Avenger Assembled

Alien Princess PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 16 pp STR 30 [14] (+10/+2) DEX 20 [10] (+5/+0) CON 24 [10] (+7/+0) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+4) CHA 18 (+8) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+10 Unarmed/+12 Blast) DEF: +10 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +5 Grapple: +21 Saves: 9 pp TOU +10 (+7 Con, +3 Protection) FORT +8 (+7 Con, +1) REF +8 (+5 Dex, +3) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 48 r=12 pp Bluff 8 (+12/+16) Diplomacy 8 (+12/+16) Intimidate 12 (+16) Knowledge: Civics 4 (+4) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 11 pp Attack Specialization: Unarmed Attack Specialization: Blast (2) Attractive, Dodge Focus (2), Move-By Action, Power Attack, Startle, Takedown Attack, Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 70 pp Comprehend 2 (speak and understand any one language at a time) (Drawback: Must Touch Target First) [3 pp] Enhanced CON 14 [14 pp] Enhanced DEX 10 [10 pp] Enhanced STR 16 [16+1=17 pp] AP: Blast 8 'eyebeams' Flight 5 (250 MPH) [Dynamic] [10+1+2=13 pp] DAP: Super-Strength 5 (Heavy Load: 48 tons) Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9 pp] Protection 3 [3 pp] Space Flight 1 (1c) [1 pp] costs abilities 16 + combat 32 + saves 9 + skills 12/48 + feats 11 + powers 70= 150 pts --- Design Notes: She’s a beautiful visitor from another planet, a badass princess who can fly at supersonic speeds, shoot beams of plasma from her eyes, and can punch people through steel doors. She may not know much about our Earthly ways, but she knows about truth and justice! She looks like a pretty Genki Girl, or maybe like a slightly underdressed lady with strangely colored skin, until she actually enters combat and starts calling out imprecations to her battle-god while singing alien death chants and shooting beams of light out her eyes. Yeah, she’s a fun character to play, and a fun one to interact with too: pair her up with my Robin build upthread for some surprising character twists and turns. Some versions of this character have been used as fetish fuel. “Tee-hee! I don’t understand your Earthly customs of wearing clothes!” And then the fanboys say “It’s just her culture, don’t you understand? Waaaah!” Don’t do that here. Keep your basement in your basement. No one is interested in your naked space hottie online anymore than they are in real life. Play this character like a character, not as fetish fuel. She’s something of a pocket paragon, sacrificing Impervious for abilities in other areas. Stunt more of a Blast off her Flight/Super-Strength array if you’re looking for even more points for her eyebeams. She’s also a very talented social monkey, making her a great face person for your group. She could even work as a model in her spare time. In the Freedom City setting, this lady here is probably a Lor, perhaps from a planet that retains certain ceremonial posts (thus explaining why she’s free to jet around the galaxy), or maybe she’s from a planet overwhelmed by the Grue, and is here to make allies to one day retake her homeworld from their brutish tyranny. Or you could take the concept of space-going blaster royalty and mix it up a little. Maybe she’s a daughter, or a granddaughter, of Star-Khan, who has rejected her family’s aspirations...or maybe she hasn’t, and she’s here to get an education on Earth (to better learn about other cultures) before going home to take over the family business. Which is conquest. And business is good!

Edge: Somewhere That's Green Worlds Enough and Time (and GMing) Brit Machine Rainmaker Job Rusty Cage (and GMing) Heroes of Our Past Fusion: Run Away and Join the Circus Dark Mother (and GMing) Harrier: Security Precuations Rise of the Machines Citizen: Animal Fair Downloading Uptown Grand Day Out Domicile GMing: Odd Couples Grapevine What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks Infinite Holidays Bee Okay Put my GM posts towards Edge. Put my Ref reward towards Edge.

