Avenger Assembled

Trusting Fleur readily with his apartment, Murdock led the way onto the streets of Lincoln. He'd read the informational brochures for the area before moving in, and had walked the streets at night to familiarize himself with the region. In his mind, as they stood on the streetcorner and watched the cars go by, across the street from the barbershop and down a half a block from the local convience store where Murdock bought most of his food, he tried to put himself in the mind of those writers. A working-class African-American neighborhood; one with a strong tradition of community and family. Though Lincoln's had many problems over the years, it's a good, solid neighborhood that's managed to stay together despite adversity. The cars spewed hydrocarbons in the air, the people had a few thousand calories a day to eat, the streets were often dirty, and there was at least one feral cat in the neighborhood. For Murdock, it was a lovely place. "This is Lincoln," he finally said after a moment's awkward silence.

Wraith is up.

Japproved

9 on history

Sharl is down an HP and Injured. (Ah, life as a construct...) Firehawk stole Blitzen's action, so he's still got one. Sage is up.

For his own part, Sharl decided to continue distracting the bad guys. He tried to put himself in the mindset of one of the Freedom City high school kids he'd spent so much time watching on TV and on the Internet. "You big jerks!" he exclaimed, counting on his nigh-invulnerability in this body to protect him from any retaliation. "Koshiro's not a crook!" I hope! Putting himself between Koshiro and the bad guys, as he'd done, had definite disadvantages. "You're just a bunch of wreckers ruining your own home city. If you care about Detroit so much, you'd be doing something besides trying to beat up on a bunch of-agh!" Firehawk had concentrated on Sharl, reaching his hand out to squeeze into a fist. The electronic teenager gasped as he felt his body heat up, his signal suddenly sputtering and sparking, Sharl dissolving into visible static around the edges for a moment before he forced himself back into his signal, now looking scorched around the edges like someone suffering from a sunburn. Sharl was hurting, and bad: whatever that energy was had gone right into his projector. But he couldn't worry about that. Before the bad guys could put two and two together, he exclaimed, "Yeah, I've got superpowers! Get out of here, guys! You crooks wanna have a fight? Fight with Citizen!" Hoping his friends would take the cue, he concentrated as a blue corona of light formed on his chest into the shape of his symbol: the universal wi-fi code, and then he took to the air to shake his fist at them. "Let's do this!"

Freedom Angel landed between the simians and their means of escape, with his glossy black wings spreading behind him and his halo glowing, he was the very image of every angel of legend. "Sons of the sixth day," he said with divine firmness, "hearken to my words. We are not allies of your tormentors; rather, we are champions of freedom and justice. If thee have been made slaves, we will overcome those who sought to be thy masters. If thee have been kept in chains, we shall free you as you have already freed yourselves. But if you flee from us," he added sternly, "then you go into a world of sin, where your enemies may yet find you." He extended an open hand to the jittery chimpanzee. "The good man says, 'As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. Take my hand, my friend."

Freedom Angel spends an HP on Ultimate Diplomacy, giving him a 35 to the check.

Queen of Heaven Legacy Heroes Unwelcome Guests Latchkey Kids Final Frontier The Gods Themselves Plan Bee

September 22, 2011 Wander, Midnight, Edge, Ace Danger, Bombshell, and Cannonade get a visit from that old-time Norse religion.

September 20-27, 2011 Fleur, Freedom Angel, Psyche, Phalanx, Dark Star deal with the evacuees to Sanctuary

September 20-27, 2011 The Lab: Torque, Supercape, Gossamer, Ironclad, Dragonfly, and Protectron solve the problem at its source

September 26, 2011 Young Freedom Citizen, Ghost Girl, Sage, Cobalt Templar, Wraith, and Papercut are left to watch Freedom Hall. What could go wrong? (It turns out a lot)

September 24, 2011 Rene, Nick Cimeterie, Kid Cthulu, Equinox, Dead Head, and Phantom deal with an invasion by magical creatures and their goons. Trollthumper be runnin' this.

September 25, 2011 Crow, Changeling, Myrmidon, Wisp, and Glowstar face off against one of their own. Raveled be runnin' this.

September 26, 2011 Jack of all Blades, Jill O'Cure, Miss Americana, Geckoman, Ferros, and Willow deal with some thorny problems. Yeah, Gizmo is running this.

