Avenger Assembled

Oh no, the island is just as devastated as it is in our history. You find evidence that Cardenas has made several visits to the island. One of his energy companies, GeoCard, is trying to build a geothermal tap of the volcano - a project that had a great deal of publicity when it started a few years ago (the usual Internet buzz, appearance in sci-fi and science magazines, etc) but has had no reports of success -or of anything else - for some time. Montserrat is generally too small, too out of the way, and too poor to be of much interest to superheroes. Various Caribbean heroes have shown up to help during volcanic eruptions but for the most part, it's an area of the world with little metahuman activity. @Supercape, I am glad you asked that question - because here's what Echohead perceives...in a dream! <spoiler> You are a lone fly, buzzing along, envious of the beautiful butterflies. A smiling friend offers to bind you in a cocoon so you can transform just like the beautiful ones. As the binding wraps tight around you, you realize too late that your smiling friend was a spider - and you have let yourself be bound in its web. You look in a mirror and see - the face of Cardenas himself! And then you awaken. </spoiler>

"He is good," offered Neko, quite an admission for a girl who could walk up an exterior drain pipe if she was so inclined - something both of them had seen at one time or another. Neko liked watching cricket, sitting perfectly still for hours with her yellow eyes wide, but preferred solo sports like gymnastics for her own entertainment. As Erik had warned her was a distinct possibility, there was no place to park the car close by, but none of them were particularly worried about walking a block in the evening in the West End. The buildings here were almost comforting now, so much less alien than the towering skyscrapers of downtown. She was too nervous to let Leon put his arm around her as they walked, so she slipped her hand in his, her fingers their usual warmth. "Erik has some very athletic boys in his classes," she said impishly. "Maybe you could come by and show him your moves." It was the tone of voice she used when she was trying to tease him into doing something very unwise.

The flight out to the island was long, given the time it took for Echohead to conscript an AEGIS plane and the two of them to head out over open waters. (Eira opted to stay at home; she had repairs to conduct on herself, and wanted to continue dissecting the drone for more clues.) Their pilot, Carmen, was an older Latino woman in an AEGIS uniform, a friendly, professional face who let the experts to their own work as she flew the plane. It had been a while since anyone had visited Montserrat, according to the agent; a recent round of volcanic eruptions had led to another partial evacuation of the much-beleagured island. The heroes had time to make their plans, using a recent satellite map of the island. But where would they go?

"The Lor do it all the time," said Ashley easily, watching relieved as her son settled into her sidekick's arms. "Gay and lesbian couples, interspecies couples, couples where nobody wants to get pregnant...they even do it when they have a population crisis." Her eyes shadowed for a moment before she went on, "Fa'Rua doesn't believe in getting pregnant and I can't get pregnant and be the Patriot, so we found a way to have a family of our own." She smiled at that, then admitted, "I don't want to tell people that. You know, that the Patriot just...took the easy way out, when there are so many people on Earth who can't have kids. I only did this because there was no other way."

"Hm." Neko bumped heads with Leon, smiling. Youth indeed. Leon was bigger than her, and stronger, and had graduated from Claremont before she had. But she was six times his age or more; older even than the oldest elders he knew. That was mostly an interesting fact to consider, when she wasn't thinking about all the ways she did indeed feel old. In the back, once she was sitting next to Leon again, she gave Erik a hopeful smile. "He has his own money," she added, "and works...honestly."

If the baby had been unsettled for his mother, he seemed very interested in Carmen, staring up at her with big baby blue eyes. "Oh thank God," Ashley muttered audibly. Should we buy more cat stuff? Getting tired of the spaceman theme in his bedroom. "He's so good for Fa'Rua but he's still a little pistol for maman. Do you want to hold him?" she asked. She wouldn't hand her adopted son off to just anybody, but she knew she could trust Carmen. "He's just with her most of the time," she added, "so they're just bosom buddies." She smiled a little tightly. "He's actually, ah, the clone of her brother, which is where he got the ears. Good thing he's so cute," she added.

Sea Devil squatted down by the dead dog, resting her trident on the ground next to her with a thump. There was so much she could have said. In her time she had killed and eaten dogs, feral, furred creatures that ventured too close to the water and found that there were things with far more teeth than them out there. That was before she had come to the Surface, and before she and Jessie had adopted Baxter. They'd had him for more than ten years now, a long time in the life of a dog. He didn't run and play as much as he once did, but he was probably asleep at Jessie's feet right now, giving her the emotional and physical comfort that nothing else could. In a few years he would be dead too, just like this dog. Just like almost everyone else. "Good boy," she croaked softly, tracing her armored three-fingered hand over the dog's fur. When she rose to her feet, she struck her trident against her armored chest once, twice, three times. "Are you here?" she bellowed suddenly. "Are you here? Come! Come and see!" If it was here, anywhere in the Park, she knew the thing would hear her.

