"I am sick of people yelling at me! Second-guessing me!" Hank threw down the wire he was holding. "It's bad enough to get it from my ex-wife, but now I have to listen to Spider-Man?"

Team d8
Towering Intellect d8

Yellowjacket rolled 8,2 using d8,d8 ((8,2)).

Bishop wasn't too bright, but he was smart enough to realize they had no chance of surviving this fight unless they somehow managed to break whatever hold possessed Captain America.  putting his trust in Pym, he decided to take down the man who stepped forward to protect the machine, giving it everything he got!


Team 1d8, uncompromising 1d8, 2d10 energy blast (with SFX), 1d8 combat expert, 1d8 resource
Bishop rolled 7,2,4,6,1 using 1d8,1d8,2d10,1d8,1d8 with rolls of 7,2,2,2,6,1.  energy blast at crossbones.  Total 13, effect 1d10.
New PP total: 0+1=1

Add d6 to Doom Pool from Bishop's Opportunities

Defend from Bishop's physical attack, Total: 13, Effect: d10:
Focus/Team & Plumes Of Thick, Hot Smoke    d6
(step up Doom Pool die)
Combat Master    d10
Bishop Mental stress    d6
Crumbling Battlefield Scene Complication    d8
from Doom Pool    d8

Crossbones rolled 2,10,1,1,8 using d6,d10,d6,d8,d8 ((2,10,1,1,8)).

Total: 18, Effect: d6
2 Opportunities (available first to Bishop)

Doom Pool: 3d8,3d10,d12 +d6 (-d8/+d10) -d8 = d6,d8,4d10,d12

Even viewing it from across the crowded battlefield and through the smoke, Crossbones had already moved out of the way of Bishop’s target when he saw the mutant aiming with raised, energized fists. The dodge is little effort for the mercenary, and it would be a wide, disregarded miss in any other circumstance, but Bishop’s blast strikes the big apparatus by which Crossbones is standing sentry and rends a side of the machinery apart. Chunks of the machine go flying along with wires that have recently been torn apart from the inside, but the size of the thing, even with the sheer power behind Bishop giving the attack his all, saves it from falling apart completely. When most of the sparks cease moments later the machine is how it was, with no indication how much damage was caused to its function. However, barely an instant later, the body strapped to the machine jerks upward in a violent spasm, straining the constraints at his wrist, ankles, and waist!

Crossbones continues his guard, no reaction whether the destruction was help or hindrance through his stoic mask. He does not even ready a counter-strike to his would-be attacker.

BWOMPF! She-Hulk slugs Hyperion yet again and sends him staggering backward a few feet in his hover. The two combatants have exchanged blows since their fracas started and plenty of bruises have been administered but neither has slowed their pace of doling out violence. She-Hulk seemed to gain the slightest advantage with that blow to her opponent, then with this newest one he pauses once more. This time he stops. Throughout the rest of the area, the rest of his team stop likewise, most of them earning a pause as they have asserted dominance over their sparring partners. Even what had been a streaking blur up to this point reveals himself to be a lithe man in a spandex costume once he slows to a halt on the far end of the room. They all look blankly, somewhere around them, past their adversaries. Hyperion, having started this advent of cessation, looks up slowly, nose bleeding and muscles bulging. Though his mask is ripped, his eyes are still obscured, but he glares straight at She-Hulk in front of him. The jade giantess likewise stops, but her body is still in motion, backing up as Hyperion gathers his might. “Uh -- “ she says, but anything she could mutter matters not when the giant dressed in yellow and red bursts toward her, fist initially pulled back then thrust forward in a streak and into the face of the green Avenger, and would have gone through it if not for her substantial might. KRAKT!, as clear as brutality in the open space. Her head is forced aside with the blow, almost all the way around, with her body following, and sending her tumbling to the crumbling floor. She hits the surface with enough force to make anything on it bounce -- the entire floor -- and another panel of a wall falls. Hitting face down, she slowly puts out a mighty arm to push herself up, but even agonizing moments later she has not gone far enough that her hair is gathered on the floor obscuring her face.