So go post, you.

The Gorgon Is Here! September 20, 2011 11:56 PM The flash of light fills the entire sky over the Western Hemisphere, the glow of a nearly infinite number of neutrinos colliding with each other in a spectacular quantum cascade of tachyonic radiation the brightest quantum object in the Solar System for dozens of milliseconds. As the humans below look up, a _face_ appears in the sky, super-imposed on the warm, soothing glow of the half-visible Moon. A humanoid looks down on the Earth with a face as big as a planet; her eyes glowing green and her hair a visibly thrashing cascade of tremendous serpents. Those who know their lore of space will well remember that face: the Lor and their spatial traps have failed, the distraction of the Grue has been defeated: the Gorgon has come to their Solar System. When it, no, she addresses the scuttling, crawling world below her, it is through every electronic device on the surface of the Earth, audible in every language simultaneously and despite all that with a singular, terrible clarity like the thundering chords of the Apocalypse itself. The signal is easy to trace to anyone with the proper equipment, even mundane scientists with nothing more than a radio telescope: an Earth-sized body as dense as a planet has just appeared in the Kuiper Belt and is on a collision course for Earth. Those with powerful enough telescopes can see that terrible face in the depths of space. “I HAVE COME FROM THE FARTHEST REACHES OF SPACE TO PRESERVE ALL LIFE ON THE SURFACE OF THE WORLD BELOW AND DESTROY THE TAINT OF ENTROPY THAT LIES ACROSS IT LIKE A PLAGUE. THOSE OF YOU TOO COWARDLY, TOO FRAIL, OR TOO CORRUPT TO ACCEPT MY BLESSING HAVE SEVEN REVOLUTIONS OF YOUR GLOBE TO ABANDON YOUR WORLD LIKE THE CRAWLING VERMIN YOU ARE. FOR THE REST SHALL COME THE INFINITE MERCY OF EVER-LASTING PRESERVATION! THE GORGON IS, THE GORGON WAS, AND EVER SHALL THE GORGON BE!” And then the face on the Moon fades. And the world screams.

I'll say you can spend your action this round hustling everyone inside, KD (particularly if you take the chance to slip into a bathroom and change). Interestingly, that will not trigger Blitzen's readied action!

Freedom Angel's Initiative: 4 Awwwwww

When the robots opened fire, Caradoc dropped his cloak. The electrical discharges were a concern, given his cybernetic body's general reaction to electromagnetic overloads: i.e., that he would explode. However, given that they didn't seem to have power enough to do that, he opted instead to draw their fire. This close he'd been able to pick out Protectron's golden armor in the police crowd, and so he knew there were other heroes on the scene. "Criminals below!" he called, using his best attempt at a phony Middle English accent. "Ye are in violation of the laws of Man and the Church! Stand down, or face the wrath of the noble Caradoc!" He'd been in enough battles to know the value of someone who drew the fire of opponents, letting his allies gauge the power of the targets below.

