Avenger Assembled
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"Sweet," said Mark, who hadn't doubted Chris for a moment. "We'll be down there. Peace out, Chris." Luckily, he'd been dressed up enough for the concert even before he'd won the tickets. He took a minute to print off the tickets from WNTT's website using the password they'd given him, pleased at how well Claremont's sometimes-balky Internet connection worked for him. After that, there was nothing to do but head downstairs and give his friends the good news. "All right, Kenzie's in and he's bringing his ride! You guys got anyone else in mind, or should we stick this last one up on the big board if anyone wants it?"
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A miss! That's a DC 23 Will Save for her Mental Blast. (Ace is largely immune to the mechanical effects of Marionette's Taunts...but she's still a trash talker.)
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Marionette had risen to her feet as Ace caught his niece and disappeared, and so she jerked her head back as his blow just missed connecting with her jaw. "Oh, hitting a girl, Ace?" she asked, teasing with a nasty edge to her voice now that her mood had shifted again. "What would your poor sainted mother think?" She took a step back, scanning the room for Ace. "I know you're still here, you coward," she said, her teeth exposed in a feral snarl. "Come out right now or your little niecey-poo here has an aneurysm hard enough to paint the ceiling." Suddenly, she turned and looked the invisible Ace right in the eye. "It'll be like this."
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Dark Star has trouble making out the specifics as he approaches the mountain, but he can tell that parts of the mountain he's looking at are false. Doctor Archeville has a better angle, and so is able to see as a truckload full of soldiers wearing those tentacle-splays coming driving out straight through the side of the mountain itself. They leave no holes, passing straight through the rock, suggesting that it or they are insubstantial: and from the damage they're doing in the nearby fight, that seems unlikely at best.
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"Hey, you can fly," said Mark with a grin Alex's way, "that's pretty cool right there. It's no big deal; it's not the first time something like that's happened around me. I'm just glad I was lucky enough to be here to catch you." He shot a look Erin's way, but it seemed as though she'd made a safe, if ungraceful, landing on the ground below. "Looks like you guys all came through in one piece."
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"Hey Chris, it's Mark Mason," said Mark cheerfully, trusting that his reputation would precede him. He did tend to cut a fairly memorable figure around campus, after all, and he'd been there for a while. "Listen, I scored these great free tickets to the Madman Finale show at FCU tonight. So far it's me, Mike Harris, Erin White, and Alex Albright, but we need a couple others. We could really use a wheel, er, sky-man on this one, man, plus we need some of that Gecko action. Anyone you want to bring along, we can slip in under the door. S'at seven, so we want to get there early to get good seats."
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Marionette switches her array from Mind Control to Mental Blast, then drops a DC 23 Will save on Rachel. She is now unconscious, beginning to fall out the window, and in serious need of heroic daring-do. :D
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Marionette's lovely lips curled in sudden, sharp distaste. "I'm tired of talk, Danger." Suddenly, in the window, Rachel swayed visibly, her eyes opening wide as she looked around for the first time. "Ace? What-" Before Rachel could quite become conscious of where she was, Marionette's eyes suddenly flashed a brilliant white, a trick Ace couldn't ever recall the woman he'd fought in the Golden Age ever showing. Rachel's eyes flashed white too, and blood suddenly poured freely from her nose as her head jerked up and her body convulsed. Silently, she began to topple backwards.
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I need a Notice check from, hmm, both you guys.
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The mountain before them was a strange place to Dark Star, gravitically all deep canyons and ravines that were barely visible to his naked eye. There was obviously something going on inside the mountain itself that was distorting the local laws of physics significantly, reminding him more of alien technology he'd encountered during his voyages in the stars than anything else. He'd have to think about it to get a better grasp of what was going on, though. For Doctor Archeville's part, the tentacles down below did indeed bear a strong resemblance to his own neural inhibitors: indeed, he was scientist enough to recognize his own work. But if he was right, his counterpart's research had gone in different directions than he'd anticipated. In addition to sapping the will and increasing suggestibility, the biotechnology below seemed to be greatly increasing the intellect! For the small price of removing one's independent willpower, the equipment below could turn a normal man into a genius! Dark Star's powers provided concealment for them as they approached closer to the mountain, leaving behind where the battle raged between the EDF and the forces loyal to The Archeville. But how were they to get inside?
