Avenger Assembled

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.

12 pp is way too many in drawbacks for a PL 10 character. As with our sample vampire builds, the need to consume blood should be a complication. 6 is lower than I'm comfortable with as an ability score for a PC, even CHA.

Makes sense, descriptor-wise. APPROVED

APPROVED

APPROVED

I took off the second level of tracking [and made his Area Targeted and added Old Norse as a language]).

Character Name: Comrade Frost Power Level: 12/13 (205/205PP) Trade-Offs: None Unspent PP: 0 Alternate Identity: Dr. Dimitri Ivanovitch Peshkov, the "Ice Commissar" Identity: Public, though the fact that he is a vampire is not known to the general public Birthplace: Moscow, Russia Occupation: Liaison between People's Heroes and Freedom League Affiliations: People's Heroes, Freedom League Family: No blood relatives living In Brief Ex-Soviet cryokinetic vampire supersoldier turned occult investigator Description Age: 100 (Born August 1, 1913) Apparent Age: 30 Gender: Male Ethnicity: Caucasian [turns extremely white when using his powers] Height: 5'8" Weight: 150 lbs Eyes: Light blue [pink when using his powers] Hair: Light blond [white when using his powers] Comrade Frost these days dresses in a blue, white fur-lined parka over a dapper white suit. He wears a blue domino mask with black eyepieces and usually keeps the hood up, and white gloves in situations where he knows he'll need to use his powers (using them for any length of time generally makes his hands very cold to the touch). His skin turns extremely white while using his powers. In more formal occasions, he loses the parka and mask and simply rocks the suit. In very formal occasions, he'll don the modified blue and white uniform he wore as a zampolit in World War II. That's also the only time you'll see him wear his medals, and between one thing and another he's got a lot of those. Power Descriptions Comrade Frost is a cold manipulator only, unlike many other cryokinetics who can summon large amounts of ice and snow. He can drain the heat out of large groups or individuals, as well as brittly freezing solid objects or paralyzing someone's muscles with a touch. He can heal his own injuries by draining the heat from the environment around him, but only when he focuses his attention on a single target: otherwise the heat becomes lost to him. He can fly by transforming himself into icy fog; he can make himself tougher by freezing himself solid. His eyes turn an albino's pink when he's actively using his powers, and his hair frosts white like snow. Personality and Motivations Surprisingly warm for a century-old Communist vampire, Comrade Frost has an avuncular relationship with young people, especially young heroes. He's ultimately a gentle man who enjoys a joke, even one at his own expense, and is only really roused to anger by Nazis, pseudonatural creatures, and other unholy monsters. His decades of unlife have taught him to respect magic, but he fears it in the wrong hands, and won't be afraid to utterly destroy some mystic artifact rather than let it fall into the hands of evil. History Born in a small town outside Moscow in 1913, Dimitri Peshkov was not an attractive man in life. A bright student, he grew up lazy and a little jaded, convinced of his own intellectual superiority over his fellow students in high school and college. He became a veterinarian, tending to the animals in collective farms, out of a mild interest in helping those less fortunate but mostly for the chance to be the smartest and best-educated man in the room. When war threatened his country in 1941, he joined the NKVD, not the Red Army, not out of a special patriotism, but because he thought it would keep him away from the battlefield. He was wrong; and that would be the death of him. The old Dr. Dimitri Peshkov died beneath the sacrificial blade of the Thule Society in the spring of 1942. The NKVD doctor had been captured on the Arctic front during the defense of Murmansk and had, under the Commissar Decree, been handed over by the Wehrmacht to the SS for execution. He might simply have been shot, but a passing group of Thule mystics needed him for a special task. Operating in the far north under Kantor's commnd, the Thule circle had found an ancient Norse altar, consecrated to Hel and her father Loki, and had learned they needed human blood to open the gateway to another world. And so they did. But as Peshkov fell into darkness, a voice came to him. The life-long atheist found himself floating before Hel, the guardian of Niflheim and ruler of the Norse underworld, one of the first new arrivals in her realm in a long time. Hel explained to Peshkov, as one would to a child, that she could not be summoned to Earth by such powers the Nazis had. In the heart of the greatest war the world had ever known, Death already stalked the land, and no wizard could hope to control it. But she had seen the capture of her haughty uncle Donar, and knew the plans of the Thule Society for the world of men, and she loathed them for the blasphemers they were. So she offered Peshkov a choice. He was a descendent of Rurik and had died at the hands of her enemies; if he stayed in Niflheim in her palace, he could have a place at her side to tell her about the world above, and perhaps as master of those few Thule sorcerors who had fallen into her hands when they had died of disease or accident after taking up the worship of the Asgardians. Or he could walk the Earth again as a draugr, a being of great power and might, with the heart taken from him by the Nazis replaced by a gateway to the icy realm of Niflheim. Given the choice, Peshkov chose to live. If you could call it living. Dimitri awoke on the altar and froze his captors solid, burning their shrine down behind him and feeding on the heat within as he began the long, painful walk back to Soviet lines. He learned how to control his powers and feed from the heat of the sun, from burning fires and life's heat rather than life's blood, and when he arrived back among his own people (and immediately, wonderfully, was plunged into a hot bath...that he immediately froze solid), Dimitri Peshkov was ready to begin his new identity: Comrade Frost, costumed defender of the Soviet Union! But of course it wasn't that easy. Dimitri was the only one of his allies familiar with magic, something which his own government denied the existence of. Comrade Frost rapidly became the Peoples' Heroes' magic expert, a role he had to play very subtly. He took every chance he could to team up with the Allies of Freedom and the Liberty League, desperately trying to pool his resources with those better-connected and better-educated in these matters as he tried to stave off the threat of magical