Avenger Assembled
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"Aw, geez!" The thug exclaimed. "If Raven shows ya his face, it means he's gonna send you up the river! But I ain't goin' back to stir!" He pulled out a .38 special and waved it at Raven. Chris Kenzie saw the gun and knew he had to do something about it, but on closer inspection, the firearm was being waved around as if the guy had never held one before: if he shot that gun, it wasn't going to hit a thing. "You won't get me, see!" - As Midnight listened to the excited voice of Erin White over his radio, he caught sight of a statue in the roundabout; a Pieta-analogue he wasn't immediately familiar with. Slowing down, he realized who both figures were: the man cradling the body was the Centurion, his stony face set with grief, and the man in his arms was a clearly recognizable version of the man who'd shattered the world just a little while earlier. Checking the statue's dedication, big enough to be seen from the road, he read FOR ALL THE VICTIMS OF OMEGA. The list of names underneath, too small to be seen, was noticeably _much_ smaller than the list of people he knew had been killed in the Terminus Invasion of '93.
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"Kid Midnight!" Behind Erin, her double stopped dead in her tracks, calling to someone Erin couldn't see. Turning around, she saw the other Wander holding a big wrist-worn communicator up to her wrist. "Thank goodness you called! This is Wander! I need your help! Meet me by Freedom Hall right away!" She was talking quite loudly; Wander could hear every word. "Rednaw's on the loose again! And she's running a lot faster than usual!" - Chris Kenzie, aka Raven, couldn't see anything amiss at Spellbound's place from the outside. The house was its normal semi-detached ranch, the garage door open with a big black roadster parked inside, naturally shaped to look like a witch's broom. There were two floors, three bedrooms, and a menacing thug lurking on the porch!? A huge man in an ill-fitting suit stood there, glowering at passersby, his fedora perched on an oddly square, oddly-colored head. The other houses on the street were deserted, just like they usually were; who'd live in such a high-crime area?
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"You should!" said Mark cheerily. "He's pretty cool. I mean, I know it's an easy stereotype; the Asian hacker guy, but he carries it off pretty well." He pecked Faith on the cheek, then watched her go as she headed off to class. "Anyway, I've gotta get going. Nice talking to you, Ako!" And with that, he turned and ran off himself, looking like he had not a care in the world.
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Kid Midnight roared along on his Midnight Cycle, its mighty radioactive engines powered by the atom itself! Just as he got near Ashton, the fine suburban district where the Lucases lived on his own world, an accented voice came piping in wildly over his Midnight Radio. "Kid Champion! Kid Champion! This is Officer O'Malley of the 45th precinct! We've got a hostage situation at the Bank of Freedom! He's some kind of crazy drugged-up hippie in a battlesuit who says the whole world's gone insane!"
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Down below the Midnight Manor, Trevor found something so horrible it was tough to look at, even for a boy hardened by street-fighting and strong training. The Midnight Cycle's overall shape was the same, but all else was changed, even its size. In between the front headlights there gleamed a gigantic stylized clock twice the diameter of his own face, the welded-on hands pointing permanently to midnight. Other clocks were affixed to the rear, these made of a strange alien metal he didn't recognize, ticking away merrily as they showed the correct time, small radioactivity symbols visible just behind them on the Cycle's oversized chassis. On the motorcycle's huge handlebars, there were three big buttons labeled in big, easy-to-read type: Stealth Mode, Flight Mode, and Space Mode. All around him, the Midnight lair was changed in many other ways, the huge computer in the rear up to date, the trophies that his grandfather had long since donated to the Super-Museum sitting out in plain view, each one labeled for the inspection of any passing visitor.
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"...hey! She's not supposed to do that!" Most of Teen Freedom hesitated at 'Rednaw's' sudden retreat, but evidently Wander's reflexes and speed were something that crossed the barriers of causality. Wander soon found herself with her identical twin in hot pursuit, though she was gradually gaining ground thanks to the other-Wander's tendency to stop in the middle of a chase to shout "By the mighty mountains of Seattle!" every time she did something surprising. Still, even with her double's tendency to monologue, this was going to be a tough chase if she didn't get some help. - "You, my boy, need to go to school," said Duncan, ruffling his son's hair affectionately. "You may be Raven by night, but by day you're still Chris Kenzie, honor roll student at Claremont High. It's Memorial Day, and that lady friend of yours with the beautiful voice will be there." He grinned. "After that, though, I do have some plans for some action." He leaned close as Jasmine cleared away the dishes. "I've got word that Fear-Master and his Circus of Crime are planning to hijack all the baseballs in Freedom to hold the pennant race hostage. If you can suit up after supper, I think we can make sure that the new Raven's on the scene to put a stop to them." - "Eeeeeve!" Faith called through the bathroom door. "I need a turn in there too! Are you talking to yourself again in there?" - The Hunters headed back to Midnight Manor, where Trevor had some time to himself to clean up and have lunch before their outing later in the day. It was a school holiday, after all, which meant more spare time. "Just make sure you're back from the Lucas house before eleven tonight," said Travis cheerily. "I've got a tip about Fear-Master that I think Midnight and Kid Midnight might want to do something about."
