. "No, you're not!" replied Harrier firmly, his voice a security guard's bark that made sure anyone who wasn't running was looking at him rather than the other two heroes in the room. I am! he wanted to add, but even faced with this monster he would never boast. Not about that, anyway. Instead, he reached for his belt and snapped open his pike, armor erupting past his skin and clothes to transform his entire right arm into a spiky, armored monstrosity as the pike crackled to life with bubbling, hissing Terminus fire. "And mine's bigger." he added.
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Not only does doing damage without the attacked person noticing require the Insidious power feat, in general I find what you're describing to be a pretty unfair use of the Illusion power, Aoiroo. We're already pretty broad with what we let you do with Changeling's powers (an argument could be made, for example, that she shouldn't be able to hide (as opposed to disguise) things from her targets at all, since that's the Concealment power rather than the Illusion power) and what you're describing is further than I'm willing to go. (You might want to take a look at comic book illusionists like Mastermind and Mysterio to get an idea of stuff you can do with Changeling: while Mysterio might disguise Daredevil to look like the Kingpin so Spiderman will beat on him and look like a chucklehead, he doesn't give Spiderman invisible beatdowns.) So while you can keep your Illusions up, and he's going to need to work to see through them, no, I'm going to say you cannot attack from behind them in such a way that he doesn't even know he's taking damage. Go ahead and roll for initiative, folks. Citizen: 18 5 Animated Trees: (with the same stats as the monsters from earlier in the adventure)19 Green Man: 25
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"It's mostly industrial work," Mark admitted, "or close to it. My powers let me build emergency housing and base foodstock on a massive scale, so I'll usually warp myself to a given area and go to work making food and shelter. I've been working in the remoter parts of the Congo River valley the last few months, building and making for the displaced persons there." He found himself wanting to say a few words in Nina's defense, but he doubted she'd appreciate the effort even if she could hear it. Growing up with her father, she has a very well-developed sense of right and wrong; it's just not always right. "Sometimes mercenaries show up to raid the foodstock, but I'm good at surprising them. Most of UNISON's super-agents get a government job because they're not powerful enough to be superheroes or something on their own. Freedom City's still the place for big super-action."
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They talked into the afternoon, Steve eventually relaxing enough that he ate instead of storing the available food for later. It was good to talk to Viktor, and good to talk about subjects that didn't revolve around sorcerous corruption or the gigagenocide of a thousand worlds. That they could have serious discussions about the ethics of relationships, as well as occasional diversions into cybernetic male enhancement, was a sign they were both much closer to normal than they once had been. When they were done, and he was leaving to take up his afternoon shift at HAX, he finished, "Thank you for the company, Viktor, and the advice," he said seriously. "It is good to have friends in times like these."
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ic The Hard Hand of Fate (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The North End
"I will use my holographic disguise if necessary," replied the cyborg evenly. "I have no wish to frighten these people more than they have already suffered." The drumbeats of burning worlds were already in his mind, but he went on: "None of the rest of you have experience with a world in the final stages of Terminal conquest. I could do far more there than here." And indeed, it was true: EZO1 had fallen to internal corruption rather than a massed physical assault. As for the fear Harrier felt at the idea of walking on a world under siege by Omegadrones, at the idea of once again coming beneath the forge and flame, well, his own weakness was the least important thing now. He had been as surprised as Erin when Mara took such immediate action to go to the aid of the people trapped across the dimensional axis, but no less happy with the outcome. When he thought of people like Ellie and Mara, with their sly jokes and eager youth, on a world like the one they faced, it made him feel a little sick. They would be insulted if I said anything. They go to do a great thing. I cannot help but go with them. "...all right," said Power cautiously, craning his neck to listen to Mara's voice since he still couldn't see her face. He worked big plastic switches on the console before him, another distant boom off-camera. "You'll be beaming into this room, then; this is where the most intact communications equipment is. If you are who you'll say you are, I'll take you and your team down to the Vault. Who should I be looking for?" Power had evidently forgotten he'd left the camera on, as he spoke he was carefully pulling on an outfit that looked like some sort of industrial battlesuit; a geologist's armor complete with crushing grip and slicing tools. The suit had seen better days; the tough, bulky blue armor was scarred and pitted from entropic blasts, but like Power himself still looked up for a fight if need be. -
28 The swarm is bruised! Cannonade is up.
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KD: From the basement storage beneath the bar, you distinctly hear a deep, booming voice, albeit one somewhat muffled by the floor itself. The voice seems to be speaking...Polish? Giz: WOOSH! Jack just had a tingle before now, but whatever's going on downstairs just had a big old jet of hellfire involved.
