Avenger Assembled

Daystar (an NPC - so I don't get credit for this!) Every single song of Judy's can be expressed through the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack. I cannot understate how important this movie is to the history of traditional country music; and what is Judy but traditional country? 1. Down to the River to Pray Judy has - more questions for God than she did before her powers manifested and she found the limits of her parents' willingness to sacrifice for her. But she knows she'll see Him, through the faith that's still a rock in her soul. God can't answer yes to every prayer - so maybe you can go answer someone else's. 2. Po Lazarus Judy had not done much physical labor before coming to Claremont, but you know it's not so bad! 3. Keep On the Sunny Side Of Life This is the song for when Judy is feeling confident about her powers and herself, and optimistic about the future. 4. Angel Band Judy made it through Claremont, told her secret on her terms, and she made friends she'd never thought possible. She really does have an Angel Band! 5. You Are My Sunshine This is the song Judy sings to the mirror when she's thinking about Leroy. Less so this one these days, though. (Trivia note: this song elected troubadour Jimmie Davis Governor of Louisiana, just like in the movie!) 6. I'll Fly Away This is the song that plays in Judy's head when she imagines a future where she's outlived her loved ones and she's a Stellarian in truth, a glowing being of pure energy. All the ones she's met are awful, but it can't be so bad to be out there in the stars. 7. Big Rock Candy Mountain This is the song that plays in Judy's head when she considers a future on her own in college. It's going to be weird and crazy, but she's been to Claremont. She can handle weird and crazy. 8. In The Highways This song was actually an inspiration for Judy and her sisters back when they were just NPCs decorating President Cahill's backstory. They have actually sung this song together, though just in church talent shows and such when it was an interesting trick that the Governor's daughters could do. Judy wishes they could do it again. 9. Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby Judy sings this one to the mirror when she's feeling naughty and imagines singing it to Micah - maybe a lot lately. She doesn't want those girls, but the idea of being like those girls is something she wants - at least a little. Just in private, though. 10. In The Jailhouse Now It's the O'Connor grandkids who are in the jailhouse now, to which Judy sez "Good luck."

Irons hesitated at that, reaching up to rub the side of his head. "Well...that's interesting. Have you made any progress with Keres while we've been talking?" "I know what he is talking about," said Eira, having returned behind Miss Americana to overhear this part of the conversation. She walked up to the screen, her pale blue eyes reflecting the image within. Folding her hands behind her back in a gesture that unconsciously mimicked Miss Americana, she reported cooly that "He is a veteran of battles against the Foundry. He knows that they would see duplicates of himself as valuable tools and that they have the technology to manufacture such. I saw such things when I visited Rurland." She shifted position until her left hand was now gripping her right wrist, a gesture of nerves as she seemed to realize everyone was looking at her. She cocked her head at the screen that showed Irons' misplaced memories. "He is asking how the Foundry accomplished this. He is asking how they violated him by stealing his face, his form, and perhaps even his abilities and mind as Terrifica suggests - and he is asking how his human allies allowed this to happen." She reached out and pointed a hand at Irons, her interface cable snaking out from her wrist and burying itself like a striking snake amid the others. After a moment, her head went slack and she stood silent and still among the humans before appearing inside Miss Americana's simulation. "Hello, Agent Irons," she said. "I am Eira Katastroff. I am here to assist you while the others work on your repair." Eira was not a convincing liar, necessarily - but it wasn't actually a lie.

Sea Devil shifted uneasily in her seat, long-fingered hands wringing together in that way Jessie knew bespoke nervousness. "There is much magic here. The song is broken, as if many have sung what they should not." She reached up and tapped a button on her helmet, turning the faceplate translucent and showing off what did indeed look like the large face of a very large frog underneath. She cast her goggle-eyed gaze on the detective and said, "Some of it echoes from you. Have you been in the closet? Perhaps it sounds from there. We should listen to it. "

"...no," said Frost, sounding concerned. "Is made of stone. Castle of sunlight is in Ukraine." There was a pause, and then he laughed. "Hah, got you! Look at your face!" he said, suddenly snapping to cheerfulness again. "Anyway, come sit, come sit," he said, taking a seat himself at the head of the room's small table and looking up at Ghost with an expression of great interest. "So you wish to volunteer for Freedom League, eh?" He made a little gesture with his hand that suggested he was used to having a cigarette in it. "Magnificent. What can you do?"

