Avenger Assembled

"What?" Sharl stared after Gina, but when she looked back he waved her off. "Oh, uh, okay. I'll be waiting down here for her, I guess." As Gina left, he contemplated going upstairs and sticking his head in the door after her. He was a younger brother: he'd stuck his head in plenty places where he wasn't supposed to put them over the years. But Gina was his friend, his savior, and he'd seen the look in her eyes that said this was important to her. _If this is what she wants to do, I should respect that,_ he told himself doubtfully. He looked up after the stairs, up where his friend had gone, and not for the first time thought: _Something's wrong with Gina._

"That'll be good," said Sharl, considering that. "I'll tell them I'm a young adventurer from a wild system, ready to take on the world!" He smiled thinly. "And hey, that's sort of true, right? Just not quite what they might think it means." He debated suggesting that maybe Miss A should be introduced as his mother, but somehow that just sounded weird. After all, Sharl thought, he already _had_ a mother, one who was probably worried about him. He had good reason to be gone, but that didn't mean he didn't worry about her.

Death Abilities: 18 pp STR: 10 (+0) DEX: 16 (+3) CON: 16 (+3) INT: 10 (+0) WIS: 16 (+3) CHA: 10 (+0) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 melee) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Grapple: +6 Init: +3 Saves: 12 pp TOU: +10 (+3 Con, +7 Protection) FORT: +7 (+3 Con, +4) REF: +7 (+3 Ref, +4) WILL: +7 (+3 Wis, +4) Feats: 12 pp Attack Focus: Melee (4) Dodge Focus (4) Move-By Action Power Attack Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Skills: 14 pp=56 r Diplomacy 4 (+4) Intimidate 8 (+8) Medicine 7 (+10) Notice 12 (+15) Sense Motive 13 (+15) Stealth 12 (+15) Powers: 70 pp Death Array 23+4=27 pp Concealment 10 (PFs: Close Range, Precise, Selective) (all senses) AP: Drain Constitution 10 (Extra: Affects Corporeal) (PFs: Extended Reach, Precise, Reversible) AP: Emotion Control 10 (PFs: Insidious, Mind Blank, Subtle) AP: Healing 10 (Extra: Resurrection) (Flaw: Others Only) (PFs: Progression 3 [1 minute]) AP: Strike 10 (Extra: Affects Corporeal) (PFs: Extended Reach, Precise, Reversible) Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp] Immunity 12 (aging, life support, sleep, starvation and thirst) [12 pp] Insubstantial 4 (Extra: Duration [Default] (+0) ) (incorporeal) [20 pp] Protection 7 [7 pp] Super-Senses 2 (Darkvision) [2 pp] - Design Notes: Yes, it’s Death! Thanatos, the Grim Reaper, embodiment of entropy and loss, as a PL 10 starting character. I’ve obviously had to leave off some of the bells and whistles that Death has demonstrated over the millennia, but this isn’t a bad representation as the End of All Things as a starting PC. Perhaps this is a version of Death who has recently been disempowered by some great cosmic upheaval, and has so found himself operating on the same level as anyone else. He’s a formidable fellow with many options in combat, letting him strike down his enemies, find those in need of his mercy, and generally do the sort of thing that you’d expect Death to be able to do. Note that he’s a very mortal Death, though one denied many of the usual human weaknesses and frailties thanks to his awesome powers. In strange aeons, can even Death die? Yes; my assumption is that Death works as it does in the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony, where the title is passed from mortal to mortal. He can take a life with a touch, but restore it just as easily: perhaps helping inculcate new life from what’s been lost? He’s impervious to almost all mundane harm, what with being Death and all, but people with superpowers can stave him off, at least for a little while. He’s also a fairly terrifying individual, again what with being Thanatos, but he can also make people content, letting them grieve and move on without lapsing into despair at the loss of their loved one. With judicious use of his Strike and Power Attack, he can cut through almost any barrier you’d care to name. (Why no Affects Insubstantial? Well, because ghosts have obviously transcended his power, naturally!) Obviously Death is something of a novel choice for a PL 10 superheroic concept. Perhaps this is a fragment of Death cast loose on the world, or maybe it’s a necromatic deity rendered all-too-human. Or maybe it’s just a mutant with funky powers! I wrote this up to counteract the tendency that superhero comics, particularly Freedom City, have of presenting the avatar of Death as somehow a bad guy. (Fantasy comics can be even worse.) Death gods are actually traditionally fairly cordial, if somber fellows; after all, they meet everyone eventually in their line of work, and there’s no point in making enemies. Everyone’s equal in their eyes, and justice must be handed out surely to those who deserve it. When your time is up, your time is up.

