Avenger Assembled

"Three years?! Oh my sweet Lord in Heaven..." Marcus looked at Louise, his eyes wide as she steadied him, then asked "How did you - how did you come to be here after all that time?" Louise looked up at Marcus with tears in her eyes, looking very much the teary-eyed 19th century romantic heroine "I had your plans, Marcus. I built what I could, then I took a boat to Dakana to recover more of your time crystals." She smiled then. "There were many trials going there, and many more after - but they are a sensible people. Once I won the White Lion to my side, Joseph and Bubastis helped me build this new conveyance. We thought to fight a war against the people of the future to save you." Marcus blinked, staring at her with incomprehension mixed with admiration, then suddenly went down on one knee before her. "My dear M-Louise. Traveling in time has taught me only that I have been a fool. Will you - will you be my wife?" Louise looked back suddenly at the lionmech, for a moment, a troubled look on her face, then back down at Marcus before she said, "Yes. Yes, I will." Marcus whooped as loudly as he had when he'd first confronted the bees. "She has agreed! Louise Morgan has agreed to make me the happiest man in America!" He jumped up and embraced Louise, then Tarrant, then Stesha before making rapid introductions of the latter two to the former. - "Hum!" Joseph considered Chitin's words. "I can see how that would be done. Is that electricity powering the suit?" he hazarded. "I am more of an adventurer than a builder, but Bubastis loves her great machines. When we were younger, it was all Father could do to persuade her not to attack those damned ignorant Boers." He laughed indulgently, then considered. "Your...guys?" Suddenly Chitin got a very clear signal from Magenta. Bubastis Mandela had spotted the little robot and grabbed a good-sized wrench from her control console. Yelling a Dakanan battle cry, or perhaps just an oath, she was swinging the wrench back for what looked to be a powerful downstroke...

Frost was looking into the fire by the time Ghost had finished, listening and nodding his head occasionally. "Eighteen years, well. I had died several times by then so you have come out ahead." He smiled at Ghost, the accent returning as he added, "These are good answers. You should not look for my approval in personal life because what am I, just some elderly Russian man. But you should look for it in professional life - and you have it!" He offered a cold handshake to Ghost before continuing, "Now you must understand, cannot have you just walk off street into League, that is not done. You will officially be Auxilary representative on main team. Once time has passed, then they can talk to you about a permanent place. This is good, yes?"

Gabriel's still not saying anything. Oh God, is it his-shut up shut up shut up. With the little voice that liked to ruin her concentration silenced, Ashley took a seat at the table opposite the League members, having already slipped a zip drive into one of the nearby display screens. "First off, I'd also like to offer my congratulations, Fleur," she said with a small smile. She'd been in college and away from Freedom City. when Fleur's first child had been born, but like most people in the Western Hemisphere she remembered when Dark Star had announced Fleur's first child by writing it on the Moon. Of course, that wasn't going to happen this time, was it? It was best not to think about that, for multiple reasons. "Secondly, I'm here to let the League know how recent changes in Washington will be impacting the metahuman community. President O'Connor has asked me to pass on his good wishes and to say he hopes to see all of you again the next time he's in town. In the meantime - in the wake of my predecessor's decision to fully retire after the recent incident with Keres," an incomplete truth but certainly not a lie, "the United States government has decided to reactivate the Patriot legacy. What this means for you is that you'll still be working with your usual contacts with AEGIS and the federal government, but I will be your official liaison with the federal government, and I'll be working with you as a partner on missions impacting national security. This does not," she added firmly, "make me a member of the League, nor do I expect it to." In the tone of someone repeating an argument she'd had with someone else, she went on, "It would be asinine to expect you to accept a stranger onto the Freedom League just because Mike O'Connor says so." She made a little dismissive gesture with her gauntleted hand, and asked, "Are there any questions?"

The drone's Impervious takes care of the arrows. You can make an IC post if you like, @RocketLord, we're not in initiative. The Snare works - go ahead and post IC, @EternalPhoenix.

