shazam

Okay, that's an area attack, so make a Reflex save to avoid. I'm going to say the damage is just Fred's standard unarmed damage, since you can't really power attack on an area attack. (Hey, gotta try all kinds of fun tactics!)

For his part, Wonder is more than content to stay where he is. Maybe it means giving initiative in the battle over to his opponent, but he's nervous about closing with those powerful blasts inside a building that might come down on both their heads. "What's the matter, punk?" he calls down to Malice. "Can't take it when an old man hits back? Maybe you need a new tin can!" The guy already knows the secret, and Captain Wonder has never been one to flinch from the truth. He thinks for a moment, his gaze falling on the parking lot below, then makes his decision. My company. My truck. As he dips down across the street, it does occur to Wonder that he's about to do a lot more damage to his company than Malice did. But it's the principle of the thing; dang it. Fawcett Architecture, and Fred Fawcett himself, doesn't knuckle under to hoodlums in power armor. And, hey, if he's suffering from this, he doesn't have to feel so bad about the money he just took out of his neighbor's pocket. When Fred returns to Malice's field of view, he's carrying Fawcett Architecture's panel truck. "Here's one for you now!" He throws it down the hole he just opened at the supervillan on the bottom floor.

Yay! OK, used Ultimate Toughness save again (and still got a bruise! Autofire R powerful.) And then an All-Out Attack for a Toughness DC of 25, and a grapple check. Captain Wonder is easily strong enough to throw something Malice's size a few hundred feet straight down. Someone with Malice's Impervious Toughness shouldn't take any damage from hitting glass and tile, I think, but all the breaking glass and falling tiles as he hits the floor would look pretty boss. :)

Wonder's head snaps back from the force of the blasts as if he'd taken a punch to the face, and for a moment he's knocked askew in the air. When he looks back at Malice, his nose is bleeding. "Is that all you got?"He can be hurt, it seems, but it's hard to tell just how badly. A moment later, he throws a punch. Keep hitting him, Fred thinks, Don't give him time to realize how hard he can hit." This time he goes for the belly, his fist ringing off steel as he punches Malice where his stomach should be. He's not done yet, though. He grabs Malice by the arms, hard, and if he succeeds in holding him, hurls him straight down into the skylight of one of the empty office buildings below them.

Okay, I'm going to say that Captain Wonder's rivalry with the modern age is activated by fighting with a trash-talking young supervillian in power armor...but since I'd expect me to say that, I'll make sure it's okay with you first. 8-)

Wow, what terrible, terrible rolls I made! But I spent my regular hero point on Ultimate Toughness Save, and my one of my complication hero points on rerolling the subsequent unarmed attack. (Pretty sure all that balanced out.) That's a DC 30 toughness save.

As it happens, Malice's deception is remarkably successful. Leaking hydraulics pass for blood in the moonlight, while swiveling mechanical joints let the neck inside look broken. It's been a long time since Captain Wonder has fought anyone in armor, after all. The deception only lasts for a moment, but it's long enough for Malice to take him completely and utterly off-guard in both word and deed. For the first time in seventy years in costume, Captain Wonder feels fear. Replaced a moment later, as the dust clears and he stands untouched by Malice's blast, with rage. "You son of a-" The sound of his fist striking metal cuts off his words. He throws himself into the next punch, his anger giving him the force he needs to throw a right cross with tremendous power

Okay, so with a crit, the Toughness DC is actually 31.

Emboldened by the success of the punch, Wonder draws back his fist for another blow. In the momentary tableau as his head is silhouetted against the Moon behind him, his shiny black hair flares white and silver. "The Scarab died defending this city. Shame on you for betraying what he did!" The voice is younger, the tones of a young man in the prime of life rather than an old man, but the words and tone are unmistakeable. A moment later, though, Wonder throws that punch and hits like a cannon. There is another crack as a fist with the strength and power of a god plows into Malice's face, the sound of a shell detonating against a tank.

Captain Wonder makes a beeline for Malice, his fist drawn back as he tears his way through the air. "You want a hero who knew the Scarab? You got one!" In the moment before he strikes, when he's only an arm's length from Malice, his blue eyes lock onto the armored villian's...and this close, those eyes look familiar. Very familiar. It wasn't that long ago that a fearless old man was staring Malice down with those same blue eyes. A moment later, though, he throws a punch, and there are other things to worry about. For all that he was out of the game for decades, the Captain's punch to the jaw (and really, who punches in the jaw these days?) hits armor with the sound of a hammer striking steel.

As a precaution, you should make a Notice check against DC 20. Just...'cause.

With the supervillian gone, Fred takes a deep breath, then slowly lets it out. Fearless or not, encounters like that are exceptionally tough on his constitution these days. He stops to check Bob's pulse, then heads straight for the big window at the other end of the hallway. He pushes open the glass, peering up into the clear Freedom City night, and speaks a magic word. A moment later, a flash of pure solar light blankets the room, and it is Captain Wonder who erupts from the window after Malice. Wonder knows he should just fly up to Malice and punch him in the back of the head, but that's more difficult to do after actually conversing with the man. Not that he isn't planning on giving him a beating. "Hey, you!"

