Avenger Assembled

"Hmm." Mark wasn't sure why Carson was opening up to them like this, but he wasn't rude enough to comment on that. "There are a lot of really cute girls around here," he said. "You're an excellent singer," he commented, shooting Trevor a look that gave him an out if he wanted it. "You really brought some life into that old church music. Have you ever thought of doing recording on your own? I have a family friend who works for Decca, and he could probably hook you up with a recording session."

She has a very strange accent. I wonder where she's from. It would explain her social problems. It can't be easy to try and function in a group this large, poor thing. She must not get out much. Fusion was a big believer in socialization, especially for girls whose mothers had evidently run off and left them to be raised by wolves so that they didn't know better than to talk over people. When Silhouette was done talking, Fusion politely explained the rules of draw poker, suggesting they limit themselves to five cards and drawing three to shorten things out. "I think we've got good numbers here. " She started shuffling as she talked, then began dealing. "All right, our game is five-card draw. I, ah, left my purse in my other bodysuit, but I'll let you ladies decide what we bet."

"I rarely eat. It is generally unnecessary." The Omegadrone studied the other man, thought seeming to flick behind his eyes like gears whirling inside a machine's mind. But there was emotion on that lined face; this was no unfeeling automaton. "But if you have food and wish to share, I will eat with you." He said nothing more at that, apparently feeling the conversation was successful. "I have nothing to offer you but my service."

"Well," said Mark thoughtfully, "Alex has a really strong mind, but her body is much less so. I bet Pathos isn't that different. She's got their Assault to protect her, and she'd need to build up her mind to compete with their Sage, or Scarab, or whoever. If we can get close to her, we can knock her out, or stun her, or whatever." He hmmed. "Trevor, you've got that anti-telepath mojo, right? You could sneak close and hit her on the head, or tase her or something. Even if she got suspicious, she might think it was just the Blank plotting against her, not people from our Earth."

