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Avenger Assembled

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  1. Avenger Assembled
    "You'll be fine, Ma," said Richard to his mother, giving her a reassuring shrug when he saw she was tense about it. He didn't know exactly what she was up to in Wisconsin these days, but he knew she did not want to go back to being on a fixed income. Especially since she might go back to the old line of work otherwise. "We all will. It's just a bum deal is all. And you're darn right about those lousy kids with their cellphones," he added, "just because it's cheaper they think that's all that matters." "Well...okay," said Holly, shifting in her seat. "As long as we'll be okay, that's fine. Bryant, that's my drink!" The light-fingered toddler next to her had picked up her soda but hadn't managed the trick of opening the can. She snatched it away with telekinesis, prompting a big-eyed look and a question of "Soda...?" for his brother. "No soda," said Richard automatically, "and besides, we do have some big plans for the final episode. We were wondering if you all would like to be in it, for one thing, as a big farewell to the family. "The last time I asked about that, somebody said it wasn't exactly good publicity," muttered Anna, her hands folded in front of her. "Ma that was ten years ago," said Richard firmly, "and things aren't the way they used to be anyway. Not for any of us."
  2. Avenger Assembled
    They are definitely hiding something. Both men are under heavy emotional stress, and they are not telling you everything they know.
  3. Avenger Assembled
    Angelic joined Voltage upstairs with Agent Gonzalez, though she maintained an active radio link to Miss Americana's consciousness in the building. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her hands shoved firmly in her pockets when she wasn't needed to carry something. She looked every inch the teen intern rattled by the difficult events of the day. Upstairs she looked around at the wrecked gear - the fragments of Charibdrones, the burnt-out remnants of an automatic helicopter, and even as she powered up her internal workings to assist in loading what couldn't be teleported into freight carts, she sent Miss Americana a message. This is routine Foundry gear. AEGIS should know this. For her part, Agent Gonzalez looked vaguely sick as she helped Voltage sort through the super-tech upstairs, though she firmly rejected any questions about it. "No, no I'm a professional, and I have a job to do. Agent Irons - wouldn't have wanted it any other way." She scrubbed a hand across her face, then went back to work. - It looked for a moment like Agent Sadler was going to speak, but then Bonham spoke, "Yes, of course. We found what was supposed to be a small Foundry holdout on an offshore oil rig. It turned out to be a substantial facility, guarded by one of the most powerful synthetic criminals in the world." "...Keres deserved what he got," said Sadler, turning and staring at the fallen form of the Foundry's shapeshifting robot. "You're not - not just going to repair the thing, are you? It's a monster." "Agent Irons is one of our few meta-agents and a specialist in the Foundry, so he engaged Keres while the rest of us engaged the Charibdrones." Bonham looked away at the form of his fallen ally, then said, "I'm not a computer expert, but our remote consultant recommended a full wipe. There may be...corruption of the software as a result of Keres' nanotech. Agent Irons uses a backup memory that's stored off-site. I can have him brought there for uploading if you can repair his hardware." "Agent Irons is one of our best people," said Sadler, his voice tight. "It would be...awful to see him like that. For all we know that may _be_ Keres," he indicated with a stab of the finger at the form of the robotic agent.
  4. Avenger Assembled
    Okay: Voltage This looks like standard Foundry gear - The good news is, nothing you see here _looks_ any more dangerous than any other high-end super technology. You're not actually sure why this is under such high security. Dragonfly And anyone else, give me DC 20 Bluff or Sense Motive Terrifica And another roll for this one, actually, for everyone potentially. IC post coming!
  5. Avenger Assembled
    "We're -" Richard shot a look at Bryant and amended "freaking canceled. Fifteen years for that company, highest rated show on basic cable three times, we discover ancient aliens _and_ dinosaur people, and what, thrown over for a bunch of backwoods college kids with a camera in their freaking telephones. Bunch of..." He said a word in his head that it wasn't appropriate to say in front of small children. "Well you should sue them!" said Anna, hot in her defense, "don't you have a contract with them? You can't let them just boot you out the door!" "The contract says they can cancel," said Richard with a little shrug. "Those...lawyers." He really wanted to swear. "We finish production on this season, we do a grand finale multiparter, and then that's that. Everything is supposed to be wrapped by the fall." Frowning, Holly had definitely put her phone down now. "Well...what are you going to do? What are we going to do for money?"
