Avenger Assembled

September 15, 2012 Speaker's Corner 4:00 PM The young man on the soapbox was handsome and charismatic, his black hair in that mussed-up look that took young men so much effort to cultivate, his red sweater and blue jeans a perfect combination of intellectualism and working-class that made him the sort of person who looked like he could be anybody. That's what Speaker's Corner was for, after all, a long-time Freedom City tradition in the heart of Midtown where street preachers, would-be politicians, scientific cranks, and anti-Masons climbed aboard the soapbox at the corner of Blanchard and Morgan and tried to convert the crowd. They usually weren't successful, but the box had become a part of neighborhood culture. The current one was actually made of stone, a bit of well-used, worn-smooth street sculpture that dated back to the 1970s. Handsome though the young man was, it was a busy workday and the last speaker had been gone for a while. No one paid much attention to him until he began to speak. And when he did, what things he had to say! "Hearken to the Word!" he called, spreading his hands to greet the crowd, his dark-eyed gaze seeming to bore into everyone who looked his way, before he began to speak. "The holy word, my brothers and sisters, of the One Who Waits For Us Beyond! There is no darkness or pain in the realm of the Watcher and Waiter, there is no anguish or suffering in those who have known the embrace of the One True Lord. I speak, of course, of the Dark Father of the Multiverse, the Alpha and Omega of Creation and Destruction, the Knight of Entropy: OMEGA!" He'd worked himself up to a peak of high emotion at the last word, and at his shout a crowd began to form. It wasn't a friendly one; most people were staring in bafflement as if waiting for the performance art to begin, while others were beginning to grow hostile. "From the beginning of time, our Dark Father has watched us and guarded us! Protecting us from the hostile multiverse by culling the weak and calling the strong unto his bosom! When he comes to our world, he comes not as a conqueror but as a CHANGER! Liberating us from our flesh and bone so that we might t ascend until his very BOSOM!" He pounded one fist into the other, sweat beginning to form on his face; not from the increasingly angry stares of a growing, hostile crowd, swelling more and more with the crowd leaving work, but from the sheer fire of his words. "The past is over! A future has begun for you, for me, for all of us, where we may all be called into the arms of entropy! I tell you She is no destroyer! The dark embrace of entropic power is no curse, it is a blessing of primal power! We all came from the Crawling Chaos of beyond and one day we will once again be liberated into that all-consuming fire of salvation, through the power and glory of the Dark Mother and Dark Father! Come with me, and I will show you a future where you need fear no man on Earth!" Smiling, he extended his hand into the crowd towards a pretty girl...who spat on it. The young evangelist either didn't notice or didn't care, but the crowd of Freedomites was beginning to get angry. "Go back to Providence, you freak!" someone yelled.

"This place is messed-up," said Citizen as he floated down from the sky next to her, his hair completely unruffled by the faint wind that had kicked up. "I scouted the perimeter, and it's...weird. There's something electronic going in there, but I don't know what it is. I thought about trying to 'port in there, but I don't want to just jump into a strange situation. I don't know why there's so much open space in this city anyway, things would be so much less weird if you just had people living in all your buildings...anyway, you're the expert here," he added, "I can fly through most anything as long as I don't try going beyond the first layer without my emitter. Should we try to sneak in, or just kick in the door and see what happens?" Sharl was willing to take advice about things, especially things he didn't understand, and magic was definitely that. "I could try and get my team," he hazarded, "but it's late and they're pretty far away. I'm already pushing curfew as it is."

Quo-Dis took up a position opposite the bar with Trevor, the tall girl bulky enough that she didn't need to bend down or fly up to match Trevor in height. Sitting down at one of the stools, she plopped an elbow on the bar and raised her arm with a challenging smile. "You are a mighty man, I am a woman of a mighty race. It is a fair match," said the statuesque blonde as she cracked her knuckles. "I saw so little of Corbin's friends when we were students, but I wish I had," she confessed, for a moment a little wistful. "You are fine people, and doughty warriors all. But the past cannot be changed," she added with a little shrug. "Do you ever wish you could?" she asked Trevor. It was tough to tell if she was trying to psyche him out, or just a little odd. Maybe a little of both.

Cubist, if you don't want me to archive your sheet, tell _me_ to unarchive it, kay? You still need to go ahead and get the sheet in standard format; losing the extra 1 pps off the feats and the like. Uncanny Dodge needs a sense type, and I'd like you to put her Raging stats on the sheet for ease of reference. We do limit Improved Crit to 2 ranks. You don't need to give her Diehard, NPCs have that too.

