Avenger Assembled

Jack leaned down and gave Taylor a hard kiss, the two of them poised for a moment like a sailor and nurse in Times Square. "I never doubted it for a minute," he lied with a smile on his face. "Not with you around. I love you so much," he said honestly. "And when this is over, I'm going to keep my promise," he added in a murmur.

Spending an HP to bring the communication.

Jack slumped into a convenient chair, a disconsolate look on his face. He stared at nothing for a moment, lost in his own sordid past. "I'm just grateful for the chance to have known all of you," he said suddenly, looking at Elena, Taylor, and even Ace. "Not many people who've lived the life I've had and done the things I've done have a chance to be part of your team, to love you, to know you. If there is anything good in me, it's because I know people like you."

"I can do that," said Mark, watching the world shift around them with fascination. He took out his commlink, pushing aside his weariness and fatigue, and whacked it a few times before he spoke. Luckily, all the magic shifting around had altered the electronic nature of Mark's commlink, letting him reach not only Geckoman but everyone else at Danger Manor with a similar commlink. "Attention, everyone!" he called, his voice ringing out loud and clear. "This is Young Freedom. The bad guys are gone. We stopped them! The day is saved!" He was so pleased with all this that he wrapped his arms around the oncoming Mike and gave him a hard hug. "We did it!"

At the sight of yet another witness to his humiliation, Mark gave James a horrified look. "Oh God, you were there watching the whole time?! Who else is here?" Appalled, he looked around before focusing again on the others. "Nothing like this has ever happened to me before," he murmured. "I don't...I just don't know how to deal with it. I feel...I feel really bad!" He reached up and put his hand on Erin's, reflexively going for the friend who'd reached out for him. "Like when Mike was really mad at me, and I didn't know how to talk to him, but we figured that out. But I don't know how to figure this out, I...I'm sorry." His head fell. "I'm...I'm glad you guys are here. I don't think I could talk to my parents right now."

(00:59:23) ChatBot: AvengerAssembled rolls 1d20 and gets 14. Total of 19 Init (01:01:52) ChatBot: AvengerAssembled rolls 1d20 and gets 15. Total of 29 Will save

"I'm sorry," he said again, leaning down and putting his forehead against hers. "I can't change what they did. But I can promise I'll do everything I can to make it right." He kissed her softly on the lips, his eyes dark as he looked down at her. "You deserve that happiness, Taylor. It'll happen." He smiled, ever so slightly. "And hey, just think how exciting this conversation will be with your family. I don't think we have a deeper baseline after this."

"Aliens, eh? Are you from another planet?" asked Jack, almost paternal with his bedraggled gargoyle buddy. "That explains a lot..." He cootched him under the chin, getting a noise like a purr in return. "I wonder if they were kidnapped here," he said worriedly. "Little guys like these would make great pets, especially if you didn't care that they were actually people-smart. What neighborhood did they turn up in, again?"

Jack was relieved to hear that, for all that he covered his worry by taking her hands and squeezing them lightly. "No, but she can figure out what actually happened. If she can get as far as Moira's mind, maybe she can figure out why she's saying those things." He smiled faintly and added quietly, "Maybe Dark Star too, so he doesn't track me down." He started walking with her, slowly, his hand in hers as they headed down the corridor together. "I'm sorry about Stesha," he finally said. "That was my fault."

Jack reappeared at that juncture, a gate of light opening in the air near where Taylor stood. "All right, Scarab's coming to help. I think Stesha and Derrick are probably beyond our reach right now, but if the two of you come down with me...well, maybe we can get this sorted out. We can always talk to them later."

Yes

"Elena..." Jack was quiet for a minute, his brain working, as he sussed out what he wanted to say and how much he trusted Elena. Come to think of it, God help him, he actually trusted her with his life. "I think you'd better look for yourself," he said honestly, pointing to his temple. "I'll try and take you along as we go. It, uh...some of the old Knights are having kind of a personal crisis that's getting out of hand upstairs." He opened his mind to Scarab as they went, leaving little out indeed as he began the story with his battlefield proposal to Taylor, the followup upstairs, and the madness that followed. He skimped nothing in his mind about the source of the trouble; the night months ago that he'd fed on Stesha, that night he and Moira had been together, and his own culpability in both. Even, for the very first time, he showed her that night early in his career when he'd licked the blood off her unconscious face. Because at the end of the night, Jack trusted Elena. It was high time, after so much mistrust and suspicion, that he actually showed her that.