She-Hulk takes Physical Stress d8

Danny grimaced as the sound of the blow fell upon his ears. The Iron Fist knew a solid punch when he heard one. It wasn't often he had reason to worry about She-Hulk, but as he saw her go down, his eyes widened as he called out with a note of worry in his voice: "Jen!"

Still gathering his Chi, he wasn't yet in a position to go to her aid. His eyes fell upon the mighty Venom as he scanned the room.

"We've gotta do something about the heavy hitter. Think you can trap him?"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:42, Mon 26 Sept 2022.

Venom points at himself and then at She-Hulk, "You want us to restrain that? That is not a minion!"

He crouches, "Allonsy! Wait no we did that joke already."

After a moment he leaps towards Hyperion, "We apologize in advance in case your organs taste delicious as we'll take your spare ones!" And to highlight Venom's less than solid construction he turns into a giant blob with a mouth which is filled with teeth and try to swallow Hyperion.

OOC

Total: 12
ED: d10
Opps: 1
PP: 1

Team d6
Unrelenting Savage d4 +1 pp
Super Strength d10
Shapeshifting d6
-1 PP to activate Envelop d6
Combat expert d8
11:10, Today: Venom rolled 5,1,4,6,6,2 using d6,d4,d10,d6,d6,d8 ((5,1,4,6,6,2)).

Add d6 to Doom Pool from Venom's Opportunity

Defend from Venom's attempt to create Envelop Complication, Total: 12, Effect: d10:
Team    d8
Last Son of Argon    d8
Godlike Durability    d12
Combat Expert    d8
Venom Emotional Stress    d8
Crumbling Battlefield Scene Complication    d8
From Doom Pool    d6

Hyperion rolled 7,5,2,8,4,7,2 using d8,d8,d12,d8,d8,d8,d6 ((7,5,2,8,4,7,2)).

Total: 15, Effect: d12

Doom Pool: d6,d8,4d10,d12 +d6 -d6 = d6,d8,4d10,d12

Once again, Venom is more teeth than he is power. Though he talks a good game, his effectiveness wanes, even when standing among the good guys. Whether from what this team has been through, general exhaustion, or the stifling heat of the day on this battleground, when Venom needs it he is left with little fuel in his symbiote tank, at least not to call the power he needs. His tendrils meander in the air instead of shoot through it, and by the time they reach their mighty opponent, they are thin and confused. They touch the caped man but not near any magnitude to envelop their foe in anything but words, and nothing to which he reacts. To twist the knife farther, a thick block of the floor above them falls, squashing a few of the most hapless tendrils.
This message was last updated by the player at 08:14, Fri 30 Sept 2022.

While She-Hulk props herself up slowly from the floor, the domino-masked man draws back, not reacting to Venom's attack but taking no further action. He does nothing, but the part of his face that isn’t latticed in thick bruises is blank. He seems to look over the action but at nothing in particular. His torn, yellow cape flows lightly with the minimal motion of his hovering above the broken floor. It is a minor retreat, but his sudden stillness after blasting She-Hulk with his fist is a jarring contrast to behold.

Spider-Man dodges another Iron suit, landing to perch on a pile of rubbish that used to be a meeting table whose wax probably cost a million dollars, next to the hero that could help the most. “We’re getting what’s left of our butts handed to us here,” Spider-Man says, with a darker tone than what usually facilitates his quips. “A plan to take them straight-on isn’t much of a plan. And right now we’re being more of a danger to Cap, if that’s who’s in that machine. We need to figure out something more than this because this isn’t working.”

The hero that can help the most get an extra d8 for their next action dice pool, for interacting with Spider-Man.

As if to replace the withdrawing mighty man, the fellow wielding light recoils amidst the rubble of the building and its still-falling pieces, reaching for his head and groaning, the first sound made by these combatants that was not the direct consequence of violence. But just as he doubles over and his fingertips reach his temple, he suddenly stands bolt-upright, with the hand that holds the source of his power outstretched. When his arm is fully extended a multitude of colors burst from his fist to slice through the heroes near him -- and those beyond as well!