"I understand," Sharl promised. "I know it's important to have secret IDs, and I won't try and hurt yours. Or even admit that it exists at all." He smiled. "It'll be our secret, just like Tronik. That is secret, right?" he asked her, sounding worried. "I mean you said it was, but I saw a documentary on cybercrime and villains with computer control powers. I'd hate to think of someone like that loose in my city. And from what you said, if they knew it was there, they'd be able to find it..." He swallowed. "We have enough problems as it is."

"Oh..." Sharl looked uncomfortable for a moment, but then shook it off. This was a weird request, he was almost sure, even if he didn't know half the reason people did things here. "Okay, if she's fine with me doing that." He gave her a serious look and said, "You know how much I owe you, Gina. I'll do anything you want." He nodded, as if coming to an internal decision. "I've seen Miss Americana on TV," he offered. "Everyone says how wonderful she is. I'm sure she's a really good friend." He smiled at Gina. "You're a really good friend too. And if your helping me needs to be a secret, that's the way it'll be."

"Okay, sure," said Sharl, sitting up as he looked for the invisible source of the voice. Sometimes Gina appeared to him in her full body; other times just as her face. Today, though, it seemed as though she was just going to talk to him. "What do you want to talk about?" He was sensitive enough to pick up on an edge in his friend's voice, and he was worried. Gina was his hero, the woman who'd saved him from madness and death, but he'd picked up on the fact that things in her house weren't like the houses of the people he saw on TV or on the Internet. Had something happened to her friend? Was the trip off? Nervously, he got up and walked to the rear door of his rooms, using a mental shorthand he and Gina had agreed on to make his transition easier. "Okay, I'm ready."

