RaynnVerse: The Reign IC

[Raynn]

The Raynn-Verse:

'Some Dreams Never Die'

The Reign Issue #1

"Men create the gods in their own image," - Xenophanes

"The Battle of Claremont Academy,"

Isiah Washington spoke with a tone full of his trade mark presence and a sense of great loss


"Many of the older members of the audience will remember when the Skrulls of Erde attacked Claremont Academy. We lost good people that day, but we won.

We all remember why.

MetaSoul, Jake Robin, slew an army with a gesture.

I wasn't lucky enough to see this spectacle first hand but I've heard tell of it again and again. It may one of the single greatest displays of power by a single individual in human history.

I have heard it called the moment where those like us stopped being heroes and started being Gods.

Some find that term a prickly subject for a eulogy. Gods. A sixteen year old who kills a thousand alpha level super beings in a shorter time than it takes me to finish this sentence deserves the title.

MetaSoul had the power to bat aside armies. Think about that, but he died in the line of duty. In the later years of his life I had the pleasure of working with Jake Robin. He never thought to use his power for anything than the betterment of the world. A wise man once said with great power comes great responsibility, but to give a child that much power and then to have him use it selflessly? That is the sign of a capricious universe and the makings of a great man.

I am only sad he was taken from us so young.

SO yes I will call him a God, and I hope up there somewhere Hades, Zeus, Thor, Odin and their ilk learn a bloody lesson, from boy with the power of a God and a heart of gold.

MetaSoul, you will be missed."

At that Isiah Washington descended from the podium and the coffin, forged of carbon nano tubes with an exterior of hard wood, was lowered into the grave, with MetaSoul's statue looming over it.

After a few minutes the heroes and citizens who had gathered for the ceremony started slowing drifting away after paying their respects, some lingered longer than others, some lingered for only a minute.

Ava, Zia and Nathaniel stand to one side, not far from the grave, as representatives of the F.L.I.. Ava had been MetaSoul in-league psychologist, and both Ava and Nathaniel had on occassion worked with the clone's primogenitor Metamorph on F.L.I. missions.

Other heroes, most of whom had been present at the Battle of Claremont ten years ago, stood nearby, including Doctor Dire I, who seemed in no way reduced out of her armour.

Roland Stone, Apollo Iris and Shade are among the heroes who orbit the group. Roland Stone and Apollo were both one time members of the NavigatioN Club alongside MetaSoul while Shade fought beside him on other battlefields.

Claims that MetaSoul was killed on stage during a public anti-post-human rally past through the group in hushed voices. After a few minutes of quiet conversation a familiar face breaks away from the grave and approaches the area in which Apollo, Roland, Shade, Ava and her family are standing. Most of the other heroes have, at this point, wandered away.

Navi, the now wholely depowered human navimatrix that carted the Navigation club around, has obviously been crying. She hugs Roland and Apollo saying


"I haven't seen you guys in . . . too long, How have you been? Where have you been?"

She then outstretchs her hand to Ava, the closest of Ava's family, and too Shade, not sure if she could actually shake it, saying


"I'm Navi, did you know Jake well? Did you work with him?"


***

Emily Cole and Lea Mendez awake in a forest.

Not truely awake, in fact deep asleep, in the dreaming.

In a forest in the dreaming, not a real forest through. You can't see the sky and the light is always that of dawn, or dusk depending on the mood. The mood of what you ask? The mood of the dreaming.

They look at each other and speak but their sentences come out as colours and their thoughts are spoken crudely in haikus, in french. The dreaming, is of course, incoherent.

It takes a minute, but as if forced, the dreaming acclimates to the presence of a conscience human perception. A pantomine of gravity is enacted, light acts like light, and a child's understanding of physics is said to be 'good enough' as a set of physical laws.

When Emily and Lea are finally able to speak and sit up the air no longer feels like custard.

In the corner of their eyes the pair finally notice a woman (http://bolhafner.com/stevesreads/post3.jpg), sitting on a rock. It is hard to tell whether she had just appeared or if the dreaming had forgotten to let the pair know she was attending the meeting.

When the woman finally speaks her tone is solemn but still ever so slightly jovial


"I'm Death, and we need to talk."


***

WHAT
DO
YOU
DO?

[ripleycat]

Emily Cole

She was in the woods. Except they weren't the woods, or at least, not any woods she knew. Everything was strange, trippy. but her mind wouldn't let her focus and think properly. There was another person there, a woman, strongly built, who looked... well, she looked like another superhero. Or maybe a supervillain? Emily couldn't communicate with her, to find out, though. The wires in her head were all crossed, and things kept coming out wrong. Then, slowly, things began to coalesce, to come into focus, like she was coming out from under anesthesia. She tried to speak again, and this time was rewarded with sound.

"Buh. Guh? H-Hey, words! All right!" Air Ace made a series of rather ridiculous faces as she ran her tongue over the inside of her mouth, getting everything back into working order.

"Hey, so, what's going on? Do you know, um... oh! Hi there." Emily's sentence stopped halfway through as she looked askance at the woman on the rock, who then introduced herself as Death. "It's a... pleasure? I'm Emily, by the way." She offers her hand to her compatriot and the strange new arrival in turn.

"D-Do either of you know where we are? This is strange, to say the least. If you're 'Death'," she puts the name in air quotes, clearly skeptical that a universal, omnipotent power had dropped by for a chat, but willing to entertain the possibility. "Are... are we dead? Is that why I was speaking canary yellow there for a minute? Or is this a dream, maybe? 'Cause I'm telling my therapist about it if it is."

"I'm being rude, aren't I?" And going crazy. But hey, be polite to your hallucinations. She sat cross-legged on the grass. "Sorry. Um, what needs talking about?"

[Ridai]

It had already been too late when Ava heard about what happened to Jake, his very being beyond her reach to return it to his body. Death is the natural conclusion of life, it is hardly evil and she knows that instinctively, but MetaSoul had been taken much too early, for savage reasons with cruelty only known to the sentient mind. She doesn't care if he is declared a god or whatever other grandiose title people can think of, Ava got to know Jake as a kind soul with a heavy burden upon his shoulders, deserving to witness the wonders of life for far longer than he was able to.

Being no stranger to helping others cope with the death of a friend or a loved one, Ava maintains an open presence, lightly conversing and most of all listening. The rumors about the rally and the cause of MetaSoul's death draw a sigh from Ava's lips, having witnessed a similar cycle of events many times in the past, but she still holds her daughter Zia closer in that moment. The thought of a mob coming after their daughter doesn't quite fill Nathaniel's and Ava's minds with happiness, especially after what happened a year ago.

As Navi approaches, Ava gives a sympathetic smile and shakes her hand, the healer's touch soothing as invisible life energy flows into Navi's body. "I had the pleasure of accompanying Jake along his path during the last five years and offer him counsel when he needed it. I'm Ava, nice to meet you. These are my husband Nathaniel and my daughter Zia." Ava by now is used to the surprised faces seeing a sixteen years old girl standing next to her apparently 21 years old mother (and those often become utter disbelief when they learn that Zia is in fact three years old while Ava is 32). Nathaniel also shakes Navi's hand, looking like he didn't age a day during those past five years.

"He had a heavy burden to carry, but he bore it remarkably for such a young man, always holding his chin up and looking out for others. And when I look around here, I believe I am not the only one who noticed."

[Green Bean]

Lea Mendez

Lea was used to waking up in strange situations, but this was definitely the strangest. She was in the middle of a forest...maybe. She was having trouble concentrating on that fact; it was hard to think straight with her thoughts flying out of her head in poetic French. There was someone else there who looked equally confused, but like everything else, it was hard to tell. It became clear communication was not an option, so Lea simply breathed deeply and calmly counted to chartreuse until the world began to make sense.

"Lily ladles little Letty's lentil soup." Lea muttered a quick tongue twister to herself to make sure her speech and thoughts were fully in order. Confident she could mostly trust her senses now, she turned her attention to her surroundings.

While Air Ace babbled on, Lea turned her attention to the woman on the rock. She certainly didn't look like Death, but then again, Lea never really expected Death to look like anything. Maybe she really was Death, maybe not. But the strange way the two of them arrived indicated that it'd be a good idea to at least figure out what was going on. Remembrance would not take any rash action, even if it was possible in this bizarre world.

Lea looked "Death" straight in the eyes, and keeps a neutral tone. "What do you want?"

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Apollo looks at Navi with sympathy. Too many times as a doctor he's had to comfort grieving friends and family. "Hello Navi. It has been too long. But I had to go back to my own universe eventually. I've become a full-fledged hero in my own right, though for the sake of my mission, I keep my head down and don't attract attention. I've even taken my travel with the Club to heart and done a decent bit of my own independent traveling. I came back on my own business, only to find myself in time for a funeral, much to my dismay."

Looking around, he sighs. "It is good to see that the heroes of this universe are still strong. I sometimes lose track of what true tragedy can be, when my universe tends to be a lighter mirror of this one. Even without the Jakes, we seem to be lucky that way."

[Ladorak]

Vagrant kept his face blank as he listened to Washington intone the virtues of Jake's life in ponderous and, to Vagrant's ear, insincere terms. He recalled the battle of the Academy, and in particular Jake's actions in rather different terms.

He knows he's being unfair to Washington. As the man said, he wasn't there. He had not seen the sudden carnage that had sickened even Roland, a child soldier who had seen a whole world burnt to ash. He did not see the manic look in Jake's eyes, the curving sneer of contempt and, as the slaughter reached it's crescendo, the look of barely restrained ecstasy. That was a look Roland was long acquitted with. It was the look of the Fallen. He remembered Riley's night terrors, he remembered her whispering in his ear that Jake scared her, he remembers the trail of her breath from his ear to his lips That was the first day I kissed her he recalls sadly That was the first time I kissed anyone. We were lost and frightened, emotionally damaged, we had no one but each other. Not so much a doomed romance, more a stunted one. He is unaware of the way he wraps his arms around himself, hugging tight. Others see it and mistake it for mourning, no one says anything. Superheroes are inherently and notoriously clique creatures. They gather into their own groups to give comfort where it is needed and receive it in return. Roland sits alone, his eyes distant, his expression troubled.

He remembers the countless days he sat with legs crossed, hovering over the blackened ruins of the playing field, slowly placating and purifying the dread spirit that had taken root in the very air and earth when Jake did what he did. He remembered how all the time apart had practically forced Riley into the arms of another man. He remembered when the Human Spirit had risen from the crater and a rare smile flits across his lips At least I did something right.' He remembered Dark Eldritch's words, that he had slain a whole world to break the barrier Roland had erected, and the smile fades as mist before the noonday sun.

Washington finally finishes his speech and Roland remembers when he first met the enigmatic old man, when he came to this world fleeing the Justice Lords. He remembered how Jake wanted to tear apart the mind of the one they had sent to catch Washington. He remembers the heated debate they had, how it has spilled over, he remembered having to force Jake out of his own mind and how hard it was. He remembered the words he had spoken after forcing Jake out, so similar to Washinton's yet radically different. 'That's all we are, children with power children shouldn't have. Because children can be cruel, because children are self centered, because children do not understand how power should be used.' No one understood that less than Jake.

That had been the start of the death of the Navigation Club. The second nail in the coffin was hammered home later the same day. They had gone to the Justice Lord's world shortly after, and Roland remembers vividly the words spoken by Jake to his teammates Your power is nothing compared to mine, and I will use it in an instant to take you down if you ever speak to me like that. Ever. Again. He shudders as he recalls the look on Jake's face.

On a dozen worlds Roland watched Jake struggle against the restrictions set on him by Metamorph and Metamind, struggle to kill and main without hesitation or restraint. Navi had chosen not to see it, the rest could not turn their eyes away forever. On a dozen worlds the same tired arguments were played out again and again. Roland had failed every time to explain the difference between morality and immorality. To Jake it had always been a numbers game, he was blind to shades of grey.

Lost in his own thoughts he was unaware the assembly had scattered until Apollo approached him. Jake was dead now, and the memory would live on, to tarnish that memory would be foolish at best and desecration at the worst. Let them lionise Jake, let them forget what he had almost become. The world always needed more heroes. With this resolution he nodded to Apollo in greeting. He at least would understand what Roland was thinking. It was good to see Apollo again, he looked as collected and unflappable as ever. He had been the rock that had, temporarily, held together the Navigation Club during the dark times. Just seeing him gave Roland a surge of strength and hope he had not felt since...

His mind wanders in dark places as he searches for the end of that sentence. Before Ellen turned. It seemed a lifetime ago, and suddenly Roland wished Apollo could have been there beside him for everyday for the last five years. Maybe then he wouldn't feel so empty inside, maybe then he wouldn't feel so alone.

He smiles at Navi when he sees her, yet it is little more than a twisted grimace, formed from a terrible empathy. If a lifetime of conflict has taught him anything it's that losing a loved one never gets easier.

'Navi.' he says as he hugs her tight. It is all he says, yet the word is so loaded with sorrow and sympathy adding anything else would be redundant.

Her beautiful familiar face, always welcoming and never judgemental, and her question so innocently asked, threatens to open up floodgates within Roland that would have every terrible event that had happened since their separation surging out in an unstoppable torrent. Instead he clamps his jaw shut and tries to ignore the question. His tired eyes plead with her, but he gives no indication what he is pleading for.

[smuchmuch]

Shade is happy few people could really see her face while she's forced to listen to the speech. Even if you don't know the It's easy to feel an emotional attachement to the gravity and sadness of the situation when it's a painfull reminder of your own mortality, but from the point of view of the observer for which it doesn't mean squat anymore, it's hard to connect to the gravity of the moment.
Good thing she didn't have any imreative to yawn or even blink anymore, made it a loteasier to keep a straight solmen face.

But, really, except being here out of a vague duty to the FLI, and general simpathy, what did she really knew about the newly deceased anyway ?
He was just another guy she had occasionaly worked with in the last ten years. Unlife offers little occupations, makes saving the world as good a way as passin time really and meeting new people was a small treat, but she didn't remember having much discusion witht he guy, he wasn'(t much of an extovert. From what she recalled, he could have been called determined, strong, powerfull, yeah. A kind and gentle soul, though...

The jake she worked the most with, back at the time of the legacy (the first... she thinks.), could get pretty intense behind the goofy cornballness; His dimensional 'brother', Metamind was a lot angrier. And the younger one... well she hadn't interacted that much with him and he seemed rather on the level when she did, but if what she heard of him was true, he came up a long way.
He battled his own demons, as we all do, and came a better person I suppose.That's perhaps, was a much greater acomplishement to remember someone than any victory over armies.
well...
Either that or Washinton's eulogy was just full of s**t. In her experience of the matter they generaly were anyway but it hardly matered so why speak ill of the dead ? Well, in her case, the dead-er anyway.


"I'm Navi, did you know Jake well? Did you work with him?"

"Sorry for your loss." Shade look unpassionatly as Navi hand pass through her own. "I worked with him a few time but I'm afraid I didn't knew him well beyond that. don' tkno wi fhe was a 'god' but for what it's worth he didn't shy from doing what he had to and did his best." Poor girl obvously took it hard, from the tear. she couldn't possibly be a parent since metasould was born in a test tube... no wait were talking metas here. "were you another dimension relative ?" with them, that's a perfectly valid question', even if she doesn't look anythin like them. "Or a friend ?"

[Raynn]

~ At a Place Perhaps You've Seen In Your Dreams ~


"To begin, no you're not dead. As to why we're in the Dreaming. . . "

Death stands and as she does the watercolours of the forest become the hard browns and blacks of yout favourite bars. She starts putting seats up on tables and closing up, checking the register, etc


"Let's just say I know the owner, and he said I could have friends over if I needed a place sometimes."

She pulls up two stools to the bar, the last two left, and pours both of you your favourite drinks, though neither of you remember moving to the stools on which you now sit


"Both of you, needless to say, are uniquely appreciative of time travel. One of you sees the damage it can do, the other sees the good it has done in the past."

She starts wiping down glasses and putting them away


"The reason why I want to speak with you is that there is an Agent of the Time Keepers, a Guardian of Time, who is currently visiting your Earth, at your time. I need you to join him and help him gather a team. The others who are with him will do nicely. Otherwise forces in this universe who are conspiring against him will end him and that will lead to a butterfly effect that no one on this plane of existence will be able to control. Doctor Dare must not die, you must help the good Doctor to form his team, and when the time is right you need to stop the Lord of Space."

Finally Death leans back on the bar


"Any final words? Pardon my phrasing."


***

~ At The Meeting For The Lost ~

In response to Shade's question Navi simply waved her hand to impress the significance of the engagement ring on her finger


"I was going to invite you guys but we'd barely started planning. We were. . . It's great to see you guys again and to meet people who worked with Jake.

Jake was so busy with work and things towards the end we barely saw each other. It's great to see you again Roland, you too Paul. We should all go somewhere to catch up, maybe get a bit to eat at Champions?

It's not far from here anyway, and I'll like to hear any of your War Stories, Shade and Ava too of course.

Come on, what's the worst that could happen if you guys take a night off?"

[ripleycat]

Emily Cole

Emily glances around the forest-turned-bar and regards the Manhattan in her hand with mild confusion, then takes a sip. Unsurprisingly, it is superb. She listens carefully to what Death has to say, the sudden and impressive scene change having convinced Air Ace that she was indeed in the presence of a being of immense power, and should be attentive.

"This is important, I understand. I do have a couple of questions, I suppose. Where are we to meet this Doctor Dare? Will we know, or can you tell us? Also, when you say The Lord of Space, is that one of those vague prophecy names, where we're going to have to figure out who the threat is when we get there, or are we literally going to encounter someone who calls themselves the Lord of Space?"

Emily has read a lot of books, watched a lot of movies, played a lot of games. She knows the cliches, and she doesn't truck with mysterious but infuriatingly ambiguous predictions from powerful figures who should be able to give you a name, date, and a step-by-step walkthrough of what you will need to do.

[Raynn]

~ The Dreaming Where Everyone Knows Your Name ~


"The person is THE Lord of Space, it's a title, like President or Prime Minister. He is the living embodiment of the SPACE part of Space-Time. There's only one of him, it's not a vague prophecy thing; and I can tell you exactly where you are going to meet the Doctor, the Champion's Restaurant, 20:23:46, he'll be seated in the back with the rest of your future would be team,"

with a smile she continues


"De-Vagued enough for you?"

[Green Bean]

Lea Mendez

Lea sips her Shirley Temple as she looks around at their new surroundings. It was delicious, but probably no realer than the bar they were now somehow sitting in. Maybe this was Death, maybe it was just some mutant screwing with her head. Not much she could do either way, but the Guardians of Time sounded like something she should look into.

"What's your angle on this? Suppose we meet the Doctor, stop this Space Lord, all that. What do you stand to gain?" Lea doesn't sound accusatory or suspicious, simply curious.

Lea's questions have less to do with popular media, and more to do with being a cynical SOB. Why would some...being (Lea can't bring herself to think of Death as a lady) go through all this to make sure they met up with this Guardian?

[smuchmuch]

"Sorry. I just came to pay my respects, that's all." Shade answer commes as a little chilly. While she understand the girl needs comfort right now but she'll be better getting her from her old squademates, not from a half gone specter who has been driven for the last ten years

... Maybe if the invitation hadn't been in a restaurant*. She might have appreciated talking aboutt he past (after all if living in thepast was not her very definition...) but here she'd likely be soured for the whole evening. Better to decline politely now

"But.." Shade was hald diseapearing through the tombstone before turning; maybe there was a small way she could offer recomfort. "due to my somewhat particular situation, I sometime get to go ...down there." Shade mark a small pause for ephemism "I understand how painfull it is to loose someone so suddenly so... If you have one last message for the departed..." 'I wish I could have let him known one last time', 'I wished I would have told him before it was too late' How many time had she heard that. And how many had to live with the regret they couldn't. it wasn't much to offer but it would be hopefully a bit of peace of mind.
"I make no promesses but I will try to transmit if I can. Hope you get a better evening."


*Yeah, inviting the undead incorporeal ghost to a restaurant that's a bit like inviting a blind guy to a paintings gallery or an eunuch to a porno theater. Kind of a faux pas here. :smalltongue:
Avoid gym and maternity wards too.

But seriously, as amusing it would be to make the nearly omnipotent nearly omnicient endless Death wrong, Shade will be to the 'Champion's Restaurant at 20:23:46 for one reason or another (I'm sure a reason can be found an all), if it helps for the plot.
jsut not feeling it'd be in character to accept that invitation just right now

[Raynn]

~ The Dreaming & Death ~


"That's a very good question. I'm Death. This Lord of Space is as much part of the natural order as I am. I just don't have a mortal personification. You could say we're colleagues, we don't trade water cooler stories and he works in realestate while I work in Human Resources but otherwise the metaphor holds.

I exist to maintain a certain universal order. Something the Lord of Space intends to do, which I can not digress for the very logical reason that he will do it ahead of schedule and kill you immediately if he discovers you know about it, will permanently upset that natural order if your team is not formed to do something about it.

To narrow it down, you could say I'm outsourcing my own job to others more suited to this specific problem,"

she shrugs and smiles amused


"What can I say I'm slave to the economy of cheap mortal labour and a strict code of intra-workplace interaction,"

She nods over to the exit that has now appeared


"Step through that and you're back to the land of the conscious."


***


~ A Funeral For A Friend ~

At Shade's question of a message Navi seems about to swell up again but she controls herself


"Tell him, wherever he is, that'll I'll see him again one day. . . and that I love him,"

As Shade departs the group is left with the most awkward and depressing silence that they have likely ever encountered until Navi finally forces herself to perk up, trying to bring up her more peppy self that her Navigation Club friends might recognise


"So. . . Champion's? I have a growing need for comfort food. This former robot come astrophysicist is in desperate need of curly fries and nostalgia!"

She says through a forced smile.


***

~ Where The Shade Goes ~

As Shade passed through the city streets she found it was seemingly calm. For once no sirens filled the air and no capes appeared to cross the sky, but Shade had learned during her unlife that thought something quacked like a duck, walked like a duck and looked like a duck didn't mean it was avian, especially in this town.

It didn't take her long to pierce this facade. She passed Liberty Perk and an apartment building during her long walk which had both taken a beating during the day and were already being repaired.

Not long after dark Shade was on a rooftop overlooking a loading bay at the back of a supposedly unused warehouse. She knows that various illegal designer drugs, Max, Zoom, Zombie Power and even a little MGH, was being shipped out of the place regularly.

A rookie hero would just bust the place and call it a night but Shade knew that she could learn more about the criminal organisation that was behind the production if she staked the place out for a few nights first, as much as she didn't like it. She was hoping the Fomorrian Mafia or the Queen of Blood's Clan of Vampires were responsible to help put a little cool down on the gang war that was brewing. If she put enough of both sides away maybe she could save lives before the whole conflict boiled over into the streets.

Finally after what seemed like hours, but likely less, the overseer of the operation walked into the limelight of the back alley, well into Shade's view, as they loaded up one of the trucks. . .

Shade leapt back from the edge, beginning to whisper to herself that what she had seen was an urban myth, the ghost thought to herself that what she had seen was ridiculous, that it could not be real, that it was merely a funny, scary, bloody story that criminals told each other over drinks in the bollews of the city. . .

With her confidence in her sanity built back up Shade took tentative steps back to the edge. . .

Below stands a small cartoon crook in a pinstripe suit flipping a coin in one hand and a tommy gun in his other hand. . . Lucky of the Toon Gang . . . What else was real Shade thought to herself Vam. . . Oh yeah. . .

What Shade Didn't believe about Lucky & The Toon Gang:

Lucky:
Lucky is slick and suave (for a cartoon), always flipping a coin nonchalantly. He wears a double-breasted pinstripe suit, and his pencil-thin moustache makes his very angular face seem even more severe. He can’t resist a bet or a pretty face. He’s the planner of the Toon Gang and a sharpshooter with his cartoon tommy gun.

Toon Gang:
Freedom’s most unusual “mob” element, the Toon Gang was literally
brought to life by Raven’s foe Toy Boy, using a “realizer ray” created by
Quirk. The gangsters originally starred in the popular Keystone Cops cartoon.
While the other cartoon characters brought to life by the realizer
ray faded away after Toy Boy’s weapon was destroyed, the members of
the Toon Gang are still around. It could be the strange forces lingering
in Freedom or simply Boss Moxie’s, well, moxie, keeping them around.
Whatever the case, the Toon Gang remains in Freedom City and its heroes
(and Mob families) have to deal with them.

The problem for their foes is this: The Toon Gang are all still threeto
four-foot tall cartoon characters, virtually impossible to kill or even
hurt for very long. Their idea of a “hit” involves dropping a safe or grand
piano on somebody’s head from a fifth-story window, and their idea of
“organized crime” is running protection rackets and knocking over jewelry
stores and banks. Subtler concepts like money laundering and numbers
schemes—much less drug running, smuggling, and vice—are completely
over their disproportionate heads. The Toons aren’t especially bright,
either, although their logic is so simple and direct it sometimes seems
clever. The only good point is there are only five of them: Boss Moxie, his
moll Roxie, and his faithful henchmen Knuckles, Lucky, and Joey Scars.

[ripleycat]

Emily Cole



"De-Vagued enough for you?"

"Very much so. Thank you for humoring me." There's no sarcasm or snark in Emily's response. She seems very satisfied with having gotten a solid time and place rather than a bit of doublespeak. She repeats "Champion's Restaurant, 20:23:46, in the back." to herself several times. She even tries to write it out on a bar napkin, but the Dreaming doesn't seem to have left any writing utensils about.

Air Ace listens as Death lays out the reasons for this meeting with an extended office metaphor. She finishes her drink with a gulp, winces at the hefty dose of bitters she just gave herself, and takes a few steps towards the door back to "reality" before pausing and looking back at Death.

"So, in this 'office' of yours... isn't there someone, or something, I guess, who could just... fire Mr. Lord of Space for this terrible thing he's planning to do and hire a new one, or is that taking the metaphor a bit too far? I kind of figure what the answer's going to be, since you've already asked us for help, but, well, I'm curious, what can I say?"

[Ridai]

"I can't go right now, but thank you for the offer, Navi. I'll try to drop by later this evening, if that's alright with you. You go ahead and have fun." Ava smiles encouragingly to Navi. Letting her catch up with her friends without strangers around might do her more good. With that, the healer turns to her family. "Shall we?" Soon, the three of them are taking their leave, wishing the others well.

This was Zia's first funeral. The girl, thanks to her heritage, has no problem with understanding and accepting the concept of death (more so than most people), but seeing the reactions of others to it can be troubling, especially with what happened a year ago. So helping her understand and come to terms with it currently is the highest priority for Ava, whose nature means she (and sometimes those around her) often has to deal with issues of mortality.

Their home is a rather nice house in a more quiet neighborhood, not too small, not too big. Nathaniel, Zia and Ava have slowly made it truly their home over the years, filling the place with good memories of times spent together, their friends and their achievements, making it cozy and welcoming. Colors and other impressions seem a little more vibrant within their home, a minor side effect of the life energy constantly flowing from Ava suffusing it entirely over the past few years (which is also doing wonders for their garden).

Changing into something more casual, going over the funeral with Zia, watchign a movie and having dinner together sounds like a good schedule before leaving for the restaurant to get a few drinks with the Navigation Club reunion. Still, she lets Zia take things on her own time, not pushing the issue if she doesn't feel ready.

Don't want to derail too much (and I'm still not that used to just creating my own scenes), so feel free to move Ava to the restaurant if you don't feel like playing out the scenes at the family's home.

Also, as a note, I won't play Nathaniel and Zia, as that would feel kind of strange. Interacting with them every now and then is among the things I'm looking forward to.

[Green Bean]

Lea Mendez

Personifications of the natural order having some weird office scrap with the whole universe at stake. On the off chance all this was true, this sort of thing was way over her head. But this is what Lea had signed up for - saving the world however she could. She would step up to the plate, even if this was just some bored cosmic being playing at jerking the mortals around.

And in this case, it didn't really matter what "Death"'s agenda was. Find a Guardian of Time, work with him to protect world and timeline? That was pretty much already Lea's plan, albeit with a bit of time saved now that she knew who and what she was looking for. There are plenty of good reasons to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it still bore investigating.

She proceeded briskly to the exit, but stopped for a moment before taking her leave. Lea couldn't think of anything offhand she needed to know. Champion's Restaurant, look for the girl in the pilot outfit and a man named Doctor Dare. But nonetheless, she probably wouldn't get another chance to ask questions like this. She paused for a moment, on the threshold between dreams and reality. "What's something I should know, but don't know to ask?"

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

With a hint of regret, Apollo bids farewell to the other two. It only occurs to him a bit later that he could at least offer to let Shade share his senses. But life moves on, and there are other things to be done.

I guess that just leaves the old Club. I'd be more than happy to accept your invitation, Navi. Champion's is Champion's no matter which universe you're in. Now I know you've been depowered, but do you still manage to have adventures in your free time?

[Raynn]

~ Death & Dreamers ~

Death replies to Emily first


"I called him a colleague, not an employee, let's just say I can't fire him on a whim as much as he can't fire me. There's a zero intraworkplace competition clause in our contracts so to speak."

then in repy to Lea


"How to kill the Lord of Space, the answer is? You can't,"

With that the world for the two girls faded into black. . .


***

~ At The Home of White Light ~

As Ava finished up with Zia talking over the funeral it wasn't long before she rushed off tapping away at one electronic device or another. It seemed despite her accelerated growth she was fitting in well at Claremont.

Nathaniel has a glass in hand, about to pour himself a drink of the non-alcoholic variety. After a moment he spoke leaning back on the fridge behind him


"That MetaSoul kid, Jake something, I was talking to Beacon the other day. Says the kid was only 11 when he died, clone or something. . . Not the much older than Zia, a child. . . I'm not sure about that school Ava. I mean. . . I know Zia needs people like her around her, specially with how fast she had to grow up, but I'm worried about what else Athena and Isiah are teaching those kids.

I mean you worked with some of those kids right? For years? Didn't you tell me about that one kid, Roy or Robert or something with R, who they made beat an alien to death on his FIRST day? I know it was a hologram but it messed him up didn't it? Or that team of kids that they walked right into a room full of bodies on a team trip. . .

I mean what those people are trying to do is noble and all but I'm not sure it's. . . well safe. I'm mean we're not too busy. And even with just one F.L.I. paycheck we could afford this place easy. I. . . I think we should Home School Z. . ."

At that a door is slammed high above and Zia races down to the foot of the stairs


"NO!"

Nathaniel is brought to a pause by the shout from the normally calm Zia before collecting himself and trying his best serious parental tone


"Your Mom and I were just discussing the possibility. . . "

Zia cuts him off with a shout as a teen is want to do


"NO WAY! Even Abby and Athey get to go to Claremont and they're like ten! I mean Mom can come back from the dead anyway, doesn't that mean I can! I have friends there! I HAVE A BOYFRIEND THERE!"

At that last comment Nathaniel seems to half choke on what he's drinking before shouting wide eyed


"YOUR THREE YEARS OLD!"

At that Zia seems even more infuriated


"I'M A TEENAGER!"

Nathaniel looks pleadingly over at Ava for support. . .


***


~ At Champion's Restaurant ~

Navi explained that since being depowered roughly ten years ago her life had been relatively boring save for being a former robot and having more than the average number of friends with super powers. The echo of her knowledge as the Navimatrix meant it didn't take her long to graduate FCU at the top of her class and she now has a Phd. in Astrophysics. Like many others she currently works for Olympus Technologies out of an old building which used to belong to Astro labs before Olympus Technologies hostile take over of that particular competitor.

The party of currently three was shown to it's table relatively quickly and among the many waiters and statues in costume it was unlikely they would stand out in full costume themselves.

After a good twenty minutes of waiting, small talk, and bread sticks a woman in a plastic and felt Doctor Dire costume approaches the table. The girl sounds young and speaks with a nervous tone that implies it's her first day


"How may I. . . I mean. . . DIRE DEMANDS YOUR ORDER!"

***


~ Where Lea Wakes up ~

Go wild, describe your apartment, or perhaps a gutter you drunkenly come to in, or a library you fell asleep in or even someone else's apartment where you spent the night.


***


~ Where Emily Wakes up ~

Go wild, describe your apartment, or perhaps a gutter you drunkenly come to in, or a library you fell asleep in or even someone else's apartment where you spent the night.

[Ridai]

Ava kisses her daughter on the head after the talk about the funeral, leaving Zia's room. Even before she can see her husband, the healer can tell something is on Nathaniel's mind. Heading into the kitchen, she leans against the counter opposite of him. "Honey, what's wrong?" she asks, her tone calm and genuine.

Listening to Nathaniel (and Zia), she can very much understand both sides, a sympathetic but somewhat melancholic look on her face during the fight. Before adressing the main issue, though, she still needs to get one thing out of the way. "Zia, love, you are not at that point yet to come back if something should happen to you. Life is precious, the ability to return from the dead is not a free pass for me to throw myself to the wolves again and again. Even though you will reach the point and death isn't something to be afraid of, I still wish you will never have to experience the return." This is too important for her to skip or summarize. Being the daughter of someone who can just make all wounds, malladies and even death go away makes all of those seem trivial when they absolutely are not.

Ava can feel her daughter wanting to interrupt, but simply inclining her head tells Zia she hasn't finished yet. "What Isiah did to Robert was inexcusable and irresponsible, absolutely. Many of the kids at Claremont have to face or come to terms with things even adults have trouble dealing with, if not more. I would love to just be unneccesary at Claremont, but I can't deny that there won't be more kids like Ashley and Jake in the future." Even though it looks like she is firmly on Nathaniel's side, Ava looks her husband in the eye with a sad smile.

"You know I'd love nothing more than to spend eternity just with the two of you. But we can't just smother Zia with our love. We both want her to have the best life she can, but we also both know how it feels to be isolated and alone. That's why we have to let her breathe, make her own decisions and mistakes, and we should support her as best we can along the way. I know of the dangers, but I know she will be stronger with her friends around her and not just us." It is hard to say those words, the inherent desire to want only the best for her child always nagging. Standing freely now, Ava spreads her arms apart just a little, her posture open, almost beckoning.

"Please, honey. It won't lie, it won't be easy. But it will be alright. We'll be alright. And if I catch that socially retarded 'genius' even considering something stupid again, I can assure you, there'll be hell to pay."

Ava is looking at both her husband and her daughter, hoping they both understand, that harmony could once again return to the family. Her smile is more encouraging, more determined. They have been through a lot together already. They will get through everything else as well.

[Green Bean]

Lea awakens almost instantly, alert and on her feet in seconds. She rubs her eyes and glances around her tiny two-room apartment, almost hoping a dose of normalcy would help her make sense of that dream. Her living room/bed room/kitchen was the same patchy off-white as always, with crates full of surplus military and police equipment scattered over the limited floor space. Her living room was dirty, the bathroom was filthy, cockroaches had all but taken over the kitchen, and she heard the distant thud of a downstairs neighbour blasting speed metal from his stereo at maximum volume. The place was, in short, a rat hole. On the plus side, it was a pittance to rent, and the landlord didn't ask questions as long as she paid in cash. Lea had inherited a little money from her parents, and knew enough about the general pattern of the financial markets from her other selves that her investments weren't doing too badly, but the fact was she had no job and one-woman wars on injustice are not cheap.

Mechanically, she goes through her daily routine, converting her bed back into a sofa and taking out a trash bin filled with wrappers from ramen noodles and MREs. The faucet was leaking again; her improvised repairs hadn't held. Unfortunately, Lea couldn't exactly call in the building super, who might wonder why his tenant had several thousand dollars worth of smoke grenades, crossbow bolts, GPS trackers, and assorted other survivalist paraphernalia.

Glancing at the clock, Lea goes to her closet and gets out her hero costume. She was going to investigate this Doctor, and since the odds of this being an ambush were pretty good, it'd be Remembrance dropping in.

