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Avenger Assembled

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  1. "There is a woman in the other room who knows my name and why I was here," said Harrier, relieved that Miss Americana was up and around but still suspicious of her strange behavior, not to mention all the other madness that had happened that afternoon. "And she addressed me as a friend," he remembered, feeling that suspicious edge again. "She seemed very frightened of me." He walked to that door again as Miss Americana watched, ready to show one to the other.
  2. This was a very baffling set of circumstances, especially since Miss Americana was in such bizarre distress. Though Murdock was used to not really understanding what was going on, he couldn't just turn away when Miss Americana was potentially under threat. "Miss Americana?" he asked uncertainly, approaching her with a worried look on his face. "Are you well?" Normally he'd simply have declared the obvious, but it was a strange afternoon indeed. Hefting the emergency phone, he said, "Let me call the other scientists at the Lab. They will be able to assist you," he said, his usually monotone voice growing more urgent.
  3. Feeling a surge of guilt at the terror on the woman's face, Murdock took a step back, giving her space away from her fear. "Yes. Yes, why don't I investigate that? Don't go anywhere." His tone showed he wasn't really fooled by the deception, but he could hardly press further without shattering the already fragile woman before him. There were no exits in the hallway down this way, there was nowhere she could go. He'd taken both the phone and the medical kit with him, and, keeping a close eye on the door he'd left, Murdock headed towards Miss Americana's last location. He closed the door behind him, certain that the woman would stay put until he got some answers.
  4. "How did you know my name?" asked Murdock, the suspicion returning to his voice now that this woman was proving herself so very suspicious. He was no monster to push at someone who seemed fragile, but his suspicions were growing again now that he faced this very mysterious woman. "I have met Miss Americana's assistants and they are not like you. Her sidekick is a teenage male. She would not divulge my identity to others. Not after the Archeville incident." He frowned. "Who are you?"
  5. "Miss Americana?" he pressed, the fear and confusion on Gina's face enough to quell his suspicion and anger, at least immediately. There was still a crisis, but if the humans were recovering, perhaps they weren't quite as dangerous as he'd feared. "How did you come to be here?" he asked again. "Miss Americana, are you awake?" he called into the other room, trying to figure out if some mental effect in the area had recently lapsed. "Or...why were you both asleep?"
  6. He peered at her, something like suspicion on his lined face. He was a menacing-looking man at the best of times, and he certainly looked menacing now that he was worried for his usually-invulnerable friend's safety and encountering this mysterious woman squatting in her laboratory. "...you were sleeping?" he asked. She certainly didn't look unwell, for all that she was obviously startled, and he didn't smell any of the more common drugs on her. "Who are you? Is Miss Americana well?"
  7. Harrier was tempted to simply ignore the sleeping woman; the idea that someone might have crept into a home of the powerful to spend the night was not particularly alien to him. But studying that woman gave him a sudden swell of suspicion: surely the always-private Miss Americana would never have allowed a 'squatter' in her laboratory, even one who vaguely resembled her. Perhaps she had something to do with what had happened, or knew who had! If she had suffered the same fate, perhaps there was some toxin in the air that his body was armored against, and he needed to rescue them both. He bent down and tried to shake the sleeping woman awake, his voice firm as he said, "You! Are you all right?"
  8. "...Miss Americana?" asked Murdock, concern on his face as he lightly nudged her shoulder, then shook her with more force. He'd seen death and injury in tremendous quantities in his time, but Miss Americana didn't look like anything she'd ever seen: she wasn't dead, she had no marks of injury, no poisons he recognized: she simply looked as if she'd fallen asleep and was unable to rouse herself, even when he raised his voice to her. He thought fast, trying to think about who he could call for help. This was well beyond him, and truthfully his self-interest was strong enough that he had little desire to be alone with a friend who had suffered an unknown malady that might be blamed on consorting with Omegadrones. For his sake, and especially for hers, he needed to get help and fast! He thought fast, thinking about his previous visits to the Lab. He remembered he'd seen an emergency telephone, as well as medical kit, in what he'd taken for an emergency shelter a few corridors away, a room that he'd uncovered while roaming the halls while Miss Americana worked on his pike: he hadn't commented on his discovery to her, since it wasn't his place to pry. There was no time for such thoughts now, though; his friend was in peril! He turned and hurried for that door, throwing it open with his great strength without hesitation.
  9. Mid-November 2011 'Caradoc' had been pulled into an ocean battle near Cape May while visiting the area as part of his work for HAX, joining some local heroes and the Freedom League in battling a limited Atlantean incursion. They'd won the battle against the underwater barbarians, but exposure to powerful metallic corrosives had left Harrier looking decidedly unsightly. He was generally confident his armor would eventually repair itself (which was a better fate than simply having what he used for bones fall apart), but his lack of experience with Atlantean meant he wanted to have someone knowledgeable about all ways of the sciences look him over. For Harrier, that unquestionably meant Miss Americana, who was brilliant, beautiful, and trustworthy all at once. He'd heard of her new role at Archetech, but she'd still been available to make an appointment at her own laboratory. So he'd done so, and now as fall fell across the city, the former Omegadrone simply walked into the private laboratory where he'd met Miss Americana so many times. "Hello?"
