Avenger Assembled

Beatrizz led the way to a clear space between the two great hives, where what the two humans at first thought was a new grove of trees turned out to be two massive leaf-fans built over the head of the reclining queen, who was resting on a massive bed of dirt and leaves assembled the other bees: the enormous, oversized queen was half again as large as her already gigantic peers, and she loomed over the heroes as they arrived. Beatrizz quickly made introductions, and the queen bowed her massive head in greeting. The greeting was unusually short for the bees, but then again this was a business call. After the introduction, Beatrizz began the tour. "YOU ZEE," she said, flying up to the top of the hives, each as big as slumping skyscrapers, and gestured to the two heroes: "WE HAVE TRIED TO BUILD UP THE HIVEZ, BUT THEY FALL OVER WHEN ZEY ARE TOO BEEG! NO MATTER WHAT WE DO!" She sounded unhappy about that, as only a giant bee can: this was obviously a sore subject. "TUNNELLING HELPED ZOME, BUT WE ARE NOT ZHAPED RIGHT FOR IT. IF WE DIG TOO DEEP, IT WILL ALL FALL DOWN!" The buzz of the other bees working was obvious as she talked, all the ground hereabouts thrumming with the busy activity of the giant insects.

The battered princess nodded, raising her head with Fusion's support. Joan knew enough not to move an injured person normally, but if the Atlantean was suffering from anything, it was blood loss. "I found them in the depths of the ridge. They chased me back all the way to the city; too fast for me even to find my father in Atlantis." She coughed. "The cultists of the Dark Mother are building an army. Remora and her sons and daughters who do not live...are coming. You need to...you need to warn them..."

Blinded, burning, and seriously injured, the great mother squid gave a terrible, inhuman shriek, massive tentacles tearing at the dock, shattering foot-thick wood and steel before she began sinking back down into the waves. With one last malevolent hiss, delivered with force enough to spray bloody water everywhere, the gigantic thing vanished beneath the dark. Her children were already gone; that last great blast from Supercape having incinerated them all in nuclear fire. From the dockside warehouse roof, well out of melee range even of the giant tentacles, Fusion watched for a moment as the monster sank into the waves before she gently released the slowly-rousing Nereid onto the docks. Nereid had been running from something, and it looked like the princess wanted to talk! With a shout, she got the attention of the others, wincing a little at the feeling of bite marks on her own flesh.

They can't make that save on a nat-20: the surviving squidlings are toast. The mother is fine, as usual But she's still having a hard time...

35, tough break The flat-footed monster is taking a beating. Supercape, can you power-stunt something and take us home?

The monster is currently blinded, injuredx3, and stunned

Injuredx2 and stunned Do you wish to surge?

"THAT WOULD BEE WONDERFUL!" exclaimed the bee in a voice like an aircraft engine backfiring. She turned and peered at Gaian Knight, looming over him as her mouth parts wriggled in glee. "IT HAZ BEEN ZO HARD LIVING WITHOUT A REAL HIVE TO LIVE IN!" The gigantic bee-monster looked...delighted to see him? "COME!" she said, putting a foreleg larger than the Knight's whole body behind him. "COME, YOU MUZT MEET THE QUEEN AND ALL THE OTHERZ ZO YOU CAN BEE INTRODUCED...OR I CAN ZHOW YOU OUR PROBLEMZ DIRECTLY! YEZ, LET UZ DO THAT! CAN YOU FLY?"

Wander was soon in the middle of a hissing, writhing sea of fanged squid monsters, their eyes glowing with preternatural intelligence as they tried to sink their disproportionate fangs into her body. It soon became obvious, though, that the squidlings couldn't penetrate her super-tough skin, nor could they reach the flesh they craved within. As she brought up a bat to destroy another one of the crawling little monsters, she looked into those glowing red eyes and realized where she'd seen that look before: that was exactly how a hungry Jack Jr. looked... Across the way, the shrieks of the dying attracted more of the squids to Midnight, where they wriggled and crawled and writhed as they swarmed towards him. They fought with each other for the pleasure of biting him, a squamous mass of flesh and eyes and fangs, and finally one launched itself out of the mass, trying to sink its fangs into his arm!

