Avenger Assembled

"You're nothing! You're nothing!" Hex was firing blast after blast at Edge, the sheer force of warping reality pushing him backwards even though the shifting matrix of reality couldn't actually hurt him in his double's command. "What are you, just some little do-gooder with no ambitions? You know what my family was? We were nothing! Just slaves and toadys living off how good my dad and grand-dad kissed the Praetor's ass! Well not me! I worked every day of my life to get where I am, and when I get out of here, I'm going to fight my way into the Syndicate and be the baddest man who ever lived! Then we'll see who's just a stupid slave!" "Bull!" Edge fired back, planting his feet as reality warped and bent between them, the air freezing and burning all at once, the two boys sliding back and forth as they fought for purchase. "You got lucky, didn't you!?" he shouted over the screaming of the air. "You can break reality in half and make it your own; you could be the most powerful person in this school! You could do so much, you could _be_ so much, but you don't have the brains to be more than what everyone expects you to be! You're just-" Mark hesitated a moment, seeing himself in the mirror. "And what about you, huh?" the other Mark spat back, both of them shouting to be heard over the buzzing, wailing screech in the air. "Just going to kick back in that ridiculous costume and with your stupid hair, and let everything you could get pass through your fingers? You think saving kittens out of trees and screwing some four-eyed reporter is going to make you happy? You're just as much of a sap as I am; the difference is, I get to do whatever the hell I want along the way!!" The whirling, twisting air between them was beginning to form into a shape, or rather, a series of shapes that was hard even for the Marks to look at. "You get to wear your stupid uniform and hurt people weaker than you, because that way you don't have to feel weak anymore," said Edge, again fixing his gaze directly on Hex rather than concentrate on whatever the hell it was that was developing between them. "That's why you're so sensitive about your dad, isn't it?! He taught you how to be the man you are! The weak, cowardly bully who can't do anything but parrot what he's supposed to believe and hurt people who can't hurt him back!" "Oh yeah? Well what the hell was YOUR dad like?" spat a red-faced Hex. Mark stared at him and shouted "MY FATHER IS A SUPERHERO!" And with that, he pushed further, and there was a tremendous flash...

With her back turned, she couldn't see the crestfallen look that crossed Sharl's face. "This doesn't change the fact that you're my best friend, Gina. I'm happy to help you anyway I can, and to be your sidekick when you're Miss Americana. I promised you that I owed you everything, and I meant it," he finally said. "This doesn't change any of how I feel about you." And it didn't, though he did feel bad knowing how many problems his friend had. "What can I do to help?"

"You know, Gina," said Sharl, choosing his words with great care. "There are...there are people in Tronik who have problems with the outside. It's actually worse in our city, because there are so many more resources available in homes, and because the technology is so much more advanced than it is here. It's not a weakness of yours. There have to be ways you can help yourself, and you probably wouldn't even need to give away your secret ID..."

Sharl looked at her, feeling his heart twist in his chest again, for all that he didn't really have either. "Gina, you're a hero," he said quietly, "even when you're not using that body. You saved my life and my sanity, kept me from being just deleted code in a file somewhere, or worse...you're my only friend out here. You're the person who taught me how to _be_ a hero, that it wasn't just wearing costumes and getting into fights. That it was caring for something that...that no one else would even have realized was a person. You deserve so much more."

"Oh, okay," said Sharl, still sounding doubtful. "So you didn't tell anyone so you could keep your secret identity? That makes sense..." He knew that was part and parcel of the superhero code, and he could understand why someone who wasn't physical like Gina would make a body like that for herself. "And I suppose it's much safer than building a battlesuit like Daedalus. He really got smacked around. Does anyone else know?" he asked Gina.

"It's...better," said Sharl a little lamely. "I went out there and did what I could. Things were pretty rough last night, but the roads are cleared and the children are home safe. I think I actually made it on TV a couple of times, since I wasn't recognized." He shrugged. "I think it's going to be okay. There were cars back driving on the road as I came in. I don't think anyone remembers being Conquered, which is good." He looked at Gina and finally blurted out, "What's Miss Americana?"

