Avenger Assembled

The exploding dump truck is a Blast 10 (Explosion Area) effect. I need a DC 20 Reflex save from Arrowhawk and Scarab, followed up by a DC 25 Toughness save. (Modified by success on Reflex save/the Evasion feat, as usual.) Ronin, since you're unconscious, just make the Tou save.

The sheer force of Scarab's mental assault overwhelmed Ronin, driving him to his knees and shattering his consciousness. As he went down, his gloved hand went down to his belt, where belatedly the two heroes noticed the small black box with the little red button. With a click, and a smile on his masked face, Ronin pushed the button before collapsing to the ground. A moment later there was a distinct white flash from the fallen dump truck, followed shortly by the fist of God striking the pavement before the courthouse as the dump truck exploded into smithereens. The truck's explosion ripped apart the blacktop, broke every window in the front half of the courthouse, and carved a massive scar alongside the monument to Freedom City police officers who'd been killed in the line of duty, chunks of flying dump truck far deadlier than the blast itself as the civilians ran screaming. A nearby police car was blown off the street, the speeding car cutting down a fire hydrant and sending a cascade of water into the air. A chunk of metal slammed square into Scarab's force-field, bouncing off and caroming away to decapitate the nearby statue of justice. Arrowhawk wasn't quite so lucky, taking a shard of glass that sliced along his leg like a knife. As for Ronin, the cool air of flight woke up just long to see the roof of the library near the courthouse rushing up to meet him. He heard something break as he hit, then was solidly out again.

Let's see that Will save, Ronin.

Ecal said in chat he does not wish to surge. Scarab, you're up.

Okay, Ecal, do you want to have Arrowhawk surge or anything before your turn is up?

Arrow'd! Let's see that Tou save, Ronin.

OK, I think we just need to hear about Angelion (or whatever James' alt-name is) and we can start doing some adventures here.

It's currently Arrowhawk's turn, Avalon, so don't worry about it. Take your time. Vestige becomes visible, attacks Dark Star, and misses. Ecal? What's the plan?

She went for him in a sudden rage, eyes red and spitting fury, smashing her fist across his face in a blow that rocked his head back. He caught her by the shoulders and pinned her against the wall, her arms above her head as his weight pinned her down. She broke free in an instant, exploding into mist and leaping through him, but didn't flee. "You...why would you DO that!?" The fury and fear on her face were mixed inextricably. "No wonder she wouldn't tell me what happened to you. You pompous bastard! You know what they'll do to you? To ME? To every daywalker in the city!?" "It doesn't have to be that way," said Jack, rubbing his jaw as he focused directly on Claudia. "We can be better than this." He looked her square in the face. "I'm going to kill Melinda. Tonight, where everyone can see." "And what good will that do?" she demanded of him imperiously. "You think whoever follows her isn't going to want you dead too?" "Not if they have other priorities. Melinda hasn't told anyone what I've been doing, right? With her dead, no one but some of her human allies know, and they can be dealt with as well." He went to Claudia, putting his arm on hers. "Think of what we can do with someone like Pitt running the city. No more assasinations, no more orders from on high; no more petty tortures. We can live our lives the way we want to. The way we should." She stared up at him and made a decision. "Jack, I'm not going to help you with this. It's too bloody dangerous. For you, for me, and every other vampire like us." She took a step back from him. "Get out," she urged him. "Get on a bus and get out. There are plenty of cities that don't like Melinda and where they won't follow you. Do your little...self-indulgent fantasy there, or whatever you call it. But get out of this city before anyone else dies." She turned and looked away...and Jack hit her. She was up again in an instant, fury back on her face, but Jack had taken the opportunity to reach the door of the refrigerated vault. The gas-tight, sound-proofed vault. "I'll see you soon, Claudia. You'll be safe in here." And with that he slammed the door in her face, locking his dam firmly in the refrigerator for the duration. This wasn't a good start to the night.

July 17, 2009: Jack stands up in Standing Up

This is the thread where Avenger, Scarab, and Dark Star change the nature of vampire politics in Freedom City.

Licking her extended fangs with hunger, Claudia walked down the basement corridor as she headed for the refrigerated unit downstairs. Normally this kind of work was for slaves, but she was hungry and didn't have time to wait for humans to catch up with her. Everyone was on edge tonight, and she couldn't afford to let her hunger distract her from whatever was going on with Melinda. She'd served Melinda loyally for decades, but the recent attack on the city's leadership had made the queen...different. More like she'd been in the old days, before Kong Wei's death, when Melinda's cult had ruled its section of the night with blood and joy. Claudia had enjoyed the 80s just fine, but she wasn't at all sure it was a good idea to go back to those days now that Freedom City had so very many heroes in it. And then there was the question of what on Earth had happened to her erstwhile favored childe. She stepped into the refrigerator when someone grabbed her from behind, pinning her against the wall. She hissed and popped fangs wide, a second before turning to rip the throat out of her attacker, before she heard Jack's voice in her ear. "Claudia! It's me!" He released her then, and they spun on each other, the two vampires glaring like the caged predators they were. It was cold in the refrigerator, the bagged blood nearly frozen. Jack had known where to wait for Claudia, taking advantage of the fact that she preferred to catch live prey herself. "Jack! What..." She gave him a startled look, something like tenderness flashing across her face for a barely visible moment. "What the hell are you doing here?" She glared at him. "And what happened to your apartment? I was worried!" "What do you mean?" asked Jack, knowing she was lying but pushing past that to explore the mystery she'd left open. "Don't you watch the news?" she demanded. "Or talk to anyone? It burned down last night! And when I called to ask, Melinda said you were involved! She was sure you were dead!" She folded her arms and glared at him imperiously. Jack's jaw dropped, but he pushed aside the human urge to ask what had happened; if anyone had been hurt by the disaster. This was no night for humanity. "I...I was dead." Jack looked Claudia square in the eye. "Melinda staked me and threw me off the Pyramid Plaza." It was Claudia's turn to stare at him, her jaw dropping wide. "But...but why?" She eyed him closely. "What did you DO?" "Claudia...I'm a superhero."