darkness at home. And there was the war, grim and terrible. Comrade Frost was one of the first Soviet super soldiers into Berlin, and was there for the last great convulsion of the Reich. His superiors denied his request to join the hunt for Kantor, and so he wasn't there when the Allies of Freedom were betrayed and murdered by the forces of darkness. It was a hard blow for the super-soldier and he slipped into a deep depression after the war. Only a battle against the snake-cultists of Lithuania roused him from his funk in 1948, the mystic-trained hero recognizing the cultists of Yig for what they were! If the cultists of the Unspeakable One and his dread allies had come to the Soviet Union, there were urgent matters to deal with indeed. His war wasn't over. Comrade Frost was not one of the better-known Soviet super-soldiers to the general public; he was just there in the various engagements with American heroes, German holdouts, Baba Yaga, and the other famous battles of the Peoples' Heroes but he was well-known to superheroes. Sometimes he was an enemy to mystic heroes in the United States and elsewhere, stealing mystic artifacts out from under their noses for the Soviet Union's use but for the most part he was an ally: a fellow enemy of darkness who could always recognize that there were threats to the universe as deadly as any nuclear missile. Briefly imprisoned in 1953, he was freed after Stalin's death. He was a busy man in the 1960s as Stalinist controls lapsed and the world of magic became more and more powerful in the Soviet Union, taking time out to fight Superior in Cuba in 1962 and war against the forces of Baba Yaga in the 1970s. Dispatched to Afghanistan in the late 1970s to help battle undead warriors summoned to life there by Muslim clerics, Peshkov was horrified at the violence and pointless waste of yet another war; when he returned home in the 1980s, he let others take over his role as magical champion while working to support Gorbachev's reforms. With the fall of the Soviet Union, Peshkov resumed his work as a defender of the world against magical threats, for the first time working regularly in countries besides the land of his birth now that he was free to travel. There was a whole world out there! Peshkov is currently assigned to Freedom City to act as the liaison between the Peoples' Heroes and the Freedom League, as well as deal with the worrisome reports he's heard about magical activity in Freedom City. Barriers he helped erect many, many years ago now are beginning to melt. Complications: Is very old [a hundred year old Russian] Is an Ice Vampire [a terrible ice monster, albeit one who can pass for men] Has made a lot of enemies over the years [has fought a lot of terrible monsters from beyond space] The ladies (can't touch this!) [very solicitous towards women whose powers might let them actually have a relationship with him, though he is capable of dimming his cold aura] Niflheim's Champion [What else does Hel want with him?] Abilities: 0 + 0 - 10 + 10 + 4 + 2 = 6PP Strength: 10/24 (+0/+7) Dexterity: 10 (+0) Constitution: --- Intelligence: 20 (+5) Wisdom: 14 (+2) Charisma: 12 (+1) Combat: 8 + 8 = 16PP Initiative: +0 Attack: +4 Ranged/+8 Melee, +8/12 w/ Thermovore Array (Ranged/Melee) Grapple: +15, +18 w/ Frozen Armor Defense: +12 (+4 Base, +8 Dodge Focus), +2 Flat-Footed Knockback: -6, -11 w/ Frozen Armor -4, -7 w/ Icy Armor vs. blessed/holy, magic, or silver Saving Throws: 5 + 7 = 12PP Toughness: +12 (Impervious 10 w/ Icy Armor) +8 (Imp 6 w/ Icy Armor) vs. blessed/holy, magic, or silver Fortitude: --- Reflex: +5 (+0 Dex, +5) Will: +9 (+2 Wis, +7) Skills: 60R = 15PP Bluff 9 (+10)SM Concentration 3 (+5) Handle Animal 4 (+5) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 5 (+10)SM Knowledge (History) 5 (+10) Knowledge (Theology and Philosophy) 5 (+10)SM Languages 6 (English, German, Greek, Latin, Old Church Slavonic, Old Norse, Russian [base]) Medicine 7 (+9)SM Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 18PP Attack Focus Melee 4 Benefit (Security Clearance [Russian]) Dodge Focus 8 Eidetic Memory Jack of all Trades Ritualist Skill Mastery (Bluff, Knowledge [Arcane Lore], Knowledge [Theology and Philosophy], Medicine) Uncanny Dodge (Infravision) Powers: 1 + 14 + 3 + 8 + 5 + 13 + 30 + 20 + 8 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 29 = 144PP Comrade Frost's thermovore powers have the descriptors 'cold', 'dimensional', and 'magic'. His vampire powers have the description 'vampiric' Drain Constitution 2 (blood drain; Flaw: Requires Grapple) [1PP] Enhanced STR 14 (Vampiric, to STR 24/+7) [14PP] Environmental Control 1 (Cold 1 [severe], 5 feet; Extra: Action 3 [Reaction]; Flaw: Range [Touch]) [3PP] Gadgets 1 (5PP, magical trinkets, Extra: Action [Move], Flaw: Hard-to-Lose) [8PP] Healing 1 (thermovore; Extras: Action 4 [Reaction], Total; Flaws: Personal, Source [Fire/Heat Attacks]) [5PP] Icy Body 6 (12PP Array; Power Feat: Alternate Power) [13PP] BE: Flight 1 (10 mph/ 100 feet per Move Action, Extra: Linked [insubstantial]) {2PP} + Insubstantial 2 (icy fog; Extra: Linked [Flight]) {10PP} {12/12PP} AP: Impervious Toughness 6 (frozen armor; Extra: Duration [sustained,+0]) {6} + Super-Strength 3 (Effective Str 39) {4} {6+6=12/12} Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects) [30PP] Immunity 40 (energy vampire; lethal energy damage) [20PP] Protection 8 (icy flesh) [8PP] Protection 4 (vampiric flesh; Extra: Impervious; Flaw: Limited [not against blessed/holy, magic, or silver]) [4PP] Regeneration 6 (Recovery +0 [5], Resurrection 1 [1 week]; Flaw: Source [blood or heat 37°C/98°F]) [3PP] Super-Senses 2 (Infravision [Enhancement: Tracking 1]) [2PP] Super-Senses 3 (feel magic, Detect Magic 3 [tactile; enhancement: Ranged ) [4PP] Thermovore Array 12 (24PP Array; Power Feats: Accurate 2, Alternate Power 3) [29PP] BE: Drain Toughness 12 (brittle cold; Extras: Affects Objects, Range [Ranged]; Flaw: Limited [Objects Only]) {24/24PP} AP: Damage 12 (mass heat drain; Extra: Area [120 ft. Cone, Targeted]) {24/24PP} AP: Paralyze 12 (freezing grasp; Extra: Alternate Save [Fortitude, +0] ) {24/24PP} AP: Strike 12 (thermovorous touch; Extra: Vampiric) {24/24PP} Drawbacks: -4PP Vulnerable (Cold [Common], Major [x2]) [4PP] DC Block: ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC 22 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Brittle Cold Ranged DC 22 Fort (Staged) Drain Toughness Freezing Grasp Touch DC 22 Fort Slowed/Paralyzed Mass Heat Drain Touch [Area] DC 27 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Thermovorus Touch Touch DC 27 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Totals: Abilities (6) + Combat (16) + Saving Throws (10) + Skills (15) + Feats (18) + Powers (144) - Drawbacks (4) = 205/205 Power Points