Fear Controller PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 26 pp STR 14 (+2) DEX 14 (+2) CON 16 (+3) INT 14 (+2) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Fear Array) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +8/+20 w/TK Saves: 14 pp TOU +10 (+3 Con, +7 Protection) FORT +7 (+3 Con, +4) REF +7 (+2 Dex, +4) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 14 pp=56 r Bluff 3 (+5) Concentration 8 (+10) Diplomacy 3 (+5) Gather Info 8 (+10) Intimidate 13 (+15) Knowledge: Pop Culture 3 (+5) Language 1 (Spanish) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 12 pp Dodge Focus (4) Fascinate (Intimidate) Move-By Action Precise Shot Second Chance (vs. Fear effects) Startle Power Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Well-Informed Powers: 60 pp Enhanced Feat 1 (Quick Change) [1 pp] Fear Array [22+3=25 pp] Damage 10 (Extra: Targeted Area [shapeable]) (PFs: Accurate 2) AP: Create Object 6 (Extra: Moveable) (PFs: Precise, Progression 2, Selective) AP: Emotion Control 10 (Extras: Selective, Targeted Area [shapeable]) (Flaws: Limited [Fear Only] Range [Ranged]) (PFs: Accurate 2) AP: Move Object 10 (Heavy Load: 12 tons) (Extra: Damaging) (Flaw: Feedback) (PFs: Accurate 2) Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6 pp] Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9 pp] Impervious TOU 10 (Extra: Duration (Sustained) [+0]) [10 pp] Protection 7 [7 pp] cost abilities 26 + combat 24 + saves 14 + skills 14/56 + feats 12 + powers 60 = 150 pts ------------- Design Notes: Here’s a fear controller in the vein of DC’s Sinestro Corps. Fear is a perfectly healthy emotion for a superhero to instill in bad guys, so I think it’s entirely reasonable to have a heroic fear controller. Note that he doesn’t have Fearless himself, rather he has a high Intimidate score and Second Chance vs. Fear. (That way if you rejigger him as a bad guy, you don’t have to rejigger his sheet in the process) Note that he doesn’t have a power ring, rather his abilities come from internal psychic abilities. He can fire blasts of ‘fear energy’ to psychologically terrorize bad guys, or just smack them around with energy constructs like the gay Mexican bear he’s making use of to back up his use of the Startle feat. Like most of my GL-style builds, he has Protection in place permanently (so he can take hits even when powered down) but has a “Force Field”-style construction for the Impervious: that way, while getting stunned is a serious threat, it’s not a game-ender the way it could potentially be. I borrowed liberally here from my Beacon build and Flame Octopus builds, of course. He’s a cousin of my patriotic hero build from upthread, perhaps. My idea here is that this is a fearmongering journalist or news commentator who unlocked his true inner power and realized he could now fight his enemies with superpowers. He also works as an unwitting Fear-Master legacy; perhaps an exposure to the sonic weapons of Fear-Master II triggered a protective reaction, giving him a psychic mastery of the very emotion that the Fear Master had sought to inflict on him! It’s up to you whether or not he’s maintained a secret ID; he could work just as well as a celebrity hero as a celebrity with a really big secret. You could save points by cutting down his physical attributes some, I’ve gone with the theory that he’s an adult in decent shape, but you could easily give him a physique more appropriate to a desk-bound journalist and spend those ‘wasted’ points in a more efficient fashion. He’s very good at terrifying patriotic bluster that reminds you of the many terrible things just waiting for you under your bed, ready to spring! He's better at sweeping goons by force or fear than outright blasts, but he can do that too if he really has the need. He could use some super-senses if you can dig up the points. An easy way to save points is to put his powers in a device, of course! That would let you fluff out his skills and feats to make him more formidable without his powers, or to fluff his powers up some and make him an even more impressive Note that he’s not actually space-worthy as such (well, he can survive there, he just can’t get around) so give him some Space Travel if you want him to be part of an interstellar corps of fear-mongers: perhaps focused on uplifting sentients from animal panic by wielding those self-same instincts for the greater good.

Without a need to meet the others in the air, and indeed unaware there were other heroes on the scene at first, 'Caradoc' made his own way towards the power plant. He opted not to interact with the local authorities, not wanting an accidental reveal of his ever-shaky secret to the crowd below. Lacking a good view of the others, 'Caradoc' took advantage of his chameleon circuitry to fly right over the makeshift barricade and study the group who had seized control of the fission plant. Unfortunately, that also meant he was in the line of fire when the robots below turned out to have far better sensors than he'd anticipated, based on the sudden outbreak of weapons below. Perhaps I should discuss a better disguise with Miss Americana-

Blitzen drove one of his massive fists into the other, sparks crackling and flying as he did so as if lightning was in his very bones. "We can start by smashing this little prison-house to rubble for you," he offered, seemingly perfectly serious as he did so. Despite his brutish appearance, right down to little incisors sticking up past his jawline, there was something intelligent in the giant's voice. "And make sure these zips learn that when one of US goes away, you treat him with RESPECT!" He growled. "Freedom is the right of anyone who can reach out and take it for himself!"

Initiative: Blitzen: 26 Cobalt Templar: 23 Citizen: 22 Firehawk: 19 Sage: 15 Wraith: 13 Protector: 12 Rustbelt: 11 Black Goat: 8 Papercut: 7 Ghost Girl: 6 Blitzen is up. He holds his action, waiting for Papercut's reply, but readies an action to pummel anyone who tries to stop what they're doing. (He's already prepared a Teleporter as his invention for this encounter, in case he and the rest of the Champions do make a hasty exit) In the meantime, Cobalt Templar is up.