Avenger Assembled

"It was nice having you here," said Joan. "Come back anytime!" She watched as Erin drove away, then rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "If I don't see you first, that is," she added sotto voice. She had a mystery on her hands in the person of her friend the superpowered Seattle girl, and she was going to do all she could to solve it. Not because I don't like you, Erin, but because I do. She could do it subtly, too, and make sure Wander never knew she'd been there at all. It wouldn't be secret if it wasn't important. And if my friend has a problem...well, I owe it to her to help. When she told Charlie about it that night in bed, he wasn't at all thrilled by the idea. But he didn't have a reporter's nose for the truth. Or an octopus' long reach.

"It was nice having you here," said Joan. "Come back anytime!" She watched as Erin drove away, then rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "If I don't see you first, that is," she added sotto voice. She had a mystery on her hands in the person of her friend the superpowered Seattle girl, and she was going to do all she could to solve it. Not because I don't like you, Erin, but because I do. She could do it subtly, too, and make sure Wander never knew she'd been there at all. It wouldn't be secret if it wasn't important. And if my friend has a problem...well, I owe it to her to help. When she told Charlie about it that night in bed, he wasn't at all thrilled by the idea. But he didn't have a reporter's nose for the truth. Or an octopus' long reach.

"The worst I've ever had," agreed Joan, looking down at her arms. "To be honest, if I'd been alone, I'd probably have run as fast as I could back onto shore after the first big couple of hits. But there were civilians on that beach, and children, and people in peril in the water. They had to know they weren't alone. I'm just glad I wasn't alone either." She smiled, then got up to walk Erin to the door. "I like your truck, by the way. Isn't that last year's model? You're doing pretty well for a high school kid." She smiled still, not wanting to make the girl uncomfortable. "We haven't bought a car since coming back to the States, so we do all our commuting via bus."

Joan had grace enough to feel bad, and skill enough to pull back when the girl's discomfort became obvious. "Well, we can talk about that another time. I don't want you to feel weird showing an old lady off to your friends." She was a little too cynical, though, to think she wouldn't be covering up the secret if there wasn't some meat on this story. She smiled and said, "Listen, Erin, dinner or not, I still owe you a favor. It's not every day I meet someone from the West Coast and they save my arms in the process. Anytime you need anything, just give me a call and I'll see what I can do."

"I could do that," said Joan thoughtfully. She was already planning ahead. Find Erin's friends, secure an interview using their common Olympic past, and find out a little more about the mysterious girl who was her savior. "Claremont has such a good reputation, and they were so helpful when I contacted them through channels." She hmmed. "Maybe I could return this visit at your place sometime in the future, and you could show me around?" Yes, and introduce me to your friends, she thought, so I can get just a little closer to the mystery. Her tentacles were twitching.

"Wow! That was amazing!" Mark exulted, his enthusiasm entirely unfeigned as he clasped his two new buddies around the shoulders. "That was great, Dimitri! You've got cool powers. Hey, let's go this way," he said, acting as a bon vivant tour guide as he steered everyone towards the cafe. It was a generic sort of collegy place, one where Mark was evidently well-known enough that the staff greeted him by name. "We come here a lot," he said, "some of my friends and I. This one time there was a girl who...well, that's a different story. You should order the burgers."

"I can't exactly put on my sweatsuit and go for a run these days," said Joan, a wry smile on her face. "Like I said, these things don't go away, and believe me, you can tell they're there. Getting in-costume is about the only way I have to work out when I'm outside these doors." She studied Erin, balancing her maternal instincts with a reporter's hunger for knowledge. "I still follow Olympic sports fairly regularly, are your classmates anyone I'd know?" she asked. "I was about a foot too tall and fifty pounds too heavy for gymnastics, of course."

APPROVED

"It was quite an experience," said Joan. "He was a hero too, and seemed like a good man, though a little too opinionated for my tastes," she added. When Erin didn't elaborate about her home dimension, Joan chose not to pry too closely. It took quite a personal effort. "One of my old teammates was Hachiman, the Japanese god of war, so occasionally we'd pay a visit to the court of Ameratsu. That was always an adventure, even if I usually had to hang around the back with the weaker heroes. Not because I'm a woman," she added, "but I was on the junior team there. It sounds like you kids are having higher-powered adventures than we did." She sighed, just a little. "Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I'd had my accident when I was younger and been a teenage hero. When I was your age, I spent most of my time on the track. I actually made it to the Olympics in Sydney." She sighed, shaking her head, and added, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't monopolize the conversation. Did your parents come with you from your home dimension, then?"

Great sheet, love the background! Go in and add your heavy load with super-strength and your leaping distance. Don't forget to add your descriptors. (Mutation, presumably?)

