Avenger Assembled

"I think as a teammate and friend, you deserve to hear almost the worst about me," said Jack with a grin even as he felt an odd twist in his chest. "Well, almost the worst. I won't even mention the relationship before that last one." He snickered, then added more seriously, "Hey, you already know what kind of guy I am, personality-wise. It's only fair you get to hear the gritty stories of my gritty personal life." He smiled. "I promise, you and I will have a much better time. A much more interesting one, anyway. I'm not That Guy anymore."

"Well...don't flunk out." He gave her a half-smile, sensing this was a sensitive subject. "I'm sure you'll get around it, Taylor. You're certainly a lot smarter than I am, so I'm sure you'll do great at college. Once you figure out what you're telling them, anyway." It was a relief, all things considered, when they got out of the elevator and had time to stretch in the lobby before reaching the pokier elevator heading downstairs the slow way. "The last time I dated someone," he said unexpectedly, "it didn't go very well. She had to show up at my place at 3 AM to tell me I was an SOB." He grinned. "She was right, too. But I think I've outgrown that now."

"Your alien science can't hold down the Hero of the Hive!" called the Archduke of the Apiary as he impossibly pulled himself out of Dark Star's grip. "Soon I shall return more powerful than you can possibly imagine!" he laughed malignantly, his armor amplifying his voice as he zoomed higher and higher into the sky. "And I shall have my revenge on the world!"

"You...you MURDERER!" exclaimed Bee-Keeper, his muffled voice horrified by the unspeakable carnage he saw all around him. "You're a terrible arch-nemesis! I'm going to tell the world that Dark Star is nothing more than a mass-murdering psychopath!" And he proceeded to do just that, blasting off into the air with a whirr of bee-engines and shouting, "Dark Star is a murdering alien! Dark Star is a murdering alien! Watch out, or your children will be next!" The few tourists who'd stayed to watch the fight looked singularly unimpressed by his rhetoric.

Nice! Dark Star, now with a working brain again, you're up.

"Aw, man, that really sucks," said Jack sympathetically. "Is there anyone you can talk to? I'm sure there must be some superheroes who have power at the university or something." His own problems forgotten, he had the natural male response of wanting to offer solutions to problems. "Not that I'd know," he admitted. "I know a couple of people there, but only socially. That really sucks, Taylor."

OK, Shaen, give me six DC 18 Will saves. (Gosh, however will you pass? ) The ghosts are now visible to you.

With Dark Star falling from the sky and Dave engaging Scarab, Nevermore worked to maintain his spell, chanting as his necromantic power continued to force the ghosts into incorporeal reality. Interpreting the Scarab's power infusion into Dark Star just the wrong way, the necromancer and his servants made the obvious choice and dived after the Scarab, hissing and spitting as they clawed at her with undead fury.

"We've had some recent departures from the business," said Jack shortly. "It makes life a lot more difficult for those of us who are left. But we're getting by." It wasn't something Jack wanted to get into for a lot of reasons, so instead he just smiled and said, "Stay in academia, Taylor. Better hours, safer jobs, better everything. Believe me, happy as I am with my life right now, some days I seriously wish I'd stayed in school."

With the sudden, spasmodic roar of a chainsaw, the Bee-Keeper burst free from his plant-prison, his body covered in plant ichor. Around his armored hands buzzed two glowing, rapidly-spinning blades, and he laughed in malignant triumph. "Hah-hah, Fleur de Joie! Your plant-prison can't hold a master of super-science like the Bee-Keeper! My dimensional chainsaws have...." He fell silent, his segmented eyes falling on the shattered bee fragments all around them, his armored head moving back and forth before he threw his face to the sky and screamed, "NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"

DC 25 Toughness save, Scarab, if you please.

"No more killing!" Jack charged Melinda, his claws flashing before her face as she pulled her head back at the last minute. Jack was angry at the sight of his friends' suffering, his emotions giving the master manipulator Melinda an edge over him. She laughed at him, her own injury nothing before the sight of him in rage. "Temper temper, little Jackie-poo. You'll have killing enough when I feast on the blood of your friends!" When Scarab appeared, though, Melinda's fury at yet another violation of her private sanctum knew no bounds, and she hurled herself at Jack with renewed force. When Scarab appeared, the vampires all around her took a step back, the ones for them and against them both looking very much like monsters cowering before the light. That is, except for one. "Hey, what a coincidence." Dave spoke in a surprisingly deep voice as he approached the hovering Scarab, his dark skin beginning to ripple and shift. "Scarab! We meet again." He was growing now, seeming to assume mass from nowhere, his flesh turning a dark, featureless red. "You remember me? Forty years ago, when you pulled our starship from the sky?" The Grue bared long, predatory fangs. "Of course, that was before I met Melinda. I've changed a lot since then." And with that he hurled his fist at the Scarab, the spiked, red-hewn blow smashing into Scarab's mid-section.

