Avenger Assembled

"I can't..." Sharl looked away for a moment, pacing so his feet didn't quite touch the floor beneath his feet. "I can't just go back in the box, the way I am now, when I know everything is out here." He put his hand lightly against the wall, then partially through it, speaking with the urgency of an impassioned teenager. "Maybe this doesn't feel as real as home did, and maybe it never will, but I know this is the real world. If I'm going to be one of the only people in Tronik who knows what the real world is, I need to know more about it. And if I'm going to be the only superhero there...well, I mean, I need to know more about how superheroes work!" He shrugged. "I can't just fake it from watching you and Dragonfly."

June 2011 Miss Americana's laboratory He was floating around as they talked, his electronic body shimmering a little as it caught the light from the laboratory window. "Not forever," he added, "I mean, of course I want to go back to my family." He took a breath, or rather, looked like he was doing so. "I can't really leave long-term till Eira's better, my folks know that already. But now that I know about Rogue, I can't just leave the outside world behind. If there are more programs like her, who've either gone bad or are stranded out here, I need to do what I can to help them. They're my people; they're my responsibility. That's especially true if she's part of Talos' people." Learning about that sinister robot intelligence, and what it probably meant that Rogue was on his team, had put ice in his veins. "So if I stay here, and work with you, and keep training...I'll be able to help out here. And when I do go back to stay, not just to visit, I'll be all the better for it."

With Gabriel's help, Gaian Knight's cheering (if not actual singing), and Freedom Angel's enthusiastic choir directing, soon the bees were singing together in a spectacular chorus: Heyzel and Gabriel couldn't actually get the bees to stop competing, but they could at least get them to compete about the same song! Soon they were singing together in rising harmonies and falling notes, duets of sheer musical power that would have blown the minds of lesser men to look upon. I hope all this is doing something for the people below, thought the angel as he encouraged the bees to sing, encouraging the swarms to go higher and higher as they went so the noise would be less distracting for Stesha and the others who were so busy there. He'd worried that Gabriel would run out of hymns, but luckily he seemed to be able to keep up with both sets of bees. "You are my sunshiiine, my only sunshiiine..."

Gimmie initiative if you're fighting the monster.

It didn't take long at all for Wander and the other heroes going below to catch up with Gremlin; the former T-Baby tech had been in the process of coming up to meet them! Not for a friendly greeting, though, not the way he smashed his fists into the ground and yelled "GREMLIN SMASH PUNY COSTUMES!" He himself was wearing the tattered remnants of his own costume, with only the lower-half of his body still proportional enough to wear clothes. His overmuscled body was enormous, especially from the waist up, his face twisted with madness and his eyes bulging as he leapt at his enemies. Elsewhere down below, the complex was in a rough state. Psychic eyes and sneaky heroes found their way past rows of bound-up, agitated techs, all of whom turned out to do the heroic thing and make their way towards the endangered reactor complex perilously close to where the giant was in the middle of combat. Things were in a bad way. Though the arrival of actual unbound techs bought everyone more time, they were still no more than thirty minutes from total disaster. Blasted into the reactor by Tyrannus' armor, the irradiated T-Baby had bashed his way out of reactor, destroying the large robotic arms that manipulate the ferrous magnetic bottle control rods. With these robotic manipulator arms destroyed- the reaction will build to fusion collapse - causing an explosion that will devastate the area and certainly have a terribly unpredictable effect on the cosmic sphere that's still parked right in the middle of the room. The irradiated room, explained the scientists grimly as they studied the core complex through the walls of the safely-sealed control room. Gremlin hadn't attacked the sphere on his exit, but it was still there in the secondary annex where he'd left it, right next to the giant hole he'd punched his way out of the reactor housing...

"That's good to know," replied Mark, studying his tea for a few moments before taking a careful sip. He wasn't a big tea drinker, but this stuff wasn't half bad! If you were into tea, anyway. "I mean, as much as I use my powers, that I'm not making anyone sick. And it does mean I can use them in the field for UNISON and not make anyone else sick." He nodded at that, then broached what sounded like a difficult question. "Is there any way for you to tell what effects they have on the mind? My mind, that is?" He looked up at Supercape and confessed, "My powers, are...well, they're inherited. And some people in my family haven't dealt very well with carrying around all that power."

Sharl spent time every day with Eira; in fact, he spent a lot more time with her than away from her. That was okay, though; she was a little girl who needed a friend and needed some guidance in the strange new world where she'd found herself. Having been a little brother his whole life, it was easier than he'd expected to move into the role of the caring older sibling, hanging out with her and teaching her how to change her clothes, change her room, and finally one exciting day: how to fly right off her little house's rooftop! That, together with the simulated pony he and Miss A cobbled together for her, seemed to be the highlight for the little girl. It certainly was a highlight for the teenage boy, who'd gone from terror and loneliness just a few months earlier to watching a little kid practically burble with excitement over the prospect of flying free as a bird! After that all she wanted to do was talk to Miss A about getting jetboots on her new robot body! Of course, there were other problems afoot. When Miss A went back to the disk where she'd left Rogue behind, she found not the bound and angry program, but instead the simulated code that shook out to be Rogue's leather jacket, something she'd evidently torn her way out of before escaping right out of the disk and onto the Internet, probably via the wireless network in the hospital. That was one ability Sharl did not have, and it said some ominous things about the power of his counterpart. But there was no tracing the other Tronik refugee, at least not reliably, which meant she was still out there on the Net somewhere. It was thinking about her, and his time with Eira, that finally made Sharl broach a question to Miss A some days after the events at the hospital. "What if I stay?"

