Avenger Assembled

Avenger stays awake There are two guards still standing

The vampire Scarab throws explodes into ash as the impact with the Grue's armored body. The Grue himself remains freakishly unhurt.

Yes. Yes. And you betcha, hoser!

Unusually for Blackstone, there is a full suit of Super-Max armor here as well as several of the standard Max suits. (The Super-Max suits are usually only deployed for emergencies, but this one was on-site to do some emergency training with Blackstone's guards.) In addition to the standard super-prison gear of body armor and powerful tasers, this also seems to be the section for various types of weapons-grade contraband designed by the prisoners. And oh my, there is an embarrassment of riches! You've got the Huckster's rocket pogo stick, a homemade version of Looking Glass' mirror arsenal, and a vast panoply of other goodies!

"And if we need it to come to our aid, you can bring it up into the air," suggested Edge. With the decision made to leave the Seahawk in the water for now, the four teens completed their journey to Lonely Point. The Nazi guards were alert, but apparently not too alert. There were no interlopers as they approached a lonely stretch of beach, the Nazis having not bothered to conceal the barbed wire fences and mines on the sand before them. What was a large, open US naval base on Earth-Prime was here a grim-walled fortress, a place where the rumble of machinery was audible even inside the Seahawk as they made their way up to the beach. "All right, let's do this," said Edge, having changed into the costume that he had once again luckily thought to put under his clothes. "Get over the wall and start tearing up the place. If there are any people there, we use them to tell us where the modulator is. If there aren't any, we rip up the place and get it ready ourselves. I figure Phalanx takes me and Geckoman over the wall and Wander jumps it. And we keep the Seahawk in reserve." He looked from one to the other. "Everybody ready?"

"Estelle, we have a situation here." Gossamer could easily hear the deep concern in Stephanie Harcourt's voice, the wild talent engineer obviously on edge. "We've had an incident with the students. It looks we're looking at an interdimensional attack, possibly alien in nature. I need your expertise. I've already secured Viktor Archeville and Darian Cale as part of the rescue effort." She let out a breath. "How soon can you get here?"

OK, I think that's everybody. Next up is Captain "Hey, Isn't This a Violation of my Civil Liberties?" Knievel. ;)

Maybe I'll use this as an excuse to buy up my Notice. 12 Then again, this is why we have the Scarab...

Avenger's on the scene, skulking about. How do I do? Notice: 20

"I've got this one, Mr. Dark Star!" Edge jumped on top of a car, fired his grappling gun, and swung up behind the fleeing thug. "You won't get away that easily, Mr. Spark Plug!" Edge pointed as he came in for a landing and dropped a widening eruption on the fleeing thug, targeting the energy weapon the man was holding as much as he targeted the man himself. "Fall by your own fiendish machine!" He'd seen his grandpa say that once.

Scarab is up. (Melinda is refocusing)

The necromancer screamed and imploded as Dark Star's radioactive barrage blasted through him, vanishing into a cloud of smoke that disappeared on the barely perceptible wind in the darkened room. The vampire Grue was rearing up to strike at the Scarab again when a bullet suddenly caromed off its hide, the monster glaring up with now massive insectoid black eyes, its motion lost, as a vampire in the gallery cheered and reloaded. It was, of all people, the assassin who'd been prepared to strike Jack down a few minutes ago. "That's for everyone on Astoria Street in '04, you red-skinned #$$)@!" the vampire marksman cheered.

I was under the impression that the groups consisted of The Children's Ward: Avenger Knight Magpie: 14 Phantom Scarab The Prison Team: Dark Star Divine Doc Archeville Grimalkin Raven So our init order is: Phantom: 19 Avenger: 18 Scarab: 18 Magpie: 14 Wesley: 14 Guards Guards Guards!: 11 (all seven remaining act simultaneously) Phantom is up.

There were certainly fewer cameras around than anyone on the team could have suspected, which made a lot of sense to their native guide. "Don't need 'em," murmured Agent H, the teenager obviously on a knife's edge. "Slaves got nowhere to go. Local wildlife's big enough to see fifty yards off. Even a servant'll yell if he sees a T-Rex comin'" There were a couple of cameras near the warehouse that the laborers at the base were evidently stored; destroying them wouldn't help matters necessarily for the teens but it might make life marginally better for the servants for a little while. - It took Psyche a couple of minutes, but she eventually found her way to a nearby scientist who was nowhere near any of his fellows. It took a minute or two to suss out the man's intentions, but it soon was obvious why he wasn't near anyone else. Hiding in a small alley between a corrugated steel lab building and the outside perimeter fence, the man was rolling up his sleeve and preparing a needle of something that was almost assuredly illegal on both Earth-Prime and in Erde's Japan. With a smile, he pressed the needle against his vein and pushed in. A few yards away, another scientist was in the process of giving orders to her bodyservant, she and her male functionary the only human beings in the near-deserted laboratory that seemed devoted to great apes. On closer inspection, Psyche was able to recognize the features of the male servant with shocking clarity: it was no less than her own colleague at Claremont; Anthony Edwards, aka Whoop-Ant!

