Avenger Assembled

Murdock shook his head. "I was not hurt, Gina. I should not have called you on Miss Americana's line. I know you value your privacy." His hands had stopped shaking, but his back was still ramrod-straight, his nerves coming through in his posture as the metal stool creaked slightly beneath his weight. "I thought much as well, about you, and us, and many other things. I am what I am." The words covered his look, his manner, the memories that loomed with dead eyes in the back of his mind as he walked the streets of Freedom City. "And I have done what I have done. But if we can be friends, we can yet be more than that." He nervously shifted the bear back and forth in his hands, then set it on the counter again next to him. "What...did you think about?"

Harrier injures and dazes the ship overhead. Alphan 1 is out. Scholar is up.

Harrier stared up at the hovering craft over their heads for a long moment, his face invisible inside his armored cage. "...They can fly. THEY CAN FLY!" As the hunter Wraith had battered aside disappeared in a shimmer of energy, Harrier worked the shaft of his pike and fired a blast of searing black energy straight up at the craft over their heads: the scorching Terminus fire screamed like a damned soul as it tore into the craft's flank, leaving a deep, smoking hole in the ship's side. He'd left himself open to attack from those on the ground, not to mention the ship itself, but he was far more focused on the ship overhead than his own safety at the moment.

Murdock took a ginger ale from the back of the refrigerator and sat on a stool before the kitchen counter, looking at the intercom impassively. He didn't drink from the can, instead he sat there, holding the can between his hands as if trying to warm it, trying to visualize the woman on the other side. He was silent for a long time, sorting his thoughts out, before he spoke. He was nervous now, almost more nervous than he'd ever been about anything on Prime. While rejection today might be his due, it was no less unpleasant a prospect to contemplate. "I am sorry if I have caused you difficulty with your neighbors, Gina. I have been looking for you these last few months because I wanted to see you again. I found you a very compelling woman." He realized his hands were shaking, hard enough that he might crush the cup in them, and so laid them flat on the marble countertop. "We know little of each other, but what I have seen...I would like to see more of." He reached into his coat and nervously took out a red dime-store teddy bear, hanging onto a plush pink heart that said "I LIKE YOU BEARY MUCH". "This was on sale at the drugstore near where I live. It seemed...appropriate." he went on, just a trace of nervousness in his voice.

Steve Murdock wasn't a man to shock easily, but he could certainly be surprised; he started at the sight of the exposed robot flesh, his idle speculation about what could have produced the pet tracks in the lawn interrupted by the reminder of the machine he was dealing with, at least for the moment. The fact that he'd seen worse had no bearing on the fact that it was quite unexpected! He mastered his surprise as best he could, and soon began doing just as the near-fleshless robot said, removing his shoes and coat, though he kept the coat itself in hand. "The craftsmanship is very sophisticated," he finally said, consciously speaking to the 'driver' rather than the machine itself that stood before him. "I would not have guessed she was half-finished until her clothing was removed." With his shoes removed and his coat folded over his arm, Steve followed the robot into the confines of Gina's home.

"Their pensions have to be going somewhere," said Edge after a moment's thought, his time working for the UN giving him an appreciation for bureaucracy. "Those men all have to be in their 70s and 80s, at least. If their deaths were being covered up, it'd be much easier to say they were dead; even to kill them in Afghanistan or the Terminus Invasion." History was another thing Mark understood, the use of it, anyway. "They've got to be alive, somewhere. And if the pensions aren't going to them, they're going to someone who knows enough about this case to be worth interrogating." He looked at the faces of those long-dead men, lost in thought. "Their families. Can we contact them, even if we can't contact the men? Someone almost always talks about something."

Murdock studied the androgynous figure for a moment, hesitating only briefly before he realized what was going on. Gina, and through her Miss Americana, was evidently a robotics genius, with significant access to machinery to wear around the city. Despite the nature of his own cybernetic implants, the idea of communicating through a machine held no particular terrors for him, and so he had no qualms about following this one. "I will come with you," he said with his typical shortness as he followed the android down the sidewalk, hands in the pockets of the thick secondhand jacket he wore to allay suspicion. He wasn't much for conversation at the best of times, particularly when what he had to say was best-said face to face.

Okay, first off, write with paragraphs. Can't stress that enough. Second, the very loose outline looks okay. You'll need things like her name, where she's from, her family, worked out: LOOK AT OTHER PEOPLE'S SHEETS, ESPECIALLY REFS FOR THIS.

I like all this quite a bit, and strikes me as something worth canonizing. However, I'd make the small distinction between cosmic/dimensional energies in general and the energies of the Terminus in particular; the Doom Coil is not the same thing as the Cosmic Coil. Harrier's pike may fire Terminus radiation with the cosmic energy descriptor, just as Omega personally may do the same, but cosmic energy does not necessarily have the Terminus descriptor. While Terminus radiation is one of the many dimensional energies in which Freedom City is awash, it is by no means the only one! (A small distinction, true, but when zealots whip out anti-Terminus Powers nullifier rays to take down heroes, it'll be a good one to keep in mind for cosmic or dimensional heroes not powered by entropy...even if just to get an HP out of the GM for the Complication!