"My, ah, Christian name is Joseph," said the man with his head sticking out of the mech, "and we seek-say, is that-" There was the distinct sound of movement from inside the mech, and suddenly a door in the front of the left leg slid open. A woman in brightly colored safari gear, a copper-wrapped rifle over her shoulder stepped outside, took one look at Fleur, Gaian Knight, and their passenger - and declared "MARCUS!" "Louisa?" asked Marcus, who had gone from blank-faced bafflement at Fleur's teleport to a pleasantly surprised recognition. "Is that-" Not waiting for him to finish, Louisa had simply run across the field to take him in her arms, weeping. "Marcus! Oh, my God...you're alive!" She embraced him wordlessly, burying her face in his chest. Blushing, shooting a reflexive, startled look at Fleur and Gaian Knight, Marcus put his arms around the woman. "Ssh, d-er, Louisa, my dear, it has only been a few hours since I told you of my plans, you did not need to-" He blinked, staring up at the mech, and evidently did some math. "My God. How long has it been?" She looked at him, an ocean of pain in her voice, and said "It's been three years, Marcus." At that he reeled backwards, looking as if he might faint dead away at any moment. - Back in the mech, the teens and their adult escort could distinctly hear Joseph call down inside the machine, too distantly for Louisa to hear. "Well how about that! I was sure he was dead!" When his head popped back up, he too climbed out of the machine and began climbing down its side. "So this is the future! Things certainly have changed in 150 years!" He looked up at the circling bees for a moment, then headed over to join the group on the ground. "You'll pardon my sister if she stays close to the controls; she engineered this device behind us and has Bast's pride in the whole affair. Joseph Mandela," he added, crossing his arms in front of his chest and bowing. "Say are you magic?" he inquired. "I had heard the Christians still use such things. It would explain the bees!" he added.

Angelic landed behind the Hooked Man and responded to his taunting by stabbing him in the back with one of her razor-sharp wingtips, electricity crackling along her wing as she sliced along his ribs. "Pathetic," she sneered with magnificent contempt. "You thought you were a conqueror, a king! You are the shadow of a dead man's fantasies," she insisted, "and I am the embodiment of a new age." She raised her fist to the Heavens and declared as lightning crashed behind her - "I will give this world order!" She turned to Pan and smiled at him. It wasn't the first time he'd seen her smile, her metallic hair solid against the breeze, but it was the first time her smile had been as wide as his own. "Come on, Pan," she said, spreading her wings again as she approached the bound Hooked Man. "Let us do it together!"

Watchdog flexed her right wrist and a fist-mounted taser popped out of her left sleeve. Wordlessly, she fired an electrical blast of her own at Matt, one that caught him in the chest, crackled, and did absolutely nothing at all. Without hesitating, she stepped forward and drove something into the palm of Matt's open hand, moving too fast for Luke to see what it was until he realized she'd just jammed a sharp, heavy-duty metal pen directly between two of the open panels inside his hand, hard enough that they didn't seem able to close anymore and something was distinctly leaking out.

"I'm - " Ashley looked Stesha up and down and took time to think a few thoughts. Okay. Don't be the first person to mention a pregnancy, even if she's obviously pregnant. Don't want to step on the toes of the superpowerful plant lady or anybody else here. Did they know about this? Is it - she cranked down that piece of speculation very quickly and finished speaking "the new Patriot." She supposed someone who lived in another dimension would have missed the marketing push. And the Presidential address. "I'm here to brief the team on behalf of the US government." She went around the room shaking everyone's hand, a firm, obviously calculated grip for the blue and grey masked patriot. "Gaian Knight, Tiamat, Gabriel, Ghost, it's a pleasure to meet all of you." She was shorter in person than she generally appeared on television, but solidly built, though it was hard to tell how much beneath the jacket and armored costume. Once she'd circled back around, she took a chocolate glazed doughnut, the least likely thing to drip on her costume or make a mess on her face. Okay. Avalanche guy, dragon lady, sound guy for the parish, plant goddess, and not-the-Raven. Everything is fine.