"Thanks, Chris," said Mark with a winning smile. "I'll let you know how it goes." With a quick glance around to make sure no one was listening, he fired a finger gun at Chris. "Who knows, maybe I'll get...lucky!" Chuckling, he dug back into his food, looking very pleased with himself for how well the day was going. It was good to have friends, and good to have people in his life who mattered to him.

Mark shrugged. "I dunno, man, he's never mentioned it to me. It's not like I haven't talked to him about liking Alex." He bit into his pie. "Besides, I told him about it just a couple of minutes ago and he seemed...well, not happy, but you know how Mike is. I still haven't figured out the right way to cheer him up. Anyway, I'm pretty sure Alex would have picked up on that by now, and she was all about hitting the Super Museum with me."

Edge scooped up the basketball and tossed it perfectly, nearly leaping out of the water to sink a perfect landing into the basket Erin was holding up! "Three points!" he called with a laugh. "Guess this is my lucky day after all!" Feeling a little peckish now, he hauled himself out of the water, his athletic shorts clinging tightly, as he headed over to the snack table to grab a plate of nachos.

It took Mark a second or two to realize what Chris was talking about. but once he did he got it right away. "Oh, this?" He touched his tie. "I'm just wearing this to stretch it out. The silk is tight for my neck size, so I'm letting it stretch before I dry-clean it." He grinned. "Actually, I'll be wearing the really fancy stuff tomorrow night, on my date with Alex." He grinned. "It's gonna be so much fun!"

"Even if there was, Eddie's level of intelligence, would spur of the moment. you would excited about he sent slides shes" What you say? :P

Mark worked for a little while, humming along with his iPod quietly, before finishing his ironing. With the clothes hung up, he headed for the door. "Catch you later, Mike! I'll probably hit up a flower shop tomorrow, or something." He threw open the door and headed out, singing something under his breath about being the ringleader. He was in a very cheerful mood, as any teenager would be under the circumstances. It was indeed "Pie Fest '09" today in the cafeteria, and he scooped up both a Diet Coke and piece of delicious key lime pie as he headed for a seat. Happily, his good buddy Chris was sitting nearby. Looking usually cheery and upbeat even for him, Mark pulled up a chair and dropped into the seat next to him. "Hey, Chris! Good to see you, buddy."

Jack stared at Elena for a long moment, a silent communication passing between them that had nothing to do with telepathy. "Her primary mansion's in the West End. If you hear about something happening there...well, it's probably me." He smiled at her, his eyes sad. "Goodbye, Elena." He'd felt the sun set as she woke, making this the perfect time for him He let her see him disappear this time, his body sliding away into mist on the wind before vanishing entirely as he flew up towards the surface. It was time to move.

"Well yeah, she's great, don't you think?" asked Mark, making a mental note to go out and buy some posies that coming day. He looked quite domestic as he went about ironing his shirt and pants, obviously wanting to look nice for the festivities the next evening. "I mean, I like Erin, but I don't think she's really in the right place for a lot of dates. But Alex, man, she's something else. She always seems to know what I'm thinking, you know?" He thought about that for a minute, then actually laughed. "Which sounds dumb, I guess, but you know what I mean. And maybe she's not built like Daisy or Susanna, but she's still really cute." He hummed along with Britney Spears as they talked, doing a little dance as he worked. "I'm going to get this done, then go hit the cafeteria. I'm in the mood for pie."

"You bet," said Mark cheerily. "I've got a date with Alex tomorrow night." He thought nothing of telling his room-mate this, sure that Mike would be happy for him. Well, as happy as Mike got about anything. "Man, I haven't been on a date with a girl since sophomore prom. This is going to be great." He looked Mike's way. "Hey, you know her better than anybody else. Does she have a favorite kind of flower or anything?"

Feeling very pleased with himself, Mark headed back to his dorm room to make plans. Normally he was a spontaneous guy, but you didn't just show up for a date with a girl (especially a fun one like Alex) without doing a little prep work. He took his nice dress shirt out of the closet to iron it, doing the same with his slacks leftover from sophomore prom. He wasn't going to wear a suit for this or anything, but he did want to make sure he looked nice for his date. He turned on the radio and started humming along to a cheesy pop song.

Mark was a teenage boy; he watched...though only briefly. After all, he was a gentleman. "There are advantages to having my folks out of town all summer. One of which is having access to my parents' cars." He smiled wryly. "And having a dad who insisted I have a license the day after I turned sixteen just in case there was an emergency." He stretched against the summer heat, briefly pulling his uniform tight across his chest. "Eight o'clock tomorrow. You wear red, and I'll bring flowers to match. I'll see you then, okay, Alex?"

"Normally I don't totally believe in magic," said Mark with a little laugh, "but you can't argue with the facts. A dandelion did help grant a wish today." Pleased, Mark stood up. "Eight o'clock tomorrow. I'll pick you up there and we can drive," he suggested. "I know my way around downtown pretty well. You should wear red," he suggested, looking over her outfit appreciatively. "It looks good on you."

"Sounds like a plan," said Mark, smiling wider now that she'd gone along with his scheme. He reached over and picked a nearby flower, laughing a little at what he'd found. "I hope you don't take the dandelion badly, but it's the nearest thing growing here and I think Mr. Faulks would get mad if I picked a rose or something." He leaned over and handed her the flower. "I'll have better flowers when I pick you up, I promise. Are you free tomorrow night around eight?"