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Avenger Assembled

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  1. Avenger Assembled
    Initiative time, ev'rbody. Sharl: +7=22 Protector: +6=12 Blitzen: +11=26 Rustbelt: +7=11 Firehawk: +7=19 Black Goat: +0=8
  2. Avenger Assembled
    Feeling a little better about himself now that he hadn't messed up the meeting for everyone, Sharl joined the rest and headed outside into the Detroit night. While Eve called for another van to come pick them up, he turned to Koshiro and gave him another once-over. "Hey, uh, sorry about that earlier. I don't normally piss everyone off around me every minute of every day. I'm Sharl." He offered his hand to Koshiro, but before the angsty ex-con could turn away something surprising happened! The big warehouse across the street suddenly rippled and warped right before their eyes as a massive portal big enough to drive a truck through seemed to scoop itself right out of the two-story high brick wall that had been the most interesting thing Koshiro could see from his cell: from that portal there emerged an unlikely quintet of villains. The first was a tall, solidly-built figure in a grey, rounded battle armor that looked like an old-fashioned diving suit; from his air of stern command, he seemed to be in charge. Flanking him at ground-level was a hulking figure easily half again and wide as Corbin, electricity dancing around his huge fists. Half-in and half-out of the 'threshold' of the portal was a weirdly-shaped figure in a green cloak that looked like a rusted-out version of Dr. Metropolis back in Freedom City; before him was an arrogant-looking man in blue and pink body armor with a long ponytail, and finally embracing that last man was a weird, green-skinned woman in black with what looked like weird, twisty shadows dancing around her fingers. She gave an evil laugh as she studied them all, her gaze fixing on Koshiro in particular. From inside the facility, the teens distinctly heard the guards yelling, "It's the Champions! Go on lockdown!" Behind them, gates were locking down and sirens going off as the lightly-armed prison guards did their best to protect both themselves and their charges from the dangerous supercrooks out front. As they did so, the armored figure (of the group, only the giant and the rustropolis weren't flying) addressed the teens: "Attention, Origami Thief! Oriental or not," and here the pony-tailed man visibly face-palmed, "we're all brothers under the skin, and we're not going to let you rot in jail with these do-gooders. Come join the winning side and you'll teach this city what happens when they lock up their best and baddest! I'm Protector, this is Blitzen, Rustbelt, Firehawk, and the Black Goat. We're the CHAMPIONS OF CRIME." To the Claremont kids, he added, "Stand down, children, and we'll go easy on you. We're here to recruit, not pick fights with gradeschoolers." Despite his words, though, he hadn't taken his eyes entirely off them, as indeed had none of the others. These were experienced adult supervillains, every one.
  3. Avenger Assembled
    For his part, Murdock lacked the connections that the others had, the former Omegadrone being much more likely to be in Miss Americana's personal laboratory than anywhere in in the lab proper. As it was, the power outage caught him at home on a rare day off, in a period where he was the only one there. Though he'd been busy reading the (carefully-vetted) Freedom League reports about the liberated Omegachildren in Antarctica, something about this made him prick his ears. Suspicious, and taking advantage of his isolation, Murdock transformed into Harrier. The radio receiver inside his armor, the one with the internal circuitry that ran deep into his brain, picked up a police band report about the potential disaster at the nuclear plant. Having seen fission meltdowns in his time, Harrier took action now: donning first the holographic disguise of Caradoc, and then using the chameleon circuitry in his pike to become invisible, he flew out the window and towards the incipient disaster.
  4. Avenger Assembled
    Recovering from his embarrassment as best he could, Sharl offered, "You can visit. Family's always welcome at the school," he hazarded, hoping he wasn't getting himself into worse trouble. Unbidden, he thought of his own parents and sister, who'd let him come so far on this impossible journey to another reality. But he couldn't talk about that, not in front of people who might not be his friends after all this. "Even if you're from really far away. We picked Indira up in India," he added with a glance her way to make sure it's all right. "And Mrs. Storm is from Canada, and their families can come over any time they can. Family's very important."
  5. Avenger Assembled
    True true, Giz, but without Discrete Inquiries, there may be difficulties. What do you want to do?