Doktor'd! Citizen: Citizen's edits make him a sidekick worthy of Miss Americana (especially since he seems to be the tech guy on most of the teams he's part of) His INT goes to 20 [8 pp], his skills to 88 r [4 pp], and I added a 4 pp headquarters for Young Freedom 3.0. His in-Tronik self is equally smart and skills, with the difference that he's now Superman-strong and fast in Tronik. [floatr][img=http://www.freedomplaybypost.com/wiki/images/5/55/CitizenHF.png][/floatr] [b][u]Power Level[/u][/b] 12 [15] (216/220 pp) [b][u]Trade-Offs[/u][/b]: +4 ATK/-4 DMG unarmed, +2 ATK/-2 DMG Tronik; +4 DEF/-4 TOU [b][u]Unspent PP[/u][/b]: 4 [b]Progress to Impervium[/b]: 70/150pp (Platinum status earned with [url=http://www.freedomplaybypost.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=5736]Edge[/url]) [b][u]In Brief[/u][/b]: Electronic Intelligence Turned Hero [b][u]Name:[/u][/b] Citizen [b][u]Alternate ID:[/u][/b] Sharl Tulink [b][u]Identity:[/u][/b] Secret [b][u]Place of Birth:[/u][/b] 30th District Hospital, Eighth Level. Tronik. (Just kidding, actually it was on a circuit in a briefcase-sized computer in the Centurion's Sanctum. Daedalus had a coffee cup on the spot at the time) [b][u]Occupation:[/u][/b] Teenager, Computer Nerd, Flying Brick, Sidekick [b][i]Affliations:[/i][/b] Tronik, Knowledge, Heroism [b][i]Family:[/i][/b] Aba Tulink (mother) [45], Bel Tulink (father) [50], older sister Sieva [24] [img=http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/additional/large/wrapping_paper-binary.jpg] [u][b]Age[/b][/u]: 17.5 Earth years (all ages are given in Earth years) [b][u]Apparant Age[/u][/b]: 17.5, depending on his phase state [b][u]Height[/u][/b]: Subjectively six feet, objectively 0 [b][u]Weight[/u][/b]: Subjectively 170 lbs, objectively 0 [b][u]Eyes[/u][/b]: Green/null [b][u]Hair[/u][/b]: Brown/null [b][u]Physical Description[/u][/b]: Citizen, aka Sharl Tulink, is a gawky sixteen year old who hasn’t quite finished growing into his body. His short brown hair is a little greasy, his hands are a little too large, and his feet stumble more than they should. He’s also a ghost, or looks like one a lot of the time: when he’s not concentrating, he looks like an electronic phantom, his body overlaid with barely visible circuit patterns and overall tinted a faint shade of green. He vaguely resembles an 80s wireframe model of a human being with a ‘normal’ human shell cast thinly over it. [b][u]Power Description[/u][/b]: Citizen is an 'electronic' ghost, punching with solidified blows, possessing machinery, and casting his consciousness through the Internet with incredible speed, either to propel himself around the world or just to watch people through every camera in the city. He's immune to physical attacks and energy attacks with the 'light' descriptor. [u][b]History:[/b][/u] The city of Tronik is on a large crescent-shaped island in the middle of a large sea on the planet Neo, their star Bantam a great red sphere permanently high in the sky. Bantam is a red dwarf, much smaller and cooler than Sol, and Neo thus orbits so close to its homestar as to be tidally locked. It’s not a particularly inviting place: the continent to the east is a nearly uninhabitable desert with only a few weather stations on the western shore, while if you fly far enough west you reach mountains of impassable ice that go on forever. Tronik Island itself is about the size of Greenland, but the vast bulk of the island itself is given over to factories, food processing plants, and nature preserves: the city itself has fifty million people crammed into an area of 150 square miles. High towers rise hundreds of stories into the air over the densely packed city, with only the high technology available at the city’s foundation making the city reasonably liveable. Still, it’s not a hugely pleasant place to live: corruption is high as the government tries to keep their population from overwhelming the limited ecological resources available, people go around in black leather and mirrorshades for protection against the cold and relatively dim star, while the desert and chill make it very tough to leave the island. Still, the inhabitants of Tronik were lucky, and all of them are aware of this fact. A few generations ago, a disaster threatened to overwhelm them on their old world: their sun threatened to go nova, producing a disaster that would have devastated their entire world. Their greatest scientists, working together with friendly alien civilizations, constructed a massive transporter device to carry them across the galaxy, city and all, depositing them on a new world just as their old star exploded in a powerful coronal eruption that blasted all the life from their planet. Now they’re working to rebuild their civilization, to tame this new world and send messages out across the galaxy to restablish relations with the Lor Republic. Times are hard, at least if you’re not part of the elite, but generally things are looking up: the average citizen of Tronik eats better than the average Freedom Citian of today, and the wealthiest have access to technology and resources far beyond that of 21st century Americans. (It’s all a lie, of course. The ‘friendly aliens’ that helped Old Tronik escape the destruction of their old world were actually Curator drones building a scanning device to take and store an entire city: Old Tronik was evaporated by a scanning process that destroyed it down to its last atom even as their star erupted. The Lor Republic hasn’t found them yet because they disappeared into the Curator’s archives roughly 2000 years ago; they stopped looking long, long ago, and anyway would have no way of finding them where they are: in an alien computer in the Centurion’s Sanctum, running in the program he built for them back in 1990. Tronik’s new world, Neo, is designed to be a basically habitable, friendly place that was easy to build and just distracting enough for the city’s people that they’d never look too closely at the details of this new world.) These are strange days in Tronik. There are rumors of alien visitors to the city, strange people with strange powers, and bizarre happenstances worked in the city by others. Madmen have appeared wielding great powers from some unknown source, claiming that the azure curtain awaits all and that reality is a lie, only to be defeated by the city’s militia and mysterious heroes from “another place”, while strange stories of people flying, walking through walls, and gazing at the madness “beyond the door” permeate Tronik’s ‘Net. Sharl Tulink’s interest in paranormal phenomena goes back to his early childhood, and only grew sharper as he reached his teen years, much to the despair of his indulgent parents. One day, not too long ago, the 16 year old (at least by Earth’s calendar) investigated reports of strange aliens sighted near his family home on the hundredth level of the Seamount tower. He