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GM Afternoon, Feburary 21st, 2021 The 7th day of the 7th week, in the 3rd 7th year of the 21st millenium Oxford Street, London The teleporter between the British embassy in Freedom City and Haven made it easy enough for Muirne to come visit the rest of the Vanguard, but that didn't mean that she always had the time. Things were busy at Claremont, after all. Between classes, time travel adventures, training and the random super heroics and super villain attacks, she was busy, so when she let Vanguard know that she was going to visit, Mette managed to bring Dee and Karla along for a shopping trip, just the four of them. They had reached Oxford Street, had gone through shops and had now just left Laksamania after finishing lunch. The sky was clear. And something seemed to glitter in the sky, reflections of what came below, every now and again. One would have to be incredibly lucky to look up in time to see the distorted reflections of London above. But no one seemed to notice or care. The sky was clear.

OOC for this. @Kaede Kimura @Tiffany Korta @Thevshi

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June 1, 2020 There had been much negotiation about how Vanguard would arrive in Rurland. Air travel to the new nation was heavily restricted, particularly in the wake of the single Russian military intelligence drone flight over the region (which had resulted in the addition of nearly a hundred pounds of machine parts for the new nation.) But the big teleporters built into Poliske's old administrative building, the ones that the intrepid journalists had used for their visit to what Americans in the know mockingly called "the Reservation", those had their downsides too - nobody was particularly interested in having their molecules broken down and reconstituted by machines built and controlled by Talos. So instead a compromise arrangement had been reached, and Vanguard (plus their guest member) had flown in from London on a surplus passenger plane loaded with human refugees taking shelter in the arms of Talos - mostly Venezuelans who were on the second leg of a flight from Bogota, needed technical specialists with families and children. They'd been flying over Belarus for an hour now and were approaching the former exclusion zone, and the heavily jet-lagged refugees aboard were waking up and nervous. They were a mixed bunch, mostly in surplus clothes, wary of the foreign heroes, and from the sound of things ready for where they were going - at least emotionally. Eira had not socialized, at least once it was clear no one on board required her immediate assistance. Up front in the pilot's compartment, she'd connected directly to the plane's computer network by means of a curling dataspike from the bottom of her sleeve and remained largely quiet during the flight from London. Dressed in a bulky brown sweater and worn-down jeans, she was a bit overdressed for a Ukranian summer - but with her hair dyed black, could have blended in almost perfectly with the refugee crowd.

Codex Immortus: Voin Zhenshchina Soho, London, 1961 Verily, 'twas a most pleasant summer evening, with long shadows from dusky red sun, and the air, in those days, was not quite so $£%" as it had been in years before or years hence. This was London, greatest city in the world. Home to the swinging sixties and everything most splendid that circled that decade of style and hedonism. Club Immortus, London, was the oldest of the Clubs, and arguably the most splendid. Paris had better food, Freedom City had better function. But the club in London had a lovely feel, of warm old wood, crackling fire, and musty smoke. The Library was full of wonderful old tomes, some extremely rare editions, and even some very dangerous eldritch texts that would threaten the brains of any reader. Mr. Murk had money and contacts everywhere. Operating from the shadows, he had tendrils in many pies. Much of it was due to hard work, grind, experience, and canny judgement, mixed with a true skill in making friends (or in some casing exerting leverage on useful enemies). His visions of the future had, of course, considerably helped. An invite had been sent to Voin Zhenshchina, for an evening drink. The Ministry of Powers had been most helpful in procuring this invite. Steak and wine, straight from Paris. Mr. Murk waited patiently in the dining hall, mulling over his Russian. A bit rusty, but still there.

