Avenger Assembled

Jack slipped his arms around her with easy grace, smiling down at her with a warm look on his flushed skin. "So he wasn't as dumb as he looked. Good thing he was in our capable hands." He bent his head and kissed her again, lightly on the lips. "I want to see more of you." Well, he'd seen a good bit of her earlier, but he was fairly sure she knew his intent. "I want more nights like this. You, me, and the city."

Jack was waiting for Taylor when she landed, having discarded his Avenger costume back into his trunk. He smiled up at her, still tossing his new crowbar back and forth from hand to hand. "Hey there. Our boy all taken care of?" He stood up, neatly sliding the crowbar back into his belt. "I think we handled him pretty good." He looked much more relaxed than she'd seen him last, the grim Avenger persona finally shed.

"Taylor, you and I both know people who've transcended death. And we both know a god on Earth." It was an unaccustomedly optimistic speech from Jack, especially for those who knew him as Avenger. "I'm not saying we'll be able to bring Moira back. Maybe she won't want to come; maybe her family will be too powerful for us to overcome. I know it took a whole Freedom League to fight a Greek God back in the 60s, and that was with the Centurion in charge." He looked at her levelly. "But the loyalty we owe to friends, to each other, is to try."

"Drop him there," Avenger agreed, sliding the crowbar back into his belt. "Will meet you back here and we can finish our business. Phantom." He glared at the thug, shooting a look of murder that made the man shudder in terror and scootch away from him until he was much closer to Phantom. "You know what to do if he give any trouble."

Scarab is up. Standard action to dig yourself out with TK. (Part of the reason you got those HP.)

Edge blows an HP to Inspire Geckoman's piloting.

"Hey! Stop!" Edge fired his grappling gun at the street, swinging down from his rooftop perch after the fleeing guy. "Hey, I bet that's a bomb or something. Mr. Dark Star!" he called up after his escort. "You should stop that guy!" Gingerly, he headed over to the car to check out the device planted underneath it, bending down to look at whatever the bad guy had planted there. Huh. I really should pay more attention to Ms. Harcourt...oh hey, a timer! "Crap! It IS a bomb!" 4...3...

Thought it didn't hurt to get the question out there. :D

Avenger cocked his head and looked at Scarab, wishing once again he'd paid more attention in history class. Does that mean...yeah, I guess it does! "King Arthur, eh? Suppose that makes her Robin Hood." He nodded. Can't believe I know King Arthur. Let's move there then," he suggested, tapping the list with his fingers. "Never did like thieves. Seems...immoral." It was a strange, if honest admission from a vampire.

Avenger sneaks onto the scene at the garage from ground level, taking 10 on his Stealth via Skill Mastery for a total of 30. (As I believe was his total back then.) Not knowing what's going on, I don't want to fill in too much detail. What do I see, Ecal?

Still working on this one, Heritage! Did you want to make an appearance in Team Science?

The two men talked for a little while more, hammering out the mundane details of what Dark Star would be expected to do as a member of the school's teaching staff. :bat: "I'm satisfied that you are capable of doing the job you have asked to do," said Summers with a nod. :bat: "I've taken the liberty of having my secretary prepare your papers. I had a feeling we'd be able to work something out." He smiled slightly and said in an unusually welcoming tone. "Welcome to the faculty."

"Gonna sell it and get some stuff, lady," said the criminal, the thug frightened out of him by the sheer intensity of Avenger's interrogation. Phantom was, for once, one of the least scary things around. "Wasn't gonna do nothin' till the lady saw me." The fact that he was still telling the truth didn't say much for his innate decency, but at least it said something about his honesty while terrified. "Honest! I just wanted the keys so I could get the car when the lady saw me." Avenger dealt with that story by pinning the man to the ground with the blunt end of the crowbar. "Suggest you had other things in mind. Suggest you are the dog you pretend to be. Only one punishment for monsters. Unless you can redeem yourself. Confess your sins? To the police?" Seizing on the opportunity given him, the frightened young man nodded, eyes wide as he looked from one face to the other. "Yeah. Yeah, sure!" "Will find you if you do not. Will punish you. You understand?" Avenger never had handed out worse than just a beating, but the persona he projected was frightening enough that a young skell like this could believe nearly anything of him. The criminal nodded at that, eyes still very wide.