  6. Avenger Assembled
    "I hadn't noticed you were underdressed," replied Edge with a wink. "You look very fine to me." He coughed discreetly at Midnight's warning, though, and paid attention to what was going on, though he couldn't resist shooting Trevor a look that seemed to say I was! "Hey guys!" He looked around, glad to see Trevor and Erin first, particularly since he'd hardly had a chance to talk with them. He couldn't resist the urge to go over there and give them both a big hug. "Wow, looks like we really did get the whole gang back together!" To the others, he added, "Princess al-Darsah's safely back in Freedom City, so all we have to deal with is, well...everything else," He shrugged a little. "Anyway, ah, I've checked with UNISON. As you know, their policy is that the United Nations should have responsibility for dealing with interplanetary threats. And since I'm the most powerful UNISON special agent," he coughed, suddenly feeling his age. "That means we have authorization to go. I didn't tell them the specifics," he added. "Just in case Typhoon was right about the infiltrations."
  7. Avenger Assembled
    Overhead, the angel of Freedom swooped down, the morning sun making his halo flare to life briefly as he studied the situation. He had no particular innate distrust of machines, but he was still inclined to be cautious at the sight of the robot addressing the crowd. Not out of any lack of respect for the being's good soul, which glowed as brightly to Heyzel's eyes as the mechanical man's magnificent armored shell, but rather because a robot might not know what help a man needed any more than Heyzel himself would not understand how to fix a robot. "If any of you are injured," he called, "we can assist you!" Turning his head, he called to Glowstar, "Are there any injured in the van? What of its cargo?"
  8. Avenger Assembled
    Hooray!
  9. Avenger Assembled
    "Listen, kid, I bet your fancy Freedom City school wouldn't like it much if we locked you in here for the night!" said Lou the guard. Turning to Kimber, he added, "Look, lady, I don't know what kind of chaperone you are, but your kids need to learn some respect for law enforcement. Get McMillan and get your asses out of here." On the plus side, thanks to Sharl's loose tongue, now the guards were much more focused on the stricken-looking electronic teenager than their own erstwhile inmate and his family. "Sorry," Sharl mumbled, looking down at his feet. He'd been scared in the interrogation room, and glad that Miss A's program (and mini-projector) had held up despite the patdown. Luckily they hadn't actually taken his shades or anything else in his pockets, since they'd just have fuzzed out and ruined the whole game. And then he'd tried making a joke like the ones he'd seen on the Internet: Why hadn't anyone laughed? He imagined Miss Americana's disapproving face, or his mom's. "I'm from Earth," he whispered back at Indira before saying louder, "Sorry, again. I'm Sharl Tulink, and it's been a really long day. Just ignore me."
  10. Avenger Assembled
    Around that time, a somewhat irritable Sharl was ushered into the room in the company of two guards, the electronic teenager keeping a death grip on the laptop case over his shoulder. "...not any reason to turn it off," he was saying, not wanting to interrupt the team's first meeting with the new student. "The running processes are part of my work." Though he shot a glance at Koshiro, sizing him up and judging him as a potential classmate, he was more focused on making sure the guards didn't try and take his laptop again: suddenly having to project from whatever primitive systems were hereabouts would surely blow everyone's cover. "It's just a regular laptop. If it had a bomb in it, it would already have exploded."
  11. Avenger Assembled
    When Mark appeared on Ace and Talya's balcony, he did so in his familiar Young Freedom costume. Though he was arguably here on UNISON business too, he was a hero first and despite his reservations about the life, he'd missed his old gear. Luckily, he arrived just in time to be greeted by the beautiful Bombshell as she opened the door in her silk robes. Shazam! he thought in the voice of Gomer Pyle. Despite his recent good times with Nina, well, Bombshell was quite a looker. Out loud, he bowed courteously and grinned. "Good afternoon, Bombshell. What a lovely flower to find on a Parisian balcony in a summer afternoon. May I come in?"