Mythos Hero PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 18 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 10 (+0) CON 14 (+2) INT 14 (+2) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +4 (+10 Ranged) DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +4 Grapple: +4/+20 Saves: 17 pp TOU +7 (+2 Con, +5 Protection) FORT +8 (+2 Con, +6) REF +5 (+0 Dex, +5) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 84 r=21 pp Craft: Writing 12 (+14) Investigate 8 (+10) Knowledge: Arcane Lore 12 (+14) Knowledge: History 12 (+14) Languages 4 (Arabic, German, Latin, Swahili) (Base: English) Intimidate 12 (+15) Notice 12 (+14) Sense Motive 12 (+14) Feats: 18 pp Attack Focus: Ranged (6) Dodge Focus (5) Fearless Move-By Action Power Attack Ritualist Startle Ultimate Save (Will) Uncanny Dodge (mental) Powers: 52 pp Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp] Immunity 2 (Aging, Madness) [2 pp] Lovecraftian Array [30+6=36 pp] Blast 10 (Extra: Autofire) ‘gaze of Hastur’ AP: Blast 10 (Extra: Alt. Save [Will]) ‘Star-vampire’s flame’ AP: Confuse 10 (Extra: Area [burst]) ‘Azathoth’s blessing’ AP: Drain Wisdom 10 (Extra: Range [Perception]) ‘Nyarlathotep’s words’ AP: Mind Control 10 (Extra: Conscious) ‘Shaggai’s insects’ AP: Telekinesis 10 (12 tons) (Extra: Damaging) ‘tentacles of Cthulu’ AP: Teleport 9 (anywhere on Earth) (Extra: Accurate, PFs: Easy, Progression Turnabout) ‘Power of the Great Race’ Protection 5 (Extra: Impervious) [10 pp] Super-Senses 1 (Mythos Awareness) [mental] [1 pp] costs abilities 18 + combat 24 + saves 17 + skills 21/84 + feats 18 + powers 52 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: Woof. Hey, is it any worse than an infernalist when you stop to think about it? (Well, maybe: a demon presumably wants the world to survive, he just wants to rule it, or his dark monsters to rule it) But comic books are full of people using evil powers for good ends, just look at our own Kid Cthulhu! So the idea here is that this is an investigator of the Cthulhu Mythos, a skilled wizard who uses the power of the Elder Gods against them to defend our dimension against their terrible designs. The picture is of H.P. Lovecraft, naturally, and the build is actually made with the assumption that this is indeed the historical H.P. Lovecraft, having extended his life through sorcery to defend our world against the scum of the universe! (And yeah, H.P. Lovecraft espouses some racist, classist stuff in his time; the guy was a neurotic shut-in with Mom issues. He did get better at the end of his life, and actually repented the racism he’d used as a tool for so long.) I want to use this space to talk about Confuse, a major part of this character’s build that I haven’t seen used in a lot of builds around here. As anyone who’s read Order of the Stick can tell you, Area Confuse is a great weapon to use in goon-sweeping situations, particularly when you’re in a generally nice setting that doesn’t worry too much about the consequences of bad guys suddenly turning on each other with all their force. You want to stop the bad guy’s goons? Put a Confuse in the middle of them; some may shoot at you, but most of them will be going crazy with fleeing, babbling, attacking each other, or doing any number of useless, irrational things. No wonder this character has such a high Intimidate score: he’s one scary dude! Why the low Toughness and Impervious? The idea is that he’s a mortal man who is largely immune to the concerns of normal people, shrugging off punches and most bullets, but massive firepower and the rage of the creatures he fights will easily crush him: just like your average Investigator! In Freedom City, the Lovecraftian mythos is exemplified by the Unspeakable One, a monstrously powerful entity who threatens all realities, everywhere. Omega wants to end everything; the worst thing about the Unspeakable One is that it wants reality to live in its name. Fighting the Unspeakable One is an old story for Freedom City’s heroes, and if this guy has been around that long, he’s been their champion for ages...if perhaps one they’re a little uneasy about. Madness is just this close...

Sharl and Miss A go places

A few days later, after the first of February on a calendar Sharl could barely follow, it was time for his trip out of GIna's house. He'd spent that morning eating the breakfast Gina had left him for him and preparing himself, putting on clean versions of the clothes he'd been wearing when he arrived and memorizing the sorts of things people talked about on the outside. "Just think of everything I'll be able to take home!" Nothing physical, since this place wouldn't be real in Tronik, but he'd have so many memories and stories to take back to his family. _And I do want to go back there,_ he reminded himself. _But it's not an adventure till you have a really good story to tell...even if I don't know exactly what I'll tell them yet._ He sat before the computer monitor Gina had made for him, tapping buttons on the push screen he'd figured out how to program. "I am Sharl Tulink," he told the computer, imagining it was the face of someone on the outside. "I am pleased to meet you!" _I can't believe I'm going to meet more aliens! Wow!_

Though Edge was momentarily worried when he heard Fleur's reasonable words, the mean talk coming from the stone man more than banished any fears he might have had about beating up on an innocent man. What were the odds of that happening, anyway? "Sorry, Monolith, but I guess you shouldn't have taken the heroes of Freedom for GRANITE!" He poked the stone man in the chest fearlessly, then took a step back. "You get out early, huh? Well, we'll make sure you get back in! What happened with you and Rook, anyway? Did he make fun of how you're bald and ugly?"

