Avenger Assembled

Though he wasn't sure it was exactly a heroic impulse, Jack automatically put himself between the two women; not incidentally acting as a shield for Taylor. "All right, all right, I think we've got that settled." He looked Moira in the eye and said, "Moira, listen to me." And oh it was so hard to look into those impossibly lovely eyes and look away, but Jack had experience with immortal women with strange desires. "You don't want me." He looked away at that, moving back to rejoin Taylor. "For the love of God, we can all do better than this."

(23:42:29) ChatBot: AvengerAssembled rolls 1d20 and gets 12. Power Attacking for +5. Attack of +9 for a total of 21. Not sneak-attacking; assuming it isn't something I can startle. Tou DC 28.

"Working on it!" Avenger grabbed the monster by the head and smashed his own forehead into its again and again, trusting that the brain was the center of control even in the vast majority of undead. If it needed decapitation, well; he'd give it some decapitation to go with it. "Dead Head! We may need the shovel here!"

Through gritted teeth, Jack murmured, "I had thought we already settled that, Taylor. Why don't we talk about it later?" Folding his arms, he faced Moira directly. "Yes, Moira," he said more calmly, "why don't you tell us what happened?"

Jack sat alone even in the company of the others, hands folded before him as he stared off in a brown study. He was a little surprised when Dark Star didn't begin the fight with more anger in him; Derrick once again surprised him with his willingness to stick to his principles. But he wasn't going to push the man any further than he already had. Vampirism meant he had an intimate acquaintance with just how powerful the innate beast was in every man, whether good or evil. "No, there is something to apologize for," he said, suddenly unlimbering himself and looking up at Dark Star. He remembered his arrogance of just a little while ago; as if his nature was something Moira and Stesha were just going to shrug off! How he'd learned. "That night with Stesha was the last night I've ever fed from an innocent. It was a mistake I've made before, but not one I've ever made since. I'm sorry, Derrick. God, I'm so sorry." He shook his head, not bothering to hold back his inner turmoil. "All I can tell you is that I didn't hurt her physically. She'd never have noticed anything if the chemicals in her blood hadn't pushed me off her. I've never done that to anyone else, not since that night. Whatever anger you want to feel towards me, I'll understand. Whatever...whatever response Stesha wants for me, I'll accept. I've passed as a man long enough that I should be able to accept the consequences of my actions." He looked up at Dark Star, summoned his courage, and continued to speak. "I've killed five human beings, Derrick. Three times were early on, when I wasn't in control of my actions. When I was made, but too feral to hunt myself, Claudia liked to troll for potential rapists and trick them into going to our place; she knew I'd kill when I fed, and she thought that was easier than going to the trouble of...of ordering blood bags." He scrubbed his eyes. "I didn't...I didn't even know what was happening then. Another...another time was when a hunter broke into one of our clubs and started shooting up the place. He had silver bullets, and there were humans there too...I didn't know how to fight well enough, and it was him or a lot of dead innocent people. We struggled over the Uzi and it went off when it was pointed up..." He looked down at his hands, visualizing the blood on them. "The...the last time was an accident," he finally said, his voice almost inaudible. "And after that, never again. Never."

Power Attacking for +5. Sneak Attacking (01:38:32) ChatBot: AvengerAssembled rolls 1d20 and gets 14. 14+9=25. Toughness DC of 30.

"Phantom!" Avenger shouted. "Take out their magic!" With that he disappeared briefly, just long enough to reappear behind the abomination, powering the zombies aside, and striking it a deadly blow upside the head with a single leather-clad fist propelled by the sheer power of his undead frame!

Jack leaned down and gave Taylor a hard kiss, the two of them poised for a moment like a sailor and nurse in Times Square. "I never doubted it for a minute," he lied with a smile on his face. "Not with you around. I love you so much," he said honestly. "And when this is over, I'm going to keep my promise," he added in a murmur.

Spending an HP to bring the communication.

Jack slumped into a convenient chair, a disconsolate look on his face. He stared at nothing for a moment, lost in his own sordid past. "I'm just grateful for the chance to have known all of you," he said suddenly, looking at Elena, Taylor, and even Ace. "Not many people who've lived the life I've had and done the things I've done have a chance to be part of your team, to love you, to know you. If there is anything good in me, it's because I know people like you."

"I can do that," said Mark, watching the world shift around them with fascination. He took out his commlink, pushing aside his weariness and fatigue, and whacked it a few times before he spoke. Luckily, all the magic shifting around had altered the electronic nature of Mark's commlink, letting him reach not only Geckoman but everyone else at Danger Manor with a similar commlink. "Attention, everyone!" he called, his voice ringing out loud and clear. "This is Young Freedom. The bad guys are gone. We stopped them! The day is saved!" He was so pleased with all this that he wrapped his arms around the oncoming Mike and gave him a hard hug. "We did it!"

At the sight of yet another witness to his humiliation, Mark gave James a horrified look. "Oh God, you were there watching the whole time?! Who else is here?" Appalled, he looked around before focusing again on the others. "Nothing like this has ever happened to me before," he murmured. "I don't...I just don't know how to deal with it. I feel...I feel really bad!" He reached up and put his hand on Erin's, reflexively going for the friend who'd reached out for him. "Like when Mike was really mad at me, and I didn't know how to talk to him, but we figured that out. But I don't know how to figure this out, I...I'm sorry." His head fell. "I'm...I'm glad you guys are here. I don't think I could talk to my parents right now."

