Avenger Assembled

Jack led the way down to his car, fighting a momentary urge to break Ace's mind like so much chaff. Be nice, he reminded himself. This night wasn't about his rivalry with Ace; it was about both of them coming together for a woman they cared about. It was a very...human thing to do. "Mine's faster," he commented with a glance at Ace's ride. "And I drive faster." He was in the driver's seat in an instant, looking up at Ace expectantly. Sit in the front, sit in the front...

"I know several people that do crime scene cleanup," said Jack carefully. "I can make sure she doesn't have to worry about dealing with this." He knew enough about magic to know the books Taylor relied on the most heavily, and made sure to neatly store those in with the bathroom soap and shampoo he'd salvaged from the bathroom. Left unspoken was the real reason he'd hidden in the bathroom at Ace's approach earlier; God forbid the man saw him before a mirror! He left Ace to finish packing up the clothes when he had Taylor's books and toiletries in place, heading out to neatly scoop up Taylor's ficus. He wasn't sure how to take care of the plant, so he dumped some water on it to let the liquid soak in and headed into the bedroom, the plant under his arm. "All right, you all done in here?"

"Well." Jack was directly behind Ace, having come silently out of the bathroom when the older hero was finished with his initial reconaissance. "Good to know Taylor has so many friends," he said carefully. He had a bag in his hands full of ladies necessities and toiletries, guessing that Taylor would want some of those wherever she was setting up shop. He liked the way they made her smell. "Good to see you, Ace. You can help with the heavy lifting." There, who said he didn't have a decent bone in his body. He headed for Taylor's bookshelf, carefully pulling out volumes not covered in blood.

Jack woke up on the couch, starting awake from yet another nightmare. As had happened so many times in the last few months, Taylor was there waiting for him, a sympathetic look on her face and a cool compress for his head. She'd taken such good care of him since he'd fallen ill, even after she'd made the announcement to him that she was finally carrying their long-hoped for child. "Sssh, sssh, it's okay." She gave him a small smile, neatly perching next to him on the overstuffed couch. He'd started sleeping there, at his own insistence, after he'd hurt her once in his nighttime thrashing, biting at her neck hard enough to leave blood. But that had been weeks ago, and that scare had faded. "Another nightmare?" "Yes..." Jack shook his head, sitting up into her embrace. "I'm so sorry," he murmured to her, hugging her tightly. "Prophet, I'm a terrible husband." He looked up at her guiltily. "How many nights have I spent here, when I should be in bed with you? And with our son?" He put his hand on her stomach, a worried look on his face. What kind of man was he, really? Their families had been so supportive in his illness, his in-laws and his parents coming over to help them...But it's NOT RIGHT! They shouldn't love me. They shouldn't be there for me. The feeling never quite went away, however much he wanted it to, leaving him with guilt that haunted his nightmares. "It's all right," she told him gently. "Lovers should be there for each other." She hugged him back, then sat up, walking to the living room door. For the first time, Jack realized he could hear someone in the other room. "I met a doctor and her servant at the mall today. I invited them both in to meet you." Tiredly, Jack sat up to meet the new arrivals; a pale-faced woman with black hair and her assistant, a woman with green hair who bore the tattoo of a metahuman. Once the empowered had roamed the Earth like gods before the human race had risen up to remind them of their duty. Now the empowered served mankind, as was their duty. Wait... "Hello, I'm Claudia," said the doctor with a smile, shaking Jack's hand as her servant unpacked her bag. She wasn't introduced, of course; metahumans weren't supposed to feel pride. "I understand you've been having nightmares?" She did the usual exams, unbuttoning Jack's shirt and checking his vitals, while her servant handed her her instruments and Taylor watched approvingly, her hands folded over her stomach. Over her head, the big grandfather clock they'd gotten as a wedding present from his father ticked away the hours. "Yes," said Jack, reluctantly sharing some of the dreams with her. "I've had..violent dreams," he admitted, "and been violent in my sleep. I've been hoping to meet the Avatar when she visits this month, but so far my health hasn't been up to it." "Well, I'm sure you'll be up to it soon enough," said Claudia with a smile. She sat on the edge of the couch and began unbuttoning her blouse, turning to her servant. "Transfuser," she said, with considerably more coldness than she'd spoken to Jack. The servant, whose name Jack still didn't know, reached into the bag and...bobbled, dropping the bottle in her hands onto the ground. It would have hit the soft carpet, but unluckily struck the table as it fell and shattered into a dozen pieces. With a startled shriek, the servant jumped to her feet. "Ooh, Claudia, I am so sorry!" she exclaimed. "I'm so sorry, I'll clean that up!" "You stupid COW!" Claudia was on her feet, slapping her hand across her servant's face. "This is the third bottle you've broken this month! I have a mind to pull your hair out by the roots!" She raised her hand again and Jack caught her by the wrist, a sudden, boiling rage pulsing through him. "Stop it." She shot him a look, her eyes boiling with undoctorly contempt. "What did you say to me!?" "I...said...STOP IT" And with that, as Taylor screamed, Jack threw Claudia through the glass paneling of the grandfather clock. There was screaming and crashing, Taylor's cries and the white face of the green-haired servant as she ran to tend her fallen master. Jack looked down. My hands are covered in blood!