found a door there, a door high in the sky with nothing on the other side. Now he could have gone home to his huge apartment where his parents lived: his father is a programmer and his mother a doctor, and the two of them love him dearly and spoil him, like any parents do with their younger child. But instead he did what adventurous young men have done for generations. He stepped through it. Into madness. The League patched the hole their trip to Tronik had left mere microseconds later, too slow to stop the giant data file that was the living, breathing, sentient soul of Sharl Tulink cast loose on the Internet, a citizen of Tronik plunged into a world of bizarre input and insane colors, lights, shapes, and sensations. It's been a long, strange trip for Tronik's sole defender. Rescued by Gina Evans, he became her ward, then Miss Americana's sidekick, before going home to Tronik only to find that his people still needed a costumed champion. At Claremont Academy, he's learning how to be a hero and stand alongside the heroes of Earth-Prime, but he's sharply aware of the fact that he's not like them. He's alien in profound ways, but he's not sure the place he calls home is as real as everyone there thinks. It's a tough gig. [b][u]Personality and Motivation[/u][/b]: Sharl is basically a good kid who's been thrown massively out of his depth by the world-shattering things he's walked into. It's not easy for a teenager to find out his whole world is a lie, for all that it wouldn't surprise most of them. He wants to have a normal life, but his definition of that is going to be up for some changes in the new future. Though he still clings to his desire to solve mysteries and make a better world for everyone else, he's also got a lot of existential problems to sort through...in more ways than one! [u][b]Powers and Tactics:[/b][/u] Citizen’s tactics are fairly straightforward: he flies up to people, punches them electronically, and subsequently zaps them with electricity. He stays on the move, flitting around with his low-level flying abilities and occasionally jumping around with his massive teleportation abilities to catch enemies really unawares. He doesn’t really enjoy fighting, but will press a combat as long as necessary to get the job done. [u][b]Complications[/b][/u]: [i]Existentialist[/i]: Aaah I’m a computer program aaah. [i]Friend[/i]: Citizen needs someone to help him figure out what’s going on and how he can get back home, at least for a little while yet. [i]Outsider[/i]: Citizen is from another place, one very different than ours [i]Paragon[/i]: Citizen is Tronik’s only superhero, or will be if he ever manages to sort out what just happened to him and figure out how to use his new knowledge for the better. [i]Curious[/i]: Hey, what's in this book? [u][b]Abilities[/b][/u]: 0 + 6 + -10 + 10 + 4 + 6 = 18PP STR 26/10 (+8/+0) DEX 16 (+3) CON --- INT 20 (+5) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 16 (+3) [u][b]Combat[/b][/u]: 16 + 16 = 32PP Init: +7 ATK: +8 ranged, +14 melee, +16 unarmed Grapple: +12 DEF: +16 (Base 8, Dodge Focus 8), +4 flat-footed Knockback: -4 [u][b]Saves[/b][/u]: 3 + 4 = 7PP TOU +8 (+8 Protection) FORT --- REF +6 (+3 Dex, +3) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) [u][b]Skills[/b][/u]: 88r = 22PP Bluff 12 (+15) (skill mastery) Computers 15 (+20) (skill mastery) Craft (Electronic) 5 (+10) Craft (Mechanical) 5 (+10) Drive 2 (+5) Knowledge (Galactic Lore) 5 (+10) Knowledge (Technology) 10 (+15) Languages 4 (English, Galstandard [native], Grue, Japanese, Swedish) Notice 8 (+10) (skill mastery) Pilot 2 (+5) Search 5 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) (skill mastery) Stealth 7 (+10) [u][b]Feats[/b][/u]: 40PP Attack Focus: Melee 6 Attack Specialization (Unarmed) Dodge Focus 8 Equipment 4 '13th Floor' Fearless Improved Initiative Luck 3 Online Research Power Attack Quick Change 2 Skill Mastery (Bluff, Computers, Notice, Sense Motive) Takedown Attack Taunt Uncanny Dodge (auditory) [equip] Equipment: 40 ep = 8 pp The 13th Floor: 20 ep = 4 pp [i]Size[/i]: Large; Toughness: 10; [i]Features[/i]: Communications, Computer, Defense System, Fire Prevention System, Gym, Hangar, Infirmary, Laboratory, Library, Living Space, Power 3 (ESP), Power System, Security System, Think Tank, Workshop. Cost: 2 + 1 + 17 = 20/20 [i]Power:[/i] [b]ESP 6[/b] (Visual Senses, 20 miles, [i]Extras:[/i] Duration 2 [Continuous], No Conduit, Simultaneous, [i]Flaw[/i]: Medium [Surveillance Devices], Power Feats: Fast Task 4, Subtle [DC26 Notice]) {35/36} [/equip] [u][b]Powers[/b][/u]: 1 + 3 + 40 + 16 + 2+ 8 + 7 + 30 = 107PP [b]Enhanced Feat 1[/b] (Well-Informed) [1PP] [b]Flight 1[/b] ('electro-static flight'; 10 MPH / 100 feet per Move action; [i]PF[/i]: Move-By Action) [3PP] [b]Immunity 40[/b] ('living computer program'; Fortitude Effects, Mental [Psionic] Effects) [40PP] [b]Insubstantial 3[/b] ('living computer program'; [i]Extra[/i]: Duration [default is Energy Form, Sustained Active effect to remain corporeal; [+0]; [i]PF[/i]: Innate[b])[/b] [16PP] [b]Morph 1 ([/b][i]Extra[/i]: Continuous; [i]Flaw[/i]: Limited [only in computers]; [i]PF:[/i] Metamorph [Flying Brick Sharl][b])[/b] [2PP] [b]Protection 8[/b] [8PP] [b]Regeneration 6[/b] (Recovery Bonus +0, Resurrection 1/week; [i]PF[/i]: Regrowth) [7PP] [b]Tronik Array 12[/b] (24PP; [i]PFs[/i]: Alternate Power x6) [24+6=30PP] [array][u]BE[/u]: [b]Enhanced Strength 16[/b] (to 26/+8; [i]Extra[/i]: Affects Corporeal for Str +8) [24/24PP] [u]AP[/u]: [b]Communication 6[/b] (20 miles, radio) ([i]Extras:[/i] Area, Selective) ([i]PFs:[/i] Rapid 5 (100k, Subtle) [24/24PP] [u]AP[/u]: [b]Corrosion 10[/b] ('EMP'; [i]Flaw[/i]: Limited 2 [Electronics]; [i]PFs[/i]: Improved Crit 2, Incurable, Precise) [19/24PP] [u]AP[/u]: [b]Datalink 9[/b] ('networking'; anywhere on Earth; [i]PFs[/i]: Rapid 8 [x100 million], Subtle) and [b]Dimensional Movement 2[/b] (any 'in a computer' dimension) [22/24PP] [u]AP[/u]: [b]ESP 9[/b] ('scanning'; anywhere on Earth, visual and auditory; [i]Flaw[/i]: Medium [Electronics]; [i]PFs[/i]: Rapid 5 [x100,000], Subtle) [24/24PP] [u]AP[/u]: [b]Possession 10[/b] ('electro-riding'; [i]Extras[/i]: Affects Only Objects, Alt. Save [Reflex]; [i]Flaw[/i]: Electronics Only; [i]PFs[/i]: Insidious, Subtle) [22/24PP] [u]AP[/u]: [b]Teleport 9[/b] ('transmission'; 900 ft/20,000 miles; [i]Extra:[/i] Accurate; [i]Flaw:[/i] Medium [Electronics][b])[/b] [18/24PP][/array] [u][b]Drawbacks[/b][/u]: -6 pp Weakness (magnetic fields; Uncommon, Major [-1 all physical ability scores], per 1 minute, potentially lethal; -6PP) [b][u]DC Block[/u][/b] [code]ATTACK RANGE DC/SAVE EFFECT Punch Touch Tou DC 23 Bruised/Injured Possession Touch Check vs Ref Possessed Corrosion Touch Fort save vs 20/Tou DC 25 Bruised/Injured Totals: Abilities 18 + Combat 32 + Saves 7 + Skills 22/88 + Feats 40 + Powers 107 - Drawbacks 6 = 216/220PP Flying Brick Sharl Doktor'd!

