Avenger Assembled

Citizen let his body phase out again, concentrating instead on just solidifying his fists. "You'll never know what I am," he predicted confidently to the battered bad guy. "Except that I'm here to stop you from hurting and scaring anyone else!" He punched the snakeman in the face. "Aliens aren't supposed to be monsters hiding in the subway!" He kicked the guy in the knee. "They're supposed to fly down in spaceships and save us from ourselves! Not plot against us to do evil!" He poked him in the eye.

Bleah, I'm having the worst dice luck today. Citizen spends another HP 22 DC 26 Tou save on Serpent Person 1.

The science is suspicious.

Mark was swept away by the kiss, as he always was when Edge was in the mood. He was also confident enough, particularly after watching everyone kick the Tiger's butt so thoroughly, that he wasn't more than a little put off by her comment to her counterpart afterwards. After a moment's hesitation, he shot a nod to his own Midnight. Hey, he IS pretty badass! And I'm the one going home with her tonight, I can afford to be a little secure. He took out the handcuffs that he always carried in costume, just in case he might have to fight a real bad guy, and for only the fourth time ever securely snapped them on the Tiger's wrists. "That was great, you guys," he said to his own team as much as the other one, even including the other Midnight. "We make an awesome team," he added, making sure to say that to his girl most of all. Maybe the other heroes were just artifacts of the Imageria, but they were all right. Hey, Erin can see why someone would be interested in me. That's all right, thought Edge contentedly. "Saved two worlds AND busted two of the biggest bad guys on the planet. Both our planets, from the sound of things. Not a bad meeting between two worlds." He grinned, walking up to his colleague and clapping him on the back. "So, what did this loser mean about a master, anyway?" he asked the other Mark. "Sounded pretty ominous..." As the two Marks discussed al-Khayal and 9/11, Sage reached down into Overshadow's mind and found: "..." Pulling the helmet off all the way, she found the blonde, blue-eyed man underneath looking slackjawed and still, his eyes closed and tongue lolling. The apparent imposter wearing the armor of the dead supervillain wasn't just out, he was gone. Across the room, the man of Time was speaking: I AM THE GUARDIAN OF THE CLOCK. I WAS...LURED FROM THIS PLACE, WITH MY CHILDREN, AND MY HOME WAS TAKEN FROM ME BY THOSE TWO YOU FOUGHT. FEAR NOT, CHILD, he added towards Sage, THAT ONE'S MIND HAS FLED ELSEWHERE. HE WILL FIND THAT HIS JOURNEY THROUGH TIME WILL BE A FAR HARDER TRIP THAN HE EXPECTED.

"It is an open question whether I am a member of the human race," said Murdock with that slow, measured voice. "While my genetics would suggest one version, my life and my deeds suggest another. Heyzel recommended me to you because he felt the perspective of a man, born of Earth, was more valuable than a being born in a different dimensional axis." He paced the room, slowly, the floor creaking slightly beneath his feet. "There are a dozen like me in this dimension. Perhaps more, perhaps less, depending on how many have survived their time in the hands of your governments. Of all those, as far as I know, I am the only one who remembers what we did. And what was done to us." When Gabriel questioned him about the reality of his situation, Murdock paused and said, "If I demonstrate, you will become wrathful. There is no plane of existence where I may walk the streets without disguise. All would raise their hand against me even where I was born."

The man outside was a strange figure to Carson's eyes, his brown, hairless skin lined with a pattern of what might have been tribal tattoos, his shoulders slumped ever-so-slightly, and whatever lay behind his eyes was flat. When he spoke, his voice was a steady metronome that neither rose nor fell. "My name is Murdock. I was sent here by the angelic entity of Lantern Hill. He told me to tell you that he thought you would make a better counselor for my needs. He apologized for the surprise, but said my reality was more persuasive than any of his words could be." A beat, a pause, and then an additional: "I am a sinner."