Gorilla Island History Lying at 48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W in the South Pacific, Gorilla Island has puzzled even super-scientists for generations. How did a population of some three hundred thousand gorillas, if from a sub-species unlike any other on Earth, find itself so many tens of thousands of miles from Africa? The three hundred thousand or so hardy souls who make their home in the rugged mountains tend to be close-mouthed on the subject. (Islanders generally do not get along well with outsiders, particularly after the Greystoke expedition at the turn of the century was followed up by German conquest of the island's shoreline in 1905 and a brutal colonial rule that ended only in 1919 with Versailles) (Pictured is Der Affe, an Islander conscripted into the Imperial Army who famously battled American and British agents from 1914 until his death in 1918 at the hands of the Angel of Mons) The island was acquired by the British in 1919 after Versailles. Though Arthur Jermyn was cut from a much kinder cloth than his German predecessors (in particular, he was willing to negotiate with his 'subjects'), the British writ was still exceedingly narrow, and rarely extended further than the Royal Navy base on the coast. Despite frequent rumors of bizarre sights and strange specimens to be found inland, the rugged, mountainous terrain and high elevation meant that few Europeans who went inland with hostile intent survived. The pictures and stories of fantastic structures, machinery, and beasts that did make it to the outside world were enough to keep up the steady stream of expeditions until the famous Denham voyage of 1930. (Pictured is KK, the Islander (and secret heir to the royal family!) hired as guide and agent of the Denham crew on the Island. He ultimately had a falling-out with his employers, escaped their attempt to confine him during a visit to New York in 1932, and returned to the island a much wiser ape. A rival studio's highly-sensationalized account of the Denham voyage became immortalized on-screen in 1933.) The island was a frequent target for espionage in the 1930s, a particular favorite of Danger International and the Prophet family as well as their rivals in German and Japanese service. Too far away to be directly involved in the fighting, Islanders and their allies did repel several attempted Axis coup d'etats. In 1941, after the infamous failed attempt by the Aryan Ape to raise an army there, Gorilla Island formally declared war on the Axis powers. (The Ape was, after all, an enthusiastic Nazi, and his frequent jibes at his 'savage' hosts finally led to his near-death at the hands of his former followers when he admitted his alliance with the much-hated former masters of the island. (Pictured is American superheroine Miss Victory in hand-to-hand combat with Der Affe II, the gorilla agent recruited by the Ape during his visit to the island. Der Affe II ultimately perished by firing squad in 1946 after he was convicted for his part in the murder of Allied POWs in Italy) In 1946, following pressure from President Truman and a personal meeting with the Liberty League, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee officially granted Gorilla Island independence under the royal family that had developed afer 1905. Though officially Gorilla Island's independence was out of gratititude for their service in the Second World War, as well as the loyalty they'd shown in the years before, the truth was actually somewhat more disturbing: the ruins on the Island had been identified (by a yong American scientist named Alexander Atom) as extra-terrestrial in origin! It had been Kaykay and the Centurion who'd discovered the secret of the Island some years earlier during their battles with Nazi agents in the interior. The Preservers had moved the Islanders there some half a million years earlier, recognizing that the hominids evolving elsewhere in Africa had the power to destroy the nascent gorilla civilization that had begun in what is now the Congo. They had left artifacts behind to shield the island; the cloak had broken down earlier in the century, and much knowledge had been lost after the Imperial Germans had caught the apes off-guard and massacred much of their leadership. But now the apes had regained their old strongholds, and were eager to maintain their independence! (Pictured is Skull Harbor, the best natural harbor on the island. The famous thirty-story human screaming face there is actually a product of Preserver technology, a tactic of psychological warfare to drive off any humans who did pierce the cloak: one that was successful for generations until the beginning of the 20th century.) After Kaykay's death in 1962 following an incursion by monsters from Kaiju Island, the island's government slipped into a civil war between fascist-leaning monarchists and heroic champions of the people, or maybe American-friendly, pro-democracy members of the royal family vs. Stalinist Sovi-Apes, depending on who you ask. Prince Didikay ultimately roused his fellow islanders behind him on nationalist grounds, and the Communist guerillas were forced to flee after the long, bloody war finally came to an end in 1981 after Didikay finally defeated his long-time archnemesis, an Italian Communist in Soviet service. (Pictured is one of the many Red Gorillas who emigrated to Africa after the war, where their former leadership set up a Gorilla colony in the Congo. The Gorilla Free State has stayed largely isolated from the vicious warfare of the region, though their fighters remain popular for their work as mercenaries and soldiers. Their retaliation against bushmeat hunting is notoriously vicious.) Gorilla Island today is still a monarchy, currently under the rule of Kaykay's grandson Didikay II. Your typical Islander speaks English with an Oxonian British accent, lives in a wood-frame house that looks a little bit like a German peasant cottage, and generally wears no clothing but her own fur. The society is a parlimentary democracy, said legislative body dominated by the isolationist Silver and open-minded Mountain parties, respectively. Though women have traditionally been second-class citizens in gorilla society, the royal family has always tried to rise above those concerns, and the current king's daughter may well inherit her father's throne. (They do eat a lot of bananas, but given their ubiquity on the island, asking an Islander if he eats bananas is the equivalent of asking 21st century American if he's ever had Cheerios. He will usually say yes, and not understand the significance of the question!) Their understanding of Preserver technology is decidedly imperfect, but as they have graphically demonstrated against the Grue (and during the Terminus Invasion, when King Didikay perished in battle), the Islanders have enough command of their homeland's defenses that it is suicide to invade without the support of local agents and without a great deal of luck. As a generation of Harvard and Yale-educated elites like Didikay II assumes power on the Island, more and more gorillas are growing curious about the wider world.

"Really? You think it's a good idea?" Mark looked as surprised, and flattered, as if Mr. Summers had just commented he looked intimidating, or if Hellion had said he looked sexy. "I mean, great!" He exchanged a fistbump with Trevor and added, "I mean, I was hoping all those practice sessions would pay off, and I guess they did!" He'd been worried about those practice sessions, but evidently no one worried that much when you took out simulated copies of your school every week or so. "I mean, just...just cut right to the chase and take the whole thing out, you know? Hex...Hex won't think at all, but even he won't have any idea what did it."