  12. Avenger Assembled
    All right, I'll assume a 10 on all relevant Bluff, Disguise, and Stealth rolls. The Chateau The Chateau is a five-story Tyrolean-style mansion built at the head of the Valle Relais; they've had several avalanches there over the years but none since the 1980s. The main body of the complex is the five-story mansion; the ground floor consists of the ballroom, the dining room, and a tremendous kitchen, while the rest are meetings rooms and various $1000-a-night rooms with a Tyrolean theme. There are some outbuildings in the complex; a few small lodges for private meetings and the small complex around the ski-lift. The food is good, though the chef is obviously cooking by rote taught him by more creative professionals. The hotel staff is clean and professional, though they seem to have been chosen for their good looks and pleasing personality rather than skill at their job. They're dressed in traditional Tyrolean garb, right down to the little feathered hats when they go outside. It's the off-season, but the Chateau is not above using a snow machine to provide a skiing environment for devotees of the sport. The cleaning crew and other folks doing menial jobs around the hotel are primarily of Middle Eastern descent, most of them being refugees from the various uprisings there in the last few years. They're excited for the coming party; times have been tough at the Chateau lately, and the merger's three days of festivities should make life better for everyone.
  13. Avenger Assembled
    Despite all their precautions, the people at the detention center weren't interested in the YF kids either way. When Corbin and Eve (as the oldest kids) showed the paperwork with the instructions from Freedom City to pick up one Koshiro McMillan, the beefy guard behind the front desk barely glanced up. "Mmhmm. Claremont welcoming party. Been expecting you." She did raise her head enough to note there was an adult in the group, then left her partner behind the desk while she picked up a big jangly keyring and led the Claremont group through security. It was after hours and things were quiet, and "Lurleen" seemed more bored by her job than anything else. "Wondered when someone was going to pick up McMillan," she commented. "We don't get a lot of supers in Detroit. I think he's the first we've had in here." They headed down a visitors corridor adorned with what were clearly homemade murals of hard-working kids cleaning up graffiti and picking up trash, all of them with the looks of smiling hard work that teenagers only had on propaganda murals. Before they hit the exit processing room, they had to go through a more heavy security: Though Sharl was able to talk his way out of going through the metal detectors thanks to his ID from Miss A, he did get stuck getting patted down, and with a slightly nervous smile he said, "This'll just be a minute, I guess? See you guys in there." And with that, as Sharl headed over into the other room, the Claremont kids were escorted into a large room full of people, the exit processing room for Wayne County where they'd be meeting Koshiro McMillan.
  14. Avenger Assembled
    The former Omegadrone didn't blink at the Satyr's reveal, instead slowly looking him up and down as he sized him up. "I am familiar with beings from dimensional axes like yours," replied Murdock, and it was true though that familiarity was limited to one particular variety of their lives "I have not encountered a satyr before, however." Not to talk to, anyway. Trying to put the smell of burning hair out of his mind, Murdock added, "I would prefer if you continued to cover yourself when you are outside I work to maintain my secret identity very closely. Revealing my nature to civilians is not possible. I am not like you." As they talked, he pulled on a large Freedom City baseball cap to hide his scarred head. "Secrecy is very important," he added.
  15. Avenger Assembled
    I'll volunteer Heyzel!
  16. Avenger Assembled
    I'll set a DC 20 Gather Info DC for this information in general. The Bank The Schwarzenfurst Bank, the one affilated with the chateau, is relatively new for a Swiss bank, founded after the First World War by a family of Swiss technocrats. Schwarzenfurst was particularly troublesome in the World War II period, with their bank president not just a collaborator in first handing over Jewish gold then hiding Nazi gold, but even a member of the Swiss fascist movement of that period. Herr Schwartz I retired in 1948, and his son ran the show until very recently when he suffered a "psychotic break" during the Archeville Incident and was replaced by his own son. Herr Xavier Schwartz III has a reputation as a dilettante playboy and womanizer, though one with an interest in superhuman studies: he was the lover of Swiss heroine Wilhemina Tell until their breakup last year. It was in all the European tabloids. The bank has a reputation for genteel sleaze, pushing even Swiss banking practices and ethics without actually breaking them. The Hotel and the Party The Chateau Relais is a nice hotel, though not famous enough to be overrun by tourists even near the end of the season. It was built in the late 1940s with help from Argentinian investors. Placed securely in a remote fjord-like valley near Lake Geneva, it was an occasional meeting place for Cold War-era spies from second-tier powers like Yugoslavia, India, and Brazil. The hotel these days specializes in expensive parties with guests who come for the five-star food and stay for the luxurious, old-fashioned accommodations. The party is supposed to be Schwarzenfurst's merger with an East Asian bank: Dragon International Finance, based out of Shanghai. DC 20 does not tell you where Taurus is. It does tell you that Labyrinth-affiliated businesses have been doing extremely well the last several months, particularly in the field of arms dealing. DC 20 does not tell you where Dr. Sin is, but his empire has fallen on hard times lately now that the Chinese government has started funding their own superteam. Typhoon got into a fight with the Atom Family on his way back to Socotra over a fallen satellite (like he does; he and Alexander Atom had a thing back in the day and he still gets along poorly with the family), but no lives were lost and he made it safely back home, where he most likely still is.