As the city warmed against the slow onset of spring, still a month away or more, a monster prowled the halls of Carson's apartment building. Murdock had spoken at length with the representative of Yahweh's court in Lantern Hill, and that worthy (though baffling) being had sent the former Omegadrone to speak to a more temporal counselor. The angel and the Omegadrone had been perhaps too similar to really understand each other, the vast gulf between Heaven and the Terminus enough that while they knew each other's pain, neither of them could really communicate. Which had made it necessary to send the former Omegadrone to the man with the golden voice. The floor creaking under his heavy, metal-augmented weight, Murdock knocked on Carson's door.

"Yeah...yeah." Suitably chastened, Mark ate his food. He was a little disappointed no one had gone along with his scheme, but he was used to his friends preferring to plan things out where he preferred to jump in and let the chips fall where they might. "We'll do it another time. I've got a lot on my plate. My mom is out of therapy," he offered, mostly for the benefit of the friends who'd been there when she'd gone in. "And she wants me to move back into school."

Citizen started to type in a new message to Gina, but decided to concentrate on the bad guys first. If we stop the lizardmen, maybe there won't be a problem at all! Fearlessly, he walked further out onto the platform, striding along the small walkway between the cars without hesitation. After all, he wasn't really there, his feet making no concussion as they gave the illusion of striking the metal path beneath his feet. "Illusion, am I?" He walked right into the other car that held the lizardmen. "Illusion this!" He concentrated, solidifying his body even further than before, and threw a right cross right at the snakeman Cannonade was dealing with.

"I hope we're not going to make an issue of appearances," Fusion hissed pleasantly, her tentacles unfolding from around her waist to pull a chair up for the new arrivals. Joan might not have been comfortable in her own skin, but she could surely fake it for these powered kids who had their own insecurities to deal with. "Unless we're going to have a contest about whose powers are the most...alien." she added in a sly whisper. The tall, muscular woman in the full mask and body costume certainly was the oddest-looking one there, especially when you added the gigantic suckered tentacles that she kept folded around her body. "Sage, I met your friend Psyche some months ago. She mentioned how well-trained your class is with telepathic ethics. I find that very impressive, especially when you contrast them against the Psions. It can't be easy."

Fusion spends an HP: 30 And she's fine

As the Sages finished their work, the harsh, dissonant chiming of the Universal Clock settled back to a steady, reassuring iambic beat. This was no simple Earthly clock, its cycle bespoke the stability of the multiverse itself, and now gears whirled and pendulums swung with the steady reassurance of Creation itself. As the heroes watched, their two Earths, once colliding with each other, began to move apart, ticking away slowly and inexorably. Seeing this, Edge exclaimed "Oh jeez! We need to-" FEAR NOT, MY FRIENDS. From the assembly of gears came a cascade of parts that assembled together into a robed humanoid, a figure with a human shape despite the metallic cast to his skin. He looked young, and confident, with a slight academic cast to his features. YOU HAVE SAVED THE TICKING CLOCK OF TIME ITSELF, AND TIME WILL REWARD YOU FOR YOUR EFFORTS. HOWEVER MUCH TIME YOU SPEND IN THE DOLOROUS CLOCK, YOU WILL RETURN SAFELY TO YOUR HOMES.

What the hell!?! "Time we see how fast you can really go!" Fusion's tentacles lashed out as she gathered up the comatose people, wrapping them all up in their own limb, the octopoid portions of her brain giving her perfect coordination as she swept them into her grip. "I see you buy American," she hissed at the invisible driver. "Mistake!" Joan was a little nervous, but she knew the only way she was going to stop this thing was fast and hard! This should work. And I can catch it if it breaks...She drove her free tentacle down through the rear of the van, grabbed the rear axle, and pulled!

"No, it's cool!" said Mark with a little wave. "I've been practicing," he said ingenously, "I could take everyone here, this whole room, and put us all in Paris like that! If we go in costume, no one'll say anything. Superheroes can get away with...no? Okay. Okay, then." He sighed, letting Hope take his hand. "If you ever want, though, I can do that. That's how I'll be getting home when I work in Africa, I mean, they need to save plane fights for what people really need."