The Archetech reactor complex is like most ocean-going fusion reactors in the mid-21st century; it sits in the middle of a big floating steel complex about the size of the Claremont campus, a big facility that extends deep into the ocean and high above the head with massive heat sinks and water recyclers. (There have been some environmental concerns, but they're carefully built in areas with low fish populations as a result of the methane clarate eruptions of the 2020s...well, perhaps I say too much!) The complex looks a bit like any other large industrial campus, with the difference that the buildings are built right into the steel floors all around. The workers, none of whom are visible at the moment, get around on slidewalks or tramways when they need to go somewhere in a hurry. The reactor is buried in the heart of the complex about two stories 'down' and about a thousand yards from where the heroes are standing. That way if there's a problem, it'll be at least partially contained by the bulk of the island. Gremlin is down there, looking mad as hell, etc. You can see on Fusion's feed people tied up below, down where he is. There are elevators to get down there and stairs too, all of which are unlocked for the benefit of workers who may be evacuating at this juncture.

Gaian Knight's intervention broke up the incipient brawl that was about to commence between robot and fleshy bees, leaving them open for persuasion by another source. The bees, flesh and steel alike, watched as Gabriel took to the air, giving each other and him a wary look before as a dual body they began bursting for the skies! For a second, it seemed as though the struggle had ended there as huge bee and steel bee broke into formations on either side of the flying Irishman. Until suddenly, the lead bee in the middle of the metal pack began to sing. "Go to zleep you little baaaabee! Go to zleep you little baaaabeee!" The song, which they must have heard from either the Bee-Keeper or on the radio in the prison, evidently inspired something in the giant flesh-bees flying with them. "ARE WE GOING TO LET THEM BE THE ONLY ZINGERZ? NOOO!" And so they began to sing as well: "BAAABEEE MINE, DON'T YOU CRY, BAAABEEEE MINE, DRY YOUR EYEZ..." Up in the air, they formed into two great swarms, flying around each other again and again as they sang their human songs of baby welcome. Where had they learned them? It was tough to say; bees did have a lot of spare time when they were hanging around the hive, and who knew what the metal bees had been up to in jail! Recognizing what was going on as the bees formed up opposite each other in the air to belt out their melodies, Freedom Angel gave Gaian Knight an urgent look. "We must join them, my brother!" With his wings spread, he took to the air, looking much the better despite his recent injury. "Only if we can focus their energy into healthy competition," he called, "can we prevent this new community from breaking into war!" And with that he was off, flying into the center of the bees mass to join both flights of magnificent bee in song!

Darkfire PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 34 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 14 (+2) CON 20 (+5) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 28 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Hellfire/Unarmed) DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +15 Saves: 12 pp TOU +8 (+5 Con, +3 Protection) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +7 (+2 Dex, +5) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 40 r=10 pp Diplomacy 5 (+8) Intimidate 5 (+8) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 5 (+5) Knowledge (Pop Culture) 5 (+5) Notice 10 (+10) Sense Motive 10 (+10) Feats: 12 pp Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2 Benefit (Status) Dodge Focus 4 Move-By Action Power Attack Precise Shot Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 60 pp Hellfire Control Array [22+2=24 pp] Hellfire Aura 5 (PFs: Improved Crit 2) AP: Damage 10 (Extra: Ranged) (PFs: Accurate 2) AP: Damage 10 (Extra: Area [burst]) (PFs: Progression on Area 2) Flight 5 (250 MPH) [10 pp] Immunity 15 (aging, fire damage, life support) [15 pp] Impervious TOU 8 [8 pp] Protection 3 [3 pp] Drawbacks: 6 pp Vulnerable (vs. Holy) (uncommon, major) [-3 pp] Weakness (Dazed by Charisma check vs. holy symbols) [-3 pp] costs abilities 34 + combat 28 + saves 12 + skills 10/40 + feats 12 + powers 60 -drawbacks 6 = 150 pts ------ Design Notes: Here's my build for Darkfire, our Hellion/Dark Star mashup from a little while back. He's basically an infernal Human Torch, covered in a black burning flame that incinerates anything he touches. Note that damage-dealing Auras do stack with your unarmed damage, so he can punch for DC 25 with a combo of unarmed damage and unholy hellfire. (Is there a holy hellfire? Come to think of it, probably not...) Failing that, he can shoot burning black flames at his enemies, or explode in Satan's own nova! I figure he still has the visual effect of his flaming aura even when he's shooting his fireballs, he just doesn't get the game effect of burning anything he touches without it. Since his powers are hell-based, not fire-based, he doesn't have the usual oxygen or underwater drawbacks of your Living Flame guys, and he can burn quite happily underwater or in space. (Hey, there's a badass image...) With his Precise Shot and Takedown Attack, together with his Aura and Blast, he's equally good at melee and ranged combat: he'll probably play more like Jim Hammond than what's his face, that guy in the Fantastic Four who you want to punch whenever you see him. If you want to save points, flaw his Impervious so it only works vs. weapons that melt or burn, with the descriptor that the bullets or blades melt before they can strike his skin. (In a superheroic setting, that's potentially a flaw, because he'll be running into lots of energy blasters and the like.) He's not just immune to hot environments, he's immune to fire too: his infernally-charged body can suck up multiple hits from fireusers and shrug it off. After all, he's on fire with the ur-element at the center of their abilities! As written, his hellish nature gives him a lot of problems with holy items and the like. If you want to dial back that part of his heritage, consider slowing his Flight some, or maybe dropping his Impervious, and either dropping his drawbacks or keeping those as Complications (i.e, sources of delicious, delicious HP.) He'd be a perfectly valid sort of blaster in other ways. He'd make a fine other kind of blaster if you don't like the hellbound thing, I could easily see this as a radiation controller who is 'on fire' with radioactivity or some other kind of energy-powered guy. He'd make an OK cosmic energy controller too, though you might want to give him some Space Flight for that. So flame on, or whatever he is, and go nuts!