Oh yes, it was the snare I used earlier, not the stun. All right, well, she can't switch the powers in her array more than once per round, so I have to just punch him instead. She will Power Attack for +5. https://orokos.com/roll/903780 Let me know if an 18 hits him flat-footed, if not I'll redo that one. That's a DC 26 Tou save.

Sure, might as well go all-out for the last big fight of the thread! I'll be spending an HP to cancel my fatigue next round.

Late July 2021 Freedom Hall Okay thought Ashley, looking at her helmeted face in the women's bathroom mirror. It's just a normal briefing as part of a larger team meeting. You're going to introduce yourself, say you hope we'll have a good working relationship, and tell them what happened with Revere. We're all adults here and we're not going to fight over territory. Under normal circumstances, she'd have gone in without the mask and secret identity, but there was no reason in the world to have the Freedom League looking into the affairs or for that matter recent professional whereabouts of Secret Service Agent Ashley Tran. She took out her phone and texted a quick Going in. Talk to you later, babe. ? to an anonymous number that routed out to the depths of space before turning off her phone, putting it in her jacket pocket, and tugging it down to match the lines of her costume. No use looking like an ass. With that, and with a deep breath, she walked out of the bathroom, walked down the hall, and headed into the Freedom League meeting room.

"It doesn't matter what you pick, boy," said Frost with a cold shrug, his Boris Badinov accent fading like the snow in mid-summer. "He had killed them all before I even arrived in the valley. Every single one." He opened up a knife from his sleeve and drove it firmly into the wooden table by his side. "So I killed him and damned him to an eternity of torment for his crime. But I have close ties with a goddess of Death, so I was able to improvise the fates of his victims." He pulled out the knife, the wood closing up where it had once been almost instantly. "Here it is forever 1957, and the people go about their lives unknowing that one of their heroes will soon come to burn them to death in their homes. This is the Freedom League. There is no organization on this planet with lower stakes. If you join this team, sometimes you will fail, and be left with only the memory of failure after. That is the test."

A distinct shadow fell on the heroes from the building's skylight, a rapidly growing shadow that they both managed to dodge. This was all for the best as the falling object turned out to be a fully-loaded semitruck coming down cab first! The hurled vehicle crashed through the roof, its load swinging behind it to hit the floor simultaneously with the cab. The creaking wood underneath proved no match for the sudden impact, however, as the truck then broke through it! The impact set Archer and Terrifica desperately dodging as the truck smashed down into the basement and the floor gave way beneath their feet! The building itself was shaking and rumbling now, its walls groaning and waving in the wind even as the echoes of the crash rang in their ears. Looking up, they could see the outline of a caped figure against the stars above, its eyes glowing a malignant red.

Ashley guided her 'guests' to a private meeting room a few doors down from where the Vice-President was meeting with the Patriot, then carefully locked it behind her. She nodded up towards a camera in the room's upper left corner and reached up, standing on tiptoes for a moment to hit a button underneath. "That'll put it in reset mode for a while, give us a chance to talk." She shook her head, turning back to the others. "Do you see what I mean?" she asked, spreading her hands. "That man in there passed every physical and psychological test. He has been a cop, he has been a soldier, and every supervisor he has ever had signed a letter of recommendation for him. He's already gone through the DNAscendent process, so there are about eight figures of government dollars in his veins alone. But when I look him in the eye, when I see the way he talks to people...there is something wrong here."

Save vs 22 30 And with Evasion she's fine. Fast Feint, DC 25 Bluff check. Taser: 28, so that's a DC 22 Fort save with her Sneak Attack bonus She'll then surge to do it again https://orokos.com/roll/903286 = 24 Another DC 22 Fort save.

Okay. Angelic is going to go for the Hooked Man again, using the Moving Feint. Moving Feint: 20 Attack: 22 The robots will keep hitting the chain.

