Avenger Assembled

Sea Devil goes on 27

"If you come upstairs with me, I can give you the technology for the mental probe. There is a headband for you, and one for Aquaria. Once you have connected them both, I will activate them, and then join you in entering a state of mental bonding as your brainwaves come to match up. It will be as if you were having the same dreams, instead of the same thoughts," she added reassuringly. "I will be part of the experience, so that you will never be alone with Aquaria's mind. Working together, I will guide you to the key points in Aquaria's consciousness where she is in hiding. Once all the parts of her consciousness are ready to be awake, she will awaken naturally almost immediately. Her emotions may be in some turmoil, but she will be well."

Initiative time!

"I am not Anna Cline," said the robot, an ugly look on her face. "Go ahead, Elric, tell them what you did!" she declared, pointing accusingly at her captive. "I swear, I swear, I didn't know it was going to be like this!" said Elric, giving Raina a look of abject misery as he cowered on the bed. "I thought she would like looking like Anna! We talked about her all the time! So when I made her upgrades, I-" "But you never asked me! You never thought I might be thinking about something more than being your tool!" She dragged her fingers along the metal side of her face and sneered. "Your perfect little victim is the pervert, you know. But he's going to get what's coming to him. They all are, and I am going to run to the Robot Nation and put all of you disgusting meatbags behind me!" "It was you!" Only a little winded, Anna Cline had appeared in the open door clutching a large bag at her side that vaguely resembled a bowling ball's carrier. "You're the one that's selling them damn pictures! You're the one that locked him up! And what the hell happened to your face?" "Oh, goody!" said Robot Anna, snarling with delight. "It's a whole @(#Ning party! I was going to let him die knowing you'd hate his guts for the rest of your so-short life, but breaking your bones in front of him will be even better, old woman! I was hoping you'd come looking!"

Angelic's Reflex saves vs the pirates: 11, Okay, vs 20 for the Snare, spending an HP...16 Automatons' Reflex saves vs the pirates: 27, Tou vs 20: 30 Well that was a waste of an HP, but good for Eira's creations, I guess! Eira: Will seek to intimidate the pirates off her as a standard action 16 Definitely wish I'd saved that HP! Ah well. Well I do have all that HP, so I will surge and spend an HP to negate the fatigue for that. She'll attack the pirates blocking her way. They're a Snare effect, so mechanically I think she can just hit them? That's a DC 25 Tou save from them, and she has Takedown Attack if that matters. The Automatons: The horde will, following Eira's instructions, seek to attack the chain holding the crocodile. Let me know what kind of rolls you want them to make; I don't think it's the sort of target they could actually miss! They're inflicting a DC 25 Tou save.

https://orokos.com/roll/893696 = 19 on the Reflex save HP on the Fort save https://orokos.com/roll/893698 = 27 well I'm happy to pass but that's a waste of the 18! Yes, I will definitely let that trigger the readied action. She is actually doing non-lethal, naturally! She will be Interposing for any shots at Luke. Init: 16

Make, oh, whatever rolls you think you should make, @RocketLord

"Anything else you are curious about in typical Russian village?" asked Frost ingenously, giving Ghost an expectant look.

"Someone will have to go in and draw her out either way," said Bluebird softly. "I know that this is frightening for you, but I promise that it will not be like telepathy for you, and you will not be alone while you do this. But if we let the telepaths do it, it will be a stranger who she does not know at all, or someone like Daphne who is her friend but who does not know her inner being. It will take time and they may see things that she does not wish them to see." The projected machine intelligence was silent for a little while, obviously considering her words, before she said simply, "There is no one she trusts more than you."