14 Woof, that's an awful roll! I'll keep it, though, better to give the heroes a false sense of security. Go ahead and post IC.

Nocker Battlesuit PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 10 pp STR 40 [32] [20] [10] (+15/+11/+5/+0) DEX 10 (+0) CON 24 [20] [10] (+7/+5/+0) INT 20 (+5) WIS 10 (+0) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+5 w/Growth) DEF: +6 (+5 w/Growth) Init: +0 Grapple: +31 max Saves: 14 pp TOU +15/+0 (+7 Con, +3 Density, +5 Protection) FORT +10/+3 (+7 Con, +3) REF +4 (+0 Dex, +4) WILL +7 (+0 Wis, +7) Skills: 72 r=18 pp Craft (Electronic) 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Craft (Mechanical) 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Intimidate 15 (+15/+17) Knowledge (Technology) 15 (+20, Skill Mastery) Languages 2 (German, Russian; Base: English) Notice 10 (+10, Skill Mastery) Sense Motive 10 (+10) Feats: 10 pp All-Out Attack Beginner's Luck Challenge (Fast Startle) Eidetic Memory Inventor Jack of all Trades Power Attack Skill Mastery (Craft [electronic], Craft [mechanical], Knowledge [Technology], Notice) Startle Takedown Attack Powers: 74 pp Device 18 (Nocker Mech, Hard to Lose) (PFs: Restricted 2 [pilot]) [74 pp] Density 6 (Extra: Duration (Permanent) [+0], PF: Innate) [19dp] +12 STR, +3 IMP TOU, +2 Immovable, +2 Super-Strength, x5 Mass Enhanced CON 10 [10dp] Enhanced STR 10 [10dp] Flight 5 (250 MPH) [Dynamic] [10+1+2=13 pp] DAP: Super-Strength 4 (Heavy Load: 96 tons) (PFs: Groundstrike, Shockwave) Growth 4 (Extra: Duration (Permanent) [+0], PF: Innate) [13dp] -1 ATK/DEF, +4 Grapple, -4 Stealth, +2 Intimidate, x2 Carrying Capacity Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9dp] Impervious TOU 7 [7dp] Protection 5 [5dp] Super-Senses 4 (Danger Sense [radio], Infravision, Ultrahearing, Uncanny Dodge [radio]) [4dp] costs abilities 10 + combat 24 + saves 14 + skills 18/72 + feats 10 + powers 74 = 150 pts ----------------------------------- Design Notes: Here's another Changeling: The Dreaming build, in this case a nocker, the cranky gadgeteers of the fae world. They're basically spirits of engineering and creativity, born from the frustration of builders. Taking nocker frustration at face value, as well as the fact that they are usually physically non-threatening, I went ahead and built a nocker with a battlesuit, though in this case it's more like a mini-mech: a giant flying suit of armor, covered in thick bulletproof plates. Not much finesse here; his super-senses are light and he doesn't have any options for ranged attack built-in; this is a battlesuit for people who want to kick around their enemies in a very real and meaningful sense! (If you do want to hit targets at range, just have him scoop up a car and throw it to hit his targets) With his size and his Takedown Attack, he should have no problem sweeping goons as well as fighting it out with the big boys. He's pretty squishy without the suit, a good reason for him to keep it handy somewhere whenever he goes out on the town. (That's why he doesn't have a Normal ID drawback, he keeps his battlesuit close so he can punch out his enemies!) Note that his powers make him very, very heavy; with his Density and Growth, he easily weighs as much as a car or more, and so he'll have to be pretty careful where he steps if he has to get around inside. That's why he's got Flight, so he can at least hover in theory, loud as it is. He doesn't have a lot of wealth, I picture him as a crabby street-level genius who built himself a giant suit of battle armor so he could take care of the criminals who bedeviled him while trying to go about his business. He's not actually Fearless, but he's got a massive enough Intimidate bonus that most people aren't going to scare him anyway. He doesn't have the social skills to be Tony Stark, but with some tweaking he could be good at something besides cussing people out with gusto. (One thing to consider adding is more Bluff and Taunt, so he can trash-talk people who aren't scared of the giant monster guy in the suit; most NPCs aren't Fearless, but it does let you tear down high-Intimidate guys) He's got the feats to be a decent gadgeteer and tech guy even when he's working in areas outside of his engineering field, with +5 to Investigate and other Intelligence checks depending on where he's working.