Armored Costumed Detective PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 28 pp STR 30 [14] (+10/+2) DEX 14 (+2) CON 16 (+3) INT 14 (+2) WIS 14 (+2) CHA: 14 (+2) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+10 Melee/+12 Boomerangs) DEF: +10 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +6 Grapple: +12/+24 Saves: 14 pp TOU +10 (+3 Con, +7 Protection) FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3) REF +7 (+2 Dex, +4) WILL +10 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 72 r=18 pp Bluff 5 (+7) Craft: Electronic 4 (+6) Intimidate 15 (+17) Investigate 8 (+10) Knowledge: Streetwise 8 (+10) Knowledge: Technology 4 (+6) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 12 (+14) Feats: 18 pp All-Out Attack Attack Focus: Melee (2) Dodge Focus (2) Equipment (4) Improved Initiative Inventor Hide In Plain Sight Luck Move-By Action Power Attack Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 44 pp Device 11 (Battlesuit) (Hard to Lose) [44 pp] -Blast 8 (Extra: Autofire) (PFs: Accurate 2) 'boomerangs' {18+1=19} AP: Enhanced STR 16 and Super-Strength 4 (12 tons) -Concealment 4 (all visual) (Flaw: Passive) (PF: Close Range) {5} -Flight 1 (10 MPH) (PF: Subtle) {3} -Leaping 1 (x2) {1} -Protection 7 (Extra: Impervious) {14 pp} -Super-Movement 2 (Wall-Crawling 2) {4} -Super-Senses 8 [Analytical Darkvision, Commlink, Radar] {8} Equipment: {20 ep} -Stately Manor {18 ep] -Walking Stick {Strike 1 (PF: Mighty) {2 ep} Drawbacks: Normal ID (Full Round to don suit) [-4] costs abilities 28 + combat 32 + saves 10 + skills 18/72 + feats 20 + powers 44 - drawbacks 4 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: So back in the day, this grim and gritty vigilante patrolled the streets of your city or neighborhood, righting wrongs and striking the fear of God into criminals. Then one day he went away, and he didn't come back, and the city changed. But now someone's back on the streets in that old costume, using the same gadgets and powers to fight back against the forces of darkness: the costumed detective, now in armor! Is this the detective himself, now too aged to carry on the fight without mechanical assistance, or is it a successor, perhaps his son or daughter, or a plucky teenager who stumbled across the suit and the chance of a lifetime? Either way, justice has a new face. That's the same as an old face! But it's a really badass-looking face. I've tried to split the difference in this build about whether or not this is the old detective himself or his successor: the person inside the suit is smart and capable, but no genius on bar with a real gadgeteer or successful inventor. They can fix the suit and made additions to it, but they're not going to be whipping out any super-deluxe inventions to save the day. They're better than a normal human being in almost every respect, and certainly no bystander, but they're not up to a tremendous quality of adventuring outside the suit: at PL 5 or so, they're not helpless but they're definitely not a superhero. They've got a nice mansion to call home, but do they actually live there or are they just squatting in the old man's estate? It's up to you! An easy way to tweak this archetype would be to make it a better combatant; I've built him without tradeoffs as I often do, but you could easily justify giving him a much higher Attack Bonus and just letting the suit boost his damage up to peak human levels. You could also dial the suit back a bit and buy up more feats and skills, or drop the man inside the suit down even further to reflect being old or some punk high school kid; this is something of a middle of the road build of that sort of concept. You could drop the suit concept entirely and say it's closer to a power ring, I suppose, but then you lose striking fear into the hearts of criminals all over again.

"I understand if you're too busy," said Sharl, his glow eventually settling down to his regular almost-human appearance. "I mean, you're helping me, and being a science hero, and all that stuff...you've got a lot happening." He studied Gina from the monitors, not quite sure if he believed his friend or not. _Maybe she doesn't think I'm that important...or maybe she just doesn't want to go outside._ It didn't seem like Gina ever did. "I'm sure your friend is really cool. And hey, the more people I meet, the better!" Not wanting to raise an unpleasant issue with Gina any further, Sharl decided to try other things. He couldn't resist the urge to try his trick again, and as they talked he concentrated, focused on his hand, and stuck it right through the wall. "Awesome!"

"That'd be great," said Sharl, studying Gina. He was disappointed she couldn't, or wouldn't, come with him, but the idea of meeting new people and seeing new places was really very nice. "And I understand that someone has to come out with me. I mean, I'm a stranger here, and...well, stranger than most," he admitted with a glance at his projector. "I can't wait to see Freedom Hall, and the Super Museum, and all the beautiful parks...so I'll be able to tell everyone back home about them," he added quickly. "And none of it would be possible without you."