Physical attack on Iron Fist, Ms. Marvel, Bishop, Venom:
Team    d4
Resisting    d4
(step up Doom Pool die)
Energy Blast    d10
Area Attack    2d6
Combat Expert    d8
Crumbling Battlefield    d8
Iron Fist Emotional Stress    d12
From Doom Pool    d8

Doctor Spectrum rolled 1,4,10,5,6,8,3,8,8 using d4,d4,d10,d6,d6,d8,d8,d12,d8 ((1,4,10,5,6,8,3,8,8)).

Spend d8 from Doom Pool to add third die to Total

Total: 26, Effect: d12 to Bishop; d8 to Ms. Marvel; d6 to Iron Fist & Venom
1 Opportunity (available first to Iron Fist, Ms. Marvel, Bishop, Venom)

Doom Pool: d6,d8,4d10,d12 (-d6/+d8) -d8 -d8 = 4d10,d12

Reaction Needed: Iron Fist, Ms. Marvel, Bishop, Venom
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:11, Fri 30 Sept 2022.

Mac and Venom had barely pulled themselves back into a cohesive whole before the colors of pain was introduced to them as they tried to dive behind the debris around them, "This isn't working too well! We eat minions and annoy Spiderman!"

Once he is struck and pretty much splattered around the area he is in with an almost naked Mac slumped a back wall again, "I think I'd like to go back to the Raft now....it should be Meatloaf day...."



OOC:
Total: 18
ED: D8
PP: 1 (+1 from Opps): 2


team d6
The Remains Of The Interior Of Avengers Tower distinction d8
Superhuman Durability d10
Superhuman Reflexes d10
Acrobatic Expert d8

08:15, Today: Venom rolled 1,5,8,10,2 using d6,d8,d10,d10,d8 ((1,5,8,10,2)).

This message was last edited by the player at 16:22, Fri 30 Sept 2022.

Stand up and fight, or run away.  These were the two options as far as Bishop was concerned.  If there was a smart way out of this, he expected one of the scientist guys to figure it out.
For now, all he could do was absorb some of the enemy's attention.  He was good for that, at least.

Team 1d8, Uncompromising 1d4, Durability 1d10, Combat 1d8
Bishop rolled 4,4,1,8 using 1d8,1d4,1d10,1d8 with rolls of 4,4,1,8.  reaction to Doc Spectrum.
Total 12 vs 26.  Spending a PP to activate Energy Absorption SFX, stepping up Energy Blast back to 1d10
New PP total: 1-1+1+1=2

"Spider-Man is right."

She-Hulk. Venom. Was there anyone here this big slugger couldn't outmatch? The situation was dire when Danny and the team had arrived. But with every passing second, this fight seemed more impossible to win. They needed a new strategy.

Okay, Danny, think. What's the plan? What are we doing here?

The Tower was crumbling all around them. A team of Avengers lay around the room in scattered defeat. And at the center of it all was the Red Skull, gleefully goading Danny and his allies into... what? Destroying Captain America's body? When the Fist took into account everything the team had been through up until now, it just wasn't adding up.

"If his goal really was to destroy Cap's body," he thinks aloud. "He would have already had plenty of time to do it before we even got here. So there must be something else he's after."

Okay, makes sense so far. But doesn't help us getting our butts kicked.

"We need to get Cap back. Get him and the others somewhere safe, so they can help us figure out what's really going on here."

He turns to the group. "It'll take everything we've got, but I'm sure we can- wha?!"

And then a multicolored flash of light blazes toward him, and it's all he can do to pull off another desperate dodge.

Pull off another desperate dodge.

Team d6
Living Weapon d4 (Forced to play defense)
Enhanced Reflexes d8
Acrobatic Master 3d6

02:16, Today: Iron Fist rolled 4,3,3,4,2,2 using 1d6,1d4,1d8,1d6,1d6,1d6 with rolls of 4,3,3,4,2,2.  Reaction to Dr. Spectrum's energy blast attack.