Batman PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 38 pp STR 14 (+2) DEX 24 (+7) CON 16 (+3) INT 16 (+3) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 20 pp ATK: +4 (+8 ranged/+12 Sonic Array) DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +11 Grapple: +6 Saves: 9 pp TOU +8 (+3 Con, +5 Protection) FORT +7 (+3 Dex, +4) REF +8 (+7 Dex, +1) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 72 r=18 pp Aerobatics 8 (+15) Climb 12 (+14) Investigate 7 (+10) Knowledge: Life Sciences 7 (+10) Medicine 8 (+10) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 8 (+15) Survival 8 (+10) Feats: 21 pp Aerobatic Bluff, Animal Empathy, Attack Focus: Ranged 4 Dodge Focus 4 Evasion 2, Favored Environment (nighttime) 2, Improved Initiative, Luck 2, Move-By Action, Power Attack, Quick Change, Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 44 pp Comprehend 2 (speak to and understand animals) (Flaw: Nocturnal Only) [2 pp] Flight 2 (25 MPH) [4 pp] Protection 5 [5 pp] Sonic Array [26+1=27 pp] Blast 8 LINKED Dazzle 8 (auditory) (PFs: Accurate 2) AP: Stun 8 (Extra: Ranged) (PFs: Accurate 2) Super-Senses 6 (Darkvision, Direction Sense, Sonar [Accurate Ultrasonic Hearing) [6 pp] costs abilities 38 + combat 20 + saves 9 + skills 18/72 + feats 21 + powers 44 = 150 pp --- Design Notes: A twist on a classic comic book archetype, this is a build for a totem with a bat theme. Rather than go for the usual powerhouse types that often come with totem builds, I made this guy an acrobatic flier just like bats themselves. He doesn’t have an unarmed attack, but his sonic scream should lay out almost any opponent. I don’t know if any bats in the wild are known to use their sonar abilities to stun prey, but it seems like the sort of thing they should be able to do, especially in a comic book setting. He gets around easily at night, dominating the night skies, fighting in pitch blackness without a qualm. He can also talk to bats and other creatures of the night, but nocturnal prey species may be reluctant to talk to a gigantic bat! He’s not a terribly fast flier, given that he’s a bat, nor is he particularly sturdy. Still, he’s a skilled, canny nocturnal hunter, and not a bad scientist and detective in the bargain. My general idea for this guy is that he was a bat scientist studying in a deep cave when his harness broke and he fell in the darkness. When he woke, he made his way to the surface and found himself changed! Was it the result of a mutation in himself, the bats, or perhaps the magic of the ancient Native American shrine in the depths of the cave vault? All are perfectly viable options. I think it’s more fun if you assume he can turn his powers on and off without losing his abilities, that way he’s not ‘cursed’ with a hideous appearance and he’s got a built-in disguise when he does use his powers. He flies with wings, but I transcended the Restrainable drawback as I usually do unless completely points-starved. Much better to get that HP if someone shoots a net gun or a glue gun at your wings! One obvious way to mix it up is to give the guy some Enhanced STR; I omitted that since bats aren’t exactly known for that in the real world. Animal Control is a distinct possibility, but as I’ve mentioned in other builds that’s not actually a very good power. Stunt it off the Sonic Array if you really want it, though, along with any other bat-themed powers that seem appropriate. Summoning a swarm of bats is a classic Batman trick, and one that you can do with your superpowers rather than cheating technology, and that’s a good descriptor for everything from Blast to Obscure to Nauseate, depending exactly what it is you’re doing with those bats. Depending on what kind of bat you are, up the Intimidate, and maybe add in some Drain Con...

Sharl wound up buying a broad-brimmed baseball cap with FREEDOM CITY ZOO emblazoned on it in happy, multicolored letters, the lions that were the zoo's most famous mascots curled around the edges in careful stitching. Maybe it was primitive and garish, looking like something a little kid might wear back home, but he decided it was appropriate for the occasion. "If anyone asks," he said with a little smile, "I'll tell them I made it myself. Maybe the girls will think that's cute." He smiled a little and added, after she'd paid, "Thank you, Miss A. That was really nice."

