Avenger Assembled

I believe you both have one each. But since you've just acquired a new Enemy, you can both have a fresh one. So you're both at 2.

Have an HP for your brand-new Enemy complication, Ecal.

Ecal, you are Confused. Roll a d20 to decide what you do: CONFUSED BEHAVIOR TABLE D20 BEHAVIOR 1-2 Attack the user of the Confuse effect. 3-5 Act normally. 6-10 Do nothing but babble incoherently. 11-14 Flee at top possible speed. 15-20 Attack the nearest creature.

"That's really interesting," said Jack agreeably. "We need more people out in space who are willing to fight the tough fight, but the government's never seemed very into that." His eyes lit up as he thought for a moment, summoning up his incredibly basic knowledge of all things space yet again. "Hey, speaking of space travel, have you ever been to Farside City? Do they still have that tall evil queen there?" He gave Dark Star a game little smile, not bothering to hide that he was walking on entirely new ground. "I may not be astronaut material, but I do like space." Growing increasingly uncomfortable with Ace's investigations, Jack took this opportunity to set his drink down and toddle off to the men's room, where he promptly disappeared inside a stall. Clarence flinched, definitely intimidated by Geckoman's tough talk. A moment later, though, he mastered himself and gave Chris a glare that...well, it was probably for the best Battlecry didn't have any powers centered around his vision, because if he'd had heat vision he'd have burned the younger boy to cinders. His gaze suddenly faltered, though, as he looked at Geckoman, a look of patently false concern on his face. "Kenzie, are you all right? You don't look so good..."

Contrary to the stories spread by certain poorly-researched roleplaying games, vampires don't actually sleep. Those vampires descended directly from Vlad Dracula, in fact, don't even need to take shelter during the day. There were no days off for young vampires working their way up in the world of undead politics, a necessity of which Jack was only too keenly well-aware. A normal man might have had trouble running daytime errands all day and fighting crime all night, but it had been a long time since Jack Faretti had been a normal man. He had the good fortune, or maybe it was misfortune, to actually be in Riverside the moment of the explosion; shopping for a deathday present intended for one city elder on behalf of another elder too indolent to actually leave his Bayview mansion to go shopping. It was all tedious and deadly dull, the sort of embarassingly trite activity that sires and dams usually didn't describe to their prospective fledglings when they told stories of the undead. At the sound of the blast, Jack dropped the necklace he was holding and spun around on his heel, blinking back tears as he stared into the sun and saw the rising cloud of smoke over the neighborhood. "Get down and call 911," he told the frightened shopkeeper, summoning his own courage to run out of the shop and stare at the sight of the huge rising cloud. Some people around him were running in terror from the massive blast that had to have been only a few blocks away; others were watching, their eyes open wide with fear, a few people around him had been hurt by broken glass. It was ten o'clock in the morning. Avenger hardly ever came out in daylight; usually only often enough to prove that he wasn't actually a vampire. Jack was hungry, too, not having fed yet that day. But he could see the fire from here. People might be hurt. People might be dying. Jack had seen enough dead bodies to know he didn't want to be responsible for anymore. He ducked into the darkest alley he could find and actually said a short prayer for strength, even as part of him laughed bitterly at the obscenity of the damned undead calling on prayers to any deity. He was a monster. But he was also a hero. After a few moments of quietude, he moved away where no one could see him. It was Avenger who made his way towards the blast, on foot by rooftop with the sunlight sapping much of his abilities, but none of his hungers. "Can't let people suffer because of me. Can't." When he finally made his way into the neighborhood where the blast itself had occurred, Avenger looked up at the blast and made a small, involuntary noise. None of Avenger's faux-loner dialogue; none of Jack's own words, seemed adequate to sum up the horrors of what he was witnessing. Finally, when he'd mastered himself, Avenger moved closer, down at ground-level to investigate the disaster.

LF, what I will let you do is spend that last HP to acquire the Dedication feat, which will give you the effects (+2 on social rolls vs. the charms of 'mean girls') that you're looking for. If that's what you choose to do, go ahead and successfully resist. If that's what you opt to do, I trust that you will successfully roleplay Pompadour resisting the charms of an unspeakably gorgeous pretty face (via extra effort and multiple HP) as the heroic moment for the character that it is. If not, take your Fascination like a champ, and don't taunt the unspeakably gorgeous goddess a second time. Make a DC 18 Will save, Ecal. I also need DC 20 Notice checks from, hmm, let's call it Geckoman and Pompadour.

"My...my strings," whimpered Dryad suddenly, her voice pushed out of a dead throat by sheer force of will, "my strings are cut. I have nothing anymore. Please save me." She turned her wide eyes on Doctor Archeville, the knowledge of mortality, of doom, written large on her face. "I don't want to die. I tried to do good. I tried to be a hero," she whispered. "I don't want the world to...throw me away..."

Our order is: Doctor Archeville Odysseus and Dark Star Dark Star is entangled and moving at half-speed. Odysseus, tethered to a man easily capable of shattering the speed of light, is fighting the urge to yell "Jane! Stop this crazy thing!"

