Avenger Assembled

It's live, but just about to go to the automatic repeater. Since the speaker will probably move away from his system once he does that, that means Dragonfly needs to open a connection to him now. Dun dun dun!

There was a dry, scratchy sound like static for a moment, the noise of an analog signal from however many dimensional axes away. And then, suddenly, came a voice like something from the grave itself. It was an old man's voice, dry and tired, full of pain. " Repeating. This is Samson Power in Los Padres Base in Big Sur, California, Planet Earth. This will be our last broadcast before I switch to the automated repeater. I have lost contact with the Action Force base in the Aleutians and I witnessed the destruction of the Forever Planet through [i]their[/i] last signal. I believe our base is the last remaining pocket of free humanity on planet Earth, possibly the last in our dimension. We will rescue what survivors we can, then take action to make sure none of us are taken by the Terminus. " Harrier dropped his coffee mug, the porcelain shattering at his feet, face going white as he listened in horror. "...if you are capable of receiving this message, in whatever world or dimension you reside, you must warn your civilization to abandon any attempts to tap into the fundamental source of entropy. That source is a dimension called the Terminus, ruled by a fanatical warlord named Mandragora, and his power is vast. In the space of a few days, his cybernetic horde and their dragon leaders have destroyed our world, and all other worlds we know of. Repeat, you must not... "...is he live?" Harrier whispered urgently, his eyes wide and hands trembling slightly. "Can you break into his message and reply?"

"Technology advances in different ways, and at different paces, from dimension to dimension," said Harrier reluctantly, not always happy about volunteering his knowledge of dimensions besides the Terminus. After all, there was only one way he could be familiar with dimensions besides the Terminus and Earth-Prime. "They may have dimensional technology but no computer languages more advanced than this one, or they lack access to more advanced technology for some reason." He studied the code, but could make no sense of it from his own limited knowledge of such sciences. "Is there a way to show what the code is saying? What...all that means?"

"It was very pleasant," said Steve, watching the boss work attentively. Steve had perfected the flat security guard's stare when he was on duty at the front door (indeed, it was his default expression), but he was learning to mirror his colleague and adopt a more humanlike posture when on duty inside the building itself. "I spent it in the company of a, ah, close friend." He smiled at that, a not-so-secret look over his coffee mug, as he remembered his weekend with Gina. "Thank you again for covering for me," he told her seriously. "Normally I do not enjoy time away from my duty, but this was time well-spent." Steve certainly was looking more relaxed about the world than before he'd left. When the overhead timer went off and the suit flared to life again, this time Mara was ready for it and her amplifier caught the signal pouring into the suit's system, analyzing the subspace datastream and showing the rich complexity of the overpowered signal that had been overclocking the Gateway suit's circuits. It was a signal, a standard audio signal of computer code at that, using the sort of blandly simple code Mara might have associated with the early 1980s: it was closer to Fortran than anything else!

"Captain Moriarity survived being held hostage by SHADOW, worked towards her own escape and helped a superhero defeat an entire terrorist cell. I am confident that she will invite you to her medal of valor ceremony, once you have both appropriately recovered." The old man patted Myrmidon's hand for just a moment. "Good night, John. Welcome back." John was aware of Summers by his side as medication and fatigue overcame his natural alertness, all the way until he finally slipped into a comforting darkness.

"Her personality is very..." Steve trailed off, staring down at his empty beer for a moment before crushing the metal in his hands. He suddenly imagined Gina's face if she had known he had discussed her problems, even with no names, before these smiling, confident men. "She is very quiet. She enjoys her work, and the company of machines more than people. She has had a difficult life." This was somehow more nerve-wracking than the heat of battle. "We sit on her couch. I cook for her, we watch movies...we let the silence speak." "And I want to be happy. I want her to be happy. I never imagined that I could make anyone happy," he confessed. "Not like this. But here we are." In a more direct answer to Carson's question, he said seriously, "Given my circumstances, it would not be responsible for me to speak of commitments. I could ask no one to make such...sacrifices." He glanced down in confusion at a loud thump from beneath his feet; but forgot about it when the older of the two bartenders muttered an exasperated curse and headed downstairs via the cellar door behind the bar. "But if I cannot safely plan for the future, I can plan for tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after...and I would like to spend what I can of those days with her."

