Avenger Assembled

Avenger looked at the others and spoke frankly. "To raise you hands in defiance of a god is no small thing. I damned myself years before I met any of you, but you all have the option now to go home and live your lives safely. What we're facing here in rescuing Taylor isn't just defeat. It's death itself. A death beyond any others we've faced before...including you, Burt," he added with a frank look at Dead Head. He squeezed his hands into fists and added, "As for myself, I died years ago." With a feral growl, he launched himself between dimensions, propelled into mortal danger by thoughts of Taylor, Jack Jr., and everything he'd given up and gained up to that moment. This was a time for prioritizing, away from a predator's lusts to a human's love. What was his own death, anyway, when faced with the loss of so much?

I'll point Geez3r this way. Make sure you've made the changes he wanted.

Color Controller PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 26 pp STR 14 (+2) DEX 18 (+4) CON 14 (+2) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +4 (+10 Ranged) DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +12 Grapple: +6 Saves: 10 pp TOU +7 (+2 Con, +5 Protection) FORT +6 (+2 Con, +4) REF +6 (+4 Ref, +2) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 21 pp=84 r Bluff 7 (+10) Concentration 13 (+15) Craft: Artistic 15 (+15) Diplomacy 12 (+15) Intimidate 2 (+4) Knowledge: History 5 (+5) Knowledge: Pop Culture 10 (+10) Languages 2 (Chinese, Spanish) (Base: English) Profession: Artist 3 (+5) Notice 13 (+15) Search 5 (+5) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 20 pp Attack Focus: Ranged (6) Dodge Focus (5) Improved Initiative (2) Luck (2) Move-By Action Power Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 49 pp Immunity 2 (Visual Dazzles) [2 pp] Flight 3 (50 MPH) (Drawback: Noticeable) [5 pp] Protection 5 [5 pp] Rainbow Array [30+7=37 pp] Color Control 10 (50 foot radius) (Extra: Continuous) AP: Blast 10 (Extra: Autofire) ‘lasers’ AP: Concealment 4 (all visual) (Extras: Affects Others, Ranged) AP: Create Object 10 (Extra: Moveable) ‘rainbow walls’ AP: Dazzle 10 (visual) (Extra: Duration [Concentration]) ‘turning eyes colors’ AP: Obscure 7 (500 ft) (visual) (Extras: Independent (+0), Selective, Total Fade) 'color bomb' AP: Stun 10 (Extra: Ranged) ‘blast of colors’ costs abilities 26 + combat 24 + saves 10 + skills 21/84 + feats 20 + powers 49 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: This character is a color controller: an uncommon power but one with many different uses! He flies around on a rainbow trail, shooting blasts of multi-colored light at bad guys, building walls of rainbow light, hiding himself and others beneath a glowing ball of colors, and occasionally turning people’s eyes opaque and making them go blind. Hey, just because you’ve got pretty, happy powers doesn’t mean you have to be nice all the time. You can tweak the character’s many APs all you want: I went with the theory that he’s basically a variant light controller with a variety of different abilities. You could give him a true Roy G. Biv style rainbow array if you wanted. Backstory is up to you! (as always, I just had a few more ideas this time)I went with a great artist who’s an experienced hero: the municipal defender of San Francisco, maybe? (Yes, he’s heard all the jokes.) That’s where the Chinese and Spanish came in, because he speaks the language of his people. Throw in a visit to Oz, that dimension first discovered by L. Frank Baum over a hundred years ago, and maybe you can work in a power origin for him besides just bog-standard mutant. Team him up with the Unicorn build up-thread for a rainbow adventure! Not to mention his natural enemy: leprechauns! Indeed, another origin, I suppose, is that he got his hands on their gold! I bought the Color Control up to Continuous because otherwise it really is a useless power. The Affects Other Concealment is about turning solid objects transparent: good for looking through opaque objects or helping out in disaster relief! (i.e.; it’s a lot easier to find that trapped baby if you can look right through the sides of the well.) He’s got a fat array, don’t be afraid to power-stunt something really surprising! Colors are a surprisingly broad descriptor, especially if you let yourself go off the visible light spectrum.