[Ladorak]

The Memorial


When Navi shows the group her engagement ring Roland's already sour look becomes stricken. He reaches out and takes her held out hand in his own. With one hand he grips her fingers tight in mute sympathy. With the other he covers the back of her hand, including the ring, with his wide palm 'Oh Navi' his voice oozes sympathy and pain, it overruns with empathetic grief 'Oh Navi.' His eyes meet hers and in them she sees the mirror of her own lose, Roland's face was writ with a mute understanding horrible to behold. 'Of all the people in all the worlds, none deserve this less than you.'

She feels a sudden heat on her ring finger, not unpleasant but startling. She flinches back, but Roland holds her hand firm. 'Don't be afraid. You know I'd never hurt you.' This sounds more plea than statement and his speech falters, but only briefly 'Memories are important. They are all that links us to the past. You must never forget Jake, and his love for you. This will help. I wish with all my heart I could do more.'

He holds her hand up to her face, the jewel of her ring sparkling before her eyes. In every facet of the gem she saw Jake's face reflected back at her, his eyes full of love, his face one of contentment. He lets her drink in the image before he speaks again, much softer 'You are a queen among women Navi. Riley was the only one I ever met who didn't think so, I hope you can forgive her for that. She mistook fear of travelling with you for fear of you. For the rest of us, we worship your example. For the rest of the club, we love you For myself, I wish I could be like you.'

***********


Champion's Restaurant

Roland takes in the decor and theme of Champions and dislikes it in an instant, he says nothing of course. For a long time he was confused by the trappings of this strange capitalist world, where almost anything can be used to sell almost everything. He had since decided to simply ignore it is best he could. He tried not to judge, after all it beat the hell out of life back home, even during the good times, scratching a living out of the blacken earth and mutated crops didn't really compare to take-out food and electronic cookers.

Still... He considered the possibilities. A Dire Burger. Pain Ribs. A Metamorph Surprise. How food related to superheroes he didn't understand, but he said nothing and tried to ignore it.

Which became impossible when an obviously nervous young lady approached them with the single worst Doctor Dire impression he had ever heard. He forced a smile he hoped seemed genuine and leaned conspiratorially over to her 'We saw the real Doctor Dire today. She doesn't sound like that any more. You did good, but remember being Dire is all about being larger than life, being the centre of attention.' He considered saying more, instead he kept quiet, though his thoughts were unstilled Dire spoke like that to terrify. She focused all attention on herself to instil dread in her enemies. It doesn't really transfer to taking orders.

Then he looked around the restaurant, the place was packed, happy smiling faces everywhere. He was forced to conclude that once again he was wrong and the universe was right

[smuchmuch]

Before

Shade drift through the tomstones.
Somewhere in these there's a tomb at her name. She wonders, Was there as much people at her own burrial ? And what did the obituary says ? even with lots of padding. Probably not much. Silviah had a very normal, rather good if all too short life, but sometime she felt it was just doing the sleeping and eating between the really good parts. Even then it was 'Shade', the silly mask wearing pseudonym, that had all the excitement.

Before leaving, she stop in front of another grave. Concentrating, she makes a few flowers levitate from a nearby vase and make them glide over to the stone.
“See ya Jen”
As if her her own grave wasn't bad enough, there's the increasing number of her friend's.

Well she sure feels moody now. moodier anyway. Maybe she should have accepted this invitation after all. The restaurant couldn't be and some company might do her good too. Talking to people a bit might distract her from mopping alone.

Maybe later, once she'd one with some 'business' first.

--------------
Now

Shade is totally shocked
The toon gang ?! That feels pretty pretty irreal

In a serious world of powered armored megalomaniac mad scientists, ex criminal speedsters, teleporting time travelling detectives, battle computer implanted teens, cloned shape-shifters, hedge magicians turned vampires, electricity shooting power armored socialites, vengeful ghost vigilantes, robot building no less megalomaniac but less charismatic still mad scientists, life controling turned vampire hunter barmaids, amazing molemen magicians, kinda bland magnetic controllers, advanced nanotechnologic humanist robots, angry alternate dimension cloned psychics, green lantern firemen, Conan Doyle reading dinosaur detectives, angry cloned teenage and now dead overpowered mental shifters, bad romance novels' love powered medieval knights, weird chaotic phenomenon turned human sorcerers, angsty psychics with fmaily issues, object creating blue ring wearing teens, nice under a rock hard exterior powerhouses, time and dimension traveling badass normals, bright light emitting mutants, density shifting invisible teens, legacy light controllers, nanotechnologic not so humanist but oh so very asimovian anime looking robots, nanotechnologicaly enhanced agaisnt their will teen, commando trained orange ring wearing powered armor teachers, light sword wearing jedi knights wanabes, invocating telporting ordinary slacker teens, object animating goth schoolgirls, hallucinogenic drugs secreting stonners, clonned secret project brutish looking but sensible inside minotaurs, bubbly with dark secret origins luck controlers, sullen secretive time manipulating (in more way than one) immortals, emotionaly scarred alien shapeshifters, 'ultimate psychic' teens, dragon riding flying magic artificiers, angsty german electricity controllers, living embodiment of platonic philosphy possessed teens, sword wielding reincarnation of legendary king, dinosaur shapeshifters,
In this serious world in a serious universe, silly gangster toons just don't fit.



yes I just had that strange impulse to list them all. Just for the hell of it.
Maybe I shouldn't try to post a three Am ?

... so little game here: try to associate a name to all of those description without consulting the respective OOcs.
Rembered 'Glowworm' or 'Magnetized' ? That's okay me neither. :smalltongue:


------------------------
http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad15/smuchmuch/Illustrations/shade1.png

How come she gets to meet the toon gang; unfair !

But seriously is there any setting/plot reason for Shade to freak out like that ?

(I mean she's a ghost herself, who meet robots, fae and vampires on a semi regular basis, in a city who is a magnet for all the weirdness int eh setting, so she's got a pretty big tolerance for weird (doesn't means she necessary like it, mind). And It's not like Jill existence was a big secret in the last game and the bigger reaction she got (out of that one character in a simulation) were a few bemused glance and that's all, (and the toon gang has been here way longer).

So should I put her reaction on a sudden attack of arbitrary skepticism (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArbitrarySkepticism) and selective forgetfullness for the sake of amusement or is there something else to it ?

Anyway, the real post:
----------------------

The shock passed, shade decide to think a little more calmly about the situation. If the hushed rumors she eharare true, this toons aren't very smart, sane and not particularly subtle.
Well, make sense to her. No one remember bugs bunny for his firm grip on reality or Will E. Coyote for his great common sense and how he snuck up efficiently and quickly on the road runner and spared himself lots of unnecessary effort and pain, do they ?

A smugling operation does not fit their suspected modus operandi, something strange here. They could be hired pasties for someone else of course or there's a rat.
Before movng fromt he roof, Shade scans around for other onlooker that would seem to lay low at the

Once her paranoia is satisfied, shade drift through the roof and the different floors of the building until she is almost at ground level then step into the alley Lucky just left she could just waltz in here, as far as she knows none of these towns are particularly mystical in nature, but in case (likely) they aren't alone, just to be sure she still advance prudently, staying close tot he walls,making sure not to get into anyone line of sight and ducking though if anyone seems to notice her.

she first try to make her way to one of the truck, trying to see exactly what is being shipped in those crates as it might give her a more precise idea of the nature and size of the operation.
Then she'll take a look inside the warehouse.

[ripleycat]

Emily Cole

"How often does the train go by?"

"So often you won't even notice."

"I'll take a room for three nights."

With that, Emily had used nearly all of her meager funds to check into the Stanwick Ave. Hotel and Boarding House, and it was here that she woke with a groan in the late afternoon. The old brick building was smack in the middle of the Fens, and it was just as run-down as the rest of the neighborhood, but it didn't seem like the sort of place that asked its many come-and-go tenants many questions.

More importantly, it was cheap, buying Emily a few days to find a job or get in touch with AEGIS to get her timeship back or track down whatever versions of her friends existed in this timeline before she ended up out on the street. All of those options were somewhat hamstrung by her new situation. "I left my ID in my other dimension" would be a hard pill to swallow for most potential employers. Maybe she could work at Claremont or ASTRO Labs. They might believe her tale. Or maybe Camelot, which seemed to be on everyone's lips as it hovered above the harbor, though that would mean meeting its ruler, and she wasn't sure she was ready for a conversation that awkward.

For now, though, there were bigger fish to fry. She spent the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening prepping to meet this Doctor Dare. The last of her money was spent on a few supplies from a store down the street, and then every bit of leather was buffed, every bit of chrome polished, until her costume positively gleamed. A good first impression was important, after all. Looking downright heroic for once, she slipped up to the roof and enjoyed the sunset for a while before gearing up and rocketing off towards Midtown, where Champion's, and this promised rendezvous with a soon-to-be superteam awaited.

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

As they come into the restaurant, Apollo stashes his mask and makes his coat turn a more normal color than brilliant white. And as always, Champion's makes him laugh. Seeing so many people actually enjoying the presence of world crushing powers is incredible. Even normal humans were incredibly resilient.

When Doctor Dire comes to take their order, he suppresses a laugh of delight. As Roland gives her tips and looks around the restaurant, he leans over to him. "Don't worry, if grandmother were to come in and start shouting at them, they'd all be kneeling before her before they registered her words."

"As for me, I went home with permission to become an active superhero. Mostly I did solo work for awhile. Occasionally I got called in for Freedom League duty, but you only really need a limited number of technical geniuses or ritual casters. Until I realized the true value of being an unknown. One guy got the smarts and slipperiness to go back in time and convince grandma not to rebuild the Freedom League. Fortunately, I managed to follow him and wasn't effected. He barely recognized me and underestimated me, while I beat him and reversed the anomaly. That's when I met another dimension hopper who called himself a "Guardian of Time." He recruited me to help protect the integrity of our timelines. Since then, I've been keeping a low profile and recruiting others to be Guardians, while guarding my own. And this one a bit. I really need to find someone to do the work here. So what about you, Roland?"

[Ladorak]

When Apollo makes his, likely correct, prediction of what would happen should Dire wander into Champions Roland's false smile slips away. The grin becomes smaller, little more than an upturning of the corners of his mouth, but much more genuine. 'I've missed you Apollo.'

He says nothing more until his former team-mate is done updating the group. The question, innocently asked, is not an easy one for Roland to answer. Secrets within secrets spun around his head as he decided what he would and wouldn't say. I'm a guardian as well. I was before you left, I'm sure you remember. Things were different then though. Earth had a Master Magus, Ellen, remember her? We rescued her from the Skrull.
'With her the planar barrier was secure, and Earth's magical forces had a leading light, someone to rally around. The cosmic powers-that-be were content to let me travel around the multiverse with you, despite my appointed position, because I was surplus to requirement. Ellen was enough to protect Earth from invading Dark Lords or demons foreign to this plane of existence.
'That all changed when she turned.' He wondered how up-to-date Dare was on current events, probably not very 'A vampire bit her. Now there's no Master Magus, I should know, I've spent years looking for them. Since then things have been... tough. The mystic balance has been shifted and I cannot right it. I used to be surplus to requirement, now I'm inadequate to requirement. The magic world has gotten...' He trails away, searching for the right words, visibly frustrated at how hard it was. 'Dark.' He eventually finished 'A lot of very ugly things have crawled out of the woodwork, sensing the absence of a Master Magus. The minor pantheons that deign to speak with me are scared, and don't mind saying it.
'Still, it's not all bad. The planer barrier is safe for now. That doesn't stop the homegrown terrors, but it's a hell of a lot safer than we were before. And I've been offered a teaching position at Claremont. I start in a few weeks, I'm really looking forward to it.'

[Raynn]

- Air Ace - Remembrance -

As Air Ace and Remembrance swoop in over the skyline near Champion's restaurant they see finally definitive proof that their dreams were more than just dreams. Though suited up in superhero regalia they both immediately recognise the other as the girl from their own dreams.

Scouting around the rooftop of the restaurant building doesn't reveal any obvious threat and the sun is setting in the distance.


***


- Doctor Dare - Vagrant -

It didn't take long for the poor quality doctor dire to return with the table's orders and when she finally did Navi finally got a word in


"At least you guys get to keep your powers, do you know how old I am? Much older than I look. Now I have a life expectancy of less than a century. Most things I knew before becoming human are lost to me now and when I asked the F.L.I. if they could restore my powers and keep me human they just dismissed me asking why they'd bother,"

she lets out a sigh


"And with Jake gone I bet soon most of my superhero friends won't even answer my calls. I'm just one of the 'normals' now. So try not to complain too much about being badass Space-Aurors or time travellers. My greatest adventure since the Navigation club tanked was my thesis review,"

her face becomes the same downcast mask it was at the funeral


"I just wish . . ."

At that she seems to shudder violently. Suddenly she clutches her hands over her ears, her face showing her obvious pain


"Agh. . . Do you guys hear that. . . ?!"

The other restaurant goers begins to stare worriedly and apprehensively at Navi as the rest of the restaurant falls silent.


***


- Ava -

The family embraces, only briefly, before breaking apart as Nathaniel asks worriedly but trying to sound humourous


"So boyfriend. . . ?"

At that Zia groans


"It's fine Dad. He's nice Dad, he's an older guy so he's not a pig."

As Zia leaves the room to go get ready for dinner at Champion's Nathaniel shouts up at her


"You're three, EVERY GUY is older than you! And older doesn't fill me with confidence!"

Zia closes the door to her room, less annoyed and more just not feeling the need to respond. Nathaniel slides down against the fridge to the kitchen floor as he finishes his drink. He lets out an exasperated sigh


"Kids."

Hero Point to Smuchmuch for pointing out the out of characterness of that reaction, and in such a comical fashion.

Also Stealth Check please.


- Shade -

As Shade approaches she checks the crates to find just what she had anticipated, drugs, primarily those to do with post human abilities. Within the warehouse Shade spies nothing more than a few spare thugs loading up the trucks with more crates like the ones Shade had just checked out.

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Muttering to himself, Apollo pulls his mask and some tools out of his coat and starts fiddling. This wasn't a medical problem, so go for the technical approach. "What do they always tell you at Claremont. Never wish, never wish, never wish."

2 Rounds: Adding Hear Dimensional Communications, and Hear Temporal Communications to the mask. Probably can't hear anything directed at Navi alone, but it's worth a shot. And a roll to check for mishap, if necessary.
[roll0]

"Stay with us Navi. Roland, you got anything?"

[Green Bean]

A populated restaurant in the middle of the city during daylight hours is hardly a suspicious environment, but Remembrance is thorough, checking exits, performing head counts, even listening in on a few employees taking a smoke break in the back. When Air Ace arrives on the roof, Remembrance sizes up the new arrival before revealing herself. She keeps her distance, though, and near to cover, ready to bolt and hide if necessary.

"Hello. I don't suppose you're here for the same reason I am."

[ripleycat]

Emily Cole

Emily seems less worried about their surroundings. Part of it probably has to do with her means of transportation. If potential enemies somehow missed the roar and burning light of the rocketpack touching down, then it was safe to assume they probably weren't much of a threat. There's a strange flash of recognition as Lea takes off her mask and Emily registers a face she knows, but has technically never seen before.

"Um, crazy dream, goth girl who turned out to be Death herself, directed here to meet man named Doctor Dare, need to form superteam to stop Lord of Space from mucking up life, the universe, and everything?"

The retro-tech rocketeer removes her helmet and offers Lea a grin and a handshake. "'Cause that's why I'm here. If you're not, then, well, Air Ace, at your service, or Emily, Emily Cole if the superhero name business isn't your style, but I guess you already knew that. nice to meet you in the flesh." She checks her watch. "Almost time. You know, being predestined to do something is a really weird feeling. I don't like it much."

[Green Bean]

Remembrance shook Emily's hand firmly, now slightly less wary of the whole situation. "As days go, it's one of the stranger ones. Not the strangest, though. I go by Remembrance." She peels back a glove and checks her own watch.

"I know what you mean. Part of me just wants to wait until eight thirty before we go down. To see what happens." She doesn't smile.

[Ridai]

Ava can't help but chuckle at the reactions of both before sitting down next to her husband, hugging him and resting her head on his shoulder, smiling. She couldn't be happier with how her family life is like, all things considered. Normal everyday problems being the largest obstacles to overcome nowadays is utter bliss to the walking incarnation of life who never had what could be considered a normal life before falling in love with Nathaniel.

"We probably should get ready for dinner," Ava eventually says after having shared the moment for a while. "And afterwards, when Zia is sleeping, there might just be a little something waiting for you." After a quick kiss, Ava gets up again and ready to leave for Champion's.

[Raynn]

- Ava - Vagrant - Doctor Dare -

As Ava walks into the room she sees Roland and Apollo standing over Navi as Doctor Dare fiddles with his mask in broad daylight. A crowd has begun to form which Zia races forward to join.

Doctor Dare alone hears



"HEAR US CHILDREN OF OMEGA
THE ROMAN REMNANTS, THE COLD QUEENS
WE CALL TO YOU
UNITE AND SERVE OMEGA
REBORN ON EARTH
AMONG THE MASSES
WE CALL TO YOU
UNITE AND SERVE OMEGA
REBORN ON EARTH
AMONG THE MASSES
UNITE AND SERVE OMEGA
REBORN ON EARTH
UNITE AND SERVE OMEGA
UNITE AND SERVE
UNITE AND SERVE"

With a terrified look Doctor Dare looks up from Navi who is still clutching her skull and looks out the long window of Champion's Restaurant to see a shooting star arc past Camelot and land across the bay.


***

- Air Ace - Remembrance -

As darkness falls over the city Remembrance and Air Ace wait, half expecting something to shoot across the sky to attack, in an effort to kill Doctor Dare.

The pair look up seeing nothing more dangerous than an usually large shooting star when they finally do see something of import.

First it appears to be a shadow but than the shape throws back it's hood to reveal a silver coloured helmet with two brass coloured oval lenses for eyes. It's mouth is a half dozen downwards slits with shallow cheeks in its helmet. It's robes open at the elbow to reveal forearms in sharp steel gauntlets that come to long pointed fingers. On the being's black worn cloak is a crimson omega for a collar. On its right hand's index finger is a black and crimson ring with a crimson omega on an semi-sphere of black.

Without moving his feet he turns slowly, turning his cloak barely around him


"Leave."

He outstretches his hand to his side and a blade of darkness wrapped in crimson electricity forms around his forearm.

If you want to attack roll Initiative.

HIS Initiative: [roll0]

[smuchmuch]

To be fair, she wwas probaly more than a little surprised

Stealth [roll0]

Hm Zombie powder, how quaint. Wonder if there's something that turns you into a toon or a dinosaur rididng knight in there. Shade pass a hand though the drugs.
But, more seriously thinking back about this afternoon, it is troubling. More metahumans capabilities drugs to hit the street as anti metahumans rallies get more bigger and more violents as to take down one of the more powrfull fleaguer. Could be a coincidence, or a simple causality link but... She probably should interest herself more about the death of metasoul.

Anyhow, she can worry about a possible bigger picture with little to no information later. In the meantime these drugs being loaded have to come from somewhere. The production facility can't be too far. Might yield somemoreanswers too Shade take a look at the thug loading the trucks and where they come from before moving further into the warehouse.

[Green Bean]

Remembrance doesn't bother to reply. The night fall cast long shadows over the roof, and between one heartbeat and the next, she's vanished into them. Crouched between an AC unit and a metal vent, she remains utterly still, watching the interloper like a snake watches a mouse.

Not attacking, just hiding. I'll roll initiative just in case, though.

Stealth Check: [roll0]
Initiative: [roll1]

[ripleycat]

Emily Cole

"No?"

The noncommittal shrug Air Ace gives the imposing, black-cloaked figure probably isn't the reaction he was looking for. As Remembrance ducks into the shadows, Emily jams her helmet back on and continues to talk, trying to keep the interloper's attention on her for a few more seconds.

"I mean, I'm not sure you understand. We can't leave. We're literally predestined to be here and do certain things at a set time. You can leave, of course."

"Oh, and think fast, Jack!" Emily's hand drops to her side and she pulls her blaster with a move that would make an Old West gunslinger proud and snaps off a shot, raking a wide, chisel-shaped beam of blindingly white light over the villain's mask before rocketing straight up into the night sky.

Initiative: [roll0]
Quick-Draw to pull her blaster as a free action.
Attack: [roll]1d20+11[roll]
Using Strobe Beam: Dazzle 9 (Visual). DC 19 reflex save for the Omega fellow if it hits. DC19 Fort save on following rounds to recover if he fails.

Move Action to fly straight up as far as she can in one action.

[Raynn]

Reflex Save: [roll0]

Flowing out of the way as if gravity and friction had no impact on him or his cloak the being dodges the ray of light with practiced ease. He looks up slowly towards


"You have made . . ."

He lowers himself into a martial artist's stance, he leans back bringing back his right elbow, spins in the air bringing one foot over his head, brings his hands together as he falls back into his stance and then with one fist punches up in the direction of Air Ace


"A mistake."

With that a long asian varoety dragon creature made of the same shadows and energy that blade that had been on his arm had been made out of rushes out of the ring, it must be a hundred foot long or more, and towards Air Ace! Dwarfing her as a speck in the horizon.

The Shadow Dragon shoots up towards Air Ace intent to lock it's teeth around her

Rolls in next post.
Accurate Attack +5/-5
Improved Grab
Move By Action

The Dragon will try to grapple Air Ace, pin her, fly down through the roof, slamming her into the restaurant.

[Raynn]

Attack Roll: [roll0]
Toughness Save DC 25 for Air Ace on a Success.
Opposed Grapple Check: [roll1]
Toughness Save DC 20 for Air Ace on a Success as she goes through the rough.
Toughness Save DC 20 for the Shadow Dragon on a success as they go through the roof [roll2]

It equals Defense so it's a hit and I'm pretty sure she can't possibly win the grapple.

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Though the voice he hears momentarily shakes him, Dare's face quickly shifts from frightened to worried, but determined in an instant. Then his face is hidden behind his mask and his coat turns back to it's brilliant white. He whispers just loud enough for his nearby friends to hear him: "Omega."

Standing, he raises his voice to a level his grandmother would be proud of and imperiously addresses the crowd: "Everyone will return to their homes immediately! SO COMMANDS DOCTOR DARE!"

He wants everyone to get to safety quickly. Diplomacy would make it safer, but Intimidate would be faster and more in line with the Dire way of commands. So probably use intimidate, but if you think Diplomacy best, go with it.
[roll0]
[roll1]

[Raynn]

- Ava - Doctor Dare - Vagrant - Air Ace - Remembrance -

The crowd looks at Doctor Dare in his mask for a moment apprehensively, unsure of whether he is the genuine article or not. With his arms wide roaring in the Dire tone at the crowd they stare at him largely confused. . .

Then a 100 ft long dragon slams into the restaurant floor directly behind Dare like some sort of living pillar of shadow. This most definitely drives home the Doctor's point.

That is about the point when the staff and crowd start running and screaming from Dare, assuming he caused the Dragon, rather than having ridiculously dramatic timing.


- Shade -

As Shade looks over the trucks she doesn't find any indication of the their original source. She is about to enter the warehouse when she hears something like an explosion from a nearby building.

She looks up to see smoke billowing from the nearby Champion's restaurant building as a giant shadow dragon slams into its roof. Shade can hear the distant screams of the innocents even at this distance.

Does she continue into the warehouse ignoring the screams?

[Green Bean]

Remembrance almost groaned as Air Ace escalated things with the mysterious figure. But the appearance of a giant shadowy dragon and the resulting endangerment of the restaurant patrons made it pretty clear which side was in the right.

"That's enough. Stop this." Remembrance's voice echoed around the roof, impossible to pinpoint. The screaming starts below, drowning out everything else, so there's almost no sound as Remembrance appears, driving her quarterstaff into the figure's solar plexus in a move her instructors called the "friendly handshake". And then she's gone, back behind cover.

Using Stunning Attack with a +3/-3 Power Attack, and using Move-By Action to break line of sight after the attack. Not hidden, though.

Attack Roll: [roll0]

DC 19 Fortitude Save, DC 21 if the mystery man is flat-footed.

[smuchmuch]

Ah freedom city nights....

Shade feels a bit annoyed, why is there alway something flashy going on nowadays ?
Her dad used to be able to squeeze some punks or bust a drug sumgling ring without flying castle and alien invasion in the background; didn't he ?... okay no it's alway been pretty much like that in freedom city. still it feels it got worst lately.

Oh well, this warehouse will still be here in a few hours (...well in this city, you can't fully rule the possibuility an alien sapceship will land on it or it might sudenly sprout wings and fly south. but likely not)
The restaurant.. not so likely at this rate she refelct has she permeate throughthe back ofthe truck and make her way tot he end of the alley before rising in direction of the smoking rooftop.

[Ridai]

As the family arrives, it doesn't take long for Ava to recognize who the center of attention is as she senses Navi on the floor through her life senses. No doubt Zia can, too, judging by her reaction. Pushing through the crowd, Ava kneels next to the young woman, seeking to bring aid to her as she channels pure life essence into her. "What happened to her?" she asks her friends as she does so.

There is no time for an exchange for words as Dire compels the crowd and the shadow dragon bursts through the ceiling. Instinctively, Nathaniel and Ava move in front of Zia protectively. The figure that becomes visible appears like a blight to her life senses, easily identified as the exact opposite of her. Though apparently, whoever that is, he isn't made of the stuff like Ava is of life. No, he has a source. A source Ava can shut down.

"Cover me," Ava says barely loud enough for her husband to hear. Concentrating on the ring, Ava seeks to bombard and overload it with life energy. Let's see how you are doing without that.

Power stunt.
Nullify 10 (all effects), +10 to hit
Extras: Duration (concentration), Effortless
Flaws: Action (full), Distracting
Feats: Accurate x5, Subtle x2, Increased Range x2 (500ft, max 5000ft.)

Attack: [roll0] vs. flat-footed defense, HP to improve roll
Power check: [roll1] vs. power check or Will

edit: Attack result 22

[ripleycat]

"8:23:44, 8:23:45, aaaannnnd, 8:23:46!" A rather singed arm reaches out of the smoking wreckage and offers a handshake to the man in the mask. "You must be Doctor Dare!"

Emily stands up, grimacing in pain and clutching her side. "Oh! Oh, yeah, that... that's broken. Hoo boy. Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you, sir! Name's Air Ace, my companion and I are here to speak to you about a matter of great importance. But first, could you and your friends here help us trash the Shredder-knockoff on the roof who summoned this thing before the adrenaline wears off and I fall over?"

With that bewildering introduction, Emily rockets back up onto the roof to settle scores with the villain. "Hey bud! Cute trick! Try one of mine!" She fires a flickering red bolt of energy at the man's chest.

HP to buy off the Stun. Free action to talk. Move action to fly back up through the hole the dragon punched in the roof, and standard action to attack the bad dude.

[roll0] Energy Ray: Blast 9. Penetrating, if he has Impervious. DC24 Toughness save if it hits.

[Raynn]

- The Six, One & All -

As Shade comes in over the scene she seems the cloaked man speak out to Remembrance who hides nearby behind cover on the roof top


"Your friend started this,"

he flips around Remembrance as she attacks, leaving himself unharmed


"She merely did not appreciate the consequences of her actions."

Power Check: [roll0]

[Raynn]

Toughness Save: [roll0] vs. DC 24

He is Bruised & Stunned (Will buy off stun on his turn)

The ring glows with bands of silver and white light and seems about to burst with light when the same light is consumed in darkness


"Interesting . . ."

Then the man in sable and scarlet is knocked back a step by the force of a laser bolt knocking the breath out of him, he looks down at Air Ace and her ray gun and he simply says


"Clever girl."

[Ladorak]

Roland regards Emily coolly. 'Vagrant. That's one hell of an entrance there Air Ace. There's no time to say more before she's gone.

Her urgency is apparently, but a more urgent need awaited him. As the fight continued overhead a man quite different to the shattered creature he was a moment ago arose from his chair. In a voice and manner well accustomed and perfectly honed he gathered the civilians and sent them, organised, fleeing to safety. He had done this a lot during the second Dark War.

Satisfied now in their array he turns his eyes toward the ceiling.

And appears atop the roof the next. Normally his teleportation is silent, the mark of a master, but now he opts for flashy show. A billowing cloud of purple smoke, a thunderclap that echoed all about. His civilian clothes are gone, his mystic robes billow about him in the sudden wind. A hand comes up, a symbol is formed. 'It is a very stupid thing, to summon a dragon in a city. To summon one in this city is a stupidity I cannot fathom.' His hand glows as mystic threads weave and interbind, glowing in his palm.

The sky suddenly splits above them, a second sky with another sun is briefly seen, but gone in a moment. What Roland has summoned remains. 'Great Caralinus, prince of the elemental plane of air. Windreaver, Howling Reaper. This man has endangered the innocent. Name his judgement.

Caralinus has form, although it is difficult to make out within it's 'body' of twisting howling air, this living mass of twisters and hurricanes tightly wrapped around a huge hulking form. Great wings, fangs and tail. The very breathing image of a dragon, with glowing white balls where eyes would be. It howls.

'The judgement is not favourable.' The air dragon prince swoops in, screaming again. With strangely calm eyes Roland still speaks to the man in black 'If you survive this, tell your friends. Freedom City is off limits. I live here now and I'm tired of taking it easy on you idiots.'

Teleport up to the roof

Summon an air elemental. I'm too lazy to make a sheet so here is (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=218966)an old one. Ignore the blast power and it comes to level 8.

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Why don't I carry a gun or know how to fly? It would be so much simpler. Not knowing why they are being attacked, Dare elects for discretion. In an instant, he activates the Don't-Look-At-Me field in his coat. Then, looking through the hole at Omega, he decides to take the direct approach to getting answers. "Lord of Terminus, why have you come to this location . . . and where is your army?"

Meanwhile, to hedge against defeat, he uses the datalink in his mask to access Zia's cellphone (all kids have cellphones in their pocket or purses these days, don't they?) and tries to send a text-message and/or live feed to Freedom League Headquarters: OMEGA.

And now to see what I can do to contribute.

So to summarize:
Free: Activate invisibility in my coat. Mental effect.
Talk to Omega. Hey, you never know.
Whatever's left: Try to get a message to Freedom League using the datalink and cellphone (one of which he doesn't have himself)
[roll0]
Is Nemesis still the mayor?

[smuchmuch]

While no doubt some roll is necessary for information about the lord of the Terminus himself, I assume a knowlege roll is not necessary to know what the Omega invason is ?
Unless the Raynnverse version is different, it was a full on world invasion with flying soldiers, pouring out of portals and the death of one of the biggest freedomverse hero. Not exactly stealthy buisness.

If a roll is needed and I don't make it, I'll edit this post

Shade takes a good look at the scene as she float down at a relatively safe distance. She can't say any of the two people on that roof are familiar. She does see familar faces below though. They do seem to have the situation in hand. No dead innocent as far as she can tell.
.. which is good, of course.

The symbol on the man's collar gets her attention though.
She doesn't remember the invasion itself of course, she was what? three ? when it happened, but her father did talk about it and she does faintly remember like so many of her generation who grew up in the aftermath, the reconstruction sites in the background, the large desactivated battle drone armor kept as a memento in the freedom hall league and the face of some of the older members when they would mention the big Golden that bit it at the time.

That man is either pretty oblivious or has either a lot of galls wearing that symbol on his clothes. It's not the swastikas (who have been all to present in the last ten years between a bolder and bolder Shadow, the skrulls and .. Tyranus) but close enough, it's still very loaded.

As if we didn't have enough nostalgics of the genocides that were, we just needed fanboys of the omnicides to come as well. Lovely

Going to withold action for now to see if Dare gets some answers.

[Raynn]

Shadow Dragon will interpose against the air elemental.
[roll0] Hero Point to Apollo.
Hero Point to Emily to remove stun.

Power Stunt continuous alternate form - growth, 1 rank of shapeshift, Selective aura darkness control, incorporeal.

Nemesis is no longer Mayor. At the end of his second term he was replaced by Mayor Hermun Cullie


- The Six, One & All -

The air elemental and shadow dragon collide and tumble away over head, passing though Shade as they clash in the sky.

For a moment the man in black doesn't respond but then slowly brings his hands together, slamming palm against palm.

He explodes. . .

Shadow fills the restaurant and the sky above and the air elemental forces its way through the dragon as it dissolves away to join the mass of darkness how shrouding the Champion's restaurant building.

Even in the darkness the man's voice is clear and stern


"I was attacked, I did not initiate hostilities,"

the man, from the shoulders up, appears in the darkness to Vagrant


"But you did, because I was the one being attacked. With no forethought. No attempt to discern the truth."

he disappears again into the darkness and reappears, a tail of darkness like a serpent descending from his torso as he loops around Doctor Dare


"Omega? Picked up on the source of my powers awfully quick."

suddenly the darkness fades enough for the group to all see the shadow man


"I am here for one purpose.

I, The Blackest Night, under the Authority of the Freedom League International, acting under the auspice of the Cullie Act do here by place Apollo Iris under arrest pending deportation, to be transported to Blackgate prison.

Under this authority do I also place the unregistered vigilantes Air Ace, Vagrant and Remembrance under arrest for assaulting an officer of the law, unjustly and unprovoked I might add."

The Blackest Night appears from the darkness before Doctor Dare and says in closing


"I am not Omega, but stand down of you will wish I was."

In reply to Doctor Dare's message Zia's phone received one short text


Stand Down - Isiah W.

[ripleycat]

Emily's initial response to Blackest Night's theatrics and the revelation that he was supposedly a member of the Freedom League is not to stand down. Rather, it is a pointed finger and an angry rant.

"Hey! First of all, bite me. Second, I am registered, just... not here, and honestly, it's already getting old explaining that to you people, and it's only been a few days. Third, you're the one who just did a couple hundred grand worth of damage to the restaurant, Mr. Excessive Force. Fourth, I got darkvision lenses in these things, so cut the '13-year-old ninja wannabe who just discovered smokebombs' crap and pick a form that won't frighten civilians more than you already have, ya whinging jackass."

"Fifth, you don't appear to have actually charged the good Doctor with anything, much less read anyone here their rights, so not only is your little charade toothless and illegal, but we are here to speak to him about a matter that effects the entire universe, so you can take his outstanding parking tickets or whatever you're here about, grab a number, and wait your damn turn."

"Sixth, bite me again. It bears repeating."

[Raynn]

- The Six, One & All -

When asked, impolitely but reasonably, to return to his human form the Blackest Night did so, floating before Emily as he did so


"Registered. . . but not here? Explain yourself Please.

I am arresting Apollo Iris due to the Cullie Act making the deportation of illegal aliens from alternate realities mandatory. I was not here for anyone else. If I had not been attacked than I might have had time to explain to Doctor Dare the reason for his temporary arrest. He will be returned to his home dimension once it is possible. If I had not been shot by a flash gordon ray gun I may have been able to explain this without recourse to violence. The property damage is I admit excessive, but necessary given that I had not yet been fed your identity and was unaware of your power level.

In my experience it is safest to be excessive when dealing with unknowns. Also an individual is read their rights when their arrest is documented. Not usually at the site of the arrest like in the movies. At the first available opportunity I ceased hostilities and explained that he was under arrest and my authority to do so. These arrests are not illegal.

The entire universe? Isiah is feeding me your file, isn't saving the universe a little above your paygrade?"

[Ladorak]

'Your registration means nothing, it does not change the essential nature of myself, nor of my work. I protect the plane, it is what I exist for. Higher authority than yours wish it so.' he paused, staring hard at the man before him 'Apollo Iris saved this world, more than once. How dare you think to come here pretending a right to eject this saviour?' Roland all but spat at the man's feet 'You'll not take him, not while he doesn't wish to go.'

[Raynn]

- The Six, One & All -

The Blackest Night squares up to Vagrant but he doesn't seem to threaten so much as try to calm him down


"Vagrant. You're a veteran. You fought in the battle of Claremont. You know where this goes. I'm not the big gun. If you push this. If you make this fight, you know what the higher ups will do. They'll call in someone above me on the totempole.