Concerned by the noise outside, Freedom Angel opened the door and stepped out to see what was going on. Within seconds, he was glad he did, because it looked like an ugly confrontation was brewing between gigantic bees the size of tractor-trailers and their smaller, sleeker cousins. "WHAT IZ THE MEANING OF THIZ!?" shouted one gigantic organic bee, his tremendous compound eyes glimmering with suppressed rage. "HOW DID YOU GET HERE? THERE ARE NO ROBOTZ ON THIZ PLANET!" There were probably about half-a-dozen of the giant bees, half the number of their smaller, zippier cousins. "We came here with Fleur de Joie!" said one of the robot bees, puttering around on her humming little engine. "She'z having her babee! Izn't that cool? Too bad zhe didn't tell you old beez firzt!" All the robot bees seemed to be remarkably full of themselves, at least when it came to relating to their big organic cousins. "Yeah we're gonna live here now and fly around and be cool robot beez! Aheheheh!"

Adapter PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 44 pp STR 24 (+7) DEX 20 (+5) CON 24 (+7) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 12 (+1) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+13 melee) DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +11 Grapple: +20 Saves: 7 pp TOU +7 (+7 Con) FORT +7 (+7 Con) REF +7 (+5 Dex, +2) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 40 r=10 pp Climb 3 (+10) Drive 5 (+10) Knowledge: Pop Culture 10 (+10) Language 1 (Spanish) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 5 (+10) Feats: 17 pp Attack Focus: Melee 5 Dodge Focus 5 Improved Initiative Luck Move-By Action Power Attack Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 40 pp Adaptation 2 (Extra: Action [Reaction] (+4) ) [20 pp] Nemesis 2 (Extra: Action [Reaction]) (PFs: Assessment, Subtle) [20 pp] costs abilities 44 + combat 32 + saves 7 + skills 10/40 + feats 17 + powers 40 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: Here's my build for an adapter like Darwin from X-Men First Class. The character isn't sketched out well in the movie and I'm not familiar with his comics background, but I think this covers all the basics you see on screen. Some people want to play the guy who can adapt to any situation, and so this guy can: with his Adaptation, he can pick up 10 PP in Immunities that will let him survive in just about any environment. (In less harsh conditions like underwater, I'd let him pick up some Environmental Adaptations in the process, so he can function in those hard conditions without actually suffering for it.) With his Nemesis, he can adapt to any combat situation, pulling out whatever powers help him defeat a particular opponent. Normally Nemesis isn't a great power to take in a play-by-post setting, given how much work it creates for the GM, but at low-levels and without the character dependent on it to meet caps, you're probably fine: giving him Variable Descriptor (whatever weakness the bad guy has), some more combat feats, and Autofire on his Unarmed Damage will let you get by if you want a default combat form for him. Note that I would let Resurrection be created by a Reaction Nemesis if a given character was met with an inescapable assault too powerful for them to survive, given that Reaction doesn't require an action from them to maintain. Why did I give him an attack tradeoff? Well, in comics, while these adapting guys like Darwin get called out to all the big crises, they don't generally deal the final blow. While he'll be able to do quite well in almost all situations, he's not going to be throwing out the big punches that knock down the bad guys for good. Indeed, he's probably more likely to meet the fate of World War Hulk Darwin: his powers realize they can't help him here, so instead he winds up with Teleport 9 (Flaw: Long-Range Only) and reappearing somewhere in another state without a good ride home. Nemesis is Uncontrollable by default, so you don't even get an HP for that. Boo! A good motivation to try and keep his powers from getting out of control. We've generally suggested people avoid characters with Nemesis on this site. Since, as written, Nemesis requires the Ref to give your powers. This makes life very tough, especially since characters like the Instant Superheroes Nemesis build have very high levels of Nemesis, essentially forcing the Ref to make up a new character sheet for you every time you play. And no one wants to do that! So with this version of the character, I've gone with very low levels of Nemesis. Like most of my Variable Power builds, he meets his caps just fine without his powers, something which may well come as an unpleasant surprise to bad guys who think that dropping a Nullify on him will make him helpless. There's nothing wrong with being a Swiss Army character who's good in lots of situations but not a master of any. Consider buying up one more level of Nemesis just so he can consistently have 2 pp/rank powers in melee; he's probably got all the Adaptation he's ever really going to need, depending on what kind of movement powers you find yourself needing...