APPROVED

Angelic Control The title is something on Eira's mind - and she is indeed stuffed with diamonds! It has the right level of teenage angst, especially someone who has learned to compensate for her feeling of weakness by performing strength. Listening to these now as I write this, and why yes, with a mind capable of projecting itself into cyberspace, she is indeed bigger than her body. The hard percussion sounds like a hammer striking work too. Gasoline Another Halsey song, but hey not too many pop songs about machine angst out there. Eira could go out and buy a 100 dollar bottle of champagne if she lived in a civilized country like Sweden and not America anyhow. Titanium Another good song about being made of metal! Eira's not actually titanium, though. Not yet. Paint It Black This is the song that plays for the Bad Future Eira, that one where she outlives her human friends and mentors and that decided Talos was right about the machine age's relationship with humanity. Not going to go this route with the character, but it's an interesting picture - especially since it's what people might feel about the anti-social machine supergenius. Harder Better Faster Stronger This is Eira's power-up song! This is the one that plays when she's getting one of her season-beginning (or ending) upgrades, or that her fans make as the soundtrack for AMVs of her at work on herself. I can imagine her stepping into some sort of upgrade machine like the device Tony uses to take off the armor in the early movies, then coming out with a new paintjob and glowing eyes. Immigrant Song A classic song for any character from a Nordic country, here with a female vocalist. This is the song that plays as Angelic flies into battle, her mirror-bright body crackling with barely-suppressed internal energies. Ocean Eyes I wanted to get in at least one Billie Eilish song, since that's been Eira's faceclaim for quite some time. This one isn't too bad for her relationship with Pan at least in its bad moments. He is very charismatic and is her first boyfriend; tough times if their relationship runs into trouble! Luckily she has a quicksilver little heart and will recover from any bad blood. Eventually! Human (Andromeda Remix) An obvious choice but I think not a bad one. Eira knows that she is sentient, she is 'human' as anyone else - but she also knows her mind is not an organic mind, without its dreams, its cares, its illusions. And she knows too that she is not the little human girl who laid down in that hospital bed and never woke up. Everybody's Fool This is the song for when Eira is down on herself, not down on the world. Bummer! She's obviously the wrong generation to have listened to a song about as old to her as late-period disco is to me, but they don't always have to be the right music for the character, just for the player! The Eagle Flies Alone Eira loves the band, dresses like the lead singer (who just happens to look like her Aunt Kimber), and has yelled this song at maximum volume in her dorm room. I had to include this one! Eira loves metal music, especially the varieties from her native Sweden. She doesn't really have the voice for it, though. Anyway, if she had actually compiled this list in-character, it would be mostly this band.

I would like to volunteer Fast-Forward and Hologram!

"I can help you," croaked Aquaria from inside her power armor, which she was keeping firmly shut around the Surface-Men to avoid frightening them. "I can hear spells and tricks, and Singularity is very strong. Together we can find the people that stole the baby. We are helpers of your kind and of your children." Her voice was odd, an electronic bass that buzzed and echoed like nothing human, but it seemed to trouble the average Surfacer less than her regular voice. "And so can this person. Are you a real ghost?" she asked curiously. "I know a ghost, she is from a land called Canada."

You can just have Sea Devil and Singularity arrive.

Woodsman Save Yourself, Claire de Lune This song from one of the Fury Road trailers helped inspire Woodsman's characterization; the picture of the horrific world where all was lost and the heroes had become the ultimate monsters - but humanity survived even so. "What were the final words of Lady Liberty to the people of your world?" "Run. Save yourselves." Teddy Bears' Picnic Well I have looked for ages for one of those creepy, horrific covers of this song and I have not been able to find it. You should imagine it, though! Twinkle So this will have to do! The Devil and the Huntsman This song works great for Woodsman in combat. Honestly combat has been the hardest thing for me to write about Woodsman because it's hard to come up with reasons why he's not more R-rated! Old Town Road This is another song where you can definitely picture Riley in combat, usually with the slow, methodical trap-setting that he'd actually use when confronted with a large group or a metahuman attack. Hard to model "Riley has directed you towards a punji pit" in combat outside of his home though. O Death On the one hand this is not quite right for a young man barely in his early twenties. On the other hand the eerie acapella voice from the grave is another song that matches the narrative of his dying homeworld, and the scenes he sees when he closes his eyes at night on days when it's been bad. Riley understands that sometimes death runs riot and there's nothing you can do but run, hide, and fight. Take Me Home, Country Roads But they never did. Smooth Riley's world, or at least the civilization that spawned him, died in agony just as December of 1999 ended. The songs of those last days survived on the lips of the survivors, on CDs and records and folktales, and so Carlos Santana's Smooth has survived past all reason as one of the last hymns of a dead world. Cornbread and Butter Beans This is a good song for where Riley is when he's in an emotionally good place and maybe has a girlfriend, a song about being happy with what you've made with your hands and the space you've carved for yourself and your family. This isn't his song very often though. Changes I don't know if I was knowledgeable enough to write a trans character, but I certainly gave it a good shot. I generally wrote anything that felt off to Riley feeling like he needed to perform for all these crazy metahumans he was surrounded by, or just being a product of a different world with different values. He's not like other queer kids, and is torn sometimes between wanting to be like them more than anything and wanting to do his own stuff.