The Freedom League International are representing the United States Government in this, because they don't have the power to bring Doctor Dare in or the tech to send him home. Don't give them more reason to be afraid of our. . . "

He stops and seems to look away, as if listening more intently to his comlink


"You have got to be kidding me. . ."

He turns back to Vagrant


"Vagrant. . . I don't know how to say this. I've just been informed you're in breech of the Cullie Act as well. I've been asked to bring you in with Apollo. Please, please come quietly. Don't make this a fight. It doesn't have to be. I understand that this might seem unfair but heroes are meant to enforce the law not disregard it. We didn't bring this law in, Congress did. If you throw a punch the US government will be out for you. You'll be a fugitive."

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

"Since you have been so kind as to answer my questions, as a fellow agent of Order, I must inform you of a few things as well.

"First, you should be aware that you'll need to give a pretty good reason for any hero in the multiverse to believe you while you're wielding the powers of the Lord of Terminus. Especially with the reaction of my friend Navi, curled on the floor here from what she's hearing, most likely due to your presence. Calling her to unite and serve Omega reborn.

"Second, while it may seem like a cheap door prize to you, I can present identification as a Guardian of Time. I stand guard over the timeline to prevent anyone from changing it simply to suit their needs. Until I manage to find a suitable agent from this universe, this is my jurisdiction, due to my previous experience with it.

"Third, surely FLI knows that they could have gotten a peaceful response from me if they had sent one of the people I recognize as a relative, or even Isiah. Meaning, there is plenty of reason to doubt your stated good intentions. Why send a bruiser like yourself if they could easily talk me into coming quietly with someone I know? If you can give me good reason, I'll come quietly and discuss the matter at Freedom League Headquarters."

[smuchmuch]

"Sorry kids" Shade appear floating on BlackestNight Side, wearing a buisnesssuit, small roundglasses and legal briefs "but I'm afraid his position happens to be legaly sound. Thank senator Cullie for that one.
Our good old Us of A delegated the 'pretend league' the duty of glorrified dimensional barrier police. Not sure why the management accepted" A large image of the lighthouse with a neon sign spelling the word 'sellout 'flashes in Blackest night back "but there you go.

Unless you happen to be a full FLI member or having regularized your situation as an american citizen this dimension America that is, you are illegal aliens and Mr Balckest squad here has full autority and diplomatic immunity to bring you in."
Shade image blurrs a bit, to Balckes Night it smees she's only standing till looking at paper, is only showing herself to Vagrant and Air Ace. She seems to be looking into the dirrection of the bay and the island of Camelot throning in the center
"As long as you stay in the US that is. But I'm sayin that and I'm saying nothing."

"Ah yes. And no altering reality or mind controling people, thats badly seen out here nowadays" Shade finishes for everyone. (admitedly that one clause she can kind of understand), before looking at Blackest night, particulary checking out the Omega collar "so glad to finaly meet you, heard lots about you" she kind of smile politely "But frankly, they do have a point. By those times of general meta hate you should really consider a change of costume to something that doesn't advertise Terminus power"

[Raynn]

- The Six, One & All -

The Blackest Night extends his arms to his sides and after a moment his costume is sucked into the ring, leaving him standing barefoot with only black jeans on, black hair and brown eyes. In fact he looks like a relatively normal looking twenty something


"My ring is the Eye of Omega. Its power was stolen from Omega by the Furions millions of years ago. I don't know why your friend is reacting like this but I've had this ring since I was sixteen and I've been using it in this city for years. So I think your friend claiming to hear voices is a coincidence,"

he puts his ring in his pocket and raises his hands up


"And this is about as unarmed as I'm going to get, take it as a sign of good faith. Isiah couldn't come down here because he's focusing his attentions on a friend who believes Camelot is at risk of imminent attack,"

you notice at some point during this discourse Navi has calmed down and is no longer in pain


"Rycon or something, she came to him with a guy called Red One and asked for his help a few hours ago and he's been doting on her since. One Athena is a ten year old, the other is busy being a principal, Daedelus I is retired, Daedelus II I don't think you've even met though he's your biological half brother, technically, Doctor Dire I is god knows where with the Freedom League Alpha and your niece Abigail is what? 11? Oh and that Anna Asterion, ridiculous clone half-sister is missing or something. I'm sorry but everyone out of your messed up family tree is either busy or hasn't met you. So with no relatives to send or active friends who weren't busy Isiah sent me because I'm someone he trusts.

I'm sorry but I admit I'm the lowest option on the list of envoys, and that's saying something.

Come with me and I'm sure Isiah or someone will find time to discuss. I mean Isiah's the only one who can take you home right? So he'll have to talk to you. Come on, don't make me regret taking off the ring."


In reply to Shade's comment towards his costume he says


"This costume is based on my ring. I didn't know who Omega was when I made it, and I refuse to change it because of a narcissitic lunatic."

[Green Bean]

Remembrance stayed in the shadows as Blackest Night talked. She'd figured that Air Ace's full-on attack was a bad idea, but not this bad. And now she was caught up in this. For some reason she wasn't too worried about herself; the memories of Lea Mendez-Hong, the lawyer, were pointing out holes in Blackest Night's arrest that she could probably use to get the charges dismissed. But then, her lawyer self had been cosmically obliterated before the Cullie Act had passed, and this was all assuming she'd actually have a trial instead of being stashed in some secret FLI prison.

So, she kept a hand on a boomerang and listened. This Doctor Dare claimed he was one of the Guardians of Time, which made it even more important that she speak with him. She would make sure she went with him, wherever he was going.

[Ridai]

Ava relaxes her stance, since the apparent danger has passed. "People, just go to the FLI, get a mediator and take this from the top again. And send someone to fix this mess." She turns to Blackest Night, her eyes narrowing a little. "Oh, and Blackest Night, from one FLI member to the next, do yourself a favor and bring up your use of excessive force with the authorities yourself. Property damage is one thing, but frankly, you could have killed a lot of innocent people. You have a duty to protect and you failed miserably when you, by your own admittance, consciously and grossly ignored that duty, especially while representing the law."

With that, Ava walks over to Air Ace. "Let me patch you up real quick, dear." Placing a hand on her shoulder, a warm, soothing sensation sweeps through Emily's body, making everything picked up by her senses more intense while healing any kind of damage, infection and leftovers from past injuries or diseases. "Unless there is something else all of you need from me, I'm heading home for the night."

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

"Sorry to confuse you further, but I'm actually Athena's nephew who will never be. But that's of no importance."

"I quite agree with you, Ava. On the condition that we go to Freedom League Headquarters and not Blackrock, and no constraints are used, I give you my pledge of honor that I will not try to escape your custody. I'm sure we can work something out with Isiah, or whoever is in charge at the moment. I admit, I only just got into this particular time zone this morning, and the Cullie Act is a new one to me. If I'd known it was in effect, I would have of course gone straight to FLI Headquarters to make my presence and mission known."

"Oh, and Ava, if you wouldn't mind seeing Navi home? She seems to be recovering, but earlier she was hearing something about Romans and Cold Queens and Omega being Reborn."

With that, he becomes visible and waits for Blackest Night to provide some form of transportation.

[smuchmuch]

"Rycon or something

"Short girl ,talk with a german accent and so socialy awkward she looks she's going to burst into flames if you talk to her for more than ten seconds ?" Shade tries to asociate the name to a face she may have talked twice or so "Yeah her name is Rycon though the hell if I have any idea what it's supposed to mean." she glance in dirrection of Camelot "Seems pretty calm to me"

"Well." Look like buisness here is done. "I had a drug smugling operation to bust but thank to someone of theatrical overkill" Shade look at Blackest Night and Air Ace as if she was holding them responsible for any superpowered thugs or brain gnawed on that might be found in the next couple of days "I doubt they stuck around. But, please, don't let the idea of teen overdosing on Zoom and MGH distract you from the smashing job done against dimensional imigration and the relection of senator Cullie." Yes that was mean and rather undeserved (really, the poor guy was only trying to do his job here) but that warehouse was one hell of a missed occasion.


"Unless there is something else all of you need from me, I'm heading home for the night."

Well it hasn't been that long, even if the trucks are gone, the drug making aparatus might still be here. shade look atAva as she'sabout to fly away. "I know you are a doctor and sneaking around isn't really your thing but I don't suppose you wou would know anything about chemistery and drugs ? Or how to neutralize..." Shade marks a little pause like someone who is quite aware just how ridiculous the next word is going to sound but has to ask just in case it should come to this"sigh..toons ?"

[Ridai]

Looking at Shade, Ava doesn't seem too fazed. Stranger things have happened. Also, Magic Jill. "It sounds partly magical in nature, to be honest. I'm not a trained physician, so my formal knowledge of chemistry is limited, but I'm certain I could neutralize the effects directly and help with creating an antidote afterwards. Is it urgent?"

Ava shakes her head towards Dare. "No problem at all," she answers, awaiting an address before she heads over to Navi, carefully helping her off the ground, gently holding her and providing her with life energy to help her recovery along. "Come on, Navi, let's get you home. Apollo will be alright."

Hope Ava will have an hour to recover from being fatigued, wouldn't want to also blow my second HP on something nonsensical. Acting in-character sure was expensive in that case. :/

[ripleycat]

"Ah, so you're not actually smart enough to abuse power on your own, you're simply enforcing a law that is itself unreasonable. Thank you for clarifying, sir." The eye roll Emily gives the FLI member is truly impressive.

She fishes a laminated card out of her pocket. It is a membership card for the West Pierre Mini-Storage, complete with a terrible picture of Emily with her eyes half-closed. "Emily Ann Cole, alias Air Ace, registered superhero and member of the New Guardians. Also, as of four days ago, one of your oh so spoooooky alternate reality aliens, deposited in your timeline by a pretty spectacular malfunction with my timeship. No, I don't have any other identification with me. It's sitting in locker 21-A, a thousand miles away and in a different branch of reality. Of course, I don't actually care if you believe me or not, so that's currently irrelevant."

Air Ace feigns surprise that Blackest Night is being fed information about her. "Wow, I have a file already? You people really don't waste any time with trampling on people's privacy, do you? And yes, the entire universe. Perhaps all of reality, I dunno, she wasn't really specific on that point. And yes, I admit that 'saving the universe' is not typically in my wheelhouse, but, like... Vagrant, right? Much like Vagrant has eloquently explained, this assignment was designated by a much higher authority than your poorly worded little law."

She doesn't actually wait for his response, simply turning her attention to Doctor Dare as he speaks, with a mood swing that's night and day. "Y-you're a Guardian of Time? And you're from a different timeline? Yes! That is... oh man, that's the best news I've heard since I ended up here. D-Do you think you could help me fix my timeship? Well, not mine, really. I mean it is, now, but it's Doctor Tomorrow's timeship. I just inherited it."

She grins at Shade as well. "You guys have a Rycon too? Ha! Small multiverse. And yeah, that sounds like Ashley. You know her, then? I need to meet her. If she's anything like mine, she's crazy smart, might be able to help." Ava's healing causes Air Ace to gasp, as not only her ribs, but a dozen half-healed old injuries are washed away. "That was amazing! Thank you! And have a good night, please. At least one person around here should get to relax."

She holsters her raygun. "That hangs it, I'm coming. Way too much to talk about." She points at Blackest Night. "I wanna make this clear, though. I'm following Doctor Dare, not you. You can go jump off a bridge or light yourself on fire or whatever it is you do for fun."

[smuchmuch]

"No I don't think so." Shade shrugs to Ava "we may want to talk later, though."

"I just talked to her a few times. At the burrial of a common friend" the ghost answers Air ace, a shade sourly, a shade depressed . What does it say about her "life" that it seems to have become the main kind of event where she does her socializing nowadays ? "And a couple times more after. Poor kid had a lot on her plate but that's about it.
But if you're following dr Dare, look like you're going to meet our acting glorious leader? you can ask him, apparently they're best buddy ever. Or you can try yourchance with his majesty of Camelot, they were classmates, I believe. About all I know, Ava might know more. Good luck with the legal crap."

Shade swoops down through the ceiling to Navi, tuning her voice and apparence to talk in private "Sorry kid,but before you go. Mind if I ask a couple question ? Or is it too soon ?"

[Ladorak]

Roland knees down, his hand gently cupping Navi's cheek. He radiates concern, but also anger 'Oh Navi... We never get what we deserve. But still, this seems so unfair. Rest well sweetheart, I'll be back with you the second I straighten all this out. Promise.'

He kissed her fingers, a gesture between old friends, yet his lips seemed to linger longer than was needed before he raises to his feet in a swish of cape and cloak, his eyes cold, hard, and firmly fixed on Blackest Night 'If she suffers any long term damage the entire FLI will not be enough to stop me coming for you.
'Despite the absence of your little piece of paper, I am still an agent of order and good. So I tell you this upfront and honest; Hurt Navi again and standard rules of engagement do not apply. I will end you.' he words seem familiar even to himself, but he is angry, distracted. He does not remember Jake, nor his words. His misses his own hypocrisy and thus misses an opportunity to grow and learn, to better himself. Instead he remains an angry defeated man grown old before his time by the things he has seen. The negative spiral continued.

He stepped next to Apollo, the firm set of his jaw and furrowed brow making it clear Vagrant was staying with Doctor Dare despite anyone's objection.

[Raynn]

- The Six, One & All -


"Fine, I'll bring you right there doctor but I can't promise Isiah will be ready to meet you right away. For the rest of you I'm still arresting those I mentioned so you can come with me to the Lighthouse and see if Isiah lets you off or you can resist arrest and become the FCPD or FBI's problems, maybe you'll be particularly unlucky an A.E.G.I.S. will take over,"

The Blackest Night keeps quiet after that giving people time to chat as he calls for a teleportal to the LightHouse which appears without delay


"Ladies first,"

The Blackest Night gives a slight nod to all of you to step through.

As Ava helps Navi up she gives her a weak smile


"Thanks Ava. Sorry for freaking out, I'm not sure. . ."

At that Roland says his piece and Navi, barely conscious lays her hand on his cheek and says warmly


" -//Universal disharmony detected. Parallel reality entity detected. Origin Reality Detected. Preparing dimensional Jump//-"

It takes Navi a moment to appreciate what she has just said. . . a moment more to appreciate the gravity of it. Her eyes widen, her face fills with fear, tears form in her eyes.


"No. NO. I'm Normal! I'm NORMAL!"

Her fingers are glowing where Roland kissed her, so is her palm where she touched his cheek


"I can't go! I don't want to go!"

At this point her entire body is glowing with pink, energy coming off her in bands and her hair floats as if in water.


"-//Jump to Earth 6565 Initializing//-"

Her hand reaches out Roland her fingers touching his before crumbling in cubes of pink energy that break and apart and fade away till where Navi once stood there is nothing. . .

And she's not the only one missing.


***


- The Lost Few -

There is darkness in the ruins of Freedom City. The second Dark War had left only the most resilient of buildings as anything more than mounds of rumble.

Where they in Freedom Plaza? Libery Park? Or had some section of the more built up parts of the city just been levelled. It was hard to tell.

Ava rose first, Navi stood not too far away. Navi's skin had become a semi transparent bright pink and her eyes were a similarly bright, pale green. Ava could tell wasn't not crying because she handling the situation but because she was in shock.

Remembrance stood yet farther away, and had taken the transition the worse, falling from a significant height after appearing in this world. It gave the Ava the impression that maybe distance from Navi wasn't the feature that defined who jumped with her.

Lastly was Shade. Who the transition had been strangest for. Rather than feeling like she was being pulled a thousand ways at once it instead felt like the world had rapidly changed around her, without her taking a step.

The sky was filled with clouds, possibly of smoke, and the city was empty and in ruins as far as they could see. At least, Ava thought, her family was safe back home.

Then she heard a voice from the rubble as someone forced a sheet of metal off from on top of them


"Mom?"


***


- Those Left Behind -

Roland kneels beside where Ava and Navi disappeared as Nathaniel panicly runs his hands through his hair. Air Air, The Blackest Night and Doctor Dare stand around Roland dumbstruck for a moment before The Blackest Night reacts


"Isiah! We have a problem. . . I get that you're busy but I'm serious the Navimatrix just activated! . . . No not that one we extracted from the girl and later destroyed, the girl! . . . No I'm serious! She just jumped away right in front of me. I think something caused her to regenerate the Navimatrix after we destroyed it. I don't know. . . An F.L.I.er's with them, two actually, Ava and Shade. Please advise. . . . okay?"

he points to the portal that still stands open nearby to the Lighthouse


"Isiah wants to speak with you all directly about this."

[Ridai]

As Ava rises, she takes a moment to take in her new surroundings, brushing off the dirt and dust on her person. As unexpected as the jump was and as harsh as this dimension looks like, she stays rather collected and calm. Navi said their destination was Earth-6565, so those who weren't brought along know where to start looking. Being seperated so suddenly from her family is discomforting, to say the least, imagining how worried they must be about her. Just as she was about to check on the others, Ava first feels, then hears, then sees Zia nearby and quickly heads over to her, helping the girl out of the rubble (not that someone with her physique needed help like that) and brushes the dirt off her as well.

"I'm here, love. Are you alright?" Ava pulls Zia into a hug and observes her daughter's condition closely, intimately familiar with with every little bit of her life essence. Even if her body suffered any damage, it would soon disappear as Zia continuously draws on Ava's endless reservoir of life energy. With a sigh, she says "Your father must be worried sick right now."

Both going back to the others, Ava sends a surge Rememberance's way to rid her of any injuries she might have suffered from the fall before turning to Navi, putting a hand on her shoulder and the other arm around her back. "Navi, come, sit down, dear." Her voice is soft and soothing as she gently guides the girl over to a larger piece of rubble. "What happened?"

[Ladorak]

Roland's eyes widen first with shock, and then horror, as Navi's voice takes on a familiar detached tone and, seconds later, begins to vanish "No. NO. I'm Normal! I'm NORMAL!"

Roland throws himself forward, but there's nothing he can do 'Navi, no! I'll find you, I promise I'll find you!' And then she was gone.

Before stepping through the portal Roland shoots Blackest Night a last baneful glare [COLOR="Purple"]'If Washington can't get me to Earth 6565...'

Overhead the great elemental prince vanished back into the thin air from whence he came. A curious glowing circle of floating black spikes and yellow triangles rises up and comes to hover beside Roland. It makes a noise halfway between a beep and a chirp. Distracted Roland turns to Seal, waving his hand dismissively 'I don't care, we'll find her. This is Navi.'

With his companion in tow he steps through the portal.

[smuchmuch]

"Did you just went all navigation club on us, hun ?" Shade takes a wild but half educated guess. the ghost doesnt look so surprised as grumpy. "At least Cael warned before press ganging you into time travel" which weirdly enoug is more what it felt like than any actual time travels she did before. didn't even feltlike using a portal in fact. Like some kind of fast forward?

One of the (poor) compensation of being what she is, there's no real pain, injuries or disorientation anymore, just memories of them that pass ever so quickly. And she develloped a healthy dose of jaded cynicism againt the rest or at least enough to hide just how weirded out she is right now.
So while the meatsacs are busy couting their limbs and organsarealreadyhere she can already start thinking about the 'where the hell are we?" and more importantly "How do we get back ?"

The jump had been triggered by touching Vagrant, so thats omewhere to start to figure out the former (Earth 6565 of course but the name didn't tell much in itself) and waht may be witing heread.
"Any of you knows a bit about Vagrant past ?" Shade look in the direction of Ava and Navi in account of them being old squadmate (and the Navimatrix again, ...whatever that's supposed to be. some kind of computer ?) and his old school physician.

Looking by the environment Earth 6565 is one of those that went horribly wrong.
Sadly (and it is sad) Shade thinks as she tries to recall all the storries of dimension travel she heard so far it really doesn't filter much.

[Green Bean]

The transition is sudden and jarring, but Remembrance has learned adaptability. Despite the fall, she lands lightly on her feet. She looks around at the scenery, well aware that this was her first dimensional jaunt. Her head snapped around when she heard Zia under the rubble. Stupid. Should have checked on the others before I went woolgathering.

Remembrance rushes over to help, but the mother and daughter seem to have matters well in hand. When Ava and the spirit start questioning Navi, she keeps her distance. Navi didn't look like she could deal with being interrogated by strangers right now. Instead, she quietly reconnoitres the surrounding area, making sure the ground under them was stable and for any denizens who might be curious about their sudden arrival.

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Navi, depowered, contacted by Omega, repowered, gone.
Missing: Remembrance, Ava, Shade, Zia.
Remaining:
Vagrant, non-natived
Dare, non-native
Air Ace, non-native
Darkest Night, Omega related
And other guy, unknown.


"The Navigators," Apollo says suddenly. "We're not in school anymore, so let's drop the Club part."

Then realizing what he'd just said, he apologizes,"Sorry, when I'm thinking, my mouth occasionally moves on it's own. Mr...Nathaniel, was it? You don't happen to be an inter-dimensional traveler, do you? Anyways, I recommend you come with us. Isiah is the best chance we have of getting to your wife and daughter quickly. Coming, Darkest Night, coming."

As he takes the portal, he gives Vagrant a confident look. "We will find them. Just like old times. So, what ever happened to the rest of the crew?"

[ripleycat]

Air Ace looked around, bewildered. "Could a local please explain what just happened?" Whatever had happened, it was clearly not good. That that Navi lady had been a super as well wasn't shocking. Seemed par for the course, actually, but she'd also seemed terrified by whatever had just activated, unable to control it. From what she'd been saying, Emily guessed that Navi was yet another dimension hopper. They seemed to come in bunches around here.

Remembrance had ended up with the transported group. That was a silver lining, right? She seemed hypercompetent. Surely they'd be fine for a few minutes with her looking after them. And they had that Ava lady, the healer. She'd said she was a member of the FLI too. Wherever they'd gone, they'd be fine for the short period it would take to get them back. Right? And what's the "I" stand for, anyway? Independent? International? Indigo? And how do you end up needing names for different branches of the Freedom League? Ours has like, eight people in it.

Vagrant seemed to trust that Blackest Night's portal actually went where he said it would, so she moved to follow him through. This Isiah they kept namedropping to each other seemed like a bigtime operator. Maybe he could fill her in if the others couldn't.

[Ladorak]

'I stopped speaking with Riley after the break-up, but I hear she has kids now, retired from this life. It's just as well, it never suited her. I don't know what happened to Artifex, but Fabio found a way home. He was so happy... I think. I sometimes struggled to understand him. Kraag went east to Emerald city, heard he's making it big there. Jake bought it. We're here.'

[Raynn]

- Those That Remain -

As Nathaniel, The Blackest Night, Air Ace, Vagrant and Doctor Dare step through the portal they are greeted by an unending sea of darkness. Everyone instantly looks back at the Blackest Night as the portal closes but it's plain to see that he hasn't put back on his ring.

Suddenly a walkway is illuminated by floor lights that thud to light. The walkway is white and to either side the depth is deep that the walkway seems to be suspended in the blackness of space.

At the end of long walkway is a circular pad, around which rotate holographic screens forming a patchwork sphere of golden panels in the dark. The man standing on the platform outstretches his arms and the screens fizzle away into nothingness, leaving only the man at the end of the walkway. Isiah Washington turns to look at the arriving group, wearing a suit and looking to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He lacks a tie and his hair is brown and of moderate length.


"Before we get down to the fact that the US government asked me to deport technically all of you, save you Nathaniel, can you please explain to me why a piece of technology that was removed from Navi almost ten years ago just activated in the middle of a busy restaurant, right as I'm trying to help a friend and avert an international incident? Honestly. Did one of you know Navi had gotten her powers back?"


***


- The Lost -

Navi is unresponsive, Ava gets the indication she may be in shock from the sudden reemergence of her powers.

Zia though seems fine and does reply to Ava


"I'm fine mom but. . . where are we? This looks like Freedom City but this is a ruin? What happened? What was that light?"

At that a voice was heard, calm and warm. The group turns to see a man with white eyes, wearing a golden hawk helm, a red cape and egyptian garb. A man not seen on Earth 8 since the 1970s. In one hand he olds a gold and silver egyptian hammer


"Who goes there? The streets are not safe from Malador's hoardes this late into the night. Were you on a supply run? I assure you there is no food left so deep into the lost city."

Horus The Avenger seems confused at your presence here.

[Ladorak]

'I am so sorry to have interrupted your international incident and dear friend.' The sheer level of Roland's sarcasm is impressive 'I don't have time to talk about your stupid law. One of my dear friends is lost, as is Nathaniel's family. By my lights the FLI is responsible, you sent this massively incompetent agent.
'Short version; Your errand boy created a major manifestation in a busy metropolitan area. It's his stupid interference that kicked off a series of hallucinations in Navi that ended in her jumping. You have to send me to Earth 6565. You have to send me now.'
'

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

As he's led down the walkway, Apollo takes off his mask, clearly looking unimpressed. He looks with concern at Vagrant, then turns his attention back to Isiah. He looks him directly in the eye and impassively states his case.

"Roland, I'm sorry, but I think we'll get a bit farther by talking this through with Isiah than having a lively debate. Please give me a chance.

In order then:
First, if I had known about this Cullie Act, I would have come directly to the Lighthouse in order to state my mission and presence, rather than beginning my investigation.
Second, I know that I for certain, and probably my companions as well, had no clue Navi had regained her powers. In fact, I suspect she regained them there in the restaurant, about the same time a comet went shooting past, for an easy reference.
Third, when she collapsed, I toyed with my receiver and managed to pick up a transmission about Romans and Queens and Omega being reborn. And if he's returning, I think we have more of a multi-versal incident brewing.

While I don't completely rule out Darkest Night being the trigger, I'm willing to consider other options, especially considering your trust in him. Not to mention, if he's been in operation in Freedom City as long as he says he's been, his power source would have caused the re-powering awhile ago. Which only leaves the option of something truly dangerous being aroused.

As for where they went, its Earth 6565, which from how she stated it, is Vagrant's birthplace. And if I remember correctly, it's not a good place to be.

Isiah, you as a fellow dimension jumper have the means to get us there quickly. And fate has handed you three people experienced in dimensional travel, including an expert on the world involved. We can work out the deportation details when we are back and actually eligible for deportation. Will you help us?"

Apollo neither pleads, nor demands, but makes his position clear.

[Green Bean]

The moment Remembrance hears a voice a boomerang is in her hand and ready to throw, but she puts it down when it's clear the man isn't an immediate threat. Remembrance approaches the stranger, hand spread in the universal gesture of "I'm unarmed". By total coincidence, when she stops to talk, she's interposed herself directly between Horus and the others.

"We mean no harm. We're not from around here, we're...lost, I think the best word is. Are we in danger?"

[ripleycat]

Emily leans over the edge of the walkway and tries to peer down into the unending blackness. Despite the sensors on her goggles, she is disappointed to see nothing but more darkness. These things need more magnification. You know, something to work on during all my spare time. Heh.

Air Ace hops up and follows the others as they approach the platform. She keeps quiet about her mission from Death for now. There was more than enough on everyone's plate without bringing up yet another near omnipotent being's agenda. Mostly because...

"Wait, what, Omega? The Omega? Almost destroyed the world Omega? That one? That ain't good. Also, I don't want to rain on parades or anything, but I'm not an expert dimension jumper. I've made one, and I was just trying to jump forward a day in my own timeline. I ended up here with a busted ship, which tells you a lot about my expertise."

She rolls her eyes at Washington's question. "Look pal, I can't help you, because I have no idea what's going on. Isiah? Do you have a last name, or a hero name I can use? This seems very informal. OK, my view of things..."

"I was at Champions to meet him." She points a thumb at Doctor Dare. "Your errand boy with the horrible Terminus artifact and poor costume design showed up, told us to leave in so many words. Admittedly, I was a bit quick on the draw, but to be fair, he's an imperious monosyllabic imbecile dressed like a supervillain. I fired a strobe beam at him, he responded by caving in the roof of a restaurant filled with civilians with a giant dragon. Some of Doctor Dare's associates joined in, we had a bit of a scrap. Your boy tried pulling your insipid law out of his ass to justify his actions, we went back to talking. During that little lull, that Navi lady's powers woke up? Or reactivated, whatever you want to call it? I can tell you it wasn't intentional on her part. She was terrified to the point of tears. Then *zap*, half the group is gone, apparently to your home dimension?" She looks questioningly at Vagrant. "Which sounds like bad mojo from what you're been saying. The rest of us came here to talk to you."

"And that's as much as I know about all this. Now if anyone feels like unpacking the situation a bit while we get ready to go get that group back, and we are, there's a kid involved for chrissakes, I would be beyond obliged to you."

[Ridai]

In answer to Shade, Ava shakes her head. "No, I met him for the first time today."

Afterwards, she turns to her daughter. "It seems like Navi somehow sent us to another dimension against her will. This is Earth-6565, as opposed to Earth-8 where we are from, each dimension's history can be very different from our own," Ava explains to Zia, since the latter isn't familiar with the concept yet. "The others will come for us, so we need to stick together and be on our guard until then, ready to defend ourselves. We'll manage." The healer gives her daughter an encouraging smile, knowing how capable she is.

As the figure appears, Ava moves to shield both Navi and Zia until she recognizes there is no immediate danger. After Rememberance spoke, Ava adds "Our friend is in shock, we need to get her to safety."

[smuchmuch]

"Navi ?" Shade broadcast directly into the young woman brain while passing a transparent hand in front of her eyes "I understand you're having it really hard. But it's really not the ideal place and moment to freeze up. Can you stand up ?"

Letting Navi one Dm post to get better before Shade atempts something

[Raynn]

- In The Office of Darkness -

Isiah pauses at Vagrant's out burst in his direction and then almost confused replies


"Earth 6565? You are angered because a law I didn't bring into effect demands that I deport you to your home reality, so you come into my office and demand I instead SEND you to your reality? Am I correct?"

he glances at the still shirtless the Blackest Night


"As a sign of good faith give Roland your ring."

At that the Blackest Night's eyes go wide in astonishment


"You can't be serious I. . ."

Washington's voice becomes stern


"I am and you will or I'll fling the thing into the closest neutron star."

Reluctantly the Blackest Night hands Isiah the ring who passes it to Roland


"I am sorry if my friend offended you but he did not mean too, the ring is difficult to use at anything but its full potential. I have already transported relief staff to Champion's and there is currently no evidence of casaulities or major injuries. Once Ava is returned I'll ensure even those minor injuries are healed perfectly."

When Doctor Dare explains what he has heard about Omega Isiah seems at first surprised then unconvinced


"It is a secret known to less than a dozen men and women on this planet that Omega is dead. Fewer still know I watched him die. My counterpart, the Lord of Time, a boy of 18, Lee Bruce, codename Neo, died to kill Omega. I assure you that what killed Omega has no equal. Nothing in the multiverse could survive what destroyed him and the Terminus. If you want to check my story ask Daedelus II, or Requiem, or even the witch Legacy. Omega is dead. Whatever you heard is something else. Something else that merits investigation, but something else."

As Doctor Dare finishes Isiah says


"I can get you to Vagrant's universe in an instant, but I can't pinpoint their location, you'll have to find the others on your own. You won't even be able to remain in contact with the lighthouse. Wherever I drop you off, if I agree to this, you'll have to get the others back to that spot in twenty four hours."

In reply to Emily Isiah states


"My name is Isiah Washington, the closest I have to a codename is when people call me Washington. You can call me that if you prefer. ."

To close Isiah says


"I will transport you to Earth 6565, under one condition, if you return you must submit to trial and deportation if it's relevant under the Cullie Act. I'll help you in every way I can if you agree to that."


- Earth 6565 -

Horus replies to Remembrance as he lands on the ground


"Of Course You're In Danger. Malador's Dark Citadel Is Barely A Few Blocks From Here!"

Navi remains catatonic as Ava exchanges words with Zia, Horus overhearing them


"Earth 8? You're not from this reality? Oh you could have picked a better spot for a trip then here heroes!"

he flies back up into the air


"If you have a way home I recommend you it quickly. If not follow me, there is a resistance base nearby shielded from Malador's scrying."

[Ridai]

"Lead the way," Ava answers, turning back to Navi and Zia. They might carry Navi together, but most likely, Ava would slow her daughter down, especially with the fatigue left from the encounter at Champion's and the sudden dimensional jaunt. "Zia, could you carry Navi?" Once everyone is ready, the three of them follow the stranger.

If the group needs to run, I'll spend an HP to cancel Ava's fatigue.

[ripleycat]

Air Ace listens, astonished, as Isiah lets them in on one of the great secrets of the multiverse. His counterpart? Another figurehead on some other team? Not if the kid was 18, that wouldn't make any sense. Wait, no, I parsed that wrong. The Lord of Time is his count... Oh ****.



"I will transport you to Earth 6565, under one condition, if you return you must submit to trial and deportation if it's relevant under the Cullie Act. I'll help you in every way I can if you agree to that."

"Sure, sure, terms and conditions apply, must take delivery of dealer stock, offer not valid in Utah or Florida, whatever. Now let's go rescue them! Let's go! Come on, time's a wasting. And thank you, Mr. Washington. After what we just went through that was very reasonable."

Emily spits all of that out in one overeager breath and looks around, expecting some kind of portal like the one they entered from to take them to Earth 6565. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, but at least it should be safe to talk there.

[Ladorak]

'My home?' Roland asked, his voice breaking with sudden horror 'Earth 6565 is my home?' he shook his head, struggling to process the enormity of this revelation.

He seemed lost in thought, his mind wandering in dark places, until he was broken from his unpleasant reverie when he was handed a ring. He looked at it curiously, feeling it's weight in his palm. A Terminus artefact, a heavy thing to carry.

Eventually he sighed massively and passed it back to Blackest Night. The great outward rushing of air seemed to expel something from Roland. When he spoke next his voice was quiet, his tone measured 'Keep it, trust me, you don't want this going where I'm going.' he paused, studying Blackest Night in great detail 'My world is hell, I want you to know that.' he knew he had to warn the others, but it was not to them his spoke He spoke only to Blackest Night 'If Navi is lucky she's just jumped into a charnel house the size of planet Earth. If not there's a million unquiet spirits there who will wish her dead simply because she lives. I want you to understand that.'

Roland chose to believe it was with justice in his heart that he spoke his next words, but there was malice shining in his deep blue eyes as he intoned sombrely 'She's a war widow. I want you to know that too. He died serving the FLI. The memorial service was today. We couldn't have a funeral, no body.
'I tell you these things because I want you to know the enormity of what you have done to the finest human I have ever met. Learn from this, do not let it happen again.'

He turned to Isiah 'Remember Mr Washington, I was there when you first came to this plane, this time. It was I who stopped the Justice Lord seeking to bring you back to their world for trial. I am no more alien then you yourself. But as I have already said, I don't care about this law. Send me to Navi...' his voice becomes a dread whisper 'Send me home.'

[smuchmuch]

"Oh woe is us for we are without guide and thus truly we are the Lost"
She's not sure why the definite article or the capital letter either ,it just seemed apropriate. Ironically enough none of the frequent dimensional flyers have been taken with us. Conspiracy, I say !

Shade pass her hand though Navi head just to,see if that gets a reaction (she's been told her presence through the living sometime left a bit of a chill) but nope . Just for a little while Shade hand seems to lingers. It's not she likes doing it but... It would be easy to , right now,and it would a deadweight less. It's not like she's really using it, anyway .. no. Maybe later. Besides the still living tends to be uncomfortable with that kind of thing.

