Avenger Assembled

September 18, 2009: Phantom deals with the ominous return of Tyranny Eagle in What, Again?

This is the thread for Phantom's solo battle with the Tyranny Eagle.

It was a typical Friday morning at the First Bank of Kingston, a small regional bank with branches extending throughout the suburbs of Freedom City. There were students dropping off their paychecks, people coming in to make withdrawals at the start of business, children playing in the little puzzle and game corner where they kept themselves busy while their parents waited in the long, roped-off bank lines. And then the flying gorilla in the hawk costume crashed through the front window in a shower of glass, sending people running and screaming in terror! There was only one thought on everyone's mind. "What, again?!" It was a horrible moment, but what could you do against such a terrible threat? Even the guards stood stock-still, frozen in shock as the bizarre monstrosity landed on the counter, flapping its mighty wings and sending a terrible glare down at the hairless mutants, aka Homo sapiens, all around it."I am Tyranny Eagle! Deliver me your valuables, or I shall smash this building to the ground!" By way of demonstrating his power, Tyranny Eagle punched right through the bulletproof glass surrounding the tellers, a look of fury on his simian face. "This will be the start of my new empire! Bwa-ha-ha-ha!"

Yes, yes it does!

That's a Demoralize check, oh yes it is.

Avenger disappeared entirely for a few moments, all darkness, shadows, and movement while she worked on the robot she'd destroyed. When she reappeared, she was heading straight for the near-paralyzed Otaku. This time, though, Avenger was wearing an addition to her mask: she'd peeled the face off the robot and plastered it to her own hockey mask, the oil and hydraulics sticking it there as she headed towards the scientist with murder in her eyes. "Have embraced new life. Will embrace you now, Otaku."

And as promised in chat, there's another HP!

Mark Lucas is a champion of the little guy. Power-stunting Healing 10 (Distracting, Perception Range, Total) with the Subtle power feat and using it on the guy Arrowhawk just punched out so we can interrogate him later. With the descriptor "Luckily, you didn't actually hit him that hard!"

Torn in many different directions, Edge settled on the most obvious. "Mr. Dark Star! I think we've got a problem!" He significantly glanced in the direction of the big bully with the bows, trusting that his teacher would be able to pick up on the source of his concern. Dark Star wasn't a terribly observant guy, but at the very least he'd be able to get that guy out of the way before the crazy archer opened fire on him, too. "It'll be okay," he reassured the two women he was with, "everything's going to be fine. The heroes are here." And with that, he concentrated, this time on the angry young man Arrowhawk had just knocked down.

White Knight has the Will save you'd expect, really. His goons make it, and pierce the illusion! But they are too stunned to do anything about it. Have an HP for White Knight using the civilian against you.

Doctor Archeville's blasts were perfectly on target, striking White Knight and his superhuman thugs without harming a hair on the heads of the hostages. As the goons staggered and nearly fell, only the villainous Daniel Foreman kept his feet. "You! I might have known you were behind this!" he shouted, pointing at the illusory Dr. Archeville. "Better get rid of all the distractions before I stomp my boot in your mud-blood face!" And with that, he hurled the deputy warden in his hands right out the open window of his office! He then fired a powerful burst of flame at Archeville, one that only his concealment saved him from as it scorched the roof just behind him.

White Knight is bruised. He'll be peeved about this! (Dr. Archeville does not act like any of his favorite Germans.) The goons are stunned and bruised. I'll let them actually stay that way. :)

Agent H insisted they bring the unconscious Whoop-Ant with them as they headed for the teleporter, the kids going invisibly behind the mind-controlled Japanese scientist. "It's very important," she murmured. "Potentially vital to the security of all of us." She gladly took control of the body, slinging him over her shoulder as they went. Inside the teleport control room, they were lucky enough to find only one guard on duty, who Agent H took out with a well-placed pistol-whipping without breaking stride. That left them with a problem, however, one that didn't have any immediate solutions. As Psyche quickly discovered, their prisoner knew how to work the teleporter perfectly, but didn't know the security codes for this week. They could get away fine, but they'd need a distraction to keep a big chunk of the Japanese army from following wherever they went.

That's true! We can't forget the giant dino rampage!

Magni walked the boys back to their rooms, full of sympathy for their plight. "Aye, there is naught but honor in striving to aid a fallen comrade. Particularly when you share a special bond," he said to Eddie. "But we have a code at the school that must be followed in the same task. Balancing the two is a difficult proposition at best." As always, he looked downright sorrowful at the prospect of handing out any demerits. "Join me in the morning," he told them all as they reached the downstairs, "and we shall put aside any talk of this night." He gave them all a look of gravity. "You need not suffer punishment for your choice to help your friend."