  17. Avenger Assembled
    The next few days passed quickly enough, with the lingering threat of extradimensional Nazis seeming decidedly fanciful in the city of love. Whatever else could be said for his eventual meeting with Erin and Trevor, Ted Hunter did have the business contacts to help his son and his girlfriend make their discreet way into a party in Switzerland: after all, he did have significant business ties in Switzerland thanks to his work in European international finance. If his relationship with his father and his own son was decidedly rocky, well, he was still a Hunter who knew when it was time to help out with hero work. As for Ace and Talya, while Paris had changed quite a bit since their earlier visits in the years before World War II, it was still at its core the gorgeous, bustling international metropolis it had always been, full of culture and life and art and music, and the dancers at the Moulin Rouge were as beautiful as ever. For his own part, Mark spent a day and night in the loyal company of Nina al-Darsah: Nina had obviously been hurt by her dismissal at the hands of her father, and in the privacy of the Socotran hotel suite at the Plaza Athenee, she didn't mind taking her frustration out on the UNISON agent assigned as her bodyguard. Luckily, though it had been a long couple of days (particularly with the detailed report he'd had to fill out for his UNISON superiors, stretching his short attention span to the breaking point), Mark was a patient man. Unlike her previous bodyguards, he reminded Nina, he was there for her, not for her father's orders, and he also wasn't subject to her whims: that also meant he could tell her he thought she was very beautiful, particularly after standing up to that Nazi bastard on the airplane. He wasn't sure if it was the compliments that stilled her sharp tongue, or the really good wine he luckily managed to lay his hands on, but either way after that their enforced time together (when he _should_ have been with his friends) wasn't nearly so unpleasant. By the time Nina was back on the plane to Freedom City, this time with more secrecy and a French military escort, it was a real pleasure to slip back into his uniform, his _real_ uniform, and head out into Paris to find his friends. If they were going to get to the Chateau and have plenty of time to stake it out before the special guests arrived, they were going to have to get there sooner rather than later: luckily, he was confident the others had already gotten that problem taken care of.
  18. Avenger Assembled
    "The Wayne County Juvenile Detention Facility," said Sharl as he withdrew money from the machine. "At 1326 Saint Antoine Street in Detroit." They were already in that city, of course, but Sharl didn't really get the bizarre gaps between cities that were so much a fact of life on Earth. "And that's the idea," he added to Kimber, not wanting to admit how unsettled he still was by whatever the hell it was the chipper girl was. "Out of all of us, Corbin and Eve can pass for regular people the most easily. If there's an emergency in either car, that's the most efficient way to make sure they can keep the police from getting suspicious." He'd acclimatize himself with Kimber later, when they weren't worrying about this other kid. Eventually, once Eve was back from being a Good Samaritan, they did indeed get their two taxicabs (both driven by friendly turbaned drivers who seemed interested in keeping pace with each other for more money) and got on the road for the drive to the Detention Facility. For all the bad things they'd heard about Detroit, compared to some of the places they'd all been, it wasn't that bad: even at night, Detroit near the airport was far better than the less pleasant parts of Mumbai or the Fens back in Freedom City, much less Earth-EZ01, and it was sufficiently novel for the out-of-towners that the obviously depressed city streets could certainly have been worse. "Thanks for what you did back there," Sharl commented to Eve as they went. "I don't understand this place," he admitted. "I don't understand how even the wealth in this society can be just...held in the hands of a few places when there are so many others who really need it. Mumbai was in a different nation-state, but this is right in America," he said as the cab-driver told off a man who'd tried to wash their windows at a red light. "It's good to know that the problem isn't the people." Despite the blight that had afflicted much of the city, the detention center turned out to be far less depressing than it might have been: it was a new building that might have been an upscale urban high school, if not for the bars on the windows. (Come to think of it, even that wouldn't have been out of place.) Near the university and close by the interstate, it didn't look much like a juvenile jail at all. Once everyone had caught back up with each other and their taxi drivers paid off handsomely for the smooth ride, Sharl looked up at the well-lit building before snapping his fingers. Thinking of Miss A, he said, "Wait a minute...we're teenagers. This society is not going to hand someone in a prison over to juveniles. Can one of you be an adult?" he asked curiously of the others.