Total: 7
Effect: d8
Opportunities: 0
PP's: 2 + 1 = 3

Karla was distracted some listening to Iron First;  who was making a good deal of sense -- again, she reflected he really did seem to have some leadership qualities...

The sudden flash of light in her peripheral vision alerted her --  and her knee jerk response was to go intangible.

Which came with a twofold issue:   the first being that power was far more optimal for physical attacks, rather than energy.   And the second that, something about this conflict, her attempt to use that particular power --  it brought an echo of memory, confusing images and impressions, from the part of the moonstone that dovetailed with her subconscious.

And, not only did that power fail to protect her from Spectrum's assault, it also slipped out of her volition, leaving her in a mostly immaterial state, unable to have any effect at all on those around her.   Not that she was in any shape to do so, even so --  involuntarily crying out, as she endured the force of the blast...

Reaction vs. Spectrum's attack --  Epic Fail!!
Ms. Marvel rolled 2,4,4,3 using d8,d10,d4,d8 with rolls of 2,4,4,3.
Team + Intangibility + Echoes of the Moonstone + Combat
Total = 8  Effect = D8

Limit - Flood Of Memories: Change any Kree Moonstone Augmentation power into a complication to gain 1 PP. Activate an opportunity or remove the complication to recover the power

Intangibility D10 becomes a complication.

PP +2 = 4
This message was last edited by the player at 01:46, Mon 03 Oct 2022.

Add d6 to Doom Pool from Venom's Opportunity (msg #60)
Add d6 to Doom Pool from Bishop's Opportunity (msg #61)

Venom: Attacking Extraordinary Success deals d8 Physical Stress
Bishop: Attacking Extraordinary Success deals d12 Physical Stress/d8 Physical Trauma (pending discussion with player)
Iron Fist: Attacking Extraordinary Success deals d12 Physical Stress (pending Chi Healing SFX)
Ms. Marvel: Attacking Extraordinary Success deals d12 Physical Stress/d6 Physical Trauma



The beams shooting from the masked man’s gem are silent but nearly fatal, pushing each combatant to their very limits. Venom, furthest from the attacker, takes the least of it and is still merely badly singed to his interior, human skin. If the symbiote urges him on, surely his human inside realizes the dire possibilities of what could come from this conflict. Bishop is overloaded by power, perhaps more than he has ever been. Being taken to these limits was last done during his training in that far-away place, with sadistic methods to press him as far as his mutant powers  could go. Now he’s taken as much from this unworldly power assaulting him, instantly pushing him farther than he thought he could go. Still, he draws in the power and stays standing, but how much longer he can go is in question. Iron Fist cannot be sure how deep the strike went into his body, being a flash of light across him, but a burst quick and powerful enough to cauterize whatever harm it did, leaving him oblivious to the lasting damage. This battle would be the worst place to self-check for personal injury, but to keep going could be a dangerous predicament, for wherever he winds up when the shock wears off. Extraordinary methods may be necessary. Ms. Marvel, closest and already familiar with the attack, takes the most damage when the beam slices through her on an energy frequency beyond what her intangibility can tune to. Maybe she missed it by only a degree, but it is a time like this that shows her how her mastery of science in the psychological realm does not extend to physics. The heroes are left hobbled in their worst conditions so far, and yet the battle and the danger rage. There is no guarantee that keeping on will not result in defeat, but stopping now would mean certain failure! How much further can they go?!