Psychic Gorilla PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 30 pp STR 30 [22] (+10/+6) DEX 12 (+1) CON 20 [16] (+5/+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 20 (+5) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +5 w/Growth (+6 melee/+10 unarmed) DEF: +10 (+2 flat-footed w/Growth) Init: +1 Grapple: +20 Saves : 12 pp TOU +10 (+5 Con, +5 Protection) FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3) REF +5 (+3 Dex, +2) WILL +12 (+5 Wis, +7) Skills: 60 r=15 pp Concentration 10 (+15) Climb 9 (+15, Skill Mastery) Handle Animal 5 (+5) Language 1 (English; Base: Swahili) Notice 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Search 10 (+10, Skill Mastery) Sense Motive 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Survival 5 (+10) Feats: 14 pp Animal Empathy, Attack Focus: Melee 1, Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2, Dodge Focus 5, Luck, Power Attack, Skill Mastery (Climb, Notice, Search, Sense Motive) Takedown Attack, Uncanny Dodge (olfactory) Powers: 55 pp Additional Limbs 2 (prehensile feet) (PF: Innate) [3 pp] Comprehend 2 (speak to and understand simians) [2 pp] Concealment 4 (all visual) (Flaw: Phantasm) [4+1=5 pp] AP: Morph 4 (any humanoid) (Flaw: Phantasm) Growth 4 (Extra: Duration (Permanent) [+0], PF: Innate) [13 pp] Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp] Protection 5 [5 pp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Movement 1 (Swinging) [2 pp] Super-Senses 2 (Acute Scent, Low-Light Vision) [2 pp] Super-Senses 6 (Danger Sense [Mental], Mental Awareness 2 [mental], Precognition (Flaw: Uncontrolled), Uncanny Dodge [Mental]) [6 pp] Telepathy 6 (12PP Array, PFs: Alternate Power 4) [16PP] BP: Communication 6 (Mental, 20 miles, PFs: Rapid [x10], Subtle) [8PP] + Comprehend 1 (Languages 1 [speak Any]) [2PP] + Mind Reading 1 (Extras: Action 2 [Free], Effortless, Mental, Flaws: Duration [instant/Lasting], Limited [surface Thoughts]) [2PP] [12/12] AP: ESP 4 (1 mile, visual) (PFs: Fast Task 4 (Full Action to Search 1 Mile) [12/12] AP: Mind Control 10 (Flaw: Distracting, PFs: Mental Link, Subtle) [12/12] AP: Mind Reading 10 (Extras: Mental, Penetrating, Flaws: Duration [instant/Lasting], PF: Subtle) [11/12] AP: Move Object 3 (Heavy Load: 200 lbs), (Extras: Damaging, Range [Perception], PFsPrecise, Subtle) [11/12] costs abilities 30 + combat 24 + saves 9 + skills 15/60 + feats 14 + powers 55 = 150 pts -- Design Notes: Is she a psychic ape, surgically altered and raised in a laboratory by human scientists before she went to the outside world to learn more? A mutant from Gorilla Island, cast out by her suspicious kinfolk into a world of hairless freaks where her powers let her fit in? Or was she human once, a psychic who by design (perhaps while suffering from a terminal disease, or a fatal accident) or mischance (a failed psychic experiment, or an enemy’s wrath) was cast into the body of a damn dirty ape? Or is she an immigrant from Earth-Ape, perhaps a psychic hero in her own dimension who has opted to resettle in our own? Whatever her origin, this is my attempt at constructing a psychic gorilla, perhaps the most famous example of such in comics being the Flash rogue Gorilla Grodd. (For those wondering why the Flash fights a psychic gorilla, besides SILVER AGE, Grodd fills a definite niche in the Rogues’ Gallery: he has Perception-range abilities to bedevil the high-Defense speedster, and the sheer physical power to take high-Mach punches.) It’s an interesting archetype, and a good way to get a giant ape in your campaign. I went with albino because it’s a good look: if you go with the idea that she’s a castoff from Gorilla City, perhaps albinism is a sign of her mutant psychic heritage. I actually debated quite a bit about giving this character Growth: gorillas are not actually taller than humans. (Yes, I worried about anatomical accuracy in the mind-reading gorilla) If anything, they might qualify better for Density. But they are _larger_ than humans, certainly, even if their height doesn’t always measure up. So she’s got Growth: if you want, go ahead and specify that she really IS a giant gorilla, the sort that can convincingly go toe-to-toe with Golden Age paragons and the like. But the massive chest and solid build of your average gorilla will let her function normally too. Change up the psychic powers however you like; I tried to give her a pretty generic, useful array. The Concealment and Morph lets her get around the streets without betraying her true nature to people watching, while the TK is a surprise for people expecting a gorilla to be all hands-on. Her skills are pretty bare-bones; drop some of abilities she gets from her animal body if you want to play those up; she could use a boost to her INT and CHA in the bargain. She could be stronger, she could be a better psychic, but I think this character is a decent blend of both animalistic powerhouse and mentalist. Most people don’t expect a gorilla to read their mind, anymore than they expect a psychic to be a giant gorilla!