Boggan with a Power Ring PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 34 pp STR 18 (+4) DEX 18 (+4) CON 16 (+3) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 16 pp ATK: +4 (+7 melee, +8 Magic) DEF: +8 (+2 flat-footed, +1 Shield) Init: +8 Grapple: +11 Saves: 12 pp TOU +12 (+3 Con, +4 Defensive Roll, +5 Protection) FORT +7 (+3 Con, +4) REF +7 (+4 Dex, +3) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 80 r=20 pp Bluff 7 (+10) Climb 6 (+10) Craft (structural) 9 (+10) Diplomacy 7 (+10) Gather Info 12 (+15) Intimidate 7 (+10) Language 1 (Celtic; Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 6 (+10) Swim 6 (+10) Survival 3 (+5) Feats: 14 pp Attack Focus: Melee 3 Defensive Roll 2 Dodge Focus 3 Power Attack Quick Draw [Draw] Second Chance (Gather Info checks) Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Well-Informed Powers: 54 pp Device 1 (Sword, Hard to Lose) (PF: Indestructible) [5 pp] Strike 3 (PFs: Improved Crit, Mighty) [5dp] Device 11 (Power Ring; Hard to Lose) (PF: Restricted [fae blooded]) [45 pp] Concealment 4 (all visual) (PF: Close Range) [9dp] Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2dp] Immunity 5 (disease, poison, starvation and thirst, suffocation) [5dp] Mystic Array [26+2=28dp] Blast 12 (PFs: Accurate 2) AP: Mind Control 10 (PFs: Mind Link, Subtle) AP: Enhanced Strike 6 (Extra: Penetrating 6; PFs: Improved Crit, Knockback 9 [DMG 19], Mighty) Protection 5 [5dp] Shield 1 [1dp] Super-Senses 5 (Magic Awareness 3 [visual], Undead Awareness 2 [visual]) [5dp] Quickness 4 (x25) [4pp] costs abilities 34 + combat 16 + saves 12 + skills 20/80 + feats 14 + powers 54 = 150 pts ----------------------------------------------------------------- Design Notes: Here's yet another Changeling: The Dreaming build, this time for a boggan, who are basically the shoemaker-elves of myth and legend. They're generally short, cheerful people who love parties and a simple, homey lifestyle; in other words, they're hobbits! From there it was a simple enough leap to throw in elements of Frodo Baggins, making this a Ring-Bearer who has learned to master the One Ring rather than being mastered by it. He has the usual boggan craftsman abilities, except he's focused on making and fixing swords (and smithcraft in general) rather than the usual more peaceful pursuits of his kind. He's a competent swordsman and skilled social player without the ring, easily capable of fighting large groups of low-level orcs with frequent use of social manipulation and stealth. One thing he doesn't have is Impervious, but thanks to his Concealment (which he can fight under) he has to worry a lot less about taking hits while in combat. The Mind Control on his ring is a nod to the effects of the ring in-universe, but of course you don't have to take it as anything so sinister! He's a hero, and his use of the powers to compel bad guys to stand down isn't immoral if used for heroic purposes. He goes from a balanced swordsman to a very tough, hard-hitting fighter with the ring; I modeled that massive strike on the scenes early in Lord of the Rings where Sauron at the height of his powers battered whole armies like a kid playing tee-ball. I figure his ring's Strike adds to his sword's blade, turning it into a blue glowing blade that can slice through almost any threat. With his high Quickness, he can fix his broken sword in record time, and build things. He's not a straight hobbit conversion, of course, he'd need Shrinking 4 for that. Perhaps he's a domestic-minded fellow driven to heroism by the depredations of outlaws and brigands in his own neighborhood, carrying a mighty blade of his own crafting, and then made even more powerful by the ring he rescued from the forces of evil!

Wraith: 27 Harrier: 23 Alphan 1: 23 Scholar: 22 Alphan 2: 15 Alphan 3: 14 Victory: 12 Lor 1: 10 Lor 2: 8 Lor 3: 3

"The, the, security discs in the Patriotic Colonel's private study, they showed me laying hands on her things, and entering her private space to carry a message from..." The prisoner, even amid his terrified and sincere babbling, shot a look at the Colonel who nodded fractionally, "from the terrorists who seek to destroy New Freedom. But I know nothing of these people!" he insisted. "I only learned about them during my interrogation. I know nothing of politics, I am a geological technician! I was not even in the city when those things happened!" He gave Lady Laser a hopeful look, his voice full of earnest sincerity. "I am innocent, and I am loyal. I do not want our country to be destroyed by terrorists!"