"I'll be there." Sharl floated down through the floors to Gina's basement, where the holographic projectors clicked on to support his projection. Though the magnetic fields that made up his body could function independently, as had been graphically demonstrated when his mobile emitter had taken a hit in the fight with Electrolux, he still felt much safer with his body supported by electronic signals while he was in this place. He was there, standing on the floor like a perfectly normal person, when Gina finally came downstairs.

"It's me," said Sharl. He'd steeled himself for this conversation all night, worrying about talking to Gina being as big in his mind as all the superhero stuff he'd done. But he couldn't just let this go; this was big...big enough that it was beyond him. But he was oceans and worlds away from his parents, his friends were all Gina's friends, and Miss A was...well, she was what she was. There was no one here but him to deal with this. "Can I come in?"

It was light out by the time Sharl got back to the house, or rather, light out again. He'd spent the night flying and walking around Freedom City, helping clean up after the Conquering Mind's possession. There really was a lot of work to do, and he'd been in the best position to do it. Flying over a city full of frightened, hurt people had been a scary experience, but he'd done his best to make it better: he'd flown down to an elementary school and helped stranded kids find their families, he'd helped the cops get people out of wrecked cars, and even helped pull a cat out of a tree! It had been a long night, but a good one; it helped that he didn't really get tired while projecting, and the street lights helped everyone see. By morning, as he flew down through Gina's roof, the long night was over and Freedom City was starting to look back to normal. Not hearing her inside, he knocked on Gina's bedroom door.

Sharl handed the bowl to Emerson and stuck his head right through the door. "There you go, Gina, it's all I could make." He gave her a worried look, only his upper torso visible through the wooden door. "Is it okay? I tried to make it like you liked it...did the shower help any?" He was doing his best not to bury her with questions, but it wasn't easy when she was usually the smart and capable one. "Tell me if you need the first aid kit."

When there was no answer for a while, Sharl knocked on Gina's door. "Gina, are you okay?" he called to her. "I made you chicken ramen with cream cheese!" He didn't know too much about what was healthy to eat, but Gina ate ramen all the time so it had to be okay. Normally she liked it spicy, but he was sure this stuff would be okay. He'd eaten it only a couple of times himself; Gina really didn't like it when he tried to eat things, at least when there wasn't time for him to go outside or into the bathroom to dump it out. He could have just walked in the door, but what would that have done to the food he was trying to get her?

Sharl disappeared right through the floor and into a kitchen that he quickly realized he had no idea how to cook in. He briefly panicked, wondering if he should try making a big meal, but soon realized that wasn't what Gina needed at all. He wound up digging out ramen from the kitchen cabinets, heating the water up in a kettle that looked like Darth Vader's helmet. He kept his ears open for Gina, and relaxed when he heard her shower start. Emerson wouldn't have started it without being able to see her, he was sure, which hopefully meant she was actually in it. When he had the ramen prepared, he carried it bare-handed upstairs and sat down in front of Gina's closed door, waiting for the shower to stop.

Sharl's gut twisted at Gina's growing fear, but he pushed past that as he laid her down on top of the sheets. "Emerson!" he called. "Run Gina a shower!" He knew enough about the pipes here to know that you needed to run them a little while to get really hot water, and Gina sounded like she needed a really hot one. He stepped back from the bed, able to tell he was making her upset but not really sure what to do about that. As the robot scuttled past him, he said, "I'm going to go now and make you food," he said, taking a few steps back as he prepared to leave. "I'll be right back, so you can get cleaned up, and we can talk..."