A beam of pure black light burst again from the staggering Seven's hand, the beam whizzing easily past Psyche's head. When Psyche's mind reached out to lash at her, Seven gave a horrible scream as her psychic avatar exploded! As she fell apart to fragments of multi-colored crystal that rapidly littered the landscape all around her, the mental landscape all around Psyche fell completely silent and still. She was alone in her own mind for a long moment before she heard Seven's voice. "Your mind is a powerful thing, Alex. Show me how you can use it to build."

The two teenagers walked out of the Doom Room practically arm-in-arm, happily celebrating what had evidently been an extremely successful test. The sun outside was bright and shining with the promise of a new day, the two young men having bonded in the way only young men can. "Come, Michael! To the cafeteria!" Magni shot Michael a look and asked, as they got out of earshot, "Have you considered a warrior's name for yourself, Michael? If so, might I recommend...Viking?" He laughed, happy as a clam.

Odysseus' terrible Initiative: 12

Just as Dark Star was about to break atmosphere, he felt something like iron bars close around his own insubstantial body and nearly jerked to a halt, only his fantastic powers keeping him moving. Looking back he saw a now fully-armored Odysseus coming up behind him fast, glowing, half-visible silver chains having wrapped themselves right around Dark Star's midsection. "Fools!" came Odysseus' voice, pumped in by radio to Dark Star's enhanced senses. "Don't you know what they'll do to you!? I'm trying to save your lives and your world!"

Dark Star is Snared! Which means he can only move at half speed, instead of at a bajillion miles an hour. Dark Star, make a Flight check at half-strength vs. 18

Pompadour, can you resist Student Body's style? (Resist the sleaze! ) Have two HP for the complication and the GM Fiat.

By the time Jack came back to the small group of people, it wasn't a group anymore. He shot Dark Star a look that was hard for the alien hero to read, some nameless emotion passing in his eyes. "Well...that was effective." He shot Dark Star a sudden, nigh-wicked grin as he raised his glass to his lips. "Guess I'm not as socially inept as I thought I was." Looking around, he took a step closer to Dark Star and added, "So, Dark Star, tell me about the current political situation around the Solar System. Do you think the Lor are serious about their relationship with humanity?" I hope that made sense. I'd hate for Dark Star to realize that I have no idea what on Earth I'm talking about here. Across the room, Clarence Beaudrie gave Chris Kenzie a truly malevolent sneer. "I didn't say anything you can't hear down in the gutter, boy," he murmured icily to Chris. "I think it's your curfew, Kenzie. Why don't you run home to your mommy now and make sure she's okay?" Behind him, Daisy suppressed a giggle, batting her eyelashes at Chris coquettishly if he objected to her obvious enjoyment of the spat between the two boys. When Pompadour passed by, she caught his attention and gave him a huge, gorgeous smile. "Oh, I hope we're more than just banal, sir," she said with warm, soothing syrup in her voice.

Actually, she needs to make a Reflex save. Which she makes. And so do you. For something else. Your DC is 20.

I need DC 20 Reflex saves from Divine and Grimalkin to avoid Sidetrack's Visual Dazzle; DC 20 Fort saves to avoid being blinded by it if you fail the Reflex save.

Sidetrack turned, eyes casting about the room for Grim, even as she looked over her unconscious lover's condition. "Baby, it's okay," she murmured out loud, "I'm going to get you out of here so the bad lady can't hurt you anymore. Just as soon as I find that #)$)#)$) ofay and $)()# her right in the #$$D!" she added, her tone spitting venom. Reaching down to adjust her power gauntlets, she called out loud, "You'd better get ready to run, girl! Because when I catch you, I'm going to staple Betty Friedan to your butt and mail you to Iran!" And with that, she picked up her discarded power rifle and fired a shot wildly into the air, the blast rising high and suddenly exploding out into a cloud of pure inky darkness.

You have a round to do whatever seems appropriate, Divine. Also, have an HP for Sidetrack's power stunt.

I still maintain that Grimalkin just wants to see Pompadour take his shirt off, so she deliberately walked over there and chucked her drink at him. :D

Hmm, there seems to be a misprint on the Sweet Science. It took place on the 2nd, not the 7th.

Locked up.

Wander and Archer made their way up out of the Doom Room into the bright light of a summer afternoon, yet another shift in perspective in a day that had been full of them. Archer reminded Erin about her meeting with him tomorrow before he started to let her go, leaving her out on the green and grassy quad surrounded by happy, cheerful students. "Erin?" He turned and looked back at her. "For the record, no one's ever stayed on their feet that long. You did well."

"You did fine on the test, Erin," said Mr. Archer after another long pause. "We'll talk about how we're going to handle your combat training on Monday, after you've had time to settle into your other classes. C'mon, let's get out of here and up into the sunshine. I think we've both had enough of this room for one day." Inside, Archer was already making plans about who he'd call to help out with Erin's training...and how he'd write up his report for this exciting afternoon a little later.

Archer said nothing to Erin at first, letting her finish pounding the floor and crying out in frustration before he spoke. "Erin, you didn't fail the test. You were supposed to show me how you fight, and now I know. You did everything that was asked of you." He was quiet for a moment, studying her. "When you're ready, you can come back here and fight Thunderbolt on your own. Right now, who'd win in a fight between the two of you isn't really important."