Meta-Grue II Abilities: 30 pp STR 30 [16] (+10/+3) DEX 14 (+2) CON 30 [16] (+10/+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 18 (+4) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Melee/+12 Blast) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +20/+24 Saves: 8 pp TOU +10 (+10 Con) FORT +10 (+10 Con) REF +6 (+2 Dex, +4) WILL +7 (+3 Wis, +4) Skills: 32 r=8 pp Bluff 11 (+15) Concentration 5 (+8) Disguise 1 (+5/+10/+25/+30) Languages 1 (Grue) (Base: English) Notice 7 (+10) Sense Motive 7 (+10) Feats: 13 pp Attack Focus: Melee 4 Dodge Focus 4 Power Attack Quick Change 2 Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 67 pp Enhanced CON 14 [14 pp] Enhanced STR 14 [14 pp] Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp] Grue Array [21+4=25 pp] Blast 8 (PFs: Accurate 3, Improved Crit, Precise) 'Tess' AP: Concealment 10 (all senses) (Flaw: Phantasm) and Mind Reading 10 (PF: Subtle) 'Chase' AP: Impervious TOU 10 and Super-Strength 4 (PF: Groundstrike) 'Combo' AP: Insubstantial 4 (Extra: Progressive [+0]) (PF: Subtle) 'Maximus' AP: Morph 5 (relative mass) (Extra: Continous) (PF: Precise) 'Victoria' Immunity 10 (Aging, Life Support) [10 pp] Morph 1 (humanoids) [2 pp] costs abilities 30 + combat 24 + saves 8 + skills 8/32 + feats 13 + powers 67 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: So the Meta-Grue, tired of his solitary life after a lifetime as part of the collective of the Unity, decided to bud off a daughter (he’s powerful enough shapeshifter to control his chromosones as they leave his body) and raise her as his own child. Really, he wasn’t that surprised when she turned out to be good; yes, of course she spurned him for Earth’s heroes, and yes of course she left his side to join the teen heroes at Claremont. That sort of thing happens to the Meta-Grue all the time. It’s part of the reason why he’s so testy. (Well, that and his desire to crush the freedom of Earth’s heroes and use their destruction as a tool to conquer the Meta-Mind and make himself sole god-king of the Grue Unity!) OK, so this is my attempt to build a Meta-Grue, the setting’s answer to the Super-Skrull, as a PL 10 PC: it ain’t easy! The Meta-Grue has all the powers of a PL 10 superteam (in this case the Atom Family, aka What If the Power Pack were the Fantastic Four?), and fitting all that in 150 PP is not an easy purchase at all. Especially since an Array of Alternate Forms, the traditional way to build characters like this, suffers from being the devil’s work! (i.e., very confusing and hard to police in play.) So instead she’s a jack of all trades and master of none, but at least she can do a lot of things. She can fly, make herself hard and tough, fly through solid objects (though not at the same time), and shoot people with blasts of radiation. She can also change her shape because, you know, Grue! She can be your backup paragon, energy controller, mentalist, and sneak all in one. Note that the Progressive extra on her Insubstantial lets her assume the forms of Insubstantial 1, 2, 3, and 4 (which normally you can't do without APs), the downside being that she can only pop one a round. (i.e., to go Insub 4 she has to slowly 'dissolve' over three rounds) Don't forget that she can do all those things while Morphed, an excellent way to maintain her secret even in her super-ID; she can also use her powers to be _really_ good at Morphing, at the cost of losing some versatility. Being a free Grue PC is a challenge. Everyone is suspicious of you: are you just a spy for the Unity? Certainly the Unity wants you dead, dead dead. Being a free Grue PC who is the offspring of a famous _supervillain_ is an even bigger challenge: so many Complication PP for you! Who doesn’t want to beat you up? She doesn’t share her dad’s desire to crush all who stand before her, but like a lot of free Grue she may have a desire to promote the freedom of others even when it’s not necessarily a good idea. As she would not be a slave, so she will not allow any others to be masters! This may be a challenging task given all the people who’ll be standing against her, but what better challenge for a free young warrior: the Gruen champion of Earth!