"You are most unlikely to find a greater expert with Furion technology than myself and Redbird," said Bluebird with the ghost of a smile on her projected face. "The hospitals on Earth-Prime can barely heal the bodies of their own kind, much less minds, particularly those of species alien to them like Aquaria's. Here, let me show you what we would do." She summoned an illusory headband and made as if to place it on Aquaria in the water, then summoned another one suited for Jessie's head, careful to keep that one on her lap. "What we would do is a simple procedure where we stimulate your brain and Aquaria's brain, so that you can enter her consciousness and awaken the fragments. I do not think there are very many," she added, "only three, perhaps four. Normally one of her blood would be used for the mind-meeting, but of course we have no Deep Ones to hand but Aquaria." She seemed to hesitate a moment, withdrawing both illusions back to her lap, before she said, "So it falls to one that her mind knows and trusts, perhaps you or Harriet Wainwright, but she is a woman of advancing years. Aquaria needs someone strong."

On the other side of the park, but following her built-in GPS to Ryder's location, Eira Katastroff was dressed in the style of a captive queen freed to be among her people, or so she liked to think, anyway. She had carefully modded her blue hair into cornrows on one side, cascading down past her shoulders behind her and on the other side, the tips an electric shade of green. Black fingerless gloves with metal exoskeleton parts covered her hands, while her bare arms bore the dark-colored tattoos that declared her loyalty to Arch Enemy and Powerwolf. Her black leather jeans were as tight enough that they looked painted on, which was arguably true though more a modification of her skin than actual dying, and her spiderweb shirt was patched white only where it needed to be, covering about as much as the top half of a two-piece bathing suit. She had made it clear to Pan that they needed to dress and act like humans today, but she'd made sure he was dressed like the right sort of boy for her as she led him through the crowd by hand. "Come on!" she called to him over the noise of the crowd. "He's over here!"

"I am a machine intelligence from Sweden." Eira flicked cool blue eyes Elena's direction, as if sussing her out for a reaction, before she went on. "This world has taken in many refugees from the Terminus, including some from Nihilor itself. You should be safe here. Is your motorcycle genuinely sentient or are you anthropomorphizing it? That means giving a non-sentient creatures the imagined qualities of sentience," she clarified.

"I can provide you with those things," said Eira without hesitation, her face serious as her voice dropped to a throaty whisper. "I can even be available to you after my graduation in the summer, as I doubt I will be returning to Sweden any time soon." She took the armor's chestpiece and laid it out in front of her on her worktable, cautiously poking at it with her fingers before she slid it open to get a look at the inner workings. "What is your history? Tempero-extradimensional?" she asked without looking up from her work. She pulled down the goggles in her hair, adjusting them for a moment until she found what seemed to be magnifying lenses.

Eira extended her hand and shook Elena's with a firmness that belied her stature. "You did not build your own armor?" she inquired curiously, looking over the gear with a dawning fascination. "Hm. I see some Furion elements in the design, primarily in the aesthetics...but much of this is repurposed Daedalustech, yes?" Seeming to have forgotten about Elena entirely, she was leaning closely over the armor pieces. "Fascinating. Daedalus has allowed much of his work to become open-source in the superheroic community since his semi-retirement but I see elements here not present in any of his work with which I am familiar. You are seeking upgrades? Repair?" She smiled, blue-painted lips curving. "I can provide what you need."

Bluebird was silent for a moment, studying Jessie, and seemed to be adjusting her words to match her audience. "As you know, Deep One brains are very different from the brains of most of the beings of your world. The parts that control a hunter's senses are much bigger, and the parts that control consciousness are much more dispersed throughout the brain. This allows Deep Ones to...see and hear things from other dimensions without having any single...it keeps them from going insane when they encounter things that should not be. Magic is very difficult for me to explain," she admitted. As she spoke, a clear representation of Aquaria's brain, hovering blue, had appeared between her hands. "The current theory is that Aquaria's consciousness was...dispersed by encountering the Momento Mori creature. So she is still there," she said, pointing to Aquaria, "but her consciousness must be awakened piece by piece rather than individually." This was not something Deep Ones would have understood about themselves, Jessie knew, because from Aquaria's stories an unconscious Deep One would probably be killed and eaten by its peers to make sure its soul would continue to serve Dagon and Hydra. "The Freedom League has plans to bring a mind reader like Daphne to help her. But that will take a long time, and is potentially very dangerous, because of what Deep One brains are like. I believe, however, that we can help Aquaria wake up with a Furion mental probe. No telepathy," she added. "Only technology. That is where you come in."