Avenger folded his hands on the table in front of him. "Not alone in that. Had my own reasons for leaving." Because I was a little worried I might attack Malice for his blood, he thought unhappily. "You did good there. You saved lives. Nothing to be ashamed of." He hesitated, though, guessing that the space-going hero might have more he wanted to say.

Avenger felt a momentary relief at the sight of Ace kissing Scarab, along with no little surprise. Nice to see Elena's getting some action. And it does mean Ace isn't harassing me anymore...Unless it's just to get more information on me. But that's crazy, Jack, there are limits to paranoia. _Or are there?_ He repaid Ace's ignorance with his own, carefully not paying attention to the Danger in the room. All in all, it was a welcome relief when Taylor arrived. "Phantom. Nice to see you." It was hard for Jack to project much friendliness through the mask, so he didn't try. He knew Taylor would know it was there. "Arrowhawk. Good to see you up and around." Arrowhawk didn't get the friendliness at all, but he didn't think the Scottish archer would object to that.

Avenger was there. Wasn't he always? Even for the super-sensitive Dark Star and Scarab, it was sometimes very hard to tell. "Nice cave," he commented to Scarab, taking his usual seat near the head of the table. "Like what you've done with the place. Watch the rear shaft, though. Security's not great there." He looked up at Dark Star. "Dark Star. Appreciate the invitation. Glad to have a chance to talk." About something other than Divine's disappearance, anyway. That was an ugly subject he didn't like dwelling on.

The prison team freed Columbia, Grimalkin coming up with a remarkable story to explain to the troubled powerhouse why she'd impersonated her daughter earlier and how they all needed to work together to overthrow the master of the world. The teams met up again in the corridor above the prison, the block that had once held the imprisoned children, to discuss their strategy, no small feat now that Phantom had returned from depositing the children and Magpie on the other world. Avenger had pressed for some private interrogation time with the unconscious guards in the closet, and returned in a jauntier mood than when he'd left. "Got an access code to the level above. Should give us full access to Arachnos himself."

Blowing an HP for a +5 Inspire bonus for all my buddies, as usual. Mark's Probability Control Array is currently set to Fortune, giving all his allies within fifty feet a minimum of 7 on their rolls.

"C'mon, team!" Edge yelled as loud as he could, trying to both draw the attention of the cultists and cheer on his teammates to greatness. He used his zip line to get to the top of the fence, trying to get a better view of the situation. "Let's show them what Young Freedom can do! This is Freedom's park! And that means free minds, free souls, and free bodies! Let's overthrow these tyrannical cultists! Wander and Geckoman, hit 'em again! Phalanx, give 'em the Liberator Special! THIS IS FREEDOM CITY!"

...aw. Which is to say, I'm up for it!

Mark reached out and put his arm around Argent, hugging her tightly in that moment of sharp grief. He was closer to Erin in some ways than he was to his current wife, but he loved Argent now more than he loved anyone else. "The same as the others?" he asked his daughter. Clara nodded unhappily, looking at first her father and then her mother. "I am picking up the same distortions you are, Argent," she added to the ex-supervillain, "but I'm not sure what they mean. We'd need better machinery to track it down," she admitted, mostly to her mother. "And that's largely tied up now. It..." She scrubbed a hand over her eyes. "God."

