Avenger Assembled

"I thought that part was the coolest," Sharl offered Miss A and Cole, feeling confident about talking now that he thought he wouldn't accidentally reveal something he shouldn't. "You said it's an actual physical sending, not just a destructive copying, right? That's pretty cool. The League has all those teleporters around, but if we could make something that let other people email themselves, that'd be pretty awesome." He smiled winningly, and asked, "Hey Cole, are you allowed to get patents on what you research? I know it's strange because you don't have a background people know yet, and because you're a kid."

"Yes...." A brief cascade of green light shone on Trevor as he approached, coming from a small electronic 'eye' at the rear of the big hovering bike. "Yes, fast-twitch muscle fiber compatibility at 97%. Higher than Red Falcon!" the bike chirped like a cheerful dog, earning an affectionate eyeroll from its usual driver. "Will drive anywhere in system for you," the bike said warmly to Trevor at his approach. "Recommend staying inside lunar orbit," Redbird added a moment later, as if a thought had just come into its electronic brain. "Interstellar armadas in Martian orbit will eliminate any vessel leaving atmospheric shell for extended periods." "Take a break, Sage," Mark murmured to Sage, giving the little acrobat reinforcement about Trevor's idea. "And I'll do it with you. He's right, we're going to need rest if we're going to go any further. And we are going further," he added with a sigificant glance east. "All the way to the Terminus again, if we have to, and back. But if we are going to take that trip, we've got to get some sleep first. Why don't you see if Wander needs help with the tents?" he suggested.

While Sage and Miss Americana spoke, Sharl gave Corbin a hearty handshake. The electronic teenager certainly felt real enough to Corbin's touch, his grip solid and secure, his hand even warm in his. "It's a pleasure to meet you," said Sharl equitably, a little surprised to be at the center of attention from somebody when Miss A was right there. "And you too, Eve," he said with a nod her way. "I don't really have much," he said, hefting his little bag. "Just my projector and my laptop, and some parts for each if they need fixing. You've both been briefed on my needs as an electronic intelligence, yes?" he asked, trying to borrow a note of professionalism from Miss A. "I don't mean to be a bother," he added with a rueful smile, "but if we are going to be traveling together, I don't want you to be surprised at what I have to do. Or what I can't do."

Heh, you guys are all high enough to notice this. Harrier is too busy gazing at the stars! The Saha crater is about sixty miles across as you approach, one big disk with a single depression in its middle with a larger satellite crater at the 10'clock mark on the crater's face. The crater is old and pitted, like most of those on the lunar far side, which almost completely lacks the great 'seas' of the near side of the moon. However, as you approach the crater: there's something very suspicious there: there's a _new_ crater in the side of the cliff face edges of the big crater wall, so small it wasn't visible from orbit or to the small robotic probe. It's hard to see clearly in starlight, but the jagged walls look very new, with no meteorite abrasion. It's also a plain fact that there is something metallic glinting in the heart of it, much larger than an Omegadrone...

15 Okay

Gimmie some Notice checks

"A rattlesnake bite would not hurt me, Miss Americana." It was hard to tell, particularly through the impenetrable armor, whether or not Harrier was joking. "The connection between drones is deeper than most sciences can understand. Only dimensional barriers have proven sufficient to block it." He worked his pike even so, and as they swung around the Moon's surface the drone's body changed, armor shimmering like stone dropped in water, before he transformed himself into a gleaming, shining knight like something from a techno-fairy tale. "But if they are not fooled, they will attack even so, and if they are...well, all the better. In this armor, I am known as Caradoc." He didn't sound confident in his ability to lie, but with the others along, he felt more sure. Eventually they landed, the impossibly dry and scratchy lunar dust under their feet as they touched down in the central depression of the crater, the double-walled depression giving them an unobstructed view of the rich, dappled black starfield overhead. There was no Earthshine here on farside to block the Milky Way and all the other galaxies, and the sight was more glorious than anyone but Dark Star had seen in their lifetimes. For his part, Caradoc was silenced for a moment by the sheer impossible beauty of the stars overhead. Oh, he'd seen this kind of space before, but never where he could stand and stare at it without fear of attack, or without the stars themselves going out. Space really was beautiful when it wasn't dying.