Doktor'd! Harrier: Massive edits I've dropped him down to PL 12, freeing up points from his Strength and Con that I spent elsewhere. His skills went from 12 to 28 PP, more closely reflecting his decades of combat experience, ability to destroy things, and unparalleled knowledge of the Terminus. He's more comfortable in his own skin, letting him be much scarier. A little stronger physically too. Similarly his feats went from 16 to 22, reflecting his fighting prowess. [floatr][img=http://www.freedomplaybypost.com/wiki/images/e/e1/Omegadrone1.png][/floatr] [b][u]Power Level[/u]:[/b] 12 [14] (217/217PP) [b][u]Trade-Offs[/u]:[/b] None [b][u]Unspent PP[/u]:[/b] 0 [b]Progress to Impervium[/b]: 67/150pp (Platinum status earned with [url=http://www.freedomplaybypost.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=5736]Edge[/url]) [b][u]In Brief[/u]:[/b] Omegadrone turned Hero [b][u]Name[/u]:[/b] Harrier [b][u]Alternate Identities[/u]:[/b] Steven Murdock [b][u]Identity [/u]:[/b] Secret [b][u]Birthplace[/u]:[/b] Nihilor, the Terminus [b][u]Occupation[/u]:[/b] Deputy Chief of Security at HAX [b][u]Affiliations[/u]:[/b] HAX, Omegaorphans, the Americana Family, Deep One orphans [b][u]Family[/u]:[/b] Dead [b][u]Age[/u]:[/b] 100 [b][u]Apparent Age[/u]:[/b] 30 [b][u]Gender[/u]:[/b] Male [b][u]Ethnicity[/u]:[/b] Terminus [b][u]Height[/u]:[/b] 6' [b][u]Weight[/u]:[/b] 600 lbs. [b][u]Eyes[/u]:[/b] Black [b][u]Hair[/u]:[/b] None [b][u]Description[/u]:[/b] Murdock is a brown-skinned man with no visible body hair, just like all combat drones. His face is generally non- descript, save for the small, hair-thin lines that run over most of his body. They look like tribal tattoos, and he will not correct anyone who makes that assumption. He speaks in a flat monotone occasionally leavened by a wistful regret. Harrier is a monster. Clad in black and red armor that bursts out from his back to cover his whole body, he is clearly recognizable as an Omegadrone, fully armed and ready for battle beneath his faceless armor. He prefers to let his fists, and his power pike, do the talking for him if forced into his armor. He flies with the help of the red and black jetpack that erupts from his back with his armor, spewing hellish gouts of flame as it propels him into the stratosphere. [b][u]Power Descriptions[/u]:[/b] Harrier is a wrecking machine, a goonsweeper capable of going toe-to-toe with some of the toughest customers in the World of Freedom. Unarmed, blasting or cutting with his pike, he's a powerful threat to almost anyone; a hard, cold blade designed to cut deeply and painfully. [b][u]History[/u]:[/b] Once, there was an Earth. It was defended by the greatest heroes of the world, champions of justice and right, avengers of evil: Earth's mightiest superheroes. And then that world died, [i]screaming[/i], as its heroes died and it was sucked into the Terminus. Sally and Ben, survivors of that world, were part of the personal retinue of Steelguard, once friends who became slaves of Shadivan Steelgrave. Steelgrave liked having some around who remembered the old world, and enjoyed reminiscing with them as they tried not to weep at the slayer of billions that their friend had become. He forced them to take anti-aging drugs so they would live as long as he did, and denied them the quick deaths they craved after watching the deaths of their families and the assimilation and corruption of all they loved. When he began to mutter about what a shame it was that there were no more children from their world, in their terror they conceived and gave birth to a son. In one last act of defiance, they named him Stephen, after the man who had once been their captor and tormentor's best friend, then his first victim as Omega corrupted him. Steelgrave was...amused, and gave them something of what they wanted. Stripping them of their immunity to aging, he hurled them into the pits of Nihilor, where the once-favored slaves learned to scrape and fight like the proles they now were. After all, they lacked the courage to die if it meant the death of their son. Stephen Murdock grew up in the pits, the great black castle of Shadivan Steelgrave overhead, with memories of a dead world loud in his ears. He learned to survive in the grim surroundings of Nihilor, the hearthworld of the Terminus, to run and hide from drones, to fight for food, to survive in a world of pure death. When his parents died, Stephen assembled a gang of likely toughs and began doing what he could to make himself master of the pits: not to overthrow the drones, but simply so that the people there could live without having their neigbor as their enemy. When he came to the attention of Steelgrave, as all such visionaries do, he pleaded for mercy, begging for help from the last survivor of their world of marvels. He got that help, oh yes. The process of assimilation into the armies of Omega is a horror best not described in these pages. Bones are removed and replaced with black, terrible Terminus metal, parts of the brain replaced with transceivers to receive the VOICE of Omega, and the body itself is infiltrated with a thousand different pieces of nano-technology. The subject is conscious to the end, naturally, so that when the torment and mutilation ends, he will cling to the VOICE in his head as the voice of his god. Steve Murdock died that day. He became a combat drone, a specially augmented unit designed to fight superhumans. And that was precisely what he did in a dozen different worlds. He was in at the death of mega-billions, a cold, merciless killing machine and agent of assimilation. A particularly powerful and skilled unit, he was traded from Annihilist to Annihilist, even starring in several battles in the arena. His armor was an experimental variety, designed to burst from under his skin when necessary, something which he used to great effect in combat again and again. Until one day, when it all changed. He was leading a squadron of Omegadrones through the Hundred Worlds when an alien starship decloaked just above them and opened fire. The big combat drone at the lead took the brunt of the damage, the tremendous magnetic charge scrambling his circuits...and severing his connection with the Terminus. Heavily damaged and outnumbered, he managed to fight off the lesser drones who attacked him when he was severed from the VOICE, their blasts giving him the drive to escape. And from there he fled, deep into the Void, screaming. It was through great good luck that he stumbled across a Furion raiding party, and even better luck that they didn't kill him out of hand. And when Freedom Bird disarmed him and beat him to his knees, the former drone looked up at the Furion and screamed "I die free!" And that was when Freedom Bird and the others wept, because if a drone could be freed, who knew what freedom could do? The Furions took him in and taught him, teaching him something of himself and of what it meant to be a free man, but he really had no place among those shining symbols of virtue. They knew him too well, and had fought too many drones, to ever fully trust him. Luckily, Freedom Bird knew people who could help, and the former Omegadrone (now calling himself Harrier, after Harriet Tubman), was delivered to the Freedom League, who (after _extensive_ tests), delivered him to the world, with a fake ID and fake name, the better for him to learn about freedom. What better place than Freedom City? It's been quite a ride for the walking embodiment of pain and loss; embraced by some as the ultimate hard-luck hero and others as a symbol of all that is evil and horrible. He is still the monster people tell their children will come for them at night, but he's a hero too. It's a good feeling. He has a woman he loves and a job he cares about, friends and comrades with whom he would fight the worst of monsters with. But the road to redemption is a long one, and Harrier knows better than anyone the perils that lie along the way. After all, [i]blood will tell.