Doom Pool: 4d10,d12 +d6 +d6 = 2d6,4d10,d12

By the time Iron Fist would have felt the slightest hint of a presence behind him, he would have already been dead. Masked by the tumult of the chaos around them, as well as bearing a mastery of stealth, a particular foe could sneak up on him and deliver a final, fatal blow. In another time and place it might have happened, but at this one, that foe stopped with their killing tool only an inch away from Danny Rand. When Iron Fist can take a look at the man behind him, Nighthawk, in his dark indigo and black uniform, showing even more a power over stealth to stay obscured even against the brightness of the afternoon sunlight bathing the area, holding a black, bladed weapon shaped like a hawk perilously close to the back of the martial artist’s neck, now halted and held by a trembling hand. Nighthawk’s face is twisted in anguish, also trembling, taken over on the inside by pain from an invisible foe. He makes a great effort, his face red and drawing sweat, holding back or pushing against an unseen force. His other shaking hand raises slowly and shakily to hold his head and his eyes shut tight, finally dropping his weapon with a clatter and issuing a tormented cry: “AAARRRGGGHHH!” Both hands come to hold his head and he pulls himself back, struggling against an internal enemy. While Iron Fist’s life may have been spared in this split-second, his would-be killer has been left with his own intense struggle.

Nighthawk adds d8 to Doom Pool

Doom Pool: 2d6,4d10,d12 +d8 = 2d6,d8,4d10,d12

Meanwhile, two of the Iron Man armors -- a classic red-and-gold set and a sleek, new model, unfinished in gray -- collide in the air, causing neither harm or slowing down, but drawing a cloud of sparks when they pull away from their crash.

"Damn it, it's too much!"
Bishop just barely managed to contain the surge of energy. He couldn't take much more of it.  Unless the tiny man succeeded in wrecking the machine, he had half a mind to bail out of there.

Just as it occurs to Bishop that this may have been a momentous event taken from a grade-school history lesson -- if only he could remember what had happened (or will happen) to earn such a place -- the combatants known by some as the Squadron Supreme each drop to their knees, grasping their heads, much like Nighthawk. Blur writhes in agony, the Skrull moans, Power Princess shakes her head violently and tries to rise to her feet but slumps back again. As they fall to the floor tenuously holding together, only one of their number stands: Hyperion. Though his body shakes, he clinches his fists and stands, muscles tensed and ready for brutality. No feeling appears in his eyes, buried under Hulk-made bruises.

In another part of the room, the Deep-Sea or Deep-Space Iron Man armor with the bowl on its head freezes in mid-air. A hitherto-unseen Iron Man armor in orange, on the floor, faces the direction away from the action. The black Stealth Iron Man armor hits the ceiling, taking down half of the overhead floor, sending it down the massive hole in the floor where the heroes and their foes stand and into the dark oblivion that was once the interior of Avenger Tower.

Crossbones holds his silent stance, knife in hand, near the machine and the body in it.

The Red Skull, untouched in the middle of the chaos, stands and smiles widely at all around him, with a mouthful of perfect, white teeth.

Blur, The Skrull, Power Princess, Iron Armor Mob, Crossbones step up Doom Pool:
Doom Pool: 2d6,d8,4d10,d12 (-d6/+d8) (-d6/+d8) (-d8/+d10) (-d10/+d12) (-d10/+d12) = 2d8,3d10,3d12
5 Opportunities available

Next Action: Red Skull (new round)

The Skull-as-Cap stands in the center of the chaos of once-heroes writhing on the floor and clutching their heads and numerous Iron Suits colliding with each other and what is left of this great room. Hyperion hovers above the floor, fists ready, his tattered cape fluttering lightly in the hot wind that has blown through this shattered arena. Slowly he shifts toward where the Skull is standing, in front of his master, between the Skull and wherever there is the greatest assemblage of heroes.

At last the Skull leans back to expand his chest in pride, clutches his hands front of him, and, with a sound even more like gravel, speaks. “Take the body, if you must. I have left that mind of pathetic, broken ideology in my former, crippled body, and now I finally stand on victory. That the device that made that exchange is as good as destroyed -- by your helpful hands -- and now I may live out my days in this body, conquering with no limits in sight. I would thank you for your aid but our allegiance does not end today. In fact, it is merely beginning. We -- you and I -- are on the precipice of the greatest battle this world, if not this universe, will have seen, and sides must be taken. There is no choice. You will mark my words: Those in between forces shall be crushed. As my forces are clearly superior, guided by the form of your greatest leader, you would be fools to not honor my leadership. So you may take the body of the verdammt Captain as payment in advance for the services I shall call upon and which you will be wise to honor. To choose otherwise, to take another side or none at all, will end in defeat, yours and whomever chooses to ally with you.”