He has no particular resistance to that, so go ahead, Roo.

Wraith, Papercut, and Sage made their way onto the ship as Citizen and Rogue speechified at each other, the two charismatic figures' argument loud, powerful, and from the looks on everyone else's faces incredibly distracting. The interior of the plankton trawler was like a temple to pure science; clean white corridors with ever-changing walls that functioned as screens, displaying the mid-air encounter between Rogue and Citizen, readouts of a plankton harvest that might now never come, images of Tronik itself with its massive towers and onlooking citizens, watching the argument about their future playing out with awe and fear on their faces, and a world of deep oceans with near-featureless bottoms, a central desert hotter and searer than anything on Earth, with ice mountains at the tidally-locked meridian rising higher than Everest. None of the trio really had the engineering knowledge to interpret what they were seeing, but the great silent bulk of the plankton extractors loomed over them like small houses as they made their way towards the central processing unit that held the hostages and the supervillains. There were signs of struggle aboard ship (and on the docks) as they went, it wasn't hard to guess that everyone aboard (and nearby) had been dragged aboard by the supervillains when the attack began. Inside the cavernous central hub of the ship, Rogue and Citizen were in the air, shouting at each other. Of the supervillains who were still with Rogue, a feline woman in reflective armor was actually filing her sharpened nails with a piece of polished steel, looking deeply bored with the philosophical arguments as she leaned against a wall on the far side of the hold from the narrow access panel the heroes were peering through. A rapidly-shifting, iridescent blobby humanoid with an indeterminate, ever-changing shape was busy stalking among the civilians and thoroughly intimidating the Tronikians, who had very little experience with this sort of thing, his chuckle deep and liquid even a couple of hundred feet up. Dead center in the group, watched over by a shifting humanoid shape that looked like metal knives and sharp edges hammered together into a man's form, was a deceptively tiny black sphere instantly recognizable as the last of the annihilation devices. Rogue had put the last bomb dead center of her own people.

Mark and Nina both jumped at the sound of the voice breaking into their romantic reverie, Mark with the guilt of someone being caught doing something naughty, Nina with the anger of a princess interrupted in the middle of one of her favorite pastimes. Mark looked up at the sound to see no less than Viktor Archeville himself coming down the path towards them and for a moment was an embarrassed high school student again. But he wasn't a kid anymore, and Nina wasn't his girlfriend with daddy issues. Actually, that's not too far from- He pushed _that_ thought aside too, and urgently whispered to Nina as she pulled the pond at her feet up into her hands in a razor-sharp whip of water, "No, no, it's okay, it's his house," he whispered to her in English. "He has more of a right to be here than us. Don't be a jerk about this." She didn't exactly look mollified, but with a sigh she put the water-whip back into the pond from which she'd made it. In his own accented German, he said, "" Socotra's legal name was considerably longer than that, but he didn't particularly feel like praising the revolutionary accomplishments of the exalted Typhoon today. He looked up at the man who he'd just given his girlfriend a lecture about trusting and decided to take a chance. "" He made his way up the path to shake the other man's hand. ""

"I am biologically functional," replied Steve, who was male enough to smile for a moment at what was, after all, an important question. "Removing the biological systems in question would have been an unnecessary alteration to the underlying systems, given armor plating and suppression of all hormonal desires. The same can be said for her," he added, not wanting to get into unnecessary detail. "She is a cyberneticist from outside Freedom City." He added with an awkward laugh. "You know, ha-ha, cybernetic scientist, after my body...well." He coughed.