The threat, the reminder of the man he's dealing with, is enough to shake Fred out of the geniune pleasure he'd felt at talking the supervillian down without having to resort to his powers. He gives Malice a narrow-eyed look. Forget calling the others; as soon as this guy is out of here, he's going to go deal with him himself. "Sure, sure. You just go look up Langston Albright, he'll tell you what you need to know." He's still got the Lightbearer powers, and he's got all those superpowered bodyguards at the Institute. "If'n you can find the first Raven or the Black Avenger, they were on the Freedom League with him too. That won't be easy for you."

Oh, and just to be on the safe side, here's my (not very good) initiative. http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1619678/

Captain Wonder does his best to hide his uneasiness around all these younger superheroes, shaking hands and giving friendly greetings as much as possible. He's very glad to see the Emissary, the only person in this crowd he really knows well, and gives him the firmest handshake of all. "Wouldn't have missed all this for the world. For a good cause, I'll do most anything."

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1619675/ A 16, now that you mention it. Where does that put me? :)

Malice's sudden hesitation makes Fred hesitate too. He can't just transform and hit a man who's not actually attacking him, for all that he certainly wants to lay out the guy who busted into his building and shot his friend. The villians of his own day weren't the sort to stop and think about their actions. If sorely pressed now, he can always say his magic word... "Son, you've obviously gone to a lot of trouble here," he says carefully. "And I can respect that. Why don't you just go on your way, and I'll get an ambulance for Bob?" Fearlessly, he walks up to Malice, his hands still up in surrender. "You don't even gotta quit what yer doing. It ain't like I'm the only friend the Scarab ever had. Why don't you try looking up some of the people he was on the League with?" It's not as friendly an offer as it sounds, though it's not necessarily a hostile one. Langston's still got his powers, and a whole passel of super-powered security guards at the Albright Institute. Mike kept his identity secret, and John Wade's got Freedom League security. Go deal with them, not an old man who's kept his secret identity for sixty years!

Ooh, Malice does the thing most designed to confound Fred. Though it would have been interesting if they'd gotten into an unpowered fight. ;)

"All right," says Wonder, a little shaken by the spectacular events of the last few hours. "If you see any sign of him again, give the Freedom League a call, all right? They'll know how to deal with an angry god." There's not much more to be said, now, so with a heartfelt farewell Wonder takes off into the sky, his head swimming with all the mysteries he's uncovered. He'd come to solve one problem...and now he's only been handed more.

Fred backs all the way down the corridor, jumping a little in surprise when he comes to the wall behind him. He's far away from Bob now, and there's no danger of setting the place on fire. But there's also no way in hell he can transform without letting this guy know far more than he ought to about the secrets of one superhero in particular. With nowhere to go without actually running, a dubious prospect at best, he straightens his back and looks levelly at the man. "That's all well and good, but those things don't belong to you. The Scarab put them aside for his heirs thirty years ago. Just because it's taken him a while to reincarnate doesn't mean he won't do it. The Scarab died saving the world from the Scions of Sobek, and I will not betray the trust he gave me." He balls his hands at his sides into fists. "So, now what? You gonna break an old man's bones? It's real easy for a man in a powersuit to be tough."

You know, I had thought the Scarab's secret identity had been exposed after his death. But I don't have any specific references for that, and I can think of a few good arguments against it. Beyond the good points you guys brought up, there's also the fact that if Malice knew who the Scarab was, he'd probably be over at Alexander Rhodes' place shaking down Sophia Cruz instead of Fred. So I will change it! Good eye on not having Malice respond to the name-dropping.

A little surprised, but not displeased, at the size of the crowd, Wonder gives a cordial greeting to everybody. "Nice to see you all again, and to meet you other folks." The little guy with the big mouth and the lady with the big hair are certainly impressive enough, but he's far too much of a veteran to gape at either. Still, both get a friendly smile and hello.

Fawcett stares at Malice for a moment. He doesn't look fearful, so much as geninuely, honestly surprised. But that doesn't necessarily mean anything; a man his age may not have the soundest judgement in the world. He does back up as Malice approaches, trailing his hand along the wall. At his age, a fall might do some serious damage. "The Scarab? You want to know where the Scarab's lair is?" For a very brief moment, he actually smiles, quickly dismissing the flash of nostalgia in the obvious danger. "Jeez, son..." He runs his hand through his white hair. "The Scarab was one of my best friends. He was a true hero even if you didn't take his powers into account, and a gentleman scholar along with that." He gives a pained little laugh. "You're the first person, super or otherwise, who's shown the least bit of interest in him since I moved to this dang city." He coughs a little and eyes Malice, the anger giving way to a little bit of uncertainty. "Whatcha want his lair for? He's gonna want it back when he's alive again."

"All the new records are in Memphis, y'know. On computers." The hi-tech word sounds almost alien coming from him. "This is just the stuff they hain't digitized yet; the old stuff. I don't think a young feller like you would be interested 'init." He straightens up from Bob's side, his hands up as if he's been in this situation before. Fred plays the paternal old man for the obvious supervillian, his voice soothing. "You sure you're in the right office? I don't mean to tell tales out of school, but I think those folks down in Atlantic National have their payroll in today." Inside the privacy of his head, Fred curses himself angrily. Like a lot of older people, he has an emergency button on his cell phone, but it's back on his desk inside the records room. And his 'ignorance' aside, he's also not blind to what this guy might well be after. When the heroes of the previous generation built their headquarters, most of them turned to the architect who'd once fought alongside them.

Lately I've been reading the "Booster Gold" Showcase. It's awesome! (And it gives me ideas for the Freedomverse...)