"The timelines with which you are familiar that are associated with an Axis victory in the 20th century are very unlikely to be a threat in the modern era," said Professor Danger, earning a sharp glare from the Clockwatcher: evidently even that remark was a little much by the standards of 26th century temporal mechanics. After a little more discussion from the future heroes, and the handing off a temporal anomaly detector, a fat black disc covered in displays in English, to the gadget-using Midnight, the out-of-time Leaguers were packed off to the big transporter pad they'd arrived on for the trip to Venus. Mark stuck close to his team, resisting the urge to take his father aside and say all the things that needed said: Rick Lucas of the 1960s was a happy man with a bright future ahead of him. Even if it was safe to alter the timeline, he couldn't risk taking away from the life Rick Lucas had had. He stood in the back, and managed a short wave for the Centurion, Rick, and the others, as they were beamed into the Temporal Observatory. The Observatory immediately reminded Mark of a planetarium, albeit one aimed at history rather than space; the big dome-shaped ceiling was covered in a patchwork images of past, present, and what had to be future, all of them moving too fast for him to get more than the occasional glimpse: a medieval-looking army moving here, a masked hero with a cape in the sky there, and a dozen other scenes too alien for him to recognize. At ground-level, where the heroes stood, were the temporal artifacts they'd come to guard; the Hourglass of Fate that Dr. Chronos had wielded in the 1940s, Downtime's (the modern-day time-controlling speedster villain) costume, Dr. Tomorrow's temporal schooner, a weirdly retro 19th century steam engine, and finally the machine they'd come to watch, the advanced time machine that would that very night pose such a threat to all history. "Okay, well, I don't _see_ any poison bombs around here," said Mark not long after their arrival, wandering around the gallery. "So I guess the bad guy brings it with him?"

Citizen, Ghost Girl, Wraith: Pop Culture check vs. DC 20 for Wraith and Citizen to know what Jem is. 6 Which Sharl miserably fails. Just as he should! Ghost Girl, give me a straight INT check. DC 15. DC 25 Notice check for everybody: 28 Sharl passes, so he thinks Rogue looks a little odd: he's so focused he doesn't back off, though. Initiative? Maybe! 26: Sharl 7: 'Rogue' --------------- Sage and Papercut: Stealth checks if you're approaching quietly: DC 10. Give me a Notice check vs. 26. (If you can make it automatically, just post to that effect, post your results even if you fail.) --------- Cobalt Templar: What do, eh?

The trio heading for the broadcast center rocketed there without delay, Ghost Girl picking Wraith turning out to be a good diea: the spaces between the massive sector-buildings, even with the translucent sky-tunnels who stared in fascination at the heroes as they went, were just too big for the shapeshifting Kinigosi to keep up with the two fliers when they were both going all-out. In another time, Sharl might have been more interested in studying Kimber's new powers, but for the moment he was focused on saving his people from the madwoman who'd seized power there. To the citizens of Tronik on the multi-layered streets and in the sector windows, Sharl called authoritatively, "It's all right, citizens! Citizen and his friends are on the scene, and we're going to save the day!" "When we get to the building, hit her hard and hit her fast!" Citizen called to Ghost Girl as they flew. "Rogue's not afraid to fight dirty, and she's not afraid to hurt civilians to get away. We need to take her out fast before she hurts any of the other people in there, or before the militia shows up and tries to be a hero!" The broadcast sector loomed up at their approach, a massive tower of grey and black steel rising a mile high at their approach. It was easy to see where their target was; a visible crater in the side of the building showed a deep puncture wide enough for them to fly through: Sharl took the lead, not wanting to expose his friends to the danger of his enemy inside, and rocketed right through the opening! Inside, a scene of chaos greeted the trio of heroes, in a high-tech room that might once have been a scene of beauty and scientific wonder, a handful of terrified civilians were cowering behind broken computers and holographic displays, fizzling scenes of oceanic beauty and Lor-dressed humanoids providing some protection from the rampaging paragon in the center of the room. The black-haired woman in sunglasses looked up with a gloating smile as the heroes made their appearance, tossing aside the battered-looking militia officer she'd been in the middle of beating down. "I knew you'd come! Come to DIE, Citizen! Who's the refugee from Jem? Is GI Joe going to come next?" she taunted. ------------------------ The map Sieva called up was enough to guide Sage and Papercut to the oxygen recycling centers, massive low-slung buildings (though even these were easily as large as a small skyscraper back in Freedom City, towering a good twenty stories high from ground level) near the edge of the inhabitated part of Tronik. Industrial centers didn't look that different from world to world with massive pumps and parts dwarfing the humans working below, but the processing center still seemed oddly sterile for the teens used to the dirty, smelly industrial processes of Earth. The people there weren't getting much in the way of work done, from the sound of things, the workers were too frightened by Rogue's announcement to pay much attention to anything but their own fears. Only a few workers were still concentrating on the anti-grav assembly line that was sending rows of anonymous silver boxes into the cold-burning fusion reprocessors that transformed the organic material within into free oxygen for the people of Tronik to breathe. ------------ Meanwhile, Cobalt Templar was on his way to the militia headquarters, a massive building even by the standards of Tronik, near the heart of the incredibly-developed city. He was in the air, a shining symbol of glowing blue righteousness, when suddenly a crishash! of sizzling red energy just missed him, so close that he could feel the heat of the plasma weapon through his armor. Corbin had been around enough to recognize a military vessel when the big black flier that had fired the blast closed in on him, its running lights glowing in a cascadaing blue and red weirdly like a police car's lights back on Earth. "STAND DOWN, ALIEN!" boomed the mechanical voice from the militia flyer, a humanoid face covered in a heavy black mask projected on its otherwise featureless front surface as it approached, the civilian craft in the air giving them a wide berth. "STAND DOWN OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE AGAIN!"

