Avenger Assembled

Let us know when it's ready or a second look

Looks good! I'll let other folks do a deep mechanical dive. APPROVED

"Oh yeah! My ma and her whole gang tried to knock over Fort Knox when they locked up the old League. That was way before I came along, though." Technically not all of them had been locked up; Midnight I in particular had simply refused the suggestion that the League turn themselves in for government interrogation, but that was a conversation for another time. "So you two are both pretty young," he said, deciding it wasn't worth the trouble to zip over and check their ages, "when you talk about getting together in the trade, we're talking, what, about 2010?"

Aw, jeez, thought Richard, who had at times been called a 'soppy romantic' in his private life. "I'm sure he must love you very much." We probably can't use all of that, but maybe we can slip the footage the guy's way for a late Valentine's Day present. He decided at that moment that whatever reservations he'd felt about an Omegadrone living in Freedom City were stupid. If he could get a woman like this to love him like that, the guy had to be all right. He had a box of tissues to hand so fast that his movement was barely visible, though he wasn't actually sure if that was something robots (even robots piloted by humans) actually needed. "Can you tell me what happened when you were reunited?"

At that moment. there was a bright, golden shimmer of light that shone all around them, through them, inside them - And then they were gone. And then they were back again! They weren't quite where they'd been picked up, though no doubt the marksmanship was impressive on an interplanetary scale. They were actually on Margate Beach outside Margate City, close enough they could actually see the missing place in the beachfront skyline where Lucy was supposed to go. There were police there and a few superheroes they didn't immediately recognize, though it was hard to pay too much attention when Lucy placed Danica atop her sixty-five-foot high back! With a loud trumpet that echoed across the narrow, mostly deserted beach, Lucy reached over her trunk to try and scoop Pan out of the sky too.

Richard asked a few more questions about the details of the rescue, keeping things focused on Miss Americana's side of things. There was plenty more to the story, especially the way Dorothy Langford had reacted to her reunion with her parents (which made his stomach churn the more he thought of it) but this story was about Miss Americana and her reunion. Speaking of which..."So, when you and Harrier were reunited..." He grinned. "I hope he was suitably grateful, knowing you'd crossed the depths of space itself to rescue him."

Angelic considered quickly then simply leaped off the deck, a magnetic connection to the hard iron of the ship slowing her descent a moment before she hit the sand hard to break a normal girl's leg, rolling in the yellow sparkling particles for a moment and coming up dirty. She seemed to pay no attention to the sights and sounds of the ship crashing to the ground nearby, her head cocked as she listened for sounds now inaudible even to her senses. When the noise of the crash had finished, she turned and walked slowly and carefully to the site. "Is anyone injured?" she called loudly. "Thunderbird? Forever Boy?"

"Brought my own fun," said Riley, tapping his left sleeve significantly. "Four days difference is a bunch of bull." He looked from Matt to Fred to Raina, the way one looks at a play when one has missed the second act. "Know a guy who makes it." He grinned. "Should try off the grid. All I have is my weather radio and pager and it's sweet." This wasn't actually true entirely, as he made regular Internet contact at cafes in Vibora Bay, but it was true enough for his house. He put his hand under his chin and thanked the server when he came by with his root beer. While the others ordered, he considered his options before he said, "So how's the city? Anything not make the news?"

"Trust me," said Richard seriously, "I am paying attention." It had actually been Holly who'd gotten him started on the podcast, not that he was going to admit that to anyone except Paige, and that mostly because she'd persuaded him that it was time to listen to something new on his morning run. (It was true, he really had listened at least twenty or thirty times to all his favorite albums - and that was just if you counted this year.) And weird is our business!" That was one mission statement he'd always believed in. Making a little gesture to the crew to start rolling with the handhelds, he said, "Before we get to the big spiel, maybe you can start with some background on yourselves. How'd you get into this line of work, anyway?"

"Matt. Dog." Riley's smile didn't turn unfriendy at the sight of the dog, but it did get a little sharper. "Doing a bad job of that. Don't tell anyone." Matt got a firm man's handshake as Riley sat down. "Like the beard. You oughta let that grow, see what the ladies make of it." He leaned back confidently in his chair. "So where's my mixtape, man?"

"Hologram's talking to Jill O'Cure and some of the others who were taken," said Richard, having figured out a long time ago that superheroes didn't like talking about being kidnapped. "I guess there are advantages to rescuing superheroes!" He smiled, setting what could have been a tough situation at ease. "So you came all this way, you got past the Grue and every other space monster, and you made contact with Harrier and the others. Tell me about the moment."

"Okay," said Richard, taking a seat and watching the kids at work like an indulgent father. Where did they even get half this stuff? he marveled. "Now you know we are going to cut some of this," he said frankly, "that's the reality of television. We'll let you give your opening spiel, get footage we can cut up and use, and then I'll go ahead and start asking the actual questions. We get final cut, but if you pull out, we drop you, no questions asked." That particular rider in their contract wasn't quite how it usually worked on television, but given the reality of secret identities, it wasn't the first time the show had done something like this. "You got everything?"

Richard resisted declaring "Ah-hah!" but it showed on his face for just a second before he said, "Oh yeah, space can be a real trip. Last time I went past the Moon it must have been back in '77, '78, when the Lor were-well, that's a story for another time, ha-ha!" Even with the cameras off, he still wasn't sure if he was technically pardoned in space - or it was a running gag to act like he wasn't sure, anyway. Making a little nod to get the camera back on, he said, "So, you were in the ship, having a rough time - what happened when you got to the Ringworld?"