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Hell-Ion's fingers moved like lightning over the spacecraft's controls, easily manipulating the super-sciencey craft with as much ease as Hellion would have worked a powerful magical artifact at home. He soon found that, as far as he could tell, that Rick Lucas' changes in the world were very profound. Everywhere, people were cheerful and happy, speaking in booming voices and smiling at each other, the world one of peace and order almost everywhere. Freedom City was especially a happy place, the skies bustling with brightly-colored superheroes doing their thing in style. Zooming in on Freedom Hall, which looked as it had in the history books he'd seen, he picked out a bizarre confrontation playing out on the building's rooftop. Just as he watched, his version of Erin jumped and ran, her bizarre double in hot pursuit.
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"What's she saying?" asked a girl in the back, a confused look on her half-visible face. Erin didn't recognize the teenager in the bright red costume; either someone who didn't exist in her regular world, someone she hadn't met, or just one wearing a very different costume. "Don't listen to her crazy Bizarro-talk!" said Erin's bizarrely primary-colored duplicate, whose costume was all sharply-defined blue against eye-popping yellow. "Everyone knows I became a superhero when I touched a mysterious asteroid that landed by my house in Seattle! She may be my exact opposite in every way, but she's still very sneaky!" She laughed. "Not a good disguise, though, Rednaw! Everyone knows teen girl athlete Erin White is too shy to be me! Even if we are friends, and that's why she followed me to Freedom City! Anyway, you'll never reveal _my_ secret identity! Teen Freedom, tell her who she was crazy enough to fight today!" The girl in the rear, who on closer inspection was actually older than Erin had thought, jumped to the lead, her hands glowing with sparks of power. A Latina accent strong in her voice, she exclaimed "The Firecracker will put a stop to your crazy ways, Rednaw! My cherry bomb power will light you up like Cinco de Mayo!" "Not if I get you first!" called the bizarre reflection of Seven in reply. "The Witchie-Girl won't stand for you smearing my friend's good name all over Freedom City!" She waved bizarre gestures in the air, glowing with her own brand of supernatural power. "I'll use my _good_ magic to keep you from doing _bad_ things!" "Jill O'Matic'll give you a robo-punch!" promised the last stranger, her arms extending like a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robot, revealing metal and steel underneath. "I may be just a girl's brain in a robot body, but even I know crazy talk when I hear it!" None of the girls had shown any interest in actually attacking Wander so far, instead posing like they were ready to spring into action without actually doing so.
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The One Where They Fight The Nazis (OOC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in Archives
He passes. OK, Rycon is up, then Kid Cthulu. -
"Sure thing," said Travis affably, walking along with the kind of athleticism Trevor had only seen his grandfather show in old newsreels. He was no spring chicken, sure, but he didn't look a day over sixty. "Just don't you and Mark keep Jimmy up all night again," he warned teasingly. "He's not as young as he used to be. Not that any of us are." He laughed with an easy, warm cordiality.
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From behind her, Erin felt more than heard the sudden woosh of air of a teleport. Spinning around, she saw a group of four young women in bizarrely colorful costumes greeting her. They didn't look very friendly. "Teen Freedom, go!" yelled a girl in a costume like a more form-fitting version of the Wicked Witch of the West's, right down to a pointy black hat on her head. She vaguely recognized Seven, Psyche's friend the spellcaster from school. "Let's get this trespasser!" Suddenly, the girl in the rear leaped to the fore, her domino mask not hiding a very, very familiar face indeed. Pointing the weapon in her hands at Wander, which looked very much like some sort of giant baseball bat, she exclaimed. "Rednaw! Up to your old tricks again, I see! Well, you may have disguised yourself as Erin Keeley White, teen girl athlete, but you can't fool me and the rest of Teen Freedom!" - "You know I do," said Travis, walking up and putting a fatherly hand on his grandson's shoulder. "I've been friends with some of those people for sixty years. We have dinner with Siren and her husband tonight, remember?" He patted him lightly on the arm and said, "I know this is always a difficult day. The worst day any boy ever has to face. But think of how proud they'd be, knowing everything you've done." - "Geckoman? Hmm. Funny you should ask that, son. Look at today's Chronicle!" Duncan Summers held up a copy of the Chronicle, the most anti-super newspaper in the city. On the cover was a bizarre green figure, its skin warped and scaled like a lizard's, its eyes bulging wide. The headline said simply "Geckoman: Threat? Or Menace?" "Word has it he's been seen with your old friend Spellbound." Jasmine gave her adopted boy an indulgent smile, one answered by a sad headshake from her husband. "That poor girl. She wants to reform so much, but something happens every time. I really thought we had her last year, until that rock fell on her head and she went back to her old ways. It's a sad story, but that's what happens when you turn...to crime!"