Bulk PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 44 p STR 40 [30] (+15/+10) DEX 12 (+1) CON 40 [30] (+15/+10) INT 10 (+0) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 20 pp ATK: +5 DEF: +5 (+2 flat-footed) Init: +1 Grapple: +23 Saves: 10 pp TOU +15 (+15 Con) FORT +15 (+15 Con) REF +6 (+1 Dex, +5) WILL +6 (+1 Wis, +5) Skills: 40 r=10 pp Intimidate 15 (+15) Knowledge: Streetwise 5 (+5) Languages 2 (Korean, Russian) (Base: English) Notice 9 (+10) Sense Motive 9 (+10) Feats: 6 pp All-Out Attack Luck Power Attack Startle Takedown Attack Ultimate Save (TOU) Powers: 60 pp Device 2 (Helmet) (Hard to Lose) [8 pp] -Immunity 10 (mental effects) {10} Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp] Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp] Immunity 15 (critical hits, entrapment, knockback, starvation and thirst, suffocation) [15 pp] Impervious TOU 10 [10 pp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Strength 3 (Heavy Load: 24 tons) [6 pp] costs abilities 44 + combat 20 + saves 10 + skills 10/40 + feats 6 + powers 60 = 150 pts -- Design Notes: This is my build for the Bulk, a Powerhouse variant from the Archetypes Archive. He's pretty obviously based on a particular Marvel character, one who I trust I don't have to name for you. He's not the strongest powerhouse, he's not the fastest powerhouse, but he can absorb an amazing amount of punishment: he cannot be knocked back, he cannot be held down, he will come for you and punch you in the head! His kicky hat blocks mental powers, though without it his Will save isn't actually awful either. He's also extremely tough, easily capable of shrugging off massive damage thanks to his extremely high Toughness, high Impervious, and finally his Ultimate Toughness. He doesn't have Immovable or Unstoppable: he doesn't need the first thanks to his broad immunities, and Unstoppable isn't really that great unless you're massively optimized to use Slam attacks. Given his massive ability to do damage, it's probably not going to be something he misses. Obviously someone immune to all damage should be an NPC! In fact, if you want to adopt a recent story arc for this character, you can say the character was an invulnerable bad guy who lost power when he became good, going from an unstoppable villanous powerhouse to a still-very-formidable but more human PC. (If you are going to make him an NPC, I would definitely say kick him up and make him invulnerable with the 80 pp damage immunity, the helmet, the other immunities, etc. You don't want to scrimp! I would say someone with the broad immunities on this sheet is likely to be magical in origin, but you could cover it as a particularly helpful mutation or some other equally broad power origin. Up to you! His natural rival is the Wheelchair Mentalist from upthread, of course. Maybe a family connection? Perhaps his father favored that damn egghead, forcing him to go out in the world! And now that the Mentalist is a mad villain, he's built his helmet to take his wicked brother down. Bricks can get branded one-dimensional, but as characters like Atlas have shown on our site, a relatively simple sheet can go in all kinds of directions. Geez3r's sheet (and thread) is a good source for Super-Strength PFs and stunts. Not all of those will sell on this site, but why not try? (I usually don't get creative like that: with a few exceptions, the majority of the builds here actually could get approved if you took the time to put them in the right format)

"Gina, you can barely walk," said Sharl, feeling like the adult in the room for a moment. "You haven't eaten anything all day, you're bleeding, and you've been sitting in one spot all day. I'm not going to just leave you on the floor again! Let me at least get you to your bedroom." He headed up the stairs, his footsteps solid thunks as he walked up. No flying through walls and floors on this trip, not that he'd ever been up in Gina's room before. "You have a bath up there, right? You can shower while I make the food."

"Come on," said Sharl after a moment's hesitation, bending down to scoop Gina up in his arms. She wasn't light, but he was strong, the magnetics in his body making him stronger than he'd ever been on Tronik. "Emerson's going to give you a bath," he suggested, remembering a comment Gina had made once about all the luxuries she'd programmed into the robot, "and I'm going to get you some food. You need to eat, and then maybe sleep. How long have you been awake?" he asked her, still trying to figure out how exactly she did...well, whatever she did that made her Miss Americana and not Gina!

"I'm okay," said Sharl. "I think I owe Star Knight an apology for getting her knocked around. Siren and Captain Thunder managed to ambush Protectron and I before you guys stopped the Mind, I took a few hits. Didn't hurt me any, though. It was a little scary; the Mind said something about recognizing me...probably from one of the minds it conquered, I guess." He looked at Gina, debating her condition, and finally said, "We need to talk, Gina, but not when you're so beat up." She hadn't pushed him when he was on the breaking point, and he owed her that, and much else. "I don't think anyone else suspects anything. Or I don't know...what's Miss Americana doing right now?" He hmmed. Maybe they were talking after all, despite his best intentions. "No one knows I came here. Protectron let me use his radio to send myself into the network, but he wasn't able to trace me, I think."

