Avenger Assembled

Okay! He can't drop the big Theurgy effects with the paralyzed girl right there - so instead he'll go for: Damage 10 (goon-sweeper, Extras: Area [Targeted, Shapeable], Penetrating [6], Selective, PFs: Accurate 2) {38/38} https://orokos.com/roll/972634 let me know if a 23 is good enough, if not I'll reroll. He'll keep spamming Move-By Action so he doesn't wind up in melee range of any of the dupes at the end of his turn.

"There are regular food trucks as well, if your condition requires you to be strictly carnivorous," Eira told Carmen before she laughed nervously. "It is not a - a combat mission, I could not just send some Claremont students off to fight in some other dimension, yes? Local conditions are somewhat chillier than they are here. But nothing will actually endanger you. One of the properties of certain magical realms is that nothing there can actually hurt a - organisms such as yourselves." She stood up and said, "I will need to grab our gear while you have whatever lunch you prefer. Here is a cash card that the vendors will accept," she said, offering the black, glossy thing to Leon, "but after that we will be ready to leave, if there are no more questions...?"

Owain waved his hands wildly and began chanting louder, repeating the same words in medieval Welsh over and over again. There was no answer for the question about Nightscale, but Neko answered for herself a moment later. "It is done," she said shortly, padding on the carpeted floor of the office with bare feet. Her feet were human shaped, with pointed, sharp nails at the end of each toe, and covered in a faint, barely visible layer of fur that matched the white and brown-spotted color of her hair. "I do not need to fly," she said, and with that she simply leaped out of the open hole in the side of the building. Looking out, the teens could see her nimbly sliding her way down the panels, leaping from cornice to cornice, before making her way down. And with that, Owain spread his hands and called out a magic word - The voices everyone heard, whispering in their ears in warm, fatherly tones, were the voice of the Great Raven, father and mother of all of that line, promising that the bargain made between Owain and its line would be honored by the loan of its shape. A song sounded in their ears as their bodies changed, not with any cracking of bone or skin, but as if they'd simply been redrawn and recast into the shape and size of black, glossy-feathered crows! Owain, well-used to this new form, declared "Follow me to safety!" before flapping his wings and disappearing smoothly out the window after Neko. Of course, to everyone else, what they heard was someone talking in medieval Welsh (not that most of them knew what that was, anyway) and then they were all two-foot long black birds, the world leaping into incredible focus even as it grew. It was so easy to flap their wings and fly...

"I...I don't know if my mom will come," Ashley admitted, not quite able to meet Ellie's eyes. "She's not - homophobic," she said defensively, even if she wondered if it was true, "she just - has never wanted to talk about it." She hesitated, then added, "She really fell apart inside after my dad was killed. She moved out of the city, married my stepdad, got really involved with his church. I always thought it was helping her." She smiled thinly, making herself look up and continued the conversation. "...My sisters, meanwhile, all swore they suspected this whole time, so I know they're coming." Even the one not by blood, who doesn't even have blood anymore, knew me that well. "So that's going to be them, their husbands, their kids...and that's just that side of that family." She already knew Ellie's family had been supportive, even if she didn't know all the details there, so instead she turned to Mara. "How about you?" she asked. "Was everyone okay with - everything? Even Ellie's job?"

"He is fine," Eira lied cooly. "His interests...do not lie in technical matters in any event." She smiled, her teeth perfectly straight and white, and said, "If you would prefer to eat here, I recommend the Slutty Vegan food truck parked across the street. The burgers are very good, yes?" She tapped a pen against her chin thoughtfully and added, "I have prepared limited supplies if necessary but this will only be a short-term mission. The dimension does not allow visitors for more than the length of a single night. A longtime ally of the Freedom League, the local monarch, has been the victim of a local political confrontation. We will be liberating him from his confinement. Just like, ah, saving the Atlantean monarch, as the League has done. Are there any more questions?"

"I would advise you to eat before you go," said Eira thoughtfully, smelling faintly of peppermint to La Puma's sensitive nostrils. "While food will be present it may not be to your liking, especially if you have dietary needs. I myself am vegan," she added, "so I understand any such concerns and will do my best to meet them." She considered what to say, then said, "None of you are diabetic, yes? The medical waiver was very specific." As indeed it had been. "You will be visiting an alternate plane that has been repeatedly accessed by superheroes, one that is rated completely safe for juvenile organic life by the Freedom League." She eyed Carmen in particular and said, "Does your coat offer you thermal protection? Do you get cold?"