"I can blow up the school," said Mark suddenly, as if a look of decision had crossed his face. "I've been practicing in the Doom Room, and I can blow up a space as big as Claremont and do it without killing anyone inside. I know what you're thinking," he said to Trevor, "but they can't guard against my powers, they don't work like that. I can blow up the gas mains, the water lines, everything at once. The biggest accident they've ever had, so they can't shield against everything all at once. And while they're dealing with that, we can go in and rescue people." He licked his lips. "It'll be a really big distraction, and it'll make the Syndicate look very bad if they can't control a place like this. Maybe some of the students like Daisy, or just the ones who want to leave, will have a chance to get out, or join up with Anti-Talos."

Mark swallowed hard, looking at Erin, then Trevor before he spoke. "I understand. I've been talking that over with Dr. Marquez, and he thinks I did that because I was overcompensating after my dad left. That I was so eager to see some good in any version of myself after seeing bad things happen to my family that I...I did things I shouldn't have. I'm sorry," he said, not for the first time to Erin. "It was a mistake. You can trust me to let the other Mark, and the other Trevor, and whoever, sort out their differences against each other. Just because I won't kill someone doesn't mean I have to get involved the way I did. And if we can rescue more people like Daisy, or you, or anyone else those people are hurting...well, that'd be great too."

"A trip, huh?" Mark hmmed. "Well, this is a great time for trips, I guess. We're all graduating soon, about to go off and maybe...maybe separate. Not you guys," he added quickly, "you guys are great! But me! And who knows when we'll be adventuring together again?" With surprising perspicacity, Mark asked, "Does this have anything to do with what you were asking me the other day about Blackstone? Because if you guys want to visit the jail, I know people on the staff who can get us uniforms and everything."

"Yeah, aren't they great? These are from her special superhero line." He held up one that had a generic female superheroine on it, a shining figure in blue and white in the middle of punching an armored goon right in the chest. She looked a little bit like Miss Americana, the flying hero he'd seen on TV a few times. "BELIEVE IN YOURSELF...AND BE MY VALENTINE!" Trevor's showed a black-clad figure punching a sinister fellow with stubble and a switchblade. "CRIME DOESN'T PAY...BUT LOVE DOES!" Attached to the cards were two movie-theater-sized packets of SMARTIES. "I saw them both, and I thought of you guys. So Happy Valentine's Day! You guys doing anything?" He took a seat on Alex's chair opposite.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. "Hey you guys!" called Mark's voice through the solid wood. "Are you in there? I've given Valentines to everybody on my list, and I heard you were in here!" Outside, Mark wondered briefly if he was interrupting something, but he was fairly sure Erin and Trevor would pick a place where no one could bother them if they were getting up to things. He'd managed to track everyone else down with his cards and SMARTIES, but Erin and Trevor had been playing it coy. I wonder if they're planning something. I hope they're not mad at me about anything, like for interrupting them, or our last couple of missions...