Once inside, Sharl explained to Gina what had happened. "It was pretty neat," he admitted. "Just sort of concentrating on myself and clipping, like I did in the basement earlier. And so much cleaner!" He shook his head, looking down at himself. "I can't believe that you have animal droppings just laying around on your streets with no one trying to recycle them. You have such a wealthy world here." He looked up at Gina and said, "Did it all go OK? It was really fun, and I'm really glad I got to do it. I'd love to go more places, if, uh, you think that would be okay. I won't be any trouble."

Sharl walked around the block, taking in the sights and sounds of an alien world. The sky was an impossibly pale blue overhead, its clear, unblocked expanse almost shockingly bright. He'd seen pictures of open sky, of course, and even seen it a few times himself on rare trips to the highest levels of a district, but seeing it unshackled was a gorgeous sight to behold. _And to think they all live like this, all the time!_ A few passing people stared at him as he knelt down and ran his hands through the crunchy snow, but he didn't care, there was so much to see here! Of course, some things weren't worth seeing."Eww! Animal feces!" got a definite reaction from people walking by, and Sharl irritably wiped his hand on his pants as he realized the mistake he'd made. _It's not like on TV!_ Of course, wiping the dog poop on his pants just got them dirty too. "Aw, man! Stupid dog..." Looking down the street, he picked out the owner of the animal whose waste he'd accidentally grabbed, the four-legged animal looking fat and sassy. "I can't go back like this!" He'd just get dog poop on Gina's floor, and she'd be mad at him again. He thought for a moment, hmming. "Maybe if I fade out again, I can make the stuff fall off! He took the projector out of his pocket, gently setting it on the floor. "Here goes nothing.." He closed his eyes and concentrated, reaching down inside himself for how he'd felt when he'd first appeared and been clipping through everything. A brief moment of vertigo later, like holding his breath, and..."Yes!" Looking down at himself, he was sparkling clean! "Awesome!" He picked up the projector, put in his pocket, and resumed his walk happily. "Hey, Gina!" he announced to the machine as he got close to her house. "You have an awesome neighborhood! I can't believe how many people have so much space!"

OK, this here is a use of Shapeable Area Blast 15: Mark'll spend HP as necessary via Luck Control to make sure the stone man takes the worst possible Reflex and Toughness saves if he passes either.

"Hey!" Edge yelled from down the street, charging his way towards the stone man. "You think you can come to my, er, state and cause trouble, buddy!?" Fearlessly facing down the man of stone, he boomed "Well, you're messing with the Man of Gecko, the Man of Luck, and Doc, uh...Titan here!" Smacking one fist into another, he pointed at the giant stone man, producing an explosion from under the street as gas mains exploded at the monster's feet. "You think you can come here and pick a QUARRY with us? Well, I think it's time we showed you how we ROCK!"

"Do we!?" exclaimed Mark. "Sure, like this!" Mark snapped his fingers, there was a sparkle of black dots, and in his hands was a map to the Claremont campus which he handed to Brian. "I'm not that powerful," he said with a little wave of his hand, "I mean, I don't train as hard as our really tough people like Wander or Phalanx," he said with a modest shrug. With a little sigh, Ms. Harcourt stepped in. "Brian, Mark and I are going to walk you to a meeting with Mr. Summers." As they walked through the campus, Brian quickly realized the lovely Victorian campus was overrun with teens with powers! Here a long-necked teenager built a snowman with the help of an ice-manipulating friend, while over there two girls Brian's own age were having a friendly snowball fight that blurred almost too fast to see. "Welcome to Hero High," Mark confided cheerily.

"I...I...no." Unexpectedly, the happy-go-lucky teenager's voice broke. "No! No one else is going to lose their father because of me! No one else!" Energy pumping, he fired blast after blast into the transformed cyborg, shocks of blindingly powerful magical energy that infused themselves again and again into the cells of the fallen man. "We're superheroes, dammit!" he swore with ferocity, the air around him crackling with black, shimmering dots of power as if the ink of the universe itself were spilling from his fingers. "We're supposed to be able to save everybody!"