"It's not really my party," said Fusion warmly, "but you're welcome inside. I've heard about your work, it's very impressive." She closed the door behind Sage as she entered, and joined her as they walked down to join the others. "I have a new arrival!" she called as she walked in, her voice a liquid hiss as she slipped firmly into the character she wore while wearing the mask. "I don't know if you know anybody here, but I think most of them are your classmates. Was there a sign up at your school?" she joked.

Sharl calls Gina on his phone, using Datalink. He then tries to Bluff the bad guys (getting a total of 20, since it's a move action) into shooting at him rather than at anyone more substantial.

Standing boldly in the doorway, Citizen ostentatiously reached into his pocket and pulled out the programmed cell phone Gina had given him. The phone was as real as he was, which is to say it was an electronic construct, one that let him connect to anywhere on the world's computer network. "Hey, you ugly snake, uh, people! You think you can handle a free Citizen of Freedom? Well...you've got nothing on me!" When he found service, he texted Gina. "Look! I'm calling the militia to let them know they don't need to come, because you guys are wimps! Hit me with your best shot!" He typed , then sent the message off to his friend.

Brimstone Hero PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 22 pp STR 14 (+2) DEX 14 (+2) CON 24 [14] (+7/+2) INT 16 (+3) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 34 pp ATK: +9 (+15 Ranged) DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +6 Grapple: +11 Saves: 10 pp TOU +7 (+7 Con) FORT +7 (+7 Con) REF +7 (+2 Dex, +5) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 56 r=14 pp Bluff 10 (+10) Drive 3 (+5) Gather Info 10 (+10) Investigate 2 (+5) Knowledge (Streetwise) 2 (+5) Knowledge (Theology and Philosophy) 2 (+5) Medicine 3 (+5) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 8 (+10) Feats: 20 pp Attack Focus: Ranged 6 Dodge Focus 5 Evasion Fearless Improved Crit (pistol) Improved Initiative Luck Power Attack Precise Shot 2 Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 52 pp Disintegrate 5 [26 pp] (PF: Subtle) 'service pistol' Enhanced CON 10 (to CON 24/+7) [10 pp] Enhanced Feats 3 (Directed Inspiration, Security clearance [cops], Wealth) [3 pp] Immunity 3 (aging, disease, poison) [3 pp] Impervious TOU 7 [7-1=6 pp] [Drawback: Power Loss (vs. holy/unholy) [-1 pp]) Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Senses 3 (Detect Infernal [mental] (Radius, Ranged), Infernal Awareness [mental]) [3 pp] costs abilities 22 + combat 34 + saves 5 + skills 14/56 + feats 20 + powers 52 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: This is my attempt at building Ezekiel Stone, the main character from the canceled Fox show Brimstone. (Yes, like so many people active in geek culture in the 90s and 00s, I too lost a beloved show to the Fox network.) For those who never saw the show, Stone was an NYPD officer in the 1980s who tracked down and murdered his wife's rapist. Killed in the line of duty some months later, he went to the place where murderers go. (It is where the Devil lives!) 15 years later, a successful escape from Hell launched 113 wicked souls into the real world, forcing the Devil (played really magnificently by John Glover) to free Stone under certain conditions. If he captured and brought back all the otherwise immortal escapees (by shooting out their eyes, the 'windows to the soul'), he might, just might, get his soul back. It was a well-acted, well-written show that excellently balanced a sympathetic protagonist with a reasonable system of theology, though given the way 90s Fox treated controversial genre shows, perhaps it's no wonder it lasted the short time that it did. So OK, here's our hero. I think it's reasonable to give him an enhanced human physiology after his time in Hell, as well as making him effectively bullet-proof. Despite what the show said about him being otherwise invulnerable, that doesn't really make sense if you translate him into a superheroic setting as such. As on the show, he wakes up every morning with a loaded gun that never runs out of bullets, a police badge and a wallet with cash in it: all the things he was carrying when he was killed back in the 1980s. Again a modest upgrade, in that his gun can't be taken from him. His Directed Inspiration refers to all the times the Devil harasses him while he's trying to go about his business. He usually benefits from it, but he has to work at it. He explicitly has Infernal rather than Divine Awareness; when he meets an angel and a devil in the same story, he can't tell them apart. He needs his gun (and needs to roll well) to fight people as tough as he is reliably. I think this guy works fairly well in a superheroic setting. His enemies are all Acceptable Targets who justify the use of lethal force against them; though sympathetic in their own way, they range from a Canaanite priestess who practiced child sacrifice to a medieval Chinese serial killer; and when you add in the fact that they're all undead souls empowered by hellfire...well, bringing them down in as harsh a way as possible is certainly justified, though it may not always be the right thing to do. He doesn't have to do lethal damage with his guns (another upgrade from the series), and think about all the mixed messages that a guy who seems like a brutal vigilante will seem to send till people know him better.

