AA #4C: "...That Star-Spangled Banner Yet Burns..."
Iron Fist, Venom, Ms. Marvel, Yellowjacket, Bishop, Wolfsbane enter Scene
A voice rises from the midst of a thick plume of smoke filling the center of the upper floor of the Avengers Tower. The sound is perhaps more familiar than a loving father but the tone is an unsettling noise that would cause concern for even the steeliest hearts. “I would say ‘welcome’ but you have rarely been far from me and this place in recent times," comes the voice. "Nevertheless, hail to your servitude or what is left of your existence.” The smoke clears barely enough to reveal a man standing near the center of what was once the grand meeting room in the penthouse of Stark's building, now shattered and smoldering throughout, leaving a few patches of supported floor on which to stand, over a steep drop into the thick smoke and the interior of what is now formerly Avengers Tower. The man is dressed in a crisp, black suit, its sharpness betraying the ragged destruction around him. He is a being without outward supernatural alteration, but a person who would attract attention on the street purely by his body’s solid build and posture of extraordinary confidence -- a physical self-assurance that could only belong to one man. The visible features of his face and his blond hair are also familiar, as well as a mouth recognizable from an opening in an equally familiar mask, and from it a voice that has lent courage to those following it into the greatest of battles. Any stomach would flip at the realization that though this looks like Steve Rogers -- the mighty Captain America -- before them, the voice betrays any semblance of that being fact. The face is partially obscured by an unearthly crimson hue around his head, but clearly there is a smile that could once be familiar from the end of a hard-won battle but is now perverted into a sinister grin, and a mouth that grinds its words, distorting a sound once comforting but now holding a dark premonition solely from its resonance. He also holds the iconic, patriotic shield, gleaming any less than usual perhaps from being obscured by the curtains of smoke around it or from now being possessed by the essence of evil. “And another step of the grandest plan finally comes to fruition. Patience, as always, brings success to the victors. Now you assemble here once again, Avengers and hangers-on, on the remnants of what once was but will be once again, refashioned in the ultimate and grander power. And I have you to thank, self-serving champions, in aiding me more than I could have ordered directly. You took your orders every step of the way, without fail, as the pieces on a chess board you have always been. In destroying the refuge of Hydra to cover my exploits to bringing the fight to my own enemies to providing the means to not only destroy my greatest enemy but to take all that he ever had from him to freeing valuable allies. For that you have my gratitude. To reward you, I shall allow you to serve on the front-lines and continue to bring forth this new world.”
Add Roter Kapitänschädel
Behind the man who appears as the most popular hero of all time is a cadre of superhumans, hovering in the air or standing mightily and ready for action. One is a super-looking man, wearing a domino mask and a red and yellow costume with a trail of a golden cape; a woman appearing wondrous by her arms and legs thick and lean with a presence as imposing as any opposition; a man obscured by a drab, natural gloom reminiscent of bats but truly carrying a darkness around him; another man hovers higher and shines brighter than the rest, as if leading with a lantern, resplendent of colors not just green but an entire spectrum, each hue bringing with it a power more substantial than the last; and a streak of light who appears to be a man when it stops long enough to register, but moving too quickly to be followed by a human eye.
There could be others behind them but like everything else outside of the center of the room, they are obscured by thick, itchy smoke. They stand behind their leader, fists clenched, teeth gnashed, crouching slightly in action-ready poses.
Add Hyperion, Nighthawk (alternate version), Power Princess, Doctor Spectrum, Blur
As outside, a multitude of Iron Man armors fly about propelled by repulsors, scurrying around with the urgency of commanded task but flying out of sight before it can be observed what those tasks are, their number appearing greater as they are condensed in a smaller space. Their orbit seems to have the sinister man as its center but while they do not make contact or interact with him, they frequently fly in front of and behind and around him, their armors catching what rays of sunlight come through the shattered walls of this large room, and their flight disrupting the shapes of the smoke but never diminishing it.
Tony Stark, in his most powerful suit of Iron Man armor, is strung up with thick wires and cables, some of them spurting electricity, his body hanging from a fragment of a ceiling held up by a portion of wall that barely withstood the destruction of the building. Within a helmet shattered to shards, his head droops, hopefully only unconscious.
At the far end of the room, Clint Barton -- once Hawkeye -- lays immobile in a ball, constricted by chains, his back to those who have entered the area. Near him, a man familiar enough to other Avengers even out of costume as the Falcon, lays prone, wearing a green, torn hospital gown and his birds’ wings and covered in blood.
Behind the assembled foes is a large bank of machinery, perhaps in a laboratory adjacent to the room that has become the hub of the events transpiring, but it is difficult to discern through the smoke that is even heavier in the distance.
Add Iron Mob 3d6
Spider-Man, Machine Man, Storm present as potential PCs
She-Hulk, the Wasp, Shang-Chi, Human Torch (possibly Taskmaster)</i> present as NPCs</i>
Anyone not interacting with the main action may choose their Affiliation for their first action in this Scene. Otherwise, everyone should assume to be at Team.
Scene Distinctions:
The Remains Of The Interior Of Avengers Tower
Plumes Of Thick, Hot Smoke
Severed Cables With Live Electricity
Doom Pool: 2d6, d10
New, Available FX:
* High Stakes: Borrow a die (d10 or below) from the Doom Pool to add to your own dice action. At the end of the action, return the die to the Doom Pool stepped up by 1.
* Lack of Leadership: Earn a PP by taking d4 for your Affiliation in a dice action.
* Strong Leadership: As a free action, spend a PP to give another PC a d10 for their Affiliation for their next dice action.
(A die used from Strong Leadership cannot be used in the same dice action as Lack of Leadership.)
* Remember that every post with a dice pool must have the current tally of Plot Points and a choice for next action if it's your turn.
* PP tally rolls over from the previous chapter.
* Also remember that all Opportunities rolled are automatically bought, at a rate of 1 PP per dice pool (to be translated into Doom Pool dice).
* The maximum amount of Plot Points a hero can have at any one time is 5.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:24, Wed 13 July 2022.