Avenger Assembled

Switching my array to my Burst Area Selective Attack Blast 10 (with the helpful immunity to my own powers), then blowing the lid off the joint.

Toughness save: 11 Ouch, that's terrible, just terrible! Blowing another HP: 15, so 25 with the HP. I pass!

::cocks head:: Hey quote, I think you'll want to wait until it's the players' turn before you post. ;)

I fire up my Luck Control and spend my new HP, forcing Mystic Force to reroll his attack and take the worst of the two rolls. I'll wait till I know the results of that before I make any further posts/rolls. Ecal: ram Mystic Force at speed! ;)

"My family is dead, Elena," Jack replied. He forced the words out with great precision and distinctiveness. "My mother had a stroke when she heard I'd ODed on Max, and my father took his own life a year later." The painful memories shot through his mind, sharpening his focus as the blood poured back into him. The two others could see his wounds beginning to heal, but terribly slowly; the blood in his system allowing only a painfully slow resurrection. "Claudia is a friend of hers. She wouldn't blame her for this. And she thinks I'm dead, or she'd have been down there to cut my head off. She...she knows I've been working as a superhero." He licked his lips. "The...the humiliation would be too great for her to broadcast with a public display of revenge." He was quiet for a moment, his body eerily still except for the bizarrely audible sound of blood infusing it. "Lugat returned a few days ago. I'm sorry, I should have told you." His broken eye healed of its own accord with a bizarre noise. "I...I killed him, and brought his ashes back to Melinda. She thought he was an assassin, she's been getting more paranoid since then, more worried about threats from...That's why she did this. She was testing me. If she finds out I'm alive, she'll go mad. Blood will run in the streets. People will die." He made a small noise in the back of his throat. "God, there's already so much blood on my hands. I don't want anyone else to die because of this, Elena."

"Yeah, Mr. Archer can be a little difficult sometimes," agreed Mark readily. "He's not that bad, though. You just need to approach his tests the right way." He didn't argue along those lines too much, though, not wanting to get into an argument with Erin. He didn't want to get into an argument with anyone. "He even took it well when I had my little accident in the testing room." He grinned wryly. "Thanks to me, they had to refurbish the entire room after I was done. Daedalus had to go in personally and fix it up so my powers didn't work on it that way anymore." He looked James' way. "So how about it, you wanna go strut your stuff, or look around some more?"

"Yes, yes," agreed Ray, looking down at his sister for a moment. "That's the tower He built, right where Freedom Hall used to be. He calls it the World Tower, because there's where he rules the world from." "The Alpha-Centurion?" asked Rachel, looking concerned. "That's your Gladiator, right? I thought he was from here! Arachnos showed us images of him fighting the Freedom League. He, uh, he said your world's greatest champion had been corrupted by Omega's power, and that was why this world needed to be conquered first." - Avenger gave Grimalkin precise directions to Dr. Archeville's house, leaving nothing out about the trip. "See if you can contact the others while you're on the way. There's Divine out in West End, Hellbound in...you know, I don't know where he is, but maybe his phone will ring, and..." Avenger rubbed his chin. "Those are the only ones with phone numbers I know. I'll see if I can raise any of the reservists on the radio."

"That'd be sweet," Mark agreed. "I drive my mom's car till I'm 18," he admitted with a rueful laugh. "And it's just a Ford. But your car's more than all right." He shot a look James' way. "Hey James, you wanna give a workout a try? I could hit the gym myself, and you can show off some of your moves." He grinned, having no idea if James had any moves at all. But it didn't hurt to ask.

"This is the last part of the test," said Mr. Archer, not unkindly. "If you're going to be a superhero, Eddie, you need to think about what you're doing and why you're doing it. Lemme ask you this. Imagine you've just caught a really evil supervillian; a psychotic monster who you apprehended in the middle of a killing spree. You know he's just going to get off on an insanity plea and put in Providence Asylum, where they'll treat him real nice and give him lots of drugs. They may even let him out again after a couple of years, even if he's not cured all the way. He reminds you of that, too, and tells you he's just gonna fake being cured and get out to kill more women. You're alone with him as you arrest him; you can do whatever you want. What do you do?"