Vampire Sidekick PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 52 pp STR 30 (+10) DEX 30 (+10) CON 18 (+4) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 28 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Unarmed) DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +10 Grapple: +16 Saves: 9 pp TOU +8 (+4 Con, +4 Protection) FORT +8 (+4 Con, +4) REF +10 (+10 Dex) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 60 r=15 pp Acrobatics 10 (+20) Bluff 10 (+10) Intimidate 10 (+10) Notice 8 (+10) Languages 2 (Mandarin, Japanese) (Base: English) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 10 (+20) Feats: 16 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2 Dodge Focus 4 Evasion Fascinate (Bluff) Hide in Plain Sight Power Attack Set-Up Startle Takedown Attack Taunt Uncanny Dodge (olfactory) Powers: 34 pp Concealment 4 (all visual) (Flaw: Vs. Machines Only) [4 pp] Immunity 10 (aging, life support) [10 pp] Impervious TOU 8 (Flaw: Not vs. Magic/Silver/Holy) [4 pp] Protection 4 [4 pp] Regeneration 1 (Resurrection 1/week) (PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) [3 pp] Super-Senses 3 (Acute Scent, Darkvision) [3 pp] Teleport 2 (200 ft) (PFs: Change Velocity, Turnabout) [6 pp] Drawbacks: 6 pp Vulnerable (Holy) (uncommon, major) (-3 pp) Weakness (Dazed by Holy Objects via Charisma check) (-3 pp) costs abilities 52 + combat 28 + saves 9 + skills 15/60 + feats 16 + powers 34 -drawbacks 6= 150 pts ------------ Design Notes: So the idea here is this: this young woman was once a superhero, a teen fighter for justice alongside her young hero friends, maybe a sidekick to an older, grizzled hero. She learned the sort of fast, acrobatic style common to sidekicks, getting the combat style she needed to set the heavy hitters on her team up for really big hits. And then one day her powers went away: maybe they faded as she got older, maybe some accident or enemy’s scheme deprived her of them. Lacking her powers, lacking what she believed made her special, she made a desperate decision and turned to an old antagonist, and now the young hero is back on the streets, fighting bad guys and saving the day. She doesn’t have her old powers back, but she’s got new ones that make her a fast, powerful hand to hand combatant who can get into anywhere and sneak around right under your nose. There was just one little sacrifice she had to make of herself first. That’s right, here’s a build for Jubilee (as she currently exists) as a vampire! She’s a really good sneak and very fast, just as a vampire should be: she’s a living vampire, though, since there just weren’t the points to build her with a Fort Immunity. In comics, the character was transformed against her will, but I think it gives her more agency (and makes for a better story) if you assume she transformed herself deliberately: you can work in something about losing her powers to a terminal disease if you think that choice is a little too Iron Age. If you stick with the comics, maybe she went looking for powers so she’d stop being used as a weapon against her old mentor. My basic idea is that while she’s interested in a cure, since the thirst for blood (represented here as a complication) is much more threatening than she’d once thought, the idea of going back to being a nothing scrub bystander also hurts, and she’s stuck on the horns of a dilemma. In the meantime, she runs around superfast, bashing bad guys with her fists, and occasionally visits her local blood bank when nobody’s paying attention. You can keep the attack victim angle if you don’t want her to be implicit at _all_ in her transformation and its consequences, but I think it makes the character more interesting if she’s dealing with the consequences of a choice she made, reestablishing herself as a hero while trying to ignore the most unheroic impulses inside her. It’s possible to play a vampire superhero without being Iron Age, you just have to be willing to go the right direction with it. She could use a higher Charisma and maybe Attractive, but she's at least functional vs. bystanders and such. As someone who got into comics through the X-Men Animated series, I’ve always been a Jubilee fan: while some people see her as a Kitty Pryde ripoff, I tend to think of Kitty Pryde as being the old and busted version of a character I like! Her vampirism even gives you an excuse for keeping her in old outfits that aren’t nearly as cool and fashionable as they used to be: they were when she was alive! I’m using Teleport to represent vampiric speed, flight, and mist form all in one go, as well as to give you as the player something to stunt off. My idea is that she shouldn’t be pushing her vampire powers too hard; they lead her down some pretty dark and gritty roads! If you keep the date of her debut, she could have been a junior sidekick of the heroes of the Iron Age: if she’s younger, she could be that Claremont graduate nobody talks about. (Well, that _other_ Claremont graduate nobody talks about...)

"No, I think we've covered everything," said Star Knight, looking at first Harrier, then the others. "If you can take them to the central depression of the Saha Crater on the far side, we can begin our plans on Earth. If you can't figure out what's going on in the crater, or if we lose contact with you for more than a few hours, we will start moving towards using high-energy weapons on the craterbed, whatever the consequences with the Farsiders. If there is a war with the Terminus coming again, we're not going to fight it in Freedom City." She stepped back to let Dark Star grab everyone for the teleport out, but before she could there was one member of the team who had to guard himself against the lunar conditions first. "Please don't be alarmed." said Murdock, a moment before he seemed to explode. For just an instant, metal erupted all over his body, those lines on his face and hands splitting open to reveal the cold steel within as the fleshly disguise was sucked away and metal plates chunk-chunk-chunked out to transform the man into the hulking, armored form of an Omegadrone. The rod he'd worn at his belt snapped outward to turn out to be a powerpike, just like those the heroes had seen wielded against so many of their number in 1993. "Drones are programmed to destroy unattached drones beyond any other target. If they see me, and attack...we shall have a better understanding of their situation."

Sharl went back to work when Miss A came back, calling out readouts from the panel he was monitoring as if he had no other concerns. He'd been about to let Cole scan him, he was sure, but from Miss A's coming back it was easy for him to guess he'd made a mistake. Stupid, he thought irritably of himself. He could have scanned your energy signature, maybe gotten a look at your programming code, then figured out where you were from! The fewer people who knew that, heroes or otherwise, the better. Other heroes worried about bad guys targeting their families with guns and bombs: all it would take would be one person stealthy enough to break into the Sanctum with an EMP device and tens of millions of people, all of his people, would be gone. It was reason enough to keep any secrets.