This time, Summers did smile, though it was more a momentary slit appearing in his lined face than anything else. "You're a young man, John, and one who has lived through more than most men your age. I respect and trust your ability to make decisions about your life." As if the subject of hiding from SHADOW had never come up, he went on, "Your friend the captain will conceal what she witnessed during her time in Smythe's custody. When SHADOW reads her report, they will find that she was unconscious during most of her time there." He hmmed. "Now, the question remains of what to do with you. The Freedom League's facilities are better-equipped than Claremont's, and much more secure than this facility. In the morning, you'll be transferred to League custody where your wounds can be healed. After that, I see no reason why you can't resume your studies."

"I want to be happy," replied Steve frankly, "and I want her to be happy." He couldn't help but feel guilt as he said the first, selfish as it made him sound to his own ears. "We were alone, both of us, and now if sometimes we are alone together...well, at least we are alone together." He flexed his hands, cybernetic joints beneath the skin creaking ever-so-slightly. Lacking the restraints most men might have had here, he added,"I thought I had nothing to give. Nothing anyone would want, and nothing growing in my heart. But now, I begin to realize that I do. And that I am wanted."

"I am dating someone." As he spoke, Steve methodically crushed and sorted the peanuts from the small bowl by his hand, gradually assembling piles of shell and nut respectively. "It is a very complicated situation, as you would imagine. Because she has, er, unique circumstances, and I have very unique circumstances, she has asked that I not discuss who or what exactly she is with anyone. But she is a woman, a human woman," he added, suddenly wondering if they would suspect he was dating one of the more alien inhabitants of his apartments. Not that he had any prejudices about appearance, but it would certainly tarnish their advice if they thought he was dating, say, Kar'za, the Grue down the hall who lacked the ability to shapeshift. "We met through work, grew particularly close over the holidays, and have been more emotionally intimate in the time since." He cracked an especially large nut with a snap. "I have only...dated once before. And that was many years ago." Before the gloom of the long-gone past could fall over the table and himself, he forced himself to add, "I had a need, and saw a need in her. But now I have no idea how to...go places in a relationship. We have stepped over a line, we are dating, but after that..." He shrugged, looking a little helpless. "I know very little about these alleys."

"And so do you," replied Steve automatically, his voice sounding more sure than in most of Jack's encounters with the other man. "It is good to see you, Jack. Thank you for coming on such short notice." He felt terribly shallow as he talked, but then he usually did in social situations, carefully memorizing surface phrases so no one would realize he had no idea what he was talking about. There was nothing fake about the greeting, though, or the honest affection in his eyes. He looked equally glad to see Carson, greeting him with a firm handshake before both men were at the table. "It is good to see you, Carson. Thank you for coming on such short notice. Both of you." He took a breath. "I have invited you both here," he said with the same earnestness he might have used to speak of forming a new superteam, "because I trust you both, and I know I can rely on you to help me with a very complicated situation. You are my best friends. I want to talk about...women," he said, whispering the word like it was a great secret. "And what to do when you're dating one."

"If you have a better idea for where we can drive, I'm sure Crimson Tiger is all ears," replied Citizen, floating along next to the motorcycle as they went through the gloom. "Geez, even the paths are gone. Whatever happened here didn't just destroy human civilization, it made it like it never existed..." He patted his emitter, and gently tucked it in his 'pocket'. "I wonder if this actually happened and just hasn't come up in our classes yet, or if it's some kind of worst-case scenario..." Eventually, as the heroes penetrated the depths of the foliage, they found a low hill ring amidst a small clearing. On top of it was a palace of living wood: trunks and branches intertwined to create a palisade wall, with a natural gateway in between two trees. Within was a kind of courtyard carpeted in soft grass, surrounded by high trees, their trunks like pillars. In its midst stood the most massive tree they'd seen yet, towering above the rest. The front of its gnarled trunk and roots were shaped into a throne-like chair, where sits a figure of leaf and bark who blended into the surroundings so he nearly disappeared. “Welcome, my children” he said in a voice like creaking branches. “Welcome to my domain. I am the Green Man, the new king of this world. What you have seen in this city is just a sample of the power that is now mine to command. I am now the supreme power in this city. You may serve the green world as its protectors... or as fertilizer. The choice is yours." Close enough that only his allies could hear, Citizen muttered, a disgusted look on his face. "What...what the hell is that?!"