[/i] [b][u]Personality & Motivation[/u]:[/b] Harrier is cold. It's not that he's unfeeling, by no means, but rather that the horrors of life as an Omegadrone have layered depths of memory and grief between himself and the rest of the world. He cares intently for the suffering of others, but shows this by action, not words. He speaks with a slow, deliberate monotone occasionally leavened by moments of wistful emotion. In his civilian ID, he keeps to himself, sometimes in a slightly creepy way. His small apartment has no decorations and sparse furniture. When he's not working, eating, or sleeping, he watches television, doing his best to absorb the reality of this world that's now his home. Otherwise he walks the streets, pike fastened subtly at his side, and tries to learn what he can about humanity. He opens somewhat around his close friends and his lover, but there is still no denying the fact that the scarred-faced drone is _other_, even if most people might not be able to sort it out. [b][u]Powers & Tactics[/u]:[/b] Harrier prefers not to use his armor if the situation calls for it, and against many foes he can actually get away with that. Generally he fights silently, his face composed in a flat mask, but when angered by a particularly vile enemy his face contorts into a mask of utterly infuriated rage. He'll usually attack the strongest-looking enemy first, hitting them as hard as he can, not retreating unless absolutely necessary. His staff lets him hurt almost any foe, whether with blasts of Terminus energy or strikes with a devastatingly fast, powerfully charged blade at the head. If forced into his armor he's a terror on the battlefield. He usually fights from the air, blasting away at lesser foes, before landing to begin a slow, methodical elimination of the enemy. He'll allow weaker enemies to shoot him a few times, the better to spread _fear, before landing to begin their punishment. If forced into his armor, he does not linger, and will leave as soon as possible (or at least change back) so as not to attract attention. [hr][/hr] [b][u]Complications[/u]:[/b] [b]Enemy:[/b] This is something separate than just people being scared of him. There are people, a lot of people, who'd see a free Omegadone as an opportunity for some free payback. [b]Friends:[/b] Wander, Jack of all Blades and company, Dragonfly, and the rest of the HAX and Interceptors crew are people Harrier would walk through fire for. [b]Immigrant:[/b] Harrier is still adjusting to local customs and society in Freedom City. He's learned a lot as he's gone, but this is indeed a strange world. [b]Love:[/b] Harrier loves Gina Evans, for all that it's a deeply fraught relationship. [b]Double Secret:[/b] Harrier has more than one identity to worry about now that he has the Caradoc name. [b]Job:[/b] Harrier is frightened of losing his job, as it's one of his connections to the world around him. [b]Monster:[/b] Harrier is an [i]Omegadrone[/i]. Cops will shoot at him on sight if he's in armor, civilians will run screaming or attack him if they're brave enough. [b]Only a Mother[/b]: Even outside of his armor, Steve is no prize. [b]Collector[/b]: Between the Omegaorphans that he rescued from a crashed Terminus ship, Yolanda Montez, and the Deep One babies he helped save during the Archevil invasion, Harrier is something of a collector of lost and bereft children. [b]The World I Left Behind Me:[/b] The Terminus knows those who escape, and has terrible plans for them. [b][u]Abilities[/u]:[/b] 8 + 6 + 6 + 2 + 4 + 4 = 30PP Strength: 30/26 (+10/+8) (18, +8 Innate Density), 41/36/31 Carry Capacity Dexterity: 16 (+3) Constitution: 30/16 (+10/+3) Intelligence: 12 (+1) Wisdom: 14 (+2) Charisma: 14 (+2) [b][u]Combat[/u]:[/b] 20 + 20 = 40PP Initiative: +7 Attack: +10 Base, +12 Melee, +12 Pike Blast Grapple: +21 Defense: +12 (+10 Base, +2 Dodge Focus), +4 Flat-Footed Knockback: -11/-4 [b][u]Saving Throws[/u]:[/b] 0 + 2 + 4 = 7PP Toughness: +12/+5 (+10/+3 Con, +2 Protection) (Impervious 9/2) Fortitude: +10/+3 (+10/+3 Con, +0) Reflex: +5 (+3 Dex, +2) Will: +7 (+2 Wis, +5) [b][u]Skills[/u]:[/b] 112R = 28PP Computers 2 (+3) Diplomacy 2 (+4) Disable Device 14 (+15) Disguise 0 (+1; +26 / Morph) Intimidate 18 (+20, SM) Knowledge (Cosmology) 19 (+20, SM) Knowledge (Galactic Lore) 9 (+10) Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 4 (+5) Knowledge (Tactics) 9 (+10) Knowledge (Technology) 4 (+5) Notice 8 (+10, SM) Search 4 (+5) Sense Motive 8 (+10, SM) Stealth 7 (+10) Survival 4 (+6) Swim - [b][u]Feats[/u]:[/b] 22PP All-Out Attack Attack Focus (Melee) 2 Challenge (Fast Startle) Dodge Focus 2 Eidetic Memory Improved Initiative Luck 2 Master Plan 2 Move-By Action Power Attack Quick Draw Second Chance 2 (Disable Device checks, save vs. fear) Skill Mastery (Intimidate, Knowledge [Cosmology], Notice, Sense Motive) Startle Takedown Attack 2 Uncanny Dodge (Auditory) [b][u]Powers[/u]:[/b] 14 + 4 + 20 + 14 + 4 + 1 + 25 + 8 + 2= 92PP [b]Density 4 ([/b]x3 Mass, [i]Extras:[/i] Duration [Continuous], [i]Flaws:[/i] Permanent, [i]Feats:[/i] Innate, Subtle[b])[/b] (Cybernetic, Technological) [14PP] [device][b]Enhanced Strength 8[/b] [b]Immovable 1[/b] [b]Protection 2 ([/b][i]Extras:[/i] Impervious[b])[/b] [b]Super-Strength 1 ([/b]Heavy Load: 1.5 tons[b])[/b][/device] [b]Device 1[/b] (Holographic Disguise Unit; 5PP; Hard to Lose) [4 pp] [device][b]Morph 5[/b] (One form ['Caradoc'], +25 Disguise) [/device] [b]Device 6 ([/b]Power Pike; 30PP, [i]Flaws:[/i] Easy-To-Lose 2, [i]Feats:[/i] Restricted [OmegaDrones], Subtle [Collapsible][b])[/b] [20PP] [device][b]Concealment 2 ([/b]Normal Vision, [i]Flaws:[/i] Passive[b])[/b] (Technological) [2PP] [b]Super-Senses 2 ([/b]Detect Weakness [Radio], [i]Extras:[/i] Analytical[b])[/b] (Technological) [2PP] [b]Terminus Blast-Blade 12.5 ([/b]25 points; [i]PF[/i]: Alternate Power[b])[/b] [26PP] [array][b][u]Base Effect[/u]: Blast 12 ([/b][i]Feats:[/i] Accurate[b])[/b] (Cosmic, Technological) [26PP] [b][u]Alternate Power[/u]: Strike 2 ([/b][i]Extras:[/i] Autofire [12], Penetrating [2; as DMG 15]; [i]Feats:[/i] Extended Reach [10ft], Improved Critical 2, Incurable, Mighty, Precise, Variable Descriptor 2 [Any Technological] [b])[/b] (Technological) [24/25PP][/array][/device] [b]Enhanced Constitution 14[/b] (Cybernetic, Technological) [14PP] [b]Enhanced Strength 4[/b] (Cybernetic, Technological) [4PP] [b]Feature 1 ([/b]Temporal Inertia[b])[/b] [1PP] [b]Omega Armor 5 ([/b]25PP Container, Free Action, Sustained Duration[b])[/b] (Cybernetic, Technological) [25PP] [device][b]Flight 3 ([/b]50MPH, 500ft per Move Action[b])[/b] [6PP] [b]Immunity 9 ([/b]Life Support[b])[/b] [9PP] [b]Impervious Toughness 7[/b] [7PP] [b]Super-Senses 3 ([/b]Darkvision, Radio[b])[/b] [3PP][/device] [b]Super-Senses 8 ([/b]Terminus Awareness 2 [Mental], [i]Extras[/i]: Acute, Analytical, Extended 2 [1000ft Notice Increments], Ranged) [8PP][b])[/b] [8pp] [b]Super-Strength 1[/b] (Effective STR 41, Cybernetic, Technological) [2PP] [b][u]DC Block[/u]:[/b] [code]ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed Melee DC26 Toughness Damage Pike Strike Melee DC28 Toughness Damage Pike Blast Ranged DC27 Toughness Damage Abilities (28) + Combat (40) + Saving Throws (7) + Skills (28) + Feats (22) + Powers (92) = 217/217 Power Points Doktor'd!