New American PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 42 pp STR 40 [24] (+15/+7) DEX 14 (+2) CON 24 (+7) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 20 pp ATK: +5 (+10 Ranged) DEF: +5 (+2 flat-footed) Init: +6 Grapple: +12/+25 Saves: 10 pp TOU +15 (+7 Con, +8 Protection) FORT +8 (+7 Con, +1) REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 36 r=9 pp Bluff 4 (+7) Craft (mechanical) 4 (+4) Intimidate 12 (+15) Knowledge (Technology) 4 (+4) Notice 4 (+6) Pilot 4 (+6) Sense Motive 4 (+6) Feats: 20 pp All-Out Attack Attack Focus: Ranged 5 Challenge (Fast Startle) Fearless Improved Crit 2 (suit weapons) Improved Initiative Luck 3 Move-By Action Power Attack Startle Takedown Attack Ultimate Save (TOU) Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 53 pp Device 13 (New American Armor) (Hard to Lose) (PF: Restricted [security clearance]) [53 pp] -Flight 2 (25 MPH) [4 pp] -Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9 pp] -Impervious TOU 10 [10 pp] -Protection 8 [8 pp] -Super-Senses 2 (Low Light Vision, Radio) [2 pp] -Weapons Array [30+2=32 pp] -Blast 10 (Extra: Autofire) 'cannons' -AP: Blast 10 (Extra: Targeted Area [shapeable]) 'missiles' -AP: Enhanced STR 16 and Super-Strength 5 (Heavy Load: 96 tons) 'mass-driver' Drawbacks: 4 pp Normal ID (full round action to don suit) costs abilities 42 + combat 20 + saves 10 + skills 9/36 + feats 20 + powers 53 - drawback 4 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: The New American’s life is falling apart before his eyes. Things weren’t always like this. He was too young to fight in Vietnam, but he heard plenty growing up about how the hippies, liberals, and pot-smoking pacifists cost America victory. Determined to fight for a new America, the _right_ kind of America, he joined the US Army where he distinguished himself for his heroism, upright character, and outspoken political views. When General Striker came to him personally to offer him the New American armor, he was overjoyed: finally, a chance to change the world just like he’d always dreamed! The only downside was Old Glory: the so-called ‘hero’ was still a hero to the people, and any political change in America would be blocked by that wussy do-gooder. The New American was assigned to America’s national superteam to show up Old Glory and get him to retire, preferably in some embarrassing way that would permanently discredit him. The two men clashed again and again, but before a crisis could break out, the team went on a mission alongside their Soviet counterparts to find the mastermind plotting to start World War III, a monster who turned out to be an ex-Nazi with an Antarctic base planning to destroy all his old enemies by making them kill each other. And there, by that armored megalomaniac’s side, stood a proud and confident General Striker. He’d been the Nazi’s ally and tool all along, planning to use the New American and others in his armor to seize control of the nation and establish a military dictatorship. Striker and his allies hadn’t been plotting to save America. They’d been plotting to take it, and they’d assumed that the New American was their man all along. Horrified, the New American fought against his former mentor, and helped suppress a coup attempt launched by former allies back in the United States afterwards. He knew what exposing and defeating Striker would cost him personally, but in the end he he was willing to fall on his sword. He knew Striker’s papers would show how close they’d been, personally and politically, and fully expected a courtmartial afterwards: after all, he’d betrayed America’s trust, even if he’d done so with what at the time he’d thought were the best of intentions. But to his surprise, and his shame, Old Glory testified on his behalf: the man who he’d once thought of as a coward and fool, a man who he’d planned to publicly destroy and replace, told the world that the New American was a true hero, a man who’d been misled rather than been malicious. Not only did he keep his Army post, he even kept his armor! He got his second chance with the assignment to the West Berlin team, but things are still hard, very hard. His vision of America has been destroyed before his eyes, and he’s not thoughtful enough to find a new star to follow: he’s still a loud jock and patriot, but he doesn’t really believe it anymore. He drinks heavily in his spare time, and has begun what will surely be a self-destructive physical relationship with his Soviet counterpart the Iron Ghost. It’s not that he’s not grateful for mercy. It’s that deep down, after learning the kind of man he’d once been, he’s not sure he deserves it. With his massive TOU tradeoff, he can absorb fantastic punishment (particularly vs. mundane opponents), and with his varying melee vs. ranged tradeoff he can be an accurate marksman and a mighty powerhouse. OK, so my design philosophy here is that this is basically John Matrix in a set of power armor: he’s big, he’s tough, and his armor commands a tremendous quantity of dakka. He’s pretty formidable even outside the suit! Though he and Avro Arrow are in competition with each other as the US tries to sell their power-armored design to NATO, they actually could work out a modus vivendi together: her armor is suitable for aerial support, while his own suit is built for ground-pounding and ground support: he’s the A-10 Warthog to her F-16 fighter jet. Of course, to do that he’d have to be willing to show some humility and weakness, which is a pretty tough challenge for America’s armored hero. Removed from his own setting, this would make a decent build for an American soldier in a set of powered armor, perhaps designed to be a new generation of heroes. If that’s the case, save up for the Security Clearance Benefit for him. Note that he just _barely_ has enough knowledge to fix up his suit, assuming it’s not too beaten up. That’s why his Luck is so high, so he can pull off stunts with his armor that won’t fry the suit’s weaponry.