I haven't spent any HP so far, so I'll spend an HP to pass the Notice check. https://orokos.com/roll/992472 = 6 The survival I definitely failed, so I'll stick with that one! Can't win em all =D Like with Diamondlight, Sea Devil has enough super-senses that she's very hard to sneak up on.

I have decided on my own initiative to let everyone keep the points accidentally awarded them by the initial botched count. If you don't like that, take it up with management. =D April: Ardent = 1PP Doctor Archeville Artificer = 1pp Horrorshow 1 post = 1pp EternalPhoenix: Terrifica =1PP Fox: Eclipse = 1PP Gizmo: Chitin = 1PP KnightDisciple: Patrioteen = 1PP Nerdzul Nightscale: 17=2PP Spacefurry Paper - 5=1PP Blackstaff - 2 (+10GM = 12)=2PP Chimera - 4=1PP Predator - 6=1PP Supercape Rev (Titanium), 2PP+6 posts to Haven Vignette (1.3K Words) -> Roll to Haven ACAV 6 Posts -> Roll to Haven Peak: 1 post, 1PP Diamondlight, = 7+8=15=2PP [Titanium] Let the bodies hit the ground 7 Posts Captain Cosmos, 1+24 =25 posts = 3PP+2PP=5PP Vignette (1.2K words) Graveyard of the pacific 1 Post Starshot (Titanium), 2PP to Haven Vignette (1.3K Words) -> Roll to Haven, 2PP Haven, 6+19=25=3PP+2PP+2PP+2PP+1PP+1PP+2PP+2PP=15PP Vignette (1.2K words) HellQ Origin Vignette (1.3K words) Reputation Table 20Q - The Interview Sgt Shark, +1 post = 2PP Vignette (Joint with Avenger) Snakebite, +1 post+2PP=3PP VIgnette (1.2K words) Echohead, 6 posts =1PP Teching the tech 6 Posts Gamma Buzz 4 posts =1PP Half Life 4 Posts GM Golden Dead 6 Posts Beyond the Pale 7 Posts Double the Treble 7 Posts Golden Gloves 7 Posts Total GM Posts = 27. Times 2 = 54 posts Tiff = Zhenschina-voin = 1PP TheAbsurdist: Jotunn = 1PP Thevshi Timeout 5+1Mod =2PP Multi-Girl = 1PP Veronica Danger (Titanium) 1 Trollthumper: Cavalier = 1PP

Okay, this is a little late! Give me an attack roll (the Drive check is more than enough to get there without penalty) What are you trying to do with the ghost car?

Sea Devil considered her options quickly - and soon began hopping after Diamondlight. Her instinct was always to stay with the group, which made following someone else easy enough. And truth be told, while Diamondlight seemed a pleasant enough Surfacer, she had little doubt that he was far less ferocious than either herself or her dragon friend, and probably far more vulnerable to his flesh being rent, blood being drunk, and otherwise becoming the prey of whatever formidable beast was hereabouts. I don't want the hunter to gobble him up; that would be terrible! So instead she followed the other hero, senses keen for any sign of their prey, nostrils audibly snuffling after any scent of blood as they went. "Don't worry," she added in a low rumble for Diamondlight's benefit, "we will protect you from the bad murderer!"

Neko gave Leon an encouraging toothed smile, even as part of her wanted to explain the narrative. Erik was generally clever enough to spot when even she lied to his face, but of course she'd learned from girlhood how to tell a story that was your truth, if not the truth of every man and goblin that listened to you speak. Everything will be fine. He will seem like a promising young man to Erik, the date will go well, and then we can begin what we need to do for the rest of our lives. She looked out the window and thought of the stories she'd told Erik about Leon, about how he was a boy who had been a criminal when he was younger but was on the straight-and-narrow now. All true stories, for what that was worth, even if she'd kept many of those truths to herself. All very small things. When you know what I know.

Eira said something that would have made a Viking blush and spat more blue fluid onto the back of her sleeve. "Bitchbastard jaw feedback!" The dark blue magnetic fluid soaked rapidly into her white sleeve as the drone continued repeating the last few phrases she'd pulled from its memory banks. Still crouching over the drone, she looked up at Predator and Mirror Knight. "This could have passed for some time. They inserted a large language model into its brain and taught it to tell people about uploading, the skit röv mamma jävlars," she added furiously, She couldn't seem to pull her hands free without breaking the connection, so she wiped her mouth on the sleeve again. "Its internal memory starts in the Caribbean - in Montserrat." - The redhead was looking around at the sky, as if taking in what would be her last glimpse of free air for a little while. Come to think of it, if she hadn't killed anything sentient, what was her sentence going to be? Probably not very long. "I'm telling you," she added, "It's those robotic creeps in Ukraine, oh, excuse me," she added sarcastically, "in _Rurland_, who are doing all this. Just watch if you go there; you wouldn't be the first superheroes they replaced," she added seriously. "You're all right. The world needs supers with a little common sense."