15

Red Star Abilities: 22 pp STR 14 (+2) DEX 10 (+0) CON 20 (+5) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Radiation Control) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +4 Grapple: +8 Saves: 11 pp TOU +10 (+5 Con, +5) FORT +6 (+5 Con, +1) REF +6 (+0 Dex, +6) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 36 r=9 r Bluff 8 (+10/+14) Diplomacy 3 (+5/+9) Intimidate 8 (+10) Knowledge: History 5 (+5) Knowledge: Physical Sciences 5 (+5) Languages 2 (English, German) (Base: Russian) Notice 3 (+5) Sense Motive 3 (+5) Feats: 12 pp Attractive, Attack Spec: Radiation Control 2, Benefit (Security Clearance) Dodge Focus 4, Improved Initiative, Luck, Power Attack, Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 72 pp Flight 5 (250 MPH) (PF: Move-By Action) (Drawback: Noticeable [green contrail]) [10 pp] Immunity 6 (aging, radiation damage) [6 pp] Impervious Toughness 10 (Extra: Duration [sustained] [+0]) [10 pp] Protection 5 [5 pp] Radiation Control Array [33+4=37 pp] Blast 10 (Extra: Alt. Save [Fort]) (PFs: Improved Crit, Incurable, Variable Descriptor 1) AP: Blast 10 (Extra: Autofire) (PFs: Improved Crit, Precise, Variable Descriptor 1) AP: Dazzle 10 (visual and auditory) (PFs: Longer-Lasting 3 [1 minute]) AP: Drain Physical Ability Scores 10 (Extra: Ranged) (PFs: Incurable, Slow Fade, Variable Descriptor 1) AP: Disintegration 10 (Flaws: Action [Full] (-2)) (PFs: Improved Crit, Incurable, Variable Descriptor 1) Super-Senses 4 (X-Ray Vision [blocked by lead]) [4 pp] costs abilities 22 + combat 24 + saves 9 + skills 11/44 + feats 12 + powers 72 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: Here's Red Star, aka Jacob Weissman, one of my first Mutants and Masterminds characters and my first Communist superhero. Jacob was a Volga German by birth and a Jew by religion, thus making his life very difficult indeed in the Soviet Union of the 1930s. He and his family were forced into internal exile in Siberia, and when the Great Patriotic War broke out, he volunteered for frontline service, hoping that a tremendous show of patriotism would earn better treatment for his parents and younger sister. As it happened, after a few hard months at the front, the young man was recruited for a secret military experiment, where exposure to certain materials extracted from the Tunguska object ultimately gave him tremendous abilities to control and manipulate all kinds of radiation. Jacob served with distinction at the front, acquitting himself well in battle after battle, and afterwards became one of the most valuable men in the Soviet Union: after all, he had the powers of an atomic bomb, and that was just what they wanted. Of course, his friends with less useful powers and more dangerous political views weren't so lucky, and as his fellow Peoples' Heroes began to be purged, Jacob was left with some very hard choices to make. In his own setting, he ultimately defected to the West and married an American superheroine, but their perfect 1950s suburban life was spoiled by his inability to understand that the wife and mother of his children might want something more out of life than what everyone else in America was doing. (We went with the idea that there never was a Star Knight, that the whole story of a mysterious energy-blasting armored hero from space was a cover story for explaining the mysterious new hero with no past who couldn't show his face.) You can keep that origin if you want (though, you know, tell me first), but I think he makes a perfectly fine Russian champion if you keep him in the Soviet Union, an old-lag Commie hero who still works on behalf of a state as disloyal to its citizens (at least in some ways) than the Stalinist state he once served. He has moral qualms, and who wouldn't, but there's his family at stake...if you want to make things more immediate, maybe Jacob here is the greatest hero of Belarus, having got his powers from Chernobyl, and is willing to work with that country's dictatorship in order to keep his family happy. He's basically a really powerful, really scary radiation controller. He'll fly around the battlefield peppering his enemies with a wide variety of radioactive blasts, cooking their insides, flash-frying their skin, and (if he's fighting Nazis or demons), outright poisoning them with pure radioactivity. He's really tough himself. I gave him the Protection and high Con to reflect a native Toughness, with his Impervious reflecting a 'force field' that he generates in a radioactive glow. I pictured his blasts as sounding (and looking) like the Martian death rays from the 1950s War of the Worlds, something like a cheap 50s special effect until things start frying and Geiger counters start screaming, He has issues with his X-Ray Vision popping on when he least expects it, thus discouraging him from using it for any prurient purposes with the ladies. He's not radioactive himself as such, but some of his kids were in the womb, and he's worried about what'll happen as he gets older.