Jack introduced himself very quickly to Ace, knowing that it was a little silly not to do so when so many people were around who knew his name and who'd be calling him by it. As first Stesha, then Phantom, then Dark Star talked, Jack came to an increasingly uncomfortable realization about his opinions and his relationship with everyone in the room. He was going to have to disagree with Taylor. "I agree," he said, not looking very happy about saying it. "Moira is our friend and we can't just abandon her at the whims of some distant pantheon on top of Mt. Olympus. I'm not saying we need to drag her back here regardless of anything else," he added, "but we need to at least find her and ask her if this is really what she wants."

He seems to be telling the truth. He also doesn't seem terribly bright; it's hard to tell if that started before or after his transformation.

Avenger's interrogation of the "lycanthropic" thug was as methodical as it was brutal. He only actually hit the man a couple of times, the crowbar rising high and coming down almost gently, the rest of the encounter one of psychological and physical intimidation that quickly had the man shifting back into his regular form out of sheer terror. He confessed that he'd been taken somewhere with "bright lights, and lots of doctors," but that he'd managed to escape when their backs were turned. He was telling the truth, or so Avenger guessed; he was certainly frightened enough. With Taylor watching, despite her obvious anger at the man, Jack obviously avoided trying many of the new tricks he'd learned after Melinda's death.

Jack folded his arms. "Hello to you too, Stesha," he fired back, an unaccustomed look of annoyance on his face. "Yes, I am very concerned about Moira. You made things sound desperate on the phone. What happened to Moira?" He was worried about his friend, despite his annoyance with Stesha, and he put his hand protectively on Phantom's as they talked.

Having come quietly and invisibly up the stairs, the first anyone knew of Jack was when he arrived. He opened the door, already coming up with a convenient alibi that was thoroughly thrown off by Stesha, Dark Star, and Taylor! Aw, son of a... He saw Taylor better and approached her, a worried look on his face as he took in her injuries. "Oh, jeez, what happened? Are you guys all right?" He looked around at the others, wondering if he'd missed an abortive battle.

Jack stopped to change into costume before they did their work, his change for her the first time he'd actually let anyone see him put Avenger on. First came the heavy turtleneck, then the black leather jacket, then the heavy motorcycle gloves, and then finally the black ski mask and white hockey mask. When he turned around, the tall, elegant Jack was replaced by the short, growling Avenger. He hefted the crowbar. "May wish to transform as well. Best to keep him off-balance."

Me too. What an NPC! Approved!

"I can," said Jack shortly, obviously trying to avoid an argument. "I'll be there within twenty minutes if the traffic allows. Jack out." He hung up the phone and sighed. Well, this was going to be an interesting afternoon. But surely it wouldn't be as bad as all that. There were plenty of heroes in Freedom City, and Moira had always seemed to know all of them. This might be a difficult time, but how embarrassing could it be?

"All right, Taylor, if that's what you want," he sighed. Well, he was going to have to use strategy for this one. He thought of the crowbar at his belt, remembered the emotions he felt when he saw Taylor running, and thought of a pretty viable line of attack. (As it were.) They drove past an abandoned warehouse near the edge of Grenville, and Jack unexpectedly pulled off into the grassy parking lot behind it. Grenville was a new area, but not so new that it didn't have businesses that had already failed. "We'll do it here," he said, stepping out into the darkened lot.

There was dead silence on the line for a minute or so before Jack said, "I'll be there right away, Stesha. Have you called in anyone else on this? Moira's got a lot of friends." He was in Greenbank, looking with some distaste into a meatpacking warehouse that Melinda had once owned. Why hadn't this place been shut down years earlier? It was just...well, now it was going away, and that was what really mattered.

:bat: "Contrary to certain fictional depictions of super-education, " said Summers gently, "we are required to maintain state standards to receive certain grants and support from the state and federal government. The school's strong relationship with certain individuals in Freedom City shields us from any serious pressure from Trenton." He leaned back in his chair. :bat: "We can make the arrangements necessary to accommodate your needs. And you can do the same for us." He hrrmed. :bat: "Would you be willing to act as an escort for our students when they undertake various extracurricular activities?"

"I'll deal with that," promised Jack. He hesitated a moment, then said simply, "You probably aren't going to want to watch that," he said after a couple of moments. "My work when I'm not with the Knights is fairly...fairly intense. It's not something most people enjoy seeing." He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, an unhappy look on his face, as he waited for Taylor's response.