(00:59:23) ChatBot: AvengerAssembled rolls 1d20 and gets 14. Total of 19 Init (01:01:52) ChatBot: AvengerAssembled rolls 1d20 and gets 15. Total of 29 Will save

"I'm sorry," he said again, leaning down and putting his forehead against hers. "I can't change what they did. But I can promise I'll do everything I can to make it right." He kissed her softly on the lips, his eyes dark as he looked down at her. "You deserve that happiness, Taylor. It'll happen." He smiled, ever so slightly. "And hey, just think how exciting this conversation will be with your family. I don't think we have a deeper baseline after this."

"Aliens, eh? Are you from another planet?" asked Jack, almost paternal with his bedraggled gargoyle buddy. "That explains a lot..." He cootched him under the chin, getting a noise like a purr in return. "I wonder if they were kidnapped here," he said worriedly. "Little guys like these would make great pets, especially if you didn't care that they were actually people-smart. What neighborhood did they turn up in, again?"

Jack was relieved to hear that, for all that he covered his worry by taking her hands and squeezing them lightly. "No, but she can figure out what actually happened. If she can get as far as Moira's mind, maybe she can figure out why she's saying those things." He smiled faintly and added quietly, "Maybe Dark Star too, so he doesn't track me down." He started walking with her, slowly, his hand in hers as they headed down the corridor together. "I'm sorry about Stesha," he finally said. "That was my fault."

Jack reappeared at that juncture, a gate of light opening in the air near where Taylor stood. "All right, Scarab's coming to help. I think Stesha and Derrick are probably beyond our reach right now, but if the two of you come down with me...well, maybe we can get this sorted out. We can always talk to them later."

Yes

"Elena..." Jack was quiet for a minute, his brain working, as he sussed out what he wanted to say and how much he trusted Elena. Come to think of it, God help him, he actually trusted her with his life. "I think you'd better look for yourself," he said honestly, pointing to his temple. "I'll try and take you along as we go. It, uh...some of the old Knights are having kind of a personal crisis that's getting out of hand upstairs." He opened his mind to Scarab as they went, leaving little out indeed as he began the story with his battlefield proposal to Taylor, the followup upstairs, and the madness that followed. He skimped nothing in his mind about the source of the trouble; the night months ago that he'd fed on Stesha, that night he and Moira had been together, and his own culpability in both. Even, for the very first time, he showed her that night early in his career when he'd licked the blood off her unconscious face. Because at the end of the night, Jack trusted Elena. It was high time, after so much mistrust and suspicion, that he actually showed her that.

"Maybe she did go home," said Jack, his jaw set tight. "But this is my favorite restaurant too, Ace. That's because it's in the house of a friend of mine." If she was a friend, still. It had been a long time, and there were many obstacles between the two of them. Especially now, if she held his past against him the way the others were once they knew more of it. Jack reached into his pocket and came out with a long-ill-used teleporter beacon. "I'll be right back." He pressed it and was immensely relieved to find that Scarab hadn't turned them off; instead vanishing into a gate of light that opened at his feet.

Reluctantly, Jack pulled back his mask to reveal the face underneath. "Just in case something happens down there," he said seriously, "you'll want to know it's me. I'm Jack, by the way. " Donning the mask again, he said, "I'm ready. Let's do this."

"Oh God," said Mark, half-looking at Erin, "everything was a lie, Erin..." He shook his head, grief in his voice. "My grandfather, my parents, my..." He scrubbed his palms over his damp eyes. "All this time I was so proud of my grandfather and father, because they did all those things, had so many adventures, and never had any superpowers but working hard and being lucky. But my grandfather isn't even really my grandfather, and my father doesn't even know who he is! How do I know who I am?"

As the hall opened its doors to the public, fans flooded room within a short time. Within a few minutes, the session Stesha was hosting had begun to fill up with a wide variety of folks. Looking around from behind the curtain, she could see people of all ages, from the kid with a Johnny Rocket action figure to a man in the late prime of his life wearing a Black Dog T-shirt. The doors eventually shut and an Asian man in his mid-twenties, one who had been introduced to Stesha as Akira Jackson, came out on the stage. He was wearing a white suit and a red tie. “Hello hero fans!” he screamed over a mic. “Are you ready to meet Fleur de Joie?” The crowd’s applause burst merrily, easily stretching backstage.

Jack sighed, glancing at Taylor, before he turned to Stesha and said gravely, "Yes, Stesha, I did." He looked down, too ashamed to look her in the eye. "I was still figuring out how...how I should act with people, then, and I didn't understand that it was wrong. That's why I avoided you afterwards, because I realized I'd done something terrible to you. But I've learned my lesson, and I've turned myself around. I don't use people like that anymore, especially not women. I don't expect you to forgive me," he added, "but I hope you can understand how sorry I am."

Jack took a step back, hands gripping the coffee table, before he replied to the ladies, "It's true. I'm a vampire; I've been a vampire for as long as any of you have known me. The Knights and the Midnights know; they've known for quite some time." He took a step forward again, releasing the table, and moved past Taylor to talk directly to Stesha and Moira. "It is true, I used both of you for my own reasons, but no more so than any man would have in my situation." His eyes darkening, he added, "But I'm not that man anymore. I hope you can forgive me." His hands tightened as his sides as he added, "But I can't, and won't, apologize for _what_ I am. I can only apologize for what I've done."