Pooka Totem PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 34 pp STR 40 [24] (+15/+7) DEX 10 (+0) CON 30 [22] (+10/+6) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 20 (+5) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+7 melee) (+4 w/Growth, +5 melee) DEF: +7 (+3 flat-footed) (+5 w/Growth [+2 flat-footed)) Init: +3 Grapple: +16/+29 Saves: 12 pp TOU +15/+6 (+10 Con, +5 Protection) (+6 Con) FORT +12/+8 (+10 Con, +2) (+6 Con, +2) REF +5 (+0 Dex, +5) WILL +8 (+3 Wis, +5) Skills: 68 r=17 pp Bluff 10 (+15) Concentration 15 (+17) Disguise 0 (+5/+35) Intimidate 15 (+20/+24) Knowledge (earth sciences) 9 (+10) Knowledge (life sciences) 9 (+10) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Survival 2 (+4) Feats: 11 pp All-Out Attack Attack Focus: Melee Challenge (Fast Startle) Dodge Focus Power Attack Second Chance (Concentration checks to maintain powers) Startle Takedown Attack Taunt Track [olfactory] Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 50 pp Alternate Form 10 (T-Rex) (Extra: Duration [sustained] (+0)) [50 pp] Drawback: Disability (big head and little arms) [-4 pp] Growth 8 (Huge size) [24 pp] (-2 ATK/DEF, +8 Grapple, -8 Stealth, +4 Intimidate, 16 ft tall, 4K-32K lbs, 15 ft space, 10 ft reach, x2 carrying capacity) Immunity 1 (environmental heat) [1 pp] Morph 6 (+30 Disguise, T-Rex) (PFs: Covers Scent, Precise) [8 pp] Protection 5 [5 pp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Senses 2 (Acute Scent, Infravision) [2 pp] Super-Strength 4 (Heavy Load: 180 tons) (PF: Thunderclap [roar]) [9 pp] costs abilities 34 + combat 24 + saves 12 + skills 17/68 + feats 11 + powers 50 = 150 pts ------------------------- Design Notes: Continuing my Changeling builds, here's a pooka T-Rex. Roar! Pooks are the tricksters of the fae world, shapeshifters with silver tongues who lack the ability to tell the direct truth. The pooka of song and story can turn into any animal, but the pooka of the modern era are locked into one particular form. While pooka characters are usually small, fluttery animals like bats, foxes, and other 'tricky' creatures, and only living animal species at that (because boo-hoo, extinct animals have no living dreams, boo) but I did some thinking here and if a cheerful eight-year-old boy suddenly developed shapeshifting powers, it would probably be a really awesome animal like a giant T-Rex. At Huge size, he's a little small for a T-Rex, but after all presumably he's not reached his full adult-sized yet! His Morph may not come up very much, since there aren't a lot of chances to pass for a standard T-Rex on the streets of Freedom City these days, but hey he can infiltrate Jurassic Park and the Raptor Empire with the best of them. He's got some saurian immunities that let him be just fine with environmental heat (yes, I know dinosaurs are more birds than lizards, but birds are pretty good in hot weather too) as well as being able to see body heat and track by scent. He's very charismatic and has a tremendous force of personality even when he's not a giant T-Rex; he's great at either fooling or scaring his opponents depending on his needs. (He doesn't have Fearless, if you _can_ scare a giant T-Rex with a +24 Intimidate bonus, good on you!) He should have no trouble catching opponents flat-footed and laying them out with the really massive hits his powers make him capable of. He's also a pretty good fighter, he's a solid PL 6.5 when he's not using his powers, and is in very good shape physically. He's got good skills too; he could reasonably pass for some paleontologist or geologist with dinosaur-themed powers. If you don't like the fae shapeshifter angle, maybe he found a mystic artifact on a dig that gave him a connection to some ancient dinosaur civilization with the physical abilities to match. He might just be someone who really liked dinosaurs and who developed awesome superpowers to match. He could be the result of sinister experimentation; perhaps he was empowered by secret Serpent People experimentation for dire purposes! (Perhaps there was a connection there; did an asteroid destroy an ancient Serpent People civilization sixty-five million years ago? It could be!!!) Or maybe he's an infiltrator from the Raptor Empire hiding in plain sight on behalf of his saurian masters!

Midnight senses that, one way or another, Erde is no longer considered a likely threat by the heroes of the 25th century. It doesn't seem to be for sinister reasons, but it's tough to tell with these people.