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OK, folks; make sure you read everyone's section. I don't want to fill in the same setting details over and over again. To be very general, the world has become a version of comics as they existed in the mid-1960s. Technology has caught up, but values and fashion haven't. Go nuts. ;)
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A wall of black, whirling dots of ink exploded over everything, battering through James' dimensional barrier an instant after sweeping away the whole world around it. And then... - James Prophet woke up to the gentle beeping of his compu-alarm, the whirring of his electro-bed a gentle reminder of the very pleasant way he'd fallen asleep. He sat up wearily, listening to the hum of the stabilizers that kept his flying saucer in orbit of Earth. Rising to his feet, he caught sight of his face in a reflective surface of polished metal and paused. Wasn't that right? He was Hell-Ion, the half-blooded son of the crown prince of Lucifer-1, the biggest planet in the Antares system whose inhabitants had evolved red skin and ionic-wielding powers to protect themselves from the sun's red radiation. But he'd sided with his mother's people, not his father's, and become the guardian of the planet he'd once hoped to invade. Was that right? No. No, because when he looked in the mirror, he saw who he was. He was James Prophet, prince of Hell. This other life was patchy, with elements of his backstory hard to recall exactly, as if no one had ever bothered to write the story down completely, but he could remember his lives enough to know which one was real. - "Raven." Chris Kenzie woke up in a sitting position, peering through his mask at a very familiar face. His adopted father, Duncan Summers, was looking down at him with one of his characteristic indulgent smiles. "You fell asleep in costume again." Poking him lightly with his cane, he said, "Get upstairs and get some breakfast before your mother has my hide." The laughing acrobat was soon on his feet, running up the steps of the Ravencave to join his adopted mother, Jasmine Summers, for a hearty bacon and eggs breakfast. It was over breakfast, sitting with his new family and laughing and talking, that he caught sight of his face in one of Jasmine's highly polished plates. And the new life suddenly half-melted, as fast as it had come. He could remember patches; his adoption, his home, his family with Duncan and Jasmine, but other things were less sure, as if they'd been changed in an awfully fast hurry. He was Chris Kenzie, Geckoman, and he remembered that much with perfect clarity. - Erin fell thirty feet, landing on her feet in a lush, luxurious lawn. Coming to her senses, she realized she was standing beside the old Freedom Hall, the massive old mansion that had stood there before the Terminus Invasion and had once been the headquarters of the Freedom League. The sound of traffic was loud in her ears. Peering through the giant hedge between her and the street, she saw a scene like something out of an old movie; classic cars, men in suits, and women in needleskirts and pillbox hats that reminded her of pictures of Jackie Kennedy. But she hadn't traveled in time, she saw, not when she saw a young man walking along and listening to his iPod. The last thing she remembered was the end of everything. - Trevor Hunter woke up with a feeling of great loss, the way he always did on the anniversary of his parents' deaths. But Travis was there to comfort and steady him, as always, the greying-haired champion of justice a rock as they carried flowers to the graves of Ted Hunter and Janet Pryce-Hunter. Behind them was Margery, his grandfather's never-failing secretary, who'd stayed young and vital as long as Travis had thanks to their infusions of the Infinity Formula Midnight had taken from Wilhelm Kantor. It was raining just a little, enough that the smooth, polished marble reflected Trevor's face back at him as he and his grandfather recited the oath they'd taken to avenge any unjust killings like those that had taken his father and Travis' son. And it was then he remembered that his parents were alive. They'd abandoned him for Paris, left him in the care of an old man who lived alone, his favorite secretary long since dead. Patchy as the false life was, he could remember details of it, but there was no doubt in his mind about which story was which. He was Midnight II...but not this Midnight II. - Eve woke up as her cousin threw a pillow at her face. "Eeeeve! Wake up! Wake up you silly sleepyhead!" Faith gave her a big raspberry. "You'll be late for your recital!" "Fine, fine," grumbled Eve, who'd never been a morning person. She slid out of bed, headed for the bathroom, and started brushing her teeth. She looked in the mirror, saw the toothbrush blocking her mouth, and remembered. She was the hottest teen musician in Freedom City, she was a powerful psychic teen hero, she had a cute boyfriend with a nice smile. But that was a lie, wasn't it? She was Sage, and she remembered everything.