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Is she...coming onto me? No... Mark was confident Eve wouldn't date anyone who'd hit on him at Eve's own birthday party (plus, he was fairly sure there were logistical difficulties to anyone Eve would date hitting on him!), so he dismissed the momentary impression. Anyway, he had a girlfriend, even if she wasn't one he could bring to parties like this. Nina was...not someone he'd trust with the secret identities of his friends, and it wasn't fair to them to make them wear 'masks' at what was supposed to be a private party. "Well-said, well-said. The important thing is, we all have a fine time with Eve's party. Any idea what she's got in store? I've heard she had some interesting stuff in mind."
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Steve turned red, flushing along the cybernetic scars along his face so for a moment it looked as if he had wrapped himself in an irregular waffle iron. "No, no, that is, that is intact!" he said hastily, understanding why that might be the first on Archeville's mind. "I have had experience. What was not augmented was repressed, and thus when I was no longer under Omega's control..." he coughed. "When I came to you as a man, it was as much a man as...a friend. I am honored to call you my friend, Viktor. If I did have concerns like that," he said honestly, "you would be the first to whom I spoke, with no reservations."
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Suddenly, magic ripped itself open just a few feet from Etain as reality itself shattered asunder in a wash of sheer unprecedented power, the air curling and spreading open like the petals of a flower to reveal Mark Lucas. In his suit and tie, Mark looked dapper and dashing, his short blonde hair slicked flat against his head, his black suit cut perfectly to show off his chiseled physique and winning smile. As the screaming hole in the sheer fabric of the magical reality of the universe knitted itself shut behind him, the young man gave Etain a smile. "Hello!" Mark wasn't feeling quite as cheerful as he looked, but pretending everything was great was one of his specialties. "You must be Etain! I'm Mark Lucas." He shook her hand, crackling to her magical senses as if a bolt of lightning had struck where he stood.
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Well, he certainly doesn't seem to be peni-no, that's not far, Mark thought as Archeville and Nina bandied words with each other. He doesn't need to spend his life apologizing to everyone because of what happened...and nothing bad actually happened to Nina during the invasion! The hydrokinetic had been in her element when a Deep One party had raided Freedom City University and had simply slain all half-dozen of the monsters before a single student could be more than terrified. "In any event," Mark said firmly, "We can all agree we're on the same side here. You know how you'd feel if someone destroyed your father's palace." "...wait a minute," said Nina suddenly, her eyebrows furrowing. "You told me you kept your identity a secret from your enemies! For the sake of your family!" "It's a gesture of trust," replied Mark without heat. "If I went around planning to destroy everyone who might possibly be a bad guy ," I'd be a lot like your father, "I'd never get anything done. Doctor Archeville is on our side, and that means trusting him. Just like you trust me to look after my interests, right?" he asked pointedly. "Right," replied a very skeptical Nina. "I'm going rock-climbing," she said after a moment. "You two enjoy your lovefest. Perhaps afterwards, Mark, you can tell me why we should have one any time soon." Sneering, she walked away and began ascending a half-broken wall like an octopus monkey, scooping up water from the small pond to make climbing tentacles. Mark sighed, and, when she was out of earshot, said "Well, I certainly hope you are a good guy, because I'll never hear the end of it if you aren't." He didn't look too bothered by Nina's moment of temper, or particularly disturbed. "I'm sorry about your house," he finally said as he watched Nina go up the wall, "I've had some...family crises myself recently. Seeing your family history go up in smoke is never easy, especially if it's something you value."
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Hey folks with Magic/Infernal Awareness; There is some magic brewing behind the bar. SATAN'S MAGIC!
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Steve put his fingers to his lips, listening as two men he greatly respected gave sound, reasonable advice that nonetheless was obviously very different. "I think there is merit in what both of you say," he finally said. "I would like to have more spontaneity in our relationship. I would like to be able to plan more romantic occasions as well." He drummed his fingers briefly on the scarred wooden table, trying to summon the words that came painfully slowly at times like this. "She prefers not to go out, and that is not something I want to press on her. While we have had different pains, a desire for a certain flavor of solitude is something we both share. To stand alone together." He folded his hands before him. "As for fighting...it has never come up. We are both fragile, in our own ways, and both looking to avoid...explosions." Crack A sound like a gunshot made everyone to the bar, where the startled bartender was glancing in surprise over at a standing bottle of beer that had just cracked in half where it sat behind the bar, glass and beer pouring down onto the floor. And suddenly, with crack after crack, the bartender actually vaulting over the scarred wood to escape, the bottles and casks behind the bar began to crack and snap as if being crushed by invisible hands, the liquid pooling together behind the bar in a mixture of spirits, glass, and who knew what else? Most of the patrons, Freedom City old-timers, were sufficiently quick-thinking to be on the move, but a few gawkers and curious were peering over the edge of the wood...