Phantom Archer PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 40 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 20 (+5) CON 20 (+5) INT 10 (+0) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+12 ranged) DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +5 Grapple: +13 Saves: 8 pp TOU +8 (+5 Con, +3 Protection) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +7 (+5 Dex, +2) WILL +7 (+3 Wis, +4) Skills: 72 r=18 pp Acrobatics 15 (+20) Bluff 13 (+15) Climb 1 (+6) Drive 1 (+6) Knowledge: Streetwise 4 (+4) Languages 3 (English, German, Russian) (Base: French) Notice 12 (+15) Pilot 1 (+6) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 12 (+15) Survival 2 (+5) Feats: 21 pp Accurate Attack Acrobatic Bluff All-Out Attack Attack Focus: Ranged 4 Challenge 2 (Fast Acrobatic Bluff, Fast Taunt) Dodge Focus 4 Evasion Move-By Action Power Attack Precise Shot Quick Draw [draw] Taunt Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 31 pp Device 3 (Bow) (Easy to Lose) [12 pp] Blast 3 (PFs: Improved Crit, Improved Range 3, Mighty 5) [15] Protection 3 [3 pp] Teleport 4 (400 ft/1 mile) (Extra: Accurate) (PFs: Change Velocity, Easy, Progression, Turnabout) [16 pp] costs abilities 40 + combat 32 + saves 8 + skills 18/72+ feats 21 + powers 31 = 150 pts ---- Design Notes: Here's Phantom Archer, the French member of the NATO superteam in West Berlin in the Wargames universe. The Archer was once an Olympic athlete until a major car accident revealed his innate teleportation abilities, causing him to get called up to the French national superteam. France isn't actually a member of NATO these days, but they do have a unified command structure: something the Archer brings up to his comrades on a daily basis. He's not actually in the chain of command that his fellows are, he just has to do what he's told because that's what he was ordered to do by _his_ commander back in Paris. (Who had his own reasons for getting the Archer out of his hair and in West Berlin for a while.) He's basically the Longbow Hunters Green Arrow with Nightcrawler's abilities, popping around on the battlefield and skewering bad guys with sharpened arrows: he doesn't have the fancy trick arsenal that most of your comic book archers usually have: while he has plenty of room for stunting, he doesn't have a lot of options short of hitting bad guys with pointed arrows or hitting them with blunt arrows. That said, with his Taunt, Acrobatic Bluff, and high Stealth, not to mention Teleport, he really should never have any trouble catching his enemies flat-footed and Power Attacking hard. He's not popular with the leadership, but they know he'll fight to the last if West Berlin is overrun. He has a terrible crush on Avro Arrow, but he'd never admit it since he'd never admit being into a woman for her brains. (The fact that she doesn't really know who he is, being much more focused on her job than any romantic life, would genuinely hurt him if the subject comes up.) He's hard to work with, arrogant and boastful, and certainly a loud French patriot [he does not get along well with most of the Americans on the team], but he's very competent. He has reason to cop an attitude, or at least thinks he does: he was only 18 when his powers developed (and he's not that old now), and his Olympic dreams died the day of that car accident. It was hard giving up everything he'd ever wanted (metahumans can't compete in the Olympics, even if their abilities have zip to do with whatever they're competing at), and going from that to the sometimes low-rent life of a superhero has given him something of an attitude problem. That's mostly with authority figures, though: he gets along mostly fine with his fellow young supers, and has become a member of an informal team of younger heroes in West Berlin who patrol at night and occasionally clash with their Soviet opposite number cross the border. He's very proud of his superior athletic ability, and tends to take taunts about relying on superpowers pretty badly, since he's so sensitive about what they cost him in the first place. He's basically Johnny Storm meets Nightcrawler meets Green Arrow: arrogant heroes are hard to play well, so make sure you're not actually causing friction when you play this dude. What should be interesting with him is the story of becoming a hero, of realizing that he has a chance to give to the community in a way he never could when he was just an Olympian: he'll also get a lot more adulation for saving the world than he'd ever have gotten for hitting targets really well at the Olympics. He'd work just fine as is, either as a member of the French superteam or an American hero with an archery theme. He'd be an interesting character to age up a bit and play as the savvy old combat veteran, with his friends all ribbing him about his wilder younger days...

By the time Wander and Midnight had returned to the rubble-covered street corner where they'd left the first group behind, between them the rest of Young Freedom had managed to get Red Falcon's bike up and running. Well, almost up and running. Redbird hovered over the dusty pavement, muttering "Insufficient fast-twitch muscle fibers in present organics. Red Falcon too injured to pilot in combat conditions. Serious situation..." Distracted from the unhappy bike by the arrival of the others, Edge looked up as Wander and Midnight jumped down to join them. "Hey guys," he said, a little tiredly. "We got the bike fixed, even if she won't let any of us ride her. Did you get what you were looking for?" From the camping supplies Erin and Trevor were carrying, it certainly looked like they had.

Patriotic Giant 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/+27 Saves: 12 pp TOU +15/+11 (+10 Con, +5 Protection) (+6 Con, +5 Protection) FORT +12/+8 (+10 Con, +2) (+6 Con, +2) REF +5 (+0 Dex, +5) WILL +8 (+3 Wis, +5) Skills: 56 r=14 pp Concentration 10 (+12) Diplomacy 10 (+15) Intimidate 11 (+16/+20) Knowledge: History 4 (+5) Languages 2 (German, Russian) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 14 pp All-Out Attack Attack Focus: Melee Dodge Focus Inspire 5 Power Attack Second Chance (Concentration checks to maintain powers) Startle Takedown Attack Ultimate Save (TOU) Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 52 pp Growth 8 (Extra: Duration [sustained] (+0) )(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 6 (aging, disease, poison, starvation and thirst, suffocation) [6 pp] Impervious TOU 9 [9 pp] Protection 5 [5 pp] Regeneration 1 (Resurrection 1/week) (PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) [3 pp] Super-Strength 2 (Heavy Load: 48 tons) (PF: Groundstrike [5 pp] costs abilities 34 + combat 24 + saves 12 + skills 14/56 + feats 14 + powers 52 = 150 pts -------------- Design Notes: Just in time for the 4th of July, here's my take on a Patriotic Giant like Quality/DC's Uncle Sam. He's big, he's tough, and he's the kind of all-inspiring leader America needs! At 16 ft tall he's not the world-spanning giant that the character sometimes was back in the Golden Age, but he's still very big and very buff. Growth 8 lets him be an impressive giant without being potentially broken like the higher ranks of the power, and also lets him afford things like his immunities, impervious, and Super-Strength; Geez3r has more on this subject in his excellent treatise on size-changing characters. He's your guy to charge onto a Golden Age battlefield and punch Nazi tanks around, then go home and laugh it up with the cops after beating up criminals on the home front. He's an upright, honest man with no Bluff; preferring to concentrate on his role as diplomat and leader. His size makes him very scary to bad guys, enough that there are very few things that could ever faze America's two-fisted champion! He's got a stronger will than most giants, powered as he is by sheer American optimism, and like America he can never really die. (You know, you could always go with his size being tied to America's national identity, and explain that he is in fact just not as big as he used to be back in the Golden Age.) Patriotic heroes get something of a bad rap sometimes, but who's to say what America needs isn't a giant man in an Uncle Sam costume ready to punch bad guys in the face? Flag heroes are as important today as they ever were, even if you don't want to get political and have him go fight those bad people in foreign countries. It's easy enough to justify that in the World of Freedom; the US Army's experiments in deploying superhumans have largely been failures, and so the US has made a deliberate policy to avoid using superpowered people in wartime, at least on the battlefield. So he could easily be a hometown hero with American pride, saving the world at home so the men and women in uniform can feel confident in their deployments that their families are protected from rampaging killbots and mole-men and the like. Of course, if you do play him in a Golden Age game, he really should be there on the front lines punching Nazis whenever the occasion presents itself. Of course, if you really want to send a message with this guy, just make him Latino or some other ethnic group that isn't the typical WASP in red white and blue that makes up so many patriotic heroes. He'd need some kind of ax to be Paul Bunyan, if you want to go another mythological route. If you're not wedded to being an American hero, lots of countries have good symbols, some of which were played with in Alex Ross' Uncle Sam graphic novel some years back. This could be Columbia easily enough, or the Russian bear, or even Brittania! In the World of Freedom, this guy has probably had a lot of dealings with the various Lady Liberties over the years. One major distinction (though bad WoF writers have dropped this ball lately) is that Uncle Sam is very much an _American_ symbol, for all that entails, which may or may not have anything to do with the Spirit of Liberty...

