Avenger Assembled

"Woah! Jerry, check this out!" The young officer who'd entered first nodded to his partner, the older man staring with him in shock at the sight of the flower that had obviously swallowed an entire man. "Is he alive in there?" "I dunno, Chris" said the older cop, "but I'm gonna find out!" Pulling out a pocket knife, the officer went for the flower just as the younger officer saw Stesha. "Hey! Are you all right, miss?"

The Bee-Keeper struggled again, ripping through Fleur's vines at an alarming rate of speed even as the police got closer and closer. He might have been able to escape easily on his own, but not with her dumping more and more layers of vines on top of him even as he broke more and more himself. "Oh, I'll zee you again, mizz Fleur de Joie! And we'll have zome good timez!" The police were close now, but he was even closer!

OK, adding together Bee-Keeper's Strength bonus and Super-Strength, he does +11 damage to the Snare. It has a Toughness save of 18, which means he injured it it this round...except Fleur repaired it again.

Pushing herself to the utmost to defend her shop and her honor, Stesha tightly wrapped a whole cluster of suddenly growing daisy flowers around the Bee-Keeper. He was well and truly bound this time, with even a few flowers creeping their way up into his intake valves. Bee-Keeper struggled mightily against the daisies holding him down, vines snapping as he pulled. He was making headway, and might be able to get out given time, but for now Stesha had him well and truly pinned! "You're really hot ztuff, aren't you? I can't believe I got an archnemeziz my firzt time out!" He sounded far more pleased about that than a sane man would.

OK, he just made the Reflex save vs. the Snare. He's trying to grapple rather than do damage, so we'll omit the Toughness save...but he doesn't know Fleur has Transmit and is standing by the window of a flower-shop.

Through sheer happenstance, the Bee-Keeper just barely managed to pull himself out of the entangling vines that had nearly pulled him dow. Oh, wow! She's a real super-hero! he exulted mentally. And cute, too. Maybe I can take her back to my lair, and tie her up! I'd better show her the guns! With that cheerful thought in mind, the Bee-Keeper flew out of the shop after his antagonist. "Hey! You think you're pretty tough, eh? Try this on for size!" He reached for her with his cold bee-claws, his fingers closing around her wrist.

Good point, Electra. I forgot about your HPs for this scene. Let's see, you're defending the turf of your day job, so I'll give you the HP for that complication now. If your secret identity comes into play more openly, that's when the HP for that will come in.

Fleur, make a Fortitude save. Your DC is 18. For every point you miss the DC by, if you miss, lose 1 point of Dexterity. (Up to eight, since he only has Drain 8)

Faced with the prospect of a battle with a real superhero, the Bee-Keeper laughed and let the bystander go. Now was when the real fun began! If only he knew who Fleur de Joie was...he turned and ran back inside the shop, rising up on his jets as soon as he saw Fleur de Joie. "I don't know who you are, but you've made a bad miztake tangling with the lord of the bees!" He raised his gauntlets and fired a blast of bees directly at the interloper, sending a horde of stinging insects directly at Fleur!

Bee-Keeper's Initiative: 12 So we're at Bee-Keeper: 12 Fleur: 5

"I...hey!" In a rare moment of perspicacity, the Bee-Keeper was deeply suspicious of Stesha's quick exit. Not wanting to risk scuffing his brand-new suit by flying into a blind alley, though, he landed to chase after her on foot. "You'd better not beee running out the back door! I can fly faster than you can run, which means I'll give you zzuch a ztinging!"

The Bee-Keeper scratched his chin, bees swarming all around him. "Monarda, eh? I have been wanting to attract more bumblebeez, and I could uze..." He shook his head, then said, "Yez! Fetch me the bee balm at once, woman! And zome orchidz! Ze mozt valuable flowerz in the shop! I will uze them to further build my invinzible army of the sky! The lordz and ladiez of the hive!"

"I. Am. The. Bee-Keeper," replied the Bee-Keeper distinctly, wondering if perhaps he hadn't said it loud enough. Well, the girl was obviously in awe of his terrifying persona. He adjusted his synthesizer a little, deciding he must have had it tuned too high. "I have come to liberate the flowerz in your zhop on behalf of my alliez in the Apian Army." He demonstrated what he meant by firing a small discharge of bees, releasing a few dozen into the air that happily swarmed around his suit as he spoke. "Now, I have a lizt of demandz. I want sunflowers, woman! And none of that big-flower hybrid foolishnezz; only the small kind will do! And alzo, California poppiez! And make it znappy!"