"So Mr ?" A little while later, Shade appears lazily floating on her back (gravity is for the corporeal), a few feet away from the local vigilante and gives a little grin as to excuse herself for not knowing who her interlocutor is "looks like we might be visi... " sideway glance as the prostrated Navi "castaways in your lovely dimension for a little while. Mind filling us in some details of our doom ?
First, just to check: We're talking about the same Malador and not some dimensional homonym here ? Bony, old, loves to gloat, does not handle the power of love and compassion well ?" Shade can't help but smirk a bit at that one. It's not just that the whole scene had been as surreal as it was silly, but knowing what Helen had become after gave it a double dose of dark irony in retrospect. "so he's got a dark tower uh ? And hordes. How did that happen ?" she floats a bit higher, looking for any dark spire that would be pointing though the ruined building "Oh yeah, know of anyone named Vagrant too ?"

[Green Bean]

Remembrance carefully and gently takes one of Navi's arms, smoothly manoeuvring herself underneath the shoulder of the catatonic woman. "Here, it'll be easier with the two of us."

[Raynn]

- The Rescue Party -

Isiah steps forward to Vagrant and says simply


"You don't care about this law? How many more laws don't you care about?"

With that he motions to his side where a portal appears just as expected


"Be careful all of you."


***


- The Lost -

As Zia and Remembrance began to carry Navi Horus replied to Navi, leading them carefully through the streets just barely floating above them


"Indeed, Malador the Lich, the Dark Lord. The world used to be in an even worse state, if you can believe it, Malador and Eldritch warred as Dark Lords with the whole of the world in the balance. It was in this war that most heroes died. I was only summoned back to the earth after the war was ended. How specifically the war ended I do not know, what I do know is that Malador now rules the earth with his armies of spirits and undead bound to his service."

As you walk though the city you notice something amongst the ruins that you hadn't before. All signs of technology seems less advanced than what you're used to in 2022 Freedom City on Earth 8. Here on Earth 6565 technology seems to look like it did in the 1970s.


"I don't know of anyone called Vagrant but you can ask my compatriots when we reach the base,"

The group spends the next few minutes looking over its shoulders as it navigates the skeletal structures of the city until Horus, looking oddly out of place in these locals, leads the group into a sewer and then into a large cylindrical room deep within the sewer system. Inside the cavernous cylinder are ringed pathways around the central column where tents and shanty homes have been set up and seem to full of surviving citizens of Freedom City in this universe, or possibly their descendants. The central column's ground floor seems to be reserved for the distribution of supplies and several more larger tents for which you can only guess the purpose.

As you approach the central tent a man with short, dishevelled white hair steps out of it. He wears a blue jacket over a white shirt with a thunder bolt. He smiles at the group though for a moment seems apprehensive of Shade but then it passes


"It's nice to meet fellow post humans. My name is Bolt. I lead the resistance here and our few remaining heroes. Now who are all of you that Horus felt needed my attention and where did you come from?"


***

- Through The Looking Glass -

As the group steps through the portal they hear Isiah shout after them


"I'm dropping you in Freedom City, or at least where it should be in Vagrant's reality, it seems as good a place to start your search as any."

After all of you have stepped through you realise that you're standing atop the ruins of Freedom Plaza. The portal closes behind you and for a moment you breath in the oddly unpolluted night air and the world seems at peace. Then you look behind you and see the tower of Malador's dark citadel towering over the ruins of the Freedom Plaza towers.

Vagrant realises that you all have seconds too get to ground level before the shadow spirit legions of Malador descend on you to protect his tower and tear apart your souls!

[Ridai]

As Ava moves through the city and the chamber, she observes the state of life around here. Plants, animals, people. She smiles warmly at Bolt in reciprocation. "My name is Ava, this is my daughter Zia. We were all brought to this dimension by accident and we'd be thankful if you offered us shelter. Also, do you happen to know someone called Vagrant?"

[Green Bean]

Remembrance keeps supporting Navi and listens, content to keep quiet for now. Besides, she's a little on edge right now given their situation. Hiding out in abandoned sewers, scrounging for food and medical supplies while pursued by legions of the dead. If there was a way to help these people, she would in a heartbeat, but they looked desperate, and desperation is unpredictable. She keeps a mental map of the way they came in, and keeps a casual eye on these poor refugees, not so much suspicious as wary.

[Ladorak]

Vagrant stared up at the looming black tower in stark horror. He desperately tried to disbelieve what he was seeing, desperately pleading with the universe to add some detail that would explain away the unhappy reality before him.

'How?' he murmered quietly. 'I don't understand... I killed you.' He shook his head, dispelling as best he could the emotional turmoil of this hellish homecoming.

He pointed downward at a patch of deep shadow amid the rubble 'Follow me, and stay quiet.' In an instant he is gone, but Seal's glowing trail as it flits through the air illuminates him slightly below. As he beckons them down Seal's image changed, briefly, into that of Dark Eldritch, it imitated Roland, heralding them downward.

He had a moment to reflect as they followed him down. He tried to use it productively, but his mind is locked onto an unhappy memory. He was here, in the shadow of that dread tower, in the ruins of this this plaza. He was ten, only recently come to the 'serve' as Dark Eldritch's pupil. It was the first of many massacres he would mutely witness. A lot of innocent people had died that day. Roland couldn't even remember why Eldritch had done it, but he remembered the blood and the screams, he remembered looking on helpless. Suddenly it was very hard to breath.

He struggled to regather himself as the others arrived, fighting down the panic as best he could 'Things are even worse than I feared. I don't understand how... And it doesn't matter. For all intents and purposes this is a warzone, stay low and stay quiet. We need to find somewhere safe and secret. Dare and I should be able to whip up a spell to find them if we have some time.' he smiled at his old companion 'Just like old times, huh?

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

"Ah, yes. Justice Lords, no killing, teenage hormones. Good times. Now lead on." Dare follows Vagrant as quietly as he can, even toning down the color on his coat to match the dingy city.

Noticing their companion's confusion for the first time, Dare tries to catch her up as quickly and quietly as possible. "We were a team together at Claremont. Dimensional Jaunt sort of stuff. Tell you more when we're a bit safer to talk."

[ripleycat]

Air Ace follows her new companions down, half flying, half falling and using the rockets as sparingly as possible to keep quiet. She rolls out of a rather rough landing and scurries over to join the others.

She raises an eyebrow as Seal briefly adopts the visage of a rather nasty-looking mystic man. "Hey, Vagrant, what is this thing following you around? Some sort of weird familiar? And who lives in the tower of doom? You looked like you'd seen a ghost." She whispers.

Emily gives Dare a half grin and nods. "Fair enough. There's things we need to talk about as well, but let's get to a safer spot first.

[Raynn]

- The Rescue Party -

The Citadel looms over the quartet as they disappear into the city streets, it's shadow cutting against the moonlight which is the only light source amonst the urban sprawl.

It is as Vagrant is leading the group from street to street looking for a safe place to stop that he notices a young child, seemingly wounded, clutching itself, amongst a scene of carnage. Bodies lay toss over wreckage and ancient abandoned automobiles. From the scorch marks and scars in the pavement and ruins Vagrant knows that the Bound Spirit Legions of Malador or. . . Eldritch. . . must have caused this.

You all hear the child weeping. . .


- In The Land Down Under -

At the name Vagrant Bolt's face suddenly turns from friendly to cold but he shakes it off


"I recognise the name but I don't know much about him. I think Mayor Leeds would be the better person to ask about that little. . . B******. . ."

At that a man in his early forties steps out of the tent, which you assume by now is the command tent or something similar, with blonde hair and an athletic build. Then a moment later you recognise where you know him from. . . history books for most of you . . . The Centurion. The dead hero Centurion. The Beatles of superheroes Centurion. . . except unlike Horus and Bolt he isn't wearing any sort of costume and is instead wearing a white shirt with the sleeves pulled up and jeans.

He outstretches his hand to whoever of you is closer and says


"Sorry to interrupt but my ears were burning. I'm Mayor Leeds, or as much of a Mayor as this city can have at the moment. I presume you're the group that Horus radioed in about. Is there anything we can do for you? Do you have a way home? Any questions? I'm the man to ask. Happy to help."

He finishes with his trademark smile.

[smuchmuch]

"Oh." Shade look at bolt, then Horus, then the Centurion, then in the vague dirrextion of malador tower and the hordes of undeads, then Bolt and the Centurion again, then herself. I see incoming ' The sixth sense' jokes."

"So far our way out seems to be well.. out." Shade look at Navi. then her glances moves to Ava, apparently thinking about something. "Say Malador has spirits at his service ?,I hope the position of your base doesn't need to stay a big secret or anything, right? "

[Ladorak]

'I've seen several hundred ghosts Air Ace.' Roland said, his voice muted with whispered tone and deep reluctance. 'That's Malador's Black Citadel. If we're spotted literally hundreds of ghosts and worse things will come screaming from that place...'

He quickly poked his head around a corner, then led them across a darkened ruined road 'But the ghost that shocked me... Malador. I killed him. As in his final death. I unmade him. There was nothing left of him to regenerate.' He fell into a moody silence, forgetting the other part of Emily's question, it hung in the air between them until the growing weight of the silence reminded him, focused him on the here and now and not the waking nightmares that seemed to dog every street of this benighted place.

'As for Seal.' The flickering light, now in the form of glowing green penangles, chimed happily at it's own name Seal is... complicated. Think of Seal as the tip of a metaphysical iceberg. Most of Seal lurks beneath mundane perception, what you see is the physical representation of a metaphysical reality. Seal is a deliberate flaw in a spell I wove not so long ago. I concentrated all the weakness of the spell into a single point. It's like a chain, only as strong as it's weakest link. There has to be a weakest link, that is the nature of your reality and of magical reality, always there is weakness and strength. Seal allows me to keep all the weakness of that spell bound up in one place, where I can keep watch and keep it safe. That's the con-' He stopped suddenly 'Do you hear that? That crying?' they stopped, at once they heard the cries echoing through the remains of the city, bouncing off half demolished walls and disorganised rubble. They spot the child quickly. Roland waved the others back

'Could be a trap. Eldritch and Malador stopped doing this kind of thing when they ran of post humans to kill aside each other. But once upon a time tricks like this claimed many would-be heroes.'

He stepped out into the open, leaving Seal to hide with the others. He tried to sound as calm and empathetic as he could 'Hello little one. Don't be scared. I'll take you somewhere safe, I promise. But you have to get off that road and you have to stay quiet, ok? It's dangerous here. Just stay quiet and come with me, I'll get you somewhere safe. I promise.'

[Raynn]

- The Doctor, The Vagrant and The Aviator -

As Vagrant stepped forward towards the girl he heard something rustle behind but he didn't have time to move to see what was coming. . .

A half dozen ragged figures leapt from the wreckage with fingers that were a half foot long and came to a point like claws. Their faces were a featureless gyre of teeth descending into darkness, all mouth.

All together they howled


"FOR THE DARK LORD! FOR THE HOLLOW! FOR THE BLACK MESSIAH! FOR THE DEAD! FOR THE HOLLOW! FOR THE HOLLOW!"

As the group leapt upon Vagrant Doctor Dare, Thanatos (Nathaniel) and Air Ace glance around and see a handful. . . a dozen. . . dozens of the ghoulish creatures rising from beneath rubble and bursting from ruins. With Preternatural speed they were approaching from all four directions on the intersection. The group has seconds before it is over run!

Surprise Round!
Attack Roll: [roll0]; DC 20 Non-Lethal on a hit.
Attack Roll: [roll1]; DC 20 Non-Lethal on a hit.
Attack Roll: [roll2]; DC 20 Non-Lethal on a hit.
Attack Roll: [roll3]; DC 20 Non-Lethal on a hit.
Attack Roll: [roll4]; DC 20 Non-Lethal on a hit.
Attack Roll: [roll5]; DC 20 Non-Lethal on a hit.

Initiative for 1st Round for all Ghoulish Things: [roll6]

Edit: To be clear the girl is a Ghoulish Thing and the only Ghoulish Things that are attacking in the Surprise round are attacking Vagrant.


***

- Beneath -

Mayor Leeds suddenly looks worried


"Of course it needs to remain hidden! Why would you ask?"

[ripleycat]

For a moment, Emily freezes, staring in open-mouthed horror at the things emerging from the wreckage. Vagrant's reaction to this place makes a lot more sense all of a sudden.

Then, she's moving, almost entirely on fear and adrenaline rather than strategy, jumping up from cover and aiming her raygun at the ghoul horde closest to Vagrant. With a deep, metallic thrum, a wide cone of energy erupts from the barrel as Air Ace tries to flash-fry as many of the monsters as she can without catching the mage in the beam as well. "We're surrounded! Vagrant, get back! Watch out!"

Move Action if necessary to get closer to Vagrant.

Standard: Wide-Angle Beam: Cone Area Blast 9. DC19 Reflex Save for the Ghouls, DC 24/19 Toughness save if they make it or not.

[Ridai]

Ava looks over at Shade questioningly. "What, do you think either of us is tracked specifically?"

[Ladorak]

Vagrants init: 9
Seals init [roll0]

'Oh this day just keep getting better!' Vagrant flinches back from the 'little girl, shocked by her appearance even as he regarded the trap as a whole with a weary resignation. It wasn't easy being right.

From the shadows nearby Seal broke into a series of chimes, sounding not unlike a wind chime during a gale. Around Roland Mystic Wards formed out of the air, great glowing walls of interlaced light and throbbing power wrapped around him.

He raised a hand to the sky and pale blue mist rose up from the earth at his command. It spread quickly to cover the battlefield and once he judged the cloud sufficiently large he cried 'Concealment of the Kraken!' The air warped and shifted as he forced two sensory layers onto one layer of reality. It was like writing two overlayed names at once, only difficult the first 50 or so times. To his companions there was a slight shimmering that sucked the colour out of the mist, made it appear little more than wispy fog. To his foes it was blackest smog, utterly blinding.


Actions:
Seal uses create object to wall Vagrant off from the horde. 8 5x5x5 blocks should be enough to completely surround him. Seal also extends his forcefield power to cover the whole group.

Vagrant uses obscure 8. Selective used to block enemy LoS, but not friendly.

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Seeing the trap they've fallen into, Dare immediately activates the invisibility in his coat. Hopefully these things would have enough of a mind to be fooled by his tech.

Not finding a better weapon nearby, he picks up the biggest piece of rubble he can throw and takes aim at the nearest ghoul.

"For the Future!"

Concealment works on anything with an intelligence score. Don't know if that works on the ghouls.
He really needs a reliable form of attack. Second firefight he's in and now he can't talk his way out easily.
[roll0] DC 19, lethal, unless I'm given a reason to hold back against horror monsters.
The plus 4 to damage is from thrown specialty.

[Raynn]

- The V.A.D.E.R. Association -

As the chaos erupts Air Ace acts, in the burning ray gun blast a dozen or more of the monsters are flash fried.

The nearest of the fiends to the good doctor leaps out of the way of his improvised weapon.

Suddenly as Vagrant roars out and seal begins its chant the group is surrounded by his protective seal and hidden in the cloud that is transparent to those within it. Every few moments a ghoulish thing slams against the barrier confused but for the moment you are safe.

I'll assume that since Seal can protect the whole group, as you're close enough together, that he will. So you're all hidden and protected.

Also V.A.D.E.R. Association is Vagrants, Aviators & Doctors Emergency Rescue Association.


***


- The Others -

I'll wait for smuchmuch to reply to Ava.

[smuchmuch]

Sorry not to have answered earlier, I had a train and lots of sleep to catch.

Since I realise shade selectiveness in comunication can be a bit confusing at time, I'm going to change font a bit to show when she's using her power to be percieved by only some people
(lucinda console instead of her usual palatino linotype
Does it help ?

Do I need a bluff roll of some sort not to arouse suspicion ?

"Oh. no. But some spirits can see life force and auras, you are... pretty noticable. could you tune it down maybe ?" Some spirits can see life force, not all of them but it would take just a few.
But... if it had been the case ,even without Ava and her daughter flaring from ten city block away (And navi glowing.. weirdly, what the hell is going on with that girl ?), they would still have detected that camp years ago.
A camp that as no ward against spirits or undead (or none that she felt at any rate). Or location spells aither as far as she can tell. Despsite being barely half a mile from the dark tower of the powerfull necromancer they are fighting. And yet has somehow remained undetected. For thirty years.
" but in this underground, it's probaly not a problem. I'm probably just being paranoid." Or not enough. Shade answer, trying no to show any particular sign of suspicion "but just to be sure I'll go check the perimeter." she say before floating away in direction of the border of the camp and dropping that little bit of concentration she alway keeps at the back of her mind to appear to others.

As she flies away, a whisper sound in Remebrance's and Ava's ear. "I suspect something is very wong here. Be on you guard."

Once she moves away a bit from mayor Leed and Bolt, Shade veers of course back inside. This whole setup deserves a bit more attention. Or maybe she is being overly paranoid, but better safe than sorry.

[Raynn]

As Shade wanders away and disappears Mayor Leeds casts a confused glance in her direction. Before the look on his face fades and passes.


"So . . . some of our people were about to head out for a supply run, would you both like to join them? We could do with the help."

***

As Shade begins to investigate the camp she finds what must be thousands of refugees, and if what they're saying is to be believed they are only one of many such communes within the city limits, though by far the largest. Shade doesn't locate anything suspicious or sinister . . . or out of the ordinary at all. What technology they do possess is half a century, maybe more, behind Earth 8 and they don't have any magic protecting their location. They do have physical defense and from the corpses outside some of the exits they kill any undead or other monsters who stumble upon their home but they couldn't stand up against a full on assault.

Shade is totally unable to find anything to indicate how the camps under the city have been able to last so long. They are obviously tough enough to survive attacks from the undead packs alone, but Malador should be able to find them and attack with the total of his forces rather than just whatever packs of creatures stumble upon the place. It makes no sense to Shade. It's like Malador is bothered to attack. . . or can't . . . ?

Nah, I'll say you don't need a bluff for something that small.

[Ladorak]

'Slaughtering these wretched creatures serves no purpose, save to call greater foes down on us.' As strange as it sounds, Roland was more at peace now then he had been since the Second Dark War (Or, as everyone else would call it, the Dark War). Instantly command settled on him like a mantle. It expelled misery, it expelled fear for Navi, it expelled his massive crippling guilt. Once again the trial by fire burnt away and purified all self loathing and regret.

His hand darted out. 'Dare, Nathaniel, make your way down that alley. Ace, lay down covering fire and likewise retreat.' His arm swept across, indicating a great mass of wandering ghouls closest to to his two earthbound allies 'Make them burn.
'I will join you soon.' His fingers curled, he muttered complex phrases in languages dead for thousands of years 'Aun's First Song of Creation.' Great glassy blocks rise up from the ground, growing and expanding into a high crystal wall between his retreating friends and those cursed creatures.

'Seal, stay with Dare, keep him safe.' If I fall, only he can find Navi.

Create object 8 to create a wall across the street, blocking the ghouls from dare and Nathaniel. Seal stays very close to Dare

[ripleycat]

"Yes sir!" Vagrant's voice brooks no argument, and Emily wasn't inclined to disagree anyway. Rocketing about 20 feet up, she snapped off another broad shot at the horde of ghouls the mage had indicated. "You heard the man! He wants you to burn, you burn." She flew slowly, keeping pace with Doctor Dare. Sure, Air Ace was fast when she needed to be, but rocketing off into the unfamiliar, dark wretched city served no purpose but getting herself and probably her new companions killed.

Standard: Another Cone Area Blast 9. DC19 Reflex Save for the Ghouls, DC 24/19 Toughness save if they make it or not.

Move: Fly down the alleyway, keeping near Dr. Dare.

[Ridai]

"Ah," Ava acknowledges Shade's explanation, nodding. "Afraid not." The suspicions following quietly afterwards go without an apparent response to not make things worse.

Afterwards, she turns back to Mayor Leeds. "That depends on whether you want to me going outside with your people. I am a conduit of life energy, Zia is becoming one, and I have no reason to doubt Shade when she says we are visible like beacons to spirits. I don't know how Malador's forces operate, but there might be the risk that the presence of either of us could draw them to the runners."

"Alternatively, I could offer healing to your sick and wounded, if needed."

[Green Bean]

Still holding on to Navi, Remembrance speaks. "Once we find somewhere safe to put this woman, I can help."

Her instincts were telling her that it was a bad idea to split up like this, but these refugees clearly needed help, and she was hardly going to abandon them.

[Raynn]

- At The Camp -

Mayor Leeds considers this new Intel for a moment before speaking


"If they could detect you I don't see why they didn't follow you right here already, and even then you're of better use gathering supplies if you might give away our position if you stay here. Go with the scouts if that's alright with you. Heal the sick when we have food to feed them with."

Mayor Leeds then personally leads Remembrance to his own sparse home where he finds a cot to lay Navi down on for the moment.


- In The City Streets -

As Air Ace burns away more of the Ghoulish Things Vagrant is able to hold off the creatures long enough for the group to make a clean break away. Final a few minutes later when the group is safely hiding in a disused vault of an abandoned bank nearby Nathaniel asks


"What the hell just happened? What were those things? God damn it Roland your world sucks! And. . . And Zia and Ava are lost out there somewhere. . . What are we going to do next?! We have to find them before those things or something worse do!

[Green Bean]

Remembrance works with Zia to get Navi settled in, making sure her legs are elevated, clothes are loosened, and she's well insulated from the cold. It's not much, but it's what remembers from the first aid courses she's taken. While Leeds is in another room, Remembrance carefully pulls a mini-tracer from her tool belt and slips it into Navi's pocket. Then, she gets another one and pulls Zia to one side.

"Zia, honey, I want you to take this. It's a tracker. If you think you or Navi are in danger for any reason at all, I want you to bend it, like this, understand? I'll know you're in trouble and come find you. Don't tell anyone else I gave you this, okay?"

If and when Zia confirms her understanding, she quickly leaves the room to meet up with Mayor Leeds. "I'm ready to help."

[Ridai]

"I'll move out with them, then." After Navi has been laid down and Rememberance and Zia have returned, Ava turns to her daughter. "Zia, please look after Navi while I'm away. Your father will be here soon." It's not like he would let anything stand in his way in this situation. The three of them had gone over what to do in case of emergency after the incident a year ago, including staying on guard and not taking anything at face value. Recently, Zia and Ava discovered that they could communicate through their life forces, most likely because of them being mother and daughter. With Zia yet having to establish a connection to the vast sea of life energy, however, sending messages or impressions like that is still hard to do (or happens randomly, which has led to a few amusing or embarrassing moments for Ava and Zia, respectively), so it's more of an emergency measure as of now.

Having faith in Zia, Ava embraces her girl with a smile and kisses her on the forehead. "I'll be back as soon as I can, love."

The only thing left is getting ready to head out with Rememberance and the supply runners.

[smuchmuch]

Well. looks legit Shade shrugg for herself, swooping around the borders and entrances of the camp for a little while, her yes opened. Since she said she was looking out for other spirits who may have followed them, she might as well do that.

Do they have some kind of subtle protection ? Could be, just because she's got na enhanced sensibility to magic and the supernatural doesn't make her some kind of great magic expert after all. but if they did , how could she fly so freely in there ? Might explain the weird look Leeds is giving me, though, if I'm not supposed to be there.
What if not ? Then either Malador has trouble of his own. or he neds that place maybe ? Well speculating with ni nfo won't lead anywhere excpet turning in circles. literaly she must have turned around the camp three time by now, nothing particular on the uncorporeal front.

"Well coast is clear, no other spirits around. nce place, givne the circumstances, though". Shade reappaears near the mayor and her fellow dimension stowaways. "I'm surprised though, I'd though you'd have some kind of magical ward around here ?"

she take a look at the people preparing to go . "Going on an expedition, uh ?
Oh and we had someone called Vagrant in our dimension, he's from here I think, we've been told you heard of him ?"

[Raynn]

- Back At The Camp -

Zia immediately agrees to do as she's told and hides the beacon.

In reply to Shade Mayor Leeds says


"We haven't had a breach by spirits in years so we haven't been maintaining any magical barriers or protections. . . Vagrant? A little monster. A creature created by Eldritch to assists in his slaughters. I assume you have the creature under control? I hear he prefers a human form."

He seems to have genuine hatred and disgust for Vagrant


"Ready to depart?"

[smuchmuch]

"Ah." shade is abit taken by surprise by that. "Sure he's under control alright;" it' s not a lie, really, he seemed to be rather controlled last time she saw him. By himself. like a normal person.
.. still maybe something to ask abit more about later.

No attack by spirits. No big attack at all for that matter. jsut a few corpse in a ditch, results from apaprently disorganized wandering animated corpses. Could it be ? "...just a couple of last question before going. How long has it been since Malador led an attack on you ?" Or anyone for that matter. "You never tried to strike back at him, I guess. Lack the manpower and all"
she ends lamely.

[Raynn]

- @ Camp -

Leeds thinks for a moment before replying

"With only two super humans and no fire arms we don't have the force to attack his citadel but the only times Malador is seen now is by scout units that stray to near his tower. Horus has encountered Malador once or twice of late but he tends to flee rather than battle."

[Ladorak]

Vagrant almost smiles 'Yes my friend. My world truly does suck. But you have to remain focused and maintain hope. Ava is hardly defenceless, Navi is not new to this happening. They will be fine, we just need to find them.
'Why those things were there at all... This whole thing has me confused. Malador should be dead, there shouldn't be anyone alive on this world. I can only think... Did Dark Eldritch lie to me?' he sounded almost hopeful

Here's as good a place as any, You and Air Ace keep watch, Dare and I will begin a ritual.'

Unless anyone has any better ideas? I have quickness 5 but still a 'find them' ritual is gonna take a while

[smuchmuch]

That doesn't sound like the Malador she knows. At all.
Oh sweet lord. I've got to be wrong about this.
"I see. I'll go along then" She just need to check this by herself.

As she moves alongside the parting group, she moves near Horus
"Say, I heard you went pretty close to Malador towers, met hte evil itself a few time." she enquires "I'd like to know what to expect in case one of us would get lost round here."

[Raynn]

Horus replies to Shade


"In the past I have fought Malador and he has been a powerful and formidable mage but of late he will merely avoid anyone he sees as beneath him, even myself, and most of the time secludes himself in his tower or does fly-bys of the city to remind us he is still here."


***

As the rescue group begins to prepare its locator ritual the scout group turn the corner and notice the door of the unused bank is open. They glance inside to see the group preparing the ritual within the vault! Nathaniel immediately runs forward to embrace Ava


"Where's Zia? Is she okay? Are you okay? What happened?"

The rest of the scouts, except for Horus, eye the new comers suspiciously.

[ripleycat]

"We're alive, aren't we? And so are the crew we're here to find, presumably. Seems that disproves that theory right there." Emily pulls a dilapidated chair from the debris in the lobby and parks herself facing the entrance, her goggles down and her raygun in her lap. "What I know about magic couldn't fill a thimble, but let me know if you need another warm body for this ritual of yours, all right?"

She hasn't been standing (or sitting, as the case may be) watch for very long when a large group comes round the corner in front of the bank, with several of the missing folks among them!

"Hey Vagrant, that's some ritual! Worked like a charm! Can you 'find' me a beer and a warm meal next?" Emily smirks. "Hi guys! I don't think there's a word for how glad I am to see you. Are you OK? What's been going on?"

She turns back to her companions. "And Dr. Dare, now that we've got Remembrance here and a moment without dragons or ghouls or some other horrible thing interrupting us, we need to talk."

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

With obvious relief, Dare stops drawing diagrams and circles and greets the scout party, "So glad to see you well. And with more people than you disappeared with. We were just about to try to locate you."

Turning to Air Ace and Remembrance, he starts telling his tale as best he can. "Back in our Claremont days, the Navigation Club was formed, at first by sheer chance of those who were near Navi when she first came to the universe we recently left. I was a later addition. Vagrant can tell you his own story, but I'm from a universe not far removed, where tragedy comes less often, and the triumph of good is nearly guaranteed. (I guess our universes are the dark and light mirrors of the one we just departed.) I came to Claremont to prove myself as a hero before my aunt and grandmother would let me do actual hero work."

He gives Horus a curious look, then returns to his explanation. "Anyways, in Navigation Club we traveled the multiverse and timeline, eventually helping Cael set anchors of fixed time, so the defeat of Tyrannus could be assured. Along the way we lost friends and Navi was depowered. At the end of it all, I went back home and became Doctor Dare, a member of the Freedom League. After chasing a few time-travelers who had no clue who I was, I realized my calling to preserve the timeline. Other heroes were instant targets and couldn't risk interfering with their own history, but no one messed with mine. In one of my cross-dimensional travels, I met a fellow timeline preserver. We've gathered a handful of others who do our work and pooled our resources. That's the Guardians of Time. I was in town to check out an anomaly, and try to recruit a native to do the work, when I heard about Jake's funeral. I went to the funeral, then out to eat, and the rest is history. Now there's three of us dimension jumpers gathered here, plus wherever the rest of you hail from. We tend to get thrust into situations and simply have to make due with what we find at hand."

Sorry to keep you all waiting.:smallredface:

I did the math for your rituals with quickness. Rank 5 is 50 times normal speed, right?
4min 48sec/pp to design.
20s/pp to perform.
-5 on checks to halve those times.

[Ridai]

Ava happily embraces her husband, soothed by the sensation of Nathaniel's life force against her own. "Zia is well and back at the refugee camp, looking after Navi. Since we arrived here, Navi has been catatonic, but she is in good condition otherwise. Horus" Ava gestures towards the man. "found us out in the city and brought us to the refugees and this universe's Bolt. We're helping them with a supply run in return."

Looking over the members of the search group, Ava gives a genuine smile. "Thank you everyone for coming to save us. This means a lot to me." It might be sort of expected behavior for heroes like them, but Ava doesn't want to take acts of kindness for granted or let them go unrecognized.

[Ladorak]

'Thank all the gods in heaven, you're all safe. It is more than I dared hope.' Unwilling to break up Ava's reunion with needless questions Vagrant backs away slightly, regarding Horus with great curiosity, but also great caution. 'And it seems you've found survivors. I was told this was a dead world, I would very much like to hear your story stranger.'

[Green Bean]

Remembrance tried to make herself useful to the scavenging group. She doesn't know the terrain, so instead of scouting ahead, she shadows the group stealthily, making sure that they haven't been followed or spotted.

She recognized the other team from the rooftop. It was a relief, though terrifying in another way. They had been blown across dimension borders and it hadn't even been a day before someone tracked them down. The universe, multiverse, whatever you want to call it, was getting smaller.

When Air Ace spoke, Remembrance sidled up to her and spoke, sotto voce. "Maybe this isn't the time or place to mention our little meeting. Our story sounds a little insane, and this is not the place for lengthy discussions."

[ripleycat]

Air Ace took a few steps to the side so everyone wasn't staring the hushed conversation with Remembrance. "A little insane? What's your frame of reference?" Emily smirks, then sighs. "Maybe you're right, but I've found some things out that may throw a wrench into our already wrench-filled plans, like who this Lord of Space is. We need to sit down and hash this out before we leave this world. We can not go back to Earth without the rest of these guys filled in on our task, as profoundly crazy as it might seem when we explain it. If we go back without them understanding the situation, this fragile little team will be dissolved, and we may very well die."

"But yeah, yeah, not in front of the locals. Good save."

[smuchmuch]

The hell ?
It look like everyone from the dinner roof is here except for terminus boy. There's aviator google girl whoever whe may be, Ava husband, Dare, playing with chalk for some reason and.. uh oh
If Leeds and Bolt are any indication, someoen may have a seriosuly awkward homecoming; she'd better warn him at once now is maybe not a good time for presentation


"Hey Vagrant, that's some ritual! Worked like a charm! Can you 'find' me a beer and a warm meal next?"

Crap maybe they didn't hear ?


Vagrant can tell you his own story

Shade facepalms to herself at the rotten timing before looking at Horus and compagny.
"Gentlemen" Yup they heard the name Vagrant being pronounced twice already alright. And oh boy, unsurprisingly, they don't look happy.* "I understand the situation is ab it confusing but may I attract your atention on the fact he's not trying to rip off your throat, or any behvavior usualy associated with bloodthirsty monsters. As I told you the thing is quite under control, docile as a lamb. There's a very good reason for all that." And shade would be very happy to know it herself, she's sure "Please don't do anything drastic."

*If you are wondering, I checked with Raynn before making the post, so I'm not making asumption here, they are angry

Let's make an tempt at diplomacy (and maybe a bit of bluff for the 'the thing is contained' part) [roll0] +10 for bluff, +4 diplomacy, choose wichever you think applies the best.


A small voice echose in the hall of the bank to be heard ponly for those who are in here Vagrant I don't know what the hell you did before leaving but these people loathe you. Now would be a good time to be very diplomatic and maybe not entirely truthfull. Just saying.

[Raynn]

For a moment it seems as if Shade's attempts at Diplomacy have succeeded as most of the group don't even seem to recognize Vagrant's name. . .

Except Horus . . .

Horus does.

He clenches his fist for a moment and that is the only warning before he acts. He slams into Vagrant and grabs him by the throat before shooting up into the sky, flying through a crumbling wall, out of the bank.


"YOU HELPED HIM! YOU LITTLE ******* MONSTER! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU! I DON'T CARE WHAT THOSE FOREIGNERS SAY! I'M GOING TO TEAR YOU IN HALF RIGHT NOW! SLOWLY! YOU SICK LITTLE SH. . ."

He suddenly stops as he looks to his side, his look of rage changing to one of horror, in the direction of Malador's citadel. After a moment Vagrant looks in the same direction.

Hundreds . . . no thousands . . . of winged zombies are racing towards the group on the ground and the pair in the air. It looks almost like a black cloud of death quickly approaching.

A single figure leads them. Malador.

He roars, louder even than Horus


"PROTECT THE HOLLOW! PROTECT THE BLACK MESSIAH! PROTECT THE PRINCE OF THE DEAD! WHAT IS DEAD MAY NEVER DIE!"

A dozen civilians with knives and clubs, A God, A Doctor, A Vagrant, An Aviator, A Mom, A Husband, A Ghost and a Woman with an impressive memory versus a legion of thousands of the undead led by an certifiably insane Lich. Seems like a fair fight.

What do you do?

2 Hero Points to Vagrant.
Attack Roll: [roll0] Versus flat-footed Vagrant.
Grapple Check: [roll1]

[Green Bean]

Remembrance immediately snaps into action. She speaks to the leader of the scouts crisply and authoritatively. "You need to leave, right now. Use the sewers, but take a less direct path and watch for pursuit. We need to keep the main camp safe."

She squints up at Horus. Too far to call out to. Hopefully Vagrant could get him under control. "The rest of us, we can't leave right now, or they'll follow us back to the main encampment. Smart play is to make a stand indoors or underground to restrict their numbers, hold them off long enough for the scout team to get away, then go to ground until they lose interest."

Remembrance looked at the assembled heroes and hesitated. "But then again, I barely know any of you, so I don't know what you're capable of. I don't suppose any of you have an army up your sleeve?"

[ripleycat]

"No armies, no." Air Ace says faintly, staring at the onrushing horde and the terrifying skeletal lich at their head. "Mostly I shoot things and fly. The shooting part's pretty versatile, though."

Despite the dire situation, as Remembrance began barking orders, Emily's mind flashed to, of all things, a stick figure fantasy comic she liked to read. "Huh. We're missing the idiot bard and the psychotic halfling." Also, the holy warrior with the hammer was trying to kill their mage, which wouldn't do at all.

Air Ace rocketed through the hole Horus had made, trying to defuse the situation in the tiny gap they had before the undead army reached them and things go even worse. "Hey, you with the hammer and silly hat! If you think he's nothing but a mad dog, fine, but he killed Malador once. We need that firepower right now, and yours! Let Vagrant go, we can deal with the past once we're not gonna get butchered by Mr. Bones down there."

If roll needed, Diplomacy: [roll0]

[Raynn]

Furiously Horus throws Vagrant aside with a grunt


"What Chance Do We Have Against Malador And His Assembled Hoardes! We Must Flee! I Watched Him Kill Too Many Friends To Risk Adding To That Pyre!"

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Dare calculates their chances rapidly. Then reconsiders without Horus. Possible failure either way. Worse without the Egyptian god. Time to try to talk them out of a serious problem.