Freedom Angel The Lands Beyond The Last City Jerusalem As the rock gave way beneath her pick, Jenny Challenger saw her all-too-brief life pass before her eyes in an instant before a strong hand closed on her wrist. "Got you! Hold on, miss!" Within seconds, she was being pulled up onto the Temple roof she'd just been in the process of vacating by a tall, muscular man who she was sure hadn't been there a few seconds ago. Since he was in the process of saving her life, though, the famous archaeologist didn't object or pry into her rescuer's bona fides until he'd safely deposited her back on the roof and he'd released her from his very strong grip. "Thank you," she said, relief in her voice as she massaged her wrist. "Damn manual lines," she added, hand over her rapidly-beating heart. "I guess now I know why they keep tourists out of the Old City." She offered him her hand to shake. "Hi, Jenny Challenger, I'm with the Freedom Legion. Are you from the Preservation Agency?" she asked her rescuer, wondering if he was part of the interplanetary body charged with preserving and defending the cultural heritage of all the humanities. She was technically here under their auspices, after all, which was why she hadn't been wearing the anti-grav flight belt she'd had worn in a less protective area. "No, I live here," replied the man, who on closer inspection looked to be about her age. With his curly black hair and silver-white jumpsuit, he could have stepped off any tourist brochure for this part of the world. "Or, rather, I live in the area." He made a little gesture around the Temple roof, mostly occupied by the base camp Jenny had spent the day setting up. "This wouldn't be a very pleasant place to live forever. Anyway, my friends call me Burke. When I heard you call, I flew over to catch you. And just in time! Do you need help?" he asked her solicitously as she started checking her gear for what had led to her initial slip. "If you know anything about urban archaeology..." It turned out he did, and so he joined her in checking her safety equipment for what had led to her initial fall in the first place. "So you're Masadan?" she asked him curiously, without the judgement someone from the more 'civilized' parts of Earth might have used. Most people in the 2500s weren't comfortable with the living links to Earth's past that the native population of the historical landmarks around the eastern Mediterreanan coast were. "I didn't think Masadans typically carried personal teleporters." "Mm," replied Burke, his eyes on the rope in front of him as it slid through his roughened hands. "Most of the people in these parts think that because their beliefs come from the past that nothing good can come from the present. The fact that I am here with you and enjoying this conversation is all I need to disprove that argument. And you?" he asked her curiously. "I thought Legion members typically traveled in groups. Shouldn't you be busy excavating some Martian or Jovian artifacts?" "Well, I _could_ do that," said Challenger with a half-smile. "That's what most of my friends think I should be doing, anyway. But I think archaeology has too much focus off Earth these days. The Confederation has opened up tens of thousands of worlds for exploration, but Earth archeologists have stopped looking underfoot for our own stories. That's why I'm here in Jerusalem, which was the center of so many stories for so long." The end of religious warfare in what had once been called the Middle East had been a long and grueling process, and it was still part of the cultural memory of much of the region. "It is a beautiful city," agreed Burke, looking wistfully out over the rows after rows of carefully abaondoned buildings, each one centered around the Third Temple that had been built and abandoned just a few centuries earlier. "It was more beautiful when more people lived here, though. The Masadans do all they can to keep the old traditions alive, but it's just not the same. It might have brought an end to the warfare here, but leaving the city so alone was a mistake." "You think so?" Challenger asked him, giving him a curious look. She was hardly about to get into an argument about religion under the circumstances, but she was still fascinated by Burke's point of view. Most Masadans didn't enjoy talking to outsiders, much less dress in contemporary fashions. Perhaps he'd been raised elsewhere, or just become Confederationized. "I'd argue it's better for the city to be preserved as the landmark it is rather than to keep it as a bone for factions to fight over. Was it worth living here when all the old religions were fighting over this city?" "It wasn't so bad. Contemporary accounts tend to exaggerate how awful the carnage was because people today don't understand the reasons behind it. For most people, life went on just as it always had. Indeed, things actually became so much better here. At least before the Great Crash, when so many old ties fell." He sighed, then added, "The thing about religions is that so few of them can pass the Outsider Test. How many people not born to the Unifiers, or Trickersterism, accept those teachings without great reason of their own?" Jenny had to admit that wasn't many. "What looks like the silly passions of a previous age were what people once lived and died for." "But why do it now?" she asked him, pressing this man who had saved her life just a few minutes ago. "Why live here, with people carrying out old religions that hardly anyone outside believes anymore?" She was careful to keep the question honest, hoping not to offend her guest, or rather, host. "I don't want to sound judgmental," she asked. "But you're obviously not as doctrinaire as the others here. Why are you here?" "Well, today I was here to catch you," Burke joked. "But why am I here every day, with these people?" Burke smiled again, thinly and tiredly. "Because I promised them I would be. They've been abandoned by so many people; by their leadership of their religions as they faded, by the Confederation as they moved out to the stars and left behind the people of Earth, by history that's moved beyond their world and their lives. They need someone here watching out for them; someone who genuinely cares about their welfare. And so I will be, until they're ready to leave." After much work, they found the fault in the Temple wall that had led to Jenny's slip, and Burke acted as her safety spotter as she rappelled down over the old surface to chip away a small fragment of the mural on the wall: old Earth President Martel's face was still clearly recognizable after some centuries. Though she offered a space by her tent that night to Burke, he didn't seem interested in staying. "I have to get back to my work," he said, shaking her hand that evening once they were both back on the deserted Jerusalem streets. "After all, I'm the only one who does it these days. Goodbye, Dr. Challenger. I'll see you again." And with that, he was gone like a thief in the night.