Clown Hero PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 32 pp STR 26 [16] (+8/+3) DEX 20 (+5) CON 26 [16] (+8/+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+12 Pop Gun/Unarmed) DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +13 Grapple: +16 Saves: 7 pp TOU +8 (+8 Con) FORT +8 (+8 Con) REF +8 (+5 Dex, +3) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 16 pp=64 r Acrobatics 10 (+15) Bluff 10 (+13) Climb 5 (+12) Craft: Chemical 3 (+3) Intimidate 8 (+11) Notice 8 (+10) Perform [Comedy] 10 (+13) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 23 pp Acrobatic Bluff All-Out Attack Attack Specialization: Pop Gun (2) Attack Specialization: Unarmed (2) Challenge 2 (Fast Acrobatic Bluff, Improved Feint) Distract (Bluff) Dodge Focus (4) Evasion Improved Initiative (2) Luck Move-By Action Power Attack Set-Up Takedown Attack Taunt Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 40 pp Device 5 (Pop Gun) (Easy to Lose) [15 pp] -Stun 8 (Extra: Ranged) (PF: Sedation) {25} Device 1 (Really Big Mallet) [3 pp] -Strike 4 (PF: Mighty) Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp] Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp] Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp] costs abilities 32 + combat 32 + saves 7 + skills 16/64 + feats 23 + powers 40 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: She was just an ordinary clown, entertaining sick children at a hospital, when a chemical accident gave her superpowers beyond the ken of mortal clowns! So she picked up the tools of her trade...or is she a former supervillain's moll turned good, maybe part of a series of card-themed women, having gotten powers from her friend the plant controller...or is she a legacy of that weird clown-themed guy from back in the early 80s? She doesn't like to tell, a lady doesn't reveal her secrets! Yes, this is a clown superhero; a fast, tumbling, laughing rogue, bopping bad guys with giant hammers or shooting them with oversized pop guns, sweeping goons and turning heads with the best of them. So what if people are scared of clowns? She'll show them that _criminals_ are the only people who need to fear a clown acrobat with a hammer so powerful she can use it to batter through steel walls! There are a couple of obvious ways to tweak this character: more Charisma, some clown-themed Equipment/gadgets, etc. I went with a Year One character who could go in a lot of potential directions: as it is, she's really good solo, but also good on teams, setting up even more damage-shifted powerhouses for really big hits. (A character as good at feinting and taunting as she is who is also damage-shifted is pretty darn formidable offensively!) Give her more Craft if you want to go the more Gadgets route. I figure her gun can either shoot big soft corks or knockout gas, whatever works best for the feel of your character. The hammer is good old-fashioned comedic violence, which is what a character like this can specialize in. Give her more Charisma and some Attractive if you want to play up the sexy lady in the clown suit thing. You could REALLY tweak this character and give her magic powers like the Mask, but I like the 'hands-on' style of a character who's basically a weird sort of Costumed Adventurer. Tweak the devices too if you want; again, I just stuck with the classics. She could have everything from a Corrosion-squirting flower to a Stun joy-buzzer, but those seem a little mean for someone who's supposed to be on the side of justice. (Well, maybe not the joy-buzzer. Heh-heh-heh!) As always remember with this kind of character that odds are decent that your fellow players may not find her particularly funny, and if her stream of jokes and antics is taking away from other people's fun, it's time to tone it down a little. Threaten supervillains with the hammer, not the guy who took the last piece of bread from the sleeve and stuck you with the heel.

Sand, I don't understand the way you've phrased your edits. Could you be more specific?

My biggest thought is: Did he have an Immunity to aging that recently wore off?

Are you still interested in this character, Ari?

Sorry for the long delay. Are you still interested in this character, Casey?

Are you still interested in this character, Aoiroo?