As they walked into the bank of elevators, Jack was profoundly grateful that Alexander Rhodes, the Scarab of the 1960s and 1970s, had opted not to put reflective materials in the elevators. There _had_ been a lot of changes in his life in the last few weeks, some of which were still harder to deal with than others. He turned to look at Taylor, smiled...and his cell phone rang. "Oh, for goodness sake...I thought these things weren't supposed to work in elevators." He forced that smile on his face and looked down at the call. His sigh was as visible as it was audible. "I'll just be a minute. Sorry," he said apologetically. Jack pressed the phone to his ear, his voice cold and flat as he spoke. "It's me. Yeah, yeah, I'm in the middle of something here. Just get it done, all right? Make them work the day shift if you have to. This is what needs to be done." He drummed his fingers anxiously against the side of the elevator as they talked. "I don't care what they think about it. I want it all out by the end of the week." When he was done, he sighed, putting the phone away, and uttered an almost-playful obscenity. "This is why I didn't use to carry these things. They turn everyone into a heel."

Melinda does not mind-control jack...this time.

Any objection to Edge luckily showing up right on time, Cy?

Hand on her slashed-open side, queen of the screaming melee all around her, Melinda glared at Jack. "Fool! You forget, stripling, that I have held your very mind in my power! And now, I take it again!" She focused directly on Jack, who resisted the sudden, overwhelming pressure in his mind only through the most fantastic force of will. "No more, Melinda! Tonight we fight as free people!" It was all shocking hokum to Jack, the words, and the meaning behind them, coming with full force. To the crowd around him, he shouted, "Will you let her have your souls forever? Or will you stand tonight for Freedom City!?" A few more of the clashing neonates rallied to his side...a moment before Dark Star fell from the sky. "Oh dear Lord," Jack breathed aloud, "no more blood on my hands!"

Arrowhawk is up.

The twin beams hit the Vestige square in the chest, blasting him backwards through the security door behind him, backwards through the wall behind that, and with a sudden tremendous crash through the heaviest wall of all directly through and into the open door of Captain Knievel's unoccupied holding cell. Only when he felt his head hit the solid steel behind him did the ancient warrior finally, mercifully, pass out.

The bees imploded with sad little poofs, their tiny bodies falling apart in little bursts of radiation. A scattered few survivors flew away into the trees, but they showed no more interest in harassing Dark Star and Stesha now that they'd been so soundly defeated. But from the plant that imprisoned the Bee-Keeper there came the sudden, distinct sound of a revving chainsaw.

Dave maintains his current Shapeshift allotment. Nevermore holds his action to see how well his ghosts fare against Dark Star. The Drain they're using is a Perception Area (Sight-Dependent) Drain Wis 8. (They are using the Selective feat on their Concealment to only affect non-vampires in the area) And why yes it has Affects Insubstantial; as one would expect given that Nevermore has had time to prepare certain spells. Have an HP, Dark Star, for your heroism coming back to get you. Dark Star is up. Let's see six DC 18 Will saves.

Hissing with rage, Jack swiped out at Melinda, slashing at her mid-section hard enough to kill a normal woman in seconds. He dug a deep wound in her side, but went for the grapple, wrapping his arms around her waist and trying to stop her before the fight could get any worse. Lord, if I can just get this finished fast enough... But Melinda proved to be made of sterner stuff than he expected, and broke out of his grip with a murderous hiss. Up on the platform where Melinda had once stood, the African-American vampire Scarab had vaguely recognized from her earlier brush with Melinda looked around cautiously, a thoughtful look behind his eyes. With a careful expression, he stepped back and studied Dark Star, a cunning look behind his eyes. Surrounding Dark Star on all sides were a half-dozen floating, translucent ghosts, their eyes glowing red and their spectral fangs bared with a hunger that went beyond death and even undeath. "The blood of your soul will spill this night!" one hissed, reaching out for Dark Star with spectral talons. "Cower in the presence of the twice-hungry dead!" At the ghost's words, Dark Star seemed to feel something tugging at the very essence of his soul!

So our order is: Avenger "Dave" Nevermore-1 Vampire Ghosts-2 Dark Star Melinda and Scarab

Edge looked at the others, sussing out their apparent skills. Though he was loathe to send anyone else into danger, he wasn't an idiot. Well, not all the time. He shot an inquiring look at Phantom and Grimalkin, cocking his head towards the stairs. "You guys managed to sneak up on me," he said with a half-smile. "Maybe you can sneak up on them, too. Whoever they are." He had no idea what was going on, really, but he was willing to roll with it.

Do we have any better answers?

"Suggest we send our toughest fighters to the prison block," suggested Avenger. "As well as Archeville. Will allow him to access the computer network through the terminals there and be an obvious strategy. While the guards deal with that loud, dangerous threat, the stealthier fighters liberate the children quickly and quietly. When children are safe and Grim's friend is secured, we all move together upstairs." Jack hoped that strategy made sense, and he looked around to his fellows to see if anyone had any sharper answers.