Avenger Assembled

"Back when he was Hot Rod," Mark agreed. "He told me once he never could do the run up walls trick very well." He sighed a little, then gave Erin a wry smile. "When I started school here, I was hoping that growing up with some of these teachers would make things easy for me. It turns out it doesn't work that way." He leaned back, stretching as they walked out of the elevator together. "I guess it'll be all right." He grinned a little wider. "I always know you and I make a good team; just ask that frog monster. Oh wait, he's not talking anymore." He snickered. "Where are you headed next?"

Mark acknowledged the new assignment with something of a sigh, wishing his luck was a little better-timed. He was well-trained enough not to say anything against the teacher until he and Erin had changed out of their uniforms and were in the elevator heading back up to the surface. "Well, that's...new. What do you think he'll want?" he asked Erin. "I'm pretty sure I can't do what you do for acrobatics training. Must be more team stuff."

Avenger: Avenger, aka Jack Faretti, is a grim, gritty vigilante with a reputation for brutal violence that just rides inside the line of what's acceptable conduct for a hero. Despite this, he's one of the founding members of the Knights of Freedom and actually has a strong reputation for honesty and reliability among those peers who actually know him. He does have one dark secret. He's the leader of Freedom City's vampires. Edge: Ever-cheerful, ever hard-working, Edge is the luck-controlling field leader of Young Freedom; one of the super-teams operating out of the Claremont Academy. An incredibly fortunate young man born into a family with a long tradition of heroism (though never in costume), the prospects for Mark Lucas' future look bright indeed.

On the other hand, D-A, Hades may appreciate having a JudeoChristian demon as his employee. "He bows to me, as ultimately ALL the children of Yahweh will one day, bwahahahaha!" :twisted:

Huh, I could have sworn he did, but it looks like you're right, durf. (The comic book physics of the minigun always take some getting used to.) When you're right, you're right. (Hmm, come to think of it, _I_ didn't specify that the exploding truck was for lethal either!) All's fair in love and war; Shaen, I believe that's three bruised and one injured. Take an HP for that last one, since I'm backwards Fiating on myself here. Now, I mess anything else up this round? Or are we good to go with Warmonger's turn? :D

You need feel no shame about being right, Nyrath; that's what the spectators are here for. So yes, I believe Scarab's at 3 Bruised, Shaen?

Well, I'm sold! Approved :D

I need a Notice check from Alex, and a Notice or Life Sciences check (whichever is higher) from the rest of you.

The great beast stopped dead in its track, the psychic fingers tugging at its mind catching its attention. The giant T-Rex cocked its head in a strange way, licking its gigantic fangs before gazing about the forest with scaly thoughts behind its massive yellow eyes. It strode right up to Psyche, looking down at her curiously, before giving a low, deep grunt and ducking down to scoop her up right out of her hidey-hole! The T-Rex carried Alex by the back of her jacket, lifting her way up above the ground as it turned away from the still-hidden teens.

I owe you an apology, actually; I'd missed that second rank of Improved Init! But +6 is fine too. The thing with his Perception Blast, Kavos is that your character doesn't need to go adventuring at all. He can sit at home and blast bad guys through his TV set. (Heck, with Penetrating, he can sit at home and blow up tanks in Iraq.) You can understand, I'm sure, that this isn't something we hope to encourage with our PCs, who are supposed to be getting out there and actually doin' stuff. An idea: you've got ten points taking up space in that Perception slot, right? Well, switch them out for 10 power feats. With (say) Accuratex3, Accurate Attack, Homing, Improved Critx2, Improved Rangex2, and Power Attack, you'll still be Penetrating, you'll actually be able to take advantage of trade-offs with your primary ranged attack, and it'll be a whole lot meaner on the bad guys. You'll do just as much damage, be able to actually manipulate your attack caps, and have a lot more options in combat. (And actually be able to hurt someone with Impervious 11. ) I'll level with you. Perception Range Blasts are annoying. They need a pretty stiff justification for most character concepts. (They're not that common in comics, either; there really aren't comics Energy Controllers who never miss at all and who are as powerful as a starting level PC.) You can make a much more skilled character without using them. That said, I'm a constructive sort of Ref: if you do want to have one, my advice is to put limits on it to make it more balanced: give it the Distracting flaw so your Dodge bonus goes away when you're using it, or giving it the Tiring flaw so using it takes extra effort. That way JJ has an auto-hit damage in reserve, but he'll have a reason not to use that attack all the time. That said, I like what you've done with the other Perception powers. I'm much less bothered about the idea of auto-hitting with a Daze-only attack, and I'm OK with a Perception/Touch Range combination that lets you auto-hit someone who's standing right next to you. (It's a good construction for that kind of power.) That's a good strong power with one obvious weakness. I like a character who has actually spent points on Environmental Control, and the idea of a basically non-combat form with Insubstantial and Flight is a clever one. I know you've had some trouble with your PL 10s, Kavos, but fear not! This is your best character yet, and you're definitely on the path to approval. :)

Edge winced, not looking happy about Erin mouthing off about Mr. Archer when he was right there and looking at them. He wasn't a suck-up; there were certainly teachers he didn't like and wasn't shy about criticizing or mocking when they weren't around. But luckily he'd never done that to their faces! "We did our best, Mr. Archer," said Edge carefully, putting his hands behind him. "I'm proud of what Wander and I did in there." "As well you should be, both of you." Mr. Archer smiled thinly. "You made a good team today. Tomorrow afternoon, I want you both to report to me in the gym for some duo acrobatics training. That'll take the place of your usual gym time, Wander, and it'll fill up the vacant slot for you, Edge."

August 4, 2009: Will Duncan Summers discard Dark Star as a space-going ne'er do well? Or will he treat him as A Man of Substance?

