Avenger Assembled

The chase was a short one, speed and stealth pitted against a terrified mobster's fear as Jimmy Spaleni ran for his life. Unfortunately for him, the costumed adventurer at his heels caught him. Avenger slammed the terrified thug against the wall one-handed, his voice a curling mask of cold, malevolent fury. "Suggest you tell me the truth." "I swear, Avenger, I don't know nothing!" the terrified man gasped, his breathing constricted but not stopped by the iron grip on his collar. "I ain't worked for Oliverti in years, I-" He could see the malice in the blue eyes before him, the only hint of humanity in the masked face that had meant so many beatings, so many broken bones, for the rest of his crew that night. Avenger pressed him harder, acutely conscious of keeping his advantage against this sort of criminal scum. The important thing with this kind of informant is to make sure he's more terrified of me than he is of his friends. He heard the roughly-hewn brick wall scrape against the man's back, saw the fear writ large on his face even in the dark of the alley. "Unfortunate. Not as friendly as Foreshadow." He raised his free hand, balling his gloved hand into a solid fist, and drove it into the man's belly with a solid blow. "Beating will help you. Friends won't think you snitch."

With StB on the road, we'll give him a little more time before we move on.

Far away, as he hung up the phone, Jack had some hard decisions to make. Taking care of Stephanie was easy enough; despite his reluctance, he did call her a cab. He was gentle with the woozy, groggy Stephanie, who'd drunk quite a bit of booze after leaving the party the night before. (The pint or so of blood she'd lost later hadn't helped matters much, but then it never did.) "They were busy," said Jack with a comforting smile when a sleepy Stephanie asked where Moira and O'Ren were. "I'm going to meet up with them later." He put on sunglasses out in the sun, an affectation he'd internalized early, and once Stephanie was safe in her own bed Jack made the only decision he could. It was daylight; showing up as himself would certainly remove any doubts about his nature from the minds of the others. While showing up as Avenger would certainly make it easier to get away with any super-shenanigans, it would also draw a powerful line connecting his two identities that he just wasn't comfortable with. Still wearing heavy sunglasses, he hailed a cab himself to take him to the location Moira had laid out for him.

Hey, not a bad roll. You can't quite place who that is, but you're sure you've seen a costume like theirs on a superhero before, either in a book or on TV. It's hard to remember who, though, there have been a lot of superheroes since 1938!

Easy way out: Cyroa, roll Knowledge: History.

Which is a good way of saying, "Will a Notice check mean Scarab can be recognized as Scarab?" ;)

What's the Toughness save DC for the attack, Pand?

Belphegor knows that there are people already in the vault up ahead; he can hear their conversations. The lights in there definitely seem to be on, too, quite a surprise given that most of the rest of the building is in darkess.

No, I'm willing to move things along and have you arrive. But you might want to make a Notice check for other reasons. ;)

"I'm in, hm, I think it's the North End," said Jack, laughing. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is. We didn't quite make it back to my place either, with all I drank last night." He gave her an address easy to find, though not of a hugely legitimate establishment. "It's the Happy Day Inn. If you could get us there, that'd be great. Whatever's easiest for you."

Outside the vault, Scarab's path down to the basement was a surprisingly easy one. Universities are liable to things like state building codes, and that means they can't use the toughest and most stringent security measures. It was an easy matter for her to open doors and locks, without so much as attempting to draw on the memories and thoughts of old criminous lives. The vault door itself was decorated with familiar arcane wards, some of them bearing the marks of familiar practitioners like Adrian Eldritch. In theory, there should be no barrier to Scarab's opening the vault door beyond the complicated, tricky lock. In theory, someone on the inside would have it easier. As it happened, though, neither Dark Star nor Avenger were having a particularly easy time of it. Dark Star had successfully lit up the vault by flipping on the lights, but his interlocutor showed no signs of showing himself. As for Avenger, though it was a relief to see that this individual was not hostile, he was still left with the pressing problem of what to do about him. Crouching among what was left of a previous generation of superheroes, Avenger thought quickly. "Friend outside. Let him in slow, would you?" As for Belphegor, there proved to be an unfortunate number of magical wards in place as he headed down into the basement. Fortunately, though, no one had evidently thought to protect the ducts (or they had protected them in previous years and been forgotten, there were several damaged wards in the climate control system.) Down here, at least, there didn't seem to be anything between him and his destination. It was hard to judge exactly where he was going, but the echoing voices inside the climate control system at least gave him a clue.

Good strategy, DA. It's a DC 27 Notice check to spot Avenger, Dark Star.

From his position by a life-size statue of the Centurion carved entirely out of meteoric iron, Avenger took note of the creature he shared the room with. Barely visible in the darkness, but definitely there. It was time to speak. The voice came from above Dark Star, echoing eerily through the darkened vault with an especial horror since all his senses told him no one was there! "I know you're there. Better if you come out. Prefer not to fight in the art treasures." Avenger sounded grim, forceful, but just a little tired. As for Belphegor, entering the library via mist and smoke turned out to be a stone groove! At this stage of the game, at least, there are no mystical barriers at all between where he wants to go and where he is now. There are even signs on the walls that helpfully steer him towards "special collections" down in the basement, though there are some locked doors there that might be problematic. If there are mystical wards in the place, they're likely to be there on the path downstairs.