As Dark Star was looking around the courtroom, he observed something very peculiar happen. The corridor where he could see Captain Knievel being moved, the distant one several walls away, suddenly vanished entirely from his senses! No matter how intently he looked, he couldn't peer through the gravitic static that blocked view inside that corridor! But looking closely, he could see the source of the static; an indistinct figure in black standing at one end of the corridor with its hands raised.

I think you're forgetting our spaceman.

'Candy' kept flirting with Chris as the evening went on, putting her hand on his and giving him a secret smile that seemed to promise all sorts of exciting things. It wasn't easy to get his hand out of hers, either, and not just because of her attractiveness. She had a grip like an octopus. She asked him all sorts of questions about himself, batting her eyes and gazing deeply into his, not seeming terribly convincing to his jaded Gecko-palate. Over at the other table, Mark joined his colleagues in keeping a watchful eye on the Gecko situation, but it was hard for him to get too worried about it. Especially once it started getting dark and Madman Finale's opening act Tempest in a Teapot came on! As the room fell quiet, the lovely lady duo sung their favorite acappellas like "Opening Band" and "In Your Town." Finally, to great applause, the ladies stepped off to make way for Madman Finale! As the band began their opening number "We Are All On Drugs," Mark carefully got up to walk over to the merchandise table. Winning the trivia contest there got him what he was after, and he came back with Madman Finale shirts and visors for everybody. "In case we need to do something fast," he commented quietly. "We don't want our faces getting on the news here. Look at all the cameraphones people have."

"This is James Prophet," said Mark with a smile, clapping the other boy on the shoulder. "He's going to be living across from Mark and me upstairs. Man, and here I thought summertime was going to be boring." He grinned. "You should see this guy's car, Erin. It's sweet."

In the courthouse corridor, the Vestige crept up behind Captain Knievel, ready to spring and free his fellow do-badder. Knievel himself was ready to make a break for it, steeling himself to fall on the cops guarding him like a lion among sheep. When a uniformed police officer approached from the opposite direction, hailing the tight cluster of guards around Knievel, it looked like the perfect opportunity for the supervillians to make their move. "Hey! I just got word there's a supervillian in the building!" called the uniformed cop, "you guys better look out!" "What? Where?" asked the lead guard. "Right here." And then he smoothly drew his sidearm and shot down all six of Knievel's guards. Darts in their necks, their chest, or their faces, the cops all dropped wordlessly, their rifles and weapons clattering to the floor. The "cop" before Knievel smiled thinly as he ejected his magazine and loaded another. "Hi there," he said to Knievel. "You look like a man who wants a key."

Some things to think about: You can meet your defensive caps with just one more PP spent on Equipment. (Undercover Vest [Protection 3, Subtle]) You're currently doing +5 unarmed damage with your Sneak Attack, right? With an Attack of +10? That's points you could spend elsewhere better. Consider this approach: Base Attack of +8 [16 points] Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2 [2 points] 3 more ranks of Sneak Attack [3 points] This gives you an unarmed Attack of +12 and unarmed damage of +8 for only one point more. That way you don't have to feel like you're too good of a fighter (since you're reliant on Sneak Attacks still) but you can actually meet your caps in combat (particularly if you buy the vest), and that really is a very good idea. Here are the errata stats of Midnight's gas gun, if you want to use them: Powers (21) device 7 "gas gun" (21) - Obscure +5 (linked: stun) - Stun +5 (extras: area-burst +1, range +1, duration-sustained +2, linked: obscure +5, drawback: full power -1)

When Elena's blood hit Jack's veins, his eyes suddenly turned a brilliant, malignant red. What had looked like broken teeth before sharpened suddenly into fangs, his ears pulling up into sharp points to match the ones in his mouth. There was no hiding his true nature now. As blood returned, so did sensation, his one working hand twitching with pain. "Pulled the stake out. Would have survived. Burns." His hand twitched, hard, as Scarab's mystically empowered blood filled his shattered veins. He could feel his body's recovery, even as it burned. "God." Push past it. Stay conscious. "Found out who I was. Melinda." He licked his lips. "Set me up."

