shazam

With his own divine powers protecting him, Wonder dodges the blast of super-smashed air with a flash of white and gold. He's knocked about a bit by the blast itself, his hair knocked out of its familiar style, but he takes the hit unscathed. Wonder meets Donar's attack with one of his own, diving down to ground level to wrap his arms around the putative Norse god. "Hold still, blast you! This is a neighborhood full of civilians!" While they struggle, Wonder does his best to suss out this man's fighting style. He's not using the hammer, but does he fight like the Donar of old?

Huh, I actually made the Reflex Save! (Didn't expect that!) And the Toughness save as well! My books are packed up, unfortunately, so I don't remember how to calculate Wonder's grapple check. (assuming he hits) He's currently at Flight 3, Super-Strength 3. (Since he started the thread with a weaker array than he has now.)

Got a twenty, not too bad.

Not huge. Think the Bowery, not Brooklyn. Well, if you started out chasing gangs, you're probably near Greenbank already, as it's one of the worst neighborhoods in the area.

By the way, Barnum, kudos for both this site improvement and the repairs you did the other day! You have the thanks of a grateful nation.

South, towards Greenbank, and eventually the river.

Okay, point taken. Sorry about the init thing, I guess I'm more dependent on a ref than I thought I was. OK, just waiting on Stygwr's reaction to the punch, then.

Huh, a critical hit! Well, the Toughness save DC goes up to 32. Captain Wonder's defense drops to six, if you can hit him a hundred feet in the air.

Well, this is going to be a challenge. Faced with such an imposing enemy, Wonder bleakly wonders if maybe he should have joined a super-team after all. But there was no way to change the facts now, and no time to hesitate with civilians in peril. "Foul spawn of Typhon and Gul'dan!" Wonder tries for a hit and run strike against this powerful opponent, flying high in the sky before swooping down to land a surprisingly powerful punch right in the monster's face! He's up in the air again a moment later, flying high out of reach of those nasty-looking claws.

Well, given that Wonder's strategy is going to be to fly down and punch the demon in the face either way, it's mostly an issue of how he's going to roleplay it. And how hard he's going to hit. Oh, and given Wonder's Benefit as Champion of the Egyptian Pantheon, Stygwr probably has a pretty good chance of knowing who this particular embodiment of Lawful Good is...

"I'll...do the best I can." Completely unfazed by everything else, the idea of fighting the latest of the modern age has Wonder's back up and his fists clenched. He'll show these young people a thing or two about how to fight. He smiles at Archeville. "Just make sure you don't hit me with one of those things."

The gunfire awakens Fred Fawcett, high in his apartment over the lower-middle-class area. Blearily, the old man rises to his feet and walks with slow deliberation to the window. He's in one of the better parts of the neighborhood, close to the macrobiotic Arabic market that originally attracted him to the area. His liver-spotted fingers move slowly as they unfasten the window, sliding it open against the noise of a Freedom City night. When he hears the screams and the gunshots again, this time unfiltered by glass and plasters, he knows what he has to do. "Why can't they be out at a more reasonable hour?"! the old man exclaims to his empty apartment, a moment before "SHIM-RA!" transforms him into the white and gold figure of Captain Wonder with a flash of light and noise. He's out the window a few moments later, flying fast enough to foil any witnesses, before he begins his search of the neighborhood for the source of the noise. It turns out to be not that difficult to spy a giant demon attacking a group of fleeing gang members, and Wonder is appalled at the carnage he's already seeing. He takes a moment to size up his antagonist, his cape fluttering behind him in the breeze. "MONSTER!" he booms, his voice echoing in the night air, a clear, unmistakeable figure of magical power and authority. "Why don't you try a beating instead?!"

Let's do it in the West End, catch Captain Wonder where he lives. And then they can take each other as Complication: Enemy.

Well, it's no fun to be without a debut! Count me in.

"It's true," says Wonder politely, "he did." He eyes the others, reminding himself that he's not an authority figure in this setting. Still, especially given his experience and age, it's hard for him not to think that way. "I remember once, when the Marionette had the Envoy mind-controlled, he hit me right in the head with that sword of his." Wonder rubs his head at the memory. "Those people have sharp swords."