"The sphere's in the main reactor room," said the muscle guy urgently, "we, uh, put the thing down right in an empty magnetic bottle, so it's really armored and stuff, but you can get to it real easy...well, normally you could, but..." Between Wander's sheer physical presence and Sage's psychic pressure, it wasn't long before the heroes were able to get a pretty good idea of what had happened; Sage's pictures giving color and life to Hombre's account. Tyrannus had approached the Wolfpack some weeks earlier, telling them that the Freedom League had acquired a device from offworld that they planned to use to wipe out the 'Terminus contamination' in every living organism. He'd paid them well, too well, and organized them all under his own leadership to steal the device and give the League a black eye: he'd even personally seized the Archetech reactor so they'd have a place to hold the device hostage and issue demands. "But when Gremlin, our techie, found that the bomb didn't do what he said, that it was actually made _from_ the Terminus, Tyrannus got really pissed. He blasted Gremlin into the reactor housing, then teleported out before we could do anything to stop him. That armored bastard, he just left us with the bomb and a reactor going critical! We were going to start up the boat and go back for the civilians," Hombre added, and from what Sage could see in his mind and the minds of the others, it was actually about half-true in that only about half the group would have abandoned the civilians in the reactor building to their fate. From the alarmed talk of the contemporary heroes, a fusion collapse at the reactor could risk an explosion and tsumani that would flood much of the eastern Seaboard. "Wait..." said Mark, frowning at the bad guys. "You were running away and you just left your friend in the reactor? Don't any of you have any powers that would have let you go in and get him out?" Mark could abide supervillains, particularly since this group seemed to just be stupid pawns rather than actual bad guys (at least in this situation), but he couldn't really savvy just leaving one's friends behind to die, or their bodies behind to melt. It didn't look like the future heroes, who knew all about losing the people on your team in a crisis, were in a mood to be any more sympathetic. "Well, uh, you see, Gremlin's powers were already radioactive, so when the rads hit him they..." "Oh my god!" said Fusion, who'd been tapping into the plant's security cameras with her suit. She pressed a few buttons, and displayed what she'd found out with a tentacle-tip camera for everyone to see. Inside a corridor labeled MAIN REACTOR CONTROL COLUMN was a huge, muscular man that towered nearly as tall as Atlas back on Freedom City proper, his skin a malignant shade of orange and his eyes wide and crazed. "GREMLIN SMASH PUNY ATOMS!"

They hopped around the galaxy for a while, but eventually even Mark's formidable reserves flagged and they headed back to Earth. Exhausted, but not at all displeased with all they found, Mark immediately banished his makeshift spacesuit, running his hands through his sweatsoaked hair as he headed out of the test center. "Holy cow! I haven't worked like that in...forever." He looked over at Supercape, who seemed to have come through all the bouncing in better shape than he had. "That was amazing. I hope you got everything you needed, because I am going to be good for nothing for a while. How about some tea? We could drink tea and discuss our findings, like gentlemen?"

With the help of her inherited abilities and the purple ring on her finger, Vril Knight had no trouble staying upright in the super-fast elevator."Mom went back home," said Vril Knight, shooting her father a searching look. "She invited me to go with her, but you told me that our work was here, so I've stayed..." Before she could go on, they were on the surface, where within seconds Amaryllis had thrown down a gigantic flower that had rapidly expanded into a platform the size of a city bus terminal. The team from here-and-now showed no hesitation about leaping into the gigantic stamens, and so Mark (who had worked with the woman he was sure was Amaryllis' mom) showed no hesitation about following as they leaped into the flower. Within seconds, both Young Freedom teams found themselves standing on a dockside by the "ArcheTech Fusion Reactor #43!" sign, the metal construction everywhere underfoot showing them that this entire structure (which looked about as big as the Claremont campus) was one giant floating island. On one side of them, the floating dock was mostly occupied with a hi-tech powerboat with a humming electric engine, the Archetech-brand yacht looking luxurious for all that it was evidently an emergency craft. And what a good time it was to have that, because an emergency was clearly underway! Everywhere, alarms were blaring and sirens flashing as a mechanical voice counted down "Ten minutes to fusion collapse. Ten minutes to fusion collapse..." And no sooner did they hear that then they caught sight of their antagonists: the Wolfpack was running straight for them! All were dressed identically in menacing greys and reds, their chests emblazoned with the howling symbol of the fierce animal that had become the symbol for radical young T-Babies in the future. Their leader, a big, burly man with a stubble-covered square jaw ran up to the most menacing-looking of the group, which in this case happened to be the Midnights, and yelled, "We surrender!"

Not all the persuasion in the world can reach a father today, thought Freedom Angel with a little smile. "In that case, I would love tea. Give me whatever Stesha's favorite is," he suggested, figuring Dark Star would know that well enough. It gave the father-to-be something to do, very important for a hero like Dark Star on a day when the biggest task was up to other people. "Babies, yes!" He smiled. "You know, my mother and I once helped with a birth in Antarctica! It was a little boy named Emilio, and his mother had been flown into the Argentine base down there. It was one of my first visits to Earth. What a cold and miserable day that was, even in the depths of summer. Now there are whole schools there,and families too, growing where no human life ever had before. And that was without all these friends alongside."

"All will be well," the angel promised expectant father and worried friends alike. He knew that with the assurance of one keyed the fantastic justice of the universe, as well as a man determined to make sure his friends stayed calm. He nodded in approval as Jill went in to be with the mother-to-be; perhaps it was all old-fashioned that the men and women were apart, but that wasn't what mattered. What mattered was that everyone was where they needed to be. "Dark Star, we'll be fine," he promised the nervous father-to-be. He gave a reassuring smile to the man, glancing at the others as he did so for confirmation of his promise. "Go and be with your family," he told his fellow Leaguer. "We'll take it from here."