Speedster Abilities: 18 pp STR: 10 (+0) DEX: 16 (+3) CON: 16 (+3) INT: 10 (+0) WIS: 16 (+3) CHA: 10 (+0) Combat: 22 pp ATK: +5 DEF: +14 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +23 Grapple: +5 Saves: 12 pp TOU: +6 (+3 Con, +3 Protection) FORT: +7 (+3 Con, +3) REF: +7 (+3 Dex, +3) WILL: +7 (+3 Will, +3) Feats: 12 pp Acrobatic Bluff Improved Initiative 3 Interpose Luck 3 Move-By Action Seize Initiative Set-Up Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Skills: 11 pp=44 r Acrobatics 10 (+13) Concentration 10 (+13) Knowledge: Physical Sciences 4 (+4) Notice 10 (+13) Sense Motive 10 (+13) Powers: 75 pp Alternate Form 8 (Light Body) [40 pp] Enhanced Feats 10 (Dodge Focus 8, Improved Initiative 2) [10 pp] Immunity 10 (Aging, Life Support) [10 pp] Insubstantial 3 (PF: Selective) [16 pp] Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp] Light Control 1 (5 feet) (Flaw: Touch Range) [1 pp] Space Travel 1 (1c) [1 pp] Light Array [30+2=32 pp] Teleport 9 (anywhere on Earth) (Extra: Accurate) (PFs: Change Velocity, Easy, Turnabout) AP: Blast 10 (Extra: Perception Range) {30} AP: Dazzle 10 (visual) (Extra: Perception Range) {30} Protection 3 [3 pp] -- Design Notes: Zing! She’s the fastest woman alive, easily capable of outpacing the vast majority of superheros even with super-speed. How do you do that? Skip Super-Speed entirely and go in a whole new direction: this lady has the power to transform her entire body into living light! She doesn’t speed so much as she teleports; traveling at the speed of light itself. She can fly in space at light speed, or else simply travel so fast it’s as if she hardly moved at all. With Seize Initiative and lots of Luck, she can be faster than your regular fleshy speedsters, and her impressive initiative helps her beat almost any other normal hero in initiative. Note that she’s not without disadvantages! Her reliance on speed means she’s really vulnerable to being caught flat-footed...but then, isn’t that often the case for speedsters? She also doesn’t have quickness, a lack she may surely come to rue one of these days. But hey, she flies at the speed of light in or out of atmosphere, fires inescapable beams of light (how DO you dodge a laser, anyway?) and can make herself immune to most kinds of bodily harm. But still, she’s made of freakin’ lasers! How cool is that? (Answer: pretty cool) She can blast while made of light; badass! She’s got a massive array: stunt from it! She can drop all kinds of effects; light is a very broad descriptor. She technically has concealment while going fast, since she’s a teleporter, but you could save up the points to actually give her the power as well. Trying to get through opaque objects is really more of a complication. Adjust her powers a bit if you want to make her more skill-heavy; though most speedsters aren’t Perception range, she’s not a great fighter because of that. As it is she’s like a lot of speedsters; fast, fragile, with a few good options in combat, but at the end of the day is as squishy as the next speedy person. But most of them have to push themselves a LITTLE to literally be faster than light.