"Maybe she did go home," said Jack, his jaw set tight. "But this is my favorite restaurant too, Ace. That's because it's in the house of a friend of mine." If she was a friend, still. It had been a long time, and there were many obstacles between the two of them. Especially now, if she held his past against him the way the others were once they knew more of it. Jack reached into his pocket and came out with a long-ill-used teleporter beacon. "I'll be right back." He pressed it and was immensely relieved to find that Scarab hadn't turned them off; instead vanishing into a gate of light that opened at his feet.

Reluctantly, Jack pulled back his mask to reveal the face underneath. "Just in case something happens down there," he said seriously, "you'll want to know it's me. I'm Jack, by the way. " Donning the mask again, he said, "I'm ready. Let's do this."

"Oh God," said Mark, half-looking at Erin, "everything was a lie, Erin..." He shook his head, grief in his voice. "My grandfather, my parents, my..." He scrubbed his palms over his damp eyes. "All this time I was so proud of my grandfather and father, because they did all those things, had so many adventures, and never had any superpowers but working hard and being lucky. But my grandfather isn't even really my grandfather, and my father doesn't even know who he is! How do I know who I am?"

As the hall opened its doors to the public, fans flooded room within a short time. Within a few minutes, the session Stesha was hosting had begun to fill up with a wide variety of folks. Looking around from behind the curtain, she could see people of all ages, from the kid with a Johnny Rocket action figure to a man in the late prime of his life wearing a Black Dog T-shirt. The doors eventually shut and an Asian man in his mid-twenties, one who had been introduced to Stesha as Akira Jackson, came out on the stage. He was wearing a white suit and a red tie. “Hello hero fans!” he screamed over a mic. “Are you ready to meet Fleur de Joie?” The crowd’s applause burst merrily, easily stretching backstage.

Jack sighed, glancing at Taylor, before he turned to Stesha and said gravely, "Yes, Stesha, I did." He looked down, too ashamed to look her in the eye. "I was still figuring out how...how I should act with people, then, and I didn't understand that it was wrong. That's why I avoided you afterwards, because I realized I'd done something terrible to you. But I've learned my lesson, and I've turned myself around. I don't use people like that anymore, especially not women. I don't expect you to forgive me," he added, "but I hope you can understand how sorry I am."

Jack took a step back, hands gripping the coffee table, before he replied to the ladies, "It's true. I'm a vampire; I've been a vampire for as long as any of you have known me. The Knights and the Midnights know; they've known for quite some time." He took a step forward again, releasing the table, and moved past Taylor to talk directly to Stesha and Moira. "It is true, I used both of you for my own reasons, but no more so than any man would have in my situation." His eyes darkening, he added, "But I'm not that man anymore. I hope you can forgive me." His hands tightened as his sides as he added, "But I can't, and won't, apologize for _what_ I am. I can only apologize for what I've done."

"Well, I thought we'd put you up here at the front of the room," he said, pointing to the Guest of Honor chair that someone had decorated like a verdant throne...at least within the budget of college students and their fan club. It mostly had some ivy growing around it. "And that way, you'll have a good seat for the Q&A session and the autograph session. We've got security to chase out any riff-raff. You're welcome to use the plants here to put on any kind of demonstration you like," he added with a grin. "Our fans would love that!"

Jack was gentleman enough to do no more than chuckle, sloshing over to try and distract Clingy before she sprayed Taylor again. "Hey hey! Bet you can't get me!" He gave the little girl-thing a splash, though smaller than the others. "Over here!" he teased, soon getting him a little monster kicking after him under the water like a shark. "Ready to swim?" he asked Gargoyle-Boy. "1-2-3!" And with that, they both dived underwater! Swimming around, he nearly missed Dark Star's arrival, belatedly popping his head up to yell "Hey Derrick! Over here!" He caught up Gargoyle-Boy again as the little guy straggled his way, looking rather chagrined at his sudden dunking. Ah well, maybe he'd teach him later.

Jack put his arms around Taylor, hugging her tight and wordlessly. "Sssh, it's all right," he reassured her, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Nothing happened between Moira and I," he said, looking down at her with comfort on his lean face. "All we did was have sex." He shot a sharp look at Moira and Stesha as they came out the slow way, through the bathroom door. "As for the two of you, I thought we were past all this foolishness! I thought the hardest thing was going to be telling you that I'm a vampire. But no, it's that you're both insane." He demonstrated that, showing his fangs for just a moment, before going back to Taylor. "C'mon, love, let's get out of here."

"Are we going to let them get away with that?" Jack asked of his unhappy shoulder-buddy. "I don't think so!" He reached down and launched a big wave at the two splashers in the pool, sending them swirling away as Bat-Boy and Jack chortled in their glee. Boosted in confidence, they slid into the water at that, Jack staying in the shallow end so the still-nervous gargoyle-baby could stay dry clinging to his shoulder. "I guess the toys came with the pool," he said, not surprised to see that Stesha didn't seem to be enjoying it. "And yes, it was quite a day when Taylor quit! We had a little party."