  19. Avenger Assembled
    I'll volunteer the mighty Harrier for this one!
  20. Avenger Assembled
    Murdock winced, just a little, at the cheer in John's eyes that he himself would never be able to match. "I will not be very helpful for parties," said the former drone apologetically. "Or socialization." He hesitated, considering his words very carefully. "I have impediments that make it difficult for me to participate in things like that. But I will do what I can to show you the area." His hand on the door as Fleur made up her mind, he added, "You are not from an era of industrial civilization, but rather from an agrarian period. I know very little of the era from which you originate. I understand you come from a period of profound magical influence on this plane's history?"
  21. Avenger Assembled
    "Bless you!" exclaimed the panhandler, a big smile on his face. He was missing some teeth and smelled like he hadn't had a bath in quite some time, but he was obviously happy for what he'd gotten from the pretty girl. His black beard was streaked with white and yellow, the first from age (given his weather-beaten, wrinkled face) and the second from who knew what. He winked at her, his eyes yellow in the half-shadow of the alley. "Detroit welcomes you, pretty lady. Go back to your friends now, yassuh." Out in the taxi stand, with a little sigh Sharl headed over to the ATM. "I don't actually have pockets...I'll get some money from Miss A, and that'll pay for the taxi ride for all of us." He could just have wired himself there, of course, but he was trying to fit in with his friends these days. "I'd suggest myself, Eve, and Indira in the first car, and Corbin and Kimber in the second? That way the trip is, uh, balanced and such..."
  22. Avenger Assembled
    Detroit was an eerie city for Sharl, a strangely quiet version of Freedom City that lacked that city's crowded airwaves and wireless networks. Still, after Thunder Bay and the alien forest, the streets were practically bustling. He kept a tight grip on his laptop case as he left the plane at Detroit Metro, mindful of how much he needed his projector hereabouts. In darkness, lit only by flickering streetlights overhead, the city wasn't a pleasant place to look at: he could hear distant sirens and see panhandlers in an alley near the airport's gate, taking advantage of the wealthier people who flew into the city to try and make a little money. His stomach churned at the sight: how could even this impoverished society allow its members to live so poorly? "We should give that man some money..." he murmured to no one in particular, looking down the sidewalk at the bearded man with the cardboard sign. Looking around, he added, "I don't see any vehicles large enough for all of us. Shall we split up and take two taxis?"
  23. Avenger Assembled
    I'll say Trevor has the Sense Motive to get that automatically, Giz, unless you object?
  24. Avenger Assembled
    In which a paper crane flies from the window, a free bird!
  25. Avenger Assembled
    Once Becky was safely in the hands of True North and Kimber had done all she needed to do at her old homestead, Young Freedom's members young and old crowded aboard the regional jet flight from Thunder Bay to Detroit. Though Sharl could easily have emailed himself straight to the DPD mainframe and searched as he would, he made a point to stay on the plane with his colleagues. He was acutely aware of how alone he was out here, so far from the few people in Freedom City he did know, and the last thing he wanted to do was alienate the people who were supposed to be on his team. He was here to be part of the real world, to make connections and alliances that would give him the tools he needed to protect Tronik; hell, he was here to have adventures in this wide-open alien world! This wasn't the time to get into stupid arguments with his friends. So while the others socialized, he took the opportunity to crack open his laptop to connect to the local satellite network (carefully using a tightly-focused IR signal that wouldn't interfere with the plane's own navigation) to research their target: Koshiro McMillan of Detroit, Michigan, and the city itself in the process. Detroit had once been a center of petroleum-based industry that had fallen on hard times, and looking at his laptop screen, it looked like things hadn't gotten any better. Freedom City was sparse enough, but a city like Freedom that had lost so many of its people was a strange thought to contemplate. There must be so much to explore! When his search came up with something, or rather, something that was nothing, Sharl said "Hmm...it says Koshiro McMillan's record has been sealed by the order of a judge. So I don't know. What kind of things would cause someone to be held in a juvenile detention facility?" he asked, pointing to the address on his computer that matched where they'd been told to go.
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