"I am a sinner." Jack crossed himself and stepped back from the temple's holy symbol, the gold and red scarab shining down on him with the reflected light of morning. Heru-Ra had lived and died for the sins of man thousands of years before, only to be reborn again and again in a new body to carry on the fight for justice. Was it any wonder His worship had become the dominant religion on the planet? Still, today, for the first time, Jack felt a strange sensation looking up at that jeweled bug. I need to get this off my chest. Walking out of the sanctuary with his fellow worshippers, Jack turned to Derrick and asked a question that had been on his mind. "Hey, can you take my confession?" Derrick was a good man, one of Jack's best friends, and unlike the temple's accountant had actually taken enough holy orders to take a confession. "Of course, Jack," said Derrick warmly, gladly leading the way towards the nearby booth. Derrick really was a very decent man. Jack had always envied him all that virtue. Derrick slid the screen shut and pronounced the holy words, Jack feeling a strange, guilty twist as his friend recited the benediction he'd heard since childhood. That's...that's not right. Eventually Derrick did finally ask Jack what was going on, and Jack began to talk. "For the last several weeks, something strange has been happening to me." He looked down at his hands in the darkness of the booth, rubbing them together. "I've been having...visions." "Visions, Jack?" asked Derrick carefully. "What kind of visions?" "My hands." Jack looked down at them again. "My hands, covered in blood." "Why do you think this has been happening, Jack?" "I don't know, I...I mean, I know we're all excited about the Avatar visiting this month, but I think this is something separate." "What does Taylor think about all this?" "I can't tell her," Jack confessed, pain in his voice. "God, Derrick, you know all the fighting we did early on. What if she finds out what I'm really like? She's seen some pretty ugly parts of me as it is." "What do you mean, Jack?" The more Jack thought about Derrick's last question as the days went on, the more his doubt grew. He was a good man, contented with his family and with fine prospects at his job. He loved his wife dearly. What _was_ wrong with him? Why was he so worried about Taylor knowing what he was really like? -- "You worry too much," Taylor told him reassuringly as they walked together through the park, pushing one of her charges in a wheelchair. Taylor had started volunteering at the local home for the elderly recently, and when Jack wasn't at work he liked to go visit with her with the old folks. The old man in the chair drooled pleasantly, staring at nothing. "Really, Jack. You're going to do fine." "I'm glad you think so," said Jack, his hand on her shoulder as they headed through the park together. It was a warm fall day, the leaves just beginning to turn colors. As they walked on, he caught sight of a small gaggle of oddly dressed people standing together in the woods, blinking as they disappeared when next he looked. The shadows were deep over there..."Huh. Yeah, uh, I do hope so. I was surprised when the Bishop picked me out to be in the welcoming party." "You'll do fine," she reassured him again, patting his hand, then reaching down to wipe at Ace's mouth. "Who better to welcome the Avatar than her favored childe?" Jack blinked at her turn of phrase. "Well, I guess we all are," he said with a little laugh. "I mean, we all come from the same place. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust." He looked down at his hands and forced a smile still on his face. My hands are covered in blood!

Jack disappeared from the vision of the two ladies without really trying, vanishing down the corridor and down the hall as he headed for Taylor's apartment. Surely nothing could go wrong with the two of them running the show while he was gone...right? He used his car to head for Taylor's apartment rather than his powers, not wanting to use more energy than he had to. Cmon, what could possibly go wrong?

Soon Hellion had the Japanese scientist eating out of his hand, even as their minds naturally opened up to Psyche's mental influences. It didn't take her long to pick out the instructions for how to operate the teleporter, this particular scientist had fairly weak mental defenses. With what she had here, she'd be able to get them all home. Whoop-Ant was another story; the teen hero on her world had comically weak shields around his mind. But here, someone had taken the time out to armor this boy's psyche with gusto! He took a step towards James, giving the big smile of his "master" a second late.