Scarab Infinity PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 46 pp STR 30 [20] (+10/+5) DEX 26 [16] (+8/+3) CON 20 (+5) INT 20 (+5) WIS 20 (+5) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 melee) DEF: +8 (+2 flat-footed) Init: +8 Grapple: +10/+20 Saves: 6 pp TOU +12 (+7 Protection, +5 Con) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +10 (+8 Dex, +2) WILL +7 (+5 Wis, +2) Skills: 52 r=13 pp Climb 5 (+10) Computers 4 (+9) Craft: Mechanical 5 (+10) Knowledge: Physical Sciences 5 (+10) Knowledge: Streetwise 5 (+10) Knowledge: Technology 5 (+10) Intimidate 5 (+5) Language 1 (Swedish) (Base: English) Notice 5 (+10) Sense Motive 5 (+10) Stealth 7 (+10/+15) Feats: 14 pp Attack Focus: Melee 4 Dodge Focus 4 Evasion Inventor Master Plan Power Attack Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (mental) Powers: 47 pp Concealment 3 (all mental senses and ESP effects) (Extra: Duration (Permanent] [+0]) [3 pp] Device 8 (Scarab Infinity Suit) (Hard to Lose) (PFs: Restricted 2 [Only You]) [34 pp] -Enhanced STR 10 [10] -Enhanced DEX 10 [10] -Leaping 4 (x25) [4] -Protection 7 [7] -Speed 3 (50 MPH) [3] -Super-Movement 3 (Slow Fall, Wall-Crawling 2) [6] Immunity 10 (mental effects) [10 pp] costs abilities 46 + combat 24 + saves 6 + skills 13/52 + feats 14 + powers 47 = 150 pts -- Design Notes: Gertrude Conroy grew up in the late 21st century in prosperous, peaceful Stockholm. That was not her birth name, though, nor was it the city of her birth. Her parents had died when she was just a little girl; one at the hands of Wilhelm Kantor himself, the other some years later in personal combat with Overshadow himself. But that parent's sacrifice had done more than simply buy young Gertie Conroy time: the last Scarab had burned out the kas of both Heru-Ra and Tan-Aktor in that last terrible battle, ending their 5000-year-long struggle in a terrible moment of annihilation. The shock of feeling her parents' death through the psychic link they shared was enough to close young Gertie off from the world for many years, and she grew up amid the science and machinery of a friend of her mother's who had been entrusted with her care thanks to the Rhodes-Hernandez Foundation, isolated in body and soul. It wasn't until Overshadow's return some months ago that Gertie realized how she needed to spend her life: though the ending of the Scarab's ka protected her from discovery, indeed, rendering her completely protected against any kind of psychic tampering, the world was not so protected. Whether this was Kantor yet, or some other monster in the guise of SHADOW's old master, she would make her mission to make the sacrifice of her family not in vain, to redeem the great struggle they'd spent so many years fighting. In a moment of burning, electric rage that overpowered a lifetime of rationality, she vowed that she would put an end to Overshadow! A Scarab/Black Hand/Thrude/Zephyr mashup, here's Scarab Infinity; rather than making her a psychic in a battlesuit, I've taken the idea that she's the very opposite of a psychic, her body locked away behind impenetrable walls thanks to her childhood trauma, but her body and mind at full human potential thanks to her battlesuit. She's fast, strong, and acrobatic inside her costume; a sneaky, dexterous agent who can get in and out of almost anywhere thanks to the suit's various movement powers. Her immunity and Concealment is quite a surprise for whatever evil mentalists she may encounter, who will not be anticipating a fast, lethal fighter immune to most of their most dangerous attacks. She's tougher than most Spidey-types, more likely to wade through grenade bombardments than dodge them, but she'll still need to get out of the way of bullets and such thanks to her lack of Impervious. She could definitely use some Super-Senses on her suit, but you may not notice that till you have enough PP to actually buy them. How dead is Heru-Ra? In my mind he's dead all right, and as Scarab Infinity will discover, so is Overshadow: the world of her parents really is gone for good. What she has now is a world overrun with cheap imitators and bad men using the names and faces of her people's enemies: it's up to her to bring them to justice, to make sure that Overshadow is as dead as Wilhelm Kantor spectacularly became. In my mind she has a fiery temper in combat matched with a cool rationality elsewhere, and is as brutal to criminals as she is to math problems: her isolated childhood hasn't given her a great connection to other people, and it's far easier to smack them around and study them like the bugs they are before she moves on. Scarab Infinity right now has a lot of potential power; it's all a question of where the player wants to spend their points and stretch this very flexible character.

"That's the new fusion plant off Collier's Trench," replied Fusion as she peered over her students shoulders. "They wouldn't go there if they didn't have security precautions in place. Damn!" she cursed, looking at the others. "They must be hitting when everyone's off for 6/21. Those Terminus ghouls..." "All right," said Lucky Strike, looking at the others. "We'll get out there, hit them hard before they have time to arrange defenses, and we'll let Young Freedom do their stuff. Amaryllis, can you get us out there?" The daughter of Fleur and Dark Star was, after all, the best teleporter on the team. "I can, but I'll need to be on the surface to do it." And with that, they were all piling back into the elevator, where Psilent took a device from his belt and smacked it into one of the ports on the elevator. "Removing safeties. Hang on" And with that, they were suddenly rocketing up towards the surface, so fast that Lucky Strike had to grab onto the man who was evidently her father to keep Mark from smacking his head on the ceiling!