Eira Katastroff opened the door to the science lab behind Elena and cocked her head, studying the tall girl for a moment before she folded her hands behind her back. Considering the downcast-looking dimensional outcast for a moment, she decided to be the hero, even if Outrider was in a space Eira usually used as her own. After all it is not technically mine, that label belongs to the laboratory in my room. "If you are looking for the nurse's office, it is on the other side of the building," she said, trying to sound sympathetic as she approached the other girl. "The two wings are mirror images of each other architecturally, so if you are not paying attention to the signs and have no internal compass, it is easy to become lost, yes?" With her dyed black and green hair pulled back in a trim ponytail and white labcoat, Eira looked ready for some kind of science.

Bluebird's projection down here wasn't quite as 'real' as it was up in the castle; the woman that shimmered into being at the door to Aquaria's room was translucent and her voice sounded like someone talking on a cellphone. "Hello, Jessie," said the projected intelligence, dressed in a blue business suit that actually resembled outfits Jessie had seen Eve wearing from time to time. "I have been interfacing with the Freedom League's machine intelligences. They have uncovered what has lain Aquaria low and we have theorized a possible balm for the injuries given her by the psionic beast." She knelt down by the sleeping Deep One and said, "We may be able to help her."

Eventually it was just the two of them, Aquaria seemingly asleep in her pool and Jessie in her safe spot in a particularly Euclidian corner of Aquaria's room. As the darkness crept over the face of the city outside, or at least as dark as a city like Freedom got, another woman might have slept. It was nearly morning when a slowly rising sound evolved into the sound of a gentle chime, a tone too inoffensive to startle even Singularity's impressive reflexes. It was a sound Jessie had heard before, one that quickly evolved into a familiar voice. Jessie. May I come in? Technically Bluebird could project herself wherever she liked in the castle and from most electronic devices inside the upper stories of the DuTemps Building proper, but the Furion AI knew that there were limits on what human beings generally allowed their cybernetic homes to do.

Aquaria saw Jessie leap out of the water and settled back onto her haunches, watching her friend with concern but knowing there were times when Jessie preferred to let her keep her distance. She knew the difference between a real panic attack (a word she had learned from the therapy sessions she and Jessie had shared back in Project Freedom, something that seemed at times a lifetime ago) and moments when Jessie was just feeling jumpy. She was fairly sure that she'd been assigned as Jessie's roomate back in those days because she had been the nimblest and the quickest of the other Project Freedom members there at the time. A Surfacer might have objected to that sort of calculation, but to Aquaria's mind it had been a thoroughly sensible measure. Tarva too eyed the display, but when Jessie seemed like she wasn't going to be demonstrative in other ways, Tarva asked Eve. -How do you keep things so...confident, over time?-

Summer 2021 Discovery Channel "So that was the secret of the Day of Wrath," said Fast-Forward into the camera, looking rather more serious than his usual mien, a cloud of black smoke rising from the still-smoldering building behind him. "Robot conspiracies, evil dopplegangers, and a plan for Earth that went much deeper than anybody expected it. When we picked this story for our finale, we never imagined we'd find anything like this - perhaps the most shocking moment in the history of...Supercrime!" - A day earlier....