Katastroff Consulting A subsidiary of Archetech The Claremont students had all followed up on the advertisement posted in one of the Claremont common rooms. "NEED SUMMER CASH? CONSIDER INTERNING WITH KATASTROFF CONSULTING! SCIENCE - FOR EVERYONE!" The smiling face underneath was a mostly-familiar blonde in a white labcoat, Eira having been a contemporary of Luke and Leon in her last year and her first year at Claremont. She looked to have aged since then, perhaps puzzling for an android, clearly looking to be in her mid-twenties as she ushered them inside what turned out to be a rather small, hastily-assembled office. The walls were bare and painted in a bland shade of off-white, lacking any decor or artwork to liven up the room. The space was lit by overhead fluorescent lights that cast a harsh, sterile glow over everything. The only furniture appeared to be a desk with a chair behind it and a couch and chair in front of the desk. There was a faint buzz from the lights overhead and the sound of recirculated air from somewhere, but the room itself was a little stuffy. "Hello!" she said, putting on a big smile for the three Claremont students. "Luke, Leon, and Carmen, yes?" Her Swedish accent was faint but noticeable as she spoke to them, gesturing for them all to have a seat. She gave them all a big smile and spread her hands wide once they were all inside the room. "I am so glad you all are here!" She smiled again, her teeth perfectly white, and folded her hands in front of her, unconsciously beginning to crack her knuckles as she spoke. Everything will be fine. We will get this done and they will have a fine adventure. "This will take no more than twelve hours," she told them all reassuringly, "are you all prepared to be away that long?"

Wordlessly, Neko butted her forehead against the side of Leon's head, silently watching the stars above. Everyone is gone except me. Nobody sings the mountain song anymore because no one remembers it. But I am alive and so I remember it. Gradually, she relaxed, leaning against him with the warmth that was closer to a cat's than a normal girl's. As long as I am here, someone remembers those days. And I have a pretty boy. She considered a moment, then took Leon's hand and put it behind her large ears, encouraging him to scratch there. Her voice a soft purr, she said, "We should go back." When she and Leon rejoined the group, she didn't have much to say, instead curling up to watch Bernadette and the others with those huge yellow eyes, tail lashing behind her.

Neko maintained the illusion even as she felt herself sweat, yellow eyes staring with terror and rage at the man she'd imprisoned behind his own fears. "Only one way out." She pointed to the broken-open window like a portent and spoke in a voice like the grave. "You know what to do." she added as she moved, stepping away from her target while taking slow, deliberate steps to rejoin the other teen heroes. "Ho friends!" said Owain as he joined the others, shooting a worried look back in Neko's direction. "I have a spell that will give freedom to all those caged here, though it may - cost me dear. Bring everyone together here and we can escape together..." Sweating and visibly battered, the now-man-shaped magic knight was beginning to chant "pob un ohonom, siâp aderyn..." over and over again, magic beginning to crackle around his hands .

"It is okay," Neko reassured Leon almost immediately. "I am fine, kawaii otokonoko." Indeed, there were no signs of tears on her pretty face or in her huge yellow eyes at all. "I have to, uh, you know," she said suddenly, standing up and disappearing around the corner of one of the trains. "You play!" she added with a nervous laugh that she didn't feel at all. A moment later, Neko sat on the roof of one of the nearby railcars, having silently scampered over there rather than embarrass herself by continuing to weep drunkenly in front of her friends. She closed her eyes, her ears twitching, and remembered the mountains, so high that the village had seemed like the only real place in the world, and the songs that had seemed to reach up to touch the stars themselves. With her illusion lifted, she knew her eyes were red and face streaked with tears as she looked up at the pitiless Moon above.

Richard hasn't rolled an 8 on initiative since he was 8 = 44 Considered what to do about this attack but I'll settle for spending an HP to shake the daze from the Stun (which he failed by 2). I'll hold off the combat posting till you post - I've edited to reflect Richard's attack.

"Oh jeez, if you want to go to college, go to college!" said Ashley firmly, already thinking about the image inducers they might secure so that her protege could lead something like a normal life there. She'd had a lot of fun in college, most of it related to beer and boys, which didn't really seem like the thing to mention to Carmen just now. Instead she said, "Whatever you want for your life, I'll be there to help you make it happen." She looked around and added, "Even if it's this."