You cheeky monkeys! :D

"And there's more where that came from. Return to Hell," Avenger told the demon, pushing his power to the utmost. He had the demon now, but any further attacks from Phantom would betray his secret and free the beast. "Tell them this territory is claimed. If your people come here again, you'll get more of the same. We'll hunt down and destroy you all if you don't leave RIGHT NOW."

"Oh, these are lovely," said Martha, beaming at Alex. She smelled the flowers and insisted Rick to the same, Mark's dad cheerfully pronouncing them "Super!" "Thank you," she said with a smile. "I'll go put these up in the kitchen." The big windows were open against the lovely day, so she could continue the conversation even in there. "Mark tells me you're a mentalist?" asked Rick as he neatly flipped burgers. "I worked with the finest psychic in the world back in the Freedom League. You'll learn a lot from the Scarab. Have you had a chance to fight the Psion kids yet?" "Daa-aad." Mark laughed. "We're not going around seeking out the kids of all your old enemies. We're supposed to be learning how to be superheroes, not how to get into fights all the time." "Pshaw, son, you know that's what makes a superhero!" Rick grinned exuberantly. "I still remember the first time I got into a big super-brawl! And that was with a god!" He laughed. "Ah, Hades. You know he actually remembered me the next time we met? It was quite an honor, even if he was an evil so-and-so. I still have the grill from that old roadster of mine he blew up. Those were the days. I was a lot younger then, of course."

Scarab: 25 Goons: 23 Dark Star: 22 Phantom: 17 Avenger: 15 Arachnos: 10 Archeville: 8

Adventures, even ones that stretch out across time, space, and dimensions, always have an ending. The ending of the great adventure to the other world began when the assembled superheroes of the Knights of Freedom burst in through the door of Arachnos' secret lair, having crept their way up so sneakily through layers upon layers of ductwork and security corridors to reach the lair of the arcane master of the world. With a massive blow of an enlarged fist, Wesley Knight himself battered aside the heavy steel door of Arachnos' lair and brought the Knights of Freedom and their allies face-to-face with the monster who had broken this world over his knee. Arachnos was a tall man in oddly familiar armor, his black hair cascading down over his forehead, a lightning-bolt scar over one eye the only visible part of his face, a red and yellow cape cascading down his back. As the heroes crashed through his door, he turned from the magnificent grimoire before him, the massive book resting on the keyboard of a massive computer that groaned with arcane and technological power. On the monitors behind him were scenes of destruction and domination, the flags and banners of a world broken beneath the heel of one man. "You'll never win, you monster!" called Divine, hefting a massive piece of steel over her head to throw at Arachnos a moment before the armored megalomaniac suddenly raised his hands and fired twin terrible beams of living energy; cascades of power that were clearly a never-ending stream of spiders! The monstrous regiment of vermin blasted Divine, Knight, and a horrified Grimalkin through the walls, their sheer concussive force taking all the heroes by surprise. "FOOLS!" he boomed. "You think I don't know you!? The keeper of the gates, my own twisted mirror, and the rest of you!? Now you shall meet your DOOM! at the hands of Arachnos! Your world shall know peace and order as this one has, however many of you dare stand in my way!"

Though of course you could only do the shoot through and hit behind trick if they were using the Interpose feat and if the attack hit automatically anyway. Naturally you can't just shoot through an insubstantial person and hit someone else unless things are specifically set up that way. As for Ronin's VP, like I said, call the guy who wrote Worlds of Freedom. Complain about the Civil War chapter while you're at it. (Bleah. )

Insubstantial characters can't interpose, though of course they can block attacks that would actually injure them. (The mechanic to think about here is the "shooting/damaging through objects" one.) Why can't they? Because that would be silly. And Ronin's not got regen from unconsciousness anymore, so he should be largely in-line. (If you object to his Variable Power, durf, take it up with the guys who wrote World of Freed.)

Jack moved with precisely controlled mayhem, striding quickly up to the slowly rising villain. He smashed his fist solidly into the back of the man's head, driving him into the ground with a solid noise. And with that, he bent down and scooped the fallen mad scientist, throwing him over his shoulders. No one else dies. He'd made that promise to himself a long time ago. "Everybody out!" he yelled, running for the door.

"Oh, thank God," said Jack with relief, dropping to his knees over the fallen Derrick and Taylor. "Are you all right?" He checked them both out as best he could, trying to at least separate them from each other's tangled bodies. He needed some tiny fragment of order in his life after the terrible chaos of the day.

Jack dropped the unconscious scientist, the madman dropping to the metal floor beneath their feet like a sack of wet potatoes. He looked down at his hands, blood dripping down his fingers to cover the palm. "God. God, there's already so much blood on my hands..." He staggered, almost falling backwards onto Taylor as he tried to right himself. He looked at her gratefully, unable to say the words that would need to be said later, before finally turning to the controls of the great machine. "What do I need to do?"