The teens eventually had to part ways. Whether they were in the Imageria or the center of the multiverse's timestream, they couldn't just hang around, even if the company was interesting. Mark was intrigued by a universe where he was dating Erin, especially such a pretty version of her, but there was something a little...odd about his double. The other Mark seemed so, well, normal; he was looking forward to a steady job with the Freedom League when he graduated, happy with his relationship with Erin, and worried about his mom and his own absent father. He seemed like a normal kid, with normal problems, and Mark found himself oddly envious. He told himself it was just because of the new supers there, a bright and shining new history that the kids of that Young Freedom were writing themselves. But if he was really honest with himself, that wasn't it. _He really is happy._ Maybe he'd find the same thing where he was going. Mark stood alongside Erin as they headed back to their transport site, joining her in pinning down the still-unconscious Tiger. That time guardian thing had sent Totentanz back home before they could tell them otherwise, and disposed of the armored man who was evidently the other universe's version of the Tiger. He and his double had talked at length about the multiverse, and he wasn't at all sure how much of it he believed. But he'd taken it all down, and he and the others would discuss it at length. The best news had been that their League was all right; the Time Guardian had intercepted the Freedom League before agents of al-Khayal could destroy them, and now that he was safely back he could return them from whence they'd come. Looking at Erin, looking at their prisoner, it looked like everything was going to be all right. "Thank you!" he said to the other team as they headed for their machine. "We come from very different places, and we're very different," he said, shooting a look at his other self, and at the other Erin, "but it's good to know that wherever we go, and however we see ourselves..." He looked at his own Midnight, and said, "We're _all_ heroes. I love you," he added to his Wander, just before she pressed the button for their trip home. A few days later: The Hague The Tiger awoke in darkness to find a black and red figure standing over him, eyes glowing with the power of a god. "Master! Master, I knew you'd come for me!" He threw himself at the feet of the Divine One, only to be hurled back against the concrete wall of his cell hard enough to crack it. "I would hardly forget 'you', al-Khayal. You, the insect whose buzzing overturned a 'century' of planning. You, who have deprived me of 'two' worlds thanks to your ineptitude! Your 'name' is already a cruel jest, your world, trash unworthy of my 'power. The age of alignment is ending. It will be a 'thousand' years before I can again address my followers in this place!" "Master, please!" The Tiger fell to his knees, a pleading look on his shadowed face. "Master, please, let me stand by your side in Paradise, and I-" "...yes." His master smiled, and suddenly, the Tiger felt fear down to his bones. "Yes, I shall let you stand by my 'side', as a lesson to others who seek my favor. You will be my finest 'example'!" And with that, both vanished from the Earth. The Tiger soon regretted his master's mercy. But not for long.

Murdock folded his hands, studying Gabriel flatly. "Yes. Yes, I understand what you say. Your argument is that because what I did was not a result of my own choices, I bear no moral weight for them. That the fault lies with the original source of the evil, not those that became its unwilling tools." He hmmed. "And you're right. This world's defeat of the armies of the Terminus was a blow to Omega's armies from which he has yet to fully recover. If I truly believed in the inevitable victory of the forces of entropy, I would still be there." He wondered if Gabriel had guessed the implication of what he was; he hadn't raised the issue, which was better, really. It was not his place to debate Gabriel's theology. "Your perspective offers me a valuable understanding."

Me? Sharl gave the helmeted hero a slant-eyed look, eyes hidden behind his shades. Why me? But despite his momentary reaction, he couldn't deny that he'd been thinking along the same lines as Cannonade. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I can." Citizen crossed the car to the train's converter box, fixing it with a serious gaze. "Don't be mad," he was heard to mutter under his breath, before he rolled up his sleeve. "I have a feeling this is going to hurt..." And with that, he shoved his hand inside the box! "Aagh!" The teenager glowed brightly, the grid pattern under his skin flaring almost impossibly bright, as his hand vanished inside the metal, and suddenly the whole train jerked and began screaming to a halt, sparks flying from the wheels as every circuit on board slammed shut. As the train halted, Citizen pulled his hand away and staggered back, falling down so hard he actually clipped right through the car floor!

"The whole train..." Citizen ignored the snakeman entirely, looking up and staring at the ceiling of the car intently. "It's all one big machine," he muttered aloud. "Primitive circuitry, no AI to speak of...but the train itself is still a machine, running on the same sorts of circuitry as anything else here. And that means it has mechanisms, and control circuits...and they've probably got safety systems...right?" He walked along, studying the machinery intently. "Is that right?" he asked again, trying to get the attention of the other heroes. Oh, man, if I mess this up, Gina's going to be so mad! Plus I might hurt myself...but I could stop us now!