The room was cold when Casper entered, despite an obviously thrumming-lively heating system. "Ah, come in, come in! Make yourself at home," said Frost, all smiles at his arrival. By the time Casper had arrived, Frost was dressed in a vaguely old-fashioned suit that was pure, almost-gleaming white. "Just one moment," he added, waving a finger as he walked to the stair below. Hand cupped to his mouth he called loudly, "Is all right, Yuri, man came up through floor! No need for welcoming committee!" That got back a shout in Russian, one that Frost returned with an edged smile, and then Frost approached Casper to clap him on the shoulder with icy grip. "Glad to see you. Here there is food, and beverage, still warm I think." Casper could see a cup of frozen-solid coffee at one end of the table along with the rest of the dishes. "So here you are! Tell me, what do you think of art?" he asked, gesturing to the paintings on the walls. "Is fine example of Russian creativity, no?" He tapped the glass over one with a pen he pulled from his pocket. 'This is Savrasov's Monastery of Caves, even older than I am, yes?" He laughed. "You would hardly know of rock-eating cult of devilmen underneath if you did not know they were already there. That is Russian art for you!" he added cheerfully, hand in his pocket, a raconteur in his element.

Delighted that Jessie was going to be coming with her without her even having to sing pleadingly to her or do a dance, Aquaria helped make sure Jessie had all her gear, even the Lemurian shield she wore strapped over her back like a backpack. Maybe things were actually going to go well for them today despite its very irritating start. "It will be a delight! We will save the baby and everyone will say we are heroes," she croaked hopefully as she hopped her way over to the big swinging apartment window. Like most heroes in Freedom City, she and Jessie had the special sort that actually opened and not the terrible transparent cages that half the Surface population locked themselves into half the time. "I will see you there!" she called as the thrumming internal drive inside her suit propelled her out and away.

"Well here, you take this sweetheart then, then," said Judy, happily handing the dog off to Micah. She stayed close too, and slipped her arm around him so she could keep petting the dog too. "A man needs a couple of good dogs in his life," she opined. She smiled at Micah and said, "He is, but Ah like you better." And then she leaned in and gave Micah a kiss right on the cheek. - "Okay," said Eira softly, "okay. I trust you." And then she kissed him on the lips, a quick peck and soft smile, and handed her puppy friend off to her boyfriend too. "You see? You are both good boys."

When it was done, the modified creature looked very much unlike how it had started. Eira had methodically removed its limbs, one after the other, and used the displaced mass to build internal structures inside the torso. Eira sat back on a bench and watched as the drone rose into the air on humming internal motors, driven by redirected internal charge. Humming along, the drone hovered awkwardly in the air as it wobbled its way towards the front door of the palace it had left. It then turned, faced the wall, and fired a rapid-fire volley of gears in several lines against the marble. Flight wasn't the only thing Eira had used the thing's internal alchemical energies to power. By the time Eira had walked over to join her drone, it had blasted a large EK into the wall, the letters carved out by metal gears driven deep into stone. With an exaggerated smile on her face, he turned to face the door where she'd tried to enter a moment before. "Heavier-than-air flight. Magnetic railguns. These, and more, can be yours if you just open the door!"

"We struck a mine off the coast of the Fatherland and began to sink, then she came to us as we lay in the depths. She promised us victory if we gave her our souls. It seemed kinder than drowning, then. So many of the men lost themselves along the way..." Slowly he was coming apart, but seemed determined to speak. "She said she was the first of the Thule Society to take revenge, even before our crimes. Madness, madness..." He reached up and touched a hand to Wraith's body, and the two of them realized with some surprise it was the last limb attached to his frame. "I am Captain Heinz Gorman of Goslar. Tell them...I remember..." And then, with a final shiver to ash, he was gone.

Sea Devil "No that does not sound right. No I do not think so. Goodbye." Aquaria hung up the phone and gave it a goggle-eyed glare, then hopped into the other room where Jessie had been watching television. It had been trivially easy for her to hear both her phone conversation and the television set. "They asked if I knew anything about a cult stealing a baby!" Aquaria croaked, sounding thoroughly scandalized. "Do you know what we should do?" she told Jessie. "We should go down there. Yes, and we should help them find their baby. So then they will have their baby, and they will not keep asking 'Aquaria, do you know anything about a cult stealing a baby for sacrifice?'" She was in high dungeon as she stomped into the mud room, her toes squishing on the tile as she snapped open her patched-together, stolen but still technically hers, power armor. "That is a rude question that makes, no sense!" she added, her suit popping open with an audible hiss.