"I make it a policy not to hit my students when they're already down, John. You don't need to hear my remonstrations today." said Summers with a trace of a smile. He grew more serious as he faced down the injured teen. "SHADOW will not take the destruction of their cell lightly, or once again losing the asset you represent. Dr. Smythe will most likely not receive a warm welcome from her master, should she return home. You may not have captured her, but you've most likely deprived SHADOW of her research for quite some time to come." He studied John, looking down at him from his position above him as he sat. "But you've always known something like this was coming. As long as an organization like SHADOW exists, as long as Kantor exists, there will be a price on your head, and you will face retaliation from people like Smythe. If you are interested," he offered, "the school can help you find employment and training outside of Freedom City on your graduation, a place remote enough that SHADOW is unlikely to find you...at the cost of what you've worked to build here."

What's with the math on his Shield Fighting Mastery?

Have you done these edits, Obscu?

APPROVED

The man at the door turned out to be Duncan Summers, Claremont's headmaster having traded in his usual black sweater and slacks for a suit and tie today. He gave John a quick look, one that might have been reassurance (as ever it was hard to tell with Summers) and took Kate aside for a few murmured words. John couldn't make them out from the bed, but the policewoman's eyes widened and she nodded her assent to Summers. Stepping outside, Kate closed the door behind her, and both men heard the lock close as Summers slowly made his way to John's bedside. Maybe it was just the hospital setting, but Summers looked older than Myrmidon remembered, and perhaps a trifle frailer as he took a seat next to John's bed. "It's good to see you, John," he said, his voice dry and gravelly. "Why don't you tell me what happened?"

Fox: Mara is going to determine that the suit is activating because someone is pumping subspace energy into its systems from another dimension, using a system that seems to be some kind of communications array. (Someone is 'hailing' it, but so brute-force that they're activating everything simultaneously) It's too weak to read what they're saying without some kind of amplifier, though.