Well. This is it, decided Neko. Years of rivalry, of hissing at each other in the corridors - soon they were going to be free from the places that Americans in the 21st century kept their teenagers and choosing their own destiny. How long can we keep this up? They were practically women now, depending on exactly how you defined that, and they couldn't keep up such kittenish behavior towards one another foreveer. Considering, she gave Starshine a wave and took two of her cookies, then turned and padded towards Carmen, making direct, solid eyecontact with the other catgirl as she left Bernadette and the others behind. Her tail twitched behind her as she went, her ears flattening against the top of her head, her yellow eyes wide and staring as she padded right up to Carmen - and handed her one of the cookies.

Owain sat in the boys common room and studied himself in his pocket mirror for just a moment. He looked a veritable fellow of the modern age; his bowl cut grown out into luxurious dark locks, his green muscle shirt showing off how much the nutrition and exercise of this enlightened future had done for him; the pride flag on his backpack perhaps indicating that - well, he'd cross THAT bridge when he came to it. As it was - well, he had one great challenge first. He reached into his case, pulled out his lute, strummed it a few times - and began to play: "Sumer is icumen in Lhude sing cuccu Groweþ sed and bloweþ med and springþ þe wde nu Sing cuccu!"

"Professionals should always believe in what they do. It's how you know they won't sell you out the first time somebody pays them more." She shrugged. "Anyway, if you want to find out who replaced Cardenas, my advice is to check with the robots. They're the ones with the hidden agenda here, not me." She smiled thinly and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Except not getting beaten again by those thick-necked goons. If you could drop me off with the actual pigs and not these rent-a-pigs, we're square for all this." Eira made a noise that sounded like a very human grunt of frustration, pivoting her body as if she was driving her dataspikes as deep into the brain as possible. "Somewhere in Caribbean...will need to process the data." She knelt down until one knee was resting directly on the broken drone's chest, leaning down with her body weight as fluid trickled from Cardenas's mouth. "Extensive memory-mapping. Could have passed for human for long enough." She looked up at Predator and said, "Cardenas is dead. This level of memory-mapping requires individual sectioning of brain tissue. It is almost impossible to 'upload' a mature human mind." The drone spoke, Eira's lips moving at the same time. "Spread gospel. Cyberization. Implants. Encourage - uplifted -" The drone was making mechanical noises that were not quite speech; and now something was leaking from Eira's mouth, a distinct dark blue fluid a different color than what was leaking from the broken drone.

"There is nothing here to talk to," said Eira dismissively, her dataspikes making audible wet noises as they penetrated into the cyberbrain. "This is just a drone pretending to be human." A mechanical tone like "awwww" escaped the Cardenas thing's lips as the dataspikes bit deeper. "I am compiling its travel patterns onto a datamap..." She grunted with audible effort as the drone twitched, taking a step to keep stradding it as if she was pinning it down by brute force. "If you have questions, ask me-" - The redhead looked a little surprised - even if she did rub her wrists and mutter "Took you long enough." It was hard to tell how much Echohead had actually reached her; but it seemed like he'd actually caught her attention. "You know about that robot nation in Europe, right?" she asked skeptically. "The one they made where Chernobyl used to be? That's where they're doing it. Not like a big bad bot army or something...but you know, all that transhumanist malarkey. They make it look like what they have is better than what we have. What we could ever hope to be. But ask Cardenas how well that went."

The being behind the wheel turned and looked at Rev and smiled. Or rather, continued to smile. She couldn't make out much in the dark but she could see a white face, huge black eyes, and a wide, fixed, skeletal grin. The inside of the car was glowing with an eerie fey light, The police officer - for it was, or perhaps had once been a police officer, pointed to the speeding vampire ahead of them, then back at Rev, then back at the speeding vampire. At this point, leaning out the window on the other side, Pete licked off a shot at the vampire ahead, blasting a visible hole in the speeding truck's backside. "We're gonna run out of room soon!" Sure enough, Pete was right; speeding north they were going to reach the end of the long peninsula on which Bedlam sat in the space of just a few minutes, meaning they had to make some fast decisions before they hit Lake Michigan at a speed that would do very little for the Dune Buggy's outside - or Rev's inside!