The return of one of the most famous heroes of the Golden Age has prompted cheers and jeers alike. While reports of his feud with the Next-Gen are somewhat exaggerated, it's well-known that this is one older hero who is less than amused at the adventures and wacky antics of his teenage 'successors'. For mystics, the return of the champion of the Egyptian pantheon raises exciting questions about how Atum's court may be changing its relationship with the material plane and the other divine planes. For people of a certain generation, though, the return of Captain Wonder means nothing but good things. His clean-cut, 'innocent' adventures stood apart from the stories told even of his friends the Centurion and Lady Liberty. In many ways he is an embodiment of the values of another generation, both for the good and bad. Memphis was a segregated city in his time, after all, and he certainly never did anything about that. It remains to be seen just how well the Captain of the Sun and Stars will carry forth the values of the previous generation into this new one.

"My friend here says he's a mighty warrior and hungry for battle," says Wonder, sizing up the big warrior momentarily. For his own part, Wonder is inclined to assume that everyone's heard of him. But it still doesn't hurt to go first, to give the young people some confidence. "I am Captain Wonder. In the past, I have flown faster than a jetplane, survived a direct energy blast from the Ubermensch, and punched my way through a tank's armor. As was said of Odyesseus, I am skilled in all ways of contending."

Wonder heads down to the Wreck Room, keeping a slightly mistrustful eye on the room around him. This isn't the Freedom Hall of his youth, and he'd do well to remember that. Once there, he smiles at the sight of the Emissary, reaching out to give him a firm handshake. "Good to see you again. Did you get in touch with John Wade?"

Hey Dr. Archeville, I hope you don't mind the little 'flashback' there; giant robots are just the sort of thing Golden Age Nazi mad scientists liked to whip out. And Captain Wonder got around.

"Yes, I am familiar with your grandfather's work," says Wonder with great firmness. "Very intimately so, as a matter of fact." For a moment, in the back of his mind, Fred is fourteen again and facing down a 50 foot robot with a machine gun for a mouth and death rays for eyes. He shakes it off, after just a moment's pause, and asks, "Is he still among the living?"

Wonder translates obligingly, glad that the chances of a battle now seem considerably less likely. "The Legionnaire is a man out of time and place, and our customs are strange to him," he says for the benefit of the others, "we shall all keep a close eye on him." With that issue settled, Wonder returns to his previous conversation. "Yes, I think I am a little familiar with both of you," he says with a momentary trace of uncertainty.

In English, Wonder replies to the others. "A pleasure, ah, Doctor." He sternly reminds himself that not all German scientists are insane mass murderers with a castle full of Nazi death machines and grim and terrible experiments underway...well, probably not. The mention of the Centurion, as it usually does, makes the smile fall from his face. "The Centurion came from a world that no longer exists." Shifting smoothly from stern taskmaster to fatherly influence, Wonder studies the Legionnaire carefully before speaking. "I am this plane's champion of Re and Isis, soldier. They call me Captain Wonder." He says his nom de super in English, of course, but then returns to Latin. "You are displaced between worlds, then, as was Persephone to Tartarus?" He pays close attention to the displaced man with whom he shares a common language. "If so, I do know of the mighty magics that pass between the worlds. When my business here is complete, I can help you."

"Excuse me, please," says a completely unfazed Captain Wonder to Velocity before he turns to the Legionnaire. His mode changes as suddenly as if someone had flipped a switch; his gentle voice changing into the harsh bark of a drill sergeant. In perfect parade-ground Latin, he replies, "By the blades of Mars, boy, if I see you threaten a woman in these hallowed halls again, I shall personally cast you into the arms of Pluto! Quench the fire of your pride now, or have it quenched for you!"

Speedster. Be patient. That's just the way they are. Wonder remembers John Wade in great detail. From what he's seen from television, Johnny Rocket II has a lot more in common with his grandfather than most people realize. "Young lady, I don't believe I've had the pleasure." Despite his increasingly short temper these days, it's hard for Wonder to play the cranky old man too long. Especially with a pretty girl.

I wouldn't expect anything different from a speedster. The World's Mightiest Man! Hero of the Golden Age and World War II, former hero of Memphis, Tennessee. Disappeared in 1953 after one of the last big super-brawls of the period. Reappeared a short time ago in Freedom City, is apparantly the same guy.