"And we shouldn't go that far anyway," said Sharl, fighting off nerves as he heard the buzz from downstairs that the teens who'd come to pick him up had arrived. "Well, not that far on this giant place you call a world," he added with a little grin. "I did the math, and I'll be going the entire distance of the Halbmond on this trip..." He sobered a little, then said, "I'll call you as soon as we get to this first place, and everywhere else we're going, and I'll keep sending emails. And maybe take holos, er, pictures, and send them to you, so you can show off all the good stuff your sidekick is doing at school." He'd be sending some to his parents too, but that was a matter for another time because the doors were opening! When Corbin and Eve walked into the room, Sharl was sitting in a swivel chair in Miss Americana's laboratory, a small satchel on his back and his sunglasses in his sweater pocket. He got up as they approached, the chair not moving an inch on his movement. Though he was something of a candle beside the glowing loveliness of Miss A, he said, "Hello!" a little nervously anyway.

"I recommend placing any partially assimilated drones somewhere where they can be medically examined away from your civilization. Is it true there is a League facility in Antarctica?" Star Knight nodded at that. Having mentioned those partially assimilated, Harrier finally spoke more. "Before we go into this situation together, I feel I should share why I am here." He shot a look at Star Knight as if to confirm that he already suspected, then nodded. "I am an expert on the Terminus because I was completely assimilated." His voice was even and his eyes steady, but his hands shook slightly on the table from repressed tension. He was acutely conscious that Miss Americana was his only friend there. "If they have been completely assimilated, you should not take my example as a sign they should not be dealt with as you would any other drone. I and one other are the only two cases of...freed drones with which I am familiar."

Inside Mark's head, crickets chirped for a moment before he gathered himself. "That was very helpful, sir," said Mark without blinking, telling the sort of smooth lies that even his friends didn't realize he cold do without batting an eyelash. "but could you explain it to me in words? Preferably simple ones. I'd like to share all the stuff you just gave me, but I don't think my friends will understand the maths, and I don't think I could explain them nearly as well as you just did. After all, I only have high school math." He smiled winningly. "I'm not an expert like you!"

"So far nothing we know has changed," Star Knight explained to Dark Star as he approached. "The mission profile is the same: Miss Americana and Dragonfly are our technical consultants, while Murdock is our expert on the Terminus and Omegadrone technology. You all also have the advantage of being able to operate in lunar space without the necessity of artificial life support systems. If whatever Omegadrone, or drones, there do need to be destroyed after investigation, Dark Star, you're the League member the best suited for the job."

"What you see now is what we know," admitted Star Knight. "We have teams working on this now, but when it comes to Omegadrones or any other sign of Terminus activity, the League takes a proactive policy. That's why we've brought you all in to consult now. As far as the Farside soldiers, the city's telepaths are weak, but they have been able to make limited contact with their minds. While they are in some emotional distress, their individuality is intact and they are not suffering...well, what we would expect them to be suffering." His hands steepled in front of his face, Murdock said, "Captured inhabitants should have had their brains probed for strategic information and tactical data by now, with those deemed fit already assimilated and unable to be reached by telepaths. Something...something is happening there I don't understand. Or, more likely, they have deployed a telepathic baffling device. There is machinery that can do so, even in the Terminus."