It was late and the guards were tired, Scarab had no particular trouble gathering up the information he needed. Security down below wasn't particularly high right now, with many of the precautions withdrawn in the wake of the break-in. The security codes would get them past the keypad leading down to the basement; the combination would turn off the security system active on the floor below. The hardest part, without the help of something more mechanical, is going to be the locked doors that stand in the way.

Hmm, we'll have to see how it plays out. I'm imagining a...Mercury Age-looking team. With elements of Silver and Iron, mixed together.

"Keeping an eye out. He is aware of me. I will enter and speak with him." It took Scarab a minute or two to realize what was odd; Avenger's voice was false. It was the oddest thing, like someone consciously trying to think in a French accent. The words themselves were real, but the tone of voice, akin to Avenger's own gruff, creepy monotone, obviously came unnaturally to him. Dark Star is definitely aware that there are other people out there, though that terrible regard on him has passed. As far as he can tell, he has at least the privacy of the room to himself, the hum of the nearby airvent his only companion. As for Jos and Scarab, so far no one has yet laid eyes on them: it's cold outside, and no one wants to spend much time at the library after hours these days.

It was around that time that Moira's cellphone rang, the familiar caller ID number belonging to her friend Stephanie. The voice on the other end, though, belonged to Jack. "Hey, Moira? Do you have a car to take Stephanie home? She's a little thrashed still from last night, and I don't want to just stick her in a cab."

Hi all. Would there be any interest (down the road) in a group of interlinked characters who are all members of a government-backed superteam operating out of Freedom City? You get lots of free publicity, free money, and free equipment if you don't mind obeying the orders of Uncle Sam. Inspirations come from _The Order_, _Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters_, and the like.

Huh, prolly should have used Skill Mastery there. Ah well, makes things more interesting. I need Notice checks from everybody, please. And a Sense Motive check from you, Scarab ol' buddy. :D

Avenger's mind was distinctly odd as it slid against Scarab's mental fingers, his thought-grains like black volcanic sand against the plain Nile silt of others. When his thoughts come back, there is something strange as well. "Scarab. Yes. Aware of his presence. Ducts in basement level. Vault door sealed. Can you enter this level?"

Oh! I'll also take 20 on Gather Information on Scarab and Slamdance, naturally. :)

That's Intimidating with Skill Mastery (but as a move action) for a total of 17. And that's an unarmed attack, all right!

Inside the mask, Jack didn't like the look of that blade at all. He'd certainly seen magical weapons used against vampires in his time, and if that weapon's runes were the sort he thought they might be...well, even an injury could at the very least give the game away. All the blood in the air wasn't helping him think, either. Thinking about the young woman upstairs engaged in combat with the man with the big sword, he concluded he had to bring this to a finish fast. "Fool." He was all blackness in the dark, eyes gleaming with predatory rage as he approached the mercenary. "No blade hurts me. No magic hurts me. But I know pain. I share it with you!" He followed with a snap kick a moment later, driving his boot into the man's face.

The Scarab's scan revealed a building far more crowded than it looked, a place practically overrun with activity of one sort or another. There were at least two individuals down in the basement vault; one shadowy creature of pure darkness that vanished inside the floor of the most secure vault the moment Scarab's psychic "eye" passed overhead, leaving behind traces just barely discernible through the material of the floor. Its still there, and it hasn't gone far. In a corridor outside the vault, there was another figure moving quickly through the darkness below, a half-familiar outline that ironically got all the more familiar when the figure vanished from Scarab's psychic eye entirely. Scarab had met some people who can do that particular trick, but only one recently. Outside, an innocent-seeming fellow was just coming in the main door, where Jos Terhune has managed to get inside the front foyer of the library. It's closed this late, naturally, but the University doesn't lock out its students out late at night in cold weather. The inner doors are locked, the foyer, information desk, and shelves inside just visible in the gloom. There's a glassed-over display board showing various library events, some of them canceled after the break-in, and a security phone for calling campus security. Where Scarab and Jos Terhune had enjoyed good fortune, Dark Star and Avenger were both running into difficulties. Dark Star's evasion in the floor got him away from that visual regard he'd just been conscious of, but unfortunately his investigation in the darkened vault has run into some difficulties. His normal vision wouldn't get him very far inside the vault, as the staff and police in leaving had turned off all the lights that night. As for Avenger, his sudden leap into the ducts overhead had neatly avoided the Scarab's searching eye (and won't he feel dumb when he realizes who that is?) but his hasty maneuver left him with a very wrong idea about who his enemy was. Whoever had been watching him was obviously right there in the vault!

Point taken, and edit successfully...edited.