"Hey there Fred," said Riley with a grin. He'd seen a little more of Fred than he had with Raina. "Didn't she tell you? Came down and saw gators with me." If his friends thought Florida was all gators and swamps for him, well - that was okay. He didn't need a lot of prying questions. "Like the outfit." He got up to give her a hug, body hard under his secondhand-but-still clean dress shirt, and sat back down. "You still rich?"

"Nice," said Riley, looking pleased with himself for a moment. "Don't cut anything I wouldn't cut." When the waiter came by, he ordered a root beer and explained wryly, "Gotta drive back to the hostel." He pointed to the knife and said, "Little piece of V'bora with you. Bone's out of a gator, steel's from a robot, church fence iron, got the actual knife bits from Black Mask, she's one of the supers down there, and the silver's from an actual magic pirate. Think of it when yer freezing yer ass off up here this December," he added cheerfully.

Richard blinked a few times and came to some fast decisions. At least some of that had to make it onto the show, because it looked great and anybody using retrotech was okay in his book. The other thing was that he sure as Hell couldn't ask his people to do all this by themselves. "I love it! This is really gonna give us a great vibe, you guys. But we've got to cut it back a little bit, or my people have to put in overtime for it." He zipped around, helping unload some gear and getting the rest of it arranged properly, saving the crew the work of handling too much of what was after all his own pet project.

The object inside turned out to be something different entirely from a necklace. It looked at first like a good, high-quality folding knife with the word WITCH carved on the white bone handle, before Riley showed Raina the trick blades inside the haft. "Multiswitchblade," he offered. "Regular steel, cold iron, silver. Found 'em all, checked 'em out. Figured, magic, doesn't hurt. Steel is blessed," he added, "had a guy I know in V'bora who talks to God do it. Seems to work okay. The endcap's bone." He shifted in his seat, hand resting on the menu, and waited for Raina's reaction.

Not one to make one of his people deal with something that was his job, Richard was on his feet before he'd finished speaking. "Let me see what they've got. Hey you kids," he called sociably as he came around the corner, "what's cooking?"

January 2021 FCTV Studios Richard had honestly been a little surprised when Kinsley and Darin York had agreed to meet with him at the FCTV Studios instead of the home studio-cum-library where they usually shot their Tiktok videos. Normally conspiracy theory types liked the homey atmosphere of where they usually did their work, and got nervous about coming into the lion's den of a professional television studio, particularly the types who were worried about mind control rays on the television (which was BS, Paige had checked) or secret conspiracies in the media (which was right but they usually had no idea about who was conspiring to do what). Of course, that didn't apply to the two young Millennials who were out there in the studio getting set up with the crew right now. As they'd mentioned on the way in, they didn't even have a television. They were a married couple, a couple of years older than Will, who favored the sort of casual business attire (Darin, for example, was in white dress shirt and red tie) that made them look ready to work in one of the TV offices rather than be interviewed in it. Karen the social media girl (as Richard called her in his head) had sent their messages to the show's staff for years and Richard had found some of it, well, some of it interesting! For two kids who didn't have powers themselves, they'd figured out at least a few things that Richard knew for a fact were true. When his own makeup and hair were done, he thanked the staff because only an asshole doesn't do that, zipped out to the seat he preferred, in front of the green screen background that would provide color for the kids, then waited for them to make their appearance.

"Hey witch, happy birthday" he said, grinning back. It wasn't a huge smile as smiles went, but it was bigger than Raina had usually seen on Riley back in the day. "Glad you think so," he added. "Mostly me and the mirror who sees it." He hadn't seen anyone else from their party here. "Here, I got this down in V'bora." He hesitated just a moment, then produced a small wrapped box too small and rectangular to be a phone, and definitely too thick for jewelry. "Rode with it all the way up."

A thought crossed RIchard's mind. "Has anyone ever gone to look? I mean, I know the Lor aren't what they used to be, but if you could get a ship out there, you'd think they could stop by and check...aw, listen, I guess I'm talking out my ass here," he admitted. "It's just a hell of a thing to find out the Big Metal Bad is still out there in some form or another, and has just been sitting there doing who knows what."

Okay, you do - it does less damage than your Impervious, I think! Seems like it's initiative time!

Riley looked the seat and booth over, then sat down opposite the monkey, his back to the wall where he could see the door. "You're getting by. Didn't see the guest of honor," he commented sotto voice to Merlin, as quietly as he could while remaining audible over the sound of the band. His voice was deeper than the last time he'd spoken face-to-face with Merlin, his goatee noticeably thicker without actually being any longer, though his shaved head was as bare as ever.

Richard considered that for a moment. "Hey yeah, can you cut it?" he said, making a little gesture at his team. Sure enough, almost as soon as it was made, the recordings were off. "...why is it secret?" he asked her. "I mean, we get a pretty wide broadcast with the show but I don't think we get it out into deep space."

Riley parked his bike in the alley behind the club, securely chaining it to a metal bracket someone had driven into the brick wall. He'd stopped to drop his bag and most of his gear off at the hostel where he was staying this week, but still wasn't foolish enough to go out in Freedom City without at least a few of his work clothes. Still, he looked presentable enough in his own mind: grey shirt and black slacks, with even a black tie on that hadn't cost him too much money, with just a few discreet leather pouches on his belt. He stood out under the Freedom City sky and ran his fingers over the smooth top of his head, then brought them down to stroke his short dark goatee. It had been a long time since he'd come back into town, maybe too long. Full of old ghosts; some of them older than others. He walked through the open front doors and noticed where the exits were, and the bathrooms for that matter - and the monkey. He smirked, just a little, and headed that way, his footsteps light from years of practice even if he wasn't actually trying to hide himself from anybody yet.