Gaseous Hero PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 16 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 10 (+0) CON 16 (+3) INT 16 (+3) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 14 pp ATK: +3 DEF: +7 (+2 flat-footed) Init: +4 Grapple: +3 Saves: 19 pp TOU +13 (+3 Con, +10 Protection) FORT +8 (+3 Con, +5) REF +8 (+0 Dex, +8) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 14 pp=56 r Craft (Chemical) 7 (+10) Concentration 15 (+17) Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 7 (+10) Language 1 (Spanish; Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 10 (+10) Feats: 7 pp Dodge Focus 3 Improved Initiative Luck Move-By Action Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 80 pp Alternate Form 16 (Gaseous Form) [80 pp] Concealment 2 (Normal Vision) (Flaws: Blending, Passive) [1 pp] Flight 2 (25 MPH) (PF: Subtle) [5 pp] Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9 pp] Insubstantial 2 (gaseous form) [10 pp] Protection 10 [10 pp] Super-Senses 1 (Radius Sight) [1 pp] Toxins Array [40+4=44 pp] Damage 10 (Extras: Alternate Save [Fortitude], Area [shapeable], Selective) AP: Fatigue 10 (Extras: Area [shapeable], Selective) AP: Nauseate 10 (Extras: Area [shapeable], Selective) AP: Paralyze 10 (Extras: Area [shapeable], Selective) AP: Stun 10 (Extras: Area [shapeable], Selective, Sleep (+0)) costs abilities 16 + combat 14 + saves 19 + skills 14/56 + feats 7 + powers 80 = 150 pts ---- Design Notes: This is my take on a gaseous character, one who has the ability to turn into a variety of exciting aerosol-based toxins. You need someone to drop sleep gas? They can do that; you need a hero to come along and drop some tear gas, they can do that too! Suffocate’s not a great power, so I took some advice from an old idea of Shaen’s and gave her Strike with a Fortitude save extra: that’s what she busts out when she’s feeling especially nasty. She has radius sight because hey, gaseous cloud, and life support for similar reasons. This is a powerful character, able to drop selective area effects over a wide swath while at the same time (between her good saves, high Toughness, and Insubstantial 2) shrugging off a significant percentage of counterattacks. So what keeps her balanced? She’s actually a pretty crummy fighter when you get down to it; area attacks are really only useful for goon sweeping and gradually debuffing big bads, and with her low attack she’s going to have a hard time power-stunting anything to hit someone fast and agile. She’s also really weak outside her alternate form, so if you sneak up on her and bop her on the head, or just win initiative, you can probably lay her out. With her low Concentration, she’s going to have trouble keeping up her gaseous body if you manage to stun her, thus leaving her open for further violent retaliation for her antics. Natural rivals in Freedom City include bad guys Sylph and Mr. Mist, both of whom share her gaseous gimmick. OTOH, weaknesses aside, she’s still very good at what she does! Remember that as of Ultimate Power (typo aside), you do NOT need Affects Corporeal for an Insubstantial 2 character. Stunt Obscure if you want her dropping an opaque mist, maybe Move Object if you want her making use of ‘focused winds’. (Air Control is really not woth your time!) As it is she’s weak against objects, and robots with grenades and lasers could really annoy her. She’s got a fat array great for power-stunting, change some or all of her APs if you want to. You could drop her Flight some to up her Concealment; as it is I figure she becomes a visible cloud of gas when she’s actually attacking, but is hard to make out when she’s just a cloud of air.

"I prefer to travel under my own power," said Harrier. He was a little intimidated by the prospect of infinite vistas, especially since infinite vistas tended to be so dangerous in his experience. "But I thank you for the offer, and congratulate you both on what you have found again today. Treasure joy." He smiled, then, and turned to walk away, slow and plodding, into the deeper darkness, alone as the two lovers were reunited. It might have been a depressing moment for anyone else, but the freed drone was genuinely happy. Love was rare enough, in all the multiverse, that to see it freely and honestly shown really was beautiful. Today was a good day after all. Perhaps next time, he decided, he'd keep his camouflage circuits active longer.

"Yes. Thank you." Harrier studied both of them, his lined face shadowed in the dark. "You are fortunate to have found each other. True love, amid this beautiful place, is a precious flower to be forever cultivated." It wasn't that there was no poetry in his soul; rather, it was that there were usually so few opportunities to express it. He'd heard those words on Guiding Light, and they seemed appropriate now. "Welcome back to your home. I am glad I could witness your return."

A detailed examination told Dr. Archeville many fascinating things about Fusion, things he otherwise wouldn't have known even from her files. The tentacled titan really was a biological merger of human and octopus, enough that it was remarkable that her transformation had been stabilized looking as human as she was. Most normal people didn't have glands full of ink at the back of the throat, a nigh-perfect copy of Common Octopus ink except with human chemistry that she could vomit out on command. A derivative of Grue cellular structure had been used around the base of her tentacles, giving her the ability to almost completely retract them into her body, while a similar construction helped hide the gills alongside of her neck. It was hard to tell where her transformation might have stabilized without physical and genetic help, but she'd probably look very different were that the case. Eventually, after an underwater test that proved she was equal of any Atlantean in skill, finesse, and power underwater, she erupted from the pool, water streaming down her skin-tight black costume as her tentacles retracted again. "Getting anything useful?" she asked.

"James! It's you!" Mark had never doubted it for a moment, and happily pushed his way through the crowd, making time for a friendly hello with people who recognized him, to take James by the arm and pump it like a stuck waterpump. "Look at you! Man, you're looking better and ever! Your Majesty," he said to the White Lion, "this is...well, you know Hellion! He's one of the best people I know, and one of the best friends. Oh man, it's so great to see you!" James wasn't in costume like the rest of them, but really, a tux was as much the devil-man's costume as anything else. "I knew we'd get all of Young Freedom back together!" Except for Chris, who's busy with his girlfriend. He didn't judge, though.