Sharl was a little saddened to hear about all those animals that were now homeless, but the centuries that had passed since their displacement made it less of a moral burden for him to bear. He was sure that if Tronik had so much land to expand onto, that their advanced resources would let them avoid hurting the landscape. He didn't fault these people; from what Gina and his studies had said, they'd been incredibly primitive when industrial settlement had begun in this land, so much so that new technologies had just made things worse until very recently. Eventually, they headed to the gift shop, pulled by the natural tide of tourism. "I suppose it would be silly to buy anything," Sharl reflected, looking down at himself in a toy snake's eyes.

"I suppose that's true," said Sharl, a little doubtfully. They changed the subject rather than let worrying over their mutual 'friend' cloud the day out, and headed off to the 3-D theater to watch a show about traveling through the Himalayas! Sharl was familiar enough with mountains, those being a natural feature Neo had in abundance, but the Himalayas were novel anyway, a vast diversity of peaks of different shapes and sizes cast out beneath an alien sky of blue and white, the mountains themselves dotted with snow only at their tops, and with so many people living on them. It was very strange not to see mountains covered in ice or ruling over vast deserts, and the view was almost as good (for their technology) as riding in a flitter!

Sharl winced, but he obviously understood the words. "Oh, that's too bad," he said sadly. "I mean...there are people like that in Tronik," he admitted. "A lot of people, who never go out except via the Net. I thought it sounded familiar, but I hoped all this space meant people didn't have those problems here. Poor Gina." He sighed softly. "She's a really good friend, and I don't want to do anything to upset her or make her feel bad. I won't say anything to make her uncomfortable." He sighed a little. "It's too bad. This has been a lovely time, and I think she'd have enjoyed it."