Harrier No King But Freedom Space Kurma lies at the edge of the Confederation of Planets, a lonely colony world first inhabited by the Lor thousands of years ago. But Kurma's glory days are long since gone: the interstellar trade routes have gone away and the harsh planet's resources have been largely used up by the population of increasingly poor farmers and industrial workers who have been largely abandoned by the larger galactic civilization. Like many declining industrial centers, Kurma has seen a revival of religion: one religion in particular. The Church of Unity is the largest new religion in the Confederation of Planets, its followers fanatically devoted to the cause of galactic unity, a pretty face on the outside for the galactic media matched by a harsh cult of unity and conformity on the inside. And no wonder, given who is the _true_ Unifier whom only the leadership of the Church knows they truly worship. On Kurma, with the galactic press far away and the sky dark as the old red sun overhead begins to fade, the Unifiers need put on few pretenses for their impoverished followers, for whom any ray of hope is a good one, even if it comes at a price. Today we are in Vamana, the capital of Kurma, an ancient industrial center now full of cathedrals of Unity: gigantic towers that reach up to the heavens thousands of feet high, the antenna above capturing the subspace signals broadcast from the Church's secret stronghold somewhere near the galactic center, where gravitic distortions make the dimensional barriers exceptionally thin and render the sensors of passing starships nearly useless. It's a cold, chilly night among many, and tens of thousands of people from all the humanities are in the streets in the identical black and grey jumpsuits of the Unifiers, their breath steaming in the air as they wait for the sermon to begin. Enforcers patrol the streets, making sure that everyone is out and everyone is paying attention, and those showing unseemly conduct on this holy night receive savage beatings and worse at the hands of the armored thugs of the church. In a moment, as the great screens large as a skyscraper flash to life and the faces of the Mothers Mercy appear, they get what they were expecting. When they address non-believers, the Mothers look like kindly old women with crinkled faces and warm, weathered voices. They look old and wrinkled today, but they don't look kindly or warm. "Tell the story, sister! Tell the story of the servant who fell! Tell the story of the Harrier!" "Oh yes!" The mother smiled gleefully at that one. "The Harrier was the mighty servant of the Unifier himself! Blessed to sit in his company!" "Blessed to slay his enemies!" "Blessed to love his friends!" The crowd is silent now, the crowd of believers all across the galaxy, as the Mothers speak. "But the Harrier betrayed Unity! The Harrier betrayed the unifier! And the Harrier fell!" "The Harrier fell! He fell into the pit! Into the pit where the foul beasts rejected by Unity fall! To the darkness and decay!" "The darkness and decay!" Behind them, stylized images of warfare and violence were erupting: a shining armored figure had turned against the gleaming faceless beneficence of the humanoid Unifier and had for his pains fallen from the sky, his armor burning black as he fell into a sea of warped faces and moaning bodies swimming in some dark, foul liquid. "But he was not content! The Harrier was not content with his exile! With his punishment!" The armored fiend rose, surrounded by metal and rot, this time joined by a legion of faceless beings pulled from the decay around him. "The Harrier rose! He rose with the fiends of the pit and he rose against the power of the Unity! Though he took on false guises and false flesh, he could not FOOL the Unity! He could not HIDE his sin!" There were scenes of carnage now as shining symbols of hope and unity were blasted to pieces by the Harrier and his friends, the battle joined now by the most powerful agents of unity and justice. "He dared free the fiends of the pit! He dared shatter the doorways of the Holiest of Holies! He dared slay the mightiest champions of Unity! HE DARED challenge the Unifier himself!" And then, suddenly, the Unifier himself appeared on the field of futuristic battle and with a blast of pure holy fire, shattered the armor of the Harrier and cast his burning remains into the pits ago. "But the Unifier DESTROYED the Harrier! And the Harrier DID NOT RISE! Disunity was defeated! Unity was victorious! The Unifier was triumphant! All hail the Unifier!" And then the crowd screamed their assent, sixty billion voices on ten thousand worlds shouting the Unifier's name again and again, breaking into spontaneous hosannas as the church's followers cried out their most sacred oaths. In that moment, there was no doubt that the Church of Unity had one purpose, one leader, and one goal! --- Much later that night, a young man dared ask his father a question. Mer'Doc was just seventeen; in the old days he'd have gone into the impervium mines to work alongside the elders of his family, but nowadays like them he was just another Unifier...for all that his lack of devotion to the Church often alarmed his father. After all, it was all they had in the worlds these days. "Dad...do you think there really was a Harrier?" Rem'Doc had admitted to his son that he didn't embrace many of the Church's tenets himself, for all that he was publicly devout, and so it earned a serious reply from the old man instead of the savage response a true believer might have given to a dissenter from Unity in his family. "Well, I don't know," he admitted, the two men sitting around their narrow plassteel table in a room that would have looked ridiculously cramped and underfurnished to anyone back on prosperous Earth. Outside, they could still hear the chanting, still hear the madness of the crowd caught up in the raptures of their faith. "It's a pretty fantastic story, that's for sure." "Do you think he could have existed, though? Someone who was part of the Church, really part of it, and who went the other way, so far that he could have done all that?" Mer'Doc made a little gesture out the window, where scenes from the Destruction of the Harrier were still playing. "Why would they tell that story if it hadn't happened?" "Having an enemy figure makes any religion sound more appealing," said the old man with a shrug. "It's no different with Unity. Hating the Harrier is easier than hating the Freedom Legion or hating the Confederation, so most people hate _him_, a dead monster, rather than an enemy they can't do anything about. But that's enough philosophy. Finish your drawing and go to bed; we've got a long day of working on that warp coil ahead of us." He ruffled his son's spiky white hair affectionately, then rose to his feet and headed for his sleeping chamber. In the privacy of his living room, with his father asleep, Mer'Doc pulled up the holo-drawing he'd been working on all day. An armored figure in shining steel, carrying in his hands a weapon burning with tremendous cosmic power. The young man studied the battlesuit specs for a moment, making a few last modifications, murmuring almost to himself..."If he could...I could."