Pete peered out the rolled-down side window, his brow furrowing as the chill night air of Bedlam whipped into the speeding car. He was holding the gun, an automatic pistol that had swelled into a real hand-cannon. "Baby I wouldn't shoot at the cops for just anybody! I-huh. Look at-wait, no, don't look at that!" He'd been about to tell her something about the rapidly approaching police car. "Something doesn't look right; that's-" The police car pulled up alongside Rev and the Dune Buggy, a shocking burst of speed that was clearly blatantly impossible for a normal car, much less whatever Bedlam cops provided. Looking out the window, Rev could catch a glimpse of an old-fashioned black and white police cruiser, the kind of car that even in a city like Bedlam had been retired years earlier. The road was narrow enough to have two lanes but the police cruiser was riding on the shoulder, its lights a lurid shade of blue and tires glowing with eldritch fire. Ahead of them, the vampire lord in the truck was technically at either of their mercies - whoever the other driver was. "Do you want me shooting?" asked Pete, looking like he was steeling himself either way.

"Daikon-chan! Good afternoon," said Neko happily, smiling at the sight of Leon, her ears forward and relaxed. She watched his interaction with Erik, yellow eyes glowing slightly in a reflection off the back window. "He is fiiine. He treats me very nicely." She gave Leon a toothed smile that said You know you do before she settled back into her seat. "Erik has ideas how teenagers should court. You will like the restaurant; they have big American food." Neko had filled out during her time at Claremont, not so much growing fatter as fuller, having finally eaten well and regularly for the first time in a very long time indeed. It helped that she ran everywhere when she wasn't being escorted on a date. Her tail twitched at the tip and she licked her lips.

"Hi Carmen," said Ashley, looking unaccountably nervous as she approached with her crying cargo. "Ssh, ssh, it's okay baby, it's okay..." Carmen might not have had a lot of experience with kids but she was reasonably sure this was a particularly tiny baby, perhaps no more than two or three weeks old. "Sorry, he's still getting used to Earth gravity." Up close, Ashley looked just a little more tired and a little more frazzled than Carmen could remember seeing her outside of a combat situation. "You remember when I said Fa'Rua and I were going away for a while?" Gradually the baby settled down to fussing, and Ashley stood close enough that Carmen could see him closely. The baby had fluffy dark hair on top of his head, big dark eyes, and distinctly visible pointed ears. "Well...we decided to do something we've been talking about for a while. This is - my son, Phillip Tran. I just call him Phil," she added. "After my father."

Let me know if you want any distraction rolls, SF!

Your Sense Motive is good; she's sincere in what she says and in what she's not saying - IOW she's not going to tell you more unless she's untied. She means what she says; she's not a True Believer in the anti-machine cause but she definitely agrees with it. Give me a Notice check with your response.

Redhead "Some of them might act like humans, but even the nice ones are inhuman - and they're breeding. They're stronger than us and faster than us and no god put a soul in their bodies. So-called heroes like you think you can beat the bad ones and be friends with the good ones, but even you have to know what they're doing. They already tried replacing the superheroes ten years ago and that damn near burned Freedom City down. They did it again a couple of years ago on Supercrime, remember?" she said in a taunt. "Even the nice ones talk about uplifting humanity. Uplifting my ass. They just want to make us like them because they know deep down, they're not like us. They never will be." Eira Sure enough, Predator found that the EMP device was reasonably small and contained; which explained why her armor hadn't taken a hit, or people's cellphones. This was obviously the sophisticated work of an expert, and of a much more recent vintage than the bot itself. Eira waited patiently for the Predator to finish her inspection, then stepped up to straddle the machine. "You are right. This _is_ old...pathetic." She rolled up her sleeves, showing what looked like long tattoos or scarification over her wrists and down her arms. And then grey cords squirmed out of her wrists, extending from just below her hands, and slid into the open mouth of the Cardenas-bot. The robot's upper section twitched as more fluid leaked out. There were wet, metallic sounds as the cords worked their way deeper into the skull. "They always put it in the head. Idiots," she hissed under her breath in the low, throaty voice of someone in deep concentration and excitement. "I am penetrating the skull and interfacing with it," she added in a whisper. "Do not be alarmed by reflexive activity." Cardenas's eyes snapped open and looked right at Predator, white and wide and staring, as more internal fluid leaked out. A low, almost anguished whine escaped its clogged throat.

Neko considered the question seriously, appreciating Erik's show of respect for her. A kind soul showing love for a stray waif and her foster brother was an easy thing in the Espadas household, but real respect was a rarer coin she prized. It was something Raina had helped her find about herself. "I told him to be on his best behavior. I will deal with him if he is not." She considered again, then said, "He works - hard so he does not seem like a hooligan." She'd found the word in one of the old books she'd read to practice her English and found it fit her tongue just fine. "If you give him the - hard hand, his back will go up. Give him the soft hand." She had plans if things went well, but there was certainly no use broaching them before she was ready. "He is not a hooligan anymore," she added, "he is nice. There he is!" she said excitedly. When the car stopped, she turned expectantly and smiled at Leon through the doors, waiting for him to come to her.