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I will be on the road all night tonight, and attending a conference through the weekend. I'll be online, albeit spottily.
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ic The Hard Hand of Fate (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The North End
Faced with tactical questions, Power drew himself up and spoke with a ghost of the authority this man must have once had before his world began to die all around him. "There are three hundred fifty-seven of us. Eight, now, I guess, that poor baby..." He coughed again, and it was becoming obvious that he'd suffered some lung damage in the recent past. "Me, what's left of the bravest crew I've ever known, and two poor Tarantula agents we had in our holding cells are guarding the tourists we rescued, some of our families, and the crew of a National Guard bomber that went down nearby. Running low on food and medical supplies. Didn't think it was going to matter soon...As for those bastards in the sky, they haven't found us yet, but it's only a matter of time now that they've landed that starship in San Francisco. Either they'll scan us and bombard the area, the way they did Action Force, or they'll torture some poor soul in their custody and find a way inside." "As for getting off the planet..." He laughed weakly and adjusted a few buttons on the panel in front of him, their beeps and clicks giving way to a world on fire. "I don't know if you can see this, but this is my only live surface feed." They were looking at what had once been a lovely national park, that was clear enough, but now was nothing but ash and bone, burnt stumps of trees rising above a sere, dry landscape that had once held rivers, plants, animals, and life. The sky was red, the sort they all recognized as what color Freedom City's sky has turned during the Terminus Invasion. But this was different; the red turning an utter, creeping black in places, like watching plastic being pulled so tight it had begun to warp, as if the sky was tearing itself apart. "There's nothing left up there. Not just here, but anywhere else. The stars went out the first night. Everywhere. As for a gateway..." The image cut back to him. "I'm a geologist, not a physicist. I was only able to reach you by running our reactor tap directly into this Forever World comm system. Maybe if you had their people here, or someone from CalTech, they could build something bigger...but those are gone." Harrier spoke, still too quiet to be heard by the man on the screen, his voice like death. "A day. Perhaps two." He shook his head. "Their universe has collapsed in on its central axis and is being drawn into the Doom Coil. Their world is already dead." He thought of the man's words, of a baby born amid the screams of a dying planet, and saw his own mother's face. "But we can't just leave them there to die." On screen, Power was going on. "Frankly, before I heard from you, my plan was to gather up anyone else we could find on the surface, go below, and rig our reactor to go. I'd rather things end fast, on our terms, than end on one of their spears or in one of their feeding chambers." -
ic It's Gonna Be The Future Soon (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in Elsewhere
"C'mon, Bluefire, show me what you're made of!" taunted Keres, the enlarged mechanoid throwing himself at Corbin and nearly landing a massive punch with a fist bigger than Cobalt Templar's entire head! His blows were powerful, denting the super-tough construction of Tronik architecture, but even with Corbin trying to protect the annihalation sphere he just wasn't fast enough to land a punch on the ring-wielding hero. "Smash you here, then find what's left of your body and smash it too!" he taunted. "C'mon and fight!" -
ooc It's Gonna Be The Future Soon (OOC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in Archives
Keres: 23 Ghost Girl: 22 Cobalt Templar: 20 Keres is going to go ahead and punch Cobalt Templar, since he's the guy Keres has been sparring with verbally lately. Keres' stats 12 Well, that's a whiff, even versus Cobalt Templar's flat-footed Defense. What a terrible roll! Ah well. Ghost Girl is up. -
"Your words are honeyed, little sapling," said the king of the forest, looking pleased beneath his arboreal countenance. "But I have been taken in by the lies of free-range mammals before." As he spoke, the trees around the edge of the perimeter began to move, drawing closer to the illusory figures of the heroes as well as Changeling herself. "Fortunately, both new friend and old enemy will gain the same cure from me today. Evolution!" The so high trees began to slide upon with wet, slicking sounds of cracking wood and parting sap, revealing within each mighty trunk a matrix of sap and wood that would have looked far more beckoning were any of the trio plant creatures. "All ye three will be transformed into hybrid of plant and man, or woman," he added with a nod, "the better to grow and live in the world of forest that will come! The process will be fast," he promised as the trees grew closer, within seconds of overrunning the kneeling illusory duo. "And you would be...ill-advised to resist the embrace of my children!" Meanwhile, the real Citizen had flown around the clearing and planned to come around at the Green Man from behind, right through the massive tree that was his throne. But suddenly, within mere seconds of each other, Sharl broke through the tree behind the Green Man, desperately waving his hands at the others. No, no! he mouthed frantically, pointing urgently to the big central tree a moment before a tree limb passed through his own illusory body on the other side of the clearing.