Reality Warp'd by Dok So, I went ahead and decided to experiment with Edge at his earned caps. This is a very powerful version of his sheet, but one with some significant weaknesses I've been meaning to give him. He's much more dependent on not being caught flat-footed to stay in a fight, and it's much easier to lay him out if you can put him so. He's a full PL 15 offensively and defensively, but he can't Power Attack and he doesn't have a damaging area attack. Lacking super-senses means there are lots of ways to leave him too blind to fight without cutting down on the precious, precious HP that are what keep him going. [u]Player Name:[/u] Davis [u]Character Name:[/u] Edge [u]Secret Identity:[/u] Mark Mason Lucas [u]Age:[/u] 19 [u]Power Level:[/u] 15 (234/234pp) [u]Trade-Offs:[/u] None [u]Unspent PP:[/u] 0 [u]Progress to Impervium:[/u] 129/150pp Click [url=http://www.freedomplaybypost.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=1994&p=37256#p37256]here[/url] for Edge's old sheet, used before August 21, 2011. [img=http://www.freedomplaybypost.com/wiki/images/c/cc/EdgeHF.png] [u]Age:[/u] 19 [u]Apparent Age: [/u]19 [u]Gender:[/u] Male [u]Ethnicity:[/u] Caucasian [u]Height:[/u] 6’0” [u]Weight:[/u] 175 lbs [u]Eyes:[/u] Blue [u]Hair:[/u] Ash Blond [u]Description:[/u] At eighteen years old, Mark Lucas is a charming, muscular young man with a chiseled jawline, ashy blond hair, a good tan, and perfect winning smile. He prefers open-collared, colorful dress shirts and slacks when he’s relaxing but of course wears the famous UNISON blue uniform and beret when he’s on duty as a UNISON agent. When visiting indigenous peoples, he wears their costumes as if he’d been born to them. His costume when in action as Edge is a merger of his UNISON uniform and Young Freedom costume; a white cape, blue and gold body suit, with the UN logo on the chest and goggles on his face. [u]Personality and Motivation:[/u] Having been to the edge of the multiverse and back, Mark Lucas can deal with what life throws at him. He’s a sympathetic champion to people in need, a stalwart opponent of evil, a loyal friend, and always reliable in a crisis. He’s come through the fire and come out a sharper, stronger young man: he’s only 18, but he’s ready to meet the challenges of being an adult hero and agent of the United Nations. [u]Backstory:[/u] Mark Lucas is heir to many legacies: the Golden Age legacy of Jimmy Lucas and his Genie, the Silver and Bronze Age stories of Rick Lucas, the sidekick and good buddy of the Centurion; and the leader of [url=http://www.freedomplaybypost.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=5326]the Young Freedom team that faced down the Lord of the Terminus and lived to tell the tale[/url]. He’s a hero in his own right as well as scion of a proud heroic legacy in the Freedom City universe, though only a select few in Freedom City and Switzerland know that the heroic Edge is the same man as Mark Lucas. He’s survived more than most heroes do in a lifetime at the age of 18, which is probably why he was able to skip college and head straight into grownup work. He still worries about his mom in the wake of his father’s death, but Martha has recovered from her time as companion to the late Rick Lucas and has resumed her career as an artist for Andi Comics in Freedom City. He has his own life to worry about, anyway, and his own problems. These days, the recent Claremont graduate is an agent of UNISON, the United Nations organization charged with using superhuman power for the benefit of all mankind. It’s his dream job, one that lets him get out from under his family legacy while still working for the benefit of everyone in the world. Though Mark signed on to help fight world hunger, the most powerful super-being in the employ of the United Nations doesn’t have the luxury of spending his days just building houses for the poor and needy. UNISON has recognized the tremendous asset they hired on fresh out of high school, and they’re determined to make sure he gets used as he deserves. Again and again, he’s finding himself deployed to exotic areas of the world where the help they need is bad guys defeated rather than the humanitarian work he signed on to do. He’s the perfect UNISON agent, his native superpowers letting him operate freely (if in his disguise as Edge) even in places where UNISON agents aren’t authorized to carry weapons. Having superpowers is a tremendous responsibility, and even graduation and moving out of Freedom isn’t enough to keep him from living up to his duty to the world and to his friends. Luckily, he’s a true hero and able to roll with this as best he can. He works out of Geneva these days, but when Young Freedom