Neko hesitated just a moment, then said loudly, "Very good! Very good singing." She was holding the empty sake bottle in one hand and peeling off the label with the other, taking advantage of her thick, pointy nails to do it. "I can do - singing too," she added, "hear." And so she did, standing up a little awkwardly before she burst into song. None of them knew the words, of course, since they didn't speak Japanese. But with Neko singing it, a dozen voices seemed to follow her, rising and falling from nowhere as invisible musical instruments played around her, echoing through the empty building. "That is - that is mountain song," she added, leaning her head against Leon's shoulder. Suddenly she started to cry.

"We've got lucky. The guy with "do what I say" powers mostly wants to tell people to follow the Golden Rule and clean up after themselves; the guy with "what I want happens" powers who helped his wife take over a UN member mostly wants to be a Youtuber Bob Ross." She had actually been a little worried about Gabriel, but he was rather more forgiving about certain things than the Catholic priests she'd grown up with. As for Mark, well, Ellie would remember him too. "Better to nip it in the bud before we get a super rights party." She looked down at her reflection in the teacup for a moment, mulling over her relations with the League. "It's not a question of passing laws, anyway, since people would just do it anyway if it was banned, it's just - it's the right thing to do. You put on a costume and start telling other people how to live, it doesn't matter _what_ you're telling them at all." She shrugged slightly. "I grew up hearing about what happened back in the old country, and why coming to this one was the best thing my bà nội and my dad ever did. Unaccountable people who think they know what's best for the proles may be very nice and they may be even be right about some things. But a boot's still a boot, even if you like the person wearing it. I just feel better knowing there's somebody out there who's bound by something a little stronger than doing what they feel like." Ashley hesitated, realizing what she was doing - lying to her friends by omission, again. I'm not supposed to be doing this anymore. What are they going to think when I tell them, that I'm just laughing behind my hand right now? "But, anyway, speaking of wedding stuff..." She hesitated again, then smiled nervously. "I did have a dress picked out." She fiddled around on her phone, then produced an image of a red and gold Vietnamese ao dai spread out on a mattress. "I'd - I have to get it let it out because I've got a lot of muscle mass on the other women in my family, but it's the same one two of my sisters wore to their wedding. My dad bought it for my mom before they were married." That seemed to be all that needed to be said about that.

"Thanks, Mr. Sid. Free Socotra!" she said automatically, raising her cup in salute, even though technically a pretty boy she'd gone to school with was now the Prince-Consort of that particular nation-state. And wasn't that a fun couple of weeks, she remembered, counseling Judy about why it was bad to have a super coup d'etat even if it was against a real son-of-a-bitch. Ashley hesitated at the turn the conversation had taken, then figured what the hell - they were all just friends having a friendly conversation. I can talk even when I don't have people writing my lines for me. Technically they tended to get very specifically-worded suggestions rather than a script, but that seemed like a small point to niggle on right now. Hell, how did Mara know about - well okay, she is a super-genius. "With those two, you don't want them endorsing anybody, because then you get superheroes who are hired and fired because of their politics - and that's going to turn into an army like that." She snapped her fingers with one hand while drinking her tea with the other. "For the rest of them, it's a slippery slope on both sides. Capes have power that people let them have, but if they start really using that power, a lot of people are going to freak out - so you either get the government biting down on the supers, which is just going to get you killed the next time there's an invasion, or the supers take out the government and suddenly we're all in that evil dimension..." She sipped her tea again. "And that's leaving out the people who would vote just because a cape told them to, even if they were voting to put their kids in an orphanage. Or hell, even vote for a cape because they told them to. Phalanx walking into the White House and deciding he's President is a problem. Miss Americana getting elected President, that's a whole other one." As the TV station switched back to an Arabic music video, she considered just how much she should say about the Patriot. "Between the dragon, and the earth god, and the plant goddess, and the lady who can pluck bullets out of the air, and the guy with 'love my beautiful voice' powers, the lady with the gun is probably the least threatening person on the Freedom League. And really, I know they went without one for forever, but isn't it better having somebody from the government on that team especially? Somebody who works for us and not for a giant bee." She grinned at Ellie. "Hey, don't forget, you're talking to an official government drone here. If you ask me, cops with powers doesn't sound that bad."