Avenger Assembled

Suitably disguised, Doctor Archeville soon came upon the nest of vipers that was White Knight and his hostages. In the heavily-fortified warden's office, Daniel Foreman had been lounging like a petty god-king before Viktor had interrupted his petty kingdom with his scientific prowess, and now the place was still all shouting and chaos. A few of Foreman's goons, petty meta-criminals Archeville didn't recognize, were menacing the hostages, shouting at them and intimidating them, a few making crude remarks to a bound and gagged female guard. Foreman himself had the warden in one hand, and was busy breaking down the glass in the office with the other. "I want them to see you BURN, race-traitor!"

DC 28 Toughness save. We'll call this one non-lethal, since Taylor distracted Jack.

"I imagine so, yes." White-faced, Jack pinned the man one-handed against the wall, his undead strength easily physically dominating the fragile human being, the sound of flesh giving way still audible beneath his fingers. "Do you have any idea how easy it would be, Taylor? Do you think I don't know what it's like to see it happen?" He was losing that undead coldness now, rage and pain and a hundred other emotions seeping into his voice. "He put me in Hell. In hell for a year and a half! He made me watch everything I love die all over again!" He turned and looked at Taylor, agony in his voice, his iron grip not breaking. "How long? How long was it?!"

That's a terrible crazy rampage! I surge with a +5 Power Attack. Again for lethal, this time a DC 28 Toughness save.

There was a sudden, booming knock on Zoe's door at this juncture, the powerful noise a break from the sound of conversation within. When the door was opened, outside were two very familiar, fatigued-looking individuals. Serena Vervain, aka Seven, the girl's RA on this floor, had a tired look on her face, her ratty black bathrobe with a hotel's monogram a mundane contrast to her tight combat uniform laden with arcane symbols. Beside her stood Magni Thorson, still in his bunny slippers and Claremont pajamas, the massive mountain of a young man one of the few students at the school who could plausibly grapple with Phalanx and win. Magni spoke first, even as Serena squeezed past the boys to tend to her battered charge. "Thou hast done a noble thing to care for your comrade, but let us allow these powerful women to tend their own wounded." He was polite, even courteous, but as usual brooked no dissent. Rather than hassle the boys for violating curfew and being in a girl's room after hours, he simply said, "We shall have words on such matters in the morning. Come."

And when summoned, the demon appears. (Not you, James.) ;)

FreedomBot: AvengerAssembled rolls 1d20 and gets 15+13 -Down another HP (bleah) to successfully hit This is a DC 23 Toughness save for lethal. (Avenger's had a hard day, and will need talking down. ) (20:39:39) FreedomBot: AvengerAssembled rolls 1d20 and gets 15+20. Total of 35 on the Grapple check

"No more. No more." Jack tore off his mask and advanced on the scientist, his eyes flat and cold. "You bastard. You BASTARD." He grabbed the man by the throat, hard enough that the sound of breaking skin was clearly audible to the two women, and slammed him backwards into the panel behind him. A look of dead fury in his eyes, he squeezed harder."No more lies. No more violations. You open that door right now or I swear by God that I will tear your head from your shoulders."

Sense Motive=20

Sense=13

(17:21:23) FreedomBot: AvengerAssembled rolls 1d20 and gets 2. Edge has no idea what's going on, but is glad Dark Star made the ladies better.

Jack's eyes snapped open soundlessly, and he jerked upright before consciousness returned. There was, as ever, no rush of air into his lungs or beating of his heart. There was only the taste of Taylor's blood in his mouth, and the memories of a dead world in his mind. Gone. It's all gone. That world, that life was dead. He took in the scene slowly; the man held at gunpoint by the familiar woman in green, the blasted Taylor..."Phantom!" Avenger's voice came naturally as he reached his feet, his mind already turning. If this is the man who did that to me, I'm going to break him in two.

"Aw, they're beautiful," said Mark with a smile. "And so are you. I like that outfit a lot." He hugged her, planting a chaste kiss on her cheek. They'd done more than that, naturally, but like any teenaged guy he didn't want to be all over his girlfriend with his parents around. "Dad's out back with the grill and my mom's just finishing in her studio." He'd mentioned his mother's work in the comics industry a few times, and had a few original paintings of hers up in his room. "Let's go around the back." His hand in hers, he led the way around the plush, highly manicured lawn to the brick patio and man behind it. Wearing a Kiss the Cook apron with a white chef's hat on, Rick Lucas looked like a man out of time. In his early sixties with a greying haircut that wouldn't have looked out of place on James Dean, he was still tall and handsome, his build showing that the author of men's adventure novels kept in shape. He looked very much like all the pictures Alex had seen from the sixties and seventies, just with the greying and thickening of age. At the sight of his son and his girlfriend, Rick gave a cheerful wave and smile, instantly giving Alex a picture of which parent her boyfriend favored. He had a deep tan, probably from his summer in the tropics. "Hi guys! Come on over! Burgers are almost ready!" To the house, he called, "Hey honey! Our boy's girl is here!" He swept Alex up in a hug when she got close as if he'd known her for years. "Hello there, Ms. Albright! Well, look at you." He grinned, his teeth perfect, white, and straight. He did look a lot like his son. "You look just like your mother did at your age."