Ashley made a noise in the back of her throat. "Sorry, I just...I didn't think we'd bond over stories of all the tail we used to pull." She waved her bottle around for a moment, considering what to say, then said, "Don't blame yourself. Everybody's stupid when they're young, especially about who they want to hook up with. Believe me, I should know, I had to do it twice." Having slouched down in the chair, she sat up. "My first real boyfriend thought I was in college to find a Catholic husband and get married. Which, first of all, this was 2010, not 1910, and second, I was a criminal justice major, what was I going to do, run the neighborhood watch and raise the kids while he went off to work every day? What the hell, Tyler." She rubbed her bicep thoughtfully, looking off at the memory. "I think the Lor have it right. Just date who you want, and if you want a baby, boom, visit the clone tanks. They'll even grow you your own actual kid."

Eira's wings spread wide, lightning crackling around her on-stage as girl finished a sudden transformation into machine, the illusion of organic flesh replaced by the hard reality of inorganic life. The monster in front of her was a problem, of course, but if it pursued her at her full speed that could only benefit the fragile non-combatants about. The real problem was the monster-summoner, and if she took out the monster-summoner, that could only benefit the others too. And if she got the monster-summoner's attention on her and not on her friends, well - her idea was beginning to sound better and better. She had never seen this girl before, but the anger, the demands for attention and recognition when other people were just trying to live their lives...it made something inside her head twist with frustrated, boiling recognition, powering the spite inside her. She pointed a metallic finger at the infernalist punk and hissed in a voice carried by the sound system she'd just finished modifying. "What are your threats - to one such as I - with a heart as cold as steel!" And then she took off, wings spread wide, the electrical energy of the stage's generator powering her up as she rocketed some five hundred feet in the air! She spun in the air and dropped down like a diving bird of prey, bringing her wings around and slashing a cut across the top of Apocalypsette's head. It was a blow hard enough to draw blood, and more importantly strike a blow against the vanity of the other girl. Eira hefted her trophy, a fairly substantial chunk of dark hair, and declared "HA!"

Angelic goes for Apocalypsette. She switches to Damage 10 (electrified strike; PFs: Extended Reach 1, Variable Descriptor 1 [electricity/slashing]) + Enhanced Flight 5 (to Flight 7 [1000MPH/10000FPM, PFs: Moving Feint, Move-By Action) {12+12=24/24] in her array She seeks to feint Apocalypsette using her Flight and Moving Feint. 30 She'll Power Attack for +2 and try and stab Apocalypsette. https://orokos.com/roll/903056 = 11 Well that's bad. https://orokos.com/roll/903057 = That's a 20 with the HP! DC 27 Tou save against a hopefully flat-footed target. If she has to end her round adjacent to Apocalypsette, it's behind her. If not, she's back on the stage.

July 4, 2021 A Capitol Fourth The President of the United States smiled his dazzling smile, eyes framed by his old-fashioned horn-rimmed glasses, voice warm and dry as he finished his speech. "She's worn a police officer's uniform at home, she's defended our nation overseas, and she's done things I never would have thought possible. And here she is; the one, the only, the all-new Patriot." "When my grandfather came to this country, he told my grandmother 'Now we are finally free.'" A quick montage of shots of ethnic neighborhoods that the Internet will soon identify as parts of Orange County, California, the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, San Diego, Doraville in Georgia, and Denver. Gradually the speaker comes into view, a muscular woman in silhouette as she says "When my father put on a uniform to protect this country from its enemies, he told me it was the happiest day in his life." The Patriot isn't particularly big or particularly small; she's a woman of average height and solid build, with a Eurasian cast to the features visible beneath her helmet. "When I volunteered to be the Patriot, they asked me if I wanted to have a secret identity. I told them that people shouldn't follow the person inside the costume. They should follow what it stands for. It's my job to live up to the legacy of the Patriot and make the symbol mean something." A quick montage of shots of the first Patriot in action alongside the Liberty League against the Ubersoldaten, and then fighting Communists after the war. "Being a Patriot should be about being willing to make sacrifices for others. To put yourself in the line of fire, even if everyone else thinks you're wrong, because someone has to be the one who takes the heat." The Patriot adjusts her jacket and pins an American flag pin on her lapel. "We live in a world of marvels, where caped crusaders fill our skies and our news. But we also live in a nation of freedom, where everyone's equal. Everyone." A rainbow pin goes on the lapel next to the American flag, followed by a yellow flag pin with three red stripes. "America has problems." As she speaks, there's a quick montage backing her words. "There's crime, there's racism, there's sexism, there are criminal metahumans in our streets. But if we're willing to work together, we can fix it together. There's an American Dream that goes beyond our differences and unites us. And we're going to make that dream a reality." The Patriot smiles. "Are you with me?"