Looks solid. Fix up the power notation, would you?

Why is his Reflex save so high? (To be badass is a good reason, but what's the descriptor for it?)

Backstory's still good. Power notation needs some significant cleaning up.

Seems legit. APPROVED

"Yes. Oh, yes." Steve kissed Gina again, dry lips on hers, and they didn't talk again for a while after that. In her bed that night, deep in the darkest hours of the night, in the darkest part of the house, he held her as she slept and remembered her words from before. Whatever the future held for either of them, he knew the words were true. I can live with this. That night, for the first time in a long while, Steve Murdock slept without the company of horrors, and in the first moment of morning's light, before he moved and felt the inescapable weight of cold steel armor deep down in his very bones, awoke without the past.

Once everyone was in, Ms. Harcourt favored her students with a smile, raising her voice to call attention to herself. "Okay, everyone, welcome to your first field trip of the year. As some of you already know, dealing with alternate dimensions is an important part of being a superhero. That's especially true for Claremont students in the last few years, when it seems like we've been falling into, or out of, every dimensional anomaly that's passed through Freedom City." She shook her head ruefully. "As a result of that, we've initiated an exchange program with, er, a brother Claremont in another dimension." She used the wall projector to call up a map of Freedom City, one that looked eerily familiar yet somehow subtly different. "This summer, the Next-Gen played host to their counterparts, and so this fall it's our turn to travel to another dimension. We'll be visiting a world actually discovered by Claremont students, the first Young Freedom, where you'll be meeting some of your counterparts. This is a safe Earth close to Earth-Prime in alignment; different, but not actually dangerous. I know some of you have experience with this already, but you'll find a planned trip is far more instructive than an encounter with dimensional castaways, or being castaway yourself." "So what other dimension is it?" asked Sharl, frowning behind his shades. Unbidden thoughts of Erde flashed through his mind; he'd requested additional training on other dimensions, and assumed this was part of it, but if the school was aware of their plans for a secret expedition there, he was going to have to change things up in a hurry! Getting suspended, or worse, before he could save his people was not how he planned to finish out his high school career on Earth. "Earth-A-Gender-1," replied Harcourt. "A dimension very much like Earth-Prime, except with a complete biological gender inversion. Our theory is they're the result of a quantum mirroring effect at some point early in our history...but of course they think the same about us, so scientists are still investigating the situation on both sides." she added.