Psychic Martial Artist PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 26 pp STR 16 (+3) DEX 20 (+5) CON 16 (+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 12 (+1) Combat: 28 pp ATK: +6 (+12 melee/+14 swords) DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +5 Grapple: +15 Saves: 10 pp TOU +7 (+3 Con, +4 Protection) FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3) REF +8 (+5 Dex, +3) WILL +10 (+2 Wis, +8) Skills: 72 r=18 pp Acrobatics 10 (+15) Bluff 4 (+5/+9) Climb 7 (+10) Intimidate 9 (+10) Knowledge: Streetwise 5 (+5) Languages 2 (Chinese, Japanese) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Search 5 (+5) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 10 (+15) Survival 3 (+5) Feats: 20 pp Acrobatic Bluff, Attack Focus: Melee (6), Attack Specialization: Sword, Attractive, Dodge Focus (5), Equipment, Evasion, Luck, Move-By Action, Power Attack, Takedown Attack, Uncanny Dodge (mental) Powers: 41 pp Immunity 1 (Own Powers) [1 pp] Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp] Protection 4 [4 pp] Psi-Ninja Array [24+4=28 pp] Damage 8 (Extras: Alt. Save [Will], Autofire) 'psychic sword' AP: Concealment 10 (all senses) Extra: Affects Others, Flaw: Phantasm, PFs: Close Range, Progression 2 [5 others], Selective) AP: ESP 6 (20 miles) (visual and auditory) (PFs: Rapid 5 (x100k), Subtle) AP: Mind Control 10 (PFs: Insidious, Mental Link, Mind Blank, Subtle) AP: Mind Reading 10 (Extra: Action [standard/Move], PFs: Rapid 3 (x1000), Subtle) Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Senses 5 (Acute Accurate Ranged Radius [Mental]) [5 pp] Equipment: 5 pp Sword (Strike 3) (PFs: Improved Crit, Mighty) costs abilities 30 + combat 28 + saves 13 + skills 18/72 + feats 20 + powers 41= 150 pts -- Design Notes: So you’re a psychic Asian ninja chick in a skimpy costume written by Chris Claremont, you say? Yeah, so this character’s had some issues with fetishization over the years. (You’d think of the obvious, but based on the pictures she seems to be much favored by bent-spine fetishists). All that said, it’s still a very powerful character concept. She’s incredibly stealthy and very powerful, a great sneak and hell on wheels in melee either with her sword or just her amazing psychic powers. She can stab you in the brain! Or even better, stab you in the face! She’s at caps either way, a fast, acrobatic, and lethal fighter. She doesn’t have the very high Will save of the pure mentalist, but you may not notice that given her strengths in other areas. If you get into a psychic will contest with that mentalist down the block, stab them in the face while invisible and run away cackling. One fun way to play this character is to play up her 90s roots, given that people do actually age in the Freedom City setting. Maybe she’s getting older and doesn’t fit quite as well into the costume anymore, but she’s been called out to resume her old career. An Iron Age_era_ character is very different than an Iron Age _character_, and playing up the distinction between the two will let you tie into Freedom City history without playing a Blood’N’Guts vigilante that no one wants to see. It might be nice if we could do something with Freedom City history that happened after 1981 and before 1993, if only so our ‘historical’ PCs aren’t stuck being very old or very young. There’s a rich history to tap into, assuming you don’t tap into it like a jive sucker. You can tweak her powers however you see fit, maybe giving her a Will Drain or something, but I think she really is a very competent psychic ninja. She’s got the swords so she meets her caps even when she’s fighting robots or other creatures immune to Will saves. No Sneak Attack, I prefer not to give that to characters whose business is combat. In an ideal situation, she should sneak up on someone, catch them flat-footed, then switch to her psychic sword and POWER attack, surging as necessary. She’s also got OK regular mentalist abilities if you don’t have a Jean Grey on your team. She’s obviously quite similar to our own Sage, played with great skill by Sorus, but there’s no reason why you can’t have characters with a similar powerset running around. Still, sometimes there are issues of that, and the last thing you want is to get into a territorial contest. Make her an experienced government agent for one shift. Or maybe she’s an older hero, or former villain, a World War II era psi-ninja who has recently transferred her consciousness elsewhere. (One would hope into a formerly brain-dead body...) One possible change is to make her abilities magic rather than psychic: maybe instead of a mutant, she’s a ‘real’ ninja, trained to use her chi as a weapon in ways to make her more modest bretheren (like my Ninja build upthread) blush! Either way, she’s a powerful character, and would probably be pretty fun to play.

"I will," promised Sharl. They walked around the arctic exhibit for a while, the polar bears and sealions (carefully separated from each other) not looking at all bothered by the cold, before Sharl broached a difficult question to Miss A. "Miss A, can I ask you something? Something important?" When he was sure they were alone, the quiet day and cold weather keeping this area relatively isolated, he asked her quietly, "Miss A, is...is Gina okay? I'm not asking if she's bad," he added quickly, "she's my hero, she's a very good person. But is everything all right with her?"

"I like what I'm able to eat," said Sharl with a rueful smile. He hadn't experimented again with eating 'real' food after his first venture out, not wanting to make any more messes in Gina's house. "I like sandwiches, and pizza, and soda...and curry, lots of curry! And Mexican food too," he added, not wanting to leave anything out. "Gina was worried about my getting sick eating all that spicy food when I wasn't used to it, but I was careful and it was so good! I guess it makes sense that so many cultures would provide so much to eat, but it's still really great. I wish I could open a Freedom Restaurant back home."

Sharl was tempted to walk right into the tanks with the giant animals, the huge fish, manatees, and other creatures that were like something from an alien world. But he knew that was a bad idea, given that it would no doubt frighten the animals, confuse the tourists, and play merry hell with his machine! He was content to watch, wishing he could do so much more, as schools of fish swam around. "Look at the turtles!" he said, excitedly pointing underwater when they passed by an exhibit modeled after rivers and lakes. "What do they feed it?" he asked. "Surely he'll eat the fish!?"

