Avenger Assembled

"Actually...best if you meet us at Wading Way. Similar situation has developed here." He told Grim how there'd been a battle in Lonely Point a few nights earlier and now one in by the Pyramid Plaza, frightening conflicts with powerful individuals who bore the faces but had very different powers and personalities of some of Freedom City's greatest heroes. "Crisis big enough for all the Knights to deal with. Could use your help."

Gentlemen, kudos on what's already shaping up to be an awesome thread!

I thought not! For Vulture's sake, I hope he hides. He's learned not to annoy Avenger. :twisted: :)

"Hello, Stesha," he said with a very warm, friendly smile, "I'm Jack." He leaned over the book with her, enjoying the scent of flowers that arose from her body. "What I need is an arrangement made of night-blooming flowers, especially moonflowers, evening stock, and, ah, Nottingham catchfly." He fished into his jacket pocket to dig out a list. "I was wondering, do you have any rose varieties that bloom at night in particular? I'd like to find a night-blooming barkarose if possible."

Avenger sounded unusually befuddled, hesitating a bit before replying. "Yes. Yes, will be there shortly. What situation?" Grim couldn't hear anything but Avenger's voice on the other end of the line, the sound around him dead and still.

"Hello," Jack replied, focusing gratefully on the cute chick behind the counter. He was dressed in a casual dress shirt and slacks, the anonymous wear of thousands of men in Freedom City. "You're the establishment that serviced the Macon funeral, is that correct?" When Stesha confirmed his guess, he smiled warmly. "Good, then I'm in the right place. Do you still do custom work, arranging flowers in a particular design?"

June 5, 2009. Jack goes to make a certain purchase from Fleur. Blood Rose

This is the thread for Jack and Stesha to engage in business.

Blinking back the glare of the sunlight all around him, Jack pushed back his sunglasses and peered up again at the shop name to make sure he had the right address. Flowers By Design had come recommended to him as one of the leading florists in the city, a good, discreet place that wouldn't ask any questions about arranging certain rare flowers in a particular discreet location in the Theatre District, and then making sure all their personnel were cleared out before sunset. Melinda's party had a floral theme. Walking inside, he looked around, trying to take the unfamiliar place in. "Hello?" he called, reluctantly removing his sunglasses once he stepped inside. He looked pale and blotchy as usual in the sunlight, his handsome face looking like any other night dweller who didn't get out in the sun nearly enough.

Avenger is going to visit various tech companies trying to find out who's been supplying Doc Otaku. After all, even he doesn't make his own raw materials. Avenger's not a great investigator, so he's going to be mostly gathering information and scaring the crap out of people until they tell him what he wants to hear. He'll also keep a general eye out for anyone who knows where Otaku can be found, natch, or any of the Angel Androids. And a mighty fine job of it he'll do, too!

OK, fair enough! Well, I'll use Avenger's Skill Mastery again so that he has the DC 31 to be seen that he had when he started the thread. And I'll reroll the attack in the interests of fairness. OK, that's just a regular ol' attack.

Does Avenger really need to make a Stealth check vs. Shark, given that Shark can't see Avenger with Avenger's Stealth up? If he did take him by surprise, given how you've described the character's distracted state, I'd be surprised if he wasn't flat-footed. As for his attack modifier, I'd thought that catching someone flat-footed/by surprise provided +2 to hit. Was that correct?

Glad that's over with! How'm I looking, Mark? EDIT: I made a couple of tiny tweaks on Edge's sheet while I was waiting, dropping his Charisma to 18, giving him another rank of Luck, and adding a Probability Control 10 AP of his main array. This gives him the choice of helping others with his special ability or helping himself, an exciting choice for any young superhero!

Odysseus scratched his bearded chin, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Wouldn't it be better to pool your resources with another world's?" Odysseus inquired thoughtfully. "There are whole legions of realities along the Cosmic Coil who want to keep themselves safe from the armies of the Terminus, but lack the will and skill to do so. If your world and another were to begin working together, the cycle of alliance could begin." He rose smoothly as he spoke, his plans ringing out in the voice of a natural-born leader. "The multiverse itself united as was Greece in the days of Alexander, a single, unified whole of states arranged against the terrible empire luring on their border. You both know it; you know the stellar empires of your world," he said with a nod to Dark Star, "and you your world's deep history. A bundle of spears can survive, even kill, where one would be broken."