calls (or any of his other old friends), he’s always ready and willing to answer even if it means a hop right back into Freedom City. But getting away from his family legacy may be harder than he expects. Some enemies never really go away, and some rivalries aren’t forgotten. [hr][/hr] [u]Complications:[/u] Allies (former Young Freedom members, the Liberty League) Enemy (Nazis, the Terminus) Fire-Forged Friends (Cobalt Templar, Midnight, Sage, Wander) Legacy (The Lucas family, Young Freedom, the Liberty League) Reputation (UNISON agent, former Young Freedom member) Responsibility (Martha Lucas, UNISON agent) Secret (ID) Vice (Lovely Ladies) [u][b]Abilities:[/b][/u] 4+4+4+2+0+14=28 pp STR: 14 (+2) DEX: 14 (+2) CON: 14 (+2) INT: 12 (+1) WIS: 10 (+0) CHA: 24 (+7) [u][b]Combat:[/b] [/u]12+12=24 pp ATK: +6 (+12 Genie Magic) DEF: +15 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +6 Grapple: +8/+26 Knockback: -6 [u][b]Saves:[/b] [/u]6+6+8=20 pp TOU: +15 (+2 Con, +3 Protection, +10 Defensive Roll) FORT: +8 (+2 Con, +6) REF: +8 (+2 Dex, +6) WILL: +8 (+0 Wis, +8) [u][b]Skills:[/b][/u] 80 r=20 pp Bluff 13 (+20) [sup]SM[/sup] Diplomacy 13 (+20) [sup]SM[/sup] Gather Information 13 (+20) [sup]SM[/sup] Knowledge: Civics 4 (+5) Knowledge: History 9 (+10) Knowledge: Pop Culture 9 (+10) Languages 6 (Arabic, English [Base], French, German, Grue, Lor, Russian) Medicine 5 (+5) Notice 5 (+5) [sup]SM[/sup] Survival 3 (+3) [u][b]Feats:[/b][/u] 43 pp Attack Specialization (Genie Magic) 3 Beginner’s Luck Benefit (Security Clearance [UNISON]) Connected (UNISON) Defensive Roll 5 Dodge Focus 9 Evasion Fearless Improved Initiative Inspire 5 Interpose Luck 7 Quick Change Skill Mastery (Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Info, Notice) Ultimate Check (Genie Magic power checks) Uncanny Dodge (visual) Well-Informed [u][b]Powers:[/b][/u] 12 + 65 + 2 + 13 + 3 + 3 + 2 = 98 pp [b]Enhanced Feats 4[/b] (Ultimate Save 4 [Fortitude, Reflex, Toughness, Will]; [i]Extras:[/i] Affects Others, Range 2 [Perception]) [12 pp] [b]Genie Magic Array 30[/b] (60 points, [i]PFs:[/i] Alternate Power 3, Indirect 2) [65 pp] [list] [u]BE[/u]: [b]Create Object 15[/b] ([i]Extra[/i]: Duration [Continous/Lasting], [i]PFs[/i]: Innate, Precise, Selective, Subtle) {48/60} [u]AP[/u]: [b]Move Object 15[b] (Effective STR 75, Heavy Load: 384 tons ([i]Extras[/i]: Damaging, Range [Perception]) {60/60} [u]AP[/u]: [b]Teleport 10[b] (1000 ft/Earth to Moon) ([i]Extras[/i]: Accurate, Affects Others, Area [Burst], Selective) {60/60} [u]AP[/u]: [b]Transform 10[/b] (1000 lbs, any inanimate to any inanimate) ([i]Extra[/i]: Duration [Continous/Lasting]) {60/60} [/list] [b]Immunity 2[/b] (aging, despair effects) [2 pp] [b]Luck Control 4[/b] (cancel GM Fiat, cancel HP expenditure of others, give someone else HP, spend HP for someone else; [i]PF:[/i] Subtle) [13 pp] [b]Protection 3[/b] [3 pp] [b]Regeneration 1[/b] (Resurrection 1/week; [i]PFs[/i]: Persistent, Regrowth) [3 pp] [code]DC Block Unarmed DC 17 Tou save bruised Create Object DC 25 Ref save bruised/trapped Move Object DC 30 Tou save bruised Transform DC 20 Fort save transformed Abilities 28 + Combat 24 + Saves 20 + Skills 20 + Feats 43 + Powers 98 = 234/234 pp Reality Warp'd by Dok

April 2012 The HAX crew vs. the Terminus

April 2012 It's a typical day at Hallomen's Advanced Experts. The boss is working on a consulting project sent her way from Blackstone Prison, where a seized artifact from a long-imprisoned prisoner has begun to malfunction. Dr. Gateway was briefly a terror in the early 1990s; a former archeologist whose alien battlesuit allowed him to banish his enemies into the Zero Zone, Gateway actually soloed against the Freedom League for a while before Daedalus succeeded in deactivating his stolen technology and freeing the policemen, bank tellers, and superheroes he imprisoned there. Gateway's been in jail ever since, the death of one of his early test subjects having given him a life sentence. With his suit deactivated and the man himself in jail, he had slipped out of the public eye. Until now. It's coming up on the second time the Gateway suit will become active in Mara's custody, and while she works on it, her two top security guards are hanging around in the event that the formerly dangerous piece of supertech comes to life in an inopportune moment. You can't be too careful when it comes to get sucked into another dimension. Looking confident in his security guard uniform, Steve stood by the door with Erin, drinking break room coffee from his new mug. "Your young man's blend is very flavorful," he commented to Erin as he watched Mara at work. "You should give him my thanks."

He has Growth 4. Hulk big, not Godzilla.