GM Norris Atoll Lonely Point, Freedom City New Jersey Wednesday, February 1st, 2017 5:17 PM Norris Atoll was a pseudo atoll formed by the three islands South of the Lonely point Naval Base. Far from an island resort like Bermuda, the islands were just as desolate as the mainland. Which made the territory an easy concession when the United States agreed to a formal concession of land for an Atlantean Embassy on the Atlantic. King Theseus reached out to the architect behind the construction of the Freedom Aquarium who oversaw the construction of the structure. Essentially it was designed a self-contained deep sea resort, using the Aquarium's iceberg like design in which a majority of the property was actually beneath the surface. Visitors would be allowed to stay for as long as they so choose as long as a security concern does not arise. Allowing for the education of Atlantean culture in a way far removed from the offensive Atlantis Casino. The Ocean Factory at the bottom was closed off from surface world access. Only subcontractors and official delegates would be allowed access with a residence designed for use for any Atlanteans that would choose to use the facility. The fact that Atlantean hostilities with the surface (and the location being so near a surface world military installation) made it unlikely that anyone other than the Atlantean Ambassador would choose to actually use it. News outlets approached the entrance on a cargo ship. The grand unveiling was to be broadcast throughout the country. Including from within a Waterfront Russian bar where two heroines were currently enjoying a meal. Or the much quieter apartment belonging to Jessie White and Aquaria Innsmouth. William Cline, or Thoughtspeed as he was currently dressed, had a much closer look of the festivities. Having been personally invited by Princess Thaelia, as the only one of her friends not currently out of the city. With the possible exception of Elias, who she could never keep track of. Thoughtspeed found himself sitting in a room, with a view of the approaching vessel, accompanied by the Atlantean royal family minus King Theseus himself. An armed escort posted throughout, perhaps too armed for a guided tour.

It was a small list - the friends that Talya still had from her time among the Allies of Freedom was a small list that grew smaller yet every year. Most of them - all of them, really - had public personas just as flashy as Natalya Browning's public facade. They were also well aware that Talya's actual private life was something she had always kept decidedly so, so the understanding that discretion was expected was well understood alongside her invitation to visit the recently renovated apartments above the Espadas' School. Well, to most of them, it was likely well understood. For Ace, she made the effort to include a pointed phone call alongside sending a private town car - lest she get the damn Dangermobile hovering outside a window just because he wanted to tease. It might have been any other cheerful weekend afternoon at the rather noisy home of four very young children. That Talya was tense was only clear to those who knew her very well - and those who could compare her usual level of tidiness to the current downright sparkling level of cleanliness in an apartment with very young children. It was, frankly, unnatural to see the living room looking like something out of a magazine as the blonde Brit frowned before going to rearrange the art fully folded quilt on the couch's arm for the third time.

GM April 22, 2017 12:00 am Toys. There was always something fun about finding new toys. He remembered flipping through catalogs as a small child, trying to find the right thing to ask for. Enough money could buy almost any toy. But of course some toys were priceless. Sometimes people would share these toys. But he'd learned it was always easier to take and not ask. Who cared really? If they really wanted to keep the toys they would have taken better care of them. They wouldn't leave them lying around. He activated the process of "ordering" his new toys. There was a flash of blue light. That was the last thing each of the heroes had seen. That flash had dulled to a city street. A street that could have been any street in Freedom. Kind of. Dozens of cars were on the street unmoving. The towers looked right, but there was no one around. No one save the other heroes in a similar state of recovering from a stupor.

August 21, 2016. Northwestern Outskirts of Freedom City. Jameson Airport Lounge. 8:00 AM. Her name was Inari Jefferson. She was about 5’ 5”, African American, and held a Doctorate in Archaeology. She was waiting. Their benefactor’s (for lack of a better word) plane wasn’t set to leave for the better part of an hour. Inari was already packed. In fact, her luggage was on the Learjet already. Everything but her regular gear, which was on her. The compound bow and quiver were on her back, and the climbing axe was on her hip. She was waiting for who would basically be her four assistants on this trip. Though, with that said, they were professional superheroes. She couldn’t boss them around like they were undergrads. Her normal place of employment was FCU, but for this trip she was on a short sabbatical. Inari was at the bar, nursing a club soda. Hopefully this trip would go well. Inari had only gotten this job because she was just about the most famous archaeologist on the planet. That didn’t matter too much to anyone outside of archaeological circles, though. It didn’t seem to be important that her discoveries came at cost of up to half her field team. She simply had a knack for finding what either really didn’t want to be found or that someone with a lot of money and thugpower didn’t want to be found. It had only been three times (okay, four, but she was barely a HS grad back then) over a period of 12 years. All it had been was simply survival, nothing more. Better fighters, better archaeologists, and overall better people had died. She hadn’t. That was all there was to it. Still, it was nice to be wanted.