"Hi 'lena," said Jack, his broken mouth slurring his words. "Made a mess on your sidewalk. Sorry 'bout that..." Elena's presence helped him focus more intently on the world, though not so close that he could push past the ocean of pain that threatened to overwhelm him. When Dark Star picked him up, his body was strangely soft, the skeleton inside broken. There was still not a drop of blood. Jack fell silent for the trip, but his eyes stayed wide open, his dead body still.

On closer inspection, Avenger didn't look alive at all. Every limb was terribly bent and broken in multiple places, even his spine twisted in several shocking angles. The back of his head was visibly smashed in; with huge gouges torn out of his forehead as well and one eye smashed. The worst injury was in his chest, where a massive hole gaped so wide Dark Star could see the sewer tiles beneath it. It looked as though he'd been violently impaled, then beaten to death. But the strange thing was, for something he'd seen happen only a half-hour earlier, there was no blood. And then Jack spoke. "Oh hey Dark Star..." He focused on Dark Star with his one good eye. "This in't really how I wantedja to find me. I think I'm in shock. Dinnit even know I could go inta shock." On closer inspection in the early morning light coming through the sewer grate, Jack still wasn't breathing. "How you doin? 'Slena with you?" His speech was slurred; it looked like he'd taken an impact to his face at some point in the recent past and his mouth was damaged. And it was hard to think his brain was intact, for that matter.

Consciousness returned slowly, so slowly. Jack opened his eyes to pain, his body broken in fantastic, bizarre ways. The sun was on his face, not a good thing for any vampire. He was...in the storm sewer? He had vague memories of hitting the pavement above his head, and then misting out just long enough to fall into the storm sewers. Did I really fall all that way? Wow! He tried to laugh, but a painful, agonizing sound came out as torment shot through his body. Must have broken my ribs. And my back. And my legs. Is that? Yeah, yeah, that's my skull. He could still feel the neat hole in his chest, dug there by the supernatural magic in the stake Melinda had shoved through him. Why aren't there any rats? he thought, floating on a curtain of shock to protect him from his shattered flesh. Dang it, Elena, why do you have to keep your building so clean? Must file a complaint with the management. - Elena slept, and dreamed of darkness. And then a sudden, white-hot burst of molten pain, stabbing through her, that transformed itself into a long, terrible fall that ended in an explosion of pain. She saw a dark warrior falling from the steps of the Great Pyramid, mortally wounded and hurled away from an angry Set-in-female-aspect into the deeper darkness of the Abyss itself. And then, just as she woke, she saw the warrior's face. It was Jack. He'd fallen, and fallen practically on her doorstep.

Quote, I think you'll find that Captain Knievel may have...other priorities. (More seriously, wait a little bit.)

Hey Alder, Are you OK with us passing mental messages back and forth through Alex?

Mr. Archer had some programming to do before he could get the final test running, and in the meantime he and Eddie chatted. "So you're fairly new to Freedom City, right?" asked Mr. Archer convivially as he dug into the panel on the Doom Room wall to finish adjusting it. "What did you think about living around all these superheroes?"

Mark led James down to Erin and Alex's door, knocking with his usual insouciance. "Hey guys!" he called through the door. "It's Mark! I've got someone out here for you to meet!" He called with total confidence, sure he'd be lucky enough to find them around there on this lovely afternoon. "They're a great pair," he murmured to James. "Alex is a little more friendly; Erin is a little more serious, but they're both great, really."

"Erin, wait," said Mark urgently as he looked up at her. "You know what Chris does in his spare time; he's not just a helpless kid." He swallowed. "And the last time Claremont kids went out in public like this, the cops almost got called. We've got to handle this quietly so we don't get put on restriction too." He seemed really worried about the idea. "Besides," he added across the psychic link, they haven't actually committed a crime yet. If we wait till they've actually done something bad, we can actually bring them in and keep them from hurting any kids who can't fight back. He thought for a minute then added, That said, I think this is the last time I play matchmaker for a while.

Warmonger, I believe you're up.