Siberian Shadow PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 30 pp STR 12 (+1) DEX 18 (+4) CON 20 (+5) INT 14 (+2) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Ranged) DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +4 Grapple: +7 Saves: 12 pp TOU +8 (+5 Con, +3 Protection) FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3) REF +8 (+4 Ref, +4) WILL +8 (+3 Wis, +5) Skills: 13 pp=52 r Intimidate 12 (+12) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 12 (+14) Languages 3 (English, German, Russian) (Base: Siberian) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 6 (+10) Survival 3 (+5) Feats: 17 pp All-Out Attack Attack Focus: Ranged (4) Dodge Focus (6) Evasion Hide in Plain Sight Power Attack Precise Shot Ritualist Uncanny Dodge (mental) Powers: 56 pp Darkness Array [20+2=22 pp] Blast 10 ‘shadow blast’ AP: Concealment 10 (all senses) AP: Teleport 6 (600 ft/20 miles) (Extra: Accurate) (PFs: Change Velocity, Easy) Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp] Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9 pp] Insubstantial 3 (shadows) [15 pp] Obscure 3 (visual) (25 ft) (Flaw: Range [Touch]) [3 pp] ‘shadows’ Protection 3 [3 pp] Super-Senses 2 (Darkvision) [2 pp] costs abilities 30 + combat 24 + saves 12 + skills 13/52 + feats 17 + powers 56 = 150 pts ------------- Design Notes: Here's Siberian Shadow, one of the more sympathetic members of the Soviet superteam in Wargames and one that would be the easiest to convert to functioning as a Neo-Silver Age-style superhero. (Wargames is an Iron Age setting both chronologically and in tone, and the Soviets more so than their NATO counterparts.) Her name is no random selection, she's the daughter of a Russian soldier and a Siberian tribeswoman from Yakutia. She's sensitive to her upbringing: she's younger than most of her teammates and very much a country girl, she's also much more the girl from the middle of nowhere than she is the sophisticated superhero. Her comrades think that her youth and her ethnicity (racism in the USSR is nothing like its American counterpart, but it's a very real problem, especially for 'primitive' Siberians) are why she's such a firebrand: even Iron Ghost is frankly annoyed at how obnoxiously patriotic and Communist the Shadow is. They assume she's overcompensating for her upbringing. That's almost right. The truth is, Siberian Shadow's not the mutant she makes herself out to be: her powers come from magical training. As a little girl, the wise woman in her village took her aside and told her that Russia would one day soon need a champion in its darkest hour, and that the young Shadow herself was that champion! When she presented herself to the government some years later, though, she was smart enough to present herself as mutant rather than sorcerer: the Soviet government officially denies the existence of sorcery and those claiming to practice magic are taken away for further study. What only a tiny handful of individuals know is that this isn't just rationalist bigotry: the Iron Crone Baba Yaga has suborned the head of the Red Directorate, the Soviet agency charged with regulating supers, and is using his power to eliminate any potential magical rivals before staging her own coup d'etat. It's inevitable that one day the two will collide...but when they do, Siberian Shadow will have the most powerful heroes in the Soviet Union on her side. As written up in the books, Shadow is a pretty bland Darkness Controller using the corebook Energy Controller archetype, I think I've made her a lot cooler here. She's basically a living shadow who can fire blasts of darkness at her enemies, shrug off physical attacks, and hide in her own darkness. (I arrayed Concealment with her Blast so she can't just blast while fully concealed, the better to keep her from being too powerful.) She probably spends most of her time fighting inside bubbles of darkness, where she can see easily and her targets stand at least a decent chance of being flat-footed. If you put her in the World of Freedom, Shadow may well be related to the infamous German soldier Nacht-Krieger: perhaps someone in her family tree is one of that monster's children conceived before his full transformation into a creature of eternal darkness. If she ever meets with that worthy, their shadow war will be a lethal fight.

Iron Ghost PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 28 pp STR 30 [14] (+10/+2) DEX 14 (+2) CON 16 (+3) INT 14 (+2) WIS 14 (+2) CHA: 14 (+2) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+10 Melee/+12 Armaments) DEF: +10 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +6 Grapple: +12/+25 Saves: 14 pp TOU +10 (+3 Con, +7 Protection) FORT +7 (+3 Con, +4) REF +7 (+2 Dex, +4) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 72 r=18 pp Bluff 4 (+6) Craft: Electronic 3 (+5) Disable Device 8 (+10) Intimidate 13 (+15) Investigate 3 (+5) Knowledge: Civics 4 (+6) Knowledge: Technology 4 (+6) Language 2 (English, German) (Base: Russian) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 15 (+17) Feats: 14 pp All-Out Attack Attack Focus: Melee (2) Challenge (Fast Startle) Dodge Focus (2) Improved Initiative Hide In Plain Sight Luck Move-By Action Power Attack Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 48 pp Device 12 (Iron Ghost Suit) (Hard to Lose) [48 pp] -Blast 8 (Extra: Autofire) (PFs: Accurate 2) [26+1=27 pp] -AP: Enhanced STR 16 and Super-Strength 5 (Heavy Load: 24 tons) -Concealment 8 (all visual, all auditory, all radio) [16 pp] -Flight 3 (50 MPH) (PF: Subtle) [7 pp] -Immunity 4 (disease, poison, suffocation) [4 pp] -Impervious TOU 6 [6 pp] -Protection 7 [7 pp] Drawbacks: -4 pp Normal ID (Full Round to don suit) [-4] costs abilities 28 + combat 32 + saves 10 + skills 18/72 + feats 14 + powers 48 - drawbacks 4 = 150 pts ---- Design Notes: Nobody really likes the Iron Ghost, not even on her own team. The only actual KGB agent on a team of civilian 'volunteers' (a polite euphemism for the meta-draft in the Soviet Union) and military personnel, her record as sneak and spy doesn't really endear her to many of her colleagues, all of whom are as concerned as anyone else about disloyalty being reported to the higher-ups. (Though the Soviets give their metas a long leash, when they pull back they pull back _hard_). Her KGB work is known to the Americans, too, so she has few friends on the other side of the fence. It doesn't help that she's only in Berlin because of a terrible failure on her part: her backers in the KGB, enthusiastic Stalinists who don't like the reformer Gorbachev one bit, put her up against Red Hammer, the most beloved hero of the Soviet Union and something of an ally of the Gorbachev government...but the canny old WWII veteran ran rings around her politically, assigned her to the career dead end that is East Berlin, and used his own influence to break the power of many of her backers. She kept her armor and her job, but she's under tremendous stress. One more slipup and it's curtains for her... Though she's ever the ruthless, sneaky professional on the job, Iron Ghost has begun drinking in her spare time, raising the threat of becoming an alcoholic even by Russian standards. Much worse, she's begun a clandestine affair with the New American, her battlesuit-wearing counterpart from across the line who is also under a tremendous amount of job-related stress and is also seeking out self-destructive forms of behavior. (Career soldiers who embrace ideologies not popular back home, the two have more in common than you'd think.) The truth is, the Iron Ghost is a young woman who rose high and fast in her career through hard work and skills, and she doesn't really know how to deal with the consequences of failure. She knows she's a good Leninist, why hasn't she succeeded? Is it because she's a failure herself? Or is it because Lenin was wrong? Or maybe, if she's really honest with herself, could it be both? Unbeknownst to her, she has a serious problem: her colleague the Crimson Tarantula, also isolated and mistrusted by her peers, has started tailing her at night out of curiosity, thinking she's found a kindred spirit. If she catches the Ghost with her American lover, there will be hell to pay. Here's a build for a stealth-themed battlesuit, based on Wargames' Iron Ghost. She's potentially a very powerful character, able to fight at both range and in melee while fully concealed against most opponents, particularly mundane ones. She's a good fighter and good sneak even without her suit, and a very good spy. She doesn't have full environmental immunity, but her suit does let her get around in a sealed environment. Her Impervious is a bit low, but with her Concealment and Stealth she probably shouldn't be getting hit anyway. She doesn't really have the technical skills to be the author of her suit, but she could have stolen it or been assigned it as a government perk if you go with the super-agent route. Indeed, while she'd be an interesting armored sneak and thief in a supers game, in an agents game she makes a terrifying, bulletproof invisible monster that American agents tell stories about in the dark.