The giant armor's expression was hard to read, since the lion-headed Victorian creation didn't have one. Instead it seemed to swivel its head around somewhat jerkily, limbs moving back and forth. Inside, Chitin could see what was indeed a heated argument between the occupants, one that came to an end only when the woman in the pilot's seat finally threw up her hands, rose from her seat at the controls, shoved aside her countryman, and took the microphone. Now a new voice sounded from the mech: ONE OF US WILL COME! It was neither the pilot nor the woman in safari dress (who protested this vigorously, even as she took up what appeared to be a Victorian rifle covered in copper tubing) who emerged from the craft, but the Dakanan man, his head and torso emerging from a cunningly concealed opening inside the lion's head. He peered at the assembled young heroes, the giant bees, and all around. In accented English, he called out "Gentlefolk and great insects! Is this the Christian year 2021, and is this the former site that the Americans once called Freedom City? We are seeking an eccentric inventor and a large quantity of daka crystals, both misplaced here from the year 1871!" He was speaking slowly and clearly, and obviously addressing Bee in particular. "If you have them, please bring them here. My partner and I would prefer to bargain with you but our fair-skinned companion below has waited some time to see her..." He looked down, seemed to have a conversation with someone they couldn't see, and added with the air of someone who had been told something firmly, "business associate! I fear she is somewhat more fiery in her disposition than we!"

APPROVED

"It was what she wanted," said Ashley softly, more to herself than anything else. "I think I was the only one in those rooms who gave a damn about that. So if I have to eat dirt for the rest of my life for it...it was worth it," she admitted, with the expression of someone who had never quite said those words out loud before. She smiled slightly and took that opportunity to finish her bottle. She unhooked her bisexual pin and stared at it for a moment. "See, you've got all that, and me? I can talk about being a woman, about being Vietnamese, about being a cop, even..." It was polished enough she could just make out her reflection in it. "I've had boyfriends since I was in college," she said, "but only the one girlfriend." Her lips curled at the thought of Fa'Rua, who wasn't quite close enough to the Solar System to have gotten the message about her forthcoming career change yet but would surely get it soon. "And I know, nobody's just a little queer, but I feel like a tourist," she admitted. "Even the word feels wrong. Growing up, 'queer' was something kids whispered to you in the hall when they thought the nuns weren't listening."

Go ahead and post, @Gizmo, if you think a 23 is high enough. ?

Ashley looked over her mostly-empty beer to see just how mad Wail actually was, then she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, somebody in denial is asked to come up with a cover identity for themselves and the first thing they think of is an out and proud queer person. It's a real conversation for my shrink." She spread her arms in a 'what can you do' gesture. "Even Judy Cahill, bless her hillbilly heart, asked me if I thought that meant anything. Kids." Her tone about her former charge was obviously affectionate, even so. "Trust me, if that was a sin, I've done my penance. Hey speaking of which, it turns out 'Catholic, but not in the sense of believing what the Church says' is not a good answer for questions about the Patriot's views on religion, according to my social media guy." She smiled thinly. "So that's going to be a thing. As for the rest of it..." She hesitated, then gave Wail a sympathetic look. "I bet you got a lot of that back in the day. I'm sorry."