Reality warper faced reality warper, the awesome power to shape and reshape the universe to one's mad whims crashing together and doing...absolutely nothing. "Hah! How deliciously ironic!" Hex put his hands on his hips and laughed. "Our mutual blood keeps our powers from affecting each other. More fitting this way, isn't it?" He raised his fists, giving his counterpart a delicious leer. "Now we can settle our differences in hand-to-hand combat, just like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean!" He winked at Edge, who gave him a scornful look in return. "What, you're evil so you're gay? Doesn't that sound a little cliched to you, Mr. Master Villain?" For his part, Edge was doing his best to form a plan, not an easy task for him under the best of circumstances. What to do when your powers just didn't work? He'd read Daisy's debriefings, and made some inferences from what he'd seen in that room when he'd woken up in this Mark's bed. "But that's all you are, isn't it? Just hurting people weaker than you, and giving lots of lame speeches. Maybe you'd be able to accomplish something with your life if you actually took action instead of just standing around talking about it!" "It's all about freaking the mundanes," said Hex, who was circling Mark like a boxer in the arena. His belt was considerably more padded than Mark's; was he hiding a weapon under there? Or maybe about to produce one? "Don't get me wrong, I love plowing a sweet thing as much as anyone...ah-hah, that got you!" And indeed, Mark's eyes had been widened with disgust at his counterparts words. "I thought that would, after you were so thoughtful to take Daisy with you. Did you get a little piece of that before you-" Edge's blast transformed a chunk of steel wall into dairy products, exposing the rock wall beneath, as his counterpart laughed again. "Guess not!" "You're...you're nothing but an odious little bully!" spat Edge, blocking a return shot from his counterpart with one of his own. "You just talk big to impress people, but I saw your Trevor put you down like a dog before. You're a drunk. You're drunk on power, on irresponsibility, and on your big fat mouth!" Mark felt his anger rising: what was going on with his more violent friends if this version of _him_ was so annoying? "I know you," he said suddenly, fixing his gaze on Hex. "I know why you're such an ass! You went to the Academy before you had any powers too, right? Because of your dad? It must have been Hell surrounded by all those people who got their powers before you did. What were they gonna do, train you to mop floors? Just like your dad, I bet-" "YOU SHUT UP ABOUT MY DAD!" And suddenly, the two young men were engaged in a fight that was all too real!

Sharl stared at Gina, a rejoinder on his lips for a moment before things began to sink in. But...how? Is she a hologram too? Some kind of person-suit? I don't... "Gina, come on," he said gently, focusing on helping his friend. "I...I couldn't stay away. I needed to help you, just like I need to help you now." He left her for a moment, just long enough to wet a washcloth, and then returned. He dabbed her face with a washcloth, not quite prepared to go further. "You're hurt. Is it from the fall? I can't see any place where your skin is broken..." One thing he knew almost nothing about was human internal anatomy. "And then we can get you cleaned up," he offered. Her robots were on the move now, recognizing him, and he heard water running in the bathroom. Had they seen something like this before? He wasn't sure. How long had it been...well, since whenever Miss Americana had first taken to the skies. He remembered hearing through those lovely lips how frightened Gina would be in public, and how unhappy to have other people's eyes on her.

Or Talos, who's come to build Habitat Against Humanity. :o

"Oh sweet [untranslatable], Gina..." He bent down over her, checking her vitals as best his very limited medical training allowed. She seemed healthy enough, for all that he wasn't exactly sure how Earth people were supposed to feel. And surely she couldn't be that healthy, not when she was looking so battered. "What happened? How did your face get-" He remembered what he'd heard on the radio, about the battle and the disabled robot, as well as when he'd been in here earlier. The alien things didn't take her. Everything down here is still intact... "Gina, can you wake up? Please wake up, don't leave me down here alone..."