Blew the first one all to heck and gone, so I'll reroll with HP 33, woo! I'm not sure how you see me rolling a Fort save, Durf, given my immunity thereto. ;)

Answers: Everyone's at full HP. You'll need them. Doc, you've got time to jury-rig something; go ahead and make the relevant rolls and description for that. Doc did successfully tap into the cameras, giving him a good view of the security pathways up to Arachnos' level. (They're generic sci-fi-ish corridors that stink bizarrely of magic in the corners.) There are no cameras on the top level, where Arachnos himself is.

"I am nothing like you!" Screaming with rage, Jack smashed the flagpole against Melinda's face. He and the Scarab were locked in mortal combat now, the guards around them having backed away when their bullets proved useless against him. Of course they were. Bullets don't hurt me. "You're nothing but a monster! A petty, useless thing who cares only about power and lust!" "Am I, Jack?" She laughed malignantly, her tentacles rippling through the air as she lashed at him. "Taylor, Stesha, Elena...Do I need to say all their names? How many women are you going to hurt, Jack? How many lives are you going to ruin?" Her lip curled malignantly, her fangs monstrously bared. "You don't really think you'll be able to stop yourself when the time comes. How long is it going to be before you kill again, Jack?" Her fangs spread monstrously wide, toothed tentacles from her back opening up on either side of her. Jack felt waves of guilt crash through him, his face warping with shock and grief as memories came flooding back. He was so very close to breaking..."Maybe that will happen," he admitted, his face set with a look of cold, murderous fury. "Maybe one day I will be a monster." He raised the flagpole in his hands high. "But until then, I'm not a monster." He was dressed in black now, a white mask falling over his face like a knight's full plate helmet. "I don't take lives. I save them. I'm a superhero. And my name is...AVENGER!" And with that, he vaulted into the air and thrust the flagpole in his hands through the Scarab's heart. With a sudden shriek, she imploded in a shower of ash and blood, the explosion blasting Jack to the ground again as the room around him screamed and writhed in agony. A moment passed, and then another. Jack was sitting on the stage now, surrounded by death and carnage, his mask gone and his hands covered in the blood of the Scarab. "Of course it ends this way," he said aloud, looking down at his hands. "Everyone's dead. But I'm still here." Blood dripped down off his hands. "And it's all my fault." "

Sound off; Quark and Goassamer, I know you guys are mulling NPC status. Are you actually in the thread or not? :)

With a few lucky hints from Edge, who'd watched a whole lot of movies about bomb disposal and such, Geckoman was able to pry the dimensional modulator out of its housing. With a rumbling, dissatisfied roar, the great machine before them ground to a halt, a deep, alarming whine beginning to develop from somewhere deep in its midsection. The guard Erin was holding twisted his head to look, horror on his face. "Ach, nein! You fools! We shall all die!" "Of course it is," Edge muttered, a look of calm, reasoned sureness on his face. "This is how it always happens. Everybody out, let's move!"

Okay, unless anyone has any objections, I can write the post that gets you guys to North America?

Well that didn't work. Hey Durf, do I have any HP left?

"Oh, you want more? Come get some!" With a sudden roar of defiance, Avenger turned from the thugs he was battling to hurl himself at the brute again, throwing a wild punch that unfortunately missed by a mile. Faster than he looks. Got his attention, at least...wuh-oh.

With the old lady clearly no threat, Avenger disappeared into smoke and fog, joining Scarab inside the library after a few moments of awkward searching. He started a bit at the sight of Bombshell, but opted to let Scarab speak first. He'd been hanging around superheroes long enough to know that you didn't stand between someone and their arch-nemesis, even one as annoying (and kind of hot) as Bombshell. He did get between her and the door, though, ready to spring if whatever the Scarab had in mind didn't work.

"Goodbye, Stesha," said Jack, watching Stesha depart before turning to Taylor. "Sorry I couldn't get here sooner, but I had some stuff to deal with. I saw Ace while I was packing all this up, he was a big help." He set a few things down, then put his arm around Taylor. "He sends his best. What can I do to help?" he asked her, sincere concern in his eyes. "Tell me, and I'm yours."

Edge Moves to land next to Blink and her friend. He forfeits his standard action to try and help; do I need a Notice or a Medicine check? (Edge will be horrible, just horrible at both.)

"Hey!" Edge's sense of honor is outraged at the sight of a would-be superhero opening fire on fleeing civilians, especially girls! This is what happens when people from the 90s don't retire, he thought dismissively. You get people who have no idea what's going on! He fired his grapple gun and swung, leaving the car behind and landing among the two fallen ladies. "Are you guys okay?" He knew very little about medicine, but he could try to help, anyway!