"There's so little interest past the southern mountains," agreed Sharl, "because everyone knows it's all desert landmasses past a certain point and there aren't any extractable resources off our home continent. So we could finesse that, if we thought of a good reason. Or maybe they're animals from another planet, dropped off by passing aliens!" He hmmed. "I guess that'd be too complicated. Still, we could use more birds in the sky, not to mention fish in the sea. Is it true there's a whole civilization under your oceans?" he asked her.

"We saved the animals we could, but with the Sun burning hot, we had to think of our own lives first," replied Sharl, reciting something he'd learned in school. Of course, he had no way of knowing how much of it was true anymore, but perhaps it was still true...at least, as far as they knew. "Urban avians, urban scavengers that came with us; larger ones that some people even keep as pets," he said, speaking quietly so no one was listening too closely. "Neo itself is a quiet world for life because conditions are harsher than most habitable worlds." He'd known that even before he knew there were other habitable worlds. "There's life in the oceans, the plankton and algae that the fleets harvest, but beyond that...as far as anyone knows, native life isn't any larger than insects."

The aviary was a much less stressful place for Sharl, and soon he was standing in the tropical bird section, watching enviously as birds flew overhead with a look of rapt attention on his face. "I never really thought how beautiful flight was," he murmured to Miss A as he watched brightly colored birds screech at each other and sing. "All I've ever seen fly back home are insects and a few species of urban avians. Seeing so many birds like this, flying around and talking to each other, with so many colors...it's really pretty. I just wish they had room for bigger flocks, like the ones on TV."

"Hey! That's not full of food!" That's full of me! Eventually, between the three of them, they did run down the kea, Sharl holding it gently by the legs as the keeper traded a honey stick for the 'cell' and gave it back to Sharl. Sharl got a friendly chastisement from the keeper about keeping his pockets buttoned up when he was in the house full of birds. Once he and Miss A were safely out of the enclosure and the moment was past, Sharl had to laugh at the spectacle they must have made. "Those birds certainly are wild! I expected I'd have to climb up into the trees with them to get that back." He was actually interested in what might happen without his projector, but certainly not enough to test it. They spent a sedate time after that in the elephant enclosure, Sharl suitably impressed by the peaceful, gigantic animals. His face turned white at the subject of ivory poaching, though, even though the film they were shown was aimed at educating rather than alarming what was usually a family audience. "They...they just kill these giant animals for their teeth? In this world so full of things? That's awful!"

Sharl was very alarmed at first by the seemingly-predatory birds, but Miss A and the keeper soon disabused him of his momentary startlement. Keas were meat-eaters, it was true, but animals that small could hardly be a threat to human beings or human-sized creatures unless they acted as a swarm, which he was assured they did not do. Besides, he thought, it's not like they can actually hurt me. He got a chance to feed one of those too, and soon had a flock of bitey birds crawling all over him. He didn't mind, it wasn't as if their little nips could hurt him. Suddenly, though, one stuck its determined head right in his pocket and grabbed his emitter. "Hey! Give that back!"