  6. Avenger Assembled
    Looks like 3
  7. Avenger Assembled
    This is the time! Sea Devil vs 22 22 Avatar vs 27 29 vs 22 30 We should perhaps combined attack the thing? Still bruised and staggered. Anyway, @RocketLord, it's you!
  8. Avenger Assembled
    Okay: You have time to take 10 but not 20 on these checks: All your characters know what the Foundry is (or was - that slippery Talos), what AEGIS is, etc. The agents are all armed with standard AEGIS hand weapons, not really a threat to most supers unless they took them by surprise. A DC 20 Knowledge (Technology) check will get you (Agent Irons does indeed look to be an older model of robot; more of a robot in a human 'skin' than an android like Angelic. The damage to his head is quite severe) A DC 20 Civics/Streetwise check will get you (the golden robot is Keres, once the right hand of Talos when he headed the Foundry, now allegedly a free agent - also Bonham is the full-on Director of AEGIS, isn't a case like this a little unusual?) This can also be done with Gather Info/Well-Informed/Online Research. A DC 20 Notice check will get you (the same weapon was used on both Keres and Agent Irons) A DC 30 Knowledge (Technology) check will get you (you can probably restore memory from the two robots while engaged in repairing them.) A DC 30 Notice check will get you (that Agent Irons looks just like the Golden Age Patriot but it's hard to tell, what with the head wound) If you want to take the agents aside and ask for more information, that's a different set of rolls.
  9. Avenger Assembled
    The scene was a difficult one. Agent Irons had the build of a muscular man in his late forties, his AEGIS uniform stained with a red-dyed blood substitute that didn't look quite right to skeptical eyes. His skin was cold to the touch and his body was heavy, enough that Voltage had had to exert himself to bring him here on time in the first place. The most obvious thing wrong with Irons was a bullet hole in the face, a small entryway over the left eye matched by a big, gaping hole in the back of his head. This wasn't simply a mechanical injury; processors crackled and sparked inside the head, and though power was clearly still running through the system, this was a badly damaged robot. Silvery metal was visible underneath the robot's torn skin, a color that almost precisely matched that of Eira's silvery coating when she wasn't passing for human. Agent Irons didn't arrive alone - there was another robot with them, a golden-haired, glowing-eyed model with multiple bullet holes in its torso and head, with signs of heavy damage from other causes. This robot had no internal power active at all; its face frozen in a look of what might have been pain. The AEGIS agents introduced themselves Director Bonham (a muscular, dark-skinned, balding man in his late fifties), Agent Barry Sadler (who looked more like a gentle-eyed accountant than an agent), Agent Zoe Gonzalez, an Afro-Latina who looked to be the youngest of the group - all of them looking highly under stress at the moment. "There's...more gear back in the car," said Gonzalez, retreating from the room where the scientists were working, "I should go get it; it's our stockpile from the scene." "We were in the process of taking down what used to be a Foundry facility when we were attacked without warning," said Bonham by way of explanation. "Agent Irons secured the target, but there was an - altercation. We were fortunate no one else was injured before the target was finally subdued," he said with a nod towards the other robot. "What-what can you do for him?"
  10. Avenger Assembled
    Anna was pleased by Holly's praise, having always had an excellent relationship with her only granddaughter. She was a little less pleased at Bryant's delighted "Fank you Nana" and the big hug he scampered over to give her, but she kept what she was feeling off her face as she hugged the boy back and said "Anything for my little boy." The mood was - well, not quite tense around the table, but Richard and Paige both obviously had something on their mind. Anna tried to keep the mood light, and the girl distracted, by asking about her school, but Holly's answers came in the short sentences of a girl deep in her teen years. Anna and Richard didn't really have good grounds to keep her off her phone at this meal, so they let her distract herself.
  11. Avenger Assembled
    Anna had learned how to cook casseroles during her sidekick's recuperation from the events that had turned her into a sidekick in the first place - not that she was keeping those thoughts uppermost in her mind right now. "Just seemed the right thing to bring a hot dish," she said hesitantly. She took a step, fast as Richard in short bursts, looked through the kitchen door at her son, granddaughter, and - well, at Bryant - before stepping back to her daughter-in-law's side. "I've been taking care of myself up there." She worked her thumb against an obsidian ring on her left hand, then whispered, her tone completely serious, "Are the kids okay?" In the other room, Bryant (who as usual was dressed in the toddler dress clothes he loved to the point of tantruming) climbed up on his father's lap and hugged him, giving him a cheeky smile as he asked brightly, "Chip?" "Not-okay, buddy," said Richard, giving the boy a smile as he dug into the Dorito bag for him. Bryant's hands were not quite clean enough to go digging on his own.