May 2021 After All Bad Bad Nevertheless The good news was that Sea Devil and Singularity had beaten the monster. Whether it was the injury Aquaria had done to it, or the terror Jessie had put in its eyes, Memento Mori had disappeared before it could attack the Project Freedom crews that had arrived on the scene. Singularity had even been talked back to Jessie before she could hurt anyone, thanks to the need to get Aquaria to a hospital and the nearby presence of people she knew well. The Kingston cleanup process was...going to be delayed for some time. Jessie's fast healing meant that she didn't have so much as a bruise by the next morning. There was just one piece of bad news. Aquaria still hadn't woken up. Out of her armor she looked decidedly bedraggled, a downcast look on her broad face, her eyes responding to light and her body to stimuli, but her mind seemingly elsewhere. Eve had found that Aquaria was indeed still in her head, but far away as if in deep sleep, and magical probes by Tarva and others hadn't gotten very much further. They'd taken her home to the castle where she could rest, in the deep wading brackish water pool where she was the most comfortable, but her quietude was alarming. No one else who had been hurt by the creature had stayed down like this. Even going back to the worst injury anyone had heard of Aquaria getting, the in all honesty probably too-violent beating from Nereid that had led to her initial arrest, there was no reason for her to still be unconscious, especially with seemingly no bruises herself, the next day. People had been in and out of the Castle all day, specialists from the League and elsewhere, but nobody had figured anything out yet.

Fall 2021 California Baptist University Riverside, California It was a few months after Judith Claudia Cahill had finally graduated from high school and gone off to college. California Baptist University was far away from Freedom City, far away from her father’s Presidential Library in Oklahoma, and it was awash in a sea of radio signals from the West Coast. And best of all; it had its very own Gospel Choir. Judy had come out with a a few of her new dorm friends to the first audition, where for the first time in a long time there was nobody watching her, at least nobody getting paid to watch her anyway. When it was her turn to audition, she folded her hands behind her back as she walked up on stage, carefully adjusting the rainbow pin on her white blouse as she smiled at the crowd of her fellow students. She’d thought about her song a lot before coming here, and knew there was only one that really made any sense. “Hi everybody. Ah’m Judy Cahill, and mah song for you all is I Saw The Light.” Without the need to breathe, she opened her mouth and burst into song. And as Judy sang, a remarkable transformation came over her. She glowed first with an inner light that transformed into a spectacular rainbow radiance, a shining beacon that played across the stage as her words seemed to lift her into the air, transporting her towards a brighter future she could almost see… I wandered so aimless, life filled with sin I wouldn't let my dear savior in Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night Praise the Lord, I saw the light [A montage: Judy, screaming in terror on the White House lawn, surrounded by radioactive fire. Judy in a government hospital room, nervously shaking hands with a young-looking Secret Service agent. Judy staring up at the buildings of Freedom City for the first time] I saw the light, I saw the light No more darkness, no more night Now I'm so happy no sorrow in sight Praise the Lord, I saw the light [A montage: Judy sits among her friends at Claremont, her face gradually changing to a smile. Judy exchanging notes with Arcane, talking turtles with Chelone, organizing the school prayer group and sitting in at the GSA. Judy blasting Nazis in the face; then heading off into space with Chelone and Pan Judy sitting amid a crowd of puppies at Valentine’s Day, leaning over and giving Micah a kiss on the cheek. Judy and Ashley, sisters, embracing.] Just like a blind man, I wandered along Worries and fears I claimed for my own Then like the blind man that God gave back his sight Praise the Lord, I saw the light [A montage: Judy graduating from college, throwing her hat in the air with a huge smile on her face. Judy and Micah’s wedding day, their Claremont class around them, Ashley in her Patriot costume standing guard. Daystar, a rainbow beacon of hope, passing out food and medicine across the world; Thunderbird at her side. Daystar in battle against a melange of supervillainous enemies alongside Thunderbird, a look of confidence on her face.] I saw the light, I saw the light No more darkness, no more night Now I'm so happy no sorrow in sight Praise the Lord, I saw the light I was a fool to wander and stray [A montage: Judy and Ashley sitting together at a state funeral, Judy all in black, weeping with her arms around an grey-haired Ashley who is visibly wearing what looks like Lor power armor, Judy’s sisters visible nearby. Judy sitting at the table of the Freedom League, Micah by her side, along with a collection of faces we don’t recognize, now the elder statesmen of the superheroic community. Judy at the center of a vast and growing family, beaming with her arms around her visibly-aged sisters, her children and grandchildren and theirs crowding the shot. Judy and an ever-aging Claremont class, numbers shrinking, her smile growing more and more strained with each shot, until at last their numbers are a dozen or less. Judy walking away from a funeral, head down, inconsolable - and then a column of rainbow light jetting upward towards the naked stars above, the entrance of Arlington National Cemetery just visible at its base. ] For straight is the gate and narrows the way Now I have traded the wrong for the right Praise the Lord, I saw the light [A montage: Daystar walking beneath the orange methane snow of Titan, a glowing sentinel in the darkness of an alien world, leaving behind a single set of footprints. Daystar in space, face set as she rockets off at interstellar speeds, nearby stars a corkscrew of rainbow light as she heads off into the unknown. Daystar in battle with the Gorgon, blasting the planet-killer in the face with a bombardment of powerful rainbow radiation, a blue-green-white planet visible behind her. A column of rainbow light, Daystar flies through the midst of a vast space fleet, a vanguard leading them onto new adventure and new opportunities. Daystar in space above a night-time gleaming Earth, a vast space station visible to her left, pointing down at the east coast of North America.] I saw the light, I saw the light No more darkness, no more night Now I'm so happy no sorrow in sight Praise the Lord, I saw the light [A montage: In a flash of rainbow light, Daystar appears in front of Freedom Hall, the Freedom Legion visible above her. Daystar lays a bouquet of flowers at the feet of a worn bronze statue of a superheroine, hand pointing to the sky. Daystar stands in a vast black-and-gold temple alongside an elderly Chelone, both of them smiling into the camera beneath a half-in-focus fresco of a turtle god. Bible in hand, a smiling Daystar is preaching to a legion of mighty demon lords, a bemused but not displeased grey-haired Arcane watching them as a grey crown crackles on her head. A glowing smile on her face, Daystar addresses a crowd of wide-eyed sentients of all races and species, the old rugged cross behind her, her arms raised as they leap to their feet and cheer, faith rewarded after so long.] When the song was finished, Judy realized she was flying and made an abrupt return to Earth, landing on her feet with a neat little whump. She paused and stared out at the crowd, her rainbow glow fading back to her usual self. Words of apology, of unease, almost came to her lips, before she suddenly smiled and bowed before declaring “See y’all next time!” And with that, she bounded off-stage and headed back to ground level to join her new friends.