He pauses, as if awaiting an answer, though not one with violence, despite the vulnerability he expresses with making himself the most open target of all here. But suddenly -- and silently -- a figure emerges from a plume of smoke behind him, a sleek, dark form bursting from the obscurations of the surrounding area and exploding into the fray, aiming at the grand foe before him. His pounce is so mighty and committed that he seems to freeze in mid-air, his trajectory leading him right to -- and through -- the Red Skull before him. The intention is clearly a vicious stealth attack, coming up from behind the Skull and unbeknownst to the ruling villain. Claws catch a flash of light as they extend, ready for a blindsiding assault that could only be deadly, upon the body that was once the legendary Captain America. By the time his attack is revealed, the Black Panther is only an arm’s length from it!

Next Action: Anyone who wants to attack the Black Panther to stop him or who wants to create an Asset to help him
As a free action, anyone can spend a PP to help or hinder the Black Panther (along with narration for what you are doing to affect the attack)
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:32, Wed 26 Oct 2022.

Damn it! Hank had mis-identified how the machine functioned. He assumed that because Cap/Skull was still in the machine that the machine was necessary to keep Skull/Cap in charge. But instead, it just seemed that the Skull had been too lazy to take his old body out of the machine. He didn't care about it anymore. Thus, Hank's attempt to stop the machine had simply broken it... and now it was about to burst into flames unless he did something to stop it.

[Fire suppression (Attacking the Doom Pool directly)]

Team d8
Epic Guilt Complex d8
Shrinking d10 + d6
SFX: Miniaturized Arsenal. When using Size Of An Ant to create tech-related assets, add a d6 and step up your effect die.
Tech Master d10

Yellowjacket rolled 5,7,7,1,2 using d8,d8,d10,d6,d10 ((5,7,7,1,2)).

Total: 19 (Spending 1 PP to keep 3rd die)
Effect: d12 (stepped-up d10)
Opps: 1
PP: 1
This message was last edited by the player at 17:16, Tue 01 Nov 2022.

Attacking the Doom Pool is not an allowable action

Miniaturized Arsenal is used for creating Assets

Add d6 to Doom Pool from Yellowjacket's Opportunity

Doom Pool (2d8,3d10,3d12) reaction to Yellowjacket's attempt to attack Doom Pool, Total: 19, Effect: d12:
Yellowjacket Mental Stress    d10
Crumbling Battlefield    d8

Watcher rolled 3,7,9,3,7,8,1,11,7,5 using d8,d8,d10,d10,d10,d12,d12,d12,d10,d8 ((3,7,9,3,7,8,1,11,7,5)).

Total: 20, Effect: d12

1 Opportunity (available first to Yellowjacket)

Doom Pool:2d8,3d10,3d12 +d6 = d6,2d8,3d10,3d12

KRAK! An spark that would be small to a standard human is an explosion bigger than Pym is at the moment. POPK! goes another one. Then KUH-KLUNG! and shaking the whole thing -- something falling into the housing outside. If the interior of this machine is like a big house, the fire Pym smells is not inside the room where he is. But it’s somewhere, and likely close. What’s in his current space is wires, wires connecting to things, and things exploding that are connected to wires. Any panic would leave him tangled in his competition for space, but any attempt at escape could leave him charging straight into that fire, wherever it is. Or fires? Perhaps Pym succeeded in his mission into this device, to conquer it and whatever intentions it had, and now he's taking the life out of it -- perhaps in more ways than one!/

Still reeling from the multicolored Squadron member's beam attack, Danny is already in a bad way when the next opponent makes his move. The hair on the back of his neck stands up as he suddenly realizes an enemy is behind him. Too late, he senses a blade at his neck-- a disturbing realization during the most favorable of battles. Now, in the heroes' darkest moments, it is a chilling reminder that their enemies here are in a whole different league. The slightest twitch, and Nighthawk will cut the Fist's throat, bleeding him out before his body even hits the ground.