Adjusting to the sights and sounds of Freedom was talking some considerable adjustment, let alone the various changes that had happened over the last fifty-odd years. There was a long list of technology and changes that she'd not yet mastered, from the computer to figuring out Freedom City's mass transit but the television she'd at least got the basic hang of. She was in the middle of expressing her dismay at the television when she had been rousted for something like practice - or maybe just walkies. Leilani wasn't entirely certain, and sometimes the latter could prove taxing enough to her minimal control. "But... someone just shot J.R.!" It wasn't so much a protest as commentary to the message alert letting her know that one of the Freedom League was there for training time. Fortunately, training was interesting enough take her mind off of Dynasty at least for a little while as the one upside to her rather unfortunate set of meta-abilities came with an ability to glide - at least when she focused enough to do so. This section of the waterfront was either uninhabited enough - or inhabited by those willing to look the other way when a girl went surfing through the sky as if she were riding a board made of fire. Technically, she was gliding on superheated air currents but it felt enough like the sport she loved that the movements tracked well enough to it and Frost's ability to detect heat waves let him know well in advance when she was losing control so it was no surprise when her laugh turned into a yelp and she plummeted out of the sky like a rock. Really, like a literal rock as her transformation remained tied to her flight or fight responses and when she hit the waves, the hiss of water turning to steam was audible as she sank quickly to the bottom. The heat trail of her walking towards the surface was clear from the broil of boiling sea water above her head as she slogged towards the docks, specifically the shore underneath them. Fortunately, Leilani didn't need to breathe when she was made of rock and lava, so there was no real concern of drowning in the time it took her to walk up the bottom of the sea floor and hopefully the sight of a lava monster emerging from the waters of the Atlantic only frightened a few drunks lingering outside the steps of the nearby and largely empty bar.

Tögöl aj Akhui, Mongolia, Edge of the Gobi Desert The town was a small place one where people would normally just travel through on the way to somewhere else, but today the town was home to a variable army of trucks. Not by choice though the various convoys should be well on there way to one of the larger cities of Mongolia or even China, but the spooked drivers refused to travel any further, even for the silly money the Westerners were offering. The day had started well until the region they’d travelled into was hit by a number of small, but disturbing, number of earthquakes. A rumble went through the various local drivers and hand that the Olgoi-khorkhoi were angry for some transgression, the famed Death Worms. This was really quite good for the SuperCrime! crowd who had been trying to track down the elusive creature, and the apparently always frazzled producer was trying to get more information from a rather Grizzled Mongolian who seemed to know more about the creature. Wayward’s crew however were talking about the possibility of hiring an helicopter to get to the next scheduled concert.

February 2016 Late evening It was not too late for a pregnant woman to be outside with an ice monster. Or so Dimitri was sure. "<That's his apartment!>" Dimitri was declaring from inside the frosted-over windows of his Freedom League Ford Escort, pointing up at the third floor window of the small apartment block. "<He just walks around in there with Henry Griffin's face! It's awful! Goddamned Americans.>" He parked the car, carefully, mindful of America's bizarre mirror-image streets. "<I told him we're coming. I think you can get more out of him about his origins than I can - he's a trusting sort, but you know how I can be...>" - Klara had gotten the message by telephone, or rather on her cell's voice mail, - Dimitri Peshkov wanted to meet her in Kingston to discuss old times at a certain third floor apartment.

41 Moulton Avenue, Doncaster, United Kingdom 22nd November 2015 Every child was a genetic lottery and even when engineered you could never tell what you would get. And even with the magical science of the Lyudi Gory, Klara’s people, each child was and wonder and a surprise to their parents. And today one of Klara children had a surprise in store for her and Tracy. With Klara back from the States for a couple of days it had been decided that the Mathes clan would gather for the great tradition of Sunday Roast. Whilst the two eldest were already her the youngest hadn’t yet arrived and the meal, that Klara had been working on all morning, was almost ready. “I’m telling you that there’s something going on with our Alexis.” Tracy only dared to invade Klara’s busy kitchen to uncork a bottle of wine “And did you finely honed spy skills tell you this?” Klara added with a laugh running her kitchen like a finely honed military operation “And you can’t tell? Good job I only married you for you good looks.” raising up on tiptoes she planted a kiss on Klara’s cheek”You keep on with Operation Feed the Family whilst I ply my other daughters with wine to tasty gossip.”

