shazam

A little bit of tinkering: I'd like to change Captain Wonder's "Shim-Ra!" Blast 14 AP to a Blast 11 (Burst Area, Penetrating) (Touch Range, Distracting) attack to better match the damage caused by a magical bolt of plasma. As it's an area attack, this way I don't feel screwed and I don't stretch my PL caps. With my PP, I'd like to buy: 1 pp=+4 ranks of Arcane Lore (Fred's been absorbing more knowledge these days!) 1 pp=Improved Grab (Fred's been pretty wrassly lately) and I'm saving the other 1 for July for the Invisible Pyramid. (You'll see. Mwa-ha-ha!)

Being a low-level minion, the guard's resistance goes poorly. And I've asked Heritage to occasionally peek in here, just to make sure I'm not up to any shenanigans. After all, our characters are actually squaring off. ;)

The guard isn't stupid. At the sight of a dangerous-looking man in power armor training a weapon on him, he doesn't go for his nightstick or radio. But like security guards everywhere, he's braver than he ought to be. "Mr. Fawcett! There's a-" A blast from the Mindbender strikes him just then, and with a cry he falls, blocking the door with his unconscious body. "Bob!" comes a cry from the records room, a high, elderly voice driven higher by shock. A moment after Malice has fired his weapon, the door comes open all the way. Having done his reconaissance ahead of time, Malice will of course recognize the senior partner of Fawcett Architecture, Frederick Fawcett himself. He's thin the way some old men are, his hands spotted with age and his hair completely white, his white suit and gold tie the sort of thing only Southern men of a certain generation still think is fashionable. But his back is straight and his eyes clear as he looks at Malice angrily. Having come for the blueprints to the Scarab's lair, Malice has found the man who built it. Fred bends down, checking Bob's pulse, even as he looks daggers at the armored bad guy. If he transforms now, the flash of energy is likely to hit the gas line nearby, blowing up irreplaceable business records and the unconscious security guard. Bob's got a wife and two kids. "Don't shoot that thing in here," he says carefully, "we're right next to about twenty-five years of client records. A man couldn't have a suit like that without knowing something about business," he adds, his accent thick, "so Ah'm trustin' you can respect a fellow businessman."

Having defeated a demon in hand-to-hand combat, triumphed over his old foe Donar, Captain Wonder is sitting pretty. So far the World War II paragon has had nothing but success since his retirement came to a spectacular end. His secret identity is still a mystery, particularly as how his ageless face hasn't changed a jot since 1953.

It would never so much as cross Captain Wonder's mind that superheroes have to do things like obey treaties. He doesn't bother with a car. Instead, he cheerfully comes flying in towards the embassy, low enough over the fence to give a friendly wave to the security guard as he heads for the building proper. If no one stops him, he lands at the front door and heads inside to join the others.

For an architectectural company's office, the space Malice passes through seems quite mundane. The grey paneled walls, institutional beige carpet, and faux-wooden doors could be in any one of fifty office complexes in Freedom City alone. While they've replaced broken paneling and the like, no one has done anything to change this building's original design. Malice is an observant fellow, as a man in his position ought to be. A security guard is just closing the door of the records room behind him as Malice reaches that part of the building. "Yessir Mister Fawcett," he's agreeably telling someone inside the room, "I'll make sure the boys stop smoking." The guard's back is turned, but from Malice's present position he'll see him in a moment, especially since this is the way he's most likely to go out.

With a little tinkering, the door pops open thanks to Malice's tinkering. Strangely enough, given the general neglect of the rest of the roof, the hinges on the door are oiled smoothly. He could open and close the door all day without making a single squeak. It looks like the guards occasionally come up here for smoking, but there's no sign of anyone around as he heads into the building proper. Fawcett Architecture is in the top floors of the building, which puts their records storage only a single floor down from his current location.

Wonder says an Egyptian word that isn't very nice, scanning the area for any signs of the fleeing god. When no obvious great signs present themselves, he drops back down to join the two sisters. "He's not going to bother you any more. I'll make sure of that. Do the two of you...need anything?" He finally asks, his face full of concern.

"And then he said 'Wait, comrades-in-arms? That's not what I thought you said!" Captain Wonder is in fine form at the end of the story, waving his arms to match the thrusting trident of the late king of Atlantis. "So it turns out he thought we'd all be enjoyin' relations with Siren while she was here and he was off being king!" He shakes his head. "No one was really hurt, but between the damage to the Steel Eagle and the big ruckus between Siren and Theseus after that, they decided they only needed one Atlantean on the League." His smile fades just a little. "I never did get a chance to meet his boy. I heard good things about Sea-King, though." He takes water and vegetables only for his snack, avoiding anything heavier.