"It can be soothing," said Freedom Angel, smiling faintly. "There is infernal activity enough, and pure mortal wickedness, to give anyone a great sense of satisfaction in a job well-done in this city. And with those who've chosen sin, and do so knowingly and willingly, for reasons beyond despair and fear, well...I feel a great swell of pity for them. _After_ the battle, when they can no longer harm innocents." He studied Gavriel's champion for a moment, then asked, "When you spoke to the archangel, what did he say to you, exactly?"

"I've had worse," said Joan, frowning a little. "But you're right. God knows worse things could happen to me, or any other hero." She laughed a little, and added, "Hell, you saw me going through some of that the other day. I'm just glad your friend Alex was there. I tried contacting her for tonight," she added, "but apparently she's at a business meeting." She hmmed, then added, "So, long as we're telling war stories, did I hear you say something about getting sucked into other dimensions? I met the male version of myself once, but I've mostly done globe-hopping not dimension-hopping."

Half an hour later, Erin had finished her pie and was onto the really good, Seattle-style coffee that Joan had made. She hadn't had to say more than a few words. "And so it is really difficult. Between the barely-supers like Bombshell, who think they need to earn the respect of men by dressing up for them, and the ladies who make a big show of their whitebread lifestyles so they don't have to deal with the catcalls in their own way, it's not easy. Even the ones I don't like at least have the freedom to make their own choices, though, so I have to respect that. Even if they do make things tougher for the rest of us, particularly with all the super-fetishists out there." Lois had cleared away from the table by now, as had Charlie: evidently they'd heard this kind of thing from her before. "I'm sorry," she said, "am I being too blunt? I know you're just a kid, but you've seen some of the weirder crap out there. And then they have the gall to hide behind freedom of the press."

Joan didn't press that subject, not wanting to scare off the girl who'd saved her life. It was evidently an awkward one, and the last thing she wanted to do was hurt her feelings. "When I'm older, maybe," she said, shooting a look at her husband who carefully concentrated on his pie. "Right now this is where I'm working, and Charlie's working, and Lois is going to school. We can't keep moving her around." Lois piped up then with some stories about being a little kid on Macek Island, a fascinating place that sounded like it had a lot of aliens on it. When she was done, Joan asked Erin, "Do you find it's tough being a teen superheroine in today' society? I've seen some Young Freedom coverage and I've noticed how much press the boys always get."

"I know the feeling," Joan agreed whole-heartedly. "Freedom City summers are the only thing that's seriously made me contemplate just vacationing from my ID for a few days." That sparked a conversation between her and her husband as he came back with the pie; it sounded like that was something of a sore subject. When they'd gotten that straightened out, and everyone was eating again, Joan studied the girl, putting some details together about her backstory. "It's a long way from here to the West Coast. We're going to have to pay to fly Lois' grandma out here rather than everyone go there for the holidays this year." It wasn't hard to make some guesses about the girl's life, given where she was during the summer. "Were you able to make it home over the holidays?" she asked gently.

Superior takes another bruised, leaving him at -2. Midnight is up.

Geckoman: 22 Phalanx: 21 Edge: 18 Wander: 17 Midnight: 17 Rift: 8 Hellion: 8 The Centurion goes on 28; Superior goes on 11 The Centurion takes a move action to fly over and punch Superior in the face. He hits Superior's Defense of 22 DC 40 Tou save from the All-Out-Power-Attack He is bruised and stunned No knockback, to save time. Phalanx is up. Phalanx is up, since technically all this happened on his turn.

"You cannot carve the heart of sin from man," replied Heyzel gently. "If the Creator and all his angels couldn't do so, why believe that you can? Or should?" He shook his head, giving Gabriel a sympathetic look. "To save one life is to save your own, Gabriel. Don't imagine that you've fallen because you haven't already saved the world." He sighed, and admitted, "We cannot save the world alone. We need other striving with us for love and justice; not just people in costumes and masks," he added, the sunlight gleaming off his silver armor, "but the men and women on the street who do all they can to make this a better place. Think of this city," he said, gesturing to the view around them. "Besieged a thousand times by terrible fiends, each time barely rescued by the good auspices of its heroes. But the people here live, and love, and know joy. Not because of anything we do, but because they are who they are. That they can know love and happiness here, and the mercy of Heaven, is the finest reward for our work I can imagine."

Decided I'd kept you guys waiting long enough. Everybody, have an HP and take whatever actions seem appropriate.