At five o'clock sharp, Comrade Frost stood on the second floor of Dobrinksi''s and checked his old-fashioned gold watch. Renting the facility had gone without a hitch, Dobrinski owing him a favor relating to his immigration to the United States in 1991. So here he stood surrounded by fairly good imitations of Aivazovsky and Savrasov paintings, holding a piping hot cup of coffee in his hands as he waited for it to freeze to ice, the room full of the smell of the small appetizers he'd had warmed up for the occasion. "Tum-te-tum," he muttered to himself as he stuck his hands in his jacket pocket, rocking back and forth on his feet, "Oh you song! Little song of a maiden," he muttered to himself, "And reach for the soldier on the far-away border, along with greetings from Katyusha...."

Judy hurried down after Danica by dint of vanishing in a flare of rainbow light and reappearing next to Danica. "Chelone," she said, her voice full of sympathy as she appeared next to the tortoise girl. "Can Ah give you a ride back to the school?" she asked, offering her hand to Danica. "We can let the grownup heroes handle this one." Ashley watched Judy from the top of the elephant near Fa'Rua, folding her hands behind her back as she waited for Judy's response. She looked over at her girlfriend and couldn't help smiling as she said "If you're catching a ride, sis, I think I'll head off with the space cops. Maybe I can learn a few things from them."

Ashley grinned at Fa'Rua, wanting badly to tell her that it was so cute when she used Earth slang, or maybe to shut her up by kissing her on the mouth. "Okay," she said, trying to keep her cool as the giant elephant lumbered to a stop in the spot where it had stated the day's journey. Comrade Frost had stepped back down below at the arrival of the alien spaceship, so she felt freer to talk than she might have been otherwise. "Here's what we'll do. We're gonna let the experts handle the kids; and I know the Lor will get them back to their families. Danica, we will find you the best damn Segway money can buy. Pan, we are maybe not ready to go back into space yet. Judy, we need to get you back under cover, so I can-" The elephant reached its spot and gave a long, deep rumble in its throat, and then settled down into its foundation - and abruptly stopped moving. There was a feeling of a long, content sigh, of something coming to rest, and then they were on top of the building again. Just a building. On the plus side, Lucy was cleaner than she'd been in a long, long time.

"I'm the one who knows about the encrypted signal you're sending out," said Ashley firmly. She hesitated just a moment, then said, "Judy, you need to go back to Claremont. If he's sending out signals to somebody and doesn't know about it, they're probably using him as bait." "I...okay," said Judy hesitantly, shooting a worried look at Ashley, then Luke, before she vanished in a brilliant rainbow burst of light, leaving just the bodyguard and the teen alone with the cyborg. "So how about it, kid?" said Ashley not unsympathetically. "Are you in it, or are they using you?"

"Oh..." Eira stepped into the enclosure and took the puppy from Pan, looking into its big dark eyes. "...är du en bra hund?" she asked softly. Sure enough, the dog began licking her face and yelping happily, and Eira said "Oh, oh you are a good dog, yes..." She sat down at the edge of the enclosure, leaning against an inside wall, and began petting the dog's head, looking into its eyes as if gazing into the secrets of the universe. She leaned against Pan as the dog kept licking her face, looking as if she didn't have a care in the world.

"Better do what the magic girl says, it's her birthday," opined Riley. He considered a moment, then said, "Hey, I think you owe her a favor in the bank, right? Just like I owe Fred for...you know, that thing." He really didn't want to talk about the thing. "Besides, it's that or I tell you more about my girl and I don't think you want to hear that!"

"Somebody who knows people in the game, but isn't tied to it directly. We don't want anybody who'd go into it feeling compromised, or anybody who'd actually be compromised." A lot of sneaky detective types would have relished a chance to spy on their superpowered fellows, but the sort of people who'd actually be interested in doing that were definitely not the sort of people they'd actually want to hire. Richard thought. "That new Archer kid?" The second Archer was not exactly a kid but Paige and Richard were both old enough to be his parents if things had gotten a little unlucky back in the day.

"Oh is perfect then," said Frost easily. "There is little art gallery in Riverside, I have understanding with owner. Dobrinksi's, place has great many traditional Russian paintings. We meet on second floor and talk business, look at paintings. You meet me there in couple of hours, eh, say five o'clock. You have any allergies to shellfish, infernalism, cigars?" he inquired curiously.

Voltage: You are able (with a little help from Freebooter, who came in second) to find the contents of the Patriot's short-term memory, though it is segmented off in a section he cannot personally view. What he sees (and what the Foundry remnants were guarding) is a facility for rapidly building androids. Specifically, versions of Jack Simmons. These machines are being turned out on an assembly-line basis by rapidly-working 3-D printers that are probably not making sentient androids but are certainly making powerful synthetic drones. The Foundry remnants were tending those machines, and that's what prompted the fight between the AEGIS team and the robots.