Ex-Supervillain PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 22 pp STR 12 (+1) DEX 16 (+3) CON 14 (+2) INT 12 (+1) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 12 (+1) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+12 Blast) DEF: +14 (+4 flat-footed) Grapple: +9 Init: +7 Saves: 11 pp TOU +6 (+2 Con, +4 Protection) FORT +6 (+2 Con, +4) REF +7 (+3 Dex, +4) WILL +6 (+3 Wis, +3) Skills: 60 r=15 pp Acrobatics 12 (+15) Gather Info 9 (+10) Intimidate 14 (+15) Knowledge: Streetwise 4 (+5) Languages 1 (Spanish) (Base: English) Notice 7 (+10) Sense Motive 7 (+10) Stealth 7 (+10) Feats: 23 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Spec: Blast 2 Contacts, Defensive Attack, Dodge Focus 6 Equipment 2 Evasion Improved Initiative Move-By Action Power Attack Precise Shot Ranged Pin Seize Initiative Startle Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Well-Informed Powers: 47 pp Concealment 10 (all senses) (Flaw: Only While Moving) [10 pp] Immunity 2 (aging, temporal effects) [2 pp] Protection 4 [4 pp] Speed 3 (50 MPH) (PFs: Wall Run, Water Run) [5 pp] Time Array [24+2=26 pp] Blast 8 (Extra: Autofire) AP: Damage 10 (Extra: Area [Cone]) AP: Quickness 20 (2.5 million) Equipment: 10 ep Cell Phone [1 ep] Concealed Knives Blast 4 (PF: Subtle) [9 ep] costs abilities 22 + combat 32 + saves 11 + skills 15/60 + feats 23 + powers 47 = 150 pts -- Design Notes: He used to be bad, but now he's gone good. Maybe he's fresh out of stir and looking to start a new life, or maybe he's decided to reform without the benefit of paying for his crimes. (If that's the case, you should definitely make sure whatever he did was very mild; superhero, remember?) This is my build for an ex-supervillain turned good, with the conceit that he was formerly a Bullseye-type, a master of improvised ranged combat. Rather than just being a Badass Abnormal with a metal skeleton, I've gone with the idea that he's a low-level time controller who accelerates the items he throws to supersonic speed. He can hurl a bb as fast as a machine gun, or clear the room with a hurricane-force barrage of hurled objects. He can also redirect those abilities to think and work much, much faster than a normal person, and to run fast enough to outpace a car, even up walls or over water! That accounts for his other abilities, like moving so fast he turns invisible. I gave him generic throwing knives as a signature weapon, but you may prefer something a little easier to justify as non-lethal. If you like the playing card theme, thrown cards are a nice idea, or maybe jacks or BBs to go with them. It's a good idea to have something sharp handy so you can pull off Ranged Pins with them. You could give him a bow like I did with my Weapon Master build, letting his temporal damage overwrite his regular ranged, and maybe add Subtle so no one can tell he's got powers. This guy's got powers, though, and is probably pretty scary when he comes at you. That leads you to an obvious problem: murder! How many people has this character killed? Well...probably more than one, but you don't have to say that's true! He could have just knocked down security guards and such, all the while avoiding conflicts with supers. But what if you like slightly dark characters, and want to play someone with blood on their hands? Well, the way to do that is make this guy an ex-mercenary. It's not illegal to work for foreign governments and stab people on their behalf, for all that it may not be terrible ethical. A PC can have grim memories of lives they've taken (though obviously not stupid atrocities) on their minds without being faced with a court sentence that way, and have some genuine moral ambiguity to go with it. As for how to have him make his Heel Face Turn, if you don't go the ex-con route (and being on parole after outliving a 25 year sentence thanks to your time powers), my personal favorite is to take a leaf from the excellent Michael Caine story Get Carter, though perhaps a little more four-color to suit a heroic setting. Or maybe the old neighborhood is under siege by some really bad dudes, and going back to clear things up makes him realize he actually enjoys the crowd cheering him for a change.