"...I'll go, but I won't go there," said Sharl, making his decision quickly. "You and Dragonfly make sure Miss Americana makes it back to the Lab in one piece. I need to...I need to see my friend." And with that, Sharl concentrated, reaching out with the same 'senses' that Miss Americana had downloaded into his mind earlier when she was modifying him for the trip out to Lonely Point, and suddenly he was abruptly gone from Protectron's back, with only a faint echo of radio waves showing what direction he'd gone: not towards the island, but somewhere out in Freedom City. Elsewhere, Sharl abruptly spilled out of Gina's holoprojectors in the basement, his image fuzzing slightly for a moment from the sheer force of the strain he'd just put himself under. "Gina!" he called out.

From the other side of the cavern suddenly came applause and a low, mocking laugh. Edge turned, peering into the darkness, but even though he couldn't see in it the way Midnight could, he knew perfectly well who was there. Who else would it be? "Well well well," said Hex as he stepped into the light that had conveniently just snapped on over their heads. "It appears the cats have chosen to take the poisoned bait left for them by...the rat! Nyesss!" He stroked his wicked goatee and glared evilly as he faced the three heroes, a look of malignant triumph on his face. "Uh-uh-uuuh!" he said, waving his finger mockingly at them as they tensed. "Come at me and I'll pull the cavern down on all of us." He pointed up at the ceiling overhead and snapped his fingers, a ball of colored dots appearing between them. "I'll survive, I always do, and the rest of you can be just more grist for the mill." "What do _you_ want?" said Edge, who found himself angrier than he'd expected at the sight of his evil twin. He dropped down to the cavern floor, automatically absorbing the twisted mastermind's attention even as he did his. "Isn't it obvious, healer-man?" said Hex with a leer. "I want you all dead. You especially. I mean look at you! Prancing around in that black costume, going to all this trouble for a little piece of trash from a dimension you've never even seen!" He made a little gesture at the box and added with a look at the ceiling. "Nice technique with the school, though. I've got to admit, I've imagined doing that a few times! Who knew we were quite so powerful?" He grinned. "Feels good, doesn't it? Walking around the streets with abilities far beyond those of mortal men, lording it over the rest of the trash? Seriously, why take that and go prancing around with these people?" "Because it's the right thing to do. Something you'll never understand, because you're too busy prancing around in a cheap suit to do something meaningful with your life." Edge made a gesture, and suddenly the black was gone from his uniform like tarnish, the gold and blue standing out with crystal clarity. "You're king of a rotting palace..." Suddenly, the Marks were interrupted by the appearances of two shadowy figures in white near the cage! Furious, Hex shouted, "No, you're not stealing my monologue! Not this time! You fight your OWN goddamned nemeses!" And with that, suddenly steel walls shot up throughout the cavern, corralling (but not trapping) the teen heroes together with their terrible teen counterparts!

AvengerAssembled, Gizmo, and Sorus all get a free HP.

The Conquering Mind gave a terrible squeal as the mind-warping waves of the nullifier washed over its body, and as Dragonfly watched the writhing, pulsating mass began to fall apart into ever-shrinking clumps of red and black that turned into the blood-red starfishes that she'd seen crawl out of the commander's neck a very, very long day ago. The mass was hideous to look at, but it seemed to have no driving will; it was more like looking at a schoolbus-sized mass of starfish all dumped together on a concrete floor than anything else. Behind her, as she turned, she saw the winner of the Daedalus/Miss Americana fight: the two gadgeteers plunged to earth together, landing with the sound of denting metal and cracking concrete. Both of them lay still, clearly unconscious. - Sharl wound up tagging along with Protectron for the flight out to Lonely Point, clinging onto the robot's leg with a sturdy magnetic grip. The voice of the Mind was gone from the robot's sensors, and now he could hear the voices of emergency personnel coming on the radio asking for status, a couple of shocked disk jockeys who found themselves back on the air, and eventually even Star Knight and Captain Thunder on the Freedom League's radio system reassuring everyone that things were going to be okay now. The Conquering Mind had been defeated!