Half the fifty survivors attack Wander: they do bupkis. The other half press the attack on Midnight: 8 successfully aid their neighors One of those successfully latches on DC 14 Fort save, Midnight.

They stood there watching the earthen beehives for several minutes before they became conscious of a low thrumming that seemed to come from the landscape all around them! Gaian Knight in particular could feel the rumbling in the earth as something gigantic erupted from the ground some fifty feet away! A jet of searing fire roared up to scorch the earth nearby as a sixty-foot monstrosity of a bee came clambering out of the hole, each gigantic footstep of the big-rig-sized insect shaking the ground as she rose to her full awesome height, shook herself off, and focused on Fleur and Gaian Knight. "HELLO!" It was Beatrizz. "FLEUR DE JOIE! IT IZ ZO GOOD TO ZEE YOU!" She bumped Fleur with a head larger than her body. "WE HAVE BEEN DIGGING TUNNELZ, BUT IT IZ NOT GOING ZO GOOD. WHO IZ YOUR TINY FRIEND?"

Giz, I'll round up and say that takes out all fifty as well.

The beast's tough hide soaked up the radiation entirely, leaving a faint, obviously superficial scorch mark as the only sign Supercape had done anything at all. Roaring with frustration, the blinded beast tried to scrub at its eyes with its tentacles, Fusion's sticky fluid clinging to it even half-in and half-out of the water. The octopus lady herself was doing her best to avoid any remaining squid monsters, sticking to a nearby rooftop and staying hidden from everyone dependent on vision. "Fusion..." gasped the princess. "They're coming, you have to..." "Yes, they're coming!" agreed Fusion. "They are well past coming and are arriving! What are they?" But before Nereid could explain, Fusion was forced to turn back to the battle!

And she makes the save. New round! Midnight is up, with a shiny new HP in his pocket!

Heh, I don't think I feel like making all those rolls! We'll call that fifty down: 100 left! Supercape is up.

Hissing and shrieking, the mother squid (for that it had to be, Fusion had surmised) churned up the water as it got closer and closer to the dock, tentacles as big around as telephone poles writhing madly all around Fusion and Nereid. Fusion looked up and made the mistake of meeting the creature's eyes as it gave a terrible roar. Jesus Christ, that's no ordinary giant squid! It's after something! Something...with blood. My blood. Nereid's blood... Gritting her teeth as she felt a cold surge of terror in her gut, Fusion wrapped her tentacles around Nereid and felt her skin tone changing, stretching her flexible body as far as she could to cover the girl, matching the docks, the squished monsters around her as Wander (who was obviously her guardian angel) began her killing spree, everything and anything to hide and get away and...No! Drawing her head back, Fusion put all her breath into vomiting up a sludge of pure black ink, a cascade of fluid that poured up high enough to cascade over the great red eyes of the hideous squid-fiend! The beast, already maddened by pain, gave a terrible cry as it was blinded by the thick, flowing mass of ink across its face. Now, she thought, scuttling away as massive tentacles came crashing down on the docks all around her, Time to get the hell out of here!

Vampire Squid's Turn: She shakes off the stun. Have an HP, Gizmo! She's too big to get out of the water, but she spends her move action getting within melee range of the dock She uses her Fearsome Presence 7 as a standard action: that's a DC 17 Will save for everyone on the docks who isn't Fearless. Fusion's Turn: Fusion is shaken Well, darn. As a free action, she stunts Affects Others on her Concealment with the Distracting drawback As a standard action, she vomits into the mother squid's eyes! It hits And the mother squid is blinded As a move action, she scuttles!

OK, we'll call that a hundred down, since Wander is optimised for goon-sweeping. Go ahead and post.