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Geckoman's attack on Rick Lucas was a signal for every hero in the room to dogpile the increasingly deranged former sidekick, the old man vanishing beneath a pile of bodies as the darkness of midnight mist closed in over the room; the air full of curses and pleas and Martha Lucas' increasingly loud screaming as her world came collapsing all around her. Suddenly there was an awesome rush of energy in the room as the pure, unadulterated magic of creation and power roared through the fabric of reality all around them. In a flash of light the midnight mist was gone, and so was every hero who'd been trying to pin down Rick, the windows shattering as whirling patterns of inky black dots spun crazily through the air all around Rick's hands. The Freedom League, and much of its reserves, were gone, just like that. "I see now!" he shouted. "I see it all!" His eyes were a noticeable shade of pure, solid black. He focused on his weeping wife and shouted, "Martha, I'm doing this for Mark! For all the children of Freedom City, and all our friends!" He threw his hands wide, the power growing till he was hard to look at. "Everything's going to be okay, I promise!" And then, he shouted a cry so loud as to ring to the edges of the universe: I WISH EVERYTHING WAS THE WAY IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE AGAIN!
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Make a Reflex save, Geckoman.
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Rick staggered and nearly fell, but with help from Chris he was up again quickly, a flash of his old strength and charisma at this awful moment. Weeping, wordless, Martha buried her face in Faith's shoulder and cried. More people had arrived by now to witness this horrible moment; some of the Next-Gen and the modern Freedom League, grief on their faces at the loss to the legendary Lucas family, and the loss of a boy who'd been a friend to most of them. Captain Thunder, his face as griefstricken as anyone there, placed his hand on Rick's shoulder. "Rick, I'm so sorry. Mark was-" The middle-aged ex-mascot whirled on the chairman of the Freedom League. "You _dare_ say my son's name!?" Red-faced with fury, he jabbed his finger into the man's bulletproof chest. "Mark Leeds is dead. _My son is dead!_ And you...you WHORE out the Freedom League to every marketer and government prostitute in the world while that entitled little brat of yours runs around like he's a little prince because his daddy runs the Freedom League!" Bolt blinked at that, but he was mature enough not to react to an insult from an adult losing his grip. On her feet, Cassandra Vale tried to take her old friend's arm. "Rick, please, you-" "NO!" Rick pulled his arm out of Siren's grip, despite her superhuman strength, his old man's voice cracking with grief."You too, _Cassie!_ Look at you, traipsing around in your goddamned underpants with my son's dead body in the next room! Is that what the avatar of a _god_ does!? Dress like a hooker!?" Red-faced now, almost hysterical, he pointed at Captain Thunder and said, "This world is a nightmare of murdered children and it's YOUR FAULT! You and the rest of that miserable, pathetic excuse for a League, sitting in the chairs of men and women a thousand times your better! Goddamn you to Hell, Ray Gardner! I wish YOU had died in that damn invasion!" And then a remarkable thing happened. With the sound of a popping soap bubble, Captain Thunder vanished into thin air. "Daaad!?" Bolt turned white and charged Rick reflexively, but vanished just as fast in a crackle of black Kirby dots, his vacant uniform tumbling to the ground empty. And the room fell dead silent, as Rick, looking as shocked as anyone, stared down at his hands, now crackling with obscenely powerful magical energies that tugged at the edges of reality itself.
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It says the next attack you make against that target is a surprise attack (on page 42, which has the Feint rules, which is what Startle is for Intimidate). So I'd say it would be in place whenever the next attack comes. And I can edit the description of Lukos if you don't like it, but this did seem like the sort of thing that would make him at least a little mad, if not actually use the Rage feat. ;)
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DC 26 Sense Motive for that to seem weird, I guess, with Avenger's Bluff Skill Mastery? (Wander's acting weird, but who's to say it was weird for Avenger?) Then DC 20 Notice save to see what in particular Avenger did.