Beeling Abilities: 24 pp STR: 40 [16] (+15/+3) DEX: 10 (+0) CON: 40 [28] (+15/+9) INT: 10 (+0) WIS: 10 (+0) CHA: 10 (+0) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+5 w/size) (+4 ranged) DEF: +8 (+5 w/size) (+2 flat-footed) Init: +0 Grapple: +32 Saves: 15 pp TOU: +15 (+15 Con/+9 w/out Growth) FORT: +15 (+15 Con/+9 w/out Growth) REF: +5 (+0 Dex, +5) WILL: +10 (+0 Wis, +10) Feats: 9 pp Attack Focus: Melee Dodge Focus Interpose Luck Move-By Action Power Attack Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (olfactory) Skills: 9 pp=36 r Intimidate 8 (+8/+12) Notice 8 (+8) Search 8 (+8) Sense Motive 4 (+4) Survival 8 (+8) Powers: 64 pp Damage 10 (Extra: Line [+1]) [20 pp] ‘fire breath’ Flight 2 (25 MPH) [4 pp] Growth 12 (Extra: Duration [Permanent] (+0), PF: Innate) [37 pp] Super-Movement 1 (Wall-Crawling) [2 pp] Super-Senses 2 (Acute Scent, Tracking [olfactory]) [2 pp] Drawback: (-3 pp) Vulnerable (aerosol effects) (Uncommon, Major) (-3 pp) --- Design Notes: This is my build for a juvenile giant dragon bee, one whose story is told eloquently on our wiki: wiki/Giant_Bees The idea is that this is a juvenile version of the giant dragon bees of Sanctuary, slower and weaker than her parents, and only about half as big. (She’s ‘only’ about thirty feet long instead of sixty) She’s left her world behind to go adventuring in the world her parents left behind, a stalwart young hero and battler for justice who just happens to be a gigantic bee. I’ve tried to give her the powers you’d expect for a honeybee cast the size of an RV: she’s got an incredibly good sense of smell which she can use to track her targets all the way across the city, she’s very strong, and her sheer size gives her a very imposing presence despite a personality that (if she’s like her counterparts) is friendly and eager to please, especially superheroes. That doesn’t apply to bad guys, though, those who threaten the sanctity of the human hive and the younglings there will be met with a fate most dire! Why no sting? Well, she can breathe fire, which is certainly a super-effective strategy. (It’s what she’s best off doing when she’s trying to goonsweep, though her sheer size means her unarmed attacks count as area attacks under the right circumstances). Plus, really, the stinger of a giant bee should do much more damage than just sticking you with some venom. Stunt off the fire breath to give her a sting, or super-strength: use the points to give her an array of Apian Might if you want to let her pull really heavy loads. As it is she’s quite strong, especially given her bulk, but the lack of super-strength means that she can and will lose grappling contests to characters at her PL who are more focused in that area than she is. I built in the aerosol vulnerability as a catch-all for various bee problems; vulnerability to smoke, pollen (delicious, delicious pollen) and the like. Note that she’s still got a massive Fort save to try and suck up that vulnerability, but she’s still vulnerable even to attacks at her PL. Clearly there are significant roleplaying challenges to playing a character that is permanently thirty feet long. Stealth concerns are very real, and maintaining a secret ID when you’re a gigantic honeybee is probably impossible. That said, play up the cultural differences between a beehive and the real world: be a little (but not _too_) dismissive of the intelligence of the boys you know, assuming they’re just after mating with your fellow bipeds. Tell great stories of the world you left behind, carefully worded so your allies aren’t let in on the secret of your people and where you’re from. And perhaps, just perhaps, think about settling down somewhere and becoming queen of your own hive, though perhaps metaphorically if you don’t want to settle down and birth a bajillion babies and get all fat and immobile. There’s adventure to be had!

"If I'm still here, I will," said Sharl, not sure he'd still be around in a month. The thought of leaving Freedom City made him...uneasy, even though he wanted to go home and talk to his parents. What could he tell them that could possibly make them accept a reality like this; not just the reality of what Tronik was, what they all were, but a city where animals could be fed and tended simply because they were endangered. And cute! "Are there many baby animals here?" That question led them to the petting zoo, which like many other exhibits was mostly indoors against the inclement weather. Sharl felt a little silly looking at animals so admired by small children, like any teenage boy, but the bizarre novelty of sheep and goats and other soft, furry-looking animals was enough to pull him out of his teen shyness.