  12. Avenger Assembled
    There we go - not like he is lying about who has been shot, but he has been profoundly emotionally affected.
  13. Avenger Assembled
    January 2021 The same message had gone out both electronically and mentally to the whole family - Hi, everybody. We need everyone who can make it home tonight for a family announcement. This is important; not a drill, 616. In other words, by words and the numeric code at the end, this wasn't a life-or-death immediate emergency -but it was certainly something serious. Downstairs in the living room, Holly Cline focused on the act of psionic creation while watching her stepbrother watch Daniel Tiger while sending a message out to her brother. I don't know what it is either; they're both locked down tight. But it must be something. Nana is here. Her eyes flicked over to her father, who with his eyebrows set and his arms folded across his chest, had that look that meant he wasn't talking about anything more serious than the weather. In the kitchen, Anna Cline was honestly looking better than Paige had seen her in years - she'd found a shade of blonde for her hair that wasn't quite so obviously a dye job, and her complexion had improved now that she was living somewhere that she didn't get quite so much sun. She had arrived not long after her summoning and had proceeded to pop a tater tot casserole in the oven freshly after walking in the door. It was - well, it was more grandmotherly than she usually acted.
  14. Avenger Assembled
    "Yes!" Aquaria croaked, sounding very unhappy at all this unpleasantness, listening to Jessie's movements as much as she was watching the scene about them. "They should not be, so we should make them not!" The seperated zombie parts were not created equal. Those belonging to the 'crew' of the small boat seemed quiescent in their deliquescence, but those belonging to the lieutenant Singularity had beheaded were still visibly twitching. Aquaria impaled one of the former with her trident and twisted, reducing it to a smear of puddling ash against the sand. "We have come through obstacles you cannot even imagine, woman," insisted the severed head. "And the German Empire will never yield to you Yankee rabble!" He stared at Wraith blankly for a moment before saying, "wait...du are not ein woman! What-what is this? This is not what - not what the old witch said!"
  15. Avenger Assembled
    "The situation is - grave," said Bonham, hesitating just a moment as he looked behind him again. "Experts on cybernetics, human-machine relations, and international diplomacy are welcome. We believe Agent Irons may not survive. We are inbound and will be touching down momentarily." And with that, he was gone, leaving the heroes to their work. Speaking aloud for the benefit of people not Miss Americana, Eira said, staring ahead at something invisible - "Helipad 3 is clear; routing them now. Laboratory 3-A is the most immediately accessible, security locks have been deactivated. One floor up, accessible by the green elevator outside this room." Eira loved her grandiloquence - but not in an emergency.
  16. Avenger Assembled
    the ooc, @Electra, @Thunder King, @Fox, @Tiffany Korta A DC 20 Bluff or Sense Motive check will give you that Bonham looks less like a man taking an injured comrade in for treatment and more like a man taking his dying father to the hospital.
  17. Avenger Assembled
    At that moment, a red light flashed overhead in the room - and an emergency signal interrupted the hologram. The blurry image that replaced the half-built holo-lab (which Angelic busied herself with backing up between eyeblinks) was of a man most of those recognized; bald, dark-skinned with a short beard, this was Luke Bonham, the head of the AEGIS field office in Freedom City. "Archtech, this is Luke Bonham at AEGIS. I'm on your way with a technological emergency. Agent Irons has suffered a -" he seemed to look behind him, and the others realized he was sitting in the front seat of some sort of vehicle, probably the flying cars AEGIS agents used in emergencies. "catastrophe. We'll be there in five minutes. Please have a team standing by. Be advised we have partially-secured supertech inbound with us." Eira blinked once, her dataspike twisting at the port where it was connected to the holoprojector, and asked, "Dispatching messages. Who is Agent Irons?"
  18. Avenger Assembled
    "That's...need-to-know, kid," said Ashley softly. "As for me - Judy is going to graduate from high school and then she's going to college. There's this place down in Tennessee that has a ministry program she likes, and she'll be as far away from her parents as she wants." She smiled thinly and murmured, "And after that, she's a teleporting energy being who can disintegrate things just by looking at them. She doesn't need a babysitter anymore." Her tone was suffused with a quiet, almost maternal pride.