  10. Okay, so the local internet is not as great as we'd been promised. We'll do our best.
  11. "Super-Bee's powers mean she needs special accommodations; she's a commuter student," explained Nyland blandly. "But we assign all students potential rooms anyway, in case there's an emergency and they have to stay on campus for a few days. You'll probably see her when you go down to the cafeteria for supper tonight, since I believe she has a natural history class that ends about that time." She hesitated a moment, then asked, "You don't have any phobias, do you? Rats, spiders, giant insects?"
  12. Mark hadn't gone into the house on Earth-EZO1, having only popped into the yard to make sure Erin and Trevor had arrived there safely. Between that and his own winning personality, there were only a few ghosts hovering over his shoulders as he said, "Well, here's an easy one..." With a wave of his hands, with a flashy flourish he produced two red cut roses, handing one to both the White girls. "Flowers, for two lovely Seattle flowers." He winked at them both, but gave the look special weight for Erin-Prime, more out of automatic habit when dealing with a pretty girl than anything else. "I can't make them live, but they'll last as long as any other cut rose if you put them in water. What else would you like?" he inquired of Erin in particular.
  13. Citizen was uncomfortable around all these new faces, especially since he couldn't join in the eating: he'd learned his lesson in India and wasn't going to be filling his projection with food any time he thought he might be about to go into a crisis situation. And if there were other kids at this school like Bastion, maybe doing some of the super-drugs he'd heard about, a crisis could happen at any time. So instead he gravitated to a table with other students in black, pretending to eat his salad while all the time really working on his tablet to try and get a lead on the school's spirit via computer: he had a feeling he'd be far more successful there than if he tried to talk to these people. I wonder what my life would be like if I'd popped out here instead of Freedom City, he thought reflectively. No Miss Americana, that's for sure! I should see what kind of tech people they have...
  14. Sharl overheard the conversation between Bonda and the others and was left frankly uncertain about what to do. Even reminding himself that this was just a simulation, the potential gravity of their choice was still nagging at him. "...we get the gorilla civilians out of here, we come back for our people and the plane, and then we're done," he suggested tentatively. "We tell the League a civil war broke out, and we tried to minimize the bloodshed. Maybe they had good relations with the king, but they're superheroes, they're not going to be sorry to see him gone...probably?"
  15. This is your time to do further research/analysis, taking advantage of the Manor's resources.
  16. Rose got Kristen squared away in her room, a two-person block with hookups for cable television and telephones, as well as wireless and corded internet. "Most people stack the beds into bunks to get more room, but you don't have to do that if you don't want to. Right now this room has a vacancy, because the junior it was technically assigned to, Super-Bee, doesn't actually live on campus because we can't accommodate her physically." It sounded like she was reciting a prepared speech, but one she obviously meant. "You may be assigned another roomate at the school's discretion."
  17. Once on the surface after a smooth, comfortable ride at the hands of Gaian Knight, Dr. Rao thanked the heroes again for coming to her rescue, looking abashed for having been the cause of so much trouble. "I don't blame myself," she was quick to assure them, "I only wish I'd done more than simply faint at the sight of that great beast. I wonder how something so big could even tunnel through rock so fast without causing more seismic disturbances..." She was making notes when they left her at the hospital for one more checkup, a reassuring sign given all she'd been through that day. "Well, that was...I don't know?" said Sharl aloud, looking to Miss Americana for cues once they were away from the press of the crowd at the hospital. "I guess if I ask anyone out any time soon, I'll make sure I know them first."
  18. "Can do," promised Edge, and with a touch the body disappeared, flashing in an instant to the examination table that Midnight had pointed out to him on previous visits to the Manor for just such an eventuality. Trevor really was prepared for anything. Mark studied the place where the body had been for a moment, irrelevant flashes of EZO1 in his mind, before he turned to the others to talk. There was no use dwelling on what they couldn't change, right? "All right, I can handle talking to the police if you guys want to handle the investigative side of things," offered Edge. "You guys are all better at that than I am. I can pop over to the Manor afterwards, or to help interview the Klan guys if you think that's relevant?" He wasn't sure what to say here; as seriously as he took this, the others were all better suited to this situation than he was. With everyone's assent, Mark hopped them over the Manor's underground fortifications, transporting them into the heart of the ancient stronghold of the Midnight legacy! This gave them access to the body and the medical equipment inside the manor for a deeper analysis, as well giving Midnight a chance to hook up his teleport tracer to a more powerful version of the same unit: the teleporter at the interrupted concert had popped from Wharton State Forest to an abandoned oil rig well off the coast of Freedom City, a place Trevor recognized as a former supervillain stronghold before a big Freedom League raid the year before had brought about a series of mass arrests. The property, far enough away that it was outside American territorial waters, was officially listed as abandoned.