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"We don't need to pay," said Mark agreeably, "the tickets I got will get us right in the door. And we shouldn't need ID unless we're trying to buy beer or something, and I don't think we're gonna do that. We don't wanna be like the Danger party." All the Claremont kids had heard about the fallout from that little incident, and no one wanted to be like those kids. "All right, I'm gonna run upstairs, print off the tickets, and give Chris Kenzie a call. See you in a few." With that he turned and headed upstairs, running right back up and giving everyone's favorite airship pilot a call.
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"Nah, I've been going here since I was thirteen," said Mark, gently setting Alex down once he was sure she was all right. "My folks decided to run off to Brazil for their second honeymoon, though, so I got sent back here a little early. I live over in Ashton." He shook Erin's hand, a smile on his face. "Mark Lucas. They call me Edge when I'm in costume. So can all of you fly?" he asked, looking around among all the new faces. "Because that's pretty cool, I've gotta say. All I can usually manage is swinging around on a grapple line."
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"Sweet!" said Mark, well-pleased. He turned and clapped Mike on the shoulder. "You see? I knew these fine ladies would be up for a little adventure." Back to Erin and Alex, he added, "And I think you both look great, by the way. I like your flower," he told Alex with a warm smile. "It's cute. And you've got a good thing going on too, Erin," he went on, not wanting to seem impolite. "If you've got pocket money, we can get cafe food there, or brownbag something from the cafe if that would work better. Y'know, whichever." He shrugged. He looked genuinely baffled by Mike's question for a minute, scratching his chin. "I dunno, I usually don't think about stuff like that. I don't think anyone's going to notice how we're dressed; I mean, there will be a decent amount of people there, and it'll be dark when they're playing. I'm just going to wear what I've got." Mark, as it happened, was in something close to his school uniform, all blues and golds, an outfit that had obviously been treated with love. "I don't think it's that big a deal."
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"I'm not the woman I was, Ace," said Marionette with a strange smile that might have been seductive under other circumstances. "Not after you killed me. Did you hear about that, I wonder?" She folded her long, lovely fingers into a steeple on the desk. "What happened to me, when they put me in that government loony bin? They pumped so many drugs into me that I couldn't think, I couldn't move...I couldn't even control my bladder!" Her icy demeanor was replaced with raw, murderous rage for half a moment, before the icy, seductive calm came back into place. "I couldn't do anything but lay there in my own filth as that fat screw took a pillow and held it down over my face until I stopped breathing!" She slammed her fist on the table. "I went places after that, Ace, and I saw things." She gave a low, too-fast laugh. "I learned a lot of lessons from that, Ace. You'd be surprised what you'll think about when you don't have a body, when you don't have feeling, when everything you are is focused on pulling yourself out of the darkness down below. But that's over now, Ace, and now I'm back. Allison Gellar cared about the Soviet Union, Ace. I cared about that look on your face when you came walking inside the door and saw your little niece there standing just one step away from being one Danger who didn't get to be eighty years old." She tilted her head, still smiling, as she twisted the knife. "About that...do you think she's going to blame you when she gets old and withers away and you're still young and handsome? Do you think your mom blamed your dad when she got all brittle and frail and he was still running around with his drinking buddies?"
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Have an HP for the complication, Ace. We could roll for initiative now if you want, but that might be hazardous to Rachel's heath.
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Karen Rogers, Rachel's secretary, greeted Ace with a smile when he reached his niece's twenty-first story office. "Hi, Mr. Danger! Good to see you! Ms. Danger's with a client right now, but she said I should go ahead and buzz you in." She leaned down over the intercom and pressed the button on the brass box on her desk, the old-fashioned office electronics a legacy of the company's history. "Ms. Danger? Your uncle is here." A voice squawked back inviting Ace in, and the heavy oak office doors opened at his touch. For a bare moment, Ace thought nothing was wrong. Rachel's full-length windows were open, showing off the lovely view of the downtown she had from her CEO's office, and his niece's office was as efficiently organized as ever. That was, at least, until he saw that his niece standing out on the balcony ledge, nothing but a few inches of concrete between her and the ground below! Before he could do more than take a step towards her, he heard a low, purring, unfamiliar voice. "I wouldn't do that, Mr. Danger. If you break her concentration..." The woman in the high leather chair swung the seat around, becoming visible for the first time as she smiled wickedly at Ace. "Or mine, she just might go...splat." The lovely woman in the chair wasn't familiar to Ace, but he recognized the costume she was wearing. The tight red leather suit; the black gloves and boots, the hammer and sickle epaulets...she was wearing the costume of the Marionette; the Communist mind-controller who'd so bedeviled Freedom City's superheroes in the late 40s and early 50s. But she'd been dead fifty years...hadn't she? "You like the old costume?" she asked in a sing-song voice. "I pulled it out of mothballs just for you. So you would remember."