"Woo-hoo! I love you, baby!" Edge exulted at his girlfriend's fantastic victory. He wasn't above giving the unconscious Tiger a swift kick in the head. "You're the best." He leaned over and kissed her on the lips, making the other Edge look away briefly. "But what do we do now? The worlds are still in trouble!" Edge gazed at the vibrating universal clockwork, vibrating dangerously now. Between the misalignment they'd seen when they came in, Negator's eruption, and especially the Tiger's volley of fire at the machinery, things were looking bad! Gears were beginning to grind, worlds beginning to vibrate, as if the system itself was in danger. "Is this the end of everything? Surely not! Not with all of us here to save the day!" And then, suddenly the Sages heard a voice. EVE MARTEL. LET ME GUIDE YOUR HANDS. The voice was clear and strong, like a warm father figure's on a summer day, and as he spoke, the Eves could see images in her mind, bright as day, about what they should do. The system had to be reset to its previous configuration, one that would untangle all the gears and restore the multiverse' clock to its operational status. But it soon became obvious how dangerous her course was: she'd have to pull off the gymnastics feat of a lifetime to hit everything without falling into the infinite gears all around! YOU MUST RESET THE CASEMENT OF TOMORROW, UNTANGLE THE GEARS OF YESTERDAY, AND FREE THE PENDULUM OF FATE. ONLY YOU CAN BE SO BRAVE.

He's out!

With the threat defeated, the tentacled wonder disappeared into the darkness of the circus. Normally Fusion might have stopped to introduce herself, but not when her family was around and might still be in peril. Slipping away from the others invisibly, she retracted her costume back into her dress, stepping out into the night where she'd safely deposited her husband and daughter in the alley outside. When she saw them waking up, Joan smiled. Being a hero was great, but having her family safe and sound was all she needed. "Are you all right?" she asked. Charlie and Lois were experienced with this sort of thing, as much as anyone could be, and her husband quickly reassured her that everything was fine. For her part, though, Lois didn't sound so convinced. She put her thick glasses on and got in her mother's face, or as close as she could, anyway. Lois showed signs of inheriting her mother's height, but she hadn't yet had her growth spurt. "Why does this always happen when we go out with you?!" She put her hands on her hips, a posture that she'd actually copied from her mom in her own anger. "Every time we go somewhere nice together, somebody bad always attacks!" "Honey! That's not true!" Joan fired back, her voice rising with the heat that only family members got. "What about that time in Tokyo, with the fish-monsters from beyond the sea?" "That doesn't count! That was when you tried to make stupid Hachiman teach me how to use a sword! That was an awful day!" She was near tears, a little girl on the edge of adolescence. "Why do bad things always happen around you, Mom?"

With the hostess busy with her new guests, Fusion took the opportunity to slip away to the rear door. This wasn't her house, but she was the most adult person there. When she opened the door and was greeted by the white-haired teen psychic, she suppressed a brief chuckle at the thought of the pretty rich French girl meeting the pretty Russian behind her. They do have a similar look. Out loud, she bowed her head politely to Eve and said in fluent schoolgirl French, ""