Avenger Assembled

"I imagine you do," said Jack simply, looking down at her as the elevator rose up the few floors to his new apartment. He couldn't quite broach the subject, either of the two subjects between them, and so fell silent like a coward as they rose up to the fourth floor where his apartment lay. Jack's apartment was a few steps from the door, and an old-fashioned brass key got the two of them inside. The apartment was a big old-fashioned place, the furniture belonging somewhere around the middle of the last century, the brass-fitted windows with the faint haze of bulletproof glass. "C'mon, let's get you sitting down." He didn't want her near the kitchen. There was a lock on the refrigerator inside that nearly spotless room, the only part of his new place that didn't have that bachelor patina. "So." Sitting down next to her, her presence inescapable, Jack let the look in her eyes carry him forward. "Five years. Give or take. I've developed faster than most, so don't worry that every...every vampire in the city can fight as well as I do."

"If he comes back again, I'll do something to him that he won't recover from," said Jack flatly. "I know how to do that. He'll never be a threat to you or anyone else again." Jack turned out to dwell in a really nice neighborhood in Midtown, the apartments secured and well-guarded. "I have an elevator these days," he told her as they headed into the darkened parking garage, "we'll get up there privately." She still hadn't mentioned it yet. Maybe she was right not to.

"I had to teach him fear," Jack finally said. "People like that will only be put off if they truly believe that you're more frightening than the wrath of their god. And I think I gave him that." He flexed his fingers on the wheel, the hard rubber beneath creaking. "If nothing else, I know who he is now and where he came from, and that'll mean he can't come back the same way."

28 Jack is being as honest as he ever is. Even so. ;)

"That's a loaded question," said Jack, the ghost of a smile tugging at his lips for just a moment before finally fading away as he peered in the glass behind them. "You're more special to me than anyone's been in a very long time. What I feel for you is much more...more real, than I've felt for anyone else." He turned and looked at her. "That much is true, Taylor. I want you to believe that."

"I have ways in nobody knows about," Jack said immediately. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, then reached up to adjust the mirror. With Taylor paying special attention to him now, she was able to see the way his hand didn't reflect in the glass. "I wanted to kill him," he finally said, "I thought about it, and if anything had happened to you..." He shook his head, then laughed bitterly. "But you don't need to hear about that now. You've already been through enough."

The teenagers found a few human guards in the main control tower, but the terrified Nazi and American collaboraters there were quick to surrender at the sight of the invincible young godlings who'd torn apart their most powerful machines without so much as a scratch. Figuring out exactly what it was they wanted was a bit more challenging, but with a little prompting one of the surviving guards pointed them to the secret bunker inside the island where the lost modulator they needed could supposedly be found. "Please, haff mercy! We did not know where they were doing with it!" said one of the guards, his accent very heavily accented.

Jack studied Taylor for a moment, trying to read the meaning behind her eyes, and nodded. "We'll get you somewhere safe." He found the car he'd brought out there and carefully loaded her inside, pulling a blanket up from the back to wrap her up and heading off into the city. He headed not for Wading Way, but for Midtown. "We'll go to my apartment," he finally said, one part of their relationship that they hadn't explored beyond this before. "It's safe there. God, Taylor...I'm sorry I didn't come looking sooner. I'm so sorry."

Jack walked out into the darkness, easily supporting the weeping Taylor as he scooped her up in his arms, keeping to the shadows as they left the warehouse behind them. "Let's take you home," he murmured to her. "Or to the Lair." He looked down at her, worry for her in his eyes even as he pushed aside the dreadful knowledge of all the secrets exposed that night. "It'll be all right," he assured her. "We'll get you somewhere safe. I won't let anything else happen to you."

When it was done, and when Jack knew the boy's soul inside and out, he pressed his bloody mouth against his ear. "Listen to me, Victor Harrow. You bear my mark now. That means your life belongs to me. If you want a monster to fight, come find me. Until that day, if you come against any of my friends again, I will have my vengeance." And with that, he smashed Victor's head into the ground repeatedly until the boy was unconscious, then hurled his body aside into the darkness. He looked up at Taylor as his fangs faded back, his face reshaping itself into a perfectly human, completely innocuous guise. His eyes were wide. She'd seen everything. Of course she had. "Taylor." He stood up and went to her, awkwardly pulling his ski mask back down. "Need to cut you down."