"I don't know," admitted Edge, "Um..." He missed Alex, very badly, and was just about to say that when he spotted a large metal object attached to the edge of the control console of the Seahawk. Pulling it away curiously, he looked Chris' way and said, "Hey, does this look like a remote control for you? A remote for the Seahawk?" With its sword-length antenna and bulky box shape, the remote was something out of another era, just like the Seahawk itself. He handed the big box to Chris. "So you can control the Seahawk from the ground and we all go in, you think?"

Hmm, well, that makes sense. And it keeps you from shooting Dark Star, having the rocket go through him, and accidentally blowing up the courthouse. OK, let's see those Reflex saves from everyone who isn't protected against the blast. (Malice, I'll split the difference and say that the rocks on you neither hinder nor help you; have an VP for getting blasted by your chum. Also, consider asking for a refund. )

I need initiative from everyone in Avenger's group in the children's ward. Avenger has taken out three guards and staggered a fourth, and Startled all but two. (We'll call the un-Startled ones A and B out of ABCDEFG) Avenger: 13

Doctor Archeville's technical genius opened the tower's computer system to him like a flower. He could see everything from the Solitaire the bored receptionist down on the first level was quietly playing behind her Excel system all the way to the highest-level security protocols surrounding Lord Arachnos' most secret projects being carried out at the highest level of the great tower itself. He could do anything from here, or almost anything, and the feeling of computerized mastery was downright total. Of course, the big reason he was so powerful was that he'd successfully bypassed all their computer security systems. If they did see him, or if a guard tried to use the "empty" computer slot he was using...well, there might be trouble. - "Now," was Avenger's simple reply as he fell among the soldiers like a wolf among the sheep. He smashed one face-first into the monitor he was watching, the glass breaking as the moaning man slumped to the ground and bleeding from his face. He destroyed another with a backhanded kick even as he dealt with the first, lifting the man off his feet and smashing him into the plexiglass behind him; the momentum for which gave him the speed to grab a guard's rifle and smash the butt into his chest hard enough to break ribs. The last man wasn't so easy to bring down, Avenger's punch hitting his body armor hard enough to bend him in half but not to actually drop him. "Hit an alarm." Avenger told the shocked guards as they went for their weapons, malevolent laugh in his voice. I DARE YOU!"

Yes, Dark Star, you are indeed up next. :D

You don't need to roll, Dark Star. Warmonger, quick question of clarification. Are you shooting your weapon at Dark Star directly, or setting it to explode near him?

Archer hmmed, making more notes on his clipboard. "Good work, team. I like the initiative you showed from the beginning. Taking to the air was a good decision, and one that made the tactical situation much better for you." He smiled. "We once had a class have to reboot the scenario entirely when El Diablo hit the chemical waste stored in the freighter they'd started in. Good times, good times. But anyway, the two of you both are well above average. Strongman even survived hitting the water. Go cool off and enjoy the afternoon. Nice work."

There was a great crash as the Strongman and chair hit the water just a second or two after Erin did, a great splash of water that rose up high in the air. As Phalanx watched, Wander hit the water hard, her linked fingers knifing her through the water as she dropped deeper and deeper into the impossibly green and blue waters of Gatun Lake. With the help of her powerful leg muscles, she kicked her way back to the bright and shining surface, her target the Strongman floating and sputtering in the water nearby. And then there was another gentle hum in the air, and both Mike and Erin found themselves back in the Doom Room. Erin's clothes were perfectly dry, though her hair was still strangely wet from the dip in the imaginary water. As before, she kept the bat that had stayed attached to her waist the whole way through. Mr. Archer was standing there too, taking notes on his clipboard. "Excellent work, Wander and Phalanx. Cool off for a minute, then tell me how you think you did."

Stealth: 16 Notice: 18

"I will," Jack said agreeably. "I'll see you later, Taylor. Good night." Having ended his conversation with his girlfriend, Jack returned to organizing the massive purchase of industrial blood storage units that would hopefully facilitate the "humane" feeding practices he was doing his best to introduce to Freedom City's vampires. It was nice to have some mundanity in his busy schedule.

As he seemed to be able to read the map the best, and because it was her map, and because it was Alex, Mark took a seat next to Alex inside the car. "All right, you know the way, right, James?" He knew James was a long-time Freedom City resident since he was a Prophet, it probably wouldn't be that hard for him to make his way around downtown. "Just out to Midtown, and the steeple."