Grasping at straws, Dare addresses Horus with scorn in his voice. "Is the great Avenger unable to face evil and darkness in all their forms, that he feels the need to flee? Or is Henry Farrow unable to banish any more evil, as he swore to do? The lich is obviously not interested in you, so go protect the refugees if you are not willing to fight. But if you are not of one mind anymore, perhaps you should leave the Anhk with one more willing to take the burden of Avenging this world, that they may have a chance where you are not willing to try!"

Trying to convince Horus to stay or to give one of us the Anhk so we can use it. Always worth a try. Doubt I could be scary enough to Intimidate a god.
[roll0]

[Raynn]

Suddenly without warning Horus lands beside the group and glows for a moment and then suddenly an old man in a suit with white hair and a goatee appears before the group. He drops the Avengers Ankh hammer beside him before heading off with the scouts in the directions of the sewer with solely a nod.

If You Believe Yourself Worthy, Step Forward And Try To Lift The Ankh of The Avenger!

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Stunned nearly speechless by Henry's actions, Dare manages to say softly,"Thank you, Henry. If all goes well, I'll return your kindness."

First he looks around at the others, all prepared for a slugfest. Then he picks up the Anhk hammer. "Horus, if you can hear me, know what I know. About our common enemy. About my friend. Know my desire to help, despite my human weakness.


Horus, Avenger, Lord of Light
Grant me now your godly might
Let we two do what is right
Banish evil into the night!"

[Raynn]

The Ankh of The Avenger Does Not Budge

The Doctor Is Not Worthy

[KaganMonk]

"Well, that was the proper plea. If anyone else will take a try, go for it. We need all the firepower we can get. And Vagrant, even if you don't consider yourself worthy, I think you might have the greatest desire to avenge this world."

The Doctor takes a step back and starts looking for a tight, defensible place. The sewers would be alright, but they didn't want to draw too much attention to the refugees.

Looking for a good spot.
[roll0]

[ripleycat]

"Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained." Emily drops back to earth and parrots Dr. Dare's speech, apparently a prerequisite for picking up the hammer of Horus.

"Horus, Avenger, Lord of Light
Grant me now your godly might
Let we two do what is right
Banish evil into the night!"

"Wait, is that right? Did I botch it?" Air Ace tries to pull the mighty weapon from its resting spot.

[Ridai]

"All in a day's work," Ava simply comments as she sends up a burst of life energy to Vagrant with practised ease. Even with the gigantic army approaching, she doesn't seem too worried, a calm, almost serene expression on her face. "We might as well make our stand here. You worry about the Ankh, let me worry about keeping you all safe."

Assuming a simple and stable pose in the middle of the room, Ava breathes in deeply. As she exhales, her body erupts in warm, white light with a singular booming hum, continually pulsing and sending out waves into the surroundings. As the light washes over the others, they (even Shade) can feel the power of life suffuse their forms, strengthening them against the undead tides to come. Ava, in her radiant form, needs most of her focus to maintain this display, but she still manages to turn to the others, a smile visible on her face. "Feel free to move me where you need me." Though her voice is sounding crystal clear, it also seems like the others can hear it directly within their minds.

Ava switches to her "force field" alt. Maintaining concentration is a full-round action on her part.

Ava and every ally within 120ft. gains +12 Toughness (Impervious 12), +10 to Fort/Ref/Will (Impervious 10) for as long as one stays within that spherical zone.

[Ladorak]

Vagrant had said nothing while Horus shook him, simply staring with tired blue eyes, pleading for an end to it all. He was almost disappointed when he was cast aside like a ragdoll. He would have had no inclination to rise had Malador not been at their collective neck.

He half listend to Dare while he silently mouthed the words 'I killed you' over and over again. It did nothing to diminish Malador's existence.

He dragged his mind back to the matter of the potent artefact handed to them 'I don't think the previous owner-'

'I think you might have the greatest desire to avenge this world.'

Roland stopped what he was saying, suddenly feeling sick. A wyrm of something ugly writhed in his belly.

'Vengeance.' his voice was thick with emotion. The others saw the change in his posture, the squaring of the shoulders, the setting of the jaw. Only Dare knew Vagrant well enough to know which image was held firm in the mage's mind as he repeated that blighted word 'Vengeance.' This time he whispered it, sounding far more sinister they any of the others could have guessed.

'You killed my parents. You destroyed this world. You have terrorised it's few remaining inhabitants and twisted countless innocents for your pleasure. No more.'

He held his hand out over the blessed weapon, rage and pain boiling in his blood and lent a slow thickness to his words

'Horus, Avenger, Lord of Light
Grant me now your godly might
Let we two do what is right
Banish evil into the night'

[smuchmuch]

Malador.
Okay that settles it I was wrong. He wasn't dead (and yet it seemd to explain so much...), really just withholding. With an army of flying zombies apparently*
But then why suddenly come out now ? And his battle cry ? 'the Hollow'. 'Protect the hollow' he said, and with his timing, it almost sounded as if the 'Dark messiah' was..
"Vagrant, I usualy don't pry" (now, that's a lie) "but if we survive this, I think you owe us a life storry.". But there's still too much things that feel off in this situation.


Ava does her thing
The feeeling of near invicibility, the rush of enrgy almost make her feel for a short while that she could take ont he world, that the situation got a lot better. Well unless the lich himself goes intot the fray, it feels like the zombies aren't going to be less of a problem. Then her yes reminds her there are a whole armies of the things.
Still it changes the situation a bit somewhat. Shade eyes the hammer, if someone could use that awesome power, then the last stand may have become somewhat of a siege. not a big amelioration in the mong run but still longer life expectancy for everyone.
Or maybe not, not counting the lich, there really are A LOt of those zombies. Thousands.


WHAT IS DEAD MAY NEVER DIE

"but they can still hurt like hell ♪" Shade already had her ectoplamsic form dispersed a couple of time. She's not looking forward to it.
I'm not a great strategist but I kinda feel running away to fight another day would be the smartest thing to do here.

*(in one of those strange phenomemnon of parallel thinking that occurs in stressfull situations, her brain goes on tangeant for a small seocnd, wondering where the hell did he find those, did they had a population of flying people around here or did he spend the last ten years putting wings on zombies)

Going to refrain from action untill I see if someone get the hammer and/or how malador react to Ava bubble

[Raynn]

The world erupts. Together Emily and Roland clutch the hammer and from the heavens a voice booms


"YOU ARE WORTHY!"

As the golden light parts both Air Ace and Vagrant stumble back. Vagrant's robes are now golden and white, with black Egyptian hieroglyphics while Air Ace's rockets are the shape of golden curled in wings and her clothing is now more reminiscent of Cleopatra than a pilot. Both now wear golden helms in the shape of Peregrine Falcons with glowing green eyes. In Roland's hand is a very long Egyptian staff, topped with an golden ankh, with a bone white handle in 13 segments that tapers off in a black featureless rod. In Emily's hand is her Omni-pistol . . . except elongated and wrapped in the same gold and white, it's surface also covered in hieroglyphs.

Air Ace:
+5 to Attack rolls.
+5 Ranks to all Omni-Pistol Powers except for Disintegration.
+3 Ranks to Disintegration.
+5 Ranks to Flight.
Gain Space Travel Rank 2, Immunity 9 (Life Support), Super Senses 10 (True Sight).


Vagrant:
+5 to Attack rolls.
+4 Ranks to all Powers in the Magic Array.
+3 Ranks to all Powers in the The Opening of The Seven Seals Array.
Gain Flight Rank 2, Space Travel Rank 1, Immunity 9 (Life Support), Super Senses 10 (True Sight).

[smuchmuch]

First I saw one Malador being beaten by the power of lcompassion and love. Shade doesn't laugh much anymore since she died, without lungs it's not really as spontaneous or even satisfying but she does manage a snerk and a very amused smile.
"An now I get to see the god falcon rangers ...bwe heha haha..I knew I kept doing this job for reason.I love the matching golden helmets by the way"

But more seriously with Ava near invincibility and the boost of power of a god, the group might have a fighting chance, even if the lich itself decide to attack. Hopefully.

The ghost reflects she's probaly not needed (or remotely usefull in the least) for this fight as she diseapears from view. Shade sinks into the ground and into the sewers below. She can't help much with the fighting but she wouldn't mind getting some answers.
And since Malador is here....

Honnestly don't think there sin't too much Shade can help with an army of zombies (pretty sure they're immune to illusions and maldor has a will save high enough to plow though anything) so I might as well make myself usefull elsewhere.

All out movement insubstantial flying in direction of Malador tower.

If it's straying too far, I trust Raynn to find a way to pull me back

[ripleycat]

"Oh. Bad. Ass." Emily's reaction to the dramatic transformation is perhaps not as reverent as the gods of the Heliopolis are used to.

Her face split into a wide grin as she felt the divine essence flow through her. This was like nothing she had ever experienced, and despite the perilous situation, the power trip was making her giggly. Even the way she saw the world around her had shifted. There was speed at her back and call that made the rocketpack's formidable quickness feel like a snail riding a turtle. "Oh my lord of light, I've got wings. And look at this! The outfit, and the blaster, and the helmet! Look at the helmet!"

"Thank you, Horus." She finally says quietly, regaining her focus. Air Ace turns to her counterpart with an admiring grin. "Vagrant, that's a fine look on you. Let's put this to good use. Last chance, what's the plan? Still making a run for somewhere more defensible, or are we going to try and put Skeletor down right here and now?" The way she was looking at her transformed raygun, it was fairly clear what Emily's vote was. She wanted to turn Malador into an ash pile.

May not be around much if at all tomorrow, so rolling Initiative now to keep from slowing things down too much. [roll0]

[Ladorak]

Vagrant twirls his new staff through the air, attuning himself to it's potent energies as best he could before Malador arrived. The passage of the staff leaves a shimmering yellow trail. The message of the staff lights one side of his helmet, leaving the other in stark shadow. As the staff swings from side to side it sets the shining bronze and shadows dancing.

'You don't look so bad yourself Ace.' he smiled back at her with his own admiring look. With Malador bearing down on them it might have been a mad grin, born of a sudden mania to enjoy these last few moments. Yet Roland was no stranger to apocalypse, his grin was not manic. But he did take a single moment to smile at those about him. Nathaniel and Ava reunited, his old friend Doctor Dare, possibly the last attractive woman he would ever see. He took them all in for a single second, all he could afford, but needed for what was about to come. Their presence fortified his need, his need gave birth to endless determination. Idealistic youth was dead, but sheer stubbornness was alive and well.

He snapped his eyes away from his faux Egyptian counterpart and back to his oldest and most dreaded foe.

'We're fighting a delaying action until the civis are clear, don't risk yourself needlessly. But if you get the chance to take the shot, do it... I know I will.' He said the last with bitter satisfaction, and quietly added 'I killed him once, I'll do it again.'

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

A grin breaks out on Dare's face as the two are transformed into gleaming avatars of vengeance. "Now that's what I'm talking about! I'm not much good in a straight up fight, but let's see what we can do." He positions himself near Ava, prepared to defend her from any stray enemies, and picks up a few good throwing rocks.

He activates his invisibility and waits until the incoming horde is close enough to hear him. "BEHOLD, LICH! I AND THE VAGRANT MORPH HAVE RETURNED TO END YOUR PITIFUL NON-LIFE AGAIN! TURN BACK NOW OR BE DESTROYED!"

Using my Distract feat on Malador to make him lag behind his horde. Hoping to clear most of them away before having to deal with him.

[roll0] vs. Will, Sense Motive, or Bluff
If he fails, he's Dazed. No actions for one round, but retains dodge.

[Raynn]

- The Ghost In The Dark Citadel -

The tower is mostly decrepit, an macabre echo of Atlantean architecture, dust and bones fill the place. In some places a handful of zombies mill about but they're little more than tattered pieces of flesh on worn skeletons, barely able to shamble let alone attack anyone. Shade assumes most could barely lift their arms as they ignore her.

The place was obviously built to act as a seat of power. Malador intended to rule from here which implies he didn't intend for the world to always be a blasted wasteland, or at least as much of an unruly wasteland as it currently was. Malador doesn't seem the type to destroy and neglect. His ego demands to conquer not decimate. He wants to rule not to wallow in a dark tower as the world around him crumbles needlessly.

As Shade presses on she finds all the chambers she expect in the palace of a dark sorcerer king but everything has been neglected and left to rot and even if the Dark Lord's staff were all undead she didn't see any highly functional undead able to assist in the running of a nation nearby. It was almost like Malador had just given up on conquering.

Finally Shade found the throne room and the throne wrought of bone and obsidian on which Malador would sit.

And he did . . . the golden skull mask of Malador sits upon the throne. . .


- The Otherworld Army -

In response to Doctor Dare's roar, an effort to get Malador to monologue or waste time threaten as Doctor Dare knows he loves Malador just keeps flying. He doesn't stop, he doesn't insult, he doesn't even sneer. Something is very wrong.

Finally the wave of undead warriors and Malador comes down upon the heroes as a cloud of unyielding corpses and blades! Together only barely doing any damage past Ava's shielding . . . Malador should be able to break through with ease, or even magically remove the barrier. . . and why isn't he making more threats now that he is up close . . . why isn't he monologuing!

Everyone make a single DC 28 Toughness Check.

[smuchmuch]

Ah.
Shade sweeps into the room silently, appropriatly the place feels ike a crypt.

And in the center throne the mask. There's life in it, she can sense it. Malador philactery.
Not dead. Resting. Waiting.

Waving her arm lightly Shade makes the skull levitate a bit from it's position and take along look at it

"You want Vagrant don't you ?""The hollow" A simple container."Correction, his body." "The dark messiah" "A new body full of magic so you may rise again."
That seems the most logical explanation for all this. certaily explained the uncanny timing.

And yet so many questions remains.
If Malador killed Eldritch indeed As Horus said then who reduced him to this. Why ? How ?

Who was controlling the army of zombies now ? Some lieutenant who wanted to see him back ? But if it was the plan all along then why was this tower so unguarded, so unused ? If it was the plan he was to comme back, why let everything go so decrepit. Why was the philactery itself so... unguarded ? Where they really that confident they begeted such terror no one would try going into the tower while they were away ?

Could it be a trap ? A fake philactery containign an innocent soul ? Was it something about the whole situation she missed ?

Too many things to consider. Too many questions.

But right now, one more pressing thant the rest

Vagrant wouldn't hesitate. That woman Remembrance probably wouldn't either, she had the look of someone who would do "what needed to be done" if necessary, in a heartbeat.
Shade looks out one of massive windows of the sancturary. To a world rendered dead, buy the clashing of two dark egos, to a wasteland patrolled by ghouls that may never really recover. ...Maybe even Ava would consider it. He deserved it. A hundred time at the very least. At least there was no question on that.

Here, right in front of her, in a simple defensless mask, is the unconcious soul of Malador the lich.


Do I break the bauble or not ?

Should I delay action a bit for the sake of a bit of drama while you people are horribly mauled by undeads ? :smalltongue:
It's not like Ava can't cure you anyway

But seriously it's pretty tempting. (I mean to destroy Malador's mask)

On the other hand it may be a nice idea to use it ot get the attention of the zombie army away from you guys first. (because,even if it is Malador in there, killing him likely won't get rid on the army outside. No way ti can be that simple, not with two people hyped on god power who hase some serious showing off to do.)

[KaganMonk]

Dare takes the blows, but it leaves him stunned. He can't even manage to put together a coherent though. Malador?..Hollow?..Messiah?..Prince?..Omega?..Conn ection?..Need to think...

[Green Bean]

Remembrance is a whirling dervish, ducking and dodging blows that by all rights should have taken her head off. Ava's force field still gets quite a workout, but Remembrance doesn't give it many chances to fail.

Seeing Dare falter under the attacks of the massed army, she dashes over to his side, quarterstaff whirling in a defensive posture. She aims a blow for one of the zombies' heads. "Come get some over here!"

Not even gonna bother to roll an attack against a single zombie in an army this size. But Remembrance does max out Defensive Attack and does her best to keep the attention on her and away from Dare.

[smuchmuch]

ShThere's a second of silence. For a short while the masks seems to be slightly distorted as if it was taken in an uncertain but strong grip then it is slowly lowered back on the seat of power.

From the window, Shade can percieve a balc cloud in the horizon only pentrated by a few lights and feel a slight pang of guilt. maybe she shoulsn't have runned away ?
...They should be able to hold their own for a while. God power, spirit of life and all that. Heck maybe in an unexpected move, they'll destroy the whole army by themselves.
.. where's a metasoul when you need him ? Oh, right, dead.

Shade approaches from the throne and pose a transparent finger on the mask. Inside the philactery the sould is in a state... almost a coma but not fully, not sleepng either, and yet still there's a little more to it than simple unconciousness.
Hopefully this will help in some way

Using dream travel to see if i can enter the dreamscape of the philactery and communicate with the one inside.

[Raynn]

- The Dreaming -

In a place where the thoughts of the viewer impact reality more than any law Shade is flesh and whole again like she hasn't been in years. Flashes of Tarot and Foreshadow pass her by as she seems to descend from the heavens into a shattered city of peculiar architecture.

She stops and steadies herself against the wall of the street in which she lands and looks into the window of a home to seem bloated drowned corpses within, a family in the middle of a meal, long rotten.

In the middle of the street a child with pale white skin, blonde hair and mismatched eyes races forward in search of someone until a man, a man Shade knows instinctively is an Atlantean sorcerer, finds him and leads him away, towards home, helping the poor scared toddler.

Almost as soon as the child is away the scene repeats and finally glancing the face of the mage she is almost sure he looks identical to Adrian Eldritch.

After a few moments of this a man appears behind Shade, or perhaps he was always there


http://members.shaw.ca/jacklaynedesign/sandman/dream/dream_arms_crossed.jpg


"Silvia Sloane, Welcome to the Dreaming."


***

- The Others -

As the force of an army falls on the heroes some fair better then others but none are left totally incapacitated. In the center of the army Malador remains enraged and focused


"Take The Vagrant Morph Alive But Destroy The Others! Leave Nothing Of Them My Comrades!"

Malador is clearly visible to all of you shouting orders at the center of the horde. . .

[ripleycat]

Air Ace smirks as most of the zombie horde that have set their eyes on her smack harmlessly into Ava's forcefield like bugs on a windshield. Her newfound speed allows her to easily dodge and swat aside the attacks that do get through.

"You won't even get to lay one of your bony little fingers on him! I'm going to turn you into a dust pile, Malador!" She cranked the setting dial on the side of her blaster to what used to be a "D", but now appears to be a small stylized jackal. She'd dubbed it the "destructo-ray." Despite the name out of a bad '60s b-movie, it was one of the most dangerous settings on the raygun, a flickering beam that tore matter apart at the molecular level. What would happen if she ever used it on a normal human terrified Emily.

However, she had no qualms about atomizing a creature like Malador. A bright golden beam erupted from the god-modified weapon with a metallic scream and lanced toward the lich.

Attack: [roll0]

Disintegration 9. DC 22 Fort save/DC 24 Toughness save if it hits.

[Raynn]

Fortitude Save: [roll0]
Toughness Save: [roll1] +10/+1 depending on the result of the above roll.

Malador is disabled + Stunned + Staggered

Malador's army is stunned.


- The Battle -

As Air Ace takes a sizable chunk out of Malador by way of god enhanced atomic disintegration he is knocked to the ground and left barely clinging to his unlife and for a moment his army seems to falter in unison!

[Ridai]

Ava's brow furrows as the massive onslaught slams against the concentrated fields of life around her and her allies, her stance becoming a bit less upright as she briefly falters throughout, allowing the undead creatures to harm those she seeks to protect. Even with the injuries received and the army staggered, Ava doesn't stop keeping the field intact. She can feel that the wounds aren't grave yet and the threat has not been stopped for good yet.

Ava keeps using her force field power.

I just noticed I didn't include the Innate feat into any of her powers, which seems like something that should be there for someone with a direct link to unlimited life energy.

[Ladorak]

Comrades?

That was strange. Very strange indeed. There was no time in the heat of battle to pursue further. He shut it out. Roland also did his best to ignore the soul wound rent open by one of the countless ghosts around them. It was a strange feeling, to have one's essence float away.

He pushed it back sufficiently to incant and stepped forward. Immutable in his purpose, the avatar of vengeance drew himself to his full height, the air twisted around him with arcane power. The head of his staff began to glow brilliant white as he touched it to the brow of his helmet.

'This is for my parents.' He levelled the staff at Malador. The shining light of the Ankh seemed to suck the darkness out of the air around him. Suddenly there was a high pitched screaming, and Vagrant's robes flew about in a sudden gale.

'By the First Ankh, the Key of Life. In Horus' name, and with his will.' The screaming ended, leaving a deadly silence that lasted but a second before the Ankh erupted, throwing pure white fire at Malador.

Blast 12, vampiric. To hit : [roll0]

[Raynn]

Toughness Roll: [roll0] vs. DC 27


- The Battle -

As Roland roars out the divine magic he has been imbued with races towards Malador . . .

And burns him away to nothing but ash and dust on the wind. The force of Zombies seems to shudder but the thousands of creature don't magically fade away . . .

But they do very clearly lose direction or purpose. You're almost sure you could just fly away and if you lost the creatures they would merely meander around the city as little more than feral beasts until they rot. As long or a short a period as that may be. . .

[smuchmuch]

Shade descend int to the land of the mind and inspiration. she likes being in this place, it calls to her in a way, it feels right. perhaps becasue it's a place of thoughs and memories and what defines her better nowadays if not that ? Or maybe it's just the sensations of serenity and freedom that emante from the place.

The ghost sweeps into the street of a city that diseapeared long ago and looks at the scene in front of her eyes to see a slightly familiar face "Eldritch ?" What is he doing here ? Who is that kid ? Where could this city be ? It look ancient, antique in fact, but nothing she heard off ever. Seeing whose dreamscape that is, could it be... ".Atlantis ?...Malador childhood ?" Of course he had to come from somewhere, .. Obviously he wasn't alway a lich. surely he was a kid once but.. it was jsut hard to fathom, to connect the image of the power hungry magical would be tyrant she has alway known him as, no matter the dimension.
"An orphan who would have though." If it really did happen that way, that is. That's the trouble with a place made from half memories, they kind of overap and interfere with each others.

"I'd like to get the whole storry" she really would, there is a complelty unexplored aspect of the man behind the monster that lies ahead, the prospect of dicovering what made him into what he is now does holds a certain fascination. Sadly even if time does pass differently inthis realm thatn in the other one, it's probably better not to dally too much while aquaintance are being tored to pieces. "but I'm afraid we'll have to fast forward" With a flick of wrist, Shade concentrate and call into Malador imgination, trying to give it a nudge and calling in the images of Vagrant then one of the zombies that are attacking the others."Now what next ?"



"Silvia Sloane, Welcome to the Dreaming."

"Oh. I have been here a couple of time but thank you nonetheless" And probaly a lot more earlier but that was before, when she could still sleep and dream on her own.
Silvia turns her head to look at the man behind her with a certain curiosity and a meek smile to hide that the fact she's quite surprised (and maybe a bit ashamed of being caught red handed in the voyeuristic activity peeking in someone else dreams).
He doesn't seem a part of Malador's mind. Who is he ? For some reson she feels uncomfortable but somewhat a bit awed by the presence, though it may just be the way he just seems to have peared out of nowhere that startled her.
"You seem to have me at a disavantage, I don't think we've met before ?"


Dream travel allows you to make a bluff check aginst sense motive to get some particular information from a subject in his dream but here i'm not sure if it'd apply here ? (since Malador didn't he even get a will save)
(in case [roll0])

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Shaking off the effects of the attack, Dare looks around to see nothing else he can do to help. He gives a swift nod of thanks to Remembrance, then turns to run after the scouting party. "I can't help much with the cleanup, so I'm going to catch up with the refugees. Shouldn't split the party too much, and they can take me to Navi and Zia." And with that, he runs off in the direction of the sewers while the zombies are still reeling from Malador's death.

[Ridai]

There a feeling of relief when Ava sees Malador fall. Still, it seemed too easy. Big nasty overlords usually last a fair bit longer. Pushing the thoughts to the side, the healer maintains her force field. "Good job. I'll patch you up after the clean-up," she says with her half-etherial voice.

[Ladorak]

'That wasn't Malador.' Vagrant sounded unsure of himself, there was so much about this unhappy homecoming he didn't understand! To say he was frustrated and ashamed of his own ignorance would be to understate the case dramatically. 'It didn't act like him, it didn't sound like him... And I killed him.' The last, at least, is said with surety and conviction. 'I-' sacrificed all that Malador was to create a seal. A seal that Dark Eldritch broke... But that shouldn't have brought him back, that should have dissipated what little was left of him. Unless I made a mistake... Roland had made a great deal of mistakes in his short and brutal life, he had collected many regrets. He needed a working theory of what was happening just so he could focus on the battle, it was unsurprising, even to himself, that groundless self-recrimination became that working theory.

As physiologically unhealthy as it was it did give him the arcane focus he needed to continue incanting, even as the unquiet spirits of his dead homeworld flew about him.

'Seal, go with Dare. Stay with him, protect him. Dare, find Navi, protect her. Air Ace and I will lead the horde away. Ace, stay high, stay safe.'

He seemed to shimmer, just for a second, and then he was gone. He was not hard for the others to find however. Atop a nearby wrecked building a bright light suddenly shone forth. Between the darkness and the blinding brilliance it was hard to make out exact details, but the vague shape of a man, his robes blustering about him, and of a staff tipped with incandescent light was unmistakeable. Once again white fire erupted and rained down on the undead horde in gobbets of blinding heat and holy fury.

Teleport up to a nearby roof.
Blast 12, area (Cloud)

[ripleycat]

"So what was it, then?" Air Ace flies up through the hole in the roof again, heading towards Vagrant's rooftop perch and raking a wide, triangular blast of burning energy across the shambling horde as she goes. "It wasn't like these other zombies, it didn't look like them, it, uh, it looks like it was controlling them too. They stopped as soon as you vaporized it, which was amazing, by the way. Who's to say that wasn't Malador? I don't know if you noticed, but we weren't throwing rocks at him. Maybe getting one-two punched by the literal fury of the gods wasn't something he was planning for."

She was being her usual flippant self, but Vagrant's worries were in turn worrying her. It had seemed easy, and the mage was the expert on this place. If he said something was wrong, then it seemed likely something was wrong. "And if you're right, what do we do?" She added in a much quieter tone, her eyes on the black tower.

Move action to fly after Vagrant.

Standard: Wide-Angle Beam: Blast 14 (Cone).

[Ladorak]

'Whatever it was was controlling the horde, you're right about that Ace.' Vagrant waved his staff high over his head, fanning the horde's attention with it's deadly luminescence, transfixing them as a lighthouse before an onrushing black waves.

'But there are two words Malador the Mystic would never say. He would never apologise, and he would never say comrade. Comrade implies a level of... equality that Malador is incapable of.

'I know this all must seem strange and horrible to you, it does to me, and I am well used to such an environment. You are bearing up well, you have a warrior's heart I think, Ace.

Our objectives haven't changed. We find the others, we gather as many of these survivors as we can, we get back through the portal.' He smiled softly to himself 'I'm sure Mr Washington will love that. But let him try and send them back... Let him just try.'

[Green Bean]

Remembrance pauses for a moment as "Malador" falls, a little shocked at the sheer level of power that Air Ace and Vagrant wield. But the moment passes, and she approaches Ava swiftly. "We should move, they won't stay still forever."

[Ridai]

As no one wants to grasp the opportunity and simply destroy those mindless creatures, Ava stops maintaining the force field, the waves fading into nothingness and the glow retracting back into her skin. "Agreed." After sending quick bursts of life energy up to Air Ace and Vagrant (and to Remembrance), Ava looks to Nathaniel. "Someone will be eager to see you, honey," she says, smiling, unfazed by just having stood her ground against an undead horde.

With that, she quickly heads into the sewers with the others, back to the refugee camp.

[Raynn]

While Shade does feel knowledge has seeped into her as she entered Malador's dreams she doesn't feel it's anything new that she didn't already know from her knowledge of the outside world.


The Dreaming

The figure before Shade nods


"I am Dream of the Endless. My sister is a friend of your friends, Emily and Lea, and when you entered my domain I decided to meet you for curiosity's sake. You've entered the dreams of Malfurion Adorion.

You are considering killing him.

Why?"

He glances backwards as the scene Shade was gazing upon warps and reforms until a scruffy black haired boy of sixteen or so with emerald eyes is running over a beautifully carved wooden bridge to meet a long brown haired girl who is leaning over the side of bridge with her arms resting on the barrier. His circular black spectacles are clutched in his hands as he runs. He skids to a halt a few steps from the girl and without a glance she flicks her hand in his direction as if annoyed and says "Hexima Collapsus," as the boy's feet glow pink and rise up into the air causing him to fall hard and ridiculously.

He brushes himself off and picks himself up with little more than a forced grin


"I'm sorry Pan, Master Eldrus wanted me to stay late again I didn't . . . "

Pan cuts him off


"If I hear about him as an excuse one more time Mally . . . !"

Irritated the boy interjects in turn


"My Name Is Malfurion!"

Pan turns away from the waterway below and with her arms still cross turns towards the boy


"Only Eldrus calls you that!"


"It's MY NAME! And It's Master Eldrus!"

She swings her arm to the side causing the bridge to shudder by accident as she shouts


"PRESERVERS MALLY! There are other things in life than magic! If you spend the rest of your life studying you won't have a life!"

Suddenly Malfurion's face turns serious for a moment as he realizes why Pan seems so annoyed and frustrated. His hands move to rest on her arms just above her elbows


"Master Eldrus told me you read the Prophecy."

Pan's stunned for a moment before replying


"I don't know what you're . . . "

Malfurion cuts her off


"The Prophecy that says a great darkness will rise that will consume our home. That mages will rise to confront it. That a great and heroic sorcerer will be consumed by that darkness. Master Eldrus calls him the Chosen One. That sorcerer will be a prodigy, unrivaled in power . . . and will have the same scar that I do . . . And that the Chosen One will die as the darkness is defeated."

As Malfurion finishes Pan seems on the verge of tears


"It's not you . . . It can't be you! You can't die . . . "

Malfurion brings Pan into a tight hug and whispers


"I think we both know I can . . . And I think one day I'll have too . . ."

Pan shakes her head as tears run down her face pressed against Malfurion's test


"The future can be rewritten."


"Not every future. Not that future. . ."

Pan looks up at Malfurion


"Why?! Do you want to die?!"

He shakes his head


"No. But if I have to die to save you, then it's a future worth my sacrifice . . ."

she rests her head on his chest


"I don't want you to die . . ."

he runs his hand through her hair and then kisses her forehead softly as he holds her face


"I know . . ."

Suddenly the scene seems spin and Shade almost re-actively tries to grab something to steady herself when she realizes she isn't dizzy. Dream nods and the world comes to halt again.


*BANG*

A man who looks like Eldritch in an Atlantean style robe follows, with white hair at the sides of his head, follows a younger mage in scarlet and gold robes who has just slammed opened the front doors of the Atlantean Academy of the Order of mages. It is the boy from before, maybe four years older, wearing the same spectacles and a scarlet and gold robe in the same style as the man Shade presumes is Master Eldrus is wearing.


"I know you're angry Malfurion, but she broke the law. There's nothing we can do for her. I'm sorry, I know you care about her but . . ."

A glare from Malfurion causes Eldrus to quiet himself.

Shade and Dream follow the pair through the labyrinthine building searching for some obscure office within the cavernous academy. They pass other mages, young and old, all dressed in styles similar to Malfurion and Eldrus' clothing. When they finally do stop at a room and open the door before them they see the brown haired girl from before a few years older and beaten badly. Her face is a contorted pattern of bruises from a single blow, which obviously broke her nose, and her hands are a crumpled mess of blood and broken fingers. Three men in praetorian uniforms are holding her down and covering her mouth while three more stand behind the group with a high inquisitor discussing something. Enraged Malfurion barges into the room and swings his arm, without a word, knocking the trio on top of pan into bookcases that fill the laboratory.


"HOW DARE YOU ******* MONSTERS TOUCH HER!"

Malfurion rushes forward and kneels beside Pan. He holds her, delicately, and she forces out a few words between ragged coughs and blood running from her lips


"I. . . *cough* wanted too . . . *cough* help . . ."

Full of hatred Malfurion looks up at the high inquisitor


"Why The Hell Did You Do This To Her!?"

The high inquisitor replies with a uncaring tone


"She resisted arrest. Quite violently I might add. It is obviously difficult to restrain a witch while she can still cast. Now she finds it much too difficult to speak or move her hands to use any magic. I will be returning later for her research materials."

Without allowing time for even another comment he strolls towards the door past the pair, motioning for the Praetorians to pick up Pan and take her with them. Malfurion lunges for them as they try take Pan from him but Eldrus grabs him and holds him back by the arms for a moment. The Praetorian who Malfurion knocked down when he entered the room leaps towards Malfurion with his rapier drawn. Malfurion raises one arm and simply barks "Avada Kedavra! A blast of green light explodes out Malfurion's outstretched hand and the man combusts mid-leap and burns in ravenous green flames until all that is left is a blackened skeleton which falls to the ground with a clatter.

With a fury in his features Malfurion looks back towards the high inquisitor and speaks before anyone else can comment


"The Master Mage has the right to use lethal force on any who would strike him. That is the law."

The high inquisitor merely replies with a dissatisfied grunt as he leaves and Eldrus grabs Malfurion again and this time doesn't let go


"Let them go Adorion! She broke the law, killing Praetorians won't help her!"

Then Pan is finally taken from the room. With tears in his eyes Malfurion says


"I love you Pan . . ."

With blood trailing from her lips to her chin and while being dragged away by Praetorians she replies with a pained tone


"I love you too Mally . . . "

At that the pair of Master Eldrus and Master Adorion are left alone in Pan's former office and laboratory. Eldrus pushes his hand back through his hair and sighs as almost in a daze Malfurion walks towards the desk


"Ugh. . . Forbidden research . . . I can't believe she broke such a law. She always seemed like such a good girl. What was she even studying that was so illegal . . . ?"

At the desk Malfurion picks up one of her books and reads the title before merely replying


"Resurrection."

The scene fades away again and this time the scenery is left in inky blackness while a stone coffin on a platform is the only feature of the scene. Pan is sculpted lying down sleeping serenely in a long gown as the coffin's lid. From the darkness walk Eldrus and Malfurion in black mourning robes. They stand before the coffin. Silent for a minute before either dare speak


"They murdered her."

Eldrus sadly shakes his head slowly and sighs


"They Executed her. She broke the law and she knew the consequences of being caught. I'm sorry."

Malfurion looks sideways at Eldrus, his eyes full of cold anger, and speaks


"You don't need to say sorry. You didn't kill her."

Silence falls for another minute before Malfurion speaks


"I'm going to bring her back."

At that Eldrus' eyes widen


"You can't! Ignoring the fact that she was executed for researching the same exact magic, it simply can't be done. Fish don't fly, rocks don't swim and magic cannot bring back the dead! I'm sorry Malfurion, my friend, but even you are not that powerful."

Placing his hands on the casket and leaning forward Malfurion merely says


"Then I'll just need more power."

The is a flash of light and Shade reflexively covers her eyes as the scene changes again this time to a great office where a slightly older Malfurion works reading ancient manuscripts behind a desk. Suddenly a fully white haired Eldrus barges into the room.


"It's True Isn't It!"

Malfurion rises from his seat and simply asks


"What is true?"

Eldrus grabs one of the manuscripts and slams it back down on the table


"You're studying resurrection! Just like Pan did!"

At that a figure steps out from the shadows of the book case with a bottle and glasses and sets them down on the table and begins pouring a rose colored liquid for the pair mid-argument.

Eldrus stumbles back aghast.