The posting trouble Quark and Gossamer have been having kind of put a crimp in us here. Hmm. (But yeah, the teleporter is the work of Lawrence Smalls. The alien signal that interfered with it, taking the kids? That's Erde-Grue.)

The struggling guard came along with them as they headed down into the bunker together, cursing in German before a look from the terrifying Wander silenced him. Despite his veiled threats and attempted intimidation, the contents of the bunker turned out to be considerably less threatening than he'd described...at least at first glance. There was a single massive object there, a huge piece of bizarre engineering that swirled and shaped its way through the deep underground chasm in a naggingly familiar pattern none of the kids could quite put their finger on. It didn't look much like any science they were familiar with, that was for sure, and was covered in swastikas. At the center of the great and terrible machine was the glowing dimensional modulator they'd come to collect.

Blowing an HP to have flashlights for all!

"I brought flashlights for everybody," said Edge cheerfully, digging them out of his pockets and handing them to all his friends. "Always be prepared, that's my motto. Lead the way, team," he said, trusting that the people who knew more about going down into holes would lead the way. "Let's see what's lurking around here..."

I don't quite understand; what's going on with the old lady and Avenger?

Does anyone have anything else they want done in this thread? (That can't be done elsewhere.)

"You guys should do whatever's necessary," said Jack reassuringly. "I'm just here to help out." He waved his hands, looking unmarked for the beating he'd given out a little while earlier. "If you're concerned about your apartment, Stesha, I can point you guys to several safe spots in the city. Or, hey, you could always contact Ace," he admitted. "I know his place is very well-protected."

"HA HA HA!" Avenger's laughter was downright malevolent, for all that he sounded approving of Geckoman's spine. "Monsters on the loose tonight, boy. I'll be keeping an eye on you." And with that he was gone, lurking again in the deeper darkness somewhere behind Geckoman. "Watch out for the boys who dress as animals."

o_O Gonna make for an interesting post-fight discussion. ;)

"It's a good name," said Jack, bending down to kiss his wife on the lips. Their courtship had been a whirlwind one, but happily accepted by both her family and his. He'd been a bit worried that the strong ethnic ties of his family and hers would be an obstacle, but once they'd shown their love to his parents and hers, no one had been willing to stand in the way of their feelings. "For a great lady. Ms. Faretti." He kissed her again, because it felt nice, stroking her face and pulling her close. "I just love the sound of that." "It's no Dr. Faretti," said Taylor pleasantly, leaning back and folding her hands across her stomach, "but it'll do for a while." Taylor still had big plans to finish her education and get that doctorate she'd been working on when they met, but right then she was content to be a stay-at-home-wife while her husband worked downtown at the temple. After all, they'd have a baby on the way soon if all their efforts counted for anything. "Honey, can you fix me up the last of the steak?" she asked him, giving him a lazy smile. "I'm ravenous for meat." "Sure thing," said Jack agreeably, leaning down to peck her cheek before getting up to wander into the kitchen. They'd spent most of their savings on this little house way off at the edge of the suburbs in Pyramid City, but it had been well worth the investment. Humming contentedly, Jack turned on the television as he opened up the refrigerator...and almost jumped out of his skin! Taylor came running at his shout, Jack looking at her with wide eyes as he slammed the door shut. "What the hell happened to our food?" he asked her, his face pale. Taylor frowned and looked at him, pulling the door open wide. "Jack, honey, that's not funny." Sure enough, their refrigerator was full of a massive quantity of food; fresh produce and cut meat, baked goods and pies, bottles of milk and juice and soda. There was more food in there than anyone could reasonably want. Jack shook his head, remembering the rows of medical blood bags he'd seen in there. He knew those well enough; he'd seen them at the temple. "I..." Jack closed his eyes. "I guess I was remembering the movie from last night." He looked in the refrigerator and shook his head. "I'm sorry, baby, I must have been wool-gathering." He leaned close and pecked her on the cheek. She gave him a patient smile and kissed him back, giving him a worried look. "You should take a rest, honey. I'll cook the food." She kicked off her socks and was barefoot, the better to get around on the tiled floor. "You're working too hard as it is. They need you to be at your best." Jack turned and headed back into the living room at that, settling down on the couch and closing his eyes. Surely that wouldn't happen again.