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The One Where They Fight The Nazis (OOC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Avenger Assembled's topic in Archives
He auto-passes, given his Sense Motive. OK, Darksider is up. -
ic Fisticuffs 2: The Opening Credits (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Geez3r's topic in Sewers and Subways
Avenger blinked as the fight went on, taking careful note of everyone's reaction. More out of worry for the girl who was going insane right in front of him, he opted to intervene once it was obvious no one was was moving fast enough. He saw the big girl, Archeville's girlfriend, readying herself, but he was acutely conscious of how much Dead Head had already been hurt. No. No more blood in the water tonight.He got between Wander and Dead Head before she could do any more damage than she already had, risking his own neck in the process as he looked her in the eye and said, "He's dead for real this time! Thank you! You won the fight!You should go home now." -
People with any kind of Acute or Accurate regular sensory power: Rick just went away. You can see him, you can hear him, but his scent (Geckoman), etc, has just _stopped_. Hellion, Something damn peculiar just happened to Rick Lucas. The nearest you can tell is that something of both magic and dimensions just broke inside him, and now he's radiating a very odd sort of energy. The overall effect (in mundane terms) is a bit like seeing a concrete wall breaking, and discovering from your suddenly clicking Geiger counter that it was the containment vessel to a nuclear reactor.
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After a quick redirection from McNider, the heroes and their grim cargo wound up at the special clinic adjacent to Freedom Hall, the doctors there the best in the world and trained to deal with super-injuries. The ER is a bright, loud place, like they all are, and within seconds Mark's body has been pulled away, his parents close behind. Peering through the half-glassed doors, the Young Freedom members can just make out the frantic activity inside, and the raised, furious voice of Rick Lucas over everything. "No! Damn you, no! This will not happen!" A few seconds later, he and Mark's ashen, shocky mother are outside the room, an increasingly frantic Rick on the phone. Within minutes, a cavalcade of middle-aged and elderly heroes are arriving; some recognizable as retired members of the former Freedom League, others new faces to the Young Freedomites. Rick Lucas is calling in every favor earning over a lifetime fighting alongside the most powerful heroes in the world. But none stay long, the look they give Mark's parents enough to convey everything. Even some of the present Freedom League had arrived now; Captain Thunder and Lady Liberty, the latter immediately going in to try and help Mark. Siren, an old friend of the family, did her best to comfort Martha, but Rick didn't so much stop pacing, or talking, since they were escorted out of the room. "I will not allow this," he muttered, over and over again, "I will not allow this. Not my son too. They can't take my son from me." His fury and grief are palpable, the look in his eyes of a man utterly betrayed by the universe. But none of it seemed to matter when a grief-stricken Lady Liberty stepped out of the room, her hands covered in blood. "Rick, Martha...I'm so sorry." As Martha turned white and burst into tears all over again, Rick's face turned red and he staggered, as if the old man was about to have a heart attack...or as if his heart had been torn from his chest.
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Fisticuffs 2: Avenger vs Lukos (IC)
Avenger Assembled replied to Geez3r's topic in Sewers and Subways
Avenger gave a terrible laugh, his body in the form of a drifting, all-encompassing cloud of mist drifted towards the furious werewolf. "Is that a dog barking in the nighttime? Why yes, I think it is!" Great billowing shrouds sprung up on both sides of Lukos, as if the night itself was turning against him. "Your threats mean nothing. Your power means nothing. You are a child playing in the dark, hoping the stuffed animal on your head will keep you safe from the monsters." People watching the fight by electronic means saw nothing but an increasingly wary lycanthrope, just as they'd seen nothing of Avenger since the fight began. A voice sounded roughly an inch from Lukos' left ear. "But nothing will keep you safe from me." -
I have no problem with you popping your alt. form. Startling as a Standard Action: Woo-hoo! Nat 20! For an unbeatable DC 41. Using my move action to fly over and get to know Lukos on a more personal level.
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Faith could feel the after-effects of the Terminus shard in Mark's body, the cold, absolute touch of pure entropy and death seeping through him. Mark's parents were there in a second, Mark's mother screaming and near tears, his father absolutely white-faced. Rick pressed his hands to the wound, stopping up the bleeding from the front, while he grabbed Erin's hands and through sheer force of will the old man pinned the super-strong teen's hands to the wound in Mark's back. But there was no real bleeding to stop, just a faint trickle, and Erin and Faith saw the ashen grief fall over the old man's face as he held his son's body in his arms. But what could be said, what could be done, but keep trying? "It'll be okay, son," Rick was promising, over and over again, "it'll be okay..."