Pushkin’s Restaurant, West End, Freedom City Friday 3rd October 2015 5:30 pm The last dregs of Summer had began to peter out and the sky was overcast over Freedom City, whilst most of the Restaurants had chair set up outside few bothered to sit outside. A few stubborn souls were however “enjoying” the weather, being use to much worse this time of year. “I do not know why I miss this food at all, it’s nothing like the sweet food or Ayrag of home.” Klara spoke between mouthfuls of Shchi “Maybe because you love all food even my feeble attempt at cooking and I’m no Mary Berry.” Tracy still had a strong Lancaster accent even after all these years At first glance it looked like a, admittedly tall, daughter was taking her mother out for a meal. Tracy looked about twice Klara’s age, and was in fact even older than that. But if you watched closer you could see that there was something else there, from the little looks they gave each other to way they would softly touch each other hands. “You are beautiful tonight my darling and you grow even more so with every passing year.” “You a lying old bugger you know that Klara, but I’ll take the compliment as it was intended. Now the kid are left we need to have that talk you know, unlike you I’m not going to live forever.” “You know there are ways around that, people and places that grant eternal beauty and life.” “Seems to me that immortality more of a burden than a blessing, look at that bitter old man you use to work with in the People’s Heroes. I ain’t planning to end up like that, rather go now.” It was an old conversation that Klara wasn’t keen on having right now, she just wanted a nice quiet night out with her wife, so she subtly changed the subject. “I can’t tell if it’s from living among the Russians or the English's but when someone mention him I can’t help but assume the worst is about to happen...”