Ape with a Power Ring PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 26 pp STR 30 [22] (+10/+6) DEX 14 (+2) CON 20 [16] (+5/+3) INT 12 (+1) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 20 pp ATK: +5 (+4 w/Growth, +8 w/Power Ring) DEF: +5 (+4 w/Growth, +10 w Power Ring) Init: +2 Grapple: +16 w/Move Object, +18 w/Growth Saves: 10 pp TOU +10 (+5 Con, +3 Protection, +2 Defensive ROll) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 48 r=12 pp Climb 4 (+10) Craft (mechanical) 4 (+5) Disguise 0 (+0/+40) Handle Animal 10 (+10) Intimidate 8 (+8/+10 w/size) Languages 2 (French, Swahili; Base: English) Notice 4 (+5) Pilot 8 (+10) Sense Motive 4 (+5) Survival 4 (+5) Feats: 9 pp Animal Empathy Defensive Roll Dodge Focus Move-By Action Power Attack Startle Takedown Attack Track Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 69 pp Comprehend 2 (speak to and understand animals, Flaw: Simians Only) [2 pp] Device 11 (Power Ring, Hard to Lose, PF: Restricted [simians]) [45 pp] Blast 12 (PFs: Accurate 2) [26+3=29dp] AP: Create Object 8 (Extra: Movable, PFs: Selective, Stationary) AP: Morph 8 (any humanoid; Extra: Continous, PFs: Covers Scent, Precise) AP: Move Object 12 (Heavy Load: 48 tons) (PFs: Accurate 2) Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6dp] Immunity 9 (life support) [9dp] Impervious TOU 10 (Flaw: Limited [Physical]) [5dp] Shield 6 [6dp] Growth 4 (Large size, Extras: Continuous [+1], Flaws: Permanent [-1], PFs: Innate) [13PP] Leaping 1 (2) [1 pp] Protection 3 [3 pp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Movement 1 (Swinging) [2 pp] Super-Senses 2 (Acute Scent, Low-Light Vision) [2 pp] costs abilities 26 + combat 20 + saves 10 + skills 12/48 + feats 9 + powers 69 = 150 pts ------------------------------------------------------------- Design Notes: Here's a gorilla with a power ring, based on Doc's Powerhouse with a Power Ring build and Ecal's Animal Scientist build, using the standard mechanics we've hammered out for low-level power rings and gorillas around here. Skill-wise she's basically a simian Hal Jordan, a veteran soldier and pilot and skilled fighter, as well as a mighty gorilla who can scramble up walls, throw motorcycles, and generally monkey around when necessary. (That's terrible, of course; gorills are apes, not monkeys!) He can also talk to other apes, even gibbons, orangs, and chimpanzees! (Though you have to be careful about chimps because all they say is terrible swears!) Unlike a lot of power-ring users, her ring doesn't actually make her tougher, it just shields her from attack. She doesn't need much of a Toughness boost that way, she's already as tough as a mighty ape! She flies decently fast with the ring, at least for urban adventures, and can do the usual blasting, lifting heavy objects, and creating energy barriers that your typical power ring users can. One difference is that her ring also lets her disguise herself as a normal human, or close to it anyway; a good way to maintain something of a normal life despite being an ape in a world of men! She works fine as a native hero of Earth-Ape, perhaps one who has relocated here for personal reasons or as part of a hero exchange program, or you could say she's a native hero of my own Gorilla Island. A tweak would be to make her an uplifted 'normal' gorilla; perhaps she escaped from the secret lab where scientists were experimenting on her brain, taking with her a mysterious space artifact they'd been examining in the test chamber next door! Or maybe the ring is what makes her smart, and you can fold some (but not too much!) Intelligence into the ring and explain that it's an artifact that uplifted her. If you don't like the simian stuff, maybe you can make her a member of a giant alien species; this would work pretty well as a Kilowog expy...