The lions weren't doing much; instead laying around beneath their warm heat lamps, looking cozy on the rocks the zoo had laid out for them. Sharl studied the animals for a moment, surprised to see them looking so lazy, and said loudly, "Hey, lions!" Miss A shot him a look at that, though, and belatedly remembering the etiquette rules he'd read before they came out, he blushed red. "Oh, I'm sorry," he said apologetically, looking deeply embarrassed at his lapse. "I forgot that they're just on display, they're not there to entertain us." He looked back at the animals and said, "They really are very impressive. I'm not surprised more cities can't afford to feed animals this big!"

"I'd, uh, like to see the lions," said Sharl, fingering the projector in his jacket pocket a little nervously. He was well-used to crowds, those being an important park of his Tronik childhood, but that didn't mean that being out here wasn't a slightly nerve-wracking experience. Miss A was nice...very nice, in fact, but he missed Gina. He hadn't really been that surprised when she'd backed out on going out with him. "They're the king of the beasts, right?" He walked along with her, keeping his hands in his pockets so he didn't bump into anyone and betray the enterprise as they went. The lions were indoors that day, so they headed into the cat house, where even Sharl could smell the acrid tang of animal urine. His nose wrinkled at the smell, but since he wasn't really there, the unfamiliar odor didn't overwhelm him. "Aren't the animals sad to be in these enclosures?" he asked her. "I'd think they'd want to run free, even if they're well taken care of."

"I do," said Caradoc. "And I will. Without you, nothing about today would have been possible." And with that, and an inclination of his armored head, the former Omegadrone took off into the sky, roaring into the blue overhead like the armored avenger of justice he now appeared to be. Far enough off the ground, from below he looked like any other shining symbol of hope over Freedom City. He looked like a hero, like a champion of the innocent, someone whose soul was as gleaming and bright as the armor he wore. And for a little while, flying so far overhead, Murdock let himself believe it.

Part of what made Mark such a good leader, or so he hoped, was his willingness to take advice from others. What the other, prettier Wander said made a lot of sense, so he didn't argue. "Do what the lady says," he told his own team, shooting a look at everyone with the hopes they'd all listen. "We're all in this together." _I've teamed up with my alternate self before...yeah, I'd better not think about that right now. The important thing is, it worked out for the best._ He shot a look at his double as he formed up alongside him, the Edges and the Wanders leading the parade since they were both leaders. "So," he said socially, "I see you guys wear all Claremont uniforms. Is Mister Summers stricter where you live?" "Uh, this is the same outfit we all wear," said Mark, giving his other self a look. "I mean, don't get me wrong, your costume is great, and I'd love to wear something like that, but we're all on the same team. We're not like the League." Though fashion had been on Mark's mind too, he had to wonder why his double had gone there first. _Is he...my gay side?! No, no, that's silly. OR IS IT? Yes._ "You seem experienced," he said. "So this isn't your first...thing like...like this!?" His double seemed blase to the spectacular stellar landscape all around them, but he certainly had no such feelings. "Is it always like this?" He listened, wide-eyed, as his double gave him a short rundown of the team's adventures in other dimensions. _He's got to be lying...right?_

I think we can handwave it. I've kept you waiting here long enough!

"I don't trust anyone but you," Caradoc replied, his voice frank rather than complaining. "No one else has opened up to me as you have, or has trusted me as much. But no one else has had a reason to before," he said with the greatest confidence she'd yet heard from him. "No one before today." He walked to beneath an open window with Miss Americana, looking...well. It was good to feel that way, too. "I will keep in touch, and tell you what I am doing. Thank you."

"It's a new look for me," said the Omegadrone in a tone that said he knew just how mild that wax putting it. He let himself imagine crowds cheering as he flew overhead, applause and adoration for once in his life instead of screams of horror and death. "One that will take some getting used to. May I fly home like this?" he asked her. "I will use the concealment circuits in my pi, er, sword to conceal myself when I arrive. Caradoc's secret identity is as important as Harrier's. Perhaps more so," he admitted. "Since there are two of them to keep."