"I know Ace is your friend," Jack murmured to Taylor, casting his eyes around the room. "But he's nosy. Nosy isn't something I can appreciate; in a friend or in anything else. My life isn't any of his business." He gave Taylor a thin little smile. "But I would much rather dance. It's not often I get to go out with a beautiful woman on my arm these days." He offered her his as they headed for the dance floor. "Do you know this one? I think it's from our salad days."

slips Eviscerus a VP for being such a good sport

That's a DC 30 Will save, Eviscerus. DC 17 on the Fort save not to be Drained of Con. (Jack won't do that more than once, but he's mad enough to do it one time only) If you don't mind relenting on multiple rounds, Jack is going to ask Zealot "Who are you?" "What are you?" and "Where did you come from?" and "How did you find Phantom?"

Avenger pulled Zealot's scourge from his belt and hurled it away, the mystically empowered lash glowing in the air as it lashed across the tank containing Phantom. With a sudden shriek, the metal parted, a sudden cascade of water battering down on the two men so hard that only Jack's empowered vampiric strength kept them both on their feet. They were both soaking wet as the water ran out on the floor all around them, electrical current sparking where the water found open lines. Avenger was only vaguely conscious of Phantom coming into view as he looked down at the battered, soaking wet boy in his arms, the cold, curling rage inside him pushing him forward. With a sudden, spasmodic movement, he tore off his mask, both his masks, revealing Jack's face to Phantom but not to the boy he had grappled from behind. He knew what he had to do; what he had to do to make sure this boy never again threatened Taylor or anyone else he cared about. "You were wrong about her, you know. But you were right about me." As Taylor watched, Jack's eyes turned a malignant red and yellow, his teeth bulging out into monstrous fangs, his face lengthening and sharpening into the unmistakeable look of the vampire! When he spoke, though, it was with malignant, agonizing grief that struck him at his very core. "I am a monster." And then, he bit him on the neck.

That's a DC 22 Toughness save and a DC 30 Grapple check.

The kid was faster than he looked, and devilishly strong in the bargain. Jack knew he'd have to work fast. "I told you. Your weapons are nothing. You are nothing. I show you." Avenger didn't bother with fancy strategy this time, instead he drove his fist into the boy's midsection with fantastic force, using the manuever to throw his other arm around his waist and pull him close.

Avenger rolls well on his Will save, but not quite well enough! 29 But Avenger passes the Toughness save with flying colors: 30

Avenger chooses to specifically target Zealot's +5 Toughness Armor (it's equipment.) He inflicts a Toughness save DC of 24 the first time; the armor (as an object) takes 10 and is injured. He spends his last HP to surge and does it again; the already-injured armor is disabled and useless.

When Avenger laughed, it was a terrible sound that seemed to ring off the doors of Hell itself. "I told you. _You mistake me._" And with that, Avenger smashed his free hand through Zealot's silver armor, his gloved fist penetrating as far as the boy's midsection before pulling outward, the sheer force behind the blow pulling away a huge chunk of the armored metal. It felt good, remarkably good, so Avenger did it again; this time his iron-hard fingers ripping the silver armor open wide. The metal fell away with a noisy clatter, leaving Zealot wearing only his leather under-armor. "Now."

OK, Zealot, you're up. =)

OK, I need a DC 22 Will-Sense-Motive-or Bluff to resist that standard action Feint, Evi.

"You mistake me, boy. You mistake my intention. You mistake my nature. You are nothing." Avenger circled in the darkness, his bone-white mask gleaming in the brilliant light of the overhead lamp, the scourge in his hand whipping back and forth in the air, as if a sentient thing uncertain at its new master. "Your puny flesh. Your puny spirit. Your puny faith. They are nothing. Tonight, I break them." He wrapped his gloved fingers around the business end of the scourge, pulling the indestructible weapon taunt in his fingers. "You want this back? _Come and take it._

OK, so our order is Avenger: 20 (1 HP, from the headquarters fiat) Phantom: 19 (1 hit point, er, 1 HP.) [is a terrible person] Zealot: 17: (1 VP (it seems only fair to give the monster hunter a VP when fighting a monster, even if he doesn't know it. )

Hey alder, did you want to roll Initiative for this one?

For those following along, all the players here have agreed to use their sheets as of their August edits. Coupla things, Zealot: That's a DC 23 save to avoid being shaken (-2 to attack rolls, saving throws, and checks) for one round. After that, I need a Strength check from you to see how well Avenger does on his disarm attempt. (Even though you don't have the weapon in hand at the moment, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to grab for it. =) )19 That's not very good! Reroll with my Luck HP...20. D'oh! Ah well. Avenger gets 20 on his Initiative. If only I could get a 20 on the actual die itself. :D