Sharl waved, but didn't do more than that. He'd seen how friendly people were on television, but his own life hadn't been like that. Part of the way people kept themselves together in Tronik was by avoiding too much contact, something hard to avoid in a city of tens of millions living on top of each other. If your neighbor was too friendly, how could you avoid him if you wanted privacy? He knew people were different here, though, and no wonder! You'd have to be a real jerk to be unfriendly in this bright, shining city of blue sky and green grass. He walked up and down the sidewalk, marveling at domestic animals and children playing freely in huge green yards, and wished for a holo. _I'm just a kid. They should have sent a poet!_ He stood at the foot of Gina's yard, looking up at her house, and thought of Gina. _She's not like the people on TV either._ He'd spent a lot of time in the last weeks watching television and surfing the 'Net to see how people acted, and the people he saw on there liked to go out and about, smiling and meeting each other in the street, barbecuing in their backyard, legally partnered to the gender of their choice. Leaning close to the commlink she'd given him, he asked, "Hey Gina, how far can I go wearing this?"

Interesting, TT! I might write that up as a sequel adventure. Or have it happen as part of a prequel. So that's how it got Foreshadow and the Raven...

As Gina had hoped, Sharl was excited enough by that prospect that he didn't object to what she was suggesting: as a matter of fact, he agreed enthusiastically! He took the projector from Gina, tossing it idly from hand to hand before she firmly reminded him that his program was running through there, and after that neatly slipped it into his pocket for the trip outside. The cool, bracing air of Freedom City was a revelation to him, smelling to his biased nostrils like grass and green things, the semi-suburban neighborhood of Hanover a sharp contrast to the world he'd left behind. He said nothing at first, simply walking out beneath the bright blue sky over Gina's yard, feeling the grass crunching under his feet as he stared up at the heavens. "It's...it's beautiful!" he called to Gina, waving to her through the window. "You should come out and see this! I can't believe how...how much sky you have! Is it always like this in winter?" He bent down, marveling at the grass underneath as much as the sky above.

He sighed. "I guess so. I understand if some things can't be done, you've already done so much for me already. The projector sounds really awesome anyway," he said, walking over and putting his hand lightly on the side of the window. "I might like the idea of being able to face my fears again, but you're right, this is so much better. It means so much to be able to walk around here in the real world, even as alien as it is..." He cocked his head and looked over at Gina. "What's it like?" he asked her. "Walking around on the streets out there, with a real sun in your face and with all those tiny buildings? And all those faces!"

"Still," replied Sa-Ur evenly. "At least a hundred million of you died at each other's hands in the last century, did they not? And that's not counting those civilians who starved to death, or died of disease, or who were outright murdered by their leaders. Imagine a world where all that fighting had been done by a few superhumans," she suggested. "Your nation-state has a majority of the world's superhumans, you know," she commented to Blake, idly sipping her coffee. "By my understanding, you could easily have triumphed over the combined armies of opposing nations this century. Why, the Centurion himself could-" "Mooom," said Quo-Dis, looking faintly stricken, her voice a low whisper. "Don't talk about the Centurion like that!" "Like what?" asked Sa-Ur, keeping to her daughter's preference. Indeed, though her words were clearly audible to the teens, no one around them seemed to be able to hear the words. "I met the man, you know," she said in a confiding voice. "He visited our people several times, and our leaders even invited him to stay with us more than once. An outstanding individual, but if you're going to live in the world, you should make a contribution to it beyond that." "What, like Dad?" Quo-Dis fired back, and this time her lips didn't even move at all. "Is that what you want? You want Corbin to be like Dad?" She put a hand protectively on her boyfriend's hand. "Well I'm not you, Mom!" "Quo-Dis," thought Sa-Ur patiently, setting down her cup, "I never said I wanted you to be with a man like your father. Your father was a fool, a man who abandoned his responsibilities, abandoned _you_, so he could run off and live a child's dream of dominating those less powerful than he was. Your friends are at least attempting to do _something_ to make the world where they live better. Given the way the rest of these people live, I find that very admirable." Both mother and daughter seemed to relax at that, and some tension seemed to ebb out of the room. Out loud, Sa-Ur said with a little laugh. "Well, here I am, the adult injecting politics into your mating rituals. Isn't it always that way with parents?" She smiled and turned to Corbin, "So, I've been told I shouldn't ask this of strangers, but I'm sure I can ask you. Have you and my daughter had intercourse yet?"