"So they're, what, mental vampires? That's disgusting," said Sharl with a curled lip. "As if your society doesn't have enough problems, you have crazy creatures from other dimensions or the future coming into town and feeding off people's belief in them." Sharl remembered the last time he'd discussed religion with one of his teammates, and opted not to go down that road. He'd seen enough that his old views weren't 100% true anyway. "All right, I think I've found the place," he said as he finished tapping on the electronic gizmo he'd pulled out of his coat pocket. "It's in Riverside, an old theater. I can get there, but it'll take a while, the nearest terminal is...man, three blocks away. Usually Riverside's better than that. How about you?"

"All right, everyone, it looks like you've all made your acquaintances with each other," said Mr. Harcourt, who certainly had the good cheer of his Earth-Prime counterpart. "Why don't we take a walking tour of Claremont on the way to the Wonder-Car?" The team headed out, Sharl and Sharla in the lead, the reserved programs both seeming not to have much to say to one another at first before Sharl cocked his head suspiciously. "Our signals must be too compatible. I can't understand what you're saying." Losing out on the chance to talk privately was a shame, but they could live with it. As they walked, he studied the Claremont campus; eerily familiar in almost every aspect, if not for the people. Is that...Etain, maybe? Or whatever he calls himself here. And that must be Morgana. "So did you buy your ride from the Cholaxian too?" "What? No." said Sharla, raising an eyebrow at her twin in bafflement. "Mister Olympic had it made for me, and the team uses it when we all need to get to the HQ. He says everyone needs a good ride. The technology's very advanced for Earth-Prime; it's almost as good as anything back home. What's a Cholaxian?" He told her the unlikely story of how his team had come to acquire their transdimensional transport, Sharla looking a little suspicious at the whole story. Geez, she's judgemental, thought Sharl a little irritably, before they reached the sleek red, white, and blue vehicle parked curbside. The Wonder-Car was equal parts limo, tank, and hovercar, an luxurious craft that could easily have held the whole team and maybe more besides. It did look a little like a Tronikian hovercar, albeit modified with a more Earthly sensibility. Together, the Tulinks grinned. "Nice."