Like any hero formed in the fires of the 1940s, Captain Wonder enjoys beating up street thugs, especially when they threaten innocent shopkeepers. "I'm on it," he agrees, sounding more like a soldier than a hero for a moment. He's been in this situation more than once. He dives down low to the alley, where the steel fire door is happily unlocked even at this late hour, and carefully pushes his way inside the store.

The Rhodes Building is a few decades old, and only recently has it begun to attract upscale businesses. There are no obvious security cameras on the roof; no one has ever tried to secure this building against threats who could climb, leap, or fly. The doors leading down into the building are locked, of course, but nothing that should hold back a criminal genius of Malice's caliber. In his office below, Fred paces a few times before an old man's bladder (and all that tea!) sends him to the executive bathroom he thoughtfully had installed for himself. Captain Wonder could do all this, go without sleep easily, but it's important to keep his humanity. It would be easy now to be the champion of Heliopolis all the time. Too easy. He's a man first, a hero second.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Wonder asks, careful of boundaries. "I know people who know...arts. I left him outside," says Wonder, "after giving him a beating. That was no man," he adds, his voice tight, "that was an aspect of the god of thunder made flesh. Have you ever heard of Donar?" With something like alarm, Wonder rises up into the air, through the knocked-away parts of the ceiling, to peer down at where he left the god of thunder.

The Captain is in. ;)

"Mr. Fawcett, are you sure you don't want to go home with me?" Fred tried to remember the name of the young secretary. Madison, that was it. When did people start naming their daughters that, anyway? She was looking at him worriedly, as if he might keel over behind his big wooden desk at any moment. "I'm fine, Ms. Beck," said Fred with a smile, raising his thermos with one spotted hand. "You should drink more green tea. It's good for the constitution." He rested his pen on his desk, still blessedly free of computers. "Those nice men from Stronghold will keep me safe tonight," he told her, "I just have to finish this last Ashton project." When Fred had finally put off his secretary, who was barely a third his age, he sat down again behind his desk and studied his notes. The senior partner in the prosperous firm of Fawcett and Batson wasn't planning any housing project. There was only one word on the paper before him, in fact. Ragnorak As he contemplated the meaning of Donar's cryptic words, the elderly Fawcett settled back into his chair, the only one left in the upper floors of the Rhodes Building, the North End headquarters of Fawcett and Batson Architecture. He'd feel this late night in the morning, but he had research he needed to carry out. With any luck, nothing would come up this late to bother him.

This is the OOC thread for Gods of Tomorrow

Hurrah! OK, refs, you can do with this thread as you will.

Wonder gives her the name of a good contractor. "His card is in my, er, other wallet. But you can look them up in the phone book." He looks down at the unconscious woman, studying her closely to look for anything familiar. When he speaks, his voice is soft and apologetic. "How long has she been like this?"

Shall we end the thread here, and have Stygwr return vowing revenge when next appropiate? ;)

Wonder lands next to the unconscious demon, rubbing his sweating brow tiredly. Giving Stygwr a very suspicious look, Wonder reaches down and picks up the big demon by the ankle. "All right, you. We're on our way out of here..." He flies up very high, circling out over the water. He takes it slowly, but still makes a good clip until Freedom City has actually disappeared over the horizon behind them. After that, he begins spinning in the air. "I recognize you, son of the Deep!" he calls to Stygwr, "and now, I send you back where you belong!" A mile above the ocean, he throws the demon straight down as hard as he can.

Wonder is up in the sky with Emissary silently for several moments before he admits, "Getting old is a hard thing, Emissary. Even for a superhero." He looks down at the city below, feeling oddly maudlin in the company of the contemporary hero he likes the best. "It's a hard thing to be forgotten. But those kids down there will remember me, and you, and they'll try their best to be like us." His faith in the situation sounds solid, and he turns to the Emissary with a challenging smile on his face. "I broke the sound barrier a month before the Red Eagle, you know, and six years before Yeager. How fast you flying these days?"

Wonder hurls the debris aside with gusto, though he's careful to keep it out of the house as he looks the injured woman over himself. "If the floor's secure and so's her bed, we're all going to McNider." He doesn't press for details, having some experience with emergencies.

Wonder looks around at the others for a moment, naturally judging them to be in the same state of mind he is. "I know I've seen enough fighting for one day." He grins at Emissary. "Let's teach the kids it's not all about fighting," he adds, before clapping the silver man on the shoulder. Turning to the younger ones, he says, "I'll tell you all the story of what happened when we tried to induct the Sea-King's father into the Liberty League."

::is all excited for the Emissary::

Broccoli! That's what I said. (Er, I guess I was a little unclear there, wasn't I? I'll take it to PM)

To shreds, you say? I never really got a firm bite on the apple, and it seems like you've got a good robbery plan going. F and B is a pretty soft target, they don't think of themselves as having high security. But they are the weakest link to getting into the Pyramid Plaza and the Scarab's lair underneath...