  19. "If you're leaving him here that long," said Bonda with great seriousness, "then you need to know that I will do my best to take his life when my people break through the doors. As a squire in the court of the king, I have standing to his throne, chimp or not. If the revolutionaries are going to succeed, then they need a king who has been replaced, even by a chimp with chimps at his side, not one who has been overthrown." He smiled thinly. "And if I fail, I die a traitor to one side or the other, so it seems only fair. But you must decide quickly," he added. "Time grows short below."
  20. Mark flushed for a moment at Trevor's kick, but said nothing about it as he considered what must have been his friend's reasoning. Hmm. Trevor's probably mad that I'm having this conversation right here in front of him and Erin when they're trying to introduce Trevor to Erin's parents! He's right, I shouldn't be such an attention hog. Erin-Prime's suggestion to go upstairs certainly seemed to offer a chance to get out of the way, and perhaps offer more as well! He rolled quickly with Megan's suggestion, deciding that showing off for someone's younger sister was a good way to impress everyone involved. "I can make almost anything I want. Nothing alive, and nothing with too complicated moving parts," he said as they walked into the living room, talking to Megan as he would any other kid interested in his powers. "What would you like?" he asked Erin-Prime. There, they were out of the way! He continued upstairs, their conversation falling away from the ears of the others downstairs.
  21. Electra and I are at her folks' place for Thanksgiving, so access will be a caution.
  22. Sharl walked her over to the Kord Dormitory, nodding a cordial hello to the people he knew on campus. There certainly seemed to be lots of people around, teenagers of all shapes and sizes and some with fantastic appearances! She'd been warned about the need to keep the school's secret off-campus, but here on campus all the students could be free to express themselves and use their powers safely: there were students with wings and some with what looked like fiery hair, a game of touch football (American-style) that was in the middle of an argument over "Speedy" using his teleport powers when he'd promised not to, and all in all what looked like an active fall weekend afternoon. The dormitory looked more like a college dorm than a high school, with TV rooms at the end of the hallways, though Sharl did introduce her to her Resident Advisor, Rose Nyland, a tall, blonde senior with an icy-cold handshake. "I can't go into the girls' floor, so you're on your own from here," he told her with a little shrug. "Remember, alternating floors, since they don't let girls and boys share a bathroom here."
  23. Everybody: The body on the bed is dead, all right! Midnight and Cannonade: Notice: The body was obviously dumped here, from the disordered angle of the limbs and some things knocked off the bedside table, it looks like she actually landed with some force. The body is positioned directly under where the bomb had been planted beneath the trailer, where it would have taken the full brunt of the fire. Midnight: Investigate: Bruises on the arms; a puncture wound in the torso, signs of cardiac arrest on the face and body. Someone held her down and injected potassium chloride into her heart. She was dead within seconds. A fast, professional job, one designed to leave as few marks as possible, marks which the fire from beneath almost certainly would have destroyed. She was dead when she got here; she was teleported in over the bed by someone who didn't come through ahead to make sure they had the angle right. Wander: Notice: This Greta Ratner is shorter and rounder than the one you last saw, her face a trifle less sharp. Her costume doesn't fit quite as well as you remember; it's a trifle looser around the chest and the hips, as if made for someone slightly taller and with marginally less body fat. Survival: This is not a fresh corpse. She doesn't have the forensic knowledge to put a name to it, but this reminds Wander of Arkansas and Missouri, frozen hellholes covered in corpses that when the snow melted looked so much alive she half-expected them to reach up and grab for her face. Perhaps this one will! (But no, it's not a zombie)
  24. The dead body of Greta Ratner is in the trailer, sprawled across its bed like a dropped doll, wearing the swastika and stars-and-bars cheerleader costume she was wearing when she disappeared. Let's have some crime-scene checks people! Use what skills seem relevant to what your character is trying to do here.
  25. Eastland got that look Midnight knew only too well, a man scared to death of the grim adventurer, and one not sure of how to escape from it. "Look, look, I said, I don't know anything about how...look, it was her idea! It was her idea!" erupted the frightened villain. "The bomb, the dead body, hitting Delmar, everything! Ever since White Knight got locked up for beating down those s...those Mooslims, she's taken over the whole damn organization!" "...what dead body?" asked Edge from his nearby position, taking the easiest problem first. "The body that was supposed to be in the trailer!" yelled Eastland. "Look, she said it was something that would solve all our problems, and when she got Hammer and Fucastrega on her side, the rest of us were outvoted. Stupid little tart and her plans! I wanted to bring Delmar in on it, but she said we have to prove we weren't loyal to any one faction anymore!" As she worked under the trailer, looking for evidence, Wander suddenly heard a loud thump from inside the trailer itself, as if a large sack of potatoes had been dropped on the metal floor over her head. She'd found little enough below, save that the small bodyprint beneath the bomb's former location had no trail leading to it, as if someone had simply popped into being to place it there. In the distance, there came the sound of sirens.
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