Quo-Dis took this chance to get up and stretch her legs, something she accomplished by dint of floating up into the air and popping her back with an audible snap. Flight came casually to the Ultiman, and away from prying mundane eyes sometimes she hardly bothered to let her feet touch the ground. "I play the winner!" she called amiably. "See if she will let you fly at least!" she added in Corbin's direction. Bending her head, she looked down at her former couchmate. "I enjoy a good contest of skill and strength," she said sociably to Trevor. "It's a good trial, and a lot of fun." She rolled her sleeve up and flexed an impressive bicep. "Maybe we should arm-wrestle!" she exclaimed. "Corbin says you are a very strong human, and a good fighter."

APPROVED

Delightful! Which one? Use standard notation for your arrays, if you can.

Suddenly, the panels all around them began flashing in Lor syllabry, bright green and blue characters that made Citizen jump and shove his hands into the control systems. "Reserve power activating!" he called to the others in an automatic translation. "It's...it's some kind of backup power system that went off when it detected enough humanoids on board the ship." His eyes widened and he pulled his hands free, playing along with the urgency of the simulation in surprise: this was a very good mockup indeed. The bridge, which is what this was, was coming to life with more than just the message: panels flared to life in more alien script, others showing a little blue and green marble in space that was all too familiar, others showing alien planets none of the rest of the team recognized. "The main FTL drive is powering back up! Wherever this thing was, it's about to take us there - fast!"

LATER, AT THE MIDNIGHT MANOR Mark put his phone down and hmmed, remembering in the nick of time not to put his feet up on the mahogany table down in the work room. "So it turns out that scroll from Lady Celtic was something she'd used for, whaddya call it, counter-necromancy? That really awful thing in eastern Belgium where the Nazis killed those POWs to bring their own men back to life, but they came back as zombies? That was the scroll she used to put them down again. I'm surprised that's not at the Ministry of Powers museum back in Britain, but I suppose it must have come with the Human Tank collection. Hey, do you suppose Medea might be in that creepy theater in the Fens? It's that old multiplex that closed down in '99. You know, the one that's been weirdly haunted or something. And they were showing a revival of the old Lars von Trier Medea..."

I like the tie to infravision. Added descriptors, distinguishing between his Hel-given thermovoric abilities and vampiric nature.

History: What is the Lady Celtic scroll: 28 Gather Info: Where is Medea? DC 30 w/SM.

"Geez, it was just a guess, you guys," said Sharl, long-suffering in the affectionate way he had reluctantly developed with Kimber. Friends were friends, even if they were kind of crazy most of the time. "Sharla's the feminine version of my name in the original Lor. It wouldn't be Sharlene, anyway, that's..." He blushed slightly and shot a glance in the teacher's direction as she was adjusting one last dial on the machine. "Not something I should say around Ms. Harcourt." he added with a smirk. Ms. Harcourt lined up all the Young Freedom members, as well as Kristen, around the big humming cylinder in the middle of the room. She went through and made sure everyone had their necessary supplies and other equipment, and that no one was about to freak out, before heading back to the control panel. "This is a fairly standard two-way dimensional transporter. My colleague has a similar one on the other end, and we can send you back and forth. It's not as fast or as powerful as a Freedom League model, but it's much safer. Is everyone ready?" When everyone was, she threw a switch, and with a hum of dark energy the room faded out all around the Young Freedomites, as if the lights had all been turned down and off at once. Seconds later, the 'lights' came back on, and the team found themselves back in the room they'd just left. Except Mr. Harcourt, a handsome middle-aged African-American man, was speaking into the cylinder. "They're all here! Thanks again, Stephanie." And turning around, the team found themselves confronted with themselves! Albeit...changed. The female Tulink was a hair shorter than Sharl, her black hair combed tightly to the top of her head, matched by a black sleeveless shirt, black jeans, and black leather jacket. She looked like any teen he might have seen on the streets of Tronik; well, not like any _he_ would have seen. "Welcome to Freedom City," she said, crossing the distance and shaking her counterpart's hand. Both of them projected; they were solid enough to each other as they gripped hands. "You came further than most, huh?" she asked her counterpart with fascination. "I'm Sharla Tulink." Man, I guess Mom and Dad are as predictable as I always thought, thought Sharl in the moment it took him to shake her hand in reply. Oh well, it's a good name, and it doesn't mean anything dirty. "We've been in weirder places. At least the company is good," he said with a grin, "and maybe your headquarters finally got that pool I've been bugging the boss about." Did she had a Mr. America? A nerdy George who controlled it? It was a weird thought.