"Yeah we could do that. Yeah we could totally do that. You have good ideaz Jill! We like you. Ahahahah!" rang from bee to bee at Jill's offer, and the unoccupied ones flew close to her as if expecting to all be picked up as a body. "Hey can we come too Mizter Dark Ztar and Mizz Fleur? We'll bee good and we'll help out with ridez for the people who can't fly and ztuff, and we'll make having the babee eazier!" Robotic or not, they certainly knew how to look ingenous...for bees as big as cars, anyway. "We can help the giant beez! We bet they're not zo bad!"

"They're called the Wolfpack," replied Lucky Strike, her face red. "Goddamn..." She looked like she was going to say something else, but when Psilent wordlessly put a hand on her arm she fell silent. "They're T-Baby nationalists. They want the old settlements at New Freedom turned over to them, and they've pulled off some pretty big stunts before this. Actually stealing a bomb like that is something else." "Tyrannus in charge?" Psilent asked, nodding even at his own question. "Armored megalomaniac. Behind large crimes and takeover attempts for several years. Blamed for the bomb at first, before Hiroshima Shadow took credit. If he's leading the Wolfpack..." "Things just got really bad." While they might have had better equipment, the need for the heroes of the 2030s to explain what was going on to the others meant that Midnight's older equipment came in handy: it was a simple matter for Trevor to pin the disappearance on a matter teleporter like the one his own Freedom League used; indeed, from the signature it probably _was_ a surplus device from the old League. They hadn't gone far, though whatever destination they were at was most likely a location out to sea in his own era.

Octopus Thief PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 58 pp STR 30 (+10) DEX 14 (+2) CON 30 (+10) INT 14 (+2) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 18 pp ATK: +4 (+10 Melee) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +20/+24/+28/+32 Saves: 9 pp TOU +10 (+10 Con) FORT +10 (+10 Con) REF +7 (+2 Dex, +5) WILL +7 (+3 Wis, +4) Skills: 60 pp=15 r Acrobatics 8 (+10) Bluff 8 (+10) Craft (Mechanical) 8 (+10) Disable Device 8 (+10) Knowledge (Technology) 6 (+8) Notice 7 (+10) Sense Motive 7 (+10) Stealth 8 (+10) Feats: 17 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee 6 Dodge Focus 4 Move-By Action Power Attack Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Bluff, Disable Device, Stealth) Takedown Attack Ultimate Save (Will) Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 31 pp Additional Limbs 4 (Extra: Duration (Sustained, PF: Subtle) [5 pp] Elongation 4 (50 ft) (Flaw: Limbs Only) [2 pp] Impervious TOU 6 [6 pp] Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp] Speed 3 (50 MPH) [3 pp] Super-Senses 3 (Danger Sense [radio], Radius Sight) [3 pp] Super-Movement 4 (Slow Fall, Swinging, Wall-Crawling 2) [Dynamic] [8+1+2=11 pp] DAP: Super-Strength 4 (Heavy Load: 12 tons) costs abilities 58 + combat 20 + saves 9 + skills 15/60 + feats 17 + powers 31 = 150 pts ---- Design Notes: An unexpected mashup, here's a combination of Dr. Octopus and Catwoman to produce a lovely, acrobatic sneak who is also a powerhouse wielding gigantic metal tentacles that she can use to throw a car, ascend the sides of a building, and generally wreck up the place much more than you'd expect a master thief archetype to pull off. That means she's a bit lighter on skills than your typical master thief, but sheer physical power has a quality all its own: that costumed adventurer won't know what to make of it when you scoop him up in your giant steel arms and hurl him across the city. (He's got a grapple gun. He'll be fiiiine). In my mind, this character is a former military cyborg who decided go into business for herself when her time in the service was near ending: fill in to taste exactly what country she used to belong to. She'd also make a fine test subject for the Labyrinth or the Foundry gone rogue. I don't like using a Device to represent metal octopus powers; I figure the arms can be seperated from her as a plot device, but they'll always find their own way back one way or another. I figure her Super-Senses represent little sensors at the tips of her robot arms, while her impervious represents her ability to ricochet bullets and such off her whirling tentacles. You could use that as justification for the Shield power if you don't like her Dodge Focus. Her Super-Movement is arrayed with her Super-Strength; she can't climb and get around as easily when she's carrying heavy objects. With a base STR of 30, she can still get around at full speed while lugging that diamond she just tore out of its security housing up the side of a building. With her high Speed, that costumed adventurer is going to need his _mobile to chase her when she starts going through the city streets. Of course, she makes a perfectly fine hero if you want her as a PC rather than an NPC object of flirtation. There's no reason that military cyborg couldn't have gone into hero work after leaving the service; heck, if you want to give her an evil antagonist somewhere in her shadowy past, there's no reason she couldn't be on the run from employers that she has since discovered were pure evil! That would explain why she'd had to live covertly despite the rather obvious nature of her powers. (Note that, as written, she can retract and put those arms away and have no fear of exposure, though not being able to go through metal detectors is a definite Complication for her, especially if she's your team sneak!) She has enough mechanical ability to take apart locks and fix her arms if they break, but she needs a real gadgeteer to help her out when there's a problem. Where do the arms go when she's not using them? Straight into comic book science, my friend.

"There would be no finer time to see your home," agreed Freedom Angel. He was happy to be back in his armor, happy to be healed, and happy that Fleur de Joie was safe and on her way to have her baby with her husband. "And it's a pleasure to see you again, Dark Star," he added amiably. Though some of his friends thought him naive about the ways of the body, angels were intimately aware of where babies came from and he had no horror of it. "If you would have us in your world today, then lead the way!"