"911 emergency," came the operator's voice. "How may I assist you?" The Bee-Keeper crashed through the window in a huge shower of glass, rising up in mid-air and raising his fist to the ceiling. When he spoke, the synthesizers transformed his voice into a mechanical buzz akin to an exceedingly large, talking bee. "Zzzurrender, puny mortalzzz! The Zinizter Bee-Keeper haz come to liberate zis shop on behalf of ze Apian Army, and...hey, where did everybody go?" He looked around for a moment before he spotted Stesha. "You there! Drop the phone, or suffer ze zting of the Bee-Keeper!" Even saying it was a religious experience.

Barry crouched on the skyscraper rooftop, peering down at the quiet little flower shop at street level across the road. With the slow, loving care of a man donning holy garb, he carefully donned his shining gold-and-black armor, cinching up the joints and placing the helmet down across his head. As the suit whirred to life, the world around him came into focus. He could see as clearly as if he were wearing binoculars, easily peering down through the reflective glass below to make out the clerk working inside. He could feel the power of his armor around him, the mechanized strength that gave him the power of ten men (or of one mighty bee!), the gentle humming of the jets that let him fly through the air with the greatest of ease. And humming all around him, filling the interior lining of his suit, their song filling his ears, were his glorious sisters, the tens of thousands of bees that made their home inside his armor and that answered his call thanks to his fanatical training, breeding, and sheer scientific genius. It was the Bee-Keeper who stood up on the rooftop, and the Bee-Keeper who laughed as he took to the air, his speech synthesizer turning his voice buzzing and menacing as he dove straight across the street, right for the window of Stesha's flowershop.

Bee-Keeper's Stealth is 14 Stesha is aware that there is a man in a loudly buzzing bee-battlesuit flying directly towards her shop window.

This is the OOC thread for the July 7th encounter between the Bee-Keeper and Fleur. Fleur, make a Notice check. Post it here.

Oh yez, Viktor, I can hear you. I hope you vill pardon ze unorzodox nature of zis message, but I imagine you are pressed for time. I haff only reached you through certain dimenstional-zychic waves zat are unfortunately difficult to explain. It is fortunate I haff been expecting you. Plez make your way to my men, so that I may know vere you are and speak to you in...vell, in person, I suppoze.

When the time for their rendezvous with the airship came, Mark had led his three friends out to the grassy lot behind the dormitories where they'd be meeting with Geckoman and his airship. Mark was excited, both for the concert and his chance to ride in an airship for the first time, and the smile on his face radiated warmly to his friends. "This is going to be great," he predicted with perfect confidence. "We'll cruise out there in style, party with the college kids, and be back here in plenty of time."

Ace's left hook hit Marionette square in the jaw, snapping the pretty blonde's head back and making her eyes roll back in her head. She staggered limply and murmured distinctly, "That didn't feel very good," before collapsing like a poleaxed steer onto Rachel's carpeted floor. With two unconscious women at his feet, his hand bloody from one's face, it might have gone badly for Ace if he'd been standing in anyone else's office when the pounding at the door finally resolved into a key in the lock, and a startled Sharon Rogers in the door. "Ohmigod! Ms. Danger! I'll call 911!"

The two heroes passed through the (thankfully) insubstantial wall, emerging on the other side in a large hanger full of various kinds of patched-together military equipment. Neither man was a military expert of any particular renown, but Doctor Archeville's intelligence was enough to recognize the weapons, tanks, and planes of several European nations. The soldiers down below, on closer inspection, were wearing uniforms assembled from the armies of those various nations too. Before they could decide on their next plan, Doctor Archeville suddenly heard a voice in his head, clear as a bell. Ah, Viktor! I vas vondering ven you and your friend would arrive. Plez, land and introduce yourself to my soldiers. Zey vill be happy to guide you to me. Do not worry about the privacy auf your mind, this is a mere...message, ya? Was that...his own voice?

Phantom's search found no evidence that Trask himself had been able to step between worlds. It appeared that whatever had sent him here had been something performed on him rather than something he'd done himself. She was actually familiar with the spell that must have been used to carry out the transportation, a covert variation on the St. Germain Gambit that made it easy to move large amounts of mass without leaving behind a large interdimensional footprint. Someone who knew what they were doing was behind this. She couldn't read anyone else in the area from this dimension, but the use of this particular spell was a bad sign. if they could move _this_ much, they could move an army.

Ace is successful on his Bluff.

Avenger disappeared into the shadows between one wail of the siren and the next, leaving his two colleagues to deal with the authorities. It was nothing personal, but shadowy vigilantes like he was pretending to be had no business dealing with the police. Too many friends in the authorities meant someone would take an interest in his welfare, and that meant someone might go digging too closely. Nothing personal, guys.

Thanks for the correction, durf! Edited accordingly. You're right that there is no attack roll for mental blast. She did make that Notice check.