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"Never been to a concert, eh? Well, then I guess I'm not the only lucky one today." Mark laughed. "Madman Finale's pretty kicking; they're like Weezer for the new generation. Their concerts are a lot of fun, and there are always interesting people there." To soothe Erin's worries, he added, "Nah, it's not that crazy mosh-pit stuff. Some of their music's fast and dancy, but for the most part it's just fun listening and singing-along stuff. It's in a cafe down by FCU, so it's not going to get filled up and crazy anyway. I figure afterwards we can hang out, maybe see what there is to do around the university before we get back? It should be pretty fun."
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"Everything's fine here," replied Rachel, a smile in her voice. "Really, Ace. I just want you to get out here and deal with this. It shouldn't take too long." Rachel certainly wasn't using any of the usual code-words to hint that there was a crisis, it just sounded like she was very determined to bring her uncle out there. "We'll do lunch afterwards, maybe out to that Greek place you like around the corner? It'll be fab."
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"Hey, Erin," said Edge, smiling at her. He knew Erin came from circumstances and had had a pretty hard time of it, if not the specifics. Surely a good time out would be just the thing for her. "And hey, Alex," he added, looking past Erin's shoulder. "I scored six free tickets to the Madman Finale concert at FCU; they're a kick-ass alternative rock band that's really popular in college. You guys want to come out to the concert tonight? It starts at seven. Mike says he's up for it, and we need to fill up our set."
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"Sweet!" Mark clapped him on the shoulder, before pausing to briefly consider his good pal's thought. "A ride? Huh. Yeah, that's the thing if we're coming back late." He thought for a minute. "I've got it! You know Chris Kenzie, right? Dude's got this sweet flying ride he can take in and out of wherever he wants. We'll get him to take us out there, park it somewhere out of the way, and it'll be great." Not pausing to consider even for a moment that Geckoman might be busy or not interested, much less formulate an alternate plan, Mark stopped to put on his Claremont jacket. "I'll go down and invite Alex and Erin along. Guys and girls night out, best way to be, right?" He headed out the door without a backwards look, walking downstairs and humming a jaunty Madman Finale tune as he headed for Alex and Erin's door. He found it half-closed, and gave a firm rap on the door frame. "Hey guys! Guess what I've got!" he called through the door.
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Aight, Ace passes by 1 thanks to his Bluff Skill Mastery. Rachel sounds a little odd. She's definitely determined to get Ace over there, and very concerned at any hesitation he shows.
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This is the thread for the Claremont kids and their evening activities.
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It was a lazy Saturday afternoon when Mike came back just in time to see his new roommate on the phone. With the exception of his interest in Alex, Mark was certainly a model roommate by most standards. He'd filled his desktop bookshelf with books that on closer inspection turned out to be the assigned and suggested reading for the summer history classes as well as various other books on the history of Freedom City's superheroes, and usually left his top-of-the-line laptop sitting on his desk when he wasn't out doing things. His half of the walls had a couple of posters up, a retro B&W shot of the old Liberty League and a more recent Alex Ross painting of the League active in the late 1960s. As Mike came in, Mark was sitting in his desk chair, flipping a silver dollar over and over again as he listened intently to whoever he was talking to on his cell. "Yes! Yes, I am here!" Just as he started speaking, a white-toothed grin on his handsome face, the coin he'd been flipping landed perfectly on its edge dead center of his desk. "Yes! All right, I'll print the tickets off pronto. And I love The Entity for all my alternative rock! Woo!" Grinning, he hung up the phone and jumped up, grabbing the coin off his desk and slipping it into his pocket. "Hey Mike, guess what?" He grinned at his roommate, who he'd started treating as his best buddy the minute he walked in. "I was caller number eleven at WNTT, and so I got six free tickets to the Madman Finale concert tonight at FCU! You want to go rock out with the college kids? It'll be great!"
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Ace, gimmie a Sense Motive check. Your DC is 31
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This is the OOC thread for Ace Danger's encounter with Marionette II.