And yet, the avian assassin isn't seeing it through. Instead, the blade trembles, and eventually falls away from Danny's neck as Nighthawk doubles over, clutching at his head:

Whatever is happening, Danny takes the opportunity to stagger away and place himself in a more advantageous position among the rubble. As he again surveys the battlefield, his healing hands clutch at his own wounds, salving them with Chi. I won't be caught off guard again, he thinks. I won't.

Spending 1 PP to recover my physical stress using Chi Healing SFX.

And then he sees the Black Panther moving into position toward the Skull. One glance at the Wakandan warrior's posture is enough to tell Danny everything. The glint of the claws only confirms what he already fears, as instincts take over and he rushes to stop certain disaster.

"NO!" is all he can shout as he dashes toward them. His hand shines with golden light as he reaches out-- not to strike the Panther, but to catch hold of his wrist before the deadly blow falls upon Captain America's body.

Rolling to stop the Black Panther from damaging Cap's body. I suppose this would be a complication, "Restrain the Panther".

Team d6
Young Dragon d4 (+1 PP) (Street-level hero vs. Avenger)
Enhanced Speed d8
Acrobatic Master 2d8

01:21, Today: Iron Fist rolled 1,3,1,6,4 using 1d6,1d4,1d8,1d8,1d8 with rolls of 1,3,1,6,4.  Danny attempts to restrain Black Panther.

Total: 10
Effect: d4
Opportunities: 2
PP's: 3 + 1 from Opportunities = 4

Next: Ms. Marvel
This message was last edited by the player at 08:38, Sun 06 Nov 2022.

The Watcher said I can't currently take any dice actions, and there are no actions that don't involve dice, as far as I understand;


Still hampered by her own power gone awry, as well as reeling from the effects of Dr. Spectrum's assault, Karla could only watch through pain-hazed eyes as the Wakandan liege sped at the body that once belonged to Captain America.    Iron First moved swiftly to intercede; she almost couldn't look...she would rather hate to see that body die with someone else in it.

Karla began backing away from the fray, wishing she'd avoided this colossal cluster f--k altogether...

Next:  Venom

Add d6 to Doom Pool from Iron Fist's Opportunities (1 of 2)

Doom Pool (d6,2d8,3d10,3d12) reaction to Iron Fist's attempt to create Restrain the Panther Complication, Total: 10, Effect: d4 (msg #71):
Iron Fist Emotional Stress    d12
Crumbling Battlefield Scene Complications    d8

Watcher rolled 2,3,4,9,10,1,3,8,7,4,7 using d6,d8,d8,d10,d10,d10,d12,d12,d12,d12,d8 ((2,3,4,9,10,1,3,8,7,4,7)).

Total: 19, Effect: d12

Counterattack (using the other of Iron Fist's Opportunities) deals Iron Fist d12 Physical Stress

Doom Pool: d6,2d8,3d10,3d12 =d6 = 2d6,2d8,3d10,3d12

Danny leaps to his feet as his wounds fade, leaving only a tingling where there was once great, grinding pains, but he has less motivation than he thought. His hands shake until they are made into fists and his eyesight gets woozy and his face feels hot and the floor seems to shift underfoot, even more than it had before, as it continues to fall apart. Having seen the Panther just before the beginning of his strike, the mighty Iron Fist has the jump but where he lands becomes in front of the superior Hyperion, who slides over to come between Danny and his target. Without a single word, the bruised, masked man makes a slight gesture with his arm, which becomes a shattering back-hand across the Fist’s face, sending the hero flying and freshly beaten. Iron Fist is left on the opposite side of the room from where he started, battered again.

Not far from where Iron Fist lands, Hawkeye either stirs or the floor beneath him -- what is left of it -- shifts, sending his body rolling to the other side.