I went ahead and expanded his skills: he now has a respectable command of history (as befits a highly intelligent centenarian) and expanded his command of languages.

Reflex vs 20: 22 Tou vs 20: 11 Ouch! I'll HP that. 20 Just made it.

"Hey, pal." On fire, Citizen floated out of the sky on a curtain of blue flame, a spectral figure of azure infernal might. He was the very avatar of the Azure Curtain, he realized in the back of his mind as he glared down at the android beneath him, the thought giving special weight to his words as he raised a glowing fist. "The name is Citizen. They say you're the Ultimate Android, huh? Listen, you primitive screwhead, I spend every second of every day hardly able to touch anything on your planet, but today? Today I can knock you on your jumped-up Bronze Age face!" He threw back a mighty punch and smashed a mighty flaming punch directly across Argo's too-rugged jaw.

Citizen flies in on fire and punches at Argo, using his Damage Aura. 36 Well, that's nice! DC 28 Tou save, see how that goes.

"That's a shame, Trevor," said Mark sympathetically. "But I'm sure the rebuilt bike will be even better. You're a really awesome mechanic, and Redbird's a really awesome machine, and you've got a really awesome place here," he went on with full confidence in his friend's abilities as a master builder. Maybe Trevor wasn't building crazy space battlesuits and the like, but there was no denying just how talented the other young hero was. "Is she hanging out in the garage?" he added curiously. "Because if she wants to body up the place, I'm sure that'd be fine with everybody."

Eventually the deed was done and a revived, thoroughly stricken Danielle Danson was taken into custody by her colleagues. The heroes had a lot of explaining to do, but that was easy enough with the beautiful Miss Americana on the scene. Citizen and Glow both had quite a lot to put in their report about their ridealong with Miss Americana that day, even if Sharl had the idea that more had gone on with Gina than she was willing to talk about just yet. For most people, it was just another day in Freedom City, albeit one particularly problematic for the FCPD. A couple of nights later, Keith LaMarr's phone rang late in the evening. "Hey, uh, LaMarr? Thanks again for saving me and my grandson. But could you come over to my son's place some time?" Standing at ground-level, Peter Grayson looked up at his smiling grandson as circuit boards and electronic parts whizzed around him in the air like an virtuoso computer's musical notes, the teenager hovering in the air on his antigrav board. "He says a genie came to him last night, and now he's got these superpowers he wants some help with..."

APPROVED

The giant bee laughed, and this close the rush of her wings cut the volume of her voice enough that Barry could hear himself think even as she spoke. "IT IZ WHAT WE ARE!" she buzzed exuberantly at him as their companions swooped all around them in a massive aerial ballet. He could hear what might have been singing from the hive as they approached, though it was hard to tell if that was real or just all the massive-chested humming coming together in one glorious song. "BEEZ HAVE ORDER AND PEAZE HERE, AND WE CAN BUILD WITHOUT HAVEEEING TO FIGHT OR TO DIE LOOKING FOR FOOD! THIZ IS A VERY GOOD PLACE TO BE A BEE! AND THE ZQUISHY BIPEDZ ARE VERY NICE TOO! WE HAD ZOME TROUBLE WITH THE LOCALZ, BUT FLEUR DE JOIE AND THE OTHERZZZ TOOK CARE OF THAT! NOW WE TRADE THEM HONEY AND THEY LOVE IT! HUMANZ LOVE HONEY."

"When you come back, I'll be expecting a five-page paper on the differences you observed between your own life and the life of your double on Earth-XX," answered Harcourt to Koshiro's question. "Take note of the differences while you're there, and don't be afraid to talk to them about your own lives, at least as much as you feel comfortable. They have the same assignment you do. I want you thinking about one change can influence a person's entire life." "Mali, you're welcome to bring all of that through," she added in Crimson Tiger's direction. "I know your counterparts have set up accommodations in their team headquarters, but there'll be plenty of options." She fell silent for a moment, then added, blushing slightly even behind her dark skin, "I do ask that you make sure to bunk down with your own team when you finally do that. In past years," she said very carefully, "we've had some incidents with conflict, and such, and that's not something we want to repeat. This can be a very emotionally fraught moment." "Indira," she went on in Wraith's direction, "if you have any concerns about your medical history, let me know now. Your counterpart has been alerted as well. The last thing we want is for an interdimensional medical crisis to develop," she added elliptically. "Well, uh, if I'm compatible with Sharla's systems," said Citizen carefully, thinking again about the counterpart of himself he'd met on Erde, "that shouldn't be a problem for me. I can just stay projected, or we can partition some other section of the 13th Floor's mainframe aside for me." He didn't sound too worried by the prospect of meeting a female version of himself, and he wasn't. _Hey, someone else who I can talk to about Tronik..._ After all, with the perfect gender equality where he came from, how much could things be different? "If there are no further questions," said Harcourt inquiringly, "why don't you start coming down here to stand by the transporter?" she suggested with a nod to the big cylinder by her podium.