"In Russia, in old Soviet days, relationship between metahumans and the people was very different than in United States." Frost looked thoughtful, toying with a log he'd pulled out of the stack by the fireplace. As he held it, a faint frost slowly crept up the bark. "Instead of many independent agents, running around in Leagues and Societies and the like, all served the people. All were the People's Heroes. This meant we never had supervillain problem, for example." He smiled thinly. "Of course some would say we were the supervillains, but tell that to all the dead Fritzes we left in Eastern Europe, hm?" He set the log back down, its surface entirely covered with ice. "So people know me here the way they might not any other place, and they are not surprised to see me with caped vigilante." He looked around and said, "This is Siberian village of Old Suntar. Mostly Yakuts and Russians here, had roots going all the way back to before Cossacks claimed land in name of Tsars. People worked hard, lived day-to-day, was all right. Came here after war when there was scandal involving attempt to summon ghost of Marx and Lenin to consult at local Party meetings but it was fine, was not even a real ghost." He waved a hand cheerfully. "New Suntar is down by uranium mine, is dirty and overgrown, far inferior in my humble opinion."

"It wouldn't be the first time, would it?" said a face Jessie didn't know at all, except it was a face she did know, one of the people that lived in the sewers that they'd sent her to destroy - But the shield was still in her hand and coming down - and the monster vanished without another word just before she'd have taken off its head. And then Singularity was alone in the street, her friend unconscious in the building behind her, in a dead neighborhood, just as the rest of Project Freedom was arriving amid blaring sirens and the distant whirring of hovering drones.

Definitely worth an HP!