The White Lion was eager to greet the famous Hellion, giving him a firm handshake and a polite hello. He hadn't had time for much conversation with James the first time Young Freedom had rescued him, but evidently he was more than familiar with Hellion's public exploits in the months since. The White Lion was the guardian of _all_ of Dakana, even the other dimensions in which it lay, and he'd spoken enough to his counterparts to be familiar with the younger man's work. As for the social side of things, the King was a married man himself, but he didn't seem bothered by the lovely ladies paying attention to James: in fact, despite the crowded room, he was able to greet them all by name. "A king," he confided to James, "must _know_ his subjects." Across the room, the party's majordomo, a balding Dakanan man in a tailored tux, announced in a booming voice: "Introducing the heroes of Freedom, the champions of justice! Shatterers of evil robots! Defenders of Erde! Rescuers of the Lost World! Guardians of worlds beyond! Enemies of havok and strife! Edge, Psyche, Phalanx, Wander, and Midnight: Young Freedom!" Mark was the first into the ballroom, looking very, very pleased with himself in his sparkling new costume and his shiny red bowtie, his cape flapping behind him as he made space for the others.

Down below, Harrier watched them both, his eyes wide. It took him a few moments to make the connections about what he was seeing, putting them all in the context of his primary exposure to human relationships: soap operas. Ah, they must be lovers! Disunited ones, perhaps, torn apart by fate and circumstance but now united. He'd seen entertainments like that back in the Terminus, but they generally ended with man and woman understanding that _real_ love was only for Omega. He preferred the Earth-Prime versions, really, with true love and happiness for all. But always secrets. Is one of them a clone, or a long-lost twin? Or a robot?! Is one of them pregnant, perhaps with an alien baby? It was tough to discern Dark Star's gender from this far down, and he wasn't immediately familiar with this dimension's progress in artificial womb construction. Hmm, or perhaps Fleur de Joie is her own twin sister who has replaced herself and plans to seduce Dark Star and be his mate! He sighed. Perhaps he'd been watching too many soap operas. As it was, he decided to simply keep watching.

OK, it's a 25 now

"Your power is beautiful," replied Murdock, bending down to lightly brush his fingers against the plants. "I have seen so many green things burn, that to see a place like this, and to see that there is someone who cares for it..." He shook his head. "One day when I have the money for the bus, I will go to the great parks in the western part of this continent. I have been saving what I make, that I do not need to spend to maintain my life. If I fly there now, I will encounter military aircraft who will not bother to call the Freedom League." He didn't sound at all judgmental about that.

Harrier readies an action, namely to blast Vanquisher if he gets close enough to do so. 19, not great, but it'll hit him when he attacks. That'll be a DC 27 Tou for non-lethal (as is the default from now on) when that happens.

"He is formidable." replied Harrier, snapping his pike out to its full extension as electricity crackled along the tip. They were thousands of feet above the city, a reassuring thing when battling such a powerful foe. Harrier wasn't the sort to feel outclassed when dealing with a threat like this; as he watched Victory punch the monster at least two miles away, he was just glad to have him there. "He shares your vulnerability to electricity and magnetism. I had hoped to lure him into the electrical substation in Lincoln. He knew what I was before I changed, Victory."

Mark emerged from his shower with a black towel wrapped around his midsection, hanging things over to Mike before he changed himself in front of the room's big mirror. First he pulled his costume back on, the molecular fabric shrugging off wrinkles and dirt, neatly brushing his short brown hair flat. "Look at you!" he said, snapping his cape a little. "Mark Lucas, aka Edge, leader of Young Freedom! Not a care in the world!" He dug around in his suitcase for the last ingredient of his formal wear, found his dad's red bowtie, and neatly tied it around his neck. "Ta-da! Now that's style! I'll be out in the hall!" he called to Mike as he strode out of the room. "I'll catch everyone."