Yes, I thought I'd get an early start on getting the character approved before July. That way when Gold comes, I can get started right away. (I have to say, I've been very impressed and pleased at how quickly you've gotten to me. )

Aight! Just hated to see you not getting answered. :D

"Yes," said Odysseus gravely, "if Omega comes again to your world, are you prepared to resist him after the death of your greatest champion? Gentlemen, comrades, with the loss of the Centurion, can you truly hope to resist the greatest threat to all life along the Cosmic Coil? Tell me truly." Odysseus sounded deeply skeptical of the very idea, not a little pessimistic about the survival of Earth-Prime in yet another war with the Terminus.

Okay, hoping to take this thread up to Grim contacting her superhero buddies for advice. Anything else you'd like to do here?

Wesley, think we're waiting on you here.

Sure thing, Mark! I've removed that power feat. How am I looking now?

If you guys do come, you should definitely make sure you get a chaperone. No under-age drinking! :D

"Don't go all limp-wristed Anne Rice on me," said Claudia with a smirk."You've done plenty fine by me." She took a few moments to compliment the waitress when she came by, flattering her hair and her sensible shoes. It was all easy stuff, but it seemed to work fine on the young Latina. "I know," agreed Jack without heat. "I just think...I could do better. We all could do better." Claudia didn't agree, which was maybe one reason why she was so much more successful in getting herself invited home to Carmen's place that night. Still, the two vampires walked out of the bar arm-in-arm, in good charity with each other if not with anything else. "Claudia, if something happened...if I was in a fight, or something, you'd back me, right?" she shot him a serious look, and gave him a serious reply. "Always, Jack," she swore. "That's what I'm for." The worst part about watching her lie to his face, Jack reflected later, patrolling the streets in costume, was that he was fairly sure she believed every word of what she'd just said.

"I just think that there's more to life than how you and I have been living," Jack murmured quietly, neither of them touching the beers the waitress had brought them at their corner table. She was cute, and both vampires had been instinctively flirting with her since they walked in. It was part and parcel of what they were; what Jack was when he wasn't in costume. "Hmm...nope," said Claudia cheerfully, "I don't think there is. But good for you if you're happy, or whatever." She shrugged. "Everyone's got to find their own path. I'd rather you be happy on your own than hooking up with some other slut, that's for sure." She snorted, then laughed when Jack replied with a suggestion that maybe he shouldn't call them that. "What can I say, I've had reason to get in touch with my feminine side lately," Jack admitted, by no means about to get into the finer details of how exactly he'd become a woman and how exactly they'd solved that particular problem. "I think I haven't treated women with enough respect."

"Yes, actually." They'd made several trips down already, and Jack gathered up a large trunk loaded with a bundle of now-filthy sheets wrapped around even filthier things to load inside the back of the truck. Nearby, the slim Claudia was easily wrestling another huge trunk, this one holding the broken remains of her bed, into the back of the panel truck. "History, magic...a lot of things. I can't just be someone's boytoy forever;" he reiterated, not wanting to get back into an old, familiar argument with her. "Well, honey, the key is to be the one who _has_ the toys..." They talked only about business on their way to the incinerator that the vampires owned, and when Jack paid off the blood-servant there to look the other way while he and Claudia disposed of their vile cargo. The sun was especially high in the sky now, and the two vampires opted to shelter for a little while in the comforting darkness of a nearby dive. Neither of them were regular customers, or dressed like regular customers, but with the help of their natural charisma and supernatural powers no one objected to them moving into the Southside bar for a little while.

"Well..." Jack looked down at his hands for a moment, then said, "I'll tell you when we're done. We've got a lot of work that needs doing here." That, of course, was enough to make "interrogate Jack" Claudia's favorite game until they were done cleaning up the mess she'd left behind. It was hard to remember how much they'd hated each other when she parted; all the angry words and bloody tears, the animalistic fury and rage they'd both felt. Maybe seperation had been a good reminder of how hard it was to find a friend in the world where they both lived. When they'd moved from cleaning up to gathering up what they'd cleaned for disposal, Jack finally spilled the beans to his dam. Well, what she thought were the beans, anyway. "I've been studying," he admitted with a wry smile. "Studying a lot of things. I'm not like you," he said as they carried their heavy trunk full of things down the frieght elevator. "I can't just ride the circuit every night and do business favors every day. I want to make something of my eternity. And that is an adventure; for me, anyway." "You'd be surprised how much "something" you can have on the circuit, honey," said Claudia with a liquid smile. On the way down she told Jack a story involving her and a couple of handsome fellows with magically enhanced constitutions that sounded implausible, though entertaining. It never occured to Claudia that Jack might not enjoy hearing about her with other men, and Jack opted not to enlighten her about his real feelings. when they were in the back alley loading the truck she'd had him bring along, she pressed him further. "So, studying, huh? Something besides Melinda's neck?"