Armored Patriot PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 40 pp STR 30/18 (+10/+4) DEX 20 (+5) CON 18 (+4) INT 16 (+3) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+8 Blast/+10 Melee) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +5 Grapple: +14/+26 Saves: 13 pp TOU +10 (+4 Con, +6 Protection) FORT +8 (+4 Con, +4) REF +8 (+5 Dex, +3) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 60 r=15 pp Craft (Electronic) 7 (+10, Skill Mastery) Craft (Mechanical) 7 (+10, Skill Mastery) Diplomacy 8 (+10) Intimidate 8 (+10) Knowledge (Tactics) 7 (+10) Knowledge (Technology) 7 (+10, Skill Mastery) Notice 3 (+5) Sense Motive 8 (+10, Skill Mastery) Survival 5 (+7) Feats: 15 pp Attack Focus: Melee 4 Benefit (Security Clearance) Dodge Focus 4 Evasion Leadership Master Plan 2 Power Attack Skill Mastery (Craft [electronic], Craft [mechanical], Knowledge [technology], Sense Motive]) Takedown Attack Powers: 45 pp Device 11 (Power Armor) (Hard to Lose) (PF: Restricted [voiceprint]) [45 pp] Blast 12 (PF: Accurate) 'laser' [25+2=27dp] AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Selective Attack, Targeted Area [Cone], Flaw: Action [Full], PFs: Accurate 2, Indirect 3) 'missiles' AP: Enhanced STR 12 and Super-Strength 6 (Heavy Load: 48 tons) (PF: Groundstrike) Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6dp] Immunity 5 (disease, environmental radiation, poison, suffocation) [5 pp] Protection 6 (Extra: Impervious) [12dp] Super-Senses 5 (Accurate Extended Radio Sense, Uncanny Dodge [radio]) [5dp] Drawbacks: -4 pp Normal ID (full round action, -4 pp) costs abilities 40 + combat 24 + saves 13 + skills 15/60 + feats 16 + powers 45 - drawbacks 4= 150 pts ------------------------------------------------------ Design Notes: Here's a mashup of a Patriotic Hero and Battlesuit, based on the post-Civil War fake teaser picture of Iron Man wielding Captain America's shield. I think this works just fine as a badass soldier-type inside the latest in top-of-the-line government armor (government-made power armor that isn't very good is something of a staple of the sub-sub-genre; but luckily this guy is badass enough that he's good even in the government-made stuff). He's a solid PL 7 in hand-to-hand without his armor (and given a well-made, high-caliber army weapon, easily capable of being that good with a gun too), but moves up to a nice PL 10 in suit. He's got super-strength, he can fire lasers, and somewhere in there he's got a storm of missiles that can swoop around and take bad guys from behind without hitting any innocent targets around. Thanks to his military training, he's got much higher exotics than your typical battlesuit, though that comes at the cost of a lower INT and fewer skills. He's a gearhead more than a scientist as such. He's a good planner and good leader, though he's not quite as inspiring as those guys who are fighting on the ground level alongside your typical soldier. His suit is rated to stand up to your usual biological/chemical/nuclear weapons, though not really spaceworthy: he's not supposed to be doing that with this government-issued piece of Detroit iron! He's not quite fast enough to keep up with a jet, but there's actually very little aerial combat in most American wars these days; Flight 3 lets him be reasonably effective in urban combat. He's not actually the result of a super-soldier serum, he's strong but not peak human strong, if you want that, reallocate some points or he'll be way too strong inside the suit to meet caps. If you don't like the idea of making him an armored patriot still working for the government, this works just fine as a veteran out of the Army, maybe a mechanic from the military, who put together a suit of power armor on the cheap and went out to go kick some butt on the streets. Letting you drop the various feats derived from working for the governments lets you buy more combat feats, or maybe more abilities that lets you function as a street level guardian.

Sluagh Costumed Adventurer Abilities: 46 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 24 (+7) CON 20 (+5) INT 14 (+2) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+11 Melee/+15 Unarmed) DEF: +8 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +11 Grapple: +16/+24 w/Elongation Saves: 7 pp TOU +12 (+5 Con, +7 Protection) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +7 (+7 Dex) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 72 r=18 pp Acrobatics 13 (+20, Skill Mastery) Gather Information 13 (+15, Skill Mastery) Intimidate 13 (+15, Skill Mastery) Investigate 4 (+6) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 13 (+20, Skill Mastery) Feats: 17 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee 3 Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2 Challenge 2 (Fast Acrobatic Bluff, Fast Startle) Evasion Power Attack Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Gather Info, Intimidate, Stealth) Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Well-Informed Powers: 30 pp Comprehend 2 (speak to and understand animals; Flaw: [Nocturnal Only]) [2 pp] Comprehend 1 (Spirits) [2 pp] Impervious TOU 8 (Flaw: Limited [Physical Only]) [4 pp] Protection 7 [7 pp] Sluagh Array [8+1+2+2=13 pp] Elongation 8 (1000 ft) [Dynamic] DAP: Insubstantial 1 (fluid) DAP: Super-Movement 4 (Slithering, Slow Fall, Swinging, Wall-Crawling) Super-Senses 2 (Darkvision) [2 pp] costs abilities 46 + combat 32 + saves 7 + skills 18/72 + feats 17 + powers 30 = 150 pts --------------- Design Notes: Continuing Changeling: The Dreaming builds, here's my build for a sluagh costumed adventurer. I've tried to build this character as a blend of the traditional mythological sluagh, the Scottish spirits of the restless dead, and the creepy, spidery goths that sluagh tended to be in Changeling. Sluagh tend to be the information-gatherers of the fae world thanks to their habit of silently hanging out and watching everything, so I've built him as a good detective and good sneak. (His ability to talk to nocturnal animals like spiders and rats, as well as to ghosts, is a very good ace in the hole compared to your typical cowl builds) He's a very effective build, something like a low-powered, supernatural-flavored elastic hero with strong training in personal combat. Speaking in whispers only is a good Complication, and suitably creepy for a cowl! He's perfectly at home at night, easily capable of functioning in total darkness and of getting around the city almost undetectably to the human eye. He can take hits much better than your typical cowl, his flexible, stretchy body letting him bounce bullets off his chest. One area of specialization he could use is figuring out whether or not he specializes in mundane or arcane crime; buying up either his Streetwise or his Arcane Lore will be very helpful there! As it is, thanks to his high Gather Info he can function in both worlds, but he's not really a master of either. You could give him a vulnerability or weakness relating to cold iron to get more points, assuming you do want to say that he's the result of fae magic at work in the modern world. He could just be a creepy nightmare powered by the dream dimension too, if you don't want the direct connection to the fae world. You could cut the supernatural stuff entirely and just have this be a spooky elastic hero, perhaps with the idea that he's an Eel O'Brien who was completely under Bruce Wayne's tutelage. As it is, origin-wise perhaps he's a mortal man who decided to become what criminals fear in a very real and literal sense.