In the wake of Midnight's attack, the great sea monster hissed and shrieked a terrible cry, flexing those gigantic tentacles as a shower of...something erupted from its maw against the bright night sky. It wasn't until the shower of debris came into view of the many security lights at the dockyards that all the assembled heroes could make them out, however: a veritable storm of wriggling, squirming, tentacled little beasts was hurtling towards them. Some splattered to oily ash as they hit the pavement, but others proved terribly vital, whipping along on long, black tentacles as they began racing across the surface of dry land. As great clots of the writhing squid-things came flying past Supercape and Gaian Knight, others landed in a great wriggling mass in front of the Night Cycle: before Midnight could veer away, the squid monsters were underwheel and attacking! They spurned the humans for the moment, however, and fell upon the machine that was crushing their number, fangs and claws and maws sucking and pulling at steel as they did their best to grab and rip apart Trevor's pride and joy! Things weren't much better for Fusion, who was faced with not just falling squidlings but squids in the water as well: their eyes glowing with a terrible intent. She had the presence of mind to grab the injured Neried and hold her above the attacking tide, but that didn't do anything to save herself: Fusion cried out as fangs and claws sunk into her flesh, spilling her blood out onto the dock to join the Atlanteans. This didn't look good...

The monster rolled a 31 (sorry, I should have posted last night). Since she's already stunned, I won't bother with the Fort save vs. the Daze. (he said, looking round shiftily) The baby monsters are up; there are 250 of them. Group 1 (w/20) drops near Midnight and Wander: they attack the biggest, loudest thing they can see-The Midnight Cycle itself! They're smart enough to use combined attacks. Luckily, they're not very good at them: 3 out of 20 hit. That's a DC 25 Toughness save for the Midnight Cycle, Gizmo. Good thing none of you guys were bleeding. Supercape and Gaian Knight, I need a DC 20 Reflex save to avoid being hit by falling masses of vampire squids: If you are hit, it's a DC 39 Grapple check to avoid being grappled by them, and a DC 21 Fort save to avoid being drained. Fusion and Nereid, hmm. A group of 20 falls near them: I'll say Fusion is able to protect Nereid by holding her out of reach with her tentacles, but but that leaves her open to attack: Considerably more hit her.: 5 out of 20 hit. That's a DC 29 (yeesh) Toughness save for Fusion. Injured and stunned I'll spend an HP to shake her stunned condition on her turn.

"I'm fine," Fusion insisted. "I've fought Otaku before, just as Fleur de Joie has, I can help everyone keep an eye out for his tricks. He's a devious little bastard, especially now that we've cornered him like the rat he is. It'll be..." Suddenly, the wall of monitors along one side of the room flickered to life, not with Otaku's face or that of any secret robots he'd been holding out, but a series of rapid-fire flickering images synched with bouncily cheerful Japanese animation. Within seconds, it had resolved itself into another broadcast of Joan's much-hated self-titled show, this one already in progress. "...no." Fusion's voice was cold and angry as she studied the increasingly pornographic hentai images play out, furious as a giant squid in grapple with a sperm whale. "No, he's trying to distract us. Distract me. I won't have that." Her hands balled into fists, she said, "We need to stop him before he hurts any more hostages, or before he gets another transmitter built. Let's go."

The robot imploded in a shower of sparks, collapsing in on itself with another wet shriek. Fusion walked up to the fallen machine and drove her foot through its fallen head, stomping down so hard she broke the linoleum floor beneath. The shuddering rage seemed to have left her body, and at first glance she was perfectly calm. "All right. Let's find Otaku and put an end to all this madness. Midnight, if you can use that EMP device on him, you can keep him from using his mechsuit: Fleur, wherever you are, you can grab him with plants, and Gabriel, you can shout him down. Between all of us, we can take him. Lead the way, Midnight."

Midnight: 19 Vampire Squidlings: 16 Wander: 15 Vampire Squid: 13 Fusion: 9 Gaian Knight: 9 Supercape: 8 Nereid is too badly hurt to take actions.

No way. This build will not be approved as written. It's way too complex, and no custom Variable Powers, please.

The OOC thread for the Atlantean vampire thread.