"Fool! You'll never penetrate the mad schemes of Dr. Stratos! His genius is-" That voice, that very familiar voice, was too easy for the boys to recognize. In a flash of light, the robot vanished entirely, the illusory construction leaving behind no traces in its wake. The impervium hallway in front of them was scarred with the marks of Rift's blasts, as well as a circular hole in the wall where blank white walls were just visible on the other side. Just past that, standing before a giant black machine that twisted bizarrely through a thousand impossible shapes, cables leading from it into the white room, stood an abashed-looking Sebastian Stratos, his small frame ridiculous in a huge winter overcoat, while a white-faced Medea stood carefully behind him. "Well, crap," he said, his words punctuated by a ripping sound from behind the teens as Wander and Hellion's fists and sword broke through the impervium door behind them, reuniting Young Freedom as they stood together at the edge of tomorrow. "I am so mad at Simian right now! Him and his fool Auto-Illusion can go piss up a rope!" He tore off his ski cap and jumped on it, then added hastily, "But he'll be pissing up that rope as a king! Because do you know what, children? Medea and I have done it! We've cracked the doors of Creation and freed a being with the power to bring you heroes down to where you belong! I give you...SUPERIOR!" And then, while Medea cast a glowing white shield to temporarily block the heroes attacks, Stratos reached inside himself. The mad genius pulled on decades of hate and loathing for the costumed clowns who'd taken away so many of his dreams of respect, of power, of world domination, and poured it out in one magnificent eruption of lightning, the sheer power of the actintic bolt nearly blinding the onlooking heroes as electricity rushed from his body and blasted deep into the heart of the great machine, then rocketed from there into the heart of the Zero Room. "FOOLS! NOW YOU'LL ALL PAY!" He paused a beat, peering into the glowing white man-sized hole he'd carved in the wall. "Hey, who's-" Then the room went mad. A blonde figure in a black uniform came blasting through the hole, slapping Stratos aside. The mad scientist smashed into the wall with a loud crunch, staggering as he tried to right himself. Superior, his eyes wide and staring, blinked rapidly until he pulled out a set of black goggles from his Nazi-cut uniform, pulling them over his eyes. "Damn this brightness...out of my way, you fools!" He spat as he flew at the kids. "Don't you know who's behind me?" Behind him, his uniform battered and torn, his handsome face half-hidden by a cybernetic harness around his neck and back, a very, very familiar figure appeared. "Not this time, Kal-Zed!" called the Centurion. "The young heroes of Freedom are here to stop you! And so am I!" And with that, he flew in and landed a devastating punch in the middle of Superior's chest, the KOOM of impact like a sonic boom that blurred the air, sending the Nazi superman back into the impervium wall behind him, his super-tough body cracking it as surely as Edge's had a few minutes earlier. "You'll never win, Kal-Zed!"

Mark led the way as they headed downstairs, animatedly telling the story of how he'd found the ticket for the taffy contest in a shirt he'd been planning to donate to Goodwill. "Alex has me volunteering at soup kitchens some nights," he said, almost walking backwards as he pedeconferenced his way out the door. "You guys should try it sometime, it's pretty fun! Well, not that fun, I mean, I feel really bad for those people, but it feels good when you can help them out." He smiled. "Sometimes when they don't have food, I make my own! I should cook for you guys sometime, make something better than what we ate before we went to the Arctic. How you guys like the weather?"

"I am no man," the angel reminded him, "but I would be happy to help." He landed, folding his wings behind him, and peered at Gabriel. "You are uncertain about your mission," he said after a moment's contemplation. "You wonder why the power of Heaven would be made incarnate in mortal man, particularly in a world where power flows so very freely." He made a gesture to the sky, where a distant superhero flew. "It is a difficult question. As Heaven's ambassador to Earth, I am often faced with the same," he confessed. "It's why I've acted as a superhero," he said, "and why you should do the same, even here. People understand you better that way. It's easier to...fit in."

Eventually Charlie got up to get dessert out of the oven, a chocolate cream pie that everyone seemed to be looking forward to. "Charlie's a great cook, you'll love it. He learned a lot of new dishes when we were in Japan, and I think it really upped his culinary talents. We're really eating well these days." She laughed, then said, "Erin, you mentioned you were from Seattle, yes?" She'd picked up on the tension in the girl's voice at the thought. "Did your family send you out here so you could get hero training in Freedom? I know we're pretty thin on the ground in parts of the West Coast."

"Actually," said Mark, "she's a millionaire! She runs the AEON Corporation, I dunno if you've heard of that." He smiled. "She's pretty fun, we're on Young Freedom together. That's one of the teams here at school," he added. "We're not supposed to go out and adventure in costume, so we only do it if we're needed. Or if we need to patrol," he added. "I mean we need to practice that kind of stuff. Now that you're here, we can patrol the whole world!" Not wanting to neglect Tasha, he added, "Have you met my friend Bankshot? She's visually impaired as well, but she's got this cool radio power that lets her be a really great shot! You should meet her sometime. In the meantime, I'll give you a tour too!" Back at Dimitri, he added, "Sure, I'll give you the GPS." He pulled it off his own teleporter and read it off to him.

In a flash of light, an angel appeared before him. This was less surprising to Gabriel than it might have been to most people, but this was an angel he'd not seen before. This was Heyzel, the angel of Freedom, a member of the Freedom League. For his part, Heyzel gave the man a careful once-over. So this was the candidate Gavriel had chosen to bear a tiny fraction of his awesome power? He looked a man of faith and devotion, but what had made the regent of Heaven empower him? "I come in answer to your prayer, chosen of Gavriel. I am Heyzel, the angel of Freedom."