The figure is a deathly pale young woman with pale almost colorless eyes and long brown hair. She wears a simple white dress and little else. Her movements are jerky, clumsy and uncoordinated. It is Pan's corpse reanimated.


"NECROMANCY! Even you will be executed for this! How could you defile her corpse like this! It's horrific and illegal!"


"Actually it's not."

Malfurion replies curtly.


"What?"

Eldrus seems taken aback by Malfurion's response.


"I am now both the head of the Order and the Master Mage that gives me the authority to abolish all restrictions on research, at least so far as it regards myself."

At that Eldrus seems horrified


"Don't do this. You're the chosen one. This isn't your destiny."

Malfurion simply replies


"The future can be rewritten."

At that reality twists and turns and the scene resets to a modern looking bar, empty save for a single girl behind the bar. She is cleaning glasses with a rag. Her appearance is not of someone Shade recognizes or an Atlantean. (http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID19312/images/Death_of_the_Endless(1).jpg) After a few moments and a man steps in to the room through the front door of the bar. Staring at the girl behind the bar Dream whispers


"Sister . . . "

In the same sort of robes that he wore while arguing with Eldrus, Malfurion stands in the doorway of the bar. His face is a cold, furious mask.


"You took something from me."

The girl doesn't even turn towards Malfurion


"I don't deal in things. I deal in people. Malfurion, or do you prefer Malador yet?"

At that Malfurion hands rise up and beginning exploding second after second with green light as he roars over and over again "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The girl is engulfed in an inferno of green flame and smoke and it is only after a few minutes that the raging fire seems to subside as Malfurion reaches exhaustion. The girl merely steps forth from the fading whirlwind unharmed. Though smoke tumbles off of her not even her clothes are damaged.


"You've finally realized you can't bring her back, and you hunted me down. How arrogantly suicidal."

Spent Malfurion falls to his knees before the girl, almost in tears


"Please . . . Death . . . bring her back . . . I love her . . . I need her . . ."

Slowly Death kneels down rests a hand on Malfurion's shoulder


"I can't, but if you need something else I'll do what I can . . ."

With the eyes of a broken hearted man Malfurion looks up at Death


"I just wish . . . "

The world fades away again replaced by the interior of the Dark Citadel's throne room, but different to how Shade left it. This Dark Citadel is brand new and the only thing decrepit about it are the many servant ghouls that stalk the corridors. An air of panic and emergency permeates the setting.

In the center of the room are a group of wights, undead that Shade is aware are imbued with sentience and magical ability empowered by their master. They appear to be arguing about something. She hears only snippets . . . "The Vagrant Morph . . ." ". . . Malador was slain . . . " "We must flee . . . " ". . . abandon the citadel . . ." "let the humans have the city . . ." ". . . hide from Eldritch. . ."

At the edge of the group of wights is a female that remains silent. As the discussion drags on this wight silently steps away from the group. A few moments later the group fades away. The wight is holding something. . . she realizes it is Malador's golden skull mask. She steps before the throne, still silent, and places the skull upon it. The wight appears to be Pan's corpses. Now thousands of years old, and still preserved perfectly from the moment of her death by Malador's magic.

She outstretches one hand to her side and clicks her fingers saying "Appeara Transporata," and as a bright pink light encompasses her body and then fades the wight is left looking identical to Malador in his undeath in every single detail.

For a minute the scene remains the same, still, with Pan's corpse in the form of Malador kneeling before Malador's skull. Shade is about to speak to Dream when the scene changes one last time and returns to the setting of the bridge in Atlantis, with Malfurion embracing Pan.

Pan looks up, wiping away her tears and trying to force a smile


"Anyway. . . You took too long having fun with Master Eldrus Mally, our alone time is spent. I promised my brother Rolann we would meet him by now."

At that Malfurion lets out a half-joking groan


"Awww . . . You know for you're twin brother he's nothing like . . ."

At that Malfurion is cut off by another boy at the end of the bridge waving to them. Shade would swear he looks identical to Vagrant only this boy is younger and in Atlantean clothing.


"Come on Pandora! Mom's making Kurplosh, she said Mally could come, we're going to be late!"

Malfurion lets out another joking groan and wraps his arm around Pan. As they near Rolann Malfurion notices Pan is smiling


"What's got you so happy?"

She places her hand on his chest as they walk and with a grin replies


"My big hero."

At that Malfurion grins and Pan gets a quizzical look


"What's got YOU happy?"

Looking out at the sunset over the river and the amazing cityscape of the Atlantean Skyline, grinning before the beauty of a thousands shades of red reflected on the numberless crystal towers Malfurion simply says with a smile


"The future can be rewritten."

At that the scene glows before dissipating like the others, leaving Shade and Dream alone in the endless empty whiteness of the Dreaming. . .


***


- The Others -

As the group begins to burn away the legion of the undead they are decimated and any remainders flee in a state that you can't tell is fear or in fact just self preservation.

It doesn't take long for the scouts to lead you back to the sewers and when you arrive the camp erupts in to pandemonium. The scouts who were with you begin shouting that Malador is dead, much more willing to believe that the Malador you fought was the real one, which causes the crowds that begin to surround to become chaotic and celebrant.

As this is occurring Leeds begins to shout your names and leads you towards the command tent. In places he has to use guards to force your way though. In the end he reaches the tent and ushers you inside before the crowd can realize where you went. As the cacophony of the rabble can still be heard outside he directs you a make shift cot erected in the corner of the large tent. There Zia lies shuddering violently, her skin almost white and oddly smooth, with Navi kneeling beside her cot, still in her new form, looking worried. All Thanatos can manage is a whispered "Zia . . . "


What do you do?

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Seeing the situation, Dare is immediately by Zia's side, pulling his med-kit out of his coat. He is also very careful not to touch Navi, given the reason for their current location. "Everybody back up so I have room to work. First, Ava, tell me what I need to know about her physiology that is different from human. If we need to, please infuse her with life energy, but please hold off until we know what happened or things become truly dire. Then, Navi, tell me in detail what happened immediately before she collapsed. It is good to see you up and moving, but please be careful and remember that you have your powers back again." With that, Dare sets to work with a will, doing everything he can to stabilize the child. Years of patching up heroes was going to pay off once again. Stay with me child. You're not done yet!

Going to Diagnose and begin treatment if the cause becomes apparent. Taking 10's for a 'roll' of 30 on Medicine. Switch to Arcane if medicine isn't helping at all.
[roll0]

[Ridai]

"Zia!" As Dare starts to move beside her daughter, Ava plants a hand in his face, shoving him rudely backwards before he can touch her. "Everyone, stay away, nobody touches her! Without self control, she'll drain the life from anyone she comes into contact with!" the healer commands in an authorative tone, not taking no as an answer, not even from her husband.

As one of the few immune to her daughter's powers, Ava kneels beside Zia, lifting her up and cradling her in her arms, using the closeness to amplify their inherent connection as much as possible. Every part of her life force, of her physiology is examined instinctively. Whatever needs to be done, she will do it. "Navi, tell me what happened. Now."

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Dare stays back, silent and watchful, seeing what he can see from afar. He knew better than to stand between powerful people and their children if they were agitated.

He turns to the quiet woman he hadn't met yet. He whispers,"My name is Doctor Dare, by the way. Sorry we haven't had time for a proper introduction. Do you mind if I treat your wounds?"

[Raynn]

- Everyone but the Shadey creepy girl (Not Remembrance)-

As Ava surges life energy into Zia bolts upright and her skin becomes metallic and translucently white as her veins beneath glow the same shade of pink as Navi. Zia lets out a screech like a modem as her eyes glow that same pink and then a voice the group recognizes roars out


"-//No Navimatrix detected native to Earth 6565//-

/Propagating new inter-dimensional engine utilizing available organic hardware/

-//Rewriting Physiology//-

-//Unknown Energy Source Detected//-

-//Attempting to compensate//-"

As Zia falls backwards and continues to shake Navi speaks up


"I. . . I think she tried to heal me, but once she did this happened. . . and she started changing. . . and saying stuff like that over and over. Saying that this universe didn't have a Navimatrix. . . I didn't mean for this . . . I don't know what happened . . . "

[Ridai]

Ava's eyes go wide as she witnesses whatever is responsible trying to "rewrite" her daughter's body like it was some tool to tinker with and discard eventually. Anger wells up inside her, anger directed at no one.

She searches all signs of Zia's life force and body for energies or things that shouldn't be there, but also looks at Navi to figure out what makes her different. "Navi, tell me exactly what that Navimatrix engine is and how it spreads or repairs itself. Whatever those are, chances are that Zia ripped them right out of you and into herself." She speaks quickly and precisely, wasting no time whatsoever.

[Raynn]

Navi starts to tear up


"I'm a Navimatrix engine!
It's what let the Navigation club travel from world to world.

I'm still one. I think when Zia tried to heal me whatever turned me into this must have somehow passed over to her . . . I don't . . . Dire and Destiny helped me . . . I mean they said they made me human . . .

I think it's doing this to her because this universe mustn't have a Navimatrix. . .

I don't know what to do!"

Suddenly there is a flash of pink light and Zia is gone. . .

Then a second later she reappears where she was lying and screeches out like a modem again before saying in Navi's voice


"//Earth 13, Earth 18, Earth 8, Earth 307, Earth 445 Visited // Attempt to bleed off energy failed // Repeating . . . //

She flashes away again


"//Earth 134, Earth 1,235, Earth 1, Earth 4, Earth 12,385, Earth 45, Earth 56, Earth 57, Earth 9,000, Earth 12,345, Earth 8,989, Earth 909, Earth 1,101 Visited// Attempt to bleed off energy failed // Repeating . . . //

She flickers away almost as soon as she appears and when she returns says


"//In Excess of 100 Earths Visited// Attempt to bleed off energy failed // Repeating . . . //

When she reappears yet again she blurts out again


"//1,234,456,997 Earths Visited// Attempt to bleed off energy failed // Repeating . . . //

Soon Zia is flickering in and out of this existence constantly, too quickly to hear what she says. Ava senses that Zia's connection to life force is acting as rocket fuel for the ford fiesta that is the Navimatrix engine, forcing it into overdrive. . . Ava also knows this energy is limitless . . .

Ava also doesn't know if Zia will keep jumping alone, or if she'll bring passengers along soon in an effort to bleed off more energy . . . or planets . . .

[Ridai]

Ava bites her lip, desperation starting to set in as she sees what is happening to her own flesh and blood. Everytime Zia disappears and reappears is like some stabs a dagger right into her heart and twists it. Almost helplessly, she looks to Nathaniel, tears in her eyes as one last solution forms in her mind. Looking back at her daughter, tears roll down Ava's cheeks that are shining with white light. "I won't let you go, Zia," she whispers. All Zia can absorb is by necessity chained to her life force. Which leaves one option.

The next moment, Ava's form violently erupts in white light. Her current powers aren't enough. So she gets more. Much more. A low hum fills the air as she draws titanic amounts of life energy into her body, more than even her resilient form shaped for her purpose has been made for. Quickly, Ava more resembles a bonfire as she puts a hand on Zia's chest, anchoring her entire life force and her body in place. The next step hurts Ava more than the agony of her body struggling to keep itself composed.

In one go, she draws Zia's life force out of her, together with whatever is trying to change her, containing her daughter within herself and cleansing her through her own life force. While the navimatrix engine that tries to corrupt Zia is burned and annihilated in the torrent of energy. The pain in Ava's body is mindshattering as her other arm, parts of her skin, organs and clothes begin to dissolve when she begins to return Zia's life force to the girl's body.

Once the transfer is done, the flaring white light abruptly ends, although small streams and glowing spots only slowly fade and flow from Ava's body afterwards. She is covered in grievous wounds, some seared, some bleeding profusely, her right arm almost missing entirely as she caughs, then pukes blood from her partially dissolved lungs. She is just kneeling there, slumped, mostly unmoving except for her very labored breathing. The one eye she can still see something with is firmly directed towards Zia and her life force, desperately hoping her girl is alright, that being the only thought in her numb brain.

Extra effort to power stunt plot device power, Hero Point used to rewrite scene.

[Ladorak]

The sewers of hell

The routing of the horde was easily accomplished, their decimation was swift. Air Ace and Vagrant followed the other into the sewers mere minutes after their separation.

'A moment Ace.' Vagrant stopped, leaning heavily against the grimy sewer wall 'I need you to guard my back.'

Taking deep breaths to slow his racing heart he reaches up to his face with a hand that surprises him in how little it shakes.

When he lifts the mask from his face Emily can see tears running down his face. He touches his fingers to the wetness, examining them with a detached air. He rubs his tear stained fingers against his thumb, watching this action as it he expected it to yield some hidden pearl of wisdom. If so he was disappointed. He wiped his cheeks in a gesture that was at once angry and resigned. 'I'm sorry,' he said, his voice almost level, only slightly quivering 'I never thought I'd come back here... This is all becoming too much. How many times will I have to kill Malador before I am free of him? The tears had stopped, yet it was plain to Emily he was not yet fit to continue 'Vengeance is an empty pursuit. Twice I killed Malador with my parent's names on my lips. Neither time did I feel any better. Only emptier, dirtier. Now I have to go face Leeds. Gods above and Below Ace! As glad as I am to see survivors, so greatly do I fear their beholding me.'


Back at Base

Roland keeps his gaze down when they come upon the camp, trying to appear as inconspicuous as a man can be dressed in golden armour. He tries not to look anyone in the eye and politely separates himself from their celebration, the agony of not knowing what the scout party has told the greater body of survivors is unbearable. It leaves him all but squirming.

The others might have expected some great outburst from Vagrant when he saw Navi, given his previous behaviour. Instead he quietly walked up to her and set his hand on her shoulder, as it to reassure himself she was real 'Navi.' It was all he needed to say.


A mother's sacrifice

As soon as the light fell away Vagrant was there with Ava. Although not unskilled in magical healing Zia's condition, even before she started winking away, was beyond him. Here was something with which he had far more experience. Basic trauma medicine.

His hand on Ava's shoulder glowed, a tiny palid flame to that which had preceded it. 'Rest now Ava.

Healing 12

[ripleycat]

Emily was unready for the emotions and confession that came spilling out of Vagrant. He was a good man and a nice guy (those are not always the same thing) from what she had seen, but she'd known the mage for what? An hour or two? She bit her lip and watched helplessly as her partner in god-fueled asskicking had a minor breakdown in a filthy sewerpipe.

Why did the survivors hate and fear Vagrant so much? Obviously, he'd been mixed up in whatever apocalyptic series of events had turned this world into a shattered wasteland of perpetual night. But if he was the one who killed Malador, why the hatred? She was curious. There was a hell of a story here, and so far she'd only gotten snippets, whispers, and half-truths. She wanted the whole thing, but now was certainly not the time to ask. She put her hand on his shoulder and watched for ghouls until Vagrant got some kind of control back.

"I'm sorry. So, so sorry. I can't... I don't... I'm not the one to make this better. I can't imagine what you've gone through. I mean that literally, it's beyond my comprehension. I-I suck at this kind of thing, and really I wish I didn't. Everything just get twisted up in my head when I try to say it."

"Look, whatever it might be worth, what we just did? That wasn't vengeance. That was protection, defiance, guardianship, whatever you want to dip into the thesaurus and call it. We faced Malador down so the civilians could get away." She helped him up and offered a very forced grin. "And hey, remember, maybe you're right, and that wasn't Malador at all. You might have only killed him once. The jury's still out on that." She pokes his stylized falcon-helmet. "And you grabbed that hammer, same as me! 'Let we two do what is right/Banish evil into the night!' The gods decided you were worthy of that awesome getup, and they haven't taken it away yet, so you're still doing right."

"Leeds can go suck rocks if he gives you trouble. All I can judge you on is what I've seen, and what I've seen is you being nothing but a big damn hero. Take all the time you need. Lemme you're good to go, I'll keep an eye out."
...

When they get back to the camp, Air Ace just grabs a spot of open floor near a wall and collapses for a moment, with no goal beyond getting off her feet for a few minutes.

That plan goes to hell fairly quickly as she sees the condition the girl is in, and as things quickly go from bad to worse to even worse, Emily is unable to do much but look on in utter horror as Zia and her mother are each decimated by whatever the Navimatrix had done. As Vagrant approaches the scene, she finally finds her voice. "Sweet Jesus. I-Is she alright? What was that!?"

[Raynn]

Everyone:
For all future cases of the Inspiration Optional Scene Rewrite please ask about the rewrite before posting. :smallsmile: That is all. :smallsmile:
Hero Point to Ridai.


The Five of Six

As the group stares on at Zia and Ava Zia's aura becomes visible, flickering like Navi's was, as Ava slowly burns away the bio-engine that makes up the Navimatrix.

Slowly but surely Zia stops jumping back and forth and soon her complexion returns to normal, morphing back into her more humanoid self. Ava kneels beside her and a symbol (http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQllFpa8BYw7af1EOZVHlKqvKHeR9g9O z9bgzr0cnU0mH-2K-fmSGMD9Zr1_g) is burned into her chest. Zia though is exhausted and has obviously lost consciousness, though she seems otherwise alright.

Looking guilty Navi simply whispers



"I'm sorry . . ."

At that Leeds enters the tent again looks elated at the whole group, not recognizing Vagrant in his new get up and with him being so many years older


"Is It True?! Have You All Really Slain Malador?!"

[Ladorak]

'It's ok Ace... You can't make this right because no one can. You have nothing to apologise for. This is the way things are. This is the way I made things.' A great sigh issued forth, spilling his heartache into the air 'And for what it's worth, that wasn't a bad little speech at all.' he attempts a feeble smile of his own as he sets his helmet back onto his head.

'We're all accountable for our own actions. When I see Leeds, I'll have to account for mine.' He sounds sick, yet continues 'In truth the man has ample reason to hate me... My hands are covered in blood. I doomed this world. I abandoned them to Eldritch, and sealed them away so no one else could help them. At the time I believed it was for the greater good. Now I see these poor people... This cursed place.' He started forward down the tunnel, finally finding the thread of resolve needed to join the suvivors 'We have to save them Ace, we have to get them all out of here. We have to.'

********

'Shhh, shhh.' Vagrant stepped around Ava, gently easing her onto her back'It's ok Ava, you did it. She's ok. She's ok. Now rest. Rest.' He added a tiny supernatural suggestion to his last word. It was all that was required, the exhausted mother's eyes rolled upward and she went limp.

He started with the basics, stopping the flow of blood and replacing that which was lost. The white glow from his hand dissipated, seeming to evaporate into the air. Only Dare and Vagrant himself knew that the energy had not evaporated, that presently thousands of tiny magical constructs were swimming in Ava's veins. Next he sealed the wounds with shimmering silver shields, nowhere near the arts required to knit flesh, but enough to restrict more blood escaping.

Thus afforded a moment he glanced up at Zia 'You have a wonderful mother young lady. You are very lucky to have he-'

His words suddenly trailed away as his eyes widened in horror. 'Oh sweet spirits! Dare, please tell me that symbol isn't what I think it is... '

He stops suddenly, as Leeds enters the tent. Instantly his head drops, his shoulders hang, he looks little more than a child in fear of severe rebuke. In answer he whispers softly 'I don't think so. Whatever that was, we killed it. But it didn't sound like Malador, it didn't act like Malador.

It doesn't matter... Listen, Leeds, you have to gather your people. A portal's opening in less then two hours, I want to get all of you away from here. It's safe where we're going. All of your people Leeds, we have plenty of room.'


Another heal 12 for Ava

[smuchmuch]

"Dream ?" Shade ***** an eyebrow, it does sound like a weirdly descriptive and odd pseudonym but then gain, "Shade" is hardly one to judge is she ? She never heard of those 'Endless', though. sounds pretentious. Adding the coments about his domain, sahde supposed the person in front of her is likely a powerfull dream controller and maybe slightly insane, better to tread with cautoin.

"Why kill him ? odd question" Considering the circumstances at least, it seems it'd be rather self explanatory, the question one would expect would have rather been along the lines of 'By what right ?" and "should you really ?"
Is "Dream" clueless to the state of Earth outside or does he have a deeply different system of mentality Silvia shrugs and make a chair appear in the whiteness of the dreaming. She does smirk a bit when she notices it look very Atlantean in design, make a bit of sense, it's her power controlling the dream but it's still Malador imagination after all. "but I'll indulge if you don't mind answering a few question back"

"First I went in the hope to help some friends. I'm not sure what I was really hoping. Maybe that Malador was somehow connected to the undead attacking us and they'd magically disappear if I killed him" she waves her hand a bit, conscious of how dumb that sounds, in retrospect. "I don't know that much about necromancy,okay? besides it's magic, everything possible."

"Second, Malfurion is no more, I think, only Malador remains now. He is too far gone in his obsessions, to trapped in his own ego that I think he could ever change hs way. Beyond ah.." Shade almost spit the word "redemption. And this is what Malador wrought." Around them a pale imitation of the desolated landscape as seen from the lich throne's room flashes before turning into a mass of grey silhouettes and finally fade "How many victims ?. Hundreds,
million, "Billions ? No mention of them anywhere in his dreams, I doubt he still cares, if he ever really did A tyrant who destroyed countless lives.
And will do it again if he comes back. And he will come back too, Even if he never get his hand on Vagrant it'll just take some a few more centuries, that's all." An unwitting would be archeologist in one century or so to take the mask, then some unwitting person with some poor jerk with latent magical talent to try it on out of curiosity and... "

"I have no personal stake in this. I don't have the pretention to be the righter of wrongs, even if his action certainly deserves death, the avenger of the fallen" ..there's an almost imperceptible awkward pose, because Shade ears just realized just how much this is sounding like rationalization even to herself. Is she trying to convince Morpheus or herself ?
"or whatever.. Only the fear of freeing something worst is staying my hand for now" Eldritch has been surprisingly absent from the whole deal so far. Is it wise to kill the only power that has been known to rival him so far ? Where could he be? What is he up to ?
"but if one simple gesture can prevent a lot of tragedy..." then how would it be Risk hundreds later just spare herself the uncertainity of wondering if it was the right thing to do ?.
"It's all.

Shade lets a few second of silence, thinking, then the though that had ben bothering her in the back of her mind finally drops
"Death ? is your sister" Is that guy actualy implying...
She's pretty sure if death was that goth girl, she would vaguely remember meeting her. Besides ... you'd expect the embidiment of all imaination and inspirations and phantasm to be somewhat more sureal, imporsonal.. unfathomable. And unkikely to even want to alk with her int eh first place, it'd be like the sea suddenly asking a fish how is it hanging. "Guess death is but a long sleep then ? and me not even noticing I just had to wake up" Shade bite her lips at that one (the cheek was somewhat uncalled for but for obvios reasobn she just tend to get awfully passive agressive when people mention the subject of death.) "Anymore of your charming relatives going around ?"

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Dare watches the scene impassively, constantly trying to update his plan despite the changing circumstances. At first confined to treatment of Ava's child, then the growing crisis of a second Navimatrix. For a brief moment, he entertained the thought of accessing the "programming" of the new superpowered Navimatrix to get everyone back early. Then Ava pulled her trick with the life-force she channeled. Back to square one. Never underestimate a protective mother.

At Vagrant's question, he considers the symbol. "Life. Do you think they're actually bonded with it, or just have a direct line to it?"

"Of more immediate concern, you are aware that whatever this 'Cullie Act' is, it applies just as much to them as it does to you. I'll help you as much as I can, but only you as the champion of this world can make the decision to evacuate. If we can find a way to hijack Isiah's portal to somewhere more friendly, that would be ideal, but I don't think I can manage anything in an hour and a half. And I really hope Shade shows up soon."

[Ladorak]

Vagrant nods slightly, his eyes shimmering dangerously 'I have nothing but respect for Mr Washington. But if he goes against me in this... I am prepared to do whatever it takes. It would be best if you distanced yourself from me, it if comes to that, no sense in us both going rogue.
'These are refugees, once they are through they can claim sanctuary in the USA, the only challenge will be... convincing Washington to leave the portal open until all are through.'

[Raynn]

Time skip to Isiah meeting then?


- The Five -

Leeds seems stunned by the news


"I . . . I think I can have every one ready to move out in about a half hour if you can cover us to wherever this portal is as we move through the streets."


***


- The Individual -

Dream barely moves as he speaks and there seems to be an ancient weariness to his voice


"Yes, there are others, but they're not here.

Is that it then. Kill one defenseless monster to possibly save defenseless innocents later.

It's the sacrifice isn't it. Justified. You do something terrible now, to save others from something terrible later, but how far is this justified? What if all of your earth was at stake? What evil could a man be justified in doing then? How many could die to save every human life your world will ever propagate?

Where does this line of reason end? His death is justified to save others, just like Pan justified breaking one law to save Malfurian's life, and he justified studying forbidden arts to resurrect Pan.

The Ends Justified The Means.

Where does that end?

Isn't it odd? The Navimatrix was innert in Navi for so long, you ended up together, with strangers, Vagrant attended the funeral of a man he couldn't stand, Doctor Dare returned from his Earth just in time to join you all here. Air Ace too is a new arrival in your reality. You didn't cross over.

All that leading to you being asked

If the ends justified the means what couldn't a man be justified in doing to save the human race?

How couldn't you be justified in killing Malador right now, he may hurt others later.

What is your choice?"

[ripleycat]

"It should be fairly close by. And we'll look out for you, don't worry." Emily gets to her feet and waves Remembrance over, then approaches the others, speaking quietly. "When Ava's stabilized and conscious, and when that ghost, uh, Shade, you called her? Is she here? No? When she gets back from wherever she went, we need to find a quiet corner, get everyone together, and talk." She looks at Dare and Vagrant, her flippant attitude replaced by something far more serious. "I don't give a rat's ass about the Cullie Act, but everyone has to be on the same page by the time that portal opens. Not negotiable."

Is Horus, or Henry Farrow now, I guess, in the crowd anywhere?

[Green Bean]

Remembrance kept quiet and out of the way as Zia underwent her bizarre metamorphosis and immediate cure. The whole thing was far out of her league, a common occurrence today.

When Air Ace waves her over, Remembrance understands immediately what the conversation would be about. "Yes, there's a few things we need to go over before we leave. Here, where we're probably out of range of the Freedom League's surveillance."

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Dare lets out a short chuckle. "Please don't get me wrong. I will personally harangue and back Isiah into a corner over an act of mercy like this. The problem is, as a Guardian, I can't initiate such a decision myself. That is up to the champions of both worlds to decide, as both Vagrant, Ava, and Remembrance (was that it?) so represent. So I shall be acting on your behalf if I do so.

"Here's my plan for when we hash it out with Isiah: First of all, the people of this world are refugees, plain and simple. We'll take Mr. Leeds here with us and request sanctuary, and hopefully, his mere presence will be enough of a shock to give us an edge. Vagrant and I both attended Claremont, so I'm hoping we can use that as a way to be legitimized. That will make Blackest Night's presence questionable at best, thus giving us an out to the rest of you off the hook for attacking him. Hopefully I can set up some sort of HQ and get to the bottom of what's going on.

"Any contributions, question, objections, or other pertinent information I've missed?"

Taking the time to formulate a Master Plan. Not looking at the moment, but I think that's a straight Intelligence roll.
[roll0]

[Ladorak]

'A united front would be wise, thank you my old friend.' Vagrant's voice was thick with gratitude, as if the sheer sentiment choked him, constricted his throat and closed his airways 'It is good... not to be alone anymore... You were always better at... talking then me.'

He slowly raises to his feet, for a short man the act of reaching his full height seems unduly complicated, like the unfolding of an intricate mathematical measuring device. He seemed to draw something into himself as he rose. 'But I say again, if this comes to blows, it must fall to me and me alone.' His eyes flicked to Leeds 'I have to make this right, and if there is any burden to be borne it must be by me alone. Let the FLI hunt me, it is a truly small price to pay to give these people safety and freedom.'

He frowned then, first at Air Ace and then Remembrance. 'But I don't think that's what you want to discuss, is it? he smiled suddenly, bittersweet and ironic 'I know bad news, and you two have been dragging a whole load of that behind you since we've met. Well, we finally have a quiet moment. Speak, unburden yourselves, I can see these words weigh heavy on you.'

[ripleycat]

"Well, all right. I suppose we can fill Shade and Ava in on the details when they come around and come to, respectively."

Emily takes a deep breath, claps her hands and begins. "OK, I figured this was gonna sound insane, but that was before we ended up fighting the immortal skeleton wizard in the alternate dimension of eternal night. Not quite as crazy now. Last night, Remembrance and I were both visited in a dream, or The Dreaming, I suppose, by Death herself. Death, incidentally, is a cute goth girl with some really cool shoes and an ankh necklace. Sorry if I just spoiled a mystery of the universe for you."

"Anyway, Death explained that because we were more in tune with time travel than most people, we had been chosen to seek out Dr. Dare during his trip to Earth-8, and that we were to join him and form a team. The rest of the team was to be made up of 'those that were with him'- all of you. That was why we were at Champions when you were. That was not coincidence, but rather Death giving us a time and place and saying 'you're going to be here and do this,' though introductions probably could have been smoother."

"Aside from helping you form this team, Doc, we were also told to keep you alive. One of the reasons for surrounding you with this crew was that there are forces that wish to 'end you,' to use Death's phrase. And furthermore, that when the time was right, we would have to stop the Lord of Space. That's not being vague and prophetic, it's a title, given to the literal living embodiment of the Space half of Space-Time. I asked."

"The Lord of Space, according to Death, is going to do something, something big, that goes against the natural order of the universe and will 'permanently upset' said order if he succeeds. She would not tell us what this universe-shaking thing was, on the grounds that if we were told, he would enact his plans ahead of schedule, and kill us while he was at it."

"She also dropped the encouraging tidbit that the Lord of Space can't be killed, but that was just about everything we were told." Emily glances down awkwardly at her hands for a moment. "Now, Remembrance, this part's new for you, too, but when we were getting prepped to be sent here and rescue you guys, I found out some big news. Doc, Vagrant, you remember what he said before the portal opened? When he dropped the big bombshell about Omega's fate? That his counterpart had sacrificed himself to destroy big O? That the Lord of Time had sacrificed himself. That's why I insisted we have this conversation here, on this world."

"The Lord of Space is Isiah Washington, head of the Freedom League. And he's gonna be here in less than an hour to pick us up."

[smuchmuch]

"Really ?" Shade look taken aback byt the question. Sure it's only fair that when a live (monstruous as it may be) is on the line, that some consideration be given to it but ..." You take this situation, you expand it in a question so broad and expect me to give a binary answer ? I would have answered 'no' in a heartbeat when I stil had one, now...

Sometime.
It's how the road to hell that is paved with good intentions starts; And yeah it's probably a terrible philosophy to live by.
But nonethless I've seen too much not to believe wide eyed idealism and bravery alone only get you so far. Sometime there's a place for pragmastism, sometime you have to be cold hearted." Shade shrugs, looking uncomfortable. The girl she used to be and who admired the old superheroes and tried to be one is crying inside, and the woman who was murdered cringes at that kind of moral relativism who could so easily be used and twisted to justify any kind of murder but the last eleven year have changed her point of view quite a bit."Depends of the stakes, depends of the options." she take a small shistfull pause before finishing with a bit more conviction "I can't answer for ohers but it ends when I say the price isn't worh the stakes. Or until someone makes me stop."

She waves at the blankness where the dreams of Malador once stood.
"Like him. I would be lying if I said i'm not slightly ashamed to feel a bit of sympathy for the bastard, and I apreciate a storry of true love as much as any other" And, changing fate... killing death... it does hold a certain attraction,does it not ?. "but it pales as an excuse after the second mass murder. At which point, did save one woman jsutify destoying a whole world, countless of innocent lives ? Couldn't he have found something else with all his knowlege and power ? Did he even bother ?How many more will he sacrifice ?" It's true, it would be easier if he was standing or gloating or fuming on his damned throne or whatever it is he does."One way or another, his means justify his end.

"And the lives of a whole planet..." Didn't dire once saves all sentient lives on this planet by comdemning those of another dimension. Though Shade doubt the meglomaniac bitch had even a tingle of moral hesitation at that kind of decision. "I did help save an universe a couple of time, well once at least, but moraly it was mostly smooth sailing, got lucky here I guess. I do hope I never have to find to what abyss someone could sink to for such stakes." why does she suspect she'll have no such luck ? "But I don't think you started this line of conversation without a reason did you, did you ?"

Bleh. It's a terrible post, I don't like it in the slightest but at this point, i have already slowed this game anough and I just can't come with anything better.

[Raynn]

5 of 6

Just waiting for someone to close out this scene so we can move on to the end of the issue and everyone dog-piling to get in Isiah's face.


***

The Dead Girl Who Dreams

Dream nods at Shade's closing question


"I have a reason.

Your world is doomed. I am not being cryptic, I do not reference whatever myriad plot or conspiracy that my sister seeks to avert, or appears too, I refer to the dynamic of your world.

The have and the have nots. It has always been by birth that you humans have decided who would sit on top of the pile. Whether it was being born a chieftains first son in ancient Africa or being born into old New England money. Now what are your greatest birthrights? Oil, money, influence?

No your have removed the torrid filters and veils, the greatest birthright is power. Mutants, mutates' children, alien human hybrids etc. A vastly greater number of heroes and villains are born with their abilities than actually earn them.

For every Diego Torres there are a dozen Clark Leeds to hammer him down. To remind him only so much can be earned.

This always occurs, the Gods will always war with man over the power born to the Gods and a hundred times the Gods have been forced back, every time since Prometheus stole their fire.

But now is different. Now their number of Gods number in the thousands, and they claim, for a decent part, the justification of a just world.

This paradigm cannot persist.

The world can not be remain human and post-human.

A day will come when the world will teeter on the edge of this nameless oblivion, of chaos and destruction, or a new way, or perhaps an old way, and a question will be asked,

What would Silvia Sloane do to save the world?"

Dream turns away and suddenly a plane of infinite possibility reaches out before the pair, the dreaming in its raw incomprehensible form


"Take the phlactery and go, he left no booby traps, none that remain. You seem effectively immortal, take the skull with you, watch over it, perhaps take a human lifetime or two to mull over your decision. You need not kill him quickly. He has waited a long time for death. Go to your friends. They wait back at the base of the man Leeds. They'll be leaving this reality in less than hour. I suggest you hurry.

Oh more thing. Some people wished to say goodbye, and that they are . . .

Proud of you . . ."

At that Dream fades away and leaves behind himself the faded appearances of a dozen or more dead heroes, friends of Shade, Next Gen and Freedom League members who had died during Event 84. . . Oddly enough Dr. Metropolis is missing . . .

They smile, they wave and then . . .

Shade awakes.

She remains before the throne, alone before the skull which remains motionless.

What do you do?

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Dare sits back for a second, deep in thought. Finally, he speaks. "From what I've seen of Isiah in the past, he's definitely one of the good guys... Which in no way rules out destroying the balance of nature. My family hasn't always been heroes, so we can be a bit pragmatic when dealing with the White Knight types. Sometimes the best of intentions have the worst of conclusions. Add in the fact that immortal beings, such as my grandfather Daedalus, can be slightly unstable due to the unnatural progression of years, what you've said is certainly possible."

With a sigh, he starts organizing his thoughts. "We are all together now, so we've passed the first obstacle. Seeing his position in the FLI, and ours as potential fugitives, we cannot move against him without some serious planning and evidence. I'm guessing that we will need to act at a certain crisis point in order to counteract whatever he has planned. We'll need to discuss this further, but only under the strictest of anti-surveillance measures. We should also try to stay close to the FLI in order to know what is going on. When we talk to Isiah, I'm going to try to keep us together as a group, with a secure location we can meet."

After waiting a moment to gauge their response, he moves towards Ava, being sure to put on gloves to minimize contact with her (or Navi, if it comes to it). "I figured she needed to rest after that stunt she pulled. However, she needs to get moving now. When we fill her in, be sure to emphasize our wait and observe plan. She does report to Isiah in some way, as does Thanatos. From what I know of Shade, I don't think that will be a problem with her."