Zhenshchina-voin Power Level: 14 (built as PL 10; 187/250PP) Trade-Offs: None Unspent Power Points: 63 In Brief: Amazon woman who’s come out of retirement after raising a family.  Residence: Doncaster, Yorkshire, United Kingdom Catchphrase: "Теперь вы сталкиваетесь воин женщина" Alternate Identity: Klara Svoboda, Clara Matthews, Женщина-Воин , Warrior Woman Identity: Public Birthplace: Shamany Vstrecha, Altai Republic, Russia Occupation: Housewife Affiliations: Ministry of Powers Family: Zora (First Mother), Alloura (Second Mother), Tracy Theodora Matthews (Wife), Claire, Lucy and Alexis Mathews (Daughters) Description: Age: 244 (DoB: 1771) Apparent Age: Early Thirties Gender: Female Ethnicity: Mixed Height: 7'0” Weight: 197 lbs Eyes: Brown Hair: Black Klara is a striking figure standing at seven feet tall with an athletic build her skin lightly tanned and her black hair worn long a loose. Her facial feature is a mix, her Scythian and Mongolian ancestry giving her a rather striking noble bearing. Her costume is the ceremonial armour of her people gold scale mail with silver plates in places covering from neck to feet, with only her lower arms left bare. On her arms she wears a pair of elaborate bracers inserted with large red gems glowing with an inner power. Power Descriptions: Apart from her physique, making her more capable than the most normal humans. She also wears the armour of her warrior clan and a pair of magical bracelets filled with magical power. History: Long ago several of the shamans of the nomadic tribes would gather at a secret spot in the shadow of the Altai mountains. They would discuss peace among the tribes and protecting the steppes from threats both physical and supernatural. Over time the shamans began to bring families, then tribes and finally they settled building a city hidden from the rest of the world. Led by wise rulers the city prospered and as they grew wise there people benefited growing tall in stature and long in lifespan. Whilst they watched the world go by they generally kept to themselves only rarely venturing out and withdrawing into legend, whilst many wished nothing to do with the outside world and few wished to venture out and aid humanity. Klara was one of these. Born through magic into the warrior caste she trained to fight in a city of peace, she wanted to go into the world and help others with the skills she had trained for almost a century. When the world descended into war and vast magical power were unleashed by the Axis she could no longer stand by and left her home, possibly forever to help the allies fight their war. Presenting herself to a rather shock local Soviet commander, she was rapidly shipped to Moscow, where after some testing of both her powers and her loyalty she was assigned to the People's Heroes where she fought with distinction on many fronts, she was moved around often and kept away from the troops as coming from a society of relative freedom she often spoke out about the Soviet system. Despite the best efforts of the party when the Axis was defeated and the fragile peace descended she defected from the People's Heroes and the Soviet Union into the hand of the British. Once British Intelligence determined she wasn't a double agent they were at a loss as to what to do with her, as her presence in Europe would threaten the fragile peace, so they assigned her to help restructure MI-13 into the Ministry of Powers. Her assigned guide during this time was one Tracy “Teddy” Matthews a former SoE agent, now assigned to the Ministry. They spent many months together and over that time a tentative friendship developed into something more. After a few years, Tracy and Klara moved in together and Klara retired from superheroing to keep the household. When the Cold War began to thaw the two of them traveled back to Klara’s home and about a year later returned with three newly born daughters. Apart from the occasional crisis, Klara has spent the last couple of decades raising their daughters and looking after her partner, and finally once the law had caught up her wife, quite happy to be a housewife. The children now fully grown and gone on to successful careers (Claire is a Doctor, Lucy a Lawyer with an interest in Politics and Alexis is an actor) Klara has been itching to get back into the superhero business, Personality & Motivation: Klara has a very strong will and is not an easy person to persuade from any course of action she set her mind upon. At the time she can be stern and unforgiving, but she is also an incredibly warm and generous person. She will drop everything to help her friends without question and will do everything in her power to help and will double her efforts if it's her family involved. As a warrior, she follows her own personal code of conduct and will endeavor to treat her opponent with some kind of dignity, once they'd been defeated. Powers & Tactics: Raised in ancient warrior culture Klara is not one for complicated plan or tactics. She is all being the first in and the last out, overwhelming the opposition with brute force. She’s not stupid however and if the foe is obviously more powerful then she will instead resort to hit and run tactics. Complications: Свобода народов Герой: Though few and far between there are a few that remember her time as one of the Soviets People’s Heroes. Many are not overly friendly due to her defection to the West after the war. нетрадиционный: Klara lives by her own way caring not for how to see her life, in fact, she’s quite open about her lifestyle choices. There are many out there who wouldn’t Старая женщина: Tracy is a woman in her 80 and despite benefiting from Klara’s people's science and magical knowledge is starting to feel the passing of the years. Despite this Klara still loves her deeply and would do almost anything to keep her safe and healthy Abilities: 20 + 6 + 10 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 54PP Strength: 30 (+10) Dexterity: 16 (+3) Constitution: 20 (+5) Intelligence: 16 (+3) Wisdom: 16 (+3) Charisma: 16 (+3) Combat: 16 + 12 = 28PP Initiative: +11 Attack: +8 Base, +10 Melee Grapple: +20/+30 (Super-Strength) Defense: +10 (+6 Base, +4 Dodge Focus), +3 Flat-Footed Knockback: -7 Saving Throws: 5 + 6 + 6 = 17PP Toughness: +10 (+5 Con, +5 Protection [5 Impervious]) Fortitude: +10 (+5 Con, +5) Reflex: +9 (+3 Dex, +6) Will: +9 (+3 Wis, +6) Skills: 100R = 26PP Bluff 12 (+15) Diplomacy 12 (+15) Drive 2 (+5) Gather Information 12 (+15) Intimidate 12 (+15) Language (English, Russian, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, Mongolian, Arabic, [Native Altai]) +2 Notice 12 (+15) Sense Motive 12 (+15) Search 12 (+15) Survival 8 (+11) Feats: 23PP Accurate Attack All-Out Attack Attack Focus (Melee) 2 Dodge Focus 4 Evasion 2 Fearless Improved Initiative 2 Improved Trip Luck 1 Master Plan Move-by Action Power Attack Startle Takedown Attack 2 Uncanny Dodge (Auditory) Well-Informed Powers: 8 + 28 + 3 = 39PP Scale Armour 2 (10 point Device, Hard to Lose) [8PP] (magical) Protection 5 (Extra: Impervious) [10PP] Gemmed Bracelet 7 (35 point Device, Easy to Lose) [28PP] (magical) Blast 10 (100ft range) [21PP] AP : Super Strength 10 ( Effective STR 80 [Heavy Load=819.2 lbs] ) {20/20} Flight 5 (250mph, 2,200 ft/rnd) [10PP] Teleport 4 (Flaw: Long range) [4PP] Immunity 3 (Aging, Disease, Poison) [3PP] DC Block ATTACK ATT RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed +10 Melee DC 25 Toughness (Staged) Physical Blast +8 Ranged DC 25 Toughness (Staged) Magic Totals: Abilities (54) + Combat (28) + Saving Throws (17) + Skills (26) + Feats (23) + Powers (39) - Drawbacks (0) = 187/250 Power Points