Copycat PL 10 (150 pp) Abilities: 22 pp STR 30 (+10) DEX 14 (+2) CON n/a (-) INT 14 (+2) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Unarmed) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +16 Saves: 7 pp TOU +10 (+10 Protection) FORT +n/a REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 13 pp=52 r Craft: Mechanical 4 (+6) Intimidate 12 (+12) Investigate 4 (+6) Knowledge: History 4 (+6) Knowledge: Streetwise 4 (+6) Knowledge: Technology 8 (+10) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 9 pp Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2, Dodge Focus 4, Startle, Takedown Attack, Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 75 pp Concealment 4 (all visual) (Flaw: Blending) (PF: Close Range) [5 pp] 'stealth mode' Immunity 40 (Fortitude saves, Mental effects) [40 pp] 'is a robot' Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp] 'robotic muscles' Protection 10 (Extra: Impervious) [20 pp] 'armor-plating' Regeneration 5 (+0 Recovery Bonus) (PF: Regrowth) [6 pp] 'smart metal body' Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] 'robotic servos' Super-Senses 2 (Darkvision) [2 pp] 'sensors' costs abilities 22 + combat 24 + saves 7 + skills 13/52 + feats 9 + powers 75 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: He awoke in a case, snapping his bonds free with ease even as he did his best to recall what had happened and how he'd gotten there. He'd been on patrol one day when there'd been a light in the sky and he'd recognized the Curator's ship. And then...was he in captivity? His utility harness was gone, but his captors had left him his costume and his wits. He wrapped his cape around his fist and punched through the glass surrounding him, stepping out into a strange gloom he recognized as his own headquarters but terribly changed! There were cobwebs everywhere, and dust, and a feel of long, long time having passed. When he tried to leave, the door had been nailed shut on the other side, and he heard strange voices through the wood. Retracing his steps to look for a weapon, or perhaps his long-neglected car, he found himself back at the place where he'd started. A glass case, and underneath a brass plaque: CURATOR'S ROBOT DOUBLE: JUNE 1 1970. His blood ran cold. Or rather, it would have if he'd had any blood to spill. This character is a duplicate of a hero from a previous generation, a robot double originally built to infiltrate the heroes of Earth. But he was defeated all those years ago, his memory wiped, and put in the display case of a hero who's gone now. Did that hero die in action, retire and move down to Florida, pass away from too many cakes? Either way, he's gone now, and this robot double with reflections of his memories is the only version of him that's left. His old friends may accept him for what he is, or they may shun the once-enemy robot bearing the face of their absent friend. Either way, he is a true hero...even if sometimes he may not feel true at all. This is a grey-area character, a good way to bring a PC from a previous generation into a current campaign while giving them a whole host of Complications on the way. Being a HARDAC fan, I went with the assumption that this is the robot double of a costumed adventurer, but you can tweak that however you want. He doesn't have to be a project of the Curator's, either: I went that way to better tie him into the Freedom City setting. But he could be made by Talos, the Labyrinth, ro really anyone else that comes to mind. I gave him Concealment and Speed/Leaping as substitutes for Stealth and movement equipment, mix that up however you want to. If you squeeze points around (maybe by dropping his monstrous Impervious some), you can afford to actually buy the old house where he lives: the assumption I have is that the equipment in his old cave is too old and broken down for him to use right now. And he doesn't really need his old heromobile these days...

The armor retracted all the way as soon she'd released him, his pike collapsing down to something the size of a flashlight that he hung from his belt. Harrier shook his head. "You did what you should when you see an Omegadrone. You made no mistake. The fault was mine. I should have been more careful. Usually I walk where I go. I shall attempt to do so in the future." He sighed softly, looking around the forest, seemingly unafraid of the suspicious trees around him. "This is a beautiful park. I come here in the day to meditate, but rarely at night. To see so much...alive is remarkable. Is this place yours?"

"My name is Harrier," the drone explained in his usual plodding way. "In honor of Harriet Tubman, the great fighter for liberty. I would have called myself that, but Johnny Rocket persuaded me that it would be too complex if I used a female name, as I am male." His armor suddenly retreated back into his face, sliding away underneath neatly folding skin, leaving Stesha looking at a bald, brown-skinned man with a face and head covered in faint lines that looked like tribal tattoos: the places where the armor had slid back through his skin. "I live in Lincoln now. My name is Stephen Murdock."