Avenger Assembled

All right, hmm. I'll actually change that to a use of Intimidate, then. Avenger's Skill Mastery gives him a DC of 25 for that, and it has a more certain effect on all the boys. He'll move on to attacking them later. Just for fun, though, I'll use that HP to acquire the Startle feat. :D

Trying something new for this one, always fun! I'm power-stunting Enhanced Feats: Fearsome Presence 7 off Jack's linked Insubstantial and Flight, giving him a total of Fearsome Presence 9. The subsequent Will save is DC 19, and he gets his opponents in a range of 45 feet. In an animated series, exactly what he says is left off-camera, with the viewers seeing only the reactions of onlookers.

Avenger felt a surge of cold fury shoot through him at the sight of the lurking boys, a feeling of rage burning in his undead heart that made him feel alive again for all the wrong reasons. Vivid images of ripping the boys apart shot through his mind, as well as no little regret that he hadn't beaten Vulture to within even more of an inch of his life. "If you boys don't stop this $#!@ right now, I'm going to..." Shouting at the top of his lungs in the broken sentences of a psychopath, he then proceeded to lay out in gruesome detail exactly what he was going to do to Vulture, Fox, Shark, their families, their friends, their beloved pets, and even their sweet old grannies.

"Oh, I like to think I'm a man of my hands." Jack laughed again. Wonder what he...nah. Probably not safe. Though smart and handsome is usually a good sign... "But nothing like you, I might add!" he added with a rueful smile on his face. "I mean, I've seen people like Daedalus or Dr. Atom on television, but not many people I know just fly in the window using equipment they've built themselves. I think you quite stole the show."

"Charmed, I'm sure," replied Jack with a warm smile, shaking Viktor's hand in a strong grip belying his narrow fingers. "Any friend of Elena's is a friend of mine. Where do you get your wonderful toys?" he asked with a perfect laugh, smiling as he looked the other man over approvingly.

Good point, Hellbound. I'd better come along for just that reason.

And yes; Avenger's grapple re-roll was with an HP. Good solution on Divine.

Avenger is fast, with 23

Anyone have anything further for this thread? I know Wesley and I will have one direct followup in Grenville.

Avenger studied Divine for a long moment, thinking about her unearthly beauty and the other abilities he'd seen her display. I wonder just how holy she is. "Gods. Avenger. Hellbound. Some pretty serious magical threats out there. Need someone who can deal with them the right way. S...the other superheroes can't be everywhere. Need to do the job ourselves."

Yay for HPs!

A 25! Not too good, not too bad!

Though Avenger usually preferred to be a hit and run fighter, the presence of his teammates made the situation considerably easier for him. He disappeared from view as he ducked into the shadows, slipping along the wall behind the mysterious girl as he disappeared into the darkness itself. A moment later, he emerged from the darkness as he punched the girl in the back of the head, trying to distract her long enough to wrap his arms around her and hold her for Dark Star or one of the other grapplers to have their way with.

Avenger climbed rather than jumping down from the beam, a certain stiffness in his movements the only sign that he'd taken an injury. "Will understand if you choose not to reveal yourselves." For his part, his face remained hidden by his trademark hockey mask. "Prefer my own privacy. But Scarab knows me. Believe Scarab was active when rest of us in diapers. Likely trustworthy." He shot Dark Star a look at that, considering a question on alien baby-raising that he decided he didn't want to know. "What matters is the work. And...the team." He looked from one to the other. " Will bring you all together again when the situation calls for it. Suggest we all exchange contact information now. Best if more than one contact node. Might meet with accident."

"All did well," said Avenger, his voice gruff as he perched on a broken beam left behind by their dramatic arrival, just over the heads of the ground-bound superheroes. Reappearing had been something of an effort for Jack, but Scarab including him in her disguise field had helped remind him that he was here to make friends. If not necessarily influence people. In his hand was the discarded blade of the Elder, the blade black and glistening with blood. "Suggest we take this with. Put in headquarters." The sword gave him an idea, something nice and theatrical, playing against the Master Mage's words and distracting from the ache in his ribs. "Maybe in a stone. For the Knights of Freedom!"

Who are these people?

Avenger has no idea who these people are either. Gotta buy up my Pop Culture. :D

Nope, just a wee vignette of my own.

"Work everywhere," replied Avenger. "Do what needs to be done. Will remember you." Avenger fell silent, and by the time Nightrival looked his way had disappeared into the darkness of the noisy warehouse. Nightrival was left alone with the unquiet dead, and the thugs whose aching heads probably meant they wished they were dead.

Hey, everyone helped. I caught his sword! (With my ribs!)

Jack leapt off the table as the Brick Brothers came at him, assuming a look of fear that was genuine enough to sucker the two massive thugs into the men's room after him. The Brick boys weren't stupid, but they knew better than to let an opponent leave a fight while he was still standing. By the time they'd gotten into the men's room, though, the lights were out. There was a momentary pause as the two thugs ran into the darkness, and then suddenly a horrified scream came from inside the darkened room. When one of the brothers came stumbling out, he was holding himself in a very personal area, a look of shock and horror on his muscle-wrapped face, and a moment later there was a horrific smash from inside and the room went dead quiet. Jack didn't emerge from the now-empty room, but the lights there flicked on.

"Danger in Riverside. But no Fens. No South Side. Good place to-." There was blood in Avenger's mouth tonight, his secret as safe as the pimp he'd beaten and left for the cops in the South Side earlier that evening. The man had been a little loopy on zoom, just enough to make the fight interesting and make Avenger's perceptions a tiny bit blurred. When Geckoman and the Angel Android crashed through (and into) the wall, interrupting Avenger's attempted explanation of the fact that Riverside really wasn't that dangerous, he responded with what was definitely an obscenity in a language no one else spoke.

Avenger hunted that night, stilling his rage and frustration at this investigation in violence and blood. He found answers in the neck of a rapist in the Fens, leaving the man's anemic, unconscious body on the footsteps of the local police precinct as a message to the predators of Freedom City. The contradiction wasn't lost on him, but what other choices did he have? It was a relief, as always, when the sun set the next night, and he got on the phone to Scarab for further information the moment he could.

Avenger's Initiative is a healthy 22 We'll say the meeting was to meet one of Avenger's informants, who has already scarpered in other direction.

Avenger hadn't gone far, not with a painful wound in his side that would take hours to heal. Could be worse. Can't believe he cut me that deep. A human would be in agony, and Jack didn't exactly feel good. But he'd be all right. It wasn't as if he was going to bleed to death. From behind the wall where he hid, he watched as the others gathered around the very powerful mystic who had just showed up. I need to meet more people. Figure more things out... He ducked down to bind his wounds, covering up the dry cut on his flank with his cape.