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"I am grateful for your concern, Viktor," said Steve honestly, "but I do not think I have anything to be exploited for. I possess very little, I know very little I have not already told the Freedom League, and I am not a handsome man. She has had opportunity enough to strip the Terminus technology from my bones that I feel confident she has no interest in doing so today." He sighed. "As for our dates, they have all been...within a narrow circle. She is a very...quiet person. More comfortable with her work, and her machines, than people. I suppose I fit in because I am not like other people. I am planning to see her again in the next few days."
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Steve looked at the book, briefly concerned that he should have been reciting some sort of classical poetry to Gina before relaxing when the index told him the title was a figure of the so-complicated speech of Earth-Prime. "Thank you, I will study this text," he promised Carson, slipping it into his pocket. "We are only at the beginning of our routine, but there are things we can do that would change matters. I would like to be able to go more places in the city with her, and do more things. As for poetry, well," he said with earnest conviction, "that is how these matters should be spoken of. At the worst moments of human life, the most primal salvation can be the emotional connections between two people. It is the only art." He hmmed at that, and color showed along the lines of his face, the only place he could blush. "We have never actually had a fight," he confessed. "We tend to avoid unpleasant topics. The past. The more unpleasant parts of the present."
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"As far as I'm aware, the castle's status as a protected area hasn't changed," replied Mark with a glance back at the remains of the building. "I'm not actually assigned to the German division of UNISON," he confessed. "My primary work is with the humanitarian division in Africa and Southeast Asia. I was only called up to deal with the Deep One crisis because Europe had few meta-agents at the time." "What he means is, Mark is one of the most powerful beings working for UNISON, so they called up to deal with their biggest crisis." Nina slipped an arm through Mark's and gave the Doktor a flinty-eyed stare. This close, the resemblance to her father, who the Doktor had seen unmasked in Freedom League documents (there'd been no reason to take _that_ from his mind) was unmistakable. "You speak my people's language well, Herr Archeville. I'm sure a man of your experience must be familiar with all kinds of peoples." Mark gave Nina a nudge that wasn't entirely friendly. Before they'd started dating, Nina would have directly asked Archeville about his command of Deep One: this was a step forward, at least. "We were here because...I wanted to get a chance to see this place again, when it wasn't the middle of a battlefield. It's a shame what had to happen here."
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ic The Hard Hand of Fate (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in The North End
There was a static-filled silence on the line, stretching out long enough that for a moment it seemed like the connection had been lost. But then, Power's voice came back on, urgency in his old man's voice having replaced despair. "...This is Samson Power, acknowledging your signal! You're coming in loud and clear. My God, I thought we were the last humans left alive!" He gasped audibly. "Switching to visual!" Samson Power, when he popped up on Mara's monitor, turned out to be a salt-and-pepper, bearded man in his late fifties, his face looking rough and weather-beaten, a bloody bandage over his head and what looked like first-degree burns alongside of what had once been a handsome face. Behind him, the camera showed flashing red emergency lights and a bank of big Crays that might have been all the rage in the early 1990s. "I don't know if you can see me," Power said with a cough, "but this is my command post. A mile underneath Cone Peak, with two miles of solid rock between us and the monsters outside." He panned the camera around an empty room, its disordered swivel chairs and spilled coffee mugs showing signs of a recent struggle. "Everyone else is down in the Vault, our last refuge. Been trying for six days now on every frequency I could think of..." He coughed again, and there was a distant boom that made him glance up for a moment. "I couldn't just give up. Not yet." "If his base is buried deep enough, it would have been missed on the initial pass," Harrier spoke quietly, his eyes shut as he tried to summon forth every scrap of tactical data he could imagine. "Mandragora and his dragons fancy themselves warriors. They would kill all who resisted first, and then begin the business of incinerating the civilian population. The Dragon of the Terminus...I doubt he is its master. He served Omega through personal loyalty, not entropic corruption. He would wait for Omega's return." He rubbed his eyes. "They will kill every large animal on that Earth, then they will allow it to plunge into the Doom Coil for complete destruction."