The Doctor quickly checks Ava's vitals, then presses a few pressure points to bring her around gently. The trick is knowing what is true about alternative medicine. Chakra manipulation has some connection to bodily function.

He leaves the explanations to the others before moving towards the mayor. "Sir, I'm going to guess that you are in charge here. If your people are willing, we're going to try to evacuate you to a more hospitable universe. I would like to have you on hand when we talk to the person who is bringing us home. In the meantime, if you could organize everyone. I assure you that the two who have received the power of Horus are capable of defending them, not to mention the fact that we destroyed the one who was organizing the undead. Does that sound good to you?"

A thought suddenly occurs to him, and he turns towards Roland and Air Ace "Speaking of our shiny heroes. Hey, you two! If you have any communication with Horus, see what he says and wants out of the current situation."

Take 10 on the medicine check to revive Ava.
Will that do for wrapping us up? I figure anyone else can put in their responses later, as long as we have the main concept in place.

[Ladorak]

Vagrant nods at what Dare has said 'Perhaps it was not only cruel fate that led us here. We have worked with Washington before. I believed him a good man, I still do. I would not have credited these words had I not seen their bearer's worth. You have given us much to think on.
'Once this nonsense with the Cullie Act is resolved, I have safe haven where we may discuss away from prying FLI eyes.
'If you will excuse me, there are two things I must do before we leave.'

Without waiting for answer, he disappeared into the ether

And emerged hundreds of miles away. Blasted farmland stretches far in all directions. He is near what remains of a burnt up house, with ponderous steps he steps over what is left of the threshold and looks around a home he had not seen in two decades. A barrage of long forgotten memories assailed him, more than his mind could hold. He carefully climbs the stairs and looks in on his room, and then his parent's room. He tries to sit on the edge of their bed, as he did when he was a child, but the blackened woodwork could not support his weight.

Finally he left his former home and walked toward an uprooted willow tree. He scans about until he sees the marker stones he had left so many years ago

'Hi mom, hey dad. I see the willow's fallen down again, sorry I wasn't here to right it. I know you wanted to be buried under it. I'll pick it up before I leave.
'I'm... so sorry I haven't been here in so long. I escaped, I guess you probably already knew that. I miss you. I haven't seen you in two decades, but not a day goes by without some fond thought of you two. You took me in and made me your own, I never thanked you for that. It's only because you made me so much your own it seemed only natural to my child's eyes. But thank you, I thank you now so much. I love you both so much, and always did, and always will.
'I have to go now... I have to get back to my new home. I wish you could've seen it. You would have been safe there. It's so beautiful and so safe. I'm so sorry he killed you, you should have told him where I was. He still would have killed you, but it would have been quick... I would have made that sacrifice for you, but I suppose that was your sacrifice for me.
'I love you.'

And then he was back at the camp, glancing at his watch and growing increasingly worried about Shade

[Ridai]

Ava only slowly comes to her senses. Though many of her wounds are still open and her arm is still missing, breathing is easier now and her body is resilient enough to be stable now. Her first look goes to Zia, causing a happy gasp to escape the healer's lips before she lifts herself up enough to kiss her daughter's forehead. Soon after, Ava feels Nathaniel's strong arms help her get onto her feet again, with her simply resting against him for a moment, letting the bliss of knowing her family is alive and well fill her mind and heart.

Only reluctantly does she break contact, heading over to Navi, standing before her, looking at her. Ava takes a deep breath. "It wasn't your fault, Navi. You did nothing wrong." Making sure her life force is properly guarded (as usual), Ava gives the navimatrix a motherly hug. "But I still need to ask you to avoid physical contact with Zia, for her own safety. Do you understand?" She knows this last bit isn't helping Navi's morale, but Ava has a duty as a mother to protect her child. Still, she doesn't want poor Navi to suffer.

[smuchmuch]

Shade lifet a hand but doesn't have th time to, say anything tot he figures of the fallen; Just two second to talk to them...

Silently the dead girl lifts the skull from it's throne and take long look at it.
In the end, did he avert fate or did he made it happen ? Was it worth it ? What did he wish for ? Not that it mattered anymore now. ...Dream said he'd been waiting for death. And what aother way wasn there ? Keep him ? emprison him ? Hide him , it had already been done ? He'd got away, possibly even worst.

Then she look out the window. There's no more army of zombie outside, not even little groups looking around, one way or another the battle ended. Since vagrant isn't being trained here to be turned into a new host body, Shade can only assume the others own or managed to flee. The only view are the ruins standing int he darkness, silent witness to half a century of destruction.

Her hands clenches for a little while as she was mimicking the act of crushing the object. There's no hatred, no righeous fire in her mind, just guilt. She doesnt deserve their pride. But this.. had to be done , sooner or later. Small cracks appears on the golden surface...
No. If there hadn't been that dream, if she hadn't seen once agin those faces she fought alongside, he'd be already dead. They were idealistic fools the lot of them, and how she admired them for it and they would have kept him alive. it was the stupid to do of course, she knew it, but she couldn't tarnish their memory. She can't do it, not just right now, not like that.

Slowly she pick up the mask and floats out of the window in direction of the camp.

[Raynn]

~ The Six In All ~
~Together At The End ~

As Shade descends towards her allies, skull in hand, she sees hundreds of civilians in a column being led by the heroes.

Nathaniel, a.k.a. Thanatos, is blasting away any zombies he can find near the group with his hellfire before they can get close enough to accost the group, and it is obvious he's taking his frustrations about what this world has done to his family out on these horrid creatures.

It doesn't appear that Thanatos needs assistance as the few stragglers of undead that encounter the group he deals with swiftly. By the time Shade lands beside the others along side Leeds and Bolt they have already reached the rendezvous point.

Vagrant looks back to see the skull in Shade's hands just as a portal opens behind the group . . .

In his typical Armani attire Isiah steps out in the grim night of Earth 6565 and surveys the scene before simply saying


"So Requiem owes me ten dollars,"

He looks over the group, his eyes lingering momentarily on Leeds before surveying the column of civilians


"Earth 373, no Event 84, no F.L.I. and a largely reduced super human population. I'll trade the design of Sentient #6 Nano-synthetic synapses to their Daedalus so he'll take this bunch of them. I can have their Freedom League start setting up a refugee camp as soon as possible,"

then his eyes lock on Vagrant, Air Ace and Doctor Dare


"You three are still supposed to be deported, but you technically just bought yourself time. Extra dimensional illegal aliens have a grace period under the Cullie Act, and I have an idea to buy you three a little more time. If Ava, Remembrance and Shade will help you,"

Thanatos seems more than just annoyed that his name goes unmentioned


"Are we ready to move out?"

[Ridai]

Ava can only imagine what her husband must feel like as she watches him take out the undead and sees his face as he has been left out. He hadn't been able to prevent Ava and Zia from disappearing to this dimension or help cure Zia. Ava knows how much all this weighs on him, in addition to him always having to be careful around Zia to avoid being drained. She wouldn't blame him for any of that, rather she is happy that he is there for his wife and daughter and thankful for all he did for them despite everything that has happened throughout the years, but at times it is difficult for her to make him see that and feel good about it.

Ava puts her good arm around Nathaniel's back (her other arm will take a while, not wanting to risk healing herself that much until she is sure her body has completely regained it's equilibrium of life energy), all while keeping Zia close. "I will help. They are good people, they don't deserve to be deported." She still cannot stand Isiah too much, not after what he put Robert through years back and other things in that vein (and she has vocally let him know what she thought in the past), but this isn't the time for animosity.

[Ladorak]

Hold, there is one more thing to be done, before we leave.'

He stepped away from the group, heading toward the refugees. He held his hands up, commanding their attention. Then, with great reluctance, he removed his shining helmet. His long braided hair spilled out down is neck.

'I don't know how many of you recognise me. I am Vagrant, here more commonly called the Dark Apprentice, or Roland the Changling.
'I am here at least, to make as much restitution as I am able, and to offer endless apology.
'I am indeed a monster by your lights, but I am not the monster you believe me to be. I will offer what little defence I am able.
'I cannot speak greatly of my origins. I am, as was widely said, not human. I am a thing created, a Promethean. The ritual of my creation remains hidden, it is my ambition that it die with me, for it could create far feller things than I.
'Knowing this... My parents took me in, a cursed baby, and made me their own, offered me boundless love. Malador killed them... very slowly. They would not tell him where I was. I don't think Malador even knew I was the failed experiment he'd abandoned almost a decade before. I think he just heard of some hedge wizard whose soul he could drain.
'And then... My utter shame, the low ebb of my life. I joined Eldritch. For his trust I blooded my hands, I killed my first innocent after two years in his service. I was almost eleven. I would continue in his service for another four years. When Eldritch's eye was on me I slaughtered without hesitation, when it was not I spared the innocent, wiping the incident from their minds to maintain my secret. I saved many, as best I could. I killed more.
'I did what I did with a gun pointed against the back of my neck, but that is no excuse. Because I also did what I did with revenge in my heart. I told myself I manifested the revenge of this world. In truth it was only my own. Revenge is no fit motive. If I had did what I did with higher purpose I might dare to beg your forgiveness. But I did not.
'I thought I had my revenge, hollow as it was, when I left this world. I believed that I had killed Malador for the final time. I believed I had my revenge against Eldritch. I believed I had trapped him here.
'So often he had boasted his future ambitions, Dark Lord of a sprawling multiplanar empire. It seemed the best revenge I could manage against a foe I could never defeat...
'And for a long time I didn't think about what I done. For a long time I didn't think about here at all. I tried to force it from my mind. Soon you will be safe and understand why.
'So... I never thought about what I had done to you. I thought myself so clever, corrupting Eldritch's own ritual to consume Malador and using it to trap him in the world he had destroyed. I took pride in all the innocents I spared that day... I never thought about those I had trapped with him. Until the day he told me he had sacrificed every person on this planet to brake my barrier. That was the worst day of my life. Worse than my first kill. Worse than finding my parents' mangled bodies.
'I cannot tell you how that has weighed on me. I cannot tell you how much finding you here means to me. I cannot tell you how sorry I am. I do not have the words, I doubt the words exist.'

[ripleycat]

As Vagrant gives his heartfelt speech to the refugees, Air Ace approaches one of them in particular, an older, white-haired man. "Mister... um, Horus?" Emily smiles awkwardly. "I don't know your true name, but thank you. The power of the gods was put to good use. In all likelihood, you saved our lives. I hope Earth-373 is all Mr. Washington has made it out to be, and that all of you get to live the rest of your days in peace."

"Magic is not my forte, so before we leave this place, uh, how does one return this power to its rightful wielder, to you? Is there an incantation or something I have to say or do?"

[Raynn]

~ The Six In All ~

Thanatos lays his hand on Ava's resting on his shoulder and says nothing, giving her a warm smile instead.

As Vagrant speaks Leeds has already begun leading civilians through the portal to Earth 373. As he finishes he pauses and stares at Vagrant dumbstruck and horrified.

Suddenly a blue crackling blur launches into Vagrant and he is gone, as Bolt appears to be from the crowd . . .


***

The Smoking Ruins of Claremont Academy . . .

Vagrant looks up and around him and as the figure he recognizes holds him up by the throat he glances around to realize he has arrived at the location of one of the few massacres he was present for. . . the destruction of Claremont Academy. It looks as much like a smoking ruin as when he last left it.


"I WILL VIBRATE YOU APART ATOM BY ATOM FOR WHAT YOU DID YOU F****** MONSTER! DEATH IS TOO GOOD FOR YOU YOU B******! YOU HELPED HIM KILL MY FATHER! YOU DESERVE THIS!"


***

Back where people aren't killing each other . . .

Horus' Ankh appears before Air Ace as she finishes the sentence, in Henry Farrow's old weathered hands. A look of horror appears on Henry's face as Air Ace instinctively knows willing the power to someone else allows Horus to move on . . .

The Air Ace realizes why Mr. Farrow looks horrified . . .


***

Back at the Claremont Ruins. . .

Vagrant glows for a moment as the power of Horus leaves him, he instinctively knows Air Ace gave it up . . . Bolt grins as he pulls his fist back . . .


***

At the Portal . . .

Isiah sighs


"Just for ONCE I wish we could have a 'heroes of two worlds' type team up without us trying to kill each other. We Were So Close This Time!"

Isiah motions to Leeds


"Keep the Civilians moving, the rest of the heroes will deal with this. Dare, Air Ace, Ava, Remembrance, Shade, Thanatos, fix this!"

Hero Point to Vagrant for the speech, Hero Point to Vagrant for the set back. Edit: Hero Point for Bolt Re-roll.

Bolt's Attack Roll: [roll0] vs. Vagrant Flat-footed Defense.
DC 30 Toughness Save on a hit, grapple attempt on a hit.
Opposed Grapple Check: [roll1] 26
DC 25 Toughness Save if grappled.

Will Hero point that grapple Check in the OoC thread.

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Dare is amused and intrigued in turn as Isiah mentions the bet and the opportunity he has in mind.

And then Vagrant makes his speech.

And this after I managed to avoid using his name at all after the Horus incident. As he turns towards the others, he is becoming visibly agitated. "If Bolt doesn't kill him, I Might Do It Myself! He Knew Better!" As he speaks, his voice begins to resonate more and he draws himself to his full height, and then some, becoming more imposing with every word.

Then he sees the power of Horus transfer, and he finally snaps. All his childhood therapy sessions go out the window as he loses his temper. "GRAH! MR. FARROW, UNLESS YOU PLAN ON HELPING IN SOME WAY, DARE RECOMMENDS YOU HOLD ONTO THAT AHNK TIGHTLY AND GO THROUGH THE PORTAL! DOES ANYBODY HAVE A WAY TO FOLLOW THEM?"

No more does the convivial Doctor stand there, but a full member of the Dire household is revealed in all his imposing glory.

[ripleycat]

As Bolt zips away with Vagrant's throat clutched in his fingers, Emily lets out a stream of swearing that would make a sailor blush and jams down the throttle on her rocketpack as far as it will go. The 70-year-old tech performs admirably, screaming to life in a split second and blinding and deafening those nearby for a moment as it spits twin tongues of fire. Then Air Ace is gone, streaking into the darkness, following the dust trail kicked up by the speedster.

She arrives at the charred ruins of Claremont scant seconds after Bolt does. Seeing the dire situation, she jerks her raygun from its holster and fires a blinding beam at the speedster. "You put him down this second, or the next shot's gonna have a whole lot more punch behind it!"

Moving All-Out after Bolt as a full action. She reaches the pair in one round.

Using Extra Effort to surge and gain another action. Air Ace will be fatigued next turn.

Accurate Attack (+4/-4), into melee (-4 to hit), Dazzle, DC 15 Reflex save for Bolt if it hits. Fort saves on following rounds. [roll0]

[Raynn]

Reflex Save: [roll0]


Air Ace & Vagrant

Bolt blurs for a split second as he dodges the shot, and looks up at Air Ace enraged


"He's a murderer and deserves to pay for what he did! No amount of good deeds or apologies will bring back the people's he's killed! If I let him go you people won't even send him to prison for what he's done! He doesn't deserve freedom after he helped turn Freedom City into THIS!"

Bolt motions to the ruins of Claremont that surround the trio.


***


The Others

Doctor Dare can guess their destination from their direction and the trail Air Ace's rockets leave in the air. Henry Farrow rushes through the portal like he's told while Isiah gives Doctor Dare and smile and says jokingly


"Your grandmother would be proud, third person suits you,"

Isiah clicks his fingers and a second portal opens where Dare tells him he thinks they're headed, and sure enough on the other end of the portal is Claremont Academy in ruins and the trio that have already arrived


"Isiah Public Transport, walk this way, keep hands and feet within the tear the fabric of reality at all times, please tip your driver."

[Green Bean]

Remembrance is prepared for an immediate confrontation by Isiah, so she hangs back and watches as he musters a clinical breakdown of the sad history of Earth 6565 and then solves the problem of the refugees' housing with a proverbial toss of the head. A small problem for the Lord of Space, but a massive one for anyone operating on her level. She finds herself filled with awe? Dread? Anger?Something, in any case. It's hard to know how to react to people who operate on such an existential level.

When Vagrant begins his speech, she shakes her head inwardly. This speech was not well-timed, and Remembrance is not in the least surprised when Bolt objects, though the speedster moves too fast for her to intervene. She looks around for a way to follow, and clues in on Air Ace's intentions just in time. Half a second before Air Ace goes full throttle, Remembrance's grappling hook wraps around her ankle.

Remembrance has six very long seconds to regret her decision.

When they finally arrive at the Claremont ruins, Remembrance smoothly drops to the ground, ignoring the screaming in her arm muscles.

"Easy, Air Ace. No need to escalate this any further." Her tone is reasonable, if strained. She walks towards Bolt carefully. No weapons, no gadgets, no martial arts. Just a calm voice as she takes short, non-threatening steps towards the two. "Bolt, why don't we talk about this first? You're not a killer."

[Raynn]

Remembrance, Air Ace & Vagrant

Bolt looks over at Remembrance still clutching Vagrant


"You would be surprised to learn what I've had to do too survive in the world he helped create. What about the Bolt of your world makes you think he wouldn't do this right now too?"

[Green Bean]

Remembrance stands stock still when she hears Bolt's question, utterly silent. When she starts talking, it's in a low, saddened voice. She'd lived through Event 84 far too many times. "Our Bolt is dead. He died fighting, against a monster who would have killed our city."

She starts walking towards him again, faster and angrier. The weapons are still holstered and her stance is not violent, but her voice is like a whip. "But you had better believe he was fighting for a better reason than this. Innocent people died that day. Alongside some of the greatest heroes our planet had. And his closest friends. But still, he wasn't fighting for revenge. He died fighting to protect people."

By now she's only a few feet away, and almost yelling in his face. "This man is at your mercy. Tell me, who does this save?"

[smuchmuch]

"Oh Vagrant, you noble imbecile, stop doing the right thing" say the apparently floating by himself skull of Malador (not that nyone sems tomind or notice) while an invisible Shade facepalms.
Yeah there was no way in hell Bolt rection was not going to happen.


"Your grandmother would be proud, third person suits you,"

"You find ? He's got the bark down pretty well but the content still lack the sting of the original if you ask me" comments the skull in private to Isiah. Everyone's a critic.

Hey, could you hold on unto that for me for a moment please ?" the ghost seems to remember toss the skull to Isiah before stepping in his portal "You are now the proud owner of an atlantean paperweight. Also it contain the soul of a mass murdering lich. Application to your face is not recomended"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"She's right. I was there. And he still does" Shade steps though the portal. Her voice is sad but she tries to sound clear and loud to get Bolt's attention, to get him to listen. "Twelve years ago, I fought along your counterpart, our freedom league and Next gen." her voice break a bit as she tell the obvious. "We lost.
I saw all the people I had admired all my life most and many of my friend die. All at the hand of one man."

Her voice becomes a lot more even as she goes on. "We both came back later. Different circumstances, same result, like this. I wanted revenge. God know, I still do. probably better not to mention that though. "Tried to murder him. he was too strong, so I took action on his family, I even implicated two innocent kids in my atempts. I don't know how farther I could have gone. But Bolt, our bolt, he took his second chance for something else. He has taken the mantle of captain Thunder. I was trying to avenge the fallen but he honored them, everythign they stood for.
We talk. He helped me move over. he helped me find myself again.
You have kept your people safe for years from Malador's undead. You aren't our Bolt and he isn't you, but if you are anything like him" I hope for you, vagrant "you are a protector to the end and beyond, not a killer."

I realise how clumsy (and cliche) this speech sound but for what it's worth, it's said with feelings (kinda; and certain dose of hypocrisy and self denial as if she had Nemesis in the same position Bolt has vagrant, I don't think she'd hesitate much herself...)

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare leads the way through the portal, radiating authority. Naturally, he also times his entrance so the actual heavy hitters exit the portal directly behind him. "IT SAVES NO ONE. VAGRANT MADE HIS WAY TO A WORLD WHERE THE DARKEST OF VILLIANS BECOME THE BRIGHTEST OF HEROES. HE HAS SAVED THE UNIVERSE, POSSIBLY THE MULTIVERSE, FROM DESTRUCTION. AND NOW HE'S SAVED YOUR REMNANT FROM TOTAL DESOLATION. UNHAND THE FOOL SO WE CAN TAKE HIM TO OUR UNIVERSE. HE DOES HIS PENANCE THERE. TAKE YOUR PEOPLE THROUGH THE PORTAL TO A NEW LAND AND BE THEIR LAST SURVIVING HERO. DARE DEMANDS IT."

Dare does not threaten. At the height of his fury, any threats would be overkill when facing the danger of the situation, and any argument seems absurd. The small, sane part of him remaining knows he may regret his arrogance in the near future. But that part also felt fear, and that was just foolish given all that he had seen in his brief life.

[Ridai]

"Zia, we'll be back soon, don't worry." Ava and Thanatos follow through the portal and witness the exchange of words. So many are already talking, so she first waits for the current outcome. Instead of preparing words, she watches for any sign of all these things going south, making it necessary for her to patch things up again.

Yay, timezone. I guess I'll do nothing right now.

[Ladorak]

Knowing they only have seconds alone Vagrant's hand goes to Bolt's, prying back a finger enough to give him air to speak 'Do it.' The mad look in his eyes decries any deception. Bolt looks into the eyes of a man who welcomes death, who earns for it. Somehow he understands this man, crippled by guilt for what he had done to purchase his own survival, earning for the only release left to him.

Even to the survivors of this hellhole such a look disturbs a man, it gives his pause. Vagrant's words achieve their opposite objective, buying time for his friends to arrive. In front of them he could never beg for death. The shame would be too great, before his old friend Apollo, to ever whisper such a thing. So instead he stays silent, but his eyes still screamed their message.

A tortured look that gradually died, as old friends and relative strangers spoke on his behalf. Gradually he came to be deeply shamed by the burden he had tried to force on Bolt.

He fought for air, and finally spoke 'If it is just to kill me, then kill me. But don't do it with revenge in your mind or murder in your heart. Each will destroy you Bolt. I know. They will poison all that is good in you. And there is no sweet release, I promise you. It made me feel... dirty, empty.
'I didn't kill your father. I killed the man who did. That should count for something, shouldn't it?
'And Dare speaks true. Everyday back home is part of my penance. Everyday I try to redress the balance of the terrible things I did to survive. I have saved countless innocents, I have saved the multiverse itself, and all in it, but that will never change what I did. That is why my penance will never end. I will risk my life in name of innocents until the day I die so doing, everyday, because it will never change what I did here.
'I promise you, that is my intention. I am a dead man walking anyway, do not bloody your hands with me.'

[Raynn]

~ Claremont Ruins ~

Listening in turn to Remembrance, Shade, Doctor Dare and finally to Vagrant Bolt looks into Vagrant's eyes with contempt . . . Then he lets him go and Vagrant falls to the ground with a soft thud . . .

Bolt glares down at him and simply says


"Remember this. Always.
I didn't spare you because of your arrogantly self serving quest for redemption or so you can complete some unending penitent march into oblivion.

I spared you because you are, and will always be, beneath me.

You are a monster, a pathetic apologetic monster.

And that Vagrant. . . is all you will ever be."

With that, convinced away from his vengeance disappears in a blue blur, though one portal and then the other, leaving this reality, his first home, forever.

What do you do?

I'll close out the issue once you're all ready. :smallsmile:

[ripleycat]

Air Ace immediately drops from the sky and approaches Vagrant. "Hey, you OK? Did he hurt you?" If he accepts, she helps the mage to his feet. "Come on, let's get you out of this place, go somewhere with warm meals and running water. That was a hell of a speech you gave back at the camp, but what did you think was going to happen?"

[Ladorak]

Vagrant slowly hauls himself to his feet, his body body aching from his unexpected short, yet shockingly swift, journey. His moves gingerly, the awkwardness of his limbs leading him to pitch forward and straight back down into the ground.

The next time he accepts Ace's help 'I'm ok,' he says as she puts his arm around her shoulder 'Just... not used to travelling that fast.' He tries to stay upright on his own strength, but his legs drag and soon his weight sags against her 'I thought this would happen. That did not make what I had to say less necessary... I would like to go home now, please.'

[smuchmuch]

"'back home' intersting choice seeing where you stand" Shade appears near Vagrant, lookign a thim with a bit of worry then genuine curiosity.
"Tell me. All this things you jsut said about revenge being hollow, did you trully believe it ?" Because it sounded slightly self serving to me given the circumstances.
That was not said out loud, needless to say nor question actualy expecting a good to honnest answer (it was more of a musing in thin air, not asked innocently, though.) In the state Vagrant is in he's probaly not in the mood for philosphical debates or inocuous questions; so Shade decide to cut to the chasse.
"Anyway It may be a bit awkward but since you are shedding the past behind... I did have a little gift for you before we go. It can wait. But I think it's better if you dealt with this now, while we're still here." she points at the place the refugees where (stilla re posisbly ,) and leeds if he's till here "It kinds concerns them too. And It might help you sleep a bit better later. I hope
So, if you do feel you have the strength to face a bit more of your past left without going into a mental breakdown, just go see Isiah he's holding it for me. Oh, I doubt you'd want to anway but no matter what, don't put it on. It's the genuine article."


@ Ladorak: Just giving a chance to resolve that issue now.
If Vagrant goes for it, Shade will mention Dream when she gives the skull, as you requested, (but likley in some roundabout way becase I can't think of why she'd bring that directly unless asked about)

Else we can keep this for later.

[Ridai]

An outcome as good as any, Ava thinks to herself. Thanatos and Ava go back through the portal, back to their daughter. The mother is glad to finally leave this place, all things told. She briefly turns to the Navimatrix near them. "Navi, love, if need someone to talk to, feel free to come to me." Given all that has been forced onto Navi, Ava has a bit of a soft spot for the girl, wanting her to feel better, just like she'll do her best to soothe her family's worries once they're all home. Ava turns to Nathaniel and Zia once more.

"Time to go h- ah!" Pain, more than she felt the whole time anyway, shoots through the healer's body as it rebels against the strain of walking around unattended, her weak knees refusing to carry her weight any longer. The next thing Ava knows is that she has slumped against Nathaniel's body, weakly clinging to him with her good arm. Looking up to him, Ava forces a shaky, apologetic smile.

"S-still a little tired, j-just gimme a moment..." Although trying not to worry her family too much (since she knows she will recover once she gets some rest at home and they can figure as much), it is doubtful she will be in any condition to walk anytime soon, the many open wounds visible beneath her ripped clothes all over her body telling as much.

[Raynn]

~The Six In All~

I'll the issue once Vagrant responds to the existence of the True Malador's phlactery.

3 PP to all characters at the end of this issue.

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Obviously struggling with his emotions, Dare turns towards the portal. "Yes, let us adjourn. Dare thinks we all need to recover." And winces at his own choice of words.

As they go through the portal home, he turns to Isiah, "We're ready to hear your proposal. On a private note, D...I, would appreciate a recommendation to a good therapist, preferably one familiar with the family condition." Obviously tired, he is slowly deflating as the adrenalin wears off.

[Ladorak]

A bit more of your past left

Don't put it on

Don't put it on

His fogged mind saves Roland from realisation, allowing instead a slow dawning of understanding that gave him precious seconds to adjust.

Mental barriers fell into place with old efficiency as Shade's meaning sunk in.

'Malador's mask. How...' he shakes his head at the enormity of the question swelling in his mind 'How did you come by it?'

[smuchmuch]

"I figured when we arrived here, something was very out of character with Malador. You may be interested to know that you DID destroyed his body all those years ago. The one you destroyed ? A fake, one. I'll spare you the details for now" vagrant is porbaly too exhausted and not in the mood to hear about Malador past, she decide to cut it short.

"When the zombies attacked, I though they probably wouldn't be too impressed with light tricks so I though i'd take a crack at" she points in teh dirrection of the looming silouhette of Malador tower "And there it was, sitting on his drak throne, the Atlantean lich dreaming of zombie sheeps. Though I might take as a bargaining chip for your lives if you couldn't handle the undead or at least kill him before the make you the new host. But I got distracted; I was dayDreaming, you could say. Met an interesting gentleman too." Shade smile to herself but doesn't go further. She's dissgressing and it's none of his buisness after all. "By the time I was done; you already delt with the army; but I didn't want to let this loose end hang on, too dangerous. Of course if I had known we had a way back hom ready and you were avacuating the place..."
She shruggs. Would it have changed something ? Sure the idea of Malador resting forever alone in the empty word he hemped does have a certain poetic justice to it. But who is to say the world is trully empty, It was 'a' resistance base, the word is a big place, who is to say there aren't other survivors somewhere... "Couldn't bring myself to kill him on the moment, though, a moment of... weakness. Some memories I didn't want to tarnish."

"It passed by the way. You can leave him aside the same way Bolt did with you, I'll take it of your hand and find a way tomake sure he'll never hurt anyone ever again. Or with a single gesture let a much deserved reckoning happen" Shade mimicks the acts of snapping something in half between her fingers.
"One way or another, I just hope it helps you have a chance at..." Shade mark a small thoughfull pause as she look around at the hollow man in front of her, to the deserted wasteland and the refugees who are about to embark likely to a new home, likely without ever looking back at the old one. And the portal by wich Bolt moved on
Revenge maybe ? No what happend with Bolt prooved that wasn't it. More than that. Something she hadn't the chance to enjoy herself. .
"Closure."

[Raynn]

And A Day Of Horror Ends, But The True Darkness Has Not Yet Appeared . . .


The Streets of Freedom City . . .

He was a shadow. Simple Magic.

He latched his mind and soul onto the shadow of some refugee child, scrambling between universes, than to the sorcerer, as his body was left shunted between dimensions.

He liked the rich irony of that.

He had waited over an hour before he allowed himself to risk passing between hosts again, a shadow moving alone stood out more than one would expect, but eventually he made it to a dark deserted alley where he could escape notice.

It took time to reform one's self from shadow if it was not in your nature. He restrained his screams as his nervous system regenerated as part of his skinless form. Soon he was lying naked and bloody but unharmed in a dirty alley way in the bad part of town.

He rose and sucked in the air of an unspoiled world. So wonderful, so free, so fresh for his corruption. . .

Dark Eldritch was reborn in the shadow of Freedom's back alleys.

Vagrant should know fear, his allies as well, oh he had such grand plans, such astounding ideas, he shall . . .

He laughs, a laugh that booms into the night, a rapturous joyful crescendo which only ends when he is cut off by a young woman's voice


"Don't you think maniacal laughter is a little cliched? My friend Jake would love you,"

Eldritch looks down the alley to see five figures standing before him, the center figure, a girl of 21 years, is the one who spoke. She smiles at Adrian as he looks her over. She wears black jeans and a tank top. Her skin is pale and covered in a strange variety of tattoos. Her hair is a bright shade of red and her eyes are a pale green. To one side of her is what can only be described as a glowing white angel and a woman in a black leather jacket and lightning bursting out of her hands, to the other side is a cartoon witch and a teenage girl with scarlet eyes and fangs.


"How Dare You Speak To Your Future Master With Such Disrespect,"

Adrian Eldritch's fingers begin to glow faintly


"I Shall Teach You To Respect Your Elders Young Lady!"

The Living Cartoon Character bursts out laughing


"Oh This Ones a talker!"

the child like witch pulls out a massive hammer from her hat and says with an almost impossibly large grin


"This Is Going To Be FUNNNNNNN!"

The blonde woman in black leather, easily the oldest in the group, speaks up with a thick German accent


"We were specifically told to only make him compliant with the status quo."

The witch cartoon girl gives the blonde woman a grumpy look as the red haired tattooed girl speaks up


"Jill Knows, She's Just Having Fun, We Wont, Brake Him."

Eldritch cuts in again


"Don't Speak As If I Am Not Here! I Am Your Master!"

The center figure smirks


"Our master isn't a naked old man in an alley who doesn't understand the new status quo."

Eldritch only has time to bring up his forcefield and whisper two words as Jill leaps forward


"Status quo . . . ?"

As Jill descends with her mallet in one great swing she says gleefully


"THE SUPREME REIGNS SUPREME!"


- The End of The Reign Issue #1 -

Will post the beginning of the next issue a.s.a.p. :smallsmile:

[Raynn]

The Raynn-Verse:

'Some Dreams Never Die'

The Reign Issue #2

"Everybody knows that everybody dies. But not every day. Not today. Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all. Now and then, Every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair and the Doctor comes to call, everybody lives," - River Song


And What A Dark Day That Will Be . . .

Liberty Park, Over 10 Years Ago . . .

A downed Aegis field mech burned in the dust and ash of what was once Liberty Park. In the distance the silhouette of the burning husk that was Freedom City University an hour ago was barely visible through the clouds of debris.


“I’m really enjoy this ; killing each of you, I mean it’s very. . . what’s the word I’m looking for?”

A young man, early twenties, dressed in denim jeans, a white shirt and a black suit jacket stood above a mound of wreckage, a car jetting out at an angle.


“FOR SEVEN!”

Bolt’s suit was torn and the speed had caused Seven’s blood to dry and stain him. He accelerated like the lightning that gave him his name towards the young man.

A faint red glow sparked with arches of electricity as bolt collided with the man, being incinerated instantly into to dust and red mist. The man smiled and said smugly


“Bolt, you’ve been grounded.”


“Nemesis!”

Nemesis turned as he heard his name to see another new Freedom Leaguer, Magni Thorson, it annoyed him that Captain Thunder had used him as an excuse to elevate Next Gen to Freedom Leaguer status.

Thankfully Nemesis thought most of Next Gen were dead now.


“Thou shall return Bolt to me or you shall face the might of my hammers monster!”

There was rage in his eyes, he had forgone mere anger; carnage danced just below the surface of his eyes.

Nemesis clicked his fingers and smiled realising the word he had been looking for


“cathartic! That’s what I was thinking of; killing all your friends was cathartic.”


“DIE WRETCH!”

A lightning bolt raced out from his hammer only to arch back and stun Magni.
Nemesis stepped forward and the weapons flew into his hands which were already sealed in the M.E.G.A.S.; he stepped over Magni and bought down both hammers in powerful swings, one after another in repetition. Nemesis rose covered in blood, the last of Claremont’s Next Gen dead, Nemesis looked behind him hearing a voice.


“You are mad Nemesis. . . Sick. . . An animal to be put down. . .”

Dr. Metropolis always spoke with an authority, that of an entire city in one voice.

Nemesis smiled. The city feared him, he could hear it.

He had already adapted to Dr. Metropolis and his opponent knew it; Captain Thunder’s unconscious body hung from the Centurion statue where the Mayor’s skeleton had half melted into the nearby cement, Daedalus’ armour was empty at the statue’s feet. Nemesis couldn’t see any of the other Freedom Leaguers other than the new arrival; the few living must have carried away some of the dead.


"You heroes must come with a warranty, I break one and I get a replacement free,”

Nemesis said with a laugh.

Dr. Metropolis teleported in front of him and grabbing him by the collar and holding him up, his face cold with silent horror


“what have you done?!”

Nemesis held out his wrists


"Go ahead, take me in. Arrest me, and send me to the big house. I want to play in a different yard for a while."


“I’m not going to arrest you. . .”

Dr. Metropolis threw Nemesis, slamming him into the ground.

Nemesis stood unharmed


“Do you know what was the best part about killing almost the entire Freedom League Metropolis? Neither do I, I wasn't actually paying attention when I did it."

Again Metropolis struck him in rage, this time knocking him pack only slightly.


“You can’t face an entire city, your powers only combats one person at a time. Even if you defeat me eventually you will fall!”


“Doctor, you’re this city. . .”

Metropolis’ face filled with fear.

Nemesis Adapted.

.
.
.

But What If . . . ?

What If He Didn't?

What if someone, somewhere, had lost so much that for over a decade they worked to right the ultimate wrong? What if they looked out on a world of wonder, monsters, magic and super sciences and wondered why they had to live with their loss when others had so much?

What if?


What If Event 84 Had Never Happened?