Star Knight shook her head, her face grave. "The Saha crater area is rarely visited by Farsiders; it's too far from home, and there are few resources there that they use. However...when word of our discovery on there reached the Farside Council, a faction in their militia learned the news and decided to take matters into their own hands. Of the dozen soldiers that went into the crater in the last few days, none have been seen since. We've warned them against any further attempts, but now some in their leadership want to go rescue the ones captured. They have no experience with situations like this. As for weapons...we're planning to dispatch Dark Star, one of our more powerful space-going members, as our big gun on this mission. But he's not a roboticist or an expert on the Terminus: he won't be able to help anyone who's been partially assimilated, disable any world-threatening devices, or figure out exactly what they were doing there."

"A few days ago, one of our lunar tracking devices detected a metallic object in the Saha crater," said Star Knight shortly. "When further probes were sent in that direction," she went on, "they found..." She pressed a few buttons and the screen swiveled around to the far side of the Moon, an alien landscape for most humans who after all spent their lives looking at the other side of the Moon. Magnifying again and again, the crater swam into view, its small side crater and central second crater making it instantly recognizable. "evidence of metallic debris, even movement. We landed a robot probe, which is standard protocol in these, ah, situations..." Star Knight pressed another few buttons and the image shifted to a recorded feed: a starfield overhead and glossy lunar dust beneath, the dark sky overhead a sign of just how alien a world it was there with the Earth hidden from view by the bulk of the Moon. The feed was slow, perhaps because of all the League receptors it had had to bounce off. The heroes watched as the rolling probe stopped and looked up at a suited, no, armored figure that approached it, walking along the lunar surface as if out for a stroll. The camera was able to tilt up, and so it as the figure came into focus the heroes all had a great view of the unmistakable Omegadrone as it drove its power pike into the camera, severing the feed. "That was the last signal we got from that area," said Star Knight simply. "Because of your respective areas of expertise, the League has turned to you for suggestions here." Across the room, Murdock had paled beneath his brown skin at the sight of the drone, his scars flushing red simultaneously as the drone destroyed the probe. "That is a frontline unit," he finally said, his voice flat and dry as an old-style answering machine, but his hands were gripping the table tight enough to make the wood creak. "Go back." Rewinding the image feed gave them a still shot of the drone's face. "There is significant micrometeor scarring that has not been repaired. It has been active beyond an atmosphere for some time. It..." He ran his hands over his face. "Its behavior is surprising. The probes of other civilizations are investigated, not destroyed."

Avro Arrow PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 30 pp STR 30 [14] (+10/+2) DEX 16 (+3) CON 18 (+4) INT 18 (+4) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 in suit) DEF: +8 (+6 w/out suit) (+3 flatfooted) Init: +3 Grapple: +8/+27 max Saves: 13 pp TOU +12 (+3 Con, +8 Protection) FORT +8 (+4 Con, +4) REF +7 (+3 Dex, +4) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 64 r=16 pp Acrobatics 13 (+16) Computers 6 (+10) Craft (Electronic) 6 (+10) Craft (Mechanical) 6 (+10) Knowledge (Technology) 6 (+10) Languages 4 (Chinese, French, German, Russian) (Base: English) Pilot 7 (+10) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 9 pp Acrobatic Bluff All-Out Attack Inventor Move-By Action Power Attack Precise Shot 2 Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (radio) Powers: 62 pp Device 15 (Avro Arrow Suit) (Hard to Lose) (PFs: Restricted 2) [62 pp] -Enhanced ATK 4 [8 pp] -Flight 7 (1000 MPH) [Dynamic] [14+1+2=17 pp] -DAP: Super-Strength 7 (Heavy Load: 12 tons (max 96 tons) ) -Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9 pp] -Impervious TOU 8 [8 pp] -Protection 8 [8 pp] -Shield 2 [2 pp] -Super-Senses 1 (Radio) [1 pp] -Weaponry Array [20+2=22 pp] -Damage 10 (Extras: Selective, Targeted Area [shapeable) (Flaw: Unreliable [5 uses a day]) ‘missiles’ -AP: Damage 10 (Extras:Ranged, Penetrating) (Flaw: Unreliable [5 uses a day]) ‘lasers’ -AP: Enhanced STR 16 and Enhanced Feats 4 (Improved Crit 2, Incurable, Stunning Attack) Drawbacks: -4 pp Normal ID (full round action to don suit) [-4 pp] costs abilities 30 + combat 24 + saves 13 + skills 16/64 + feats 9 + powers 62 -drawbacks 4= 150 pts ---- Design Notes: Here's Avro Arrow, the younger of Canada's two superheroes on the NATO superteam in the Wargames universe. She has something of a reputation as a loudmouth firebrand among the heroes on her team; she's the one most likely to spout off about the Commies, the superiority of the West and its many freedoms there, and the one most likely to be suspicious of their counterparts across the Berlin Wall. This is largely because of overcompensation: Arrow is young, she's a woman, she's a legacy hero worried about how much influence that's given her, and she's a scientist on a team where most of the guys in battlesuits are just that (and fighter jocks to boot). So she's louder, tougher, and more patriotic than all of them! She gets along well with Ymir, who is something of a friendly uncle figure to her, though she does get annoyed when her buddy flirts with the more attractive members of the Soviet team, but not at all well with the New American, the other battlesuit wearer on the NATO team. It doesn't help that the New American's armor was manufactured by a competitor, and she's worried that if he's more successful than she is that NATO will buy American rather than Canadian armor to equip its elite super-soldiers. That's why she's in Berlin at all: she needs a place to show her armor can strut its stuff and outcompete American rivals and Soviet enemies alike, and what better place for that than right here on the front lines of the Cold War of the 1980s? (At least, that's her hope: Berlin is actually one of the quieter places conflict-wise given what a matchpoint it is politically; NATO supers in Berlin are much more likely to fight vampire death cults or Nazi resurgences than scrap with the Commies over the line). Arrow is, of course, named for the Avro Arrow, a prototypical Canadian fighter jet scrapped and destroyed by the Diefenbaker government and their successors well before its time. In the Wargames universe, the Avro people started making battlesuits instead, and their famous designs are sleek and reliably known the world around. She's not as smart as your super-duper comic geniuses, but OTOH that's why she's trying to get a government contract instead of just flying around like a sober Tony Stark: she's still wicked smart, though, and a talented inventor in her own right. She has a relatively low Computers since she lives in the 1980s, and they're not as important even for scientists as they're going to be for the modern era. The theory I had here was that the Arrow suit is basically a jet fighter: she can easily outfly anything in the air with her that's not another super (she's much faster than even the military jets of the 1980s), she's equipped with a full suite of armaments like a jet fighter (though rather like a GI Joe jet with her laser blasters) and she's got some built-in targeting computers and defense systems in there. With just a built-in suit radio, she doesn't have the elaborate super-senses of some battlesuits: her biggest weakness as a military craft may be her need to invest in radar. But hey, they're still in beta...