An instant later, when Black Panther should already be one second past his vicious attack, the body that was once Captain America spins backward, to face his attacker, his arm following to punch a hand at the neck of his foe in a move so viciously smooth he could have spent his life practicing for this very moment. The Skull plucks the Panther out of the air by the throat, the rest of the Panther's lithe body following through with the momentum but his head being jerked back by the hand around his neck, violently yanking the rest of him, hard enough to snap a spine. But life is expressed when the victim brings his hands up to pull himself away from the grip, to no avail. The Black Panther hangs limply by his neck, hanging on to the arm of the Skull-as-Cap, who shows no discomfort in holding his enemy aloft.

“An attack on me, the most brilliant tactical mind in existence, in the body of a honed warrior?" the Skull barks. "You did not think I would see the intention of your attack when you entered this battlefield? You did not think I would not know who you are?”

The Skull’s grin comes both as a sign of his victory and from gnashing his teeth. If he could not crush the Panther’s windpipe with a firm squeeze of his fist around the throat, he could surely constrict the flow of air enough that life would be pulled from his opponent, bringing death so much more slowly than the mercy of snapping a spine. The Black Panther writhes in the grip, but can find no purchase in his struggle, in the steel grip of the ultimate enemy who could choose to snuff out his living as easily as breathing his own plentiful air.

Spider-Man, with his costume torn nearly completely from one arm and torso and any exposed skin covered in cuts and bruises, settles on a pile of rubbish that looks like it was an expensive, shiny desk. “That’s the king of Wakanda, bonehead!” he says, squatting in a ready position but hesitating to pounce. “You’re about to get an entire badass country coming down on you!”

The Skull’s strong, resolute face looks down at the prey wriggling at the end of his arm. “Is that so? Are you a king? Is that who you are?” He flicks his wrist, shaking the body of the Black Panther, stressing his enemy’s spine but apparently not quite breaking it, as the Panther struggles, with slightly less urgency, as air is getting harder to come by in his lungs.

“Who you truly are?” The Skull shakes the body again and the form of the Panther shimmers. The body shifts and rolls cascade down its surface then fade, to be replaced by the form of Wolfsbane, as most of the heroes here saw her previously. The form settles, but still in the iron grip of the Red Skull in the body of Captain America.

The glow fades from Danny's hand as he impacts the floor, rolling to a stop against a heap of rubble. His whole body has gone limp, and he does not stir.

I'll buy the Watcher's Opportunity for a Stunt d10 on my next turn.

PP's: 3
This message was last edited by the player at 01:00, Sun 20 Nov 2022.

Wolfsbane’s writhing at the end of the Red Captain’s arm becomes slower and weaker. When her struggles to escape the clutches of her captor become little more than the magnitude of muscle spasms, her body begins to shimmer again, rolls of distortion cascading down her form to reveal… the mystifying mistress of malicious manipulation, Mystique!

“This is who you choose to trust? To stand beside you in battle and assume she will not slit your neck and not your opponent's? You are her enemy more than any shared foe and yet you welcome this mutant into your guard, to open yourself to a strike so swift that you will not realize your own woeful ignorance before your heart takes its last beat? She would kill you with a breath and you cannot make the effort to end it? Perhaps the necessary action must be taken for you.”

KRACK goes the sound of Mystique’s neck.

With a flick of his wrist and hardly an effort from his arm, he tosses the body away, halfway across the room, only by luck landing on a spot of flooring that hasn’t fallen through to the empty interiors of the skyscraper below. The body rolls, limp, to become a heap on the edge of the precipice.

The Skull-as-Cap continues with a snarl. “Have you nothing to say for yourselves? Death from your moral high-ground, haughty honor, and blind obedience -- not the assassin in your midst -- would endanger the greater plans I have engineered. Your ends would bring about some joy to my ranks but such victory is deserved to be taken by me, the architect of the grand design that succeeds expectation, when I should choose to end you! Your lives are a benefit to me now, presently saved from this vile creature. Plentiful suspicion can be a powerful guard, especially when to not see what is in front of you reeks of the most base stupidity! But say nothing -- I shall take the luck of your survival as an expression of gratitude -- and servitude! You will bow! You will serve!”