***

Liberty Park, The Present . . .

Shade stumbles back as the MechOtaku battlesuit's fist brushes her barely with a swing.

Doc Otaku had been calling out Daedelus yet again after some plot to do with releasing anime inspired monsters had gone south but it ended up being Johnny Rocket, Shade and The Bowman who had to deal with his rampage and now that they had cornered him in Liberty Park Shade knew he wasn't going down easy.

Johnny Rocket super sped to beside her as Bowman lined up a shot from atop a statue on the Heroes' Knoll


"You okay Shade? Doc Otaku didn't get you too badly did he?"


***

Claremont Academy . . .

Ava stands at the front of the classroom as her dozen or so students pile out of her small classroom. She tumbled into her chair, tired from the class' heated debate on battlefield ethics.

She was relaxing for a minute before packing up to head back to her nearby one bedroom apartment when there was a knock on the door.

Simon Cromwell stood there with a cheesy cliched bouquet and a card, Ava gives him a look and a grin


"After two years as your boyfriend I'm allowed embarrass myself by walking though your highschool with a bouquet of flowers as a grown man, it's a rule,"

He smiles and walks forward before giving her a light kiss and handing her the flowers and the card


"You ready to go, Reservation's for seven?"


***

Lea Mendez' Penthouse apartment . . .

Apollo awoke with a start, and for a moment was overcome with a sense of dread . . . then he looked to his side and saw Lea asleep. He smiled realizing he only been awoken by his phone.

Picking the phone off the bedside cabinet Apollo checked the text in the other room. Seems half the Frontliners where busy helping Daedalus from the Freedom League take on Doctor Dire in downtown. Apollo frowns for a moment, their team needed them but he didn't want to wake Lea. Lea A.K.A. Remembrance had become a hero and joined the Frontliners after she had grown tired of people rewriting her life with time travel and reality alteration and was probably the best stealth agent Apollo had on his team.

He groaned and checked the address included in the text.


***

Downtown . . .

Vagrant and Air Ace flank Daedalus as he does a flying sweep of downtown Freedom City looking for Doctor Dire who has just stolen a priceless gem from Freedom City University's geology department, and she intends to use the gem as part of some nefarious device.


"We Need To Find This Woman Before She Does Anymore Damage. Stay On Your Guard, She's extremely Dangerous."

The trio land near Freedom Hall to regroup as the four member of their party arrives, bursting out of a nearby streetlamp as electrical energy before reforming into her normal self


"Rycon, Did You Find Anything?"

What Do You Do?

3 PP for Issue #1.


1 Hero Point to All Heroes Except Remembrance, as they do not remember their old lives.
1 Hero Point to Shade as she has taken an Injury already.
1 Hero Point to Shade as she is now Human, Smuchmuch you may allocate your freed up power points temporarily as you wish.
Hero Point to Remembrance due to waking up in a strange place with a colleague who thinks you're dating but who you probably think is crazy/brainwashed/alternate reality version/clone etc


You may now post. :smallsmile:

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Nightmares always seem to fade before you can remember them. Apollo lies still for a moment to let the dread fade before reaching for his phone.

Seeing who and where the trouble is, Apollo groans inwardly. He debates briefly going back to sleep and pretending he didn't hear his phone, but everyone knew he slept lightly. And more importantly, duty calls. He leans over and gently kisses Lea before whispering to her, "Time to get up Le. Dire's robbed the University and Daedalus has already commandeered the team."

Then he gets up to get dressed. Still in the white coat, though he'd taken all the tech out. And he grabs his brand new staff off the dresser. Activated, it extends to a full five feet, with a twisting, churning vortex enclosed at the end. The Caged Tesseract. "I'll drive" he jokes.

Feel free to react at any point of that.

[Ridai]

"Oh, it certainly is. Make as much use of it as you like, dear." Ava kisses Simon rather passionately. Recently, quick pecks haven't been enough for her. She takes the roses and the card, taking in the former's wonderful smell and reading the content of the latter.

"I should probably change into something more... appropiate, don't you agree?" she says with a wink. Simon knows Ava has spent more and more time in her all-female form since they have begun dating. Not only when they were together (to avoid weirding him out), but also during her normal day-to-day life. Ava has made sure that Simon couldn't possibly feel better in their private life lately, her wardrobe also changing to be more enticing to him (and she even started wearing make-up on dates, something she really doesn't even need).

She has also started alluding to the question more frequently, a very few times even directly asking about starting a family. She makes sure not to annoy him too much with it, but Simon can tell that not fulfilling her life-long wish is eating away at Ava. He knows her wish that has been formed by two-and-a-half decades surrounded by the most inhumane and brutal destruction and misery all too well, knows how much she yearns for it. She has been having trouble sleeping lately. Not that her body would show such flaws.

Ava's healing powers and the alts are all two ranks lower. Part of rebuilding Ava for Reign is that she has become more powerful since giving birth to Zia and since that didn't happen in this timeline, well, tough luck. Also, no access to force field, animal control or plant control.

[Green Bean]

Remembrance hears Dare's phone go off, but pretends to keep sleeping. In truth, it wasn't the ringing that woke her but the distinctive noise of someone trying not to make any noise. She could bring it up, but honestly, it was sweet of him to try. He'd been like that ever since they met...yesterday? No, that couldn't be right, it was over a year ago. Right? Abruptly, her train of thought it derailed by the sudden inrush of memories, a process she'd never really gotten used to. Over thirty years of memories does not lightly drop into one's head, so Remembrance closed her eyes and continued to feign sleep as she tried to process. She hammered her thoughts into something resembling order just in time to hear Apollo speak to her. Her eyes snap open.

"Never mind that, we've got a bigger problem." She sits up, head spinning as she struggles into her costume and tries to remember which Doctor Dare she was talking to. "Are you still a Guardian of Time? Doesn't matter, either way someone or something has been playing around with history and we need to stop it before it happen again."

[ripleycat]

"Hello Rycon. Any luck?" It was strange. The mix of familiarity and ...was there a word for it? Wrongness? Close enough. The mix of familiarity and wrongness that this world's Rycon elicited in Air Ace. It was Ashley, all right. The look, the powers, intelligence, even the social awkwardness that made Emily look genteel and urbane. Everything else was wrong. Memories, experiences, attitude. This wasn't her friend, just someone who happened to look and act like her.

She was far more starstruck by Daedalus's presence on the team, but hadn't gotten to do much more than gush over the immortal inventor so far. She dearly wanted to get to spend some time in the workshop with the great genius before she finally went home. Maybe after all of this chaos was over.

"Remind me why this Dr. Dire's got everyone up in arms? She stole a rock. What's she gonna do with it, hold a storefront window hostage until we give in to her demands?"

[Starsign]

Jumping out of the streetlamp. Rycon gives a hefty sigh as she shrugs her shoulder. "I've got nothing. Synapse and Professor Pain are off my radar as well even if they weren't involved." She takes a look at those she has been working with. She's only become part of the team yesterday and she feels seriously nervous by the whole proposition. "My thoughts echo hers," she says as she looks at Air Ace. Rycon knows Daedalus and Vagrant well enough at least but this Air Ace is a person who appeared suddenly a few days ago. Air Ace somehow knows Rycon when Rycon has absolutely no idea who Air Ace is. Regardless of the implications, Rycon keeps a close eye on her.

Still, working with Daedalus is something insane. Rycon could do nothing but learn and strive to become like him. It's why she is so excited about working with this group even if she feels that she has a hell of a standard to work on.

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

Apollo looks at her with a puzzled, slightly hurt expression, at first. I know I'm a little younger, but that's an odd way to break up... But ignorance of implications is not a luxury for geniuses. Quickly, her words click into place with what he knows of her single power. It could mean that all the happiness lately had been nothing but a temporal illusion. His face starts to show the beginnings of despair before he puts on his mask.

Dare takes a brief second to master his emotions and pull up his datalink to the base computer before he speaks. "Alright. I'm pulling up a search program to help us figure this out. Unfortunately, unless you can tell me what's different, we'll have to go through history even by event until we find a changing point. And I'm guessing we'll need the team. So let's see... Revolutionary War, Civil War, WW I, WWII, Terminus Invasion?" While his voice is neutral, he's obviously avoiding the unspoken implications.

[Green Bean]

Lea sees an odd look on Apollo's face, but doesn't push it. Instead, she straps on her utility belt while mentally comparing what she remembers of this history with the one that just got dumped in her head. "Let me think. Treaty of Paris was in 1783, Union victory under Lincoln, Triple Entente victory in World War 1, Allied victory World War 2, Centurion sacrifices himself to fend off Omega. No, it's definitely something more recent."

Finally 'dressed', Lea pulls her hood up over her head. Remembrance once more, she finds it easier to blot out extraneous details, and the answer comes into her head like a shot. "Of course, Event 84! I've always wondered why it never happened in this timeline." Briefly, Remembrance goes over what she knows about Event 84 - it's sketchy at best, since any timeline in which it occurs also erased the specifics from her mind.

"There are a lot of major differences, but almost all of them come about after that day."

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

I can make it work. I've just got to find a way to ensure that my memories remain this time. Maybe working it directly will help.

"So in a single day, the status quo of the entire country shifted. In a positive direction. I really hope there's something behind the scenes, because trying to stop heroes from being heroic is painful. Overturning villainous plots is a lot easier on the soul. Speaking of which, let's hope my crazy grandmother is in a good mood today. Gramps is rather single-minded and not likely to let go of the team until she's stopped."

He holds out his hand to Lea. They both know that physical contact isn't necessary, but he does it anyways. And then, he teleports to Daedalus and his team.

[smuchmuch]

Liberty park
Silviah likes the place, The large patches of grass in the centers, the playground in the miidle and the ponds, the trees where a bunch of somophore sneaking out from claremont could fly and relax with friends on a nice April day (and practice the forbidden pleasure of underage drinking far from prying eyes on a nice Sumer evening), the statues of the knoll of her childhood heroes coverign the place of their serene protective gaze,.... so many good memories here.
Of course she likes it better when an armored maniac isn't trashing the place around for his last stand.

Really. Dr Otaku ? It was still vaguley pardonable when the guy was elven But now he's a young adult... 'he could at least have found a new gimmick toyboy was enough thanks, the world didn't need another insane creepy fiction obssesed maniac with a emotional growth stunt and creepy fetishes.

"I'm okay, thanks" Shade raise a quick thum in direction of the boman
As to proove herself a liar there's blunt pain in her flank to remind her that armored fist was way too close for her taste. It's okay, pain is good, well not really but it's those little thing that reminds you are alive right ? it's also a nice reminder, she's not twenty anymore, though, she should realy consider learning to be little less reckless already. I'll get right on that.
It was not was not an ideal battlefield for her, as long as Otaku kept away from the aera with trees, except for the occasional statue or bench the large outddor areas provided Otaku a clear field of vision and little emplacements for cover or stealth. On the plus side, there were less people than in a building so no one had been taken in the fight so far.

Avoiding another brush from the giant mecanized limb Shade rolls on the side ina quick movement, and stands up behind the mechanical hulk field of vision. taking a stp backward she slips a hand in one of the many internal poches of her outfit, searching for soemthing that might give an advantage against the robot armor and anlysing it's movement ot find the good time to strike without being crushed into paste.

Okay seeing as I've been dumped in the middle of the fight, going to ask a bit of info on the opponent (not Otaku but the arrmored suit he's using)

Notice [roll0] to see if she saw any kind of weakness, partcularity or place to place an emp charge about it while they were figthing.

Stealth or acrobatics to rollout of the thing field of vison [roll1]+14 (acrobatics) or +16 (stealth)

(I'll temporay restat her next post)

[Raynn]

Hero Point to Ava for self imposed Roleplaying based setback.

~Ava~

Sometime later, after a very expensive dinner . . .

As Ava walks the streets she feels a sense of elation, Simon had popped the very obvious question with a very obvious intention. She turned through the city streets with him on her arm on the way back to their apartment when they turned a corner onto an odd scene.


***

~Doctor Dare, Rycon, Air Ace, Vagrant & Remembrance~

As Doctor Dare and Remembrance suddenly appear the Frontliners finally have their full line prepared, with their guest Daedalus backing them up.

Remembrance seems about to say something deeply important when she stares at a couple standing at the street corner looking at them. Daedalus & Doctor Dare recognize them as Claremont teachers but Remembrance seems to be taking note of them for other reasons.


***

~Shade~

Shade is able to roll away out of its field of vision as it swings around. Johnny Rocket and the Bowman hammer home on the battle suit but they make little headway.

Suddenly a shot echoes through the sky, a resounding 'zap' as a laser beam reflects easily off the shell of Doc Otaku's battlesuit.

Doctor Tomorrow floated overhead


"Was floating around nearby and I thought my old friends could do with some help,"

he says with a grin.

Notice: [roll0]
There is a weak point on the suits lower spine, where armour plates don't fully cover to allow for maneuverability.

[Ridai]

Ava feels more than a little happy right now. Her face is bright red from utter joy, with a big smile on her lips and a ring on her finger. Months of worrying, of hoping, of being forced to wait just a little longer for an answer fell off her heart the moment Simon proposed to her. Her eyes are still a bit red, she had cried a little, though her body is quickly making it better.


But somewhere in her mind, everything that had happened just seems hollow.

As they round the corner, Ava's smile lessens instantly as she sees so many superheroes gathered around. "Nooo, not now..." It doesn't matter that she has just become engaged and was to marry soon, that her emotions are all over the place or that she wears an evening dress and heels right now. Something was wrong and they'd be forced to help.

[Starsign]

Rycon can't help but feel more underwhelming when she sees Doctor Dare and Remembrance show up. The former's reputation goes without saying and the latter completely bested Rycon in hand-to-hand combat. And ever since Air Ace appeared Rycon has worried she might be outclassed by the technician. She's always had this worry of being outclassed among all these heroes. She doesn't need to be some sort of big-shot but compared to everyone else she feels almost like a liability. She just needs a chance...

A few moments later, Rycon looks down the corner to find a couple standing there. The male she doesn't recognize but the other one... In a gown... "Ava?" Rycon's voice is like that of exquisite relief and surprise at once; not just because Ava is here but also that she is in such a dress. Ashley hadn't been to a therapist meeting with Ava in about a month though they've known each other for a few years. Rycon waves to Ava. "I can't believe you're here, in a..."

Rycon's eyes open wide as she slowly walks over to see a ring on Ava's finger. "You actually- Oh my, congrats!" Rycon gives a smile while trying to hide her surprise. "I didn't know, well I couldn't have known, but... She should be very excited about Ava's engagement, yet... Something felt off. Rycon couldn't place it."We're in the middle of and investigation. You two should enjoy yourselves tonight. She turns around to the rest of the group. "Anyone else want to wish them their congrats?" Rycon wasn't exactly excited to let the others know about her therapy sessions she's had in the past; she'd rather hide it as best as she can.

[Ridai]

"Thanks, Ashley." Ava forces herself to smile, but it is difficult. Something weighs her down, slowly chokes her on the inside. Briefly biting her lip as she looks to the assembled superheroes, she says "Are you sure you don't need our help?" Ava didn't want to ask. Strangely enough, the last word felt unnerving. She wants to leave.

[Raynn]

~The All But Shade Pattern Team Up Again ~

Daedalus gives Ava a quick once over then Simon


"I'm sure we can make due, so long as Dire doesn't pull any tricks out of her hat,"

at the that the group looks up and a half dozen Doctor Dire's are barreling down the street, flying like rockets towards them


"Sometimes I bloody hate that woman!"

Roll Initiative!
Daedalus: [roll0]
Doctor Dires: [roll1]

[Ridai]

Something was bound to go wrong. Something has already gone wrong. Her current garb is does nothing for Ava but accentuate her shapely body and hinder her mobility. Still, a fight is a fight.

Initiative [roll0]

[ripleycat]

"Figures." Emily sighs as a half-dozen power-armored figures fly into view. She guns the rockets on her pack and prepares to take to the sky herself. "Oh, before all hell breaks loose, congratulations to the happy couple!" She gives the newcomers a big grin.

Initiative: [roll0]

[Starsign]

Rycon freezes for a moment as she sees the moving shadows on the ground. A moment later she slowly turns and looks up. "...Oh you've got to be kidding!" She assumes a battle position as she looks to Ava with a more serious expression. "Stay back if you need to. We'll take care of this." Rycon is very worried despite the serious look. Against Dire alone she'd doubt herself; against a half-dozen of them she'd probably do more than quake in her boots... Still, a fight is a fight and Rycon needs to do her best.

Initiative: [roll0]

[Green Bean]

So many familiar faces, and right after history changed. Coincidence, or perhaps something more? Remembrance is about to bring up her warning about the timeline to the assembled heroes when the Doctor Dires crash the party. Her quarterstaff is in her hand so fast it looks like bad stop motion animation. "Once we're done here, there's some things we need to discuss."

Initiative: [roll0]

[smuchmuch]

Shade gives a short hand salute and a nod to Dr Tomorrow, the guardian of time, but no more because when you sneaking behind someone who can flatten you with swing, it's better not to give away your position with banter or loose attention on your target (while the former may be obvious common sense, the later she learned by 'oh crap that was way too close' occasion, kinda like that mecha fist). She'll talk to him later.

With a gesture she indicate the bowman to prepare a diversion by pointing in the direction of the head of the robot, one of his explosive or blinding arrows should do nicely. In the palm of her other hand, she readies a small sphere, ,one of the small magnetic sticky Emp charges she took from pain laboratory five years ago when he was making his big robotic caper (As a good paranoid madman, he had of course prepared countermeasure should his robotics servants turn against him, too bad for him he didn't hid them better. Or shield his control panels better. Shade allows herself a small smile, the look on his head had been priceless.) She kept a handful (surely Aegis doesn't mind if a bit of minor evidence goes missing once in a while if it's for a good cause, riight *cough*) and had some more done by a friend in Astro labs, they come in damn handy too.

As soon as the mechanical lummox is swinging in the other direction, she takes a run take a grip on one of armored plates the mechanical leg, climb along the tights, then jump away before she's dislodged by a leg movement, grabs one of the ornamentations on the robot belt (thanks god for over complicated manga inspired designs). there's a tense moment as she find herself hanging on the robotic armor back when she fumbles with her fingers for a little bit before finally jamming and throw the capsule between two moving parts at the base of the spine, hoping it'll stick on the metallic beast before jumping back on the ground and landing with a roll !

...At least, that's the plan, the Otakubot may have something to say about that.


Mokey climber means she can use acrobatics intead of climba slong as there are thing and asperities she can grab too (I'm assuming the suit is only large, though)
[roll]1d20+14(/roll]

Using Electromagnetic charge
Nullify (electronics) (10), Aera (burst), Flaw limited, only five charges
since I'm trying to stick it to particular place, i susppose an atack roll is stillin order:
Attack roll (all out power attack -2/+2, -2/+2) [roll0]
+2 damage from sneak attack if it applies
---------------------
Temporay restat for when she's human

(Since her not being a ghost meant moving about 99 pp anyway, that's pretty much a new sheet for all intents and purpose)

Char (26 pp)
STR: 14
AG: 18
CON: 10
INT: 14
WIS: 14
CHA: 14

Saves (20pp):
Tough: 0 (+5) (+1) 6
Con: 4
Reflex: 10
Will: 7


Defense: 0 (+14) 14 (-14pp)
Combat: 6 (+4 mellee) (+6 throwing, +2 stunn gun) (-20 pp)

Powers:
Supersenses: Precognition, Postcognition (flaw: needs concentration roll), danger sense
-Ap: ESP (4) (vision) flaw needs concentration roll)
-Ap: Telelocation (8) (flaw: needs concentration roll)
(10 pp)

Skills (116) sp, 29 pp):

Concentration (10)+2 (12)
Craft (mechancal) 4+2 (6)
Acrobatics (10)+4 (14)
Drive (2)+2 (4)
Disable device (10)+2 (12)
Bluff (8)+2 (10)
Diplomacy (2)+2 (4)
Disguise (6)+2 (8)
Stealth (12)+4 (16)
Notice (12)+2 (14)
Sense motive (10)+2 (12)
Investigate (6)+2 (8)
Intimidate (2)+2 (4)
Search (4)+2 (6)
knowlege
(Current events (2)+2 (4)
Civics (4) +2 (6)
Pop culture (4)+2 (6))
Sleight of hand (2)+4 (6)
Escape artist (2)+4 (6)
Gather info (10)+2 (12)
Profession (Reporter) (4)+2 (6)



Feats:
Dodge focus (12)
Defensive roll (6)
Melle focus (4)
Attack specialisation (3 (throwing), 1 stun gun)

All out attack
Power attack

Sneak attack
Uncanny dodge (mental)
Improved initiative
Improved trip
Improved disarm
Elusive target
Defensive throw

Luck (2)
Ultimate skill (stealth)
Taunt
Distract
Set up
Monkey climber

Conspiracy theorist (1)
Benefits (resource (1), false papers)
Well informed
Contacts
(21 pp)

Equipement:(70 ep- 14 pp)
-remote Tracer/Bugs remote tracers, (Ap: auditory illusion 1, ap: datalink 1) (2ep)

-Stun gun: Stun (10)
-Tripwire: Snare (8), trip (6)
-Boomerangs (blast 10)
(22 ep)

-Microcharges: Blast (8), extra: Targeted aera(burst), flaw: limited (five charges) feat: triggered, precise, ricochet,
-Ap:Emp charges; nullify (9) (electronics), aera (burst), flaw (limited five charges), precise, ricochet,
-Flashbangs (dazzle visual 8) aera, limited five charges, smoke pellets (obscure visual)

-Ap: Knock out gass: ranged Fatigue (10) targeted extra: aera(cone), limited (five charges)
(22 ep)

-Bike (9ep)
-Armored jumpusit 1ep) (+1 toughness)

-Headquarters, infirmary, living quarters, garage, hidden. (5ep)
-Night vision googles, lock picking gun, grapple gun. (3ep)

-Cellphone, video camera, recorder, portable computer, rebreather, gas mask, (8 ep)


That took way too long for a build I'll use for only one issue (possibly even less) :smalltongue:

Exactly 153 pp I believe. Since there's no loss of power points in all, I'm okay with not getting the hero point.

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare

"Hmm... what? Oh, congratulations, ma'am. Sorry, I'm a bit distracted at the... Dire! My goodness, what did she steal, sir?"

Dare runs for cover and prepares for counter-bot operations.

Had a long trip today. Should be alright for the rest of the weekend./roll]

[Raynn]

{table]Character |Initiative
Air Ace |22
Rycon |21
The Thinker |18
Vagrant |-
Remembrance |17
Doctor Dare |8
Doctor Dires |7
Daedalus |3
Ava |1 [/table]

You may now all act.

Simon Cromwell: [roll0]



~ 83.33 % ~

Time for the Throw down part of the evening's entertainment.

Daedalus's Armor will be playing Track 5. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Dct0l2uVM&feature=fvwrel)


***


~ 16.67 % ~

The suit shudders as Shade lands softly on terra firma. Doc Otaku lets out a worried gasp. Doctor Tomorrow swoops away, Johnny Rocket does a double step backwards and so does the Bowman.

As the suit collapses with Otaku inside it leaves him immobile and before he can try to release himself the Bowman and Doctor Tomorrow are pointing their weapons at his head, the Bowman speaks with a cold confident tone


"I really wouldn't do that if I were you,"

Doctor Tomorrow smiles over at Shade warmly


"Great job there Shade, saved us all the trouble of a big throw down. You okay?"

Nullify resistance roll: [roll1]

[ripleycat]

Emily takes to the sky, hovering above the street. She unhooks a small metal sphere from her belt and pulls a pin, then sidearms the little bomb into the pavement, so it bounces up right into the path of the oncoming Dr. Dires. "Hey, what's up, Docs? Think fast!"

Move: 20 feet up in the air.

Standard: Using Concussion Bomb: Burst Area Blast 5. DC 15 Reflex save, DC 17/20 Toughness save.

[Raynn]

1 Dire is Injured + Bruised.

Rolls:
Reflex Save 1: [roll0] vs. DC 15
Reflex Save 2: [roll1] vs. DC 15
Reflex Save 3: [roll2] vs. DC 15
Reflex Save 4: [roll3] vs. DC 15
Reflex Save 5: [roll4] vs. DC 15
Reflex Save 6: [roll5] vs. DC 15

Toughness Saves 1: [roll6]
Toughness Saves 2: [roll7]
Toughness Saves 3: [roll8]
Toughness Saves 4: [roll9]
Toughness Saves 5: [roll10]
Toughness Saves 6: [roll11]


~The Majority~

As Air Ace's concussion bomb explodes within the group one of the Dires is damaged but the others withstand the blast without issue.

[Starsign]

Rycon watches as Air Ace flies up and fires a concussion bomb at the half-dozen Dires. The trick looked impressive but the effectiveness comes up much less so. It looks like they're slow enough on the draw to evade such attacks, meaning Rycon knows it's her chance. "Alright, one is just a person in a battlesuit," she says to put confidence in herself as she charges her hand with electricity. "The rest must be her loyal Doombots, and robots can be broken down!" Rycon throws her charged ball of lightning to the skies at the Dires. Her voice now more brave and daring. "Catch!" Rycon then throws a small jolt of lightning, setting off the electricity like a grenade.

Using Ashley's Blast power. DC 25 Toughness spread in a General Burst Area at 20 ft Radius

[smuchmuch]

"Heh. thanks for the worry guys but I'm not made of shugar." Shade stands back up. Her flank aches a bit but nothing particulary bad and no bones broken or even a twisted limb.

"It's a pleasure to see you, Doctor" Shade gives a smile. Many costume crime fighters alway try to keep an unflapable stren professional expression in all circumstances, it never been her cup of tea.
Shade licks the tip of her index and hold up in the air "I heard you had a colleague in town but the timeline feels alright to me. So it's a casual visit then ?"

[Raynn]

~The Formerly Deceased~

Doctor Tomorrow smiles, almost usually widely, as Shade mentions why he's around


"Actually I'm looking for someone, a girl, a hero actually, or so she claims at least.

Do you know anyone called Remembrance?"


***

~The Others~

Rycon Rolls:
Reflex Save 1: [roll0] vs. DC 20 Fail
Reflex Save 2: [roll1] vs. DC 20 Fail
Reflex Save 3: [roll2] vs. DC 20 Fail
Reflex Save 4: [roll3] vs. DC 20 Fail
Reflex Save 5: [roll4] vs. DC 20 Fail
Reflex Save 6: [roll5] vs. DC 20 Success

Toughness Saves 1: [roll6] Staggered+Disabled+Stunned
Toughness Saves 2: [roll7] Bruised+Injured
Toughness Saves 3: [roll8] Bruised+Injured
Toughness Saves 4: [roll9] Unharmed
Toughness Saves 5: [roll10] Stunned+ Bruised+Injured
Toughness Saves 6: [roll11] Unharmed

The Thinker Rolls:
Attack Roll: [roll12]
Toughness Check: [roll13]


Rycon's blast is enough to damage some of the Dire-Bots but it only seems to really take one of the machines out of the fight.

Simon comes up short as his telekinetic barrage trashes a car rather than a nearby Dire-Bot as it goes off course.

[Ladorak]

'No reason to assume any are the real one. If Dire's here, she'll let us know soon enough. Loudly.' Vagrant grinned widely at his own joke. His hand snapped back and then whipped forward, hurling a sickly green bolt into the midst of the Direbots.

Blast 8 (Area cloud)

[smuchmuch]

"Remembrance ?" Now that's a name that pike curiosity a bit. Evoke something to do with either memory or nostalgia, maybe grieving, there's a storry behind that name. Kind of a moutfull though. silviah shake her head. "Never heard of her, I'm afraid. About you ?" She turns to bowman and Jhonny.

If they do not, she tries to jog her memory a bit but nothing comes out. "Sounds like a new comer. Not a league member." She'd would likely have heard. Same if she was a big shot solo or even established for a while. Shade sounds more serious, more focussed as she speaks, detective work is serious buisness. "She's either a solo or with one of the small peripherical team like the , the Frontliners or the Pariahs. I can make a research for you. A description might help if you have one. When can we meet again for the results ?" In a city with a population of superheroes that easily nears the hundreds and new ones tend to pop up on a trimestrial basis. "No garantees though, sorry doctor." Shade gives a little apolgetic smile before asking in a more worried tone "What did she do ?"

[Green Bean]

Remembrance looks over the now slightly hindered robot squad, memorizing lines of fire and the speed of the approaching Dire army. Then she ducks to the side, into a side alley out of the line of fire so smoothly and quickly that it almost looks she's disappeared into thin air. She counts to three under her breath and throws a boomerang. Launched straight along the alley, perpendicular to the robots, it quickly curves out and around the corner, arcing towards the lead Dire.

Hiding and then Power Attacking for +3/-3 with a boomerang. If Stealth check is successful, then it inflicts a DC 26 Toughness save, otherwise it's DC 24.

Stealth Check: [roll0]
Attack Roll: [roll1]

[Raynn]

Vagrant's Rolls:
Reflex Save 1: [roll0] vs. DC 18 Fail
Reflex Save 2: [roll1] vs. DC 18 Success
Reflex Save 3: [roll2]vs. DC 18 Fail
Reflex Save 4: [roll3] vs. DC 18 Fail
Reflex Save 5: [roll4] vs. DC 18 Fail
Reflex Save 6: [roll5] vs. DC 18 Fail

Toughness Saves 1: [roll6] Unconscious + Disabled + Stunned
Toughness Saves 2: [roll7] Bruised 2 + Injured 2
Toughness Saves 3: [roll8] Bruised 2 + Injured 2 + Stunned
Toughness Saves 4: [roll9] Bruised + Injured + Stunned (Damage Done Later By Remembrance)
Toughness Saves 5: [roll10] Staggered + Disabled + Stunned + Bruised + Injured
Toughness Saves 6: [roll11] Staggered + Disabled + Stunned

Remembrance's rolls:
Toughness Save: [roll12] vs. DC 26


~THE FRONTLINERS~

Vagrant's magical barrage and Remembrance's boomerang to the head leave all but one of the group of Dire-bots to stunned to act and leave one unit inactive and two too damaged to fight on. Half the unit has been left unable to fight on as a serious threat.


***


~The Freedom League~

Johnny Rocket speaks up


"I think she's one of the Frontliners actually."

At that Doctor Tomorrow nods and seems about to leave


"I believe she may intend to alter the timeline with terrible results.

Actually Shade, if you wish you may join me, been some time since we were involved in a team up, never just the two of us, am I right? It's important and it could be fun?"

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare
Fatigued, 2HP

Dare goes for cover, but tries to stay within tech-range of the Dires. He starts trying to hack into the nearest Direbot's remote system, control or deactivate at least one of them as quick as he can. "Ms, Ava was it? Could you confirm the presence or absence of Dire? Stay safe, everybody. And Daedalus, do you really have to boost her ego with the music?"

[roll0] to find the bot through the datalink.
[roll1] to try to hack. Though I don't know how long that would take, or if it is possible. 10ft on the Datalink. If nothing else, try to find the origin of the signal and communicate with her.

[Raynn]

Doctor Dare:
Dare is unable to take control of any of the bots, he lacks the time, but he is able to track the signal back to its source. Dire is on the move to what appears to be one of her bases within the city limits. Any efforts to open a comm-link with her are met with silence.

Hero Point to Remembrance & Vagrant to buy off Stun from 2 of the Dire Bots.

Dire Bot Rolls:
All three functioning Dire Bots Charge.

Attack on Rycon: [roll0] DC 26 DC 31 Toughness Save on a hit.
Attack on Vagrant: [roll1] DC 26 Toughness Save on a hit.
Attack on Remembrance: [roll2] DC 26 Toughness Save on a hit.

Daedalus Roll:
Attack on Least harmed Dire Bot: [roll3] DC 25 Toughness Save on a hit.

{table]Dire Bot 1: |Unconscious + Disabled
Dire Bot 2: |Bruised 2 + Injured 2
Dire Bot 3: |Bruised 2 + Injured 2
Dire Bot 4: |Bruised 2 + Injured 2 + Stunned
Dire Bot 5: |Staggered + Disabled + Bruised + Injured
Dire Bot 6: |Staggered + Disabled [/table]


~THE FRONTLINERS~

The three Dire Bots that are still functioning fly into the air before swooping down and spreading out to attack Vagrant, Rycon and Remembrance separately.

After they collide with the trio Daedalus blasts one with his palm blasters, shattering parts of its casing and incinerating its robe and cape.

[smuchmuch]

Blargh, dodn't want to go with tomrow but I can't think of areason Ic not to.

"Me ?" Did he, just like that, suggest a 'team up' ?. sure it make sense to want some back up, jsut odd he's call it like that. In her experience heroes pairing for a while is just something that happens like that, because two people have the same objective. Ah well, you meet all kind of indiosynchratic characters in this occupation. Guess it's somewhat reassuring to know the keeper of the timeline is entusiastic about his job. Old school superheroes, right ?"Saving the timeline is a bit above my paygrade but it's everyone buisness, right ?" Shade is not really an expert on the most outlandish things you can meet in this occupation, magic, aliens, time and dimension travel (that one tend to get complicated real fast), dealt with it a few time of course but not exactly that familair either. But hell if she isn't curious.

"I'd be honnored. Just two seconds to take my ride" she points to the direction where she parked her motocycle. Passing near Jhonny and bowman handling Otaku, they seems to have him well in hand " you handle the perp ? You worked with Tomorow before, right ? Anything i should know ?" That smile of his did seem a tad weird.

"Alright, we're good." Shade poses a hand on her comlink and listens to the FLI frenquencies, to ask soemone about the currents whereabout of the Frontliners, that the simpler way to locte their target, she figures, else she'd have a couples of other tricks but as it conveniently turns out, they won't be needed.*
"So if it's not trade secret, I alway wondered, how do you know a timeline is THE right one ?"

*OOC: At least I assume, since they happen to be with Daedalus. Or should I roll something ?

[Green Bean]

The Dire Bot closes the distance too quickly to dodge. Remembrance tries to move with the blow, and turns a potentially fatal strike into a glancing hit to her shoulder. She channels the jarring force of the attack into a superb back handspring that leaves her on her feet and unharmed.

Toughness Save: [roll0]

[Ridai]

"The real Dire is escaping!" Ava calls out to Dare, pointing her finger directly towards where she feels Dire's life energy, then the direction into which she is moving.

The Dire Bots don't stand much of a chance and Ava knows how resilient she is (nice dress be damned), so she pretty much stands her ground (getting out of the damn heels would be too time-consuming) and observes the fight. When the bots do get their attacks in, she especially sees Ashley get hit rather hard, fuelling a bit of a protective urge towards the young woman. Immediately, the healer sends out a wave of life energy to mend her allies' wounds. "I've got your backs! Go get 'em!"

Standard action Ava uses her Area Heal

Healing rank 5
50 ft. burst area centered on Ava
Extras: Total (heal one condition by beating DC 10 and another for every 5 beyond the base DC)
Feats: Persistent, Regrowth, Selective, Innate

In the interest of time, recovery checks for Ashley and Vagrant (if needed for the latter):
Ashley [roll0]
Vagrant [roll1]

[KaganMonk]

Doctor Dare
I'll take some of that healing too. Teleporting is tiring at the moment.
[roll0]

Feeling Ava's healing, Dare straightens up a bit. "Heading confirmed. Clean these two up and I'll get us ahead of her."

[ripleycat]

"Hey, none of that!" Seeing Ashley get waylaid by one of the Dire-bots makes Emily angry. Different dimension or not, she wasn't going to let a teammate get beaten up if she could help it. Pulling her blaster from its holster, she fired a shot at the bot's head.

Air Ace frowned at Ava's revelation. "They're all fakes? Guess we better get a move on, then. Everyone in one piece?"

Free Action to draw Omni-Blaster.

Standard: Energy Ray: [roll0] against the bot attacking Rycon. DC 24 Toughness if it hits.