Captain Isabella PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 50 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 24 (+7) CON 20 (+5) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 20 (+5) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+12 melee) DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +7 Grapple: +17 Saves: 10 pp TOU +7 (+5 Con, +2 Defensive Roll) FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3) REF +8 (+7 Dex, +1) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 96 r=24 pp Acrobatics 13 (+20, Skill Mastery) Bluff 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Climb 5 (+10) Diplomacy 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Drive 3 (+10) Intimidate 5 (+10) Knowledge (Tactics) 9 (+10) Knowldge (Technology) 2 (+3) Languages 2 (Hebrew, Spanish) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Pilot 3 (+10) Sense Motive 13 (+15, Skill Mastery) Stealth 3 (+10) Survival 8 (+10) Feats: 27 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee 4 Challenge (Fast Acrobatic Bluff) Defensive Roll Dodge Focus 5 Inspire 5 Master Plan 2 Move-By Action Power Attack Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Bluff, Diplomacy, Sense Motive) Set-Up Takedown Attack Taunt Track Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 7 pp Device 2 (Sash) (Easy to Lose, PF: Restricted [+20 Acrobatics]) [7 pp] Leaping 1 (x2) [1dp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1dp] Strike 3 (PFs: Extended Reach, Improved Trip, Mighty) [6+2=8dp] AP: Snare 6 (Flaw: Range [Touch]) AP: Super-Movement 3 (Slow Fall, Super-Movement 1 (Wall-Crawling), Swinging) costs abilities 50 + combat 32 + saves 10 + skills 24/96 + feats 27 + powers 7 = 150 pts ------------------------------ Design Notes: Returning to my Phineas and Ferb builds, here's Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, the "girl across the street" who not-so-secretly has a terrible crush on Phineas. I've built her as Captain America with a whip, modeling her as the leader of her ever-loyal troop of Fireside Girls (thinly-disguised Girl Scout expies), capable of handling herself in almost any situation. The mechanics of her whip come from the various demonstrations we see of the sash in use, particularly in the Second Dimension where Isabella is the Dragon (and fashionable for once!) to Candace Flynn, head of the anti-Doofenschmirz Resistance. She's from a blended Mexican-Jewish family (her mom presses matzohburritos on people), so she's comfortable in both Mexico City and Jerusalem, but from all we see her native language does seem to be English. With her Master Plan, Inspire (which we see her carry out in the video I linked above), and Set-Up, she's a great team player, easily capable of leading a team of heroes to victory against impossible odds. She can also drive a robot unicorn straight through a gaggle of robots without any problem, help repair an airplane crashed into Paris, and generally pull off most of the tricks we see her carry out on the show. (The Fireside Girls catching a falling Phineas was clearly a power-stunt in an emergency, as well as a fine example of teamwork) She's a bit more outdoorsy than your typical Cap build, since after all her abilities do stem from being a scout: that's also where she gets her Track! She works just fine as a weapon master, a whip specialist who's also a fine hand-to-hand combatant: particularly with the languages where they are, she could easily be an adaptation of Zorro. She could also be a patriotic hero with just a few changes in her skills; perhaps she's the result of a program that gave super-soldiers weapons besides guns as a way of showing that their sponsor nation doesn't need to give their heroes guns to be successful. (It also might help her get around any international treaties about the use of super-weapons!) She'd be a great native hero of Mexico or Israel, if you want to make her not native to the United States.

Initiative time! Let's try and have this fight with a little more pep. The Alphans go on 14, 15, and 23 The Lor (with slightly better saves!) 3, 8, and 10 Harrier goes on 23, before the Alphan does

"If they are hunters, this is too obvjous," said Harrier doubtfully, with no small experience of beings that hunted each other for sport. "This is some sort of..." And then, at Harrier's word, the sky suddenly turned dark as overhead a starship swarmed into life as its stealth systems disengaged, the massive silver saucer that had once been part of the Grue space fleet decades earlier showing the rust and scars of its decades of life on the second and third-hand space market. In a staccato series of flashes, a half-dozen hunters appeared at ground-level, fearsome-looking, towering bipeds in heavy body armor: some clearly had humanoid lines beneath their black armor, others bulked too tall and had faces too wide to be built anything like a man. As they appeared, Victory's radio piped out to all of them: ""