"Listen!" said Citizen, trying and failing to get the attention of the snakey warrior he was swinging at. "This is stupid! There are a lot more of us than there are of you, and you're just going to get yourself hurt if you keep this up!" He feinted left as the monster swiped at him, then swung a punch that turned glancing as it bounced off his armored jaw. "Even if I don't take you down, someone else will! And then you'll be in confinement, and what good will do yourself there?"

Feint as a move Action: 15 Eh, the fight's almost over, so I'll spend an HP on that 20 is better Unarmed Attack: 16 Bleah. Lemme know how that goes.

"I have seen gods die. And the faithful perish, with unanswered prayers on their lips, as the skies turn black above them and the stars go out. I have seen slaves cower in the darkness of the Terminus, worshiping the slayer of their worlds as a god of death and destruction who will one day sweep the stars from the omniverse and pull all that exists into the Doom Coil." Murdock knew that was the sort of talk most people on Earth-Prime didn't enjoy hearing, so he hmmed at that before going on, "I wish to know why these things have happened. I have spoken to what representatives of the divine I can find here. Your friend Heyzel recommended you to me, because he felt the perspective of a human being was more...valuable than his own. So I will ask you. Why is there evil?"

13 for Mark's Notice

SC, No, you don't have to spend any points. But why not spend a few? Raise SC's INT and give him the genius he deserves, max out his Luck, maybe buy him some nice Equipment?

Murdock took water, more because he'd been told it was the socially acceptable thing to do than out of any real desire. Though the couch creaked as well when he sat down, it did seem less ominous than his heavy footstep on the floor. "Rebellion from what I was is not possible. I was freed by a quirk of fate. An accident in the void, an attack by an enemy that sought to destroy me." He looked down at his reflection in the water, the sounds of space combat in his ears, the hiss of his armor and the whining buzz of radio discharges sounding in his mind. "To leave the whole, to regain...individuality is a dream we told ourselves, suffering in the pits. When the others saw I no longer heard the Voice, they turned on me. I was lucky to survive." He took a drink, slowly, and replied, "As for choice, such things were not possible. The process of transformation is sufficient to ensure that. Will is gone. But memory. But memory of what had been, and what happened, survives. Oh yes.."

"Hey, did you see that? She winked at me." Mark studied the younger bridesmaid from his spot by Trevor as the wedding party took their seats, an interested look on his face. "She's cute. Don't you think she's cute? She looks a lot like Stesha, too." He hmmed, adjusting his tux and making sure he looked presentable. "That's her sister, Chloe. Hmm." He looked at Trevor and added, "Hey, if you see us hanging out together later, don't mention anything about Claremont. I think she's in college and she might, you know, think that was weird."

Azuth: No. Just No.

"Superheroes should stick to gambling with adrenaline," offered Fusion. "At least until they're old enough to be betting their own money. Getting your kicks with adventure is a lot more fun." She gave a hissy sort of laugh and went on, "Better to be addicted to wearing the costume than addicted to craps." She scooped over a plate for herself, picking up some of Wisp's hot wings. When she ate, her mouth was exposed, showing even white teeth. "I'd suggest five-card draw. It's simple, easy to remember, and doesn't take long between rounds." She studied the others, taking in everything they said, but opted not to comment on teen relations till she heard more. "In fact, why don't we do just that?" Fusion went into action, moving chairs and tables around as discreetly as possible, tentacles extending over everyone's head in a rapid bit of motion as she worked. Joan was a superhero, but she was also a mom who'd organized kids games in the past. Even if her kid preferred inside games that didn't even get you sweating..."Seven's a big game, but I think we can make it work. I suggest we sit Jill O'Cure, Dragonfly, Sage, myself, Grim, Silhouette, and Wisp, wasn't it? Like so. She demonstrated an arrangement where Jill O'Cure sat opposite her, then the others all ticked around the table clockwise until they came back to the quip-wielding healer. "Unless any of you girls has a better idea?" She had to remind herself that these were equals.