"Yes! Yes, that's the ticket!" boomed the genie, trying to reassure his very unhappy grandson. "There was none of that, you know....FUNNY BUSINESS!" He tugged at his mustaches, eyes shifting back and forth for a moment, and gave a deep ahem. "But she was a very fine woman! I was lucky to know her, and so are you! Really, you shouldn't be so concerned about this!" He threw his massive arms wide. "I swore that your father would live as a human, but you have so many more opportunities! Why one day you might visit the City yourself!" "Did...did my grandmother know?" asked Mark, eyes full of horrified fascination. "Well yes," said Azim, "I mean, your grandfather did have to explain to her where the baby came from! It was a very different era then, but women are always wise to those things! I do know they didn't tell your father; they thought that would be a little TOO much for him! It is quite a bit of news, isn't it?!" Mark stared at the genie in grief and horror, the sacred beliefs of a lifetime tumbling down all around him. "Yes. Yes, yes it is. Thank you, sir. You can go now." He watched as the genie somewhat unceremoniously disappeared again through the summoning circle, a look of terrible loss on his face.

At Shaen's suggestion, I would like to remove the TP AP from Jack's vampire array and replace it with Concealment 4 (All Visual Senses, Flaws: Limited [While Moving]) [4PP] + Speed 7 [7PP]. 11PP total Give it the Power Loss (during daylight hours) drawback for 1 PP. I'll save that point for now. This will get the same effect of Avenger moving too fast to be seen, but make a little more sense. Done by Sandman XI

"Azim-al-Aziz," said Mark with great, awed deference, "Sir. I have a question for you. But first, I'm so honored to meet you. I have heard so many stories about you that I-" "Stories, eh?! All good ones, I hope!" The genie's laugh was a clap of thunder in the small room. "But seriously, my boy, I have but one question before we talk! And it's not for you, never you fear!" He whirled on Phantom, his slippered feet trailing off into a cloud of energy that retreated into the hole in the universe behind him. "Chosen of Heshem! Has this dimension signed onto the Pact of Solomon and Zeus?!" As it happened, Earth-Prime hadn't signed onto the treaty that provided for guardianship and magical training for the family members of outsiders. This had been a serious problem back in the day when magical figures were siring children left and right. No sooner had Phantom indicated that than the genie turned back to Mark. "You have a question for me, eh?!" he smiled knowingly. "Ask away, my boy!" With that, somewhat cautiously, Mark related an abbreviated version of the fight in the cemetery, Azim-al-Aziz rubbing his massive chin thoughtfully as Mark spoke. "So what I wanted to know, uh, sir, is why the demon thought I was from the City of Brass as well. Is it because you knew my grandfather so well, and fought with him for so long?" The genie gave a great, deep hmm at that. Reaching out one massive hand to the edge of the circle, he exclaimed, "Well, my boy, since you have come this far, I shall take you one last step over the threshold! James Lucas was a fine man, a hero as pure of heart as Al-A-Din or Harun al-Rashid! It was my honor to fight alongside him against the damnable Nazis and their subversion of all the laws of man and magic! Ah, it was quite a pleasure to hear their yelps as I transformed them into so many different...well, THAT'S a story for another time!" He smiled, showing the gems in his teeth. "You see, my boy, James Lucas was a good man, but he found he lacked only one thing in life." His voice, for the first time, grew something like quiet. "He wanted a family so very badly, you see. That was why he'd followed your Centurion and all the rest, so that he could make a better life for future generations. But he found he could not have a family, even after he found the woman he loved." Mark stared up at the genie, uncomprehending. "So...so what happened?" he asked, his face trusting, though concerned. "Well, I simply did for him what the efreet had done for our Earthly masters for generations! When he asked for a family, I provided him with one. Ah, your grandmother is a lovely woman, isn't she?! And far more then, too, with great..." Mark's eyes popped wide, like someone had threatened a puppy in front of him. "What? You...MADE MY GRANDMA?" "Oh, no! No no no!" The genie laughed. "No, I got to know her very well! A fine woman, well worthy of James! No, I simply helped your grandmother make your father, using certain arcane magics that-" "WHAT!" Somewhat alarmingly, the air around Mark was beginning to shimmer a soft, iridescent blue, Mark looking like a child who'd just learned the terrible unreality of Santa Claus by being evicted on Christmas morning. "You and my GRANDMA-"