This is the thread where Dark Star interviews with Duncan Summers

Duncan Summers was waiting by the front door of the administration building when Dark Star arrived, leaning slightly on his cane and looking up at the floating figure above him. :bat: "Hello. Come in, won't you?" With that, and no other words outside, he turned and headed back inside the building, leaving Dark Star to follow behind him right through the glass. :bat: "Your arrival comes at an auspicious time. I've finished my lunch."

"It's hard to say," said Mr. Archer. "It's modeled after the ray guns the Mycanoids used during their abortive invasion in the early 1950s. They're powerful guns; they burn as well as blast, so they destroy what they hit. It could have given you a serious injury if you'd been hit by one of the blasts, Wander, or taken Edge out of the fight altogether. If they'd had a chance to actually use it on you. You both showed a strong grasp of combat and diplomatic strategy, and...a lot of luck," he added with a nod to Edge. "I will definitely have to upgrade what I throw at you guys in the future."

"That's one of the tricks I can do," said Edge with a little shrug. "I can do the really obvious blow-stuff-up accidents, or I can make things happen. Like make your blast hit harder, or make the monster get hurt worse by it. Not all the time, but it's a pretty handy trick to keep in reserve. Helping you evaporate that thing took a lot out of me," he said with a little smile. At Edge's words, the setting around them faded away, the sand off their feet and the gun out of Wander's hand, and the two of them were confronted with Mr. Archer. "Great job, team," said Mr. Archer, his eyes a little wide. "You really...really took those things out." He smiled. "Wander, you did a great job negotiating with the friendly aliens, not to mention the combat ability you put to use. How did you like the bat?"

Scarab, you're going to need to move some debris on your action. Ronin heals his unconscious and wakes up on the roof of the library across the street from the courthouse. What does he do?

Malice's unholy bombardment tore into Scarab, blasting through her forcefield and protective armor, though good luck and well-placed reinforcements in her costume kept the massive shells away from anything vital. She slammed into the weakened asphalt beneath her, hard, as Malice's bombardment blasted into the ground beneath her, punching straight through the road beneath her body and shattering the already weakened supports beneath the crater in the asphalt. The road caved in suddenly, with very little warning, giving way with a sigh inaudible beneath the sound of the mini-gun. And Scarab went with it; the force of her impact and the rocks falling with her, the costumed heroine disappearing from sight as she fell through the surface of the street and the street itself came with her. The access tunnel to the sewers was nothing, the structure having been weakened by the Terminus Invasion and never quite fully repaired even by Dr. Metropolis. With a groan, the floor gave way too, and she fell until she reached the surface of the tunnel beneath even the sewers, rocks and debris falling all around her, pinning her beneath their weight and breaking through the subway tunnel beneath. Only through sheer heroic force of will did she keep herself from falling all the way through, her upper body left dangling through the opening left in the roof of the subway tunnel. Distracted by the rocky bombardment, she didn't see the oncoming subway train until it clipped her on the side of the head, the screech of brakes deafening as the great train began slamming to a long, long halt beneath her, disappearing out of sight in a moment.

It's no reptillian Einstein, but yes, it has brain.

Wander raised her gun and fired, striking the massive beast in the head. The monster staggered under the beam's brilliantly coruscating blue light, and Edge concentrated, focusing on the blast and on the monster, the air around him seeming to warp from the sheer force of reality shifting at his command. Cmoncmon, fall down! Fall down! Edge wound up exceeding his own wildest expectations, though, as suddenly the giant alien squealed, glowed a magnificent shade of blue, and faded away into nothingness even as its last spell frittered away right along with the creature itself. "Wow!" A thoroughly enthused Edge stared in disbelief, then clapped Wander on the back. "Great shot! You're totally awesome!"

And it just... And then he... :shock: Well, Edge is down to 2 HP from canceling GM fiat and forcing all those rerolls from the monster. Mr. Archer is sad. :P

The monster rose straight out of the sea, a huge, amphibious alien with bulging eyes and a malevolent leer on its froggy face. Lurching up out of the sea, it towered high, water running down its slick body and cascading onto the sand below in a spattering pattern. Casting its eyes around, it locked its gaze on the teen heroes and smiled malevolently. It began chanting something malevolent in a dark alien language, big suckered hands moving in a disturbing combination of gestures.

"The Nazi base is built right over the old American naval installation," said Lilith with the air of a woman discussing a Satanic temple built in a cathedral. "You should be able to get the submarine right up to it." Edge asked some questions about the defenses they'd be dealing with, and from the sound of things there'd be some stiff opposition. Between the mines and robotic sea-snakes in the water, navigating would be a challenge, to say the least. But if they got there fast enough, the base wouldn't have time to call for help from the massive combat robots already engaging the Resistance's pitiful few superhumans elsewhere. "All right, do you people think you can do this?" asked Lilith. "I'm going to stay in touch by radio here," she said, handing a massive walkie-talkie that looked decades old to Edge, "but you'll be on your own once you arrive. Remember, you need to smash the factory beyond repair, get the dimensional modulator, and get back here as fast as you can."

"A half-hour ago," said Ms. Harcourt, clinging nimbly to the roof by means of the magnetic suction gloves on her shoes, "I monitored an explosion of trans-dimensional energy from my laboratory. I was very concerned, as you might imagine, given the ever-present risk of invasion from the Terminus, but this was more the leakage from an event happening in this dimension." She pointed to the large, ragged hole in the cafeteria roof, as well as the nearby large disc that looked like a Star Trek transporter pulled off a set and secured to a tiled roof. "My current theory is that it was annular confinement leakage from the beam that transported roughly thirty pounds of inanimate material and nine of my students to...somewhere else."

OK, Psyche, are you attempting a psychic link to the creature, or doing something with straight charisma? Inquiring minds. :D