  19. Avenger Assembled
    Ashley blinked a moment and said "Judy, Luke, if you'll wait outside the door, I'll meet you in just a moment. We'll take our car." She folded her hands behind her back, watched as Judy and Luke exited the room, then turned and walked up to Armstrong. Outside, Judy looked unaccountably nervous as the door closed behind them, glancing back in and seeming to peer right through the metal - her eyes glowing a faint but obvious shade of rainbow. Inside, Ashley chose her words with great care, her tone not actually rising above a conversational tone as she said, "That was a very ugly thing you said to that boy just now." She didn't sound like a high school student at all - but of course by now Claremont's faculty knew that this visitor to the campus wasn't just a bratty senior who'd been held back a few years. It occurred to her that she could probably threaten him effectively with a report to Summers but that was not something she'd ever be willing to entertain. "If I ever hear about you talking like that to a student again, I will come back here and you will not like what I teach you." She met his eyes, gaze hard, then turned and walked out of the room. "Okay," she said with a smile as the door closed behind her, "let's head for the parking lot. I think you'll like the car," she commented to Luke as they went, "we call it the Dawg..."
  20. Avenger Assembled
    At an almost undetectable look from Miss Americana, Eira blinked at the holographic display, which resolved itself into a fairly good rendition of the Lab that had once been the home-away-from-home for many of Freedom City's greatest scientists. Eira herself had visited there several times when she was younger, and indeed had been uploaded into her second body there. The panning 'image', a combination of wire-frame and 3-D digitized recreations, showed individual laboratories, vehicle hangers and parking lots, spartan living space, and other systems that would allow for superheroing living that was both cooperative and independent - the sort of thorny problem that only a supergenius could create. Projected versions of Eira herself were visible inside the simulated Lab, demonstrating the proper use and human scale of these spaces, whether it was laboring at a workbench, sleeping on one of the couches, or building a single-seat jumpjet.
  21. Avenger Assembled
    cw: difficult stuff January 2021 Angelic sat in the conference room in a student intern's chair and watched as the super-geniuses talked. With a clear disciplinary record at Claremont going back past the Thanksgiving holiday, she had finally won a full-on evening internship for her senior year at Claremont that she had long coveted. That she was in a conference room shadowing Miss Americana rather than her laboratory working on her internal upgrades had not produced any complaints - "I understand," she had told Miss Americana before everyone had arrived, "that human interaction is as important for the scientist as is research." So she sat, dressed in a pencil skirt and bulky sweater that were a far cry from her lab gear, gleaming silver earrings and green-black hair the only concessions to her usual fashion sense, looking as human as anyone else in the room as some of the greatest minds in the world talked business. She was currently engaged in recording the conversation, constructing a three-dimensional model of an internal framework that would sustain internally concealed titanium networking, and in tasting the coffee she had poured for herself to blend in.
  22. Avenger Assembled
    We are out of combat! For now...
  23. Avenger Assembled
    "Ah know all the things they say," said Judy, crossing her arms over her chest. "All the time." She looked away for a moment, listening to Luke's argument with the teacher, then said, "Ah need to go." "I really don't think that's such a good idea, honey," said Ashley, eyes widening as she considered the prospects. "We'd have to get your whole team out there, and you know how hard that is logistically." "They're just normal people," said Judy, and as she spoke colors bled over her skin, an almost dazzling rainbow brightness that seemed to fill the room. When she spoke, it echoed as she added, "They can't hurt me. And if you're coming with me, you know Ah'll be safe," she said, giving her mentor a smile. Her glowing face hardened as she added, "This is the path Ah put myself on when Ah decided Ah wasn't going to be afraid anymore." "...okay. Okay, let's go," said Ashley. "But no teleporting. We're all going in together."
  24. Avenger Assembled
    "Thank you," said Judy to Luke, seeming to radiate warmth in more ways than one with a soft smile. "Y'all are very kind." She was in person a far cry from the glowing angel of righteousness that had reshaped American politics with a few well-placed words. The daughter of the former President looked faintly sick for just a moment, then looked away and closed her eyes. "This isn't anything new," said Ashley softly, putting a hand sympathetically on Judy's shoulder. "We've seen demonstrations like this before." "Ah know that," said Judy, biting her lip for a moment. "Ah can hear them talking about it sometimes. But Ah never thought Ah'd see one here." She shot the teacher a frightened look, but fearfully asked Ashley as much as him, "we're safe, aren't we? They didn't find out about the school?"
  25. Avenger Assembled
    https://orokos.com/roll/869057 = it's also down!
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