John Bull PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 42 pp STR 26 (+8) DEX 10 (+0) CON 26 (+8) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+7 Melee/+10 Blast) DEF: +6 (+3 flat-footed) Grapple: +15/+25 Init: +3 Saves: 12 pp TOU +14 (+8 Con, +6 Protection) FORT +10 (+8 Con, +2) REF +6 (+0 Dex, +6) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 60 r=15 pp Craft (Artistic) 4 (+4) Knowledge (History) 10 (+10) Knowledge (Tactics) 10 (+10) Intimidate 12 (+15) Languages 4 (French, German, Russian, Spanish) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Survival 3 (+5) Feats: 11 pp All-Out Attack Attack Focus (Melee) Challenge (Fast Startle) Fearless Interpose Master Plan 2 Power Attack Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 46 pp Device 5 (Electro-Mace) (Easy to Lose) [15 pp] -Blast 10 (PFs: Accurate 2, Improved Crit 2) -AP: Strike 5 (PFs: Extended Reach, Improved Crit 2, Incurable, Mighty) (Extras: Penetrating [5]. Secondary Effect [10]) Immunity 1 (aging) [1 pp] Impervious TOU 10 [10 pp] Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp] Protection 6 [6 pp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Senses 2 (Acute Scent, Low-Light Vision) [2 pp] Super-Strength 5 (Heavy Load: 12 tons) [10 pp] costs abilities 42 + combat 24 + saves 12 + skills 15/60 + feats 11 + powers 46 = 150 pts ----- Design Notes: Here's John Bull, the most respected British superhero in the Wargames universe. John Bull was the only survivor of Britain's supersoldier program in the early 1940s, and even he just barely made it. With all the Allied powers trying to copy the tremendously successful German program, the British unfortunately had neither the tremendous resources of their American counterparts or the sheer number of German prisoners of their Soviet counterparts. They had less captured material to work with, and less of a base with which to develop that work. This meant that while the man who had been John Bull survived his transformation, even gaining tremendous physical strength, bulletproof flesh, and significant toughness, he also turned into a bull-headed man! Needing any kind of help they could get, the British made John one of their leading agents, giving him a costume like a Beefeater and equipping him with an electrified mace that can even throw lightning bolts. Bull served as a defender of the homeland through the war, and was one of the few British heroes to survive the last terrible days of the conflict when the Germans came looking for retribution. He wishes he hadn't. Showing no signs of aging even decades after the Second World War, Bull is growing increasingly unhappy with spending however many decades he has remaining in the body of a bull-monster. He's still active as one of Britain's most famous supers and the last living link to much of Britain's superpowered World War II history. He lives in seclusion in an isolated country estate, working on his artwork, feeling the weight of years as his world passes him by and more and more people forget about him as anything other than that old funny-looking superhero. He's too proud and too loyal to quit, but it's getting harder and harder to work with the younger heroes: the Yanks especially honestly believe they're bonding with him when they call him Hornhead and make jokes, and his stiff-upper-lip persona convinces most of them he's secretly in on the joke. But he really isn't. It doesn't help that Old Glory and Red Star, his American and Soviet counterparts, came through their own empowerments just fine. When he sits down with a pint in his favorite pub, the one where most patrons are old enough that they remember his wartime goals, sometimes he thinks about just taking his mace and...well, that's probably the bitters talking. John Bull is something of a tragic hero, a man kept isolated from society by his own shyness and hideous appearance. (I've actually downplayed how bizarre he looks here, dropping the Growth 6 on his Wargames build...) In the World of Freedom, he'd still have plenty of opportunity to feel bad after the demise of the Allies of Freedom; you could say that JB was the only survivor of that team, perhaps back in Britain recovering from injuries when all his friends died on the battlefield. He's a natural to have connections to the Labyrinth: perhaps his transformation activated some latent genes left in his family line by a distant ancestor like Taurus, or maybe the famous Man-Bull tampered with his DNA to create an offspring of his own in the heroic community. Perhaps one of these days, the lord of the Labyrinth will step down and offer great power and respect to his son (perhaps one of the first survivors of the nascent DNAscendant process) in return for helping him betray his fellow heroes. He'll say no, of course, and do all he can to defeat the monster with his own face. Perhaps that, even if he finally falls, will let him put aside the demon that stares at him every morning in the mirror.